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2nd letter published in the age - (Thursday, June 26, 2008)
I hope that Barney gets a raise.
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Date: Friday, June 27, 2008 17:13
User: Ry
Comment: 'Medical practitioners licensed to kill'? For a man of faith he sure has none in the judgement of the medical fraternity. I wonder if he objects to pre-emptive risky life-saving surgery where surgeons make mistakes from time to time. Maybe we better put a stop to that as well...
I would suggest the Reverend's objection to euthanasia is hardly about the inherent flaws in human judgement ("we make mistakes"). If it was, he'd have no qualms with the practice if humans were theoretically perfect in their judgement. His argument is disingenuous and is really just a retro-fitted rationalisation hiding a hidden agenda: the strict adherence to the principle of the sanctity of human life.
I would have no problem with the letter if it was framed in a religious context. But when much of it is disguised as secular commentary... well that's a little insulting :)
Sorry, I just don't buy it...
Date: Monday, June 30, 2008 11:23
User: lach
Comment: So you disagree with his argument because you think that he has a hidden agenda? By that argument I can ignore what you say because I think you have a hidden agenda. So you'd have no problem with the letter if it was framed in a religious context? Well, I only agree with your argument if it's framed in religious context because I think that's what your agenda is. I think I've made my point.
There is a large difference between risky life-saving surgery and euthanasia. I hope that you can see the difference.
Date: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 08:56
User: Ry
Comment: True, I have a bias... I just hope I am not hiding it :)
googling and finding your own site.... - (Monday, June 23, 2008)
Hey cool. If you google "grid wars black mining" you get this website. Lucky me... I'm sure I could reap in millions if I put adwords back onto my site, those keywords must be worth a million!
On the weekend I read Round Ireland with a Fridge. Great for a laugh.
Veggie growing... - (Sunday, June 22, 2008)
Last weekend I had a couple of friends come over and give me a hand with the weeding. We're getting there! After a couple of hours of digging up crap we're getting to the soil. Here's Brian studying his efforts:
And here's the group shot. Note, the box is full with weeds and rubbish. 
I divided off the section and we're ready to plant! I've been a bit sick this weekend so nothing happened - have to be next weekend.
Physician Assisted Dying bill - (Friday, June 20, 2008)
Here's a letter printed in the age. I thought it made a great point:
I AM very concerned about the Physician Assisted Dying bill. I am severely disabled and use a wheelchair full-time. I also have very severe spinal pain on a daily basis, which isn't well controlled even with morphine.
About 20 years ago I decided I wanted to die and doctors then believed I did not have much longer to live. I attempted suicide several times and my wish to die lasted more than 10 years. If this bill had been in place when I wanted to die, I would have qualified for "assisted dying" and I would have requested it. Then no one would ever have known that the doctors were wrong in thinking I didn't have long to live and I would have missed the best years of my life.
This bill is a very real threat to all who now feel as desperate as I once did. Far from achieving "dignity" only in death, what suffering people like me really want and need is support and encouragement to live with dignity, until we die naturally.
Alison Davis, Dorset, UK
Catherine Deveny's marvellous article writing - (Tuesday, June 17, 2008)
I'm not much of a writer, I can't think issues through, I love writing inflammatory letters and don't consider anyone elses viewpoint except my own. I wonder if I get a job working with Catherine Deveny? I think we'd get on well.
Watching downloaded shows on your TV - (Sunday, June 15, 2008)
A few weeks back I downloaded a bunch of shows that were shown on TV. Mythbusters, American Dad, etc. I started watching them on the computer, but it's not exactly comfortable. Sitting on the couch in front of the TV is a lot nicer.
So how can I watch computer stuff on the TV?
Well Craig was nice enough to give me his old xbox. It worked ok, except that the DVD drive was busted so you couldn't play games. The plan was to install xbmc (Xbox Media Center) onto it. As an xbox is basically just a stripped down PC, it's relatively easy to set it up to play movies. All you need to do is to get the software onto it. In theory I could have done this myself, but it turned out to be a lot easier to get this guy to do it for me. Next day service, pick up and drop off from home. Brilliant.
So last night I hooked it up, messed around a bit with my network settings... and bingo! Mythbusters on the TV. The quality is brilliant (as good as the original source), and the controls are great. I can now view photos, listen to mp3s and play emulated games on the xbox. Cool.
Grid wars / Geometry wars - (Tuesday, June 10, 2008)
I have to agree with Stuart, Grid wars 2 is an awesome game. I played it a bit using the keyboard and mouse, which sucked, but amazingly enough I could plug in my playstation controller (using a USB converter thingamebob) and it played brilliantly. The black hole "mining" technique is super cool - I can't really do it yet but boy it's a lot of fun. Check out the game.
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Date: Saturday, June 21, 2008 22:51
User: Craig
Comment: Hey, no wonder I didn't know that Geometry Wars was a 'hidden' game in another..... it was in PGR2.... A game I may have considered getting if PGR1 didn't turn out to be one of the more dissapointing racing games I have played.
Haven't played Grid Wars, but I just figured out the black hole farming idea today on the xbox. Don't have enough eyes to look at the score and check if it gets me extra points, or just an extra few seconds where I'm not dead though.
It did get me to the end of the demo..... craziest 4 minutes of my gaming life.
How to play "Stream of Consciousness" by Dream Theater - (Monday, June 09, 2008)
A while back the band learnt a Dream Theater song, "Stream Of Consciousness". We were going to play it but we haven't yet. So in the meantime, I thought I'd try to help other people trying to learn it! So here's part 1:
Part 2:
One of the coolest games I've seen in a while... - (Wednesday, June 04, 2008)
Last night I finally managed to have a go at the Xbox 360 game, "Geometry wars". It's essentially a 2d shooter, similar to the classic Asteroids but modernized. Very very cool! Here's a video of someone playing it (high quality, so watch your bandwidth)
According to wikipedia there's an XP version. I'll have to get it.
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Date: Friday, June 06, 2008 11:25
User: Levi
Comment: For a game that simple, the graphics are awesome.
Is movement controlled independently of firing direction?
Date: Friday, June 06, 2008 15:42
User: lach
Comment: Yep, you have two analog control sticks. One moves the direction, the other shoots in the specified direction. There's a free PC version called "Grid Wars 2" that's meant to be better than the PC port so I'm going to check that out.
Date: Saturday, June 07, 2008 15:09
User: Adrian
Comment: Have you seen (or do you have) Weird Al's "UHF" movie from the late 80s? I've seen some clips on Youtube and it looks alright. :-)
Date: Monday, June 09, 2008 22:55
User: Lach
Comment: Yes, I have seen it, and it's HILARIOUS. AWESOME MOVIE. For some ridiculous reason you can't actually buy it here in Australia, because they haven't made a region 4 version of it (????). When I get around to it one day I'll import a DVD.
Music featured on a couple of 4x4 DVDs - (Tuesday, June 03, 2008)
Ages ago some bloke emailed me asking if he could use my bands music on his DVDs. I told him to go ahead and use whatever he wants - well he went a bit bananas and used a whole bunch of tracks. He's sent me a couple of them, so that'll be a laugh.