Blog Every Day in September

BEDS – It begins.

by ZombieSkittles on September 1, 2010

This entry is part 1 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 1 (woo)
Sit-ups: 24
Push-ups: 15

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BEDS! You lie in them, you sleep in them, but today and for the rest of the month, it means something else!

man-in-costume-on-bed-in-ocean What? No.

Blog Every Day in September is an idea I stole from Tikken, who did hers in August. What makes my doing it far more awesome is that my ______ is that of a comfortable place to sleep. A place of piece, safety, and the like. Where as hers isn’t actually anything. But I won’t hold that against her.

So every day you will be subjected to a random blog post about something I’m not quite sure of yet, but I’m sure you won’t be interested in. Regardless, I will be inflicting these on you, and I hope that in the 30 days of content, that you find SOMETHING of interest to maybe say, comment on?

To coincide with this and give the posts a semblance of consistency, I am also giving up on alcohol, soft drink and fast food for the entire month. To top that off, I am going to, yet again, try and get some form of regular exercise regime going. So far I’ve been trying to dedicate myself to doing at least 20 sit ups and 10 push ups a day, but sometimes I can find myself distracted. Also when I feel less tired I’ll be jogging now and again.
So each post for the day, I will be throwing at the top a simply tally saying how many days I’ve been without these essential items, and how many of what exercises I did that day. You can see today’s up already at the top of the post.

As a final note, you should know that finding something to write about every day is hard. While this is obvious, what is less obvious is that you could help by clicking on the button that reads “Suggestions?”, and spending 30 seconds telling me what you’d like to see my write about. Even if it’s dumb or retarded, it’s still awesome to get a new suggestion.

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Regrets

by ZombieSkittles on September 2, 2010

This entry is part 2 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 2
Sit-ups: 18
Push-ups: 18

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We all have them. Some are the results of a night of drinking too much, others are felt by simply looking back and thinking “I should of done that when I had the chance. Instead here I am with a bad case of herpes and a fridge full of leftover spaghetti sauce”. For me a lot of it is the former, by the way; my fridge is fairly empty.

But I wanted to talk about what I feel is possibly the biggest regret I have; that I have an inability to keep in contact with people I know. This is both friends and family, sad to say. I just lack the motivation to make a phone call or send a text. I find it hard to get out and hang out with someone for the day. I have many friends but I just don’t see them, ever. It’s not for lack of wanting to, it’s just that I feel apathetic about everything. I really feel like I need to pull my finger out and do something.
Same goes for my family; I periodically get letters from my grandmother who lives out in Berri. Yet for years (I’d go so far as to say a decade) I have never sent her a letter back. Back then it was okay because I saw her every school holidays, but now I’m working and don’t have the time it’s become painfully obvious that I need to do so. I haven’t seen her for a couple of years and the only contact we have is via the very occasional phone call.
You could call this a letter to myself about the matter, or an apology to those who are included in the above group of people (Hi Craig, Denai, etc). I promise to try and catch up with you soon.

What are your biggest regrets, if you have any?

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Random dot points

by ZombieSkittles on September 3, 2010

This entry is part 3 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 3
Sit-ups: 0
Push-ups: 0

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  • It’s raining and has been raining all day; the sound of thunder and pouring rain has kept me up through most of the day, so I am fair tired. Goddamn it. As such I did no exercise today.
  • TellTale Games announced a new game; a poker game where you face up against the Heavy Weapons Guy from Team Fortress 2, Tycho from Penny Arcade, Max from Sam and Max, and Strongbad from Homestarrunner.com. The game will definitely be worth some laughs and for less than five dollars, I’m game.
  • The new iTunes 10 appears to be out and is well…interesting. I haven’t given it a proper look yet, but the grey on grey layout isn’t too bad. Just a shame about the new logo.
  • I’m 20 hours into Red Dead Redemption and it looks like I’m nowhere near finishing the game. This is going to be a long one1.
  • My girlfriend is a butthead.
  • I keep getting cravings for soft drink or just SOME type of flavoured liquid. Tea just doesn’t seem to cut it. I’m resisting though.
  1. That’s what she said.

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Sugar Packets

by ZombieSkittles on September 4, 2010

This entry is part 4 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 4
Sit-ups: 25
Push-ups: 12

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You’ve seen them; those people who run into some form of bad luck; miss their bus, lost something, or just something that you’re glad didn’t happen to you. Most of us will just move on, thanking no-one in particular that it isn’t us, and think nothing of it. However, I really am glad that there are people who actively step in and perform a random act of kindness that in no way benefits them. I’m not talking those heroic style “I jumped into a building and saved a child, that was on FIRE. The building, not the child.” type thing, I’m referring to those simple things that will be forgotten, but help others.

