Interesting dinner party combo?

I'd heard that Eminem is taking a break from performing music to do some producing and now the news is on Yahoo! Guess it's hard to keep the anger and rage going forever when the big bank notes keep rolling in.

Maybe he'd have time to come to dinner. I was thinking that an interesting dinner guest combo might be to have Eminem and Barney the Purple Dinosaur join us. Not sure where I'd seat them though - Barney might be shedding and Beth would not be impressed if there's purple dinosaur fluff everywhere.

Maybe they could do a little duet together if Eminem ever starts performing again. Think of it, from a marketing perspective it would be broadening the reach of both performers.

But what would we serve? Is Barney a herbivore? I doubt that he's a carnivore as parents of those oh so cute child actors might not be as relaxed with him hugging the kids if Barney's taste buds prefer meat. Perhaps his publicists can help.

Rick Clise

TV parenting critique

We watched '24' last night on the telly. Very exciting as usual but I do wonder how Jack is ever going to get another job. The man has major problems with authority!

It was episode '9am - 10am,' third series.

There was a (on reflection, hilarious) scene that just begs commenting on: young teenager Behrooz, son of terrorist mastermind father Navi and mother Dina, delivers 'the briefcase' to 'the compound' on his parents' instructions, but doesn't realize that his jealous American girlfriend Debbie followed him, thinking he was seeing someone else.

Nice Guy Navi and Hostess with the Mostest Dina determine that Debbie has not told anyone else about the location of 'the compound' but to prevent compromising their terrible plan Debbie is to be done away with. And as Behrooz created the mess by not breaking-up with Debbie months ago when his loving parents told him to, Behrooz had to do the deed and send Debbie away for good. As in, she ain't gonna come round here no more, get it?

Loving Dina gives Behrooz a revolver from the entry hall side table drawer and tells him to take Debbie to the basement to get rid of her. Behrooz isn't the terrible kid his parents are trying to make him into and while Dina is probably baking cyanide cookies in the kitchen he tells Debbie to run away as her life is in danger.

Just as Behrooz and Debbie get close to the front door Debbie collapses from the poisoned iced tea that Dina served her, and Dina tells distraught Behrooz that she didn't think he could do it.

Then is calmly said the classic line from Dina to Behrooz, 'I'm very disappointed with you, Behrooz.' Spoken as if Behrooz had not cleaned his room or had tracked muddy footprints through the house.

Poor Behrooz, what we both agree that Dina should have said next is, 'but tomorrow is another day and we'll try to do better, okay?' Kiss, pat on the head, now go do your homework, or perhaps, clean the basement...

After all, you let the misbehaving child know that he didn't do as was expected (kill his girlfriend in this case) but as loving parents he'll get another chance to do the right thing.

Rick Clise

P.S. Kids, '24' is fiction. Don't try any of this at home. It was so absurd that I just had to blog it!

Update: Accountant/ASIC worries?

Well, close this one off semi-happily: ASIC wrote back that they will not waive the penalty fee, but my previous accountants kindly paid the penalty. (Thank you guys!)

Why ASIC penalises a business for not supplying share structure details when they already had the info I just don't know. Maybe Steve Vizard can bring me up to speed.

Rick Clise

What not to eat in the cinema

We went to the Gold Class 'cinema experience' last night. Saw 'War of the Worlds' in great comfort and sat in wonderful reclining seats that recline so far that you could easily fall asleep if it turned-out to be a slow filum.

Before the movie started we ordered our drinks and food and gave instructions of when we wanted them delivered during the film. So far so good!

What we didn't think about is what is easy to eat in the dark, and we can confirm that nachos with chili, guacamole, and sour cream is not easy to eat in the dark, nor are potato wedges with chili sauce and sour cream.

Remember the quote from 'Alien' - 'In space no one can hear you scream'? Well, we've got a new tag for Gold Class: 'In Gold Class no one can see you spill the sauce!'

(BTW, thank you very much Walking Group for the tickets and vouchers - it was a lot of fun. Just look at my shirt front! And the folks at the cinema were very good to us.)

Rick Clise

Close call in the kitchen!

Went to make a sandwich today and grabbed a small loaf of healthy looking bread. Was just about to spread the PNB&J and noticed that the wrapper said, 'Soy-Lin - for women's well being.'

Put that straight back in the breadbox and grabbed some of the kids' white bread. Thinking, 'man-boobs, man-boobs, man-boobs!'

Whew! The kitchen is a dangerous place!

Rick Clise

Why Paris lost the 2012 bid

Pickpockets.

Rick Clise

Relink my XML

That may mean something, I'm hoping.

If you have copied and pasted my old atom feed into your newsreader you should discard that feed and use my new XML one that is feedburner based.

Right-click on the orange XML chiclet and paste into your newsreader and away you go.

Rick Clise

Accountant/ASIC worries?

My previous Australian accountants did a good job for me, dealing with often complex Australian/US tax issues when I was at Microsoft, but when I made my move to the art world I became too small a fish for them and transferred my business elsewhere.

While they were looking after my tax affairs they didn't reply to a demand by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for company share structure details following lodgement of the 2004 company report, despite ASIC already having received that info when my company was created. It appears that ASIC didn't keep records of this info when they changed computer systems.

So ASIC sends me a penalty notice for $335.00 for my previous accountants not supplying this info. I think ASIC is a bit over the top, to put it mildly, for penalising me for their inefficiency, but ASIC is ASIC.

I'm chasing my previous accountants for payment of the ASIC penalty fee, and knowing that they are good people I'm sure the cheque will very soon 'be in the mail.'

Right guys?

Rick Clise