Home of the Fractured Mind

30 Days of Gaming: Day 06

2011-05-12T15:40:00.000+10:00

Most Annoying Video Game Character

So many possibilities to choose from yet I find myself falling to a more recent character to grace our screens, and that is Oerba Dia Vanille of Final Fantasy XIII. With pig tails, a short skirt and supposedly the body of a nineteen year old wrapping up a personality that is overly cheerful and happy are left with a woman-child filled with pep. I wouldn’t put it against you if you took her for a child with the way she looks and acting like a naïve and stupid little child. When I played Final Fantasy X and X-2 I figured there was no way that Square-Enix would be able to top Rikku for sheer hyped up retardedness but boy did they blow that expectation out of the water.

That isn’t even the main thing that earns Vanille my pick as most annoying video game character however. More than anything it is her voice which argh, I just want to smash her pretty little empty head in with a brick every time she opens her mouth. The tones, the pitch, the words themselves could be considered a kind of torture in some countries. Imagine Navi from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the annoying pitch of her squealing “listen” but then times that by a bazillion because this girl never shuts the hell up. I have no idea who made the decision on that piece of casting but seriously, how could they think it was a good idea?

If you have yet to experience the delightful tones (yes that is scathing sarcasm there) of Oerba Dia Vanille and are thinking it can’t possibly be that bad then I dare you to watch the video below. To anyone who has endured a single word from this girl-thing you may want to avoid the video like the plague... Unless you consider yourself quite the masochist then go for it I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trw-MtFbUXQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMgGAxG64z4&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrHWgg522U&feature=player_embedded

30 Days of Gaming: Day 05

2011-05-11T15:45:00.000+10:00

Video Game Character You Feel You Are Most Like

From the first moments of contact with GLaDOS in the halls of Aperature Science there was just something about the character that echoed within me. Playing through Portal 2 further cemented the feeling and I came to think that everything with her just clicked so well because maybe she and I aren’t so different. How does one even begin to compare themselves to a robotic A.I. of a videogame though? Well I mean besides the metal plates and bundle of wires in my guts… Ok, so I’m not really like that but how cool would it be to be all cyborg-like and maybe have a few lasers attached? I mean, lasers can be practical in so many situations.

So I may not have a cool metal body like GLaDOS but the mind is way more important anyway. Biting wit and sarcasm just come to me and I love to verbally spar with others or play with words. When I played World of Warcraft I’d talk with my fellow guild mates on Ventrilo and after a while it came up a few times that I just oozed sarcasm to the point where they were finding it hard to tell when I was being serious. My sense of humour is odd to say the least, and anything GLaDOS has had to say has that level of humour in its very fiber. I don’t necessarily set out to be cruel on purpose but some comments do head down that dark path.

My dead-pan delivery and lack of displaying any other emotion in most situations throws things off as well. I guess that makes me seem more cold and uncaring than what I actually am. It is probably to my own detriment that I’m like this, and at times I don’t even realise I’m being like this. So, thinking and writing about this has kind of got me down now so I’m just going to stop there.

30 Days of Gaming: Day 04

2011-05-03T21:27:00.002+10:00

Your Guilty Pleasure Video Game

NUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Ok, so my impression of powering up is lousy since I wouldn't even know where to begin in spelling out such a primitive sound but that is what we have the cast of Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 here for. Just like the manga and anime that spawned it we have here a game filled with an excessive shouting, copious grunting and people (as well as aliens) beating the absolute snot out of one another.

Whilst the television show was ridiculous in its slow pacing and episodes spent on nothing more than watching the same reused fight sequence over and over, or worse still the endless staring at each other while we scream at one another, there was something that about it that was hypnotic. Each day we’d come back to tune in to see the next piece of the epically drawn out fights and finally when one combatant would make a move we’d cheer or boo as it hits home. Each attack was filled with gusto and the counter attack would be bigger than the last as it was a race to spectacularly top the opponent. Watching a character then bust out some super transformation which powers them to stupidly higher levels was just the icing on the cake.

And as we watched on who didn’t feel a little part of them wishing they could bust out such stupidly crazy moves? Unfortunately we live in reality where people don’t fly or shoot laser beams from their eyes but what we do have is video games! I guess being able to take part in all those memorable fights and pull out the fancy moves is what really drew me to Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3. The fighting engine itself may be basic by the standards of Street Fighter, Guilty Gear and so on but it was packed full of those characters we loved and their flashy moves of doom. Well maybe calling it basic was a bit of a stretch as it threw in some nifty things like the teleport counter which could end up in massive counter war, ki deflection and beam struggles, and editable skill sets for fighter customisation.

My god they really were flashy with this game. 3D graphics were melded with cel-shading techniques to capture the feeling of the cartoon and with the shading and light techniques those big bangs and explosions came to life in a brilliant flash. That characters carried their respective voices over just went to further make this like an interactive cartoon. It then accommodated further by including a story mode that started from the very beginning of Dragon Ball Z and took you kicking, punching and screaming right through to the end, fight by fight.

Really, these Dragon Ball Z games are like a fans wet dream. Just give into your inner tough guy, shout a bit and then settle in for some mindless beat-em up! Some times you don’t want to have to sit there and count frames whilst remembering long winded combos. Simple can work too and it may but silly but it’s Dragon Ball Z, biatches! If you need me I’ll be over on my lounge there proving that Vegeta would beat Goku any day of the week. I wonder if any of the newest Dragon Ball Z games are any good…

30 Days of Gaming: Day 03

2011-05-03T09:39:00.000+10:00

A Video Game That Is Underrated

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines for the PC was released back in 2004. To be honest, I really struggled to think up a game that could be considered underrated by my standard and I'm not totally convinced this title does it either. I guess that maybe that means that I play mostly excellent games in most cases since one didn't immediately jump to mind for this..

On Metacritic, an aggregate rating website, Vampire: The Masquerade sits at a very commendable 80% rating and at the time of review it received its fair share of praise from critics for the right reasons in areas it excelled but to quote IGN's own review it was "a grand RPG, but a flawed gem of a game."

Where it comes in underrated for me I guess is with the everyone else part. Sure, there are people out there who can hold it up in the light and pay it great words like quite a few of the journalist and critic did but it seems that to the main contingent of the public it just got shuffled off into a dark, dank sewer. I can quite understand why it would though and will openly admit that the game had bugs a plenty to rear their ugly head. In the rush to push the game out it was clear corners were cut and the bugs did leave quite a mess through the sour underbelly of the L.A. night. That rush also left the last third of the game with quite some pacing issues and combat took to more of the foreground with the battle filled wind up to the conclusion. Now that might not have been such a problem if the battle system wasn't as clumsy and so undercooked to make it a chore which was only exacerbated further by the dumb as a doorknob A.I. found in opponents.

Really, I truly can see how all that would turn off any gamer but if given the chance it deserves I am sure the positives that really shine can be the game's redemption. What Vampire: The Masquerade does right it it does so of such a brilliant calibre. Then dirty, dangerous nights of L.A. have never been so enticing thanks to an incredibly moody, gritty and mature construction of the setting. This is in no small part helped by the diverse and quite unique cast of characters who stalk the late nights, and provide many a memorable lines and moments.

They are all part of the bigger picture, the story that drives the player through the game and keeps you submerged in a world that you could only have imagined. This is no B-grade Hollywood horror movie but a brutal and terrifying look into a society hidden in plain sight. Relatively undetected for thousands of years they have walked amongst humans, shared the night, and taken great length to keep their secrecy. This is a society that is well built with structure, rules and a hierarchy, and the Vampire: The Masquerade pulls you in as a fresh set of eyes and introduces you piece by piece into this horrific world which it isn't afraid to let you sink your teeth into.

How you go about it is let quite openly to you however as the game offers a plethora of choice and consequences. It wouldn't be much of a role-playing game if it didn't but even the simplest or smallest of tasks can take on a far greater weight than one first saw.

One of the most basic necessities of a vampire can prove to be a massive undertaking on moral choice and ultimate consequences. That is of course feeding, the consumption blood to keep a vampire alive as well as heal and power the supernatural abilities at their disposal. Your creation isn't limited to drinking from just humans as blood banks are available to make black market purchases from or one could turn to the four-legged, squeaking blood sacks that is a rat. Overcoming the task on deciding which source to draw upon for sustenance isn't the only matter as if going human there is then the matter of being in control of just how much to take from the victim. One could take just enough to keep themselves growing or instead you could drain them absolutely dry, leaving a trail of cooling corpses in your wake.

If that is the great ordeal of choice and consequence in just the most basic of gameplay then imagine what you come across as you make your way through the seedy streets of L.A. and the events unfolding. As a up and coming fledging to the vampire world you are thrust into a plot of intrigue and power plays that have you being dragged right into the middle. Your choices and actions will matter but at times you are just hoping that you survive the night. To be then able to go and do it all again just to see what different choices make would add to its re-playability enough but the choices of varied clans to make your character can shift things even more so and open up larger opportunities. This is especially true for the Nosferatu and Malkavian clans who offer up incredibly unique perspectives or ways of playing as the former is a vampire of true horror who must stick to the shadows whilst the latter is utterly insane, a curse of their bloodline that provides a view of the world like no other and opens up totally loony dialogue of just their own and a strange insight into many things.

Ultimately what Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines does is immersion. It can drag you kicking and screaming into its dark, twisted world but if given a proper chance you may just find yourself sliding into it so completely without even noticing thanks to its sinister allure. Yes, the bugs and lukewarm combat do their best to ruin the mood but if you can just overlook that and give the game a proper chance I think that anyone could be surprised by what goes bump in the night.

30 Days of Gaming: Day 02

2011-05-01T21:16:00.002+10:00

Your Favourite Video Game Character

The Nameless One, main protagonist of a game that is very well in the running for my favourite of all time, Planescape: Torment. Everyone out there has their own pick for favourite character and there would as many choice by people as there is for the reasons that they make those choices. The Nameless One isn't handsome or dashing, and when you get down to it he isn't acting all heroic to save the world from yet another big, bad evil. What he is though is a character filled with incredible depth and complexity which are qualities that I have always held with high regard. To me the Nameless One is a character you just cannot forget even if you were to try which is a rather odd choice of words given the circumstance.

Talking about who and what the Nameless One is opens up a world of spoilers for Planescape: Torment, and when I say that I mean it in a bigger way than with most games. You have been warned, and I really am serious about it.

The Nameless One is immortal but such a power has not come without a cost. With each death the Nameless One succumb to so too did the memories of that life die with him, and thus each time he rose back to life he truly did start again. If that weren't enough it also became apparent that the Nameless One's personality often changed with each death. One life alone is already complex enough but to peel back a layer of the Nameless One is to find a near infinite realm of possibilities stretching before you to explore. Thousands of lives lived, a myriad of experiences the likes of which no one could ever dream to see. There is no way for us to ever know the extent, the full depth to this man's past and story though maybe that is where part of the captivation about his character comes from. Imagination can run wild and fill in the vast history that we are never shown but the glimpses that are placed before us go to great lengths in shaping the Nameless One, even if he may not remember them himself.

What we are left with as the game begins is a Nameless One who is still as immortal but no longer losing his memories with each death. Everything that came before is still a mystery but the man left behind is a stand out in his own right. A battle scarred body carries a burden of pain and suffering but hardened from it the Nameless One strives forward with an unshakable determination to uncover his past, who he is. A man driven with purpose can be unstoppable and the Nameless One has not just his immortality as a means to that end. Powerful in his own skills, abilities and prowess the Nameless One is a fearsome foe on the battlefield.

Ultimately though we come to the first, the man whose name has long been lost but is the most important of them all. The original man is the pivotal nexus, and the centre of what was, what is, and what was to come. I simply cannot bring myself to spoil this yet he is such a defining piece to the man that became the Nameless One and one of the final nails that hammer home why I simply cannot overlook him as my favourite character. I cannot, will not, say any more than that and will instead leave you with a final thought which features heavily throughout Planescape: Torment.

"What can change the nature of a man?"

30 Days of Gaming: Day 01

2011-04-30T15:50:00.001+10:00

Your First Video Game

My first video game from way back when was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the Nintendo Entertainment System- cowabunga says it all dudes and dudettes.

My introduction to gaming began in 1991 at the wee age of six years old. For Christmas that year I found a Nintendo Entertainment System under the tree which included the classic Super Mario Bros. with Duck Hunt combo, along side it I’d also been given Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles whose cartoon I absolutely loved. Since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was in its own box I set my hands on that actual game first and thus it earns the place as my very first video game.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was primarily a platformer with the earlier levels having an overworld map to navigate between areas. The mighty foursome would see you crawling through sewers, climbing buildings and fighting your way through dams, the city, airports and eventually the Technodrome which was the stronghold of Shredder, the turtles' nemesis. It all began with reporter friend, April O'Neil, being kidnapped and the turtles setting off to rescue her. Like all good villains, if a plan fails once then you go back and just do it again as next their master, Splinter, is kidnapped from their hideout. With everyone rescued they eventually look to taking the fight straight to Shredder's doorstep. All in all it is a totally expected plot and not too exciting but we're ninja so who cares? Well, that and what kind of 6 year old expects a plot?

The platforming action was average at best and many of the enemies you were tangling with left you scratching your head and wondering just what they had to do with series. A few familiar faces like the Mousers and bumbling duo, Rocksteady and Bebop, showed up but robot men with flying heads, weird jumping bugs, and some people made of fire? I must have missed the episode that they all appeared in. Not only were they strange choices but at times they were put in some of the most annoying places, and on top of that they respawned like a bunch of horny bunnies whenever you moved off screen.

A six year old however could overlook that as he was rocking along with his favourite mutant heroes. Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo were all there and along for the ride with the player able to switch between each turtle as they pleased. Each packed their signature weapon and therefore had differing ranges and strike pattern to their attacks. There were additional power-up weapons you could find in levels such as shuriken and boomerangs (wut?) and some ever loved pizza could give back some life when a turtle copped a bit of a beating. Any turtle who lost all their life bar didn't die but was actually capture by the Foot Clan and in later levels could even be rescued to return them back to the party which was incredibly handy.

And let me say that you needed all the help you could get. In all my years I have still never finished Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As a kid it was a stretch with the absurdity in the numbers of enemies at some points and the precision jumps in the sewer at one point whilst under assault meaning a dunk in the water was doom. Speaking of water, the second level saw the turtles diving into the river to disarm a bunch of bombs that were threatening to blow up the dam. The tight corridors of the underwater are a hell hole as not only are there timed electric zappers blocking the maze of paths but many spots are lined with what can only be called electric grass that simply touching causes a buzz and loss of precious life. Oh, did I mention that you are on a time limit to disarm all these bombs? Yeah, panic plus electrified stuff everywhere meant a lot of fried turtle.

Despite all this I absolutely loved the game because it was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even to this very day it still holds a weird, little place in my heart because of all those memories from my childhood. With it still stashed away in the gaming backlog that is The List I will someday conqueror this, my very first video game.

The List: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure Targeted

2011-04-29T15:33:00.002+10:00

Thanks to fellow MyIGNer chilidogg I now have my next videogame to play from The List. I asked for a little help in trying to decide on what videogame to play next since I am quite overwhelmed for choice and he just threw in a completely random number with no idea what it actually was. I kinda liked the idea of a random number so I went with it and looked up The List to see just what I was getting into but thankfully I ended up with this...

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is a strange mix of action-adventure platforming and puzzle gaming rolled into one bundle. Developed by EA Tiburon and published by EA Games in 2009 we join Henry Hatsworth, British adventurer, as he sets off on a mission to find the "Golden Suit" which would grant him control over the Puzzle Realm and the treasure that can be found there.

I remember reading about this game before its release and thinking it was a really nifty thing they were attempting to do by combining two different games into one cohesive whole. The Nintendo DS with its dual screens plays into this perfectly as the action and side scrolling platforming takes places up top whilst the puzzle field takes the bottom screen. The platforming is what you have come to expect and Henry Hatsworth is armed with trusty blade and gun shots to take down enemies.

Defeating enemies adds them as a block to puzzle field below and any enemy puzzle block that reaches the top screen pops the enemy back into the game world. Stopping the enemies from respawning is a matter of lining up blocks of a like in a line of three or more by swapping them around in a similar vein to Puzzle Quest, Bejeweled or Puzzle League.

All I can remember is that I suck at those kinds of puzzle games so with a bit of pressure thrown in I am terrible. The puzzle board also holds importance besides the fact that it permanently wipes out enemies though. Special tiles can be used to restore health or provide other power boosts to Henry Hatsworth and each tile removed also adds to his Super Meter which can be in turn used up to eventually unleash mecha Robot Suit hell upon the enemies. For those who are exceptionally good at this kind of puzzle game they can benefit greatly for putting in some time with it.

I imagine there is a bit more to it all but it has been a while since I lasted played it. No idea where I am up to exactly either but I remember enough to know I knocked over some levels and possibly a few worlds. Guess I'll find out when I get home so long as I can find the game cart. Should be fun if not for the simple fact that well, just look at him; bowlers hat, monocle, moustache, drinks tea and has a sword! What is not to like about Henry Hatsworth?

Comic Bonanza

2011-04-28T11:45:00.001+10:00

Now for something besides videogames, and my gigantic gaming backlog! Yesterday I stumbled back to work after a holiday long weekend to find a brown cardboard box sitting on my desk waiting for me. w00t, a small treasure trove of comic trade paperbacks that I ordered earlier in the month! It would’ve been nice to have had them arrive before the long weekend but I can’t control the mail and it did travel all the way from the USA so it takes some time.

Soooo comics, I figured with this latest shipments arrival it was about time I started going on about some of my other interests on here. As a kid I liked them and collected a few years and I was rather sporadic with it at best. That faded away and my love of reading was kept fuelled by novels and so on but then a couple of years ago I got back into comics to the point where it is the main thing I read these days. I don’t collect single issues, and stick to soft cover trade paperbacks unless there is something special in hard cover like a nice omnibus or Absolute Edition.

Back to what made me figure I’d write about this though… The box! Let’s have a look at what goodies were stuffed in there. Well I mean, not stuffed as MyComicShop pack their orders quite well but you get the picture. Oh, pictures are included!

Here we see a spread from Marvel that covers the big events of their Cosmic Marvel range. Annihilation: Conquest Vol. 2, Road to War of Kings and finally Realm of Kings have been the big key points in Marvel’s space epic of recent years but I am missing one piece there which is War of Kings itself. Many have complained about the quality of the big events over the last few years that have hit the rest of Marvel such as Civil War and Secret Invasion whereas people have praised anything Cosmic Marvel for maintaining its quality. Figuring it was worth a shot I started way back with the Infinity Gauntlet and have been hooked ever since, making my way through the big events since then. If the superheroes of Earth don’t really do it for you then give the Cosmic Marvel stuff a shot with its unique characters (I mean what’s not to like about a walking, talking racoon with guns?) and vastly spanning stories.

Next up we have an incredible selection from DC’s Vertigo imprint with new volumes of Scalped, Unwritten, DMZ and Fables. Comics from Vertigo carry horror and fantasy genres as well as crime, satire and other fictional themes. When I start raving on about comics I usually start with a title from here and given what has been shown off in the post so far you might start to think I don’t really like your typical superhero stuff but that isn’t even close to the truth. I just love this other stuff so much because it is that bloody good, and the ideas and stories appeal to me on so many levels.

Typically I would order once a month and pick up new volumes that had been released since the last time I ordered. I’ve got quite a few series I am following, and of course they don’t all feature here since new releases of series’ trade paperback may be many months apart. Now that I am mostly caught up on the series I do like and follow it is being cut down to ordering every two months these days as there isn’t enough to justify an order with the shipping.

This is just a small glimpse into my love of comics and I have to hold myself back from raving on about all the titles I’m into otherwise we’d be here all night. I’m always on the lookout for an exciting series to pick up and start on so I love hearing what comics other people are into and why. Let’s have it comic lovers of MyIGN and the blogging world!

The List: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Eliminated

2011-04-27T17:41:00.002+10:00

So after the bit of a beating I gave Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and the incredibly mixed feelings I had over it (see Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Targeted and Eliminated)I felt that it only fair that I jump straight into Uncharted 2: Among Thieves to help figure out where I would end up standing on the series. Would the sequel see improvements over the first that would lift the series up or would it be left standing out in the cold like the series' protagonist?

Thankfully that is easily answered for me as I ripped through the game with nary a thought. All the things that made the first game great such as the characters, voice work and any sound work for that matter, and the stunning environments is still packed in there. In some instances I actually found the snowy mountain tops and icy caves to be more impressive than the dense jungles of the first game. They really did go through quite a variety of settings throughout this game and each had a unique feel, and life, of their own.

One crux I had with the previous game was the combat and either I have gotten a hell of a lot better at tackling the controls and gun fights, or the developer balanced and built the encounters more suitably. Some set-ups in the first game were downright infuriating and whilst there were a couple that pushed things in later chapters in the entirety of the game it just seemed to flow more smoothly. The incidences of randomly spawning more bad guys for the hell of it also seemed cutdown to quite a degree, or to a level where it wasn't quite so noticeable. That isn't to say that the combat was a complete walkover though as there was still quite the danger of dying, and the game could very easily hammer home that point if you were careless.

I do like to take care, and I will hide and skulk around with quite a bit of patience at times. This meant that I simply loved that stealth, and stealth takedowns, seem to have been made a lot more viable for the game. I remember a few spots in the first game looked like they were made for this kind of tactic but after taking down one or two guys it would end with Drake being very well perforated. With clustered urban sprawls and towering ruins there is plenty of instances to get the drop, and even more so since there are plenty of encounters that don't start with headlong gun battle. The stealth takedowns bleed into a tweaked melee system where positioning and certain conditions can end things cleanly and efficiently by pushing people off of edges or smashing them into walls. Heck, even what is more thought of as stealth takedowns work from cover even in a normal fight so you can react to someone trying to creep round your protection.

On top of all those changes, or what I feel about the combat, there is also that the game seems to be a bit better balancing or pacing the amount of combat to exploration/puzzling. Given Drake is a treasure hunter and all he would do his fair share of exploring by default. The first game felt more like a shooter with some exploration thrown in but this time I felt that the balance was much more even. That the combat didn't seem as tedious to me may possibly have helped to make those sections less noticeable but every little bit counts.

That just leaves the real driving force behind the game, the story. I went on a rather spoilerific rant over a certain element of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune's plot and this time I'm going to not go down that path. When I say not go down that path I mean not go spoilerific as I really don't have anything to rant about this time. The writing to me was done much better, it had build up and hints of things to come, and even when it pulls a fast one on you it actually still makes sense. An offhanded comment by Drake himself whilst climbing a hotel at one point in the game had me chuckling. Of course there is also knowing just what kind of world Drake lives in now makes things easier to swallow when they pop up.

The story also has weaved into it some fantastic scripted sequences and some downright cool action. I would love to rattle off some of the best but that would be to spoil them which I feel would somewhat detract from experiencing them for yourself. Half the fun is seeing something approaching for the first time and being amazed that they are pulling off that kind of stuff. It makes me wonder just what they will do with Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception to top this stuff off!

Since I'm only trying to make it through my gaming backlog which involves just finishing a game or seeing end credits that means anything multiplayer is completely irrelevant. Not that I could even play it over the weekend what with PSN being down. When it is working again I would be kind of interested to give it a go just to see what they do with it. According to my trophy list for the game I have played one competitive match of multiplayer but I don't remember that so go figure.

Liked

Drake, and the rest of the cast, are still as brilliant as ever.

The story driving everything. It also seems a tad more interesting, and alot more well plotted out and handled than the first.

Environments are more varied and still visually stunning, or maybe even more so with ice and snow.

The more even balance of combat to exploration/puzzling.

Mad ninja skillz more viable to show off.

No jet skis in sight.

Disliked

Not being given a chance to punch Flynn in the face.

Urban sprawl environments do at times make it a little tricky to spot where to go next.

PSN not working! This will come up any time I get a chance to bag Sony out now.

All in all, had an absolute blast with this and definitely in agreement with anyone who says that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a better game than Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The only thing left to say is hurry up and bring on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception!

The List: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Targeted

2011-04-25T08:03:00.001+10:00

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the 2009 follow up to action-adventure game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Once again in the shoes of Nathan Drake, treasure hunter and all-round adventurer, as he looks to uncover the mystery behind Marco Polo's lost fleet and the treasure they carried.

So yes, I am indeed jumping straight into the sequel head first without a break despite my very mixed feelings over Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Those feelings are very clear to see in both the targeting and elimination write-ups, and given the stance you may wonder why I'd head straight into this. Well I guess I hope that the second game will once and for all swing the series for me either way instead of this wishy washy mixed feeling. The general consensus appears to be that the second game is indeed better anyway so it also makes sense to go into it from that stand point. On top of that I also now know that one big sticking point with the plot in the first game so I know full well what to expect.

Guess that means here I am. I've already jumped into the game a bit before writing this and I am already in the second chapter. So far it has a completely different swing to things and has essentially shoved one of my two big problems with the first game out the window. Can't really say much more since I've barely scratched the surface on it but so far it is looking good so I'll leave it at that and go back to being all ninja-like.

Silent wind of doooooooooooooooooom... Whooooooooosh!

The List: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Eliminated

2011-04-24T19:19:00.003+10:00

Let me begin by saying that there will be spoilers for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune in this blog post because something happens late game that is just too hard to overlook for discussion. Well that and I already partly beat the game to death in my blog post targeting the game so there is little else for me to discuss anyway. Finishing off the game just went and further solidified my distaste for most fire fights in the game with their stupidly multiplying bad guys syndrome and the exasperation of using a PlayStation 3 controller for it. The latter part if my own preference, and in part fault, but the former is all the developers. Some of the later battles just get ridiculous, and the least said about the last chapter the better.

Funnily enough the woes with the combat and enemies is in part where things get spoilerific in this post. If you haven't played the game then stop now... Unless you actually want to be forewarned about the truly big facepalm moment of the game. You still here and reading now? Then great, zombies! Or monsters... Or zombie monsters. That not making much sense to you? Well it didn't to me either.

So here we are trekking through some jungle island searching for a big shiny gold treasure of El Dorado. We search high, we search through ruins, we search low through caverns. We blow shit up, kill some people, do a few insane stunts with a truck, jet ski, and for good measure some death defying leaps and tumbles all over the place that would make John McClane proud (Die Hard movie reference for those not in the know). Sure, some of the shit we pull off may stretch the imagination a little but Nathan Drake appears to be firmly grounded in a real world of reality which looks very pretty. All appears fine and dandy until zombie monster Spaniards come charging in from completely left field without no indication and deliver a sucker punch that blows your fucking head off.

"Oh, that treasure you have been hunting for all game? Yeah sorry but it is cursed... Like really, truly cursed. While we're at it, have some zombies to go with it. Enjoy!" And bam, there you are shooting at fucking crazed pale freaks who are trying to claw your bloody face off with their pointy, sharp killing things along with their instant kill move that will get you the first time because you are too dumbstruck to shake the controller to get them off you. Well actually, when I think about it you didn't even get the warning of the treasure being cursed first and instead just get attacked by the creepy monsters in some cavern with the explanation coming afterwards. Either way it is a big congratulations to whoever came up with this brilliant idea that absolutely shattered the far-fetched but still believable treasure seeking romp with supernatural bullshit that was completely unnecessary yet felt thrown in at the last minute. Heck, even I could have inserted it far more tactfully into the story than they did with their ramming it up our arses without lube.

Sooooo, now that is out of my system and the game is done I may never have to see or speak of this ever again. Besides the problems with combat and ZOMGies everything else about the game was fine, even brilliant or spectacular. The cast of characters remained incredibly likeable what with their bursting personalities and brilliant voice work. Besides the treasure hunters with guns, ZOMGies and booby traps the island sure would be a pretty place to holiday to and explore with it expansive jungles and breathtaking ruins. While we're at it we should crank up the music as it really set the mood for anything playing away on screen. Argh, I'm really torn on this game...

Liked

The characters who work on so many levels.

OMG, shiny and stunning graphics showing off the island.

All of the sound work from the tiny sound effects through to the musical backdrops and right up to the amazing voice work.

The script and story of treasure hunting...

Disliked

Right up until to the point of ZOMGies! That part of the story can go to hell.

Jet skis.

Any fight, which is pretty well the majority of them, where they feel the need to spawn another half a dozen bad guys onto you.

That whole last chapter on a gameplay basis.

Even cranking up the sensitivity on the aiming controls I still found shooting to be bleh... Probably more my own problem though and not the games.

And being so torn on over this game and whether the positives outweigh the negative makes me hesitant about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Many people say the second game is better than the first but that really will only matter if the "better" addresses what I found lacking in the first game. If it makes everything I loved about the first game better but leaves everything else the same then by the gods am I going to be in trouble. Have I been too harsh on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and will moving onto Uncharted 2: Among Thieves be a bad idea for me? If there is ZOMGies in Uncharted 2 there will be hell to pay...

The List: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Targeted

2011-04-23T09:27:00.001+10:00

After knocking Portal 2 over I haven't really been feeling like playing games for the last few days so I've taken a rest and mostly been watching anime. I'm back now and picking off another game from The List to play on my Easter long weekend though whatever I pick would have a very hard act to follow given I just played Portal 2.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is an action-adventure game for the PlayStation 3 that was released in 2007, and developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Nathan Drake, along with his friend Victor Sullivan and journalist Elena Fisher, seek the long lost treasure of El Dorado which leads them on an adventure of exploration, gun fights and just trying to make it out alive.

I'll be honest straight up and say that I am struggling to push myself to play through this game. Shooters on console just don't do it for me and I find the controls woefully inadequate compared to the mouse of a computer. This isn't to say it is from my lack of experience from them however as I grew up on GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, and in recent times have had enough experience hanging with a few mates at home playing split screen Call of Duty on the PlayStation 3.

Third person shooters on the console are even worse for some reason and considering this is marked as an action-adventure there is a whole lot of shooting thrown in the mix that doesn't bode particularly well. When you combine that with the fact that each and every shoot out in the game seems to have a stupidly large stream of enemies come charging out it all becomes so very fucking tedious. If that weren't bad enough then there was the being thrown on a jet ski which had to be ridden up river as explosive barrels come along that you had to dodge all whilst then trying to take out bad guys along the river bank.

Argh, seriously this shit really has been killing the experience for me and makes me struggle to see what is just so brilliant about this game. That stuff really detracts and ruins the overall experience of the game for me which is a damn shame because the story, writing, characters and acting are all brilliant. The environments too are vibrant, detailed and incredibly fun to explore when not under a hail of bullets. If there weren't so many enemies just spawning out of god knows where nearly every encounter then the combat would probably be bearable.

Currently I'm sitting at Chapter 13 so I have put a fairly decent amount of time into the game and this is actually my second time at reaching this point in the game as I lost my original save when my PlayStation 3 died and had to be sent for repair. That made the jet ski section especially bad as I had to suffer through it not once but twice though at least past experience made the second time a lot easier and therefore less infuriating. With all my thoughts on the game giving such mixed opinions on it and the general opinion elsewhere being of such high praise I am dead set on seeing the game to the end to give it that fair chance. Once that is done though and if I still feel like this over it then there is the problem that I still have Uncharted 2 there to play... Ho hum.

