Friday, February 4, 2005

'There's nothing like a hulking, sweaty Swede with a bad accent to goad one into the purchase of impractical luxury items.'


Hooray, played Halo 2 a lot on Thursday. Mucho Halo at Bismarck's. Unfortunately the teams were never balanced and basically whoever had Pricey on their team lost.

When I was on his team [Slayer teams, first to 50], my end game score was 33 or so, and he didn't have double digits, lol.

Poor Pricey, he'd never played it before, but anyone who's played FPS's should have the gumption to pick it up quickly. Or is that just me?

The best game we played was when all three of them ganged up on me on Ivory Towers, first to 50, random weapon starts.

So good. I got killed a couple times [kudos to Bismarck for being the only person besides me to think that double pistols are incredibly useful at killing people. Everytime I met him in a corridor without an explosive weapon or sword, I was nuked]

I loved that match. I was able to sneak around and really do some damage. It was challenging because half the time they spawned with rockets [*shake fist at Jeorge*].

The worst match/most boring/most frustrating, was the same settings but on the Coagulation map.

Wiiiiide open spaces with two practically indestructible tanks. Bismarck ran around with a sniper and a Banshee, foiling my attempts at massacres with rocket launchers.

I actually succeeded in boarding Pricey's Wraith tank, but then Jeorge simply shot me off it with his one.

x.x;

I managed a few kills, but I was completely owned, towards the end it just simply sucked.

The first one was fun though.

^_^

Currently I am in the motions of packing, but it's not going to do me much good as my parents keep pushing the date back further and further, while continually telling me to pack.

*shrug*

Iono.

Also I have been able to work on an SYF post, but it's crap. I've completely lost my drive because I've been out of the loop so long. It's just driving me nuts. I'm finding more and more difficult to write on the computer and I have no idea how I'm going to write my first assignment at uni.

Anyhow. I finished reading the Terry Pratchett book and have started reading City of the Beasts, so I'm keeping my literal side alive in a small way.

I watched Lost last night and it was very, very good. It so has to be a dinosaur in those woods. I'm guessing Godzilla was created because of French Nuclear testing and a migratory Komodo Dragon.

C'mon, we all know that the end result can't be any less ridiculous, lol ~_^

Black Books and My Family on ABC on Fridays each week at 2 and 2:30 respectively. Lets not forget that the excellent British comedy series [3-nil, face it America, you suck] Little Britain is going to be on this wednesday with a completely new series.

Hurrah for being part of the Commonwealth!

^_^
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Wednesday, February 2, 2005

'....That's going to require some explanation, or at least a pronoun'


This week has been very, very busy, and it's only wednesday. I'm tired because I'm getting up at 6am each morning to go to seminary [although I swore I wouldn't any more], so I can drop Blair off and then take him to school.

It gives me some practice and an excuse to sit in my car and listen to some decent music. And show off my ability to drive.

My Heritage account has been through the wringer this week. My main expenses have been car products, eg petrol and a new air filter for my '90 121.

I also picked up the latest Terry Pratchett book Going Postal, which represents my money splurges for a very long time. But it was worth it because I loved every page of it. Excellent twists and all the colours of the Discworld.

^_^

Anyhow, purchased the filter and put it in, checked the rest of the car and everything is fine, which is excellent. With the new filter [the old one was filthy and definitely past it's useable date] I should get better fuel economy.

Went to Brisbane today with Dad [from the looks of things and the amount of times my parents push back the move date, I'm not moving at all] and I picked up my QUT student ID, and it has a decent photo.

I dropped my CV off in 4/6 of the Australian Geographic stores down there, and was told they were pretty well staffed, but at the same time were excited that I was there and used to be employed by AG in Toowoomba.

ack. I need money.

Anyhow, 35 degrees celcius down there, so when I got out of out 18 degree Golf aircon, my glasses literally fogged over and I had to wipe them clean to see.

yay! Cold!

Time's up. G'night.
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Thursday, January 27, 2005

'Magna wool is lethal, lesser men have been trapped between two blankets and have been suffocated by their own self satisfaction'


I'm back, briefly so I may usurp Toby Time and better my fellow man. This week has been fairly busy, and incredibly frustrating because my PC is off with the faeries.

I'd rather have it off with the hardware engineers, but you can't get everything in life.

