Fractal picture zooming

Very cool

[TV/DVD] Tru Calling

Slow to get started (Eliza Dushku kept me watching :) this show really hit its stride when Jason Priestly joined the cast. Unlike Polarbear and Ando, I didn't go all weak because JP was back on the box, but his character really adds a lot to the conflict/tension of the show, and provides plenty of interesting opportunities for the writers in Season 2.

Apparently the second season has barely begun in the US and is already in danger of cancellation, but considering the first series was supposed to be cancelled three separate times and still survived, I'll wait and see.

The DVD boxset has some OK special features (number one being not having to work out when Prime is showing it, and not having to deal with a thousand ads in a midnight timeslot... but I digress). Deleted scenes for each episode (nothing too earth-shattering), commentaries on 6 of the 22 episodes (mostly just indicating that the cast had a lot of fun making the show) and some brief featurettes.

[Music] Mish Mash - Regurgitator

The latest release from Regurgitator is like every other 'gurge album I've listened to, one-half excellent rock/pop/alternative fun and one-half boring/slow/weird noises. Considering all but the first single were put together while the band was in a televised bubble, it has some really good stuff. A listen to this album will give you: Some 70's funk, a bit of Blondie, flat-out punk, Weezer sound-alike, whistling/trombone and Devo.

7 out of 10. It'd be higher without the 5 out of 14 dud tracks, but that's why I only bought their best of, Jingles, previously.

A Scott Baio Christmas

As a big fan of "Charles In Charge" (OK, I really watched it for Nicole Eggert), I thought this was hilarious (and amazingly accurate).

Keeping positive on the down low

I really have to stop talking about anything positive! Found out on Monday that I have a "very nasty" chest and sinus infection, meaning I'm currently on a course of antibiotics (and praying that they don't destroy other aspects of my health again, while they hopefully fix the infection). My cough does seem to be easing, although I've had a splitting headache for the past few days, as well as occasional dizzy spells, and some other unpleasant side-effects.

My enthusiasm hasn't been quite so high, due to the stumble on my path to an empyrean health target. I'm not depressed, just unfocused and uninspired. I've had enough of watching DVDs and killing time till my brain is able to clear the sinus pain fog. I'm hoping to wake up with less pain tomorrow morning, so I can return to work. That's all I want right now, to be able to do my job.

Slow progress but life is good

Well I wouldn't say I've reached the ne plus ultra of health since my last entry, but one thing I've been really pleased with is that the pre-Streets health I'd been enjoying seems to have been something lasting. Despite having a 5 day period with only 8 hours sleep total, my energy levels stayed high, and I remained positive. I've now managed a couple of half days of work and, even though the incessant coughing hasn't reduced too much, and I'm still not sleeping consistently as a result, I'm just glad to be back doing the work that I want to do.

A chest X-ray and another trip to the doctor next week will hopefully sort out whatever is preventing a full recovery from this latest health roadblock (steroids and Ventolin alone haven't sorted it out). In the meantime, my enthusiasm is at a real high and, since I can't get back to exercising yet (a big no-no on 1.5 lungs), I'm throwing myself at making some concrete achievements in the Identity and Access Management project I'm heading up at work.

Streets is banned

No, that title's not bad grammar, it's my none too happy statement about the latest labelling f**k-up from the food industry. A few weeks ago I was introduced to the tastiest ice-blocks I've ever had. Suspicious they tasted too good to not have milk in them I checked the ingredients repeatedly, and was satisfied that I was safe. So with summer starting to hit, I happily started having the Streets Cyclone on a daily basis. The day of my last entry I started getting a bit of a headache, which I attributed to the weather change. The next day I started getting my nausea back, as well as a persistent cough. Headed home from work early, and went to bed, expecting to be over the worst of a mild cold, and ready for work by morning. Had another ice block to ease my sore throat, as one would when confident it contained nothing one is extremely intolerant of. The next day I felt even worse and it was 38 degrees, so I had more ice blocks. Worse still on Wednesday, still worse on Thursday. After spending an entire night coughing and throwing up, I decided I'd avoid any more ice blocks, as I thought maybe the fruit was causing my nausea. Didn't make much difference and still felt shit all of Friday.

