Insanity540's Blog

Sungha Jung: 13 year old guitar hero

2009-09-28T00:26:00.003+10:00

I randomly came across Sungha Jung on the interwebs and thought it was too amazing not to share with everyone.

He is from South Korea, and is self taught.

Here is his official website, and more importantly, his channel on YouTube.

I've selected my favourite ones below, but click here for his videos sorted by most viewed.

Mission Impossible Theme

Pirates of the Caribbean

Livin' on a Prayer

Come together

Superstition

Other mentions:
Wonderful Tonight
Change the World
Hotel California

Lee Tergesen: Waynes World and Generation Kill

2009-09-21T01:56:00.004+10:00

I've come to love the HBO mini-series Generation Kill. One of the characters, the reporter from Rolling Stones magazine has always reminded me of someone and I could not remember who.

I then realised that the actor, Lee Tergesen, plays Terry in Waynes World! No wonder I recognised him. Two totally awesome acting gigs!

Here check it out!

Check out Lee Tergesen's IMDB page.

Potential Generation Kill post coming soon........

Retraction: Fuck You, YouTube

2009-09-20T07:46:00.001+10:00

I'm retracting the majority of my blog post to not anger my google overlords.

~~YouTube are complete uncaring bastards.~~

[the watered down and PG snippet]
I'm pissed at idiotic draconian ideals that punish users unjustly. I uploaded some (3) copyrighted content and my account was banned permanently. What about my original content?

I'm sure those videos of me on a whale watching excursion weren't a threat to anyone.

Why not just prohibit my account from uploading anything and allow me to resume using your service?!?!?!??!

Thats my open question to YouTube... don't sue me, work with me.

Spacebook: Facebook + Star Wars

2009-09-19T06:31:00.000+10:00

The Death Star is Stroomtroopers 9/11

2009-09-18T06:22:00.000+10:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Hubble discovers biggest douchebag in universe

2009-09-17T05:56:00.000+10:00

Washington DC, An Australian's Perspective

2009-09-16T05:03:00.008+10:00

This is my first visit to the US capital, so I'm gonna give you my initial impressions and thoughts. First and foremost, there is a tonne of things to see here. I'm gonna outline my top 5 things to do in DC;

Insanity540's Top 5 Things to do in Washington DC.

1. White House

The white house is obviously right at the top of places to visit in DC, thats just a no brainer. Before 9/11 you used to be able to take tours of it. Nowadays I'm pretty sure its restricted. You can take photos of it from the fence.

2. Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln memorial is in my opinion the second most impressive sight in DC. You are humbled by his huge statue and flanked on either side are two of his best speeches.

3. Arlington Cemetery

This was the highlight of DC for me. Walking through the endless sea of tombstones is a very sombering experience. It is also the resting place of JFK

4. National Air and Space Museum

Talk about cool. Free admission, and you can see almost every aircraft from the Wright Brother's Kittyhawk to the Lunar Lander. Highlights include; the spirit of st. louis, the V2 rocket, the X-15 (fastest plane in existence), predator UAV, and all the WWII planes.

5. Washington Monument

An amazing sight which is almost viewable from every location in DC. This recognizable obelisk stands as the highest building in DC and is the divergent point of most landmarks; the white house and jefferson memorial, capitol hill and the lincoln monument.

Things I love about DC:
The countdown pedestrian crossing signals
The open-top bus tours (hop on and off at all sights)
Some excellent restraurants
Amazing number of museum's thanks to the Smithsonian.
General layout of the city, buildings are all impressive.

Thing I hate about DC:
No grocery stores, anywhere.
A billion hot dog carts/t-shirt stalls.
Over the top security for free exhibits.
Unsafe areas at night.
Retardedly obese people, with head fat (this is USA in general though).

Strongbad: Dragon.

2009-08-29T23:19:00.000+10:00

Listen to Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time

2009-07-13T09:27:00.004+10:00

I love Triple J's Hottest 100 each year, and now here is the Hottest 100 Of All Time, as voted by everyone online.

I thought it would be awesome to be able to listen to every song, in order.

The Entire List Here.

Enjoy.

(p.s give it a few seconds to load, it has to link 100 songs).

Music from Chuck

2009-07-13T08:50:00.002+10:00

I created a playlist of all the music featured on Chuck in grooveshark.com

Enjoy:

Futurama Quoting

2009-07-01T09:00:00.000+10:00

Had a mini-futurama quoting marathon today, thought people would laugh.

Names have been changed :)

M says (11:05 AM):
id like to thank charslton chew
S says (11:06 AM):
whale biologist
Insanity says (11:06 AM):
I was eating a twiggy stick on the way home last night after stopping off at the grocery store... and though.... the breath freshening power of pork
M says (11:06 AM):
care to donate to the anti mugging you fund?
S says (11:07 AM):
full price?!? That's an outrage! Its the worst kinda of discrimination, against me, Bender!
M says (11:08 AM):
are you thinking what im thinking? that I, Bender, should audition to be on all my circuits
cheerio sir, you raised my hopes and dashed them brilliantly
bravo
S says (11:10 AM):
I'm back baby!
We still love you bender honey
Shut baby, i know it
M says (11:10 AM):
lol\
S says (11:10 AM):
*shut up
M says (11:11 AM):
no you shut up!
stop it bender
S says (11:11 AM):
stupid anti-pimping law
Insanity says (11:11 AM):
please insert liquor
M says (11:11 AM):
you heard the man, pay him
Insanity says (11:12 AM):
INTERESTING STUFF!!!
S says (11:12 AM):
i am bender, please insert girder..
M says (11:12 AM):
you forgot to stamp the requisition for a date in triplicate
M says (11:13 AM):
o no..i was young and reckless
NOOOOO
S says (11:14 AM):
requisition me a beat...
Insanity says (11:15 AM):
they poo-poo'd my electric frankfurter
S says (11:16 AM):
all of those wooo sounds seemed to have just come from his flab moving about
M says (11:16 AM):
i have ridden the mighty moon worm!!!!
Insanity says (11:18 AM):
I decline the title of Iron Cook and accept the lesser title of Zinc Saucier, which I just made up. Uhh... also, comes with double prize money.
M says (11:19 AM):
the dashboard is also made out of beaks
Insanity says (11:20 AM):
eagle?
no dog food for victor tonight!!
M says (11:20 AM):
whats the matter red>!?!! now get out of the way
M says (11:21 AM):
GOTTA PRACTISE MY STABBING
WAZZAHA
Insanity says (11:22 AM):
My fellow Earthicans, as I have explained in my book Earth in the Balance, and the much more popular Harry Potter and the Balance of Earth, we need to defend our planet against pollution. Also dark wizards.
M says (11:23 AM):
sure blame the wizards...
Insanity says (11:23 AM):
[news story about turtles in holland]
Linda: I'm sure those windmills will keep them cool.
Morbo: WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!
S says (11:24 AM):
you care to explain how you took off without a full complement of olives??
M says (11:24 AM):
you kidding? shes got plenty of meat...meat like a cow
S says (11:25 AM):
M.E.A.T. - Man for Ethical Animal Treatment
Insanity says (11:25 AM):
This opera's as lousy as it is brilliant! Your lyrics lack subtlety. You can't just have your characters announce how they feel. That makes me feel angry!
S says (11:26 AM):
Izzuzu!!
Insanity says (11:30 AM):
Brannigan's Law is like Brannigan's love; hard and fast!
S says (11:31 AM):
Leela! Oh god, i've never been so happy to be beaten up by a girl!!
M says (11:33 AM):
you win again gravity!
Insanity says (11:34 AM):
In the game of chess, you can never let your adversary see your pieces.
S says (11:37 AM):
they say the best tactic in war is the element of surprise...SURPRISE!
M says (11:37 AM):
looking like that he got into jill sanjohn;s bed...nuff said
Insanity says (11:39 AM):
Men, you're lucky men. Soon, you'll all be fighting for your planet. Many of you will be dying for your planet. A few of you will be forced through a fine mesh screen for your planet. They will be the luckiest of all.
S says (11:42 AM):
Fry, you yella-bellied coward!
Insanity says (11:44 AM):
[regarding women not being allowed to fight] It's shameful, I agree. In the olden days, I proudly fought alongside female troops, shoulder to, uh, shoulder. Alas, after a series of deadly blunders caused by distracting low-cut fatigues and lots of harmless pinching, the army decided women weren't fit for service. Not when I'm in charge.

Awesome TV Shows

2009-06-30T10:21:00.003+10:00

This is what I would consider an awesome collection of TV shows. I would be stoked if I could own every one of these;

as of 30/6/09.

TV Shows

24 [s6]
30 Rock [s1, s2, s3]
American Dad [s3, s4]
Battlestar Galactica [s1, s2, s3, s4]
Black Books [s1, s2]
Bones [s2, s3, s4]
Boondocks [s2]
Boston Legal [s1]
Californication [s1, s2]
Chappelles show [s1, s2]
Chuck [s1, s2]
Clerks - Animated Series [s1]
Criminal Minds [s1]
Daria [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5]
Deadliest Catch [s1]
Dexter [s1, s2, s3]
Dirty Jobs [s1, s2, s3, ~s4, ~s5, ~s6]
Dr. Who [s1, s2]
Dragonball Z [s1]
Drawn Together [s1, s2, s3]
Eleventh Hour [s1]
Entourage [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5]
Eureka [s1, s2, s3]
Everwood [s1]
Family Guy [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6, s7]
Firefly [s1?]
Flashpoint [s1, s2]
Flight of the Conchords [s1]
Fringe [~s1]
Futurama [s2, s3, s4, s5]
Gossip Girl [s1, s2]
Greys Anatomy [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5]
Heroes [s1, s2, s3]
House [s2, s3, s4, s5]
How I Met Your Mother [s1, s2, s3, s4]
How its made [s9?]
How not to live [~s1?]
Jericho [s1]
K-Ville [~s1]
Kyle XY [~s1, s2]
Lie to me [s1]
Life [~s1, s2]
Lost [s1, s2, s5]
Mad Men [s1, s2]
Man vs. Wild [s1, ~s2, s3, ~s4, ~s5, ~s6]
Masterchef Australia [e41-53]
Merlin [s1]
NCIS [~s4, s6]
Nip Tuck [s3, s4]
One Tree Hill [~s1]
Primeval [s1, s3]
Reaper [s1, s2]
Reboot [s1, s2, s3, s4]
Robin Hood [s1]
Scrubs [s5, s6, s7, s8]
Secret Diary of a Call Girl [s1, s2, ~s5]
Seinfeld [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6]
Simpsons [s2, s10, s11, s12, s13, s14, s15, s16, s17, s18, s19, s20]
Smallville [s1, s4, s5, s6, s7, s8]
Sopranos [s1, s2, s4, s5, s6]
South Park [s1, s4, s6, s7, s8, s9, s10, s11, s12, s13]
Star Wars Clone Wars [s1]
Supernatural [s3, s4]
The IT Crowd [s1, s2]
The Mentalist [s1]
The OC [s1, s2, s3]
The Office UK [s2]
The Office US [s1]
The wire [s1, s2, s3]
Top Gear [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6, s7, s8, s9, s10, s11, s12]
Torchwood [s1]
True Blood [s1, ~s2]
Two and a half men [~s2, s4, s5, s6]
Underbelly [~s1]
Weeds [s1, s2, s3, s4]
X men Cartoon [s1, s2]
[[887GB]]

Movies

10 Things I Hate About You
1408
16 Blocks
21
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
3.10 To Yuma
300
8 Mile
88 Minutes
A Better Tomorrow
A History Of Violence
A Mighty Heart
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 - Dream Warriors
A Scanner Darkly
A Simple Plan
Ace Ventura
Ace Ventura 2
Alien Quadrilogy
Alien Vs Predator - Requiem
All the kings men
Along Came Polly
Alpha Dog
American Beauty
American Gangster
American Gangster_2
American Pie 1
American Pie 2
American Pie 3 The Wedding
An American Crime
An Inconvenient Truth
Anchorman
Anger Management
Animal House
Apocalypto
Army Of Darkness
Arnold Schwarzenegger Collection
Around The World In 80 Days
Assault On Precinct 13
Asterix and the Vikings
Asterix Conquers America
ATL
Atonement
Austin Powers In Gold Member
Australia
Babel
Babylon A.D
Bad Boys 2
Balls of Fury
BASEketball
Basic Instinct 2
Batman Collection
Battle For Haditha
Because I Said So
Before Night Falls
Before Sunset
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead_2
Behind Enemy Lines
Being John Malkovich
Being Julia
Benchwarmers
Beowulf
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Blades of Glory
Blazing Saddles
Blood Brothers
Blow
Body Of Lies
Boogie Nights
Breach
Breaking And Entering
Brick
Caddyshack
Cannibal Holocaust
Cashback
Casino
Cassandra's Dream
Chaos Theory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie Wilsons War
Che
Chicken Little
Choke
Chris Rock - Never Scared
Christmas with the Kranks
City Of Ember
Clerks 2
Cloverfield
Columbus Day
Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen
Confessions of Dangerous Mind
Crank
Crash
Cruel Intentions
Curious George
Curse Of The Golden Flower
Dan in Real Life
Dark City (Directors Cut)
Death At A Funeral
Death Note
Death Sentence
Deathproof
DEBS
Deception
Definitely, Maybe
Deja Vu
Delta Farce
Der Untergang (Downfall)
Die Hard 4 - Live Free Or Die Hard
Disaster Movie
Dodgeball
Dog Day Afternoon
Domino
Donnie Brasco
Doomsday
Dreamcatcher
Drillbit Taylor
Eagle Eye
Eastern Promises
Elektra
Enemy At The Gates
Epic Movie
Equilibrium
Event Horizon
Evolution
Fahrenheit 911
Failure To Launch
Family Man
Family Man_2
Fantastic Four 2 - Rise Of The Silver Surfer
Farce of the Penguins
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fearless
Felon
Fever Pitch
Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children
Find Me Guilty
First Daughter
First Sunday
Flags Of Our Fathers
Food Safari Ebook
Fool's Gold
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Fracture
Frag
Freedom Writers
Friday Night Lights
Frost - Nixon
Fun with Dick and Jane
Funeral For A Friend - Memory And Humanity
Futurama 1 . Benders Big Score
Futurama 2 - The Beast With A Billion Backs
Futurama 3 - Bender's Game
Futurama 4 - Into the Wild Green Yonder
Get Smart
Get Smart's Bruce And Lloyd Out Of Control
Ghost Town
Ghostship
Gladiator
Glory Road
Goal 2 - Living The Dream
Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone_2
Good Luck Chuck
Gothika
Gran Torino
Grindhouse - Death Proof
Half Nelson
Halloween 7 - H20
Halloween 8 - Resurrection
Hancock
Hannibal Rising
Happy Feet
Hard Candy
Harold and Kumar 1 - Go to White Castle
Harold and Kumar 2 - Escape from Guantanamo Bay (Unrated Version)
Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
Heathers
Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army
Hero Wanted
History of the World - Part 1
Hitch
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Hitman
Hostel - Part 2
Hot Rod
Hot Shots
House of Sand and Fog
House of Wax
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry
I Think I Love My Wife
Ice Age
Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown
Ice Age 3
Idiocracy
Igor
Imagine Me and You
In Bruges
In Lies We Trust - CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism
In The Land of Women
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Indiana Jones Trilogy
Indiana Jones Triology
Inside man
Into the Wild
Iron Man
Irreversible
Italian Job
Italian Job_2
Jarhead
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
John Q
John Q_2
Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Juno
Just Friends
Just Like Heaven
Just My Luck
Kangaroo Jack
Kickin It Old Skool
Kill Bill Vol 1
Kill Bill Vol 2
King Arthur
King Kong
King Of California
Kingdom Of Heaven
Kings of Comedy
Kung Fu Hustle
Kung Fu Panda
Lars And The Real Girl
Layer Cake
LayerCake
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Man
Loaded
London To Brighton
Lord Of War
Lucky Number Slevin
Lucky You
Madagascar
Madagascar 2 - Escape 2 Africa
Madagascar_2
Make It Happen
Man Of The House
Meet Joe Black
Meet The Fockers
Meet The Robinsons
Meet The Spartans
Men In Black
Men In Black 2
Merlin
MIB Movies
Michael Clayton
Mickeys The Three Musketeers
Miss Congeniality 2
Monster House
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Mr And Mrs Smith
Mr And Mrs Smith_2
Mr Beans Hoilday
Mr Bean's Holiday_2
Mr Brooks
Mr Woodcock
Munich
My Babys Daddy
Mystic River
Myth Busters - Mega Movie Myths
Nacho Libre
Never Die Alone
New Folder
New Jack City
Next
Night At The Museum
No Country For Old Men
No Reservations
Notting Hill
Oceans 12
Oceans 13
Oceans 13_2
Office Space
Old School
Once Upon A Time In America
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
One Hour Photo
Ong Bak
Open Season
Open Season 2
Open Water
Out Of Time
Outlaw
Over The Hedge
P.S. I Love You
Pan's Labyrinth
Peaceful Warrior
Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer
Pineapple Express
Pirates Of The Caribbean 1
Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 - Dead Man's Chest
Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 - At Worlds End
Platoon
Porky's
Porkys 1 and 2
Porkys Revenge (Porkys 3)
Predator
Predator 2
Premonition
Prey
Pride And Glory
Pulp Fiction
Punisher - War Zone
Quantum Of Solace
Rambo
Red Cliff
Red Dawn
Red Eye
Religulous
Rescue Dawn
Reservoir Dogs
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil Apocalypse
Resident Evil Extinction
Return To Oz
Revolver
Riddick Trilogy
Riding Giants
Righteous Kill
Rise of the Footsoldier
River Queen
Rize
Robin Hood - Men In Tights
Robocop 2
Rocketman
RocknRolla
Rocky - The Complete Saga
Rocky Balboa
Role Models
Romeo & Juliet
Rounders
Run Fat Boy Run
Rush Hour 1
Rush Hour 1+2
Rush Hour 3
Russell Brand Doing Life Live
Russell Brand in New York City
Saw
Scary Movie
Scary Movie 2
Scary Movie 3
Scary Movie 4
School For Scoundrels
Scoop
Seven Pounds
Seven Samurai
Sex And The City
Sex Drive
Shanghai Kiss
Shanghai Noon
Shark Tale
Shoot On Sight
Shooter
Shrek The Third
Shutter
Sicko
Silent Hill
Sin City
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Slumdog Millionaire
Smokin Aces
Snakes On A Plane
Snatch
Sniper
Space Chimps
Spartan
Species 3
Speed Racer
Spiderman 3
Splinter
Spy Game
St Trinian's
Star Wars Movies
Stardust
Starship Troopers Trilogy
State Property 2
Step Brothers
Step Up
Stigmata
Stomp The Yard
Stranger Than Fiction
Street Kings
Super Size Me
Superbabies 2
Superbad
Superman Returns
Surf's Up
Taken
Talladega Nights
Taxi
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tenacious D - The Pick Of Destiny
Terminator Trilogy
The 40 Year Old Virgin
The Assassination of Jesse James
The Bank Job
The Basketball Diaries
The Big Hit
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Brave One
The Brothers Solomon
The Bucket List
The Chronicles of Riddick
The Comebacks
The Condemned
The Contract
The Covenant
The Da Vinci Code
The Darjeeling Limited
The Dark Knight
The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)
The Deer Hunter
The Descent
The Devil's Advocate
The Exorcism Of Emily Rose
The Fifth Element
The Fighting Temptations
The Fountain
The French Connection
The Ghost And The Darkness?
The Girl in the Cafe
The Girl Next Door
The Godfather part I
The Godfather part II
The Godfather part III
The Good Sheperd
The Good Shepherd
The Goonies
The Green Mile
The Grudge
The Guardian
The Happening
The Heartbreak Kid
The Hills Have Eyes
The Hoax
The Illusionist
The Incredible Hulk
The Inside Man
The Invasion
The Kingdom
The Lady Killers
The Last King of Scotland
The Last Legion
The Last Shot
The Longest Yard
The Lookout
The Love Guru
The Machinist
The Mark of Cain
The Matrix Trilogy
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Motorcycle diary
The Mummy Movies
The Mutant Chronicles
The Naked Gun Triology
The Notebook
The Number 23
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Pacifier
The Painted Veil
The Pestige
The Phantom Of The Opera
The Pursuit Of Happyness
The Queen
The Riddle
The Ringer
The Rock
The Ruins
The Secret
The Seventh Seal
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shining
The Simpsons Movie
The Strangers
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Ten
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning
The Twelve Tasks of Asterix
The Usual Suspects
The Worlds Fastest Indian
The X-Files - Fight the Future
There Will Be blood
Thick As Thieves
Top Gun
Toy Story 2
Trailer Park Boys - The Movie
Traitor
Transformers
Transporter 3
Tropic Thunder
Troy
Turistas
Twelve Monkeys
Twilight
Two Hands
Ultraviolet
Under Siege
Undercover Brother
Unleashed
Unrest - After Dark Horror Fest
Untraceable
V For Vendetta
Vacancy
Vampire Hunter D
Van Wilder
Van Wilder 2
Vantage Point
Virgin Territory
W
Waist Deep
Walk The Line
Wall-E
Wanted
War
War, Inc
Watchmen
Waynes World
Waynes World 2
We Own the Night
We Were Soldiers
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
Welcome To Mooseport
What Happens In Vegas
White Chicks
White Noise
Wild Hogs
Willow
Win a Date with Ted Hamilton
Wrongfully Accused
You Don't Mess With The Zohan
You Kill Me
Young Guns I and II
Zack and Miri Make A Porno
Zodiac
Zombie Strippers
Zoolander
[[478GB]]