The List: Portal 2 Eliminated

2011-04-20T22:47:00.000+10:00

Oh GLaDOS, despite your attempts to kill me I welcome you back with open arms. Your witty, passive-aggressive tones are like music to my ears and I hang on every single word. The biggest reason I awaited the release of Portal 2 was simply for the chance to get more of this sinister A.I. and I certainly wasn't disappointed. More of the GLaDOS that we know and love, and it is hard to ignore her as she takes centre stage.

GLaDOS isn't the only personality jumping into the spotlight though as another A.I. by the name of Wheatley pops up early. This well meaning and enthisiastic A.I. holds a sense of naivety that grows on you, and topped with that accent of his he just oozes personality and serves as a great foil against GLaDOS. The verbal sparring matches between the two are just as captivating as any choreographed brawl.

There is no doubt that both A.I. are brilliant characters within the game but then we have the third, and probably most improved. Even more so than the first game the Aperature Laboratories themselves are given more life, taking up a personality of its own. Early in the game we watch as it stirs like a slumbering beast, shaking off the dust of stagnation and pulling itself back together. Wall panels slamming against one another as they get stuck, floors shifting before your feet, and the gears clicking and whirring as it all slides into place before your eyes or behind the scenes.

Talk of the Laboratories of course brings us to the puzzles themselves that litter the many halls. To talk specifically about any puzzles would be to spoil them and since that is where half the fun is I'd rather try and avoid that. They start off with the simple, serving as introductions to the mechanics as would be expected and ramping up in difficulty at a reasonable pace but never topping out at an infuriating level. Armed with the Portal Gun of the first game Valve has thankfully left the simplicity of the Gun's function as is and have instead added the new puzzle elements via the environment. Each new element goes through an introduction phase and by the end of they get mixed in with one another adding a fresh touch to the puzzles we'd been chewing through.

I haven't touched the co-op levels yet and I imagine with two players and two Portal Guns the complexity of puzzles can be really kicked up a notch. The single player is never overly difficult though but combined with the other aspects of the game like the story and characters it gets wrapped up in one incredibly enjoyable journey. To make my way through the single player took all of 6.7 hours which to me is quite a short game since I love RPGs but in this day and age, and for this game itself, that seems like a perfect length. To try and stretch it to over 10 hours in length would most likely dilute every aspect of the game and make them lesser for it as they try to fill it all.

With the single player content out of the way I would love to tackle some of the co-op stuff so it is a matter of grabbing a friend and going for it. If anyone out there has the game for the PlayStation 3 or on Steam then add my Steam account to your friend's list and maybe we can play sometime. I imagine many are playing the game at the moment so am I simply enthralled by GLaDOS or is the game actually this good?

Liked

GLaDOS.

Wheatley too.

Actually, the humour littered throughout the game as a whole in general.

The new puzzle elements/mechanics which each provide a completely unique addition.

Imaginitive style and design that is quite remarkably pulled off with such an ageing game engine.

Can I say GLaDOS again?

Disliked

Uhhhh...

Ummmm?

A couple of harder puzzles couldn't have gone astray but we'll see what co-op has for me.

Was Portal 2 worth the wait? Hell yes.

The List: Portal 2 Targeted

2011-04-19T22:17:00.002+10:00

Developed and published by Valve Corporation Portal 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2007 release not surprisingly called Portal. The first-person adventure/puzzle game picks up again with Chell, the protaginist of the first game, as she is awoken from having been in stasis for hundreds of years. Whilst attempting to once more crawl her way out of Aperature Science's facility the psychotic computer A.I. GLaDOS is accidentally rebooted, and as as Chell was the cause for her "demise" she is obviously none too pleased. As the facility springs back to life around her Chell, armed once more with the amazing Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (Portal Gun), is pushed through more rigorous testing at the hands of this fiendish A.I. whilst the young lady just once more wants to get the hell out of here.

Having loved the first game like so many others it was pretty obvious I would gun for this as soon as it was released. I caved in and pre-ordered my copy on Steam last week so this was the first title to be added onto The List where I had been doing so well so far on knocking titles off of my gaming backlog. I think that Portal 2 is quite worth adding a title back onto the list however and I expect nothing but an amazing game from Valve and GLaDOS.

Since it is a brand new titles there is nothing to say about how much progress I made before on the title like I was with other blog entries about playing games from The List. I guess I... Ummm, will say... something else? My computer is pretty beefy so I cranked the settings to max on everything available in the video options so it is looking mighty damn fine. Not sure how intense the visuals will get throughout the game but thus far it is running liquid smooth too so all is good. That title screenshot is actually my own which clicking on it should bring up the full 1920 x 1200 resolution picture but unfortunately due to My IGN's 1MB picture upload limit I had to run it in JPEG and do a little compression on it. Somewhat annoying but I guess we just have to live with it and since the uploading is free you can't really complain.

I've only ducked in to play for some 30 minutes so far so there isn't much else to comment on, and I'm kinda itching to get back in and play now anyway. I imagine everyone else will be busy playing it too so no one is probably gonna read this. Not sure if anyone has actually read any of my blog entries so far actually as there is no "read" counter on them and no one has commented on any of them either. Maybe what I write isn't that interesting or well put together, I dunno. Enough negative thinking though as I've got fun to be had- GLaDOS, it has been far too long!

The List: The Legend of Zelda Eliminated

2011-04-17T20:47:00.002+10:00

I'm on a roll as what I thought would be the first game from The List to slow me down gets knocked down like a straw house.

And so a legend begun. In the unknown land of Hyrule a boy in green took up a sword and became a hero. It seems like such a humble beginning and I wonder if people could imagine just where The Legend of Zelda would lead to so many years later. Getting back to the roots of such a highly regarded series really does make you appreciate the series as a whole that little bit more. Now that I have taken down Ganon in the first battle against this immortal nemesis I can rank the original The Legend of Zelda up there amongst the best of its series.

For its day I can imagine this game to be very trend setting. The first thing that struck me about it is just how open-ended the game is. as you are confronted with this wide open world that you can essentially travel from one end to the other from the get go. All you are told is to go gather the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom and rescue Princess Zelda from the clutches of Ganon. From my understanding all you got with the original Nintendo Entertainment System's cartridge was a manual filled with some hints and a map of the world of Hyrule that was only partially complete. This map showed the location of the first few dungeons but after that you were left on your own to discover the far reaches and secrets of the world. I'll try not to spoil anything so I'll just say that most of the dungeons are there in the open if you explore the world but the last few take just that bit more of a stretch to find.

Not only does the game just through you into the world to go where you please but some of the dungeons themselves could slide around on where they sit in the game's progression. Even then, at least gaining the treasure from each dungeon then would allow you to progress through the next dungeon if it wasn't so accessible due to some reason. If one were to find themselves stuck and becoming quite infuriated with a dungeon it is good to know you could move on a try something else before you drive yourself crazy. As if to further push the openness of the game it is possible to find more keys than needed in some dungeons with the surplus being able to be used in later dungeons which makes it quite hard to get stuck on such artificial roadblocks.

That isn't to say that the game sure can't throw a challenge in your way though. My Gameboy Advance copy of the game had some forty deaths and that was due to some of the dungeons more fiendish rooms and the inhabitants that lurk there. A couple of wrong moves against certain enemies, and especially a room full of them, can't spell the end of your life pretty quickly. The pleasant fellow above is a Darknut, a knight in full-plate armour with a shield who is only vulnerable to attacks from the side and rear whilst packing a real mean punch. Imagining a room filled with four or five of them is bad enough but then at times there'd be a few other enemies thrown in for good measure. Knowing when you pick your fights or evade is a vital skill, and at times the quick thinking player may realise that a battle is not even necessary. It is then somewhat unfortunate that some bosses are more of a pushover than certain normal enemies and room setups, and that a couple are repeated throughout your quest is a little disheartening but that may have been a limitation to the software back in the day.

Conquering nine dungeons and the realm of Hyrule was an epic journey in and of itself and though I am sure it is somewhat well know it is a bit of a spoiler that I am about to say but upon completion of the game a whole second quest opens up so you can do it all again. Dungeon locations and layouts are mixed up to give something new again and provide an even harder challenge to the stalwart challenger. I however took down Ganon and saw the end credits roll so that is good enough for me but maybe someday I will come back and tackle this fabled second quest.

Liked

The openness of the world and the game.

Catchy classic tunes that I can't stop humming at times, and that we have come to love.

Not being such a walk in the park like later games in the series.

Spoilers... Though I haven't played it yet the fact that there is a second quest to give you more bang for your buck.

Disliked

Darknuts.

Wizzrobes.

Starting with three hearts every time you load the game or restart from dying.

For now, I am happy to have just finally completed the game that started one of my favourite series. To any who have played it am I right about it being one of the tougher nuts to crack in the series, and where does this classic rank for you in the series? It doesn't rank number one out of all the games but it certainly gets up the list and I highly recommend anyone goes back and plays through this at least once in their lifetime.

The List: The Legend of Zelda Targeted

2011-04-17T20:45:00.002+10:00

Three games down from The List and the next is an oldie but a goodie.

The Legend of Zelda was an adventure videogame developed and published by Nintendo, and released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In the land of Hyrule our young hero, Link, sets off to collect the broken shards of the mystical Triforce of Wisdom to give him the power to defeat the evil Ganon, and rescue the kidnapped Princess Zelda.

The game that started a long-running series and has been the inspiration for many other titles. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I have yet to finish the origin of one of my favourite series. My first taste of the series was the phenomenal The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System so even before I started I had skipped two titles in the series. I then moved along with the rest of the series as each subsequent title was released and it wasn't until 2006 that I actually got my hands on this first title.

My girlfriend at the time bought the Gameboy Advance's Classic NES Series release for my birthday that year to which I played to some degree before getting distracted by the next shiny thing which was my way back then. That isn't the only copy I have come to hold now though as a year or so later during a sale at a local EBGames I happened across a second-hand copy of the Nintendo Gamecube's The Legend of Zelda Collection which was a bonus promotional disc that included the The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Moajora's Mask. This much sorted collection was marked down to a measly $10 so I jumped on it without a thought.

Considering I have multiple copies of the game it makes it even worse that I have yet to play through it which is a wrong I hope to correct. I dug out my Gameboy Advance copy and the save file is still in place with five out of the eight pieces of the Triforce collected so I am over halfway through the game. Looking at it I have no idea what dungeons I have left as the game was surprisingly open-ended for back in its day and you could start on one dungeon and move to another before finishing the previous. With the sequel, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, also on my list of games to finish and my only copy being the Gamecube's collection I am thinking I might start fresh with the Gamecube's The Legend of Zelda so I can have the save games together and also get back into the swing of the game.

All I can say is I am in for one heck of a ride as this game is tough. Looking at the save file on my Gameboy Advance version I have 47 deaths for just five completed dungeons which is probably double the amount of deaths I've had playing through every other Zelda game combined. This will be the first real challenge I put myself against in getting through my gaming backlog and it is one I am looking forward to. LittleBigPlanet and its Bunker level have got nothing on The Legend of Zelda and its Wizzrobes and Darknuts.

The List: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Targeted and Eliminated

2011-04-15T10:11:00.004+10:00

Well how about that? I managed to knock over another game from The List before even doing a write-up to say I was targeting it.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is an action-adventure game developed and published by Konami Entertainment. Released in 2005, it was the first Castlevania game to grace the Nintendo DS and was a sequel to the Gameboy Advance game, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Having managed to avoid succumbing to the dark powers bestowed upon him and preventing himself from assuming the role of the new dark lord, Dracula, Soma Cruz finds himself a target of a cult who seeks to kill him to bring forth a new dark lord. With the help of his friends and allies, Soma aims to stop the cult and ensure that a new Dracula does not arise.

I will admit that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was another case where all I needed to do to complete the game was to defeat the final boss. It sure would be incredibly easy to get through my gaming backlog if every game was like this and I just needed to defeat a single boss to finish them off.

Onto the game itself, I’ll say firstly that I never played the prequel, Aria of Sorrow, so all I had on the backstory was what I picked up from in the game which turned out fine. The Nintendo DS has seen three Castlevania releases and yet somehow I have managed to play the first title released last. When I settled down last night to finish off Dawn of Sorrow I’d racked up just shy of 13 hours of gameplay on the clock and the map cleared percentage sat at 98.8% so it wasn’t like I had much else to do in the game besides the boss anyway.

With those little stats out of the way, onto how the game was itself and let me just start off by saying I love my Metroid games! Yeah, they are so awesome and Metroid is in the top three series of videogames for me, and probably has a good run at being number one. Wait, shouldn’t I be talking about Castlevania here you wonder? Well in a way I guess I kind of am as with Castlevania: Symphony of the Nights on the PlayStation the Castlevania games adopted much of the building blocks from Metroid’s 2D exploration of one massive world, usually in the form of Dracula’s castle. This has carried through the 2D games since then up until Order of Ecclesia, and I must say that I simply love it.

The castle offers up one well designed whole just as well as multiple levels could. Different areas hold a distinct feeling and setting so it isn’t all drab and dreary everywhere you go with the castle instead possibly being thought of as a multi-facet character of its own. Exploring the many halls, corridors and tight passages shows many sights and at times offering just enough glimpses of tantalising areas just out of reach for that one moment but which open up with the right tool.

The many inhabitants, who all pretty well want you dead, come in just as much variety and compliment the environments around them in not only looks but providing suitable, if only minor, roadblocks through the corridors. The real challenges lie with the boss fights, and defeating some of them brings around a real sense of accomplishment after a nail bitingly close battle… Or maybe I’m just bad in that I struggled with some.

Boss fights are where the gimmick of the game rears it head however but it isn’t all bad. Upon bringing the boss’ health down to as good as dead a rune pops up on screen and the aim there then is to draw the same rune to “seal” the boss away for good. Failure to do so would see the boss get some health back which you then had to knock off again before retrying the rune. Throughout your adventure you collect a few different rune patterns so what you drew would change over time. It is a rather gimmicky attempt at getting usage out of the touch screen on the Nintendo DS and I certainly could have done without it. The rather simplistic nature of how it is executed does make it nothing more than a minor inconvenience for all but the most uncoordinated though so it isn’t really anything to hate the game over.

The other big power of Soma, our protagonist, is that he can reap the souls of his enemies to gain a multitude of powers. It kind of garners a “gotta catch ‘em all” attitude as not only does gaining a soul firstly grant you the power but any subsequent copies of that soul then power it up. This system gives a nice layer of customisation along with the standard weapons and equipment choice to kit Soma out with, and I found it to be the most enjoyable character yet to play with.

Liked

Detailed, sharp and well animated sprites combined with at times stunning backdrops make it a sight to behold on the Nintendo DS.

Soma and his Soul system for powers provide flexability and fun whilst also giving depth to chase for those with a completionist attitude.

The sprawling castle provided just enough to do at any time and kept a constant sense of progress and challenge.

Disliked

The rune drawing but this is only a minor dislike as having it in didn't really ruin anything but the game would not have lost anything if it wasn't included.

All in all, I’d have to say that I found this to be the best Castlevania game on the Nintendo DS. It may not hit the high note set by Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation but it is a very solid title in its own right. If my backlog of games on the List wasn’t so stupidly long already I might have thought about hunting down the Gameboy Advance titles.

The List: Final Fantasy X-2 Eliminated

2011-04-14T12:02:00.004+10:00

Yuna: Our game sucks, Rikku. That is what's the matter.

Well I am disappointed that Yuna, Rikku and Paine didn’t sacrifice themselves in some horrible and bloody way to save the day at the end of Final Fantasy X-2. I guess I can just be satisfied in the fact that I don’t ever have to play this game again and therefore won’t ever see or hear those girls again. The final battle of the game and the cut-scenes surrounding it only just went to further reassure these feelings, not dispel them. One choice nugget from Yuna was “I don't like your plan. It sucks.” and I just wanted to scream back at her that “I don’t like your game. It sucks.” but that would’ve just made me look a little crazy.

So there I was staring down the final run up to the boss that would see the close of the game and that was what Yuna had to say about another characters plan to take it all down. Let’s just ignore the fact that her plan was just as bloody bad in the end but Yuna isn’t renowned for her intelligence. Not that any of it matters though as this time around, 5 years after my last attempt, I simply steamrolled through the five phases that make up the final boss encounter of the game. I have no idea what must have went wrong last time but for each of the battles the only hard part to them was trying to not fall asleep. Only the final phase posed one single attack that posed any danger as it would one hit KO a party member without fail.

With the thing downed I simply wandered off while the ending movie and credits played in the background as I did something else. I may sound rather harsh on the game but it isn’t like I didn’t give the game a chance. At the end I’d racked up 42 hours of playtime on the in-game clock which means it was probably a bit more due to deaths during my playthrough. The game also includes a percentage complete figure on it and I had a pretty respectable 74% before tackling the final boss so I’d seen the majority of the game in the one playthrough.

Liked

Ummmmm?

Well actually, I did love having a job system again and especially a job system that can be changed on the fly in mid-battle.

Oh, and the battle system did still keep the solid framework we know and love with a couple of small tweaks.

Disliked

Don’t like it so much when the job system then has such over the top and sexualised transformations and costumes that cheapen the whole thing.

Yuna.

Rikku.

Paine.

When you don’t like all three main characters there is obviously a problem.

For the life of me after all this time I cannot remember anything about the story so considering Final Fantasy games are supposed to have their stories as a big draw-card that seems like fail to me.

In the end this game just didn’t “do” anything for me at all which was somewhat disappointing after Final Fantasy X. If anyone out there thinks so differently about it then I’d love to hear what you like about the game. Maybe I completely overlooked a redeeming quality or charm about the game but as it stands I can now move on after five years.

The List: Final fantasy X-2 Targeted

2011-04-13T17:20:00.001+10:00

With LittleBigPlanet knocked off, it is now time to set my sights on the next title from my gaming backlog and attempt to knock it off The List.

Final Fantasy X-2 is role-playing game for the PlayStation 2 which was developed and published by Square (who are now Square Enix). Released in 2004 (2003 in the US) it was a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X which follows Yuna, along with her companions Rikku and Paine, as she quests to try and find her lost love whilst getting tangled up in the political unrest and conflict that is building throughout the world of Spira.

I bought Final Fantasy X-2 back in 2005 because after having enjoyed Final Fantasy X I was feeling somewhat compelled to pick up the follow-up. That was kind of a mistake, and I wish that I was targeting Yuna, Rikku and Paine with an actual sniper rifle or something so I could just blow off their pretty little heads. So back in Final Fantasy X Rikku was already a bit like a hyped up child but they then ramped it up to 11 with in this game after giving her some crack. Somehow Yuna had picked up even more stupidity since the last game but I don't remember her being anywhere near so giggly girly back then either so she must of picked up the disease from Rikku as if it were a nasty STD. Paine on the other hand doesn't have either of these problems but she has one of her own. This newcomer just might as well been a cardboard cut-out that got dragged around by the other two girls so you've gone from characters at one extreme to the other.

Oh god, I am going to make myself suffer to just finish off this blasted game. This will actually be the third attempt at finishing it since when I first bought it I played for like 5 hours then couldn't stand it any more so I left it for many months. I then got bored at some point, or had masochistic urges, so I sat there and forced myself through as much as I could stand.

Fortunately for me that left the party of intrepid girls right at the end and literally on the doorstep of the final boss. I did take a few attempts at downing the final boss but failed each and every time so I figured I just needed to grind a bit but my soul was broken at that point. The date of my last save is 19th June, 2006 so I think that has been a long enough time to recharge up and take this bitch down. This should be easy so long as my sanity holds out long enough but if anyone has finished the game and has some tips for the final boss then I am all ears.

Here's to hoping all three main characters die a horrible, horrible death in the end.

The List: LittleBigPlanet Eliminated

2011-04-12T20:59:00.002+10:00

Who thought something so cute could be the cause of so much dirty cussing. If you've played LittleBigPlanet yourself you may already be able to guess what was the cause of my ire. The levels of the very last world, and one in particular with its giant spinning wheel of death, must have been made by some sadistic bastard locked away in a dark basement somewhere.

Fortunately I persevered tonight and after a few attempts, plus many choice words, I finished off the story levels of LittleBigPlanet and thus it gets knocked off the list of my unfinished games. There is no bloody way I would even attempt to get the platinum trophy on this game as one trophy involves clearing all the levels without dying... The Bunker was bad enough normally but doing it in a flawless run is insanity to me!

Despite the contemplating making the game my new drink coaster at the end there I'd say it was still a decent enough game. Well that is more so when you ignore the story levels and focus on the multiplayer, community and level building aspects. Those parts of the game are absolute amazing whereas LittleBigPlanet as a straight up platformer just seems mediocre. Considering some of the level designs the controls and response just seem to border on the wrong side of inadequate. Those controls allowing you to shunt a friend into an electrified pole and watching them sizzle does make up for it a little though.

As the first game to finish off the list I was a little unsure how to go about writing on it, or if I should do anything at all. I guess this was a mini-review on what I felt about the game and that would seem like an obvious idea to run with for when finishing a game. Maybe even just tack on something like the following as a little summary...

Liked

The community and people's creativeness in what they can come up with. Incidentally this is completely worthless when I was just trying to play through the story levels.
OMG, Sackboys are sooooo cute and I could just hug... *Coughs* Nevermind.
Graphically the game does hold a certain charm and style of its own which is quite endearing.
Up to a certain point right at the end the level design was quite well done and had a pleasant learning curve.

Disliked

Those floaty, sometimes seemingly cruddy controls which I realise may actually be how they were intended.
The Bunker... Go burn in hell you infuriating level.

Ok, that didn't turn out too badly from where I am sitting. The what and way I write it needs a bit more thinking on it but I'll work on that. Gooo me for trying to put some formatting into the post and oh looky, there was that pretty picture up top.

Now onward as more games await!

The List: It All Starts Here

2011-04-11T19:31:00.000+10:00

This post's title could be rather ominous when taken with absolutely no context whatsoever. What is this List, why does it start here, what the frig is this all about? Well for now I will just say that it is what gave me an idea on what to start writing about in a blog again though how long it sticks for will remain to be seen. That and once I start writing I won't be able to help myself from just randomly jumping on any topic that I feel like.

The List originates from the most favourite hobby of mine, gaming. That gaming is involved comes as no surprise what with this mainly being a gaming website, and also the fact that it got mentioned in the previous blog post for those following along at home. For those even more clued on the last post also has a hint as to where this post is leading, what the list is and what the bloody hell the point actually is.

I am a gamer.

That little fact is completely undisputed, and also the crux of the matter. I love gaming, and like many out there I have amassed quite a collection of said games. So what, nothing unusual there you say? That is kinda where I have run into a little bit of a problem.

Disposable income + love of games + easily distracted by the next shiny thing = a massive amount of unfinished games.

I am really, really, really bad at that... Or I used to be. Having a job is marvelous as that means money and no longer having to wait until my birthday and Christmas (which are only 4 days apart) to get that game I was dying to play. Now it is a matter of I see it, I want it, I buy it, and control just went out the window. I mean, I would play most new titles for a bit but then the next big release was right around the corner so I'd jump on that first chance I got which would then leave the previous title sitting in it's cold, dark box where it would cry itself to sleep at night having now been forgotten and unloved. It wasn't always brand new releases though as sometimes a special would come up on a game that seemed too good to pass up and I figured well I'd get round to playing it eventually... That eventually though has now turned into a massive list.

Besides me acting like a semi-serial killer for video games (imagine the serial killer left them half dead?) there was also the problem of this one little game called World of Warcraft which had been taking up the last two years of my life since Wrath of the Lich Kings release. Nothing like a MMORPG to suck up your time and leaving you with little for anything else. Fortunately for various reasons, one of which being not experiencing the variety of gaming I love because of that time sink, I quit around two months ago which has freed me up for this.

So that brings me back to the idea that got me thinking about writing a blog again in this first instance. There is this massive list of unfinished games I have and to have so many unfinished is just so much of a waste. With World of Warcraft out of the way I have now decided to finally dedicate my gaming time to cutting through this list and finishing off these long ignored games. The idea for starting up the blog was of course coming from this idea and chronicling the mighty task which may or may not be the most brilliant of ideas but it won't be the only thing found on the blog. When I say I aim to finish a game I just mean get to the end credits (or finish all stages if there isn't really end credits) and not 100% a game. Some special cases may apply where I will aim for that bit more or I'll come back after a break but to try and do it with everything would drive me up the bloody wall

Now anyone reading the post is by this point probably screaming at the screen to see the damn bloody list so...

.hack//Quarantine PS2

Adventures of Alundra, The PS1

Adventures of Lolo WII VC

Alone in the Dark PC

Alundra 2: A New Adventure Begins PS1

Amnesia: The Dark Descent PC

Aquaria PC

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura PC

Baldur's Gate + Tales of the Sword Coast PC

Bangai-O Spirits NDS

Beyond Good & Evil PC

Bioshock 2 PC

Black & White PC

Boxxle GB

Brave Fencer Musashi PS1

Burnout Paradise + Big Surf Island PS3

Call of Duty: Black Ops PC

Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 PC

Call of Duty: World at War PC

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow NDS

Chrono Cross PS1

Commander Keen 2 PC

Commander Keen 3 PC

Commander Keen 4 PC

Commander Keen 5 PC

Conduit, The WII

Crayon Physics Deluxe PC

Crysis PC

de Blob WII

Dead Space PC

Demon's Souls PS3

Diablo PC

Disgaea 2 PS2

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice PS3

Dragon Quest IV NDS

Dragon Quest VII PS1

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King PS2

Dreamfall PC

Elder Scrolls IV, The: Oblivion + Shivering Isles PC

Empire: Total War PC

Eternal Sonata PS3

Fallout PC

Fallout 2 PC

Fallout 3 PC

Far Cry 2 PC

Final Fantasy III NDS

Final Fantasy IV NDS

Final Fantasy IX PS1

Final Fantasy Tactics PSN

Final Fantasy X-2 PS2

Final Fantasy XIII PS3

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance GCN

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn WII

F-Zero GX GCN

Ghostbusters: The Video Game PC

Gothic PC

Gothic 2 PC

Gothic 3 PC

Gran Turismo 4 PS2

Gran Turismo 5 PS3

Grand Theft Auto 4 PC

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars NDS

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories PSP

Hellgate: London PC

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure NDS

Ico PS2

Just Cause 2 PC

Killzone 2 PS3

Legend of Dragoon PS1

Legend of Zelda, The GCN

Legend of Zelda, The: Link's Adventure GCN

Legend of Zelda, The: Spirit Tracks NDS

LittleBigPlanet PS3

Luigi's Mansion GCN

Machinarium PC

MadWorld WII

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story NDS

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time NDS

Mario Kart DS NDS

Mega Man Zero NDS

Mega Man Zero 2 NDS

Mega Man Zero 3 NDS

Mega Man Zero 4 NDS

Mega Man ZX NDS

Megaman X4 PS2

Megaman X5 PS2

Megaman X6 PS2

Metal Gear Solid PS2

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty PS2

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater PS2

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot PS3

Metroid Prime: Hunters NDS

Mirror's Edge PC

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (Special Edition) PC

Muramasa: The Demon Blade WII

Neverwinter Nights 2 + Expansions PC

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark PC

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle WII

Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus PS1

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee PS1

Odin Sphere PS2

Osmos PC

Paper Mario 64 WII VC

Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door GCN

Parasite Eve II PS1

Peggle Deluxe PC

Pikmin GCN

PixelJunk Eden PSN

Pokemon Battle Revolution WII

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future NDS

Prototype PC

Psychonauts PC

Red Steel 2 (with Wii MotionPlus) WII

Resident Evil 2 PS1

Rhythm Heaven NDS

Risen PC

Rollercoaster Tycoon + Expansions PC

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl PC

SaGa Frontier PS1

SaGa Frontier 2 PS1

Sam and Max Season 1 PC

Scribblenauts NDS

Shadowman N64

Shatter PSN

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES PS2

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 PS2

Sin & Punishment WII VC

Skies of Arcadia Legends GCN

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic PC

Suikoden PSN

Super Meat Boy PC

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz WII

Super Paper Mario WII

Super Stardust HD Complete PSN

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World WII

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles WII VC

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom PC

The Secret of Money Island (Special Edition) PC

Thief: Deadly Shadows PC

Torchlight PC

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves PS3

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune PS3

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines PC

Viewtiful Joe GCN

Wanted PS3

We ♥ Katamari PS2

WipEout HD + Fury PSN

Witcher, The (Enhanced Edition) PC

Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear GB

World of Goo PC

Worms 2 PC

Xenogears PS1

Yakuza 3 PS3

Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure WII

Zeno Clash PC

There it is in all its shame and glory. Current count stands at 155 titles though there is probably a few games that I have forgotten to include. Those are all games I actually own legitimate copies of and if it included any random game I once played or had via emulation then I'd be crushed into a tiny cube under the list. One of the very first games I ever owned, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NES, still sits on this list though in a different format than the original cartridge that I owned all those years ago.

So that there is what I am up against and I'd be insane for thinking that I'd ever make it through all of them any time soon, if ever. I'm not sure exactly how updates about the list will go, the chronicling of each game I knock over and so on will be handled but I'm sure I'll think of some kind of format for the blog posts about it. If nothing else the fact that having this "Pile of Shame" out there in the public will at the very least give me another reason to actually get through finishing some of these.

And yes, over the last year I did kind of realise that maybe I needed to slow down on buying new games like crazy. Heck, these last couple of months since quitting World of Warcraft have already proven fruitful in knocking over games. This year alone I've finished off both Mass Effect games, both Dragon Age games as well as the Awakening expansion, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and most recently inFamous since Greg Miller always raves on about it. Mass Effect and Dragon Age were completely fresh starts and were such incredible games that I did aim to see and do as much as I could in them which means this year has been off to a great start considering how many hours they take.

That brings me to the here and now. Right this moment I'm finishing off the story levels of LittleBigPlanet which should be done in all but three or so levels. Whoever made these last few levels can go die in a ditch somewhere but I'll make it through them soon enough.

After that though I have no idea what game to jump to so it may be a case of throw a dart at the list and go with whatever it hits. If someone actually reads this post then feel free to throw a suggestion in on what I should try and conqueror next. With all that set up and out of the way all I can say now is...

GAME ON!

Settling In

2009-07-22T20:24:00.003+10:00

It's been a bit over a week that I've been in the new place and things are settling in. Not everything has gone smoothly though but since when does anything ever go perfectly? Still, I can't not be happy with what I have so far so no use complaining too much. I'm nowhere near completely settled and unpacked but that'll probably take some time anyway.

