You're Done Tipping Your Fuckin' Hat

The Sutherland to Surf is on this sunday, and I think the most important part of my training will be the music on my iPod Shuffle. As such, I want to share with everyone the list of songs that will inspire my every step.
WWE - Triple H Theme
WWE - Randy Orton Theme
Jay Z/ Linkin Park - Numb\Encore
Jay Z/ Linkin Park - Jigga What\Faint
Linkin Park - Lying from You
Linkin Park - Bleed It Out
Foo Fighters - The Pretender
Foo Fighters - Best of You
Foo Fighters - My Hero
The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
The Fratellis - Flathead
The Killers - Mr Brightside
The Killers - Leave the Burbon on the Shelf
Kanye West - Jesus Walks
Kanye West - Stronger
John Williams - Superman Theme
Timbaland - Throw It On Me
?? - Rocky Theme
Rob Zombie - The Great American Nightmare
Rob Zombie - Living Dead Girl
Marilyn Manson - Lunchbox
50 Cent - I Get Money
Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet with Butterfly Wings
The Beatles - Helter Skelter
Nine Inch Nails - Starfuckers Inc
Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole
Third Eye Blind - Semi Charmed Kind of Life
Bush - Glycerine
Dropkick Murphys - Captain Kellys Kitchen
Dropkick Murphys - Shipping Up to Boston
Dropkick Murphys - Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced
Dropkick Murphys - Tessie
Diddy - Bad Boy for Live (Remix)
AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long
Chris Cornell - You Know My Name
Flo Rida - Low
Kurupt - Its Over
Fall Out Boy - This Aint a Scene, It's an Arms Race
The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated
My Chemical Romance - Mother
My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade
Martin O'Donnell - Halo 3 Theme
Rancid - Ruby Soho
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
The Kingsmen - Louie Louie
Nas - Ether


As usual, this post is after the fact. I FINISHED. I ran the whole 11km, and I did it in 55 minutes. I am so proud of myself. I didn't really plan to run it, Lan and I had just been running every sunday, and this came up. Seemed like a good idea, and it was.
The most I had run leading up to the event was 8km. I can honestly say that I am probably the healthiest I have EVER been.
At the very least I brake one stereotype of a computer scientist / gamer / comic fan.
The other thing about the run was that despite listing all these songs I ended up needing less than half to finish the race.

I have been thinking lately about the phones, and iPods and other things that I have with me or would like to have. I think the ultimate personal media device would be one that included these features:

• A Camera - At least 5 Mega Pixels, a decent replacement for a real camera.
• An MP3 Player - The bigger the storage the better, at least 250GB.
• A portable hard drive - This is just as a secondary mode, much like the iPod can be used as a usb drive
• A video player - For this you want a good screen on the device, which would also be used as the controls for the mp3 player and the viewfinder for the camera
• A GPS - A full featured one.
• A pedometer - A very good one, including software to monitor intake.
• Software - A Calender, Email, Internet Browser, basic office package.
• Wi Fi.
• THE MOST IMPORTANT PART - A battery that will recharge as it goes, such as solar power, or biothermal. Something that doesn't have to be recharged each night.

I recognise that a lot of phones, such as the iPhone, or my own N95, perform most of these tasks, but you need an all in one.
Also this list is the bare essentials for the ultimate Personal Media Device. A number of other things should be included but aren't a must, such as an ebook reader etc.

He's Ordinary

Stole this idea from another blog, who I think stole it from someone else:
If you were independently wealthy, where in the world would you live and how would you spend your time?
I think mine is a pretty common answer. I would travel a LOT depending on the season, winter in the snow, summer in the sand. I would spend my time learning.

I am known for having no real personality, I am an amalgamation of different characters, from books, tv, movies, comics and so forth. Bit by bit, I have adopted different personality traits until all that is left is a chamleon of sorts, able to appear in a form pleasing to most people. Every now and again though, I abosorb something without intention. I have been watching (and highly recommend) the showtime series 'Dexter'. It is about a serial killer (who fakes emotions and his whole personality, although that is more of a coincidence), naturally I did not think that after watching this I would go and kill something, but I was wrong.
I killed a possum.
I didn't mean too, it ran out, and in swerving to miss it, I got it. With the front left AND the back right.
Now initially I thought it was just an accident. But since then I have come to realise that it wasn't. This was a strategic move by the possums. Im sure an autopsy will reveal that he was terminally ill. The possums chose him to be a sacrifice. Now the truce is broken, and it was officially broken by me. This means that in the eventual war between myself and the possums, the majority of the animal kingdom will have to align with the possums. I can count on the elephants, fish and cats. Im also pretty sure the dogs will join me, as for the rest. One possum down, many to go... once they make their move.

I went and saw the Foo Fighters recently. Wow, just wow. They were incredible. They rocked out for at least two hours. It was the longest set I have ever seen a band do, and each song was a hit. Just incredible.

For fun here are the bands / artists I have seen live:
Ja Rule
Ashanti
The Living End
The Rolling Stones
The Killers
Linkin Park
U2
Kanye West
Robbie Williams
Machine Gun Fellatio
Duran Duran
Marilyn Manson
Foo Fighters
Oasis
Chris Cornell

To me, for the most part, it reads like a top 10 (whatever) list of rock bands for the last ten years. Of course this list doesn't include all the plays, operas and musical I have also seen over the years.

Day surgery - YAY. Have to get a cyst removed from my sinus.

Review: Iron Man.
If you like movies than you should see this. It is in the top 3 Marvel movies ever (I would interchange Spiderman 2, X2 and this for the top three). The casting was brilliant, Robery Downy Jr carries the movie, as he is the title character, but the bit parts are excellent. Paltrow is subtle yet effective as Pepper Potts and Jeff Bridges is perfectly evil as the power mad Iron Monger. Had this come out last year it would have been comic movie of the year, but I'm still putting my money on the Bat.

And It's Good to Have You With Us, Even If It's Just For a Day

Random Updates:

I got to see David Beckham bend in a penalty kick. That like seeing Ali or Jordan do thier thing. People talk about going to see a real soccer match in England as something you have to do once, Ill do it, but I think this will be so much more memorable. I still dont like or dislike soccer (watching it), but that was really something special. Here it is, for those who werent there (sucked in).



Damn game companies. Coming out between now and christmas are:
Rock Band - Like Guitar Hero, but set up for a band. A guitar, a drum kit and a mic. Guitar Hero was great, this looks exponentially better. The only problem being that I have to find two (or three) other people who are willing to be in a room with me. A difficult problem.
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - I was initially sceptical of this game, I'd heard it has a great story but still wasn't impressed. However I recently bought Hitman: Blood Money (Made by the same people). This game is so much fun, so well made, that I now have complete faith in the developer.
Assassins Creed - This was a much hyped title. I bought it the other day, havnt had a chance to play it yet, but I am excited. I know that some people might not like it, but I am sure I will.
Mass Effect - Another game I had heard of, but wasn't all that excited for. Then I heard more of it, saw more movies and so on. Now i'm excited for it.

Who knew that vegan was pronounced vee-jan?

Caught in the Web:

Drunken Slash is awesome. His band mates staring in awe of his drunkeness is even better.


List of things that I hope dont come to Australia:
Columbian Devils Breath - The only thing in Columbia more scary than the Cali Cartel were, the Columbians Devils Breath. Its bad stuff. Kind of like the ultimate date rape drug.

Japanese Hornets - These hornets are two inches long. Think about a nest of these damn things, its insane. Their sting can kill humans, even if they aren't allergic. Just a few of them can destroy a whole european bees nest quite easily. Fortunately the asian bee has developed a defense, they surround the hornet with hundreds of bees, heat up the bee ball and cook the hornet alive. If that isnt evidence of evolution then what is.

I am now addicted to these sites. They are PostSecret and OneSentence. PostSecret involves people sending in homemade postcards with secrets written on them, if they are all true, they provide a fascinating view into other peoples lives. OneSentence is quite similar, it has people submitting stories in one sentence. I guess its no different to watching big brother, but then again, Im dont care about the things these people do. I just like seeing what some people are too scared to say in person.

Reviews:

Halo 3: To really review a game such as this you have to break it down into its parts, review each, then decide how good the sum of those parts are. So to begin, the parts

Single Player, Multi-Player and Extras.

Single Player:

The Good:

• Level Design: Gone are the repitious nature of the first game (excluding a trip to a ring, where, as assumed, it is quite similar to the first ring). The levels each feel different, the jungle shows signs of a prolonged campaign against the Covenant, lots of small battlements litter the land scape in between larger bases, while the mission set inside a flood infested ship shows how virus like they are, with floodling spores and organic doors throughout the ship. There is one part of a mission, where you are tasked with taking out three anti-air ships, here the sections are quite similar, however it does end with a fight against a scarab, so it redeems itself.
  Speaking of, at one point you are against two scarabs and have a small ship to gly around, I landed on the the first, pushed the ship off the edge, destroyed the scarabs power core, jumped off and managed to get into the ship and sly away as it was exploding. It made for one intense experience and rewatching it was just as fun.
  
• A.I: Both the allied and enemy A.I. is much improved, and considering it wasnt exactly bad in the first two thats saying something. As before the grunts will attack, untill you fight back, in which case they turn and run. The brutes use their items (Bubble Shield, etc) well, although they do seem to act independantly when in a group, which can result in Bubble Shields overlapping.
  
• Scope: Everything seems, grander, in this encounter. The set pieces are bigger and with more players, the levels are not always larger but seem more real. You feel like you are fighting a war, not rushing from one set of corridors to another. Being able to take on a Scarab (or two) is also amazing.

The Bad:

• The Weapons: As with Halo 2, some new weapons are added, some are kept some are changed. Overall however the newly added weapons don't add much to the gameplay. The sword was introduced in Halo 2, and the Gravity Hammer, while immensly satisfying to use, feels very similar in terms of tactical use. The brutes weapons mauler is fun to use, although its limited ammo and slow rate of fire mean that as soon as you can replace it you will.
• The Enemies: Through out the game you fight the Covenant and the Flood. Fair enough, but the Covenant have lost the elites, as they are now your allies, so as far as the Covenant are concerned you fight Grunts, Brutes and Jackals. You also fight the Hunters and Drones, but so rarely as to barely warrant a mention. Fighting the three main enemies does get repetitive. Mixing it up with another level, between Brutes and Grunts would have been good. Perhaps a larger kind of jackal, as they are relegated primarily to snipers.

Multi-Player:

• Its all good. There might not be enough maps for some, but the maps they have are SO solid. I play primarily team objective, which changes between Zanzibar, High Ground and Valhalla, primarily, and honestly these three are all I need. Being on a good team, using lots of communication and teamwork, makes a big difference but its fun either way. Although I have spent a lot of time playing it online, as I said, 95% of it has been on the one mode, so my analysis isn't as in depth, its good.

Extras:

• Skulls: These are hidden, well hidden, throughout the levels. Once you collect them they change the game a little, making it more challenging / interesting to play. You can turn them on and off. I am currently going through collecting them, then I will play with them on and see how good it is.
  
• The Forge: I havent used it but its basically allows you to edit the multiplayer levels on the fly, as you are playing them.
  
• Saved Films: This i have used. Wipe out an entire team, no one else saw it? Doesnt matter, go to the save films and relive the glory over and over and over. So much fun to watch it and see just how much is happening at all times, in both multi and single player.
  

King of Kings Recommendation: If you have played the first two it is a must have, if you havent and have no interest in going back and playing them / finding out what happened, I might find something else. For me anyway, its probably top three from all my 360 games.

Hits of the Week:
1. Sams Town (Abbey Road Remix) - The Killers
2. Lonely Soul - Unkle


Babe of the Day:
Jennifer Ellison

I don't have time for this, I have a rabbit to buy.

12 New Commandments:
Commandment the Fourth: Save / Invest your money.
Good or bad, money is needed nowdays. To live and take care of yourself and others you do need money. For most people it takes so long to get money, through work and what not, why would you not want to keep it, or use it to make more of it.
I am not going to outline a specific saving strategy, because they can be found ALL over the internet. Instead I am just going to say remember to save your money, learn to invest and take care with spending it.

Random Updates:

Went to the Marilyn Manson concert on the weekend. It was crazy. I arrived and saw a line but thought it wouldn't be that bad, so I went and got dinner and a coffee. Then I decided to join the line. It snaked past the Horden Pavillion, out to the street and up to the stadium. It was crazy long. But walking along it did give me a chance to see how everyone was dressed. It was a mix of people. All in black of course. Some going the whole way, huge leather boots, Mohawks, make up, all of it. Others were just wearing tour shirts and jeans. It was very cool seeing everyone getting in to it (this may be due to the fact that the majority of girls were wearing either lingerie, or short skirts/shorts with fishnets). Finally got in, bought a shirt, realised that a beer gut and a mesh shirt should never, EVER go together, then went in. Since I was by myself I decided that sitting down was out, I was going to get right in it. I managed to get about four deep to the left of the stage, right under the speaker. Waited for about an hour before he came on, but it was worth it. The concert was mind blowing, and being so close made it so much better. Especially for songs that people really got into "The Fight Song", "Dope Show", and of course, the finale "The Beatiful People". I went in thinking it would be a great show, and it was, despite the smallish stage, there was a lot happening and the majority of songs had there own set and or props.
One thing that seperated this concert was the lack of an encore. Not that he didn't deserve one (Ive never been to a concert people wanted to walk away from), but it was refreshing to see him come out and do his set, without the five minutes of an empty stage, but no house lights, waiting for the encore.
The other thing to say is that in the end, I am glad I went by myself. Going with someone who didn't like the music would have hampered the feel of the concert, and going with someone who would have wanted to sit would have made it in to a completely different concert. In the end, getting in their, moshing out and ruining my ears for the next two days was so better becasue I was by myself, not worse.
Having said that I am anxious about Linkin Park, I am going by myself again, but I'm sitting. Hmmm, maybe I could trade, or sneak down.

Linkin Park was this weekend. Man I update so regularly. It was crazy. To summarise, if you dont want to read the more extensive review, better concert, but because I was in a seat not as fun as Manson.
Another concert that I went to by myself. Doesn't worry me in the least. Got to the city about an hour before the doors opened with a mission, pizza, good pizza. Unfortunately it was at the Sydney Entertainment Centre which is in China town. Quickly abandoning the pizza idea, i looked for something. Settled on Oporto. Got inside and headed straight for merchandise. Didnt wait in line, kind of just snuck in the side, I know im a horrible person, got a shirt then headed for a beer. Got the beer, looked at the shirt, not the one I wanted. Damn Karma. Gupled down the beer, went back and lined up again. Got in and heard Chris Cornell, all right but not great. Turns out he has done quite a few songs that I know. Interlude, then it was time for the main show. Starts off with a white sheet covering the stage, three clashes of music coincide with the lights coming up from back stage, throwing a sillouette over the sheet, the first two were just of the stage (It was set up as two levels, drums and DJ up top, guitar and singers on the main), the third one you could see the band as well. A very cool way to start what would be a very cool concert.
They went through pretty much their entire collection of hits, from Hybrid Theory to Minutes to Midnight. Not just the stadium rocking hits, but some quiter pieces as well. I stood the entire concert (screw the people behind me). Just a huge amount of energy, and a great concert.

Caught in the Web:

Who doesnt love a good large scale robbery story, here are ten of the best.

http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_cannonballrun?currentPage=3

A great bit from Conan - An alarm goes off in the studio while taping.

There are some sites that I suggest. Mostly I stumble on these through Digg or Shoutwire, but they do provide good content, on almost a daily basis. They are:

Double Viking - A very male centric humor site, although this wouldnt stop everyone from enjoying it. Cool & funny lists & videos. Not specifically funny lists, but usually worth a read.

Cracked - Similar in the amount of funny lists and videos, although its target audience is much larger. Updated more regularly and generally better than Double Viking, much more focused on humor.

Snopes - Urban legends website. Not only will it keep you interested for months, but the forums are also full of crazy rumors and thoerys.

Right Thoughts ... Not Right Wing -

WallStreetFighter - Another blog that is updated regularly with interesting or funny articles, videos and photos.

Penny Arcade - Possibly the greatest web comic ever, also the articles are always entertaining and informative, and the podcasts are hilarious.

Digg - A social networking site, have talked about it before, users submit stories they find interesting, if they are good, they get dugg to the top. This collects stories from a lot of websites, including some of the sites listed above.