Uber Post

2009-06-21T13:26:00.008+10:00

I've been neglectful of my blog and for this I apologise to, all 5 of, my loyal readers. So I've made a few headings/topics I want to cover cuz they've happened recently and it helps focus my ramblings.

Guitar Hero
Anyone that has read a few of my posts should know I'm an avid guitar hero player. In fact I bought my friends it for the PS3 (rather ironically) for their housewarming. I currently have all my Guitar Hero stuff for Xbox 360, but will definitely upgrade to the PS3 once the new Guitar Hero 5 comes out.

360 Dies, get a PS3
Yet again, my Xbox 360 dies. Every 360 owner knows about The Red Ring of Death, it's kinda like the windows BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). So basically this has happened to me before, which resulted in me upgrading from a Xbox 360 Pro to an Xbox 360 Elite for a small price difference. I was told that the "new" xbox 360's [the elites] never had problems. Lies! Here is the timeline of events:

12th Dec 2008 > Xbox 360 Pro (#1) dies. Replaced with Xbox 360 Elite (#2)
5th June 2009 > Xbox 360 Elite (#2) dies.
6th June 2009 > Contact Microsoft and impressed by a HELPFUL CALL CENTER! amazing
9th June 2009 > box up and mail off broken Xbox 360 elite.
13th June 2009 > buys a PS3 with: Prototype, Infamous, GTA IV and Killzone 2.
22nd June 2009 > Xbox 360 Elite (#2) returned "repaired".
26th June 2009 > ...haven't tried the "repaired" Xbox because I don't want to unplug my PS3 from the HDMI port.

Golf.
I've recently been going to the driving range a bit and have noticed something awesome, I can hit my iron shots perfectly. This has spurred me on to think about taking up golf a bit more. I tried some driver shots, but they veered a bit to the right, which I can improve with more practise.

iPhone 3.0 and 3GS
The 18th of June came and then there was the 3.0 OS for iPhone. Suddenly the iPhone gaines numerous abilities and functions; including the ability to send/receive MMS (a feature that was first released in 2002). The better functionality is internet tethering via bluetooth, which I'm still trying to setup. Basically it enables you to link your laptop to your phone via bluetooth and use the iPhone's data connection as the internet connection for the laptop. Sure it'll be slow, but I'm a stupid idiot that opted for the biggest iphone data plan of 5GB. I currently use only 100-300mb/month, and thats with heavy usage. I've also learnt that you can always increase your data plan/contract, but not reduce it. Something I wish I was told beforehand.

And then there is the new iPhone, the 3GS. Apparently faster, better and in 32GB. I want to upgrade my "old" iphone, but have to work out how to do that. I've actually noticed that my iphone is actually a bit laggy with the 3.0 OS running, which I guess is where the increased RAM and processor in the 3GS will shine.

PROTOTYPE!
This is a freaking wicked game. Picture your an awesome massively destructive shapeshifting
mutant. Kinda like the T1000 in T2, but a million times cooler... you can fly (well glide) and you run up buildings and jump across them, and assume peoples identities....and consume them... stealing their memories thereby learning why you are the way you are... mmmmm....

don't just take my word for it, heres a cool review.

Seriously its a lot of fun, here a comic about it;

Twitter?
Ok, I'm at a dilemma. I'm quite an active internet user. I have yet to fully understand/appreciate/get the whole buzz behind Twitter. I know its praised as being awesome, but I don't quite get it. The only time I think its particullarly useful is to: a) find out news instantly (ie, Michael Jackson's death), b) keeping in touch with friends or c) rant and rave and post my thoughts that would annoy the fuck out of people on facebook.

Sims 3
As an avid gamer I'm almost ashamed to admit I got the Sims 3. Not only that... but on its release date, 4th June. First, allow me to redeem myself by saying that I did not know it was actually the release day of it, and didn't intend on getting it. I was out having dinner and then browsed the shopping center for late night shopping on thursday night. I happened to walk into JB and there it was. I shrugged and got it. Curosity.

I actually managed to install it, play it for 2-5 minutes, before giving up on it for 2 days. I quickly realised it was pointless trying to involvement "myself" (my character shaped in my own outstanding image) with virtual friends, when I had actual friends in real life trying to talk to me. Also I found it stupid that I had to go out and buy groceries for my virtual self, when I'm too lazy to even do that in real life. I played it for about 3-4 days, creating some of my friends and interacting with them. Had a few laughs at accidentally forcing one of my friends to live with me, then trying my hardest to fight/hate her so she left...doesn't work, had to restart from the last save point.

Blueray promoting copying of movie to portable device?!
My mate bought a copy of Valkyrie blu ray and something impressed me about it. On the cover, and inside the case you are told that you can create a portable copy of the movie for your iPod/iPhone etc. I think this is a cool idea, and shows some enlightened thinking by someone involved with the distribution of the DVDs.

Plunge
There is a wicked little cafe in Summer Hill called Plunge. They make one of the most indulgent hot chocolates I've ever had. You can choose to either have a Flake or a Toberlone chocolate Hot Chocolate. I prefer the Flake one, which I took a snap of here. Here is the cafe's website, and where you'll find it on google maps / streetview.

Possible upcoming content
I've recently started to uber tag my stumbleupon favourites. I think that I might be able to categorise the sites I like and share them here. The first link will direct you straight to my main stumbleupon page, but you can sort them into tags here.

I'm also contemplating changing the layout of this blog, I'm not liking the font/colour scheme.

Bad Sushi
Ok, I'm going to give you all fair warning now.

***This next section will get graphic and disturbing, so if your squeamish about bodily functions, stop reading. ***

Ok I was unfortunate enough to experience both my worse food poisoning and first bad sushi experience. I had some sushi with a friend of mine at 8pm on Monday night at a place that is well known for being good/fresh japanese. It's somewhere I eat every week with a good friend of mine.

Go home, play some prototype, talk to my mates on skype, start getting ready to goto sleep, when at midnight I start to feel weird. No, I feel horrible. This was the beginning of what would be a long and annoying night. I got up, on the hour, every hour, until 7am. It was literally like my body had gone;
"ATTENTION, CONTENTS OF GASTRO-INTESTINAL TRACT, YOU ARE HEREBY BEING EVACTUATED IMMEDIATELY, USE THE NEAREST EXIT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!".

I actually had to judge which way I was going to be using the toilet each time, depending mostly on how much control of whatever bodily function was in question. At 7am, I had finally reached a point of where I couldn't vomit any more. This was after managing to bring up my lunch from that day. I think I must have been so sick that my intestinal contents were being forced into my stomach.

I felt like death the next day, did nothing but sleep. I was fortunate enough that my good friend that I usually go there weekly with, ended up bringing me a carepackage of "upset stomach" foods (bread, cruskits, rice crackers, lemonade and raspberry lollies). I ended up sick from work for 2 days, and with 3/4 of my appetite reduced. I went out drinking a few nights after and could only manage a few before feeling full/ill.

Some Awesomeness:
Colour changing tiles - I want these in my bathroom... or everywhere.

How Star Trek/Star Wars/Matrix/Harry Potter are actually the same movie - clever.

Something for the whipped boyfriends - hahaha

Conversation with a WoW player - lol, seriously where is the paperbag?

Tim Burton's new take on Alice in Wonderland - looks wicked!

Epic Flawless Victory - yup

41 girls with long tongues - ...nice...

Barrel monster - lol, can't believe they charged him for this...

Terminator Salvation Review

2009-06-08T19:51:00.003+10:00

Ok so here's my view on the new terminator movie; it was good, but not great or amazing.

I'm assuming you've seen it, so everything I discuss won't spoil the movie.

***WARNING: SPOILERS***

The thing that annoyed me the most about this movie was that it lacked anything really happening and only seemed to serve as a lame jumpoff point for another Christain Bale franchise. There were a lot of stupid moments in the film that didn't make sense. The fact that terminators all of a sudden can't aim (the mini-gun "primative" terminators sucked ass). Marcus syncs to Skynet, which in all honesty should have reverted him back to a skynet killing machine (with a whole fighting his primary programming segment to follow), or that same scene, but his total ease in disabling skynet systems without any problem. Or how about the fact there are only ever like 2-3 terminators at a particular location. They could have a legion of them wiping out cities....

I liked the "Marcus" cyborg character, I thought that was well done and was very true to the whole terminator series... not being sure whether to trust a machine that seems intent on helping them. I thought that the CGI effects were great, and the terminators themselves were imposing. Laughed when I saw the "Arnie" terminator appear in the final fight scene. I thought that was awesome, the "Arnie" terminator is almost unstoppable.

I was reading an excellent article about why the movie sucked compared to what it could have been. Apparently Christain Bale forced the whole John Connor role and the did massive script re-writes mid-production. Have a read, its long, but really interesting.
"What went wrong with Terminator: Salvation"

I also saw this awesome post comparing T2 and T3 for being very similar scenes/concepts
"Comparison of Terminator 2 and Terminator 3 in 92 small screen grabs"

The things that occur in all 3 movies (T2/T3/T4: Salvation) include:

Starts off naked and then takes clothes/assumes identity.
Hand to hand combat verses a human-looking terminator is generally stupid
Yet another person responsible for skynet/terminators
A terminator vs. Terminator scene will generally result in; the "hero" getting smashed then killed, then revived to win the fight.
A chase scene involving a truck and motorcycles
A terminator will hook onto a fleeing moving vehicle
A nuke will explode with a mushroom cloud

The main female "love interest" is played by Moon Bloodgood (click for some photos).

Hope you've enjoyed this. Please comment.

Sydney's CityRail

2009-05-27T08:57:00.002+10:00

Anyone that uses Sydney's CityRail network knows it's crap. Trains run late, get canceled, change stops, become delayed in the rain etc. You name it, it probably happens.

The problem is that the NSW state government hasn't been developing infrastructure to match the population growth. The rail network has remained relatively unchanged in decades whilst the number of commuters has skyrocketed.

The problems are compounded with bad road traffic, increased tolls and mumors of closing down private traffic in the city CBD which only increase the users of public transport.

In a grab for money the ticket prices increase yearly, without significant improvement on the quality of the service. I would also like to question why the travel pass cost of going to the north shore skips a tier of pricing and is hence twice what a similar commute is from other areas of Sydney. Because I live in a "richer" part of Sydney I should have to pay more for my public transport?

I have a bittersweet feeling on the new CityRail penguin posters informing commuters to use common sense when catching the train. Half of me congratulates them on teaching what seems to be every idiot that standing in front of a newly arrived train is stupid, as no one can get off the train. I would publicly warn all morons that do this to avoid that 6'1 guy with a pissed look on his face, that's probably me, and I will knock you out of the way and it will hurt you more than me. Moral: let people off the train, don't try and rush on before everyone is off. Also telling people to move evenly along the platform to avoid congestion, this is good but is more a reflection of how overcrowded and crap our service is.

Peak hour trains should be arriving every 5 minutes. Please goto London and experience the Tube. While not the most pleasant train network, it runs on time.

I'm now going to be late for work. Thanks CityRail.

Ps I like how the new trains inform school kids to give up their seats for fare paying passengers. I used to do it, why can't they do it now?

pull my finger!

2009-04-06T09:03:00.000+10:00

Pull my finger! this could have kept me entertained for ages.

best appetiser ever: bacon wrapped potatoes

2009-04-05T09:09:00.000+10:00

amazing. I want them now!

Check out how to make them here

The Baconcyclopedia

2009-04-04T09:27:00.000+11:00

Bacon is awesome. In fact, it is so awesome numerous randoms have made unholy bacon creations, some of which include:

but now, here is the most comprehensive Bacon appreciation ever; THE BACONCYCLOPEDIA!

Best way to hide porn

2009-04-03T09:00:00.000+11:00

Create your own Marvel Superhero!

2009-04-02T13:17:00.000+11:00

Woooo

Guys Decoding Women's Obsession with Fashion

2009-04-01T18:30:00.004+11:00

I came across this awesome cartoon randomly whilst at work. I think it does a good job of illustrating how guys can understand women's obsessions with fashion (clothes, shows, bags etc).

In fact, c1 actually was yammering on about how much she wanted a certain bag, and how it was marked down like over $800, and all I could think of was this comic;

Eric Clapton

2009-03-29T20:30:00.005+11:00

C1 didn't know who Eric Clapton was, so I though I'd do a post introducing who he is, and let you sample some of my favourite songs of his:

He is the only person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame 3 times for being a member of: Yardbirds, Cream and his solo career.

He is an outstanding guitarist, being rated #4 in the Rolling Stone's "100 greatest guitarists of all time" and #53 in their "Immortals: 100 greatest artists of all time". For more, check out the wiki article on Eric Clapton.

Here is my selection of his songs; listen to them all!

I want this lizard as my pet!

2009-03-23T20:20:00.002+11:00

I've never wanted a lizard for a pet, nothing against lizards, but they generally aren't interesting.

Look at this one!

Totally awesome! It's like some spikey mini dragon thing! I want it!

Technically it's called a "armadillo lizard" (click the name for some google images) and I found the photos/link here.

JR is a bad man #2

2009-03-22T17:06:00.006+11:00

Welcome to a new reoccurring segment featuring the demented views of JR.

"was in my lecture, its 150 people, so a big lecture hall. I notice down the front that there is someone standing at the front signing everything the lecturer is saying, because obivously there is a deaf person in the audience. So I yell out "Wicked Sick DJ!" as I mock a DJ with my hands. I pissed myself laughing. Everyone in my row laughed, everyone else kinda went "oh... that's not right".

and

"I've become fascinated with Batman, so now I'm like; Fuck you Batman, I'll do what I want"

"basically everything that's wrong with the world is due to Global Warming or Batman"

generated using the "bus slogan generator"

Burning the candle at both ends

2009-03-19T22:12:00.006+11:00

God I haven't done a decent post in forever. So here is a one of my massive ranting posts where I go on and on and on and feel like I've contributed something meaningful to the web.

Rugby
I've started playing rugby of my own accord. I have gone to training and survived. It was a fitness training session so I'm still a bit sore even 2 days later. I'm on my way to joining up officially with the club, and its all thanks to the help of one of my old school mates, and author of "The Train" (formely known as the G-train).

New Years Resolutions
I've been achieving some of my new years resolutions. I'm catching up with some old friends I had previous lost contact with, I've managed to loose some weight (rugby should help more), and I've managed to save some money. Woo.

Real Guitar Hero
I'm having a crack at teaching myself to play the guitar. I've been an avid fan of guitar hero, god I even mentioned it in my very first post, so now I'm trying the real thing. I'm worried about how difficult it will be, and I know that I often start things and never really see them through (um, boba fett concept artwork anyone?)

I want to punch slow walking people in the back of the head
Talk about your apt facebook groups, this is one of my favorites of all time. I work in the city, and constantly have to deal with chaotic and stupid foot traffic. I'm a large guy, and noone really crosses my path, but still people are so stupid sometimes. I think there should be some simple rules when walking down a busy city footpath;

Stay to your left, we drive on the left...you walk on the left.
If your gonna stop, move to side....don't stand there like a moron.
If your walking slow, move to the side and let people who are in a rush get by
Don't walk in a flat line! I don't give a fuck that your all friends, if your not searching for a misssing kid in the bush then don't walk in a flat line.
If you are walking on the wrong side, or have to, don't get in the crowds way. Or better yet, get on the right side.