I managed to get it working [with 16 colours] and spent an hour successfully uploading my important documents to a secure website.

Basically it means I can now work on Loaded again, and SYF3.

Huzzah.

Anyhow, this week I went to a party at Jeorge's, which was great as I was able to catch up with friends and such. I felt as though school was years ago during some of those conversations. You suddenly feel so old when you finally complete your secondary education..

I picked up Harley from his house, after getting hopelessly lost because of a dirty street sign and low-voltage lightbulbs. Jess drove past as I started walking down Kuhls road to find the stupid house numbers, and she pointed me in the right direction.

Trust it to be cold and foggy [in the middle of summer], the first time I pick someone up for a party.

Anyhow, we went to the party and the most memorable moment was when 'toldi arrived and told me something hilarious.

Lauren was at a party and overheard the A-crowder boys of our year basically complaining to the extreme about how Mark, 'toldi and I get all the girls or some rubbish.

I laughed and said, 'are you serious? You and me? I mean, I can understand man-whore Mark..' [inside joke people, it's not literal]

He went on to say that apparently they'd been ticked off/jealous all last year because we got on so well with the then year 11 girls.

Most amusing.

What else? Oh right, watched Thunderbirds [way cool] and Dodgeball and played an unhealthy amount of Halo 2.

Also I did my second last shift and was told by my manager that she was really sorry to see me go, but she'll give me a glowing recommendation as a referee for my CV.

^_^

It's my last shift tomorrow, so no more money for Liam...

Also I'll be driving Blair to school next week, which sponsored really weird dreams that involved me freaking out and realising I had to go back to school and repeat year 12.

Bizarre.

I can't complain. I had a really sweet dream that involved me being Master Chief with a laser sword and Battle Rifle, and being in the 7th Presidian, of Matthew Reilly's Contest.

Heh. Plasma Grenades on the Karanadon and swording Bellos' stomach...

^_^
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Saturday, January 22, 2005

'Sarge, you really wanted to make that lens, didn't you?'
Apparently I'm not allowed to use the computer anymore, full stop. I'll update about once a week, and that's all you'll be getting.
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Thursday, January 20, 2005

'I have a nickle and a pocketful of lint. Will that buy me love?'


Work today was great, we did some serious re-arranging and really freshened up the look of the shelves. Now that we're out of Christmas, we've gone from 'bulk stacking' to 'visual appeal.'

..it'd help if we actually had some stock trucked to us.

My manager is getting a wee bit suspicious of the amount of people that come into the shop and talk to me.

To quote her, 'they're all girls. I'm a little worried Liam!'

Which isn't true, because Deyve came in one time..wait, I see her point..

I can't help it if people like me..*cough* >.>;

Then she says, 'oh! I almost forgot to tell you! A couple of weeks after Christmas, this lady came in and mentioned that a "handsome young man" really helped her with deciding on a product and she wanted to thank you'

I said, 'well, what makes you so sure it was me?'

She laughed and said, 'let's see. There are two male staff members. One is you, and the other one is Geoff...'

lol

Okay, so I'm mildly impressive and my friends like coming by and giving me a hug.

I swear I'm not a ladies man...>.>;;

Also, Yvette [the manager] managed to win $10000 from Fone Zone's 10th birthday give away.

She just went in to buy a phone yesterday, and today the entire staff came in with balloons and huge grins and told her.

It was funny when they first came in because I was the only staff member on the floor, and I was up a ladder. This girl in typical uniform-esque clothes comes up to me and asks, 'is you manager here?'

I said, 'sure, I'll get her,' thinking she was a friend. At that stage the other Fone staff members hadn't come in.

I stuck my head into the stockroom and said, 'oi! You've been summoned.'

'Oh god, is it work related?' [She was on her first lunch break after working 4 hours]

I shrugged and said, rather eloquently, 'iono.'

She got up and grumbled and came out to be confronted by five excited people, one of which carrying a huge bundle of balloons.

Hooray!

...I wish I had $10000...

lol

There's more, but I have to go to bed, and it's only minor details..[much like this entire post ~_^]
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Wednesday, January 19, 2005

'It's like having a 14 year old installed on my computer.'


Right. It seems this PC of mine has stopped eating itself and spawning dark demons of lascivious desire. I know not why, but I want to kick the tempermental thing.

