I have a day off tomorrow - it's a public holiday for the Gold Coast Show. Quite frankly, I don't get it. Don't get me wrong, I love a long weekend and am definitely not complaining about it. I know that it's been going for over a hundred years now and showcases the Gold Coast, but to me it just feels like a cheap ripoff of Brisbane's Ekka. Our show follows the Ekka by a couple of weeks, goes for three days (compared to two weeks) and is smaller, and quite frankly worse. Okay, fair enough, the Gold Coast is smaller than Brisbane, but I don't know...
I guess I just don't see the point of the whole concept. You pay to get in, and then you pay to go on the rides as well as trying to win prizes (damn Carnies...), as well as spending cash on showbags and food. Not the kind of place I'd like to be taking my kids if I had any. I think I went once or twice as a youngster, but I didn't go on any rides - all I wanted to do was get showbags. I think I actually nagged the hell out of Dad one year to go, just because I wanted the Jurassic Park showbag.
I went to the Ekka not too long ago (I think I went in 2000 and again in 2002), and I must admit I had fun. It was expensive though. Didn't really go on many "rides" as such, nor did I go on a showbag shopping spree, but I know that I spent quite a lot of money on trying to win prizes. It was always really crowded and hot, with people everywhere. I don't think I had a mobile phone the first time I went (well the first time I remember going anyway) and got separated from a few of my mates. Not the best way to go through the day, but still managed to enjoy myself.
Anyway all I'm getting at I guess is that I don't think I'll be going to either show anytime in the near future, I'd rather spend my day off at a theme park or something and not need to pay for the rides once I pay to get in... or just chill out at home. The latter is looking very promising right now...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
mmm, pseudoephedrine...
You know it's bad when you're regarded as a "regular" at the local pharmacy...
Been sick over the last week. Hate it. Didn't really get much sleep over the last weekend, which then carried on into the working week. First came a headache and runny nose early in the week. Went to the pharmacy and picked up some sinus meds.
"Hi, we haven't seen you for a while, is your leg better now?"
And this...
"Usually we'd need to see your licence for these, but we know you well enough."
Wait. You do? Apparently so, enough that they don't need to check my credit card signature either.
Anyway they didn't really do much, and I found myself struggling even more. Thursday I didn't even go into work, just spent the day in bed. I slept a good 17 hours, though it was interrupted, waking up every hour or two. It was a cold day but I found myself sweating quite a bit too. Must be because I'm so hot (sorry, had to slip that one in...).
Friday morning saw me back at work, and I went back to the pharmacy and bought some actual cold and flu stuff (stupid night tablets don't work like they used to), as well as some strepsils (apparently these ones also have an anaesthetic to numb the throat). By the afternoon, the boss' wife sent me home because I looked like I was going to pass out. Anyway since then I've pretty much done nothing but sit at home. Which is frustrating. But at least the Olympics was on, so I could watch Channel 7 make a complete mess of their coverage...
Been sick over the last week. Hate it. Didn't really get much sleep over the last weekend, which then carried on into the working week. First came a headache and runny nose early in the week. Went to the pharmacy and picked up some sinus meds.
"Hi, we haven't seen you for a while, is your leg better now?"
And this...
"Usually we'd need to see your licence for these, but we know you well enough."
Wait. You do? Apparently so, enough that they don't need to check my credit card signature either.
Anyway they didn't really do much, and I found myself struggling even more. Thursday I didn't even go into work, just spent the day in bed. I slept a good 17 hours, though it was interrupted, waking up every hour or two. It was a cold day but I found myself sweating quite a bit too. Must be because I'm so hot (sorry, had to slip that one in...).
Friday morning saw me back at work, and I went back to the pharmacy and bought some actual cold and flu stuff (stupid night tablets don't work like they used to), as well as some strepsils (apparently these ones also have an anaesthetic to numb the throat). By the afternoon, the boss' wife sent me home because I looked like I was going to pass out. Anyway since then I've pretty much done nothing but sit at home. Which is frustrating. But at least the Olympics was on, so I could watch Channel 7 make a complete mess of their coverage...
