Things I'm not doing...

Normally my blog has talked about what I am doing, what I am thinking, what I'm planning.

Right now, I'm tired, it's been very hot and work has been reasonably stressful. I've taken up martial arts again, black crane style. It seems that will provide the balance I will need to reduce stress.

However in general, right now, I'm tired.

So one thing I am not doing is blogging

Gaming madness

I had recently cancelled my subscription to Blizzard's World of Warcrack, only to find more ppl i know just starting up, i am starting again... Zathor the pincale of Night Elf masculinity and smackdown on Cho'gall

The vortex is sucking me in...

No................ from the vortex of EEEEVVVVIIIILLLLL!!!!!


I thought I was giving it up for oblivion and the plethora of gaming software that is forethcoming....

*sigh*

Ethics

Some of you may have commented on the elusiveness of some of my comments at various stages of my blogging history. Part of the reason for this is that I often don’t see the short and direct literary route in most instances, the other is culpability.

This is the internet, anyone can read anything I write (in theory and provided big guns in internet service providing industry don't to require payment for bandwidth access.) That includes loved ones, work colleagues jilted lovers, legal adversaries, ANYONE! As a result I try not to write anything I wouldn’t admit to, to just about anyone.

This is the result...

At this point you are probably wondering what things I am omitting by this methodology, the answer is simple… the good stuff :p


P.S: If by some chance I particularly wanted to vent something about someone, that if read by that person could have negative repercussions, that venting would most likely not occur on this blog... and for this reason, woe is me.

Frustration is also me AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the death coloured chariot

And so was the brow of Sigmund humbled as he did gaze upon the chariot, gleaming in the son. The ashen colour of its flanks did blind his eyes as he surveyed the lines of the labor and pride of his tribe.

So didst the chariot finally arrive. The great wheeled land beast didst carry many chariots from the distant homelands in the south. With baited breath and great anticipation didst Sigmund greet the chariot. Spake to it in hushed tones and rub away the toils and hardship of the road.

With great poignancy didst Sigmund lower himself into the deep set seat of the mighty and sleek chariot. It was as he had remembered it. Cool to the touch, a warm purr felt through the vibrations of the felt covered reins.

As Sigmund brought his chariot from cool sleep into wakeful life didst the beast roar and shatter the silence that had beset the conglomerate of giant wheeled land beasts.

Through the mountain passes of the great city of the North did Sigmund and the chariot acquaint themselves with the details and feel of each other. An understanding was reached.

Sigmund and the chariot would consent to the company of the other, so that their goals and conquest of the North could be speedy. Until the time when the North was subjugated below their heels, at which time the alliance may end, so each may sally forth and battle for the North between the only two true Warriors from the South present in these lands.

Great battles await, until then, Sigmund rides the death coloured chariot. Let all fear the reaper of mountain passes and winding asphalt.

Planning

Now if you go back about 2 weeks, there were a bunch of things I wanted to say all at once, now, listening to your complaints and constructive critism of days past, I gathered if I felt the need to vent, I should do it in palatable sized bits. So thats what i did, wrote short to the point comments. This gave me about 6 or so of posts. Every so often a new one got written during the posting process :p

So you had shortish new comments regularly each about a different aspect of my life.

Palatable bit sized chunks.

I hope you enjoyed the regularity, I will aim to keep it up, but not too hard :p

Either way, the backlog has been consumed, I've got to start re-developing and saving up a new back log, or well, I will as it seems its the best way to achieve the regularity of writting I wish.

Now feedback time.

Was that enjoyable and interesting enough for you?

or would you prefer unbalanced posts and more impulsiveness and more accurate up to date, up to the second posts, when they occur?

Soon to follow news of the shiny new death coloured chariot

The winds of foreboding

This most recent Monday I woke to feel the sticky moist air cling to my body, as it had all night. In the grey light of day the heat was oppressive and present in every droplet of water in the air.

The mugginess concentrated itself against the force of my movements as I fixed food and made my way to work. Early in the morning a clouded day did nothing to dilute the steaming gaze of the sun. As the clammy material of my shirt molded to my body and I trudged onward towards work I could feel in the wind, this was only the beginning.

As torturous and arduous as that mornings weather was, it was merely a taste of things to come. By all recollection of the people who live here, the weather is only going to get worse.

P.S: today in brisbane it was overcast, and then it started raining... duuuude!!!

P.P.S: and still freaking humid the whole time

P.P.P.S: I GOT A NEW FRIGGIN CAR!!!!! NEW POST TO FOLLOW SOON IN VIKING PROSE TO CELEBRATE!!!!! THIS DIDST SIGMUND DECLARE UNTO THE FALLING SKY!!!!!!!

