Mmm... Tofu

I know that I've complained about my allergies a few times before, but I think I should stop eating out because of them. It just seems to cause problems for people who eat with me, and people who have to cook for me. The last time I ate out with friends, I ordered a crispy skin chicken dish, and it arrived with a fried egg on top of the rice. I asked the waiter if I could get one without the egg and he went away and brought it back, only it was the same thing with the egg taken off it. T_T After trying to explain the problem for a bit, he eventually went and got me a different bit of rice. I felt so bad. I didn't see anything about egg on the menu, but someone said that somewhere else in the menu, it said that some dishes came with an egg. Someone else ordered crispy skin pork, and his dish didn't come with an egg. So confusing.

The worst part of it is that I always get embarrassed when I have to explain my allergy, as it isn't even life-threatening, just really uncomfortable (milk, pineapple and peanuts give me hives, egg makes me vomit), but it always ends up being such a big deal. =( I prefer it if people don't know about it, but then when they want to do the "let's order stuff we want and just share it all" thing, I feel bad just eating all of what I ordered, because other people might want it, but sometimes if I don't eat it, then I won't have enough to eat and I'll feel hungry afterwards. I don't want to be selfish and demand something just for myself, but I also don't want to force other people to only eat stuff that I can eat.

I guess that might be part of the reason I like tofu so much. It does taste nice when cooked properly, but generally, people don't seem to like it. Well, most non-Asian/non-vegetarian/vegan people I know can't stand it, and of the people left, most of them think it's bland. I really like the texture of it though - how it's all soft and squishy, and how you can mush it all up with your tongue without even having to bite it. Then there's the harder tofu, that still has a spongy feel to it, and even though it's more chewy than the soft tofu, it absorbs the flavours of stuff nicely, and when you bite into it, all the sauce comes oozing out, and the taste hits you unexpectedly.

Something about Christmas reminded me that I was meant to use Suresh's slave hours to take him to a tofu factory, but never got around to looking for one. Although, it all worked out in the end, because his girlfriend managed to convince him to eat tofu. =)

Silly Season

I am not entirely sure why, but perhaps it's the stupid teen movies that I watch, or all of the Sweet Valley High novels I read in high school, or maybe even some sort of osmosis from somebody on the other side of the world watching The OC causing me to become the way that I am. I was watching two of my friends argue, and one of them (the female) was pretending to be mad. The guy immediately started trying to make it up to her and appease her in some way. Regardless of what he said, she continued to pretend to be angry, and he just ended up completely confused. It was just out of nowhere. It reminds me of those bimbo girls in teen movies who have guys follow them around doing whatever they say, and every now and again, for no reason, she'll get angry at him and make him grovel, just so she can remind him who is power.

Personally, I've always thought that kind of behaviour is stupid. It just seems like a stupid way to get attention, to me. I believed I was above that kind of stuff, it's not what educated, logical people do. While I was watching my above-mentioned friends argue, that was going through my head, but then I also realised that I had been doing that myself, to MrMan5.5. I can't actually remember any conversations off the top of my head, but I'm just going to make one up. I know it'll sound fake and dumb, but unfortunately, I don't think it's too far off the truth. =/

Me: I can't reach that book, can you get it for me, please?

MrMan5.5: You're so short!

Me: Oh, I see. I'm not tall enough for you, am I?

MrMan5.5: I was just being silly.

Me: No you weren't. Fine, I'm going to go and find a shorter guy.

MrMan5.5: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that! I was just joking.

Me: I thought you cared about me.

MrMan5.5: Don't go! Please, Anna!

Me: I was just being silly, too. Don't be sad!


I realise now that at that point, MrMan5.5 is probably thinking, "WTF just happened?!" The thing is, I don't even realise that I'm doing it! I've been talking to someone, and he is telling me how frustrating it is when his girlfriend causes drama and he has no idea what started it. He wants to make it up to her and avoid drama, but he also doesn't want her to think that kind of behaviour is acceptable. I agree with him on the second point, it is stupid attention-seeking behaviour that just completely confuses the other person. I guess on some level, it's a test, and the guy has to respond the right way, but it's kinda like taking someone to REB during the exam period and making them sit some random exam - sure, they might get lucky and end up sitting an exam they know something about, but chances are that person is just going to be pulling their hair out in frustration. The worst thing is, sometimes the guy doesn't even know he's being tested.

To me, these "tests" seem so unfair, and I know that I've said it twice already, but I don't know why I keep doing it! Before I know it, I'm going to be one of those completely irrational girls who goes completely crazy if her guy doesn't bring her chocolate flowers on their anniversary. The strangest part is, he has given me no reason at all to think that he doesn't care about me, so why would I have the need to test him?

Argh, I'm frustrating myself!

Fluttering Words

There's a part in the book I'm reading, where a character describes the belief held by a group of people (I forgot what they're called) that saying words can alter people's lives. I'm not just saying in an indirect butterfly-effect way, but in the sense that someone could have nothing planned for the day, and you could ask them if they're interested in seeing a movie, and then suddenly they would have the desire to see that movie, even though they didn't before. Your question has caused them to want to see a movie they might never even have thought about. They believe it is better to ask someone to see that movie with you after they have already expressed an interest in seeing that movie.

This came up for me not long ago, when someone asked my opinion on something. I gave my opinion, thinking nothing of what I said, and little did I know, I later found that this person had completely transformed what he thought due to my words. While I'm not usually hesitant in giving my opinion on something (I mean, I write a blog, after all!), I've suddenly found that I'm choosing my words carefully now, because I don't want someone's opinion to sway because of mine. Well, that's not quite right. If I know for sure that they are wrong, then I want them to see the light, but in cases where I'm not 100% sure, I feel bad if I caused them to think something that isn't entirely true.

The problem is, everyone in that group of people described above held that belief to be true, but it causes foreigners to feel as though they are left out, because they don't understand the meaning of the unspoken words. This is something I tend to do, as I will say something like, "I want to see <movie>!" and then organise stuff with anyone who expressed interest. I'm not a big fan of inviting people to things like movies without them saying they want to see it, although I am guilty of trying to persuade people to see things.

I don't like leaving people out, but my system of implicit invitations seems to fail lately. A few times, I've told MrMan5.5 that I'm doing something, with an implicit invitation for him, but he didn't express any interest, so I assumed he wasn't interested. Later, he mentioned wanting to go, but I had already told someone that he wasn't interested. >_<

I'm not a big fan of forcing people to do things, but seeing as the company I keep seems to have changed significantly this year, I should really go about things differently.

Christmas Time!

Been a bit slow this year, but it has finally happened - getting into the mood for Christmas! Being the seemingly eternally poor person this year, I've decided that I should finally put my baking practice to good use and bake people things for Christmas. I've picked a few things that I'm going to bake for some people, but there are other things that I'd like to bake that I haven't assigned anyone to, so I'm just going to list them here and if you want it (and it's something I can get to you with it still being edible *cough* Saurumon in Africa *cough*), then I'll do my best to get it to you!

Chewy Chocolate Biscuits
Mini éclairs


Wow, it's 5AM already. I'll add to this list as I find more things.

SecretiveFodder

So I accidentally stumbled upon a piece of gossip about a friend of mine's ex, which I was told is being kept under wraps, and supposedly a lot of people don't know about it - although the first part isn't very secretive, it's something you'd realise if you were with the guy for even a few minutes. -_-

Anyway, I told my friend about it, while keeping the secret part a secret, but she wanted to know. Which is reasonable, right? Wanting to know stuff about your ex makes sense - although I am not sure I really want to know if AG is dating someone else, but I think that's a bit of a different case.

Since I refused to tell her, she played the ex-card (ie. I'm his ex, I should know!), but I didn't think that was reason enough for her to know. It's not like it would change anything, as I'm pretty sure she has no desire to go back to him, which is a good thing. Still, if it were MrMan5.5 in her position, he said that he would like to know who it was. He says that people tend to date a certain type of person, and finding out who was next might give you insight into what type of person you are. He also says it's a comparison thing, the chance to compare the person who came after you with yourself.

Personally, if someone didn't want me to know, then I'd just let it go. They're keeping it low-key for a reason, and I really don't want to intrude just to satisfy my curiosity. I don't know, for me, relationships tend to be one of those things that you just don't push if someone is unwilling to talk. Although, I think that irritates some people. I remember someone from high school who would get really annoyed that I just didn't care that she was keeping a secret from me. I got the feeling that she wanted me to hound her for hours trying to get her to tell me, so I just pretended that I didn't care, and she ended up spilling her guts after 5 minutes of trying to tempt me. So maybe that's why I end up with a lot of people telling me stuff.

Though that's the other factor, I want to be known as a trustworthy person. If I always end up telling people stuff, then I will lose the trust that people have in me. Still, I would like to tell my friend what her ex is up to now. =/

Going to the Movies

See, I wanted to look kind and sweet, so I picked a movie I thought she would like.

She wanted to look kind and sweet, so she didn't argue with my choice.

Thus, we ended up seeing a movie that neither of us actually wanted to see.

