Dabido Challenge Type II reloaded.

Okay, after a second call for more input, it looks like no one wants to add anything else to the Dabido Challenge. So, with our first Submission, listed below, Here We GoooooOOOooo!:) The six attributes given by Hedon are (listed in red later on). 1. character: simba (from the lion king) 2. location: playboy mansion 3. object: calculator 4. occupation: footballer 5. song title: tiny dancer (elton john) 6. theme: psychedelic 70's Tiny Simba (Sung to Tiny Dancer by Elton John) [I hope this scans okay. As I'm having to do this from memory of how the song goes ... I don't actually own any Elton John records! If you own it, try to sing along. :-)] Simba baby, Masticating, eating animals of the land Pretty eyed, his ass getting wide, eating a footballer man Baby Simba, ambushing wilderbeast from the sand Says, 'Now you're in me, always with me, chewy as a rubber band' Psychedelic Seventies Simba scores some Drugs Simba, eating them barfs His next trips really bad The Wilderbeasts make a stand In the Playboy Mansion Looking on Simba halucinating His stomach and mind expansion. But oh how it feels so real Eating Antelope and dear Only you and you can't hear me When I say softly, slowly Please don't eat me tiny Simba You need to diet more than I do So for your birthday I bought a weight loss calculator Simba baby, Masticating, eating animals of the land Pretty eyed, his ass getting wide, eating too many a fat man Baby Simba, ambushing wilderbeast from the sand Says, 'Now you're in me, always with me, chewy as a rubber band'

Dabido Challenge Type II

So far I've only had two lists given to me for the Dabido Challenge Type II. They is Hedon's : oh, for the dabido challenge, here's my list: 1. character: simba (from the lion king) 2. location: playboy mansion 3. object: calculator 4. occupation: footballer 5. song title: tiny dancer (elton john) 6. theme: psychedelic 70's And Kenny's (aka Other Kenny) : hah? no one commented on this?? i'll try then.. 1. odibad, an self aclaimed jamaican (who's actually a tanned japanese with dreadlocks) 2. Tokyo, among the ganguro girls.. 3. rolled up weed ciggies 4. bummer.. 5. No woman-o no cly-o 6. he's actually a superhero, a defender of the earth (well, just tokyo actually) from the evil mutant scum, his evil twin dadobi. XD For those who missed the post, here are the rules for the Dabido Challenge Type II. Though, I must admit I am unsure what occupation 'bummer' is. Unemployed maybe???? Who knows!? Well, Kenny does, as he wrote it. :-) So, I'll just quickly stick another call out for some more contributions.

Another Meme on the blog where Memes come to die

Hedon tagged me.

Yes, I've done one of these before. The Challenge: To write a short story of not more than 200 words, based on the following words which can only be used once!

1. sleepover 2. whip 3. handcuffs 4. leather 5. sexy 6. threesome 7. hairy 8. shotgun 9. squeeze 10. explosion I'll do it as a poem (extra challenge), with each required word ending the line in order of the words.

*****

Once when I was going to Dover, I was invited to a strange sleepover, The girl told me for a tip, I should bring a plastic whip, So I went to a store that sold weird stuffs, And invest in some nice handcuffs, I wasn't sure if I was right or whether, I should substitute plastic for leather, I wore a sombrero to look very Mexy, Hoping the girl would find it sexy. I hoped in a taxi, feeling wholesome, Two others hoped in to make a threesome. 'You coming too?' I asked Mary, Who was a bloke who is very hairy. 'If you promise me it will be fun', He said leaping in as fast as a shotgun. We got to the party, it was a breeze, Though the taxi had been a tight squeeze. Thus ending my poetic notion, Lacking any Hollywood type explosion!

*****

146 words! Easy Done! If you want it, grab it and tell me you've grabbed it. [You don't have to do them in order or even as a poem ... that's me just making it more challenging for myself!] :-)

Some More Pictures

You may remember I did the tutorial on how to draw using my friend Shifa. I've done another one of Shifa, and this time I think I did a much better job. [I hope she likes it]. Let's face it, she's such a cutie (and she already has a BF, so NO, all you guys out there will have to get your own GF's!) :-) And FINALLY, the long awaited picture of Mami ... who's one of my Japanese friends. (She also has a BF, so sorry guys, you'll have to look elsewhere for a GF if you're looking). Anyway, I'm not happy with this one ... I'll probably do another one of Mami later when I feel in the mood to draw. BUT, it's not bad (it's better than some people might have done), so I stuck it here, and hopefully she'll like it ... and later I'll do a better one that hopefully she'll like even better. :-) p.s. Check out the previous post. I'm still awaiting some ides for the Dabido Challege Type II. :-)

Dabido Challenge - Type Two

As you know, I performed the occassional Dabido Challenge which I threw out for the masses to perform if they so wished. I'm going to refer to the first type of Dabido Challenge as 'Dabido Challenge Type 1' [sort of like diabetes, except you can have cake!] The new type, I'm going to refer to as Dabido Challenge Type 2. Here's what I'd like to do: I want my readers to throw me one of everything in the list below.

1. A Character (Can be one you make up, can be an historical person, anything, human, animal, a magical innanimate object, alien ... anything as long as it is a CHARCTER for a story),
2. A Location. (Can be a room, a suburb, a city, a country, a planet, a differnet plane of existence)
3. An Object (You do know what objects are don't you? They are those material things we can touch)
4. An occupation
5. A song title
6. Something else of the readers choice (can be a theme, an idea, another character, another object or location ... anything).

I have no idea what I'm going to do with them either ... but I figure once I have them I will. ;-) Oh, and please keep the numbers beside what everything is, like1. is the character, that way I won't mistake a talking banana [character] for a banana [object] or bananatown [location] ... get the idea? I hope there are plenty of lists when I get back tomorrow some time. ;-)

How Insulated Some Scriptwriters Brains are!

Actually, as someone who's written scripts, I'm being a little harsh, as it may not have been a the scriptwriters fault, but some one elses. Still, scriptwriters are human too, so maybe it was the writers fault ... but, might have been the producers or some other studio honcho who wanted things changed. ANYWAT, what I want to complain about is whatever is on Television that my mother is watchin at present. I heard them [the characters] talking regarding a SARIN GAS attack. Now, if you remember, Tokyo 1995, the religious group Aum Shinrikyo launched a Sarin gas attack, which killed twelve people and made over six thousand sick. In the Television show, they failed to mention this attack. I found that highly insulting as well as stupid. The TV characters are tracing the 'Terrorist' group which did a Sarin gas attack in their show ... and guess what they compare it too. 1. Nine Eleven (World Trade Centre Attacks) 2. Madrid Rail Bombing 3. The London Tube Bombings. Now, sure, it's a TV show. It's not a TRUE story, but it is sort of based on reality. If you were to come to me and tell me a group of terrorists were about to launch a Sarin Gas Attack on a Subway Line, the first attack that would spring to my mind would be the Tokyo ones. Why? Well, first, it's a friggin' SARIN gas attack, NOT an airplane flying into a building, NOT a bomb or bombs on trains. Second, it's on a subway line. Yes, the Madrid and London attacks were on trains, so I can see the similarity to that, but Nine Eleven??? That's totally different. Why is it an American TV show where they have terrorists releasing Sarin Gas on a subway doesn't even mention the Tokyo attacks? I'm sure they've heard about it. But it seems that the other three attacks are of more importance to America. Maybe it's because they're more recent. BUT, still, the similarity is uncanny. Maybe the scriptwriter isn't mentioning it, as it will give away where the idea came from. Maybe it's not being mentioned because someone somewhere decided it was better to keep reminding us of RECENT attacks, and thus justify the 'current mood' of doom and gloom where the population allow politicians to erode their rights in order to 'protect' the public. It's like they deliberately ignored the obvious attack to make terrorist attacks look like they're only a recent thing. They're not. I remember as a child reading about bomb attacks, people being kidnapped by terrorists, wars & rumours of war. Nothing much has changed, except now the media is constantly obsessing over terrorists and every second show is about 'the good guys' saving us from terrorists. The war against terrorists is over two millenia old. I mean, one of Jesus Disciples was an EX-TERRORIST who fought against the Romans. The US even used geurrilla type tactics against the British in their war of Independents, and the current US Government wants to outlaw these very tactics. I'm just getting very tired of Hollywood rehashing terrorists in almost everyshow. If they had a new slant on it, or something more to say, I could understand, but, it's the same thing. It's 'Watch out, terrorists are hiding in your underpants and we're here to save you'. I'm sorry, but the repeatition is akin to brainwashing, and I'm getting very tired of it. If you must make a TV show and have a bunch of terrorists attack subways by using sarin gas, you could at least compare it to the historic attack which was most similar to it, Tokyo 1995. Don't have your 'terrorist expert' characters sit around and compare it to Nine Eleven and completely ignore Tokyo. As soon as you ignore Tokyo and pretend it is 'most similar to nine eleven' the credibility of the show just goes straight out the window. If the terrorists were going to fly planes into buildings, THEN I would expect the experts to compare it to nine eleven, NOT when it's sarin and subways. Like I said though, I can only imagine that they mentioned nine eleven as it keeps the fear of terrorism fresh in the minds of Americans.

