Get Some!

This is what Lucas gets for telling me to update:

A short story I wrote during slow periods at work. I haven't edited or changed anything, so don't expect nobel-prize winning writing here, it's basically a first draft.

Hunted

I'm not sure how long it was before I came to. Could have been hours, could have been days - at that point I'd lost all ability to mark the passage of time having been out in space for so long. Being unconscious didn't help either.

I thought back, trying to to recall the events leading up to the crash. What had gone wrong? It was a simple survey mission; Habitable planet, abundant life, large seas and oceans. Of course! Indigenous sentience! I'd been shot down!

'Think!' I told myself. Where had I set down? I tried to get up to survey my surroundings. When I leaned on my left arm, it collapsed under me and there was a blinding pain. Right, I should take a look at myself. Ok, calm down, think. What works and what have I broken? Clearly my left arm was shattered. I'd be able to at least set it if my medkit was still around here. I was pretty bruised up and I'd burned my right leg somehow, but I was alive. My vision suddenly went all green and I panicked. Was this some effect of the atmosphere? Some pollen from the plants? I wiped my good hand over my eyes and looked up.

I'd panicked for nothing. Part of the wreckage was above me and coolant or something was leaking out onto me. I shifted and looked at my hand, wondering where to wipe the coolant. The colour was off though, what was wrong with it? After staring at the gunk on my hand for a few moments I realised the problem with the colour - there was blood through it. I must still be bleeding from a head wound of some kind. Gently I probed my face and scalp, trying to find the wound. Eventually I found it - what felt like a large cut across the front half of the top of my head, I must have hit it on a control board during the crash.

I realised then that I was in shock. Which in itself gave me another piece of information: I couldn't have been out for very long - Certianly less than a day, probably a few hours.

'First things first' I thought to myself. 'Find the medkit, get yourself patched up then take stock of your inventory and survey the surroundings so you can work out where in the universe you are' I could feel the emergency survival training taking over.

Achingly and without using my shattered arm, I managed to drag myself to my feet. In reward I was hit with a severe wave of dizziness and almost fell back over. Were it not for the wreckage I was using to support myself, I would have. Determined to find the medkit though, I pushed through it and shakily took a few steps toward the bulk of my ship, a few meters away. I could see a large tear in the side of the hull I'd be able to get in through without much trouble but at this rate it seemed a lot further than it was.

I wasn't going to make it. Not without some kind of support. I needed a crutch of some kind until I could get the medkit. Looking around, I didn't see a lot. I seemed to have crashed in an open plain of some kind. No large trees, just smallish shrubs and reddish dirt as far as I could see in all directions. That was one piece of good news at least, I seemed to have crashed in a relatively remote area and I'd be able to see natives and other threats coming in all directions with plenty of warning.

Shuffling another few steps, my foot caught on something and I went over. Fortunately, I landed on my good arm but the jolt was enough to paralyze me with pain for a few minutes. I couldn't take much more of this without medical attention. When I'd recovered enough I looked down to see what I'd tripped on and saw a white protrusion from the ground. I crawled over to take a closer look and was hit with a surge of hope. It was a bone! Possibly a rib from what would have been a fairly large animal when it was alive. I prayed it wasn't too deeply buried and that I could dig or pull it out with my one good arm.

Desperately, I sat up and positioned myself to get what leverage I could then pulled as hard as I was able with what strength I had in my good arm. Surprisingly, the dirt wasn't as tightly packed as it looked and the bone shifted upwards almost 70 degrees. Not expecting such a great result, I lost my grip and rolled backward onto my back. Another jolt of pain met me on the ground but it was worth it, I'd almost pulled in out completely in a single go!

Getting back into position, I inspected my handiwork on the bone. It was most of the way out, so I tried standing and pulling on it but it was caught where it was, I was going to have to dig it out by hand. I began working at it straight away, scraping away as much of the dirt as I could with a single hand. As I was doing so, I was amazed at just how much life there was on this planet. In a hole no bigger than 50 centimeters wide by 30 deep, I had encountered no less than 4 species.

A minute or two more of frantic scraping and the bone fell onto its side, free at last from the dirt and ready to be my crutch. Painfully, I managed to ease myself up and clumsily slip the end of the bone under my arm. It wasn't at all comfortable, but at least I had some mobile support to stop me falling over again. I only had to go another 2 or 3 metres to reach the ship anyway.

Eventually, with a great deal of effort I managed to get to the tear in the hull and poked my head inside. In case I hadn't already been able to tell, the thing was a wreck and wasn't flying again. Control panels were shattered and strewn across the cabin, storage compartments had lost their coverings, spilling their contents everwhere. I moved in the direction of the medical bay - which was really just an isolated corner with medical supplies, praying it wasn't in as sorry a condition as the main cabin was. Fortunately it wasn't - The bay was designed to survive violent patients during a battle so most of the equipment bays were still intact and closed, it didn't take long to find the medkit I needed.