I've gotten all my furniture now except for the couch I bought in a living furniture package. So far I've put together the computer table, entertainment unit, and last night I knocked over the lamp and coffee table easily. That just leaves the buffet, dining table and chairs to put together which I'll probably aim for the buffet next as the dining table would take up most of the room in the dining. All my furniture from the old place is here now which was only the bedside table as I said to my mum they could keep the clothes cupboard if someone there needed it since all it would do would be to sit in my garage not being used. There is just a few odds and ends still at their place like my Guitar Hero drum kit and a bag of spare bed linen.

With the computer table put together, which took a little hand from my dad since the top was heavy, I've also set up my computer so I've got something to entertain myself with seeing how I have no television. After not being used for a few months I gave the computer a bit of a clean out for the dust and hooked it all up. The table I bought is just about perfect on size as there is plenty of room for the monitor and tower on top with space to sit my netbook to my left in easy view and access. There was even room to set up my collection of Death Note figurines on one side of the monitor whilst the Fallout bobblehead and that guy from the new Alone in the Dark took up the other side. Not only that but the computer chair I picked up is proving quite comfy so I'm stoked.

On the front of things going not so good... Turns out the refrigerator I got is kinda borked. Plugged it in and it seemed fine as I could hear it humming away quietly. Threw some things in the freezer and yeah, as expected they froze solid. The refrigerator compartment itself though was not feeling quite so cold however. After playing around with the settings for a week and getting a thermometer I've come to find that it wasn't doing squat and the thing wasn't even going below eleven degrees. That's actually probably just the ambient temperature of the place anyway so we definitely have a problem there. Rung up the place I bought it from yesterday and they said they'll exchange it today for another one so hopefully it'll all be good.

Now the washing machine, the other thing I happened to buy from these lot is going fine itself. On the other hand, the taps that it hooks up to are going not so good. When I first moved in I went round and checked all the taps to make sure that they were working and not leaking shit everywhere. These taps checked out fine then but once I hooked up the washing machine to them it was another story. When I tested them I ran a hose from them straight into the sink without any problem. When hooked up to the washing machine though the darn things started leaking from the tap itself and not just a little drip or two but quite a dribble. Seems with nowhere else to go the backpressure in the hose caused the water to go where there was the least resistance which happened to mean leaking. Oh joy, so on Saturday morning I had a nice little trip down to the real estate to put in a maintenance request about that one. Now that I think about it, they haven't actually called me about that to let me know what was happening with it.

So that's pretty well how the first week has been in the new place. Some headaches but other things are going quite nicely. Having a normal sized hot water system means I am loving my showers in them morning even more so than usual and I even took a bath last Friday. Despite the place having an electric stove and oven it actually has performed better than I expected compared to dad's piece of shit electric oven. So far I've cooked an omelet which became scrambled eggs, bolongnese, and I actually baked muffins for the first time which turned out pretty good. They're banana and strawberry, quite moist with no added oil and happened to taste very nice and I'm not just saying that myself as I took some into work and Dianne had a try of one.

Oh, and I bought a digital camera over the weekend. I've not had a camera since I was like a kid and I'd been meaning to buy one eventually. Guess I can get around to taking some snaps of shit and posting them up or keeping them around. A camera is something everyone probably should have for so many different reasons. Was pretty cheap too as it only came in at $170 though I wasn't too fussed on how good it was. These days megapixels that seem to be something to suck people in as reasonable quality is found pretty well in anything. It has a rechargeable battery for itself which is all I really cared for so grabbed the cheapest model with one.

Well that does it for now. I've finished up breakfast and am just waiting round for the delivery guys to give me a call and let me know when they will be dropping around with the new fridge. I kinda skipped off work for the morning until this gets sorted or they at least call me with some idea when I should be home. Hopefully they call soon as I do want to get into work as I have shit to do there.

Edit-No-Jutsu! The internet wasn't workingn at the Tea Club this morning so I didn't post this then. It's not like 8:40PM and I'm on the internet at home since it's finally been hooked up. Things are really kicking along now as I let it download updates for everything on my desktop plus I can finally catch up and get back into the podcasts I listen to. Not only did the internet get put in but my new refrigerator got delivered and that seems to be running as one should. Finally, whilst waiting round for the fridge to be delivered I got call from the plumber for my real estate and he dropped round just before lunch and fixed the leaking taps that the washing machine hooks up to. All in all I'd say today was good for things just going as they should.

Oh, and post now comes with pictures courtesy of my new camera. :3

First Night

2009-07-13T09:21:00.001+10:00

So how'd the first night in the new place go? Well pretty darn quiet thankfully. My back wasn't too sore at all so sleeping wasn't too bad at all. Really have missed my queen sized bed where I can just spread out like diagonally across the whole thing for myself. Only one problem and that was that I woke up at like 4:30AM and didn't get back to sleep after that. My mind just didn't want to shut up and let me which is usual though normally it's at least past 5:00AM when I wake up like that. Oh well, guess it'll just mean I'll probably sleep easier tonight since I've been up longer.

With no fridge and no food I took to an early start anyway to grab breakfast at the Tea Club. Guess I'll have to see about solving that fridge problem today. Also on the to-do list is drop those keys back to the real estate and make sure I get a copy of the garage key now that I've found that is one of the keys on there that I didn't get. Anyway, much fun lies ahead today... Or as fun as shopping can be.

The Big Moving Weekend

2009-07-13T09:14:00.000+10:00

It's Sunday night as I write this whilst lying on my own bed in my own place. Yes that's right, my own bed in my own place. The weekend is pretty well over and this is where I have ended up. It's to be the first night in my own place and after a weekend like this I'm looking forward to it. I really do hate moving; what with the packing, moving itself and then all the unpacking. At least I've been lucky in that I have only had a bedroom worth of stuff of my own to move so far. Still, it has taken up a fair portion of my weekend.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early at 6:30AM to hit the shower and get ready to head into town. I was due at the real estate at 9:30AM to sign the lease and get the keys which would make the place officially mine. As I had been doing lately though I wanted to grab a Saturday morning breakfast in town hence the earlier than needed start. It was going to be granola at either the Tea Club or Zest Cafe with each having their own spin on it. When I got into town I ended up at Zest for their granola topped with fresh banana, strawberries and a dollop of Greek yogurt along with a flat white coffee. Yes, that breakfast definitely tastes as good as it sounds and I reckon it is a great way to start the day.

After eating breakfast and stopping by a pharmacy to grab a prescription (another story there) I headed on over to the real estate to get things done. Reading and signing paperwork isn't very exciting but a necessary evil. It all happened to go off without a hitch though so I was walking out of there with keys in hand.

Not wasting any time I headed straight on over to the place to scope it out. As this was my first time getting a place of my own I had like zero furniture besides that for the bedroom so I wanted to go measure up the lounge to see what I could fit before going out and buying something. I already had an idea of what I wanted though so it really did just come to a matter of what arrangement was possible. With my ever handy netbook and Adobe Photoshop on hand I threw together a little floor plan of the lounge room for me to play with later.

Having got that out of the way I headed on over to the Tea Club in town to grab a mid-morning coffee and muffin for $5.00 (great value, best coffee in town, and awesome fresh muffins!) whilst I used their internet to check up a couple of things. This was where the floor plan on the netbook kicked in because checking up the furniture website I could grab the dimensions of the pieces of furniture in the furniture package I'd been eyeing off and then arrange in the floor plan to see that they all fit. As I thought it turned out pretty well so I knew where I'd be going first thing in my afternoon. Since I was there I figured I'd just stick round and have lunch at the Tea Club as well before heading out.

Once my belly was full it was off to the furniture place to scope things out and hopefully buy what I wanted. When I got there they actually had the furniture package I was after set up so I could see what it really looked like. My plan though was to swap out the two lounges from it for the one lounge from another package and that was further put into my mind when I found that other lounge to try. Very nice and comfortable considering my back was sore from sitting badly at work the day before. The rest of the furniture from the package looked very clean and nice as well so definitely was going with that. One of the salepersons, Chad, was quite helpful and said that I could indeed swap out the two lounges for the one and they'd just adjust the package's price to suit but in the end it worked out exactly the same. The lounge would be a four to six week wait but everything else, including the office desk I found as well, happened to be in stock out the back so I could get them immediately. A quick phone call back to dad and we set up to pick it all the on the Sunday.

With the furniture buying out of the way I headed out to the old house to see about packing up some stuff and moving a car load of stuff. All my bookshelves were still filled with books and DVDs so I was looking to get some of those off to make the Sunday easier for moving the shelves themselves. I ended up with a couple of empty boxes filled that I had lying around though I needed quite a few more boxes to be able to pack all of it which I didn't have on-hand at that time. I figured I could fix that easily enough so I packed up the car with seven boxes and drove back to the new place where I emptied out those boxes to give me the empty boxes I hoped I'd need. I threw them back into the car and then headed back out to dad's for the night.

Sleep was a bit troublesome Saturday night due to me being a bit stupid with what I was lifting that day with the already sore back from work the day before and only making it worse... A lot worse. When I woke in the morning my lower back hurt just by walking let alone anything else more than that. Taking a shower helped a bit with warming it up and making it feel a touch better. In the end as the day went along and I moved about, lifted, and whatnot the back actually got better for whatever reason though I won't complain. It still isn't perfect but it's a hell of a lot better than this morning.

That's jumping ahead though as around 9:30AM my dad and I headed into town to get things moving. First stop was a quick swing by my new place to drop my car so we could take his ute to the furniture place to pick up my new stuff. Chad, the sales guy from the day before, fixed me up for going round and getting the stuff which we loaded up, got back to my place and dropped off without any hassles. It all just adds to the multitude of cardboard boxes I have around my place right now.

Coming up to lunch time nearly and dad was hungry (he rarely eats breakfast) so we arranged to meet up at Mc Donalds since it was on the way to my old place. In the end my dad grabbed Oporto which whilst delicious I had actually had it for dinner the night before so I went for Mc Donalds myself; a sweet chilli chicken wrap and a McFlurry. Oh and for the record, a McFlurry with both Mini M&M's and Oreo in it is seriously worth the like extra 50c. Thanks to whoever I caught suggesting that idea which got into my head.

Getting to the old place was without hassle and didn't waste any time getting into it. After moving some boxes out of the way we carted my bed's mattress outside and then tried our luck with just moving the whole bed frame out in one go after moving the slates off. It actually worked so we just loaded it up on the back of the ute and left the mattress up against a wall for now. I took to piling the books and DVDs into the boxes I brought back so we could get the bookshelves out as one could slide under the bed frame on the back of the ute. Turns out the boxes I brought back were just the perfect amount for what I needed to clear off the shelves.

First bookcase slid in and under perfectly on the back of the ute so we took to filling it with some boxes in what would've been wasted space. Next the mattress went back on top of the bed rather nicely as the bookcase lying down was just the right height to be support. The other big bookshelf we then threw up on top of the mattress whilst the third much smaller one we were actually able to slid up the side of the tray. That left just my clothes cupboard and bedside table furniture wise and I was able to cram the rest of the boxes into my car so that just left my hardcover books, computer, and some other odds and ends there.

Dropping everything off at the new place was just as easy. All the shelves got put pretty well where I planned for them to go though because of a shelf in the second bedroom turned office I can't fit one like I thought I could. Boxes just got dumped anywhere and everywhere to fit with all my furniture boxes. My bed got left in the garage however as there was no way possible to get that into my house in one piece. With that all dropped off dad headed back off to his place whilst I started pulling my bed apart and moving it into the main bedroom. I ended up dumping it for the meantime and not putting it together as I wanted to headed out to dad's to pick up some stuff.

Stopped by my grandparent's house first though when I got out that way. Hadn't seen them since I started the move so I thought I'd let them know how well it had gone. They were quite pleased and wanted to help out however they could which involved giving me a few things. An iron, ironing board, and toaster which they had lying around spare plus a convection oven which they never use. There is also a few pots and a frying pan they said I could have because they have like... A crap load of them. I thought dad had quite a few pots and he only has like five or six.

Swung by dad's place and grabbed my clothes which most had nearly dried. No way was I fitting all the stuff I had there into my car as it was at the time so I just managed to throw in my backpack and left all my game consoles, DVDs, and books there though what good would DVDs and game consoles be since I have no television at the moment. I'll get round to fixing that soon enough but also have to put together my little entertainment unit to put it on firstly.

It was getting dark bout the time I headed into town. Swung by Mc Donalds for a quick dinner and to use the net there to check up a few things. If I was going to shower and such in the morning at the new place I figured I'd need like soap and shampoo so stopped by the supermarket and picked up a few things. Glad I actually thought of that beforehand instead of in the morning otherwise I might've been in trouble.

So when I got back home it was the fun job of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Well I imagine that would actually be harder than putting my bed back together. I had more trouble pulling the thing apart so lucky me with putting it together so easily. Threw on the sheet, chucked over the blanket and grabbed the pillows out and I was in business. The bedroom was looking quite a shade better than the rest of the house now though all it is missing is the bedside table.

With no television and time to kill I took to trying out the taps and power points round the house which all checked out fine. I tried starting on putting together my computer desk but all I managed was to get the thing out of the bloody box as the tabletop weighs probably the majority of the 41kg that the box was listed as. So glad I didn't drop that on my toe when I was trying to flip the box over to get it open. Made quite a loud bang when I did drop it though so hope it wasn't loud enough for the neighbours to hear.

Having been defeated by the computer table I've ended up here, lying on my bed. It's like 9:30PM now anyway so I'll be off to sleep when I'm done with this. The first night in my new place, and also the first time I've got to sleep in my own bed in like probably four months. Gee, now let us see how this goes...

Say No to Compulsory Internet Filtering!

2009-07-09T15:54:00.000+10:00

Senator Stephen Conroy
Minister for Communications, Broadband and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne, VIC 3002

Dear Minister,

As an Australian and an internet user, I have serious concerns about your new mandatory "clean feed" internet filter initiative.

Given the importance your Government has attached to modernising Australia's broadband network, pursuing a policy that can only slow down and increase the costs of home internet access seems misguided at best. The internet does not work in a manner that would let a filter be effective as any such filter would require internet service providers to examine all Internet traffic, causing enormous issues with expense and technical resources. With the amount of internet content available, the Government will never be able to classify it all and I feel that the time and money could be spent in better ways both to protect children and improve Australia's digital infrastructure.

Although the initiative is intended and marketed as a tool to help protect children from the dangers of the internet the protection for children is minor at best, and an illusion at worst. The filter does nothing to protect children from real threats like cyber-bullying, online sexual predators, viruses, or the theft of personal information. It may provide a false sense of security to parents, reducing effective monitoring of their children's online activities. Australian parents need better education about the risks their children face online. Trying to rid the Internet of adult content is futile, and can only distract from that mission.

In short, Australian households are diverse, and not all households have young children, so mandating a one-size-fits-all approach will not serve the public well. Even then I don't think it is the Government's role to decide what's appropriate for me or my future children. By censoring the entire country's internet access down to the level of a child of indeterminate age, it robs Australian adults of ability to make their own decisions about what content they view.

Sincerely,

Lance Sippl

Road Accident Continued

2009-07-09T09:03:00.001+10:00

When I finally drove back out to try and get to dad’s house at Currarong last night the police were still at the site of the accident. I haven’t found out who was involved and it seemed absent from the radio news this morning for whatever reason. As I drove through the accident scene though the two cars were still there; a white van which had been driving toward Currarong judging from the way it was facing and a small white car (I suck at cars so no idea what make or model) coming out. It was a head on right on the corner I thought it was and the cars were on my side of the road coming into Currarong so it looked that the small white car came onto the wrong side of the road. I didn’t recognise either car so guess I’ll have to wait until I hear from my dad or his mates who it was.

Road Accident

2009-07-08T18:41:00.002+10:00

As I write this I am sitting in my car a few kilometers out of Currarong. Judging from the line of cars ahead of me, the ambulance I saw go flying past me when going through Callala Bay, and the helicopter flying overhead I'd say it's obviously an accident that has happened here. I'd say it has happened on the second corner from where I am as it is a bit of a sharper right hook coming down a small rise. To lose it on that corner you'd need to be doing well over 100km/hr when coming from this direction so heaven knows what has happened.

Knowing this place it's probably one of the young guys with more horsepower than brains. Yeah sure, I may not be that old myself but I've always had the sense to not be an arse on he roads. Then again I could be completely wrong and maybe a kangaroo jumped out and caused someone to swerve off the road. Given I have only ever seen one kangaroo on this one little stretch though I'd say that is doubtful.

Anyway, cars are driving by in the opposite direction to leave Currarong so at least you can get through. An ambulance actually drove past as I write this and it didn't have its lights flashing so hopefully that's a good sign that no one is seriously hurt. If they called the helicopter out though then maybe that is a bad sign.

Great, someone just tapped on my window and said it was an accident, and there might be a two hour wait to get through. Also mentioned it was a couple of locals so that's bad as it means it's probably someone I know. Thing about such a small town is everyone knows, or knows of, nearly everyone. That means that it is a kind of tighter knit community as well so if we lose someone then it is pretty hard to not feel it.

Well I've headed back into town, grabbed Subway for dinner and am now at Mc Donalds grabbing a flat white whilst chilling out to kill a bit more time before trying to head back on out to dad's house again. Eventually I'll hear what happened out there on the road and who was involved.

Half a Century!

2009-07-08T16:32:00.000+10:00

A whole fifty years. When you look at it that is quite a while and I'm only nearly halfway there. Saying it as half a century does make it sound worse though when I think about it. Either way, turning fifty is quite a big deal I reckon and that is just what Robert, our IT contractor at work, turned last Thursday. Given it was a weeknight though it wasn't until Saturday night that he was having his party and I happened to be invited. It was not like I had much else to do but I would've went no matter what since I reckon Robert is a pretty top guy and being invited was a rather nice thing.

The party was going to be at the Harbourview Thai Restaurant in Shellhabour which is not too far from Robert's place. As the name suggests it was done by the harbour which is somewhere I had never been before. They'd booked out half the restaurant for the party whilst another party took the other half, and it was some sixty odd people that were expected to be there. It was made up of Robert's family, friends and people who he'd worked with (i.e. people from my work), and when he gave a speech with the cake he said that the people who were there that night were people who had been special to him these past ten or more years. That made it all the more nicer that I'd been invited and was actually a really touching sentiment.

Now the party itself, I arrived pretty well on time or a bit early. One thing was it was so bloody windy the whole way up from my dad's place and even more so there right near the water. I ran into Robert by the door and headed in to see we had the main part of the restaurant plus the enclosed balcony area. Unfortunately the end walls didn't go all the way to the roof out there so there was a bit of a breeze passing through the balcony area but it did offer a nice view of the water from what you could see.

It took a bit for everyone to arrive but there was some finger food in the form of little kebabs and chicken wings to kick things off. Both my general manager and managing director from work were coming but shortly after getting there I also found out our site development manager had also decided to come at the last minute. Robert had arranged for us to have a table to ourselves as we could cover one perfectly. It also helped since we'd at least be with some people we knew but they're not exactly the people I'd really choose to be around for the night.

Proper entrees got brought around when everyone seemed to get in. It was a mixed entree which held the same things from what I remember having on the mixed entree the first time I had thai food. There was a prawn cutlet, spring roll with rice noodles in it, that very odd and somewhat disgusting fish cake thing which I knew I shouldn't have ate, and then a couple little bundle things which I haven't a clue what they're called. I don't normally like spring rolls but these ones aren't bad at all and when I was a kid I only ever used to eat prawn cutlets when we went out for chinese. I do like these mixed entrees as they give you a variety of things to try out.

The mains also gave quite a few things to try with at least four dishes to pick from. The first I got to sink my teeth into was a really nice creamy curry with beef in it and its taste was that good I took to having just some sauce with the rice once all the meat was gone. There was then a beef stirfry kind of dish with cashews which I simply love whilst there was another that was kind of like the stirfry I make with bean sprouts, snow peas, and beef. The last thing was a sizzling seafood dish that had prawns, calamari and a bunch of vegetables thrown in. I would've killed for a dish of this for myself as I love calamari and the sauce absolutely kicked arse. It was a shame that we had to share it between the four of us guys down one end of the table and even then we pinched the dish from the other half which still wasn't enough for me. All in all the food was pretty bloody good at this place and if I lived close by I'd be going there again.

Later on there was a cake of course which was a massive blackforest cake. It wasn't too bad but I think I preferred the simple sponge cake I bought Robert on Thursday for his birthday. I mean that wasn't to say it was bad or anything but I'm kind of just not keen on it or cherries. Of course with the cake came singing and cheers plus a bit of a speech from Robert. That was when he said the whole thing about people being here were those who had been special to him these past ten or more years.

There was also a moment where Robert and his family got together for photos and such when the cake was out. It was actually the first time I saw the whole lot of them gather with him, his wife and their five kids. I'd met the two younger children previously when I dropped by his house once before but it was really the first time I picked up on the eldest ones who were more my age. What struck me when I saw them all gathered together for a group shot was that they really seemed happy together, a real family moment. I mean I can’t really know what it truly is like but it seems Robert has a wife and kids who really love and adore him. In turn I know just how proud he feels about them all as he often talks about them and in his voice you can just hear how much they mean to him.

For fifty years I’d say Robert has actually done pretty well for himself. Not only does he have a great family but an absolutely massive house filled with like… everything? Seriously, I was awe struck when I walked into his house and turns out that isn’t the only property he has. Owning and running his own business is an accomplishment as well and he’s just taken on a new idea as well which I’m hoping takes off for him. On the flipside hopefully he doesn’t push too hard though I’d say he is in fairly good health (except for that whooping cough the other week) and looks pretty bloody well for his age. I certainly wouldn’t have thought of him as fifty years old, that’s for sure.

Speaking of fifty years and such I get back to the party. Robert managed to make his way round all the tables throughout the night to chat with people. I got stuck mostly listening to my bosses at my table or catching drifts of the conversations from the table behind me which was alright and I learned a few interesting things.

The party wrapped up some time after midnight with the last of us making our way out of the restaurant into the bloody still freezing wind. Robert’s eldest daughter, Lisa, froze to the bone seeing how she was wearing a somewhat short dress and a small leather jacket that almost bordered on like vest size. Some people were heading back to Robert’s place to carry on celebrating to which Robert tried to drag me along but considering how late it was and I had an hour and twenty minute drive back to dad’s house I declined… Numerous times. He certainly wasn’t one for not trying but in the end he let me go and so the end of a pretty darn cool night came. The drive back to my dad’s place was really smooth as well which was great and I love driving at that time of night simply for the fact that not many people are on the road so less dealing with idiots.

And w00t, 100th post on the blog!

A Little Place of My Own

2009-07-04T11:06:00.001+10:00

Finally, the search for a place of my own to live has come to a close. Yesterday morning I went in and paid the retaining deposit on a villa here in town. I'd gone to check out this place last Saturday and got the application in on the Monday. The lady in reception said processing applications generally took two days so I should hear back from them by then. As promised, on Wednesday just before lunch I got a call at work from the real estate but I was busy down in the factory with stocktake. When I managed to get into contact with them that day the woman dealing with it said she was just waiting to hear back from the owners who were out west at the moment. I took that as a pretty good sign that the real estate themselves were happy with my application so it was down to the owners final decision now. On Thursday just after I knocked off of work I got the call and it was all good news- pay the deposit on Friday which I did and we'd sign and start the lease on Saturday the 11th.

The place itself is in town like I mentioned already so it's closer to work, shops, and so on which is good. It's tucked away in a pretty quiet street from what I can tell and in a little bit of a gully with a reserve out back and a creek. There are four villas on the block and the other three are owner occupied if I heard the real estate right. My villa is one of the two at the back on the block so its garden borders the reserve. Oh the garden out back is very nice and I can really see myself sitting out there to read in the sun. Plus it is rather small grass wise so easy to look after though not that I own a lawnmower at this point. Just outside the back door there is a covered paved area as well so a table and chairs could be set up there.

The villa itself is two bedrooms; one of which I'll set up my computer in and have as an office. Both rooms are reasonably sized and have built-in wardrobes so given that in mind I'll easily fit my stuff in there. My old cupboard will just sit out in the garage I figure since out there is rather spacey. Actually the whole place is rather spacey, or at least for me it is just about perfect. Lounge and dining rooms are separate with the lounge being large enough for something decent and then some bookshelves out there for my DVDs and games. I'm thinking a furniture package from somewhere should cover that and the dining room which could take a full table. The kitchen has a crap load of counter-top and a shit load of cupboards. The place also has air-conditioning and a very nice sized hot water system so I am laughing. Only thing wrong with the place I can see so far is it has an electric stove and oven but I can get around that if I need to.

All in all, I'm really looking forward to getting into there. A stable place of my own to set up in and come back to where I only have to worry about myself. So all I need to get to doing now is look in to getting the power and telephone hooked up there, transferring the internet once the phone is connected, and then look to buying furniture and appliances since all I have is my bed.

Good times ahead I say.

World of Warcrack: Mountains of Gold

2009-07-04T10:26:00.001+10:00

Ok, so there is one thing I do miss about not having my computer around. Without it and no internet at my dad's I can't play World of Warcraft which kind of blows since you kind of pay fees to play it. That isn't to say I have been completely out of touch from the game during all this time. Oh no, when I say I can't play it I mean I can't go out running round questing and killing it but technically, I have been able to get in and play.

My netbook has proven to be a marvelous piece of work and something I believe has been one of my better buys. Not only has it been so handy to have around for word processing, internet browsing and general boring usage stuff but it has also shown to be able to take on games. It started with testing out a Super Nintendo emulator which upon successful results had me trying out a few other various 2D games I bought on Steam. When they went just as well I took to trying the most basic 3D game I had which was Audiosurf. That happened to also go off without a hitch so I figured what the hell and threw World of Warcraft on the netbook. Jamming every setting down to low showed once more that the netbook cannot cease to amaze me by also running World of Warcraft though at 10 frames per second or below in the city.

With that in mind and being limited to what I could do in game I couldn't really get out and play properly. Given that my subscription fee was ticking on by (though I guess I could have froze it) I figured I had to do something with it. So having gained a few hundred gold under my belt I figured I'd turn entrepreneur, taking what money I had and using it to play the auction house full time virtually. I'd already made a nice hundred or so gold selling linen and wool cloth as well as a few other odds and ends on there so I figured maybe this could work.

Little did I know how well it would actually work. This morning when I logged in a collected all that was in my mailbox in-game I had 1900 gold in total on-hand, or there abouts. I'm too lazy to calculate how much I currently have worth in goods up for sale but it would easily push me over the 2000 gold mark. I definitely can't say I'm not happy with my little fortune that I have amassed over these last few months.

I made a few good hundred to begin with carrying on with buying and reselling cloth; linen and wool at first carried on and then I jumped into frostweave and silk before bouncing back and forth between all. Copper and iron ore really kicked off round that point as well before saronite really proved a worthy investment once I'd accrued a decent pool of four or five hundred gold to pull from to buy up stock. These profession goods provided me with the flow into the thousands range and still supplement from time to time.

What I really live off these days is buying up cheap uncommons, rares, and so on items and disenchanting them to sell off the dusts, essences, shards and so on produced. Vision and dream dust proved to be really great and easy to get from this and carried me well and truly on my way. I had to take a small break to chew through some of my stock to level up my own enchanting skill but that in turn gave me opportunity for more profit as it meant I could disenchant higher items for materials worth more. I wish I had stumbled upon this means sooner but then again it also takes a bit of investment to pull up to it. The 275 in enchanting skill is really helpful and I'll have to look to boosting it up to 300 soon.

Well no matter what I have well and truly found a nice niche in the game to amuse myself with though hopefully I'll be back to playing properly soon. At least I'll be off to a nice boost money wise so I shouldn't have to worry about buying my riding skills, mounts, or magic spells for a while.

Two Months of Time

2009-06-27T14:15:00.001+10:00

And doesn't time go by quickly but if only things could change just as quickly. I'm still looking for a place of my own in town somewhere. Most recently I applied for a place early this week but didn't get the place as one of three applicants. That was fine with me though as the people who got it were a youngish couple of two children, a toddler and baby. From this latest application and such I did come away with something new. The woman from the real estate is someone who I used to work with and she said I could put her down as a reference in future which should prove handy. Having a reference from someone who works in real estate can only be a good thing and certainly can't hurt my chances. Just got done with looking at another nice little two bedroom unit in Bomaderry which I'll apply for so we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime I've been staying out at my father's house since he has like two spare rooms. Early May he went on holidays so I stayed there to look after the place while he was gpone and so I just kept on staying there. I haven't been 'home' since Mother's Day so that was like one and a half months ago. Not that I miss it, and that's even with a whole bunch of my stuff still there. Dad was really weirded out I think that I wasn't missing my computer as he asked if I wanted to go get some stuff and the first thing he said was my computer. What good would it do without the internet at his place anyway I would not know. I'm going fine at dad's place with my one bag of clothes, and I have my Nintendo Wii plus Nintendo DS for entertainment along with books and DVDs that I have picked up since I have been there.

I actually went out and bought a PlayStation 3 as well after much thinking. Quite a big purchase though I got the 'Rudd Bucks' ($900.00 stimulus package) so I wasn't hurting from it. There was a decent deal of the console, Killzone 2, Wanted (not that I really wanted that), and HDMI cable for $699.00 at Game so I grabbed that. It had finally come to the point where there were enough games exclusive on the console that I actually wanted. I did kinda go a little overboard with buying them up though as I snagged LittleBigPlanet, Valkyrie Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid 4 (depsite not having finished any others), Soul Calibur IV, Resident Evil 4, Disgaea 3, Burnout Paradise, Street Fighter IV and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Since then I also happened to pick up Eternal Sonata from EBGames which had it for 50% off. I actually bought all those games because I got them pretty cheap at the time what with a combination of Ebay and CD-WOW which puts pretty EBGames and most Australian stores to shame.

Other than that I haven't really been up to much else. I've gotten back into jogging, or kind of, as I try to go out three times a week. I also started throwing in push-ups to try and build some strength back up seeing how I haven't touched weights since just after Christmas seeing how I can't use the ones that were in my brother's room. Even just doing that little thing has shown results as I started back in at sets of ten which has already jumped up to sixteen push-ups. That is actually better than what I used to do before Christmas so buggered if I know. Well either way it's good for me and when I finally find a place in town I think I'll look at either joining a gym in town since I'll be close or maybe getting my own gear and setting up at home. I mean if I have the gear I know I can and will be able to use it because I did so before.

Other than that all there really is is work. Some days I like it, some days I hate it but I kind of need it so I just go along. I've been there other two months now with the mark of two years being very early April. For now I'll keep on going with everything and let's just see where life takes me.

