Wednesday 23 December 2009

Something Small This Way Comes

I guess I should have written about this before…

My better looking half and I are expecting a smaller version of our DNA in early 2010. Probably a lot squeakier and messy (how can that be possible I hear some nay Sayers say – you are the messiest person I know!!!)

I am totally excited about this prospect and about being able to impart at least some of my wisdom and geekiness to another Human being. The Wifu is a little nervous about the whole process however, and I can’t get into her head space, I am certain that she is more then capable of both having and helping me raise this little person.

That you all!

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Review with Myles Barlow

I have just discovered this series and it is very well done.  Good quality dark humour… my personal favourite

Check it out at the home page or You Tube like below…

Sunday 4 October 2009

Memories of the Future…

6a00d8341c59aa53ef0120a5724075970b-320wi

Wil Wheaton has a new book coming out – Memories of the Future  or his memories of the first half of the first season of Star Trek – The Next Generation… He is also sending out Podcasts of some of the episodes.

I really like the insight from Wil’s perspective or as a Man looking back at his awkward teenage self. Why would you do that and then send that out to the world. Brave Man that Wil Wheaton…

I am looking forward to getting this book the Podcasts are cerainly a great indication of what to expect… and it is read by Wil. What more do you need.

Check out Wil’s blog for the Podcasts and info on the book release dates etc.

Sunday 27 September 2009

Pushing Daisies

I've been watching Pushing Daisies lately and the one thing I don't like about the show... All those dam pies make me hungry. A hungry that I cannot sate because I want those pies and we don't have those pies here in Sunny Small town Australia...

You know what is worse?? Do you?? That the pies in the show are real - real pies - just there in my TV screen tempting me, wanting me to reach through the glass and eat them...

I want pie!

The following pic was taken in Japan... it is a Japanese pie... I didn't eat one of these either... :(

Sunday 26 July 2009

Oh Yes!

Ironman Anime trailer – straight from Danny Choo via Dark Diamond (where there is a Trailer for Wolverine – highly recommended to check that out as well)

Lots of debate on Danny Choo about whether this American story should be called Anime – it is being done by a Japanese Animation house and is being branded as Anime. My thoughts – I have a blurred line on US Cartoons and Japanese Anime. To me it is the feel of the picture not where it is made and who makes it. If the story and the look are Anime then it is Anime no matter where the story comes from. I like the idea of one of my favourite Marvel Hero’s being done in an Anime style regardless of the fact that the story started in the US. My 10 cents!

Friday 24 July 2009

Cool Wedding Intro

we should have thought of this! via Boingboing

Guitars – Japan Style

While in Japan there was one thing I really wanted to do but was not sure if it would be possible. See some cool custom Japanese Guitars. My mate Les has been building his own guitars for a few years now and has just about gotten me into the craze… there are some awesome builds out there in net land if you want to look them up.

While in Shinyuku we passed a cool looking Guitar shop and I had to duck in to see what was what and here is what I found.

Guitar1

image I really liked this one as it has simple lines and switches for the pickups and what nots… The colour is also good and simple which for me is a plus. Cost 89,880 yen.

DSCN0271This store had everything you could need to build a guitar from scratch including some very cool pups in the glass case (bottom right). Me thinks Les would be jealous of this place!

Below is a selection of the custom guitars the place made or will make – which is pretty much anything you can think of.

Angels

Close up of the Angel Guitars

image

image

image

DSCN0272

DSCN0273

What that you say a 7-string guitar is “bassee” enough for you. Nah I what an 8-string Guitar… DSCN0277

Further proof it really has 8-strings!

DSCN0279

Needless to say this store had some of the best examples of custom Guitars I have seen.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

John Scalzi in the Wild

Well not John himself but a few of his books.

I managed to snap these at a bookstore near our hotel in Tokyo – I know I have a lot more to blog about the trip but this will have to do for a start.

DSCN0791

Reading left to right – Old Mans War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony.

