I have, it would seem, one of the strongest drives for change out of most people I know. Now, I'm not talking about the global kind of "heal the world" change where you write a whole bunch of letters and hope that your one, insignificant voice can do something about a political issue which has probably been going on behind the scenes since before you were cogent...No, I mean change in my own personal bubble.
It may shock some of you, especially those who know me well, but I have a problem with consistency and stability. If things in my life are the same for too long I start to get antsy - antsy as in anxious and depressed. It also seems to "inflame", as it were, any OCD and ADD tendencies that I exhibit.
I've had a few noticeable or major occurrences of this in the past few years, and each time it goes down I tend to need to make a decision that is going to majorly affect my life. There was the time, half-way through my honours year that I decided that I wasn't going anywhere, and that I may as well find a job - my supervisor convinced me to stay on and I ended up with first degree honours.
Then there was the time that I wanted to quit my PhD after 6 months because it was really dead-end stuff (in my eyes) - this time there was nothing anybody could say to dissuade me from my chosen course. So I packed up my life and moved to Sydney, because apparently there's "where it is" in terms of I.T. jobs (and yes, I know that the phrase is technically "where it's at" but I refuse to abuse grammar in such an obvious way.)
After spending another half year in Sydney, I became exceptionally depressed (the worst I have ever been, I believe) and really just could not cope with life, so I made the decision to become self-employed and move back to Bathurst to be around a larger group of my friends, in a smaller (and altogether friendlier) community. The whole "self-employed" schtick lasted about 2 months, until I managed to land a job at the Service Desk, where I currently work.
Of course, I'm perfectly happy with my job - but I've lived in the same place now for almost 5 months (maybe even over 5 months) and it's starting to grow tedious. Characteristics that were charming at first have now become boring and old. There is never enough room to have people over for D&D; the bathroom is just plain weird; I still don't own a lawnmower.
But I'm trying to fix my situation - no-one enjoys a depressive person who also happens to be hyperactive. At first I was just going to clean up the place, break the lease, and move into a larger flat, but there are two problems with that. Problem 1 is that I would then be farther away from Spud's place that I would like - he is currently within my comfortable walking radius, and I don't want to break that. Problem 2 is that Andy won't let me.
So, instead of defying the powers that be (i.e. Andy) and searching for an apartment, I have started the task of rearranging the house I am currently in. This involves (at this stage) swapping the lounge and office around. Whilst this means that the lounge is now somewhat smaller, it hasn't really lost its ability to function as a place where one views media, and is indeed more "homey" than before. It also means that the "Drama Space" (where we hold D&D) is much larger, and could possibly now accommodate a table, which will make people a great deal more focused when we play.
The moral of this story is that moving stuff around the house is more difficult than you would imagine. When I lived on campus at uni it was pretty simple to change my room around when I started feeling "the need", and if it was strong enough then I could always shift the tables and couches around in the common room as well. Now I have to fit things through doorways that shouldn't, by rights, be able to accommodate them (and yet Spud and I managed to somehow get that couch into the new lounge...) Wow - If that's not a metaphor for anal, then I don't know what is...
Monday, December 13, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Time Flies When You're Rocking Out
Last night I did something I haven't done for ages - I let the time slip away from me whilst playing video games. I know that doesn't sound like a big thing, but for me it is...well...pretty cool really. Anybody who knows me in person will be able to tell you that I'm a bit tightly wound, and getting to bed at a time that won't leave me all tuckered out the next day is something that I generally make a pretty big thing about - if I have to deal with people's IT problems, then I should be chipper and well rested, after all.
But no, last night I opted to let myself go loose with Andy, Lydia, and Spud. Well, when I say opted, I mean that I was having so much fun I thought it was like ten, maybe half eleven tops, but really it was ten minutes to one. The night started with the three of us settling down to watch Distraction - an old (by, like, 5 years) TV show on BBC4 which involves contestants putting themselves through hell in order to win a prize such as a car, or money.
After a couple of episodes of that, we shifted on to Banzai which is a show that allows the viewers to bet on a number of scenarios (such as how long a man can shake someone's hand for, before they pull away) and, although perceivably quite racist, it is really fun to play along with your friends. We're considering making a night of it and betting something tangible some time...Maybe...
After we had watched enough TV, and I had coloured Lydia's hair a nice red, I decided to fire up RB3 and spend some of my hard earned money on some expansion songs. Last night I bought quite a few, including (but not limited to) 'Somebody To Love' by Queen, 'Linger' by The Cranberries, 'Wonderwall' by Oasis, and 'Ironic' by Alanis Morissette.
