The world according to jacob...

Viva Las Vegas, baby Yeah!

2007-07-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Goddam it's been a while since I've posted here. Blogs seem to be dieing with the advent of that hideous facebook and antiquated myspace. I guess I'll do my bit to keep them alive with this post!

I'm going to Vegas!

We're flying to LA, renting a mustang convertible, driving through Death Valley to Las Vegas for 3-4 days in early August!

Enter: The 2-Player Funnel

2007-04-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

When we first moved in to our house here in Seattle, we had a housewarming party, and what better way to christen a house than to forge a funnel, and get everyone blind drunk right?

A great time was had by all, but there was one problem... people were lining up and not everyone could play at once. So I had an idea to make a "2 player funnel" so that it could be more of a team event... some kind of Y pipe that lets two people go at it simultaneously.

Last night... it happened. I had told my housemates of this, and obviously impressed with the idea, they ran out last night while I was at volleyball, and the result is this:

In case you are wondering... it holds 4 pints :-)

Canananananada

2007-04-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Missy & I headed up to Vancouver, BC for the weekend. I took the Friday off work and we drove up there first thing in the morning. Van city is about 220kms north of Seattle, so not too far. The drive plus crossing the border into Canada took about 3 hours. I had a bit of an issue crossing the border, I had to go in and speak to the immigration people, apparantly I'm a suspicious customer there. Anyway, a short stint in the immigration line and we were free and clear into the country.

Driving into Canada isn't much on the west coast, for the most part it's pretty flat and mostly farmland. Once you get closer to Van city, there are mountains covered in snow on the horizon, and it gets just stunning... I've never seen anything like it.

The city itself is pretty big, bigger than Seattle by a country mile, but it seems to be all mostly apartnment buildings. There weren't any distinct collections office buildings that I could tell. Either that, or all the office buildings look like apartment buildings :)

Van city proper

We were staying in the heart of the downtown shopping district called Robson Street at a pretty decent hotel, here's the view we had:

It's very nice, I like

I've forgotten how much fun running around during the day and night as a tourist is. You can make the city your own, on your own schedule. We managed to catch up with one of my sister's mates and her bf who are now both living up there, and we walked all up and down the street we stayed on, and at night hit up a wicked little irish pub called Doolin's. It was meant to be, as the second we walked through the door there was AFL on tellie - Kangas vs Pies - and all Aussie collingwood fans around the bar... love it! Was great fun partying with Aussies again :)

Also, once you drive about 5 mins north of Vancouver, you're surround by giant parks and forest. We even saw a bald eagle, which is an absolutely mesmerising bird... giant things they are.

I definitely want to go back again and check out what else Vancouver has to offer, looks like an incredible city. Check out the photos!! :)

Another win for MP3

2007-04-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

I read this morning about the whole copy-protection removal from certain songs on iTunes... and I must say, it's about time. I'm not one to advocate music piracy, but the restriction that iTunes-downloaded songs imposed was kind of ridiculous -- if I buy a music CD, I can play it anywhere, it's mine, I can use it as a coaster or listen to it, it's my choice. The songs I download from iTunes are only playable on my iPod... what if I had some other kind of music player? I now can't listen to these tracks.

None of this is new information. What is new, however, is that EMI announced yesterday that it would offer consumers at a higher price, DRM-free (copy-protection free) mp3 downloads from iTunes stores. The songs you download are also of a higher quality encoding... meaning clearer, more CD-like audio.

I think this is an excellent move, and going to go a long way towards increasing the popularity of the combination of personal mp3 players and online music stores. I guess we'll wait and see what it does for music piracy.

Swim across the Atlantic

2007-04-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

That's what google maps suggest to reach Paris:

See driving direction # 18 on this page:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=Seattle,+WA...

Back for Round 2

2007-03-21T00:56:00.000-07:00

My mate Sam sent me this pic, and it's definitely worth spreading more than through just e-mail... best advertisement ever.

Caption reads "We've just renovated, apologies for the distraction"

As far as I can tell, it looks legit... Still, you gotta feel sorry for the driver... hehehe, or maybe not :)

Biggest fall from "Grace" ever.

2007-03-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

Bloody hell, he's at it again... Can this guy just stop being a clown for a given 6 month period? I mean, christ. Ben Cousins... I dub thee Shane Warne II.

Beer Etiquette

2007-03-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

We have this condition in our house that whenever you get a beer from the fridge
you have to offer a beer to everyone else... I mean, it's only fair.

"Gettin a beer, anyone else want one?"

The idea is that you reply saying "yes, anything but an MGD" or "anything but a bud"; but if they just say "yeah sure" then it's fair game on what they get given. So about 2 weeks ago I bought a can of bud and a couple of cans of MGD and stashed em in the fridge, just slightly out of view, you know, so that if you looked you could see it, but you'd miss it otherwise. Last night hahaha,

"oi deano, want a beer mate?".... "Sure" he says [smile]

haha bullseye! he had to drink that horrid MGD and like it :) It's every man's job to know what beer is in his fridge... and if he doesn't he should learn :)

I think I could have a new favourite movie

2007-03-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

In a packed out theatre on opening night, we went to see a movie last night called "300" and I think this has entered the list of my top 5 favourite movies of all time. All I can say is.... Wow.

This is SPARTA!!!

Awesome fight scenes, epic battles... blood galore. Great film!!

Last (or worst?) Oncall

2007-03-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

This week is my last oncall on my team, and boy am I going out with a bang. I haven't had one night of uninterrupted sleep this week, and last week, my pager went off every hour for about 5 hours.

If you want to find me this weekend, I think you'll have to start a line out the front of my house, I'm likely going to be turning my phone, email, and everything else that can make a noise (ok, except World of Warcraft) off, and sleeping or gymming.

Sink the damn highway

2007-03-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

In Seattle there's a great big arse highway right on the waterfront. The road is akin to Perth's Riverside drive, but with as much traffic as say, the Mitchell Freeway. Why the hell Seattle's urban planners decided to build this highway as a waterfront decoration is boggling to me.

Here 'tis.

You can see it running along the waterfront here. Now, this highway isn't man's finest construction, and it isn't because it's uglying up the waterfront. It's because it could collapse during an earthquake, potentially killing lots of people on and around the highway. What Seattle is doing to remedy this is proposing two solutions: 1) Sink the bastard. Turn it into a tunnel. Or, 2) Rebuild it, make it stronger, and wider, and uglier.

How are they choosing? They're putting it to public vote. I think while this is a fair solution, it's a stupid solution. What the hell does Joe Seattle-guy know about building fucking highways? Nothing! Therefore, their input should be for a purely preferential viewpoint only. In Australia a convening body would meet, decide which is the most cost-effective and robust engineering solution, and perhaps public-preferred and then go and build it. I mean, it's pretty obvious in this case what's going to be public preferred.... What would you prefer? Walking along a waterfront with nice parks and restaurants and such, or a big ugly concrete noisy bloody traffic artery?

Sink it. And then shut up with this vote hogwash :-)

A busy 2007 so far

2007-02-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been a bit slack in blogging the last few weeks. I've had a couple of stories to tell, saved in draft format in one way or another, which I'm just managing to get to now (a la the Taxi story in the previous post).

I guess, first the big news. Since I've gotten back from Australia I've been pushing really hard at work for a promotion. At work, this involves peer and manager feedback, as well as an interview to make sure that you make the "bar", which is essentially that you're better than 50% of the people on your team-to-be. So a long story short, and a lot of work later, I went through the interview, received all the feedback, and in less than a year in my job over here I've been promoted! Hurrah :) New team, new software, new faces, all good things!

In other non-work related affairs, Seattle has been getting a lot of snow in the mountains around the city over the last couple of weeks, and invoked Powder Clause 3a in my life contract - "All committments other than Snowboarding in your life are now on hold". There is soooo much snow around right now... today for example, snow levels are at 500ft above sea level, which is bloody low. I went to Snoqualmie last night with a couple of mates from work, and it took me about 45 minutes to get up there, which is great time, and 2 hours to get down - due to the roads being covered in snow and slush. It's absolutely incredible snowboarding weather here right now.

My winter volleyball team, "The Defending Champions", is doing well, and we've made the playoffs. It's a 6-a-side mixed competition, and is great fun to play in. It's indoor court which has taken some getting used to, but I'm really enjoying it. The first round of the playoffs starts on Thursday... go DC!

Well, i'm all blogged out. Congrats to my best mate in Australia Foxy as well, found out last week that he's asked his gf to marry him and she said yes :-)

The Art of Calling for a Taxi

2007-02-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

This happened about a month ago, but it's definitely a story worth recalling. A group of us were heading out for a bit of a night out in a pub / club district here called Belltown, and no one wanted to drive... so I called a taxi to get everyone down there.

I guess the Taxi call-center folk aren't the sharpest needles in the haystack, or they're just deaf to non-American accents, but the chick who answered the phone had absolutely no comprehension whatsoever of what I was saying. I motioned to Deano to take my phone and "translate" for me. The little canadian wanted no part of translating Australian into American, so I thought, ok, bugger it.

I donned my American stars and stripes, and turned on my American accent, and spoke again to the call center girl. This time, she had absolutely no problem. I had a full conversation with the woman in my (completely flawed) American accent, and she understood every word!

