Ahahahahaha

If anyone hasn't heard at this point, someone created a Kanye West apology generator with a quick mess about, I managed to pull this out:

KANYEAPOLOGYCITY
I'M SOOOOO SORRY TO Uncle Owen AND Rimmer FOR lugging THE oompa loompas. I SPOKE TO Rimmer RIGHT AFTER. Uncle Owen IS VERY sexy !!........... I'M IN THE WRONG FOR eating a whole wedding cake AND rubbing chocolate sauce on myself!!!!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT Chunderfest Inc.. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO Uncle Owen 2MRW. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I'M A FAN OF kitten huffing!!! youse KNOW!!! BOOOOYAAAWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!! Tangcoddle I GAVE MY tiddlywinks TO Jesus WHEN THEY DESERVED IT... THAT'S WHAT IT IS!!!!!!!!!! I'M NOT CRAZY YALL, I'M JUST BEING REAL. SORRY FOR THAT!!!MUCH RESPECT!!!!!

Funsday the Blurst


Go here to see what you can pull out

Resolutions.. Or Are they?

So, previous post-mentioned girl and I have worked things out.

Short answer is: She's trying to patch it up with her Fiancee.

This, after him finding out about us being.. Whatever it is we were.. Kind of more than friends, but not partners. This was a cause of a bunch of fights between them, seeing as I was the only person she had to talk to about the whole situation I then had to play councellor while trying to keep my own personal feelings out of it because I couldn't allow myself to influence her decisions in any way. It also resulted in some douchey actions on his part, the two most notable of these being: At one point he went through her phone. Yes, you read that right, he went through her fucking phone. Now, if this wasn't bad enough, she found out and it caused a huge fight between them. The next morning, one would think he'd apologize for something like that - It's an incredibly douchey thing to do and when she told me (via text) I told 2 of my housemates at the time who were very 'WTF?!' - But no, not this guy. He went through her phone AGAIN.

Let's emphasise this for a second: He not only went through her phone, but did it TWICE. And not only twice, but decided NOT to think 'Hey, I've just gone through my fiancee's phone - which I shouldn't have done anyway - and caused a huge fight because of it' no, apparently his thought process must have been something more akin to: 'I like phomes!!!1 OMG MOAR PHOMES TO GO!! I REED MEASSAGIES!!!' because he decided to do it again the next morning. And caused another huge fight. Because apparently he didn't learn from the first time that going through a partners phone is not a good thing to do - let alone twice.

He then tried to tell her not to talk to me again. So we've moved on from invading privacy to outright attempts at control. GREEEAAAT! Of course, her first answer was to tell him she wasn't going to stop talking to me - Something I personally was supportive of her for but couldn't make it obvious because I was trying to keep my own personal feelings out of it - and then told her it was a case of me or him, to choose and if she didn't choose, he'd leave anyway. Anyways, after that huge debacle, she and I decided it would be best for us to have little if any contact until she could sort and calm things down a bit. It was at this point I decided to send her a last message for the time being - One in which I dropped the moral high ground pretense and told her exactly the kind of douche I thought he was being.

Cut a week or two later and we're talking a little online, and I ask her about things calming down out of concern for her. She says they've calmed a lot at which point I ask the inevitable question: What she had decided on. She felt terrible at this point, and was afraid that because she'd chosen him I'd not want to stay friends with her. I told her she was being a crackpot because she's an amazingly cool chick and I was happy to stay her friend as long as she was sure she'd made the best decision for herself and her kid. She had to went offline pretty quickly at that point with no response to the question, so part of me questions whether she really thinks so or is trying to patch it up with him for some other reason, moot point really, so I don't suppose there's any reason to think about it.

However (and isn't there always one with me?): In itself, this resolution brings its own set of questions foremost being 'If I hadn't taken the moral high-ground and kept my own feelings out of it, how differently would this have played out?'

By this I mean: Sure, I did what was right. I kept my feelings out of it, and helped her as best I could despite that meaning I would need to (potentially) push away the very object of my desire. I took the moral high ground and can claim that victory. But was it worth it?

How much power and control in the world is wielded by those with less scruples and less willing to take that moral high road as opposed to those who DO take the moral high ground? Sure, they all PRETEND to be doing 'what's best for us' at the time but I'm sure people thought that of Hitler or George Bush or Kim Jong Il before they turned out to be crackpots. Sure, people like myself can claim those victories of morality, but what do we really have to show for it? Some perceived belief of being a better person? But what constitutes that? It seems to be morality is really another word for shooting ones self in the foot, or a case of 'nice guys finish last' - because in essence, I'm jerky and socially akward, but by no means a 'bad boy' type.

