On The Mechanics Of Flight

Okay Internet, I still haven't got the picture for Day 3 of my 30 Days of Challenge posting schedule, but I swear that it's coming. Instead I need to let you know that I will be in Sydney tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday for a three day conference on programming for the iOS (iPod/iPad/iPhone devices, etc.) This means that, apart from spending the hours between 9am and 5pm learning about something I already know (I am using it as a refresher course...) I get to go to Kinokinya, Ichiban Boshi, Galaxy World, and all of the places that I've missed going to on my weekends when I lived in Sydney.

Hells To The Ramen Based Yeah!

The reason I'm posting about this, however, is because I'm actually a little scared/stressed. Okay, a little is not entirely the correct work. I am actually very very nervous about this trip. The fact that I'm going to a workshop in the city is, in itself, no big issue - I've been to conferences before, after all, and I know how to be a good emissary for my employer. No, the issue is the fact that, in order to get to Sydney, the uni wants me to fly. This stems from the fact that I cannot drive, I lack both the capacity (I haven't got a license) as well as the ability (I just...can't drive.) I offered to catch a train - after all, it would be cheaper for the university, and I really don't mind having to stay an extra night and spend an extra 3 hours travelling to do this - but no, they insisted that I fly. So now I have to wake up at about 4:30 tomorrow, in order to get on a plane to get to the city.

There's A Half Past Four In The MORNING Now?

This is a problem. Not only do I loathe having to get up early to do anything at all, but...well...Flying scares me. And it's not just one of those little "oh I have butterflies in my stomach because I'm slightly nervous" fear, no oh, it's more of a "Please physically help me onto this plane, oh why god why did I agree to this?" fear. It's not the thing I'm afraid of most, mind you, but it does rank up there - for those keeping score it's just below bodies of water where I can't see or touch the bottom, and just above clowns. I know that my fear should be irrational - people fly all the time, and nothing bad happens...but still...I just can't move past it.

What makes me afraid of flight? It is most certainly not the thought that the flight may be high-jacked - who cares about a domestic regional flight from Bathurst to Sydney anyway? It is, ostensibly, the fact that I am travelling in a giant metal construct that is fuelled by a highly combustible substance, far enough above the planet that one can look down onto clouds, with absolutely no protective mechanisms (such as parachutes) prepared for the event that something were to go wrong.

People have, at various times, informed me that more people are killed in car accidents per year than in incidences involving flight. This does not serve its intended purpose, however, of calming me down. Instead, this does one of two things - if I am wearing my irrational hat, then I start to become worried about driving and flying, as being in cars over long distances already makes me "butterflies" nervous, unless I really know/trust the driver. This irrationality does not happen very often, however, and is not prone to lasting for any extended period of time. The second scenario, where I wear my rational hat, is much more common. This involves me informing my comforter that I have analysed the maths behind their statistics already, and have discovered that the values they use are not normalised, making their point invalid. I then usually have to rephrase and state that their facts don't take into account the fact that there are significantly more people driving than flying.

Your Use Of Maths Is A Joke!

What annoys me the most, however, is that I understand how flight works. I get that the wings are specifically shaped to generate the best lift, which, in turn, keeps the plane airborne. I know that the wings have to generate significant lift to overcome the weight of the plane and its contents. I understand that the plane uses the viscosity of the air it moves through in an attempt to turn the resistance it encounters into a force for goodliness and keeping-the-aircraft-in-flight-itude. All of the parts of the plane sit there, they hurtle through the air, they work together. Newton's second law is in heavy practice.

Why does this knowledge not comfort me? It's not like the whole "bodies of water" thing I mentioned above, where the fear comes from the fact that I simply don't know what's down there beneath me (in the case of not being able to see the bottom, anyway) and it's not like the whole clowns thing, where I scared myself by reading tales of John Gacy and the like, combined with the fact that there is nothing real about a clown - their facial expression is painted on, for carrot's sake...Why does knowing that turbulence is just a change in relative air density which causes the aircraft to be shifted rapidly up or down in accordance with the relative thermodynamic rules make it no less worrying?

In This House We Obey The Laws Of Thermodynamics

The moral of this story is that I honestly cannot believe that there is something that I miss about Sydney, that isn't Roo, Shibby, Andy, or one of the other few people I know who lives there. Really. I was never very happy when I lived there - it was so big and...just...it did not feel like home. It was weird. Still, I find it quite strange now that I miss certain things about it. I don't miss the hustle/bustle, of course, but I do miss some of the more awesome stores, the convenience of various things, and...well...I guess that I need to invent teleporters so I can have that convenience at my fingertips all time time.

On Why Nobody Cares That One Is The Loneliest Number

Hey guys - A brief pause from my Thirty Days of Challenge today, because I'm waiting for a picture that I need to have uploaded for me (and I left the camera at home, so if I want to do it, you won't get the post until tomorrow...) Instead, this is a post that was requested in the comments of Day One. I must preface this soon-to-be tirade, then, with a warning that, like many things I do, this is going to involve a lot of mathematics. I do not just mean that I'm going to go "the integral of x is half of x squared, lol" and be done with it. No. What follows is my justification of 5 being my favourite number.

The number five has, for quite some time now, been what I would consider my 'favourite' number. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are other really cool numbers - five million three hundred and eighteen thousand and eight, for instance, is quite nifty. But it just doesn't have the...appeal that, for me, five sums up so well. Did you know, for instance, that five is a prime number? That means that, besides 1 and itself, five has no divisors. The first three prime numbers are 2, 3, and 5 (1 is discounted for many reasons, which I shan't get into in this post, 4 is discounted because it can be expressed as the product of 2 and 2.) From reading this, it should be obvious that 5 is not only prime, but it is also the sum of two primes, and the sum of the two primes that came before it. The number five has quite a few other properties to do with special kinds of prime numbers, such as being the first Safe Prime (numbers N that are prime, and satisfy N = 2P + 1, where P is also prime), as well as being the only number to be in a twin prime pair twice (a twin prime being a set two primes whose difference is 2.)

Speaking of being the sum of the numbers 2 and 3, 5 is also a Fibonacci number. The Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers that is created by repeatedly summing the previous two numbers in the series together. Thus, starting with '1,1' (as it is defined) we obtain the third and fourth terms by going (1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 2 = 3) leaving us with a sequence of '1,1,2,3' - obviously the next term is '5' as 2 + 3 = 5, and so 5 is not only a member of the Fibonacci sequence, but also the fifth member of the Fibonacci sequence.

