we have a bobsled team!

singings overrated. i know i say that about a lot of things, but really. getting up in front of a bunch of people with only a guitar accompaniment, a too-low mike, no prior experience and having only had about 4 lots of 1-hour rehearsals was a little crazy. apparently my new nickname is 'seroja'. oh har-di-har-har. i think it means either 'frangipani' or 'lotus' (beats me, didnt have to understand the damn thing to sing it). and mum was a little peeved cos of all the bits of the whole day, our song was the only bit that had dodgy videotaping. the camera was slanty and it was start-stop coverage. teehee.

yeah. so on the channel 7 4:30 news today (which i often cannot watch because it is just too tabloid and dumbed-down), they ran a story about this guy from ghana who is participating in whatever championships that are on at the moment, of, yes, skiing. apparently, he was inspired by 'cool runnings' (the movie with the ultimate fanbase... caroline...). oh dear.

heres a site that has provided hours of amusement:
http://explodingdog.com/
its pretty cool.

right. yes. AFIs. they were fun to watch. now dont get me wrong, i loved what mr crowe did with the show, especially touches like the phone next to his mike, and the cute little palm cards, and his perfect little haircurl on his forehead (gotta have respec for a guy that can pull that kinda thing off), but i cant help but wonder if maybe he was so angry at the late-night telecast of the event because less people would see his mc-ing. hey, i liked him i really did, but im allowed to wonder aint i? rowan and mr andrikidis (ex-farscape directors) both missed out on awards for direction, but 'little fish' got the actors awards and 'mary bryant' got best mini. i really thought romola deserved best TV actress, but having not seen 'love my way' i guess i cant really compare claud karvan with her (dammit commercial networks.) nick cave did a cool song, but i missed russell's performance. pity.
glasshouse won, as did john safran (bloody hilarious, that is), and shane bourne picked up best small-screen actor, over chris lillee from 'we can be heroes'. i guess he was too out-there to win, cos i reckon with the acting he had to do, he should have won (as did shane incidentally... gotta love that guy).

i also watched a bunch of old movies yesterday, including 'mean girls' (crap. what else did you expect me to say?), 'the ring 2' (also quite bad. one of the guys kept asking what the plot was, and no one could give a satisfactory answer. like i say, its not scary if it doesnt make sense), parts of a movie called 'funky monkey' starring matthew modine (but that was as a joke. it was truly horrible), and of course, the soccer movie 'goal'. that was alright, if filled to the brim with cliches. certain lines were stolen right out of 'bend it like beckham' (where im sure they were not original in the first place). you know, young working-class underdog realises his dream and comes good, with a few almost-horrible misunderstandings included. oh and a gratuitous love interest (of course). some of the girls i was watching with kept sighing and pausing the damn thing whenever there were closeups of the lead's eyes (he was mexican), and the soccer scenes were a wonderful example of photoshop-type technology. a bunch of actual soccer players were in it, but all i cared about was that kenny was in it! kenny. from press gang. i think his name is lee ross. it was a bit role, i think he was the brothel owner or something, but still. kenny! alright. ill calm down.
the movie has general release here in oz sometime in mid to late january next year.

aright. gtg eat. joho is out. no, i dunno where. no, i dont much care.

mels

soz, bro

i hate multiple posts like this as much as the next person, but one of the signs of having no control over your life is having posts all over the place like i have.
anyways, i know theres not been much plogging here for a while, but its not really a plog so stuff that. and i havent really been in the mood...=P
but what i wanted to do was say, check this out:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=74177
what the hell is the bottom half of the article all about? making light of all the mistakes they have made, in a try-hard, lets not get into mediawatch kinda way? 'cant remember the name of the magazine?' huh? i think ive missed something. someone please tell me what...


