Boring fruit

The fruit here in Australia boring. I was eating my daily apple and pear today, thinking how good it would be if I had some longan and durian instead.

Back to the daily grind.....

Another year, another holiday has come and gone with the blink of an eye. It has been hard to get back to the daily grind, quite suprising since it's *ONLY* been three weeks. I guess some health issues since getting back has made it harder and being alone after all that time with friends and family takes getting used to again. Only back at work for three or so weeks before having another break for Christmas/New Year.

Good Game Fail

Good Game - the show for gamers, by epic fail.

I've watched two episodes with the new host Hex, and have to say, the show is definitely not as good. The reviews of the past two weeks have been poor and inconsistent. GTA4 expansion 'Ballad of Gay Tony' was bagged, but still given 7-8 out of 10? Cmon .. give me a break.

On the Whirlpool forums, someone posted some viewer stats, taken from http://www.mediaspy.org/forum/index.php?showforum=55

Whilst GG does not appear on every Monday's listings, the previous three entries were:

02 Nov - 44,000 (Bajo/Hex)
27 Oct - 47,000 (Bajo/Hex)
12 Oct - 70,000 (Bajo/Junglist)

Nearly half the viewers have switched off ... good move ABC? I think not. Epic fail.

Good Game showdown

So there seems to have been a big backlash among the gamer community over the axing of Junglist on Good Game. There is also tension with the producers, Junglist and Bajo taking potshots at each other over on the GG forums. There's a heap of debate happening on Whirlpool while news and gaming sites have reported articles on the matter. Some had described the dynamic between Junglist and Bajo similar to Top Gear, and that the dynamic of the show is now gone. I tend to agree, as I watched the show for the presenters, not so much the gaming content (there are plenty of websites which give more indepth reviews than GG do in their few minutes on each game).

I'm hoping MediaWatch investigate what has gone on behind the scenes.

All these jabs here and there probably means that Junglist will not make a return to GG. It seems Junglist was severely burnt by upper management, and with the latest forum posts, I think the bridges may have been burnt. Which is a shame, cos I enjoyed the show the way it was, and it was supposedly "the most downloaded show" on the ABC. I guess the ABC don't know the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". It's a pity that the show has been changed for the worse.

The next best thing that can come out of all of this, is that Junglist gets his own show. Cmon SBS!!! Then Australia would get double the gaming television that there currently is. And Good Game SP (for tweens) does not count.

No more Junglist on Good Game

I'm a fan of Good Game, shown on ABC2 on Monday nights. However, last week, it was suddenly announced that Junglist, one of the two hosts, was being axed, and replaced with a chick. Supposedly, this was because ABC big wigs found out about the gender inequality (2 male hosts) and, being politically correct, remedied the situation.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of Hex, the new female host. Nothing against her, but I liked Junglist's serious side compared to Bajo's comical side. Now it seems both Hex and Bajo are jokesters, and it doesn't gel well with me.

All the best to Junglist in his future endeavours.

Edguy are comin to town

Hell yeah, Edguy are making their way to Australia (and Perth) in January 2010! I've bought my ticket! 3 years ago, Gamma Ray came to the East Coast, and it was awesome. Edguy are coming next year and I'm hoping it will be just as awesome.

For me, these guys, along with Gamma Ray, got me listening to power metal about 8 or 9 years ago. I've always liked Tobias' light hearted, comical lyrics. Whilst their latest albums have been more hard rock than metal, I'm hoping some old songs will also be belted out.

I was looking where Edguy were playing and I found Screamfest in Sydney. Over New Years Eve and New Years Day, 2 days of melodic metal at Enmore Theatre. I would've loved to be there to see atleast Edguy, Sonata Arctica and Black Majesty, but looking at airfares and accomodation, it is just not justifiable financially. Damn mortgages ruin everything.... Would've been fucking fantastic to experience though.... one Powerball?

