To Nicholas

Ah yes. The Frisbee Ducks ! The only problem is that all the quacking can be most disconcerting when you are actually trying to CATCH one of the damn things !

Blair (finalist, Duck Frisbee Championship, Third Division, East Patagonia)

Jacki

I'm so ashamed, I'm a 2nd Rate TV Junkie.

I did have VCR until recently but I have a talent for destroying electronics, didn't the story about my TV give you a hint :-)

The heads or the belt drive inside the VCR usually die on me :-(

My next decision is will I get a VCR or DVD player.

Dean.

Tony

I bought Excel Saga Vol 6 & FLCL Vol 2 last night, and put six others on layby…

There are five episodes of Excel on the DVD, with the series being wrapped up with the fourth episode…the fifth and last episode of Excel is a riot…no spoilers here other than to say they put all the sex and violence that they couldn’t get away with on television in this episode…very funny stuff, and a lot of fan service…even if it is just a tad warped.

Only two episodes per FLCL disc, but the animation is very good indeed. More typically warped Anime humour with a fourteen year old boy having to fend off the advances of his brothers seventeen year old girlfriend as well as his twenty year old Alien Housekeeper (who sleeps in the same room as him)…not to mention the robots that continue to sprout out his head…very weird…very funny too.

David G

Actually, I'm allergic to do any cooking that involves more than 1 pot and 1 pan or 1 casserole dish. Some recipes seem to assume you don't mind using about 10 or so different cooking vessels. Sorry, too hard. Crock pots are one of the best cooking inventions known.

Carmel

Nicholas was actually talking to me, not Cathy. I said if anyone wanted to know about the Belinda Big Brother murder thing, to ask me directly. I have now answered him.

Survivor: I guess noone else watched this? I was blown away that Jenna won, and even more amazed by what a landslide it was! I was positive Matt would most likely win, and that he had at least three SURE votes, but no! Matt looked a lot better, and less creepy, when his weight was back to normal - he was so gaunt before in the face. He and Jenna were VERY cosy though.. I am sure nerves was part of it, but the way they were holding hands and touching each others' legs made it look like they were romantically involved!

Jacki

16/5

Does anyone know if there is an Aussie on board Enterprise?

I think there might be one in engineering.

Dean.

Jacki:

Thanks for the offer re TWW. I'm going to get Martin's tape off SAM when she's finished, but Martin won't be taping the show until next week, so hopefully all will go well.

Angel:

It was good to see Faith back - her super-human strength, can do attitude and kick-butt style adds backbone to the show. And it's about time someone stood up to Connor. I thought the scene with Wes and Lilah was well done, but I thought Wes would have noticed that the wound was more than a vampire's bite. The scene with Cordy and The Beast was gross and ridiculous - "give mama some sugar". As the master of The Beast, she would have sufficient power over him without resorting to that. And the pregnancy at the end - also gross and ridiculous. If there's one thing worse than Cordy sleeping with Connor, it's having his child. And whilst I realise Charisma is pregnant, it was ridiculous showing a 6 month pregnancy when it's only been a matter of days/weeks.

Cathy

16/05

7 Days: Can anyone lend me Saturday's ep? I must have had brainfade when programming the VCR, and I got Ch 9 by mistake.

Big Brother: How much more full of s*%t can Carlo be?? I hope he watches the aired shows and soon realises he was evicted because he is a class one a-hole and a pig, not because BB only showed part of Belinda's big confession. And to say that if it was 'aired properly' Belinda should be evicted next week! Why? Why should we evict someone just because their relative is in jail for murder? I am so glad to see him gone, and so glad it was such a landslide vote :) The other part I found unbelievable was when he said he had done his best to get along with everyone, but that 'an event outside his control' cut off one person from him!! He ostracised Belinda from day one, and never made any attempt to befriend her. He poisoned the rest of the house against her for no good reason and made her life hell. He is one of the worst kinds of bullies. To then try to say that he did his best with her until her confession put him off her is just complete bulls@#t. The only explanation he ever gave of his dislike for her was that he 'is a 20yo Italian male, and she is a 20 yo female, and how dare she think she can ever tell him what to do'. So he obviously is a completely sexist pig with a misogynistic streak a mile wide and he can't deal with strong women who have opinions and express them. The only girls he got along with were Irena, who knows how to handle men of Mediterranean descent after sharing a similar family background, and Claire who never says boo to anyone. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Jacki