DSCN0790

Me with The Last Colony – I did think about buying them, but as I have them already and in a language I can actually read I left them in prominent position for a Japanese reader to find and buy! I know that John has posted these on his blog when he gets Author copies of them, but I thought it would be nice to see them all together and the covers are really good… I wish all covers where done like this it makes the books look really exciting… not that they are not exciting to read… I’ll go now…

But before I do… here is the Gundam which was built in Odaiba in Tokyo… It is so fantastic and I am so glad we got to see it. As you can see from the people standing at the base – it is BIG… REAL BIG. make my little model (which I am yet to start building) look a little small compared… but a don’t have the room to have a 4 storey Gundam in my yard so the Gundam on the shelf will have to do!

DSCN0175

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Back!

We arrived back into Sydney today from our two weeks in Japan. I have a lot to write about and heaps of pictures to post. For know you will all have to just have this sort message.

IT WAS AWESOME!

The camera battery gave out just as I was about to upload the pictures so I will blog more tomorrow and post a few pictures etc. For a teaser; I saw John Scalzi in the wild, we made it to the Gundam, I sang Karaoke with real Japanese Businessmen!, experienced an Onsen and spoke with a Geisha.

Cheers

Friday 12 June 2009

Japan – a reason why

Gundam1

To see this rising over the train tracks we head to the park land of Odaiba.

Gundam2 To glance aside and see the RX78 Gundam waiting in the tree line, waiting… watching…

It’s finished and will be up for our whole trip to Tokyo!

I am so excited I really can't hide it – I had to post this before heading to work just to get it out of my mind for a minute.

Thanks for Danny and Punynari please follow links for photo source and for more shots… Hope to get some myself soon.

Monday 8 June 2009

Blog

I have been trying to get back into writing in this blog for some time now.  Trying to work out what it is that is causing me to not write.  It’s certainly not for a lack of topics my life has been busy and full of interesting times – maybe too busy to write something? Well I could have writing something that is for sure – I could have just said what had been happening and left it at that. But I always feel that what I write should be a little more then just a dear diary… Then again what is this post turning into…

So then I read this from John Scalzi’s site, where we find out that blog’s don’t always last forever and hey I had no doubt of that – an people are moving to other mediums Facebook and Twitter etc which is an instance connection with family/friends the world.

This all made me start to think about what is this blog about? I wanted to come here and write whatever I wanted and about topics this interest me and maybe someone else.

So that means that if I take a month a year a decade off then that is OK of course I would not have anyone reading this by then but maybe that would be OK as well.

So I am not going to write what I think people will read I am going to write what I want to write about and also about things that affect me and mine…

It might not be fantastic and exciting but it’ll be all me baby!!!

Thursday 7 May 2009

Star Trek

hehehehe Kirk/Spock… getting closer!

Short Post

Just a short post before I head to work.

We have seen a few movies in the last few days – firstly Wolverine: X-Men Origins in Sydney on the weekend. Great movie very impressed – I so want more… and we got more. On the way home I found out that Anjel has not seen the first 3 X-Men movies… not one of them!!! In order to fix that we watched 1 and 2 that night (I don’t own 3 so we’ll have to hire that one day)

While talking about Sci-Fi that Anjel hasn’t seen she then mentioned that she has not seen a single Star Trek Movie… Or Star Wars!! OMFG what have I done – I have married a Sci-Fi Virgin!!!

Thinking of the good parts of this… and it did take awhile for my brain to recover from the shock… I get to watch all these films again while educating Anjel… And that we have started.

Last night we went for Star Trek – The Motion Picture, some say the worst in the franchise I say it is probably the least understood and understandably so… Kinda like 2001 without Hal… Anjel was, I think a little unimpressed, However we followed that up with Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan – and we got Khhhhaaaaaaaannnnnn! and where impressed! This is such a TRUE Star Trek movie.

StarTrek2009Poster

I think we can now watch Star Trek (2009) without any worry – then catchup on the other 9 movies at a latter date…

Friday 1 May 2009

Gaming News

It’s been a while since I blogged about games…

I finished Half-Life 2 the other day – I borrowed The Orange Box for the Xbox 360 from a friend, had a great time finishing Portal – so much fun! Seriously if you have never played Portal you need too!

Anyway Half-Life 2 was a Loooong game – I almost gave up – in fact I didn’t play it for quite a few weeks but I am glad that I finally finished it, and the ending was really worth a WTF moment!

