sunday : 31 dec 2006

I arrived home last night via Mazda Airlines from my extended trip up north to Queensland and New South Wales. While driving up to Sydney, I heard this marvelous description about that city on a radio programme about writers:

"God made the harbour, but the Devil made Sydney." – Mark Twain

I'll talk more about my holidays next year, not to mention spit out the Toxic Faves lists for 2006. For now, I hope your new year's evil celebrations are a blast. I'm off to Code Monkey's place for a BBQ and a drink or three hundred.

sunday : 18 dec 2006

Good morning. It's 6:00am and I'm gearing up for the drive to Sydney today, followed by the Brisbane leg a few days later (going to Brissy is a bit of a struggle because it's all up hill, you see). I'll return a some point just before New Year's Evil – hey, I like my family, but they're not party animals. What can I say?

An update or three should trickle in during my holidays. Brisbane should be becoming stinking hot right about now, so excuse the sweat stains. Before I go, thanks to Marylu for the great evening of comedy last night from Russell Peters and the support act. A bit heavy on the cultural parodies once again, but it was still champagne laughter all the way.

Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference of today's journal heading, "Brisbane and Beyond the Infinite".

thursday : 14 dec 2006

Television. I'm loath to admit that large doses of televised cathode radiation have been hitting my retinas in the last couple of months. Because many of the DVDs I watch are B-grade or arthouse titles that have less than compelling narratives, channel surfing digital TV stations for several hours can be more appealing than falling asleep during a movie. Of course it's only documentaries, magazine programmes, music video compilations, or voyeuristic reality TV shows such as Medical Emergencies that can keep my interest these days. I can't remember the last sitcom or drama show I became addicted to apart from Daria...maybe it was the superb divorcee drama Once and Again, which was destined to disappear because it was good. Free movies on SBS are still a rare treat, mainly because I'm not home when they're broadcast. Late this year I managed to catch all episodes of Fawlty Towers at last, as well as odd repeats of The Benny Hill Show. I'm also enjoying the computer game show Good Game on ABC 2, and wasn't the last episode of The Glass House a cracker? Yeah, sink the boot in.

The 9/11 Conspiracy. This movement is gaining more and more traction. Many people I chat to agree that something is going on. No plane wreckage at the Pentagon, the controlled demolition of World Trade Building 7, basic engineering inconsistencies related to the Twin Towers collapsing, logistical gaps with the initial hijacking and the lack of defensive air response, mainstream media reticence about covering the subject. The current theory proposes that 9/11 was another covert 'false flag' operation carried out on an unprecedented scale in order to establish a foot-hold in the Middle East. Why? To control oil fields and/or to be on China's doorstep. There is a global chess game going on, and I don't believe the opening gambits are finished. A number of celebrities have gone public about their concerns about getting answers to simple questions: Charlie Sheen, Richard Linklater, Jesse Ventura, Matthew Bellemy, Ed Asner, David Lynch and James Brolin. Google "9/11 conspiracy" or just visit 9/11 We Know or Alex Jones' websites Infowars and Prison Planet. It is curious, though, that a lot of these websites solicit "donations", promote merchandise for sale and call for advertisers. All to keep the websites up and fund documentaries, of course. Healthy cynicism should swing both ways, naturally.

DVD and High Definition Video. The ground continues to shift beneath consumers of audio visual equipment on several fronts. I still maintain that having two competing high definition DVD formats means that jumping in now is unwise, except to review early HD titles and players. I'm still buying standard definition DVDs, although the bulk of them cost less than $20 on discount or secondhand. These days, a high definition display must be capable of pumping out 1080 progressive to have any kind of longevity, given the direction of HD movies on disc. I think 1080p is already beyond the digital specs of HD television, and there is already talk of going up to resolutions of 2000 lines. The new generation of game consoles may give HD DVD and Blu Ray legs, but in the past they've never been good for movie playback, and I can't see that changing with the PS III, Wii or X-Box 360. Actually, like the Nintendo Game Cube and DVDs, I don't think the Nintendo Wii is pre-record HD playback capable. I'm still happy with the performance of my Loewe 76cm picture tube TV. Now, even though I have reservations about current flat panel technology, if you're suffering with an old square fishbowl TV, it's worth putting down $3000 to $5000 on good plasma display – dual HDMI inputs is essential. Then, when laser TV, SED or LCOS comes along, just retire the plasma to the second room and upgrade. I'm not trading in the Loewe yet because I'm getting a good quality widescreen image, it's just not 50 inches across. But if I want a big screen experience, I just...visit the cinema.

