Super Mario Opera.

This post goes out to shrike cause probably no one else that reads this blog would even know what the hell i'm really on about :)

So i've been playing Day Of Defeat : Source a fair bit since it came out 9am Tuesday, I must say that I hated it at first but now i'm beginning to warm up to it. They have totally rejigged all of the classes lets go over them now ok?

- Rifleman classes do not have pistols anymore, and also the two grenades have been replaced with two gun mounted tossing grenade things (which are cool and gay), they also have iron sights (which are pretty useless 95% of the time since the gameplay is very action packed). Also kar does less damage due to better body modelling, which sorta sucks in my opinion, I'm use to it being a railgun. Also not bayonet and butt slap for rifleman (another "suck" point) you basically die alot in close quarters now.
- Bazooka classes get good sidearms, allies get the M1 carbine while the axis get this rad machine gun fast firing pistol thing.
- Assualt classes (STG44 and BAR) now get two grenades each (grenade tossing is lame and is very hard to throw long ditances without having to resort to "jump throwing"
- The tommy gun classes move have 1 grenade and 1 smoke grenade which is very cool. Smoke grenades work so much better in DoD than CS.
- Machine Gunners are pretty much the same, I can't remember if they have pistols or not, the second MG (44?) from axis was dropped, also the smoke you get from the MG when it overheats looks pretty cool.

Ok other points.

-Recoil is higher and takes some getting use to (still not use to it), MG recoil is insane, fire two bullet shots and you are looking straight up into the sky.
- Garand and Kar are not as accurate over distance, I argue that even with iron sights they are still shocking.
- It feels harder to track people at close range, a bit of ice skating going on with the models? (Although it could be because of my next point).
- I seem to get 30fps on a lot of maps and I'm not even maxing half the stuff, this could be due to the HDR stuff they've added which is not in CS.
- Only 4 maps (Anzio, Donner, Flash, Avalanche)
- Anzio is cool but looks so completely different, still all the outlay elements are there.
- Flash is pretty much the same, total carnage, although not the railgun fest it use to be.
- Avalanche is the same too, looks great though, a few changes at allies spawn with a ladder added to access the high bridge (instead of having to take ages to climb).
- Donner is GAY and has been butchered, essentially it is the same but all the "improvements" they have made to the map make it very unbalanced in favour of the allies (although people use to complain that it was axis bias before but you know).
- The old pre recorded background gunshots etc that you use to hear are gone and are replaced by ACTUAL background fire going on in the map, it sounds very cool and this is probably my favourite feature put into this game from the last version.
- New voices for axis and allies, axis have a few sayings for the same commands (which can get confusing but is more realistic I guess).
- British troops are gone for the moment, but i think they will be added down the line (with more maps).
- No para stuff yet.

So whats it like to play? Well it is fun, I give you that. I have been playing CS:S in DoD's absence and I must admit I am having far more fun playing DoD:S than I do playing CS:S. Even though I hated the new changes to the classes I think it will make for a more interesting and varied games, no longer will wars be strictly rifleman/assualt affair with the odd sniper for certain maps, I think all classes are useful in their own way than they use to be with 1.0, in 1.0 they were sorta there for the sake of having extra classes. Although I do predict that most wars will consist of a lot of people using spam guns because of the weaker rifle classes, which makes then pretty unattractive unless you plan to camp in safe places.

I'm still undecided if I like this version than previous ones, I always hate new versions at the start and then I end up loving them after they tweak it a bit, so we'll just see!

Meep.

I saw this Nirvana_-_Impossible_Music_Festival-FM-08-28-2005 thing on a torrent site last night and thought I'd give it a listen since i haven't heard any of their live recordings in years. Its from a Triple J show they did recently with the Nirvana set being from a show in 1992. We have all heard Nirvana albums and how they sound pretty lush and big for a 3 piece, and that is to be expected from a studio recording but bloody hell it amazes me how "big" they sound in there live recordings, particually in this one (Negative Creep sounds H000GE). I wonder what set up they must have used?

The set list is as follows:

About A Girl
Come as You Are
Lithium
Breed
Polly
Lounge Act
Negative Creep
Love buzz
Blew

Now that is a 30 minute set list! . Its also funny how crazy the crowd goes at the start of any of those tracks from Nevermind yet when the last three tracks are played everyone is a bit taken back and sound like they don't quite know when the track is over with its delayed applause at the end. I didn't quite realise the extent to which people had not listened to the Bleach album.

FYI Kurt sounds as terrible as always.

This site has some seriously cool furniture. Can't link directly cause the sites in flash but check out the cool grandfather clock but clicking on "furniture" and then "Sullivan", way cool. This is the real reason you have kids, to buy them cool shit like this :) . None of that serious parenting crap :P .

