Was it worth it.

Went for 9 holes of golf this morning at a course near my house, noticed an over abundance of Kangaroos this morning running around so I took a few photos with my phone.


ohhh


Eyes closed ;(. Getting closer.


Mother and her Joey.

Now we're wondering around thinking "aww, cute". And were very careful to not hit any of them during our game.

Cute harmless creatures you would think.
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WRONG, we found rabbit bodies all over the place, these things have been pretending to be herbivores, I bet they come out in packs at night and go hunting for small animals. My friend even swears he once saw three of them eating a dead cow on the side of the road.



Don’t kid yourself Jimmy if a Kangaroo had the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about.

**Warning**
The following post is huge with a lot of photographs, apologies to 56k users.
I have collapsed majority of the photos into spoilers
**Warning**

I actually wrote this blog a few days after I came back from Europe, I was waiting on a friend to send me some of the last few photos from Vienna, but they never arrived. I will update those when I eventually get them.

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“Ketchup or mayonnaise?”
“For what?”
“For your fries sir.”
“(Silence)…..Ketchup”

Seriously Europe, mayonnaise?
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October 31st, I flew out of Perth International Airport heading towards a final destination of Amsterdam. Journey Path: Perth –> Kuala Lumpur –> Amsterdam –> Cologne –> Amsterdam. (It was cheaper to fly through Amsterdam and take a train back then it was to fly direct to Amsterdam).


Plane to Malaysia at Perth International

I arrived in Amsterdam via KL quite early in the morning 6-7am, I had a connecting flight to Cologne within the first few hours but I had changed it to a later flight as I was meeting up with Dknight(Scott) to catch the same flight to Cologne. I spent 3-4 hours in Amsterdam airport waiting for Scott.


I had my first beer in Europe. De Koninck. Not bad, better than the alternative, Heineken.


Walked around the airport for a couple of hours and then went back to the bar and started drinking again.

I also got a seated massage, which was much needed after 20 hours in the air in crappy economy seats.

Scott finally arrives around lunch time; I immediately lead him to the bar for a beer. Few more drinks and a meal and we started feeling tired, I had remembered seeing some really comfortable chairs during my tour of the airport so I suggested we go and sleep for an hour, it was only 15:30 and our flight wasn’t until 17:00. We woke up at about 16:20, got up and started making our way to the gate, we didn’t realise you have to go through customs in Amsterdam Airport, without actually exiting Amsterdam Airport into Holland... That delayed us about 10-15 min, we still got to the gate at around 16:40 and were subsequently told that we had missed our flight. “Where were you guys? We were calling your name” We didn’t hear shit. “You have been at the airport for almost 12 hours, how did you miss your flight?” Fuck you lady, we were 20 minutes early. They wouldn’t allow us to grab our luggage and just exit Amsterdam airport and they forced us to pay a couple hundred each to catch the next plane to Cologne.


20 minutes early man, wtf.

Long story short, missed our flight, miss our connecting train in Cologne, had to stay a night and catch a train to Amsterdam the next morning, which meant we had to buy tickets again. We hadn’t even reached our destination, and already about $430(US) down between us.


Armin & Scott waiting for a second flight to Cologne, this time we waited right by the gate, all 2-3 hours of the wait.

+ Show Spoiler [ Photographs] +

Night in Cologne.






Finally on the way to Amsterdam!

Camera whore!

Our two hardest working refs, intensely testing the computers, making sure they work. Weird thing about it though, they tested the same two computers all day. Hmmm…












I setup the big score-screen to one of the networked computers and asked Tasteless if he could obs the game. 3rd place finisher. Worked out well, thanks again Nick.


On the way to the TL meet-up. Seb(Baal), Petra(Ilvy), PuertoRican(Rick), Dknight(Scott), Energies(Armin) with MnM(Michelle) behind the camera.


This is one of the tables at the TL meet-up.

One of the many nights we ended up back the hotel


Liquid`Zephyr, Ret, Ghardo


Erkenbrand(Frank), Michelle, Liquid`Nazgul (Standing) Daniel, Ghardo (Standing) Draco’s head.


Choblar(Kevin), Liquid`Meat, Frank, Ret, Michelle


Draco


Poker

Reza, Counter Strike Referee.

Saint Mary’s statue.


Munich town hall.


Centre of Munich – Marienplatz. On this particular day, the left wing party of Germany had organised a demonstration, the right wing party also wanted to hold their demonstration on the same day and were refused, and as a result the city was polluted with police and riot police, just in case.




This is a typical Munich memorial. Munich is very subtle with their memorials; you basically have to know where the memorials are and what they signify. There are no plaques or signs anywhere. This road signifies passive resistance to the Nazi Regime. As the main road had posted guards that everyone had to salute as a sign of respect to Hitler, this side road was used by people who did not want to salute Hitler.


This is another memorial for all the tragedies and lost lives of WW2. It is very cold and dark in my opinion.

