So I've been thinking about death recently

and I've mad a list, in order of my favourite ones*

1. Well not my favourite... this is a countdown not a count up. But the blogger program can't handle a reverse numbering system (or it can I just don't know how to do it).
   Marvel Death (not the Horseman of the apocalypse, which would have therefore included Wolverine, Sabertooth and the rest of them but the anthropomorphic personification of death). And yes I know NOONE really dies in marvel comics. (except for Bucky and Uncle Ben... and even Bucky came back)
   
   
   She is kinda lame and fairly generic... Nothing really that notable about this one (other than her ability to make this a "top 5" list). I guess the fact that Thanos (one of the "big bads" of the Marvel universe) has a crush on her and his driving desire to kill EVERYONE in the universe to prove his love for her is her only original aspect...
2. (No not 2... but actually number 4)
   Family Guy Death
   Once again nothing to special about him... He has a few good jokes, a few more bad ones and like most Family Guy characters (excluding the obviously amazing Adam West... Noone messes with Adam We...).
3. DEATH (and yes he comes in at 3)
   He "TALKS LIKE THIS" and has made an appearance in every single Discworld book but one making him essentially the core character of the entire discworld series. With a few slight changes and adding a personality the fairly boring "death" of mythology etc he has become a quite unique and entertaining character.
   He sees his job as more of a public service than anything sinister (hence the constant desire to go on holidays it would seem) and isn't a bad guy at all. He's fairly amusing and whilst not getting killer "lines" (he's more of a straight man foil to the rest of discworld) he does get some awesome situations. Having to collect a tubeworm from the ocean is kinda amusing and Rincewinds death timing hourglass which curves back on itself and appears to operate in at least 4 dimensions is pretty cool.
   Adding in a host of sub-deaths and a white horse named Binky (because skeleton horses are a pain to wire back together and the flaming one set fire to the barn) and he was a tough character to knock back to third place... but you will see why.
   Incidentally I considered putting the Death of Rats on the list, but didn't need to because I already had 5... SQUEAK
4. No not 4... But actually Second
   She's perky, she's cute, she's popular to boot! She's the (relatively) new DC Comics Death. Created by Neil Gaiman (one of my many man crushes... he's so cool he's even engaged to Amanda Palmer!) she's the reason I even bothered writing this list. She debuted in the Sandman and was so popular she's even grabbed her own comics occasionally (Death: The High Cost of Living is what I just read to prompt this list).
   
   
   A perky inquisitive goth girl delighting in just experiencing life (Hey if you only got to live one day every century you'd be excited about eating a hotdog too I'm sure) you've really got to read something with her in it to understand why she's so cool... she just is. Probably good example of what good writing is. Read the Sandman or Death and nothing huge and gimmicky happens to draw you in, rather you just get to the end and go "shit that went fast... is that all?"
   She's also the best reason I've ever seen for someone to where an Ankh...
   
   
5. No not 5, but actually my favourite Death of all time...
   William Sadler's Saturn Award winning (for best supporting actor) Duke of Spook, Doc of Shock, Man with no Tan... Death from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey...
   
   
   (FYI William Sadler was also in Red's Gang in Shawshank Redemption and Die Hard 2)
   
   
   I've never seen a Death start off with so much dignity (well they all try for dignity I guess) only to have it so systematically removed. From a sinister dark figure on the hill, to cross dressing to get into heaven, to whinging/boasting about pushing the cart and making the wigs whilst the Stations are assembling the good robot bill and teds. He plays the double bass (always a good thing in a band) and has some great moments...
   
   It's also prompted me to challenge death to either Twister or Battleships should I ever confront him/her/it (and best of 7? DAMN RIGHT!) rather than the traditional Chess.
   "You may be a king or a little street sweeper... but sooner or later you dance with the reaper"

So that's my list of favourite Deaths...

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

PS I found the stats function... Who searching for White Rabbit Dynamite anyway and how the hell did they find my blog with that search?

*clearly we're talking Anthropomorphic Death here...

Ninjas, Uni Games and Other Things...

Many things to talk about here... none of any consequence, but that's never stopped me before... Use the big bold print to work out which section is going on about what...