19/5

Smallville:
Typical. We finally get an episode that has a bit of meat on it and Ch9 cans the show until further notice. Anyone without even a smidgen of Superman lore knew there was no way on Earth or Krypton that Lex and Clark could be brothers but I’m betting fans of the Clex breathed a sigh of relief nevertheless. So what did we learn this time? That Lex has a half brother and despite what Lionel ‘couldn’t tell the truth if his life depended on it’ Luthor says, he’s probably still very much alive. And then there was the revelation about Clark’s adoption and the price the Kents paid. I wonder how good buddy Pete would react if he found out Jonathon Kent was the one who persuaded his family to sell out. Given his usual reaction to Lex – who had nothing to do with it, Clark bet hope he *never* finds out. Lana’s search for a father figure was only mildly interesting in that might tarnish up that small town princess image.

Sally-Ann Maslen
19/5/3

Smallville: Yes, I was thinking the same thing SAM. The thought kept crossing my mind that Lex was Lucas.. cos he used to have red hair, and the mother has red hair. I wonder if they adopted him themselves? Or is Lex too old to be the same boy?

Cathy: I couldn't agree more about Faith joining Angel. I am hanging out to see the final eps of Buffy - it has been ages since I saw ep 16, and you guys have nearly caught up :)

Angel: Speaking of same, I saw the final two episodes last night. I have to agree with the person who said that the finale is like a pilot for next season. There is a big change of direction there and one that will be very interesting so hopefully the show's 5th season will go ahead.

Jacki

19/5

Well it was a good weekend for me watching sports with the Aussie rules and the F A Cup final to keep me busy. I also caught up on "Andromeda" and a "Charmed" episode from about two weeks ago. I must remember to watch "The Eurovision Song Contest" on S B S this week, not to mention the new show on soccer rivalries "Height Of Passion" which is also on SBS.

Blair

Noticed on the weekend that DVD/VCRs are down around $400. HOWEVER, the ad said 'play a DVD while taping a TV program'. Hmm. One needs to know whether one can tape from the DVD. Writable DVD players are still way up there beyond my means. But you can burn 'em with the right computer software? Is that right? How?

Do you do the swift sleight of hand thing with the pre-recorded CD and the blank like you used to to copy floppies with only one floppy drive? Or is memory a problem?

One of my computers has two CD drives, only one of which is a 'burner'. Is it only a matter of the correct software for me to copy a movie from one to the other? I dunno.

Angel

I haven't 'read ahead' to find out so I can safely float the idea that the foetus is the Beast's master (and incidentally Cordy's) rather than Cordelia herself. Why should she go from HigherBeingness to HellMasterliness at a single stroke? Nothing dramatic happened to make it so. Or at least, nothing I saw. Whereas, it's always been an unanswerable, nonresearchable question as to why/how two vampires (with, presumably, non-viable gametes) created a child. What better explanation than that Connor and/or this new being was placed in utero by the Powers that be/of Darkness?

My head hurts now.

Jude

19/05/03

Jacki, couldn't agree more with your comments about Carlo on Big Brother. I thought he was a complete poser plus a grot and a Male Chauvinist Pig. He should have been given a dummy to put in his mouth (commensurate with his maturity level) and a large economy size box of charcoal tablets to help with his gas problem (sadly, they won't cure his verbal flatulence). I don't think anything would cure that, or his big head.

His peeing in the bushes could perhaps be forgivable as it could be seen as saving water and recycling nutrients to the plants. Even the other men in the house thought his personal habits were disgusting eg. Leaving "wee beige jobbies" in the loo and washing himself in the kitchen sink. He said the hot water in the shower ran out but he is a big boy so he should have just put up with it instead of spreading his germs to the kitchen sink and possibly to the other housemates.

If he wanted to fart all the time, he should have been considerate of the other housemates and gone outside or stayed in the toilet. I know sometimes people can't help breaking wind on occasion, but he didn't even seem apologetic about it.

However, that pales in comparison with the sexist and crude remarks he made in front of the ladies. I don't blame Belinda for getting offended and asking him to stop. If he were a real gentleman instead of a big yobbo, he would have confined those remarks to the toilet where they belong. Of course, he wouldn't have had much of an audience then, and this kind of person loooves an audience. The comments about women only served to show that he had a great capacity for imaginative and wishful thinking.

I feel sorry for his girlfriend and hope for her sake she meets someone with a bit more maturity and class than this person.

