The green light has been given for my favourite book series to be turned into a HBO drama. Considering how much I loved Rome, The Wire, Flight of the Conchords, etc, etc - I'm excited!

Here's the announcement from the author.

# Posted in the General section

Was stopping the mysql service on my laptop when I had an idea for a xkcd-style comic:


Alt Text: sc interrogate ex_girlfriends offers no hints either

Super geeky, crudely copied from a previous xkcd strip, and not very amusing - but it made me chuckle. A little bit.

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Web

I decided to enter the 2010 Run for the Kids 14.6 km event, and will probably stuff up my knees again. But I'm racing a friend from work - so it shouldn't be all bad.

How about you donate some money to sponsor me? Or don't.

# Posted in the Sport section and tagged as: Running

That's right - I knocked off items 2, 3 and 9 from my 10 things for 2010 list.

Feta and Sushi have been eaten (not as bad as I remember them), and I feel I'm now ambi-jock-drous.

That's 5 items out of the 10 down, half-way there. But it also means I'm running out of the easy wins (or low-hanging fruit as managers like to say).

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: 10 in '10

I'm flying through my 10 things for '10 list, wearing a hat at number 8 has now been crossed off.

As part of my birthday outing, Bell and I went shopping for some clothes for me. Firstly - it's brilliant to have jeans that don't require a belt to prevent panty flashing. I also made sure we added a hat to the shopping trolley, and I'm now the proud owner of a pinstripe fedora.


Proud owner might be too much. Maybe a resigned owner

To be honest - it's clearly not something I would normally wear - but I guess that's the point of my list. I got a bit of crap for wearing it - but I actually didn't mind the look of it, especially when I have it at the rakish angle that Bell taught me.

So that's two down, only eight items to go. Too easy!

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: 10 in '10

Well - number 1 has been successfully crossed off from my 10 things list.

I really loved the Chai Latte - but don't think I'd have it often with all that sugar and milk. When I tried a normal Chai (sans milk and sugar) yesterday I still really enjoyed it. I love cinnamon - so I don't know why I never gave Chai a try before.

I've also started some of my longer term items such as getting more sun and boxers or briefs - but I'm not ready to cross them off yet.

Wonder how long I can maintain this pace

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: 10 in '10

At work I'm often accused of resembling a grumpy old man. It's partly because I don't like many other people (they generally shit me), and partly because I'm very resistant to change. An example of this is that I eat the same meal every night, because it's easier to prepare one large batch each Saturday. (I personally believe I'm just sacrificing variety to gain ease, price and healthiness).

So to expand my horizons and teach me that change is not always bad, a list of 10 new things were drawn up for me (and neatly laminated). The intention is that I will slowly try these 10 new things in 2010. Here's the list:

Things To Eat

1. Chai Tea / Chai Latte

Chai - apparently Chai means tea, so Chai Tea is like saying PIN Number or My Cute Ragdolls

I don't drink tea or coffee, so we thought Chai would be a good start. I've actually almost achieved this one already, as in the afternoon I tried a Chai Latte. It may have something to do with the copious amount of sugar - but I really liked it, I'm looking forward to a proper Chai.

2. Sushi

Knitted sushi

I'm not too happy about this one. I've been told I don't have to try the crazy raw-fish sushi, but my main problem with sushi is the seaweed. I really dislike the taste. But who knows, my taste buds may have changed in the last few years so I'll give it a go.

3. Feta

Is feta better? No whey!

I'd really like to enjoy this new thing - as I absolutely love cheese. Cheese is right up there with onion as my co-favourite edible ingredients. I like pretty much every type of cheese I've tried. Some I like more than others - but I've often said that cheese will improve most meals.

My problem with feta is illustrated by the above image. At the deli, the feta is sitting in water. Apparently the water is actually whey, but I just don't enjoy seeing my cheese sitting in a water-like liquid. I think after I try it - I'll quite like feta.

4. Vegetarian

Thankfully it's only for a week

Another one I don't really agree with - I'm going to be vegetarian for most of one week (Monday breakfast to Friday breakfast inclusive). It's supposed to show me that meals aren't necessarily bad without meat - but I assume it will prove the opposite. I predict a lot of canned baked beans during that week.

Things To Do

5. Get more sun

Sunbathing Turtles

It is no secret that I am a very pasty-white individual, most of my family is. Our mixed-basketball team's name of The Clag-Eaters is a reference to this. So one of the list's contributers thought that 10 minutes of sun, three days a week for a month would be a benefit for me.

I predict I'll fry within a week.