I'm also adding a bonus topic, rules for travelling on an escalator;

Stand to ONE SIDE!
Preferably the Left side!
Allow people to get around you lazy people that aren't in a hurry.

Karaoke
I had a go of karaoke the other night. Fun fact, the word Karaoke means "empty orchestra ".

Here is a selection of my favourite songs to sing, enjoy:

Dancing
I suck at dancing. I have a serious case of white boy can't dance fever. Its kinda like Cowbell fever, except that it has nothing to do with cowbell and Christopher Walken can dance (see "Weapon of Choice" below);

anyway, what the hell am I going on about? I went out dancing the other night, but firstly I have to say that I require I lot to drink before I attempt to dance. I need enough to make me forget that I can't dance, and that I'm just having a good time. I'm told its quite entertaining to watch. Also, when looking for the above YouTube clip, I somehow stumbled onto a collection of the "Top 30 Music Videos of all time" of which, "Weapon of Choice" was #4! woo.

Two songs I knew came on (which I had to try and bustamove to); "ABC" by Jackson 5 and "Poison" by Bela Div Devoe. Both of which I only know from comedy movies/tv shows

"ABC" by Jackson 5, As seen in Clerks 2

"Poison" by Bel Biv Devoe, As seen in Scrubs (totally awesome)

Turk is totally awesome, exhibit B

damn, I wanted to have more to say. I'm so tired from going out, working, or doing something that requires me to wake up early. Though I can function on a lack of sleep, its not great and I prefer to sleep in whenever possible.

Awesome TV shows

2009-03-15T21:00:00.002+11:00

As of 15/03/2009;

24 [s6]
30 Rock [s1, s2]
American Dad [s3, ~s4]
Battlestar Galactica [s1, s2, s3, ~s4]
BBC Horizon
Being Human [~s1]
Black Books [s1, s2]
Bones [s2, s3, ~s4]
Boondocks [s2]
Boston Legal [s1]
California [s1, s2]
Celebrity Deathmatch
Chappelles Show [s1, s2]
Chuck [s1, s2]
Clerks Animated Series [s1]
CSI [~]
Daria [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, extra]
Deadilest Catch [s1]
Dexter [s1, s2, ~s3]
Dirty Jobs [s1, s2, s3, s4]
Dirty, Sexy, Money [~s2]
Drawn Together [s1, s2, s3]
Eleventh Hour [s1]
Entourage [s1, s2, s3, s4, ~s5]
Eureka [s1, s2]
Family Guy [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6]
Fifth Gear [~s12]
Flashpoint [s1, ~s2]
Flight of the Conchords [s1]
Fringe [~s1]
Futurama [s2, s3, s4, s5]
Greys Anatomy [s1, s2, ~s3]
Heroes [s1, s2, ~s3]
House [s2, s3, s4, ~s5]
How I Met Your Mother [s3, ~s4]
How Its Made [s9]
How Not To Live [~s1]
James May's 20th Century
Jericho [~s1]
Jurrassic Fight Club [~s1]
K-Ville [~s1]
Kyle XY [s1, s2]
Las Vegas [s2, s3, s4]
Law & Order [~]
Lie to Me [~s1]
Life [~s1, s2]
Lost [~s1, s2]
Man vs. Wild [s1, ~s2, s3, s4, s5]
Medium [~s1]
MTVs Cribs [~]
NCIS [~s4, s6]
Pimp my Ride [~s1, ~s2, ~s3, ~s4]
Primeval [~s1]
Prison Break [~s1]
Revelations [~s1]
Scrubs [s5, s6, s7, ~s8]
Seinfeld [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6]
Simpsons [s2, s11, s12, s13, s14, s15, s16, s17, s18, s19]
Smallville [s1, s4, s5, s6, s7, s8]
Sopranos [s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6]
South Park [s1, s2, s4, s6, s8, s9, s10, s11, s12, ~s13]
Star Wars Clone Wars [~s1]
Supernatural [~s3, s4]
The 4400 [~s1]
The Black Donnellys [~s1]
The Con [~s1]
The IT Crowd [s1, s2, s3]
The Mentalist [~s1]
The OC [s1, s2, s3]
The Office UK [s2]
The Office US [s1]
Top Gear [s1-s12]
Torchwood [s1]
True Blood [~s1]
Two and a Half Men [s4, s5, ~s6]
Ugly Betty [s1]
Underbelly [~s1]
Weeds [s1, s2, s3]
[[592GB]]

Movies:
10 Things I Hate About You
1408
16 Blocks
21
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
3.10 To Yuma
300
8 Mile
88 Minutes
A Better Tomorrow
A History Of Violence
A Mighty Heart
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 - Dream Warriors
A Scanner Darkly
A Simple Plan
Ace Ventura
Ace Ventura 2
Alien Quadrilogy
All the kings men
Along Came Polly
Alpha Dog
American Beauty
American Gangster
American Gangster_2
American Pie 1
American Pie 2
American Pie 3 The Wedding
An American Crime
An Inconvenient Truth
Anchorman
Anger Management
Apocalypto
Around The World In 80 Days
Assault On Precinct 13
Asterix and the Vikings
Asterix Conquers America
ATL
Atonement
Austin Powers In Gold Member
Australia
Babel
Babylon A.D
Bad Boys 2
Balls of Fury
BASEketball
Basic Instinct 2
Batman Collection
Battle For Haditha
Because I Said So
Before Night Falls
Before Sunset
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead_2
Behind Enemy Lines
Being Julia
Benchwarmers
Beowulf
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Blades of Glory
Blood Brothers
Blow
Boogie Nights
Breach
Breaking And Entering
Brick
Cannibal Holocaust
Cashback
Casino
Cassandra's Dream
Chaos Theory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie Wilsons War
Che
Chicken Little
Chris Rock - Never Scared
Christmas with the Kranks
City Of Ember
Clerks 2
Cloverfield
Columbus Day
Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen
Confessions of Dangerous Mind
Crank
Crash
Cruel Intentions
Curious George
Curse Of The Golden Flower
Dan in Real Life
Dark City (Directors Cut)
Death At A Funeral
Death Note
Death Sentence
Deathproof
DEBS
Deception
Definitely, Maybe
Deja Vu
Delta Farce
Der Untergang (Downfall)
Die Hard 4 - Live Free Or Die Hard
Disaster Movie
Dodgeball
Dog Day Afternoon
Domino
Donnie Brasco
Doomsday
Dreamcatcher
Eagle Eye
Eastern Promises
Elektra
Enemy At The Gates
Epic Movie
Equilibrium
Event Horizon
Evolution
Fahrenheit 911
Failure To Launch
Family Man
Family Man_2
Fantastic Four 2 - Rise Of The Silver Surfer
Farce of the Penguins
Fearless
Fever Pitch
Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children
Find Me Guilty
First Daughter
First Sunday
Flags Of Our Fathers
Food Safari Ebook
Fool's Gold
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Fracture
Frag
Freedom Writers
Friday Night Lights
Frost - Nixon
Fun with Dick and Jane
Funeral For A Friend - Memory And Humanity
Futurama 1 . Benders Big Score
Futurama 2 - The Beast With A Billion Backs
Futurama 3 - Bender's Game
Futurama 4 - Into the Wild Green Yonder
Get Smart
Get Smart's Bruce And Lloyd Out Of Control
Ghost Town
Ghostship
Gladiator
Glory Road
Goal 2 - Living The Dream
Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone_2
Good Luck Chuck
Gothika
Grindhouse - Death Proof
Half Nelson
Halloween 7 - H20
Halloween 8 - Resurrection
Hancock
Hannibal Rising
Happy Feet
Hard Candy
Harold and Kumar 1 - Go to White Castle
Harold and Kumar 2 - Escape from Guantanamo Bay (Unrated Version)
Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army
Hero Wanted
History of the World - Part 1
Hitch
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Hitman
Hostel - Part 2
Hot Rod
Hot Shots
House of Sand and Fog
House of Wax
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry
I Think I Love My Wife
Idiocracy
Igor
Imagine Me and You
In Bruges
In Lies We Trust - CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism
In The Land of Women
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Indiana Jones Trilogy
Indiana Jones Triology
Inside man
Iron Man
Irreversible
Italian Job
Italian Job_2
Jarhead
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
John Q
John Q_2
Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Juno
Just Like Heaven
Just My Luck
Kangaroo Jack
Kickin It Old Skool
Kill Bill Vol 1
Kill Bill Vol 2
King Arthur
King Kong
King Of California
Kingdom Of Heaven
Kings of Comedy
Kung Fu Hustle
Kung Fu Panda
Lars And The Real Girl
Layer Cake
LayerCake
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Man
London To Brighton
Lord Of War
Lord Of War_2
Lucky Number Slevin
Lucky You
Madagascar
Madagascar 2 - Escape 2 Africa
Madagascar_2
Man Of The House
Meet Joe Black
Meet The Fockers
Meet The Robinsons
Meet The Spartans
Men In Black
Men In Black 2
Merlin
MIB Movies
Michael Clayton
Mickeys The Three Musketeers
Miss Congeniality 2
Monster House
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Mr And Mrs Smith
Mr And Mrs Smith_2
Mr Beans Hoilday
Mr Bean's Holiday_2
Mr Brooks
Mr Woodcock
Munich
My Babys Daddy
Mystic River
Myth Busters - Mega Movie Myths
Nacho Libre
Never Die Alone
New Folder
Next
Night At The Museum
No Country For Old Men
No Reservations
Notting Hill
Oceans 12
Oceans 13
Oceans 13_2
Office Space
Old School
Once Upon A Time In America
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
One Hour Photo
Ong Bak
Open Season
Open Season 2
Open Water
Out Of Time
Outlaw
Over The Hedge
P.S. I Love You
Pan's Labyrinth
Peaceful Warrior
Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer
Pineapple Express
Pirates Of The Caribbean 1
Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 - Dead Man's Chest
Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 - At Worlds End
Pitch Black
Platoon
Premonition
Prey
Pride And Glory
Pulp Fiction
Rambo
Red Dawn
Red Eye
Religulous
Rescue Dawn
Reservoir Dogs
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil Apocalypse
Resident Evil Extinction
Return To Oz
Revolver
Riding Giants
Righteous Kill
Rise of the Footsoldier
River Queen
Rize
Robin Hood - Men In Tights
Robocop 2
Rocketman
RocknRolla
Rocky - The Complete Saga
Rocky Balboa
Role Models
Romeo & Juliet
Rounders
Run Fat Boy Run
Rush Hour 1
Rush Hour 1+2
Rush Hour 3
Saw
Scary Movie
Scary Movie 2
Scary Movie 3
Scary Movie 4
School For Scoundrels
Scoop
Seven Pounds
Sex And The City
Sex Drive
Shanghai Kiss
Shanghai Noon
Shark Tale
Shoot On Sight
Shooter
Shrek The Third
Shutter
Sicko
Silent Hill
Sin City
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Slumdog Millionaire
Smokin Aces
Snakes On A Plane
Snatch
Sniper
Space Chimps
Spartan
Species 3
Speed Racer
Spiderman 3
Splinter
Spy Game
St Trinian's
Star Wars Movies
Stardust
Starship Troopers Trilogy
State Property 2
Step Brothers
Step Up
Stigmata
Stomp The Yard
Stranger Than Fiction
Street Kings
Super Size Me
Superbabies 2
Superbad
Superman Returns
Surf's Up
Taken
Talladega Nights
Taxi
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tenacious D - The Pick Of Destiny
The 40 Year Old Virgin
The Assassination of Jesse James
The Bank Job
The Basketball Diaries
The Big Hit
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Brave One
The Brothers Solomon
The Bucket List
The Chronicles of Riddick
The Comebacks
The Condemned
The Contract
The Covenant
The Da Vinci Code
The Darjeeling Limited
The Dark Knight
The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)
The Deer Hunter
The Descent
The Devil's Advocate
The Exorcism Of Emily Rose
The Fifth Element
The Fighting Temptations
The Fountain
The French Connection
The Ghost And The Darkness?
The Girl in the Cafe
The Girl Next Door
The Godfather part I
The Godfather part II
The Godfather part III
The Good Sheperd
The Good Shepherd
The Goonies
The Green Mile
The Grudge
The Guardian
The Happening
The Heartbreak Kid
The Hills Have Eyes
The Hoax
The Illusionist
The Incredible Hulk
The Inside Man
The Invasion
The Kingdom
The Lady Killers
The Last King of Scotland
The Last Legion
The Last Shot
The Longest Yard
The Lookout
The Love Guru
The Machinist
The Mark of Cain
The Matrix Trilogy
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Motorcycle diary
The Mummy Movies
The Mutant Chronicles
The Naked Gun Triology
The Notebook
The Number 23
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Pacifier
The Painted Veil
The Pestige
The Phantom Of The Opera
The Pursuit Of Happyness
The Queen
The Riddle
The Ringer
The Secret
The Seventh Seal
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shining
The Simpsons Movie
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Ten
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning
The Twelve Tasks of Asterix
The Usual Suspects
The Worlds Fastest Indian
There Will Be blood
Thick As Thieves
Top Gun
Toy Story 2
Trailer Park Boys - The Movie
Traitor
Transformers
Tropic Thunder
Troy
Turistas
Twelve Monkeys
Twilight
Two Hands
Ultraviolet
Undercover Brother
Unleashed
Unrest - After Dark Horror Fest
V For Vendetta
Vacancy
Vampire Hunter D
Van Wilder
Van Wilder 2
Virgin Territory
Waist Deep
Walk The Line
Wall-E
Wanted
War
War, Inc
We Own the Night
We Were Soldiers
Welcome To Mooseport
What Happens In Vegas
White Chicks
White Noise
Wild Hogs
Win a Date with Ted Hamilton
Wrongfully Accused
You Don't Mess With The Zohan
You Kill Me
Young Guns I and II
Zodiac
Zoolander
[[428GB]]

Stream online music

2009-03-07T17:56:00.005+11:00

I just discovered GrooveShark, and I'm really impressed with it.

You can find heaps of songs on it, and add them to playlists and save them.

Here is my first attempt

The Short Definitive Insanity540 Mix:

Howto: Create your own fictional album cover

2009-02-25T00:57:00.006+11:00

This is a new internet meme that is outlined originally here, was brought to my attention by my friend C1.

Here is my one:

PEARTREE GREEN
The more highly appreciated.

Alternate folk band PEARTREE GREEN are back with their 3rd album "The more highly appreciated". Featuring some of their hit singles such as; "Interests masquerading as principles", "The beginning of time" and "Am I a success". The album also features a bonus track "Same mistakes, only sooner" which is a unique instrumental piece consisting solely of kazoos.

How you make yours:

1. Go to wikipedia.com "Random Article" search.

Whatever comes up, that's the name of your band.

2. Go to quotationspage.com and do a "random quote search".

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and the last 5 or so quoted words are the name of your album.

3. Finally, head to Flickr's "last 7 days" photo generator. The third picture that comes up is your album cover.

Mix it all up and create your album. Add a zany album bio and your done.

(if you don't have photoshop on your computer, I used Pixlr's free online version)

and without permission, here's C1's;

Paul McCarthy
All light, all influence, all fate.

Trying to be good

2009-02-17T12:17:00.004+11:00

Ok let's just ignore the fact that this mobile blog post totally failed. I patiently typed out a good post but then it didn't email to blogger correctly and yada yada, now I have to remember what I was talking about at 11am today walking to the train.

Ok, so to explain the photo, this is me walking to work. I have a 1.4km walk to the train station (2.8 round trip) and that's a good bit of exercise. I'm trying to "be good" and lose some of my excessive weight. I'm not happy with how I look in photos along with other reasons.

So I'm following these simple rules to try and lose weight:

Walk to/from work as much as the weather permits.
Not eat junk (chocolate, chips etc)
Reduce my meal size by half in general (I eat way too much food)
Go to the gym at least 2 a week (3 times if possible)
Low carb beer or non-sugary mixers... I'll have to work out some feesable drinking rule.

Basically I've got the problem where I love food (to the point of gluttony) and I'm lazy (which makes regular gym routines hard). I love food, love to eat, in fact my dad used to say:

"you eat to live, you don't live to eat"

I even tried posting my weight loss stuff on this blog, to try and force myself to be accountable, but that didn't work. So I'm just trying to be good. I've had some good results already, and its only been a few days in, so I'm motivated to do it.

Just looking back at my older weight loss posts I have said the same thing before. Got to make sure I keep it up and don't fall off the wagon again.

My Sister Hates Dell

2009-02-13T09:00:00.000+11:00

My sister is going through issues with her Dell laptop, enjoy:

"I HATE DELL

This may seem a little over the top. But lets just say that I am not in the mood to say anything nice about this computer company. Especially with their customer service department.

This all stated about 4 months ago, my new XPS M1330, just up and crashed one day. I thought this odd and called in the techs from Dell, they said it was a simple problem and all they had to do was replace the motherboard. So they un-screwed it and re-fitted my laptop and everything was working alright.

Until last Sunday night. While watching a TV show on my laptop, it crashed again. And refused to reload. I spent hours trying to reboot my computer only to get so far before it decided to freeze and crash. Needless to say this pissed me off greatly and first thing Monday morning I rang technical support and put in for a repair again. The agreed and decided to send a technician out as soon as possible.

So Tuesday lunch time arrived and the technician came to repair my broken computer yet again. But only this time, I asked what was wrong with my laptop. He told me that there is a KNOWN default with this particular model and it’s video card. Something about it being in-compatible, so thinking this odd, that the had not re-called the laptops I made my first call to dell support. The first of many over the coming hours. I don’t know how well you know the support system for Dell computers, but lets just say you have to go through 2 call centers before you can discuss your computer with a technician. And each time you have to quote your service tag and you name and give a brief description of the problem. This gets old very fast.

I was first put through a technician who agreed with what the man working on my laptop said, that there is a fault with the model and they have not yet successfully developed a working piece of technology. When I express my dislike over this serious problem I was put through to a manager. I was “assured” that the technicians were wrong and that the new (3rd different one) motherboard that was being installed as we speak would work and that there would be no further problems. I was skeptical of this and told him that if I had to ring about a third problem with this laptop that I was going to royally pissed. It turns out I had good reason to be.

