Within my circle of friends, there are certain levels of ‘nerd coolness’ in relation to the movies you’ve seen on the big screen. My list includes ET, Ghostbusters and The Dark Crystal. But one of my faves that never fails to impress is Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, a childhood memory that helps explain this post.

When I was young, you could be guaranteed that once a year, Episode IV: A New Hope would be screened on a Friday night. It was one of the few nights when us kids were allowed to stay up and watch the entire Friday night movie. The Star Wars trilogy has always held a special place in within our household. I remember Kellog’s Corn Flakes ran a promotion in conjunction with the release of Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back - you could win various Star Wars vehicles by sending in multiple coupons from the back of the cereal boxes. I desperately wanted an AT-AT and was heartbroken when the competition ended without a delivery from Australia Post.

And so I stumble across a model-building competition for sci-fi vehicles. But it’s not just about building a shiny, complete model but rather destroyed models. Enter the AT-AT. This model is awesome! The detail is just incredible and brings back all those painful childhood memories of a dream crushed. All I can say is “I want it!!!”. This model is the creation of Dimitri Kaliviotis, a Montreal based model-maker who has done work on several feature length films. Check out his site here.

As it stands, it looks like my best chance of owning my dream lies with LEGO. I wouldn’t be complaining though…

When I last spent any real time in St Kilda and surrounding suburbs, it was all Greasy Joe’s and Big Mouth. I once sat in Greasy Joe’s eating breakfast and watching Tex Perkins consume a six pack of cheap looking beer at the tram stop in the time it took me to drink two flat whites and eat my bacon and eggs. Acland Street has changed, so further inland in Balaclava seemed a better option this last week.

Ugly Sister

263 Carlisle St, Balaclava

Firstly, at Ugly Sister you don’t have to book for breakfast. The breakfast menu is simple and runs all day (which means till 3 on Sundays as I found out at 3.15 on Sunday).

The clientele are mostly locals, so there is minimal posing. The coffee is excellent, as it should be considering their neighbour: Ugly Sister is across the road from Batch, which is owned and run by 2005 barista of the year Jason Chan.

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We were recently pointed to UPS and their rather lame whiteboard campaign about how efficient they were at getting your parcels to places around our lonely planet. I don’t think I could completely agree with the Daydreamer’s “rip-off” claims, but it certainly wasn’t a very creative campaign.

While we’re on the topic of whiteboards though, here is some real genius. Worth a look for the animation and the funky beat. Check it out Minilogue below. Can you do this?

Other stuff from Kristofer Strom