This probably isn’t the first time I’ve said this, and probably won’t be the last, but I do pretty much all of my ‘blogging’ via Twitter these days (a quick look shows it’s been two whole months since I last said that!).

It’s a slow night at work though, you see - the evenings usually are. Been a while since I did evenings, and it’s good to see nothing much has changed. Thank fuck the boss is back though - things around here have been a little… tense, let’s say. Won’t go into it here, but.

One of the news directors has loaned me the first three seasons of Battlestar Galactica on DVD - it’s a show I’ve always heard was good, but I realised early on it wouldn’t be a show to dip into, or take on without serious consideration. I mean, I’m on my third (for some episodes, fourth or fifth) Lost watchthrough. It’s almost like work - if work was totally awesome. But my point is, it’s not exactly Friends.

Took me a while to get started - the show dumps you straight in, but after a few false starts I think momentum will get me through the first season at least pretty quickly. It’s pretty damn good, and I’m glad I’ve managed to avoid spoilers all these years.

In other unimportant happenings, I’ve had to make the ‘loud’ version of the album free to download at any quality, not just 128k mp3. Bandcamp (the host) simplified their sales policy, so you can’t sell low quality versions at a cheaper rate. Their justification was that it just doesn’t work, which is fair enough. Still, with two versions of the record on sale - one sonically superior - I think it’s no harm done really. Not like I expected to make any money from it, ha ha! The $60 I did make from the Fark greenlight was awesome enough.

I make music for the satisfaction of it - to me, if no one else, it has inherent value. Maybe one day I’ll be discovered, probably after I’m dead. Pfft. Stupid death.

Anyway, work happening.

Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.

Google is launching its new profile/social networking thingamabob this week, so I thought I’d have a quick squizz, and noticed one of the questions had an interesting answer suggestion…

Awesome. Link.

Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.

Tuesday: Visibly on the improve and feeling a lot better. Apart from frequent, but not chronic itches on the face and scalp, a bit on the leg, and the spots, I mightn't even realise anything was wrong. Probably as contagious as anything, though.

Saw The Betrayal for the first time last night - the legendary 'backwards' episode of Seinfeld. TV was quiet so I missed a bit of the dialogue, seemed quite odd and interesting. Great ending though (or should I say beginning?). 

Cricket on today - cricket is awesome when you're stuck at home. Especially when you're running out of episodes of Lost to watch (six left....).

 I'm cleaning up my computer (reorganising shit, finding out what I've actually accrued over the years, it's just like real tidying) and I came across this: an email sent to TVNZ by an inebriated James and I, back in early 2003. Having the internet on at home was still a novelty, and we were trashed.

----------------------------

Hi there

PLEEEEEEEAAAAASEEEEEEEEEEE

repeat the Young Ones!!!!! It's been something ridiculous like 3 years now since they last played on TV. that was a looooooong time ago. we believe the public is now willing and ready for a complete (both) series repeat of what is perhaps the third greatest comedy of all time (behind MONTY PYTHON and BACK OF THE Y of course :p ).

When I (dan duran) was in my early teens, watching the Young Ones was my only source of information on what it was to be a student in a flatting situation. Now, some might say that it was over the top and not meant to be realistic, but they would be wrong - i've lived in flats that we're the real-life equivalents of rik, mike, neil and vyvian's existence.

if the show cannot be shown for copyright and contractual reasons, PLEEEEAAAAAAAASEEEEE use the money that ISNT being spent on M2 to buy the rights for it - see if you can get a discount by claiming it is a Public Information Service. I learnt a lot from the exploits of the Young Ones crew, and would love to have a recap.

But seriously, there are 15 year olds out there who have never heard of Rik Mayall and Nigel Planer, who watch TV at random nighttime times who may come across this show and go "Woah!!!! what the f--k is this??!?!?!?" just like i did in my early teens and was forever hooked....

SO, in conclusion, PLEEEEEAAASSEEEEE return the Young Ones to our screens. Even if it is at 12.30AM on a tuesday night....

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

------------

dan duran & Kerr Avon - Co-Presidents of the People's Organisation for the Liberation of the Young Ones (television show.

