Once upon a time in magic land

So there’s this girl I know from school. I don’t agree with her lifestyle choices because they’re completely wrong for me. I mean shit, I’d be a terrible mother at this stage in my life; totally selfish and disinterested in doing what’s right by the kid.

Anyway. I’ve been curious for a while now about how she gets by, her and her beau and their baby. As far as I know she never completed any tertiary education and was working in retail up until her maternity leave time. Then recently, she started posting shit on FB; DETOXIFY WITH BAYSIDEWRAPS AND MELT THOSE SPARE UNITS OF MEASUREMENT AWAY that kind of shit. I just ignored it, like I do 90% of my feed, and go on with the important daily tasks of antagonising my flatmate’s cat and playing Zelda. Then tonight, it hit me. She’s an Avon seller lady but not Avon. This Baysidewraps is some product thing that she’s a franchisee of. So I did a bit of poking around.

The facebook fansite has all the usual grand claims; PROVEN BY SCIENCE! TOTALLY CHEAP YET TOTALLY REPUTABLE! that sort of thing. But the site is totally bogus. Sure, it looks legit but trying to find the page listing peer reviewed publication of results started this stupid loop of everything linking back to the shop.

Now, I’m not arrogant enough to believe I’m smarter than the average bear, but I’m not an idiot. Something’s not right about this set up, I tells myself, so I post what I believe to be a non aggressive question on my school friend (well, she wasn’t really my friend, but we ran in overlapping circles)’s wall. She hasn’t answered yet, I’m curious to see what she does (if she does). I’m not sure if she’s aware she’s part of a scam, perhaps even a pyramid scheme (I have ALWAYS WANTED TO TYPE THOSE WORDS). I’m not sure what I’ll do if her answer implies she’s aware of the situation. I feel like I need to report this to Consumer Affairs, the Ombudsman, ACCC, the police, Stephen Fry and Aquaman, but people will think I’m a bad person if she gets in trouble for it. And while I usually don’t care what people think of me, I have close friends who are actually friends with this girl. I don’t want them to feel stupid and bad.

This is why I hate people. If she’s stupid and doesn’t realise then she’s a bad person for being an idiot. If she knows the score and is pushing this crap, then she’s a bad person end of story.

Actually, another friend who has been watching and thinking similar things just joked about getting ACA to investigate. Now I’m tempted to beat him to it and get TT on the trail, and let them battle it out.

Until I’ve thought of a topic, I’m not posting

But I’m breaking my silence to say Andrew Wilkie is a prize idiot. In threatening to destroy a credible, elected government over a personal vendetta against the gambling industry, he’s showcasing himself to be an incredible douche with a severely limited self preservation.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like gambling. I believe it hits the poor and uneducated hardest, hurting children the most, and invests nothing back into the community except tokenistic projects in schools that really, do shit all to alleviate the damage pokies in particular do.

However. Holding the government to ransom is a selfish, stupid thing to do. He ran on a platform of pokies reform. Unlike Xenophon though, who is in the Senate, Wilkie is in the lower house. He is an active member of policy debate, and holds a deciding vote. To hold a legitimate government with a clear mandate hostage for his tomfoolery is idiocy. Does he honestly think that under an Abbott government he’s going to be treated better? Hell fucking no! He’s a whistleblower who discredited the Howard Government. In which Abbott was a prominent player. And in federal politics, grudges run deep and long. Because let’s face it, that’s what will happen if the federal Government dissolves, the Liberals will win under Abbott. Wilkie’s short sighted attack on gambling is idealistic, and while I wholeheartedly support idealism, he’s not being pragmatic, fair or smart.
The industry is more powerful than him, and can do the Gillard Government more harm, and I hope she remembers that in time, and he recalls he’s got zero credibility and very little bargaining power when he considers his future place in the political landscape under a liberal government.

/rage

Because I’ve been negligent on Derby updates

Here, have an update I added to my original derby post:

Skating is alive and well at ANU. Here you will find the ANU Roller Derby facebook page, and here is the Interested in Roller Derby at ANU, run by the passionate and talented Emma Eriksen and a host of very lovely ladies. If you’re in the ACT, contact Ms Eriksen here and ask to be put on the mailing list she has going. That’s the best way to stay abreast what’s happening. They’ve got lovely get togethers going, where you can practice your skate-skillz and have some fun. The local league is back in the swing of things for the year, and as you might have guessed from my gushing above, it’s a great night out. Better in a group. So, get in contact, get involved!

To find your local league, click here for ultimate awesome.

blogs blogs blogs

My friend Joe just started a blog, it’s pretty sweet. In it, he reviews recordings, albums and eps of bands, and at the bottom of each entry is a link to download the featured piece. It’s essentially about sharing his music and spreading the joy he gets from what he listens to. It’s very much like him, and I wish him good luck with it.

Which has got me thinking about this blogamawatsit. It kinda just….exists as a soapbox in which I attempt to remain anonymous as I complain about…well… nothing. It (read: I) contribute nothing to the wider discussion. I enable no furthering of knowledge, no widening of horizons, I offer nothing but petty insights into shit no one really cares about, except me, at the time of writing. Like most people my age, however, I am easily distracted, and I tend to focus on many things for small amounts of time. I have no single great love.

Take Joe, for example. He is widely known among everyone as that 90s kid, and the music boy. He’s always in some band or other, and he is quintessentially the 90s personified. Right down to his haircut and choice in hats. And that’s his thing. He knows music and loves the 90s. Another friend, Steph from uni, has a blog too (doesn’t everybody these days?). Hers centers on the creative and interestingly fashionable outfits she styles for herself each day, and they are very interesting, being a goth with an obsession with the colour green. Other friends have a picture blog, or a blog about scientific theories, or political theory, or a whole range of other things that are their “thing”, an interest that acts as a defining feature of their personality.