To this day, even mentioning the movie makes me want to punch myself. I'll be on my deathbed thinking only about those two squandered hours.
-[GM]Dave, Theme Week - [GM]Susan Vol. 4

I read a column in mX the other day, where the writer was talking about how she saw a couple go into a cinema, buy tickets, and then go off and see separate movies. It does make sense, why would you force each other to sit through a movie one of you is bound to fall asleep in? It's not like going to the movies is the only thing a couple can do together, and so if neither of you is interested in seeing a particular movie, why go?

Of course, there is the whole compromise factor - you are doing something for the person that you care about. It's only two hours of your life, and you get to spend it with someone important. Plus, the movie might not be as bad as you think it is. Although I guess for things like first dates, what Cpt_Threepwood said is probably a good reason to do what girls want. =/

[15:04] <Cpt_Threepwood> strip poker is like life
[15:04] <Cpt_Threepwood> it's all about guys doing what girls want in the vague hope they'll get what THEY want

While I'm not going to use movies as some sort of bargaining chip, I like my movies, and enjoy sharing the movies I find interesting with people. So I'm really glad that MrMan5.5 have similar taste in movies (despite what the Facebook thing says). I guess I lucked out this time, because I'm not sure how comfortable I'd feel going to see a movie with him, only to have him see a different movie because he didn't like the one I picked. I know it's selfish, but to me it's like a sign that he's listening to what I'm saying, and not just nodding blindly in the hopes that I'll stop talking at some point. If he really was against it, I'd go and see it with someone else or by myself, but I think what I'd like is if he read the plot synopsis or something at least.

Not that this has happened, since we've both enjoyed all of the movies we went to see together, but when he first came over to my house, he noticed that I had first 4 seasons of Monk - the TV show about the obsessive compulsive detective, and he mentioned that he hated it, because it was too over the top about his OCD, which I agree with, but I still there there are some awesome episodes. We started watching it recently, because there was a character that I wanted to show him, and he seems to really be getting into it - most of the time, he manages to solve the case before the answer is explained by Monk. For all I know, he might just be doing it to humour me, but I really enjoy watching Monk with him, and it makes me happy that he's willing to watch it with me.

First blog-blog post in a while, feels good to be able to stretch my brain a bit now that exams are over. ^_^ Anyway, as usual, I'm wondering if anybody has any thoughts about what I just said.

Chapter 3 - The Part Where We Might Not Make It

Well, needless to say, this year's NaNo was a complete failure for me. I guess I got a bit of a taste of what it's like to be a real writer, when you try to sit down and write, anything and everything becomes so tempting (even sitting on BA at 9AM trying to join a game of DotA). Anyway, this is going to be the last chapter of the story, and I'm going to leave it unfinished as a sign of my failure (and motivation for next year). I've kinda lost all motivation to write for this story.

Thanks to MrMan5.5, Dante and Auto for constantly poking me into writing, Dante even went so far as to change my MSN message to "Tell me to start writing. Do it. Do it now!" in order to get others to do the same (and thank you to everyone who poked me as a result of that). Also, thanks to everyone who has read this far!

Tomorrow, we shall resume the normal blogging programme!

---

[Brent]: So what's with Main Character Training anyway?

[Anna]: Well, every year, hundreds of Writers get the chance to create a Story, but the Story has one limitation, it has to direct the Main Character to a goal chosen by the Council of Writers. I don't know why really, history was never my favourite subject. Obviously, in most cases, reaching that goal requires physical and mental strength, so Writers usually try to choose Main Characters who are skilled at both.

Unfortunately, about twenty years ago, a large group of Writers rebelled against the Council and decided they were going to choose Main Characters who were weak, stupid, or had some sort of major disability that would make getting the goal nearly impossible. They did it because they thought it would be a challenge, and because they weren't interested in reaching the goal, they were interested in watching those poor people struggle. The Stories of that year had the highest number of Main Character deaths ever. After the events of that year, the Council, of which my father was a member of at the time, made a ruling that Main Characters must undergo a series of tests, and receive training in order to ensure that something like that never happens again. Fast forward to now, and this is what it has become. Unfortunately, it has made the stories a lot less interesting, because there is no sense of danger, no thrill, almost everyone makes it at the end of each year, and the people that don't fail only because the Writer wasn't able to incite enough motivation in them to continue.

I should probably tell you now, that you're free to leave any time you want to. I don't want to force you into doing this, but it would mean a lot to me if you stayed until the end. To be honest, this is my first story. I'm sorry you ended up being a Main Character with such an amateur Writer, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?

[Brent]: Really, there is nothing for me back there. It would just be a life of moving around until I got old enough to move out on my own. There is a whole world of things out there, and I've barely seen any of it. Now I have the chance to. One thing I was wondering though, won't my family notice that I'm gone?

[Anna]: This story takes place in a different world. You will still be you, and will still be able to do all the things that you do, but the world that you will find yourself in may be completely different to what you know now. While this story is happening, it'll be as though time in your world has stopped, and after it's all over, you'll be back here, as though nothing had happened.

[Brent]: So it's all for nothing?

[Anna]: Not at all. Everything you learn, you keep, and I know how you love to learn things.

[Brent]: What if there is no magic in this world?

[Anna]: Even if there are no mages in the world, you will still have all of your magical abilities. It's unlikely that the council will create a magicless world though, as magi usually make it easier for Main Characters in terms of folk lore, weather reading and general domestic spells like fire lighting and water cleansing.

[Brent]: I can do all of those things, so how does having a mage around help me?

[Anna]: Let's just see how we go. Anyway, if you wait here for a bit, someone should come and pick you up in about an hour. Is there anything you want to do before you go? You might not be seeing this place for a while.

[Brent]: I'm fine.

An hour later, Brent notics a silhouette appear down the road. As it gets closer, the figure begins to resemble a man who had just escaped a maximum security prison, and the expression on his face did nothing to dispel the thought. After tearing his gaze from the scar running from the man's chin to his ear, Brent notices the shopping trolley that he's pushing.

"Get in," the man says, gruffly. Unsure of what to do, Brent hesitates. Years of being told not to talk to strangers starts to take hold of his body, and thoughts of being taken into a dark basement and tortured flash through his mind. "Get in," he repeats. Brent steps into the shopping trolley, confused at why his body suddenly refuses to obey him. Before he can think of something to say, the man starts to push the shopping trolley at breakneck speed. After a few minutes, they turn into an alley and the man finally stops.

"Get in," the man says, but this time, he is pointing towards the sky. On closer inspection, Brent realizes that he's pointing to a large bird carrying a small bucket strung on a rope between its talons. Despite its size, the bird manages to land without disturbing its surroundings, and it leans in towards Brent, as though sizing him up. Seemingly satisfied that Brent is the one it was searching for, the bird points to the bucket, which was now lying on the floor, rolling back and forth.

"What?! I can't sit in that, I'll fall and die!" Brent protests, only to find that the man disappeared while he was distracted by the bird. After a quick examination of the bucket, Brent concludes that it was hardly ideal to sit inside, even though he wasn't the tallest of people. "There is no way I'm sitting in that." The bird simply looks at him, blankly.

[Brent]: Anna! Do something. Make me a seat or something.

Chapter 2 - The Part Where We See What Happened

[Anna]: About time!

[Brent]: What?

[Anna]: I've been waiting for ages!

[Brent]: How did you know I'd do it?

[Anna]: Of course you would, it's part of who you are. I noticed you signed up as Brent, glad you're getting into character.

[Brent]: Umm, yeah...So where did you go anyway?

[Anna]: Writers are only allowed one chance to convince someone to be their Main Character. They're not allowed to intervene after that.

[Brent]: I see.

[Anna]: But I knew you'd do it, and now that I'm your writer it means I get to do cool stuff like this!

*****

"Hi, Brent, honey. How was your first day at school?"

"Mum! Why are you calling me Brent?!"

"I thought you were over that B-Man stuff."

[Brent]: What's going on? I'm not talking, but this sounds and looks like what I said to my mum yesterday.

[Anna]: It's a flashback. Now that I'm your writer, I get access to all of your memories so that I can add flesh to your character with flashbacks. Plus, it gives me a better idea of who you are. I only watched you for a few days before I met you for the first time.

[Brent]: You were watching me? What are you, a stalker or something?

[Anna]: No! It's called research! Anyway, let's just let this flashback play out.

[Brent]: So I guess my name really is Brent now.

"Anyway, sweetie, what did you do at school today?" Brent's mum asks in an annoying falsetto.

"Nothing much." Brent replies.

"You should be more excited! It looks like we're going to be staying here a bit longer. Your dad had a really good day today. Doesn't look like it'll be a repeat of last time. The owner of the building is willing to let us rent it without having to pay 3 months in advance. That means we can get that new oven!"

"That's good." Brent says, gloomily.

"Stop being so cheerful! Big smiles means more friends, cheer up!" Brent's mum squeezes his cheeks, then walks off humming to herself.

[Brent]: Urgh, my mum is so embarrassing, did you have to include that part?

[Anna]: I just write what I see.