(the POLYO-TV)

P.s. we have beed drinking Lindauer wine and Moskva Vodka. I hope this does not devalue the quality of our argument.

It's Saturday morning, 7am and I'm up. Damn. I suppose my body is all 'you've had eight hours sleep, more than you usually get, now, out of bed!' The past couple of weeks on early shifts has given me a good idea, at least at this part of the year, what happens at what time. When I awoke, I knew it was 6.30am, got up to check, and sure enough, it was. I know 'cause at 4am it's dark and quiet, and 4.25am when I leave the house it's dark and quiet (unless my iPod decides to play Master of Puppets), when I get to work at 5am it's dark and quiet, when I sometimes pop out at 6am to get a V from the bakery across the road, it's dark and quiet. So to wake up to dark and birds chirping, I figured it was 6.30am, and no later, cause at 7am it's dark but with hungry cats meiowing.

Our friend Ice McGunface broke the terms of his bail - he was under 24-hour curfew at his place, and he wasn't there when the police checked - and they apparently don't think he is going to turn up to his hearing on Wednesday.So combine that with the deleting of his Facebook, and I guess he's trying to disappear or something.

It would suck, for him, if someone who worked in the newsroom of a television station happened to get a hold of any incriminating photographs...

There's nothing on TV at this hour of Saturday morning. TV One's Best of Breakfast is pretty lame, and as often happens in times of crap TV, I've landed on Fox News. It's amusing to hear the presenters twist everything to suit their station's views, sometimes blatantly, but sometimes more subtly and awkwardly. Like the guy on now, struggling and hesitating to describe global warming as, at the very least, 'partly' man's fault.

Being up this early on a Saturday sucks.

I'm not one to rail against beneficiaries, growing up in a single-parent household and all, but this is pretty weird. The Child Poverty Action Group seem to want 'Working For Families' cancelled on the basis that beneficiaries do not get it. If this is the case, it's a pretty bizarre move - there are working families out there who get little more than some beneficiaries and deserve any assistance they can get.

Neither the Herald nor the 3 News article explain whether the group wants it totally cancelled or modified to include single-parent families, to be honest. But by calling on the Human Rights Act and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the latter of which I'm not sure has any legal standing in NZ) it would seem the former.

I'm all for assistance to single-parent families, considering it's the children who suffer at the hands of governments elected on the promise of tax cuts, not the parents, but if they really are calling for a repeal of the Working For Families law, it's a mighty case of sour grapes, isn't it? It's true they do need more assistance financially than two-parent working families, but no government will ever be elected on that platform - there are too many selfish folk around who don't understand a silver bullet solution to a lot of things they rail against - like youth crime and drug use, for example - would be not to bring children up in poverty.

Anyway...

I'm back working afternoon/evenings, which is a lot easier on the mind and body than 5am starts. I'm actually awake for once, and can sleep. The days don't go quite as fast, but it's a trade-off I'm happy to make after two weeks of stumbling around like a zombie.

I've got three full backing tracks done on the new record, and they're the heaviest, loudest recordings I've ever done outside of demos. I'm not so sure I'll have the time or commitment to render them fully as a band though... I'm thinking a lot about it though.

Watched Southland Tales. Didn't get it. Might have to watch it again. Watched the ending three-parter of Lost season 4. Awesome.

What kind of idiots do we have for neighbours here? I was awoken at some ridiculous hour of the night (after going to bed around 1am, after work) by a couple of guys shouting at each other to be quiet as people were trying to sleep. I don't know what was so noisy to begin with, but it can't have been very loud - I'm a pretty light sleeper - so the irony was pretty thick.

Then a couple of hours or so later, someone shouted, "wake up you faggot!", then about 8am, "get up you wanker!". So much for sleeping.

In other news, I heard an advert on C4 announcing the return of 'New Zealand's shittest TV show', Back of the Y, which is totally awesome.

And in other other news, looks like the Herald's continuing its campaign serving National-voting 'middle' NZ, with or without the Electoral Finance Act. The lead story is about how wrong it is the Government stands to make billions of dollars from carbon emissions plans - because saving the environment and having more funds to put into education, health and research is a bad thing, remember. There's a story suggesting the recent (albeit not all that large) spike in unemployment is a good thing, because it means property owners' interest rates will drop. There's also more industry threats about the carbon emissions scheme. But it's not all doom and gloom, as the Herald reassures its core audience their investment properties are still going to appreciate in the long-run - the unspoken assumption being perhaps that despite overseeing the most dramatic property value appreciation in history, Labour will soon be gone and National will be back to let everyone make lots of money again.


