X marks the spot!

The long awaited post from is finally here. Yes, I know it has been quite a while since I have posted a blog entry, but the good news is that it should be a bit more frequent from now on. Last month or so has been my getting adjusted to the whole plethora of things that have changed in my life. As I have just resized, change is inevitable, I've changed so much since the days of high school and the few years following that. Most people would probably agree that these are good changes and one that should have changed a long time ago, but then again it all depends on who's perspective you look at it from. Work has taken some adjusting to, as 4 days in the week I bust my ass making sandwiches for people, and now you may call me "lord of the subs." But to be honest, I am loving having a job, if not for anything else, for the fact that time does go by a lot faster with work involved. But alas that also means with the addition of classes and work, there isn't much time left for other things. But I am on my two week break, which really isn't a break, but I get time off classes, and that means that I can finish off most of my work during this period, and then have a little more free time on my hands for the next portion of semester, so don't worry the usual rants about whats going on in my head will be back from now on.

The media pisses me off, and so do journalists, no offense to the other of course. But journalists sometimes so unethical about the stuff they write about. For example the other week there was a poll about who is the prefered political party in Australia, and the results were 51% to 49% and they went on in the article about how the party with 51% looks good, and that they are going to win. But to the normal man it looks accurate, but unfortunately there was a sampling error of + or - 3% so that means that none of the results where anywhere close to being accurate. So comes the question, what are journalists about?? The next story or what is actually happening?? That is a question that can never be answered. And what irrtates me about the media most is that, they construct what news is important and what is marginalized. Let me give you an example, there are hurricanes in the USA, and now its the end of the world, and its on the news all the time, but the hones truth is that more people die in the third world for many other reasons, lets not even get into natural disasters, but guess what?? Those are over looked. So I'm being told that news in the first world is more important than the new in other parts of the world. This is a power racism happening here. If you are not powerfull, you have no say. It no longer one person one vote, its one dollar one vote.

That brings me to the next topic. Political ideologies, all of the ideas that have been conceptualized in the past are in good in theory, be it Marxism, Democracy or any of the lot. What screws them up is the fact that humans are so flawed. If we were robots and never thought about ourselves before the state, then there would be no issues. But then there are human qualities like greed, jealousy, envy, conformity, etc, that just screw up every single one of these systems. We honestly are not capable of living in a civilization, we all need to be put in our own space never to leave, else there is always going to be conflict. We are just flawed... I guess its all of gods plans, put us in a situation that is flawed in the start and see which one of us learn how to be good human being, before the rest, and then rewarded. I'm becoming more and more cynical about humans, they are too flawed, and they never seem to be able to stick to their words or they just aren't dependable...

Excuses seem to always drive some peoples lives. As long as they don't take full responsibility for their own actions, excuses are always there to give them a sense of escapism. Its always the easy way out. And out of all the excuses that I have heard, "I was drunk is one of the most cowardly excuses." It says the most about a person, that they are unwilling to take any responsibility of their actions, just blame it on other things. I've been hearing that more and more often as an excuse, and if you ask me its sad. Everyone seems to be lacking a pair of balls, and admitting what they have done. People step up, stop hiding behind alcohol!

There are a lot of other issues that I want to write about, and just haven't gotten to it in a while, but I will slowly but surely, fill up my ideas over the next few days, so expect to hear a lot more from me... Irritated, pissed off on many occations, and really hating the world from time to time, haha expect some good posts in the next few weeks.... For now its time to take a pause, tune in again for some new action...

August Train Collides With September

Yes, the two week break has finally arrived!! Unfortunately I have a fair bit of work to do so I have resolved to put a little bit of effort in each day, as at the end it all goes a long way.

I was incredibly busy over the the last week, with a crazy essay which I did the readings for, but did not actually start writing up until 2 days before it was due. Luckily, I was quite prolific and my output was 1000 words a day and I got it done on time. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do, because it was hard none the less but I won't do something like that ever again. I like doing my stuff early, because it's always less stressful! Hence my resolve to work like a dog during the break, however, I will also see friends and relax a bit.

