Well if it was snowing, I sure wouldn’t be inside; Snow in Wellington? EPIC. I’d be out there enjoying it!

If it snowed so hard I couldn’t leave the house? Alright.

1. Video Games
I’d be all up playing any combination of Minecraft, DoomRL, Weird Worlds, Team Fortress 2, or Spelunky, or whatever! If my girl was with me, I’d probably Wii Bowl for a while.

2. Catch up on my bible reading
I’ll be honest, I’m currently more than a few days behind on Arise’s One Year Bible plan (M’Cheyne’s Classic). I probably should be reading up now as is.

Bible reading is pretty interesting when you have it in context, so I like to use a commentary like the ESV Study Bible. The Bible’s books, especially the New Testament was originally written by their authors with specific audiences in mind, which usually aren’t explictly me. For example, Paul’s letters were to fledgling churches around the Mediterranean: I think context helps a lot for understanding what’s actually going on and why the figures in the Bible wrote what they did. The ESV Study Bible has lots of great insight in its commentary.

3. Internet
I’d be online consuming past issues of every video on The Escapist, especially the Loading Ready Run stuff, catching up on my RSS feeds (though I do have that almost down to a science).

4. Read or listen to a book or podcast
I love to read, or listen to, science fiction. It gives me a chance to see inside other (fictitious) people’s lives and how they would react to crazy circumstances. Science fiction isn’t so much about the explaination about how futuristic technology might work, but rather how we as human beings might react to it, and how we as a race might change because of it.

What would you do on a snow-day?

I’m assuming this is omitting face-to-face, which is always best, but as the next substitute:

Instant Messaging, for sure
I’m not great on the phone. If you call me and I don’t have your number, and I say “hello” and you say “it’s me”, I might not be able to place your voice, and that’ll throw me off for the whole phone call. Ask my girlfriend the first time she called me!

I guess text messages fit into this the same way, but they cost cold, hard, cash money. I have been chatting since dial-up BBS days, and we had live see-everything-you’re-typing-as-you-type-it chat back then. We used to press enter twice to say you were done and it was the other person’s turn.

I also learned bad habits with ICQ: I might send you a few short text messages in quick succession rather than save it into one message. This means my message might have cost me double or triple just because with IM if you were typing big long messages,

> you might type sentence fragments
> so the other person knew you were still there
> and hadn’t been disconnected
> by your younger brother
> picking up the phone in the other room

because back then, IM programs didn’t tell you the other user was actually typing something. You might do something like this even:

> LOL
> yeah I saw that last year
> it’s oldie but a goodie

And that’d be more sensible as one SMS.

urlTea

A Web 2.0 look at the Short URL services.  Light, simple interactivity. Intuitive design. And even an API! I’ll probably GPL it soon too…
Your thoughts?

1. I sucked at tag. Primary school was pretty hellish for me — I was unfit, I had no friends, and I could never catch anyone. It’s a part of my life that I like to forget. Because I had no-one who liked me or understood me (my parents admit to not really understanding me and my interests when I was young) I turned to reading books and learning. If I had to pick someone who I think understood me when I was young, I’d probably have to say my grandmother on my mother’s side, Lois, who unfortunately passed away while I was at Intermediate, or just starting, I can’t remember. She would buy books for me all the time, and it was her who I credit for getting me into computers and specifically programming. An Osbourne book on Basic for various computers like the Commodore 64 and the TRS-80, and the really simple game listings within it. I would spend hours staring at that code, trying to figure out what the game would do. I wouldn’t get any kind of computer until after she passed away, and then it was a 286 and no-one told me where GW-Basic was.

   Gosh, there’s a bit there. Does that count as only one?

