Stuff I did since I last posted anything substantial...

I watched the movie eXistenZ... It's like Videodrome but with videogames. It was interesting, but in the end it came down to the standard problem with 'fully-immersive' video games. It may as well have been called "Better than Life".

I watched an interesting "Air Crash Investigations" about DC-10 accidents in the '70s. The reason I was interested is that, growing up, I always knew there were problems with DC-10s, but I never knew why precisely*. I knew their cargo doors fell off - funny thing is, there appears to have only been one incident in 1972 and a crash in 1974, that's all, so I'm not sure why I was aware of it. Maybe the investigations took up the rest of the '70s and that where it entered my consciousness. (I was aged between a half and ten-and-a-half in the '70s.)

It's that weird thing where there's stuff you 'always' 'knew', but it's a lot of years before you learn the real story. And this is such an esoteric thing to know, I guess it's because my parents like to travel a lot.

I watched R.E.M. on the Colbert Report. The song was okay. I guess I should probably buy the record.

I watched the final episodes of a couple of great shows - Life on Mars (Yes, torrent fans, I waited until the ABC showed it, given that trying to download it - even if I knew how - the torrent would use up my monthly bandwidth allocation) and Intelligence, a great Canadian show about spies and drug dealers in Vancouver where everyone was informing on someone else and lying and double-crossing the rest. There's a conspiracy theory going around that the Canadian government got it cancelled because Stephen Harper (the PM) is a U.S. Arselicker and the show was perceived as being anti-American.

I learned why so many people think Dane Cook isn't funny. Dane Cook, Vicious Circle was on the Comedy Channel. But I acknowledge that I am not his audience, not being a drunk white guy from the south side of Boston.

I watched Flushed Away, another CGI animated film; this one about rats, mice and frogs in the London sewer system. I don't think it made much money in America. It's very frenetic and it's very British - Americans usually like their jokes to be telegraphed. It's an Aardman film, so it's weird to see Nick Park-like designs being computer animated.

I watched some Indian Premier League cricket. I don't know who I support yet, but what is interesting to me is how in the Knight Riders vs. Chargers match, Australian captain Ricky Ponting was telling Indian bowlers how to bowl to Andrew Symonds. If this continues, International cricket will get very interesting because players from all countries will be privy to these typoes of team secrets. Except for the English.

I bought the R.E.M album and Fountains of Wayne's back catalogue from Amazon. (I used to own the first FoW album, but it got nicked from the car, or the cafe or somewhere.) They should arrive next month.

I received all of my Fountains of Wayne albums and the R.E.M. one, except the FoW b-sides compilation; because I've been writing this for weeks. I haven't listened to them all yet.

I bought a $2000 treadmill. I'm hoping to teach the dog to walk himself. Jane get me offa this crazy thing!

I watched more Indian Premier League cricket. I think I like Kings XI Punjab. I don't know why, I just found myself hoping they'd win. I thought I'd support teams that had my favourite Australian players in them, except it seems that for every Michael Hussey, James Hopes or Adam Gilchrist each team also has a Picky Ponting, Andrew Symonds or Matthew Hayden. I also discovered that I don't really dislike Warney as much as I thought.

Australia's Next Top Model and Project Runway have started, So You Think You Can Dance has ended and can someone please kill David Archuleta on American Idol?

This wasn't supposed to be anywhere near as long as this. It was supposed to be a simple "This week I watched TV and ate a lot of crap", like at the end of Charlie Brooker columns. But I forgot to send it home from work three weeks running.

[END]

Jury Duty

Day One. No one was called.

Day Two. Called Up. We sat around for 20 minutes, then watched a video telling us about the system, then we sat around for an hour and then they came in and told us that the defendant had pled guilty, so we weren't needed.

Day Three. No one was called.

Day Four. No one was called.

Day Five. Public Holiday

Day Six. Jurors 65 to 130 were called. That's not me.

Day Seven (Today). Called Up. We sat around for 20 minutes. They played us the video again. They told us that the matters dealt with before the trial were taking longer than usual, so it would be a little while. That was at 10. They told us that again at 10.30. At 11.05, they said it would be 5 minutes. Around 11.30 they took us into the courtroom. After the formalities -- it was a stolen car case -- they started calling jurors. They'd done 6 with no challenges and then they called me. I was almost up to the bailiff to take the affirmation and I got challenged. By the time we got out, it was around midday. Buggered if I was going back to work, since I'm on Miscellaneous Leave with Pay, and only two of my six team members are at work (the rest are on training). So here I am.

Today's trial was due to take 3 days, so I assume that means no one will be called for the next few days (because there's only one court that tries cases at Beenleigh). That would leave Friday, and I doubt they'll call people in for one day before a long weekend (next Monday is Labour Day) so that would be it until next week, my last week on call.

[END]

April 20. The Fourth Set

4.50pm. Watching TV. Yes, I'm 16 months behind.