Meanwhile, Stuff has an article about RickRolling (not a RickRoll, I promise), and an article on how violent video games don't create killers. I think Stuff wins today.

But I haven't really been in the mood to. But this is interesting: I turn 10,000 days old on Friday.

So is this thing I found; no prizes for guessing what it's a parody of...

This is a tale explaining the manner in which My way of life was rotated along a Y axis until it reached a position roughly 180 degrees from that which it started If I could have 60 seconds of your time, simply place your posterior in the selected location And I will relate to you the details of how I was made the male monarch of the district of the City of Los Angeles, California commonly referred to as Bel-Air (coordinates 34.08333 -118.44778)

In the western region of the “City of Brotherly Love” known as Philadelphia my mother expelled me from her womb and indeed that is also where I spent my childhood in my mother’s care The majority of my time was spent in a recreational area containing such diversions as a jungle gym, swing set, sand box, etc. I was typically at the height of leisure while frequently at a temperature slightly below what might be considered standard room temperature Outside of my educational institution I was engaging in a game of basketball with some of my friends When a couple of gentlemen who seemed to be of the disposition to cause a great deal of mischief Began causing a great deal of chaos and disharmony in the area in which I lived I was involved in one rather small bout of fisticuffs after which my mother became concerned for my general safety and well-being And she informed me that I would be moving in with her sister and her sister’s husband in the previously mentioned community of Bel-Air

I puckered my lips and exhaled forcefully to produce a shrill note in order to gain the attention of a taxicab driver and as the driver approached I observed his California vanity plate which in place of the traditional jumble of alpha-numeric characters, used only the letters F, R, E, S, and H, spelling out the word “fresh” and from his rearview mirror dangled a pair of oversized, fur-covered cubes decorated to look like the six-sided dice commonly used in gambling and board games In such a situation I could have made a statement about the unusualness of this particular taxicab to the point of it being nearly unique Instead I cogitatively decided against it and instead informed the driver that he should deliver me to what was to become my new home in the community of Bel-Air

We pulled up to a large domicile sometime between the hours of 7 and 8 o’clock And in a loud tone of voice I informed the cab driver that at some undetermined point in the future I would again detect his odor through my sense of olfaction I gazed about the region of land that I was destined to rule, reflecting on my arrival Where I would claim my rightful place upon the throne, from which I would govern the community of Bel-Air as monarch.

So yeah. I'm going to go back to filling in the hours with meaningless activity.  I might post later.

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=2417

The above is perhaps one of the best articles I've ever read on human psychology... and it came via Cracked.com. Hmmm.

Utu is a word on Scrabulous. If you don't know what Scrabulous is, I suggest not finding out, else you'll never ever get anything else done.

Emo is also a word, it turns out. At least it's a change from the ubiquitous QI.

And here's the trailer to the new Futurama DVD/film thing. It might be down beneath the pic on the right, it's hard to tell in preview mode.

"Sexy sports presenter splits with ref" - the first sentence is enough! I know it's credited to the Sunday News in the small print, but they could at least not put it on the front page of the site if they want to be taken seriously now, huh?

So my week in Hamilton... On the first day, we popped into the Dewar court case in one of Htown's three adjacent courtrooms; it was the first day, and as I'd no idea what this Dewar guy looked like, I thought the guy being interrogated was Dewar. It wasn't, and was boring as fuck anyway, so I didn't really care when I found out it wasn't him.

On the second, we'd been in the Waikato Times office not even an hour and all the computers died. All us newbies panicked, while our tutor said things like, "how'd you have done this twenty years ago?".

A dumb question, cause (a) twenty years ago I was still learning how to tie my shoelaces, and (b) we've never been taught how exactly to go about things without computers. Use phone books? Okay, and what do we say when people tell us what we're asking is on the website? Write it longhand? Yeah, but will they mark it? Etc etc.

