The referee continued with some inverted decisions, but at least had the guts to card Becks. Then it got surreal. Sneijder got his knickers in a twist when he found the ref in his way and basically disrupted a build up action towards goal. It did not even appear that the ref apologised. A few minutes later Lucio broke out of defence and was tackled by Ambrosini. I can’t tell if there was contact or not but Lucio doesn’t dive for nothing - the very nature of Ambrosini’s tackled was dangerous and deserved to be whistled. Lucio even got up to continue his prgression. the referee instead gave the foul to Milan, carded Lucio and made Sneijder lose it completely.

The little dutch boy clapped at the referee and though I think that Sneijder was clapping the ref for a job well done, the ref decided to send him off. Oh well. A yellow card wouldn’t have done? Let’s spoil a pretty nice game. Let’s see what happens in the second half.

Unison, for the uninitiated is a newsgroup reader and manager. Newsgroup as in Usenet newsgroups - an area of the internet that is forgotten by most and can be quite scary compared to the safe confines of the web. It’s vast and has a huge collection of groups where people post discussions and most importantly, files. Any sort of file you might look for can be found there but the trouble more often than not is finding it. Unison, is the software with which you can connect to a usenet server and trawl the newsgroups in search of that elusive piece of info or file you were looking for. I tend to use a website that already takes out the tedium of searching through the newsgroups. Unison’s new interface is perhaps its greatest improvement.

Unison is now perhaps the most polished mac app out there and just shows what can be done with a well thought approach. One of the best new features is that Unison takes care of post download processing of files. As more often than not, downloading files from usenet means downloading 100’s of smaller files which need to be stitched back together again. Before you’d have to download all the files then run them through a separate array of apps. Now Unison handles it all internally once all downloads are complete. Even the most simple new feature like the grouped downloads is very welcome. And very importantly for me, it shows you the total speed at which the software is downloading.

A thoroughly recommended update.

23 or so years later and finally I have my Dirge. I already had Starscream and ramjet Classics figures which are amongst the best updates to the original toys (my only gripes being the shite undercarriage and Starscream’s oversized guns) so when hasbro then Takara release the two remaining cone-heads I was a bit annoyed by the prices. hasbro, in a very short sighted move made theirs’ botcon exclusives and Takara’s are over priced (averaging about $70usd for a deluxe is unacceptable).

So when I saw hasbro releasing a completely new ROTF called Dirge my interest piqued. He is a delightful little bastard of a figure. His jet mode is very cool and very sleek - a futuristic VTOL harrier like jet. His transformation is completely new and thogh his nose cone turns into his arm, hasbro have made sure to include enough throwbacks to the original seekers to make him a proper homage. for example he has a little transparent chest panel that harks back to the original conehead’s cockpit for a chest, has little shoulder pads and of course the conehead. He does look a bit aquatic in his robot mode - and his different arms make him seem a tad unbalanced at times but hey he is a decepticon unbalanced is a prerequisite for joining their ranks.

Figure rating - 7.5/10

Thrust is a repaint of the ROTF breakaway figure. That figure was interesting mainly as a playable character in the ROTF game. His original beige and brown colour scheme was not the most attractive. The maroon red and black redeco suits the mode better and looks better as an evil character - Breakaway looked a bit comical at times Thrust looks a bit better. He doesn’t have the amount of throwbacks that the Dirge figure, in fact other than the fact they transform into planes and are red there’s little else to make a connection. There is a lot not to like in this figure from the top heaviness, the amount of kibble and the rather small head, however whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the figure isn’t that bad - just not excellent and not a must have. However, he does make an interesting inclusion in my classics line up. There are way too many autobots anyways.

I’ll give this one a passing grade of 6/10.

Bludgeon, also has partly rubber tank treads! Never have I come across a tank transformer with rubber treads before! So let’s see what’s bad about the figure? The sword is a rubbery plastic that can bend out of shape easily. His robot mode lacks fire power which might be apt for this samurai themed bot. My Main grievance lies with his tank mode where the turret has no elevation, nor do his secondary weapons. I would have like to see the turret or his rocket launchers get redeployed in his robot mode too. The rocket launchers could’ve been hinged to rotate up as should mounted turrets.