My new toy

What more can I say .. bucket loads of heat on tap, all on natural gas! It burns a little sooty (I'm hoping double checking and adjusting regulator pressure may change this), but apart from that, very happy with the results. The wok ring and the ring burner pot stand were painted in VHT Flameproof paint (exhaust paint) in silver and clear coat to stop the cast iron from rusting. The glossy finish is no more on the wok ring, only time will tell if the paint stays on.

Infomercials

After a late nite playing cards, I got home to turn on the TV and see an infomercial on Channel 10. It was for ProActive, the acne solution that has been endorsed by Jessica Simpson and now Delta Goodrem (I doubt either of those have used the product).

It then got me thinking that I don't see many infomercials nowadays, due to me normally being in bed before 10PM to get up before 6AM. Infomercials start on Channel 10 at about 2:30AM. Ones that spring to mind are the Miracle Blade 3 and another kitchen rotisserie infomercial. Both of these used to make me quite hungry when I was semi-nocturnal. The food looked real good, although I doubt it had anything to do with the mentioned products, and made me real hungry in the wee hours of the morning. Ah, those were the days...

I've done things the wrong way round...

So my commute to work is over an hour each way now, therefore, I have a lot of time to think about shit. The drive is pretty boring. As I pass cars, and cars pass me, I think what it would be like to drive them. My car is a pretty boring drive. Yeah, it's pretty good on fuel and is relatively reliable, but it definitely is not a drivers car.

Any Japanese car nut would know what these mean: SR20, RB25, EJ20. These are engines which beg to be revved. I happened to drive cars with those engines at one point in time too. Ahh the memories of a straight 6 engine, on full boost, screaming at 7000rpm, and loving every second of it. The low seating position, which made you feel inside the car, not on the car. The nicely weighted steering, with enough feedback so you knew when the grip was about to let go.

The point of this post? Well, the irony is, I probably drove the best Japanese engines that have existed the least! When I had my Skyline, I was driving to/from the city! A 20/30 minute journey! And whilst I had my Liberty for sometime at my current job, fuel was pushing over $1.50 a litre. Where is it now? I now spend 2 hours behind a 1.8L engine with no guts, and absolutely hates to be revved. B-O-R-I-N-G!

I remember at one point that car was always #1. Lifestyle and house would get 2nd priority, as long as I had a great car to drive. Funny how we look back and wonder how things change.....

Just need to win Lotto...........

2 months in

So I've been living alone for a little over two months now, and I've come to the conclusion:

• As much as I'd like more room, I'm glad I didn't go too big a house... too much cleaning.
• You can try and get ahead financially, but a bill/bills (or rates) will peg you back down.
• If you fail at cooking, you pay for it 3 times over...

Fighting a losing battle....

With CB away on the other side of the world for a month, I've decided to try and tackle the gardens in my lots of spare time on weekends. Boy what a mistake hahaha.

There are two problems with my yards. 1) Ants. 2) Weeds.

Ants are a major pain the ass, especially because they keep excavating sand from between my paving. This will eventually make them uneven, so whenever they dig the sand out, I try to put some Amdro down the hole to bait and poison them. Not sure if it's working, time will tell.

Both my front and back gardens are infested with weeds. Every bare patch of soil (and the grass) is covered in them. I bought a 3L bottle of Roundup and must've used about half the bottle today. I don't even think I hit most of the weeds. Hopefully this time next week, there'll be a lot more brown in the garden...

No promotion

Today, I finally got to speak with my functional manager to discuss how I was progressing. Whilst I met most of the required competencies, there was a group of them which I didn't meet. Unfortunately, I am not able to be promoted until I beef up these skills.

And this is where the problem lies. In order to build skills in this area, I need to spend some time in a different project area, an area which currently has no available positions. Not only this, but my superior (who wants to be promoted to Senior) also requires time in the same area. I highly doubt that we both will get shifted across which means one of us will have to wait if/when a position arises.