mels

anti-communication

so this is what happened yesterday:

i turn up at 10am at donut king in hursty.
i cannot find caz and jess. but i do see ploy who was jobhunting. apparently she was rejected from the icecream place cos she wasnt chinese. oh that is both amusing and distressing.
i go to priceline and buy hair 'product' (meanwhile i cant believe ive taken to calling it 'product').
i go to the bookstore and buy myself some cheap deaver.
it is 10:30am.
i get nervous that caz might have meant next thusday.
i sms caz.
i do not hear the msg back.
jess calls back. she says she is at donut king with caz, and WHERE THE HELL AM I?
i say i am at a bookstore and where is she exactly?
she replies donut king. but they will come to GJs, having realised that i am talking about the donut king inside westfield, but they were talking about the one inside the station.
i walk past GJs. i do not see them.
i call them again, and after much confusion, owing to the fact that caz doesnt know how to turn up the talk volume on her phone, i walk past GJs again. only to finally see jess waving her arms.
sheesh.

we went to see corpse bride, as i said, bought some cheap clothes, made fun of even cheaper clothes, and seriously considered buying a $5 green polka dot dress.
the whole expedition was actually so that i could buy jess and caz the chocolate eclair i owed them from school. of course i couldnt find a $2 coin, so jess ended up paying. again. thus setting up another outing sometime in the future, in which time i may actually buy them the eclair.
oh - and if you were interested, caz and jess didnt like the one we bought. but i just think thats cos theyre so used to the dodgy ones we used to get at school, that they wouldnt know a good, 'gourmet' eclair if it shoved itself up their noses. no offence guys. =P

things to organise, in a non-vicarious way: GOF outing, dec 19 school morning tea, press gang party, packing for atwt, buying of something vaguely resembling a 'travel diary' so i can do something productive on the world trip (dont ask, we found some when we mistakenly followed ploy into marija's newsagency...)

mels

do you remember?

godnabbit. i remember why i hate lj now. everytime i use it for more than 10 minutes it decides to crash my whole computer. and, making the mistake of looking at ljs while writing this blog, i have now lost a pretty interesting, lengthy piece of writing to the miserable, unending place that is that place in the internet where all the lost bits of writings go.

this smells.

no politics today. the news is too boring. all ive seen today is somethings on van nguyen, a bunch of bushy-eyebrowed white fellows in malta, the queen in malta (theres a joke there but i cant be stuffed), someone from labour (not mr beasley for obvious reasons, like hes a useless idiot) exhorting that we cant 'trust' mr howard (duh!), more footage of mr howard's pathetic attempts at bowling from yesterday, and oh - more cricket. i love justin langer, hes so funny.

and is it just me, or does red symonds kind of remind you of professor snape? i mean, he wears black on black on black, is surly, knows way too much about stuff no one cares about, and used to be a headmaster of some school (he also used to be in the skyhooks, but really, how much do we know of professor snape's past?). i only bring it up cos he was on that 'brainiest comedian' show last night with ms sully. i hate ms sully on that show. shes annoying. but hamish and andy were on, as well as colin lane/lano [I DONT KNOW!!!, SOHO!]. and fleety and bob downe (who is actually quite smart). it was crap that there was only one woman there, and that woman was libby gore. i said to yon, 'what about some other girl comediennes, like urm, corinne... oh okay i see'. theres not many who arent tied down to some other network at the moment. and any of the other funny ones - kath and kim, magda, o'loughlin, sue-ann pope, probably have too much self-respect to be on a show like that. incidentally, if youre interested, mikey robins somehow managed to take home the trophy. says a lot about the show, really.

right. what the post that i lost said was that i saw this really cool program last night on the abc. i love the abc. it was a 1-hour 'movie', that was really a bunch of moving pictures and a tear-jerker plot that was to accompany a set of really quite nice, aussie songs, mostly by paul kelly. you gotta love paul kelly. his music is so... pretty. i loved the stuff he did for fireflies (the aussie CFS show, not the sciffy josh whedon - although both were canned right when they shouldnt have been), and obviously whoever is doing the music for 'the alice' also liked it. although there are not too many styles to choose from when writing the music for an outback drama, really. i think the film was called 'one night the moon'. someone called it 'aboriginal country opera' and it really was. the most beautiful thing i have seen and heard in a while. i wanna get on dvd if possible. apparently it was released, but i think im gonna have to search hard to find it. damn. shoulda taped it.

