Holidays and X-box live are bad for blogging!

Again being on holidays and trying to ignore anything related to my work I have been neglecting my blog. Although I have found quite a few things that need to be added I just never got around to managing it. Don't be too worried I will be updating everything in the next few days... stay tuned! (not that it's going to be that exciting, let's face it, most of the time I've been playing xbox live)

New Speakers Anyone?

If anyone is looking for new speakers then this article (How to Judge Loudspeakers) on Audioholics is a must read. (credit must go to Valavien who forwarded the link to me)

The article outlines not only how you should be auditioning a new set of speakers but also what are some good examples of testing tracks.

Back to Rehearsals

After a bit of a break over the Christmas and New Years Rehearsals for Phoneix's new show 'The Movies! The Music!' started today. Not the best day to start dancing rehearsal, for those of you have been to the theatre you'll know it's not the coolest place to be and to top it of it was a 31 degree day. To make it just that little bit better I injured my right foot in a tackle in my second match last night and it's really hard to dance with a limp (but it's amazing what a few pain killers and some ibuprofen in gel form will do!)....

Apart from all that the show is starting to look good and will be a lot of fun.

New Music! (and no gaming)

It's been a very busy weekend. So far I've been see The Full Monty at the Brisbane Art's Theatre, it's a musical adaptation of the movie that just about everyone has seen. It was a great night out it was a really well staged production and well worth a seeing (and for those of you looking for 'The Full Monty' won't be disappointed)

Saturday was spent heading to Toowoomba for a few matched of superleague indoor soccer, where I discovered that 3 matches in a day is really too much! However, we did get a bit of a chance for a bit of shopping (luckily as there a couple of choice Hi-Fi stores). Ness stumpled across a CD I'd had my eyes out for, the compolation from Groove Train on triple J. Most of the music Ness labels Cameron's Music I used to get from this show when I was coming home late from 9:50pm cricket matches (it's moved to Friday nights now and I don't get to listen nearly enough).

The CD is a compolation of the artists on regular rotation on the program with many of the tracks only available on the compolation. It was just the perfect thing to ease the kilometers by on the two hour trip home from Toowoomba (at 9pm mind you!).

Thoughts for the holidays...

I figure this was last chance to get in a post before I head back to my holidays (after being dragged back to work for a week). In fact it may be my last post before I explode from an overload of DVDs, Music, Xbox and Gamecube. As of 5pm this afternoon I have only 399 hours to

• finish watching the 15 DVDs I own that I haven't watched.
• listen to the countless CDs I have bought this year that I haven't fully listened to.
• Finish X-Men Legends, Mario Golf, Donkey Konga, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (for the Second time) and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (if I get around to getting it) on the GameCube
• Finish Halo 2, Sudeki and MechAssault on the X-box.
• Catch up and Play on X-Box Live with Valavien and Tom.
• Play Soccer, Cricket and Handball
• Rehearse for my latest Musical at Phoenix
• Go to the beach and get some waves
• Go for a few rides with Tom

Man I have to stop blogging I'm never going to fit all of it in otherwise!

The Quest for Red!

We have been on a quest for a Red turntable, we had always looked for a one in a striking colour to match the feature in the lounge room. Project have always release their Debut series in colours (including red) in the UK but they have been notoriously hard to find in Australia as Project only ship black here. I hoping my sister would have been able to bring me one back from the UK but couldn't find any in stock.

It looks like I will just have to save my pennies and resort to the Rega alternative. Rega produce the P3 in Red here. They retail for about AUD$1200 so I think it will definately be a goal after the technology ban!

Sisters come in Handy!

One of the most anticipated titles for GameCube and GBA connectivity The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords is a long way from being released here, but thanks to my sister's recent return from the UK I have the box (including link cable!) in my hot little hands. The advantage of the box coming from the UK is it's PAL so I have no need for Chipping or a Freeloader to get the game running!

All I need is to get some friends round with some GBA's and we'll be Zelda-ing in no time!

It's not always rosy

I'm always posting about the things that are great about all my gear, I thought it was about time I started highlighting some of the not so great aspects. So the first piece of equipment up for ridicule is the Loewe Xelos 5381ZW.

Don't get me wrong the picture is excellent and everything that I've watched on the TV looks awesome but there are a few quirks that are annoying with it.

