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Pretty Woman is one of those classic romantic movies that doesn't age. It is the classic Cinderella story where a lady who works the streets, to avoid tell her family that she can't make it in the big city, is 'rescued' by a prince in shinning armour. Well in a sports car at least. When she shows she can drive the car better than he can he offers to have her be his 'girlfriend' while he is finishing a billion dollar takeover. This leads to some interesting situations where she is trying to act all prim and proper but her street background keep being revealed. There is this great scene where a waiter catches a 'flying' sail that she just can't get open.

This is a great movie and I wholly recommend it.

Queensland is joining the ACT is putting in place guidelines to prevent bullying in schools with Mobile phones. Early April the ACT Government introduced guidelines to prevent bullying with SMS. Both Governments have been keen to point out that they have yet to receive any complaint about bullying with phone but have taken a preemptive step.

Queensland schools ban mobile bullying

Excerpt from ZNET Australia

Under the guidelines, released today by the state government, camera phones will be banned in change rooms, and students caught using them to bully or cheat in exams will be "disciplined."

S.W.A.T. is an action movie that starts with the breakup of a cop partnership. One is a rebel that will not follow orders, while the other is a excellent example of how it should be done. But when one too many order are not followed the pair is kicked to the SWAT equivalent of desk duty, so the rebel calls it quits and leave. After spending six months in the 'cage' he is given a break and becomes part of an elite SWAT team formed to encourage morale within the LAPD. The team is called upon to capture and international terrorist that attempts a breakup while in transport. After being captured he offers to the close by news cameras and reward of $100 Million dollars to any one who can get him out and so the city is alive with every two bit crook trying to cash in on the reward. This leads to an exceptional chase throughout the city to capture him again. With double crosses and lots of distractions the final chase scene has everything in it.

More information at IMDb
Buy the DVD from Chaos Music HMV.com.au Amazon.com

The third instalment of the American Pie series continues the tradition of placing Jim Levinstein in the most impossible situations and then her manages to get out of it. All the time focusing on how he and his friends can get with the girls. In this instalment Stifler actually appears to be helpful towards Jim although not without creating his own problems. I love this series and this continues the series by being an excellent movie.

My children all have Bratz dolls now and I had one of those Mastercard moments today. The ad would go something like this.

Barbie Dolls... $300.00

Star Wars Figures... $200.00

Fisher Price dolls house... $100.00

Bratz Dolls... $50.00

Storage cubes for the above toys $20.00 each.

Watching as all the dolls/figures are dumped on the floor so the Bratz can use them as houses... Priceless

Crimson Tide highlights the problem faced by modern society. The the enemy in war is war itself. After the current XO called in sick Denzel Washington is called in to go with the USS Alabama to take up strategic position against Russian rebels. In the course of the trip the situation deteriorates and they are order to launch when ready. While preparing to launch a Russian sub controlled by the rebels attacks and a message is cut off when communications are lost. Standard procedure is to follow orders to hand and so launch the missiles. However the XO wants to confirm the orders and so the power struggle begins between the Captain of the boat, played by Gene Hackman and the XO with sailors swaping sides. As a result of the real events that lead to the movie the order to launch missiles was placed solely with the President.

More information at IMDb
Buy the DVD from Chaos Music HMV.com.au Amazon.com

I have a personal preference for car movies, but they often don't rate well so they don't hang around. I still think this one is cool. The number and variety of cars is exceptional. And not just your Ferrari's and Lamborghinni's either. The star of the show is a classic Shelby. The story starts with the little kid brother being having his car boosting operation busted, while to crime boss placing the order threatens his life. So big brother is called in to say save his kid brother. Cage assembles his old team to do a 50 car one night boost. All goes well until the cars with the laser encoded keys have the cops watching. After a few Plan B's they are left with the Unicorn (unobtainable) car with the cops right on their heels. Like I said I have a personal bias when I say this is a great movie with a spectacular chase scene at the end.

More information at IMDb
Buy the DVD from Chaos Music HMV.com.au Amazon.com

Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with those expensive double-pane energy efficient kind. But this week I got a call from the contractor complaining that his work had been completed a whole year ago and I had yet to pay for them. Boy oh boy, did we go around!

Just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am automatically stupid. So, I proceeded to tell him just what his fast talking sales guy had told me last year... that in one year the windows would pay for themselves.

