justrhysism design

Well, it has been a little while since I wrote a story about my drunken quests.

This story kicks of just last Saturday, as I started the evening with a few races at a local Go-Kart for one of my best mate’s Birthday.

Now the karts weren’t that good… in fact they were quite dodgy. However, the one I was in did have a bit of go if you drove it properly. Because it was just a private joint, there weren’t any lap timings or official races. You just get to thrash the karts for a while.

The sessions only go for 10 minutes. But after about 10 minutes, the ol’ arms are starting to get somewhat sore. After two sessions of 10 minutes, it feels like you’ve done 100-odd push-ups.

Somehow I nearly managed to flip it. Again, private track; there were pot holes, the tires that lined the edges were loose, which made for an interesting time as the track was constantly changing as you dodged pot-holes, tires, spun-out karts etc.

Afterwards we quickly decided that we wanted dinner, and somehow fluked a table at a local hotel for FIFTEEN people! To just rock up without a booking, at a pub that is normally booked out, and still get a table was very lucky.

I had myself some garlic prawns… which were somewhat ordinary. Wasn’t terribly impressed, but what can ya do? (Eat it was the option I chose.)

A few beers downed at the pub over dinner, and everyone retreated back home to clean themselves up ready to go out. Fortunately I lived just up the road (well, kinda), so myself, the birthday boy and his girlfriend stopped off at my place. I poured myself a bourbon and cola as I quickly cleaned up and had a shower.

Soon enough, the taxi arrived and we arrived in North Adelaide. The chosen watering hole was The Archer. Quite a good choice for a Saturday night. Not too busy, but enough of a crowd to feel that it isn’t empty. Problem is, whenever I go to the Archer, my memory is always very vague of actually leaving the place. For this I blame their pints. Pints at the Archer aren’t normal pints. They are imperial pints. So once you’ve downed 4-5 of the bastards, vision blurs and the mouth slurs.Bumped into quite a few people I knew, which is no surprise really, I mean, it is Adelaide.Although, it was a little strange being out in town the the people that I was with. My good mate, the birthday boy, is actually a real country boy. So being at a popular destination in the city with him was a little different, and he did feel a little out-of-place. Whereas I was in my element and loving it.

So several pints later we were kicked out of the pub as the doors closed. There was a breathalyzer machine in the foyer that we threw a few bucks in to see how drunk we were. I blew 1.something-high, and I still had more beer that was settling itself into my blood.

Yep, I was drunk.Now the memory does become rather vague at this point. But I do remember a few key events. I don’t remember drunk dialing a few people… whoops! I also don’t remember getting to the Casino. However, I did. Now I’m not a gambling man. I’ve thrown a few dollars here and there on roulette, but that is it really.

One of the blokes I was stumbling about with wasn’t keen on betting either, so we went for a stumble. And, we stumbled upon Ryan Fitzgerald… commonly known as Fitzy (the radio presenter). For whichever reason, we thought that it would be a good idea to buy him a drink. As drunken blokes do when they meet someone famous… they slur lines like, “Ah gidday Fiizy, yoor a farken lergend.” - And exactly that we did. However, to his credit he did chat to us for a while, which was quite cool.

The birthday boy eventually rocked up, and wanted to throw some money on the table. I said I only really knew how roulette works… which is partly a lie, but I couldn’t be fucked walking anywhere else, and they were right next to us. Then he asked how it works… I had a few attempts at constructing a sentence, but eventually gave up and just said, “Bet red…”, “Bet odd…”, “Bet top half… huh? Erm… jus’ put it there.” Soon enough he was $50 up thanks to my good advice lucky suggestions.

Then we lined up outside in the taxi rank. Time seemed to pass fairly quickly, and the rank wasn’t that busy, as it was about 4am. Just before a taxi arrived for us, an old neighbour friend of mine turned up out of nowhere. I knew she lived nearby, and we invited her along to split the cab. But then we all got out at my place, and sat in my loungeroom chatting for quite some time. Eventually I made it to bed at something past 5:30am… well, that was the last time I checked the clock. It was quite some time after that before I actually got to sleep.

Problem was… I had to be up for work at 10:00.Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.Yes, ’sucked’ is somewhat an understatement. I was so ridiculously tired, and hungover, and no doubt smelt of booze. But I made it through one of the busiest days we’ve ever had at work. Oh-my-god my head was sore.

After what felt like years, the day ended, and I was able to go home. Okay, I had to play basketball at 8. Hmm… it’s just past 6. Nap? Yes, definitely. So I set my alarm, laid down and was probably asleep before I had even closed my eyes.

A few minutes later… well, what felt like a few minutes… my phone alarm is going off. God damn… reach over and pick it up, and it stopped. I pull myself around to get a look at the time… wait a minute. That wasn’t the alarm, that was it ringing! Missed call… oh shit… it’s 9pm!!!

Fuck.

Slept through the whole thing. Ah fuck it, I’m going back to sleep.

I am still super geek, yet despite the fact that the new OS X Leopard has over 300 new features, I like it because it’s pretty.
You heard me. It’s pretty, and that is why I like it.

