They call me RICH-BLOR, Prince of Persuasion

Ok, noone really calls me that, but you get the idea!

Our house has been up on the market now for about a month and a half, and putting it mildly we are pretty disappointed with the lack of interest we have received. So far two people have requested a contract, one vanished never to return and the other has been very unwilling to make an offer. But at least she remains interested I suppose!

First off she comes in demands an inspection on a thursday afternoon, dragging one of us out of work to look after the dog. She got there early, asked waaaay too many questions and generally didn't have much that was good to say about the place. Bizarrely she then came back on Saturday last week (why did she insist on the zero-notice inspection?) and requested a copy of the contract plus permission from our body corporate to bring in two cats. Now that seems extremely positive right? But rather than get the ball rolling, she insists on waiting on a response from the body corporate before doing anything further.

As a bit of back story, our block has a long standing division between pet owners (5 out of 11) and pet haters (currently non that I'm aware of, the main troublemaker moved thank christ). And yet somehow, despite this serious skew in favour of pet owners they managed to pass a change in by law which prevents any further pets being brought in. Naturally, the very next person to move in brought a dog with them, pleaded ignorance and the 'rules violation' was overlooked (which plays a large part in our story!). By law, people are allowed pets and without a damn good reason a body corporate has exactly zero chance of forcing someone to get rid of a pet, ESPECIALLY when other people in the block already have similar pets with permission.

Anywho, so in other words the law itself stands behind the cats, while the bylaws come down on the side of a cat-free zone. But there is precedence for someone to be given permission to have a pet since the by law was put into effect. If she just bought the place and moved in, nothing would happen and everyone would be happy, but since she has asked for permission she has also given them the power to withhold that permission.

Naturally, no pet owner is going to buy a house if they aren't permitted to bring their pets with them, so without this permission our sale is dead in the water. Suzy and I spent a rather anxious week last week waiting on a response from the executive committee, and trying to catch our El Presidenti to talk it over. We didn't catch up with her until the weekend, and didn't get a decision from them until monday night.

What we were told was that while she is welcome to move in and bring her cats, as the by law states no pets they were not willing to give written permission. So in otherwords, they were going to say No even though the answer was Yes, and torpedo our sale in the process. I spent roughly half an hour to 45 minutes discussing this with the president in an attempt to change her mind, and much to my own surprise managed to do it. Eventually what turned her around was the fact that the last group to move had done the wrong thing by just moving in and effectively given permission, while this woman was trying to do the right thing and was going to be punished for it despite noone caring about a pair of cats.

Anyway, long story long we wrangled a very condition-laden approval for this woman to bring two cats onto the property if she buys it. And after only a week and a half, what efficiency! She was a bit spooked by the conditions, but we asked the agent to stress to her that noone really cares about her cats, the executive committee just don't feel comfortable about breaching the rules in writing.

Fortunately, she still seems to be interested but I suppose it goes without saying that it isn't that easy. Today she has announced that she needs to research what she feels to be a fair price for our house (what the holy hell was she doing last week, twiddling her thumbs?) and left it at that. We now have no idea when we are going to hear from her, it could be tomorrow, could be next week... could be never.

Why couldn't this just be simple? Gah! One thing is for sure, our new place better brace itself because it is going to take a hell of a lot to convince me selling up and moving again is a good idea!

PS: NCIS has been on in the background while I wrote this... god it sucks, I used to like that guy in Dark Angel, but this is just awful.

NoooOOOoOOOOOoooOooOooOOO!

*Sigh* I don't know why I do this to myself, but I just finished watching Season 2 of Lost. I should just learn to accept it, but as a general rule I frigging hate cliffhangers and this entire SHOW IS ONE BIG CLIFFHANGER!

AHRG!

It's pretty good though :) Guess I'm stuck waiting for Season 3 now... bah!

Edited, on the off chance that someone actually reads this and I spoil something for them. Instead, I'll leave you with the three questions I have about Lost.

1. What the fuck?
2. WTF?
3. What. The. Fuck?

Week in review

Hmmm, I've been a bit slack recently, but to be honest I have had trouble thinking about things to post on. It isn't that nothing has been happening to me, just that I had a lack of motivation to document the fascinating details of my daily life.

Normally I would have something to rant about by this point, but apart from a few irritating things nothing has really ticked me off this week. I have been meaning to vent about commercial television screwing people around for a while, so now is as good a time as any I suppose.

I truely believe that whoever is in charge of the major networks holds the general public in very low regard. I am probably particularly targeted, as a fan of 'fringe', 'cult' or 'nerd' shows such as Stargate, Buffy or Futurama. Because shows like this hold a smaller but very loyal following, the networks feel comfortable changing days ('special new day'), timeslots ('at the brand new time'), stop at a random point in the middle of a series ('that was *cough* the end of this season...') or randomly show repeats to stretch it out ('eh, noone will notice').

