friday is just another day staring with 'f'

Well, here we are at the end of the week again. It's never ending, or rather always ending. Depending on whether you call Friday the end of the week or not.

A few small tidbits of knobery:

What happens when you surround yourself with yes-men and vanish up your own arsehole:
TOM Cruise has been slammed by firefighters injured in the 9/ll attacks - for suggesting they use Scientology to heal themselves. The actor has reportedly urged people suffering the effects of smoke inhalation from the terrorist attacks to quit using their medication and inhalers - and start drinking cooking oil. The "purification" programme also advises people to take large doses of niacin and indulge in plenty of saunas. The Hollywood heavyweight - a co-founder of the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project - has also supported a new Scientology clinic preaching these remedies. However doctors have reportedly dismissed the treatment as "quackery".
- From BANG Showbiz,

Tales of the vacuous and worthless:
PARIS Hilton has reportedly extended an olive branch to former best friend Nicole Richie - saying she wants to be pals again. The sexy socialite got on stage at a friend's Christmas party and sent a message to Nicole - who she has been feuding with for months. The stunning blonde says she sympathises with Nicole following her split from fiance Adam Goldstein last week - and wants to patch up their troubled relationship. Paris - who recently split from fiance Paris Latsis - reportedly said: "I'm really sorry to hear about Nic's engagement. I went through the same thing. "With Christmas coming up, I realise I really miss her and want to get in touch again."
- From BANG Showbiz

Gold from a suprising source:
NOEL Gallagher has launched a blistering attack against White Stripes frontman Jack White. The outspoken Oasis guitarist said: "What the f**k is he playing at? He dresses like f***ing Zorro on doughnuts! What the f**k is that about?" He fumed to Britain's NME mag: "Jack White has just done a song for Coca-Cola. End of. He ceases to be in the club. He's supposed to be the poster boy for the alternative way of thinking. Coca-Cola, man. F***ing hell! Alright, you wanna spread your message of peace and love, but do us all a f***ing favour. I'm not having that, it's f***ing wrong. Particularly Coca-Cola, it's like doing a f***ing gig for McDonald's."
- From BANG Showbiz

quote for the day:
"The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it's their fault."
- Henry Kissinger

in this blog no-one can hear you scream...

Well i tried "...no-one can read you scream..." but it just didn't work as well.

I'm running low on interest writing this thing. I think I want to write but after reading the word of so many others that can not only write, but in fact have things of interest to say I'm wondering. The wonder won't last but allow me a second of feeling sorry for myself. Did I set this up for people to read, no. Is anyone reading this apart from me, no. Hell, I guess I'm a complete success. 100% hit-rate. If only I can somehow translate my success to other parts of my life I'll be hiring a team to write my blog for me!

Well as usual it's a slow news day in my life. The one thing I stumbled upon are Ricky Gervais' Podcasts - freely available, info here: www.rickygervais.com. If you've got iTunes installed on your comp just go to the Podcast menu and find it that way - it's currently in the top 10 list to the right. It's a radio segment he's doing each Monday with his writing partner Steve Merchant and his monkey-friend Karl Pilkington. It's pretty funny, or at least I thought it was pretty funny. I just listened to the first two segments (30 minutes each) and had a good laugh. Gervais seems a very genuine funny-man. Not trying too hard but just allowing a nice edd and flow of material to guide them all through some funny banter. He never seems to be trying to make you laugh which, I guess, is one of his many talents.

Another great time-waster is to trowl through the poorly scoring movies at www.metacritic.com for classic reviews. I mean the films that get between 0-40%. A good one presently is the film "In the Mix" with Usher. The LA Weekly review has a great little segment ...The movie pitches itself as a modern-day "Romeo and Juliet," but its execution is so lazy and inept that if the lovers were to die horribly it would come more as relief than tragedy. Sadly, in this respect, as in every other, In the Mix disappoints.... Classic. It's always fun to read some film get hammered by some near-do-well critic. Luckily I'm bitter and small-minded enough to enjoy it.

quote for the day:
"Critics are people who know the way but can't drive the car"
- Chuck D

website upload

I've just (and four months late) uploaded the website for John Hood - writer, story-teller and overall larger than life character. It's my first dive into the world of CSS positioning and advanced styling. I can't talk it up much as I flogged the beginnings from the CSS Zen Garden's sample library and tweaked. Tweaked mainly in the dark but it's getting there.

I wanted the content to be more important than the style which makes a change from the usual directions given to me. Not because of any shallowness on anyone's behalf, it's just usual that a client screams for a website but has nothing to say. You'd never see someone (well not 'usually') ask for a brochure with no idea nor content but websites seem to be a different story. Strange when all they are is an online brochure.

Anyways, the site is an organic creation. Truely. It's gonna change day by day and hopefully be something I can be happy to look at down the line.

Anyone who has a spare second should have a look and let me know what sucks and what doesn't. More importantly, read some of the articles and / or reviews. Send Hood a note.

www.therealjohnhood.com

cheers, me.

quote for the day:
"To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given the chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy. As everyone else, I love to dunk my crust in it. But alone, it is not a diet designed to keep body and soul together."
- Bette Davis (1908 - 1989)

xmas memories, volume one

Of course in the spirit of political correctness please disregard this blog entry if you are offended by such deep religious beliefs as the consumer driven holiday season known as Christmas. Modern man, doing his best at taking the 'Christ' out of 'Christ'mas. What I'd love to see though is all those so-called offended fuckers coming to work on the days they are so offended by. That'd be true conviction.