Fighting

Well it looks like talks between me and my ex-landlord through a go-between fell through and it seems likely that I will be looking at a small claims court appearance. I’ve never had the ill fortune to land there before. It should be interesting. Also interesting as I think the other party has a lot more to lose from this encounter.

I managed to get in a fight, a physical one, the only real consequence of that was I found some of my reactions were very good and that my forehead is particularly solid.

I may need to look for a method of calming down.

Intra Office Politix

This office environment is pretty new to me overall. Its strange how bitchy sneaky or backstabbing people can be and yet just about everything is done in hushed muted tones and conversations.

Impressions carry a lot of weight, hallway conversations reek of secrecy, importance and reliability and I work with what generally seem nice people! I get to do interesting stuff, its pretty easy going... isn’t it?

Or is it? Maybe I don’t play the game as well as I thought I did!

Fashion Victim #1

I saw the Devil wears Prada the other day and I have to say I was impressed. Not only were there buckets of pretty girls in pretty clothes, but the anne Hathaway is too cute for words.

What impressed me most about the movie however was Meryl Streep, playing the bitchy ice queen. This was not a movie with a hero and a villain as such (although if you really wanted to you could look at it like that,) what makes this astounding is how much menace Meryl Streep seems to evoke in her minions and by her on screen presence.

Its uncanny, if the evil scheming villain in a James Bond movie acted like she did, well bond movies would be a touch better. The most compelling scene in the movie was all of a sudden Meryl Streep, sitting in a bath robe on a sofa in Paris, no makeup on delivering tragic news of her personal life to Anne Hathaway.

The amount of shock and tension that scene created was uncanny. It was the only time in the movie we did not see Meryl frocked and dished out to look like Cruela De’Ville. Definitely worth a view, this movie is one of the better told stories on screen at the moment.

OMG! More Railroads!

Many of my favorite games have been made by Sid Meier, Civilization, Civilization 2, Alpha Centauri, the list goes on. Amongst them is Railroad Tycoon 2 (I never played the first one) I have just found out they are putting out a newer more awesome version, with fiddly time consuming bits cut out, only pure strategy and cut throat economics are left.

Pure GOLD!

I find the fact that I play with this stuff, except as a real life version no deterrent to look forward to acquiring this newest Sid gem!!!

I don’t know building track, making big rail decisions, buying industry, running other companies out of business... it sounds awesome!!!!

I mean I am part of driving big decision making decisions about the actual track that gets laid and a lot of the iterative processes underneath and behind that, roughly speaking, its also significantly slower moving.

*sigh*

I feel a little disappointed about how excited I am about a computer game to play with stuff I play with all day… I believe this may qualify me to be a consummate geek of some description :p

Obligatory girlfriend post

I wasn't going to write about my girlfriend a lot, however she found out about my blog and insisted I write more about her (complimentary of course.) Well I don't have anything other than complimentary things to say about her, I mean I'm trying to think of something... and I just can't. Perhaps because she is looking over my shoulder as I write this? No that can't be it, shes just too wonderful for words. Really.

Generalities

So the actual events that are going on at the moment include
• Minor to medium disgruntlement at work, that seems to have been sorted
• There is a new person who is being referred to as Sigmund 2 who I am effectively showing the ropes to and training (after being there only 6 months!)
• My new car should be heading my way soonish!!!! (I really really really hope, but it should, REALLY)
• I am organizing my upcoming trip to Melbourne at the end of the year
• I am currently engaged in negotiations about the bond for the last place I lived at, either it gets worked out or it gets taken to small claims court, the guy from the residential tenancy authority who is supposed to be the intermediary for conciliation is being a total A-hole. He doesn’t bother doing anything except say, look give in or you’ll go to court, you have no case, did you talk to the tenant’s authority, you’re still going ahead? For someone supposed to be impartial…
• The place I’m living at at the moment is pretty cool, the people are pretty cool and last weekend I had a housewarming that was pretty nice
• My best friend M:CSH and his girlfriend and my folks and my girlfriend’s mum are all apparently enroute to brissy in the next 2 months
• I think I might be slightly sick atm… like physically, mentally I wont discuss at the moment :p
• Oh I’m also deciding to stop studying teaching for the moment

Signoff~

Toot! Toot!

The love affair continues

I love a good story, and there is no story I love more than fantasy fiction novels. There is no higher literary goal in my mind than the ability to weave a story together that is engaging and believable where you have some hairless youth wielding the biggest flaming sword since the creation of the earth and throwing lightning bolts left right and centre as he battles a god or demon for the continued existence of the universe, or something of that nature…

I mean it’s improbably, most people if they saw it happening wouldn’t have a bar of it! If you told a drunken hobo in a bar, it’s pretty unlikely he would believe you. He is more likely to think your some kind of hallucination.

