Back in Toronto again, and I can honestly say that I’ve never been colder in my life. It was 0c (32f) when I landed….and still no bloody snow, and allegedly down to -5 tonight. I’ve travelled across the world and I’ve still not seen snow, mind you at this temperature I’m entitled to it….sooooo coooold. Leaving Thursday for HK, and home Sunday. I lose a day there somewhere, but getting a little homesick now. She who must be obeyed keeps telling me how hot it is there. It got warm from the beginning of September so for the first time in a couple of years it looks like a long, hot summer. Heat/ Cold…hmmmmm…given the lovely AC I’ve got installed in my home I think I might side with the warm side :-). More soon.

Just finished booking my accomodation in Toronto for tomorrow and thought I might share a little tip….cheap doesn’t save you money. In both Toronto this week and in NY, I looked to save money on the hotel…and ended up spending a whole pile extra on transport as a consequence…so much I would have been far better off just bitting the bullet and booking a more expensive hotel, indeed some of my transport stories I’ll be sharing as an old man to my grandkids in years to come. I’ve learnt the lesson now, and this time I’ll be staying in the heart of Toronto, no more Quality Airport East, or Howard Johnson Newarks for me. As I think I mentioned to Loren the other day, next time I’m back, I intend to be a millionaire (ok, wishful thinking, but you’ve got to aim for these things), and it won’t phase me, after all, when you’ve got champagne tastes on a beer budget it makes for an interesting time.

Sunday, Newark NJ. The US is great but I’ve had enough now, and still a week till I get home. I’m back to Toronto tomorrow and I’m not looking forward to it. Ashame really I don’t have the rest of the week in New York, you’d need that and more just to see everything. Great people, amazing place….but on the other hand it also reminds me fully the advantages of living essentially in the country as opposed to a city, commuting everywhere is a pain. Sorry again to everyone I haven’t gotten back to on email, or people expecting some more comment on things going on, travelling is like that, particularly without a laptop…now if only I could work out how to upload from the phone the pics I’ve taken. Statue of Liberty is big. Very big. Indeed, is there anything in NY that isn’t big? 🙂

Perhaps it’s because I’m tired, perhaps it’s the sore back (:-)), but I keep getting this strange feeling….a feeling to dance down the street signing “New York, New York” as Sinatra did in the 1940-50ish musical which at this stage I cant seem to remember, but for lovers of musicals you’ll know the one, Sintra, possibly Dean as sailors in NY during WW2. They were right, New York, New York is a wonderful town. Not cheap, but mindblowingly big….it just seems to go on forever. Loren informes me that theres something like 14 million people and another 6 million nereby, essentially the entire population of Australia. I’ve got a couple more days (leave Monday) and I’m looking forward to exploring some more. The WTC was quite moving, Madisson Square Garden, Broadway (I’m seriously thinking about a ticket to Spamalot…but not cheap). OK, enough for now, when she who must be obeyed gets up in the morning this post is only going to make her jealous. More soon. Oh yeh, nearly forgot, I’ve got no comment on b5 at the moment.

On a computer again for the first time in 3-4 days, I say 3-4 because I’m not quite sure what day it is. The flight from Hong Kong to Toronto via Anchorage was, without doubt, the single worst flight of my life. It’s also the first time in my entire life I’ve thrown up on a plane…or as the case was all over the entire toilet + a good portion of myself as well…I think the vomit was flying up and down with the plane. Cathay Pacific is excellent, great food, efficent service…and most importantly it’s not Qantas, but the turbulance North of Japan…maybe 3 to 4 hours worth, straight after dinner…it just went on and on and on. Worse thing, a bit like with a boat, I usually don’t suffer so much at the time, but on the land…land sickness. Slightly recovered now and off to New York tomorrow. I won’t share my thoughts about Toronto until I get back home, but suffice to say it may have been more enjoyable under different circumstances. But time to go now, the wounds in my back are twitching and I’ll got to go and sign some papers. Till NY, aurevoir…

PS: This might sound strange but it was actually easier to communicate with people in Hong Kong than Canada. Trying to do the simplest things here is quite frustrating. Canadian’s may have kept some good things from their English heritage, but the use of the English language wasn’t one of them 🙂

Ive just got my acceptance email through for AzoogleAds (aff). Admitedly, I did have to jump through some hoops, and I’ve got to post some stuff to Canada as well to later recieve a payment (I’ll probably hold off till Monday, then I can post it locally :-)). I’ve heard some really good word of mouth for these guys lately, and whilst I’ve got accounts at various affiliate and advertising sites, I don’t recall having used them previously. First impressions, without having actually starting using some of the offers yet, is all positive. Easy to use interface and quick, unlike CJ in particular. With the advertisers offers there’s no xyz% or average payout type rubbish, you get a clear figure of the return you’ll get on a CPA basis. They’ve got a reasonable range of advertisers, it’s by no means the largest but it’s decent, various offers, with a strong range of ringtone sites in particular. I’ll report back in a couple of weeks once I’ve given a few of the offers a test run, but so far, so good.

