Apathy: a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion.

It's been almost two months since I last posted anything here. It's not that I haven't thought about it. I have. I've even started writing. I'll get one or two sentences down, and lose interest, before hitting the 'delete' button. If I can't muster up enough enthusiasm to get a paragraph down, why should I expect anyone to read it?

Based on the comments people have been leaving lately, it would seem that the only people reading this are either web site owners, looking to leave a token comment along with a link to their website, or people who can't get passed the fact that not everyone thinks 300 is the greatest film ever made.

I've had a revised 'theme' sitting in the can 95% ready for implementation for the past few months, however I haven't been able to muster the motivation to knock over that last 5%. To me that's not a great sign, and one that leads me to the inevitable question, 'why am I doing this?'

I started this site up over five years ago for one simple reason, to see if I could do it. It wasn't about the number of visitors, it wasn't about the content and it wasn't even about making some extra coin. It was simply to see if I could set up a functioning website and maintain it. I guess I ticked that box. After a while, people started to actually visit. From there I figured that if people visited, then I could probably put some ads up to fund the whole experiment. Then it became about making money to pay the hosting bills.

Where is this all heading? I don't know. Where will this site be in twelve months? I don't know. Maybe I need a month on a tropical island to refocus and figure out what it is I'm trying to achieve, both with this site, and elsewhere. Maybe I'll focus in on a niche, or maybe I'll just post stuff that amuses me. I don't know. I do know that five years is a long time to maintain the status quo.

Emo rant over.

It's freakin awesome and would have been bloody time consuming to put together, so give it a look.

It's legoxplotation...

or something like that...

Interestingly, Machete is being turned into its own feature film by Robert Rodriguez. It's scheduled for a 2010 release with Danny Trejo playing Machete and a host of other big names including Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, and Robert DeNiro all making appearances. The plot is rumoured to closely follow the events shown in the mock trailer.

Here's a promo poster for the film, featuring Jessica Alba.

As you can see in the graph below, my first full month with Infolinks was pretty good, bringing me a respectable $3+ eCPM. Following the first month, things levelled off, to the point where I was averaging between $1 and $1.50 eCPM for several months.

Things began to unravel during September 2009, when my eCPM dropped below $1 for the second month in a row. The downward spiral has continued since, with my Infolinks eCPM hovering around the $0.50 mark. To put this into some perspective, it means that my Infolinks earnings have dropped by a half to two thirds. I plan on sticking with them for a little longer in the hope that this downward trend turns around, but my patience will only last so long.

For anyone else out there that uses Infolinks, what has been your experience? Have you noticed a similar trend?

On the 12 December you can show your support for this semi-worthy cause by purchasing an official IDBAD Ribbon.

All ribbons are made from 100% recycled Ed Hardy t-shirts to help reduce the impact this brand has on creating new douchebags worldwide.

In my opinion, Ed Hardy t-shirts are the 'Hyper Color' t-shirts of the naughties. Actually, that's not really fair, Hyper Color shirts were at least a good idea for 5 minutes.

I'm not sure if there is any scientific research to support this, but I believe there may be a correlation between Ed Hardy wearers and fake tans.

Speaking of Ed Hardy, check out the Ed Hardy Boyz mystery, The Ed Hardy Boyz: The Case of the Missing Sick Belt Buckle.

Warning: If you're not a Pearl Jam fan then what follows may not be your cup of tea.

To say that I'm a Pearl Jam fan is something of an understatement. I've seen them live six times now, and own pretty much anything they've put their name to. Previously when they've come to Australia they've played two or three shows in Melbourne at smaller venues (eg. Rod Laver arena which holds about 10-15,000 I think). This time around though they are only playing the one big arena show at each major capital. At first this kind of bummed me out, cause it meant I'd only get the chance to see them once, but then once is better than not at all. On the plus side though, their decision to bring Ben Harper along for support was a big positive.

I'd been able to pick up General Admin tickets in "The Fixer" field, which on the map appeared to be the first quarter of the total general admin area, but in reality was probably more like half of the oval. Friday was a hot day, and with the roof closed, Etihad Stadium was a steam box. Walking into the stadium, with my sister, and fellow fan, just after the doors opened, the one thing I immediately noticed was the scale of the place. I'd been to a couple of football games there, but on Friday, with the stage up one end of the ground, it just looked bigger. After navigating my way through the various checkpoints we arrived at "The Fixer" field, then took up our position about 15 people back from the stage right in front of where Mike McCready would set up shop.

Liam Finn was the first support act to hit the stage at around 6pm, ripping through a short-ish set of material from his solo album. Rather than having a full band behind him Liam Finn made use of loops to back himself. For example, he'd play a few bars on the drums, sample and loop it, then pick up guitar and play along to that. At first it was interesting, but after the initial curiosity wore off I couldn't help but think he'd sound a heap better with a full band behind him. I think the fact that he was live sampling/looping his stuff was lost on some people as I heard a few mumblings around me along the lines of "Who's playing the bass? Where are the drums coming from? Is he using a backing tape?" All up though it was an entertaining and energetic little set.

Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 hit the stage at around 7pm playing a rock based set made up largely of newer material, with a couple of older tunes thrown in for good measure. Diamonds on the Inside was as mellow as it got from Ben Harper. For most people the highlight of his set was probably the special guest appearance from Eddie Vedder on the cover 'Under Pressure'. The crowd went crazy, and if there was ever any doubt about who people had come to see, it was most definitely put to rest.

When Ben Harper left the stage, there was a 30 min interval before Pearl Jam were due. Thinking it was as good a time as any, and given that it was hot as hell, my sister headed for the drinks stand. Twenty minutes later the crowd had packed tighter she hadn't returned, so I did the brother thing and went looking for her, suspecting she'd got stuck on the way back. I was right. Long story short, I found here, but by that time the crowd was so thick we were never getting back to our spot. All things considered though, by the time the guys did walk out on stage, we'd managed to make it almost back to our starting spot.

