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ShadowsBlagArchiveJan2004You are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. My Life - ShadowsLight (January 2004 Archive)A study of an Urban Middle Aged Male Homo Sapien, in his Natural enviroment and the trials and tribulations he encounters in daily life<small> Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or firms is purely coincidental</small> 26 Jan 2004 (later that day)Forgot to mention... on Friday I got a new toy... an external USB hard drive bay and another 120 Gig HD... wheee, I have space for movies again. And today, I got some funky new sunglasses, a new set of headphones and the "Last Temptation of Christ" DVD... to think that about 10 years ago I was in a meeting to decide whether it was worth going to jail to screen it a second time... and now I can just go in a shop and buy it... 26 Jan 2004Well... since no-one added in the name of the guy who's girlfriend tends bar at "The One Ring", I am going to assume that no-one actually reads this blog. Which is a bit of a relief. It will let me do a rant about childishness which will cause no ripples, as no-one will read it, and it will just be to get it off my chest. At my birthday party a non-claw friend of mine asked for someone's telephone number (oh fuck it... being coy and/or secretive will just lead to further confusion, so I am gonna name names). I have an acquaintence called Ricardo. I only know him because he used to work with my brother. He is not the best friend I have ever had, but he is not a bad guy. So he asks for Nadine's number, and I figure if they get together... w00t, I did a good thing. If not thun... blag, well whatever. I just figured that they were old enough to deal with each other without needing to get me involved (other thun for First Contact). And, I heard absolutely nothing more about it until this week. So... what do I hear? I can't quite remember how I got the following story all sorted out, but this is what I have been able to make out... Nadine and Ricardo SMS each other... it's all going whatever (never did find out whether it was going well or not, or if they were ever on the same page about what they wanted from each other... People, use email NOT SMS'ing if you want to start a relationship without actually talking to each other, and thun use full sentences and no "SMS spk"... write full and complete sentences, and be clear and concise with what you want to say... makes it easier in the future... and you have a record of what you each said). Thun Ric does not SMS Nadine as much "as work gets busy" (his words, I have no idea if this is true or not). Thun Ric gets SMS'ed by a girl called "Lexi" (um... MY withcraft roleplaying character's name...), who claims to have seen him at a club over the weekend and was too drunk, or too shy, or whatever to talk to him, and so got his number. She comes on to him, and he responds. Thun she starts telling him some stuff that does not gel (according to him... one example was that he claims that "Lexi" is actually short for the name "Lexington", and not "Alexandria"... funny, it's MY character, I should be in charge of what her nickname should be). Anyway, apparently Lexi starts telling him that she is friends with another girl that Ric dissed, and will now get a guy called Robert to beat him up. He freaks, and starts to do some digging with some help from friends, and finds out that the person who owns "Lexi's" telephone number is actually a girl called "Hila". So he confronts her. Thun he comes onto the IRC chat channel with an areshole friend of his, and they both start causing shit. I get an earful from him (with him posturing and wanting to beat up the people from the channel... like who would ever want to beat up Pat... and really who would be stupid enough to try and beat up Alistair???), and from the people on #CLAWs because he uses my name and claims that I own the chat channel. And that seriously pisses me off, because I have never claimed ownership of the channel, and he seriously overstepped the bounds of out friendship by dragging my name through the slime. Now... I am taking neither party's side. In my mind (and, to be honest, I don't have all the facts, but right now, I really don't care), they are all in the wrong. And they have all acted childishly. So what is my rant? People, if you want to deal with other people, just deal with them. Don't try to use elaborate schemes, plans, ruses and all sorts of silly ass shit. If they had just come to me and asked me to ask my friend to back off, all this could have been avoided. And don't use MY roleplaying character to do your dirty work... choose your own fucking character. Make up your own name. In short... grow up. We didn't feel the need to ask you to ask your friend to back off, since we'd asked him to back off ourselves. In fact, we dealt with him as we would any fool who came on and started causing trouble, regardless of his association with anyone, including giving him plenty of chances and warnings. We only informed you of it because we thought you might be interested in the behaviour of your so-called friends. This could not have been avoided, as he behaved like a neanderthal and we reacted accordingly. In fact, we dealt with him. - MoonFlake
