Still alive

But that's it for now.

sorry.

Michael Jackson

So Michael Jackson died.

Sucks.

I have been surprised at how much I've felt this. 

He was a big part of my childhood I suppose, and represents one more part of it that must now be tucked away into a box marked 'things that cannot be any more'.

May write more later, for me reasons, but the internet will allow for dissection of the issue.


videos

pictures

Buffy vs Edward

I know this is a week old now, so in internet terms it is covered in the thick dust of past-relevance, but it's so good that I had to have it here.

The below video is a mash-up of Buffy and Twilight, wherein Buffy meets Edward. It serves to illustrate how much of a stalky creep Edward is.

Massive thanks to Jay for showing me this.

Regarding Google

Some of you may have noticed that the Google Ads at the right of the page have disappeared.
Many of you will not have noticed, as they were rarely clicked on.

Anyway, here's an email I got from Google on Saturday:

"Hello,
While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense
account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since
keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our
advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account.
Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the
interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We
realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance
for your understanding and cooperation.
If you have any questions about your account or the actions we've taken,
please do not reply to this email. You can find more information by
visiting
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team"

I followed the link and discovered that my only avenue to discuss this situation was through an online appeal form. I filled it out, and got this reply:

"Hello,
Thanks for providing us with additional information. However, after
thoroughly reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into
consideration, we've re-confirmed that your account poses a significant
risk to our advertisers. For this reason, we're unable to reinstate your
account. Thank you for your understanding.
As a reminder, if you have any questions about your account or the actions
we've taken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more
information by visiting
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153."

So yep. No more ads here. Don't know why. It's not a huge blow as the income derived from the service is minor. What is frustrating is the inability to find out why this has happened. All other avenues of communication are shut, or route me back to the FAQ which is supposed to answer all my queries, or a forum full of people with problems that are being met with a similar level of customer service.

Sparkly, dull.

When Leen, our friend Gina and myself decided to watch some movies over the weekend, I convinced them to see Twilight.

I did this for nefarious social experiment reasons, as my brother - the video store baron - and I have been unsuccessful in our quest to find a person of the feminine persuasion who does not like Twilight.

In general, the reaction to the film seems to be a quiet recognition of its flaws beneath a syrupy love for either source material or hunk that sparkles more brightly than a vampire in the sun.

So I was very pleased that, 20 minutes in, the movie was switched off to the sound of pantomime yawning from all. I did not say anything while the movie was on, lest I colour the experiment, but both ladies found themselves bored to tears.

A-ha! There is a woman who dislikes Twilight, and I have her. What's more, she's going to come and see Star Trek with me this weekend. Suck it all other dudes.

Photograph by i heart him.

I can stop driving in a slow panic

I've spent the last two days jumping through hoops in an attempt to secure my green slip.

I don't know if green slips are an international thing, but here in our wide, brown, barbecued land, that's what we call our 'compulsory third party insurance' - a document you must possess to register your car.

The entire ordeal has been painful, because it involves handing over an obscene amount of money for something that approaches pointlessness.

I understand why I need this - it provides a blanket of safety on our roads - but I don't understand why it costs so much. I don't know why our particular vehicular situation demands a higher cost. Having questions answered with 'that's just the way it is' is my least favourite thing ever, and it has been a repeated experience of late.

Photograph provided by FatMandy

Apparently, Marvel will soon release a mini-series that will go back over Spiderman's Clone Saga.

Really?

Spiderman has always been my favourite comics character. I was unlucky enough to develop my comics addiction during the nineties, when comics are considered to have been terrible. Luckily, I was young enough to love the hell out of terrible stories, as long as they involved bright colours and lots of punching.

At the time I enjoyed the Clone Saga - in which a clone of Spiderman reappears years after his fleeting appearance in a single issue - as it was epically long and involved.

With age and hindsight I realise the saga was overblown, directionless and just refused to end. It went off the rails, through a mountain and then crashed into the moon.

Apparently, this upcoming miniseries is going to present the saga 'as intended'. Despite my better judgement, there is no way I won't be reading this.

My understanding is the saga was originally intended to end with the clone being revealed as the real Spiderman, an idea I love, but I doubt that will happen here.

Anyway, this is a great time for me to point you towards the mammoth "Life of Reily" article, that I have read four times. Every once and a while I remember it, try to find it, and end up reading it all again.

It's written by some people that were working on the book when the saga hit, and it's a fascinating tale of storytellers pulling against a corporation in a mine cart headed to hell.

Even if you don't like comics, it really is fascinating.

The Life of Reily

Photograph provided by -sel.

A note about the blog

And now, an exciting item of housekeeping:

I've disabled the widgety doohickey that automatically posts my blog entries to Facebook as notes.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

The selfish one is that I'd like people to visit the blog rather than read on Facebook, because, well, I think the blog is kind of cool.

the slightly less selfish but still kind of selfish one is that the comments on post are currently split amongst the posts and the notes. The comments on posts live forever on the blog, but disappear after awhile on Facebook.
I like the commentary, and feel it adds at least as such as the posts they proceed, so I'd like to encourage people to say stuff on the blog.

I suspect the likely result of this change will be a drop in commentary rather than consolidation, but a man can dream.

If you've been diggin' the notes, and maybe you didn't even know where they came from, I would encourage you to pop over to the blog occassionally.

Photograph provided by Vicintosh87

The Underbelly Effect

Regarding Australian TV:

The Australian-made television series Underbelly appeared on screens in 2008. It was based on the Melbourne Gangland War. It was awesome.
It was not shown in Broken Hill, and it was some time before I saw it. I had the following exchange countless times:

Person: "Dude, have you seen Underbelly?"
Me: "No."
Person: "It's awesome! Seriously! Best thing I've seen in some time."
Me: "But ... isn't it Australian?"
Person: "I know! I thought it would be terrible too, but it's great!"

I eventually saw the program, and as previously mentioned, it was awesome.
I then had the following discussion countless times:

Me: "Dude, have you seen Underbelly?"
Person: "No."
Me: "It's awesome! Seriously! Best thing I've seen in some time."
Person: "But ... isn't it Australian?"
Me: "I know! I thought it would be terrible too, but it's great!"

I christen this The Underbelly Effect, because it's my blog, and I can make up names for things whenever I wish it to be so.

As previously mentioned, drama produced in Australia trends towards terrible. When Underbelly came out it took everyone I knew by surprise, because it was not shit.

I find the situation frustrating, because in Underbelly, each element - acting, writing, direction, swearing - were all top notch. In particular, actors who I had written off years ago were great in this.

It demonstrates that, in Australia, there is talent. If we wanted, we could make great programs. We don't.

I often wonder why.

(Hint: money)

Photo provided by mkrigsman

Gryffon

That dude up there? That's the new member of the family.

He likes lying around, sleeping and being a little overweight.

We get along well.

Blogged from the hip