You’ve been accumulating a pretty impressive historical account of your movements around the globe, but you’ve never really had a way to graphically process your history and habits in a really cool way… until now.

Foursquare this week launched their impressive “Time Machine” tool that allows users to gain a graphical insight into their check-in histories via a beautifully presented, animated timeline.

At the top of the “Time Machine” screen is three primary option links which each lead you to the various tools available – “My History”, “The Next Best Thing” and “Share My Stats”.

My History

Starting with the very first time you fired up and actually used Foursquare, which is kind of cool to look back on, you can fly through your dozens, hundreds, if not thousands of check-ins in a speedy animation, or you can slow things down and step through your check-ins one-by-one. The control is in your hands.

The Next Best Thing

By clicking on “The Next Best Thing” option, Foursquare, apparently with the help of Samsung again, considers the check-in trends of both yourself, and people in the regions you frequent the most, and generates a list of places it suggests you should check out.

Who knows how accurate or useful this tool is, but it’s executed well and that’s half the battle.

Share My Stats

And now for the coolest part. By clicking on the “Share My Stats” option link, Foursquare (and Samsung) generate a pretty nifty infographic in a matter of moments which you can share with your friends. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love a good infographic, right?

If you’re a current Foursquare user with a decent history of check-ins under your belt, head on over to Foursquare’s “Time Machine” now and take a pretty cool trip down memory lane.

Over the past few months, Jimmy has presented us with a new segment known as “Celebrities read mean tweets”. There’s no doubt that Twitter has become a golden opportunity for celebrities to reach out to their fans in often uniquely one-on-one ways.

On the flip side of this interaction, however, is the fact that these same celebrities can often fall victim to rather harsh tweets directed their way by Tweeters with legitimate gripes, or by “Trolls” who, let’s face it, are EVERYWHERE on the interwebs these days.

Jimmy (or his creative staff), came up with the brilliant idea to sit down a bunch of celebrities and have them read said “mean tweets” to much comedic effect. Some of the reactions are just TOO good, albeit probably rehearsed.

Below is the full selection of “Celebrities read mean tweets” segments released so far. Check em out and keep an eye out for the little pearls of brilliance from the likes of “Will Arnett” (@arnettwill), “Matt Leblanc”, “Bryan Cranston” (@BryanCranston), Ray Ramano and the NBA’s “Shaq” (@SHAQ).

Celebrities read mean tweets – #1

Celebrities read mean tweets – #2

Celebrities read mean tweets – #3

Celebrities read mean tweets – #4

Celebrities read mean tweets – NBA Edition

We’d long been talking about tackling some of the trails in the Bald Rock and Girraween National Parks down in the region, so with near-perfect, cool, hiking conditions available to us, we took our chance by the horns.

Bald Rock National Park

Located about 3½ hours south west of Brisbane and just north of the NSW country town of Tenterfield, Bald Rock National Park is best known by the massive outcrop of granite which rises up through the bush. Measuring 750 metres long x 500 metres wide and rising up above the surrounding landscape by around 200m, Bald Rock is the largest granite monolith in Australia. That is, it’s the largest single chunk of granite in the land… and a bloody big “chunk” it is too!

Access to the top of Bald Rock is provided by two walking tracks that depart the nearby day-use area. The first is a direct, fairly steep trail that heads straight up the rock’s exposed face, and the second, the “Bungoona Walk”, heads around to the eastern side of the rock where it passes through a number of massive piles of granite known as “The Arches” before ascending to the summit at 1,277m above sea level.

To give you some kind of perspective of just how big the rock is, see if you can find the guy sitting upon the smaller rock in the photo below.

Kicking around at the summit for a half hour or so taking pics and exploring the landscape at the top, we eventually made the decision to take the direct route back down to the car park where we ran into a few of the furry locals.

Bald Rock, check. Kangaroos, check.

Bald Rock National Park Info

• 290km (3hrs 40mins) from Brisbane, QLD [map/directions]
• 32km (34mins) from Tenterfield, NSW [map/directions]
• From Tenterfield, take the Mount Lindesay Road for 25km along a sealed road. Turn into the Bald Rock Access Road (also sealed) for 5km before reaching the Bald Rock picnic area. Simple.
• Allow 3 hours for the well marked, medium level “Bungoona Walk” (3km) to the summit of Bald Rock. You can save time by carefully making your way back down to the picnic area via the direct, exposed face, granite path.
• Vehicle entry fees are $7 per vehicle per day, payable in cash at allocated pay stations.
• For more information, visit the NSW National Parks website.

Boonoo Boonoo Falls

On the way back towards Tenterfield for the evening, we took the time out to visit a few smaller points of interest along the way including various stream crossings, en route to the impressive “Boonoo Boonoo Falls”.

The location where famous Australian poet, Banjo Patterson, proposed to his sweetheart, Alice Walker, back in the early 1900′s, the Boonoo Boonoo Falls consist of a number of secluded rock pools through which the cool waters of the Boonoo Boonoo River flow, before plunging 210m over a granite cliff’s edge into the gorge below.

