| oh teh shames |
[01 Sep 2009|02:40pm] |
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mood |
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 looking for trouble |
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Re: Peter Fraser's letter
I agree wholeheartedly with Peter Fraser's letter. After all, there were no fatal school fights in his day; teachers and institutions never ignored or turned a blind eye to the plight of a battered student, and thousands of people never grew up bearing the scars of a damaged childhood at the hands of a merciless system. Nosiree, it could never, ever happen in his day. We Generation Ys must indeed bear all the blame for our present plight, which has only started to improve in the decades since the years upon years of schoolyard terror which according to Fraser must never have happened. And yes indeed, it is also fair for him to tar us all with the same brush. It would be an insult to his years of doubtless wisdom which is merely mistaken by us irrational young tykes as bitterness and spite. How foolish we are.
Yeah I think I need to write a real letter instead.
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[18 Aug 2008|06:22pm] |
so yeah I'm going to be back in Sydney next month
*tumbleweeds*
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[24 Nov 2007|12:30pm] |
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music |
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Public Enemy - Fight The Power |
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\o/
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| Hearts With Heroes |
[26 Apr 2007|02:54pm] |
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mood |
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 amused |
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music |
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Dinah Washington - This Bitter Earth |
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Here's a little toy I did up for you to play with for ten seconds and forget all about.
World War II Game Name Generator
Brought on by this article and a lot of crack. If you like it, please post the best ones you get here, and suggest some more keywords to add. Thank you!
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| Song Review Time! |
[17 Apr 2007|11:24pm] |
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mood |
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i lol'd |
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music |
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Company Flow - Last Good Sleep |
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Marilyn Manson - If I Was Your Vampire
Source: his Myspace
"That song is the new 'Bela Lugosi's Dead,'" says Manson. "It's the all-time gothic anthem."
-Interview with People Magazine, paraphrased by Stereogum
I'm sure that Mr. Warner's Manson's motivations for this were (im)pure, but there's a couple of teensy problems with this comparison:
a. You can actually dance properly to Bela Lugosi's Dead. The best you could do to this turgid muck is either slow-moshing or head-nodding while waiting for the bong to be passed to you. Not scary in the least, it's queasy at best and downright dull at worst.
b. "Blood stains on the sheet in the shape of your heart" – Bauhaus, along with Siouxsie & The Banshees, were the originators and as such could get away with stuff like this before it got clichéd. Lucky buggers. Not to mention that they're more imaginative and generally better.
c. Soundwise, it doesn't even bother to be inspired by Bauhaus; its musical DNA seems equally cribbed from Deadsy and modern mainstream rock. Replace Mazza with Scott Stapp and you probably wouldn't be that far off from Creed, to be brutally honest.
d. Bela Lugosi's Dead was a treat to listen to, as it was gently mastered, had loads of atmosphere and tons of breathing room. This seems to have had the life compressed out of it, as modern major label recordings are wont to have happen to them. The end result is a lifeless bowl of yuck. Bela Lugosi might have been ten minutes long, but Vampire is six minutes too many.
e. Vampires? In my Marilyn Manson song? It's more likely than you think. He's not even trying to shock anymore, he's descended into total self-parody, dangling from the light fittings wearing a Batman costume (with the undies on the outside) cackling "i am the night."
f. With Year Zero (which isn't Album Of The Year by a long shot but it's one of the better ones he's done to be honest), Trent Reznor has shown himself to be the Obi-Wan Kenobi to Mazza's mopey, one-dimensional Anakin. I can just see him spamming Mazza over IM, "I HAVE TEH HIGH GROUND MAZZIE" in between Tubgirl links.
I could write a better song even if I was as big a poseur as him. Well, maybe not, but at least I'd be honest not to pass off an outtake of a B-side to a The Crow sequel soundtrack as the best goth track since 1981. Dancing with the devil? Off with the fairies more like.
Verdict: EPIC FAIL
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[01 Jan 2007|12:02am] |
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mood |
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 drnka |
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HAPPY NEW BEER
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| Wii @ Bondi Junction |
[11 Nov 2006|09:09am] |
Jess, Chris and I are currently sitting in Bondi Junction opposite the Wii demo stands, waiting for them to finish setting up. One of the five Nintendo staffers said no photos, but Jess managed to snap a few for her own reference/memory before they told us not to. (heh) Besides, there doesn't seem to be anything there that we haven't seen before.
There are about 4 demo stands, with nice flat-screen displays, we don't know what games are showing at the moment. Big circular section, giant tennis balls for seats, a lot of shiny curvy white stuff & semi-transparent plexiglass frames showing promo photos of people playing.
More when we actually figure more of this stuff out. And if we can find an open access point.
Ediiiiit! Am home now after a long day out.