My Family are NUTS!!!

My brother Jeff did something weird today. He's been on holiday, and he informed us that today was his first day back at work. He got up, got dressed in his work clothes ... then, at 3:30 in the afternoon, he arrived home (I was out at the time), got his car and left. Apparently, he wasn't back at work at all. He's still on holiday. He went into the city, took his work shirt off (having a T-Shirt on underneath), and went to the tourist bureau. Then, came home, got his car, and now his off to Bunbury again. It's weird. He always does this thing where he pretends he's going to work, then we discover he's on holidays. Anyway, he said he was going off for a week. Then mum reminded him that he needs to be back for the bucks night on Saturday, and also asked if there was anythin else he needed to be back here for ... and he remembered, YES, he has to see his Chiropractor on Wednesday, at 7 AM. So, he has to be back here tomorrow night. WEIRD! He wasted today looking for something to do on his holidays ... and now he only has ONE DAY to do it in. Then, he'll be back! ARGGGGGGGGGGH! My poor mother gets driven nuts by it all. I suspect this behaviour is because people always stop him doing what he wants to do. The weird thing is, when he came back the other day (from his trip down south), he complained he was bored, and there was nothing to do down south. He told us that he was planning on going on a trip with a group of people next to somewhere ... only, he's repeating last weeks trip. He's headed down south on his own.

**********

Not much else to talk about. Had a good day at work. Helped train some ladies in the use of Microsoft word, and took their photo's and placed them in their word document and stuff. They were sort of excited about it. :-) Um ... think I might actually do some study and stuff, as not much else happening! ;-)

Glittery Unicorn

I decided to rip the Unicorn transfer off my knights costume today. My mother spent a long time sewing borders around it, so where the costume is red, it now has a white border, and where it is white it has a red border. Yeah, pictures will follow. ANYWAT, I decided to colour the Unicron in white ... only, what I had thought was white fabric paint has ended up being GLITTER. I onyl noticed when it started to dry, and my brother came and said, 'I like the glitter effect you've made for the Unicorn!' 'Whaaaaat?' I had a look, sure enough, it was drying into transparent with lots of GLITTER! Waaaaah! If it looks good enough, I might keep it. I'm still trying to decide whether to rip the Bear Rampant off and do that with fabric paint as well.

Jeff's Burpday Party

As my regular readers know, it was my brother Jeff's 36th Burpday the other day. Today we did the celebration thing!!! It wasn't all smooth sailing in the early part of the day ... I'll explain more later. In the meantime, here are my family celebrating. [No, I'm not in any of the pictures]. Left to Right: Brother Paul, Sister Angella, Brother Jeff, and Sister in-law (Pau;s wife) Nerali. [Trivia, three out of four people in this photograph were born at the RAAF Hospital in Penang. Can you guess which three?] Paul, Nerali & Family (Adam and Cayley) bought Jeff a whole stack of Deodorant and Shower Gel type stuff, as well as a Men's health Magazine. Unfortunately, Jeff seems more interested in the Spring 2006 Ikea Catalog! Here is Jeff cutting the cake. Left to right, Jeff, Cayley [foreground ], Paul [background], Ethan [foreground], Nerali [bakcground], Joshua and Elijah (behind my sisters hand), and Angella. My mother told Jeff to buy a Torta ... which is a pity, as I was in the mood for a Black Forest cake. But, it ain't my burpday, so Jeff got what he was told to buy! lol The Nephews and Niece. Joshua, Adam [background], Cayley [Midground] and Ethan [Foreground]. They were watching the movie 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (Or is it Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) with Johnny Depp in it. Here is everyone again, gathered around for a cake slaying. Left to right [and back to front in places]: Jeff, Nerali, Paul, Joshua, Ethan, Elijah, Mother, Angella, Cayley. w00t, got all of them in a picture. :-)

**********

More on this mornings happenings. Got up to find my mother and Jeff weren't home. Started exercising (as I do), and ten minutes into it, they arrive home. My mother already has a list of things for me to do. I do them, then head back into my room to exercise. I come out of my room after an hours exercise, and it's about 9:30 AM, and my mother starts harrassing me about it being midday! [Her usual, 'Good Afternoon David, decided to get up, did we?' and other barbs!] Well, I'm now in trouble as she wants me to mow the lawn ... only, it's been raining, the ground wet and the mower is a bitch to push through wet ground ... like, the land here used to be part of a river bed, so it's a clay soil that is hard to mow when excessively wet. Anywat, Jeff and I are given somethings to go and buy, so off we go. As we're travelling along, Jeff is in a BAD BAD BAD mood, as he doesn't want a party, and felt that the whole thing is my mother manipulating things to fit into her ideal of 'what the family shoul dbe doing' etc. We go and buy a 'Torta Cake' as that's what my mother wants. [And Jeff mentioned the Blackforest cake, but said to me HE HAS to get the Torta, as that's what he's been told to get.] We then go buy some Take Away Chicken. Anyway, the conversation turns to 'Why my mother interupts me when I'm studying or working.' Yes, my mother and brother had a big conversation about me when they were out. Always good to know that people are talking behind my back ... but hey, I'm slagging them off here, so I can't really complain! ;-) Anywat, my mother is complaining, as she has told my brother once again about her constant interruptions (yes, she admits she does it), and the reason she has given, is because SHE CAN'T TELL IF I AM WORKIN OR STUDYING AT ALL! She admits she has no idea what I am doing, and that's why she is interupting me all the time. So, in other words, she constantly STOPS me from working or Studying, in the name of MAKING SURE I am workin or studying, but she has NO CLUE as to whether I am doing it or not. Well, I'M NOT, BECAUSE I AM CONSTANTLY BEING INTERUPTED!!!! Arrrrrgh! The conversation also turned to the 'David is Gay thing', which my brother acknowledged all started from my father when I was a kid. Yes, apparently my parents have always hoped I was 'GAY' so that they'd have a 'reason' for rejecting me!!! Like, why do I even FRIGGIN' bother with my family!!!! It's days like this that I wonder why I bothered returning from Sydney. So, Jeff and I arrive home, and we're both in bad moods. My mother realises we're in bad moods, and SHE BLAMES ME FOR JEFF'S BAD MOOD, CLAIMING I'VE RUINED HIS BURPDAY!!!! Anyway, she was in a bad mood from the moment I spoke to her this morning, and I suspect THAT was why Jeff was in a bad mood when we went to buy the cake! Arrrrrrgh!!!! I was then so p***ed off at my mother blaming me for something out of my control, that I went off to the study and played Caesar III for a few hours (as the party had already been made ready, and we had four hours to burn before anyone got here). Well, the party was going really good, but my mother kept making all sorts of NASTY friggin' comments about me during the night. Mainly accusing me of being LAZY and never doing anything ... it's like a friggin' broken record based on what my family WANT to think about me, rather than what life is really like! I get the feeling she is trying real hard to PUSH me out of the house. Unlike when I was nineteen, when I was thrown out, I think she wants to make it so unbearable for me here that I do pack up and leave. Then she can exhonerate herself and say that this time she didn't throw me out. There were a few other incidents during the night, and even my sister and brothers picked up on it. My mother ordering me around like a friggin' servant. [She's got so used to doing it, that she slipped up majorly tonight.] My sister commented on how my mother doesn't even look at me, she just snaps a command my way, [with her back turned], and just expects it to be done immediately, no questions asked!!! This I guess is part of the irony of the entire situation. My mother treats me like her personal slave, yet she loves to do the 'David is Lazy' thing in order to try to shame me in front of people. If anyone was to believe her, I do NOTHING around the house, yet, as my siblings can testify, she is constantly snapping commands at me, and I am constantly doing LOTS of things for her. I'm just so sick of it all. Anyway, I guess the plan is to save up, get my Certification (now that I've added an MCSE to the 'wish list' of IT certification I want to get), and then head back to Sydney, or the UK. Arrrrgh! Part of me is so wishing I headed to the UK a year ago!!!! Stupid me. After all this living, I'm still making rookie mistakes. I have got a bit of a plan though. I'm going to start heading to the Library and possibly the PCYC in order to start studying in peace. I'll jsut pretend I'm going to go do some work or something, then head to the library. It's a bit sneaky, and I know a lot of my Christian friends will consider it lying, but what can I do ... she won't let me study, and I won't get my certification if I can't get study done!!!!

*****

On another note, I was hoping to enter this years Archibald prize ... only they announced it the other night on TV as already being won ... I am sure they held it in August last year ... maybe my brain is loosing track of time or something. Anyway, that blows this years painting ... I better look for another contest to enter!!!! :-)

Think Backwards - sdrawkcaB knihT

Today I resolved the Internet Connection Sharing problem I had with the Microsoft Server 2003 I set up for the local PCYC. It was resolved by thinking backwards ... or upside down ... or stupidly. You see, I STUPIDLY ticked the box which said, 'Internet Connection Sharing' in order to share the internet connection with the rest of the network. How dumb am I ...on a Microsoft Server 2003, you have to UNTICK the BOX if you want to share the internet connection! [And untick it if you DON'T want to share the internet connection!] So YEAH, am I stupid or what!!! As soon as I did that, 'HEY PRESTO' the internet connection worked for all the PC's! MAGIC! I only discovered it as I bought the MS Server 2003 books from Microsoft press. (AUD $350) ... so now, seems as they constitute 4 out of seven of the MCSE exams, I'm going to buy the other three books and sit the seven exams for the MCSE. Otherwise I've sort of wasted $350!!!