Beer halls!










We walked out drunk and realised we still had our beer glasses.

Our very passionate tour guide.


”Work will set you free”




Bunks, similar condition to some of the hostels I stayed in.








Execution wall.


Barrack X.


The two sliders in the middle were used to administer the poison gas.


“Showers”.


Gas chamber.


Gas chamber.


Fake shower head.




Cremation plant.






“Never Again”. Rofl, yeah right. Guantanamo bay, sup?

No luck on the Oakley’s but I found the ice cream!

Following this blog: So I lost like 50lb

6 Weeks later, another 8lb down. I imagine I may have lost more weight, but I have really dropped my cardio, down to something like 20% Cardio, 80% Weight Training, from about 70% Cardio, 30% Weight Lifting.

I have been gaining more muscle than I have been burning the remaining fat.

October 2008 - 158lb/72kg
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Sorry for the low quality photo and dirty mirror.

I don't know much about how the economy works, I try to read as much as I can, but one thing that has confused me over the last week, maybe someone can enlighten me. Why is the Australia Dollar dropping so rapidly against the rest of the world and the American/Canadian Dollar are staying strong, what are we doing wrong?

Its ridiculous, pretty soon our money will be worth nothing.
Here is a chart of the last 120 days



Peaked just under 98cents to the US Dollar. I have also seen it hit 0.98+ late last year. It has been raped and pillaged over the last week. It's ludicrous.

As it currently stands

1.00 AUD = 0.683832 USD
1.00 USD = 1.46235 AUD

it was sitting at 67cents about 20 minutes ago. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON! I'm going to Europe in 3 weeks and this is what I have to face.

1.00 AUD = 0.500086 EUR

Literally 1:2. Basically if a week in Europe is going to cost me 1000euro, I have to take $2000.00, etc...

Can anyone explain what is going on?

Just got back from the gym, figured might as well post this.

It was November last year, during the Seattle WCG grand finals when I hit my peak, three weeks of Denny's and IHOP. Yeah, really wouldn't recommend it.

I was pretty much at my heaviest and most unhealthy at that point, weighed in at 216lb/98kg, I am about 5"6-7 so I was very overweight. Trend carried on over Christmas and new years. It was around February. One morning I was at the train station catching a train to the city when I saw mine leaving, It was like a 100 metre run to get to the train, but it took me like 5 minutes to regain my breath. That's when it all changed. The reason that effected me so much was that I did long distance running for many years when I was younger, I could run 5-10km without a problem, now I was on the verge of death after 100 metres, wtf?

It all started from there, I was realistic about it as well, I wasn't expected to become super healthy and fit over night. I started somewhere where I know would be tough, and figured if I can overcome that, rest would be easy. I quit drinking for about 2-3 months and drink very little now. That along with (initially) a small change in diet and a little bit more walking and the pounds started dropping off.

Anyway, the healthier I got and the more weight I lost the more active I became and the healthier my life and diet became. I only joined the gym last week and mostly did that because their weight facilities are much better than what I was using at home, and I have really upped my weight training since I'm getting sick of cardio.

Anyway, just got back from the gym, weighed myself before I left, weighed in at 166lb/75kg.

November 2007 - 216lb/98kg
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Lately I seem to be completely disinterested in video games, I want to be playing and enjoying them but I just can't, I install one of the many games my brother has in his collection, play it for a few minutes and uninstall, regardless of what genre it is. And that actually goes for console and hand-held as well.

I started at a very young age, 6-7 and my first gaming console was an Atari, oh man did I love that thing, there was this flying game with a plane that keeps going up, you couldn't shoot, there were just obstacles to avoid, I think I once did a 2.3 hour run of that, non stop, and I don't even think it had a pause function.

I was living in Iran at that time, I went through a draught for 3 years as we moved across a few countries and finally landed in Australia. At that point it went to Sega Megadrive/Nintendo/First handheld system, 300 games mostly puzzle based -> Sega Megadrive 2 -> Super Nintendo -> Nintendo 64/Gameboy , there was a keyboard computer console in there somewhere, you'd type in codes and make games and programs.

At that point we moved again, I was forced to get rid of everything except for my SuperNES, so many awesome old school games thrown out. =/. At that point it was a quick change once again. Got my first Playstation second hand from the newspaper with something like 50+ games. I was in heaven for a year, it was around that point that I got heavily involved into computer games, platform and shooting games but adventure games mostly, Lucas games ftw!

That lead to the Doom/Duke Nukem era, and of course my education to RTS, C&C -> Red Alert, my memory is a bit hazy, but I believe I got a computer upgrade and started trying game demo's from magazines, it was around 1998 when I first set my eyes on Starcraft, I fell immediately in love. But it wasn't until late 1999 until I managed to get my hands on a copy of Starcraft.