Anyway. I interviewed Pedro Carneiro on Wednesday morning, which was kinda cool. Part of me was hoping he barely spoke English so I could get everything down on paper without too much trouble. Turns out he's a fluent speaker, and I'd called him at 10pm (I was told it was 9pm in Portugal). Hmmm. Anyway, he was really cool, and going by his Youtube videos a much better classical marimba percussionist than any I've probably interviewed before.

So over the week I did a story on a high school surfing competition, a brief on APRA, the piece on Pedro, a preview of a play at the uni, and an article on a high school with a record label in Ngatea, which the Times decided to get a photo for - driving a photographer and I an hour each way to cover. I'm not sure which if any of these stories have been/will be published, being back in Aucks, but we'll see. The brief was included on the Ent page on Thursday, the play piece later this week I've been told. Fingers crossed for the rest.

Haha, Dave Letterman's getting ripped apart by someone from HR. He works one hour a day, high blood pressure, and has been with the company 14 years without a promotion. Hehe.

Anyway... the trip to Htown wasn't all work. Which doesn't mean the rest of the time was all fun. We stayed at the Ascot Lodge Motel; my room, and I suspect the others, had no internet, a shower whose five streams you couldn't position yourself in at once, and a Gideon Bible. Our tutor stayed across the road at the Kingsgate Hotel, which you can tell was awesome just by comparing the names.

My best attempt at entertainment alone involved hooking up my iPod to the TV, which for some reason only played the left channel, or playing mp3s off the laptop, which due to my lack of mp3s (AAC for the win) and desire to use the memory-limited laptop for getting thrashed at Civilization wasn't anything to rave about.

I went out one night and played pool with Rob and Jennah which was fun, and the night ended earlier than we wanted cause everything in Htown shuts early on a Tuesday; no bowling and video games for us.

On Wednesday we (the students) went out as a group to Barzurk, the gourmet pizza place. I think I was the only one who actually ordered a pizza. Anyway, it was an enlightening evening; it seems the young 'uns, predominantly those in the 3rd year of their degrees, want to forgo an honourable career in exchange for a money-grubbing career in PR, and the older ones, predominantly us in the grad dip course, intend to go into proper journalism. Strange, when you think at first it'd be the older ones who have degrees and go back to uni that'd be doing it for sanity and non-ideological reasons.

But you know, come the end of the course, we'll see what jobs are available...

Anyway, one particular student really ground my gears on the trip, but in that 'I find it amusing and a little frustrating while she gets completely riled up' kind of way. Cutting a long story short, she's a loud, incessant, rejects-anything-that-doesn't-sound-right to her kind of person, but not in that persuasive and admirable... sort of way. More in that intolerable, loud for the sake of it, inarguable... kind of way.

I remember last semester at the marae trip, after standing up for five minutes talking about how much Jesus meant to her, how angry and offended she looked after I spent my minute or so explaining why I was agnostic.

The most ridiculous part of the whole non-debate (at a pizza joint, for god's sake) was the moment she leaned past me and said directly to the girl to my left, a Christian who'd this far not disagreed with anything I'd said, "well we're not afraid to die, cause we know where we're going, eh?"

Quietly afterwards (and some even during), the others at the table (including she to my left) pretty much all agreed it was not a done deal Christianity was 100% correct, even if it was their faith.

I'm not sure if it counts for anything that she didn't stay with us for the entire trip, instead choosing to commute from Auckland to Hamilton every day, at her own expense, rather than spending three or four nights with us open-minded scum.

But the night was fun, regardless of how it comes across now. I do enjoy prodding and egging along people with bizarre opinions without giving too much of a shit myself where we end up. If I come out of it understanding another point of view a bit better that's great, if I disagree with their reasoning and they come out of it better understanding my point of view that's even better. If what they're proposing is blatantly absurd and they refuse to budge, the more ridiculous I can show their position to be without getting amped up myself, well that's a night well spent.

To counter-act her pro-Jesus bias and balance out the universe, as all good journalists are meant to do, I then thought I'd steal a bible. What could be worse than committing a supposed crime with the very word of God? As it turns out, most things are. One was left in the drawer in my room making it easy, but a quick glance at wikipedia suggests those who planted it wanted me to 'steal' it. Ah well. I'm sure when I'm done it'll make a good table leveller, projectile, fire, or something.