Today I find out that the Cyclone "ice block" has been recalled from stores because it actually contains milk. Just a minor little oversight. Nothing that would, say, cause vomiting, nausea, and a recurrence of my asthma that I haven't had for 20 years because I never go near milk!!! So when I paraphrase Jay and say "<expletive deleted> Streets! <expletive deleted> them in their stupid <expletive deleted>!" you know where I'm coming from.

The good news is that, hopefully, another day or so and most of the symptoms should ease off. Hopefully my newfound health, pre-Streets debacle, will mean I can make a speedy recovery, and I can get back to enjoying my life again.

Egregious health

It would be an egregious act for me to not add something more meaningful here about my health over the past 2 weeks. I've certainly spent plenty of time complaining in the past, but I actually have good news to report, and this is as positive as I've been for months. Basically:

• I've been able to work my normal work weeks, 8am-4pm (which is my preferred timeslot), and even managed an extra 4 hour stint on Wed morning (my usual day off) without any ill effects.
  
• I got to have a lovely Ethiopian dinner the same night, something a little spicy as a nice break from the blandness of tuna and rice, and not so much as a whimper from my normally rambunctious stomach (that wasn't a word of the day, I just wanted to use it).
  
• I've only been sleeping 6-7 hours a night (which I'll settle for, now that I'm too old to cope with my 2-3 hours sleeps of yester-decade), but waking up energetic, and able to carry that energy through most of the day.
  
• I've been able to exercise regularly, and not collapse in a heap as a result (only really limited by a broken toe, which is slowly mending).
  
• I actually think my attitude has had a positive impact on my work team, instead of me needing them to help get me "up".
  
• I managed a lunchtime walk through the Belconnen Mall, with its obligatory aimlessly wandering crowds, and never once felt like punching someone.
  

Wow!

I'm a pasticher and didn't even know it

If ever there was a way of describing the things I write, and the lack of structure to them, I'd say "hodgepodge" is pretty accurate. And since that's a synonym for pastiche, I've fulfilled my plan of saying nothing while using the word of the day! Yay!

In direct contrast, here's Pete's blog, which actually covers some proper news.

Searching for comic covers?

A searchable database of 50,000 comic book covers here.

Disquisition

This entry certainly doesn't qualify as any kind of disquisition, but it certainly is an excuse to start using the word of the day as a trigger to some actual writing. Almost everything I've ever read or heard about becoming a good writer involves doing more of it, at any opportunity.

Despite many promises to actually make consistent updates to this blog, I've taken many leisurely breaks in between writing, even when I might have actually had things to write about. So to avoid my tendency to laziness, I'm going to attempt to pad out several sentences of blather around the aforementioned word, as often as possible. Will you be educated? Doubtful. Will you be entertained? Polarbear seems to not think so. Will I feel self-actualised? Like a panjandrum of old I most certainly will!

Solar/Water-powered car

Great! More kids doing stuff to make me feel I've wasted my life...

Alternative fuel car

(I've killed off my LiveJournal blog, since I think one is enough for me, but wanted to keep the entry above).

Ouch!

After starting back into weights yesterday, after a 3 or 4 month break, I remember why I wasn't keen to go back. The "best" part is I know it's going to hurt more tomorrow, just in time for basketball. Hooray!

Wash damn you!

Turns out it was just a loose pipe underneath the machine. Works fine now. Quite the anti-climax!!! (Although those exclamation marks really liven up the ending... will have to remember that...)

Too much time

Looks like polarbear had too much time on his hands yesterday? Work harder scum!!!

Seriously, though, good to see comments(1) on my page... Means someone's pretending to care!

Washing machine blues

I love owning my own home, don't get me wrong, but there are times when I just want to absolve myself of all responsibility for maintaining my house. One such time was this morning, when I was cheerfully browsing RSS feeds, only to be interrupted by one of my housemates saying "The laundry is flooded". Grrrrr. Ok, it wasn't quite flooded, but something was obviously wrong. Hopefully when I tip the washing machine up to see what's broken underneath (because it couldn't be something simple, like a loose pipe on the back, oh no...) it'll be something obvious. I bet everyone will be waiting eagerly to find out what happens next in - The Mystery of the Leaking Machine... stay tuned!