I’m not longer writing a Britney Spear site for a blog network, but I always knew that this would eventually happen:

Britney Spears files for divorce in LA: Reuters.

Chris Murphy was voted out of Australian Idol last night. I never thought fat jesus (as he was so-called by the Spin Starts Here..a label we’ve used at home ever since) would win (Damien Leith should win), but I thought fat jesus deserved to stay last night, and the pretty boy Christian rocker Dihn should have gone home. Probably what saddens me more is the fact that fat jesus, as far as I can remember anyway, was the first ever Australian Idol contestant to sing a Crowded House song. It’s like Gen Y have never heard of Crowded House. It’s coming up on 10 years now since their final concert, Farewell to the World, and it’s like the world has forgotten, and certainly anyone under the age of about 27 has. Sad really. I guess I’ll have to keep them as the band that defined me, and even now I enjoy their music every time I play them on my Win XP MCE box.

My tip as to who will win Australian Idol, not that I’ll get to see it unless I magically obtain a laptop while I’m away and can download the episodes from bittorrent, is Jessica Mauboy. Not because she’s talented, I mean seriously, f*ck me, she sounds the same every single week, she’ll win because she’s female and not white, and no matter how much me saying that is going to upset a whole pile of people, we all know it’s true. You see, white boys don’t win Idol, so as much as Damien deserves to win, after all he has by far and away the best falsetto I have ever heard (with my old I was once a musician hat on), he’s white and male…and probably worse still he’s married as well. The last 3 Australian idol winners:

1: male and Islander
2. female and aboriginal
3. female and fat

Having said that, given the recent success of Australian Idol winners, Damien is probably better off coming second, he can then follow in the footsteps of white boys such as Anthony Calleja and Shannon Noll and sell a pile of records, and for possibly the first time ever I’ll be amongst the buyers.

Tags: Australian Idol

It’s been interesting watching and reading the US mid-term elections this time around, perhaps more so because these days I’m not involved in politics at all. That might sound strange given that I’m in Australia, but I’ve found in the last 12 months, after having spent my entire adult life involved with the Liberal Party of Australia, or even actually working for it as a staffer, that my sense of right and wrong is actually returning, and it was really lost previous to this. You see, if you sell an idea or policy to someone enough, even if you believe at first that it’s wrong, eventually you start believing the lies you tell. In the past I’ve always looked at US politics through the eyes of Australian politics, and hence I would have been an unashamed Republican, they are, after all, the party aligned in the United States with the Liberal Party here in Australia. Where as once I would have looked at dirty tactics by either as being justified in the race to win (politics is only about winning, people who think it’s not never get elected) now my perception is different. Looking this time around at the issues in the US, and the tactics, I shake my head. There’s little doubt that the Republicans are in the gutter when it comes to doing anything to win. This shit sheet is a good example. Australian readers should take note, you see this rubbish from the Liberal Party at every election, and you’ll see it again next year. Now before anyone jumps up and down about the language, that’s what they are called here: shit sheets. They’re used against your competitors for preselection, and they are used against people you are running against, and yes, I’ve designed and created shit sheets in the past, something I’m not proud off. But I digress, the second page of the shit sheet (here) is more nasty politics, but here’s the thing: for every person who’s ever told me that Australia is behind the United States in campaigning technique, you’re 100% wrong. Look at shit sheet again. Look at the fonts and the drop shadows. Clear as day: they’ve been designed using Microsoft Publisher. I know because I used the tool for years in creating campaign material. Thing is, certainly I know head office campaigns for the Liberal Party don’t use publisher anymore, and I certainly didn’t use it at the last Federal and State Elections, everyone here has pretty much switched to Adobe InDesign. Great tool for flyers…brilliant even. And yet the Americans are using Publisher. 1 up for Australia 🙂

One last thing, that probably won’t win me any friends, if I was American I’d be voting Democrat this time round, although admittedly they are the better of two evils. Two reasons: they believe more strongly in liberty and freedom at home, secondly they also believe in a secular society. We’re fortunate that god doesn’t play a significant role in Australian politics, and I feel sorry for my American friends that religion now plays such a strong role there. Free nations can, and do have as their basis for laws Christian morals, and there is nothing wrong with that, but those very societies will only remain superior to other countries if they remain free and therefore neutral on religion.

Tags: US Elections

A blogger has been invited on to the set of the TV show she blogs about to exclusively meet the cast and crew of the show!

As I write this Sheila is in a hotel getting ready to visit the set of Medium. Congrats Sheila. Amazing stuff.

There’s a tie up directly with a major Hollywood Celebrity on another blog (not sure if I’m able to disclose at this stage, suffice to say there is freebies for the readers), and of course there was the previous deal with Fox’s promotional arm with 3 blogs.

Congrats to Arieanna and her amazing team of bloggers who never let some of the snide and degrading comments get them down, and whom I was lucky and fortunate enough to have once worked directly with.