I turned my computer on after the technician left and tried to load my videos, to see if they would now play. When it took 15 minuets for my folder to open I had a bad feeling. I finally got a video file to open and well lets just say if it had worked I wouldn’t be so pissed off right now.

So I did what any sane person would do I called the support center again. (again going through the call centers and explaining the problem) I got through to a new technician on the phone and had to start all over again and when I finally said that this is not acceptable and that I want them to replace my laptop, he put me on hold and then hung up. So I rang them… again…had to sit through the same process…again. I finally got put through to another technician and I didn’t even waste my breath trying to explain the saga of this complaint to him and just asked to speak with the super visor who had “assured” me that my computer would have no more problems.

Lets just say that when I got through with him, he knew not to “assure” anything to me again and told me that I would just have a new laptop sent out. But get this it has to be the exact same type of laptop that I originally bought, so another M1330, the one with the default that has caused all my problems. How does that work (??????????) after he had decided that was what he was going to do, he hung up on me. He didn’t even ask where I wanted the laptop delivered. So I rang back for a FORTH time in a 1 hour time frame, and by this point I was seriously looking at the benefits of buying a Sony or HP. Seriously, it can’t get any worse than this.

A new technician was given my call and his answer to my question about where the laptop would be delivered was “there is no case for a new laptop, this can be fixed with parts” I just decided to ignore him and asked to be put back through to the manager who had already annoyed me twice. It turned out that they were going to send it to my old apartment address, because he has just “ASSUMED” that I still lived there. I told him through gritted teeth my new address and hung up before I started cursing the day he was born. So I sit here shaking after my exhausting time trying to get my defective laptop fixed and I can say with certainty that I HATE DELL."

I love a good RANT (click for similar posts).

Advice from the internet

2009-02-11T09:03:00.000+11:00

lol, wow...

I'm Back.

2009-02-06T16:37:00.007+11:00

This is how I feel about being back online. Woo-Hoo!

Disconnected

I moved recently and have been without net access for 2 months. 2 months is a long time for someone that is a facebook addict, blogger, and general net addict. The problem is that I had to stealthy get naked ADSL installed without my Grandfather learning about it. He is 93 and has enough problems using the TV and foxtel, let alone be taught how to you the web. Trust me, it was worth screwing around and installing a "phone line" into my room.

Sorry it has taken so long to post anything on my blog.

iPhone
I recently got myself an iPhone and have been loving it ever since. When they first came out I glanced at them, not really wanting to tempt myself too much because I still had over a year left on my mobile contract at that point. One of my mates had one and was showing me, causing me to want one, but I couldn't get it.

My contract ended on the 11th of Jan and I got my iPhone on the 11th, lol. It's totally awesome. I've learnt how to type really fast, how to blog on it, how to quickly blog a photo, and most importantly, how to sync my google calander with it directly!!! Anyone that knows me knows that my phone and google calander control my life.

The other good thing is that I have unlimited internet on it, well technically 5GB a month, but I've barely reach 1GB. This was awesome because although I didn't have the net at home, I could still look up information on my phone, access facebook and even IM my friends! Though I wouldn't consider IMing on an iPhone to be the same, since I can type almost as quickly as I can think on IM.

Clean this blog up
I'm making an effort to clean up this blog a bit. I've been slack; created too many useless and redundant topics, posting about crap that isn't really interesting ("awesome tv show posts"). I'm aim to bring somewhat interesting content. I'm gonna go with quality over quanity.

pew pew pew (me cleaning up my blog)

So expect to see some changes in my blog, lesser topics, some new features (like the new similar posts at the bottom).

The Life and Death of a TB Drive
I recently experiences one of my worst technilogical fears, the death of a harddrive. I had all my TV shows on there, all of my awesome shows and they were gone. I was devestated. Luckily I had forgotten about how I had copied all my stuff to a mate of mine's TB drive, so I had a copy of 95% of everything. I have managed to copy it back, and actually increase my collection with another mates stuff. Nice.

Top Gear Live

I was fortunate enough to get to go to the Top Gear Live show in Sydney. I enjoyed it, but there were some annoying things. I didn't appreciate the "live ad's" that took forever and only seemed to annoy the audience. There is a great review of the live show I went to see (also where I stole these images from).

Skydiving
I'm trying to embrace new experiences and opportunities as they are presented to me. I learnt how to snowboard, enjoy live music and experience festivals last year and I'm going to go skydiving for the first time in a few days.

The only thing I'm worried about is how much money its costing. I am trying, in vain, to save money. I want to save enough money so that I can build up my savings to a decent amount and go to New Zealand with my mates and go snowboarding again. I'm getting photos and a DVD.

Valentine's Day
Ah, that romantic time of year is here again. I'm not one of those people that dispise valentine's day, thinking it's a hallmark creation, but I generally don't like it because I always come up a bit stumped as to what to do for it.

Like the above image? visit: Despair, Inc.

Anyway, I screwed up a movie date with my girlfriend. I really wanted to go see "Role Models" before it finished showing in the cinemas. This would be counted as "my movie" and in turn I would sit through one of "her movies". I screwed up, swapped onto a late shift at work by mistake and we couldn't go. Since we find it hard to see each other, we value any time we can be together. I felt really bad and decided that we would go see "He's just not that into you" (her movie) gold class on sat. Then I realised it was valentines day and sprung for the whole valentines package (food, drink, chocolates). :D

Mobile blogging (1)

2009-02-05T09:52:00.000+11:00

Mobile blogging test (2)

I'm testing a rather ingenius attempt to mobile blog from my iPhone.
If this works I should post this automatically and it should have the
photo that I just took at this cafe.

I love Guzman and Gomez Burritos

2009-02-04T14:24:00.003+11:00

I've recently become a huge fan on Guzman and Gomez.

I reckon I have one at least once a week. So good.

If you see one around, try it. Don't forget to add Guac!

Facebook iPhone App 2.2

2009-01-29T13:46:00.004+11:00

Looks like Facebook have released a new version of their iPhone app.

I love the new preview of comments feature, but why on earth would you remove the "show 25 more posts" from the home tab?

Changes I've noticed:

- Chat system overhauled, you can go online/offline now
- Comment system preview (ability to read comments in notifications).
- Search in Inbox.
- Time/Date bug fixed (no longer says "yesterday", posted 22 hours ago)
- Photo Tagging glitch fixed.
- REMOVED "show 25 more" on home tab. WHY?!?!

Things they could improve for 2.3:

- Smart linking for comments/notifications; basically when you get a notification of a comment on something, clicking it should automatically go to that comment/converstation, rather than the person that made the comment. I know who the person is, if I want to goto their page I'll find them via Friends.
- Events. Still can't access events. Considering everyone organises stuff on facebook now, this is a big deal.
- Return "Show 25 more" Notifications, it's disappeared!
- Provide the setting to sort Friends by First name or Last Name.
- Enable a push system for notifications, like SMS/Email, so when we get a new notification on facebook, it shows up on the iPhone home tab.

The Big Swim 2009

2009-01-26T15:44:00.003+11:00

I'm proud to say that The Big Swim this year went off without too many dramas. I'm hugely involved in Surflifesaving with Whale Beach SLSC and The Big Swim is our clubs biggest event. It's approx 2.7km open ocean swim from Palm Beach to Whale Beach.

The course of the Big Swim. Approx. 2.7kms

The reason I'm so relieved is that I actually organised the Water Safety for the swim again this year. That's ensuring that 1,700 swimmers make it safely along the course. We have lots of support from the surround surf clubs (North Palm, Palm, Avalon beaches), lifeguards, costal patrol, water police. I've actually been the club captain of Whale Beach for 2 seasons, as one of the youngest captains they've ever had.

A cool shot from Whale's north headland of all the swimmers in the water.

Basically we send out as many of our members out on skis and boards and the IRBs (rubber duckies). If anyone needs to be assisted, or saved, then the skis and boards grab the person, they are transferred onto the IRB, which races the person back to Whale Beach for assistance from the patrol/first aid.

This year we had to pick up about 20-25 people. Exhausted swimmers, and one guy that had a hamstring cramp.

The biggest drama we had was we had one 60 year old man unaccounted for. Our swim uses electronic tags to record swimmers times and registered that they had indeed finished. The man in question had gotten dumped in the surf at Palm and decided not to swim and came in. He didn't report to anyone that he had left, and when our system registered him as not completed we obviously reacted swiftly.

I immediately began a search and rescue operation coordinating our IRBs to search from Whale beach, and Palm beach's IRB to search from their end. Our concern was increased when his neighbours reported to us that he had not shown up at Whale Beach, that his gear was still there. The naturally assumption that you would collect your gear after quitting/finishing added support to theory that he needed serious help. At that point I began to escalate the situation higher and get the helicopter called in, assuming we were dealing with a serious problem.

All in the meantime, the neighbours of the man in question were calling his mobile and house constantly. Finally his home number went to engaged, and after another anxious 5 minutes they finally got through to him. Apparently he was in the shower.

All in a day's work.

One of the funnest aspects of volunteer Surflifesaving is driving the IRBs. It is something I totally love doing. Here is a couple of good shots of the IRBs at the Big Swim.

Here we see the great guy's from Avalon SLSC "punching through" a wave in an IRB.

Now, IRB driving is a lot of fun but isn't easy. The boat itself is very light, with a 25hp outboard that gives it incredible power to weight ratio. Also due to the the fact they are constantly going through the surf/waves, and that they lack a keel, they tend to flip rather easily.

Here we can see one of our boats that flipped inthe surf.

This model of boat (above) is actually supposely more stable and harder to flip with its special pontoons on each side. I personally hate this design, it makes it much less manuouveurable in the surf, as turning is limited, and the pontoon's make it impossible for 2 people to pull the boat up onto the beach after finishing. The pontoon's dig into the sand, meaning that it takes 4 people to get it up the beach.

Hope you've enjoyed my little rant about SLSC and the big swim. I may do a follow up post about my lifesaving experiences some time in the future.

[Note: all photos are from last years swim; 2008]
I will try and upload some photos from this year's swim if I can get a copy of them.

Dealing with disappointment

2009-01-24T11:18:00.003+11:00

I've recently had to deal with some personal disappointment. I won't go into the specific details of what occurred, lets just say it was something I was really looking forward to and then didn't work out. I know some of my readers will know exactly what I'm referring to.

I just wanna reflect upon how I like to deal with disappointment and vent a little on my blog.

I always want to try and be a good sport whenever something bad happens to me. I very much want to embody the line from my favourite poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling;

"...And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;..."

[click the link to the poem above, I love it]

I just find it hard not to talk about the situation without sounding like I'm complaining/whining about it. I'm disappointed and I want to vent my frustration, but don't want to annoy or burden people. I know I can talk to my friends, especially ones that are involved in said situation.

I'm faced with a tough situation where I have to motivate myself to fight my primary urge to just give up and become apathetic, I have to face my disappointment and double my efforts. Something which I'm struggling to come to terms with.

I'm not someone that gives up, I'm way too stubborn for that.

I'm just gonna make them regret their poor decision.

Additional Note: Sorry for not posting more
I'm without net until 4th Feb (in theory). I have been without net access at home for 2 months now. I will blog more when I have the chance. I'm not able to do it at work.

Imagechan, pt. 9

2009-01-15T09:06:00.000+11:00

First Mobile Blog Entry: My iPhone

2009-01-13T10:18:00.007+11:00

Hello everyone. I'm writing this post from my iPhone whilst catching the train into work. Yes I finally got an iPhone. I'm totally stoked about it. I'll have to create a new tag for my Mobile Post's.

I have a crazy 5gb data plan so I have to use it on the net as much as possible. I've already become an über mobile facebooker (though I can think of a few features they could add). Other things I've been impressed about with the iphone are:

being able to navigate myself to a mates house via GPS and Google Maps.
being able to transfer money from my bank acounts instantly.
being able to quickly google phone numbers when I'm out.
being able to write this blog post reasonably quickly.

There are some things I dont like about it. But the benefits greatly outweigh the negatives. I'll write another blog post about that later. I'm just gonna enjoy the view as I cross the Sydney harbour bridge.

Imagechan, pt. 8

2009-01-13T09:01:00.001+11:00

Imagechan, pt. 7

2009-01-11T09:56:00.001+11:00

Imagechan, pt. 6

2009-01-09T09:49:00.000+11:00

I want an iPhone

2009-01-08T17:08:00.004+11:00

I'm dying here. I want one. I've wanted one since it came out. I told myself I would wait until my contract ends (11th Jan) and hopefully by then they would have released a 32GB version with a better battery.

But you know what, I don't care. It's almost the 11th and I really really want one. My girlfriend went out and got one, this was due to: 50% it being awesome, 50% to bug me.

I have been playing around on hers and setting up stuff. Facebook app looks awesome (granted I'm not a fan of the inability to view events, but that can be fixed by accessing it via the browser, but still... come on facebook developers.

I'm also totally stoked that there are a tonne of Google app's available, including:

gMail
google calander (my brain for all intensive purposes)
google reader (my entertainment)
Blogger.

I'm going to switch over to Virgin and go for the top of the line 5GB plan. That will keep me occupied.

For a little bit of humour, here is a video clip from the Onion:

"Apple Introduces revolutionary new laptop without a keyboard"

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Movie Reviews: The Day The Earth Stood Still, Yes Man and No Country For Old Men

2009-01-05T17:32:00.004+11:00

Here is my thoughts on the following movies

The Day The Earth Stood Still

3 Stars: I would say this is a fair sci fi remake of the original. The movie itself isn't that bad, its the most decent sci fi out at the moment. Effects are good, Keanu Reeves is an emotionless alien, which he pulls off. Hurray for John Cleese being in it!

The thing I didn't like about this movie was the abrupt ending and the ominious "cost" that humans have to pay, which is never explained. It just goes to credits.

Trailer for "The Day The Earth Stood Still"

Yes Man

4 1/2 Stars: Jim Carrey is back in his comedic form with this movie. This movie is good and will have you laughing, if the above pictured scene involving Red Bull doesn't get you laughing then you've got problems.

Go see this if your wanting to see a comedy.

Trailer for "Yes Man"

No Country For Old Men

3 1/2 Stars: Meh. I've heard good things about this film, and have been meaning to watch it for a while. While I like the concept, and the old west intro by Tommy Lee Jones, I found he had a really minor role in the entire movie, and that the whole thing was ultimately a big let down.

The killer in this movie is awesome, very believable and perhaps the strongest character in the film.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Sure I can get the whole, the hero gets killed tact, but really I finished watching this movie and felt like it never concluded itself. The Killer just gets away. wtf.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T11:16:00.005+11:00

Happy New Years everyone!!!

The fireworks in Sydney on NYE, celebrating the start of 2009.

Why has is taken me so long to wish you all a Happy New Year?

I don't have the net at home, so my blogging is impaired.
I had way too good a time on NYE and have only now recovered.

New Years Resolutions:

Keep in touch with my friends, make efforts to catch up with people.
Save some $$$
Loose some weight.
Learn and apply the word "moderation" (thanks totally to NYE)

Personal Highlights of 2008:

Going to the Gold Coast in Feb, swimming with the dolphins, patting a tiger!
Starting this blog (first post - Feb 18th)
Starting to use Gmail & Google Calender!
Taking my girlfriend to Fiji for our 3 year anniversary and her birthday in March
Moving out of home to a cool apartment
Going to New Zealand in August with my work mates and learning to snowboard.
Fostering new and awesome friendships!
Learning to appreciate wine and a new found taste in expensive Waygu steaks.
Getting a kick ass laptop.
Actually having people read my blog!
Obama getting elected
Going to my first concert and first festival.
Using StumbleUpon
Discovering Sequential Art Webcomic
Discovering imagechan
NYE 2008>2009

Lowpoints of 2008:

Not getting into med and why
The infamous Boba Fett Blaster Saga
Going on a "break" with my girlfriend in November/December
Having to move out of the cool apartment and into my grandfathers.
George Carlin died. RIP you awesome dude.
My sister breaking her foot.
Injuring my ankle at my work Xmas party.
NYE 2008>2009 (lol, yea)

Blog Highlights of 2008:

So whats happening in 2009?

Retrying GAMSAT and going to reattempt to get into med.
Hopefully a promotion at work :)
Loosing some weight
Saving some money

Xmas reflection

2008-12-30T09:36:00.000+11:00

I’ve always been a fan of Christmas. The songs, the presents, the massive feasts. Every year that goes by however I feel that I’m getting less and less into it. When I was a kid I couldn’t sleep the night before Xmas. Now I glance at my watch when I’m up late and night and remember that Hey the 25^th is xmas....wow. Our family tradition of Christmas when I was young was that no one could open presents unless everyone was up and there for it. Getting up at 5am meant that I had a long time before everyone arose at about 8am.

I was lucky in that my mum at least conceded that we could open our stocking presents to tide us over until the main present unwrapping begun. Mostly it was little cool things that could fit into a stocking. One of the more common recurring presents were those gold coins made out of chocolate. I’m not sure, but there is something about those coins that totally kicks ass.

But I digress, I’ve found that now I have grown up, and my family has split that xmas has changed. Change is inevitable, I’m smart enough to know that, but I miss the excitement that xmas once held for me.

Now xmas has become a strange festive event, where I find that selecting gifts is the

I love giving gifts more than receiving them.

I don’t know why exactly, but I love thinking up cool gifts to give someone. I love getting something personal or practical that I know that person wants or shows I know them really well. I like giving a gift that shows reflection, and a true insight into the person. I actually get distraught when I can’t think of anything good to give someone.

I like to think that there is some form of karma involved in the world. If you are good to people, good things will come your way. Perhaps that’s why I like to give thoughtful gifts, in hope that people will appreciate it, and then return the favour.

I did pretty well this year. I chipped in with my Sister to buy my Dad tickets to the Top Gear Live in Australia show, which he will love to death since both he and my sister love Top Gear with a passion. I really like the show, but don’t watch it regularly (note, I have all seasons of it ready to watch). I managed to get my Mum and awesome present

My Mum’s Present

Typically buying gifts for my mum is the hardest thing I have to do each year. I seriously have problems with picking something that I know she’ll love, even though I suspect that anything I get her will be fine. I bounced a few ideas off my female friends and was fortunate enough to score gold with one of them. I eventually settled on getting my Mum tickets to see Eric Clapton perform live in March. Yeah, totally awesome kickass present. She loves going to concerts and I’ve been meaning to buy her one ridiculously expensive present since starting to work full time. I got my dad a sony a100 DSLR the first year of my employment, and I have neglected to get her anything along those lines.

