I promise

I promise this will be my last Survivor post for quite some time, but I couldn't resist commenting on Lucas' list of Survivor All-Stars.

• Stephanie: a solid choice, but with a personality a little wooden for my tastes.
• Andrew Savage: good call.
• Rob Cesternino: yeah. He was funny at the time, but pales into insignificance compared to some of the other true characters.
• Jenna: I dispute the sexy call, but otherwise agree. Initially I thought she was unworthy as a series winner but I happily admit I was wrong - she was a far stronger competitor than she appeared to be : an excellent quality on Survivor
• Ian and Coby: interesting ...
• Rafe: good call. An excellent competitor.
• Rob Mariano: too straight-up nasty to make my list. But undoubtedly an interesting character.
• Twila: a weak choice at number 18.

Hey Lucas - Robb selected himself - what were you thinking having him as an apology!! Ditto for Matthew.

GSOAT: The Greatest Survivors Of All Time

Ok, brace yourself for some finality. Here are the 18 GSOAT, up to the end of Season 12

In no particular order:

• Richard Hatch - Borneo - the original player
  
• Colleen - Borneo - first love is never forgotten
• Greg - Borneo - the first to subvert the game
• Colby - Outback - so strong, yet such a poor strategist
• Tina - Outback - totally outplayed Colby
• Elisabeth - The Outback - America's favourite footwear designer
• Tom - Africa - Big Tom the goat farmer
• Ethan - Africa - possibly the coolest player ever
• Frank - Africa - a gun-nut and a loner. Who wouldn't love him!
• Brian - Thailand - a manipulative used-car salesman slash actor
• Robb - Thailand - easily the dumbest Survivor ever. The guy who brought a skateboard to a desert island
• Matthew - The Amazon - a very very strange guy
• Sandra - Pearl Islands - a worthy winner
• Jonny Fairplay - Pearl Islands - he changed the way the game was played. The first to combine Survivor with the strategy of a pro-wrestling villain
  
• Rupert - Pearl Islands - a sentimental favourite. Picks himself.
• Shane - Exile Island - the most maniacal player ever
  
• Cerie - Exile Island - a brilliant strategist
  
• Terry - Exile Island - he played a strong, strong game
  

Honourable mentions: Kelly cuckoo! cuckoo! (Borneo) - , Shi-Ann (Thailand), Lex (Africa), Brandon (Africa), Darrah (Pearl Islands), Ryan S (Pearl Islands), Dolly the Sheep Farmer (Vanuatu), Chris (Vanuatu), Gary sshhh don't tell anyone I played football (Guetamala), Lydia (Guetamala), Judd the objectionable (Guatemala), Bruce the sensei (Exile Island)

dear diary

It's been busy busy busy over here at samizdatland. I've just moved into new chambers (ie. an office for the non-barristers out there) and have been busily furnishing, unpacking books etc etc. Exciting times. No really. Come up and see my lawbooks.

Seeing Superman tonight which may or may not be good.

Went to The Give and Take - Melbourne Theatre Company - on Tuesday night. Gary McDonald was great, but the material let him down. The dialogue was not great and written by a baby boomer for other baby boomers - it displayed no understanding whatsoever of GenX / GenY / GenWhatever. Saw a play about the disappearances in Chile in 1973 on Sunday night at Red Stitch. A little uneven, but definitely worth seeing.

I WILL finish my top-18 survivor list VERY SOON i promise.

a true nail biter - Australia 2: Croatia 2

My heart was in my mouth the entire game. In the end Australia did all it had to do and is through to the second round of the World Cup. An incredible achievement!

For what it's worth, following is the samizdat version of an expert commentary on the game.

Australia was by far the more aggressive team and was the better team on the day, although at times the Croatians' superior level of international experience was apparent. From 2 minutes in when Croatia scored its first goal, it appeared to be playing for a 1:0 win. A poor strategy against an aggressive team like Australia, and one which showed insufficient self-belief as to their chances of scoring further. Given their lack of scoring power, perhaps the Croatian lack of self-belief was well-founded.

