Big Day Out 2010 in Photos

A festival day in Adelaide

When Muse announced they were touring with (and headlining) The Big
Days Out I was determined to see them. Ever since i saw them when they
toured with the 'absolution' album they have been one of my three must
see artists (the others being Jamiroquai and Daft Punk).

Unfortunately when I tired to grab tickets for the Gold Coast show
they sold out so fast I couldn't get a ticket. From there it was a
case of trying to track down some others in other cities. In the end I
managed to pick up some in the second round for Adelaide. Having been
there fairly often for work in 2009 I had a fairly good idea on how
easy it to get there.

So with flights and hotels booked it quickly became a mini holiday and
the longest stint away from Zz since he was born. Fortunately it's
only us that feel badly about that and the littleone feels like he's
getting a little holiday.

The venue for Adelaide was great all but the main stages were
undercover. Two of them were even in airconditioned buildings. It is a
bit of a sign that I'm getting old but it certainly was a much needed
break from the sun. After the line up was announced I was bit
disappointed with my mainstreamness with most of the acts we were
going to see booked on the main stages. In the end though some of the
best acts of the day were from side stage acts that in my muse
blindness I'd missed when I first checked the timetable. We caught Jet
with a surprisingly small crowd in the green stage and the were just
as energetic as the first BDO I saw them play. Hard not to get up
dancing to 'Are you gonna be my girl?'. Dizzee Rascal was a jump fest,
I think my ankles will be sore from 'Bonkers' for days. While we
weren't dedicated enough to make it into the 'D' the crowd packed it
into the main area and lifted as one when that beat kicked in. Dizzee
was one of the great showmen of the day and knew just how to get the
festival goers in the mood.

Passion Pit were fantastic but I only caught a little of the set with
travel and bathroom breaks. Kisschasey were a big surprise for me,
they really kicked us into the mood for the day.

We also saw Kasabian, Eskimo Joe and parts of Lily Allen who were
great and very listenable but just don't have set lists to get the
crowd jumping into the air hands aloft. Which is the whole reason for
going to festivals in the first place.

Grinspoon were just hitting their stride when we had to drop them in
favour of getting as close to the stage as possible for Muse.
Powderfinger were just as consistent as ever. As generically good as
their music is they do work at festivals. There was much debate
whether they (or Jet) are really just the cold chisel of our generation.

Muse were the stand out (although I was always going to say that) and
really played to their headlining status. The stage roof high screens
were just amazing. Every time I see Muse I say that they are the best
show I've ever been too. This was no different. Really I could write
this blog for another 5000 words and I couldn't do it justice. I think
ness summed up my feelings the best 'you're like a kid in a candy store'

It was just a fantastic day. Worth every minute and dollar of the
530am flight in and the 9am flight home.

Sent from my iPhone

Hottest 100 Votes in

I finally got around to Voting in the Hottest 100

Here's the list, but my hope for number one is Muse - Uprising

Art Vs Science - Parlez Vous Francais?
Basics, The - With This Ship
Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden - Bonkers
Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
Jet - She's A Genius
La Roux - Bulletproof
Lily Allen - 22
Muse - Unnatural Selection
Muse - Uprising
Passion Pit - Little Secrets

A new decade and some new directions

2010 looks like it will be a big year for me... For the past decade I've been working with one product set and this year I've taken the plunge and dropped it all for a new one.

It was a pretty big decision to make and essentially means I'm moving from a Big Fish in the pond to a Small Fish. It will be an interesting time for me because I haven't been in this position for at least 10 years.

For the most part I'm looking forward to it. There is the obvious apprehension as I'm leaving a job I've basically been working in for 10 years.

I haven't had to learn something completely new for a long time so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into some new technology.

It should be a fun year full of change.... at least that's the plan

Brain dump mid flight

It's a strange thing my blogging habits, the more and more I have on (like at the moment) the less and less time I have to blog. I'm actually using the time on my flight to Townsville this morning to blog.

There is one nice aspect of the flying at the moment, I do it so infrequently that it's turned in to a nice time for me to catch up on my huge backlog of iTunes downloads and frivolous stuff like blogging. It's now a bit of a guilty pleasure not only for the catch up time but also because I'm also leaving the littleone and Vanessa to fend for themselves.

