the Berkshire Hunt

Change of Address

2008-04-06T19:21:00.002+10:00

I've started a new blog called ShupFace, with my friend Jono.

Check it out

Rolling Philosopher's Stone

2007-07-19T23:11:00.000+10:00

Apparently there is a new rock movement known as Wizard Rock. I decided to start a band of my own and I came up with a few possible names:

Muggle Rock
Horus and the Mudbloods
Morsmordre (Wizard Metal)
Dementor's Kiss
the Unspeakables
Inferi
Sectumsempra
You-Know-Who
Patronus
Ced's Dead (Baby)
Fifty points for Gryffindor

The last two would probably make better song names than band names I guess.

Damage Control

2007-05-31T23:04:00.000+10:00

Hey, so it's been what... six months or so? Don't get excited, I'm not anticipating updating this blog regular. I use the login for a few different projects so it was good to break back in now that all the login business has changed. But stranger things have happened and it can't hurt to stretch my inter-legs every now and then. I was bored for a bit today and decided to make a "Damage-Control". Hope you like it and stuff.

Catch you later.

Also, apologies to Michael Lalonde for use of his skull, I was lazy. If he objects to it too much I'm sure he'll let me know and I'll change it. Err... check out Orneryboy!

There's no place like home

2006-12-22T12:48:00.000+11:00

I'm off to England this afternoon, I doubt I will update this website in the three weeks I'm gone. (Not that I update regularly even when I'm in Oz). I hope everyone has a pleasant Christmas. Remember, Santa sees everything!

I will regale you with stories of my adventures upon my return.

Goetry in Motion

2006-12-18T03:22:00.000+11:00

I've been interested in a couple of different role-playing games for a while now, Inquisitor, Vampire: the Masquerade, Shadowrun. I enjoy making up new characters and writing backgrounds for them. It's kind of retarded and wastes a lot of time, especially considering I don't really know any other people who are into role playing games. Today I did a sketch of a character I made for Shadowrun, his name is Maxwell Crowley and he's an Occultist:It's not the best drawing I've ever done but I quite like it. I might add colour tomorrow if my hand has stopped hurting by then. Hopefully I can convince one or two friends of mine to start roleplaying with me, if they have the time. I hear there's a Firefly/Serenity roleplaying game...

Mistakes = Learned From

2006-12-12T01:40:00.000+11:00

I checked my uni results online just now and I did pretty well. Credits for both Studio Theory and Core Theory and a Distinction for Sculpture. It's a marked improvement from last semester where I failed Core Theory and only got a pass for Sculpture (I was building up momentum). I like to kid myself that failing Core Theory doesn't make me stupid because I didn't actually hand in a substandard essay. In fact I didn't hand in an essay at all.

But honestly what is more stupid than not handing in an essay worth 70 percent?

"Pleasure and pain"

2006-12-07T00:48:00.000+11:00

In a growing trend that has me doing nothing but sitting at home watching television I started watching season one of Six Feet Under (blame Daynger Mouse). I've only seen two episodes so far but it's already quite good. There are some characters I like and others I hate but apparently everyone changes around anyway. I like Claire the best so far (it helps that she's cute) but I hate the dumb guy she makes kissy faces with. He's an ugly rat-douche.

It made me think about how television shows deal with death. It's kind of a precarious tight rope to walk. On the one hand if you belabour the grieving the show will be sucky and mopey and no one will watch. But if everyone is over the death by the next episode then it just doesn't do real grief justice. So how do you portray grief convincingly and remain entertaining at the same time? Daynger Mouse put it to me like this, "TV shows don't show all of time though. There are instances where these characters are grieving that we don't see because twenty minutes of sobbing just isn't moving the story forward." I guess that's pretty true. I just hope this show can maintain it's balance.

Ambassador of Quan

2006-12-05T18:17:00.000+11:00

We're working on starting up the comic again. Manny is doing lots of drawing to get his skillz back. He's also been working on a few redesigns, his style might be a bit different from mine. Apparently he isn't drawing himself as a big fatty either.

We've got a few old comic scripts written down that we never got around to drawing but I think in general we're going to get rid of most of our old scripts. It's not like we're going in a "whole new direction", we just don't think they're as good as we thought they were way back then. Fortunately we have some new ideas and hopefully it won't be hard to get back into the comic writing mind frame.

In other news, I saw Jerry Maguire for the first time a few nights back. I don't really like Tom Cruise much and there were moments when he really got on my nerves, but overall I thought he was good. It was one of those movies where the ending was really going to make or break it for me. Needless to say the ending was corny and sappy and exactly what I wanted. My sister tried to tell me the movie has no plot but I don't understand how she could think that. There was the emotional complication for Jerry (not being able to commit) and the fiscal complication (losing his job and having no clients) and for Rod Tidwell he couldn't get recognised for his skills on the football field. These get resolved one way or another and the movie ends. What does she even mean no plot?

Raw Shock

2006-12-02T23:43:00.000+11:00

Just posting this quickly so Manny can check it out from his place. I like it but I'm not sure if it's a keeper...

Show and Tell

2006-12-02T13:25:00.000+11:00

Two more pictorials for you. The black and white one (Rorschach) I quite like and might use for a shirt some time if we ever do that shirt thing.The humming bird I drew (traced) for my sister:

Lle quena i'lambe tel' Eldalie?

2006-12-01T17:24:00.000+11:00

I want to learn one of those languages that hardly anyone knows. One of the useless languages like Esperanto or Lojban or Klingon or Elvish. It's tempting to learn a language that is useful, like French. If I'm going to go to all the effort of learning a language why not start with one I can use? But that kind of takes the fun out of it. I want someone to learn it with me so we can be rude and speak Elven in front of normal people. We can comment on their unsightly blemishes and cuss out their noisy children.

Got some spare time on your hands?

In the wars

2006-12-01T16:49:00.000+11:00

I've been getting seriously bad headaches for the last week or two now. I'm used to having headaches since I grew up with a constant stream of them. Sometimes I will get skull splitting migraines and sometimes I will get lingering background headaches that last for weeks. One problem is I often don't drink enough water and I'm probably not active enough. If I drank a glass of water every hour and went walking or running once a day they'd probably go away, or at the very least occur less frequently. My doctor gave me some migraine medication but it's really expensive and you're supposed to take it when you feel a headache developing. The way I see it why waste expensive medication on what may just be weak background headache. But by the time I know it's going to be a scorcher it's too late to take the medication, so the medication remains unused. I mostly rely on Panadol or Neurofen, but we havent got any of either at the moment.

On top of that I burnt my hand today. I took a tray of pizza out of the oven and put it on the stove top while I got a plate. Of course when I got back I forgot the tray was hot and put my hand on it. I've been nursing it in cold water since (I'm typing with just my left hand at the moment). I wonder how much longer it will burn for.

Wailing Hard

2006-11-28T13:58:00.000+11:00

A year or two ago I drew a picture of a baby rocking an electric guitar but I apparently didn't scan it in high res. Manny and I were thinking of putting it on a tshirt because we like the design but I've since lost the original drawing. So today I traced over an old scan (low resolution) with my tablet and made a high resolution version which should be suitable for screen printing.

At the moment I'm still messing with colours and stuff but this is one possible version which I quite like:
And another version which is probably the one I'll end up putting on a shirt I think:

Pop-Cult

2006-11-26T11:29:00.000+11:00

I watched Pirates of the Carribean 2 the other day. I didn't really like the first as much as everyone else so I wasn't expecting a lot from the sequel. Often I've found that's the best way to enjoy a film, when you think it's going to be shit and you find yourself enjoying it on accident. The movie is pretty silly but it's reasonably amusing as well. My love affair with Bill Nighy continues.

I quite like the Office, the original British version of it anyway. I've only seen half an episode of the American version and to me it's a different show, similar but separate. Ricky Gervais (David Brent) and Stephen Merchant have another show called the Extras and I love it. I always struggled with the Office because of it's propensity towards the painful cringe. The Extras still has a few of these moments and Ricky Gervais’ new character is by no means perfect but at least he’s more likeable in this new show. He throws out some fantastic lines and overall I found I enjoyed it even more than the Office. Also Kate Winslet is in one episode and she is sweet.

In other entertainment news, the new season of Veronica Mars is interesting so far. It's no surprise that the show isn't as sharp as it was in seasons one or two but I'm still enjoying it. The mystery for this one is a little different in that they’re trying to catch a rapist not a murderer. I guess if it was another murder it would seem a little too repetitive. I’m not sure it works quite as well so far, but who knows it might pick up.

I'm a big kid now

2006-11-20T18:12:00.000+11:00

I'm getting there...

Moving Pictures

2006-11-16T17:03:00.000+11:00

I just watched Layercake. It's a movie about drugs in a similar vein to Lock Stock and Snatch but it's not quite as good. The dialogue isn't anywhere near as funny or clever and the acting is a little bit stilted. Also there's something about the way events unfold in Lock Stock so that everything sort of works and is awesome. Layercake didn't quite work out the same way although there was a nice twist in the last few minutes.