5.50pm. The cat gets two photos but I don't get any? That's better.


[END]

April 20. The Third Set

1.50pm. Boycat's parents say hi to the mud at Manly.

2.50pm. Just something for the afternoon.

3.50pm. My chilli plant.


[END]

April 20. The Second Set

8.50am. Outside at home.

9.50am. What time do you call this? I've been waiting for FOUR hours!

10.50am. At the Chandler markets.

11.50am. Going to get some lunch at the Manly Hotel.

12.50pm. At lunch (we "shared" mine first).


[END]

April 20. The First Set

5.50am. Daddy! Wake up, it's April 20. You've got to take some photos. Oh, and feed me!

6.50am. No photo. Daddy didn't wake up. Instead he went back to bed and dreamed of taking April 20 photos (and, for some reason, of Steve Coogan being attacked by a crocodile).

7.50am. Coffee!


[END]

My Phone Says

It's Paul's birthday. It's that right?

Assuming it is... happy birthday; you're 40 next year.

Scary.

[END]

Seriously

How come if you tool around on the internet for long enough, everything leads back to xkcd?

Speaking of which, this one is really cool.

No power in the 'verse can stop me.

[END]

Charleton Heston is Soylent Green

Story.

Get your hands off me you dirty ape!

Now someone can pry his rifle from his cold, dead hands.

But seriously, I know at least one of my readers was a fan of Soylent Green, although I believe your women were called "conversation" and not "furniture", if I recall correctly.

[END]

Photos from the past few months

Flooding on the Logan River.

The view from my seat at the Roar's home semi-final.

Playing bowls in Tuggeranong.

Buffalo Tom at the Zoo.

Dirt at Buffalo Tom.


[END]

This mini bar is not complimentary

...you should hear what it says about you when you leave the room.



[END]

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Well, it's the end of an era.

Today, I went to work in Gold Coast City. On Monday, I will go to work at the same place, but it will be in Logan City.

[END]

REM Stuff

But I'm sure Peeboo already knows about this.

[END]

Buffalo Tom at The Zoo

I just got home.

It was awesome. They played Sunflower Suit!

Yes, they played Treehouse and Summer and Velvet Roof and (of course) Taillights Fade and loads of those songs with one word titles that I can't remember which is which, but man, they played Sunflower Suit!

They didn't play Birdbrain, what a shame

Dirt was there, as was Robbie Warren and a couple of other people I know. I took some photos, but I have to load them off my phone to see if they're any good.

[END]

Hey Mick

Good to hear from you again. It's been like 10 years since Cheeky Machine disappeared off the face of the 'net. You're a photographer now?

Yes, it's me. I pretend that my identity is secret; but, as Lisa Simpson says, if you follow the clues, you can work it out.

So that makes my audience at least 4 real people and some sock puppets.

[END]

Summer Glau plays ass-kicking teenager

Whoa, that was a casting masterstroke. I would never have thought of that.

(I read she checked with Joss if she should do it.)

[END]

Welcome to all of my reader

D, how did you find me? I'm interested, 'cos it is a little insight into how this internet thingy works.

I now have 3 readers. Yay! Three more people listen to me on the 'net than listen to me in real life.

By the way, I'm not sure if people know, but if you post a comment and then delete it, the original comment will still be emailed to me.

[END]

Best intentions

Imagine this. Imagine it's back before we understood as much about alcohol; about how a person's reflexes, etc., could be diminished even though they appeared fine.

Someone has drunk too much but the think they're right to drive. Someone else needs to get to the train station to catch a train for some very important purpose. So the first person offers to drive them. Person two makes the train and gets to do their very important thing. Person one has an accident on the way home and wipes out a car full of people.

Is this okay because person one had the best intentions and they didn't know at the time that it was wrong?

Misc 080213

Say Hi to Professor Johnny Marr. (He's from the Smiths, Peeboo.)

I had a dream this morning in which I said to a person "Where is this?". She said "Brisbane". I said "This isn't Brisbane, this is a dream landscape."

The Queensland Roar won, 2-0 to go into the Preliminary final by the way.

Coolamon - not the fertile crescent but not that far from Bogan Gate, all things considered.

[END]

Qld Roar, Qld Roar...

Currently, we're at 80 minutes in the first leg of the semi; it's nil-all. But...

Griffin McMaster is pretty good. I hope we keep him as back-up to Liam Reddy next year. Of course, I haven't seen Matt Ham play, since he's been injured since July.

It will be a real shame if we lose Sasa Ognenovski to Adelaide in the off-season. Our defence looks pretty solid with Moore and Sasa, with Danny "Surely none of these cameras will see if I thump this guy in the head" Tiatto in the mid-field.

Full-time; 0-0. We've got to win at home in two weeks, otherwise we're out. But no matter what happens, it's our Best. Season. Ever.

[END]