Channel Ten once again broadcast a delayed Grand Prix yesterday (this time being the Monaco GP) and to make matters worse that smarmy English twat won it, but at least the race was thoroughly enjoyable and Webber managed to sneak in at 4th.

Although I still haven’t had the luxury of being able to watch the race and get live timings on el computer at the same time, as promised by Ten HD, I found myself a comfy beanbag and settled infront of the TV at about 10:30 last night for what I expected to be twenty minutes of monotonous street racing before an embarrassingly simple crash by the incredibly ill-fated Mark Webber, followed by my own retirement – to bed – at maybe quarter past 11, half an hour into the race.

It was not to be though – the race, especially the first half, was one of the most entertaining Grand Prix I’ve had the pleasure of watching. Kovalainen started in the pits after failing to start his engine; Button smashed up his nose cone by ramming into the backside of Heidfeld’s BMW two laps in; Rosberg and Glock had a brief rendezvous which resulted in more broken nosecones on lap four; Massa retardedly missed a corner and ended up halfway down a cobbled laneway; Hamilton touched the wall after aquaplaning in the wet and punctured a tire (which actually was a blessing in disguise – he got to refuel and retyre at a perfect time for intermediates); Coulthard and Bourdais had a delightful smash that resulted in lots of carbon fibre on the track and the safety car being deployed for a couple of laps; Heidfeld drove over the front end of Alonso’s car at the hairpin during a particularly tasty bit of racing; Raikkonen raced an entire lap with his front wings hanging like pendulums from the nose cone; Piquet completely obliterated his ride in a single car smashup towards the end of the race which resulted in another 5 or so laps under safety car conditions; and, finally, Raikkonen lost control of his car four laps from the finish in position 5, smashing into the back of Adrian Sutil who was racing the race of his life, resulting in the tragic retirement of the Force India car but not Raikkonen’s Ferrari. That said, that last smashup led to Webber, who had raced a very, very good race with the exception of his timing for putting dry tyres on, coming 4th instead of 6th. Still, it would have been nice to see Sutil take some points – I suppose it was conceivable that he may have ever podiumed.

Anyway I’ve always liked the Monaco GP – racing through the city is damn fun and the Ferrari’s typically stink because their straight line speed is meaningless on the windy track, but this will go down as one of my favourites.

It’s just a pity about that Hamilton…

Pete

Fucksticks.

That’s the last time I stay up until almost 8am just to watch a soccer game. Especially considering I’m quite sick with a cold right now, and don’t really like soccer anyway. Stupid, bloody Man U – haven’t you won enough this year?

I’m going to bed. Grumpy.

Pete

Alice Springs, Northern Territory

A car driver in Australia has been fined for strapping down his beer rather than his young child. Police said they were “shocked and appalled” when they pulled over the car south of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory. They said the 30-can pack of beer was strapped down between two adults in the back, with the five-year-old child unrestrained on the floor. The driver was handed a fine of A$750 (US$709; £362). The fine was for failing to ensure a child was wearing a seatbelt as well as driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle. The car was pulled over on the Ross Highway last Friday.

Constable Wayne Burnett said: “I haven’t ever seen something like this before. “This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child… The child was sitting in the lump in the centre, unrestrained.” When Constable Burnett handed over the fine he said the driver “just looked at me blankly. He didn’t get it,” Constable Burnett said.
“I asked him about the fact the child was unrestrained and the beer was, and he said he didn’t know anything about it.” Superintendent Sean Parnell of Alice Springs police said the incident was a “timely reminder” to ensure “all passengers are secured”.

Thanks to the BBC World News.

Stunning. At least he has his priorities straight.

Pete

Although I own neither a PS3 or a 360, and as such have no way to physically play the game, I have to admit I was a little excited last week as GTA IV was released to much fanfare. I reckon my excitement was justified – not only am I just a bit of a nerd, but I own the PC version of the last installment – GTA San Andreas – and whiled away many an hour gleefully wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting citizens of that particular game, and then there are of course some of my earliest memories of network gaming – stuck in year 8 Japanese class playing the original GTA with four or five other bored and laptop wielding classmates.

I have to admit to also feeling a little surprised on top of feeling excited. Surprised firstly at the level of hype surrounding this latest release – the media coverage that the game has received has been the largest I have ever seen. TV and radio ads, internet banners on hundreds of big sites, billboards, poster boards, instore banners the list goes on. Secondly, I am surprised at the bloody reviews the game is receiving: Gamespot awarded the first 10/10 for 7 years, as did countless other magazines and websites (metacritic is reporting 99% based on over 50 reviews). I have never, ever seen ANYTHING, let alone a video game receive such universal acclaim.

And then finally to wrap up a trifecta of emotions I’ve felt angry at the release. Not really angry at the delaying of the PC version (because firstly I can’t afford the game right now and secondly my PC wouldn’t be able to run it) but at the government of Australia, and more importantly the Office for Film and Literature Classification. Australians, ONCE AGAIN have received a censored version of the game. Why? Because the OFLC has been dragging its heels for years now regarding the introduction of an R18 classification for games, despite Australia being the only developed country in the world without such a classification, even with the proliferation of video games over the last twenty years, and statistics showing that the average gamer in Australia is aged 28 and as such is both able and interested in playing games with adult themes.

I read a bloody good open letter to the South Australian attorney-general, who has voiced his opposition to changes to the status quo. Good points abound, and it’s well worth a read.

Unfortunately video games are still thought of as childish by society despite mounting evidence to the contrary. As such legislation on the issue is likely to take a back seat to the more ‘pressing’ issues of society, and I wonder what sort of wait we’ll have to endure before any real change comes into being. It does appear currently that consumers want change, while legislators see violent video games as an easy scapegoat and the public is somewhere in the middle. Its my view that the greater public needs to be won over first, and then with the backing of the broader population, the adult gamer can finally be recognised by the OFLC.

Pete

Before I get started, I have to admit that the Carlton footy club is having a good year so far – at least in comparison to the last five or so seasons, as well as in regards to the financial state and player pickups during the off season (Judd, anyone?).

Last night marked only the second match all season (granted we’re only 7 matches in) that I didn’t actually attend (in my defence it was in Perth), but it gave me a good opportunity to watch the match on TV and see the boy’s playing style from a different angle. Unfortunately I was out, so had to make do with the first half at Jake’s house while a party was raging in the same room, and then the final 15 minutes at the Queensbury pub while waiting for a tram. Alright, I may have engineered it so I’d just miss a tram, giving me no option but to go to the pub, but oh well.

Anyway it was, as most of our matches have been this year, a bit of a scrap. The first quarter was good, the second was bloody impressive (8.3 kicked to the Eagles’ 0.6) but the third quarter was woeful and we were lucky to regain some composure in the last quarter to take the match by an acceptable margin of 37 points. Our less than spectacular failings in the second half did get me thinking however, and this morning my suspicions were confirmed when I found the stats page on the AFL website, showing Carlton have indeed been terrible at sewing matches up. Of the 7 matches we’ve played this year, we’ve won 5 first quarters, 4 second quarters, 3 third quarters and only one final quarter – last night. The simple fact that we couldn’t finish against last year’s wooden spooners Richmond in round 1 is worrying enough, and we could quite easily have lost to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago if it weren’t for Melbourne’s own inability to finish games, but when you take into account that we have not yet played three of the top four (two of which are lossless), the shine from winning three of our last four matches kind of loses its gleam.

I suppose I should be focusing on the positives – its irrefutable that we are on the improve, and to win last night without Fevola kicking any goals in the second half was something of a positive. I just hope we can start to address our 3rd and 4th quarter fadeaways before we get really stung.

Pete