BecJacobs

Jump the Shark

2010-08-31T08:46:25Z

I'm conflicted. I think True Blood may have jumped the shark. For me anyway.

There I said it. It's out there.

I have been denying it all season, hoping for the best. Maybe it's just me. I couldn't stand the wait between episodes last season so started on the books. I read pretty much all 9 (that were out at the time) in a few weeks. Maybe that was my mistake. But they were so damn good I couldn't stop.

I understand why they have had to deviate from the books so much. The books are Sookie's POV and they need to have stories that are about all the characters but I feel that they lost some of the essence of what I liked so much about the characters.

Maybe I'm just sore because they seemed to have skipped over the development of Sookie dumping Bill and hanging out with Eric like in the 4th book 'Dead to the World'. My favourite of the books. Sorry if you didn't want to get spoiled.

What don't I like about this season? Russel Edgington, the whole Talbot mush in an urn is a bit OTT, and that scene with male prostitute did not resonate with me at all. Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill - nothing I'm liking about him - and the Lorena back story was boring with a capital B. Illicit V selling, yawn.

What am I liking? I thought they'd keep Franklin Mott around a bit more, the terrorizing of Tara was boring but he had some of the best laugh out loud moments of the season. "Hey, Tara, see how fast I type "motherf**ker." Cool, right?". Lafeyette, anything with him really, he's great. I'm glad they kept him around (which they didn't in the books).

One more episode to go in Season 3 and the series has already been renewed for a Season 4. Ratings are better than ever pulling in 5.39 mil for the episode before last. Maybe I'm being too harsh but my expectations were/are so high. Season1 and 2 were amazing. Who knows, this last episode may pull it all together and blow me away. Bring it on!

Concerting

2010-07-26T23:44:05Z

Image via Wikipedia

I went out to a concert last night. In my usual fashion I missed the first song or two because I'd committed to a beer line. On going into the hall I only got so far in before I couldn't be bothered maneuvering amongst the people. As I stood there listening, I wondered if the sound was better than listening to the album on my car stereo. Hmmm... probably not. Is it the vibe that makes you go to these things? Maybe. I thought about how I should have got there early, got a spot right down the front before the support band started and had a primo spot for the band. I remembered a time recently when I did that. I lasted maybe two songs before the crush of the crowd got unbearable and I moved back to about where I was last night. I am now resigned to the back half of the venue as the place that is best for me.

Foxtel Remote Not Working

2010-07-07T11:10:13Z

Image by thatgrumguy via Flickr

I consider this post almost a public service announcement. Have you been having issues with your Foxtel remote? Read on.

Since about November last year (2009) the remote for our Foxtel IQ2 box has been playing up. Only registering every 3rd press, buttons doing different actions from what they are meant to... that sort of thing. The first time I rang up, after changing the batteries repeatedly, I was told that I would need to pay $50 to replace the remote. I was convinced that it wasn't the actual remote as our Kids remote also had the same issue, so I declined on spending the money. A few months later, completely frustrated and after researching online that there was a KNOWN ISSUE with the Foxtel remote and the new energy saver bulbs, I called Foxtel only to be told that my remote was actually in warranty and they would send a replacement. I did try at this stage to say that it was not the remote to which the person on the phone didn't even slightly listen. My argument was that the Kids remote didn't work either. With that I was transferred to another rep in the 'accessories' department. Finally I got someone who listened, said we'd try the new remote which the previous rep had already ordered. But he put a note on the account to say that if I called someone would need to come out. Finally someone came out today and confirmed the issue with the energy saving bulbs and replaced the box. Surely this is known to Foxtel and they could have saved a customer, me, months of inconvenience by proactively communicating this issue and changing peoples boxes. Poor, poor customer experience.

So, if you have had this issue, call Foxtel (131 999) and insist they send someone out.

The Conversation Prism

2010-07-02T03:23:54Z

I like this infographic. I wonder how often they update it...

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

The convenience of Facebook

2010-05-13T00:04:32Z

Image via Wikipedia

I was just reading the lovely Rachel Hills' article about Facebook and friendship. It reminded me that I sometimes get annoyed with friends that aren't on Facebook, and even more annoyed with friends that aren't on email because it requires effort to keep in touch. I would say that in most cases that friendship has lapsed somewhat if I am unable to keep in touch online. I rationalise it by saying that if Facebook wasn't around then I would be in touch with even less people. Facebook has facilitated a level of contact with people that I otherwise wouldn't have made the effort with but that I enjoy hearing/seeing what they are up to. The casual contact with a larger group of people enriches my life. I often learn things about the world through posted links and status updates that I wouldn't normally. Typically it's in easily digestible pieces as well which suits my lifestyle perfectly.

