Mega

mega @ 2012-08-30T16:01:00

2012-08-30T23:01:24Z

G'day

So much to say

2010-05-11T16:35:22Z

So many things in the U.S. of late has stirred me up. Why should it? It's not as though I am a citizen. Speaking of which..not being a citizen comes in handy when people pounce on you as walk in and out of various shopping complexes. They want you to sign this petition and that petition. Election time seems to last...well...it seems endless. As soon as one election is over the spam starts for the following year. It's big business. Anyway, my point is, not being a citizen means they don't want your signature, so it's great to be able to be polite and not an ass to these people, because I probably wouldn't want to sign their stuff anyway.

mega @ 2009-06-05T00:12:00

2009-06-05T07:14:48Z

Obviously nothing has excited me enough to use this thing in the last couple of years.

Actually that isn't true. I'm just not motivated enough to type what I am thinking at the time I am thinking it. If I did I would probably make 15 random posts per day, at a line or two each.

Introducing Xavier

2008-08-14T07:35:08Z

Now he's here I can post again!

Xavier has arrived, born on the 13th at 9lb, 14oz and 21 inches. Who would have thought it was possible to push for a little under 15 minutes?!

Posted via the Treo since it's all I have to communicate with.

DVDs on 1080P

2007-11-09T02:15:33Z

Watching DVDs playing on Blu-Ray to a 1080P Sony XBR doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would. Still, I am not interested in playing tech-wars over which format will win over Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. It's Beta versus VHS all over again, and if you remember, the better quality did not win that battle.

Baseball Goes To Borrrrrrring

2007-08-08T19:07:25Z

This year was going to be so interesting for baseball statisticians and legal proceedings. It's actually been pretty boring, and will be boring from this day forth, until the World Series (assuming that match-up is a good match-ip).

BLAH, blah steroids in baseball, blah, blah, BORING! How many times can people rant about something that wasn't even illegal in the game at the time? It IS illegal in the game now, so feel free to blow-up at players who are stupid enough to 'cheat'. It wasn't cheating when it wasn't disallowed, so get over it, people!

This past week has been about pitchers not being able to get 300 wins in their career anymore, that the last person who may do it, Glavine, very well could be the last pitcher to get there, because the game has gone to where pitchers play 5-6 innings, thus making it harder to keep a win, or get a win. I'm not even sure people care about how many times a pitcher gets a win. Let's face it, it is all about how many runs are scored, which is why the American League half of the MLB is more popular to fans than the National League half. My personal opinion is that I like to have pitchers batting and not a designated hitter, so I prefer National League rules.

So last night time stood still in San Francisco when barry bonds hit his 756th homerun, making him the biggest home run hitter of all time. Now that is over there is nothing else of importance in baseball until the World Series, unless there is some excitement at the idea that the Yankees won't make the playoffs (anyone who ever counts them out of having a chance, ever in the first half of a season is a moron). The next biggest thing to happen will be when A-Rod overtakes Bonds in maybe 8 years from now, if he doesn't get injured (in a significant way) or banned from the sport.

Getting 3,000 hits in a baseball career is about as interesting as 300 wins for a pitcher, who cares. Sooner or later the list of 3,000 hitters will be so big that it will be of no consequence. Players play for longer now, and medical technology (and means to beat illegals drugs that assist in healing injuries) will cause players to come back earlier than ever and keep on trying to break records. Does anyone care about individual career stats until that person retires? Season stats are something else altogether, because it doesn't take 20 years to get there.

I was pretty pleased that Bonds hit his homerun at home. The fact Hank Aaron sent him a video message, splattered on the big screen at the stadium was pretty classy. The media has made up their own stories about how people feel about the homerun record being broken...beating that poor dead horse. It is what happens when a season, like what baseball has, goes on for so long with not a lot happening. If there isn't a record being broken some place in the game, and it isn't about the wildcard race, or division title, baseball is pretty boring for the media to translate to us because every game is irrelevant until we know which teams have no chance of making it, so we can ignore them and watch those that have a chance, until the playoffs are decided.