Monday, August 11, 2008
the phone
I mentioned last week that I got a new phone. It arrived at my house at some point on Wednesday morning, and thanks to the power of online tracking of my parcel I decided to go home for lunch to open my new toy.
What did I get?
I was too lazy to take a photo of my phone...
- Bigger 3.2-inch, 240 x 400 pixel display (compared to 2.8-inch, 480 x 640 pixels)
- Solid build
- Metallic finish on back (as opposed to the fingerprint magnet and oddly shaped Diamond)
- Longer battery life (almost double)
- Faster CPU performance (Diamond's TouchFLO interface is apparently quite laggy)
- microSD card slot (which the Diamond is lacking)
- 16GB of storage memory (compared to 4GB)
- Much better 5 megapixel camera
- TV-out (missing on Diamond)
I couldn't have everything though...
- Touchwiz UI isn't as good as TouchFLO 3D
- Diamond does look nicer, and is smaller and lighter
- Omnia acks a stylus slot
- Diamond has a dedicated graphics chip with 64MB memory
One of my colleagues ordered a Diamond over the weekend, meaning I can do a side-by-side comparison later this week.
So far I'm loving this little beauty, took it on the boat cruise and took some photos until I decided that dancing/singing is difficult to do while also taking photos. Been transferring contacts over, customising it, adding new apps and stuff like that, which is good fun (though can be a little frustrating at times). Nice to be to do stuff on the internet (Gmail, Facebook, Blogger, IM etc) while on the go. Handy when you need to pick someone up and you have to wait for them in the car.
Took it to the beach on Sunday too, which I was a little worried about but the lack of flipping and sliding parts, not to mention lack of buttons in general, means less places that sand can get into. Having no stylus slot is a little annoying though - I dangle it off my phone, and I hate dangling things on my phones (makes me feel like a teenage schoolgirl...), but I don't see any other way without losing stylus after stylus. Also I didn't bother cleaning the screen before putting my screen protector on, so I have the odd particle stuck under the screen protector, though luckily this is only around near the edges anyway. Ah well, I'll probably order a new protector anyway, not that I really need it.
Handwriting recognition is cool, as is the autorotate feature (using the in-built accelerometer). Not really a fan of Windows Mobile though, it really does require the stylus to get around, as some of the buttons and scroll bars you need to hit are pretty small (and I don't really think that I really have big fingers or anything...). I did, however, install SPB Mobile Shell, which I love - I found it to be a lot more finger/thumb friendly, so I don't need the stylus to navigate around. Still working on getting some GPS software installed with turn-by-turn navigation, but until I get that sorted, Google Maps does a decent enough job. It uses data though, but I called Optus the day after I got my phone and set up a $14.95 a month data plan for 200MB of data. Can also use the internet by connecting to Wi-Fi, but can't get that working yet. In terms of internet browsers, I prefer Opera over IE - both are on the phone.
Sound quality is good enough, not much difference to my iPod Nano once I plug in my own headphones. Comes with Windows Media Player and Samsung's own media player too, but I can't seem to find an equilizer, which sucks. Actually, come to think about it, there are a lot of things I can't find. Sometimes I find something, and then can't find it again later. Guess I have to get used to where everything is with Windows Mobile. Threw on a movie (it comes with DivX installed), and it the screen size is great for widescreen movies (so now I can watch Juno when I get bored at some conference or presentation).
Anyway that's all that comes to mind for now. I'm going home.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
boats, karts and beaches
What a weekend.
Friday evening after work saw me on a boat for a 3 hour party cruise along the Brisbane River, followed by an after party in the city. Theme was National Pride - the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was on the same night. I went as Captain Cook, which was fun. First time I've ever hired a costume, and felt it was worth it. Though it was annoying how many people thought I was a pirate (I mean come on, it's not like I had an eye patch on or anything) or Napoleon Bonaparte (apparently due to my lack of height). I had a great time, and it was good to see everyone going to an effort to dress to the theme. Took a few photos as well using my new phone (which I got on Wednesday and love, but that story will come later... for now I'm still too busy playing with it). Got home at 5:30am.