Anyhoo then I found this video teaser of the up coming Ghostbusters game!!! I think I might need to Sqee! “SQEEE” (with an extra “E”) This is booking up to be a Fun filled game and I will be eager to see what it is really like – I hope they put a demo on Xbox Live…

I have also been playing Raving Rabbids 2 on the Wii – Much fun and a real party game – needed another one of those for when we had a visitor or the nephews and nieces come to visit! I’m just playing it to unlock all the levels so everyone else can play… honest… you don’t believe me!!! (SHOCK HORROR)

Also I have been playing Assassins Creed – another Ubisoft game! and this time the twist is at the begining of the game… it has become a little repetitive but I like the story line and I guess I will stick to it… You play an assassin in the 12th Century… you need to kill people ‘nuff said really! Oh and apparently you shouldn’t kill people in plain sight… but if you run fast enough you get away… mostly! :)

Thursday 23 April 2009

The Glove incident

OK we are off to Japan in a few months time – finally getting that Honeymoon! So I need to update my passport – so off to the Photo Place to get a Passport photo at lunch today.

Very efficient girl (who joked when she realised how abrupt she was being getting me to stand in the right spot – move my glasses to remove reflection etc) took my photo and I went off to grab a roll from the local sandwich store while the print was developed.

I went for a BLT on a white roll and watched the two girls serving (obviously teenagers on school holidays but no problem). One of the girls took her blue food safe glove off after each sandwich she made to take the money from customers and give back change. The other girl just used her gloved hands. Both used gloved hands to get all the ingredients from the various trays including mixing meat and salad.

I have been in a state all day since as to whether or not I should have said something to the girls about their food handling practices.  The problem exists all through the food industry.  A GLOVE IS NOT MAGICAL it still gets dirty.  The girl that took her glove off the hand money had the right idea – I think that she should have replaced the glove each time but she put it back on after – but at least she was trying to follow some kind of food safety. The other girl was leaving herself and employer open to fines and making people sick – think about what MONEY has on it… just think about the people that handled you change before you got it…

Both of them used the same utensil (their gloved hand) to handle MEAT and SALAD a big no no and lots of opportunity for cross contamination. 

I think I might have to ask our food safety officers for a brochure to hand out to the owner of the store… Just so they are aware and to train their staff better.

Personally – I would prefer to have someone make my sandwich with BARE hands that where washed just before making my sandwich and for them to use tongs etc to get the food from the containers. I expect it is experience that caused these girls to act like they did – but the owner should be training better.

Stepping off the soap box.

Monday 13 April 2009

Notice Something New?

I don’t suppose you would have noticed anything new with the site – but yeah I have added GoogleAdsense… not sure what this will mean maybe something maybe nothing – I guess if there is something that you like click away and I might get a little something for it! If not – I won’t be upset it is really only there to see what happens and it peaked my interest as a marketing student (we are always students even thought we might have a degree etc)

I have also place Danny Choo’s RSS feed at the top of the page – he is a great interest to me at the moment and I really like his stuff and what to help promote both what he has to say and my own interest in it. So check him out – no cash for that btw :)

I am also going to experiment with colour and other changes to the site so if things are different when you look back here for the next little while – I am sure to get bored with it at some point!

Smiles!!

Friday 10 April 2009

Scary Youtube

This is such a scary ad – that people have this opinion in the ‘land of the free’ (I seem to hear rage against the machine’s line “you ever told you that is your enemy” after I typed that).  Via Boing boing have a gander at this.

Why are people scared of gay marriage (or unification or declaration of love or whatever) and how will it take away peoples freedom.

Words cannot describe how insane these campaigns are and for a country that is based on ‘freedom’ a land founded (at least the modern western part) on escape from persecution. I just hope that in the rapture (or whatever the hell it is) their God comes down and smites them for inequality and for not “loving thy fellow man”

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Internet At Last

Finally some good news regard broad band internet in Australia. In this dot point list we finally see what the Federal Government is planning for Australia – and it looks good.

First up ‘fibre to the home’ ye-ha! Project to be run by a company set up by Government – we had one of those but Howard sold it.