There are five platonic solids. These solids, comprised of the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and the icosahedron, are the basis for the standard player's dice in most games. There are other dice (for example, the pentagonal trapezohedron - the d10) however any die that is not one of the platonic solids will not roll quite as nicely (or, often, as fairly) as one that is. This is because the platonic solids are the only solids where each edge is congruent (exactly the same), each angle is congruent, and each vertex is congruent. Thus, if you were ever wondering why your d10/d100 doesn't roll as well as your d4/d6/d8/d12/d20, there is your answer. Really, the only reason they were invented was because it was so annoying to get a percentage with other means.

Now, I could sit here and wax mathematical at you for quite some time, but the number five has applications to other areas of science (and life, and so forth) that I find quite interesting as well - plus, I've got so many more posts that I can do about maths! In biology, for instance, it can be seen that many flora and fauna in nature exhibit pentamerism, a kind of rough natural symmetry involving five protrusions - this can be seen by cutting an apple in half and observing the star-shaped pattern the seeds make, or by looking at (the vast majority of) starfish.

In music, a perfect fifth is the basis for the majority of western systems of music, as it is the most consonant harmony. Consonance, for those not in the know, is the opposite of dissonance...it's like...the property of things sounding really nice together. Kind of like harmony, only not. Five is the number of lines on a stave. Michael Jackson started in the Jackson 5. Take 5 is my favourite jazz song - it contains five beats per bar.

We cannot, then, forget TV shows such as Babylon 5, nor should we ignore the fact that there are 5 fighters in a standard sentai team (think of the power rangers, or the sailor scouts, for instance.) The Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy is a trilogy of five books, and there are five classical elements (fire, water, air, earth, and aether) - plus that Bruce Willis film. We must remember, remember, the 5th of November. Shakespeare wrote most of his verse in iambic pentameter, whilst the first and last stanzas of all haiku have 5 syllables. And of course, there is the high-five.

The moral of this story is that one should subscribe to the law of fives, as taught by discordianism. If one listens to discordianism (basically a self-parodying philosophy which subscribes to Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos - it's genuinely quite cool, and I suggest you look it up) there is the law of fives, which states that...well...it's best if I just quote directly from the Principia Discordia for you:

The Law of Fives states simply that: All things happen in fives, or are divisible by or are multiples of five, or are somehow directly or indirectly appropriate to 5

The Law of Fives is never wrong.

—Malaclypse the Younger, Principia Discordia, Page 00016

On The Second Day Of Thirty Day Challenges

Hi Everybody! It's day two of my thirty day challenges challenge. Before I get into it, however, I was just wondering if anybody in the Bathurst area would be interested in participating in a Flash Mob. For those of you who are unaware of this concept, a flash mob is basically a group of people who, at some public area, just start doing something that would be considered a little...um...nonsequitor in action. Examples of this are the group of people who all just stopped moving at once in the US, or literally anything that they've done on ImprovEverywhere. Anyway, I think that it would be pretty nifty to do something like that here in Bathurst (or maybe in Pitt St Mall in Sydney, if I feel like travelling there...) The only real issue is that I don't think that I have any good ideas, so I'm looking for concepts and stuff that we can organise, as well as participants. Anyway, without further ado, here are my challenges for day two.

Song Challenge #2: My Least Favourite Song

Much like trying to decide which song is my favourite, attempting to decide which song I hate the most at this point in time is quite difficult - there are just so many contenders. The main issue is that there is a lot of currently popular "music" which I would simply...well...I refuse to classify it as such. Okay, so yes, admittedly what is happening in the background of the song is music, but what's happening in the foreground isn't singing. It's often flat speech, or monotonous warbling that has been crafted to appear like singing using some kind of computer. I'm sorry to anybody who has to rely on autotune to get by, but really - you wouldn't throw some cherries and dark chocolate into a packet cake mix and tell me that it was a decent attempt at black forest cake now, would you?

Besides the abomination that is autotune, a great deal of music (and not just from today, admittedly, but from time and time ago as well) just lacks any kind of lyrical substance or depth. Songs about how drunk one is going to get, and how many (and I quote) "bitches" one is going to score with in a single night, are not particularly appealing to me. Songs about getting drunk because one has just been dumped are okay, as long as they contain depth. Songs about what day of the week it is, however, are simply abhorrent. Now here I may be referring to Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting by Elton John (which I was never a fan of) or Manic Monday by The Bangles. I'm more likely, however, talking about what I have decided (over the course of writing this piece) is my least favourite song currently: Friday by Rebecca Black.

What makes the above video even worse, however, is learning that Rebecca did not actually write the song in question. No, instead the song was written by Clarence Jay and Patrice Wilson - two people who, it would seem, have the combined lyrical genious of a dying guppy. The pair also produced the video which Black's mother forked out $2,000 for. Still, I suppose we should be thanking the quartet responsible for this travesty, after all, how else would I know that, if today is Friday, yesterday must have been Thursday, tomorrow will be Saturday, and Sunday comes afterward. I was also unaware that 13 year old were allowed to drive, and that it's apparently okay for them to party all night. Great parenting.

Book Challenge #2: My Least Favourite Book

I'm not entirely sure how to answer this one, actually, however given that I just ranted for three paragraphs about how crap certain musical styles or songs are, I feel that I don't really have the time to fumfer about on this one. Of all the books I've read, I find it difficult to pick a least favourite - I mean, there are books that I don't feel that I want to read again, certainly, but then if I don't like a book, I generally won't continue to read it. 

Actually, you know what, I've sat here, and I've thought about it (I know, it's a hard thing to convey in a continuous stream of text) and I believe I know which book would have to be my least favourite. Jane Eyre. I know that it's supposed to be a piece of absolutely classic literature. I know that it's meant to be ahead of its time. I know that, if one were to break it down into its thematic elements, one could draw parallels between it and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I know all of these things. Still - I hate Jane Eyre.

.Gif Challenge #2: A Gif Of Someone That Is Happy

The language (both the obscenity and the poor spelling) in the .gif below aside, it is indeed a .gif image of happy people. Happy people, apparently, really enjoy eating salad. Well, okay, perhaps salad really makes people happy. Either way there appears to be some correlation between eating a salad and finding joy in life. I, personally, don't see it. Sure, I enjoy eating certain vegetables (I love capsicum, and eggplant - oh gods do I love eggplant...) but there's something so entirely primal about tearing into a massive steak that just kicks my brain's pleasure centre into gear, and sets me on the path to extreme joy. I challenge you to eat a well cooked steak (not necessarily a well done steak, mind you) and be upset. Still, here is a .gif of some really bloody happy women enjoying their salads.

