I often see people state opinions and other people interpret them as if they are stating facts that can be proven or disproven analytically. Want an example? This dude on an internet forum says that a movie sucks.  Another person replies with “got any proof?” How do you prove an opinion? I find that if you don’t want to get flamed on internet you have to constantly preface your statements with “in my opinion” and “from my perspective”, otherwise people think you’re stating inviolable facts and you’re just daring them to disagree. Why do some people find it hard to separate fact from opinion?

This only applies to subjective things, of course. “Rain falls up and money grows on trees”…well, obviously that’s not an opinion.

But let’s look on the bright side, the grass around the septic tank is a lot greener. =)

Some people would think it’s scary that machines are replacing men on the battlefield, but I think it’s great. It takes us closer to the day where wars can be fought with no human casualties.

On the 7th, the family rented a marquee and went to Coastfest. The idea was that I’d man the marquee and collect email addresses etc. However, the weather was not on our side and we were flooded out on the second day by heavy rains and gale-force winds. It didn’t help that most of the people we worked with were incredibly incompetent (example: our tent was shipped to the site with no sides, and when the sides were delivered they didn’t fit properly). I still spent one night out in the storm, suffice to say I didn’t get much sleep.

My dad is seeing a nuclear medicine physician at Kanwal, and he’s undergoing a multiple-series process known as “stress testing”, and yeah, it’s just as bad as it sounds. I’ve had to drive him there several times in the last week (he’s a paraplegic and there’s no freaking disabled parking at Kanwal) and he will have many more tests ahead of him before he is readmitted to Royal North Shore. But it’s worth it, as it should speed up the process for his kidney operations and help the old guy live a better life.

Lastly, the family has gone on a five-day trip to Bondai. We’re staying at a really expensive hotel, and it’s been a great experience so far. Helpful staff, great food, lots of things to do, it’s hardly worth leaving your suite. I have gone and visited various places in Bondai (it’s hard to forget that I partly grew up here) and it’s been great. There’s lots of small differences to living on the Central Coast (you tip shopowners here, while you don’t do that there), and the beach is beyond awesome. The prices are a gouge though. Would you believe it that bottled water in the suite costs $6.50 per 1.5l bottle? Which doesn’t make sense since tap water is free.

The layout is insanely minimalist. You have a UI that’s about 80 pixels high, a scrollbar down the side, and the rest of the screen is content. There’s no useless status bar down the bottom of the screen, either.

Unlike most programs, it doesn’t sacrifice functionality to obtain minimalism. Everything’s right where you need it, 1-2 clicks away. This is a relief, as there are many browsers out there that were obviously designed by graphic designers with no regard to how the program would actually be used.

Some stuff I’m used to seems to be missing. How do I view a page’s source? Maybe the feature exists, but I can’t seem to find it. Other than that, my only reservation is that Chrome seems to ignore my middle mouse button (which I use a lot), but it’s a beta so I’m not going crazy about it.

I don’t use “goo goo ga ga” baby talk (why should I? Kids should learn to speak like grownups, not the other way around) but treat kids like adults with a limited vocabulary. I also get on well with old people. Strange, isn’t it?

It will be an interesting three days. The place will be full of alternative bands and artists and everything else you expect at a folk festival. I might even bring my guitar and see if I can get lessons.

Hypnosis isn’t like I thought it would be. I had complete control and self-awareness, and could have broken the trance at any time. The best way I can explain: it’s like being asleep, except you’re conscious of being asleep and can choose when you wake up.

My father was a skilled hypnotist, and had talents like putting someone deep under and convincing them that their own purse was too heavy to lift (he told me that he once saw a strong, fit woman struggling and straining to lift a purse that couldn’t have weighed more than 2kg). Also, you can modify your brain and behaviour while under hypnosis, for good or for bad. I must explore the possibilities of this.

Since when are these weenies experts on guitar technique? Not only do I suspect most of them have never touched a musical instrument in their lives (Guitar Hero Zero 3 doesn’t count), but they’re offering their backhand “critiques” just as a way of boosting their own ego. The internet has become just another venue where insecure kids rubbish people who are genuinely talented, and it’s a shame it has to be that way.

