Holidays

The holidays are drawing to a close and like most holidays, I have nothing to show for them.

Been trying to game more. Often getting distracted with other things. Oh well. I'm quite happy with how well I do on CS now. Consistent 2:1 kdr, I can't complain about that.

I was at Hamish's house for a couple of days at the start of the holidays. Brought my computer over there. Unfortunately I couldn't get my router to work with his modem. After several times trying with different ethernet cables and such, I gave up. Settling for some offline gaming.

But my OS died like it usually does when I take it from my house. So after reinstalling everything and getting it up and running. I left there, back to home.

Which is where I have been ever since pretty much. Didn't really leave the house last Saturday and Sunday. There's been nothing to do and I've had lack of motivation and money to organise anything.

Started Company of Heroes again, mainly because I was bored with CS and CoD4 servers are yet to connect. But after loading it up again I remembered why I liked it so much the first time I played it. The explosions, the sounds, the great look and feel to it. Sure, It has been out for a while now but it still looks awesome and hasn't aged a bit.

Tried playing Oblivion today as well. I've never had the attention span for these games and I was reminded today when I started playing. I get so bored, quickly. This happened last time I tried playing too. Ah well, I guess these games just aren't for me.

There are 2 upcoming games that have caught my interest. They are 'Left 4 Dead' and 'Prototype'.



In Prototype, It is set in New York and you are Alex Mercer who has woken up suffering from amnesia and doesn't remember anything. You have many different abilities and forms which you must use to find answers. This much is known so far: Alex was or still is, involved in some kind of government conspiracy regarding top-secret biological research.

The graphics look good and the gameplay described sounds excellent. Lots of action and different ways of going about objectives. More and more games have moved away from the linear approach and this is a good thing.



Left 4 Dead is Valves first release since last year's Orange Box. It is a survival based horror first person shooter with gameplay that focuses on teamwork with your 3 buddies to pass each section of the game. This game has zombies, lots of zombies. Not zombies in the Resident Evil sense either, these zombies are more like the ones from 28 Days Later. Fast and ferocious. The gameplay looks fairly fast paced but to me looks like nothing groundbreaking. I still however anticipate its release.

In other news, I have added my Xfire info at the top of the page. I haven't had Xfire for that long so my CS hours are lower than I'd like them to be. ;P

I'll be making sure to get some more screenshots too.

Epic Walk

So after a boring mid-afternoon Saturday Jamie, Hamish, Jayson and I decided that we would embark on a walk of epic proportions. Hamish pulled out, cause' he had work and thought this was going to be a short walk. So we recruited Futter to come with us.

Gonna keep it short. We left my house in the late afternoon. Around 4. Then we started walking up Blue Mountains Road. Once we reached the top we continued up Avro Road.

Once there, we had a short break. Making some juice for ourselves and having a bite to eat. We then headed into the bush.

We shortly approached a fork in the road.

We went right. On our way down however, a small kid on a motorbike rode past us going towards we had just came from. We had seen him not long ago, with his Dad and his brother. He went around the corner and fell off. But all we heard was him screaming for his Dad. Was pretty funny. The others wanted to see what was wrong. But I just wanted to keep going.

We went to investigate. He just couldn't push his bike up the hill. So Futter helped him out. The Dad was all good. Telling us to throw stones if we heard other bikes so that they would know we were on the track too.

As we were leaving, a pretty large black man was behind us on his bike. He tried to turn it around and revved the throttle to much, resulting in him Rofl'ing... On a bike. I suppressed my laughter by turning around and pretending to talk to the others. We Lol'd when we were out of his view. The black guy himself seemed to think it was funny anyway.

Shortly we reached another clearance.



There were pretty cool views of Pinehaven and Blue Mountains Road from here.


After that, we had to backtrack a little bit and continue down another track.

There was a pretty good view of Pinehaven and Silverstream from here.


We kept walking. There was a big drop down from the track to another one. Jamie wanted to go down and up. The rest of us walked around it.

