I have conquered nations, brought vicious men to heel with an iron fist and filled my brain with the knowledge of ancients. Unfortunately this all adds up to pure bunkum when you realise it involves me sitting on my derriere fiddling with buttons and joysticks (ooeer matron!).
January has seen me enter a new period of determination;
- I am determined to learn more Japanese so that with the arrival Nipponside of my new niece/nephew in April I shall be better able to engage with them like all uncles should,
- I am determined to learn how to play the guitar so that I can idle away the twilight hours strumming tunes made popular by the likes of Bowie, Perry and Smith,
- I am determined to improve my sewing ability so that I am no longer shackled to the insulting commonality of "off-the-rack" clothing.
I am determined.
Right after I finish this level.
Call of Duty 5 : Modern Warfare 2 has been the flavour of the month. Immersive, bitter, gruelling and packed full of enough OMG moments to justify PTSD counselling, or at least 20 minutes facing a blank wall.
This came close on the heals of Mass Effect, possibly one of the best rpg/action games that was released last year - enough so that I played it through twice just to try out different abilities and game paths. To further my inability to focus on the creative, the second edition in this three volume game series has been released with the announcement that you can port over your characters from the first edition. There goes my life.
And whilst the Good Doctor has been delving deeper into Athiesm with The Portable Athiest, I have been revisitng the entire Wheel of Time Series, a fantasy series I orginally started reading in High School and have since learned (15 years later) that they will finally be releasing the last three books in this 14 volume story.
All this was nothing when considered against my plans to travel this year. A Grand Tour encompassing the Nippon, Eastern Europe, Germany, France and England. Unfortunately these plans have been put on hold till 2011 due to the Good Doctors new position starting at UWS in May and the financial yoke we have decided to burden ourselves with in the form of an apartment and new (secondhand) car. I guess we just keep dreaming and saving.
And lastly - January has seen another session undertaken on my body art in a lame attempt to finish what shall surely be compared with the Sistine Chapel, in time taken to complete if not in skill. We wait...and hope the next 4 hour session will see it's finish (before someone loses an ear or an eye). But where have I heard those words before?
Splendid to hear of your resolve, my boy! Your plans sound admirable indeed, and I look forward to welcoming you and the Good Doctor to these shores in '11 (if all goes to plan). I shall be dropping back in to Sydney for a few weeks in August, ostensibly to see the family, but if I can smuggle a few maps past the border guards we can pore over them together while draining bumper upon bumper of the vintner's finest.
ReplyDeleteKeep yer pecker up, lad!
(By the way, will pics of said bodyart be forthcoming in due course?)
ReplyDeleteIt would be fantastic to catch up again and contemplate the future assault of the continent (I say we hit them from the overland route...they'll never expect us to come out of the East!).
ReplyDeleteThose images will surely be up for all to see before long....