mels

the show that never end

yes it goes on and on, and on and on.
so check this out:
http://www.gateworld.net/news/2005/11/claudiablackjoinsisg-1icas.shtml
yay! so now both claud and ben are gonna take over sg-1. so atlantis is basically old stargate, and now stargate is basically old farscape. whos complaining?
unfortunately, rowan woods missed out on best director at last nights IF's, but having only seen bits and pieces of 'look both ways' i think perhaps ms watt (or is it watts?) is a more than worthy recipient. not that you should take my word for any of this.
another one ive been watching is the new series of secret life. kyle from the old series headstart is now a regular, as is brooke harman (remember when she was little in pirate islands?), and aaron pederson and ben mendelsohn were on this week. so cool.
stu is my favourite character at the moment, but i agree with everyone else, that the show has become something else since claud karvan and sam johnson left. its definitely not as fantastic, but its still a good, easy watch. and was that guy marcus the nurse from all saints?
anyways. rhys muldoon was on glasshouse finale this week. not as funny, and the xmas abc special got awarded to spicks and specks this year, but its always a good show. heres to hoping it never goes stale, although they may need some new stuff to keep it real for much longer.
okay byee.

staanz from ep 1.13 farscape (aka rhys muldoon):
you know im the femal of my species...?
mels

reuse, recycle

which is not dissimilar to hughesy's recycling of his jokes, really. actually one of the reasons i like him is because he tends not to use the same jokes over and over again. he quite obviously makes yotz up on the spot. probably why half the time it barely makes sense. of course, thats part of the humour too...

what i wanted to say is that i caught a abc programme on last night about free energy and the possibility of perpetual energy. it comes at a time when a bunch of ploggers and such are talking about energy in relation to the US war on iraq. i recall reading one guy saying that being able to pump up at the bowser, and have running electricity in every home is a birthright or some such of every american. that they are entitled. my gods, is anyone actually listening to this man? this is the sort of thinking that causes wars, crusades and suchlike. its disgusting to hear the 'common man' spout such rubbish, but to have the higher ups repeating it like the ingrained mantra that it seems to have become is downright frightening.
of course, the guys who are working on perpetual energy machines across the world are saying that there is a big conspiracy to cover such inventions up. that there is an actual law that says that all patents can be apprehended by the US military. which not only an amusing conspiracy theory, but an interesting one. the best theories are the ones with a bit of truth in it, and you gotta admit, the creation of free energy would be pretty detrimental for most of the powerful forces in the world right now.
the problem is that theres no way of fixing what we have done to the environment and the socio-political world. there is no easy way of phasing out fossil fuels, especially in the western nations. until we have to. there is a limited supply of the stuff, and when it runs out, thats it. finito. everyone will just have to deal. and i dont think people will. when this happens, and i have the feeling that at the rate we're going now, itll probably happen in my lifetime, we are not going to cope very well. the whole world will be in chaos. the major economies rely on fossil fuels and appliances that run on fossil fuels. there will be no easy changeover.
the reason for this is because people cant seem to grasp that there will be no more, and very soon. we all live in the nownownow, that no one is thinking ahead even to tomorrow let alone in 20 or 50 years. we will all still be alive then, but without any plans. the forward-thinkers are the minority, the 'hippies' setting up solar power in their homes, buying 'green' cars, and encouraging windfarms are the ones who are on the fringe, not the mainstream.
but when fossil fuels run out, when americans' 'god given right' to electricity, petrol and power is snatched away from them by something that they cannot declare war on (the fact there is simply no more left), well, we'll see whos laughing.

mels

game on

okay. so the IF awards were on last night. i always liked the IFs better than the AFI's cos its a bit more, how do you say, hardcore. its smaller, more intimate and less, well, commercially-driven. adam elliott and magda szubanski were pretty funny (i spelt it wrong, didnt i?), and sbs did a good job. even with that cinematographer who tried to announce the winner before the v/o woman had said the nominees.
but apparently channel nine, our 'beloved' channel nine, is not going to be doing such a good job with their coverage of the AFIs, which are supposed to be flashier and more mainstream. theyre putting it on at 10;55pm, and the awards ceremony itself has chucked an 'oscars' and split into two halves - one for the artisans and craft awards and one for the actors, directors and whatever else awards. the 'real' awards. even in this, we've decided to follow the US. its pathetic and embarrassing. apparently, channel nine are trying to get the audience from the premiere screening of COS to stay on and watch the oz awards. as if the kids watching that movie are going to remain on the sofa at 11pm on a saturday night and watch people theyve probably never seen before make speeches on the free trade agreement and whatnot. these are not the oscars, and i really dont think anyone should be pretending that they are as mainstream and 'cool' as them.

