Patrick

A longus pause enimvero...

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:05:22 GMT

Several months since my last post I find myself sitting at the computer with some time to burn, having just finished the campaign for "World in Conflict", which I must say is a fantastic action-strategy game. You get to take command of American forces against an alternate history Soviet invasion in the late 80's and blow those damn dirty commies to hell.

Work at council has been both good and frustrating with my project delayed due to the inability of certain staff to understand what I am trying to implement. Thankfully progress has resumed thanks to a team of PhD research students up at Auckland University who are going to help put together the program that we need to process all the data that I have collected over the past year.

My birthday went well, with a wonderful meal at my parents place consisting of four of my favourite dishes combined; chicken schnitzel, satay, semelknodel (bread dumplings), and nacho sauce. While you may think this combination is unpalatable to even imagine, in actual fact it was extremely good and liked by all.
Then last weekend we had a scavenger hunt where two teams ended up running around the CBD and collecting various cool and amusing little things including oddly shaped vegetables, pirate maps, and photos of people who tattooed themselves with my name. All in all, very cool indeed.

St John duties have been progressing well, with my Professional Role Development (aka. the touchy-feely course) training completed in November, and my Ambulance Driving course scheduled for either early March or May.
I have also had my first two road duties which between them have definitely helped to add a more active level of experince to my medical training.

Looking forward to the start of uni again, as my project will really ramp back up a notch then, and I will be able to start my field geology and my earth materials papers.

Oh, and an excellent Battlecry this year - next year hopefully the ASB Stadium!

For LARPers out there

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:51:12 GMT

Something I found while trawling through a site on abandoned places in the US

An entire village built for a 1997 Renaissance Faire, and then abandoned...

http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com/virginia_renaissance_faire.htm

New measure of evil - KILONAZIS!

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:24:04 GMT

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0489.html

So cool...

Finally some time to update...

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:39:24 GMT

The last few weeks have been rather packed, thus the lack of any substantial LJ post.

I am almost finished with my Earthquake-prone Buildings assignment at the council, and will begin my cadetship in the next few weeks. As such I have been driving all over the place to finish off the remaining important areas of the city that I needed to assess.
The office has become a far more pleasant place to work since we knocked down one of the internal partitions and annexed about 60m2 of the former RACS office space. I now have a nice big desk and enough room around me to dual-wield two felines. What's better is that almost every Friday (and on other random days) we end up with the wine and cheese from the manager's meeting, which is alway s far more than they could comsume by themselves.
Ah, it is a good life...

My St Johns induction went well and I have started going along to Monday night meetings at the local station. As soon as I receive my uniform I will start attending some events, and it looks like I will be able to undergo my next stage of medical training in early August (most recruits have to wait about 6 months normally).

While certain social activities such as swing dancing have unfortunately fallen by the wayside for the time being, I have been kept busy by two nights of roleplaying a week (my Viking mini-series, and Sridat's Mage campaign), and a host of minor and major social outings/parties.
Now that the "Week of Four Birthdays" is almost over, my bank balance ought to be feeling somewhat happier. I am still somewhat irritated about the $82 worth of parking tickets I managed to rack up on the America's Cup weekend. One would expect that council agents should be able to make such thigns 'disappear'. I blame a lack of corruption in the system.

Funny Cats Collection

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:54:47 GMT



"Funny Cats Collection" on Google Video
Some of the most hilarious cat clips I have seen.

Monty Python Camelot Lego Animation

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:11:57 GMT



"Monty Python Camelot Lego Animation" on Google Video
Camelot scene from Monty Python and The Holy Grail done in Lego animation. So cool.

The plagues continue...

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:55:06 GMT

As of today it seems I now have TB floating within my body. Yay...

Praise be to Google!

Thu, 31 May 2007 06:02:49 GMT

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html

What ever will they come up with next I wonder?

Recovered as far as I can tell...

Tue, 29 May 2007 04:58:41 GMT

To begin with I shall clarify that according to the test results it was indeed glandular fever that I apparently contracted (which would explain the lack of effect the penicillin was having). The great thing is that I seem to have made a recovery faster than my doctor ever expected.
This week I have returned to work (albeit for only about 5 hours a day instead of 8) and things have begun to return to normal.

