Benny Ling’s Bling

• Just watched one of the many Mass Effect 2 trailers, and I didn't realise this game was going to be as awesome as it will http://j.mp/7lvvmL #
• I am ashamed of the fact that I managed to recognised a riff from Elvis Costello's Pump It Up that's also in Rogue Trader's Voodoo Child. =/ #
• With the impending release of Mass Effect 2 I'm not really compelled to do the second playthrough of Mass Effect 1 – here's to The Witcher! #
• Huge kudos to @andytlr and his mind-blowingly-awesome Tumblr theme, Catching Elephant. I'd use this if I was on Tumblr… http://j.mp/8BDdWK #
• I hate to admit this, but I feel that my birthday always has this overshadowing feeling of Australia Day hanging over it. Happy birthday me. #
• If you're not truly convinced that bookmarkets are the greatest thing since sliced bread, give Quix a go. It's v.cool: http://bit.ly/cYEJDQ #
• Playing Assassins Creed (the first one), because I feel like stabbing people in brutal and horrific ways.
  JUST LET ME STAB SOMEONE ALREADY!! #
• Oh FFS. Been trying to get to sleep since 9:30 to get up in time for this Apple event thing, but have failed miserably so far. Sleep, dammit #
• Biggest thing about the iPad? The return of the Camera Connection Kit. I know a lot of amateur photog's will be very happy with that, haha!! #
• I love Apple and I like new, shiny things but I won't be getting an iPad. Now to wait until June for the iPhone. /via @thetruthuntold #
• Not content with being the first person I know to have to renew their L's, I also had to go and fail the re-test. Words cannot describe. #fb #
• Dear Twitter, please help to convince me NOT to buy an Xbox 360… If I do, I'm super glad my new 24" has triple inputs, one being HDMI in! #
• Contemplating doing a Friday Morning News with no iPad-related news at all. Possible? Only with your help – Mac-related links appreciated… #
• Oh dear – failed the re-re-test to get my L2's, and my current license expires today. Luckily for me, there's a 28 day grave period, haha.. #
• …which means I'll be able to go and do the test until I exhaust all possible questions. Which means, my passing is guaranteed. Eventually. #
• Home, Jeeves. Home, to an excellent evening of Mass Effect 2, a home-cooked meal, and other assorted miscellany, in no particular order.. #
• Wait wait wait. There's a TEN CENT refund on 600mL Coke bottles now? Since when? Does it apply to cans as well? http://twitpic.com/10eud5 #
• Had to decide between the lesser of two evils – so I'm outside, getting some sunshine. Other option was to socialize and talk to people, hah #
• Well, my experiment with sunshine was only mildly successful – have now stepped back inside because I figured THE SUN WAS TRYING TO KILL ME. #
• 89% through my internet quota and only just halfway through my month. Severe internet rationing scheme now implemented.. #firstworldproblems #
• Dilemma: do I file Crazy Apple Rumors under "Apple, Mac and iPhone" or in "Internet Lulz" in Google Reader? http://www.crazyapplerumors.com/ #

The thing about luck is that it’s always unexpected. No one ever expects good luck to happen to them, and if you’re the kind of person who does, you’re certainly bucking the trend.

A food that is found perhaps a little more often than strictly necessary, but certainly welcome during the holiday period in my house is pies. Yes, pies. Mainly beef pies, but sometimes chicken/vegetable pies also make an appearance as well. That’s all well and good – there’s nothing wrong with pies, and they make an excellent lunch when combined with a couple slices of toast or similar – but sometimes my dad will cook a whole batch of pies at once, eat some, and then refridgerate the rest. Which is cool, fine, I can deal with that.

I should point out at this stage that the pies mentioned above are almost always store-bought – while homemade pies have ocassionally been spotted in the Ling household, they’re usually too much effort to bother with on a regular basis. But damn, they are tasty.

