It wouldn't really be a 'blog' if I didn't include some links to my favourite web sites. Of course so you don't get lost I'll tell you a little bit about the sites, and why I like them so much. Mostly these are the sites that I visit most often, so they're obviously what holds my attention :)
Graviton City: the Project A-ko Web Site
http://www.gravitoncity.com
I can hardly list my favourite sites without including my own :) This is my life's work, and is the creative outlet into which I pour the greatest effort. The site is all about one of my favourite anime movies, Project A-ko. I've gathered as much information as I possibly can about the movies, and collected a huge amount of unique and often very rare content that isn't available anywhere else. I've always wanted to be the "best in the world" at something, and even though it's a pretty insignificant best, this is as good as it gets for online A-ko information :) Some folks have even suggested it's one of the best anime fan sites online *blush*. I'll let you decide that for yourself!
Slashdot: News for Nerds
http://www.slashdot.org
It may not have the most stellar journalistic standards, but if you want to stay informed with up-to-the-minute science and technology news, then slashdot is hard to beat. The massive community submits all kinds of fascinating news from all over the web, links to it, and comments on it. Sometimes the comments are more enlightening than the stories that are linked to. The option to view comments by their rating is outstanding, allowing you to sift all the wheat from the chaff. The first of several stops on my daily news run, slashdot keeps me informed and entertained.
MegaTokyo
http://www.megatokyo.com
This is far-and-away the best manga-style web comic. The art is outstanding, the story is deep and touching, and the humor, although not a primary feature of the site, is often brilliant. I can't say much more, except that I eagerly await each installment, and I always re-read each one many times to fully let the art and story soak into my mind. You really have to check this out for yourself. Expect to become addicted like me :)
Morons.org
http://www.morons.org
A hilarious web site that highlights news stories from America (occationally an international story appears) that show a unique level of moronic behaviour. Always a laugh but often scary when the story is about the mornonic behaviour of world leaders. Interestingly but not surprisingly, the majority of stories feature fundamentalist Christians, who are also simultaneously amusing and frightening. The site has a strong emhasis on free speech and human rights.
I have many other favourite sites, but this lot will do for now. I'll bring you some more in the future. In the meantime, please enjoy the sites!
3 October 2002
1 October 2002
Driving is dangerous business. You sit behind the wheel of a gigantic chunk of metal that hurtles around at speeds faster than any human being can run, and all you need to do to get permission to use one is sit a really simple test. ONCE.
As soon as you have that little piece of plastic that says you're allowed to drive, you can forget all you were taught, and rule the highways and back streets in your awesome speed machine. At least that's what some people think.
There are all kinds of dangerous and obnoxious people on the road. You have the people who use their mobile phone while speeding down the highway. You've got the little old grannies who need three cushions to be able to see between the dash and the steeringwheel. There's the got-to-be-there-five-minutes-ago executives in their expensive cars. And even though they're not dangerous because of their habit, I really hate people that just throw their cigarette buts out the window. I mean how lazy, inconsiderate and disgustingly filthy is that?
But worst of all, is the hoon. For the benefit of those who may not have heard of the Australian phrase "hoon", this is basically your young male with too much interest in cars and too much testosterone in his blood.
If you're going to survive on the road, however, you're going to need a more accurate description of a hoon than that. After all, if you're going to be able to avoid a hoon, you have to know when there's one coming. To assist in this task, I have devised the "Hoonometer". Simply follow the instructions below:
The Hoonometer
For each of the following statements that applies to the car you suspect being a hoon, add the appropriate number of points to the total. Look up the total on the hoon rating chart:
1 point : The driver is male.
1 point : The driver has a shaved head or a mullet.
1 point : The driver is wearing slimline sunglasses.
2 points : The car is showing evidence of recent bodywork, such as dents, missing lights or exposed primer coat paint.
2 points : The car is fitted with window tinting.
2 points : The car is displaying a probationary driver sign (P-plates).
3 points : The car has wide tyres.
4 points : Very loud music, usually techno or rock, is blaring out an open window.
4 points : The car bears customised lisence plates that refer to the type of vehicle they are attached to. (eg: "HSV HDN" or "MY MRX")
4 points : The car is fitted with coloured headlights.
4 points : The rear window bears a "No Fear" sticker.
5 points : There are two male occupants in the car. Add one additional point for each male occupant beyond the second.
5 points : The driver has fitted extra dials and guages to the top of the dash or the windshield frame.
5 points : The driver is following other cars at an unsafe distance (tailgating) regardless of their speed.
Add up the point total for the car you have observed, and compare it with the following chart:
1-5 points: Accidental Hoon.
This poor person has inadvertently modified their car or themselves in such a way as to suggest that they could be a hoon. Fortunately they are not a serious threat on the roads, only to good fashion.
