The collected works of ScottyB

Welcome to the Motorcade, Dean (MM) and Smurfn!

Wonder if we can get Phanny involved. She could have a Blog about television programmes. All the stuff watched in the last night or so. Updated with reviews and analysis of characters and storylines. Though the whole idea of the Blog may take away from precious TV watching time I guess

I’d never been a really serious Blogger/Journal person until MINI2 came along. I have had numerous sites set up in the past and most recently one I setup while Kate was away, but I’ve never really gotten into them outside of M2. I think after setting so many of them up and having them fizzle out after five or ten entries, I finally got to the point where I thought.. ‘well its keep them running, or forget about them altogether’.

And thus the M2 Journal was born. 188 entries since I created that thing and each one always amazes or surprises me to read back on it - to see where my mind was at the time. Thoughts I had and experiences I’d forgotten.

Now it continues on with The Motorcade. If anything - an easier and more powerful format - so I can only imagine it’ll be even bigger and more colourful than the M2 version!

It is great seeing everyone from the community jump onto this. Stuff you wouldn’t usually bother about sharing on the forums, things that you can post here that can be random, crazy and irrelevant normally - suddenly seem in context when its part of a personal Blog. Sometimes they go unnoticed anyway, but you can always call back on them.

Like Carmen Electra officially being single again. With her divorce from Dave Navarro finalised, Carmen is back on the market. Which may be good news for a lot of Carmen Electra fans out there who are already re-registering domain names, re-hanging posters of the Playboy playmate on their wall and buying the copies of FHM back from Ebay.

And another thing.

Why does Blogroll always sound like something you’d be using in the loo?

Another step closer to the start of the F1 season, the release of 300 and Spiderman 3, the end of the week, buying a new computer, paying off the MINI, moving out, owning a home, the list goes on.

‘300′, the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel has done over 70 million in its opening weekend in the US. This thing is going to be epic. Because Australia is so far away and the pigeons carrying the film only left this week, we won’t be getting the film in theatres here until the 5th of April.

While I probably won’t go to see it on the opening night, I will be seeing it in the opening week - Greater Union Senstadium at Glendale for big screen, surround-sound goodness.

More Spiderman 3 images have emerged also, more hints that Venom will, indeed, be ’space based’ more along the lines of the Symbiote storyline of the comics (which I’m very happy about), though I’m interested to see how they tie the two different concepts together in the film.

Already the middle of March. I have asked myself and others constantly ‘where is the year going?’.

Finally I know. It’s waiting for all these movies to come out. It’s waiting for the Formula One season to start. Waiting for the next race to come along. Waiting until I can afford to move out - waiting until the MINI is paid off. It seems I’m always waiting for the next thing lately. Not content with the present - always looking to the future. Maybe that’s the same for everyone - as life goes on you’re always looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, not focussed on where you’ve just been - or what you may be missing.

How much of human life is lost in waiting!
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

50 official flavours from Jelly Belly Candy Co. Fifteen or so beans of each flavour. For a grand total of seven-hundred and fifty beans of flavoured jelly goodness.

When I was a kid, I used to get excited over jelly beans. Particularly the Strawberry ones. And all my mates would palm me off the Licorice flavoured ones because they were ‘way gross’. Apparently. Didn’t stop me downing them like they were going out of fashion.

Back then they were nothing special. All generic flavours, all pretty basic colours. Red Cherry, Yellow Pineapple, White Vanilla, Pink Strawberry, Black Licorice. We’d buy little bags of them at the corner shop and hang around out front sitting on or around our bikes, eating or throwing the jelly beans at each other (and occasionally cars when someone was bored).

For Valentine’s Day this year, Kate got me a pack of Jelly Belly’s. 20 flavours. And boy were they good. I think they lasted all of two days before I was looking at an empty pack (which would eventually make Mum’s new novelty ice cube tray).