Deano later told me that I sounded like a retarded Canadian, but the fact that she understood me and the taxi arrived was met with much cheer from my fellow drinking buddies on the night :-)

Course he's a Tasmanian

2007-02-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

Ricky Ponting, you bloody legend. The man won all three awards at the Allan Border Medal count last night, One day PotY, Test PotY, and the medal itself.

Once a centurion, now a cricket GOD

The man is the modern day Bradman.

Perth photos

2007-01-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

Are online.

Australian Open Kicks Into High Gear

2007-01-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

So it looks like as I leave Australia, and suitably as I type this I am where this is happening, the Australian Open is really picking up steam and taking off. Last night before leaving Perth for Melbourne I was watching Federer vs Robredo in the quarter final, and I swear I haven't been as pumped for a tennis match since days of Rafter and the Scud.

All your tennis are belong to me

Tonight R-Fed is through to meet Andy Roddick aka A-Rod in the semi-finals. This will be a bloody good match if last night's tennis was anything to go by.

In other crazy tennis news, Serena Williams is back and kicking arse after being described as "fat and flaky". Although, this woman grunts more than any other human on the planet I'm sure - I seriously cannot sit through one game of her tennis without laughing my arse off.

Me grimlock no like dodgy line calls

Hmmm, I never thought I'd enjoy tennis this much! Although, in saying that, there are ways it could be improved ;)

Upcoming shows

2007-01-19T19:01:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of upcoming shows in Seattle over the next month. In the couple of weeks I'm back in Seattle after returning from Australia, I'm going to see:

The Cat Empire - January 29th

Sarah Silverman - February 11th, and

Tenacious D - February 16th

Wow!!

Wedding Photos

2007-01-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

From Tassie are now online.

Hottest 100

2007-01-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

I voted in Triple J's Hottest 100 today.

Short List:
Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales Of San Francisco
Augie March - One Crowded Hour
Ben Harper - Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating
Cat Empire Project - Cities
Common - Go!
Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
Foo Fighters - Everlong (Acoustic Live)
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Gomez - How We Operate
Hilltop Hoods - Stopping All Stations
Jay-Z - Show Me What You Got
Jet - King's Horses
Jet - Rip It Up
Jurassic 5 - Work It Out (Feat. Dave Matthews Band)
Kanye West - Touch The Sky
Killers - Bones
Killers - Sam's Town
Killers - When You Were Young
Kisschasy - The Shake
Living End - Long Live The Weekend
Minus The Bear - The Fix
My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
Pendulum - Tarantula
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
Roots - Don't Feel Right
Sarah Blasko - Always On This Line
Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing
Sleepy Jackson - Devil Was In My Yard
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
Tenacious D - The Pick Of Destiny
We Are Scientists - Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
Wolfmother - Woman (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion
Youth Group - Forever Young

My Final 10:
Augie March - One Crowded Hour
Cat Empire Project - Cities
Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Gomez - How We Operate
Hilltop Hoods - Stopping All Stations
Jet - Rip It Up
Killers - When You Were Young
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
Youth Group - Forever Young

Hooray, no Bernard Fanning this year! :-)

Fun in the Snow

2007-01-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

Ross sent me this link, it seems I'm missing a lot of "fun" weather right now.

Snow-covered Seattle

Yep, glad to be home! :)

Tassie is the coooooolest place

2007-01-15T22:01:00.000-08:00

I've been back in my homeland for about 5 days now, and what a whirlwind trip home it's been so far. It was a looooong flight down to Tassie from Seattle - about 23 hours door to door, but well worth every minute. I'm back in Perth now, but in the days I was in Hobart (capital city of Tasmania) I was able to catch up with tons of rellies and do a little sight-seeing which was awes.

I was a groomsman in my cousin's wedding down there too - loved that. He was pretty nervous throughout the lead up to the wedding and especially on the day, but the other groomsmen and I took care of that. We took him out for a spa & sauna followed by breakfast on the Hobart Town docks -- where we had the distinct pleasure of (coincidentally) dining with Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Stuart Clark, and Ben Hilfenhaus -- members of the Australian Cricket team who happened to sit at the table next to us :) The team was down in Tassie for a couple of one-dayers :)

The wedding was a pretty boozey day starting at 9am and drinking with the lads and bridesmaids into the early hours. Everyone on my Mum's side was out for the day -- so great to see people I would have been otherwise unable to see during my trip here.

Yesterday we left Tassie for Perth, but before we left we had lunch at Australia's oldest brewery, Cascade. I've never been there before and the grounds around it were bloody spectacular. On the way out to the airport we drove through an old colonial town called Richmond, that was used predominantly as a town for a convict gaol. I'm now back in Perth and ready and raring to catch up with the boys back home and hit the town with everyone. The forecast for the next few days in Perth is high 20s to mid 30s which is perfect golf and beach weather. I hear it's snowing again and freezing in Seattle -- seems I have a knack for escaping during Seattle's "better" times ;)

Homecoming!

2007-01-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

I leave Seattle today bound for Australia! It'll be my first trip home since I left for America about a year ago and I'm really pumped to catch up with all my mates, especially these blokes:

Bloody little stoners

I'm in Hobart until the 16th, when I leave for Perth. I'm back in Seattle on January 24th.

Believe it or not, this morning while packing I found my Aussie sim card for my phone so I'll have my old phone number while I'm home which is awesome. Can't believe I've managed to hold onto the thing for so long ;) Anyone who wants to catch up I'll be out & about the best part of the time I'm home so look out for me!!!

What's up Australia!!!

Snowboarding

2007-01-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

I've just gotten back from a weekend of being completely immersed in snow. We spent two nights at a cabin in the mountains up near Mt. Baker. The cabin was pretty much right in the middle of the forest up there, and was a two-storey house that slept 8. It was all done up inside with wooden walls and floors, just like something out of the movies hehe.

We had two full days of snowboarding while we were up there, and man, it was sooooo good. The snow was completely powdery on both days, which makes for awesome boarding down the slopes up there.

Sunset at Mt. Baker

There were about 10 of us up there on both days, and we get to do it all again over Australia Day! The highlight of the trip was my mate stacking it in the powder, falling off his skis, and then spending ~45 fun-filled minutes digging through powder to try and find it -- which we did :-)

Welcome back to America

2007-01-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

I have returned to Seattle. Christmas with my sister in England was absolutely awesome, we had about a dozen people at her flat there, all of whom were from Perth. Haven't heard that many aussie accents in one place in a loooong time! It was a bloody good day with lots of great food and even more booze.

It was kind of funny getting back to Seattle, it wasn't so much returning "home" so it was almost like I was a tourist here all over again. Seeing the Seattle skyline (or whatever was visible in the fog, cloud, and rain) was kind of refreshing though, and it's kinda cool to be back "home". I should say, back where I hang my hat.

My first new years in Seattle was really great - it was spent with a few close friends - Missy, RossM & Val, RossT & Jodie, and Ross' sister Sheree, Janice, and Dirk. RossM has an apartment that pretty much looks straight out onto the Space Needle, which they really light up here on New Years and shoot fireworks off. The countdown starts at 10, and which point the lights at the bottom of the needle light up. As the countdown progresses, the lights on the needle go up to the top and at zero, fireworks shoot off everywhere.

This went off right on midnight and went for about 15 minutes. It was pretty cool actually, and even though it's not as extravagant as Perth's Australia Day skyshow, it looked pretty dam awesome.

Happy New Year to all! All the best for 2007 :-)

It's that time of year again

2006-12-24T01:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I've now left Luxembourg and made my way over to the UK to spend Christmas with my sister and Adrian. It sure doesn't feel like Christmas much to me, given how bloody cold it is, and the complete lack of sun. What happened to my Christmas in the sun :( Oh well, we can't have it all I guess.

The Amazon peak period has come and gone, my first "holiday experience" of Q4 at Amazon. I really enjoyed the time, especially working out of Lux with the EU operation, I was able to learn a lot more about the business. It was a pretty exciting few weeks.

However, now what it's all about is spending Christmas with your family, and I'm doing my best to do just that this year. The 'rentals and most of my rellies are back in Aus, so it's gonna be a bit of a downer not seeing them on Christmas Day this year, but at least I'll have my lil' sis here! On the plus side, I head home to Australia in less than 3 weeks so I'll get to see them all then. Further, Ems and her mates are cooking up this massive Christmas feed for us, it's sounding pretty awesome! So I guess not all is lost.

OK, time to spread some Christmas cheer:

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas! Get lots of pressies and eat and drink yourselves stupid!

3rd Test

2006-12-13T16:04:00.001-08:00

Starts today in Perth!! Go you aussies!!

Frankfotos

2006-12-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Are now online.

Frankfurt.... mmmm little snaggas

2006-12-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

Deano, Bob and I headed to Frankfurt over the weekend. We rented a car and drove out there, primarily so we could easily get out the Amazon FC in Bad Hersfeld, about 2 hours out of Frankfurt (although some Germans assured us we could make it out there in 1 hour). The drive to Frankfurt, and again on to the FC really was a bloody awesome experience. There really is nothing like taking a VW 1.9L polo to 200 clicks on the highways :) And what's scary is, it didn't feel that fast . . . maybe that was due to beamers and porches PASSING us at 200 clicks, never to be seen again... sweet Jesus. The car we rented had 14 kms on the clock when we picked it up... and over 1000 when we dropped it off, what a way to wear in a car... the german Autobahn baby! Averaging 150-160km/h yeaaahhh!!

