When you think about it, that catchphrase is pretty disturbing. You’ve got to be made of Milo, and then they would like you to buy Milo, so if you are made of Milo and then consume Milo, doesn’t that make you a cannibal?

Milo advocates cannibalism!

I am having trouble concentrating on this, since I’m sitting in the living room and Tim is sitting next to me on the couch playing GTA4, my train of thought is constantly interrupted by police sirens and random soundbites of NPCs.

I’m going to interview Tim about various aspects of our holiday, just for a different point of view. He has trouble doing two things at once. I wonder how irritated he gets by my questions.

What is your favourite purchase from the US?
Tim: GTA4
Originally, Tim’s answer was “Lucky Brand Jeans”, but I reminded him that he bought those in Canada, not the US.

What’s your favourite souvenir from the holiday?
Tim: I think maybe that skull thing mask that I got for Dad.
This is a small, dark brown tribal mask he got in Canada.

What’s the thing you missed most while you were away?
Tim: Po
Po is our cat. He stayed with Lauren and Nathan (sister & brother-in-law) while we were away.

What’s the thing that you missed the most about Australia?
Tim: Driving on the left-hand side of the road.
Me: Really?  
Time: No… I don’t know how to explain it. Just the way it feels like home here, the atmosphere. I don’t know if that’s a good explanation or not.

What did you like most about the US?
Tim: The Oregon Coast

What did you like least about the US?
Tim: Um.. Some of the people. Like, some of the sales staff and that were a bit brusque.

What was the best food you tasted in America?
Tim: Probably that steak at the San Francisco mall.
To explain – that steak was “Char-roasted Sirloin Tri-tip” from “Buckhorn Grill” in the Westfield mall on Market Street in San Francisco.

What was the worst food you tasted in America?
Tim: Probably those french fries we got that night that were cold and… you remember? They had the skin on them and all that.
These were fries we got through a room service thing from a local restaurant. They were cold by the time we got them, and undercooked, and they had potato skin on them, and some sort of seasoning.

What are you going to miss about the US?
Tim: Being on holiday.
Me: I knew you were going to say that. It’s not really specific to the US.
Tim: I know. Um… Probably the views of driving up the coast.

What was the funniest thing that happened on the holiday?
Tim: When I gave the quarter to the homeless man, and he paid me out. No, I gave him the change I had, and he paid me out.
There were these homeless guys standing outside Subway, where we bought dinner. As we walked out, they asked us for money. I didn’t have any cash (I relied on Tim for cash, since my cashcard didn’t work in the US) but Tim dropped what change he had from Subway into their cup. The guy he gave it to then proceeded to complain about how little Tim had given him, and “you coulda at least given me a dollar”. Isn’t there a saying that beggars can’t be choosy, or choosers? Gosh!

These are some ridiculously expensive presents that no one will ever get me because they are too expensive. Like Jem, they’re truly outrageous! But only in the monetary sense, because in every other sense they are just plain awesome.

1. A new Nintendo DS Lite
Yeah. now you totally see what I mean. “But Cass,” you say, “I thought you already had a DS! You’re completely DS-CRAZY!”
Well, you see, the sad part is that I am a DS-o-phile, and the even sadder part is that my DS broke a while ago (maybe a month now?) so now I am unable to finish Zelda, and also I’m getting more and more afraid of the weeding I’ll have to do when I eventually get back on to Animal Crossing

2. DVD: Nadia and the Secret of Bluewater
Don’t even try. You’re so not going to find it at JB. And no, it’s not a porn, it’s an anime. And no, it’s not hentai.

3. A new mobile phone
I’m currently using Tim’s old mobile. I would dearly love to have a phone which can use realtones and also has other fun features.

4. A drawing tablet for the computer
But not the one that’s on display/demo at Harvey Norman Indooroopilly, that one has not worked once in the million times we’ve been there.

5. Anything with mermaids
Okay so this might not be ridiculously expensive. I pretty much mean movies or tv shows. I already have the first two DVDs of the first season of H2o – Just Add Water. Yay!