So imagine my surprise when I walk into Big W a few days later only to see a massive 50 pack on the shelf. To say I was jumping around like a twelve year old after opening his presents on Christmas Day and receiving a Playstation 3 would be a lie - but I was pretty excited about the find.

No longer is one flavour restricted to one colour. No longer are citrus fruits the only flavours to make the cut. Orange Sherbet, Buttered Popcorn, Bubble Gum, Kiwi, Cafe Latte, Piña Colada, Toasted Marshmallow. The list goes on. Each a tiny, juicy, succulent, sugary lump of jelly candy goodness.

Though I have puzzled over the addition of Jalapeno. Complete with red-hot firey aftertaste. Not to mention if your girlfriend accidentally turns the lid with all the flavours on it upside-down, it matches up with Watermelon - which also happens to be roughly the same colour - meaning you take a mouthful of 6 or 7 Jalapenos, its not the most pleasant of jelly beans.

Nevertheless, the only problem is now, that 15 beans of each flavour simply is never enough.

Speaking of Candy, can Christina Aguilera get any hotter?

What a video clip. I love the album, but watching it performed on TV with Christina’s newfound old school jazz/pop styling makes for some seriously cool watching.

For those of you that haven’t seen it yet, you can find a link to the 135MB high-res version HERE.

Get it while its hot.

Well I have decided to hold off on the Vista move - and the purchase of a new super-dooper gaming/multimedia PC. I drooled over all the pretty hardware pieces today at the computer shop and played around with Vista again for a good twenty minutes… even played a bit of Half-Life 2 in there - but alas, I was unable to make the $3200 decision on the spot.

Maybe its due to the fact that the video card - the elusive 768MB Nvidia 8800 GTX - at best - will cost me $1095 alone. Being the only fully DirectX 10 compatible video card on the market seems to have had its advantages. ‘Hey, this is the only card around that can do this stuff - let’s charge eleventy-billion dollars for it!’.

I’m not bitter though. I love technology. And to be brutally honest, I’d still buy one in a heartbeat. Hell - I paid over $800 for my last video card and that was just an upgrade. I’m going to Vista - and I’m going to wait until Service Pack 1 is released before I become an adopter. Simple as that really.

So I had another decision to make today. Seeing as SP1 could be months away, especially if current indications of a late 2007 release are true - it meant that my current PC, a beast in its day, would have to see me through another potential year of gaming and hardware/software abuse.

I had already considered this contingency plan - so I had already done my research. With plastic card in hand, I swiped it through and exchanged the relatively small digital number on the EPTPOS screen for a brand new 512MB NVidia 7600GS. Basically the best AGP card I could get for my board.

I’m no stranger to upgrades.. but this was off the charts. I’m used to getting small gains here and there for a couple hundred spent, but the difference between this new card and my old 256MB ATi Radeon 9800 Pro was day and night. Averaged 86.9fps on the first benchmark in Counterstrike:Source, at 1680×1050, full everything and 2xAA. Almost three times better than the old faithful it replaced.

I’ve fallen a little behind in the gaming scene - mainly I don’t have the hours to devote to becoming good any more, so I find myself playing games you can pick up and put down in minutes, but still offer a fun experience, rather than the system-hogging ball-tearingly amazing graphic-dependent eye-candies on the market today. Nonetheless, for the first time in gaming history, I think hardware has got games beat.

Still remember playing Total Annihilation on my Pentium 133. Waiting half an hour for it to load a map. And having the whole thing slow down to a snails pace 10 minutes into it.

Looking at benchmarks for the last couple of weeks, I’ve realised the 7600GS is a mid-range card of the current pixel punching lot.. and at the low-end of that range to boot - so it only makes me wonder what it must be like playing these new games and rendering video and processing high-resolution photos on a Intel Quad-Core with 4GB of RAM and a 768MB NVidia 8800GTX. Pretty fast I imagine.

Hurry up Vista SP1.

With the Sun shining and my cold improving, a half-baked run was cooked up.

A half-baked run must be:

• planned at the last minute - check.
• suitably uncooked in its preparation - check.
• highly improvised - check again.

