Headlines

From the sergeant's mouth

No, it's not me but from 3SG (NS) NYH. Just read his blog and all I can say is it's truly awesome and I seriously recommend it to students living overseas and on a budget (or who just want to be savvy with their spending). While his blog might be fresh and new and as such a little light on content his first two posts are rather brilliant. They cover his experimentations with his weekly food expenditure and I must say his research is rather thorough covering their weight, cost and nutritional value. Frankly speaking it's the most interesting thing (I mean it makes much more sense and is infinitely more useful than any of my ranting down here) I've read for a long time and I plan on implementing some of his lessons during the Easter break. You can get it here at http://yh89.wordpress.com. Good job NYH, I'm looking forward to more money saving tips from you!

Team HGF

Just a little something to wile my time away before I go to bed. Now team HGF hasn't been active for awhile now, but during our little jaunt on CoD 4 online today we still managed to wreck merry havoc and predictably top the charts. Now what is team HGF you might ask? Well it's a bunch of crazy asses with nothing better to do with their free time than to sit around LAN shops and busting peoples asses open no matter the game (except DotA, which frankly speaking is meant for people with the social life of a frog, about to be flung into a boiling vat of porridge, yum). From the prehistoric period of Counter-Strike to Battlefield 2, Dawn of War, Age of Empires 3, Command & Conquer Zero Hour and finally to the game which set our legend in stone, Call of Duty 4. We weren't fantastic when we started, but we learnt from every loss, every mistake (although sibu angkau's lack of improvement is still one of the wonders of the world) and finally managed to destroy the competition outright. I remember the days of the pitched battles where we fought tooth and nail (or keyboard and mouse) just to stay a kill ahead, the glorious and adrenaline packed victories by a scant kill or two, or the frustrating defeats by one foolish mistake at the last second. We learned, we adapted and we kicked ass, lots of it. But that's all in the past, eventually the thrill of the kill disappeared, the opposition drifted away as they felt their struggle futile and HGF was left unopposed. Hardly anyone plays CoD 4 at the cyber cafes now, for fear that a HGF personnel or two might be around to turn their hour or two of enjoyment into sheer misery. So finally we took our fight online expecting something of a challenge, we even busted ourselves back to level one, only to realise that we sorely overestimated the opposition. We topped the tables in out first online debut, our measly levels putting the rest of the level 55 players to shame. Our kills did not just overshadow them, it humiliated them, usually doubling the closest rival. And our deaths were much lower. HGF isn't made up of a bunch of solo operators, each member plays an important part (even angkau has one, he's the bait) and the failure of one could spell failure for all. Praise goes not to one, but to all. We have reached the peak, where no challenger could oppose us. And it's very lonely at the top.

Health Matters

OK here's the deal, for this module of mine, Workbased Industry Learning, my team member and I have got to go out and inflict ourselves on a group of very unfortunate brats (I think they're year 10 kids but brats all the same). But that's not the worse part, we've got to supervise them on their project of adolescent health, now that, is the worse part. I mean you know you're in trouble when you've got a business student giving you health tips (like ole' Sibu Angkau rousing me from an afternoon nap and asking me if Teflon is a plastic, which it is if anyone is interested). I mean I'm most certainly no paragon of virtue, I drink (a lot), I smoke (on occasion, and when I do I usually go through a pack) and I don't go to sleep early (not much of a choice in that matter, sleep tends to become very elusive once you enter uni). I do however try to eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible and to keep myself well hydrated. I mean the extent of my knowledge in adolescent health is to eat right, exercise right, don't drink, don't smoke and don't do drugs. So we've got a long overdue meet with the very elusive liaison from Boronia Heights High tomorrow (what a splendid way to spend my free day, like having your toilet back up while you're still sitting on it) where my team mate and I will grill the damn teacher for as much information as she can provide so that there won't be any spots in our report which we have to frakkin' hand up next Thursday. We will then meet those pesky kids on subsequent Friday's after the Easter holidays to supervise them on their work (and like that my free Friday just went up in smoke). All I can do now is hope to God that they that won't be an ill-disciplined and imbecilic rabble as their screw ups might be seen as my screw ups which would of course not do very much for my grades.