So I bought two tickets, thinking that she could pick to either take her boyfriend or me. I pitched the idea to her, and she said that she would actually rather go with me, so I said we could have dinner beforehand and have a good night together.

Other presents

I got my sister the USB thingo for wireless internet with BigPond’s Next G network. Now typically I HATE big ISPs, there is no way you could pay me to sign up for their rip off internet/mobile phone plans. But the problem is that my sister is living in an area which is kinda remote and is only serviced by the Next G network, so we were kinda forced to do it. That and I’m not setting up a dedicated internet for her to use, especially since I haven’t even got the net at my place yet. My dad will pay the monthly internet cost, but I paid for the big onetime payment for the pack.

I got my girlfriend some nice stuff. We decided that we were going to spend $100-150 on each other and buy a few smaller things that we would like, hinting at stuff we wanted but also saying there should be some stuff that’s a surprise too. I got her the second Twilight book , some nice tea’s from the T2 store and my surprise gift (which isn’t all that great) a pair of black Haviana thongs with diamontes on them. Hey I figured that all girls like shiny things (see Barney’s list of 24 things women and fish have in common). Actually a co-worker was talking about her ones and I thought that she would love them.

I also got some presents for my friends this year, which is something I haven’t really done before but I knew I should do it since they’ve been really great to me over the last couple of months. We all went to the Hunter valley for a day trip (where I confirmed my new found appreciation of wine) and I introduced them to the best cheese ever.

Now I throw around terms like this a lot, but seriously, no one that’s tried this cheese hasn’t loved it. It’s from the Hunter Valley Cheese Co. And its called the Fromage Blanc. Its a soft cheese, almost like feta/goats cheese etc, in oil with some semi dried tomatoes, and it’s insanely awesome. My sister signed up for their “addict’s club” and ordered in 3 containers of the cheese for the 3 people that came with me on that Hunter Valley day trip (Sharon and Smeet are considered a single entity in my mind).

My busy Xmas - Part 1: Christmas Eve Slovakian Dinner

My xmas adventure actually begins on Christmas Eve (the 24^th, and my Sister’s birthday). Since my Sister and Father were in Fiji for xmas, her birthday wasn’t really important this year. I was working until 7:30pm and then went to my mum’s for a Christmas-y dinner. Her boyfriend is from Slovakia and was making a Slovakian dinner for us. We began by having crackers with honey on them. The way he mentioned the crackers being the body of Christ or something made me think of that Catholic ritual in church (insert correct religious term here lol, sacrament?). Then I did something utterly stupid in the name of being a good guest, I ate a clove of raw garlic.

Why would someone eat a clove of raw garlic? It was supposedly some way of ensuring good luck for the rest of the year or something. Now I’m not sure about it giving me good luck or whatever it was suppose to be, but it did taste like burning. Raw garlic is painful. This is the first and last time I will ever do that.

Personal Motto: “Try everything once.”

Anyway, the Slovakian Soup that we had was awesome. It could only be best described as a rich flavourful meat minestrone soup, where there were no vegetables besides potatoe, only meats. With a nice dollop of sour cream, the soup was great. Filling.

Then moved onto massive Chicken Snitzels, which I couldn’t finish, and then pie. It is sad that the Australia culture hasn’t adopted the awesomeness of the pie. I am very glad that ribs have come into their element, being served at more and more steakhouses with greater and greater quality. But pie is also a great dessert. Perhaps the Australian mindset is too ingrained with the English associations of savoury pies, meat pie, sheperd’s pie etc. Hopefully pies will take off here soon, probably in 5-10 years.

My busy Xmas - Part 2: Christmas Day

My xmas day was busy. I woke up, got dressed into nice clothes and rushed over to have xmas breakfast with my mum. Traditionally we always have Betty Crocker muffins for breakfast on xmas morning. I love blueberry muffins, infact I think I’ve had them on xmas morning every year, except for this year. This year mum only got the apple or cinnamon crumble muffins. So she made the apple at my request, but put the crumble topping of the other one on top to invent a new apple crumble muffin, was pretty good. But considering I was going to spend my day eating I paced myself.

I opened my presents at mums, a few small things, and then went back to goto fancy xmas lunch with my Grandfather, Aunt and Uncle. We went to our traditional country club lunch and had the best buffet lunch ever. I love food at the golf club, but this buffet was awesome. I started off with: Prawns, avocado, asparagus, and a fresh dinner roll with butter. Then went and had the juiciest roast turkey ever, roast ham, veggies gravy, cranberry sauce and a small mountain of green beans. The green beans were served to me by one of the staff members, and she decided I needed half a plate of them, hence why I didn’t finish them.

I then glanced at my watch, saw I needed to leave and quickly went and got some profiteroles from the dessert table. I love profiteroles, and these ones are the best ones I’ve had anywhere. These ones were so good, I actually ordered their chef to make me a massive crochenbush for my 21^st Birthday cake. Yeah!

Then I drove straight to work and worked from 3:30pm to midnight. I brought in my massive half a leg of ham and joined in on the work feast. Everyone was suppose to bring in one thing each, and my mum organised to give me the ham.

Work was great because everyone was in a happy and festive mood, and there wasn’t really much work to do because it was technically xmas eve in the states, so bonus! I did eventually get hungry and bored at 11pm that night, so I went and cut up a plate of ham and ate that. The breath freshening power of ham!

And that is my xmas story for 2008.

My GAMSAT Experience(s)

2008-12-29T11:21:00.005+11:00

Ok I’ve been told that my posts on Medicine and trying to get into/do medicine have been helpful to a few people. I’ve been requested to do a post on the GAMSAT, and since I’ve done it twice, and stoked anyone reads my blog in the first place, I’ll be happy to oblige them. So this is a post for Sharon, Kim's sister and maybe Ed.

Preparation for the GAMSAT

Ok it is tough to recommend what to do to prepare for the GAMSAT. I would highly suggest studying up on biology/chemistry/physics. Jump down to my section “My First GAMSAT Experience” to see why not studying science is dumb. The hardest part to prepare for is the first and second sections. It is hard to study English and improve your comprehension of texts etc. I’ll suggest some things that might help below.

Preparation courses for GAMSAT

There are numerous preparation courses available for the GAMSAT, and even though they are expensive, I would suggest doing one. I would immediately warn you that you are going to be cramming heaps of stuff in, and bored by the massive amounts of content you cover in such a small space of time. I did a prep course called MedPrep, and they flew through everything in 6-10 days at 10 hours a day. You actually feel exhausted once you finish.

Brief overview of the GAMSAT

Ok the GAMSAT exam itself is an 8 hour exam with 3 sections and a 1 hour lunch break. There are 3 main sections: English humanities/reasoning, Essays and Science. I’ll go through all of those in more detail below. Basically you are in a massive exam hall, surrounded by a sea of people that are all wanting to become doctors. It’s a little overwhelming to see 1,200+ people all sitting at desks doing the same exam as you.

GAMSAT Breakdown - Section 1: English Humanities/Reasoning

This is a MCQ section, which is good and bad. Good in that the answer you need is in front of you as one of the options, bad in that it is difficult to pick the right answer. Strong vocabulary and English skills will help in this section, along with fast reading and comprehension. Basically you get given passages to read, comics, etc and have to answer MCQs based on your comprehension and understanding of the given texts. Basically you are working against the clock in MCQ questions, so I tend to skip questions I don’t know the answer to immediately, or mark a hunch and come back to it so I can get through it all without running out of time. The only problem with this is when you go back over it and see how many questions you struggled with.

GAMSAT Breakdown - Section 2: Essays

Ah the most dreaded and feared section of the GAMSAT in my opinion. Writing 2 essays within a tight time constraint. The key to doing this is making sure you know exactly how long you have to write each essay and making sure you can hammer out a essay plan quickly without wasting too much time. I learnt most of my tricks with the essay section from the MedPrep people, and I have no qualms about sharing them with you here. Basically you get given a personal/human experience quote and a political/abstractish quote. The first one, the personal/human experience one is generally the easier essay. It is designed to be on topics that everyone can have an opinion on. I think one of my essay questions on this was about Mother’s having their children grow up and the issues involved with that. So basically something everyone should be able to relate too.

The second essay, the political/abstract one is harder in that it is generally on a tougher topic in my opinion. I can’t remember exactly what the quote was, but it was something like;

“One cannot look at the past without missing the present”

How to write the essays. Now this is based on the MedPrep guy’s idea, and I think it works pretty well. The idea with the essays is to produce a quality response/argument over quantity. You don’t need to be writing pages and pages of gibberish if you can condense it into a page and a half. You are given a quote, you then have to identify the theme(s) involved in the quote, what the topic is. Then you have to construct a pro and con version to the theme, and then in conclusion sum up your thought on it. I’ve done this every time, and I’ve never failed the essay section :D

I would highly recommend reading “The meaning of things” by A.C. Grayling. It is an awesome book that goes through lots of good topics like: Love, War, Hatred etc all in miniature essays in about 3-5 paragraphs, and is a really good example of good writing.

GAMSAT Breakdown - Section 3: Science

Science, the decider. The science section is weighted twice of the other sections, so either you sink or swim with the science. The questions in this section aren’t based on knowing the facts of science (eg, there isn’t going to be a question that says; “the correct definition of Boyle’s Law is: a/b/c/d”) but rather it is about seeing how well you can solve a science problem. The biology questions are the easiest in my opinion, though genetic questions can be annoyingly complicated to solve.

The chemistry and physics is the tough part, well at least for me. Asking you to solve the half life of a theoretical substance, or the k constant of an reaction is really tough when your under the clock. I tend to smash the biology questions and easy ones as fast as I can and struggle with the rest of them until my time runs out.

The biggest enemy in the GAMSAT is time, you will run out of time if you stop and stress about a particular question.

My First GAMSAT Experience

I made the big mistake in my first GAMSAT of not studying science. I was just finished my undergraduate degree in Medical Science, so I was cocky that I knew everything and didn’t need to study that. Plus that coupled with the fact I did the MedPrep GAMSAT preparation course, I felt like I had science covered. I was wrong. I actually did pretty well; section 1 = 58, section 2 = 60 and section 3 = 48. Yeah, I got 48 in Science. Failing by 2 marks meant that no where would accept my application and I wouldn’t get interview anywhere. So lame. I decided I’d take another shot, I was so close!!!

My Second GAMSAT Experience

Ok, I studied science this time. Probably not as much as I should have, but still I studied. I got solid marks in all of the sections and was lucky enough to get an Interview with Notre Dame, which was ultimately unsuccessful due to a poor interview, but I was really really close to getting into medicine.

My Tips for doing the GAMSAT

Study Science (especially basics in chemistry and physics)
Read A.C Grayling’s “The Meaning of Things”
Don’t second guess your MCQ answers, unless you are positive its wrong.
Do a preparation course at least once.
Do your MCQ questions as fast as you can, time is against you in a big way!
Don't stop and work out tough questions, leave them and come back to them!
Practise writing essays, get friends/parents to read and criticise you.

I hope you’ve found this helpful in some small way. Please comment if you liked it, have thoughts etc. And I’ll be there doing the GAMSAT again this year in a vain attempt to boost my GAMSAT marks a little higher.

Ball of Confusion

2008-12-27T15:00:00.005+11:00

Well I enjoyed writing my last long ranting post ("Remember, Remember, november")

and it looked like some people enjoyed it, so here's my next one.

Life remixed
My life currently under a little bit of turmoil. I'm on a break with my girlfriend of 4 years and I'm moving out of our kick-ass apartment into my grandfathers house. My grandfather is 93 and still amazingly with it mentally, a little bit physically weak from a couple of strokes (leaving him with 18% heart function). I'm moving into a little shoe box room, but I'm sticking my massive 42' Sony Bravia to the end of my bed, which hooked up with my 360 will be ultimate entertainment. The problem is that I probably won't be able to have anyone over, which I've kinda enjoyed inviting my friends over, having tv/movie nights, druken mario kart tournaments etc.

Merry Xmas!
I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. I know I'm a little late, but I don't have the net at my granddad's place and its killing me.

Super Supervisor
I've applied for a supervisor position at my work. It's not the first time I've taken up a leadership position, I was previously the captain of a surf club. I'm pretty good with people, and know lots about our work. I decided since I'm going to be there another year anyway, may as well take on some more responsibility. My cover letter for the job was outstanding. So fingers crossed.

I really really really want this.

imagechan
I came across imagechan.com and have become completely addicted.

I have created an imagechan topic filled with all the best/funniest stuff I find. I have saved a heap of good ones, and plan to host them on here when I can be bothered. I'm going to slowly go through all the images, there are over 5,000 images that are mostly hilarious.

The only thing is that of all the images; 20% aren't safe for work, of that, half are outright porn, and then there are some particullarly tasteless ones too.

Technoman - "The things you own, end up owning you"
While Fight Club is one of my favourite movies of all time, I am a super consumer. I tend to have some ridiculous amount of electronic gadgetry on me at any one time.

I walk from work to the train, ipod blaring whatever song choice I deem necessary (as of today my favourite has been Snow Patrol's "Disaster Button" (Youtube link below for your listening pleasure). I then get on the train, whip out my sexy new Sony Vaio laptop and proceed to watch whatever TV show I haven't seen yet. When I approach my stop, close the laptop, and take the headphones that haven't left my ears the entire time, and back into the ipod for walking. I also have my phone on me, which I tend to check every once and a while. Do I need to watch my TV shows for the 15 minute trip, not really. But when I move my commute will be longer, and thus it might actually be worth it.

"Disaster Button" by Snow Patrol

iPhone
I want an iPhone. I have been interested in getting one ever since they have been released. My contract doesn't end until some time in Jan 2009, but I'm wanting one!!!

I'm gonna wait till the end of Jan and see if there are any new iPhones being released/mentioned in the last MacWorld. I've heard rumours that they are going to go iPhone Nano, but I would much rather a bigger 32GB model with a bigger battery!!!!

Call of Duty 5: World At War
I'm totally addicted to this game. I was addicted to CoD3, CoD4 and now CoD5. It's not so much the game itself but playing it online that is the challenge. You play against people that are good at the game, have strategies and methods of play that are unexpected and fun, and you have a reward system for playing more and more.

I was actually doing the beta testing for this game (ie, I was invited to the private beta testing before it went public) and I raced out and got the collectors edition on the day it came out. Why? because unlike most "collector's editions", which don't really offer you much besides some crappy souvenir of the game, this one actually came with a lot of added bonuses. Bonuses include:
- Unlock a level 45 machine gun (awesome weapon)
- A week of Double XP (that means you level up much much quicker)
- Special gold name (meh)

This week is the double XP that I have been waiting for. In two days I've gone from being level 36 to level 46. The aim... to reach level 65 and unlock the uber weapon, the flamethrower.

Wiitarded
As you can tell from above I'm a video game fan. I own a 360, have it setup to play online etc. I also buckled a while ago and bought a Wii. When they released the latest version of Mario Kart (Mario Kart Wii) I had to have it and play it. Good little consumer.

But that isn't the cool thing, I had a bunch of friends over the other night and we all had a drunken mario kart tournament.

Of course since I've been playing it the most I know all the tracks back to front, know some tips and tricks that noone else would, and hence tended to be in 1st or 2nd at least. But the good thing about the game is that it has a major element of randomness that helps newer players, and infuriates us more experienced ones. Nothing like having 2 blue shells hit you, then be pummeled by everyone elses weapons because they've finally caught you. Or having your sweet victory stolen from you in the final seconds.

Horrible spelling
Just writing this post I've never noticed how appalling my spelling is. Thank god for firefox and it's inbuilt spell checker!!!

Remember, friends don't let friends use IE.

Would you like some cheese with you whine? (aka, my new appreciation of wine)
I never drank wine before. My good friends have enlightened me to the joy of wine. Actually it didn't really take a lot of convincing, just a really good Wagyu steak and a red to accompany it and I was set. We also went on a day tour of the Hunter Valley and did a lot of wine tasting. I had been to the Hunter before, but this time was better because I was with people learning about wine for the first time like me, we were all having fun, and no one cared about how much we drank.

Festival!
Not only have I acquired a taste for wine and expensive steaks, but also going to live music. I went to my first real concert a few months ago. Dragonforce. Nothing like a bit of heavy metal to ease your way into the music scene. Some of my school mates convinced me to come allow with them to the festivals coming up this summer. I normally don't bother with them, as I'm usually working or it's my birthday. But I'm going to my first festival, Nevereverland. Headlined by The Presets.

[after going] It was great, had lots of fun. I can see the appeal of festivals, but I think you'd have to pick good ones to goto and have a good group of friends with you.

It was insane to see the entire Horden pavilion filled and everyone jumping and going nuts to "My People".

Heres a YouTube Clip I found:

Twitter
I'm curious to work out how to use twitter. The problem I'm finding is that I don't know anyone that actually uses it. So i've started randomly searching for topics I like and commenting (replying) to their tweets. I hope this is how people meet like minded people on twitter, either that or I'm that weird random person. Oh well.

Internet, ISPs and pain
All three of these are related. I'm trying to move my internet to my new location, and it should be as simple as changing the phone number the ISP has down for my account. No. It's never simple, It's never easy, It's never quick. The new location (my grandpa's) has ADSL codes locking the phone number from other ISPs. No it doesn't, my grandpa can barely use a computer, has never been on the internet, never had dial up and most certainly hasn't set up broadband on his phoneline. I tell them it must be a mistake, but no this is what their system says. I confirm with everyone that there isn't a number, but a fax line on the phone number.

Why is dealing with ISPs, in particularly iinet, so painful?? I appreciate their stance, but if they did the a good job of looking after their customers, like not making us do the leg work with regards to investigating technical abnormalities or sticking us on hold for over 10 minutes, maybe we'd be more grateful.

I'm seriously considering just giving up on it altogether and just going low maintainence (unwired or something) until I can set up the net how I want to.

Feedback on Medicine application
I went and had a meeting with Notre Dame the other day. It was particullarly good of them to provide me with this level of personalised feedback for an unsuccessful application. I can't think of any other university that would bother with feedback, let alone speak one-on-one with a applicant.

BLOG POST: Why I didn't get into medicine.

(for context see: Interview, and subsequent failure to get in)

I've actually had some people read up on my medicine related posts and found them helpful. So I'm planning on doing one on my experiences of the GAMSAT exam.