Food report

Hmmm, I noticed I haven't written anything about what I've eaten for months. Yeah, sure, it's been lots of tuna and rice still, but I've branched back to chicken/vegetable stir fry this week, and enjoyed it (although I still crave tuna when I don't have it for more than a day... something very wrong with that... I don't think my palate will ever recover from this diet).

Survival

After a terrible week health-wise, I've made it to the weekend, and am actually feeling not too bad right now. I'm hoping to do 3 or 4 hours solid work tomorrow, to make up for the short days I've been confined to recently.

The brightest spots of the past couple of days?
- visiting Kam, getting a little whingeing out of my system, and getting a new Hellboy comic for my troubles (OK, he took my money and ignored my complaints, but it's the appearance of the thought that counts...)
- Liv's adventures in Europe (vicarious travelling is definitely my best option right now)
- my work team. Not suckered in by my self-pitying mood of yesterday, and able to provide me plenty of opportunities to help with tasks as my brain came back on line today.

Valiant Loaded loss

Oh, for another set of young legs...

Despite an awesome first half effort, being down by only 4, we came up short in game 2 of the new season, mostly due to only having 5 players. Spud and Shak both had great games again, running the whole time, despite ankle and shoulder injuries respectively. Sergeant Swish was dominating on the defensive boards as well as managing a spectacular tip-in and a "white chocolate" move in the second half. Batto didn't quite live up to his Rain Man reputation, going 0-11 from downtown. And Bertie simply died with 13 minutes to go. Or did he? Yes, he did.

So really I'm just happy to be walking today, admittedly with my knees, ankles and feet all painful. I'm waaaaay too old to be attempting 40 minutes, and I'll be overjoyed to spend some time on the bench next week, when we should hopefully have the In Blue dogs back.

Asking questions, searching for surprise

Another one of my pet dwelling topics, seeking a return to child-like wonder. This article ties aspects of that in with writing. A couple of paragraphs to give you the flavour:

"How do you find surprises? Well, therein lies half the work of essay writing. (The other half is expressing yourself well.) The trick is to use yourself as a proxy for the reader. You should only write about things you've thought about a lot. And anything you come across that surprises you, who've thought about the topic a lot, will probably surprise most readers."

"When it comes to surprises, the rich get richer. But (as with wealth) there may be habits of mind that will help the process along. It's good to have a habit of asking questions, especially questions beginning with Why. But not in the random way that three year olds ask why. There are an infinite number of questions. How do you find the fruitful ones?"

Money don't buy happiness

An article which ties in with my point about the Howard government's view on $$$ above all else as a measure of success:

Wealth does not create individual happiness, build a strong country

Teamwork

I've been thinking a lot about my leadership style, team management, and personal motivation recently. While the drain of being sick so much the past year or so has certainly played a part in my occasionally flagging enthusiasm at work (and elsewhere), I've felt there's more to it. Struggling to become part of a team again, when I don't even know day to day whether I'll be able to get out of bed, has been exhausting. And much of my work, at first glance, requires me to do things myself. Which isn't what makes me happy anymore (maybe it never really did).

Here are a few thoughts I jotted down around midnight when I couldn't sleep.

• I've realised I crave group situations, working with teams, chatting with friends, interacting.
  
• When I'm undertaking a solo task, I spend a lot of time thinking "How can this be transformed into something collaborative?"
  
• It's not enough to be doing things for people, it has to be with people too.
  

My extended illness(es) have served to isolate me from group situations, as well as shifted me to a me-first thinking necessary to try to get better.

• It's hard for me to go out for food/drink with any confidence of avoiding a relapse.
  
• It's hard to make plans, when I'm quite frequently struck with illness unexpectedly.
  
• Its hard to avoid talking about my health problems 'cause of how largely they've loomed over me for 15 months.
  

Hard, but not impossible, and it's this (fairly) recent realisation that I actually don't like being alone that helps me drag myself through some really bad days (sometimes ending in the "disaster" of a rapid retreat from work to bed).

So, what do I need to do? Get involved with more groups: volunteer, discussions, study, whatever. As long as it's collaboration.