Brent walks up to his room, glad to finally be away from everything. Lying on his bed, the full weight of the day's events hits him. First days are always bad. Having three first days in a month is worse. The thought of being able to stay in this place for more than a week was both tempting and repulsive to Brent. New places always meant new people, new ideas for spells. The last place they moved to had a mage who used his fire magic to temper glass, but unlike most glassmakers, he managed to shape glass inside a large mound of compacted sand, while keeping the rest of the sand intact. So every festival, there would be a large mound of sand in the town square, and people would look forward to the unveiling, where young children would brush away the sand and reveal that season's masterpiece.

Although, new people meant making friends all over again - trying to break into the well-established cliques, and making small talk with people who are about as interesting as a potato peel in the hopes of some spark of friendship. The worst part of it all was falling in love with girls he would never see again.

[Brent]: No it's not. How is that the worst? You clearly know nothing about moving around a lot.

[Anna]: So what? It sounds good.

[Brent]: ...

Given his father's track record, they would probably be staying in this town for six or seven days at most. No point in getting attached to anybody, because all it would result in was yet another PaperMail address to add to the long list. Though the letters shortly died off once the transit time started to reach months in length. The last PaperMail he received had taken 5 months to reach him, and had 17 mail-forwarding spells cast on it. Brent was almost certain the mail-magi knew of him by now, he was keeping them busy at least.

A thought suddenly occurrs to him - maybe the Writer had brainwashed the people around him, but surely all the mail he had received over the years would have his name on it. A quick search through some boxes turns up a large pile of mail.

"Brent, Brent, Brent... Why do they all say Brent?! I swear they said Harold." Brent starts digging through the other boxes strewn about his room in an attempt to find any semblance of his life as Harold. Old pencil cases, homework, exams, reports from teachers, birthday cards, everything he had kept from his former life were marked with Brent.

"Anna! What's going on? Change my name back, I want to be Harold. I am Harold! Anna?" Brent screams at the ceiling.

[Brent]: Were you actually there?

[Anna]: Nope. This is pretty funny to watch actually.

Brent starts pacing around, thinking about the things that had happened to him. Bullying was pretty standard. Comes with the territory - Brent couldn't help that he enjoyed learning new spells, it felt good doing something he hadn't done before, even though most of the things he accomplished were pretty useless. The ability to slow water dripping down a wall is hardly the kind of feat that impresses the girls. They want to be the one dating the guy with shiny new things, or the guy who can command balls of flame into performing incredible shows. They didn't want to be the one dating the guy who spends all of his time with his head buried in a book, trying to work out the best way to freeze water into ice, while expending the least amount of energy.

He lived by the motto: "Think before you act" and it has served him well so far, why should he change? The only problem now was that he had no idea what was going on, but it was time to find out.

"Mum, I'm going out." he yelled as he walked out the front door.

"Okay, be safe!" she replied.

He began considering what he knew so far. Something called a "Writer" had approached him and asked him to be a "Main Character" in her "Story". She was able to conjure food, so that indicated some sort of magic, which mean she had probably studied at an academy of some sort. The best place to find information on someone like that would be the Mage Registry. He starts making his way over to the library, when he suddenly remembers the scroll with terms and conditions. Then he also remembers that he threw it into a fireplace.

"Great. Just great." Brent slumps down onto the ground in resignation. He suddenly gets up and starts looking around for something. His expression changes to one of concern, and then confusion. And then...

[Anna]: Huh? What happened there?

[Brent]: What do you mean?

[Anna]: You were looking around, and then it went all blank.

[Brent]: Yeah, that's when Jurin appeared.

[Anna]: Jurin? Who's that?

[Brent]: He's a writer, like you. He gave me another copy of the terms and conditions. That's how I was able to register.

[Anna]: Hmmm. That's really strange. Writers aren't meant to talk to other Main Characters. What happened next? I can't seem to access it, the next thing I see is us talking about you finally signing up.

[Brent]: We talked about some stuff. He told me what it meant to be a Main Character. Anyway, we're supposed to be heading to the training grounds, aren't we?

[Anna]: Oh, yes! I'm so excited! This is going to be the first time I've seen a Main Character in training, I've never been allowed to watch before!

[Brent]: Well, hopefully it all goes well, and I'll be allowed to be your Main Character.

Following the instructions in the scroll, Brent heads off to the training grounds.

2,603 / 50,000 (4.0%)

Chapter 1 - The Part Where They Meet

Stories are always difficult to write. The beginning has to be something that captures the reader's attention, otherwise they will never get to the middle nor the end. The middle has to be something that involves plot twists, character development, intrigue, story progression, all without making the entire thing the size of a World Book encyclopedia set. The end has to tie up all of the loose ends, while still maintaining a degree of plausibility, and without resorting to the cheap cop-out where the main character wakes up and realises it's all a dream. Luckily, when you write about a person's life, the story just writes itself, and all you have to do is add some dramatical embellishes to create a story.

---

It was a morning like any other for the local school bully. The day begins with taunting the neighbour's son, who couldn't see his fingernails without his glasses. Then it was off to school, where he had top choice for lunch from the various students who he had bullied into submission. It was great that they didn't even bother resisting anymore. Better yet, they all tried to bring his favourite meal to school because they knew whoever was the fortunate (or unfortunate, if you consider he'd have to go without lunch) boy to have their lunch selected would be free from torment for that day. Not that he needed food from others, it's just that over time he had learnt that food tastes better when someone else wants it more than you do, but can't have it. Then it was off to home, where he got to play with his father's latest acquisitions, which meant he got to brag about having all the new toys at school the next day. It's a tough life being a bully and the son of a renowned travel mage. Worse is when people simply don't understand the rules.

"That bread looks fancy, where is it from, new kid?" The bully glares with all of his might, thinking that the new kid at school needed to know how things worked around here.

"My dad is a baker, and he learnt this recipe from Halenish monks."

"Why haven't I seen this before?"

"They aren't very open to foreigners, but his mother was raised by a Halenish family, so he can speak their language, and the monks took him in after his parents were killed. He's opening a new bakery if you..."

"Boring. If I wanted to hear your life story, I'd have asked. Just hand it over." A row of boys eagerly holding out their lunches sigh and start making their way to any hiding spot that wasn't already taken.

"But it's mine", the new kid protests.

"Not anymore. You're new here, so I'll introduce you to the important people in this school." The bully pointed to himself, "Firstly, there's me. Anything I say goes. You don't listen to me, and things get very, very hard for you. Understand? My father knows all of the magi in the High Platform, and he won't hesitate to call in some favours if he knows someone is giving his son a hard time."

Realising the trouble such a man could cause, the new kid hands his bread roll over to the bully with a resigned sigh and walks over to the kitchen hut in the hopes that he can beg the cook into conjuring some lunch out of pity - something he had managed to perfect at his past three schools. Just outside the kitchen hut, he hears a voice.

[???]: Here, eat this.

A small plate of food appears on the table. The new kid looks around suspiciously. "Who said that?"

[???]: My name is Anna. What is yours?

"I'm Harold. Why did you make food for me?!"

[Anna]: Shhhh, you'll draw attention to yourself if you keep talking that loudly. Try talking like this.

[Harold]: Like this?

[Anna]: Yes, this way only I can hear.

[Harold]: What's going on?

[Anna]: I'm a Writer, and I've decided that you're going to be my Main Character.

[Harold]: Writer? Main Character? Are you going to write a book about me or something? Trust me, my life is too boring to want to live, much less than read about.

[Anna]: On the contrary, it's the ones who lead boring lives that make the most entertaining characters, all you need is to be in the right place at the right time. Hmmm, and we're also going to have to change your name. Harolds don't save the world, Harolds own local general stores and spend their lives selling ingredients to magi who will go on to make a name for themselves.

[Harold]: You can't just change my name! Everyone I know calls me Harold, and it's too much effort to go and tell them my new name, because they'd just keep forgetting and go back to calling me Harold. Far too much trouble to be worth it. Plus, I'm sure there are plenty of Harolds who could be out there saving the world, if it weren't for people like you putting us down all the time!

[Anna]: OK.

[Harold]: Good, now that that's settled...

[Anna]: You're a Brent.

[Brent]: Weren't you listening to what I said?! It's far to much effort to change my name, just live with it.

[Anna]: It'll take a bit of getting used to, but after a while, answering to Brent will become second nature.

[Brent]: Wait, what? Why does it say Brent next to what I'm saying?

[Anna]: Because that's your name, just like it says "Anna" next to what I'm saying.

[Brent]: Whoa, I'm reading what I'm saying. I mean, the words that are coming out of my mouth are there in text. This is starting to get a little strange.

[Anna]: I told you, I'm a Writer. It's my job to write stuff like this down, that way other people can read about it at a later time.

[Brent]: But this is happening right now!

[Anna]: So?

[Brent]: You're meant to do stuff, and then when you're old, sit down and write a memoir about it and sell it to pay for your retirement because you didn't have the foresight to save money while you were still able to work for minimum wage!

[Anna]: Geez, if everyone did it that way, then stories would be full of inconsistencies with all the important bits left out. Do you know how bad old people are at remembering things? I'm only 22 and I have trouble remembering what I ate for breakfast sometimes. Anyway, back on topic. I'm a Writer, and I have chosen you to go on an Adventure.

