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3rd
October
2004
It’s a great feeling sitting at home on a Sunday night knowing I don’t have to go to work in the morning. So far I’ve watched a bit of Australian Idol (my picks for the night - Anthony, Courtney, and Ricki-Lee..), read a couple of chapters in my book, “Kokoda” by Peter Fitzsimmons. I haven’t been able to put this book on my reading list since it doesn’t seem to be available on amazon, so here’s a picture of it :
It’s a brilliant read - a true story about real characters but written like a novel. I never knew much about Kokoda before now but reading this has given me an immense respect for what those Aussie soldiers went through. It makes you realise how close Australia came to being invaded back in WWII and how grateful we should be for what those diggers achieved.
As I read (and now type) I’ve got the DVD of Ben Harper - Live at the Hollywood Bowl playing, further increasing my respect for this great artist.
It’s a real show case of Ben and his band, “The Innocent Criminals” - great songs, singing, and musicianship. Right now I’m watching his lead guitarist wailing away on his Gibson Les Paul (speaking of which my new Les Paul sounded pretty good in church this morning - amazing how much difference this new guitar has made..) Sorry, back to Ben Harper - he does some amazing slide guitar playing, as well as showcasing his own acoustic and electric skills (lots of wah too!). Plus his bassist does this amazing solo on one song, which lasts several minutes. Definitely one of the better music DVDs I’ve seen.
[Current Music: Ben Harper - Burn One Down (live)]
Categories : Personal, books |
3rd
October
2004
…then it probably is.
I wrote the other day about Latham’s Medicare Gold plan, saying that I thought it sounded like a great idea in theory, but wasn’t sure if it was workable. Well my dubiousness has been further reinforced by this story -
NEWS.com.au : $2bn black hole in Medicare Gold - which shows that Labor has vastly underestimated it’s expense, a seemingly recurring theme with their policies. Oh well, back to reality I guess.
Read the rest of this entry »
Categories : Politics |
3rd
October
2004
It’s funny how the mind can play tricks on us. For the last half an hour there’s been a helicopter circling low over our neighbourhood, right over our house at times, which both my boys loved having a look at. However, I was not so overjoyed about it. Jenni has been out having a coffee the last couple of hours and my mind put that fact and the helicopter together to create a nightmare scenario. Perhaps the helicopter is a police or news helicopter, filming a horror smash on the main road near our estate. And Jenni’s out on the road! 2+2=5 I even turned on the news bulletin to see if they had anything about it.
Fortunately, God gave us mobile phones and I was able to call Jen and was very relieved to hear her voice. She’s still in Mandurah but on her way home now. Hope it’s not a smash and no-one else is involved though.
[Current Music: Newsboys - Amazing Love]
Categories : Personal |
3rd
October
2004
A couple of months back I was introduced by ob1 to the practice of sniping, a method by which you can submit a bid at the last possible second to ebay and thus win the auction. I discussed it in some detail here if you want to read more. Anyway the program Mark told me about was Hammer Snipe, which I’ve used successfully a few times, but the free version limits you to 3 auctions a week. If this seems a bit restrictive to you, and you don’t want to pay for the full version, then you can try Auction Inisghts, where you can sign up for another very similar online sniper with another 3 auctions a week, which should be enough for all but the most hard-core ebay users. So there’s 3 more shots in your sniper’s rifle.
[Current Music: Van Halen - Push Comes To Shove]
Categories : Internet |
3rd
October
2004
Yesterday afternoon we took our 3 year old son Owen down to watch the movie Shark Tale, an animated movie from Dreamworks, the makers of Shrek.
I was expecting to find a ‘Finding Nemo’ clone but it was in an entirely different vein. It was a much more adult oriented The Godfather meets the Fresh Prince style of movie, which is not surprising given that it’s two biggest stars were Robert DeNiro and Will Smith (who was great). In addition to these two, there was a veritable cascade of big names including Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Martin Scorcese, Ziggy Marley, and Tracey Grimshaw. Yes you heard right, Tracey Grimshaw of Channel 9’s Today show fame - how she managed to get a part alongside all these Hollywood types I have no idea but there you go.
Anyway as a movie it was quite enjoyable, though not in the same class as Nemo and it certainly did not hold Owen’s attention as well as the Disney/Pixar films do. But for an adult there were lots of in-jokes, good music, and a not too subtle message about tolerance etc, with a shark that could have got his next job working on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - I mean, he disguised himself as a dolphin and was a vegetarian, that’s gotta be about as gay as a shark can get right? So not a perfect movie but an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half on a Saturday afternoon.
Just had a look at Rotten Tomatoes, and it seems that the critics were not quite so forgiving, rating it as the worst reviewed 3D animated movie ever. Anyway make up your own mind. I certainly didn’t think it was that bad, and will probably get it when it comes out on DVD, to add to my little collection of CGI animated movies.
[Current Music: Metallica - Fade to black]
Categories : Movies |
