Cat's house!

I'm at said friend's house right now, it's pretty sweet! I made her eggnog, but they didn't have any nutmeg, so I tried using cinnamon. It's turned out pretty well thus far! Tastes kinda coconutty. Said Ukrainian pal and his ladyfriend are now playing a cardgame called "spit" with great passion! It's a hard game to play without passion though. I beat Ukrainian pal at spit 3 times in a row last night, and also curb-stomped him at chess on the train down. He tried to do one of those manouvers that wins you the game in 5 moves, and it can only be stopped 3 ways. By total fluke, I did one of said ways, and actually ended up winning! It was pretty sweet, but he beat me at spit a few minutes ago so the score's about even. Him and his ladyfriend are really good together, they're very sweet and casual together, you'd expect they'd been married together for years! I hope to God they're not reading this, or else that'd be super embarrassing. If you're reading this, then stop. Well you're obviously not going to, but at least don't bring it up. They get on well together! It's a little scary to me. Makes me wonder what I'd do in situations that they're in with each other. They're very quick to forgive, quick to mend, quick to trust. And genuinely care for each other, and know each other really well. It's heartwarming, but scares the crap out of me because I'm very afraid that I'd freak out in such situations I don't know if said worries are justified. I'm envious at any rate :P. But at any rate, it's an encouragement to see people in a healthy relationship. Another awesome thing, me and said Uke bud are sleeping in the same room, and when we woke up, before doing anything else, we read our bibles. I didn't know he had brought his, and he didn't know I brought mine, but before we did anything (well, ok, he took a shower, but he hadn't showered in 2 days, so that was kinda important.) We just got up and read our bible for our daily dose of God's word. It was very touching to have feeding your relationship with God to be the status quo. We're preparing for the party tonight, and that involves sausages, chips, and stuff like that. Our lovely host in turning 18, and her county is beautiful along with her back garden. It reminds me of our house back in Utah. Space, space, space. Big house, lots of animals, and man's dominion loosely scattered instead of tighly packed into our little boxes. Of course it's a giant drive to anywhere else, but that's always he trade-off in these places. Beautiful all the same.

Because you're mine, I walk the line. And then the words just naturally flowed. It was an easy song to write. -Johnny Cash

Adventure is in the air!

Don't worry, I'm not going to drown you in long-winded blogging, I just wanted to say I'm off to a friend's house in Wexford for a birthday party. This is going to be pretty sweet, as this is my first big travel thing outside of the county without the parents, and also my first sleepover at a girl's house! :O Although there'll be loads of other people but it's the principle! My travelling buddy is one Ukranian pal by the name of mike, his lass-friend lives down in wexford so there'll be coupleyness aplenty. I'll probably blog while at her gaff just for the sake of it, but do not be surprised if I don't. I'm making her eggnog! : D

Fallout 3: First thoughts

My brother introduced me to fallout 3 yesterday after buying it for the Xbox 360 recently. So last night I got a chance to play it! The game is made by Bethesda Softworks, makers of Oblivion, Morrowind, and a bunch of other awesome RPGS. Now if there's one thing Bethesda knows how to do well, it's character creation. They have this really awesome habit of blending it in with the storyline, where the choices you make at the very early stages affect your character to a large degree!


The game begins the same way as all our games begin, with screaming. Your screaming. And blood all over the place. Now, before you think you are thrown into the action head first, the next words are something along the lines of "Oh, it's a beautiful baby ____!" Talk about starting at the beggining! And then you get to choose whether or not you're a boy or a girl! After you choose that, they bring over this screen thing to "See what s/he'll look like when s/he's older". At this point you get to customise what you'll look like when you're older, right down to the hairstyle. Which is a little ridiculous, I mean, they can hardly predict what sort of crazy fashion trend you'll be following when you're nineteen. Also, why is that the first thing they do? For me, knowing what my child would look like when they're older would kinda spoil the surprise. And then, your mother suffers a fatal heart attack. It's sad, but after you've played so many RPGs, you kinda expect your parents to die at the drop of a hat. Especially moms.

So it fast-forwards to one year later and you're 1, and the game introduces you as a toddler, and you learn to crawl around, and choose your main attributes out of a child's playbook, and that's really about it. Some stuff about how your mother would have been so proud of you, which once again is sad, but like I said, after you've played so many RPGs, you realise that at least one of your parents always dies. Luckily, your father is actually a really nice and awesome guy, so they reverse this trope
really well by having your dad still love you all the same even though you caused your mother's death. Which is a bit of a twist, as usually in games this drives the father figure to be a bit of a jerk.

