A pleasant surprise :-)

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from Health At Campbelltown, one of the medical practices I canvassed last week, asking me to come in for a job interview.

Naturally, the interview occurred this morning, and as it went very well, I have a very good feeling about the whole thing. So good, in fact, that I’m going to post another 3 funny Kev Brockschmidt cartoons for your enjoyment.

Twitter? No thanks.

I’m going to make a bold declaration right now; I will NOT join Twitter, and there will NEVER be a Twitter widget added to this blog. Why, I hear you ask? Not on moral grounds, since I don’t object to its existence, but because I’ve noticed a pattern emerging; when certain people join Twitter, all other forms of online communication are suddenly tossed to the side. That said, anyone who approaches me with a “Get Twitter or GET THE FUCK OUT!” attitude had better start running the other way, because I have ZERO TOLERANCE for such bullshit.

On the one hand, certain people on Hollywood’s A-list are using it to feed their egos, boost their own popularity, and get one up on other celebrities and/or other phenomena. The recent “Twitter War” in which Ashton Kutcher fought tooth and nail to get more followers than CNN serves as a perfect example of that.

On the other hand, I suspect that other famous people, such as a certain Kim Kardashian, are using Twitter to supplant an existing project and distance themselves from it, thus electing to communicate largely with their famous friends. I can see how the rabid haters may have contributed to that, but I don’t believe that the fans who supported her right from the outset deserve to be punished as well.

(I don’t place myself in either camp, really; I’m just on her blog to add a bit of nuttiness to it, and make suggestions where necessary. And to Kim’s credit, those cornrows I discussed a while back were only temporary. )

So no Twitter for me, thanks.

Doooooon’t yoooooou believe it….

Having just read this article, and having watched the video that accompanies it, I’m starting to get a sinking feeling. Hell, I’m inclined to predict that the demise of General Motors’ Pontiac brand in the US will have a deeper impact on GM’s local arm Holden (which produced the VE Commodore-based Pontiac G8 for export to the US) than certain people are telling us.

The executive director who spoke in the video – who, if you ask me, sounds like a bean counter with all the charisma of a plastic plant – also seemed a tad uncertain in his language, saying he didn’t envisage any of the 3000 jobs at Holden’s Adelaide plant being lost. Of course, if this new 4-cylinder car that Holden is planning to produce becomes a top seller, I’ll welcome that, as it will go a long way to assuring the facility’s future.

Nothing is guaranteed, however, and there’s always the chance that things may go the other way. If the new 4-cylinder model tanks in the market, and other factors – for instance, GM’s British brand Vauxhall dropping the VXR8, which is also based on the VE Commodore, and therefore produced here – come into play, things would become very bleak indeed. So let’s hope Holden can weather this current economic storm.

A Major League update (pun intended) :-)

My phone call to Roadshow Entertainment earlier today confirmed what I’d been suspecting; the Morgan Creek Productions back catalogue of films (including the Major League trilogy, naturally) is no longer owned by Roadshow here.

However, I heard a while back that Universal Pictures has acquired the MCP distribution rights, and I’m hoping the deal isn’t restricted to the USA and Canada.

With that in mind, I’ve shot off an e-mail to Universal’s Australian office (BANG! Har har, comedy gold! ), and even though the first Major League movie is the only one I’m really after, I hope to get a positive response nonetheless.

An injustice….

Being a bit of a movie and TV buff, I’ve collected a decent number of DVDs over the last several years. However, one of my very favourite movies has never been released on DVD here, and that movie is Major League.

That’s right; it’s the very funny baseball comedy from 1989 starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen and Corbin Bernsen, and for many years, it’s a movie I’ve been wanting to own on DVD. Settling for an imported and/or pirated copy is not an option, so it falls to me to try and contact a few distributors (Roadshow, Paramount or Warner Bros., since any one of them could have the Morgan Creek Productions back catalogue these days) to get to the bottom of this.

Out of the three Major League films, only the third one – Major League 3: Back to the Minors – has been released on DVD here through Roadshow, and only in limited numbers. And since Roadshow’s new website – a dumbed-down, young-skewing joke known as MyFunDVD – appears to have no direct customer e-mail links, I may have to contact them by phone during the week. Let’s hope it works.