And thus a plan was born…

The G’s headed North and we met up at Swansea. Like us, it appeared that many Novocastrians had the same idea as we did and had come up with their own relatively half-baked plans to suit the beautiful day.

There were those that tempted fate (and relatively shallow waters) by diving and jumping off the channel towers.

While the more conventional of people either enjoyed the view, fished off the piers or were out carving through the waves in jetskis and all sorts of boats.

In the brackish shallows of the Swansea Inlet, just as we were about to venture on to the sands of the shoreline, was a Crocodylida; saltwater Crocodile.

Or so Matt thought.

The beach yielded many other amazing finds. Walking along the edge, I noticed a relic of ancient times, a shoe, at least 18th century in its origins, left on the sandy banks atop a pile of drying seaweed. I imagined the settlers of Australia stepping off their boats right here and losing a shoe. It was miraculously preserved considering its age - a testament to the superior build-quality of shoes back then. They really were amazing manufacturers.

To our surprise, the highlight of the day was spotting this Swansean Wolf. Once thought extinct, the 4-legged creature is defined by its ability to walk on land and also swim in the water. They move at incredible speeds, but nonetheless, I was able to capture a shot of it emerging from its cave hideout in the shallows as it made for the hills.

Swansean Wolf Fact Sheet

Height: 52-70 cm
Weight: From 19-28 kg. The Swansean Wolf is a rawboned breed, rarely carrying excess layers of fat or flesh. Type and balance more important than size.
Colour: Red, Gold, Cream & Black/Tan.
Coat: Hard single coat developed as a result of warm climate.
Temperament: Generally cautious, seldom slavish or demonstrative to strangers (particularly shake drying in the prescence of Humans)
Characteristics: Strongly individualistic, sensitive, highly intelligent, gentle, curious & affectionate.

The Swansean Wolf footprint.

The final tour of the morning took us to Swansea Castle.

Swansea Castle was constructed in 1807 BC as a fortress outpost for the Swansea Channel - and in turn, Lake Macquarie. At the time, it was the largest castle in Australia. It was constructed on the left bank of the Swansea Inlet, chosen for its excellent 300° defensive viewpoint, it overlooked the Pacific Ocean making Viking, Egyptian and Persian enemy vessels easy to spot. The various towers housed many gatling cannons, elite archers and native rats.

It is said that during the construction, the Great Hall and Crown Room were visited by Napoleon Dynamite Sr.

After our tourist adventure, we headed further North and grabbed coffee/tea/nougat at our favourite Tea Shop. After we were satisfied, our journey turned Southward again, where we played pool, caught up with Brad and Kerrie then went bowling and finally grabbed some late dinner.

All in all, another great day spent with great friends.

“As news shows debated yesterday what his demise said about American values, comic store owners said that many fans behaved as if they were in mourning”.

Over a comic book character.

Now don’t get me wrong - I’ve always been a fan of Marvel Comics (anything Marvel in fact) since I was a kid and Cap is definitely a favourite of mine - but mourning the ‘death’ of a Comic Book character - and tying in all sorts of ethical and political symbolism to such works of fiction just seems a little strange to me.

Particularly when Marvel have (on the record) also refused to rule out the possibility that Captain America might return. These are comic books, heroes are constantly killed off and resurrected in later issues. And I’m sure we’ll see him on the front cover once again, punching the face of a terrorist inside-out in the near future.

Now excuse me while I go off to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Long live the Cap!

Quick funny of the day. Puppies… Are not for eating.

Perhaps this is an infant delicacy. I am however, genuinely concerned for the well-being of the puppy in question. Firstly, the puppy doesn’t even look cooked, meaning the infant could be at risk of all sorts of diseases and such.

Even more concerning is the fact that the infant isn’t even wearing a high-visibility jacket.

Nature - The usual gang of Cockatoo’s were hanging around this afternoon, but one of them was a little different.