So I wussed out of getting my tongue pierced... AGAIN... This sucks, I really want to get it done but I guess I'm going to need someone to "hold my hand" for it. At least I was able to get the microdermals done. But yeah the fact most people don't want me to get my tongue done kinda psyches me out of it too... which sucks because I really want it done.
I went to Industrial Strength again (I don't think I'd ever go anywhere else now) and the main dude Rob did these ones... He's a really good piercer, but his "bedside manner" or whatever you want to call it sucks. He nearly pissed himself laughing watching me try and look at the back of my head with the two mirrors to check the placement. Basically he thinks everyone is and idiot and unless you're getting suspended I don't think he has any sympathy for you over piercing fear... But he knows his stuff, does everything quickly with the minimum of fuss and gets it right... He also explains all the aftercare and whatnot properly... yeah there is a difference in price between somewhere good like Industrial Strength and your shithouse Lord of the Jewels type place, but it's soooo worth it to go somewhere good... Rob also explained to me why you can't ever get your tongue done with anything but metal at first... you can't sterilise the plastic in an autoclave because it just melts... hence why you have to get the initial bar in metal and the smaller one can be plastic when it changes after 3-4 weeks.

In other news I got back from uni games in relatively one piece... We (Mac) came 7th, which i guess is fitting but we could've done better... all our games against the 5th-8th place getters were close and could've gone either way... A bit more luck (or less) and we could've been anywhere between 5th (or even 3rd!) to 8th... It's an interesting contrast the difference in the Uni scene in the last 7 years... Back at my first uni games in 2003 if you were an Eastern Uni and you lost two anyone outside of the Eastern Region it was an absolute disgrace... It appears everyone else has caught up now...
The whole two divisions thing kinda sucks too... I can see why the admin types want it, but the whole relegation thing sucks and I'm sure some of the pummelings dished out to the "social" teams by the serious ones don't look great, but some of the social teams were getting pummeled regardless. Plus everyone knows how much a uni team can change in strength in one year, sometimes by just adding/subtracting one player... Plus there's almost no contact between the div 1 teams and div 2, which kinda sucks too... How on Earth can the social teams develop without being able to see the game as it is supposed to be played? Hell most of the social teams didn't even seem to hang around to watch the finals...
As for my personal experience... well I kinda sucked... I played a handful of points each game at best, scored a couple of goals, but didn't throw one and when I was handling half the time I ended up getting cut out in favour of punting it long... Not to mention it was a 50-50 on whether I'd get completely owned speed wise and get scored on... It was kinda frustrating, I know I could've played better than I did and I kinda feel like I let the team down pretty badly... especially by the end. Oh well.
My body didn't quite fall apart as badly as it could've... I felt the tendinitis flare up, but it's not to bad... interestingly (well not really) it was the hurty bump in my left knee killing me and the tendinitis in my right... stupid body. I think we've come to the agreement that I don't like it and it doesn't like me... Watching all our talented n00bs was quite frustrating, they're all getting worried about their throws and remembering our plays and the like (I remember being like that) and don't quite accept that given time and practice that all comes together pretty easily... My issues are the opposite, skills wise I'm doing fine (yeah I don't huck, but I don't turn the disc that often) and I don't have any issues knowing the plays and where I should be IN THEORY... But my body just won't do it... I don't have the speed or the fitness to play at that level... which sucks... Skills will come, and there's always place for fit fast people... but not for slow unfit people (unless you're one of the best throws in Aus)... And yes I know I can go to the gym etc to get my fitness up... except for the fact that if I blitz the gym (which I have done before) my knees cave in completely and I can't play... So yeah I think I won't bother even trying for Nats next year (or anymore) and mixed nats is a write off too... EUGs next year will probably be my last "big" tournie I think... if I make the squad... stupid body/knees...

And now the important topic NINJAS... I was involved in yet another pirates vs ninjas debate and an interesting point was raised... Just how many ninjas are involved in this fight... The assumption of course for the pirates is you've got a ships crew involved (no doubt complete with rackishly charming captain, quietly competant 1st mate, drunk yet talented chef and naive but lucky cabin boy) but the number of ninjas involved is a key factor due to the *drum roll*

THE LAW OF INVERSE NINJA STRENGTH

Basically think of it this way... One Ninja = Unstopable, Two Ninjas= Tough, Horde of Ninjas= Dropping like flies... Check around and this law is always true... One ninja always kicks ass (see any of your stock standard Ninja movies), but the more ninjas there are the worse they are... up until you get an army of them and they suck balls (see the Ninja army in James Bond for the easiest example). Why do you think the Ninja Turtles could never beat Shredder One on One but always whooped the Foot Clan (obviously that scene with Raph in TMNT 1 was just for dramatic tension...). Or the Three ninjas kicking the ass of the horde of ninjas sent after them despite only being kids... Batman whooping the league of shadows but struggling with Raas Al Ghul... Electra vs The Hand... Kitty Pryde... Snakeeyes in GI Joe (he always kicks everyones ass except for Storm Shadow... also a loner... and that fight is 50-50... Because Storm Shadow wears white). Shintaro the Samuri always whoops the ninjas too, because there's always 3 of them... Hell even Jackie Chan fits into this...