World of Warcraft: Crusade of the Holy Light

2009-03-27T13:11:00.002+11:00

With sword and shield in hand the man bathed in a holy light treads over the fallen bodies of the battlefield. This is Durran, my human paladin who I have decided to pick up and play alongside of my current main, Zabrze. Don’t get me wrong as I love my little gnomish mage and playing him is a barrel of fun but a little change can never hurt. Not only that but switching between playing one or the other each night or two allows them to build up rested experience points which is a bonus for levelling. With that taken into account it should make the levelling a bit easier but then again if I was dedicating myself to playing just one character the net effect might be the same.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dreadmaul&n=Durran

So what is it like being a holy warrior of light? Well it’s a hell of a lot different to being a squishy cloth wearing mage, that’s for sure. All I can say is thank you for the mail armour, and later plate armour, though having a stock of green items to suit him up in as he levels is also probably helping thanks to Zabrze’s hoarding. Well unlike my mage who shatters like a glass cannon (slight exaggeration) I can actually take more than one bloody hit with Durran. On numerous occasions now I’ve taken on three mobs of the same level or so at once easily enough and bouncing between lone mobs has no downtime at all. Being able to heal mid-battle thanks to Durran’s abilities is handy as well for those kinds of fights plus it can fix me up quickly after a battle and still be fine as mana seems in excessive for him.

Speaking of abilities, the set for Durran seems rather basic so far but then again a mage does seem to have a shit load of spells to cover so maybe it’s not a fair comparison. Then again it could be that the paladin has a lot more support abilities whereas the mage has a majority of abilities that make things go boom and I’m really looking at combat potential so that makes me think the paladin is a bit basic. Actually, I suppose that when I think about it the mage was really just hotkey frostbolt, frostbolt, frost nova etc so it really isn’t that different. I’m sure there’ll be a lot more to it soon as more levels brings more new toys to play with and then there is the balancing of seals, blessings and auras.

It also all depends on what role I tailor the paladin to fit into. They are known as a hybrid class so depending on how you spec their talents they can fill either a healing, tanking (enemy mitigation) or DPS (damage dealing) role. Ultimately I want to take Durran as a tank as it is something so very different when compared to the DPS role my mage fills. Tanking involves keeping the enemy’s attention on you to keep them off of attacking the rest of your party which sounds easy enough but doing it well may not be so easy. For now though I’m taking off down the Retribution tree for talents instead of the Protection tree to help with the damaging dealing needed to help with making these earlier levels and questing easier. Once I hit level 30 or so I’ll see about doing a respec into Protection and taking it from there. I’ve already been building up a cache of equipment aimed for those levels up to there so I should be covered as well.

Last night at level 17 I hit the Deadmines instance with a group for the first time with Durran. I was invited in as the tank and there was a mage, hunter and shaman who were all around my level whilst we had a lowly level 12 priest taking up the healing spot who I was quite unconvinced about being able to take on the Deadmines. I really shouldn’t say much as I was quite unsure how I’d go at tanking the place as well. It didn’t go to badly at first though as we cleared the first and second bosses quite easily enough and I held onto them pretty well. Trash mobs though were a bit harder to handle since they can in multiples. It was there that we had our first, and second wipe, as we came to the foundry which is filled with goblins and was the same place my very first run of Deadmines came to an end as well. Our shaman slipped (or jumped) off right at the bottom of the spiral ramp leading down into the place and caused a whole lot of aggro from about five or six goblins which overwhelmed us. I have no idea what happened the second time as I grabbed a lone mob, picked up a second, and was handling that fine then all of a sudden we were all trying to run for our lives from a whole lot more. I tried staying behind to keep the enemy off the rest of the group so they could escape but that didn’t work.

With two wipes and it being close to midnight I just about quit right there and then but the mage jumped out and brought their level 80 druid in to just smash through the rest of the instance. I didn’t pick up any drops from the bosses but I did walk away with a level up and a new green chest, sword and shield whilst also bagging the pants for the Defias Leather set. So my first tanking attempt didn’t go so crash hot but I’m still only specced in the Retribution tree and I think it will become a lot easier as I level up and gain new abilities which are better for grabbing and holding aggro. Level 20 shall prove to be a real good step toward that as I gain Consecrate which is an area effect ability that deals holy damage to the area around me and anything caught there. So all in all I am looking forward to seeing how my paladin Durran goes.

As I said though I’ll still be playing Zabrze as my main character and he is going quite strong as of late. Last night he hit level 45 and another quarter to a level up so with me heading to a new zone next I should be laughing. His equipment is coming along nicely, or I think so, with me finally picking up a decent set of boots to replace my current measly plus frost damage ones I’ve been using since the 20s. Now I’ve just to set my sights on a nicer belt, rings and finally getting a hold of my first necklace and trinkets. I see no trouble with some of my current equipment lasting me some time into the future. The robe in particular looks to be quite nice and I’m very happy to have picked that up on an uncontested roll from an instance dungeon run.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dreadmaul&n=Zabrze

On the subject of instance dungeons I’ve hit a few milestones there. The biggest I think is that I was finally able to run one on Zabrze completely solo after a handful of attempts over the last month. It wasn’t the Deadmines which eventually fell to me after all those failed attempts at it. On my first run of it I cleared the Wailing Caverns out all by my lonesome so I was pretty stoked on managing those two firsts at the same time. It’s cool to see the little achievement announcement pop up when clearing a dungeon and between my multiple clearings of Uldaman and this clearing of the Wailing Cavern there was also a first time clear of Zul’ Farrak. Next on my list of instance dungeons to clear should probably be the Scarlet Monastery before I get too far beyond its level.

In amongst the clearing instances and general questing for levels I grew a little burned out and spent one night purely on exploration. Those shiny little achievements managed to grab my attention so I took to my mech-turkey and rode across the land to grab some of those exploration achievements for zones. In that one sitting I covered quite a bit of ground from one side of the world to the other and knocked over five of the exploration achievements. It’s kind of fun how you can just take off on a complete tangent and find your own things to do to amuse yourself though in this case there is a shiny title you can earn for yourself if you manage to explore every zone completely. Eventually I hope to earn that for myself but in the meantime it’s just fun to have a look around the world every now and then for a bit of a break.

Another break saw me working on my professions and from that I must say that fishing is rather boring. Now I remember why I didn’t bother with trying to keep it levelled up to this point. Getting it into the 100s did give me plenty of raw fish to cook which in turn raised my cooking level up though so can’t really complain too much. With quite a bit of cloth built up from instance runs I brought my first aid somewhat up to speed as well which for my squishy mage I may find somewhat handy sometime when I need the heal from the bandages. The cloth also saw me able to work on my tailoring which somewhat disappointingly hasn’t garnered me anything super cool to actually wear myself.

The main profession work went into enchanting though as that was severely lagging behind when compared to my tailoring, especially after the recent boost it got. To get it up involved quite a bit of wading through the auction house for materials necessary to do my enchants. I didn’t buy the raw reagents though but instead picked up cheap green items and disenchanted them myself. Going about it that way actually seemed to work out quite well for my money. The only tricky part came when I need a golden rod to make the key item used to progress in my enchanting as at first there were none on the auction house and then when a couple did pop up they had exorbitant prices attached. I did manage to get one in the end though and have powered up a bit through my enchanting but it still lags behind my tailoring.

With what I think to be a fair bit of progress with Zabrze the final thing seems a bit of a step back. I quit the guild that he was in which whilst it is a bit of a shame I definitely won’t be missing much. The shame comes from not being with a group of people I can fall back on but then I won’t be missing much seeing how I didn’t actually do that. For what time I was on there was not very much interaction between the guild members from what I saw. The one example that sticks in my head is one of the higher up members lining up an instance run on the calendar which others and I signed up for. Given my level I could’ve been seen as helping with the run so it wasn’t that I was just bludging the run but come to the assign time there was no sign of the organiser at all. Bah, whatever… For now I’m back to solo and I definitely won’t be actively looking to jump back into a guild any time soon. Then again, you get guilds actively trying to recruit you as Durran got one dwarf send me a message asking if I wanted to join their new levelling guild they were in and then I also got two random guild invites with no word from the inviter.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with my progress in the World of Warcraft so far. In the length of time I have been playing now some people could’ve probably level like eight characters to level 80 whereas I have one character who is only barely halfway to that point. I guess so long as you enjoy playing you can go do things however you bloody well want and whatever pace you feel like. It really is one of the things I like about the game, just that kind of freedom. I just wish I did have more time to play the game but as has been shown recently I’m not actually at that place where my computer and internet connection is much these days so I just can’t.

Life Kicked Me in the Balls

2009-03-26T16:09:00.000+11:00

So lately I haven't really wanted to write much on what has been going on with me. It has essentially shot to hell my whole Moment of Life run I had going but there is no way I would've been able to cram what I want to say into the space that I allow myself for those entries. Then there is the fact that I simply haven't been in the mood for it, or maybe its that I knew my current mood would taint and probably destroy any hope I could hold onto in making those posts. I still can't guarantee it won't as I'm still holding onto these feelings and I swear that at times I don't know whether I want to just punch something until it breaks, sit down in a little ball in the corner and let the tears roll, or wallow in the blackest of thoughts. All I know for sure is this fucking hurts and I'm holding a whole lot of hatred now.

To think that just a couple of months ago I was seeing this recent time in life as possibly the happiest I had ever been. Yeah, I should have known that would get dragged to the ground, kicked in the balls and dragged over the hot coals. The two things I felt the most about from the last year were Tracy, my girlfriend who've I've been together for nearly three months now, and the other being buying a house with my family and living with them. My relationship with Tracy is going pretty well I think and I love her but the whole house and living with my family has been shot to absolute shit now.

One Sunday at about the start of this month my mother asked me to think about moving out. Essentially there is no real choice there, she is asking me to move out as in the end that is the only final option she feels is left. Things have kind of gone downhill there at the house but it isn't her fault. No, she isn't the one who wants me to move out but she is caught in the middle and copping a lot of shit. It's endless, every single day it hits her and we tried but no, it just isn't really going to work anymore. That is why there is no real choice here, and while it may hurt me a hell of a lot it must be hurting her even more to have to ask this.

It's because of that arrogant piece of shit. Never have I hated someone until now, or this is as close to true hatred for it is really such an incredible strong thing. He couldn't remain civil when this began and thus I am just so beyond caring anymore. All the years of shit, not just toward me but the others... Yeah, hate sums this up well whilst keeping this somewhat pleasant to read. There is so much more I want to say about him but those words would be so dark.

For now I’m looking for a place to move to and rent. I just don’t want to stick around there and every time I have to go back actually drags my mood down severely. Luckily I’ve managed to cut it down to only two nights a week but at times I’ve thought that sleeping in my car would be better than there. When I do go back I just lock myself away in my room and stay there for as much as I can. Thankfully that works well enough and I just spend the night playing World of Warcraft or browsing the internet and chat seeing how this is the only time I do get to do that throughout the week.

Hopefully I find a place in town to rent soon enough and then I have the fun job of moving once more. Even though I only have my bedroom and I’ve only moved a handful of times in my life I bloody hate packing and unpacking my stuff. Then there will be the task of buying stuff to furnish out my old place. Tracy and I sat down and put out a list of stuff I’d need to buy or get somehow for myself. Dad has pointed out he has a few things I could have if needed so that is handy but I have savings which I can break into to buy up some stuff.

Well so there we go, that has been what has kicked my life in the balls the last month and why I haven’t really felt like posting anything. I guess we’ll see how I go at getting back into the swing of things.

To Have You In My Arms Again

2009-03-02T12:23:00.000+11:00

Tracy is finally home. For today that is all that really matters when compared to anything else. I know it hasn't even been two weeks but I really did miss her whilst she was off on her trip to visit her friend Angela who had come from Greece. Absence does make the heart grow fonder as they say though I can also see the time apart as having been a good thing. We're each individuals with lives of our own, paths that will take us on a different way though life at times and that is the way it just is sometimes. Anyway, as Tracy was saying I did survive without her but it really is good to have her back.

I met her at the train station here in town as I just... felt it was right? I don't know, it was a feeling that is a bit hard to nail down in words but I felt like I just had to be there. For once the train was on time and there she was, dragging that suitcase of mine behind her which she had mentioned weighed around 20 kilograms now. Of course I offered to take the bag and we loaded it up in the car and headed off for the Mc Donalds nearby to meet Tracy's family.

I'd already ate but Tracy had been on a train since before lunch time so she went with a deli choice roll. It didn't take long for Tracy's family to turn up either and they had something to eat as well but I'd already grabbed something when I'd first gotten into town. Whilst we were sitting there waiting for the family to turn up I noticed a woman at a table in the corner with a laptop. It was my Biology teacher from high school, I can't believe that I finished high school six years ago already and though she was a bit of a hard arse in the end she was a pretty good teacher. Her laptop got me thinking though and sure enough on he door to Mc Donalds there was a sticker saying that there was free wi-fi available so off I went and got my netbook out of the car. It didn't seem to hook in and work at first plus when it did it seemed slow but it was enough for Tracy to quickly check her e-mail.

It was surprising how much time we spent at Mc Donalds but in the end we got Tracy home and her family didn't stay long there. I wasn't going to stay long either, and definitely wasn't going to spend the night, as I thought Tracy's first night back should be just for herself so she can settle back in at home and get her unpacking and whatever else done. Before I headed off though I took her to the supermarket to pick up a few quick things she really needed before she could manage to go out and do a proper shop. I was going to stay for dinner with her but it was going to probably be getting close to dark by the time we'd finish and with no low beam on my head lights at the moment I'd be a little screwed with driving home.

So off I went home and made it there is no trouble of fuss. Mum wasn't home but she'd messaged me to say as much already and wouldn't be home for dinner. I pulled in the washing from outside off the rack we'd set up for my socks and shorts in the morning. With having to get my own clothes line to do my washing on but not actually having of gotten one yesterday there was a bit of a wonder on what I'd do with my washing this weekend since it was in desperate need of doing what with no work clothes left. When I told Tracy about this latest stupidity she said I could do it at her place but for now mum said I could hang it on the little line in the computer room inside where it would dry ok. So in the morning before going into town to pick up Tracy that is exactly what I did in a mad flurry of washing... Well ok, it was only one load.

Oh and whilst the washing was going in the machine that morning I took to my hair with the clippers. I'd been thinking this last week I needed a hair cut and my eldest brother, John, was having his girlfriend do his then John touched up Ivan, my youngest brothers, hair straight after but they said if I wanted I'd be able to manage mine myself. They used to do it for me but they were right in that I'd be able to manage it myself really. I mean it has the length thing that clips on it so you can't cut it any shorter than what that allows so you'd be pretty safe, right? Seems the longest thing for the electric clippers was still just a bit too short though but I think my hair looks neater at least and maybe it isn't too bad when I really look at it.

Back to the night though as I still had no dinner to go with having skipped out at Tracy's. My brothers were home along with John's girlfriend and they were into making stuff for themselves to eat. Ivan had been eating a bowll of the noodles I would've ate at Tracy's whilst John shortly afterwards was making some for himself. On top of that they were throwing pies and chips into the oven to cook which seems like a bit too much. No one seemed interested in the last slice of leftover pizza that was in the fridge so I ate that after asking if anyone actually wanted it. Somehow as I was munching on that Ivan managed to spill his glass of Pepsi everywhere and this just isn't any glass but a massive bloody thing.

They were all watching a movie in the lounge room that held no interest to me so I was wandering around with my netbook which I got back from Tracy after lending it to her for her trip away. Photoshop CS3 went onto it perfectly which was the one program I didn't manage to get onto it before I gave it off to Tracy. Not interested in the movie I went to my room where I set the netbook up on my bed by my side to chat and such whilst I played World of Warcraft on my desktop. It actually works out pretty well this way and saves me having to get a second monitor to do such things as I originally planned.

World of Warcraft saw me entertained for most of the night as I continued on questing through Desolace before being invited by a guild mate into to group to tackle a instance dungeon. I can't even begin to think how to spell it, something like Zul' Farrak? It was one I hadn't tackled so far and I was a tad under the level for it normally but hell, that just makes it more exciting. We actually had some trouble filling out the rest of the group, namely getting us a healer, so that proved to actually be harder than the dungeon itself. The dungeon only saw two deaths, myself and our healer, and there was a massive and drawn out battle on top of a case of stairs that might have been pretty close but we survived through. In the end though the only ting I walked away with was a level up, and I was already close to getting that to begin with. No equipment came my way at all and in fact, nothing even dropped that was remotely of any interest to me at all which is disappointing.

Thoughout the night Tracy and I were messaging each other back and forth in amongst all this. Made it a bit tricky to play World of Warcraft, chat and check the internet on the netbook and text message as well but I managed. It was sometime after midnight that I finally went to sleep and it was well after that that Tracy went to bed. She was quite the busy girl for the night and after it all I'm sure she would've slept pretty well and I bet it felt good to be back in her own bed.

Moments of Life: Friday, 27th February 2009

2009-03-02T12:21:00.000+11:00

Thank God it's Friday though I'm not actually religious so hmmm, maybe not the best choice of words. Work was just doing what I should've done yesterday afternoon but couldn't since I got stuck not being able to finish the wages until after lunch sometime. Well shit happens and even then I didn't get everything done so bleh, have to do some journal entries which I hate doing. Picked up Ivan after work since he needed a lift, gave him one in the morning as well, and stopped off at Bunnings to check out clothes line. We got home just as mum did and I went to help her with making pizza for dinner. She managed to forget to bring the bag of shopping home from work that had the mushrooms, tomatoes and capsicum in it for pizza though so I had to go over to Bi-Lo to buy them and whilst there she added tomato paste to the list though that text message came though just as I paid for everything. In the end we got the pizza done and it was pretty nice as I took to how I make them at Tracy's with fetta cheese. After dinner I sat in the lounge whilst mum watched Better Homes & gardens and finished reading Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 12 which took a weird turn which usually happens when Doctor Strange gets involved. That didn't last me long though so I went off and played World of Warcraft for the rest of the night as the choice on television rather sucks these days.

Moments of Life: Thursday, 26th February 2009

2009-02-27T12:29:00.001+11:00

And here we go again. Well at least something was different about today to the last two in that work was stupidly frustrating. Thursday equals pay day which is generally an easy and simple thing where by the end of the morning it is done but oh no, not this time. That’s fine, it wasn’t like I had other things such as the superannuation and payroll tax to do in the afternoon instead of trying to finish the actual payroll itself first. On the things which are good for the day stuff Tracy finished up and Melbourne and her plane landed safely in Sydney where she is staying for the next couple of nights. I know it will only have been about a week and a half for us being apart but I’ll be damned if I haven’t missed her despite the texting and phone calls. I so can’t wait to just be able to hold her in my arms and kiss those sweet lips of hers. Moving on before I get way carried away with all the other things I’d like to do… Played a bit of World of Warcraft for the afternoon and night where I helped out a couple of my fellow guild members by tailoring some bags for them. It was a relatively easy thing to do but quite helpful for their characters who were just starting out. After I said if they needed anything else then they could give me a shout out if I was on and I’d try to help if I could. I then spent the rest of the time in the game running around some zones to find all the areas in them to pick up the exploration achievements for those zones since I was a bit burned out on questing. Managed to knock down five of them which took me from one side of Azeroth to the other before I called it a night.

Moments of Life: Wednesday, 25th February 2009 (Forked Edition)

2009-02-26T15:22:00.000+11:00

So Tuesday, huh… Oh wait, I’m supposed to be talking of Wednesday. Funny, Wednesday just seemed like Tuesday as same usual shit but just a different day I guess. At least I got to have a good laugh to myself when told I’d have to buy and put up my own clothes line. Oh ho ho ho, how can you not laugh at such insanity though maybe that’s just me because I am so far over it all now. I was quite happy to just try and stay out of the way where possible to try and limit any clashes, or at least would try to act civil enough when there was no choice but to have to deal with it. You can stick a fork in me now…

Into the Heart of Darkness (Part II)

2009-02-25T12:25:00.002+11:00

Whilst every building that lined the streets was in obvious disrepair this building that the pair headed toward looked as if it had one foot in the grave. Whatever colour the exterior paintwork had been it was now a charred black as it flaked from the walls. Those walls themselves did not escape as cracks raced across every visible square inch and various holes where chunks had been gouged out marred the façade as if they were bad pock marks. Glass from the four windows that lined the front of the building were long gone, shattered into oblivion, and one window had been given an extension as part of the wall bordering it had been torn asunder to double its size.

What had once been a set of magnificent wooden doors, mahogany perhaps, carved to serve as the gateway inside now looked as if they could not stop a slight breeze from entering. These once beautiful carved double doors were now a pale shade of their past selves. One was nearly only half itself as some force had smashed it to pieces with splinters still littering the floor just inside the doorway. The other door hung precariously off of one hinge, barely keeping hold onto what dear life it had left.

Above the doorway hung a lone sign that once upon a time probably announced something about the place. By some miracle it still hung straight but the words scrawled there were broken with nissing letters. The first line began with a capital ‘a’ and ‘l’ as if they were some abbreviation. To what they stood for the dark man had no idea for he was never good with abbreviations. From there a space followed and ended with a capital ‘s’ but this new word broke there only to be picked up again with an ‘n’ and a ‘g’ together. There was yet more space after that and then the line ended with a simple ‘e’ which flowed directly into an ‘s’. The second line faired no better as it started with a capital ‘c’ and ended abruptly with a ‘b’. The space between those two sole letters marked their lost neighbours.

The robed figure wasn’t given a moment to dwell on what the sign had once said or its meaning as his companion did not pause before the derelict building. Without a glance back the kitten pounced up the gutter from the street, slunk across the sidewalk and delicately slipped between the broken doors. Its passing disturbed not a piece of rubble or speck of dust as the feline disappeared into the darkness beyond the doorway.

Following suit the dark man stepped up toward the doorway, leather boots kicking aside chunks of the building that had fallen or been torn out. If he hadn’t known any better he would have guess this place had fallen victim to a raid gone wrong, or even a war could’ve broken out here. If this is what had become of the outside then he dreaded to what had befallen the interior. Cautiously he reached out with a gloved hand to push aside the door that hung from the lone hinge to allow him to pass. Fingers outstretched, the tips grazed the surface of the once fine wood and the world as he knew it flashed out of sight from his own two eyes.

The doors leading into the building were flung open, and the resulting splash of light revealed a young woman of about eighteen with silky black hair and fierce green eyes. She was clad in a slim black dress, slitted at the sides, and black heels. The young lady strode into the corridor and through to the welcoming room without a pause of hesitation, looking around for familiar faces or ones she'd like to become familiar with.

Not so much as a hiss came from behind the door as it were flung wide open by the newest arrival to the place. Oblivious to what had just happened the woman had continued on her way in whilst the door slowly shut itself and revealed that something had been caught behind it when it opened. Too surprised to have even let out a hiss and now too stunned to give a simple meow, the crumpled form of a jet black kitten laid against the wall beside the door. When the door had been flung open it had caught the feline unawares as it moved through the shadows of the corridor and left the poor thing slightly crushed from the experience.

Over the space of a few minutes it laid there as its mind and finally body set itself right. As it had been laying there yet another had entered the building but luckily for the kitten the second new arrival hadn't opened the door so far. Sluggishly it rose from the floor and shook its head as if it were a person trying to awaken their mind after a sleep. Its tail flicked from side to side in long quick arcs as it peered around with its keen yellow eyes as it gave a quick search and account of those people within the room beyond. From where the kitten was it spied the woman who had made such an entrance. In its gaze there was no malice toward the lady for she could simply not have known and besides, the fluffy feline was not truly hurt from it.

From its look around the room the kitten had noted something. Not wanting to hang near the door any longer lest it suffer from it once more, the shadow-like feline leaped away from the portal and started toward the room waiting beyond.

With a final groan the lone hinge gave way as the door crashed to the ground and broke the dark man from the images. What he had seen still stuck in his mind, the woman he did not know but the kitten caught behind the door was no doubt his companion. This image he had seen he knew to be a memory from a time past. A time from before this place had come to grief and life had once blessed it with its presence.

Why did the man see this image, this memory, though? True, it was within his power to call forth such memories left imprinted by the past on objects and such but that had always been at his calling and whim. This had not even been a particularly strong memory and he was at a loss as to what purpose there was behind him being shown it. Was there perhaps another hand behind this that wanted him to see it for their own reason that they had hidden? Whatever it was it was clear that his feline companion was inexplicitly tied to this place one way or another.

Moments of Life: Tuesday, 24th February 2009

2009-02-25T12:24:00.001+11:00

Alarm went off at 6:00AM like usual so I got up and turned the hot water on but went back to bed for fifteen minutes. I spurred myself into action when the second alarm went off and got off to work in the end. Another rather uneventful day followed which kills the chance of writing something exciting but I did get a reply to my e-mail from Tracy down in Melbourne which gave me a smile and brightened the rather dull day for even just a moment. When I got home I read a couple of chapters from Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 12 which was a two part whacked out story where Spider-Man and Wolverine have their minds swapped over into each others bodies- was fairly funny but completely filler. Played a bit of World of Warcraft before dinner and hit level 41 but I was pretty close to levelling up when I began the session. After dinner I sat and chatted to a couple of people online who I know from a forum I used to go to. While I was talking to one I decided to go back to that old forum and send a private message to another person I know who I hadn’t spoken to for quite some time but knew was back on the forum for now. When I realised the time I gave Tracy a call before going to sleep for what was supposed to be another quick see how her day was kind of thing since she was wanting to head to Chapel Street in Melbourne but it ended up being 45 minute talk. I don’t mind at all though, actually talking is easier than texting plus she doesn’t really have the credit to go messaging back, and it’s not like I actually call anyone else.

Oh Mister Sandman Bring Me a Dream

2009-02-24T09:47:00.000+11:00

I miss my dreams. Well I mean I miss not remembering them as I am sure I do dream. It is only very rare occasions that I actually can recall a dream these days whereas growing up nearly every night yielded at least one for me to wake up to. They were often so fun, so exciting, and just such a great escape whether it was something out of reality or following what could be an everyday occurrence of nothing too special. I like to think that these days I have a pretty creative mind so there is no telling what effect that could have on my dreams. In the end there was just that warm feeling from waking up from a dream that makes them something I like.

These days I consider myself very lucky to remember anything of a single dream just once in a blue moon. For instance the last dream I remember having was Monday last week but the one before that was back in mid-December. That is pretty well two months apart and the one before that again I can’t even recall at all so it must have been that long ago. Tracy on the other hand says she dreams quite a bit more regularly so I’m somewhat jealous. I don’t know what it is that has brought about this change over the years but I’ll be damned if I didn’t want it to piss off and give me back my dreams.

Even if it means the possibility of having dreams like my last one then I still want them back. This last dream just the other week, well I guess you could call it a nightmare of sorts since it wasn’t what you would call pleasant. What I did catch of it and remember wasn’t very long, a minute or two at most, but because of what happened in this part that I did catch would be the reason as to why I remember it I believe.

It started with seeing Tracy from behind as she was walking along a footpath and from what it appeared she seemed to be in a bit of a hurry but reasons can’t be known. The footpath lead straight ahead to a pedestrian crossing and without even stopping to check Tracy stepped out onto it which isn’t like her at all usually. She stepped right out in front of an incoming car who hadn’t seen her, been expecting it, or whatever but it was clear they weren’t slowing in time and were going to hit her. In that instant things shifted, the whole vision leapt forward and a hand grabbed Tracy tightly by the arm and yanked her backwards off the crossing before pulling outward to show me swinging her around off the in that same moment. So up until that point I’d been seeing it all from my perspective, Tracy had been walking in front of me and from how she’d been I have to wonder if she was trying to walk away from me in such a hurry. Had I done something to upset her, to anger her perhaps? The next instant saw Tracy crash to the ground where she’d been flung to the relatively safe footpath as the car hit me and sent me flying, rolling along the road in mess of limbs flailing and scrapped flesh. As my body came to rest a moment or two passed and then I was awake, like my mind didn’t want to stick around to see the results.

Dreams are dreams you may say, they don’t necessarily have to mean anything and are just a figment of our imagination. For others they are open to interpretations, a reflection of life and meaning through ways that are hard to explain. To me though they are rare, something that doesn’t come along that often for me so when they do I can’t help but feel that I should sit up and take notice of them somehow. Maybe dreams are trying to tell the waking self something whether it is important or not. I imagine that the subconscious picks up on so many tiny little things that we just generally overlook so maybe dreams are its way of reaching out. Then again I could just be silly in that all and some would say I should just put it down to be just being a bad dream and nothing more.

Things are never that simple though and there is something else that has made me take notice of this most recent dream, something that made it scarier than it probably should. As I said, dreams are a rare thing for me so I like to try to take notice of them but the thing is that the dream before this last one actually happened, it came true. Things didn’t play out in real life exactly as they did in the dream but the same idea, the same act, it did happen and was close enough with only one thing being really different. This dream and the real life act that reflected it were incredible, and will be a moment I remember for the rest of my life. The dream did pale in comparison though but that was probably because when it did happen for real it was better than I could have hoped for.

So what some may say; if you have enough dreams based in the confines of reality then there is bound to be something there that happens that also comes to pass in your real life. That dream had been so close in its entirety that it wasn’t funny and normally I’d probably agree that it is silly but the fact that that one came true can’t help but cause this latest dream to shake me up even more because what if that one comes true as well? If anything were to happen to Tracy I don’t know what I’d do as I don’t ever want to see her hurt, let alone hit by a car. It utterly crushes me to think of such things but if it happened for real, and that I was there as it was happening... I don’t think I could stand by and not try if there was that chance to act.

What would you truly do for the one you love? Maybe that is what the dream was trying to tell me instead of serving as a warning or to show what bad things can happen. Perhaps it was a way for my mind to just reaffirm how much I care for Tracy, what she really means to me; it isn’t the action here that is important but the reaction. Then again, I could once more be delving far too much into these kinds of things so who knows. I think I’ll just leave it all there for now and just say I hope that the future will bring me far more dreams than it has been, no matter what they are.

Come along Mister Sandman, take me to the Land of All Nights Dreaming.

Moments of Life: Monday, 23rd February 2009

2009-02-24T09:46:00.000+11:00

Monday-itus strikes again as I roll over to the alarm and just want to stay in bed. Unfortunately work can’t be avoided and without it I have no money so I drag myself off. Work proved to be a typical Monday except for the thunder late in the afternoon so staying in bed would’ve been nice. Once I knocked off I headed to the shopping centre for a look around and to stop at the supermarket to pick up a couple of BBQ chickens for dinner. On the way home I stopped by Tracy’s place again and this time the front door was open so her brother was there and let me in. He seemed to be doing fine looking after the place whilst Tracy is in Melbourne and her dog, Sam, and cat, Oliver, were quite excited to see me. I didn’t stay for long, just mainly to say hello plus a bit of a quick chat and I grabbed my leftover suitcase and carry bag from my recently purchased set which I’d left there. As I was driving home it started to rain a bit but the thunder and lightning really picked up and I could see it across the sky. When I got home the rain was absolutely pouring so lucky I had an umbrella in the car. I got to pulling apart the chickens and preparing for dinner right away and nearly straight after we were done eating I got into the washing of the dishes. Once they were done I went off to my room to play some World of Warcraft but while waiting to travel between zones I thought I’d call Tracy for a quick chat on how her day went but the phone call turned into an hour long conversation which was nice, I miss her. Managed to get a quick bit of playing done in the end but got killed by an undead hunter so called it quits and went to bed.