Saturday was go-karting at Willowbank Raceway. Awesomeness again. It was my first time karting - the last few times my mates went, I was busy for one reason or another. There was a qualifying session, two heats and a final race. I picked kart number 05 (in honour of Brocky), with all karts powered by a 270cc Honda 4 stroke, 14hp engine. I somehow managed to qualify 1st (out of 8 of us) with my first lap, and spent half of qualifying, the heats and the final race with Storm sitting on my arse, giving me the occasional tap to remind me where she was. Not that I needed reminding, I found myself constantly checking over my shoulder and out the corner of my eye to see if she was still there. And that she was. I think my time spent playing racing games has finally paid off... the end result being a cheap trophy and getting to stand on the top podium (which was another first for me, I think). Sweet. Must say, I had luck on my side though. I pushed the kart into a few corners a little too fast once or twice (you can't help it when you've got the pressure on you to try to pick up an extra split second here and there) and almost spun out on a couple of occasions. Had I not qualified ahead of Storm, I doubt I would have kept up with her, let alone gotten past her. Others were getting quicker lap times than me, I was just able to take a decent enough racing line most of the time to stop anyone sneaking by. I've just gotta stop practicing it in my car now...
Today was a beach day. It was a nice warm day for winter, though it was a bit chilly in the shade and in the water. Also spent a lot of time driving people around. By the end of it I was exhausted. I think I broke my own weekend driving record, something like 700kms from Friday evening to Sunday arvo. Don't know why I'm still up actually. Time for bed I reckon...
Friday evening after work saw me on a boat for a 3 hour party cruise along the Brisbane River, followed by an after party in the city. Theme was National Pride - the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was on the same night. I went as Captain Cook, which was fun. First time I've ever hired a costume, and felt it was worth it. Though it was annoying how many people thought I was a pirate (I mean come on, it's not like I had an eye patch on or anything) or Napoleon Bonaparte (apparently due to my lack of height). I had a great time, and it was good to see everyone going to an effort to dress to the theme. Took a few photos as well using my new phone (which I got on Wednesday and love, but that story will come later... for now I'm still too busy playing with it). Got home at 5:30am.
Saturday was go-karting at Willowbank Raceway. Awesomeness again. It was my first time karting - the last few times my mates went, I was busy for one reason or another. There was a qualifying session, two heats and a final race. I picked kart number 05 (in honour of Brocky), with all karts powered by a 270cc Honda 4 stroke, 14hp engine. I somehow managed to qualify 1st (out of 8 of us) with my first lap, and spent half of qualifying, the heats and the final race with Storm sitting on my arse, giving me the occasional tap to remind me where she was. Not that I needed reminding, I found myself constantly checking over my shoulder and out the corner of my eye to see if she was still there. And that she was. I think my time spent playing racing games has finally paid off... the end result being a cheap trophy and getting to stand on the top podium (which was another first for me, I think). Sweet. Must say, I had luck on my side though. I pushed the kart into a few corners a little too fast once or twice (you can't help it when you've got the pressure on you to try to pick up an extra split second here and there) and almost spun out on a couple of occasions. Had I not qualified ahead of Storm, I doubt I would have kept up with her, let alone gotten past her. Others were getting quicker lap times than me, I was just able to take a decent enough racing line most of the time to stop anyone sneaking by. I've just gotta stop practicing it in my car now...
Today was a beach day. It was a nice warm day for winter, though it was a bit chilly in the shade and in the water. Also spent a lot of time driving people around. By the end of it I was exhausted. I think I broke my own weekend driving record, something like 700kms from Friday evening to Sunday arvo. Don't know why I'm still up actually. Time for bed I reckon...
Sunday, August 3, 2008
cargo 200
Last night I found myself discovering my arty side, and went to see a film as part of the Brisbane International Film Festival. Of the movies that were in a convenient timeslot, I wanted to go see Russian film Cargo 200. This is the summary that drew me into it:
----------
Celebrated Russian filmmaker Alexei Balabanov confronts his nation's Soviet past with this hard-hitting thriller, peppered with dark humour. A police captain is dispatched to investigate a murder and the kidnapping of a politician's daughter in a grim 1980s industrial town. Not for the faint hearted!