Court reporting lessons start tomorrow. Bed, I think.

The New Zealand Order Of Merit is obviously some kind of joke award, right? Why else would you award it to a woman known as 'the queen of reality TV'? Or for services to music, honour the woman who sang the Shortland Street theme song? Or Lynn of Tawa, a comedic footnote from the 1970s?

Poor Kevin Milne (Fair Go presenter since, um, forever), also honoured, should be feeling a little ripped off being lumped in with those three. He's been around forever on one of the country's consistently top rated shows... and he gets the same honour, in the same year as Julie Christie - a woman singlehandedly trying to destroy prime-time TV as we know it? Here's a list of the show's she's created:

Moro Sports Extra, Mountain Dew On The Edge, Police Stop!, Ansett New Zealand Time Of Your Life, In The Face of Fear, This is Your Life, Changing Rooms, My House My Castle, Whose House Is It Anyway, DIY Rescue, The Money Game, Trading Places, Profilers, Going Straight, The Resort, Treasure Island and Game of Two Halves.

Please, don't encourage this woman!

I'm not sure if I've talked about 'The Secret' before, except perhaps to say I think it's a scam melding of Scientology and new-age crap, but for those of you who missed Campbell Live last night, you MUST watch this video (link pops, takes you to the Campbell Live page with the video).

The first few minutes are Jacqui taking the piss while excerpts from The Secret play in the background, but the real awesomeness is in Campbell's interview with one of the 'doctors' behind The Secret. The scam artist basically tells Campbell that starving African children with AIDS brought it on themselves with their thoughts, and they can overcome it all - the starvation, the poverty, the incurable AIDS - with the power of positive thinking.

WTF?!

Anyone who pays $80, the RRP, of this garbage is a retard who deserves... to lose $80.

Barbra Streisand has hit upon a method to deter scalpers - charge 500 pounds a ticket. Paul McCartney has hit upon a method to pay for his divorce - release a new Beatles single. And the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have hit upon a way to rock my world - release a new album.

Okay, so I haven't listened to it yet, but it's currently sitting on 71/100 on metacritic, and their previous albums have scored 72, 72 and 70, so I'm pretty sure it'll be just as good from a fan's point of view.

Here are the answers to yesterday's little game. I've written them in white, incase you want to play the game first. Highlight the blank area to read.

1. Bar Fight / Desert / Severed Arm - Star Wars IV
2. Hit In Crotch / Rabbit / Coconut - Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3. Dystopic Future / Pregnant Woman / Severed Arm - Children of Men
4.  Crushed To Death / Flying Monkey / It Was All A Dream - Wizard Of Oz
5. Crime Spree / Male Nudity / William Tell Overture - A Clockwork Orange
6. Fight The System / Bare Knuckle Fighting / Self Inflicted Burn Injury - Fight Club
7. Pseudo Documentary / Mustache / Nude Fight Scene - Borat
8. Headbanger / Product Placement / Stairway To Heaven - Wayne's World
9. Shoplifting / Record Collection / Dumped By Girlfriend - High Fidelity
10. Trident / Mustache / Severed Arm - Anchorman

TV Shows:
1. Narration / Magician / Prison - Arrested Development
2. Mohawk Haircut / University / Cricket Bat - Young Ones
3. Sexual Tension / Babe Scientist / Conspiracy - X Files
4. Dragon / Heavy Metal / Mexican Wrestler - Strong Bad (it counts, it was on IMDB!)
5. Doughnut / Stupidity / Clown - The Simpsons
6. Chat / Spoof / Shot In The Chest - Knowing Me, Knowing You (Alan Partridge)
7. Cat / Android / Slacker - Red Dwarf
8. Explosion / Experiment / Science - Mythbusters
9. British / Green Screen / Singing - Whose Line Is It Anyway?
10. Eccentric / Surreal / Madness - Monty Python's Flying Circus

So... anyway....

'Everyone, I have a very dramatic announcement, so anyone with a weak heart should leave now.' Futurama is back from the dead!!! Woooo!!

