So, I've recently been informed that at 6pm today, the Rapture is coming. Or the Raptors. I'm not really sure which, I wasn't paying attention. So anyway, the Rapture, or Raptor, is coming to us in about an hours time, so I thought I'd make a PSA about it, I know it's kind of late to do this, but I haven't had time to do it earlier.
From what I have been lead to believe, the Rapture is when all the good religious types ascend up to Heaven, leaving only their clothes behind. Raptors, on the other hand, will rip you apart and devour your corpse, so I have a plan for you all.
What we should do, around about 5:55pm, is get undressed, just in case. If it's the Rapture, then we will ascend to Heaven, but we won't have the messy worry about our clothes, as we will already be naked. If it's the Raptors, then it doesn't matter whether we're clothed or not, as they're going to kill us anyway.
The biggest thing that I would like to stress is to not panic, panic doesn't help anyone and you may be left behind if it is the rapture, and you may be one of the first to die if it's the raptors.
I may do a post rapture/raptor blog entry, to let the world know what it is like, after the rapture/raptor, provided that I haven't been raptured/raptored.
OmniBlog. The blog of Omnirach. Filled with crap! Maybe some puns! A lot of complaining! Who really knows?!? Now with rare and sporadic updates!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Web Comics.
Recently, well, actually not very recently, more like since mid last year, I started reading a new web comic. Actually, it was more like early last year, so about a year ago.
Let me start again.
About a year ago, I started reading a new web comic. Hmm, maybe it wasn't that long ago, let me go check, I have a way of finding out.
OK, I'm far too lazy to find out when I actually started reading it, but lets say it was a year ago, so I'm going to start over from the start again.
So, about a year ago, I started reading a new web comic, my brother recommended it to me and I thank him greatly for it. The comic is FreakAngels, and it is brilliant. It's written by a professional comic writer and drawn by a professional comic artist. It's updated once a week, with 6 pages, and it is amazing. I've been reading web comics pretty much since I have had access to the internet, and this has been the best I have ever read.
I think what really sets it apart is because it's done by professionals, who really know what they're doing. Now, I'm not shitting over other web comics because they're not done by professionals, but I think that there are some web comics out there that I read that could learn from FreakAngels.
Let's take Looking For Group for example. It's another one of my favourite comics, the art is brilliant, and the story line is brilliant, but I can't follow it properly unless I don't read it for about a month, and then have a months worth of comics to read at once. This is where FreakAngels is superior. Since it updates with multiple pages at once, it's easier to follow, you have a weeks worth of comics at once. This is where I believe that LFG could be improved. If he updated once a week, or a fortnight, with multiple pages. It would make it flow better. As it is, I've been reading it every time it updates and it's just not flowing for me. I haven't been following the story for a long time and I am going to have to go back and reread a whole lot.
A couple of the comics I read have this problem, and they all seem to be the full page style comics, with large intricate storylines. There are other comics that I read that this wouldn't work so well with. Sluggy Freelance is one where it wouldn't work. Although this isn't because of the lack of large intricate storylines, because I assure you that Sluggy has these, but because of the style of it, and the layout. I would say that Sluggy is similar in style to a Newspaper comic, but with a better plot. When it first started it was a lot like a Newspaper comic, but it has evolved. It works well for what it is.
Another good example of a web comic that is done in the newspaper style of comics is XKCD. It's an extremely good example of a newspaper style comic because you can just jump in at any point and just read, there is no real storyline, and you don't need to know what comics have been to be able to read the new ones. Sinfest is yet another newspaper style comic. I haven't actually read Sinfest in quite a while, but from what I remember, and from what my flatmate has told me, you can just jump in at any point and not need to know what happened previously to be able to follow the story.
I'm not sure where I'm actually going with this blog post, but then again I never do, other than to illustrate what I think makes a good comic, or rather, what makes the comics I enjoy good. I should actually give a list of the comics that I read, and say why I read them.
FreakAngels: I've already explained why I like this comic, but I'll go over it again. It has a good storyline, and amazing art. When it updates it has multiple pages, which makes it easier to follow. It flows quite well.
Sluggy Freelance: I've been following this webcomic for the longest out of all of the ones I read. It's brilliant, and has evolved considerably. It started out fairly simple. It had a simple layout, not much of a storyline, but it has changed since then. Pete Abrahms, who writes and draws the comics, has gotten a lot better at writing and drawing since it started. It has action, drama, comedy, essentially everything that you could want out of a comic. One thing that I like about this comic is that every so often there's a recap comic, that says what has happened, and what is going to happen. Though these can be annoying when you're rereading the archives, but it's brilliant when you're reading the comic daily when it updates.
Looking For Group: This comic was originally based off of World Of Warcraft, but again it's another one that has evolved. It's not so much based off of WoW anymore, though it still has similar elements to it. It has a rather intricate plot and storyline, which I haven't really been following as it doesn't flow as well as FreakAngels. What I need to do is go back and reread a whole lot of the archives to really catch up to date in the story. This comic could be improved by either adding in recap comics every so often, or changing it's updating to be more like FreakAngels.
XKCD: This comic is just brilliant. Mostly it's just one comic gags, but there have been a couple of multi-comic gags. It's a very intellectual comic, and some of them have gone completely over my head, but on the whole it should be understandable by most. Very much like a newspaper comic, only better.
Multiplex: Based in a movie theatre, this comics gags revolve around movies and the people who work in the theatre. I enjoy this one because I am a movie buff, and it gives me ideas on what movies to go out and watch. There's a plot running through it but I haven't been following it that well. It's not because of anything bad with the comic, I just haven't been thinking about it, I check it when it updates, but that's it. I should make an effort to follow the plot.
Ctrl Alt Delete: A gaming webcomic. The reason I like this is because it's about games. Some of his plot lines are stupid and retarded, and the guy is a fucking sleaze from what I've heard, but I still enjoy the comic, even if just for the gaming references.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: I absolutely love this comic. The comics are always amusing, and it doesn't really have a long running plot. It's very good.
Oglaf: R18! This is mostly one comic gags, and it's brilliant. It's mostly based around sex and sex related comics, but it's fucking funny. It is very well drawn as well. Hmm, I seem to have changed what I'm saying about the comics as I've been listing them, maybe because I've writing this over the past 3 days.
Gunnerkrigg Court: This comic has a long running plot, which is really good. I've managed to keep up with even though it updates with a single page every few days. I would prefer if this one had an update schedule like FreakAngels, and I think it would be easier to follow that way.
theWAREHOUSE: Puns! SO MANY PUNS! This comic is one comic gags, which works really well. It's comedy is based around puns, so therefore this is one of my all time favourite comics. Some of them take a wee bit to understand, but ultimately worthwhile.
Exiern: This one I found from a banner ad on one of the other comics I read. It's another with a long running plot, but I've been able to follow it quite well, possibly because it's fairly new compared with some of the other ones I read. It might be better with an update schedule like FreakAngels, but for the moment I think it's fine. It does update infrequently though.
VG Cats: This used to be one of my favourite comics. It's full of one shot comics, and it's based around video games. It was really really good, but then it got updated less and less. It's lucky to get one new comic a month now.
Well, that's all the comics I read, and why I read them. I guess that's all I really wanted to add.
To be honest, I don't even know what I wrote at the start of this blog post, and I'm far too lazy to go through and edit it, it's been about three days in the making. If you like this post, then you like it, if not, then you don't.
That is all, thank you for reading.
Ctrl Alt Delete: A gaming webcomic. The reason I like this is because it's about games. Some of his plot lines are stupid and retarded, and the guy is a fucking sleaze from what I've heard, but I still enjoy the comic, even if just for the gaming references.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: I absolutely love this comic. The comics are always amusing, and it doesn't really have a long running plot. It's very good.
Oglaf: R18! This is mostly one comic gags, and it's brilliant. It's mostly based around sex and sex related comics, but it's fucking funny. It is very well drawn as well. Hmm, I seem to have changed what I'm saying about the comics as I've been listing them, maybe because I've writing this over the past 3 days.
Gunnerkrigg Court: This comic has a long running plot, which is really good. I've managed to keep up with even though it updates with a single page every few days. I would prefer if this one had an update schedule like FreakAngels, and I think it would be easier to follow that way.
theWAREHOUSE: Puns! SO MANY PUNS! This comic is one comic gags, which works really well. It's comedy is based around puns, so therefore this is one of my all time favourite comics. Some of them take a wee bit to understand, but ultimately worthwhile.
Exiern: This one I found from a banner ad on one of the other comics I read. It's another with a long running plot, but I've been able to follow it quite well, possibly because it's fairly new compared with some of the other ones I read. It might be better with an update schedule like FreakAngels, but for the moment I think it's fine. It does update infrequently though.
VG Cats: This used to be one of my favourite comics. It's full of one shot comics, and it's based around video games. It was really really good, but then it got updated less and less. It's lucky to get one new comic a month now.
Well, that's all the comics I read, and why I read them. I guess that's all I really wanted to add.
To be honest, I don't even know what I wrote at the start of this blog post, and I'm far too lazy to go through and edit it, it's been about three days in the making. If you like this post, then you like it, if not, then you don't.
That is all, thank you for reading.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
It's not a good time to be a New Zealander.
So in case you people didn't know, recently there was a rather large and violent earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. If you didn't know, then clearly you must be living under a rock, because this quake has been on the news world wide.
Currently as it stands, the body count for this quake is 147.
147.
And it's looking to rise. I saw in a news article, by The Daily Mail I think it was, that to put it into a British perspective, in terms of population, we need to multiply that number by 20. That would make it 2,940, for a British perspective, in terms of population counts. Now, to put it into an American perspective, population wise again of course, we need to quadruple that number. That would make it 11,760. This quake has hit us worse than the San Francisco quake of 1906. It has hit us worse than Hurricane Katrina. Right now, it's hard to be a New Zealander, to see all this destruction, all this death.
I thought I'd give everyone a view of it from my side of it. I don't live in Christchurch, I wasn't in Christchurch, but you don't need to be at the moment for this to affect you. I may not be injured, I may not of even been there, but this is my story.
When I heard about the quake, I was at work. I was about to head upstairs to the staff room to have my break. I hadn't actually felt anything here in Dunedin, I know a few people did, but I wasn't one of them. Anyway, I was about to head up for my break, and one of my colleagues came up to me and told me there had been another quake in Christchurch, and it was a bad one. I shrugged it off to begin with, thinking that he was exaggerating, as he does, and thought nothing of it. When I got the staff room though, things were different. Everyone was huddled around the TV, I saw the damage, I saw the fallen buildings and it almost put me in a panic. I have a lot of friends in Christchurch, and my flatmate was there at the time. I simply turned to someone in the staff room, I can't remember who it was, and told them I needed to find a phone, I needed to call some people.
It wasn't an easy task finding a phone at work that could dial an outside line, they've limited this ability to us because, I don't know, it saves the company money? It's annoying and stupid, sometimes you *need* to be able to dial an outside line from the closest phone to you. Hell, you can't even dial the emergency services from the phones, but back to what I was saying. I was searching for a phone that I could use.
Normally, I would've just called people using my cellphone, but it was going flat. I hadn't charged it for a while and it had been constantly beeping at me through the day threatening to shut itself down, so in self defense I had turned it off to conserve it's power, just in case I needed it. I'm thankful I had turned it off, because if it had gone completely flat I wouldn't of been able to grab peoples phone numbers out of it to be able to call them. And it seems that my flatmate had sent me a text message at 12:55pm, only a few minutes after the quake. I don't think at that time she had even realized how bad it was.
I ended up grabbing a cordless phone off of one of my bosses. Using that, I dialed a few friends. First, I tried calling my flatmate. Disconnected tone. Next, a couple of good friends of mine who had recently, much to my protest, moved to Christchurch. Disconnected tone. In a last ditch effort, I tried calling another one of my friends who had also moved to Christchurch with his partner and child. Also, disconnected tone. The cellphone towers were out, due to there being a lack of power in Christchurch. Instead of trying to continue to call them, I texted them instead, asking if they were alright. As I said, I didn't have much battery life left on my cellphone at that point, so I only texted two people, hoping that I would hear from my other Christchurch friends once I got home and managed to charge my phone.
I texted my flatmate, and my good friends who had just moved there. My flatmate had her cellphone off as she was having similar difficulties as me, except her lack of cellphone charge was due to her forgetting to take her charger with her, so I didn't receive another message from her, which had me worried, but I did receive a text from my other friends, they were alright. I was happy.
Throughout the rest of my shift, I was worried about everyone, I came close to having a panic attack a few times, but managed to calm myself down. I hate having panic attacks at work, it really doesn't do good things for me. I managed to get through it OK though, and came home to immediately jump on the internet to check the news, and to check Facebook and Twitter.
I heard from a few of my friends straight away, some parts of the city still had power and cellphone coverage, the phone companies here made sure to get their services back up and running as soon as they could. There were a couple of messages on Facebook from my friends, and one on Twitter, which made me happy. I texted my flatmates mother to see if she had any contact from my flatmate, which she had. She called me and let me know that my flatmate was safe and sound and hadn't been injured in the slightest. Good news is always good to hear.
Arrangements were made to get my flatmate back home safe and sound, she got on a bus the next day and made her way back to solid ground. I still hadn't heard from a few of my friends, I did get quite worried about them, but now I have heard from all of them. I am pleased.
So that pretty much brings us up to date on what I have done. I feel a bit useless at the moment, as there isn't much I can do to help. I can't go the Christchurch to help as I don't have any way of getting there, and I have a job to go to. The only thing I can do at the moment is donate money, or supplies. I wish I could do more, I really do.
I've been checking the news every few hours, and it's hard. It really is. Each time I see that they've found more bodies, and they haven't found anyone else alive, it hurts. I don't like it. I've come close to tears a few times.
Right now the news website is saying "More than 200 feared dead.". It's going to be a larger figure than that. I have a feeling that this will be ranked at the top of the list of New Zealand's Worst Disasters. It's going to rank higher than the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake, higher than the Mt. Erebus air crash. I don't think these people giving the figures actually realize how many people there are trapped around the place. There could be over 100 people in the CTV building alone, 20 odd in the Cathedral. That's just two buildings. That isn't including the PGC building, unless they've got everyone out of there, and all of the rest of the CBD. There's also all the residential areas where houses have just collapsed, possibly with people inside.
We've received a lot of international help, which is good. Help from Singapore, Japan, China, Australia, United States, Great Britain, and probably some more places I haven't listed. There have been countless celebrities tweeting about it, linking to the Red Cross website for people to donate, which actually crashed the Red Cross website. We've received messages from The Queen, The Pope, The Dalai Lama, Barack Obama. The international aid we've received has been phenomenal.
It is a sad time to be a New Zealander. This is one of the worst disasters to strike in our time.
Thank you for reading this giant wall of text. It's been a bit disjointed at points, and I've repeated a few things, but I'm far too lazy to go through and edit it all.
Currently as it stands, the body count for this quake is 147.
147.
And it's looking to rise. I saw in a news article, by The Daily Mail I think it was, that to put it into a British perspective, in terms of population, we need to multiply that number by 20. That would make it 2,940, for a British perspective, in terms of population counts. Now, to put it into an American perspective, population wise again of course, we need to quadruple that number. That would make it 11,760. This quake has hit us worse than the San Francisco quake of 1906. It has hit us worse than Hurricane Katrina. Right now, it's hard to be a New Zealander, to see all this destruction, all this death.
I thought I'd give everyone a view of it from my side of it. I don't live in Christchurch, I wasn't in Christchurch, but you don't need to be at the moment for this to affect you. I may not be injured, I may not of even been there, but this is my story.
When I heard about the quake, I was at work. I was about to head upstairs to the staff room to have my break. I hadn't actually felt anything here in Dunedin, I know a few people did, but I wasn't one of them. Anyway, I was about to head up for my break, and one of my colleagues came up to me and told me there had been another quake in Christchurch, and it was a bad one. I shrugged it off to begin with, thinking that he was exaggerating, as he does, and thought nothing of it. When I got the staff room though, things were different. Everyone was huddled around the TV, I saw the damage, I saw the fallen buildings and it almost put me in a panic. I have a lot of friends in Christchurch, and my flatmate was there at the time. I simply turned to someone in the staff room, I can't remember who it was, and told them I needed to find a phone, I needed to call some people.
It wasn't an easy task finding a phone at work that could dial an outside line, they've limited this ability to us because, I don't know, it saves the company money? It's annoying and stupid, sometimes you *need* to be able to dial an outside line from the closest phone to you. Hell, you can't even dial the emergency services from the phones, but back to what I was saying. I was searching for a phone that I could use.
Normally, I would've just called people using my cellphone, but it was going flat. I hadn't charged it for a while and it had been constantly beeping at me through the day threatening to shut itself down, so in self defense I had turned it off to conserve it's power, just in case I needed it. I'm thankful I had turned it off, because if it had gone completely flat I wouldn't of been able to grab peoples phone numbers out of it to be able to call them. And it seems that my flatmate had sent me a text message at 12:55pm, only a few minutes after the quake. I don't think at that time she had even realized how bad it was.
I ended up grabbing a cordless phone off of one of my bosses. Using that, I dialed a few friends. First, I tried calling my flatmate. Disconnected tone. Next, a couple of good friends of mine who had recently, much to my protest, moved to Christchurch. Disconnected tone. In a last ditch effort, I tried calling another one of my friends who had also moved to Christchurch with his partner and child. Also, disconnected tone. The cellphone towers were out, due to there being a lack of power in Christchurch. Instead of trying to continue to call them, I texted them instead, asking if they were alright. As I said, I didn't have much battery life left on my cellphone at that point, so I only texted two people, hoping that I would hear from my other Christchurch friends once I got home and managed to charge my phone.
I texted my flatmate, and my good friends who had just moved there. My flatmate had her cellphone off as she was having similar difficulties as me, except her lack of cellphone charge was due to her forgetting to take her charger with her, so I didn't receive another message from her, which had me worried, but I did receive a text from my other friends, they were alright. I was happy.
Throughout the rest of my shift, I was worried about everyone, I came close to having a panic attack a few times, but managed to calm myself down. I hate having panic attacks at work, it really doesn't do good things for me. I managed to get through it OK though, and came home to immediately jump on the internet to check the news, and to check Facebook and Twitter.
I heard from a few of my friends straight away, some parts of the city still had power and cellphone coverage, the phone companies here made sure to get their services back up and running as soon as they could. There were a couple of messages on Facebook from my friends, and one on Twitter, which made me happy. I texted my flatmates mother to see if she had any contact from my flatmate, which she had. She called me and let me know that my flatmate was safe and sound and hadn't been injured in the slightest. Good news is always good to hear.
Arrangements were made to get my flatmate back home safe and sound, she got on a bus the next day and made her way back to solid ground. I still hadn't heard from a few of my friends, I did get quite worried about them, but now I have heard from all of them. I am pleased.
So that pretty much brings us up to date on what I have done. I feel a bit useless at the moment, as there isn't much I can do to help. I can't go the Christchurch to help as I don't have any way of getting there, and I have a job to go to. The only thing I can do at the moment is donate money, or supplies. I wish I could do more, I really do.
I've been checking the news every few hours, and it's hard. It really is. Each time I see that they've found more bodies, and they haven't found anyone else alive, it hurts. I don't like it. I've come close to tears a few times.
Right now the news website is saying "More than 200 feared dead.". It's going to be a larger figure than that. I have a feeling that this will be ranked at the top of the list of New Zealand's Worst Disasters. It's going to rank higher than the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake, higher than the Mt. Erebus air crash. I don't think these people giving the figures actually realize how many people there are trapped around the place. There could be over 100 people in the CTV building alone, 20 odd in the Cathedral. That's just two buildings. That isn't including the PGC building, unless they've got everyone out of there, and all of the rest of the CBD. There's also all the residential areas where houses have just collapsed, possibly with people inside.
We've received a lot of international help, which is good. Help from Singapore, Japan, China, Australia, United States, Great Britain, and probably some more places I haven't listed. There have been countless celebrities tweeting about it, linking to the Red Cross website for people to donate, which actually crashed the Red Cross website. We've received messages from The Queen, The Pope, The Dalai Lama, Barack Obama. The international aid we've received has been phenomenal.
It is a sad time to be a New Zealander. This is one of the worst disasters to strike in our time.
Thank you for reading this giant wall of text. It's been a bit disjointed at points, and I've repeated a few things, but I'm far too lazy to go through and edit it all.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
It's that time again.
It seems to that time again, when I go to check in on so called friends on facebook, to find they have deleted me.
This seems to happen every so often, and with no warning. And it's usually by people who I considered good friends, there is never any explanation either, I've just suddenly disappeared from their friends list.
Of course, when this happens, I have a tendency to do a friends list purge of my own, so I've gone and removed all the people who I barely ever talk to, barely get along with, or just don't care about. I can't remember how many people I got rid of last time, but this time it was around about 20 people. Most of them co-workers, or former co-workers, a couple of old family friends that I barely know, and one or two people who just irritate me in real life.
I know I'm probably doing the same thing that these so called friends of mine have done with a purge of my friends list, but to be honest, I've only gotten rid of the people who I don't have any contact with at all. The people who deleted me were people who I contacted and chatted to when the chance came along and time permitted. It just depresses me.
So anyway, in other news, I managed to injure myself at work. The people who stacked the milk crates at their distribution centre decided to put a broken milk crate right near the bottom of the stack, so as I was crouched down, trying to count the milk, when I moved the stack it decided to fall down on top of me. Well, not so much on all of me, just onto my wrist.
Thankfully, there are no major injuries, but my wrist is rather sore. It's not broken, but I have damaged the tendons, and I'm not having much fun writing this out. And also, thankfully, I managed to not break any of the milk containers. It was a stack of mostly cream and that sort of thing, so it wasn't very heavy, but still painful.
I'm on light duties now, for a week, because of it. I even ended up having an X-ray. Something I've only ever had before at the dentist. Wasn't much different, except they were scanning my arm rather than my face, so no piercings had to be removed.
Students are back in town. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The bad thing about it is that there's now an increased work load at work, and we're probably not going to get any extra staff to deal with it. Today we had 16 pallets left over from yesterdays load, which should've been worked yesterday and last night, and a further 19 pallets came in today, which is supposed to be worked today and tonight. I have a feeling that tomorrow we'll be going in to having a lot of left over pallets again. I'd be surprised to see yesterdays load completely gone.
The good thing about students being back is that now there's all new eye candy in town. I know this is awfully shallow and sexist of me to say, but meh. I'm male, I like to look. And when attractive young women come through with their goods on display, I feel as though I'd be doing them a disservice to NOT look.
That's all I really have to say at the moment. Thanks for taking the time to read this wall of text.
This seems to happen every so often, and with no warning. And it's usually by people who I considered good friends, there is never any explanation either, I've just suddenly disappeared from their friends list.
Of course, when this happens, I have a tendency to do a friends list purge of my own, so I've gone and removed all the people who I barely ever talk to, barely get along with, or just don't care about. I can't remember how many people I got rid of last time, but this time it was around about 20 people. Most of them co-workers, or former co-workers, a couple of old family friends that I barely know, and one or two people who just irritate me in real life.
I know I'm probably doing the same thing that these so called friends of mine have done with a purge of my friends list, but to be honest, I've only gotten rid of the people who I don't have any contact with at all. The people who deleted me were people who I contacted and chatted to when the chance came along and time permitted. It just depresses me.
So anyway, in other news, I managed to injure myself at work. The people who stacked the milk crates at their distribution centre decided to put a broken milk crate right near the bottom of the stack, so as I was crouched down, trying to count the milk, when I moved the stack it decided to fall down on top of me. Well, not so much on all of me, just onto my wrist.
Thankfully, there are no major injuries, but my wrist is rather sore. It's not broken, but I have damaged the tendons, and I'm not having much fun writing this out. And also, thankfully, I managed to not break any of the milk containers. It was a stack of mostly cream and that sort of thing, so it wasn't very heavy, but still painful.
I'm on light duties now, for a week, because of it. I even ended up having an X-ray. Something I've only ever had before at the dentist. Wasn't much different, except they were scanning my arm rather than my face, so no piercings had to be removed.
Students are back in town. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The bad thing about it is that there's now an increased work load at work, and we're probably not going to get any extra staff to deal with it. Today we had 16 pallets left over from yesterdays load, which should've been worked yesterday and last night, and a further 19 pallets came in today, which is supposed to be worked today and tonight. I have a feeling that tomorrow we'll be going in to having a lot of left over pallets again. I'd be surprised to see yesterdays load completely gone.
The good thing about students being back is that now there's all new eye candy in town. I know this is awfully shallow and sexist of me to say, but meh. I'm male, I like to look. And when attractive young women come through with their goods on display, I feel as though I'd be doing them a disservice to NOT look.
That's all I really have to say at the moment. Thanks for taking the time to read this wall of text.
Friday, February 18, 2011
You are killing our bookstores.
And so am I.
Everyone in New Zealand should've heard by now, but in case you didn't, here's a little bit of news for you.
Whitcoulls and Borders have gone into voluntary administration. Which, in case you didn't know, and I didn't know what it was either, is when a company is insolvent, or likely to become insolvent, the board of directors appoints an administrator, who is suitably qualified person for the job, to take over the business to try to save it, or if they can't, to bring in a return to the investors that is greater than they would of received had the company had been placed straight into liquidation.
Now, one of the decisions that the Administrator has put into effect is that when you redeem a gift voucher now, you have to also pay an amount equal to the value of the gift voucher. So, for example, if you had a gift voucher worth $20, you would have to also spend $20 of your own money to use it, which means you'd be spending $40 total. $20 from the voucher, $20 from your own pocket.
To be perfectly honest, I don't see a problem with this. I can see why people do have a problem with it, it does seem a bit rude, but they are perfectly within their rights to do so. Hell, they're perfectly within their rights to refuse to redeem vouchers entirely, so really you're getting a better deal here. And to the people who I know are going to point out that they shouldn't have to spend another $20 to be able to spend their $20 voucher, claiming that the company already has their money, did you really buy that voucher with your own money? Did you buy yourself a voucher? And if so, why the fuck would you do that? I will buy vouchers for other people, but never for myself. I'll just buy what I want rather than get a voucher and get what I wanted at a later date, so the company doesn't have YOUR money, they have someone elses. You will be spending $20 of your own money, and the voucher, which is $20 that someone else paid for, to get $40 worth of goods. Seems like a fucking good deal to me!
And now onto the main part of this blog, which is what the title is about. You are killing our bookstores. And so am I.
There is one thing that I am guilty of, and that's being too lazy to go down to the bookstore to get a book. It's cheaper and easier to get books online, and I have purchased many a book online. Sometimes because I can't get them in store, sometimes because I have to get the store to order them in, and sometimes just because it's cheaper. This doesn't really seem like such a bad thing, I'm still paying money to someone, and getting a book in return, where is the harm in that?
The harm in that is that I'm not spending the money at my local bookstore, of which I know many of the staff. I get along with all of them, and I would consider some of them good friends. Because of this, now bookstores are facing closure. There are many people now who are faced with losing their jobs because people want to pay les.
I can't really blame people though, who really wants to pay more for something that they could get for less elsewhere, especially when they don't even have to get off of the couch to order and pay for said item. The thing about bookstores though is that you aren't paying for just the book. You're also paying for the customer service that you get. All of the people at the Whitcoulls that I frequent, though I don't frequent it as often as I should, are nice and friendly people, always willing to help. If someone looks like they're looking for something, one of the staff will come along and ask them if they need assistance. This is why you pay extra at a bookstore.
It's going to be a sad day when there are no more bookstores, it will mean that people will read less as they won't have a store to just wander into as they're walking down the street, which would be where a lot of the sales come from. It means that book sales, even online book sales, will drop and that people will be less inclined to take up writing. Eventually noone will write books, because it won't be worth their time. Noone will be reading anything, because there won't be the local bookstore to browse for new books.
To me, there couldn't be a much sadder thought. I love books, and I love my local bookstores.
So to everyone out there, I implore you, go to your favourite bookstore, or even just your closest one, and purchase something, anything. It could be sometime small, like a pen, or something large, like an encyclopaedia, but please, go buy something. You never know, you might end up with a great new novel to read, or a new DVD to watch that you never would've seen otherwise. At least then maybe we won't end up with bookstores disappearing.
Thank you for reading this, I'm sorry it hasn't been one of my usual amusing posts, not that I have updated for quite some time.
Everyone in New Zealand should've heard by now, but in case you didn't, here's a little bit of news for you.
Whitcoulls and Borders have gone into voluntary administration. Which, in case you didn't know, and I didn't know what it was either, is when a company is insolvent, or likely to become insolvent, the board of directors appoints an administrator, who is suitably qualified person for the job, to take over the business to try to save it, or if they can't, to bring in a return to the investors that is greater than they would of received had the company had been placed straight into liquidation.
Now, one of the decisions that the Administrator has put into effect is that when you redeem a gift voucher now, you have to also pay an amount equal to the value of the gift voucher. So, for example, if you had a gift voucher worth $20, you would have to also spend $20 of your own money to use it, which means you'd be spending $40 total. $20 from the voucher, $20 from your own pocket.
To be perfectly honest, I don't see a problem with this. I can see why people do have a problem with it, it does seem a bit rude, but they are perfectly within their rights to do so. Hell, they're perfectly within their rights to refuse to redeem vouchers entirely, so really you're getting a better deal here. And to the people who I know are going to point out that they shouldn't have to spend another $20 to be able to spend their $20 voucher, claiming that the company already has their money, did you really buy that voucher with your own money? Did you buy yourself a voucher? And if so, why the fuck would you do that? I will buy vouchers for other people, but never for myself. I'll just buy what I want rather than get a voucher and get what I wanted at a later date, so the company doesn't have YOUR money, they have someone elses. You will be spending $20 of your own money, and the voucher, which is $20 that someone else paid for, to get $40 worth of goods. Seems like a fucking good deal to me!
And now onto the main part of this blog, which is what the title is about. You are killing our bookstores. And so am I.
There is one thing that I am guilty of, and that's being too lazy to go down to the bookstore to get a book. It's cheaper and easier to get books online, and I have purchased many a book online. Sometimes because I can't get them in store, sometimes because I have to get the store to order them in, and sometimes just because it's cheaper. This doesn't really seem like such a bad thing, I'm still paying money to someone, and getting a book in return, where is the harm in that?
The harm in that is that I'm not spending the money at my local bookstore, of which I know many of the staff. I get along with all of them, and I would consider some of them good friends. Because of this, now bookstores are facing closure. There are many people now who are faced with losing their jobs because people want to pay les.
I can't really blame people though, who really wants to pay more for something that they could get for less elsewhere, especially when they don't even have to get off of the couch to order and pay for said item. The thing about bookstores though is that you aren't paying for just the book. You're also paying for the customer service that you get. All of the people at the Whitcoulls that I frequent, though I don't frequent it as often as I should, are nice and friendly people, always willing to help. If someone looks like they're looking for something, one of the staff will come along and ask them if they need assistance. This is why you pay extra at a bookstore.
It's going to be a sad day when there are no more bookstores, it will mean that people will read less as they won't have a store to just wander into as they're walking down the street, which would be where a lot of the sales come from. It means that book sales, even online book sales, will drop and that people will be less inclined to take up writing. Eventually noone will write books, because it won't be worth their time. Noone will be reading anything, because there won't be the local bookstore to browse for new books.
To me, there couldn't be a much sadder thought. I love books, and I love my local bookstores.
So to everyone out there, I implore you, go to your favourite bookstore, or even just your closest one, and purchase something, anything. It could be sometime small, like a pen, or something large, like an encyclopaedia, but please, go buy something. You never know, you might end up with a great new novel to read, or a new DVD to watch that you never would've seen otherwise. At least then maybe we won't end up with bookstores disappearing.
Thank you for reading this, I'm sorry it hasn't been one of my usual amusing posts, not that I have updated for quite some time.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Insert Witty Title Here.
I couldn't think of a witty title for todays blog, so it doesn't really have one. This isn't going to be one of my fun filled ranty entries, or one of my interesting PSAs or movie reviews. Today I'm just going to be getting a few things off of my chest. Sorry if this bores you, but meh.
I've been depressed recently, as my previous entry stated, and I also said that it was because my friends are moving away. I have a lot of friends moving away soon, and it really sucks. I'm going to miss them all, and it means that I will have fewer friends around town than I currently have, and I don't have many friends at the moment anyway. I'd rather they didn't leave, but I would never expect them to stay if they have better prospects elsewhere, and it's led me to thinking about my current prospects and where I am currently in life.
At the moment, I am 27, single, and working a shitty dead end job. I don't study, I have no degree and I have no interest in going to university. My relationship prospects are nil at the moment as well, every girl that I have shown interest in has not shown any interest in me, and I'm just getting sick of even trying.
As I also said previously, I'm thinking of moving away as well, it's just that there is a lot involved in moving towns. Last time, when I moved here, I didn't worry as much. I had somewhere to go, and the job situation didn't bother me as much, as I had never really had a full time job. Now, though, since I have a semi-decent paying job, I need something to go to.
The not having a place to go to kinda sucks as well. I can't really look at flats without being there, and most of the flats that I have seen online don't allow pets, or are in areas that I've been told that I wouldn't want to live in. And the pet thing is the most important of all, I'm not going anywhere that won't let me take my cat with me.
I'd like to be able to have someone look at places for me, but no one who lives there knows me well enough to know what I would be after as well. And if I don't have a job to go to, I won't be able to live in a place that I would like, because it's expensive to live alone. And then there's the cost of moving all of my things there, which won't be cheap.
There's so many things to think about at the moment, and so many decisions to make. It's times like this where I wish I was a child again, and didn't have to worry about all of these things. I could just be happy playing with toys. Not that I can't do that now, it's just that there's other things that have to be done. Blah, I'm just rambling now, so I'll end this here.
Thanks for reading my incoherent depressive ramblings. Hopefully I'll be back on track soon.
I've been depressed recently, as my previous entry stated, and I also said that it was because my friends are moving away. I have a lot of friends moving away soon, and it really sucks. I'm going to miss them all, and it means that I will have fewer friends around town than I currently have, and I don't have many friends at the moment anyway. I'd rather they didn't leave, but I would never expect them to stay if they have better prospects elsewhere, and it's led me to thinking about my current prospects and where I am currently in life.
At the moment, I am 27, single, and working a shitty dead end job. I don't study, I have no degree and I have no interest in going to university. My relationship prospects are nil at the moment as well, every girl that I have shown interest in has not shown any interest in me, and I'm just getting sick of even trying.
As I also said previously, I'm thinking of moving away as well, it's just that there is a lot involved in moving towns. Last time, when I moved here, I didn't worry as much. I had somewhere to go, and the job situation didn't bother me as much, as I had never really had a full time job. Now, though, since I have a semi-decent paying job, I need something to go to.
The not having a place to go to kinda sucks as well. I can't really look at flats without being there, and most of the flats that I have seen online don't allow pets, or are in areas that I've been told that I wouldn't want to live in. And the pet thing is the most important of all, I'm not going anywhere that won't let me take my cat with me.
I'd like to be able to have someone look at places for me, but no one who lives there knows me well enough to know what I would be after as well. And if I don't have a job to go to, I won't be able to live in a place that I would like, because it's expensive to live alone. And then there's the cost of moving all of my things there, which won't be cheap.
There's so many things to think about at the moment, and so many decisions to make. It's times like this where I wish I was a child again, and didn't have to worry about all of these things. I could just be happy playing with toys. Not that I can't do that now, it's just that there's other things that have to be done. Blah, I'm just rambling now, so I'll end this here.
Thanks for reading my incoherent depressive ramblings. Hopefully I'll be back on track soon.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
I'm back, baby!
Sorry loyal readers, but I took a brief hiatus from blogging. I decided that I couldn't be bothered for the week between Christmas and New Years, and probably won't be back to our regular schedule until next week, but I thought I'd make a post anyway.
So since I posted last... Wait, when did I post last? I should check that before I start to update what I've been upto...
OK, so, there's my past PSA, and my movie review, both of them were crappy, and then before that was a Minecraft post, and then about the heat we were getting. OK, now I'm up to date on what I have done last.
So since I last posted, I haven't really been upto much, been playing a lot of Minecraft, fuck that game is like crack. I think I'll be not playing as much now though, my interest in the game is waning, I do still like it, it's just that when I die and lose all my things, I don't feel like playing on that world any more. This has happened to me twice now, and I am sort of losing interest in the whole matter. Ah well, it'll leave me with more time for blogging and the such.
Christmas came and went. It was kind of a non-event for me this year, as it was last. I didn't have the money to fly home for the holidays, and my family can't really afford to fly down here. Such is life. I did get a phone call from my Dad though, which is good. Got updated with all the latest gossip from home, which isn't much and is mostly boring.
For Christmas I got $100 from my Dad, which is the usual present. It's quite handy as money is usually short at this time of the year, so I'm glad for it. And I got a tie with a Dalek on it, and tieclip with the TARDIS on it. Which is AWESOME! I loves it, and it will be my tie of choice when I go out wearing my suit now. Or when I go out wearing any sort of shirt that a tie will go with.
I saw my flatmate for Christmas, which is always a treat. I miss having her around when she isn't here, which she isn't very much. I spent most of the day at home playing on my computer, but ended up going around to a friends house in the evening and having a few drinks with friends, old and new.
Between Christmas and New Years I didn't do anything at all. I worked for three of the days, which was horrible, and then got another four day weekend. Which the last day of it is tomorrow, and I'm back to work on Monday. At 6am. Which will suck ass.
I didn't do anything for New Years, I was supposed to go around to a friends for a BBQ, and drinks, but I decided against it. I didn't really feel sociable.Mostly because I've been depressed again recently, which I'm not enjoying. I blame the fact that all of my friends are moving away. Granted I don't see these friends much, it means that I definitely won't see them much any more, since they won't even be living in the same town as me. Due to this, I have been contemplating moving cities as well.
Christchurch is where I'm thinking of moving to. I know that I'll be leaving a lot of friends behind in Dunedin, but I'll hopefully make new ones in Christchurch. And there'll be better opportunities there for me, job related and other things related.
Speaking of other things...
Sigh.
I saw one of my old old friends online the other night. I hadn't spoken to her for quite a while, so I messaged her and we started a video chat. I should add here that when I met her online years ago, I kind of fell for her. She is smart, and beautiful. The only problem being that she lives in the US and, well, I very much don't. So anyway, we start a video chat. She asked me if I would consider dating her again, which I told her that I don't do the whole long distance thing. It doesn't work for me, I've tried it before, heck, we've tried it before and it didn't work. Then she told me that she was looking at completing her doctorate in New Zealand. She might be coming to New Zealand. Of course, my answer then was yes, I would date her. I would love to.
Of course, at this great and happy news, you'd think that I would be all jovial and happy. But no, my brain doesn't work that way. For some fucked up reason, my brain sabotages all chances of happiness for me. I'm thinking that it's my subconsciousnesses way of not letting myself get my hopes up, by filling me with doubts and anxiety over the whole situation. Blaaaah.
But it does give me another reason to move to Christchurch, because that's where she'll be if she comes over here.
So that's been my past week or so. Filled with boring crap. I'll go back to doing my movie/DVD review and PSA next week, once I've settled back into things. These two four day weekends have been good, but they've messed up my schedule for doing crap like blogging.
My next PSA will be on Ninjas. So stay tuned!
Thanks for reading, and again, don't forget to click any ads that pique your interest, as it will get me money. And also don't forget to like the blogs facebook page! The link is still where I've been telling you it is.
Thanks again! Goodnight all!
So since I posted last... Wait, when did I post last? I should check that before I start to update what I've been upto...
OK, so, there's my past PSA, and my movie review, both of them were crappy, and then before that was a Minecraft post, and then about the heat we were getting. OK, now I'm up to date on what I have done last.
So since I last posted, I haven't really been upto much, been playing a lot of Minecraft, fuck that game is like crack. I think I'll be not playing as much now though, my interest in the game is waning, I do still like it, it's just that when I die and lose all my things, I don't feel like playing on that world any more. This has happened to me twice now, and I am sort of losing interest in the whole matter. Ah well, it'll leave me with more time for blogging and the such.
Christmas came and went. It was kind of a non-event for me this year, as it was last. I didn't have the money to fly home for the holidays, and my family can't really afford to fly down here. Such is life. I did get a phone call from my Dad though, which is good. Got updated with all the latest gossip from home, which isn't much and is mostly boring.
For Christmas I got $100 from my Dad, which is the usual present. It's quite handy as money is usually short at this time of the year, so I'm glad for it. And I got a tie with a Dalek on it, and tieclip with the TARDIS on it. Which is AWESOME! I loves it, and it will be my tie of choice when I go out wearing my suit now. Or when I go out wearing any sort of shirt that a tie will go with.
I saw my flatmate for Christmas, which is always a treat. I miss having her around when she isn't here, which she isn't very much. I spent most of the day at home playing on my computer, but ended up going around to a friends house in the evening and having a few drinks with friends, old and new.
Between Christmas and New Years I didn't do anything at all. I worked for three of the days, which was horrible, and then got another four day weekend. Which the last day of it is tomorrow, and I'm back to work on Monday. At 6am. Which will suck ass.
I didn't do anything for New Years, I was supposed to go around to a friends for a BBQ, and drinks, but I decided against it. I didn't really feel sociable.Mostly because I've been depressed again recently, which I'm not enjoying. I blame the fact that all of my friends are moving away. Granted I don't see these friends much, it means that I definitely won't see them much any more, since they won't even be living in the same town as me. Due to this, I have been contemplating moving cities as well.
Christchurch is where I'm thinking of moving to. I know that I'll be leaving a lot of friends behind in Dunedin, but I'll hopefully make new ones in Christchurch. And there'll be better opportunities there for me, job related and other things related.
Speaking of other things...
Sigh.
I saw one of my old old friends online the other night. I hadn't spoken to her for quite a while, so I messaged her and we started a video chat. I should add here that when I met her online years ago, I kind of fell for her. She is smart, and beautiful. The only problem being that she lives in the US and, well, I very much don't. So anyway, we start a video chat. She asked me if I would consider dating her again, which I told her that I don't do the whole long distance thing. It doesn't work for me, I've tried it before, heck, we've tried it before and it didn't work. Then she told me that she was looking at completing her doctorate in New Zealand. She might be coming to New Zealand. Of course, my answer then was yes, I would date her. I would love to.
Of course, at this great and happy news, you'd think that I would be all jovial and happy. But no, my brain doesn't work that way. For some fucked up reason, my brain sabotages all chances of happiness for me. I'm thinking that it's my subconsciousnesses way of not letting myself get my hopes up, by filling me with doubts and anxiety over the whole situation. Blaaaah.
But it does give me another reason to move to Christchurch, because that's where she'll be if she comes over here.
So that's been my past week or so. Filled with boring crap. I'll go back to doing my movie/DVD review and PSA next week, once I've settled back into things. These two four day weekends have been good, but they've messed up my schedule for doing crap like blogging.
My next PSA will be on Ninjas. So stay tuned!
Thanks for reading, and again, don't forget to click any ads that pique your interest, as it will get me money. And also don't forget to like the blogs facebook page! The link is still where I've been telling you it is.
Thanks again! Goodnight all!
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