Australia clearly had the worse of the refereeing. A number of very poor decisions which went against Australia:
- a penalty on Viduka at 6 minutes
- numerous infringements against Viduka (and other Aussies) missed by the referee
- numerous half-there infringements against Australians found by the referee
- the clear hand-ball by the Croatians in the box at about 72 minutes
- Simonic (sp?) getting 2 yellow cards but not being sent off!!

Overall a very very poor refereeing effort. And not a great showing by the Socceroo goalkeeper either. Bring back Schwarzer!

Who knows whether Australia can produce the goods against Italy. But in any event, it has been a very exciting world cup so far for Australia. Hopefully the run will continue ...

A Scanner Darkly

I know I'm setting myself up for disappointment, especially after the horror of Waking Life, but my excitement levels are building for A Scanner Darkly. Linklater is capable of making fantastic films where nothing happens but which capture a mood or the tone of a time and place - Suburbia, Dazed and Confused - so ... I'll stay hopeful. Not sure how closely it sticks to the book - I read the Charlie Kaufman script a few years ago and it stuck surprisingly closely to the book, but on IMDB the script is credited solely to Richard Linklater.

I am a huge huge fan of Philip K Dick, and A Scanner Darkly is my favourite of his novels, so a well-made film of the book would be awesome.

Tarrawarra - Queen's Birthday weekend

 

Sun, sand, snow, a forest and bridal wear

 

weekends away + oz 2.0

Have been lucky enough to enjoy two weekends away in a row - one in country Victoria and the other on the coast in Queensland. My next posts after this one are a few photos of my weekends away.

Meanwhile, things are heating in up in the world of Oz Web 2.0. You can tell the penny has dropped among the so-called smart money when the capital is aggressively chasing potential investees, rather than the other way around. Like any hot market, there will be more losers than winners - but the underlying opportunity is there and no doubt there will be some winners.

REVISED - I posted the photos straight from Picasa 2 (the first time I've blogged direct from Picasa) and it was actually an impressively easy, well-integrated process.

A little early?

Flew Jetstar this morning - leaving A at 10:30 and arriving at B at 12:30. Cabin service (ie. food and drinks) were coming down the aisle and I was reading the paper until my attention was caught by the orders of the people around me. Two aisles ahead, a middle-aged woman ordered champagne - I thought, an unusual choice for 10:30 on a Friday, but ok - she's celebrating something. Then the man immediately in front of me (the one juggling 3 sub-10-year old kids) ordered a scotch'n'coke for him, a rum'n'coke for his wife, then at the last minute changed the order - he wanted a beer ("make sure it's a heavy one") as well as the mixed drinks.

Who are these people?

Survivor II

Still thinking about my Survivor top-18 list. I can probably do without Rudy - he's probably just a little too senile and his charms are wearing thin after 2 series. But I'm sure I've missed some good ones. Well aware that Rob and Amber aren't included in my draft list. Don't worry, I didn't forget - they were deliberate omissions. As was Lex.
And some others that I liked a lot at the time (like Sii-Ann) I now think were comparatively entertaining rather than entertaining when considered on an absolute level. .....

In other news, my blog has had a sudden (and surprising) surge of comparatively massive popularity on the back of last week's post about Emmalina - it appears the rest of the world has cottoned on to her charms and my post is apparently ranking high on a google search for her name. Weird.

Greatest Survivors of all time

This is a hard one, but I'm going to try and pick the top 18 Survivors of all time, based on entertainment value. I am going to try and work out the most interesting tribe - not necessarily who I think are the best players from a strategic perspective, but the ones I think would be the funnest to watch head-to-head.

I think I'll have to come back and add a few and whittle a few back over the next few days, but my first thoughts are:

Jonny Fairplay - Pearl Island
Rupert - Pearl Island
Richard Hatch - Borneo
Colleen - Borneo
Greg - Borneo
Big Tom - Africa
Ethan - Africa
Cerie - Exile Island
Elisabeth - Outback
Colby - Outback
Tina - Outback
Shane - Exile Island
Rudy - Borneo
Frank - Africa
Robb - Thailand
Terry - Exile Island
Brian - Thailand
Kelly - Borneo
Judd - Guatemala
Lydia - Guatemala

Yes I know this is more than 18.
This is gonna need a LOT more work...