Heroic Loaded win

Shenanigans Loaded began our 3rd season on Monday night, having moved up from A3 to A2. Tired and sore from our basketball of the Moruya weekend, we only fielded 6 players. And came away with the win! Batto "the Rain Man" knocked down a trademark 3-pointer to stretch the lead at a key time, I grabbed plenty of rebounds, and the fit young guys did all the rest of the work (i.e. running, jumping, scoring) to produce a convincing win. Hooray!

Moruya, baby!

OK, on a less serious note (if I think too much about John Howard and his cronies, I'll continue to be a big ball of rage), here's a little taste of the Moruya weekend (which I've only just recovered from, and I behaved myself).

Day 1
Shenanigans arrived at our three awesome cabins, overlooking the river, on Friday afternoon and settled in to relax, drink, and talk crap. Eventually someone complained they were hungry and we headed across the 1km bridge to town and ordered pizza (plus cashew chicken for picky me). G and Spud proceeded to eat far more than should be humanly possible, before we all went for a drink or three at the Air Raid. One offering to the dolphin later and we headed for home, nominally to be ready for tomorrow's 9am game.
Day 2
Everyone (except me) struggled up and off the stadium (I conveniently stayed in bed) to lose by a single point. A Batto power nap, and some rice cakes for me, later and we were off to play our two afternoon games. Two more losses by 5 points and 1 point respectively, and the basketball was out of the way. Time to get drinking (OK, to continue drinking).
Day 3
Finals time. A 10.30 game gave us time to ease into the day and pack up, the trip over all too soon. We lost again, by 2 points in overtime, to complete a perfect weekend. A lunch of fish and chips and a detour to Batemans Bay, and we were headed home. A few stragglers wound down the rest of the day at Shenanigans Central, not wanting the weekend to end. But end it did, and our livers, stomachs and brains were all very grateful...

The dictator is back

By reinstating the Howard dictatorship, the voting majority of Australia have once again displayed they are insular, selfish and short sighted. Here are a few reasons why:

• International opinion of our country is at an all time low. Human rights abuses of refugees, failure to sign the Kyoto Protocol and continued insults of our Asian neighbours illustrating the solely US-centric view of the world the Liberals hold.


• Those least able to support themselves will continue to struggle. An ever widening class divide, which is the antithesis of everything I love about Australia, due to economic decisions made with no social conscience. Education opportunities only available to the rich. Victimisation of legitimate welfare recipients, due to poorly outsourced welfare functions.


• Anything not tied down will be sold off to build a better "bottom line", e.g. Telstra, our forests, our economic sovereignty.

What good is a surplus when Australian kids see education options drying up, the health system is barely functional, and thousands are homeless. I've always been proud to be an Australian in the past, but the destruction to the essential goodness of my country, reaped by a heartless, unaccountable government over the past decade (and now set to continue, due to what I can only consider hopeless ignorance) has me ashamed of my nationality.

Scooby Doo 2

In my review of Doo 2 for the (eventually to be released) next issue of the Shenanigans Files, I was uncharacteristically harsh. But I've had a change of heart. I wrote the earlier review before actually watching the DVD, based entirely on my negative cinema experience. Much like The Matrix Revolutions, I found Doo 2 was better on the small screen (strange for special effects movies). Maybe sitting in a cinema on my own isn't conducive to enjoying comedy?

I've decided that the key reason why I enjoy almost every movie I see (or book I read, or play I go to) is that I know how much effort everyone involved has put into it, and it'd be wrong of me to pooh-pooh it simply because it's not perfect. If I had to live with expectations of perfection in my job, I probably wouldn't be sitting quite so pretty, so I'm willing to give points for effort. And making a living in a creative field only makes it more personal when there is (inevitable) criticism.

Watching the brief special features on the Doo 2 DVD (along with the dancing Scooby Doo I now have on my PC) gave me an appreciation for the care and attention that went into making the film, and a little of that enthusiasm has carried across into my impression of the movie. And, to be honest, it's certainly no worse than the original cartoon, the best bit of which was always Scooby himself, much like the movie.

So anyone who thought I might have grown a critical spine... 'fraid not.

