sammi needham : suckonnit

A word from our lord almighty. Life is just a means to the end, at least that’s what they think at a church in bega, NSW.

Obey the will of god and LIVE FOREVER!

And remember folks, the end is nigh, so embrace our lord and saviour… NOW!

went to a preview of a film last night, it was a new Australian comedy mockumentary called Kenny. It is about a dude that delivers, cleans and maintains portaloos to big events. It’s a cliche, it’s totally predictable, it was a feel-good/feel-alright story about a guy who’s living his life in some unfortunate ciscumstances, but he battles on, not really feeling that his ciscumstances are even that unfortunate.

And it was awesome!

It was not unlike The Castle in that it was a film about aussie battlers, battling on and just living their lives as normal. But to some, their normal seems pretty funny. They pulled it off really well, and by the end of the film i really wanted Kenny to have everything going right for him. I loved Kenny - the man and i really enjoyed Kenny - the film, i recommend it (on DVD). It’s a grea DVD movie, but going and seeing it in the cinema will let you see every hair on Kenny’s goatee.

It was a Jacobson Bros. film - whoever the Jacobson Bros. are.

i was going through things on my desk today, throwing a bunch fo stuff out abnd doing a general tidy as i like to do when i finish a project. As i was throwing stuff in the bin i came accross (not in that way) a drawing that i must have done in a meeting.

Now, from the looks of the drawing, the meeting must have been about something useless. I thought before i threw it out i’d take a snap - just in case i ever needed these notes…

nice looking bull, huh?

i picked up ‘Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis’ for the xbox360 the other day because i had The Caz coming round to watch the Australia Vs Brazil World Cup game and thought that a distraction pre-game (and possibly mid-game) might be a bit of fun. It was.

The characters in this game are just awesome. All of them seem to be the type of uber-nerds that take their table tennis just that bit too seriously. They strutt around with a lifelike camp-ness that makes their love of the game just that wierd. I’m sure it’s a game that you need to be a bit of a wierdo to get amazingly good at. This comes across perfectly.

The graphics are pretty incredible - sure there’s not that much to see - you’re in a room wih a table tennis table and some people around, but it’s pulled off flawlessly. Cloth simulation is some of the best that you’re likely to see on any console game and the player’s faces and motion are styled really well and are just unreal enough not to look wierd, whilst still being incredibly lifelike. It looks like a tech demo for Rockstar’s new game engine, but it plays like an awesomely fun game of pong. Apparently the same game engine is being used for the next GTA game, so that should push it much further.

The gameplay is tops - i haven’t quite mastered the focus shots yet, but the 4 types of spin are really easy to get used to and it’s a game that you can jump straight in to without looking like a complete nuffy. The longer your rallys go for the harder you hit the ball, and the harder it is not to laugh at how seriously you are taking a computer game of table tennis. You really want to play it with a friend for best results, and it’s quite popular on xbox live too apparently, i’m yet to jump into it online.

The achievements seem to be a bit stingy though. I unlocked a new player last night whilst winning my first tournament and unlocking 2 achievments. I was retty pumped becase i had about 40 points to go to get to 1000, and i thought this would tip me over the line for sure. Alas, each of these achievements gained me a measely 5 POINTS!!! I hope it gets a bit more generous soon, as i’m used to GRAW giving me about 50 points per level. Nice GRAW. Maybe i’m just a little impatient, i’ve only had it for a weekend and played a bit of multiplayer and one tournament, but i’m in for the long haul.

Affter playing the hell out of Top Spin on the original xbox i was pretty keen to play top spin 2 on the 360. Alas, Top Spin 2 is not the stella game that the first release was, it’s good - but it’s not pushing any boundaries. I think that Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis’ fills the void that was left without a really great topspin game. and hopefully virtua tennis will pick up the pieces laster in the year.

Superfun game, especially with a buddy.

The paintball trip was a success, with the exception of Jules and Duds who couldn’t manage getting themselves out of bed, the bus was filled with 10 burley St. Kilda City champs chomping at the bit to shoot the crap out of each other.

The bus trip up was a little weary until the sun came out, plenty of our crew still waking up from an previous evening of frivolity.

Once we were suited up it was ready to play. Some nice people took a photo of us all on the field - but we might never see that photo. Stay tuned. If you’re from Melbourne IT and you took a photo of us, please email it to sammi.

Spanish had a small windfall in Echuca and that filled the bus with a bit more liquid joy for the road trip home.

The Nav Man was our guide, and along with him and Cotter’s “All killers, no fillers” playlist, we were set for a fiesty 300kms home.

The Inkerman were pleased to see us arrive in one piece before our merry bad broke for the rest of the evening.

check out all of the photos here. Unfortunately Cotter made me put a password on them (although i suppose it is ‘oficially’ a footy trip - so that’s fair enough)

Side Note : Crossa, Harlen, Bobby and Jake almost made it, but accidentally drove a few hours past the venue and were last heard from at midnight walking the streets of kings cross. They all got arrested, except for crossa, who could run the fastest. Apparently he spent the night in some penthouse and when the jailbirds got basck to his car he wasn’t there - they knocked on someone’s door who kindly allowed them to have a coat-hanger to break into the car with. Such a friendly neighbourhood.