Writing a story that makes you believe there is some snot nosed kid living in the valley of cherry blossoms whose dad was the retired dark lord of oblivion who accidentally happened upon the sword of utter catastrophe which was wielded in the battle of wailing sands against the epitome of evil who held the world in endless foreclosure by said snot nosed kid is a masterpiece.

I’ve been getting into the stories a bit recently, helped along by the Baen free library and there have been some stand outs there, some David Weber stuff in his oath of swords series, the stories by Keith Laumer about his character Retief who delves into interstellar diplomacy. But none of these roused my old feelings for a

A book I picked up recently renewed these feelings of love I have for all things fantasy fiction, mostly by being a damn good read “The White Tiger” by Kylie Chan. It also reminded me that no matter how precarious a ledge the world you are reading about is sitting on, no matter how shiny the armor, how hot the sword, how wavy the hair, if you hero/heroine doesn’t also come to have a massive thing for the most beautiful thing in creation and somehow steal their hearts it just doesn’t quite grab you as much.

I mean in some ways I probably am a hopeless romantic, but this book made me believe the world (modern setting fantasy) feel like the characters were real and some damn implausible things were happening right in front of me. It also made me think a relationship between a mortal character and god was plausible, kudos.

Martial arts, magic, gods, Asian mysticism, demons and a love story, this book really targets my weaknesses.

I am however incredibly upset the sequel hasn’t been written or at least published 

Into the ring of fire

The other day I watched Waquim Pheonix (however you spell that) play johnny cash in walk the line.

It was a pretty standard story of boy can play guitar, boy makes a lot of money playing, boy marries wrong girl, does lots of drugs, dumps girl and has a thing for some other girl who is a lot better for him but nothing goes quite right until he is a totally rich drug fucked hobo, and then things get better.

The best part of this movie for me was near the end, when Johnny is on stage playing and singing a song that goes "down down down, into a ring of fire"

This song brings a special warmth into my heart. Let me explain why, my best friend in melbourne, let me annonymously refer to him as "Mick: The crazy singaporean hacker" or M:CSH.

So M:CSH was ( IS ) a bit of a video game junkie. One game he played was a basic flash animated game, you played some big tough slow moving guy in shining armour and had a flaming sword. You could move back and forth and swing your sword. The purpose of this was to kill as many demons as possible, which would come faster and faster. When you had killed 666 demons you could try and kill the devil. M:CSH got to the devil... he is a freak. However this game has a backgound track, "Johnny Cash: Down into a ring of fire."

I had no freaking idea it was johnny cash i barely knew who he was, i thought it was some retro country band accidentally producing some awesomely sarcastic song for the game, or just by providence. It was so apt it wasnt funny.

This movie allowed me to realize I did like and appreciate Johnny cash, that little flash game laying the beat down on the devil is what johnny cash was born to support!

strangely enough there were a number of Cash songs i heard and liked and a bunch i had heard before unrealizing

Oh the horror!

As i write this am sitting in my lounge room on a bean bag, beer sitting next to me, laptop on my lap and oh god, the horror, TV infront of me with meercat manor screening and some bastard flatmate had left the remote in view and out of reach.

What on earth could be the driving force behind this disturbing banality! Some tv exec has no doubt gone, "Meercats are pretty cute, lets make a tv series of em" Someone craps on and gives em names, meercats act like meercats.

Its just stipid and boring, and after a while, they arnt even that cute.

So the update.

There was a housewarming, it was a little lackluster in turnouts, all of my girls friends turned up, most of the people i invited either called or smsed to say they couldnt turn up due to tickets for games, just having got up from the results of the night before, or i assume just clean forgetting.

It was a small and nice party. Without too much to clean up afterwards.

So the general update is I find myself in love with a Japanese girl in Brisbane, she is the sweetest and most gentle girl i have ever met. She is also insanely cute, as probably only a japanese girl can be.

Work is settling into a groove, I sit at my desk work, chat with some ppl around as i make coffee or clean crap up and every so often have a bit of ruffled feathers showing with my boss. In general things are going well... I'm due to come off a probationary period soon.


I even got some housewarming presents a budhist windchime with dragons and red tassels and a bell, and a teacloth with japanese writing on it, its pretty cool.

I also just saw Teladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. It is probably Will Farrel's best film to date. I fully recommend seeing it. It was awesome, from Ali G playing the bad gay french guy to the longest crash in the history of NASCAR and the best vagrant dad ever. Let us not forget the silliest and coolest training montage I have seen in a long while.

Also on the list of things to see is The devil wears Prada

There was some other movie I saw recently and... well... I can't actually remember what it was right now...

I'll get back to you on that one.

signing off for the moment

Ziggy

P.S: I am currently waiting for my new car, it was supposedly missing a rear wing, a newer one has been reattached, it has be serviced and repaired and tweaked and fix, and shortly it should be enroute to me