Kylie Chan

Well the blog is here, might as well make it useful.

My horse is currently out at Moggill at a wonderful place where they look after him for me every day, feeding and rugging.  It's a fantastic location, he has his own electric fenced paddock (he suffers from itch and I believe it's better for a horse to be in their own yard after losing a couple to paddock brawls), but it's a MILE from home.

Anybody know someone who would look after my horse for me, closer to the Oxley/Darra area?  I contacted the pony club and they offered me a place there but he'd have to share and there's no electric fence (even though I can provide an electric fence, it's a shared paddock).  I pay VERY WELL!  Come on guys, put the word out for me - I need a place closer to home for my poooonnnyyy, the one that I brought over from Hong Kong.  Ideally with full care, as I am a busy lady, but if it's very close to home I can go to him every day.  It would be wonderful to be able to ride more often, at the moment it's a whole morning gone if I want to go out to Moggill to see him.

Help me out!  

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz0PaPpmGa8

(You can create your own levels in Super Mario.  These are some of them.  No playing is actually required for these levels; you just start Mario off and the rest plays itself. For 11 minutes.)  (Oh and thanks to Abriel in my linkshell for the link!)

www.pomegranatephone.com

(After you've explored this amazing piece of technology, check the release date.  That's the kicker.)

Phone, rings, I answer it.  It's a really bad, staticky line, and there's a definite delay before someone says anything.  Autodialer from a telemarketing company.

Well, sucks to be you, telemarketer, because I'm on the government's Do Not Call list (as well as having a silent number), and it's illegal to call me with telemarketing.

Me: Hello?

Him:  Hello?

Me: (Yup, telemarketer):  Hello?

Him:  Hello, yes ma'am, this is <unintelligible> from the computer support company, and we've had a report that one of the computers in your area is running slowly.  If that's the case, we can help you to fix it.  Tell me, is one of your computers running slowly?

Me: (what the HELL?):  I'm sorry, what company is this?

Him:  Your computer support company.

Me:  (Oh my god you creeps.) : And what is the name of the company?

Him: <unintelligible>

Me:  Again please? It's a really bad line.

Him:  Support on Click. (Spells it)

Me: (You have an accent from the Indian subcontinent, dude):  Where is your company based?

Him:  We're based in Sydney, ma'am.

Me:   And your ABN? Your Australian Business Number?

Him:  (Gives it.)

Me: Thank you.  I am going to report you to the Australian Government, because I am on the Do Not Call list.  It is against the law to call me with telemarketing.  Can you please confirm again that your company is Support on Click, and that your ABN is xxxxxx.

Him:  Yes, we're support on click.  You want more numbers? I can give you more numbers!  I have plenty of numbers to give you!

Me:  You're getting angry with ME, when it's against the law to call me? 

Him:  You can't blame me for getting mad when you have a bad attitude like this!

Me:  I don't want to be called by people like you, you are breaking the law, and you're getting angry with ME?

Him: <unintelligible> <click>

The do not call list:  https://www.donotcall.gov.au/

Support on Click: Actually, they're based in West Bengal, India.  Scuse the French, but Bastards.  They are calling perfectly harmless and naive people like my neighbour who occasionally calls me up when her computer scares her, and pretending to be computer support people, and getting them to sign up for computer support they don't need.  What's even scarier, is that to do the support, you have to give them remote access to your computer, so basically they have access to EVERYTHING.  There are so many ways they could rip gulliple people off doing this... ugh.   DON'T sign up for stuff like this.

http://www.supportonclick.com/

I DID report them to the do not call register, and I received an email from them (very quickly, too).  

Quote: "The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is monitoring this organisation for ongoing compliance problems."

I also received an email with more information on what they (the government) need to nail these losers, and I'll make sure next time a telemarketer calls me,  I'll collect all of it:

"The more information you are able to provide about the call, the more effectively the matter can be investigated. Information that may be particularly useful includes:
 
a.    the name, company name and contact details of the person that called you;
b.    if the call was made by a telemarketer on behalf of another company, the name and contact details of that other company;
c.    the matters that the caller wanted to talk to you about; and
d.    any other information that you think may be relevant to an investigation of the matter."