The FC was really a sight to be seen. Never have I seen such an operation on such a massive scale. Without divulging too much information here, I was bloody stoked to go and be witness to the entire process as it happens. Clearly every step in the process has been scrutinised and fine-tuned for (near) optimal efficiency, and it certainly shows. That Jeff Bezos really was onto something.

The trip out to Frankfurt - including while we were there - appeared to have everything cursed; we never seemed to know where we were going. The city was continually trying to throw a spanner in our plans. We seemed doomed by lack of a decent map, directions, and a complete language barrier. This only fuelled the resolve of Team Awesome. We managed to make it out of Luxembourg and into Frankfurt without any _real_ knowledge of the way, especially when my directions print-out turned out to be directions to Frankfurt in general, as opposed to directly to the hotel - brilliant work on my part - thank you, thank you :) Of course, we somehow managed to pretty much drive straight into Frankfurt proper and to the hotel. Nice try, Frankfurt! Try harder to foil us next time!

Returning to Luxembourg was pretty interesting. Frankfurt wasn't that cold, but the day after we arrived home it was pretty much sitting on freezing temperature all day. In the fortnight we've been here temperature has dropped about 10 deg C, they either have some harsh winters here or this is a bit of a cold snap. The bratwurst at lunch though is making int aaaaaaaallllll better :) We also tried this hot red wine they have today called "Gluhwein" which at first was a bit dodge, but ended up being a winner - to everyone but Deano, who hated it ;)

I'm in the process of uploading the photos from the trip, watch this space.

C'arn you Aussies!

2006-12-05T05:17:00.000-08:00

And we've gone 2-0 up in the Ashes! What a bloody awesome fight back by Autralia after a massive 1st innings by England. A match that was surely poised for a draw at the end of day 4 has ended in a glorious victory to the Aussies.

Hey gilly, how's about a dry root to celebrate?

It's a bloody good time for cricket right now. But what you don't need are unaustralian dickheads talking down our nation's favourite sport (or one of them - favourite summer sport you might say).

All this whinging bastard can say is how listening to cricket is boring! Fucking whatever... this particular 5 day match saw one of Australia's most prolific run scorers in Ponting make a (yet another) century, as well as Collingwood and Pieterson making a double-century and a century respectively, and some brilliant bowling by Hoggard and Warne. Not to mention one of the greatest ever comebacks in test history! Turning an almost-certain draw into a massive win!

The guy that wrote this article needs his Australian citizenship revoked.

Amsterdamage!

2006-12-04T00:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since an opportunity has arisen to get an blog entry done... and I largely attribute that to three massive days of very little sleep and a lot of running amuck in Amsterdam. Deano & I had Wednesday to Friday off so we took the opportunity to head out & see some more of Europe. We crashed at a hostel in Amsterdam, which was very central to the major train station, shopping district, the red light district, and the (what I'm calling) damage district - the damage district being the section of Amsterdam (aka the damage) where all the pubs & clubs are.

We left Lux pretty much at the arsecrack of dawn on Wednesday and arrived at our hostel around 2pm - Amsterdam is about 6 hours from Lux by train. We dropped off our bags at the hostel, and headed out & about amongst the city to see what was going on. And by see what was going on, I don't mean running around in clogs or building windmills.

All the people at the zoo are very nice penguin!

Highlights of the damage were probably the Anne Frank house, which we went to on Thursday, the Heineken Brewery (also Thursday), and the mother of all pub crawls.... "Ultimate Party Amsterdam". The Anne Frank house was pretty surreal, I'd only heard bits & pieces about her from WWII, and going through the actual house were her family was hiding was rather overwhelming. I'm glad we went through there first because you leave pretty much on a down-note, so the brewery tour and pub crawl were, I think, perfect to follow.

Hands off my heiney!

I've put some photos online. It's an absolutely amazing city... canals everywhere, old European architecture, and an awesome place to party!

Luxembourg!

2006-11-25T23:36:00.000-08:00

I have arrived safely in Luxembourg. The flight over was relatively painless, Seattle straight to London-Heathrow which took about 9 hours, then another hour from there onto Lux. I was able to sleep most of the way to LHR and fortunately the times we flew at were relatively on par with sleep schedules so I don't think it's mucked me around too much. That being said, I woke up at 5.30am this morning completely unable to fall back asleep. Ah well, we'll see how it goes.

The plane from Seattle to London was awesome, British Airways all the way! Free glenlivet scotch and on-demand movies :) The plane from London to Lux however, I couldn't stand up straight in hehe, it was a tiny little jet thing.

They also apparantly don't allow remote control cars on board.

Today our main goal is to buy food for our apartments and then find the office that we're supposedly going to work in tomorrow. Should be interesting, me and Deano arrived today, and Rob and Jenny who arrived yesterday went walking around and couldn't find it. Surely with the four of us... heh, hopefully we can locate the office.

Until then, it's time to run around Europe!

It's all downhill from here ;)

One reason why I love America

2006-11-22T15:38:00.000-08:00

Custom designed cheques! There's also a little message I had put on them saying "Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!" :-)

Wiiiiiiiiiiiii

2006-11-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

Today I purchased a Nintendo Wii. It seems there's a hell of a lot of hype over here about these new generation consoles, and Thursday night when I went to the sports store above the local Best Buy and Target to buy some snow chains, it didn't really occur to me until later what the massive congregation of "outside-the-store-campers" were all about.

We gotta get our wii wii on!

Fortunately, I didn't have to endure such an experience, one of my co-workers did though; Wes and his wife lined up and bought two Wii's, one for them and one to sell on eBay. When it didn't sell, I promptly made him an offer for it and it is now mine!

Hooray for Wii! Shame about the name though... ;)

It's come with the standard setup, and the new Zelda game. As a Nintendo fan from way way wayyyy back, I can't fucking wait to see what playing this system is like :)

1st run

2006-11-20T10:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I managed to sneak in some boarding before I leave on Friday, and boy, just in time too. The mountains opened Thursday, and we went up Saturday to a massive display of snow.

Having not been for a good six months, I was worried if I'd actually remember anything ;) However, I surprised myself and was going down blue (medium difficulty) runs and landing a couple of jumps which was sweet. However, by mid arvo the time away has obviously shown and my legs started stinging and cramping up which sucked. At least it happened at the end of the day.

I, and a bunch of others took a few photos which I've put online. Some of them are pretty scenic, others are well... interesting :-)

I seriously LOVE this sport... awesome shit.

Down with Halloween, Up with Christmas!

2006-11-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

This country is fascinating... for weeks, shops, buildings, houses and any other kind of metaphysical structure are decked out for Halloween decorations of all sorts.

Then, in the the blink of an eye, all the pumpkins, corn, black cats, witches, skulls and cobwebs are replaced with reds, greens, and christmas trees - as if a giant Halloween grinch swept through the town and abolished everything.

Can you believe Christmas is like, a month away?! Fark.

It's back baby!

2006-11-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

It's time to SNOWBOARD! Yesssss finally after loooong amounts of waiting I finally get a chance to head back up the mountain this weekend.

Baker opens Thursday

Myself and about 10 other Amazonians are all heading up for the opening weekend of the winter season!! BAKER BAKER BAKER!!!

Guitar Hero Awesomeness

2006-11-08T12:40:00.000-08:00

Since I moved into my new house, I've been fascinated with a game my housemates have on PS2 - Guitar Hero. This game is truly incredible!! It's like Dance Dance Revolution but on a guitar. The controller is a guitar, and essentially the game is playing the guitar to some of the most rockin' tracks in the history of rocking-outing-ness!

Last night, we got a copy of Guitar Hero 2, which essentially took over our entire evening. We played this game and completed it on the night we bought it... we are "guitar heroes" haha :)

It's time to rock out with your cock out!

I was bloody stoked to see some Aussie bands make it in the game... Woman by Wolfmother and Carry Me Home by The Living End. As well as some _bloody impossible_ tracks on expert mode - Misirlou, the Pulp Fiction Theme and Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

I've never been more enthralled by a single game in my entire life! It's absolutely incredible!!

Awes

2006-11-07T17:00:00.000-08:00

There's so many mullets in here, I can't begin to describe how awesome this is.

Welcome to my morning...

2006-10-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

This is what was greeting me this morning on my friendly weather feed...

CURRENT CONDITIONS

33°F
Clear

Sunrise today: 6:52 am
Sunset today: 4:53 pm
Sunrise tomorrow: 6:53 am
Real feel: 33° F
Wind: @ 0mph
Humidity: 89%
Barometer: 30.27
Visibility: 10.0 miles

It's waayyyyy too cold! and this isn't even as cold as it got last night! ARGH!

Goings ons

2006-10-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

Things are going really well over here... i went camping / hiking last weekend in the olympic mountains - a ferry ride and about 2 hrs driving west of seattle in the peninsula before the pacific, omg the forests here are just incredible. all the trees were alive with arrays of yellows, reds and greens, never seen anything like it! photos are online on my site.