I'm not going to go into detail, but basically it was being a frozen asshat. Like an Inuit who steals fish from his neighbours and blames it on polar bears, only to be lost in a blizzard for his crimes.

I've enrolled in my subjects, and discovered that I will be spending just under AU$300 on one semester's worth of text books.

Also I have discovered that HECS may not be covering as much of my course fees as I would hope. From what I've gathered from the online booklet, HECS-help will only cover 20% of costs over $500.

Ouch.

That means I'll be paying AU$6400 a semester.

I can't even afford half of my textbooks.

Someone please tell me what the firetrucking owies is going on? My parents can't afford that.

*stab*
EDIT: Aha!

Frankie – The Nerf-coated kitten of Bungie harmlessness. says:
another piece of the puzzle. The picture is clearer

Frankie – The Nerf-coated kitten of Bungie harmlessness. says:
You will also need to provide your TFN if you want to obtain a HECS-HELP loan if you fail to make a full up-front payment by the census date. If you do not provide your TFN and do not make a full up-front payment by the census date, your provider will cancel your enrolment. Your provider is authorised to retain your TFN information only for the purpose of reporting details of your HECS-HELP loan

Playing hurting games for fun says:
...I hope that makes sense to you. All I can make out is that it is possible for someone to give you money...

Frankie – The Nerf-coated kitten of Bungie harmlessness. says:
Okay okay. You put in your tax file number [TFN]

Playing hurting games for fun says:
Ah, that's what that is.

Frankie – The Nerf-coated kitten of Bungie harmlessness. says:
if you do not make a payment, because you've registered online as a commonwealth funded student, your Uni bitches to the government

Playing hurting games for fun says:
Of course.

Frankie – The Nerf-coated kitten of Bungie harmlessness. says:
the government throws money at the uni

Frankie – The Nerf-coated kitten of
Bungie harmlessness. says:
the uni, in turn, accepts the payment and spends it on child soldiers or something

Playing hurting games for fun says:
Of course.

Frankie – The Nerf-coated kitten of Bungie harmlessness. says:
the government then says, 'I saved your ass, but you'll have to pay this back in taxes. Suck it.'

Playing hurting games for fun says:
....Typical.

Playing hurting games for fun says:
I say we all move to Luxembourg after we finish our degrees, just to fuck over the ATO.

If you haven't guessed, the other guy in the convo is Harley

In closing, one of the options on my HECS application form: Obtain a HECS-HELP loan for ALL or PART of my student contribution amount.

It just goes to show, don't start looking up the possibilities of paying incomprehensibly large sums of money when you are

A: Very tired because of lack of sleep and working 5 and a 1/2 hours

B: Stressed about costs of textbooks

C: Knowing that your parents can't afford it.

Night all. I'm still ringing and double checking with QUT, but I'll be able to sleep.

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Monday, January 17, 2005

'He was always jealous of my crock of gold'


Well he was, the jealous nazi.

Anyhoo, let me start off by saying, Asphy was right, and I was lucky the third time round.

And I'm just going to let you think about that.

~_^

Okay okay, I managed to pass my P-licence practical driving test on the third time around. Go me!

It was even raining half the time too. Bonus points for me.

I've been trying to log onto the QUT Virtual site to choose my subjects, but there's so much traffic that it just times out. I'll have to get up early tomorrow.

Also, Juu loved zee package I sent her, so I'm glad. Unfortunately the shirt was too big, but I'll guess better next time.

Right, I'm going to watch Myth Busters now. Crazy urban legend testing texans...
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Friday, January 14, 2005

'Olympics this, Olympics that. Sometimes I think the Olympics were sent to test us'


I'm really tired. I just got home after getting off the bus from Brisbane. I was incredibly grateful for my foresight in thinking of getting a discman for the trip. I'm also grateful that WOW Sight and Sound sells excellent discmans for $50.

Brisbane is ace. There's no other way of putting it. Mark's house is tres fancy, and I'm foreshadowing that I'll be visiting/living there every other week when I have the time.

After all this time, I actually had a taste of what it's like to be a Uni bum.

Basically it consists of wandering around aimlessly through Brisbane and such, and having fun!

...I am so full. Today I managed to plow my way through a large Hungry Jacks Double-whopper meal, a regular Cold Rock Lemon, Mango and boysenberry shake, and a large KFC Zinger Burger Combo.

and a thing of noodles from Noodle City.