First of all on iTunes, I'm loving the whole Genius concept. A while ago a setup a few favourites Smart Playlists so I could easily managed all my music using ratings and genres on the iPod/iPhone/AppleTV. The downside is that I've not got over 500 songs in my "top favourites" and this means that if I'm in the mood something it's always followed by something I'm really not interested in. I threw on a genius playlist the other day and it was pretty much spot on although I've discovered that it seems to "like" some songs more than others. But on the whole it's become the way I listen to the songs on the iPhone. I love the fact that you can save them and even refresh them.

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy, stressful and exciting. I'm sorry if I've been not much of a conversationalist while I've been musing about things and life in general. There were some pretty big decisions to come to in the end which was pretty tough, especially over the weekend. In the end I've taken a bit of a risk but I'm pretty confident that it's the right move and will pay off in the end. I think I might make a few people unhappy in the process but I'm hoping that they understand that's not my intention. Well that's probably enough soul searching for one post.

I've been slowly but surely doing a few upgrades to my arcade table. Nothing major but the CRT that was in it was starting to go in the corners and I was also looking for a way to solve the side by side game problem with the cocktail style cabinet. In the end it was a disaster of viewing angles that generated the solution. I had a couple of 19" LCDs around that I wasn't using any longer (with my nice new shiny 24" in the house) and I put one in to replace the 19" CRT. The issue was it was unusable at the flat angle of the table top. To solve the problem I managed to slot the monitor in the table at the right viewing angle for player 1 but it completely obscured from player 2. Then it dawned on me I could dual mount the monitors one for each player. Result : Instant dual screen cabinet that still looks like and is every bit a cocktail cabinet but Aliens Vs Predator multiplayer is a reality. It's almost complete I've just got to source the VGA splitter to run the dual monitors and it's done. The Littleone already loves the cabinet and this way I'll be able to train him up as a wing man for double dragon.

and here's the descent... Well that's the end of this blog.... until the flight home.

Play-Asia how to take advantage of the high Aussie dollar

The Australian dollar is at the highest level against the US dollar in
a long time (92c as I'm writing this). As usual this had little if no
impact of goods that are typically controlled by the US market.
Obviously the key item I'm talking about is console games (key staple
for all individuals :).

When the dollar dropped against the USD the price of games was quick
to hit the $110+ mark. However, with the rise of the Australian
currrency those prices haven't returned to their original levels.

This post however isn't about complaining it's about a solution. Last
week I had a brief look at playasia.com and discovered that they offer
premium titles at US$49. The result it much more reasonable market for
gaming. I ordered Tekken 6 and Dragon age for a little over $115
including shipping. Certainly much more reasonable than the EB
alternative. Oh and I ordered Friday and they delivered yesterday.

That's it for my gaming community service announcement.

Sent from my iPhone

Just because ben refuses to read twitter

A photo of the bike

A new bike and a new riding partner

Yesterday I cashed in the profits from the sale of the Jamos and bought myself another bike. There isn't really anything wrong with my current bike but I've been looking for a way to ride around with Zachary. My road bike doesn't have any mounts that suit a child seat and the clip in shoes don't make it very practical for trips to the park.

I started looking for a cruiser style bike and settled on the Electra range for the bike. After a fair bit of shopping around and a few recommendations from the bike store I picked up an Townie 3 Speed model. The trip is pretty flat into the park or the botanic gardens in the city or even Southbank (apart from the bridge)

We took it for it's first ride yesterday and while I had loved the ride Zachary is not so sure yet. He doesn't hate it but he's not sure he loves it either. A few people we passed could coax smiles out of him so it's probably not all bad. The bike was really strange to ride especially when compared to the seating position on the road bike but once I settled into the easy riding style it was a fantastic way to get around. The low speed didn't even worry me, at one point there was a jogger keeping pace with us, it was just a relaxing way to travel along the river taking in the last of the afternoon light.

I think the biggest problem for Zachary is the helmet, knowing how much he loves hats the helmet is probably one step too far.

We'll probably a few more short rides to the park before we attempt a city or southbank run. But I'm looking forward to it either way