I also watched Goblet of Fire and Sky High recently. Goblet of Fire was ok, but the Harry Potter movies are nothing compared to the books. It was weird to see them try and cram as much of the book into two hours and still leave heaps out. I wasn't expecting Sky High to be any good but it was actually a lot of fun. I quite like superhero's and the inherent cheese, this was definitely cheesey but it totally worked it.

Loansome

2006-11-13T21:45:00.000+11:00

The other day my brother desperately needed a loaner and he asked me to set up an internet banking account so I could lend him $350. I reluctantly agreed, set up the account and then he transferred the money for me into his account.

Except that the money never showed up in his account. The money didn't bounce back to my account either. The transfer went through, just not into my brothers account, he mistyped his account number. So someone out there has 350 of my hard earned dollars.

I'm going to the bank tomorrow to see if there's anything they can do, but right now I'm feeling pretty shitted off.

Edit: I checked with the bank and the money is back in my account now, which is a relief.

Regret, I choose you!

2006-11-07T22:22:00.000+11:00

My sister has abandoned her studies of medicine to pursue the glamorous life of pokemon mastery. When I asked why she was prepared to risk everything she'd worked so hard for she told me that she "Had to catch them all!"

For the Best

2006-11-05T20:38:00.000+11:00

I have an essay due tomorrow and I very nearly didn't bother doing it. I figured I could do it later and I'd only lose a few marks (one a day). But then I was sitting around with not that much to do so I started planning how I'd write it. By then I figured it wouldn't be too hard to do the introduction since I had already started. I just finished the essay and I made the word limit easily (very nearly broke on through to the other side).

At the moment I'm just pleased to have finished it and it's nice to know that all I really want is a pass (which I'm sure I'll get) so I don't have anything to worry about. I can concentrate on getting this proposal done and sent off by Tuesday and then my grad show is on the 14th. Exciting.

'Sploits!

2006-11-05T01:49:00.000+11:00

So the things I've done today:

I quit my job and didn't turn up for work even though I'm supposed to give a weeks notice. I even told my family not to give me the phone today in case it was work and then I went and answered my mobile. Awesome! Then I hung out with Manny all day and watched scrubs on dvd before going to a late halloweener party. I realised I still think Wease is a hot piece of ass. I also realised I'm sometimes a fuckwit drunk. Manny and I threatened a bunch of people just to see how they'd react and I also took a steaming piss over all the drinks in the bath full of ice in the bathroom (just because I'm a prick). After we got back home we rang Daynatello (she's pretty awesome) and we also harrased Gumby via msn. Gumby is annoyed at me and I guess Daynatello thinks I'm a jackass, but really I have no idea.

I'll get back to you when I sober up.

Sober Edit: How awkward would it be if Vess still reads my blog? (It was her party)

That shit is whackom!

2006-11-04T01:41:00.000+11:00

We did some messing around with the tablet today. It has a lot of potential but we're both pretty sucky at it so far. The pressure aspect is good but annoying at the same time. Here are some quick sketches we did:
My first effort, took about ten seconds.Manny's first effort, took about ten years.Gabe by Manny, Tycho by me.Last little sketch of Horus also by me.

Berkshire Slump

2006-11-01T17:31:00.000+11:00

The combination of uni assignments, preparing for my graduation show, getting a new job and the fact that we haven't produced a comic for like a year or something have meant that this blog lies discarded by the wayside currently.

I recieved a wacom tablet for my birthday (a while back) and I'll let you know if this breathes new life into the comic. But I wouldn't hold your breath. It's more likely to mean t-shirt designing and other assorted odds and ends.

Mind you any assorted creative junk may end up here after all.

I'm fucked :)

2006-10-21T23:35:00.000+10:00

I'm pretty shattered and basically messaging everyone I've ever met. Wish me luck anonoymous readers!!

Not poppy, nor mandragora

2006-10-18T00:20:00.000+10:00

I've started having dreams again. Not only that, but my dreams have started revolving around my life for once. It used to be that I would have the occasional fantastical dream of fiction and adventure, only very rarely would people from my life be present. Lately I just dream about whatever happened in my day. I came home from my first day of work on Monday and went to sleep only to dream about work. Today I was trying to decide whether to ring this girl I used to know and ended up dreaming about her instead. (I've started napping in the afternoons).

Whoreders

2006-10-16T17:59:00.000+10:00

I've started my job at Borders and so far I've had one eight hour Saturgay of booklet reading with a customer service manager Creamboat (he is super-dreamy) and one eight hour shift (today) where we learnt registers and then relearnt registers with real customers.

It was scary at first as I normally avoid talking to people other than hurling the occaisional obscenity while walking past them in the streets. Also when I get flustered I tend to slap the keyboard angrily. But after about two hours the smile and the thank yous came pretty natural and I didnt even have to perform any abortions (transaction abortions or the other kind) at all the whole time. One ancient old man even told me he would certainly be coming back, which I took to mean that he liked the cut of my jib.

We had to convince people to sign up for the Borders newsletter and my performance was spectacular, there was equal amounts of rocking and rolling. Plus everyone seems pretty nice. The only really bad thing that happened is I now have the worst fucking headache and of course I'm sitting at the computer.

Septicgenarian

2006-10-09T21:49:00.000+10:00

Old people are so shit. Today I was sitting on the bus with Manny and this old woman walked straight past an empty seat and stood in front of us. She stood there for a bit before someone offered her their seat but she ignored them. I know she knew there was an empty seat because she looked at it a couple of times and someone even pointed it out. But she just glared at Manny and I instead.

After a few minutes she said "What's wrong with you youngfolk? Aren't you going to offer me a seat?" I looked at her and said "There was one right there I just assumed you didn't want to sit down." And then got up for her anyway.

Manny just sat next to her babbling about how he forgot his epilepse pills (he doesn't have epilepse) and how he nearly had a fit today. He was telling me how he wanted to be sitting down so that if he had a fit he wouldn't go spaz into a chair and hurt himself or something. Naturally I was heaps slow on the uptake and I kept saying things like "what are you talking about? you don't even have epilepse dumbass!" Anyway jokes on him, he had to sit next to the crusty old bitch.

Employment Five!

2006-10-06T13:29:00.000+10:00

I went for a job interview at Borders yesterday. I was pretty nervous as usual but the interviewer was very nice and laid back. I gather she would normally have asked me about my previous employments (of which I have none) and probably also would have asked me about my interests in books and music (already in my cover letter). So she really didn't have a lot left to ask. She did ask me to tell her a little bit about myself to prove that I could actually talk to people. I was going to tell her about Art School but then she asked about Western Plains Zoo so I told her about that instead. I must have done alright because they rang me back that afternoon to let me know I got the job. I'm a member of the employed now! The working class! I think I start training next Saturday which should be good. I already know three of the people that work there and I've briefly met one or two others.

Looks like I failed in my goal to never work for anyone but myself. Damn the man!

Big Screen Dreams

2006-10-03T18:45:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I watched Batman Begins and 40 year old virgin. I know they've both been out for ages but I don't really go to the cinemas all that often.

Batman begins was pretty good. Decent writing, good costumes and settings and stuff. There weren't many corny superhero jokes or nods which is probably a good thing since I'm not sure if they would have worked with the mood. There were the prerequisite unnecessary action spectacles that defied common sense but I tried as best I could to let it go. It just seems to me that if you look at a scene that doesn't make any sense how hard is it to come up with something else that does make sense? For me I can't enjoy the sweetness of the scene as much because I'm too busy grumbling. (I just thought I'd also say that I picked the bad guy from the beginning because I rule).

I had fairly high expectations of 40 year old virgin (which in hindsight seems ridiculous). I don't think it really met those expectations, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Overall it was reasonably funny but fairly cliched at the same time.

The Original!

2006-09-29T23:33:00.000+10:00

I haven't been to Question Swap in some time. But now that I'm back I'm really enjoying it. Like most people I enjoy answering questions a lot more than I do asking them. But asking questions can be very cool too when you get a really good answer.

The new* rating system is fun and encourages people to give more creative and thoughtful answers which is always good. It also gives me something to aim for when I'm bored.

*Not actually new at all.

Streep Tease

2006-09-29T19:35:00.000+10:00

I watched The Devil Wears Prada with my homies last night. I enjoyed it and Meryl Streep was especially awesome. She had this way of speaking quietly but with so much power. My favourite part was when she delivered this small attack at Andy's ambivalence towards fashion. From anyone else you would call it a rant but the delivery was so precise and softly-spoken, she was just stating the way things are.

Otherwise I would say it was a pretty ordinary film, not particularly insightful or innovative. I hadn't heard much (anything) about the film before I saw it and I think I expected it to be a bit more quirky or arty or something, I guess because of the name and the fashion theme.

Grand

2006-09-28T13:42:00.000+10:00

We went to a fancy restaurant yesterday to celebrate my birthday. It was a strictly family affair so of course Manny was invited. He and Spark got buffet (I didn't think fancy restaurants even had buffet) so of course we all ate off their plates. We figured it was probably alright since we all ordered main course meals as well.

