Well, I have a day off from work today (and for most of the rest of this week), so here I am, making some noises at the world again. :D

In the three months, things have changed a bit around my house. I used to be the owner of a PC (slightly aging now - it's just over a year old... :P) and a well-loved PS2. And when I had the inclination, I would spend a bit of time on each, killing some evil monsters, or exploring desolate castles, or playing magical musical instruments, or even running screaming from ghosts or aliens, or weird zombie things. All a lot of fun, really.

The Christmas 2004 arrived, and my Gaming experience broadened somewhat with the addition of an X-Box to my Console collection. And the games varied, including some kewl racing games, a weird alien music game, and some good old RPG type action. All wrapped up in the slighty larger, but just as fun console itself.

Then in February, I headed into uncharted territory. I had never owned a hand-held console previously, so when the Nintendo DS came out, I managed to acquire one and have added in some slightly weird and quite different styles of games to the mix, mostly involving some kind of Mario type thing.

Then last week occurred. I was in EB Games, having a chat with the staff there about the Gamecube, and made a decision. Picked myself up a second hand 'Cube, with a couple of games - Resident Evil and Metroid Prime - to keep myself amused. Once I got used to how SMALL the Console is, and found some space for it on my Gaming table, everything fell into place. Played Metroid Prime for a couple of hours, and am quite enjoying it so far. :D

So now I have managed to accumulate four Consoles (of varying sizes) for my Gaming collection, and now need to spend some time trying to track down some awesome games for each of them. There's a few new releases I'm trying to track down, and also some older games (such as Eternal Darkness - Sanity's Requiem) that I've gotta keep an eye out for on my travels.

Busy busy busy. I should get a bit of time over the next week or so to finish up some of the Games on my Now Playing list. Finished WarioWare Touched (review to follow), and am thinking about finally completing the Challenge between Stan and myself - which has been on hold for a few weeks now due to work insanity. We'll see how things unfold, eh?

More another time, people.

Well, it's been a few days since I've managed to update things here, and I have so MANY Journal Entries I need to write to catch up a bit on what's been going on. I guess I can squeeze out one tonight and see how we go from there, eh?

Over the past couple of weekends, I've been busy with a lot of St. John type stuff. In particular, I've managed to go away on a couple of camps that have involved me in them in some respect or another. The first one was in another state of Australia - Victoria to be precise. That was what my previous entry about Flying referred to - my trip across there to participate in said camp.

As it happens, both Camps were involved in Training somehow. The Victorian camp was for Cadet training, in which the kids were learning some First Aid over the weekend. I was involved as one of the Trainers for the camp, and also got involved in doing some of the Drill stuff with them - which was good fun. Was a bit weird, as I didn't actually know NEone at the camp, but I made the most of it. Sure, we had our difficulties - such as losing one of the girls for a bit one evening (she turned up inside one of the boy's tents) - but the camp ran pretty smoothly, which was good. :)

The following weekend (last weekend) was another Training camp, but here in Adelaide. Mylor, to be specific. Now, I dunno about other countries, but here in Australia every town has a pub. It's kinda traditional - doesn't matter whether there's only four houses in the town, you gotta have a pub. Now in my experience, this is the norm - or so I thought. It seems that every town - except Mylor - has a pub. So when we organised our dinner for the Saturday night, we had to travel a bit to get a drink and a feed. Not so good. :(

The rest of the weekend involved Training up some members of St. John in how to have fun. Well, sorta. It's a bit tricky to explain. Let's just say that one of my MANY responsibilities in St. John involves entertaining children. The group I'm in is kinda like a group of clowns - we dress funny and make silly noises - but we don't LOOK quite like clowns. Part of the weekend was involved in getting the people involved working together as a team, and the rest involved teaching 'em how to use our equipment and play some kewl games. We had fun, and no-one died, so the weekend went OK, really. :)

I have the weekend off from Camps for a change. Not got another one of those coming up now until the long weekend in October, so I'll manage to catch up on some sleep and maybe even play some games if I'm really lucky.