----------
It was a bit like a late night SBS on the big screen. The difference was that because the cinema screen was already widescreen, there were no surrounding black horizontal strips available to place the yellow subtitles, which was hence placed on screen. I found this to be a little difficult to read at times.
Anyway, the actual movie itself was very hard hitting. Violent. Disturbing. Shocking. Having said this, an introduction was given before the film outlining the basis of the film, and we were warned. I did know what I was in for though and hence expected it. It seems that Paul didn't... though Simon was unfazed as usual.
The setting - 1984 Soviet Union. It was mostly centred on the industrial town of Leninsk. The backdrop was gloomy, decayed, run down. There was a lot of vodka consumption throughout the film (wouldn't be a Russian film without vodka, would it?). The soundtrack - ironic and amusing. It was a film that kept the audience tense throughout. There were scenes which were horrifying, yet with dark comedic twists. I think the plot, along with many of the scenes, is too disturbing to really go into any detail here. Murders, rapes, dead rotting bodies...
I think that Balabanov did well in conveying his message through his film - it does wake you up to the horrors taking place in the Soviet Union. It was a lot more than a flick full of gory scenes, with themes of religion, love, obsession and power.
We got to cast our vote afterwards, I think the choices were:
- Loved it;
- Liked it;
- Average;
- Didn't like it; and
- Hated it.
Simon and Paul (who was really disturbed by the end of it) both voted 'average', and I voted 'Liked it'. Honestly I can't say that I really liked it as such, but it was a good film. Just not the type of film that most people can really enjoy. I may decide to see it again someday if I get the chance, but not in the near future...
----------
Celebrated Russian filmmaker Alexei Balabanov confronts his nation's Soviet past with this hard-hitting thriller, peppered with dark humour. A police captain is dispatched to investigate a murder and the kidnapping of a politician's daughter in a grim 1980s industrial town. Not for the faint hearted!
----------
It was a bit like a late night SBS on the big screen. The difference was that because the cinema screen was already widescreen, there were no surrounding black horizontal strips available to place the yellow subtitles, which was hence placed on screen. I found this to be a little difficult to read at times.
Anyway, the actual movie itself was very hard hitting. Violent. Disturbing. Shocking. Having said this, an introduction was given before the film outlining the basis of the film, and we were warned. I did know what I was in for though and hence expected it. It seems that Paul didn't... though Simon was unfazed as usual.
The setting - 1984 Soviet Union. It was mostly centred on the industrial town of Leninsk. The backdrop was gloomy, decayed, run down. There was a lot of vodka consumption throughout the film (wouldn't be a Russian film without vodka, would it?). The soundtrack - ironic and amusing. It was a film that kept the audience tense throughout. There were scenes which were horrifying, yet with dark comedic twists. I think the plot, along with many of the scenes, is too disturbing to really go into any detail here. Murders, rapes, dead rotting bodies...
I think that Balabanov did well in conveying his message through his film - it does wake you up to the horrors taking place in the Soviet Union. It was a lot more than a flick full of gory scenes, with themes of religion, love, obsession and power.
We got to cast our vote afterwards, I think the choices were:
- Loved it;
- Liked it;
- Average;
- Didn't like it; and
- Hated it.
Simon and Paul (who was really disturbed by the end of it) both voted 'average', and I voted 'Liked it'. Honestly I can't say that I really liked it as such, but it was a good film. Just not the type of film that most people can really enjoy. I may decide to see it again someday if I get the chance, but not in the near future...
Friday, August 1, 2008
take that, iphone
iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. It's all you hear these days.
For some reason I don't really like the iPhone. I played around with one earlier this week, and despite being impressed with the screen quality and the ease of navigation (I found the user interface to be very intuitive), I'm not sure what it is about it that turns me off. It could be the;
- lack of MMS
- no bluetooth A2DP
- no bluetooth file transfer
- no radio
- currently no turn-by-turn GPS navigation (that I know of)
- lack of camera flash
- no video recording
- no video calls
- can't copy and paste
- non-removable battery (like my iPod nano, grr...)