• The TV has a brilliant idea of a covering panel on the back to hide all the connections so you can limit the clutter. This is great except for the fact that you can only use certain right angled SCART connections otherwise the back plate won't fit back into place. (a lesson learnt the hard way)
• The second annoyance is the TVs annoying habit of trying to work out the right ratio for images it is receiving. Normally this works pretty well it does take a few seconds of ratio changing for it to get it right but it does get there eventually. However, if you want to turn it off you can't, the option in the menu to stop it from automatically changing ratios just seems to have no effect. Also it doesn't work at all on the Component input no matter how you connect it or what options you set it will always choose Panoramic mode (which is kind of a combination of Zooming and Stretching)

It's not bad really if they are the only things I'm not happy. But it does go to show not everything is perfect!

The Mac goes Mini

Well over the last couple of days my inbox has been flooded with messages on the new Mini Mac. Ness is very keen, initially she had her heart set on the G5, although with the new size and coolness factor her favour has fallen on the smaller. She's not quite as obsessed as Amy but I think she's convinced most of her work mates and my friends! Also with the revolation that I can get a VGA port on the back of the Loewe Xelos and have it seemless intergrated to everything else in the lounge room, it makes it a great looking addition to the rest of the gear!

Looks like shopping trip to our local Apple store will be on the cards in the not too distant future. It's expected to retail for AUD$899 and due to arrive on the 29th of this month.

And just after I bought a TV

Sony have started releasing some details on their Black Projector screens. The newly named 'Chromavue' have been set to be released in the US Spring 2005 (ie not that far away!) and retail for arounds US$2000.

The ChromaVue HCS-W80 projector screen was developed to provide high-contrast images even in rooms with ambient light. The screen, with a peak gain of 1.7, creates a bright image, resulting from a special multi-layer technology that provides image contrast more than five times better than conventional white screens in the presence of surrounding light.

This means that we will soon be able to have 80" flat displays on our wall in the middle of the day!

I'm a Bad Blogger!

Bless me blogger because I have sinned.. It's been 7 days since my last post.

I admit, I've been terribly slack on the blog but I have an excuse (see also a distraction). I have had so many new toys since Christmas there has just been no time to dedicate to the blog.
To start off I have a X-box and X-box Live. Team that with Hal0 2 or Counter Strike and there is some seriously game time in there. Although I'm not impressed with most of the opposition on Live (especially those with the Mics). I've been trying to round up some friends to play online with some people I know but at the moment all I have in my friends list is Valavien. So if your up for some Online Play my tag is CamDS.

Also contributing to my lack of blogging is my new swag of GameCube games. I have become quite addicted to X-Men Legends. I've also got Mario Golf and Donkey Konga which are quite addictive.

Ooooh New Toys!

Well I've managed to circumvent the "technology ban" once more. Passing the David Jones sales again we found a Philips CDR-778 CD Recorder Component.

Having seen it at $799 when it first arrived at DJs and passing it up at $499 and $249 we finally picked it up fro $99.... Looks like holding off was worth it.

Trying to find only 10 Songs

It's Triple J Hottest 100 time again and I now have the more than painful task of selecting only 10 songs from the last year as my favourite. I've perused the entire song list and so far I've managed a limit my selection to just shy of 30 songs:

american idiot - green day
casbah (katalyst remix) - dynamo productions
catch me up - gomez
chicken payback - the bees
d.u.i. - har mar superstar
discotheque dancing - chris joss
fit but you know it - the streets
get busy - katalyst/vassy
ghetto musick - outkast
godhopping - dogs die in hot cars
got to be a love - greyboy
hold me now - polyphonic spree
maybe - n.e.r.d.
musicology - prince
older than you - eskimo joe
plug it in - basement jaxx
push up - the freestylers
russian girls - jimmy styles & the easy company
scar - missy higgins
somebody told me - the killers
somebody's gonna love - alice russell
something's going down - ugly duckling
somewhere down the barrel - the dissociatives
take me out - franz ferdinand
take your mama - scissor sisters
the sunshine drive - the spazzys
tropical ice-land - the fiery furnaces
unbreakable - speedstar
what have you done for me lately? - sharon jones & the dapkings

I've tried to be fair and not pick more than one song per artist but I feel it's going to be a long process trying to limit it down to only 10! I'll keep you posted

The Joys of the Sales

Today we had a bit of a shopping/swimming expedition to the Gold Coast and although I didn't end up with much of a tan to cover my Cubical Enhanced Lilly White Skin I did managed to avoid any blue bottle stings and catch a few waves.
At the moment Nintendo's GameCube is very much struggling but being an avid supporter of the Italian Plumber I am still keen to support it. The best bargin of the sales must be from David Jones where GameCube gear is 50% off and I managed to pick up a Memory Card for $4.95!