I, Robot (the movie)

OK, anyone that knows me also knows I'm not-at-all-critical... of anything... except certain political stances. So you can take this "review" with the associated grain of salt.

I've never seen a Will Smith movie I didn't like (even Wild Wild West entertained me), and this is certainly a Will Smith movie, not an Isaac Asimov one. If you've read the short stories you'll recognise a character or two, e.g. Dr. Susan Calvin, but there're a lot more explosions than philosophical discussions about why a robot seems to be breaking one of the Three Laws of Robotics. Having said that, it's not all shallow, and the whizz-bang factor is high (and I just love watching action movies on my new TV... Have I mentioned that?... Several annoying times, you say?...)

I give it 4 winks out of 5

HHGTTG Game

I remember playing this when I was a kid on my neighbour's Microbee, or maybe it was on my first XT computer (with 512K of RAM and a 5.25" floppy drive!). I was bad at it then, I'm still bad at it now (lack of patience and concentration being large barriers). But if you think you have what it takes to survive past the bulldozer, try out the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Game.

Testing my new blogging tool

This will hopefully allow me to compose new posts, and edit existing ones, without needing to log in to Blogger. Not that that's such an imposition, but when were new toys not good?

Try out w.bloggar for yourself (it's free!). I'm sure Web interfaces are lovely, but this seems much easier for me.

Working comments!

OK, apparently I'm too "smart" for the ' how to add comments to your blog' instructions :) But, after looking in minute detail at Liv's, I finally have a working version that removes all (non-laziness-related) barriers to me blogging(-a-rama).

Hooray!

Adventures in CD shopping

Visited (the Belconnen branch of) Revolution CD at lunchtime today, to kill time and assure myself I'm not becoming a workaholic. Little did I know that as soon as I plonked my handful of selected CDs on the counter, the fire alarm would go off and I'd have to wait out the front of the store for 10 minutes while waiting for the fire department to give the all clear. Anyway, despite the delay I was very happy with my purchases.

However, in the process of listening to my new CDs I discovered that, instead of White Zombie's "Astro-Creep 2000" I've been given the soundtrack to "Eddie". Pretty funny, I guess, but I'm going to draw the line at listening to what is no doubt described as "Music from, and inspired by, the hit comedy Eddie". When it's headlined by a Coolio track (without so much as the word "gangsta" in the title) you know it's a worry.

Bunnies!

Some pretty funny 30 second bunny movies: http://www.angryalien.com/

Too much information!

I think the main thing preventing me from spending more time browsing the Web for interesting content was I had to dial-up and be sensitive to the phone needs of housemates before. Now, with ADSL, I can surf whenever I want. Which raises the issue that there's so much out there to look at, and not nearly enough time to see it all. I'm sure I'll come up with some strategies for getting the most value out of a reasonable amount of computer time, but I'm not there yet.

While I struggle to keep on top of everything I want to investigate, here're a few of the places I've been recently:

http://www.labor4refugees.org/ - title speaks for itself
http://www.defeathoward.com, http://www.rockagainsthoward.com/ - likewise

http://www.wikipedia.org/ - an open content encyclopaedia. I'm sure I'll find something I know enough about to contribute (rating the superhunks?)

A couple of on-line books which I haven't got around to reading yet:
http://www.cluetrain.com/book/index.html
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/index.csp

Plus stuff which may be the next generation of what I take for granted at work, thanks to the collaborative environment of Lotus products (and related to my blurb above about info overload) http://www.research.ibm.com/SocialComputing/AR.htm
I actually feel quite cut off from the world when on my home PC, as at work we have pervasive Instant Messaging and presence awareness. I only miss it when it's gone. Might have to play with some other IM tools to reconnect.

I might almost be able to mistake all the "news" above as a life, but I'm far too cynical for that. Next time, I'll hopefully have something to say about the new Hellboy I bought from K on Monday (haven't even started it yet, though).

Update (2/10):
I would've lost Liv's comment when reshaping this post, so here 'tis: "Wikipedia is very cool. You might be interested in this dicussion, which I got to from Brianstorms." Thanks Liv, I was interested!

New uniforms

How awesome are the new Shenanigans uniforms? ... Way awesome! Photos soon on the Shenanigans website.