Seattle is going crazy for halloween at the moment, all the shops are selling costumes and there's pumpkins everywhere! we had a pumpkin carving party the other night - look at me! it was so much fun haha but our house stank of pumpkins for like, 2 days after it... ugh.

Dirk has arrived in seattle - he's a guy i used to work with at ripple, he's starting at amazon on monday. and next saturday ross tucker arrives - also another rippler/ it's funny there's one more aussie comin out in january, we'll have enough for a starting five on a basketball team!

Snowboarding season is pretty close too, can't wait for that!!

My flights to luxembourg got booked yesterday, i'm leaving seattle on the 24th of Nov and arriving in lux on the 25th of Nov, am there until the 23rd of Dec when he leaves for MERRY OL' ENGLAND to spend chrissy with his fave most awes lil sis!! hurrah! adrian is planning on coming to luxembourg too since he's in england, so i'll see him while i'm over in EU, then i'll probs stay with him when I get back to the UK.

That's all for now... i'm all blogged out.

Love from your us correspondent Y2J

Happy Camerican Thanksgiving!

2006-10-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

I've since moved out of my apartment in Seattle into a house with 3 guys from work, two of whom are Canadians (pics of the house online soon). Since one of the Canadians (Arlen Dean, who I've started to call "Deano", and by the way absolutely loves it) and I won't be here for the actual American Thanksgiving, we decided to hold a "Camerican" Thanksgiving tonight, half way between the Canadian and American Thanksgivings.

I'm told that Thanksgiving is a celebration of the harvest and such things like that, so they cook up a turkey and all these vegies, and a have a massive chow-down. Deano's folks were in town so it was kinda cool having them here for that to celebrate it with him.

Deano cookin' up a storm.

All the Americans and Canadians were busying themselves for the gravy and stuffing to garnish their covered plates of food... no such line to wait in for yours truly. I went straight for the tom sauce in the pantry and covered the turkey, taters, and vegies in it, much to the disgrace of my fellow housemates ;) Of course I did indulge in the meal in its intended form... but there's nothing like covering a plate of meat & vegies in tomato sauce...

My first proper home cooked meal in a loooong time!

Happy Camerican Thanksgiving!

The Last "Saturday" in September

2006-09-30T13:59:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest days of the year, the last Saturday in September, aka the AFL grand final has come and gone, and has given us, dare I say, the best Grand Final in history. The West Coast Eagles and Sydney Swans

Not being in Australia for the game was a bit of a bummer, but there's an Aussie pub over here in Seattle which truly put an awesome show for us. I dragged along a couple of mates from work who had only seen the game once before, along with Ross and Val, to the Kangaroo and Kiwi pub just north of Seattle in Greenlake for the game.

I've been to this pub a couple of times, and I've never seen it as packed. What a night! Go you bloody eagles! Course they won the premiership over the swans who beat them last year! Course they did! Yessss!!

The Heterosexuality Officer

2006-09-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

This man should be a national hero. It's about as Australian as it gets.

Preparing for a night of roo-shooting in his "ute", or utility truck, the ultimate symbol of Aussie machismo, Mr Allen said he did not give "a rat's arse" about gay people as long as they did not receive favourable treatment.

Australians that speak out about being Australian in an Australian way are awesome, even if they are saying something that may be frowned upon by some, it's just Oz to drop in the "don't give a rat's arse" and speak your mind at the same time :-)

Goings on

2006-09-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, wow, shit's really hitting the fan of late. So much going on.... let's see, where to start!

Over Labour Day (4th of September) it was a long weekend, and my cousin Adam was still in the country after PanPacs in Vancouver BC. So I flew down to LA for the weekend to party it up with him and one of his fellow swimmers.

Aussies in Hollywood

We were staying in a pretty swish hotel on Sunset Blvd, so swish on the last day we spotted one of Hef's playboy bunnies frolicking around the pool :-) On the Saturday night we met up with Thorpie and got on the piss with him which was a good time. He's not a bad bloke Thorpie. The man put on free grey goose vodka's for us all night... definitely a good bloke! haha.

After I got back from work, the lease ran out on my apartment and it was time to consider my options - stay and pay a shitload in rent, or move into a house with ppl and split the costs to save some coin. I chose the latter, and have spent the better part of the last week shifting my shit up the street to a pretty sweet house on Capitol Hill with some awesome guys from work. We have the housewarming there pretty much _all_ weekend which could turn into a bit of a shitshow (American for piss-up, argh look at me I'm learning) - watch out for photos!! :-)

In other news, I found out a couple of weeks ago that I'm going to Luxembourg for the Christmas Period at Amazon. The idea being that while it's night time in Seattle it's day time in EU, and I can help with anything that goes wrong at night over here and let people here get a good night's sleep. It's awesome because the same goes for me, no night-time pages, and I get to go to Europe! Hurrah!

Can you speak Luxembourgish? I sure as shit can't.

I can't even point to this country on a map... it's bloody tiny and in the middle of about 3 other countries. Should be interesting ;)

Going to the pub tonight too to watch the eagles game... the only team left in the race from the West, carn you Eagles!

Wow, what a day

2006-09-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Well, the race was run, and what a day it was.

The final count was 22 teams running drunk around the city of Seattle. The winning team completed the race in about 3 hours, running the entire way - truly a king effort!

Photos are online, wow... some of them, yeah, I can't explain... ones like this one:

I love drinking :-)

September 11... 5 years on

2006-09-11T19:54:00.000-07:00

5 years ago today is the day the modern world changed forever. So many things would never be the same again. The US launched the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, which would bring about the eventual forced expulsion of Saddam Hussein from Iraqi government. Air travel has since and forever also changed. Terrorists hijacked two planes and flew them directly into New York's World Trade Center.

The statue of liberty, a gesture of friendship, and the terrorist target.

Being in America for the 5th anniversary of one of the world's most perennial terrorist attacks on America has been a pretty eye-opening experience. This country has been impacted so much more than Australia and probably any other country in the world, bar maybe England.

There has also been some splash-back from the Internet community on the attacks, prompting images such as these:

Up ya clacker, terrorists

Beat that drum, maybe not in the most appropriate way ;)

Hopefully in 5 years time when the 10 years since the day rolls around we've caught the bastards that did this and we can bring bottles of water on planes again.

The day has arrived!

2006-09-08T23:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow the pub race is on! Hurrah!

Farewell Mr Irwin

2006-09-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

I was out Sunday night when I heard. My sister sent me a text message saying that Steve Irwin was killed, and my night immediately sank. I don't think I've been so upset in ages. I didn't know the guy, nor had I ever seen him at Australia Zoo, but he is quite literally Australia personified.

Get a load'a this mate

What was even more unfortunate was that the rest of the world probably found out before his wife Terri did - she was hiking Cradle Mountain in Tassie and was unreachable :(

Batt Reef was where he left us

I'm at a bit of a loss for words here... one of Australia's favourite sons is gone :(

It's curtains mate

2006-08-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

A Perth man has been jailed for seriously injuring a 14-month-old girl by putting her in a clothes dryer and turning it on to give her a "fun" time.

I want my baby-back baby-back baby-back ribs.

The word on the wire is he was given a sentence of eight months jail time, which I think he seriously deserves. I reckon the judge should have tacked on another couple of years for wearing such a stupid fucking jacket. Bloody hell!

November is going to be awesome.

2006-08-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

Why you ask? Because of this.

It's Finals Time!!

2006-08-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well, just about. With one and a half rounds of regular season footy to go, September is almost upon us and AFL finals fever is about to grip Australia and ex-patriate Australia.

That being said, I'd like to put forward my prediction of the top 8 teams going into the finals:

The prospect of a home, derby final is sooooo awesome, and is indeed for the first time, dare I say it, a liklihood. What this also means is that at least one team from the West will be there in the preliminaries, and that we'll have a team in finals guaranteed until that round! Perth is about to see the biggest outbreak of finals fever since the first time the Eagles won the flag back in '92.

Get up there son!

It also means that this is possible.

I remember reading back in like, round 14, when the Dockers were 9-8, they were $151 to win the flag. Now they're at $10! Bloody go Freo!!

Alki Fridays

2006-08-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

If there's a sign that summer in Seattle is fading fast, it's that the sun is now gone by 8.30pm. There was a time when it was light till almost 10 at night. However, if that's not good enough a sign, the other can possibly be that Alki Fridays are over for the year.

Couldn't have been more perfect on the last day for the season, weather in the high 20s, sunny as, and little to zero wind.

I also found out that in some way they've been keeping score of points, which is really strange because the games are completely different each week. You enter as yourself, not as a team, and teams are thrown together on the night. After the last game of the night, the dude who organises got everyone together, and then announced me the winner of my division! Awesome! My prize is a massage at "Alki View Massage", one of the league's sponsors :-)

It was a shame to see the season come to an end, it really was a great way to spend the early part of a Friday evening. However, the fact Seattle left us with this little reminder kinda made up for it :-)

Seattle's finest sunset of the season.

I also got to take a bunch of photos to test out my new camera!

The Amazing Pub Race

2006-08-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

Once started as an event by a couple of my mates back home, I have taken the liberty with a friend over here to stretch the pub race's legs, and breach international territory.

You too, could be this little man stumbling
proudly through the city streets.