I am beyond words to describe how happy I am that this has been announced – go our Kevin GO!!!

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Saturday 28 March 2009

Probably should be a Twit…

See I am not insane because I doodle…

One World, One Dream…

In response to this article by Wil Wheaton I wrote this

Wil
This sounds fantastic I always dreamed of a world where you could make mix CD's in the store - now with aps like iTunes and eMusic you don't need to burn a CD you can download the music you want.  Books are the same - why search every 2nd hand book store for that last book in that obscure series (or the US only new release of your favourtie author - Aussie here) when you could get a copy via POD. And I love the fact that movies are coming to the fun park.
My only gripe - both Music and Movies are restricted to zones for example I can't buy anything from Warner's site because I live in Australia. I can't watch movies on demand because I live in Australia. When will these big corps realise that the world in connected - remove these stupid zones and let the market place be THE WORLD...

And I stand by it. With the internet and the breakdown of distance barriers big business should not be looking at small geographic markets but they should be thinking of the world as one giant market with different segments (and smaller ones in those). One system, one world, one fucking huge income stream…

Friday 27 March 2009

Evil SMS

Straight from an unused X-Files episode -

The Egyptian Government has sought to dispel rumours that a mobile phone text message "from unknown foreign quarters" is spreading around the country and killing those who receive it.

Find the full story here – I could think of a few people to send this SMS to if only it were true!

Speaking of SMS I have a new Phone the Sony Ericsson W980 a Walkman style phone (for the music minded person in me). Here is a page from Sony Ericsson all about the phone and it’s features… For me thought it has great sized buttons, you can take OK pictures and hear and talk to people and SMS with ease. Flip style is something I really like as it protects both the phone and any random calls.

Sony-Ericsson-W980-Walkman-Phone-2

The sound quality on music is great through the headphones and not at all bad through the external speakers. And you can use any MP3 for ringtones without having to pay extra… I hate phones that only use ringtones from the companies…

All in all I am very happy with this phone! Having been using it for the last 3 weeks, it has taken me sometime to change my SMS technique (the space button is the # not the 0 as in my other phones).  And I am still getting used to some of the functions but I can see this becoming my new best friend – as most of my phones do – and I enjoy using it. Which is something that I cannot say about my last phone an LG… craptasic!

Wednesday 25 March 2009

Knowledge Gaps... I has none

There Are 0 Gaps in Your Knowledge
Where you have gaps in your knowledge:

No Gaps!

Where you don't have gaps in your knowledge:

Philosophy
Religion
Economics
Literature
History
Science
Art

Good Food

My good blog-friend Jeff has a post on his new Chinese Grocer - which got me thinking about our Chinese Grocer (Yes even Nowra has a Chinese Grocer) and all the wonderful food stuffs it provides.

Anjel and I often head out for a Saturday morning walk down to the Grocer to see what wonder food stuffs he has on offer... Just checked the cupboard and we seemed to have eaten all the goodies this week bar this...

DSC00026

Not what I would call all that exotic... yum but not something I couldn't have bought in the 'normal' supermarket... well that fucked up this post then...

I will have to post again on this topic if only to prove to you that I do and have bought something more then noodles...

:)

Saturday 21 March 2009

Sex Toys Sex Toys Japanese Sex Toys...

OK enough with the Tom Jones rip offs...

tenga-egg-onacap-1

Via Danny Choo here is the weirdest masturbation add I have ever seen... and might I ask what the hell is wrong with a hand and some lube???

No don't answer that!

The site that sells these has a very good description although for $36USD they would have to really blow your mind.

Monday 16 March 2009

So Wrong

"the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute."

This is in the US and it seems the threat of potential Lead based products being used in Children's book has caused the Government over there to choose to destroy pre 1985 books - it is also good to note that there is no EVIDENCE that this potential lead has or ever will poison children... Read the full article here.

Thursday 5 March 2009

Drumming, Stover and Recording

My guess is there is no fear that anyone will find out that I used click track through this.  Not to say we didn't use click tracks while we recorded... I just tend to ignore them!!! Once we are playing the song it is all about the 'feel' and the mood of the song.