Just finished watching a movie on TV called "Fearless". It was actually a pretty good movie and has bought me to believe that Jeff Bridges may actually be a better actor than people think. Supposedly this movie didn't do well at the oscars (1 nomination) because it was release just before Schindler's List, which sorta stole the thunder of any movie around that time. The movie is confusing at times but the acting the the plane crash scenes (The story revolves around a passenger liner crashing) are scary and more realistic than any other scene of its type.

On the subject of comics, I'm not a buyer of them by any stretch of the imagination but I really do want to get Hello World by Jason Shiga, although I can't find it anywhere on the Internets that isn't sold out or takes 6 to 8 months delivery. From what I've read about it, its an extremely novel idea and is the first ever "Interactive Comic" I've ever seen. The top part of the book is sort of a choose-your-own-adventure while the bottom is some sort of inventory system where you can store items as you make your way through the book. You can read what the comic is actually about here.

He has other interactive comics but i've heard that this one is the best, perhaps if I don't find any of the others I might try one.

If any of you guys know where I could get a copy I'd be very thankful!

I sure do love these

What would Jesus do?.

Seriously if you found 10 grand on the street would you hand it in to the cops? I'd think twice about it, but would probably hand it in (And kick myself later :P ).

The iPod Bartender app would be really useful i reckon if only it didn't use American measurements! It also doesn't have my favourite cocktail in it, the Toblerone! Which is roughly....

Ingredients:
30 ml Frangelico
15 ml Bailey's irish cream
15 ml Kahlua
75 ml Cream
1 tsp Honey

and a handful of ice per person or to taste.

Directions: Stick it all in a blender and let it rip.

I prefer to add a little vanilla or chocolate ice cream to that mix if I really feel like getting fat.

Also doubling the alcoholic content and leaving the cream/honey as it is, is good for getting drunk in a hurry. :)

Anyone out there have a favourite cocktail reciepe to share with me? No stiff drinks thanks, give me something tasty!

President Bush needs a toilet break!

I just read about the World Of Warcraft disease attack that is used by a character in the game that actually ends up being contagious to other players if you interact with someone that has been hit by the attack. Sounds like a sort of a plague is happening where a lot of low level players just keel over and die because the dood you fight is suppose to be for high level characters only. Thats pretty cool in my mind, sure I'd hate to be playing and get killed by the virus but its definently a cool idea that can only work in MMORPGs, gold.

Instead of doing homework or something useful I'm looking at flash sites, and this one is AWESOME if only for the homemade transformer action, and his brother doing Capoeira in that film clip is cool, Makes me wish I wasn't so big, unco and unflexible to learn something cool like that!

EDIT: Check that, this site is just good fullstop, its the perfect mix between tricks and usability, without straying to far from classic web design and going for that 2advanced/futuristic design.

If my provisional exam timetable proves to be correct, I will have the best exam timetable I have ever experienced in my existence ever. They are all on a Monday, exactly one week apart from each other and all start at 2pm in the afternoon. Rock.

Also only having three exams instead of the usual four to do this semester also helps!

Astro, I think you're idea regarding what you said before you went to sleep tonight is a "go-er".

Also, why is my throat sore? I'm not sick nor have I sucked any cock today?????!?!?

I just had a dominos pizza for the first time before. I hav been told it is not as good as Pizza Hut but god damn it, I was still going to try it. I ordered a large "Toni Pepperoni" in a deep pan base, when I got home to eat it, I found that it pretty much tasted exactly the same as a "Pepperoni Lovers" from Pizza Hut, well it was slightly different, not in a bad way, just ever so slightly. I actually couldn't tell I don't think, I reckon if you shoved that pizza in a Pizza Hit box and then ate it you'd be thinking it was a run of the mill P.Lovers. So what the verdict? If Dominos is close to you and you like P.Lovers from Pizza Hut just get it from Dominos and save yourself the extra drive, also Dominos have awesomely priced meal deals unlike Pizza Hut so that is also something in its favour, oh yeah, Dominos also doesn't have a gay call centre and phone answering technology, thats a big plus in my book.

I have no hobbies that interest me anymore, I am one boring guy.

