Rambles

So I know I’m getting old when I buy a $12.00 transformer of a red motorcyle guy and take about 40mins to work out how to do it only to then resign myself to following the instructions (here’s my man card) only to unfortunately use the word “following” very loosely in this sentence. Eventually it was done and my mother gave me a very heartfelt “See, I knew you could do it”.

I’m so hot right now. I mean, check me out:
a) I live at home with my mother
b) I collect comic books
c) I paint warhammer figuirines
d) My idea of a rockin’ time is to go to a mates house, drink beer, and paint figurines.

I think wost had it right that my life is very similar to this. I mean, seriously? Would you be the king of kings in this situation? Yes. Any house needs a hot naked woman bringing you bacon. All you sicko’s who thought about my mum bringing me bacon… oh dear.

Speaking of oh dear, here’s a story from work:
A lady is building a new house and has them online to show pictures. One of the other ladies said that she thought the two structures at the front looked like two penises. There was a bit of discussion after then about how it was peni or penises (I won) and then I perk up “Well it could be worse. You could ask them to go in through the back way”. Luckily the meeting was ending and everyone stood up to leave

What a nice story. I like stories.

Work is going farily well at the moment. Involved in a national recruitment round as well as creating a national co-ordination role which I’m expected to establish.

You know, I was at a mates place and eventually, due to it being them and their respective girlies, it got on to me and how single I am. In a drunken “rage”, my friend turns to me and goes “Mark, you gotta stop putting the pussy on the pedastal”. This gave me an interesting mental image at first following by some hot flashes and then a serious note of how he’s right and I think I know why.

I’m bloody good at my job. I know this. I know that I give it my all when I’m there. I just lack confidence… kind of like when I freestyle. This is why I’m single. Because I’m not confident enough to go up to someone anymore and go “I like you”. Bad thing, good thing, thing thing, I don’t know… and yet, I’m kind of not fussed at the moment. My life is good and the people I know are awesome, no matter where in the world they are, and… yeah, I’m having far too much fun on my motorcycle.

Anyway, I’m about to go out but I really do enjoy the hobby of painting miniatures. It’s not going to get the ladies but maybe it will. There are some pretty hot nerds out there.

and not in a normal busy.

I’m just having too much fun at the moment.

Perhaps next month Dave we can catch up. Remember you can’t spell nemesis(es) without sis(es).

Also, Corey Jane. Legend. Robbie Deans, not so much but I still <3 him… that’s right… <3. It could be worse.

“How?”

–’-,-<@

THAT’S FUCKING HOW! :P

Like I said, far too much fun right now :))

(emoticons may have been overused than normal in this post and may be subject to a damn good rodgering)

Actually I’m listening to Elect the Dead by Serj Tankin, the original album. The iconic Shihad song seemed appropriate with how things are at the moment because I don’t actually think I am.

And now for the ramble…

When I left Christchurch the first time, I had a major anxiety attack when I hit Auckland. “What the fuck have I just done?” set in and for 3 – 4 months, I wasn’t in a very good place. My DVD collection increased as did my WoW playing.
When I left Auckland for Wellington, I went through the same thing for about 4 weeks. Again, I asked myself the same question because I wasn’t sure if Wellington was going to be better than Auckland. Turns out it was and ended up getting better with a core group of really awesome friends.

Now for those of you who are reading this and have suddenly read the first “When I left…”, your timeline may be a bit skewed as you ask yourself “When was the next time/s you left Christchurch?”. Well it/they haven’t happened yet. Something about being away from Christchurch is that even though I don’t know if I don’t want to settle here, I know I don’t (currently) want to stay here. I thought this was that level of anxiety I experienced after such a change and it’s not. An issue at work that was causing me to hate going in was resolved in 7 days, a success for both what I do and my professional career… and now I can’t wait to go in to work. I have an opportunity to become “that guy” who management see as someone who can take the reigns when they’re on leave, and I’ve been told there’s an opening. Do I want to be a manager? No but the role I want requires a greater strategic outlook.

A friend asked me about why I refer to here as home. Well home is where my family are, home is where I grew up, home is the place where someone can tell me “Oh I live here” and I know where to go…

… which sounds incredibly boring at the moment. There are awesome people here and I will enjoy their company, the food of Christchurch (seriously, it’s that good compared to Auckland and Wellington!), and I know I will have a good time while I am here.
I wanted to move home for one reason and the opportunity to do so came up. When I moved home, it came with lots of added bonuses in the form of men and women who are fucking awesome. So fucking awesome that I know if when I leave I’ll still think that way of them.

So at the moment, leaving in 2 years will all depend on opportunities and what I do/have done to determine that. I’ll have to re-read this post in late 2011/early 2012 and see if I still feel the same way.

