Thoughts from the Competition and Ageing

I noticed that an earlier post bore a striking resemblance to the posts of my other team mates. So in the interest of diversity I'm posting some observations and memories;

• I was REALLY impressed with the way the team fell into place. Everybody pulled together to do the best job they could.
• The writing exercises that Seraph and I worked on coming into the competition really helped. It was great to see how quickly we could turn out a working script.
• It was really funny to see myself on screen, I was surprised to see the facial expressions (even though I know how late in the day the shooting took place)
• I would not attempt to do this again without a Mac.
• The feeling of relaxation once Seraph handed me the Safety Copy for delivery to the 48 Hours HQ on the Sunday.
• Viv and myself drinking a beer, upstairs at the Bowls club getting a sales pitch from the grounds keeper as to the benefits of a social membership ($20 and you can bowl any time after 5pm on a week night).
• Despite the late time of my arrival in Wellington, being met by a half asleep Seraph
• Borrowing a guitar at one of the practice rooms at the school and jamming with one of the kids from the brass band competition.

All that fun and it was my birthday yesterday!!

Are YOU on message?

As the kind of guy who writes little of what he wants and much of what he has to; I suggest it is refreshing to reacquaint oneself with an excellent essay on the subject and a watch dog website whose humour is really quite tragic...

Or you could read this 'how not to' guide...

Memories of Billy T

I had a couple of hours at Wellington Airport before my flight out.
So, as you do, I was browsing around the shops. Figured I should get myself a book to read or a DVD or something.
So I was looking around and found vol 1 of the Billy T James Show (you know the one that was on TV3 in the early '90's)(not generally regarded as his finest work). To be honest I thought I was buying a selection of his sketch comedy, didn't realise my mistake until I got to Sydney, oh well its still a bit of fun!

Thankfully You Tube has a great selection though...

48 Hours Later...

Just a quick note now I'm back in the country after my incredible weekend of 48 Hour film Madness!! It was always going to be a crazy time and it did not disappoint.
So there we were, Seraph and I, on Friday 6.59pm poised behind our laptops like dueling banjo's. At 7.00pm on the dot Viv and Conan call in with our theme and must haves;

Character; Jerry Reed - Hypochondriac
Line; "And what do you call that?"
Prop; Rope
Genre; Educational/Religious

To be honest the temptation to go after a religious theme was strong, but we just couldn't pitch any really solid ideas. Eventually we hit upon the idea of a marketing/sales training video for pharmacists based on the idea of Hypochondriacs as the ideal customer - a walking goldmine if you will. By that time Conan and Viv had returned and we had our production team in place.
From that point on it just flowed...

Everyone was just incredible

Seraph - For taking the chance
Viv - For being a total battler and hanging in there with a full blown cold (and selective creative control)
Conan - For working like a demon the whole weekend, you are a legend dude!!
Jamie - Our wingman and graphics professional!
Angela - Set design is too poor a word for the hard work that transformed a small bland corner into a fully believable pharmacy.
Ryan - Sound and editing guru
Meredith - Runner, hand model and girl Friday extrodinaire
Danyl - For being a great sport to let us film him rubbing himself with loads of money (I think he actually liked it!)
Flick - For the awesome theme music
Maggie - Well this is one is a joint award for the donut as well

We had so much good luck and so many people helped us out in little ways. It was such a fun and positive environment. I could do it again next weekend!!

I'm just so glad I was able to join in this year. It always sounds like just a whole lot of crazy ass fun. And let me tell you know it was.
Thank you to everyone!!

Zombie town Team Management Song

As long as we're talking about Zombies here... Thought y'all might like this one (thanks Seraph)

28 Weeks Later - a lousy film review

I call this a lousy film review, because I'm not in the least bit objective here. 28 Weeks Later is a scary sequel, I'd rate it as a worthy follow on from 28 Days Later (possibly even scarier!).
So how do I measure these claims?

1) There were parts I actually hid my eyes from!!
2) I had dreams about the 'Infected' and was seriously wondering about the security of our house at 3am last night!!
3) Drove to work today wondering if Canberra could be quarantined off and how one might do that!!

