How do I hook this bloody thing up?

Over the past year, Mum and Dad have collected the components of a pretty good home theatre system. They've got a massive 106cm widescreen plasma television and they've got a surround sound system, but I've got no idea how to hook the two of them up.

Their DVD player and their television have the standard left and right RCA audio outputs, but the sound system has five RCA inputs - front left, front right, back left, back right, and the subwoofer. There may even be another input for a small speaker in the middle.

How is this supposed to work? Is there an amplifier that takes the two audio signals, processes them and outputs five? Is the DVD player or television supposed to have more outputs? I can't imagine that a $2600 television would be lacking such a feature, but I guess it's possible.

Hope For The Dogs?

Most Bulldogs fans are understandably feeling a little down at the moment. In the minds of most fans, Robert Murphy’s knee injury represents the end of hope for the Western Bulldogs’ forward line. However, consider the tall timber we have playing at Werribee, or out due to short-term injury:

• Will Minson
• Travis Baird
• Cam Wight
• Tom Davidson
• Kieran McGuiness

Travis Baird is, by all accounts, quite a talented forward option with strong marking ability. He was a chance for selection against Port Adelaide before he injured his shoulder, and probably would’ve been selected ahead of Kieran McGuiness in Sydney.

I think Baird will be making his debut for the Dogs very shortly, almost as a direct replacement for Bob Murphy. He’ll get the opposition’s second best defender (assuming Grant’s playing forward), who will probably be able to keep Travis quiet. At best, he’ll be able to create a few spillages to the advantage of our multitude of talented, small, creative types — Johnno, Robbo, Cooney, and so on. The important thing is that Travis is keeping the defender from manning someone else.

Will’s return will not only be a huge boost for our ruck department, but also our forward line. He has history playing forward in the SANFL, and Eade has been working with him to improve that part of his game.

When Minson isn’t rucking, I imagine he’ll be ‘rested’ deep in the square, taking another tall opposition defender, doing his best to create opportunities for those small players.

With the opposition’s best two or three defenders on those players, the small, quick, leading forwards suddenly have a chance in hell of getting their hands on the ball and perhaps kicking a winning score.

Let’s take a look at what lies ahead for the Dogs:

• Hawthorn at Telstra Dome
• Fremantle at Telstra Dome
• Brisbane at the Gabba
• West Coast at Subiaco
• North Melbourne at the MCG
• Carlton at Telstra Dome
• Geelong at Telstra Dome
• Melbourne at the MCG
• Richmond at the MCG
• Adelaide at the MCG
• St. Kilda at the Telstra Dome
• Essendon at the Telstra Dome

Looking through that list, there are at least five games that are very winnable — Hawthorn, Fremantle, North Melbourne, Carlton and Essendon. After last year, we’ll play Brisbane at the Gabba with confidence. We’re a chance against Geelong (especially if their horrible form continues), as we are in the games against Richmond and St. Kilda. The only game on that list I’d put a black line through is West Coast at Subiaco.

Our last eight are all in Melbourne, so travelling won’t be an issue as we (hopefully) storm into the finals.

To make the finals comfortably, we need a total of twelve wins. We already have five, and I’ve pencilled in another five. We’ve only got two more games against any of the current top four sides. All we need to do is pull of an ‘upset’ in two of the remaining seven matches, and we’ll be in the finals. In such an even season, it’s possible that 11 wins will be good enough, too.

A Horrible Dream

After finishing work on Friday, I somehow managed to drag myself all the way home, pull my spent body into bed and fall into a deep, deep sleep. I was so exhausted after a really tough week I barely remember any of this, but I do remember what I dreamt of that night.

It was a cold, cold night at the MCG. I'd met up with some friends and friends of friends — all of us Dogs supporters in full livery — and we staked out a claim about eight rows back on the top floor of the new Ponsford stand. There were a lot of Collingwood supporters milling about, but I had a sneaking suspicion that our Dogs would do well against the more favored Pies.

And for the first quarter, they did. The crowd were highly entertained by a high scoring, free flowing brand of footy. 'Eccy' Eagleton starred for the Dogs, racking up 15 touches in that first quarter. We went into quarter time one goal up and feeling good about the remainder of the match.

