I want to believe

Movie review: Hitch

Would you see it again at the cinema? Yeah, probably.
Would you buy the DVD? I think I will.
Will you watch it again on TV? If there's nothing else on.
Good points? That whole thing about believing in love again.
Bad points? Embarrassment by proxy.

Hitch is definitely a good movie. It's a good romantic comedy, too. I am impressed - probably more than I expected.
There are two kinds of guys in the world: good guys and jerks. Good guys are invisible most of the time, because (a) they're terrified of messing it up and (b) they don't believe in themselves enough. You don't need me to tell you about jerks. Hitch is just a guy who knows how it all fits together and shows the good guys the ropes. It's never specific to the one situation, and it's not a lie. This is the kind of stuff that should be in the manual.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It doesn't even have to be very long.
PPS - I'll take a pamphlet, if it comes to that.

Spectacular

One-dimensional Tetris. You can play all day without even looking!

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's the ultimate in lazy gaming.
PPS - And they actually implemented it. Unbelievable.

28 Days Later

Movie review: 28 Days Later, written last night after viewing.

Would you see it again in the cinema? Please don't make me.
Would you buy the DVD? Only if forced at gunpoint.
Will you watch it again on TV? No, thankyou.
Good points? Zombies.
Bad points? Now I won't be able to sleep for three days.

I didn't realise I was scared until I walked past the stairwell and disturbed a sheet of paper. When it hit the ground and made a noise, I jumped, in that my head hit the bloody ceiling and my heart stopped for six seconds. This is not - repeat NOT a movie to watch at home alone on a dark, quiet night.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'm calm again.
PPS - I just watched the last fifteen minutes of Little Britain. Weird.

Red Pill

I have just been informed that my application to beta-test The Matrix Online was successful. I kind of wish I was at home so I could just start playing now.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I don't expect too much from the game, really.
PPS - Then again, I haven't seen it yet.

Musiconomics

Apparently, digital music is too cheap. I kind of disagree, as I'm sure does everyone else. It seems to me that record companies have a poor understanding of economics and their marketplace. The fact that I think there is a problem with their understanding of economics means either

• that they've learned less through real experience than I did in two weeks of university economics classes OR
• I don't understand all the factors involved.

Despite its apparent arrogance, I'm going with the first option.

I don't think digital music has reached its optimum profit point yet. Lower prices means higher demand, and up to the supply/demand equilibrium point that means more profit. My assertion is that we are currently sitting at a price above that equilibrium point.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - The usual stated reason for higher prices is to keep bricks and mortar stores in business.
PPS - Something's got to give.

Handsome B. Wonderful

I've received some odd spam in my time (who hasn't?) but some that sticks in my memory is what gets through all the spam filters and firewalls and claims to be from someone with a clearly false name. The first one I received of this type was from "Weapon K. Respectable". This morning I just received one from "Reconsidering L. Hardwoods". Ah, the precious memories!

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I shall print it and frame it immediately.
PPS - Or delete it without reading it. Either way works fine.

Constantine

I thought I'd try a new review format for Constantine: a few quick questions.

Would you see this movie again at the cinema? Yes, if I was invited.
Will you buy the DVD? I don't plan to at this stage.
Will you watch it again on television? Yes.
Good points? Very well filmed (in my uninformed opinion) and interesting writing. Good effects too.
Bad points? Assistant reminiscent of Van Helsing's Carl.

I've always liked pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo, possibly because I can usually point out where the theology differs from canon. The common mistake is dualism - the belief that God and Satan are equals at war, neither one being sovereign. I quite liked the portrayal of the Devil in this film (for his few minutes of screen time) as a white-suited man with dirty bare feet. The problem was that he should be one of the most dangerous beings in existence, and he wasn't even slightly scary.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I think the questions preclude a rating system.
PPS - That's the theory for now.

The Sunday Mok - A Week of Fridays

For some reason, every weekday this week felt like a Friday.

Last Sunday at rehearsal, I found out we're finishing with a bow, which is just not something I do at a church performance. The singers, musicians and pastor do not bow after a regular service, and I'm not doing anything much different to that. It's not about me.
Monday was slow at work, like all the other days. Bible study in the evening.
Tuesday I was rushed everywhere except work. While I was cooking dinner I had some phone calls to make, and I just barely finished them and dinner in time to get to rehearsal.
Wednesday we farewelled Darth Gerard and Brant in the traditional way: cake. We also went to lunch and to the local pub for drinks after work. When I left, the tequila shots had started, and many more were planned.
Thursday's event of note was a "trailer trash" party at Erin's, where everyone dressed up like rednecks and hicks and spoke with terrible accents all night. Apparently it was a last-minute idea.
Friday night with the youth group we went to a golf driving range at Oxley. Since we ran out of golf balls fairly quickly, we spent some time hunting cane toads. The range was right by a creek, so there were plenty around. Cane toads are about the one thing I feel absolutely no remorse about killing, even in particularly violent ways.
Saturday I went running in the morning, shopping for odds and ends and also saw Constantine (review tomorrow).

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's been a relatively slow and uncreative week.
PPS - We'll see how interesting I am next week.

House of Flying Daggers

I caught House of Flying Daggers the other night after rave review recommendations from co-workers. Overall, I was a bit less impressed with it than I was with Hero. Where Hero was mostly about visuals, Daggers seemed to be mostly about sound, which was different and interesting. What let it down was the relatively weak plot. If you're still wowed by slow motion graphical effects, see it. Otherwise, you might as well wait and see if it comes to television.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Your home sound system might not do it justice, though.
PPS - I know mine wouldn't.

How to be annoying

Since I started work in an office, many interesting and unusual ideas have come to mind. Most of these I would not recommend actually attempting.

1. Ask "Get it?" after every joke you tell.
2. Point out often that Caramello Koala and Calvin Klein have the same initials.
3. Choose the noisiest snack foods available.
4. Leave your mobile phone on its loudest setting all the time. Never answer it. Claim you're screening calls for "potential candidates". Refuse to elaborate.
5. Any time you are asked to do something, reply with a brush-off handwave and say "I don't have time for that". Continue playing solitaire.
6. Decline meeting requests with cryptic replies like "I'm watching my figure".
7. Wear odd shoes.
8. Have a box of tissues on your desk. Every few weeks, empty it out, one tissue at a time, onto a co-worker's desk.
9. Construct thousands of paper cranes from important documents. Refer to them as your "army of the night".
10. Email a picture of a horse's head to your enemies.
11. Shred everything a day after it is handed to you, to "protect the secrets".
12. Insist on using a gaudy, headache-inducing colour-coded filing scheme.
13. Cover your desk in toys and gadgets of indeterminate purpose.
14. Install a satellite dish on your PC.
15. Re-organise your co-workers' desks, to improve efficiency.
16. Dial random extensions and hang up immediately.
17. Ask the receptionist if she'll still be there at midnight to take an "important delivery". Leave a briefcase and detailed instructions for making the trade.
18. Construct a model Eiffel Tower out of chopsticks from the local Chinese restaurant.
19. Offer to fix software problems with adhesive bandages.
20. Leave a cup of coffee on your desk for three months.
21. Turn your computer off, then call the I.T. support people and tell them you're having trouble with it.
22. Label the water cooler "urine samples".
23. Glue plugs into the hand basins in the toilets.
24. Offer to race co-workers down the corridors on wheeled chairs.
25. Construct a fort around your cubicle out of archive boxes.
26. Speak in Pig Latin.
27. Wear your sunglasses inside. Trip over everything.
28. Sell charity chocolates to raise money for your own overseas trip.
29. Booby-trap a big box on your desk. Label it "Do Not Open".
30. Exit through the alarmed fire door every day.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Pass it on.
PPS - I could write more, but I think 30 at a time is plenty.

Soylent Diesel

This Slashdot article, detailing a process to turn carbon-bearing waste into fuel seems interesting to me. It brings to mind some questions about whether this process will be micro-sized and put in the back of every toilet. That would certainly be an excellent way to avoid the slow, disgusting compost toilets of today, as long as it doesn't stink more.

I also picture a "Mr Fusion"-esque device on the back of every car, though that is likely to be way less efficient than it's worth. Probably the best idea is to supplement our car fuelling by transforming our household biowaste (food scraps, sewage, grass clippings, dead pets etc) into fuel via a micro-plant.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Not just techie, but greenie, too!
PPS - And we create a whole new installation/repair/maintenance industry while we're at it.

Whose Chair?

It's rare to find my mind working more sharply after watching a sitcom, so I was genuinely surprised by a rerun of Mad About You the other night. This particular episode starred Carl Reiner as Alan Brady, and besides providing a few genuine belly-laughs, I thought the whole episode was very well done - like a series of comedy sketches all tied together by a coherent plot. Seriously, it was some of the best writing I've seen in television in some time.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I have no idea who Alan Brady really is.
PPS - Keep the pineapple.

Tankity-Tank

Discussing what activity would best suit our section breakup, we mentioned go-karting and paintball. Together. I picture mounted guns and a track. Apparently, I didn't take it far enough. Now the plan involves micro-size tanks with supercharged paintball turrets. We need speed, too. Darth Gerard suggests balsa-wood farmhouses and families to crush because, well, he's evil. This is a definite winner. I'd pay for it for sure.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - In the time I'm writing this, we've moved on to placing zombies on the field.
PPS - I'm skipping the koala-hunting part of the discussion.