Pirates 3 on Thursday night worked out quite well with 23 people turning up. 24 tickets were bought and even a few hours prior I still had more people coming along than I had tickets. I had never thought I would say this, but thank god for people changing plans at the last minute.
The movie was great in my personal opinion, and they managed to tie in all the various story arcs as best as I could tell. The only downside to this was that there were a lot of story arcs and most just didn't feel as fleshed out as they were in the two previous movies due to having to switch again & again between all the various characters.
Best part of the movie was definitely Jack's surreal scene in Davy Jones Locker - superb.

Went out for dinner on Saturday night with Nicky to Pompino on the corner of Queen & Quay St. The food had excellent flavour and the portions were reasonably sized for the price (they still left you full though, which was good), while the atmosphere was surprisingly comfortable despite my initial surprise at how open the place is.
Finished off the evening with a few games of pool at the Sputnik bar where I finally managed to win a game and not sink the white ball off the 8-ball or lose by some other technicality (It has been happening to me for quite a while now).

Saw Zodiac on Sunday. It was a well-made movie despite the relatively slow pace of the film. The initial scenes were rather brutal, which only left me with a strong desire to see justice delivered to the killer later on, although that abated somewhat as the film crawled into its third hour.
I would only recommend seeing this film if one was particularly interested in murder stories, otherwise I would go and see Pirates 3 again.

Oh, and unless you feel like becoming horribly despondent, do not watch shopgirl (the movie with Clare Danes, Steve Martin & the guy we have called "slugboy"). It is depressing, depressing, depressing. One of the few movies I have had to stop watching...

Alignment Meme

Sun, 27 May 2007 02:34:11 GMT

Your Score: Lawful-Good

68% Good, 36% Chaotic

Plane of Existence: Mount Celestia, "The Seven Heavens". Description: Countless paladins and saints have ascended here. Notable Inhabitants: Angels and Devas.

Examples of Lawful-Goods (Ethically Lawful, Morally Good)

Aeris "Aerith" Gainsborough (FFVII)
Superman
The Tick ("Lawful Stupid")
Abraham Lincoln
Sherlock Holmes
Phileas Fogg
Captain Picard

A person with a lawful good attitude believes in the use of authority and rule of law to bring good to the greatest number of people. Her/His actions support the status quo and s/he uses systems and organizations to achieve good goals.

S/He will keep his/her word and value truth.
S/He will avoid the use of poison and use violence only when authorized to do so or in self defense.
S/He may or may not be disciplined, organized, emotionally restrained, caring, compassionate, and peaceful, but s/he believes that these are admirable qualities.
Respects law and order and is willing to suffer limitations on individual freedom for the benefit of the group.
Puts moral principles before material considerations.
The lawful good person will be a very faithful member of a group, but if the laws of the group clash with the ethics dictated by his or her moral alignment, the lawful good person will probably leave that group and look for a group more closely aligned with his or her ethics.
The lawful good person is an active advocate of his or her beliefs.

Lawful Good "Saintly"
"Crusader"

A lawful good [person] upholds society and its laws, believing that these laws are created to work for the good and prosperity of all. He is both honest and benevolent. He will work within the established system to change it for the better, and strives to bring order to goodness that other good-aligned [people] might pool their resources to better the world. A lawful good [person] combines a commitment to oppose evil with discipline. Most lawful good [people] live by a strict code of honor, or by the rules of conduct set down by their deity. They will generally selflessly act by these codes even at the cost of their own life.

Lawful good combines honor and compassion for the innocent.

A knight/paladin who always follows the orders of his superiors is an example of a lawful good [person].

Other Alignments and Tendencies (Tendenices are what you would more often sway towards; esp. for Neutrals):
0-39% Good, 0-39% Chaotic: Lawful-Evil
0-39% Good, 40-60% Chaotic: Neutral-Evil
0-39% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Evil
40-60% Good, 0-39% Chaotic: Lawful-Neutral
40-60% Good, 40-60% Chaotic: True Neutral
40-60% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Neutral
61-100% Good, 40-60% Chaotic: Neutral-Good
61-100% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Good</i>

Link: The Alignment Test written by xan81 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

So, perhaps I should go and become a paladin then...

One plague disguised as another plague...

Mon, 21 May 2007 04:04:48 GMT

Received a call from the doctor today to say that the results of my blood test were back and that no, it was not mere tonsillitis that I had been struck down with, but rather an insidious case of glandular fever masquerading as tonsillitis that has afflicted me.