Now, I know I've mentioned this before, but that song is not ironic at all. It has also occurred to me that, perhaps, there are many people who don't understand irony (given the number of times I hear it misused...) So, to round off this entry, I decided to compile a short list of things that are actually ironic:
The moral of this story is that I don't regret my late-night follies at all - although I do acknowledge the fact that I hardly stand up to the standard definition of "follies". The only issue that has really arisen, so far, from it is the fact that 'Somebody To Love' by Queen has been on repeat in my head all day. Well, that and the fact that now anybody asks me to pick between two or more options I want to go "Prace Bets Now! No Bet, No Get! BETTING ENDS!!"
But no, last night I opted to let myself go loose with Andy, Lydia, and Spud. Well, when I say opted, I mean that I was having so much fun I thought it was like ten, maybe half eleven tops, but really it was ten minutes to one. The night started with the three of us settling down to watch Distraction - an old (by, like, 5 years) TV show on BBC4 which involves contestants putting themselves through hell in order to win a prize such as a car, or money.
After a couple of episodes of that, we shifted on to Banzai which is a show that allows the viewers to bet on a number of scenarios (such as how long a man can shake someone's hand for, before they pull away) and, although perceivably quite racist, it is really fun to play along with your friends. We're considering making a night of it and betting something tangible some time...Maybe...
After we had watched enough TV, and I had coloured Lydia's hair a nice red, I decided to fire up RB3 and spend some of my hard earned money on some expansion songs. Last night I bought quite a few, including (but not limited to) 'Somebody To Love' by Queen, 'Linger' by The Cranberries, 'Wonderwall' by Oasis, and 'Ironic' by Alanis Morissette.
Now, I know I've mentioned this before, but that song is not ironic at all. It has also occurred to me that, perhaps, there are many people who don't understand irony (given the number of times I hear it misused...) So, to round off this entry, I decided to compile a short list of things that are actually ironic:
- The use of the word "Ironic" in the song "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette
- A piano repairman walking down the street and being crushed by a piano which was being lowered from a building
- The fact that the most used simplification of Occam's Razor is technically incorrect
- A librarian who worked diligently to restore several ancient manuscripts being crushed to death by a stack of books
The moral of this story is that I don't regret my late-night follies at all - although I do acknowledge the fact that I hardly stand up to the standard definition of "follies". The only issue that has really arisen, so far, from it is the fact that 'Somebody To Love' by Queen has been on repeat in my head all day. Well, that and the fact that now anybody asks me to pick between two or more options I want to go "Prace Bets Now! No Bet, No Get! BETTING ENDS!!"
Thursday, December 9, 2010
'I Say What I Mean' As 'I Mean What I Say'
The key, I have been repeatedly told, to a life full of happiness is to do what you love. This, I have discovered, is not as easy as everybody makes it out to be. "Oh yes," the seemingly ever-present "they" say, "Just find a job that allows you to do what you're passionate about. Then you'll love going to work every day and your life will be Elixir Of Life (which I will explain later) and Cheesecake."
I've found two problems with this philosophy thus far. The first issue is that I've had several jobs which I would qualify as doing "what I love" - I've been a maths teacher, and I've been a games programmer - and let me tell you, my experience with both of these jobs was less than stellar.
At first the experiences I was having with these jobs was wonderful, and I looked forward to work every morning - setting out with a smile on my face and a song in my heart (like some kind of bizarre Disney caricature.) Soon, however, I found my "free-time" passion for these activities waning. My internal monologue was something along the lines of "I just spent my whole day trying to make an electronic dog avoid disco fleas, why would I want to go to my own projects now? I need to do something different from that..."
This is the same issue that I have when I try to play games like WoW - the fact that you have to go out and kill 500 boars and collect six reams of paper from the haunted lumber mill three territories away, and that in order to actually get anywhere in the game you have to do this basically on a nightly basis makes makes the whole thing feel like something I'm being forced to do, rather than something I'm doing to wind down. That point, and the fact that if you're in an instance, people take it way to seriously, sucks the fun right out of it.
The second issue that I have with the "Elixir and Cheesecake" philosophy is that I'm lactose intolerant, so whilst I'd like to be able to enjoy cheesecake on a daily basis, I don't believe it would make for a lifestyle that is particularly conducive to pleasure.