More another time, people - hope you're all having a great weekend. :D

Oh, the mirth I am experiencing right now as I chuckle at my clever title for this entry. :)

If you haven't already guessed what this entry is about, lemme just give you a hint. Look at the capital letters. What? Oh, all right then! It's about the Nintendo DS already, OK? :P

Yes, I managed to pick mine up between one shift and another on that Thursday back in February. It was a bit tough, racing from work to the EB Store, but I managed. It involved calling the store during the day and explaining how it would all work. The plan was for me to run in the door, pay for the last bit of my preorder, and pick up the goods that they were to have all prepared and bagged up for me. I would then run back out the door - trying not to run into too many customers on the way - and race off to work again for another couple of hours. And it all worked surprisingly well. :D

The Nintendo DS is awesome fun. It's nice to have a hand-held console, as even though I love my PS2 and X-Box, they are kinda fixed in place in my lounge room. So having the flexibility of playing wherever and whenever I like is kinda kewl. The stylus and touch screen took me a minute or two to get used to, but I'm all sorted with it now and making the most of it. Haven't managed to play any multiplayer games on it yet, but I have some friends interested in getting their own DS, so we'll see how the functionality of that works down the track.

On the game front, I only have two DS games right now, and two GBA games. I've mainly been playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance since I got the DS, which has proved to be all sorts of fun. I've recently started having a look at Warioware Touched and that has been great fun (although a lil' warped). So I'm actually quite enjoying the console so far. :D

More on what the games are like when I manage to actually find some time to PLAY them, which isn't all that often... :(

Well hello everybody! It's been a lil' while since I've been here to write NEthing, so I figured it was about time I checked in with you all again. :)

I haven't been home much at ALL in the past couple of weeks, so my time available to swing past here has been basically nil. I've been away on camps the past couple of weekends, one in Adelaide and the other in Melbourne.

And that's what my first message is about - flying to Melbourne. I dunno about some of you (trying not to look directly at Huskey), but I'm no expert when it comes to flying. I think I can count the number of times I've flown on both my hands, so I haven't been in planes much during my life really. Compound that (relative) lack of experience with my fear of heights, and you can imagine what sorta fun I have when it comes to flying.

Having said that, I always try and request a window seat if possible. I like to try and watch the nice and safe ground rush away as we take to the air. Sure, I'm gripping the arm rest QUITE firmly, but it's the only way I'm gonna deal with my fear - by facing it. (Those of you who have been with my Journal for a while prolly remember my earlier Journal Entry about my fear of heights) Sure, it means I get a lil' freaked out from time to time - but I hate being scared of heights, so I'm determined to beat it. :)

Now, once you get off the ground and are above the cloud level, it's actually quite pretty. It never ceases to amaze me how weird looking clouds are from above. I mean, they look like some kind of fluffy carpet, or cotton wool. Almost look solid from the top side, particularly when you've only just passed through them. It's weird how they don't look like that from below - does NEone know why that is?

NEhow, apart from that, flights to and from Melbourne went quite well. I got breakfast on the flight over, and dinner on the flight back, which is always nice. Particularly when you have to be on the plane at some ungodly hour of the morning, a lil' croissant and some cereal makes the day a lil' brighter. :D

More stuff to follow about my activities over the past fortnight. Read on, dear reader-person...

I'm not doing so good at the moment. The wound is festering, and it keeps breaking open. I can't get the bleeding to stop, and I grow weaker every day. I don't know how much longer I can hold out before the infection overtakes me and I succumb to utter madness and despair... :(

(Wow)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should update you all on what's been going on with me since we last chatted. I've been having a difficult time in general. The Plague Bearers have been a constant background threat in my life for the past week or so. Every night they attempt to beat down my door - I still don't understand why they haven't tried the windows yet, but I've boarded them up just the same in case they figure it out. :P

I've been a LOT more attentive when I've been working late after my near miss at the hardware store. I've noticed quite a few suspicious looking characters shuffling around muttering about Night Elves and flowers and other such things. Once the low moan starts and the chanting begins, I've made my escape as rapidly as possible. And so far that has done me pretty well.

(is)

I've been paying attention to the people I chat with online. After that incident with Cantal, I've been a lil' more careful about the company I keep. From time to time I've had chat requests from people with names which have sounded a bit suspicious - such as "Silverbloom", and "Zhacanthas", and even "Silverleaf". There seems to be some obsession with flora and precious metals that I don't understand. In any case, I've avoided them in case they try and infect me via the 'Net. Now, I thought that taking such precautions would be enough to keep me safe from the Plague. Sadly, I was wrong. :(

A couple of days back, in a First Aid course I was running, one of my participants started behaving strangely. Just after lunch (during the daylight hours, which dulled my suspicions) I noticed one of them hugging themselves and rocking back and forth, muttering something under their breath. Now, I was a lil' concerned about this young man, as he had seemed distracted and unfocussed the entire morning. He was pale and sweaty, and I was beginning to think he could be quite unwell. As I approached, I could barely hear his mutterings but was more concerned for his wellbeing as I approached and put a hand on his shoulder to speak to him. Mistake.

