Saturday, February 14, 2009

Hooray For Second Hand.

On Friday I did a friend of mine a big favor by buying some stuff he needed to get rid of due to moving into a new house. What I got was an absolute bargain and I can't really believe Chapper (the friend) let me fleece him so badly on such awesome stuff. So here is a little test for all you people out there who are awesome enough to read my blog :)

Can you spot the differences in these 2 photos?





Pretty sweet huh? So yeah, I bought Chappers old home theater amp and speakers for a price that would make most people question Chappers sanity or at the very least make the same people wonder exactly how many hours a day Chapper spends in the vicinity of the backs of trucks. The system as a whole is quite amazing and the sound quality is just brilliant. Chapper and I played both the Terminator 2 (DTS) and Lord of the Rings (DTS-EX) DVD's on it to test it out and it was..well...It was exactly like a movie cinema in fact.

The A/V Receiver amp is an Onkyo and is a few years old now so not "current" technology but it still pumps out the sound and can make the windows rattle.



The speakers are absolutely brilliant too and I really can't believe I got them so damn cheap either. Wharfedale Diamond 8 speakers and subwoofer. There's 2 big floor standing front speakers, a big front center, 2 rear bookshelf speakers and a HUGE floor subwoofer.



Consequently I now have a "spare" mini home theater system (DVD player/Amp, 5 speakers and subwoofer) which is superfluous to requirements...if anyone want's it, give me a yell.

It was also Valentines day today throughout the world. Not that you'd have noticed here in Michael town. I spent the day doing housework, spraying weeds (which somehow grew back through where I nuked them last time?? Round-Up, Shmound-Up!!), hanging washing out and contemplating mowing the lawn...that's right...contemplating..I didn't actually get to that...simply because it looks so awful and weed infested..plus I have to somehow get the pride of lions, 3 rhinoceroses and wilder beasts off it before I can mow it. Maybe it'll get lucky tomorrow. Tomorrow I shall get up and go for a bike jaunt I reckon before MORE domestic duties will fill my day again. Grocery shopping and vacuuming and THEN washing the floors!! Hopefully I will be able to contain myself while having all that awesome fun :(

I need another holiday already.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

MY FACE!!! My beautiful FACE!!!


Tonight I had basketball again and we returned to our winning ways :) The team as a whole were fantastic and awesome and brilliant (I was actually all three...again). We were so good that the other team got a bit pissed off and forgot that Basketball is a non-contact sport. At one point I got the ball and turned to shoot and....

BAM!!

..one of the other teams players full-on pounded me in the face. I threw the ball away and put my hand up to my eye because he had really got me good. I pulled my hand down to do that "Check for blood ..." thing that you instinctively do...AND THERE WAS BLOOD!!! The guy had opened up a gash just under my eye and up across the bridge of my nose.

I had to go off the court for some stupid reason...blood rule or something. Here's a photo of me and my injury.



Anyway, the moral of the story is WE F@&KING WON !!!! Suck on that other team!!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Everythings burning.

What an interesting time in Victoria. The hottest daytime temperature ever recorded in a capital city (47.6ºC on saturday) coupled with the most intense and destructive fires ever seen in the history of Australia. Every TV Channel and Every Radio station is pretty much constantly bombarding the airwaves with news on this horrible event. So far 173 people are confirmed dead and they are expecting to find well over 200 bodies in total once they get back into the worst affected areas. I know it sounds horrible when I say this, but I am getting a bit sick of hearing about this on TV. Before you jump down my throat let me qualify that statement. The news and current affairs coverage here in Melbourne is just so contrived and forced that you wish they'd just shut up. The worst offenders are Sevens "Sunrise" who are set up in the CFA "Staging Area" in Whittlesea VIC and constantly cross back and forward to each of their presenters who profess they are "Shocked" and "Distraught" and feeling for the victims. Whenever they can they drop in that they are working with "Pastors and Priests to help the distressed survivors". BAH, I can't really get across in words how much I want to punch them in the face. It is so obvious that they are there for ratings and their contrived compassion and "support" is offensive.

