Marc's Journal

Hi, my name's Marc and it's been...

... four days since my last blog. I guess I'm conscious of not turning my blog into a "today I woke up, showered, and sat around, played with my dog, read a bit, went to sleep" kind of blog. I want it to be something that's going to be at last half interesting for those of you I've forced to subscribe! *laugh*

Yes, don't think you're the only one :P

What's new? Well, we had a long weekend here in Australia. ANZAC day I think, and shoot me now if I got it wrong 'cos that would be very unpatriotic of me. Not that I really think we should be celebrating death and war and destruction. Heros? They shot people. I think the heros are the people who don't fight. If only we could get *everyone* onboard for that one. Not going to happen, still, I can dream.. hehe

Hrm.. I detect I've been a little influenced by the last book I read. Well, it's a trilogy, but conveniently packaged up into one volume. K-PAX. You might have seen the movie, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. Great stuff. The "omnibus" comes with prot's report on Earth, too. Which is lovely and damning, but he certainly raises some good points.

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28 Days Later

I saw this (on DVD) last night at a friend's place. I saw it in the hire place, thought it had potential, so we picked it up.

Well, it had potential, but it didn't deliver.

Premise: A guy wakes up in London from a coma, only to discover that London has been evacuated, and there are some crazies running around with a virus called Rage. He meets some uninfected people and together they travel north to seek out help, and a cure.

The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, who wrote The Beach (now a film), and directed by the director of Trainspotting and Shallow Grave.

I think, if this movie ever was a book, it should have stayed a book. Readers are much more forgiving than movie go-ers. The movie was FULL OF HOLES!!! The biggest one to me was that these crazies are running around infected with this virus that fills them with rage, and makes them attack the lead character and chase after the other people he meets, but why on earth aren't they attacking each other? They're all psycho, yet they can tell the difference between infected and uninfected?

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Oh, that reminds me...

I remember getting this in an email and being most amused:

Laura Schlessinger is a US radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstances. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a US resident:

Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him or her that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to follow them.

a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

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Well, if you can do it in the bible...

It seems a couple in Germany are being investigated by the police for offering to sell their daughter on eBay.

Why should they get into trouble? Why, Exodus 21:7 quite clearly states:

"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do."

*grin*

Missed appointment, new contract, new job!

Well, I was supposed to have a meeting with one of the heads of departments at UniSA yesterday, but it didn't eventuate. She was probably too busy. She is the head of department, afterall. At least I think she is. I had emailed her to ask about the possibility of doing external subjects at UniSA whilst I was doing the double degree of International Studies/Media Studies at Adelaide Uni. She replied back saying she was writing UniSA's curriculum of that double degree at that particular point, and it was best that I came saw her. I was thinking she was going to try to convince me to come study there, rather than Adelaide Uni. Adelaide is closer, like about 10 minutes walk, and UniSA is like a bus away. But still, the reason I wanted to do subjects there still exists; they have practical courses in film/television, whereas Adelaide only has theory, it's practicals are in radio and multimedia. Zzzzzzzzz.

So yeah, I guess she was busy. I'll keep you updated when I do eventually get to speak to her. She's seems prettty interesting, she has a doctorate, and she's pretty interested in youth and media. She's currently researching a book on Madonna. How cool is that.. :) So yeah, I'm looking forward to meeting her.. :)

New contract? Yeah - the booking system we've had the proposal in for *ages* has finally come through. Looks good - initially providing a booking system to 3 in a franchise, up to a possible 13 at a later date. Pretty big stuff. The actual system should be fairly simple, but overall it's going to be a big learning experience.

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Great use of technology...

See, now this is cool. The Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen is a theme park, and they've installed Bluetooth devices all over the place. You can hire an arm-tag for your child (or dog or husband), and if you lose them, you SMS the tag's id to a particular number, and it will reply with the location of the last device they walked past.

Someone's thinking! This is a great use of technology - people need to look at the way we use existing traditional technlogy and use it to improve our way of life, not just how we do business. Bluetooth is a traditonal technology, just with big improvements. It's still networking - but now we're finding better smarter ways to use the technology.

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Parties, interviews and karting

What's been happening? A few things, I guess. My Squeezebox is still going fabulous. I attended an 18th birthday part y on Saturday night for Vanessa, one of the girls in 42nd Street. The theme was "come as your favourite musicals character, or else". Well, I ummed and arrred for ages about this one. I mean, how many male musical characters don't simply wear a suit? Or casual clothes? What male character has a distinctive look?

Franknfurter, that's who.

Pics to come :p

Was a good party. Have discovered that high heels make your calves look very sexy. Even if they hurt like hell. Almost broke my ankle trying them on in the sex shop where I bought them. Didn't fancy my chances of hiring size 12 high heels.. *laugh* Oh well, guess I'll flog them off to the next tall drag queen I see :)

I certainly got a lot of attention at the party. For those of you who don't know me, I'm 6'3". I'm not sure how big the heels were, I'd say about 5 inch? Bloody big. People didn't recognise me because of the extra height. Or the outfit, or the makeup. I have this to say though, *thank god* I didn't recognise myself after putting on the makeup and wig.

I met Vanessa's best friend Annie at her place (she lives next door) to prepare.. Annie went to the party as Colombia (also from Rocky Horror) so it was a good match. She helped me with the makeup and the styling. I think we did pretty well.. *laugh* My first time in drag.. Lets also say it's the last! *grin*

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You! Yes you! Do you love your MP3?

*swoon*

Ok, confessions of a gadget-queen. I love my gadgets. I got my latest gadget today. This exceeds any gadget you could possibly imagine having. Well, as long as you love your mp3. And you're sick of them playing off your computer and ignoring the lovely stereo you might have in your lounge. And if you are, then THIS IS FOR YOU! Trust me. It's a Squeezebox, by Slim Devices. I got the wireless version, but it also does ethernet. It basically plays the mp3s from my LAN, straight to my stereo. Well, in my case, straight to my Creative Extigy and my 6.1 speakers. With a very sexy interface, and *amazingly* easy to use remote control. Gives you the quickest access to your music collection.

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Enrolment!

Well, as much as this post will leave me exposed to ridicule from my best friend (more about that later), I'm pleased to announce that today I enrolled in a subject at uni. Just one. And non-award, too, which means it's not part of a bachelor degree. Well, it *can* be part of a bachelor degree, it's just that this year, when I do it, it won't be. What's the subject? "Image, Text and Representation". It's a media studies subject, on advertising, media, etc. Should be interesting.

Why am I doing it? To test the water of university, I guess. To exercise my brain. For fun. To say I'm a uni student. I dunno, all sorts of reasons, but it's still very exciting.

I'm going to wait and see what other time I can put aside, and possibly enrol in a couple of other subjects in Semester 2 also, being the generic "Media Studies", and "Introduction to Comparative Politics".

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I think I'd better...

Isn't it amazing how music can express things so clearly?

Here, let this page express something I'm feeling.