My story is one of those simple ones1. I had finished work early and ran down to catch a train. I had just a couple of minutes to catch the last train so I was in a hurry. I bolted down and arrived at the ticket gates to find out that my train ticket had fallen out of my wallet and was missing. I panicked; I had no money and if I couldn’t get to the train I’d be stuck in Adelaide for six more hours. I was standing there, completely stunned at my situation and crapping my pants.
At this point a girl on the other side of the gate called me over. I didn’t recognize her and she didn’t have candy but I came over to her anyway. She asked what was up, and I explained. She simply nodded, “I’ve been in that situation before,” and held out the money for a ticket. “Take it,” she added.
I was amazed at this act, and took it without question. I asked the girl why and she merely repeated what she’d said earlier. Because of her I was able to get home, and she didn’t ask for anything in return.

People like her give me a little faith in the people who live here. Have you ever had a memorable act of kindness bestowed on you? Have you passed it on? Please share this with me in the comments, these sort of things always make me happy.

As a final thing, I know you probably don’t care, but I wanted to share where the title of the post came from; my friend Vicki came up with it, and this was the reason she gave:

Sitting in a cafe once, some friends and I went through all the single serves of sugar and wrote inspirations or advice or other kind things ie drawings and cute stuff etc – and after that anything we found that followed the same vein we dubbed ‘sugar packets’

Which is one of the most awesome things I’ve heard, ever.

  1. Sadly, nothing is on fire in my story, though it would make this post ten times more interesting.

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Slipup

by ZombieSkittles on September 6, 2010

This entry is part 5 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 6
Sit-ups: 25
Push-ups: 15

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Hey it’s a day late on posting every day, but that was due to the unforeseen length of my stay at my girlfriends house. Speaking of which, you should check out her tumblog (It’s the first in the links section).

Yesterday was Father’s Day and while I couldn’t catch up with my dad, I hope you guys all had a good weekend with yours.

alan-wake2

I spent a majority of today being introduced to the power of Alan Wake. The thrills that game gave me were substantial enough to generate a blog post. The themes were powerful and flowed rather well. The story reminded me of, and played out like a Stephen King novel. Of course, Alan (coincidently) mentions Stephen King being an influence in his self narration, but it is incredibly evident if you read any of his stories.
I had a couple of moments where I got shocked a little, but no genuine scares, sadly. Still, for a game it is really good, and if you haven’t played it, you really should.

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Xbox Live

by ZombieSkittles on September 7, 2010

This entry is part 6 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 7
Sit-ups: 17
Push-ups: 12

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Xbox LIVE Logo

I’ve been considering getting a wireless adapter for my Xbox 360 and investing in a subscription to Xbox Live. The idea of online multiplayer, extra content and games is an alluring one. My girlfriend has a membership and it seems pretty solid; she has a good variety of games purchased from Xbox Live, and she gets access to videos, other games and the like.

However, I was wondering if as a PC gamer it would really get used. I mean, I play the odd game on there (I’m playing Alan Wake right now; I took a break to write this), but it doesn’t really get as much action as Steam games do on my computer. Would I be able to afford to buy games off of Xbox Live? Will it rape my download quota for the month? And so on1.

What this post boils down to is, if you use Xbox Live, what do you think of it? Is it worth the money? Do you get enjoyment out of it? If you can, share a tale or two in the comments below and help me make a decision, it all helps in the decision making process2.

  1. and so forth.
  2. Of which I’m really bad at.

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Sturdy Precision Laser

by ZombieSkittles on September 8, 2010

This entry is part 7 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 8
Sit-ups: 21
Push-ups: 16
Walked: 2.04km

For the next week or two I am forced to walk to and from the train station. It’s roughly two kilometres and a twenty minute walk, so I figure it’s a great form of exercise. As such when I do it I’ll be including my walking in the above stats. Enjoy that, I do1. For your pleasure, I’m linking to the Runkeeper page for each walk/run that I may do, so you can see just how slow I actually am.

So yesterday Julia Gillard and the ALP are decidedly going to stay in power. I don’t know how I feel about this, considering I don’t even remember who I voted for. Will this be good? Bad? Will we get out of this national deficit? And will we finally get some decent Internet? This is all I care about, really. If they can deliver, I don’t really care who’s in power.

It occurs to me that with most decisions I make of any size, I am always unsure unless there is an amazing amount of evidence in front of me. Anything that comes to a personal choice is near impossible to make; what movie should I go see? Should I spent the money, or move on? Should I buy this shirt?
It seems like trivial decisions, but while I’m getting better, I still have trouble time to time with this sort of thing. Often when I’m in a shop I’ll pick out something and if I’m left to dwell on it I’ll end up putting it back on the shelf. It saves me money in the end but annoys me that I can’t just make a choice and stick with it. Does anyone else have problems like this?

