Discontent

via Scott

DIY Guitar Hero with my mate Benough

Fishing

Outbreak

Outbreak is a choose your own adventure zombie movie. As you watch the clips you are invited to choose the actions of some characters which then influence their “aliveness”.

As a kid we used to have heaps of the choose your own adventure books. I remember leaving my thumb in the page just in case it was a story ending choice so I could go back. I even went as far as trying to map out the page numbers so I knew how to get to certain points in the book. Yep, the beginnings of my nerdhood. After the “official” choose your own adventure books, we got into another variety called Fighting Fantasy, that included some dice rolling for battles and armour classes, and damage. They were a little more tricky, and were very difficult to finish if you were honest, which I only did about half of the time. Trying to get to the end of the story was hard while relying not only on your good/lucky decision making as far as paths to follow, but also relying on the throw of the die. Nevertheless, I had heaps of them as well. I used to read them at the cottage in the summers. My favorite of the bunch was definitely DeathTrap Dungeon. It had an awesome picture of a ninja in it, and you had to fight the ninja to win your way out of the dungeon.

But I digress. Outbreak is very well done, and hopefully initiates some more projects like this.

http://www.survivetheoutbreak.com/

Christmas Holiday Project

While in the new Westmeath diggs of my parents, I got to go through some of my old worldly possessions, and decided their fate. As I have grown tired of hauling things around, only a precious few items were spared, and the rest were donated or dropped off at the Value Village.

During our childhood, my brother and I, managed to amass a grand collection of GI Joe action figures, vehicles, and accessories. I have cataloged them photographically, and they are now in individual bags, and stored in a large plastic box to await the next time I come around and need to decide what to do with them all. They can be found in their entirety by clicking on the link below.

Flickr Set of GI Joe Collection

Late to the Game

These have made the rounds, and I don’t really feel like adding them to delicious, so I thought I’d put them here so I can find them later. I think I will start telling people at work that these are from my church band. We’ll see how that goes.

I wrote “these” (and I have refused to edit) because there was another one called, I believe, “The Renewed Life Is The Key” which had a fancy dance step going on with it. It has since been removed from the Ytube due to a copyright claim from the producers of the clip. Too bad. It was a good one too.

2008-2009

So, these pictures are memories from over a month ago today. We are back in the full swing of things now. I am back at work, Jo is back at work, university starts in 2 weeks for me, church stuff is back on, and life is reaching top speed.

The boy is up and walking around now, preferring to be a biped over a quad. We have been taking him swimming a couple times a week. Mostly because it has been so hot around here lately, although this week looks like it is going to be wet and cooler. It is good to have a whole day during the week where it’s just the lads. It could be a crazy year with uni, so its good I have a day where I can focus on our relationship and have some quality time. Its tough when he’s already in bed when I get home from work, and his mama’s boy tendencies when Jo is in the room. Tough on her too, as she doesn’t get a break.

It was great to see everyone back in Canada. It will probably be the last trip for a few years. The boy will need a seat the next go, which will cost a few quid. And with school and everything… the money will be held up in other stuff. We are open to doing whatever, so we aren’t gonna rule it out completely, but realistically it may be a few.

I have set a few goals for myself for this year. One was to get to the beach more often. We have almost been to the ocean at least once a week. I am learning to bodysurf, and the boy has learned to like the beach. He was a bit afraid of the waves coming in the first time, but his second time he had no fear, crawling straight into the incoming waves, and eating some sand. He loves to splash around, and with all the news around with toddlers near drowning/drowning in pools we will be careful to teach him how to swim and float on his own.

I am going to see if I can post once a week about whatever. I should be able to do once a week. It’s a goal, but it’ll be the first thing to go if things get busy, so… no promises. I don’t even know who I am writing this to… no one reads this anymore. Haven’t posted since the first week of November. Ha.

T-minus 5 Weeks

And we’ll be in Canada! How crazy is that? So it’s been almost 8 weeks since I last posted on this, but can I just say, a week has not gone by where I have not thought to myself, “I should write something on the ole blog…”, then haven’t.

The Grind

I am almost finished my probationary roster on 8hr shifts and am looking forward to starting the 12s. Although I will not really experience the extent of the days off I normally would since I tried to cram all of my shifts into the 3 weeks before we leave. Nevertheless, it will still yield more time off that I have now. I just do not suit the 5 day work week.

I am still really enjoying my ward. Not every shift is bliss, but the people I work with are awesome, and that makes a huge difference when stuff is crappy.

The Boy

Is crawling everywhere. Pulling himself up onto everything. Sprouting teeth left right and center. And eating everything he gets his hands on. I hope Westmeath is ready for my offspring.

Randomness

I will be attending the Cagefighting Championship tomorrow night.

I will be attempting my first grading for my Jiu-Jitsu sometime at the end of the month. I also attended a John Will seminar last weekend. I am enjoying rolling twice a week despite last night when I was smashed about 4 times. Good thing I have no ego… anymore.

It’s starting to get hot around these parts. Let the anti-chaffing campaign begin.

For the Future

I am going to try and take more pictures.
I am going to try and get to the beach more this summer.
I will be sorting out where I will be getting involved more around the community. After school kids program, homeless feeds/drop-in, or something completely new/or different.

Refugee Camp In Your City

After church this morning we headed out to the olympic park in Sydney, which as it turns out is only 10 minutes down the highway from us. Doctors Without Borders were running a Refugee Camp In Your City this weekend and we went to check it out.

The tours were led by field workers who had just returned. The tours ran for 45-60 mins and were very interesting. You can find out more about them on their website. We have met some people who have lived in refugee camps for years, and suffered incredible things. This was just another reminder of the incredible need and work that is going on in some of the most horrible situations in our world.

A Peek Into the Future

We are all set for the new hockey season.