Timeshare Plot Holes

A while ago I was inspired. I had a muse. I was kickin' it freestyle, yo. Then it all went away quicker than an intelligent sitcom gets axed. I don't know where it went, but I'm guessing it's still around here somewhere. Always in the last place you look, eh?

So I was watching Buffy season 3 episode 1 last night, where some demon has some kind of steel mill or something set up in another world where "time moves more quickly". He was grabbing homeless kids off the streets and working them almost to death, then dumping them back into the "real" world. In our world, only a day passes while they age away to frailty.

The problem with this system, as I see it, is that you'd need a completely new workforce every single day on our time. If I'm generous towards Mr Industrialist Demon, he only needs fifty people for a complete workforce. Surely fifty missing people per day would start to be noticed when they all come from one small area of Los Angeles? Even if they're not, it'd be a full-time job just to round up that many people and push them into a hole in the ground - no time for the health screening and trickery he was employing.

I guess my point is that time dilation might sound cool, but it does manufacture a lot of new problems.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Just Say No to Time Dilation!
PPS - Before it's too late!

The Sunday Mok - Disbanded

Last Sunday I learned that the Ashgrove Baptist Easter play and AGMF are on different weekends, so I can actually do both, which makes me happy.
Monday at work I was figuring out a bug related to the .NET DataGrid control and cell highlighting. I don't think anyone's particularly interested in the details. Bible study in the evening.
On Tuesday I fixed that bug. Easter play rehearsal in the evening and I watched a new episode of The Simpsons instead of a hired DVD. I couldn't find anything interesting in the tiny video store across the road from the office.
Wednesday was when we got the news about our project moving and our section being cut down to four. Now Gerard, Ben and Brant are leaving this coming Wednesday, which will actually leave only three of us there. In our worst-case scenario, we become a temporary addition to the computer help desk. I don't much want to do that.
Thursday I spent thoroughly documenting part of the work I've done, and I think it came up really well. Later in the day, Fletcher asked me to tell him about that bit from a purely "black-box" point of view. How to build and deploy it without needing to understand it.
More documentation on Friday, but it looks like our work will probably just be thrown away if the project continues at all. There's a new Basic Requirements Edict from up on high that greatly simplifies the entire thing and pretty much negates everything we thought we needed to do.
Saturday I noticed I was craving chocolate, which usually means I'm losing weight and my body disagrees with the idea. I spent time in a meeting about the church fair, working out what I need to do beforehand, then went shopping for some painting supplies. I'm painting an old PC case to donate to the church fair, just to see if it generates some interest. I also gave a preview performance of one of the Easter play scenes.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's been a rich, full week.
PPS - That's if you can count the emptying of the office as rich and full.

Grammar Nazi

Every time I hear or see someone say "would of" instead of "would have" or the "would've" contraction, it really irks me, probably much more than it should. For example, I'm still stomping around the house this morning correcting imaginary people for imaginary grammatical crimes because of a girl on the bus yesterday afternoon who made this exact mistake.

So, for everyone who's unsure, the following sentences are incorrect in the most potent sense of that word:
"I should of gone, but I didn't."
"I would of watched it, and then I fell asleep."
"I could of come over, I guess."

For the correct forms, replace "..ould of" with "..ould've" or "..ould have".

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Even just writing them down like that is distasteful to me.
PPS - It's entirely possible that my issue is more deeply rooted than grammar.

At The Races

Angry Brad: Anything is race-able.
Darth Gerard: I'm trying to think of exceptions.
Angry Brad: Not working, is it?
Bachelor Brant: What about dogs?
Me: You mean like greyhounds?
Bachelor Brant: Yeah! Oh.
Me: How about cats? They wouldn't co-operate.
Angry Brad: You'd just have to put the greyhounds behind them.
Bachelor Brant: Wouldn't a greyhound outrun a cat?
Darth Gerard: Not if it's a lion.
Me: How do you get a greyhound to chase a lion? Or would you reverse it in that case?
Darth Gerard: Yeah, so it'd go: rabbit, greyhound, lion. Man with gun. Then lion again. Then another man with a gun.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - That guy in the middle had better be the fastest man alive.
PPS - I'm guessing he wouldn't do much shooting.

The Culling

As of today our section of 8 is a team of 4 and our one project is moving to Melbourne. Apparently the decision was made a week ago, then nobody said anything for a week, while the edict trickled down from above like warm tar over stones. Adrian, Brian and Ben are already gone and (perhaps the most devastating news for this blog) Darth Gerard will be gone in another week, once the project transfer is done.

This decision was made to speed the project up and keep its budget tight, in apparent ignorance of the massive time and cash overhead that will be incurred to make the transfer happen.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - We received this news in a five-minute meeting and a four-sentence email.
PPS - The full reasoning behind the decision was, apparently, classified.

Trademark'd!

Me: Everyone's sneezing this morning.
Darth Gerard: There's never been a comic book archvillain that makes people sneeze, has there?
Me: Well, they exist, but they never rise very high. Like Dr Pepper.
Darth Gerard: Hah! Trademark. You're going to jail.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - If Dr Pepper was a villain, what would he look like?
PPS - All I can think of is a utility belt holding several pepper shakers.

Distract me

This article describes the many distractions we face in our daily lives at the mercy of our computers. I think it might be time to centralise alerts into some kind of user alert queue. We'd have one place for all programs to send alerts easily, via the operating system, and as users we could manipulate its behaviour, assigning higher priorities to alerts from some programs, setting it to only notify us at regular intervals, etc.

Not only would this free programmers from the burden of creating a notification system for every program, it would unify the alert interface for users and allow them greater control from one central location.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I do think this is a good idea.
PPS - Comments are welcome through to next month. ;)

"Critical" Notepad Bug

I seem to have discovered a new bug in Microsoft Notepad 5.1 (it may also appear in other versions). I'd report it on support.microsoft.com, but there does not appear to be a "Support Centre" for Notepad - a glaring omission. On to the bug.

To reproduce this bug, open Notepad and turn on WordWrap^tm. Now type away until you wrap around at least one line. Save the file with the cursor at the end of the line, and you should notice that the cursor moves back three characters for each wrapped line you typed. If that motion backwards takes the cursor over a line break in the process, the cursor will move back another character in addition to the others.

This bug does not appear to have been reported elsewhere, so I'm claiming credit for its discovery.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Clearly nothing good can come of this.
PPS - I expect Microsoft will release an emergency hotfix patch within a week.

Happy Love Day

I've decided to stop just short of actual bitterness and anger at This Day We Do Not Speak Of. Maybe next year my tune will change. This year I've decided to project an air of barely-contained disgust and partake in occasional acts of sabotage. My path will be littered with torn and destroyed heart decorations, as it is written.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - To everyone in love: don't you dare rub it in my face.
PPS - Even accidentally. I'm watching you.

The Sunday Mok - 13 February 2005

Last Sunday we were at the morning church service late, so rushing home, wolfing down lunch and rushing back got me there just in time for rehearsal. I sang out front in the evening service, then went bowling. I scored a disappointing 95 then a more-acceptable 153.
On Monday it was hot enough at lunchtime that I worked up a bit of a sweat walking the one block to the bank then a hundred metres or so to the Thai restaurant. Bible study in the evening, then City of Heroes. I also read some humourous stories on SomethingAwful.com about The Sims 2. The first one's better.
Tuesday's movie rental was The Village. I think I preferred The Sixth Sense. It did make me want to check out the other M. Night Shyamalan movie I haven't seen: Signs.
On Wednesday night I played Evil Genius for a while and watched the first part of the ARIA Awards that I recorded way back in October. I know that's pretty slack. I also know that, so far, it hasn't affected my life negatively, so I'm comfortable with my choice.
Thursday night's karate class ended with a few games that were more of an intense workout. Besides the fact that there were three teams racing to be the first one finished, I'd question their classification as "games" at all. I played City of Heroes, too.
On Friday I got an unexpected lift home from work, and I thought I'd take advantage of the extra time by going for a run. As it turns out, there wasn't so much extra time, so I got to the church about ten minutes late for youth group. We had another zero-attendance night. I do wonder how long we'll keep going without anyone coming.
Saturday I got up early to have breakfast in the Roma Street Parklands for Bec's birthday. When other people rocked up with gifts, I felt like a cheapskate. I stayed in the city afterwards and bought a Stargate magazine purely for the DVD, and some game cases from JB HiFi.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - The Stargate magazine is quite lame.
PPS - The introduction is written in-character as Jack O'Neill. 'Nuff said.

Giveaway

I have just received an email from the City of Heroes support staff that includes a code for 14 days of free CoH play to be given away to a friend. Rather than I decide who to send it to, I thought I'd open it up to anyone who reads here and wants to know what all the fuss is about. I'll email the code to the first person to leave a comment asking for it.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - If I don't already have your email address, you'd better include that.
PPS - I'm guessing that the 14 days have to be two calendar weeks, not just whenever you feel like it.