Pearl Jam opened with the relatively mellow 'Elderly Woman...' as if to get a feel for the audience, before launching into the rockier sure fire crowd pleasers Corduroy and Animal. From there it was 'Got Some' from their latest album, which translated well live.

Then there was the first surprise in the set, 'Brother' that was a b-side from the Ten sessions making an appearance. It was the first time I'd heard it live and it was sublime, complete with its tribal style chanted chorus. From their it was a mix of older favourites mixed in with the new tracks that stood up well against a lot of the 'classics'.

The set list drew heavily from the 'Ten' album, with the band playing eight songs from their first release.

By the time the first set drew to a close I was trying to figure out what would come next.

Eddie Vedder came out solo for the start of the first encore, to strum his way through the Neil Young song, "Needle and the Damage Done", inspired, he said, by Liam Finn's earlier cover of another Neil Young classic "Cinnamon Girl". Ben Harper then joined the band on stage to play some guitar on "Red Mosquito" then joined Eddie Vedder for "Indifference". The band then rolled into four "Ten" tracks in a row, "Jeremy", "Deep", "Why Go" and "Porch".

The second encore opened with Eddie Vedder joined on stage by Liam Finn for a cover of the Hunters and Collectors song "Throw Your Arms Around Me", before launching into crowd pleasers "Black", "Spin the Black Circle" and "Alive". Half way through the Who cover Baba O'Reily the house lights started to kick on and it looked like it may all be over, but the band then kicked into "Yellow Ledbetter" which has almost become the trademark finale.

Maybe it was just me, and maybe I'm getting old or my tolerance isn't what it used to be, but in my opinion there was a larger bogan/meat head contingent at this gig than any of the past shows I've been to. I think there was a correlation between proximity to the stage and percentage of dickheads. It seemed like as we got further back, the number of drunken dickheads increased. Why you would pay $100+ to go to a Pearl Jam gig only to get so shit faced that you can't even stand at a urinal without falling in is beyond me. I guess booze would be the excuse another drunken young gent would be using to explain why he thought it'd be a good idea to piss into a bottle while standing in the middle of the crowd. Right before the first encore break, my sister needed a time out for a sit down and water at the first aid tent, not long after she'd rejoined me there was some kind of scuffle that saw the chairs flying and security called in. Didn't really see what happened, why it started, or how it ended, but I'm chalking it up to booze as well. Drunken macho dickheads aside though it was good show.

For me the highlights were "Brother", "Present Tense", "Indifference" and "The Needle and the Damage Done". Pearl Jam remain one of the few live bands that continue to produce at the highest level, and their ability to command a crowd, even one as large as that on Friday, is a testament to the hard work that they clearly put in. The fact that they were rocking for a good two and a half hours, playing some 32 songs, in damn hot conditions also speaks volumes of their commitment to put on an awesome show, as well as their fitness.

Eddie Vedder continues to hold his position as my number one front man of choice, and if Friday night is anything to go by, it's going to take a lot for someone to come along and knock him off top spot. He oozes charisma like few other people, and to be perfectly honest, the guy could release a cd of himself reading the phone book and I'd be lining up to buy it.

If you haven't seen Pearl Jam before and get the chance on their current tour, make sure you get along, cause the band are as energized as ever.

For those of you into this sort of thing, here's Pearl Jam's complete set list from their November 20 show at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.

Set 1

Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Corduroy
Animal
Got Some
Brother
Amongst The Waves
Even Flow
Oceans
Lukin
Green Disease
Force of Nature
Present Tense
Gonna See My Friend
Given To Fly
Daughter/Another Brick In The Wall
Glorified G
The Fixer
Do The Evolution

Encore 1

The Needle and The Damage Done
Just Breathe
Red Mosquito
Indifference
Jeremy
Deep
Why Go
Porch

Encore 2

Throw Your Arms Around Me
Black
Spin The Black Circle
Alive
Baba O'Riley
Yellow Ledbetter

His name was Robert Paulson. His name was Robert Paulson. His name was Robert Paulson. His name was Robert Paulson. His name was Robert Paulson...

Anyway, the production values on Dr Who have sky rocketed. On Monday nights episode there was a distinct lack of silver painted cricket pads, but there was a CGI shriveled up Doctor. Following the episode ABC2 screened 'the making of' the episode. One of the visual effects guys spoke about how they created the full size to shriveled up transition effect which I found kind of interesting. If I'm interpreting what he described correctly, they basically filmed the actor for three minutes or so gyrating on the ground (looking like he was having a spasm) then went back in the editing suite and remove a whole slab of frames almost at random, to give the shot a frenetic transformation vibe. If I ever get hold of a video camera again I may try to reproduce something similar in After Effects. I looked for it on YouTube with no luck. It's the sort of effect that would be at home in a home made vampire flick or industrial music video.

Here's a more sedate type of effect (not as aggressive) that uses a bit of that stop go style animation. It's cool in its own right.

n

...that it is possible to respond to any statement or question with "that's what she said"... I said it's possible, I didn't say it was socially acceptable.

Most importantly, and sometimes forgotten, music can be responsible for creating meaning. Changing music, can change a persons perception of something altogether. It can make the mundane exciting and the friendly sinister. Don't believe me? Check out this revised version of the Different Strokes opening credits sequence. By dropping some alternative music under it, the scene takes on a whole new, creepier, meaning.

Along a similar line is this little nuggety gem from the Victoria's WorkSafe. Having been grossed out by the original ad quite a few times, I found it to be much more watchable once a nice little tune was dropped over the top.