Cats are strange things. I don't claim to understand them at all, and I must admit to not being a great fan of their work, either. *shrug*

Recently, I went over to a friend of mine's place to watch some DVDs and have some dinner. Y'know, night out on the weekend after a hard day's work? NEhow, I was sitting there on the couch watching the DVD, and my friend's cat was sitting on the couch in between us. Now, for some reason the cat thought it would be nice to snuggle up against my leg (how is it that animals seem to know when you don't like them?) and go to sleep. So, trying to be nice, I figued I would pat the cat a bit - I don't like cats, but that doesn't mean I wanna be mean to them or NEthing.

The cat accepts the patting for a while, which I thought was kinda kewl. But after a short period of time decided to hunt my hand down and attack me. So here I am, being nice to a cat and stuff, and it decides to sink it's fangs into my hand and claw me some. Lovely. Now I figure the cat was just playing a bit, as it never drew blood. But even so - not very nice to attack someone being polite to ya, is it? Sues (the aforementioned friend) got a bit upset with Mischief (the aptly named cat in question), but the lil' furball (Mischief, not Sues... :)) still was fanging me, so I stopped being nice and patting her.

And people wonder why I don't like cats? :P

Then, to top it off I managed to acquire myself a stalker cat on Tuesday night. Was running a First Aid course at a St. John Centre near my house when this cat just walks in off the street and decides to explore the building! Now, I tried to shoo it out, but it didn't wanna co-operate - so I had to pick it up (cat purring the entire time - enjoying the attention, I think) and put it back outside.

Half an hour later? It's back for more! Given I was running the course at this point, it was difficult to shoo it out. So here I am, trying to teach CPR with a cat inspecting the manikin and trying to get involved... Had one of the participants put the cat out (which had curled up under her chair asleep) and close the door. But of course it sat outside and mewed for a while. It managed to get in one more time at the end of the night when people were leaving - weird creature.

So have I become a cat magnet or something? I'm a bit confused. Cats are strange...

is sometimes a complicated thing, and sometimes keeps us away from the things we enjoy.

Yes I AM alive, people. I've just had a lil' break from being online and doing much here at Gamespot. Just thought I should drop you all a quick Journal Entry to that effect, as I'm going to bed now - I'm kinda tired.

More again another night. Hope all is well in all the bits of Gamespot Land. :D

Well, it's that time again. Sure, some time has passed since this last happened to me here at Gamespot, but after some effort and making lots of noises here and in various Forums and Unions, I've managed to make that lil' sliding scale thing move far enough to reset itself. :)

Yes, people - I have finally managed to get rid of that awful title of Toobin', and have managed to acquire a slightly more dignified title. For the time being, you may refer to me as...

Magician Lord

Definitely sounds a lil' more classy, and now I get to hurl powerful magics about and alter the fabric of space time with my mind, rather than just being really good at surfing. My goal of Gitaroo Man is one step closer, ladies and gentlemen. I am aiming for the next two months to be enough time for my goal to be reached. Let us see how it pans out... :D

Well, I've had a busy night. Given that I'm trying to make a bit more of an effort here at Gamespot than I might have made in recent weeks, I've put in a good few hours work.

I've managed to wade my way through nearly everyone's Journal on my list of Friends, and chucked a good few comments into the mix for good measure. Caro, you have a unique style of Journal writing - I aspire to be as interesting as you manage to be. GamerMasta, welcome to the fold - feel free to chuck some comments in my Journal when you please. Znuggles, good to see Hercules is well again. For the Ladies Tinoshke and Bam, I miss your own writings - come back from Azeroth from time to time and visit us, willya? Stan mate - pick up the slack, willya? To the many DBZ fans out there (which I must admit, I'm not one - even though I seem to have fallen in with their crowd) particularly Buster and Huskey - keep up with all those Journal entries I don't understand. Bokista, get that Union up and running mate - I wanna see what sort of things happen there. And for all of you whose Journals I comment in, but for which I have no comment right now - keep up the good work. :)

I've also tried to make an effort to get involved with all these Union things, and managed to post some comments in most of the Boards at each Union I belong to. Or at least I'm working my way through them - I'll get there over the next couple of days.

I've even managed to read some News here, which I haven't done for some time. I'm now up to the dizzying heights of September, 1997. Who woulda thought that old news could be so interesting and amusing? I'll catch up to the current day in due course - gimme a year or so. :P

I've read some reviews, showed my thumbs to some of them, and even Trusted some new people. I've added a couple of new games to my Collection, and generally caused some trouble around the place as best I can. And now? I'm a lil' tired, so I'm gonna get some sleep and see what the morning brings.

Take care, people. More another day...

Well, things are always changing, aren't they? I started out here as a n00b, having no real idea as to what was happening around the world of Gamespot. I have since discovered Forums, and Journals, and Reviews and even becoming a Complete Member while I was at it. All quite interesting things, and far more than I actually have time to spend doing properly...

