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| Top Ten Films of 2008 - Tuesday, 06 Jan 2009 |
 What a slack way to start 2009 on TFW. A whole six days before the first post!
The holidays are over and we're pretty much getting back into the normal running of things in the office and at home. I didn't have any time off over Christmas except for the public holidays so I'm really looking forward to the trip to UK and Hong Kong in February.
There's nothing terribly interesting going on at the moment in my life worth blogging about so lets roll out an End of Year list.
Top Ten Films of 2008
In hindsight, 2008 was actually a pretty strong year for films and I didn't find it hard at all to put together a top ten list. Other than my pick for Best Film Of The Year, the others are in no particular order:
 Let The Right One In
This Swedish vampire film was probably the best surprise I had all year. I knew very little about the film going in and was blown away by the time the credits rolled. Similiar to the themes in 28 Days Later where the humans are ultimately the greater evil, Eli the immortal vampire in a 12 year old's body is capable of doing some nasty things but you'll see far worse from the humans in Let The Right One In. The pool scene is an emotional exclamation mark. It has awesome tension building up and is then followed by an incredibly cathartic release.
 No Country For Old Men
Critically acclaimed and yet I don't think I personally know a single person that actually enjoyed this film. Having read the book before hand, I knew about its unusual structure and unconventional twists and I think I enjoyed it mostly for Javier Bardem's portrayal of Chigurh. I was surprised when I watched the Coen's Blood Simple later in the year and found how similar the two films were. I actually think I prefer Blood Simple to No Country.
 Wall-E
I don't know how its possible but for over a decade now Pixar keep delivering the goods with their films. Maybe its because I haven't seen Cars or A Bug's Life. Wall-E was a slightly riskier release for Pixar: The opening 30 minutes features almost no dialogue and the harsh portrayal of irresponsible humans and multinational corporations make this the most 'adult' animated feature by Pixar to date. And I love them for it. I wouldn't mind seeing them actually go all out and make a mature-rated film one year.
 There Will Be Blood
3 hours long, a minimal supporting cast and the lead character is on-screen for 99% of the scenes. This could only work with an almighty central performance and who better than a moustachioed Daniel Day Lewis as an emotionally-stunted vicious oil tycoon. Soundtrack by Johnny Greenwood is pretty rad too.
 Man On Wire
A documentary about a man who sneaks into famous landmarks and illegally wire-walks across them, culminating in a wire-walk over the World Trade Center. The footage is jaw-dropping (the man often walks back and forth several times and lies down on the wire as if taking a nap). Even better, the man who does this, Phillipe Petit, has the best OUTRAGEOUS FRENCH ACCENT ever caught on video. Worth it just to hear him talk.
 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
A film adaption of a book written by a former Vogue magazine editor who suffers a stroke causing him to become entirely paralysed except for control of a single eyelid. He then proceeds to write a whole damn book, dictating to his nurse by blinking the alphabet. So if you ever want to see life from the perspective of a former playboy who now has a fully functioning brain in a broken shell of a body, this is your film! It certainly worked for me.
 The Orphanage
A really awesome ghost story. It's excellently told, has creepy visuals, some crafty jump-scares and hell, if you liked The Devil's Backbone or Pan's Labyrinth, you can expect a similar standard here. I had high expectations going in and they were solidly met.
 Slumdog Millionaire
An incredible modern day fairy tale told from the perspective of a boy from the slums who attempts to reunite with the love of his life by going on the tv show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Makes India look like the coolest place to explore on Earth. Boyle's range in his filmography is pretty amazing nowadays.
 The Wrestler
I find it kind of mind-boggling that someone made a good film about pro wrestling. Seriously. And yet here it is in all its glory: Mickey Rourke's incredible performance, a deathmatch with The Necrobutcher and about 10 scenes with Marisa Tomei wearing nothing. The perfect film?
 The Dark Knight2008 Film Of The Year
If it was any other year, The Wrestler would be my film of the year. But in 2008, we got The Dark Knight which delivered us the best ever Joker portrayal, a throughly indulgent 152 minute running time, incredible performances from Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart, SUPER DEEP BATMAN VOICE OF GREAT JUSTICE, 500 action scenes and by a million miles, the best super hero film ever made and the best fim of the year.
Honorable mentions: Son of Rambow, Frost/Nixon, Juno
Worst Film I Saw In 2008: Rambo
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| Posted by Edo @ 12:58am | (0 comments) |
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| Happy New Year - Tuesday, 30 Dec 2008 |
Well, this is it. 2008 is all but over.
