Word has it that soccer is an 8:15pm game tonight, and that we’re short. Ash’s keen, and Blacky and I will almost certainly be there, but Dan and Rob are OS, Tim can’t make it, and Campbell can’t play anymore. Leyton’s still injured I think. Ben usually doesn’t play when Dan doesn’t. Woo is at grandpa’s. Our straw reaching is getting desperate - not a good way to start the year, but if the other team only shows 3, we’re in with a chance.

I’m so close to finishing my book. Work is going well … I’m animating with much more class than before. I’m using little tricks that had been planted in the back of my mind and have grown up by themselves. I’m looking forward to kicking some ass with these presentations.

THE BIG QUESTION though, is how the 24-crew are situated for a Friday night screening of the next three episodes? Get back to me ASAP people.

John and Dan are coming over for Sopranos at my place on Saturday evening, so that’ll be good. I’ve got a bunch of stuff in my apartment that John has lent me at some stage or another, and it’s sat in a corner unused since I got it. I am determined to remedy this and make sure that on Saturday, he gets his stuff back. That’s the kind of guy I am.

Hooray for Wednesday! I’ve been busy busy busy this week … the two main tasks I’m working on are new demonstration videos for ZENith (our baby :wink:) and beta tester documents for the new version. Crazy timeline, but I’ve been able to book the “talent” for the readthrough, all I need now is a script … Leisa Barry-Smith is once again doing the voice, for those that know her, and she has a new baby in tow.

I dropped in on the family home yesterday, where Bryce and Woo are batching. Woo got an earing … :gay: I didn’t stay too long, because they had friends coming over, and once I’d given Chaz and Simba the chicken wings I’d bought them, they’d vanished amongst a flurry of excitement.

Had lunch with Rob Wilson yesterday, which was nice. He’s still on holidays though, lucky bastard. I feel like I need a holiday already.

Hello all. I had a great weekend, thanks for asking. Friday night, as you know was the big poker tournament I’d been angling for … was good fun. I was first out but got into a position where I simply HAD to make a move. Stavros was second out, his elaborate bluffs not fooling anyone. Glenn followed, having lost his confidence badly, and then it was the most boring head to head battle ever between Blacky and Leyton. Seriously, these guys just folded, as quick as you like. Eventually Blacky won, and we ate icecream.

Saturday day I came to work and took care of some little nagging things. Saturday evening, John had invited me to finally do Sopranos. We made a thai beef salad, which was great. Joined by his GF Tina and flatmate Dan. Good night.

Sunday I watched the cricket all day. It was great … I read my book in the ad breaks, and lazily turned my eyes at the screen during each delivery.

It’s been a while since I wrote anything about the impending arrival of our baby - mostly cause nothing has really happened. But that’s certainly no excuse to not write, so here goes….

OK, so it’s not so much a countdown as a waiting game. Lara’s been having occassional contractions on and off for about the last week, and they started ramping up on Sunday - going pretty much all day, but all at least 15 minutes apart. So, we think we’re getting really close, as in the next day or so, but you can never really tell.

For me, this means I go to work as normal, but make sure I have my mobile with me at all times in case I have to rush home and take Lara to the hospital. For Lara, it’s a matter of putting up with carrying the baby around and dealing with the contractions for an indefinite amount of time - from what I can gather, the ‘we have no way of knowing when this will be over’ part is the worst. or at least the most frustrating.

Stay tuned….

Who doesn’t love Fridays? There’s that extra spring in your step on Friday morning, knowing that there’s not long to go before you’re free as a bird to fritter your weekend as you see fit.

Had an interesting day yesterday … it was 31 degrees (C) here yesterday with the aircon going full tilt. Moorooka had a power outage (I imagine it was because everyone was using their airconditioners full tilt like we were) and we were sent home - it was too hot to work even with aircon, so when the power gave out, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

So I headed on out to Stafford and finished Matthew Reilly’s book, Scarecrow. Matthew Reilly, an Australian author, has quite a style about him where he’s quite content to make the story as unbelievable as possible if it means he can cram more action into the book. It read fast, and was good fun, but towards the end, I’m like “c’mon already, kill the bad guy …”. Also, there were some major plot points that if you hadn’t read Ice Station and Area7 beforehand, you would just shake your head in disbelief. Scarecrow knows the President? Yep, should’ve read Area7. One character, Mother, has a titanium leg because something ate it in Ice Station. If you hadn’t read Ice Station, and therefore didn’t know this, you’d be thoroughly confused when a shark crunches her leg, but it’s alright because her leg is titanium. Oh, I didn’t mention that earlier? Oh, sorry about that. :rolleyes:

So I’ve started on a new book (so it’s lucky that TV’s crap at the moment, and it’s too hot to use a computer) … Peter Moore’s travel diary: The Wrong Way Home in which he travels from London back to Sydney without stepping foot on an aeroplane. It’s fantastic. So far, he’s up to Albania, after going through Croatia, Bosnia and so on while war wages around him. I hope it stays as interesting as it is right now.

Poker tonight, and my first night “home” for some time. Also, Saturday is Sopranos with John. I think I’ll get him to come to my place - I’ve got aircon.

Whew. I just finished a 20-page testing document for our beta testers for our new version. The worrying thing is that it tests … 14 features, barely a drop in the ocean. I’ve got some big documents ahead of me in the next weeks.

So I’m very excited by the new toy I installed on the Blog last night … some readers may be familiar with the email notifications they get when I update. Previously, this was something I just had to grin and bear, but now it’s all automatic. And it doesn’t matter which author. So, those who want to read’s Snod’s incohrent ramblings, or Glenn’s snappy banter, or Leyton’s infrequent mega-linkings, now get to do it from email. You might hate it, but at least it says who the author is in the subject of the email, so you can make a rule or whatever, if you want.

What else? Hasn’t it been hot?

BTW, QANTAS sucks. Brisbane - LAX is now 70,000 points each for an Upgrade, up from 40,000 last year. 175%? Surely that’s not justified.

Ok, the new toy officially kicks ass. Thanks for you patience.

BTW, the new poker buyin will be $10, it’s easier to round.

I’ve got a cool new toy on the blog which I’m testing out with this post. Sorry for any inconvenience, but I’m suffering in the heat to try and make the blog better!

So I’ve seriously got poker on the brain right now … so far, Bek and Brett are out but the rest of the people who said they were in are in fact “in”. Me, Glenn, Blacky, Stavros and Leyton. I’m also going to invite Tim Robinson if I can catch him on MSN later.

Wednesday, huh? TV has been absolute crap lately, so I’m getting plenty of reading time in, continuing the tradition of my holidays. I’ve become a little addicted to Seven’s Hot Property though … every night there are three “stories” that they flick back and forth between. I like the story of the Irish dude and his wife who are making a house the size of a shopping mall, and I like the story of the old people making a house out of a shed, which are both serials, but the other “filler” story sucks balls. Last night it was the NSW auctioneer’s championships … please. :ugh: The night before? Some crap about a house selling for more than a million dollars. I mean … big deal … it’s an expensive part of Melbourne. That stupid auction would’ve only been interesting if it went for less than a million - that’s something I would’ve liked to watch.

Had lunch with Leyton yesterday where we did the usual … watched a bit of tv while eating (Judge Judy, natch) and then went back to work. I had to leave work early yesterday though so I didn’t get to stay all afternoon Yeah, you can tell that I’m all cut up about it.

The commute from Stafford to Moorooka sucks a bit … the dogs genuinely seem to appreciate it though. I was pleasantly surprised, nay amazed to see that Bryce and/or Callun had actually cleaned up whatever it was in the fridge that made the whole house stink. Out of character, but appreciated.

And the fact that there was leftover Foo from Sunday night still in the fridge almost floored me. I’m a lucky fellow, that’s for sure. The dogs ate chicken - the meal that can be prepared by going to the shops and buying some.

Briefly visited my real home after work yesterday, much to Blacky’s amazement. He was delighted to see the hard-drive to my PC back, and has since surfed the web with vigour, no doubt.

Got this email yesterday:
I have tried to contact you via phone with no luck so i will send through this email with the hopes you receive it. We at [my ISP] have
recently received an email from [a big movie studio] in regards to the movie [a movie] which you downloaded through the program [p2p sharing software]. [Big movie studio] have requested that you remove this file from your computer as well as requesting that you refrain from downloading and sharing any further [big movie studio] material.

If you could remove the movie so we may clear this mess up it would be
appreciated.

Of course, I never downloaded the file at all and someone was obviously spoofing my IP address, but it’s still pretty amazing that [big movie studio] bothered, isn’t it?