The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person http://lucascosti.com/blog/ Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:04:49 +1000 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://lucascosti.com/blog/ http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=739 here and here.

A fair bit has happened since then, and it is quite positive news.

The immunosuppressive steroid drugs that I was put on to treat the colitis following my hospital admissions unexpectedly also had a marked effect on improving my liver function. This was quite unexpected, as PSC (the condition that they thought I had) does not respond to any type of drugs.

Unfortunately, long term use of this steroid is not an option for someone my age, but I have been put on another type of immunosuppressive drug normally reserved for leukemia patients.

So what the doctors think I have now is an even rarer condition than PSC, and has only been recently recognised in the past 10 years or so. They think I have autoimmune pancreatitis and associated IgG4 cholangitis. There's not much to read about online for the latter (which is what they think is affecting my liver), but the good news is that unlike PSC, it is responsive to drugs.

My recent blood tests have shown a great improvement in my liver function, even to the point where some of the indicators have dropped within the normal range. I'm also currently on a restrictive diet (which is not much fun at the moment) to eliminate any foods that might promote any even minor allergic/immune response.

All in all, things are starting to look brighter. Another MRI scan has shown a significant amount of bile filling up my gall-bladder, and now that my liver function is improving, the talk of transplant seems to have gone away for the time being.

I'm also starting to feel better, although I'm still very weak, I am getting some of my strength and energy back, and God-willing i should be able to go back to full-time work within the next few weeks. I'm still the lightest i've been since i finished high school: i'm about 13kg less man than I was at the start of the year. I'm having to constantly pull up my pants as they all now are very loose on me, but i'm not wanting to go out and buy new clothes just yet though.

Thanks everyone for all your continued thoughts and well-wishes, your thoughts and prayers are still very much appreciated.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=739#comments Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:02:03 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=738 I've seen two movies this week, and it's the first time we've gone out to the movies since the whole health-shenanigans went down.

On Wednesday night we saw a preview screening of Easy A. I didn't realise that it was really preview, in that they even had security and confiscated our mobile phones for the session so that no-one could record any of it (the movie isn't properly released for another three weeks).

The movie itself was really good. Although sometimes I feel like i'm getting a little old to watch high-school films, the good ones make it worth it (plus most of the time the actors portraying the high-schoolers are in their mid or late twenties anyway). The movie was very funny and witty, and dare i say it, even somewhat original.

The other movie we saw was Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. This was a really weird film, but 'weird' in a really good way.

From the awesome 8-bit Universal Studios opening right at the start of the movie, the comic-book/video-game theme of the movie was great (totally aimed at me demographic-wise!). I'm not that big of a fan of Michael Cera, but I guess he was ok in this role (but surely they could have cast someone better?). It's definitely worth watching as long as you don't have epilepsy.

Oh, and how many freaking Culkin's are there in acting?! I thought there was just Macaulay and the other younger one that was in Signs, but apparently there's another one in this movie too. The poor guys all look the same though; cute kids they were, but as adults... :S
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=738#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:39:21 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=737
For the first time since WWII, the election has failed to provide a clear winner in terms of a party or coalition controlling the majority of the seats in the House of Representatives. Both Labor and the Coalition have been sitting on seventy-something seats, both short of the 76 needed, with all the power now looking likely to be controlled by 3 or 4 independent MPs.

It sure is interesting political times at the moment, as no-one really knows which major party is going to form the minority government, or if this can or will be sustainable in the short, medium, or long term over the next 3 year term. Many are predicting another election in the near future to try and get a more conclusive outcome.

To me this result shows how much both major parties are alike these days. Both steering a course straight down the centre of politics with only slight leanings to either side. Rather than trying to win over people leaning a certain way, they instead attempt to not alienate the major minority hovering around the middle.

The problem is that over the long term, in my opinion this eventually pleases nobody and disgruntles most.

