My last post for 2008….

…. so I’ll make it a good one.

Some people may think I’m a little odd for this, but I’m just planning to watch the Sydney fireworks on TV tonight, since in my humble opinion, no other city in the world does it better. And if you ask me, the New Year’s Eve 1999 fireworks – with the Eternity theme – will NEVER be bettered; hell, I don’t think anyone CAN better them.

Also, getting in and out of town tonight will be a painus in the anus anyhow, and Adelaide’s celebrations traditionally haven’t been on the same scale as those of larger cities, so I’m giving those a miss.

As for New Year’s Resolutions, those are also non-existent for me. Let me just say that I want 2009 to be a great year not just for me, but for those around me as well, and I’ll leave the issue at that.

See you in 2009!

Can’t the Reverend Fred Nile just shut up?

According to this article, Australia’s most reactionary religious figure is trying to impose his 19th Century values on the people of New South Wales once again. This time, he wants topless sunbathing by women on beaches – a practice that has been happening around Australia for decades – outlawed in that state.

Though he claims to have support from a small number of left-wing and right-wing politicians, I think I can safely say that such a ban won’t be happening anytime soon. The majority of politicians have bigger issues to worry about than ladies who bare their boobies on beaches, and if anyone pushes for a conscience vote on this, I hope they get laughed out of Parliament.

One of the funniest TV goofs I’ve ever seen…. ;-)

This one comes from the short-lived Australian version of a phone-in game show called The Mint. The brunette presenter – the very tasty Angela Johnson – is supposed to say Browns Plains (a suburb of Brisbane), but of course, something goes awry.

Despite this flub, I still think Angela is one of the most underrated talents on Australian TV, and it’s a shame that an apparent conflict of interest ended her other TV gig on Nine – The Music Jungle – some time after this.

Though on a brighter note, the blonde presenter – juicy Lucy Holmes – still had her 100% Kylie tribute show to fall back on after The Mint ended.

A couple of Nine Network thoughts….

Pertaining to Australia’s Nine Network, naturally.

Despite officially renaming the news service “Nine News”, I still sense a great deal of reluctance – along with a large dose of outright refusal – among posters on media discussion boards to go with the change. Long before it happened, I knew that the “National Nine News” brand would soon be no more, and here’s how I knew:

1. “National” was dropped from the reporter signoffs at an early stage;

2. Although the city-based bulletins have always been locally focused, this focus has become far more overt in recent years; and

3. The brand lost a lot of its prestige when the bulletins went downmarket to compete with Seven News, i.e. showing more crowd pleasing “puff” pieces as opposed to hard-hitting stories.

Meanwhile, the other Nine thought is about – yep, you guessed it – the logo. Even though the dots/balls/discs came back in 3 out of the 5 Nine markets, the 9 numeral looks painfully thin in comparison to them, and this is further accentuated in the other 2 markets (Adelaide and Perth, of course, but I’m still hoping that they’ll get Dotty back eventually).

Now before I present my take on it, here’s a disclaimer: I knocked this up in Paint many months ago, and I don’t claim ownership of the logo in any way, shape or form. PBL Media owns it, and I only seek to pay homage to a great logo design. So no lawsuits, please!

Big, bold, old school, consistent in measurements, squared off within the numeral, and in your face. Just what I think the network needs, though it’ll take far more than a tweaked logo to save them from their current financial woes.

Language! Violence! Sex! Nudity! YUMMY!

Sorry for the slightly misleading title, but I’ve got to spike the number of views somehow!

First of all, I’m relieved that the Crazy Horse isn’t going through with a 9-day shutdown after all. Staying closed for New Year’s Eve would’ve been the most bone-headed thing to do in the long, sad history of bone-headed things to do.

Secondly, I’m amazed that aside from Vonni, no one else has publicly responded to Darrin’s blog on MySpace. This could mean two things:

1. Any girls there who are still on MySpace have become so disillusioned that they no longer care what transpires between other girls and shady customers; or

2. Some girls may be wary of reprisals, either from the management or from the perpetrators’ “associates”, for blowing the whistle on such activities.

Or a bit of both, perhaps, but in any case, my gut feelings tell me that the downward spiral is only going to continue….

OK…. so my day wasn’t ALL bad….