There was silence on the other end of the line so I just hung up And I haven't heard back. Guess I won that stupid argument.

The Italian Job begins with the ultimate heist. After blowing away the floor from under a safe with gold in it there is this great boat chase scene while in reality the safe is being worked on under water. All goes well until time to drop off the gold when a double cross leaves all the gold with just one of them. Years later to avenge the killing of his father in the double cross the son get the original team plus his sister to seal back the gold. Not for the money but to see the look on his face. Using some fancy technology the crew has everything set including faking a date to get the house empty. Only thing is a party blocks the get away and attracts too much attention. After being caught out over dinner they crew has to capture the gold in armoured guard transit with two dummy trucks and helicopter support. The result the most amazing robbery you are likely to see. This is a great movie the only down side is how they get out of the freezing water at the double cross, but hey you can't have everything, this is Hollywood!

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

The Art of War stars Wesley Snipes as an under cover UN operative that gets caught up in a double cross to destroy a Chinese US free trade agreement by killing the Chinese ambassador. With lots of action and specular stunts this movie has potential. Being a little lacking in the story line, there are some nice twists, but in the end the number of impossible sequences and slow parts in the story bring this movie down. It does have some credit in focusing not on America but instead using the UN, as the all powerful organisation, but it just needed a little work.

LegionONE has developed a technology to allow entry to trade exhibits by sending SMS. The SMS is a bar code that the person shows when they arrive at the exhibit. I could see how this could then be used to allow entry to a concert maybe even movies!

Delegate Registrations made easy with Barcodes via SMS

Do you need a good reason to study maths. Well at the Inquest into the bushfires that burnt part of Canberra last year it appears the initial estimate of the size was only 10% of the size due to a mistake in maths. Now I feel some credit need to be afforded to the person, but while in a helicopter above the fires he estimated the blaze to be 100 metres by 50 metres. However he reported the size of the blaze as 500 square metres not the 5000 square metres it was.

What worries me is that when I hear of school children not learning how to do maths by hand, because they can always use a calculator, this is the sort of stuff so say why we should keep the education basics in the curriculum.

Inquest hears Bendora blaze grossly underestimated

The Canberra bushfire inquest has heard how a senior emergency services member grossly understated the size of a blaze at Bendora last year.

On January 8, 2003, David Ingram was sent out on an evening helicopter flight over bushfires at Gingera, Stockyard Spur and Bendora to determine their size and location.

The inquest saw Mr Ingram's notes taken at the time which estimated the Bendora blaze measured 100 metres by 50 metres.

When calculating the fire's total size Mr Ingram made a mistake, calculating the size as 500 square metres and relaying this figure to the operations centre. Fire crews were pulled out from Bendora that night.

Today, Mr Ingram admitted that measurement should have been 5,000 square metres, however he stood by the following morning's report saying the Bendora fire measured 750 square metres, apparently much smaller than the previous night.

Mr Ingram said he noted down only what he saw of the fire from the air.

The former head of the department overseeing ACT emergency services has told the inquest he recalls little about bushfire emergency discussions.

Tim Keady told the inquest that discussions about electricity infrastructure rather than the threat to urban areas had stuck in his mind.

Mr Keady told counsel assisting the coroner he cannot even recall if he was present at some planning meetings during the bushfire emergency.

He later gave a detailed recollection of discussions about power infrastructure at the cabinet meeting.

When the nature of his memory was questioned he admitted it may sound a bit eccentric to have a so-called island of recollection from that meeting but said the discussion about electricity supplies had stuck in his mind.

Mr Keady also testified that he never discussed last year's bushfire emergency with New South Wales fire authorities.

Chief fire controller Peter Lucas-Smith already testified that on January 15 that he told Mr Keady he was concerned the New South Wales Fire Commissioner had described the fire situation as the worst in decades during a media interview.

Mr Lucas-Smith said the media comments were not consistent with what Commissioner Phil Koperberg had told him earlier that day.

The inquest heard Mr Keady was due to discuss the matter with Mr Koperberg, whom he knew well and considered a good friend.

Mr Keady testified that conversation never took place.

Source ABC News

Two bone weary public servants were working their little hearts and souls out. Their department was just too busy for staff to be able take flex. But there had to be a way... One of the two public servants suddenly lifted his head. "I know how to get some time off work" the man whispered.