All in all good 'clean' scary fun. It did its job well from that respect.
In terms of the franchise we get to see the speed with which the infection can spread and how a city could get taken down so quickly. Helps to give some background to the first movie (As an aside I think you could watch this one first or on its own without losing any major elements).

My recommendation; spend the money dude, its well worth it!

My niggles are below in super secret inviso-pen, don't read them if you actually want to see the movie...

Inviso-Pen ACTIVATE>>>>>>>

Niggle 1 - What I do know of the Apache Helicopter Gunship is that the main cannon is linked to the gunners eye. There is no way he would miss.

Niggle 2 - Why was the wife left unattended?!? and why did the husband have unfetted access around the entire base?!?

Time Management

Last Friday I drove to Sydney and back again. In between I had meetings and pitched by 3 year business plan for the business area. I'm not complaining, I got a lot done and it was well worth the effort.
You know I've been driving for about 6 or 7 years now. It is in fact one of the most fun things I can do with my time. The Canberra to Sydney drive is about 3 hours, give or take traffic, each way. And I have done it so many times its like a pleasant afternoon drive, no hurry - enjoy the sights.
Tomorrow I get to do it again, there is a training course up in Sydney I've been signed up for. The only problem from my end is its Karins birthday tomorrow.
I'm writing this from the radio station, I'm about to go on for 2 hours.

So tomorrow I will cook my lovelly wife a birthday breakfast in bed (bugger, forgot to get flowers - hmmm might check out the servo on the way home...(yeah if I want a divorce :)
There will be bacon eggs, pancakes with real Canadian maple syrup and whipped cream!!

It should be fantastic.
Every now and again though I feel like there isn't enough hours in the day. But I'm learning, that just means I need to move faster.

A wet Saturday

A wet Saturday, its like I deserve a do over. Though I shouldn't complain, we did have Wednesday off.
It was ANZAC day once again and once again I am amazed at the indifference of Australians to the NZ part. ANZAC to them just means Australian Army Corp. There is ZERO recognition of New Zealand, its all become proprietary.
And don't get me started on John Howard defining the term as more or less anyone who votes Liberal or watches channel 9. Check out the Wikipedia listings, see just how minimal the recognition is...

What frustrates me the most is trying to explain to Aussies that New Zealand has a very different view of the ANZAC spirit and Gallipoli. Its viewed by Kiwi's as a moment of nationhood, in much the same way as modern Turkey does. Not so the Australians.

Its the one and only time of the year that this country just pisses me off.

A Good Kind of Hurting

Yesterday I played my first game of soccer for the new season.
(Mental note for next time, don't play soccer after working out on my legs at the gym!)

I forgot just how much fun it is to race around a field for an hour or two (and even score a GOAL!). Just to refresh people's memory, its two teams divided equally amongst whoever turns up into Red - The Spitfires and Blue - The Lightnings. There is no skill level to speak of, but a basic rule of thumb is good sportmanship and courtesy.
Which I think are excellent values for us all.

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Made the mistake of wandering into JB HiFi afterward and walked out with amongst other things the latest Bowie best of, he seems to put one out every few years. This has some of newer stuff on it as well as the covers made popular by Nirvana et al.
Which is a good thing, I guess. My last best of got chewed by my shitty old CD player. Don't ask how, I assure you it is scratched to shit...

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After soccer yesterday, cooked a seafood paella and chowder, just to experiment and because Karin asked. A bit of change for me, I'm not a seafood person per see, but it seemed to work out ok. This morning woke up with stiff and sore, all the way to the hips. But I still feel it's worth the fun of running around like kid for a spell!!

Lets get serious!!

Have signed on with Seraph to the whole 48 Hour Film thing. I have no idea what I'm in for other than it should be a lot of FUN!!

Every year I hear these great stories from Seraph and I'm always like, Dude - you gotta hook me up and he's always like Dude - I keep forgetting or you're not serious or I thought you were dead...

I might've made those last ones up.

But we've begun, we're doing script writing exercises and soon we will be a finely oiled team.
Lets git it on!!!