*****

On another note, my mother REALLY P*SSED me off last night. Since 1999 (or somewhere near then), I've had a growth on my aorta. Admittedly it's benign (aka won't kill me). My mother was talking about the family friend who's funeral she is at today. Apparently, he died because he got cancer on his Aorta, and my mother started raving on about how it's really unusual and she'd never met anyone who had ever contracted cancer on their aorta! Now, if you remember a few weeks ago, I wrote about my brother Jeff asking me about mine, and my mother insisting we change the subject ... so she's totally infuriated me regarding mine in the past, as she has just totally refused to let anyone talk about it, or even acknowledge it. In fact, in the past she's talked about how no one on her side of the family has had cancer, and I've reminded her of mine ... and she's acknowledged it then. So, since about 1999 my mother has KNOWN about my aorta growth and everything ... yet last night when she was talkin about the family friend who died from his, I pointed out that mine wa sin the same place! She pretended she'd never ever heard about it in her life ... she pretended it was something new I was telling her. I got so upset inside (I didn't act hostile towards her), so I reminded her of all the facts ... and now, she's completely forgotten about it again! I have always hated the fact that my family refuses to acknowledge ANY sickness or injury that befalls me. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHH!!!!! My mother's usual excuse is her parents were like that with her ... that's a friggin' lame excuse! [Yeah, I know, you've heard this all before ... I'm like a broken record ... but, I guess I have to rant about it, as I have to live with the broken record all the time - it's like my life is on constant repeat ... constant repeat ... constant repeat ...] The problem I have, is I keep going over the same thing, correcting my family, only to have them immediately act as though I've told thme nothing ... so the same thing reoccurrs again! ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHH! Anyway, I guess I am pretty gratful that mine hasn't killed me yet ... though I should have it checked out one day, as I'd hate to find out my Doctors were wrong, and they haven't checked it since about 2002 or something.

*****

Jeff's Burpday last night was pretty good. As I said,we had Chocolate Mud cake! YUMMMMM! I had also purchased a card game called Billionaire, which we played. Jeff started winning early on, and was up to half a billion, while I was slowly tailing him. At about half a billion, Jeff halted, and I just zoomed on to win. The game reminded us all of the trade sequence in Civilization (the Avalon Hill Board Game). I'm looking forward to this Saturday, as my mother has decided (so no one else is going to get a say), that the whole family are going to play it on Saturday. [Kewl, three more people for me to beat!] ;-) Did I have that as a pre-requisite for a GF, that they like playing board/computer games??? Well, it sort of is. ;-) Warcraft me BABIES!!!! :-)

Jeff's Burpday!

It's my brother Jeff's Burpday. He's on holidays, so what do you think he did? First, he had some big complain to my mother ... yelled at her a bit ... My mother puts it down to Jeff feeling that he's finally reached 36, and still hasn't had a GF, let alone a wife & kids. He's frustrated, and lonely, and as my mother put it, he's taking it out on the rest of us. I bought him two Warhammer Carrion (Skeleton Vultures). He has a huge Tomb King Army (which looks very good, but is a pretty weak army if you ask me). [This is apposed to my huge Brettonian Army and my huge High Elf Army. I had to go High Elf just because of my mother's maiden name, Elven] :-)

My mother bought him four DVD's about trains. (Documentaries). A lot of people in our family tell me he likes trains ... but you know what, I've never ever heard him say he likes them. I guess he does, as he has never complained that he doesn't like trains. (And for him not to complain would be amazing). Anyway, anyone out their want to be my sister in-law??? My brother then decided to go for a long walk. I got a phone call which went something like this. J: Is mum there? D: She's in the shower. What's wrong? J: I've just used the scales at three different chemists in Gosnells, and mum's scales are out by five kilograms. D: So? J: So, they're wrong. They need to be fixed. Can I speak to mum? D: She's in the shower. J: But I need to tell her about her scales. D: Can this wait till you get home? -SLAM!- My mother talked to me a little, and said that I need to take Jeff somewhere to meet women ... but not a pub ... I suggested a speed dating night. Nope, mum didn't like that idea, as five minutes isn't long enough to get to know someone. D: First impressions are often correct. M: No their not. I knew your father for ages and he hid his real self from me for years. [Yes, that actually says a lot. People who hid their real self CAN do it for years. What's the difference between five minutes and five years? Not much to the evil people in the world!] Anyway, she raved on about how my cousin went to a hotel for singles and met her current husband. I told her, 'that's called a pub mum.' 'No, it's a hotel.' 'Yes, a pub!' 'Oh, yeah!' Anyway, it's now been thrust upon me that I have to get my brother married off somehow ... like ... um ... yeah. I know what happens next. If I start to try to set him up, he'll immediately reject anyone I suggest under the complaint that he doesnt' need to be set up. SOOOOooooooOOOOoooo, I am wondering how I am going to auction him off? He's a low income earner, little chance of a pay increase, he has a habit of attacking (verbally yelling) at people when he's frustrated by life (I fear for his future wife and kids if he doesn't learn to direct his anger at the problem and away from people!) Other than that, he does have a very kind heart. He's a nice guy ... and he probably does really need someone. One other thing though, whoever he marries might walk all over him. He's a little like that ... I think it's another 'impossible task' my mother has thrust upon me (even though like a lot of her tasks, I never actually accept them, nor do I want them. but, she tells me I have to do it, and even when I say, 'No, I won't.' she still expects me to do it. Which part of 'No' dont' my family understand? Oh, that's right, the 'N' bit and the 'O' bit!) Anyway, Jeff came home, and his fixing his car. He's now in a good mood as he found the problem was the fan belt had fallen off ... he borrowed my car and went and bought a new one. Thank goodness for that. His car now works fine! Guess it is a little bit of a happy Burpday for him after all. Oh, and we have chocolate MUD CAKE for dinner ... I'm gonna be sick as a DOG! :-)

Avoided the Meme - Did the Majoring thing!

KY and Kim did a toilet meme, but I decided not to as it was just full of s***. [Yes, that's a joke based on ... oh forget it]. Actually, I was eating lunch when I read both of theirs ... not good. When I got to Paul's site, I decided I'd do the 'What Should You Major In?' test instead ... I'm a bit worried about majoring in any of those things ... especialyl the desgin ... do they mean design, or am I supposed to be drinking Gin instead of scotch ... not that I drink very often!

Your Scholastic Strength Is Innovating

You are the master of new ideas, techniques, and ways of looking at things. You are talented at structuring thoughts, decision making, clarifying, and making deadlines. You should major in: Marketing Psychology Desgin Cognitive Science Economics Photography

What Should You Major In?

Hmmm ... Marketing, already have Certification in that. Psychology, studied that at University level. Design, was a Graphic Designer at one stage. Cognitive Science, already read an awful lot on the brain ... remember my Neuro-Surgeon story? Economics I studied ... and I enjoy playing the stock market ... don't like economics that much though. Photography, I got an 'A' in at school. BUT, I also enjoy a lot of other things. Last test I did similar to this said writing was what I should do. I changed one of the answers and got the "deep thinking" answer that Paul had. Philosophy Music Theology Art History Foreign language Philosophy ... studied it, have heaps of books on it. Music - how many instruments can't I play? Theology - two Theology Certificates done, passed, already have them. [Qualified to be a Pastor if someone really needs to ordain me!] Art - love my art (which brings us to todays drawing - see below) History - Love my history. Foreign Languages - have tried so long and so hard to learn French, Italian, Japanese (my best three languages), as well as lots of snippets of other languages. Apa Kabah? Baik baik! Xie Xie! Et Hoc Genus Omne! I think maybe I am torn between the two results ... or maybe not torn, maybe I am just both of them. Anyway, I couldn't see any other answers I'd change, so I guess I'm not any of the other types that may be a result from the test. As I said, getting to todays subject & drawing - Art: This is my Internet Daughter Mel [that is, I've adopted her as a daughter off the internet ... just like I did with lots of other young girls ... ] ;-) Mel, I hope you like the drawing. Sorry it took so long to do!