Something that I have found, however, is that the secret is not doing what you love - rather it is loving what you do. The two concepts are most definitely mutually exclusive...(I suspect that my regular readers may expect some kind of link hidden among these words to a Charles Dodgson book - so I guess I'd best not disappoint.)
My current job has me as an Information Technology Service Officer (ITSO - It's fun to say, try it - email me video footage of you saying it - that's how slowly this day is going!!) which, you would imagine, could be quite boring and frustrating.
I, however, have a tactic that I use to ensure that I'm always engaged by my job - I make a game of it. Okay, so I know that sounds exceedingly lame, but it really does work wonders for my morale. I discovered on my first day here that people are awarded points for the various ways jobs are handled (for example, logging a phone-call job gets you 1 point, whilst logging and e-mail job only scores you half a point.) My mind swam with possibilities - there were points...there were collectibles.
Ever since then my day has consisted of me sitting, waiting for phone-calls and emails to come in, so that I may grab them while no-one is looking and get the precious beans (points) for myself. This isn't just a single-player game...It's not a co-op multiplayer game...It's competitive - and I play to win.
The moral of this story is that turning the most mundane activities into a video-game like reward system is often a great way to make them more fun. When I was younger I used to practice swimming by having various mathematical lap-counters running through my head (how many had I done, how many did I have left to do, what was that as a percentage, what was the simplest fraction I could make from that, and so forth) and I soon learnt to apply the same theory to cleaning my room, and so forth - though I'm yet to get any achievements, but I suspect they're just really hard to unlock at this level...
I've found two problems with this philosophy thus far. The first issue is that I've had several jobs which I would qualify as doing "what I love" - I've been a maths teacher, and I've been a games programmer - and let me tell you, my experience with both of these jobs was less than stellar.
At first the experiences I was having with these jobs was wonderful, and I looked forward to work every morning - setting out with a smile on my face and a song in my heart (like some kind of bizarre Disney caricature.) Soon, however, I found my "free-time" passion for these activities waning. My internal monologue was something along the lines of "I just spent my whole day trying to make an electronic dog avoid disco fleas, why would I want to go to my own projects now? I need to do something different from that..."
This is the same issue that I have when I try to play games like WoW - the fact that you have to go out and kill 500 boars and collect six reams of paper from the haunted lumber mill three territories away, and that in order to actually get anywhere in the game you have to do this basically on a nightly basis makes makes the whole thing feel like something I'm being forced to do, rather than something I'm doing to wind down. That point, and the fact that if you're in an instance, people take it way to seriously, sucks the fun right out of it.
The second issue that I have with the "Elixir and Cheesecake" philosophy is that I'm lactose intolerant, so whilst I'd like to be able to enjoy cheesecake on a daily basis, I don't believe it would make for a lifestyle that is particularly conducive to pleasure.
Something that I have found, however, is that the secret is not doing what you love - rather it is loving what you do. The two concepts are most definitely mutually exclusive...(I suspect that my regular readers may expect some kind of link hidden among these words to a Charles Dodgson book - so I guess I'd best not disappoint.)
My current job has me as an Information Technology Service Officer (ITSO - It's fun to say, try it - email me video footage of you saying it - that's how slowly this day is going!!) which, you would imagine, could be quite boring and frustrating.
I, however, have a tactic that I use to ensure that I'm always engaged by my job - I make a game of it. Okay, so I know that sounds exceedingly lame, but it really does work wonders for my morale. I discovered on my first day here that people are awarded points for the various ways jobs are handled (for example, logging a phone-call job gets you 1 point, whilst logging and e-mail job only scores you half a point.) My mind swam with possibilities - there were points...there were collectibles.
Ever since then my day has consisted of me sitting, waiting for phone-calls and emails to come in, so that I may grab them while no-one is looking and get the precious beans (points) for myself. This isn't just a single-player game...It's not a co-op multiplayer game...It's competitive - and I play to win.
The moral of this story is that turning the most mundane activities into a video-game like reward system is often a great way to make them more fun. When I was younger I used to practice swimming by having various mathematical lap-counters running through my head (how many had I done, how many did I have left to do, what was that as a percentage, what was the simplest fraction I could make from that, and so forth) and I soon learnt to apply the same theory to cleaning my room, and so forth - though I'm yet to get any achievements, but I suspect they're just really hard to unlock at this level...
