Okay, it's been what seems like an eternity since my last entry. I keep going to start writing an entry, I open up Semagic to write it, then I realise that I don't feel like writing. Gah. Going to write something now though.

Saturday, 24th, was my Birthday. Got an AWESOME book from Troden. Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. It's the novel that the game STALKER was loosely based on.

Finished reading Revelation Space a while back now. The overall story was great, but I wasn't a big fan of the way the book was written. I'm glad I know as much about physics as I do, and that I am a Sci-Fi fan, or else I would have given up on the book a short way into the book. So, one day, I can return the book to it's owner.

Also recently read The Colour of Magic, the first Discworld book, and it was great. I need to get more of the Discworld books now. MORE!

I need to catch up with Ponty some time soon, might try doing that tomorrow. Already gonna be hanging with Kiba tomorrow, at least in the morning, so it might be a good day for it.

Just an entry to let everyone know I'm still alive. Later, all.

I Feel: amused

Gah... what a fantastic way to end 2008. SICK! Troden was sick over Christmas and his birthday, and now that he was over it, it moved on to me. I was a bit sick over the last 2 days (started Sunday afternoon), but it wasn't too bad. Flu like syptoms, but they were mild. I thought I was lucky and that was it, and it actually seemed like I was getting better. Today, I feel like I was hit by a truck.

Really sucks coz I was looking forward to Kibas New Years party tomorrow. I hope I feel better tomorrow. Problem is, like normal with the flu, after you feel better, you're still contagious for like 24 hours or something. GAH! Tro was feeling better when I got it from him. So I'm kinda torn apart here. If I feel better, I want to go, but I also don't want to get others sick because of me.

Yeah, it sucks.

Whatever happens, I hope people enjoy their New Years. Have a safe holiday everyone, and don't get sick :P

I Feel: sick
I Can Hear: Down with the Sickness - Disturbed

Merry Christmas


Lets get this started with a random Christmas video. Also wanted to link to Blizzards '12 days of Christmas' but don't know where to download it from. Might just send it to some people later today.

I've been playing Assassins Creed and the game is just too damn easy, and at times, too damn automated. I just hold down a couple of buttons and that's all I need to do to jump from roof to roof. Still, it has been a fun game. The fighting system is a bit too lazy... just sit there and press a button here and there. I don't think they give the user enough control in the game. It makes it an organic game, and nice to watch with all the pretty graphics, but I also want something to do in a game (with the exception of Indigo Prophecy, where even though you don't have a great deal of things to do, the pattern key pressing was mad at times, and the story was so damn awesome).

Has anyone else who's played the game noticed that Atair (can't be bothered putting the accents on his name) has a missing finger? I noticed it right away, and a lot of others I have spoken to have not noticed it at all.


Made a slight change to my LJ a few days ago. Added a book list over on the right ----->
Still trying to read Revelation Space, but it's a bit annoying to read. I'm not overly enjoying the book so far (not that I'm too far into it), but I really want to get further into it. I'm interested in the overall story about the Amarantin and so on, it's just taking me forever to get that far. :(

I plan to read some more of it tonight, but I don't seem to get too far when I sit down to read it. The author seems to leave the reader in the dark too often, talking about things as if we should know about them, and using terms and words that aren't in popular use. It's almost as if he hates the reader, and is trying to make them suffer, but I don't want to give him the satisfaction. Might be over reacting a bit, but that's how I tend to feel after reading the book for a while. There have been parts of the book that I like, so there is something to cling on to, something to get me through the long winded parts.

I wanna go get some lunch now, so we'll end here. Enjoy your Christmas everyone, that's an order.  :P

Laterz.

I Feel: chipper
I Can Hear: Land of Confusion - Disturbed

Earlier this week (Monday for those that care), I was having a nice stoll around the area, and saw something quite unexpected. A kangaroo. I've never seen one around this area... or even evidence of them being around this area. I've also heard that there has been the occasional fox seen around the area. Good to know this area can still surprise me.

I've had to take my dog to the vet a couple of times recently. First was last Saturday (weekend visits don't come cheap), then again on Tuesday. She had an infection, and had to have surgery as a result. So, now I'm broke, and I still have an electricity bill and phone bill to pay off. Over $300 in vet bills is never welcome. I care about my dogs health though, and without the surgery she would have died. I guess that makes it worth it.

Saw the latest Resident Evil movie today, Resident Evil : Degeneration, and it was pretty good. This one is CG, and actually made by CAPCOM (you can tell their animation anywhere). It's set several years after Racoon City was blown up, and follows one of the Racoon City survivors as she has some more zombie fun. The story starts with a terrorist releasing the T-virus in an airport, and the story evolves from there. There is also an appearance from G-virus, but that's a story for another day.
The animation is nice, but in typical CAPCOM style, fairly rigid. It reminds me a lot of the FMV sequences from their games. Story-wise, they did well with this movie, IMO. It wasn't too complex, so it's good for the average viewer, but there were elements there for a slightly more sophisticated viewer. Some of the voice acting was below average, but that's to be expected. Overall though, it was quite an enjoyable movie. One and a half thumbs up (damn zombies ate the other half).