Drama Queens

My family breeds Drama Queens. I've been guilty of acting like it myself. We had a death of a close friend to the family the other day. There has been a few people doing the Drama Queen thing. I think it's funny, that someone dies, and there funeral has brought out the 'look at me! Look at me!' qualities in people. My Aunt has apparently been doing the phone around trying to garner sympathy from people ... though, as a few have mentioned, she isn't devestated at all, she's after attention. Somehow, she turns the conversation to be all about her. My mtoher doesn't want my sister to go to the funeral, as my sister is doing the, 'look at me look at me, I am so devestated' type thing, though she hardly knew the guy. My mother was upset (I can tell), but she's been doing drama Queen things since finding out ... and I'm not sure whether it is her usual drama queen act, or has to do with the funeral. It might be because I told her I was still thinking of going back to Sydney. Guess what her reaction was. 'David, are you gay? Is that why you want to return to Sydney all the time?' I couldn't beleive the question. The thing I hate about that question, is my family (starting with my father), have constantly been trying to convince me I am gay all my life. They used to tell other people ... when I first came here form Sydney my mother told me all the places where the gays hang out ... as if I needed to know! I have nothing against gay people, but I am FRIGGIN' straight ... and the only people who don't want to believe it are my family, and when I was younger, they always used it for the Drama Queen factor. My father would get drunk at Picnics and go, 'Oh, you ahve to feel sorry for me, I have a gay son!' At first I was a bit confused as to who his gay son was ... until it was pointed out to me, that he was talking about ME!!!! Waaaah! Anyway, my mother went through a thing yesterday morning, where she pulled EVERYTHING out of the cupboards and kept yelling and screaming and complaining about the mice (which we suspect are all dead), and my brother Jeff for not putting things back in the cupbaord in the right place ... BANG! 'Bloody HELL!!!!! !@*!*&!&*!!!!!' BANG! 'Bloody Jeff! Bloody Mouse!' BANG BANG! Was it all just to try to impress me somehow? I was so glad when I got to go to work ... Then, this evening, she kept dropping everything out of the cupboard over and over again! 'Why doesn't anything stay in the cupboard when I put it in there?' BANG! 'Bloody, who stacked this up?' BANG! Only problem is, she did it all herself. Jeff has gone on holiday somewhere, and I don't use their cupboard ... so, the culprit is herself. BANG! 'Bloody HELL!!!' Yeah mum, your so weak and feable and can't look after yourself, so I have to stay in Perth!!!! Not that I feel very welcome. I still get the coldness from the rest of the family. Basically a 'F*** OFF BACK TO SYDNEY ALREADY!' type attitude. I'm not even sure they realise they're doing it. Anyway, my brother Jeff when he wants turns into a drama queen. If he knows someone is watching, he turns all agro and attacks people and yells in order to make some sort of impression on whoever else is around ... which is 100% like my father. My elder brother grew up as the class clown ... he was always seeking attention, and he also has the drama queen factor. Like I said, I've been guilty of it myself at different times in life. I've tried to kill it off in myself ... yet the rest of the family seem to want to cultivate it ... and it seems they want to do so, as it annoys the crap out of others in my family. I won't go into other members of the family, but my immediate family often complain about the rest of the drama queens we have. Too many to mention. Maybe it's an hereditary thing ... if it is, then it's on BOTH sides of the family. BUT, at the end of the day, I hope the family friend gets his funeral, and isn't too upstaged by our family, and I hoep my family will STOP BEING FRIGGIN' DRAMA QUEENS! [Including me, though I suspect I am the least dramatic!] :-)

More than One David Stevenson in the World.

I just finished watching 'Bend it like Beckham' ... cried all the way through, which was a pity, as it was a comedy ... wasn't it? :-) I was actually watching it while I was doing my one hour walk (or in this case, one and a half hours, as that's how long the movie goes for). My knee is really playing up now though. Darn! It was funny, as I was walking, and when the coach in the movie ran up to fix Jessies foot (when she was doing the 5 laps), and he yelled, 'Stop! You've done yourself an injury', I actually stopped ... D'oh! I was reading last night on Slashdot how potential employers are googling people's names to see if they can find out about them on-line. I've often done a google here and there for my name. Years ago, I found a David Stevenson with the nickname BEAR, just like me. He was working in England as a Computer Programmer (which was what I was doing at the time), so I was pretty amazed by the similarity in name, nickname and job. Last night I did a similar google. I came across a David Stevenson on MySpace (who wasn't me ... as I'm on MySpace as well). Anyway, he happens to be a Musician (like I used to be), and I noticed one of his songs was called 'Beautiful'. I thought, that's prety weird, as I also have a song by that name. Anyway, I listened to his song (just to make sure it was different .. and it was). I just wanted to make sure it wasn't someone who had dug up one of my old recordings and wasn't passing themselves off on me. He wasn't, he's a genuine David Stevenson. So I was really happy, and sent him a message via MySpace. [Check him out, he has about four songs on his MySpace site]. He wrote back, and his sense of humour is pretty kewl. I've now added him as a MySpace Friend. :-) The other thing I discovered, was a Court case with my name attached. According to Wikipedia, the case is THE MOST FAMOUS in history. (Why hadn't I heard of it before). Anyway, the jist of the court case was a David Stevenson had made some ginger beer, and had served it to a girl in his establishment. Apparently, their was a snail in it. The girl got sick. So, she sued him. At that point in history, people didn't have to take due care when making product. So, this case was were it all changed, and David Stevenson lost the case as he should have been more careful when making Ginger Beer, so that he didn't harm his customers. [So, thanks to a neglectful David Stevenson, we now all have peace of mind that when we buy something it comes with a tacit agreement that it won't harm the user if used correctly ... especially Ginger Beer]. How many people out there have googled their name and found some interesting people, facts or things associated with their names?

Party Like it's 1999 BC :-)

On the weekend, we had THREE birthdays to celebrate. My mothers, my Niece Cayley and my nephew Elijah. (In age order.) Lot's of family fun and not too much killing each other ... well, maybe a little. ;-) My sister Angella, my neohew (her son) Elijah, and my mother. My mother unwrapping her present, with my Nephew Ethan in the background My Nephew Joshua. When we first arrived, Joshua and Elijah were both asleep. :-) How cute, all ZONKED out! :-) My sister, Elijah and my mtoher again The entire clan (minus Jeff and myself, as Jeff ran off to the right to avoid being on the Internet, and I was taking the photo!) ;-) People are: Sister Angella, her husband Kim (obscured by Angella), my brother Paul (with back towards us), Ethan, Adam, Elijah (all nephews), my mother, Cayley and Nez (my sister in Law). I had more photo's, but Blogger has real problems loading photo's at the moment. I can't even stick them on Flickr and link to them! Grrrrrr! Silly Blogger! ;-)

Knights Costume Coming Along!

After a few mishaps yesterday, the knights costumes are coming along nicely.

Here are some transfers we created. Like I previously said, the Bear Rampant was a design I made years ago. The Pegasus we tried to put on Jeff's costume, only to have it not work right. We're going to paint it on with Fabric paint. The Unicorn in on mine, and I have to paint it in as well.

Here are the HELMETS as they now are. Still in their infancy so to speak. We're going to create visors for the from, as well as making an area at the bottom which protrudes around the neck.

Here is my costume. I still need to do the sleaves as well as the trim (Red around the white, and white around the red). As you can see, Bear Rampant one side, Unicorn the other.

The Bear Side (look at bulging bear gut!) :-)

Unicorn the other side. (Look at that bulging ... um ... bear gut!)

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead.

Breakthrough - I apologise for the length of the post!

