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I'm writing this from a crappy terminal in Christchurch airport. Almost home now...

You've probably read about it in a few places over the last couple of days, but Gmail is now integrated with Google Chat. Damn handy for when you're not at your computer and/or can't install IM programs.

They're apparently rolling it out over the next few weeks, but my account got it this morning. If you can't see it yet, make sure your interface language is set to US English (not UK).

There was news..when I checked in for like the millionth time. Yay for news!

So I'm back at school. And sixth form isn't going to suck total nads. With the exception of Maths, I have interesting subjects and decent teachers. So hooray for that.

That's pretty much all I had to say, except I totally found that SE badge, that you made me Dom for my 15th birthday. Out of capacitors and wires and stuff? Yeah. Mum found it when they did a 10 day detox on my room (It took them four days to get everything out, 2 to paint it and another four to sort through all the junk and then put it back togehter) and she put it into a box so it doesn't get damaged.

But yeah. Oh, and I'm totally hooked on Panic! At The Disco. And I have tonsilitis. And Dawn of the Dead is a pointless movie.

--Out.

Looks like it's not just Split Enz and The Smashing Pumpkins that are getting back together; Ozma are back together and working on new material as of January! And the art on their website is looking wicked too:Reminds me of a cross between Britomart and the Clyde Dam.

These proposed Google front-page redesigns are awful. Truly awful. I particularly don't like Shepard Fairey's attempt - the blue one, third from the top. It's done in that shite faux pulp printing style that just doesn't translate well on the web: it's bad enough that you can't buy clothing without that sort of ink stain crap on it, I don't care for websites with the same shit all over them.

Then there's the brilliant comments Fairey makes about his design: "...the number Google is finite, but it's so large that it is infinite for all practical purposes". The number is a googol and, yes, it requires an article - it's like 'hundred' or 'thousand', you can't just talk about googol, you need to say a googol. No, it's not a proper noun. And while it's not a practical unit (there's less than a googol of particles in the universe) it's missing the whole ethos and spirit of Google to snort and casually mention that impractically big and infinite are, you know, like, the same thing, maaan.

Grrrrr. Shut up, Fairey. Shut up! Fucking contemporary graphic designers. Take your post-modern sticker art and shove it up your arse. Take your ponsy 'blkmrkt', medium/message, popuping, flash-laden post-gen bullshit and shove it up your aaaaarse. I hate you.

I bought Galactic Civilizations II: The Dread Lords a few days ago. It's wiiiicked. I've also really been enjoying the gameplay examples posted by one of the AI developers of the game: it's interesting to almost see a game developer at work, tweaking this and that.

Unrelated thing: Boustrophedon/boustrephedon text is cool.

A recent New Zealand Herald article discusses techniques used by 'student scammers' to save money. Some of them are quite good:

• Avoided paying $18 to go up the Sky Tower by booking for the tower restaurant then cancelling.
• Flew Air NZ domestic on reduced rates by booking child tickets (under 12) on the internet, getting their boarding passes electronically and carrying hand luggage only.

While others are just terribly unoriginal:

• Used a "return to sender" ploy to send letters without stamps.

I thought the article was pretty entertaining until I came across the typical xenophobic angle squeezed into a single paragraph:

Co-editor Lincoln Tan, who wrote the story, said all but one of the scammers were Chinese on student or temporary work permits.

Wow. That's amazing. Especially considering that the newspaper Tan edits (iBall) is specifically aimed at foreign students. Looks like I'm the one 'scammer' that isn't a Chinese student.

Well, now that we're all at university (you can't take two consecutive steps without bumping into someone you know first week back on campus) and we can't do the United States flag out of bottle caps in the mat at high school anymore, I've decided on the next project.
Hell, everyone loves dew and everyone loves dew out of the can, so save 'em up!

On another note: Tonight I heard on ConcertFM a piano trio do a version of 'Velouria'. It was awesome.

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