A true Australian pastime

Footy tipping is probably the most Australian thing you can do in the office. It's taken seriously and yet, it promotes sledging, joking and sports fanaticism. If you got a free beer for every tip you got right when you walked into work on Monday, that would pretty much complete true Australian traditions. I'd be the best damn CEO ever.

Unfortunately, my season's got off to a crap start, probably because I've tied my fortunes too closely to Melbourne's (and they're 1-3). It's a common talking point: do you stick with your team with blind faith (when they're not favourites or they're playing away), or tip against them and risk missing that tip that could get you 8 out of 8? It's actually hard to get 8 all on your own (to win the jackpot) without tipping "a roughie". Winning it alongside other people means less cash. Mucho less cash.

The guy who's running our office tipping comp has done a great job of trying to include the non-footy fans and sending out pointers. Even if he is second last of 32 right now. It's awesome when you talk footy with the guys who've come from India or Europe to work here. I think every new Australian citizen needs to have a footy team to support before they should be allowed to register.

AFL may not be the world game, but it is the office game. It's a shame that our plastic footy got stuck on the roof yesterday night after a few of us decided to try a few torps with it outside. Probably not the greatest of ideas, but that's what happens when you get a bit footy mad.

Hockey: First Round Predictions

The dawn of the playoffs is upon us and while I'm no hockey expert, I've still got a few opinions and a generally above average tipping record, so allow me to impart my wisdom or "wisdom" (depending on the outcomes) on you.

Eastern Conference
Ottawa vs Tampa Bay: Ottawa in five games
Tampa Bay have truly limped into the playoffs and I think they'll be steamrolled by an offensive, but recently inconsistent Senators outfit. If the Sens had Hasek, I'd call it a sweep.

Carolina vs Montreal: Carolina in seven games
Carolina have been soft down the stretch; conversely, Montreal has been red-hot, thanks to the smoking pads of Habs' goaltender Cristobal Huet. Still, Carolina's got the explosiveness of the Eric/Erik combo of Staal and Cole respectively. With the Hurricanes' addition of hardened veterans, I can't go past Carolina, this season's great surprise.

New Jersey vs New York: New Jersey in six games
The NY Rangers have been terrific most of the season, but I don't think the young Rangers and their goalie tandem of Kevin Weekes and Henrik Lundqvist will stand up against the Devils' firepower of Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez over the stretch. Props to Jaromir Jagr: he will win one of these games for the Rangers off his own stick.

Buffalo vs Philadelphia: Buffalo in seven games
Buffalo's got the 'tending and the teamwork to take it to the Flyers. I picked Philly to take out the Cup before the season, but they haven't resolved their goaltending issues dating back over 10 years. Who is their number 1 goalie? The latest answer is Esche, but that will probably only last two games.

Western Conference
Detroit vs Edmonton: Detroit in four games
Get the brooms out: this one's a sweep. Detroit will win, like they always do, and have done so all season. I don't even know how Edmonton got into the playoffs. I really don't. Even Vancouver's self destruction doesn't explain it completely.

Dallas vs Colorado: Dallas in six games
Dallas have been fantastic all year long, while the Avs have been unusually quiet in a tough division. My admiration for Dallas Stars goaltender Marty Turco continues.

Calgary vs Anaheim: Calgary in six games
I think Calgary's defensive style will prove effective in the playoffs. You never can tell for sure in "the new NHL", but they've been so solid all year. An interesting matchup between the last two Stanley Cup Final losers, each with a goalie that can really "shut the door". I'll give it to the Flames in 6 courtesy of one Miikka Kiprusoff.

Nashville vs San Jose: San Jose in seven games
San Jose has been in terrific shape since pairing Joe Thornton with Jonathan Cheechoo. Nashville's been a bit ordinary of late and has lost their starting goalie, Tomas Vokoun. I'm cheering on the Sharks in the West, so I'll tip them.

If you're still reading, I'm currently tipping New Jersey to beat Detroit in the Stanley Cup finale. This will be evaluated after the first round, of course, but you heard it here first.

Nugget of Wisdom?