The telemarketers are legally required to provide this information if you ask for it.

Charities are exempt from this, and what gets me is that if I say no to a charity telemarketer, they very often get extremely stroppy with me.  Way to go, ensuring that I never, ever give to that particular charity.  I intensely dislike receiving unwanted phone calls, and I tell them straight up I don't give to charities that cold-call me.  If I want to give to a charity, I will in my own time.  Invading my privacy like this is actually having the reverse affect; it'll make me damn sure NOT to give to them.

End rant.  Will the phone stop ringing already, so I can get some work done on book four!
 

When I was working as an IT consultant I always made it a professional matter of pride to have things finished on deadline.  But sometimes, life gets in the way and you don't have much choice but to sacrifice time for quality.

I've decided to hold off giving what I have of books four to six to Harper-Collins, because I need more time to do more research and make sure that the story is as fabulous as it can possibly be.  I want to give all three books to Harper-Collins together, so that the story in the three-book arc is complete and perfect.

The upshot of this, dear readers, is sorry but I've had to let the release date for book four slide back to early 2010.  

On a brighter note, I have a delightful historical Chinese prequel that is Gold's story - starting in the middle ages, no less - and H-C are currently talking to a manga artist about producing it as a (probably multi-volume) manga.  That would be completely awesome!

<Bow> Many apologies to my (no doubt) frustrated readers waiting for book four.  Believe me, when you get it, it will be (hopefully) as wonderful as you are expecting.

Argh, stupid flu.  I finally ditched this cough and can get back to work.  No thanks to whoever infected me!

I've found a rare book that's an 'Ethnohistorical Analysis and Annotated Translation' of the Journey to the North, Xuan Wu's own story.  It's wonderful, with all the names added at the end in Chinese Characters.  I've been looking for a good copy of this story for a while, and to find one that's been extensively researched by a UCLA professor is a treasure!  This story will allow me to add so much to books four to six.

I recently went and saw the movie Tropic Thunder.  There were some seriously 'ew' moments up the front there (my son's girlfriend agrees with me) but the way the movie takes a glorious swipe at its own parent - the hollywood movie industry - is a sight to behold.

Actually, I was more impressed with the cutting takes on the movie industry itself rather than Tropic Thunder as a film.  There are four heroes - the fading action star, the comedian who specialises in fart jokes, the black rappa who's selling his own energy drink, and the 'method' actor who takes himself way to seriously.  (Once again Robert Downey Junior attempts to steal the show - and fails).  Each of these heroes has their own web sites - real web sites - as if they were real actors.  For example, you could pop on over to http://www.kirklazarus.com/ and view the site for Kirk Lazarus, one of the actors in the movie.  He's actually Robert D-J, playing an Australian method actor, who in Tropic Thunder is playing a black character.  So it's an american actor, playing an australian actor, playing a black character.  Priceless.

The movie itself was good for the occasional laugh, but the audience really only went into hysterics when Robert Downey Junior tried to do an Australian accent.  Everybody went into complete fits (excluding my American husband, who was wondering why all the mirth.)

R D-J didn't manage to steal the show.  For shame.  Tom Cruise, as a brutal, foul-mouthed, overweight, hairy hollywood producer, romped all over it.  He was absolutely brilliant.

The movie doesn't actually win any shiny points, because it wasn't that shiny.  It was reasonably funny, I didn't like the business with the head (that was just ick, guys, seriously) but I LOVE the related websites and the way that they lampoon the current state of hollywood movies. 

Taking the piss on action movies:  http://www.scorchermovie.com/

Taking the piss on comedies that rely on grossness for a laugh:  http://www.fatties2.com/  

Taking the piss on movies that 'stretch the envelope' and doing so take themselves WAY too seriously (lovely shots by the way Toby): http://www.satansalley.com/

Taking the piss on rap artists (check the Bio!): http://www.alpa-chino.com/

Just, generally, fun sites all around.  Wish my site looked as good as some of these!

Show the Fatties one to a friend at work who isn't aware that it's a fake, and tell em you're gonna see it as soon as you can!