World of Warcrack: Half Way There

2009-02-23T12:42:00.001+11:00

So it has been a while since I’ve dribbled on about World of Warcraft and the escapades of my little gnome, Zabrze. Yes I am still playing the weird munchkin who can turn people into sheep and then light them on fire. Not that I particularly condone that kind of acts of cruelty against animals (people-animals, you know what I mean) but in this game it’s kind of funny. It was that thought all those months ago that helped me pick the mage class and my tiny friend to be my main character. I’ve not really touched any other character in all that time with the next highest being my level 13 (or 12) night elf hunter who got a last run of being used back at Christmas when I used her to harvest eggs for making Christmas cookies to flog off on the auction house for gold.

All this playing on Zabrze has seen me reach a milestone this weekend which I briefly mentioned in one of my recent blog entries and is alluded to with this one’s title. Zabrze has finally hit level 40 after months of play which I think has come to equate to three solid days of play. Level 40 is the midway point in the level scale for characters in World of Warcraft so now it’s just a matter of slogging through yet another forty to make it to the level cap of 80. I’m in no particular rush though which I think is pretty clear given the length of time it has taken me to just reach level 40.

Not that I would complain either way as the time playing so far has been pretty fun even if it was largely just by myself which is funny since World of Warcraft is a massively multi-player online role-playing game. For some people they just love the questing, the getting out there and exploring the lands and seeing the sights that those quests take you on. If they are lucky they even get into the story and lore behind the world and the quests they are being sent on. I’m not so much into the lore at this point but I absolutely love this exploring and tackling new things so just wandering around doing shit by myself has suited me fine.

Hopefully I won’t be alone much more these days as this last weekend has brought much about. First of all I finally joined a guild after just being offered an invite by a guy I came across whilst questing in the balmy tropics of Stranglethorn Vale. There wasn’t really much to the invite as I came across Stovey when handing in a quest at an encampment where he was trying to do the same. He’d been in the general chat channel trying to get the quest items he needed and I happened to have one so I traded with him. Seeing I was not in a guild he just flat out came and asked if I was interested in joining one. I said that if I found one of interest then sure and from there he offered up some info as I also asked some questions about the guild. Turns out they were just a levelling and social guild which suited my kind of playing style so I figured what the hell and joined. We’ll see how it all goes over the coming weeks and whether or not I stick with them.

On top of joining a guild for a bit of socialising I also managed to get together with a few more people. Late Friday I threw myself into the looking for a group panel for a few dungeons and for once it actually worked as a group picked me up for Razorfen Downs which was a dungeon just around my level that was tucked away in the south side of the Barrens. Normally a pick up group such as this can have quite a few problems but more so for the bigger raid dungeons whilst we had no problem at all clearing through Razorfen. With two paladins and a warrior we had tanking of monsters easily covered with some healing if we needed which gave me the safety to just blast shit. All in all it was a good run with us all getting some equipment from the loot and I walked away with a very incredible new robe. When the run was over and I portalled us all back to Theramore we ended up adding each other to our friends list so we could do another run together if we were on since we seemed to have hit it off well enough.

The next night the looking for group panel actually proved it could work again as a group picked me up for another dungeon called Uldaman. This dungeon was just a tad higher than my level at the time and from what I gathered we’d be needing a full party of five to safely be able to clear it. When I joined we were short and still looking for a final member but when I looked at my friends list a couple of the guys I ran through Razorden were on so I sent one an invite to join the group on the run and he accepted. So this whole grouping thing proves useful in getting you some people you can call on again for help and not only that but the party also had one of my new found guild mates in it. We had absolutely no trouble at all running through Uldaman and the loot dropped well which saw me picking up a nice set of pants… Though they came from a lady so I be wearing the womenz pants.

Running on the fresh success of the run we instantly turned to ideas of what next which just as quickly jumped to doing another run of Uldaman again. My guild mate had to drop out and so did the guy I invited from the night before but as he was leaving he whispered me to say that one of the other guys from the night before wanted in. Wasting no time I let our group leader know who added him in and a quick spam of the channels saw us get back a fifth member as well so we were off again. This run didn’t go as smoothly as the first though as our party got completely wiped when things went wrong on pulling some enemies. That didn’t stop us though and we went on to complete the dungeon a second time though this time no real exciting loot for me. From these two runs I added a couple of more people to the friends list who I may drop a whisper to sometime to see if they want to party up again for another dungeon, namely the party leader who was a pretty cool shaman and a female paladin character who was acting as healer.

If that wasn’t enough for the weekend on Sunday I found myself looped into yet another Uldaman run. After doing two back to back the night before you think I’d be sick of it but the lure of cool equipment and loot is a bit hard to resist. This time the party I was in got looped up with a level 80 death knight so we didn’t have to worry about anything on the run. Unfortunately the loot gods didn’t smile to kindly upon me again and I missed out on anything of real interest as I just disenchanted any crap I did manage to win the roll on.

Having jumped three levels over the course of the weekend and gaining many spell upgrades in the process I took to trying this new found power a couple of times. That testing was in the form of trying to tackle one of the earlier dungeons, Deadmines, completely and utterly alone. I’d been trying this feet every level since around 35 and the normal trashy mobs of enemies weren’t any real problem but when I came to the first boss he hammered me. This time at my new found level 40 I managed to drop him and when I got to the third boss (the second boss is optional which I skipped) I dropped his first form which was him in a big mechanical suit thing but once that was gone the little goblin drops out and keeps going. By that point I was low on the mana and health with no potions so I lost it. With a bit of preparation I could probably manage it as the third boss is easier than the first since he can be frozen or slowed down with my frost spells.

I must admit that despite the idea of setting sheep on fire I have turned my mage down the frost path when it comes to building up his talents and spell usage. For levelling they are so helpful is their slowing and snaring effects to trap the enemy at a safe distance. It really does make the killing, grinding and questing a fair bit safer and when its good the enemy won’t even touch you whilst one on one they have no chance. Frost is also good for taking on crowds as I still find the frost nova to freeze everybody before safely stepping back to drop a blizzard on them for many critical hits to work effectively. If they survive the group comes right into a cone of cold spell which should do the job though if not frost nova is nearly ready to go again. That is a far more exciting way to fight and really keeps you on your toes whereas the one on one taking down of enemies is a little bit more boring as it usually consists of frostbolt, frostbolt, frostbolt, frost nova, run away and frostbolt some more. I occasionally throw in a non-frost spell for the hell of it but I mean you can’t really argue when it gets the job done.

Speaking of spells and killing shit, the new action bar set up from Bartender and the key bindings is really working out bloody well now that I’ve got into tweaking and changing them to a satisfactory level. There was a few mistaken hits of the wrong key to begin with but I’ve gotten the hang of the new layout pretty quickly so the only problems comes from when I move a spell around on the action bar. The action bars themselves are arranged in what I think is a pretty nice and clean approach for myself as well. Actually, the whole user interface ended up with a rearrangement in some way as nothing was safe. All in all I’m pretty happy with the setup so we’ll see if it holds on through though more may be needed when I switch up and play another character.

Since I’ve got to the halfway point maybe now is the time to take a short break and play another character. I’ve been accruing a whole bunch of equipment for use on other characters someday so I’ll at least have some gear for any character I choose to go with though the melee focused have a lot more to choose from. Even if I just switch to this second character every few days it would prove to be helpful as it would allow me to build up some bonus rested experience points on Zabrze. Though my hunter is the highest levelled of my other characters I think I might go with Durran, my human paladin. People always seem to be looking for tanks and healers for parties which are both roles he could fulfil. Not only that but he’d give quite a change compared to my spell slinging munchkin so maybe I’ll have a quick look at take an account of all the tanking gear I have lying around. With my new guild I should have some help if I need it but I also think I’ll take to trying one of the levelling guides from the www.WoW-Pro.com website where Jame’s Alliance guide is the top notch one to follow. He’s actually working on an add-on so you can have all the guide information right there in World of Warcraft.

Well no matter which way I go there is still so much left for me in the world of Azeroth. I think it was at around this point in playing that I grew sick of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures but then again that was a pretty buggy piece of work that you eventually just grew the shits with. It’s a real shame though as I did like the world and lore there plus it was Conan… And it had the naked boobz. Speaking of which, where are the scantily clad night elf women dancing on top of mail boxes?

Moments of Life: Sunday, 22nd February 2009

2009-02-23T12:41:00.001+11:00

Since I was up late last night I slept in again until 8:00AM which was when I got up for breakfast and a shower. I spent the morning around the house that doing nothing in particular. At one point I helped mum with the washing by hanging it out after we threw a load on. The rest of the morning was spent fiddling around on the computer and bouncing in and out of World of Warcraft plus a quick look at the Empire: Total War demo and making my way through a couple of levels in World of Goo. Around midday I headed off to my grandparents house because they invited me for lunch. They managed to get my dad to come who I hadn’t seen since Christmas sometime but he didn’t stay long afterwards because he had to go to the Sydney airport to pick up a friend. I stayed afterwards and had a flick through the newspaper, attempted a Sudoku and a crossword but failed miserably, and then I sat down to play Gin Rummy with my grandparents for an hour or so, my pop won. I left there at around 3:30PM and on the way home I stopped in town at Tracy’s place to try and check how her brother and her animals were doing but no one answered. It was getting late so I skipped off on trying to stop in to see Tracy’s mum and younger brother and headed home. For the evening and night I pretty much just played World of Warcraft again, really just stopping to take all the washing off of the line and to give Tracy a call. Just before going to sleep I read the final chapter of Lucifer (Volume 4): The Divine Comedy then called it a night.

Moments of Life: Saturday, 21st February 2009

2009-02-23T12:40:00.002+11:00

Somehow I managed to sleep in until 8:00AM which was nice. I ate my usual breakfast of muesli and yoghurt before taking a late shower as to allow John’s girlfriend to get ready for work if she needed to. My brothers and their dad nicked off somewhere in the car which left my mum and I at home. Since mum was in a cleaning mood I vacuumed my bedroom and my mat which hadn’t been unrolled and laid out properly yet. With it clean and some boxes moved from under my bed we tried sticking it at the foot of my bed but it didn’t really hang out each side enough to make it useful. In the end I settled with sticking it on the far side of my room under the window which is where it practically was to begin with but this time rotated and fully unrolled but it looks nice there so go figure. After that I spent the time until lunch sorting through my cover discs from PC Powerplay magazine and sticking them in a nice CD/DVD box that I got as they can just all sit in there in sleeves instead of CD and DVD cases. For the rest of the afternoon and night I just sat and read a few chapters of Lucifer (Volume 4): The Divine Comedy with the rest of the time being used to play World of Warcraft where I ran another new dungeon not once but twice, and finally hit level 40. It wasn’t until sometime after midnight that I finally dragged myself off to bed.

Moments of Life: Friday, 20th February 2009

2009-02-23T12:40:00.001+11:00

Yawn, so boring of a day and I had such a shitty nights sleep Thursday night. Work was the normal stuff in the morning whilst the afternoon I spent sorting job cards for filing which is mind numbing work. Headed home straight after work where I helped mum make pizza for dinner. They turned out good and it was nice to have a home made pizza like they used to be. Throughout the evening and night I read the third volume of The Walking Dead which is proving to be a great little book and I can’t wait to receive the fourth volume this month. In amongst all that I played World of Warcraft for the rest of my time where I managed to get invited to a guild and accepted the invitation, and also ran through a new dungeon. Headed to bed some time before midnight at least and hoped for a better nights sleep this time.

Moments of Life: Thursday, 19th February 2009

2009-02-23T12:39:00.000+11:00

Unlike the usual of late I woke up at home since I slept there seeing how Tracy is off on her trip. That meant no little mid-week sleeping in so I dragged myself off to work. The mornings work consisted of doing the week’s payroll but it was a bit hard with the distracting fact that Tracy was flying down to Melbourne this morning. I managed to do something that may be a bit stupid on my part depending on how you look at it and then spent most of my lunch on the phone to Tracy. Work for the afternoon was nothing much exciting except for the little run through and explanation of the exchange server we’ve just set up and how it can share calendars between us all which is sort of useful. Once work was done for the day I headed to the shopping centre to go withdraw some money, buy some cold cut meat and had a bit of a chat to one of the guys in EB Games for a bit. When I headed home only my brother Ivan was there but he left in a few minutes afterwards so with the house to myself I hooked up the Wii and cranked up Guitar Hero World Tour to finish off the last gig I had unfinished. Dinner was an easy lot of toasted sandwiches when mum got home and not much else for the night. I tried playing World of Warcraft for a bit but didn’t accomplish much at all so I tried calling Tracy before bed to see how the rest of her day went and to say goodnight but I only had things fizzle there… Not surprised really.

Moments of Life: Wednesday, 18th February 2009

2009-02-19T14:19:00.000+11:00

Both Tracy and I woke up at around my normal time for work when the alarm went off so we could get ready and get her off to the train station for the 7:53AM train to Sydney. She was heading up there to stay for the night and then another early start to catch her 7:45AM plane to Melbourne. We took what time we could to stay in bed after the alarm went off and I would’ve loved to have stayed there longer but we had to get to it. We made it to the station early after dropping in at Tracy’s mum’s place to drop off keys and for Tracy to say goodbye. On the other hand I ended up late to work but it was worth the fifteen minutes lost. The day at work I can’t even remember what I did as it was just one of those days. When I got out of work it was nice to see some sunshine after the day, and most of the weekend, had been overcast and rainy. With Tracy gone I just headed straight home after work and dumped all my stuff. The evening and night were then spent playing World of Warcraft for the majority where I finished up my current lot of quests in the Thousand Needles and hit level 37 though I’d last logged out very close to the level up. I also got around to catching up on my downloading with the big ones being videos and television episodes I’d missed for Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and House.

Moments of Life: Tuesday, 17th February 2009

2009-02-19T12:01:00.001+11:00

Coming back to work after a rostered day off… Not so fun. The day at work was spent catching up on a few things from the day before that were left for me and then spent the afternoon checking and updating the costing of some of our products. I’d dragged the new netbook to work and let it update and install a few more things while I worked since it was idle. After work I headed straight to Tracy’s house where she had been trying to finish up on packing. Unfortunately her suitcase was stuffed full and she still had things to pack so it wasn’t looking good. Not letting that stand in the way I took her along and we headed down to the local K-Mart where I bought a suitcase myself that had five different sized bags, the biggest of which I hoped would cover what she needed. I mean I do need the suitcases and bags since I have none myself and have to use my old backpack from school to carry clothes when I go somewhere but I just grabbed them now so Tracy would have what she needed. When we got back we found the new cases could easily fit her case with room to spare so it was all good. I made up dinner whilst she finished the packing and then we settled down to watch some television and a movie, the Wizard of Oz, before bed. I found that my netbook had gotten even better when I got a Super Nintendo emulator running on there so game on!

Moments of Life: Monday, 16th February 2009

2009-02-19T11:47:00.001+11:00

Ahhh, a rostered day off of work. I spent the night at Tracy’s as there was things that needed to be done in town and with her going to Melbourne mid-week for nearly three weeks I wanted to spend what time I could with her. We woke up at a reasonable time so there could be a good start on running around town. The first stop was the travel agent so Tracy could book her flight which went without much trouble except for the fact the prices had jumped $10+ since Friday. Once that was done it was to the local Ticketek so Tracy could buy tickets to Wicked, the musical she would be taking her friend to for her birthday. The guy handling the Ticketek sales had a cool set of Keyblade tattoos on the inside of each forearm but he said I was like the third person to know what they were. When we finished there we headed to the Salvation Army where Tracy does volunteer work to check up and pick something up. From there it was a short hop over to my work where I printed off a couple of things for Tracy and more importantly I grabbed the MSI Wind netbook that I Robert was selling me. With all the important things done I headed home where I spent most of the night playing with the new little computer which appeared to be a pretty capable machine for what it was. I wanted to get it as set up as I could because I was going to lend it to Tracy for her trip down to Melbourne, and I did pretty well with that seeing how I got the more important programs installed.

Moments of Life: It Comes Tumbling Down

2009-02-19T10:30:00.000+11:00

I’m going to kick myself as I’ve slacked on keeping up the entries this last week so I’m playing catch up. I guess I’ll be picking back up with this Monday by skipping Friday the 13th, Valentines Day and the rest of the weekend. It’s not like there isn’t anything to talk about from those days but I’m just going to save myself from the effort of having to go too deeply into them. The only thing of any real note worth writing about was on Valentines Day as Friday the 13th saw nothing unlucky and Sunday was just a usual lazy day.

Tracy isn’t big on Valentines Day as she thinks you don’t need to wait until one certain day to give your special someone something nice, do something fun together, or just say I love you. In that way I do agree with her but that didn’t stop me from taking her out to dinner on the night. That wasn’t the main reason I took Tracy out to dinner though as Valentines Day really just happened to coincide with it all and come off as a pleasant tertiary reason. Once a month Tracy and I just happen to get all nicely dressed up and go out to eat at a restaurant which usually happens around the middle of the month sometime so this was kind of normal. Secondly, Valentines Day happened to be the day that marked two months since Tracy and I first kissed…

I guess I’ll just leave that at that.

A Little Four Letter Word

2009-02-18T08:37:00.001+11:00

Yet it is one that packs such big meaning. I’m talking of love, that profound feeling and emotion of tender, passionate affection. To each it can hold a bit of a difference in the meaning and a degree to which they use it. Some say it’s the strongest emotion one can feel when it truly has a hold but that’s for another time to talk about perhaps. To think that one little word can have such sway over people it really does go to show how it can have such a powerful effect

I’m not usually one to go on about such things but on Sunday I told Tracy I loved her for the first time. We’ve been together for nearly two months now and friends before that for two or so years. The last week before I’d been thinking of Tracy and what she really means to me though I often did that but not to this degree. Thoughts of her are often not far from my mind whether they be just wondering what she is doing at the time, seeing that gorgeous smile of hers, or how she lifts my feelings up with and makes me smile in turn. I’d told her some of my feelings; that she is coming to mean a lot to me, that I am pretty serious about her and my feelings for her, and that I care for her deeply. To me, when my head became clear I could see what I was truly trying to say.

Once I had the words though it was just a matter of saying them which wasn’t that easy. Here was pure emotion just wanting to burst out, to say how I felt, to just let it all go. Yet there was the hesitation, the doubt, the ‘what ifs’, and to be honest it did scare the shit out of me. Saying I love you, those few moments afterward can leave you the most vulnerable you’ve ever felt as those words have bared your heart wide open to another. I’ve never been real good with dealing with emotions, letting people know how I think or feel, and that sort of thing so just saying something so big is quite a deal to me let alone leaving myself open like that. It wasn’t helped by that I simply had no idea as to what would happen once I said those words. The only thing I was sure of was that I was fairly safe in thinking that I knew Tracy wouldn’t run off screaming never to be seen again, and that I did not expect it of her to return the words there and then when I said them.

After a few days and nights of wrestling with the words I did finally get them out on Sunday afternoon. I came to realise that there was no right or wrong way to say them, no right or wrong time to say them, and there was only how and when you wanted to say them. It just so happened that I was halfway through my drive home from Tracy’s place that it came to me and I turned around to head back. Nothing wrong could come of it so long as I was honest with how I felt as that is what is important and sure, it may not go perfectly but life ever rarely does.

If I did have more ideas on what could happen after I said I love you I don’t think they would’ve come close to what actually happened. It wasn’t that it was bad, it just happened to start out a little odd I guess. Whatever did happen I still feel true to my feelings and they haven’t changed, or if they have my emotions have gone even higher. I’m so happy to finally have it all out there and to not have to hold it in. It just all feels so right, and though she may not have returned the words to me I am fine with that as I never would expect it of her. I know Tracy cares about me and that I do mean a lot to her, and to know that and to hear that from her is enough.

I finished writing that on Friday the 13th which was last week and therefore makes the Sunday I told Tracy I love her the 8th of February, 2009. When I finished writing this I looked over it and thought that maybe I would just let it go, vanish off into the ether never to be seen again. A bit of time has passed since I wrote this and more words have been said, things have and haven’t happened but the one thing that is clear that my feelings remain the same. I love Tracy, and though she says she doesn’t like the word or hearing this mushy stuff it won’t change how I feel or what I want to say… Which is why I now know that I need this.

Moments of Life: Thursday, 12th February 2009

2009-02-13T10:31:00.001+11:00

The night before I actually remembered to set my alarm back a half an hour so I could sleep in a little. In the end I stayed in bed nearly an extra half an hour on top of that since it was so nice in there and I didn’t want to get up. I ended up a few minutes late to work but nothing to be troubled with really. The first thing I did for the day at work though was stick a photo of Tracy and I up on the divider at my desk. I got into doing the wages as per the usual Thursday drill but when I went to do the bank transfer for everyone’s wages though the modem wasn’t picking up a line and dialling out which was troubling as people kind of need their money. Turns out when Robert, our I.T. contractor, was giving the servicing shed their phone line today he went and pinched my modem’s line as it wasn’t marked down. A quick juggle around again and I had my line back whilst they still have a phone so we can direct calls to them. Before leaving work I let Robert know I wanted to go ahead with buying a netbook, a MSI Wind, so we talked the price and he said he’d bring it next time he was done. I stopped by Tracy’s before heading home though when I got there she was still out but was nearly home. When I got home I sat down to a very nice roast pork dinner that mum cooked and then I spent some time getting my stuff together for the weekend. I had to iron my shirt to wear out on Saturday night, and now I’ve got to try and keep it good until then. In amongst that I played World of Warcraft for a bit and got into catching up on some downloads before going to bed.

The Past Two Days…

2009-02-12T09:18:00.000+11:00

Anything else that happened on Tuesday is forgotten, is nothing, compared to the one event of the early evening that day. I was there for Tracy when she needed me and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It may be something she never wanted me to see but what happened, I wasn’t scared by it… The sense to keep her safe and protected was just overwhelming and there was nothing else, no room to be scared. I care for her, I love her, and I don’t ever want to see her hurt.

Yesterday I took the day off of work to stay with her. Tracy said I didn’t have to, that she’d be fine, but how could I not? Using up my day, my sick leave, to make sure that she was going to be alright is a small thing to give up when compared.

I love you, Tracy.

Moments of Life: Monday, 9th February 2009

2009-02-10T12:25:00.001+11:00

I woke up to find the skies overcast which I was actually happy to see after a stinking hot weekend. It stayed like that through the whole day and there was even some rain late in the afternoon which we need as my local area is looking to go into water restrictions for the first time in ever. Work was a bit of a non-event and I left an hour early to go to the RTA to take the Driver Qualification test for my full license. I passed the test despite majorly stuffing one of the questions in the hazard perception section and now I’m stuck with the photo on my license for the next five years. After the test I headed into town proper to go to the newsagency to pick up the new issue of Hyper which wasn’t on the shelf the other day when I picked up the new PC Powerplay magazine but alas Hyper was still not there. On the way home I stopped in for a short while at Tracy’s to see how she was for the day. Rushed on home to start cooking dinner as it was supposed to be my night to cook but mum was already on it. Once we ate I washed the dishes quickly to get them out of the way then played a quick gig on Guitar Hero: World Tour. I headed off to my room after that to play some World of Warcraft and before I went to sleep I read a chapter of Lucifer (Volume 4): The Divine Comedy though I should’ve really read some of The Sandman.

Into the Heart of Darkness (Part I)

2009-02-09T22:27:00.003+11:00

The silent street. Cracks that run through the once perfect sidewalks mar them like nasty scars. Litter and refuse now wander the street where people once trod. In the air the scent of salt wafted ever so gently from the ocean and beach nearby. What had once been just one more street of the proud city had fallen into disrepute. Nobody came here anymore; not a beggar, vagrant, homeless or misdirected soul. That was until tonight though.

By some miracle one of the street lights dotting the lonely stretch of the city still worked. Its pallid light was barely a beacon at all against the darkness of night. Constantly it flickered, seemingly clinging to the last strands of its life as if it were stubbornly waiting to fulfil one final goal in its life before passing on. Perhaps it had been waiting these past two years for him, to light the way ahead in this one single moment.

If you asked where he came from you’d struggle to find an answer as it was so sudden as he was simply there. One moment the street stood empty and dead yet the next second a single figure stood at its barren heart.

This man, for his figure showed that detail if nothing else, was wrapped in a robe as pitch as this night which hugged his form snugly. The robe of blackest black seemed to absorb what little light came from the lone light post and the stars above. With his hood drawn tight the details of his face were all but lost in the safe confines of his hollow but from the slight movement of the fabric it was clear that he passed a cursory glance over the street and all that lay there.

“What on earth are we doing here in this dump?” His voice broke the long kept silence of the street and it was clear by the tone that he was already bored with the dreary surrounds. The shambles of the street held nothing of interest and the lack of care had carried over the buildings as well. All looked like they had been abandoned for some time now and each in varying state of disrepair. One in particular looked like it had copped a vicious beating but other than that…

“We aren’t going to be doing anything,” A voice replied, barely more than a whisper it seemed to carry on the breath of the wind. It held nothing to discern whether it was male or female, it just simply was. This oddity was matched by the equally puzzling fact that the street did not appear to hold anyone else but he. Unperturbed by such trivialities however the dark man simply folded his arms and impatiently tapped a gloved finger as he waited.

“You however, my dear friend, have much to do,” The voice came again as its owner stepped from the shadows at the man’s feet. If the man was simply cloaked in darkness then this one was seemingly made of it. Its sleek and small black form bristled with short fur as it slunk its way ahead of him. Turning back to look over its shoulder and past its wavering tail its yellow eyes blazed as if they were twin suns burning in a far off galaxy.

“Things will become clearer once we are inside,” The kitten spoke once more before it continued to lead the way. With little more than a shrug the man in black followed. His companion had yet to steer him wrong in all their travels these last two years and there was nary a reason now to start doubting it. The sound of each footfall echoed the length of the street in his wake as he followed the feline toward its final destination, the worst building of them all.

Moments of Life: Saturday, 7th February 2009

2009-02-09T14:54:00.000+11:00

Woke up and got out of bed at a reasonable time for a Saturday. I had Cheerios for breakfast followed by a quick play of a gig on Guitar Hero before having a shower. It was too hot to do much else so I read volume eleven of Ultimate Spider-Man whilst sitting on the bed in front of the fan. Around lunchtime I decided I was going to go off for a while, maybe grab some lunch, have a wander around to nowhere in particular, just be alone to clear my head and think. Tracy stayed home until I ran into her mum and brother at the shopping centre who then rung her up and literally made her say she would come out. Once I picked her up we had Subway for lunch and just wandered the shops in the air-conditioned comfort. It was about 4:00PM when Tracy and I went back to her place but shortly afterwards I left again. My poor little car nearly died but in the end I drove to the lookout at the top of a mountain overlooking the area. It was cooler up there, and I found a nice little bench to sit on in the shade which could take in nearly all of the view. I spent the time just writing whilst my thoughts were carried elsewhere and it was nearly 7:00PM by the time I made my way back down the mountain and thoughts turned to dinner. I went and picked up a pizza from the local wood-fired place and that way there’d be something for dinner if Tracy hadn’t eaten already. When I got back I found that she hadn’t so we both tucked into the mushroom pizza which was nowhere near as nice as I thought it would be. We watched Sister Act which was on television and having seen that Tracy wanted to watch Sister Act 2 but when she caught the Lion King on the previews she threw that on instead. I dozed off a bit in the middle somewhere but came back in time to see the end.

Moments of Life: Friday, 6th February 2009

2009-02-09T11:52:00.000+11:00

The day was mostly nothing exciting as work was pretty quiet seeing how half the place had their rostered day off. I finished up the initial reports after being stuck on a reconciliation not balancing because our system was stupid once again and made an entry to the general ledger that did not balance. Once I finished work I stopped in at Tracy’s to drop off my stuff and see if she needed anything shopping as I was headed to the shopping centre to try and grab a couple of things, namely the new issue of Hyper. Got caught there and missed the newsagency though but went into the supermarket to grab some berry sorbet for dessert. Whilst in there I ran into my mum, brother and his girlfriend who were shopping. Mum mentioned I had a big package arrive at home today which sent me running back to Tracy’s house to drop off the sorbet and say I was going home. The package was my Guitar Hero World Tour with the complete band kit I’d ordered online which I’d hoped would make it for the weekend at Tracy’s. When I got back to Tracy’s Guitar Hero had to wait as we had leftover pasta bake and watched a new show called Life on Mars which she’d taped. It wasn’t too bad and maybe I’ll consider watching it if I can. The rest of the night was spent playing Guitar Hero of course. Tracy let me play for a couple of hours before trying her hand at it, and I got the setting a little mixed up for her since she is left-handed but the more she plays the more she’ll improve. I was quite surprised to see that my skill had improved considerably considering I hadn’t actually played in a while… Not that I’m that good as I can only play on medium anyway.

Stuck Listening to the World

2009-02-06T16:34:00.001+11:00

Argh, it has been over a week now that I have been unable to listen to my iPod. For whatever reason the headphones have completely stopped working and thus I have been left stuck having to listen to this boring world all day. Well, not exactly boring but I am just damn well missing the listening to the iPod. Before the headphones died I was generally listening to the iPod at work instead of being stuck listening to the radio in the office. When wandering around by myself or at home I’d also generally be seen wandering around with and tapped into the marvellous little device.

It all started with one of the ear phones going a bit on the fritz and only working when you had the cord going a certain way or turned the plug a bit. That carried on for a while and whilst an annoyance it was manageable. Unfortunately the other started then doing it along with the first so that left me with nothing and whilst a bit of jiggling could get it going for a short while it has just become too much and its essentially broken by that point. This isn’t even the first set of headphones to die either but I lost the first to a small, cute furry critter by the name of Oliver and his sharp pointy teeth gnawing on my original iPod headphone’s cord.

Headphones are a dime a dozen and easy enough to find but I really don’t want to just throw down on a real cheap pair that’ll die again or are as uncomfortable as. Then again, it’s not like I really listen to that much music on my iPod as it spends most of it time spieling through various podcasts so it more just needs to handle speech rather than the more intricate tones of music. It’s not like I don’t ever listen to music though so I do have to consider it and I will also be using the headphones on my Nintendo DS. I suppose I should really just look to try and find something that’s comfortable so we’ll see.

From Parts Discarded and Unloved

2009-02-06T14:53:00.003+11:00

Well not exactly unloved as the old server at work was some four years old before getting its recent upgrade. That upgrade essentially replaced the whole computer itself as it saw a new motherboard, RAM and CPU dropped into its husk. The case along with its collection of hard drives and RAID controller are all still perfectly capable and will be fine for what is planned for the old server box now. It is no longer our main server for all files and such as the plan is to turn it into an exchange server to handle shared mail, calendar and so forth between the managers and office staff at work. Not exactly an exciting life for the server or a really exciting thing to talk about so moving on.