A saucy good time

Over lunch at the "local" Chinese restaurant, I thought I'd try pouring the remnants of my sauce all over my shirt, because I'd never given that a go before. The verdict? It's not as much fun wearing food as eating it.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I have to clean up now.
PPS - Stupid non-stick bowls.

Sorry, Sandra

We're all naturally dubious about sequels. We've been given plenty of reason. Sequels starring Sandra Bullock seem to be doubly doomed. Don't get me wrong: I'm not a Bullock detractor. I think she's done some mighty fine work, including Speed, 28 Days and Miss Congeniality.

That being said, I can't bring myself to be enthusiastic about Miss Congeniality 2 - Armed and Fabulous. Not only does the story seem contrived, but some studio "genius" has decided to also turn this into Ethnic Mismatch Comedy Number 644 as well.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - All I'm saying is that she could be doing better comedy than this.
PPS - Nothing much decent is coming out in the next few months.

PAX

One of these years I'm gonna fly my butt halfway around this big ol' rock we call home and get into Penny Arcade Expo, just for the hell of it. I'm not even that hardcore, as a gamer. I'm pretty much only into puzzles and adventures, which have recently metamorphosed into RTS and RPGs respectively, like a frog turning into a toad. Yeah, I know that doesn't actually happen. Just go with it.

If SupaNova in April is good enough, I'll just save myself a week's worth of leave and a ton of cash and be satisfied.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Something may be wrong with my posts from work at the moment.
PPS - It looks to me like my last couple of days have not shown up.

A scary thought

Combine the hypothesis that there is no life in the universe besides what has originated on Earth with the fact that George W. Bush is the most powerful man in the world and what do you get? George W. Bush is, in fact, ruler of all life in the universe. This could be a problem.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Perhaps I'm overstating the case.
PPS - I really hope so.

Fogey

Could the archaic term "ice-box" come back into regular use as a synonym for "portable cooler"? I ask because I saw it written once on the label of my Ice Break iced coffee as a prize in some competition. No doubt they chose to use it because of its similarity to their brand name, but I think it's a valid choice. Perhaps I shall start using it in that sense.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - In Queensland we tend to call it an "esky".
PPS - It's a brand name, possibly derived from "eskimo".

He'll grow into it

Just now on the way to work I saw a boy walking to school. This in itself is not unusual - there's a school nearby and I'd be surprised on a day that I didn't pass a few hundred such students. What struck me was that this particular lad was just barely over a metre tall and was carrying a backpack that could have easily contained his entire person, should that have become necessary. He was powering along under the clearly considerable weight of the pack like a trooper on a mission.

It's anyone's guess what he needs to carry that regularly fills such a capacious vessel. I'm guessing that even if he lugs six large textbooks every day, plus notepads and a pencil case, then throw in a large lunch (he's a growing boy) and he'd still have room for an emergency jumper and ice-climbing equipment.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - You know, in case the next ice age comes.
PPS - In which case he's already got a serviceable tent.

Shrimp

I went bowling last night to take advantage of Milton Tenpin's $3.50 games on Sunday nights. When I told the guy behind the counter that I wanted size six shoes, he gave me a funny look.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Size six, please."
"Really?"

He wouldn't believe me until I actually showed him my tiny, tiny feet. This could easily become my next big hangup. I mean, guys are meant to have big feet. It's demoralising to rock up to the counter with five other guys and be the only one who asks for shoes smaller than size eleven.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's almost enough to make me buy my own bowling shoes.
PPS - If I start going more regularly, I probably will do so.

The Sunday Mok - A New Routine

This week was the first incarnation of a changed weekly routine that's going to be the norm until Easter. Now from Sunday to Saturday I have rehearsal, Bible study, rehearsal, YLD, karate, youth group, sleep.

Last Sunday was the first rehearsal for a church Easter play. I think it's all going to come together nicely. I'm playing the chief priest Caiaphas, and also the disciple Thomas. I left without saying goodbye to anyone, because I was still in a bad mood about the previous night. I went to the Coffee Club after the evening service, with Bridgit, Erin, Michelle and Scott.
Monday night was the first "Disciple" Bible study meeting. I got a bit bored in the middle, primarily because I'm a visual guy and this was all aural. After I took a break to look at some interesting things around the room, I could focus again.
Tuesday nights are now also Easter play rehearsal, which means karate has had to move to Thursdays. We were blocking out the first few scenes, just figuring out where everything should go, where people should enter and leave, etc. I also rented Resident Evil on DVD.
Wednesday night I paid very little attention to a youth leadership development meeting. That was probably bad of me.
By Thursday I was feeling a little bit frustrated with work again, because I've been working on the one bit of the project since the beginning of time. Karate in the evening was good - sensei Chris is more ready to correct me than Mark and Deb, because I've never taught him. I was "sensei John" to Mark and Deb for a year, and I think that they held on to that for a while after they took over the class and I went back to being a regular student.
On Friday night at the youth group we had one young person in attendance. I guess it's better than last week. I'm a little worried about the future of the group. On the upside, the older SLAM youth group has a healthy attendance so far.
Saturday I bought a wireless optical mouse for the secondary internet PC here at home, because we've officially run out of desk space. I needed something that could reliably track on my leg. I went to a barbeque dinner at Casa de Miv, which was also going to include semi-organised sport in the park. Because I figured I'd be getting some exercise that way, I didn't run in the morning. When the time came, we just sat around his vast backyard. My left wrist is sore for some unspecified reason, so I've strapped it up for the next few days. That usually helps.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It was good to see everyone again yesterday.
PPS - "We should do this more often", as the old saying goes.

Compatible Beats

No music seems to match my mood today. At least, nothing on my PC. Thirsty Merc hasn't been getting much play since Green Day made it into rotation with American Idiot, but since that album really needs to be heard in one session, I'm not up for it today. Missy Higgins is a bit too ... mellow for me right now. Gerald are, frankly, better live. I guess that leaves me with Jet, who inspire my sporadic attempts at air-drumming.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I think I need to browse down in HMV.
PPS - Or the punk section of Rocking Horse.

Office Oddities

Darth Gerard: "Having a four-day weekend regularly would be good if you had outside hobbies. You can get a lot more done in four days than in two."
Veronica: "Or if you had a double-life."
Darth Gerard: "Peirce Brosnan-style."
Me: "What?"
Darth Gerard: "Jimmy Bond."
Me: "I don't think James Bond had a cover career."
Darth Gerard: "Nah, I'm pretty sure he was MoneyPenny. Have you ever seen James Bond and MoneyPenny in the same place at the same time?"
Me & Veronica: "Yes."
Darth Gerard: "Did you notice mirrors?"
...
Me: "That is probably the weirdest thing I've ever heard you say."

Mokalus of Borg

PS - We are an endless fount of meaningless drivel.
PPS - And constant strangeness.

Klutz

I'm definitely not at my most coordinated lately. Last night cooking dinner I dropped a total of four items - thankfully all non-pointy and empty at the time. I'm fumbling with remote controls, tripping over steps that aren't there, and bumping off walls like a pinball.

Tonight I have my weekly karate session. It's not looking too good.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'm sure I'll manage not to hurt anyone.
PPS - At least, anyone else.

Mourning Gestures

When something comes to an end, if I felt anything about it, I'll go through a mourning process, often involving anger, bargaining and sadness. When that comes to an end, I'll often feel the need to do just one more thing, and it's always different. I close off the episode by doing something outside my ordinary sphere. It usually takes a little while to figure out what that should be. This time around, I'm going to build a pressurised water pistol from various gardening equipment I'll buy at the hardware store.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Often the gesture itself has nothing to do with the subject of mourning.
PPS - And sometimes it is deeply connected.

The Office Knight

I think I have problems. I just received an email advertising free surplus foolscap ring-binders at work. The first thing I thought was that maybe I could get a whole lot of them and make some cool cardboard plate mail armour.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - With my Stapler of Justice.
PPS - Now that's an interesting City of Heroes character idea...

Stick Cricket

I'd heard about this game from friends, so I decided to give it a go. For a while I was frustrated by the way that any appeal means the batsman is out. If you nick the ball and it goes behind you, that's caught. If I keep playing, I'm sure I'll get good (and come to peace with the idea that the fielders appeal not to ask if you're out, but because you're already out). I don't know if I can be bothered, though.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I am told that this game's busiest times are during work hours.
PPS - Unless this is everybody's job, people are being naughty, it seems.

The Sunday Mok - Tension and Stuff

Last Sunday was a standard-issue day. Nothing overly remarkable about it. Two church services plus supper at The Coffee Club.
On Monday I found that the upstairs vending machine at work rejected my five dollar note every time. I have yet to try with a different five to see if the fault is in the machine or not. I think it's the machine. I also had a meeting for the church April Fair, during which I got some good sketching done.
Tuesday was work, then karate, then Erin's housewarming. The housewarming was pretty much segregated into Christians and Others. We stayed upstairs on the deck and only rarely ventured downstairs in search of drink receptacles. Very few of them came upstairs to meet us, though, so I guess we're even.
Wednesday was Australia Day, so I had the day off work. I went to brunch at Simpson's Falls via a lift with Bronwyn, then lunch at the Uniting Church to see the renovations to the old halls. After that, I basically just lazed around and listened to the end of the Triple J Hottest 100.
By the end of Thursday I had the biggest tension knots in my shoulders that the world has ever seen. Painful. Played City of Heroes and watched Joan of Arcadia.
On Friday we started up our year 8 & 9 youth group again, sort of. Have you ever thrown a birthday party and nobody showed up? It was like that. Exactly like that - the planned program for the night was a birthday party for everyone.
Saturday I saw Closer by myself. It was good, though I did find some of the dialogue unnatural. Nobody is that honest with themselves. I also saw Vicki for the first time in a month and probably the last time ever.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Life sucks.
PPS - Again.