Hell I would love to record a live session in a large studio then over dub the vocals and fancy guitar stuff... that way we could have the raw feel of our music - which we do a great job of (yes big head time - mind you with the amount of time we have had to perfect our original song we should be good at them) - I this this way we can have all the extra stuff you can get from recording on top of that great solid base we have when we play live...

Hmmm I wonder when we are all recording again... so many new songs that NEED to get on to CD... Record deal please?

If you are interested you can buy our CD or listen to the EP here or through iTunes... Cheers

Monday 2 March 2009

Julie

A start or a scene from a larger story I may never tell... enjoy

‘What do you want with me?’ Julie looked my right in the eyes.

‘Want? Why does it have to be a ‘want’? Like, I have to get something from this. Can’t we just be nice and have a conversation?’

‘Sure all you want is conversation’

‘Typical! In your head all men want is sex sex sex! Well not everyone thinks like that you know’ I turned to walk away from her.

‘No wait!’ She said ‘I’m sorry; it’s just… well… Jerry came over last night’

‘(sigh) Not the fuckwit Jerry?’

Julie sat down on the lounge near the potted plants. ‘Is that really what you call him?’

‘Well yeah… isn’t that what he is?’ I went to sit down opposite, not wanting to get in Julie’s personal space. I knew she needed a zone around her especially after a visit from Jerry. ‘Why haven’t you done something about him?’

I could see the tears in her eyes. ‘Get me a coffee, no cream!’ she said fumbling in her handbag for a tissue. I paused in the half sitting position for a second, then giving a grunt of assent I went to the counter and ordered two coffee’s, one no cream the other with caramel flavour.

Being friends with Julie was a constant battle, between love; I adored her beauty, grace and inspiring ways; and loathing; her constant pushing away and her string of bad relationships. Yet I always knew when she needed someone to talk to. I don’t know if was empathy or just that I have known her for such a long time and I pick up on the visual clues, either way I knew she needed to get something off her chest.

By the time I returned with the coffee’s she had found a tissue, wiped her eyes clear and was lighting up a cigarette. ‘You know we have to move outside to smoke that’ I said.

A glare from Julie reminded me that she was quitting, again, grabbing her bag Julie got up and walked through the door to a vacant two seater table. Throwing herself down into an aluminium chair she looked at me. ‘Better?’

‘Much!’ I grinned back at her.

A poked out tongue was all I got as I handed over her coffee. We sat in silence for a few minutes; Julie smoked her cigarette sitting in the chair one leg folded over the other starring out at the street as the world passed us by. She looked like a movie star or a super model - graceful and confident. I do not know if it the cigarette or the image media has always portrayed smoking women as, but Julie had The Look. I feel in love with her again that day. I wanted to be the cigarette as it moved in her fingers, as it slipped in-between her red lips.

Her changes always got me, from a school girl tease, to a helpless lost girl, to this woman of beauty and grace I saw before me. Smiling to myself I lent back in my chair and enjoyed just watching her.

‘You’re a perve’ Julie said.

‘And what are you going to do about it then?’ I smiled back

‘Nothing… Jerry’s an arse!’ Julie stamped out her cigarette ‘Why did I ever take him back? Fuck! You know I should just get you to choose my men for me’

‘Really? You like my men do you? Somehow I can’t see Luke with you… the whole breast thing’ I waved my hand over my chest.

‘I don’t mean your boyfriends, I mean you should screen my boyfriends… hey why don’t we double date with my next man?’

‘Wait a min, what the hell happened with Jerry?’ Where the hell was this going? I thought.

‘Jerry? I’m over him, I kicked him out last night’ she paused ‘I thought he was going to hit me last night…’

‘Oh fuck!’ I leaned forward towards Julie ‘Are you ok hon’?’

‘Yeah… I’m fine, I don’t want to talk about it… you know me, move on!’

‘This is not a “move on” kinda thing. Did he hurt you?’

‘No. I just thought he was going to. Look it is over, I got my keys back and he left. Ok?’

I looked her in the eyes for a second before replying. ‘You ever, and I mean ever, need to talk about this you call me ok?’

‘You know I wouldn’t’

‘Look this is serious…’

‘Move on!’

