The Ex-Box

Ah, the Commodore 64. How could a two-tone blue screen and just 64K of RAM have delivered so much fun? I know it's been superseded by the NES, the Super NES, the Sega, the Nintendo 64, the Playstation, the Dreamcast, the GameCube, the Playstation 2, the XBox, the Nintendo DS, the PSP, the Xbox 360 and soon the PS3, but there's something admirable about a computer that runs on 64K of RAM (since a brand new PC these days would have 1GB or 2GB RAM, and therefore up to 32,000 times the RAM of a Commodore 64).

I still remember the Christmas that my Mum bought my younger sister Becky & I a brand new Commodore 64 computer system. It was 1985, and I was 11, and for a family of 6 kids who lived week to week on a very tight income, receiving a present of this magnitude was absolutely astonishing (I hope I was as mindful of that generosity then as I am now in hindsight). Dad, who wasn't living with us at the time, even delivered a 1541 Disc Drive as his Christmas present to us, to complete the package. Not sure what we had done that year, but I'm guessing we must have been extra, extra good.

I distinctly remember playing River Raid and Frogger - the two games that came with the pack - right through Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and the following weeks and months. The C64 quickly became a big part of my life, and right through Grade 6, Year 7, Year 8, and Year 9, I was spending most of my after school time - and much of the weekend - in front of that "Ready" prompt. I played Ace & Ace 2 with my elder brothers, and my now-brother-in-law introduced me to Gunship, which we all played religiously for well over a year. I even managed to do some extra-nerdy things like some programming, and using Geos (think Microsoft Office...without almost everything) to prepare my school projects. Sure, I was a very pale, geeky, shy and overweight young man with very few social skills and even fewer friends, but I could get through almost every level of The Last Ninja AND my homework was neatly printed!

Somewhere in the early stages, I apparently negotiated (perhaps 'swindled' is a more apt description?) to buy out my sister's half of the computer for a multi-coloured woollen jumper that she liked. Now you might suggest that this doesn't sound like a particularly fair trade - and I would definitely struggle to disagree with you on that point. I actually don't remember the trade at all, but I've been 'reminded' of it on several occasions so I'll have to take Mum's word on that and make an unreserved apology to my little sister. Sorry Bec!! You're welcome to play as often as you like, whenever you like, and I won't even push in to have a turn. And yes, we do still have it - and boxes of games and joysticks - in our cupboard. Of course we do!

BUT... the reason for this post is to offer a brilliant substitute: now everyone can have a C64, even those people who were swindled out of their 50% stake by their selfish, mean brother back in the mid 80's... (but maybe that's why you have all the social skills now Bec? - I did you a favour!)

I came across a C64 'emulator' program today, which allows you to play C64 games on your PC. There are hundreds and hundreds of games available for download, and they play on the PC exactly as I remember them on the C64. They are also such tiny files, that it takes a few seconds to download all of your favourite games. Tonight I found heaps of old faves like Boulderdash, Pacman, Ace, Gunship, Pirates, Spy Hunter, Winter Games, Summer Games, The Last Ninja, Pitfall, River Raid etc etc. I realise how tragic this must sound to the uninitiated (eg. those kids who spent the 80's outdoors playing sport or socialising with friends), but it was great fun to be reunited with some blasts from the past. Mel has been gracious enough to humour me as I jive along to the very 80's, very-synthesized MIDI soundtracks (esp. The Last Ninja) - but it's not hard to know what she's realllly thinking.

Anyway, here's a link to the free emulator software, and below that is a link to some of the games. I'll also try to add a few screenshots soon to whet your appetite (or to remind yourself why you never got caught up in the C64 in the first place).

http://www.computerbrains.com/ccs64/
http://www.c64.com/

Matt

June? What June?

OK, let's just skip over the excuses very quickly. I was busy. Things came up. Priorities shifted. Blogging suffered.

I won't elaborate on the reasons for the busy-ness, since it seems to be a universal phenomenon that really needs no further explanation or elaboration. I'd love to meet someone who honestly felt that they had more than enough time in the day to achieve everything that they wanted to achieve, and even had some 'spare' time up their sleeve. I don't know if such a person, or such a situation, exists. Perhaps there's enough hours in the day when you're very young. Or when you're very old. Or when you find yourself serving time in prison. There's probably too many hours in the day then. But for the rest of the time, each day seems to finish 3 or 4 hours too early.