[Brent]: An Adventure? Really, I think you've made a big mistake. I don't go on Adventures, I sit at home and hope the night will never end because I really don't like the thought of waking up the next morning.

[Anna]: Well, that's not very positive.

[Brent]: I'm not the type of person who goes on Adventures.

[Anna]: Sure you are, I wouldn't have picked you otherwise. For your first heroic act, you're going to have to register as a Main Character.

A large scroll appears on the table.

[Anna]: Details are in there.


[Brent]: What if I don't want to do this?

Brent opens up the scroll to find thousands of lines of tiny print. "Terms and conditions? What is this stuff?"

[Brent]: Hello? Anna? Are you there?

"Fine, don't answer." He picks up the scroll, walks back into the school and tosses it into the first fireplace he sees.

1,264 / 50,000 (2.5%)

And Then There Were None

NaNoWriMo has started, and yet I'm writing a blog post instead of writing my story - procrastination knows now bounds. Today was the last day of "440 DotA", which is kind of sad, because I really enjoyed playing DotA with the other 440 (and a few 340) students. I was pretty surprised to find out that Jason (a random 340 guy who did the database project with me and QC) is actually really good at DotA, and it was nice to see how most of the Team D players who had little experience improved so much throughout the year - Tom in particular. I remember my first game with him, Tracy kept pinging his position on the map and saying, "Food" (ie. someone to feed on for exp and gold), but now he's usually able to hold his own in 1v1, and is even giving advice to other people.

Anyway, as I mentioned, my blogs will be disappearing for a bit, and being replaced by the story I'm writing for NaNoWriMo (though I get the feeling my procrastinating will mean I end up writing blog posts anyway >_<). So if you're not really interested in reading my story (can't really describe what it'll be about yet, as I haven't played that far ahead, but I've decided that it'll be a fantasy story.

Goodbye for now, good luck to those who have exams/essays to write in the next month or so!

Nearing the Finish Line

440 artefact due today, but I want to play TF2. T_T Instead, I'm going to procrastinate and write a blog post. Tomorrow is the deadline for the last thing we have to hand in for 440, and it's both exciting and sad. Exciting because it means it's over. No more late nights frantically trying to locate where the stupid error is in the many javascript files. 440 was tiring, but overall, I think it was a good experience (despite being put off SE).

Speaking of things that are ending, I've been thinking about what happens when a blog dies. To me, a blog doesn't seem like something that can go on until the author dies. I'm sure there are people who have blogged regularly for a very long time, but eventually, doesn't it just run out of steam - just like most popular TV shows? Reading this blog post by collagecallgirl made me think about when a blog should just say, "Hey, thanks for the loyal readership, but this really isn't going anywhere." In particular, I'm thinking of a couple of blogs. One is a blog I read about FFXI, and it's still funny, but it just seems so repetitive - all he does is rant on about how stupid some FFXI players are. Don't even get him started on WoW players.

Not that I'm going to stop writing. In fact, I'm going to do more of it - NaNoWriMo is coming up! I have an essay to write and two exams to study for, but I'm still planning to take part. At first I was thinking maybe I could just continue this story that I started writing last year (I figured since I only had a prelude, it wasn't really much of the story, so it wouldn't be as bad), but on the way to the toilet I thought of a rough story idea that I'll probably end up writing because I'm feeling a little uncreative at the moment, but it's something I can think about while writing test cases (hopefully). I think I'm going to be a little unconventional in my writing, in that I'm going to do it as a post as I go thing. One of the tips is:

2) Do not edit as you go. Editing is for December. Think of November as
an experiment in pure output. Even if it's hard at first, leave ugly
prose and poorly written passages on the page to be cleaned up later.
Your inner editor will be very grumpy about this, but your inner editor
is a nitpicky jerk who foolishly believes that it is possible to write
a brilliant first draft if you write it slowly enough. It isn't. Every
book you've ever loved started out as a beautifully flawed first draft.
In November, embrace imperfection and see where it takes you.

So hopefully that'll give me the courage to post my crap, half-thought out chapters, plus, it also means everyone else can see that I really am sticking to my word count, yay!

Fodder By Name, Fodder By Trade

So after months of saying I'd do it, I finally did it, and I should have done it earlier - I bought Team Fortress 2. Well, Orange Box anyway (argh, orange is such a terrible colour. T_T). I should have bought it when the Australian dollar was higher, but oh well, it would probably have lead to me being *cough* less productive *cough*. Though come to think of it, buying it in the last week of semester probably isn't that bright either. =/ Oddly enough, the reason I decided to buy it now was because of a blog post (which I'm not going to link right now, as I'm not sure the author wants their blog to be advertised, but I'll ask him about it), but the blog post was saying how the gaming industry had turned into a grindfest World of Warcraft style. Valve has introduced (I'm not sure when) a reward system for TF2 where you can unlock things by getting achievements, but some of those achievements are along the lines of "Kill x people in this particular way", where x is usually 10 or more, so it becomes like a level grind.

I finally decided to buy the game online, rather than from EB, mostly due to this discussion:

[17:55] <+|Lurking> i was going to buy tf2 today
[17:55] <+|Lurking> but now eb is closed :(
[17:55] <+|Lurking> wasted too much time playing werewolf >_<
[17:55] <+Atticus> just get it on steam
[17:55] <+|Lurking> but i want a box :(
[17:55] <+jo0fish> LMAO
[17:55] <+jo0fish> u can't have one
[17:55] <+|Lurking> no T__________T
[17:55] <+|Lurking> give me my box =(
[17:55] <+Atticus> :<
[17:56] <+|Lurking> hopefully the box isn't orange
[17:56] <+Atticus> don't get your hopes up
[17:56] <+|Lurking> only the orange box is orange, right?
[17:57] <+Atticus> teamfortress 2
[17:57] <+Atticus> likes its orange
[17:57] <+Atticus> and similar colors
[17:57] <+|Lurking> T________T
[18:02] <+|Lurking> it's $99 vs $50
[18:03] <+Atticus> is a box really worth that much
[18:03] <+|Lurking> plus, the box is orange
[18:03] <+Atticus> lol
[18:03] <+|Lurking> well, not if it's orange
[18:03] <+Atticus> why don't you buy it on steam
[18:03] <+Atticus> and buy the box of your choice, separately
[18:03] <+Atticus> save money and ensure you get a great box

Although there was this:

[19:51] <@Ratty> Anna was going to buy TF2? :O
[19:54] <+|Lurking> why is that surprising?
[19:54] <@Ratty> Not surprising, awesome! :P
[19:54] <@Ratty> Didn't think you actually liked it :P
[19:54] <+senseiphwoar> because she is bad at fps :(

Anyway, somehow Mpanda found out I had TF2, so after I got home, the first thing I did was play a few games with him - and we were soon joined by Autofix, Rangers and Sparks. Suddenly it was 4AM, and I have no idea where the time went. Despite dying a lot (I think it was something like a 1:4 ratio of kills/assists to deaths), and definitely earning the name Fodder (charging in as a pyro is awesome!), I had so much fun.

Then I realised I had completely forgotten to do something at 2AM that I should have done. Not only that, but I didn't start my 440 review even though I had planned to do it Sunday night. Starting to look like a bit of an addiction to me, but hopefully it's just the novelty of having a new game to play. I also missed saying goodnight to MrMan5.5, which makes me think of something Charlotte said in her blog post - who needs guys when you have games? *cough, cough* Not that I would ditch MrMan5.5 for TF2, or any game, but hopefully I don't start to neglect him because I want to play. :S

Security

In one of my favourite books, The Blue Nowhere, there's a part where one of the main characters mentions how he spent most of his time in jail reciting his passwords to himself so that he wouldn't forget them. He has a different password for all the various accounts he had, and all of them weren't your standard pet's name, mother's maiden name, etc. passwords, but just random strings of characters that he committed to memory over time. Passwords are an important thing to computer geeks (well, everyone really, but it seems to be more of a concern for them), must choose one that is hard to guess, but not too difficult to remember. My greatest memories of first, second and third year software engineering were of trying to find a password that muruke would be happy with. The stupid thing doesn't accept passwords that are similar to your old passwords, and must be at least 7 characters long with a non-alphanumeric character in it.

A couple of months ago, I opened my perform script in front of MrMan5.5 and he saw the password I use for mIRC. Even though I know it's not safe, I happen to use that password for a lot of things. =/ So he accidentally gained access to a lot of my online life. Not only that, but one night, I was too lazy to get out of bed to check my email, so I asked him to do it for me (our 440 process says we have to check our email every night after 5PM), so he also knows my password for email.

It's not the first time people have gotten access to things. I've given my WoW password to quite a few people (that password is one of the ones that isn't used anywhere else). When it happened, I realised what it meant that he knew my password, but it didn't really bother me all that much - at least not as much as I thought it should.

