Sunday of my Life

I attended a friend’s engagement party tonight. Walked all the way there (around about an hour’s walk, only to find that three of the other couples there all live down the same street as me. Fun. Oh well, the walk gave me time ot think. I noticed an unusual contrast today as I was walking along. I live in what used to be a small country town, and is now rapidly metamorphising into a major urban center. Walking alongside one of Victoria’s major arterial routes, the Princes Highway, cars, trucks and assorted other poison spewing vehicles flying past me at reckless speeds on one side…

And on the other…

On the other side, open farmlands, fields of wheat (perhaps wheat, maybe just really long grass, who knows; it’s a plant, it’s stalky) waving in the cool summer breeze, farmers in their fields, cows, sheep, horses… and off in the distance, hillsides covered in virgin forest. This was the kind of thing I grew up with, with my gransparent’s farm, days and weeks of my holidays spent three, working, enjoying every damn minute of it. Now I walk along a highway, with the encroaching urbanity on one side, wholesome country life on the other. And I know that over the next few years the urban side will slowly expand, taking over the farm lands, making residential developments, industrial parks, commerical centers, driving this peaceful life back another step, gradually taking it further and further away from us. And it saddens me, I must say. In a few years this will be all but lost to us, and kids around here won’t grow up with it… and they will be missing out, I know it. There are worse ways to live than working on a farm, believe me.
—-
OK, so I haven’t posted for a week or more. Sue me, I’ve been busy with school coming back. School’s return, along with the increasing failure of my memory, brings around the need for a to-do list, and I may as well put it here, that way people I know can also remind me in case I forget all about it.

To-Do:

• Report on business analysis techniques as they relate to network design
• Find a project for project management (the upcoming West Gippsland Hobbies, Crafts and Model Train Expo sounds viable)
• Network Management Software Report for Network Design Fundamentals
• Sumarries of Modules 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of CCNA Semester 2, possibly getting ahead in doing Semester 3 and 4 from the Academy’s local course materials server
• Focus Questions for Semester 2 (have to hand write them this time, ergh, but, we do what the course requires)
• Discover what my major assignments for Network Design Fundamentals, LAN Fundamentals and WAN Fundamentals entail
• Aquire networking equipment (preferably a 2500 series and a 2600 series Cisco routers) to practice on, since the router simulators just don’t cut it
• Attend at least one social event per month
• Find work
• Find more work
• Keep work
• Continue the way I’ve started in making use of my student diary to keep myself organised (I think with my failing memory organisation’s going to be my best friend)
• Get well so I can get off this medication and hopefully regain my mental acuity again (may not happen, I have been warned that it can do permanent damage to, especially, one’s short-term memory). I’d dorp the medication in a second if it weren’t for the fact that life with it is just that litlte bit better thna lfie without it, as things currently stand.

There… I’ll make updates to that as the year progresses, mark off completed items and so on and so forth… we’ll see if I remember to use it now.

The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés

This list is long, but good. So many of these hold true in so many different games, almost makes you feel like they’re all connected in some quasi-mystical way, like there’s this one clichéd world out there that is placed under threat of imminent take-over/destruction time after time after time. Almost makes you feel sorry for the little buggers. Memorable list items include:

20. Just Nod Your Head And Smile
And no matter how big that big-ass sword is, you won’t stand out in a crowd. Nobody ever crosses the street to avoid you or seems to be especially shocked or alarmed when a heavily armed gang bursts into their house during dinner, rummages through their posessions, and demands to know if they’ve seen a black-caped man. People can get used to anything, apparently.

13. The Higher The Hair, The Closer To God (Cloud Rule)
The more outrageous his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story.

86. Wait! That Was A Load-Bearing Boss!
Defeating a dungeon’s boss creature will frequently cause the dungeon to collapse, which is nonsensical but does make for thrilling escape scenes.

and

90. Guy in the Street Rule
No matter how fast you travel, rumors of world events always travel faster. When you get to anywhere, the people on the street are already talking about where you’ve been. The stories of your past experiences will spread even if no witnesses were around to see them.
91. Wherever You Go, There They Are
Wherever the characters go, the villains can always find them. Chances are they’re asking the guy in the street (see above). But don’t worry — despite being able to find the characters with ease anytime they want to, the bad guys never get rid of them by simply blowing up the tent or hotel they’re spending the night in. (Just think of it: the screen dims, the peaceful going-to-sleep-now music plays, then BOOM! Game Over!)

Enjoy!