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Roleplaying Games Are Cool
At some point in the near future I'm going to be running a role-playing game that uses a system which nobody I know has even attempted to test yet. The system itself doesn't look too bad, however I am slightly concerned about one aspect of it that may leave my potential players reeling - the main idea behind all games run in this system is that whilst confrontation and conflict are good things, the act of a player to actually engage in inflicting harm upon someone else is severely frowned upon.
Instead of just flat-out telling you what the theme of the game is going to be, I figure it might be interesting to do a guessing game kind of thing. I'll give you some clues, and you see if you get it right...What's that? You want incentive? A reward?! Well...If you get it right I will give you...love...Yes, that's right...Love...
-*Long Pause*-
Actually, you know what? Stuff it - I just spent ten minutes trying to figure out what to type here as far as clues go, and I got no-where other than writing the following down: Running; Adventure; Time; Space - if that wasn't enough to let you figure out just what kind of adventure I'll be running then I suggest you click here.
Now, because of the nature of the series in question, I want to be particularly careful about how I run this series of adventures - I want it to be every bit as epic as a season of the show! I am just now preparing the first "episode" of the adventure - entitled "The Honour Students" - and I'm constantly worried that I'm not putting enough into the details. It's no secret that my previous game was incredibly poorly thought out (mostly because I get bored of planning and just want to play play play!!)
So far I have plans for about 12 enemies, but all up I'm not sure how many "episodes" I want the adventure to have - I guess I'll just stop when the players get bored of it, or I can no longer write stories. The difficult part about writing the stories for this game is that I want to predominantly use enemies that are already established within the continuity of the series, however I'm somewhat limited to what I can really use as three of my targeted players haven't seen the vast majority of the show (and there is a lot of show to see.)
So I figure I'll post the outline of the first episode - kind of like the TV guide synopsis - and you guys can tell me what you think. If anybody has any ideas about how best to run the game then please, let me know...I'm always open to suggestions!
Episode 1 - The Honour Students
Setting: Australian Country University - Now
Synopsis: "The Australian Country University is an institution with a reputation for excellency, offering free (and mandatory) tutoring sessions to students who fail any of their units - tutoring sessions that never fail to bring up the GPA of those who attend.
Why, then, are the students who attend these sessions never seen studying - or ever interacting with others - outside of class again? And who is the mysterious new high-school aged student who seems to know more about the subjects she takes than the lecturers who teach them...?"
Other than that I can pretty much just tell you the "Episode Titles" for some of the other ones swimming around in the ocean of my brain...Spinning through the windmills of my mind...Round, like a circle...No! Focus!!
Episode 2 - The Diplomats Of Spite
Episode 3 - Being Human
Episode 4 - B.M.I.
Episode 5 - Maid To Order
Episode 6 - Tears Of Glass
Episode 7 - Echolalia
Episode 8 - Do You Hear Music?
Episode 9 - A Stitch In Time Saves None
Episode 10 - Playdate
Episode 11 - Clockwork
Episode 12 - Ashes To Ashes
Episode 13 - Revenge
Episode 14 - Betrayal
Episode 15 - Entrapment [Part I]
Episode 16 - Entrapment [Part II]
The moral of this story is that, whilst I can come up with episode titles that may breed intrigue within you, I honestly doubt my ability to turn them into a compelling game. We shall see, in due time, I suppose - and if you like...like...like the circles that you find, in the windmills of your mind! *sobs insanely*
Instead of just flat-out telling you what the theme of the game is going to be, I figure it might be interesting to do a guessing game kind of thing. I'll give you some clues, and you see if you get it right...What's that? You want incentive? A reward?! Well...If you get it right I will give you...love...Yes, that's right...Love...
-*Long Pause*-
Actually, you know what? Stuff it - I just spent ten minutes trying to figure out what to type here as far as clues go, and I got no-where other than writing the following down: Running; Adventure; Time; Space - if that wasn't enough to let you figure out just what kind of adventure I'll be running then I suggest you click here.
Now, because of the nature of the series in question, I want to be particularly careful about how I run this series of adventures - I want it to be every bit as epic as a season of the show! I am just now preparing the first "episode" of the adventure - entitled "The Honour Students" - and I'm constantly worried that I'm not putting enough into the details. It's no secret that my previous game was incredibly poorly thought out (mostly because I get bored of planning and just want to play play play!!)
