Morning all! Some new items today:

• Vickie has set her Harvey Norman Photo Album up. Access is normally invitation only, but if you go to her website and click on the Photo Album link, you’ll be able to get in using my ID and see our photos from Karl and Jodie’s wedding.
• Vickie and I are finally off to see Return of the King tonight. I haven’t had any late-night meeting invitations as of this writing, so we should be okay. This means I can finally read all the kvetching Boots has been doing about it on the group lately. ;-)
• Vickie and I are also on a diet. we’re swearing off junk food and most meats, and splurged on several Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice meals during our large shop. So long, Domino’s, farewell, Maccas, and chips and coke only on RPG nights (especially if we’re playing octaNe, when I will be ensuring compliance with the Rule of Snacks). We’re also going to endeavour to get more exercise; I’m taking the stairs instead of the lift at work, and if it wasn’t so humid nowadays, I’d be taking the fifteen-minute walk from work to the next-closest station on the line. I’ve also got to do something about re-starting Thursday Lunchtime Soccer at work.
• Recently, Gav made a valid comment about the rampant product placement (often referred to in the vernacular as “pimping”) on the site and the IMAGinewS group lately.

  And now I’ve got my salary for the month and am looking at spending some of my hard-earned on myself, here’s some more of it:
  

  
  
  • I’m planning to buy the Red Versus Blue Season 1 DVD. I know there are a few of you out there who like RvB, so I’m thinking of putting in a single big order. If you’d like a copy, how about I order one for you and you can pay me back once I get them? That way, the shipping ought to be somewhat cheaper. At current exchange rates, it costs AU$26 per copy, not including shipping. Please let me know ASAP, as I want to put the order in early next week.
    
  • On a general octaNe kick, I’m also thinking about snagging Six-String Samurai, a crazy movie about a sword-wielding guitar player (who bears more than a passing resemblance to Buddy Holly) headed across the wasteland for Lost Vegas.
    
  • With Saturday night’s octaNe game at Dan’s coming up, I’ve been working on how I’m going to adhere to the Rule of Rock ‘n’ Roll, which states that “when playing octaNe, you MUST be playing rock n’ roll music of some kind”, during our session (as long as we're careful, we shouldn't disturb Dan's littlies who should be sleeping while we play). I’ve been building a few playlists of songs, including some by a little-known band called the Red Elvises. They’re an oddball bunch of Russian political exiles (well, that’s what they say) living in California, who play this crazy fusion of surf, rock and Russian folk. It’s quite catchy, especially their earlier stuff, and I’m tempted to pick up an album (maybe next month, after Red Versus Blue comes in). In the meantime, you can download some of their tracks as MP3s, so why not wander along to their website, download (most of the MP3s are 1-2 megs in size) and have a listen? (Especially to Boogie on the Beach.)
    
  
  
• In the meantime, I could use some up-tempo Elvis stuff, so if anyone has any Elvis CDs, especially with numbers like Jailhouse Rock or Viva Las Vegas, could I borrow ‘em before Saturday, please? With that, and the British/US West Coast punk rock Gav will be bringing, I'll be all set for some octaNe-powered fun!