Awesome new iTunes feature!!!
Omg ever since I've had an iPod and iTunes I've wanted one feature;

The ability to delete a song from iTunes and have it delete the .mp3 file also!

While this seems like a nobrainer, it has taken apple THIS LONG to incorporate this feature.

Assuming you have the latest version of iTunes, and your in your main library section (not a playlist) you just hit delete, confirm you actually want to remove the file (if you haven't already disabled that) and a new option appears

SEND FILE TO RECYCLE BIN!

Fuck, YES!

Why is it important? Because I have a very particular system with keeping my iPod organised with music I enjoy listening to. I upload new songs and then listen to them when I have a chance, and if I don't like it, it gets a blank rating and then gets deleted.

Actually, I've decided that a rating of 1 star is the new to-be-deleted rating. Because anything I upload and haven't listened to will be blank.

Whatever, I like to hit Shuffle Songs and hear songs I want to hear!

rant rant rant rant
Ok, I'll stop now... mainly because this massively long rant has now spanded the majority of Decemeber without me actually posting it.

Happy New Year!
Happy new year, my new years resolution for 2009:

"To keep in touch with my friends better, make the effort to see them, know what they are doing etc".

.

Demetri Martin - "The Jokes With Guitar"

2008-12-23T13:44:00.001+11:00

One of my all time favourite YouTube clips.

If you want to check my other favourites, check out

Insanity540's Fav. YouTube Channel.

Demetri Martin - "The Jokes With Guitar"

Luli's Survey

2008-12-22T09:47:00.000+11:00

A response to Luli's post "More Meme Madness"

1) Five names you go by

Insanity540

Ben

Benjamin

Kegs

Goony

2) Three things you are wearing right now.

Pale Pink Polo Shirt

New mambo shorts

My fav. Oakleys

3) Two things you want very badly at the moment.

Money (for savings/spending/presents/partying)

Internet

4) Three people who I’d like to see fill this out.

Kim, Wongy, Gus. + anyone that read's my blog

5) Two things you did last night.

Ate a massive chinese meal and then backed it up with Max Brennar chocolate. Was about to vomit afterwards. Lesson learnt: only order 1 chocolate thing from them, and then get a big glass of MILK!

Some xmas shopping.

Attended a co-workers farewell drinks, and gave him the beer that "finished him".

6) Two things you ate today.

Chicken & Mushroom Pie

Fantastic Xtra Saucy instant noodles (both were unsatistfying)

7) Two people you last talked to on the phone.

Sharon - to suss out if I could have dumplings for dinner at work tonight.

Mum - to take the spare TV she had.

8) Two things you are going to do today.

Be online - check facebook, do some blog posts, read my google reader content etc.

Watch Boston Legal - Bossa reckons its a good show. It better be for 5GB!

Finish moving - got everything finally finished.

9) Two longest car rides.

Syd > Vic - 16 hour return drive to pick up a mate from uni down there. Never again.

Syd > QLD - just big.

Sydney in peak hour traffic.... so long and slow.

10) Two of your favourite drinks.

Mocha/Chocolate in any combination, hot, iced, you name it I'll drink it.

Canadian Club and Coke

11) And bold the ones you’ve done.

I have….

1. Started my own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band (I'm counting Guitar Hero: world tour band mode)

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than I can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world (both LA and Japan, Japan was smaller and more efficient)

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sung a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched lightning at sea

14. Taught myself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown my own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Skied a marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise

31. Hit a home run (Wiisports, woo!)

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught myself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had my portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (and wrote my name on it.. I’m bad!)

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud (if by played you mean fallen over in it, in front of the whole school, then yes.)

54. Gone to a drive-in theatre

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp

67. Bounced a cheque

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favourite childhood toy (I’m a hoarder)

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone (so many; elbow, hand, collarbone)

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had my picture in the paper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chicken pox

89. Saved someone’s life (I'm a lifesaver :D )

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous (seen a few people, ran into Shannon from The Biggest Loser at my gym)

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Ridden an elephant

Tis the season

2008-12-21T09:35:00.000+11:00

A blog post reply to Luli's "All I want for xmas..." post where I was specifically requested to reply.

I recommend anyone that reads this write their list in a comment, you never know if I have you for secret santa or not!

Even though I don't particullarly want or need anything this xmas, I have made this list for your entertainment/reply.

My Xmas Wishlist

In no particular order...

The Dark Knight DVD (Joker Cover)

Another 1TG Mybook Harddrive ($239 @ JB)
for my endless collection.

WD TV Converter ($199)

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Game for Xbox 360 (~$99)

Family Guy Season 7 DVD

New Futurama "Movies"

"Merlin Trilogy" Book by Mary Stewart

"Gallipoli Sniper" Book by John Hamilton

"The Western Front" Book by Johnathan King

"The Last Watch" book by Sergi Lukyanenko

New Tag Link Calibre S watch (retailing at $3,600)

Metal Bender action figure (so cool!)

Beer Hat/Beer Bong

Very Cool Joker Dark Knight Poster stretched onto canvas.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2008-12-20T09:39:00.000+11:00

I just shat myself.

GAMBIT!!!!!!!!!! FUCK YES!!!!!!

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

Moving

2008-12-19T18:10:00.002+11:00

Well I'm moving again, and hence, no internet access at home.

So my posts will be somewhat hindered until my ISP installs a phone line and my top-of-the-line naked ADSL. I have no illusions though, its xmas and NYE.

Able to blog from work, but technically I'm suppose to be working... we'll see how it goes.

Finally all moved, took 3 days to do.

Imagechan, pt. 5

2008-12-19T09:15:00.000+11:00

Imagechan, pt. 4

2008-12-17T09:12:00.000+11:00

Imagechan, pt. 3

2008-12-15T09:09:00.000+11:00

How To: Move your iTunes library from your old computer to your new one

2008-12-14T09:41:00.000+11:00

Ok, moving your itunes from one computer to another without losing your ratings, play count, playlists etc is really really easy. All you require is;
- a external harddrive/USB that can transfer your music from one to the other
- a little bit of know how.

The quick version:

1) Copy all your music from one computer to the other INTO THE EXACT SAME FOLDER(s)!

2) Copy the iTunes folder from your "My Documents/Music/" folder (or equivilant) onto the new computer (replacing it).

3) Enjoy.

The detailed explanation if you got confused by the above:

1) copy all your music in the exactly same folder as you had it on your old computer.
I have all my music in C:\music, and it has many sub folders because thats how I add lots of songs at once, so copy the entire contents of C:\Music onto your storage device so that it looks exactly the same. Then you create the exact same folder on the new computer. What this does is trick itunes into thinking nothing has changed.

ie if you have a song located at C:\Music\Matchbox 20 Songs\Matchbox 20 - Bent.mp3
you make sure you have the "Matchbox 20 - Bent.mp3" file in the
C:\Music\Matchbox 20 Songs\ folder on the new computer.

Seriously it was as easy as dragging and dropping C:\music onto a harddrive.

2) Copy the iTunes library files

By default, iTunes saves all of its files in C:\[USER NAME/COMPUTER NAME]\My Documents\Music\iTunes

Copy that entire file. It has all your ratings, play counts, and any music your copied off CDs via iTunes.

3) Install iTunes onto the new computer

Install and then locate the new iTunes system folder (usually the same as above). Just remember it will always be in the main My Documents\Music folder.

Then delete all of the iTunes folder and replace it with the old one.

Then load iTunes and DONE.

Enjoy.

If all of your songs come up as "cannot locate" error, make sure you have put the files into exactly the same location as they were on the old computer.

I was freaking out because I thought I'd have to manually go through all of my songs, when I realised that I didn't have my old songs in:

c:\music\

but actually:

c:\music\music\

*phew*

Comment if you liked this!!!

Imagechan, pt. 2

2008-12-13T09:05:00.000+11:00

more imagechan.com goodness...

...this will be a reoccuring post for this month....

Imagechan, pt. 1

2008-12-11T18:51:00.003+11:00

Discovered the joy of imagechan.com

Has been keeping me entertained at work when it gets quiet.

Some images on their website are NSFW, and some of my selections are horrible lol.

To Alcohol

2008-12-11T17:02:00.003+11:00

"To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems"

I've been hitting the sauce as of late. Occasions seem to be occurring a little to frequently for my bank account to cope with. I should probably be a little less social.

Tuesday Night Drinks

A new tradition of the boys is to go out and have tuesday night drinks. We went to Kingsley's and had an awesome Wagyu steak and their good house red. Incidentally, the exact same place/meal that resulted in my new found appreciation of wine (that and a fun trip to the Hunter Valley).

After doing our little pub crawl around Sydney CBD, stopping at one place for Jager Nukes (see below), we generally end up at a cheap little pub and spend the rest of the night talking crap and drinking until 2-3am.

Jager Nukes

This evil little creation was shown to me by Francesca. Basically you take a standard Jager Bomb, but add a shot of vodka for good measure. These definitely make for a fun drinking night.

Wednesday Night Centurion

One of my coworkers was successful in getting into medicine and we had his farewell last night. Yes back to back with my Tuesday night drinking. We all headed to the Australian to do the Centurion - drink all 100 of their different beers. You can do this as an individual, or as a group, in one night, or however long you want.

Our company record is 90 minutes, but that can beaten I reckon. In hindsight it's a pretty clever gimmick for the Australian to pull, 100 beers at $7-10 a bottle = $700-1,000 spent.

So we get there, drink and knock off 87 of the 100 before they cut us off for:
1) being too roudy/loud (official excuse)
2) It's 11:45pm and they want to close at midnight.
3) The bartender is a complete bitch. Seriously, every time we went to order one of the beers, she'd give us the worst look, then go find it, then struggle to mark it off the passport and basically had the shits. You shouldn't be a bartender if you don't enjoy your job, and don't work somewhere that has a gimmick like that if your a twat.

Ending up at Jackson's.

"All road's lead to ~~rome~~ Jackson's"

Yep, seems to be a common occurrence. No matter the best laid plans, we all end up at Jackson's. The fact that most places around the Rocks close around midnight, mean that Jackson's is usually the last refuge for those wanting to push on.

Music, drinking, dancing, singing. It all happened. I was a one man band.

The bartender at Jackson's was awesome. She made us do shots without using our hands, and while getting the shot into your mouth isn't hard, its the fact you've holding onto a shotglass with your lips while trying to concentrate on swallowing that's tricky. I ended up coughing while swallowing, shooting a small amount of shot up the back of my throat and coming out my nose. Total class.

Drunken Macca's Pitstop

Nothing seems to be more appealing than Macca's after you have finished drinking and wandering around the city. You walk in, select whatever you like and feast upon your deliciously unhealthy meal with all the colourful characters you meet at 2-4am.

This is a habit I need to stay away from, as Macca's is my enemy and I never like the fact I ended up having it when I wake up later that day. It's counterproductive to my weight loss "attempt".

When I left macca's it was 4am.

Go to work.

"...that means I've only got a few more hours then I've got to get up and gotta go to work...gotta go to work...go to work" - Homer Simpson

Set 3 alarms to remind me I have to get up and be at work by 11am. Did not enjoy it with 4-5 hours sleep under my belt. It also didn't help that I had to have a cold shower because our building is experiencing hot water problems. Walked to work with my ipod blaring and sunnies glued to my face. I smiled as Slipknot's "Wait and Bleed" came up whilst it was on shuffle. Was definitely suiting my mood that I had to goto work on this cold day with a nice hang over.

Got to work, thought I should eat something, and bought a bacon and scrambled egg sandwich. Bad move, it didn't sit well in my fragile stomach. Haven't eaten anything since all day.

More to come...

And this is only mid-week, I have a massive weekend lined up with Nevereverland (feat. The Presets and Klaxxons) on Saturday, then a friends birthday drinks in the cross on Saturday night. Then somehow getting to the beach on Sunday morning and then working 3:30pm to midnight... yay. I'm going to be so happy and cherpy on Sunday night.

My poor bank account. I've destroyed my last pay check already and pulling money out of my savings to fuel my adventures. I'll have to ease up a bit and put some more money in the savings to replace it. Damn decemeber... so expensive!!!

Why I didn't get into Medicine this year

2008-12-09T15:46:00.009+11:00

I had my feedback meeting with Notre Dame today and found out why I didn't get a spot this year. I completely fucked up the interview!

I was surprised, because I didn't think I did all that bad in the interview.

The interview mark made a significant part of the selection process, and without a moderate-good mark, you would have had to been freaking amazing in one of the other areas to get a place.

My GAMSAT mark was ok (not great)
My GPA was good (hurray for 3rd year being weighted the most!)
My Supplementary Material/Extra curricular stuff was exceptional

They said that my supplementary stuff was really really good, like top 90th percentile of anyone that applied. So all that lifesaving stuff I do definitely paid off. He recommended including an official letter of reference from the surf club, just to complete my application package for next time.

The interview mark was really reallly bad. He said it was like the bottom 10th percentile. Lame! I always thought I come across really well in interviews and this was the part I was least concerned about. Perhaps I got to complacent about it after all.

What I think I did wrong in the Interview

Basically I answered some of the questions badly and didn't explore the hypothetical situation questions properly. I recall getting caught out on the "teamwork" question and on both hypothetical questions the interviewer asked me to further explain issues and had to help me along the right path, which isn't a good sign. I'll have to do some more hypothetical medical problems. It also didn't help that I was nervous and had a uncannily runny nose/head cold that day.

I also think I didn't convey my awesome supplementary side all that well. The interviewers have no idea about who I am, and I'm not a person that tends to brag about their acheivements. I definitely recall feeling like I hadn't expressed all the cool stuff I've done that is relevant to becoming a doctor.

What do I need to improve on?

Basically the interview itself. He said that now I know what the interview is like, I'd be better prepared for it next time. To stay away from paid interview coaching, because they can spot that instantly and its frowned upon. They want to find out about me as a person, not listen to the answers that sound good.

Continue to work, update my CV/personal statement/references etc, keep them all up to date.

Should I resit the GAMSAT?

The academic questioned whether it would be worth resitting the exam again. He said that "most people don't improve their mark significantly", maybe a few extra marks, but nothing drastic. He said that if I could turn my 56 into a 59 then that would be a good improvement, but whether I want to resit the 8 hour exam for 3 marks, or the possibility of doing worse was up to me.

I'm not 100% certain whether resitting the exam will make my current 56 invalid. I would hate to redo the exam and score lower and then find out I fucked it up more. I'll have to look into it and work it out. If it doesn't hurt my chances I think I'll resit it one last time.

So, what am I going to do?

Reapply. I'm kinda happy it was just the interview that screwed me up, I seriously think I can do a good interview. I just need to make sure I can get that interview chance again, shouldn't be too hard since they already selected me. (FYI, they received 800 applicants, and culled it down to 140, so getting selected for an interview is an awesome achievement in itself)

I'm going to investigate whether resitting the GAMSAT is worth doing. I'm leaning towards resitting it, but will have to decide that later.

Do some mock interviews with some people, see if they can help me work out where my problems are.

I'm continuing to work, and have applied for a supervisor position which just adds to my CV and qualifications.

Was my age an issue at all?

He shook his head and said, "why? how old are you." and then was surprised that I was only 22 and said "shit yeah you are young aren't you", he said that didn't really matter, that all it means is that I can keep applying without stressing as much as other people.

So basically yes, I'm gonna reapply and try again.

PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS POST,
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK !

"...in success keep us humble and in defeat gracious. Always prepared to give of our best"

The above was something that was going through my mind before the meeting. It's part of my high school house prayer. Basically a very good adaption of the "peace prayer". I'm not a religious person, but I appreciate good quotes, good idea and wisdom. Its resonates pretty deeply within me, hope you like it too.

Heres the whole thing:

"Thank you for the self sacrificial example of your son Jesus;
may we be willing to serve and help each other in the same way and in so doing, grow in maturity and strength.

In success keep us humble and in defeat gracious, always prepared to give of our best.

Lord, may we not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love,

for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in forgiving that we are forgiven,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life"

Where's Wally (Waldo)

2008-12-04T08:58:00.000+11:00

Randomly came across 2 "Where's Wally" (Waldo in the USA) on stumbleupon today.

Weird.

and here is some from google images:

RIP Common Sense

2008-12-03T09:57:00.000+11:00

One of my favourite sayings is that:

"Common sense isn't common."

You always come across people lacking common sense.

Here is a great little article I thought I'd share with you.

"Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
He declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student. Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home without the burglar suing you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, spilled a little in her lap and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents Truth and Trust, by his wife Discretion, his daughter Responsibility, and his son Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers: I Know My Rights; I Want It Now; Someone Else Is To Blame; and I'm A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, say a prayer. If not, join the majority and do nothing.
Author unknown."

Spaceballs: Part 2

2008-12-02T09:00:00.001+11:00

As promised, more spaceballs !

Spaceballs: Part 1

2008-12-01T09:00:00.003+11:00

I'm a massive fan of Spaceballs. I have selected some of my favourite scenes. There will be more posts like this under the spaceballs topic.

Please comment if you can think of better sayings etc.

These are original, I made them from screengrabbing the movie and adding lolcat-style text.

I have plenty more where they came from, check out my other spaceballs posts (coming soon)

Streetview Fail

2008-11-30T18:00:00.006+11:00

Below is an example of what happens when the street viewer driver doesn't know whats happening and incorrectly labels a road.

I was trying to show someone where a good chicken shop is in Newport Beach. Its called Chicken Plus! if your interested.

Anyway, you go along Barrenjoey Rd (the main road) and keep clicking, and then BAM! your in the middle of the parking lot behind the main road LOL.

Here are the images:

turns into:

Click this click to try it out for yourself. LOL

(all you do is click the arrow to go forward... massive fail)

Street Fighter 10

2008-11-30T08:57:00.000+11:00

Oh yeah.

Swimming

2008-11-29T17:46:00.002+11:00

I enjoy swimming. Today I was so bored I finally lugged my fat ass down to the pool and swam. I had been meaning to do it for a few weeks now, but ever got around to it.

So I swam for an hour.

Here's how I guessed how much/far I swam:

I was there for 60 min
I swam 1 lap every 25 seconds,
So thats 2 laps a minute (roughly)
2 x 60 = 120 laps.
Its a 25m pool, so 120 x 25 = 3,000m
Hence I swam 3km

Woot.

