It’s Not Over

The nation has stopped and watched the horror as hundreds of people died, and even more were left homeless as the worst bushfires in the state’s history charged through on Saturday 7th of February.

Some light rain offered some relief for firefighters here in the Gippsland region, but it didn’t last long. The Churchill/Jeeralang fire is still active, and with weather conditions heating up this weekend, the possibility of a hard weekend is looking worse and worse with each passing hour.

Chris and his family got a chance to finally get up the hill to Koornalla and see first hand the damage the blaze had caused not only to his families property, but the houses that were missing in his block. He has been kind enough to provide these photos so everyone can get a sense of the damage that has been caused.

More Exclusive Photos from the Koornalla region can be found here

http://gallery.me.com/hellerphant#100191&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=73

Scorched Saturday – Traralgon

The sky was a display of fire on the 7th of February here in the Gippsland region. As bushfires roared across the state, just a mere 25km out of town a fire started in the town of Churchill. Smoke soon filled the air as the fire spread, and within minutes it was already crossing over closer to Traralgon.

Conditions were the hottest we have ever seen during the month of Feb, the winds were hitting over 50km/h and when you are in a rural community, fire fighting authorities are always going to be sparse.

 

The fire reached the communities of Traralgon South, Calignee and Koornalla, burning everything in it’s path. Houses, cars, livestock, and of course, people.

The town was completely black by 5pm, it was as if it was raining pure mud from the sky. Driving was becoming hazerdous as people began to flee their homes, taking what they could.

Support centres have been setup across the town, with the Red Cross giving families information when it comes in.

The fires are suspected to be an act of arson, and already 2 suspects have been apprehended for this tragic disaster. Details are yet to be released to the public.

The official death toll is constantly rising, and it seems that everyone has a connection to someone who perished in the fire.

Chris Zaffina is one of the many people who left their homes behind in Koornalla and retreated to safe ground in Traralgon. Taking only what he could fit into his car, he along with his family are one of the lucky ones in their area who’s house actually survived the blaze.

Here is an interview I conducted with him tonight about his feelings on the ordeal.

http://web.me.com/hellerphant/The_Hellerphant/Blog/Entries/2009/2/9_Scorched_Saturday_-_Traralgon.html

Another family who I know rather well have lost their home and all of their posessions. They have been left with nothing but the clothes on their back, and the money in their bank accounts. It’s times like these that the community pulls together and really shines. A rental property has been offered to them free of charge, a local electrical store has provided them with a brand new Fridge, Washing Machine and Lounge Sweet, the Traralgon Ultimate Frisbee Club has donated a weeks worth of player fees to the family in form of Coles Gift Cards so they could purchase food, and the amount of support has restored my faith in humanity.

I am going to be updating this blog with what is happening in my town as time goes on.

Binge Drinkers Unite?

What are your thoughts on the Rudd Governments rediculous tax hike on “alcopops” and now the claim that if you drink more than 4 middies of beer or two glasses of wine you are binge drinking?

I’m interested in both legal age and all you kids who like a drink on the weekend (I’m not agreeing that you should be drinking below the age of 18 lets just make that clear)

First of all my thoughts….

The Rudd Crusade are trying to tackle the problem of street violence which they believe is largely caused by teenage binge drinking. How do they think they will stop this issue? By introducing a 70% tax hike on all alcopops. For starters WHAT THE HELL IS AN ALCOPOP? I’ve never once heard someone refer to a Jim Beam or a Bundy as an ALCOPOP. So now instead of paying a sweet price of $16 for a six pack of Bundy I find myself paying $22, and a slab of Jack Daniels is now $105! I am a hard working, responsible adult who enjoys a drink on the weekends, only a six pack or so, and now because parents can’t control their teens I am suffering for them. THIS IS TOTAL FUCKING BUFFALO DIARRHEA ASS MUNCHING OUT MY DICK BULLSHIT!

This sudden large increase in price is having people go out and buy straight alcohol instead. Cheaper alternative, but this has a negative impact. Why you may ask? Well for us over the legal age each can or bottle of PREMIX (I refuse to call them alcopops) drink has a standard drink rating so you can monitor how much you have had, so you can know if you are safe to drive and drink responsibly etc. This is a standard and is easy to monitor and control. Well now I refuse to pay rediculous prices for my booze I find myself mixing my own drinks, which is NOT controlled. I have no real way of monitoring how much alcohol I have in my drink as someone else may mix a drink for me a little stronger than I would myself, or maybe my second drink had less coke in it than my first etc…

So now instead of having a controlled substance, teenagers are mixing their own straight drinks and end up even worse off! Smart move Ruddster!