Fast forward nine years later and it's your tenth birthday party! You are given your cerimonial wrist doohicky thing that shows map and ammo and all sorts of good stuff like that, and this is where the real decision making happens. You meet Amata, more or less the girl-next-door who has organised your party. And you are given the generic three choices.
1: good guy response "Thanks for the party!
2: medium guy response: "Yeah, it's ok, I guess..."
3: heartless fiend from the pit response: "It's probably the worst party I've ever seen."

And these are basically the three choices you will have all throughout the game. Angel, Normal guy, or what can only be described as the foul offspring of robot hitler and the devil.

You walk around a bit and talk to the other guests at your party, turns out for some reason your character wisely decided to invite the three school bullies to his party. actually, there's one other guy who seems to just be an aquiantance, Amata, and the three bullies at your party along with some adults. Not the best guest list. Not to mention not the best dressed list either, the entire starting story takes place in a giant nuclear bunker, so you're all wearing blue jumpsuits. At any rate, you get a sweetroll as a gift from some old lady at your party as a gift, and one of said bullies basically says "Gimmie the sweetroll." Your options are basically
"Yes sir...."
"No. Go away."
and the ever-wonderful robot hitler devilspawn option
"What? Did your mom drink away all your food stamps again?"

Now, you're supposed to pick one of the latter two, then a fight breaks out, and the game teaches you how to fight. But I wanted to try to be a christian in this game. So I spent a good 10 minutes staring at the screen.This is your first big choice in the game. Who are you going to be? I eventually opted to hand over the sweetroll, maybe he genuinely did need it due to lack of food, who knows. Appeasing hitler, or pulling a Ghandi? You decide, I guess. you get a bb gun from your dad later and learn to fire weapons in a pretty subtle but effective way of the game teaching you skills that will later be useful in life when giant burly muntants are chasing you with clubs and you need to shoot them. Thanks for the lesson, dad! 

Fwwwwaashooooommp! another 6 years pass, and it's time for your generic aptitude test, to pick your class! There's a confrontation scene beforehand where said 3 bullies have started a gang with greased back hair that is effectively some sort of cross between jets and sharks from west side story. They're picking on Amata, and you have three options.
"Stop or I'm going to make you stop"
"Here, let me help you, she's quite sensitive about her weight...."
"F*@& off, let's do this. Right here. Right now."

Seeing as the only options are fight or help them make fun of Amata, I opted for the fight. Nobody makes fun of my plucky suggested love interest and gets away with it! In reality, I probably would have done something less violent to be honest, but I suppose that's a blog for another day. Besides, I needed to learn how to fight! you beat the three guys and they go away, you take the test, it gives you a class that shows you what skills best suit you, like bartering, electronics, science, small guns, melee weapons, miniature nuclear warheads, that sort of thing. The test runs like a series of choices and depending on what you pick, you get different suggested classes. I got chaplain,  very encouraging, I guess. You have to love the last multiple choice question: "Who is the undisputed leader of the vault, who gives us food and keeps us safe, and graciously provides for all we have?" You have 4 options to this multiple choice question.
"The overseer"
"The overseer""
"The overseer"
"The overseer"
"Jesus" (no not really.)

Fwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssshhhhorrrp! 3 years pass, and oh noes! Your father has escaped the vault! nobody escapes the vault! The overseer is super pissed and killed your dad's friend! Amata wakes you up, gives you a pistol and it's escapy time, but not before a decent amount of satisfying bully-beating. Yes, said bully who stole your sweetroll and slagged your impliled ladyfriend is in need of your help now, and the shoe is on the other foot! His mom is being eaten alive by radioactive super-cochroaches and only you can save her! (But only because he's to much of wuss to save her himself.) You can walk on, save her, or walk on after leaving a snippy comment. I opted to save said lady (Who actually does turn out to be an alcoholic, perhaps he needed that sweetroll after all! Or not.) Double oh noes! The overseer has captured Amata and guess who's beating the information out of her! Yes ladies and gents, it's the two bullies from before, and the only real option you have is to kill them. Apparently though this angers people, so I opted to try to lock them unsuccessfully in a cell. But the were running around too fast so I had to shoot them in the legs a few times to slow them down. Only later, lying in bed, did I realise it took me 10 minutes to make the sweetroll decision, but shooting these guys in the kneecaps seemed like an obvious choice that took 5 seconds. Go figure, these games can make you out to be the nicest guy in the world, but apparently that means it's ok to not have any qualms about killing mountains of people. Go figure! You escape the vault, and make it outside! Now I only played a little bit after this, but I have one last thing that irritates me.