6. Those little trading arts final fantasy figurines
They are so cute. And awesome.

7. Several out-of-print books, as follows:
* After the Plague – Jean Ure
* Z for Zachariah – Robert O’Brien
* A Gift Upon the Shore – M. K. Wren

I’m not sure about the second and third book, but I am a billion percents sure that the first book is out of print. And I waaaaaaant it

*Edit: I had to cross out the Z for Zachariah book, because Tim bought some books online from fishpond.com.au, and he needed another book to bring up the total for some reason. I was happy to oblige. Thanks Tim!

Last week, Ken told me about how he had been at a funeral where, in the middle of the eulogy, someone’s mobile phone started ringing. Was there the possibility that this guy had forgotten to switch his phone off, or onto silent, before the service had commenced? Apparently not, as he answered his phone and started talking right there in the church. I thought that this had to be some sort of joke, because Ken and Co. are well versed in sarcasm and facetiousness. However, Ken assured me this was no joke. He was completely serious. I can’t imagine anyone thinking that it would be appropriate to have your phone on and answer any call that might come through while you are at a *funeral*. Tim told me that the last time he had been to a funeral, the priest had requested that everyone turn off their mobile phones out of respect for the deceased and bereaved. The fact that people actually have to be TOLD to turn off their mobile phones at a funeral is astounding.

*** Enough of fangry things, I have not been able to write in a while, so I should have other things to say too. Maybe. …

1. I’ve been playing Guitar Hero II all evening (except for when I was watching Grey’s Anatomy) and the tips of my fingers are half numb and half tingling with painful pins & needles. Plus my wrist doesn’t like being held at the angle needed for holding the guitar for so long (my robotic wrist, that is – not the real one). I can tell I’m getting better, but sometimes I lose concentration after looking at the screen for too long. My favourite song that I seem to do well on is “Crazy for you” by Heart. I liked their Barracuda song too.

2. I have the new Harry Potter book. I’ve already read about 210 pages out of the 600-odd total, which is pretty good considering I haven’t really spent that much time on it this weekend.

3. This probably should have been number 1, but I’m too tired to go back through and edit these points, so let’s just all agree they are not in order of importance. Good. Today is Tim’s birthday. We went out for dinner last night to Dos Amigos restaurant, which is just down from Tim’s place. The meal was really delicious, even though I had the same thing I always get (If God really dwells within us like they say, I sure hope he likes enchiladas, cause that’s what he’s gettin’!). Then we came back to Tim’s place and had an ice cream dessert log as a cake. We put candles in and sang happy birthday. It was a nice night.

4. Tim has gone to New Zealand until Friday, which means that I will be a little bit forlorn. But not too much. It may not sound like a long time, but it feels like ages to me. Probably just because hes’ in another country and another time zone, though it’s not nearly as bad as when he was in the UK & Ireland.

5. I ordered an MP3 player and a ninjapass for my DS last week. I’m hoping they arrive very soon – especially the mp3 player because I just got the new Interpol album, and I’ve been hanging out for something to listen to at work. Ninjapass should be awesome too though.

Anyway, I am very tired so I think i shall go to bed. Gute Nacht!

Tim and I got Guitar Hero II today – we originally looked in Harvey Norman, because Tim had $200.00 of gift vouchers he could redeem there. The Guitar Hero II Game and Red Octane Guitar bundle cost $149.00. Rather than buying then and there, we decided to check out JB Hi-Fi, just to see if there was much of a difference in price.

Not only did JB Hi-Fi have a larger range of accessories, it also had the Guitar Hero bundle for $99.00. Tim and I bought Guitar Hero II (including the red guitar), and we also bought a second guitar – this one wireless, for an extra $64.00.

Moral to this … not-even-a-story is that you should always do the legwork before making a financial commitment. Harvey Norman will price match (as far as my experience with them goes), but you need to actually find the cheaper item first for Harvey Norman to call and confirm its validity.

Tim is back! Yay! It’s so good he’s back in the country, and I can see him and hug him whenever I like (which is often!). He’s been really tired today, which is to be expected when you’ve just stepped off a 25 hour flight and been awake for another six hours before that. I really hate being overtired. When we were in Dublin, we decided that instead of paying for a night at a hostel (about 16 Euro) we would explore the city and go shopping etc for the entire night. So, after having gotten up early that morning to catch the train from Greystones to Dublin, we proceeded to remain awake and active for the next 31 or so hours, the end of which saw us back home in Reading, after an exhausting flight from Dublin to London. The flight was the worst part because I felt like I was on drugs. I’d drift in and out of sleep, and awareness of my surroundings. It was like when you see one of those videos of a baby animal that’s just about to fall asleep and it’s lolling all over the place, and at the last minute its head will snap back to some semblance of alertness. These videos give me anxiety because I know that feeling all too well. You could probably be found selling your soul to be back in your own bed, buried under the covers and with no chance of interruption or annoyance until you’d had at least 12 hours solid sleep.