Basically the more faceless ninjas you are up against the worse they will be to fight

Best reasoning I found for this was online... Basically in a fight there is a limited amount of ninja ability available... if you're the only ninja on your team you get it all and therefore kick ass... If there is an army of ninjas they all get a tiny little bit (basically the costume and that's it) and then get an ass whooping dished out to them.

Mathematically this means (apparently) Threat = 1/N (where N is the number of Ninjas)

Apparently this also applies to other groups... Vampires, Werewolves, Special Forces Commandos, Bad Ass Gangstas, Predators, Aliens, Flesh Eating Bugs, Demons, Jedi and any other "elite/scary" adversary you can think of...
Zombies are another group this law heavily applies too... When the zompocalypse is breaking out nothing seems to be able to stop those zombies and they eat 99% of the world. But after a couple of days suddenly a massive horde has developed and it's childs play to take them out/sneak past them/do whatever it is you have to do to save the day/escape/kill them all etc...

So clearly the number of ninjas involved in the fight with the pirates is going to be really important... 1 ninja = pirates in trouble, army of ninjas = ninjas eating cannon ball. I think we can write off ninjas in the fight if they outnumber the pirates, and write them off also as they move towards even numbers... 4 ninjas or less I think they're going to have a good chance, more than 10 I'd say no chance and 1 ninja and it's all over for the pirates...

The other important factor is what colour are the ninjas wearing? From my late 80s early 90s ninja movie watching I've sussed out the general heirachy... Red, Blue and Grey ninjas are hopeless, Black ninjas are definitely the baseline strength for ninjas (adhering closely to the inverse strength law) and the white ninja is superior in all ways (so superior he doesn't even need to wear a camoflage colour and can in fact wear bright unstainable (have you noticed this? the white ninja never even gets dirty) white and still be invisible. Other colours are harder to factor in... Camoflage pattern ninja costumes clearly kick ass... but I don't think they could ever take out a white ninja. Against a black ninja the law of inverse strength is clearly going to be the deciding factor. This puts camoflage (and most other colour choices) on par with a black ninja.

so White > Black (or "other" colours) > Red, Blue and Grey.

Oh and the more "tech" a ninja has the worse they are... kinda... Send ninjas in with "modern" weapons (guns/grenades/etc) and they're going to get whooped regardless of numbers or colours. But more futuristic tech and it becomes more related to the number of them... Hence Snakeeyes can use a gun and his funky ninja suit happily because he is always alone. But a group of ninjas with high tech suits and lasers will go down even faster than an army of traditional ninjas.

The only exception to this is Storm Shadow from GI Joe... Fighting Snakeeyes is always a 50-50 for him... Obviously the law of strength is in play (unless Storm Shadow is the only Cobra Ninja involved Snakeeyes will win). Storm Shadow has the advantage in his white suit and traditional weaponry, but Snake Eyes wins out with "hero" factor... That's why a fight between the two is always so close... They're so finely balanced...

So that's a lot of procrastination written up... I'll start my assignment tomorrow

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

Things and Stuff...

So we have a government again...

I could write a lot here, raving about politics is something I will do quite often with vigor (especially when I'm in opposition to whatever neo-con or religious right policy has been grabbing headlines) but noone here really wants to read a couple of hundred words of me ranting about stuff... Suffice to say out of the two options liberal vs labour I come down on the labour side... But I'm even a bit further left than they are... It is quite a surprise to me how many (semi) vocal liberal supporters I have as friends though... It can't even comprehend someone legitimately having that point of view... Oh well, everyone is different it seems...

And in other news, relating to the last post about AUGs coming in a big circle and going back to Perth and wearing red and stuff... The "token seppo" from mac this year is a dude named Taylor... Talk about around in circles, the first token seppo I ever played with was Arms... and his real name was Taylor... So clearly we all live in the matrix and I've just inhabited the frisbee (or uni frisbee) cell of the matrix for the whole ride and I've got back to the start...

I also saw that you can buy Daria on DVD for like $100+ (I assume it is all of them)... I'm definitely thinking about that. I started rewatching Duckman the other day and found out there are episodes of that I missed when I bought the dvd... so that gives me SOMETHING to do in my spare time.

