Binnsy's Hovel

And Australian Rules Footy is over for another year, with the flag being hoisted high over Skilled Stadium as the Cats sing their song long into the night. It’s great to see the flag come back to a Victorian team, breaking a seven-year drought since Essendon defeated the valiant Demons in 2000.

Despite my joy at this, the Grand Final was somewhat of a fizzler this year, with 97300 people showing up to see the Geelong show – Port Adelaide didn’t even amass 8 goals (6.8.44) to Geelong’s insane 24.19.163.

But who really cares? The Dees didn’t make the finals and it’s now cricket season – the only good thing about the Australian summer. Come on Aussie, come on.

Until next time…

I wonder if they’ll give any more than a Pass to an essay that begins with the words, ‘By the mid-1st Century BC, the Roman Republic was pretty much up shit creek without a paddle.’

No, probably not.

Until next time…

I don’t like Macs. I’ve never pretended to like Macs in any way, shape or form. The only respect I have for them is the kind that I harbour for playing Lemmings and Where In Space In Carmen San Diego on Macs in my misspent youth.

However, let it not be said that I don’t respect Macs. They’re incredibly powerful and when used purely for film and sound editing, they really are something of the bomb.

We were stuffing around with Pro Tools at uni today, as it’s our study vacation and we needed to study for a skills test in about three weeks’ time, and damn, that’s an awesome program. It’s incredibly detailed and expansive, and very powerful.

I’m buggered if I’m gonna be able to grab hold of everything before the test though – but we’ll see. With the help of several YouTube tutorials, we’ll see.

Meantime ‘The Writers’ is in a sort of quite-near-the-end stasis while I pen my 4-5 minute piece for Non-Linear Editing. Think robbery gone wrong but in a funny kind of way. It’ll be grand for sure.

I finish housesitting on Saturday, which is bad. But I’m heading to a mates’ place for drink, merriment and gaming on Saturday night, which is good. Lose-win.

Apparently Halo 3 is grand fun. Had a very brief shot at the Gamesmen today and the graphics and gameplay is mindblowing. I don’t have an Xbox 360 though. Hopefully I’ll get a go at some point on Saturday night. Should be most grand.

Until next time…

Well I guess you can imagine my surprise when I clicked onto my blog today only to see the following blog post taking up space on my blog!

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Shock and horror! How dare someone post spam on my blog without my permission! My only thought is that it’s all automated, or someone’s broken into my Blogger account. Sigh. Either way I’ll change the password and be done with it. I’m keeping the title they gave the post though. Suitably random for the Hovel.

Until next time…

Well, my first vlog is here… enjoy the non-text goodness…

Until next time…

My work was held up lastnight, by three men with very dangerous weapons. I wasn’t working, but a friend and colleague was. And I can’t give all the details – mainly because I don’t know them myself. However, I have a few things to say.

My workplace is located in a badly lit, rather seedy area of town between a local pub and a railyway station, both frequented by drunks and drug users. We have to stay open til midnight on a Friday and Saturday night because of our reputation as being always open til late over the weekends. And after 9pm on Friday and Saturday nights it’s only one of us closers on.

I’ve had a few nervous experiences with people who get a bit antsy with our security policy all alone at night on a weekend. It’s not a fun experience. I had to call the cops on Friday night because about thirty kids were loitering and being a nuisance in the carpark.

At what point does a store’s behaviour and mode of operation become negligence to employees? Our work has been held up at least once a year for the past ten years. The only changes that have been made as a result were for the safety of the cash, never the staff. Another colleague was held up around this time last year. He was naturally nervous on returning to work, and for two weeks had the door locked, opening it manually for customers. The boss didn’t approve of this and told him to stop.

My bosses are great guys, but I’m a little pissed off with their attitudes to all this. My suggestions: shut at 11pm and have two people working on Friday and Saturday nights. When the safety of staff is at risk, no monetary sacrifice is too great. They always say that we’re the only thing in the store that isn’t insured.

Until next time…

For you confused folks out there – this is an email that was sent by accident to my entire Gmail contact list. Flixster is a film taste profiling site and movie rating network; part social networking service too, I believe.

It’s up to you whether or not you join, but I apologise for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.

Here’s the email:

http://www.flixster.com/user/binnsy1/connect

Dan B

This note was sent via Flixster by Dan Binns (binnsy@gmail.com) to binnsy326.bhpublish@blogger.com. If you prefer not to receive emails like this, tell us here.
Or you can notify us in writing to this address: Flixster, PO Box 40577, San Francisco, CA 94110

Until next time…

Is it just me or is our Prime Minister the most amazing political gymnast ever to grace the large square floor mat of Australian government? Only two days ago the papers said this:

“I would probably or certainly form the view well into my term that it will make sense for me to retire.”

That was from the British Telegraph of all places.

Then today our own Sydney Morning Herald…

“If I’m returned and the government’s returned at the coming election I will serve my full term at the member for Bennelong, the full three years.”

Insert relevant lolcat here – I think he sums it up best:

Until next time…

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Update (16/9, 12:45pm): Okay, so it was just pointed out to me that the first point above was made in reference to Howard’s re-election as PM, the second to his re-election as MP for Bennelong. You have to admit, though that he is pretty hard to believe. And with Rudd gaining ground left, right and centre, you can almost be forgiven for thinking that there’s no hope for the now-aging and more-apparently conservative Howard government. I guess we’ll have to wait and see though…

Having finally succumbed to the full gamut of social networking sites, I am happy to say that I feel no more encumbered or liberated than I was before. As such, I’m attempting to pass off my sudden conversion to both MySpace and Facebook as some bizarre social experiment – or a brilliant way to catch up with old friends. How far I can take that, who knows – at least until someone figures out it was just another excuse for procrastination.

Until next time…

I’m not dead, honest.

Vive le APEC. And I live two minutes from where Air Force One was parked while Dubya was here. Awesum.

Until next time…