Well, I thought I might do a post about books. I seem to have done posts about pretty much everything else that I'm into so I decided to even the field a bit. I love books, Fantasy and Sci-fi are the best but I will read other genres.
Some of my fave Series: Title (no. of books) - Author
The Belgariad (5) - David Eddings
The Mallorean (5) - David Eddings*
The Elenium (3) - David Eddings
The Tamuli (3) - David Eddings^
The Serrano Legacy (7) - Elizabeth Moon
Rangers Apprentice (9, so far) - John Flanagan
Discworld (millions, no not really) - Terry Pratchet
The Starwars books (There are actually millions of these) - Various Authors
Scarecrow series (3 and a mini-book) - Matthew Reily
Jack West series (2 so far, 1 more coming possibly more) - Matthew Reilly
Matthew Reilly's other books (Contest and Temple)
The Halo books (6) - Various Authors
The Tomorrow series (6?) - John Marsden
The Lord of the Rings (depends who you ask 6, 3 or 1) - JRR Tolken
The Night Angel Trilogy (3) - Brent Weeks**
Chris Ryan's Books (lots)
The various Tamora Peirce series' (14 total I think)
The Max Ride series - James Patterson
Artemis Fowl (6 now, but the first 3 are the best) - Eoin Colfer
The Shadow Wraiths - ME
Oh, don't bother looking in the shops for it yet, I still haven't finished. If you want a copy, watch this blog and I will announce its completion (or failure); you can buy one then.
*This follows on from the Belgariad
^This follows on from the Elenium
**Only just read these and they are the BEST
PS. Please post some of your own faves here, I might get around to reading them eventually ;-)
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Odyssey!!
OK, for all those who don't know what the odyssey is (other than the ancient Greek one): The Odyssey is a 2 week trip down the east coast of Australia. All the year 11 students at O'loughlin Collage can go but it costs 2 grand (that comes with all meals, accommodation and flights).
Our first stop was the Gold Coast Sports Super Center (where we stayed). It was a nice place, had a heated pool, served good food and had a basketball court. We stayed in Brisbane for 2 or three days, while we were there we visited Dreamworld (!!) and Dracula's, a theater restaurant (!!!) both of which were awesome.
We also visited Mt Tambourine. For those who haven't been there it is full of shops, quite a few of the selling chocolate or fudge... or chocolate fudge. We spent a few hours there and I bought a ridiculously expensive sausage roll, which turned out to the worth it. A few people bought fudge and I stole some off of them, the we go on the bus and drove to Harbour Town (a massive Direct Factory Outlet place with heaps of shops). That was cool and we moved on to Dracula's.
Dracula's is a theatre restaurant, they serve you food and entertain you at the same time. I had 'Furnace of Fish' which was 'Mouth watering seasonal fresh fish fillet baked and served with lemon saffron Beurre' Blanc.' It was fish covered in a lemon butter sauce. Very nice. The performance was half play half stand up comedy show, great but I can't tell you anything else, I have been sworn to secrecy. The Dracula's performance was on of the three highlights of the trip, the others were the snow and Origin. More about them later.
The next day we drove over to Dreamworld!
While I was at Dreamworld I went of the Tower of Terror (one of the three main attractions (the other two are the Claw, which was broken, and the Giant Drop, which I didn't get time to do).
Dreamworld also has a new attraction - AVPX or Alien vs Predator vs You. It is basically a huge laser tag arena (Like Zone 3 for those who know it) but there are a few different game types. There is the normal game, just two teams which fight it out, Infection where you can convert the other team and multi team, where there is 4 teams instead of two.
Oh and did I mention the arena fights back... Yep that's right, the arena has movement sensing lasers that can target and 'kill' you. You can disable these 'enemies' by hitting small targets near the lasers.
After we moved on from Gold Coast we went down to Surfers Paradise for a few hours, yes it was nice, but no, none of us went into the water. I mean come on, give us a break, it would have been like 3 degrees (Celsius that is, 37.4 F or 276 K). anyway, we looked around and most of the group ended up at a shopping center, it had an arcade, 10-pin bowling etc.
And then me and a couple of friends found the firing range..