other stuff ive done recently, is watch the new tim burton, corpse bride. ill have to agree with ploy. barkes was the best character, almost entirely due to richaid e grant. there really ought to be a society to fight for more richard e grant on the telly. johnny depp was great, although i reckon he downplayed the main character, victor a bit. elfman did an alright job on the music. i wasnt too sure about some of the songs, but the main theme was real pretty. and i was waiting for richard to sing, but oh well. i reckon there should be a burton 'nightmare' boxset or something, with beetlejuice, nightmare before xmas, and corpse bride. i would buy that in an instant. a bit of a niche in the industry, really, the semi-kids, semi-cartoon, horror feature. and burtons got the whole market really.

one last thing i gotta address in this post. livejournal vs blogger. i know plenty of people probably have their own, well-researched opinions of the matter, but i wanna get mine down before i forget and do something silly. like transplant myself over there.
i like blogger. i reckon more people use it who have something to say about the world. of course there are an equally large portion who use it to drabble on about nothingness and their lives (read:my sister). lj is more of a community where groups of people can deal with each other real easy. id like to talk to those people, but at the same time, i like the feeling and implications of having this blog. the way i can say something and get it down without ever having to worry about anyone ever reading it. (probably defeating the purpose, but hey, what doesnt?). so both have their pros and cons, but you can only have one, because its a bit redundant to be saying the same dren over and over again. i, of course, have my foot firmly in both camps, usign one to pretend to be communicating and sociable, and the other to actually record my albeit random and boring thoughts.

so for now, i choose blogger. and no, im not getting paid. but the lj is alive and kicking, and the Space is, well, in existence (barely). it would be too much to hope for, for a single integrated system, with the best bits of all the different sites. only time will tell i spose.

mels

here comes another one...

this sounds familiar:

" "So the information was there, it was known to certain people within government and given the importance of the senator's vote at that point in time I'm sure if he had have asked the right questions he'd have got the right answers." "
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=59377

this is about senator joyce's allegted pre-knowledge of the telstra job cuts before he voted with the gov... so he knew something and could have easily found out a lot more. but he didnt. im sensing a trend here.

anyways. that headland show was on last night. my first impression is that its a bit crap. i cant believe they commissioned over 50 eps of the show already. im sure it will do well, just to spite me, but whats the point in the networks pumping money into the kind of show that can become the next homeandaway. bring back things like fireflies (the abc CFS show with libby tanner), or always greener or that style of thing. grr.

the movie i wanna see at the moment? corpse bride. it looks hi-larious. aqnd the animation is really cute. yet freaky. sort of like that old nightmare before christmas feature. hey i havent seen that in a while...

mels

prim and proms

allright, so the yr 12 formal was on last night. a few weeks ago the family (read: joho's) camera died in spectacular fashion, so i didnt have a digital camera with which to take multiple photos of me smiling the same smile over and over again. what a pity.
didnt mean that everyone else had the same problem, and now i think i have a permanent blind spot from looking at camera flashes, as well as a stiff face from smiling the whole night.
but there was other stuff to do:

• taste the amazingly, unbelievably disgusting sauce on the cheesecake. you had to taste it to understand. it was just indescribable.
• jump up and down in heels on the dance floor that was thankfully a bit bigger than the one at starroom from our yr 10 formal
• take a moment's silence to recognise the compulsory 'thankyou mary' moment. its hilarious how they ignore her right up to the point that they dont. but i am looking forward to the dvd... coming to a computer near you, next yr, development day
• say hi to mr mo, who came to see us all 'frocked up', seeing as how he started his current run at the school the same year that we did. awww...
• stare slackjawed at necie's dress, or lack thereof around her back. were those things actually fastened in her skin..?
• hang around the water cooler after 'shaking your thang' to the sounds of such classics as the macarena, the britney spears medley, and the jitterbug
• wave your arms in the air to 'i will survive' as the formal finished up. ms murray would have been so proud of us, only our school of 'independently minded young women' would have the theme song to female empowerment as our summative lyrics.