So now we wait to see where the suddenly-powerful independents will cast their lot (at least in the short term). If one positive thing we can draw out of this is that since nearly all of the independents come from regional areas, a decent broadband policy is one of their top priorities. Hopefully no matter which side will form the Government, both with have a decent NBN or NBN-like plan that we can all look forward to, including our regionally-based compatriots which have suffered more than most under the internet tyranny that is a privatised Telstra.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=737#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:26:50 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=736
It has also seen the geek vote made a whole lot easier. Whilst both major parties are really sickening me at the moment, the Coalition has done it more-so. Their plan to scrap the NBN rollout and rely on a mish-mash of outdated technologies to offer an alternative to the NBN is an absolute joke of a policy. Added to that they don't even see any sense in structurally separating Telstra, which is a monster that they created when they privatised it.

Why can people not see an massive problem in current state-of-affairs regarding Telstra and internet access? For example: in recently changing between two non-Telstra ISPs, I had to wait 2 weeks for a Telstra technician to do the physical swap at the exchange, but if I had been changing to Telstra it would have been done the next business day! What about all the poor people suck behind pair-gain or RIM-based connections that can't get decent and competitive internet in the first place?

Whilst a national fibre network is arguably not 100% 'needed' at the moment, in 5 or 10+ years it definitely will be. Ten years ago nobody had heard of Google, and there was no YouTube or Facebook. Imagine what the tweens of today are going to do with the internet in 10 years time! In 20 years the $43 billion investment to build the network will seem like a bargain for the type of rewards (let alone market openness and competition) that it will usher in.

I'm normally right-leaning in my political views, but I really can't support or endorse an alternative government with such a narrow view regarding such an important issue.

I'm very grateful that I live in Griffith which means my lower house vote won't really make much of a difference, otherwise I would have had a tough choice. For the Senate though, i'm increasingly leaning towards the Greens. Whilst I don't support all of their policies, most of them are common-sense standpoints (e.g. 'yes' on the NBN, 'no' on compulsory internet filtering). It's looking like the best result for most technological-minded people from this election will be a Labor Government with the Greens controlling the balance of power in the Senate.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=736#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:12:47 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=735 This might surprise some, but I never got into StarCraft when it was released almost 12 years ago. Back then I was a huge Total Annihilation (TA) fan, and shunned similar types of RTS games like StarCraft and Dark Reign. In my opinion TA was a much better product, and I still stand by that.

Fast forward almost 12 years and here we are. Three years ago TA's spiritual successor, Supreme Commander (SupCom) was a worthy heir to the TA legacy, but this year with Supreme Commander 2 it's RTS ideals were betrayed with the dumbing down of the sequel to try and push for a more 'mass' audience (btw which i think I can say now they've failed at, judging by the reviews and sales figures).

But even though i'm a big TA/SupCom fan, there was no denying that the biggest RTS release of this year, and possibly the biggest gaming release in general, was going to be that of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (SC2). Quite why it took them this long to develop a sequel to the hugely popular original game (especially in Korea) astounds me.

Anyway, i wasn't interested in at all getting SC2, but following the release with all the marketing and friends saying how awesome it was, i succumbed and bought it myself (i'm a sucker for geek-marketing and peer-pressure).

After playing it for the past few days, i've got to say that i'm very underwhelmed at the moment.

Visually i think the game is very ordinary (although the cinematics are spectacular). Gameplay-wise it's fairly average too: whilst Supreme Commander actually advanced RTS gameplay, SC2 sort of feels like the same type of RTS that I played 12 years ago, and maybe that's what they were going for. For me the gameplay mechanics just feels old and outdated.

There are some fairly annoying gameplay quirks too: i don't know how many times i've had an SCV (builder unit) build himself into a corner and not be able to get out without destroying the buildings I just ordered him to build. Very lame. Also, the unit path trajectories and movement AI all seem very 'dumb' after playing SupCom and the SupCom2 demo.

The story is probably the only thing the game has going for it, and although the scripting and voice-acting can get very cliché and camp, the plot is quite immersive. The whole 'on the ship' stuff between missions reminds me very much of my beloved Wing Commander series.

So whilst I can see why SC fans are wetting themselves over this game, for me as an RTS fan it's a very average game.

I do still want to eventually get SupCom2, and i've also totally missed CNC4 which i'll have to pick up eventually too.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=735#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 09:15:53 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=734 On Wednesday my ADSL transfer finally went through, and I am now connected to Internode as my ISP. It's been a long time coming, but i'm pretty happy that i'm finally on Internode now that they have a DSLAM in my exchange. It's probably the most geek-respected ISP in the country, and it means that I finally have unmetered access to Steam downloads, a good gaming network as well as a heap of other stuff.