I'd have to say though, if I had the money to waste, I would certainly purchase one of the 5,000 bats being sold for barry Bond's record breaking homerun. That bat looks AWESOME, and at $130, it's very reasonably priced for something that will exist as the record until A-Rod breaks it in 2015 or so.

Not Fucking Happy

2007-08-07T10:36:37Z

I do NOT want this in my damn yard at 3:30am!

Now the whole damn inside of the house fucking stinks and I have no idea what to do but air it by leaving the front door open. Damn dogs grrr.

It smells like someone grew onions inside and left them to rot in 100 degree weather and covered them with a lot of burning rubber.

Update #1:

I think it has both is back legs broken, but it has been quite mobile this morning. I am sure it is spraying up a storm out there, just fighting to stay alive. I hate the smell, but I hate knowing it is probably in some horrible pain. if the people coming to rid this skunk from our house doesn't hurry up, it will find its way back under the house!

Update #2:

This is the last living image of the skunk (besides what the animal dude took with his camera). About 20 minutes after this picture was taken, the skunk was shot with a 22 rifle and it's body taken away to have tests done on its brain to test for rabies, since skunks are the second highest carriers of rabies, behind bats.

Now the dogs are on quarantine for upto 30 days, with a visit once a week, and I had to sign my life away that it's how it would be. Thankfully we had all our rabies shots current, otherwise they get taken away for 6 months quarantine, or euthanised (I believe the decision of which is upto us). Some of it was sucky rules, since they have this County bullshit and State bullshit where the company that makes the vacs must be also recognised. As it turns out, Montana must have stricter rabies laws because our 2 year Montana shots last for 3 years in California, so we were lucky (by Montana standards, Angel's expired this past April, and Anet's will expire in October, so add 12 months to both of those).

How this will tie into our Hawai'i trip we'll find out in 7-10 days (possibly sooner, but that is what I was told). We're not allowed people in our yard outside of people who already use the yard (aka immediate family), and the dogs aren't allowed to leave the yard, even to go for a walk on the lead.

This is all worst case scenario. If the tests on the brain-matter of the skunk come back negative, then we just have to wait for the phone call.

I'm sure the dogs are happy to have their backyard back to themselves again.

What Is Up With American Daytime Soaps??

2007-08-02T23:46:48Z

There are so many daytime soaps here, some are 'normal', some are unrealistic, most are full of inbred characters, but some are just so damn crazy I have no idea how they stay on the air.

I remember as a kid that Young and the Restless would be on, followed by Days of our Lives, on Channel 9. Bold and the Beautiful was on at 1:30 and then moved to 4:30 (or was it the other way around?) on Channel 10. I don't recall General Hospital being on TV in Australia, but it was definitely on when I was growing up in New Zealand (so that is prior to 1986). I am not sure if I remember there being any others, off the top of my head....oh I remember some show, was it called Santa Barbara?, that was on for an hour right before Bold and the Beautiful used to be on, on Channel 10...

Anyways...

Now, over here you have to expect with so many more years of cable tv (yet all these shows are on the 'free t air' channels) there are many more daytime soaps that never cracked the Aussie market...well there are. There are the following...All My Children, Another World, As The World Turns, Guiding Light, One Life To Live, and Passions.

Now let it be known that I don't watch any of these, with the exception of the Bold and the Beautiful because I find it so damn funny. I have never seen such an inbred pile of crap that is funnier to me than SNL will ever be. It breaks up my day, where I fix myself something to eat and laze about for 30 minutes (I probably watch 15 minutes of it, three times a week). It has an intelligent blend in with the Young and the Restless, since they are made by the same people, and switch cast members from one show to the other. Who would have thought so many people from the midwest would have direct connections to those in the fashion industry...

Anyways, I should just get to what I am most shocked about. I learned to deal with the fact that just because a character dies in a huge fire, or gets shot and there is a funeral, or they die in a car crash, a plane crash, or any other random act that causes actors to die more often than the average occurrance in ones life. What I never thought I would see is a little girl, maybe 6 or 7 years old in scenes where she doesn't talk, but bubbles pop up on the screen instead. not just do hey pop-up, but there is a 'pop' noise to go along with it!! This girl can sit on the couch for 20 minutes, next to some weird old lady and the girl talks through thinking? I really don't know, but somehow the old lady can converse back and forth with her. You hear the sound of an old lady, then 'pop'...old lady.....'pop'...