So far I have plans for about 12 enemies, but all up I'm not sure how many "episodes" I want the adventure to have - I guess I'll just stop when the players get bored of it, or I can no longer write stories. The difficult part about writing the stories for this game is that I want to predominantly use enemies that are already established within the continuity of the series, however I'm somewhat limited to what I can really use as three of my targeted players haven't seen the vast majority of the show (and there is a lot of show to see.)
So I figure I'll post the outline of the first episode - kind of like the TV guide synopsis - and you guys can tell me what you think. If anybody has any ideas about how best to run the game then please, let me know...I'm always open to suggestions!
Episode 1 - The Honour Students
Setting: Australian Country University - Now
Synopsis: "The Australian Country University is an institution with a reputation for excellency, offering free (and mandatory) tutoring sessions to students who fail any of their units - tutoring sessions that never fail to bring up the GPA of those who attend.
Why, then, are the students who attend these sessions never seen studying - or ever interacting with others - outside of class again? And who is the mysterious new high-school aged student who seems to know more about the subjects she takes than the lecturers who teach them...?"
Other than that I can pretty much just tell you the "Episode Titles" for some of the other ones swimming around in the ocean of my brain...Spinning through the windmills of my mind...Round, like a circle...No! Focus!!
Episode 2 - The Diplomats Of Spite
Episode 3 - Being Human
Episode 4 - B.M.I.
Episode 5 - Maid To Order
Episode 6 - Tears Of Glass
Episode 7 - Echolalia
Episode 8 - Do You Hear Music?
Episode 9 - A Stitch In Time Saves None
Episode 10 - Playdate
Episode 11 - Clockwork
Episode 12 - Ashes To Ashes
Episode 13 - Revenge
Episode 14 - Betrayal
Episode 15 - Entrapment [Part I]
Episode 16 - Entrapment [Part II]
The moral of this story is that, whilst I can come up with episode titles that may breed intrigue within you, I honestly doubt my ability to turn them into a compelling game. We shall see, in due time, I suppose - and if you like...like...like the circles that you find, in the windmills of your mind! *sobs insanely*
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
9 Parts Inspiration
It has recently been discovered that there is very little difference, most often, between inspiring somebody to do something, and simply pestering them until they submit to your desire. Given my absolute raging infatuation with the scientific process, and ensuring things are "just so" you may well believe that this has actually been found during a long and needlessly drawn out study involving countless government grants and people in bitching white coats. If you'd like to verify, I suggest you check here.
So, assuming that you clicked that link, and didn't just skip over everything, I can say without spoiling anything that this is more of a personal discovery - something I have come to realise over the past few days as more and more of my friends start blogs of their own.
For me, blogging is a method of entertaining people - I write these things because I want to, of course, but my primary purpose in writing is to potentially brighten the day of someone else. If I am able to make one person smile through OHH, then I consider myself successful.
I have, in the past, tried many things in order to entertain people in various sectors of the community. I am a member of a radio-duo currently called Critical Hit (which was previously comprised of Josh and myself, but is now Spud and myself) however the show is currently on hiatus until Spud does his radio training and we get the proposal through. I've tried to write both fiction novels, as well as a series of mathematics books. I used to want to be a games developer, but then I realised that that life is just not for me.
It might seem, to the untrained observer, that what I really want to do with my life is bring joy and mirth to those around me - to everyone I can possibly affect. The untrained observer, of course, probably isn't aware that I would love to be a lecturer in mathematics, specially calculus and matrix algebra. My capacity to hurt, it would seem, is just as great as my capacity to heal (joy heals, right? I mean...That is its point yeah?)
Still, I love to believe that I'm able to overcome the great blob of wicked inside of me that is present inside all lovers of mathematics. Others have done it and lived to tell the tale - maybe I can be a force for good instead of evil...Or...Maybe...Just maybe...I could combine the two and become a force for neutrality! Yes...The wonder that is fiction writing combined with the pure malicious of pure mathematics...*finger tent of evil contemplation*
Math Fiction! Ho!!
The moral of this story is that, even though I like to think of myself as a "nice" person, my inherent capacity for evil cannot be ignored. Like it or not I am a mathematician, and I will always have the urge to solve an equation every now and then. Just count yourself lucky that I'm not tying you to something, whilst attempting to teach you how to integrate over the complex number system. My torture methods may not be orthodox, but by golly I'll stick to them...