I think Belinda is a very positive and cheery young lady and deserves to win. She certainly didn't deserve to be nominated for eviction and maybe now she'll have more of a chance now that Mr smarty-pants is out of the picture. They could have played either "Who Farted" by the Vaughans or "Mick The Master Farter" by Kevin Bloody Wilson as he left, but I think the latter would have only just encouraged him.

Carmel

Blair,

Apparently Des Mangan will be doing a spot of local commentary on the contestants.

Jacki,

It’s never actually said how old Lucas would have been, but I think we can take it as read that he’s not Lex (In fact I know Lex isn’t Lucas for reasons that would be….spoilerish). My impression was that he would be closer to Clark’s age, and you are forgetting the photograph (in the fob watch) that Lionel was holding at the end of the ep – it showed him and a young boy with fairish straight hair. BTW…John Glover is one of the best things in the show – he’s such fun.

SAM
19/5/3

As Blair mentioned, Sunday night is indeed Eurovision night. We will be gathering with friends for our annual Eurovision party.

And what a night of entertainment it promises to be. All I hope is that the member of our party who picked Latvia as winners as soon as he saw them is not as accurate this year. He is still boasting about it!

I wonder what this year's 'look' will be? Last year gave prominence to the asymmetrical hemline for women, and the ugly boy band for men. And I wonder if we'll ever see the like of the Israeli drag queens again??

To Sam

Des Mangan ! Oh Hell ! It was bad enough last year with Effie providing some sort of "amusing" commentary but letting that arch dork Mangan loose on the thing sounds like such a bad idea that it is worthy of channel Nien (except that they'd use their resident dork, Eddie Maguire !)

Blair

Angel

Well, a great deal seems to be happening all at once. Why has Cordy suddenly gone all evil? Are we sure it's really Cordy? As a higher being returned to the mortal plain, doe she have a higher agenda that we mere mortals cannot ken - and the amoral values to implement it?

I agree with Cathy about the return of Faith. Some may remember that I questioned why the Scooby Gang hadn't got hold of her to help deal with their big bad - but, given her affection for Angel, and lack thereof for Buffy, this makes more sense. Given that this is Angel it is easy to explain how such a short pregnancy can lead to such a visible bump - it ain't natural.

On the subject of Buffy, I hunted down that exact quote from Giles:

DJ

Yes, that episode of Enterprise did deal with trivialities, but there was a reason. I still really like Enterprise. What the hell are they doing with the franchise? Simple answer, in my opinion. Improving it.

Gerald

Dean: Well, if you can't have both a DVD and VCR, which is ideal, I would choose the VCR. But that is because I tape LOADS (ie far too many) of shows and couldn't live without a VCR. DVDs are nice to watch, but are not as useful in the present.

As Jude said, a dual one is now very affordable though, so maybe you CAN have the best of both worlds? :)

Jude: I am not 100% sure about copying DVDs. I can easily copy CDs by using my CD-ROM drive, my CD burner and my Nero software. However, I get the feeling that the movie people might have been smarter, since DVD technology is a lot newer, and they might have put copy protection software on the disks. At any rate, to start with you would need to install a DVD-ROM drive on your computer. I am fairly sure your normal burner would do the job - I have not heard of specialised DVD burners, and my current burner does VCDs fine. As for the software, I keep getting pop up ads on my computer at home advertising software that will burn DVDs using your CD burner. Can't vouch for them though. With copying CDs on Nero, you can either do a fast copy 'on the fly' which just writes directly from one drive to the other. Or you can do a more reliable burn which loads the information onto the computer first, then burns it. I use this method as the other one often has problems.

Jacki

19/5

SAM,

Given that Smallville has completed airing 22? eps for Season 2 in the US thus far - and does appear to be a lock for being picked up for a full Season 3, I think we can safely assume that Channel 9 is merely shelving it until the new ratings period. I sincerely hope this is the case - so, unless they 'do a FarScape' on it - you will get your answer re Lucas either late this year or early 2004. I have seen up to 220 - and except for Lana who continues to get increasingly whinier, there are some great things in there for those who like the show - especially when Christopher Reeves Guest Stars in 217 - Rosetta.