I forgot to mention. This morning was the first time in YEARS that I got up and actually felt that there was a possible future for me. I consider it a MAJOR breakthrough. [Gees, I'm starting to sound like some Californian Freak from Hollywood who' been with their Therapist for fifteen years!] ANYWAT, I know I've probably scared a lot of people off with my blog, as I use it as a sort of Freudian Psychotherapy, Jungian Psychotherapy thing [basically translate those two as I like to whinge a lot about my life ... only I have a good idea what I'm doing, as I have some knowledge of Psychotherapy.] This is the basic feeling I had this morning (the only way I can describe it to you). Some of you might remember this story. Once upon a time, I was given a Nickname (I've been given MANY, MANY nicknames), this time, the nickname bestowed upon me by some friends was, 'Legend'. Now, I usually DON'T refer to myself as this, as it's the sort of thing that get's strange looks from people. 'Hi, nice to meet you. They call me, "The Legend"!!!' It's the sort of nickname you CAN'T use yourself. An introduction like the one above will get people thinking you love yourself. You can hear the sort of insults they'd use about you behind your back. [One starting with a 'W' comes to mind!] ANYWAT, at this time in my life, I did something pretty amazing (which is what got me the nickname). I was working a full time job (40 hours a week), as well as a part time job six days a week (30 hours a week), while also doing the lions share of housework (cooking for myself, washing up for BOTH myself and my missus, all the ironing, mowing the lawns, vaccuuming etc). My ex-wife just basically cooked for herself, cleaned the bathroom and washed the clothes. I was also doing a part time University Degree and EARNED HIGH DISTINCTIONS! PLUS, I had been on the State Team for American Football, and had been offered the Coaching Role for the State Junior Team. w00t! THAT's why I was given the nickname! ANYWAT, it was a very happy period of my life. I was earning a heap of cash with both the jobs, as well as feeling good about my relationship with my wife, feeling good about my University studies, and ... well, I just felt good about EVERYTHING. [Which is sort of weird, as I still used to suffer from depressions, but I was able to manage them a lot better. Let's face it, I'm never going to eradicate depression from my life]. ANYWAT, at that time in my life, I was pretty unstoppable with most things ... whatever I tried, just worked. It's a great feeling, and it's great when your life is heading in that sort of direction. My Ex and I had managed to save enough for a deposit for a house (and we were going to try to save even more before we bought the house), so I really had a lot of belief in a nice cosy future. Now, all of that, is the sort of feeling I had when I got up this morning. It's not an arrogant, 'I am unstoppable, indestructable' sort of feeling. It's just an angstless, positive future outlook type thing. [Now, a lot of things happened nine years ago which destroyed that outlook, from my Ex Wife running off with the money, belongings and another guy, to me getting really sick with vomitting blood, to flatmates threatening me all the time with baseball bats etc just because I made a bad joke ... to just being plain exhausted with life! The point is, that's not important ... I just mentioned it for reference.] SO TODAY I felt back on track. I'll just quickly differentiate some things though. This is not just getting up and feeling good about the day. This is not just a good day amongst my usual depressed ones. Like I said before, I suffer depression, that isn't going away. [Let's face it, most artistic type people have 'Depressed' as standard operating procedure'.] This thing this morning WAS what those Californian Freaks, or Manahatten Woody Allen types would refer to as a Major Break through. [Have I just invented a new type of therapy? Blogtherapy!! nah, not really!] Who said, 'Blogs don't work!' Actually, I don't think I've ever hear anyone who said they did work either! Anyway, it wasn't just the blog that I've been using on myself. I've been using the blog in a similar way to how patients use 'diaries' [and let's face it, the blog did replace my diary], and also in the way that a patient would lie on a couch and just basically talk to themselves as the Psychiatrist tries to either direct them or reflect back on them what their feelings are on the subject. [I have no idea if other people use their blogs this way]. Anyway, a lot of it has also been trying to break the chains of the neurolinguistic programing parents beat into us without even trying. Let's face it, peoples parents can really twist a lot of us into pretzels as they manipulate our lives. A lot of what my mother does, she complains her mother did to her. [SO WHY ARE YOU DOING IT TO US???!!!!! Actually, I have asked her that in real life a few times when she catches herself!] I've been to scared to do Gestalt therapy, in case the neighbours think I'm having a fight with an imaginary friend, or in case my mother or brother comes home early and then THEY think I've gone crazy! Personally, I think it might be really good for me. On to pof that, there have been a lot of other things I've had to break the psychological programming of. Teachers, Peers, my Ex Wife, her family, my old Church (the first evil one) ... the list goes on. And if you ever wondered WHY I've been so frank about a lot of my life on here, it's because I had to for the therapy. If you live in denial of things, then you don't get better. I think something Howard Stern said in 'Private Parts' summed it up ... about needing to be real. Howard said he had to be real or else what he was trying to accomplish wouldn't work. That's basically how I try to blog ... not to reach the audience, but just to be honest. People can spot fakes ... and yeah, I know I write as though no one is listening (I think I'm down to 27 readers this week! Bwahahahahaaaa! Run! Run!) and I know I probably bore some, and scare others away. [Probably mostly bore], BUT that's just how I have to do it. It just won't work for me any other way. I'm afraid to re-read that section in case it sounds as half baked as what I think it does! Oh well, if I made an idiot of myself, I just have to keep moving and people will eventually forget ... or it'll become funny. It will become funny won't it? :-) There is another thing I've noticed about myself ... in life, it takes me almost as long to get over someone as it does the time I was with them. Even though I was over my wife a long time ago, it's almost nine years since we broke up, and I was with her for nine years. Somewhere in my mind, I am wondering if there is a legitimate connection, or one which has somehow psychologically manifested itself in my brain that breaking up with someone takes a 1:1 ratio to get over them. One of my ex GF's I was with for a year, and then it took a year to get over her ... it seems to be a working ratio with me! I'm just wondering if that has something to do with it ... if somewhere in my brain there is some neuron which refuses to fire until I get to nine years after my break up. That day is April the Fifteenth ... which is weird, I think April the 8th is my cousins wedding! So close together! Anyway, the last nine years have been a long psychological journey for me. Some of it probably would have been shortened if it wasn't for a LOT of bad influences in my life. Let's face it, it's easy to tell ourselves to ignore other peoples comments to us (I don't mean ones concerning the blog ... I mean ones in real life, from enemies, managers etc). At the end of the day, we all have tiny recordings in our heads of things people have said to put us down etc. In my case, a lot of my fathers & ex-wives put downs came out of the mouths of managers, enemies and other people along the way. Let's face it, my last flatmate in Sydney always used to tell me I was UGLY, GROSS and WOMEN HATED ME. She also used to tell me my GF's etc ere UGLY etc. The other day, a student inone of my training sessions asked how old I was. When I said, 'forty', he was totally amazed. He said, 'I bet you get all the girls.' It's funny how an old faltmate used to deliberately and repeatedly put me down in order to try to manipulate me. [And let's face it, her attacks certainly killed a lot of my self confidence, not just with women, but in a lot of other areas]. Who should I beleive? The old flatmate, or the guy I was training? My brain says the guy at training was telling the truth, after all, he was totally shocked by my age when I told him. It was a more real reaction. YET, somehow, the negative comments of peopel often have us stop and ask ourselves if it's true. If somehow we have a false impression of our selves, and that the other persons insults are a true impression of us. It's that doubt, and the fact that repeated insults keeps conditioning us to that belief that destroys our confidence. So, I'll stop now. I really just wanted to share that I had a break through, and try to explain to you how it felt. EXERCISE FOR TODAY: Go back and imagine yourself accomplishing all those things I said I'd done above ... when you can imagine the state you would be in doing all that, then you will understand where I am at. While you're at it, start imagining some goals in your life that you want to accomplish and do something today to move towards that goal. Imagine how good it will feel when you get that goal. Now try to maintain that state of mind! YOU CAN DO IT! [To quote Adam Sandler ... and Rob Schneider] :-)

Music Meme

Music Meme from Erna's site:

As I love my music and stuff, (and I stupidly read Erna's post, thus getting me tagged), here it is.

[Yes Kenny, you hate meme's. Have you read my Burpday post? Wish my mum a Happy Burpday!] :-)

I know, they're asking for one song ... and stupidly I'm giving more than one. I'm so stupardo as I usually don't associate one song to things.

One song… from your early childhood: How early? Pre four years old, anything by the Seekers (as my mother used to take us to kindergarten singing their tunes). Or 'Rubber Ducky' by Earnie (Sesame Street). In Malaysia, (4 to 7 years), Beatle tunes ('Yellow Submarine' was one which sticks in my mind from that time, as well as 'Ticket to Ride'.) 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', 'Cecelia', 'Proud Mary', 'ABC' [Jackson Five], 'Yellow River' ... the list goes on.

One song… you are associating with your first big love: Hmmmm ... first big love was Stacey C, 1978 ... 'Knock on Wood' by Amy Stewart. 'I can't stand the Rain' by Eruption. [These don't include about ten or so songs I wrote about the break up! Waaaah!] Then, there are probably even more ... Barracuda (Heart), Eruption(Van Halen), most of KISS songs released by that date. Led Zepplin, Emerson Lake and Palmer (Yeah, I'm naming bands ... so many songs from that time) ... the Beatles ...

One song… which reminds you of one of your holidays: 'Dreadlock Holiday' by 10CC (as we listened to is on Holiday) ... I sort of had a tape I made with all sorts of things on it. 'I See Red' by Split ends, 'My Sharona', Billy Joel's 'My Life' (or whatever it was called) ... I should go looking for that tape to see if it still exists! ;-) It was a thirty minute tape ... actually, there were about six tapes I had for the road trip ... just one was my favourite tape.

One song… you like, but you have got problems confessing to: Actually, I used to HATE ABBA as I found them really corny ... then I read one day that Benny (from ABBA) said he always thought they were corny too ... after that, all ABBA songs became nostalgic to me. I have no idea why! Actually, 'Ant Music' by Adam and the Ants is one I have trouble admitting to ... I used to own the 'Kings of the Wild Frontier' album ... oh dear, oh dear ...

One song… which accompanied you, while you where lovesick: I've written a lot of my own songs. My song 'Hold Me Up' (which is sort of my theme song), is the song I play when I am love sick (literally playing it on Guitar. There is no recording of it). 'Hold On' (which has an MP3 linked to it previously on this site, and linked to again today), is also one I like to play on guitar to myself. [Once again, appologise for the quality of the recording. Has to be re-mixed!]

One song… you listened to most often in your life: Possibly 'Smells like Teen Spirit' by Nirvana OR 'Careful with that Axe Eugene' by Pink Floyd! [This doesn't include my own songs though.]

One song… which is your most favoured instrumental: Um ... maybe 'Minuet for Lovers' by Bach (in G). Or 'Tocata and Fugue' (also Bach), OR, 'Eruption', (Van Halen) OR, 'Surfing with the Alien' (Satriani) ... or any Floyd Instrumental.

One song… which represents one of your most favoured bands: Hmmm, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' represents Nirvana. 'Knifes Edge' by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. 'Wish You Were Here', by Pink Floyd. 'Yesterday', by The Beatles. [Or maybe 'Something'] 'Over The Hills and Far Away', Led Zepplin.

One song… in which you recognize yourself or through which you feel somehow understood: 'Everyone's a winner', by Hot Chocolate. I probably would have written, 'Hold me up' (aka my theme song), but I'm getting to the point in life where I no longer need that song to keep me going. In fact, I haven't even played it for years! I also could have written, 'Smells like Teen Spirit' which really defined my Generation (Gen X). Or 'Comfortably Numb' by Pink Floyd.