Kitchen Renovation

2010-05-10T05:52:55Z

Despite a few cash flow challenged months we have gone ahead and put

Image via Wikipedia

a deposit on installing a new kitchen.

At the end of this month we have been living in our house for 2 years and discussed since day one all the things we want to do. Top of the list, and one of the most expensive, has been our kitchen. We have completed small things like bi-fold doors, shutters, painted a room and swapped out the built-in doors but nothing this big.

Originally we were thinking a big Grand Designs type reconfiguring of the back of the house but as the price escalated we got cold feet. A year later and with a firm budget in mind it seems a lot more 'doable'. With only a slight change in footprint and a clever storage solutions we feel like this will add value to the house and increase our enjoyment of the space.

Witches Houses, Annandale

2010-02-21T23:32:14Z

Image via Wikipedia

Lately I have been wishfully thinking about buying a big house and indulging in a Grand Design of my own. A perfect contender that got my creative juices flowing was 'The Abbey' in Annandale. It sold in May 2009 for $4.86m. I wonder who bought it and what they are going to do with it. Sometime before that Lawson's held an auction of all the contents. We went to the auction and exploring the house was like wandering around a set from Harry Potter.

I have always been aware of The Abbey and knew someone when I was at high school that had grown up there, although the details escape me now. The Abbey is considered part of the 'Witches Houses' of Annandale. Shamefully, some of the 'Johnston St Group' of historical buildings have been demolished. A few have been restored. I wonder what they are like inside.

What I Wikied | Feb 2010

2010-02-02T10:56:30Z

Palladio - the Renaissance architect. It got me thinking about how Ruby is going to be learning Italian at school and that we really should visit Italy at some stage to inspire her.

Viper PIts inspired by an episode of Man vs Wild set in Panama. Interesting fact:Viper pits were thought to hold a cache of lost pirate treasure. Shockingly I didn't find this out on Wikipedia. Wiki was a bit too literal.

Palau - Where is Palau and why would an archologist explore it looking for bizarre looking little people? Palau is a Pacific Island 800km east of the Philippines which has a well established matrilineal society.It's ancient connection to the Javanese lead archiologists here where they discovered the oldest known burial ceremony in Oceania. The discovery here is thought to be related to the controversial discovery of Flores in Indonesia.

Mommies Who Drink

2009-10-06T03:50:44Z

The other day I came across a link on the ninemsn home page to an article in Mother and Baby called "In Praise of Lazy Parents". Funnily enough it struck a cord and I clicked on it. Great article, you can find the full article here. I then went on to take a look at the author. Her name is Brett Paesel, she's an actress who lives in LA, and she has 2 kids. She has written a book called "Mommies Who Drink: Sex, Drugs and Other Distant Memories of an Ordinary Mom". Sounds right up my alley. This interview with her is fantastic. I think I just might order it....

Queue Etiquette

2009-06-24T00:47:03Z

I don't know what it is about standing in a queue but I naturally start to get annoyed. What annoys me the most is when people leave too much room between them and the person in front. What's up with that? Keep it compact and tidy is my theory.

Different types of queues?

Coffee Queue, ATM queue, Movie Theatre Queue, Queue when you don't need to queue... What else?

My View Part 1

2009-05-22T03:57:59Z

I have a theory on photography - if you have a good eye then you can take a great photo with any kind of camera. Fancy expensive cameras can definitely help, but it's kind of cheating. I have alot of dodgy cameras, polaroids, lomo, action samplers. You can get some fantastic pictures out of them. Some of the best. I still have my Polaroid 600 and am anxiously monitoring The Impossible Project to see if they start producing Polaroid film again.

This photo was taken with my iPhone and then I applied a Filter through the CameraBag app.

Death to the DVD Store

2009-05-20T04:09:40Z

The inflammatory title of this post is inspired by my ongoing experiences with my local DVD store. Here's the latest scenario... Sick child, need to work from home. Brainwave - go to the DVD store and rent as many movies as sick child would like so she rests and lets me get some work done. Great, takes mere seconds for sick child to pick out a couple of Barbie movies. Fantastic - get home, sick child cannot wait to start watching... my cunning plan is falling into place like a beautiful dance. So I endure the torturous minutes it takes to get to the actual menu (can I pay extra to get a DVD that skips these bits?) of a 'special' treat of sweeping through a circa 2002 3D landscape, a full 'intro' spoken by Barbie herself and then finally the selections pop up. Play movie - yes!