I am no such person. I don’t have a “thing”; I’m not a Girl Gamer, despite being female and playing games. I’m not a Comic Book Nerd, or a Manga Nerd, despite collection and reading an array of comic and manga titles. I’m not known for being stylish, nor well versed in poetry, or political theory, or music, or classic literature, or anything. Because I like a bit of all of the above. I love punk music, and ska with a touch of pop punk (Fat Wreck pop punk, not radio pop punk) on the side, but I’m not particularly knowledgeable about the scene and it’s history. I love pokemon, and Katamari, and Zelda and a host of other games, but it’s more a casual thing for me. I like reading, particularly fantasy, but I’m not REALLY into it as a “thing”. You see where I’m going right?

And finally, I’m not very funny. I have my moments, but usually it’s people laughing at me, not with me, and that doesn’t translate well to writing. I’m not particularly witty, like my friend Leechman on his blog, which is usually interesting and fun to read. So, there really is no reason for this blog to exist, and I should either find something to make it about, or shut it down.

 

A post about cosplay

(I LIED. There’s only a small reference to cosplay in this post.)

Today I bought my weekend pass to Supanova. Jelly? Thought so. I’ll do a post closer to the time/after having gone specifically about Supanova, because in this one I will fret about cosplays.

It’s common knowledge that you don’t go to cons without dressing up. That’s part of the charm. For years I’ve watched my more socially advanced/engaged friends don various characters and head off for a day of wild adventure and the like, and this year I’m going too, but I HAVEN’T DECIDED AS WHAT YET. Actually, that’s a total lie, but I’m feeling too braindead to think of an interesting way of saying I’m either going as Saya Otonashi from Blood+ (requires a hair cut, but I need one anyway), or as an unnamed swordswoman in green tunic with suspender leggings. If the tunic doesn’t arrive in the post (yeah I suck at sewing, so I order my stuff online) on time, then I’ll rock Ms Otonashi both days. And if I got an appropriate cloak, I could pass for an anonymous Jedi who stole Skywalker’s lightsaber.

If you look closely, you can see my cat ignoring me in the background

I do like my toy swords, I tend to pick one up at every two dollar shop, school fete or Germanic fairytale castle I end up at. Enjoy the fact that you also get to see my room, and my unimpressed cat sleeping on my bed.

Something niggling at the back of my mind tells me I’ve posted something about all this before, probably in my rambly excitement about going to Supanova(yay~). So I’ll just return to bed with my pokemon and my lack of interest in being social outside of the infrared connect on Black/White.

THERE IS NO END TO THE DESIRING!

Proof that, to quote Robert Smith, it’s never enough, never enough.

I want: M14 Event Victini. Shiney Entei, Raikou and Suicune. Event Celebi. Access to Lostlorn Forest. The 3DS to be out already. Access to wifi on my DS so I can use the DreamWorld. The PGL to be up and running already so the DreamWorld is accessible.

I am a pokemon fiend, I can’t get enough D: it’s like an addiction, and I keep chasing the initial rush of that first fix of black and white. The graphics and new places and pokemon are still great, and they make me all so so happy, but it’s just not enough.

Holy Shit Pokemon Black and White

It’s amazing. It’s like pretty much everything we’ve asked for, they’ve given us. You can run inside, the start is quick and painless (no having to troop back and forth because people are bitch lazy), the graphics rock, you have real friends in this, the story is deeper and more interesting…. ARGHHH SO GOOD.
Criticisms so far: your kit is gendered by colour. You pick girl, the kit is pink, and so is the lower screen (until you get C-Gear, don’t even get my started on how awesome that shit is), pokemon DON’T FOLLOW YOU (c’mon guys, that was pretty much the BEST BIT OF SOULSILVER/HEARTGOLD).
But at the start, it’s pretty much this, but with a woman.
❤
I can't stop playing long enough to write more (:

MOTHER RUCKER!

HAPPY POKEMON BLACK AND WHITE AUSTRALIAN RELEASE EVERYBODY!

YAAAAAAY POKEMON BLAAAACK AND WHIIIITE AND VIIICTIIINIIII EVEEENT!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

(I am now withdrawing from reality, because it sucks, and pokemon will now be my life ~yay)

Two posts in one day is unusual, yes

But according to the data-ry collecty thing in my dash when I log in, it says there have been 17 views of my blog today.

WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN. I haven’t even told 17 family or friends that I write shit here, and even if I had, they wouldn’t be interested in the shit I write (because that’s the kinda persons I’m friends with/related to).

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUS

1 Day

ITT we see how the universe likes to troll me.

I have been out of work since mid-late december. This is the very opposite of good, it is BAD. Because MONEY IS IMPORTANT and BUYS HAPPINESS. I moved home so I could utilise my awesome ability to network, and it’s working. I got home last weekend, I’ve already worked 1.5 days (yay half day) and tomorrow I have my first paying day.

TOMORROW I HAD INTENDED TO SLAUGHTER ALL WHO STOOD IN MY WAY AS I COLLECT WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE FROM EB, THEN LOCK MYSELF IN MY ROOM TO GAME UNTIL EITHER MY EYES BLEED, OR I WIN SAID GAME. Most probably the former.

Is it bad to be so fucking gutted about not getting/playing a game the day it is released?

ALSO
ONE DAY
ONE GORRAM DAY
(also happy international womens day for yesterday, i was too busy working and eating ice cream to mention it)