The race is going to be held in a couple of weeks on the 9th of September, and will be all around inner Seattle. It should be a great day, I can't wait!!! :-)

The ancient art of Scavenging

2006-08-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

Like the seagulls and the vultures of the world before us, humans have an inate ability to scavenge. Especially with the promise of year-long glory of wearing the crown of King or Queen Scavenger.

Yesterday, all of my division at work, hit the streets of Seattle to scavenge for items on a list as part of the annual "group together and work together" ethos. It worked really well, I was teamed with 4 others I didn't really know, and now I do, it was a great day.

My team placed competively, but with 4 people on the team, myself included, out of the 5 who were new to Seattle, we were never going to compete for the title. Tony's team however, seemed destined for the title.

I love trophy.

After the hunt, we all gathered at a pub in Pioneer Square to celebrate the winners, and kick back with a couple of quiet drinks. Perhaps the "two drink ticket" idea seemed a bit erm, underestimated.

Somehow I ended up with about half a dozen of the bastards.

Of course, what they kept quiet about was the size of this huuuuugely stocked bar, and the fact the tickets were good for more than just beer and wine. Hmmmm whatever shall I choose??

Finally, a bar with benedictine :)

About a hundred of us entered the pub standing, and I dare say a fair whack of that number stumbled out on their arses ;) Especially me, Dave & Deano, who ended up going to look at house completely rat-arse drunk. Hmmmm I wonder if we'll get to sign a lease? hehe.

I've uploaded some photos of the afternoon's festivities, well just the after-party bit. Hopefully more photos of the day to come.

1 gallon of milk please

2006-08-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

Sure, that'll be 25 odd dollars thank you, including tax and shipping.

Recently, Amazon.com launched a grocery section on their website, where you can buy all sorts of things one might buy in the supermarket, at competitive prices.

Including milk.

Better not spill a drop, this milk cost someone 25 bucks!

What they don't tell is that although this milk is reasonably priced at around 3 to 4 dollars, is that it will cost you just north of 20 bucks in shipping to get it to you in one piece, undamaged, and cold. Sure enough, it arrived, in a giant styrofoam cube, wrapped inside bubble-wrap and ice packs, cold as the day it was bottled. We bought some at work purely to see just how on earth buying milk online would actually work, and sure enough it does. But seriously, who would do this?!

1 gallon milk... 4 dollars.

Shipping 1 gallon of milk in a styrofoam cube... 20 dollars.

Being too lazy to get off your fat arse and scoot down to the deli to buy your own goddam groceries... priceless.

Kickin' it with the Swimmers

2006-08-09T23:47:00.001-07:00

My cuz has arrived in town as part of his training for the upcoming PanPacs next week.

While at work today, my phone rings from a private caller.... "Hello?" I say. "Yeaaaahhhh fuck yeah how is he? How's the cuzzzz?". Couldn't have made my day more than what it did. So straight after work today I booted down to Federal Way, where the Aussie swim team are bailed up. They couldn't have splurged any less haha they're staying in one of the roughest parts of Metropolitan Seattle! Why? It's the only place in the state that has an olympic-length pool to train in! haha :)

Catching up with Ads and meeting a few of the other Aussie swimmers was bloody awesome. These guys look like they're a shitload of fun on the town too. They're in town until Sunday, when they jump on the ferry up to Vancouver BC for the meet.

It was soooooo good to see some family over here!

Sweet greek greasy meal, how I miss thee

2006-08-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

Last night I was out on the town with Deano and a couple of his mates from the cananananananadan motherland in town for a couple of days. It was a great night, we hit up this little wine bar in Belltown called the Black Bottle. Really cool little place, not too busy, not too dead, with a great selection of food and wine.

It was a great night and awesome catching up with Deano, he's been away for a couple of weeks. Several beers and wines were consumed by all in his honour.

On the way home from the evening, inebriation got the better of me and my craving for that pita bread encompassing greasy meat, cheese, salad and sour cream got the better of me. Walking the streets of Seattle, the closest shop I could find to curb the drunken-late-night-grease yearning was a PACKED little hot dog vendor outside a club.

A fucking hot dog vendor.

You're in America now sport, quit dreaming of good drunken food.

Apparantly this is the only food available to everyone roaming the streets after the alcomohol vendors shut up shop for the night. Seriously, in about 5 blocks, this is all I could find! No kebabs in sight.... I can't imagine how people here have survived drunken nights for so long!

Happy Birthday Ems!

2006-08-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

Today is my little sister's birthday!

Happy Birthday Ems!

Today she's on a cruise ship somewhere in Croatia living it up, apparantly on a boat full of Australians. How we all make it to all corners of the world and still run into fellow countrymen is beyond me. Last night at a bar here in Belltown I met about 4 Australians each independently of the other! It's kinda eerie... but we'll soon have enough over here to overthrow the US! Ok, maybe not...

Still on the topic of birthdays, I uploaded photos of my birthday from last Saturday. What a night out it was :-)

Otanjyoubi!

2006-07-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

(It's my birthday!)

It kick started on Friday arvo at work when I mysteriously got called away from my desk, and when I returned it was covered with beer, cake and candles.

Well, Saturday was my birthday. It's been an awesome weekend. I had a huuuuge influx of phone calls over the Friday night (Saturday in Australia) from all the crew back home, and then all day and night Saturday from folks here and also back home.

Monday afternoon my office again mysteriously began to get very crowded, with about 20 people. Now my office isn't that huge so something was up.... next thing my boss and and a colleague walk in with a big chocolate birthday cake screaming happy birthday! It was so great in my home away from home to have so many people wish me a happy 25th!

A bunch of us from Amazon and my old poker nights hit the town on Saturday - photos will be online soon!

The spainiards are coming!

2006-07-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

Quick maw, get me that thar hose!

It seems that today it was announced that Real Madrid are going to be playing D.C. United at Qwest Field here in Seattle.

(Seattle, WA) – The Seattle Sounders today announced that soccer superstar David Beckham and legendary Spanish Club Real Madrid will square off against Freddy Adu and Major League Soccer (MLS) side, D.C. United on Wednesday, August 9th at 8:00 PM inside Qwest Field.

In addition to the most recognized athlete in the world, David Beckham, the Real Madrid roster includes superstars Ronaldo, Emerson, Roberto Carlos, Robinho and Cicinho from the Brazilian National Team, Raúl, captain of the Spanish National Team, and recently signed Italian mega-star, Italian captain and 2006 World Cup Champion member, Fabio Cannavaro.

I'm not a big soccer fan, but I'm probably never going to be in a place to see these guys play again, I think I'll go along and see what all the fuss is about.

Dirk

2006-07-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

Dirk has arrived in Seattle this weekend. After probably 10+ hours of travelling, nuturing his heritage as Australian we took him to a few of the pubs in our neighbourhood to welcome him.

Mates with beer. Awesome.

We hit the town about 11 or so, after I had been at Alki playing volleyball for like 5 hours (it was about 34 yesterday). I was pretty wrecked and expecting a quiet night. Dirk's appearance was pretty epic and very refreshing - it's sooooo good to hear another Australian accent about the place! :)

Dirk was pretty quick to hang shit on the Americans at the first pub we stopped at - asking the waiter for kangaroo sauce and kangaroo beers. After everything closed at 2pm, we stopped at a local convenience store under my building to buy I guess the American equivalent of woodstock - Malt Liquor. The only difference between malt liquor and woodstock is that malt liquor tastes like rocket fuel. It's almost as strong as a woody blue - 8% compared to 9% - but twice the size!

Malty Liquory goodness.

Not pictured above is Liam who was educating Ross, Dirk & I about the merits of each respective brand. These come in 40s (40 ounce bottles, I've no idea how much this is, but it's about the size of a big vodka bottle) and tall-boys - slightly bigger than a big 440ml woody. We picked up 4 tall-boys, one of each brand, each coming complete with their own brown paper bag. Yep, about as classy as it gets.

High Gravity - oh yeah this is the good shit.

We all went back up to my apartment and drank our malt liquor tall-boys while watching Orgazmo with the special drunken director's commentary :)

And now we get to do it all again tonight!

Information overload

2006-07-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

And I mean that in the most satirical sense possible.

Here's a perl compiler error I just got at work:

line 58: Useless use of private variable in void context

Err.... little help? haha.

Jurassic 5

2006-07-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night Jurassic 5 played at the Showbox here in Seattle, and I was there for the show - and what a show! They played to a sold-out Showbox crowd who was soooo into the gig with the guys on stage. Even when they got on the motorbikes to the Power In Numbers track "A Day At the Races" :-)

Yes, I know there's 6... but Cut Chemist has left now so it's correct :-)

The feel of the songs off their new album Feedback has a different, newer feel than their old albums, but sounds very promising. Can't wait to hear the album when it comes out on the 25th.

I met up with my most awesome canadian mate Teresa and her crew there, they've put some pics from the gig online here and here.

Snatched!

2006-07-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for this online for a while, and finally found it! Huzzah!

Pub Race USA

2006-07-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

I am sooooo totally amped for this!!

me and a mate from my volleyball team over here have started planning a US version of the famous Amazing Pub Race. It's being run through the city of Seattle and its inner suburbs on September 9th. BRING IT ON!!!

Can I get a witness?!