For all Buffy Fans: Tom Lenk (Andrew) and Danny Strong (Jonathon) were in Sydney for an FSF Con on Saturday 18 May - as far as they could either say or were aware those rumours about BTVS having an 8th Season with Holly Valance spearheading the Scoobies were utter trot - I personally believe them to be an April Fool's joke that got completely out-of-hand. Tom spoke fondly of the behind-the-scenes and on-set antics for the final episode and talked a little about the Wrap Party where Joss farewelled the Show and the Cast (bit more of a tip there too I would guess).

Therese

I don't know if I let you know that I received the tape last week. Haven't had a chance to watch it yet (it says 7 eps so I hope my LP machine is behaving). I'm off Wed, Thurs, Fri (have to attend to the senile delinquents) so, SAM, it should be coming to you next week. Excuse delay please.

Jude

those vcr/ dvd combos do NOT allow you to tape a dvd onto a video tape

also I would seriously question getting one

what happens if one side breaks down?

while it is getting fixed you cannot use the other side

also

if one side breaks and is not worth getting fixed

you will need to get either a new vcr or dvd player

you will have one working one and one busted one next to the tv

all in all

I think these are novelty items which will disappear fast

perhaps only useful if you live in an Extremely small small place

otherwise

definately get two separate components

the prices are much the same

nicholas

Everyone

I don't know if memorabilia includes computer games (more like ephemera I guess) but CSI fans might be interested in the shiny new CSI PC game. Solve 5 cases, $50.00, or thereabouts. Reminded me immediately of an ancient LA Law game, but much shinier of course.

Mark

Cathy,

I doubt we are expected to believe that is a normal pregnancy…and don’t forget folks – this is Cordy’s *second* paranormal pregnancy. One wonders if she has a sign on her somewhere saying "womb for rent".

24ish:
Geez…it seems like everytime you turn on the telly these days, there’s Alan Dale playing some kind of American politican or govt official.

Micaleff / Andrew Denton.
First time look at both these shows. Yeah…a bit late with Denton but <shrug>. Got a few smiles out of Micaleff’s opening monologues and the Dick Smith biscuit thing was amusing (Miced Volvos anyone?). The Paul Hogan interview on Denton was interesting – but I missed the beginning so was there an explanation for the bandaid? Was most amused by his description of John Cornell.

Movies: The Great Escape/The Empire Strikes Back/The Phantom. 7.30pm SEVEN/NINE/TEN
is there a school holiday I don't know about ?

Movies: The Thomas Crown Affair (orig)/Sudden Impact/Total Recall. Varying times after the other movies. SEVEN/NINE/TEN

<shrug> must be movie night…

The Bill. 8.30pm ABC
The new Superintendent arrives...and hey, you know how in American cop shows the boss is always....

The Mysteries of Easter Island. 7.30pm SBS
Doco

Eurovision Song Contest 2003. 8.30pm SBS
The cultural event of the year.

Angel. 10.40pm SEVEN
According to TWK it's a repeat of Lullaby - the ep were Connor was born.

Gary Rhodes' Cookery Year. 8.00pm ABC
Um...8pm on Wed night...must be time for a cooking show.

Hot Property. 8.00pm SEVEN
Return

Spooks. 9.30pm ABC
New series set around MI5's crack anti-terrorism unit. Cast listed includes Matthew MacFadyen, Jenny Agutter...and Anthony Head. A quick check of the IMDB however reveals that he guests in episode 4..
(btw...the on-off 'Ripper' series/tvmovie is listed on IMDB...interestingly the only other name listed for the cast is Max Perlich - recreating his role as The Whistler)

Sally-Ann Maslen

20/5/3

Thanks Jacki & Nicholas.

My previous message was not meant for publication. For the puzzled, the tape referred to was the Enterprise one belonging to Jacky and travelling from Martin to Me to SAM to Marina:)

Jude

20/05/03

Jacki

The DVD ripping software is freely available. I've not used it, but they promise to be able to rip any DVD, degrade the data in various formats, and then burn the smaller amount of data onto a CD. The downsides are the loss of quality and the amount of time required (I seem to recall some 20 hours processing to produce a CD of a 2 hour movie?). With DVDs other than the latest or rarest being a pretty reasonable price normally, it hardly seems worth it, especially with DVD burners now plentiful and falling in price.

Mark

I think I'll end up buying the DVD player & VCR separately. That way I wont be able to destroy them at the same time, hopefully.

Dean.

re the bill

in American cop shows the boss is always....... black?