Dire Sun

I've been meaning to do this for a while. This right here is Dire Sun, my main City of Heroes character. He's a Tanker with the power sets Super Strength and Invulnerability. So ... Blogworld, meet Dire Sun. Dire Sun, meet Blogworld.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Mingle.
PPS - You two play nice, now. 

Stop work meeting

The discovery of this blog at work has now resulted in near-zero productivity, at least for the moment. Angry Brad, Actor Adrian, Darth Gerard and Bachelor Brant are all thrilled to see themselves mentioned. The immediate goals of the office have changed from "software engineering" to "being wacky enough to blog".

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I expect someone to start juggling fire any moment.
PPS - I'll have to be more careful what I write in future.

Carving transistors out of stone

My people and I have a great tradition: if we want it and it doesn't exist, we make it. This policy of ingenuity and imagination serves everyone well. One common idea, as wireless networking and internet telephony become more widespread, is a single phone unit that acts as a VoIP handset when at home and a mobile phone when out and about. This is close, but no cigar yet. I'm sure someone is out there with a soldering iron and some electronic diagrams right now figuring out how to make one.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I include myself with these tech innovators only on the software side.
PPS - And, actually, I rarely get to do anything cool.

It's time to go, Mokalus

If I'm being upbeat about the experience, I can consider the six hours or so of my Big Brother audition as an approximation of time in the house. I met some interesting and boisterous strangers. We talked, we joked. We even had some tasks. We were on camera. We met Gretel. I stood in front of a crowd of people who all wanted to be where I was, even if that was only at the front of the line. I made friends, and I made jokes. In the end, I was voted out.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I can be positive about a great many things.
PPS - Not everything, but definitely many things.

A difference of opinion

I just went to pay a bill at the post office, and the drone behind the desk tried to tell me that I had to fill out a deposit slip. I countered with the fact that this has never been necessary before, at which point he caved in and processed the transaction without a deposit slip.

So I suppose when he said that I "had to" fill in this slip, he was exaggerating just a bit.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Like saying "Earth has been invaded by giant blue aliens" when it actually hasn't happened at all.
PPS - That is, if that still counts as exaggeration.

Bloodshot and Shambling

The other day I saw some friends after a big night and asked them why they looked quote dead endquote.
Now I'm thinking it would have been funnier to just yell "ZOMBIE!" and run screaming in the other direction.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - At least now I'm prepared for next time.
PPS - Zombies. They never stop giving.

Green and Gold

I love Australia Day. It's like a Saturday in the middle of the week. An odd kind of Saturday when everyone wears flags and celebrates our national identity by cooking sausages outdoors and watching cricket. It's another one of those days when it's way too easy to overeat, especially if you have breakfast, brunch, lunch, an afternoon barbeque, dinner and an evening party.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - This year I have managed to have only five of those six eating opportunities.
PPS - Big shout out to all Aussies overseas, particularly Glenys, Amos, Dan and Lotte.

Every single hair is now wrong

I think a few months of DIY haircuts are starting to catch up with me. It's nothing too adventurous - I've just been clipping the back so that it's impossible to use the word "mullet" to describe my follicular arrangement. I've been waiting for the rest of my hair to grow out longer, and now I'm not sure what to do about the bits around my ears. I tuck it behind my ears and it looks pretty stupid. I let it fall forwards and it's too long. I'm not at all confident that I could cut it acceptably, so I may be off to the barber again.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - The Brisbane Summer Humidity(tm) isn't helping, either.
PPS - Nothing much does.

Nanu, Philosopher Extraordinaire

What would it be like if the major philosophers and scientists of our time had lunch with Keanu Reeves? According to our little clown troupe, the results would involve many comical contrasts between high thought and "whoa". The phrases "I caught my first tube today", "I know kung-fu" and "there is no spoon" would occur at least once each.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - We only ever refer to Keanu Reeves as "Nanu".
PPS - I don't know where this originated.

The Sunday Mok - The Joel Fan Club

Last Sunday was hot, humid, and generally unpleasant. I spent the afternoon asleep on a mattress on a concrete floor downstairs, which was the coolest I could get. I was still sweating. I sang in the evening church service and was extremely under-confident about it.
On Monday on the bus ride home, I bumped into Katrina, a friend from primary school who had just started a job nearby. That was quite bizarre. I guess I'll be seeing her regularly now.
On Tuesday I started a new habit of renting a cheap DVD from the video shop across the road from the office. I started with Kill Bill Volume 2, which I liked a bit better than the first volume, not because it was better, but because the first one was worse.
On Wednesday I briefly entertained the idea of opening a CafePress shop, basically for my own private use. In the end, I decided not to bother. I played City of Heroes as my Controller character and almost completed a mission solo, then died.
Thursday I attempted the same City of Heroes mission as my Controller with some help from a Scrapper who dropped out before the end of the mission and left me for dead. I'm sure he didn't mean to. I also finished reading The Eye in the Pyramid, the first book of the Illuminatus! trilogy. It's a bit mentally taxing sometimes, and yet it seems to demand a creative response from me, so usually I end up completely exhausted after reading some of this.
I spent Friday at work redesigning part of the system that handles our approvals process. It didn't feel like much progress after I tried it once and changed all my code around, only to discover a better way moments later. I also went to dinner at Roman Gardens, an Italian restaurant at Corinda with Miv, Julia, Lydia, Adam, Rory, Colleen, Julie, Steve and Bronwyn, who were seated around the table in that order. I just like showing off my memory sometimes. I really enjoyed the food.
Yesterday, Saturday, I waited in line for about five hours to try out for Big Brother. That was the most entertaining part. Shout goes out to the "Joel Fan Club": Emily and Dustin. Get some sleep, Emily - you'll need it. And good luck with the band. I also saw "How To Make a Monster", which is an exhibit at the Queensland Museum all about animatronics, which was very cool.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Dad destroyed the light fitting in my room while trying to fix it.
PPS - At least he didn't electrocute himself, though. That's always a plus.

Silent phones and the voices in my head

It's office policy that mobile phones are off during work hours. To some people, this means nothing at all, and they let their phones ring loud and proud, irritating everyone nearby. Our section subverts the rule by leaving phones on vibrate, with the side effect that they are inaudible when ringing to nearby workers. The upshot of this is that people will occasionally start talking to themselves for no reason, usually starting with "Hello?".

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Typically much mirth ensues at this point.
PPS - We are easily amused.

Made-to-order consumer electronics

Picture this: you can imagine an electronic device you want, and it does not exist in the current market. You go to a website and tick off the features you'd like in this device ("plays digital music", "makes phone calls", "laser sword") and pay a nominal fee plus parts and postage. Within six to eight weeks, your device arrives, complete with user manual and warranty. How awesome would that be?

Even better, if a device already exists on the market that does what you need, the site can recommend it to you.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - The bonus to companies, of course, is good market research for new mass-production items.
PPS - I imagine these devices would be more expensive and a bit less polished than mass-market consumer electronics.

Brockian Ultra-Cricket

Over a discussion of 20-20 cricket, we were attempting to come up with some other ways to jazz up the game and make it more exciting. Some suggestions:
1. Combo bonuses for boundaries. For instance, the first six is worth six runs. If you hit another on the next ball, that's seven. A third would be worth eight.
2. Bonus runs for wearing less protective equipment. Super bonus points for carrying no bat.
3. Allowing fielders to tackle batsmen, and the batsmen to defend themselves. After all, they're already wearing spikes and carrying clubs.
4. Multi-ball! MULTI-BALL!

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It could get very interesting.
PPS - Or very silly. It's all good.

Not yellow, though

Looking at Jono (from Half Way Out)'s spiked mohawk on Saturday night, I thought it would be really cool to get one myself, only with the ability to fold it down and spike it up without my hands. You know, like a cockatoo's crest.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - The main difficulty would be the mechanics of it all.
PPS - I imagine some kind of pulley system attached to my eyebrows.

Did I really just say that?

Explaining some of our software to visitors from Melbourne:
"The business objects can also join together, like VOLTRON."

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Yeah, I need help.
PPS - Everyone together: "NEEEERRRRRRD!"

Kevins Smiths

I saw Dogma again last night (I've lost count how many times I've seen it now) and the one thing that always bugs me is the poor grasp of non-English plurals. For instance:
"I've had to put up with it for a millennia."
No, you haven't, see, because you can either put up with it for a millennium or many millennia. And the one that really gets to me is:
"I am a seraphim."
You are a seraph. What you just said is as crazy as saying "I am an angels".

Aside from this extremely nit-picky point, I do enjoy the movie almost as much as I hate/loathe/despise the type of person who talks as I watch it. Especially if they rationalise their behaviour as "I know I'm not supposed to talk, but it's really important that I point out right now that I've just noticed that's Jay and Silent Bob". I don't care. Nobody does.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Occasionally I make threats to people like that.
PPS - They're usually empty, so they never sink in.

