That is all. Carry on. :D

Bit quiet on the blog-front again, lot of games to chew through!

Red Alert 3, FIFA 09, Fable 2, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Farcry 2, Pro Evo 09. Busy, busy, busy! And with GoW2 and WotlK coming out soon, going to be even more so!

So the AFL grand final took place yesterday, between the Cats and the Hawks. I think the Cats were $1.30 favorites to win while the Hawks were out at about $3. At Half-time it seemed pretty even, but after that, the Hawks really bolted and slammed on about 6 goals in the third quarter while the Cats wasted all their opportunities and held out in the final quarter to win by 26 points.

It got me thinking about the whole year and how the Cats were supposedly a sure thing, even way back when, at the beginning of the season. Sport is very fickle, and momentum swings back and forth, and nothing is really set in stone. A lot of people said the Hawks winning was a major upset, but really; they finished second on the ladder, only lost a handful of games, and were quite competitive with the Cats last time they played. So I wasn't that shocked. I'm sure a lot of Cats fans are; their team just couldn't capitalize on the scoring opportunities in the first quarter, and when the Hawks got going, they went bang bang bang, grabbing their chances when they came. It will be an interesting season in 2009, and maybe this is the beginning of a great new rivalry for the modern era.

Although the AFL season has come to an end, the Premier League is only just begun. Last night the Merseyside Derby took place, between Liverpool and Everton. Although the first half was rather dull, the second half was where the game came alive, and two fantastic strikes by Fernando Torres sealed the game. Unfortunately we had a couple more goals ruled out - one of which was a ridiculous decision, but a win's a win and to Liverpool fans, the Merseyside derby between the fierce local rivals is the most important game to win all season.

I watched Hull beat Arsenal afterwards, which was a huge shock. Hull played well, and scored two great goals in the space of ten minutes, then held out for the win, so good for them. Any game where our rivals drop points is a good game. It's a long season, but at least things look good for us so far. Beaten the Mancs and the Evertonians. Couldn't ask for a better start.

So the new set of Ricky Gervais Podcasts is available today. Fans of the previous podcasts and the original xfm broadcasts will know just how hilarious the show is :D

It stars Ricky Gervais (duh), Stephen Merchant (co-developer of The Office), and Karl Pilkington; a bald manchester fool who is probably the daftest person on the entire earth. Ricky and Steve discovered him when they were working at XFM radio station in England, and he was the producer.

Karl Pilkington is probably the funniest person who isn't intentionally being funny that you'll ever hear. His ideas are both comedy gold and borderline lunatic at once. Despite some people original believing he's just acting as a character conceived by Ricky and Steve, Karl Pilkington is a real person; all his ideas are real, and all Ricky and Steve did was get him to open his mouth on air, and the rest was all him. You've simply got to listen to him and marvel at his insanity.

Head on over to http://www.rickygervais.com/ and get yourselves the latest installment in the most successful podcast series ever. Comedy gold.

Can't describe just how over the bloody moon I am at the moment. Been far, far, far too long since our last triumph over the Mancs. And without two of our shining stars. Fantastic day. Fan-effin-tastic.

For those interested;

Tevev 3 (Liverpool 0 - 1 Manchester United)

Brown (og) 27 (Liverpool 1 - 1 Manchester United)

Babel 77 (Liverpool 2 - 1 Manchester United)

Over the moon I am. Over the moon.

So apart from the releases of such games as Spore and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, I have been looking forward to this month of months for another reason;

The return of some of my most beloved television shows.

First things first. I watch a rather unhealthy (in my mind) amount of television. Not necessarily on the actual TV though; since Australian free-to-air television is not only months behind American networks in most case, I just simply cannot stand an incredibly tense situation being busted up by an ad about the latest fatty super maximum gigantic burger guaranteed to kill you if you eat more than 2 in one sitting. Oh, and the superior quality imports that they do purchase are normally slotted in at some abormal time-slot, such as 11:30pm at night.

Anywho, I watched the Gossip Girl season opener the other day, which I loved; I'm surprised at how much I enjoy GG, when I was first told about it I had my own pre-conceptions about what it would be like, and how I'd probably hate it, but I freely admit I really enjoy the show, and hope this season is as wild as the last.

As much as I enjoy GG, I think my most anticipated show return is probably the marvellous Entourage, considering how long it's been between the last episode and the shock of Medellin bombing I am simply dying to find out what's happened since, and what is up with Adrian Grenier's beard! I wonder if we'll find out what Turtle's name is.

I suppose the new season or chapter or whatever they call them of Heroes is also shaping up quite nicely, the sneaky peaks I've peaked at gave me the impression that Heroes: Villians will redeem the show after a rather lack-lustre second series.

But that's not all. A second season of the surprisingly engaging Californication, the return of our favorite doctor House, and shows like Life and Supernatural returning makes September the month of rebirth for quality TV, and with shows like The Office, 30 Rock, Lost and BSG waiting in the wings, TV is finally back to it's best. For now, anyway.

Of course, all of this will help ease the pain of a year without a full season of my beloved Doctor Who, seeing as how we only have a few specials this year before the 2010 series, and with David Tennant's future as the doctor still not secure, only time will how season 5 shapes up, after the departure of RTD and Phil Collinson.

Saw Tropic Thunder earlier today, just going to give a super brief rundown of what I thought.

Hilarious, although a bit slow at times.