Makes me think about couples who are going through a rough patch, and then one person suddenly wonders if the other is cheating and tries to find out by setting up keyloggers, or reading emails/SMSs, or following them around while trying to look inconspicuous. To me, that shows a complete lack of trust in your partner, but you have to wonder if there was behaviour that caused this person to act so distrustful. I still talk to Charmeleon, and he still flirts, but that's just because he's a flirty person. MrMan5.5 says that he believes that I'm not doing anything behind his back, but sometimes I worry that I've given him cause to wonder what I do when he's not around.

I guess that's part of the reason I haven't gone crazy changing my passwords for everything. I've left my iPod at his house, which I kinda used as an external hard drive for a bit, so it has my chat logs and old SMSs stored on it. I don't care that he reads the SMSs on my phone (well, to be honest, I do care a bit - as I said, it's a sign of distrust, but it's not that big a deal as my SMSs are all boring).

Even with all of that, it's impossible for him to be completely sure that I'm not writing this post while straddling some guy other than him right now - although the lack of typos (I hope) is a sign that it isn't the case, right? Part of me is scared that we'll become one of those couples who has keylogged each other's computers, and are now so paranoid of each other's actions that even going to class seems like it's just an excuse to meet up with someone in a dingy motel room. Part of me also knows that it's my own fault for being the way that I am, and since I blog about it, he knows about it, but I'd rather he knew than I tried to hide it and he discovered my true colours and got hurt.

Since we started dating, I haven't felt the urge to run away with someone else, although that might just be due to the whole "honeymoon period" thing that Beanie keeps talking about. I definitely have no intention to cheat, but there have been some times where I've thought, "One day he's going to wake up and realise he has made the biggest mistake of his life, so I should dump him before he dumps me." Which makes it weird that I've given him the information that I have - as he now gets to see, if he so chooses, who I was before I met him, and maybe get a glimpse of who I am when he's not around. Hopefully that is enough for him to sleep at night. At least I'm going to tell myself that so that I can.

Food For Thought, Day 2

A bit late to post the report, but better late than never, right?

I woke up and didn't feel like eating anything at all, but mum made me eat a bowl of cereal (which I ate really slowly T_T), and I went to meet GP for an interview for his assignment. Then I went back to uni and still didn't feel like food. I made myself eat lunch anyway, and went to my 440 meeting. It was only at 2AM that I finally felt hungry and ate some mi goreng. Everything I ate that day was really slow, and not really much food at all.

There's a scene in Never Been Kissed where Josie is talking to her brother while eating a pie, and during the phone conversation, she says, "Who ate all of my pie?" surprised that the pie is gone (also because she was partly high). I used to be like that - I'd have some food in front of me, and then it'd suddenly be gone, and I wouldn't really remember eating it at all. I used to be able to eat a lot of food, maybe not all that quickly, but definitely a lot more than I can now.

I think I have to contribute my lack of eating to WoW. Auto keeps saying how if you eat a lot, then your stomach changes to accommodate that, and if you eat less than normal, your stomach shrinks. While I was playing WoW, eating was something that I didn't always remember to do. Reminds me of how one of the loading screens in Baldur's Gate II said something like, "Just because your characters don't have to eat doesn't mean you don't". One of the good things that came out of it was that I went from size 16 to 12 - Julian says, "Being fat sux".

I figured if I ate more, I'd be able to increase the amount of food that I can eat, but I guess one and a half weeks isn't really enough to increase the amount of food that I can eat, but still be healthy. So instead I'm going to aim to eat a Domino's pizza faster, but not the amount of pizza that I eat.

Now it's time for pizza training #2.

Food For Thought, Day 1

Super Chris reminded me that Armageddon is coming up soon, and one of the events there is a pizza eating competition. MrMan5.5 said he didn't think I could do it, so of course that means I have to do it now to prove him wrong. I should get around to emailing them to ask if they can get cheeseless pizzas. Anyway, today was day 1 of my training. I managed to beat Autofix and Cheka (although he sat there for a bit waiting for his pizza to cool, and I only just managed to beat him), with a time of nearly 17 minutes for one Domino's pizza. I think that's pretty poor, because MrMan5.5 managed about 12 minutes, and he said that is probably really slow compared to the other people in the competition.

MrMan5.5 said that the trick is to keep forcing yourself to eat even if you feel really full, so after a couple of hours, we went to KFC, and I tried to eat two snack boxes (one hot rod and one original recipe), but it took me about 25 minutes, and I didn't even finish the hot rod (I wanted to try it, and I don't think they're all that nice. It's like a zinger burger, without the burger, so it's really dry - it came with hot and spicy gravy dipping sauce, but I can't eat that).

The only problem is, now I feel really sick, even though it has been about 5 hours since I last ate. I feel like a water balloon, I just want to flop around and not really move. T_T I'm not sure that it's good for me to be doing this, but I've always been a slow eater. When SEE goes out to dinner, it's usually just me and Auto left eating. Not only that, but I rarely finish what it is that I buy, I usually rely on MrMan5.5 to do that. I've always wanted to eat faster, but after trying to demolish a pizza in under 20 minutes, I'm starting to see the good side to eating slowly - you get to enjoy what you're eating.

Sick Life

This post is rated R for sick content and adult features. Read at your own peril!

I was talking to QC last night, while Rangers and Ryan were waiting to play DotA, so MrMan5.5 told Rangers that he was going to the toilet so that I'd get time to speak to QC before the game started. After a while, Rangers asked me how long MrMan5.5 was going to be. I told him that I didn't know, and he told me to go and tell MrMan5.5 to hurry up, and give him a blumpkin to speed things up. Don't google that, by the way. Why do I say that? Obviously because I googled it. I don't know why, but I just can't help myself. If someone mentions something, I want to know what it is. There's just something about weird fetishes that makes me so curious. Partly because I wonder if people are actually turned on by this kind of stuff, but partly because I fascinates me that someone could come up with something like that in the first place.

And to answer your question, no blumpkins were given by me. -_-

From here on, it might get a little sick, so if you're sensitive, stop reading now!

I managed to find out what a blumpkin is from Urban Dictionary (always an awesome source of sickening stuff), but I couldn't stop there. There was also a blumpkin pie (which is a blumpkin while eating pie), and then there was.... Argh, it was sick! Anyway, it got me thinking about where sexual fetishes come from.

So there is this whole thing about how porn affects what turns guys on. They watch so much porn featuring guys ejaculating on girls, or girls having massive penises shoved into them, or girls swallowing enough cum to feed a starving African village in one video. So would a guy who has never seen one of those porn movies be turned on by doing something like that?

I think I've made a post about this before, but I asked Charmeleon why he likes it when a girl swallows after oral sex, and he said it feels good. That made no sense to me, because it's over, he has finished already, how could something after the fact affect it? I'm remembering back to some of the porn we've watched together, and he seems to like watching girls suck off a guy and swallow. Maybe it's just something he has been conditioned to enjoy?

This is going somewhere, I swear, it's 7AM, bare with me. OK, so if someone spent most of their teenage years watching a particular type of porn, then it makes sense that they'd be wired to enjoy that type of sex in real life. So where does the market for that type of porn come from? You have your standard, vanilla missionary position sex, which gets featured as softcore porn in movies, and I'm sure there is an abundance of in the hardcore porn industry to. Let's say that is the porn baseline. Then someone wonders, "Hmmm, I like boobies, maybe we should show more of them." So you get the same porn, only with a lot more focus on boobs. Then you get someone else who thinks, "You know, I already have a penis. I really don't want to see someone else's. And I like boobies" That starts the "lesbian" porn trend. After a while appears the, "Women can multitask, so they must be able to do many men at once" and well, you can probably tell where that's going... It starts with a "Bu" and ends with a "kkake".

So my question is, what line of thought leads to sitting a guy on the toilet about to take a dump, having a girl come in and suck him off, then having him cum in her face and dunk her head in the toilet?

Yes, I am a sick, sick person.

Guest Comic

Taking a break from 440 for a moment, while I make the switch from coding to video editing. Don't have the brainpower to write a proper post, so I'm just going to post a comic from wolfishgrin Dave, which he made in our I&T class.

Stolen From Jenny's Blog

I can't sleep, so it's meme time! I should really be doing my assignment, but I don't want to.


Do you usually sleep with your closet door open or closed?
I don't have a closet, but I guess it would be closed because I'd be too lazy to bother putting my clothes in it in the first place, so there would be no need to open it.

Do you take the shampoos and conditioner bottles from hotels?
I don't, but Mum always does, so does that count?

Have you ever 'done it' in a hotel room?
No, although nearly ended up in a motel one time. =/

Where is your next vacation?
Sydney/Launceston/Adelaide, not sure yet, whatever Sharon and MrMan5.5 decide.

Have you ever stolen a street sign before?
Tried to, but apparently the police were warned about people stealing that particular sign during Prosh Week, so there was something there watching it. =/

Who do you think reads these?
Nobody, but I'd like to see someone comment with "TLDR".

Do you have a calendar in your room?
Yes, a World of Warcraft one Sharon bought me for Christmas.

Where are you?
At home, not doing my assignment.

What's your plan for the day?
Finish R&U assignment, go to R&U lecture, hand in R&U assignment, skip R&U tute, film stuff for the video, buy food for SEE, I&T drinking game, SEE, 371 lecture, nap, 440 work, dinner, sleep.