Astra promised there wouldn't be cake or embarrassing happy birthday music. She is a lying fiend. At the end of the dinner someone brought down a piece of cake and they sang happy birthday loudly. Astra's boyfriend sang the loudest of course and at the end he did some Hip Hip Hooray business at the top of his lungs. By this time I was more amused than embarrassed, but now our waitress was cringing. Her face was all puckered up into a little arsehole.

Spurred on by a favourable fortune cookie Spark ended up giving his number to a fine looking womens that he had been observing (read: ogling) all evening. Turns out she doesn't even live in Sydney but she commended him (via text message) on his bravery. I got a good fortune too which prompted Manny to give me some “Divination Five”.

Checking it out

2006-09-25T14:23:00.000+10:00

Technically I have this week off. I have enough work that I really should be spending the whole week working. I just don't wanna. I've been writing a bit more lately which is nice. I still haven't done anything of considerable length but I'm getting there.

I just got a new camera but I'm a little daunted at the prospect of all the different features and junk. I guess when I get some real free time (ie no looming assignments) I'll start experimenting and all.

Raw Shock

2006-09-20T16:37:00.000+10:00

I read a little about the Rorschach Test today. First I read this website which advises against taking the test if you can help it and says some pretty worrying things about how it can be interpreted. (I'm pretty sure I'm not schizophrenic).

Then I took the Tickle's Original Inkblot Test to see what it was like. It's not a perfect example of the Rorschach Test and the fact that I'd been reading about this stuff may have influenced my results but I'd like to think it didn't have a huge effect on my answers. I'm not really sure how accurate my results are to be honest:

You have a deeply-rooted desire to make peace in the world. Whether through subtle interactions with loved ones, or through getting involved in social causes, it is important to you to be able to influence the world in a positive way. You have a deep respect for humankind.

You care about the future of the world, even beyond your own involvement in it, and you inspire others to feel the same way. Your innate drive toward peace guides you in daily life towards decisions that are respectful toward yourself and others. Your psyche is very rich; the more you learn about it, the more you will understand who you really are...

Current Affairs

2006-09-19T16:51:00.000+10:00

In regards to the party and having asked people what I done the story goes like this: I did some things I otherwise wouldn't have but so far most of the stories have amused me. I enjoyed the night so it's not like I regret it but still I might try to exercise a little more restraint next time.

There was punch

2006-09-17T13:47:00.000+10:00

So the party happened.

I don't know what else to say about it really. True to form I got drunk and was funny for a bit. After a while I got rude but stayed mostly entertaining I think. And after that I don't even know what I was. I probably need to ring some people if'n I want to find out.

I'll get on it eventually.

My 15 minutes are up

2006-09-17T10:20:00.000+10:00

Going back to my comments on art the other day, I've just seen photos of the latest Banksy exhibition: Barely Legal. My thoughts are that overall I really like everything in the show. It's subversive and funny and everything I love about his work. Except that it made me think, I'm not sure how much I like the idea of him remaking works that were originally grafitti so that he can sell them. I guess some of his best work is grafitti and it seems a shame to waste them when getting money allows him to do bigger and better stuff, like having a live elephant at his show.

There is at least one piece in the show that works on the same level as what I was discussing earlier.

Pants on Fire

2006-09-16T11:00:00.000+10:00

My sister's boyfriend says the best stuff.

One time at his work they called in an electrician to do some work. So he decided to make a nuisance of himself by calling the guy up and messing with him. He said he needed the electrician to build him an electric fence three feet by three feet. When the guy asked him why he said it was to house his grass hopper. The electrician said he needed to know what voltage to use and so my sister's boyfriend tells him that they can test it on his grasshopper’s parents because they aren’t show grasshoppers anymore.

Last night he told her that he was watching the news and he heard about an experiment where they dropped 25,000 hamsters from a plane. My sister was horrified, "They must've had parachutes right?" and he replied, "Yeah of course, and little goggles." She asked him what the experiment was about and he said, "To see how many survived." So naturally she asked him how many survived and he told her, "About 12,000." "What happened to the others?" she asked wide eyed. "They got tangled up."

There will be no speeches

2006-09-16T10:36:00.000+10:00

I'm having a party tonight to celebrate my imminent birthday. Except that I don't have that many friends. In my defence it's by choice that I don't have many friends, I am anti-social and lazy and most people aren't worth my time. I'm also not into slammin' parties with loud music where no one can hear themself think let alone make small talk. So of course this is going to be a sparsely populated lazy party and I'm cool with that.

Except that I'm not, because despite things being how I like them I'm still worried other people are expecting "more". It's annoying that I care if other people are dissapointed. All the people who know me well will understand and all the people who don't understand probably got invited so that I wouldn't have to deal with any drama down the track when they found out they weren't invited. And they would find out, because they always find out.

I think my number one tactic (getting drunk before it starts) will be in its most full and august application tonight. Wish me luck!

Watery Grave x2

2006-09-15T15:07:00.000+10:00

I promised my Dad that I'd keep his pool clean for him while he's away. So far I've done a spectacular job, green means clean... right? Today I found two dead birds in the pool, Lord knows how long they were there for. They are/were miner birds so I allowed myself a small victory dance.

Annoying birds: 1 (they just don't shutup) Horus: 2

Edit: This doesn't mean that I haven't died or stopped loving you. I could be a zombie Horus after all.

Gone Away

2006-09-14T23:16:00.000+10:00

If you don't hear from me in the next few days it's because I died. Or because I stopped loving you.

Let them eat cake

2006-09-13T17:26:00.000+10:00

This comic from Jim Burgess reminds me of the Artist Jeff Koons. Last I heard he was commissioning people to produce paintings of cake and then selling those paintings as Jeff Koons artworks.
He is honest about not paintings the works himself but he claims to be the artist based on the fact that it's all his idea. In terms of art that's really not all that new a concept, heaps of artists (especially sculptors) outsource creation of their works. But I think Jeff Koons is one of the few who makes that divide between artist and creator a major part of the work.

It's been three or four years since I first learned about Jeff Koons and I still haven't decided whether I like him or not.

OLÉ!

2006-09-12T17:07:00.000+10:00

My little brother Spark has been playing Fifa06 on the PS2. It's pretty decent for a soccer game but I doubt I will ever play it. Easily my favourite thing about the game is the cover of the box.

Words cannot do it justice.

Deadsies

2006-09-12T13:45:00.000+10:00

I've been watching a lot of Scrubs lately. In one of the episodes there was a reference to the show Deadwood, only I didn't even know Deadwood was a show so I didn't get it at the time. JD asks Turk if he knew that Cowboys swore in olden times.

Now that I've finished watching season five of scrubs and the dvd's we got of Smallville season four aren't working I've started watching Deadwood with my brother. Turns out they really do cuss a lot. About five seconds into the first episode a womens drops the c-bomb! Seems like they just can't stop cussing, every second sentence includes the word "cocksucker".

Despite my reservations about watching a tv show based on the Wild West it has turned out to be really good. The characters are interesting and likeable, especially Wild Bill, and the plot line is engaging. The episode structure is a bit odd though. I'm not sure how to explain how it's different from most other shows. Some shows like Scrubs have a problem and resolution in most episodes and some shows have a problem and resolution most of the time but with a larger plot that gets advanced in bits and pieces. Well Deadwood doesn't have a clear cut larger plot just yet besides the slow-brewing conflict between the main characters and the antagonist. And there are problems that arise in episodes but they aren't always resolved in the episode that they come up in. It makes it feel like the episodes lead into each other a lot more. As the episode ends it always leaves me feeling like I need more. It's a different kind of needing more than say watching Veronica Mars where I just have to watch another episode because I like the show so damn much. I do really like Deadwood but I'm not sure I could handle waiting a week between episodes.

I guess I'm lucky I have it on dvd.

I guess he's not a virgin either?

2006-09-12T00:47:00.000+10:00

There's only one problem with this story. If Richard Branson has a son that probably means he's got a wife as well. Do you think she'd mind sharing him with me?

Make that two problems, 21th? Geez.

Search: Log

2006-09-11T18:05:00.000+10:00

Apparently AOL accidentally leaked a bunch of people's info and Something Awful has been posting some amusing collections of different people's search results. It's scary the number of people who don't understand how search engines work.

She done training

2006-09-11T16:31:00.000+10:00

I was talking to El Niggerachi the other day and I was funny.

El Nigger: cant sleeeeps
Horus: get someone to smother you for a bit
El Nigger: hahaha not til i die, just til i pass out
Horus: it helps if they jack you off at the same time
Horus: leaves you completely spent
El Nigger: ahahha
Horus: trust me, my mums a nurse

Recognise!

I am Oscar

2006-09-10T20:29:00.000+10:00

And I'm in a shit mood. I wonder if I will be this grouchy tomorrow. I hope not. I wonder if I will do anything to reduce the chances of me being this grouchy tomorrow.

I doubt it.

Cockstar Poopernova

2006-09-09T19:25:00.000+10:00

I think the Last.fm stuff on the blog might not be working quite how it's supposed to. Just in case you were wondering, I haven't been listening to the same three Clap Your Hands Say Yeah songs for the last few months. At the moment I really like Sideways by Citizen Cope (I heard it on an episode of Scrubs) and also Lukas Rossi's original Head Spin which he played on Rockstar Supernova.