About Me Challenge #2: The Meaning Behind My Blog Name

There isn't really much behind the name of my blog, except a failed attempt at bettering myself. A while ago (some time last year) I noticed that a lot of people were creating those lists of things to do before they died - bucket lists or whatever. I, in my obsessive wisdom, thought that a simple list of 100 things to do before I died was not enough. No. Instead, I had to create a list of 100 lists of 100 things to do before I died. I had to read 100 fiction books, 100 non-fiction books, I had to see 100 films, listen to 100 songs, see 100 famous pieces of art. There were so many things I wanted to do (one hundred hundred things, in fact...) and yet...and yet there was so little time. Were I to achieve just one thing a day, I would not be done before I was about 43. That's just one thing a day. And it was not going that quickly. There were things I wouldn't be able to do for years anyway, and other things that I just...don't think I was going to be able to do...So instead my blog transformed into a way for me to kind of...talk about things...and I hope that it's entertaining because that's the whole point.

Photo Challenge #2: A Photo Of Myself A Year Ago

It was harder for me to find a photo of myself from this time period than I thought. A year ago I was living in Sydney, I didn't know many people, and there wasn't really anybody to take my photo. Thus, this is as close as I can get to giving you a picture of myself from then...It's pretty close...I think...

The World Shall Burn With My Fury (XMan On The Left, Me On The Right)

Facial Expression Challenge #2: My Happy Face

There are two ways that I could have gone when it comes to photographing my "happy face". I chose what I hope is the least disgusting/disturbing of the two (given that the other involves me orgasming on camera, I'm pretty sure you're glad I went with joy right now...)

Aw Man - I Do Not Look At All Comfortable Smiling Like That...

On The First Day Of Thirty Challenging Days

I've been seeing a lot of people on my Facebook feed participating in this "30 Day Song Challenge" thing, which is basically where you post a song each day, following a theme. Following this, came, I discovered, the "30 Day Book Challenge", and upon searching my hero Google, I discovered that there is a plethora (and yes, I use the word correctly, as the number gives me an overflowing supply of choices) of different 30 Day challenges that one can participate in. Because I like jumping on bandwagons as much as the next person (or, in the case of bandwagons, the previous person) I've decided that I'm going to sporadically do "Challenge" posts that respond to the following "30 Day Challenges":

• Song Challenge
• Book Challenge
• .Gif Challenge
• About Me Challenge
• Photo Challenge
• Facial Expression Challenge

I think that's enough things to make an interesting blog post each time I do one of these kinds of posts. Plus, various people were clamouring to know more about me, so now they'll have no reason to complain!! I suppose, then, that I should discontinue my usual waffling, and get into it.

Song Challenge #1: My Favourite Song

This is, actually, a really difficult question for me to answer. I don't tend to have just one favourite song. I have songs that I like a great deal, but their popularity with me waxes and wanes like our satellite the moon. To compensate for this, I'll tell you some of the songs that come to mind when I think of "What songs do I really really like right now?" and then give you the clip for the one that seems to have been in that list for the longest time (Oooooh oOOooh, for the longest time...) or just the one I feel resonates the best.

• Telephone - Pomplamoose (It's a cover of the Lady Gaga song)
• As The World Falls Down - David Bowie (It's from the film Labyrinth)
• I'm A Cuckoo - Belle & Sebastian
• This Winter I Retire - Said The Whale
• A Winter's Tale - The Tunics

 This Winter I Retire - Said The Whale (It's Been In My Head For A While Now...)

Book Challenge #1: My Favourite Book

With no question, and I have mentioned this fact before, my favourite book (or collection thereof) of all time is the Alice tales, by Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll.) For me there is no story that presents a better allegory for "growing up" and learning to face the challenges of both puberty and adulthood. Alice goes from being a well-natured, if naive, young girl, and suddenly falls down this big hole into the unknown. There, her body and mind undergo change after change, she questions who she is, and learns to think for herself along the way, eventually learning to stand up for herself against the Queen of Hearts, and to face her fears when confronting the Jabberwocky. It is exceptionally well written, a joy to read time and time again, and it just...I find it...magniflorious.

.Gif Challenge #1: My Favourite Gif

I have, as with my song choices, many gifs that I really like. Unlike with my song choices, however, there is one gif that, when I see it, it just makes me feel...good...and nice...and happy - and all that kind of stuff. It's the image for the little animated avatar that I used to have as my MSN picture way back when I still lived in Diggings - and it is what earnt me the moniker of 'Tiger'.

About Me Challenge #1: 15 Facts About Myself

Okay - here's a nice straightforward one for me to do. Below are fifteen completely pseudo-random facts about myself (determined by asking people simple questions, what they wanted to know, etc.)

1. My favourite colour is a specific shade of blue defined by the HEX number #003366
2. My favourite number is 5, for ever so many reasons (which I will go into upon request only.)
3. My IQ is around 145, but it fluctuates. I don't think that IQ is a very good measure of intelligence
4. My favourite food is tonkatsu ramen with additional tori karaage in it
5. I've learnt how to play the piano, trumpet, tenor horn, and cello, but I'm not very good at them
6. If I was presented with a piranha infested river (wading across which would mean almost certain death), and I had Bear Grylls as my companion, I use Bear as a meat-boat, to get me to safety
7. I am deathly afraid of the unknown, to the point where being faced with something like a very deep body of water (where I can't see the bottom) causes me to go into panic mode. Similarly, so does being in a situation where I know I should know the outcome, but I cannot determine the best course of action
8. It annoys me how many many characters in the Marvel Universe use alliteration in their names. It's as though their parents were intentionally cruel - examples can be seen in Susan Storm, Peter Parker, and Lois Lane (and, if you count assonance, Clark Kent...) Bruce Banner
9. I am entirely addicted to Book Depository
10. My mother can sing the 60's "Hulk" and "Thor" cartoon theme songs from memory, which I think is a fantastic quality to have in a parent
11. I've always wanted a pet ferret/stoat
12. I used to have a webcomic, but it was terrible
13. I'm an applications developer
14. I don't really have any regrets - I think I can look back on everything as something I have learnt from
15. I am currently single

Photo Challenge #1: My Facebook Profile Picture

I have really been meaning to change this picture, for quite some time, but here it is: 

Look At Me There, Looking All...Something...And Yellow - Maybe I Have Camera Jaundice?

