Here is a screenshot of the edit posts tab that Blogger has. Of note, I'd like to draw your attention to a particular draft i had in the works that would have been published in the next few days, but noticeably, the date I had first started it.

Screenshot.

I expanded it so that you can see what I was going to writing about.

Screenshot again.

TodayTonight STOLE MY IDEA!!! Seriously, I was about to write about how predictable these so-called """shows"""" (I cannot emphasise enough these are not real shows) were becoming and before I can even call them predictable they go and fulfill my idea. I was slightly bummed, but mostly pleased, when I saw the ad where the TodayTonight """reporters""" (nor can I emphasise enough how far these people fall short of being real reporters) go to re-interview that weather-nut.

I guess all that this goes to show is that TodayTonight and ACA can prove themselves to be predictable, unoriginal and stupid without the aid of some blogger who hates them. Then again, I'm just one person who hates the shows among the thousands. So how stupid must the people be who watch them? And these are, no doubt, voting Australians. Woe-is-me.

I'm not going to watch it, of course, just like I didn't watch the first report. But I thought I'd just like to draw attention to the semi-irony of the whole thing. Thank-you for your time.

Thomas.

In addition to the list of posts that I'm going to be completing through the holidays, the first is now Bucks 'Party!' 2007. It happened last night, it was crazy and quite a bit of fun, and the stories will amaze the masses. Maybe.

Expect it Tuesday.

Thomas.

I think I've been banned from the kitchen, and preparing food, for the final time tonight. If so, I'm certainly not mourning this loss. I'll celebrate it later tonight in fact. But for now, I must be content with my mother preparing my food after being turned off from my 'style' of cooking.

See, I was supposed to make some sort of salad for dinner tonight. I brought up my regular argument of "Why does food need so much attention if you're just going to eat it?" I then said that we shouldn't bother with a salad, or if we absolutely had to, we should do this ...

I proceeded to pick up the head of lettuce and took a bite out of the side. I chewed away as my mother looked on, stunned. I smiled then grabbed a cucumber and took a bite out of the side as well. Chewing away my mother forcibly removed me from the kitchen talking about how I'm uncouth and uncivilised and am never to tread foot on the kitchen tiles again. I started to laugh when I leaned up against a wall, looking at a head of lettuce and a cucumber with chunks missing. It was quite the sight. I should have taken some photos, Samuel-esque style.

I still would be happy if my mother dumped the crisper shelf on the dinner table in preparation for tea every night. Then she, my father, my sister and I could just grab what we want and eat as much as we want. There's things I don't like in a salad that someone else might, so nothing will really go to waste. And the novelty value! It would get kids eating veggies if they had to fight for bits and eating were fun.

Of course, I fully support the cooking and preparation of livestock and meats. I couldn't eat them raw. Though sushi I have been known to consume and enjoy, so perhaps, along with knives and forks, a fish scaler and a bucket for the guts could be supplied?

I could have stumbled upon a new idea for a restaurant. Or is that called a farm? Meh.

Thomas.

Note: No, the parts of the food that I 'defiled' were not served in the salad that was made by more 'caring' hands.

There are a list of things that, really, you just don't want to happen when you have an exam on that day. Serious bodily harm can result in an extension, as can tragedy and 'misadventure'. But I know that some people have been refused the chance to sit an exam because they missed a train or bus. So, imagine my feelings of joy* when, after not having to use NSW's awful public transport system for roughly two and a half weeks, the first train I need to take to get to an exam is ... well, I'll let my transcript say it all:

"The 7:37 train to the city has been *slight pause, everyone gasped* canceled for today.*

I heard this after just buying my ticket and walking up the stairs of East Hills station after deciding I wouldn't rush for the earlier train that I saw getting ready to leave the station (it was an all stop, which by the timetable, would have got me to Redfern later than my intended train). Isn't that just how things go? I hadn't had a problem with any trains in some time, and if I had, I wouldn't have cared because, frankly, lectures are about as entertaining as a Kevin Smith film (sorry Andrew, had to do it haha). But exams are a whole different kettle of fish. They are compulsory.

Yet another fantastic encounter with CityRail, even after the budget promised that things would be on the improve. Well, I know you have to give these things time, but Mr. Costa certainly wasn't my friend, nor Mr. Iemma or his cronies in charge of public transport. Why couldn't O'Farrell have run during the last election? Damn Liberal honchos.

Thomas.

*When I say joy, I really mean horror

I have lots of already lengthy posts in draft form, but exam mode has finally kicked in, and they will stay there, most likely until the 26th. Expect one or two come Friday evening, but other than that, sporadic posting ahead.