Speaking of Lukas (or as he's affectionately known in our house Puke-arse). I've hated him through the whole season and I loved Dilana. She was this nice, hippy earth mother with a great voice and great musical instincts. He was this weird annoying, ugly little queer who only had one style (teh Growlz). Except Dilana turned into this complete idiot and started bad mouthing everyone and on top of that it turns out she couldn't write lyrics to save her life. And I've really started to like Lukas' music. Granted I still think he's an annoying, ugly little queer but to be honest that isn't going to get his song out of my head. Ever since he sung Creep and I mean actually sung instead of just growling I've been enjoying his performances more and more. I do like a little growling but it's best when balanced with some clean vocals and Creep proved he does actually have a really good voice. Also, he dances like a stone cold freak and I love it.

Only I still don't want him to win. He's just not right for a rock band in my opinion. I don't want them to pick Dilana either because she can't write for shit and as far as group dynamics go I can see disaster on the horizon. That leaves Magni (Fagni) and Toby. Magni is so limited it's not funny, he can't sing soft and he can't sing high but other than that he seems like a nice dude and he has a reasonable voice when he's doing what he does well. Toby is a bit hip-hop for a rock band maybe but I think he's the best of what's left. He seems pretty easy going and it looks like he enjoys what he does. He's a good singer and he has good stage presence.

If only they hadn't dumped Stormy.

White Superiority

2006-09-09T19:10:00.000+10:00

I watched an episode of Pimp My Ride UK today. Oh man it owns the American version so much. I mean the first major difference is that there weren't any black people and I think we're all agreed on what a distinct improvement that makes. Secondly the UK crew are all geeky and funny and British instead of trying to be cool and hip and whatever. Lastly the car they made actually looked really good. I often think the Pimp My Ride guys go way overboard and the final result isn't awesome and sweet so much as it is ridiculous and overrated. But this car looked awesome on the outside and the interior and the built in utilities all made sense.

Her car was too loud so they put soundproofing in and added a sweet ass sound system. She was a surfer so they gave her a roof rack and two new boards as well as a waterproof compartment in the boot for her wetsuits. And she was a photography student so they gave her a laptop, camera and printing set all wirelessly connected. Of course they also added the mandatory backseat cameras with video games. When you watch Pimp My Ride you're supposed to be lusting after their new creation and hating on its new owner. You're not supposed to be thinking "Wow, I could've done better than that and I couldn't even put together that TV stand I bought from Ikea".

I understand that in some cases the cars are meant to have ridiculous accessories. That's what makes them pimp right? I get that you want to put something unique and interesting in and I'm all for that. I just think it's dumb when those ideas don't actually meet reality and you end up with something that no one will ever use or that will break within the first five minutes of use.

Midas Touch

2006-09-08T11:23:00.000+10:00

Last night a friend of mine, who for the sake of mercy will remain nameless (and even pseudonymless), offered to let me watch her peeing. Seriously, is that something that people think I would be interested in? Do I give off some kind of golden vibes? Because if I do, it's completely on accident. You peeing is not something I need to see, but thanks anyway.

Dooce-Lord

2006-09-06T22:20:00.000+10:00

I don't know if I've mentioned the dooce before. If I haven't then it was an oversight. It's probably one of my favourite blogs on the internet at the moment. Partly because the updates are regular and long and interesting. It's funny and touching and awesome. The monthly newsletters make me actually look forward to being a parent.

Hey Red

2006-09-05T22:27:00.000+10:00

After our conversation I realised that I like everything you hate about me. I just wanted to say thanks:

I love art.

I'm going to enjoy being a teacher.

I'm glad I'm too smart for the army.

I'm proud that I don't contribute to this piece of shit society.

"And you know what?

I'm ok with being unimpressive.
I sleep better."

So Board

2006-09-05T17:15:00.000+10:00

I played the World of Warcraft board game with my brother yesterday. It started off pretty fun but it took so long in the end that it was hard to remain enthusiastic. It comes with lots of cool little plastic miniatures though. Some of them are way sweet looking.

I had my mid-semester review today. It went alright. The talking side of things went well but then she whipped out my report and asked me what I thought of it. For once I actually thought I deserved better marks than I'd been given but I didn't say anything. One thing I hate about uni, which is a pretty good example of why I would never have survived doing a normal subject is juggling all the work. I'm expected to be putting all my time into making art but at the same time I still have research to do and speeches to write. Bleh.

Was last night a full moon?

2006-09-03T16:34:00.000+10:00

Thanks to my friend Pesto I ended up in a pub last night. This wasn't altogether a terrible thing as it was the 21st of another friend, Bar Fridge. I ended up throwing back a few drinks and engaging in social activities like talking and joking and laughing. It was definitely an experience. I was talking to one of Bar Fridge's random hookups - Red Shirt. He seemed pretty cool and we talked for a while. I was actually surprised. In a setting filled with people I don't know I normally cling to the few people I do know and refuse to open my mouth. Even alcohol is limited in it's power to make me friendly. But I was on fire.

Another of Bar Fridge's random hookups came to say hi. He was a fat balding ginger with a beard and he looked about thirty six years old. He starts asking me if I know about the sweet ginger love. I'm like, "of course I do" because clearly we're a team on this one. He wants to know how he can explain to the people about the sweet ginger love, because apparently they just don't understand. I say to him, "The only way to explain to someone about the sweet ginger love is to give it to them." Now that I'm sober and typing, it doesn't seem quite so hilarious but at the time it sealed the deal and I became a cool dude for one night.

Ready for the Funeral

2006-09-02T12:20:00.000+10:00

One of my brothers friends has recently finished some kind of computer game making diploma. Apparently the gaming industry in Australia is pretty crap right now, especially for someone with no experience. Consequently he's decided to make his own online game in the same vein as magewars and utopia. I think about things like this all the time so I was discussing one of my ideas with him and it sounds like he thinks it has potential. Yesterday I was writing out a detailed breakdown of how I thought it would work, took me maybe an hour, when my computer freezes. Of course I was writing in notepad so as far as I can tell there's no auto-recover. I was a little cranky.

I started again today and I'm pretty sure what I've written so far is a lot clearer and more thought out. It's just that I know I wrote down ideas that I've since forgotten. It's frustrating as hell. Alls I hope is that I get some level of involvement in the project beyond being the inspiration.

Super-Geek

2006-08-30T17:13:00.000+10:00

Eric Burns just posted a piece of writing in the style of a wikipedia article and it's really good. It's about metahumans and the civil rights issues around their existence and superiority. It reminded me of something I wrote about a year ago. At the time I was thinking of writing a story (possibly even a comic) about superhero's. Mine is more in the style of a blog article written coincidentally with Eric Burns in mind. I'm not sure if I was particularly successful, for one it's not nearly long-winded enough.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

History Lesson:

The End of Free Powers and the Establishment of the ACS

I noticed some of you guys talking about the ACS and the laws concerning the control of powers. I also noticed that not many of you have a good understanding of the reasons behind the laws so I’m posting a little history lesson, which I hope to flesh out at a later date (when it’s not 3am).

By 1998 the issue of super-power distribution in Australia had gotten completely out of hand. Almost anyone could gain access to super powers. Powers were being won on game shows. Schools were giving out powers with their merit awards. It was even possible to download dangerous and volatile powers from “warez” sites on the inter-web. The whole situation was beyond ridiculous.

There were large moral debates in the public forum about the ethical standing of people that use powers to gain an unfair advantage; be it in sports, politics or business. It was generally agreed that using your power to violate the human rights of another was just as unacceptable as standard breaches of human rights. But the problem was that the vast arrays of different abilities were so hard to legislate for, and every power held countless possibilities for misuse. How were the government and the law enforcement services to keep up? Groups of “super-people” with similar ideals were banding together, in some cases to protect themselves and their families but more often than not their aims were more sinister.

With the number of people with powers growing and the rate of crime and misuse of powers skyrocketing the government had to do something to restore order before the country was completely out of control. And they didn’t have a lot of time.

On July 11^th of 1998 the government passed several new laws that made it illegal to possess or use powers without the express permission of the Government of Australia. They declared a general amnesty on super-powers lasting till August 1^st, anyone could turn themselves in and have their powers removed. Anyone discovered using powers illegally after this time would be arrested and held indefinitely under the new super-villain act.

The government formed the Agency for Control of Super-powers whose responsibility it was to capture illegal super-people and for bringing to justice misusers of super-powers. The ACS recruited as many super-people as they could to help enforce their new laws. These “super-hero’s”, as they were dubbed, were wholly sanctioned by the Government and became the only lawful users of super-powers in Australia.

By and large most people accepted the amnesty and had their powers removed, and most of the organised vigilante groups quickly accepted the ACS’s offer of employment. Obviously some refused to accept what they labelled fascist control over the lives of citizens and the crime syndicates were more reluctant to give up any power or advantage. This sparked a long battle that even now still rages.