Facial Expression Challenge #1: My Regular Face

And finally, this is what my face looks like when I'm not...well...pulling a face, or smiling, or anything. I like to think of this face as "quiet contemplation" - it's the expression I pull when I am just existing, and nothing more.

Oh God I Have An Alfalfa Cow Lick Thing D:

On Things I Really Shouldn't Get Into

There are some activities I participate in that I really don't enjoy, but that I have to do anyway. Sleeping, for one, is something that I wouldn't do if I didn't have to (I mean, I could get so much more done, which would render part of this blog post - the impetus, anyway - kind of moot.) I also probably would only eat on rare occasion (because, I mean, taste is delicious but, once again, I have things to do, and it would be cheaper.) Come to think of it, of all the things that come to mind, I'd probably leave it there as far as 'not doing things' goes, but then, I'm not in the most imaginative of moods today.

I mean, I think I'd still go to work. I like having money, and I feel that one should have to work for one's money. Or at least, one shouldn't just get it handed to oneself (note that studying and receiving benefits is not just magically getting money, because I consider that a kind of work, and if you're on a disability pension then you obviously have extenuating circumstances), which is why I would consider winning some kind of 20 million dollar lottery pool, and then living off what I made from placing that amount into a high interest savings account, a fair way to support myself (but then, I'm most certain that everyone at some stage in their life, will attempt to do this - and no, I don't actually play the lottery, because I am aware of the odds of winning - and yes, I know "You have to be in it to win it", but you have to be in a game of Russian Roulette to "win" [i.e. Not Die] as well, but the odds of losing, combined with what is at stake, are not particularly flattering.)

Oops - I Got A Little Distracted There...

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about today. No. I wanted to discuss the fact that somebody (not mentioning any names...well...okay I am, Spud) decided that it would be a good idea to start a Multiplayer MineCraft server. I had, up until two days ago, never played MineCraft - I had never actually witnessed it being played. This was not by accident. MineCraft, I had heard, was tremendously addictive (regular readers of XKCD will have seen the comic below) and the allure of a seemingly infinite expanse of brick-world that I could use to create fortresses, forests, and indeed my own entire world was something that it was obvious I should avoid, lest I succumb to obsessively hollowing out structures, filling them with water, tunnelling to oblivion, and so forth.

But Elmo, Squiggles, Encey, and Spud were all playing on Spud's server. And the pressure they were exerting on me to at least give it a try was phenomenal - all the time it was "You should get MineCraft, Tiger" and "Tiger, the MineCraft server is up, come play with us" - of course, I failed to anticipate that they were secretly whispering "for ever and ever and ever..." and the end of that last one. I should have seen the signs. I should have listened to the way they spoke about it.

Elmo: "Dude, Why Aren't You Playing MineCraft - I'm Trying To Make My DS Play It And You Don't Even OWN It..."

Squiggles: "All The Dapper Gents Play MineCraft, Fool..."

Spud: "Play MineCraft Now And You'll Receive THIS EXTRA LIFE!! ACT FAST!!!"

Encey: "Even The People Of MARS Play MineCraft, You Pitiful Fool!!"

But no - I ignored the signs, and I bought it. I started playing, and Spud showed me the basics of what I was doing, and invited me to dig myself a room in the communal base. Our "Fortress of Companionship", if you will. So I started tunnelling away, creating some spiral stairs, and an expanse at the bottom of them. I dug, I created pickaxes, and I dug some more. Eventually, I looked at the clock and realised that it was after 10pm, and I'd lost my entire evening to digging out a room, and I wasn't even done yet. I had other things to do, so I very reluctantly tore myself away from the computer, and headed out to make sure I was fed for the coming day, I showered, and I headed to bed.

Dammit - I wasn't finished my room. So yesterday, when I got home from work, I continued on in my quest to slowly chip away at the cavern I was creating. I hollowed it out, and began my next task - creating the glass to line the walls with. This is something I am still not finished doing. This game will consume my soul - I can feel it calling me now. I'm sure that, if Kermit the Frog was making his music today, Rainbow Connection would instead be about MineCraft ("Have you been half-asleep, and have you heard voices - I hear them calling my name. Is this the sweet sound that calls the young gamers, the voice might be one and the same.")

Oh well, what can one do, I suppose, other than just ride it out and wait until we've mined the world so much that it's no longer sustainable and it implodes upon itself. At least, that's what I figure will happen - we aren't entirely working towards a sustainable environment here, given that I've used the majority of one of our beaches in order to create glass for use with my room. We are, however, constantly replanting trees, so that's a step in the right direction. Maybe I should...Oh...There's an idea...But it will have to wait for another time, as I wish to keep it secret (for now) from the other guys on the server...Oh but they will be surprised when they see what I've done (pleasantly, I hope.)

Before I sign off, I actually wanted to ask a favour of you. I want to do a blog post about confessions. Well, okay, two posts about confessions. One is secret confessions (like PostSecret) where you guys send me anonymous postcards with your deepest secrets written on them - things you just want to get off your chest - and I'll scan them, or whatever, and put them up here. The other one is public confessions - things that you have been hiding for too long, and you just want to world to know, and you figure that "Hell - I've never said this before, why not say it now?" or even just "Hell - I don't say this enough", which I figure would be emailed to me (so I could put a name to them, although I could make these anonymous if you requested it in the email.)

Anyway, if you'd like to help me out with this my postal address is:

Tiger Bailey
127 Russell St.
Bathurst,
N.S.W.    2795
Australia

And my email is dirtytiger@live.com.au

The moral of this story is that trying to deny my OCD habits is just, well, silly. There's nothing I can do to stop them, for now at least, so why am I bothering to try by denying myself something fun. If I were to try and stop myself being so obsessive about things, then it will take time and practice, and telling myself that I can't join in activities with my friends just because I'm going to go all weird about it is just plain stupid. So, yes, my name is Tiger Bailey, and I'm currently addicted to MineCraft. Damn it all, Spud - damn it all indeed.

On Personal Goal Fulfilment

Today is a pretty nifty day for me. Well, okay, it's partially a nifty day for me. It's also partially quite painful, but only in a physical sense (I hurt my leg), rather than an emotional one (so I suppose it's all good.) Recently, loyal readers would be aware, I have been setting myself a number of mini-goals. Well, I say recently, but what I really mean is "Since I was aware that mini-goals could be set." and even if I am just taking into account the ones that I'm dealing with in this blog post, that's still a number of months.