One song… which reminds you to a certain occasion (and the occasion): 'Pride (in the name of love', by U2. I used to love that song, and I used to play snooker at Uni, and I always loved it when that tune came on the radio. [They had a great sound system at Uni in the Snooker/pool area].

One song… you like an which belongs to the Hip Hop / Rap genre: That Slim Shady song by Eminem. OR, the Run DMC version of 'Walk This Way'

One song… which is the best for you to relax: 'I can see clearly now the rain has gone', [I used to play it on piano to myself.] OR, 'Nights in White Satin', Moody Blues. OR, anything by James Taylor.

One song… which symbolizes a great time in your life: The entire 'Wish You Were Here' album by Pink Floyd (as I like to have sex to it ... played through twice. Makes it good to pace oneself!)

One song… which is your most favourite song at the moment: 'Icarus Wings', by ME (yes, I wrote that one. I play it over and over at the moment.) I also have a few other's I'm playing. 'Slow Fuse' and a few un-named songs. As far as other bands songs are concerned ... um ... Maybe anything by Pink Floyd.

One song… which you would dedicate to your best friend: Um ... sort of short on best friends at the moment ... Maybe Princes "22 positions in a one night stand" ... for no reason! :-)

One song… where you have got the feeling that no one besides you likes it: 'Holocaust', by ME (Yes, another one of my own). I wrote it in 1985, recorded it in 1987, and all the Musicians I know who hear it think it's fantastic ... but almost everyone else I know hates it ... it's a weird Success and Failure in one!

One song… you like because of its lyrics: I read almost all the lyrics to all the songs I listen to ... I just have to understand what they're talking about (or at least put my own spin to it) ... so all songs (or most songs). :-)

I failed to mention Jimi Hendrix in all this. I'll just mention him now, as he's also super special in my list of favourite artists. [And if I started a list ... Frank Zappa, Cream, Alman Brothers etc it could go on forever!]

I'm going to do an Erna and say, 'If you read this, you're tagged' ... unless you leav a comment saying you're not going to do it! ;-) Choice is yours. [Except Suanie, as I owe her one! You're tagged! Bwahahahahaaa!] :-)

Happy Burpday to my Mother

It was my mother's Burpday today. We've bought her CD's (or DVD's or something), but they haven't arrived yet. Ordered about a month or so ago. Grrrrr! naughty DVD company. Anyway, we also got her a cake. BUT, for her Burpday, she got to go and be at my Niece Cayley's Burpday party. She was there till about 2:30pm, and came home, and we played Scrabble. I won both games with a score greater than my mother and brothers combined. In fact, first game I got to go first, and I used all seven of my letters for fifty points with 'Breathe'. Total of seventy two points once it was all added up. Not a bad start to a game. ;-) The rest of the game wasn't even close, but I guess it's hard to catch me once I get ahead. Next game, it was sort of close till I once again used all seven letters with 'Hearing'. I was already winning by about thirty points, but that stuck me about one hundred ahead. My brother and I had a few mishaps with the costumes. We've found that 'Iron On Transfer' stuff you buy in the shops (at about $3 a sheet) just isn't that good. We're thinking of using clothes paint instead. My poor brother's pegasus came out quite bad. He tried to correct it using grease proof paper (as per the instructions), only to have the paper stick to the transfer and thus the costume. I fared a lot better, but the transfer looks like it wants to come off is a few spots, and I don't want to do what Jeff did with his. We had trouble getting the ewing machine to work properly, so we've decided to wait till my mother can help us a bit. It's not easy sewing sleaves onto a shirt that already has sleaves. ;-) Anyway, we have another party tomorrow (which is the family Burpday Party for my Neice Cayley, my Nephew Elijah and my mother). March is the month for emptying bank accounts in my family. :-) More burpdays to come with my brother Jeff having his on Wednesday.

Scotish Heraldry

I discovered some very interesting facts tonight. My brother and I were preparing out Knights Costumes, and I was scanning in my 'Bear Rampant' that I designed years ago. We were both planning on having our Stevenson Family crest and stuff placed on one side of our costumes. Just to see if I could find it on-line (I already have a copy one of my cousins e-mailed me), to see if it says anything more about how we got it etc, I did a Google for it. I discoverd something about Scotish Heraldry which is a lot different to the rest of the nations on earth. The shields are owned by one person and are protected by copyright. You aren't allowed to use the shield UNLESS you are the rightful heir to it (which is the eldest son of the previous owner. There are some exceptions, like oldest SURVIVING son if the eldest son died and had no heirs themselves ... or eldest daughter if no 'son' survived). The family shield passes to them and NO ONE ELSE! In most other countries, any descendant of the shield/coat of arms is allowed to use it. Which means, I have zero right to use the family coat of arms, as it is the legal property of some other Stevenson somewhere (probably in Scotland). BUT, there is some other news. If I wish, I am actually allowed to petition Lord Lyon [in Edinburgh] in order to get my own Personal Coat of Arms. [Lord Lyon is in charge of them in Scotland. England, Wales, Ireland etc have their own registry of arms]. It also means the same thing for my brother Jeff. If he wants a family shield, he needs to petition for his own (which might be similar to my own). Of course, we need to prove our Scoish descent (easily enough done) and pay for the arms to be created, painted and several other fees. We also have to prove we are people worthy of them (ie, no criminal records etc). If we had of stuck the arms we had been e-mailed on our costumes, we could even have been sued! Here is a nice quote as well: 'The misappropriation or unauthorised display of a man's coat of arms is a "real injury" under the Common Law of Scotland.' So, I am glad we discovered this BEFORE we stuck those arms on! My younger brother is now going with a BLACK PEGASUS RAMPANT on his red and white costume. [Rampant means it's rearing up ... in case you didn't know!] I'm planning on placing my RED BEAR RAMPANT on one of the white quarters, and I was trying to get a Blue Unicorn done for the other side ... but the scanner has decided to have an heart attack and has ceased functioning! Ptthtth! Anyway, I feel after tomorrow our costumes will most likely be finished! :-) It's also got my brother and I wondering if we should petition for our own coat of arms. As we are decended from someone who owned a coat of arms, ours will have something to do with it. The good thing is, it'd be my very own arms, and no one else on the planet would be allowed to use it. I just wonder how much it really does cost. Hmmmmmm.

Something Stupardo!!!!

Woke up this morning looking forward to a good day as my mother was going over my sisters! w00t! My brother Jeff unfortunately was staying home ... but he's locked in his bedroom at present. I normally get up at 7am and do one hours walking ... not this morning. I turned my alarm off and got up at 7:40am. My mother made out that I was up early just because my brother is at home. I hate this ficticious thing my family does (even my ex-wife used to do it), where they pretend that my normal habits are 'unusual' just because someone is there who isn't normally there. [My ex-wife used to do it when people came over and discovered I was the one who did the ironing or the washing up or soemtihng. She'd pretend it was a first time or something! Grrrrr!] Well, Jeff was a little angry, as my mother left him a list of things to do. As he pointed out, the shopping list could have waited till Saturday. BUT, as he kept reminding me, it was his holidays. Instead of enjoying himself, he was running errands for my mtoher today. So, off he had to go to do some stuff for about forty five minutes. Anyway, after he got back, we had a bit of a talk. He told me (and this was without any prompting), that my mother was always coming in here disturbing me, as she told him she was checking to make sure I was actually studying or working!!!! HUH!? I still think it is loneliness. He 'I have to check on him' excuse is pretty lame. Especially when it is the number one cause of me never ever getting anything done!!! Talk about STUPARDO!!!!!! So, my mothers excuse for interupting me and stopping me from studying is to make sure I am studying! Blah!!!! The funny thing is, Jeff then started to rave on about how my mother AND father used to do the same sort ofthing when I was younger. He said my father was the actual instigator telling my mother to go disturb me, as I shouldn't be studying, but should be outside doing something. [Like what? Contracting Skin Cancer?!!!oneoneone!!!!] Anyway, at that point in my life, I think I got plenty of sun and stuff as I used to walk to the library every Saturday (which was about twenty minutes to half an hours walk). So, I'm still convinced it was all just excuses to try to stop me succeeding (as per my father's belief that I would become nothing). So, I guess I have to figure out some way to deter my mother from 'making sure I am studying'. Maybe I need to yell at her and tell her where to go ... but, that'll probably get me thrown out of home again! Grrrrr!

