I stumbled across Rai about a year ago now whilst browsing flickr.com. Now there are many quality photographers on this site, and Rai is no exception… but the thing that really made him stand out from crowd was his photographic dedication to his partner Ulia… or who he lovingly refers to as his “Muse“… an almost obsession, but a healthy one - which from her photography seems to go both ways :)

And as if the photos of the dashingly handsome couple in love weren’t enough to make us all jealous, they have even made videos!

(from their youtube page)

I’ve felt love like this before… and have spent many in between years convincing myself that relationships are ok despite knowing something is missing, but in the past year I’ve really learnt something: don’t settle. Don’t settle for less than the best when it comes to something this important. Potentially, it’s for the rest of your life! Do you want to wake up at 40 next to someone who feels like a stranger? Or do you want it to be the person you trust the most, admire the most, and who helps you be a better person? If you can love as much as Rai and Ulia, save it for someone who’ll give back to you what you can give them :)

As Stellarjandri says:

“Rai and Ulia will make you believe in romance again…”

… that they do :)

Michael Arrington of techcrunch.com has written (updated) a very handy article listing some excellent Web 2.0 companies you should get to grips with. I can’t say I use all of them but I do use a fair few (Flickr, Gmail, Netvibes, Digg, Wordpress, Skype, Youtube), and I love them. I dare say I’ll be signing up for a few more, and hopefully with the increased convergence of web services, 2007 will see people adopting and contributing to sites such as netvibes more frequently.

A quick post to say, Dec left England yesterday. He’s meeting his girlfriend for 3 months in Thailand, before they both move on to Australia to lounge around, then find some work (they have work visas sorted out). Of course we’ll miss him loads, but we’re very jealous and taking our hats off to him for doing this :) With this virtual world though, no-one ever seems that far away… and fingers crossed as many of us as possible can meet up during summer 2007.

Good luck dude (and Mel)!

Hahahahaha! I have a copy of Haruki Murakami’s Pinball 1973, in English!

Unfortunately though I won’t get to see it for about 2 months as I’m abroad right now (Thailand) and its only just arrived at my home. As soon as I get home I’ll photograph it and pop some photos on here. I won’t attempt to review the book because I suck at literary / artistic criticism.

I’m telling myself that I will resell it (after much admiration) because I can’t justify the amount of money I spent on it, on a mere book. At least I think I will. Hmm. I should work on trying to find a way to convince myself keeping it is morally acceptable =P

Please show your envy (or make your best offer) below :D