Monday, December 6, 2010
Adventures In Foodening
If I were to summarise this weekend in one word, that word would have to be "owcosmuf" - a sentiment which, roughly translated from Tiger to English, means "Oh My God! Why did I cook so much food?!". The reason for this outburst of gibberish follows fairly logically...Well...Somewhat logically...Okay, okay - I may have spent 2 hours Friday (tea-stained eggs), 2 hours Saturday (Milo Cheesecake) and 6 hours Friday (the subject of this post) cooking. Geeze, give a guy a break will you?
Now, this may strike you as unusual, but my weekends are not typically spent in Harris Farm/Woolworths/The Kitchen. No. Nonononono. Whilst I do enjoy cooking, my aversion to doing things for any great period of time usually prevents me from getting too bogged down in any one recipe (especially ones that call for something to marinate, as I have been known to never get back to them...)
This weekend, however, I decided that I was going to be a good boy, and not buy a take-out lunch each day. Instead, I was going to prepare myself some meals to take to work and consume. Being the little otaku that I am, I've decided to go the bento route, and prepare a veritable tiny smorgasbord for each day's main meal. For those who don't know, bento boxes are a series of small portions of many different types of food, and they are the staple lunch meal in Japan.
In order to give myself the proper Japanese cuisine experience, I quickly jumped on the net and found six recipes to attempt, printed off a shopping list, and hit up the grocery store. All in all, I attempted to prepare the following: Eggplant Salad with Lemon Flavoured Plum Dressing; Yakitori; Sesame Flavoured Beef; Miso Marinated Pork; Sweet Pepper And Carrot Confetti; and Tamagoyaki (Egg-Roll). I swear, making that many dishes, I have never felt so close to Iron Chef in my life.
The only meal I would consider myself a failure at preparing was the eggplant salad, and that was because I left the eggplant pan-boiling for too long and it went all mushy - I managed to salvage it, however, by mixing in the plum dressing that I'd created, and stewing some seafood extender in there. The tamagoyaki also turned out a little worse than I'd have hoped, but I think next time I just need to make more mixture and have each layer be slightly thicker. Otherwise, all signs point to awesome as far as taste went (Spud, Lydia, and Andy were all suitably impressed!)
Of course, without actually owning a bento box, I kind of failed when it came to presentation, but that step can wait until I've become slightly more confident/speedy with my cooking, and further until I have managed to travel to Sydney to actually buy a decent bento box. For now, everything has been spooned into a disposable take-out container, and separated using kitchen paper (everybody knows that disaster occurs when two different flavoured foods meet each other...)
For today's meal selection I decided to take some of the Seafood Stewed in Plug-Eggplant, some of the Sesame Flavoured Beef, a handful of the Sweet Pepper and Carrot Confetti, and three Yakitori. I've eaten the yakitori for morning tea, and I'm not dead (yet - and they even contained mushrooms which is a pretty big thing for me). We shall see at lunch if I've created deadly poison overnight, so if I don't post tomorrow...Well...That's that I suppose...
The moral of today's story is the some people, when preparing bento boxes, have way too much time on their hands. Of course, I say "way too much time", what I mean is "an abundance of skill, why can't I do this? These are so cool I want to be the one to make such awesome foodstuffs..." Ultimately, of course, my jealousy will take one of two routes: it will either simmer out until there's nothing left but me eating my delicious, plainly presented food, or I'll obsess over it to the point where my kitchen is filled with tiny rice-ball animals. Would anybody like to place a bet?
Now, this may strike you as unusual, but my weekends are not typically spent in Harris Farm/Woolworths/The Kitchen. No. Nonononono. Whilst I do enjoy cooking, my aversion to doing things for any great period of time usually prevents me from getting too bogged down in any one recipe (especially ones that call for something to marinate, as I have been known to never get back to them...)
This weekend, however, I decided that I was going to be a good boy, and not buy a take-out lunch each day. Instead, I was going to prepare myself some meals to take to work and consume. Being the little otaku that I am, I've decided to go the bento route, and prepare a veritable tiny smorgasbord for each day's main meal. For those who don't know, bento boxes are a series of small portions of many different types of food, and they are the staple lunch meal in Japan.
In order to give myself the proper Japanese cuisine experience, I quickly jumped on the net and found six recipes to attempt, printed off a shopping list, and hit up the grocery store. All in all, I attempted to prepare the following: Eggplant Salad with Lemon Flavoured Plum Dressing; Yakitori; Sesame Flavoured Beef; Miso Marinated Pork; Sweet Pepper And Carrot Confetti; and Tamagoyaki (Egg-Roll). I swear, making that many dishes, I have never felt so close to Iron Chef in my life.