6. Take Drum Lessons


I kinda snuck this one in - as I've been wanting to learn the drums for a long time now. Once I sell the house, one of my first purchases will be a drum kit and drum lessons. Surely my countless hours at Rock Band has made me a rock god by now!

7. Overseas Trip

U R Gay [tee hee]

Another one I'm not too upset about - who doesn't want to go on a holiday. The idea behind this one is that I'm not allowed to go to the US or Canada - I need to step outside of my comfort zone. I would like to visit some Asian countries - or maybe Europe. Another one that needs to wait until the house is sold.

Things To Wear

8. Hat

The awesomeness is clear

I've lost around 15 to 20 kilos over the last 6 months - so most of my clothes don't fit me anymore. I've been planning on doing a big shop soon to re-stock my wardrobe, and maybe trying to buy clothes that the young people might call trendy. Part of this effort would include buying a hat that is not a baseball cap. But probably not a knitted mustache hat either.

9. Boxers or Briefs?

Nice!

My little sister bought me a crazy pair of novelty Domo Kun jocks, all brown with Domo's unmistakable mouth in the crotchal region. I thought they were hilarious, but I've worn boxers exclusively since I started high school.

Boxers or Briefs is my attempt to become ambi-jock-drous (i.e. wear either boxers or briefs, as the situation requires).

10. Sandals

Eww!

Thongs disgust me. I do not own a single pair of thongs, and I do not remember ever owning thongs. I may have had some when I was too young to know better - but I hope not. I think it's mainly the rubber thing going between the toes that offends me. And as far as footwear goes, thongs are quite dangerous.

When it gets hot - I still wear my normal shoes which can get uncomfortable. I would not budge on the thong issue - but I did agree to give sandals a try.

Hopefully I'll achieve all 10 new things in 2010 - there shouldn't be too much holding me back. It would be a good result if I found a few extra things I could enjoy in life - but I'm not holding my breath!

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: 10 in '10

With the most recent New Year ticking us over to the year 2010 - it made me think back to the millennium (hard to believe it was 10 years ago).

This made me remember a pair of Coke bottle I've kept since the year 2000 - pictured below:


Party into 2000 - and beyond!

I had a quick look on the Intertubes and found a site that was selling these bottles for $50 each, although the site is currently "Account Suspended" if you don't view it through the wayback machine.

Thinking I'm sitting on a gold mine here I took some photos and went straight to eBay. During the sale listing process it shows you some similar items, which is where I saw the exact same bottle as mine being sold a few months earlier. For $18.95.

Thinking about it now - I wonder if it's worth going through the hassle of listing, selling, packing and sending of the bottles even if I was going to score $50.

Maybe I'll just wait until 2020.


That's genuine 2000-vintage Coca Cola in that bottle!

# Posted in the General section

The Internet doth provide. Literal Music Videos are classic video clips re-dubbed with more literal lyrics. Here are my favourite examples:

Take on Me


Total Eclipse of the Heart


# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Funny, Web

I had never been to a live music show. No concerts, no festivals, no high school recitals. I never had the cash in high school - which is when I wanted to go to The Offspring, The Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, etc. When I started to earn enough money to afford such events, I started to feel like the first concert I went to would need to be worth the wait. So I just never went to anything (stupid, I know).

Green Day postponed their second Melbourne show, which had been planned for Tuesday. I had nothing on Wednesday night - so I thought I'd try to get tickets. Fortunately, someone had just returned their front-row lower seating tickets before I got to the ticket office - and my first concert was planned.


The slightly off-yellow tickets

Jet was the support act - and I was pretty happy to be able to see them live. Cold Hard Bitch sounded great and it was good to hear Look What You've Done again. For some reason about 5 male strippers joined the band for Are You Going To Be My Girl. I guess there was a fair few women in the audience - but it just seemed weird.


This is Jet - just take my word for it

Then, before too much waiting, Green Day took the stage. I really did pick a great act for my first live show. They played for two and a half hours pretty much non-stop. The set list was incredible. They played seven songs from 21st Century Breakdown, a good number from American Idiot, Minority, a few from Nimrod (Hitchin' A Ride was awesome), a few from Insomniac and most of their hits from Dookie. A kid was pulled out of the audience to sing Longview. While it would have been good to hear Billie Joe sing it - it was great to see how happy the kid was to sing with Green Day backing him. He did pretty well too, pacing the stage and pointing to the crowd at times.

It was an amazing show and the 150+ minutes just flew by. It's done two things to me. Made me want to buy a drum kit and graduate from Rock Band, and see many more live acts in 2010. Here's hoping Daft Punk tours again soon. Or Boston decides to visit Australia.


