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Posts imported from my LiveJournal.

Berserk.

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5

My latest violent addiction has been a manga titled Berserk. After playing the game based on the comic months ago on Scott’s Dreamcast, we finally managed to see the anime series. Last weekend we watched all 25 episodes back-to-back.

Unbelievably hyped up about how good it was, I spent some time trying to obtain the entire manga (comic book) series. The manga has been running since 1989 and is only up to the 30th volume out of (apparently) 50. The anime only covered volumes 4-13, so there was plenty more to catch up on.

Well, now I’m in withdrawals, as I’ve just read all of the available chapters from the 30 volumes. Now that I’m up to date, I have to wait for each release as they come. :(

Now I have to watch through Fruits Basket with Scott, too. I don’t think that one is completed either (at least the manga isn’t). Damn it, nothing I like has any closure!

It’s kind of good having some things to be following again, though. It’s only a few more weeks until Smallville starts up again, too.

It still bums me out that I have to wait for each installment. Boo.

NIN.

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5

Saw Nine Inch Nails tonight at the Hordern with and Tommy/orchard. I thought it was tops. Trent played most of his old hits and the “people’s favourites”. I was most impressed. There was no encore, but there weren’t any popular songs left to play in an encore anyway, so no one seemed to look disappointed.

The warm up/support band was fucking horrendous. As fucking usual. What’s with support acts being completely shithouse? The only time I’ve seen support acts I like was when The Drugs played before TISM (but the act before them was bad) and when the Spazzys and Butterfingers (but the Spazzys were better) played before Machine Gun Fellatio. Every other concert I’ve been to has had not only forgettable, but painful support acts. These pricks tonight didn’t even say hello or goodbye. They didn’t say who they were either. I don’t think anyone even knew who they were, let alone care.

Afterwards we walked back to the flat by foot, after wandering around Moore Park trying to decide whether to bus or taxi our way back. Now my feet are sore after about 90 minutes worth of walking. At least we didn’t get the bus back. On the way there I got abused by some shit-eating bus driver for only having a $10 note to pay for my fare. I already felt bad because I know they find it irritating (which I think is pretty lame that they do, but I tried to play along like a good commuter). I even dug out 60 cents in change for the $1.60 fare, so that it was nice and rounded out for him. My efforts were in vain as he gave me a death stare while I apologised for not having anything smaller. “That’s what they all say,” he said. He went on to tell me I should have prepared earlier and had smaller change available. I told him I didn’t have time to go and get change because I was in a hurry, since I had a bus to catch and all. What a fucker. Scott noticed he didn’t have his license/registration displayed in the appropriate slot either, so I was tempted to make a complaint and nail the bastard well and good, but I can’t be stuffed.

Huw’s having his buck’s night tomorrow. I’m going to meet up with them after work. I’ll probably only be able to make it to have a beer or two and watch the rugby and then hit some karaoke den for a bit of vocal chord action. I’m scared.

Distracted.

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9

I love 4chan. I know a lot of people think it can be of poor taste, but that’s pretty much me in a nutshell. There are some safe-for-work forums on there but where’s the fun in that?

Anyway, I’ve been lurking on that site for quite a while now. It’s a great way to kill time. <3 /b/.

One thing that turned up that some of you might like to play with for all of 50 seconds: Sand Art. Try it out.

This one lasts about 10 seconds: Google Logo Maker.

I found this page linked once, too. I think it was from 4chan. I can’t remember now. It’s an entertaining (in my mind) browse: For Sale By Mental Patient. Strangely, I haven’t seen that page turn up anywhere else before. It’s worthy of at least some kind of cult following.

Lately I’ve been clocking up some hours playing the PC version of Final Fantasy VIII after (again) failing to get past disc one of Final Fantasy VII. I don’t mind FF7, but I don’t like most of the characters. This was the third time I’ve attempted to play through it (I still haven’t gotten past where I was up to the first time) and after I read through the complete plot/storyline on GameFAQs I didn’t think it was worth it. The “shocker” at the end of disc one and the ending itself would have just irritated and/or disappointed me if I’d injected 100+ hours in to playing through the whole game. Sure, you can finish it in under 40 but I’m one of those annoying people who has to get 100% of everything done (within reason), meaning I kill a lot of time doing stuff that isn’t really required. Maybe the FF7 “sequel” Advent Children will be cool. Bah, of course it will be. I know I’ll end up playing it, somehow.

So, having found out exactly what happens in FF7 and feeling tired of it anyway, I fired up FF8 after Scott started playing his PSX version on his PC with an emulator. The PC version of FF8 is good enough, although I really miss having the save state and frame skip functionality that you get from an emulator. I’m coping, though. It’s definitely a fun game. It has its own specific annoyances, but which game doesn’t, right? Right.

