Order 7:17 for Roma Street

"G'day ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Think Tank-"

"Uh, sir? I believe the ladies don't quite like the name of Think Tank."

"What are you talking about, son?" the Manager groans.

"Well, sir, the ladies may find it a bit Aggressive, provoking anger into the group."

The oval of staffers that occupy the meeting room all stared at him blankly before returning to the Manager, who stared at the Quiet fellow with a strain in his eyes that could herd cattle, send them to the abattoirs, be sent to a four star restaurant, only to be eaten by the same person who will claim that the meat is too tangy.

"And what would be your suggestion," he said as he argued with the waiter.

"Well, I believe Thought Bubble would be more appropriate," he said a little triumphantly.

Now the Quiet fellow was a happy little chap and likes to do things for the whole, such as find a more efficient tap for the staff kitchen, or maybe reorganise someones desk for them. But after working for long enough within the same position, he has found less for himself with little to do aside from keeping the staff kitchen clean and sending emails asking if there's anything they would like him to help with. Unfortunately, the Manager happened to ask once for help lifting up a desk so he could get his favourite pen out from underneath, and now everyone has placed bets on when the manager will snap under pressure.

The second half of November seems to get high praise, and the kitty has gotten to $131.16 and a half franc.

"Right," the Manager says to keep some semblance of motion going. "To keep our female members of staff happy, this meeting will begin.

"Last meeting we thought of ways to keep some of our customers happy by introducing the Quiet Carriage,"he says as he flips through the folder in front of him. "This is successful enough, with a few complaints saying that nobody has really followed the courtesy, and a handful complaining about the drivers being too loud on overheads and disrupting customers anyway, some at inappropriate times, and one complaint about the stupidity of having an open transition between carriages because it doesn't actually stop the bother that the Quiet Carriage is meant to prevent."

"Well they have a point," agrees the ex-bikie. "Those open doorways are pretty silly."

"But they provide a much nice walk between carriages!" says the Quiet fellow. "They're better than those grimy doors that's usually there that kids are always smoking pot in."

"Yes, well," the manager interrupts. "The quiet carriage is staying for a little while longer, but that's not what we're here for today. We're here to brainstorm some new ways to entice people to take trains more often."

"Well, the colour scheme isn't exactly the most appealing," mumbled a geriatric at the back of the room.

"That isn't going to change,"the ex-bikie responds. "We only just got a new style with that bloody red stripe and range of trains."

"Exactly, we should do something more attractive than that," exclaims Mr Quiet.

"Well we're not going to follow any guidelines from that bloody zoology course you did," the ex-bikie laughs. "I'm not sure anyone would ride something that looks like butterfly shat out a rainbow."

"Now, fellas," the manager says, rubbing the bridge of his nose as his eyes squint like they've sucked on lemons. "They're sticking with the new paint job since they've already invested in it, so no train is going to look like they've had a run in with a flock of lorikeets." Giggles were shared around while the Quiet fellow sunk into his wool vest a little to match his sudden desire to be fairly quiet. His confidence was on such a roll too.

"So what else have we got?"

"Well, we could play soothing music in the other carriages?" suggested the only female member of the staff meeting.

"Most passengers take their own anyway, let alone those who share their music with everyone else," the bikie retorts nicely.

"So what we do is we appeal to the oncoming generation," says the youngest, and probably the most arrogant, voice of the room. "What is it that kids these days like to have?"

"Well they like to talk a lot and listen to music," says the Quiet Fellow.

"Yes, we've established that," the instigator says pulling out his Chinese medicine balls, twirling them in his hands like David Bowie in a Jim Hensen film, the bells ringing quietly but just enough to carry out across the room and bring a gentle and hypnotic silence to the party of mismatched staff members.

"But what else is there? What is it that kids do these days? This music, this talking. They're of the same generation, and it's called Generation iY. They walk around with their Apple gear with the air and confidence that they can do anything they want, because it's the palm in their hands.

"But," his hands clamp and the soothing sounds stop suddenly. "That isn't always the case. Their devices can only be used in confined areas, they are restricted to using them to their full potential.

"So what do we do to entice Generation iY?" he inquires to the world as the toll of his stainless steel spheres begin again. "We empower them. We expand the borders of their restrictions. We are a public service, and we give to the public what they need. Why not give them what they want?"