Lest we forget….

As today is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand, my thoughts are with the Australian men and women who have given, and continue to give, their military service to our country. More importantly, it is a time to remember those who lost their lives to protect the democracy, the freedom and the values that too many of their fellow Australians take for granted these days.

Also, there has never been a piece of writing more appropriate for any day of remembrance than the fourth stanza of Lawrence Binyon’s “For the Fallen”:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

More stripper thoughts (but you guessed that, didn’t you?)

I really wish that Tia Brodie was still coming to Adelaide to feature at the Crazy Horse. I’d heard a fair bit about her in the past, and I would’ve liked to meet her in the flesh, since on the strength of the pictures I’d seen, she appears to have no hidden nasties. Also, I wish I knew what the exact circumstances of her non-appearance were, since too much speculation could leave me looking pretty silly.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time a feature entertainer has pulled out of a Crazy Horse gig; as I recall, Rachel James – Miss Blokesworld herself (does anyone else remember that show?) – did so a few years back, apparently due to ill health at the time, and as I was very keen to meet her, I was upset by that.

So let’s hope that this no-show situation doesn’t repeat itself with a certain Victoria Rayne, a woman I’ve also heard good things about, and would like to meet.

Has this happened to anyone else?

For a couple of days, a few of my blog statistics were quite screwy. Nothing showed up in the Most Active section on the Dashboard, and only my first post and the About Me post showed up in the Top Posts. Also, when I checked the All Time link, nothing showed up. Very peculiar.

And while things appear to be fixed now, some of my posts now have slightly lower viewership numbers as a consequence. Not that I’m upset about it at all; it’s just an observation. That said, I hope that WordPress.com hasn’t been hacked lately, since that could change things in that manner. Oh well.

Another session of canvassing coming up ;-)

And this one’s happening pretty much on the spur of the moment, but since I didn’t have anything else planned for this afternoon anyhow, I’m more than happy to do it.

Though I would like more results from the places I visit, since it seems that on account of this recession that Australia’s now in, there are more people looking for work, and less jobs to go around. Yet I’m still as determined as I’ve ever been to not have to take literally any work I can get my hands on, since I don’t want the additional skills I acquired at the Repat to go to waste. As snobbish as it may sound, I’d rather eat Subway subs than make them.

Another 2-in-1 post :-)

The Nine Network’s Second SD Channel

According to this, it looks like the amazing chimpanzees running PBL Media (into the ground) these days have settled on GO! as the brand name for their second Standard Definition channel. There are people making jokes about it already – one example being the addition of “AWAY” to the name – and I certainly hope the channel is used to clear the backlog of shows created by their bonings from Channel Nine.

My Transformers Encore Predictions

The next releases are expected to be #16: Bruticus and #17: Cassette Big Mission Volume 2, featuring Steeljaw, Armhorn (Ramhorn), Ratbat and Slugfest. Personally, I’d like to see Rumble and Frenzy in that particular set instead of Ratbat and Slugfest, since a lot of collectors seem to want those two characters.

Of course, I’d still like to see Ratbat and Slugfest released, but in an E-Hobby exclusive Cassetron set that would also feature Overkill and this guy -

- as a new E-Hobby exclusive character. Of course, I’d still welcome Replay as a name, but if TakaraTomy had a different name in mind, I’d be happy with that too.

Taking into account that TakaraTomy have been reissuing certain Transformers Generation 1 toys since 2000, and the bulk of them have been sold to collectors from outside Japan, I have a hunch that they won’t be reissuing G1 toys for too much longer. And since this year is the 25th Anniversary of the Transformers brand, I think the Encore reissue series ought to go out with a bang with the following figures: #18 Superion (to counter Bruticus); #19 Devastar (Devastator, on account of the new Devastator in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen); and #20 Broadcast (Blaster, but with blue eyes and no added cassettes this time).

Hardcore collectors will note that if my predictions are accurate, the first-to-last numbering of the Encore series would practically mirror that of the earlier Transformers Collection series, with Convoy (Optimus Prime) being first and Broadcast (Blaster, naturally) being last in both series. But come what may, I’ll welcome any direction the Transformers Encore series may take.