I stumbled upon this when I was out of the room after the rerun of Access Hollywood had ended, so it was 2pm. How ridiculous can these people get? How a TV show like Jericho, or even in the 'off season' Pirate Master, can be canceled, but this crap gets to stay on? No wonder I prefer to watch reality TV these days.

I had to Google which one it was...Passions....Crazy shit.

Please, for my sanity, give me Neighbours and Home & Away back!

(I think it is funny that Google shows up in LJ's spellchecker as being a spelling error)

fun at the drive in

2007-07-30T04:31:11Z

At the drive in watching The Simpsons...'tis funny

Why I can never be American

2007-05-01T04:02:10Z

I keep forgetting that the pizza delivery guy needs to be tipped (unless (s)he or the company he works for does something awful).

A Few Notes

2007-03-15T16:22:01Z

I hope UCLA wins the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

CSI and Law and Order frustrate me because they have people come in to do special appearances, and from that, you immediately know 'who done it'.

Babel made little sense.

Borat was surprisingly a lot better than I thought it would be.

The Departed deserved to win 'best picture' at the Academy Awards.

American Idol seems weak this year. There are only two people (both female) who can really sing well, and they will probably get voted off once they start having to sing non-gospel and try some rock or country.

I hate that every time I take a shower I have to consciously think about making sure I pickup the toothpaste and not the shampoo to put on my toothbrush. A couple of times it's been close, when my mind has been elsewhere.

Nikita loves Evanescence and hates the Killers.

Summer is coming!

Whoa Da Earthquake!!

2007-03-02T04:54:49Z

About 10 minutes ago we just felt our first Earthquake since moving here (last August). The news flash on TV says it was a 4.2, and the website showed people reporting about it from as far as 500km away. I thought a car crashed into the side of the house just to my right.

A 20 Year Old Confession

2007-02-22T19:19:47Z

When John Farnham's 'Your The Voice' came out and I heard it for the first time, I thought it was the best song ever made.

Feel free to confess your 80's 'behind closed doors' secret musical pleasures here.

Pet Peeve Of The Day

2007-01-30T17:50:23Z

If you make an appointment to see someone, say a Doctor, they ask that you give them a certain amount of notice if you are not able to make a pre-set appointment. If you do not comply, they will charge you the same as though you kept your appointment, or at least a proportion of it, and some cases a late changing fee may apply.

What sucks is when you have an appointment scheduled two weeks later than when you could have had it, you arrange the time to go to the appointment, which can include someone taking time off from work, time you will never get back, and you arrive at the location of the appointment only to have your phone ring while you are finding a car park, to say your appointment needs to be canceled and rescheduled.

I am sure we wouldn't get away with charging them the $50,000 (or portion of) that they charged us for a days work, for their late notice.

Happy Hottest 100 Day

2007-01-25T23:08:24Z

I'll be listening online to the hottest 100 on JJJ, all day with the Nikita-kid. Hope everyone has a great day :)

Hottest 100

2007-01-21T06:16:39Z

It's becoming more difficult each year to find songs to vote for in the JJJ Hottest 100. While we do listen to an alternative radio station here in the Bay, it's hardly 'alternative', but more 'alternative rock'. Most of the songs they play are too mainstream hard-rock for JJJ to play or have on it's voting list. Worst of all is that outside of Wolfmother and Jet, no Australian music is really featured (Living End has been). I am sure the ten songs I have just voted for are horrible compared to ones I would have voted for had I ever heard them before.

Still, I hope to suck down a longneck of Coopers Sparkling and spend the afternoon and evening listening, online, and reminiscing.

Go Hilltop Hoods!

First NBA game

2007-01-16T00:32:29Z

Friday night, the three of us went to watch the Miami Heat pound on the Golden State Warriors asses. Whilst there I noticed there were more people wearing Miami jerseys than Warriors jerseys...odd given it's the Warriors home court. We just happened to be some of those people.

Shaq didn't play, but he was there and looking pretty hot in his brown pinstripe suit. I was pleased though, because Dwyane Wade was playing. It's been a long time coming for me to see my favourite basketball player in action.

