i checked the x-box live site to see if there was any progress on the fixing of my 360. lo and behold, the update says that “ Your console has been repaired or replaced. We are shipping it back to you.” i’ve never heard of a 360 working after being ’serviced’. i’ll freely admit i am skeptical and not very confident. i’ll just have to wait and see when (or if) it arrives.
i’ve been doing some informal research regarding my own film reviews and where they are in google searches. most movie reviews done in the last six months or so: the wrestler, underworld: rise of the lycans, watchmen, x-men origins: wolverine and star trek; are nowhere to be seen in the ‘[insert movie name] movie review’ results. not even after 25 or 30 pages.
however, if you do the same but replace ‘movie’ with ‘film’, the results are quite different. wolverine turned up on page three. and while the other movies turned up much later than that result, they still emerged sooner than the movie review result. i use the same meta-tags for each review, which makes it even stranger.
for the record, underworld: rise of the lycans is my most viewed review. star trek doesn’t even get a look. not surprising really…
i’ve finally sent the machine away to new south wales to be looked at. we’ll see how that goes. it should be somewhere between two and three weeks before i get it back. i’m thinking probably more like five.
nearly 40,000 state school teachers walked off the job today across queensland to protest and demonstrate their anger at the queensland government’s lack of response to agreeing to a raise in salary.
the enterprise bargaining agreement signed by the queensland teacher’s union (qtu) three years ago has expired and since then, other australian states have received massive pay increases, leaving queensland teachers, especially in state schools, far behind in terms of parity. as a beginning teacher, i’m some $4000 behind colleagues in new south wales. as my seniority increases, so does the difference in pay; the largest being a whopping $20,000 for a band 9 principal (large school).
some friends and i met with other teachers in the south-east queensland area to rally our cause, first at the convention centre, then at the steps of parliament house. 4000 teachers, one voice, no audience. the government turned a deaf ear to our chants and catchy phrases, slamming the demands as ridiculous and unrealistic. we’ll see who blinks first…
i can’t totally blame inyoung for this one. it did sort of interest me a bit. i never was a fan of star trek per se. nor was i a fan of any of the spin-offs. to me, there’s always the comparison between the two main space-related franchises, star trek and star wars. i’m a star wars man myself. but we still trekked (ha ha) along to have a look see.
there’s action a-plenty in this latest movie in the series. i believe this is movie number ten, or eleven, and from all reports, a lot of people thought it was good. i’m not really sure i’d put myself in that category. from the ex-soapie actor playing kirk’s father (didn’t he die in a black hole on home and away as well?), to the lack of final showdown with eric bana’s character, there’s action but there are also questions that came up while i was watching:
why didn’t we get more than a quick spiel about nero’s life?
why did parents insist on bringing their kids to this movie?
why wasn’t spock freaked out when he saw his future self? that wasn’t a very logical response…
can i get more pepsi?
i don’t think this was a movie that is meant to be analysed in great detail. i’ll call it what it is, a good sci-fi flick that’s easy on the eye, except for those annoying lens flares and reflections… wtf???
the acting is adequate, the guy from heroes is pretty good, as is most of the supporting cast. zoe saldana is pretty hot playing ahura. although she does go from hot young thang to skeletal wrinkle bag at times.
the sfx is definitely very good. it sure cannot be faulted in any way. would i recommend this movie to my friends? only if they had nothing else to do.
i’ve enrolled into a mandarin introductory course at qut that starts next month. it goes for 10 weeks and has cost me $270, two hours a lesson. it’s not bad considering market prices and stuff… still, it will be pretty interesting i reckon.
after two days of freezing during gameplay, my xbox 360 finally packed it in this morning. i’d read about the rrod before and it did honestly worry me a bit. but now that it’s here, i’ll have to deal with it, and possibly, microsoft and their shannanigans. not many good stories have come out of people sending their broken consoles into ms. many people claim to have heard nothing from them again, or to have received consoles back only for them to pack in again as soon as they are turned on. i’ve got no doubt that this could happen again. i just plan on keeping a record here. here it is, day 1: the day the red ring arrived.
i’ve already contacted microsoft. my console is still under warranty by a whole two months. they sent me some info about where to send the console (at my expense), in new south wales. they have even shown me how to pack it in a box, with instructions. i particularly like instruction #6: Take your packaged XBOX with the shipping address label affixed to the nearest Post Office or Post Office agency for drop off. brilliant…
let’s see how this goes
jermaine johnson struck an immaculate volley to help sheffield wednesday go out with a win in the last day of fixtures in the coca-cola championship division. nearly 31,000 fans turned out to see the owls finish mid-table in 12th (what a surprise!) but were treated by an excellent display by the home team.
cardiff struck the crossbar in the first half but showed no real impetus in attack. wednesday showed a bit more creativity and carved out a few chances. it was not until the 71st minute that they struck. cardiff defender, darren purse, failed with his clearance. johnson swept in, gathered the bobbling ball up and volleyed from outside the box. cardiff could muster nothing after that and have lost their last four games and thus miss out on the playoffs.
it’s the end of the season and yet another one wednesday fans will point to injuries and wonder about what could have been. it’s hopefully something the manager can look at during the off-season, whether it be injury management or prevention. something has to be done to limit the casualties.
promoted: birmingham, wolves and third team to be decided
relegated: southampton, norwich and charlton
with a large box of popcorn, a bucket of pepsi and an early start, inyoung and i took in hugh jackman’s new movie, x-men origins: wolverine. apart from noisy kids who should not have been there in the first place (obviously MA 15+ ratings don’t mean anything to parents anymore), the movie was pretty good, shedding some light on what could be called marvel’s most enigmatic character.
jackman is surrounded by a quite able cast including liev schreiber as sabretooth, the hot hot hot lynn collins as kayla “love interest” silverfox and ryan reynolds as wade wilson/deadpool. there is some excellent action sequences, coupled with good speciall effects. while obvious, the effects aren’t too gaudy until right at the end. the huge cast of characters from x-universe is good too. it was nice to see some connectivity to what happened in the comic.
the good: strong script, good characters, fast-paced action sequences, diverse cast and a nice smattering of aussie actors. did i mention lynn collins? she’s pretty hot.
the bad: rraaaaarrggh! how many screams of anguish do we really need from jackman? yeah, wolverine is a primal character with gutteral tendancies, but really? leit motifs don’t cut it here methinks.
<<<< SPOILER ALERT >>>>
DEADPOOL DIES!! wtf?????? deadpool doesn’t die… he lives dammit. he lives on and makes his own tv series. snappy banter and clever quips abound. bullshit, that’s what it is….