Now I've just got tom keep it up. Stick with it. Reduce my food (and beer) intake. *sigh*

Fanboys

2008-11-29T09:13:00.002+11:00

As a Star wars fanboy (see numerous Star Wars Posts, or my Saga of the Boba Fett Blaster) I'm keen to see this movie. Forget that its a new Kevin Smith comedy featuring some awesome characters. The plot: 4 star wars fan boys plan to break into George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch.

Check out the trailer here:

Good Advice

2008-11-28T21:59:00.002+11:00

Sage advice found on the internet.

You aren’t going to be his first, last or his only.
He’s loved before, he will again.
But if he loves you now, what else matters?
He’s not perfect. You aren’t either.
The two of you will never be perfect but if he can make you laugh at least once,
causes you to think twice,
and admits to being human and making mistakes,
hold on to him and give him the most you can.
He is not going to quote poetry,
he’s not going to be thinking about you every moment,
but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break.
Don’t hurt him, don’t change him,
don’t expect more then he can give.
Try not to over-analyse.
Smile when he makes you happy,
yell when he makes you mad and miss him when he’s not there

Jello-Shots: A study

2008-11-28T09:22:00.002+11:00

I love jello-shots, definitely my vodka shot of choice. But whats the best flavour? what other alcohols mix well with jelly?

The good folks at myscienceproject.org have done this interesting study on:

"Best Tasting Jell-O Shot" [link]

Basically its got heaps of different styles and tests done.

I think the most interesting one is the Mojito Jell-O shot;

Check out the above link to read all about it. woo.

The Best of E-Merl Webcomic

2008-11-27T15:14:00.002+11:00

I showcased my favourite webcomics in a post a few days ago, and I was going through the E-Merl one and kept finding ones I liked. Instead of constantly updating the old post, I thought I'd make a best of post instead.

Check out E-merl comics here.

and here are the two that I showed off in the original post :D

Menaissance

2008-11-26T09:07:00.004+11:00

Now I have already done a post on a similar theme, the ode to the nice guy, but this was a very interesting read about "Love in the time of Darwinism". An interesting look at this author's opinion why the modern dating scene is in shambles and some pretty heavy truths about it.

I have taken some quotes out of the main article to lure you into reading the entire piece.

"Too many single young males (SYMs) were lingering in a hormonal limbo between adolescence and adulthood, shunning marriage and children, and whiling away their leisure hours with South Park reruns, marathon sessions of World of Warcraft, and Maxim lists of the ten best movie fart scenes."

A generation of men, raised by women. Here we get into a theme best described in Fight Club, "We're a generation men, raised by women, and I'm thinking...is a another women really the answer?".

"...dump all those lessons from their over-feminized childhood and adolescence [referring to being the nice guy]. They will join what the Boston Globe has called the “Menaissance.” And they will buy titles like The Alphabet of Manliness (K is for Knockers, Q is for Quickies), The Retrosexual Manual, Being the Strong Man a Woman Wants, and actor Jim Belushi’s recent Real Men Don’t Apologize."

The joke is, that I'm actually tempted into reading these books.

"Never before have men wooed women who are, at least theoretically, their equals—socially, professionally, and sexually. "

“What happened to all the nice guys?” His answer: “You did. You ignored the nice guy. You used him for emotional intimacy without reciprocating, in kind, with physical intimacy.”

amen. Try being on the receiving end of the "just friends" line and tell me it doesn't feel like a kick in the teeth.

"To this day, male-bashing is the lingua franca of situation comedies and advertising: take the dimwitted television dads from Homer Simpson to Ray Romano to Tim Allen, or the guy who starts a cooking fire to be put out by his multitasking wife, who is already ordering takeout."

Take five seconds to think about how men are portrayed in modern media. Watch the top 10 comedies and you'll see the above is pretty accurate.

The solution to the confusion in the modern dating scene is to shun away from being the nice guy.

"desensitizing the AFC to rejection and, alas, building up his jerk quotient. While teaching to project confidence and sexual energy. "To become the bad ass, the jerk, to foster desire by being unobtainable.

"Remember those women who want a guy who will open the car door for them? They may be lucky if they find one willing to add “please” to “Pass the ketchup.” Women complain that instead of calling to ask them out, or even make plans for a date, men simply text, “Heading downtown. Where r u?” as they walk to the subway. That may be deliberate. “There is no longer any reason to answer the phone when a woman calls you or return her call when she leaves you a message,” insists one dating pro at World of Seduction. “What should you do? Text message, of course.” Text messages, he argues, deflect unnecessary personal involvement and keep women on edge. Game goes even further, actually encouraging men to “neg” their “target” women—that is, to undermine their confidence subtly by ignoring or mildly insulting them. The hotter the woman, the more essential it is to neg her."

Well I thought it was interesting to read at least.

End.

Unfortunate photo

2008-11-25T09:04:00.000+11:00

What an unfortunate wedding photo, lol.

Joke: 3 Virgins

2008-11-24T09:00:00.000+11:00

A Mother had 3 virgin daughters and they were all getting married within a short time period. Because Mom was a bit worried about how their sex life would get started, she made them all promise to send a postcard from the honeymoon with a few words on how marital sex felt.

The first girl sent a card from Hawaii two days after the wedding. The card said nothing but "Nescafe". Mom was puzzled at first, but then went to the kitchen and got out the Nescafe jar. It said:

"Good till the last drop".

Mom blushed, but was pleased for her daughter.

The second girl sent the card from Vermont a week after the wedding, and the card read: "Benson & Hedges". Mom now knew to go straight to her husband’s cigarettes, and she read from the Benson & Hedges pack:

"Extra Long. King Size".

She was again slightly embarrassed but still happy for her daughter.

The third girl left for her honeymoon in the Caribbean. Mom waited for a week, nothing. Another week went by and still nothing. Then after a whole month, a card finally arrived.

Written on it with shaky handwriting were the words "British Adirways". Mom took out her latest Harper’s Bazaar magazine, flipped through the pages fearing the worst, and finally found the ad for BA. The ad said:

"Three times a day, seven days a week, both ways."

Mom fainted…

How Can She Slap??

2008-11-22T17:59:00.001+11:00

Ok, here is a bit popular internet video for you. The How Can She Slap? video.

Basically the video is of some crazy Indian reality TV show, where the hot but mean host slaps this guy, who obviously isn't reacting to her verbal abuse.

HOW CAN SHE SLAP? - Watch more Free Videos

...wow huh? that's crazy. The guy looks like he does it out of reflex, and then immediately realises he's in deep shit. It's not right to hit a woman, but then again its not right of her to hit him either. And it definately isn't right for 30 guys to rush him and beat the crap out of him.

It apparently went down like this (according to the bottom video parody, you can hear the words):

Guy: "We don't want to talk to you actually" (smirking)
Host: "FUCK YOU !"
Guy: [no] "you" (smirking)
Host SLAPs Guy
Guy SLAPs HOST
Guy: "How Can She Slap?"

and, thanks to Simon, here is the How Can You Slap T-Shirt

and here are some parody youtube clips that reference the original video above:

JR is a bad man

2008-11-22T09:00:00.001+11:00

Ok, this took place at work the other night. Basically I've been getting gourmet fresh pasta to take into work and cook for dinner. I bought some really nice sounding Goats cheese and feta ravioli and made it with some ready-made creamy pasta sauce.

Since I only get 30 min for my break, I spent most of my time actually cooking the pasta and cleaning up the kitchen. I took my finished meal back to my desk where I quickly finished it off and left it sitting next to my desk. Hours passed...

...eventually JR walks up, chatting away and I notice that the remains of the pasta look particularly disturbing and I say to him;

"Yum, want some?"

to which he replies;

"No thanks, that looks like baby vomit... in fact, that looks like a gay man's fart."

Charming.

I like to think that there is a limit, a bottom point of things that JR can say that are disturbing and wrong, but he always finds a way to lower it. Every time.

Webcomics

2008-11-21T14:07:00.005+11:00

Here is a small collection of the webcomics I follow;

E-merl

Buttersafe

Sequential Art! (which is so totally awesome I gave it its own post)

Cyanide and Happiness

xkcd

Jesus vs. Nazi's

and lastly, wttf, which the author has stopped doing, but is still very good.

Gentle Ben

2008-11-21T09:22:00.000+11:00

Vince at work likes to call me Gentle Ben, from the Simpson's episode "Homer Bad Man".

There aren't many images of this, so I grabbed them of my season 6 DVD.

Monty Python

2008-11-20T09:00:00.001+11:00

Monty Python have had enough of your crappy quality uploads onto YouTube and have decided to fix the situation by CREATING THEIR OWN CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE. Instead of banning the clips (Fox) and then rehosting them on Hulu.com (which can't be accessed outside of the USA) or Hulu's YouTube feed with ad's. The awesome guys at Monty Python are uploading their best clips in high quality for the fans with the humble request that if you like their show/clips, then please purchase the DVDs.

THIS IS HOW YOU DEAL WITH THE INTERNET/YOUTUBE!

I love Monty Python, and this is exactly how I think YouTube should function.

Monty Python was part of my comedic upbringing and I have put up the following videos all thanks to the NEW MONTY PYTHON CHANNEL!

Ministry of Silly Walks
A classic Monty Python Skit

French Taunter
One of John Cleese's best parts, and one of the best parts of Holy Grail.
"I fart in your general direction!"

Black Knight
The black knight is one of the best known parts of Holy Grail.
"Just a flesh wound"

Always look on the bright side of life
This is one of their best comedic songs. One of my mates from school was unfortunate enough to have his father pass away during are final years of highschool. To his credit, he was such a champ and loved Monty Python so much he was cremated to this song.

Killer Rabbit
Lol, "Death awaits you all with nasty big pointy teeth!"

Galaxy Song
I can sing this song word-for-word.

Witch Village (How to tell if someone is a witch)
Apart from the opening scene being awesome, the logic involved in determining a witch is priceless. "Build a bridge out of her!"

Penis Song
A good example of Monty Python's tongue-in-cheek humour.

Lumberjack Song
And lastly another silly song.

Remember, remember November

2008-11-19T13:15:00.015+11:00

I shall begin my little November rant with a brief explanation of the post title. It is taken from V for Vendetta, an awesome movie that I would highly recommend

“Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world.”

I felt like I haven't contributed anything original on my blog in a little while so here we go.

10,000 views!

Wow, I can't believe that my little blog has received over 10,000 views since its creation on the 18th Feb 2008. I am totally stoked about this. Mind you I know that about 30% of those clicks will be from me mucking around trying to fix blogs or look up stuff I blogged about. But thanks to everyone that visits, and the very loyal few that continue to read my blog regularly. Please write comments or rate my posts as I enjoy the feedback

and FYI, to the 1-2 morons that post comments attacking me or my readers (spam), your IP addresses are logged everytime you comment. I know where you are from Mr. Canadian and you aren't clever.

Anti-wikipedia

One thing I particularly enjoy doing during particular bouts of boredom is browse through uncyclopedia. It is a parody/humourous version of Wikipedia. I have added my own unique spin on the following articles; Red Ring of Death, Pool, BASEketball, Optimus Prime and even wrote some myself; Naboo and Insanity540.

The "Heroes" are stupid

***SPOILER ALERT***

Ok, I like the show Heroes, but lately their plot has become strange and stupid. I know ratings are falling and producers are getting the axe because of it. In one of the latest episodes Peter Petrelli, who has the awesome ability of being able to copy other peoples abilities and use them, met his “dead” father. His father says there is nothing to fear, and offers him a hug. Now considering we are in a world where anyone can have any power, would you run up to your newly returned father and embrace him? Or would you be a little be suspicious? I know I would probably have used Peter’s invisibility to suss out what was happening in the Pinehurst installation first. But hey that’s just me. But you know what happens, Peter’s dad sucks all his abilities away from him, which he kinda deserves for being such a moron. We now know that Mr. Petrelli, Arthur, is the main bad guy in this “Villians” season of Heroes.

The thing that really annoys me was S03E08 where the cool African future painter gets killed by Arthur with Hiro right next door, and then he walks out and gets attacked by Arthur. Seriously, lets assume you are Hiro with the ability to control time and space (the ability to freeze time, teleport, time travel). Someone you have been talking to is brutally killed (beheaded), what is your first instinct to do? FREEZE TIME! I would have instantly frozen time and found out who did it, not walk around like a moron and let someone attack me. I mean come on, Hiro has one of the best powers, but never uses freeze time!

If the writers keep heading in this stupid direction I’m going to stop watching the show.

Censoring Australian Internet (Aka “No Clean Feed”)

There is nothing more dangerous than a politician with a crazy idea. Take the current situation with the proposed Internet filter in Australia. You probably haven’t seen this reported on Channel Ten news, or Today Tonight but its been mentioned offhandedly in the press. Basically the situation is that Labour, specifically Senator Conroy, in all his wonderful intelligence and grace, has designed a filter for Australian internet. The intended aim: to prevent child pornography and online gambling. While this is a noble goal, I have no argument with that, it is the method in which the government is applying. They are trying to force all ISPs in the country to enact a two level filter of the internet with a blacklist of sites that cannot be accessed. So which sites are blacklisted? That’s not public information. Who decides which websites the Australian public can visit? An unaccountable group (ACMA) that can be influenced by political parties. Politicians have already stated that websites that focus on Euthanasia and anorexia would be worth of filtering. The ACMA will have to monitor the internet continuously as new websites are launched, an impossible task.

The proposed internet filter will not only censor your internet usage, but it will also slow down your internet connection (by an average of 30%, but up to 80% by a government report). Also studies have proven that the scheme they are going to enact will only mistakenly block 10,000 sites out of every million. Also the scheme will not stop p2p/torrent downloading, which is where the majority of this questionable content can be found.

It has been budgeted for $44 million. That isn't that much money, is it?

The problem is that this is a completely misguided and unpopular attempt. When surveyed, it was discovered that 92% of the Australian is against it. What the government should be doing is: continuing to provide all citizens with free NetNanny like software censoring to protect children from accessing unwanted content, have a taskforce that is specifically focused on tracking down child pornography to actually combat the problem they are trying to fight, and leave the general population’s internet access alone.

National protests are occurring on the 13^th December

I just found KevinRudd on twitter and asked him if he really wanted to enact a policy that was opposed by 92% of Australians. Remember, if they are unpopular, they won’t last in politics. It is interesting to note that he has added me back and is now following my twitter feed (the first person to follow me is the Prime Minister, I feel all important now lol).

Here is a good YouTube clip based on the No Clean Feed campaign & twitter;

And in closing, there was a post on Zgeek today about ironic it is that politicians were complaining about their internet access being censored, when this is exactly what they want to happen in all of Australia. Even though the story was 5 months old, I still left my thoughts on the issue;

“The peoples republic of Australia does not care if you cannot access the internet, you will watch, read and think what we tell you to. We are accountable to no one, as we are elected by you, the people. We will do what is best for you. Kicking and screaming we shall bring order to Australia, and protect it's childrens fragile little minds.

I for one will be protesting, and telling anyone that will listen how fucking retarded this situation is. People don't even know about it. The nation wide protest is on 13th December.

It's good to see that Labour are once again wasting the surplus the Liberal government saved during Howard's leadership on very important schemes. I hope that when the money runs out, and our country falls into recession with the rest of the world, people look back at what they spent it on, who was responsible, and lynch them all from the top of parliament house.

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." (V)”

And a very clever response by one of the Zgeek community;

“Please don't vote for the Labor party, for they are monumental tools." - dwarfthrower, 2007.”

Homeless people and Lost

Catching the train home from work late the other night I was both fortunate and unfortunate enough to encounter a homeless woman. It was fortunate because without her being on the platform when she was, the train would not have re-opened its doors and I would have missed by train. It was unfortunate because I got within 10m of her and was immediately hit with “hobo” smell. That wall of stench of the unbathed. It occurred to me, once clear of devastation zone, that in all probability that the people you see on Lost would all smell like that, reeking to high heaven.

Unit inspection, giggity

I’m be moving out of my place soon and the real estate agent is bringing some people around to inspect our unit today. We all cleaned the place and it is looking great. I’m kinda sad about leaving though because it is so close to the city and cuts down on my travel time heaps. I guess I’ll be saving more money living back at home. The whole giggity thing was because I posted the following as my facebook status:

“is cleaning his unit for its inspections tomorrow”

And my friends laughed and pointed out the slightly obscure sexual reference.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

Being a big Guitar Hero fan, I went out and purchased (invested $288) the complete band set of World Tour. I love playing the drums as they require a bit of coordination and skill to pull off. It is said that if you can play them on hard/expert that you can actually play the drums, lol. I have found that the trick to playing them is to remember that drumming is about keeping a beat/rhythm, so concentrating on that is key. If you watch the “gems” flying at you, you tend to start playing to the words/guitar side of the song. Personally I love being able to play guitar, drums, and sing to The Eagle’s “Hotel California” or try my best to keep up to System of a Down’s “BYOB”.

Mr. Chef & Cooking

One thing I really enjoy doing is cooking. Albeit my style leans towards the more unhealthy side of cooking, but you know what they say; "never trust a skinny chef". I have a few dishes that I like to make, but I consider my Boscaiola pasta one of my signature dishes. I made a massive batch of it the other day in anticipation for a few back-to-back midnight shifts at work. Its easy to reheat the pasta for dinner. The pasta itself is best freshly cooked because it is a creamy sauce, which really doesn't handle microwave reheating well.

Anyway, I had it at work last night, and one of my colleagues said it smelt good and offered to swap some of his sister's asian cooking with some of my pasta. We swapped (and ate far too much of both) and one of my other colleagues asked me to give him the recipe for it, so I put my Boscaiola pasta recipe up on a blog post. I may stick up some of my other creations under the topic of cooking.

Personal Feedback

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was unsuccessful in getting in med school this year, and that I was applying to get some feedback from the university. They contacted me the other day, after receiving my letter, and said that they would setup a meeting with one of the academics and they would go over the feedback personally with me. This will occur on the 9th of Decemeber, so watch this space for news.

[Update: First Blogroll]

This post was commented on by Luli, and she added my blog to her list of Australian writers. Woo! First time my blog has been featured somewhere.

End.

Boscaiola Pasta

2008-11-18T20:44:00.005+11:00

Due to popular demand (of one person, Dan.), I am putting up my recipe for Boscaiola pasta.