2. I love computer games, but in reality, I’m not a hardcore gamer. I like the games that I can pick up, play for 15 minutes, and then put to one side. To this end, I rarely finish a game. A mild case of ADD? It’s certainly not AD&D I can count on one hand the games I’ve clocked without cheats:
   • Half-Life (PC)
   • Half-Life 2 (PC)
   • Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (PC) (but that barely counts)
   • Phoenix Wright (Nintendo DS) (but it’s mostly trial-and-error. Heh, trial, law game)
   • Doukutsu Monogatari (aka Cave Story) (PC)

   Yet recently I’ve bought so many DS and GBA games for my Nintendo DS Lite, and haven’t clocked any others

3. I’m not allergic to anything, but I have had cancer. I have a giant scar on my back from where they removed a melanoma (skin cancer). Luckily it came back from the labs that it hadn’t spread, but I can’t give blood anymore. If they’d let me, I’d go every six months. So if you’re reading this, and you are able to give blood, you should go do it — it helps so many people out there, and only inconveniences you for a few hours; heck, most workplaces will let you go give blood on work time!
4. When I want to chill out, the forest is my chill out space. I love to just go somewhere and listen, relax. Rivers are also very awesome. I was baby sitting a couple of my mum’s friend’s kids for the weekend one time in the middle of summer, and they had some really large inner tubes, so we took them out on the river out the back of their house, and had a ball and we all got so tired, we walked back, packed stuff away, and we all fell asleep in the lounge where we were sitting, totally unexpectedly. It was probably the quietest they ever were!
5. I like chiptunes. Music made on old retro hardware that sounds like it could have come out of an old GameBoy or C64. I especially like the stuff that comes out of 8bitpeoples
6. Bonus Fact: I don’t like peas. But that said, they are tolerable when mixed with other vegetables. But by themselves, blargh.

Bob Brown (Confessions of a Guru), Hamish MacEwan (self titled), Hillary (Kiwirose in Canada), Dan Milward (Mind of Mufasa) (fix your feeds, they’re broken), and Unbounded (self-titled), even though Unbounded is the kind of guy who would abhor this kinda meme; TAG – You’re it!

My workmates and their students created this short 3D animated film called Amiganaut, and got me to star in it. I’m the giant scottish mech suit guy, dubbed the HGU — Heavy Ginger Unit. Awesome eh?

Andrew suggested we meet up at the South Bank Piazza, and then go to dinner. So we did. Andrew introduced me to his girlfriend Greta, who is very nice. We had planned to go to Decks, but it was closed, so we went to Mum and Neil’s regular, The Plough.

We ordered food. Andrew and Greta got pretty standard food, but seeing as I could have steak anywhere in the world, I tried something local and ordered the Barramundi, which is a fish dish. It was good.

Andrew invited me out with Greta and himself to Australia Zoo the next day. It sounded like fun, and spending time with a good friend is always neat

We got to Australia Zoo after a 1.5 hour drive in Andrew’s car at about 10:30am. Through the admission gates and we learned there was the main show starting at the 5000-seat Crocoseum at 11am.

Pre-show entertainment was going, with a guy in a gorilla suit walking around having fun with the crowd. After being seated for only about 15 minutes, a guy in a banana suit started sneaking around, trying not to be noticed by the gorilla. Hilarity ensued as the gorilla started chasing the banana man off stage.

An announcer came out and told us that yes, Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter would be doing the croc show today, along with his wife Terri. That was a pleasent surprise!

Then the gorilla emerged from the stage doors being chased by the banana

First up was the snake show, where we saw (from a distance) the various snakes that Australia has, along with some exotic snakes. We even saw an albino constrictor! A keeper came past all the seats in the arena and gave those who were daring enough the chance to pet a snake — wow! They feel really smooth and scaly.

Next was the tiger show, and two of the cutest tiger cubs, only 2 years old came out and played with the keepers, which was cool.

Next was the free-flight bird show, where lots of amazing birds flew back and forth across the arena to keepers who were roaming the crowds. I got heaps of photos of the brightly coloured macaws.

