It’s not like this hasn’t happened to others before…

Back in December I wrote, regarding the Karate Kid remake:

Angry, because I’m not convinced The Karate Kid needs a remake. But also because the movie studios can’t even do an original movie any more. Let me help them out a little – make a movie called The Kung Fu Kid. Similar plot, but have the kid learning Kung Fu, and get Jackie Chan to play the old master. There you go – that has winner written all over it… You can send the cheque directly to me.

So, what did I read today? Here’s a quote:

Jackie Chan is in final negotiations to join the Columbia Pictures remake of “The Karate Kid.”… Set in an exotic Asian locale, the new film will borrow elements of the original plot, wherein a bullied youth (Smith) learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor (Chan).

Hold on a minute? They’ve just ripped off my remake idea. Where’s my money?!

Not only that, they are still calling it “Karate Kid”, yet everyone knows that Jackie Chan is Chinese not Japanese. So they can’t even rip off my ideas correctly!

Which reminds me of the time my apartment building decided to offer residents Tai Chi classes. I was interested, until I saw the instructor was a white Australian woman. You don’t learn French cooking from a black American. And you don’t learn Tai Chi from a white Australian. The rules are pretty simple people!

A few weeks back, running low on night time reading material, I decided to buy some books online. I went to the usual source, amazon.com, but then thought, maybe I should google around and see what other bookstores exist.

I soon discovered a great online store – Better World Books. Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.

That sounds like something I could get behind. And looking at the website, they particularly push the idea of reuse as a first step to helping the environment. No problem – I ordered two books (the titles of which are for another blog article), second-hand.

The other great thing about the store is that they ship books “carbon neutral” by making you pay a little extra (very little extra) for carbon offsets. That is what everyone should be doing with online orders – no exception.

So I waited, and in no time the books arrived, nicely packed in a recycled cardboard box telling me to recycle. The books were in fantastic condition. But wait. There was more!

Inside the container was a bonus surprise. A chocolate bar. Not just any bar – a Fairtrade chocolate bar!

This was a little bonus for Valentine’s day apparently, with a little note inside wishing me a happy Valentine’s day.

As most people know, I love Chocolate. This book store was already a hit with me, and that was the icing on the cake.

And yes, the chocolate was very nice.

So, Better World Books. Highly recommended.

Sunday Night, Channel 7 broadcasted a brand new TV show, imaginatively titled “Sunday Night“. Apparently it promised to be “breaking the stories that matter and delivering moments you’ll never forget“.

The great thing about Channel 7 is that they never fail to live up to their promises. It certainly is one show I’ll never forget. There was this one story about a man capturing dangerous crocodiles. The look of fake horror on the reporters face…the reporter “paralysed” with fear, unable to leave the boat… I will never forget that.

But you know, what I’ll never forget most of all are the new watermarks.

Yes, not content with one watermark, Channel 7 felt the need to have a second, and to move both of them in to the 4:3 space to make sure you didn’t miss them. Oh, and yes, it was the same on 7 HD – because there are so many people out there with 4:3 sets watching 7 HD.

Actually, is anyone watching 7 HD? During the Australian Open it wasn’t even worth watching the tennis on 7 HD because Channel 7 without warning switched to other shows at 9:30 each night in the middle of a game.

I can’t believe I have shares in Channel 7. What was I thinking?