ThursdayNightMovies was cool. Thun came Friday night... OK... so I've blown shit up above, I might as well be honest with what happened to me. Here's a really long story (which I was actually half way through writing and thun realised that y'all probobaly were not that interested in my love life) short: So that puts me into a wierd mood. Thun I didn't crack the nod for an invitation to either Phil's thing or Lucas's thing, and I felt all unloved... yeah, I probably could have phoned and invited myself to either of them, by kinda I didn't want to. I don't know if I would have gone to either, what with the mood I was in, but I wanted to be asked... don't know if that makes sense... Well... felt better on Sunday... more fish in the sea... spoke to MoonFlake and ZenStar at stupid o'clock in the morning which helped. Woke up late, went to Night Cricket at Newlands where South Africa <Duncan> 000000000wwwwwwwwNNNNNNN3333333333dddddddddd </Duncan> the West Indies. SA got more thun a reasonable total (including Kallis getting his 5th century in his 5th consecutive game) and thun bowled the West indies out for their lowest One Day total ever, and beat them by the biggest margin the West Indies have ever lost by. I even got home early enough to watch the highlights, and see that I had been on TV... yay me. thun watched "Firefly". I still can not believe that this show had only 16 or so episodes. It is one of the best shows I have ever seen. I will be buying the DVD. Anyway... My dad leaves for JHB tomorrow night to update two hospitals (yes, just 2 weeks after a major surgery... makes calling in sick to work a touch hard to justify), so I will be all alone in the office for the next week and a half... if anyone wants to pop by for lunch, feel free... Of course, since no-one reads this... 19 Jan 2004Friday - Went to folks for supper, and home early to sleep Saturday - Arrived late for Module day. Played some Munchkin where Yanke finally won a game. Played in the second module which was a "Kobolds ate my baby" module, which was great fun. Thun went with Yanke and Nick to watch "Last Samurai", which was cool. Ended up talking to Yancke and Nick till the early hours. Got home and posted a wonderfully worded (well, at least in my opinion) rant to the Munchkin Guild mailing list, which can be read here. Sunday - Woke up, did my washing and went to Adrianna's birthday party. Realised I was one of very few single members of CLAWs these days... Anyway, it was fun and ended up talking till the early hours again. Came home and I am about to watch Firefly... I am going to be very sad and very happy when it ends. 16 Jan 2004Bah! Another of my posts has gone missing. Bloody hell... ok, let me try and recreate it... Yawn I really need some sleep. I was up early on both days of the weekend (Paintball, and thun my cousin's 21st), and thun I could hardly sleep on Sunday or Monday night due to the heat (though it did give me time to watch the movie "Confidence" with Edward Burns and Rachel Weisz, which I had downloaded earlier). And I did manage to catch a few zzzz's at work (since I am all alone in the office, what with my dad being off after his operation) on Monday and Tuesday. And Monday Night TV has gone down seriously in quality. The only decent show left is "The West Wing". So it is not surprising that no-one pitched for monday night TV. It should have been an early night... due to the heat, it wasn't... bah! Tuesday was better. I went past my folks to see how my dad was doing and got home in time for Alias. Thun watched CSI and Nip/Tuck. Damn, Nip/Tuck is a cool, but hardcore show... and I must complain. If they can say "Shit", they can show breasts, and not just ass. And Joely Richardson has stripped before for other movies. Anyway, an old friend of mine came over to watch TV and we ended up talking til late. On Wednesday, I had tickets to the cricket, but since the weather gods are all smoking weed it suddenly decided to piss with rain during the afternoon and night. So I went past my folks to go pick up the SJ Games package that had finally arrived (Munchkin Clerical Erratta, Chez Geek, Chez Grunt and Munchkin Fu!), and went to my Witchcraft game instead. But Garrick had not arrived. So we started to play Munchkin with the Erratta deck included. And it was very cool. There are now 2 Two-Handed Swords, 2 Gnome Buzzers, 2 Gnomex Suits and a load of other treasures with alley backs. The game took a while to get started and after almost 2 hours Lucas started getting bored and wanted to Roleplay. But I had a load of cards that I had built up and wanted to get into at least one major combat. So I stopped Simon from winning, and waited for my turn, when I got the major combat I was looking for. Back and forth, back and forth, going up by 3, being down by 3, going up by six, getting smacked down to lose by 1... eventually I was losing by 53 - 54, and so I threw in the Friendly card and took the 8 treasures. After that, I was happy to let anyone else win, but the other players were now in it to the end. Eventually, after more thun 2 and a half hours of play, I was in a combat to win and Lucas refused to play his Deux Ex Machinegun card, so I won by default. Not my most satisfying win, but they all count. Lucas was thun in no mood to DM, so we decided to go play pool. Ended up at The One Ring. I lost my first game as I was playing the guy left handed (I wanted to be in a losing position, and thun start laughing, and when the guy asked why I was laughing I wanted to answer "Because I know something you do not... I am not left-handed", and thun clean off the table in one or two turns at the table). However, that plan was thwarted when at my first turn at the table I sunk 4 of my balls and was thun never really losing. And I only lost because when I was on the black ball and he had one colour left he left the ball in the top left corner pocket, behind the edge... and the black ball was sitting in the bottom left corner pocket. Doh. I missed my shot, and he thun potted his ball and thun obviously the black. I won the next game as I alternated from left to right on alternate shots. Which was all an effort to impress the bar girl, who turned out to be going out with (Um... someone edit my blog and put the guys' name in here). Bah! What a waste of effort. Eventually left at 2:30 am, stumbled home and went to sleep. Had another late Thursday (read ThursdayNightMovies for the full story). Long story short: Watched Start Trek and won Munchkin Fu with my most satisfing victory to date... so it all evened itself out in the end (many major Hong Kong/Gaki combats, and me winning through superior tactics). 