Then was the moment everyone was waiting for, the Croc show, with Steve Irwin. But first we were treated to a skit with a lookalike Steve and Terri pair, along with a generic cameraman. I was wondering why they weren’t putting a feed of the cameraman’s camera on the big screen, when suddenly the cameraman fell back into the croc pool (which was empty) and I realised that it was a prop camera, which gave me a chuckle

The real Steve and Terri came out, and started wisecracking about the elephants, and Terri compared the elephant’s trunk size to that of Steve’s. LOL. I think Terri really wants a third child, Steve… The croc show was pretty neat, with Steve demoing how easy it is to attract a croc, and getting the croc to do some deathrolls. That was cool.

After the show, Andrew, Greta and I had lunch, then walked around the rest of the zoo, meeting kangaroos and koalas up close — so close we could, and did, pet them. We also saw many other animals: emus, native australian birds, wombats, snakes, cassawaries, foxes, and camels.

We couldn’t see any dingoes in the dingo enclosure. I was disappointed that they didn’t have any platypus at the zoo.

All in all, an exciting day, and a very hot one at that. Highly recommended.

Everyone in my department (apart from the course co-ordinator) owns a PSP. So I figured I should make the most of it and bite the bullet myself. Mind you, it wasn’t cheap :/ Anyway, I got the PSP value pack, a USB cable, a 1GB Memory Stick Duo and the game Mercury, and I have GTA Liberty City Stories preordered.

I also bought a UMD Movie of Steamboy, which is a great anime film — you should see it if you get the chance. But I don’t think that the PSP is a great delivery platform for a two-hour movie, unless you’re stuck on a plane and are sick of playing video games.

Also, hooray for Homebrew! After upgrading from 1.52 to 2.0 and then downgrading to 1.50, I got a Genesis/Megadrive emulator running on there!

And OMG PHEAR LUMINES. That game, once you get into it, is intense. You go into it all relaxed and you come out of it all tense and powered up. I love that game.

I mean, taking Eric Meyer for example, hearing the world expert on CSS talk about his field in the morning, meeting him and having a conversation with him after lunch, getting two books he wrote signed by him that night, hearing him talk again the next day, and then go out drinking with him and our new-found buddies and some of us end up at a nightclub in Kings Cross… THIS STUFF JUST DOESN’T HAPPEN! And it wasn’t just Eric either, it was Molly, Tantek, Doug Bowman, John Allsopp, Jeffrey Veen, Derek Featherstone, and so many more! It was so much more than an honour to meet these people; hanging out was a mindjob.

What’s weird at first is that the “big stars” are approchable and friendly in real life, they want to know who you are, because they know you know who they are. This is in comparison to many people in the lime light in other more fame-focused industries (music, movies, but not microcode) who are less likely to give you time of day than have a conversation with you.

As much as this will sound like I’m blowing my own horn or that I’m kissing up, the most humbling thing to discover at the conference was that some of these “big stars” had heard about “the guy who was fundraising through his blog to get to we05” and that when those individuals and I met, they had a suspicsion that I was that person — I didn’t have to tell them. These people knew kinda who I was!

So when I get home and discover that Molly and Tantek have left such generous comments that I have a grin from ear-to-ear, how am I supposed to react?

Really, it all comes down to respect: I could have an unhealthy respect for them bordering on holding them as idols, but one has to remember that they are just regular people. As the famous Bruce Dickenson once said “Easy, guys… I put my pants on just like the rest of you: one leg at a time. Except, once my pants are on, I make gold records.”

And when I think about it, and as hard as it is for me to get to grips with it right now, in reality, they are my friends and colleagues in this industry. Now to keep those friendships alive! Hey Tantek, I’d be keen to see the photos you took on your Matrix tour…

Mind you, he also said “I got a fever! And the only prescription… is more cowbell!”, so I won’t push that metaphor

UPDATE: I guess the other side of the equation can happen too: molly.com » Moments of Doubt and Glory

After more legendary presentations from Molly, Eric and Derek, I attended the Ajax session by Tim Lucas. I found myself wanting a bit more, but it was still VERY good.

