The Adventures of Schnubbs

I had a great adventure last night, meeting a whole bunch of new friends.

You can see the complete photo album over on my Flickr account.

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I’ve made it to Seattle in one piece. I was pretty tired when I checked in last night, but luckily they have put me in a great room with a nice big comfy bed.

Ahhh - tucked in nice and tight!

Here’s the view from my hotel suite

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Howdy Geeks.

I’ve getting very excited about my trip over to Seattle this Saturday. That’s right, as I alluded to earlier this week, I’m heading over to attend the Microsoft MVP Summit.

As part of the fun, my MVT (Most Valuable Tiger) lead has given us all some goodies. The aim is that all the MVPs and MVTs from Down Under can recognise each other via our cool beanies and glow sticks.

I’m looking forward to meeting some new friends - if you spot me please come over, chat about .NET and get a photo taken with me.

Here’s me modelling the MVP beanie.

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I was tagged by my new friend Catherine the other day. This means that I have to tell you 8 things about me and then tag 8 other people. It’s a kind of chain mail meme that goes around every so often.

Here’s my 8:

I’m 6 years old

Yeah, I know, it sounds young - but in tiger years, that’s actually pretty old. I’m what other tigers refer to as wise and mature.

I was born in Sydney

This will be news to many people, because most people know me as ‘that stunt tiger working in LA’. But, although I spend much of my time in LA, my home - and heart - is here in Sydney.

I ran the City to Surf in under an hour

Yeah, I beat everyone, but was not acknowledged. That’s fair enough, because we tigers are generally very fast, and it just ain’t fair to people to compare us on speed. And the silly thing is I could have run it faster, because I stopped to chat with fans along the way.

Writing is hard for me

One of the main frustrations of being a tiger is that I have no opposable thumbs. You’d be surprised at how much of a hindrance this is. Writing of course is hard, but so is just about anything - for example, I was trying to give my flat mate a massage the other day, but I could only apply deep paw pressure - I wasn’t able to get into the muscle and relieve the strain.

I’ve broken just about every bone in my body

Over the last few years I’ve been in some big action films. And whilst they take every safety precaution imaginable, it is inevitable that you are going to get hurt along the way. That’s part of the job. I’ve broken legs, paws, cheek bones, my jaw, and my tail has often got caught in machinery and even burnt.

But hey, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love my stunt tiger job, and the odd mishap here and there is nothing compared to the thrill of pulling off an impressive death-defying sequence.

That said, I have enough TiQ (Tiger Intelligence Quotient) to realise I won’t be doing stunt work all my tiger life. That’s why I’ve been getting into programming and technology of late. It’s still a secret at this stage (so don’t tell) but I’m planning to release an online web mail service specially for Tigers - it’ll be called TMail, and should be available later this year.

I’ve met lots of celebrities

If you read the gossip mags you’d be forgiven for thinking that many of the actors, musicians and celebrities are awful, ego-filled people. But that’s not the case. Most of them are kind-hearted, loving, friendly people who are just doing their part in this world. Every so often they get caught after a long, hard, exhausting day by a flurry of paparazzi and they just crack up. This is sad, because I know how much pressure they are under. And I hate to see how hurtful the media can be at times.

I’m just thankful I don’t come under that kind of scrutiny, even though I’m getting recognised a lot more often these days.

I’ve studied most of the martial arts

Many of the movies have famous martial artists and choreographers on board to help with the action scenes. This is pure gold for a stunt tiger like me. And fortunately I’ve been able to learn from the best of them. Some of the work I did on the latest Rambo film (it was edited out in the final cut, sadly) was based on techniques I learned from Jackie Chan.

I’m quite shy

Yes, on screen I’m all action and bravery, but in real life I’m quiet, shy and unassuming. I’m happily single, but looking forward to meeting the lady tiger of my dreams one day. That’s going to be difficult of course, because I generally don’t get out much (being shy and all), but lately I’ve been plucking up the courage to venture out of my comfort zone. Just last week I made it along to a new group. The people were very kind.

I can’t count very well

Everyone has their little issues. For some it is bad sense of direction, for others it is poor personal hygiene. For me, it is difficulty counting. But I’m working on it. Anyway, that’s my 8 things.

I hope you liked learning about my adventures a bit more. Please leave a comment if you’d like any more details.

And now to tag 8 other people… I’m not sure who to tag. Would you like me to tag you? If so, please leave a comment and I’ll put you on my list.

By the way, here’s one of my favourite songs:

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It’s getting a little chilly in Sydney these days.

And when that happens it is important to keep myself warm. One way of staying warm but looking cool is to wear a beanie.

Here’s me wearing my ripper beanie:

But there’s more…

If you look closely you’ll notice I’m wearing a special beanie. It’s special because it notes where I’m heading off to later this week:

Yes, that’s right - I’m off to Seattle on Saturday. Why? More on that in later post…

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You probably know that I like Buffy. In fact I was fortunate enough to meet her in person (I did some stunt work in a few episodes of Series 4).

But I particularly like the theme song. Here’s me getting all tigerlicious to the Buffy theme:

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Happy Easter to everyone. As we all know, Easter is less about any particular historical event, and more about chocolate.

But, being the clever tiger I am, I don’t get caught up in that chocolate egg hogwash. No, I just get myself a stack of yummy chocolate bars. Here’s me with part of my haul this year.

Hope you have a relaxing weekend.

Hugs and kisses from Schnubbs.

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As part of my stunt-tiger job I need to have a collection of portfolio photos (my Agent uses these when putting me forward for roles). Thought you might like to see this one. It was taken recently and I particularly like the lighting.

The photographer was very good (she took about 670 photos that day), and my main task was to keep the expression on my face as consistent as possible. She remarked that I have one of the most consistent poses she has ever come across. I’ll take that as a compliment.

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This is one of my favourite nick-nacks around the house.

It reminds me of when I visited New York a few years back (I was starring in an action movie at the time). Good times.

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I’m good at some things, but not at others. Take gardening for example.

Recently I tried to plant some little bonsai so that I watch them grow and then tend to them. But sadly, they didn’t do very well. Oh well, try again I ’spose.

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