All settled in for the evening at Tenterfield’s cheap and cheerful “Jumbuck Motor Inn”, we took the advice of the super nice and helpful hotel host, Beverley, and made our way a couple of blocks up the main drag to the pint-sized, aptly named “Tenterfield Gourmet Pizza” shop. Sitting down in the humming little pizzeria (it’s clearly a popular Saturday night choice), we sampled the 100% hand cut and prepared pizza and pleasingly gave it two thumbs up.

Topping off and complimenting the good feed was a surprisingly impressive fireworks display conducted in the nearby Tenterfield showgrounds as part of a Lions Club “festival of fire”. They let the rockets fly a good half hour earlier than advertised, so sadly I didn’t get any camera equipment set up to capture any of the show.

Boonoo Boonoo Falls Info

• 308km (3hrs 55mins) from Brisbane, QLD [map/directions]
• 23km (47mins) from Bald Rock National Park, NSW [map/directions]
• From Bald Rock National Park, take Bald Rock Road back out to Mount Lindesay Road. Turn right and travel 5.5km keeping an eye out for Boonoo Boonoo Falls Road on your left. Take this gravel road until you arrive at the picnic area.
• The falls are an easy 300m walk from the picnic area.
• Vehicle entry fees are $7 per vehicle per day, payable in cash at allocated pay stations.
• For more information, visit the NSW National Parks website.

Girraween National Park

With a good night’s sleep registered, Kirsten and I packed up and headed north again, crossing back into Queensland and into the “Girraween” section of the National Park that covers the “Granite Belt” region.

On the to-do list for the day? The giant granite outcrop known as “The Pyramid”, a huge balancing set of boulders known as “Granite Arch”, and the point at which Bald Rock Creek meets Ramsay Creek at a popular swimming hole area, known as “The Junction”.

While nowhere near on the same size scale as “Bald Rock”, “The Pyramid” is still a rather formidable looking chunk of granite that rises steeply above the landscape. The 3.6km trail to the summit is pretty steep in sections, to the point where Kirsten found herself assisting a pretty freaked out kid on the way up. But the stunning views from the top make all the hard work in getting there, worth while.

Girraween National Park Info

• 246km (2hrs 54mins) from Brisbane, QLD [map/directions]
• 45km (38mins) from Tenterfield, NSW [map/directions]
• To reach the park, turn off the New England Highway 26km south of Stanthorpe or 30km north of Tenterfield. The winding bitumen road continues a further 9km east through the Wyberba Valley to the park information centre.
• “The Pyramid” is 3.6km (allow 2 hours) from the car park and includes some pretty steep sections.
• “Granite Arch” is on an easy 1.6km circuit (allow 30 mins) from the car park.
• “The Junction” is an easy 5.2km (allow 2 hours) from the car park and provides some pretty awesome swimming opportunities.
• For more information, visit the QLD Govt Dept of National Parks website.

Autumn colours in Stanthorpe

On the journey back home, we had a little time to stop off in Stanthorpe in the heart of Queensland’s primary wine country, to take in some of the last remaining autumn colours.

We snapped a few pics and visited the town’s information centre to ask a few questions for our next journey into the “Granite Belt” (sooner rather than later, hopefully), grabbed another coffee and pointed the ol’ Tiguan north east, bound for Brisbane.

While it was a bit of a whirlwind holiday, we really enjoyed the trip down into the “Granite Belt” and experiencing all the stunning, outdoor goodness that can be found down that way. Despite the grey skies, we had near-perfect trail conditions and managed to avoid any potentially large long weekend crowds. Magic!

Here’s what I found:

Patrick’s sketching and digital artistry extends way beyond these awesome Dexter adaptations, however. Just one glance over his extensive portfolio of work on his deviantArt profile reveals he can also more than competently tackle a number of other gaming and movie characters, using his unique comic-style technique.

Grand Theft Auto

Assassin’s Creed

Tomb Raider

Movies

My Wishlist

While Patrick’s already had an admirable crack at “Daenerys, Mother of Dragons” from the most popular series going around on TV right now, “Game of Thrones”, can you just imagine what he would be able to do with each of the families/houses given his outstanding “Dexter” cast effort above?

A “House of Lannister” montage of Tywin, Tyrion, Jaime, Cersei and of course that little mutt Joffrey… talk about a mouth-watering prospect! How about it Patrick?

NOTE: All images featured in this post by Patrick Brown.

The good folk at “Tropical North Queensland”, however, have decided to tap into the creative minds of 20 filmakers who have visited the north for themselves, and recorded, to share with the world, what their “1 Day in Paradise” looked like:

“We challenged 20 unique filmmakers to head to Cairns and capture their 1 Day in Paradise in Tropical North Queensland using only a GoPro. Then they each made a 2 minute film.”