One thing I do not understand about spectators though. if their team is winning by too much, or are losing, they leave the game to go home. I don't understand how people are willing to spend almost $300 a ticket to just walk out before the game is even close to being over. I notice they do the same for Football as well. Then again, the 'fans' also "boo" their own team a lot also. The people around us were awesome though...although Nikita was the one getting all the attention (and not from crying either...he was actually really good).

I could see myself going to a lot more games (if they were always Miami games), but ticket prices are too steep for that kind of pastime. We had a good time though :)

24 Season Six

2007-01-16T00:22:08Z

It's hard to say how season six will be. The first two episodes we saw last night did not sell me. I guess we will see how tonight's episodes 3 & 4 pan out. I'd have to say, I am getting tired of every series being about some Middle East or Muslim thing. I really wanted them to stick with the Chinese storyline they left everyone hanging on from Season Five, or some new drug-lord or gang related storyline. Who knows, maybe it'll head back in that direction.

Best Thanksgiving Ever

2006-11-28T07:47:23Z

Who says you need turkey and football to have a good day? I just happened to have four great days in a row filled with things much better than any traditional turkey-day. Special breakfasts made for me everyday, and just relaxing away a four-day long weekend. No stress, no worries and the first time in a very long time we've had so many days just to ourselves. It'll be a very long time before we have such a time again.

Thanksgiving V.2006

2006-11-23T10:09:56Z

My 4th Thanksgiving is coming today (when I wake up), and I still don't get it. Why do people want to go to so much effort to cook so much food twice in a month? It's kinda like having two Christmas', except this day is loaded with Football, and no gift-giving. Everyone knows I've never been into the whole Christmas thing, so one can easily assume I am not into Thanksgiving either. I guess I am just the kind of person who believes in living day-to-day and responding to things that happen in life as they occur and not leaving my 'thanks' and gift giving for some predetermined day. I won't even go into the whole Hallmark holiday thing, or anything like that. I just hate how people use a day like these to make an excuse to hangout, and you can see it on peoples faces that they wish they weren't really there.

Well, this will be our first Thanksgiving just the two of us. We haven't bought anything for it, nor do we know if we will be doing much more than taking the dogs to the park (if it isn't raining), and preparing the house better, as we've totally run out of living and storage space, for the soon-to-be-visiting parentals in December. I don't think we'll be doing anything foodish for it, since we're dropping a cousin off at the airport in a few hours and I am sure we'd rather catch up on sleep when we get back after dealing with the crazy long weekend traffic.

Save the cheerleader, save the world

2006-11-17T19:20:20Z

American television is a strange thing, and it's no wonder channels are flooded with pilots when I am not sure myself why some series succeed where others fail. There have been so many shows 'trailed' and only so many have kept a timeslot, while others disappear without warning. You think that maybe they will be back for the next season, but generally they enter the abyss.

For a few weeks I was watching Smith, a show about a group of people brought together to work as a team of thieves, each person having their own side-story or series of complications (although, to be honest it wasn't a lot different than the one about the group of people plotting a heist on Rodeo Drive, that also got axed last season (I forget the name)). I thought it wasn't too bad, certainly more entertaining than Shark, another DA-lawyer show, but with a twist, that has seemed to have earned it's timeslot. It's shows like 'The Unit', which are barely okay and not a lot different than 'The Grid', which I thought was going to survive, and it was scheduled to come back, but hasn't so far. Criminal Minds survived to a second series, but it is different from the CSI's and L&O's, providing a different method to crime solving.

The pick of the bunch however would have to be Heroes. There is no doubt that this show is the best new one of television, and from everything I've heard, it was a surprise for it to be so popular. The advertising for it wasn't so great, and gave no clues about what was going on, beyond meeting some characters who could do very strange things. It almost appeared too sci-fi to be what it really is. Don't let the advertising fool you, it is a ton better than the advertising campaign it was given.

Friday Night Lights is also proving itself to be pretty decent, although with it evolving american football, I am not sure it would do so well outside of North America. I wouldn't let that be the reason to not watch it though, as there has only been three games over the seven or so weeks it's been on TV for and it's only for a portion of the hourly show. One thing I can say for sure is that it is a lot better than the movie (and it's a different storyline).