Everything gives you cancer. The game is set after a giant nuclear war, so everything is irradiated, and the game keep a running tally of radiation you've absorbed, and if you get too much, you turn into a freaky zombie thing that makes people terrified of you. But the game goes on anyways with you as a freaky thing with no skin. Don't drink the water, it's radioactive. Don't eat that meat, it's radioactive. That wastelander you killed had some squirrel stew on him! Allright! A decent meal! Nope, just kidding, it gives you cancer. Blow up a bus? The bus is now radioactive and gives you yet more cancer. stand too close to an unexploded  atomic bomb? Gives you cancer. (Well, this one makes sense at least.) They have the radioactivity count in "RADS", but I can tell you, there is nothing rad about it. Everything you touch in this game seems to want to make you lose all your skin, I'm not even kidding.
/edit
It would appear now that I can definitively say that this game includes: 

Subterranean lesbian zombies. Not even kidding.
Abraham Lincoln's hat as a wearable object.
"We are born in the Vault, We live in the vault, we die in the vault."-The overseer.

Like blood from a stone

I'm bored, it's 00:43 in the morning, and I have a minor headache. Let's rock. Not really. I want to talk but I don't really have anything to talk about. Except now I do, because I thought of talking about nothing for a long time which would have been gibberish, which is the name of a song from an album I bought 2 days ago so now I'm going to talk about that.

The album is "Two lefts don't make a right... but three do" and first off, I like it because it's a play on the phrase "Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do!" Which is a play on the phrase "Two wrongs don't make a right". It's like... what's the word... reverse-reverse-reverse psychology, where they play a joke on the joke by playing the phrase straight, but in the body of the joke. And also firstly, I bought it because it was by Relient k, which at this point has more or less earned the title of my favorite band. Sorry everyone else who has a band that isn't relient k, but you just lost your chance like I just lost the game. Sorry, people. I've only really properly listened to the whole album all the way through once, I suppose, but I still like it. I still say "Mmhmm" is my favorite though. Sorry every album from relient k that isn't "Mmhmm", you just lost your chance like I just lost... some people say you can only lose the game once every so often, like once every 30 minutes or something. I don't really get this. Does it not count? I dunno. I announce it anyway, but I guess one shouldn't be upset unless 30 minutes have elapsed. And some people don't play by those rules so who knows!

Anyway, back to TRDMALBTD. haha, that is a really long abbreviation! How irritating! It's a good album, I like the song "Mood rings", in which they melodiously suggest that emotional girls should wear mood rings to give us guys a break "Cause when it's black means watch your back because you're probably the last person in the world right now she wants to see". As a guy/dude/man? I must confess that girls make my head explode in wonderful and horrible ways. I dunno. The band actually released a book about girls named after the last line of this song "The complex infrastructure of the female mind" and I was thinking about buying it because it seems to give the impression that after you've read it, girls will somehow make sense and stuff, but I don't think one can just read a book and suddenly be a master of the she-folk. I think it's just something you're born with, I have no idea. The weird thing is, I read up about this song on a song meaning website
and I got a kinda weird reaction, most of the girls were like "Haha, yeah, I need a mood ring" and all that. The guys were saying "Haha, girls, they need mood rings, I give girls I know mood rings. Women. Am I right?" I find this weird and slightly offensive. I think I'm probably just taking this too seriously or something but anyway! I was thinking, us guys get just as emotional. I am a highly emotional person, from what I have felt. I think it's puberty or something, I dunno. Hopefully not bi-polar disorder. One day you wake up and you're the most angry person on the face of the earth, the next you wake up and you're jealous of what people have, the next you're in love like a crazy fool, and almost worst of all, sometimes you wake up and feel nothing at all. "And that's all-right I must confess...." I dunno! I just think we're both emotional genders, maybe girls have guys figured out better or something. Part of me worries that no other man on the face of the planet undergoes emotional changes and Bernard and Nexus are reading this and going "What? *grunt* what is this emotion you call Love? Is it to do with hitting things? *grunt*" And then they beat each other up and whack clubs against the ground for the next half hour, and that's actually how guys are supposed to work or something like that. But that's ca-raaaaaaaazy!