Setting my arm, I used various dermal and sub-dermal regenerators to heal most of the bruising, the burn on my leg and seal the cut on my head, then administered various painkillers, simulants and suppliments to keep me going. Stiffly, I returned to the main cabin and began sorting through the wreckage to see what I could make use of in this desolate place. Unfortunately, being a survey ship most of the loose components were diagnostic and sensor control panels. I did manage to find most of the survival kit however, a knife, pistol and a heap of food so I didn't need to worry about starving to death out here.

I came to a deadly realisation at that point: I was alone. I had no ship, limited supplies and almost no tools and I was stranded on an alien planet with little hope of rescue.What was I going to do? I couldn't live the rest of my life here, in isolation with nobody but myself and to top it all, night was falling.

I decided to take the best look around the area that I could in the diminishing light before doing what I could to get some rest. At least I could still use my ship as a shelter. The surrounding area didn't have a lot to offer, a few more bones like the one I had used as a crutch poking out here and there, dirt, a few small shrubs, dirt. Coming around the bow, I noticed lights in the distance, a city perhaps? That could be useful if I could slip in and get any further supplies I needed or was it a search party, coming to hunt me down? I tried to observe them for a while to judge if they were moving toward me not but there didn't seem to be any change. Either it was just a city, or they were coming from quite a distance away. At that moment, several lights broke off from either side of the main grouping - Scouts?

I could feel panic overcoming me again. Alone. Hunted. Cut off. For all I knew, there was an army on the way to capture and or kill me.

'RUN!' my instincts screamed.

'No' I thought, I should stick with my shelter and the bulk of my supplies.

'GET OUT OF THERE!' instinct insisted. It was so forceful that I found myself stuffing supplies into a bag and strapping the knife and pistol to my belt before I knew what I was doing.

Scrambling back out of the ship, I ran blindly in the opposite direction to the lights. In such a desperate flight, I stumbled and tripped on most of the shrubs, branches, rocks and bones littered about the landscape, but I didn't care, I was moving away from that pursuit force. I would evade and I would survive this.

I don't know for how long I ran but eventually, scraped, panting and exhausted I spotted a darkened building not too far from where I was. I figured I could take refuge in it at least for a while before the hunters came looking. I tried to appproach as quietly as I could, keeping to shadows and avoiding the windows and eventually managed to press myself up against one of the sides.

I immediately had second thoughts about trying to hide out here, as it suddenly appeared to be a waystation of some kind. Transport lanes ran past the building with offshoots leading onto the grounds. On that side of the building there were numerous mechanisms of some kind and the front of the building was mostly transperent. I took this to be the 'front' of the building and decided against trying to enter that way. At the rear of the building I found what seemed to be a service entry of some kind. I tried opening it, but it appeared locked. The lock was fairly primitive, but even so, several attempts to get it open with my knife were unsuccessfull and I had to simply shoot it open.

It was much darker inside than it was outside, I leaned against a wall just inside the door to rest for a few moments and allow my eyes to adjust. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I was able to make out many boxes stacked around the room I was in - evidently some kind of storage area. There was a panel on the wall just next to the door and a little over my head, with a little experimentation I was able to activate it and brought the lights up, there didn't seem to be an adjustable setting on it however and I had to close the door over to avoid drawing attention to what was probably meant to be a darkened building.

I took another few moments to survey the room. Shelving, boxes and another door toward the front of the building, seeing as there weren't any sounds I could hear, I decided to take a look through some of the boxes. They seemed to be full of supplies from the best of my ability to tell. Mostly brightly coloured packets of varying substances - Sickly sweet smelling items that stuck to my fingers, brittle chips of what may have been vegetable matter and brightly coloured fluids. I wished I'd remembered to bring a hand scanner so I could decide if any of this was edible. Rummaging through some other boxes, I found an item of particular interest - mostly due to my complete inability to decide what it could be used for. It was a small packet of individually wrapped cloth tubes, at first I thought they may be some kind of covering or bandage, but they weren't hollow and had a length of cord at one end. I decided I would come back to them later and investigate as a possible item of interest - who knew what secrets such items held?