The School Meme

Suanie passed me the meme batton (Yeah, Kenny's gonna threaten not to come to my blog anymore! Tough, I do memes. Just ignore it and come back later Kenny, or read a post I wrote earlier. ) The meme has something to do with School I think. The School Meme: How many schools did I go to? All of them? Let's see,

• RAAF School Penang (Penang, Malaysia ... d'uh!)
• Pembleton (or Emberly or something) Primary (Perth, Australia)
• Hampton Park Primary (Perth, Australia)
• Wanneroo Primary (Perth, Australia)
• Wanneroo High School (Perth, Australia)
• Smithfield Plains High School (Adelaide, Australia)
• Woolooware High School (Sydney, Australia)

[If we start from Kindergarten though, add two more. Amberly Kindy and Penang Kindy. And if we add Universities/colleges, add another five or six or seven. I've lost count! NSWIT, UTS, Moore College, Gymea TAFE College, UNE, Open Uni Australia, Phoenix Uni. plus some more I've probably forgotten] So, Seven schools, two kindergartens, six Colleges/Universities [NSWIT and UTS are same University - just they changed the name while I was there]. So, either 7, 9, 13, or 15 depending on what we're actually counting ... Was I the studious nerd, or the last minute hero? Um ... I was never studious, but neither did I have to always rush things. Most of the time, I actually did homework in class to save me time. But, I think the last minute hero might be more me than the studious nerd. I remember one project at High School, where the night before I suddenly remembered the project hadn't been done. I then blew my brains doing the entire project (there were three of us on the team, and we'd all procratinated about getting together to work on the project). So, in one night, I did the work of three people, and got it done. We ended up getting full marks for it, and beat the rest of the class as the best project. The other two guys almost had heart attacks when we were asked to present first before anyone else. I just handed them a third each, and asked them to read. They both bought me an ice cream afterwards! :-) Yet, some subjects, like Geology (which I did in Year 11), I never ever studied for, I got 100% all the way through the year, with the two exceptions of the mid year exam (98%), and the final exam (96%). It was only when I started a Geology Degree at University (B. Applied Sc. at NSWIT), that I realised it involved a lot of walking around in 40 degree heat in the middle of nowhere, or going down mines. I might return and finish that Degree one day! [with all my other ones]. Was I the class ‘taiko’ or the teacher’s pet? Never. (In fact, some teachers were down right hostile towards me!) Some teachers did like me though, as they found I was intelligent, and they even told my parents I had the brains to make a good Doctor or Lawyer. [Which my father snorted at and later told my mother I'd never be anything ... see what negative re-inforcement does to a child ... I have become nothing! w00t!] What was the biggest rule I broke in school? Um ... Er ... I think I was caught talking in class a few times. In Penang I was caught running down an embankment we weren't allowed to walk on. Oh, I was caught 'fighting' a few times, but that wasn't because I tried to start them, I was usually the smallest guy in school, so I was the one at the bottom of the pile being trashed! Three subjects I enjoyed. All of them. :-) BUT, I especially like Television and Film studies, Music and Art. [And when I was at a school which offered Drama, that was one of my favourites.] Film and TV Studies - well, I loved playing with cameras, writin scripts and being creative. Music - well, I play guitar. Music was always a form of self expression for me, and it was a great release from the worries of the world. If I hadn't of learnt to play guitar, I probably would have killed myself as a teenager. (Hope that doesn't shock too many people). Art - also another great form of self expression. Year ten (which was my final year of doing art), saw all my artwork displayed all over the school. [I mean EVERY Piece I did that year]. I did a full size Paper Mache knight, which was placed in the school foyer where all visitors to the school could see it. When I went to collect it at the end of year one of my teachers saw me and told me how amazed he was by the piece. He said he had always wondered who had made it. [It was ME, it was ME!] :-) Three teachers that inspired me. I had an English teacher in year ten called Mr Milson. He was amazed at my writing ability and actually encouraged it. He was surprised by the rate that I could churn out poetry when I wanted to. [I think some of that had developed because of my song writing]. Anyway, that year was the same year I was first published as a poet (in a real Book, not a school magazine or a student thing). In fact, I was always surprised that I never got published in the school magazine. I was told it was because I wrote too much! [Darn it! Surely the students can read a simple ten page story!] My photography teacher inspired me. I did get an 'A' in photography, but that wasn't what he inspired me to do. What he did, was he actually listened to me, and what I wanted to do for a living. [At that time it was 'artist', 'writer' or 'musician' .... hey, nothings changed!] He was sort of fighting my father in a way, as he was always encouraging me to go forward with my art, and he also believed I should have being concentrating on my art studies (rather than following my fathers rule and going forth into Science and Mathematics). I guess my year ten art teacher was also pretty inspiring. Well, she was fighting a losing battle, as I already knew I wasn't allowed to continue with art in year eleven (as my Father had made that decision for me!) BUT, she was the one who kept taking all my art work and displaying it around the school. I hope I didn't disappoint her too much, as she felt I was gifted and should have been pursuing art ... darn it! She was right!!!! But, when you're a kid, you have to do what you're told! And I'm tagging… Who wants it? No one??? OMGoodness! As no one wants it then, I'm tagging: AngelBlaze (yes, you can get me back one day by giving me a meme) Chenny (aka Kitten), just because ... um ... er ... ShireenK (just because she recently went five days without an update!) :-) Anyone else who wants it can nab it. [I think I just made three enemies! D'oh! Oh, they'll fogive me, I'm like a big cuddly Uncle to them all! hee hee hee!]

How Much Time can someone waste?

I had a business meeting this morning, and my mother also decided to go out. I got home first and everything. My youngest brother went out to a Caravan and Camping show ... which he returned early and said was BORING as all caravans are basically the same ... When my mother arrived home [which was before my brother], she somehow managed to waste over one hour of my time, as she insisted on going into every minor detail of what happened since she left home ... and what the people in the stores were doing etc. I actually timed her to see how much of my time she was wasting. I almost managed to get a word in edgewise at one point, when she asked how my meeting went. As I started to tell her, she interupted and started talking about other things. Why did she ask if she didn't care? Anyway, she'd walk away after talking straight for ten minutes, only to return almost immediately with something else to talk about! FRIG!!! How annoying! Anyway, one hour, ten minutes later, she went off to watch the midday movie to leave me to work and study in peace. Funny thing was, she asked what I was doing ... and I told her ... and she still insisted on interupting me. In other words, she doesnt give a FRIG' about my business or career. As long as she has someone to talk to, she'll just keep interupting me. Anyway, she kept popping in every so often during the movie, and stopped me doing stuff. I'm sure she knows I'm trying to ignoring her ... but it doesn't stop her! ARGH!!!! Now, she's gone for a sleep ... and so has my brother ... so I can at last get some stuff done ... for at least an hour I hope!

Opening Ceremony

The Commonwealth Games are having their opening ceremony. My brother is watching it ... well, mainly as the only other crap on TV at present is Soap Operas and stuff. Anyway, as my mother says, she spends more time watching the Opening and Closing ceremonies than the actual sports. Why become a great athlete? No one watches or cares any more. At the end of the games, all that will matter is how good the ceremonies were, and the medal count. Of course, they need to have the atheletes and stuff in order to find out the medal count. A lot of places compete even though they know they won't win a medal (not without fifteen to twenty or thirty other nations all getting Cronic Fatigue the night before the event) ... but they turn up to get ignored anyway. So, sometime between the opening and closing ceremonies are games of some sort. Badminton (Malaysias Favourite as they take Gold), Ping Pong [aka Table Tennis], which is Singapores favourite and every other sport that gets shared between Australia [207 medals at Manchester], England [166] and Canada [118] (unless there are a few countries I missed ... well, I guess India [69] won a few) ... the last time someone beat Australia was in 1986, when England had a higher medal count. (1982 England only beat us by one medal in the medal count). Not that any of us really care that much. Unless we have a particularly favourite sport, or one in which we might win a godl medal, most people generally ignore the Commonwealth Games. So, here we all are, ignoring the games. Oh, they have a website too ... CWG just in case you wanted to ignore that too. I will be.!!!.

Blah!

I wrote this really long winded update (what's new) today ... and the stupid computer FROZE, thus causing me to lose all the crap good stuff I wrote. Wasn't important anyway, or else God would have miraculously caused Windows to keep working through it. [Yes, I believe God can do that ... I know, a lot of people don't have that sort of faith, but I do!!!!]. :-) Anyway, I've been scanning all my old University Notes so I can burn them onto CD or DVD (depending on the size of them) and then burn the actual pages (and get them off my bookshelf). Truth is, I'm highly unlikely to re-read them anyway, but there is always an off chance that I might need it. I remember getting rid of one of my old College textbooks, only to find I wish I hadn't as it would have been so useful for things I came across later. So, by scanning all my notes, burning them to CD etc, making a back up etc, at least I'll know I'll never need them again! ;-)

Medieval Archtype

In keeping with my cousins up and coming Medieval wedding, here is a little test I did! :-)

Lover I'm not telling your actual score. Hmph!

The Lover (or Poet) is a rare type. (S)He has a rather contradictory nature. He is completely unselfish and generally regards others above himself, yet somehow in his effort to please, often ends up doing things that appear completely self-centered. The Lover loves people and strives for acceptance, but at the same time withdraws from the world. Lovers are authors, artists, philosophers, and musicians. They live unorthodox, unconventional, or even chaotic lives. Lovers experience the highest highs and lowest lows. The Lover's complement is the hardened, unhesitant Warrior.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 5% on Confidence You scored higher than 99% on Creativity

Link: The Medieval Archetype Test written by isayso on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Sharp Decline in readership!

How is this for a sharp decline in readership! lol I'm slowly scaring everyone away! :-) I'll stick this picture back up just to make some people happy about the fact that a probe is still on it's way to Pluto!

Teaching & the Bored Dabido!