I did read somewhere once (come to think of it, it was actually in a first year Psychology lecture) that in studies where a person is isolated from other stimuli (daylight, clocks, alarms, television etc) their body appears to revert or switch over to a 25 hour internal body clock. If that's true, and our 24 hour "day" is a flawed and arbitrary construct that is perpetually at odds with our biology, then I guess that would go part way to explaining why there's never enough time to achieve everything you set out to achieve. Mind you, I'd be happier if their findings indicated a 27-28 hour default, since that would explain my 4 hour daily deficit. Still, it's a good theory, and I need all the justification I can get.

So what's happened since I last posted all those weeks ago? Well, quite a lot actually.

Jessica keeps getting more beautiful each day, not to mention bigger, brighter, happier, louder and more active. She turned ".5" at the start of this month, and on the same day made a start on her first solids (Rice Cereal). She had been gearing up for solids for a while, often grabbing at our spoons and shoving them in her mouth, and tracking intently as we'd move a forkful of food from our plates to our mouths - desparately wanting to join in. She's now up to 3 meals a day, with Avocado, Apple, Potato and Sweet Potato now added to the menu. Her favourites seem to correspond with the colour and general messy-ness of the options: bland, white Rice Cereal is by far her least favourite, and apple & avocado, with which she can paint her white wondersuit bright green, seem to be the pick of the bunch. Mel has posted some great shots of a messy, green dining experience on her blog, so rather than post those photos here, you can just visit Mel's blog by clicking here. Perhaps her daily avocado and apple facemask is the real secret to Jessica's youthful complexion??

Mel, as her blog will attest, has been very very busy too (probably far busier than me). Her consultancy business is in great demand with several clients, who thinks she's just about the greatest thing going. The standard of her work (and her diligence, skill, integrity, courtesy etc) is pretty legendary in industry circles, so much so that she's had to turn down some lucrative offers for further work. We've joked before that maybe I should leave my job and work for Mel, but every week that idea seems less and less silly. On top of her consulting work, she looks after Jessica bautifully and even manages to get along to Mother's group and as of last week took Jessica to her first swimming 'lesson' (water awareness, I think it's called). Apparently there's a DVD on it's way of Jessica in the pool for the first time: I'm looking forward to seeing it and will try to post some stills here in the coming weeks. Not sure how someone was allowed to film other people's children at a swimming pool in this day and age (I'm sure I wouldn't be allowed), but I'm glad they did in this case.

On my work front, not a lot has changed except that it's more hectic than a few months ago. It's not uncommon to work from home of an evening, or sign in on a weekend to get caught up on some looming deadlines, although I don't for a moment think I've got a rough deal. From what I hear and have seen of the workload of some others, I could almost be considered a part timer by comparison. There's also no update on the DVD proposal, as the General Manager who needs to approve or reject it has yet to find time to watch te presentation (did I mention it's been a busy few months?). I did (only yesterday) submit the User Story that Ulead asked for, and that's likely to be published in the near future on their website. Curiously, in response to my User Story submission, Ulead made a very unexpected request which Mel & I were only too happy to oblige. I won't say any more at this stage - just in case something comes up - but suffice to say it's all a bit surreal (in a very nice way!). Watch this space, I guess.

I haven't gotten to one tenth of the things that I wanted to cover here, but it's 12:30 and it's a 'school' night, so I better get off to bed and leave the rest of the catching up for tomorrow (or the next day, or the next day). I will attempt to post one lovely photo of Mel & Jessica taken last week. Mel hates it - sees too many flaws in herself - but I think it's beautiful. Once I've posted that picture, I'll turn off the VCR an head to bed. The VCR has been on to tape the only two shows that I watch these days (we've turned the TV off again): Scrubs & Arrested Development. It's a bitter-sweet one tonight, as it is the absolute final episode of AD ever to be made and screened. It was one of the most intelligent comedies I've ever seen, but the American audences didn't take to it in sufficient numbers, hence it was cancelled by Fox part-way into the third season. It's a real shame there won't be any more episodes coming, but at the same time it's probably a good thing to 'go out on a high note'. It's sad when shows drag on and on, long after they cease being funny. I guess it's the same for blogs, too, in which case I should probably have stopped writing quite a while ago. It's in that spirit that I'll sign off for tonight right now. Without writing anything else. After this. Well OK...after this, and the "Cheers, Matt" bit.

Cheers,

Matt

60/40

Just a quick post tonight (OK, this morning - it's 2:37am).