(wow)

At this close distance, I could finally make out his words - "WoW is wow", "WoW is wow" - over and over again. To my horror, I realised They had evolved again and were now capable of moving around in daylight. I discovered this to my cost however, as this young man lashed out at me with a snarl, catching my hand with his "talons" (another evolution?) and causing me a nasty wound. Now, at the time I made a trip to the First Aid room to clean it up and apply a bandage. By the time I had returned, the man had disappeared - prolly off home to satisfy the urges of the Plague, I suspect.

I continued on during the day, but began to feel progressively unwell. Over the past couple of days, I've gotten worse. The wound won't heal - some fell magics, I suspect. I have the shakes almost constantly, and find it difficult to concentrate for long periods of time. My vision has become blurry the past day or so, and the light hurts my eyes. I have found it difficult to sleep at night, and have an increasing urge to sit in front of my 'puter more and more often. Recently, I have noticed that every time I switch it on and connect to the 'Net, some Broadband company is trying to connect me up and I'm actually considering it. I blacked out yesterday for a period of time and when I came to again, I was standing in a Game store. Where I was standing was what concerned me, as I found myself with my hand resting comfortably on a copy of World of Warcraft.

(WoW)

I know how to stop the Plague, but I have not the skills. All I have to do is take down EVERY World of Warcraft server on Earth. I might manage one or two before I succumb, but I think it will be too little too late. If only I had more support, perhaps I could manage this. I don't fancy my chances at this task, as for each moment I delay I feel less and less inclined to put my plan into action. The work of the Azeroth Plague on my mind?

(is)

I don't know how much longer I can survive this - I can FEEL the Plague spreading through my body. Soon I will be a mindless slave to it's evil and no longer the man I once was. I'm frightened... What if I black out again? What horrors will I inflict on humanity? I can't go to sleep - I might not wake up...

(WOW)

Somebody?

Help...

me?

You ever have one of those weeks where you just know everything is gonna be just that lil' bit off centre, and things might not quite go your way? Well, I've just started one of those, I think. And not exactly how I expected, either.

Today, I started a First Aid course where I am working alongside two other Trainers. Yup, there's three of us working together on the one course - and we usually work solo. Thing is, we have about 39 (approximately... :P) Personal Trainers to teach some First Aid to - and most of them don't actually wanna be in the course, so we're having all sorts of fun with 'em. It's actually kinda kewl, being able to watch some of your peers working, and see how they do the same course in a slightly different way. :)

Thursday is my evil day this week, though. I work all day, and then a second course in the evening. Now, a 12 hour day ain't that unusual for me, but this day is a bit different. Thursday the 24th of February is the day the Nintendo DS is coming out, and I'd rather like to pick it up as I have paid off my pre-order and have several good games sorted for it as well. I may not be able to though... :(

Friday through Sunday I'll be in Melbourne. Our State Cadet Officer, a lovely lady by the name of Gloria, has decided to send me over there to sit in on a Cadet Camp and witness them running a weeked First Aid course for a group of kids. The weekend away I'm quite looking forward to - I just don't know when I'm departing or returning just yet. And I'd kinda like to have my new DS there for when thing get a lil' dull. So if I'm leaving early on Friday morning, I'm gonna be a lil' upset. Won't have had time to pop into EB Games and pick mine up, so I'll be a bit distressed on the way over - I'm not so good with heights, and flying isn't done close to the ground commonly.

I'll survive, I'm sure. I just hope things work out so I get to leave sometime around lunch or something. *shrug*

More on my lil' expedition once it's happened. :)

Well, I went out and bought my first Gamecube game over the weekend. What, I hear you say - when did Matt get a 'Cube? Actually, to be truthful... I don't actually own one yet. :D

It's in the near future though, and I saw Resident Evil was on special in at David Jones and thought "Oh, sod it! Let's DO this!" and started myself on the path to acquiring myself yet another console for the Year 2005. What with the X-Box over Christmas, and the Nintendo DS in about three days, I figure what's another one gonna matter? :)

When I opened up the casing, I discovered something that I wasn't aware of, although all 'Cube owners already know this lil' secret... Gamecube game discs are really SMALL. It's so weird, how lil' they are - half the size of a normal disc for a PS2 or X-Box game. So I'm a bit interested to see how small the 'Cube is as well now. I suspect it's kinda tiny too.