Due to that, in the last 7-8 years I have switched between Starcraft to Diablo 1->2 to short sprints of Final Fantasy and more recently WoW and finally back to Starcraft, but in the last 12 months I haven't felt like playing either and because I had spent such a long time playing Stracraft it seems that it has degenerated my natural video gaming ability for other games, my FPS skills now suck compared to 5-6 years ago and I have very little interest for other games. I believe this is somewhat my fault for not diversifying my video game experience, but I think it is mostly SC at fault for being such an absorbing game. Right now I am just forcing my self to play 5-6 games of BW a week, just to maintain what hand eye coordination skills I have left for when SC2 comes out, which I no doubt will be playing for the next 10 years.

Playing multiplayer games for such a long time has made playing single player games really boring and I can't enjoy any multiplayer games unless I am doing it competitively, in which case I don't have the patience to get good at them. I just wish I could turn back time 5-10 years where I was enjoying everything, but I still wouldn't take back the 7-8 years of SC.

Have you guys ever experienced this? How do you reacquire your love and interest for video games, or should I just tap out and start poker...?

Prologue - Mid March.

Dressed in army camouflage face covered in paint, holding up the stolen street sign proudly. We sat there contemplating, "just how much paint are we inhaling right now?" The neighbour's mailbox was definitely what we needed to get this barrel fire started. When up from above, the crackling sound of a 747 going supersonic caught our attention.. we all had the same idea, "we need a week off work". The next hour of drunk incoherent conversation is what was to lead to a week long spint in Bangkok.

Roll back to last week, 3 had become 2, apparently if you have a wife, travel alone to Thailand is strictly prohibited, it's in the marriage license.. seriously.. check it.

Flight TR 717 departing Perth to Singapore - Flight was alright, under booked we had 3 seats to ourselves, I'm not use to flying budget though, I need my free meals and alcohol and especially my entertainment system. I only had a book my Nintendo DS and my MP3 player to keep me entertained, it would be a difficult 4.5 hours. We land in Singapore plane taxis to a 'budget terminal' what the fuck is this shit, budget plane lands at the budget terminal? If any you guys have ever seen the main terminals at Singapore, you'd know how awesome they are. We unloaded into someone's garage. it's 2:30 am too late for security to be open, "yeah, what they hell just go through, no terrorist awake at this time of the day"








Flight TR 102 departing Singapore to Bangkok - 3 hour wait at Singapore so we checked in early, I guess the seats weren't pre-booked. They saw a couple of young blokes and figured we'd do. They placed us on the emergency exit seats. Sweet, enough leg room to do tow touches. We had to go through the emergency procedure though.. after all, the lives of the rest of the passengers were in our hands. We sat next to an expatriate on his way back from Perth having visited his mother, he was also renewing his 3 month Visa, gave us some good advise on the way there, kept saying we need to go to Pattaya "a lot more action" I believe was the phrase.

2 hours later we landed in Bangkok, tired and anxious we slowly made our way out of the plane, through all the security measures and customs, I kept getting padded and scanned down, I refused to keep taking off my belt. Molested twice and I hadn't even left the airport yet, excellent.

As we slowly made our way out of the airport we noticed the trend, dozens of people standing at the immediate entrance, "taxi?" "where you go?" "cheap taxi, come". We microed our way through the first few, I was started to get annoyed, but I had no idea how the procedure worked, did they have real taxis outside or were these it? We stopped and gave one our address, he looked at us and said 1000 Baht. That's only $30 we thought, between the two of us, that would still be 3-4 times cheaper than back home. Said no thanks and moved onto the next person, and the next, we finally got tired and accepted a ride for 900 Baht, the moment we said yes two girls grabbed our luggage and started running across the street, wtf? come back! We jogged behind them trying to keep up while still carrying all our other shit, got to a regular car, didn't look like a taxi, already a bit mythed and feel like we were getting scammed 2 minutes inside the country, we went along with it. 40 minute taxi ride, reading millions of billboards. Dirty streets, terrible traffic and driving, we were starting to wonder if we made the right decision going...









This thing is going to take me ages to write, so.
To be continued..

by a wombat..



New Zealand court sentences man after wombat rape claim

WELLINGTON (AFP) — A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after telling police he had been raped by a wombat and the experience had caused him to start speaking "Australian".

Arthur Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker from Motueka on South Island, rang police on February 11 to say he was being raped by the slow moving Australian marsupial at his home, The Nelson Mail reported.

He rang back soon afterwards to say he was withdrawing his complaint against the wombat, a court was told Wednesday.

"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know," he told police in the second call.

Cradock pleaded guilty to using a phone for a fictitious purpose and was sentenced to 75 hours community work.

Prosecutors said alcohol played a large part in Cradock's life, although his defence lawyer said he was not drunk on the afternoon of the phone calls.

Fucking Kiwis

R.I.P



Lawz are teh gey.

Pointless for me to explain this, best just to watch the video on the main page.

Space Time

I think the eBay and Youtube search methods are awesome.