I sighed and sat back watching her as she lit another cigarette and stared out at the traffic again. Julie could be such a bitch; I knew she felt vulnerable talking about things to me as if me knowing bad things about her would make me love her any less. Women were such a mystery to me. I have had several relationships with women, some lasting just one or two nights of lust, but still when they were over I seemed to have learnt less and less each time.

Whereas with my boyfriends I always felt that we understood each other, it was almost an empathic knowledge that we either knew it was for a night, or we wanted a relationship. Like with Luke, we met at a bar, exchange numbers and planned a date for the following week. We knew that we wanted our first night together to be special and not just another one nighter, and now we are in our fourth month and loving it.

I let the moment pass and reached for my lukewarm coffee and waited until she came out of herself again. I let my mind drift back to the first time I met Julie, it seemed sometimes that I had known her for ever. I had to remind myself that it had been only a few years since she came into my life.

Brain Harvest

Found this new site for short speculative Fiction... and the first story is up "Patmos Like Pink Elephants" and I think you will all like it - especially you Jeff and Brian!!

Check it out!

Literal Film Clip

Totally cool ! this just rocks my socks off...

 

Found via boningboing

Sunday 22 February 2009

Danny Choo

I have found a new site to watch and enjoy - with the upcoming (positive thoughts) trip to Japan I have been interested and looking for Japanese items and culture in all sorts of places... and then guest Blogger at Boingboing Danny Choo shows up! This man lives and breathes Japanese things and his site is a wonderful treasure trove of things for me and Anjel to look at and enjoy. So check him out! Link

Also via Danny I found this... Another piece of shit from SONY caution it contains fucking swear words.

Cheers

Thursday 12 February 2009

Interesting Links

The first link today is about my past... or more accurately a great anime series I saw as a child. As apparently the builder of this masterful piece of Lego ... the Space Battleship Yamato. BB Link and Brickshelf link

fvin_yamato_04

Up next is an article from Joel Johnson about the PSP - I have a PSP, pretty much my first portable gaming device - OK so I do also have a Nintendo Gameboy... but I was not serious about that I only got one game!

I bought the PSP as an investment to the future of gaming I thought this was going to be the one machine I could take anywhere and do so much with; movie, music, games and pictures. It can do all this, I am not saying that it doesn't. It's just crap at doing it. The game titles are uninspiring and as for all the other things well I did download a program to convert DVD's for playback but after all the upgrades and add-on's SONY has put a stop to that. Hey I would love it if I could put my electronic PDF'ed (obtained legally) books on it to read - but alas I canna even do that.

So now sadly my PSP sits in it's hard case gathering dust - every so often I get it out charge it up, reset the date and time and have a crack and playing something only to reminded that although a brilliant idea and a great piece of hardware there are just so many more BETTER things out there. I really wish I had bought a DS instead.

Signing off for now!

Friday 6 February 2009

Wedding Pictures

OK we have pictures up on the Photographers site - follow link and enjoy!

Then have a look at Glass Magnolias other pictures on the main site - she is great photographer and did a wonderful job for our day!

Sunday 1 February 2009

Movies...

It seems that the fates are sending me signals... maybe good ones maybe bad ones but signals all the same.

The Watchmen movie is coming - and yes I will admit I have not read the comic (although Constance is going to lend me her copy when she gets it back from her cousin-in-law) so I am looking forward to seeing and reading that one. The first move of the fates was to place no less then 3 Watchmen promo material on the way to us watching Underworld 3 last night (yes it was everything I expected and I enjoyed it very much - the comment afterwards from Constance "I love throw away movies".  And for Anjel it was the first of the Underworld series... and she got the whole idea - we might have to have a Underworld 1 and 2 night to bring her up to speed... mind you I am not even sure I saw Underworld 2...)

Then I see this at ABC online - He-Man live action. Which they did (as The Masters of the Universe) in the 80's with ... well I seemed to remember enjoying it at age 12 or so, so it was probably bad... in fact I am willing to bet on that. So what will this one be like? Hmmm I can say that Matel are in on it - so it will have a toy line and be advertised extensively - maybe it will bring the He-Man universe to a whole new generation of kids... and become the big seller for that Christmas... I might need to get a nephew convinced so I can have a excuse to go see it with him!