Hey guys, sorry I haven't checked in with anything insightful, but I had a big Easter weekend. Following the weekend, there was a pile of work that wasn't done, so I've shafted the blogging side of things until I get it all controlled a bit more. I haven't got any special stories to recount, but I did stumble across a few pieces of wisdom in the last few days.

I discovered that: "The epitome of tolerance is a dial-up Internet user."

Gary from work advises: "Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back."

Retsae!

I saw Donnie Darko during the week, so I'm not going to hope that you all got a giant bunny in your house just because it's Easter. Whatever you, the Easter bunny, a midget and a buffalo (live or stuffed, preferably stuffed for safety sake) got up to in your house is your business. That's a love quadrilateral I do not wanna get entangled with.

Sorry if the blog was a bit out of whack since Friday. Something went wrong during republishing, but it's all OK again. Have a top Easter. Peace!

Televisual Exploits

The Good Friday Appeal is on TV again and while I have sympathy for the cause, I'm not willing for my bank account to be mined annually, even if my name is displayed on screen. At least not without a trendy wristband! Consequently, I think the only people interested in the appeal are the ones trying to get on TV. I must admit there is comic value in seeing the name P.Ness or my personal favourite, Yuri Nayshun, on the scrollbar.

No, I already have had my brushes with television. Who could forget the episode of The Glass House where I was in the background every time the camera focused on Ross Noble? Some of my laugh work on that either was or was not described by the New York Post as "phenomenal and spellbinding". In a similar vein, I also appeared briefly behind Livinia Nixon joke interviewing someone on the unfortunately shortlived Micallef Tonight program.

I'm no one-trick pony when it comes to TV either, I do more than just comedy. The more astute viewers, who no doubt had to be Where's Wally? experts, may have even caught my pit straight walk at the conclusion of the 2002 Australian Grand Prix. Speculation has implied that if I wasn't dressed in bright orange, my work may have gone unnoticed by everyone. When I meet this Speculation fellow, I'll show him the videotape and probably shake his hand in agreement.

I also had a minor role in an episode of Australian Story, which involved us flying a kite, but mainly listening to a guy talk about kites. Stirring, riveting, spanning the entire gamut of human emotion. Of course, if I was directing, some dancing girls, explosions and an open bar might have also been included, but apparently the so-called integrity of the show was deemed more important.

There may have been more that I can't remember...but I'm confident that my short film/Media Studies project From Banks To Baryshnikov won't be submitted to Channel 31 any time soon.

You know you're retarded when...

...you fail the image verification on someone's blog because you can't read the letters properly. It may be clever enough to outsmart bots, but it's too advanced for a certain Software Engineer in training to pass every time.

So long as I can still work vending machines, I think everything's gonna be OK.

Substitute for a Real Post

Sure, I could give you a real post. Or I could open your eyes to a truly untapped medium. It is conceivable that I could investigate this avenue in the near future...what a time to be alive, my friends.

iTunes crossover

I've made the switch over to iTunes on my laptop for good. Goodbye fence! I originally got it to act as a free CD ripper, but it doesn't take long to remember all the little things: the song-specific volume adjustment, the sound enhancer, the stats (FTW!), the auto playlists, the customisability. It's the winner.

The straw that broke Windows Media Player's back was that the currently playing song still shows up in my MSN Messenger tagline! It's just something that I think's really cool.

I like Winamp and WMP's ability to just throw anything on there for one listen, like I do off burned CD-Rs before I copy them to the hard drive...that's probably the last thing iTunes isn't so great on (you have to have it in the library before playing it, which clogs up the library).

The amazing thing is how many people think you need an iPod to use iTunes, or you need an iPod and iTunes to listen to podcasts. It's fantastic marketing ... yet also poor marketing, in the sense that users think their products are so limited in use.

Ach, I can't really blog so coherently today. That's what you get for having such a great Friday and Saturday night I guess! Pictures to come...

Judging a book by its movie tastes

I've recently been shown Flixster, an online movie rating community which claims to rate your friendship by how close your taste in movies is. It's fundamentally flawed because I haven't seen all the movies listed, so it relies on our ability to pre-judge movies (i.e. Want to see it/Not Interested). Fortunately, I have the uncanny ability to predict how much I'll enjoy a movie before I see it.