No, this isn’t going to be another emo post about how crap my life is. Quite the contrar’ actually. The title is because I just couldn’t think of a decent title so the name of the album I’m listening to is probably better.

As most of you will know I am now back in Christchurch. I’m getting use to this being met with a chorus of “boos” and “yays” so “fuck you very much” and “Good to see you too”. I’m sure the boos are in kindness due to the reason why I’m home… but you never know >:)

I’m very happy at the moment. I put $10 in to my bike to last me until next pay day and instead the needle decided to fill to half. I went for a 40km ride. It was great.

Christchurch is cold… but it’s awesome. It’s great to be home and hang out with the boys again. A friend of mine said to me before I left Wellington “I hope you don’t regress back in to that social group”. I felt at the time like I should be offended until I realised what he meant. Things have changed in the last two years but they’re still good and I know we’ve all grown up a little and moved on from the lame things we use to do…

Choice: Hot Chip – The Warning

:P

Well, we all know that any good meal should go appetizers and then the main course so here is the side of rant. Consider this if you like more decorative lettuce. You can still eat it but why would you want to?

My rant is about the awesomeness that is steam and it’s awesome sales it has on at the moment. On the fence was I with regards to DoW][ and now no longer. In fact, I do seem to quite happy to buy it when I get it, it’s latest expansion and 6 other games for only $30US. The term gigady doesn’t seem to quite explain how awesome I think this is.
In fact, I’ve spent the most in ages on steam over this last 2 weeks getting obviously the THQ pack, the Call of Duty Pack, The Deus Ex Double Pack, and several cool wee puzzle games. These have all been in the category “They seem cool but I don’t want to spend full price on them”.
So why rant? Surely getting so many games for so little cash would be a good thing. Well it would be. My issue is that I bought a number of offline games yet it pauses my downloads even though I’m not actually using the bandwidth.

This is irritating.

You know what, I’ve actually had eyes bigger than my stomach and I’m full off the appetizer. I might get my main to go. In summary, I ordered the “Life is awesome” with a side of enjoyment. I’m looking forward to going home and restarting a few things which I’ve been wanting to, catching up with some people who are facebook friends but I wouldn’t consider them just that as well as generally continuning to be happy and sharing this with my fam-dam-ily.

Did I also mention the latest copy of PC Powerplay magazine comes with 501 DOS Games? Including:

Commander Keen
Dune 2
Warcraft 1 and 2
Heretic
Hexen
Loom
Star Wars Tie Fighter
Doom
Duke Nukem

and a few more nostalgia items than you could shake a stick at?

It has been a long time since things have gone my way. In fact, the only thing not going my way is my keyboard’s spacebar has decided to only work occasionally so this post is going to get shorter and shorter… probably so short it will end soon.

In summary:

My motorbike is awesome
I’m moving to Chch to look after my mum
I got a transfer rather than an interview
I’m reporting to the manager I wanted to
I’m will no longer be working nights
I am having positive outcomes at work

The shit is going to hit the fan. I don’t know when so currently I’m living in the moment.

Stupidkeyboard!

Achievements in computer games have a lot to answer for.

They can be quite challenging and fulfilling and something which as a gamer you can be proud of. They can also be quite weird and odd and not many people have gotten them…

and then, like most, they can be just shit.

A perfect example of this is either my wowarmory profile for my main character or moreso, the ever frustrating Splinter Cell: Conviction. If you can be bothered to see the different categories, there are some of note.

“Kill this boss within this timeframe”
“Complete this level without shooting anyone or being detected”

They form a challenge. A reason to replay the game and feel the urgency of frustration absorb you again.

The rest of the list basically is for playing the game. Complete this level… well, I can’t do it without playing the game. Interrogate this guy… well he was part of the gameplay. They may as well after you’ve pressed start give you an achievement “You paid us money for this”.

To make matters worse, you get points for these achievements. “Points?” you say. “Maybe I can do something with them.”, you say. Yes, you can. You can drop your virtual pants, flop out your epeen, and ask the nearest dog to come and lick your hairy balls… and there is no greater achievement than that.

Seriously? Why do games see the need in adding achievements just because everyone else is doing it? I get no sense of satisfaction from choosing a story arc or completing a part of the game which I pretty much had to anyway.

GAH!
So I’m going to give myself an achievement in the sense that I posted this entry… and also found this:

In other news, for those of you who aren’t on facebook, or talked to me in the last few days, gigdagy:

Achievement unlocked: You can now use ninja in a sentence for realz

Edit: Don’t read your old posts. Eventually you’ll get down to the one that says you were looking forward to Twilight.

Funny: Walking to work and colleague says “Yeah, my secret reliable source says we’re definitely not moving to location 2″

Hilarious: We arrive to work and there is an intranet update posted 20mins ago saying that our business segment is definitely moving to location 2.