Big TV good

My new TV is as cool as it should be for the kind of money I paid, so I'm happy, even after only sleeping 3 hours (too much excitement? Now I remember why I don't get excited about anything).

All I need now is for the Opals to beat Brazil tonight, to finalise top spot in their pool, and this great weather, hanging with mates, buying cool new toys weekend will be ... well... pretty damn good!

Stuff happen? No way!

Wow! Lots of stuff has happened today. Other than it being awesome weather, allowing us to soak up some sun as we played basketball and wish we were already in Moruya, I've finally got my broadband connection, meaning I have zero excuses not to update this blog frequently and often (I'm aware that's a double positive...).

Add to that the fact that tomorrow I will be the proud owner of a 132cm DLP rear projection TV, and I'm as excited as I've been in weeks/months.

Now that I think about it, I better do some of the work I brought home tonight, before I get absorbed in watching everything possible on my new TV...

I had a "letter" all prepared to send off to the Canberra Times, but it seems pretty lame when compared to the usual content of refugees, war, etc. which are the legacy of the current government. So I didn't send it off, but here it is anyway:

End of an Era
Impact Records, a Canberra institution for almost 30 years, will soon close its doors, muscled out of existence by JB Hi-Fi in aggressive search of the almighty dollar.

Impact was the only shop I've ever enjoyed. Browsing for hours, no pressure salesmanship, varied background music and relaxed staff.

I've had enough of the homogenising of our retail market, and will be voting with my wallet. I know Impact won't be resurrected by the gesture, but JB won't get a cent from me.

This'll probably be very disjointed, as I wrote it around midnight last night, when I was pretty tired from b/ball but still unable to sleep.

I've spent a large part of the last, Liberals in government, decade bitching about how bad the Liberals are, how I've disagreed with every "policy" they've proposed or implemented since their first (the gun buy back scheme). I hate their dollars before people approach, the fact that they clearly enjoy the power trip and show no inclination to listen to anything their constituents, e.g. me, might have to say.

But, on the flip side, have I done a single thing to improve things? donations to "Learning For Life" have salved my very uneasy conscience somewhat. However, I haven't spoken up against the many injustices which have been foisted upon the less fortunate. Partly I feel helpless, resigned to the wait for another election, praying Labor might do better. Partly, I feel too ignorant, having avoided the news almost obsessively because of how utterly depressing it is.

I don't have any good excuse, though, for not doing something. I'd like to contribute, to help, to improve things and restore Australia to the place I've spent my life being proud of, confident nowhere could be a more awesome place to live.

How will I do this? Try to stir up my brain first, fanned by the flames of possibly the only thing I've been passionate about for years, and that is the anger I've felt at the injustices of our current "leadership". It's so rare for me to have strong feelings about anything any more that I think it's been wasteful of me not to harness it long before now.

As a first step, I recommend anyone to have a look at the new "Not Happy, John!" link I've added, to see the beginnings of discussion which has raised hope in me where there was little before, that there are plenty of people who are concerned about the direction of our country, and are willing to do something about it. Join in!

Grrrr... As someone who has never really been too choosy about what I eat, I'm now coming to terms with how food labelling legislation needs some serious work. After finally having my health back on track, starting my normal workload last week, I started getting sick again, without knowing why. After 2 days of steadily worsening stomach pain and nausea, I had another look at the box of cereal I'd started on a few days earlier. And was it clearly labelled with a giant "CONTAINS GLUTEN!!!" message? Obviously not. They'd settled for some small printing, away from the ingredients list, leading me to believe I was perfectly safe.

After hopping into my hazmat jumpsuit and disposing of the remaining cereal in a radiation-proof container, I am starting to feel better again. It supposedly takes 3 days for the effect of having gluten to wear off, and I'm 2 days into that, so confident tomorrow morning will see me fit(ish) and ready to go to work.

Wha' happen'd?

And, sooner than you can say "Swish! You're a swish! Swish!", I'm back!

My excuse for nil content the past week is that I was asleep... all week. Before that, I was lazy and malcontent. Or maybe just lazy, since malcontent is quite an effort.
Anyway, I'm back, I've managed a return to work (admittedly only 3 hours each of the last 2 days), and ready to contribute to my blog again. Especially since there are far too many comments saying how great Polarbear is... time for me to grab some attention back!