Couldn't let Saturday's party go by without a mention. My Dad turned 60 this month, and my brother in law turned 40, so my sister had the idea of having a combined 100 Years Celebration. It was a terrific night, with around 90 guests packing the church hall, enjoying games, wonderful food, some speeches, a few audiovisual clips, and generally having a great time together. I offered to put together a clip for both Dad & Jeff, and was given boxes of old slides from the 60's and 70's to scan and incorporate in a visual history. It was great fun seeing some of these photos for the very first time - much like discovering treasure - so while it took all week to get the slides scanned and the videos made, and while I didn't sleep between Friday morning and Saturday night, it was really enjoyable.

It's unfortunate that half of the family couldn't make it to the party: those of us who could were treated to a really special evening. Thankyou again to everyone who organised the night, and setup tables, and blew up balloons, and cooked wonderful lasagne and apple pies and everything else, and who made name badges, and gave speeches, and invited everyone and who gnerally made it all so great. And again, Happy Birthday Dad, and Happy Birthday Jeff. May there be many more.

Matt

(On an unrelated, the DVD proposal I posted last time has been seen by my Sydney colleagues, my boss and his boss, and the reaction has been really positive so far (one said "blown away" and another said "blew my mind", but they could have just been polite). Our General Manager is yet to see it - he's been too busy to watch it and even asked one of his staff to watch it and give him a precis! (which didn't happen). He's the decision maker, as he's the only one who can authorise spending the money, so the discussion is stalled until he finds time to watch. I'll give him this week before I start trying to progress it any further. Watch this space).

Mum's the word...

Yesterday was Mother's Day - (Happy Mother's Day again Mum) - and it was Mel's very first!

Yes, Jessica and I remembered (don't know why I had to remember - she's not my mother! hee hee), and Jessica sent me out with a small shopping list to thank her Mum for all she does, and all she is. The previous night Jessica was running a temperature, and wouldn't sleep, and would cry and scream intermittently (all related to new teeth we think) so by the time Mother's Day came around, an exhausted Mel finally felt that she had earned the accolade! I think you only officially qualify for Mother's Day if you've nursed a baby through a temperature with a cold wet flannel, so Mel made the grade with only hours to spare. (Only kidding of course - she's been a wonderful Mum since the first day of the pregnancy, and keeps getting better).

Here's a special Mother's Day clip that I had to share: it reminds me SO much of my own family (thanks Deb for the link). Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcA4Ry65FU

Matt

Breakthrough Bonanza

Breakthroughs: there's been plenty of 'em lately.

The one on everybody's mind today, of course, is a very literal breakthough: the miraculous rescue of the two miners from a caved-in gold mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, after two weeks of drilling and careful-blasting. I can't begin to comprehend what it must have been like for Brant & Todd to have been trapped in a 1 metre cage, 1 kilometre underground, for 14 days. You'd like to think that, faced with a similar predicament, you'd be able to maintain your composure, humour, and strength to even half the degree that those two guys did: but I'm really not too sure about that (I get a leg cramp just sitting and watching the TV in a cold room). Phenomenal courage and composure in a terrifying situation. I sincerely hope they enjoy the bajillions they'll earn for their story in New Idea, and the tele-movies, and the Happy Meal action figures, and the VB ads ("you can get it crouching, you can get it...umm...still crouching"). And I do hope the rescuers are immortalised in Happy Meals too - an outstanding job all 'round.

The next breakthrough is also just as literal, but sadly didn't make the papers (they were a little busy I guess). On the weekend, Jessica got her first two teeth! (I guess we don't need to get her anything for Christmas now). We'd seen them coming up under the surface of the gums for a few days, and she's been dribbling a LOT in recent weeks, so we knew they weren't far away. Sure enough they arrived on Sunday - which according to the books is on the very early side of average - and it's amazing/frightening to see her hurtling toward toddlerhood. She has SO much personality, and is doing so well. Here's a couple of snaps to show off those pearly (but very sharp) whites...



And the third "breakthrough" - not nearly in the category of the other two, but important to me anyway - is that I finally finished the DVD proposal I mentioned in a previous post. I actually posted the 3 discs to my 3 bosses at 8am today. I don't know what I expected to feel (relieved, excited, scared) - but in the end I really didn't feel anything at all about it. It could be that I spent too long on it (about 200 hours) and am well and truly 'over it', or it could be that I'm preparing myself for a potential/probable "no thanks" reaction, or it might just be that I'm too tired to remember what excited me about the idea in the first place. But in any case, I know that I couldn't have done any better, so I'm happy about that. I even took a couple of photos of the finished product, so I guess I must be reasonably happy with it (here's one). I guess we'll soon see what happens, when they all open their packages, pop the discs into the nearest DVD player, and spend the next 19 minutes of their lives trying to follow what on earth I'm yabbering on about. I guess I'll post their reaction in the next few days...fingers crossed.