Which raises the question: What if I had been that jerk? Given some of his behaviour, I don't think it would have been terribly difficult to turn her against him and from there given the depth of our mutual attraction and that at one point in our coversations/Me being the counsellor type she said 'you are so kind. and i cant really explain it but you make my heart skip a beat, everytime my phone beeps im dissapointed if its not you, when we talk i feel so good. when you hold me i feel like time stops and nothing is wrong with the world... you are amazing... they dont make many like you.' I don't think it would have been much of a stretch to push our weird friendship thingy into a full-blown relationship. I have little doubt that her partner was doing the same thing at that end (Albiet, in a really shitty way) so then could it be said that I'd be doing the jerky thing by trying to pull her to my side? Knee-jerk reacting would say Yes. But I'm not sure it's as simple as that.

Is the defence lawyer who stoops to the level of his opponent in defending an innocent person still being a dirty fighting jerk if he does so to level the playing field? Especially if without doing so he knows the outcome will not be one his client is likely to be happy about? Or is he simply doing what he has to in order to make sure the judge sees both sides of things equally?

With all this, I don't mean to sound as though I'm unhappy about her decision, I was planning for the worst, hoping for the best through out the enitirety of this little saga and if she thinks that's what's best for her and her child, I can accept and support her in that. I just can't help thinking that perhaps the moral victory is really the hollow one.. Especially if they continue to end in (relatively) unfavourable outcomes.

How Do I Keep...

Getting into these situations..

*Ahem*..

So, I was at the post wedding shindig at Tobbë and Wendy's up in the mountains, drinking away and happened to at some point, begin talking to an attractive and really cool chick. There's an instant chemistry between us, and I'm not talkin' regular chemistry, this is like the Chuck Norris of chemistries. We get on amazingly well, really enjoy each others company, there's a mutual physical attraction, the works.

Then I find out she has a partner. Damn. And a child with him. God DAMN.

She ends up giving me and another guy a lift back up to Katoomba station where we were going to a pub (Well, the other guy was, I ended up tagging along as I'd missed the train at this point). I got her number, get home the next morning and add her to facebook before passing out. Wake up later that day to find she's messaged me via phone and facebook. We spend the next week messaging back and forward and a few hours on the phone to each other and this is where it gets complicated:

We're insanely attracted to each other.
She has a partner and a child with him.
I don't want to break that up and have said that to her.
She explains that things aren't that great with him just now, they're kind of growing apart - This is also driving her insane as she saw the same thing happen with her parents, but it took 20 years before they broke up and she doesn't want to do that to her kid.
My response was to the effect of 'then why is there a problem?'
Turns out she still kind of loves him and doesn't want to hurt him.

That's the gist of things at this point.. She'll be coming down in a couple of weeks and we'll spend a couple of days together, this is going to be fun :D

Jealousy, Fun For The Whole Family

Girl X at 21st we're having here is liked by roomie A (unbeknownst to me) Girls X grabs me from behind at one point and sticks her hands up my top, groping my chest. I dont' respond to it, given she's blonde and I'm not attracted to that sort of thing.

A little later, we're outside, Roomie A and a few others are there and they're talking about Girl X and it's at this point I realise Roomie A likes her. I add to the convo that 'Uhh, yeah, she had her hands up my top groping my chest' fair warning to Roomie A beacuse he's interested. He gets pissy about that which leads me to think, when or why should one even bother letting a friend know if an interest of his is potentially a bad match? Personally, I would be happy to hear such info as it would give me a much more informed decision on said interest.

It could just be that we've all been drinking though.

Brought To You By a Famous Drunk

Yes, yes, it's been ages since I blogged. To make up for such a failure, enjoy this Youtube clip, brought to you by Dr. Tiki from TikibarTV:

Pure Awesome.

Gotta Love Those Japanese

Chris needs to do more stuff like this when he's teaching

Things and How They Suck

Lucas once made an offhand comment about me being the Nobby Nobbs of our group. I'm starting to agree with him. In physical terms, I'm only 24, but in cynicism and world-weariness, I'm about 3000. I noticed this after seeing 2 big release movies in the last couple of weeks; I was impressed with neither and I'm finding that I'm really, REALLY not all that impressed with most things I've seen in the last few months.