The instigator leans back, nods forward and his hypnotic allure disappears.

"So..." the manager begins. "What you're saying is... We'll appeal to the kids by 'empowering' their gadgets?"

"How do we empower peoples gadgets?" the Quiet fellow inquires to the world in a desperate and confused plea.

"Well, I don't think he means empower them," the ex-bikie explains. "I think he means giving all the bloody functions to those iPhones and whatever."

"So what function is missing?" the Quiet fellow, a little behind on the times with his Nokia from '99.

"Well," the lady leans forward with her iPhone. "I can connect to wifi and download apps and it won't cost me anything. And my brother likes to keep himself updated with his games and news stuff, which he gets from accessing internet from his iPad."

The room sat in silence for a moment. Slowly, in unison, the group turned their head to the manager. Except for the instigator, who continued to lean against the wall with his arms crossed and his head nodded forward.

The manager, staring at the device that has been placed gently on the table, debated with himself. What kind of a suggestion is this? To get Wifi on the trains? I mean, it wouldn't be hard to get that going because the lines would just go through the power lines, and they'd connect there. And there's plenty of options for people, like the said iDoohickeys, and maybe even peoples laptops.

Though the consequences can be pretty extensive. Kids could get on the net, spend the day on the train and just download as much as they possibly can. Heck, even porn entrepreneurs would have a field day. Everyone accessing it all at the same time while they commute their way across town. It's just asking for trouble.

"What are we? A Fucking Mcdonalds?"


Next thing you know, I'll have a Mega-Mac with fries.

What was in the box

A good six year ago, and I was learning to play table top games, particularly Warhammer 40k. Now I'm not a big fan of 40k, because frankly I'm lazy and making an army seems like a butt-tonne of work. I mean even a Necron army seems like lots of work, with having about 21-41 models in 600pts (I can't remember if Warriors can come in units of 10 or 20). Yes, I am quite lazy.

There was one army that I really enjoyed because they were just goofy: Orks. I was tempted to join the ranks of Orks players, and wanted to start off with a bang. So I bought a £200 Gargantuan Squiggoth (it was 200 quid at the time).

It was big, and it was fun. But I just didn't get off my arse and get it assembled or anything. So six years down the track, moving house and dusting off the box, and thinking to myself “Hell, it's about time”. So over last weekend, I worked my way to assembling the awesome model, Howda and all.

It was a struggle at first, because I couldn't get the cap off my glue. Somehow I'd knocked it over and it slowly seeped out and stuck itself from the inside. Luckily I didn't lose too much glue. I even ended up pouring it out of the bottle itself, but that was a bad idea. Way too much glue going everywhere. So much glue even, that when it had all dried up there was this dangly bit hanging from underneath its neck, made from dried glue.

If the head falls off, because I believe there's a large gaping space between the head and the neck, I'll have to get green stuff if the head falls off.

The tail was the most annoying. Trying to keep it there for about two hours without it gluing and holding of it's own accord and having the sharp pointy bits dig into my hands was really not very comfortable. So after giving up, I realised I could just keep it in place by using parts of the Howda.

The Howda wasn't too much of a hassle. It came in 6 pieces: The main carriage, 3 side balconies and 2 front seats. It's plenty of room for the 20 or so Orks that it usually carries.

Now to get some weapons on it. I'm thinking of using the Gun Boars Cannon as a Lobba or a Kannon.

Merc Minis part 2 – rules and alternative game options

Now I'm looking over the rules for Mercs. It's interestingly complicated while keeping things to a minimum. You have to get a D10 for each figure, and I'd recommend D4s for tracking health, a few counters and you get a card. The card is used for everything, from movement to firing range, to attack templates, which is very different to the usual Tape Measuring that I've experienced in the past.

I'm quite liking the game and I'm starting to wonder what sort of alternative scenarios one could do. I mean, given a few undead or zombie figures and design a table of a shopping centre and you can make a zombie scenario with a few special rules.

Players start on one end, and a target starts on the other (A civilian they've been hired to save). In the middle of the right and left sides are zombie spawning locations.

Zombies have 1 Blood (HP for those playing at home), one or two move points, and a low melee attack that increases as more are in attack range of a player. Zombies can't Snap.

Weapons don't fire through shelves, and grenades that normally don't do damage (like an ice grenade) simply deal 1 Blood (Damage) to zombies.