So now that these Union things seem to be popping up all over the place, and I somehow seem to be involved in them as well as everything else. In fact, I have managed to co-found one of them, with a lot of help from a man by the name of Rieswan.

I now seem to be a member of no less than three Unions. I'm gonna put down some links here for you all, as I think you should check them out. They're all kewl in their own way, and they each have a slightly different focus. The first is based on the topic of Hobbies, and the other two of them are game-based Unions. :)

The Extraordinary Chosen One Union

The Fatal Frame Series Union

The Devil May Cry Union

Should any of you be interested in checking out any of these fine Unions, feel free to click on the respective links. Enjoy! *grin*

No, I'm not working in the garden or NEthing. My thumb isn't quite green - although due to the Way of the Thumb it is quite strong. :)

Actually, I just wanted to make a quick comment about the Australian landscape. Now, I'm not very poetic so hold back your laughter as I attempt to describe what I observed on the drive back to Adelaide from Berri earlier this afternoon. Bear with me, OK?

Australia is a bit of country of contrasts. For those of you who have been here, you may have witnessed some of it's beauty. My state of South Australia is actually the driest state on the driest continent on the planet, so it tends to have an interesting variety of colours, but a sizeable lack of snow. On the drive back to Adelaide, I was amazed at how green the countryside was, even though we haven't had a large amount of rain this Summer.

The green vines of the vineyards near Berri were well tended, but as I got further from civilization, the greens were fewer and far between. Browns and yellows are a predominant colour in the slightly more outback areas. But so many varying shades from dried grass, to various crops, to the dirt itself. The terrain between Berri and Adelaide varies from almost completely flat to quite hilly as you near Adelaide itself - the views from the higher areas are breathtaking as you can see the countryside spread out before you.

The vegetation tends to be a bit diverse. I mentioned that there are various crops, from grape vine to whatever the Farmers may be growing at this time of year. Trees tend to be hardy things, and can cope with a lack of water for the most part. Ground cover can vary, from wiry weeds to grasses of different types. One image that stuck in my mind was of a single tree, standing alone in the middle of a paddock, standing somewhat bent and crooked against the elements.

The skies are blue, although it was disappointing to see clouds on a sunny day like today. The clouds themselves varied in shade from white to a dirty grey - civilization has had an impact on them, I'm sure. There were just enough to act as a contrast to the blue of the sky itself, which was kinda kewl in itself.

I just felt the urge to put pen to paper about the sights I saw on the way back. Something about the drive back moved me to comment. Thanks for your patience. :D

How many of you out there are of a somewhat religious nature? Right - for all of you who just raised your hands, I have some questions to pose and comments to make. Keep in mind that while I am Catholic myself, I am not terribly religious, and so am unsure about some of what I speak. Bear with me.

I managed to spend this evening with my family (including my future Brother-In-Law) at a very relaxing family dinner at my parent's house. We had (as we always do on Good Friday) Fish and Chips for dinner. Is it just me, or does everybody take the opportunity to have that meal on this particularly day? My sister mentioned to me how very busy the local Fish and Chip shop was when they went in to pick up our dinner.

An interesting conversation that came up at the dinner table (brought up by myself actually) was about the names of the days around Easter itself. I was unsure as to what each day was called officially, and I would like to check in with all of you here as well. My Mum was taught by Nuns and my Dad an Altar Boy, but that doesn't mean I don't want a second opinion.

Thursday - Maundy Thursday

Friday - Good Friday

Saturday - Holy Saturday

Sunday - Easter Sunday

Monday - Squirting Day (Polish culture, it appears? My brother-in-law-to-be is Polish)

How close am I with all of these, ladies and gentlemen? I expect the names might be slightly different, depending on what part of the world you are from, but I gotta ask just the same.

And on that note, I would like to wish you ALL a Happy Easter. May you also get the opportunity to spend some time with your families as I have, and celebrate this weekend in your own way. Take care of yourselves, be good to your neighbours. :)

Well, I have had a bit of a look through some of my recent Journal entries, and with the exception of my recent Review of WarioWare Touched! for the DS, I haven't been talking about Games much recently. I've decided to rectify that with a bit of a general entry on some of the Games I managed to have a go at on my lil' holiday I've just had.

