The collected works of ScottyB

Ah Christmas time. Bring forth a bounty of exotic fruits not regularly seen throughout the other 8-9 months or so of the year..

I speak of the finest Mangoes, ripe, bulging Cherries. Plums that are so juicy they almost explode in your face and make you crave for more. Watermelon, Rockmelon, Honeydew Melon.. all keen to be plucked from their shelves in the fruit section of the supermarket and diced, devoured in your home.

How I love fruit!

Usually at this time of year, you’re stressing about presents, looking forward to (sarcastically maybe) family get-togethers year after year.. but there’s one thing that’s for sure - and that’s the supply of lovely fruit to accompany you throughout the day.

As I sit here tucking into a little bowl of Watermelon and Cherries before bed, I do realise that Summer does have its high points.

That apparently I’m having trouble affording lately!

It would be truly nice to be able to just ’switch-off’ ones mind at night. Instead of this lay there, think about stuff, then stare at the ceiling for the next four hours realising that I’m now completely wide awake deal I’ve currently been experiencing.

I guess much like air, or water, you don’t really appreciate sleep until its become unattainable.

Saturday night was the first night in my lifetime that I didn’t actually sleep at all. It was quite an unusual feeling, knowing that you’re tired and you need to get sleep and you’re in bed, trying to get to sleep, but suddenly its 3am and you’re staring at the ceiling wondering why you’re not asleep already.

Thankfully, after a very early night last night, I eventually got to sleep at a little after 1:30am.. which isn’t far off the norm for me. Today I feel much better, but hoping this sleep - or lack thereof - thing goes soonish!

I don’t know what this means exactly:

What I do know however, is what it brings.

And that is… RAIN!

Have I mentioned before that I love the rain? No? Well, I love the rain.

Sensationally, we’ve been having showers pretty much on-and-off all week - since last Saturday in fact, with some good heavy falls overnight here and there and some great thunder and flashes of lightning yesterday. 44mm of rain last night they said. Wooo!

Overcast, cool (no hotter than about 20 this week so far) and rainy.

Perfect weather really! I just love driving about in the rain, getting home and sitting down under a big thick blankey, watching a movie, listening to the rain hammering down on the roof of the house and the wind at the windows. Its so comforting and cosy.

Unfortunately these conditions can’t stick around forever - they forecast that it will all start getting lighter tomorrow and clear by the end of the weekend. Shame. Guess I better make the most of it!

I really should think about moving to England

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.

Thats the full, complete name of the upcoming (to PAL region anyway) PS3 title of the popular series.

Being a complete Playstation game noob (outside of Gran Turismo) I’d never heard of the series myself and generally it would have been a title I’d have avoided on other platforms. However, having read a couple of reviews, user and website versions - and then seeing some in-game footage and photos, I simply had to download the demo.

And man.. was I impressed.

The graphics really have to be seen to be believed. No video and no images really do it justice, but here’s a sample:

And yes, it really plays like that.

The whole game feels like a Pixar movie. It has this comic edge, on Pixar-esque graphics. The characters are fun, immediately likable. Your enemies, while trying their hardest to kill you, are cool and likable too.

I guess the only disappointing element was that its a demo. And hence, ends fairly quickly. So in order to compensate for this, I’ve had to play it through about ten times.

Can’t wait until the full version arrives on Australian shores on the 15th of this month.. another one that I simply have to add to the collection!

Link: Insomniac Games - Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction
Link: R&C at Playstation

For the last few weeks, I’ve watched all hell break loose on the PS3 forums in regards to the (then) upcoming Firmware version 2.

Dean and I have laughed away at all the wild speculation, all the hopes and dreams. We watched as these hopes and assumptions became ‘possibilities’ and eventually they became accepted fact.

This was all quite ironic seeing as no official word had been given and you just knew deep down inside, that everyone was set for a huge surprise. Albeit a bad one.

Well, today the new Firmware arrived. Version 2.

And it delivered nothing that people were expecting. What a surprise!

It’s amazing how rumours and gossip become fact in this day and age. The Internet has allowed these rumours to perpetuate.. it becomes like a game, everyone else outdoing one another for the latest news and gossip - except none of it is true. For some reason though, everyone believes it.

So on launch day, you have hundreds.. thousands of grossly disappointed people. And all for what? A barrage of rumours.

Funny stuff.

What the new Firmware did deliver however, was a new look XMB and a bunch of miscellaneous fixes, polishing the menu system and getting us ever-so-closer to the release of ‘Home’.

Season 5 has begun.

I managed to catch the first episode just the other afternoon - and I have to say, I’ve missed this show. Lots.

It’s a different format now - hot new office in California, but still the same old insecurities, one liners and egos. New love interests, new ways for Christian to be a right bastard and show himself off to the ladies.