Anyway, the point I tried to make is that these pies all look the same. Combine that fact that my dad likes to cook a whole batch at a time for later consumption, throw in the fact that he mixes different varieties of pies (beef, other assorted meat, vegetable, chicken etc), and you get: pot luck pies. There’s no way to distinguish between them when they’re in the fridge, short of taking their tops off and inspecting them manually. There’s just no way to know what flavoured pie you’ll get before you eat it, hence, pot luck pies.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 10:30 and already I've had one not-so-awesome customer, one cute (if a little scruffy) customer. I can tell it's gonna be a long day ahead.. #
• BLARGH LOTS OF ANGRY CUSTOMERS BLARGH.
  Judging by @benzoenator's and @justbekky's tweets, I'm not the only one… Here's to tomorrow… X_X #
• You know, I wasn't sure that I liked 3rd person shooters when I started Mass Effect. Now some 16.4 hours in and enjoying it IMMENSELY… ^_^ #
• Thought for the day: what most people don't realise is that there are actually 3 sides to every coin – the third being the most improbable. #
• Another day, another dollar. Fingers crossed I don't have to force quit any customers today. Thanks to @russellyaxley for that horrible pun. #
• Uh-oh. El-cheapo in-ears cutting in and out in one ear – time for a new pair, me thinks! Griffin TuneBuds Mobile looking the goods right now #
• I love it when I get stuff in the mail – even better if it's (somewhat) unexpected… Much thanks to @zacislost. http://twitpic.com/ys13h #
• If there's one thing I love about the App Store, it's finding way-more-awesome apps to replace already-awesome ones http://eucalyptusapp.com #
• Uh-oh. Looks like Dick Smith gobbled up the Tandy Electronics store in the CBD (opposite KFC). We need more electronics stores, not less! #
• Bought some batteries from Dick Smith. Pretty sure I overheard @benzoenator pimping out Professional Computer Maintainence. Tsk tsk, Ben #
• I manage to tweet while walking about the Hobart CBD, running errands for my place of employment, and all I got was this lousy #dropboxshirt #
• Whoa. Never noticed the new tab/close tab fadein/fade out animation on Google Chrome for Mac. Very impessive, and looks incredibly Mac-like! #
• Don't search "pasty" in the App Store. What about the approval process?
  I'd say that these apps are undesirable –> NSFW! http://j.mp/6IlmX8 #
• Huge props to UMart Melbourne for being awesome and calling me seconds after I had submitted my online order for a HX-850. Nice work chaps!! #
• Awesome new Telstra data packs seem to be business only, but if you've got an ABN then you can add them to consumer plans /thx @nickkempt #
• As evil as the Ori are, one thing's for sure; Morena Baccarin (Adria) is utterly captivating in season 10 of Stargate SG1 http://j.mp/4CTJd3 #
• You know what kind of deer I have? I have NO-EYE DEER why I'm feeling so gosh-darn tired. If you need me, I'll just be right over here -—-> #
• Office 2010 beta seems nice; love the animated splash screens, and the new "send-a-smile" feature. Bout time Microsoft made something cool!! #
• "Hey cool" moment: realising @birdbrainapp has the same "pull down to refresh" awesomeness as Tweetie. Wish it could be a standard feature.. #
• The small collection of 3.5" hard drives I have amassed on my bedside table aren't even worth offloading for some cash.. #firstworldproblems #
• Ha! I *knew* it!
  Sergeant Foley in Modern Warfare 2 is the same guy who voices Captain Anderson in Mass Effect! Told ya!! http://j.mp/5USTW8 #

via YOU MIGHT FIND YOURSELF.

A milk carton that changes its color to indicate the freshness of its content.

The world needs this more than it does many things that currently exist.

via The freshness – ReflectionOf.Me.

To create the chart, Velo gently scraped Wikipedia’s list of Crayola colors, corrected a few hues, and added the standard 16-count School Crayon box available in 1935.

Except for the dayglow-ski-jacket-inspired burst of neon magentas at the end of the ’80s, the official color set has remained remarkably faithful to its roots!

Ever industrious, Velo also calculated the average growth rate: 2.56% annually. For maximum understandability, he reformulated it as “Crayola’s Law,” which states:

The number of colors doubles every 28 years!

If the Law holds true, Crayola’s gonna need a bigger box, because by the year 2050, there’ll be 330 different crayons! Shortly thereafter, frazzled packaging designers rejoice, for to the rescue comes a revolution in household appliances: the new-fangled Replicator-Dissociator! Load it with the Crayola plugin, and you’re seconds away from every shade in the rainbow – no boxes required!

via crayons « Weather Sealed.

The Welcome screen may be displayed for 30 seconds during the logon process after you set a solid color as the desktop background in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

via The Welcome screen may be displayed for 30 seconds during the logon process after you set a solid color as the desktop background in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2.

You know what, in this day and age, this is ridiculous. How was this even necessary in the first place? Why was it necessary? Who let this code ship?

…at least there’s a hotfix. /sigh