This is the figure Universe/Classics Galvatron should’ve been! I don’t know if they can remold or repaint him easily into other characters but considering the mount of work takara/hasbro have put into this I’m sure they’ll try and milk it a bit. Any candidates?

I’ll give this a 9/10 - a must have figure for anyone into either the ROTF line or those who like me, will add it to their Universe/Classics collection.

So I’ve had to console myself with a couple of new toys. Namely: Bludgeon, Dirge, thrust and Optimus Prime. The latter was a special edition version of the universe classics deluxe version. I did not want that one dammit. I wanted the voyager version (ie larger version). T’was my mistake - a clear sign of senility I guess. I also picked up the total film magazine instead of the empire because I mistook one for the other. Again, aging. At work I sent the wrong artwork to the wrong person.. Also bought a new iMac. All these will be reviewed in separate posts.

We’ve developed doors that we open and close for them, we developed cans and can openers, which they appreciate. They prefer seeing us work hard to kill their prey so 8 cats out of 10 still prefere canned food rather than these new fandangled pouches.

We developed the litter tray and the kitty litter then we tried to automate it. And failed. We neuter them then give them fake testes…

Starving cats in the morning are a sight to behold - 3 hungry mouths to feed is a daunting prospect, 3 mouths with extra sharp canines which were tapered and sharpened when growing up by gnawing on your fingers is even scarier.

For everything else there is mastercat?

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091018/local/animal-farm

To summarise, a local businessman has created a private zoo for himself and his family. whereas before he limited himself to a menagerie of monkeys, goats and wallabies… He just added a tiger cub.

Basically since I don’t want to post a comment on the times directly I choose to use my own outlet to vent my concerns.

“Even though the tiger was born in captivity it doesn’t preclude the ability to reintegrate it into a large wild life safari park or reserve (ie large, modern zoos) where he could also participate in active breeding programs. Agreed that mr borg loves his animals and they are well looked after but animals don’t exist to be held in captivity for someone’s own pleasure. Besides the security concerns of a Tiger in the hands of people who are not professionally trained to handle such animals. Damn my docile spayed cat can be a danger let alone a cat whose paw is larger than my face. It’s sheer cruelty.

What worries me as well is the bias in the article / report where all worries are dismissed. It’s shoddy journalism at best, it’s a paid for advertorial at worst! Also, even though all the permits are in order, who says that the current regulations and authority that issued the permits are really the best suited to do so?

I know the E in Mepa stands for environment but their track record isn’t exemplary.

So this morning I park in my usual stretch of road, pretty far from the office but I don’t have to worry bout oncoming cars etc and can park easily. I parked in a spot I guess I never parked before. In fact I was complaining to my sheep shaggin colleague that the parking bay in which I parked was smaller than normal. I in fact went back in the car to make sure I was as well parked as possible. My front bumper jutted out slightly on the yellow bay in front of where I was parking. My car is a new fiesta which isn’t the largest vehicle. I digress… that is not the point of my tale

Turn the clock to about 6.30pm which is when I get to leave work after about 9 hours… but maybe 10 as I was told. I come to my car and find myself pretty much locked in. Someone parked in the yellow bay (reserved parking because of a garage.) I must admit at that point I was wondering how the flying fuck I’d get out of the space.

Well fortunately the owner of the car in front of me came out of her garage to move her car.. or so I thought.

She proceeded to launch into a tirade, accusing me of taking her car space. Apparently I should know it’s her space because I’m a habitual parker there and I should see her crumby shit skoda parked there. And figure out psychically that I shouldn’t park there.

I argued with there that there was no sign and that it was my right to park in a white space. Apparently she can’t park in her garage because her husband has to and she has to stay moving the car! She gave me some lame excuse about her back… Her daughter was a bit calmer but really man these people have the IQ and manners that earn them a FUCKTARDS OF THE MONTH award. And they had tough competition from the likes of Gasan and GO!

I hope to add pics tomorrow. It’s worth me journeying back to work tomorrow!