Nicholas

Best show last night was "The Height of Passion" on SBS on the great rivalries in the Latin soccer world. Started with Barcelona and Real Madrid with some nice film from the 60's. I don't know who they are going to do next but the historical content should make it a must for soccer fans.

Blair

Jude, for those of us who haven't watched ahead of the eps being screened on FTA, or read spoilers, your explanation for Cordy's behaviour and pregnancy makes a lot of sense. We'll wait and see how perceptive you are.

Waiting for The Dish to start on Sunday evening meant we sat through ten minutes of the end of BB (thanks Channel 10!). Even in that short of time it was easy to see how big a s*&t Carlo was (and wonder again why anyone would watch this garbage, oh well).

I'm not sure why anyone would actually want to watch the Eurovision Song Contest. I sat through it once years ago, and even as I did I wondered why I was. Mind you, my brother in law and his girlfriend are in Europe and are actually going to be there live. I'm not sure whether they understand what it's all about or not. I guess they'll find out.

As I understand it, Mangan is just giving some local commentary, unlike Effie who basically replaced Terry Wogan for the SBS coverage leading to so many complaints that they repeated it a few days later with Effie removed.

Dean, when we bought a new VCR last year we tossed up the idea of getting a VCR/DVD combo. Then we thought along the same lines as Nicholas, i.e. what if one breaks down and has to go back to the shop - you are without both. Given that the VCR is largely used for taping from TV, and DVD recorders are still way too expensive, we opted for the VCR. We might get a DVD later.

cheers

Gerald

Buffy:
Another multi-story episode but better connected than last week’s – and more amusing. Got a chuckle over Andrew’s encounters with ‘Jonathon slash The First’. And then there was Xander’s recurring ability to attract demon women (really amusing when you consider what’s been happening to Cordelia). I did laugh when he asked Willow to ‘gay him up’…and Andrew’s invoking the name of ‘Capt Archer’ :-). Nice to see that Giles’ drawing skills haven’t improved one iota since ‘Hush’ <g>. There was a nice bit of banter about Princpal Wood being 100 yrs younger than Buffy’s usual type ("someone who doesn’t remember the Industrial Revolution") and Anya being Anya. The serious portion of the show was the revelation that Robin Wood was in fact a slayer’s son (and if he has a son that kid would be a son of a son of a slayer – and I’m guessing no one on this forum is going to get that pun either) and that dearest mummy’s killer was none other than Spikey. On the one hand it gives the Scoobies yet another ally…on the other they could caught in the crossfire when the inevitable confrontation comes.

SAM

20/5/3

I am starting to see $99 dvd players a lot now

can't get much cheaper than that

Nicholas

I'm pretty sure that the slayer on the train, from whom Spike acquired his leather coat, was black. Oops, African-American.

Jude

20/05/03

DVD/VCR combos

I got one of these late last year, We have another VCR that works just fine so the break-down issue was a real concern. It's actually proved to be pretty convenient and is capable of :

• Playing a DVD while recording a TV show.
• Recording a DVD to a Video while watching TV
• Playing MP3/VCD/CD's.

The DVD copying is a 50-50 chance at best. I have managed to copy some kids movies (Scooby doo, Snow dogs, Jimmy Neutron) but normal movies go distorted every 2-3 minutes and are unwatchable. I believe there are ways to subvert the Copy protection by modifying the DVD player but as its still fairly new I'll leave it alone for a while yet.

BB

I was glad to see Carlo go as well but would have been just has happy to see Belinda leave. Carlo was disgusting and full of it, but was entertaining to a lot of viewers as well as most of the housemates. Belinda is insecure and needy and the fact that the other housemates are consistently nominating her says something about how much they want her out.

Survivor

Jenna deserved to win this about as much as George W deserves a Nobel Peace prize. I mean really, if I was on the Jury I would never have got past the "It's not like Matt needs the money" comment and would have been passing notes to the other jury members to make sure she burned in hell. I'm never watching this rubbish again…..ever….until next time……Damn you TV!!!

Matt P

As a Eurovision-o-phile, (and earnest pedant), I feel that I must point out that the Effie-replaces-Wogan-Eurovision debacle happened in 2001. That is, 2 years ago.

After the outcry at the time, SBS repeated that show a few days later in the original format.

Because of that experience, last year's Eurovision was shown as broadcast from Europe. This year, it appears that they are messing with the successful formula again.