To provide more proof that the fates are setting me up, I read this this morning.  John Scalzi's latest article at AMC - what books would you like to see made into a SciFi movie. He has some interesting choices - and some of them I would like to read myself or see. A quick read of the comments shows that there are a lot of Sci Fi books that people would love to see made into a movie. But the common theme of these comments is that the studios will get it wrong.

This makes me think is there anyway that a book can be made into a movie and still be good or remain true? Now there are some that have (John mentions "Children of Men" which I really enjoyed) but there are a whole lot of others that are just plan crap.

I suppose what this had brought me around to is - are the fates getting me all excited and stimulated with thoughts of new movies (this has not been the case for many a year - I can't remember the last movie that I just HAD to go see) just to have my hopes and dreams dashed because they make an EPIC FAIL of a movie.

Or are they saying to me - be like Underworld was, a great night out with you love and friend laugh at the movie, enjoy it and take it for what it is. A bit of fun and adventure - and Bill Nighy.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Book lists

Through the power of the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) I have found the Guardians list of 1,000 books you should read before you die.

I find that even in the Science Fiction and Fantasy I have read only a few of them... should I be worried, should I get the list and starting at A make sure I read them all... and quickly. Or should I just sit back and laugh that a) someone(s) made this list, b) there might actually be someone out there who has read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides and Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell.

Go have a look and choosing your favourite genre work out how many you have read... I worked out that for the Science Fiction and Fantasy I have read 10% of those listed. Mind you ticking Terry Pratchett's Disk World means I have read 20 billions books and counting! and they list that as 1... WTF. Also I have read other books by authors mentioned just not the one the list has...

I could also mention that once I like an author I tend to read as MUCH of that author as I can - sometimes forgoing other (just as good if not better) ones... but I guess them's the breaks and with book prices as they are in this country I think people will go out on a limb less and less and stick with what they know and like.

Enjoy

Tuesday 27 January 2009

News Links

It's been a while but I cannot not share this with you all

Hungry snake discovers you are what you eat! Check it out - snake eats snake - snake escapes - all slither away...

By the by the Brown Snake pictured in this article is one nasty bugger - it WILL attack you given half a chance... the Red Belly is not as aggressive.

Cheers - remind me to tell you about the time I had an encounter with a large (6 foot) Red  Belly.... :)

Marriage

Hey I got married on the weekend! I will link photo's as I get them up or place some here on the site for those interested... If you really need to see some friends have put a few on Facebook.

The day was PERFECT in every sense of the word. Anjel looked a MILLION dollars and her horse pranced in little princess herself. The sky was the clear with a slight breeze to keep us cool in the shade of the paperbarks. Everything was just as we wanted relaxed and easy with all of our own little touches to keep it true to us.

I am so happy right now. WooT

One very big picture

Follow this link for a HUGE picture of the presidential thingy the US just had...

There should be more of this...

Sunday 18 January 2009

Stephen Fry

OK is this the best day ever!! Stephen Fry personally replied to me in Twitter!

And I had the best BUCK's night ever!  Shots of Alcohol and all! BRILLIANT!!!

I am also drunk which is good too

Sunday 4 January 2009

New Doctor - let the games begin

Follow link to see the new Doctor...

Quote from Mr Matt Smith below

"I'm just so excited about the journey that is in front of me. It's a wonderful privilege and challenge that I hope I will thrive on," Smith said.

"The challenge for me is to do justice to the show's illustrious past, my predecessors and, most importantly, to those who watch it. I really cannot wait."

Don't know much about him which could be a good thing no pressure for the guy to be something he was already - a little like David Tennant was mostly unknown in the main stream but a brilliant actor!

Now that we know who it is, how will it happen??

Saturday 3 January 2009

What DnD Character am I?

I am a little surprised by this - well in that I have never even played the Class I got! but it is based on ME not a fantasy so I am hip with that. Give it a go I'ld be interested in what other people get!


I Am A: Lawful Good Human Sorcerer (5th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-13

Dexterity-13

Constitution-14

Intelligence-12

Wisdom-12

Charisma-16


Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Blog Archive