The disappointing series currently on for me would have to be Jericho. In the beginning it moved along nicely, nukes dropped all over the U.S. and one towns methods of surviving. That's fine and all, but it has slowed down to a point where the only reason I watch it is because nothing else is on, and I am hoping for something to happen, since there as to be a reason this show is keeping it's aired timeslot.

Game shows still move too slow as well. Why can't everything be nice and quick like Sale Of The Century (which isn't played in the U.S. anymore), well because they don't really want to give away a million dollars. One good thing though, 1 vs 100 is a lot better than Deal or no Deal, but I wish it would be just a little bit faster. Treasure Hunters (which finished months ago) is better than Race Around the World, which is probably why they have spiced it up a little. Survivor is still mostly boring, filled with the typical wannabe famous types. Big Brother here can not compete with any other I have seen from around the world. American BB is totally boring, and is 'Survivor: In A House". You do not get the interactions, or at least the producers think we don't need to see it. It's all challenges and nothing voyeuristic about it really, and as per usual, everything is censored (I don't think Americans have a clue about how censored their shows are compared to almost everywhere else).

Anyways, that's my once in a ever-time update on the state of television series. I must be bored :)

What's in your fridge??!

2006-10-27T20:37:21Z

Loads of Lemonade flavoured Glaceau Vitamin Water, bottled water, lots of cheese, grapes, ribs, milk, eggs, a couple of Snickers bars, caffeine free diet Pepsi, various sauces and marinades, a bunch of Propel fitness water, 1 can of Coke, juice, various vegies, chai tea, sour cream, dill dip, breakfast sausages, ham, pastrami, good old baking soda and other stuff.

We actually buy Safeway out of the vitamin water each time we go shopping because it is hard to find at times. The checkout chick asked me an interesting question "what's it taste like, do you like it?".

Sexism and the Music Industry

2006-09-14T20:57:22Z

It took me watching way too much Reality TV to have this as a train of thought, the show being Rockstar : Supernova. Don't get me wrong, I think the band will suck because the guys in it are stuck a couple of decades back (exception goes to Tommy Lee), but most of the vocalists were better this time than they were for the Rockstar : Inxs series. Heck I didn't even know who the hell Gilby Clarke was when the show started. I knew the other two, but damn, when listening to the tunes they had made for this 'new' album, they all sounded like late 80's American Rock. All three of them have been in bands that made better and more relevant music than what they seem to be writing. I don't think the music industry is returning to that dirty pub-rock, that didn't really sell too much anyway, between the Heavy Metal and Grunge eras. I actually found it most interesting that there were no Americans in the final four for this 'competition', two of which I chose as my favourites (as in the one male I said was the best and the one female who I said was the best back from episode one) got to the final two, and there was doubt who they were going to choose, and talent had nothing to do with this final two decision.

This brings me to my point about sexism. Why do they want females to try out for these contests when we all know that one will not be chosen? It was like last season. Imagine Inxs with a female singer....hello? This season, we have two washed out musicians looking to find a way to be popular, riding on the coat tails of Tommy Lee, and hopefully a frontMAN who won't be outshone by Tommy's energy behind the drums. They made the right choice as far as that went, but honestly Dilana was the best vocalist for the era-type of music style they were playing. Problem is, women don't make good fronters for bands.

The question I have been asking myself for a week now, since the final four, and now it's all over is, name one internationally popular band that has a female fronter that has been great for at least 20 years? The names I have heard on asking this question so far are, The Pretenders, Blondie, No Doubt and maybe Heart. Personally, I think the only one of those that comes close is No Doubt, and even then, they don't seem to tread into the International scene very much. I'm not sure much has left the U.S. border since that one album of theirs ten years ago.

What I am comparing these to are bands such as U2, The Cure and Metallica (for starters), and even the Chili Peppers have been together for the qualifying time (20 years, as the question poses). Even the Rolling Stones keeping rolling out albums, although I think most of their stuff is nostalgic tours for the children of the 60s and 70s. So I ask, are we the sexist consumer or is the industry sexist when they decide what style of music is the next big thing? Is it really impossible to take a female lead singer and make a lot of money in a band? Or are women destined to be solo artists?