I’d probably have never watched the show if it hadn’t been for the MINI forums and the muppet enthusiasts

Long live Nip/Tuck! Already keeping a look out for the episodes as they appear, so exciting!

Yum.

Generally, fruit and dairy products are not items I choose to combine. I don’t know why, but ever since I was a kid, I separated my diced fruit and my ice cream. I’d eat them one before the other, or only one, not the other. They were sweets, but sweets that never related to one another. In my sweets bowl, the two never met.

Over the last week however, on two occasions with Kate, we’ve had Ice Cream with Strawberries. At first, the idea didn’t excite me too much, but on consumption I realised that the last 20-odd years of my life have been spent in the dark - when all along, I should have been exploring all of the opportunities.

Mama Mex restaurant (who have the most awesome meals by the way) was the first occasion, my sensational meal of Beef Fajitas and Kate’s wondrous Spaghetti and Meatballs followed by a huge vase-like glass full of creamy ice cream and dotted with sliced Strawberries. Then the other night Kate brought around some Strawberries and Yoghurt. I didn’t delve into the yoghurt, but instead opted for, once again, the ice cream to accompany my ‘Berries.

The flavours are just divine. The taste is a sensation. Its the perfect sweet after a meal really.

Man I love food.

Wooo!

- Featuring all nine seasons of the show about nothing! 180 episodes over 32 discs.
- Limited Edition Gold Embossed Packaging
- Official Coffee Table Book - a 226-page bound anthology filled with photos, quotes and trivia from every episode
- Documentaries for All Nine Seasons
- Inside Looks
- Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That (Bloopers)
- In The Vault (Deleted Scenes)
- Yada Yada Yada (Commentaries)
- Sein-Imation
- Notes About Nothing
- Bonus Disc - featuring the exciting reunion of the entire cast plus Larry David on the ninth anniversary of the series finale

Yada yada yada. Not that there’s anything wrong with it! Serenity now! Shrinkage. Low-talker. It’s about nothing. Sponge-worthy. Hello, Newman. Master of your domain. You gotta see the baby! You double-dipped the chip. They’re real and they’re spectacular. Giddyup. Mulva? I don’t have a square to spare. My boys need a house! These pretzels are making me thirsty! Buck Naked.

“Why couldn’t you make me an Architect? You know I always wanted to pretend I was an Architect!”

It’s all there. ALL of it. Finally.

Gold, Jerry. Gold.

I’ll come back in one year after I’ve finished watching the series through, start to finish. NEXT!

Link: Seinfeld Gift Set @ Big W!

Wow.

I mean like mega incredible, OMG insane. Wow.

I used to be one of the World’s biggest Transformers fans as a kid. I watched the TV show, we watched it again on tapes, my Brother and I had pretty much all the toys on the market. Pocket money went into toys and books. I had the journal - the ‘bible’ book of all Transformers (actually, I think I’ve still got it somewhere). I pretty much lived and breathed the series for most of Primary School.

A while down the track, I even followed ‘Beast Wars: Transformers’ when it first hit the TV screens.

Somehow, I missed the movie adaptation at the cinema. This was a great loss; However, tonight, the home cinema experience has done it adequate justice. It was abso-bloody-lutely fantastic.

As details of the film came to light and spy shots/art evolved, I was a little puzzled as to the direction of the ‘new’ Transformers.. but having seen the film, I’m 100% sure they were perfect in the new adaptation. It all worked so brilliantly.

The visuals were second-to-none, CGI at its absolute peak. The Autobots were insanely cool as you’d have expected (and wanted them) to be - and the Deceptions ridiculously awesome - you were never sure who to go for, they were just all so cool.

Ultimately though, as with the series, while Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide and Ratchett were so wicked.. it was BumbleBee that had me cheering.

So totally cool. If you haven’t seen it, you simply must!

I guess my only disappointment in all this, is the fact that I now can’t own this one on Blu-Ray in high definition as it ought to be viewed in.

Thanks again Paramount/Dreamworks. Selling out the fans and relegating BD users to waiting this one out. Hope the $150 million was worth it.

Link: Transformers @ IMDB

It’s absolutely vile.

I’d say that its the only word I don’t like using. You’ll basically never catch me saying it because simply put, there are far too many negative images and connotations that go with it.

You picture all those terrible family get togethers where everyone is just shouting at one another and you wonder why we all really do it in the first place.

I can’t get over the fact that people use it so much, particularly this early in the year.

Christmas (There! I said it!) is in December! And late December at that!

*sigh*

Time to start the Christmas shopping soon. Don’t want to leave it late again, like I did in ‘05. That was a nightmare.

I think the only great part about Christmas shopping is the virtually zero guilty conscience when you’re blowing loads of money on cool stuff