Well that's an easy scenario to think of because zombies, like cheese, goes with everything. And because I play Warmachine I can grab some Mechanithralls or Alexia's Risen models to play because they're all 30mm bases too.

If they had rules for 40mm bases, that'd be cool, because then I could get some Brute Thralls and use them for special hard-to-kill targets. Iiinteresting.

The Big Move – Not synonymous with bowel process

Seriously, a trip that isn't even 5 minutes down the road shouldn't feel like a big move, but the shenanigans were ridiculous.

We'll rewind a little bit to Saturday. Saturday I spent the better part of the day talking head over heels with Jenny, happily making her giggle like a school girl, blush like a tomato, and smile like the top of her head was going to fall off.

Thankfully, it didn't fall off. It would've made things a little awkward having half a head to kiss when she gets here.

Sadly, I had to leave a little early. I still had things to pack and it's hard to do two things at once. (Shaddup, I’m a male). Bits and bobs were thrown into boxes at quick haste while my clothes were washed and dried for the last time until Dee gets a dryer.

The evening came and I was running late for Girl Clumsy's birthday. I knew that because I got to the station, looked at my pocket watch to check the time (cos i'm classy like that) and found it was 7pm. I suspected I wouldn't get to her party on time, but I didn't suspect that I would be so late as to get there at 9.

Sidenote: The walk from South Bank station to the Gabba is longer than one would think.

So I arrived at 9, was informed the party was upstairs and enjoyed the remainder of the best dressed competition. Everyone was looking snazzy in their suits and their costumes. The person that really stood out was the Roger Moore space suit, who coincidentally won the Best Dressed competition.

This was also where I saw Trish. It'd been a while since I last saw her, and I think it was before she had discovered that she was sick. So with all the kemo, she has gone wig shopping. And at first I didn't recognise her, just this nice blonde lady trying to attract my attention.

Then the competition dispersed and I made my way to see Girl Clumsy before realising that I forgot to ask Trish something.

“Hey Trish, is there a bar tab going on at all?”
“You just missed it”

Blast. I felt a little nervous and awkward there mostly because I hardly knew anyone, aside from one or two names that had cropped up. Dan Beeston was one of these names. I'd heard it several times in the past, and when he approached me near the end of the night as I texted Jenny, he was a little surprised to find that I knew of him. I should've said “I'm a private investigator” but instead used “I'm telepathetic... Oh and I saw you at the best dressed comp.”

After finding out about how I missed the bar tab, I approached Girl Clumsy who was happy to see me and gave her a present from myself and Jenny. I had a pack of Bond Cards which were battered up (I've had them for a while) and Jenny gave me a large bag of Hersheys Chocolates for her. She was ecstatic as she turned over the bag to find out what it was.

Apologies to Girl Clumsy if the chocolates are a little/a lot melted/shattered/deformed. They've been hiding in a pocket in my bag since I got back from the US.

It was a good night. I spent my time as the gaming room around the Poker Players, the hardly touched Roulette set, and the Wii Mario Cart. A fellow named Anthony and his (What I assume) girlfriend sat down across from me and we played our own version of Roulette, and most of the game was spent trying to bet the right colour between red and black, along with being confused by the words on the cloth mat that acted courageously as our French Roulette Table.

Eventually another fellow (Who's name I've completely forgotten but I know his face because it's very unique with long hair) came along and we all gave up on Roulette and played cards, and he ran us through a variety of different card games. There was only one that we didn't play, and that was because the entire thing involved betting your right to be nude, and he told us a story about one of his mates who would always get naked so it was hard to bluff him.

The table players changed eventually and we ran through a few games of poker, with a few interesting characters whom I didn't get the name of, not even the fellow who introduced himself to me.

The night went on, various tunes to the theme of James Bond playing in the background, along with film of Jurassic Park on one of the tellies, and eventually after catching up a little with Arian we drifted off home.


Now that night, I had a few drinks. Just Strongbows original (they didn't have anything better) and for some reason I did actually get a little pished. Not anything serious, but just enough to give that woozy feeling as I went to bed, a rather long and heavy slumber, and that parched taste when I woke up. It was only about 4 or 5 drinks (I found had $30-something laying about in shrapnel and notes!) and I had to drink to get rid of the nerves that really kicked me in the pants last night.