6-10 points: Wannabe Hoon.
They're trying, they really are. Maybe they don't have the money to modify their car enough, or maybe they're just too smart to really be a hoon, even though they want to. Generally these driver's aren't a threat, but it's best to keep an eye on them, just in case they want to prove a point by cutting you off, or playing N Sync loudly.
11-20 points: Hoon.
Watch out, this is your typical hoon. Try to keep out of their lane, don't make eye contact, and keep your window up in case you get a repetative dance beat stuck in your head. These drivers are the kind of arrogant, ignorant, fear nothing, respect noone morons that are likely to write off more cars before they are off their P plates than most of us would do in several lifetimes. Best to avoid these if you can.
21+ points: Deathwish Hoon.
Avoid at all costs! These pathetic excuses for humans are likely to wipe themselves off the face of the Earth at any time. The only problem is, they often take someone else with them. Their supidity is matched only by their machismo. Their bad taste is dangerous enough in itself. Logic and compassion will not appeal to them because in the little world that exists between their gold earrings excludes all concepts except those which they think makes them look tougher. Their universal salute is of the one fingered variety, and they compensate for miniscule penis size by spinning their wheels at traffic lights before accelerating away to fourty kilometers over the speed limit. They are the bane of all who must travel via the road.
With this new understanding of the Hoon, hopefully you will be able to identify them early, and avoid them on the road. This will mean a more pleasant and safer journey.
Drive safely!
As soon as you have that little piece of plastic that says you're allowed to drive, you can forget all you were taught, and rule the highways and back streets in your awesome speed machine. At least that's what some people think.
There are all kinds of dangerous and obnoxious people on the road. You have the people who use their mobile phone while speeding down the highway. You've got the little old grannies who need three cushions to be able to see between the dash and the steeringwheel. There's the got-to-be-there-five-minutes-ago executives in their expensive cars. And even though they're not dangerous because of their habit, I really hate people that just throw their cigarette buts out the window. I mean how lazy, inconsiderate and disgustingly filthy is that?
But worst of all, is the hoon. For the benefit of those who may not have heard of the Australian phrase "hoon", this is basically your young male with too much interest in cars and too much testosterone in his blood.
If you're going to survive on the road, however, you're going to need a more accurate description of a hoon than that. After all, if you're going to be able to avoid a hoon, you have to know when there's one coming. To assist in this task, I have devised the "Hoonometer". Simply follow the instructions below:
The Hoonometer
For each of the following statements that applies to the car you suspect being a hoon, add the appropriate number of points to the total. Look up the total on the hoon rating chart:
1 point : The driver is male.
1 point : The driver has a shaved head or a mullet.
1 point : The driver is wearing slimline sunglasses.
2 points : The car is showing evidence of recent bodywork, such as dents, missing lights or exposed primer coat paint.
2 points : The car is fitted with window tinting.
2 points : The car is displaying a probationary driver sign (P-plates).
3 points : The car has wide tyres.
4 points : Very loud music, usually techno or rock, is blaring out an open window.
4 points : The car bears customised lisence plates that refer to the type of vehicle they are attached to. (eg: "HSV HDN" or "MY MRX")
4 points : The car is fitted with coloured headlights.
4 points : The rear window bears a "No Fear" sticker.
5 points : There are two male occupants in the car. Add one additional point for each male occupant beyond the second.
5 points : The driver has fitted extra dials and guages to the top of the dash or the windshield frame.
5 points : The driver is following other cars at an unsafe distance (tailgating) regardless of their speed.
Add up the point total for the car you have observed, and compare it with the following chart:
1-5 points: Accidental Hoon.
This poor person has inadvertently modified their car or themselves in such a way as to suggest that they could be a hoon. Fortunately they are not a serious threat on the roads, only to good fashion.
6-10 points: Wannabe Hoon.
They're trying, they really are. Maybe they don't have the money to modify their car enough, or maybe they're just too smart to really be a hoon, even though they want to. Generally these driver's aren't a threat, but it's best to keep an eye on them, just in case they want to prove a point by cutting you off, or playing N Sync loudly.
11-20 points: Hoon.
Watch out, this is your typical hoon. Try to keep out of their lane, don't make eye contact, and keep your window up in case you get a repetative dance beat stuck in your head. These drivers are the kind of arrogant, ignorant, fear nothing, respect noone morons that are likely to write off more cars before they are off their P plates than most of us would do in several lifetimes. Best to avoid these if you can.
21+ points: Deathwish Hoon.
