Television

I've spent the last few days trying to figure out why I feel so behind on uni work, when I'm working less than last semester. Then it hit me - apart from the fact I have mostly afternoon classes compared to morning, its because of the TV.

Back in 2005, while finishing year 12, my TV viewing was resticted to House, as, quite frankly, if I was only going to allow myself a few hours a week, it was the only show worth watching. Compare it to my TV viewing now....

Mondays: Top Gear on SBS (which has just finished, only to be replaced by something which is short term, and then I bet Mythbusters will be back), a random episode of Spicks and Specks on ABC2, ER on Channel 9 (which was starting to jump the shark in 2005, but Channel 9 rushed it back last year as John Stamos was so popular in the US and I agree that it is improving again) and Enough Rope with Andrew Denton on the ABC (which I've decided I'm probably just going to record people who look interesting - I recorded one two weeks ago and still haven't watched it, but Shane Jacobsen of Kenny fame was on this week, so I've recorded it).

Tuesdays: Nothing, luckily.

Wednesdays: The TV stations have finally cottoned on that this is the night of the week people are most likely to be at home watching. We have Thank God You're Here and House, courtesy Channel 10, Spicks and Specks and Chaser courtesy Channel 2 and I just saw an ad for RPA on Channel 9. We now have to pull out the VCR again, as we can't record two shows at once like I hoped with the PVR, only watch one and record one. Channel 7 has also started showing some good movies, but as I don't like movies with ads anyway, it well and truly doesn't get watched.

Thursdays: Tends to be used for watching the shows recorded on Wednesdays.

Fridays: I work most Fridays, so they involve coming home, watching the footy for a few mins then going to bed.

Saturdays: Actually there's nothing on Saturdays really at the moment - RocKwiz on SBS when it's on, if I really need a study break there's The Sideshow or Parkinson on Channel 2, and I actually watched an episode of The Dame Edna Treatment on 9 the other day, rather scary to tell you the truth. Hang on, how could I forget? Before the Game on channel 10 - I'm not a footy fan, but this is produced by Roving Enterprises, and is really clever and funny, and just makes football almost enjoyable.

Sundays: These are disturbed by Millenion meetings every three weeks, but Kath and Kim is back! Yay! Only seen half of the first episode - should watch it over breakfast tomorrow. And of course Rove on 10 is always good.

Well there you go, I don't know why I've written a whole post about this when I could have been reading Deathly Hallows - I'm up to chapter 34, a chapter number I shall never forget... Anyway, there's my viewing habits, which looking back could be considered a little odd for someone my age, but then I've always been odd that way :P

Every Car You Chase

A couple of weeks ago on the radio, they played this awesome mash-up of 'Chasing Cars' (by Snow Patrol) and 'Every Breath You Take' (by The Police). The DJ said at the time to go do a Google search for it, and I only remembered yesterday, and I managed it to find the DJ's website - www.partyben.com. There looks like there's some other really good stuff on there, but I haven't had a chance to look. Apparently its now on the standard playlist at the Austereo network stations, but I've only heard it once. I'm wondering where it fits in with piracy and all that as well, seeing that I downloaded it from the DJ's website, but he didn't pay for it....Oh well.

Hello from Virgin Broadband!

Well, we've had it for nearly a week now, and after a few hiccups, seems to be working rather nicely. We couldn't get a 3G signal originally, but after some playing around on Sunday (which I missed, but was then shown some funny photos of Dad outside our barn, with modem, my notebook and an old corded Telstra phone) we now have the modem sitting outside the study door, on a garbage bin, and a much improved speed (not as good as the barn roof apparently, but still an improvement on dialup :P ).

I took a few minutes out from uni work today to upload some photos from the city last Tuesday and the 'Deathly Hallows' weekend. You can see them at my Flickr page.

While we were in the city we went to Skydeck 88 at the Eureka Tower. The view was pretty awesome, and while I didn't personally go out on to 'The Edge', we did go on the open-air balcony next to it, which was incredibly windy and incredibly cold and felt like I was at the snow, but was so much fun, possibly more fun than the Edge, which costs an extra $8(!).

We also went to see 'Order of the Phoenix' in IMAX. The 3D was cool, but not as amazing as I expected. While there were bits that looked truly fantastic (such as the Thestrals, and the fact it felt like you were on set watching them film the scenes), there were times the effect didn't really work, and as the film was obviously shot for standard film with the 3D as a kind of after-thought, the running scenes that were shot hand-held (and looked great non-3D) were just too blurry and weird looking. Not to mentioned the 20 mins was the real maximum time you could watch - the strain on your eyes is just to great.

And so I really should return to my accounting homework - this standard cost and budgeting stuff that I'm doing at the moment just confirms my thoughts that I want to be a financial acccountant, and not a management accountant. The annoying thing is that doing the work for this subject is cutting into time I'd prefer to spend on subjects such as HCI, which is much more interesting. That's uni, I guess. Even more scary is the thought that it's already week 5 - and it sure doesn't feel like I've been there for five weeks.