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The Darks...

Marchpig — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:37:14 GMT

Plod, plod, plod...one foot in front of the other, it's what we do, it's what I do. It's all I can do...

Survived the bro's birthday with a morning session of the Darks, but I finally got to speak to my little girl, and she doesn't want to come and visit these school holidays, more Darks...

I hate the Darks, an almost physical sensation, weight on the top of my head, on my shoulders, my heart flutters...it's the man dressed in black that I can only catch out of the corner of my minds eye, but when I turn to look...he's gone, but his veil of Dark hangs in the air...

Very few people do I allow to see the Darks effect on me, but I let them, I can't deal with the Darks by myself, not all the time, it's not healthy.

Life...

Marchpig — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:16:20 GMT

Just a the mo' I'm listening to Sisters of Mercy "Detonation Boulevard"...I've just received my brothers Death Certificate... the bills, well if they were crocodiles, I wouldn't have an arse left...

I find myself, this evening, a little numb, thankyou Jack, a little thoughtful, a lot rueful...
Life is such a bitter sweet thing, as time goes by, as you move from ignorance to wisdom...
I feel sometimes that the lessons we learn are not worth the test.
If you have lost someone close, you might understand...
"You can stand all night, at a red light, anywhere in town, hailing mary's left and right, I've seen the best of men go past, I don't wanna be the last"

It's nearly my brother, Benn's, Birthday.
He would have been 38 this year. I miss him, we hardly ever saw eye to eye, we argued, we fought, but I miss him...
I still can't accept fully, that he couldn't find someone to confide in...but, hey, we fought, right?
Even so...I miss him...

The Epic Saga Of Thee Ginger Beer Part Thee Second.

Something Fast — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:22:38 GMT

Had a nice surprise when I found out that out of the six bottles of ginger beer, four of them have finally developed quite a nice fizz to them. The other two had a trip down the drain. It's not too bad at all for the first batch.

The ginger beer itself tastes really nice, if a bit dry. The next batch gets made tomorrow, and when it comes time for bottling I think I'll put in two and a half teaspoons of sugar into each bottle as opposed to one and a half. It'll make the ginger beer a bit more active in the bottles, but it shouldn't be *too* active.

The plant itself is really active, you can see the goo at the bottom keeps erupting with bubbles. The next batch should be pretty damn awesome.

See, bubbles.

Meanwhile, I'm going to drink my awesomely refreshing ginger beer.

Turning 40

MasterFarter — Sat, 17 May 2008 01:24:51 GMT

Age brings wisdom
The older the fiddle the sweeter the tune
Life begins at 40

Having reached a point where I turn 40 shortly, I have decided that I have a great deal of mistrust for these one liners.

Wisdom? I sometimes think I would prefer to be young and stupid again, when I could play sports, have the time to play in a band and sex was more than a fond memory occasionally revisited.

Being this age does have its good points of course. My pay cheque is much fatter, I am mentally much tougher than when I was younger and I have the pure joy of seeing my babies turning into well balanced, healthy young adults.

No mid life crisis, although I made a symbolic tilt in this direction by splurging some bucks on a new guitar that I now have to learn to play :)

Anywho, I shall just have to see what the old 'mid life' period brings I guess.

The Epic Saga of the Ginger Beer Part Thee First

Something Fast — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:57:29 GMT

So, on Wednesday I bottled the first batch of ginger beer. So far the bottles haven't been fizzing up or anything, but the ginger beer plant is only a few weeks old and it's the first batch so that's to be expected I guess.

Batch 1 should be technically ready on Sunday, but it might be better to leave it for a few more days to see if it gets more fizz to it. It should be tasty enough without, but it's not *real* ginger beer if it's not fizzy. The plant itself is starting to react fairly strongly after its daily feeding, so that's a good sign for the next batch.

This is all training for doing some *real* home brewing. Very tasty training, mind.

+ mortgage + helping out parents - job - school (wife) + job

deevil — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:18:52 GMT

So, my dad has parkinson's... my wife's mother has alzheimers, my sister got a new boyfriend and moved out of my parent's place screwing them over (she was paying part of their mortgage -- and with the mess she made she should have been paying more).

My wife and I decided to go in with my parents and buy out 40% of their house (they used some of their equity and paid off our debts and their own) and we take on the majority of the new mortgage. We're paying about $2000 a month, they're paying about $1000 a month.

A month later my job tells me they're outsourcing my job to the US (basically they don't want to pay me as much) and that I'm more than welcome to work down there if I want (for $15,000 less a year).