2006-07-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

I need to renew my WA drivers licence which requires a photograph to be taken and my signature. Something generally difficult from the other side of the world. So I have to take a photo and sign a form that's been mailed to me by the WA government - easy. Problem is I need someone to witness my photo and signature.... but EVERYONE HERE IS SCARED OF DOING IT!!

Even the people who are listed as authorised witnesses on the back of the renewal form won't do it!

All I'm hearing is "We can notorise something but we can't witness it". "OK, what's the difference?" I ask. The reply I get is consistently "Err, I don't know but we can't do it, sorry."

According to the form, a witness can be someone who is a chartered accountant or a certified public accountant, or a legal practitioner, a manager of a financial institution, or an employee of a federal or state government organisation.

I want YOU to witness this shit.

Today I've been to three banks, the post office, and 2 law firms to get someone to witness it. The people I've spoken to all fit this requirement but no one will touch this form because they can't "witness" something but they can "notorise" it..... I think they're all scared of being sued.

I am Jack's innate sense of fuelled rage, I just want this form signed and people don't understand that in this case all you have to do is "be the person in one of the professions listed" to witness the application!

SIGH... Land of the free, home of the brave...

and Petie the Don't Please Don't Sue Me Panda.

Australia is the shadow of America

2006-07-17T00:24:00.000-07:00

In most senses of the word, especially reality TV.

A lot of modern trends that make their way into Australia are derived from America. I'm not saying that we as a country to do not have our own sense of self and idealism; not true. Much of our sport, fashion, and culture differ dramatically. However, television and media are _very_ strongly influenced.

Today I noticed on the Channel 7 website, a little program called "Australia's Got Talent". A program vicariously similar to that here called "America's Got Talent" has been shitting me for the last couple of months haha.

So, in that vain I put it to everyone that the next season of Big Brother in Australia will be 'Big Brother All Stars'... just like America. And probably the world over too.

The irony is that it's not a bad idea to provide further spark to an idea that's already so far in the shitter it's not funny.

Next thing you know there's going to be an Australian national baseball league.... Wait a minute, there is!

Destructorama

2006-07-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

My mate Jason from work is renovating his house himself. This guy should really be hosting his own TV show where he goes to people's houses and builds everything himself. He's from Alaska and every house he's ever lived in he's helped build with his old man, and right now, he's renovating his own house in Bellevue east of Seattle. He's replacing the current garage he has with a bigger garage, and outdoor patio / deck.

Last week at work he had the plans for the renovations and was looking for help to pretty much tear down his garage from the side of his house..... to which I replied "Will there be a sledgehammer involved?". His affirmative response was enough to get me on board.

And boy, did it pay off.

Me and my mate Wes from work

Wes likes to destroy things too.

Me and Wes took down this wall, I had the hammer, Wes had his foot.

Jason all likes destroying things, his weapon of choice is a hand-saw.

What a shame I was on call while this was going on... mid afternoon I got paged to attend to a problem.

This is how I chose to deal with the problem.

If I ever get out of programming, I'm going into a job in construction.... er, destruction :-) It's sooooo much fun breaking shit!! And we eventually did get rid of all of it....

Foo Fighters Live!

2006-07-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

About a month ago on the bus to work we drove past the Paramount, a theatre here in Seattle. The listing of upcoming shows I normally take note of, and they are updated about every 2-3 weeks. This day I will forever remember, because for some reason I looked up and saw "Foo Fighters Acoustic Tour" and went absolutely mental on the bus thinking to myself "How on earth did this get past me?!"

I got to work and mentioned this to Ross who went as equally mental as I did. We logged on to ticketmaster or something to buy tickets, but shut down! The gig was sold out! We had only one last choice... eBay!

We ended up getting tickets on the main floor in the same row! And with some fandangling on the night we were sitting together too :-) God bless those scalpers!

But wow.... what a show! Dave Grohl is a funny bastard too, he was telling jokes all through the gig, and stories of him growing up in Seattle and early days of Nirvana. There were twice as many of them on stage as there normally was, with greater-than-usual string and percussion sections. They played acoustic versions of some of their old songs and most of the second disc off their lastest CD "In Your Honor". It was a _really_ impressive show and T-bag, you'll be happy to know I've gone from being a "meh, they're ok" type of fan to "um, fuck yes, these guys rock!" type of fan!

An excellent show and worth every dollar to go and see them! I don't think i'll ever forget the version of Best of You and Everlong in the encore.... Wow, blown away.

Next week.... Jurassic 5!

Jacob's Theory on Pubs

2006-07-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

My mate Con has posted his thoughts about pubs / clubs and the length of time it takes to get a drink. His idea of a "supermarket-pub" with a beer-only lane intrigues me, and reminded me of a similar idea I had for pubs to deal with the time you spend waiting.

My idea concerns the time you spend waiting to get in to pubs / clubs. I think pubs should license the area of the pub outside where they have the queues to get in, and have some "mobile-bar" dealy running up & down the queue serving the people waiting to get in! Think about it, it could run around the nightspots ANYWHERE serving people in queues for ANYWHERE.... it's gold! and solves the age-old problem of sobering up while waiting to get in to the goddam pub ;)

Lady Punch

2006-07-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

This got sent around at work today, and for some reason I'm drawn to keep on watching it.

What's hilarious is the Franz Ferdinand Remix :-)

omg I can't stop laughing...

Women of Australia

2006-07-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

Some Joe Bloggs I was talking to at a bar yesterday, after discovering Australian, thought he'd enlighten me on a joke about Australia, albeit primarily concerning the fairer sex. Here 'tis:

Between the ages of 20 and 30 a woman is like Spain, exotic and ready to party
Between the ages of 30 and 35 a woman is like America, completely full of bloom and aspirations
Between the ages of 35 and 50 a woman is like England, slightly mundane and gray
Between the ages of 50 and over a woman is like Australia - everyone knows it's down there but nobody cares.

I didn't take any offence to this, but I did think it odd that Australia be referenced in a punch line such as this, seeing how I'd say between 50 and 75% of people I meet here genuinely want to go or have been to the great land down under. So, what I did do was google for the joke, and low and behold, I found it.... this bloke was full of it! Australia isn't the goddam punch line, it's Afghanistan!

There was a male equivalent of the joke which I thought was pretty funny and accurate:

Between the ages of 15 - 70 a man is like Germany. A strange landscape,filled with beer and thoughts of dodgy porno movies.

Perth Pubs revisited

2006-06-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

I took the Perth pubs quiz again today, after initially taking it back in September.

This time around I've boosted up!

You've experienced about 52.86% of perth pubs!
Take the Perth Pub Quiz! by teh_hoz

I'm retiring from this now as it's quite likely it's not going to get any higher in the forseeable future... :P

Sweet Home Ala... stralia

2006-06-24T01:22:00.000-07:00

I think I'm homesick.

I miss Australia, Perth, my home town.

I miss getting drunk with people and going wandering through unbuilt houses, spelling out "HI!" in bricks.

I miss the Cott on Sundays.

I miss my WRX.

I miss the boys nights out at The Deen with Foxy.

I miss having stupid amounts of jager-bombs with my cousin at clubba.

I miss barbies out the back at the Redfern.

I miss WOODSTOCK BOURBON & COKE.... actually, mixer drinks in general. Bourbon & coke, Scotch & coke, CC & dry, you can't buy them here.

I miss belting Adrian at woody tennis.

I miss the Australian sun, and feeling warm even in the shade.

I miss Little Creatures, Cascade, and Boags beers.

I miss the two degrees of separation in Perth.... going out at night at bumping into people who you know or who know you through someone else.

I miss my little buddy Toby.... awwww my pupper!

I miss the smell of the bush and eucalytus trees.

I miss the great southern land that is AUSTRALIA and everything about it!!!

But in saying all this, in the short time I've been here I've made some awesome new friends at work, done sooooo many new things, seen so many different places and most importantly met a lady very special to me (You rock Cynnie!!!)

I love snowboarding.

I love playing beach volleyball on the beach at Alki. The sun setting over the sound and behind snow-capped mountains is nothing short of spectacular.

I love that I live in a city where so many of my favourite musicians tour regularly.

I love working at one of the biggest software houses in the world.

I love my soft-top Jeep!

I love my apartment in the city - so close to EVERYTHING :D

I love the micro-brews around Washington.

I love going to the NBA and sitting courtside.

I love seeing places in my neighbourhood and recognising them from movies.

I love the fact that I don't know what's around the corner for me here... what an experience all this is!

Everyone loves an Aussie

2006-06-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

Even if you're a politician.

In the Australian House of Representatives last month, opposition member Julia Gillard interrupted a speech by the minister of health by saying words in the order of "I move that that sniveling grub over there be not further heard.". Pure gold.

An American journalist has gotten wind of this, and forged an article about how awesome Australia is and why he loves it.

What a top bloke.

God's word

2006-06-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

A friend at work today pointed me to God Blog today, and I have to say, he's got some funny stuff in there. Especially this which I consider quite poignant, and included below for those too lazy to click on a link - yes, I'm talking about you Adrian, you ugly bastard :P

IT'S CALLED SOCCER
Lets get some things straight about the World Cup, since I invented the damn thing. It's called soccer, not football. Football has pads and helmets and hot cheerleaders. "I love cheerleaders," says God, who is me, and you can quote me on that.