That brings me to the old parts from the server that was pulled out and still quite alive as it wasn’t like the whole server just collapsed and that was the reason for the part replacements. Those old parts weren’t going to be needed at work anymore and when Robert, our I.T. contractor, saw me eyeing them off so he said that I could take them for that reason. Better they find some use then go and sit on some shelf of his where they will just gather dust.

The thought of what to do with them didn’t even turn to my own usage but that of others. The main computer at home that my brothers mostly use is struggling but can handle the internet browsing they do as well as keep them happy for games as they can play Runescape on it. Then there is Tracy’s computer which she picked up from the Salvation Army which I’m surprised it runs at all but it does it incredibly slowly and something like iTunes nearly crushes the poor thing. With the plan of upgrading my computer later this year the parts I replace could go to making a machine that would be suited for my brothers so with that in mind the parts I got from work were going to Tracy, who they would also suit more well for her needs.

Out of the old server I managed to score:

• CPU: A Pentium 4 processor which I definitely know to be over the 2Ghz mark and it may have even hit 3Ghz.
• RAM: There is four 512MB sticks of DDR1 in the slots on the motherboard. 2GB of RAM is nothing to sneeze at no matter what type of RAM it is.
• Motherboard: Saw that it was a Gigabyte board, and the only other feature of note is that it has both IDE and SATA connections. So long as it works we’ll be fine and seeing how my current PC is a Gigabyte board I know I can already trust it.
• Video card: Couldn’t identify the brand and model by looking at it but the fact that there was a standalone card instead of running the computer off of onboard video is a bit promising. The card didn’t look like anything special and I can’t imagine it to be since it can manage with heatsink cooling.
• Network card: Not that important seeing how the motherboard has a built in connection.

So with those we have a pretty solid base to build upon. Seeing how Tracy won’t be doing any mad gaming the questionable video card won’t matter at all whilst the CPU and RAM pick up the slack. They should easily cover anything and everything she would ever hope to be doing on the computer. With that CPU and amount of RAM it will even get Photoshop running on there for her which she has been wanting for ages. The usual word processing and such will be a walk in the park for this thing and iTunes or watching videos and music won’t bring the machine to its knees like her current one.

Of course, looking at that list of components I scored does show up a bit short on what you need for a complete machine. Tracy only needs one computer and since she already has one that works which she wouldn’t need with a newer and faster machine I’m going to look at what can be used from that. The case looks in good enough nick so it can house this new computer with the only concern being that this new motherboard fits or not. Whatever power supply is in there should be able to handle it so long as the connectors are right. The current computer has a CD burner and DVD drive which those can be used along with whatever hard drives are there seeing how this motherboard has both SATA and IDE connectors so no matter what I am covered. Unfortunately the hard drives will have to be wiped and the operating system reinstalled which is what poses the biggest problem as neither Tracy or I have a copy of Windows XP to put on there.

I’m sure those little possible problems will be easy enough to overcome or they won’t even factor in at all. This will be the second computer I put together so it should be fun, and a far simpler affair one would hope. Tonight I may pop open the case on Tracy’s current computer and have a look inside at what I have to work with. Hopefully it all goes well when I start work on it and Tracy will have something much better to work with. I’m not that good with handy work around the house so at least this gives me something.

Moments of Life: Thursday, 5th February 2009

2009-02-06T14:19:00.001+11:00

I forgot to set my alarm for a half hour later than usual but despite that I just couldn’t stay in bed that extra half hour that I could’ve taken. Work was the usual for a Thursday as it was payday, and it was a bloody hot day which I found out quite badly when going around to hand out the payslips. By the time I made it back to the office I had sweat down my legs and a nice wet patch on my back. I seriously feel bad for anyone who gets stuck working in that. Yesterday Robert, our I.T. contractor, pulled apart the old server to upgrade it and seeing me eyeing off the old bits he said if I wanted I could take it since it wasn’t going to get used. What was pulled out included a motherboard, RAM, CPU, video card and network card, and overall it was a pretty solid little system which was well above two computers that I know. One is the family computer at home that my brothers mainly use and the other is Tracy’s. When I upgrade my computer later this year it will leave those essential parts for a computer which my brothers can have so I took the discarded parts of the work server to Tracy’s house to show her what should hopefully be her new computer as she’d been looking for one. She seemed to like that and so long as it works it should kick the crap out of what she currently has though I shall need to pull apart her old machine to make the new one. After showing off what I got for Tracy I headed home for dinner, a bit of World of Warcraft and a start on catching up on my television shows as I watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica.

Moments of Life: Wednesday, 4th February 2009

2009-02-05T10:17:00.000+11:00

Ivan, my brother, managed to sleep in so we just scraped in and got him dropped off on time still. Work saw me hit into the reports for last month and for like the first time ever the sales reconciliation just worked without having to make any adjustments whatsoever. I had a bit more of a chat with Robert, our I.T. contractor, and am very seriously considering buying a netbook, probably a MSI Wind which he has been using one. Once I was done with work for the day I met Tracy at the shopping centre as she had been in town doing things for the day and we needed to go shopping for dinner. Tracy had gone and got a hair cut which was a bit shorter than usual but looks nice on her. When we got to Tracy’s place and she checked it over again in the mirror she thought it too short and doesn’t really like it but if she styles it herself I’m sure she’ll look gorgeous… But then I’m not really impartial as I find her so drop dead attractive anyway. She’s the one who has to like it though so we’ll see if her current impressions will hold up. Once home Tracy gave a little something as well which was a photo of us together from Christmas Eve. It’s actually a rather nice photo, and I’m thinking I’ll put it in a frame and maybe keep it on my desk at work for something nice to look at to help through the work day. After much umming and ahhing we had decided on a pasta bake for dinner and bought a BBQ chicken and some mushrooms to throw in. For the rest of the night we watched some stuff on television and a DVD which was an animated movie called The Penguin and the Pebble (booyah Rocko!) as I forgot to bring an anime DVD to watch.

Moments of Life: Tuesday, 3rd February 2009

2009-02-04T13:30:00.001+11:00

I stayed up a bit later than I should have last night so I pretty much slept right up until my alarm went off. I managed to hammer out the last entries to the system for January before doing report printouts. Our I.T. guy and I got stuck trying to add in a new contract to the system but failed as it doesn’t pick up despite appearing to be entered like the others- annoying. I got out of work a little late and stopped by to see Tracy for an hour or so before going home. I hadn’t been planning on going to see her since I saw her yesterday and would see her on Wednesday but I’d had thoughts of her running through my head since the early morning that just made it a bit hard to ignore. Actually, everything about her seems hard to ignore but in that really good kind of way… Hmm, sounding obsessive much here? I don’t know. This is the second relationship I’ve been in and it feels different. I’m getting distracted though and the word count will be blown so back to it, that all can be for another day. Dinner was the usual hamburgers for Tuesday night which I love, and afterwards mum and I sat down for a bit of a talk about a few important things that needed it. It helped clear some stuff up and set some grounds which are good so we’ll see where the future goes. Dragged myself off to bed late after we finished talking and realised that I hadn’t ironed my work shirts, plural there as I needed to iron a shirt for Thursday since I’d be staying at Tracy’s place on the following night. I didn’t even get to pack some other clothes into my bag and just dragged myself into bed as soon as the shirts were done.

World of Warcraft: Riding My Mechanical Turkey All Over

2009-02-03T15:43:00.001+11:00

Half a month has passed without another World of Warcraft update which is probably not so much a bad thing as they are probably boring as all hell. Whenever I am home it’s virtually the only game I play which is understandable since I probably don’t even spend half my week at home these days so I don’t get too much of a chance to play. It’s somewhat regrettable though as I have countless other games to finish, or even start playing in some instances. Alas, all fall before the mighty juggernaut that is World of Warcraft though but someday soon I promise to start making time for all those other games that have been neglected… And books… And DVDs… Yeah, this isn’t going to go well.

I’m still concentrating on my mage, Zabrze, who is well and truly my main character, and shall stay that way for as far as I can see. I shall probably play him right up to level 80 before even really going to touch anyone else seriously. At the rate I am going it may take quite some time to actually hit that maximum level but I am not complaining. So far I’ve quite liked just taking my time and exploring a whole area and doing every quest there even if it’s just a bit below my level. Heck, even when very below my level I’ve had fun just seeing the sights and following along with quests.

That is what I’ve pretty much been doing since my last entry about World of Warcraft. When last I wrote I’d just been finishing up in Duskwood, the dingy and dank evil version of Elwynn Forest. I’d had a number of choices open to me on where I could go next that was appropriate for my level. At first I headed to the Arathi Highlands to the north but I had trouble with the quests and monsters there and I didn’t find it all that of an inspiring place to hang around. It wasn’t helped by the fact that no one else was really around so I was left a little empty there.

After that rather short visit I headed right down south through Duskwood to reach Stranglethorn Vale, a balmy coastal peninsula of tropic forests and exotic sights. The goblin filled town of Booty Bay was chock full of piratey goodness and this place had a vibe about it that was definitely better than Arathi Highlands. A few fights even broke out on the wharves and tavern of town just like you’d be expecting for a pirate town which was fun to see even when I got hammered. I grabbed whatever quests I could and completed a handful before I was hitting a bit of a wall on being able to complete them easily enough.

With a pirate town comes boats, and with boats comes sailing across the seas so that is where I headed for. It was finally time for Zabrze to cross the seas and head for the Hoarde’s continent of Kalimdor. Before coming to Strangelthorn Vale I’d actually tried to head across the sea to there but thinking the boats all went to the same general area so I took a ride from Menethil Harbour. Unfortunately things weren’t like that though and I found myself in Northrend, the frozen continent of the north which was added in with the newest expansion pack. Things there were well and truly way out of my league so I ran back like the little girl I should’ve.

This time I did catch the right boat though and ended up in Ratchet, a very small village in the Barrens. Grabbing quests left, right and centre I had my log bulging though these were very low level quests which held little reward for me. As a new explorer to the continent I figured they’d help me get around and serve as an introduction to this strange new land. Well the land isn’t really that strange but it sure was different. The Barrens looked to be just a big African savannah filled with normal wildlife and then tribes of evil little munchkins waiting to be smacked around. It was quite a big expanse to traverse but it was an easy way to slide into the place.

Things from there lead west for quests into Stonetalon Mountains which they too were below my level. These were a darker and somewhat more creepy mountain range and valley when compared to the past mountainous ranges I’ve passed through. No caring for the environment here either as I stumbled upon a big foresting operation where they were clear cutting the trees. Some seriously big equipment there to clamber over and I wouldn’t want to be in the way of them when they start up.

Maybe it was all that that wiped out and made Desolace what it was. I haven’t spent much time there but it was the first level appropriate area I hit in Kalimdor. Making my way through the southern pass out of Stonetalon I ended up in this wasteland. A short trek brought me to the safety of an Alliance outpost in the edge of the mountain range bordering the land. I grabbed quests from there, looked at them and then decided against trying to follow them up and instead turned to exploring Kalimdor a bit more. That involved heading south through the Barrens and hitting the Dustwallow Marshes where I made a mad dash for the relative safety of Theramore Isle before heading back across the sea to Strangelthorn Vale.

Once back safely on solid land I headed out into the jungle to slay me some fell beasts. I nailed some quests there just killing off some wild life and various other things while grinding a little bit on them for the hell of it. I managed to get harassed by a few Hoarde players a couple of times but since I was by my lonesome there wasn’t much I could do about it. I did throw myself into a fight on the docks of Booty Bay though which I knew I had no chance in but it was fun for the one and a half seconds it lasted. Yeah, jumping in on a fight between level 70 characters is suicide no matter which way you spin it.

It was around then that the Lunar Festival started up and with my needing to head back to a city to dump my packs and pick up some new stuff I figured it was as good a time as any to get into it. Events in World of Warcraft are pretty fun so far from what I’ve seen. There is usually much to do and see with something visual to treat the eyes whilst quests inspired by the event are all around. The Lunar Festival started with a simple Herald of the Lunar Festival and lead into a burst if colour as I was setting of fireworks like crazy. That granted me access to Moonglade, a far off land in Kalimdor and a gathering place for anyone in celebration. I chased down a couple of achievements and a few of the Elders who handed out coins for the event.

The Lunar Festival gave me easy access to Darnassus, the night elf capital which lead me onto my current exploration run. From there I crossed the straits to Darkshore on the north west coast of Kalimdor which I had seen briefly as my night elf hunter, Xenitha. This was well and truly beneath me in level so I made my way south to Ashenvale Forest which was still too low to give me any real experience from the quests but I figured I’d knock them over for fun. It reminds me of a darker Elwynn Forest but without the evilness that Duskwood had so its been a rather pleasant little run. Quests there saw me do a big loop down into the Barrens again then passing up in Stonetalon Mountains before flying back into Ashenvale.

I think I’ve nearly finished up with the quests of Ashenvale so maybe I’ll head down into a new area known as the Thousand Needles in Kalimdor. It’s to the south of the Barrens so I know where in general it is but I just don’t have an idea on how exactly to get ‘into’ there. I don’t imagine it will be too hard to figure out and there I should find some quests that come up closer to my own level. I guess we’ll see how I go with it all when I try though tonight is supposed to be maintenance night so who knows.

Into the Heart of Darkness (Prologue)

2009-02-03T10:45:00.003+11:00

“What do you mean he is gone?” Ruby red lips twitched as the exclamation passed through them. The passion behind it was not of anger though but deep concern, one shared by all gathered. Smouldering eyes set in the frame of a deeply tanned face passed over each assembled. These were her brethren, the ones who could be considered the closest to a way of family in some form despite their origins.

“You know as much as we do,” One replied, her voice calmer than the mood hanging in the air should allow. The palest of grey hair wafted in its own breeze around her head as the words sunk in. She looked the most fragile of them all with her delicate frame and light skin. Of them all she was the last to have direct contact with the subject of their gathering.

“We all feel the void where once his presence, the balance, was,” Deep and booming, the earthen tones befitted the large, hulking body that exuded the most presence on size alone.

“But this is different- there is still hope,” Like a bubbling brook the fourth voice cut in, carving its own path through the land and bringing up what all others had been thinking too.

“Indeed. This is not the feeling of when one of us is truly lost, a destruction of our being,” He carried the hope further, a fatherly voice of caring and often reason. “This is just like…”

“You speak of our long lost Light,” The final among them spoke her turn as the others nodded in unison. “None among us has been graced with her presence yet we all know that she exists still.”

“Or perhaps the eldest among us has finally fallen!” The fiery haired woman cut loose with an outburst as she had never been one to hold back. It was simply a fact of her being, and a trait that caused great trouble at times for her and her predecessors. “What we feel could be just the last traces of his being as it is drawn back into the Plane!”

“Bestill your tongue if you can’t control it,” The caring and fatherly voice took on a harder edge as the man attempted to wrest back control and quell the emotion that could soon become an inferno.

“No! I will not be quiet.” But it was already too late as the fans rapidly fanned. “Do not think to try and silence me because you do not like what you hear.”

“Dear Zahrika, always as passionate and fiery as the eternal flames that birthed you,” There came a new voice, soft and gentle as no more than a whisper through the minds of all assembled. “You should heed Durran for he has only the interests of all in his heart.”

“Hail Nilathak,” The cavernous voice greeted the newest arrival with great respect which was in turn mirrored by all others gathered, even the tempered Zahrika. Each held themselves in check from asking the question burning on everyone’s minds.

“And hail to thee Sentinels,” the voice came again through the minds as its owner stepped from the shadows at Durran’s feet. All eyes turned and followed as Nilathak came to rest at the centre of the gathering.

Likewise, tiny yellow eyes slitted with pupils of the purest black flitted back to each gaze. Against fur that was as the darkest of nights they stood out like twin stars in the far off sky. Languidly a sleek tail snaked through the air showing a relatively calm aura amongst a cloud of turmoil. Fine whiskers twitched as the kitten waited for the next to speak. It waited for the one who dared to ask the question.

“What news of your master, Nilathak?” Having been suitably placated for now, Zahrika held her tongue as it was Xenitha’s airy tone that asked the question. She twisted one of her grey locks around her finger as she hoped.

“Something has happened to him for we all feel a void where once he was but then something is off, something still seems to be there that we can’t place,” Ilar, his hulking frame as impervious as the earth had been penetrated just the same as any assembled. He who was as solid as a rock had been shaken just as much as any.

“Is it as Zahrika says?” Durran’s polar, Shieal, broke in to finish Ilar’s, and all others, greatest concern now. “Nilathak, have we lost your master to tragedy?”

“No Shieal,” The feline form spoke once more into the minds of the cabal gathered. Where once the voice was barely a whisper it now gained strength as it carried on to reassure and hopefully put to rest the fears. “So long as we remember, keep those memories of him in our hearts, he will never truly be lost.”

Each looked to the others as Nilathak’s words continued to echo through their minds. None of the signs of concern faded and now they were mixed with strains of bewilderment.

“And what pray tell is that supposed to mean?” The last of them, Freya, spoke up with a voice that ran as smooth as the passing of water down a gentle brook. Unlike the fiery Zahrika, Freya was calm and willing to let the kitten explain itself further.

“It means that there is hope, my dear Freya,” said Nilathak all-knowingly. “For now all I ask is that you be patient and wait for already plans are set in motion. It may take some time and great effort but he will walk among us once. Zhabroah, the Sentinel of Shadows shall return.”

Moments of Life: Monday, 2nd February 2009

2009-02-03T08:41:00.000+11:00

Monday, always fun. I dragged myself out of bed after great effort as one tends to do for the beginning of the work week. Made it to work early and had a big day ahead to look forward to. With the end of a month meant it was time for all those end of month procedures and report compiling. As per usual the first work day of the new month for that meant I was entering in the last day’s stuff then trying to pick up as much as I could before starting the reports so there was less mucking around later. Kept myself busy for the day and got caught working back a half hour late. Dropped in on Tracy to just see her and hear how her day went after I finished up at work. Spent about an hour and a half there which was a bit more than I planned at the time but for her I never mind, and it worked out alright as there was no rush on making dinner when I got home. When I got home my brothers’ dad was packing the car and was supposedly going ‘away’. Don’t know where, don’t know for how long, and frankly I don’t really care at all. My mum and I got stuff ready to have chicken salad wraps for dinner which is always a Monday night favourite it seems. Stayed up a bit late playing World of Warcraft where I didn’t accomplish much experience points wise as I am still stuck at level 35 but I had fun nonetheless.

Moments of Life: Sunday, 1st February 2009

2009-02-02T10:48:00.002+11:00

A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. Before parting ways yesterday we’d organised to turn the trip to Kangaroo Valley into a thing for today with Tracy’s mum and brother so I got up fairly early for a Sunday to get ready. Turns out Tracy wasn’t feeling too well this morning though and spent the majority of the first half of the day in bed so that plan went to hell again. While she rested in bed I turned my attention to playing Chrono Trigger DS after getting so close to the end of the game last night before my Nintendo DS ran out of batteries on me. I managed to play through the progress I lost last night, defeated the final boss and cleared a majority of the second new dungeon that was added to the game. As usual the ending really hit home and got to me but more so than it has in the past- I love this game to pieces. Tracy’s land lord finally turned up to check out the place, and Tracy’s mum and brother showed up at one point to check up on things since they hadn’t heard from her about going to Kangaroo Valley. With reservations I finally headed home late afternoon where I went out for just a jog before eating a sandwich for dinner and then virtually sticking to my room for the rest of the night playing World of Warcraft.

Moments of Life: Saturday, 31st January 2009

2009-02-02T10:47:00.001+11:00

Had a pretty restless nights sleep after having woken up quite a few times through the night. I grabbed breakfast and a shower like usual then spent the time after playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village on the Nintendo DS which I finally finished today. There was no real rush in the morning since we had to wait at home since at 10:00AM someone was coming to mow Tracy’s lawn. If she owned a lawnmower I’d be more than happy to do it myself but she doesn’t exactly have somewhere to store one. Once the lawn was done we headed to the newsagency which had a post office so Tracy could pay her rent and electricity bill which she was also supposed to do yesterday but it was closed despite them saying they were open to midday. Our original plan for the rest of the day had been to go to Kangaroo Valley which Tracy had mentioned the other week but instead we ended up meeting her mum and brother at the shopping centre where we spent a portion of the afternoon in air-conditioned comfort. Late in the afternoon we headed back to Tracy’s place and spent a bit of time reading and relaxing in front of the fan before having pizza for dinner from Domino’s since we’d missed our pizza night for the week and Tracy had just gotten coupons in the mail for it. Once dinner was done we settled on the lounge and watched a movie, the Goonies, which I struggled to stay awake through. That wasn’t because it was boring or anything though, I was just so tired again so I headed to bed nearly right after it was finished.

Moments of Life: Friday, 30th January 2009

2009-02-02T09:18:00.000+11:00

I ran a touch late this morning after not setting my alarm back to the normal time after changing it for Tracy’s yesterday. Skipped out on breakfast and managed to make it to work on time where I then proceeded to demolish both my morning and afternoon tea within the first ten minutes. Got to doing the superannuation that I got distracted from yesterday before my afternoon going off on another distraction as I sorted through our second hand equipment we were selling off and how to handle it in the system. The theory was all well and good but it wasn’t helped by things changing beyond what we knew or had been expecting. Picked Tracy up after work to take her grocery shopping which she’d meant to do today but didn’t after her being stuck around her place waiting for the landlord all day who was supposed to come look at the house but never showed. We had Subway for dinner as once again it was just too bloody hot to go cooking in her place so hopefully the landlord, when he comes, will agree to put in air-conditioning. I headed to bed reasonably early which was unusual for when I’m at Tracy’s but I was just couldn’t keep up any longer and we had plans for Saturday.

Moments of Life: Thursday, 29th January 2009

2009-02-02T09:17:00.001+11:00

Woke up at 6:30 which was a bit later than usual since I was at Tracy’s and work is pretty close. I still ended up at work early though so I could sleep for a bit more even if I wanted. Thursday meant wages day and since it was the last pay day of the month I was also going to have to do superannuation and payroll tax for the month. I ended up distracted with other work in the afternoon though so there went that idea. When I got home my brother’s dad was being an absolute dick, and sometime after dinner words were said and from now on I will no longer even acknowledge him unless absolutely necessary. Everything and everyone else aren’t the problem, he is.

A Storybook Tale of Fables Abound

2009-01-29T11:18:00.000+11:00

As mentioned in my recent post on my return to the ranks of comic readers across the world my favourite comic series at the moment is called Fables, created and written by Bill Willingham. Considering how highly I regard it I didn’t feel right in lumping this in with the last post as it is really deserving of its own highlight.

Fables deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore that have been force out of their Homelands by a mysterious enemy known as the Adversary. These Fables, as they call themselves, have travelled to our world and set up their own little community tucked away within New York City where they have to deal with living in a whole new world whilst managing the remnants of their own lives.

From the outset I found the premise of the comic to be interesting in the idea of fairy tales brought to life and being in our world. Little did I know that this would only be exponentially expanded upon by Willingham taking characters we know and love and throwing his own spin on them. A few characters I was left scratching my head over when I didn’t know them straight off-hand but a quick bit of research opens it all up even more. All the old favourites are there though; Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs, the Big Bad Wolf, Prince Charming, the Frog Prince, and the list keeps going. Each has been given a refreshing breath of life and each has a very unique persona on page that really has bonded me to the book (<3 Ambrose the Frog Prince and Boy Blue).

Willingham’s quality of writing carries over from his portrayal of the characters into the story as well. The pacing at which he progresses through seems pitched just right to allow the steady build-up of anticipation before that moment of a high then sinking down again to start over as the effects are left to sink in to their full extent. From the beginning with the introduction of the characters and seeing into their lives in this strange foreign world for them, the tendrils and seeds of conflict slowly being brought to the fore, plots and secrets with intrigue and action coming to fruition, and all sprinkled with heart felt or gut wrenching moments. There just is never a dull moment in this comic as their always is a purpose behind whatever is going on. With the tale Willingham is weaving combined with the cast of characters portrayed through the pages I can’t help but be sucked in.

If I’m going to throw such praise on the quality of writing though I can’t overlook the artist who gives a face to these wonderful characters and the world they inhabit. The main penciller who has covered a majority of the interior art is Mark Buckingham and so to him most of the credit goes. Each image is so vibrant and crisp with detail, and it didn’t take long for the style of the series to evolve into its own. Every character is unique and so unmistakable, their expressions and stature bringing out the life in them even more from the pages. The only thing more visually impressive in the comic is the covers that have graced them. The stunning works of James Jean have blessed us with some beautiful pieces of art that can easily captivate the eyes of any to gaze upon them. It will be such an incredible shame that we are going to lose him with issue 81 being the last of his covers.

I could continue to rave on about Fables like some seemingly obsessed lunatic but it is seriously that good. This series deserve any and all of the praise it has received from various sources. It is taking a fair bit of effort to actually stop myself here because if I do continue on there is no telling where I’ll end up going and I really want to keep spoilers for the story out of this. If you’re going to read it then don’t go looking up anything else about the plot and ruin what lies ahead for you. Heck, don’t even flick ahead in the pages of whatever volume or issue you are reading as some images can give so much away or you may just catch a word or two that you shouldn’t. You won’t regret it for Fables can not disappoint those who come to it with an open mind and memories of those tales that entertained us as children.

Now I’ve just got the excruciating wait until August when the new trade paperback gets released…

Of Pretty Pictures and Many Words

2009-01-29T11:14:00.002+11:00

I’ve always been quite a bit of a reader throughout my life. There have been phases where I really hammered into the books whilst at other time I may not have read a book for quite some time. In between there have always been magazines as I pick up a couple of monthly ones. Books though are where it is at and I do love a really good read so once I start I can be quite hard to stop. At the age of ten I was reading novels in the hundreds of pages and in some cases the range of five or six hundred.

When I was a kid I was also really into comics with my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spider-Man, Venom, and whatever else caught my eye. Then all of a sudden I just stopped with them, maybe because my choice of preference changed and I went right into the novels or maybe it was because it was becoming too hard to get a hold of issues each month on top of the cost. I still had a passing interest though in what happen to some of my favourite characters over the year but I no longer picked up any comics to read except for those in the newspaper.

With my interest in the teenage years picking up anime though that brought along manga, or Japanese comics if you will. I didn’t really get into manga until the last couple of year of high school where I really started along with Akira, Ghost in the Shell and finally following the serial that is Naruto which to this day I am still reading. In a way these did return me to the fold of comics but these are just so different from the Western realms of the comic world.

Eventually things have come full circle and it is kind of funny to see that something I loved as a kid has come back to become such a love and passion again in adulthood. Last year I finally jumped back into the world of Western comics and it hit me hard. Armed with a job and a credit card has made it pretty easy to get a hold of anything of interest and with a few safe choice purchases I was launched in full force. I only stick to picking up trade paperbacks or collected editions though as buying the single issues as they come out is far too expensive for my tastes here.

Comics these days are far beyond any scope I could have ever imagined as a kid and now with this mind I can pull so much more enjoyment from the medium. I still can appreciate the joy and awe experienced in my childhood for them however as that has been what allowed this to burst forth like it has. Not only does this more mature mind allow me to draw so much more from the comics themselves but it has also meant I have a much more open mind when it comes to comics. Where once I thought of comics and super heroes I now see so much more covering tastes far beyond super-powered people saving the day. Of the titles I follow at the moment or have become my favourites to read are actually not about super heroes at all except for Ultimate Spider-Man. I never could believe that there was just so much out there for people to read and just like any other book you get such a wide range of genres. It really is amazing where the comic industry is at the moment and if that ever fails to impress then there is always the many years of past titles and stories to dig up and enjoy.

At the moment though I am thoroughly impressed and incredibly happy with the titles I am making my way through and following. Comics have actually managed to become my reading medium of choice due to the sheer quality of the titles on-hand. There is just something about the stories, ideas and art itself that combine to make such captivating pieces to suck me in. I’ve even managed to get Tracy, whose experience with comics was the likes of Garfield in the newspaper, into reading one of the comics which goes to say a lot about it but that was also helped by the fact that Tracy has an incredibly open mind.

That comic is actually my favourite which is called Fables, created and written by Bill Willingham. Amongst the series I collect at the moment it sits so incredibly high and I can understand why it receives all the praise it does. It is joined by some other truly great titles and though they may not reach the heights of Fables in my eyes they are truly appreciated just as much for what they are. When I look at the other titles I’ve been enjoying a vast majority of them actually come from DC Comics Vertigo line which is where Fables come from. Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman which I own in the stunningly oversized and beautiful Absolute Editions, Y: The Last Man, and an offshoot from The Sandman which is Lucifer. Each of these don’t have a single spandex clad super-hero in sight either which carries through to the other few comic series I am collecting such are Hellboy and the Walking Dead, both great titles from Dark Horse and Image respectively.

Just because there is a lack of super-heroes there though doesn’t mean I don’t have any such titles on my bookshelf. My love of Spider-Man has picked back up in the form of Ultimate Spider-Man, a fresh new start, change and direction from the Spider-Man we’ve known in the main Marvel universe. I’ve also got a nice collection of Batman trade paperbacks going and from the rest of the Marvel side I have picked up a few for major events in the Marvel universe such as House of M, Civil War and Ed Brubaker’s stellar run in Captain America with the Captain America Omnibus to keep me in touch with the more recent times whilst picking up some earlier events like the acclaimed Age of Apocalypse. There will always be a place for the super-heroes of the comic world but I am eternally glad that I branched out beyond that.

It is great having such a passion back and a piece of my childhood returned. I’m now always on the lookout for recommendations or another series to catch my eye in so I can sink my teeth into something new. Hopefully I’ll keep on finding such gems to keep me entertained for years to come.

Moments of Life: Wednesday, 28th January 2009

2009-01-29T10:00:00.001+11:00

I didn’t have to drop my brother off for his lift in the morning so got to hang for a bit longer in the morning before going to work. The day was heading back into the uncomfortably warmer weather mode again which was supposed to carry out through the rest of the week. Dianne, the lady in the office at work, was off sick so I got stuck manning the phones by myself and doing a few odds and ends that she normally does. The accountant at head office seemed placated and all she had was a few simple requests and no more problems to throw on me. After work I changed out of my clothes into something more comfortable to brave the warm in. Went and grabbed some butterscotch and honeycomb icecream for dessert tonight before heading to Tracy’s. We copped out and took the easy route for dinner, take-away Oportos from nearby to save ourselves from dying over the stove and we haven’t had it in ages. We watched the usual soapies that Tracy watches, Neighbours and Home & Away, followed by the Simpsons and Rules of Engagement and finally put on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, another Miyazaki film. The movie finished sometime just after 11:00PM so we headed off to bed shortly after where Tracy then laid reading New Moon, Twilight’s sequel, whilst I just rested and talked a bit before going to sleep instead of reading some of Twilight since I’d read a few chapters in the afternoon.