In the last few weeks, I've seen Wolverine: Origins and Star Trek:

Wolverine: There were few things I liked about this. The last fight scene, Gambits' powers (not the chatacter himself), and Deadpool before he got killed/reborn/whatever the fuck that was meant to be.

That's not all too surprising, the film has been ripped to shreds by most people. Ted hated it, Dooga hated it, in fact I think the only people who did like it were those who reviewed it professionally, or had something to do with making/starring in it.

Star Trek: I'd heard all the great things about this. It re-invents the franchise, it's well written, it's whatever else. I went into this expecting some sweet-ass Trek action.

What I got was the studio and everyone to do with it saying 'You know what? Fuck the 40 years of cannon, let's just say some Romulans went back in time and changed everything!'. Don't get me wrong, I loved what they did with McCoy, I squealed in girlish and nerdy delight when he'd go on some of his signature rants and as a movie in it's own right, it was good. I just couldn't bring myself to like it as a Star Trek movie. I'll agree, the special effects were awesome.

Take the Kobayashi Maru (one of the things that irked me most) scenario. In the cannon, this is how the scenario plays out:

In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the simulation takes place on a replica of a starship bridge, with the test-taker as captain and other Starfleet members, officers or other cadets, in other key positions. In the scenario of the 2280s, the cadet receives a distress signal, stating that the Kobayashi Maru has struck a "gravitic mine" in the Klingon Neutral Zone and is rapidly losing power, hull integrity and life support. There are no other vessels nearby. The cadet is faced with a decision:

• Attempt to rescue the Kobayashi Maru's crew and passengers, which involves violating the Neutral Zone and potentially provoking the Klingons into hostile action or an all-out war; or
• Abandon the Kobayashi Maru, potentially preventing war but leaving the crew and passengers to die.

If the cadet chooses to save the Kobayashi Maru, the scenario progresses quickly. The bridge officers notify the cadet that they are in violation of the treaty. As the starship enters the Neutral Zone, the communications officer loses contact with the crippled vessel. Klingon starships then appear on an intercept course. Attempts to contact them are met with radio silence; indeed, their only response is to open fire, with devastating results. There is no way to win the resulting battle, especially as the computer is allowed to "cheat" to guarantee defeat; the simulation ends with the understanding that the cadet's ship has been lost with all hands. The objective of the test is not for the cadet to outfight the opponent, but rather to test the cadet's behavior and thought processes in the face of insurmountable odds or circumstances.

The famous cheat that Kirk uses is to re-program the computer running the simulation to have the Klingons recognise him as 'The great Captain Kirk'. What happened in the movie?

They get the distress signal alright. So far so good.
The Maru is not in the neutral zone. Uh-oh.
Starfleet orders Kirk to assist. Ok, Now I'm pissed.
They lose contact with the Maru and the Klingons decloak. Ok, a little better.
The simulator breaks down for a few moments. Uhh.. Alright.. Not specifically mentioned in the original running, but I guess I could run with that because for all we know, that happened with Kirks original re-programming...
The simulator comes back online and Kirk orders a re-scan of the Klingons, showing that they're vulnerable to attack. God-dammit!
Kirk out-shoots the Klingons and makes a successful rescue. WTF?! OK, so maybe the resuce happens in the original storyline, but he sure as FUCK did not out-shoot the enemy.

It was a lot of little things like that they did that irked me to no end. Especially at the end, they played the iconic 'Space. The final frontier..' Speech. In the original series, it continued on to say 'These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, it's 5 year mission, to seek out..' In the Movie version, they use the speech from next gen: '..starship Enterprise, it's continuing mission..' But wait a second, how can it continue it's mission without having started it's initial 5 year mission? (or at best - Having only JUST started it).

There was also some of the re-used jokes. When Kirk first boards a shuttle to join the Academy, he bangs his head on a bulkhead. The exact same thing an older Scotty does in one of the later movies (although it could have been an episode of Next Gen, I dont' quite remember).

There was an amusing (but clearly reused) flashback/nod to the iconic 'KHAAAAAN!' as well. Although it's Spock's name being screamed.

Also Vulcan destroyed? I thought they were re-making the series, not completely disregarding all cannon and doing whatever the fuck they liked.

*sigh* I'm going back to books. At least I've never heard of a retcon in the printed medium.

I'm Not ALWAYS a Jerk..