Dumb TV

I don't watch a lot of TV, well not in this country at least - US Cable is hard to beat.
Right now my beloved is glued to the 'Biggest Loser', fat people losing weight for money.
How that is entertainment is the true miracle of Easter.

Having said that, I'm busy watching episodes of the Venture Brothers on YouTube.

This I must remember

So a couple of weeks ago I got a mountain bike. Principally for the pleasure of a Sunday afternoon bicycle ride. Which is a lot of fun, actually its more than that - its a lot of good old fashioned great fun!!

But I sometimes need to remind myself that I'm not Evel Knievel and should not attempt dirt jumps until I can land properly. Which to say, I'm a whiz at the jumping part, just haven't got the landing part squared away.

Still it is fun to have skinned my knees... Carpe Diem et al

Everything Changes

Happy Easter everyone!!

So I found myself wondering this morning, why do I still bother playing video games? As I've blogged before I'm not a techno or gadget boy, by any measure. Yet I enjoy having a computer game as a distraction.
I was prompted to think about this during the game 'God of War', it was while I was attempting to beat five colours of crap out of a giant mechanical minotaur. The game play is basic as to be absurd, run here - run there, bash this-mash that.
And yet I keep wasting my time on it...

I don't get it, I'm waiting for my epiphany. My moment of clarity. But I just keep pushing buttons to see what happens next - but its always more of the same...

Today is a lovely Autumn day, the sky is a perfect crushed powder blue. The season is changing the cold from the night is stretching longer and longer into the morning. Soon it will be the whole day. There is so much to see and do OUT THERE.
Why do I keep this stupid machine...


No wait I remember - SingStar

Scary Sequal

Hey gang!! Its scary movie time again!!!
I love zombie movies and although 28 Days Later wasn't specifically an undead movie, as such...

Anyway, no time for symantics. Its shotgun-a-grabbin' time and holein'-up-in-a-bunker time once more.
28 Weeks Later is the sequal!!

I haven't bothered with too much of the plot details. At a guess I'd say, things seem to go well at first, then they don't, small team of survivours, a few get picked off, darkest before the dawn, then the conclusion.
But I propose an awesome plot twist - England is WAY TOO infected for repopulation. It will always remain a threat - solution nuke the fucker!!
What do you think? Too obvious!?! - It will make for a shorter film though - which means less zombie/infected scenes... its a trade off.

Check out the trailer HERE

Radio in my brain

Boy howdy, I tell you whut! All this work and no play makes for a dull, but profitable life.

Y'know how sometimes you'll wake up and have a song in your head? Well I did my regular radio spot last night an hour long world music show (and yes I did play a mandetory accordian track). One of the songs was by a Basque group and it was fantastic!! In the first instance; Wow what good fortune to have been able to find them and secondly now get the feck out of my head.

To do List, Upon Taking Office First Draft

This is a list of things I intend to do, should by accident or design I become Emperor of the World;

1. Install Death Metal music around auto-tellers to motivate 'old people' to get their shit done FASTER (a recent trial at Redfern station produced similar results with young people and classical music).
2. An immediate moratorium on Queen's ' Bohemian Rhapsody' - No commercial radio station shall be allowed to play THAT song for at least a period of 18 months between rotation. Fuck you Wayne's World; it was ready to die at last and now they play it still EVERY FUCKING DAY!!
3. Jihad on Jamie Oliver
4. Customer admisitered therapy to motivate the attitude of surly young people who work in retail
5. Hand portable car batteries and nipple clamps for responisble adults while retail shopping.
6. Fast Food chain restaurants will be obliged not to serve fat people, for their own good.

More rules to follow...

City Report - Sydney

This one is a long time in coming.
I thought I'd add a report on the probably the most famous city in Australia largely because its so far been a glaring omission. Actually what has prompted me to write this one up is just having spent a week up on North Sydney for work.

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Transport - Usually good, although on Wednesday the entire metropolitan rail network was shut down due an accident involving a motorcycle and a van on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. God help you if Dick Chenney is in town...
It was the 75th anniversary of the Harbour Bridge this weekend.