A late night, but well worth it

At 83 minutes in it was looking ugly, but we pulled through in fine style! The 3:1 win was awesome!!! As always, success has many fathers and I am proud to be one of them. I think all Australians can (or at least will) claim a little credit for the win against Japan and I am hereby claiming my share.

Had a good long weekend - in Warbuton with M and Karen & Jon. Saw snow at the top of Mount Donna Buang, visited Tarrawarra Gallery and generally hung out and relaxed. And worked on my bioethics take-home exam.

Emmalina

Right on the bleeding edge here, I've just today become aware of Emmalina - I'm either the last person in Australia, or nearly the last, to meet the young Tasmanian - given the article in today's online version of The Age (and a matching article in the SMH). Emmalina has rapidly become online-famous for her youtube vblog, and less so for her text blog.

Scanning the comments for her youtube videos, it's funny the number that specifically comment on her accent. Another reminder that anyone who's not from the USA 'talks funny'. We forget sometimes, especially when communicating with our American friends by text, that we're WEIRD over here in Australia.

Emmalina is pretty straight up and down - she's an 18 year old from Tassie who likes dancing, yoga and animals and is pretty happy to use her webcam to chat to whoever wants to watch and listen (evidently hundreds of thousands of people) about her weekend, her new dress, how it sucks when people post nasty comments on youtube and whatever else seems relevant to her at the time.

Her youtube videos (and the reaction they're provoking) are another reminder of the number of doubtful / creepy / straight-up freaks (and not in a good way) out there on the net.

A temporary reprieve

Saved a company from insolvency at the hands of the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation yesterday. For a few weeks at least. More fun than my crash'n'bash brief in Ringwood on Monday.

Dr Octagon

Am very excited; have only just found out that there's a new Dr Octagon album out on 27 June 06 - The Return of Dr Octagon. The first album - now 10 years old amazingly enough - was one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time [and yes i am aware that's a big call] so I have high expectations and hopes for this one... One track features Princess Superstar, which is cool.

end of the weekend

Went to the St Kilda Film Festival yesterday to see Lucas' short film - was great to see it on the big screen. It's funny, sad and very emotionally affecting. Highly recommended. It screened together with some other films, one of which - The Saviour - was fantastic. Last night M returned from Hong Kong and China - was a fun and successful trip for her and it's good to have her back.

And gnoos is going from strength to strength (in its very short public existence). An absolute barrage of publicity - the AFR, The Age / SMH, chatter all over the web (including on techcrunch) and traffic numbers are very strong.

A sunday evening and i'm preparing what is (I hope) the most devastating cross-examination ever written. In court tomorrow and plenty of preparation still to do.

gnoos - a day and a half in

one day in and the gnoos juggernaut is gaining momentum: first-day visitor numbers well beyond those that could possibly have been predicted and massive industry/media/investor interest. most impressively, the infrastructure is holding up to the strain - the site remains functional and quick. am very much looking forward to the forthcoming updates/improvements/expansions...

Am in court in just over an hour so I'll keep this short. Having a busy M-free week (she is in China). Had a difficult case yesterday - I had 5 witnesses in person and a witness by affidavit + some complex legal issues. It went ok but the preparation almost killed me! Today is just a directions hearing - an easy day.
Awesome episode of Surivor last night. Shane is possibly the best character since Johnny Fairplay.

A pitiful obsession with attention, even if it's of the most marginal kind

Was out with my friend Lucas last night having a drink in North Melbourne.

You may have noticed the link, above, from his name.

It's a link to his blog.

The blog he started last night after:

1. finding out I have a blog.
2. finding out that people sometimes read samizdat7 (for reasons best known to them).
3. he (presumably jogged) back to his special friend Lisa's house and immediately read it.
4. he realised that samizdat7 didn't, to date, mention him.
5. he and Lisa SMS'd a snarky message to M about my blog.
6. he posted a snarky comment on a recent post.

Lucas, welcome to the wonderful world of blogging. I hope it brings you much happiness and keeps you warm at night.

for no particular reason

Countries I've visited: Fiji, Tahiti, Singapore, Malaysia, United States of America, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Laos, Thailand. And (very much) looking forward to Cambodia and Malaysia in a few months.