Spaces, Exposé, Stacks, Cover Flow, Time Machine (Which for lack of a suitable external hard drive I’m yet to try) are all fantastic. But it’s the little things that I like. Like when you change the clock on the Dashboard, it doesn’t just flick instantly to the new time. Oh-no, it actually winds the clock around until it reaches the desired time. I loved it!

This weeks self revelation - I like pretty things. Simple, pretty things.

OS X 10.5 Leopard has renewed my love for my computer. I was actually considering upgrading, as my 2-year-old PowerPC 2GHz G5 seemed to be getting a little long in the tooth. But it’s like a whole new computer now. Runs a little faster (amazingly), and has given me that new sense of child-like wonder. Steve Jobs has done it again.

Yep, my geek status has been confirmed in concrete with titanium supports and laser security.

I have pre-ordered my copy of the new cat.

The new what?

Mac OS X Leopard. The long-awaited new operating system from Apple.

I have never been so excited for a product made of lines of code… oh wait… yes I have. But other than that, I am totally pumped to sink my erm… fingers onto this OS.

Problem is, I have a massive assignment due this Friday. It is a Java Swing assignment, which requires heavy use of my computer. So, do I take the chance of a flawless install and set-up, plus a few hours of exploring and tweaking… or do I wait until the assignment is done?

I know what I should do. But I know what I will do… I’m in for a late night.

Okay, I know I am a bit behind the ball on this one…

But one reason I am late is because I’ve been playing it quite a bit since it was released. Halo 3 has had a HUGE amount of hype to live up to.

And it has.

The campaign mode, which is about ‘Finishing the fight’, is quite entertaining, and had me stuck on my bean bag for many many hours. Although I did feel that it was a little short. But there were many epic battles that would have you sitting in the same spot of the map working your ass off to knock down all the Brutes and move on.

I finished the game on ‘Heroic’ (hard difficultly, mind you, not the hardest). It was very challenging in some parts, and you really can’t just run out and blast away. The AI is very intelligent, running away from grenades, throwing grenades of their own to flush you from cover, and even flanking you in some situations.

You get to use all sorts of vehicles and weapons, which makes the game really fun. There is nothing quite like driving around in a massive tank blowing the crap out of everything.

The music is none other than epic. The classic military style Halo theme music plays out and gets your spine tingling for some Master Chief action. (Although, I must admit, I prefer the guitar style of the original music) This game must be played with a good quality sound system (preferably surround sound) or at least a good pair of headphones.

The Multiplayer.

Well, since I finished the campaign so ‘quickly’, what else is there to do? What we have all really been waiting for. The multiplayer battles.

These are fantastic. With so many new weapons, and extra devices and tools to use, it takes the game to a whole new level. The maps are quite good. A good mix of tight close combat maps to huge sniper-friendly maps. It will keep me going for quite some time.

If you sign onto Bungie.net, you can keep track of every single medal you earn online. It records how many kills you have had with each and every weapon on each map. Keeps track of your overall K/D spread. You can access your screenshots that you’ve uploaded from the theatre. It is just awesome. Totally awesome.

Then there’s the theatre. You can watch back every single game you play from pretty much any perspective you like. Replay those flukey skillful head shots from across the map. Watch in slow motion as your rocket follows a Banshee through the air. It is just amazing, and takes up huge amounts of my time.

You have to be pretty hard to impress if you don’t like this game. It has something for (nearly) everyone.

I’m in love.

This game is just phenomenal.

Very realistic in every sense.

The graphics are mind-blowing.
I just can’t get enough of this game. If you own an XBox 360, and you don’t mind the odd race. This is THE racing game.

I would love to babble more about it, but I’m off to put a new engine in my Camaro… wow…

I just finished watching the new show Californication which I saw last night and decided to download all the episodes I could (which was only the first three).

Do yourselves a favour, and tune in tonight at 9:30 on Channel Ten, because this show is hilarious! Unfortunately it’s only a half hour long show, as opposed to the current trend of hour long episodes, so just as you’re starting to really get into it, the show’s over. But because of the short episodes, the show is relatively fast-paced.

For everyone that is sick of all the drama and wants a laugh, this is the show for you. Sex, drugs, alcohol, gutter mouthed honesty… it’s brilliant!

For the guys, you get to see boobs too! So even if you’re not all that interested in the storyline, you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a few sets of boobs each episode. WOO!! What more could you want? Really?

Anywho, the current state of my house is more reminiscent of New York’s dump than a townhouse, so I really need to go and do something about it.

I don’t blog all that often as it is, and it might just fall even a little less frequent, as yesterday I picked up my new found love.

An XBox 360… Elite.

What’s so special about it?

Well, it’s black. It has a massive 120GB Hard Drive. It also has the new digital HDMI connection for 1080p High Definition glory. (Not that I can use the full 1080p… but 1080i is fine with me.)

Other than that, it’s not really that different, and I have probably just spent a whole lot of money that I could’ve done without really needing to… for black. Meh… Interest free terms… I’ll pay it later.