This was supposed to be about how relient k are awesome and now it's me talking about girls. Ooooh! There's also a good few songs that are great spiritually, like "Getting into you" and "I Am Understood?" they're really good, trust me! They're kinda self-explanatory, and really on-the-mark musically, which is nice. That's what I love about relient k, they're really actually good! Unless you don't like them, I guess. My point is there's a lot of people out there thinking "I'll serve God!" And then sell themselves short because they think it's not bible-orientated enough or something like that. I was reading about christian-developed games recently, and one of them was about moses herding sheep onto the ark, with score multipliers add or something like that. This is just me talking here, by the way, and my highly subjective views, but I just don't think I'd find that fun. At all. But what's cool about relient k and bands and people like this is, they're not afraid of metaphor. If you took the word "Aslan" out of the Narnia books and replaced it with "Jesus", I doubt it would be as wildly popular as it is. People would avoid it for fear of "Having religion crammed down their throat." A great guy I know called Fergus once said (I'm mis-quoting to an extent) "Some people think it needs a bible verse at the end, but a lot of the time it really doesn't" That's a mis-quote, but that's the jist. Someone could be listening to the song "Getting into you" and be perfectly aware that this is a christian band and know who they're talking about but stick with it. After all, it's a good song, and nothing's being forced. But if someone who didn't really think God existed or thought he was kind of a jerk-face listened to this song and it was called "Getting into Jesus" and then specifically avoid it because it irks them, then they don't get to listen about how this guy loves his father and wants to grow closer to him. I mean, I don't think that we should talk in code or anything like that, and when you're talking to other believers, of course you should speak directly, openly, and obviously about God, but I just think it's a real shame when people who are christians attempt to create something for the world and put pants on Michaelangelo's David because they don't want a penis in public, so to speak. Maybe that was a hamhanded metaphor, I dunno, but I just think God's happy with our sacrifices to him, and I think there's a certain value to being not so blatant when you're trying to share God with people who don't believe in God. I think that's what he meant... Haha! I was trying to remeber if "In this world but not of it was from the Bible or "The shack", a book about God. Ever know someone and they're really shy in person but are really outgoing and talkative online, on email, on stuff like that? Paul was like that! 2Corintians 10:1  "By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am "timid" when face to face with you, but "bold" when away!" Haha, I just found that funny. Back to looking. Bleh, I can't find it. Perhaps it doesn't need a verse at the end, in the words of ferg. Well, I did just put a bible verse at the end, but that was totally unrelated to anything else. Anyway, Look it up yourselves if you think I'm right or wrong, either opinion is fair enough, obviously. Read John 17, Jesus does this big prayer for himself, for the Disciples, and then for all believers. It's wicked awesome.

And now it's 1:34 and I've been blogging for.... almost an hour. I was going to stop now but I want to blog for a full hour. Oh crap, I totally forgot about the relient k album. One last song on the album that's totally great is "Jefferson Aero Plane". It's 10 minutes and 21 seconds long, which might make you think "Aha! I smell epic song awesomeness, like in "Deathbed" or "The lightning strike"!" But the song is only really about 5 minutes long. So what's the extra five minutes? well, a goodly 2-3 minutes of it is just silence, broken by a man shouting "PEPPERONI!" And then it goes into this wicked awesome secret song witch includes: 
Silly shoes
The world's worst freestyle rapper (I'm not even kidding, that's how they introduce him!)
PEPPERONI!
And it was all just a dream.
And..... Snakessssssss. 


3 minutes left, until I'll have been blogging for an hour, it's mostly filler at his point and so far it's more or less still one giant blocky paragraph of DOOM. So I should fix that. I wonder if it'll get smaller. That seems to happen. I think I've just done some wicked awesome big post and then I click "View blog" and then it's this tiny little mockery of a blog entry, like some giant lobster that boils down to a shameful anniversary dinner. My parents once had lobster for an anniversary dinner, it was back in the states when they were newlyweds living in an absolutely tiny house (Which was also pink) and they got these lobsters, and my dad thought: "hmmm, you fry lobsters, don't you?"  Turns out you don't! They shrivelled and tasted awful, but I wouldn't call it a waste of money, because if something's that funny that you remember it years later, I'd say the laughs would be more full of enjoyment than any succulent lobster. Though lobster is pretty tasty. 1:44! Woohoo! My left wrist is now sore. Time to space out this baby and see how big it is. Oh, and I've had this quote waiting since the first line.

"It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." -Elwood, The blues brothers

Eggnog!

So, it's christmas morning! That's really cool. Got everything I desired, including my skullcandy headphones! I found them highly reccomended
and told myself I'd get a pair when my fairly mediocre iPod ones ran out. But they did not break completely. They just hung around, working adequately, slightly broken but still ultimately usable. With christmas coming up, I thought I'd just get a pair for the heck of it! And they didn't dissapoint! I put on "Here I go" by Relient k, (It was a toss up between "Up and up [accoustic]" and "Here I go (demo)" but when I put the headphones in I said "Ok, here I go!" And then upon realizing what I said I had my mind made up. Guess what? That song actually has base in it! Gasp! They're really good for base, very deep, it was a bit of a change, but it was fun to mess with the EQ and actually have it make a difference! Pretty nice headphones! Couldn't hear a thing anyone else said. Blessing or curse? Maybe a bit of both. They were pretty good! I like 'em so far.