Sorry to bore everyone with all that gaming talk. God forbid.

What else is on the agenda? Let’s see.

I’m still plodding through Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. I’m enjoying it, but it’s just taking me forever. I think it’s about 1150 pages and I’m up to about 750, give or take a few dozen. I started reading it last semester during my 2 hour breaks on Fridays. Over the holidays I didn’t really touch it too much and now I don’t have any breaks at uni (since I’m barely there), so I’m reading it before I go to sleep and when I can’t be arsed playing any games.

Oh, yeah. I’ve decided I’m going to find some good old 70s funk music and throw a party. 70s porn-groove-funk style music. Something to get people shaking. It’s actually hard to find good porn music, as Scott and I found out last night. I’ve been going through hundreds of CD samples on various music sites trying to find appropriate tracks. If anyone knows anything catchy, let me know.

By the way, I finally got around to trying out Google Earth. It’s certainly better than Google Maps. It’s kind of useless, really, but I did title this entry as “distracted”.

Shave.

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9

As some of you may be aware (hopefully), I let my facial hair grow. I don’t know if you’d really call it a beard since I trim it back with hair clippers on the zero setting each Saturday. By the end of the week it’s long-ish, so I guess you would call it a beard after all.

I often don’t bother using razors to shave, since I can just keep all the growth even and maintained easily enough with my weekly routine. Occasionally I’ll have to actually shave and shape my beard. Like all men, I hate shaving.

Two years ago I bought myself some quasi-fancy Gilette blade. I think it’s a Mach 3. That razor and the three included spare razors have lasted me until now. No, I don’t shave that often.

Deciding to be cheap (and not wanting to fork out $10-20 for more razor heads) I went with a small $5 pack of disposable Gilette razors. The quality differentiation is painfully obvious, as I found this morning. I completely forgot how bad disposable razors actually are.

I’ll be saving up some money then getting my new Mach 3 blades. I suppose $10 for 2 years worth of shaving isn’t so bad.

Word.

Posted by

29

I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but I deliberately only use 1 word in my subjects for each entry. Only a couple of early entries defy this format. Fascinating.

I’ve been out at a Winesoc dinner and I’ve decided to write something. I think that (like most people) I open up more under the influence of alcohol and speak about more interesting things. Unfortunately there’s also the trade off of being lazier, so it doesn’t guarantee that I’ll actually say anything more in-depth or interesting that the usual boring bullshit I usually post.

So, what can I reveal to all of the 2 or so people that actually take interest in what I write here that is somewhat ground-breaking? Well, let’s see… There’s plenty of things I could say, but they’d probably be incriminating and come back to ruin my life within a few years. Fortunately I’ve always been self-aware enough to know when to hold back, even under the influence of alcohol. ;) Don’t worry, it’s nothing illegal.

I met a gamer tonight, one that I actually know/have played against/remember. That was pretty cool. I told him we should meet up during semester and drink a few beers and the like. He seemed genuinely interested and that’s enough for me. Did you notice I’ve changed tangent? Yes, I open up but still not too much. It’s more fun being a prick tease. Oh yes.

I hope all my effort at typing is paying off. It’s hard to hit the right keys, even with my awe-inspiring touch typing skills. Being a good typist makes me feel like a big man. I remember it always used to impress people whenever they saw me typing on computers at school and elsewhere. It’s like an extended e-penis but without the e… Although, it had something else instead of the e, so it wasn’t just an extended penis. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Geez. I’m starting to get dizzy and tired. I have to be up at like 7:30 am. That’s only 5 hours away. I wanted to bum a cigarette off Chandler tonight, so I could have a cigarette with coffee tomorrow afternoon. I’ve heard quite a few times that those two drugs seem to go well together, even though I can’t imagine it. I forgot to steal a dart though, so it’ll just have to be coffee on its own, unless I burn some paper and inhale the fumes from that. Somehow I don’t think it’ll carry the same effect.

I spent $40 on taxis tonight. Donated a bottle of Wolf Blass wine to my table and spent about $15 on drinks, plus another $10 on food. $65 for a night out, plus the $30 on the dinner. $95. I really shouldn’t have bothered going to North Sydney. That’s where $60 went of my night. What a pisser. I had Oportos. It was typical of Oportos, ie: bland. At least I shared my chips with some Macedonian guy called Bogdan who swore he’d had a foursome with 3 other girls (due to him being a guitarist in a band and having shoulder-length curly hair) in a gay bar. I have to admit, I ‘m jealous. I’ve never picked up in a gay bar (although I’ve come close, believe it or not), let alone scored a mini orgy with 3 other women. It’s almost offensive that a nerdy guy called Bogdan can, I have to admit. He was nice enough, though. I shared my Oportos chips with him, because I’m sweet.