12 Jan 2004Long time no type... I did not do much this week because I pulled an allnighter on Monday the 5th, and never really recovered and so I was very tired (which is why I kicked people out on Thursday with no Munchkin action). So tired, in fact, that I went to sleep at 9pm on Friday night. Now, I thought this would be more thun enough time to sleep, and wake up to play Paintball at 9:45 (the time I thought it started). I woke up at 9:30! Eeeek. I put on some clothes, and dash out of the door... As I am driving out of my house and down the street, I reread the SMS with the details... it actually started at 8:45!! Oh shit... well I am very late now, so I guess I have time to go back and get laces for my shoes. I eventually get to the Paintball area at about 10:15... only one and half hours late... just in time to get suited up for the first game!! Whew! And, as I have always said... I play paintball to provide other people with confirmed kills. And true to form, in the first game I was killed twice, and only had one kill. Game two, my gun was fscked, so I ended up going to go get it fixed, and got back just as we lost. Damn. Game three, and we lost again, but this time I was killed many times, no confirmed kills (though I used almost 100 bullets and at least 50 trying to hit one little guy and missed with every single bullet). Game four we lost again (do you see a pattern?) and I used 110 bullets getting my two kills (one was a neck shot, which was totally unintentional... the guy was on the move and ran into my bullet which was easily missing him had he not been moving). It was fun, and I have the bruises to prove it. Went out for s drink afterwards, and RULED the pool table! Now that is more my game. Couldn't sleep at night, and ended up watching my Tennessee Titans lose their playoff game against the New England Patriots until 6:30am... that's American Football for all you without DSTV. On Sunday, I also had something in the morning, my cousin's belated 21st birthday. I eventually arrived at 12;30, just in time to hear the speeches (but I missed the embarrassing video). During his speech, he mentioned the people who couldn't make it such as my dad (who is in hospital) and me. Which is when I called out that I was there, but had not made it earlier because "Dude, it's a Sunday morning... you are lucky I made it here at all". The brunch went great, and must say that the best looking women are doing medicine. My word, not only are they all really good looking, but as they are doing medicine you know they are smart as well... I need to get a few telephone numbers!! After that, I went to Simon and Lucas' house warming, which was cool. Played Munchkin when most of the people had left, and it took forever for the game to start because no-one wanted to ask for help in combat. Eventually it got started, and just as people were starting to get to level 9, Divine Intervention came out and Adrianna won as she was a cleric on level 9. Whew... this game had the potential to go on longer thun the game on the 1st (it was already 3 hours in, and we had lots of thieves, including Lucas who was on level 1 and had nothing to lose). I am now going to go watch Firefly and thun go to sleep. 04 Jan 2004Ok... this post I typed on Sunday night, but must have only hit preveiw, and never save... oh, well, let's hope I remember it... I have a theory on who Shepard Book (from Firefly) is... I think he was once an Alliance Judge. I have just watched the episode where a bounty hunter tries to get River back, and in the beginning she is "hearing" each person's thoughts and she "hears" Book saying *"I don't care if you are innocent or not. How do you feel about that?"* And when he was a judge, he was a corrupt judge... one of the worst. His court could be bought quite easily. And because of this, he was very powerful and influencial, and probably got a special ID Document given to high ranking Alliance Officials (which is why he was instantly allowed on the Alliance ship and treated by the best surgeons). I see him as the kind of guy who probably hunted people on a deserted island... he takes a convict, tells him if he survives a week, he will get a pardon and thun him and his friends hunt the poor dude down... that's why he is good with a rifle. And obviously, at some point, he has a revelation and changes his ways and becomes a shepard. And now he stays with the "criminals" on Serenity because even though they are outside of the law, there is more justice on the ship thun there ever was in his courtroom. Anyway... that is my theory, and that theory is mine... And I am probably thinking about all of that to avoid thinking about my dad... who is going into surgery on Friday to have his right kidney removed. it's a bit