Saw "I am Legend" on Friday night. Not a bad film, kind of like a less depressing version of "28 Days Later" (obviously the horror movie, not the Sandra Bullock vehicle). Will Smith plays the lone survivor of a viral plague in New York City, and everyone else has turned into zombie/vampire-like creatures who only come out at night. Some great scenes of New York City completely empty, with Smith hunting down deer and lions on the streets.
I finally got my broadband up and working at my new place. After hours on the phone with my ISP, turns out what I needed was a new modem. I got one with a built in wireless router on Saturday and had it up and running in minutes. I'm now ready to take on my fellow PS3/NBA 2k8 owners online (ie that means you, Corey and Mike).
I'm trying to cut down on my magazine subscriptions, especially after finding hundreds of old issues in my shed when I moved. I just resubscribed today to Esquire though. Fantastic writers (including a monthly column from Chuck Klosterman), and costs me less than $2 an issue (and I'm pretty sure it costs them at least that to post it to me from the US).
Music I'm enjoying right now - "Stranger's Almanac" by Whiskeytown, "Sunday at Devil Dirt" by Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell, and I'm actually enjoying a few tracks off the new Coldplay CD. Biggest disappointment - the new Aimee Mann album, that's two bad ones in a row for her (and three if you count that terrible Christmas album she did).
Another cool thing about my new house - the service station around the corner sells Farmers Union 600ml Iced Coffees for two for $4.50. I'm sure that's the cheapest I've seen since Corey and I used to carpool to work years ago and ended up buying one each almost every morning.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Pub Poker is the new Social Basketball
As much as I love playing basketball, there was something about basketball stadiums, particularly on social basketball league nights, that kind of depressed me. The people were always the same, week after week, month after month, year after year. Obviously I was complicit in this too, I played social basketball for close to ten years straight. But I almost always just played once a week, trying to balance the sport with having a life and stuff.
The thing is, I knew (and saw on a number of occasions) that if I were to go to say the Powerhouse on a Monday night, or Wayville on a Wednesday night, or St Clair on a Tuesday night, I'd see the same people from my Thursday Night St Ives league. These guys would play several times a week, even just turning up to the stadium to hang out and watch their friends play if they didn't have a game. I don't know why it made me depressed - people are free to live however they want, and it's not like they were shut-ins. But it did.
Last night I went down to the Palais with Andy and Murray for their poker night. I hadn't been in a couple of months, but noticed a lot of the same people from previous times. And noticed that many of them seemed to have become friends, presumably because they play against each other every week. And not just at the Palais either, as the night went on you'd overhear them swapping stories about games they play at a whole range of venues around the city.
Again, its good that they've found something they love to do, and have made friends (of sorts) with other likeminded people. But as the night went on, and I overheard snippets of conversations, it became obvious that the only thing that anyone there was comfortable talking about was poker. "I totally had him with pocket Tens but then he lucked out with an Ace on the River." "I had that hand two nights ago, but came up against Big Slick."
I started getting the feeling I used to get around basketball stadiums. Like I said, it's great that people can do something they love, and find likeminded people through it. But if the ensuing relationships don't go any deeper than a surface level shared appreciation for a particular pastime, it makes you wonder if its worth it.
OK, rant over, we'll be back to our scheduled reviews of violent movies and rock music shortly.
The thing is, I knew (and saw on a number of occasions) that if I were to go to say the Powerhouse on a Monday night, or Wayville on a Wednesday night, or St Clair on a Tuesday night, I'd see the same people from my Thursday Night St Ives league. These guys would play several times a week, even just turning up to the stadium to hang out and watch their friends play if they didn't have a game. I don't know why it made me depressed - people are free to live however they want, and it's not like they were shut-ins. But it did.
Last night I went down to the Palais with Andy and Murray for their poker night. I hadn't been in a couple of months, but noticed a lot of the same people from previous times. And noticed that many of them seemed to have become friends, presumably because they play against each other every week. And not just at the Palais either, as the night went on you'd overhear them swapping stories about games they play at a whole range of venues around the city.
Again, its good that they've found something they love to do, and have made friends (of sorts) with other likeminded people. But as the night went on, and I overheard snippets of conversations, it became obvious that the only thing that anyone there was comfortable talking about was poker. "I totally had him with pocket Tens but then he lucked out with an Ace on the River." "I had that hand two nights ago, but came up against Big Slick."