You might recall that, some time ago, I made a post about wanting to purchase a bento box, so that I could prepare suitably sized lunches that were delicious, healthy, and looked awesome. Having finally dismounted my winged appaloosa of procrastination, I went onto eBay and did a broad search for the term "Bento" only to be rewarded with a fairly limited set of things to purchase that were...well...even remotely feasible. I ended up settling on a red usagi themed set of bento box, elastic strap (to hold it together), and furoshiki (to make it look awesome when I took it out!) So I've now got the delicious part of my meal down, as well as the healthy part, I just need to work on the "Oh Gods - Look at that awesome food-art!!" aspect.

Big Section, Little Section, Bento Box

Bento, Elastic Strap, And Furoshiki (Wrapping Cloth)

All Wrapped Up And Ready To Go!

As an offshoot from having finally received my awesomeness in lunch-box form, I have also achieved something that will make people familiar with the One Hundreds Hundreds initial concept go "Ooooh yeah - He had planned on doing that, hadn't he?". Regular people, on the other hand, will more likely go "Oh, you did something! Good for you!!" But yes - remember how I originally wanted this to be a list of 100 lists of 100 things I wanted to do? Well, I remember that, even though I don't care so much now. Anyway, I have (recently) been learning to cook a number of really cool things. I have made things like good sushi that I've never made before (see three posts ago), salted salmon, garlic prawns, balsamic strawberries, and just...so so
many delicious foodstuffs. I'm not sure why, but learning to cook new things - and actually cooking them - just makes me feel so much more adult. I know that it shouldn't really have any bearing on my life, but I feel as though I can support myself more in the real world when I know that I can make Earl Grey Tea Muffins.

That Stuff That Looks Like Potato Is Actually Apple. You Stop It Browning By Soaking It In Acidulated Water

I Managed To Bring: Sprouts, Apple, Capsicum Confetti, Tofu, Beef, Rice, Miso Soup, Green Tea, And A Baby Muffin.

Speaking of the initial concept of One Hundred Hundreds, I've become rather addicted to the website BookDepository. Seriously - the offer you free postage on books, and you can get some of the rarest things I've seen for ages from there (and often cheaper/in better quality than from eBay.) As a result of this, I now have seven books (that's the most they'll let you have in one order) coming to me from various countries, just waiting itching for me to get my hands on their (mostly hard-cover) goodness. I'm not sure why, but I appreciate hard-cover books more than I do their soft-cover or paper-back brethren. For me there is just something so much more...bookish about holding a hard-cover copy of, say, a Terry Pratchett novel, or a book on pseudo-science, as I lie in bed relaxing. Reality is stronger in things like hard-cover books (unless you're talking about fiction books, in which case reality is at its weakest, and you're more susceptible to being swept away into a world of fantasy.)

On the topic of being swept away into a world of fantasy, and of books, and eBay, I recently purchased a copy of my all-time favourite book from a nice gentleman on eBay. "How?" I can hear you asking in the back of my mind, "How is it that one does not own a copy of one's favourite book? Surely that is how it would become such a thing?!" You sound, dear reader, just like my friend Spud, who chastised me recently with these very same words (although said slightly differently, as he and I do not tend to talk in the same manner.) The answer I'll give you is the answer I gave him - I just never got around to buying one. Books weren't something I ever tended to buy, because I always thought my money should go towards more fitting things. Since, however, I acquired my bookshelf, I have been working towards another goal of mine, which is reading books, books, and many books; any books, and all books. And so this is how I wound up with a copy of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (well, technically I have the complete works of Lewis Carroll) - and if you couldn't tell that this was one of my favourite works then...I suppose you really don't pay a lot of attention to the style in which I write, do you?!

Let's Break The Tension With This Picture I Took Of Some Kitties!!

Moving On...

Finally...I think...the thought of books has brought me back to Japan based things that I have been longing to get my grubby little mitts on. As you may know, I purchased (some time ago now) a revolving subscription to the monthly manga magazine Shounen Ace, known for printing such brilliant series as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Well, last week, these books finally arrived and, besides the fact that my Japanese really really really needs work, I am over the moon. Seriously, besides the fact that I'm waiting for those seven books from BookDepository, and the fact that I have a wishlist of, like, 12 pages over there...Things are good in terms of personal goal satisfaction.

Not Shown Are The Suzumiya Collectibles That Came With These Books

Well, okay, satisfaction as far as being driven by capitalism goes, anyway - but that's okay by me for now.

On Things That Are Complimentary To Each Other

When I was in high school I knew that I was different. I didn't really like P.E. - I tried to sit in the shade as often as I could when it came to play...you know...sport-ball or whatever. I did, however, quite enjoy gymnastics...oh yeah, and the triple/long/high jumps! I was also not a particularly big fan of drama - don't get me wrong, I wasn't scared of making a fool of myself, or being embarrassed...I just thought that there were better things that I could be doing with my time. Things that were more...me...and in touch with the me-ness within. I was, of course, kind of ashamed of my leanings, at first, but I soon came to embrace them fully. It was in high school that I discovered that I'm a geek.

This Is A Poster You Can Buy, From A Site, On The Internet

My favourite subject, if you didn't know, has pretty much always been maths. English is cool, of course, and the charm of a subtle turn of phrase, or the beauty involved in correct grammar usage are certainly not lost on me. There is, however, this little...niggling thing...about English. It's subjective - that is, you can be wrong, simply because somebody disagrees with you (regardless of how much evidence you bring to the party.) I am sorry, language studies, but that is not what it means to be incorrect - that is simply having a differing opinion. In maths, on the other hand, everything is based upon a logical sequence of fact. If you say, for instance, that 0.9999... and so forth repeated infinitely ... is equal to 1, and you can prove it using pre-established facts, which are again based upon pre-established facts, until you are using axioms only (as I have done in a very very early post) then you're correct, regardless of whether the marker disagrees with you.

You Leave Maths Alone, It Just Needs A Bit Of Help - There's Nothing Shameful About That

A great deal of people who I have dealt with in my career as a tutor are, for some reason or another, quite averse to trigonometry. Some of them find it pointless, whilst others find it too difficult. I, on the other hand, find it fascinating. That's not really fair, though, as I tend to find all aspects of mathematics (except for basic probability) quite interesting. Did you know, for instance, that you can measure the height of a very large object if you can accurately measure the length of its shadow, as well as a couple of the angles that it creates? Or were you aware that, to get the maximum distance possible in a triple-jump or long-jump attempt, you should aim to leap at 45 degrees (also, you should tuck correctly, but that's more mechanics than trig.) Finally, did you know that angles that add to 180 degrees are called supplementary angles, and that angles that add to 90 degrees (like the two angles that are not the hypotenuse in a right angled triangle) are called complementary? You did know that? Excellent.