Got plenty of play time on the Wii, alone and with others. My verdict: the hype is justified. It really is that much fun to play.
Had a go at Wii Sports first - opted to play tennis as the logical choice. Played against a little kid who was here with his assumed grandfather. I got beat, but it was a really goo match. The controls really did feel natural, and the movement of the players was a nice touch in that you could serve for both the front and rear player, and either would hit the ball appropriately. Killer app.
Played through 3 games of Wii Play next, against one of the Nintendo reps. The first one was a gun-shooting game, similar to Duck Hunt. We gunned down ducks, floating targets, clay pigeons, and eventually UFOs that came out to abduct your Miis. He won. We played Laser Hockey next, and Jess' first impressions of the Wii from the other day were right: in Laser Hockey, the cursor really does feel like a mouse in that it's based off the screen perspective instead of personal perspective. He won again. We finished off with Billiards; you aimed with the remote or D-pad, targeted a spot on the ball for spin, pulled back and shot. Looked great and was a lot of fun; and I wiped the floor with him, to boot.
Got in a go at Excite Truck, too: there is going to be a lot of potential for sweary races with trucks flying all over the place. Controls felt a bit strange, but maybe my feel of it will improve with a few more play throughs. USE TEH BOOST
Played the fishing subgame from The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It felt well executed, in particular the way you would pull back on the remote to cock the fishing rod, fling forward to release it, swish it about to lure the fish in, then once you got one, pull it back and use the nunchuck to reel 'er in. It was a lot of fun, though I didn't catch any, and wound up getting a little tired from all the reeling. (Jess played it after me, and managed to get a couple of fish in.)
After a short break, with some lunch and DVD-hunting (OMFG INSPECTOR GADGET GET) we came back, and I had a shot at Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. Definitely one for the party, it involved holding the remote a certain way each time, the game will tell you how, and trying to use your intuition from there to win the 5-second game you are presented. Managed to win a fair few of them, even though I stuffed the fishing one up, and OMFG MONKEYS ON THE ROAD WTF.
Played Wii Sports tennis again, and managed to beat Chris this time. Booyeah.
So yes, I'm glad I've got my preorder in. I should make sure I've got some games added to my Christmas list...
PS. Once they'd finished setting up, the Nintendo people had no problems at all with photography; Jess got in a few more of the games and us playing them, so I'll link to them if she uploads them.
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[04 Nov 2006|02:35pm] |
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mood |
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 bored |
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music |
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Noony Banoony - A Day In The Sun |
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GAH!
I'M BORED
I gotta get out and do something. SEND HELP
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| On the future |
[14 Oct 2006|10:47pm] |
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mood |
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 contemplative |
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music |
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Dir en grey - dead tree |
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Tonight I went with my parents and sister to Woolongong to see Dr. David Suzuki speak to a crowd of around 1300 of us about the future. Now I feel like kicking some arse prodding some buttock.
The lecture was absolutely enthralling; it helps that Suzuki is a fantastic speaker with decades' worth of experience. It also helps that he seems genuinely charming and funny as well. All these traits served to make the meat of the talk more digestible — vital, seeing how hard it was to swallow.
He talked about the interconnectedness of nature; how the Redwood forests of North America flourish in the shallow soil by virtue of the annual salmon spawning runs; how placing the economy above all other things has almost singlehandedly served to throw nature's delicate balance off; and what hopes we as the younger generation have, and those of our children, our children's children, as well as people hundreds or thousands of years from now.
Basically the way things are going, we're all going to be sweltering in the middle of winter, unable to get enough water to even piss upon the shallow graves of Bush and Howard...
(my terms, not his)
Aye, he took them both to task over Kyoto, the lack of action over global warming, the lack of responsibility taken over issues such as water (can you say passing the buck?) all serving to make Australia possibly the nation with the most to lose when all this comes to a head.
But he also expressed hope for future generations; that they might see the havoc wreaked by us and our forefathers (thanks a bunch, fuckhats), and find better ways to live, while living better personal, spiritual and social lives as well as more environmentally responsible lives.
Interesting statements made:
* Suzuki stated that humanity was a "super-species" — a species with no major predators, which has grown massive in population and which can cause major unprecedented change to the environment.
* There are more humans on the face of the Earth than there are rabbits. Or mice. Or rats.
* All the Atlantic salmon on the market is currently obtained from fish farms. Salmon are carnivourous; hence there are big factory ships hovering off the edge of the South American coast hoovering up all the fish, while the local Indians are wondering what the hell they're going to eat. Plus the farms are often breeding grounds for disease which get spread into the wild via open net farming methods. Two out of the five types of Pacific salmon aren't kosher either, apparently...
* A tourist town in the middle of the Canadian temperate rainforests had to turn tourists away at the height of the season because it did not have enough water.