There actually WAS a light at the end of the tunnel; I managed to acquire four very hard to find DVDs: the Looney Tunes discs that were released in Australia last year. Considering that the major retailers such as Myer, David Jones, Target, Big W etc. didn’t carry these last ones at all, and that the Golden Collections from which the cartoons were derived are being discontinued in the US, it’s a safe bet that no more are forthcoming.

Note that I said “derived” there, because the cartoon listings have been altered and the bulk of the special features appear to have been omitted. A major bummer, but it’s good to have the cartoons all the same.

Karma is a bitch.

What a day I’ve had.

I went to a KFC near me for lunch, and – surprise surprise – despite saying to the first person that I’d dine in (which involves them putting my food on a tray for me to take), a second person bags it anyway.

I then had to cut in, saying “No no no – don’t bag it! I’m eating in!”, but my request was still either unheard or ignored. The second person asks “What did he say?”, and the first person replied with “Not to bag it.”

I started to sense a disregard for my wishes, mixed in with a healthy dose of incompetence, and as I have a VERY short fuse for the latter, I became angry, saying “FOR FUCK’S SAKE! I said I wanted it HERE, not to take away!”

The second person’s reply was “You can still have it here in a bag!”, and to me, that reeks of a “take it and like it” attitude. And giving me that sort of attitude is akin to holding a red rag to a bull.

And with the first person saying “We haven’t got any trays!” when there were 3 trays no more than 2 metres away, that pretty much hit my last nerve. I gazed over to the trays and shouted “GET ME A FUCKING TRAY!”

Now I’m not making ANY apologies for what I did. The only thing I deplore about all this is that I had to become aggressive to get what I wanted, when I wanted, the way I wanted, and in this day and age, that seems to be asking too much of some people. I am NOT a brainwashed sheep, so I will NEVER be happy to just take what others want me to have.

This terrible karma came back to bite me two more times, in two more places. In both instances, I ended up drawing the short straw in terms of checkout staff (through no fault of my own): instead of getting the nice looking ladies, I ended up with the rough scrubber in the first case and the token bloke in the second.

So it’s been pretty shitty for me today, and I hope I never have another day like it.

A small piece of software advice ;-)

For anyone who’s planning to get Koyote Soft’s Free FLV Converter to convert any downloaded videos from YouTube, Google Video etc., here’s my advice to you: DON’T. The newest version had a serious glitch in the conversion stage on my computer, showing a G:/ drive as a source drive when I don’t even have a partition or added hard drive of that nature, and not allowing me to change it.

And considering that a few handy features were taken away from the program in earlier versions, I’m not very confident that much will be done to fix the problem. So I’ve installed the Pazera equivalent, and I’m loving it so far (insert McDonald’s joke here ).

In case you forgot….

…. Merry Christmas!

And since I’m into Warner Bros. cartoons, here’s one that’s perfect for the occasion: Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol!

Stephen Conroy still doesn’t get it, does he?

According to many articles I’ve read of late, the Senator now wants to extend his draconian – hell, I’m almost inclined to call them Machiavellian, considering his own ruthless treatment of anyone who dares to question them to his face – proposals to censor the Internet in Australia to include peer-to-peer connections.

Do I still oppose such stringent censorship? YOU BET I DO. And so do the vast majority of people who have commented on this on blogs, other websites, and Senator Stephen Conroy’s own departmental page. But he’s still determined to push this repressive, Big Brother-esque agenda on us all, if only to satisfy the left-wing AND right-wing nutters.

However, I take a lot of comfort from the fact that his opposite number, Senator Nick Minchin, also believes that it would be unworkable, and with any luck, the legislation will be defeated in the Senate. Then there shall be much rejoicing in organisations such as this one –

- and I shall also be glad that Australia won’t be taking what would be seen by many in Australia and around the world as a first step toward totalitarian rule.

To finish, I’ll offer another theory: I’ve heard in recent times that Telstra – once fully owned by the Federal Government, but now 83% privatised – has been shut out of the running to build this new National Broadband Network I keep hearing about. Taking into account the fact that Telstra’s online arm – BigPond – is not participating in the upcoming ISP filtration trials, I can’t help but think there’s a connection between these happenings. Of course, it might just be a nutty conspiracy theory, but if it turns out to be true, then I reserve the right to be the first to say “I told you so!”