It took me, for some bizarre reason that is known only to the part of my subconscious that deals with separating language into segments, quite some time to differentiate the word complementary (as discussed above) from complimentary (meaning either free or, as is my intention here, something conveying a compliment.) I mention this fact because there is a club at the University, the members of which I had the pleasure of meeting on Club Day last week, called Bekozwy (as in, I have since figured out, "Because We Can.") whose sole purpose is basically to go around being generally awesome.

Awesome Comic, But It's No XKCD (In A Moment You'll Look Back Upon This And Go "Ooh...")

Before I finish that part of the story (and thus, to hopefully keep you on your seat's edge) I feel that I must interject with an interesting factoid. I suffer, on occasion, and I know people who suffer, on occasion, from the most amusing bouts of aphasia. At least, I think I mean aphasia. It's hard to tell sometimes (see what I kind of did there?) Aphasia is where you tend to say the wrong thing - but not in a "foot in mouth" kind of way, rather in a more "Could you pass me the elephant, oh sorry I mean steak." kind of way. It's actually less annoying than you'd think (except for when I'm in the car, trying to tell someone to turn left, and I tell them to go right, and I don't even register that I said right until it's too late.) It usually ends up just being kind of funny, like when Andy said something was in the fridge, but instead he said garage. It's usually contextual, but still it's amusing. Now...I was talking about something...

Oh yeah, I was talking about the Bekozwy club. This club offered a place for people to get comments/critiques on work they were doing, just for the heck of it - so I suggested my blog to them. They read it quite quickly, and I was afforded the following statement of appreciation:

"It's like xkcd had a baby with the stream-of-consciousness genre, and bam: one hundred hundreds."

I was just compared to XKCD. By someone I technically do not know. This pretty much just makes it for me right there. I mean, Randall is one of the best webcomic creators I can think of - his drawing style may be simplistic, however he always brings humour or something thought provoking to what he delivers, and he does it with intelligence. So thank you, Bekozwy - you have made my day.

City Coding - A Work Day Bookended With Rage - Kalgar

Tiger rawr asked me to write him a post about what it's like to be a coder in the city, with the intent of doing a guest post of this newfangled blog thingamajig. And so, without any further ado, words follow about this very topic - Kalgar.

I work as a programmer at a small company in the glorious city of Sydney know as The Project Factory. In fact, I was Tiger's replacement at this establishment, and as such I suppose I indirectly enabled hm to return to Bathurst. *shrug*. My role at said company is pretty much to write code. Lots and lots of code, with the intent of creating iPhone applications. At least, that's what they tell me, though I have seen no reason to believe otherwise. Yet.

A typical day begins with me waking up. This is quite an important part of the day, and usually immediately followed by my regret of having played video games so late the night before. This is soon forgotten when I shower, get my stuff together, and head off to the bane of every commuter's existence - the train.

CityRail is the culprit of my twice (and occasionally thrice) daily torture session. Torture via travel on a horrendous train, dealing with stupid hateful people. It makes me want to set everything I ever knew on fire.

For starters, there are the occasions when I sit on the train, minding my own business, playing my PSP, when someone sits next to me. I do not have a problem with this principle - heck, it's what public transport is for. What I DO resent is the fact that every single one of the will, without fail, sit on my jacket. While I am wearing it. They literally sit on the part of my jacket that is on the bench. This prevents me from moving. At all. For the rest of the trip. Most of them tend to give me an angry glare when I shift and pull the jacket out from under them. What the hell? They have eyes (and for the most part, their eyes work better than mine), they should bloody use them and give me a moment to move! Sheesh!

Also, I completely fail to understand how CityRail can fail so very much. they handed me a brochure the other week, which was essentially a "look how good we are! Look at all the improvements we are making for you, the customer!" I gave it a cursory glance for the lulz, and got quite a few out of it. For starters, they are aspiring to 92% reliability. This means that they AIM to have 92% of their trains actually show up. Not necessarily on time (they have a separate statistic for that), just showing up at all. One look at Sydney Ferries reveals 100% reliability, and 99.8% on time. And that is a form of transport which may cancel a trip if the water is too rough.

Boats. Much More Hardcore Than Trains.

When I eventually arrive in the city, I get my morning EasyWay tea (Green Apple flavoured black tea with tapioca pearls...mmmmmmmm) and head up to the office. It's about a 5 minute walk up a somewhat gentle hill. Of course, many other people make the same walk. Except that many of these people are smokers. And are smoking while they walk up a hill. Leaving their smoke to blow behind them. Directly into my face. I don't have a problem with people smoking - they are free to commit a slow, painful suicide if they so wish. I do not smoke. I would rather be able to breathe, thank you very much. So I would appreciate it if you didn't blow that smoke directly into my face. If you are going to smoke, then there's no reason for you to be walking up the hill while you do so! What, you can't afford 5 minutes to have a smoke without being late for work? Well there are multiple solutions to that. No I won't spell them out for you, I shouldn't have to.

I get to work, get into the office, and then look at whatever has been sent to my email. Occasionally it's a change request, more often it's asking for a device to be added to the provisioning for testing of an app, or some such. No big deal. I spend most of the day writing, testing and debugging code for iPhone apps. Occasionally there is some programming for Ruby on Rails servers in there, but since we recently hired a programmer who specialises in Rails, my workload in that regard has been reduced (although he is going to start to teach me how to do that stuff, which will be awesome.)

Once I finished work at 4:30 (I start at 8:30) I walk down the hill, head to the train station, and if I'm lucky, get on a train. If I'm unlucky, I wait. And wait, and wait. Like the other day. A customer "threatened self-harm" (their words, not mine) at Petersham. This caused 30 minute delays for every train line on the network, bar one. Looking at the map, Petersham station only connects on a single line. Three other lines go past there, which is fine, those ones would also get delayed if someone was on the tracks.

That is a total of four lines, at most, which should experience problems as a result. There are nine lines (discounting the sprint lines, peak our only lines, and intercity.) From this event, only one line did not have delays. Eight lines - 4 of which have no connection with Petersham, were delayed.

What?!?

When I get home, I tend to play a lot of video games. Lately it's been Dragon Age, so that I can play Dragon Age II soon.

--

So guys, that was Kalgar's guest post for me. You should check out his blog! It is cool and the cool kids all enjoy it!

