November, 2006

Went to see the [Borat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borat) movie on the weekend. Politically incorrect, offensive, degrading, racist and possibly morally wrong… it had it all, yet I found myself really enjoying it (Does that say something about my character? ).

Anyway, I guess it wasn’t the actual content that i found the most entertaining. I mean, sure most of the scenes are funny but I found it far more interesting to watch [Sacha Baron Cohen](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0056187/) play the role of Borat, especially in the interview scenarios he does.

I am not sure if the interviews in the movie are ‘real’ or staged, but you get the impression that they are real and the people totally believe that Borat is a real person. This could all be great acting on the behalf of the people involved, but it just felt more than a totally made up (and acted out) movie.

His response to questions, the questions he asks, the mannerism’s he shows, the way he acts around people. I find it all really interesting that someone could invent and play a character that well.

So yeah, Borat was a funny and interesting movie for me. I’m curious whether the DVD release will include scenes not shown in the movie, as there were quite a few scenes i watched on [google video](http://video.google.com/) and [YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/) that were not in the actual movie.

With the Australian [Wii](http://wii.nintendo.com/) release imminent, I’ve been scouting around for info on it at local stores. I was almost certain that the local [Harvey Norman](http://www.harveynorman.com.au/) would have some kind of information. I was also curious to browse their [DS](http://www.nintendo.com/systemsds) range. Anyway, i get there and find nothing relating to Nintendo at all. Not a single thing.

I stood around for a while, incorrectly assuming one of the retail monkeys that work there would come and ask me if I needed help. As usual I had to chase one of them around and initiate contact.

So, I ask this guy if they have and DS games or will be selling the Wii when it is released. He gave me a glazed over look then replied with

“No, we do not stock or sell any Nintendo products anymore”

To which i replied

“Why?”

He then replies with

“Nintendo were just too difficult to work with”

Knowing nothing about it, but also knowing that most things that come out of Harvey Norman salesperson mouths are possibly fiction, I thanked him and left.

This morning I’m reading the games section of the [Whirlpool Forums](http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/) and came across a thread titled “Harvey Norman – Anti Nintendo???” which contained some interesting comments and links. After reading the comments and following the links, [this](http://www.vooks.net/modules.php?module=article&id=11149) link (from June, 2006) provides a good summary. In short, it seems Harvey Norman are the ones that are difficult to deal with and Nintendo decided not to accept Harvey Norman’s terms.

So it seems Harvey Norman will not be stocking Nintendo products now or in the near future. After the US release of the Wii was so successful I bet they will be kicking themselves when the Wii is released here in Australia and they are seeing none of the sales.

Good work Harvey Norman.

Who would have thought there would be another Rocky movie? I remember watching Rocky when i was a young kid. I cant remember exactly which Rocky it was at the time but since then I’ve watched them all (1 – 5) a few times.

They aren’t the best movies, but they are far from the worst either. A good ol’ underdog story.

I’ve watched the [new trailer](http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/rockybalboa/) a few times now. Not sure really how the movie will be. Chances are I’ll watch it though. The funny thing is, everyone already knows what’s going to happen.

Rocky will have to train up to compete in a fight that, it appears, he will have no chance of winning. He will probably get the crap beat out of him but through some miracle of the human spirit he will rise up and become victorious. Sound familiar? yeah, it’s the plot to all the other Rocky movies, but who cares… right?

I guess I hold off buying the DVD box set a while longer. At least until the extended, extra long, re-mastered, feature packed, DVD box set including the new Rocky 6 movie with extended features blah blah blah comes out.

This is a test post using [TextMate](http://www.macromates.com) and the [blogging bundle](http://www.bradchoate.com/). I’ve been messing around with numerous blog editors for a few days now and none seem to suit me, then i remembered watching a [screencast](http://macromates.com/blog/archives/2006/06/19/blogging-from-textmate/) some time ago on how to post blogs from TextMate.

So yeah, After updating the Wordpress markdown [plugin](http://www.michelf.com/projects/php-markdown/) it now seems to work just fine.