And about this “feeling” and “emotion” business. This of course is subjective, which is the whole reason why people use it so often. If someone sucks at guitar it should be immediately obvious, but if someone plays well there’s nothing you can bash him about…except…he has no emotion! Yeah, that’s right! It’s a bulletproof criticism because there’s no response to a subjective assertion like “your playing lacks emotion”.

It’s time all of these self-proclaimed Youtube critics shut up and went back to what they’re good at…playing GH3 alone in their bedrooms.

I’m sure they were trying to capture the feel of the TV show, but they’re missing the point. TV cartoons are made on the cheap. The flat, angular, cell-shaded visuals are a necessity. Why you’d want to keep that in a feature movie is a bit beyond me, but like I said I haven’t seen it yet.

The movie’s main problem is…well…Batman is barely in it! He appears unmasked in about three scenes. He gets perhaps 20 lines in total. Most of the movie is about the Joker, with a side helping of Harvey Dent aka Two Face (who is so unlikeable you almost can’t wait for bad things to start happening to him). It’s like watching a Rocky movie where Rocky Balboa has a 10-minute cameo.

There was good stuff, of course. The scene involving the fake Batmen was quite clever (“What’s the difference between you and me?” “I’m not wearing hockey pads.”) As a bit of Bat-trivia, Batman never uses guns. Indeed, he has only pulled a gun on a criminal once (see the first episode of “Batman Beyond”), and that was enough to cause him to retire in shame. As soon as I saw a guy in a Batman suit charging forward with a machinegun, I knew he was fake. Other good parts were the scenes with Gordon’s son (whom I’m sure will grow up to become Robin) and the final clash with Two-Face.

But back to the Joker: Heath Ledger has dispensed with the silly Joker of the first movie and now plays someone who looks like a cross between Sweeney Todd and Marilyn Manson. Mere words cannot describe how effective this character is. He’s not a goofy comic-book villain, he’s a psychopathic freak who thinks of murder the same way most people think of going to the bathroom. Another piece of trivia: during the movie the Joker tells two conflicting stories about how he got his scars. This is consistant with the personality of the Joker, who invents and fabricates past lives for himself until not even he is sure what the truth is.

Sadly, while the villains were great, the main characters were anything but. You have Harvey Dent, who is supposed to be a sympathetic character but comes across as a nominee for Knob of the Year Award, and Commissioner Gordon, who is a bit more tolerable but still annoying. And then there’s Rachel, who was unmemorable and generic beyond belief. Throughout the movie I was asking myself “hey wait, have I seen her before?….ah forget it.”

Overall, this movie was pretty weak.

It really makes me value my health. If there’s anyone reading this who has perfect health…hang on to that bastard! Don’t drink, don’t smoke, look both ways before driving into a T-intersection, and stay out of moshpits. If someone mugs you, it may be better to give them your wallet than to try and fight. And above all, watch what you eat.

As an interesting coincidence, the Royal Northshore Hospital is where my dad met my mum…30 years ago. And it will probably be the place he dies. Wouldn’t that be something?

The first is a Goodyear. The second is a great year.

What would you do in a situation like that? The man giving the interview on the radio was quite knowledgeble. He said that it isn’t a case of opening a door and swimming to the surface. The water pressure means it is very difficult to open a car door deep underwater. And you can’t smash a window either, the water pressure on the outside and air pressure on the inside will stop the window from shattering.

At the end of the day, what did the poor guy in that the airbag deployed, and trapped him in his seat. How…ironic.

Anyway, I just discovered that my blog was set so that the last 100 (!) entries display on the main page. I changed it to a more reasonable number: 20. Sorry about that.

There was a lot of stuff I had to improvise on. The strings were very old and dull, so I bought new ones and spent an hour trying to change them before I realised that two of the bridge pins on the guitar were broken. Solution: I tied the new strings in a knot around the bridge. They tend to spring loose occasionally, but it’s playable. Also, I didn’t have a pick, so I used a paperclip.

I’m busy learning chords and scales right now. I can do A Major, A Minor, C Major, D Major, G Major…and some other one. (So I’m basically on the level of Nickelback’s guitarist) No plans to buy an electric guitar just yet. I want to see if I like playing first.