I had a busy Australia Day weekend.

I spent a good deal of it rescuing Princess Leia from the Death Star. Fighting off the hordes of storm troopers sent to attack the rebel base on Hoth. Rescuing Princess Leia from Jabba’s sand barge. Flying X-Wing’s and destroying AT-ST walkers. Defending EH while he destroyed the AT-AT Walkers, and hanging out with the Emperor in the Mos Eisley cantina.

In between all these things, I exercised my right arm playing tennis and bowling (and being soundly beaten) on a Nintendo Wii, Watched the Emperor play Super Mario Galaxy in an alarmingly good manner. Looked up the biggest of everything on the internet via the Boba-book. Watched a good part of Star Wars The Clone Wars on a Zen Player with one of a pair of Apple ear-buds in my ear, decoding the “Yodish” to be compatible to seven year old ears. (I had to remove my helmet for that)

Also thrown in mix were viewings of insects incased in carbonite, a game of 3D snakes and ladders, a bit of tickling, some photography, introduction to Bunya nuts, heat and humidity and generally lots of fun.

How did I manage to do all these things?

Well... I AM Bobafett, and my accomplice was the Emperor (lightning bolts and all).


So. What did you get up to?

Today marks the 25th Birthday of the Apple Mac, or as it was known back then, the Macintosh.

I remember playing a game called Artillery on an Apple Macintosh IIe back in primary school. Those were the days. Incidentally, there was a similar game that came shipped with MS Basic on MSDOS 5 called Gorillas.

The Mac has come a long way. Take a look at the Apple web site to see what the Mac has morphed into, along with all the other gadgets that have come along since.

Thanks to Paul for bringing this to my attention.

Tags: apple, mac

First appearing on the album The Soul Cages comes Why should I cry for you?

I don’t mind Sting. I have a couple of his albums and this song is on the compilation Best Of called Fields of Gold.

I’ve even included the lyric below so you can sing along in the privacy of your own home. You can thank me later!



"Why Should I Cry For You"

Under the dog star sail
Over the reefs of moonshine
Under the skies of fall
North, north west, the Stones of Faroe

Under the Arctic fire
Over the seas of silence
Hauling on frozen ropes
For all my days remaining
But would north be true?

All colours bleed to red
Asleep on the ocean's bed
Drifting on empty seas
For all my days remaining

But would north be true?
Why should I?
Why should I cry for you?
Dark angels follow me
Over a godless sea
Mountains of endless falling,
For all my days remaining,

What would be true?

Sometimes I see your face,
The stars seem to lose their place
Why must I think of you?
Why must I?
Why should I?
Why should I cry for you?
Why would you want me to?
And what would it mean to say,
That, "I loved you in my fashion"?

What would be true?
Why should I?
Why should I cry for you?

Tags: sting

Worth Reading: Yes.

Summary: Just After Sunset is the latest collection of short stories from Stephen King. He mentions in the introduction that short-story writing is an art in itself which he thought he may have lost the touch for.
He hasn’t.

This is a mixed bag of 13 short stories. There is one, possibly two, that I thought could have been dropped but generally they are well written.

“The cat from hell” is classic Stephen King

“Willa” is not classic Stephen King and is a really nice tale because of it.

That last comment doesn’t read quite right. I’m a SK fan and have come to know his writing style rather well. “Willa” doesn’t conform to his classic writing style that I’ve come to know but it still a great tale, well told.

What I don’t really like (I don’t hate it) is the section where he talks about his reasons/situation for writing the story. But, he wrote it so I’ll read it.

Tags: stephen king

As a professional working in the IT industry (I’ll assume you’re a professional) how do you respond to the question (from the person who still has no real comprehension of what computers are and do) “So... what do you do?”...

I get this quite a lot, and more often than not it’s from those people who grew up without them and never had to use them (lucky really).

I used to respond as best I could with what I thought would be understood, but this was usually met with, glazed eyes, more questions or silence.

So how do you respond?

a) mumble something incoherently and quickly change the subject

b) embark upon a TLA tirade that leaves your inquisitor stunned to silence

c) deny everything, lying through your teeth

d) ask for personal details in a menacing voice, writing it down before continuing

e) other

What better way to start my 2009 blogging with a wine review (of sorts).

I bought this Koonunga Hill 2003 vintage back in 2004 for around $15. It’s been sitting in my cellar (OK, it’s a dark corner of the room) since then. I’ve tried a few Koonunga’s (2003, 2004, 2006) and I think this one is the better of them. Koonunga Hill is designed for immediate enjoyment but I can’t help thinking that leaving this one sit for a few years has made it all the more nicer, I now wish I’d bought a few more at the time.

This wine is a very dark garnet red with smokey oak and liquorice aromas. It is medium-bodied with rhubarb and savoury flavours, and has a soft full-mouth finish that is well balanced.

Koonunga Hill will go well with red gamey meat.

Tags: wines