When we got to the other side, Jamie was still making his way down. We told him to hide and took a picture. See if you can spot him.


It was starting to get dark and we had to keep moving. The moon was out and bright already. We made a short stop by a bulldozer scoop thing.


We walked for a bit longer and reached another big open clearing. Was too dark for a picture of that, but the view from there was awesome. Made sure to get a picture of that.


After looking around at the harbor, Lower Hutt and the Stokes Valley area we decided to head on. Not before I took a leaving photo.


We had to walk through a tree trunk that had a walkway cut through it to get to the track. Was pretty creepy. Especially with minimal lighting.

We proceeded past the Tawhai track entrance and up another track.


We eventually reached a power pylon. This is the furthest we were going to go. So we had a look around. Jamie and I climbed up the pylons until we got to the barbed wire. Jayson took some photos of us swinging off the metal bars.



It was quite fun.

We sat down and ate some more food. Chocolate Chip biscuits were much enjoyed. As were the shapes.

We wanted to make a small fire. So I scrunched up some newspaper that I had and we grabbed a few dry sticks.

Some tard threw the biscuit rubbish into the flames when there were 2 biscuits left.

Hilarity did not ensue. Don't worry, I rescued them.

Another picture. Of the fire itself, and the moon in the background.


It was Mountain Dew time. So we all got a picture of ourselves doing the Dew. The Dew was good. As all Dew is.

Then we left. Going back the way we had come. Tawhai track our destination. We decided to detour and go down a hill that had a sign saying no exit. We thought there may have been an old track down the bottom. But, the sign was right.

We got to the Tawhai track and headed down. It was steep as fuck in some places and wasn't really a track. It was just like walking through the bush. We had minimal light. Most of us making do with our cellphones. We stopped when Futter grabbed onto a branch and it snapped, landing full force on his head. Laughter was had.

We pushed on. Seeing some cool things, like glow worms and a cross in memory of somebodies dog. (Bogart, he was poisoned in the bush, what a damn shame.)

After what was close to an hour of walking and stumbling. We made it to the bottom.

Then we walked to Gregs house. Had an epic as spa, scotch fillet and a shot of chartreuse.

That concluded our 6 hour walk.

Even More Design

Had mufti day at school today. Saw a guy with a NIN T-shirt on, I was quite jealous.

School was the usual. I cruise controlled the day.

Got home and continued on my design work. Got the inside cover done. It has an image of a NIN concert outside. I have the lyrics to the songs "With Teeth" and "The Hand That Feeds".

Turned out alright I thought. Should pass. The CD would click in a clear tray on the very left and would have the image printed on it so you could still see the image as a whole when it was on the tray.


Tomorrow I think I shall give myself a break and catch up on some CS. Gonna get some new footwear tomorrow. Probably gonna get some Doc Martens. Steel capped high boots ftw.

Assassins Creed has been out on PC for a while. I need to download it but have a lack of bandwidth. Looks super nice though. Just as the 360 version is.



Oh god, the look on her face at the end is priceless. "I didn't hear you." Bullshit, I saw your lip tremble.

More Design

Pretty much continued design this afternoon.

School was same old.

This is what i got done tonight. The rest of the front of the booklet. Turned out pretty good i thought.

The left and right panels fold inwards so that when you open up the booklet the picture is joined. The lyrics of the songs "The Great Below" and "The Great Destroyer" are on those two sides.

I hate text so it doesn't look that good.

Design Start

Started my CD Booklet designs today. Well one at least.

This will probably be my final one in the end. Always turns out that way. I like to work backwards. Final first, Research last.

This is what i currently have at the moment for the Front cover.



I'll be adding the made up album name underneath the 'Nine Inch Nails' later on. But it shall do for now. I'm trying to keep to the style i've seen in the more recent albums from him. That rugged, pixelated and industrial look. I'm not the best and could use some tutorials for some things but that was what i did with what i know right now...

Shall be continuing this design work all this week and the start of next to try get finished in time.