wednesday : 6 dec 2006

A voice from the void...or should that be a stream of ASCII characters? It seems that when I have stuff to write about, there's no time or strength to make the effort. Blocks of several hours in which I'm lucid and creative are just hard to come by. I might shut down Corrosive Journalism after 2006 for a while to concentrate on other Toxic updates and non-online pursuits. Anyway, off the top of my head, here's some current affairs and attendant commentary:

Labour Party Leadership. Kim Beazley has now fucked it up twice as opposition leader. I've actually heard from certain wags that he's a good bloke out of the political arena. But I think the beige political landscape dominating Australia in the last decade – call it a drought of inspiring leaders – needs charisma and progressive policies to crack the Liberal iceage we're in now. So unemployment is down. At what cost, though? And let's not forget the Industrial Relations reforms. How many of the people protesting against these changes voted Johnny Howard in at the last election? Things that make you go hmmm. Queenslander Kevin Rudd looks like a kindergarten teacher, although running mate Gillard is kinda sexy in an academic sort of way.

Censorship in Australia. Horror films have been going through a golden age lately. Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust scored an R 18+ classification, with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II receiving the same rating the just other day, and the likes of Saw III falling into the MA 15+ bucket. Marvelous. Sadly, many porn movies are still being banned because of the stupid no-violence clause for X 18+ content. This means that if a knife is shown on a table in one scene, and 60 minutes later a couple have vanilla consensual sex in another scene, the film will be banned, forcing the distributor to make cuts and resubmit the title. There's also calls to ban a new Japanese video game that features abduction themes (fuck, listen to me, I'm starting to sound like a censor). Complacency is the enemy. Stay alert and pay attention. What's happened with horror films is not a miracle or a watershed of liberalism, it's the Australian censorship board's attitudes catching up after 25 years of nonsensical bullshit. It's never too late, but there's still more progress to make.

Drinking, Eating, and Health Shit. I've cut down a nominal amount of boozing I suppose. Each week I'm averaging two nights out having at least three or four drinks, and usually a binge past midnight. I acknowledge that I am a binge drinker and often tell people this gleefully during a session, heh heh. So there is headway being made and/or awareness blossoming, but I doubt the handbreak will be applied before the Christmas season is over. As for solid foods, I'm trying to eat salads for lunch and nothing else. This is working out because it's quite easy to find delicious salads in CBD food courts, cafés, and even pubs. Healthy eating at home continues, although my weight has only dipped slightly in the last month. A treadmill might be in my future since motivating myself to venture outside to jog mindlessly appears to be an impossible task. Oh yeah, I've ditched coffee. Decaf or tea, thanks.

Down At the Ranch. I'm gearing up to take in flatmates early next year, after I scoot off to Queensland over Christmas (memo to self: must get the Mazdarati serviced). A friend held a garage sale at my place last weekend. It was very lackluster. I suppose people just don't buy junk anymore like they used to. I missed most of it due to sleeping in after a big night attending the work social club Christmas dinner with 420 people. Not bad considering we only have about 1100 employees. Otherwise it's the same old routine at home. I'm saving cash in the bank, ostensibly to buy my own home, but I just don't care. I'm more excited about scoring an advanced press screening of Pan's Labyrinth tomorrow night for Digital Retribution because I've been hacking out cinema reviews for the proprietor, Craig. I always thought I'd buy a property with a long-term girlfriend or wife – maybe I'm still stuck on that idea? With property prices up, the best time to buy has been and gone. I only worry about that when other people bring up the subject. Could it be that I'm more Generation Y than X?

Work. Just briefly...we have two new starters manning the oars on our slave ship. Both will be marching up the learning curve for a long time. However, our team is still one FTE short. Workloads are not decreasing, either. I'm not looking around in the market place just yet. On balance things are great where I am, and there could finally be scope to bulldoze some long-standing roadblocks with new initiatives being proposed by upper management. Don't tell me they're showing some...leadership? Fark me. Someone's been digesting titles from the Motivation section at Borders. Still, like the censorship breakthrough, it's a long time coming.

To be continued...