I have been playing Zelda for a couple of hours. I got a sword and now I’m freaked out by the monsters that keep sneaking up behind me. I loved being in the village for the prologue, doing a bit of fishing and calling eagles with those reeds. I know that was just to get people used to the game, but I really prefer the whole problem solving thing to this slash everything in sight kinda thing.

Also, I’ve been trying this afternoon to keep Tim awake. He had a nap from about 1:30PM – 3:15PM, but that was all I would let him have because now he’s gone to sleep at 8:30, it’s going to be a bit easier for him to get back into his normal biological rhythm of things.

Anyway, speaking of sleep (however indirectly), I’m almost there so I’m going to go hang out with Tim in dreamland.

Night everyone!

For sooth! The precipitation hath foiled our intent for an excursion of merriment and mirth in the parklands of Roma Street! That’s okay, because we’ll just to go Russell & Glynis’ house for lunch.

Tonight I’m going to cook things for us to have at Krity’s birthday lunch tomorrow. I’ll need to go grocery shopping some time today. And also, I will be speaking to Tim tonight (yay!) so I want to make sure I am home for that. I have been far lazier this weekend than I intended, but I’ve done some laundry, changed the bed linen, and tidied things up a bit. Last week I remembered to buy more coathangers, so I was finally able to put all of my clothes away. I’m so domesticated! I wish I had more things to iron – that’s my favourite of all household chores.

We might have gone to the movies this weekend, but I had my movie fix from watcing fullmetal jacket (which I hadn’t seen before). It was good.

I don’t like the second scar on my wrist (on the underneath side). The first one, on top, healed up so well. But the other one still looks stupid. I suppose because the skin is paler there it’s going to be more obvious, but also, scars formed from where the stitches were, so the whole thing looks like a big row of divide-by signs (not the forward slash ones, the ones which are a little horizontal line with a dot on either side). But I guess that’s what you get for being a daredevil! NB. for those joining the story now – I did not slash my wrists. GOSH. What do you think I am? Some kind of depressed, suicidal person? I’m so not even going there right now.

Here are some video games:

Chip’s Challenge. I first played this on a computer that we got second-hand from the Catholic Education Committee (my mum was the representative for our region). This is a puzzle game. You are chip, a little blonde person in blue overalls, and you have to figure out the puzzle in order to get all the chips and step into a vortex which takes you to the next level. I ruined it for myself by looking up the passwords to the levels on the internet (when the internet became available in Wooloweyah).

Dangerous Dave. This was another game from back in the days of Windows for Workgroups (3.1 or something). Not run through Windows, but through a separate start-up screen from which you could access other functions and applications. Basically (for anyone who doesn’t remember or has never played the game) you are Dave. You collect various jewels and pretty things, and you have to get a golden cup in order to go through the door and finish the level. There are bonus levels as well, with lots of jewels to collect if you can find the portal to them. Pretty exciting stuff.

Time to go get ready for Mother’s Day luncheon. More on this later! (maybe!)

Sooooo today was our first day in our new building. Best river views ever. There was a slight problem in that our desks are on the Western side of the building, and it seems to get uncomfortably warm despite the airconditioning. Closing the blinds helps a little, but mainly with the glare. It’s still pretty warm. I’m hoping that I will get to move at some point in the near future, if I don’t leave beforehand.

The view from my desk, if I swivel around in my chair:

And some others:

When we first arrived this morning, we were greeted by breakfast in our food preparation area. They supplied us with bacon & egg muffins, cut up fruit, ham & cheese croissants, bagels with some crap on them, and tiny muffins. Plus bottles of orange or blackcurrant juice in the fridges. It was cool! The day slowly became less cool, after about the one millionth phone call and stupid email from stupid people. Plus people are being rude because things aren’t going their way, and there’s nothing that they can do about it because they have no control over what’s happening with us.