The greatest thing I have seen today

The Mozilla Thunderbird email client displays _textual_underlines_ as actual underlines! That is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I bet it does /italics/ too.
PPS - I'll have to test it.

The Sunday Mok - So Long, And Thanks For All The Riffs

Last Sunday I was falling asleep in the morning church service due to a late night. I imagine I'll be doing that again today, for much the same reason. I hung out at Kirsty's place in the afternoon and also after the evening church service.
Going back to work on Monday was definitely a drag. Killing time for the entire week was not a good feeling, either. I know I achieved some things - I just felt like there should have been more of them. Netball in the evening.
More work on Tuesday and much the same feeling. It kept up all week. Karate in the evening and an early night. I wanted to stay awake more easily at work. I don't think I really achieved that.
On Wednesday I picked up Evil Genius and played it for a while. It's probably just the novelty factor that's leading me to spend more time on this game than my others.
On Thursday, when I got home from work, it was still light outside, so I went for a run. I've started carrying 2kg dumbbells because the 1kg ones were no challenge anymore. My time is still up around 37 minutes for my regular route, and I have not yet completed it carrying the bigger weights without slowing to a walk. When I can run the whole thing in 30 minutes or less, I upgrade weights again.
Friday night I spent hours playing Evil Genius, well into the witching hour. Had a timeslip - I kept going for just five more minutes several times. A party next door kept going until 02:40 with no music, just loud drunk-talk. At 01:00 I put in some earplugs which blocked out only my recognition of the words. I settled for that.
Saturday was the farewell GERALD gig (and I still don't know if they preferred their name written in all-caps, all-lowercase or one capital). After a few good bands (Half Way Out and Triple-07 were the best, IMO, and I heard Rest Assured's "Captain Planet" cover again), Gerald came on and played a set of probably 25 songs or so. If they started on time, they played for 2 hours, and I was up the front skanking the whole time. That's about the level of sophistication I can manage in dance: flailing and kicking around to the beat. This is probably why I love ska. I like Half Way Out too. They gave me a t-shirt.
Needless to say, after two hours of active dance, I was perspiring a little. We could have grown rice. It felt pretty darn good to change out of those clothes and get to bed. I saw many people there, too. My friends, some old schoolmates, friends and family of the band and lots of fans.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's a shame to see the band go.
PPS - Geographical pressures are fairly insurmountable in the music world, though.

Guess the Character!

I've had a bit of a play with this: Guess the Character! - See if the computer can guess which film/TV character you are! It's interesting, but it sometimes takes ages to get to the point. The first couple of times I tried it, I thought it was gradually honing in on the character, seeming to ask more specific questions. A few more tries later and it seemed to be floundering. The following characters were not listed when I tried them (and I didn't add them):

Lambert, the sheepish lion (from an old Disney short)
The nameless Jackalope from Pixar's "Boundin'"
Joan Gerardi from Joan of Arcadia

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'm not sure if I've spelled Joan's last name correctly.
PPS - And I'm not positive I got her hair colour right when asked.

Gerald - Thats All Folks

The greatest ska band I have ever spoken to, Gerald, is breaking up and going out with a bang this Saturday. I'll be there, and I intend to party hard. If you're in Brisbane and are available, come along.

GERALD @ the Jubilee Hotel, Fortitude Valley
Saturday 15th January 2005, 8pm
Cover charge $10
Some other bands too.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's tragic, it really is.
PPS - I'm gonna miss being a groupie.

The Lukewarm Water Device

Our water heater here at home is about as old as me, and is now approximating my own ability to heat water above body temperature. That is to say that the thing is almost ready for retirement. Currently it produces just enough "hot" water for a disappointing shower, with none left over to wash dishes. One of those activities has to adapt, or the water heater has to be fixed. I'm guessing we will choose to live with it for a while, because Dad has this odd idea about home repair that says "if we don't fix it, we'll get used to it".

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'll probably start boiling water on the stove to wash up.
PPS - The problem is that adds ten minutes to my morning routine.

Reality

It's possible that my grip on reality is a bit tenuous. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, giants, dwarves, elves, gnomes, superheroes, spaceships, pirates, ninjas, androids and Jedi populate my everyday world. To an extent, I know they're not real, but I often act as if they were. I attempt to use the Force to change traffic lights on a fairly regular basis. If I completely lose my grip, there's no telling what could happen, though it would possibly be less spectacular in real life than my imagination.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Sometimes I try to harness this to write fiction.
PPS - Usually I end up with a dark, unfinished, very short story.

Angst. Sorry.

Usually I'd keep this kind of thing to myself, but it seems to be as good as anything else I'd post today. Last night I learned of a number of events planned by my friends to which I have not been invited. Part of the reason for that is surely that I have to work and can't afford much time at the moment. Still, I'd rather make those decisions for myself.

Let Me In

Over there in that bubble is where they
Can't hear me whisper
Can't hear me talk
Can't hear me scream
LET ME IN I cry in a voice
Too small to notice in the cacophony of silence
Unplug your ears
And show me where the door is
Let me at least stand outside in the rain
While you mock me
I'd rather that than be out here
Alone
Invisible
Silent
Take me with you when you go nowhere
Do nothing
Sit still
Let me follow you to the room full of white
Let me see you all together
Let me in
Let me in
Let me in.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I still consider unmetered, unrhyming verse a copout.
PPS - It's quick and honest, though.

Apply nose (A) to grindstone (B)

Of course I don't feel like being back at work right now. I had to wake up two hours earlier than I have recently been accustomed to and my shirt has long sleeves and a collar. The Christmas decorations are still up around the office - so glad that's not my responsibility. There'll be a mountain of email to dispose of, which will probably take all morning, and the fact that I have friends in university who are still on holidays for another two months is really going to get to me this afternoon. Sigh.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'm really not in a foul mood.
PPS - It's just that a change of routine is too much to handle this early in the morning.

The Sunday Mok - 9 January 2005

Last Sunday was relaxing, as usual. After the evening church service some of us stayed behind to watch Stargate SG-1 DVDs until about 01:00. The rest of the day was sleep and City of Heroes.
On Monday I sun-bleached my hair a bit. I probably would have preferred it to come out a bit lighter than it did. People have yet to comment on it, which is probably because most of my friends have spent time at the beach recently, and their hair has also been lightened.
Tuesday I went shopping for a router, a gift and to get some old photos developed. The router story has been told already and the photos were less than spectacular. They seemed to be mostly opportunistic shots and film-wasters just to finish off the roll, spanning Easter to New Year. I don't take many photos. I bought Evil Genius for the gift, based on an Apropos of Something recommendation. I have since finished the demo and heard positive reviews from many other people. Now I need my own copy. Youthworx reunion also that night.
Wednesday was way too hot and humid to do anything but lounge in front of a fan. I went to Bridgit's to hang out with Stu and Murrae too, and play Party Monopoly. I lost first, which makes me some kind of winner, I think.
Thursday I went op-shopping with Stu and Bridgit for appropriate 80s costumes for Stu's 21st. I had mine sorted out already - I was just checking for cheap suits and hideous ties. I went back to karate in the evening for the first time in a few weeks and came home drenched with sweat. I blame the humidity for creating a zero evaporation rate.
On Friday morning I checked out the QFleet car auctions with Dad. The Toyota Camry I was interested in sold for $19 300, which is not surprising considering its good condition and low odometer reading. I played City of Heroes in the afternoon until Daniel and Lotte's farewell party, which I enjoyed. Of course.
Saturday I found out that the next time I'll see Vicki will be three weeeks from now, unless she calls me first. I'm going out on a limb and saying she's not gonna call. I went to Stu's 21st dressed as Freddy Krueger and was quickly surpassed by Murrae's full Darth Vader costume. We tried to convince Murrae (recently elected Elder at church) to wear the costume when he first distributes communion. He seemed less than receptive to the idea. Party pooper.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'm not quite looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.
PPS - Most of my time will be sorting out weeks of email.

In the Summertime

For the majority of you who live in Brisbane, this will hardly be news: Summer here is hot and humid 24/7. This feels like the biggest thing affecting my life right now. The heat and humidity combine to cover every person in a thin layer of perspiration and condensation, like an amphibian. The humidity means this does not evaporate like it should. It's tough to keep long hair in good condition. You feel like a set of gills wouldn't go to waste, since you practically swim through the air anyway. Also, because sweat smells bad and it isn't going away, it's almost impossible to smell good unless you live in air conditioning or stand in front of a fan all day and night. Personally I opt for three showers a day.

As bad as all this is, I imagine this is the only thing keeping the South-East Queensland population from exploding - others used to harsher Winters migrate North to tropical Queensland and experience the most pleasant Winter of their life. They move here. Summer rolls around and they melt like snowmen. So I guess it's not all bad.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I go through 600mL of ice per night.
PPS - That's as well as the open windows and fan.

