Two Gelflings, one cup

Finally conquered "Plants Vs. Zombies" [PC]. Saw a couple of disturbing signs around my area. The first was alerting residents in this building that somebody's had a debit card stolen from their mailbox and then used. The second, "up at the shops", was offering to buy houses for cash! Could they be connected? Sorry, shouldn't joke about the card theft. Watched the Swannies win the AFL Grand Final. To be honest, I'm not sure they were the better team on ground. It was a curious contest; thrilling, too. Ate a production-line steak'n'veg dinner at the Opera House cafe that was very ordinary. Roast tomato has no place among potato, pumpkin, carrot, etc. Was there for the Festival Of Dangerous Ideas* talk "Let Banks Fail", given by Dr Chris Leithner. As CL admitted, the title was misleading as the gist of his entertaining lecture was that these institutions have already failed, both morally and - apart from on their fudged books - financially. He railed against fractional reserve banking and government intervention, while providing an interesting take on that classic bit of cinema, "It's A Wonderful Life". Sadly, the Q&A component was a bust, hijacked by those either desperate to assert intellectual superiority or expecting a solution to all of our banking woes for their $25 admission. It degenerated into borderline personal attacks. Debate is healthy, but have some fucking manners, people. Was gonna put "Two Grels" above, only I feared the "HackMaster" reference would be lost on most. Grunge Elves are dirty.


*See #FODI on Twitter.

Less a road than a set of tyre tracks

A new password input just demanded that I meet a minimum character length while using a mixture of lower- and upper-case letters, numbers AND punctuation. Punctuation? What next - escape sequences?

S.I.W.

So much this - plagmada.org

How many '80s bus rides did WD and I spend drawing dungeons on A4, foolscap or - when we could afford it - graph paper? We were obsessed with skeletons and devised our own hierarchy of the bony buggers with colour-specific abilities, e.g. a light-blue skelly would have a (daily) frozen-breath attack. Then we did a similar thing with ninjas.

In Year 8 or 9, an English teacher even let me submit my "AD&D: Island Of The Forgotten Power" module for the design-a-game assignment in his class. The pages of ACs, HPs, XPs, GPs, etc. can't have made a lick of sense to him, but in hindsight I appreciate his encouraging of creativity in any form. And perhaps he also liked the maps :-)

Twin primes

Seashell earplugs in
Commencing ocean-wave scan
Neptune whispers: "Die"


What hateful haiku have you composed lately, readers?

Pollutionopolis

A little mana bird tells me WOTC is staging an "M:TG" Grand Prix in this city on January 19-20. The format is Return To Ravnica sealed. Dunno if I'll compete. Y'all may recall I went 2-2-2 last GP with a ponderous pile of semi-jank, opting to ditch rounds seven and eight for a football match. I am, however, anxious to learn which artist(s) Wizards will be bringing out for signing sessions.

Lagoon starforge

UFC 152, then... Dubbo boy Noke is staring at a third strike, and Brenneman is a strong wrestler to face in your welterweight debut. Let's cross our fingers. Don't have a vested interest in Gagnon/Watson (though I suspect the latter will take it). Ditto Baczynski/Thoresen. Hettes should be too skilful for Brimage. Maybe Benoist over Pierson. Dunham never responded to my interview request, so I'm siding with underdog Grant. Quality of wins suggests Pokrajac beats Magalhaes. Oliveira is deadly on the ground but missed weight and looked "wrong". What's more, I dig Swanson's attitude. Cub if he can avoid the sub. Hamill/Hollett means nothing to me or the division. Recently un-retired guy vs. newcomer. Hamill purely for the sentimental aspect - let him go out a victor. Bisping will try to smother Stann a la Sonnen. Assuming he doesn't get rocked early, the Brit's versatility gives him the edge here. Benavidez's power or Johnson's speed (plus Matt Hume's gameplan)? It's still hard to go past Joe B. Either man would make a great inaugural flyweight champion. I'm biased 'cos I interviewed "Mighty Mouse" and found him to be a top fella. And, in the main event... Belfort will require a miracle to overcome Jones.

You can now download ebooks from my local library. On one hand, this is cool. On the other, it points to a future where libraries are merely remote repositories of digital information, not living, breathing, colourful community hubs. What an awful future that will be.

Atlas scratched his nuts

Q. How will I resist this tome? goo.gl/nXtsC
A. I won't.

Anyone else catch Richard E. Grant's "Secrets Of The Arabian Nights" on The History Channel? 'Twas a passionate exploration of them wonderous stories that are more subversive, sexual, influential, controversial (then AND now) and, in certain cases, questionable in their authenticity than many of us imagined.

Some charitable soul needs to d/l a miniseries(?) for me - goo.gl/k8g3A
Nah, on second thought, don't bother. It's bound to turn up in the ABC's traditional Friday evening murder-mystery slot.

Remember, eat a double brekkie on the 21st to be a part of goo.gl/qyuUw
I've purchased extra Corn Flakes, skim milk, honey, white bread, Vegemite and OJ in preparation. Coles were all out of seed cakes and pipe weed.

"Here in New York, I buy my weed from this crazy girl, and I know her in the biblical sense. Of course, when I say that, I mean I don't believe a word she says" - Anthony Jeselnik

Gatorade shower

The "Doctor Who" Symphonic Spectacular is coming to Sydders in December. Unfortunately, it clashes with a UFC event ("Smashes" finale) on the Goldie that I can't very well skip. First-world problems, eh?