I’m looking forward to the first time we get to see a storm moving in from the big windows, that’s going to be awesome. Imagine if it hails, and they’re huge hailstones, like golf ball size, and they crack the windows. That would be ironic, because the company would have to call itself to lodge an insurance claim. It would be funny if they rejected the claim and said something like “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”. Not that they were throwing stones, but just having your walls made of glass is asking for trouble. Expensive trouble.

Having a shower when you first get home from work is one of the best things about summer. The comparative fresh feeling that you get almost makes it worth having to suffer through the heat and humidity in the dirty city. ALMOST. I’d say that if you’re one of those people who think that it DOES make it worth it, you’re one of those people who say summer is their favourite season. Also another nice thing is having a shower and then going into an airconditioned room from the heat of the bathroom. Bestest.

On to something more fun and exciting: A list of my DS games Click on the image to go to the Nintendo page for that particular game.

Animal Crossing – Wild World is cute. You get to have a house, plant flowers (I keep stealing the prettiest flowers from other people’s yards), buy clothes (I’m wearing a viking helmet and red glasses right now), write letters, do little jobs for other people, go fishing, collect shells and fruit and sell them in the store… You also get to furnish your house, and sometimes if you do things for other people, they’ll give you a present in the form of something to put in your house.

Big Brain Academy tests how much your brain weighs based on your ability to solve various different puzzles in different levels of difficulty. I haven’t played this one much yet, it’s one of my newer games so I don’t have a score for every puzzle yet.

I <3 this. It’s just like Mario Kart 64, except little and with a combination of tracks from all the previous Mario Kart games. I can’t wait to unlock more tracks.

My puppy is a Siberian Husky named Joue. I haven’t had a lot of time to teach her new tricks, but she knows how to sit and she was learning to roll over this afternoon. She met Lauren’s puppy Lola on the weekend, and Brian’s puppy Kemo, who is also a Siberian Husky.

I <3 Super Mario Bros too. It’s sort of like Super Mario Bros 3, with a game map and mini games etc. I wrote about this on a previous blog. Quit being so lazy, GOSH!

My brain age is pitiful, because I only ever get time to play this when I’m tired after a long day at work, or on the weekend after I’ve just woken up and my brain isn’t functioning yet. I like the fact that you get to unlock different brain training programs the more you use the game. I do best in memory and language games, and worst in calculations, surprise surprise.

This game is awesome and weird. It’s all mini game where you have to use the stylus to do certain things. My favourite is the little halloween girl, because the boss level is where you are the earth floating through space, and you have to save a baby that looks like a foetus that’s floating through space. When it hits the earth, it gets smaller and smaller until finally you hear a splash and it drops into the ocean somewhere. It’s funny.

This post is inspired by my new DS Lite. (No, Nintendo are not paying me. They’re just stealing all my boredoms).

My interest in video games, however, was inspired by our Townsville cousins, The Towlers. Anna, Noelle, and Clare would come to visit us each Christmas, and one Christmas they received something that would shape our lives to come: a Super Nintendo (or SNES).

They also had two games: Spy vs Spy, and Super Mario Bros. 3. Spy vs Spy was a good time-waster – look in some filing cabinets, get blown up a couple of times; but Super Mario Bros. 3 was something else entirely. Any list of my favourite video games must start with the game that started it all:

Super Mario Bros. 3: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

I don’t know why I like this game so much. It’s a million times better than the other mario games. Nothing in the mario range has come close to being this good, even with the increase in quality of graphics and better controls, they still can’t compete. There were so many awesome things in this game: the map, the mini-games where you have to choose a box, or where you have to make the little spinning pictures line up… Or all the secret levels that you could get to if you only had either a raccoon or a tanooki suit… Check out the Wikipedia article. They know what I’m sayin’.