Thomas.

I know that, some while ago, I did a post linking to all the photos that I took of the 18 Cup on my trip to Europe, but only realised this week that I never got around to showing any of the 700+ others of the generic tourist things. So accept this as the post that should have gone up a long time ago containing most of my favourite photos. They are in no particular order, though are grouped together per content.

A warning, a lot of these are just photos without the 18 Cup in it. But, then again, some of them aren't.

I believe I took the most photos at Gallipoli, and a few selections of them include the two I took at Anzac Cove here and here. The memorial at Lone Pine and the well preserved Gallipoli trenches were two highlights among the many. Of course, I was obliged to pay a visit to John Simpson's place of rest as well. And, to my surprise, I found this. I hadn't done any specific research on what I'd find at Gallipoli before I went because, well, I thought I knew what I'd find. But the big monument, which has Ataturk's famous letter to the mothers of the Anzacs who had died in the Gallipoli campaign was a surprise, and a welcome one. My great-uncle, who was traveling with my grandfather and me, had never heard of it, and when he read it, shed a tear and was really moved by it. The long story short behind us going there is that we had a distant relation (that my grandfather knew as a child) fight there and survive, only to die on the Western Front. Reading the monument had a similar effect on me, and ever since, I can't read it without feeling that familiar lump in my throat.

I get the most requests from family and friends to talk about Auschwitz, followed by seeing the photos. I think sometimes my response disappoints people. I guess that people have different experiences there, and me not exactly being the greatest at expressing emotional experiences, might sell what I did actually feel there short. Anyway, I took photos of the main gate (which was eerie to walk through) and of the haunting main building at Auschwitz-Birkenau, as well as some spur of the moment ones. This is looking down one of the many fences within the Auschwitz camp. Block 11 in the Auschwitz camp was the prison within the prison, and between it and Block 10 was a non-visible (all windows looking into the yard, as well as the entry and exit were boarded up) as it was where prisoners were shot. I took this photo of the area not because I could but because there were people laying wreaths there as we came. It was, really, the only colour you could find in the entire place.

At Auschwitz-Birkenau, you were allowed to go into the main building and look out at that horrific place. This was a photo looking out to the fields. Each chimney was a building that would 'house' hundreds, sometimes thousands, of prisoners. That was only looking out to the right. This is looking out to the left. This photo is looking out the centre windows, where one can sees the train tracks leading into the camp, where the prisoners would 'disembark'. I'm not going to retell the horror stories that could go with the photo because everyone knows them all.

I took photos inside of the prisoner blocks and of the outside of the gas chambers, but I don't want to post them.

Onto something more lively, well, lively in mind, not physically. I enjoy taking photos of statues, probably because you don't have to worry about them moving or blinking. Anyway, the British Museum is great for that, as is a trip through Italy. This is a statue in Pompeii (and boy are there many of them). At the British Museum, two examples (and I took a whole heap of photos of "old stuff" as my younger viewers have deemed it) of the exhibitions I saw are this Egyptian statue, this Greek one, as well as this Greek temple (?). Of course, how could I not take a photo of the Rosetta Stone. I did an assignment about it for the HSC and scored ridiculously high marks on it, and since then I've always wanted to go and see it (perhaps to say thank-you?).

Taking photos of the Statue of David is banned (someone explained it to my father and I the first time we saw it, but the reasoning eludes me). The temptation to take a photo, for my father, was too much, and he managed to snap off a few before we left. The challenge had been laid down to me, so of course I took a photo ... and was promptly thrown out. Luckily I took it after I had gandered all over the place, so i wasn't heartbroken. In fact, I was rather pleased - I was thrown out of the Accademia Gallery.

I saw this nice, entertaining statue in Singapore. I liked it. A lot of the people I've shown it to didn't, or at least didn't 'get' it. But what's to 'get' about simple things?

The Trevi Fountain in Rome. It's a strange thing. Before I saw it on my first trip, I was slightly excited to see it. Then when I did see it, i said "So what, it's just a fountain". Then, this second time, it was actually impressive. Perhaps it was my impetuous youth speaking the first time, but regardless, I took two of my favourite photos there. This is a wide shot of the fountain, while this was a close-up side shot of the main statue of Neptune.

When you go to Rome, the thing everyone visits is the Coliseum. This was my second visit (I just love an opportunity to brag), and I took as many photos as my parents did the first time. This is from the second tier looking down at the arena, while this is also from the second tier, looking straight ahead (from the opposite side to the first).