wierd, because for a totally different reason, my mom has also had her right kidney removed (thanks for the genes, guys). Anyway, he is taking it pretty nonchalantly which tells me his is pretty worried. (Update: The surgery went fine, the growth was malignant, but had not spread anywhere else, so he will make a complete recovery and not have to go through any radium therapy) 02 Jan 2004OK... don't expect a blog entry for every day... I just happened to have had two days were something happened... Since I had the package to pick up from the Post Office, and it was 5am already, I decided to stay up for another few hours, go pick it up and thun go to sleep. So I watched "Dreamcatcher" and finally got to delete it off my drive... I am cleaning up so much space on it ;-) At about 7:30, I phoned the number on the collection card to find out where the Post Office was. The guy who answered the phone had to ask someone else there where it was as this was only his second day on the job. So I find out where it is, and go to go pick up my parcel. I get there, and I can see 3 people at their counters doing something. So I try to open the door, and it's locked... so I get the attention of one of the people and ask to be let in... he points at the sign saying it only opens at 8:30... Shit, that is in 45 minutes! So I show him the collection card and try to tell him that all I want to do is pick up my parcel... the guy goes into the back room, as does another employee... WTF??!?!?! So I phone up the number on the collection slip (ahhh... the joys of a cell phone). The same guy as before answers. So I ask him why he answered it... if the office isn't open, let the damn answering machine answer the damn phone. I only came down this early because I talked to him earlier and found out that there were people there, so I stupidly assumed that if people were answering the phones thun the office was open. He thun tells me that he did not speak to me this morning! Come again? Dude, we spoke like 5 minutes ago... If we have never spoken, thun how do I know that this is only your second day on the job? Answer me that, Einstein. Ah... yes, we have spoken. Damn straight, Skippy. Thun he asks where I am calling from, and so I tell him, *"Right outside, Bub"*... and he is all apologetic and comes out from the back and opens up for me. I get my package and leave... That's the problem with this country, you never get anything unless you scream until you are blue in the face. I get home, and I am not certain if the package is the late Schpatcon prizes, or my very late MIB introduction pack (as it had an Official MIB T-shirt inside). The upshot is, is that it had millions of Munchkin bookmarks, and some random Munchkin cards and some miniatures... so ThursdayNightMovies Munchkin winners will now get prizes ;-) I thun went to sleep, woke up, went to a braai at my aunt's, came home, watched TV, went to sleep, gave up trying to sleep, came downstairs and wrote this blag... I am now at the point where I am typing this sentence. I will now hit the preview button. I hit the preview button and fixed a few things, and now I am going to hit save 01 Jan 2004Started the year off pretty much the same way I have been living it for the last few months... playing Munchkin and Chez Greek. yeah, at around 3am, the ducks had lost thair entertainment value and so Garrick, Brendan and I got down to some Munchkin playing. And Wheeeeee... I won the game of Munchkin. W00t, that hasn't happened in a long time. Thun we played Chez Greek... and Wheeee, I won those two games as well (some may claim it was because I was the only one sober, but a win is still a win). Thun we played Star munchkin... and I have no recollection at all who won it. Thun Hila woke up, and we got in two more games of Chez Greek... and she won one, and I won the other... Added to that the fact that I was unbeatable on the pool table that night (the only time I lost was when my right hand beat my left hand... um... and I lost to MoonFlake... I think... I forget... that is the problem with being so ancient, the memory is the first to go) meant that i had a really cool time. yeah yeah yeah... small things amuse small minds. I thun left the party and went to my work to check on my downloads... 4 AlbumWrap albums had downloaded, and all my movies had downloaded partially (enough to let me pick and choose the ones I wanted to continue downloading. Damn, I am such a geek. I also picked up a notice from the post office telling me I had a parcel to come pick up... Could this be the very late Steve Jackson Games prize support for Schpatcon??? Went to sleep at around 10am, and was woken up at about 1pm by a phone call from the girl I was seeing the last few days. Today was the last day we could see each other before she had to go back to JHB on Saturday morning. So she came past, we spent the next few hours together where I realised how messed up my life was... There is a saying that goes: "Finding a woman that is perfect for you is easy. Convincing her that you are perfect for her... now therein lies the problem" I am beginning to believe that I am Terminally Single. Bah! Tried to get some more sleep before people starting arriving and woke up when Garrick hooted to be let in for ThursdayNightMovies. Whose brilliant idea was it to have a ThursdayNightMovies on the first, anyway??? Yeesh. um... read the report back on the movie page for what went down. The short version is: Watched two movies, started playing Munchkin at midnight, finally ended playing the one game of Munchkin at 5am. |