When breeding goes horribly wrong...

Beta Blastacular

So there's a multi-player beta (test) version of Halo 3 available on my Xbox 360 at the moment. Which basically means, an opportunity for me to fill the appetite of the geek inside, and try and beat up/shoot up players from around the world online. Well, around the world does tend to mean "American teenager", although someone today had a gamertag that included "South Melb", so he probably wasn't so far away.

Anyway, follow my online exploits (read: multiple instances of getting destroyed in a computer game) at...
My Halo 3 beta efforts

And speaking of gamertags, here's an email conversation about mine...

"Friend" (read: Target Practice): you sword factor dude?
Me: That's me...
TP: okay, I thought you used "hello kitty" as your tag?
Me: Nah, man, isn't that yours? Complete with pink armour?
TP: no hang on, that's right, you used to go as "pussy galore"
Me: Doesn't matter what my tag was, still didn't stop me from smacking you
over the head with my battle rifle.
TP: I think you mean 'hand bag'.
Me: Battle rifle, hand bag... you're just as dead either way.

EDIT: If you have no idea about all this silliness, watch this...

Monday Zero

I saw Nine Inch Nails last Monday night, at the Metro. I was pretty happy that the gig even happened... there were cancellations of some of the Sydney gigs, and Trent Reznor walked off stage at the first Melbourne show.

But, despite all that, the gig went ahead. And oh, what a gig it was. Probably the best NIN gig I've been to (I've seen them at Big Day Out and Rod Laver Arena)... the sound was fantastic, it was a smaller venue, dramatic smoke and lighting effects, the band played really well and Trent seemed to be re-invigorated, after what sounded like a bad few days. A real mix of a set list, from across pretty much every album and EP, from Pretty Hate Machine and Broken through to the new album, Year Zero. NIN even played Into the Void, Only and Dead Souls, which would have probably been three of the tracks I was really hoping for. And it was a solid, non-stop 100 minute set, with the only lull in the middle where one or two instrumental and slower tracks brought down the momentum of the rest of the set. But, hey, it was still an awesome show.

However, it took me so long to write up this mini-review because, quite frankly, if I hadn't waited a while, this would have just been an ugly rant and rave post. And I'm not going to waste my time doing that. Suffice to say, Melbourne crowds, just like Melbourne drivers and Melbourne pedestrians, are rapidly becoming some of the rudest, discourteous, impatient and arrogant people around anywhere. So... to the three people we counted all night who actually bothered to say "excuse me" as they pushed past/through us, thank you, you are in an every-shrinking minority. To everyone else who pushed/shoved/elbowed/shouldered/stumbled/staggered straight into us, go away now please.

(And no, this was not in the mosh pit, this was up the back, away from the jumping around... where the civilised folk should be).

Rock the blog

Birthday month

So, it's my 30th birthday later this month. I need to figure out exactly what I am going to do...

For the last few years, I've had a house (well, technically apartment) party. Those parties always seemed to live up to the expectations of the planning process (how did I comfortably manage 30 or 40 odd people each time, I didn't think I knew that many people?!) and everyone seemed to have a great time. Both parties also had memorable alcohol stories (the Brazilian crazy rum 2 years ago, and the Absolut Mandarin shots last year - strange for someone who doesn' tend to drink hard!). Unfortunately, the parties were a lot of effort (cleaning, catering, cleaning again) and I never managed to chat with everyone I really wanted to.

So this year, the house party is no more.

I am also influenced by the availability of friends... this apart, apart from the usual overseas correspondants, I'll have at least another 3 or 4 close friends either out of town, out of the state or out of the country. Thus, I think I'm leaning towards an entire birthday week of activities and socialising... a selfish but completely enjoyable way to go, and a good way to see friends in a more personable way, and have a proper talk. At the moment, my plan is looking like...

Monday - meditation and preparation
Tuesday - drinks with old work friends
Wednesday - dinner and trivia
Thursday - 'Pirates of the Caribbean'
Friday - secret dinner with J-star
Saturday day - pub lunch with cousins
Saturday night - cocktails
Sunday morning - breakfast and recovery
Sunday night - swanky family dinner

Any thoughts on other great birthday week ideas to fill in the empty time slots? EDIT: No more empty spaces...

New York, New York

As requested by my mum...

Gershwin Hotel

This was our room at the Gershwin...





...and this was the view from around the corner, looking up the street.




Washington Square Hotel

This was our room at Washington Square...



...and this was Washington Square park, next to the hotel.



Hope this helps!