For anyone who cares, Dattebayo is dropping Naruto Shippuuden on the 15th of January. Apparently, this is NOT a troll this time. They will be doing so because TVTokyo (off memory) will be streaming NS on the internet with English subtitles an hour after the show airs. This will most likely be a premium/paid service, but VIZ will be streaming the same episodes with their own subtitles a week later for free. So, free Naruto for the world... if they can read English. I just hope the quality will be good, but coming from official channels, it should be great. On the other hand, it will be streaming video, and that generally sucks.

I think it must be time to grab an afternoon snack now, so later everyone.

I Feel: busy

It's been while, once again, since the last time I posted anything. So, here's another edition of the Shippo News.

Been trying to get some Christmas shopping done in the last few weeks, but I never know what to get anyone... and then the damn electricity and phone bills came in, plus the internet gets reset next week. It looks like I'll be broke for a few more weeks, and have to finish off the Christmas shopping at the last minute. At least I don't have a lot of people to buy things for. Troden doesn't want anything for Christmas, so that makes things easier, but I still need to get him something more for his birthday. Already got him something, but I want to get him more.

He doesn't read this, but on the off chance that he does actually come here, I won't say what I got him. If anyone wants to know, I'm sure I'll talk to you at some point and I can tell you. On the subject of birthdays, I believe I just missed Kiba's birthday... Happy Birthday if I have... ignore this if I'm wrong.

Still meaning to plan a LAN, but I haven't got very far with that yet. Should be able to figure out something soon though, since holidays are about to start and all. Well, not holidays for everyone, but for a couple of us at least. Makes things a little easier. Means Troden won't be on trips all the time.

Kitsune, I might need to look at getting my DS ROMs back from you sometime in the near future too. Trodens been pestering me to play Ridge Racer, and I don't have it on my DS. Just thought I'd give you some warning.

About to have tea, so I'm outa here now. Take care, all.

I Feel: contemplative

Update time.

Went to a Melbourne Cup lunch this week, and it was interesting. Had a really nice lunch, and drank some Champagne. Spent too much money on drinks (more than I planned anyway).

I've been meaning to read the book that Eddles lent me, but I got about 15+ pages into it and put it down, and that was a few weeks ago. It's not that it was bad, but it reminded me why I don't read that many sci-fi books. They try too hard to use all the most sophisticated words they can find, and don't care about making the books enjoyable. I like the subject matter, I just don't like the authors and how they write. I'll try to read more of it soon though. Can't give up on it at the start.

Found a new toy I wouldn't mind having, but it's kinda redundant at this point. Wish they had these out back when I got my DS. I think this is everything a DS should have been in the first place. Oh well.

Also, I hope everyone has accepted Obama as thier supreme overlord.

And for the Spore fans, a little vid you may almost find amusing. Or, if you aren't Kitsune, you might even laugh :P

Was thinking of writing a bit about some of the movies I have seen lately, but I can't be bothered at the moment. Maybe some other time. Which means that I'll forget about it and it won't happen. Or something like that.

Enough rambling for now, I need something for dessert. Later.

I Feel: good
I Can Hear: The Little Things - Danny Elfman

It's been way too long since I updated here... but a lot has been happening lately. Just something that happens I guess.

Had to put up with a lot of fun stuff, like one of my aunties trying to kill her sister with a knife on the morning of their mothers funeral, for starters. But, lets not go into too many details about that here.

I wanna catch up with everyone soon, so I want to try arranging a LAN for some time in the near future. Maybe in a few weeks. I need to check Trodens schedule to see when he has camps and whatever else, but it's something in the works anyway, so I thought people might want to know to look out for it. I want to invite Jon to the LAN, so if anyone has any problems with that, please shoot me an e-mail or give me a buzz, and we'll see what we can do. Whether it be alternate seating arrangements, or maybe even going as far as trying for the first time ever to setup a combination LAN/WAN party, I want to try to make this work. I think people are getting over any problems they may have had with Jon anyway, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

I need to find out about this paintball thing at some point, see how much it'll cost and so on, so I can plan to put the money aside. I saw Kiba on the weekend but I totally forgot to ask him about it. Silly me. I'd like to start putting money aside for it now while I have the chance, before the next crippling electricity bill comes in.

I bought myself a laptop last week, and have been messing with it quite a bit. It's a HP 2133 Mini-notebook PC (it's quite small). 1.6GHz CPU, 1Gb RAM, 120Gb harddrive. The video card is some sort of Via onboard video card, so it's nothing too spectacular. Didn't get it to play games on though, so that's fine. I've been testing the capabilities of it though, and am already getting annoyed with Vista. I think I'll put XP on it before long (I already know where to get the drivers from). I had to look around for a suitable carry case for it, but I finally settled on a Playstation 2 carry case (for the newer PS2's that are smaller). It fits perfectly. I just need to put up with the case having PS2 written on it, but I can deal with that.

I think I'll cut this off here for now and follow up soon with more non-sense entries. Maybe I can talk about some of the movies I've watched lately, or some books I've been reading. 'till then, laterz.