Avoid at all costs! These pathetic excuses for humans are likely to wipe themselves off the face of the Earth at any time. The only problem is, they often take someone else with them. Their supidity is matched only by their machismo. Their bad taste is dangerous enough in itself. Logic and compassion will not appeal to them because in the little world that exists between their gold earrings excludes all concepts except those which they think makes them look tougher. Their universal salute is of the one fingered variety, and they compensate for miniscule penis size by spinning their wheels at traffic lights before accelerating away to fourty kilometers over the speed limit. They are the bane of all who must travel via the road.
With this new understanding of the Hoon, hopefully you will be able to identify them early, and avoid them on the road. This will mean a more pleasant and safer journey.
Drive safely!
30 September 2002
There's never enough time. I often think that, but it's a strange and actually incorrect thought. Time, as far as we know, is infinite. The real problem is that people aren't infinite. The way things are right now, we have a limited amount of time that we are alive, and so much of that limited resource is consumed by the simple act of surviving.
Think about it, for the majority of our lives, how much time we can actually choose what to do with is very limited. We must sleep for an average of 8 hours every day, we must work 8 hours a day five days out of seven, an two or three hours of each day is spent getting read for and getting to and from work, another couple of hours goes into preparing and consuming food. When you add it all up, the reality is that we only have an average of maybe 5 hours a day (including weekends), when we can do what WE want to.
In a lifetime of eighty years, maybe fifty to sixty of those years is taken up simply by survival activities. Doesn't that depress you?
I know I'm ranting, but that's because I had a crappy weekend, didn't sleep well and right now I'm procrastinating at work while trying to keep my head from hitting the keyboard as my body cries out for sleep...
Why we should need so much of this sleep thing is a constant source of frustration to me. I could reclaim twenty-five years of free time if only I didn't need to sleep.
Of course, I'd probably be made to spend that time working...
Oh well!
Think about it, for the majority of our lives, how much time we can actually choose what to do with is very limited. We must sleep for an average of 8 hours every day, we must work 8 hours a day five days out of seven, an two or three hours of each day is spent getting read for and getting to and from work, another couple of hours goes into preparing and consuming food. When you add it all up, the reality is that we only have an average of maybe 5 hours a day (including weekends), when we can do what WE want to.
In a lifetime of eighty years, maybe fifty to sixty of those years is taken up simply by survival activities. Doesn't that depress you?
I know I'm ranting, but that's because I had a crappy weekend, didn't sleep well and right now I'm procrastinating at work while trying to keep my head from hitting the keyboard as my body cries out for sleep...
Why we should need so much of this sleep thing is a constant source of frustration to me. I could reclaim twenty-five years of free time if only I didn't need to sleep.
Of course, I'd probably be made to spend that time working...
Oh well!
25 September 2002
Dear Diary...
Heh, now that's something I havn't written in a very long time. Why am I doing this? For what reason have I decided to start up a web log? I'm not entirely sure! Sometimes I just feel like I have something to say, and I think that maybe someone else may want to hear it. Chances are noone will care, but who knows...
For the moment, this log is mostly something to fill my new domain name ( neil.creek.name ) with some content, rather than just an empty directory listing. Of course I'll be putting other stuff on the site such as an image gallery, hopefully a useful calendar, maybe a little forum and who knows what else. Oh and I'll be redoing this default template too. But all these things take time.
Looking through this site, you might get to know me a little better. You'll quickly learn that I do things in fits and spurts. There might be a dozen log entries in a week, and then nothing for months. *shrug* That's just the way I am.
Also, I'm probably going to be pretty candid with my thoughts, since I don't usually feel like I have much to hide. Of course since the whole world could potentially read this, I'm obviously going to keep a lot of things to myself :)
Anyway, I hope that this site will become amusing or entertaining to someone other than myself. But if it doesn't, then that doesn't really matter either!
Till next time...
Heh, now that's something I havn't written in a very long time. Why am I doing this? For what reason have I decided to start up a web log? I'm not entirely sure! Sometimes I just feel like I have something to say, and I think that maybe someone else may want to hear it. Chances are noone will care, but who knows...
For the moment, this log is mostly something to fill my new domain name ( neil.creek.name ) with some content, rather than just an empty directory listing. Of course I'll be putting other stuff on the site such as an image gallery, hopefully a useful calendar, maybe a little forum and who knows what else. Oh and I'll be redoing this default template too. But all these things take time.
Looking through this site, you might get to know me a little better. You'll quickly learn that I do things in fits and spurts. There might be a dozen log entries in a week, and then nothing for months. *shrug* That's just the way I am.
Also, I'm probably going to be pretty candid with my thoughts, since I don't usually feel like I have much to hide. Of course since the whole world could potentially read this, I'm obviously going to keep a lot of things to myself :)
Anyway, I hope that this site will become amusing or entertaining to someone other than myself. But if it doesn't, then that doesn't really matter either!
Till next time...
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