Of course, they also do that crap on more popular shows such as House or Greys Anatomy (House has seen regular repeats during this year, and Greys Anatomy stopped in the middle of a series last time it was on). I just don't understand why they think they can get away with it, I feel insulted every time they run a repeat, show a 'special movie length episode' or put something on at a 'special new time'.

In fact, I've stopped watching Stargate, my favorite still running show, as I am just sick to death of the shabby treatment of fans by Channel 7. Now I just wait for them to come out on DVD and watch them on my own time, without interference from the Networks. I can see myself doing that with most TV actually, if things don't start getting better.

Similarly, I got tired watching Lost week by week, and while they haven't been screwing around with it because it is so damn popular, it is all symptomatic of the problems with commercial television, now that a better option is available. Watching TV shows on DVDs is just fantastic as far as I'm concerned, and for the less scrupulous it is now possible to download excellent quality shows at about 150-350mb per episode, no longer an insane figure thanks to even australia's sub-par broadband networks. Not that I would ever condone that of course, which is why I definitely haven't been watching advanced episodes of Lost in my lunch break, thanks to the USA being 2 months or so ahead of us. Nope, not me!

Well, stay tuned. Next week I should hopefully have an update on our house-selling saga. Could the end be in sight?

A plethora of comics

I mentioned in my last post that I have been listening to a bunch of podcasts recently. One of those that I mentioned is Digital Strips, a webcomic podcast. They do both webcomic reviews and interviews with people within the community, and are definitely worth a listen.

I am enjoying the review shows in particular, as I get introduced to a bunch of new comics that I would be unlikely to find on my own. Sure I enjoy some of the regulars, PVP and Penny Arcade spring to mind, and my reading list used to be much longer than it is now (Real Life Comics, Starslip Crisis and Errant Story are all ones I used to read but now don't have time for), but it is nice to try something new, and some of them are excellent.

Some of the comics I have checked out are Combustible Orange ('Super Demolition Christ' was hilarious, but a change of art style put me off), Panda Express (excellent art, and best. quote. ever.), Rob and Elliot (this one is fricking excellent, and has officially made my regular reading list) and Brainwrap Comics (Good Nick, my friendly neighbourhood cinema manager loved this one).

In other news, I made a cookie! It's a BIIIIIG cookie, the size of my oven tray :)

Pod-casm

Well, in the past few days I have been delving into the seedy underbelly of podcasting. It all started when the creators of Penny Arcade, one of the webcomics I read regularly, started to record sessions that they had thinking up ideas for their strip. It was pretty damn funny, and interesting to hear about how they come up with their ideas (especially when you can see the final product at the same time).

Unfortunately, they have done about six and then slacked off. From there though, I found another podcast, slightly more regular at updates, done by Kristopher Straub and Dave Kellett from Blank Label Comics. They are funny guys who work off each other pretty well, and if I had a complaint it would be that they have fallen into the curse felt by all things webcomic - the inability to update regularly.

I've now worked my way through the 20-odd archives for the Blank Label Comic Podcast, and during that I found another podcast on webcomics called Digital Strips. These guys are a little drier, a little less funny than the BLC guys but still an interesting listen and finally something that is run more like a proper radio show. I think it helps that the podcast is the focus of the website, rather than an addition as per those above.

I enjoy the podcast format, because I can listen to them on my own time (and at work), and using iTunes or whatever you can set it to alert you when a new one is ready, so you don't have to worry about checking the website ad infinitum to see if they have updated.

Once I work my way through the Digital Strips archive, I am going to expand into other genres... I definitely want to find a decent video game review podcast, and perhaps a movie one too. There are also things like aussie radio shows such as the Cage, Sheband and Hamish and Andy for people who like that kind of thing, or international shows such as the Ricky Gervais show (which I know would be a hit with loads of my friends) or Jack Black's video diary (yep, you can get video too) from the filming of his latest movie. All found through iTunes or any number of other programs.

No doubt this is old news to anyone who uses the intarweb on a regular basis, but I'm always a bit behind like this, and it is fun finding a new aspect of the net. In my old job I used to have craploads of time for reading forums and webcomics, but now they keep me busy so I really just have time to keep up on a few of my favorite comics and little else. With podcasts I can listen to them at work while I'm getting other stuff done. Good stuff!

Is everyone sitting comfortably?

I wanted to take this chance to do a bit of spruking for a couple of extremely talented (and damn prolific!) australian novelists, who had turned out several stellar (pun unintentional) sci-fi series.

Sean Williams and Shane Dix, they often work as a team, and have written several series both together and seperately which I can't recommend highly enough. They have had the chance to write Star Wars books as part of the New Jedi Order (please, don't hold it against them!) and that has meant that these Aussie authors have gotten enough notice in the States that they seem to have a strong following. So much so in fact, that shamefully enough their most recent series are published there before they are published here!

I have just finished their most recent offering, the Geodesica Duology, and basically I couldn't put it down until I finished it. I would urge any science fiction fan to get out there and give it a try, you can't miss it! (The covers of the two books are bright neon orange and green, so just scan the bookshelves and when your eyes shut down in horror, you have found them). The pair of them have some fascinating concepts about the future, an excellent writing style and some gripping storytelling.