I'm currently on the 'Easy Naked' plan, which means that i'm paying $60/month for 70GB of quota. This is significant because it's the first time in the history of me using the internet that i'm paying less dollars than the gigabytes i have quota for per month.

After a few years of value-stagnation, recently it seems that broadband value-for-money in this country is finally improving. Even Telstra themselves have just announced pretty dramatic improvements to their BigPond plans, which of course has once again undercut the wholesale rates they charge to other providers. It pretty much looks like a big customer grab before they (hopefully) lose all their power when (hopefully) the National Broadband Network (NBN) starts to really kick in. Expect them in court again with the ACCC really soon.

Now that the election has been called, the NBN is a pretty important issue for geeks like me. Whilst I really support the program, combining it with the other Labor policies like compulsory internet filtering and mandatory ISP monitoring is just ludicrous. Then again, scrapping it altogether is also ludicrous. So both major sides of politics have pretty much lost my support over this topic.

So come election day, probably for the first time i won't be voting for either major political party. I'm not sure who i'm going to vote for at the moment; luckily my vote won't really make a difference in the lower-house (KRudd's almost an almost guaranteed winner here), but my Senate vote is going to be an interesting decision.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=734#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:21:05 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=733 I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I got a new iPod recently. Since I bought my first, and previously only, iPod back in 2004 I turned off iPods mainly because of the iSheep mentality and the bloatware that is iTunes. However it does make me feel better that I didn't pay money for it: we got it from our credit card's rewards points program.

I got a blue 16GB Nano, and honestly it seems like a pretty good device even if it is somewhat overpriced. I am still using iTunes, but that's only because it is actually somewhat responsive now that I have a supercomputer with tonnes of processing power and memory. Every update still annoys the crap out of me though, I wish Quicktime would leave my file associations and browser settings alone and not freaking take control every update without ignoring my settings or giving me any option.

I also got a Griffin Navigate off eBay to have a decent wired remote, but strangely it seems to continuously drain the iPod's battery when both are turned off.

Yesterday I flew to Melbourne for the day for work to conduct training sessions for a few new people down there. Four hours of flying for five hours of work didn't seem worth it in hindsight, but I did get everything done that I wanted to. The flights were the most boring i've been on, as for both legs (Qantas there, Virgin back) the planes' were relatively old and had no visual entertainment systems. That really surprised and disappointed me, because when I flew around the offices earlier in the year I watched Foxtel (even a live Premier League game!) when flying down to Melbourne.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=733#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:27:13 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=732 I got up early this morning to watch the big game, the 2010 World Cup final between the Netherlands and Spain.

Overall Spain were deserved winners, the Dutch went out of character and tradition to apply niggly fouling tactics in an attempt to break up the Spanish play (van Bommel is a disgusting excuse for a player), so it is good to see those tactics not pay off.

The Dutch can't complain though, they did have their chances to score a goal or two earlier, and they were probably lucky to have everyone on the pitch for as long as they did. But for me, it was Fabregas that made the difference when he came on. Let's hope he wasn't happy on the bench and will think twice before wanting to move from Arsenal to Barcelona any time soon.

This is also the first time that i've successfully predicted both the finalists and the winner of the tournament beforehand (too bad i was too busy to blog it here before the tournament started!). Pity i'm not the gambling type, i would've made some money this time!

Speaking of predictions, one of the most memorable thing about this World Cup was the German match-predicting Octopus (pictured). He predicted all of Germany's matches results (including their semi-final loss to Spain), as well as the final matches' result. Amazing stuff, and the current Facebook status updates worshipping the psychic octopus overlord are quite amusing.

In other news, at the moment i'm trying to get my ADSL connection transferred over to Internode who now have a DSLAM at my exchange and are offering a quick ULL transfer from the Optus-based connection provided by my current ISP, Netspace.

It's not going smoothly, and I get the feeling i'm being a bit of a guinea-pig for this new transfer process. Telstra has rejected the order twice now, firstly because of a 'malformed request', and now because they couldn't recognise my address.