Lunch came around, so I caught a cab to Found Agency. I got to meet Zak, the guy I talked to on the phone just over a week ago. He showed me around his office in Bondi Junction, and gave me a very in-depth insight into the world of SEO and Pay-Per-Click marketing. Basically, there is OMG HUGE money to be made — seeing some of the Google Adsense windows brought it to life. He also described something called A-B Testing: serving up two identical ads going to slightly different convert pages, observing the difference that the slight difference made, and deciding to keep that change. Zak said that click through conversion can be increased phenomenally just by iterating through this every 1000 clickthroughs.

I also learnt that there are three types of “SEO” people: Super Affiliates (those who partner with a company who wants to sell something and enter into a huge referral rate in the hundreds of dollars per customer), Pay-Per-Click marketeers (those who manage their adwords and search terms they appear on) and Hybrid marketeers (those who do both).

I also learnt that Google doesn’t really like what some Super Affiliates are doing sometimes, and that the Super Affiliates are listening to what Google has to say, including the rel="nofollow" microformat. It becomes obvious to me that the ones comment-spamming blogs don’t really know what they are doing; shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to Google.

I spent so long talking to Zak that I was late for the 2:15pm sessions. I really wanted to see Cameron Adams’ Javascript and the DOM session too. Oh well, there’s always the podcasts.

Thank goodness I made it back in time to catch Tantek’s Microformats session — fascinating stuff. I guess I already knew about XFN and rel=”nofollow” but I didn’t know that these were called microformats. Yay for learning!

Then Jeffrey Veen got up and did yet another PHENOMENAL session giving us all the boost we needed to go back to our jobs and do this stuff we’ve been learning about. I’m totally pumped. I’m gonna go out back and kick that tree.

For some reason, because I was that-guy-who-did-the-blog-donation-box-to-get-to-WE05, I was given a collectable WE05 belt pouch for a digital camera or iPod or the like. Sweet! Thanks people!

The WE05 afterparty was at The Pumphouse in Darling Harbour. Putting my Flickrazzi hat on, I caught some hilarious moments of the presenters on NVRAM and have put them up on Flickr for all to enjoy, namely Doug Bowman dancing, Eric, John Allsopp and Mark Harris doing the WWW, Derek Featherstone getting drawn into a pint, Tantek searching for Wifi at a dance club, and Eric giving Doug in his patented “CSS Brace”

Tantek tells me that I can probably go find many of the places where scenes from The Matrix were filmed here in Sydney; something I was hoping to do, but didn’t realise actually how easy it will be — 10 minutes of Google Searching apparently… hmm…

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Sydney. Will I be back for WE06? Heck yes!

Oh, and don’t forget to keep the middle of May 2006 free in your calendars — a web conference in New Zealand is being planned, and you will highly desire coming along… but more on that later…

My name is Brett Taylor. I’m a 24yo male from Wellington, New Zealand. I’m proud to be a geek.

I started reading your web comic Kevin and Kell on Monday 5th September after repeated recommendations from several sites around the internet. I finished reading it all last night (Monday 12th). I had never read any Kevin and Kell before that Monday.

I’m writing to tell you about how Kevin and Kell has changed my life. You see, I really shouldn’t have been reading this comic in the first place; I’m recovering from an addiction to pornography — my favorite stuff was the furry stuff, and anything furry-related (like Kevin and Kell) is a potential danger zone for me.

But I kept reading. I read all ten years of your comic in a week, taking up all my spare time. But I started getting depressed. I guess I grew kind of jealous of how the characters of Domain came together when they faced problems time and time again, and how they grew closer together, overcoming adversity as a team. For some reason, I really identified with Lindesfarne early on. At the time, I couldn’t work out why.

On Friday night, a friend of mine gave me some ribbing about how I should ask this girl that I had told him I fancied, like he normally does. Usually I can shrug his pestering off, but this time it stuck. And it hurt. The depression got worse. But I kept reading, longing to know more about the world of Kevin and Kell.

On Sunday night, at my church, after the evening service, I broke into tears, confused at what was going on inside of me. The pain that resulted inside of me from reading the comic that was full of happiness and joy was tearing me apart.

Pain is a good thing. It tells us that something is wrong and we need to take action to fix it.