You know what else I love? Thai green curry. And also how soccer fans always tell people who think the game is boring that they just don`t understand it. I made the whole universe out of a void in six days – you want to tell me soccer`s beyond me? I made the platypus, so talk to the Hand. Soccer`s not hard to understand - liking soccer is hard to understand. Plus, I gave you two hands and opposable thumbs, why don't you use them? Maybe pay a little respect is all I`m saying. If you don't want to use your hands, I can just as easily remove them. I took Heather Mills leg, after all.

And that was just for making lousy porn.

Truer words have never been spoken. Long live the platypus!

Aren't they cute little buggers?

The feeling of sheer fulfillment

2006-06-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

In the truest sense of the word, I am fulfilled. This morning I attended a tour of an Amazon.com fulfillment centre as part of my training at work. The fulfillment centre is based here in Seattle, and is about 21k square feet. This sounds big, but in actuality, it's about as tiny as fulfillment centres could get. Amazon's has fulfillment centres in Reno, Nevada and Lexington, Kentucky which are approx 800k square feet.

The training was actually really interesting and helped me see exactly how software we develop interacts with software where it matters most - at the point when an order becomes a shipment and sent out. I actually participated in the process today, including receiving inventory, picking inventory, and packing orders to be sent out.

I was absolutely stoked, someone ordered the Orgazmo DVD and I got to pick it :-)

Aych Deeeeee

2006-06-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

Since I've moved in to my apartment here in Seattle, I've been without television. The antenna in the wall of my building is wired for pay-tv only. Free OTA (over-the-air) TV isn't wired up to buildings here apparently.

In a quest to find out what's on American television, I purchased an antenna. This antenna came recommended to me by a colleague from work, but also with a warning that because of the hilly terrain around Seattle, reception may not be all that flash.

That in mind, I took a chance on it and mate, has it paid off. The antenna not only picks up normal OTA TV, but _digital_ OTA TV. I was quite beside myself... Signals are coming down in 16:9 widescreen, high def 1080i format, it's incredible! Although, one thing I don't quite understand is how digital TV can be broadcast over the air. But hey, why fight it? I've got the world cup and NBA playoffs in widescreen hi-def! Oh, and Conan 5 nights a weeeeeeeeeeeek!

Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg se-MAX!

Sweet Grandmother's Spatula!

2006-06-14T03:19:00.000-07:00

Holy music madness Batman, here's my live music calendar for the next month:

Tonight: Missy Higgins and her Band - The Crocodile Cafe

July 10: Ben Lee opening for Dashboard Confessional - The Paramount Theatre

July 11: Foo Fighters Acoustic Tour - The Paramount Theatre

July 18: Jurassic 5 - The Showbox

Bloody hell, this is insane!! Love it! ^_^

Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, Bad-ass Vegas Whores

2006-06-13T22:43:00.001-07:00

Late night booty calls..... Shiny Disco Balls!

Well, 2 of those those 5 things just mentioned are true about my office at work :-) A mate of mine on my team today bought in a replacement for the Christmas lights that entangle the upper echelons of our office. And not before too long either, all the lights except one stream had burnt out. Apparantly these lights cost $1.86 though, certainly got their worth if they lasted since Christmas ;)

What was the replacement you ask? Well....

A big fucking disco ball and light. Wahoo!

Attaching this thing to the roof was a bit of a mission, but Ross and Wes managed to get the job done.

The final result was an exuberant amount of bad 70s music and Saturday Night Fever inspired flailing, and a rather large audience gathering outside our office pondering why the hell we mounted a disco ball in our office, and just how much productive work we actually do during the day :-)

Really.... it all depends on your perspective, looks like a pretty solid day's work to me!

Reality Shmality

2006-06-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

It won't be the first time I've said it - I enjoy watching Big Brother, but in general reality tv as a whole is pretty average I think. There's only a couple of programs in the genre I actually enjoy - BB, Survivor, and maybe the odd episode of The Amazing Race.

However, that said, the bubble has now I think, officially burst. I read this today in a report on the latest Big Brother eviction:

In other reality news Channel 10 will stage a big fat Greek wedding when the door finally closes on the Big Brother housemates at the end of July.

Ten is gearing up to launch Rene is Getting Married, a new reality series about a 31-year-old second generation Greek-Australian girl who is trying to find the man of her dreams.

The series will be broadcast live from the network's Sydney studios, where a panel of three experts and the host will review a montage of her activities from the previous 24 hours, plan her next 24 hours and pass judgment on her suitors.

Bachelors keen to get involved should act quickly, as Ten has been calling for "single, out-going, adventurous men with a romantic streak" for the past week.

During the series - which will air nightly at 7pm - the panel will interview Rene's family, friends, ex-boyfriends, and colleagues.

OK seriously, this is just honestly stupid - who in the right mind would
a) be the chick on this show (except clearly, the crazy woman on it hehe)
b) watch it
c) find it entertaining?

Enough with reality tv, let's find something else to watch. (Soccer?!)

2006 - wtf it's half gone?

2006-06-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

So the first half of 2006 has all but gone.... and a lot has happened in the music scene so far this year. It's been an interesting contrast going from Australia to the USA and seeing what is going on both countries in the industry. There seems to be _a lot_ of punk rock Green Day wannabes out here, with nothing standing out it seems in terms of a breakthrough artist. A lot of what I've heard so far has been the same old regurgitated punk rock that lacks a certain punch to differentiate from the rest of the flock.

I've been impressed with a lot of new music this year, and it's good that some of these bands are breakthrough artists.... here's the albums that have wow'd me so far in 2006 from most favourite to least favourite:

1) Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road
This released on the first of April this year, a much anticipated release on all accounts for most Aussie hip-hop fans. The first single off the album, Clown Prince, was release some two months before the actual album, and received a bit of airtime of radio stations across the country. When the album released, it was the feature album on JJJ and number 1 on the ARIA charts for a couple of weeks running - a first for any aussie hip-hop release.

2) Wolfmother - Wolfmother (US)
The debut album from the Melbourne trio has just been released over here. They've had numerous US shows and TV spots to promote the album over here, they all seem to love the guys here - especially the frontman & his 'fro. There's a pub in Seattle Ross and I were at recently where they played (almost) their entire album start to finish. The album had songs largely featuring in the 2006 Hottest 100 too.

3) Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
So here it is... one of the most anticipated debut album of 2006, it's the Arctic Monkeys. Well, certainly the album with the most online hype surrounding it. The one. The album that's going to make all those drunken nights and rows with the missus and daft conversations in sweaty clubs all make sense. The album that's going to make the indie kid dance like an fucking retard next to the heavyweight skinhead and the shy girl whose sister went to your school. This is a quality brit-rock release with a heap of catchy tracks.

4) The Whitlams - Little Cloud
This album is the latest from Tim Freedman's band The Whitlams. The album is broken into two discs. The first, "Little Cloud", is about returning to Sydney with mixed feelings of love and disillusion in an election year. The second, "Apple’s Eye", is set in New York, and is about slowly getting strong and well "under a tapestry of stone hung from the sky". The Whitlams are as good as they've ever been on this album, definitely worth a few listens and then some.

5) The Living End - State of Emergency
The latest full-length album from one of Australia's greatest ever punk rock bands. The album features a couple of great tracks released as singles, the album I think marks the return of The Living End made famous by their first self-titled full-length album in the mid 90s. They toured Australia in December / January for the big day out playing some tracks off this album, Welcome back The Living End, we missed the old you :)

6) Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun
I was actually fortunate enough to have Ben Harper come to my office at Amazon and play a couple of songs off his new album. Fucking incredible!!! This album's a return to form for Ben Harper although it doesnt seem as fast as some of his older albums, maybe thats just me though.

7) Eskimoe Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
This album has literally _just_ been released, but after a first listen I really really want to listen to it again. There's some quality stuff on here, and an especially moving song called "London Bombs", which kinda speaks for itself. I had to get it off iTunes, but by pre-ordering it came with a couple of bonus acoustic versions of songs and a video clip of the first single off the album

8) Green Day - Bullet In A Bible
If you’re wondering how Green Day managed to become the one of the biggest punk-rock bands in the world, this album will pretty much explain why. Recorded at Green Day’s two-night run at Milton Keynes National Bowl in June 2005, this combined CD/DVD sees the band embracing political activism, pantomime hilarity, and all the nuances of a rock opera – and excelling at all three.

The first half is essentially a run-through of the group’s 2004 album American Idiot, complete with anti-American rabble-rousing and a set of barbed insults tossed back at the "rednecks" back in the US. That out of the way, the band careen into a sort of greatest hits set. Tremendously silly, but Green Day have managed to figure out how to play it like showmen without resorting to juvenile shenanigans or morphing into corporate yes-men.

It's been a pretty good year so far in terms of music, these albums are but a couple of the quality albums being released this year. I really can't wait to see what the last half of the year has in store!

Are you there 21st century? It's me, Broome!

2006-06-05T22:55:00.001-07:00

Heh, I don't believe this! It seems that Broome, a small town in rural far north Western Australia, has finally joined the modern world.

Yes that's right sports fans, they've figured out that there's a new contraption about the place called a wireless and have installed a brand spankin' radio tower.