Hopefully it'll be sorted out soon, i'm really eager to get onto Internode for a variety of reasons.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=732#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:26:01 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=731 This past week I picked up Mario Galaxy 2. Unlike with the first game and to my great disappointment, there was no awesome pre-order deal anywhere to be seen, so i resorted to buying the 'Premiere' (i.e. normal)-edition game-guide myself.

Normally I don't buy game guides, but as with Zelda: Twilight Princess and the first Mario Galaxy, they were really quite useful for these type of games, not to mention enjoyable to utilise and follow along. Already i'm glad that I splashed the extra cash on it.

The game itself is amazing. And frustrating. And rewarding. And great.

So far i've planted about 15 hours of it, and I would estimate that i'm about two-thirds through it (although I am doing the full-thing and not the bare-minimum needed to progress).

It's easy to see why people are calling this game one of the finest platforming games ever made. The level design and enjoyability are off the scale. It's not perfect though, some of the flaws of the first game have carried across onto this one, especially the clunky 'swimming' controls and some occasional camera issues.

Overall though, it really is a fantastic game. I'm loving Yoshi, he's easily my most favourite character in the whole Mario 'universe'. The way he easily ingests most enemies and excretes them out instantly as a useful tool/item is most gratifying and disturbing at the same time.

The other most fantastic thing about both Mario Galaxy games are the soundtracks. Both games have a wonderfully marvellous orchestral score, I would actually pay money to download them if they were legally available as anything other than a bonus item available only to Japanese Club Nintendo members.

As an aside, the official Australian Club Nintendo is an absolute joke. I own a Wii, a DS-Lite, and much more than a few Nintendo-developed games, and I still don't have enough points for something as basic as the DS 'Game and Watch' Collection (mainly because they didn't actually start the club until well after the Wii was released :x).

Actually, while i'm ranting, Nintendo Australia in general are a joke. The fact that we had a release date for such a big game like Mario Galaxy 2 that was almost 6 weeks after the American one, but even more puzzling, 3 weeks after the European one is astounding. We're basically the same region as the Euro in terms of console games (i.e. games bought there will 100% work here), so the only reason I can think of for the delay here was them wanting to cash in on school holidays and toy sale season. Absolutely pathetic, and it's no wonder that many people had already imported this game three weeks ago.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=731#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:05:56 +1000 http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=730 After my previous entry, last Sunday week I was admitted to hospital again. This time it was a lot more painful, as the apparent cause of it was acute pancreatitis probably brought on by some of the medication i was taking for the colitis. Not a fun time, although I was given some morphine for the first time in my life. Funnily enough it didn't dull the pain much, but did allow me to sleep it off a bit.

I spent another four nights in the Mater Private and was discharged on Thursday. This stay was made a little easier by borrowing a wireless internet dongle from work to get online, and again the World Cup being on TV made the stay more bearable during the nights when I couldn't sleep well.

As this past Sunday came, I was a little nervous about something else happening to me that might see me make a hat-trick of Sunday hospital admissions, but thankfully that didn't turn out to be the case. I am actually feeling a lot better over the past few days, which to be honest feels quite weird after the past month or so that I have had.

Helping me getting back to some kind of normalcy has been gaming. Whilst I was in hospital Des bought me Transformers: War for Cybertron for the PS3, which also came with a free first-issue comic. It's a pretty impressive game, and great for old-school Transformers fans. The sound and concept design are fantastic. I can't say that i'm too interested in the multiplayer aspect of the game (since it is roughly a shooter on a console :S), but the single player campaign was really fun and enjoyable. If the comic series does pan out, i'll definitely be looking forward to getting it also.

Onto the World Cup: I didn't take as much pleasure this time seeing England crash out of the tournament, this time at the hands of Germany. It's appalling that in this modern world game, that a ball can cross the goal-line by a good couple of feet and none of the officials notice it. Luckily for them, with the way England were playing it probably wouldn't have made a difference in terms of the result, but surely people have to see the necessity for technology for ridiculously simple and important calls like that at highest levels of the game. Sadly I don't see it happening any time soon with idiots like Blatter and Platini in charge of the governing bodies.
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View the original blog post. You can view or add comments on this blog post at LucasCosti.com]]> http://lucascosti.com/blog/index.php?entryid=730#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:42:40 +1000