Thankfully, a friend came over and looked after me. I thank God that she did. Over the course of what seemed like an eternity, I came to realise that while I am caring and loving to others, I do so without realising that there is a wall around my heart, making it difficult for others to care for me. I was lonely. I knew I was lonely, but I didn’t even know that it was this wall around me, but I now I know it’s there.

I guess that’s why I identified with Lindesfarne so much. She grew up with her quills as a wall that made it hard for others to get close to her without getting hurt. But somehow she made it through, even gaining a life-long companion. I long so much for family, friendships and relationships similar to the ones portrayed in your comic in my own life.

Is what I long for attainable? I know K&K is fiction, but I know that within the story of Domain there is truth for the whole human world, and that some of that truth is obtainable for my own life. I know the road in front of me is long — I have to figure out how to let people into my heart, and not scare them away. Am I scared? I’m scared out of my wits. I don’t know what I’m gonna have to do. I’m afraid of rejection; of putting my heart on the line, only to have it thrown back in my face.

But I guess I’m writing you to say Thank You. When I think about the world of K&K and Lindesfarne, I’m sad, but now I know what’s wrong with me, I’m going to do what needs to be done to let people into my life. I know that eventually goodness will come out of this. I know that the sadness will eventually pass and I will feel some of the joy that Lindesfarne must feel when she thinks of her friends and family.

Thanks Bill. Thanks for contributing towards this revelation in my life. I will continue to read every day. Please pray for me that I will be able to take down my walls and let those who are closest to me into my heart. If you don’t reply, that’s okay; you’re probably a busy man.

God Bless.

A huge fan,

Brett Taylor

Tonight, after a nice steak at the birthday party of my friend Matthew, he and his friends were gonna go and do some Karaoke. I was sceptical, as you can understand — I am the first to say “hell no” when it comes to karaoke. However, they mentioned that they were going to this place in Manners Mall — upstairs. There is only two bars on Manners, Hoops, a hip-hop bar on the ground floor, and the Pool Bar, which is a pool hall. Apparently, we weren’t going to either of those places. I was intrigued; I tagged along keeping an open mind.

Up the escalators in the Rock Shop Plaza and we reach the top floor just outside the Pool Bar. We don’t go in, but a couple of people from the group go up to “negotiate” our entry into “Oops! Karaoke”, a small complex of over 8 of what I could best describe as ‘karaoke booths’.

The seven of us are admitted and shown to a booth. The booth has 2 comfy couches, a table littered with vinyl covered books, a Korean remote control outclassing most label makers, two microphones connected by cables to a machine in the wall, which is also connected to 4 TVs in the wall.

Before I realise what is happening, a wig, a cowboy hat, and some tamborines are procured from the depths of the couches, and the lights dim and music begins. Two of the people have picked a song and are getting right into it, no waiting. I’m handed one of the vinyl books and told that the blue pages in this book are songs in English and advised to find a song I know and enter the code on the remote. I start flicking through the book, simultaneously listening to my new found Asian friends sing songs. (incidently, I’m the only non-asian in attendance) I’m sitting next to the birthday celebrant, who I know pretty well, and he’s singing a song I know REALLY well. He finishes a verse and hands me the mic. Everyone present encourages me to sing, so I do. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the songs we sang, but they were English pop songs that you’d probably know.

I get right into it, singing my best. When I’m done, a score comes up on the screen — 94. I guess it’s out of 100, because the birthday boy says that I did awesomely well. Well I’m not sure, but compared to one of the guys sitting across from me, I’m definitely doing okay

I proceed to find songs I know in the book, and sing along with the songs that others have picked that I know the tune to, singing into the microphone if it’s passed to me. I’m having a ball! But I hate karaoke!? This isn’t the same as in karaoke bars; This isn’t embarrassing; this is having fun with your friends! W00t! I pick a song, and when it comes up, my friends join in with me!