But after not having drunk for so long, I guess I get a little vulnerable to the sauce for now. All well, cheap drunk means I'll be under the table with Jenny.

But this was the day for the big move. I had most everything packed, a few bits and bobs still floating about, and still the plates and bowls to pack (Which are being done tonight). Just a matter of getting the ute... and someone to drive with me.

Now I have my learners, which is somewhat embarrassing at the age of 24, but I don't really care. I can't afford lessons, and there's nobody available to really drive with. So I have good excuses. But that doesn't mean I can't drive.

There was a simple plan. Dee would join me and help with the heavy lifting and I'll drive with her in the passenger seat. No worries. But I give her a call and she says that she was expecting later in the afternoon, and so had made a date with her partner. Fair enough. I call up mum and see if she trusts me to drive and have her in the passengers seat. Nup. But she would let my brother-in-law, who can't do any heavy lifting because his back has been shot to shit, sit in the car with me while she follows.

*Sigh* righto. We'll run with that. Then I get a message from Dee saying that she can do it but later in the arvo. Fair enough, call mum back and ask her to cancel the plan. I'll be coming over to hang out until Dee is done with her date.

Come 4pm, about the time that Dee's movie finishes, I get a text saying she's in Personal Drama Central. Right. Today won't all go to pot. I'll still grab the keys and give her the cash bond that I have for her as mum drives me back to my old place.

I get there, knock on the door and she's out the back with Cranny. Apparently the Drama is all done and she can help me now. *Sigh* Cool cool. Now for the fun part.

After a short tour of the townhouse, showing off bits and pieces like awesome sliding drawers and a nice fridge, a built in oven and stove top, and a hidde away dishwasher, we make our way back to mums to grab the ute, an '88 Toyota Hilux.

“It's a deathtrap!” exclaimed Dee as she simply stared at it.
“It works,” I retort as I climb into the car.
“I'm not pushing it.”

Now the problem with this car is that it hasn't been treated very well. It's a little rusty, the bench seat is slowly tearing apart and the foam is bringing up plumes of dust, and the gearbox is a little worn out. That is to say, trying to get into gear is no simple task. As far as I know, the linkages have gotten a bit too worn out and it's hard to get parts for it. So just some oiling and they're fine so long as you get some practice in.

Now I haven't had much practice with this car, but as the night went on, it got better and better. Just have to get used to the Roo-hopping, and get a bit more practice with reversing. Otherwise, I thought I was pretty good and so did Dee, which is nice because she didn't die from fear.

After finishing at about 9:30, I started assembling my bed and Dee toddled off to her own bed to crash herself. After some other fiddling about, I got enough done to go to sleep so I could actually sleep before work tomorrow.

Mercs Minis

Now for a little while, I've been wanting to play a table top game on a small scale. I don't mean something like Warmachine, which is small scale Army, but I mean Small Scale Squad.

Mercs Minis seems to be in the right Direction. It's small squads thrown against each other on a cluttered board. I haven't had a good look at the rules, but it may be suiting my tastes, which is that little bit of science fiction that I haven't had much to do with in regards to table top.

Conveniently enough, to buy the entire range of figures and game decks isn't too bad. Now to get the dosh.

This is a box.

It's a sentimental old box. I've had it for nigh on six years. I got it ordered in through a friend one day on the first pay day I had from the job I had.

Mind you, I didn't order specifically the Box, but what was inside it.

There's a silent credo amongst gamers that says that they shall have at least one project unfinished. It could be for any reason: don't want to; have higher priorities, such as something shinier; just plain old got distracted.

I don't know why I haven't finished this particular project, so I suspect that it's the latter reason. But this box is filled with such wonder and magic that I just can't behold it.

But soon. Soon I will face this troublesome devil and conquer it.

Soon.

Dosh

If there's one thing I hate, it's money. It's a little bit of bullshit that ruins wallets and ruins lives.

It's implemented to create a balance to greed. Back in the day if someone was greedy, they would simply steal whatever it was they wanted. Food, machinery, even homes.

Money is a pleasant distraction from the temptation of simply taking things away. There's at least a balanced trade, where you can sell food for money to buy another machine that you apply to your home. A simple chain of events.

Greed is centred on the one aspect, rather than just “having it all”, and to earn it you work for it. You earn more and you spend less, mostly to save some sort of money so you can use it for potential emergencies.