An interesting week

Having a great weekend so far; spent the morning at the gym, which was a great way of unwinding - have been doing way too little exercise lately. Last night went to see This is How it Goes, a Neil LaBute play on at Red Stitch. The play is sold out - so there's no point recommending it - but it is awesome. Another blast of LaBute misanthropy and/or misogyny. I think his more recent works (or at least those I've seen more recently) have been anti-everyone, whereas I feel his earlier work displayed a pretty heavily misogynistic worldview. Or a parody of one. It's sort of hard to tell.

In other news, this week I've been helping Mike and Ben from gnoos deal with the investment offers coming their way, was in Court a couple of times and I completed my Masters essay on whether there is any difference, in a moral sense, between killing and letting die. I think they are morally identical (for reasons it takes 5,000+ words to explain).

M is off to China for about 10 days, starting late next week, so have been spending time with her and am presently trying to think up something fun for us to do tonight. Um. Am feeling slightly uninspired, but presumably I'll come up with something.

ebay

Something I was totally wrong about is ebay. I vividly remember, back in 99-2000 (before the dotcom crash, but when it seemed pretty likely that the market couldn't keep booming forever) talking about who would survive the fallout, and I used to say that of the big players of the time ebay was one that wouldn't make it. Anyway, I was wrong. It has exploited network effects incredibly well and turned itself into a massive business. Although not one without challenges.

To date I've had a pretty-much perfect customer experience with ebay, but it's always interesting to see the other side of a person-to-person interchange. I was an underbidder on a reasonably expensive item the other day (I actually ended up bidding a couple of hundred dollars less than the winning bidder), but after it closed I was emailed by someone (presumably the seller) asking me to take up a second chance offer by emailing him back [ie. to buy directly from him, not via the ebay site]. The email was signed 'ebay inc' and purported to be an official ebay communication, but was so obviously dodgy it was sort of funny. I played along and emailed back, and got a further 'official' email assuring me this was indeed an ebay-sanctioned second chance offer.

Then today I get this from a totally different email address (identifying info deleted):

Hello,
Can you please tell me if you are still interested in my item ? ( ####) > Item number: ####.

I need to sell it asap and the winning bider said that he is not interested anymore. I've just received an e-mail from eBay, with the full support of the SquareTrade Center team telling me that I could sell my item to the other bidders according to eBay's rules and policy regarding to the second chance offer . So I am willing to sell it to you for your last bid price: AU $####.
Let me know if you are interested.
Thanks

Some dodgy shit going down.

No complaints with ebay customer support 'tho - they've been v responsive (even over the weekend).

all the gnoos that's fit to print

Have been playing some more with gnoos - www.gnoos.com.au - in beta as of this week (email beta@feedcorp.com.au if you want access). It's really addictive (and so far really robust). I reckon a few more words are needed 'around' the service - it's not necessarily immediately obvious what some of the options/features actually do - but (1) i'm a lawyer and i like words, (2) it is in early-stage beta and (3) i claim NO expertise in user interface design.

Anyway, another week is finished. I have a 5,000 word essay due next week on whether there is a moral difference between killing a person and deliberately letting them die. Fascinating stuff, but hard to get your head around when you're busy with work and life. This week I was only in Court for one day - Wednesday. Apart from that I had a few long conferences and then was almost totally unproductive today and yesterday. Actually - they are the days I was playing with gnoos!?!

gnoos - believe the hype

In the last day I've been playing with the beta of gnoos and I can tell you - believe the (amazingly extensive) advance hype. It is the real deal if you want a direct line into what Australians think about something immediately it happens.

Yes, ben and mike are friends of mine, but with my hand on my heart (figuratively speaking - I am typing with both hands), I really believe that gnoos offers something new and useful [keep in mind that doing one of the two is not so hard - both at the same time is substantially more difficult]. The guys deserve to succeed and, I am confident, will succeed.

End of a long long week

It's been a long, long week... a 3 day trial, plus working on another big case and trying to write an essay for uni. I think I've earned some sleep this weekend.
Off to the football tonight - Essendon v Richmond - which should hopefully be a really good match (it had better be, 'cos I know it'll be VERY cold at the MCG tonight).
meanwhile, gnoos.com.au is getting close to launch.