Are you reading any books right now?
No, unfortunately.

Do you ever count your steps when you walk?
I used to always count the steps between our school and the church whenever we went to mass in primary school. Then I changed to a non-Catholic school.

Have you ever peed in the woods?
It's the only place to go when you're out camping.

Do you ever dance even if there's no music playing?
Yes, the victory dance!

Do you chew your pens and pencils?
No, and everyone in my house claims they don't, yet for some reason, we have lots of pencils with chewed tops. =S

What is your "Song of the Week"?
Caramelldansen

Is it okay for guys to wear pink?
Pictures speak louder than words: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=478475&l=2b651&id=585222195.

Do you still watch cartoons?
Does anime count? I'm still trying to find a copy of Captain Planet, because I want to watch it again.

What's your favorite love movie?
Bridget Jones's Diary.

What do you drink with dinner?
Water or orange juice.

What do you dip Chicken Nuggets in?
Tomato sauce, yum, yum!

What is your favorite food/cuisine?
Chicken pizza with BBQ sauce, capsicums and tomato paste with herbs. Has to have a decent crust and no cheese.

What movies could you watch over and over and still love?
Mulan, Euro Trip, Rat Race, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Zoolander

Last person you hugged/kissed?
MrMan5.5, after I dropped him off at home.

Were you ever a boy/girl scout?
I was a girl guide - we were never called girl scouts for some reason, I never found out why.

Would you ever strip or pose nude in a magazine?
No, and be thankful for that. I feel sorry for anyone who has to see me naked.

When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper?
Last year some time. Tasha and I used to write to each other, but now we just message each other on Facebook. =(

Can you change the oil on a car?
No, and I have no idea why you'd want to. Someone care to enlighten me?

Ever gotten a speeding ticket?
No, because I never speed. *cough, cough*

Run out of gas?
No, but I'm always afraid MrMan5.5 will, and he'll ask me to push his car somewhere. T_T

Favorite kind of sandwich?
Toasted banana sandwich with honey - tastes better than it sounds, I swear!

Best thing to eat for breakfast?
Might sound weird, but soggy Weet-Bix with Nutri-Grain (I know, I know, it's bad), and Corn Flakes, soaked in warm milk. Haven't had it in a while though. :(

What is your usual bedtime?
Usually around 3AM, but I think I've ruined my sleeping patterns, as I'm finding it hard to sleep even at 5 or 6AM.

Are you lazy?
I'm lazy for some things, and not for others. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to clothes, but when it comes to baking, I'm a lot less lazy.

When you were a kid, what did you dress up as for Halloween?
Never dressed up for Halloween, but I used to have a Pink Ranger costume, and I've cosplayed once before.

Do you have any magazine subscriptions?
No.

Which are better, legos or lincoln logs?
LEGO is way better, that's why you never see Lincoln Log Star Wars/Indiana Jones/Batman!

Are you stubborn?
On occasion, and it always causes trouble. :(

Who is better...Leno or Letterman?
I can never remember which is which, but I like the one that had Whose Line Is It Anway?, which I think is Leno. :S

Ever watch soap operas?
Soap operas are worse than watching Dragonball Z. You can watch an episode, and then tune in again 6 months later and know what's going on based on the "Previously, on Bad Soap Opera" because it moves that slowly.

Afraid of heights?
Yes. T_T

Sing in the car?
Only when I'm alone.

Dance in the shower?
No, because I'm clumsy and I'll fall over and die.

Dance in the car?
I don't think I need an excuse to make my driving worse than it is.

Ever used a gun?
Nintendo light gun. *nod, nod*

Do you think musicals are cheesy?
Musicals are awesome!

Is Christmas stressful?
Christmas is the best time of year. :D

Ever eat a pierogi?
Nope, but whatever it is, I'm probably allergic. According to the Wikipedia article on pierogi, they look like
dumplings, which I have eaten. Oh, but they have cheese in them.

Major annoyance right now?
Impending feeling of doom...

Occupations you wanted to be when you were a kid?
Princess (no, I didn't know you had to be born or marry into the job).

Do you believe in ghosts?
No.

Ever have a deja-vu feeling?
Yeah, but mostly with stuff that usually has happened in the past and is uncommon, but not rare, so I normally brush it off.

Do you take a vitamin daily?
Does mi goreng count?

Wear slippers?
Yes, mum hates us walking on non-carpeted floor barefoot.

Wear a bath robe?
No, usually change straight into clothes after a shower.

What do you wear to bed?
PJs or a night gown.

Wal-Mart, Target or K-Mart?
K-Mart, because it's closest to my house.

Nike or Adidas?
No-name brands.

Cheetos Or Fritos?
Heinz Big Red Tomato chips. T_________________T Bring them back please!

Peanuts or Sunflower seeds?
Sunflower seeds. I haven't had them in ages, I should get some.

Ever hear of, "gorp"?
No. =/ Seems to me like someone is running out of questions to ask. Google says it's trail mix, and I think MrMan5.5 has told me about something similar, but I can't remember what he called it.

Ever taken karate?
Yes, but I never made it past white belt.

Ever kissed someone of the same sex?
Yes.

Can you curl your tongue?
No. T________T

Ever won a spelling bee?
Do we have spelling bees in Australia? Maybe Australia just assumes people can spell, unlike Americans... Oh, wait, both countries fail at spelling.

Ever cried because you were so happy?
No.

Own any record albums?
No.

Own a record player?
I think we have one somewhere.

Regularly burn incense?
Not regularly, but we do for Chinese New Year, and anniversaries of deaths.

Ever been in love?
Yes.

Hot tea or cold tea?
Depends on the type. The tea they have at yum cha is nicer hot, but I like iced green tea better than hot green tea.

Tea or coffee?
Tea.

Favorite kind of cookie?
Choc-chip, but I still haven't managed to make ones like the ones they have at Subway. T_T

Can you swim well?
I could, not sure if I still can now.

Can you hold your breath without manually holding your nose?
Yes, can't swim competitively otherwise. =/

Are you patient?
I think I'm more patient than impatient.

Ever won a contest?
Yep. It's how I got a Sega Mega Drive + 5 games (including Sonic which I have been trying to find so that I can play it with MrMan5.5). I put my name in for a draw at Toys 'R' Us and won it. Does that count as a contest? I don't think there was much skill involved.

Ever had plastic surgery?
No.

Which are better black or green olives?
Neither, I think olives are too salty. :(

Can you knit or crochet?
I used to be able to do both, but forgot how. T_T

Wash room or bathroom?
Bathroom.

Do you want to get married?
No.

Who was your High School crush?
David and YN.

Do you cry and throw a fit until you get your own way?
I'm more of a silent treatment type of person.

Do you have kids?
No.

Do you want kids?
No.

What kind of mum are you?
Abusive, negligent, crazy, alcoholic.... I have no kids!

Do you miss anyone right now?
I miss sleeping. T_T

Who do you want to see right now?
The sandman.

Fail

So AJ sent an email earlier today:

"
As far as I am concerned, the main reason that I have not talked to

the consumer UI group or looked at their code much, is because I see

little point in discussing improvements to non-working code, and their

code has never fit my definition of working."

After I linked to what I've done so far for 440, AJ said:

"... it is better than I was expecting, so that's something."

Clearly he didn't expect much of me. I'm always getting emails from him suggesting better ways to do things, but I can't help but feel so helpless. To be honest, at the moment, our project sucks. At the start of the year, everyone was saying we're the awesome team, but we have the least functional system at the moment, and I don't think we're going to get this done in time. I feel bad because I've let my team down - I'm even blogging right now instead of doing more work trying to get more working before client acceptance this Friday. I haven't finished our team's Panorama video.

Right now, I really don't think software engineering is for me. Sometimes I get that feeling of obsession when I'm coding, and don't think of anything else until I've finished, only to realise when I'm done that it has been 19 hours since I woke up and I haven't eaten anything in all of that time. I know it sounds stupid, but it sort of makes me feel like a real programmer. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as my body would say), that feeling doesn't happen very often.

It's a little disappointing that I'm pretty much in my last year of software eng (I think I have one CSSE subject left to do in my degree, so next year will be almost all arts subjects) and I'm wondering what I've done with my life. I've learnt C, Haskell, Prolog, Java, shell scripting, Python, Javascript, MySQL. I haven't really used any of those skills for anything, although Auto and I plan to write a dating sim in Python.

I still have an interest in forensics, but after my fail Summer vacation interview, I'm wondering if I'll ever get into it. Maybe I'll just become one of those database administrators, who spend the rest of their life wishing they had gotten into a more interesting field of computing.

Anyway, I was meant to post this earlier, so sorry for the late notice:

I&T drinking game on Tuesday, 2:15PM in Theatre D of Old Arts. BYO drinks, please try and be conspicuous. The idea is, every time Charles laughs at the lecturer, we all take a drink.

Novelty Post!

I'm writing this post from my PSP. I couldn't sleep last night so I started playing with its in-built browser. Checking out the Internets on the small screen.

Most of the net fails. Google Reader Mobile works, but Gmail fails. Not even going to touch fail Microsoft sites, so this won't be on.WLS until I get to a PC. Couldn't get YouTube working, but I'm looking into a Flash player for the PSP.