On the upside, my recovery has astonished my doctor somewhat, as he believes people with glandular fever ought to be doing far worse than I am at my current stage. I can only put it down to taking that extra point in CON last level up...

Provided my fortitude holds up, I hope to be fully functional again in about a week or two, but will be more than capable of select engagements in the mean time.
Thus while I might have to put swing dancing on hold for a few weeks, I fully intend to fulfill any further promises of attendance that I have already made.

Pirates, YAR!

Tue, 15 May 2007 08:45:17 GMT

Your LiveJournal Pirate Crew
LiveJournal Username
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest!
Cutlass or pistol?
What is the name of your pirate ship?
Where is your secret pirate base?
What kind of loot do you prefer?
What do you and your crew prefer to be called?
Parrot or monkey?
Argh!

Your capable first mate	ether_phoenix
Your bumbling cabin boy with a heart of gold	animaltim
The aloof, yet honorable, pirate with a mysterious past	flaviusb
Is always the first one into the fray	cicipsychobunny
Is the naval officer who ruthlessly pursues your ship	rant_o_matic
Is the comical pirate who is always drunk on grog	londonwerewolf
Is currently in Davy Jones's locker	mirabrito
The amount of money you make as a pirate	$181,007


This Fun Quiz created by Lynn at BlogQuiz.Net

Aries Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

Amusing - Why geeks & nerds are worth it...

Tue, 15 May 2007 03:45:35 GMT

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/66795671.html

The combination of speech patterns could be interestingly painful...

Tue, 15 May 2007 03:27:46 GMT

Check this wikipedia entry out, and read the section on which actors they are putting forward for the roles of Kirk & Spock...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_%282008_movie%29

A plague o' both your houses!

Tue, 15 May 2007 03:21:00 GMT

What I had thought was just a case of minor food poisoning seems to have been far more insidious. I now lie here half-slumped over my chair, wracked by a strain of plague that has left me in pain and discomfort.
I suggest that if this affliction does shunt me from my mortal coil, that whomsoever finds me ought to confer me to the flames and not merely leave me to the worms, lest this pestilence spread further...

In other words, I'm a bit sick at the moment and not having a particularly brilliant time.

The last week or so before this malaise laid me low has been relatively good aside from one or two low points.
The wine and cheese evening seemed to go off without a hitch Friday a week ago. Cameron was even convinced into telling the clown joke again, and despite the opinions of some people, I quite enjoyed the joke.
Sunday saw a bunch of us go to the zoo and see many more of the animals this time round. The last time I went it ended up raining and we had to abandon the excursion due to getting far too wet, and thus were not able to see more than a few of the animal enclosures. This time was far better, and with good weather and some lucky timing we were able to see cheetahs, lions, hippos, seals (doing some particularly impressive tricks), and many more critters.

The subsequent group picnic at Western Springs was also quite good, with discussions on topics ranging from Medieval literature to Fairy bread...

The week went by okay, and I was commended on the work I am currently doing for the Council. Our team leader even used some of the shots that I had taken to bolster the presentation that he had to make before Parliment (yay).
I am currently considering either taking up the offer of a Building Officer cadetship, or part-time study in post-grad Geology while working at the Council. Still not much of an idea exactly where I want to end up though...

Friday saw Nicky have her graduation, which went off without a hitch (apart from a slight rush getting to dinner when we slept in after an afternoon nap). Nicky and Malu both looked wonderful in their dresses & regalia, and the graduation dinner was incredibly good. I highly recommend D'Sarracino on the corner of Mt Eden Rd & Symonds St for some wonderful Italian food (although only if you are willing to pay premium for it).

This Saturday saw tragedy strike though, as Nicky came home in the afternoon the discover that her kitten Lily had been killed in a hit & run. We buried her on Sunday at Nicky's parent's place.
It does seem at time like Fate just has to go and kick you right after something good happens. Not that I am a fatalist, but it does just appear that way at times.

The rest of Sunday we spent with Nicky's family, and after a buffet lunch at Valentines, we played two rounds of Rumikub, and a round of Risk (I was killed first despite almost succeeding in wiping out her Dad in a gambit that unfortunately left him with one man, but with 10 reinforcements in his hand to counterattack with the next turn).

So that was the preceding week, and now I shall go off and find some drugs to sustain myself just that little bit longer...

Jedi I am

Sat, 05 May 2007 11:18:17 GMT

Thats cool...