Fucken Hell, I just walked down to the supermarket place near my mum and dads house, you can walk across the little field in front of the old folks home as a short cut. As I'm walking through I start to see pluvers (sp?) everywhere, so I'm like "Shit it's spring, If I make it outta hear alive, I'll walk on the other side of the road home so I won't get swooped.", so I make it out alive get to the supermarket, do my thing (buy catfood) and start walking home. This time I come down the other side of the road, all the while staring at all the pluvers thinking "Gee I was stupid to go through there before", feeling quite safe and then all of a couple of cars start coming up the road, this woman stares out the window of one of the cars looking sort of startled, I'm thinking "Yeah, you're ugly too" and then I hear this "WHOOSH!". I'm all wtf?! And the I turn around and see this fucken MAGPIE coming in at 12 o'clock under the radar at about 1 foot below my eye sight, I take evasive maneuvers and the bird barely misses my head, I keep walking (not running) cause I realise I'm about past where its nest must be, I breath a sigh of relief and say "fucken magpies..." under my breath, I look back at the tree that the magpie is sitting in and staring at me, I know he is taunting me, I know he is thinking "fucken human" or is otherwise manically laughing at me inside its head like a crazed killer.

Fucken magpies.

I just watched on the news that over 100 doctors from other states in America that came down to Louisiana to help after the hurricane were told they couldn't do anything because their licenses to practice that were for other states were not valid for Louisana and had to wait 5 days until they were given waivers to come in. How ridiculous is that? Just to think that when the tsunami happened people flew from all over the world within 48 hours to help, no questions asked. Ahhh western bureaucracy at its finest.

Just watched The Last Samurai on foxtel, it's a terribly sad movie, Cruise was very good but I still think you could put a whole lot of different actors in that role and they'd blow it away as well. The movie reminded me of Braveheart in a big way but not as good, a lot of people online seem to love TLS over Braveheart but I'm guessing thats the Japanese fan boy pack talkin' there. I dunno, guess it's each to their own.

Another tip, don't watch a 4 hours special called "Inside 9/11" after you watch Romper Stomper (although I did miss the end of it cause I was hella sleepy), It makes for a restless sleep. The actual show is interesting, to see that they knew about a few of the plans and people behind them 7 or so years before it actually happened is amazing. I think the problems they had really had to do with the political climate coming from the US (and from other western countries) when Clinton was in power, also the fact that the American government didnt really think that any group could pull anything like 9/11 off, also it appear that the Bush government really dropped the ball on security when they came to power, oh well not much we can do about it now eh?

Here is a tip, don´t watch Romper Stomper before going to bed, it will unsettle you. I haven´t seen this movie since I was 12 or 13 or whenever it came out, I never really got it then but it was pretty full on and I think I must have turned away and stopped watching when things got a little too much for me. I watched the whole thing tonight and it´s even more full on then I remember it, the cool thing is that I can now recognise some of the Footscray areas that are shown from when I lived with my sister over that side of town and also the train station bit at the start of the movie.

Even though we all don´t like Russell Crowe cause he is a bit of a prick, he is a bloody good actor in this film, no wonder he went on to do bigger and better things. Also this movie is shot really well for an Australian film and the lighting is fantastic, the 90s was a resurgence of Australian film making from what I remember, what the hell happened?

Ok I'm here in Bendigo, had a beer, it was good, cats are happy and fed, they were extremely hungry when i got here (worrying), watched a bit of foxtel, its getting boring now, feeling sleepy, can be bothered sleeping, need to write a list of shit to do when i get up, oh yeah astro this computer boots just takes forever to load for some reason, need to fix this tomorrow, bit torrent won't work, no new hax0red anti virus stuff for me, mx700 mouse and keyboard combos are nice to use, uni was boring this week, I realise that I am starting to know a lot of people at Swinburne, scary, mumma cat is all passed out on the couch, sophie is passed out under the table, this is all for now.

Up late, but I have an excuse of sorts this time, I had a nap this afternoon. I don't usually nap, but today I passed out for about and hour and a half, I think I really needed it for some reason, its not like I've been working that hard on my school stuff really, or maybe I am and just don't notice it anymore. I dunno.

Going to Bendigo Thursday to house sit (aka look after my mums cats) while they are in Canada, I'll be there until next Wednesday. Should be good to get away even though I'll have plenty of stuff to do up there during that time, although I could get mega lazy and not hardly do anything. We'll see.

Too tired to think of something interesting to write, more later.

Ok essay finished and the car service only cost $150. Things aren't so bad now, still a costly day though.

Brr its cold.

What have I been doing lately? Apart from not paying much attention to the Internet (strange yes I know) I've been doing school work and other school related activities. I've nearly finished this essay I've got to hand in today but I just keep stopping and getting sidetracked from finishing it, just god damn finish it serp! Then you can go back to killing your brain with the Internet.

Also today, serp gets hit up $300 for a new starter motor for his car, I was actually taking my car in for a service this morning and the bloody thing would not start in my driveway, fucker, now it's finally at the mechanics place getting serviced, I reckon I'm going to be hit up for about $150 to 250 from him, its looking like an expensive day :/ , just when I thought I was starting to get ahead.