Anyway, I’m falling asleep here in my chair, so I may as well at least doze off in the bed that I slept in until 12pm this afternoon. Good night, freaks.

Doped.

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Illicit drug use hits a new high: 38%

Ecstasy is more popular than ever before, with new research showing one in five Australians in their early 20s has used the party drug, making it more prevalent in Australia than in any other English-speaking country.

The good news is it reveals our smoking rates have gone down considerably, giving us the fewest number of daily smokers of all the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

But the same research raises concerns about binge-drinking among young women, showing teenage girls are out-drinking boys of the same age, putting themselves at risk of harm in the long and short term.

More than a third of Australians – 38 per cent – have used an illicit drug, most commonly marijuana, which one in three people have used at some stage.

But regular marijuana use is at a 13-year-low, with only 11 per cent of the population having used it recently, and ecstasy has picked up the slack. Use of the “party drug” is at a 13-year high, with 3 per cent of Australians having used it recently.

Thirteen per cent of the age group had used ecstasy recently, and 11 per cent of them had used methamphetamines recently. Overall, Australians used more speed, ecstasy and marijuana than people in Britain, the US and New Zealand. The Irish were equal to Australians in their use of ecstasy, but not the other drugs.

Well, I guess someone has to say it.

GO AUSSIE!

Boring.

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4

I forgot to do this. I’ve been meaning to.

I’d just like to officially record the fact that Queens of the Stone Age are the most overrated and boring band I’ve ever heard.

Fore.

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Played golf today at the Lane Cove golf club with Ross, Tooker and Lavery. Haven’t seen Laves in ages, it was good to catch up.

I’m my own handicap, it seems. I’ve pretty much only played golf 3 times, about 5 years apart each time. It shows. My slice is fan-fucking-tastic since it’s the only shot I seem to be able to play.

Hopefully I hold the course record for most balls lost in 9 holes. Honestly it reached around 12 balls I went through. It would have been more, but I found 2 on the way through the course that I decided to acquire.

Not much else has been newsworthy. I got an HD, a D and C for my results this semester. Not too bad. I was a bit disappointed with the C, but I figured I’d get around that anyway. That was the course I fucking hated, so I suppose I’ll take the mark. I was pleased to get an HD in project management. Woo!

Now I just have to make sure my project team gets the ball rolling well for my major project this semester. I’m expecting my management accounting (or whatever it bloody is) course to be relatively simple, so I’m confident I can do pretty well in that, too.

Bring it on, damn it.

Devs.

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3

Interesting little ditty on independent video game development:

Indie gamers come out and play.

Free Play, the Next Wave Independent Game Developers Conference, begins tomorrow at Federation Square, aimed at independent game developers, “creatively frustrated” professionals, students, gamers, modders and artists.

Marcus Westbury, Next Wave artistic director, says Free Play was established to encourage more independent game development.

“Compared to cinema, music and other contemporary art forms where there is a strong tradition of independent productions and distribution mechanisms, games still need to fight hard to build that space,” Mr Westbury says.

I’m sure no one can fuck up anything as much as Electronic Arts can, so good on them.

In other news, my first two results have come out for uni, I got 81 for databases and 86 for project management! Yay!

MSN.

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4

redknob: i'd probably be eating something nice
redknob: but the cupboards are literally bare
redknob: and it's too cold to go to the shops
redknob: plus i already had 1 and a half big servings of reheated macaroni and cheese
redknob: so i've probably eaten enough for the day
Eri: hehehe
Eri: ive never eaten macroni and cheese before
redknob: i must remember to buy toilet paper tomorrow, lest we end up in an unfortunate predicament
redknob: you're missing out
redknob: it's one of those good old comfort foods
redknob: except i'm eating it as a survival food
redknob: so it seems distinctively less filling but somehow bloating
Eri: hehe yeah
redknob: in the way that only microwaved reheated pasta can
Eri: oh don't forget that toilet paper
Eri: that would suck!
redknob: yesh
redknob: it would
redknob: you know
redknob: i always have high hopes whenever i'm about to go to the supermarket
redknob: then they always come crashing down around me when i see that there's never anything that good to buy in them anyway
redknob: i keep expecting for there to be some magical awesome product you can buy
redknob: that meets the expectations of the unclear dream i have of finding something truly awesome whenever i go shopping
redknob: instead i usually end up with a vanilla malt oak
redknob: this shit is good, i should write it in my journal