(Oh and by the way I managed to catch up with the Marketing and Communications Manager from Ulead last week for a bite to eat - Ulead make all of the software that I use for my video editing - and he was really interested to hear about the above project. He actually asked me to write up a bit of a user story for potential inclusion on their website, and was also generous enough to provide their brand new software package in support of my efforts! I was working up to purchasing it as soon as the proposal was completed - part as a reward, part as a more professional platform to use for the 'real' DVD if my bosses agree to it - so I was blown away by his fantastic gift. Thanks again Tobie! So, if Ulead agree to post a user story, I'll of course link to it from here. In the meantime, here's their main site: www.ulead.com

Well, that's enough for me for tonight. I need some sleep, and Mel & Jessica deserve to have their hubby/daddy back. For a while at least. Until they realise that they weren't really missing anything. Or until I get the green light and have to start on that real DVD. Whichever comes first.

Matt

A little Lewis...

And as it's been a while, here's another short passage from Mr Lewis (on the tendency of certain school texts and curricula to dismiss, ridicule and discredit all emotions, feelings, and values):

"The operation of The Green Book and it's kind is to produce what may be called Men without Chests. It is an outrage that they should be commonly spoken of as Intellectuals. This gives them the chance to say that he who attacks them attacks Intelligence. It is not so. They are not distinguished from other men by any unusual skill in finding truth nor any virginal ardour to pursue her. ... It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so. [Emphasis mine: that's one of my all time favourite phrases, and I'll try to work that into a conversation at work sometime!]

And all the time - such is the tragi-comedy of our situation - we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilisation needs is more 'drive;, or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity'. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." (C.S. Lewis, The Abolition Of Man, 1943)

The Feaster Bunny

Well it's been a busy, but lovely, Easter long weekend...and we somehow haven't had to cook a single meal.

It started - as weekends usually do - on Friday, and we were invited out by my Dad to a local restaurant for an impromptu dinner. Got to spend some time with many of my nieces (Susanna, Erin, Grace, Beth & Eliza), my nephews (Connor, Darcy, Samuel & Jesse), two of my sisters (Rachel & Keren), one of my brothers-in-law (Jeff), Dad & Maureen and of course, Mel & Jessica (thanks Dad!).

On Saturday, after work, we went into Donovan's in St Kilda, and had lunch with our 'old' friends from Sydney, Matt & Melissa. Had a great time catching up on their news and introducing Jessica, and it's truly a beautiful place to spend an afternoon. It's pretty pricey, and the portions are quite small (well, by my all-you-can-eat-and-then-some standards), but the food was delicious, the service was excellent and the location and atmosphere were fantastic. It was a freezing day outside, and the restaurant is right on the beach, so were enjoying looking at the choppy waves from the comfort of our warm, luxuriously-rustic surroundings (here's a couple of pics). And to top off a lovely meal we all had Bomb Alaska which - although sans flambe (doh! - I was looking forward to that) - was still great. And as the whole meal was a gift from Matt's former boss, it was doubly delicious! (thanks Matt, and thanks Matt's former boss!)




Then on Sunday, we were treated to an amazing Easter Sunday gathering at Mum's. Having arrived shortly after 1pm, we didn't leave until after 9pm, and food was never far from me for the whole time. I dragged myself away from the table long enough to share an Easter Egg hunt with the kids (I think the record find was 14 - 14 more than I found). We also played some great games including one where two teams are given a word at random, and they have to sing a song containing that word, at which point the other team has to counter with a different song containing that word, countered by the first team, and so on until the timer runs out. Easy with "love", a bit more difficult with "broccoli"! Our team didn't exactly win, but we were almost helped across the line by the extra credit awarded for our team's special dancing (thanks Connor!). Got to catch up with Mum & Becky & Jamie & Rachel & Jeff & Keren & Stephen & Susanna & Erin & Grace & Beth & Connor & Darcy & Samuel & Eliza & Jesse & Tanya & Jasmine, and it was a real treat. AND we were festooned with so many delicious foods (yes, Biscotten Torte was there... but with everything else that was on offer I was only able to manage 4 or 5 servings!). A really great day (thanks Mum and Bec!).