Anyway, PSP text input has a character limit, so I have to end this here.

Weekend Wrap-Up

So after a few weeks of fervent anime watching, Manifest has come and gone. Manifest has changed for me. It used to be about spending an entire weekend watching various anime, but now it seems to be able seeing people, and buying stuff. I guess there isn't really any other time that's good for seeing a whole bunch of anime nerds in one place, and being able to buy lots of merchandise, but for someone who didn't think ahead and save money for Manifest, there wasn't much to do. =/ Though I got to see Super Chris and his friend Carla (?), but I missed seeing Mpanda. T___T

I wanted to catch up on some anime because I think AMVs are better if you've seen the anime that is featured in it, because not only do you get to see the awesome video editing skills of the makers, but each of the images conjures up a memory of that anime. Luckily I had seen the anime for the AMV Iron Chef comp (well, having seen a few eps counts, right?) so that was pretty good, but I think I might have enjoyed some of the other videos if I'd seen the anime that was featured in them. Especially the one that won the drama category, as everyone seemed to think it was great, but I thought it was so-so. I didn't get to finish Brave Story, before going to see the movie, but I think I might play through the game anyway. *cough* Pirate *cough*

I think my other motivation for suddenly watching a lot of anime was that I knew I'd be meeting MrMan5.5's ManiFriends™. I didn't really want to embarrass him by saying something really noob, and I wanted to be able to contribute something to the conversation other than, "I haven't seen that yet." Turns out most of them cosplayed characters from Gintama which I haven't seen yet, and so the only one I recognised was his friend Chi who cosplayed Rikku from Final Fantasy X, and she looked pretty good. :) I didn't end up talking to his friends much, and was really anti-social, standing to the side with Cheka while MrMan5.5 talked with them. I fail.

Once again, there was an attack from "Free hugs" people. One of them was a friend, Will, who was dressed in some cardboard boxes, so I think he was just being silly, but there was an emo looking person with a "Free hugs" sign, which made me die a little inside. I don't even like hugs all that much, but for me, hugs are meant to be a sign of affection from one person to another. You don't generally greet someone with a hug unless you feel close to them (although some people don't seem to feel the same way). Getting a random hug from someone isn't going to make me feel better, and if they're just doing it to make themselves feel better, then why can't they find some other way that doesn't involve them offering to  wrap their smelly bodies around mine?

I'm not sure that I want to go to Manifest next year, but on the plus-side, at least I didn't bump into any of the people I didn't want to see there!

PirateFodder?

I have to admit that even after owning a DS for a couple of years now, I don't own one of those flash cartridges. They seem pretty convenient, Kors has shown me a whole bunch of weird looking games that I would never even have heard of if he hadn't downloaded it and showed it to me, plus, it's so much cheaper than buying games (new games usually retail at about AU$69.95), you get to play games that aren't going to be released in Australia (or released 6 months behind the release date in other countries ~_~), not to mention the other funky things you can do with it, e.g. Merc uses his DS as a music player. So why don't I get one? Mostly it's the principle of it. I'm a software engineering student. If people are just going to pirate software, then where am I going to be once I graduate, and companies decide that they need to downsize to cover the losses they're making from people who aren't buying their products? Plus, I see it as support of their product.

I also have to admit, that I had Auto hack my PSP so that I could play games I don't own. Well, it wasn't the entire reason, but now that he has done it, I can. I feel a little like a hypocrite, because of what I just said about pirating DS games, and have mostly stopped playing Harvest Moon on my PSP, and gone back to playing Crisis Core, which I do actually own a legit copy of. Despite the games that are out there for PSP, I wanted it more for the development side, and also so that I could listen to music and watch movies. Here's where I think I'm stepping into a grey area. The PSP has movies you can buy on UMDs to watch for PSP. The downside is, the spinning disk causes a lot of noise which gets in the way of you watching your movie (it's starting to get a little annoying for Crisis Core, but at least I know something is happening while the screen is blank). I also happen to love movies quite a lot, and own a lot of DVDs. So in a way, I own a copy of the movie, so would it be wrong for me to download it for my PSP, or even make a rip of the DVD for my PSP? I think there's some law out there about not ripping DVDs, but there is also a provision that lets you burn games for "back up" purposes - though I think in most cases, people store their "back ups" at friend's houses for "safety reasons". *cough, cough*

I came across this post on Slashdot, "What Modern Games Are DRM-Free?" which talks about whether Digital Rights Management (DRM) affects your game purchases. I haven't bought a copy of Spore yet (and from what Graham has been saying, I'm not sure that I want one now), but apparently it has some built-in thing where you have to register to be able to play your game, but you are only allowed to register three times before you have to talk to customer service (and I'm sure we all know what a pain it is talking to customer service for anything). In the first 8 days of its release, EA reported that 1% of its customers had already tried to register the game more than three times. There's more stuff in the Slashdot post if you want to read it.

Anyway, I think I've mentioned before how Zoltan talks about how DRM only affects the people that don't pirate, as the DRM has been removed in pirated copies. The bad thing is, DRM can be annoying - like that stupid, "You wouldn't steal a handbag, you wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a movie" ad that is at the start of every DVD, or the warnings that you can't skip past saying, "This is intended for private use only, and copying it is bad". It was so awesome when Blizzard released a patch that made it so you didn't require a CD to play Warcraft III. It's such a pain in the ass looking around for a CD to play a game.

On a sort of related point, I think things should be try before you buy. It's like with clothes, you can look at how they look sitting on a rack in a store, but it's not until you try it on for yourself that you see whether it really suits you. It kinda sucks that you can't get demo games for hand helds (although there was a guitar hero demo for the DS), and demos for PC games are slowly being replaced by trailers instead. My decision to buy World of Warcraft was based on seeing how Cousin Andrew was playing it, not buy watching some flashy movie (note: there is a trial version of WoW), and the same for Guild Wars - I got a trial version from Goaty and started playing it and found I liked it (although still... OMG, you cannot jump!). The same goes for movies now, I prefer not to judge a movie by its trailer, but by the reviews that it gets or its plot (or in some cases the cast - I know, I'm a terrible person). They usually just cram the best bits into a 30 second ad, and if they're the only good bits in the movie, then it really isn't worth paying $14 to sit through an hour and a half movie only to wait for 30 seconds of entertainment.

I've never really based a purchase decision on whether something has DRM content or not, but if it's going to be retarded as to stop you from playing, then that is pretty bad. I own a legit copy of Diablo II, but it's so old that the CD-key has worn off, and I have no proof of purchase for the game. The sucky thing is, I can't prove that I bought it, so they have no reason to give me a new CD-key, and the only way I'll be able to play a game that I own is if I download a CD-key generator or something. Or I could buy another copy.

Pirating isn't good, but neither is punishing the people who don't pirate. :(

And the Award For Best Girlfriend in the World Goes to...

Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me
Don't cha, don't cha
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was fun like me
Don't cha, don't cha
-Pussycat Dolls, Don't cha

Occasionally at work, I see a parent give their child something they want, then kindly smile at their child, and I think, "Aww, that's so nice, what a good parent." Then not long afterwards, the kid will ask for a lolly or something, and the parent will bark at them something along the lines of, "I'm not made of money, if you want something, go and get a job and buy it yourself!" and the kid will start to cry and I'll look at the parent in horror. It makes me wonder what goes on when they're not in the public eye.

It seems that watching parents gives you some insight into the types of characteristics good and bad parents have (I'm not saying the person described above is a bad parent, I know how hard it is to control children - that's why parenting books are so abundant, after all!), and I was wondering if the same would apply to being a girlfriend. Since MrMan5.5 and I got together, I've started paying more attention to the people around me who are in a couple, and trying to pinpoint what it is that makes the girl a good or bad girlfriend. To be honest, I think I've had an easy job because we have so much in common, and all I really had to do was do what I was already doing, except now I could do it with someone else. Even this post "Sex, Mario and Videogames" (which goes with what Dante has been saying for ages) says:

Games and girlfriends generally don’t mix. If you happen to be a girlfriend that loves games then we love you… really, we totally love you. But unfortunately you’re not part of the majority. Despite the increased prominence of the female gamer in recent years as the industry’s evolved from the depths of geekdom to be culturally chic, it’s still very much a sausage-fest out there and not particularly conducive to the horizontal mamba. Something about thunderous explosions, ear-piercing bullet-fire and oafish men screaming ‘get behind cover’ just doesn’t seem to get the ladies in the mood. Being an alien-slaughtering muscle bound-interstellar hero just doesn’t cut the mustard next to chopping wood in the backyard, sans shirt. Go figure…

(Although personally I'd go for falling into a lake with a white shirt on.)