I’ll try to post something about the ACS soon or maybe a more in depth look at the lead up to the proliferation of free powers. But for now… sleep.

posted by Super-Geek at 3:24am | 0 comments

Vanilla Bear

2006-08-29T16:39:00.000+10:00

I've been weird for the last few days. I'm not sure how much of the weird is just inside my head and how much is coming out. But I'm pretty it's safe to say I've been weird. I got some photos from my last performance which is good. Now I have to start thinking about what work to show next I guess. I have one sculptural idea and one performance as well as one book I better start working on soonish.

This morning at the best stop an old woman came up to me and said how much she liked my hair. Having long curly red hair I'm fairly used to this kind of thing so I just smiled and thanked her. She stood in front of me looking distinctly senile before saying "So, what are you then?" After a pause she clarified, "A boy or a girl?" I'm not the epitome of masculinity by any stretch of the imagination and I'm alright with that, but I'm not a girl and I told her so. She just wandered off.

I am the worst person I know for sticking to social plans. People organise parties and I bail. People organise to hang out and I bail. Mostly if people want to see me they just drop round. I have a party every saturday for the next month. This may not seem like a big deal to most people but contrary to what you might think, I am no party animal. I am sloth. I'm not sure who's going to get bailed on just yet but seeing as one of the parties is at my house it probably won't be that one.

I was sitting by my workspace in the studio today with two friends and we were looking at my work. One of my friends (the Older) has known me for a while and knows a lot about my mental space. The other friend (the Younger) also has hung out with me but generally on a much more superficial level. The Younger commented on my work "You know if someone who didn't know you saw your work, they'd probably think it was done by some crazy person who was like depressed or something!" The Older and I had a quiet chuckle at that. The truth is that I guess I seem like I'm in a good mood most of the time, especially at uni (friends - feel free to contradict me). I wonder why.

I got a little bit of reflective writing done today which is nice since I've been blocked for a couple weeks. It was only a little bit but maybe the flood gates are inching open.

Still Gushing

2006-08-27T01:42:00.000+10:00

I nearly went to bed without checking up on any of the blogs I usually read. There's two new websites on the festering ass network. Eric Schaeffer's Blog is very good and I'm looking forward to more. Bill Dawe's Blog is heaps funny too but in a different way. I think it comes across that he's a comedian.

Mega Turn On

2006-08-26T18:05:00.000+10:00

I been busy with stuff. Mostly uni and being tired and/or sick. Also I've been reading about Vampires and Masquerading. More details on the stuff that isn't painfully geek coming later. But for now a comic about Megatron.

Right now I need to decide whether my friends are worth going into a pub for...

Fatality

2006-08-21T17:39:00.000+10:00

I've been sick and tired all week hence no writings. I watched season four of scrubs and finished Mortal Kombat with all twenty four characters. The endings were ok but they could've been better I guess. I've also been watching more Smallville with my brother, Benjam. It took me a little while to warm to it but I'm there now. I think I was waiting for the storylines to get less episode-by-episode villain related plots and more into the personal interactions. We're watching the x-men cartoons next!

I've been going over my artworks from uni as preparation for one of my assignments. I'm supposed to do a talk on my art career so far which should prove to be interesting. I have a strong theme running through my three years at uni that should be pretty easy to talk about I guess. But I also have a lot of extra stuff that kind of got made alongside or between my other week. Directions I thought I might take but then didn't or things that helped me to realise what I was really interested in working with. I don't really know if I should include those things or not. Maybe I could just mention that they exist, possibly with a few examples.

I did a performance with Sach-squatch on wednesday last week. I thought it was pretty good and so did he, but I guess my lecturer wasn't totally convinced. He didn't say it was crap, just that he thought some elements could have been done better. He may be right, I'm not really sure.

Just Get Another Drink

2006-08-15T21:52:00.000+10:00

Hey so I finally finished painting today. That's one hundred canvases. I needed to leave early to meet up with Femme Brulee so I did the last ten in less than ten minutes. Is that what they call professionalism? My art seems to be going pretty well lately, I'm just feeling a little rushed. Honestly, I don't like being rushed that much. Theory stuff is going ok too, in that I haven't had to do much so far.

I'm supposed to be gathering information to use in a seminar about my work. But I haven't really been doing that. Maybe I'll start this weekend. Only I also need to start working on a logo for the Cartoon Villains and also invitations to my birthday party.

I have caught my annual sickness. My throat feels like it is been sandblasted and then scrubbed with broken glass.

Force Halo

2006-08-14T21:22:00.000+10:00

So my brother had the computer for the last four days. It was a traumatic time for me. Manny did his best to salve my wounds with a geek-fest (some collector’s convention). But in the end we spent more time travelling there than we did at the actual place (it was crap). We ate terrible food and then went home. I did get to watch a whole lot of Scrubs on Saturday though, it was pretty fun.

I played soccer as well. I hit possibly the sweetest ball of all time. I imagined Jesus and Obi-Wan were sitting in the stands all impressed by my awesome. I wrecked my ankle but played on regardless (like a real man would). Only now that the adrenaline has worn off it really smarts.

I expect questions

2006-08-10T23:24:00.000+10:00

We nearly won volleyball tonight. As it is we played a lot better and it was good fun. Pesto and Terror were both away which led me to thinking... there's no point in going down that path unless I want to suffer severe beatings.

I get to go and read my artist's statement in front of my peers tomorrow. It's awkward enough writing about yourself at the best of the time, but then having to read it aloud? As Smee so eloquently put it, "How very year 4".

Telling the Truth

2006-08-09T20:15:00.000+10:00

I have to write an Artist's Statement for my studio theory class. We were reading some examples by other artists and I think they encouraged me to think differently about how I'd write mine. I didn't really want to talk about the overarching themes of my work or anything like that. So I hope this gives you a little insight to my life and my creative practice:

Some days I speak with conviction like a prophet or a politician. I sound like I know what I’m talking about and I probably think I do as well. Some days I have no idea and I know it. Most days I talk out loud just to see if what I’m saying sounds like the truth. Sometimes it’s not and I know it, but I still don’t correct myself. People ask me questions about myself sometimes and I usually give them an answer. It’s a different answer from the one I gave yesterday but I think it’s still mostly true for me that day. It makes it hard for me to write things down for other people with any sense of finality or definitiveness. Usually that’s not a problem.

I sometimes get asked about my art. I usually answer, sometimes vaguely, and I think what I say is mostly true. I’m not really sure. How can I explain my art when it’s a mass of half-formed ideas and influences and it’s intangible and inarticulate and a part of me? How can I talk about something that I otherwise express through art? How can I talk about what I don’t even really understand? One way I can do it is just by saying whatever is true for me today. I think I make art kind of like how I tell people about things. I’m just putting it out there to see what it looks like. To see how it sounds. Maybe even to see if it’s true. I’m pretty sure it’s true most of the time.

I quite like it personally. I'm not really sure how it'll go down but I'm not worried.

Mah Baby!

2006-08-08T20:19:00.000+10:00

I found this game made by Shmorky over on Something Awful. It's pretty awful but man the guy does some funny voices. It was worth it just to hear a female moon monster crying. He also has this funny comic but he doesn't update it enough.

Fast Car

2006-08-07T18:49:00.000+10:00

I had my first driving lesson today. Femme Brulee ended up taking me around the corner to a small carpark next to a netball court and scout hall. I learnt about the clutch and changing gears. I hooned around in first for a little while and enjoyed watching her squirm. We didn't try changing from first into second while moving because I'm a bit of a wuss. I promise I will definitely think about doing it next time.
My sister Astra wants to name the car, but all the names she thinks of are shit eg. Pablo.

Viewing Pleasure

2006-08-06T19:25:00.000+10:00

So in the last few days I watched Transformers: The movie, Minority Report and the first couple episodes of Smallville. Time for me to... Break it down now!

Transformers was pretty cool. I was a little lost with all the characters because honestly I haven't watched the show since I was tiny. But most of them die anyway so it wasn't a big deal really. I had to laugh when Megatron changed into a pistol. The gun on his arm was bigger than the gun he turned into. I liked it more when he was Galvatron (he looked sweeter too). Also, I never knew Hot Rod was a jedi, he has a lightsabre and all! Rodimus Prime is a stupid name though. The soundtrack was so fucking painful. I really wanted Prime's death to be more brutal, I wanted him to get disintegrated or something sweet.

Overall I don't know how much fun it would have been if I was a little kid and a total fan of the show but I am like twenty and I don't know who most of the characters are so it was mostly a mix of amusement and boredom.

Minority Report was enjoyable to watch. I knew who the bad guy was in about the first five seconds. That was ok though because there was the hows and the whys to keep me interested. Some of the futuristic stuff was cool, but the way they dealt with jet packs made my inner geek cry.

Smallville is quite cool. I like all the little references and I like the reasoning behind all the super villains. Other than that it's alright but not spectacular. I'm gonna give it a bit more time to grow on me, see what happens. In fact I'm gonna go watch it right now...