Moments of Life: Tuesday, 27th January 2009

2009-01-28T13:02:00.001+11:00

Dragged myself out of bed at 6:00AM like usual and had to get back into the swing of things from before the holidays as I had to drop my youngest brother off so he could get a lift to work. The whole drive in to work I thought of just going back to bed as I didn’t really want to go back to work after a long weekend. Had work devolve into a bit of a mess that didn’t seem to get me anywhere for the day but in the end actually uncovered a somewhat serious problem with our software system that we’d been scratching our heads over what had happened. Knocked off of work on time and headed to Tracy’s for a quick visit before heading home for the day. Got through my exercise and weights, bumped the weights back up to where they were a fortnight ago but skipped out on the jog. Managed to catch both Ben and Rebecca online so had a chat with them before dinner and afterwards played World of Warcraft until the servers got pulled down for their weekly maintenance. Forgot that I had a new episode of Battlestar Galactica to watch and instead ended up bumming round online for a bit more before going to sleep.

Wave That Australian Flag with Pride

2009-01-27T15:40:00.000+11:00

Australia Day, the annual celebration to commemorate the arrival of the First Fleet and proclamation of British sovereignty over the land. Australia Day is the national day of our country and so there are celebrations across the country with a public holiday. This year there was talk again of moving the date as some say it is marks the celebration of the destruction of indigenous culture by the British colonies. To those I have heard the name “Invasion Day” thrown around and though I can understand where they are coming from but I just don’t agree with changing the date.

Moving onto how I spent my Australia Day this year it started with an early wake up at 6:00AM where I found I didn’t turn off my normal work time alarm the night before. After it went off I just took to lying in bed for another thirty minutes before finally forcing myself out of bed to have a shower. There was no need to worry about digging out something for breakfast, which was usually a bowl of Cheerios when at Tracy’s, as we were planning to go out and have lunch for Australia Day.

The plan for the day was to head to the showground in town where they were holding some celebrations for Australia Day. Tracy said they used to have a really good breakfast there for it a few years ago but these days you could at least manage to grab something like a bacon and egg roll whereas they used to have a full English breakfast. Tracy was madly trying to get hold of her mum to let her know we were still heading up at 8:00AM to get there but the best she could do was get a hold of her brothers and tell them to get ready to go for when their mum got back from her walk.

Tracy and I got there on time and found ample parking since it was pretty early in the morning. Up the main boulevard of the showground there was a few market stalls set up though there was nothing real exciting except for a man selling fudge, toffee and a few other sweet things like turkish delight, and a photographer with some pretty cool shots. Up at the grand stand area there was the place to get food which for breakfast there was just bacon and egg rolls. In the past I couldn’t stand eggs, especially fried, but this last year I slowly found that I could stomach and even like some eggs. Taking a shot I went with the bacon and egg roll which whilst being a bit cold it wasn’t too bad and I could’ve even gone for a second.

After eating we just spent the time wandering around. First we took in the view of the river which the showground overlooked which was actually quite beautiful in that natural way. There was a little animal petting zoo that Tracy just had to jump into because she loves her animals. I’ll admit that the little baby chickens were pretty cute little blobs of fluff and I actually saw a real life turkey for the first time, quite an odd bird. I didn’t mention to him or her that I usually have turkey on my sandwich for lunch everyday. While in there looking at the animals I ran into someone from work that we had a quick little chat to before going our ways.

We caught the mayor’s Australia Day speech while waiting and some of the nominations for awards for the day but that was to fill in time. The mayor’s speech actually was quite good though and it is just one more thing that makes me like him more than the last mayor. Tracy and her family actually know him a bit more since Tracy’s younger brother used to be in the same class at school as the mayor’s daughter. Other than that there wasn’t that much else to really do whilst we waited for Tracy’s family. It wasn’t until 11:00AM that they finally managed to get there, and in some ways Tracy and I were just about ready to go home at that point.

Since they got there we went back looking at all the market stalls as we headed back toward the grandstand from meeting them at the car park. Once more we looked through the petting zoo and anything else of interest. By that time it was lunch so we headed on over to see what the choices were to eat this time. Lunch at least provided a choice this time with the Australian BBQ favourites of either a steak or sausage sandwich with onions if you wanted. A quick change saw me end up going with the steak sandwich at the last moment which didn’t turn out bad as there was only one small chewy piece in it. At this kind of thing you do tend to get worried you’ll end up with what could pass for a piece of rubber so I normally avoid them.

Once we enjoyed our lunch Tracy and her mum had a cup of tea despite it being such a warm day. Sometimes you just get in the mood for a good cupper so I can’t really comment. When we were done we just continued to wander before ending up going for a ride in the horse drawn carriage. They were free rides and they were just a quick loop around the road of the showground but it was pretty cool. I must say though that it was a fair bit of a bumpy ride and considering we were on some road, though not good quality, I must imagine that on a dirt track a ride would be hell. One ride did it for me as I got off to let others have a go whilst Tracy went for another two rides whilst her younger brother went for three more, the last of which was up front with the driver.

It wasn’t until nearly 2:00PM that we all finally decided we had enough. Unsure of if the shopping centres were open for us to take shelter in their air conditioned comfort we decided to go to the bowling club a few blocks away for a drink and cool. I was in thongs though so I already figured I wouldn’t be allowed in and as Jordon was only ten years old he too wasn’t allowed in. We did however get to sit up on a veranda area out by the bowling greens which since it was under shade and quite high it turned out to be very nice and cool up there. I was pretty wiped out after being on my feet for so many hours of the day so far so I was kind of space out and tired there. It wasn’t helped by the fact that I was busting to go to the toilet after a while and in the end had to say to hell with it as I made my way into the club for the toilets. The one staff member I came across didn’t mind though and pointed me to the toilet so it was all good.

After an hour in the shade we headed back to Tracy’s place with her mum and younger brother. I guess it now must have been too hot as neither had a tea and were content to just sit on the lounges watching Jordon play Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo or just chat amongst themselves. Eventually Jordon grew tired of the game so they started watching a cooking show on the television. I’d taken to reading some more of the Batman: Dark Victory trade paperback and actually managed to finish it. It wasn’t as good as The Long Halloween that came before it but it was still quite good and I didn’t see the end coming at all.

When Tracy’s mum and brother finally left both Tracy and I crashed out on the bed for a nap. The early start, the long day on the feet and the heat really do sap you so the nap was well needed. Tracy slept far deeper than I as I was only out for an hour and a half at most whilst she was quick to fall back asleep when I said goodbye.

Monday is my night to cook at our house and since I was running a bit late on getting home I was worried that I’d miss the job so I called ahead to let them know I was on the way. My brother John told me that I had no worries though as we were doing a BBQ tonight because there was meat leftover from the weekend. Unfortunately there wasn’t as much meat as originally thought and the chops were pretty lousy for the amount of meat they had on them. Salad and potato wedges helped though and I managed to have enough before I claimed some leftover triffle for dessert and then did the dishes, my other scheduled chore for that day. Since I was on a roll I figured I’d iron the shirt for work in the morning so then I could just relax before bed.

After everything was done I settled down on the computer checking up on the updates I’d missed over the weekend. Nothing too interesting on the usual websites and I spent a few minutes grabbing any updates to my World of Warcraft add-ons before jumping in to play for a bit. I managed to get through the last half of a level to hit 35 in Stranglethorn Vale then I turned to taking in some of the celebrations of the Lunar Festival they have going on in game. From it I managed to complete a couple of achievements and a few other odds and ends before giving it up for the night.

Moments of Life: Sunday, 25th January 2009

2009-01-27T12:26:00.001+11:00

I didn’t wake up too late after a bit of a disturbed sleep having woken up a few times throughout the night. Found that dad has like no food at all in the house really so maybe he doesn’t eat much at home these days. Scoffed a few chocolate biscuit things I found in the fridge which definitely do not make a good breakfast. Dad’s friend dropped round to feed the fish and water plants around mid-morning and he mentioned dad may have been in Melbourne for a wedding which is unlike him, maybe a girlfriend? Dropped in on my grandparents to see if they needed help with anything but nan just wanted me to go get the newspaper seeing how pop was still in bed. Grabbed a yoghurt before heading off which is a bit better when it comes to food. Headed into town to meet up with Tracy and her family at Subway where I finally got some proper food. Spent the afternoon reading Twilight and the Batman: Dark Victory trade paperback I grabbed from home. Ordered another pizza for dinner since Tracy had leftover Subway there she could have ate and I had to find something myself. Figured another pizza was fine and we could both have that so we went with the Old Bombay which was Indian inspired. We finished up with watching Ice Castles before heading to bed to get some sleep since we had to be up at 6:30AM in the morning.

The Pool… You Mean the Beach, Right?

2009-01-27T12:25:00.000+11:00

Tracy had organised to go to the pool today with her family so we were just going to hang around the house until they gave us a call. With that in mind knowing there was no rush we got off to a lazy start as they said they wouldn’t be too early so we slept in for a bit. I managed to grab us a late breakfast from Mc Donalds before the menu switched over after Tracy mentioned it the night before. She’d mentioned it because it had been a while since she had it for breakfast and same with me actually so the idea got picked up. I managed to make my way through two sausage muffins (forgot the BBQ sauce though) and some hot cakes whilst Tracy had a sausage and egg muffin with bacon added and then she put the hash brown on as well. Not exactly off to a healthy start for the day but we don’t ever really do it so what the hell.

We didn’t end up at the pool until just after midday so had time to just relax some more for the morning. I hadn’t swum in a pool in ages since I just naturally prefer the beach for the feel and what with them generally just being a short distance from me when I feel like a swim at home I have no real reason to use them. It doesn’t help that the water just isn’t the same and doesn’t feel right so I’d say overall I don’t really like the pool that much unless there is water slides involved. The pool wasn’t too bad this time though as it didn’t seem to have too much chlorine for me to really notice it and the pool we started in was indoors so we were out of the sun making the swim quite enjoyable. We did hit the outdoor pool for a short while though which provided a brief change of warming up in the sun plus it was much deeper. We did head back to the indoor pool but by that time I was tired from actually swimming instead of floating around the place plus I’d been playing with Tracy’s kid brother so I sat and laid on the bench for a bit.

After we finished up at the pool just after 4:00PM we headed down the road to Tracy’s mum’s house. They had a cup of tea which they didn’t like much because they had to go with green tea since they were out of milk. The younger brother, Jordon, was staying the night at Tracy’s so he was grabbing clothes for the night and next day. Since he was staying over there that meant I couldn’t really as there was a lack of room despite his saying he could sleep on the lounge. I objected that idea and also thought to leave Tracy with her brother for the night so they could just spend the time together by themselves. Luckily they didn’t have to worry about dinner either as there was leftover risotto for both.

That however left me with no idea on where I’d be sleeping for the night or what I’d be eating. With my house packed with visiting relatives, some of which I gave my bed up to, I didn’t really want to go back there and sleep on the floor. I quickly decided that I’d head out to home to see my grandparents and dad, whose birthday it was on Sunday. I was going to be going out there on Sunday anyway so I figured I’d get in early and be able to crash at either house for the night and save myself the trip in the morning to see them all.

Before leaving Tracy’s I grabbed the menu off the fridge for the local wood-fired pizza place and order myself an easy dinner. Since I’d be eating the pizza alone I went with the Jervis Bay pizza which had garlic prawns on it as Tracy doesn’t like them so now was a good time to try the pizza. I must say I was a bit disappointed with the pizza overall as there just wasn’t enough prawns on it. They are usually pretty good with their pizzas and have a generous amount of topping but when you get a couple of slices without a single prawn on them you have to feel a bit annoyed for the money I was paying. I mean it was still quite tasty and all but nowhere near as good as any of the others I’ve tried so far. The plan is to eventually make it all the way through the whole menu so that was one more pizza crossed off the list.

Made it out home (funny that I still think of Currarong as home) after 7:00Pm sometime and dropped in at my grandparents straight up. My nan wasn’t feeling too well, she was laying on the lounge in her night gown and said she was just a bit weak and such. I noticed that her oxygen machine had been replaced with a different one which they said hadn’t been working properly. If that were the case then she may not have been getting the oxygen she needed hence the not feeling too well. It wasn’t all helped by the 37ºC day they had according to my pop. That would knock anyone around on the best of days so I imagine it would’ve hit my nan pretty bad.

While I was there they mentioned that my dad wasn’t going to be home for his birthday. The story I got from them was that he was off to Melbourne of all places so there went the seeing him on his birthday idea. With his place empty I figured I’d stay there the night, I still have a house key so I can get in easy enough and there is always a bed spare if I need it he said. It was only a couple of blocks from my grandparent’s place so I didn’t have to go far.

I hadn’t been into the old place since before Christmas sometime and not too much has really changed. Dad had some nice new additions to his fish tank which is expected now that he owns an aquarium store. The other quick thing I noticed was the television in the lounge wasn’t working which I do seem to recall dad mentioning at Christmas. Armed with my trusty Nintendo DS though meant I was set for the night unless of course the battery ran out since the charger was left at Tracy’s so her brother could use it. His kitten went and chewed through the cord of his charger so he has to replace his one.

One of the other reasons why I decided to stay at dads was so I could use the washing machine. Since I’d planned to be at Tracy’s for the whole long weekend I had dug out a few clothes I wanted from the dirty wash plus the old clean underwear supply was low and had been carrying that all around. I would’ve used Tracy’s washing machine on the Saturday night but this worked out just as well. Dad’s washing machine is funny though as it doesn’t fill itself with water and you have to do it by hand with a hose. That also means it doesn’t stop filling itself on its own either which has lead to quite a few floodings of the laundry. I managed to get through the two loads without hazard though as I whiled away the night playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village before heading to bed.

Moments of Life: Friday, 23rd January 2009

2009-01-27T08:40:00.001+11:00

Was off to another hot day which left me hoping the weekend would be a little cooler. The main thing I was supposed to be working on for the day at work got its wings clipped quickly as the accountant at head office doesn’t work on Friday’s and her consultation on the matter was absolutely necessary. After work I headed to the shopping centre to pick up Tracy and then headed back to her place for the night. Made risotto for dinner which we’d planned on doing Wednesday night but it’d been too hot. I cut up the ingredients which were chicken, bacon, mushroom and capsicum plus corn kernels and fetta cheese added, and Tracy cooked it all. I’d been hanging out for it since talking of it whilst helping mum with dinner and it as usual it was bloody great- Tracy and I make a good team. I made up the strawberry and mascarpone dessert again from the other night but this time used the balsamic vinegar listed in the recipe which included some strawberry syrup in it. I must admit that it did taste better this time though that wasn’t too say that the first time was anything bad. Watched Young Einstein on DVD after dinner which I bought from the USA for Tracy along with The Last Starfighter and Ice Castles. We tried to have an early night for sleep as a long weekend was ahead after laying in bed for a bit reading Twilight whilst Tracy played Professor Layton and the Curious Village on the Nintendo DS.

Moments of Life: Thursday, 22nd January 2009

2009-01-27T08:24:00.001+11:00

I'd had this written on Friday but it appears I forgot to post it then.

Since I stayed at Tracy’s place I could sleep in for a bit in the morning. Still ended up at work early and it was already so warm outside. Got through doing the wages in the morning then spent the afternoon on an hour or so worth of phone call with the accountant at head office and trying to sort a couple of messes up. Handed out payslips to the factory mid-afternoon and it was hot outside again though not as bad as yesterday. After work I dropped into Tracy’s to give her an icecream to help with the hot day and her just as hot house, and picked up my notebook that I left there this morning. When I got home I found two packages on my bed , both from Amazon US. One was the majority of my book order for the month; Hellboy Library Edition volume 1, Captain America Omnibus volume 1, and volumes 2 and 3 of The Walking Dead. Second package was some DVDs for Tracy which she’d been trying to chase down with no success. I got stuck into some exercise and weights though skipped my job to help mum with dinner. After dinner I packed my bag for staying at Tracy’s over the weekend then jumped into World of Warcraft for 30 minutes (spent mostly at the auction house) before heading to bed to read most of The Walking Dead volume 2 just before going to sleep.

Moments in Life: Wednesday, 21st January 2009

2009-01-22T12:51:00.002+11:00

Woke up at the usual 6:00AM to get ready for work. The Nintendo DS games I bought off of Ebay last week arrived in the early morning at work; Professor Layton and the Curious Village, The World Ends With You, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrows and Dragon Quest IV for around $160 total. The majority of the day at work was spent day digging through the accounts to pull up answers for the accountant at head office. Outside the day was bloody hot but lucky for me the office is air conditioned. Worked back a half hour late and rushed to the shopping centre to pick up stuff to make dinner. Was supposed to be doing a risotto but when I got to Tracy’s we saw an ad on tv for Subway which set her off on wanting that and saying it was too hot to cook. Raced off to Subway, we ate whilst watching Neighbours on tv, and then I went to make up dessert for us. Balsamic strawberries with sweet mascarpone turned out quite nice for a first time but needs less balsamic next time. Finally watched Princess Monoke, which is another great Miyazaki film. Caught clips from Obama’s inauguration speech which was very epic, and hopefully the sign of much change to come. Headed to bed just before midnight, laid there talking to Tracy for a while and got struck with a creative spark so I scribbled away in my notebook for a bit before going to sleep.

Ok, so I got it to 250 words for my first attempt at this format. It isn’t below the 200 I was hoping to keep it to but 250 does sound like a nice rounded number. Maybe I’ll try to keep these to 250 words or less then instead? If I didn’t list the Nintendo DS games then it would’ve cut 25 or so words.

Bringing You Moments in Life

2009-01-22T12:48:00.000+11:00

Trying something new here but knowing me this will crash and burn so hard and quick. I would really like to post on this blog every day but the only way I’d do that is by keeping an entry very brief and bare bones. A lot of days that is pretty easy as I don’t do too much throughout the week so small short entries for what I did for the day should be theoretically easy so long as I can just make me sit my arse down and write. As I have been though if there is something worth the time I’ll write more of a filled out entry for the day. We’ll see if I can keep an entry down to less than 200 words for this though which sounds relatively simple so let’s give it a shot. Of course I shall be posting for the previous day though just because writing right before bed for the day that has been will just never happen.

Bridezillas and Breathing Balls of Fire

2009-01-22T09:33:00.001+11:00

That title puts into my head an image of a 100-foot tall woman in a bride’s dress stomping down the streets of Tokyo unleashing a fiery breath on the helpless populace because the table cloths are the wrong shade of pink or some other trivial shit. Funnily enough though the title of this entry is meant to reference two separate things from the weekend but they just ended up working so well together. I expect Mothra will probably be swooping in for a cameo appearance and to save the day any time soon though so keep your eyes peeled. If you aren’t getting the references that I have dropped here then for shame on you.

Moving onto what the entry is supposed to be about we kick things off on the weekend that just passed… Or was actually quite a few days ago now seeing how I am such a slacker and am only now writing about it. The entry before this one goes into that though and I’m getting side tracked again so enough of that. I can be so terrible at rambling or getting distracted sometimes that it’s not funny.

Well back to it and it all starts on the Friday. Tracy and I had already made the plans for the weekend, or at least the Saturday, a few days earlier so things had a pretty sunny outlook. After I knocked off of work I went to her place for the night which I would’ve done anyway but seeing how there was a movie we were going to see at a very early time it just worked out even better. Friday night now seems to be our pizza night and I ordered them up online just before leaving work and by the time I got to the store they were ready. We ate, watched television and a DVD for the night, and managed to get to sleep at a not too late a time considering the movie in the morning started at 7:45AM but we could’ve been asleep far earlier.

A bit tired and bleary eyed we woke in the morning to head for the cinema but we made it just in time. We were there to see The Tale of Despereaux which wasn’t my choice but Tracy’s as she loves children’s movies. I mean they each have their own charms and I can’t really say anything against them seeing how I watch anime so I had no complaints about seeing it. The previews we caught when catching our last movie showed it to be interesting enough and I must admit that it was a fun little thing to watch. Any kid should be able to be entertained by this tale of a brave little mouse trying to stand up and do the honourable, right and just thing. My only complaint that I can throw up without a moments thought is that the humans can look quite odd with their very long faces but that’s an art direction problem which really doesn’t detract from the tale being told which is what you really go to see a movie for.

With the movie over by mid-morning Tracy and I had the rest of the day to kill until late in the afternoon when we’d have to get ready for going out to dinner. We filled the time in firstly with some shopping, looking through some places and also picking up some groceries. Somewhere along the line we met up with Tracy’s mum and brothers before all ending up back at her place. Leftover pizza provided lunch before an afternoon of not much at all except for taking a nap. Tracy went to lay down first whilst I was going to sit around and play Chrono Trigger on my Nintendo DS (awesome game <3) but tiredness caught up with me so down I went for an hour and a half.

Dinner was set for 6:00PM at the local Indian restaurant in town which we felt would give us plenty of time to eat with us going to another movie at 7:45PM. Last time we went out to dinner was to the Thai restaurant and an impromptu visit to the wood-fired pizza place after that so we were looking for the next place to try. There are a few nice places to have dinner at around town and both of us had had our eye on the Indian restaurant so I booked a table there. Tracy had Indian before in other places which she liked whilst the only Indian I had before was a butter chicken made from a jar only a few nights before and one dish from a Christmas party year before but I was willing to give it a shot.

We arrived just on time and were the only customers in the place but it was only early so I wasn’t too surprised. When I rung up to book two nights before it sounded rather busy and as the evening went on we saw the place get packed out so it was a good thing we booked. The restaurant was far larger than what you thought when looking at it from the outside as it was quite deep and one of the waitress at the end of our meal said it was the busiest night she’d seen since working there.

The start of the evening was nice though for the quiet and the waitress who took our order was so very helpful, and so was everyone else really. Tracy had only had Indian as takeaway from places and since I was completely new to it she asked the waitress what she’d recommend for someone’s first time... Funny note here how with Tracy I’m trying many things for the first time. The waitress pointed out what I believe was called the King and his Queens Banquet which consisted of a three course meal for two which gave a nice bit of a few different things. If this was a persons first time with Indian food the waitress said she always recommended that as a good place to start as it gave a good variety of their range of food plus nothing was really too hot at all.

That brings me to something I really want to say. Banish from your mind the thought that all Indian food is spicy hot. Yes, there is spice but that does not necessarily mean mouth burning hotness that has you running for the water, or the better choice of yoghurt. Some things are or can be hot and if that is your sort of thing then go ahead for those dishes but many others are perfectly fine. The spices can have their own little kick but they are more flavourful than anything else which is supposed to be the key point with them. Each is their own unique taste from the blend of spices, herbs and sauce which is meant to give something enjoyable to eat.

So with our wonderful little banquet we got started off with some papadums (quite a crisp, round flat bread) and a small platter with a selection dips and such. It was here that we actually came across the hottest thing of the night in one of the little dishes but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was called or what was actually in it besides some red looking stuff. One little piece was manageable on the hotness scale but it was just so tasty with a flavour that sucked you back into wanting more, and it was the first to be emptied out. Besides that there was mango chutney, a little dish with a mix of some shredded vegetables which I didn’t try and a couple of yoghurt dips (called raita?) which one was mixed with mint and the other cucumber. I don’t normally like cucumber but that one wasn’t too bad actually and they really went well on not just the hot one but also some dishes to come later.

The entrée which came out shortly after was a mixed entrée offering up four different items for us to make our way through. Off-hand I can’t remember names or what exactly what they were so I guess I’ll have to edit this later. From memory there was a little vegetable parcel, a lamb chop, chicken marinaded in some sauce and I’m blanking on the last. Thankfully I have the take-away menu at home so I can grab the details from there when I get home.

When it came to the main course we were brought a decent plate of basmati rice, some naan (another type of bread) and three small serving bowls each with a different dish in them. One was butter chicken which I had only had a few nights before for dinner but the one from earlier looked nothing like this one and couldn’t even be held as a comparison. Tracy wasn’t as keen on the butter chicken as myself though which just meant more for me. Another was beef tandoori which the first we ate, and out of the lot was the best. The last was lamb vindaloo which was nice but my least favourite out of the lot. Saying something is my least favourite from these three dishes doesn’t mean much though as they were all so bloody delicious. Each offered something different to the plate which was so different yet so vibrant in its flavour I’ve not had anything like them. The meat itself was the most tender I can ever remember having and it could’ve just melted in your mouth it was that good. There was not a single bad thing amongst these, or even the banquet in its entirety for that matter. Not only that but the servings were pretty near perfect size as by the end of it I had that just right full feeling whilst Tracy left a tiny bit of the last dish on her plate.

Dessert was a much simpler affair with something we know and love but not Indian at all. It was a simple scoop of both vanilla and chocolate icecream with a little blob of whipped cream on top which I definitely won’t complain about. Unfortunately when we were waiting for dessert we realised that that very reasonable hour and a half we allowed for dinner was cutting it very closely and may in fact be late. Given that fact there was a bit of a rush on to finish up which is a shame because I would’ve just liked to have taken a bit more time to relax there after such a beautiful meal and enjoy it, the surrounds and just us.

Hurriedly we made our way to the cinema again after finishing up so we could hopefully catch the start of the movie. Fortunately for us we got there to catch some previews so we had time to spare. A bit of a relief really though since people were already let in and seated we had to take what seats we could which I think we ended up just a tad too close to the screen.

Our second movie for the day was Bride Wars. There were a few choices we could’ve went with for the night that started around this time but both Tracy and I had seen the previews and thought it could be good for a laugh which sounded like a good way to end the night. We were just a little worried that they may have shown all the funniest parts of the movies in the preview and the rest of the movie would be rather crap but those fears were unfounded. It actually had some quite funny moments throughout and for a light hearted way to finish the night out it worked quite well. The lengths that these two friends ended up going to to sabotage the other had some oft hilarious results or more scheming plots leading to a build-up that was funny in a different way. So despite being a ‘chicks movie’ as Tracy called it, which she wasn’t sure if I’d want to go and see because of it, it actually turned out to be pretty good. So that made a kid’s movie and a chick’s movie in the one day, maybe I’m just odd…

It was past 10:00PM by the time we got back to Tracy’s place, or I think it was. Well whatever the time was we didn’t stay up much after we got back before heading to bed. We didn’t get up and out of bed in the morning until some time past 10:00AM either. It was nice to have a sleep in; I rarely do these days even on the weekend when I have nothing to do at home. When we got up we didn’t get into doing much until after lunch time as well besides Tracy doing some laundry and bathing her pets.

At around 2:00PM we headed into town to the shopping centre to meet up with Tracy’s mum and brother plus a few other odds and ends. Lunch was first on the agenda where I grabbed Subway whilst Tracy had some coffee and cake (not the most healthy thing but yum) from the little patisserie there. Other than that Tracy just had to grab a couple of things she forgot shopping before we headed back to her place. Shortly after that I figured it was about time I showed the rest of my family that I was still alive and haded home. Hurray for lazy Sundays where you can nearly spend half of them in bed!

Tick. Tock. The Hands Keep Moving on the Clock.

2009-01-21T12:36:00.000+11:00

Not enough hours in the day or so it seems lately. At least the time between this entry and the last is nowhere near as large as like the one over the holidays. I really do want to write something up for this blog somewhat regularly but alas, time is a valuable commodity. That and it’s a bit of a pain typing at home when sprawled across my bed as well as there being so many distractions there to keep me from getting it done.

I guess I have too many things competing for my interests lately during what free time I have. My main hobbies being video games, comics, anime or television shows and throw in getting some exercise it doesn’t help since they can be rather time consuming pursuits to have. Video games especially can be a major glutton of time depending as they draw you in. Even more so with a massively multi-player online game like World of Warcraft as it has almost limitless playability. Anime can be just as much of a time eater as well seeing how a twenty six episode series works out to ten or so hours. Considering I’ve got a shit load of anime on DVD to watch I have days upon days of stuff to watch which has unfortunately been falling to the way side as of late to make way for the gaming during what precious little time I have at home.

In amongst all that I’m trying to spend what time I can with my girlfriend which at the moment is nearly half the week. When I think about it it’s actually more than half my free time spent with Tracy really since we’re normally together for the entirety of the weekend except for late Sunday afternoon or early evening. Not that I will ever complain about it seeing how I enjoy spending time with her so much and we get out and have our own fun things to do together. This last weekend for example was so great and I wouldn’t have wanted to spend it any other way when I think about it. There was a nice mix of just being in each others normal life as well as that something special when we went out for dinner and a movie. It was all such a relaxing and enjoyable way to spend the time which was all the more better with the sleep in on Sunday morning.

I’d actually been meaning to write about the weekend earlier but I slacked off, and it was originally supposed to be what this post was about. Instead I get into this and it really is surprising when you sit down and look at what you do with your free time. Some things eating into it are unavoidable whilst others just seem like a waste when you think about it, and further more others you can never give enough time to no matter how much you wish you could. Unfortunately time waits for no one and you can’t claim back the time that has already passed so I guess you need to really consider what, or who, you spend your free time with.

Madman Anime: Welcome in the New Year with January’s Releases

2009-01-16T14:33:00.000+11:00

January 14th, 2009
Bleach V12
Le Chevalier D'eon Collection (Fatpack)
Lucky Star Collection 1 (Eps 1-12) (Slimpack)
Mushishi Collection (Fatpack)
Naruto (Uncut) Collection 09 (Eps 107-120) (Slimpack)
Noein Collection (Fatpack)
Tsubasa Chronicles (TV) V08
Xxxholic V06

All I can say for me is that this is a bloody crappy start to the year really. The best title of the month was originally Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion V3 but that was delayed and now has a release date set for March. With that pushed back the only title I’ve got coming to me this month is Naruto (Uncut) Collection 9 which is a pretty shameful order compared to what I’ve spent in previous months. I must admit though that Noein Collection was on my order originally but I cancelled it when I found it on rightstuf.com for incredibly cheap. Plus there was the fact that the USA release has a bit of a collectors box going for it which looked nice whilst the Australian Madman release was going straight to shitty fatpack format.

That isn’t to say that the month is completely bad, it just looks that way since my order is so small. I mean I really would like to watch Tsubasa Chronicles and Xxxholic someday whilst I nearly did consider picking up Lucky Star but passed for once again being a shitty packaging format for a series I wasn’t 100% sold on which also had some very cool special editions released in the USA that I’d rather pick up if I did decide to go with the series. Bleach continues to carry on which I’m sure many will love for it but I never really got into the show though I’ve only watched the first episode. I haven’t the faintest clue off hand what the other collections for the month are even about so meh.

Game of the Year 2008

2009-01-15T13:26:00.003+11:00

Well so far I have covered the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PC which are the systems I own and have actively played over the year. Along with those I do have a PlayStation 2 but I haven’t played much new on it but the clear choice for game of the year on that is Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 FES. I do own a PlayStation Portable as well but I barely even touched it for the year and choices on that are slim pickings. The other two consoles, the X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3, I do not own and I can’t really be bothered theorising too much on what their top games of the year would be even if I were qualified to. So in the end I’ll just throw up some quick highlights in order from my idea of top to bottom before judging the game of the year which to after the brief listings should be obvious when combined with what I have posted so far.