In celebration of the fact that this town has finally decided to catch up to the rest of modern Earth, JJJ are crossing the desert and heading out to Cable Beach Resort in Broome to put on a show, and not just any show: a show where the headlining act are Australia's number one hip-hop act, The Hilltop Hoods!

This is going to be a ripper show and well worth the 3 fucking day drive from Perth for the show ;) Yeah, well, I couldn't agree with me more on that one!

You've just been Farnsied

2006-05-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

One of my Australian co-workers today randomly sent me this message today:

What about the wooooooorld around us!?
How can we fail to see (what about the air? AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaah)

lol

YOU'VE JUST BEEN FARNESIED!

go farnsie!
gags :D
oh yeah
take this!
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaadie.... The cleaning laaaaaaadyyy!!!!

ack!
erm
TWO STRONG HEARTS!
WE STICK TOGETHER LIKE THE HONEY AND THE BEEEEEE!

reachin out forever like a river to the treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

What we're about to see is an Australian equivalent of "hoffing"!!

Picasa

2006-05-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

More Google trickery that I've seen today, a new version of Picasa is out... and wow, what an impressive piece of software this is.

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.

Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures – you can email, print photos home, make gift CDs, instantly share via Hello™, and even post pictures on your own blog.

I highly recommend this.... though, I'm concerned just how much information google is obtaining these days, I wonder if google in another language translates to "Information-hoarding robot ready to take over the world and destroy life as we know it".

Hmmm. Probably not.

It's-a meeee, Marrriioooo

2006-05-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

Mario has gone back to his roots. Yesterday I picked up a copy of The New Super Mario Bros for my Nintendo DS. All I can say is, "wow". The game is fucking awesome.

I've played the game for a couple of hours so far, and I'm sooooo impressed with it :) Nintendo have taken Mario back to his roots.... this game is like a cross between Mario Bros 1 on NES and Mario World on SNES, with all the sweet sweet advantages of dual screens and touching :D

If you have a DS, this is a MUST buy.

Quote of the Day

2006-05-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

"Seattle... It's like living in Melbourne except without a summer"
-Ross Mckillop.

hahaha, well said mate.

Avian Triage

2006-05-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

Before I left Australia, I made sure to have with me assorted Australian paraphernalia from certain aspects of our culture that I love, one of which was cricket. At the post office one day before I left, I stumbled upon this little gem.

Out for a duck.

What's great about this little guy is that when you squeeze his belly, he quacks. My American teammates find this completely fucking hilarious. So much so that whenever some monitoring alarm goes off, or some other arbitrary event, they squeeze the duck's belly to signal the significance of the moment. Such exuberance has left the duck crippled, and without a voice. That's right, the duck can no longer quack.

We felt there was only one option. To go in. This afternoon we put the duck into a state of unconciousness, and operated under the careful hands of Dr Alex Polson.

The initial incision and quacker removed

Aw, isn't he a brave little duckie

The problematic unit

After a gruelling ten minute operation, I'm glad to say that by removing and replacing the batteries, the unit was reset and the duck is now happily quacking away again.

Strange happenings

2006-05-08T17:14:00.000-07:00

My talking boony just spoke!! Free of any kind of prompting!! He's alliiiiiivvveee!!

Cinco de Mayo

2006-05-05T04:47:00.000-07:00

No, it's not a new topping on a hamburger of some kind, though some American steakhouse has probably already thought of that, it is actually a commemorative day in this country.

I got to work yesterday and everyone is saying to me "Hey Jacob, happy cinco de mayo" and I said "Yeah, and to you too mate" all the while thinking, "we're having what for lunch today?"

May the 5th is, unbeknownst to me, a celebration of Mexican independence after about a few thousand Mexican soldiers told French invaders to stick it and get the fuck out. After the French were defeated on May 5, this defeat prevented French troops in the US from being further enhanced, and enabled the US to build a kick arse army telling confederates to stick it and get the fuck out some 12 months later, essentially ending the civil war here.

Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexico border under who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to tell the French to stick it and get the fuck out. American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French.

Since, there has been an ongoing alliance between Mexico and the US, and Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of freedom and liberty. And how is it celebrated? Pretty much the same way we Aussies would celebrate Paddy's day.... drinking!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

New Photos

2006-05-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded some more photos of things I've done over the last couple of weeks... Check out the photos page!

Missy is my friend!

2006-04-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Awes, that hotty from Melbourne Missy Higgins is now my friend on MySpace! :-)

Corporate Sponsorship

2006-04-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

So I've started playing indoor beach volleyball in Seattle now.... it's been awesome so far! I've arranged a mixed team with Ross, my building manager, and another chick from work.

We came up with a name for the team paying homage to the superb WA brewery "Little Creatures"......... funnily enough "Little Creatures". We also had the idea to have shirts made up for the team, so I e-mailed the staff at the brewery asking for hi-res images to have printed on the team shirts.

Not only did they respond, but hooked me up with a couple of AWESOME images to use. They've also requested photos of the team in uniform when the time comes, so all you Perth people are on watch for an appearance of my team in the brewery or on the website!

How completely stupid

2006-04-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

The Nintendo Revolution has been renamed.

But to what? How about "Wii". Yes, I'm serious.

What a dumb arse name. Even though "ii" means "good" in Japanese, three quarters of the world doesn't know that!

Nintendo sums up the name change with the following comments. "So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because, it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything."

Oh dear.

Big Brother has returned for 2006

2006-04-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

In my daily readings of news.com.au I've been both fascinated and disappointed that Big Brother has returned for 2006. I left Australia before the Channel Ten could begin its perpetual pimping of this season's "reality" TV, so seeing the return of the show on the site came as a bit of a shock... like "Oh awesome it's back!" but at the same time "shit, I'm not there to watch any of it" :(

So I stumbled onto the site.... to find that there's a mother-daughter combination on the show, and ffs the creative team at Channel Ten need to be given the arse. Are they completely shit out of ideas or do they just have no vision? Or do they want to insist on running with entirely similar themes to other countries ideas? Goddam hey.

I also had a quick squiz at the housemates.... look at this:

Every single housemate is a complete stunner! Hmmm Ten weren't exactly biased when they picked their line-up for this series....

Game time baby!

2006-04-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

So a mate of mine from high school lives out here in a town called Spokane pretty much smack in the middle of Washington state. His wife gave him courtside tickets to the sonics for Valentine's day this year and she offered me the second ticket because she doesn't really like the basketball - who am I to say no? :)

It was amazing being courtside, literally closer than about 10 feet to the court. Absolutely incredible!!! Before the game, someone was running around taken photos, we managed to make the sonics website!

Go here... Click Apr 14 vs LA Clippers, then Gold Fan Shots... me & my mate Mark are the first photo! :D

When they won't turn the mikes down...

2006-04-12T16:20:00.000-07:00

Speak up! That's exactly what Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist did when they ICC match refs don't turn down the stump microphones between balls.

And not only did he speak his mind... he started pimping the sponsors of the Aussie cricket team, what a top aussie :D

"That's the one, Roy," Gilchrist enthused, before adding, "Plenty of energy ... from a ... Milo energy bar".

Hahaha I love it :-)

Suffa and the Chocolate Factory

2006-04-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

Errrr...... One hilltops bar please :-)

In case you can't read the fine print, it reads:

Hidden in 5 new copies of Hilltop Hoods new album The Hard Road are the official Hilltop Hoods Platinum Tickets. If you are to find one of these tickets you will be entitled to a tour of Suffa's Chocolate Factory.

Haha just kidding about that last bit, you win a bunch of cool shit.... check it.

End Of Fashion

2006-03-28T09:12:00.000-08:00

Amongst my weekly newspaper readings I include two local free papers called The Seattle Weekly and The Stranger, both of which are Xpress style publications.

During my perusal of The Stranger this week, I saw opening (for a US band "Metric") a band called "The End Of Fashion" and thought, I wonder if that's anything like End Of Fashion from Perth? It turns out I was right!

So last night I went with Ross & Val to the gig, and wow, these guys were impressive. The last time I saw them was at Capitol in Perth for their album launch, and man have they improved at live shows. They played a really tight set and really set an awesome mood for the remaining two bands, who pretty much were just strange. But man, what an awesome gig! After their set the lead guitarist was in the crowd and we picked him out and had beers with him for a couple of hours while the rest of the band was off getting stoned somewhere ;) What a killer night!

New game for those without game

2006-03-27T16:19:00.000-08:00

A mate of mine forwarded me this link today... and oh my god, what a ridiculous idea this is!

The PimpStar is a huge leap forward in the evolution of the wheel. With the PimpStar's built-in full color LED lights, microprocessor and wireless modem, you can display virtually any image, including text, graphics, logos, and even digital photos!

The included software allows you to create your own images and send them to each wheel individually or all wheels at the same time as you drive! You can even pre-load up to six images into each wheel and program them to change automatically at the time intervals you select. The wheels are environmentally sealed, so you don't have to worry about going to the car wash; and they are powered by the vehicle electrical system so there are no batteries to run out or change, ever.

What's staggering is the smallest wheel size that this product can be used on - 22" rims! holy crap! and at $12,500, it's a bloody expensive way to "get game". How completely stupid haha. Make sure you watch the ad for the product too. It's impressive they could do such a thing with wheels, but that doesn't mean it's beyond stupidity ;)