Thanks to the brilliance of the other, I received Battlefield 2 a longggggg time ago, but I haven't really been playing it very much up until this semester.
I love it so much! It's really rekindled my fondness for first person shooters, not since Doom or Wolf 3D have I been into these kinda games. I've just been getting an absolute load of it lately. I've also been making some insane missions for Swat 4, with millions of villains who are heavily armed. I enjoy the intensity and fear (especially with Stereo headphones through a Creative Soundcard) at night. But Battlefield 2 is just a rollicking good time! I've had some wonderful matches, such as winning an entire round under 4 minutes without even shooting a single bullet! I really should try the online games in my long holidays. I enjoyed the multiplayer Swat 4 and Unreal Tournament days!

However, I am missing strategy games. I have not played Warcraft 3, or Age of Empires 1 & 2 in agesss! But then again, I haven't had the time to really get into them since those games take a good 2-3 hours for a memorable round. I really like the skirmishes because it's just a full on battle royale.

Speaking of, I'm currently procuring for myself (cough cough) Rome Total War because I have been watching a crap load of those war documentaries on SBS and ABC lately and I am loving it. I think I need a deeper level understanding of tactics, and hearing about battles such as the one of Boudicca's defeat and the beat down of Vercengeterix (both at the hands of Rome, even when heavily outnumbered) but by sheer tactics and discipline they managed to commit some of the most outrageous victories in military history. Don't get me wrong, war is stupid and pointless! Hence why I play games! I also feel like re-playing LOTR Strategy, because I really loved the epic battles with just 1000's of guys going mental at each other, but I am needing a good dose of battle tactics. Example? Boudicca had a force well over 100 thousand, and the Romans had a few thousand at the most - Boudicca's forces were slaughtered due to a lack of tactics so that's what I'm after with Rome Total War.

Formula 1 is looking REALLY good. I still hate Alonso, but with the championship coming right down to the wire, I still have faith in Michael Schumacher because he's just a genius. Unfortunately Massa is starting to show form, which would mean he'd stay at Ferrari and I don't want that to happen because Raikkonen and Schumacher in the same team would be unstoppable, but I don't think Raikkonen would want to be #2, and Schumacher wouldn't be able to be in a team with someone who is technically a better driver. Let's see what happens. I also must voice my discontent with Mark Webber. His career in Formula 1 is over. He should have moved to Renault, it was a sure fire way of eventually becoming world champion, but I think he just went where the money was and now he has no chance at Red Bull.

Keane are a crap band. I don't like them. Then I heard Is It Any Wonder - a song which I liked INSTANTLY, which is a rarity for me. I'll usually have to listen to a song 5-6 times before I start to like it, but this was just instant liking. I still don't like the band, but that song rocks. I also must sing the praises of Beyonce's Deja Vu. The bassline is one of the best I've ever heard, even though the chorus is a little flat. I don't like the new trend of R&B with Rappers over the intro and bridge, but I like Nelly Furtado's Promiscuous. The instrumental is very ethereal and I think it evokes the emotion that the lyrics are about very well. I'm also getting into some Alice In Chains, their string arrangements are as sublime as Motor Ace's. I also heard the new song from The Panic Channel - Why Cry. If you don't know, The Panic Channel is the new band from the instrumental people from Jane's Addiction, but the new frontman is a guitarist and a good singer but this song was crap. I expected better from Dave Navarro, but this was sheer emo crappery and he should be castigated for being associated with it. I will listen to the whole album soon, hopefully it was just a bad song.

I am also hanging out for Richard Patrick's new band - Army Of Anyone. For those that don't know (and should be smacked around for such ignorance), Patrick is the former lead singer of Filter (one of Joaquin's favourite bands) and has hooked up with the Stone Temple Pilot instumentalists and they are meant to be amazing, but I have yet to hear a song.