Still ENTP...

In eleven years, I've only switched one letter. Fourteen year old me was ENFP. Since I was 21 or so, it's been ENTP.

I'm half watching the news, and finding great amusement in it. If I was cleverer I suppose I'd be Jeremy Wells. I mean, when an interviewee from Auckland Uni uses the line, 'he didn't look like a spy,' and the news team accepts this as proof the Iraq hostage definitely ISN'T a spy, you have to wonder.

So I keep vaguely watching in order to find out what town is going to be economically destroyed when the major local employer relocates... turns out, the town is losing its prison.

NZ news is alharious sometimes. I can only wonder what they're reporting on TV1.

Update: John Campbell just used the pic of the fat kid that regularly features on fark.com - if you want to see, google 'mcdonalds fat kid' and click the first link.</p?

Sounds like goodies. Turns out it's catfood.

I'm a member of a site called AudioScrobbler, which purports to record whatever music you listen to via your computer, and then find what other people, and therefore bands, you might like, all based on what you listen to. Great idea? Yeah. Does it work? Err... well, I thought it did. Apparently over the last week, I've listened to Interpol twice as much as anything else. Funny thing is I haven't listened to any Interpol at all. And the other week when it said I'd listened to David Bowie's "Joe The Lion" nine times? I didn't listen to it at all. So yeah, my trust in that place has gone down a little.

I've just watched Mythbusters, and I so want their job. I'm sure I could replace Adam without the scientificity of the experiments suffering. Hey, if you give me some home-version myths to bust, I'll try them out in my back yard. I've got loads of trees, a couple of cats, a bike, some benches, two computers, a cricket bat, an old chair, a small area of glass ceiling, amplifiers, a first floor balcony, cutlery, high ceilings, a semi-portable couch-bed, lots of crap CDs, boxes, high fences, lots of cleaning sprays, a couple of computer desks, lots of china plates, and a toaster. Actually, I'm sure I've got loads more things I could try and blow up, but yeah. What should I do?

I was gonna do my top 5/10, but I lost my post-it-note list I made.

I'd also post what I'm giving Tariqa for her birthday tomorrow (err, it's after midnight now.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARIQA!!!!) but she'll no doubt wake up in the middle of the night and read this, then find and open all her presents. GRRR! Stay away from the presents!!!!

And stop reading this as I write it, and go to sleep.

Anyway. She just hit me cause I typed CENSORED I'd have no idea why.

There's a doco on TV now about 9/11. I'ts been a while since I saw the planes hit the towers in real time video, and yeah. Still awesome.

I want the new Depeche Mode album, but apparently we're not getting it in at work. ??? Surely this is some kind of mistake. Download link, anyone?

Yep, I've bought the new Franz Ferdinand album. Produced by the guy who did the last Muse album, so it sounds bigger than the last one, that's for sure. This Boy sounds like an evil version of Matinee. In fact, all the songs sound like evil versions of ones from the first album. Anyway, here's my top fives for the last week.

TOP 5 SONGS
1. Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand
2. How Do You Keep Love Alive - Ryan Adams
3. Fault Line - BRMC
4. This Boy - Franz Ferdinand
5. So Long Jimmy - James Blunt

TOP 5 ALBUMS
1. Funeral - The Arcade Fire
2. Howl - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
3. Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard - Paul McCartney
4. Jacksonville City Nights - Ryan Adams
5. Cold Roses - Ryan Adams

Mythbusters is back on tele too, last night they were revisiting some old myths to see if they really had busted them first time round. Yay. Now I just have to hope it doesn't clash with Digging For the Truth, Whose Line, SpongeBob, and everything else that seems to be on TV at the same time every night.

Going to Hamilton this weekend to see Fran off, have drinks with the old crew... should be fun.

So I'm watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Rich Text still isn't working, so don't expect any flash italicisms or bold-er-dashims, not cause I can't, but cause I can't be bothered) and there's a question about the Bible. What is the third book of the Old Testament? The contestant refused to lock one in, and settled for $8000. Being an expert on such matters, I was shouting at him, NUMBERS! It's NUMBERS, you tool! Buahahaha. It's Leviticus. And I ** italics ** should ** slash italics ** know.