  1. Not.

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Did I achieve anything?

by ZombieSkittles on September 9, 2010

This entry is part 8 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 9
Sit-ups: 25
Push-ups: 13

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They’ve become a staple in gaming. Xbox games all have achievements of some sort, World of Warcraft has achievements, Steam games have achievements, there’s no way I can escape them. However, something bothers me about them, and it’s become a lot more noticeable lately while playing Alan Wake.

Achievements seem to be put in for everything. Right now, playing the game without aiming for them, I have over half the achievements in Alan Wake. This is because they’re given for merely completing a section of the game. The fact that I completed it is an achievement, sure, but does it really merit the award I get? I mean if I were to play the game sans-achievements I’d get just as much enjoyment for surviving past the first area.

The way games seem to throw these in really annoys me. For me the earliest achievement-style things I can remember is the “skill points” you could get in Spyro: Year Of The Dragon on the Playstation. To get them, you needed to do unusual things, or do something exceptionally well. An example would be destroying seven potted trees in one of the levels. To earn the achievement required you to look around and search out these things, then destroy them. Another was to rack up 3,000 points in the first skateboarding level.
While games do include these sort of achievements (Alan Wake has an achievement for collecting all one hundred of a certain item, as do so many other games), these days they seem to be filtered by the jam-packing of other far more easier achievements. Grand Theft Auto IV awards you an achievement for simply finishing the first mission for Christ’s sake!

To me, these achievements that are picked up through just playing the game actually kill the replay value they are meant to create. For me, if I have the majority of achievements then I don’t look back, I’m satisfied. If I somehow have no achievements whatsoever, I may look twice. The fact that I haven’t even finished this particular game and I already have over half of them through just playing really irritates me, and I know it’s not just confined to Alan Wake, which makes me sad.

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It’s so short!

by ZombieSkittles on September 10, 2010

This entry is part 9 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 10
Sit-ups: 21
Push-ups: 12
Walked: 1.77km
Ran: 1.82km

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Today I cut my hair. Whoop whoop. I decided to shave it again, this time leaving some hair so I don’t freak someone out too much. I remembered only half way through shaving it that I have exceptionally thin hair, so it looks like I’m balding (Last I checked I am not.).

I just arrived from my first run of the month; and it killed me. I am dead. So until I feel better, if you read this please leave a comment. On these type of posts it’s customary to point out how ugly I am; something along the line of “Your hair is too short”, “What the fuck is wrong with your face?”, or the traditional “Go shoot yourself”. Be creative.

 

:)

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Freak out

by ZombieSkittles on September 12, 2010

This entry is part 10 of 25 in the series Blog Every Day in September

Days without alcohol/soft drinks: 12
Sit-ups: 24
Walked: 2.01km

I did it again. I missed a day. Curse my needing to see my partner. I promise to make it up to you in some way that does not involve blow jobs, but in the meantime let’s talk about me.

Yesterday we hit the Royal Adelaide Show after what has been a few years for me; I hadn’t been there since before the Mad Mouse was removed. As such it is still a great experience for me.
There were no REAL highlights apart from two. The first was going to the world premiere of the Tomb Raider 3D ride thingy in which my friend was an actor. I’m not quite sure which one he was, but I suspect he played the hunchback with the hilarious voice. The other? Well…

DSCF0131 I’m the one with no hair (or boobs).

That’s me on the Mega Drop with Britt and Jennifer. For those that don’t know, the Mega Drop is a simple ride; it takes you 30 to 40 metres into the air (which isn’t very high compared to others, but still), and sits you there to look over everything, before letting you essentially “free fall” to the bottom, where it slows you down about 5 metres from the ground to a graceful stop.

For those that also don’t know, I have a fear of heights. Which makes the whole thing a lot funnier. As the tower started to bring us up, I suddenly remembered this, and slowly started freaking out.

“Oh god my fear of heights is creeping up. Oh shit. Someone talk to me, please. SOMEONE TALK TO ME. PLEASE DISTRACT ME. OH GOD I CAN SEE EVERYTHING.” were just some of things I blurted out while Britt just laughed at me and Jennifer constantly commented that she needed to pee. I panicked once the countdown to the drop commenced, and metaphorically (very almost literally) shat my pants as we dropped. I was terrified and realized why I have a sound history of very rarely going on rides that exceed 3 metres off the ground.

And apart from that, here are some other random photos my brother took:

DSCF0130 DSCF0132 DSCF0121 DSCF0122 DSCF0124 DSCF0127 DSCF0128

Anyway because of that and going to Britt’s overnight, I didn’t get much exercise besides all the walking we did at the show, which will be promptly negated by all the chocolate I have from my Freddo show bag. I’m listing yesterdays walk that I logged with Runkeeper, but apart from that there was nothing except the sit ups I did five minutes ago.

If you’re going to comment, be sure to mention how much of a pussy I am, okay?

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