Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Installfest doco update

Well, I was going to post some shots from the Installfest doco I've just completed  - everything except the CGI that is- but unfortunately they appear to have gone walkabout.  It seems in my tiredness I inadvertently saved them to the wrong location.  Either that or the Blue Men haven't put them back yet.  Hopefully tomorrow.

Update

Actually, I did find a few of them. I've had to reduce the quality considerably.


More tomorrow

This means waaah!

Bush admits war on terror can't be won. Nuff said.

Monday, August 30, 2004

Being Conventional

Despite having a name that resembles the noise I make when I get out of bed, the PCEC, or as us locals call it The Convention Centre, is not too shabby.  It's none too grande either because it has taken me nearly three days to write about it.  Maybe it was the shock of meeting Mahesh there that has caused the delay =).

We went last Friday and the place was packed.  In the main foyer they had empty showbags that could be purchased through a donation to the Flying Doctor.  After dutifully helping to save a few regional lives we, bag in hand, headed to the far end and worked our way back through the exhibits.  Was there ever a lot of them - and we quickly worked out that the showbags were designed to carry all the goodies you bought from the exhibits.  Apart from the free pack from the workers compensation stall ours remained empty.

As for stand-out exhibits the only ones that stick in my mind are the RAC exhibit, because they were giving away 5 VMoto scooters - unfortunately it seems we failed to win one, and the Screenwest exhibit, because it was so mindnumbingly insipid.  It was camped amongst all the other arts and culture exhibits, but whereas the others had real people to talk to, the Screenwest one only had a widescreen tv running the sort of arthouse films that SBS reject.  Bloody pathetic.  We have great film-makers making great films.  At least Screenwest could have had the decency of supporting them, but alas they didn't.

Overall, I like the place, but as I looked around the various halls, ballrooms and boardrooms I kept having the one image in my mind. Thousands of screaming Sci-Fi geeks at a Worldcon. Now that is a scary thought indeed, because the place would be perfect.

Flicktease!

Flicktease! Flicktease! Flicktease! Flicktease! Flicktease! Flicktease!

No, this isn't part of my porn ad experiment, but a big thank you.  I just won the 30th Anniversary edition of Blazing Saddles. It is one of my favourite films simply because it is so mind-numbingly fun and fourth wall.  Flicktease were running one of their many comps and unusually I entered.  More unusually I won. So, to all the gang at Flicktease, thank you very much.

Sunday, August 29, 2004

Which of the Greek Gods are you?

Another stupid but fun quiz (yes, I find they're addictive =):


Those of you who have read Stephenson's Cryptonomicon will know that being identified with Athena (or Minerva as the Romans knew her) is a very good thing for a hacker =).

Adding Cents

I've accepted Google's kind invite and subscribed to their Ad Sense program. You can see the results at the top of the page. Or you should be able to.  Ad Sense works by supplying ads that are relevant to the web page the ad is on.  All fine and dandy but sometimes their bots can't find a relevant ad and the spot remains blank.

Apparently the Google bots regularly scan the pages (they do this anyway if you're in the Google search engine) and using some extremely complicated and heavily patented algorithm determine what your page is about.  The they provide a relevant ad (or six) based upon that determination.  As I type this I have four ads: Changi Hotel Singapore, Cheap textbooks, DVDSoon.com and Mavin Auctions.  Reloading gives me the same four ads.

Now I can work out where the Changi Hotel ad has come from - the recent article on What Happens If You Stay In Singapore. And I expect the DVD site is because we discuss movies here - us being film-makers and all.  The other two must come from a general grab bag.

This leaves me to wonder just how much I can manipulate the ads this page generates.  For instance, could I ad the words: porn, sex, orgy to random posts and receive ads from Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler or some of the harder core merchants involved in the sex industry?  It could be fun to find out =).

Saturday, August 28, 2004

And the winner is...

We've just returned from the CTV Perth Annual General Meeting and I'm happy to say that one of our good friends, who was also cinematographer and editor for The Escape, won a seat on the board of CTV.  I'm of course talking about Stephen Ray, who earlier this year won a WASA for his documentary Battle of the Bands.  Congrats, Steve.

Friday, August 27, 2004

Wacky Ads

My friend has sent me another of these wacky ads and I thought I would share:


Disturbing

I saw this sign on a badge pinned to a backpack today.

The backpack was being carried by a SE Asian girl.  My guess is she was either Indonesian or Malaysian.

