Animal Domain

...and we're back. Its been a while!

So I was adding some undead for the new and improved Moathouse Respawn, and of course anyone who's anyone in the undead world can nick your levels. So I was working on trying to get an energy drain effect going, and checking if ToEE had any such thing (yes, I am aware of the sword of life-stealing). Specifically I was checking the manual to see if Energy Drain or Enervation were in the game. Energy Drain is lvl 9, so no, but the lvl 4 Enervation would have been sweet (but its not there :-().

Anyways, while checking the manual's spell lists, I found this:

Animal Domain Spells
1. Calm Animals
2. Hold Animal
3. Dominate Animal
4. Summon Nature’s Ally IV
5. Animal Growth

I read that list, and thought, "Nature's Ally IV must be a brand of lubricant..."

Is that wrong? :-D

New Years Day

So I'm driving home from my parent's house with the family. Light turns orange, I race through it and onto a 6-lane main road. All the other traffic at the lights went the other way, so I am alone on a 6-lane divided main road, so I don't bother staying below the speed limit.

My nose starts to itch. And drip. And generally carry on (I suffer, sometimes, from terrible sinus issues). But I can't get into my pocket without taking my belt off, and I can't pull over because big empty road or not, its a clearway.

So I take my belt off, take my hanky out and take care of business. Before doing so I check my mirrors (I have been pulled over for having my belt off in similar situations by an un-marked car) but there's only an old van back there.

Now (try to keep up at this point, particularly if you come from a country that drives on the right) I have my hanky in my right hand (yes, I am right handed) so I just follow the road through two corners without indicating, because the indicator is on the right of the column and my right hand is occupied (I don't even think about this, since both turns involve lanes that are marked for turning, so all I have to do is follow them).

Thats when the old van behind me turns on its flashing lights. Its a damn paddy-wagon and I didn't even notice.

So I pull over. I figure I am being pulled over for no seat belt on, so I just sit there with my hanky in hand preparing to explain. I figure I have a good explanation.

What I am not happy about is that they will ask for my license, which is cracked and broken. I have never had it fixed because it is due to be renewed in December and I wasn't going to pay $20+ lo these many months for a 5-year license that was due to be renewed this very year.

Then I realise: its not December, Its January. January 1. Of the year after this-very-year.

*Knock knock knock* on the window. Its a young male cop.

"Blah blah breathaliser blah blah license. You've come to our attention..."

Because I don't have a seat belt on...

"...because you did not indicate at the last two intersections."

You knew that, sorry if it seems I am telling the story out of sequence but it made sense to explain while I was talking about holding my hanky. But when he said that I was not expecting it and while I wasn't silly enough to start arguing with a member of the constabulary (I realised, much later, the hanky-based reason it had happened) I was genuinely flabergasted and asked him to clarify which corners.

Anyways... he then follows procedure and says, "have you had anything to drink recently?"

I am coming from New Years Day with the folks, so of course I have had a couple of cold beverages. And I tell him so.

Lets recap:

- speeding
- not wearing selt belt
- two corners without indicating
- damaged (potentially invalid) license card
- license is freaking EXPIRED
- been drinking
- its a holiday

Why does that last one matter? Because here in the great state of New South Wales, they DOUBLE penalties on holidays to combat the inevitable rise in the death toll when everyone is out on the road heading for wherever, or coming home pissed from parties. Not financial penalties - that would be seen as a cynical cash-grab - but things like demerit points. Damn good system actually, it has lowered the road toll in recent years.

Oy...

On the up side, I have only had two light beers - I don't DUI at the best of times, let alone with my kids in the car - so I pass the breath test. But he then asks to see my license, which I give him.

"You should get this renewed..." he starts, but I am way ahead of him. I have already dug out the renewal form, which I picked up last time I was at the RTA (paying my car rego or something, I forget what I was doing there) and filled in. I AM a cynical sod - I won't pay the damn $20+ fee but I will go to the trouble of filling in the form to give myself plausable deniability.

"But Officer, I was just about to get a new license, I have the form right here! I just have to get it notarised." (Thats inaccurate gibber - you merely have to get it witnessed by an adult, not notarised, but I was under stress).

"I was about to say, you should get this renewed because if there is any doubt about your identity we have to take you in."

He then gives me my license back, tells me to more care with my indicating, and lets me go.

Here's the ironic bit - the license contains my name, address, the license number and enough of my photo to be obviously me. So it still constitutes valid ID 9 times out of 10.

The snapped off bit contains the edges of the photo and the end of the expiry date. It just says '30 Dec' with no year.

And apparently the cop let me go on everything else because, driving a paddy wagon, he was not a highway patrolman, so no radar to clock my speeding (they stick out the window of patrol cars and are easy to spot), and he didn't give the seatbelt thing a thought. He just saw a guy going (probably) too fast and cornering without indicating, thought, "better breathalise that asshole" and when I came up clean let me go.

Heh.

Hehehehehehe.

Ted 2, John Law 0.

Comic

Today I am enjoying my bi-monthly (occasionally six-monthly) catch-up of 'Full Frontal Nerdity'. I have the absolutely uncanny ability to just forget about that comic for months at a time, then remember and check it out and enjoy hours of updates.