Hello California!

2006-08-23T00:40:29Z

Well actually, we got here Saturday night. The journey wasn't too bad. We went via I-15, then US-93, then onto I-80 (plus some others, but they were insignificant). The first day we drove through Montana and Idaho. The plan was to make it to Twin Falls before sunset, which we did. We decided to drive on. The next stretch is 100 miles of nothingness, single lane road where in the dark you can be faced with random large animals (hence us wanting to stop before the sunset, before changing our mind). We stayed at a little town in Nevada called Wells. We could have stayed in a town earlier, called Jackpot, but we didn't feel like paying to stay in some huge ripoff Casino in a huge truck where those who lost all their money could see the truck as a means to break even.

The next morning we completed our Nevada journey and then onto California, the second half being only a 550-600 mile drive. We arrived at our new home at about 6-7pm and started unloading straight away. All but three really heavy pieces of furniture made its way inside by just the two of us. Patrick bunged up his leg a bit in the process (carrying a large TV cabinet by yourself (and that not being the end of the self-lifting) might do that). We got to sleep in our own bed that night, so that was very nice indeed. The dogs too enjoyed being able to walk around after being caged for a couple of days. They seem to be settling in quite nicely.

All our utilities are up and running, the Internet being the last of the lot (due to the guy who came yesterdays laziness it took one day longer than it should have been). It's (Comcast) slower than what we were getting in Montana, but it'll do. We might be able to have our first home cooked meal by tomorrow, when more unpacking and cleaning is done. That process alone will probably take a day or two more to complete, now that I don't have to worry about people needing to work inside the house anymore.

Farewell Montana

2006-08-14T17:18:03Z

Nope, we haven't left yet, but this could be the last entry I make before we leave this Friday. We're busily packing things away, the only difficulty is making sure enough stuff is left behind to make this house live-able. You see, we're keeping this house because Patrick has to work up here one week a month (two weeks a month for the next couple of months), at least for now. Our truck will arrive on Wednesday and we'll pack that up over that night and Thursday. We hope to be completely unpacked (as in the truck emptied) by Sunday afternoon.

So....Montana...It hasn't been so bad. Yep, this town is way too small and dysfunctional for me. I am happy to be out of here after three years. Often people will screw their faces up when they hear that is where we live, but most of the time those people have never been here. So what is Montana really like? Well, I would never choose to live here permanently. It's one of those places where you buy an overpriced cabin on the lake or riverfront for a nice cool million bucks (probably more), and either retire there or use it as a summer vacation home, or a place to get away to during the year. I am truly a city gal. I have not lived in a place smaller than 1.2 million since prior to twenty years ago, back when 30,000 people was just big enough for the child I was back then.

The cities in this state almost all look the same. There are no buildings over three or four stories, the exception being hotels. The populations for these places are between 35,000 and 50,000. Heck, there isn't a million people in the whole state. The cities aren't of much interest. You come here for the countryside, not the hustle of college towns with not a lot of things to do.

So why come here? Skiing, snowmobiling, fishing, bush-walking, camping, boating (sailing, or not), horse riding....all outdoorsy stuff, and a lot more. You could come here just for the views. There are a lot of stunning things to look at. Problem is, it takes patience to get to any place as it is a large spam of land, and over half the year is covered in ice or snow. You come here to be revitalised and refreshed, and it will happen...so long as it is only a vacation.

I will miss Montana when I leave. My complaints are solely based around where we are living and the lack of constructive things for me to do, so I can grow as a person. Everywhere else is well worth the visits. It is no surprise also that another reason to miss Montana is not being able to drive over to Canada whenever we want. Mexico doesn't have the same appeal (plus isn't only a 20 minute drive away from our new house!).

Anyways, nothing I can say about this state can give it the true justice it deserves. Maybe one day I will put together a series of pictures I've taken over the last three years, I certainly have at least a couple thousand of them. Pictures are only what can say what people need to know about why they should come here, and sell them on it. One thing that is safe to say is that I am not done traveling around here. So long as Patrick is working up here, we'll make return trips together, maybe even as early as this December...but we'll see what happens.