It's an intriguing concept, but as I was discussing with Josh yesterday, it's stupid to assume that you can't get along with someone if your opinions differ. While sharing a common interest is a great discussion point, which can help you get to know each other better, it isn't the be-all and end-all of friendship compatibility, especially when you're talking about movies. I believe you can like different movies or even have different fundamental beliefs and values, provided that what you do talk about can be discussed on a similar level.

The MCT is the place where you rank 50 movies, which forms the compatibility ratings. I enjoyed it because I got to diss out the two worst movies I saw last year, War of the Worlds and Ocean's Twelve, as well as praise a few great movies like Donnie Darko and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, just as part of the 50. Unfortunately, it brought up one of the most common and frustrating arguments.

I say I'm not interested in 8 Mile. I hate Eminem's music, I don't care about his life and I'm sure he's a "great actor" because he's playing a role very close to himself. I am not a great actor if I play myself in a movie, I am simply capable of expressing the appropriate emotions at the right time. That makes me human, not a good actor. The argument to that was "How can you criticise something you haven't seen?"

Has anyone here seen the Holocaust happen? Me neither. Does anyone have a problem with criticising the Holocaust? No? You do? Well, you're a Jew hater. Seriously though, my response was that it's stupid for me to spend my time watching all these movies I don't think I'll like, just to prove a point. I acknowledge that I don't need to see, hear and know everything in the world - truly good things should find their way to me somehow and if they don't, I'll live in blissful ignorance of them.

I'd love to find a musical equivalent of this, because that's where my real passion lies (I've never been a big movie-goer or renter). Until then, feel free to log on to Flixster and search for username "phorgan" to add me to your friends list. I've written comments about most of the 50 movies I had to rate, some of which might be of interest to a desperately bored blog reader. Not that I'm hinting...

Sunday Bloody Sunday (also known as Independent Patrick)

I was a very good teammate. I worked solidly for three days, escaping only for Thursday night, band practice on Friday and F1 qualifying on Saturday. Then I go to Josh's at 10am to work on my uni project and don't stop working until 3:30pm, get food and start doing shit again just before 5:00pm. Then I proceeded to work virtually non-stop until 1am when only document formatting remains. I lived in my little bubble where only the project and project team existed.

Having turned down invitations to do stuff, watch the Grand Prix, eat dinner, hang out to get this shit done, I returned to the real world yesterday. Typically, I missed the greatest race for several years yesterday, having not missed one since a pointless Schumacher domination two or three years ago. Explosions! Carnage! Late drama! Dancing monkeys! You name it, apparently it featured in the race I'm doomed never to see.

The same "I can't believe you missed it" thing has happened before. The strongest memory I have, and the one I'm reminded of the most, was the Melbourne Ice hockey match where the massive brawl broke out. I had less reputable reasons for missing it that time: I was busy vomiting up the bottle of straight bourbon I'd drank (slash Will force-fed me) at Nick's 21st the night before when I thought I was a rock star.

I just can't turn up to everything. It's just killing me that Uni Patrick, Family Patrick and Independent Patrick have conflicting schedules and interests. Hopefully it won't end in a Seinfeld-like depiction of worlds colliding.

A Patrick, divided against itself, cannot stand!

Radio Pat's 10 Most Played Songs of the Week

The Futureheads - Area
I was pretty pleased when this track finally came online, as I'm a big fan of their self-titled 2005 debut album. It was only released as a 7" vinyl EP, probably as a "between albums" single, so I couldn't even find a way to play it! It's got all the Futureheads trademarks. The lyrics come across as a disjointed scenario, like many other Futureheads offerings, but they just know how to complete a chorus with the right pitched vocals at the right time (like many other favourite bands of mine - Powderfinger, Eskimo Joe and Evermore to name a few more).

Arctic Monkeys - Scummy
Maximum credit to Will for informing me of the Arctic Monkeys, just before "the buzz" hit. Scummy is a terrific track, starting off as a soft, late night mood bunch of guitar chords before rocking out and really upping the tempo. Little changes in a song like that have made big hits: see Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out. The screaming vocals of "They say he changes when the sun goes down" in the chorus top the whole thing off. It closes by reverting back to the quieter intro.

