I have a couple of things to complain about. I gave blood today – which is usually a reasonably pleasant (no, I’m not a masochist) experience, but holy crap it hurt like hell today. Firstly the guy couldn’t find a vein and was searching (in vain, bahahah) for an awfully long time before giving up and stabbing me carelessly in the arm. Then, after I had given my 470mL of the red stuff, the bastard yanked out the needle as carelessly as he had placed it, bruising half the inside of my arm! Bloody Italian blood bank nurse….. grr.

Oh and while I’m complaining about stuff what the hell is up with google? Yes, I may been quite chuffed to have seen an Australia day google imagey thing during Australia day celebrations, but since then the corporation has gone too far. An international water day image? An international womens day image? Who cares about water or women? However this new one of theirs really takes the cake – a specially designed image to celebrate Vincent Van Gogh’s 152nd birthday.

He wasn’t anything special: just a crazy old man who loped off one of his own ears, and on top of that wasn’t even very good at painting – just look at his work! Hmm maybe I should throw some oil paints onto a canvas and then go nuts. It would leave me with a better chance of becoming famous than by doing anything else!

Pete

I was basically a buzz of excitement as I got off the train at Spencer Street yesterday afternoon. I hadn’t attended a footy match for about 18 months, and quite honestly feared that my love for the game may be somewhat watered down by the 9 months of Rugby fanatacism experienced in South Africa. Thankfully, I can quite confidently report that I’m still an avid footy fan – and that was abundantly clear from the honking at the end of the national anthem all the way through to the heartbreak of the final siren, and the realisation that my football drought had been ended by a twenty point loss. Fucking roos.

So, onto my realisations from the match:

• When properly manned, Fevola and Whitnall are useless, and with Walker injured early in the match, our forward line was rendered useless. The missed opportunities in the second half were painful.
• With Thornton out and Livingston injured in the 2^nd quarter, our back line was pathetically equipped to contain a magnificent Rocca.

Basically, we’re far too inexperienced and shallow as far as player skill is concerned. However, there were some good points to come out of the loss:

• Eddie Betts for this year’s rising star. He was fantastic as a showman and showed promise in the last quarter. Great pre-season draft pick.
• Kouta had a great game! I reckon he should have been BOG (if he wasn’t anyway) with 32 touches and a goal. Prendergast was also pretty bloody good – holding up an otherwise crudtacular midfield.

I don’t suppose we should have really expected too much more than we got. As Pagan said in the post match press conference, inexperience shows in inconsistency. I just hope we play better on Friday against the Bombers.

Pete

I know what you’re thinking – and that is what a sexy bitch that guy in the photo is. Well, either that or the fact that the mophead needs a fucking haircut, but I’ll take the former. Thankyou, thankyou. Anyway I must run, The dome awaits with the first premiership season match in Melbourne…..

Telstra Dome, 2:15pm, – Kangaroos Vs Carlton

Carn the blues!

Pete

Huzzah for holidays! A week off uni, only 4 weeks into the semester! There is a downside though – a 12 week chunk of learning when we get back, all the way to exams.

Anyway Happy Easter everyone, and for those more inclined to Judaism, have an awesome Purim. Those little Hamentaschen biscuits are the best things in the world!

Pete

Well, it appears that like most things in this place, radio.blog was rather short lived – lasting a whole 27 hours. HOWEVER, as sad as that sounds, it is not at all bad news. As you will have no doubt realised, there is a replacement, and it looks cooler, works better and smells less like Becky (for those uninitiated, read ‘like Becky’ as ‘really friggin bad’). Hopefully music will become a full-time part of the dialagranny.com funness, and there is no reason to believe it won’t as long as legal threats, or threats of any kind for that matter stay at relatively low levels.

Anyway enjoy the current… 19 tracks that are up. I’ll probablly lower the number of tracks available and change them occasionally, if I can be bothered.

Pete

Well, I can’t say it’s anywhere near as well integrated as Brooke’s super cool music player, but at least you can now treat (or assault, depending on your taste in music) your ears when you visit dialagranny.com. If you cast your eyes to your right, you will be able to make out a new, rather out-of-place looking scripty thing called radio.blog. Click on a song title, and ‘voila’, you should hear music! I apologise for the Harper track – it seems to be in chipmunk mode and I can’t fix it, although it is kinda funny running at double speed.

Anyway enjoy for now, maybe I’ll get a script that looks nicer or works better, maybe I’ll update and put new songs in there, and maybe I’ll get sued for copyright infringement, even though you can’t actually download the files. Oh well, let’s just see.

Pete

In an almost exact emulation of a similar excursion to hear Nick Cave a year and a half ago, I went out last night with Marni, Sam and a few of Marni’s friends to the Jack Johnson concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Well technically, just like with Nick Cave, we didn’t actually pay for tickets thanks to the massive loophole of the music bowl being an outdoors venue. Instead of forking out for extravagantly priced tickets, we peered over the fence and picnicked on carrots and celery (gourmet, huh?) in the domain gardens, while still enjoying the concert, thanks to the wonders of sound diffraction. I felt really smug actually – we got just as good a view and sound as the people that were sitting just the other side of the fence, but they paid $70 for the priviledge! PLUS, we got to laugh at hapless fools being thrown out by security!

Being a cheapskate is fun.

Pete

I hate colds – they are possibly the shittiest sicknesses to get. Now you may argue that AIDS or malignant growths in the testicular region would be somewhat worse than the common cold, but you’d be wrong. Deathly wrong. Colds are persistent, sometimes sticking with you for weeks and weeks at a time, as well as hitting you EACH AND EVERY BLOODY YEAR! The magnitude of symptoms are not quite bad enough to warrant time off work or time in bed, yet are enough to make you feel even shittier trudging through the daily tedium of work or study. Sleeping becomes a big pain in the arse (or throat really), and when you are awake it’s no better either. Finally and most importantly, having a cold is shit simply because it just is.

I think I might dedicate my life to ridding the world of the common cold. That would certainly be a noble (perhaps slightly futile) cause.

Pete

Well… this is a milestone that, thanks to a swanky new look wordpress, I haven’t missed! 600 posts (although the url says 629, it is actually post number 600)…. that’s really quite impressive – although it did take me almost 3 years. That said, given my recent updateyness, it should have taken a lot longer. Anyway time to kick back, blow out the staggering amount of candles, and eat some cake. That’s if my lungs don’t collapse.

(Yes I know it’s only 100 candles – you wouldn’t beable to see anything BUT candles if I put the full number on. Plus my fingers hurt already from click-dragging that hundred around. Take what your given and be thankful!)

Pete

Oh and I do realise I’ve only posted three (four including this one) times during the last two weeks. I am sorry, and I promise to be less slack in the future – it’s just when one is preoccupied with study, one finds it difficult to find anything outside of said study to actually do, or talk about. Also, one generally starts to sound somewhat like a twat. One is also sorry about that and promises it’s only temporary.

One.