That's what I hate about money though. It's trying to manhandle the crap that comes with the responsibility of having money.

Just recently I had to move, and after saving money every week to actually guarantee that I'm going to live in the new residence, I have all but drained myself of money. I'm lucky to have my credit card to get me by without getting charged an arse-tonne of overdrawn fees and whatever other bullshit the bank can pull out.

Although my new landlady is very loose and uncaring of how the situation pans out (i.e. Pay it when you can so long as you do pay it) I hate having to owe money. I still owe money to my mates for getting some stuff back in the country for me, and while I know they won't be disappearing any time soon and that I can get the money to them, I still feel guilty for not having paid them back yet after 2 months.

Then there's the car rego. I have a car that I can't drive because I don't have my Open license yet. I don't even have my provisionals because either I don't know anyone who has the spare time to let me drive them around for an hour or two for 100 days (Sporadically or not), I don't have any money to get lessons from a driving instructor, or I'm just lazy.

But I paid the 6 months rego so that my brother-in-law, who is caring for and using the '88 Toyota Hilux, can drive it without getting pulled over and the both of us copping a fine, and possibly me losing my learners without trying.

Otherwise I have my phone bill which I botched up royally. Instead of going out and buying a $50 phone from the local Telstra Shop, I figured it wouldn't be any harm to simply call them up and have them send a new one. No worries, I thought. I get a new phone without any problems.

About a month later, I receive a letter in my mailbox that was 2 weeks late, informing me that my bill was 4 digits long, and 57 cents. Separation fees account the remaining amount on the current plan along with a handful of other fees, and while I was in the US I made a few overseas calls to the US. So I get doubly charged by calling from the US to AUS and back to the US.

Gladly the only amount actually overdue was the calls, to which I roused up some money and threw it at them with a few harsh words in tow. So now the only amount I owe is the separation fee which remains until the original contract ends late next year. That should slowly be whittled away now, especially since I don't send many texts and make many calls these days.


After having a conversation with my landlady we discovered that we got a little lost in translation. She requested a week in advance. “Week in advance” to me meant that I needed another weeks rent to pay her for emergencies. But no, that's just a weeks worth of rent that I don't have to deal with and can put into other things. Like Groceries.

Food is an annoying thing to deal with because you always fucking need it. It's not an issue of “Oh he's a boy, he won't know what to get for himself to cook, cos he doesn't do that sort of thing”. That's not true. I can do a pretty greasy spaghetti bog, if I do say so myself. And Stuffed potatoes? I'll probably need to get a steamer for the microwave, but that's about it. Butter, Sour Cream, Coleslaw, Fried mince, diced tomatoes, shallots, some grated cheese and voila. A pile of food you can make vicious dinner to.

But the other problem is that I go to Harrys Diner every day. I have a Tab there and so I pay him whatever I've racked up at the end of the week. Now my diet usually consists of one, maybe two cans of V a day. Yes, this is very unhealthy (I like to think I balance that out with water and no caffeinated drinks over weekends (Short of Jager Bombs)). Then I have whatever takes my fancy at Harrys, which can be anything from a Bacon and egg sandwich, to a Harrys Hotdog, to a Harrys Breakfast. One time I asked for baked beans and toast, and it was good. But it all adds up and over the past couple of weeks my tab has been a little too high. I need to get off the caffeine and lower myself to 2 meals a day, breakfast and lunch, with no snacks in between. It's hard because those paddy cakes with the Pink icing and half covered in Hundred and Thousands taunt me with their deliciousness. They're so fluffy I could die with every bite!

Luckily this week, I'd either done really well or James had forgotten to put things on the Tab, so my tally was a reasonable number under the usual. So that extra cash is going towards groceries.

And all through this, I'm still saving because my ING account direct debits my savings account every week. So while it may slim down my weekly budget, it's being put in the right place. Otherwise, I would have to dip into the cash I have left over from the US.

Tell you what, I'm pissed off at the Exchange Rate these days. I wanted to come back and get a profit from what I have left from my visit to Jenny. I wanted to get at LEAST an extra half of extra money. But nooo, apparently some ponce decided to see how bad the dollar can get, and now we're almost at equal dollar value.

I tried explaining exchange rates to Jenny, but I pretty much just confused her. I thought about it the other day another way to explain it and I figured Apples and Oranges may be the way to go.