Funny: Boss talking about a piece of work that needs to be done states “so I’ve fingered Mark…”

Hilarious: The instance response from the new guy afterwards is “… and Mark went ‘Yay’!”

Yeah, it’s about me but I was still laughing.

Upcoming rants to be done when I can be bothered:

Why I believe facebook has helped cured me of my pessimism but unfortunately not my grammar

Achievements in Computer games: Why playing the game and completing the first level should not count as an achievement… seriously, wtf?

2010 Step 2: Impending Completion

I can’t believe Ben is blogging again. It brings a tear to my eye.

I’m probably one of my only friends who thought Blade Runner was meh and not that great. Maybe if I had watched it closer to the time, I would’ve enjoyed it more. I do miss the game Dan got of it though and do regard it as one of the greatest adventure games ever made. Maybe this says a lot about the movie.

Kick Ass is fucking brilliant. It has an 11yr old girl who says cunt, a Batman wannabe who is the combination of the TV show Batman and Captain Kirk, and many other awesome moments.

Splinter Cell: Conviction Gametrailers review
It’s awesome and now I just need to get Stu off WoW so we can do split-screen co-op action.

Once again, it falls to Captain Awesome to save the stuff portal from being a blank RSS feed of sadness… so where the bloody hell are ya? Hopefully if you’re hot, you’re topless, newly single and in need of some awesome.

I actually know where you all are. You’re tweeting, mybook/facespacing and in general, putting yourselves out there without actually going outside… unless you’re Arc who is far too busy learning the ways of the ninja to tell everyone that he is tired/had a hard day/protesting against something.

If you’re not learning the actual ways of the ninja Arc, please don’t burst my bubble

I kicking it old school right now. I’m filling in an RSS feed via this post, I’m having toast (and no, I am not addicted to cream cheese with nutella on toast/vogels… at least if I keep telling myself that, it will be true eventually), and listening to a CD on a portable walkman. “But Mark, how come you aren’t listening to it via your computer on mp3-madness?” I hear you say… which is a little trippy… are you hiding somewhere in the couch-o-doom? Well the reason is because I have recently bought a new CD. This one in fact – Serj Tankian – Elect The Dead Symphony. Serj Tankian is the lead singer for the awesome System Of A Down and this is an orchestral version of his debut album Elect The Dead. The link to the review on allmusic.com sums it up really well

“… is a stunning piece of work that really showcases Tankian’s creativity and versatility, substituting aggression for beauty to turn the album into a work that is simultaneously familiar and completely new.”

I tend to disagree with allmusic.com’s picks on the album most of the time. For example, Gate 21 is Serj and a piano. It’s quite beautiful and thanks to the power of the internets, you can be your own judge. He’s got the most amazing range and is fecking cool. I’ve been doing my normal “thrash the album” for the last couple of weeks and I’m still not sick of it. There is no song I don’t absolutely love.

Review for inFAMOUS
Review for Prototype

If you were a gamer in early to mid 2009, there was some interesting debates going about these two games. Yup, they’re both sandbox gaming. Yup, they both have ridiculously OTT. Yup, they’re both set in cities with amazing landscapes. and finally, cause you’re sick of all the yups, Yup they’re both about a guy who doesn’t remember why he kicks arse… just go with it dude.
There was a lot of hype for Prototype. The trailers made it look awesome and the fact that you can take out several tanks, soldiers, helicopters, and APCs… AT ONCE was far too much for any gamer to not “cream his pants”.
About a month before the release of this game, inFAMOUS came out and everyone went “Hang on… what?”. inFAMOUS lay dormant for so long and then came out on the credit that it was a good game and it is. I finished it as an evil bastard which isn’t like me because I consider everyone’s feelings important, even the 1s and 0s. The game received a lot of accolades but was released in the same year as MW2 so was never likely to win Game of the Year. inFAMOUS set new prescedents in sandbox gaming and how much fun it really can be.
then Prototype came out… and it wasn’t as good. I put off buying Prototype for a long time because I wasn’t going to pay $135.00NZ for it. Recently it came down to $69.00NZ (as a good quality pre-owned) and I enjoy it. After one of the worst days at work in a while, therapy was had… but I can’t play it for too long. It’s fun but its almost too ridiculous. As Penny Arcade put it, I have karate kicked several helicopters and it’s not about to get old but the missions are almost too easy.

Just Cause 2 appear to be looking at doing some more stuff with the sandbox game archetype and teh Dave has been telling me to play Asssassin’s Creed 2… soon. Very soon.

On that note, the word count is over 700 so I’m off to farm some Champion Seals and see what time brunch is. I hope the portal survives until the next time I wake up at 7am on a Saturday and feel like blogging.