Tick Tock.

Tick tock,
Time to stop.
Story continues,
Blog ends.

Bourne in Berlin.

(web image)

We’ve been watching and enjoying the Bourne series. According to Ben, "Jason Bourne wouldn’t be such a hero without the European public transport system". He especially enjoyed identifying familiar places in The Bourne Supremacy which was set in Berlin. We do have to return to Berlin for one final medical procedure, probably next year, and will make good use of the trains.

Yami Yami.

Ben had another appointment at Box Hill today. We also had a delicious lunch at the Yami Yami Korean restaurant. We’ll be back in a few weeks time for the next appointment and for lunch.

Clint Eastwood.

While the name makes me think of a tough cowboy, an even tougher detective or an opinionated old bloke with a rifle, Ben thinks of this song by the Gorillaz:

(Gran Torino, web image)

I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless but not for long
The future is coming on
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless but not for long
The future is coming on
It's coming on...

What’s in a name?

Starcraft II players use names like Classic, Maru, MarineKing, Terminator, Soulkey, Reality, PartinG, Dream, Hurricane, Super, Solar, Creator, DeParture and sOs. All the most successful players are from Korea and some use English versions of their Korean names like BByong and DongRaeGu (DRG). One player recently won $100,000 at a winner-take-all tournament in Katowice Poland. Ben thinks that I should learn how to play and, when asked what name I should use, thought for a while and then suggested Frack. I wouldn’t win very often and could loudly utter my new name after every game.

Dark Souls 2.

We picked up the deluxe collector's edition of Dark Souls 2 on Thursday. The game comes with a cloth map, concept artwork booklet and a large hand-painted knight which now stands proudly on the kitchen shelf; beneath an Ork Mek Boss and beside the Dalai Lama. The hand painting was good but Ben’s using his painting skills to improve it significantly. The game hasn’t been played yet and won’t be attempted until the arrival of a Dark Souls 2 Strategy Guide pre-ordered from Amazon a few weeks ago.

Noise!

The neighbour a few doors away is having two large trees removed this morning. Chainsaws make very annoying noises but far worse is the massive wood-chipping machine that’s been running for the last few hours. Ben’s coping by wearing ear plugs and industrial ear muffs while also sleeping in as he usually does. Noise is a continuing problem in this house. Our teenage next-door neighbours often get carried away and play very-loud-and-fairly-awful music in their house or cars. Worse still was “doof-doof man” around the corner whose sub-woofer vibrations registered on the richter scale. A near altercation with another neighbour and, at another time, a call to the local police seems to have quieted him down. Finally, and at the low end of the noise scale, our fridge is a continual source of annoyance. The industrial ear muffs are worn to block the sound or, alternatively, the fridge gets switched off for a while.

Less Miserable.

(web image)

Ben reports he’s feeling much better lately, which is very good news. Our fairly frequent film viewing has expanded from the Sci Fi and Zombie genres to Westerns and even a musical, Les Miserables with Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Borat and others. The story is quite good and it was a revelation to discover that Russell Crowe can sing as well as act and manage a rugby team. And Hugh Jackman can sing too! Perhaps we all can but don’t have the training to sing well. One slight drawback is that a story moves fairly slowly when characters sing all the time and we kept wondering when we’d reached the half-way point. I think we’re now close the end as Javert, unable to forgive himself or anyone else, has just toppled off a parapet into the ocean.

Tasteless and Artosis.

(Artosis, Tasteless - web image)

Tasteless and Artosis are the names of Ben’s favourite Starcraft 2 casters. Their commentary on SC2 matches is both funny and interesting, though incomprehensible to non-gamers. We’ve put the new Samsung TV to good use watching live net broadcasts streamed from Korea. The TV wasn’t so cool when, after only three weeks of use, it suddenly failed to operate. Fortunately the electronics store was happy to exchange and the replacement is functioning well. In other news of the month, the Mulgrave Country Club directors decided to suddenly remove the club’s pool tables. We plan to punish them financially by not renewing our memberships and ensuring that our vast entourage of friends and relatives are aware of the injustice. We did try another pool hall in Syndal but were quickly driven out by loud techno music. How anyone can skillfully pot pool balls with that playing in the background is beyond me. Ben’s had occasional outings with friends though most time is still spent at home. Painting of Warhammer models continues each day and painting skills are improving. Thus February finishes and we march into March.

