Fear Complex

as part of my daily work routine I find myself spending a disproportionate amount of time in various buildings around the CBD waiting for lifts to arrive, and then standing in the damn things waiting to be shuttled to the floor of my choice. (I would use the stairs more often than I currently do, but a lot of buildings now have the annoying ‘feature’ of locked/carded stairwell exit doors on each floor in the name of security).

Over the last few years (spent in the same role) many of the lifts I’ve travelled in have actually undergone ‘modernization’ as part of a greater push to spend money conform to H&S standards or whatever, to the point where even the most run-down office tower will often possess a couple of state-of-the-art liftcars with mood lighting, indiglo LCD floor displays, heated buttons, and soothing feminine voices that tell you to stand clear of the bloody doors you idiots. Which can be nice at times, but sometimes I consider it unnecessary – especially if it ends up altering whatever character the building may once have had.

anyway, it occurred to me recently while riding in one particularly crowded liftcar that even with all the modernization bullshit going on there’s probably any number of older, decrepit lifts out there in some of the less trafficked, smaller and/or less glamorous office towers. some crazy part of my brain decided that it would be fun to discover the slowest lift in the CBD in overall travel time (from one floor to the next) and perhaps also with other criteria factored in: most noisy, most annoying call tone, most likely to rattle itself to pieces, and so on.

A few people have suggested also trying the lifts in and around uni/AUT, and those in various other public facilities such as the Civic/Skycity and central library; while I guess I probably should (in order to present a fair comparison), the goal is to find the quintessential cruddy corporate lift that annoys the hell out of its office workers on a daily basis…

So at the end of last week I headed down to High St – home of fashionistas, expensive boutiques, one of my favourite bookstores, and conveniently, a high concentration of customer sites located in quaint buildings which I’m actively involved with for work purposes. Good place as any to begin my quest!

Another trackday done and dusted… and my poor little track car soldiers on without (too many) issues

however I do get the feeling that my $100 turbo is finally on its way out, judging from the amount of oil it’s starting to blow past the seals. Should I do the ’sensible’ thing before I replace it, and get my spare one (which cost me all of $60) reconditioned? Ah well, I got until 31st August to decide.

So. Trackday. I let Gar loose with my E-500 yesterday, here are some of the results:

and the full gallery is here.

meanwhile, Tom is off on an intrepid journey to Yurop and won’t be back until November. If he remembers to update his blog you can follow his travelogue here.

Thanks to a strong fan following, Futurama has finally been uncancelled; all glory to the Hypnotoad!

I like to think I did my part, by purchasing all four direct-to-DVD movies (and the first editions of all four box sets when they first came out)… but on a more subdued note hopefully the series doesn’t turn into a former shadow of itself, like a certain other cartoon show Fox decided to resurrect a couple of years back. (okay, okay, it’s still somewhat funny)

and if people power was the key, then what could this hold for other popular-but-cancelled serieses, like Firefly? (no Alan Tudyk would probably be a bit weird though).

Too late! the spell is gone, and this time you’re the fool!
It’s too late for tears, too late… no one hears you

Certain parts of teh e-netz are currently abuzz with the news that senile old shambling Ozzy and his money-grubbing harpy wife $haron have just announced they want more money out of gee-tarist Tony Iommi, late of Heaven and Hell, by suing for 50% of the rights related to merchandising of the ‘original’ Black Sabbath even though Ozzy apparently relinquished his rights to the Sabbath name to the tune of $80,000 when he left the band in 1979.

The timing couldn’t be more exquisite either, what with Iommi, Geezer, RJD and Vinny Appice currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity with the recent release of H&H’s new studio album The Devil You Know (itself a tongue-in-cheek nod to the Sabbath moniker). Even diehard Ozzy fans seem to be against the cash grab actions of their metal lord. Given the tanking quality of the Osbournes’ rubbish new variety show and Ozzy’s last studio album, this latest stunt is fairly unsurprising; $haron’s gotta conjure up some publicity from somewhere I guess…

Whatever becomes of the Sabbath legacy after this, I’m just hoping it doesn’t end up splintering the Dio-Iommi (and to a lesser extent, Butler) partnership for a third time.

currently listening: Hacride – Lazarus

oh wow, an update. You do know I write for retro-classics as well, right?

rediscovered my collection of Lego last week whilst moving another load o’ chop out of my folks’ place, and it’s been eating up a fair chunk of my spare time ever since.

Started re-assembling my ice planet colony on the weekend – actually managed to collect the complete subtheme when I was a ten-year-old back in ‘93 (maybe I happened to be a real good son that year!) and somehow ended up with multiples of a few sets over the subsequent years.

it’s great to let the imagination run wild again – I’d forgotten how much bloody fun playing with Lego was. But now I’m thinking I might need a display cabinet or one of those coffee tables with the glass centres so I can set up a little scene, and my new pad is pretty damn full already as it is, haha.

by the way, if anyone’s got any Space themed Lego from 1987 thru 1996 they want to offload… you know how to get hold of me.

And no, I didn’t end up selling my DR30 in the end, but I didn’t really expect anyone to come knocking – this whole recession business has got everyone a bit fearful.

currently listening: Heaven and Hell – The Devil You Know / Agoraphobic Nosebleed – Agorapocalypse / Sapattivuosi – Ihimsen Merkki / Khanate – Clean Hands Go Foul

currently reading: Crooked Little Vein.

Commander Keen street art? Now I can die happy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anklepants/sets/72157600030492928/

someone buy this guy a beer.

Red Alert 3 didn’t do much for me, either.  Check out my review over at Buttonmasher. As for writing – contributing – that is something I’ll be endeavouring to do more of.  Which means little, as those who know me can attest.

Since the supply of review material from Buttonmasher isn’t exactly flowing like a mighty river, I’m doing very little in the way of writing at the moment anyway.

So you never know.

Tronreview 11 and a Tronsite special feature are both well overdue.  I promised to have them done last year, and didn’t.  Hopefully I’ll have them done soon.  Hopefully.

One just never knows, does one?