* Suzuki described flying over the forests in Canada a year apart, and said that in a later year, the green forests turned red. This is because the winters were no longer cold enough to kill off most of the larvae of a type of beetle that then wreaked havoc upon the forests. The red was from all the dead trees.
* There are pockets of methane, a greenhouse gas 17 times more capable of warming the air than carbon dioxide, trapped under the permafrost in the Arctic. The permafrost is melting; scientists do not have any models to predict what will happen if those pockets get released.
In other news today, I got a haircut and discussed home loans.
Can't help but wonder now what seems more important.
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| Addendum to yesterday's entry |
[12 Oct 2006|12:14am] |
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mood |
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 disgusted |
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music |
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Alec Empire - Path Of Destruction |
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Followup to yesterday's entry:
RSL rethinks flag idea after threats
THE RSL has bowed to threats of violence and will reassess its invitation for a flag-burning teenager to march through central Sydney with an Australian flag on Anzac Day.
The NSW RSL president, Don Rowe, said he was saddened by the reaction in which members of the public threatened to throw missiles at the 17-year-old if he marched in Sydney on Anzac Day.
...
Mr Rowe said the RSL, as well as Sydney talkback radio, had received threatening and abusive calls yesterday.
"The RSL have received calls from a number of people threatening to identify this young man and, if he marches on Anzac Day, to humiliate him by throwing missiles at him," Mr Rowe said. "These threats are not helpful to teaching this young man to respect Australian values.
"In the interest of the youth himself, I will reassess the invitation … and find a solution which ensures his safety yet satisfies the requirement of the youth justice conference."
Mr Rowe said the youth, who cannot be identified because he is under 18, could go to a suburban dawn service instead of the main march through the city.
I understand Rowe's response to this utterly revolting development — best to keep the young man out of further danger and humiliation. Good to see that his invitation hasn't been retracted entirely.
As for the talkback scum responsible for this, God help them if I ever get hold of them because nothing else can. Evidently they have not heard of positive feelings such as forgiveness, understanding, redemption, encouragement and hope — let alone the law itself that states that criminals who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crime/s cannot be named, especially in the media. From what I am aware, the purpose of this is to give underaged criminals a chance to reform without being pilloried by all in sight; because of their age, they are assumed to not be under their own responsibility. If they are identified and shamed, it could cause even more damage to them and their household, maybe even resulting in them committing even more crime. Now if only those who rail against this law could fathom even the shallows of this very simple principle...
If they think that threatening this young man is going to help further the cause of understanding between subcultures and Australian culture in general, they are sorely mistaken. May their ignorance be shattered with a short, sharp shock... and by God they had better feel contrite. This is exactly the sort of bullshit that led to the Cronulla riots and the subsequent backlash in the first place.
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[11 Oct 2006|11:40am] |
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mood |
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 pleased |
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music |
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VNV Nation - Honour |
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Give flag burner a go: RSL president
NSW RSL president Don Rowe says he hopes other diggers see the value of letting a teenager who burnt the Australian flag during a Cronulla riot revenge attack become a flag bearer on Anzac Day.
The 17-year-old boy stole a flag from the Brighton-le-Sands RSL club before it was sprayed with accelerant and set alight amid a crowd of about 150 people last December.
Mr Rowe, who attended a private meeting where the boy apologised to members of the southern Sydney club last month, said today he had now asked the teenager to carry the flag in Sydney's main Anzac Day march.
He said he believed the boy had been genuine in offering his apologies and was enthusiastic at being given the opportunity to carry the flag.
"Obviously he had very limited knowledge about what the RSL means and probably had the same limited knowledge about what Anzac Day means," Mr Rowe told Southern Cross Broadcasting today.
"It's an opportunity for him to carry the flag on Anzac Day so he'll have a great appreciation of what the flag means and what it means to us diggers."
I personally believe it's very generous of Rowe to make this offer, especially in the way that he believes wholeheartedly in the redemption of the boy. By giving him the responsibility of holding the flag, it will demonstrate that he understands the message behind it and the sacrifices taken to protect it. Good luck to both of them — this decision might invite controversy, but this decision has the potential in it to inspire far more hope for the future of the country than it has to promote bad solutions to problems and laissez-faire justice.
Speaking of which, I wish less good luck upon Peter Debnam, the NSW Opposition leader, who thinks that the boy hasn't apologised enough to deserve the position of flagbearer. Obviously he has little idea of the transforming power of redemption and responsibility, considering the way he has constantly frothed at the mouth about "ethnic crime" and the government being soft on crime in general throughout his time as leader. Debnam, if you believe this boy deserves no chance at redeeming himself, then you likewise have no chance at redeeming yourself upon your crushing, inevitable failure to be a leader of the people, as opposed to just a party contingent. You are merely a talkback puppet, and as such, cannot be trusted with anything resembling responsibility.
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