In the wall, the little karaoke machine is responding to the remote. You look up a song in the book and punch the number of the song into the remote, and press the big yellow “reserve” button. The number you punch appears on the TVs, with the title of the song in English and Korean next to it. The number and title of the next song up are along the screen. When one song ends, the next song begins.

Quickly I realise that the machine is quite simple: it is basically a library of MIDI files, with a loop of irrelevant video behind the lyrics. I spot a laminated sheet on the table that translates the Korean remote: not only does the remote program which songs we want to sing next, but the remote can change the speed of the music, change the key that the song is in, change the volume of the music, the volume of the microphones, the amount of echo in the microphones, and even a button to unleash canned applause, the latter of which I managed to activate after a rather good rendition of “My Heart will go On – Celine Dion”; a song easily hammed, but in this case, well deserved of an automated applause

The unit in the wall has a LED readout, one for the number of the song you’d punch in, but another for how many minutes we had left to sing. It started at ~70 minutes. At the end, we were having a really good time, and it let us sing our last song, then we left.

Would I do this kind of Karaoke again? You betcha. Making a fool of yourself in front of people you know, who are also making fools of themselves, is the best thing on earth. The fact that you’re doing your best to sing along to songs everyone already knows becomes hilarious and fun. Ask me 4 hours earlier if I’d have this much fun singing Karaoke and I’d have told you to get out of my face.

My name is Brett Taylor, and I like to sing karaoke with my friends.

I’ve been allowed to let the cat out of the bag: Daniel has a LJ. That is all. We now return to your normally scheduled life.

So I did it.

Get your Gizoogleate It! Bookmarklet after the jump…

Turns out I was wrong. They hadn’t caught the Interislander, but had caught one of the other, faster ferrys and had been in town for over an hour now. And I didn’t know this because Andrew’s cellphone was flat and he hadn’t been getting my messages.

One taxi ride later, a dash to get my wallet from inside, a dash to the ATM to get some cash for the fare and a dash back to the taxi to pay the bill, I proceeded to idle up Cuba St and finally we meet!

Andrew’s stuff was in his friend’s car who was stuck somewhere deep in the one-way system that is the Cuba Quarter. Told to go meet him at a particular corner, Andrew’s friend was a no-show. Call Andrew’s now charging phone, and get dispatched to some unknown cul-de-sac in Dixon St. A quick jog and I am able to guide the driver to Lower Cuba St.

After unloading some of TmsT’s gears, and me getting drive-by-egged in the process (I actually came out of it unscathed – I took the egg on the shoulder, it ricocheted off me and hit the inside of the open boot door where it released its runny yellow payload), we ride the lift to the roof and chill out there for half an hour, admiring the city scape. Andrew meets his biggest fan in Wellington.

We retire to the apartment, set up Andrew’s computer and get down to animutating. At some point we get the munchies and make a quick raid to the corner BK, and get back into it. About 4:20 we decide it’s Z-time. Glutnix set up TmsT the spare mattress, and we crash about 4:45am, not before setting the alarm clock for 7am, only a little over 2 hours away.

A Klaxon sounds. Rising from our slumbers quicker than a zombie on guarana pills, we pack up Andrew’s computer. We pose for a photo, and when we get the word that Andrew’s ride to Auckland is en route, move his stuff all back downstairs again. He hands me a copy of his graphic novel “The Fisherman” and we bid each other adiau.

That’s when I crawl back into bed and sleep till past noon. We had a grand ol’ time Best wishes for art school in Auckland, Androo

I scored much less swag. I got t-shirts: “Joystick Junkie”, “Esc”, and “You are Dumb 2.0”. So good!

Photos on [ webfroot gallery | flickr ]

Anyway, last week Smileychris, Kodiak and I hooked up with a couple of friends from Napier and went and had coffee at a cafe, then we went to an arcade. Chris and I were pretty keen to hop on a DDR machine — Chris hadn’t been on one before, and I’d only tried one time before. It’s much easier with friends. And if you think it’s stupid, you haven’t tried it… it’s quite fun.