i still cant really believe that we've all finished... its strange to think that ill never have to sit in those classrooms and whinge about whatever the hell we whinged about. no more locker bells, no more roll call, no more hanging out in the canteen lines for a grossly overpriced chicken burger.

ah well.

mels.

green men and green belts

for someone who had to study the cold war for the hsc, i sure find this interesting:

" In Turkish public opinion and the Turkish media, the Green Belt project is known as a U.S. Cold War-era policy designed to contain the USSR with the surrounding Islamic states. This policy is believed to have been in effect from the 1950s through the 1980s, when the U.S. supported Islamic governments and nurtured anti-Communist Islamist sentiment in Muslim countries such as Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Later, some Arab countries, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia, became part of this "belt." "
(http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=80&contentid=2680&page=2)

but anyways, what drew me to the article is that some turkish intelligentsia dude reckons that al-qaeda is in fact a cia operation to foster international ill-will towards islam and muslims, no matter whether they are terrorists or not. the fact that i found the link on the 'conspiracy planet' site suggests a few things, but you gotta admit, its a pretty cool explanation. sure beats anything else the media and hence the international govs are giving out.

mels

SIAH

tripod song-in-an-hours are back - on pete helliar's show on the dreaded austereo network. at least theyre putting all of the songs up on the net so i dont actually have to try listening to that drivel.

in other terrific news, the bulletin reckons:

" Another major planned target (of the arrested alleged aussie 'terrorists') was Flinders Street Station. Other targets include the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and possibly the cross-Sydney tunnel. "

ahahah. the cross-sydney tunnel. i think he means the cross city tunnel. but i reckon it would do everyone a favour getting rid of the damn thing. or maybe they can just blow up the tolling places so that everyone can use it for free.

goodness check this out:
http://www.tollroadsnews.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
its an international site devoted to news on 'toll roads, turnpikes, toll bridges, toll tunnels and road pricing'. and i thought my blog was boring. someone is sitting there compiling this news service. well what ever 'flips your pancake'.

mels

pay-as-you-use comms

well now i feel a bit stupid, dont i?
the guy who ran the nanowrimo meter has had to close down cos its costing too much. the day when communications are free (hey, i'll believe anything), is the day i will finally be able to breathe. so join me and all my naive, optimistic spec-fiction, sci-fi brothers and sisters in the faitht that one day, commercial space-flights will become affordable, fossil fuels will be abandoned permanently, and frelling, flipping, communications will not rely on a user-pay system. dont ask me for the logistics, do i ask you proof of your religions?

mels

another one bites the dust

in fantabulous news for the wrongly accused, the nsw gov has decided to allow 11:1 jury majority decisions in courts. yippee.
there are obviously a lot of conflicting views about the whole matter, but 'beyond reasonable doubt', to me, sounds like every single person's view must absolutely and totally agree. hung juries happen, but they usually have a reason. im no lawyer but isnt it better to spend money and time to ensure the right person is put away, rather than putting them away first then thinking about it later? but since we're making our merry way through everything civil libertarians have accomplished in the last 100 years, why not?

speaking of which, the raids last night in revesby have been the source of much amusement, as has the media reporting of the event. first, we hear that terrorists are being rounded up before they can explode the fertiliser they have in their backyards, then that women and children have been taken, then this evening i hear that the police only raided the house to collect evidence. i always thought you did that before storming a place, but hey, what do i know?
no matter what kinds of clucking noises my mum makes, im inclined to agree with those guys who bashed the awaiting media in melbourne the other day. sheesh.
besides which, the guys who have been captured have been charged with being alleged members of a 'prescribed group'. soon i wont be able to have dinner at malaysia hall cos it obviously is the breeding ground of such 'groups'. next thing you know, mr howard will be arresting the members of 'the herd', or the living end.

and it is depressing to me to see the lawyers for the imprisoned men saying that they cant do anything but present their truth and leave it in the hands of the australian justice system. gods, they might as well lay down and expose their necks instead.