The next place that people go to in Rome? The Vatican. I know, not an official part of Italy, but it's there, and people go. I went, and it was alright. I wasn't expecting a whole lot (other than the Sistine Chapel), and that's sort of what I got - nothing too flash. I was impressed by the size of everything. The building, especially St. Peter's Basilica, is huge! This is a photo of the outside. Seriously, inside, the columns and the interior hoo-ha is unbelievably massive.

Florence yielded many photos for two reason. One, it really is a picturesque place (even though I don't really like being there). Two, no one in my family had been to Florence when it rained. I was 'lucky' enough to be the first to get the rain. But, regardless, I got many photos of, really, the same cityscape. So, to save on your's and mine's time, I'll show you my favourite of the lot. This. Why is it the favourite? Because you can see the Duomo and Campanile (that thing that looks like it has a terracotta roof), the Ponte Vecchio (that big bridge over the river) and the rest of the city.

Venice is, quite possibly, my most favourite place on Earth. I made a point to go back because it's so foreign to be there. There's no cars, no road, nothing that you expect back home. You can really escape the world when you go there. That's my feelings anyway. And my opinion hasn't been changed by those people who slander the place for this or that (whether they've been there or not), and it never will. I became so 'wrapped' by the place that I hardly took any pictures. This is a photo from the Rialto bridge, looking down the Grand Canal. This is just one of the hundreds of canals that you pass. I thought it sort of summed up my time there: a quiet, secluded part of the world with no hustle or bustle of home, where you could just go to relax.

Going to Stonehenge is a funny story that I'll probably write about one day soon. This is one of the dozens of photos I took of it as you walk around it. It was freezing there, so walking around took us a whole of fifteen minutes haha.

And that's about it. I had a heap more photos, and some of things I haven't mentioned above. But, for the most part, what I have linked to are my favourite photos. Credit to anyone who I forced to sit through all 750+ of them, and more to people who want to see them all of their own volition. But I doubt I'll find too many of them any more. Maybe one day I'll get around to at least uploading a single photo of everywhere I'd been, but that's a task for the holidays.

Thomas.

Note: This layout sort of sucks in terms of showing a link. It's a light-ish brown in amidst all the black font. For the most part, I linked to photos on the word "this". Sometimes it was specific words, like "Lone Pine" or "Gallipoli trenches". Maybe, as you read, you should run you cursor over the line if you have trouble. If anyone does find locating links a hard task, say so and the layout will be gone.

I'm in the process of redesigning the layout. This isn't how it's going to be from here on in, so don't despair. It's only that I've a more pressing matter to deal with right now.

Edit: I'm going to settle on this. For future reference, please don't lose your glasses again haha. I enjoyed fiddling too much to be able to stave off doing it again.

Thomas.

This is late (in terms of how quickly one can get news these days) in T.V. land, but it's something that I only just found out today. Any longterm reader of this blog will know that I'm an avid watcher of television, and of all the shows that I hold most dear Boston Legal is one of them. I've talked about it being a good show and then ways in which it has improved. I've covered all topics that I thought needed covering.

Lo and behold, I found a topic that I needed to talk about. No, it's not that the show has increasingly become "The Alan Shore & Denny Crane politics Show" (something that it has actually become) ...

Before I get into detail about it, I'll preface this with a little 'viewing rule' that I have. Knowing full well that T.V. shows are T.V. shows, and that they are all competing for ratings, and that death-scenes of favourite characters garner the highest ratings (usually), I invest my 'attachment' into many characters. This ensures that when one of my favourites are written out of a show, I still have other favourites that I'm watching a show for. So, let me list the people (in order) that I'm 'invested' in for season one of Boston Legal:

- Sally Sweep, played by Lake Bell
- Brad Chase, played by Mark Valley
- Alan Shore, played by James Spader
- Lori Colson, played by Monica Potter
- Denny Crane, played by William Shatner

By the end of the first season, Lake Bell had left, Five episodes into the second season, Monica Potter had left. Also, early in season two, Tara Wilson (who played Rhona Mitra) had left as well. The show, thankfully, introduced new, full time characters to replace those that left. Denise Bauer (played by Julie Bowen), Shirley Schmidt (played by Candice Bergen), Sara Holt (played by Ryan Michelle Bathe) and Garrett Wells (played by Justin Mentell) were all progressively brought into the show. As well, Paul Lewiston (played by Rene Auberjonois) was fleshed out as a character (spoken about here), and built up in a way that made you want to see him take on a case or have something to do with a plot line because you knew it would be serious then. I weighed up my stock options and invested in the following:

- Denise Bauer
- Brad Chase
- Alan Shore

This was around the time where, as I linked to earlier, I thought the show was taking a turn for the worst. But, by the end of the season, a new character had been introduced that grabbed my attention and got me hooked more-so than I was before. Michael J. Fox landed a reoccurring role as Daniel Post, which thankfully stretched to this latest season, but ... well, I'll get to that later. Marlene Stanger (played by Parker Posey) was such an interesting character and so 'effective' in the environment (in terms of in and out of character) that, after blogging about her, I re-did my favourites list:

- Marlene Stanger
- Denise Bauer
- Brad Chase
- Daniel Post
- Alan Shore
- Denny Crane

But, come season three, well, it really was a strange turn of events. In no particular order, Garrett Wells, Sara Holt, and Marlene Stanger had all been written out. Brad Chase hardly appeared, as was the case with Denise Bauer and Paul Lewiston. The worst part of all that: Marlene Stanger was gone! The Squid, who had peaked my interest in the show after four episodes was headed for the New York branch. I thought the show was doomed, and more-so when I heard that more new characters were being written in. Jeffrey Coho (played by Craig Bierko) and Claire Simms (played by Constance Zimmer) managed to dispel any fear of them adding negativity to the show, as their characters (of particular note: Jeffrey Coho) revived the show and headed it in a new direction. My new list became:

- Jeffrey Coho
- Denise Bauer
- Brad Chase
- Daniel Post
- Claire Simms
- Alan Shore
- Denny Crane

Of course, Paul Lewiston was interesting to see come and go, and Shirley Schmidt, yeah, interesting enough. Anyway, generally, the show was at it's peak, and above all, had more characters that I liked than ever before.

Daniel Post received an increased role ... then he was killed off.

Then last week's episode came along and Jeffrey Coho left.

Then I got news today: the following character have been written out of the show for season four:

- Denise Bauer
- Brad Chase
- Claire Simms
- Paul Lewiston

In one fell swoop, five of my favourite characters were gone, and a fringe member was out the door with them. My list then became:

- Alan Shore
- Denny Crane

Thus, as I hinted at before, the show truly has become the Alan and Denny show. I loved Boston Legal, but I don't love it so much that I could stand it just centering around the same three characters doing the same three things every week. I liked the show, as of late, not because it was the same old left vs. right or Republican vs. Democrat debates between Denny and Alan (which had become stale and boring in my opinion) but because I could watch as multiple other plots unfolded and took shape that interested me to no end.

People are going to say that Denise and Brad did little-to-no lawyer-stuff towards the end. This is true. But will they stop to think that them not doing the lawyer-stuff gave people a break from every other character that was doing it? And Jeffrey, well, people have already said that he was written out because he was 'competition' to the Alan Shore character. That is no reason to get rid of him! Far out, it should serve for the writers to invest more in him if anything! Play the two off each other, mess around with them, keep them on each other's heels. Just make sure they encounter one another at least once in the hour!

Claire, well, she would be the one you would write out if you were having a minor cast shuffle-up. But when you're losing three of your longest-serving cast members (with Mark Valley having been on the show since day one) you don't cut out one of the more interesting characters who, again, gave viewers away time from Alan and Denny doing their same old thing.

By having the centre of attention on Denny and Alan, the show became predictable. I said it before, and it's going to happen again. The show become like a formula:

Alan takes on a case that allows him to voice his dissenting, anti-Bush, Democratic opinion -> Alan then voices his opinion throughout the show, resulting in a disagreement with Denny -> Alan makes a grandiose closing to his case, summing up why the Republicans and Bush are bad -> Alan wins the case -> Alan sits on Denny's balcony, the two smoke a cigar and drink whiskey as the show fades out.

Denise, Brad, Jeffrey, Paul, Claire, Daniel, Marlene, Lori and Sally all made the show unpredictable and watchable. Each and every one of those characters will be gone by the next season, and they are likely to never return. Thankfully Shirley is still there, with a hotch-potch bunch of characters that don't interest me in the slightest, as well as two, soon-to-be named characters that will join the firm. But it doesn't matter. I've now lost every character that I've really shown an interest in that wasn't Alan or Denny, who are slowly driving me up the wall. The question is, for me, will I be watching much of the fourth season, or until all of my favourites are gone? Season five does indeed seem a daunting task to undertake right now ...

Thomas.