My wife is 2 courses shy of her bachelor's degree and now needs to get a job instead and hope that it's flexible enough to let her finish her language courses (last requirement for her BA).

My sister left all her shit in our new place (we'll be in the 1200sq.ft basement, my parents in the 1200sq.ft upper floor). I've spent a month ripping shit out and throwing stuff away going there whenever I can (it takes 45-60 minutes to drive there from where I currently live -- moving there before it's done isn't an option so we've been paying $600 a month in rent on top of the $2000 mortgage).

I got a new job but it pays about $38k a year instead of the $63k I am being paid currently (until the end of this month unless they go back on the extension they gave me -- was supposed to end May 10th). Wife definitely needs to get something in the $25k - $30k range.

Wife got into classes this summer that are at night so it shouldn't be a problem (2 nights a week). Commute from new place is about 1.5hrs each way... (from old place about 45 min).

lots more shit.... just a whinge fest...

My car rules

muppet — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:17:34 GMT

My old car on the other hand, sucked asses thru a straw.

It was broken down on the freeway (ahah so much for "this car is gonna go to the wreckers after tradein.. bullshit lying car traders.. anyhooz..)

Mini (well, nearly 10 mins of mini) moofie starring Me (oh god) and B..

Click image to play video

Close Move

Oh and, that was all filmed on my brand new nokia n95. Life is sweet :D

Arsefarmer

Colonel Kurtz — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:04:12 GMT

I fear we are about to see the final nail in the coffin of calling Pirate an Arsefarmer

Lessons

backscratcher — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:06:16 GMT

Life has so many lessons for us to learn, sometimes it can seem overwhelming. I am learning a lot about myself this year and I am really getting off on the entire experience, even when I find my self in tears from the learning process. For many years I was a turtle, hiding in my shell, to scared to see. I have progressed from the turtle and am now the curious mouse, still in hiding, but occasionally now I become brave enough to run out and be seen but only for a while, before I am overcome and have to run back and hide for a while.

still here

backscratcher — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:22:57 GMT

Why do I find it so hard to express my feelings in a way that others would understand. At times I feel like I have an emotional void, a black hole of the soul where there is no feeling, just blankness. Things or situations that I know should make me feel sad/happy/anything I sometimes find myself empty and wishing I could feel that particular emotion at that time. Am I strange? Probably. Am I a head case? More than likely. If feels like there is something wrong on the inside with me, but that's not to say that I don't feel any emotions I do. I just can't always grasp them when I need to. Am I alone?

It's time

backscratcher — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:16:27 GMT

Ok here I go again. I'm so bad at this kind of thing. I feel the urge to blabber but about what topic I am having trouble deciding on.

Well one thing I know I would like to talk about is the people that I have come into contact with on this site. I really enjoy looking at everyone's different points of view and at times it can feel almost like an extended family. Probably more so for me as I am a very publicly shy person. I find it difficult to meet new people face to face and I really hate having to deal with crowds, so to sit here at my keyboard and screen and interact with all of you guyz here on Zgeek is refreshing.

Away

Colonel Kurtz — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:29:32 GMT

If you're away for a while, and out of contact, do you become less important to the people you are away from? and do they become less important to you?

hmmmm, missing some people, and one person in particular

/philosophical stuff

I haven't done this for a while, so....

sagit — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:49:37 GMT

I thought I would do so by copy/pasting from "I confess" (the thread not the movie).

I confess I have today pre-ordered Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

The Moons clouding over a little now

backscratcher — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:07:05 GMT

Yes it's blog time again. I feel the need to rattle on a bit. Wenches, yes Santa Claus is real but he is a closet homosexual. Now now settle down everyone I'm not dissin Santa, but I have it on good authority from the Tooth Fairy that Santa has a soft spot for "My Little Princess" dolls. If you put that with the fact he likes looking up reindeers arses and he gets around in knee high shiny black boots the evidence speaks plainly. :elefant:

Next week I shall blow the myths on some more childhood dreams, until then, be good, be happy and always remember karma

Hello to you from the moon

backscratcher — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:52:08 GMT

It's nearly midnight and I'm watching over all of you tonight. Yes that's right I am the man in the moon. You all thought that it was just a made up story but if you look real closely you can actually see me. Spooky huh. And now to confirm another myth busted, I am not made out of green cheese and I have never had a cow jump over me. I mean honestly do you really think a cow can jump that high. Lets be real people. Oh and do you know why the dish ran away with the spoon? The dish was tired of the knife and fork, always arguing over who was the sharpest. And the spoon, well he always felt so left out that the dish felt sorry for him and dragged the spoon along Thelma and Louise style.

ps the Easter Bunny is not real