We're now well into December, and thus also Summer. It's probably been the most mild start (temperature-wise) to the season that I can remember; i think they said on the news the other day that it was the first time in over ten years that Brisbane went through the whole of Spring without ever hitting 30 degrees, and that even Hobart of-all-places managed to get higher sometime throughout the season. Here's hoping for a cool summer :D.

As tradition goes we put up the Christmas tree on the 1st of the month. I think this might be the last Christmas … Read more →

I got a new phone, yay. Here's the history: As a mostly Google-centred user, the advent of Google's mobile operating system over the past 12 months or so had seen me getting increasingly interested in getting a smart-phone. I'm not at all interested in iPhones, nor Nokia's own unimpressive attempts at touch-screen smart-phones. However the average size of Android-based phones having big-ish iPhone-sized touch-screens have also not interested me at all.

Ever since having a Nokia 8310 back in 2002/3 I have been spoilt by small-size phones that easily and comfortably fit in a pocket. All of my phones since … Read more →

After the first property settlement over five years ago (boy does time fly!), this past week the contract on the house we agreed to purchase finally settled.

So now we've officially kicked off our transition from unit living to house living. It's going to be a complicated transition (which will probably involve another 12 months and two actual 'moves'), but it sure means some exiting times for us over the next year!

I've also just gotten a new phone, and like the all the last ones i'm going to use it for a bit before making an entry about it … Read more →

I had high hopes for the recently released Medal of Honor reboot. After the disaster that was Medal of Honor: Airborne a few years ago (see my opinions of that here and here), the stuff put out from EA on the reboot for the MoH franchise looked really promising.

I bit the bullet and imported the new Medal of Honor from the excellently-priced ozgameshop.com (thank you strong AUD!), and i've got to say that I was really disappointed by this game.

The single player was so very short (i don't think i even topped 5 hours finishing it), and … Read more →

It's been a tough few weeks for me, lately i've been feeling decidedly garbage. Without going too much into it, it seems my liver is playing up again. There's investigations to be had, but in the meantime prayers would be appreciated.

Me not feeling well has interrupted the start of gaming season. Although i've bought and imported it, i haven't yet touched Medal of Honor yet. I have managed to play through Sonic 4: Ep 1 though; It's a decent game, although it can get very frustrating. I'm hating the special-stages , i've only managed to get 2 of the … Read more →

So we've now entered that magical time of the year I have term 'Gaming Season'. This is the time usually between October and February where most of the video-game publishers release their big titles of the year hoping to cash in on the pre and post Christmas spending.

Last year was a relatively dry one, with only a few decent titles out during the usual period. This year is looking more promising, and even better, a few of the big title's have been delayed to early next year, which means that the goodness is spread out a bit over time.… Read more →

Things were going along nicely in the digital FTA TV world. TV Networks had HD broadcasts, they had started pushing extra content on a separate SD channel. Things were great.

Then they had the idea: wait a minute, we're simulcasting our normal channel in HD, when we could be using it for other stuff! Not entirely a bad idea.

The ABC scrapped it's HD ABC1 channel for a HD 24-hour news channel. Hmmm, now I can't watch Dr Who and Foreign Correspondent in high definition. That sucks, but it's not a disaster, a 24-hour FTA news channel isn't all that … Read more →

In my continuing journey back to some kind of good normalcy, in addition to the gaming I am now regularly partaking in, i've also played and watched football over the past few weeks.

I hadn't played a game of indoor since the final loss in March (the team disbanded after that game), but a few weeks ago and last weekend I filled in for another team.

It was really great being able to play again, i've really missed it. It was kind of weird because of how long it had been, but also because i'm so much different physically now … Read more →

I thought i'd post an update for everyone who is interested on the current status of my health condition. A little background for those who are unaware can be found 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 … Read more →

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 … Read more →