I started getting the feeling I used to get around basketball stadiums. Like I said, it's great that people can do something they love, and find likeminded people through it. But if the ensuing relationships don't go any deeper than a surface level shared appreciation for a particular pastime, it makes you wonder if its worth it.
OK, rant over, we'll be back to our scheduled reviews of violent movies and rock music shortly.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday Top 5 - Guitar Hero III songs
1. Guns n Roses - Welcome to the Jungle - Great song, plus you get to play as Slash.2. Dragonforce - Through the Fire and the Flames - sounds ridiculously 80's, but great fun to play, and kind of a cool song, so much so that I'm thinking of tracking it down and downloading it.
3. Slayer - Reign in Blood - The metal songs just seem to suit this game better than the rock, due to their complexity I presume.
4. Beastie Boys - Sabotage - Almost as much fun playing on bass as guitar.
5. Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade - Tremendous song, especially the intro section.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Weekend highlights
Friday night I had Murray and Amanda over for a delicious pasta carbonara, and some hot 2 on 2 Pictionary action. The night ended slightly prematurely when they left so Amanda could throw up. Probably not because of my cooking, but who knows?
Saturday I started watching Underbelly, which I missed on TV, but borrowed the episodes on DVD from Murray. It was OK, it held my attention, although noone's going to ever confuse it with The Sopranos as far as quality goes. It's nice to have another series to work my way through though.
Saturday night I settled down with a blu-ray copy of "300". I guess I liked it, although with fantasy type stuff I usually turn off pretty quickly, and this movie spends a lot of time in that domain. It's weird when you see TV characters in movies, and this one had Diver Dan and Jimmy McNulty, and it just didn't seem quite right.
Sunday afternoon I returned 300, and couldn't resist the urge to grab another movie from my awesome new local video store (all movies $2.95 including blu-ray, and only $2 on Tuesdays) and so picked up "Hostel 2". I have to say that, while I enjoyed this, it may have been a little too violent, even for me. And I don't really remember thinking that about another movie before. Like the first movie, the first half or so is just getting to know the characters, and the second half is full of killing and stuff. Again with the TV actors appearing in a movie - this one featured two of the guys from "Desperate Housewives" as brothers. I'd mention them by name, but that would reveal I've watched enough of that show to be able to do so, so let's just move on.
Sunday night Narelle came round for dinner, and I (or Michella, can't really remember) cooked up a storm with the Chili Con Carne. Narelle came bearing housewarming gifts - some tea towels (which were actually really nice on their own), and a second guitar controller for Guitar Hero (which was immediately the greatest housewarming gift I've ever received, and in my top 5 overall). After tea we spent a few hours playing coop on Guitar Hero, and then played against her, which was much more fun than playing on your own.
Saturday I started watching Underbelly, which I missed on TV, but borrowed the episodes on DVD from Murray. It was OK, it held my attention, although noone's going to ever confuse it with The Sopranos as far as quality goes. It's nice to have another series to work my way through though.
Saturday night I settled down with a blu-ray copy of "300". I guess I liked it, although with fantasy type stuff I usually turn off pretty quickly, and this movie spends a lot of time in that domain. It's weird when you see TV characters in movies, and this one had Diver Dan and Jimmy McNulty, and it just didn't seem quite right.
Sunday afternoon I returned 300, and couldn't resist the urge to grab another movie from my awesome new local video store (all movies $2.95 including blu-ray, and only $2 on Tuesdays) and so picked up "Hostel 2". I have to say that, while I enjoyed this, it may have been a little too violent, even for me. And I don't really remember thinking that about another movie before. Like the first movie, the first half or so is just getting to know the characters, and the second half is full of killing and stuff. Again with the TV actors appearing in a movie - this one featured two of the guys from "Desperate Housewives" as brothers. I'd mention them by name, but that would reveal I've watched enough of that show to be able to do so, so let's just move on.
Sunday night Narelle came round for dinner, and I (or Michella, can't really remember) cooked up a storm with the Chili Con Carne. Narelle came bearing housewarming gifts - some tea towels (which were actually really nice on their own), and a second guitar controller for Guitar Hero (which was immediately the greatest housewarming gift I've ever received, and in my top 5 overall). After tea we spent a few hours playing coop on Guitar Hero, and then played against her, which was much more fun than playing on your own.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Guitar Hero III
Despite never having played, or seen, the game, I bought Guitar Hero 3 last week. The purchase was almost entirely the result of two unsolicited rave reviews from friends in the last week or two - first Mike then Adam. With my love of guitar, rock music, and video games, I felt like I owed it to myself to give it a try.