And then Monday morning we headed off to Yum-Cha with our other friends Eddie & Shirley, who were also down from Sydney for the weekend. I think I'd only had Yum-Cha two or three times in my life, so the meal was great fun and very tasty (we went to The Golden Dragon). We were going to be joined by Eddie & Shirley's son, Darren, but he's 16 and apparently deeeeply in love with a Melbourne sweetheart, so the idea of having lunch with us didn't really rate on his list of priorities. It was Eddie & Shirley's first opportunity to meet Jessica too, and they seemed suitably impressed. I'm sure Jessica will really enjoy her time with "Uncle Eddie" & "Aunty Shirley" as she grows up, though she might need to close her ears for some of Uncle Eddie's more colourful anecdotes!

So it was a terrific weekend of food, fun, food, friends, food, family...and food. In my defense I did manage to avoid eating a single Easter egg (no, that's not code for having eaten more than one, either), but that has less to do with self-discipline, and more to do with forgetting to bring home the eggs we were given at Mum's! I don't hold out much hope for the four Cadbury Sitting Rabbits that are currently sheltering in our cupboard, waiting to be taken around to Mel's sister Jenny's house for her kids: if those bunnies are not taken out of the house in the next 24-48 hours, or locked away somewhere, I can't be held responsible for their continued safety...

We apologise for the break in transmission...

Let's see: last post March 17th, this post April 14th. Not my best performance, I'll admit..

If you're thinking that the paucity of my posting is directly related to the TV having been switched on again last month, you'd be wrong (well, you wouldn't be entirely wrong, as it must have played some part, but I'd like to think it's a little more complex than that!). In my defence, it's got a lot to do with the convergence of many worthwhile things competing for my time. It's somewhat ironic that, the more things you have going on in your life, the less time you have to write about those things (though they'd probably make the most interesting posts) while conversely, the less you have going on in your life, the more time you have for posting, but then you're likely to have a less-interesting blog as a result. It's probably true that the most interesting blogs will never be written, as the people living those lives can't make time to sit down and write what they're living. Not sure what that says about me (boring enough to have a blog in the first place, but with enough going on to keep me from updating it very regularly).

One of the things that's been competing for my time is the DVD proposal: it's about 80% complete, and I'm hoping to have it to my bosses within a week. It's a 20 minute video presentation, on DVD, hoping to convince them to let me make a full-scale DVD for them. If the time spent making this initial DVD is anything to go by, it might be a blessing if they say 'no' to the real thing: it's eaten up an awful lot of nights and weekends so far.

Over the last few weeks we also had my Uncle over from London: Uncle Roy is a real character, and it's great to see him when he makes it out here every 12-18 months or so. He was here for 4 weeks, but it felt like only a few days, and we really regret that we didn't get to spend much quality time with him (other than the 20 frustrating hours spent trying to fix/rebuild his laptop). While we weren't able to get the laptop 100% fixed before he had to go back, we were able to introduce him to Jessica for the first time, which I think was more-than-adequate compensation. I'll pop a photo of Uncle Roy, Mel & Jessica here aswell - though he and Mel will no doubt want it taken down immediately. He's not always that shiny red colour, by the way: he and our friend Frank seem to have a tradition now of heading out in a small boat and getting burned to a crisp in the days leading up to Roy's flight back home (I guess if you live in London and work 12 hour days indoors, sunburn is a unique souvenir).

Having seen Uncle Roy off on the 2nd of April, we welcomed my Dad and his wife Maureen from Northern Ireland on the very same day (they must want some sunburn, too). They're spending a couple of weeks in Victoria, then spending 4 weeks driving north through New South Wales and Queensland, through to the top of the Northern Territory. They're visiting with my brother and his family who are stationed in a remote part of Australia, where John is a pilot with Missionary Aviation Fellowship. You can check out what MAF does here. Dad's actually driving a 4WD vehicle up there to hand over to John and the family, as they currently have no transportation (Dad and my other brother, Stephen, purchased that vehicle this week, and from what I saw of it tonight I think the family will be very impressed). The Australian Outback will be a huge change for the two of them, as they're accustomed to life in Downpatrick, N.I., where they operate three 200-year-old stone cottages. If you're ever planning to be in that neck of the woods.... We're hoping to put together a little box of treats for John, Angela, and particularly their 5 great little kids Jordan, Mitchell, Cooper, Emily & Joshua (all of whom we haven't seen for over a year, and won't see for at least another year), before Dad & Maureen leave on their trek on Monday. Here's a snapshot of Dad with Jessica, whom he also hadn't met before this visit...(you can see the family resemblance, despite Jessica having a little more hair)