While we are on the subject of alternative diets...

Fri, 04 May 2007 02:07:36 GMT

Question:
So who liked 28 Days Later (thats the zombie movie, not the Sandra Bullock rehab one) and would be interested in seeing 28 Weeks Later when it comes out?

Work Update:
Today I took photos of all the commercial buildings along the Ponsonby strip which has left me rather exhausted due to the surprising heat that today has brought. The work goes well though and at least I will be able to colour in another section of my gigantic wall map : )

Quote for the Day (obtained while on my daily excursions):
You may be just one person to the world, but you may be the world to one person.
Kinda nice - can't remember what the quote was linked to though...

Belkar is my idol

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:53:38 GMT

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0439.html

and

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0445.html

I just love that little sexy shoeless god of war...

Viral E-mails

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:08:35 GMT

Ought to be amusing (not a dirty one)...

An Indian boy on his first day at school in the USA.

It was the first day of school and a new student named Chandrashekhar Subrahmaniyam entered the fourth grade. The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American History."

Who said "Give me Liberty, or give me Death"?
She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Chandrashekhar, who had his hand
up: "Patrick Henry, 1775" he said.
"Very good!"

Who said "Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth?" Again, no response except from Chandrashekhar. "Abraham Lincoln, 1863" said Chandrashekhar.

The teacher snapped at the class, "Class, you should be ashamed. Chandrashekhar, who is new to our country, knows more! about its history than you do."

She heard a loud whisper: "F**k the Indians,"
"Who said that?" she demanded.
Chandrashekhar put his hand up. "General Custer, 1862."

At that point, a student in the back said, "I'm gonna puke." The teacher glares around and asks "All right! Now, who said that?" Again, Chandrashekhar says, "George Bush Senior to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991."

Now furious, another student yells, "Oh yeah? S*ck this!" Chandrashekhar jumps out of his chair waving his hand and shouts to the teacher, "Bill Clinton, to Monica ! Lewinsky, 1997!"

Now with almost a mob hysteria someone said "You little shit. If you say anything else, I'll k*ll you." Chandrashekhar frantically yells at the top of his voice, "Gary Condit to Chandra Levy, 2001."

The teacher fainted.

And as the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, "Oh s..t, we're f..ked!". And Chandrashekhar said quietly, "George Bush Junior Iraq,2005."

The Road Trip

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:56:50 GMT

Thursday saw our coiterie (Vanya, Wendy, Nicky & myself) assemble at my place and hit the road at about 10am.
First stop was Paeroa, where we took photos in front of one of the several large L&P bottles and had a quick bit to eat. Note: If one ever gets a chance to try a lemon and walnut slice I recommend doing so - they are fantastic.
From there we headed on to Tauranga, where we ate sushi till we were all full and then stuffed ourselves some more with chocolate sundaes. Tauranga central looks just like any other Auckland town centre (reminded me of Takapuna actually), albeit with more country-types.
Next up was Rotorua, and after our arrival at ~4pm we spent 2 hours having fun at the Polynesian Pools. My hands were so wrinkled after that that I could have passed them off as having been transplanted from an octogenarian. Trust was sorely lacking between us at te end of it though due to the numerous dunkings that we were perpetrating on each other in one of those perpetual vengeance situations. It took all three of them to dunk me though...
We continued on and arrived in Taupo where we had some fabulous Indian for dinner, and after a strong coffee and some eye-drops I was ready to make the late night drive to Hastings (taking some time off first to allow Vanya to mount the Taupo trout...
The drive was quite cool (literally, it went down to 3 degrees outside at one point) and thankfully the conditions were good, so I was able to make the trip in good time. That night we stayed at a holiday park where Nicky and I had an entire cabin (warm and with a comfortable bed) to ourselves for only $48.

Friday saw us visit a few wineries and pick up quite a bit of the local wine and cheese, although Sridat topped all of our expenditure on alcohol by purchasing an entire case of Gewurztraminer for $400. After a few stops along the way we finally reached Wellington around 7pm. Note: Driving through the Manawatu Gorge with trucks passing in the opposite direction is definitely an experience that I do not particularly wish to repeat on a regular basis.
That night I crashed (into bed) quite readily and had quite a pleasant sleep.