It would take the feeder all to itself - and if a Currawong or Magpie came up to have a dig at the seed, it would swiftly stomp over and scare it away. Respect. Upon closer inspection though, I noticed it appeared to be missing a whole bunch of feathers! Now I’m not sure if this is some sort of diseased bird - it seemed to be flying and eating fine - or if it was just a senior Cockatoo - but either way, it looked so funny amongst the other preened, prim and proper Cockies.

I’ll be sure to keep my eye out for this strange little guy over the next few evenings.

Technology - I have recently been considering the purchase of an iPod. Before now I’ve refused to get on the bandwagon simply because I’ve never needed portable music (and I certainly wouldn’t do it as a fashion statement) so the overpriced items have remained clear of my shopping list. However, recently they have become a little bit cheaper in the weak currency known as the AUD - but more importantly, today a new item caught my eye - its called the Organum and its going to be made by a company called Zenum. Not only does it have a cooler name than ‘iPod’, but holy hell, does it look good…

1.8″ color display and can hold 2GB of music and pictures. There aren’t any visible controls, although it’s ridiculously sleek looking and actually makes the iPod look dull. It’s like they traveled into the future and stole an iPod from the year 2064.

http://www.zenum.ch/organum.htm

Think I’ll be waiting until the end of the year to see how the reviews of these things fare before I jump in and buy something along these lines.

Health - And in more recent news, my cold seems to be clearing up *touch wood*; already the sore throat has gone and my head - which felt like it was going to explode this morning - feels back to its usual (cue empty jokes etc here) self.

With any luck I’ll get a good sleep tonight and get rid of this Panda look.

Speaking of which, time for bed - G’Night all.

And in health?

It’s funny how you take for granted things like being able to swallow without it feeling dry and raw.

The Human body is an amazing thing, but boy do I hate having a cold. It’s just so annoying! Barely had a wink of sleep last night - first I was cold, then I was hot, then I was cold again… at about 5am I managed to fall asleep, then woke up again at about 7.. so running on two hours sleep isn’t feeling too good.

Seems to be going around though - Kate has a terrible cough (though no trouble sleeping.. she does amaze me - she can go to bed any time under any circumstances and fall asleep basically right away. My body clock is on a damn regime - an hour early to bed and I don’t fall asleep all bloody night).

Speaking to Bec and Phanny, they both have colds too. Ben has a cold. ‘Tis the season I guess.

So tired.. in hindsight, I really should have taken the day off and stayed in bed! Though that said, I’d not have slept a wink during the day anyway, that’s another thing I’m not capable of - doesn’t matter how tired I am I just lay there and eventually get frustrated after an hour or two because I can’t get to sleep. We really need a little button we can just flick on when we want to grab some Z’s.

How nice that would be!

And other Micallefy goodness…

Many of you will not be familiar with the comical antics of Shaun Micallef. I still consider him one of Australia’s most genius - and at the same time - grossly underrated entertainers.

Much of his dry wit and sarcastic humour has gone over the heads of colleagues and friends. They sit there with bewildered looks on their faces while I roll around on the floor barely able to breathe amidst barrages of laughter.

However, not all is lost. The die-hard Micallef fans live on - and the three season Micallef P(r)ogram(me) has made somewhat of a resurgence lately, with special edition DVD box sets accompanied by sketches appearing on some of the more popular blog/video sites.

Case in point was the tilted room sketch. A Micallef favourite, it first appeared on Australian television back in the days of the prime-time ‘Full Frontal’ skit show - along with the bizarre and mind-boggling David McGhan. Complete with regularly incorrect file footage.

And now ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome the man who makes women go weak at the knees simply with the use of a small hammer, Shaun Micallef!

The tilted room sketch format was taken to a completely new level later on in Series Deux of the Micallef P(r)ogram(me) with the Wine Cellar. And a far more elaborate tilted set.

Mad hatter..