The whole "retarded" comment and the controversy surrounding that; really just people using the film as a scapegoat in order to draw attention to their cause or whatever, if the demonstraters had actually seen the film and the scene in context they'd probably shut their traps, since it's actually more about depicting actors and hollywood satirically - (is satirically even a word?).

Some amusing guest stars, one in particular steals the show.

A lot of swearing...probably a bit over-the-top for my tastes.

The main cast are brilliant, although I would have liked to see a bit more of Jack Black.

The trailers prior to the film are pretty funny.

Umm yeah, that's about all I can think of saying; overall definitely worth seeing, not sure how it compares to Pineapple Express since I haven't seen that, i'll try and get around to doing that soon.

9/10

Saw Taken the other night, and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was, after really only hearing about it from a website I frequent. Haven't really seen much of a trailer for it on TV, or before any other movies I've seen recently, so thought we'd take a punt and go see it.

It's got a pretty simple plot, which is always nice; Man's daughter is taken. Man goes to get her back, beating up anyone in his way. There are enough interesting twists and turns in the plot to keep you intrigued, and wondering why his daughter was taken, and what's going to happen to her etc. etc. so it's a bit more than just a boring kidnap and hold to ransom movie.

Man is Liam Neeson btw. Oh and did I mention he used to work for the Government in one of those "I can't tell you what I do for a job" kind of positions? Yeah. If you're going to kidnap someone's kid, probably best to avoid those kind of parents.

Anyway, the first half hour or so of the movie is mostly just explaining Neeson's relationship with his daughter, but the film really kicks into gear once he learns she's being kidnapped.

I don't think I really need to explain the rest of the movie, or how he does go about extracting the necessary information from the baddies, but the fight sequences are very slick, and very Bond/Bourne-esque in a way, and Neeson is very commanding as the father hellbent on finding his daughter.

A pleasantly enjoyable movie, I gave it an 8/10. Would have been an 8.5 but for stupid Holly Valance. Go away.

Hooray! Joy! Glorious praise! The most watched football league around the world kicked off last night, just a few months after Manchester United lifted the Champions League trophy and secured top spot in the 07/08 season of the Barclays Premier League. And now, it starts all over again.

There's been a bundle of transfers, a swarm of controversy over the enigmatic Ronaldo and his much publicised attempted transfer to Real Madrid, and the newly promoted top 3 sides of the Coca-Cola Championship are about to see what it takes to stay in one of the best football leagues across the land.

My boys, Liverpool FC, got over Sunderland 1-0 thanks to a wonderstrike from the mercurial Fernando Torres, hopefully kicking off a far more competitive season for the club from Anfield, after some fairly lack lustre performances in the domestic season over the past few seasons. Man Utd are just one domestic trophy away from matching Liverpools record of local trophies, and with Man Utd looking as strong as they did last year, it will take something special to topple Sir Alex's men.

Hopefully the new boy Robbie Keane can form a powerful partnership with Fernando Torres and those two can link up to score some goals and ensure Liverpool at long last return to being a powerful and competitive force locally. We've had the success in the Champion's League, but the local fans crave nothing more than domestic success.

Hopefully we can pick up one or two more signings like Gareth Barry to strengthen the wings, since that seemed to be one of the weak points of the side over the past few years, and now that Kewell and Riise have moved on, it seems like a focal point for Rafa to really go out and actively recruit to bolster the stocks.

Here's to hoping for some local success for the mighty side from Anfield in the 08/09 season. Thank God for the return of the Premier League!

Also, this new interface is a bit odd.

So the Olympics have finally arrived. After all the controversy over suspended athletes, rioting monks and some form of supersmog threatening to engulf the stadium and prevent us international viewers from actually seeing any of the outdoor events, the 2008 Beijing Olympics have finally begun.

How exciting.

Personally I wonder if, after the dust has settled and the medals are all handed out, anything breathtaking or remarkable will actually happenin any of the events. These olympics could very well be remembered for all the negativity surrounding the games rather than say, Michael Phelps winning 8 gold medals in the swimming or a man from Papua New Guinea surprising everyone and winning the gold in the shotput.

I've never been a big Olympic man myself. To me, the olympics consists of an overextravagant opening ceremony with the various nations marching out onto the ground followed by an assortment of events I have no particular interest in, finishing off with another ceremony and some spectacular fireworks or something. I've never really followed the olympics that closely, and yet I still managed to here about alot of the negative aspects in the lead up to this years games, and so I wonder; how do you think these Olympics will be remembered, and would anything surprise you at these games?

Or just feel free to share what the olympics mean to you :D

Just saw the news article relating to the cries for Blizzard to return Diablo 3 to its original, darker roots seen in its predecessors, which you can check out here in case you haven't seen it;

"Darker" Diablo plea falls on deaf ears

As you can see, they obviously have no intentions of changing the art direction at this stage, which I personally don't mind. If people really are that desperate to have the graphics at a certain tone i'm sure there are people out there fully capable of creating simple mods that automatically adjust the settings to give you that look and feel of Diablo 1 and 2. Since no one outside of Blizzard has actually played the game themselves, I think it's far too early to decide whether or not this new visual look they've gone far will work or not. Realistically, we should just be glad the game is coming out at all, after such a long time between the last game.

And besides, the storyline and the character customization were always my favorite aspects of the Diablo games, and I think once we actually get our hands on the game (hopefully within the next year or two), we'll see that everything just fits in to place appropriately. After all, it is a Diablo game.