sketches of the mind

How to Surf the Web Anonymously With Proxies

Been meaning to find out how to do this for a while.

Thank you wikiHow.

So I had this long (20+ minutes) post happening and then my damn Firefox crashed before I saved it with me screaming “noooOoOOooo” but it was too late… so fcuk it.

Short story…

I went to Paul Reader yesterday and bought me some snow gear. Quick phone response to an email that I sent to them earlier in the week (only one of two responses I received out of five or six emails sent). Great sales guy at the store by the name of Lincoln helped me find items within my estimated budget, and gave me a great deal on the day. I saved $350 AUD in total so I was quite happy.

At the same time I was quite sad that I had spent $1,368.95 AUD in one hit on the mastercard but it’s an investment, and I’m planning on using the gear at least twice this year and again next year.

Anyways, I scored…

1 x Rossignol Sultan 161cm Snowboard
1 x Black Rossignol HC-500 Bindings
1 x Grey Mens Billabong Outpost Parka
1 x Black/Red Northwave APX Project Snowboard Boots
1 x Paul Reader Snowboard Bag

I spent an hour or so today reading the instructions and attaching the bindings to the board. I’ve never done it before you see, but I won’t know if it’s quite right until I try them on the snow.

Three weeks before I hit the slopes of Thredbo!

I was on the way to the City to meet up with a friend for dinner on Friday night when I got rear-ended by a taxi.

The thing that annoyed me about the whole situation was that not once did the guy ask me if I was alright, or apologise.

Fortunately neither of us were injured and despite the noisy “BANG!” there didn’t appear to be any damage to my car (or his). I’m hoping that there isn’t some delayed damage that I will end up paying for in the near future.

The guy even had the nerve of pulling up beside me afterwards to yell at me “Hey what car is that? A Honda? Strong car!”.

No you bloody idiot. It’s a Toyota.

The incident has not altered my opinion of cab drivers in Sydney at all.

I was listening to Kyle and Jackie O on 104.1 FM this morning on my way to work and they had Australian Idol 3 reject Rikki on the phone. Unfortunately I missed the show last night due to an ill-timed pizza run (thanks Mum!) but from what I could gather Rikki was a Melbourne girl with the looks but not the talent.

Anyways, Kyle and Jackie called her to give her an opportunity to voice her opinion on last night’s Aus Idol episode (where she got the boot). Apparently when she didn’t get through Rikki made a comment about how she was too gorgeous for Idol. Ok, reality check please!

Immediately on the defensive Rikki went off about how Aus Idol didn’t show her entire performance and how she felt that the judges were paid to look good so they didn’t really give people a fair go. Kyle noted how some viewers had commented that they didn’t think she had what it took and that the whole ‘gorgeous’ thing was a joke. There’s self-confidence and there’s delusion.

Having watched the first episode of this season’s Idol and seeing the quality of candidates, I gotta say there are a whole bunch of delusional people walking around thinking that they can sing when a screeching vehicle would probably sound better. There were a couple of absolutely embarrassing William Hung wannabes on the show, obviously trying to capitalise on Hung’s success - like it’s cool or something to have no singing ability whatsoever, look like a geek, and possess zero rhythm when it comes to dancing. Geez! Ok it was entertaining when Hung was the first, but the stream of poor imitations following in Australia need a serious wakeup call. The Asian dude on the first show that went into the audition with a Michael Jackson outfit including an MJ mask, and two outfits underneath (one of which was meant to be madonna, complete with a pink rockstar wig - oh boy) surely wasn’t serious. He had to be taking the piss and wanted his five minutes of fame.

Of course Idol laps it up, as the not-so-talented people (and the drama that follows when they don’t get picked) gets the show ratings. No brainer, that’s why people watch it.

So back to the radio show, Kyle and Jackie O had people calling in to chat to Rikki and I was laughing so hard when she had bitch fights with them over the phone. The first caller told Rikki that she “had issues”, then the next caller told her that her attitude wouldn’t help her get anywhere in life and Rikki’s response was “you need to shut up. You just want to be me”. What a riot!

The last caller said that her dog’s barking was even better than Rikki’s performance and that the dog was much more cuter ROFL!

Man it was funny as.

Needless to say, the season has gotten off to a hilarious start and the addition of Kyle Sandilands as a judge (replacing notorious Dicko) was a great move from the producers of the show.

Tune in to Australian Idol 3 on Channel 10, Tuesday and Wednesdays at 7.30pm EST.

Idol Sites
Official Site
Inside Australian Idol
Australian Idol Blog

Click.

Gotta love it.