"How?" hissed the girl at the next workstation.

Instead of answering, the man quickly looked around. No sign of his Director. He jumped up on his desk, kicked out a couple of ceiling tiles and hoisted himself up. "Look!" he hissed, then winging his legs over a metal pipe, hung upside down.

Within seconds, the Director emerged from the Branch Head's office at the far end of the floor. He saw the worker hanging from the ceiling, and asked him what on earth he thought he was doing.

Is a drama that follow ladies from a small English town, which are members of the Woman's Institute (WI). John the husband of Annie "surprises" her when he announces that he will be going to hospital to be treated for cancer. While on one of the visits to the hospital Chris her best friend, nearly injures herself on the sofa in the relatives lounge. Unfortunately the therapy does not work and John passes away. Meanwhile Woman's Institute is preparing the annual calendar, and Chris is inspired by a calendar in the local mechanic's garage. Having been bored by the meetings discussing Broccoli, Chris asks her friends if they want to help shoot a nude calendar. If is quite funny as they try to find a suitable photographer, shoot the photos and get approval to print the calendar. Things become difficult towards the end of the movie and the project appears to grow beyond the friendship that was the inspiration for the calendar.

This is a good movie and given the ending I believe it is based on a true story. Oh and they raise enough to replace the sofa.

More information at IMDb
Buy the DVD from Amazon.com

Check out this photo subject

Photography for the Joy of It is a photography book that is all about taking photos not using cameras. It is excellent in its coverage of techniques in framing and composition. It discussed methods to capture difficult setting and uses actual photos to demonstrate the discussed techniques. You should be familiar with your camera before you read this, but otherwise it is aimed at a novice looking for tips.

Buy the book from Amazon.com

Enemy of the State is a drama thriller that follows Robert Dean, played by Will Smith, a labour lawyer. An old friend that studies nature, captures the murder of a politician on video. While trying to avoid being caught he passed the video to Robert Dean before being killed. Robert then has his life fall apart as the murderers try to get the video back using all the technology of the NSA. Dean is saved by 'Brill' Lyle, played by Gene Hackman. Brill is an ex-intelligence officer that worked in Iran and was 'dropped' when international relations collapsed. Ever since he has been living a secret life away from probing technology, but watching everyone else with technology. The movie presents the technology as being able to do anything, and while I don't doubt the computing power governments throw at keeping tabs on us, I feel being able to bring up a wire frame diagram of a building on demand is a little bit much. The drama is good and it is a not so scary thriller. Good looking for the geeks among us.

The Ring to Rule them all.

Well the ring they will get married with at least. Matthew sent me a photo of his ring.

While talking about new search engines. A child friendly search has been launched in Australia. Kids.net.au - Search engine for kids, children, educators and teachers - Searching sites designed for kids that are child safe and clean.; It does allow you to limit your searches to your own country, not just Australia.

Amazon have launched a search engine that allow you to search the web and the contents of books at the same time. It appears to have an even cleaner interface than Google has, which has always been one of Google's strengths. If you read the bottom it says it is enhanced by Google so it will never replace Google, however it has some extra features, so that if you log in you can look as past searches. Give it a try A9 - Amazon search engine

Road to Perdition is a gangster drama set in 1930's America. The movie takes a different perspective to most gangster movies, instead of focusing on the battle between one part of the family and another, this movie shows the Sullivan family where the father works for gangsters. The children go to school and they live a normal life except that dad's work is not discussed. Being a curious 12 year old boy his son, Michael, hides in the back of his car on one 'mission' and sees his father involved in killing another gangster. Regrettably for the family the person Sullivan is working with is the son of the local godfather. So a hit is put on Sullivan's life, but the killer dosen't kill Sullivan or his son Michael, he instead kills his wife and younger son. Sullivan then heads on a journey of revenge stealing Mob money and plotting to kills his families killer. This is an excellent drama with the suspense held right up to the end. It is not just a shoot fest but builds on the characters.

Today my brother Matthew asked his girlfriend, Celia, to marry him. They have been seeing each other for exactly a year today. He asked the question where they first met.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a great thriller, that follows the curse of Aztec Gold, that once stolen curses the thieves to walk the earth as undead. The plot I believe is the retelling of an original story, but in any case is a great story line with interesting interrelationships between characters. The special effects are excellent, with the cursed characters transforming seamlessly between human and undead as they walk from candle light to moon light. This is an great movie with just a little bit of horror.