Tomorrow I have to go into work early, so that I can leave early and get to a late lunch with friends of ours who are down from Sydney. They've invited us to a fancy place on the St Kilda foreshore called Donovan's, and we're very much looking forward to it. Not because of the place itself - we'd be happy catching up with them over a doughnut and a cup of coffee - but just because they're great friends. They're actually a Matt and Mel also! They've already warned us that they're really only here to meet Jessica, so I don't think it'll matter if Mel & I are there or not. Matt & I used to work together in Sydney, and have stayed good friends ever since - I was even a groomsmen at their wedding. He now works as a DVD Account Manager for Fox Studios, which sounds like an exciting & glamourous job at first, but evidently is a hugely stressful and demanding one. And I guess all of the free DVD's (they do Simpsons, Star Wars, Arrested Development) don't mean much if you're never home, or awake, to watch them!

And on Sunday we'll be getting together at my Mum's new place for Easter lunch. It'll be a big congregation of the family - which doesn't happen nearly as often as it should - and my sister Bec will even be down from Sydney. She hasn't met Jessica yet, either, so I can see that we'll walk in the door, hand Jessica over, then have to ask for her back when we go to leave many hours later. It's Mum's first big get-together at the house (that I know of!) since moving back from Sydney, and she's always been a fantastic host. She's even promised to make her much-loved Biscotten Torte for dessert (I'll have to keep that in mind when deciding how many Easter Eggs I'll eat). Really looking forward to Sunday, and will no doubt take hours of video and several hundred photos, to the annoyance of virtually everyone.

Speaking of photos (yes, we were), it's time to add some more photo's of Jessica. I missed posting on her 3 month milestone (April 2nd) so I'll now post 3 recent photos - 1 for each month. These were all taken last Sunday, the 9th, and I really like the way they came out...they almost do her justice!

Well, I'm supposed to be heading off to work in less than 4 hours, so I really should get to bed. Happy Easter!

TV, or not TV...

..that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Wheel of Fortune, or to pull out the aerial plug and by opposing end them. (My apologies to Billy S)

We turned our TV off, and unplugged the aerial, in December 2004, and our house has been TV free for 14 months. We took that decision for a number of good reasons, and on the whole it's been really beneficial. We've had much more time each week to be productive/creative, we spend far less time becoming infuriated by banal and patronising programming, we no longer feel ourselves becoming dumber with each passing moment, and we're spared an awful lot of inane marketing.

In fact it's quite an eye opener to see how much of the daily conversation in a workplace and elsewhere revolves around TV programs: it's only when you go cold-turkey, and you therefore can't relate to at least half of the topics being discussed, that you realise how pervasive TV has become in almost everybody's lives. Based on the watercooler conversations, it seems the major 'must see" shows that I completely missed out on were or are "Lost", "Desparate Housewives", "House" and "Dancing With The Stars". People at work tend to think it very strange when you say you don't watch TV - I think to most it's a completely foreign concept - but turning off is a very interesting experiment that you may want to try one day (but for more than one day of course...maybe start with 14).

Well, the whole point of telling you all that was that we decided to pop the telly back on this Wednesday to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. As they're being held here in Melbourne, it seemed vaguely un-Victorian, if not un-Australian, to be completely oblivious to them. So we sat down at 7:30 and flicked the switch. Well, i'm not entirely sure that it was worth breaking our self-imposed TV 'fast' for that particular event: elements of the opening were very good, but many other elements were downright embarassing. I know it's a very subjective thing, but a lot of the imagery in particular was pretty irrelevant and unrepresentative, and the theme (if there was one) seemed pretty patchy and misguided. I think someone tried to make things a bit too arty and clever, but forgot to keep it entertaining. But who am I to judge? Many people said many nice things about it - and some of those people weren't even on the payroll. So perhaps i'm just incapable of appreciating anything too high-brow.

In any case, the TV has stayed on past Wednesday, and we've watched quite a bit of the swimming, cycling, triathlon and gymnastics - which has been infinitely more entertaining than the opening ceremony. I'm not a sports fan by any stretch, but there is something very universally appealing about watching people give their best efforts toward an endeavour, sporting or otherwise. And I admire the self discipline that must have been required - particularly as so many of these guys and girls are just teenagers - so my hat goes off to them (and the Australians have been doing really, really well in the first two days - 25G, 15S, 18B = 56 medals so far).

So while the jury is still out on whether the TV will be switched off again for another year or so, I'm thinking that perhaps it'll stay plugged in for at least the next two weeks!

Matt