Now all I gotta do is try and pay off my pre-orders prior to them coming out, so I can save up some money enough to pick up a 'Cube over the next month or two. And THEN the game begins again, as I try and track down all sorts of great games that I've been reading about...

More on my adventures in 'Cube-land another time. :D

It's worse than I could have imagined. Much much worse... :(

Up until now, I've only been faced with Plague Bearers in the Real World. Sure, every night for the past couple, they've been trying to break into my house and do unspeakable things to me. Sure, they're trying (as I write) to smash in my front door, which is reinforced with all the lovely solid boards I bought yesterday. Sure, the chanting and lack of sleep is slowly driving me insane. I can cope with all of that.

What I've just experienced has shaken me quite a bit. During the day, I've been able to concentrate on work, and all those mundane sort of things. I've resigned myself to the fact that during the night, I have to barricade myself in my own home to protect myself from the Azeroth Plague. I've taken solace in the fact that I can distract myself by wandering far and wide on the 'Net in the evenings. Until tonight...

Let me share with you a conversation I just had:

Cantal: hey, how ya doing?

WerePaladin: Not too shabby. How about yaself?

Cantal: good. whatcha do?

WerePaladin: For work? Erm, I'm a Trainer. I teach First Aid to members of the public. You?

Cantal: play games. been playing an AWESOME game recently

WerePaladin: Kewl, which one?

Cantal: World of Warcraft. WoW is wow...

WerePaladin: Erm, yeah. Listen, not really interested in getting infected with the Plague, cheers.

Cantal: Joiiiinnnnn usssssss.... WoW is wow... Wow is WOW

At which point I terminated the chat with this Cantal person...

It must be getting bad out there when I can't even spend some time surfing the 'Net without being pursued by Plague Bearers. At least I'm safe (I think?) from getting infected while there's some distance between us. Not sure where Cantal was, but I don't think he was one of the Bearers that have been assaulting my house. I think they're evolving, but into what I don't know...

It appears that my time spent in my Journal and recently in the Forums has paid off, and the Gods of Gamespot have seen fit to award me with another Level increase. And surprisingly enough, no Orcs were slain in the gaining of this level... :P

(Took just under three weeks this time - I'm slowing down in my old age... *grin*)

You may now refer to me as:

Toobin'

Which is something to do with surfing, I think. Or some yummy snack food from my childhood. I'm not sure, really. Actually, I tend to agree with Tinoshke - I wanna be a Magician Lord (Level 12) now. Can someone give me about 96% points to upgrade me again? :D

can be quite highly strung, and so can people. In between each board I nail in place, I figure I should share with you a lil' story about how weird people can be at times...

Now work today was a bit interesting, as I had to deal with one of my participants walking out on me in the afternoon session. One of the ladies was a bit defensive about having to do the First Aid course at all, and kept claiming she had "work" to do, and so kept disappearing from my course. Now, over the two days she missed out on almost three hours worth of information, and several assessments. What this meant was that I could not justifiably pass her for the course, given that she had not demonstrated all her competencies.

I spoke to her about my concern during the lunch break, and she was again very defensive about her actions. I suggested I assess her when I could during the breaks on the topics she had missed, and gave her some pages to read up on. I managed to get her through one assessment, but at the end of the day, the wheels fell off. While I was getting her to help manage a casualty, I had asked her to redo a Sling several times, as it was not effective. She got upset, muttered something about "Not being here to be humiliated" and stormed out.

So there I was, trying to figure out how best to deal with this and trying to assess a whole bunch of other participants at the same time. I managed to get through them all fairly quickly, and tried to find her to have a chat about assessing her after the session is she needed, so that she could finish the course... Except that she had left and gone home. So I had to fail her for the course, something I don't have to do very often. I chatted with her boss, who was also in the course and he supported me in my decision, which was nice. :)

I seem to have had a run of highly strung people in courses lately. I didn't think First Aid was quite that stressful, but maybe I'm wrong? It's all a bit strange, really...