Dream Another Dream

I had a post all ready to go for this morning and then this dream hit me. I dreamt I was in bed very early in the morning and woke up with a strange compulsion to go downstairs and look out towards the ocean. I could see sparks flying into the air from a massive bonfire down on the beach (by the way, we don't live near the beach) and also some tiny pathetic fireworks. Then a bus - no kidding, a Council bus - comes flying through the air turning end-over-end and embeds itself up to halfway in the corner of the house. It barely missed my bed.

Of course by the time I checked around to see if anyone was playing a joke or wanted me dead, some of my friends had come over to see the bus. By then it had turned into a whale and I kind of lost my momentum.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Just this morning I saw this which might at least explain where the idea of a flying bus came from.
PPS - I think it also had something to do with City of Heroes.

Routerised

I've just finished the minor headache of installing a router here at home to properly share our cable internet between two computers. I've restarted this computer about four times and rebooted the router maybe six times. I've had to check and change the internet password a few times, and more than once everything seemed to be working for about five seconds before it all fell down again. Now, however, everything seems to be up and running properly, and all the programs I've tested so far have worked without issue.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I have yet to test the connection from the other PC.
PPS - I'm only a little worried about the new total of ten devices running on two power outlets in this room.

Stimulus/Response

I have made an observation of human behaviour. So far I have only observed this in females of the species, but it may equally apply to males. When a girl is just on the verge of entering a romantic relationship, she becomes way more friendly to everyone else, including people she might have avoided previously. I also have a couple of half-baked pop-psychology explanations:

• She may believe she is keeping the secret by behaving in a more friendly manner to everyone rather than just her prospective partner.
• Her system may be flooded with positive hormones, bringing about an involuntary goodwill to all people.
• She may (subconsciously) realise that she's about to drop out of many social circles for a little while, and is pre-emptively making up for it.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Whatever the explanation, I have seen this to be true on a few occasions now.
PPS - I have yet to correctly interpret it as it happens.

"Useless" is such a harsh word...

It seems useful to me now, like many impractical ideas I've had before: an expiry date on files, emails, folders, whatever. That is, the file is slated for future deletion, but is intended to hang around until then. As I said, it seems useful, but I think it would be one of those features that gets buried in the background and used only a few times.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I just want it so I can free up more of my memory for other important data.
PPS - Like more Simpsons episodes.

This is why I don't talk much

I carry a little black diary notebook in my back pocket everywhere I go. I use this notebook to keep track of appointments, taking names and occasionally to write down profound thoughts that strike me at odd moments. This, then, is my top 5 of those profound thoughts for 2004:

5: "If you think someone is boring, you don't know them well enough". This is probably just a reaction to me thinking I am boring.

4: "You can't dance and worry at the same time". True enough, eh?

3: "Every minute of every day we leave behind the person we once were. Change is not just inevitable - it is essential. Without change there is no growth. Without growth we cannot adapt. If we cannot adapt we spend more time trying to change our environment. Eventually all of our time is taken and we have none left to live in. The world will change whether you want it to or not. As long as you live here, you will have to make peace with change." This entry is notable because of its sheer length. It took a whole week's worth of pages to write down.

2: "I've learned that a baby's smile is the most infectious smile in the world". Everyone smiles when a baby does.

1: "Kung-fu Zombie Movie", referring to a half-baked idea about combining the two best movie genres of all time.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - There are many, many others.
PPS - Some of them belong on t-shirts.

The Sunday Mok - Bound and Rebound

Last Sunday, both church services were quiet. It seems that everyone's away right now. Bad Eggs has started to grow on me, after another viewing on Sunday night. I believe that's the fourth time I've seen that movie.
On Monday I saw The Incredibles and I invited just about everyone I knew via SMS, which probably cost me about as much as the movie ticket, in the end. One invited person came along and brought two other people, so that's probably the last time in ages that I try that.
I spent Tuesday mostly just reading and playing City of Heroes. We went to a family friend's place for dinner, and that's when I was invited to Rainbow Beach.
Wednesday was uneventful - reading, games, television, DVDs. All the really exciting stuff a hermit can do.
Thursday morning I left for Rainbow Beach and met the team, including New Girl, Vicki. By evening I was certain she was interested in me.
Friday morning Vicki was acting a little more distant. This led me to give her my number before I left, instead of asking for hers. I'm a little confused. I went to two New Year's Eve parties that were very different. I left one that comprised about nine laid-back people and arrived at the other in the middle of a rowdy, thirty-person game of Pass The Parcel.
Saturday after staying up to watch the first sunrise of the new year (as is my personal tradition) I slept in until 4pm. Not kidding. The rest of the day I played City of Heroes.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It'll be at least a week before I get to see Vicki again.
PPS - And, of course, I can't call her.

New and improved!

I've just spent a few minutes updating my Blogger profile, because I had a new picture to use. Even though Dad owns a spiffy digital camera, somehow I have this aversion to actually using it to take a decent avatar picture of me. I just use whatever recent photo I get my hands on, like a digital photo scavenger.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - This particular one was taken in early December 2004.
PPS - I've only rarely been tempted to use a picture of Brad Pitt instead of me.

An excuse note

To Whom It May Concern,

Please excuse Mokalus from blogging the past few days as he took a spontaneous 250km trip to Rainbow Beach to help out with the Scripture Union Rainbow Beach Holiday Program. Rest assured that he got a little sun and met a nice girl.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Actually a few nice girls.
PPS - But one in particular.

Philosophising

I have trouble sometimes believing that my ideas are original, unique. That is something I want more than most other things in life - to create something new, whether an idea, an invention or a son or daughter. When I construct an idea I am only rarely convinced that it is original, and am usually persuaded that I have lifted it in whole or in part from another source.

Is it possible that constructing ideas from pieces of other ideas is true originality? Can we, indeed, fashion new thoughts out of pure chaos in the sense that all parts of it are new? Our thoughts all come from somewhere. We are all part of the great chain of unbroken cause and effect of this universe, however many distinct quantum bubbles we divide it into. Our thoughts, then, are all caused by something, and another person in our position would have had the same thoughts. That person, I submit as an aside, would also be us, me, you, in the simplest and perhaps most profound sense of the word. Words.

It seems harder to create thought when subjected to a constant influx of other people's thoughts or the world around you. This is why meditation and solitude has often produced the purest thought known to us.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I only philosophise rarely.
PPS - And it's usually about this long.

Uncompromising

When I hear about "sustainable building design" (the latest term for buildings that don't mess stuff up and use little electricity) I'm all for it. Clever uses of excess heat, high-efficiency ventilation and building materials that don't create tonnes of waste during production: that's super. I love it. Behind you all the way. The second someone mentions "no-water toilets" or any similar euphemism for "crap goes into a stinky hole in the ground" you lose me. I have yet to encounter any toilet of that variety that actually performs to a comparable level as its traditional sewer-connected counterpart. A building that includes even one of them drops to about half of its potential liveability, in my mind.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I've been told there are composting toilets that don't stink.
PPS - As I say, I've yet to see one.

Nocturno-Sapiens

I've often wondered what it would be like to live on a nocturnal cycle for a while, and I've never been able to try it out. During university was probably my best opportunity, and I passed it up because my inner nerd was unable to handle missing lectures.

The main obstacle to the experiment is the rest of the world and my commitments in it. These simply keep going, and demand my attention and presence at specific times of the day. I imagine I could argue my way into odd working hours at the office if I so chose. Other things like karate, youth group and church are not so flexible. Also, if I tried to get to work at 8pm and leave at 5:30am, I might have trouble getting public transport.

All these considerations aside, it's still something I'd really like to try sometime for, say, five or six weeks. I imagine I'd feel pretty isolated, since I'd never see my workmates, and communicating with them would be a little difficult. I'd probably get bored quickly, too. There'd be nothing on television at the right times, so I'd have to record it while I'm out. That's if I still cared.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Changing phase would also be a problem.
PPS - It would probably take week or so by itself.

The Sunday Mok - Back away, not today, Disco Lady!

On this day three years ago I fell in unrequited love. I'm really trying to let it go now. Happy anniversary, eh?

Last Sunday I had one of the worst performances of my amateur acting career. This is because I got the six-page script on Friday night. I still managed to remember all but one of my lines and do some convincing characterisation of "His Majesty's Secret-Service Angel Double-Halo-Seven", but I was still unhappy with the whole thing.
On Monday at work I felt like I should have taken this week off, too, even though it was only three and a half days long. It's tough to get back into the swing of things after a week off, and I was really in no mood to be there.
Tuesday I was just killing time at work, which is bad. I felt out of sync with everyone, like we're all dancing to one song and I'm the only one who's got the beat wrong.
Wednesday night was when I decided to back way off. LRHG was almost certainly feeling uneasy in my presence, and she doesn't need that.
Thursday I stayed home instead of going to a party for two reasons. First, I'm an introvert and had five parties in the past six days. I was mentally exhausted with people. Second, my main reason to attend would have been LRHG, so this party qualified as one of the things I need to stop doing.
Friday I helped out with two nighttime Christmas services - the "service of solace" for those people to whom Christmas is not such a happy time, and the near-midnight service for everyone who can't wait. Reading Psalm 22 in the solace service, I nearly lost it. I've still got pain, both mother- and LRHG-related. At the late service I saw three friends I hadn't seen in ages. Since it was after midnight, however, everyone was eager to get home, so the socialising was relatively brief.
Saturday, Christmas Day, I saw my uncle & aunt, my cousins and their kids, though the younger ones had to leave early. I got bored later in the day, mostly due to the net connection being tied up by one of Ug the Caveman's epic Final Fantasy XI sessions. He was on from about 2pm until midnight, if I figure correctly.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Merry Christmas, everyone!
PPS - The gifts I gave seemed to be well-received.