Coheed and Cambria - The Suffering
I'd spoken about these guys with Claire, read Brad's post about them and read a Beat article explaining how the lyrics of their albums are part of a science fiction novel series written by the vocalist. I was too intruiged to leave it alone. This one's such a strange song to me, as it feels like it takes in a lot of different styles and genres. They're somewhat of a prog metal or prog rock band, who also manage to please all the little emo kid fans, yet this track's delivered with such an upbeat poppiness. I can't help but be reminded of Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20 when I listen to some of the vocals, but I doubt he'd have much street cred with the fans of Coheed and Cambria. It took a few weeks to catch on - now I need to go get some more to listen to!

Queens of the Stone Age - Never Say Never
Subconciously I got the urge to throw this song on a week ago and I kept wanting to come back to it. It must have been Dean mentioning Vandalism's cover of it. In true Queens fashion, the guitar screeching really pierces the ear on first listen, but after a few listens, it really gives the song a certain uniqueness. A real character to it. I also really like the bassline; it sounds fun to play, like the one from the verse of Bon Jovi's Livin On A Prayer.

After The Fall - A Friend Named Karma
It wouldn't be a proper top 10 without some Aussie rock. I ripped Claire's copy of the album and I love it immensely. After The Fall have their touches of punk rock and their songs have a high intensity to them that I expect of reputable live rock bands. This track in particular was played plenty on triple J last year, and I can hear just why.

The Delays - Valentine
I heard this late one night last week on [V] and it immediately clicked with my mood at the time. Recently, I've gotten into dancy tracks with guitar overlaid, particularly to play on a Thursday or Friday evening before heading out. It goes well with some a track or two from Hard-Fi, The Bravery and Martin Solveig. Very cool choruses.

Tegan and Sara - Walking With A Ghost
Frankie told me how much she liked this song back on St. Patrick's Day. I had already heard it once but forgot to download it...until I heard another song on [V] start and I incorrectly guessed it was Tegan and Sara, thus sparking my memory! It's such a simple song that I'm not sure why I'm drawn to it. It could be the sharp bass notes, or the eclectic feel of it all.

Kent - Max500
I got this one off a CD from Will a month ago and finally got around to listening to a bunch of them. I think Will's the undisputed king of finding Brit pop-rock. This track really stood out, with its touches of U2 and Snow Patrol to it. Maybe a dash of a Radiohead track in there, but I probably shouldn't draw such uneducated comparisons to a band as revered as Radiohead.

Cut Copy - Going Nowhere
I had heard the buzz about Cut Copy for a few years now, but I still wasn't fussed about missing them opening for Franz Ferdinand earlier this year. I heard this one on Video Hits early one Saturday and instantly enjoyed the bassy keyboard parts. This is another one with a dance music feel to it.

Maximo Park - I Want You To Stay
Another act flowing on the wave of recent indie Britpop success, even if I still consider them a poor man's Kaiser Chiefs or Futureheads. I keep trying to get into their stuff, so I downloaded it when I saw it on Rage's playlist for last weekend. It's another quirky pop song, which is relatively unspectacular. The reason it's getting played so often is probably because I keep teaming it up with the similarly Northern English-accented Arctic Monkeys or Futureheads in my playlists.

I am documentation; I want my free hour

Finally I've got a moment to stop and relax. For the past three days (inclusive), I've had this uni project and its Monday deadline hanging over my head. I've been living and breathing this project and all the documentation we've had to produce. I wouldn't say I'd been working my ass off (until the two hour period before I wrote this), but it's been on my mind and around me the whole damn time. I am one with...wait...I am documentation in human form.

I had the laptop out, fine tuning one of my allocated 25, 35 or 80 page documents while listening to podcasts; I've read example documents during commercial breaks of TV shows; I've barely eaten a meal away from my laptop in the last three days...it's everywhere. Or urrrverywhere as Family Guy's Cleveland would say.

I've dusted off my fair share of the work and hoisted instructions on the other team members before we reconvene to review the whole thing tomorrow morning. Now's my chance to breathe a giant sigh of relief that we've got this far. I hope real work isn't like this.

But hey, I get an extra hour's sleep tonight! I don't agree with the concept of Daylight Savings Time, but it's not like I have an option to turn down the time change anyway. Might as well pretend I'm getting a good deal out of it.