Portal 2.

(web image)

Portal 2, the game that couldn’t be played back in August 2013, has been successfully completed. Ben has mastered the physics of the Portal gun, navigated labyrinthine levels, defeated the final boss and emerged from Aperture Science’s massive underground complex out into a golden wheat field that stretches to the far horizon. Farewell to GLaDOS and Wheatley, it certainly was a fun game for a non-player to watch with some very funny lines and that very catchy tune in the final credits.

Professionally perfected figurines.

Iwata compressor and air-brush.

The box contained an Iwata compressor ordered online from South Australia. The compressor runs very quietly and provides air for an Iwata Eclipse air-brush purchased online from Japan. Our Japanese friend Yumi kindly listed some of the many uses of airbrushes:

Possibilities: a) your car painted with never extinguished flame and naked woman, b) your house painted with rainbow colour walls and unreadable statements, c) professionally perfected figurines.

And we're going for option (c), although the Honda fuel tank would look good with flames. Rainbow house painters will need a much bigger brush.

As for why the kitchen table was so clean... that just happens from time to time. It's not clean any more.

What's in the box?

What's in the box? And why is the kitchen table so clean?

Cool change.

The temperature hit 42°C late this afternoon. That’s just about the time we headed out to Dandenong looking for a larger TV. The Falcon runs poorly on extremely hot days so we thought it best to leave the aircon off. A 40” TV isn’t large by today’s standards but it’s a big step up from 26. Back in a warm house, Ben played Skyrim on PS3 and watched a Starcraft stream while compensating for the larger screen by sitting further away. As the temperature pleasantly plummeted outside, we re-watched some of Oblivion on Blu-ray and marvelled at the clarity of the images. An online rental copy of Iron Man 3 is slowly downloading overnight, ready for viewing tomorrow. The new TV is really cool.

Australia Day.

© Ben 2012

It’s Australia Day today and the Honours List doesn’t include any family or friends. We missed church last week and, in atonement for watching Supernatural, will attend tonight. Some of the episodes push the boundaries a bit too far at times, at least that’s how it seems. The Ork Boyz are nearly finished thus completing a project that started in Berlin almost four years ago. We’ve seen The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug at the cinema recently and have some Gold Class tickets to use before the end of March. The Hobbit was exciting but a little too long. Ben had to move seats on account of a snoring man in the back row. He hasn’t drawn any hand pictures for a long time. I did find this one in a drawer, it’s the only one with colour.

Surviving the heatwave.

We’ve had four successive days over 40°C and almost reached the predicted 44°C yesterday and the day before. To survive the heatwave, we’ve retreated to the only room in the house with aircon, the kitchen. The downstairs room, immediately below the kitchen, is also reasonably cool and benefits from a steady stream of cold air seeping down the stairs. The rest of the house is like an oven, especially at night, and the hallway thermometer shows 35°C well into the night. We keep doors closed to seal off the rest of the house. I’m back to sleeping in the kitchen and Ben sleeps downstairs with the TV, PS3 and Babar. Like us, Jazz has found her own cool spots and, while she likes her rug soaked with water, she hates being sprayed with a hose. Two magpies have taken ownership of a water container placed under the trees in the yard. While we cope with the weather, another story unfolds as Ben’s grandfather, almost 100 years old, is hospitalised and the doctors want to discontinue treatment. For years, family members have provided total care for him at home in Springvale and they’d like him to get some basic treatment so he can return home for a while. The doctors and social worker have another meeting with the family today. His wife and seven or eight of his nine children will be attending. At least the hospital is comfortable and, we’re told, a cool change is on the way.