Robert Light

DVD Players: A friend whose job it is to test Audio/Visual equipment who is also seriously into the business of ripping etc has found a brilliant DVD player in the oddest of places - GoLo - the Xlogic sells for anywhere between $99 and $149 and is Multi-Zoned. He has thrown EVERYTHING at it. Mpegs, AVIs, ripped DVDs, VCD, SVCD, DVD, MP3s, and the list goes on and on. This little beastie has been able to play absolutely anything. He has even found that this machine handles multi-format disks - a menu displays showing the files and file formats. The only problem detected was that approximately every 10th disk froze but simply pressing stop and play (yes it even has the memory thing) or even just pausing or scanning Forward or Backward fixed it up straight away. This doesn't happen on DVDs.

Therese

20/5/3

Buffy:

I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. It moved the story along further, revealing Robin Wood's true identity (laughed at the name). It was also good to see some humour back, which SAM has mentioned. When Giles admonished everyone for not being serious enough, I didn't agree. It has been doom and gloom for too many episodes. I don't think The First is that scary now. It isn't corporeal, so can't threaten anyone physically. Its power lays in messing with people's minds and inciting them to do evil deeds. If one knows that, you can combat it. If I was the Woodster, I wouldn't believe that Spike was the one who killed his mother. He may have been, but since when has The First been known for its veracity? Throws a nice spanner in the works though.

The Practice;

I've thought the quality has been high so far this season and the episodes very thought provoking.

Cathy

20/05

Buffy: Tom Lenk and Danny Strong were also on 7's Sunrise program late last week. They gave a very good interview, most amusing of which was Danny's reaction to reading Jonathon's death scene :)

Angel: I had been expecting them to slot a couple of repeats in. In the US the finale of Angel screened two weeks before the Buffy finale (which screens tonight) so that Angel could head over to Sunnydale for the final two eps of Buffy.

Mark: I am with you if it takes that long to rip a DVD. I am surprised though.. it only takes me a couple of minutes to burn an ep of Angel. It used to take longer before we upgraded our computer to an Athlon 2000. What speed of processor do you have?

Martin: Did you get last week's 7 Days? Noone else seems to have taped it so far :(

Jacki

20/5

Jude,

Yes, the New York slayer was African American.

Therese,

I removed the trivia bit from the end of your last post because it was kinda spoilerish – even though Firefly hasn’t aired here.

Sally-Ann Maslen

21/5/3

Theresa, I got an Xlogic DVD from Crazy Clarks a few months ago and it's been working fine. They were selling Xlogic TVs and speakers as well for a very reasonable price.

Saw Health Dimensions special on sleep and sleep disorders last night. According to the doctor George interviewed, most of us suffer from sleep deprivation. The problem is particularly relevant to school children as they stay up later in general than earlier generations, due to TV, computers, video games and so on, but they're still expected to be up and at 'em at about 7 in the morning.

Carmel

Jacki,

We haven't got 7 Days for a few weeks now, due to different scheduling of AFL matches in different states. (Which is a pity because we didn't get the episode in which Stephanie Romanov reprised her role as Olga's sister).

Martin

21/5/3

" even though Firefly hasn’t aired here."

Anyone have any word when and if it will be aired here?

-Leon

Jacki,

Is Angel running ahead of Buffy here? Is that the reason for the repeats? I thought they were currently about pararell and that if anything the repeats would be with Buffy.

CSI:
The two biggest crimes committed in this episode were the stereotypical ‘gansta entrepreneur’ who refers to himself in the third person and Catherine’s hair. Other than that it was a pretty good episode. Does it say something that I found the boxing scenes far more off putting than the TMIcam bits? Oh…and I’m with Sara on the bucket of saliva…yuck! Three scenes were highlights for me:

• "… My first year as a criminalist, I thought boxing would be a good place to observe live blood spatter. So I went to a couple of bouts. There wasn't much spatter. There were some interesting bruise formations, though." To pinch a line from the TWOP review, how Grissomian is it to study boxing in a forensic context? And I always enjoy the little banter he has with the coroner.
• "How come when you talk about bugs, everyone says you're a genius, but when I talk about birds, everyone says I watch too much television?" First of all big points for continuity – Nicky’s interest in birds and the Discovery Channel has been mentioned before. Secondly…pifflings is a really great name for a bird…or anything.
• "Because you make me nervous." Cute scene all round – Greg doing his babbling brook routine, Gil getting cranky at said routine, Greg’s matter of fact response, Gil’s slightly dumbfounded expression and the smiles on everyone else’s faces.