Well Xmas rolls on once again. The birth (or is it death) of Our Lord Santa and his holy Reindeer. The holy Trinty + nine four legged future-gluesticks. The memories come flooding back (or is that forward?). Two of them (memories I mean, not reindeer) came front-and-centre first when I thought about it for two seconds. That's two seconds longer than I usually devote to bloggery conception.

Memory one: the guilt.
This was back when I we lucky enough to have parents who conned me into believing in a fat red man who got his kicks handing out shit for free, that usually cost a packet, and all for the price of carrying on all year in your usual fashion. The good years. Pre-rent and bills years. Ahh. Anyways, here I was one early Christmas morn-read 3am-and upon finding a sack full'o'goodness at the end of my bed, proceeded to tear paper away from treat. As I handled one of the gifts (i remember it perfectly, it was a solo-sand skiff from the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi. Burnt into the brain.) my mum came into the room with a distraught look upon her face. Usually I waited until mum and dad had risen and we all opened the stuff together. Obviously there would be joy in seeing your child's reaction to the sack'o'fun. Well thanks to my lack of thought I'd disappointed my mum. Again. I still remember the sinking feeling. I still carry that sack of guilt. I keep it in one of the smaller pieces of baggage I carry through life.

Memory two: the imbeciles.
This is not so much something that happened to me but something I was told. It's stuck in my brain as a symbol of why we deserve to die from comet strike as a species.
My friend Blake's old man is a priest. Anglican, so put the thoughts you were thinking back where they were and save 'em for the next Catholic scandal. He's a true legend, in fact he's one of the only reasons I give religion any time of day. A man who works his arse off day in and out for others. One of the many things he organises each year is a Christmas Carol night in the local park. Please note, this is a priest organising a Christmas Carol night on behalf of the Anglican Church in the local park for Christmas. Clear? Good. Well a few years ago he got a few letters of complaint. It seems a few people who went to the Christmas Carols at the local park for Christmas (put on by the Anglican Church) had a few problems with the amount of Religious matter during the night. The fact there was any was a problem. Apprently there should'nt have been any religion that night. it's gold. Absolute gold. And these same fuckers are breeding and teaching young future-unemployed of Australia. Scarey really when you think about it and man, i have thought about it.

quote for the day:
"A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. Do you think when Jesus comes back he ever wants to see a fuckin' cross? It's kind of like going up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on."
- Bill Hicks (1961 - 1994)

oppressive workload be damned!

Thanks to being busy at work as well as after hours my ability to both write a blog entry and even care about my blog runs low. I thought I'd better change that view as without my care there'd be nobody interested in this.

In my usual manner I'm making up up for a lack in my own content with bits and bobs from around the world.

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Le Chic Shall Inherit Les Blogs
02:00 AM Dec. 06, 2005 PT - Robert Andrews (Wired News: Culture)

A top international model is using social software and cell phones to give high fashion an air of high tech.

Anina, who struts her stuff on European catwalks and magazine covers, is a self-proclaimed geek and entrepreneur on a mission to turn the fashion industry inside out using an array of mobile gadgets and websites.

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Graffiti Hackers
Sonia Zjawinski(Wired News: Culture)

Text-message projectors. Paintball printers. Wall-crawling robots. The new crew of tech taggers makes a name for itself.

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Shoot to thrill
December 07, 2005 - Darren Behar (News.com.au)

A SHOOTING game that inflicts an electric shock to players is on the shelves for Christmas despite fears it may be dangerous.

The Shocking Shooting Game is being investigated as officials express concerns over the soaring number of dangerous toys found on sale this festive season.

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One of my favourite b&w Sci-Fi's is looking like being remade (now all I need is a remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" among a few others and I'll be happy. I still love the originals though:

"Worlds" Back On Collision Course
Tuesday December 6th, 2005 6:03pm (Dark Horizons)

Director Stephen Sommers ("The Mummy", "Van Helsing") is back on Paramount Pictures and Steven Spielberg's big budget remake of 1951 sci-fi disaster epic "When World Collide" reports Variety.

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Peter Segal To "Get Smart" Job
Monday December 5th, 2005 5:48pm (Dark Horizons)

Peter Segal has signed on to direct "Get Smart," the big-screen adaptation of the classic TV series for Warner Bros. Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter.

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Book review: Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman - 2005 (Book Munch)

Bitesize: Blazing page-turner from yr man, Neil Gaiman ... There are good things and bad things about being an independent, free-spirited book review site.

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Book review: Dermaphoria
Craig Clevenger - 2005 (Curledup.com)

Eric Ashworth remembers nothing when he wakes up in a jail hospital surrounded by machines beeping like aliens, a chemical drip and a determinedly friendly detective. He recalls sensations, images, fireflies and a name – Desiree - but without any context.

quote for the day:
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"
- John Lennon (1940 - 1980)