It's "desserts" backwards

It's a bad feeling to wake up stressed, especially on Christmas Eve. It's probably comparable to waking up covered in blood, only slightly less traumatic than that. I could tell I was stressed because my foot was jittering, which is what happens to me under stress.

I realised that I'm now involved in three church Christmas services and have not started preparing for any of them, so my morning, despite being at home, is going to be full of work.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'll probably take a few breaks to play City of Heroes.
PPS - And, silly me, I thought I was going to be able to sleep in.

Balanced online economies

Some regular readers may have picked up on the idea that economics holds a passing interest for me, as do video games. Where these two worlds converge is the auction house in MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft. Keeping these economies balanced is as delicate and involved, and I wonder if the game suppliers employ people to keep it so.

It's a job prospect that attracts interest, because it implies a tremendous amount of power, and also because it's exactly the kind of management task we all like to think we could do. It means constantly monitoring prices, wages, cost of living and all the other factors that contribute to the economic health of the virtual world, and can mean macro-management one day and micro-management the next.

I wouldn't mind giving it a go.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - This all sounds like a good idea for a game in itself.
PPS - Perhaps I'll get to work on a design over the Christmas break.

Branded

Occasionally at emailcash they host a survey for a marketing company. Usually this involves sifting through pages of marketese where they assume (a) that I care about brands enough to base my life around them, (b) that I know (and care) what they're talking about and (c) that they've provided adequate options for me to express my opinion.

Often I'll find that the survey asks me to express a specific opinion on a brand that I don't know about and don't care about, but provides only options like "this is my favourite brand" through "just one of the brands I like" down to "I detest this brand and everything it stands for". Usually there's no point to select "I just don't care about brands at all".

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Of course I can choose not to participate.
PPS - Then they offer me the equivalent of $2.50 for it.

More Star Wars conversation

This little snippet of conversation has just made my day:
Angry Brad: You say anything to bring it back to Star Wars, don't you?
Me: Everything does relate to Star Wars, doesn't it?
Actor Adrian: The Force is all around us.
Me: I feel it in my fingers.
Darth Gerard: I feel it in my toes.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Okay, yeah, we're nerds.
PPS - But we're having fun.

Who wears loose shorts?

Recently I noticed that my collection of shorts and trousers was dwindling simply due to wearing out. My options, of course, were to go around pantsless or seek out new leg coverings. Option two seemed to be more socially acceptable. This is when the trouble started.

I have a habit of buying clothes without trying them on first. Couple this with an apparent inability to remember my own waist size and I've now got quite a few pairs of shorts that are entirely the wrong size for me. I have to wear belts around the house, and this is a situation that is almost as distasteful to me as having to wear a tie.

Taking all of this into consideration, last night I measured my waist properly and committed the numbers to memory so that I can confidently buy clothes without trying them on.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's 79 centimetres.
PPS - Or 31 inches.

It'll rot your undead teeth

While on camp, I found these chewy bars called "Zombie Chews". Since it was such an unusual name, and since I have a bit of a zombie interest, I thought I'd pick up a few - some to eat and some to collect.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - The grape ones just taste like bubblegum.
PPS - None of them taste like brains.

The Sunday Mok - Bumper Edition

I was too rushed last Sunday to do my regular post, so here's a summary of the past two weeks:

Sunday the 5th was just church, sleep and Buffy DVDs. I tried to make a phone call I'd forgotten about, and got no answer all afternoon.
Monday was just a regular day at work. Nothing worth mentioning.
Tuesday, while considering some further Amazon purchases, I wished there was a place from which they could ship in Australia which would be quicker and cheaper for me.
Wednesday there was a last-minute decision to send one of us to a Microsoft event and I drew the short straw. It was a pleasant enough way to spend the day, just extremely pointless in the end.
Thursday I bumped into an old school friend at the supermarket who I hadn't seen for about 8 years. She gave me her contact details and I still haven't had a chance to call her or drop by.
Friday I thought about seeing a movie after work, then decided against it.
Saturday was supposed to be really busy, with a meeting, shopping, packing, rehearsal, dinner and bag drop-off. The meeting was low-stress, shopping was easy, as was packing, rehearsal was cancelled, dinner was quick and the bag drop-off took way less time than I anticipated.

Sunday the 12th I arrived at Youthworx camp, and my mind was still buzzing, so I found it hard to relax just yet.
Monday I had to buy a writing pad so I could clear my head, and started to relax.
By Tuesday I'd already forgotten what day of the week it was. It's only a holiday once you forget the day of the week. Around other people, I sometimes tend to think I'm a bit boring.
Wednesday night I was up just a little later than usual. I realised that trying to spend time around LRHG was just making me feel bad, which is a crazy way to live. I decided I should seek out people that make me feel better than that and also to change my expectations. I started feeling better right then.
Thursday was just a lazy, relaxing time, especially in the afternoon. You know those times when you absolutely cannot believe your luck? Like buying a fantastic jacket at a quarter of the usual price, then finding a winning lottery ticket in the pocket? I had one of those moments on Thursday.
Friday I got up for the early-morning swim because it was the last day. The waves were real dumpers, though small. I returned home tired and emotional.
Saturday I woke up feeling quite terrible and walked around moping, feeling sorry for myself. It might just have been a post-camp letdown. In the evening when I got to a small party and was able to relax again, my mood picked up. I left in a good mood.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'm not sure what to feel about LRHG right now.
PPS - I'll sort it out soon enough, I'm sure.

It returns

I just got back from camp at Ballina, New South Wales, and it was a pretty good week. I'll give a more complete run-down in a bumper-edition Sunday Mok in two days' time.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive.
PPS - Although someone appears to have cunningly replaced my arms with slightly browner ones.

Just a big rectangular magnet with a photo-sized hole

I'm never quite sure how bad I'm supposed to feel about some things. This morning I neglected to hold the lift for someone, so they had to catch the next one. I know I'm supposed to feel bad about that, but am I allowed to let it go after an hour? The same thing goes for how long I'm allowed to feel good about doing a good deed, like buying some food for a homeless person. I need a pocket-sized guilt chart to carry around.

My Zombie Peanut Butter shirt made its debut last night, and sparked a little conversation. I would have liked to be able to use the words "rave reviews" here. Alas, I expect t-shirts as a species have ceased to be the spectacular fashion items they once were.

Last night in a Secret Santa feeding-frenzy I netted myself a magnetic photo frame. The reason I am less than enthusiastic about this gift is because I have no photos and our fridge is not the place to share any that I might take now. This current fridge has been a magnet-free zone since purchase a few years ago, and the blockades are still up. All hell could break loose if I attempt to demilitarise, say, the freezer door. I do still have some non-digital photos to be developed, and I should probably find a way to organise or display them - I've just never had the space for photo frames.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Next week I'll be off the net, so probably no posts.
PPS - The Sunday Mok should still go ahead as planned, though.

Just faking

Playing Heroes last night I came across a "Freakshow" boss called (seriously) "teh PwnZxxOrz!". Anyway, I spent the time to knock him down, including the extra time it took to deal with the extra hit points he got by using the "Dull Pain" power that all Freakshow enemies seem to have access to. He goes down. I walk away.

Then the dude just got back up, like it didn't even tickle. Ding ding! Round Two! Exactly the same guy, back again with full hit points and another shot at Dull Pain. I had to run away and rest.

Finally I managed to put him down again, and I was a little worried that he'd come back a third time. This time, though, he stayed down.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - And that's how I earned a badge, completed a mission and rose to level 22.
PPS - I didn't get the girl yet, though.

There's no "I" in Team America

I saw Team America: World Police last night, which was about five days later than I originally planned. I thought it was really funny, and well worth the time and money. It's hard to be offended by these puppets, even on their worst behaviour. I imagine that Kim Jong Il and Alec Baldwin can't say the same thing, though. I wasn't laughing the whole way through, and I've certainly laughed harder at other movies. Still, it's very funny, and you should see it if you haven't yet.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - "Matt Damon!"
PPS - I promise I will never die.

Hair, memory, books, dimensions

I'm currently experimenting with a hairstyle that is best described as "Luke Skywalker on a bad day". Depending on how I treat it and what time of day it is, I'm either sexy or I look like I just fell out of bed. It's tough to hit the good spots.

I keep having good ideas while I'm away from a keyboard, then hoping I'll remember them later. The truth is that I'm likely to forget it unless I'm able to write it down immediately. I have a smaller-than-average short-term memory, but I make up for it with massive and reliable long-term storage. I've got a big hard drive, but no RAM. Actually, that sounds dirty. Think of your own metaphor for that one and pretend I said it.

I've been shopping for my own Christmas present on Amazon, which will probably end up being more books. Years ago I borrowed one of the Spider World series from Michael, a friend who now lives in England, and I thought it was terrific. I've tracked down a motley assortment of the four books in the series, and that's probably what I'll end up with. Then I've got a few more presents to get, for Dad and Ug.

