Quick house update (but mostly game nerding)

A very quick update to say that the house now has some bricks on it! Had a quick look on the way home last night and we have bricks to the roof line on the north side, and about halfway up on the southside. Will try and get up there to post some pictures soon. I was planning on cycling up there after work today, but the weather is a bit on the foul side, so I might not make it.

In other news, as anyone who I've talked to in the last week or so can attest, I've bought a copy of Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, and have been spending all my spare time playing it. I've been looking forward to playing this for a couple of years now, pretty much ever since it came out in 2008. It was one of the first purchases I was planning on getting for the ps3, but I didn't end up picking it up until last weekend.

It's been really interesting playing it, the change of format to first person shooter has made the gameplay much more tense and scary, which is a mixed bag for me. It makes it slightly more exciting, but I'm not that great with scary things, so I find myself saving way too often and having to take breaks when it gets too much. I'm still not totally sold on first person shooters on a console either - I miss my mouse and kb! I think the game would be much easier on the PC as well, I would certainly never bother with the faux turn based V.A.T.S system the game utilises as a nod to it's turn based combat roots.

That all seems quite a negative paragraph, so I should reiterated that I love the game and am finding it tremendously addictive. I especially enjoy that grenades and mines are much more useful than they were in the first two games, and that it's much easier to be sneaky. The storyline is engaging and the freedom that the fallout series gives the player to customise and take their own path through the wasteland remains intact, which is something I always loved.

Anyway, I don't want to start reviewing a game that has been out for years and already extensively reviewed elsewehere. Suffice to say, I'm enjoying it.

Week 22

There's nothing much new to report at the site. We're still waiting for the brickies to get round to our unit.

Some other exciting news - one of the other units is being advertised on Allhomes, and it's going for a good 16 per cent more than they were asking for it when we signed on for ours. If that's any indication of the capital gains already earned on our place we won't have to pay mortgage insurance and it's also quite a nice little gain!

Here's a screen grab of the listing.

For reference, this one was going for $395k in the middle of last year when we signed on for ours. It's now listed for $460k. I'm not sure why it's back on the market - maybe someone pulled out, or maybe it never sold the first time round. Either way, if it goes at that price, it bodes well for us! The unit is a bit smaller than ours and it doesn't have an attached garage.

Back at work and (semi) healthy

I'm back at work, and while I can just about string a sentence together again and feel 100 per cent better than I did, I have no enthusiasm for it.

Thank god for Google Reader Play, even if it does bode badly for my productivity. I leave you with this rather clever add/internal marketing thingo from a publisher in the UK. It gives me hope for the future.

Via Gizmodo (via boingboing, etc. etc.).

Week like....21 (I think).

I'm off work sick, don't really feel very verbose (having trouble stringing a sentence together atm), so I'm just going to post some pix of the house that I took last week. The big news? Part of the roof frame is on!

First a couple of pictures of the house. Note the partial roof frame!

Here are some pix of the roof frame from inside. Nice and airy!

Here's a shot of the neighbours. As you can see, the brickies are only two doors down. They need to brick up the garage before they can finish the roof frame.

To close, a couple of pictures from around the site. The units you see above are a design with a detached garage, so they don't need the bricks all done before the roof frame could go on.

I'm gong to eat lentils and think healthy thoughts.

More on Melbourne

As you might be aware, I recently had a short trip to Melbourne for entirely recreational purposes. I was going to do a straight up recount of the whole adventure, but Hugo already beat me to it and covered most of the big stuff over here, so I'm just going to give impressions and thoughts.

Melbourne was a trip marked by running late, failed meetings, hanging around killing time in bars and unadulterated fun. It started, for me, with a taxi that wouldn't turn up and the prospect of missing my flight. The flight was caught in the end, at the cost of parking at the airport for the entire trip. Apart from the slight stress, it was actually really nice to cruise into town on my own at my own pace. After flights and skybuses, I had a short wander about until meeting up with Pete at his work and dropping my bags off and taking some time for a coffee in the cafe under his office. We had some excellent Japanese for lunch at a sly sushi place with vague menus - the deluxe, super special or ultra sushi lunch deal?

The rest of the day was a blur of pubs, wappers, taxi and tram rides. I met Hugo's mate Krispin, who was a bit of a legend, and a good man to slay a few beers in the sun with if you ever get the chance. I also got to visit two parts of Melbourne wholly new to me - Brunswick and Camberwell. Brunswick was a nice (if eclectic spot) and from my limited experience, Camberwell seems to be filled with rappers (American or otherwise) with names that consist of three letters living in run down share houses. We met the GDP, DNA and AOI and hung out for like a minute yo-yo.

As an aside, I used to think that if I had a rap name it would be Long Island Ice Tea, but now (and after that whole "down low" speech on SVU) I reckon it should the TLA, the public service rapper. With the dope evidence based policy styleeeeee!

The other thing I noticed about Camberwell, was that it was a bit far out. Given that it was still within tram distance, this is probably just a side effect of living in Canberra too long.