Saturday we visited Armageddon and perused the stalls and spent more money (this was shaping up to be quite an expensive trip). I ended up being photographed by a few people while wearing my trenchcoat and leather pants - I believe they thought I was dressed up as some sort of character...
The Army had some sort of training simulator alcove set up there that was quite cool. Two squads of six soldiers would play against each other in maps that could be altered on the fly by a moderator. I must say I was somewhat unimpressed by the tactics being put into practice by the players though. "Yes, charging that 40mm cannon emplacement head on is a brilliant tactic".
On the upside, I seem to have been one of the only people all day so far to actually win the tank simulation. One LAV versus a mixed division of infantry in BMP's and supported by T-98's (trans: One light tank versus lots of enemy soldiers, and light and heavy tanks). The look of surprise on the controllers face when the win screen came up was great : ) I guess I really just am a tank whore when it comes down to it...
We had crepes for lunch and bagels thereafter. I met up with my old friend Celia with whom I went to school with, and then proceeded back to Daphne's. Partying and drinking ensued and I think we all had a lot of fun.

The next morning we visited Te Papa and eventually left Wellington at ~2pm. We met up with Sridat's car in Bulls, and came to a horrible realisation when we headed off. 15 minutes after leaving Bulls we realised we had inadvertently ended up on State Highway 3, which we realised when we checked the map led straight to Wanganui. A near handbrake turn and a country road later we were racing eastwards to rejoin State Highway 1. We finally reached Taupo at around 8pm (passing through Taihape, where not surprisingly, nothing happened...) and after dinner at one of the only remaining Cobb & Co's in NZ, we headed back to Auckland.
The drive home was quick, and we made it to Tirau in surprising time, but despite our best efforts the Hamilton bypass eluded us and we were dragged through that city again...
We arrived safe and sound at home though, and I would say we had an enjoyable and successful journey overall.

Photos and further details regarding our adventure can be found on Nicky's livejournal at

nixie11

A Glorious Weekend

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:52:53 GMT

The long weekend kicked off with another fun evening of swing dancing on Thursday where part way through a dance the girl I was dancing with informed me that she was Darya's sister - that was a surprise I can tell you. Nice girl though.

Friday was spent catching up with episodes of LOST (finally!) and then spending another fun evening watching Team America and playing Presidents and Assholes with Alex, Astra, Michael & a new guy whose name I cannot quite recall at this point in time.

Saturday saw me go over to Sridat's place where Nicky and Malu cooked Waffles and Pancakes, and we ended up having a sugar overload to the point where I developed a headache. We then went and watched Pan's Labyrinth and 300, with a brief interlude for pizza at that NZ Pizza place across the road. Pan's Labyrinth was quite a dark movie (more so than I expected), but it gave me some wonderful ideas for some roleplaying games. 300 was exactly what I was expecting, and fulfilled the requirements in my opinion for a good graphic novel movie adaptation.

Sunday was spent doing a spot of gardening and general other stuff...

Monday was great, what with the excellent weather that we experienced. Nicky and I went for a picnic/duck-feeding excursion to Western Springs and I had great fun cracking open a coconut with a rock (ala monkey). Unfortunately the ducks were not too enthusiastic about the bread as they had been gorging themselves on the vast quantities of the stuff that other people had been feeding them all day. The pukekos were most willing to avail themselves of our bread though, and we ended up with a final count of nine circling around our camp.
Watched "The Wrong Man" and "Battle Royale" that evening - two very good movies that I would now highly recommend to anyone who has not already watched them.

Tuesday (which I also had off) was spent going to Sylvia Park with Elisa, where we watched Pan's Labyrinth in the Gold-class equivalent cinemas. Very comfy leather armchairs.
DO NOT EAT AT SPICE TRADERS AT SYLVIA PARK! The food was bad and we both felt a little ill afterwards.
We got caught in the rain while driving back into the city, and after some driving back and forth and picking up of Wendy we eventually ended up at Tuesday night roleplaying. Unfortunately Cameron ended his game - such a pity given how much I was enjoying playing my little cross-dressing male halfling monk pretending to be a 12 year old human girl character. *sigh*
I ended up running an intro session of World of Darkness though, and Wendy showed amazing luck when she rolled 7 successes on 8 dice (2 exploded) - we are thinking of using her against Sridat.