The only meal I would consider myself a failure at preparing was the eggplant salad, and that was because I left the eggplant pan-boiling for too long and it went all mushy - I managed to salvage it, however, by mixing in the plum dressing that I'd created, and stewing some seafood extender in there. The tamagoyaki also turned out a little worse than I'd have hoped, but I think next time I just need to make more mixture and have each layer be slightly thicker. Otherwise, all signs point to awesome as far as taste went (Spud, Lydia, and Andy were all suitably impressed!)
Of course, without actually owning a bento box, I kind of failed when it came to presentation, but that step can wait until I've become slightly more confident/speedy with my cooking, and further until I have managed to travel to Sydney to actually buy a decent bento box. For now, everything has been spooned into a disposable take-out container, and separated using kitchen paper (everybody knows that disaster occurs when two different flavoured foods meet each other...)
For today's meal selection I decided to take some of the Seafood Stewed in Plug-Eggplant, some of the Sesame Flavoured Beef, a handful of the Sweet Pepper and Carrot Confetti, and three Yakitori. I've eaten the yakitori for morning tea, and I'm not dead (yet - and they even contained mushrooms which is a pretty big thing for me). We shall see at lunch if I've created deadly poison overnight, so if I don't post tomorrow...Well...That's that I suppose...
The moral of today's story is the some people, when preparing bento boxes, have way too much time on their hands. Of course, I say "way too much time", what I mean is "an abundance of skill, why can't I do this? These are so cool I want to be the one to make such awesome foodstuffs..." Ultimately, of course, my jealousy will take one of two routes: it will either simmer out until there's nothing left but me eating my delicious, plainly presented food, or I'll obsess over it to the point where my kitchen is filled with tiny rice-ball animals. Would anybody like to place a bet?
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Humanity Is Not Doomed...Yet...
Last night, instead of playing Spud's Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder game, we took a break and decided to play a one-shot discovered by Andy, entitled All Flesh Must Be Eaten. At first, I was slightly apprehensive about not playing Spud's game this week - I mean, Spud's game has been run (if I recall correctly) at least once a week since about May or June this year - and, as you may or may not be aware I am slightly averse to change.
Bu~~~t Spud is running his rogue game tonight, and he just needed a bit of time to prepare, and not worry about running his "big big" game, so Andy offered to run AFMBE instead. And, as it turns out, I'm glad he did. If you couldn't tell from the title of the game, AFMBE is a zombie survival horror game where you're trapped in an office building trying to make your way to the building's roof, in order to be rescued by a police helicopter.
Instead of creating a character from scratch with this game, like you do with most D&D-esque games, you play one of many-many archetypes. Lydia chose to play as an Ex-Goth Girl, Elmo was the Professional Student, Spud picked the Hacker, and I played as the Tortured Grade School Student. Basically, I was a kid whose parents, teachers, and class-mates didn't love him. Go me. Woo (and so forth.)
We started out in an elevator, traveling down to the ground floor of the building to purchase some snacks (we all wanted snacks at the same time...suspicious...) when suddenly there is a power outage, the lift stops, and all of the lights go out. My character (oddly enough named Tiger) decides to try the emergency phone, only to hear the sounds of gunshots and bloodcurdling screams coming from the other end. Sufficiently terrified by this, our situation was only worsened when the cable of the lift snapped, sending us hurtling about one and a half floors to the basement level.
So we then proceeded to make our way to the fire-stairs in the basement, in order to climb to the roof. This was an arduous process which I shall summarise thusly: we got into the corridor, only to be ambushed by the zombies. During this combat, Spud got bitten several times, I managed to shoot myself through the side with a .38 pistol, and Lydia smacked a zombie's head in with a toilet cistern lid. Following this, we cleared a couple of rooms of zombies (which led to Elmo getting bitten), and decided to lock some undead hoards in the rooms we found them in (because, let's face it, they're not going to be able to work door handles.)
Eventually, we got into the stairwell and proceeded to climb to the ceiling. Here, we managed to rescue a lady covered in dead bodies, gape in horror as Lydia goes crazy and runs into a floor filled with zombies, and I watched without remorse as Spud killed my mother. I then kicked her, and called her a bitch.
