It disappoints me to be able to confirm my recent experience: things get busier for me in the uni holidays than during semester itself. And here I was hoping I could look forward to the study break. Grrr.

I am presently sitting and staring at an Apple Remote Desktop window that is taking forever to do its thing. (I mean seriously, does it take that long to update Firefox on thirty iMac G5s?)

In mildly more exciting news, I went to see Stealth yesterday, expecting to chill out with just another mindless action movie. But I was pleasantly surprised to see some attempt at depth and character development which (although not huge) made the frenetic (but so very slick!) Hollywood action that much more bearable. Also, the CG graphics were nice, and I was actually convinced by their depiction of a crazy futuristic plane taking off from an aircraft carrier. (At least I think it was CG ― somehow I doubt that that airframe could actually fly.)

P.S. on the off chance that anyone reading this hasn’t yet been invited to my 21st, tell me so! It is this Friday and should be awesome, although actual awesomeness is not guaranteed. Ha!

• I will not add to the mess of debate surrounding the US government’s respose to Hurricane Katrina, but what’s with this oil company profiteering at the petrol bowser? Suddenly buses seems more tolerable than they were.
• Pity the big music companies; their complete lack of foresight when it became possible to distribute music online is allegedly giving them some serious financial headaches (although I suspect the real reason is just that they keep pushing the same %#@$ down people’s throats). If only they’d realise (shock, horror) the market has changed!
• That poor old Family First senator from Victoria has learnt that just because John Howard promised him “family impact statements” doesn’t mean he was ever going to get them. Although it’s nice to skip yet another layer of bureaucratic report-writing in the government process, I wonder if it’s at all wise to be selling Telstra at $4.34?
• For some reason the WA Local Government Association saw fit to take out a newspaper ad today calling for compulsory voting for local government. Says I: what the? Their ad prattles on about the effects of compulsory voting for state and Federal government while neglecting to mention that the reason people care about them is that they’re just a touch more important to life than local governments are!

I went to a few parties last weekend, what with it being the first break from assignments I’ve had in a while. Some hosts gave their visitors more idle time, and more Coke cans, than others.