Now, if you ignore the historical significance of the symbol - ignore all the millions that were killed by the morons that wore that symbol - then I have to say it is a pretty hoopy design.  The eagle is a symbol of power and even the swastika (correct name is in fact fylfot) is an ancient representation of the sun - conceived long before the nazis usurped it for their own nefarious deed.  All very powerful and I can see why a tiny asian chick would feel drawn to that.  if you ignore the history.  But you can't.  And any little asian chick would be out of her mind to wander around with that thing displayed openly.  But I saw one today.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

What ship are you?

This was fun, so I thought I would share. Take the test. See if you compare to the ultimate in naval fighting craft: me =).

motext
Iowa class.

Battleship Quiz
brought to you by Quizilla

Soylent Green

This was sent to me by a friend. I think I'll be avoiding BK/HJs from now on.


QOTD

A good friend will come and bail you out of gaol...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Boy...that was fun!

The Audition Update

Well, we finally shot The Audition on Sunday and I have to say that not only does it look a treat it was heaps of fun to shoot.  Trying not to laugh for twenty minutes is bloody hard.  Particularly when you can't even smile just in case it distracts the actors.  My tongue is raw from all the times where I had to bite it to stop from laughing.  A couple of grins did manage to escape but I managed to hide them behind my hand.  Mostly.

Thanks to Kingsley Judd, who we worked with on The Escape; Valerie Dragojevic, who we worked with on Frisky; Farren Wood & Stephanie Wilson; Robbie Vecchio; and Mahesh Jadunundun, our composer for Frisky and star of The Call.

We should have some pics available here soon.

Friday, August 20, 2004

Give Di a click

Because of the IOC's stupid hyperlinking procedures I've decided to post a link to one of the Aussie athletes that I've chosen at random. She's a defender for the Matildas.  I urge others to do the same. Link to one of the athletes and post it on your web site. Consider it an act of civil disobedience against elitist corporate wankery.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

World Premiere

It seems our film The Escape had its World Premiere at the Mandurah Short Film Festival on August 7th, 2004. Yes, we've only just found out. Today we received our complimentary ticket to attend the festival - albeit a couple of weeks late. Ah, well.

Friday, August 13, 2004

What Happens If You Stay In Singapore

This was sent to me by my in-laws (who as you might have guessed are Singaporean):

1. You've lost your sense of irony, sarcasm and cynicism.

2. You think there's nothing wrong with putting chilli sauce on everything you eat.

3. You wait for instructions from people in authority before doing anything.

4. You join queues without knowing or caring what the queue is for.

5. You can type an SMS on your phone as quickly as you would if you had a regular keyboard.

6. Your idea of a good night out consists of having dinner at a hawker centre, drinking beer, and then going to another hawker centre and eating again.

7. You've lost your ability to criticize people in higher positions than you, even if they're wrong.

8. You would buy a $20 product you don't need if it's on sale for $10 just to save the money.

9. You forget to say the last consonant in words like "faCT", "aTE", etc.

10. Every task you take on and every group you form is incomplete without a mission statement and a cheesy slogan.

11. "Crossing the country" means taking the MRT to the end of the line.

12. You don't just know what "kiasu" means, you have become it! ["kiasu" means "afraid to lose out"]

13. You echo the advice to take risk; yet you are too "kiasi" to do it! ["kiasi" means "afraid to die"]

14. You would cross the entire country all day to find the places that make the perfect fried noodles, roti prata, ice kacang or chilli crab. And none of these places would be close to each other.

15. You have a high tolerance for nagging.

16. You know most or all of these acronyms and they make sense to you:

NUS;NTU; ERP; SDU; PAP; MRT; LKY; GST; PRC; TIBS; SBS; SMS; JB; JBJ; AMK;AYE;PIE; ECP; BKE; ISD; ISA; SIA, 5C's; NSTB; PWD; HDB; SGH; NUH; CPF; SGX;MAS; CHIJMES; SPG; CWO...

17. You think that $100,000 is a reasonable price for a Toyota Corolla and $1,000,000 is a bloody cheap for a bungalow, BUT $5 for a plate of fried noodles is a barbarous outrage.

18. You believe that not being able to get decent roti prata outside Singapore is enough to keep the best and the brightest people from leaving.

19. You see nothing wrong with forming committees of select elite people to deliberate and study ways to stimulate creativity and spontaneity.

20. You justify every argument with the phrase "in order for us to be competitive in the 21st century".

21. You continue to encourage your overworked and shorthanded staff to look forward to better work distribution in a steady state in staffing that never comes.

22. You see nothing unusual about Trade Unions spending more time owning and operating supermarkets, drugstores, amusement parks, nightclubs, and financial services outlets rather than planning for its members who are laid off or fighting against their being laid off.