After (finally - thanks AAMI!) picking up my replacement PS3 Saturday morning, I spent a good part of Saturday and Sunday playing GH3. Even Michella got in on the action - seems like when they don't involve shooting people in the face with a shotgun, she quite enjoys the video games.
We finished it on the easy setting, making our way through about 40 of the games 70 odd songs. Apparently to unlock the rest we need to go through the coop mode. Its actually really quite good, there's some really good songs in there for you to tackle, from "Cherub Rock" to "Paint it Black" to "One" (the Metallica version, not the U2 one). My favourite though "Welcome to the Jungle", I think I had a stupid grin on my face the whole way through that one.
The easy setting is as described, but I had a quick try at the next level up, and it's really quite hard. I also took a sneak peak at the expert level, which looks impossible. So I don't think I'll be finishing this one any time soon.
Over the weekend we also spent some time playing Grand Theft Auto 4. Michella seemed to enjoy the dating side of this game, she enjoyed taking out "Michelle" and trying to talk her way into her apartment. Which she had very little success with. I thought that was funny, even women have no idea what women want. Myself, I played it cool, didn't call Michelle every few hours, with much better results . . .
After (finally - thanks AAMI!) picking up my replacement PS3 Saturday morning, I spent a good part of Saturday and Sunday playing GH3. Even Michella got in on the action - seems like when they don't involve shooting people in the face with a shotgun, she quite enjoys the video games.
We finished it on the easy setting, making our way through about 40 of the games 70 odd songs. Apparently to unlock the rest we need to go through the coop mode. Its actually really quite good, there's some really good songs in there for you to tackle, from "Cherub Rock" to "Paint it Black" to "One" (the Metallica version, not the U2 one). My favourite though "Welcome to the Jungle", I think I had a stupid grin on my face the whole way through that one.
The easy setting is as described, but I had a quick try at the next level up, and it's really quite hard. I also took a sneak peak at the expert level, which looks impossible. So I don't think I'll be finishing this one any time soon.
Over the weekend we also spent some time playing Grand Theft Auto 4. Michella seemed to enjoy the dating side of this game, she enjoyed taking out "Michelle" and trying to talk her way into her apartment. Which she had very little success with. I thought that was funny, even women have no idea what women want. Myself, I played it cool, didn't call Michelle every few hours, with much better results . . .
Friday, June 13, 2008
Moving
Not a lot of updates the last week or so as I've been in the process of moving into my new place at Richmond.
The first part of this involved having a garage sale. I'm not so sure I would ever want to do that again. The people who come to these things literally suck the life out of you. I advertised mine as starting at 8.30am, by about 7.15am I had people calling out from the end of my driveway, asking if they could come and take an early look. Thankfully I had locks on my gates to keep the vultures out. When I opened the gates at 8.30am as promised a few of them even grumbled about how long they'd been waiting. Then proceeded to buy nothing, if I remember correctly.
I ended up making a bit over $200, but the process was so tedious and painful. The worst part was when people would pick something up, ask how much it was, I'd say "a dollar" just to get rid of it, and they'd contemplate it for a bit then put it down.
On Monday I did the actual move, with the help of the Crouch family, my family (sans Kerry) and Murray. The move went relatively smoothly, although it made me realise I should really stop buying things. Like right now. I've always been a bit of a hoarder, and so having a shed wasn't really good for me. I found magazines dating back for the last 15 years or so, a whole lot of stuff that I can't remember where it came from (meaning it probably wasn't actually mine), and whole range of half used building supplies . . .
Since both my old and new houses settled on the same day, it was going to be hard to do the changeover, but luckily the new one was vacant for a week before settlement and so the agent gave me the keys to store my property on the site. I took the phrase "store my property" to mean "move in completely", so have been living there since Monday. Also lucky for me, the old tenants left the power and gas on, so I've been using that the last few days. The least they could do really considering the condition they left the place in.
So far I'm enjoying the new location. I seem to be under the flight path, but notice that a little less each day. Being closer to town is great - it took me 14 minutes to get into town and into my carpark this morning, which was fantastic. Looking forward to exploring the new hood now - I tried the local pizza place on Monday night (had an unusual buy not unpleasant bbq beef and pineapple pizza), and can't wait to try the local chinese takeaway which offers meals for $6.
