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‘You just blew my mind’: lotto winner – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

In a lottery which was drawn this week, two Australians are $53 million richer. I can’t completely comprehend that amount of money. A while ago I worked out with workmates that you’d need at least $10 million to live comfortably and never work again.

But $53 million? My god… that is a phenomenal amount of money. So what would I do?

Well first thing, I would pay off my parents debts in full, buy mum a new car, and gift them $5 million so they never have to work again. Secondly, I would buy myself a lovely house by the beach, nothing too over-the-top, but something really nice. I’d probably also buy an apartment on the Gold Coast as a holiday home, and short term lease it out the rest of the time. Then I’d tell my girlfriend to defer her university for a year because we’re going to Europe for a while, and New York… and South America. Coming home with a better view of the world, I’d donate a few million to my favourite charities – help out my grandparents financially so they don’t completely rely on their pension, and hire my grandpa a personal gardener who he can work with. Then, still holding a solid $45+ million I’d sit on the beach and use the interest earned to live from. Obviously I won’t forget my friends, as I would definitely throw several absolutely kick ass parties; and I wouldn’t even put BYO on the invite!

Actually, fuck the modest house. I’d buy a massive friggin’ mansion for which all my best friends could live with me and party every night. That would be awesome.

The possibilities are actually endless – and yes, the concept does ‘blow my mind’. I can’t imagine what is going through the anonymous Adelaide man’s mind right now, but I do wish it was me that received that phone call.

What would you do with $53 million?

On this weeks Top Gear (the UK one, season 13, episode 2), during the scene where the boys are looking for cars for “17 year olds”, there is a hilarious ‘easter egg’ in the background in one of the shots.

I noticed it briefly and quickly rewound Quicktime to get another look, and yes, it is the Stig, photocopying his head. Oh, the wonders of what they get up to at the Top Gear office. But I do really wonder, what does the Stig get up to on his days off? Golf? Go-Karting? Reading Shakespearian literature?

On the note of Top Gear, I’m so happy that Top Gear UK is back again. I absolute love that show, it is by far, one of my favourite shows of all time. I do also much enjoy the Top Gear Australia variant of the original, but the Aussie version is still in its infancy and doesn’t have the entertainment experience of the cast and crew of the original. If you are yet to see this weeks episode of Top Gear UK, it is worth the watch for an epic mile long drag between the mighty McLaren F1, and the fastest production car in the world, the Bugatti Veyron. Awesome stuff.

I’ve been doing a bunch of things on my blog lately, because I’m procrastinating, I’m trying to get away from writing out notes and studying for my exams. My god I hate exams. Then again, who actually enjoys them?

Fortunately one of my exams is ‘open book’. So that pretty much means I will be printing absolutely all the material available for that course and taking it with me. Shouldn’t go wrong then.

The other exam I have says I can take up to 10 single-sided A4 hand written pages. Great… except for the whole writing them out bit. It’s mostly diagrams and things, but my god my hand is killing me.

I think I might go and tidy my room – at least be productive whilst I’m procrastinating.

Yesterday I was took a break from exam “studying” and went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Wow, you can really tell how successful the first film was based on the budget of the second one. There are many, many more autobots and decepticons. Here’s my quick review:

If you haven’t seen the first movie, go and rent it, now, before you watch this one. Otherwise you really won’t understand what is going on. This film was clearly Michael Bay wanting to create an epic action-packed film to “wow” the audience. Whilst the film definitely does this, I found it to be a bit like the sequels to The Matrix. The first film was simpler with less action, but the action sequences themselves were detailed and awesome. The sequels were both seemingly blown out of proportion and half the film is shooting and blowing things up. Which is fun, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t mind it when a film slows down a bit. It seemed as if the final action sequence was going on forever. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the movie. It really was fantastic, with epic action sequences that really left you gob-smacked.

Like the first one, there was a strong element of humour, but it was a little more slapstick than I prefer. However I did love the old robot, he was quite funny – you’ll see.

For the boys (and some girls), Megan Fox as the poster girl is well… nothing short of what we would expect. My god, she is just stunning and will make us all, once again, drool like idiots.

There is a second girl for which we drool over, and that is Australia’s own Isabel Lucas. She has come a long way since her days on Home and Away, and when you see her get all dominating on Sam… well… I had to wipe my chin again.

Although I was a little sceptical about her character, it went too far into The Terminator territory I think. But either way, definitely worth the close up of her behind… my god, oh yes.

Unsurprisingly the movie finished a little open-ended, so we may end up with another franchise of sequels after sequels… so long as they can actually write good stories and not repeat the mistakes of the 80s.

Overall, the movie was pretty awesome, and I’ll see it again, and again, and again. It doesn’t have the simplicity or excitement of the first, which was something new – but if you like your long action-packed sequences, then you’ll be quite pleased. Go see it.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I read this article only moments ago:

FIA release statement following meeting

In particular, these paragraphs:

All currently competing teams have committed to the FIA Formula One World Championship.

There will be no alternative series or championship and the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April 2009.

Finally, the FIA has come to their senses and have decided to not go down the self destruction path. Finally, all that political bullshit which has been taking away from the race meetings themselves, are over. Finally, we no longer have to worry about having two championships, or missing out of the classic Formula 1 series which we all know and love.

Now the teams will be able to put their focus back into the race, and hopefully we’ll see a bit more competition out there.

That said, I still want Webber to win. He has to do it this year… it really is now or never.