Top Tens

2006-08-05T23:02:00.000+10:00

I was discussing top ten lists with Manny the other day. I am terrible at picking a top ten anything because I'm too indecisive. I enjoy many and various things because I am cultured and refined or some shit. I like lots of movies for different reasons. It'd almost be easier to say pick my top ten favourite quirky movies or my top ten favourite drug movies except that I'm still incapable of making choices.

Should the movies be rated based on how watchable they are now? Or how much I enjoyed them the first time I saw them? Does it matter how great the concepts behind the film are if it's less enjoyable than another film based purely on quoting amusing dialogue. I didn't really rate Napolean Dynamite as a film but some of the dialogue is killer.

I humbly present 21 of my favourite movies:

Garden State
American Beauty
Donnie Darko
Reservoir Dogs
Lock Stock
Kolya
Monsters Ball
High Fidelity
Show Me Love
Fight Club

Being John Malkovic
American History X
I Heart Huckabees
Amelie
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Clerks
the Matrix
Pulp Fiction
Snatch
Romeo and Juliet
Blade Runner

The first ten would probably be my top ten movies of all time (excluding Disney films) otherwise they are in no particular order. My favourite movies tend to exhibit many similar characteristics and are generally filled with a mix of awesome dialogue and awesome concepts and in some cases violence.

Playing Catch Up

2006-08-04T16:21:00.000+10:00

Wednesday
It was pretty good fun in the end. The girl came over and we hung out for a bit before Manny rocked up after work. Then later on Mr Obscurity, Femme Brulee and Pesto all arrived. We started off watching Natural Born Killers but it started real slow and we ended up turning it off and switching to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I'll finish watching Natural Born Killers later because apparently the second half is really good.

Thursday
I hung out with Pesto at the shops and ended up getting a new phone and a new jumper. We were thinking of catching a movie but there's nothing good on at the moment. I always miss the things I want to watch because I'm lazy and then when I'm in a position to see something it's all shit. I'm minding Pesto's ratties while she goes to the snow. She was fairly insistent that I not kill them.

Later on we played some more volleyball and sucked hard. We played the top side so maybe that's understandable. The maximum number of players is six, but they always play with the minimum number: two. They served and spiked like demons and it got to the point where they were serving underarm to give us a chance to return it. I'm pretty sure they just wanted to practice their spikes. They were very nice about it though.

Friday
Was gay in parts. I got up early for uni (read: 9am) and walked to the bus stop in the rain. My umbrella is a piece of broken shit and consequently I got soaked. I stood in the rain at the bus stop for twenty minutes because the bus was late. I really like rain but I hate spending all day soggy and grouchy. The class was actually good and I got to do more painting and stuff so it was ok in the end. I have to try and write an artists statement about my work for next friday which should be interesting. I was supposed to learn to drive today as well but it's too wet.

I have a headache and I'm tired and hungry.

Art meets Life

2006-08-01T19:50:00.000+10:00

It has been suggested on more than one occaision that I am a deviant. But seriously if you're gonna design things like this then you're totally asking for it.

No, I'm Batman!

2006-08-01T18:13:00.000+10:00

I had an academic advice meeting at uni to discuss my proposal for this semester. We have to write proposals every semester basically stating what we want to do in the studio. Normally I kind of discuss the general themes I'm working with and maybe one or two ideas. But this semester I just gave a really brief idea of the themes and then wrote heaps about the three performances I have planned. I was a little worried about what the lecturers would think but apparently the ideas are all sounding pretty solid to them. So I'm pleased. If it all goes well then I'll have a lot of work to present for the Grad Show.

Also, I'm glad Manny has finally admitted to being my sidekick. It's been a long time coming.

Non-Stop Excitement

2006-07-29T22:57:00.000+10:00

Things that happened to me today:

I played soccer. We lost but it totally wasn't my fault.
I ran out of credit on my phone. I actually need to get a new one anyway so this isn't a huge deal but it's still annoying and means I actually need to start looking now.
I cooked dinner. It was spaghetti bolognese and it was frickin tasty (the decision was unanimous).
I had an afternoon nap. It was glorious.
I've been listening to Antony and the Johnsons all afternoon. I am a bird now is a really good album and I'm totally loving it.

One thing happened that is too important to be bullet pointed. I invited a hot girl over to my house with a vague promise of movies. She is totally hot and I want to have a dig at some point but for now I'm kinda happy to just hang out. What I'm worried about is that she's gonna expect other people to be there as well and that so wasn't my intention. It's not a date, but I usually prefer hanging out with people one on one. I don't know her that well because she's a friend of a friend and we've only hung out a few times so I don't want to make her uncomfortable. So yeah I don't know what to do, whether I should invite a few other people over or just go with my original plan. I don't know whether I should just talk to her about it, only I really don't want to. Wow, I suck.

Also, I so can't remember if you actually read this blog. But if you do - "Hi, you're hot."

Haxxor!

2006-07-28T23:28:00.000+10:00

I made a little website using blogger today. It's to show off my l33t web skillzors to my classmates. We are doing some work on archiving our art this term. I'm gonna give them a little tutorial on blogger but I'm worried they won't be able to follow the simple code stuff. Especially since I don't completely understand what I'm doing because I don't actually know code. Oh well I'll show them the simple stuff and see who's interested in the rest.

If you go there you'll be able to see a couple of photos of my art from uni. It is sometimes strange and exciting but in many cases requires some explanation. You will mostly go "what is that now?" I am ok with this.

Bitch Volleyballs

2006-07-27T20:31:00.000+10:00

We played our first game of volleyball tonight. It turns out womens aren't allowed to play soccer in the thursday night comp so we had to abandon the idea of doing both in one night. We decided to keep the name "the Cartoon Villains" because frankly it's heaps better than "the Serial Killers". Which is another way of saying I'm heaps better than Manny because we're going with my rockin idea and not his rancid abortion.

We were all a bit rusty tonight and the girls sucked a lot so we lost. But there was lots of dancing and diving and general amusing flailings. The sand court is a total bonus because it means we can dive and fall and not get hurt. Unfortunately it also means I get sand in my pants. Manny's cousin Terror [go watch the wanderers] is playing with us and she's a little machine. Her friend came to fill in for Femme Brulee and during practice he nailed her in the face with a volleyball on purpose. Her face looked like a smacked arse, it was heaps good. Pesto tried to blame me for her dismal performance, apparently I didn't teach her all my secrets to being flippin sweet.

No court in the world would convict me.

Debauchery

2006-07-26T15:42:00.000+10:00

So at uni today I was hanging out with Abercrombie and Pisstopher. They're the only two other dudes in third year sculpture so we try to stick together. We were rockin' the plaster room, Abercrombie and Pisstopher were working hard and I was chillin out when Abercrombie asks Pisstopher if he has Limewire. Apparently some news readers got busted having sex in the elevator and Abercrombie wants to see it. We start laughing and talking about porn and that shit and after a while I realise there is some random chick in the room with us and man is she freaked out. Of course she packs up her shit and leaves. Later me and Pisstopher are packing up our own shit so we can head off and I told him not to be upset if he came back tomorrow and there was jerk-off all over his artwork (He likes it when I talk dirty to him). He said "If there's any jizz on my artwork, I'm gonna make you lick it off." to which I loudly reply, "You're just gonna jizz on it yourself and try to make me lick it off!" Of course as I was saying this we'd just walked out of the studio and sitting there was the chick from before, so all she heard was me complaining about having to eat Pisstophers jizz. I burst out laughing just seeing the look on her face.

Pisstopher gave me a lift home and as I was getting out of the car I mooned him bigtime, even gave him a few gratuitous slaps. It's not till I'm out of the car that I see some random dude on the street just staring at me wide-eyed. I'm having a good day for serious!

In Theory

2006-07-25T20:59:00.000+10:00

Today was the first day of uni and the introduction to the new theory course. I of course fucked up setting my alarm and was late. Fortunately Vess managed to get me put in the later timeslot and it all went smoothly. New timeslot means not needing to wake up at 7am which rules. The new course is geared towards writings by artists as opposed to those of critics and it sounds like a whole lot of fun which is refreshing. I hope studio theory is as much fun.

I did some painting as well today and it's put me in a really good mood. I should paint more often. But the worrying thing is I'm using a different paint now, one that I haven't tested so I don't really know if it's gonna do what I need it to do. I just know I'm going to worry about it the whole time I'm painting.

Zombism

2006-07-23T17:58:00.000+10:00

I showed this article to Manny today. I know he wanted to get excited but he was immediately suspicious and rightly so. The date gives it all away. All the same I thought it was a pretty cool and well done article.

I guess we'll have to wait a little longer for the Zombocalypse...

At the crack of dawn

2006-07-22T22:12:00.000+10:00

There is this show I like called the Office. It's a thoroughly amusing British show about the work place and the nightmare boss - David Brent. It's been out for a long time now but I haven't seen the whole second season yet. Manny and I watched the first season yesterday and as funny as it is I just couldn't start the second season. The show is so cringeworthy it hurts to watch. There are moments where it gets so bad you just want it to stop but then it makes you laugh again and it's sort of ok. Manny has seen the whole thing so I can rely on him to force me to watch the screen when something important needs to be seen. Otherwise my head remains buried in the couch cushions. Some Americans saw the Office and I guess they liked it because they did what Americans always do, they found something good and they had to fucking ruin it. The American version isn't funny or original and it doesn't have any of the elements that made the original watchable. The characters are either pale imitations or just completely wrong. From what I've heard it sounds like even Americans didn't like it.