[Serves ~3-4]

Ingredients:
1-2 Chicken Breast Fillets
250g Bacon
250g Mushrooms
1 Large Onion
2-3 Cloves of Garlic
1 container of Cream (~300ml or whatever the small one is)
1 teaspoon of corn flower
1 large family pack of veal tortellini (personal preference)
Parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper

1) Cut up chicken breasts until smallish cubes (mouth sized) and cook then set aside in a bowl.
2) Boil a big pot of water for the pasta. Once boiling, add pasta (should take about 6-8 min to cook).
3) Cook diced onion, garlic until clear, then add mushrooms and bacon. Medium-High heat throughout.
4) Add cooked chicken back into the pan, add cream, stir. Season with salt and pepper.
5) In a separate small cup, mix 1-2 teaspoons of cornflower with 2-4 teaspoons of cold water. Stir until mixed (will settle if left unmixed for long).
6) Reduce heat, stir in corn flower mix, then bring back to boil, stirring. Sauce will become thicker.
7) Add some Parmesan cheese to the sauce, just enough to help thicken the sauce a bit more. (not so much that it becomes a cheese sauce).
8) Cooked pasta + Sauce = Yum.

I'll add some pictures of it later when I cook it next.

Adjust amount of bacon/mushroom/cream to taste.

Monty Python Argument Skit

2008-11-18T16:38:00.000+11:00

A man walks into an office.

Man: Good morning, I'd like to have an argument, please.

Receptionist: Certainly, sir. Have you been here before?

Man: No, this is my first time.

Receptionist: I see, well we'll see who's free at the
moment.

Mr. Bakely's free, but he's a little bit concilliatory. No. Try
Mr. Barnhart, room 12.

Man: Thank you.

He enters room 12.

Angry man: WHADDAYOU WANT?

Man: Well, Well, I was told outside that...

Angry man: DON'T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT
DROPPINGS!

Man: What?

A: SHUT YOUR FESTERING GOB, YOU TIT! YOUR TYPE MAKES ME
PUKE!

YOU VACUOUS STUFFY-NOSED MALODOROUS PERVERT!!!

M: Yes, but I came here for an argument!!

A: OH! Oh! I'm sorry! This is abuse!

M: Oh! Oh I see!

A: Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.

M: Oh...Sorry...

A: Not at all!

A: (under his breath) stupid git.

The man goes into room 12A. Another man is sitting behind a
desk.

Man: Is this the right room for an argument?

Other Man:(pause) I've told you once.

Man: No you haven't!

Other Man: Yes I have.

M: When?

O: Just now.

M: No you didn't!

O: Yes I did!

M: You didn't!

O: I did!

M: You didn't!

O: I'm telling you, I did!

M: You didn't!

O: (breaking into the developing argument) Oh I'm sorry, is this
a five minute argument, or the full half hour?

M: Ah! (taking out his wallet and paying) Just the five
minutes.

O: Just the five minutes. Thank you.

Anyway, I did.

M: You most certainly did not!

O: Now let's get one thing perfectly clear: I most definitely
told you!

M: Oh no you didn't!

O: Oh yes I did!

M: Oh no you didn't!

O: Oh yes I did!

M: Oh no you didn't!

O: Oh yes I did!

M: Oh no you didn't!

O: Oh yes I did!

M: Oh no you didn't!

O: Oh yes I did! (very fast)

M: Oh no you didn't!

O: Oh yes I did!

M: No you DIDN'T!

O: Oh yes I did!

M: No you DIDN'T!

O: Oh yes I did!

M: No you DIDN'T!

O: Oh yes I did!

M: Oh look, this isn't an argument!

(pause)

O: Yes it is!

M: No it isn't!

(pause)

M: It's just contradiction!

O: No it isn't!

M: It IS!

O: It is NOT!

M: You just contradicted me!

O: No I didn't!

M: You DID!

O: No no no!

M: You did just then!

O: Nonsense!

M: (exasperated) Oh, this is futile!!

(pause)

O: No it isn't!

M: Yes it is!

(pause)

I came here for a good argument!

O: AH, no you didn't, you came here for an *argument*!

M: An argument isn't just contradiction.

O: Well! it CAN be!

M: No it can't!

An argument is a connected series of statement intended to
establish a proposition.

O: No it isn't!

M: Yes it is! 'tisn't just contradiction.

O: Look, if I *argue* with you, I must take up a contrary
position!

M: Yes but it isn't just saying "no it isn't".

O: Yes it is!

M: No it isn't!

O: Yes it is!

M: No it isn't!

O: Yes it is!

M: No it ISN'T! Argument is an intellectual process.

Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the
other person says.

O: It is NOT!

M: It is!

O: Not at all!

M: It is!

>DING!< The Arguer hits a bell on his desk and stops.

O: Thank you, that's it.

M: (stunned) What?

O: That's it. Good morning.

M: But I was just getting interested!

O: I'm sorry, the five minutes is up.

M: That was never five minutes!!

O: I'm afraid it was.

M: (leading on) No it wasn't.....

(pause)

O: (dirty look) I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to argue any
more.

M: WHAT??

O: If you want me to go on arguing, you'll have to pay for
another five minutes.

M: But that was never five minutes just now!

(pause... the Other Man raises his eyebrows)

Oh Come on!

Oh this is...

This is ridiculous!

O: I told you...

I told you, I'm not allowed to argue unless you PAY!

M: Oh all right. (takes out his wallet and pays again.)

There you are.

O: Thank you.

M: (clears throat) Well...

O: Well WHAT?

M: That was never five minutes just now.

O: I told you, I'm not allowed to argue unless you've paid!

M: Well I just paid!

O: No you didn't!

M: I DID!!!

O: YOU didn't!

M: I DID!!!

O: YOU didn't!

M: I DID!!!

O: YOU didn't!

M: I DID!!!

O: YOU didn't!

M: (unable to talk straight he's so mad) I don't want to argue
about it!

O: Well I'm very sorry but you didn't pay!

M: Ah HAH!! Well if I didn't pay, why are you arguing???

Ah HAAAAAAHHH! Gotcha!

O: (pause) No you haven't!

M: Yes I have!

If you're arguing, I must have paid.

O: Not necessarily.

I *could* be arguing in my spare time.

So cute

2008-11-17T10:46:00.003+11:00

Here is the first blog post using my new laptop, yay.

Blogging from the comfort of my bed.

How cute is this?

And heres the laptop I got Sony Vaio VGNZ16GNB

How To: Remove yourself from premium SMS services

2008-11-14T09:01:00.001+11:00

I don't know what kind of idiot actually signs up for those pathetic "love tester" "magic trick" or "ringtones" on your mobile. But if you ever read the fine print on those ad's you see that they are really expensive and sign you up for some crazy and costly messages.

So basically, if you ever get stuck receiving SMS's from those companies (which cost something like $2-5 per message received) you want to cancel it ASAP.

First, I would just reply with STOP as an SMS. That generally is the cancel subscription code.

But if that doesn't work you can always try 19 SMS. It is a site that tracks the SMS you got and let you know who the company behind it is, and also the code to cancel the service.

Don't purchase crappy games, or tricks from the TV. Thats just common sense.

You can make your own mobile phone ringtone's easy enough using this little How To: guide I've written. Feel free to check out my other How To: posts

The sad thing about seeing those ad's is that there must actually be people (kid's probably) stupid enough to actually keep their dodgey business running.

Everything is coming up Milhouse

2008-11-12T17:51:00.003+11:00

You ever have one of those days where everything just seems to go wrong? well I'm having the complete opposite today! Everything is going right!

Got my PC fixed (re: computer post)
Picked up my copy of CoD5 from EB
Got some awesome noodles for lunch from Wokka Wokka
Remembered to bring in my awesome Chorizo chili pasta for dinner
Probably going to have a few beers to farewell a workmate after work tonight.

Seems pretty good. That and it was a nice day when I was walking around in the city.

The best thing about today was getting my PC fixed. I have immediately backed up all my personal files that I hadn't backed up for 7 months (photos, music, files etc). Now I can use my tablet and photoshop to do some webcomics I've got lined up. Watch this space.

How To: Make your own ringtones or SMS alerts for your Mobile phone

2008-11-12T15:13:00.005+11:00

Ok, this is so easy I can't believe people don't know how to do it.

Basically it's 4 steps;

MP3 music (your song for the ringtone)
Audacity + mp3 encoder file
Select the parts of the song for your ringtone.
A way to transfer files from your computer onto your phone.

1. MP3 Music
Let's just assume you have an mp3 collection. Select the songs you want to make into ringtones. I personally like to copy and paste the mp3 files into one folder just for eases sake.

2. Audacity
Download a copy of Audacity, it a an excellent free audio file editor. Install it and make sure you also grab a copy of the MP3 encoder file so that you can open and save in mp3 format. Unzip the MP3 encoder file (called MP3 LAME) and when you load Audacity for the first time or try and save a file it will ask you for the location of the MP3 LAME folder etc. Too easy.

3. Select the parts of the song in Audacity
Open Audacity, then open up the mp3 files for the song you want. Then highlight the part of the song you want as the the ringtone. Usually the best ringtones are the intro, 1st few lines, main chorus or massive guitar solos. Then save as MP3 and name it something short (so it comes up ok on the phone). You can make a few different versions of the same song (intro, 1st lines, chrous etc) and upload them all and then pick the one that sounds the best.

4. Upload your ringtone to your phone
Basically most modern phones have the ability to transfer your files to and from my computer. Newer laptops have bluetooth built in, and that is awesome because you don't have to muck around with cables. Basically just upload the files onto your phone, then muck around with the settings and make that mp3 file your ring tone. Depending on your phone you can set the ringtone, specific songs for specific contacts, even set SMS alerts (typically I've only seen this on Nokia's, but then again I haven't been really looking through other phone makes).

Tricks
If you find that the ringtones are too quiet, before you save your MP3 selection you can find the amplify tool in the menu. Just accept whatever change it recommends, and what this does is boost the raw volume for an mp3 file. Warning, doing this too much will distort the MP3 file.

Also, some phones work better with different formats of sound. My old Nokia used to play .AAC sounds much much louder than MP3, so always have a go converting it into other audio formats if your not happy with the sound coming out.

Now this is the way of making a ringtone properly since Audacity is a very good audio editor. There is even easier/lamer methods of doing this. There is a website where you can do all this stuff using their website, but I've never used it myself and not entirely sure about the quality that it produces.

I found two examples of these programs via LifeHacker (one of my favourite gadget/tech blogs)
ToneThis (a program that allows you to generate ringtones, wallpapers, etc for your mobile)
ToneShop (small program that does the above, in a less complicated and accurate fashion)

Computers

2008-11-12T00:41:00.000+11:00

I'm sitting here writing this on my old Toshiba A20 laptop. If you can picture an old laptop that is jury rigged to function and be on the internet, that is the laptop I'm using. The keyboard no longer works, so I'm sitting here with a USB keyboard perched carefully on top of the non-functioning laptop one, which is cumbersome and wrong. The laptop also suffers from being 5-7 years old with a whopping 500mb of RAM. I can't run anything without it struggling to function. Even as I'm typing this on word, it lags.

[wiki fact: "Jury Rig"; refers to makeshift repairs or temporary contrivances, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand. Originally a nautical term, on sailing ships a jury rig is a replacement mast and yards improvised in case of damage or loss of the original mast. The term originates around 1788, but the use of the word "Jury" to mean temporary can be dated back to 1616.]

The reason I'm using this old laptop at all is because my PC just died. It decided that turning on is too much of a hassle. So now I've got to try and find the warranty for it and get it fixed. Luckily after having my PC die on me numerous times before I'm pretty well prepared for it. I run external harddrives that have a backup of all my important information. Alas, my ipod music and photos won't be on there because I haven't backed up that information in awhile. Hopefully it was just the motherboard or the power converter or something that can be swapped out without too much problem.

I'm also annoyed because the beta for Call of Duty 5: World at War expired last night. While it is to be expected that they would disable it upon the retail version being released for sale, I'm annoyed I can't play it for a day and that all my information is deleted. Basically I leveled up to Level 36, over 18 hours of gameplay, and had unlocked a whole heap of perks and guns. I also had become extremely dangerous, with a K/D ratio of at least +6 each game (meaning that on average, I killed 6 people for every time I died). The game comes out tomorrow, and I'm getting the collectors edition. That will give me a level 45 gun and double EXP for 72 hours (which will really help in recovering my rank). I'm curious to see how the campaign mode is. Generally the campaigns in Call of Duty are very entertaining, and provide some good practise before getting into the online multiplayer.

It almost seems poetic that my PC died after I bought Red Alert 3. This might actually be the only game I have been completely disappointed in (beyond Spore). I was really looking forward to this as a long time C&C or Red Alert fan. The game is too cartoony and lacks depth. I will be returning the game under EB's 7 day trial period offer. I would rather use the $120 (game and guide) towards CoD5 or the new Guitar Hero.

The new guitar hero looks awesome. I'll have to invest in the entire kit though. Drums, microphone, etc. It will cost a small fortune (something like $330), and the box is massive. I'll need to put it in my ute.

[walk around Sydney CBD, visit Sony Store to look at new laptop]

Ok, basically I've been drooling over this Sony Vaio laptop and went in to the Sony Store in the city to check their prices and buy one that instant if I liked it. They had one, but then I noticed you can upgrade the RAM from 2GB to 4GB for $99. But the store is currently out of RAM and would take 3 weeks to get it in. I noticed that the next model up had the 4GB already installed, had double the cache memory and 100GB larger harddrive, but was bundled with a Sony Mobile Phone. I asked if they could sell just that model of laptop, without the phone (as I have a phone, don't want another one, don't want to pay more money for one etc) and they said no. They would not sell just the laptop. So I walked out.

Also as an awesome extra, EB allowed me to return Red Alert 3 with the game guide! they normally don't return the game guides, but the guy working there was cool and realised that it was still in mint condition and that I was pissed off at the game. So I got stuck the money from the return to pay off my collector's edition of Cod5, and I got $20 back! So basically I got rid of a shitty game for one that will be completely awesome.

[update ~8:00pm: added wiki fact]
[update 12:41am: added photos of old laptop]

How To: Play Videos on your ipod

2008-11-11T16:36:00.003+11:00

most modern ipod's have the ability to play videos, but the trick is that they only play specific formats. They can't handle the standard AVI, DivX, Xvid codecs, and loading those onto your ipod won't work.

So you download the FREE IPOD VIDEO CONVERTER and then convert all your movie files (tv shows etc) into .mp4 format, and then put THOSE onto your ipod via itunes, and it will work!

Enjoy.

Resistance is futile, We are the borg

2008-11-09T09:05:00.002+11:00

"We are the Borg. Lower your iPods and surrender your iTunes. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. We are Nikon-Borg. Resistance is futile."

Take a look at the latest portable media player from Nikon, the Media Port UP. It is way too similar to Star Trek's infamous Borg. It has up to 120min of continuous video playback or up to 270 minutes of music. 4 or 8GB harddrive and somehow can handle internet browsing.

I want to see the looks you'd get walking down the city or catching the train wearing one of these. People would be afraid I think. Costs 59,800 Yen.

More information from NIKON

Some Borg Pictures - Typical Image of Borg:

Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) from Star Trek: Voyager:

Insane German Videogamer

2008-11-08T17:17:00.001+11:00

Ok, online gaming is fun, and kinda addictive.

But this kid has a serious problem. He is possibly the worst german alive today.

My Wishlist

2008-11-08T15:20:00.008+11:00

Here in no particular order are the material possessions I currently desire;

iPod Touch 32GB ($530)

I am over my original iPod Video 30gb. Its screen is too small to watch movies/tv shows properly. That's where the latest version of iPod comes in. I am torn between this and getting an iPhone, but ultimately, the iPhone isn't what I'd want in its current state (not enough battery/storage).

Bose Quiet Comfort 2 ($499)

The ultimate noise cancelling headphones. Sure I'd look like a bit of a weirdo on the train wearing them, but then again, I wouldn't be able to hear anything besides whatever I'm listening to on my iPod. They are much cheaper to buy over in the states and have shipped over than purchased retail here in Australia. The only downside to these are that they require batteries to function, and without a charge they don't work.

Sony Vaio Laptop (model VGNZ27GNX) ($2999)

Ah. My dream laptop, small and light enough to carry around, while still powerful enough to do everything I want. It was going to be excellent if I got into med, but basically it would suffice until I get in next year. I would have to invest in the additional $300 extended battery option too I think.

Video Games (That I will Buy myself):

Guitar Hero: World Tour
Since I've been such a huge fan of Guitar Hero 3, its not surprising I'm keen to get the latest "rock band" version. The track list is impressive, and the ability to create custom songs is interesting.

Call of Duty: World at War (CoD5)
Another love of mine is playing CoD4 on 360 online. So much fun. I was lucky to be part of the initial Beta testing of the game, not the fully open part they now have. It was fun to suggest changes, point out flaws etc. Should be a fun game online.
I've pre-ordered the collectors edition (level 65 machine gun unlocked and 72 hours of double EXP online, oh yea!).

DVDs:

Dark Knight
Why so serious? The best movie of the year, of course I'd own it.

Tropic Thunder
Probably one of the funniest movies of 2008, if you ignore Ben Stiller.

So there we have it, my list of things I would like. Santa?

woooo....

Demotivation, pt. 24

2008-11-08T09:00:00.000+11:00

Finally, a gadget screen you can view in direct sunlight!

2008-11-07T08:59:00.000+11:00

Everyone knows it is impossible to read your phone/laptop/ipod in direct sunlight. You need to have some shade, cover it with your hand to view whats going on. That is annoying, and with cameras and phones and such, impractical.

These clever people have invented a new technology called "Photo Find High Reflect (HR) transflective amorphous silicon TFT (a-TFT) LCD". Basically what it works like a normal screen, using the backlight to view in normal situations, but in sunlight, it reflects that light to light up the screen.

Funky and potentially awesome, can't wait for it to be implemented into everything :D

The clever japanese inventors, thanks go to http://dvice.com/archives/2008/10/finally_a_scree.php

Rapid Fire Laser-aimed Pepperball shooter, muuhahaha!

2008-11-06T09:00:00.002+11:00

Pow, right in the kisser!

Look at this nasty new addition to the world of non-lethal weapons.

The FlashLauncher shoots pepperballs with laser-guided accuracy to take down your foes.

Not only does it come with a flashlight and laser aiming, but it can fire 5 balls rapidly so you can spray your enemies in pepperballs!

It also weighs 2.2 pounds, so when you run out of pepperballs, and your foe is blinded and helpless, feel free to bash them with it. lol.

First seen at WIRED.com, thanks to DVICE