 Mario in his super-leaf Raccoon suit.
 Mario in his Tanooki suit.
 Mario in the kuribo shoe. This is my favourite level, just because of the shoe.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Nintendo 64 (N64)

This game came with the N64 console when we bought it from some kid up the street, along with James Bond 007 (I think, though I can’t remember ever playing it), and Rosie somehow acquired Pokemon Stadium or something. Despite the fact that the Zelda series is pretty old, I had never heard about it before. It quickly became the number one game played on the N64 in our household, and Lauren, Rosie and I took turns in beating the bosses and playing missions. It was a team effort, but I was especially good at beating monsters and then collapsing in tears from the stress of it. I love this game. I think I had a secret, unacknowledged crush on Link for a while there. Or maybe I’m just making the connection between Link and Legolas. They do look pretty similar. Check out Wiki on this one too.

 Link and the cuckoos
 Link being all moody.
 Link in Legolas mode

Zelda:Ocarina is an in-depth multi-layered puzzle/adventure/RPG. There are side quests that span across the entire game, through shifts in time and location.

Still TBC

I don’t like it how Singstar came out and made everyone take themselves too seriously. You can’t have fun with it, because it’s the lines on the screen telling you that you can’t sing. If you’re not concentrating on getting it perfect, and you’re just having fun, you’re up and down and vocally spewing all over those bars on the screen. How many points did you get? Oooh 300! Luuuu zzz errrrr.

Anyway. I maybe might get Napoleon tomorrow. That’s a big maybe though, because really we were always planning for Sunday, and we don’t know if the person who is looking after the kittens is working Saturday or not. And I haven’t heard from Brooke because she hasn’t been in to work since Sebastian broke her nose!

I’m tired. I have to find this number so I can cancel this appointment. Seems like that’s all I’m doing lately – cancelling things. Or causing problems. Either way, it’s dumb. I just spoke to the vet and I’m sad.

So it was a bad day today. Bad bad day. I woke up late, felt sick this morning, so couldn’t start getting ready until around 7:30am, so didn’t end up catching the bus until 8:30am, didn’t get to work until 9:20am. Shit. This was a continuation of some of the bad feelings from yesterday. I had a bad day and I know I’m being immature and juvenile about it, but maybe I am not capable of reacting in a mature and responsible manner right now. Maybe it’s just not in me to do that. I hate it when a notion comes upon me and makes me feel a certain way, maybe about someone, and I just can’t shake it. And I would give ANYTHING in the world not to feel this way, anything. I would give anything in the world to just forget about it, or to have something waiting on the sidelines for a moment like this so I can grab it and say “See? I don’t actually care! here’s proof!” and even if it wasn’t true, it would be enough for relative normalcy to be reestablished and we could all just fall back into our usual roles, and I wouldn’t have to go over and over and over things in my mind, and feel like an idiot whenever I opened my mouth. I hate this feeling.

Emos have no concept of responsibility. As soon as something is difficult, an emo is nowhere to be found. As we were walking up the hill today, Rosie said “I don’t want to walk up this fucking hill.” But not in a resigned way that’s like, I hate walking up this hill but i know i have to do it to get home but more in a way that was like i hate walking up this hill and i am just waiting for something to come along so that i don’t have to. And she won’t brush her hair so she can get a job. I know that when I heard that song “Get a haircut and get a real job” I thought that it was just mocking conformists, but in all seriousness you really do need to just at least conform to their ideals for while you’re working, and then in your own time you can do what you want. Once you get a job, then test the limits a little bit and see how far you can go, but when you’re initially looking, an effort has to be made. Especially in customer service/sales assistant jobs, which is what all the emo kids would be looking for, if they’re looking for jobs at all and not just living off their parents. My god they’re going to DIE when they leave home and have to fend for themselves. They either curl into a ball and die, or they shed their emo ideals and start living in the real world. I understand this need to be yourself, to represent yourself and to live as you are and not to make apology for it, really I do. And I know that in a perfect world, you would be able to do that. But this is NOT a perfect world. It’s a shitty world. Emos should understand that most out of everyone, because they’re so SENSITIVE and FEELING.

Emoticons:

I will stop now before I cause more problems for myself than I already have. I”m sorry but I needed a rant.

In other news, Calumski & I went to see Nic and her brand new baby today after work. His name is Finn, and he was born last night by C-section, 9lbs. He was so beautiful! I’ve missed Nic, she lends a sort of calmness to the atmosphere at work. I held Finn and he was quiet and beautiful. I forgot to get photos. I am so vague right now. On the way up to the Mother’s hospital, Calum threw his cigarette butt into the bin and said “I don’t think that was fully out”. I said “Imagine if it lit the bin on fire, and they thought it was a bomb, and so they evacuated everyone, patients and everything, from the hospital.”