On Dates, Deliciousness, And Dares

Hey there all you wonderful, joyous people of love and joy - today I have two things to talk to you about! Yes, two! Are you not mallards made of the most spectacular luck? A brief introduction to today's blog is, admittedly, thing number one, but (as usual) it is quite removed from thing two, and so I have decided to count it differently. Today you may notice me rambling slightly more than usual. I am, you see, quite tired - I have not had what I would consider a "proper" night's sleep in a while now (usually interrupted by nightmares, or just general movement on my own behalf) and whilst I know that this is no-where near as bad as some people (indeed, some of my friends are visited by the insomnia fairy quite frequently) it is still frustrating enough that trying to work is an irritation, especially when my mind constantly flicks between English and other languages.

Besides being a horrible day to be awake, today is also a day to celebrate (which kind of annoys me, because...well...it shouldn't be such a frabjous day if I can't fully appreciate both the fabulousness and the joyousness of the occasion.) You see, in some circles - the ones that use the date standard that we here in Australia do not - today is Pi Approximation day (the 3rd Month and 14th Day of the year.) Of course, the best Pi Approximation that I'm likely to see doesn't come until 2015 rocks around (Month 3, Day 14, Year '15, Hour 9, Minute 26, Second 53, Millisecond 58, and so on ad infinitum...) And then we have the Australian (and British, and other peoples' who use the correct date format) Pi Approximation day of the 22nd of July (because 22/7 is a relatively okay approximation of pi in fractional format.)

But Pi is not the reason I wanted to talk to you today! No, no, and no indeed again. Today's blog post is all about the wondrous thing that I (and some of my friends) spent the vast majority of Saturday doing. Yes, that's right, from roughly 2pm on Saturday, until roughly 10pm Squiggles, Emma, Elmo, Kylie, and I cooked and cooked and cooked away, until we had enough sushi to feed not only ourselves, but also enough to take up to Spud and Encey (who were at The LAN, and thus could not make sushi) with enough left over for...well...significant leftovers!

Our Finished Sushi Product

About Half The Leftovers

I know that a lot of you are wondering just how sushi is made and, whilst no videos were taken of the actual sushi making itself (oh no, today's One Minute is much more entertaining than that) I can give you some pointers, and the recipes that I used for all of the ingredients. Below is a picture of the raw ingredients that we started with - there was squid, salmon, chicken, eggplant, carrot, tofu, cucumber, egg, tuna, avocado, rice, various sauces like sweet Japanese mayonnaise and mirin, and a couple of dry things like salt, too. I think that's everything. Anyway, after about 4 or 5 solid hours of preparing the rice, letting various things marinate, and then cooking them, we ended up with: lemon, garlic, and herb squid; honey, soy, and ginger chicken; teriyaki chicken; apple-vinegar tofu; miso tofu; tamagoyaki; tempura eggplant; salted salmon; julienne vegetables; and...well...cooked rice. You can see these things in the second image below.

Mostly Raw Ingredients (Plus Some Chicken Marinating In Some Bowls)

Finished Fillings

Nothing that I prepared was overly difficult, and if you only make one or two fillings then you'll have a pretty easy time. The hardest thing to make is, funnily enough, the tamagoyaki (egg-roll thingo), which requires a lot of practice to get right. Otherwise, for the chicken, you cook it like you normally would (after letting it marinate in the fridge for a while.) For the squid, you need to make sure that it doesn't get too rubber (and don't eat the purple bit at the bottom of it, either.) The salmon just needs to be salted likely (use rock salt, and rub it into the flesh of the salmon, softly) and left to sit for as long as possible, before you seal it on all sides (as briefly as is humanly possible, or to taste - I didn't trust the fish in Bathurst so I cooked it on a low heat, on all sides, so it was even all the way through.) Tofu is easy to cook as well - it takes on the flavour of whatever you cook it in!

This Is Unsalted Eggplant, Just After I Cut It Up

This Is What Happens When You Leave Salted Eggplant To Sit For About 3 Hours

The rice is possibly challenging if you don't have a good rice cooker, because (unlike normal rice) it requires patience and...well...a couple of special things. Firstly, you need to wash the rice effectively (duh - but just keep washing until the water runs clear.) Following this, put the rice in your pot with enough water to come up one knuckle further than the rice, and add some salt and a little bit of rice-wine vinegar (but only the tiniest amount, and this stage) to the water. You then heat the water/rice combo to a boil, before quickly reducing it to a low (quite low, I believe) simmer, and put the lid on. After this you wait for roughly 20 minutes, though it can take up to half-an-hour - you must not remove the lid during this time! When the rice is done, you have to stir in a special seasoning sauce thing that you can make yourself from rice-wine vinegar, sugar, and salt - or you can buy sushi seasoning stuff in a bottle from woolies, and it works just as well if you're in a hurry (but it's better to make it yourself, really.) Then you cool it with a hand fan until the rice is all nice and room temperature - do not cool it in the fridge, use a hand fan (or, if you have to, an electric fan.) Congratulations, you have now made sushi rice!

After you have your rice and fillings prepared, you're ready to roll (please forgive the pun there.) This bit is the fun part, and it's relatively easy. You'll need some yaki nori (the seaweed), a bowl of lukewarm water (that you can wet your hands with) and a surface to prepare on. Basically you just put the seaweed on your surface, shiny side down, and wet your hands, before putting on a thin layer of rice about 2.5 to 3.5 inches long, that starts about 1 inch from the bottom of your seaweed (if you don't wet your hands, the rice will stick to you like nobody's business.) Layer some toppings on the rice, in nice straight lines, and then roll. It's kind of difficult to explain the rolling process on here. I suggest you check out YouTube, and I don't have any videos of me doing it myself. After you are finished rolling, you just cut it into bit-sized portions, and put it aside until you're finished.

Cutting, Cutting, Cutting, Cutting

More Cutting! From Different Angles!!

Following what was, for us, a fairly mammoth effort in creating various different kinds of sushi rolls, we tucked into our meals and ate until we felt...well...kinda ill - but that's to be expected when your eyes are so much larger than your stomach. Following this, we took some video of us being idiots with the leftover wasabi (I also got some shots of some people at The LAN trying it out as well, and Encey demonstrated herself to be quite hardcore - I just hope the quality is good enough to be put in the video...Oh, and my youngest brother Yuck is in there as well, because he'll do anything if you promise him M&Ms afterwards.) Basically with wasabi the reaction is kind of a delay, and it works its way into your sinuses and all over your palette - it is harsher when it's mixed with the sticky rice, and you have to chew. I hope you enjoy the rest of the photos, as well as One Minute Of Wasabi Reactions.