Favourite quotes:

- Tonight’s episode of The Micallef Programme contains high level violence, graphic scenes of torture and Satanism. Enjoy!
- Digital television is made digitally, analogue television is made anally. It certainly would explain the quality of some of our programs!
- If you have any information, any information at all, please contact me as I’m writing an encyclopaedia.
- If you’re like me, it’s possible you’re a clone generated from my stolen DNA. I suggest you turn yourself in for destruction immediately.
- A man who couldn’t say no to a drink….. was how I once described Tommy to a prospective employer.
- Most people are unaware, but there’s really nothing I can do about that.
- Worried about dry skin? Concerned about lines and wrinkles? Then visit a burns unit and get some perspective.
- Well, like an understocked herb salesman, we’ve run out of oregano … sorry, time!
- You’ve written a book which fans will be delighted to learn. Others I suppose will be less enthused.
- And don’t forget, tomorrow is national typewriter day, so buy a ribbon.
- His current album is burning up the charts faster than a pyromaniac working in hospital administration.
- Like a stuttering owl with laryngitis, I couldn’t give two hoots.
- Smoking. It has been found that 25,000 people die each day from smoking related illnesses. But scientists have proved, conclusively, that this number would be halved if divided by two.
- Just like an untalented drummer, we’re out of time.

As David McGhan:
- Light travels at the speed of itself. This means that a single beam of light travelling a distance will arrive at the same time it took to complete the journey, and be there to greet itself.

Well, like a drug crazed interstate truck driver, doped to the eyeballs on amphetamines who uses his rig to crush a clock, I’ve run over time.

Thus ends another entry.

Our visitiors have returned again recently.

Back in 2005 we had a squadron of Cockatoo’s that were pretty regular to the area; you’d see them all the time picking at the ground in the backyard and the unmistakable ’screeches’ would be heard all throughout the day.

We started putting seed out for them (big mistake) and they came to expect it.. so if we weren’t around when they arrived, or ran out of seed, they would start picking at the wood around the deck, cutting the clothes line, removing the caps from the pool fence and generally just destroying the area until they were fed, or got annoyed enough to leave.

Eventually my parents decided this was not good and stopped feeding them. It was chaos for a good month or so there. We would find pot plants uprooted and garden ornaments redistributed across the backyard. They got the idea and we didn’t see them again.

Until now.

A few weeks ago, a single, bold, loud Cockatoo arrived on the pool fence. Screeched a few times, got our attention - we looked out the window, pointed and laughed and admired how pretty he was and - foolishly - we put seed out for him.

He returned the next night - this time with his mate. She isn’t as bold as he is. You can virtually hand feed him - and he won’t move off the feeder while you put the seed down. He is even so bold as to chomp your finger if you take too long or tease him with it. Once the seed is out and he starts dining, she flies in, walks through the seed and eats with him. The same process every night.

Apart from the occasional screeching at 5am or the deliberate removal of items on the back deck while he waits for us to deliver their evening meal they have been pretty good.

However, last Friday, the couple were joined by their mates. All nine of them. It was like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’.

Generally well behaved, but probably due to the fact that we put the seed out quickly..

So we find ourselves in the same position as we were back in ‘05. At the mercy of a bunch of pretty white Cockatoos.

God help us

Now I don’t usually get excited about film releases - sure, there was Batman Begins.. the Matrix trilogy.. Cars.. X-men, Punisher (pretty much anything Marvel comic adapted really) then there is the looming Spiderman 3. And Deja Vu was another I just couldn’t wait to see. Rush Hour 3 should be great too if Chris Tucker ever gets over himself.

Okay, maybe I do get excited about film releases.. nevertheless, this one I spotted the other day really caught my eye. I’m usually not a big fan of video game to film adaptations - mainly because they usually do a terrible job of either casting, or storyboarding (and sometimes both) - but this one has so much potential if done correctly, it deserves a little more faith.

CLICK - Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2008)

The game is - put simply - perfect. Immersive environment, great story and wonderful visuals - if they can only bring half of what made it to the game into the film, it is set to be a blockbuster. Such a rich experience to play it - hopefully it will be the same to watch it brought to the big screen.