While not part of my long weekend, I received great news yesterday when I had my new position in the Professional Services team confirmed, and my primary task assigned to me; going out and assessing buildings around Auckland City to determine if they are going to be susceptible to earthquakes - I will get a council car and everything : )

Numbing of the mind, aka. Monday at the Council Helpdesk

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 03:38:16 GMT

Another week has kicked off with a day filled with more absolute boredom and monotony at work (This makes four working days in a row now). The only upshot is the fact that management are planning to relieve me of my position sometime in the near-future. While this might seem like a bad thing in most cases, for me it will allow me to take up a temporary position with our Professional Services team upstairs (these are the guys who handle all the really difficult situations that crop up i.e. leaky homes), which will hopefully provide me with some much needed different work.
I am still waiting on a reply for a few positions that I have applied for (Customs, Police, NZ Blood Service etc.), but I have also been given the opportunity to become a permanent member of the Professional Services team, complete with a higher salary, training trips down to Wellington, and a wider variety of tasks. Commitment to that option is something I am hesitating on though, as I do not want to waste the team's resources getting me trained up and then buggering off somewhere else - just seems a bit wrong to me. Then again, I don't want to get stuck in Building Support.

In non-work matters, the weekend was pretty darn good. Met up with mirabrito, Jono, xepera_xeper, allova, Tigger, and Tigger's friend "Lunchbox" (never got his actual name) to watch Black Sheep. allovaand mirabrito have both talked of this already and therefore I will refrain from writing any further of it. Suffice to say that it was an excellent black comedy in my personal opinion, and well worth going to see (even if you aren't normally a fan of such things). Sunday consisted of visiting a few friends and then going to my brother's birthday dinner at Thai Flame out in Botany Downs. Excellent food as always, and the evening went amazingly smoothly : )

While I lag behind in my viewing of LOST ( *flagellates himself in penance* ), I have managed to finish reading both Stardust and Heart of Darkness. I again praise Gaiman for an excellent story (and what will prove to be brilliant background material for a future Changeling game), and wonder that I was not previously aware of the fact that Apocalypse Now was in fact based off of Heart of Darkness. I am now determined to watch the movie again in the near future with the benefit of further insight into it's background. Now I am reading Lovecraft at work, and must find some time at home to finish reading Dracula (excellent book - just not enough time at home to read it). Then onto Cryptonomicon, Greywalker, Book of Lost Things, Murakami, Plato's The Republic, To Kill a Mockingbird and so on, and so on...
My list of things to read is quite long.
Not to mention my movies and anime series, and television series that I must also watch.

Swing dancing last Thursday was excellent despite my lack of finesse - all the girls were really nice and I felt amazingly comfortable. Muppet was really good for a beginner, but I do feel sorry for the tiny girls that had to attempt to reach their hands up to his upraised hand during part of the dance. I would recommend this as an awesome Thursday night activity for those who are interested.

Looking forward to a hopefully interesting next few weeks, what with more potentially awesome movies coming out (300, Pan's Labyrinth, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Transformers, and Grindhouse), a road-trip down to Wellington for Armageddon and other stuff, the Ravenholme LARP, and various other interesting activities.

I'm sure there is more I am forgetting, but my brain is so frazzled at the moment that I cannot clearly think for long periods anymore (I think it has taken me at least an hour to write this post)...

Fractal Vegetables

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 03:38:00 GMT

Something unusual I encountered while doing a bit of shopping in Salzburg, Austria.

Delving the dungeon of the self...

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:44:13 GMT

I escaped from the Dungeon of Raphael Harker!

I killed Jessikast the arch-demon, Londonwerewolf the gelatinous cube, Cicipsychobunny the arch-demon, Mirabrito the troll, Allova the dragon, Poor Toms Acold the orc, Terridian the gelatinous cube, Ether Phoenix the arch-demon and Jayjay Beans the giant spider.

I looted the Axe of Oberherr, the Wand of Monty Python, the Crown of a Thaliana, the Axe of Animaltim, the Wand of Red Dwarf, the Sword of Chris San, the Dagger of Politics and 127 gold pieces.

Score: 202

Explore the Dungeon of Raphael Harker and try to beat this score,
or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon...

Yar...

It is done...

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:30:08 GMT

I feel elated in that I have FINALLY finished reading Mao II by Don Delillo.
It was a hard slog and the content and his manner of writing was unsettling at times, but as I reflect back on it I find that it has some quite profound points worked into it (or so it seems).

Now for some nice chhery Neil Gaiman...