Say US Dollars are Apples.
Say AU Dollars are Oranges.
You can exchange Apples for Oranges, but you wouldn't necessarily get the same number of apples or oranges.

When I went to the US, I would get 80 percent of an Apple for each Orange I traded in. I was hoping to get the same when I got back, or if the exchange rate had changed, I would end up with more Oranges than I originally traded in.

So I went there with 100 Oranges. I traded in and got 80 Apples. If the exchange rate had changed from 80 apples per 100 oranges to 70 Apples per 100 oranges, I would have 80 Apples to change back to Oranges, which works out to be 114 Oranges.

However, my hopes were dashed when the exchange rate continued to balance. At the moment, we're getting ~99 Apples per orange. So with those 80 Apples I have, I will get back 80 Oranges (And a lemon peel). So with the exchange, I've lost 20 Oranges.

Fingers crossed that makes some sort of sense to her? Fact of the matter is, I want to get this dosh out of my friggin house and into my savings account so that I have a reasonable amount of emergency money. Call me greedy, but it's nice to have a contingency stash. Not to mention, I can use it to spend on Jenny when she gets here.

*Sigh* I hate money. Can't live with it, can't live without it.


Damnit! I can't resist a big block of crunchie.

In the month of October

Just over two months ago I met the most wonderful woman. She was nervous, and excitable, but had a charming smile and a small skip in her step that was happy to have proven the dark side of herself wrong. She walked over to me in what seemed like slow motion. I took her all in, her smile, her hair, her body. She was wonderful.

I thought back to the day we first spoke, at the Burger gathering, how cute she sounded and how funny she was. I wanted to know more about her, to find out what make her who she is.

Almost eight months later, we finally met and she was exactly what I had grown to know and Love. Things were a little nervous on the way home, and I tried my best to break off as much ice as I could. It was easy to crack, to make her giggle and laugh, which I still love to hear. She told me about all the things she wanted to do while I was there, of all the people that I'd get to meet. I marvelled at some of the things that her home had different to ours back home, and she taught me so much that I didn't know.

Halfway through the two weeks I had with her, we had our 8 month anniversary. We were still boggled at how we lasted so long, how strong our relationship had become. We were even proud of ourselves, having found each other by chance and doing what so few have been able to do before. We marvelled at the fact, and smiled as we held hands across the dinner table.

I'm still stuck on the day after, the morning after she picked me up from Detroit, finding myself reaching over and looking for her before realising that she's actually still in Kalamazoo. Before I get sad, I reach over to my phone every morning to remind her that I love her, just as she walks out of the doors of her work.

It's harder and harder each day to face a day without her, but I appreciate that I can still message her of a morning and of a night. She brightens my day, just knowing that she still loves me.

At the time of this posting it has been exactly 10 months since Jenny and I first met, since we first began this amazing ride together. In two months, we will be at an entire year. This really has been a wonderful year, an exciting year with new challenges and wonderful adventures throughout. And I'm glad it has been Jenny that has been there with me.

Happy 10 month baby

Sonic 4

Anyone who knows me well enough, or has seen me in the street, knows that I'm a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog. He's been my favourite character since I was a kid playing the 8-bit games on the Sega Master System (The first console I can remember having – Apparently we had an Atari?).

I remember the most frustrating level of Sonic the Hedgehog was the Jungle Zone, where you had to climb up the waterfall and if you fell, you had to start again. It was frustrating as a little kid going too far over a platform and plumetting to your death even though you knew that there was a platform that went from both sides of the screen that had JUST left view.

There was also the time playing Sonic 2, still on the SMS, and being so proud that I'd collected all six of the emeralds. Even the two really annoying ones, where you had to use a hang glider to grab the one in the sky and do something in particular (I think it was press left) to get in through a particular vent so that I could get it because I couldn't go back for it at all!

Actually you couldn't go back for any if you failed the first time, it was impossible unless you started the level again after dying, and it's difficult to justify that when extra lives are very few and far between. I think there's about 2 on every level, and 1 if you get 100 rings.