I've helped out as best I could from metro Melbourne though, I've donated money and blood and really hope that the rest of Australia gets behind the charity drives and donate to the red cross (www.redcross.org.au) so that the money goes straight to the people who need it most. The destruction is almost biblical...whole towns destroyed, whole families killed or even worse partially killed, ashen black landscapes that wouldn't be out of place in a nuclear explosion ground zero site. Do all you can these people have lost everything except hope and we can all give them that.

Last week was quite eventful for me, I had an interview for a job back in Adelaide on Tuesday that was quite long and went fairly well. Now I have a nerve wracking 2 week wait to find out the result and i'm finding it hard to stay calm and not get too excited. The job would be very interesting and diverse and would solve so many personal problems that I have at the moment.

On Wednesday my basketball teams impressive 4 wins in a row streak came to an end with an embarrassing defeat. It was really frustrating because we didn't play bad at all. In fact we played very well it's just that we missed VERY easy shots (well, the other guys did...I didn't :P) and our opposition were just the luckiest lucksters in luck town. Our defense was so good they couldn't get near the basket to get 2 points so they just continually lobbed in 3 pointers and kept getting them IN!!!!

It's also 2 weeks (and a bit) until my Birthday and I am going back to Adelaide because it falls on a weekend this year again. I've organised a night out in a pretty nice pub and am going to see all my favorite friends and family over the weekend. It's going to be fantastic....but like always .. short. Hopefully it will be the last time I have to "plan" to visit Adelaide fr this year :)

Fingers crossed. :)

Monday, February 02, 2009

Mould 'n' Mud? Really?

Went for a quick ride on Sunday because it wasn't too hot in the morning and I felt like a real sloth after doing nothing on Saturday except watch TV...and wait...and watch TV...and wait. This was due to some guy saying he was going to come and repair some of my infamous "Mould Room". Needless to say, after arranging to come at 10am on Saturday morning...he didn't. He didn't come at 11am either. Or 12 or 1 or 2 or 3!! At 3:30pm he called me to say he was in Bendigo?? He said he'd be here in about 3 hrs...he wasn't. At 5:30pm he called again to say his truck had over heated and he'd not be coming at all now until Monday.....GRAND!

So he arrived today and carefully cut up the carpet in the mold room...not all the carpet mind you...he cut up just the bits that had mold on them and said "The carpet insurance only covers what is damaged..you'll get new carpet where I've cut...but it may not be "exactly the same carpet.". I asked him if he was sure? and if he was serious? Because look at this:




Can you imagine that with a completely different carpet in the bit were now there is wood?? MADNESS. I've often said that "Insurance is for idiots!!" because ...honestly...who would agree to coverage (hehe get it? I'm so witty) that said "we replace only whats destroyed with 'maybe' the same carpet"??? I'm glad it's not my house :)

Anyway, I digress, So while out riding on the dusty trail (as Melbourne had just had 3 days in a row over 40ºC...and YES, I know Adelaide had more, Adelaide always wins over Melbourne..it's a given.. so shush.) I came across something that I thought was initially a mirage...I mean it had to be... There was no way a huge puddle of water and mud would be out in plain sight on the trail with such harsh weather recently? Would there??

Wrong.

I went screaming through a huge muddy quagmire and got completely covered in mud and water..AWESOME :)

Check out this bike, admittedly the mud had dried when I got home, but does that look like it's been across a swamp or what? :)


Filthy


oooOOoOo Mud Spray!!


White Wall Tyres Are So Retro :)

Tomorrow also sees me standing at a very important crossroad of life. So much that I have wanted to change in my life is going to be a possibility should tomorrow go well. It's making me a bit panicky because I'm very nervous about the whole thing. If all goes to plan I will have some very good reasons to be happy. I can't really go into it on here as there are people who need not know about it. Yet. The select chosen few know what's going on and I trust they can keep it to themselves for a bit longer.

See you on the other side :)