Well then Rhys, why are you so excited? I hear you say.

I am probably one the first people in Australia to get my hands on one!

How?

It’s release date is the 30th August. Through my connections, I pre-ordered one, and took one home last night. TWO DAYS before it’s release date! HURRAH!!!

I feel so special… no, not really. But I am pretty stoked. Although my contact was almost not going to give it to me unless I settled down as I jumped about a humped random objects in excitement.

But now, I’m off to sharpen my Halo skills to be prepared for the Halo 3 release on the 26th September. Much love!

Ice skating is hard, and slippery, and cold… and painful for the stacks.

Saturday evening I went ice skating for the first time in a very long time, and I am proud to say that I only stacked it ONCE! Hurrah!

My stack was rather pathetic too. I was kinda hoping my stack would be something people would see and go, ‘Oh wow, that was a big stack. I hope he’s 0kay.’
But no, I was moving at a snails pace towards a wall so I could lean against it for a moment and as I approached it, my feet slipped out from underneath me and WHAM! On my ass.  I quickly looked around to see if anyone saw me, laughing to myself a bit I got back up to look over and see a group of 15 year old girls giggling at me. Great. Laughed at by young high school barbie bimbos on skates.

I had forgotten how hard it was. I used to rollerblade a bit, but was never fantastic at it. Ice skating is a whole lot harder. It was also cold, as one would imagine. But very much fun in the end.

I was quite surprised by how much the air gets moved around the ring as well. Some random come flat out towards me as I was stopped at the end of the straight bit, and stopped only a couple of metres in front of me, sorta smiled and skated off. Was quite weird yes, but I was more intrigued with the way I had a good 5-6 seconds of wind blasting into me just from that dude!

For all those physics geeks out there, does cold air move faster than warm air? Or is it we just only notice it when it’s cold?

I would really like to have a full story of the weekends events. However I really don’t have much to say. Mostly because I was too drunk to know what the hell was going on.

We all ventured out to Wolf Blass for the evening. Very nice winery, with a very fancy function room for us to trash. The night started pretty relaxed with Ashden’s older brother playing a few quiet songs on the guitar and everyone enjoying beer, wine and peanuts. I saw a few people that I haven’t seen in a long time, so it was nice to catch up. Ashden’s sister (who is a mother) turned up, and even Ashden turned around going, “Oh wow, who is tha… AHHHHHH!!!” as he came to the shocking realisation that the hot babe walking through the door was his sister. (Sorry Ash, but I had to put that one in).

For most the night, local rock band Avedis were rocking out and playing all the popular rock tunes for everyone to sing and dance to. It was fantastic, those guys have great talent.

We had to leave the place by 12am, at which point a bus would pick us up and take us to the pub. So we wanted to make sure we could drink as much as we could before it arrived.

I had a brilliant idea. The best way to get drunk and beat the clock, was to stand behind the bar. Where I started serving everyone drinks. I managed to consume almost as many drinks as I was serving… gulping down the fine Shiraz in a way that it really should not be drunk.

So, from about 11pm onwards I have no memory. Really quite a poor effort, as it was a pretty awesome night I’d imagine. There are a few photos which give me quick glimpses of the night… but mostly I have no recollection whatsoever.

I have a vague memory of being at the Tanunda Hotel, but that was mostly me trying to drink water and throwing it up in the toilets. I got myself a lift back to Ashden’s, but no one was home. I had forgotten my phone when we left, so it was inside. The house was locked. I had no idea what time it was, who, if anyone, was home. Or what the hell I was going to do. Luckily Ashden’s car was open, so I crawled in and snuggled up in the passenger seat. I had a quick look for blankets or ANYTHING to try and keep warm… nope. I froze ALL night. Soooo cold.

Eventually in the morning, Ashden’s dad found me and let me inside. I had a really long hot shower… which I managed to keep upright for… as I believe that I was still rather drunk. Never mind, keep on truckin’, have to get to work!

Yes, work. It was a challenge. Red Bull and caffeine pills kept me going. Right through until after basketball (yes, basketball) that night. I was ROOTED.

Who else has had any working drunk experiences?

Well, as much as I want to blog about the happenings of life, I am really struggling for time. So my blogging isn’t going to be terribly frequent… as you have ALL already noticed.

Lately, my time consumer at the moment is coding scripts for Macromedia Director, to put towards my groups multimedia project. I have literally been sitting at my computer all day looking at code trying to figure out how to do stuff… actually 80% of the time is figuring out why it ISN’T doing stuff.

My brain has been fried, and I am feeling really quite bland.

I really don’t like being bland. Although I must admit that when you spend the time and work out a script and get it working all by yourself it is a pretty good feeling. You’ve accomplished something. Yay!

But when it gets to the fact that you are starting to dream about the code that it gets worrying. Also just those random thoughts you have whilst you’re driving along… I just have this code sprawling through my brain… yep. Exciting.

Well rather than blog about it, I need to go and do it. Wicked.

Shit post I know, but I needed to divert my attention FROM it…. and yet I still blog about it. Bah!! Can’t win.