Man The Shield is back to kicking arse, it has its moments of being boring on the odd episode but the whole storyline with Detective Vic Mackey from day one just gets more interesting and twisted as time goes on. The character development in the show is excellent, I just love it, I'm so glad I've watched as much of it as I have (Channel Ten constantly shafted the times on this one and even took it off air for a while), but I'm back on the bandwagon, I'm up late on Wednesdays without fail these days, its about the only TV show a week i really look forward to watching. Rock.

I need to get something like THIS so I can stop using my very old Microsoft bag to cart everything around in, then I'll have the opinion of slinging it over my shoulder or using it backpack stylez. Then maybe my fucking neck and shoulders wouldn't be so god damn sore all the time, but then again thats probably not going to get better until I stop using the computer 10 hours a day and perhaps do some strengthening to my upper body :/ .

I'm glad I ended up finding the Max Q album the other day, I've been listening to a bit of it lately, although mostly just Max Q - Way of the world. For those who don't know, Max Q is a collaboration between Michael Hutchence (INXS) and Ollie Olsen, who is the founder and AnR of probably my favorite Australian (and perhaps only at the time) "Acid House" label, Psy-Harmonics. I use to listen to this song a lot when is was released in 1989? or 1990, I was a young kid so I never got what it was really about, I just loved the power and real emotion that Hutchences put into the vocal and also the off-breakbeat drums in it. However now as I listen to this song I remember what was told to me by either my oldest sister or one of her friends what the lyrics were all about (They were huge Hutchence fans), basically its all about the Corporate greed of the 80s in America rolled into China and the opression that the westeren world saw back then with what happened in Tiananmen Square in the 1989. I don't know if this is really true but I can see where they get the idea from reading the lyrics, although now when I hear this song I think about 9/11 and both Iraqi (x2) and Afgan conflicts that have happened over the last 14 or 15 years and just the general feeling of fear that a lot of the western world started to experience from 2001. Its funny how a lot of political songs from around the turn of the 80s in the 90s still sound relevant today, its like the western world (well America/Australia/Britain) has completed this cycle and instead of learning from our past, are just pressing forward and making the same mistakes all over again, except this time the "enemy" has wised up and completely changed the rules of the game and upped the stakes.

Man, we are pretty screwed aren't we?

Anyway, here comes a lyrics post!

Max Q - Way of the world

You are born into this world
Looking down the barrel of a gun
And those who hold the gun
Want you to work fast and die young
And if you don't work
If you don't obey
They'll make you live in fear till your dying day
Those who govern hold the gun to your head
With religions, corporations, proud of blood
They've shed

Chorus:

Whether it's God or the bomb
It's just the same
It's only fear under another name

*Repeat Chorus

And the corporate snakes coming in to feed
On that pathetic fact known as human greed
Skin and bone being raked over those hot coals
This dump never seems to give time for human soul
And all those things that we have learnt
No time for questions, you'll just get burnt
You'll just get burnt

Whether it's God or the bomb
It's just the same
It's only fear under another name

*Repeat Chorus

And those words crush you flat
Like your skull's under a brick
And the fear's so damnned strong
That it makes you sick
And you can see right through those eyes
That make you fear, that make you lie
And you're taught to hold high
Yet you wonder why
Dumb values forced upon you by the
Living lie

CHORUS x5 to fade

Tonight at school I was commented on how young I look. This is strange as once upon a time you use to get told I looked older than I was, then all of a sudden when I reached 22 it started going the other way. Now i'm 25, getting close to 26, and tonight people were shocked to learn that I was 25. They thought I was about 21, I asked them what made them think I was so young, was it my facial appearance? Was it the way i spoke or my voice? Was it my mannerisms? The best they could come up with was that I seemed more "switched on" than a 19 year old and that I couldn't just be out of high school cause I know what I'm talking about. Ok, thats weird that they would consider me to be even 19 and recently out of high school :/:\:/:\ . Another strange fact in this was that this analysis was coming from both older and younger students than me, different racial backgrounds and sex, yet no one could come up with a decent answer of why they picked my age to be 21.

I guess I should complain right? I mean, the younger people think you are the older you get is suppose to be some sorta complement, right? right???

Also on Tuesday morning I forgot my student card for my exam and some older woman said to me "You'll have to call your mum and get her to bring it in for you". Wtf? My usual response (if I say anything) use to be "Well I would be she lives about 5 hours drive from here", but since my mum does not live in Portland anymore I can hardly say that. Its so strange that metropolitan people assume that most people under the age of 25 still live at home with their parents, I'm not sure that in reality this is the case. Oh wells...