One of the group I was hanging around with does cadets (air force, so he can also fly planes.) so he's like 'Oh yeah!' and we went to see what their prices were. It turns out that one of the guns they had was the same as ones he uses in practise. So we spent half an hour watching him shoot at targets, he did pretty well actually, every shot inside the 7 ring.
Then we went back to the SSC and slept.***
OK.. next stop Taree. At Taree we stayed the night and ate a a Chinese restaurant, for those who don't know me I'm not a big fan of Asian food but they did some really nice lemon chicken and fish of some kind.
From there we made the voyage down to Sydney. One of the first things we did at Syd was to go and see an NRL game; Panthers vs Bulldogs. Bulldogs won. The next day we caught the ferry across the harbour to the city centre. On our way past we say the Oprah house and the Harbour Bridge. when we reached the city we spend about 2 hours wandering around by ourselves* After that we walked over to St. Mary's Cathedral, went for a closer look at the Oprah house and rush back to the ferry as it started raining (it was stupid prissy southern rain, but it was cold).
On the next day (we are up to day 7 here - Sunday 21st) we went to mass at Dee Why (a suburb in Syd); then on to the Taronga Zoo. The zoo was pretty big, with lots of stuff to do and shows every hour or so. We got there about 9 or 10 and one of the first things we did was go to the bird show. they had a bunch of really cool birds; a few falcons, a condor** and, to finish off, a galah. Now it may seem a bit... Meh. after a bunch of falcons but the zoo bird person explained that they were actually quite intelligent. She got a person in the crowd to stand up and hold a gold coin in their hand. the bird flew to them, took the coin, flew back and put the coin into its keepers pocket. She like "as you can see they are quite smart, I think she has something to give you back." and then it flew her a ring. The guy next to her got a mic and popped the question.
Cute...
That was pretty much the highlight of the visit but we saw Lions, Tigers, Bears..
And on to Canberra!
Our first stop while in Canberra was Parliament House. It was big.^ We went and saw some of question time then got lead to a room and acted out our own political debate. *boring*. Anyway, the member for Solomon (that's where we come from) came and said Hi, we said Hi and he chatted for a while and left.
From there we went to our accommodation (a Carotel, don't ask). 8 person rooms, 2 heaters a bathroom per room (good deal so far). An then.. we found out.. that a student had been murdered just a few rooms down a while back. OK.. that was supposed to be scary but it didn't quite work... anyone know why?
Next we have THE SNOW!
Sorry if this seems like I'm making a big deal of it.... BUT IT IS!
For most of us on the trip it was the first time we'd seen *real* snow. I've been on a fake slope before but this was even better. We had snowball fights, made snowmen, the usual stuff. Went inside the complex and had pizza, went back out again. Had another snowball fight.
Eventually, tired and wet, we struggled back to the train that would take us back down the mountain, well through the mountain really. !! I almost forgot the mini donuts !! There was a shop that sold mini donuts, $5 for a dozen, they were the best donuts I have ever tasted, even on par with Krispy Kremes. Add to that the guy who owned the place. He was obviously a good businessman because we all went and got some. Probably because he would give you a few extra with each order. Thank You Donut Man!!
The next day we went to Old Parliament House and Questacon.
OPH was Meh, but we didn't stay that long and then QUESTACON! Questacon is an awesome science uuhh... not quite sure what the word is.. it's a science thing. It has hands-on stuff, mechanical dinosaurs and a tame lightning striker; everything you need to keep a bunch of school children entertained. The highlights included an enclosed roller coaster pod on a hydraulic system with a big screen at the front, so it didn't go anywhere but it felt like it was; A sort of giant centrifuge; a person sits at each on of a bar and it rotates around a central point, the people have to try to throw balls to each other^^ and, as I have already mentioned a lightning generator witch would strike for about 10 seconds every half hour or so.
After that we moved on to State of Origin. State of Origin is a rugby series between Qld and NSW, there are 3 games, one in Melbourne, one in Brisbane and one in Sydney (<- the one we saw). I don't particularly like rugby but Origin was soo much fun. The atmosphere was great and, well, you kinda had to be there. At one point we had a mexican wave going and it managed to get around the stadium 3 times before it died, pretty good if I do say so myself. The game ended at about 10pm and we had a 3 and a half hour drive back to Canberra so we all fell asleep on the bus.
The next day we went to the National museum (where they keep Phar Lap's heart) and cruised past the AIS and all the embassies, stopped for lunch and went the ANZAC parade. The Parade is a memorial to all the locations and times in which Australia has gone to war. The we moved on to the War memorial, pretty much the same thing but larger and with exhibits. It also contains the wall. The wall lists every Australian soldier killed in war. There is too many people on that wall. Lest we forget.
One the 12th day of the trip we had a full day of the bus, from Canberra to Melbourne. Not much to say about that really. We got to our (very budget) accommodation and slept. The last three days we could do pretty much whatever we wanted, there was The Queen Victoria market about 15 mins up the road and a DFO about the same distance in the other direction. Not much happened on those three days other than Wicked (The Broadway musical).
Wicked tells the story of the Witches of OZ, both good and bad.# It was pretty good, better than I expected. Almost everyone got reasonably dressed up to see it and when it finished we went over the the Crown Plaza Complex.## The CPC has heaps of shops, a cinema and some fire shows out the front (pretty cool) as well as a water feature inside which shoots streams of water into the air in time with the music playing (again, pretty cool).
Finally, it was time to end the trip we went to the airport and the group discovered that, since they had got there too early they couldn't check their bags in for another 1 1/2 hours. I, on the other hand, could. Unlike them, I was going to Adelaide instead of back to Darwin and my flight was considerably earlier. So about two hours before them I boarded a plane and was whisked off to MissE and my Grandma.
But that my friends, is another post.
I may do another post with photos / highlights in more detail, but then again I might not.
* In groups of 3 or more. Invariably everyone ignored this at one point or another and wandered off by themselves.
** For those who don't know a condor can have a wingspan of up to 5 meters.
*** Just to show we did sleep and it wasn't all running around.
^ I just like stating the obvious.
^^ In all modesty me and my partner were the best, we were on there for like 5 mins and the guy controlling it is like 'yeah, sorry guys, this is as fast as it goes.'
# Well, not so much bad, just seriously misunderstood.
## Which, yes, houses the Crown Casino, but as we were all minors, no one could go in.
Our first stop was the Gold Coast Sports Super Center (where we stayed). It was a nice place, had a heated pool, served good food and had a basketball court. We stayed in Brisbane for 2 or three days, while we were there we visited Dreamworld (!!) and Dracula's, a theater restaurant (!!!) both of which were awesome.
We also visited Mt Tambourine. For those who haven't been there it is full of shops, quite a few of the selling chocolate or fudge... or chocolate fudge. We spent a few hours there and I bought a ridiculously expensive sausage roll, which turned out to the worth it. A few people bought fudge and I stole some off of them, the we go on the bus and drove to Harbour Town (a massive Direct Factory Outlet place with heaps of shops). That was cool and we moved on to Dracula's.
Dracula's is a theatre restaurant, they serve you food and entertain you at the same time. I had 'Furnace of Fish' which was 'Mouth watering seasonal fresh fish fillet baked and served with lemon saffron Beurre' Blanc.' It was fish covered in a lemon butter sauce. Very nice. The performance was half play half stand up comedy show, great but I can't tell you anything else, I have been sworn to secrecy. The Dracula's performance was on of the three highlights of the trip, the others were the snow and Origin. More about them later.
The next day we drove over to Dreamworld!
While I was at Dreamworld I went of the Tower of Terror (one of the three main attractions (the other two are the Claw, which was broken, and the Giant Drop, which I didn't get time to do).
Dreamworld also has a new attraction - AVPX or Alien vs Predator vs You. It is basically a huge laser tag arena (Like Zone 3 for those who know it) but there are a few different game types. There is the normal game, just two teams which fight it out, Infection where you can convert the other team and multi team, where there is 4 teams instead of two.
Oh and did I mention the arena fights back... Yep that's right, the arena has movement sensing lasers that can target and 'kill' you. You can disable these 'enemies' by hitting small targets near the lasers.
After we moved on from Gold Coast we went down to Surfers Paradise for a few hours, yes it was nice, but no, none of us went into the water. I mean come on, give us a break, it would have been like 3 degrees (Celsius that is, 37.4 F or 276 K). anyway, we looked around and most of the group ended up at a shopping center, it had an arcade, 10-pin bowling etc.
And then me and a couple of friends found the firing range..
One of the group I was hanging around with does cadets (air force, so he can also fly planes.) so he's like 'Oh yeah!' and we went to see what their prices were. It turns out that one of the guns they had was the same as ones he uses in practise. So we spent half an hour watching him shoot at targets, he did pretty well actually, every shot inside the 7 ring.
Then we went back to the SSC and slept.***
OK.. next stop Taree. At Taree we stayed the night and ate a a Chinese restaurant, for those who don't know me I'm not a big fan of Asian food but they did some really nice lemon chicken and fish of some kind.
From there we made the voyage down to Sydney. One of the first things we did at Syd was to go and see an NRL game; Panthers vs Bulldogs. Bulldogs won. The next day we caught the ferry across the harbour to the city centre. On our way past we say the Oprah house and the Harbour Bridge. when we reached the city we spend about 2 hours wandering around by ourselves* After that we walked over to St. Mary's Cathedral, went for a closer look at the Oprah house and rush back to the ferry as it started raining (it was stupid prissy southern rain, but it was cold).
On the next day (we are up to day 7 here - Sunday 21st) we went to mass at Dee Why (a suburb in Syd); then on to the Taronga Zoo. The zoo was pretty big, with lots of stuff to do and shows every hour or so. We got there about 9 or 10 and one of the first things we did was go to the bird show. they had a bunch of really cool birds; a few falcons, a condor** and, to finish off, a galah. Now it may seem a bit... Meh. after a bunch of falcons but the zoo bird person explained that they were actually quite intelligent. She got a person in the crowd to stand up and hold a gold coin in their hand. the bird flew to them, took the coin, flew back and put the coin into its keepers pocket. She like "as you can see they are quite smart, I think she has something to give you back." and then it flew her a ring. The guy next to her got a mic and popped the question.
Cute...
That was pretty much the highlight of the visit but we saw Lions, Tigers, Bears..
And on to Canberra!
Our first stop while in Canberra was Parliament House. It was big.^ We went and saw some of question time then got lead to a room and acted out our own political debate. *boring*. Anyway, the member for Solomon (that's where we come from) came and said Hi, we said Hi and he chatted for a while and left.
From there we went to our accommodation (a Carotel, don't ask). 8 person rooms, 2 heaters a bathroom per room (good deal so far). An then.. we found out.. that a student had been murdered just a few rooms down a while back. OK.. that was supposed to be scary but it didn't quite work... anyone know why?
Next we have THE SNOW!
Sorry if this seems like I'm making a big deal of it.... BUT IT IS!
For most of us on the trip it was the first time we'd seen *real* snow. I've been on a fake slope before but this was even better. We had snowball fights, made snowmen, the usual stuff. Went inside the complex and had pizza, went back out again. Had another snowball fight.
Eventually, tired and wet, we struggled back to the train that would take us back down the mountain, well through the mountain really. !! I almost forgot the mini donuts !! There was a shop that sold mini donuts, $5 for a dozen, they were the best donuts I have ever tasted, even on par with Krispy Kremes. Add to that the guy who owned the place. He was obviously a good businessman because we all went and got some. Probably because he would give you a few extra with each order. Thank You Donut Man!!
The next day we went to Old Parliament House and Questacon.
OPH was Meh, but we didn't stay that long and then QUESTACON! Questacon is an awesome science uuhh... not quite sure what the word is.. it's a science thing. It has hands-on stuff, mechanical dinosaurs and a tame lightning striker; everything you need to keep a bunch of school children entertained. The highlights included an enclosed roller coaster pod on a hydraulic system with a big screen at the front, so it didn't go anywhere but it felt like it was; A sort of giant centrifuge; a person sits at each on of a bar and it rotates around a central point, the people have to try to throw balls to each other^^ and, as I have already mentioned a lightning generator witch would strike for about 10 seconds every half hour or so.
After that we moved on to State of Origin. State of Origin is a rugby series between Qld and NSW, there are 3 games, one in Melbourne, one in Brisbane and one in Sydney (<- the one we saw). I don't particularly like rugby but Origin was soo much fun. The atmosphere was great and, well, you kinda had to be there. At one point we had a mexican wave going and it managed to get around the stadium 3 times before it died, pretty good if I do say so myself. The game ended at about 10pm and we had a 3 and a half hour drive back to Canberra so we all fell asleep on the bus.
The next day we went to the National museum (where they keep Phar Lap's heart) and cruised past the AIS and all the embassies, stopped for lunch and went the ANZAC parade. The Parade is a memorial to all the locations and times in which Australia has gone to war. The we moved on to the War memorial, pretty much the same thing but larger and with exhibits. It also contains the wall. The wall lists every Australian soldier killed in war. There is too many people on that wall. Lest we forget.
One the 12th day of the trip we had a full day of the bus, from Canberra to Melbourne. Not much to say about that really. We got to our (very budget) accommodation and slept. The last three days we could do pretty much whatever we wanted, there was The Queen Victoria market about 15 mins up the road and a DFO about the same distance in the other direction. Not much happened on those three days other than Wicked (The Broadway musical).
Wicked tells the story of the Witches of OZ, both good and bad.# It was pretty good, better than I expected. Almost everyone got reasonably dressed up to see it and when it finished we went over the the Crown Plaza Complex.## The CPC has heaps of shops, a cinema and some fire shows out the front (pretty cool) as well as a water feature inside which shoots streams of water into the air in time with the music playing (again, pretty cool).
Finally, it was time to end the trip we went to the airport and the group discovered that, since they had got there too early they couldn't check their bags in for another 1 1/2 hours. I, on the other hand, could. Unlike them, I was going to Adelaide instead of back to Darwin and my flight was considerably earlier. So about two hours before them I boarded a plane and was whisked off to MissE and my Grandma.
But that my friends, is another post.
I may do another post with photos / highlights in more detail, but then again I might not.

** For those who don't know a condor can have a wingspan of up to 5 meters.
*** Just to show we did sleep and it wasn't all running around.
^ I just like stating the obvious.
^^ In all modesty me and my partner were the best, we were on there for like 5 mins and the guy controlling it is like 'yeah, sorry guys, this is as fast as it goes.'
# Well, not so much bad, just seriously misunderstood.
## Which, yes, houses the Crown Casino, but as we were all minors, no one could go in.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Am I not the bestest shoe shopper in the world?
As you may have guessed from the title I recently not-so-recently went shoe shopping; not just for any shoe though, these had to look good, feel great and make me jump high!
That right ladies and gentlemen, BASKETBALL SHOES!!!
and heeerrrrreeeee they are!


I like them.. They have served me well in the past season, bringing us from 5th to first in 4 weeks. Woo!
That right ladies and gentlemen, BASKETBALL SHOES!!!
and heeerrrrreeeee they are!
I like them.. They have served me well in the past season, bringing us from 5th to first in 4 weeks. Woo!
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
What to do?...
I have recently realised I'm not very good at this Blogging thing; I don't post regularly and most people wouldn't give a damn about what I write about.... but I will try anyway..
Problem no.1: I dont have a topic for this post
Problem no.2: After I find a topic i have to find a title...
OK.... Topic.... Whining N00Bs..
I don't really like people who brag about things they can do (or have done) and then, when challenged, fail miserably; but I really hate the people that, when challenged, find some stupid excuse not to even try. These both really irritate me, especially in online gaming (such as Halo 1 or Warcraft 3), it seems that the ranks of Whining N00Bs are expanding exponentially, every time I go online I encounter more of them...
THEY ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!
Problem No.2 has, rather obviously, been solved.
Problem no.1: I dont have a topic for this post
Problem no.2: After I find a topic i have to find a title...
OK.... Topic.... Whining N00Bs..
I don't really like people who brag about things they can do (or have done) and then, when challenged, fail miserably; but I really hate the people that, when challenged, find some stupid excuse not to even try. These both really irritate me, especially in online gaming (such as Halo 1 or Warcraft 3), it seems that the ranks of Whining N00Bs are expanding exponentially, every time I go online I encounter more of them...
THEY ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!
Problem No.2 has, rather obviously, been solved.
Labels:
Bits of Fluff and Other Stuff,
game stuff,
General
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Well I'm Back...... Again
Well I'm back.. I know I haven't posted in a while but I haven't had much to post about.. My life is pretty boring. But I will try to get a decent post of what has happened on the holidays. Item no. 1: The Formal OK, it wasn't actually on the holidays buuut... It deserves at least part of a post. The formal is (for those people who don't know) an end of year event for Year 10s (at O'Loughlin) where all the chicks get dressed up in their best dresses and make up and the guys wear a suit (of equally boring clothes), this at least is unfair. Why cant guys wear different colours?? Any way.. I went with Simone. It was pretty good, the food wasn't bad and we had free drinks all night. ( I will post some pics later)

Here is me in my formal clothes.

Simone and Me

At the back: Surya, Luke, Sam
Front: Tegan, Pryanka (probably got that one wrong), KC, Simone, My head.

Pryanka, KC, and Simone
Here is me in my formal clothes.
Simone and Me

At the back: Surya, Luke, Sam
Front: Tegan, Pryanka (probably got that one wrong), KC, Simone, My head.

Pryanka, KC, and Simone
Amy, Tegan, Simone and KC
Item no. 2: The Great Ocean Road
I will just post heaps of pics now, I will comment whenever it seems necessary.

Our camper Van
Dinner at 'The Barn'
A boat.... no.. Ship
It was as you can see, very windy.. and cold
Yep.. Still Cold.
OK... My internet is going so slowly, I might do more later..
Sunday, 3 February 2008
Well...
Well I am back at school (had a whole 2 days so far) And yet I live, a miracle I'm sure. none of my teachers are new except my homeroom teacher (Ms Chapman, MissE you know her). I am also back at basketball. My coach tried to kill me today, my left arm protests when I have to press a button right of the R. Very annoying.
Our first game is on friday, but my coach also want me to play 18's and, occasionally, League reserve if not League itself. But I will survive I'm sure.
MechQuest and Runescape are updating lots perhaps you should go there and see for yourself.
Skywalker out!
Our first game is on friday, but my coach also want me to play 18's and, occasionally, League reserve if not League itself. But I will survive I'm sure.
MechQuest and Runescape are updating lots perhaps you should go there and see for yourself.
Skywalker out!
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Im Doomeedd!
I have to go back to skool tomorrow. Does anyone else thing that is unfair??? Oh well.. I guess I can't change it... Unless a cyclone forms just off the coast later today... but I have to admit, that would be pretty unlikely.... Very unlikely..... OK... The chances of that happening are about... 1 to 99999999999 oh well...
In other news Mechquest has just released dozens of updates You should go there now.
Or even Runescape they have been doing a fair bit too
But if you don't want to I guess you might want to stay here and read my brilliant Blog posts
Skywalker out!
PS. MissE I am still having a little trouble with Dreamweaver... Got any advice?
In other news Mechquest has just released dozens of updates You should go there now.
Or even Runescape they have been doing a fair bit too
But if you don't want to I guess you might want to stay here and read my brilliant Blog posts
Skywalker out!
PS. MissE I am still having a little trouble with Dreamweaver... Got any advice?
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
My Adelaide Adventures
As some of you know I recently decided to go on a holiday... I went to adelaide.
Compared to Darwin Adelaide is very big and has lots of stuff to do in it. I did lots of stuff...
I went to parties:

I went ice skating:
www.meanwhile-backattheranch.blogspot.com
I also played pool:
www.meanwhile-backattheranch.blogspot.com
But now I'm back, Back in the heat
On another topic:
For christmas I got Dreamweaver and Photoshop.
Dreamweaver is a program that lets you design websites, I had some trouble with if for a little while untill I decided to keep things simple. Hopefully i will get a website up and running within a few weeks.
Well Thats all
Skywalker out!
Compared to Darwin Adelaide is very big and has lots of stuff to do in it. I did lots of stuff...
I went to parties:
I went ice skating:
www.meanwhile-backattheranch.blogspot.com
I also played pool:
www.meanwhile-backattheranch.blogspot.com
But now I'm back, Back in the heat
On another topic:
For christmas I got Dreamweaver and Photoshop.
Dreamweaver is a program that lets you design websites, I had some trouble with if for a little while untill I decided to keep things simple. Hopefully i will get a website up and running within a few weeks.
Well Thats all
Skywalker out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)