PlayStation Portable: Patapon, God of War Chains of Olympus, Echochrome, Space invaders Extreme and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

X-Box 360: Fallout 3, Braid, Fable 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, Left 4 Dead

PlayStation 3: Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet, Grand Theft Auto 4, Valkyria Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot

With the previous posts and then accounting for the quick lists there one game has popped up in first spot three times. If that doesn’t smack you in the face as game of the year then I don’t know what would. Even if it had just lived on the PC it still would’ve picked up the top spot for the year in my eyes. What was such a great series now lives on again with yet another fine example of gaming joining their ranks. The year of 2008 saw some excellent examples of gaming but one game crushes all as it stamps its way through the harsh, nuclear landscape of the gaming world. So without anything further…

Game of the Year 2008: Fallout 3
What didn’t I say about the game when I put it on my PC game of the year list? The fact that it hit not only the PC but two of the current generation consoles only sealed the deal even more so. This is a game that deserves to be played by as many people out there as possible so by branching out into the console realm they really broaden their market. With the convergence of console and PC gaming drawing nearer the experience of Fallout 3 is just as stellar as it is on any of the other platforms no matter which you play. Bethesda has done the gaming industry proud with the latest instalment of the Fallout series.

Ho Ho Ho, Merry… Line?

2009-01-15T12:31:00.000+11:00

Continuing with the holiday catch up we next had Christmas. A time for giving and receiving, a time for family and friends, and a time of religious significance if that is your sort of thing. For me the last few years has seen Christmas as not much of a big deal and if I had it my way it’d go like my birthday does as just another day. Living with my dad all these years before would be partly responsible as he was just as not into it as I and there hadn’t been a tree in our house since I was like ten years old. This year, or last year now, saw the best Christmas in quite some time however and what a world of difference it can make.

This time saw a return to celebrating Christmas Eve which I used to experience as a child as that was what my grandparents did as tradition seeing how they were European. It wasn’t a return to old traditions with my father’s side of the family though but with Tracy, her mother Margret, two brothers and a couple of their family friends. Tracy’s mother is German and as it would happen has managed to carry on the tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve to this very day. I was invited to join the festivities for the night and I certainly couldn’t turn it down.

I arrived a bit later than I intended at Margret’s house but no one seemed to mind. Nearly everything was ready for the dinner and boy was it looking to be a huge feast. It wasn’t a real Christmas without turkey according to Tracy and they had two in the oven whilst two large tubs of home made potato salad sat ready to be dug into. That was all they ever had for Christmas Eve dinner, turkey and potato salad. It was the way it was and it was the way it always would be which as far as they were concerned would always do. I love turkey, it is nearly always what I have on my sandwiches for lunch every day, but then I am not usually one who likes potato salad. The only potato salad I was ever able to stomach was one my dad knocked up a couple of times but with Tracy’s praise of her mum’s one I had to try it. Luckily for me it was pretty bloody good so shame on everyone else for making such shitty potato salad.

With bellies full we rested for a while trying to catch some of the cast from the musical called Wicked singing carols on the television. We were also waiting to start another little tradition of the night which funnily enough we did when I was a kid as well. At the start of the night the Christmas tree has virtually no presents at all under it because Santa hasn’t been to visit yet. After dinner the family goes out for a bit of a walk and whilst out Santa comes by and drops off the presents. When I was a child we used to do this exact thing and I was quite surprised to see Tracy’s family do it as well for her younger brother. We took to the streets to try and find people with Christmas lights on display to have a look at whilst walking a few blocks around.

When we returned the Christmas tree was light up with candles no less, another blast from my past, and underneath were presents a plenty. It sure is something to see just how excited some people can get over it which in its own way is really nice and touching. Tracy’s younger brother, Jordon, was bouncing around like an overhyped puppy but for a kid who is only ten years old his year was made when he got a bike and a Nintendo DS. Tracy, who is just a kid at heart at times loves Christmas so much and it’s hard not to be caught up in the spirit.

Tracy and I exchanged our gifts to one another which was a big moment. I normally suck so badly at thinking up gifts for people no matter who or what the occasion so I’d been freaking a bit on just how much she’d like what I got her. I’d had a few ideas running through my head for her but then one day I just stumbled across something that seemed right. This all wasn’t helped by the fact that I had no idea what she’d be getting me so I wasn’t sure what limit I should go to and that we’d only just started our relationship some two weeks beforehand.

What I found her just seemed to fit though and was this lovely looking hard-covered journal with a pair of butterflies (which she loves) on the cover and was small enough to easily carry around. I didn’t mean for it to be just a journal though as Tracy likes to write poetry and has been just doing so in a rather plain notebook so I thought this could serve as a place that could last and hold her poems. To go along with it I picked up a very nice black pen because what good is something nice to write in if you lack an equally nice tool to actually write with? Since it was something hopefully special I couldn’t let it go by without writing something inside the cover which proved to be just as equally hard. I spent hours pouring over what to write as thoughts came and went but in the end I managed to nail something down; a pity that I normally suck at that kind of writing though.

In the end the worry was for nothing it seems as she said she loved it. It looked so nice, a bit too nice for keeping a journal in because sometimes she just dribbles nonsense which may ruin it according to her but she’d try. I assured her that despite being marked for it she could write things in there besides journal entries since I had originally thought she could keep poetry in it. So far I know of two entries she has wrote in it so it is seeing use which will hopefully provide some fond memories when she looks back over it in years to come.

It was well past midnight when we called it a night and bid farewell. I dropped Tracy home and as much as I wanted to stay the night I needed to be home for Christmas morning. Fortunately Christmas morning didn’t kick off to early as my mum, brothers, their dad and my brother’s girlfriend didn’t stir up until 9:00AM or so. This was a really different way of waking up on Christmas morning as unlike my dad my mum was into Christmas as well what with a tree and lights. It was so laid back though as we took time to hand out the presents where we were all gathered around the lounge room. By the end of it there was a hulking mess of wrapping paper on the floor which is all part of the fun.

This Christmas proved to be my best yet for picking presents though that in part had to do with a little inspiration from my mum so I can’t claim all the credit. For her I went and got her a subscription to the Better Homes & Gardens magazine which the television show of is the one show she always doesn’t want to miss. My brothers are an absolute pain to decide on so I simply went for gift cards to the clothes shop they frequent which works for them since they go through that much stuff at this point. For their dad I picked up a simple box of Guy Lian chocolates which I figured he’d probably share around anyway so if he didn’t like them then it wasn’t a complete waste. Generally for him chocolate is a safe bet which is just the same with my dad.

In return I got an incredible quilt set from my mum which I’d been eyeing off for ages as I thought it’d really suit my bed what with its black and gold Chinese inspired design. From my brothers I got two blocks of Cadbury’s Blackforest chocolate which is an absolute favourite of mine. Then there was also their other little present, two condoms with a little name tag stuck to them and they even made sure to point out that they had included the instructions… How nice of you guys, thanks. And I’ve just realised that I forgot to say what Tracy got me as a present as well as not writing what I got for my birthday in that post of the blog. I’ll have to go back and edit the birthday post when I’m done with this one but as for Tracy’s Christmas present it was a proper shirt with very fine black and white strips. It fits well with me as I love a good button up shirt and this one the material seemed very light and breathable plus it’s a good break from the straight white shirts I tend to favour. I have found though that if you stare at it it makes your eyes feel a bit funny.

Having cleaned up and taken a shower I was set to head off for my grandparents for a Christmas lunch. The original plan had been Christmas Eve dinner with Tracy and her family, Christmas lunch with my dad and grandparents and finally Christmas dinner with my mum and family but things were looking a bit shaky on the mum with mum thinking hard about doing a lunch. I set off all the same though assuring that no matter what happened I didn’t mind so long as I was there for the night and even just had to eat leftovers with everyone.

Lunch at my grandparent’s house was just to be them, my father and myself as my uncle, auntie and cousins weren’t going to be done until after Christmas for a planned family get together. My grandparents were quite adamant on having a family lunch with everyone there for this holiday and with my uncle having a few problems they couldn’t make it for Christmas. We managed to have a very lovely Christmas lunch for ourselves though with turkey and having been pleased with the potato salad Tracy’s mum made I dug in to my nan’s with a bit more confidence and found it to be nearly as good. It must be a touch that only Germans can throw into it or something that makes their potato salad so good.

With the rest of the family not due for a few days later we decided to leave the presents until then when everyone was there. For the rest of the afternoon we just relaxed and chatted, enjoying the afternoon and full bellies along with a slice of chocolate cake which nan had gotten me as she said she would for my birthday. That thing was massive and on the way back home I stopped in at Tracy’s to share a bit with her. In the end it was a trade though as I took some of her delicious homemade shortbread cookies and a couple of leftover caramel tarts she’d bought for dessert the night before.

Now I’m kicking myself as what has been a pretty good run on my memory fails me finally as I can’t remember how the night went when I got home. I can’t be 100% sure that we had dinner or not though I do recall mum didn’t do as she had been planning through the day so I get the feeling we did. Serves me right for leaving it so long to write this though I must admit I’m surprised how well I’ve recalled most things up until now.

Still, from there we jump ahead to the 28th where my memory does manage to kick back in with full force. My uncle and auntie had arrived at my grandparents the day before whilst my two cousins were due on this day hence we were holding the BBQ lunch for this day. It was to be a late lunch though that was normal for my grandparents as they had lunch at 1:00PM usually but when I made it there it turned out my cousins were a bit late, both for their own reasons. Michelle and her husband David were travelling down from Sydney on that day so they’d struck just a bad run of traffic and ended up there about a half hour late at around 2:30PM. My cousin Daniel, who I hadn’t seen for probably a good six years or longer, was supposed to be coming along with his girlfriend for us all to meet but unfortunately her family was struck with a bit of tradgey in what should be a joyous season so he was trying to hold with her for as long as he could. Daniel finally arrived around 4:00PM and he seemed pretty much how I remembered him right down to the voice with the only change being he now had himself quite a few tattoos.

In the end the lunch became a dinner which worked just as well with. In typical fashion there was far too much meat and food in general bought and cooked for the BBQ. We had prawns, sausages, chicken kebabs, fish, salads and a vegetable ravioli in a tomato sauce along with other stuff I’m probably forgetting. I do recall having to stop my nan from trying to cook some garlic bread and my dad just refused to cook a tray of steaks because he could see we had far too much already. It had been ages since I’d had a BBQ though so everything was just so good but for some reason I kept coming back to the ravioli which was a vegetarian meal meant for David. There was far too much for just him though so I was able to help myself to a couple of servings.

After the food we continued to just sit around the house catching up on how things had been going for everyone. With everyone there we finally got around to the present giving that had been held off on Christmas Day though there was no tree to be seen in my grandparents place. Next year they say they want a proper tree though, a real one cut down with proper decorations like the candles and candy like they used to. For the night though it was well enough to just sit around as we handed them out.

The main thing was getting my grandparents something as they are always the hardest to buy for. My pop has so many clothes that he has been given but never wears so that was out and well nan, let me just say that thinking for older people is just tricky but in the end I settled on books. A James Patterson novel for my nan since she likes crime and thriller ones and I know him to be pretty decent since I read a few and know she had one of his books at some point. My pop on the other hand doesn’t read fiction from what I gather but he loves the world and history. I chanced upon what just seemed the perfect book for him in the bookstore whilst actually looking for a different book for him. It was a history book of sorts detailing 1001 Days That Shaped the World as it was called with each day either taking up half a page of a full page so it was quite condensed and precise. With such little chunks it would be easy to just sit down and read a bit every now and then plus a quick flick through showed it to be pretty interesting even to me. My pop gave it a little perfect sign and has been really into it since he got it so a job well done there on that present. Like I mentioned earlier, my dad and I aren’t real big on gift giving but I bought him a jumbo sized white chocolate Toblerone.

My grandparents in return gave me some very nice, big, fluffy towels just the way I like them and they also put some money in the Christmas card as they usually do. My memory goes a bit hazy here again, I think my uncle and auntie gave me a shirt whilst my cousin gave me a box of mixed Cadbury chocolates. Somewhere in there was a small overnight bag which I think also came from my grandparents along with the towels. My grandparents were so sweet as well as they bought a present for Tracy as well which was a box of chocolate coated macadamia nuts which incidentally she loves.

With the night getting late and a 45 minute drive to him I said my goodbyes. I probably wouldn’t see any of them for at least another year now but it is always nice to catch up with them. I still can’t believe how little Daniel had changed despite so many years having passed since I last saw him.

That night saw the end of Christmas for the year and hopefully the next one will live up to it. Being surrounded by friends and family is what truly makes it so special.

OMG I’m Old!

2009-01-14T16:32:00.001+11:00

I guess I shall play a little catch up on here with what I did over the holidays. Since I didn’t post on the blog at all during that time you’d think I must have some good things to tell since I was so busy. Well that would be mostly a yes and if I had it my way the holidays would’ve gone for a few more weeks. I’ve got nearly a month saved up in annual leave though so I can take another holiday later at some point, I’m thinking at the end of summer.

So during the holidays I had my birthday which saw me turning 24 on the 21st of December. Nearly halfway to the big 30 and my teenage years are well and truly behind me now so I’m stuck in a limbo. I’m getting older, it’s one of those things that you can’t avoid but just because another year has ticked by doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve grown any more mature. I like to think I’m becoming a bit wiser as I live through experiences and the mind can slowly evolve naturally as it crafts us into who we are. It had been a pretty big year for me but enough of the musings and onto the birthday itself.

Typically the last few years I’ve treated my birthday just like it were any other day. I woke up at my normal time of around 6:00AM as I was still in work mode and had things to do for the day as planned so I needed the early start. While wandering between the shower and breakfast my mum caught me to wish me a happy birthday. The rest of the family in the house didn’t, and wouldn’t, see me until that night when I returned for my birthday dinner but more on that later.

I headed off at nearly mid-morning for my grandparents house back in Currarong where I used to live since I thought it’d be nice that they saw me on my birthday. They said that they would ring but it really just isn’t the same and it’s not like they live that far from me. When I got there they were pleasantly surprised and wished me a happy birthday. We just spent a couple of hours of the morning then just having a chat whilst sitting around the lounge room and such. Turns out they’d sent my birthday card to me in the mail which I hadn’t gotten yet. My nan said she was a bit late on sending it out but I told her not to worry about it- I love my grandparents to bits.

Around an hour before midday I left my grandparents place for my next planned meet up. Before heading there I took a little detour to drop by my dad’s house to see if he was home. As fortune would have it he was just arriving home after going out fishing for the morning in his boat. There was just a quick happy birthday passed before I had to shoot through though I did grab that he’d be at my grandparent’s for lunch on Christmas Day.

From there I headed to Greenwell Point, some fifteen minutes drive from Currarong and only five or so minutes from town. The plan was to meet my girlfriend and her family there for lunch since she had someone staying over for the weekend and couldn’t make dinner. Turns out there was a bit of a mix up with their plans of travel and all ended up late which compounded with the fact that I was a bit early left me twiddling my thumbs. If all had went well then they could’ve all made it in one car whilst I drove around in one loop through all the places I needed to go on the day with an eventual return to home.

Greenwell Point is usually a very nice little town down by the river with plenty of grassy area by the water to sit and relax, grab a bite to eat and so on which was pretty perfect for what we wanted. That and the fact that everyone had been there before and just quite liked the area as well as it not being too far from town. Unfortunately it was a bit windy that day but that didn’t stop us when everyone arrived and at least it was quite sunny. We hit up a local fish and chip shop near the park by the water with nearly everyone taking up on the fish and chips whilst I went with the chicken burger. The only fish I ever eat is that I can be absolutely sure has been caught fresh, and normally only by dad. From what I gather everyone enjoyed their food well enough and my burger was alright but nothing special.

After we finished eating we left the picnic table, pelicans and sea gulls behind as we took a walk along the water back toward the car park so people could go to the toilet and grab some things from the car, mainly a jacket. Turns out they were also grabbing my birthday cake that Tracy bought for me which would’ve been a great surprise had it not been for her younger brother shouting out that they had a cake for me when Tracy tried whispering as to why we were moving to a nice place to sit out of the wind.

Spread out on a sheet for us to all sit on they pulled out the cake and tried to light a candle in the wind but little flames and big breezes don’t mix. The cake was a very chocolate filled one and in the heat the icing was melting off of it leaving it pool around it. It was so nice to have Tracy and her family there for a little celebration of our own out there. We all ate our fill of the cake and the mood was pretty high and happy, not even the wind could ruin it. Plus when the cake was gone the melted chocolate icing was so nice to lick up with a finger.

After a while we packed up and headed to the cars so we could drive back into town. We all stopped in at Tracy’s for a cup of tea and just to spend a bit more time together chatting. Tracy and her family, they have made me feel so welcome and a part of their little clan which is so nice. Many thanks for sharing the day with me on my birthday and celebrating it. Eventually though I had to say my goodbyes so I could head home for the final birthday celebration of the day.

With my mum and that part of the family I now live with they have a little tradition of whoever’s birthday it is gets to have anything they want for dinner. Considering that meant it was me this time I figured I couldn’t be late to my own birthday dinner especially after being out for the whole day. For my choice I went with something that was usually a dinner on a Sunday anyways. Chicken schnitzels were on the menu along with salad which is a bit of a funny choice really considering I prefer to not actually eat schnitzel. When we cook it though I grab a few bits of the chicken, sprinkle some Cajian seasoning on them and then whack them in the oven to bake which is a far healthier option than the bread crumb encased schnitzel. I don’t mind though and chicken schnitzel is one of the favourites of the whole household.

Once dinner was done there was yet another cake! Well that was to be expected really since it was my birthday after all. More chocolate goodness to make myself fat on though this cake was far smaller than the one Tracy bought so it wasn’t too bad on us. Luckily my nan hadn’t gotten to buying me a cake but she was promising she’d have one for me on Christmas Day when I went there for lunch. In the end that cake my nan bought me would be pretty big and packed with even more chocolate so by the end of it we would struggle through it even after giving part of it away. I’d say that all that was enough cake to last me until my next birthday..

With a full stomach and an absolutely happy mood I headed to bed after what was one of the better birthdays I’ve had. The only bad thing of the day I could think of as I laid there in bed was the feeling of sun burn coming on…

EDIT: And silly me, I forgot to mention the presents that everyone was so kind to get me. I guess the day itself and sharing it with everyone was the main highlight and what made the birthday so enjoyable that the presents were overshadowed by that. From my mum and family I got a couple of singlets and a two sets of shorts for when I workout or go for a job as I only had one pair until then. My grandparents just give money (normally $50 but in this case $100) which is understandable seeing how I always find it so bloody hard to find something for people as well. My dad gave me a hug which I suits me perfectly fine as we’ve never been big on presents. Finally Tracy gave me a copy of The Dark Knight on DVD which I’d been raving on about whenever it comes up in conversation since I saw it- such an awesome movie.

World of Warcraft: Lost in the Land of Azeroth

2009-01-14T11:45:00.002+11:00

Well now, looking back through the blog I haven’t actually posted anything about World of Warcraft since my trial ran out and I’d just gotten the full game along with it’s expansion packs. Things have been busy and my free time being less than what I’d like I get squeezed on what I can and can’t manage to do. Considering that, I would then actually prefer to be using the free-time to be playing World of Warcraft, not writing about it. So yes that answers the question on whether I am actually still playing it.

What I have been up to in the lands of Azeroth in my first month of proper play has been a blast. Slowly I’ve made my way up and expanded my travels outward from the population centres. In my last post about my playing I’d just started in Redridge Mountains and had help clearing the Deadmines from a level 70 character.

From there I worked on clearing out the majority of quests in Redridge Mountain which took quite a bit of play since I wasn’t rushing. At one point I got teamed up with a mid-level 50 character who helped me in the area with a couple of quests before we both got slaughtered by a Hoarde player stalking the area. My helper called in a fellow guild mate of theirs as they decided to run me through a dungeon instead of staying put in the area and getting killed over and over. First we headed to the Deadmines which would be my second run through it and once again I was left to loot everything until my hearts content. Still bored the higher levels wanted to run another dungeon so we set off to my gnome’s home, Gnomeregan. None of us had run it before, understand for me since I was still pretty new, so it took us a while to find our way through it but after one wipe we managed. With two dungeons now under my belt in a night I had plenty of shiny new equipment to go dividing up between characters.

I eventually ended up with so much stuff over the last month that I made an alternate account to simply hold all the stuff my other characters didn’t immediately need. The concept of a mule isn’t new and I had a few back in the days on playing Diablo II but in World of Warcraft it seems even handier. It may cost a small amount to send the items via mail but that small cost is nothing compared to what you could lose from having to trash items. Having a mule account also turned out to have another positive in that he can act as my auctioneer.

Speaking of auctioneering brings up one great moment of play from recently. Blizzard has seen to throwing in holiday events and quests which really add some spirit to the game. Christmas saw cities decked out in shiny lights and Christmas trees with a Santa in Ironforge and everything. Along with the celebrations were a variety of quests which one of them was to give Santa some gingerbread cookies and milk. The milk is easy enough to get from any vendor but the cookies have to be made with the cooking profession. It’s a relatively easy recipe that is buyable from one of the Christmas goods vendors and it only takes one small egg and one helping of holiday spices plus not much skill at all. Now with one ingredient buyable that makes that half of the recipe easy to get but the small eggs are a drop from low level birds.

This is where people’s laziness equals profit for those who aren’t so lazy. Instead of taking the time to go out there and kill the easy birds for their precious eggs people just run straight to the auction house to buy up a batch of five to make the needed amount of cookies. Demand skyrockets and supply can only do so much to cope but with such a demand those who have the eggs could bloat out the price to virtually whatever they wanted. Xenitha, my hunter, was still in the night elf capital and the forests just outside were packed with the kind of bird I needed to hunt and kill for eggs so I got to it. I used the eggs to make the cookies themselves on Zabrze then off-loaded them to my mule who threw them up on the auction house. At one point I was the only one selling the cookies and I was selling a stack of five for twenty gold making myself some decent money. Near the end of the Christmas period I had some competition as people caught on however and had to cut prices plus I ended up with a few stacks leftover for next year. In the end I made a bit over 200 gold which considering the time it took me to make my first gold piece I’d say I did pretty well for a week’s worth of time.

That gold I made came in handy for providing Zabrze with the funds to buy his first mount when he hit level 30. It had taken a while to claw my way up to that level but I felt pretty accomplished with making it there. The fact that I had a spiffy mechanical bird to show off and ride around on to mark the occasion was all the more sweet. Having a mount really cuts down on the foot travel time when I need it and combined with my teleport spells I can get to where I need to rather quickly.

At the moment sits at level 33 which is a great place to be. I’ve got so many new areas open for me to go and explore if I want. After I finished with the majority of Redridge Mountain I headed back to the Wetlands up north to conquer and plunder. When the well was drying up there for quests and I was left with a few tougher ones I headed back down to the Stormwind area and made my way through the forests to Duskwood. By that point I was nicely above most quests in level there but they still raked in the experience points for me plus the reputation. When I ran out of quests there I flicked back to Redridge Mountain to finish one lone quest there before heading back to the Wetlands where I am now.

With just two quests active I’d say it’s nearly time to leave the Wetlands as well which puts me at my current conundrum of where to go next. North of the Wetlands is Arathi Highlands and Alterac Mountain which are both level appropriate for Zabrze. South of Duskwood I have the Stranglethorn Vale and to the east I could possible take up in the Swamp of Sorrows. If I really wanted to however I could start exploring the whole other continent across the ocean which plays home to the Hoarde. I did try making it there on my last play session but I took the wrong boat and ended up in Northrend which whilst looking spectacular is so far above me that I bet I couldn’t even hit a monster there for one single point of damage.

By the time I finished with everything else last night the realms were going down for maintenance so I didn’t get to play last night which is a shame. I’m itching to get in to explore a new area as it’s really a thrill to see a whole bunch of new stuff. The only complaint I have about the game so far is not one with the game itself really but one with myself. I have no one to play it with as none of my friends play and I haven’t made any friends in the game itself. With that many people playing on the realm it wouldn’t really be that hard so it’s just a matter of me getting to it. I did have a little chat with someone around my level that needed help and hadn’t been playing for that much less than myself so maybe I’ll chase them up when I play next. They did say that if I ever needed help with a quest or something to give them a shout so who knows, maybe I’ll take them up on the offer.

I’ll leave the post with a link to Zabrze on WoW Armory. My little guy has come a long way so far and I’ve picked up some pretty decent pieces of equipment to hold me over. Slowly things are improving but it seems more stuff drops that would be useful for my other characters some day when I play them properly. I really need to pick up on my tailoring and enchanting again as I’ve slacked a little off on their training and they always seem to have some pretty decent stuff to make for my level at the time.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dreadmaul&n=Zabrze

PC: Game of the Year 2008

2009-01-13T14:09:00.003+11:00

With the holiday period I’ve been rather busy and wasn’t able to finish off my game of the year series of posts for the blog, or any other posts for that matter. Nearly two weeks into the new year I am finally back to drag my sorry arse into gear and show the neglected blog some love. Kicking things off I thought I’d get into my favourite gaming platform, the PC. This is, and always will be, where my gaming heart comes to rest and show me just how good gaming can be. That isn’t to say that the consoles aren’t without their own merits but there are things that simply can only be done on the PC. That margin is slimming as the years go on though which if you catch the list to follow you may understand.

5. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
The fifth position was quite a toss up with me with many titles running through my head for the spot. In the end I settled with a mere expansion pack but it isn’t just any expansion pack we’re talking about here. It is THE expansion pack of the year and it happens to be for this little game World of Warcraft, maybe you’ve heard of it? Blizzard are known for producing quality titles and are more than happy to hold off releasing a new title if they feel it isn’t up to scratch. They took the world by storm with the release of World of Warcraft, did it again with its first expansion pack and have now done it for a third time. One new class and one massive new continent packed full of marvellous sights to see, quests to send you crusading across the land, new mechanics to play around with, improvements and expansions to old professions, skills, and abilities as they progress to new heights, and the list can go on and on. If this is what every expansion pack was like for any game then they would all be money well spent. Managing to sell 2.8 million copies world-wide within the first 24 hours of release means that something is most definitely right with what Blizzard is doing.

4. Left 4 Dead
Now who doesn’t like a good ol’ fashioned mindless zombie movie? Helpless and squishy humans against hungry fleshing eating monsters take up weapons with much shooting, explosions and mass blood as humans find themselves not so helpless any more. Since the chances of a zombie apocalypse are pretty slim we’re left with the next best thing. Taking a shotgun to the face of the shambling hoard is just oh so satisfying. In a game based around co-operation this thing is very tightly made to keep it together. As you and three other survivors make your way through the four different acts the A.I. keeps things lively changing it up and throwing a variety of set ups at you. The developers have done a great job at making sure it handles it all smoothly and mixes it up enough to keep it from getting stale. If you get sick of blasting zombies you can even jump into the shoes of the Infected and help them get their own back on the humans which gives a completely different playing style and strategy. This is co-operative gaming at its best, and with zombies thrown into the mix who can say no?

3. Sins of a Solar Empire
I’ll be honest right up- I don’t like real-time strategy games. There is just something about them that doesn’t sit right with me. You can’t say it’s that I’m no good at them or can’t handle the actual strategising as I have no problem at all with turn-based strategy games. Funny then that a real-time strategy game is sitting in at number three on my list but I guess that just goes to show how highly this game can sit with me as I can recognise just how much it can achieve. Massive scope crossing galaxies hold so much detail that it is ridiculous if you really want to dive into it but if that isn’t your thing then you’re perfectly fine to take the broader control approach. It is all helped along by a very slick interface and game mechanics that just flow right. To create such a finely balance game must have drove the developers crazy as they reached for perfection and nearly made it. Not only is there such detail in the mechanics but it has also extended into the visual side as I don’t think I’ve ever seen space looks so beautiful.

2. Mass Effect
Last year Mass Effect saw much acclaim on the X-Box 360 with its release and having this year made it to the PC it is doing it yet again. With a lineage of some excellent works in their history you can always expect great things from BioWare and Mass Effect continues the trend. The already epic space opera was an engrossing and excellent game back then and it still is on the PC as it retains the content that made the X-Box 360 release so great. In typical BioWare fashion the plot is so well told and crafted to suck you in which is only helped by its cast of compelling and sympathetic characters who have some pretty excellent voice acting backing them up, and the range of freedom within the universe to carve your own way through the story as it unfolds. A dynamic and fairly deep combat system keeps the game itself flowing smoothly on your journey and the game itself looks more crisp and stunning than ever thanks to the power behind the PC. With a few other improvements thrown in such as an improved inventory system and a user interface that seems built for the PC it is not hard to forget that Mass Effect is a port from the X-Box 360 which is a testament to how much it belongs here.

1. Fallout 3
One of the most anticipated games of the year manages to come out swinging and it doesn’t fail to disappoint. Fears of it being an Elder Scrolls game but with guns have been put to rest as Bethesda manage to craft the definitive role-playing experience of the year. It’s actually had some pretty good contenders for the crown though but in the end it has pulled through with it bleak and chilling glimpse into the apocalyptic future. This game scares the shit out of me to be honest and it isn’t in the typical jump in your face kind of way for cheap scares either. If this is what a world struck down by nuclear armageddon is like then I don’t want any part of it because the world captured in Fallout 3 is such a desolate and soul crushing one to behold that the thought that that could happen is the scary part. This little slice of the world that has been so wonderfully crafted by Bethesda shows that a tighter focus can accomplish so much. I want to say that the cast of some truly bright and colourful characters makes it stand out even more but those adjectives don’t really fit the landscape. They are indeed that though with some truly nutty and twisted individuals out there which is understandable considering the environment they have been living in. The quests they send you on or you come across yourself prove just as lively and enthralling as the world’s populace though there is a small complaint that the main story may be over more quickly than one would hope. With such a wide open world to explore it is easy enough to get yourself lost for hours on end just following your own agenda or diversion so don’t go rushing head long through it all. Part of the experience is just living and breathing in the world itself so just sit back, I would say relax but then wasteland raiders would get you whilst you’re leaning back in your chair, and prepare to brave the harsh wastelands of Fallout 3; the PC is where Fallout belongs and you won’t be disappointed.

It’s been a pretty good year to be a PC gamer and this list only just scratches the surface on all the quality titles to see release for the year. The biggest disappointment I have is not including The Witcher: Enhanced Edition on this list as it’s technically just a patch (though a bloody huge improvement) on the original so I didn’t feel right in including it as a new release title as the list is supposed to cover. Still I will say to everyone that they should get out there and get it for themselves immediately as it would have definitely sat at number two on the list, and possibly could’ve smacked Fallout 3 off of the first spot if my mood was in the right zone. Other than that there were many other great titles for the year that are worth a look at such as Audiosurf, World of Goo, Far Cry 2, Dead Space, Crysis: Warhead, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky and lastly Spore, the biggest disappointment of the year but still worth a look to try and understand what they were hoping to accomplish. Still, for those who love their PC gaming there is many hours of fun to be had from 2008 and hopefully some will last into the many years to come.