anyways. to the abc, and this morning i caught a very bearded, and very young scott major exposing the horrible truth and construction behind the media in what was basically the entire 'telling the truth' hsc syllabus in 30 minutes, in the language of 9-yr olds. now im still unsure as to whether this scott major was the same one as of the 'always greener' fame (loved that show. and as always, this is a sign that it was in the process of being indiscriminately canned), but i have a feeling it was. he looked a lot different, but then again it was years ago. fun stuff.

oh - and i finally caught 'serenity'. yeah its quite good. and if i had been a firefly fan, im sure i woulda loved it to bits. as it stands tho, im just wondering what mr henson and the folks at sci-fi are thinking in regards to ... yes you guessed it, farscape. i read somewhere that the success ( or lack of one) of serenity would directly influence any future plans for farscape. and i cant help but think that its reaching the international box-office will have brought all of the old scapers back out of the woodwork. all fingers crossed that we can get something to happen.

and other non-vicarious news:
i finally got my formal dress (its purple), im continually asking the question: where the hell is the exact location of the formal place, my sister is going to the tech formal (proud, innit, jess?), and the hsc is ending tomorrow. for everyone i think. good luck ppl. and remember to have fun.

mels

77%

of people approved of mr howards dealing with the tampa boat refugees all those years ago, and i cant help but think that if more people had stood up and said 'no', we all wouldnt be in the position we are in today, hanging off the tattered coattails of the americans. also. i love that song by the herd.

and, apparently, http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/opinion/polls/main500160.shtml

" 77 percent of Republicans approve of his (Pres Bush's) job performance, and the President retains the support of some of his key constituencies. 61 percent of white evangelicals approve of the job he is doing (up from 55 percent a month ago), as do 54 percent of conservatives. "

interesting number. however, everyone else seems to be losing faith in him, thank god. what with the libby-plame thing and the reaching of 2000 soldiers dead in iraq, as well as the various hurrican responses (i think theyre up to hurricane 'beta'), and the retraction of his miers nomination, i think people are beginning to see that the world might just be a better place without him calling the shots. of course, i wont be able to say things like that after christmas, if the leader of our heroic nation gets his way (as it is looking more and more like he will), and the anti-sedition laws and whatnot get pushed through. youll excuse me if im not as enthusiastic as mr everyone else about that exciting news.

and, i finished my hsc yesterday. 'w00t'!. yeah.. modern was about what i expected, except the WW1 question which was wholly on the battle of the Somme. almost 2 years of learning about eveything from the Nivelle offensive to the Defence Of the Realm Act, to Germans eating cats and peace protests of the first world war, and the only thing the flipping board wants to know is about a single battle, albeit the largest and one of the most important.
and i really dont know who would have known enough about nuclear protesters during the cold war to have been able to write a 30 mark, 10-16 page essay on it.
but its over, so enough of that.

last night, channel 7 showed some old brit series at about midnight, called 'close and true'. and it had robson green in it, and it was *damn* cool. he looked like he was enjoying himslef a bit more than in something like 'unconditional love', which the abc played a few months ago. of course, nothing can compare to wire in the blood, but it was funny to see mr green look a bit less neurotic and not like his face is going to split in half if he tried smiling.

oh and some new additions to the sidebar-y thingy. the sesame street terror alert, which i saw on someone else's blog and fell in love with (currently on yellow, or 'bert', whatever that means - maybe we're all going to start falling in love with pigeons), and the nanowrimo meter i picked up somewhere. obviously im not making much of a mark on my story, but i'll get there. eventually and with much pain.

speaking of pigeons, the cricket is going pretty well at the moment. australian batting was a bit woeful, but at least the skipper did something right. yet again, we are relying on the tail-enders to provide the runs to present a respectable score. its really not their job to make 150-odd runs, even with people like lee and warne in the mix. the openers and the middle order are supposed to be setting the mark adn the bowlers are just meant to add whatever they can. admittedly, the windies are bowling really quite well. i saw they made about 600 the other day against queensland. sheesh.