Travel Times - Typically any Sydney sider who does not work in the suburb in which they live can expect to commute for up to 1 1/2 to 2 hours covering any distance from 20 Kms to 100+ Kms. This time in transit is regardless of the mode (bus, ferry, train, car). It is actually about the same amount of time to drive to Sydney from Canberra as it is to fly.

Cost of Living - Sydney has as a rule, has highest cost of living of any city in Australia. In recent times Perth has crept up to challenge this title - which frankly boggles the mind as to what you could possible be blowing your money on in Perth?!? it largely boils down to the revenue raising tactics of the State Govt of NSW. There are plenty of taxes that a Sydney Sider will pay twice (or three times if the local council is involved).

Housing - There are two types of houses in Sydney, the one you own and the one you wish you owned. Everyone in this city wants to be on the up and up. Get the right kind of house, get to the right kind of suburb, enjoy all the trappings that come with that kind of postcode. Whatever that may be. As a rule of thumb people settle in one ghetto of Sydney and never move out or at least never from long. Whether its the Eastern Suburbs (but only as far South as Bronte), the Inner West (Glebe to Leichhardt) the West (Parramatta and beyond) as examples.
As a result its best to think of Sydney as a series of small townships.

Entertainment - There are 2 things to do in Sydney on the weekend, go pubbing or go clubbing. And you can be assured that regular conversation is impossible in either situation.

Beaches - Wonderful! Sydney has the best beaches of any Capital City in Australia. Unfortunately in order to get out to them, you rely on public transport as there is never any parking and your car is liable to be broken into while your there.

Sport - Sydney will leap on the bandwagon of ANY local team, as long as it is doing well. The Sydney Swans are a prime example, ticket sales go through the roof if they are on a winning streak and drop like a stone if they are on a losing one.

Celebrations - Sydney is a party city and will show off at the drop of a hat. That said the events are always spectacular (largely due the harbour) and well attended. Its no surprise to me that the Sydney Olympics went off as well as they did.

People - As a rule the people of Sydney are friendly and always have the time for a chat. But this, as a rule, can be applied to most Australians. Its in their character to have a good old yarn with a complete stranger it is certainly one of the first things I noticed about them.

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Sydney, in my opinion, is a city thats at its best when visited. Its a great holiday destination, its bright, shinny and you can view 2 of the worlds most recognisble landmarks from any spot on the harbour.
I can't live there myself. The crowds piss me off, I hate driving through the city - it takes forever to get anywhere. No one reads books - everyone reads magazines...
Like I said, for me at least, a great place to visit.

What I did before I got a proper job

Hey Y'all,
You are in for a treat amigos' I have the pleasure of showing you a picture of my TOTALLY AWESOME F-100 and of me getting ready to go fishing up at Lake Eucambene.
It was a great day. I managed to convince my usual partner in crime Ando to join me and together we proceeded to catch no fish at all.
Which is good news for the fishing industry.

Believe it or not where the truck is parked is an area of the lake catchment called the Pan Handle. Its usually under water, if you can see the tree line in the background - thats where the lake would be at full capacity.
Its currently holding 8.5%.

Unemployed

Yes indeed friends, I'm unemployed until Thursday.
I have a few days in between jobs, so I guess that makes me unemployed. Which in turn makes me wonder what do the unemployed do? I tried feeling sorry for myself and blaming society - but my heart wasn't in it. Then I thought I could use this time to improve myself and read a book or two - but seemed to go against the Bogan 'Esprit de Corp'.

Finally I hit on it - unflattering facial hair.
Today I started my goatee.

Some Saturday Funk

Seraph has been posting a Hierarchy of Geekdom, its a lot of fun to read and I look forward to more posts. So far I can claim no association with the groups named to date. That said, I am something of a music nerd (by which I mean, I have a vast store of useless trivia about a whole range of music - and everything in the top 40 these days pisses me off)
So in the spirit of solidarity with my hygene challenged indoors types, I present a video by Money Mark. You get one Nerd Point for knowing who he is, you get a second Nerd Point for knowing the significance of the keyboard featured in the track and you get Uber Nerd Points if you can name the guys in the animal suits!!!