Green Day - A surprisingly good picture - considering it was taken from my phone


# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Music

I was planning on running in the 15km Great Australian Run today. I did a 5km 4km run about 6 weeks ago and loved it - so trained up for the 15 km.

I certainly had preparation covered last night. Laid out my clothes, pre-pinned my race number, packed a bag with toilet paper, band-aids, drinks etc and pre-attached my registered baggage tag. I analysed three potential methods of travel and decided on a primary and backup strategy (train / tram or car if I slept in). I then went to bed for an early night.

Of course, I slept through an hour and 45 minutes of my alarm and had almost no chance of making it to the race. Bell offered to try to drive me in - and I accepted - knowing it was probably too late.

I skipped my shower, breakfast and my morning good-luck toilet stop. Somehow we made it into the city in under an hour, and after dropping off my bag just made it to the starting area with one minute to spare. No time for a proper warm up - I just had enough time to remove a stone from my runners. But I was happy the last six weeks of prep wouldn't go to waste.

I actually felt really good over the first 5-7 kilometers, until my knee started to act up. As I've been training for this my left knee has been getting progressively worse - and today it was very sore. Had it not been the big race - I probably wouldn't have kept going. But I wanted that medal!

I suffered through the knee pain, the cramps and the rain, and I eventually crossed the finish line. The last 500 meters felt great, but as soon as I cooled down again I had great trouble walking. I think this is my last run for a few months!


It looks like my sore knee was also affecting my times - or I just got too tired after the first 5 kilometers


I like the yellow ribbon, stylish!

The run would be the 14.1 km Run 4 The Kids, which I'm certainly starting to second guess.

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Running

About two months ago, I had been going to the gym for a few weeks and started to really enjoy the treadmill work I was doing. So, of course, I went too far ahead of myself and said to Bell "I want to complete a marathon before I turn 30". This was partly because I think running a marathon is a good bucket list goal - and partly because of Hamish Blake's effort.

So I signed up for the 5km event of this year's Melbourne Marathon. I chose the 5km distance because I was still new to running - and just wanted to see how much harder running would be when not on a treadmill. Over the last few months I've found that 5km isn't that long - and I predicted I'd finish the race in around 30 minutes, maybe 25.

The race started a little annoyingly - I was so far back at the starting line - I just stood there for a full minute while the long line ahead of us got started. But when I got running it was great fun! The weather was excellent - and spectators were littered around the course offering encouragement.

By far the most enjoyable part of the race was the final 800 meters - a semi-lap of the MCG. Running in through Gate 3 of the 'G to apparently 10,000 people sporadically cheering was amazing. Sure - most of them were there for the proper runners (half and full marathons) - it still felt pretty good.

After the finish we all received a participation medal. Sure, it sounds like "everyone gets a medal day" - but it was a really nice quality prize. In roller hockey, I've won grand finals, team and league MVPs and various other sporting trophies - and none have looked as nice as my 5km participation medal. The longer distance ones looked much nicer too!


My bling

I had a look at the online results - and I actually finished in 19 minutes and 51 seconds. I'm pretty surprised at that - it's an average of 15 km/h - I guess I've been slacking off when on the treadmill. My official position is 400th (out of around 4,000) - but my net time (i.e. discounting the time it took me to get to the start line) puts me around 300th. I'm pretty happy with that - especially for my first race.


My Results

In the end - I wish I had have run the 10km race. 5km isn't enough to see if I have the right kind of endurance to get a full or even half marathon. I'm going to give the 15km Run For The Kids a go next March - should be a better challenge.

To top it off - our mixed basketball team won our first non-grading game by 38 points tonight. I scored 12 points - meaning I wasn't allowed to score anymore. The "can't score more than 12 rule" is one that I thought would never need to be applied to me during a game. Perhaps I should go for a 5km run each morning before basketball!

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Basketball, Running

I love funny cat videos, and this one is pretty good:



On the site a caption says "This cat successfully figures out the least efficient way to drink from a faucet" which pretty much sums it up. Still - you can't say it's stupid - he does get a lot of water.

http://www.break.com/index/dumb-cat-cant-figure-out-how-to-d rink.html

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Funny, Web

I went to see a District 9 at the movies last night and it was pretty awesome! Go and see it.

I really hope they are already working on a sequel!

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Movies

This is awesome! Somebody took the audio commentary from the Pittsburgh Penguin's first Stanley Cup win in 1991 and mixed it with a modified version of NHL '94 to recreate game 6. It's hard to describe - so watch the video:

http://game6.nhl91.com/

The synchronization is very well done - this must have taken ages. I love the part where they talk about Mario's then-girlfriend Nathalie waving in the stands.

Just watch it!