Another box revealed small light emitting diode devices that gave off small amounts of light - Enough to see by if I turned the light off, and certianly not enough to be noticed very quickly if I went into the transperent front of the building. I decided to do it and gather as much info about this species as I could. I tested the device to make sure it was working and took a spare in case the first stopped working, I then sealed the back door as best I could and turned the light back off. Activating the torch, I found it gave quite a low level of light off - a bit less than expected and it took my eyes a minute or two to adjust in the dimness. I moved over to the other door and tried it I reasoned there would be little use in sealing an internal door of this kind and I was right. The door creaked and scraped as I pushed it open but I was finally in the room I saw from the front of the building. A low hum from a series of clear-fronted units along one wall drew me over in that direction, they seemed to be filled with the coloured liquids I encountered in the storage room. I tried tugging on one of the handles and most of the front wall swung open, hitting me with a blast of cold air - Refridgeration units! The fluids were coloured very strangely and a few bottles were coloured the same as my ships coolant. Without a better knowledge of this races' language, I thought it best to leave the bottles alone for now.

At that point a low, mechanical rumbling filled the air, growing steadily louder and I realised I'd been here quite a while, they must have found me! I dove behind the first thing I could find, some kind of barrier sealing off a small section of the room and huddled in a terrified heap on the floor, back against the wall. The sound grew louder and louder until the building itself began to shake. Lights grew outside until I could see quite clearly. I decided if I was about to be killed, I would at least see it coming. I peeked over the top of the barrier and looked outside. I was shocked to find it wasn't a searching army at all, but what appeared to be a freighter travelling past at high speed along the transport lane. The thing was monstrous! It went on and on, the whole time emitting the same mechanical roar that shook the very building I was hiding in. After a few moments, I became more accustomed to the noise of the thing and I'd clearly not been spotted so I came out from behind the barrier and observed it passing by for a moment or two more from the shadows before it passed. As it began to fade into the darkness I came out a little further to watch as the noise faded and the rear lights began to dwindle. What a monster of a vehicle it had been, the noise was terrifying and it was clearly not a military vehicle. If it was anything to go by, I'd probably be woken by a maurading search party long before they reached me. With that in mind, I decided to get as much rest as possible before setting out again.

Retrieving my pack, I fashioned a meal out of emergency rations and collapsed in a heap where I'd first taken cover from the noise of the transport. It had felt barely a few moments before I was awoken by another mechanical rumbling, initially I dismissed it as the noice of another transport approaching - I must be on some kind of trade route - but then I realised this noise was different. It was less of a low rumble as the transport was, but was higher pitched and came in rapid bursts, not at all the solid buildup of noise that the transport had been. It sounded almost like if someone had begun the start up procedures of some kind of machine, but then rapidly turned on and off some kind of stealth generator, blanking it's noise out for a fraction of a second before letting another fraction of a seconds worth of noise through.

I remembered the only reason I was shot down is that these people used a primitive projectile weapon that took me by surprise - nobody had used those in well over a thousand years. These people didn't seem to be advanced enough for stealth technology, perhaps an early prototype?

Fighting to keep control of the panic rising within me, I took my weapon and crept around to the front of the building to take a look outside. I scanned as far out and wide as the buildings cover allowed and found.. Nothing. No lights, no unusual shadows, nothing.

I realised whatever it was may be approaching from the rear of the building and returned to the storage room. I cracked the back door open and took the best look around I could. Nothing. Again! Fighting fresh surges of panic and the urge to run blindly again, I opened the door a little more as I wasn't getting anywhere near as good a view as I did from the front and took a better look. Still nothing! and the sound was only growing louder and louder, where was it?!

By this point, a wind was being driven about the building and I realised that I wasn't seeing anything on the horizons because what I was looking for wasn't on the horizon - it was in the air! I jerked back into the building and slammed the door. If I stayed inside, it wouldn't be able to see me and it would leave thinking nothing was here.

I ducked back to what was arguably my bed for the night and lay down, listening to the noise of the aircraft moving about outside. Eventually it began to fade into the distance and I relaxed a little. it had worked. I was probably going to be safe for the night.

Again, I was woken by mechanical rumblings approaching the building. What was it this time? These sounded similar to the transport, however it was lower pitched, there also seemed to be a lot more of them approaching. Among them, I could hear the approach of the aircraft I'd heard earlier. They had found me, they had to have! All out panic gripped me and I grabbed my weapon and decided if I wasn't going down without a fight. I peeked out over the divider and saw rows upon rows of lights pointed on the building, I tried to sneak out to the back room but I must have been seen because a voice - seemingly enhanced by some kind of device rang out over the area, almost as loud as the machines approach, rang out over the area in their language. It was harsh sounding, demanding in its tone, but I was completely unable to understand a word of it. Why hadn't I bought that damn scanner along with me, it could at least give me a start!

I cracked the back door open and peeked out from the shadows. It was a dangerous gambit I lost however, as there was a small exlosion from the mirroring bank of lights and a chunk of the wall next to me exploded. I slammed the door shut again and could hear yelling coming from that side of the building again and once more, the enhanced voice boomed over the area. I wasn't going to survive this. There were too many of them. I decided to go down with as many of these savages as possible. I began to gather my resolve for my final fight when a sound like a canister of air being expended all in one go came from the front of the building. A smashing and crashing sound indicated they had launched something through the front of the building so I decided to check what it was. Given the effect of the device at the rear of the building I figured it wouldn't be a weapon as it would have gone off already.