So, A week or so ago, I responded to a call from a journalist who was doing a big 'what guys are thinking' type research/article thingy. On a whim and partially for shits and giggles and responded, got the journo's questions and responded to her. Yesturday I got a reply from her on a completely unrelated topic:

Heya, I'm writing a story about female feminists versus empowered women.
As a male feminist do you mind if I ask you a few questions? I am just wondering if being a female feminist today means there are double standards. While women want men to pay on the first date, does that mean they're ditching their feminism ideals?
What are your thoughts?
Thanks again!!

Just to prove that I'm not always a jerk, my response:

I think double standards are always going to apply. Not out of any spiteful 'men are better than women/women are better than men' nonsense that seems prolific today, but because of one thing a lot of the loud, angry, men-hating feminists seem to forget - at a fundamental physiological level, men and women ARE different. Men (last I heard) are the only ones with lateral thinking. On the flipside, only women can give birth. So what? Just because I can solve a lateral problem a lot faster than you could that makes me no more (or less) superior because you can give birth. Feminisim is about equality where equality can be given in my eyes.

Wanting a guy to pay for a first date has nothing to ditching those ideals. For instance, I'm pro-choice in the big abortion debate, however, were I to accidently get someone pregnant, I'd without second thought do the traditionally honourable, moral and above all, old-fashioned chivalristic thing and propose. Does that mean I'm any less of a feminist because I stick to an old fashioned tradition? Of course not, the woman can always decline if she chooses and I would do what I could to support her in other ways. This works with paying for a date as well, while personally, I'll always pay for as much as possible until she breaks my hands so I physically can't reach my wallet anymore, that doesn't mean I see her as any less my equal and nor should she feel as such.

Were a woman to accept a job paying less than a male colleague doing the exact same thing, or should she fail to fight for her right to be paid the same amount for the same work, then yes, she'd be abandoning her feministic ideals as she's willingly giving up her right to be paid equally for equal work.

Feminism is a dangerous double-edged sword though. Take military service; Currently, women are not permitted combat roles in the Australian army and a feminist should fight for a womans right to make the choice to be a front-line soldier. However, being a female soldier brings it's own can of worms along with it. As a male, if captured you can expect interrogation, poor conditions, beatings - you get the idea. A woman in the same position faces all that and rape at the hands of enemy troops. I'm not saying a woman shouldn't be allowed on the front lines for that reason, but she does need to know full well that she could have to suffer through that if captured and she needs to think very seriously about whether she could go through all of that before deciding on impulse that 'A man can do it, so I want to as well!'

Another seemingly unexpected consequence of equal rights and double-standards is they can work in reverse too. If a man can lose his job for saying that a female co-worker looks attractive for whatever reason, why can't a woman lose hers for the same kind of comment to a male co-worker? This all begins spiralling horribly into the political correctness issue which just messes everything up and ruins everybody's day because everyone suddenly becomes so afraid of saying something that some militant feminist could remotely take offence to that nobody ever says anything. I currently work in an office a bit like this, fortunately I work in a really great team of 11 people who can make the odd off-colored joke and get away with it but even then, if I'm going to make a somewhat more riské statement or joke, I'll limit it to myself, my roomate who sits accross from me and our team leader who has a very similar sense of humor. The sad thing is, the 3 of us have a great relationship and (by our team leaders admision) my roomate and I injected almost all the personality that the team currently has. If we felt we could make the same stupid jokes openly without fear of someone taking a slight offence and getting fired over it than I'm sure our working environment would be far more enjoyable.

I kind of wandered off there at the end as I'm somewhat prone to doing, but hope this helps!

See? I have plenty of those things.. Uhh.. You know, a headache but with pictures..

..What?!

What do you get when you cross a freak in an orange suit, 2 possibly insane guitarists, one of those homeless guys that yells on street corners and a relatively normal looking drummer?

This video clip I saw at Dan's the other night at 3ish am while watching RAGE.

So That's What Happened..

So, I'd known Tarja was thrown out of Nightwish for ages, but what was never clear (to me, anyway) was why. I'd heard rumors that she'd become arrogant and (apparently) bitchy - Which frankly, I don't blame her for, the woman has an amazing voice. Nobody begrudged Orson Welles his arrogance (as stated in the special features of the original Transformers movie (R.I.P Optimus :'())

But anyway, I've been downloading a heap of Tarja's solo and other non-Nightwish stuff and as one song was labelled as Nightwish, Tarja AND something else, I was trying to track down who had actually done it. Came across this in the Nightwish forums - It's the open letter they used to fire her (Ouch.. What a way to get fired - Open letter.. Just.. Dude..):

What was said in the letter to Tarja?