Clementine Kruczynski

Began again in "Skyrim" with the goal of being an evil SOB - muahahaha! Was levelling/skilling efficiently and opening the odd area on the map I'd missed in my goodly incarnation when I realised there are some NPCs that you cannot kill. They simply kneel for a moment, then stand up with their energy replenished...immortal witnesses to the deeds that just increased the bounty on your hide. Since the sole reason to play a baddie is the challenge of evading the law and escaping justice for as long as possible, I saw zero point in continuing my experiment in the face of this disadvantage. A Google search revealed that the unkillables operate that way because they're connected to important quests. Addster's alternative explanation: lazy design and/or implementation.

Thrown up by memory VI

The Ice Age expansion for "Magic: The Gathering" was released in June 1995. A short time later, I travelled with RG and PG (who aren't related) to an unsanctioned tournament held in a suburban Sydney church hall. Lords knows how we heard about it. Anyway, the house rule, we discovered on arrival, was that incomplete games were decided by life total, and the locals were prepared for such eventualities with life-gain cards we might have included had we been forewarned. P. decided to use a fake name (in honour of a famous prog-rock singer), which caused confusion all day because there was a guy there with *that same name*. I recall I played B/W heavy removal/flyers. One of my opponents was a kid with powerful illegal cards in his deck. When I mentioned this to the judge, I was told, "Ah, he's just a kid." Fortunately, I won. I also used the bar-roken Balance to twice battle back from the brink against speed R/G, frustrating the hell out of the poor bloke piloting it. Not every duel was so successful, and if I scored a prize at tourney's end it was only a booster or two. PG and RG probably fared better - they generally did. I'm fairly sure we drove back to Newie bitching like crazy 'bout that highest life rule :-)

Am eager to eyeball these documentaries

"Ecstasy Of Order: The Tetris Masters"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTK6MnPa8Zo

"Joe Kid On A Sting-Ray: The History Of BMX"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2BKE0a-TLE

Those are flicks I've only become aware of recently. Also still have my peepers peeled for "Jiro Dreams Of Sushi", "Searching For Sugar Man" (which I was clued in to by AZ) and "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry".

While we're on the subject, go do your duty as a propeller head and sponsor this worthy project like I did -
www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewpascal/dungeons-and-dragons-a-documentary

Hurry, Star Blazers, there are only FIVE days left to save the fillum!

Thrown up by memory V

When we were tiny tots, my father would take us outside and clip our fingernails over the buffalo grass lawn. Any nail with dirt underneath, he'd declare a "pumpkin patch", while one worn down further than the others was a "picker". Of course, we always denied we were scrubbing too little or excavating too much, but I think that secretly a tally of, say, "three pumpkin patches and two pickers" was a badge of pride.

Tyops

Had to dodge a poetry recital to clock the last displays in "The Life Of Patrick White" at the State Library. It traced this complex character from youthful privilege at the cost of alienation to wartime adventure (yet another writer/intelligence officer) and enduring love, to literary stardom and twilight years dotted with political activism. Incidentally, the exhibition taught me there were once plans to build an Olympic stadium in Centennial Park and that a Nobel Prize can look pretty funky. I badly want to read PW's unfinished novel, "The Hanging Garden".

Lightsaber rattling

First drink of the day: Berocca

Went to the Annandale Hotel for the launch of Ubisoft's "Rocksmith", which is similar to "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band", except you plug an actual guitar into your console and are learning to play it for reals as you progress through the game. Open bar; plenty of tuck; DL, JC2, ER, etc. also present. Indie outfit Boy In A Box busted out an excellent set and at one point asked for a volunteer to join them for a jam. An unlikely looking and clearly nervous dude stepped up. He turned out to be a wizard (warrior?) on the axe, riffing in blues fashion and even singing a few lines. BIAB seemed to find it hilarious. If the gentleman was a plant, then it was a convincing acting job, because he was visibly shaky when he came off stage.

Second drink of the day: beer

Joined CM and NL in some complimentary gold seats at Allphones Arena for the WWE RAW World Tour. The results were entirely predictable:

* Brodus Clay d. Jack Swagger
* Layla (Women's Champ) d. Rosa Mendes
* The Miz (Intercontinental Champ) d. Alex Riley
* Zack Ryder d. Tensai (after copping a beatdown)
* R-Truth & Kofi Kingston (Tag Team Champs) d. Primo & Epico (belts lost...then referee's decision cancelled and bout restarted by the totes adorbs AJ Lee)
* Santino Marella d. David Otunga (SM = still funny)
* CM Punk (WWE Champ) d. Daniel Bryan
* John Cena d. The Big Show (Laurinaitis interfering - in every sense)

Nonetheless, it was a solid card - and it almost goes without saying that Punk/Bryan was a clinic in technical wrestling and how to manipulate/ engage an audience.


Okey-dokey, I'm away to Newcastle to see my oldies. It's Father's Day in Oz tomorrow.


Team Nerdist vs. Team "Doctor Who" at tenpin bowling -
goo.gl/VuPGS

Preview for Charlie Brooker's crime spoof, "A Touch Of Cloth" (ta, JC1) -
goo.gl/f2aNS


Don't forget "Asylum Of The Daleks", my droogs. ABC's iView will supposedly have it from 5.10am AEST.