]]> Minutes later it's gets too quiet. Then the screech "Mummy! Something's wrong with the movie!" So I go back in, sure enough the movie has stopped. I troubleshoot by fast forwarding a bit, rewinding, no dice. So I do the old drastic scene skip. Then all of a sudden I am flicked back to the very beginning of the DVD. WTF? Does that message "action cannot be completed depending on the disc" drive you bananas or is it just me? Anyway fast forward to me doing this a few times with the same result. I feel like charging the DVD store my hourly rate to see how they like that

Anyhoo, move onto the next movie. Somewhat better but we needs to scene skip past very big chunks of the movie so all in all the quiet lasts about an hour with me popping in every 10 mins to scene skip. I head back to the DVD store - determined to get my money back. No, of course I can't, instead am allowed to replace the movies and I go home to start the exact same process again. I am up to at least a few hours, petrol and car running costs that I am going to invoice the DVD store.

This always leads me to start pondering the future of the rental movie situation and the search for a new model. I loved the idea of a Netflix (and Bigpond Movies) model. Registering online and getting the movies sent straight to you, saves on the getting to the store, etc etc. But I am told that these services also suffer from a fragile lossy media format and typically the movies you get are faulty.

We have Foxtel iQ2 and the Movies/TV shows on demand is by far the better choice available to a consumer who wants to watch but not own movies at home. The HD is killer! The only problem is the limited choice available. If they had permanent back catalogues and a tiered pricing model similar to the store (which to be honest used to work) then I think we'd have something here.

Until someone comes up with something else then more and more people will be driven to services like Pirate Bay to get themselves the latest movies of a quality they can actually watch.

Paranoia and the Web

2009-05-15T04:44:09Z

Every now and then I come across the age old debate of the internet and children's photos. This morning I read a blog post by MamaMia (@miafreedman). I have great respect for this lady and enjoy her blog so the following rant has nothing to do with her or her views.

It's usually starts out as innocent concern about children's likenesses and them being used on the web. As anyone with children knows you are repeatedly being asked to sign a waiver allowing your child to be photographed in the event that a photograph is taken and your child just happens to be in it.

]]> Recently (well, it feels like it was just yesterday) I attended my daughters day-care Christmas Party and before the festivities began they gathered everyone together to let us all know that there would be photographs taken. If you objected then you would need to leave. No one did. This leads me to believe that generally parents aren't too worried about it. That said, when I read these kinds of musings it triggers my imagination and all the imagery of Law & Order SVU starts to swirl (movie montage like) around my head.

Not to say that it's all stuff of sensationalist television shows. Walking back from dinner out with the Park Mums last night one of them pointed out that the toilet block at the other park was a notorious peado hang out. Apparently, it's a well known inner city meeting place for hook ups, children have been propositioned and she has been questioned by police on a least 3 occasions in the last few years. They have locked it for the meantime until they decide what to do. So far clearing a few trees from around it hasn't worked. Surprise surprise...

So it is a very real concern. My natural tendency is to look up stats on how many paedos there are, what methods are used to find their fodder with the hope of applying some kind of probability so that I don't feel like the whole interweb has gone to hell and a hand basket - but realistically that kind of information isn't out there. To be honest I don't really want to spend any more time on these lowlifes.

For now, what I'm going to do is keep updating my daughters site so that our distant family and friends can share in the enjoyment of watching her grow. I am going to be mindful of the kind of images that can be misused and take other kind of actions to protect us. I figure that if the site can't be found through search engines then that will go a long way to ensuring no one but the people who know the URL will be able to find it.

And yes, I am willing to take the risk. The immense enjoyment that my family and I get out of having a wonderful record of our beautiful daughters life that we can share with our family and friends worldwide is worth it. I can pull it up at work when I am missing her and I can reminisce about the early years - even when I'm sitting in traffic in a cab on my mobile phone.

What Ari searches

2009-01-08T07:42:54Z

Ari has recently been using my laptop and I'm often intrigued when I open up my laptop the next day and his last search is still in the IE Default search box. Today it is "bible code obama".

The other day it was "gabriel method" and another time "fibromyalgia"

What's in a name?

2008-09-07T10:30:42Z

With all the talk of the resignation and appointment of a new premier here in NSW there has been a bit of press about the cabinet members and other members of parliament. To my surprise the member for Balmain is a woman called Verity Firth. This is probably of no significance to anyone really. The reason why I am so surprised is because for a few years in my early twenties I had a good friend called Verity Firth. Lovely girl, a bit crazy, born again christian, slightly daffy. Don't worry, I searched her and the pictures prove they are definitely not the same person. It's just such an unusual name that I was really shocked that there could be 2 of them. Last time I saw her she was living in Drummoyne (after returning from Newcastle, UK) and had a young baby girl. Weird. Speaking of Newcastle UK, I actually visited her there and stayed with her and her boyfriend who then became her husband. That's right she was a pretty good friend of mine. I would have been about 24 at that stage. What ever happened? Why aren't we still friends? I think it was just because our lives were so different that we drifted apart.