A friend brought this birth notice to my attention during the week.

Rachelle and Darren have unleashed unto the world 'The Twins' Will Bradley Jake Thomas, born 24 March 2004 - 'the baby boys' to Callam and Ella. Our thanks to proud Nanna Laurel, Dr Mutton and staff at JJMH. The gob-smacked parents would like to thank Carlton United Brewery and the makers of Chocolate Body Paint for making this blessed event possible. Source The Canberra Times

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost He reduced his altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "excuse me,can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The woman replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be in Information Technology," said the balloonist. "I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?" "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been of much help at all. If anything you've delayed my trip."

Con Air stars Nicolas Cage as a US Ranger who on return to his wife gets involved in a bar brawl and kills a man. Cage, misses out on seeing his daughters birth and early years and is desperate to see his wife and daughter. His transport home will be with a bunch of other inmates that are being transferred to a maximum security prison. On the way home Cage is then caught up in a jail break by the other prisoners using their transport plane. The trip goes from bad to worse as Cages attempts to have the prisoners caught place him in dangerous situations and then double crosses by inmates creates total chaos. There is a little bit of romance for the ladies but there is plenty of action for the guys.

I thought I did well, given I feel my grammar could be improved.

You are a STUDENT of the English language!

You are on your way to becoming gramatically sound; however, you must keep studying if you ever want to be a master. You do manage to speak better than most Americans, but then again, that's not really saying too much...

How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

This is the reason why lawyers should never ask a witness a question if they aren't prepared for the answer. In a trial, a small town prosecuting attorney called his first witness to the stand - a grandmotherly, elderly woman.

He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"

She responded, "why, yes I do know you, Mr. Hughes. I've known you since you were a young boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you." The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know the defence attorney?"

Looks like for once the law is ahead of society. The local government is looking to prepare guidelines on how to punish students who use SMS for bullying.

ACT moves to prevent electronic bullying Source ABC News

Chocolat is a romantic movie about a gypsy that moves into a devout church going village. The Mayor has everyone 'under his thumb' and makes sure they all go to church. However not all is as it appears, there are relationships breaking up and the town is very miserable. When Vianne opens a chocolate shop during lent the town is torn between the new shop and the mayor. This is a lovely movie about food, love and living one's life. Just make sure you have some chocolate handy when you watch it.

with the release of Snoopy Linux 2.1 and Goober Linux 1.0, the number of Linux distributions finally surpassed the number of actual Linux users. Source BBSpot

1. When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies and children's art. We don't have a life, and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.
2. Don't write anything down. Ever. We can play back the error messages from here.
3. When an I.T person says he's coming right over, go for coffee. That way you won't be there when we need your password. It's nothing for us to remember 700 passwords.
4. When I.T support sends you an Email with high importance, delete it at once. We're just testing.
5. When an I.T person is eating lunch at his desk, walk right in and spill your guts right out. We exist only to serve.
6. Send urgent email all in upper-case. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery. More...
   logged by Anthony at 9:25:47 AM Link

In a recent Israeli technology test it was proven that a new PEI transfer protocol was faster than ADSL. The PEI transfer rate

was significantly larger that that available through commercially available ADSL broadband Internet connections: about 2.27 Mbps (Mega bit per second) as compared to 0.75 – 1.5 Mbps

indifferent to the type of Operating System, and accommodate Windows and Linux equally. The technology doesn't suffer from electricity interruptions. It is naturally rechargeable by the carrier itself, using commonly available materials. Scalability is achieved by natural reproduction.

susceptible to hacking, they are also subject to interference from cellular towers.

Google is also interested in the new technology and has exploited it for it search engine.

A New Israeli test confirms: PEI (Pigeon Enabled Internet) is FASTER then ADSL via Slashdot

Armageddon stars Bruce Willis as an oil driller who has to save the world. The problem is NASA has found a asteroid that is heading to Earth and will destroy all life on Earth. Given its speed and late detection, the only method NASA can come up with is to land people on the asteroid and drill into it, to plant a nuclear bomb and detonate it to split the asteroid in half. This is a fantastic ride and you have to ignore probability, but entertaining.