So, finally we reached the top of the roof, and signaled to a helicopter that "Hey, we aren't horrible undead." They promise to come back and get us (which they actually do!) and we get ready for the wave of horrible undead to surge out from the building to attempt to eat us. Before this happens, however, both Spud and Elmo succumb to the horrible zombie plague, and attempt to eat the lady we rescued earlier.
Following this turn of events, I proceed to kill Elmo, and narrowly miss Spud - and suddenly the helicopter arrives! I run through the hoard of zombies, only to be bitten on the leg by Spud. Still, I get in the chopper, and manage to convince the general at the camp that I'm not hideously infected *cough cough splutter splutter*. After a little while, my conscious gets the best of me, and I fess up that "Yes, um...mister military man...sir...I was bitten and I have a zombie thingy and please help me...please?" Suddenly, bang, I've been shot and am dead.
So, that's the end of the story - the moral of which is that it's not always best to confess to something, even if you know it's putting a whole bunch of people at risk. I mean, come on, if I hadn't had told the general that I was bitten by a horrid plague carrying zombie, I would have taken out the rest of the survivors and potentially doomed humanity. But instead, I just crapped out and took the moral high road - now I'm dead, and humanity goes on...For now at least...
Bu~~~t Spud is running his rogue game tonight, and he just needed a bit of time to prepare, and not worry about running his "big big" game, so Andy offered to run AFMBE instead. And, as it turns out, I'm glad he did. If you couldn't tell from the title of the game, AFMBE is a zombie survival horror game where you're trapped in an office building trying to make your way to the building's roof, in order to be rescued by a police helicopter.
Instead of creating a character from scratch with this game, like you do with most D&D-esque games, you play one of many-many archetypes. Lydia chose to play as an Ex-Goth Girl, Elmo was the Professional Student, Spud picked the Hacker, and I played as the Tortured Grade School Student. Basically, I was a kid whose parents, teachers, and class-mates didn't love him. Go me. Woo (and so forth.)
We started out in an elevator, traveling down to the ground floor of the building to purchase some snacks (we all wanted snacks at the same time...suspicious...) when suddenly there is a power outage, the lift stops, and all of the lights go out. My character (oddly enough named Tiger) decides to try the emergency phone, only to hear the sounds of gunshots and bloodcurdling screams coming from the other end. Sufficiently terrified by this, our situation was only worsened when the cable of the lift snapped, sending us hurtling about one and a half floors to the basement level.
So we then proceeded to make our way to the fire-stairs in the basement, in order to climb to the roof. This was an arduous process which I shall summarise thusly: we got into the corridor, only to be ambushed by the zombies. During this combat, Spud got bitten several times, I managed to shoot myself through the side with a .38 pistol, and Lydia smacked a zombie's head in with a toilet cistern lid. Following this, we cleared a couple of rooms of zombies (which led to Elmo getting bitten), and decided to lock some undead hoards in the rooms we found them in (because, let's face it, they're not going to be able to work door handles.)
Eventually, we got into the stairwell and proceeded to climb to the ceiling. Here, we managed to rescue a lady covered in dead bodies, gape in horror as Lydia goes crazy and runs into a floor filled with zombies, and I watched without remorse as Spud killed my mother. I then kicked her, and called her a bitch.
So, finally we reached the top of the roof, and signaled to a helicopter that "Hey, we aren't horrible undead." They promise to come back and get us (which they actually do!) and we get ready for the wave of horrible undead to surge out from the building to attempt to eat us. Before this happens, however, both Spud and Elmo succumb to the horrible zombie plague, and attempt to eat the lady we rescued earlier.
Following this turn of events, I proceed to kill Elmo, and narrowly miss Spud - and suddenly the helicopter arrives! I run through the hoard of zombies, only to be bitten on the leg by Spud. Still, I get in the chopper, and manage to convince the general at the camp that I'm not hideously infected *cough cough splutter splutter*. After a little while, my conscious gets the best of me, and I fess up that "Yes, um...mister military man...sir...I was bitten and I have a zombie thingy and please help me...please?" Suddenly, bang, I've been shot and am dead.
So, that's the end of the story - the moral of which is that it's not always best to confess to something, even if you know it's putting a whole bunch of people at risk. I mean, come on, if I hadn't had told the general that I was bitten by a horrid plague carrying zombie, I would have taken out the rest of the survivors and potentially doomed humanity. But instead, I just crapped out and took the moral high road - now I'm dead, and humanity goes on...For now at least...
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