Beats hell outta checking OotS five times a day.

Merry Christmas folks!

My day

I did some gardening today. I cleared out the end of the balcony and repotted my aloe vera. I am hoping it survives - I was brutal - but its thrived on two straight years of neglect, so I am hopeful.

It's getting warm here, I'll be powering up the weber soon enough :-D

More stuff

I'm downloading a trailer of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part Primus)' - and drinking cheap wine, lets not forgt that - and I thought, "what better time to write a blog?"

The new job is insane. I didn't get out of the office til nearly 9pm, and that was by dodging half the work that needs doing and leaving it til Monday. Egad. %-/

Anyways, speaking of movie trailers, the new 'Karate Kid' movie is out. Which means another part of my childhood has been sodomised by a Hollywood cash-in. Fabulous! Give that producer a new Rolex. Who needs to respect the eternal truth of 'wax-on, wax-off' when there's money to be made?

Which is not to say it will be a bad movie: the reviews are positive, Jackie Chan is a legend, that Smith kiddy was great in 'the Pursuit of Happyness", the locales look fabulous, and Nanking not withstanding, Kung Fu is inherently superior to Karate anyway. But all of this is as if saying, "well, we're going to use mood music, candelight, the best of lubricant, and a variety of titillating positions".

Its still sodomy.

Recent eventualities

I guess I always meant to do this blog regularly, but with Cyclopean to document, I have really meant to keep this updated more than I have. Must remedy that (he says with good intentions but little conviction).

The following, of course, is written after too much wine.

I got a new job - yay! I am the front man of an agency that employs people to work with kids - that is all I will say for now. (The fullness of it is not very interesting, just more complicated). I have been working my ass off getting it up and running, we went online last week, and it has been HECTIC. I am under stress.

Curiously it has also been a very positive time, because I am enjoying the work, can see it going somewhere positive, and while the money will not be that much better, it will be more stable work with the opportunity of extra weekend stuff, so better income than I was on. I have had a lot of bills lately for reasons some of you (the ToEE folks) know, and while that 'expensive' part of my life is over, there is still a lot to be paid for it. I feel good that I will have a stronger income in the future, I feel it is downright God-sent. I literally prayed for a new job, and this just fell into my lap.

And yet...

Last Friday - the final day before the company went live, after I had been slaving for a couple weeks to get it up and running - one of the other staff there asked me what I was doing this weekend. I said, (in a period of stress) "I am going home to have a good cry".

This did not satisfy her question, but it was how I felt.

Anyways, I didn't. I worked on the weekend as well and did some of what the psychologists call 'avoidance'. That is to say, I did surface shit to avoid other things. I watched videos and such - classic uplifting ones like 'Roadhouse Prophets' - love that movie! - newer ones like 'The Hurt Locker' (very disappointed. See the Wikipedia section 'Response among veterans': as wonderfully filmed and acted as this was, they can't honestly expect us to believe trained soldiers under orders behave like this?)

The problem is: I don't know what I am avoiding. As well as a new job which puts a light at the end of the tunnel, the kids trust fund (so to speak) is going great guns, and I recently came across some other financially positive stuff that makes me very hopeful in general (we are not crushed by debt, or any such thing, just coming out of a rough patch).

Of course, things are not helped by the fact I miss my wife and kids, who are overseas. I miss my kids like friggin' oxygen, I mean I used to sneak home from work to see Arianna because I hated going those few hours of a day without her. But this is something deeper. I can't explain it.

I have been praying more lately, I have been getting stuff done around the house, but mostly I have been coming home tired and looking for distractions to amuse me til I can get to bed and get some sleep.

And here we are a week later. The first week of the company up and running went better than I expected, but was still very hectic: but we stayed on top of it. Next week, when the staff expect to get paid, will be another issue again ;-)

Yet...

I got home from work - didn't get out of the office til 7pm, but got the work done in the end. The boss rang me on the bus home to say I didn't have to get up at 6am to go cover a shift, so I finally get to sleep in (albeit the 7 hours at Saturday rates was worth getting up for). There's Friday Night footy on the TV, I get to make whatever I like for dinner (fish, of course), put my feet up, enjoy the coming weekend, maybe even get some work on Cyclopean or KotB done.

But I am not happy.

I'm not 'in a bad place' or anything like that. Just not happy.

And the reason, I truly do believe, is I need a good cry.

I've never been a cryer. I'm not some mucho f***er wh thinks badly of it: I'm just a bloke who has never been able to do it.

There are times like this in my life when I have felt very emotional and I have felt that need for an emotional release. I think women are very sensible in that, when they are overwhelmed by emotion, they cry, they let it out, they do something about it. Some men (such as me) don't. Its not a decision, or refusal, or judgment, we just don't.

I wish I could. Always have.

Pacman lives!

Crikey, almost a year! I haven't posted since 30/4/9.

You know, a funny thing happened 2 days before that: our second daughter, Kathleen-Rose (or 'Pacman' as history will know her) was born! And as Yvy pointed out, I haven't blogged about her or posted any pix or anything. (Though I did announce it on Co8, of course).

I shall remedy that now, albeit I will do it in a way that kinda blew up in my face and did not give me the result I was looking for (I was tempted to go back and redo it with different photos, but didn't).