In the second quarter, my dream quickly took a turn of the worse. Bob Murphy had somehow found himself contesting a mark against Anthony Rocca inside Collingwood's 50 metre arc. Murphy backed into the bigger man and they both leaped for the ball. During the contest, one of Murphy's gangly legs got tangled up between Rocca's. Rocca, being the much stronger of the two, came back down to early solidly with a strong grip on the ball. Murphy's desperate lunge for the footy had sent him falling uncontrollably. His leg, still caught between Rocca's, contorted to a sickening angle that no human knee could stand. The Bulldog medical staff rushed onto the field with a stretcher, and after a few minutes of fussing about, it was clear that Murphy would take no further part in the Dogs' season.

Thankfully, it was all just a dream.

Reading

I'm trying to figure out why I haven't been reading. Not reading is making me feel stupid.

A few years ago, I couldn't get enough of reading — I was reading at lunch, when I got a spare moment at home, when I went out for breakfast on the weekend … I was reading at any chance I got. I even bought a big book case, which is now home to quite a collection of books (which I'm slowly cataloging over at LibraryThing, which is fun for the Nick Hornby-eqsue obessive part of my personality).

Now, I'm watching television, playing video games, drinking booze, or working on web sites.

I don't know if this decline in my reading habits is due to working in the publishing industry, but that certainly seems to be part of it, which is a worry — does that mean that if I were to work in the music industry, I'd stop listening to music?

Another probable reason is where I live. Being seen as intellectual just isn't the done thing in North Melbourne — we drink, laugh and fight, but we sure as hell don't think. I've always been the type to be easily influenced by those around me, so perhaps that's what's happened? Maybe because I've surrounded myself with people who are happy in their ignorance and lack of culture, I've taken their values on board.

I've bought myself a few books and I'm trying to get back into the swing of reading. Peter Carey's My Life As A Fake seems like a good book, but it's a tough read — the author wrote the entire book without quotation marks, which is a problem when the story is being told to a narrator.

Maybe I should start re-reading old favourites. Maybe buy copies of favourite books that I don't own. Everyone should own copies of 1984 and Catcher In The Rye, shouldn't they?

I've heard that Salman Rushdie's later work is a lot more accessible than some of his earlier books. Fury is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. Maybe I'll give him another shot.

I'm going to start getting out of the office for an hour each day to eat my lunch and read. Except for today — I've got too much to do at work.

New Super Mario Bros.

I just bought New Super Mario Bros. for my Nintendo DS on eBay, along with Tetris DS.

I've been excited about this game for ages… I can't wait.

Interview

Yesterday the boys from Look Who's Toxic were interviewed for Sydney-based fanzine, Chaos Is An Order. You can check out what I had to say over on the LT3 web site.

Gigs This Weekend

Haven't been updating very much recently, as I've been far too busy at work. Looks like I'll be having a busy weekend, too.

• Early Friday night: Karate Party's sort-of debut gig at Glitch. I have zero idea what to expect, but I'll be doing my damnedest to remain supportive.
• Later Friday night: Group Seizure and Taste The Venom at the Town Hall. Group Seizure are back from a bass player-less hiatus, so it will be good to see what they're up to nowadays. I've been wanting to see the Venom girls for a while, too.
• Saturday night: Look Who's Toxic and K' Road Queens at the Town Hall. Two nights in a row at the Towny… should be just like the good ol' days.
• Sunday night-ish: Schottky Noise at the Arthouse.

See you out there, kids.

New Phone

OK, so after much complaining about my mobile woes, I've finally taken the plunge, broken out of my current contract, and have signed up for a $79 capped plan on Vodafone with a Sony Erricsson K750i.

I can't get too many numbers out of the old hunk of junk, so if you'd like to be in my new phone, please SMS me your name and contact details.

CD Launch

Wow… thank you so much to everyone who turned out for our CD launch last night. I think we ended up with more than 100 people there on a Sunday night, which was just awesome.

Extra-special thanks to the eating competition contestants as well. Xavier took it out easily, followed by Liam, Willy and Mick Z. Mick V. was looking good for second or third place, but sabotaged his own efforts by insisting on eating his sausages with bread. In a desperate attempt to pinch second place, Mick V. attempted to eat his final three sausages at once, but was forced to leave the competition when he failed to keep them down.

Hopefully there'll be some photos of the night coming soon.