Its been a hell of a year for me. Workwise, Jen and I both had two promotions, I've had five highly entertaining interstate trips and an awesome team to work with. I'm eight months away from being married. I got set on fire. I saw Def Leppard. We got our own apartment in the city.
2009 of course is shaping up to be even bigger with the trip to the U.K on the cards and the wedding in August.
Hope you all have an awesome New Years Eve party. Lord knows we've shared some memorable ones together. I could talk about the Limefield party, the Hotel party, the Labuan party or the dreaded Millenium party but I think those are all stories best saved for another day.
Happy New Year everyone!
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| Posted by Edo @ 3:44pm | (1 comments) |
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| Survivor GaBONE Final Show - Tuesday, 30 Dec 2008 |
I had the misfortune of having the winner of this season spoiled before watching this show which kinda put a damper on things.
Regardless, I finally got around to watching the final episode and I'm even more gutted about the spoiler given how things turn out between the final tribal council with Matt and Bob having tied votes. What a cliffhanger!
All in all, this was an excellent season with pretty much four out of the final five being interesting characters that I would have been happy to see win. Given all the votes that Susie got at the end also made me think she might have had a poor edit for the show and she may have had more substance than what we saw. Bob was a deserved winner though and its pretty amazing he pulled it off since he was at the bottom rung of a losing alliance. Still, he turned out to be a individual challenge beast and made TWO immunity idols which will surely mess with the heads of future contestants of the show also.
I don't know if I'm getting Alzheimers but watching the reunion in the studio, I could barely remember some of the previous players. Jaquie and Kelly kinda blended into the same person for me and for the life of me, I can't remember anything Paloma did on the show.
Look forward to next season. Hopefully its not too far away. |
| Posted by Edo @ 3:37pm | (0 comments) |
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| Merry Christmas - Wednesday, 24 Dec 2008 |
Merry Christmas to all the FAT website bloggers and readers all around the world!
Hope you all have an awesome day with your family and loved ones. Make sure you eat too much and here's hoping you score some cool prezzies.
 A Very Brisbane Christmas |
| Posted by Edo @ 4:28pm | (2 comments) |
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| Australian government expands Internet filter plans to include P2P, torrents, "unwanted content" - Monday, 22 Dec 2008 |
"THE Federal Government's controversial internet censorship scheme may extend to filter more online traffic than was first thought, Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy revealed today. In a post on his department's blog, Senator Conroy today said technology that could filter data sent directly between computers would be tested as part of the upcoming live filtering trial.
"Technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness of this will be tested in the live pilot trial," Senator Conroy said.
- News.com.au"
 Rudders!!!
I'm not real impressed with Labor's criteria for what will be censored with their Internet filter: 'unwanted content'. Like thats not open to abuse at all. No, sir.
I miss John Howard.  |
| Posted by Edo @ 3:59am | (1 comments) |
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| Sydney - Monday, 15 Dec 2008 |
So I spent a week in Sydney.
On weekdays I was in the office meeting and greeting a bunch of staff who I email a lot but had never met. On the weekend I was free to do touristy stuff. The highlight of the trip though was definitely the hugely anticipated dinner at Tetsuyas.
I went with Jen and a friend from work, Julie, who used to be a chef.
It ended up costing a cool $300 a head (when we included the cost of wine being served with each course) but it was well worth it. I had never had a degustation before so it was all a new experience. In total, we had 17 courses over 5 hours. It was truly epic. As someone who excels at sitting down and eating, it felt like I was attending a sort of Big Day Out for fatties.
 The Venue: Tetsuyas. Rated 5th Best Restaurant in the World and Australia's Best Restaurant Tetsuya Wakuda - a major dude Before "Beats Beans on Toast!! You should take some photos of the food presentation!!Pat - Sunday, 07 Dec 2008 @ 11:58am" Round #001: Pea soup with mint cream and chocolate salt
Round #002: Sour dough loaf
Round #003: Oysters with miso and ginger
Round #004: Smoked ocean trout with caviar
Round #005: Leek and spanner crab custard
Round #006: Grilled scampi wrapped in pancetta, scampi and passionfruit, scampi in sea water and lemon scented olive oil
Round #007: Confit of ocean trout with roe, apple and wasabi
Round #008: Terrine of spanner crab with avocado soup
Round #009: Fillet of barramundi with baby fennel
Round #010: Breast of duck with braised witlof and walnut jus
Round #011: Wagyu beef with wasabi and lime
Round #012: Comte with lentils
Round #013: Beetroot and blood orange sorbet and Tetsuyas Summer Pudding
Round #014: Lemon scented floating island with creme anglaise
Round #015: Chocolate ganashe with sweet red beans
Round #016: Petit fours
Round #017: Earl Grey Tea
Chillin' with Tetsuya Wakada
After
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| Posted by Edo @ 2:55am | (2 comments) |
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| Survivor GaBONE Week 11 - Sunday, 07 Dec 2008 |
Week 10 was the recap week during Thanksgiving.