The result? Some pretty creative video showcasing one of the most breathtaking regions of my home state of Queensland. The competition concept is presented neatly in the following introductory trailer:

My picks

For me, the best two videos in terms of creativeness, excitement and effectiveness in giving a visually stunning representation of North Queensland are as follows:

Vote for your favourites

Together, the above video creators are competing for a grand prize of $75,000. To help your favourite video(s) stand the best chance of winning the cash, head over to the “ExploreTNQ” YouTube page and start voting NOW!

While I’m at it, I guess I could begrudgingly pander to all those Blues supporters who have been crying out for some State of Origin phone candy of their own. So… here they are – four new “Kane Toad” designs and a selection of “Maroons”, “Blues” and “State of Origin” designs for you to download at your pleasure.

Here’s hoping we have another cracker of a series this year and that the mighty Maroons can maintain their reign of dominance into an 8th year in succession!!

…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As I have been known to do in the past, I set a couple of hours aside tonight to put together a 2013 NHL Playoffs bracket wallpaper. Just in time for the start of the playoffs tonight, ya’ll can thank one Mr Christian Leblanc for shooting me the following email yesterday:

Those NHL playoff brackets have been awesome every year! You’re making them this year right?!

I’m excited man, it’s the cup!

Well here you go Christian. As promised, here’s what the first round of match-ups look like. Click on the preview below to go to my Flickr page where you can download the full-size widescreen (2560 x 1440) version.

I’ll be updating this post with fresh updates as the series progress, so tell your friends, bookmark the page and start cheering for you favourite teams!

UPDATE:

As promised , here are the updated versions as the playoffs progress…

26th-28th July is the weekend scheduled for the lucky 13th edition of the popular music event which this year moves to a new permanent venue at Byron Bay’s “North Byron Parklands”.

The 3-day main stage lineup features a plethora of world-class artists ranging from “Mumford & Sons”, “The National”, “Frank Ocean” and “Of Monsters & Men”, to home-grown favourites like “Empire of the Sun”, “Bernard Fanning”, “The Presets”, “Flume”, “Birds of Tokyo”, “Matt Corby” and “Boy & Bear”.

For full lineup details, check out the announcement video below (set to Jake Bugg’s “Two Fingers”), the artist list following, or visit the official “Splendour in the Grass” website for more.

Regularly published on the Canadian Space Agency YouTube channel, Chris has been tackling viewer questions regarding how astronauts deal with day-to-day tasks like brushing teeth, washing hands and sleeping.

Canadian space food

Wringing out water

Shaving in space

Tears in space

It’s not all fun and games up at the ISS, however. Chris has also presented a number of informative segments explaining and demonstrating some of the important scientific tests being undertaken like blood and air sampling in a weightless atmosphere.

Microflow

Microbial air sampling

Suffice to say, the entertaining Commander Chris Hadfield is one of my favourite people “not in this world” so far in 2013, and I hope you find his videos every bit as interesting as I have.

If you’d like to learn more about space, the ISS and the work that Chris, a great Canadian, and his team are carrying out “up there”, you can also follow along on:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google Plus
• YouTube

UPDATE (13 May, 2013): Commander Hadfield signs off with a song

With his 5 month shift, and possibly the most entertaining and educational period of any astronaut aboard the ISS, coming to a close, Chris Hadfield has posted to YouTube a cover of the iconic David Bowie 1969 hit “Space Oddity”.

The video has already recorded over 210,000 views including the man himself, Mr Bowie:

CHRIS HADFIELD SINGS SPACE ODDITY IN SPACE!“Hallo Spaceboy…”Commander Chris Hadfield, currently on… fb.me/24sZNW5ly

— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) May 12, 2013

After having handed over command to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, Chris is scheduled to make his way back to Earth tonight, with a Kazakhstani landing on the cards soon after.

In the meantime, here’s the video everyone’s been talking about this week:

The first official release from the album, a melodic, disco infused single titled “Get Lucky” features lyrics by US rapper “Pharrell Williams” and a catchy guitar track by legendary producer “Nile Rodgers”.

Many clever digital web musicians have been satisfying everyone’s appetite by piecing together snippets of the album that have been slowly and sparingly released, but today the first full taste of what’s to come in May was unveiled.

AWESOME! You’re going to be hearing a lot of this tune over the coming weeks!

Party time in Wee Waa, NSW

In what is a rather quirky, but seriously cool twist to Daft Punk’s global launch for their new album, SONY Music, the French helmeted duo’s record company, scoured the world and settled on the country town of “Wee Waa” (pop. 2,000), 500km north-west of Sydney to host the “Global Album Launch Party” on May 17 (Australian time).

Proudly known as “Australia’s Cotton Capital”, “Wee Waa” has been gripped by “Daft Punk mania”, as thousands of fans scramble for the limited tickets available to attend the special event that coincide’s with the “79th Annual Wee Waa Show”. As it happens, tickets sold out in under 26 minutes.

I know, sounds like a REALLY late April fool’s joke doesn’t it?!?

Despite only having two modest hotels and a similar number of caravan parks available to fans descending on the town, over 2,000 are expected to flock to the event, providing a HUGE injection into the local economy.

It’s gonna be the biggest party the town has ever seen. Wish I could be there!