So if teens are the problem, upping the price on alcopops must be the solution. NO! How about tougher liquor laws, obviously they aren’t tough enough if teens are constantly binge drinking. Upping the price stops nothing, it just makes consumers who are responsible and of legal age outraged!

Parents are the problem. Control your children. If your kid is having a party don’t let them have booze. It is your responsibility to look after your own kids, not us tax payers paying for it in the long run.

Now the Rudd Crusade comes out saying 2 glasses of wine or 4 middies constitutes as binge drinking…..REDICULOUS! This is all to support their plans to now up the price on beer and wines too. I know many people who go out for dinner, drink a bottle or two of wine and are perfectly responsible, I wouldn’t call that binge drinking.

Personally I think it’s a fucking joke, and just another example of Rudd’s lack of understanding of our country, and another prime example that he should not be leading the country….

Thoughts?

Tarantino’s Career Death Proof?

While not a new movie, I thought it was time to check out Grindhouse, a two movie production with Rodriguez and Tarantino that was released last year. Rodriguez released Planet Terror while Tarantino released Death Proof.

I’ll say it now, I’m a self confessed Tarantino fan, I own every movie he’s ever released, and I was quite excited to see him redeem himself after the Kill Bill series (I personally did not think much of them). Well now I believe that if Tarantino wrapped up a steaming turd in tin foil he could sell them as earrings and still have critics and fans saying how fantastic they were, and that’s the feeling I get with Death Proof.

Annoying characters plague the movie, drab dialogue that doesn’t have any memorable moments like his earlier work like Jackie Brown or Resovoir Dogs, and a story so thin that I think a game of Pac Man has more of a story.

Kurt Russell plays Stuntman Mike, who basically drives around in his big black car, stalking and murder females. The story follows two groups of females that have altercations with Stuntman Mike. Seriously, that is the whole story.

Dissapointing, and while featuring the trademark Tarantino qualities found in all of his films, apart from some sexy cars, this movie in my opinion is terrible.

As a Tarantino fan, I am shattered

3/10 

HIM @ Festival Hall, Melbourne

Last night was one night that I will remember for the rest of my life. Last night I finally got the chance to see one of, if not, my favourite band in the world, Finnish rock group HIM. Before I get to my review of the concert, I would like to share with you the story that brought me to this special night.When I was 16 I was stumbling through JB Hi-Fi and I came across Greatest Love Songs Vol 666, and I’m not sure what made it stand out to me, but along with the interesting album work, the import only version and a cheap price tag of $15 I bought it along with a few other albums that day and went home not knowing what would happen.About a week passed by and I eventually put the CD into my stereo, and from that moment I was totally hooked on their sound. About a year passed by and Bam Margera started to get big in Australia, and it seemed that over the space of a few months I was no longer listening to an underground band, as all my friends were starting to get into HIM due to the exposure from Bam.At the time I was running a local promotions company, doing gigs in my local town and my friends said that I should organise a HIM tour of Australia as a joke. So I emailed their manager Seppo, not ever expecting a reply, but I did in fact get a reply from Jim Morewood, their manager outside of the USA and for three weeks we chatted about possible shows. Due to my young age (17 at the time) and inexperience with large promotions, Jim decided to go with someone else with more experience. I was not upset though, because this just meant that I would get to see my favourite band.The next year they were coming to Aus with support of their Dark Light album. I was excited, I was pumped, I was ready. Then two weeks before the concert I lost my job and crashed my car and couldn’t go, I had missed out on the band.So there I was, two years later, and from the minute the band walked on stage my heart was pumping. Festival Hall was full, unfortunately full of young people who didn’t seem to be die hard fans of the band. Regardless, the atmosphere was CRAZY!While Ville could hardly be understood while speaking, minus a few audible jokes here and there, their stage presence was great. As usual he smoked more cigarettes in their one and a half hour set than I do in a year, Lindt’s guitar solos were sot on and vibrant, and Gas was dominant on the drums, driving each and every song with strong and solid beats.Hit after Hit was churned out, playing the usuals like Wicked Game, Buried Alive By Love, Soul on Fire, Razorblade Kiss and showing off a few songs from Venus Doom. Finishing their encore with The Sacrament (my favourite song by the group) and an instrumental, they left the stage making me want more.Would I go see them again? In a heartbeat. Not the best show I’ve seen (Rage wins that one) but one of the most memorable 

2008 Shaping Up Big!

Looks like after an AMAZING 2007 for gaming, 2008 is not going to slow down and really push the boundaries of this gamer’s wallet…

Let’s just think back to last year, we saw a lot of quality titles, Bioshock, Call Of Duty 4, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Corruption and many more that were huge hits and high quality games.