Current Location: Home... need to upload the entry from somewhere.
I Feel: Flarglblargh
I Can Hear: The Little Things - Danny Elfman (Wanted OST)

I recently had to buy a new keyboard, since for some reason my old one died. I'm still getting used to the new one, since it's ever so slightly different to my old keyboard. I had the last one for a few years, so it might take me a few days. Had a bit of trouble too. I bought a keyboard from BigW late in the afternoon on Monday, got home with it and found the stupid thing was dead. Completely dead. So, the next day I took it back to get another one and the new one works fine. It's a Genius multimedia keyboard, so it should be good.

If anyone is looking for a movie to hire, I suggest having a look at Dragon Wars (aka D-Wars, but the one in the DVD stores should be titled Dragon Wars). It may seem a little corny at times, but it is quite an entertaining movie. I'm having a lot of trouble trying to make a 'backup' of the thing, so I don't know that I'll have a copy to share around. Worth the few bucks to hire, anyway.

Another good movie to hire is Alien Apocalypse, with the ever amazing Bruce Campbell. Yes, it's a B movie, but it's so bad it's good. I really enjoyed it, and all of it's attempted seriousness. Then again, I'm a big Bruce fan.

Just finished reading an X-files book last night, and it was a lot better than expected. I didn't think I'd enjoy an X-files book, but since one was given to me I thought I really should give it a go. There are 2 stories in the book, and when I say I finished reading the book, I actually mean that I finished the first story in it... I'll come back to the other one after I read a Matthew Reilly book (Area 7, for those of you playing at home).

I've been playing a bit of Battlefield 2 online again lately, and I'm really getting sick of all the aimbots being used. It's sickening how many are being used these days. Can't people just accept that their skills suck, and enjoy the game on the same level as everyone else? Also finding a lot of spawn campers in the game lately. :(
Troden and I have started our own Clan in the game, O9K (Over 9000). I'm working on a banner for it at the moment, and some other random graphics for when we setup a site for it. The banner currently says: "[O9K]" And "It's Over 9000."
I was originally going to write "It's Over 9000, Mother Fucker!" but thought that it wouldn't really be too appropriate.  :P
We're also in the middle of working on an alliance with another clan at the moment, so we have exclusive rights to their server, and so on. They offered, and we wanna talk to the other clan members about it before we accept. They seem like good guys.

That's it for the news, join us again at six for the weather.

I Feel: cheerful
I Can Hear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W_wd9Qf0IE

Well, it's been while now since my last blog. Feels like an eternity. Haven't felt much like writing entries of late, but I suppose it happens.

I've been spending a good amount of my free time reading Matthew Reilly books. Looooove his work. At the moment I am reading one called Temple, which is about a man, Professor William Race, that is 'encouraged' to go along with some US special forces one morning, to translate an old manuscript. The team that he is assisting are after an old Incan idol, that was claimed to have been the source of the Incans power. The idol, carved out of a meteor rock that came from a binary solar system (two suns orbiting each other), is made out of an increadibly dense material known as Thyrium... the final piece to make the worlds most advanced superweapon. This super weapon, the Supernova, is theorised to be able to destroy a third of the Earths' mass with the initial blast. The decreased mass of the planet would make it's orbit shift radically, killing anything that survives the blast.

The team of American troops, with the help of Professor Race, must translate the manuscript and find the Incan idol before the NAZIs do, and use the Thyrium to activate their own Supernova prototype.

So anyway,  completely wrapped in this book at the moment, it's pretty sweet. Sorry to anyone that cares about me not being online the last few days, I've been sick over the weekend and haven't felt like sitting around in MSN. Well, I'm online right now so it's all good. Oh, and for the first time in a few years, it wasn't Ponty that got me sick this time. *waits for everyone to get back in their seats after falling out*
I know, strange eh? Every other time in the last few years (except for one occasion I think), it has been Ponty coming over while sick with the Flu and passing it on to everyone in my household.

Well, just a ramble again to let you know I'm still alive. I would sing a song about being still alive, but my voice is shot at the moment from coughing too much. Laterz.

I Feel: amused

Lately, I think even though the LANs we've been having have been fun, I feel that we generally have trouble finding games to play (since not many good LAN games have come out in the past year). Before hosting another LAN, I want to look around and see if I can find some more games to throw into the mix. Maybe something different.... something we haven't played to death. I have no idea what I'll find, but there has to be something out there worth playing. I wouldn't mind getting 3 or so games that we aren't bored of (or sick of) before hosting another LAN. This isn't a solid rule, just a personal mision I suppose.

Of course, if anyone else finds anything, let me know and I'll have a look at it and see if it'll be any good (I have a network setup constantly, and I generally have up to 4 computers here on any given weekend, so there are plenty of chances for me to test LAN games to see if they are any good).

Hopefully at the next LAN we'll have some surprises in the form of new games. Keep your fingers crossed. I also wouldn't mind playing The Ship again at a LAN, if we can get the game working on Pontathons compie.

Just a few thoughts. I'll end with a couple of quotes :

My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.
 ~Ronald Reagan, Said during a radio microphone test, 1984

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
~Ronald Reagan

I Feel: calm
I Can Hear: When You Believe - Mariah Carey