Faith and Politics- a brief look

Was watching a documentary on the American elections and how the evangelical Christian vote played a part in it while I was having dinner and all I can say is that I am utterly disgusted. I have always tried to maintain a fair and unbiased view on the other more radical Christian denominations but my opinion of them has hit rock bottom after watching that documentary. Pastors endorsing candidates? Now that's one step too far. In my view religion has always been a beacon for the people, something which stays true and steadfast through good times and bad. Something the masses can go to, to seek refuge from their troubles whenever they need to. Something free from the fallibility of men. Religion should never be mixed in with the deceit and half-truths of politics as doing so would sully its purity and purpose. It should always maintain a neutral view in the world of politics, only making its voice heard when matters of faith and morals are in jeopardy. It should not seek to show support for one party, but seek the understanding and cooperation of both parties to further the cause of God's will. And politicians should also pay heed and not use the word of God to their advantage. I realised that in Obama's speeches, he invoked the name of God so many times that he would have done any half-baked pastor proud, in fact his rallies usually sounded like those hippie meets which some Christians pass off as "praise and worship sessions" (although it all sounds like a karaoke party on steroids to me). I'm not saying I don't support President Obama, I have great respect for the man and feel that under his leadership the United States would be a much more reliable nation. All I'm saying is that we shouldn't sound as though we're all doing the will of God, I mean does anyone out there actually know what God's will is? At the end of the day we are all doing whats best for our interests no matter how noble we try to make it sound, so the least we could do is not drag religion into it.

For such a large matter this is a rather short post but as I am trying to get the ole' gears to start working properly again after such a long hiatus you'll have to bear with me while I try and get up to speed on my writing again. As usual no offense to any Christians (by 'Christians' I mean everything else after the Roman-Catholic faith, of which I am proud to be a part of) reading this, everyone is entitled to their own views and I am simply making mine known. Of course if you want people to take what you preach seriously maybe you could try taking yourselves seriously too instead of just singing rock songs and making merry.

The beginning of the end

I'm back after an extremely long hiatus and I'm not particularly thrilled about it. For people wanting to know why this site hasn't been updated for the better part of four months its due to the fact that I was back home and felt that it was too much of a hassle to stay sober long enough to post something up. So we're finally at the doorstep of the end chapter of the university part of my life (for the moment at least, until I decide to go get a masters degree in any case). My exit permit ends at the end of July next year and after that its off to national service (NS) for me. The first week of the new semester has come and gone with the promise of heaps more of work to come. My timetable is as messed as ever as I've got late lectures at 17:30 on both Mondays and Tuesdays which end at 19:00. This means that I usually reach home at 20:00. But the worst part is the two classes on both Tuesdays and Thursdays which start at 08:30, this means that I have to wake up at fucking 05:30 to catch the 06:50 train to butt-fucking Lilydale which is like the arse end of the God-forsaken train line. I guess the only redeeming factor is the fact that I'm free on Wednesdays and Fridays. Not for long from what the blasted unit outline for all of my subjects are telling me. The only thing keeping me going now is the fact that this is my last year here, not like NS is anything to look forward to but at least I've completed one hurdle on this journey we call life, or something like it.

Filler, no I'm still around punks.....

Just something random which came up while Lin, B-L and I were having lunch on Friday. I found what I said amusing enough to warrant it a post of it's own (actually I'm too damn lazy to write anything substantial.....). I can't really remember what we were talking about but I have a funny feeling it had something to do with our unsavoury lifestyle of drinks, smokes and a whole lot of clubbing.

"Any punk ass kid can fling himself off a building or onto the train tracks as a means of suicide, but it takes a real man to slowly torture himself to death by smoking, drinking and basically living a fulfilling life of wild debauchery!"