As most of you are prolly aware, I have managed to procure myself a 'Cube recently, which has opened up whole new vistas of Gaming pleasure for me. (It also means I have loads of Games I now need to track down to add to my collection - yeah, I think I'm obsessive-compulsive. Allow me my hobby, OK? :P) Now, March isn't quite the mad month that last November was, but there still have been a few good releases in the past month that I've managed to get hold of (I love the pre-order thingies - means I don't have to stress about money when they all come out, just so long as I spot a release date early enough. *grin*)

Most recently, I've managed to pick up Dante's Awakening on the PS2, Resident Evil 4 on the 'Cube and I've traded in both Fatal Frames on the PS2 and converted 'em to their X-Box counterparts. Why, you may ask? Yes, you may ask that... :P

I managed to have a bit of a play on DMC3, and I must say I'm impressed! I've only managed to have a go at it for about an hour or two, and I like the new combat styles you can use. I also am quite pleased that they've made sure Dante has plenty of attitude in the game, which is part of the reason why he's so cool. (No, I'm not a fanboy people - I won't be asking who would win in a fight between him and Mayu, although it is an interesting question... Maybe I should post it in the Forums somewhere and see who answers? :P) It is a bit harder than the original, and I'm outta practise with my demon slaying, so I got my butt handed to me on a platter fairly quickly. A bit of practise, and I'll do better - I hope. :)

Resident Evil 4 is awesome as well. I like the new over the shoulder view, and the new weirdness in the story. Only managed to get up to the end of Chapter One, and early into the second bit, so I'm still a lil' puzzled as to what's going on with the weird villagers. They die much like zombies, but they don't act like 'em, so I'm getting slaughtered a decent amount in this game as well. It's been a while since I've played any of my Resident Evil games, so I might have to drag 'em out to practise some before attempting to save the President's daughter...

I still haven't managed to have much of a go on the Fatal Frames, but I'll get there. At some point. I've actually managed to get myself invited into the Fatal Frame Union, but I might save that for another post. Onwards and upwards with the Gaming! Gotta spend some time this weekend playing some more of my newer Games. :)

Well, it appears I've managed to avoid being in Adelaide again for a short period of time. I must admit, this past month or so I've been running around quite a bit actually. Which kinda makes a nice change. :)

This time I managed to head up to Berri to visit some friends of mine who live a couple of hours north-east of Adelaide. I've had a quiet week or so when it comes to work, so it seemed like a good opportunity to get away from the bustle of city life and spend some time out in the country a lil'. Tanya and James are good people, and I don't get to see them so often now that they live a bit further away, so it was also a good chance to catch up with 'em and see how things were going.

I've actually managed to head up there a few times now. Over the past couple of years, St. John has sent me up there for work from time to time, so the drive is nothing new. Couple of hours following a main highway, so it was boring more than NEthing else. Made a change to be driving up during the day though - I usually seem to end up driving there in the early evening - I got to see a bit of the scenery.

Catching up with my friends was nice. Was ate take-out for two days, and played LOADS of Games. I took my 'Cube and my X-Box up with me (they have a PS2 already), and my entire Console Game collection. (I had to pack three bags just for the Consoles and games - was a bit heavy lugging 'em all around. :)) Sleep was optional, but apart from playing a lot of my newer games (and finding out a few games that they now wanna get hold of - ah, the joys of lending games...) we also managed to watch a fair amount of Firefly.

For those of you who haven't heard of it before (and no, I'm NOT looking at you, Mr Znuggles... :P) it's a Sci-Fi show created by the genius who created Buffy - Joss Whedon. It's set a couple of hundred years into the future, which may seem a lil' different for Mr Whedon, but it has a lot of humour and attitude in it, much like Buffy. The setting is a bit like the Pioneer days, when the West Was Won, and that sorta thing. Cowboy like, with a Civil War feel to it as well. It's actually really good fun, although I must admit it sounds a bit strange - check it out! :D

Was a good couple of days, so it was kinda nice just to get away from it all and catch up with friends for a change. I don't get to do it all that often, so I gotta make the most of the opportunity when I get it.

Well, I got a few more Journal entries to write tonight (and it appears a few Union entries as well), so I better get that ear back to the grindstone, or my shoulder to the ground, or my nose to the wheel - or whatever that saying is, NEhow. *grin*

Oh, MtR stands for "Matt the Reviewer" in case you were a bit puzzled by the title. :D

Yeah, I've had a lil' bit of spare time on my hands recently. So I figured I should get back into some activity here on Gamespot. Managed to write a Journal entry or two in the past week, made a few Forum comments, might have just managed to get myself involved in forming a new Union, and even managed to post a whole new Review for WarioWare Touched!

Feel free to give it a read, people. Particularly if you're a lil' unsure about the whole Nintendo DS console, and wanna have a look at my thoughts on one of it's launch games. Feel free to voice your opinion on whatcha thought about it as well - feedback is always valued.

Just gotta start to think about what's next on the Reviewing list. I don't like Reviewing a game until I've finished it, which means it might be a while before I do another one. Actually, I reckon one will be happening for Need for Speed - Underground on the PS2, Half-Life 2 on the PC, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the GBA, and quite possibly Metroid Prime on the 'Cube.

Sometime. Maybe not quite tomorrow, but sometime soon. Just as soon as I finish them. Whenever that might be... OK, so maybe your grandkids might get to read 'em? :P