Other noteworthy series are the Orphans of Earth trilogy, which is probably their best, and the Evergence trilogy. Shane Williams seems to come first, so they are generally found in the W's.

That is assuming that you can find them at all of course. As someone who reads fantasy and science fiction, I well know the frustrating of reading a genre that people look down on, and one that is often severely under-supported in all but the biggest bookstores. Luckily the most conveient bookstore for me is the Dymocks in Broadway, which does have a fairly good range, but I am so sick of walking into a smaller shop to find that a whole quarter shelf has been devoted to an entire genre, and 50% of that is just copies of Lord of the Rings.

I find it sad that excellent aussie authors like these two have difficulty getting into stores due to a combination of sellers not considering an entire genre as worth supporting, and the total ignorance of what to stock which leads us to have a millon copies of LotR and David Eddings books and little else.

Just to hear myself talk

Suzy wanted me to call this post "I miss my puppy", and while that is very true I'm not convinced it is anywhere nearly as interesting and important as hearing my own virtual voice, just for the sake of it!

In other words, it has been a week or so since I've last posted, and with little actually worth reporting, I've decided to do a bit of random ranting to keep up to date. I have never really set a strict deadline for myself, but as a general rule I try to post at least once a week, to satiate my non-existant fans. Drink deeply my friends, at the well of my genius...

I guess the best place to start is on a topic I had a little rant about at work today, Shane Warne. All the world was shocked to find out that he was interested in having sex with blond models... not! I actually feel sorry for the guy this time around, as he is basically a victim of a rabid and hypocritical media and of course a couple of greedy tarts who entrapped him so that they could sell their story to the papers.

Who really cares if this person who happens to be a cricketer has sex with strangers? In the past, it has been adultery and therefore slightly more news worthy, but now? He is just a single guy with an ex-wife and some kids. It has no bearing on his cricketing, I'm told he is one of the best bowlers of all time and unlikely to be banished from the team, and the only reason it impacts on his children is because the media chose to splash it all over our papers and televisions. In fact, the only reason it is a story is because they chose to make it a story, which is exactly the kind of attitude I have come to expect from the media, where it is preferable to manufacture sensations than simply present what matters.

The same goes for music industry, where the new trend is to focus on a single recording artist rather than a band. I find it sad to see musicians such as Bernard Fanning (Powderfinger) and Sarah McLeod (Superjesus) leaving their bands and recording "solo". Forget the fact that there is still a band behind the scenes playing the music, they are now just nameless and faceless employees of the record label, replaceable if required. I can see why this is such a tempting proposition for the label, no more artistic differences between band members, less people to pay the big bucks etc, they can just focus on a single person and mold their image as required. It just seems like such a sell-out by these artists I used to respect, and even when I enjoy the song itself, I could never bring myself to support this kind of move.

Of course, this has long been the case in recent music, with boybands and singers like Britney Spears simply singing and leaving writing the music/songs, playing the music and generally doing everything that requires any kind of artistic ability to people behind the scenes. There are lots of great karoeke singers, so why do we care if some of them release CDs? I find this manufactured music so boring and offensive, sometimes I can barely stand it.

Once everything with the house has settled down, and I have a bit of time to sort it out, I am going to spend some time on the web finding the artists I like and using contextual searches to find other groups I would enjoy based on that. It's time to find some new blood, and fight the bland crap the radio and TV orders us to enjoy...

House/Bloodbowl Update

Well, our house saga is reaching the mid-way point, now hopefully it will all be downhill from here (hmm, in a positive way!).

We have made an offer on the place in Dulwich Hill which has been accepted, and are now just waiting on the financial side of things to come through before exchanging contracts etc. Naturally this has involved racking up a tonne of bills, with more bills to come, for everything from building and pet inspections, conveyancing and even a deposit bond fee.

On the flipside, our place has made its debut and while we didn't get a huge number of people through thanks to school holidays, we are hopeful that it will not be on the market for too long before finding a buyer.

And now for the nerdy side of the post, yesterday was my first games with my new teams in the 3BL (Belltower Blood Bowl League), a new league with a number of people I have met and get along well with. It is a slightly oddball version of the game, very heavy on the house rules and also using an older version of the living rule book (short story: blood bowl rules are regularly updated).

Suzy and I headed up to Hornsby (she visited the shops and Herky), I went over to Galston to have a few games against Geoff Watson. My two teams, Undead and Dwarves, couldn't have performed more differently with the Undead playing brilliantly while the Dwarves not only got beaten badly, but also suffered two permanent injuries on the team which are going to cause me some long term issues.

It was certainly different, and I enjoyed the special play cards (although some seem pretty damn overpowered). I look forward to playing more games in this league, I feel much more positively about it than I did about the last, thanks to the absence of the unpleasant people involved in the WSGS league.