Commentary: May 2005 Archives

So Schapelle Corby was convicted of drug trafficking in Bali and sentenced to 20 years.

Maybe she did it, maybe she didn't. My gut feeling is that she didn't. Why would anyone smuggle drugs *into* Bali - it's surely worth more here than there?!? I feel it was a case of she was guilty until proven innocent, which of course was never going to happen.

One thing's for sure, I'll never go to Indonesia. Ever.

I was rather tired last night and about to go to bed, when I realised I hadn't posted anything for the evening. What I didn't realise, when I was posting Nothing to see here, was that it was in fact, the 1000th entry of this blog!

Ironically, on the same day as this post, I received a comment on an earlier entry about how much of a waste of internet space my blog is.

So, 1000 pieces of clutter on the internet. And all I have to say to anyone that gets suckered into coming here from a stray Google search is "sucked in". mwooohahhaahh :)

Did you know there is a vegetable called a swede? I didn't!

Skip to tomorrow.
Somehow I started writing this but went to bed and forgot to finish it.. oops! :)

Yes apparently there is a vegetable called a swede, which I'd never heard of, and only heard of it because I looked at the ingredients list on a packet of chunky frozen vegetables. I had to go look it up on google to find out what it was.

It's finally starting to get cold here too..

Raid me baby

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The only other "highlight" of the weekend was discovering at 4:45pm on Friday evening that one of the disks in our main mail server had failed. However it was one of the disks we were given last year by Dell after the big stuffup with the file server. So then it was a frantic dash to get hold of our account manager, and then onto the tech support line to convince them that they should give us another disk. Fortunately it all worked out (even after not having any seagate disks of the right sort in the country (wtf??) and looking like we'd need to get one flown in from Singapore, and finally ending up with a fujitsu drive), and they delivered it to my house late Friday night. Installed it on Saturday and it spent the next few hours rebuilding the array, but luckily all went well and the raid was happy again by the end of it.

Anyone know how to configure Dell OpenManage to email me if a disk dies?

There's a very simple reason carbohydrates are fattening - because five minutes later you're hungry again!!

I had some leftover pasta for lunch (and a *late* lunch mind you), and an hour or so later I was starving again. That's just ridiculous! The same mass of protein would have kept me happily satisfied til dinner. I think that is part of the logic behind the Atkins diet? - protein and fatty foods fill you up betterer, so you just don't eat as much of it. Or something.

i ii iii iv v vi

So last night I did something that'll probably go down as a once-in-a-lifetime. I watched all six episodes of Star Wars. In order. Back to back. In 15 hours.

A friend of Striker's managed to get tickets to a midnight showing, so we started at 6pm with episodes I and II, then off to the cinema to see III, then back to Striker's to watch IV, V, and VI.

Was a brilliant night. The hardest part was staying awake between 5-6am, at the beginning-middle of Empire Strikes Back.

Episode III exceeded expections. That is, I had no expectations after I and II, and so was pleasantly surprised by this one. The story was good, the acting was good, the effects were stunning. It's very intense, very dark, very sad. I definitely want to go see it again.

The only two gripes I had with it (spoilers following) were Anakin's descent into evil and overuse of cgi.

I felt Anakin's change to the dark side was just a little bit too much of a stretch. I think he still had too much of a conscience left in him at the time for him to do what he did to the jedi. I actually would have found it more believable if he'd been wronged more deeply by one or more jedi and so he really was out for revenge. But it came across as he was only doing it because he was told to in order to save Padme. I think if it came down to it, choosing Padme's life over the lives of all the jedi wouldn't have been something he'd do. I just don't think he'd gotten "cold" enough to do that.

The other issue is cgi everywhere. I mean don't get me wrong, it's utterly beautifully filmed, but it just felt like nothing was tangibly real. The entire thing was shot at Fox Studios in Sydney. No location shooting whatsover (except a couple of flyby background plates). I can't imagine the actors would have had an interesting work environment. Just a few different textured floors, and lots of bluescreen. It felt almost like the entire thing was just a nice computer game.

So anyway. My 0.022c inc gst.

I still haven't actually had any sleep yet. Think I'll try not to, and get some stuff sorted out that I never get to on the weekends.

wtf?

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I think I about all you can say about this is..

wtf??

Natalie

2004: Left for the United States for six weeks
2001: Finances settled on this flat
1999: Kissed a boy I'd had a crush on for a couple of years
1999: Gavin and Fran got married

My brother moved into one of his houses on this day too, but don't know what year. 2003 maybe?

Unreal

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Six of us stayed back after work tonight for a bit of a death match. We played whatever the latest version of Unreal Tournament is.

I alternated between absolutely loving it and having a ball, and absolutely hating it and wishing I could go home, depending on the map and availability of weapons. Some levels I might only make two kills and just get constantly killed, but in others be able to hold my own with the rest of the guys.

I like the old version better. Most of the maps in the new version don't have a sniper rifle, and when it's there it's now not as easy to use. It takes a lot longer between shots and is a lot harder to kill with one shot. I actually found I had most success with the default pistol.. go figure!

Siesta

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Hands up who thinks we should be having afternoon siestas?

Even for fifteen minutes. There's just this point after I get back from lunch that I can't function and just need to doze for a bit.

Actually I feel like that about now. Oh wait, maybe that's because it's bed time.
hrm.

Took more photos at Luc's place, although forgot to go shopping. Made a 360° panorama although it's not the best quality. Too many variations in distances. Panoramas are best made when everything is a long way away.

360 pan around luc's study

So I borrowed a digital tuner card off me little brother today. Well it works, however it seems that my computer is too slow to cope with the input (it's a PIII 866!). This box actually picks up all the digital channels and seems to have no problem with them. So I don't know what was wrong with the box I borrowed off Campbell. But it also means that my aerial should work fine. This one even works with my old set of rabbit-ears, although not the aerial that comes with the box.

So.

I need two things:

  • ability to record television straight to hard drive so that I can one day retire my vcr machines
  • ability to digitise my old vhs tapes
    Actually I need three things. The third:
  • decent enough video editing software to process the stuff I digitise and burn the lot to dvd

    The first option is a hi-fi dvd recorder. If I get one with a hard drive I can use it as a vcr. The disadvantages, aside from the fact they're mostly only analogue at the moment, is that their editing is terribly primitive. Basically you can't with any control. It'd be ok for a short-medium term solution but I'd probably want to reedit everything at some point in the future and redo it all.

    The other option is a tuner card of some sort. Having established that at least one digital tuner card works here I can probably safely get a digital one. The disadvantage is that I'd need a new computer.

    So, a new computer with a tuner card and a big hard drive, and some good video editing software. What to get. I actually for a moment considered getting one of these (Dave'd be proud), but I don't think they have video inputs (I wonder if you can get a usb or firewire box with rca and aerial inputs?). Anyone have any recommendations or advice on what to get?

  • Aside from the fact that I'd suck badly at it, I'd totally love to do it. The last series finished last week, and the next one started tonight. Having Rob and Amber from survivor in it is going to be fun. Are they like reality show junkies or what?

    And who is the mole? Or where rather... I love that show! Bring on another season! :)

    hrm, in three minutes it'll be tomorrow..

    Kazza's "Boring Life Of a Geek" aka BLOG

    IT geek, originally from Sydney, moved to Canberra in 2007. Married to "the sweetie", aka Stu. Prolific photographer, Lego junkie and tropical fish keeper.

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