Balancing Priorities

Today was a hard day to come into work. It was a day between a public holiday and a weekend and I had a big night last night. There was also another teams event which I had promised my poker partner that I would attend.

I pushed my weary body to work early and cleaned up what was a surprisingly busy day. My day became much worse in the afternoon - one of our customers has a habit of planning network changes on a Friday afternoon, and equipment/configs are most likely to dail when such work is being done. I ended up landing an emergency and was stuck in the office until evening working on a product I barely know. By the time the fault was finished, I could not make it to poker in time and had to let down my partner - even if I had made it there, i was mentally shot and very tired from the night before.

I ended up watching a little football before passing out on the lounge. I felt like I was in good spirits from last night, its amazing how fast things can change.

Chopper Show @ Enmore

Today is an Australian Public Holiday for Anzac Day. The last few years, there has been a Chopper comedy show at the Enmore theatre, I have wanted to see the chopper show, mainly because I like chopper but have often struggled to find good company to attend with.

This year I found a willing participant. She is someone I once worked with.She has a similar appreciation of comedy and we were overdue for a catchup, so everything just fell into place. My friend had never been to the Enmore before and was happy to check out the venue.

The Chopper show is a sampler of the Sydney comedy festival. There were about 8 acts separated by chopper comedy. Some acts were certainly better than others, but it was a nice mix that blended Australia and New Zealand together.

We also had dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant across the road and I did something I rarely do - Drink alcohol. I was a little embarrassed to be a bit tipsy, particularly in the company of my relatively small and light friend.

All in all, I had a fantastic night. Good food, good comedy and good company. I had high expectations for today and all were met. Days like these are few and far between, and something to remember on the bad days.

Spending the rest of your life...

I'm not a regular lotto player, but like to buy the odd ticket when the jackpot exceeds $20 Million.  The current Powerball is $50 Million.

There is a small work syndicate that I am a part of with the same rule - we all put $10 in and but a couple of tickets to test our luck.

What has me wondering is that if I were to win, how would it change my life? I wouldn't quit my job and would love to go to Vegas, but would do that regardless of if I won lotto.

 Despite my odds being incredibly long, It is still something we do.Wish me luck.

Chopper

I am going to see a Chopper comedy show in a couple of days. In anticipation, I re-watched this aussie classic movie last weekend.

This was one of Eric Bana's first feature films. I was a fan of Eric from his days doing skit comedy as Channel 31's 'Poida'. He plays the role od Chopper brilliantly. I really liked how he developed the character - showing how Chopper could explode into a pit of rage, then all of a sudden can be hit by the consequences of his actions and become remorseful. He has a couple of classic cult scenes , particularly when storytelling his part actions and 'never letting the truth get in the way of a good yarn'. It is also impressive just how much weight Eric put on for the role - that is going the extra mile.

This is by no means a true story, but an artists interpretation on various Chopper stories that have filtered through the craps. Aussies love a villainous hero, and Chopper fits the bill perfectly. What ever you think of the real Chopper, this movie is entertaining and well worth watching more than once.

Taking the Shot.

I have put my opinions on gun reform in this blog before. In short, I feel save living in a country where gun possession is scarce and people in public are rarely armed. I am also saddened when I hear report after report of mass shootings in the US.

When Obama promised to push real gun reform, I was as pessimistic as most. The conservative media of the day tried to shift the focus into mental health and more guns being the solution. When solid legislation was presented to close loopholes on obtaining firearms without mental health checks, conservative media took another step to the right to stop any gun reform from getting through. There was slight hope when the senate came up with a very weak compromise, but seeing that not even that watered down bill could pass a Democratically controlled senate does little for me to instill confidence in US politics.

I would really love to see an anti-gun lobby garner enough support to counteract the affects of the NRA and get congressmen to vote with their heads rather than defend their report cards. I also with Murdock would take up Turnbull's challenge and proactively support gun control across his media.

Whatever anyone thinks of John Howard, getting rid of semi automatic guns and reducing overall gun ownership was his crowning achievement in my eyes, and whilst it had its risks and opposition in the day, is without doubt the best thing he did in his political career.

Stuffed Capsicums

I'm not huge fan of capsicum, however, love it when they are stuffed and fried. This dish is rarely cooked by my parents. I have been told many times that they are too fiddly and not worth the effort.

I had a couple at my nans about a month ago, and my uncle offered to teach me. That day was today. The dish is very simple but also very time consuming - you need to:

- Empty a few capsicums (the longer, thinner capsicums are better)
- Get hard bread and cut it into very tiny pieces.
- Dice a few tomatoes and add it to the bread.
- Chop up some anchovies and garlic, add it to the stuffing.
- Add salt, basil and oil. mix thoroughly.
- Fill capsicums with as much stiffing as possible
- Fry them, end first.

The capsicums were fantastic. I have a few left over for dinner tomorrow. What was even better though is that I had productive time with my nan and uncle - they enjoyed teaching me as much as I enjoyed learning. I can not wait to give it a go on my own.

Zero Dark Thirty

I watched this film today. In a nutshell, It starts at September 11 and follows the life of a CIA operative whose job it is to track down UBL.

I was one of those who was disappointed with Hurt Locker, which was directed by the same person, and despite good reviews for this one, had little expectation. It was not as bad as I was prepared for, but not as good as a documentary I had seen about a year ago on the same subject.

Maybe it is a cultural thing, but Americans need a hero. I don't know how fictional Maya is, but this sort of thing detracts from the movie for me. Also, to give away the obvious spoiler, I almost felt sorry for UBL at the end considering how many children were around when the assassination occurred.

Nonetheless, it was a movie that always needed to be made and this was a better than fair attempt at it.