The first part of this involved having a garage sale. I'm not so sure I would ever want to do that again. The people who come to these things literally suck the life out of you. I advertised mine as starting at 8.30am, by about 7.15am I had people calling out from the end of my driveway, asking if they could come and take an early look. Thankfully I had locks on my gates to keep the vultures out. When I opened the gates at 8.30am as promised a few of them even grumbled about how long they'd been waiting. Then proceeded to buy nothing, if I remember correctly.
I ended up making a bit over $200, but the process was so tedious and painful. The worst part was when people would pick something up, ask how much it was, I'd say "a dollar" just to get rid of it, and they'd contemplate it for a bit then put it down.
On Monday I did the actual move, with the help of the Crouch family, my family (sans Kerry) and Murray. The move went relatively smoothly, although it made me realise I should really stop buying things. Like right now. I've always been a bit of a hoarder, and so having a shed wasn't really good for me. I found magazines dating back for the last 15 years or so, a whole lot of stuff that I can't remember where it came from (meaning it probably wasn't actually mine), and whole range of half used building supplies . . .
Since both my old and new houses settled on the same day, it was going to be hard to do the changeover, but luckily the new one was vacant for a week before settlement and so the agent gave me the keys to store my property on the site. I took the phrase "store my property" to mean "move in completely", so have been living there since Monday. Also lucky for me, the old tenants left the power and gas on, so I've been using that the last few days. The least they could do really considering the condition they left the place in.
So far I'm enjoying the new location. I seem to be under the flight path, but notice that a little less each day. Being closer to town is great - it took me 14 minutes to get into town and into my carpark this morning, which was fantastic. Looking forward to exploring the new hood now - I tried the local pizza place on Monday night (had an unusual buy not unpleasant bbq beef and pineapple pizza), and can't wait to try the local chinese takeaway which offers meals for $6.
Monday, June 02, 2008
You've got to love call centres
Today I had to make a few calls regarding my imminent move.
First up, I called Foxtel to query why I had received a bill for $3 since I cancelled my service a month or so ago. I asked the call centre guy what the charge was for. He said that $3 was the cost of sending a bill. I pointed out that the amount owing on my account was $0, so they had billed me $3 to tell me that I didn't owe them anything. He laughed and admitted that it was rather silly, and said he'd cancel the charge. So a small win for me, if you ignore the fact that I spent about 10 minutes on the call (most of it on hold).
Next, I had to call Dodo to talk to someone about moving my internet to my new house. Whenever I call Dodo I feel like I'm talking to retarded people. They really struggle to grasp simple concepts. I had sorted out most of the details, and thought it was odd I hadn't been asked what date I wanted the changeover to go into effect, so I said "Now I need the change to happen on 13 June."
"Oh no" she said, "this takes four days - your current service will cease in four days time and recommence at your new place on 6 June". I explained this wouldn't work for me, as I wouldn't be moving in for another week after that, and she said she would have to talk to her manager. Because it's so complicated and all. She came back and told me I would have to call back next week - four days before I wanted my service transferred. They can't book anything in for the future. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that when I call back next week they're going to tell me the process will take a fortnight . . .
First up, I called Foxtel to query why I had received a bill for $3 since I cancelled my service a month or so ago. I asked the call centre guy what the charge was for. He said that $3 was the cost of sending a bill. I pointed out that the amount owing on my account was $0, so they had billed me $3 to tell me that I didn't owe them anything. He laughed and admitted that it was rather silly, and said he'd cancel the charge. So a small win for me, if you ignore the fact that I spent about 10 minutes on the call (most of it on hold).
Next, I had to call Dodo to talk to someone about moving my internet to my new house. Whenever I call Dodo I feel like I'm talking to retarded people. They really struggle to grasp simple concepts. I had sorted out most of the details, and thought it was odd I hadn't been asked what date I wanted the changeover to go into effect, so I said "Now I need the change to happen on 13 June."
"Oh no" she said, "this takes four days - your current service will cease in four days time and recommence at your new place on 6 June". I explained this wouldn't work for me, as I wouldn't be moving in for another week after that, and she said she would have to talk to her manager. Because it's so complicated and all. She came back and told me I would have to call back next week - four days before I wanted my service transferred. They can't book anything in for the future. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that when I call back next week they're going to tell me the process will take a fortnight . . .
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