mels

scratched throats and records

sorry. im not gonna stop about the 'anti-terrorism' laws. its just that no one else is even saying anything. and whether im right or not doesnt even bloody matter this late in the piece, the fact is that everything must be debated and thrown around, and no one is bloody doing that anymore in this flipping country. we're all too slack.
so yeah. i saw a good bit last night on channel 9 about this couple whose house was raided a few years ago by asio and they got assaulted and yotz like that. they got to sue the gov or appropriate body because stinking asio attacked the wrong address.
now is it just me, or is it quite scary that we are going to entrust all these new powers to a group of people who cant even read the street directory...

anyways. mr beasley has decided that he is sick of pretending to be the opposition who can actually oppose anything, and has now decided to save everyone's time by just nodding his head at whatever little johnny has come up with now.

meanwhile the genius engineers we got here in sydney decided it would be fun to dig a big hole in the middle of the street, and are now being confronted with a teetering building that looks like its gonna fall in any second now. hoping that everyone wouldnt notice, they are currently trying to fill it back up with lots of concrete.
um guys? we all saw it already.
maybe the gov dug the whole to distract us from the fact that the dodgy deals going on between it and the tunnel operators are being blown wide open. really. arent there rules against them shutting off all the other roads and forcing people into the tolling tunnel, when they get money out of it too?

anywhos. im still sick, coughing like a ... whatever the appropriate simile is. im trying to nanowrimo, but its not really happening at the moment. ive got a stack of modern notes im trying (and failing) to type up for tomorrow's test. oh- and chem today was pretty funny. it was real bad. no saponification (i learnt all those sulfonate structures for nothing), no acid stuff (other than the 5 mark history question), no rubber, no sulfuric acid (the safety doesnt count), no air pollution, geez. its a joke.

and happy eid everyone for tomorrow. i only fasted about half the month cos mum wouldnt let me whenever i had exams, but im still looking to collect all my moneys anyway. and mum made green jelly... yay. =P

tonight, on sick sad world...

right. a few updates.
natbat made me do nanowrimo this year, but i have exams till thursday, and i figure im gonna be busy most weekends, as well as dren like the formal, and formal shopping next week so i have no idea when im sposed to write my 50k. itll get done though. natbats got me on pain of death, so...

and i caught the second half of that mary bryant show last night. respect for romola garai has been substantially increased from the showing in danny deronda.
(ps. what is *with* jamie bamber's facial hair in that show...!?)
but yeah, its been a while since ive seen tony martin and abe forsythe and stephen curry on the telly, so with the exception of some of their accents, it was a really good showing. the series is making a bunch of peeps say that 'this proves the miniseries is not dead', but i dont think that was ever much in doubt. things like the original alice mini and that little oberon and david wenham's thingy were really good. comparing some of the production values of some of these shows with some of the dodgy overseas stuff just proves that its the audiences and the networks here that are condemning oztv. dont get me wrong, its still getting made, just at a far lesser pace.
when we finally throw off the shackles of reality tv (drawn together was hilarous on monday btw), the networks will have to realise that they have to give us something more substantial than series after series of b-grade celebrity competitions. theyll have no ability to play reruns of, say, the first series of BB, so it follows that theyll actually have to support something original. of course, with mr howards free trade stuff, its not even necessary for that support to have to go to something local, but heres hoping.

mels

like it is

now now. i like sbs, and i like how they show programs with seemingly a different value system from all the other networks. its good, its refreshing. but of course, theres always one hockeypuck:

" Rebel Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has attacked multicultural broadcaster SBS over some of its more risque programs.
Senator Joyce took SBS executives at a Senate committee hearing on Monday to task for broadcasting shows including the homosexual American drama Queer as Folk.
The devout Christian senator also argues many people will be offended by an upcoming British documentary which questions the family of Jesus.
"It just seems peculiar there seems to be a range of examples of things that seem to make it on to SBS, being a father of four kids, ... that wouldn't make it on to other television stations," Senator Joyce told the committee. "

the mans not afraid to call it how he sees it, and thats cool for him. but seriously, if you dont want to watch it, as Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt once said, "change the channel".
mr joyce, what are your kids doing up at that time of the night watching a network with a reputation as ... colourful... as sbs, anyways?

but the moment the sbs can't play that kind of show at 10pm (to what i suspect is a reasonably large, if quiet, audience), is the moment you will not be allowed to say what you think, or defy the gov on anything.

... gah. civil liberties are going down the tube, anyways.

mels