Updated with some concept art:

 

In the meantime, we have Spiderman 3 too look forward to.. and Frank Miller’s ‘300′. Iron Man has been announced.. Fantastic Four - Rise of Silver Surfer, Captivity (with the gorgeous Elisha Cuthbert), the third Shrek installment, TMNT…

Cinema is looking healthy for the next 12-18 months.

Sunday - top of 35.5°C. Relative humidity, 83%. And I thought Autumn was on its way!

Though as I write this (I should be in bed, but decided the most logical thing to do on a Sunday night, when I have work tomorrow was to write in my blog at 1am) a storm is in the process of rolling overhead. Suddenly the air is filled by that sweet storm smell and it has dropped at least 10 degrees in here in a matter of minutes.

I have developed a newfound obsession for KFC Zinger burgers. When exactly this started, I’m not too sure, but all I know is that they rule. Today we decided on KFC for lunch - naturally I opted for the Zinger Burger combo. And as usual, it was up to its regular sensational standard.

The surprise of the day was Kate’s KFC Twister. Breast fillet Crispy Strips and fresh salad topped with pepper mayo and all wrapped in a soft warmed tortilla. Wow. One bite and I was hooked. I had to have another bite to make sure it wasn’t just the heat messing with my senses. Nope, it really was that good. So fresh and yummy. Next time we hit KFC I have vowed to have one of these Twister things. Amazingly, I’ve never really eaten at KFC before (apart from the occasional ‘Original Recipe’ pieces bit) so this all comes as a surprise to me.

13 days and 13 hours until the Melbourne GP. The start of the 2007 Formula One season. The end of waiting for the Formula One season to start again. I’m sure this is going to be one of the most exciting seasons in recent memory. So many changes with the driver line up and team shuffles. Testing has been all over the place, but it seems that Ferrari once again have emerged from the off-season as the strongest title contenders.

I am still at a loss as to whom I follow this year. ‘A McLaren supporter through and through’ a mate once labelled me - and ain’t that the truth. My favourite driver, Kimi Räikkönen has moved from McLaren to Ferrari this year though; and two time World Driver Champion, Fernando Alonso has shuffled into a McLaren seat alongside newcomer, Lewis Hamilton (who - just silently - I think is going to be brilliant). So I have two choices; follow my favourite driver at a team I don’t like, or follow a driver I’m relatively impartial to, at my favourite team. Too tough a decision. *Sigh*

Where has the weekend gone? Who stole it?! It seems like minutes ago I was driving home on Friday afternoon - in a matter of hours I’ll be sitting at my desk on Monday morning again.

With any luck I’ll wake up tomorrow and it will be raining again!

A brand new day, a brand new blog.

Nothing hugely exciting to report on this fine March morning. It is going to be a hot day; 11:14am and already the thermometer in my room is showing a warm 29.5°C. Not a breath of fresh air either, it is incredibly still outside.

Video Hits on television - and of the last twenty-odd songs on, I think I’ve liked one of them. I wonder who listens to this stuff - it all seems to be dance tunes that rely on repetition of both beats and lyrics. I guess music is one of those personal things though, some days I find myself completely into the Beatles, but other days that doesn’t seem to suit - and I end up playing some Seal, or Brian McKnight.

Still researching computer hardware. End of this month, I think I am going to make the leap over to Vista. Reports from most of my mates running it have come back positive and while there is still a significant lack of driver support for some hardware (particularly the XFX 8800 GTX that I have specced) I’m sure it won’t be long before companies start supporting Vista-compatible technologies. After all, it was the same sort of leap of change when XP arrived (and that took me two years to be fully converted).

Oh wait, I take it back - Video Hits has redeemed itself. Christina Aguilera appears on the television.

And I’m back. Well I guess I should wrap this up - time to have a play with features later, adding pictures and stuff. I have to get ready, having lunch out with my girl before she goes to work at 2pm.

Great work on this Paul. Welcome all to the Motorcade!