What else to say about day one, but that Hugo's gig was pretty awesome. There was a never-ending rider, and apparently my designated role as "the dude that yells at his mate on stage" was enough of a performance role to give me access to it. I love Melbourne bars! Even if the staff won't give me a Redbull and look down their noses at me for having suggested I might like to purchase one.

Day two in Melbourne was fairly laid back for me - hung around Pete's place (which is really freaking sweet) in Richmond, did the crossword, had a big breakfast at 1pm and watched season 4 of Weeds on Pete's fiddy inch plasma. Gently eased into beers and BBQ at Pete's place, with excellent company. I laughed so goddamn hard, and it reminded me of excellent bygone days in Perth at Meriwa street with my Perth boys.

I should take a moment to give some major league props to Pete and his (ZOMFG) wife Christine for putting me up and going above and beyond the call of duty in opening their front door at 2am and dashing to the airport on the day four. Better people you will not meet. And did I mention their house was friggin SWEET? Because it is.

Day three involved a pretence at shopping in town, followed by an authentic community radio experience; I accompanied Hugo to an interview at RRR in East Brunswick. It was cool to see how it all worked, and to actually sit in a radio studio. For most of the interview I hung out in the green room with the naughty offspring of the lady who does the country and western show. I was tasked with keeping their volume down to a dull roar so that their shrill voices did not make it through to the broadcast. I was not always successful.

The day then dissolved once more into bars and beers. We visited the rather yuppie Cookie in town and the rather excellent Lambs Go Bar in Fitzroy. Props to Joelle for suggesting that one. Lambs boasts over 100 beers, and we did our best to sample them all between us that night. This contributed to the night becoming pretty fuzzy by the time we headed into town to catch pots and pans music, courtesy of UK DJ/producer Dom & Roland. It's a bit hazy, but I remember enjoying the man like Dom. Unfortunately, he was not enough to keep me awake, and after a nap in the club, it became clear that it was time to head home, or at the very least, that the bouncers weren't going to let me get any more sleep at the club.

Day four of the trip, the final day, was scarily similar to the start of the trip - a very real threat of a missed flight, and an upset Henry in front of the cameras from "Airways". Thankfully Pete came to my rescue, and with an inhuman feat of driving, got me to the airport in time to check in. I think I managed to get to the counter a total of 2 minutes before check in closed - plenty of time!

All in all, the trip was excellent, caught up with some great mates, met some new people who were more than worth the time of day. It was also excellent to explore more than the CBD of Melbourne. Don't get me wrong, there's lots to see there, but I feel like I've got the feel of it for the most part, and was ready to check new places out. I can't wait to get down there and do it all again soon!

The Prodigy

Last Wednesday night I went up to Sydney to catch the Prodigy with some mates. As I posted earlier, the Prodigy are one of my all time favorite acts - The Fat of the Land was the first CD I ever bought (I think I had to buy a CD player just to listen to it; my Fisher Price cassette player would no longer cut the mustard!).

I still remember the first dance/rave gig I ever went to - Digital in 2000 at the Entertainment Centre in Perth, which I think has since been knocked down. Anyway, the absolute highlight of that gig was the Scratch Perverts dropping Prodigy's "Out of Space". The atmosphere was electric, the roof was low and the crowd was large. Everyone knew the words, everyone sang along and it was a perfect moment in music for me. I might add that this was not some drug fueled moment of chemical happiness - I barely had an idea what that sort of thing was at the time. 

It solidified in my mind that this music and these gigs were for me. Not only that, this seething mass of people felt the same way! It was amazing.

The rest of that gig was a real eye opener for me, and positive in every way. A close second to "Out of Space" being played was being acknowledged by Judge Jules, who I was pretty keen on at the time. I can't say my admiration for him and the music he played have stood the test of time the way the Prodigy have. At that stage in my life, I'd been to a couple of Big Days Out and a Regurgitator gig, all of which were scary experiences of drunk surging crowds and mosh pits. I loved the feel and risk of them, but they had nothing on the people and the music at Digital.

But I digress. The point is, I friggin love the Prodigy, and I've been wanting to see them play for around 15 years now. And last Wednesday, I finally saw them..

I approached the gig in a pretty terrible mood - I'd interviewed for the job I was acting in at work, and I felt I'd pretty much blown it. A combination of nerves and an enduring hangover from Melbourne had contributed to what I feel is probably one of the worst interviews I've ever done. I haven't heard back from it yet, but while I went into it a sure favorite to get it, I came out completely unsure of myself. It's in the hands of the interviewers now. In addition to that, Brian and I has driven for 3 hours up from Canberra and I was knackered.

In that mindset, I went to the gig thinking that the Prodigy couldn't possibly be as good as they'd always been. After all, it had been 15 years, they were old dudes, and I totally wasn't in to their last two albums.

It took all of 5 minutes of their set for me to be absolutely blown away.