Songs I done heard
"In the mood" by To My Surprise. A rocking little tune with the main line "I'm in the mood to ruin a melody, are you in the mood to ruin it along with me?". Funky animated video clip too.

Movies I done seen
The Cooler (to be said in an Arnie voice)
Romcom for the 21st century. A simple love story interspersed with gratuitous nudity and violent Mob-style beatings. I give it 3 saggy butts.

Books I done read
The Lord Of The Rings - Re-read the whole thing over the space of a fortnight (after first reading it 15 years ago), and thoroughly enjoyed it. Undoubtedly made easier going by being able to visualise most of it thanks to Peter Jackson. I admit I skipped some parts of the appendices, basically from the point where it started saying "...to this extent that Series I was generally applied to the dental or t-series (tincotema) and II to the labials...". I'm not quite masochistic enough to go through that again.

Kingdom Come - I'd forgotten just enough of the novelisation for this to be fairly fresh, and the art is awesome. Plus anything with Bat-Mite and Beppo the Super-Monkey is all right by me. I at least spotted Krypto with prompting, but most of the other in-jokes I needed pointed out to me.

Food report
I had chicken sausages and salad for lunch, and will be partaking of beef and vegetable stir-fry for dinner. I admit I had tuna and rice for both lunch and dinner yesterday, but the important point is that I didn't have to.

 
While flicking stations during ad breaks in the Simpsons, I had the misfortune of catching 5 seconds of Popstars Live. Horrible! I hear you cry in sympathy. But it gets worse! Those 5 seconds contained a soul-destroying rendition of "7 Nation Army". Not to overstate things, but The White Stripes would be turning over in their graves...

On another note, I'm really glad Batto didn't catch the Win News teaser on the same night. The phrase "good news for parents of kids with ADHD" would have prompted hours of "The good news? It's that ADHD doesn't exist!!!" style ranting.

 

Holidays!

Well, almost 4 days into 5 weeks off work, and I've spent an awful lot of my time in front of the TV. Has it been worthwhile? Here're are my "accomplishments":

• finished (re-)watching Buffy season 6, after 2.5 months ago starting right back at season 1, episode 1 (now I just have to wait 6 weeks for the final season to be released on DVD)


• watched "Intolerable Cruelty" which was very entertaining, and continued the run of successful (in my eyes) George Clooney films (yeah, sure it's a Coen brothers movie, but would I have wanted to see it without George and Catherine Zeta Jones? The answer is no)


• saw the final Matrix movie for the first time since being very disappointed when I caught it at the cinema. Much better on the small screen, surprisingly, and I actually enjoyed it this time around


• spent a day or two playing "Chaos Bleeds" the new Buffy PS2 game, and found it was pitched at exactly the right level for my gaming ability, i.e. Gumby. Also played Simpsons Road Rage, and once again a game designed for me. I actually get rewarded for poor driving!

Finally, gave my eyes a rest and made a comeback to competition basketball, just in time to play the final game of the season. After expecting to finally retire from b/ball, I now have plenty of enthusiasm for a new season, since I missed the last 2 months.

What am I having for dinner tonight? Tuna and rice...

 
OK, I was saving this up, but since some impatient reader is so ... well, impatient, here it is!

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH... Lame covers
Car makers are mostly to blame, but it seems to be a fad now, continuing on from the wonderful electronic "Summer of '69" which had everyone conveniently forgetting Bryan Adams' Robin Hood-related sins and praying for him to be released from collaboration purgatory (Mel C, anyone?).

Some of the greatest songs of our generation have been destroyed in recent months by tight-assed advertising execs who, instead of forking out for the rights to originals, have horrid, offensive remakes which, not content with sapping the joy out of memories of the real thing, go so far as to incite nausea and revulsion.

 

ATOMIC MADMEN

The heavenly creature screeched banally at the voluminous crowds below. The voluminous crowds ignored her. She sulked.

Zxcvb (the child of atomic madmen), while heavenly, also had a sensitive temperament, and she was easily hurt by being ignored. She decided to explode. And did so. The crowds became less voluminous.

THE END