# Posted in the Hockey section and tagged as: Mega Drive, Pittsburgh Penguins

I don't blog about Xbox games anymore (or anything else for that matter) - but I wanted to make a quick mention of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. I never got to play the original game back in the day - as our family didn't get a computer until later. So I'm happy to be experiencing this classic game in the comfort of my living room couch. The graphics and music has been all re-mastered, and all dialog is now spoken in the special edition.

But the best part about this game is that clicking on the back button on the controller downscales the experience back to the 90s version, with the old graphics, MIDI music and subtitles instead of speech. It's been great to see the difference between the old and the new in each scene.

If you have an Xbox 360 - buy it today! The developers have hinted that if enough people buy this game, other classic LucasArts games may follow - such as Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango.

# Posted in the Gaming section and tagged as: Xbox 360

2009 Stanley Cup Champions!

The Detroit Red Wings were 11-1 at home this playoff year. In 3 games at The Joe the Penguins were beaten by a combined score of 11 goals to 2, including Detroit's 5-0 win in game 5. No team in NHL history had been able to rally from 2-0 series deficients twice in the same playoff year. Of the 45 teams that have been up 2 games to 0 in the Stanley Cup final, 41 were able to go on to win the Cup.

But none of that mattered. Game 7 is a whole different story to the first 6, and the Penguins overcame adversity to win their 3rd Stanley Cup in franchise history. And boy do I feel good!

Currently (I hope) being shipped from the US to me is the following:



The Stanley Cup Championship Locker Room Bundle: This was the first Pittsburgh Stanley Cup I was able to watch live - and watching the Pens putting on their Cup Championship hats made me want one! Also the DVD will be a keeper.



Sidney Crosby Cup Holding Bobble-Head: Even though he was injured early in the second period, Sidney Crosby is the team captain, and the first player to hoist the cup on our team. This bobble-head is going to stay at work for the offseason!



Road Talbot Jersey with Stanley Cup Final Patch: Last playoffs the Penguins were down against Detroit 1 game to 3. Game 5 was played in Detroit, with the Red Wings having the chance to finish off the Pens in 5 games. Detroit were up 3 goals to 2 with a minute left in regulation. The officials had the Stanley Cup removed from it's box, and started polishing it up ready for the presentation.

With 35 seconds left in the game Maxime Talbot scored on a wrist shot to send the game into overtime (which the Pens won in the 3rd overtime period). Right after Talbot scored that goal, I immediately said "I'm buying a Talbot jersey". When we eventually lost the series in game 6, I sulked for a month and never ended up buying the jersey - even though Talbot's been one of my favourite players for a long time.

In game 3 of this year's series against Detroit, Talbot scored the first goal of the game to set the tempo, and ensure we didn't go down an unassailable 3-0 games against the Wings. After he scored that goal I also said to myself "I'm going to buy a Talbot jersey".

To take any doubt out of my mind, Talbot scored the only two Penguins goals in this year's game 7, and ensured the Cup comes back to Pittsburgh. I have finally bought the jersey I promised I'd do so many times. I don't currently own a road jersey - so as we won the Cup on the road I figured now's a good time to get one.


Pittsburgh Assistant Captain, Gino "The Scoring Machino" Malkin, after winning the Conn Smythe trophy

Evgeni Malkin was an absolute force in the Penguins' Playoff run scoring 36 points, the first player to score more than 30 points since Joe Sakic in 1996 (Crosby also broke 30 points with 31). In some of the games, especially against Carolina, you can just tell when Malkin decided to step up and own the game (resulting in some damn pretty goals). With Malkin and Crosby on this team for many years to come, I'm thinking the Penguins collection of 13 Art Ross Trophys will be added to more than a few times.


Hossa shaking the hand of Fleury after losing the Stanley Cup

In the off-season Marián Hossa turned down a multi-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins to sign to the Detroit Red Wings. At the time he said that the Red Wings offered him the best chance to win a Stanley Cup. The ultimate irony in this - Hossa played ok in the first three rounds of the playoffs - but was completely shut down against the Penguins. No goals in seven games. You have to think if Hossa hadn't lived up to his "playoff no-show" reputation in this year's Stanley Cup final, he'd may drinking champagne out of Lord Stanley's cup as I type.



About two years ago (before Pittsburgh lost to Detroit the first time) I told my little brother that the Penguins were going to win 2 of the next 5 Stanley Cups. This is the first - I'll be cheering next year for the second!

# Posted in the Hockey section and tagged as: Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh has done a good job at pushing the Detroit Red Wings to a winner-takes-all game 7 in this year's Stanley Cup final.