I also went off to Industrial Strength in Newtown to talk about getting my tongue pierced before uni games. Turns out that's a no go... Industrial strength being what they are (ie vaguely competent and knowledgeable) said that it's two weeks for swelling to go down fully and control to return and then another few weeks before you should change the bar (not the "change in two weeks" you see reported). So that means no real healing before uni games, I'd still have the longer bar and most of the potential healing would be gone by the end of Uni games... So I'm going to hold off till I get back. I was also talking about other stuff I could get done that is less obvious and it turns out I could get a couple of microdermals behind my ear pretty easily.

Now (writing this for the second time because the damn thing didn't publish properly the first time) the first thing most (the vast majority of) people say when I mention that I want my tongue pierced is "WHY?"... so here is the answer... "Because I want to"

First up is the standard "what about when you get old?" thing that always gets brought up by people as an anti tattoo/piercing thing... Well two answers to that 1) most piercings can be taken out and will close themselves quick quickly (in the case of a tongue it's only a couple of hours)... obviously that doesn't work for tatts or dermal punches (not sure about stretches) but that's where 2) comes in... This answer came from Lex's bro I think but it goes basically "well when I'm old I'll be able to look back at them and say "shit I was cool/had some fun" when I was younger.

Next up is the "what about getting work?" etc... First of all this shits me to tears.
*engage rant*
I think it's a sad reflection on EVERYONE that people give such a fuck about what people look like and how they dress. Like seriously does it affect your work performance at all what you wear to work? Is there anyone in the history of the world who's said "well I was going to buy their product, it was the best for me, but then I found out that they were wearing JEANS! So I took my business elsewhere"... Like seriously what is everyone (ie the corporate worlds) problem? Are they so fucking narrow minded that people doing what they want is to be feared? I have more thoughts but it's hard to express angry anarchistic mutterings in type... What you look like has 0 impact on how good you work in 99% of jobs out there, it's what you think and know that counts... But the world is fucked up and narrow minded conservatives can't seem to get it into their head that piercings/tatts/casual clothes/hair colour/being fat have less affect on work performance (or any other form of performance) than being a narrow minded weaselly conservative fucktard does...
*end of rant*
But that's the main reason for me getting a tongue stud/microdermals... A tongue stud is pretty easy to conceal with a flat clear plastic stud and the microdermals are behind my ear, so not that visible (not to mention something people won't expect/notice at first).
I need something less visible and I'd never get my wang or nipples pierced... so that's why I chose tongue.

The other reason to get it done is it scares me something fierce. So that sounds a bit odd, but I've jumped out of planes (more than one), swum with (harmless) sharks, played with snakes and spiders, flash photographed bears and a host of other stupid shit and none of it has ever really scared me that much... But as a few of you will know I'm a bit of a narc when it comes to my teeth... The creepiest nightmare I have is of all of them breaking and falling out of my head. So a lip ring is a no-no (given they rub on your teeth and fuck them). A tongue stud has that potential if you're an idiot and do the wrong thing etc... but I think I'm safe there.
The real fear is because it's going to hurt... a LOT... None of my earrings hurt that much really (about the same as a blood test) and yeah my tattoo hurt whilst getting done, but that goes away the moment the needle is lifted off you... this one will hurt getting done... lots... and then it will swell and hurt for a few days... lots... I'm almost curious to see if I can take it. And doing something that scares you is supposed to be good for you...
I don't think the microdermals will hurt as much, but they're going to be pretty unique which is nice... not sure about if they can come out ever though... I assume so (if all else fails they could be cut out i'm sure).

So that's why I'm doing it

In other news I just listened to a song with the words "mindless minions" used... good phrase

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

Back to the Blog...

So I've been exceptionally nerdy recently... Besides the whole Scott Pilgrim fest and whatnot, a couple of weeks ago I went to see Neil Gaiman (of Sandman, Coraline, etc fame) at the Opera house. He was doing a live reading of a (decidedly average) short story of his accompanied by the fourplay string quartet. That was very cool... I need more books read aloud with a string quartet in the back ground...
The day after I then went to see Akira with a live music score played by the Gurge! That was awesome. The gurge did an AWESOME job... the music was bang on and not intrusive at the least... You'd forget you were listening to a live band... and they went NUTS during the fight scenes which also kicked ass. I'm not the biggest anime fan in the world (is there any anime in the world that doesn't leave you thinking "that was really fucking weird") but I'd watch more if there were live bands playing the music score...
And Last weekend I went back to the Opera house (the first two where there if I didn't mention it earlier) and saw Joss Whedon (Of Buffy, Firefly and Dr Horrible fame) just talking... It was kinda interesting, but clearly I'm not the tragic fanboy that most of the audience was. I did like the jokes Wil Anderson and Joss where making about the "Dick and Balls" comic they made up there... I think that would work surprisingly well as a webcomic... On the vein of that lame dinosaur clip art one. So not just dick jokes but rather the joke is in the inane banter with the extra kick coming from the fact it's two crudely (pun not intended) drawn dicks talking... This is the interweb and I'm sure there is a market for it.