I was wrong.

When I snuck back into the front of the building, there was a hissing noise and much of the room was already full of some kind of smoke. It wasn't any regular smoke however, as it straight away began to burn my eyes, lungs, nose and throat. It got harder and harder to breathe so blinded, choking and completely lost, I stumbled toward the front of the building and fell through the window there hoping they would realise I was helpless.

I awoke to find I had been dragged some distance from the building and surrounded. Ugly creatures they were, all dressed the same in green and brown patched garments, they all carried long, roughly cylindrical devices in both hands and waved them in my direction, seemingly discussing my fate. I reasoned the devices were weapons of some kind and I'd been shot at at the back door.

The aliens themselves were tall. Very tall. Had I been standing, I doubt I'd have come to their waists. Bipedal, they all had short, coarse looking hair over their scalps, protruding noses, small eyes and only 5 fingers. There also appeared to be folicles over their faces, but these were all shaved to the skin.

One the others kept deferring to - his hair was greyish instead of the mostly dark hair of the others - approached me and spoke at length at me. I simply stared at him, not comprehending what he was saying. I noticed thee eyes of this one - whites, then a colored ring, then the black centre of a pupil. So unlike the large, totally black orbs of my race, even their skin tone was a kind of faint pinkish instead of the dull grey of my kind.

It continued to wave its arms, gesturing at it's companions and repeating a single word 'Human', must be the name of their race I figured. It seemed to give up and motioned to one next too it. The last thing I ever saw was the end of it's weapon slamming down toward my face.

Double update Saterday!

So, last night I found out Aliens vs Predator 3 has been refused classification by the Australian board.

Anyone who reads this blog probably already knows I'm pissed. The AvP games have been a staple of my nerditary diet for quite some time (Yes, even the god-awful AvP2, that horribly overbalanced piece of shit) I even already had it on preorder with $100 on it.

Why was it banned I completely fail to hear you ask? Here's the statement from the classification board:

"The game contains first-person perspective, close-up depictions of human characters being subjected to various types of violence, including explicit decapitation and dismemberment as well as locational damage such as stabbing through the chest, mouth, throat, or eyes," the board report stated.

"Characters can be stabbed with a Predator's wrist blade or an Alien's tail in depictions reminiscent of impalement. The Predator collects 'trophies' by explicitly ripping off human heads, their spinal columns dangling from severed necks. Heads can be twisted completely around in order to break a character's neck. Eyes can be stabbed through or gouged, leaving empty, bloodied eye sockets.

"It is noted that a player is able to combine manoeuvres together in quick succession, which further increases impact; for example, a Predator can stab a character through both eyes with its wrist blade and rip off their head, with spinal column still attached. Extensive post-mortem damage, including decapitation and dismemberment, is also possible."

Waitwaitwait. So it was banned because the Predator and the Alien stab people..

What the FUCK are they supposed to do? Gum the humans to fucking death?! (Or prod, in the case of the Predator)

It would make a little more sense if this sort of thing already wasn't available. Think of it, the first 2 AvP games.. How many human skulls were torn from their bodies when you had your hands on the speargun? Granted, there were no spines attached, but I think that was more a limitation of the technology of the times rather than something they just left out.

The F.E.A.R games have the same thing. I forget the name of the weapon, but it's essentially a railgun you could stick enemies to the wall with. And I'm talking hanging off the wall by their limbs.

Let me repeat that: stick enemies to the wall. If that doesn't sound like "depictions reminiscent of impalement" I don't fucking know what is.

The problem is Michael Atkinsons' retarted, Christian fundamentalist, 'Oh won't SOMEONE think of the Children!' bullshit attitude toward gaming. And this guy is meant to be in charge of classifications. One would think with an attitude like that, he'd want as many different categories as possible, but no, he still refuses to advocate the change for an R+18 rating for games.

Why not? As one of the alledged leaders of the country (I use 'alledged' for a specific, about-to-be-explained purpose), one would think he would want what is best for the country - part of that being the economy, correct?

I should hope so. But no, apparently stifling what is a multi-billion dollar industry (overtaking other forms of media) that's already struggling here is more. Moreso, when this kind of bull is pulled, gamers simply send their money overseas or pirate these games to see them in the manner intended. I know if I were leading a country, I'd like to encourage a media form that has proven to make metric assloads of cash for the economy. Apparently Atkinson is a politician, worried about his own ass rather than a leader.

Goddamn asshat.

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..