SAM
21/5/3

Nicholas, what the ???? Is a "frisbee duck?".

Carmel

Silly, backward me. I hadn't watched Buffy when I made the leather coat comment and hadn't realised from your comments that Spike had already been named. Jacki Buffy finale screens tonight in the US, right? You can't be that far in front, we're in the same state after all:)

Matt has convinced me that a combo player is not yet for me, Nick's $99 offer makes it almost criminal not to dash out and buy a DVD player, I'll hook it up with a VCR and see what I get. Therese's contribution, however was a real clincher! 'Bye for now, I'm off to Go-Lo:)

Jude

21/05/03

In all seriousness, though (which should make Giles happy), a good little episode that starts to bring things together. Principal Wood is going to be a very handy addition to the team, if he can get past his problem with Spike. And good to see Xander remains consistent in his choice of women.

Also last night we watched our tape of the doco from Sunday night on the Etruscan ship wreck. A very good doco it was too, with some interesting information about a largely overlooked ancient civilisation, and not talking down to us as so many of these shows are want to do.

Therese, that DVD player you describe almost has me tempted.

Gerald

Re the cheap dvd player:
It does sound good…alas there’s not a GoLo within in cooee of me.

SAM
21/5/3

SAM

You should be in Albury office, we have a Go-Lo just across the road. If it wasn't for my preferred 'minimum tech commensurate with comfort' stance, I'd have brought one at lunchtime instead of the hand & a half sword that I plumped $285 for to add to my collection.

Pedr

21/5/3

Matt, as far as I can see, the only reason Belinda was nominated twice on Big Brother was that Carlo had turned some of the housemates against her. I suppose his disgusting personal habits could have had some entertainment value for some people, but burping and farting and constant showing off can get very old very quickly.

Belinda's "neediness" is probably a sign of her youth and vulnerability to the bullying tactics of Carlo and his mates. Carlo is lucky he wasn't working for the public service as Belinda could have brought a complaint of sexual harassment against him. I've met people like him, but probably not quite as bad. I usually just give them a dirty look if they make the sort of comments Carlo made on Big Brother.

Most ladies find those kinds of remarks a real turn-off.

Carmel

Matt P: I was laughing at your post about Survivor :) Re Big Brother, my impression is that Carlo has poisoned everyone against Belinda. She even said that Saxon used to be fine with her until very recently. Carlo is a very charismatic and influential person and is leading the others around by their noses. Even Belinda threw herself at him, trying to win his approval and acceptance. I think that her appearing insecure and needy is just a symptom of the social warfare that Carlo has waged upon her. It even occurred to me last night that all of it might have been his 'game plan' since he kept getting nominated alongside her - he might have been trying to make her look bad to get her evicted.

SAM: Yes, both Buffy and Angel aired ep 14 this week. You are right, after I sent my post I realised that putting repeats of Angel on makes the alignment of the finales all up the putt. Maybe they are stringing them out a bit and we will get Buffy repeats for a couple of weeks soon. They have to get them aligned before the crossover with Willow and Faith.

Leon: No idea about Firefly, but I have the eps already.

Martin: what a shame, about 7 Days! I only just watched the Olga's sister ep too.. if I had known I could have sent it up to you, but I don't like my chances of still having it now. I guess if I can work out which episode I missed, I could borrow it off you eventually when it screens up there?

I will have your Enterprise tape ready to go next Monday once I get one more ep onto it. I really enjoyed the Boomtown eps you sent down, especially the one focussing on McNorris.

Jude: I don't know what you mean about Buffy and being in front. And no, we are in different states. I am in Melbourne, you are in Newcastle :) I have just got Alan to promise he will send me Buffy 17-20 in the next couple of days, because I realised that FTA has nearly caught up, and I can't have that :) I am planning a big Buffy finale party for all my friends once I have the final 5 episodes ready to view. I have already seen the Angel finale. Once again, anyone who would like to borrow the eps is welcome to.

Jacki

21/5

Oh, and I just watched the last Special Unit 2 and you've got to hand it to Nicholas, the chief *is* always black. I guess that means we have to watch just one more 'New Bill' to prove the point?

Jude

Hi SAM,

I would love to borrow your latest QAF when Jacki and Louise are finished with it. How much does it cost to get them from Canada?

Jacki

I watched Seven days live - did not tape it so can't help you there. Let me know if you want a synopsis.

Pam

21/5/3