In a word, the gig was amazing. They have such unbelievable stage presence, the light show was awesome, the bass incredible, and the crowd was going off. I couldn't have hoped for a better set list - heaps of stuff from Fat of the Land, which remains one of my fave albums of all time, as well as all the best shit off every other album they've done. I was so happy that they didn't just come out and play their latest stuff - instead they pretty much just took the best tracks from all of their albums. They only track I could think of that I missed was "Charly", but I am well aware that this is a personal fave rather than an acknowledged anthem.

As you might imagine, an absolute pinnacle of the night for me was hearing "Out of Space". It was even better than it was 10 years ago!

Check out the crowd in the shot above singing along like it was 1994. Freaking excellent!

My camera ran out of battery fairly early on in the gig, so I didn't get as many pictures as I might have liked. I think this might have actually been a blessing in disguise though - I always spend too much of gigs watching them through a camera or a phone trying to record it. It's a bit pointless really, there's usually better footage on youtube the next day, and you don't get to experience it all properly.

Having said that, I DID manage to get a bit of video, and I was pretty stoked with the quality of it! (Hooray for free new camera!) Now that I've got somewhere that I might actually want to share it, I've also tried a first for me, and put it on youtube. Check it out:

As you might be able to tell, that's the Prodigy playing "Breathe", which totally went off.

I'm not actually sure what track is playing in the above clip, but it looks purty.

A most excellent gig. It was the perfect way to get my mind off the shitty job interview. I'm so happy I spent the time and effort going to see them. It's also going to be one of the last times I head up to Sydney to catch a gig with my man Rob for quite a while - he's embarking on a European extravaganza for like a minute yo, and will be sorely missed.

If you ever get the chance - go see the Prodigy. They're awesome.

BACON ROCKET!

From Rathergood.com via Gizmodo.

How can we dance when our quads are burning?

I've decided to become an advocate for clean living. Or at least less alcoholic living.

Things have calmed down a little bit since I last posted, but I'm still washed out as all hell. In addition, I'm hobbling a little still from paintballing on Saturday. Surprisingly enough, I got off fairly lightly on the actual paintball impacts - I have a few bruises, but they're not that big. Some of the other participants were not so lucky. I will post some pictures up when I find some time (promise).

No, it's the muscle aches from running and crouching and kneeling behind cover that are really sore. My knees in particular are hurting. My quads are also up there in the sore-ness stakes, with hip flexors rating an honourable mention. These injuries were not helped by some enthusiastic dancing later on that night. The worm made an appearance, which is always a source of pain.

I did check the on the house over the weekend as well - no changes on my lot. A lot more roof frames have gone up on the other ones, but due to the attached garage design on my unit, I don't think the roof frame can go on until they've put the external bricks on. This is because the garage has no other internal frame, it's just the bricks, but the garage also supports part of the roof. On the bright side, there's a lot of brick laying going on around the site. Fingers crossed it will progress soon.

I leave you with an instructional video on how to do the worm. I think he's doing it in reverse personally, but who am I do argue with a breakdancer that white?!

The week that would not stop

So tired. Too much stuff to fit in. Arg.

Currently doing my best to make it to the end of the day so that I can meet up with the Esa Mess (aka party planner extrodinaire) and help him prep for the bucks tomorrow. I've had a good run of productivity today, but it has not been sustainable.

This has been the week (fortnight!?) that just won't quit, and it's not over yet. Don't get me wrong, it's been awesome (although has had its low lights) but I'm not sure how much longer I can handle the intensity; I'm bloody knackered!

I promise there will be proper posts on some of the festivities in dure course, but in addition to the intensity that was Melbs to kick the week off, there has been/will be:

• The job interview;
• The Road Trips;
• The Prodigy;
• The Bucks Part I - Paintball in the rain; and
• The Bucks Part II - The gambling.

Somewhere in there I'll get some sleep. Hopefully.

There are already some pretty good youtube vids up from Prodigy, but I'm going to see how the ones I took on my camera turned out before I put them up. Be prepared for me to gush a lot in the post about the Prodigy.

To close, here are two versions of one of my favourite tracks of all time, No Quarter, originally by the Zep and also covered by Tool (see below). This is the kind of track that makes me feel calmer and better about the world when things are getting too much.

First the original (albiet a live version):

Edit: Holy poop, I just watched that clip through - very weird. The album version, which I think is slightly better, is also on youtube, but I it just has the cover art. Moving pictures are more interesting...

Second the Tool version (with some strange video a random youtuber made for it):

Tool rock. If anyone can do a decent Zep cover, it's them.

Melbourne

Melbourne was, in a word, delirious. I'm going to have to think quite hard to distill it into a blog post, so I'm not going to bother with that right now (have other things to worry about, like interviewing for my own jearb!).

One thing the weekend did was to remind me how much I enjoy Gary Numan, even though I only really know like two of his songs. I was going to post up a whole bunch of youtube videos that I found entertaining, but unfortunately youtube's fancy new format is somehow incompatible with my work computer (I blame IE7) and the embed links take like 5 minutes to load.

Here's the only one I managed to get after a lot of pissing about.

In summary - Gary Numan and NIN both rock, new youtube and IE7 bad.

peas.