Last year Detroit beat the Penguins in 6 games, but I think we've got a better chance this year. Last season, we had Scary Gary Roberts providing us with the crazy eyes:


Gary Roberts - what would he do?

When Roberts left via free agency to Tampa Bay, the Penguins needed to look towards Brooks Orpik for their crazy eye needs, and he certainly has stepped up. Here he is getting pretty serious about hydration:


When making big hits, a common expression is that Brooks Orpik is handing out free candy.

I'm hoping Orpik's crazy eyes are enough to help the Pens over the line, to win their first cup since 1992.

# Posted in the Hockey section and tagged as: Pittsburgh Penguins

The first result in google when searching for "client server database" is quite interesting:



At the time of posting - that result is still number one. Here - let me google that for you.

Firstly - a great use of the word girth. Doesn't get used enough in my opinion. Then again - what's my opinion worth? After all - I used to think client / server was a computing term. The more you know!

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Funny, Web

Pittsburgh has gone up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Final against Carolina. Sidney Crosby has been a force in the playoffs - scoring the first goal of the game on 6 occasions equaling a record by Chicago / Winnipeg legend Bobby Hull and Edmonton's Fernando Pisani. But in Game 2 of the Carolina series - Malkin was a force in a game. Scoring his first playoff hat trick, Malkin's third goal - an insurance marker that relieved some of the threat of a Hurricane comeback - was truly something to behold:


Respect to AlexPKeaton from Lets Go Pens for creating the animated gif

What a goal! He called the shot to teammate Talbot beforehand and just went out there and got it done. Amazing no-look, backhand roofer to put the game away.

It's fun to have two of the best three players in the NHL in your team every game!

# Posted in the Hockey section and tagged as: Pittsburgh Penguins

My last roller hockey game was around 6 weeks ago (in which we finally won the elusive Division 2 grand final), and since then I've done a whole lot of sitting around. I wasn't going to play again this season (and allowing my gut to expand at will) - but a good mate of mine that I've played hockey with on and off since high school was keen to start up again this season. I love playing hockey with him (especially when we're on the same line) as we both know where the other one is going to be. A downside however - is that he tends to push me into playing as hard as I can - and the time that I just coast around the rink is reduced as I attempt to keep up with him.

So when I got home yesterday after my first game back I felt pretty darn tired - and ready for bed at 3 pm. But a mate from work has just recently bought Guitar Hero: World Tour, and was up for some online action. With Rock Band I've been playing drums at the "Hard" level - so when we played our first song, Everlong by the Foo Fighters, I chose Hard drums. Big mistake:

Guitar Hero: World Tour Everlong Hard

That's a crap load of notes! It was fine for the first few hundred hits - but then my arms turned to jelly, and just completing the song without passing out was my new goal. After that I put my level down to Medium - but my arms are still hurting me today.

# Posted in the General section

This is just a post so that April has a blog against it - but anyway, the Pittsburgh Penguins have qualified for the playoffs again:

Penguins make Playoffs

Bring it Philadelphia!


# Posted in the Hockey section and tagged as: Pittsburgh Penguins

I'm currently on two weeks leave from work - I think I might be returning to work more wound up than when I left.

Being home I get to listen to all of the Penguin's games live via NHL.com Game Center. The last three games I've listened to have ended in a shootout. Two days ago they came back from two goals down to beat Florida in a shootout. Today after being down 3-0 in the third period, we scored three goals in 3.5 minutes to push the game into another shootout - which we lost.

I don't know how much more I can take. I guess if we keep getting the points I'll be happy. Any heart attacks will be considered the price of victory.

Let's Go Pens!

# Posted in the Hockey section and tagged as: Pittsburgh Penguins

My favourite television series of all time - Arrested Development - is finally expected to make the transition to the big screen as the last actor has reportedly signed on.

Michael Cera had previously let it be known that he wasn't interested in reprising his role of George Michael Bluth - and he thought fans would be behind him:

Quoting Michael Cera:
I don't think I would want to see a movie of the series if I was a fan, anyway.
I'm a huge fan of Michael Cera's work as George Michael - so I'm glad he's had a change of heart.

Production is expected to begin this year sometime. This combined with my favourite series of novels being made into a HBO drama - I'm a pretty happy fan!

# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Movies

It's been pretty hot in Melbourne recently. Record-breaking temperatures are almost becoming commonplace and crazy 40 degree-plus days are getting annoying.

But whenever one of the super hot days happens on a weekday I will generally spend most of the work day inside shivering from the cold. I think something like the following is to blame (but without the Devil's mascot):

Sportscenter Commercial


That Iceburgh knows how to strut!

# Posted in the General section