Scott Got Caught Eating Some Chips - Bad Scott

He Tried To Be Charming To Compensate

Emma Also Wore A Fancy Hat...MY FANCY HAT!!

Kylie Just Looks Forlorn Cos She Has No Fancy Hats

Michael Wanted To Eat For About 8 Hours Before He Was Allowed To

We Ended Up With The Mountains Of Sushi!

A Minute Of Wasabi Reaction Shots

The moral of this story is that I really can't wait until I get to travel to Sydney to buy myself a tiered bento box - a proper one that I can take my food to work in. Of course, if someone from Sydney who reads this was nice enough to buy me one and post it to me, I wouldn't complain, and I'd even give them money for it if they were really nice. I might even feature them in a post...Well heck - they bought me the thing I currently want really badly, I would liken them to some kind of gift giving deity. Which would be nice, for them, I think.

On Getting Back On Several Horses In One Day

Hey guys, gals, and everything in between - today is a much better day than yesterday was, for many, many, oh so many reasons. First (and foremost - well, not really but I just love saying that) is the fact that today is Thursday. This means, obviously, that tomorrow is Friday - the day that we (now) play Squiggles superhero game, allowing me to stretch my Locki muscles. And, to add wonder to awesomeness, the following day is Saturday, which means that (this weekend) I get to teach Kylie how to make sushi and (to my weekly delight) play Spud's 'Rise of the Runelords' game. Oh yeah, and we're going to make a real push on working on my costumes for SupaNova, too. So - a productive weekend it shall be (filled with sushi, no less - so all you non-sushi eating people can...you know...either suck it, or make your own sushi.)

Earlier today, as you may be aware, I had my combined performance review and end-of-probationary discussion. You may also be aware that I was quite nervous about this, and that, the closer half-past eleven became, the more my little tummy was going somersaults in an attempt to escape my body so that it didn't have to be present. All of this stressing was (as I was told by my team leader, my aunt LeakySpider, and a nice person from the CSU forums) for naught, and I was praised outright. Apparently I have "exceeded both my job description, and their expectations of me." It's a good thing.

Today was also CSU's Club Day - a fact which slipped my mind until it was almost too late. I am, presently, the founder of BAMS - the Bathurst Anime & Manga Society. I know, the acronym should be BAAMS but that makes us sound like sheep, which is something we are trying to get away from. So, at around 12:50 today I whipped out my notebook and drew up some very simple posters, as well as a "sign ups" sheet so that I can get in contact with the willing members when I find out exactly when and where we can host our meetings. When I rocked up the place was already full, and there were basically no spots left, so I sat myself down next to my friends from The LAN (a Bathurst gaming event) and tried to encourage people to rock up.

Emma Is Never Happy When I Take Her Photo For Some Reason

Squiggles,  However, Is Always Too Happy...

This, I will admit, started off fairly rockily. I put my own name on the paper, and I got X-Man and Elmo to sign up as well - you know, to get the ball rolling. Otherwise, I just sat there. Alone. With the guy who wanted people to play video games with him. It was kind of like what I imagine high school must have been like for various people (I was going to say that it was like high school, but it has been pointed out that I was actually popular, and thus cannot draw that comparison.) After a while, we got sick of being "those losers who aren't doing a sport club" (nobody's words but my own, and said in jest) and decided to put some advertising on X-Man, sending him off to walk around, as though he were some kind of mascot. This worked okay, but the thing that really got people coming to us was - in X-Man's eyes, at least - his dancing skills. You can see, below, a minute of him dancing (I re-dubbed the music 'cos the sound was crap on the original.)

YouTube Is Being A Tool About Showing Me My Videos, So I Hope This Works

All in all, we got about 20 members before I had to go back to work, and that's not including the couple of non university people I know will want to come, as well as any people who sign up after I leave. After I sort out the whole "Can we get affiliation, please" issue, and hopefully get our funds in, things will just snowball along - I am sure of it! I have some pretty nifty plans for the club, including (but not limited to) film/series screenings, subsidised trips to conventions, manga/comic sharing, and more. If you live in Bathurst and are interested in that sort of thing, then please feel free to email me so that I can add you to our mailing list!

The final awesome and wonderful thing that just makes today so wonderfully spectacular is that I saw someone wearing an awesome hat. Alas, however, I did not get to take a photo, as my phone was mucking up (upon checking my phone at home, it turns out that the photo did take!) And no, I do not refer to the fact that I caught Spud in the Gaming Lab wearing a paper bag on his head as though 't'were the finest of head gear. I am referring to the gentlemanly SPG who caught my bus again this morning. I thought it might interest you to know that, as I disembarked, I yelled (slightly too loudly perhaps) his name and he turned around and seemed genuinely pleased to see me. Well, okay, he didn't seem displeased to see me - and in my books that means that he was pleased.

In The Catholic Religion, He'd Be Pretty Important (So Sayeth The Height Of His Hat!)

So yes, I spoke to SPG today. I asked him if he enjoyed D&D, and told him that my friends and I were wondering if he'd like to play. He responded with the (actually totally unprepared for) "I've never played before, however I have watched a session and it seemed pretty fun." So I invited him to play in one of our sessions. Apparently this would be "pretty cool", but will have to wait until the uni holidays because otherwise he is too busy. So now I have to decide whether I want to run a one-shot, or have him play in a pre-established game. Either way I need to determine what kind of game to get him into - maybe a steampunk era game is in order - to help him settle  in. Oh yeah, and he gave me his number, but that's just so I can contact him in April (during the holidays) to let him know the details of our games.

Oh yeah - there were a couple of other things that I want to just super quickly mention. I didn't have any nightmares last night (which is rare for me, at the moment.) The blisters on my hand were punctured somehow (totally accidentally) yesterday and have now had the pressure inside relieved - as long as I can stave off infection I'll be fine. I met a bunch of nice people at club day, many of whom were quite talkative, and I got to make fun of X-Man on the Internet. It reminds of the days when I used to have a radio show, and I would make fun of him through broadcast sound. Good times.

The moral of today's story is that it feels good to act like yourself, especially when you spend 95% of the time acting like yourself (assuming you don't count time spent role playing.) That 5% of the time when you're a seething mass of un-you-ness is made just so much more unpleasant by the fact that it's so uncharacteristic for you to become this totally different, and (to be honest) much less awesome person. But then, I guess, you can only act like someone who isn't you 50% of the time before that paltry personality becomes primary, and suddenly being awesome is weird.