And when we got to the mother’s hopsital, we had just stepped inside and the fire alarm went off! Calum and I stood outside and laughed, and perved at the non-attractive firemen, and ate the free clinkers that the vending machine gave us. (It also gave me 60c extra change! yay.)

I am supposed to have an appointment with the Occupational Therapist, and I can’t remember when, and I think it’s tomorrow, but I can’t remember what time. Oh and also, after the *accident* with my arm, I went and got some x-rays done at (lol) “Savage X-ray”. I laugh because that name amuses me. I got to keep the x-rays this time, so I took pictures of them. They aren’t all that clear, because I had to turn the flash off and alwyas when I do that the camera switches to the “available light” mode and so therefore it has two shutter openings, and if you don’t keep the camera in the exact same spot for both then it goes blurry. Plus my one good arm is getting so tired of doing all the work that it’s sometimes shaky. Thank god it’s not too much longer til I get to leave my splint off. Though then I’ll have to be extra careful anyway… Ok. So here are the photos:

Robert has taken to calling me “Paperclip chick”, I think because one of the pieces of metal they put in there is shaped sort of like a paperclip. I don’t like the look of those pins that are sticking into the soft tissue between the radius and the ulna. I’m hoping that they do eventually take all that stuff out, once the bones have fully knit and healed. I hope I remember when my appointment is. I’ll have to call tomorrow morning.

I’ve been playing Norrath again now that i have some use of my hand back. I can only play for a short time and then my hand/wrist will get tired, and then i have to rest it for a while. I imported my character from my finished game, and started again from the beginning. My aim is to keep playing until I make an awesomely leveled character and then import her to Return to Arms. I like Dark Elf Shadowknight best of all, but I’m kind of regretting the fact that I didn’t name her something cool to start off with. Her name is “nit”. I dont’even remember doing that, but it might have been when I was just experimenting with the cheats to give the character a head-start with all attributes, not thinking I would continue playing with that character. I’m such a nerd. Anyway, this is my character, “nit”.

It’s a shit picture because I’m too dumb to figure out if I can hook my playstation up to my laptop, and if so, how to then take screenshots. So this is a photo taken with my digi on the tv. crapola.

I submitted my tax return forms last night, via e-tax. I really, really, really, really hope that they give me a fast refund. I’m destitute right now. I had to go into the bank today to withdraw the last $8.00 from my account. Calum was embarrassed of my povo-ness, and so he waiting outside. We only got paid last Wednesday, and don’t get paid again until next Wednesday boo hoo. I’m going to submit my holidays tomorrow, so that I can at least get leave loading and have a little bit extra money. We’re supposed to be going out this Friday night, for U-Rock celebration and Kirra’s birthday, and so I don’t know how that’s going to work. I definitely won’t be able to buy any new clothes for the occasion, nor for Legends night for that matter. Maybe it would be better if I didn’t go. To Legends, I mean, not Friday night. I wouldn’t miss that. Though the way this morning went, I just wanted to forget everything about it. Just crawl under a rock and not come out until next week. After Wednesday. And then go buy myself a sympathy present. Like an alice band. Those are awesome and I desperately want one, but I don’t have the money to buy one. They are $10.00 at Mombassa (highway robbery! but the nicest I have seen so far), $6.00 at Diva (but they don’t have the red dotty one that I like), and $5.00 at JayJays. I also want Smoosh’s album, but don’t have the moeny for that either.

These are some things that I will buy once I get my tax return (if I get back a decent amount):
* Rosie’s b’day cons
* $300 paid off my credit card
* $50 paid off Lauren
* $50 paid off Dinna’s vet bill
And that would be the majority of the money gone. Then i would maybe be able to get myself an alice band and the smoosh cd.

Here is a picture for Calum (continuing on from our imitations of pouncing cats, cats looking through windows at birds, and cats walking upstairs or jumping off a bed (prrrrrrp!))

Whew! So much stuff to say! Every time I went to write a blog, myspace was stuffed and I couldn’t! Frickin myspace. But I have now. So it’s all cool.

xxxooo

P.S. How good is bam? One more picture – for the bam.