My guitaring is progressing nicely, as I have been steadily playing, but nothing to actually improve, more just noodling to think. I have finally arranged some multi string flowing leads which are in the vein of Eric Johnson so I am happy (and it almost killed me, one phrase took me 3 days to compose and learn, whereas Johnson can improvise them at will). I've also been hard at work with some string skipping arpeggios and finishing a rhythm track I have been working on for a long time. I love Guitar Pro! Especially with arranging a song and then changing instruments to pianos and the like, as it just sounds wonderful.

Well this entry has been a monster, so I shall leave it here for tonight, but don't fret, I shall return with a post tomorrow (yes I actually do have blog notes for a change). Have a nice day people!

Who Doesn't Know What I'm Talking About?

So I haven't been up to a hell of a lot really. Ever since uni has started up for the semester, it's just been the usual for me. School Mon-Thurs, big sleep on Fri, then study Sat and Sun. Just that over and over. Then there was also the self imposed exile for which I must thank the other profusely for, as he took me in and I was able to listen to some of his newer tracks which sound fantastic. It was a good evening, steak, chocolate cake, wine and 4 player Ghost Recon on the XBox, absolute bliss I must say.

School is funny you know, no matter how much work you do, there will always be a time where work just starts piling up and starts to drown you so that you have no choice but to work like a psycho. I am now in one of those situations. Hopefully over the next 2 weeks I can get all my crap done. I think I am also going to Brisbane next month, which should be good as I have never been to Qld before. I look forward to the warm weather and slutty tweens.

There was a time when I feared for my guitar playing, as I had been using only my fingers to play, and when using a pick again recently it felt like I was carrying a brick and I was playing like a git. Luckily, with steady practice and discipline I have worked hard and now I can properly hybrid pick (some lines are even more complicated than Mr Johnson himself) so I am quite pleased. I have gotten myself back up to the speed and accuracy that I gained at the end of the last holidays. I haven't had the time to write lyrics in ages, but I have some absolute brilliant ideas for some good riffs I have come up with.

Well as I mentioned, I better do my work, so expect another update sometime very soonish! Have a nice day people.

Knaves V1.2

Well it looks to me like I finally decided to show my ass back here, haha no such thing, I didnt mean to run away so far, but what can I say I had a lot on my plate. Pretty tired today, so it will just be a round up off all the things that have been happening in my life.

Yes, its true, Knaves finally decided to join the work force, and am currently working at subway. I'd been pretty busy with trying to locate a job for myself, and what do you know, somehow I got the job that I thought of getting on the way back here. I had a job offer from KFC, and then later got one from subway. I decided that subway was the better choice, coz whats better than to eat fresh eh?? Haha not only that, but its close, and the pay is better...

Work is really piling up, and it looks to me like this semester is going to be one ball of a sememster, what do you know, I've already started making my way through the text books, because I figure, my careless attitude wont get me far as it usually does, so its time to put in the hard hours, maybe in the end it will pay off, lets see how it goes...

And to my already packed schedule, I have added a workout plan which i follow religiously to keep in shape, and I feel a lot healthier at least. Now all I have to do is reduce the smoking, and I will be in good shape...

Thats the update for now, I have 2 classes and a shift tommo, so I better haul my ass back to the bed, and count the stars or something, and fall right off to sleep. I will be back tommo, and have a bunch of crap that needs to be written about, so keep posted...

Chink's takin over the world!!!!

Arrite..here's the deal, the minute i walked into to my macro tute, i just knew something was wrong. all i could smell in the room was bad breath. Without giving further notice to the stench, i took a seat since i was already half n hour late. After hearing the teacher ramble on about something, i looked around the class. DUDE, i wouldn't believe this, but i was the only guy in class with normal eyes. Every single person in that room was a chink, except for me. With 70 percent population of UTS being local students, what r the chances that i enrolled into class where every single one got their name from dropping a spoon. i don't mean to be reacist or anything, but cmon....u can't tell whether they'r sleeping or wide awake or the fact that u can't distinguish between them since all of them look alike. Anyways, manage to go through the class without throwin up cause of the smell.