So full.

Anyhow. We arrived in Brisbane about 21:30, and then played Halo for a couple hours. Mark had never played it on Legendary before [gasp!], only on easy.

So, me being me, I treated him to the hilarious insanity of Assault on Control Room on Legendary.

Around then, Lydia showed up, and promptly tackle-hugged the 4'5" inflatable penguin I got Mark and his brothers for their swingin' bachelor pad. She talked with us for a while, grabbed something for her sis and went back home again.

The details are vague, but I remember him cracking open Halo 2 and playing it on easy for the first couple of levels. [Laughably easy. Running around and slapping people to death easy], and blowing stuff up.

I went to bed around 2:30, and woke up around 11.

We wandered around town after watching a couple episodes of Family Guy . I bought Lydia her 18th present from an AG we found, and I had a wee shufti to see what job prospects there were there. The assistant manager was really helpful and such.

What else? Ah yes, we missed our train by 5 seconds and as such, we were 15 minutes behind. So in the end, we got to Indooroopily, I gave Lydia her pressie while she was at work, and we then had to sprint to Mark's place, only to figure out that I missed my train, lol.

Luckily Matt, Mark's brother, was on hand, and he kindly dropped me off at the bus terminal at Roma St Station.

I sign in and wait for my bus to come, so I go downstairs to grab something to eat, only to find the very hot, and short, Linette working at the KFC. So we talked for a while, inbetween customers, and these two American guys show up.

They ask for a Cricket Box each, which [for those not in the know] contains 4 600ml drinks, 20 pieces of chicken, large chips, potato and gravy and coleslaw.

lol, their reasoning being, 'we're really hungry now and besides, we can eat the rest over the next few days.'

After they ordered, I realised the time and waved to Linette. In between grabbing drinks, she said, 'wait up, I'll give you my number,' something I completely forgot to do.

While she was writing her mobile number down on a napkin for me, I happened to see the expressions on the two American guy's faces, they were completely gobsmacked. I said 'thanks gorgeous, I'll give you a call.' She said, 'I'll see you around, tell me when you come down again!'

All completely innocuous to us, but to those guys it must have looked as though I had just picked her up, lol.

All very flattering, but I've known Linette for a couple of years now, and both Deyve and I have played the silly game typical of six year olds, 'Linetter hugged me more! Nyeh!'

lol

So after all this, I go upstairs and head for my bus, only to see Naomi, an AG workmate, standing, waiting for a later bus. Completely surprising.

In Toowoomba you can go for fifteen minutes without seeing anyone you know, if you're lucky. Mark said to me that while in Brisbane, he hasn't seen a single soul he knows.

lol, and then we walk down from the food court in Indooroopily, straight past Jeorge's parents.

Completely nuts.

Anyhow, I'm tired, I wished I stayed overnight, but I have work tomorrow.

..I wanted to go to the pool party...

G'night.
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005

'No, you don't understand, he actually took his car bungie jumping'


Last night's party was quite good. Brad had music, food, basketball and glowsticks. It was a really good night, I managed to stuff myself with Meatlovers pizza.

^_^

Brad has a phenomenal gift of winning free CD's over the radio, as such, he has a library of over 300 music CD's, and, not surprisingly, he hasn't listened to many of them. Unfortunately as they were won over commercial radio, he has mainly pop and RNB. However, he had won The Living End and Live, which surprised me.

[in a good way]

We sat outside, talked, ate and then went inside to watch The Singles Ward DVD. Ah, funny LDS humour goodness.

When that finished, we went outside and played force-em-backs with a glowstick, and it 'twas riotous good fun.

At least until my younger cousin started being an idiot and deliberately started aiming below the belt. Cameron is generally what one can easily classify as 'a fat idiot' and 'socially inept.' Even his brother, Brad doesn't like him.

Anyhow, he deliberately throws it, almost hits me in the 'nads and laughs his head off. I am very grateful for the ring on my finger, because if that little tube of plastic had hit my knuckles, it would really, really smart right now.

He cheers and whoops and laughs his head off, and dares anyone to try and hit him.

I should have let it go, but I said 'okay!'

..and sprinted up the backyard and tackled him to the ground.

*cough* >.>;

Okay, that's a white lie, he ducked and I hit the trampoline below the ribs.