EDIT: Seems there was some kind of weird timestamp issue. Updating to the latest blogging bundle version and reposting seems to have fixed it. yay!

EDIT EDIT: Seems the timestamp issue is still there. /sigh

EDIT EDIT EDIT: If you don’t supply a Date parameter when posting, it will use the ‘Now’ date, which seems to work.

I’m working on a new cocoa app. It has the working title of “Bonsai” which will more then likely change if the app ever sees the light of day.

It’s still in early stages of development. I’ve fleshed out a requirements list for the 1.0 version and have got the basic app working. It’s a matter of fleshing it out now and making it cool. I’ve also got some pretty cool idea’s for it after 1.0, so I’m keen to actually get this app out in the wild.

I’ll post more as progress is made.

*Note: No, this isn’t the icon for the app, i didn’t even make this image. Its from an icon collection i downloaded. I just really like it and thought it would look cool with this post.

Edit: The author of the icon is actually [Jonas Rask](http://www.jonas.seph.ws/). He does some nice work.

My nose is still playing up, gets quite annoying actually. Seems to just start in the morning and run continually all day. I took a zyrtec pill this morning that seemed to have little / no effect, even though i took one the other day and it seemed to work.

Its annoying how its so random, sometimes a pill will work, other times it wont seem to do anything. I go through a heap of hankies when its like this, I’ve actually started using tissues simply because they are easier on my nose. It hurts when you start rubbing the skin off your nose from blowing it.

It’s so random that it could be pretty much anything that it causing it as well. Dust, pollen in the air, food I’ve eaten, something i drank, the guy down the road who is cutting his lawn… who knows.

Makes it hard to concentrate as well. Every few minutes I have to stop what I am doing and grab another tissue. Not fun at all.

A good thing though, I’ve started using the eucalyptus and aloe vera tissues. They are heaven on a red raw nose.

Makes me want to dust / clean this flat out in the hopes there’s something here that’s causing it and will make it stop. I don’t have much hope of finding a cause though.

So I’m trying to use ecto again to post to my blog, instead of having to use the web interface all the time.

Anyway, i posted the ‘Roast #2′ entry with it just fine the other day/week. Just now I’ve tried to post another entry and something isn’t working.

The post shows up as being ‘published’ in ecto, and also in the admin back end of wordpress, but for some reason it doesn’t show up. Its there, with status as ‘published’ but its not being shown.

If i delete the post and post it via the web interface back end, it works fine.

What the? I don’t get it, so once again ecto has been pushed aside and I’m back using the web interface /sigh (not that the web interface is bad or anything)

Cooked another roast up tonight. Had a heap of food so Roland and Bec came over to eat as well. Im not sure about the meat this time, Melanie says its better then last time but I’m not so sure, think it might bit a tiny bit overcooked. Still very edible though.

There were no complaints from the guests, so i figure all was good. Another successful roast.

Next time i think ill try to find something different. The woolies garlic and onion roast beef is really good, but a bit of variety wouldn’t hurt.

So yeah, another year older today.

To celebrate this occasion, I am going to use my code plug-in to display snippets of code incrementing my virtual age counter.

[self setAge:[self age]+1];

In other news, i think ill cook a baked tea tonight.

That’s about it.

Office 2007…. Hrmmm who would have thought?

After talking to Nick when i was at home, I took some photos of dads bike to post. Now im back in Rocky im finally getting around to posting them.

The one i ride mostly is the one shown below, the VN15. Dad has customised it a lot and its still in the process (note the mismatched colour scheme). Still, it goes well and is great fun to ride.

The red coloured one behind that you can kind of see is his other bike, it has a sidecar attached which is in the process of getting ‘customised” as well.

I miss riding motorbikes so much, its crazy. Rocky would be the perfect place for a bike. Cruise down to Yeppoon, grab some fish and chips, ride back via Emu Park along the coastal road… would be great fun.

One day ill have a bike again.