Anyway, 3 days ago Chris bought a Dance Mat for NZD$30 and a Playstation to USB adaptor so he could step at home, and he’s really enjoying it. I really like it too, but I haven’t had much of an opportunity to go hard for a session — Chris is always on it

Anyway, it seems to be the #1 geek way to lose weight!

Back when we were living together and he was still at intermediate/high school, he had a mega drive, and we used to play Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and we’d beat each other up. My favorite character was Liu Kang, so I’d be all like “Bicycle Kick Bicycle Kick Fireball Fireball Upper-Cut” and he’d be Kabal and he’d be all like “Mincey Mincey Mincey Mincey” and he’d kick my ass So re-living that last night was real cool.

We also played some Star Control 2 Ur-Quan Masters : Super Melee and he kicked my ass, again… So I burnt it to CD for him… I know he’ll enjoy it

Want to sign my key? Contact me and we’ll sort something out

Yes, extremely lame joke. Smileychris will be proud

Also, I went to (probabaly) largest $2 store in New Zealand. Store doesn’t describe it well enough – more like warehouse – literally! This place has so much crazy crap for sale it’s insane! Sorry Chris, no plastic bullet guns – I looked and looked

Also, Christchurch has cycle lanes. Basically at major intersections there is a brown lane which takes cyclists up to the front of the traffic, and then spreads out into a box where the cyclists can set up in front of traffic waiting behind them at their line, so when the traffic lights go, the traffic has to wait till the cyclists are out sf the way before going!

Another thing is the awesome bus interchange airport. They have a arrival board saying how many minutes away the next 6 buses are, and when they arrive, which gate you should go to to get into it, along with an announcer (who must be human, cos he mumbles his announcements – get an automated one chch!). The waiting lounge is comfortable, and extremly user friendly. Not to mention Chch’s circular bus is FREE!

If you’re in Christchurch, you must stop by the arts centre. They have this awesome fudge cottage which sells fudge and all-sorts of yummy sugar-based products. Mmm… Also, tons of stalls with arts and crafts, and there was even someone there with a refridgerated window in the back of his truck selling CHEESE! MMMMM!

Well, Christchurch is a pretty awesome place. Probably my 2nd most favorite place in New Zealand. Wellington being first

Miguel: did you know unreal 2 ?
Miguel: about
Glutnix: yeah i know its out
Miguel: cool
Glutnix: apparently it’s too short
Miguel: really??
Glutnix: i dunno – won’t run on my piece of crap system
Miguel: :S
Miguel: heheeh
Glutnix: how do you say crap in spanish?
Miguel: basura
Glutnix: my computer is a piece of basura
Miguel: but basura means trash too
Glutnix: that’s good
Glutnix: it’s trash too
Miguel: hehehe
Glutnix: basically it needs more ram, more cpu, and a 3d card
Miguel: My computer is a piece of crap.
Mi computadora es un pedazo de basura.
Glutnix: hehehe

Dark_Aoshi:P|Naomi:P|: why u put Glutnix
Dark_Aoshi:P|Naomi:P|: on the nick
Glutnix: you know how some software is all bloated?
Glutnix: y’know, runs really slowly for what it does?
Glutnix: well Glut means fat and bloated, nix means zero
Glutnix: so it means no bloat

Saturday I slept in and then Chris and Mark gave me a present. It was Lazy Sunday 3, which is what I wanted for my birthday (cheers guys!). But even better was the card they gave me – Mark, it seemed, had spent two days making a birthday card featuring a fake letter sent to Strong Bad asking him to send me an email saying Happy Birthday – LMAO! Excellent, guys!

Later that night a few of my friends (Mark L, Jaron, Ben and Steph) came over and we played xbox for a little while, then got Hells and watched Jackass The Movie. That is one classic movie… if you’ve never seen a Jackass, and are not squeemish, you will be after the end of this movie.

Anyway, the birthday was overall the best birthday I’ve ever had, and caps off the fact that this is the best era i’ve had in my life (new job, girlfriend, overall happy to be alive motif). I don’t things could get worse but we’ll see