Well, I got up nice and early this morning. Mainly as I was going to be teaching, and I wanted to review all the stuff. So, I was sitting here going through my lesson plan, and my mother was constantly interupting me! There was not one minute that went by without her complaining to me, calling me, sticking her head in the room and telling me crap that I really don't give two flying fishfingers about! She was either bored lonely or BOTH! Grrrrr! Anyway, after a while she asked what I was up to ... and I told her ... and sheacted all innocent and went away. Last night we played musical chairs wit the cars in the garage as she wanted to get it so her's was available for her to leave at 8AM. She didn't leave. On top of that, because she found I was ignoring her, she went and phoned her mother. When I had to leave, she was too busy on the phone, so I had to wait ten minutes before I could leave. She tried to give me a list of things to buy for her at the shops, but I was not sure I was going to get a chance to go to the shops. Well, I did! I went to the shops as I needed red cotton for the Knights Outfit s well as a T-Shirt and some T-Shirt transfer paper we are going to use to get the Heraldry onto the Knights costume. [The T-Shirt is for the Sleves. I think I mentinoed it yesterday!] Anywat! I got that done, and arrived in time to find out I had a whole TWO people in the course. I won't go into the schmozzle that has caused that, but needless to say, if it had been done right, it would have been full, and we would have been turning people away! [Instead, some people filled the Libraries courses up instead and left us without any pupils!] Well, I asked if they still wanted me to run it ... they said yes, and they promised more people by next week. So, I did the course with two nice old ladies who turned up. One of them kept complaining that she hated computers etc etc etc etc etc ... hopefully I calmed her nerves down a little, and hopefully she'll experience more confidence next week. [In fact, she kept saying she might not come back ... but at the end of the lesson, she said I was such a nice tolerant and calm person that she felt she could return. PHEW!] I stayed back trying to fix the friggin' server (which won't allow anyone on the internet yet. I keep following the instructions ... but FRIGGIN' Microsoft ... nothing works as it's supposed to!) Anyway, I'll work some more on that tomorrow IF there is another class for me. Word yesterday afternoon was 'NO', phone and find out tomorrow morning! FRIG! FRIG! FRIG! Anywat, I may be working tomorrow, I may not! I'm friggin' not happy!!!! But that's okay. You know what they say, 'Some people see a sand trap, other people see a green.' Of course, I see neither, as I live far from golf courses! Golf courses are dangerous! BUT, it is a challenge. So, if there is no class, I'm going to make the most of it and study (provided I can keep my mother from interupting me constantly).

*****

On another note, she friggin' annoyed me yesterday over something. When I was Nineteen I was thrown out of home. My parents moved to a house which was too small for all of us to fit into (six of us, and only room for ... well, about four people, as it was a two bedroom house, and my sister got to live in a sun room for a while). BUT, I had both my parents yelling and screaming at me to get out of the house etc. A bout two years ago I had an argument with my mother over this, as she now claims no such thing ever happened. It annoys me and friggin' p*sses me off that my parents could do such a thing and make it all look a lot different to what it was really like. The problem is the entire family (except my brother Jeff) seems to have swallowed the 'family history' version of the event (ie, that David was a Bastard who upset everyone by running away). YET, Jeff remembers me being yelled at and told to get out as there wasn't room for me in the new house! So, yesterday, we started talking. The subject came up about what we should have done for a living. My mother said she didnt' know what Jeff was going to be. He was always pretty aimless, and to be perfectly honest, my parents never really invested much in him as they always thought he wasn't going to be anything anyway. Which is a shame, as he has a lot more going for him than they ever gave him credit for. ANYWat, THE NEXT Thing which came up was MY VOCATION. My mother insisted I missed mine. She always talks about how I was an 'A' grade student and my teachers always wanted me to become a Doctor or a Lawyer. (And stupid David always wanted to be a musician, artist or writer.) My father always turned his nose up at anyone suggesting I'd ever be anything. [Yeah, Yeah, i know ... this all sounds like Dabido's therapy sessions ... well, it is ... that's part of the reason I have a blog, to get a lot of this stuff out of my system.] Anywat, I asked my mother what she thought I was going to be (especially seems as when I was a teenager she used to go out of her way to interupt me and stop me studying then ... so nothing has changed!) She didn't know, but she didn't think I had any interest in computers what-so-ever! That amazed me. I and my elder brother were the ones who wanted a computer. I did computing courses at College when I was still in High School ... I even used to program the computer we had at home ... yet at NO TIME did it ever occur to my mother that I had any interest in computing at all! Now, my brother Paul, she knew he had an interest in computers ... because he was always programming the one we had as teenagers. Well, it was probably more noticable, as I was thrown out of home a year after we got the computer. ANYWAT, the thing which really angered me, as somewhere in the conversation, my mother started berating me for 'LEAVING HOME' at that time. She insisted that I should have spoken to her! WHICH IS WEIRD, as I have very clear memories of trying to speak to her as a teenager and she just didn't want to know anything. She just insisted that she wanted me out of the house! It makes me so angry that my family have re-written history and somehow my getting thrown out of home has been twisted to make them look like friggin' victims! It pisses me off that my brother Jeff remembers me being yelled at all the time and told to go, yet not one other member of the family can remember it. I'm left wondering what all my suffering was about. I almost starved to death on the streets, I almost froze to death in winter ... and yet somehow my family have exonerated themsleves on any responsiblity what-so-ever! I think the thing which frustrates me the most, is I can't talk about it to them, or even bring it up (because I never do), as it always results in an arguement. Somehow I'm still in the wrong. It makes me angry and depressed to know that my family have spread this lie for the last twenty one years and people in my own family, extended family and their friends all look down at me because of it. Anywat, I think I've always been meaning to write my life story, and to prove it's real, (and I'm not making anything up), I want to take some lie detector tests. They're getting to the point where they're almost 100% accurate. There is the one where they do a PET scan and test whether you're accessing the part of the brain which stores memory or the part of the brain which makes stuff up. My life has been a wierd up and down rollercoaster, where my self esteem was beaten into a pulp by the sort of family history re-writing that my family has always done. There was a lot of times in my life when I'd even sabotage my own success, just because I'd fallen into a victim mentality, where my own family had made me so convinced of my undeservedness of anything good, that I'd become a victim. Sometimes I wonder if the only way to set myself free is to write the book of my life. Not because I want to hurt my family, but because I need the truth to come out in order to free my own self. So that I can be me, and can be a success and won't allow myself to become a silent victim who allows others to lie about me and swallows the truth in order to keep the peace. Anyway, maybe I'm exposing too much of myself here. Is my Teflon suit falling apart on me? I don't know. Should I write the book?

Knights Outfit almost complete.

Spent today doing more work on the knights outfit (and a bit of exercise to lose the FLAB!) We got the hoods and arms done. They look FANTASTIC (if I do say so myself). Pictures will be forth coming. We also worked on the helmets, but we're having second thoughts, as the knight outfits look really good without them. Anyway, a bit of the way through making the costumes, my brother suddenly went outside and moved the cars ... then informed us he was taking his little van for a run and he was going to fix it up. WTFrig??? Anyway, after much heated arguement, we convinced him to come back inside and finish the knights costume. So, we went hard at it ... made the hood and sleaves, made the collars for around the hood and started paper mache on the helmets. Helmets far from complete, but the rest of the outfit looks good. Jeff suggested we use T-Shirts and sew the sleaves onto them rather than the costume. I agreed, but need a new cheap T-Shirt to do it with. I don't want to ruin a lot of my good T-Shirts, as they're printed ones. Most of my plain T-Shirts are either too small, or falling apart. I'll update with more photo's once we finish them (which might be next weekend. ) :-)

Acid Vomit!

Woke up at 1 AM last night after vomiting stomach acid in my sleep. As I hadn't been eating anything for a few hours before bed time it was all acid and nothing else. Looks like my hereditary mystery medical condition is back. I've spent the day being sick, depressed (well, I've been depressed for weeks!), and just plain tired. One good thing to do with the medical condition, is I start losing weight. So, maybe I just need to let it take it's course, lose heaps of weight and put up with burnt insides and lots of vomiting. On another note, my brother and I went shopping for some material that looks like Chain mail today. We also started on our Knights Costumes for my cousins wedding in a month. Here is how it went. One: Get some material. Two, make a pattern (in my case, I made mine from Newspaper.) Three: Draw a chalk line around the outside, and cut it all out. Four: join it all up with Pins. A closer look at the pins etc. And another view. Once pinned up & cut out, sew it all together. [That's my brother. He didn't want his face on the internet, so I've just photgraphed his hands.] I made one, my brother Jeff made another. Mine was more complex with four quarters front and back. My brothers was just red one side and white the other. The product so far. Yes, I am getting FATTER! Since I put the floor boards in the house, I haven't done any weights, and not much exercise. I did buy a new mat to stick under my weightbench so that I won't damage the floorboards, so hopefully I'll get back into it and get soem muscle tone back! Geees ... I haven't done weights since November last year ... no wonder I'm FAT!!!! The front view. Some things still to come:

• The chain mail like material to stick the arms and hood on it.
• The Family crest (on the white top bit) as well as my own Bear Rampant that I designed years ago. (in the red top bit. Bear will be either white or yellow).
• A longer belt (that one is at it's final hole ... I only bought it a while ago and my belly has almost out grown it)

Don't worry ... I'll be losing LOTS of weight very quickly for a while.