It's a bit of a chicken/egg scenario. Can't get promoted cos I'm missing some skills, but I cannot get those skills cos there's no positions. It's bullshit if you ask me... I know I should be grateful to have a job but I was quietly confident of having the required ratings (required ratings are kept secret) and am disappointed that it's probably going to be another 6 to 12 months before I get off pleb status.

Australian Dollar

So the Aussie Dollar is doing quite well at the moment .. 77 US cents .. and at Mustafa, $1.12 SGD.

Just need it to hold strong for the next few months!! CMON!! *gestures like Lleyton Hewitt*

Moved in

So the last few months have gone by, I've bought a house, gone through settlement and the last few weeks have been busy preparing everything to move. I've been sleeping there 4 days now and thought I'd note some thoughts I've been having lately. (so hopefully I can look back and go wtf?)

Has it all been happy happy joy joy? Not really. It doesn't feel like home just yet, and I feel quite lonely at times. When busy at work or back at Mum and Dad's it's all OK but trying to get asleep, the mind starts running and I question if it was the right thing to do. All part of the process I guess, and things will get easier as time goes by (eating at Mum and Dad's for dinner this week probably is not helping).

Government spend spend spend!

So the Federal Government has decided to spend an additional $300 billion on Defence, which includes 12 new submarines.

woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot.. woot..

Stupid Currency

I was looking through my old orders on Play-Asia and came across the following:

Apr 23, 2008
Grand Theft Auto IV (US, No Region Protection) 1 US$ 64.90 (~69.47 AUD)

Mar 30, 2009
Rock Band 2 (US, No Region Protection) 1 US$ 64.90 (~93.56 AUD)


Nearly one year later, it costs approx $24.09 to buy a game of the same international price... *cries*

Exemplary Customer Service

Examples of exemplary customer service as of late:
- Being told a credit card reissue (through no fault of my own) will take 3 business days, and will be 5 business days and still no card.
- Several sales staff from a Harvey Norman store not getting back to my enquiries and require chasing up on my behalf.
- Asking a personal banker a question multiple times and not receiving any answer, but the subject on the email reply suggests the question has been read.
- Placing an order on HP's online store and receiving an email asking me to call them (I received no phone call). Called and got voicemail. Replied to email and have heard nothing (5 days ago).
- Real Estate Agents .. enough said.

Note to anybody in the Retail/Customer Service World. You are *PAID* to make customers happy. So do your job, answer my questions, call back when you first advised etc. It is not my job to chase you up, nor should I have to.

Holidays 2009

Whilst I would of loved to go to Hong Kong this year, it looks like it's Singapore again, for a family wedding (again?). Not that I'm complaining... I look though my 2006 and 2008 blogs and my mouth is salivating. I can almost taste the stingray, chicken rice, hor fun, char kway teow, Old Chang Kee curry puff, Beard Papas, Starbucks, MOS Burger, McSpicy, Popeyes .... you get my drift.

I don't know who I hate more....

Car Salesmen or Real Estate Agents.... Actually fuck them all.

I really feel like calling the vendors personally and telling them that their agent is a fucktard. Or in one particular instance, uncontactable. I mean, don't they want to sell the property? For fuck sake, they should at least earn their commission by fucking answering the phone, responding to email and relaying to the vendor that people actually want to visit the fucking property.

Gone are the boom times when houses practically sold themselves. Agents might actually have to do some work and sell the fucking homes. For starters, they should evaluate the properties properly, instead of blowing smoke up the vendor's arses and keeping the property on the market for months on end.

I have seen some fairly prices property, and they have both been snatched before or within 1 home open. But there is a lot of overpriced properties, and a whole lot more WTF did they do properties. No wonder why people build...

Overpriced real estate

I've been looking at a few home opens lately, and either my perception of real estate is wrong, or there is a lot of overpriced crap out there.

No wonder why people are saying to bid 15%-30% off the asking price. Agents must be talking up the values of properties to get signed up.