So really, I'm just capitalising on my female gamer status and have managed to snag a guy who happens to like the same silly movies I do (Austin Powers, Rat Race, The Guru, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, etc), can eat copious amounts of pizza and occasionally joins me in my quest to defend some ancients - none of those activities are something I wouldn't normally do in my own time anyway.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm putting as much effort into this relationship as I should be. They say that communication is important in a relationship, but I fail at that completely. I dragged him into Aldi once to look for some German gummy bears, and he was talking to me about something but I wasn't listening because I had been distracted by apple pie and choc fudge brownie cookies. I think it's a bad habit I've picked up from work, where I tune out enough so that I'm not really listening to the mundane things that people say to me, but am listening enough that I can make the appropriate responses.

(Oh, side rant. A customer at work today asked for some "twenty centses". WTF?! "Cents" is already plural! Not just that, but she gave me $5, and asked me to give her: $2, $1 and $1 worth of 20c coins. When I pointed out that it was only $4, she said she wanted 2 x $2, 2 x $1 and $1 worth of 20c coins. I told her that was $7 and suggested she take $2, 2 x $1 and 5 x 20c.)

Also, I've noticed that a lot of girls get dressed up for their boyfriends, but really, my method for choosing something to wear consists of whatever I can get out of the pile of clothes on top of my dresser that doesn't cause everything else to tumble down, but be enough to keep me warm for the rest of the day. When Nina and Charlotte asked why I don't wear make-up, I put it this way: I can either get up earlier and do my make-up, hair, etc., or I can sleep later the night before and get a couple of DotA games in. I choose DotA.

Another thing girlfriends seem to do is accompany their boyfriends to stuff. I don't really go with him to anything. He comes to a couple of my lectures, and to some parties that I've been invited to, but I don't really do anything with him that I wasn't already going to do anyway - like QCN's birthday dinner, or anime.

However, I don't think I'm a total failure on the girlfriend scale. I'm awesome at confusing him, making him angry, making him spend money, taking up his time, talking to him about boring stuff, making him watch girly movies, making him drive me around, dragging him around to look for clothes, and setting stupid rules for him. Taking all of those things into account, someone please give me a medal, because I'm clearly the most awesome girlfriend in the world.

Tasukete Kudasai

A couple of months ago, Super Chris recommended a book to me written by an ex-hacker, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security (he doesn't just recommend hentai!). I found the sequel, The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders & Deceivers in the Ballieu library, and read that. The stories weren't all your typical Hollywood hacker stories - geeks sitting at a computer (although some were). One of the stories that interested me the most was one that didn't feature hacking in the traditional sense, but was more about social engineering.

One guy was hired to do a penetration test on a company. Basically, the company hires him to try and see how much information he can access as someone outside the company to try and expose security holes. One of the first things he did, was befriend a woman working in the company, and start talking to her. He pretended to be someone trying to get a job with the company, adding a little touch of desperation, and asked her for some information on the structure of the company.

Then he watched some people coming and going from the building for a while, and noticed a guy who people called "Chuckie" who seemed to know the people on security at the door. After Chuckie had left, he waited a bit, then approached one of the security guards and told a story about how Chuckie owed him some money, and said that he'd lend him something for his date tonight. Not only does he convince the security guard to let him in, but the guard ends up giving him $20 for his "date"!

So now that he's in, he talks to a receptionist, and claims to be a tech guy. He asks for her help with something. He says that one of the things social engineers take advantage of most is a person's innate desire to be helpful. So the receptionist ends up giving him access to her computer despite the fact that he still hasn't given her any ID or anything, and he installs a keylogger onto her system and also starts doing a dump of the files onto a USB.

He ends up wandering around, and with the help of more employees, gains access to various parts of the building that are meant to be off-limits, and also gets info without resorting to hacking in the traditional sense.

I'm interesting in computer forensics, but I'm wondering if maybe that's not the best area I could be in. I have a background in computing and psychology, so maybe I could be some sort of security consultant who talks to people about different ways people can break into their system? Another one of the stories in the book was about some hackers trying to break into a company. After trying for a long time, they were starting to wonder if it was possible to penetrate the security. Just before they were about to give up, one of the employees decides to open one of the ports into the company to host a server of some sort, and the hackers were able to gain access through that. To me, that just seems like a pretty stupid thing to do. Common sense should tell you that it's bad for security - although... I guess if you don't care all that much about the company you're working for, then you don't really care about its security.

Emerging Emos

I read an article a while ago (I can't remember where it was) about how people are using social networking sites as a way to get attention from their peers. A girl changes her Facebook status to "hates her mother" and then comments start flooding in asking about the reasons and offering sympathy. I'm also guilty of having written a few emo blog posts. It makes me wonder why people like that get so much attention. Graham is always telling me about how people like to hang out with happy people, so why do people like that get so much attention? Not only that, but if most people engage in that type of behaviour, why are emos seen as the lowest form of society and mocked by everyone?

Something that happened in #see (the IRC channel for the gaming club at uni) when I wasn't there, but I'm told that someone was being emo which triggered a response from most of the people in the channel trying to comfort him. The next day, someone joined the channel and asked how the first person was doing (he wasn't in the channel). This started more talk about what went on the night before, for people like me who missed the action. Finally, the people who were there at the start started complaining that #see is a channel for gaming, not emos. A lot of the time, #see ends up being a soap opera with all the self-indulgent drama that goes on in there. I miss the old #see where people actually talked about gaming, but I digress.

I thought at first that the reason for this is that people just wanted someone to talk to about stuff, and that it didn't really matter who, as on IRC you can't really tell who is there and who is lurking. So I started joining the channel #emo, and said that anyone who wants to rant about stuff can do it in there, because the only people that'll be there are the people who want to rant, and the people who are happy to listen. The channel was a failure. It was mostly used for talking to me when I wasn't in #see (I banned myself for linking a sexually explicit picture of an old man and a fake penis) and the most use it got was last night:

[00:41] * Now talking in #emo
[00:41] * Topic is '#emo :: we /wrists'
[00:41] * Set by Autofix on Wed Aug 27 17:05:56
[01:47] * KamikazeKame (jedi_amara@just.say.yes) has joined #emo
[01:47] <KamikazeKame> !wristcut
[01:48] * Mattimeo (mattimeo@stupid.talking.mice) has joined #emo
[01:49] <~Autoupdate> try !wrist
[01:49] <|Lurking> !wrist
[01:49] * ~Autoupdate sees |Lurking /wrists
[01:49] <~Autoupdate> yay
[01:49] <~Autoupdate> kind of
[01:50] <KamikazeKame> !wrist
[01:50] * ~Autoupdate sees KamikazeKame /wrists
[02:02] * Autoupdate is now known as Autofix
[02:02] * Autofix is now known as Emofix
[02:03] * Emofix changes topic to '#emo :: we /wrists :: use !wrists if you feel the need'
[03:39] * Rangers (ranG3l2s@7AB97512.15165CFF.839ADDB2.IP) has joined #emo
[03:39] <Rangers> zomg
[03:39] <Rangers> wtf is dis crap

So nobody is using #emo for emo-ing, yet people are still doing it in #see. So it seems like it's not just about expressing yourself, you have to do it where there are people to see it. I don't know if this applies to the "emo" culture, but it seems to be that if being emo is about expressing yourself, regardless of what the rest of society says, why do they care whether people notice them or not?

To be honest, the entire emo thing confuses me. I don't see how group hugs and body piercings can make you feel better or express yourself better. Maybe if I got my brain pierced, I'd find out what all the fuss is about...

ItalianFodder

Lately, I've been getting into some arguments and trying to argue my point of view. The problem is, these arguments tend to become X vs. Y, and I'm more interested in arguing what I believe is right rather than taking sides. The problem arises when both sides have good arguments, and I want to point out things for either side. I do it because I think it's important to consider both arguments before making a decision, but the trouble is, I think people are starting to get the impression that I'm just sitting on the fence, or siding with whoever happens to be winning at any given time. That makes me lose credibility and then people don't listen to what I have to say which defeats the point of trying to point things out in the first place.

Also, sometimes I feel that I'm arguing for the sake of loyalty rather than because I actually believe something. There was an argument a few days back, that I wasn't a part of, but that I heard about from other people recently. A friend of mine was being bagged out, so I felt that I should defend them, even though I didn't quite agree with their point of view. I could see why they did what they did, but I think the choice of action was a bit overboard, so instead of trying to argue what I felt was right, I tried to find a compromise which makes me feel a little uncomfortable, because it doesn't resolve the issue at hand, and is really just putting it off for another day where it blows up in our faces. We've had that issue in the past, and again, the solution was to just sweep it under the carpet and hope nobody trips over it.

Unfortunately, that problem has been cropping up quite a lot lately, and many people have complained about it. I've tried being objective, but I don't think I can do it any more because I've been too heavily involved in defending my friend that I'm not seeing the facts for what they are, and I know that if I were to argue for the other side, my friend would be hurt and feel betrayed. While I want to avoid that, the utilitarian in me also wants to appease the many people that have been complaining, as the happiness of many is greater than the happiness of one from that point of view, but what they don't realise is how much this one person does for them.

On the other hand, this one person doesn't realise how much these people do for them either. I feel like I'm caught in the middle, and soon both parties will hate me for siding with the other. Although, maybe that's for the best, because I really don't like arguing until the early morning about things because I haven't had more than 5 hours of sleep a night for a very long time. No wonder why nobody likes the neutral countries.