What else? Went to the Dark Tranquility concert the other day. It was awesome. The magic of mixing, melodic tunes with extreme guitar rythms, fast drums with ear pumping double base, guitar solos and the growling just takes to another level of adranelin and head banging. The last song they played was "WONDERS AT YOUR FEET". It gave me goosebumps just standing there and swayin to the rythm. One song everybody must here whether ur a metal fan or not. HATE BREED opened up. They were pretty arrite, but not much of a fan of american, kowtow thrash metal where there's no variation and forget about those guitar solos. Think out of the box man. Stop goin for the chorus - verse - chorus - bridge - chorus - END. and those rythms with no variation, just heavy strumming. Very few american bands have actually gone out of the way to be unconventional, and not adhere to the amercian conformist way of playing metal...namely Still Remains..awesome band...

Knaves. i'm puting up the song here so that u would actually have a look at it..

PEACE

UNTITLED
(VERSE)
The black hole forever mine.
I need the fear.
Push me out
Ohh be brave
Show me signs
Should I feel shame for the questions that I have with you?
If you could be
The things I need.
(I'll crawl through knives
An inch per tear.)
These knees, they bleed for you.
(Let the colour persuade the hate
That you fear.)
Feed the lie.
Force the reason.
Leave me in doubt.
Need some motivation

(CHORUS)
It's in my hands.
The sky, so bright.
It's burning.
It's for me to decide.
If flames will reach heaven tonight.
It's in my hands.

(VERSE)
Nailed to the floor
Paralyzed
Emotions drifting
Though(?) the new
If you could be
The things I need.
I'll crawl through knives
An inch per tear.
It's in my hands.
The sky, so bright.
It's burning.
It's for me to decide.
If flames will reach heaven tonight.

(CHORUS)
It's in my hands.
It's in my hands.
The sky, so bright.
It's burning.
It's for me to decide.
If flames will reach heaven tonight.

(CHORUS)
It's in my hands.
It's in my hands.
The sky, so bright.
It's burning.
It's for me to decide.
If flames will reach heaven tonight.
It's in my hands.

Postscript

One more day, and it will be the culmination of my first week back, well I've been back a week already, but I mean the end of the first school week. Its been good so far, had an assignment due already, and it went quite well I must say, a 10 on 10 is quite good if I can say so myself. Its been a crazy day today, had a lot going on. Had a major drama with my printer this morning, and now I am left with really painful cuts on my hands. One of my printers had a screw stuck in it (that i realized afterwards) so couldn't use that, and then the other one ran out of ink, and while refilling it, I managed to cut my hands in over 6 places, I was in a real rush, and needed it done soon. But the good thing is, regardless of what the cost, I got my work done, and thats all that matters. And when I went into class, the tutor is like do you want more time to do todays assignment?? I was about to slap him, I spent so much time getting it done the last few days!!!

There was a band comp on today at the bar. And I must say that the music was quite ordinary. The one band I liked, was a band that played last year, and they played the same set, so I was a little disappointed, same venue and the same set, quite unimpressive!! Other than that, it was good fun, lots of friends there, and we had a good chat. After that it was KJ's birthday, and so we had a drink there, and an overkill on the chocolate fudge cake!! Finally the night ended with a Shisha or should I say two, and we all sat around talking about crap.

I realized that I am a dumb ass, everyone else knows that, but i didnt!! I was always smart in my head. The heater was working all this time, but I just read the directions wrong, and turned it off instead of on!! But to my defense, its not an on off button, its queer!! My room is finally clean, and there is walking space, actually there is enough space in this room to to jam in here, should get a drum kit in here, hehehe.

Anyways, thats all for now, its getting late, and I am quite tired, have to get up at 10 in the morning, so I am off. Take care all!!