23. You think everything should be "topped up".

24. You wear winter clothes indoors and summer clothes outdoors.

25. You're not confused by a street naming system that locates streets like Clementi Road, Clementi Street, Clementi Crescent, Clementi Lane, Clementi Drive, Clementi Way, and Clementi Avenues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and all within walking distance of each other.

26. You get irritated if you don't see a sign telling you how long your wait is going to be for a bus, a train, or the expressway to take you where you want to go.

27. You believe shopping, shopping and shopping is the best hobby you can ever have.

28. When you cross the border into Malaysia, you automatically and deeply fear for your life and your wallet. Especially your wallet!!

29. You don't have a problem with four different direct payment systems spread out over seven different cards in your wallet.

30. You forgot what chewing gum tastes like.

31. You say "handphone", not "mobile", and you think there's no such thing as a handphone that's too thin.

32. You have discussion and long sessions amongst your friends and fellow citizens on the important issues concerning your livelihood and welfare but dare not say anything to the proper authorities.

33. You believe you're the first to implement anything which you haven't heard of before and you are the best in anything just because you're better than Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia.

34. You think you almost have it all in life when you own a car, a condo & a few credit cards.

35. You laugh at people being so Singaporean and then quickly hang the national flag in August before National Day because you do not want to be seen as being disloyal.

36. Eating nasi lemak, mee pok ta, mee soup, carrot cake or fishball soup for breakfast is regular. Opps, you don't understand regular! You only know what is 'normal'.

Majullah Singapura! You are indeed a Singaporean!


Thursday, August 12, 2004

Animal House

Not long ago ToxicPurity and I used to wander down to the Perth Zoo every few months. It is just up the road from where we live after all. I used to take my camera and I probably have the world's best supply of Otter photos.  At least the ones at the zoo.

It has been fifteen months or so since we were last there.  We've been busy and not much changes at the zoo.  Or at least there haven't been many changes since we've been visiting regularly - say the last ten years. So we didn't think we were missing much.  How wrong can you be?

Now I'm not talking about the exhibits because frankly when TP and I visited today we didn't get that far.  We were stopped dead by the entry prices. 

Back fifteen months or so it cost about ten dollars for an adult.  I think it was six dollars concession.  Well today it costs $16 for an adult and $13 for concession. Talk about rip-off.  Sure it's only half the price of Adventure World, but at least there all the rides are free once you're through the gate. And sure it's only the cost of a first run movie these days but at least the movie is new.  As I said before, the zoo has changed little over the last ten years.  So why the sudden increase in prices?  The simple answer is because they can.  Tourists won't think twice about paying those prices - heck in comparion it's cheap.  But for those of us that are regular visitors it's a serious kick in the teeth.  I guess we'll just have to restrict our visits to every decade or so - maybe then we'll see some change between visits.

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Terrorists in our midst

Can anyone tell me why the Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM) hasn't been outlawed under the anti-terrorism legislation?  Surely these guys' sole purpose is to spread terror.  They must qualify.  So why haven't all their possessions been confiscated and the members all locked up?  If someone even a bit foreign-looking so much as thinks about visiting a terrorist country these days they're on ASIO's watch-list.  So why haven't the ANM morons been woken up at 3am to be led away in handcuffs?  It couldn't be because they're white supremacists, and therefore just a few louts mucking around, could it?  I hope not.

QOTD

I try to leave out the parts that people skip.

--Elmore Leonard

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Gotta story?

I have to say that the most interesting thing I've seen on the Daily Star is the broad banner at the top of the page requesting stories. Now anyone can be a pommy tabloid journalist.  All you have to do is email them some goss.  How about we get a story going about ToxicPurity.  Think of all the free publicity we could generate.

Monday, August 02, 2004

Movie Review: Harry Potter 3

ToxicPurity and I recently saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I am a big fan of the first two films, despite hating the books, and I had high-hopes for the latest release.  Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed.

While Harry Potter 3 has all the eye candy of the first two flicks - in fact it has more - it is let down in the plot department.  Major plot threads are unresolved and important questions remain unanswered.  The biggest problem is the amount of time the plot takes to resolve.  As with the first two films, the third one takes place over the school year.  Except it just doesn't feel like a year - despite the obvious seasonal changes that occur.  It feels like a week.  To make matters worse the pacing is slow as well.  There are seemingly endless scenes of the three protagonists attending one wizardly class after another.  These scenes, while character building, don't work in such a thinly conceived plot.

On the upside the characters are fun and there are elements that are entertaining but for me this is easily the weakest of the three films.

Rating: 6 out of 10 dementors

More Frisky Music

Mahesh has finished his first draft of The Frisky Soundtrack and it sounds absolutely great.  We should be able to release the film within the next couple of weeks.