- unexpandable memory
- bulkiness
- relatively high cost
Actually, I think it's just because there is so much fuss over it. Don't get me wrong, I reckon that it is a great phone. I just wouldn't buy one. In the above I was just being really nitpicky and trying to prove that it isn't the ultimate bestest ever phone in the whole wide world.
My current phone (Sony Ericsson w880i) has been bugging me lately - sometimes when you tap it a little too hard (and I don't mean hurling it across the room or out a high rise window, but putting it down on the table) it turns itself off, and the same happens sometimes when I put it in my pocket. Also the connector for the charger, handsfree etc is a bit loose, and you have to jiggle it around a bit to get it working - sometimes I plug in the charger and go to bed, and wake up the next morning to find that it hasn't charged at all. I got it for the slimness rather than features, but in the year I have owned it I have found the little features lacking a little frustrating. Halfway through my 2 year plan and I am over it.
So I wanted a new phone. For weeks I obsessed over the HTC Touch Diamond. I liked its compact size, physical design and sharp VGA display. However, key downsides were the 4GB internal storage and lack of microSD slot, low battery capacity. I almost got it though, primarily for its compactness. I spent weeks staring at it online. Even went to the Telstra shop when it was released in the country (exclusively by Telstra... grr) several days ago for a touch (pun intended).
Two nights ago I changed my mind abruptly for whatever reason and picked out a different phone. Today I cracked and just impulsively bought it. Don't know what got into me. I have buyer's remorse. Feel so silly about buying something I didn't really research into. I won't talk about it now or tell you what I chose... you'll have to wait and see. What I can tell you though is that it is not yet released down under (and no date has been set yet either), so I had to get it imported from overseas. Will blog about it when it arrives. Hopefully soon. Very soon.
For some reason I don't really like the iPhone. I played around with one earlier this week, and despite being impressed with the screen quality and the ease of navigation (I found the user interface to be very intuitive), I'm not sure what it is about it that turns me off. It could be the;
- lack of MMS
- no bluetooth A2DP
- no bluetooth file transfer
- no radio
- currently no turn-by-turn GPS navigation (that I know of)
- lack of camera flash
- no video recording
- no video calls
- can't copy and paste
- non-removable battery (like my iPod nano, grr...)
- unexpandable memory
- bulkiness
- relatively high cost
Actually, I think it's just because there is so much fuss over it. Don't get me wrong, I reckon that it is a great phone. I just wouldn't buy one. In the above I was just being really nitpicky and trying to prove that it isn't the ultimate bestest ever phone in the whole wide world.
My current phone (Sony Ericsson w880i) has been bugging me lately - sometimes when you tap it a little too hard (and I don't mean hurling it across the room or out a high rise window, but putting it down on the table) it turns itself off, and the same happens sometimes when I put it in my pocket. Also the connector for the charger, handsfree etc is a bit loose, and you have to jiggle it around a bit to get it working - sometimes I plug in the charger and go to bed, and wake up the next morning to find that it hasn't charged at all. I got it for the slimness rather than features, but in the year I have owned it I have found the little features lacking a little frustrating. Halfway through my 2 year plan and I am over it.
So I wanted a new phone. For weeks I obsessed over the HTC Touch Diamond. I liked its compact size, physical design and sharp VGA display. However, key downsides were the 4GB internal storage and lack of microSD slot, low battery capacity. I almost got it though, primarily for its compactness. I spent weeks staring at it online. Even went to the Telstra shop when it was released in the country (exclusively by Telstra... grr) several days ago for a touch (pun intended).
Two nights ago I changed my mind abruptly for whatever reason and picked out a different phone. Today I cracked and just impulsively bought it. Don't know what got into me. I have buyer's remorse. Feel so silly about buying something I didn't really research into. I won't talk about it now or tell you what I chose... you'll have to wait and see. What I can tell you though is that it is not yet released down under (and no date has been set yet either), so I had to get it imported from overseas. Will blog about it when it arrives. Hopefully soon. Very soon.
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