Luckily enough the bar hit me in that sweet spot where it doesn't hurt and you don't feel a thing [no bruises this morning either], so I scrambled to my feet and grabbed him [still laughing his head off], lifted him off his feet and dropped him on his back.

To put it lightly, he was stunned. When I didn't apologise [as if I would], he turned on the waterworks and sniffled and hid behind the shed.

The cold-hearted beast that I am, I went back to the other side of the yard with the other guys, and Brad congratulated me on a nice tackle.

lol

Corey and Ben complimented me as well and we continued tossing the glowstick to the girls and back again.

Just as Brad said to me, 'I'm really surprised, if I had done that to him, he'd go nuts and beat me up! I mean, he always beats me up!'

I laughed and said, 'he beats you up? You've got to be joking.'

Five/ten minutes later, Cam screams and comes charging down the grass, straight for me. I was surprised, and put one foot back, lowering my weight and leaning forward. Owing to his height, he hit me fair in the chest and bounced.

In that moment, I put my hands out and threw him to the ground. Not very nice, but a very fulfilling memory.

Y'see, for a while now I've really wanted to bounce that fat idiot for bad mouthing the rest of the family, and mainly just how he walks into grandma's and takes food out of her refridgerator.

..man that was a sweet moment.

^_^;

Okay, I had an unfair advantage of being 4-5 years older, and a good few feet taller, but still, I was quite guiltily impressed with myself.

Just quickly, I'm also really impressed with the amount of money that the Australian public donated during the world vision 'Reach out to Asia' concert thing that the three commercial stations put together.

In three hours, around AU$16 000 000 was raised. It's just amazing, it really is. $1 billion of the surplus tax revenue and then $16 million from the public and Australian companies.

I'm so proud ^_^

In final news, I have found my computer for university. It's cheaper than a laptop, smaller too, and it's an apple.

I give you the mac mini

http://www.apple.com.au/macmini/design.html

Oh so good. I can keep the monitor from the HP and just use it. Including the bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse kit, it'll cost a little over $1000 after GST. Which is a saving of $600 from the iBook.

And if anyone insists that I should stick with a PC, don't was your breath, I'm not switching back.

Oh so good!

^_^

Just a heads up, tomorrow evening I [hopefully] will be crusing down to Brisbane to hang out at the Fabulous Baker Boys house. Mark has been playing Halo, so if Brisbane gets too boring, lol, we can practice being uni bums and play Halo a lot.

Agh, I almost forgot! At 12am tonight, the first round of course offers come through. OP's were important, but this is the most exciting part. I'll find out tonight whether or not QUT thinks I'm sassy enough to do their Radiotherapy course.

Wish me luck!

^_^

EDIT: I can't believe this! I can't believe it! My second preference was accepted! QUT made me the offer of my Bachelor of Biomedical Science degree!

I'm going to Uni!

*runs around like a madman and talks in caps*
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Monday, January 10, 2005

'What is that music!?'


Well there, it's done. It's not necessarily the best post I've done for SYF, but it seems to be the biggest. What can I say? I had a lot of detail to go over.

Are Rae and Liam fully resolved? Hell, it looks like that in Liam's head, but you know how screwed up he is, lol.

For those of you reading SYF, you should know by know when I'm directing the story to a big climax, and if you don't, you know now. Keep reading, start reading, because it's starting to increase on the goodness factor.

Also, the SYF actually have their own unit insignia, hooray! It took me much too long, but that's what you get for altering the pixels with ms paint because it's all you've got.

*cough*

Not surpisingly, Loaded has been shuffled to the side while I worked on that post and my butt is sore from sitting on this chair for so long. I'm serious, owies.

x.x;

I did go driving for a bit today, and I hated it. I don't know why, but I'm starting to loathe going for a drive now. Before, it was fun, now it's irritating me. Most probably the fault lies with my two testing set-backs and me over-compensating with my gear changes.

Agh. I'm going crazy trying to 'smooth' out my shifts, I never crunch, I haven't stalled since I first started out, and suddenly I notice a slight lurch from shifting gears, and no amount of clutch slowing/speeding is getting rid of it.

Dad gives me instructions on how to fix it, but when I follow them I lose 20k's of speed, which is bloody stupid when you're only doing 60.

*sigh*

I'm watching TV because I can't stand sitting in this chair any longer
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