On top of that I've bought/read a LOT of comics recently (and have a list of more to buy... added at the bottom if you really care). I've also finished the Scott Pilgrim game twice and Fallout 3 once (again).

This is all instead of doing my uni work... not that there is much of that yet... I'll start it tomorrow I promise. I've also not done the photo sorting from my trip or the scrapbooking I wanted to do... Oh well.

The other thing I've been doing since I got back is frisbee and training (pissweak) for frisbee... My favourite thing about this (which will be my last AUGs) is that we (mac uni) have gone the full circle and are back to playing in Red... Officially this time. To get the full story you'll need to jump into my time machine with me...
Back in the day (my first Uni Games, circa 2003) Mac Uni played in red... because we'd "ALWAYS" played in red. No other reason (although Liz Drummond does have a blue mace shirt with the same rear design as my first red one and a different front... pre dating red perhaps?). This was pre dating all this "frisbee shirt" crap when we just played in screen printed cotton tshirts (or spandex for the girls) and had the Goodies font on the back. Anyway some clown from the sports association turned up to watch frisbee being played by mac uni (for the first time probably) and said "why're you all in red?"
"we're ALWAYS in red"
"But Macquarie plays in Green and Gold"
"But we play in Red"
"The uni colours are Green and Gold"
"Oh... Did we mention these are the shirts we ALWAYS play in and they're red?"
Fast forward to 2004 and someone at the sports association decided that we needed to have a GREEN uniform so they gave the team some surplus soccer or hockey gear (one of the REAL sports)... We didn't look AWESOME, but we were finally the "correct" colours.
That started a pattern (for the years I had off... aka the "Matt Dowle" years) of Mac playing in red (because we ALWAYS play in red... See the ultra cool hayley drawn barbarian shirts) all the time except at Uni Games themselves. Then last year in a fit of brilliance (or we need to burn some money) Mac uni hired a VERY VERY VERY expensive consultant to "change/fix the corporate image". Apparently the lighthouse upset people because we're not near the beach... Part of this involved a change of colours from Green and Gold to Burgundy and Charcoal... Which meant new uniforms for all the sports teams (sucks to be in the hockey club that just bought new kits less than six months before this). This is why last year Mac took to the field in the Rory organised (praise be unto him) White and Charcoal numbers (that took a LOT of dicking around to get approved). So what is happening to Mac Uni this year? Well in my last AUGs mac uni is back to a Red shirt with black shorts... just were I started... what a nice complete circle.

The other thing I'm going to write here (for those who read it) I'm seriously thinking about getting a tongue piercing this Friday... Or Microdermals behind my ear... or both (dependant on cost and feasibility). Anyone have any thoughts?

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

PS. Comics I want to buy (presents for me if you want =P)

• Box Office Poison
• Too Cool to be Forgotten
• The Goon (maybe)
• Bone (maybe)
• Zombies vs Robots
• Mercy Sparx (maybe)
• Death the High Cost of Living
• Possessions (maybe)
• Lost Girls (maybe)
  

So yeah... I'm home

So I've been REALLY slack since I got back and haven't updated this at all...

But yeah, I got home safe and sound... a few hiccups with the flight home as mentioned... the cancelled Florence to Amsterdam flight was a pain in the hole, but I got stuck on a flight to Paris leaving "now, can you run" and then to Singapore and then home... Big bonus was the lack of stopover which meant I actually got home FASTER than initially planned. Minor hiccup at Singapore airport where the chick at the transfer desk wasn't super willing to recognise my transfer because she didn't know the weird ass airline that cancelled on me initially (yes madam transfer there ARE airlines you don't know... like dodgy italian one that was SUPPOSED to fly me to Amsterdam). So she called Qantas (who I was flying with) and they dragged their feet as it was the Air France quota I was on... so she called the Air France desk and he was all "I'm French" *Shrug* but eventually I got on...

So in summary I had a great time, met some cool people (thanks to all of them too) and did have a mental shut down when I got home...

But back to life now

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt