This isan actual Blog, not a humourous observation

I could call this Dark Possibilites, but considering what it entails I'm not so sure that's appropriate. This topic will have the most profound effect on those that have never moved state/country, especially thoue in New Zealand.

I don't like to talk about personal stuff, but the fact of the matter is - we don't make much money in our family. Now, there's a less than 50% chance we'll be moving from New Zealand...
...to Australia. Ye Wise Older Sister says dad's pay will be doubled and we won't have to be so conservative, but...

I have very little suff, but what I DO have is precious. I have to leave it behind.

Facts FOR staying in NZ
New Zealand is friendly to foreigners, even Aussies. Are Aussies friendly, especially to us Kiwis?
New Zealand is free from dangerous animals (no snakes, crocs, venomous spiders). Is Aussie? (Not on your nelly!)
New Zealand is nice and crisp and cool and wet. Is Aussie? (Try 'large cultivated dust clod')
New Zealand has relatively low crim rates. Does Aussie? (Probably not, at least not as low as ours)

Facts AGAINST staying in NZ
Umm.. teenage pregnancy and alcohol abuse is high in NZ. But I'm waiting, and Idon't drink, so...
About 3 moths behind other countries in releases (movies, CDs, etc). But since NZ is getting more well known, the gap is shrinking (only a year ago it was 6 months). And Aussie probably isn't much better.So...
Dad makes more money so we won't have to stay poor.

So, of those three, onlyone really apply. And though it's a VERY NICE point (and my most preciousness could be taken with me) it still... I'm too attatched to New Zealand, really. I just... I just don't think it would work well for me. Plus, I am very patriotic and love New Zealand very much. What do you think we should do?

A dim lightbulb without a shade swings, though untouched, in the dark room. A figure leans over a chair in an intimidating manner. In an authoritative tone bordering on aggressive, he asks the Seated... "What the *** is your problem, subconsciousness?"

Isn't it interesting how we casually refer to dreaming? If we described it as it really was...
Max: So, you comin' the the barbecue Tom's set up?
Lou: Oh, sure. But first I'm going to slip into a coma for a few hours, hallucinate vividly, then suffer amnesia about the whole experience.
Max: Cool, cool.

Actually, now I'm too busy laughing. I might refer to dreaming as that more often...

...although it strikes me that my vivid hallucinations tend to be a little more... bizarre than most would experience. Most would dream of... say... being best friends with someone famous, or finding out they are actually rich and successful, and occasionally able to fly.
My little sister can fly if she holds a plank of wood. She has been a mermaid - but not much else - many, many times.

But my youngest older sister and I (I have a lot of sisters, but brothers? Not-a-one)... we tend to go, as my apparently 'teen-savvy' lil' sis says, 'OTT'. Meaning, Out of The Tyrannosaurus. Or... well, you know, I'm sure. I can't remember some of the weirder of my sister's dreams, and I can't assume she wants me to share them (so I won't). But I've never met another who, like me, has ever been a brat (bat/rat cross) fighting evil scientists... or, scientist. With questionable intelligence.
And who of you have been kidnapped by the NCIS crew, shoved in a crate, sold to old-time ROMAN SOLDIERS as slaves... who happened to arrive with their Roman galleons strapped to the back or enormous wallabies? And, because I am not black, I 'pick up a shadow' so I'll look like the rest of the slaves? And that Ceser had apparently been overthrown by someone I knew from my time selling off modern technology (simple ones like the bike)?
Who of you have been in a forest about 1.5m cubed... 1.5m x 1.5m x 1.5m of air completely surrounded by flat planes of shrubbery like a badly designed computer game? Then pulling your feet out of the swamp to find them covered in lots of tiny bugs that look like seashore crabs, which are sucking away your blood.. your dreaMe (dreamt self) referring to them as 'ticks' (when they are clearly... well... not ticks, anyway)?

The truth about dreaming is... that... there are no real laws, so there can be no real truth.

TIP TO AVOID NIGHTMARES:
-- You are more receptive in times of high stress, but the MAIN CAUSE is
-- extremes of temperature (too hot, too cold).

If you are stressed temperatures do not need to be as extreme to give you a bad dream. There is no real thing as a 'prophecy' in a dream. Those who think they've had one should just get on with their sad, pathetic little lives they appear to be trying to escape from...

I want to ask you a favour - if I got your mum to hold up any colour, would you recognise it?

Thereis NOT ONE spelling error in that above scetence (or a point). Why? Because, before you ask, I am from New Zealand. The place that apparently has hobbits?
NO. We don't have hobbits.

And we don't have so many sheep either. Americans - about 37-40%, I think it was, live in cities. The rest are farmers, or orchadists, or chicken hustlers. Only 14% of New Zealanders live in rural areas, and most popular rural occupations are NOT sheep, but cattle and orchads (mainly apples). Our apples also happen to be cheaper and better quality than Aussies, which is why they won'tlet them in despite the 'fair, unbarredtrade' act, apparently risking getting 'sandflies'. (Oh no! Not the deadly sandflies! Why can't we stick to docile crocodiles,the quite chumley venomous snakes,and a number of poisonous spiders... ONE OF WHICH WE ALREADY SENT INTO NEW ZEALAND?)
Sheep are from ages ago. AGES. Don't assume the record still stands. It's like... going... to America and meeting someone and saying... erm... "Wow! An American! So, have you ever met Christopher Columbus?" Do you have any idea how LONG ago that was? Yeah, I think we're on the same page... paragraph... whatever.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not angry... vaguely.

Oh yes. We use British English, not American English, or as I say, the 'Americanese', which happen to be responsible for the hole n the ozone layer, HOVERING RIGHT OVER MY REGION IN NZ. But I can't complain, because it's always sunny there, usually anyway. Everywhere else can be drippy even in high summer. So I guess that means Hawke's Bay (my region) is the only place which smells permanently dusty. Um... and not... soggy.

We have paua, which is found nowhere else in the world. It has beautiful markings and the shell is used for jewelery. Despite it's great beuty, although it has good value, its not in the legue of like, actual gems or anything. Just better than glass, really. It's a shellfish, but personally I've never eaten it. I don't even know if we (kiwis - slang for those of NZ - New Zealand) ever do. I know mussles make my brain taste funny. I mean, well, you know.

Oh, and don't get us mixed up with Australia. WE DO NOT HAVE THOSE ACCENTS. WE DO NOT SAY 'SHEILA' (we may say 'mate' but not with the nasal drawl). Of course, many Australians do not necessarily say 'sheila' either (but don't try to deny the accent :)) That, and don't say... I mean... let me explain.

The PS2 game Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando is sold in New Zealand (and other countries)under the name Locked and Loaded. Why? In New Zealand, if you say you are going commando, it means you aren't wearing any underwear under your clothes. So, best not to, you know... advertise that.

This is probably my longest blog yet, but maybe that's because I can talk about me without actually talking about MYSELF (which I hate). Yeah, I don't like talking about myself to anyone, even my family. A lot of NZers don't (foreigners say that, especially compared to other countries, we are very friendly and modest). But that doesn't mean I won't rave on about Atearoa, The Land of the Long White Cloud. (Atearoa, BTW, is the Moari's namefor New Zealand and means 'The Land of Cloud whatever' that I just said.)

And I am OUT!!... of the 2nd story window.
*AAAAAAAaaaaaaahhhhhh.....*

I've spend many a year trying to get my little sister to do what I want. Jump right, spin left, triple backwards somersault.So far she's more like a vending machine - I don't get anything until I put a ridiculous amount of money in her hand first.
So it's fair to say, I don't have time for headaches. Wait, what? I'm quoting Panadol ads.
So it's fair to say,I don't have the money for posing.

OK, before you think I'm some big head for a modelling agency (not likely) or a scout for great actors or playboy models (even less likely) I should mention why I got her to do this. A LONG time ago. Well, I'm a drawer. You know,I draw,I'm not storage for you nasty pajamas and underwear.Not your manga drawers (that is SO 'common') and although I dabble in cartooning, I draw real people. Not to the standard, say,a great artist would have for a one time shot. Casual sketching, character designs, short panels that nothing really happens to. Sometimes a great big piece of art.

Up until now I have rely on myself to get small details. I can't do poses, after all, my eyes aren't seperate from my body (that's my sanity), but things like what this hand looks from this side, THAT foot from THAT side... do you have any idea what the back of your foot looks like? Close one eye, contort your leg and look. Ugly fleshy lump, isn't it? Even on those (girls mainly) with relatively nice feet, free from uncharted fungi.

However my poses were restricted because of this. But no more! As a present from Uncle A and Auntie L, I received a....

...wooden manikin!

OK, that doesn't sound as dramatic and awe-inspiring as such a sentence structure would hope. But now I have my own little poser! During the course of the night (I received him - it's a male frame - about midnight last night)I have arranged him in several different poses. Hand on hips - look so commanding! Gazing in awe at my desk lamp with an outstreached arm - looks so...erm, gazing. At the moment he either clutching at his crotch to avoid pissing himself, or sandpapering his right thigh. He's still a little stiff so I haven't figure that part out.

Why would he be sandpapering his thigh? Uhh... cellulite?

Some blogs are disappearing from our pages. Others go on strong but nobody reads them so they are, for intents and purposes, dead also. So,I send some off to the... *ahem* 'eLab' to have them eTested in an eAutopsy...

The blogsare well and truly dead.
At least, I poked the screen andthey didn't move, so I can legally get away with giving them an autopsy.

Victim... er, BLOG1 seems to be 'snippets' of things that no one really cares about (pictures of my cat! picture of my grandma in a congo line!) I mean, what the hell? This is your average online diary.
CAUSE OF DEATH: Overdose of Boringoxide and Lame-ation.

BLOG2 is an effort to advertise ones own accomplishments/services. For example, people on Networking sites - like Bebo, for example - announce their profile skins so more will use them. Never mind that it has NO effect WHATSOEVER on YOUR page... and actually can be quite annoying.
CAUSE OF DEATH: Serverly irratating (rash?).

BLOG2 is a whole mish-mash of symbols spelling out 'KORN' or 'I LOVE CHICKEN' or 'NOTE TO SELF: PICK UP MILK'. Alternatively, they could be symbol-versoins of the above mentioned cat and conga-lining grandma.
CAUSE OF DEATH: I needn't have to explain. Enough.

BLOG3 appears to be a collection of jokes, one entry after another.Never mind that some are lame. Too lame. Or that the riddles suck. You occasionally get a gold nugget among all the chicken ones.
CAUSE OF DEATH: You can't spend chicken nuggets, and too many of them are. *sigh*

BLOG4. Now this is more interesting. Light humour and friendly conversational build - if you are the type to have an actual, face-to-face conversation - without all the 'ums' and 'ers'. Or as many. Jokes not entirely riddled with horrendous puns, if you have a good sense of humour you can truly enjoy it. Downside is that it's usually very long, so most people never partake in its... richness, its freshness (it's allowed to border on mildly eccentric).
CAUSE OF DEATH: Illiterate Scrooge and his gang of slow-reading school-dropouts.

BLOG5 - a way of announcing without necessarily advertising. This is more common in Unions, Communities, Groups and Bands than individual profiles. It lets Members know of upcoming events.
CAUSE OF DEATH: Jealous BLOG2, with the candlestick, in the Conservatory.

BLOG6 - Listing a whole bunch of radom, off-topic, unrelated objects (for example, how many words you can make out the words 'I THINK I'M A TEAPOT' or whatever. I've yet to see one of these, but they're probably out there somewhere. Actually, I DID see a list of games to get, so...
CAUSE OF DEATH: Shot by an insane amount of bullet(point)s.

BLOG7 is posted by the blogger who thinks they may be the next J K Rowling or J R R Tolkein or Windfeild Windgrass... or something. The idea is that they post their blogs as stories and (shudder) 'interpretive poems'. They write long long posts, with no purpose, a lack of punctuation (especially the fabled 'full-stop' or 'period', and often the sorely missed 'speech marks'... SPEECH MARKS PEOPLE!!!!!).
CAUSE OF DEATH: Lack of punctutaion caused me to go homicidal. The rest is in the case notes.

Oh yes. I do think, of all, I am the long, slog-through-it, could-it-be-worth-it BLOG4.
What BLOG are you?

"Hey everyone, lets drool over the new PS3 console! It's sooooooo cool!"
"If I have this it will make me the hippest kid in school even if I look like Jack Black with a bad hair day, low self-esteem, Harry Potter glasses and no social life!"
"PS2 is soooooo dead, and I sooooooo think I am entitled to say this, because I soooooo sound like a knooooooow about it all when I soooooo drag out my OOOOOOOOOs like this."

The Old and Crusty Friend? The Diseased and Disregarded Pally? The Mediochre Mate? The PS2?
WTF man? No, I mean the PS1. Yes, the PS2 is seeing what it'slike to rapidly fall to the bottom of the pile - of course, being made by the same guys as the PS3, the companies don't give the chocolate half of a Twinkie. But it's the PS1 that really gets the...

Look, how about I explain it THIS way.
PS1 comes out:
"Yay, I have no idea what the **** this is, but I have to have it anyway!" Playing. The world gains pounds. Geeks form clubs (no offence) dedeicated to.. lets say Spyro and... Tony Hawke Pro Skater 2.
PS2 comes out:
"Yay, I have no idea what the **** has changed but I have to have it anyway!" Of course, we know, but -- Playing. While we still gain pounds, Sony thinks some truly devious thought - even if the games don't require the power, graphics, speed and processing the PS2 provides, make it PS2 exclusive.
It's business after all.

Ergo the death of the PS1 as it struggles to entertain itself with crap like Harry Potter: Chanber of Secrets, with mildly interesting breaks of MediEvil II, topped with more crapvia Croc: Revenge of the Gobbos or whatever.
Have you ever SEEN Video Ezy in New Zealand? About 6 shelves devoted to PS2.
About half a shelfto PS1.
Well, shoot my pidgeon and call me Rumplestiltskin. We need to upgrade.

So what will the inevitable response to the PS3 be? The PS1 will probably be suffering all over the world, kids chuck out their platforms, and they become about as welcome in a Christmas Stocking as Mrs. Claus's 100% All Natural Reindeer S**t. Very nice.
The PS2 won't get down to half shelves, at least not so quickly, because it's already such high quality. But it is officially labeled by Isaac Newton and Winston Churchil - well sort of - as 'Old Hat'.

Please, a moment of silence for the PlayStation One.

I hardly ever viewed GameSpot. I often found it provided the most information, that the said information was reliable and easy to read, clear and concise. However, I simply did not spend the majority of my time on GameSpot - or even on the internet, prefering instead solid, simple, down-to-earth GAMES.

But, you can buy loyalty. Heck, I sign up to give it to you. I signed up to Gamespot in the hope of giving a review on a game I own - but found quickly growing stale - to find I must be a member. Fine and dandy, think I, so I do. Now I have to be level 3.
I spend about two hours trying to figuire out what the hell 'Level 3' is supposed to mean - it's not in the main FAQs, after all... but, via forum, found it!
What a bummer getting the answer.

When I say essence of sheep, my real maening is this. I hardly ever use the net, let alone using the net for researching into games I already know in depth.
I spent three consectutive hours doing nothing that I can remember.
I DO remember waiting about 15 minutes to watch a video review that had to rebuffer every time it started playing *groan*. I think I managed to get away, and although I did really want to see it, I relied on a review instead. I can't actually remember who wrote it - all these usernames are inside references and meaningless numbers - but I DO remember it was for Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal and the writer had a Captain Quark avatar. Interesting, to go with the detailed - but not spoiling - review.
Excellent, whoever in the hell you are.