This week was pretty interesting. Bob seems to be playing the game pretty hard at this stage but unless he had a wonky edit for the first half of the season I don't get why he left it so late to do anything about the situation he's in.
Conversely, I've noticed the shift in the portrayal of Ken as an overconfident douche which makes me think his constant blindsides will catch up with the guy and he won't make final 3.
At this stage however, I'm pretty happy with anyone other than Suzie winning and with the way she is presented as such a non-entity, I don't think she would get the vote to win even if she made the final tribal council.
Who I Want To Win: Bob
Who I Think Will Win: Sugar |
| Posted by Edo @ 2:12am | (0 comments) |
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| Work Christmas Party - Sunday, 07 Dec 2008 |
We had our Work Christmas Party this Friday.
We hired out this massive venue to accomodate the 300+ crowd from the office. Unfortunately, the music was pretty weak so most people stayed out on the balcony.
Didn't stop anyone from enjoying the seemingly limitless quantities of free booze however.
I'm off to Sydney next week. It's me and Jen's anniversary that week and we've made reservations at Tetsuyas, a 3-star Michelin restaurant rated 5th best in the world.
Cannot. Wait. 
 Me and our customer relations officer Eli    Cookie enjoys the sweet relief of the toilet on the party bus |
| Posted by Edo @ 2:11am | (3 comments) |
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| Rock Band, Lips and The Walking Dead - Sunday, 30 Nov 2008 |
So while Matt and Mike are busy rocking out to Rock Band 2, we plebs over here in Australia only just got the first damn game.
So I finally picked up a copy of Rock Band for the 360 (game only) and have been playing it using my Guitar Hero 3 guitar.
It's a pretty sweet game I must say. The interface is a lot cleaner than what I'm used to in Guitar Hero games and the audience interaction in the songs in fantastic (crowd singing along, singer crowd surfs etc). Best of all, it has a massive catalogue of tracks. I'm looking forward to playing Behind Blue Eyes by The Who, Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis and the fact that they have entire downloadable albums fills me with hope that one day we'll get Def Leppard's Vault CD on Rock Band which would basically be the best thing ever.
I also picked up a copy of Lips for the 360 which is Microsoft's answer to Sony's Singstar and is developed by the guys that made the awesome Elite Beat Agents series.
Again, its a very different interface from what I'm used to with Singstar. There is more detail for each track and its kinda similar to iTunes where it lists the genre, artist, a rating out of 5 etc. Unfortunately, Lips also seems to be a more accurate measure of whether you can sing or not. I, for one, can't sing for shit but in Singstar, I will outscore Jen half the time. In Lips, its unusual if Jen doesn't double my score at least.
I haven't had a chance to try out the feature where you can upload your own songs but this game truly lets you create The Salt Monkeys: Karaoke experience, I will report back and let you guys know.
Lastly, how awesome is The Walking Dead? I'll tell you: megaton awesome. I kinda thought it looked a bit pretentious and douchey when I read Volume I which starts with a brief introduction from the author explicitly telling the reader that there will be CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT but hey, the man was right and its a pretty decent story with some great artwork to boot. |
| Posted by Edo @ 4:35pm | (0 comments) |
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| Movember To Remember - Saturday, 29 Nov 2008 |
In keeping with a similar theme to Matt's previous blog, we had our office Movember party last night. Movember is a worldwide charity for raising awareness for men's health (prostate cancer, testicular cancer, depression etc.)
For the whole month, my team at work had thrown away their razors and on Friday we organised our own fundraising night to raise some money for the cause. I think we managed around $600 for the night which is a pretty good effort for a team of twelve.
We also got real drunk. All for a good cause.
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| Posted by Edo @ 12:39am | (1 comments) |
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