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I've been hinting in my recent facebook/Twitter updates that I was having trouble resisting buying computer parts. As it usually goes with me and this sort of thing, my resistance is typically very weak.

It's been almost three years since I put together my current desktop computer (named 'Trogdor'), and i was always planning on doing another build around my birthday this year. Considering the schedule i've got coming up with work around that time, my rationality for being a few weeks early satisfied me enough ;).

So over the past week I have assembled the parts and built a … Read more →

My week off was full of lazy awesomeness. I can proudly state that I truly took this week off from reality and the rest of the world.

For the most, i spent it playing games that i've been wanting to play through again for ages. These included both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games and Bioshock.

I said back in November when MW2 came out that I wanted to play through both games back-to-back to get a more objective opinion of MW2, and now after having done that, it reinforces my original opinion. MW2 is noticeably poorer in storyline … Read more →

I've had my current laptop (named 'Phantom') since February 2004. That makes it almost 6 years old, and since i got it it's been a wonderful servant over the years. It's a HP nx7010 business-line laptop, and basically the only thing i've done to it over the years is upgrade the memory.

Although the laptop is still mostly functional, i've been thinking it's about time to let it go. It doesn't have a DVD burner (it only has a DVD combo drive) and only has 'b' wireless networking. In the past 12 months the optical drive has stopped working altogether, … Read more →

Welcome to the New Year everyone! New Year's for us was pretty interesting, we all went and had dinner at Amici's in Southbank before staying there to watch the fireworks.

It's the first time that I've actually been in Southbank itself to watch the fireworks. It was pretty good being so up close and personal, although the hyped 'laser' show was a little bit of a let-down.

Afterwards it turned out that my stomach didn't like the Amici's pizza I had for dinner: it was a Margarita pizza, but it was laden with oregano, and when I say laden, i … Read more →

For me, 2009 went way too quick. Overall, it was also a largely disappointing year on many fronts. Some things that contributed to this I can and have gone into on this blog, others I couldn't and hadn't.

Anywho, here's the highlights of the year in blog entries:

January

- Half a Decade of Blogging & Rethinking the Whole Thing: 5 year birthday of this blog, and comment stats.
- DRM Walls Crumbling Down & Sickness: I think this will be a significant event in digital content distribution as history goes on.

February

- Crap Week: A … Read more →

Yesterday we went and saw Sherlock Holmes at the movies (i thought it was good, but not great), and it's reminded me to to this now-traditional annual entry. Here's my wrap of the games and movies I experienced this year.

Movies

Best Movie: Watchmen

This selection might surprise some (it surprises me!), but for me Watchmen stood out as the best movie of the year. Maybe it was how unexpectedly good i found it, but just the story, setting, music, filmography, and epicness made Watchmen the single movie that stands out most in my memory this year. Easily my choice … Read more →

It was a pretty standard Christmas this year, except for a few things. The Christmas service that we attended was held on Christmas Eve and fully in English, which was a welcome change. The sermon was interesting and somewhat entertaining: Fr. D used Avatar analogies in comparing Jesus to Sam Worthington's avatar in the movie: being both fully human and fully Na'vi (Jesus being both fully God and fully human).

We did the usual rounds of four different relatives' stops throughout the day itself, which was made slightly easier by not having to fit in Church in the morning.

I … Read more →

Today I went and saw Avatar in 3D.

The movie was really good: very spectacular and great visuals. The plot was a little cliché at times (there's nothing really original about the themes, plot, or ending at all), but not so much that it annoyed me. I do reckon it could have been done about 20 minutes shorter though.

To be honest, I didn't really notice the difference that the waz-bang stereoscopic camera production was supposed to provide, but maybe that was the effect that was intended: it's supposed to look more natural.

Big credit must go to Weta Digital … Read more →

When I'm a bit hypocritical I have no problem disclosing the fact. Despite me putting down in writing on this blog of vowing not to get Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (i won't provide the links to the specific entries ;)), I recently did end up buying the game, and on the Playstation no-less.

Back when it was released, i didn't have a PS3, and now that they have released the Ultimate Sith Edition of the game on the PC, i was considering buying it on that. However considering the reviews of the terrible port that was done for it … Read more →

Ok people, you know that i'm a fierce proponent of finally introducing an R18+ rating classification for video games in this country.

Well other than writing to various attorneys-general and MPs about this issue, the time has come for people on-mass to voice their opinion!

Today the federal Attorney-General's office has finally released a public discussion paper on the issue and opened it up for public consultation. They have provided a consultation submittal template for people to fill in and send back to them before February 28 to gauge public opinion on this.

Now is our chance guys. A … Read more →