Last minute as usual. My style.

07/04

4:04pm - Time not found.

Funny, I thought.

Today didn't consist of much. Went to school as per usual and attended my classes, ate my lunch and went home.

Home is pretty fun. I like my room.

I went over to Hamish's and we walked down to Stream and met up with Futter, Jayson and Sandy. We spoke for a while. Chatted as usual, before they had to head off for some youth group bullshit, ha. So Sandy, Hamish and I migrated from where the car habitually parks itself to the familiar thrones of the infamous park bench.

Here, we chatted further until Hamish's hasty departure via automobile owned by biological parent (Or is he?).

Fortunately he was quickly replaced by the presence of Ben and Mr. Aldrich.

We talked furthermore. Having a jolly good chat.

Dusk was rapidly approaching and the drop in air temperature was enough of a reason for us to decide upon departure.

Sandy and I came to a crossroad. I chose home, he chose the same. (Or did he?).

I decided to get some homework done, so i started on my Design internal. Started and got through about half of my research for it, which isn't bad i suppose.

Gonna play a few rounds of CS before hitting the hay and calling it quits for the night.

In the meantime, look forward to this...

So...

I sit here, In my room.

Wearing a brand new pair of Underdaks. Great underwear these are. Comfortable.

After attending a Dreamweaver course this Friday just passed, I realised how much i do not want to be at school now. Oh well, guess I have to deal with it.

Struggling to find something interesting to write. I could write about what i did this weekend. But how about not.

How about, a story...

He sat there, feeling more irritated as each second passed by. Generic waiting room music was quietly playing in the background from another room close by. He leaned forward on his chair with a loud creak. The sweat building on his forehead reminded him he was running out of time. He produced a handkerchief and wiped his brow.

The weather outside was that of a typical Autumns day. Humid and dull. The sun was setting behind black clouds, leaving an ominous glare on this small town. Thunder rumbled in the distance as all the birds anxiously made their way back to their nests to settle for the evening.

He wished he had somewhere to go too. He knew he couldn't think that, he knew But something inside him kept taking his mind back to the kind and innocent memories of his childhood. He closed his eyes.

That night he would never forget. It was etched in his mind. Nothing could take that away, the drugs and alcohol a reminder of this sorry fact.

His eyes opened suddenly, with a furious flare in them. As he stood, a flash of light filled the room and his eyes closed again. When he opened them the low growling of the thunder reached and shook the complex.

His slender hands smoothed out his coat and he adjusted his tie. He picked it up from the table. Cold. Heavy. His arm held up in front of him, he stared at it. There was no emotion on his face. Just the creases around his eyes and the small scar on his jaw to tell you that he had been through a lot.

He cocked it. The sound liberating him from his fears. The fears of them coming back for him. He said he wouldn't let it happen, he was sticking to his word.

He walked across from the table and down the hall. It was bright. The artificial light soaking everything beneath it. His shoes echoed as he walked, his breathing, calm.

He reached a door at the end of the corridor. He reached for the handle. He grasped. He opened. Walking in he held the pistol out straight in front of him with his hands clenched tight. His finger touching the trigger, ready to fire.

"I hope you like it here, because you are going to be here for quite some time." He said with as much emotion as his leathery face dared to show.

*Crack, Crack*

The gun fire boomed through the complex, resonating down the corridor he came from. The two gold shells hitting the ground and rolling across the well buffed lino flooring.

A loud thud was the result. Blood seeped through his pant legs where he had shot him. His knees now giving him no mobility. His eyes looked up at the mans, so much pain in them. His breathing was fast and a muffled grown was all that could be heard through the blood soaked gag in his mouth.

"I'll be back soon to mop this up. Meanwhile, try thinking about what you have done". And with that said, the man turned and walked back down the corridor. The bright light streamed in on him as he lay there on the ground. He could not think. He knew he couldn't.

He lay there, looking down the corridor, at the bright light. It was what he left this world through.