Manny and I went into the city today with Mr Obscurity and Femme Brulee. We pretty much shopped all afternoon. It would've been better if the shops weren't all so far away from each other. No one got any boots because Raben's (the shoe store everyone seems to think is good) actually sucks massive balls. They have a huge selection of ugly shoes and nothing I'd actually consider wearing. Hopefully I can check out the Doc shop when I'm in Britain (does that even still exist? The doc shop I mean, not britain...) I did however get a kickass pair of army pants that I like a lot. Unfortunately, like every other pair of pants I own, they're too big for me. I'm not sure why I'm incapable of buying pants that fit, but it's super frustrating since I don't like wearing belts either.

Chip off the Writer's Block

2006-07-20T11:59:00.000+10:00

I tried to do some writing the other day but it all sucked. I'm not really sure why I have such variable levels of skill when it comes to writing. I tend to write a lot of dramatic angsty crap when I'm unhappy. But aside from that I can (sometimes) actually write short stories and stuff. But not yesterday and it's frustrating.

Maybe I've just left it too long and I need to get back into the habit of writing. Only, I haven't really ever been in the habit of writing. I have a habit of leaving it too long between writings. I think I'm going to try and remedy that...

jewniversity

2006-07-18T20:20:00.000+10:00

I went into uni today (but not yesterday) and I did a whole lot of work. It was really fun in the end. My friend Sachsquatch came to hang out with me and talk while I did some painting. He filmed some impromptu performance work of his own as well. My next project is going to require a whole lot of canvas boards which I found in a store near uni, but they cost approximately $1.75 each. Considering I need more than fifty of those bad boys, that's quite a lot. I have a couple of ideas for other performances to do in the meantime, so hopefully my lecturers won't be too pissed off at me when I see them next (they weren't around today).

I checked my results the other day, despite my lecturers being grouchy and threatening to fail people I nearly got a credit for practical. That usually isn't any great achievement, but it was better than I expected. I did however fail Theories of Art Practice. I'm not surprised seeing as how I didn't hand in the essay worth 70%. It means I will have to come back next year to do the subject again and they won't let me graduate till I finish it. I'm actually not that unhappy about it really, granted I'd love to not come back next year but it could be worse. I have friends in second year anyway and it might encourage me to actually keep making work after university.

I'd like to start submitting proposals to galleries soonish. Unfortunately I am not really all that knowledgeable about smaller galleries in Sydney that would be likely to show my stuff. I might have to talk to my lecturers about it I guess.

Lynchmob

2006-07-17T15:53:00.000+10:00

I was playing Grand Theft Auto the other day. I was using my shotgun to hunt and kill some niggers when, to my surprise the cops started chasing me! Apparently killing niggers is against the law! Who knew?

I guess they must be a protected species or something...

Exploring the Infinite Abyss

2006-07-17T15:10:00.000+10:00

I watched Garden State again. Even though it can never be as good as the first time I still enjoyed watching it. Unfortunately after having watched a couple seasons of Scrubs I find it a little harder to see Zach Braff as a serious actor, his face is just so goofy! I've seen Natalie Portman in other things (Star Wars, V for Vendetta) but she owns this movie.

Watching it always makes me think about whether I want to take medication or not and how much my view on life affects what I get out of it. So in that sense I think it's probably a good thing that I watch it again every now and then. I'm not really taking anything at the moment and I think I'm doing alright but I'm not really under a lot of pressure.

I didn't go to uni today even though I know I should have. Hopefully I will tomorrow, I'd like to start getting into a productive frame of mind and I need to have a talk with my lecturers about a few ideas I had.

Growing Pains

2006-07-16T14:10:00.000+10:00

I got my learners license on friday, I am slowly but surely becoming a productive and involved member of society. Next comes getting a job! Yuck. Mr Obscurity and Femme Brulee have already agreed to teach me to drive. The poor misguided fools don't know what they're in for...

I played soccer on shaturgay and it was one of the most fun games of the season. The other team started with only eight players and by the end of the game two more players had arrived for their side. But by then it was too late, the damage was done. We scored four goals in the first half and I was playing really well on the right wing. In the second half I set up two more goals and then scored one myself. This is kind of a big thing for me because I've never scored in regular season before (I played defender for about twelve years). After I scored I played in goals for the last twenty minutes and as you'd expect we didn't score again after that.

Manny's dad plays volleyball and soccer every thursday with his mates and sometimes we go watch them. The soccer team is called "the Shirleys" and they have pink jerseys with the name of a famous Shirley embroidered on the front eg Shirley Bassey. We've decided to start our own team to give them a little competition. Our soccer team is going to be "the Cartoon Villains" and we'll each be named after a famous Villain from a childrens cartoon. Manny bagsied Skeletor and I called Megatron, the others have yet to decide what they want but their choices will firmly establish their geek cred so they must choose wisely. I'm so excited!

Webslinger

2006-07-13T18:08:00.000+10:00

So, either Jeph Jacques has a thing for short hair on chicks or he just can't be bothered to draw long hair. So far Raven, Faye, Dora and now Hannelore all have short hair (as well as some other chicks whose names I don't remember).

The tirade from the last panel of Monday's Shortpacked amused me so much. I wish I could pull this off in real life.

(I still feel like shit - I think I need to eat something now)

Ever.

2006-07-13T14:46:00.000+10:00

I had to catch a bus to get to my friends house for his birthday yesterday. I missed the first bus from the station and there weren't any more after that so I had to catch the train to a different station and catch a bus from there. I ended up getting an express which didn't stop where I needed to get off. The party was still frickin ages from the bus stop so I got to arrive hot, sweaty and late. When I finally got to the party I ended up having a decent time, especially after a few drinks. But a few drinks quickly became a few too many drinks and I got to experience my first ever drunken spew. It wasn't too bad but I'm a little dissapointed that it didn't take more of the sting out of my hangover. The next morning I got to walk back to the bus stop in my miserable state, yay! I ended up missing a couple of buses just because I wasn't paying attention but eventually I got home.

And home is where I'm going to stay because I'm never going outside again.

Iron & Wine, Seals & Keys

2006-07-11T02:21:00.000+10:00

I conducted some more research today and was lucky enough to find a website that hosts "sacred" texts such as grimoires and aprocryphal books. Unfortunately I have just as many sources still to read as I did yesterday as well as several grimoires which will no doubt be extensive. Hopefully by the time I reach the grimoires I will be able to read each one from start to finish without too much tangents in need of exploration.

I've been taking notes of the things that interest me, and so far my collected files amount to over fifty pages. I'll go through them at some point with the aim of distillation, but that can wait for now. I really need to get my seep on.

the Hammer

2006-07-10T11:46:00.000+10:00

I've been reading about demonology, Kabbalah, Satanism and Maltheism lately. It's pretty interesting stuff but I always have to wonder how much people really believe in Magic. It started off when I was reading about the Malleus Maleficarum - the book used by Inquisitors to identify witches and heretics and demons and all that. I really want a copy but I doubt they'll have one at the local library. I think I could probably buy a reprint from the internetz but I don't really like buying stuff online if I can help it.

I'm also reading about the Apocryphal texts like the Book of Judas or the Book of Enoch. The book of Judas was pretty predictable in that it makes Judas out to be a cool dude who was just following Jesus plan. It says that Judas was the only one of the disciples who was really clued in and that Jesus liked him the most of everyone. I haven't read about the Book of Enoch (of which there are three) but I really like Enoch anyway so it should be cool. In Genesis it says that "Enoch walked with God 300 years, then he was no more, because God took him away." which is a pretty cool image in my opinion.

With every bit I read it sparks off something else that I need to read and at the moment I have about twenty wikipedia pages to finish (half of which have a bunch of links I already know I need to check out). So I better get on that.

Get on with it Brother

2006-07-08T22:25:00.000+10:00

I nearly managed a whole week of updates but sadly thursday let me down. I ended up sleeping at Manny's place thursday night and then hanging out with him friday as well. His cousins were all staying over as well so there was no spare doona's and his house is a frozen wasteland. We had to make do with fifty year old sleeping bags, but at least mine zipped up. Manny's little brother Gayke has had a girlfriend for a while but I hadn't met her till friday. So I made sure to be as annoying as possible when they were trying to make out quietly in his room.

I played two soccer games today and I'm pretty fucked so I don't have much else to say.

Except this: The crime busting stare may have been a complete failure, but deals can be made with the devil. I may actually be getting my evaluation from Pesto after all. We'll have to wait and see...

Sweet Undead Procrastination

2006-07-05T19:29:00.000+10:00

Manny is over at the moment and he's bitching at me to post his picture of a zombie girl. The one he drew instead of working on our comics:

Acronymph

2006-07-04T21:15:00.000+10:00

I found this pretty random comic called xkcd. It reminds me a fair bit of AZWP and that is a good thing. There are a lot more math jokes than I have any chance of getting but it doesn't bother me that much. One thing I didn't notice till I was halfway through the archives is that if you hold the cursor over the comic you get to read a little message. This is something both AZWP and A Softer World also do and I think it's pretty cool. The messages are sometimes funnier than the comics themselves, but I was still too lazy to go back through the archives and read all the ones I'd missed.