Anyway, I kept going and going, and became ridiculously good at finishing Sonic 3 and Knuckles on the Mega Drive. After that, came Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. That's pretty much where I stopped, mostly because of being unable to pick up a Dreamcast. So the era of Sonic ended. The next Sonic game I picked up was a compilation disc with all of the Mega Drive Sonics and a handful of the game gear ones (Apparently someone was a douche and forgot that they HAD a higher resolution)

After that, it was quite a few years before I invested in another Sonic game and that ended up being "Sonic the Hedgehog" on the Xbox. That was where I found myself disappointed. I loved the 2D side scroller platformer that was Sonic. then they had this series of free roaming games that only the die-hard fans really followed.

I'm sorry, but the controls of that game were just too out of whack for me. One Nudge to the left and you have him running straight into a wall, or off into oblivion. Things were pretty and all, but just too ridiculously crazy for me to handle.

And so it's 2010, and another Sonic game is coming out. BUT it's gone back to the old Roots, where it was side scroller platformer. They bumped it up to 2.5D, where it's still on a 2D playing field but is made of 3D graphics, but that's okay. It looks like the Sonic I know and Love. It comes out wednesday, so that night before I talk to jenny will be involving the downloading and playing of Sonic 4.

Game on.

Life and times

*yawn* It has been a very very long week. The amount of sleep I want, and have even gotten, has been through the roof. I spent all last weekend snoozing through the warm sunlight that we had, and that was having a 3 day weekend thanks to asking for a 'personal day'. I was meant to be preparing for the move I have to perform in less than a week, but I haven't really done much in that respect. I cleaned up a little, washed my clothes, put some DVD's in a box, put some figures into another box, and that was it. I was lost otherwise, and spent most of my time pacing around the room thinking "I know I should be doing something, but I don't know what to do".

My room isn't a horrid mess or anything, but there's lots of iddy biddy things all over the place. The place I'm moving into looks good, and because Dee has bought the place, she has put up a reasonable digit for rent which isn't too far from what I'm paying now. She's looking for a third person to move in, so instead of having me pay half the rent, she has lowered it to something more reasonable until we get the third person in. In which case, the overall goes up and my share goes down.

What's going to be great about this place, aside from being a townhouse that has one neighbour because the other sides are a Tennis Court and a School Footy field and that the different train station I have to go to is the same distance as where i am now to my current station, is that I'll have a wardrobe to use. A wardrobe man! At the moment, I've got this shitty Ikea thing that is only good for hanging my wallet and keys from, and doubling as a long bedside table!

It's the simple things in life...

I AM going to have to get myself that Desk I always wanted and bookshelf. My collection is slowly growing and I really just want to have them easily accessable rather than having them hide in the TV unit that Richard and Mel gave me. Same thing with my games, I want to put them into a fucking shelf, rather than have them piled up next to the respective consoles.

My eyesight is starting to worry me. I think it's the low light that i'm regularly subjected to at work and at home. Work's lightbulbs, those long cylindrical ones that I've forgotten the name of, and the light here at home are both rather dull. I can hardly see the floor when the light at home is on, and it doesn't help that I've got visual snow too. Seriously, can't look at black and see just black. It's like TV on bad reception. It could just be the sleep though, because my eyes are starting to ache a little every so often. Could be I need a new prescription on glasses too, I dunno. I've only had them for... 2 years I think? I'm not sure. I know it's at least a year.

Today I was meant to go out with mum and see a movie. I'm pretty sure we were meant to, but I think mum forgot? Or I told her not to? I don't know. I just know she's not here, and that's a little inconvenient because I wanted to grab some boxes from the local self storage place so I can do some packing over the week. Then come saturday, i get my bro-in-law with my Ute, that i'm legally not allowed to drive becuase I'm still on my L's, and we just do a few trips and Bam. Just like last time and the time before.

The only thing we really have to worry about is the rain. Which came almost torrentially on thursday night/friday morning. Well, maybe not Torrentially, but there were torrents involved. There was a lot of it, okay?

Then there's Nats party that I'm going to that night. I have my clothes pretty much picked out, and I must remember Jennys present to Nat. Jenny got a block of chocolate, and now Nat gets her return present sooner than later.

Jenny and I are doing really well. I'm actually going to leave the ambiguity of that line open, because it's all true.

Video games are video games. I've been playing Borderlands incessantly trying to work my way up to max level. It's really hard getting up to level 61. Level "Hurr Hurr" 69 is going to be nuts when the download comes to allow everyone to that level.

But that's my life at the moment. Nothing else has been happening except being that little bit more exhausted than usual and money pouring out of my pockets like piss through a seive.