I've been thinking multi-dimensionally recently, thanks to Flatland (another Amazon purchase) and trying to come to grips with four-dimensional space. That doesn't need to include time as a dimension, you understand. Space of four dimensions can be just as real as three. One of the concepts I've really struggled with, though, is pieces of dimensions. There are occasional references to things like 1.25 dimensions which sounds as odd to me as 1.58 computer bits. I've got a digital mind, and analogue abstractions like that take a while to squeeze in there.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I have more, but this is plenty for one day.
PPS - Maybe some of my other ideas will come back to me.

Microsoft Date 2005

Is it just me, or does this invoke ideas of a Microsoft personals service?


Mokalus of Borg

PS - I don't think I trust MS to match me up with anyone.
PPS - And they'd blame a no-show on a crash.

Rain Traffic

The greatest t-shirt I'll ever own arrived yesterday: Zombie Peanut Butter. This surprised me a bit, because the last I heard from Domination Distribution was that the product was on back-order. It's like an early Christmas. With zombies and peanut butter. And now I think I have to write a movie script called "A Very Zombie Christmas". Actually, that could be kind of cool. I'll let you know how that works out.

Traffic this morning has been affected by rain and tiny thoughts. I imagine that the average commuter thinks like this: "It's raining today, so traffic will be bad. I'd better drive." Then again, it seems like everyone knows this, so who are all these people in their cars making traffic worse? Anyway, this bad traffic has brought me in to work about half an hour slower than usual, which means I'll probably be working through part of lunch. I don't like doing that.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I expected not to be the first in today.
PPS - Apparently I was wrong.

Jealousy

I've been wondering a bit exactly what makes these head cold things go away. Possibly some kind of voodoo charm, because nothing else is having any effect. I wonder if voodoo witch doctors are listed in the Yellow Pages?

I go to two churches on Sundays: one (Ashgrove) in the morning and one (TGUC) in the evening. Last night I had to go to Ashgrove for the evening service, too, and the young folk there just happened to want to hang out at the same coffee club as the young folk from TGUC. Do you follow? Trust me, there's a point. Anyway, I'm sitting over with my less-acquainted friends from Ashgrove and getting leers and good-natured funny looks from my TGUC friends like I'm cheating on them or something.

I started thinking about jealousy and what makes it tick. I came up with this: the prerequisite conditions to make me jealous are that I love you and want you to love me, which usually come together anyway, like pizza and garlic bread. The trigger is an act, event or just a perception that makes me feel like you love someone else more than me. I get afraid that you don't love me at all, and out of this fear is born jealousy, like some dark, fire-breathing phoenix. It's unpredictable and wild. I'd really recommend against trying to incite it to get what you want out of someone, unless unpredictability is what you want.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - In me, jealousy tends to manifest as quiet anger.
PPS - I don't expect that to be a desirable outcome.

The Sunday Mok - 5 December 2004

It's hard to sum up this week in a sentence without saying that I've been sick. As a result, I've probably been a bit less aware of my surroundings and friends.
Sunday morning, after the church service, Tavia apologised for an incident about a month ago when she inadvertently ignored me. It made me wonder whether the Little Red-Haired Girl does that accidentally or on purpose, and whether she's aware of it, because she's never apologised for ignoring me. I played a bit of City of Heroes, too.
On Monday morning at work I was working on a data transfer application and Brian, my supervisor, kept coming back to me for status updates or to tell me about problems. The fact that this kept happening every five minutes brought me to the edge of losing my temper, and I don't like it when that happens. It's vaguely Hulk-like, only without the green skin. You don't want to see it.
Tuesday I was vaguely concerned that I'd spent way too much time talking at work rather than working. It's just hard to stay focused when I've been chasing the one bug for over a week with little progress. I skipped karate in the evening in order to rest and quicken my recovery from this annoying head cold.
Wednesday I stayed home sick from work and was glad for the time off for several reasons. I'm looking forward to the week after next when I'll be away. I played Heroes and watched Buffy DVDs and generally took it easy.
Thursday I went back to work and, though I had to blow my nose every five minutes in the morning, I felt alright in the afternoon. I stayed up later than I intended to that night playing City of Heroes. It's incredible how much time it can take up. Bachelor Brant at work is right: it really seems only possible to sustain a relationship either with a girlfriend or an MMORPG.
Friday night we took the youth group kids to Dreamworld for the 96.5fm Mega-Rush. I missed out on the new ride, "The Claw", but did get to go on the Tower of Terror, the Giant Drop and the Cyclone for the first time each. I couldn't believe the tiny restraint used on the Tower of Terror - a little padded bar across the lap. I had a great time, and so did the kids.
Saturday morning I helped washed cars to raise money for the church project we've called "Opportunity Knox". We're going to do some renovations on the Lower John Knox hall, to make it a more usable space for youth activities. I got home just in time for lunch, then slept until dinner. After that I headed out to Bridgit's 21st birthday party and met all of her workmates. Bridgit warned me that they were "on the prowl", but they all seemed to be engaged, so I'm not sure who to believe. It wasn't an especially wild party, and I was home by 00:30.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Bridgit's brother is a bit strange.
PPS - I guess I was just as strange at his age, though.

Heroics Etc

If you will indulge me for a short while, I have some items to report about City of Heroes.

My main character, Dire Sun, is built to take damage, since that is his Archetype: a Tanker. I neglected, however, to take a power that provides resistance to heat and cold. I was wooed away by other powers, promising big damage-dealing ability and cool effects. I often think that I'll take that power at a higher level, but last night I had a little thought. Every superhero has some kind of weakness, right? Spiderman has Mary-Jane, Superman has Kryptonite and Batman is an idiot. So perhaps I'll leave it out as a kind of loophole in my powers, and I can imagine thugs everywhere cleaning and testing their flamethrowers just for me.

On a similar note to that, the few hardcore roleplayers I've run across in the game are some of the most annoying people I'll probably ever meet. Creating an avatar that looks like a robot is fine, and I'd even accept writing an elaborate backstory for that character. However, trying to interact with someone like that who answers some questions with phrases like "Unknown Data" and "Affirmative" rather than "I don't know" and "yeah" is just irritating. That's usually as far as I get when interacting with these people.

I had assumed that my brother Ug had been playing Heroes alongside Final Fantasy XI, as has been the case for some time. Apparently, his top-level character is now at level 20 while mine is 21. I'm ahead like that tortoise in that story. He's asked me how long it will take me to get to level 50 to unlock the so-called Epic Archetypes so he can create a "Kheldian" character for himself. Apparently this is what it would take to re-invigorate his interest in the game. I imagine that will take some time yet, though I am surprised at how much experience I can rack up in just a few hours of play. I gained probably three quarters of the necessary experience for me to get to level 22 last night alone.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I estimated last night's session at three hours.
PPS - This post could have been more entertaining.

The Error Message Awards!

And the award for the Least-Useful Error Message of the Year goes to:
"Unspecified error or incorrect password."

Mokalus of Borg

PS - So you're either not telling or I try my password again.
PPS - Yeah. Super.

BioCityOne

I was wrong: it's a head cold, and it kept me home from work yesterday. Despite feeling just a bit worse today, I've decided to come in and tap away at the keyboard. Hopefully I'll be able to do more than pretend to work.

As I stepped over a squashed lizard on the footpath this morning (just a little one) I wondered whether any city has been designed with animal considerations in mind. There's a kind of ecosystem that goes along with every city, but most of the time it's sort of tacked onto the side. We build some parks, plant some trees, tolerate the pigeons and poison the bugs.

Naturally our built environments aren't designed specifically to serve the needs of animals above our own needs, but I'm sure we could accommodate them too. Perhaps even do better than we currently do. Think waste management for a second. There are numerous creatures in the wild that live to eat, bury or process the waste of bigger creatures. If we found a place for them, we might not need so much space for dumping our rubbish and processing our sewage.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It was just a thought.
PPS - Admittedly a slightly strange one.

Gimme an 'I'! Gimme an 'N' ... 'SPIRATION'!

Knights of the Old Republic is, by most accounts, more fun to play with the dark side than the light. This is either a searing indictment of the game or of humanity itself, and I can't decide which. Perhaps it is best just to say that it is a searing indictment of something and leave it at that.

KOTOR is still among my regular rotation of secondary games, and these have been getting more of a look-in recently. This is not because City of Heroes has lost some power over me (it hasn't) but because we have one internet-connected machine capable of playing that game, and it seems to be currently given over 100% to Final Fantasy XI.

My gaming off-season currently involves The Sims 2, KOTOR and Myst IV. I've also been watching Joan of Arcadia thanks to a friend and BitTorrent, wallowing in a legal grey area that's about to turn black tonight when Joan premieres on Australian television.

These longer daily entries are the result of an unusual wave of inspiration that can hit me at unfortunate times. Last night it hit me at almost 10pm when I was getting ready to sleep due to my slight illness. It's getting worse. I blame Tycho for this bout of inspiration, as I mentioned earlier that I aspire to reach some level of comparable greatness as him. Obviously, I will be far lower in the popularity ratings. I'd still like to think I can reach some low-down ledge of the towering pedestal on which he lives.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's about rich metaphors.
PPS - Original rich metaphors.