He does a lot of soppy love comics though... ye have been warned.

Bad Ass Mudda!

2006-07-03T20:08:00.000+10:00

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this but I used to lie to my friends about weird things to see if I could trick them. One time I convinced a close friend that I had cancer and actually managed to get her to cry. Sometimes I get into long elaborate lies that I end up having to maintain and argue and blah, blah. It gets to be so much effort. Really I'm just looking for some way to go "Hah! I was kidding, you gullible foo'!" The best way to get out of it is usually to make up more and more unbelievable things "and then I just flew away like Superman!" But some people just don't get it.

Still it's amusing to think that someone could actually believe that I'm a drug dealing pimp who fucks people up for looking at me funny.

Korny Mispellings

2006-07-02T23:20:00.000+10:00

Areas 51 got boring so I started on Mortal Kombat: Deception. The Konquest mode is ok, but very large. Basically it's like Mortal Kombat freeplay. You get to run around the different planes learning the moves for all the characters and completing questies. After the first town I realised that I just didn't care enough to do any of the side missions. I figured out how the story would play out before I even put the disc in the xbox (It came to me in a vision). Now I just need to unlock the last few characters and a couple of special moves for Shujinko (the character in Konquest mode) and then I'll see if I can be bothered to play through the classic Mortal Kombat Tournament with every character just to see all the endings.

The evaluations are going ok but the crime busting stare has failed. This may be partly due to my eyes not actually being visible through all the hair. Plans are being laid (hastily) as we speak.

A collection of facts

2006-07-01T23:37:00.000+10:00

I am a weird drunk.

I bite.

Some people are beyond comprehension. Most of those people are women...

To see me made her awful

2006-06-29T00:30:00.000+10:00

It's been a week/weak and I still make bad decisions. Tonight was a pretty bad night but I'm still smiling and I'm really, really not sure why. But rather than dwell on it I'm going to talk about the good things that happened instead:

I found a new singer by the name of Regina Spektor - she roxxor my coxxor. She has good lyrics and a good voice and I love her. Not all of her songs are great but none of them suck. If you trust me go check out - Oedipus (my favourite) Us, Field Below, Samson, Fidelity.

I went and saw Over the Hedge with my older brother today. I saw it for free and that's the only reason it was worth it. It wasn't terrible but only because there were some genuinely funny moments and also because I guess it was probably aimed at kids.

I've been playing Area 51 on xbox and it's ok for a first person shooter. It reminds me a lot of Halo, Half-Life and Far Cry 2 so it's pretty generic feeling really. At the start of the game there was no power which forced you to use your piss-weak flash light. Combine this with alien ambushes and you had a pretty exciting game for a little while. Unfortunately after you restore the power it reverts to standard shooter. It's not even a hard shooter what with the liberal scattering of health pickups. There's an alternate attack function later in the game which should be exciting and fun but isn't. It's not actually a bad game, it's just not a stand-out. I also have Mortal Kombat and Brothers in Arms to play when I'm done with Area 51 (check my mad rhyming skillzors).

I sent my friends an email today asking them essentially to evaluate me as a person. So far the results have been interesting. I like it when they say bad things about me. I'm going to use their responses in an artwork I think but so far I haven't decided what yet... I also need to ask the other people in my studio (besides Vess) I think. Pesto wouldn't gimme answers but I will subject her to the crime-busting stare and hopefully results will be forthcoming.

I am done for now. I should probably write more regular but meh...

Sometimes I'd stand by the royal walls, the sky'd be so big that it broke my soul...

Buried Treasure

2006-06-21T22:43:00.000+10:00

This evening my sister Astra and I cleaned up the kitchen and fridge. I may have mentioned that my mother is a notorious hoarder but honestly is there any reason to keep something in the fridge that expired in the year 2001? Astra found a packet of unopened philadelphia cheese that expired two years ago. Why?

I just don't understand at all...

Exhibitionist

2006-06-20T15:59:00.000+10:00

Hey so over the weekend I didn't do my essay, which we are all agreed was dumb, but lots of other cool stuff happened.

Exhibit A:

I played soccer and kicked ass. I played up front for a bit and as usual my team suck at getting the ball to me, it could be argued that I should be coming back to get the ball when that happens but I disagree. When I got put into midfield I set up a goal for someone else so I'm pretty sure I should just stay there anyway. If only we had more players as good as me on the team.

Exhibit B:

I got drunk and watched Dr Who with Benjam's friends. We didn't actually watch more than about five minutes we were arguing too much. But the arguing was lots of fun so I wasn't too fussed. I think having deep conversations about natural order and the origins of the universe are at their best when mind altering substances are introduced. The day after wasn't as much fun since I didn't take any precautions to avoid hangover. I was a sook for most of the day and I ended up watching lots of Scrubs which is also fine by me.

Exhibit C:

I went over to Manny's and hung out with him and his family which is good fun. I have been getting out of practice with my banter and seeing his mum helped a lot. She should just get big target tattooed on her face. His Dad and I discussed some cool designs he's been working on and places they could go which is always fun and it made me consider thinking about designs again but honestly I have enough to worry about with uni at the moment.

Exhibit D:

After Manny's I went home to chill with my homies. They came over to watch the Australia v Brazil game with me which was cool. I didn't really end up watching that much of the game (cryptic reference = "brim full of asha") but I thought Australia played reasonably well they were just a bit unlucky. Brazil didn't have a particularly good game but at the same time they made their goals against us look pretty easy.

Now that all the fun is over I've finished the written component of my presentation (half-arsed job) and it's ready to hand in tomorrow. I'm working on my essay at the moment (though I may have scored an extension) and I have actually started writing stuff which is a very good sign. I also had a cool idea for an artwork last night while I was sleeping which may or may not help my assessment out. It's a pretty simple idea so it won't be hard to get it done before Thursday it's just that they're more looking to see what I've done in the last term not what I can come up with at the last minute. Oh well hopefully they'll like it anyway.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Choices

2006-06-16T17:11:00.000+10:00

I'm a bit swamped with end of term assessments at the moment. I thought I had till next Friday to do my essay but it turns out I only have till Monday. I also thought that the written component of my presentation could be pretty brief and that would suffice. Apparently it's like 50% of the mark or something (it's due Wednesday). I also have an assessment of my studio work on Thursday which I don't really need to plan for, but I do need an excuse as to why I haven't started my next artwork.

So yesterday (before these startling revelations were made clear) I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and I really enjoyed it. It's pretty funny and has the odd post-modern moment or two. Val Kilmer and Robert Downer Jr are both better actors than I thought and I enjoyed a lot of their banter although I missed some bits because people in the room wouldn't shut the fuck up. I liked the ending despite wishing some things had been tied up more conclusively. All in all it was a worthy use of my time.

Yayhill

2006-06-13T01:15:00.000+10:00

The worldcup is on and Australia have qualified for the first time in like a bajillion years. The thing is we've never even scored in a finals match. We played Japan tonight who are ranked like 14th and we're ranked about 86th. Japan scored a pretty lame goal in the 24th minute by fouling our keeper. You could tell that if we lost there would be a lot of bitterness in Australia over that one. I was in agony for the next hour before Australia drew level with a goal from my baby Tim Cahill. It was a bit of a scrappy goal but in the next eight minutes we scored two more goals and they were both worldclass. The best thing about the game (aside from winning of course) was that we played like a proper side. We proved that we could play against a good side and we could play good football.

We don't expect much from our game against Brazil of course, but I'm hoping we won't underestimate Croatia. They are a good side and they've had a good lead-up campaign.

Edit: All the ranking stuff I said is probably wrong, I have no idea. The television tells me one thing and the internets tells me another. Very confusing.

Lock Stock

2006-06-12T20:20:00.000+10:00

I'm sure my mother thought she was being helpful when she left the freezer stacked to the brim with meat and the cupboards overflowing with packets and tins. But the truth is if she'd left absolutely nothing for us then we would at least be able to decide what it is we actually need so we can go out and buy it. We would be forced to get organised by necessity instead of being put off by the overabundance of crap. I'm tempted to just pull everything off the shelves and donate as much to charity as possible. At least then I'd know if we had any pasta I could cook...

Idiot Box

2006-06-10T13:59:00.000+10:00

I've just finished watching Veronica Mars season two. Well not just finished. I wasted a couple minutes writhing in orgasmic pleasure before I regained control of my brains. I was looking on the net to see what chances there were of a third season of Veronica Mars and apparently it all hinges on DVD sales. Now I'm not an American-hater. I may think your president is balls and I may find the Christian right a little scary but overall I'm sure you're good people. Or something. But seriously now, I'm getting bored of discovering funny, engaging, intelligent and likeable shows only to find out they're struggling for support in the US. Get your act together America!

Also, bring back Firefly.