But just in the space of this month I’m currently finding myself with too many big games to review, not enough time to do it, and too much excitement to sit down and play one of them at a time…

Condemned 2: Bloodshot is a great game thus far, been waiting for this one a long time, and it will be the first review I post. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 just arrived in my office today (a day before release in Aus) along with a copy of Super Smash Bros. This is going to be a big weekend, thank god for the easter break is all I can say

 Then I start a new job next week, which is a 40 min drive away from my home, so don’t think I’ll be doing too much gaming for a little while, but what are you guys playing and looking forward to?

Kids Killing Kids

A gang of youths, aged between 14 and 17 chased a teenage schoolboy and stabbed him to death in front of the public passing by in a suburban Londan street in England.

Kodjo Yenga was only 16, and he was ambushed by over a dozen youths, including two girls, who were armed with bats, knives and a bull-terrier dog. The gang were laughing, and smiling as they beat the 16 year old, and eventually stabbed him to death.

Reports indicated that Yenga died from a single stab wound to the heart. A woman who was pushing her child in a pram witnessed the attack, and reported they were smiling and laughing.

Apparently the youths were representing their gang MDP, who usually start a one on one fight with someone out of town and then ambush them, unfortunately this time it ended in murder.

 It’s pretty sad that kids are killing kids these days, I doubt this kind of behaviour would have been around twenty years ago

Vista Tip #1- Enabling Admin Account

Some of you out there are using Windows Vista, and even after turning off User Access Control (UAC) you still get the occasional annoying messages from this super secure Windows Platform (even though it’s not that secure lol).

Well Windows Vista has a super secret Admin account that bypasses UAC and gives total control over your operating system. IF you are going to enable this, PLEASE make sure you have a strong password and a firewall turned on. Cheers to Hazy Morning for the guide.

First, open your control panel. Inside your control panel, click on System and Maintenance. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Administrative Tools.

Next, the Administrator Tools window will open up. From there, click on Computer Management. Then the Computer Management Window will open.

On the right-hand side panel, you should see Local Users and Groups, double click on it. Now in the middle panel, double click on Users. You should see the Administrator icon at the top, in the middle panel. Right click on the Administrator icon and then click Properties.

In the Properties box, uncheck the ‘Account is Disabled’ box.
Once that is done, you should be able to restart. Once restarted, you should see the Administrator Account on the Welcome Screen.

Now you have a choice of using that account and deleting your User Account or you can keep your User Account and just use the Administrator Account when you need it. However, the Administrator Account is going to be “like new”. You will have to personalize it if you decide to use it as your main account. Also, in my opinion, if you are not going to use it often then I would disable it again.

Cyber-Terrorists Attack Scientology

Being labelled a “Cyber-Terrorist Group” Anonymous has been responsible for staging demonstrations in almost 100 cities across four continents in the last 24 hours outside the Church of Scientology. 

Demonstrations have been held in a number of cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, London, Manchester, Dublin, Stockholm, New York, Detroit and Washington. Number of participants were put at between 6000 and 8000 on an internet forum used by members of the group.

Over 100 protestors turned up to the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide protests

The aim of the group is to remove the church’s tax-exempt status as a religion, as protestor’s claim that the church financially exploits it’s members and supress their freedom of speech. Anonymous stated their aims in an open letter posted on their online forums.

I’m sure that if Tom Cruise showed up to make a public statement they would all feel better about it

Vic Boy In Blue Face Rape Charges…

Once again we are reminded of just how trustworthy, reliable and morally just our officers in the Victorian Police Force are with this great piece of news…

A 33 year old Victorian Senior Constable from Melbourne’s Eas has been arrested after a six month investigation by the the Police Ethical Standards Department. 

The officer is facing 4 counts of rape (with 3 women), 11 drug offences, attempting to pervert the course of justice, two counts of misconduct and just as the cherry on top, two counts of offering bribes. Police allege that the drugs in question involved ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamines

Well done officer, still would have liked to have seen a few counts of Grand Theft Auto and maybe Manslaughter in there