Dear Tarja,

It`s time to choose whether the story of Nightwish ends here or whether it will still continue an undetermined period of time. We`ve been working with this creation for 9 years and we are not ready to give up yet. Nightwish is a way of life, something to live for, and we`re certain we can`t let it go.

Equally certain is the fact that we cannot go on with you and Marcelo any longer. During the last year something sad happened, which I`ve been going over in my head every single day, morning and night. Your attitude and behavior don`t go with Nightwish anymore. There are characteristics I would never have believed to see in my old dear friend.
People who don`t talk with each other for a year do not belong in the same band.

We are involved in an industry where the business-side of things is a necessary evil and something to worry about all the time. We are also a band which has always done music from the heart, because of friendship and the music itself. The mental satisfaction should always be more important than money! Nightwish is a band, it`s an emotion.
To you, unfortunately, business, money, and things that have nothing to do with those emotions have become much more important. You feel that you have sacrificed yourself and your musical career for Nightwish, rather than thinking what it has given to you.
This attitude was clearly shown to me in the two things you said to me in an airplane in Toronto: ”I don`t need Nightwish anymore.” and ”Remember, Tuomas, that I could leave this band at any time, giving you only one day`s warning in advance”.
I can`t simply write any more songs for you to sing.

You have said yourself that you are merely a ”guest musician” in Nightwish. Now that visit ends and we will continue Nightwish with a new female vocalist.
We`re sure this is an equally big relief to you as it is for us. We have all been feeling bad long enough.

You told us that no matter what, the next Nightwish album will be your last one. However, the rest of us want to continue as long as the fire burns. So there`s no sense in doing that next album with you, either.
The four of us have been going over this situation countless times and we have realized that this is the thing we want to do in life. It´s all we can do. In December 2004, in Germany, you said that you will never tour again for more than two weeks at a time. You also said that we can forget about U.S. and Australia because the fees and the sizes of venues are too small.

In interviews I`ve mentioned that if Tarja leaves, that would be the end of the band. I understand that people will think this way. Nightwish is, however, a scenery of my soul and I`m not ready to let go because of one person. A person who wants to focus her creativity to somewhere else, a person whose values don`t match mine.

We were never bothered by the fact that you didn`t participate in writing/arranging songs, you never in 9 years came to rehearse the songs with us before going to the studio. Not the fact that while on tour you always wanted to fly, separately from us with your husband. Not the fact that you are an undisputable front image of the band.
We accepted and felt ok about everything except greed, underestimating the fans, and breaking promises. It was agreed by the five of us that Nightwish would be the priority in everything that we do during 2004-2005. Still so many things were more important to you. The ultimate example being the already sold-out show in Oslo, which you wanted to cancel because you needed to rehearse for your solo concerts, meet frieds and go to the movies. Those were the words Marcelo used in an e-mail explaining the cancellation. This being just one example of so many. I couldn`t think of a worse way of being selfish and dismissing our fans.

Nightwish is a way of life and a job with many obligations. To each other and to the fans. With you we can`t take care of those duties anymore.

Deep within we don`t know which one of you drove us to this point. Somehow Marcelo has changed you from the lovely girl you were into a diva, who doesn`t think or act the way she used to. You are too sure of your irreplaceableness and status.

It`s obvious that you blame your stress and misery on us four. And you think we don`t respect or listen to you. Belive us; We have always had the uppermost respect towards you as a wonderful vocalist and as a friend. And very often during the past couple of years the plans were made according to your decisions only. You were always the only one who wanted more money from the shows.
This ”compensation and more money from everything” –attitude is the fact that we are most disappointed of!

We wish that from now on you will listen to your heart instead of Marcelo. Cultural differences combined with greed, opportunism and love is a dangerous combination. Do not wither yourself.

This decision is not something we are especially proud of but you gave us no choice. The gap between us is too wide. And the decision is made by us four unanimously. We are beyond the point where things could be settled by talking.

All the best for your life and career,



Tuomas



Emppu Jukka Marco

Ps. This is an open letter for everybody.

(I'm not sure Tuomas, Emppu, Jukka and Marco were quite certian of what an open letter was, hence the clarification in the 'P.S')