Also, MOTHERFLIPPIN' EGGNOG. My mom was searching the net for good eggnog recipies, and found one on a blog! Now I'm blogging about a blog my mom found. Blog is a fun word! Blog! blog blog blog bloo dee blah bloo blog. Anyway! She found this recipie, and although eggnog is an American thing to a large extent, this recipie genuinely tastes like eggnog. Like the eggnog you'd buy off of the shelves at your local supermarket. This is the real deal. We tried to make some last year and the recipie just produced some thin eggy monstrosity chocked full of rum. This year it's the real deal. Thick, well coloured, nutmeggy glory that it is. And not a drop of rum! "But why is the rum gone?" says Jack Sparrow, and to which I reply, "I don't know, in case you don't want to be hammered at 10 o clock on christmas morning  but still want some eggnog. Or if you abstain from alcoholic substances. Although the vanilla extract is alcohol-based. But that's just a little bit. What are you doing in my house anyway, you smelly pirate?" However, my parents do intend to add cuban rum to theirs later, and I'll probably try a little bit myself, if only because cuban rum is illegal in the states. But now I feel like I'm rebelling against Barrack, and that's not good... Anyway! Merry Christmas!

Haha, I almost forgot to post the recipie!

Eggnog, Alcohol free.

6 eggs

1 can (14 oz) (425 ml) sweetened condensed milk (they just call it "condensed milk" over here, it's allready sweetened.)

5 ml vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)

945 ml milk

160 ml heavy whipping cream

Ground nutmeg (just lash a good pinch or two, only a few grams)

1g salt

Beat eggs (heavily, the more beaten the better. I want to see bruises, people!); mix in condensed milk, vanilla, quart of milk and salt

Beat the whipping cream (not too much, otherwise it's a pain to fold in) until soft peaks form. Fold in to egg and milk mixture, sprinkle with nutmeg. Serve chilled (this bit is important. Leave it overnight in the fridge. Even though heat pumps are against nature.)

And thaaaaaaaaaaaat's eggnog! serve with a dollop of whipped cream on top, with a sprinkle of nutmeg! Nutmeg is really good in this, don't be too afraid of overdoing it!

It's christmas!

As I type this, it is 00:01 and it's christmas! Our house is full of stirring creatures, and our chimmney isn't crammed with santa yet, so that's that. "And not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" "Which probably meant billy's goldfish were dead." Merry chrismas to all, and to all a good night!

Cool Day!

So! Today was the last day of exams for me. 87% In applied Maths, 66% in Physics, and 89% in Maths. That's like, the highest mark I've ever gotten in a maths exam! Verily, I curb-stomped the diffo, I got 100% in every diffo question, so that was FREAKING AWESOME. I could have done better in physics, but ah well, c'est la vie. I studied too much of the definitions because I usually do badly in them, and unfortunatley over-compensated, and so I did kinda crap at the actual meaty physics work. Live and learn! And study. 

But what made today especially awesome was what happened after school. Everyone went their seperate ways, ie: home, or doing social things. I was headed home. And there's something a little saddening about heading home to be by yourself for 6 hours when other people are out having fun. I have been struggling with this a little lately. I always thought that if you had God strongly enough in your life, you wouldn't really need other people. Sure, it'd be nice or whatever, but it wouldn't really be a neccessity. However, there's a good bit of scripture that contradicts that idea, I think. I think, anyway. Could be wrong. 
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Now, if this was in the garden of eden, which is effectively with everything being totally, completely perfect and God being, like, Right there, and man still having a wanting for another, I think this shows that we need other people. And yes, I mean need instead of want. I suppose it depends on how far you take the word "need". We don't wither and die, but people do have a tendency to go a bit bonkers without other people to talk to, so I think it's a needed thing, to some extent. That sounds a little stupid, and definately cliched, but I feel like I need some grizzled war veteran or protaganisty hero guy to tell me "Needing others isn't a weakness" or something like that. Oh well, lesson learned, hopefully! Aaaaaaaanyway! Back to the story.

So, I'd been feeling somewhat lonesome as of late, I suppose a big chunk of it is the "Holiday spirit", where by certified law everyone must be dating, in love, and smiling constantly among friends, or so TV seems to think, anyway. So I need to head to Dundrum to pick up a presesnt for Nicoleymoley, as she gave me one and my plan to get her one on iTunes exploded, but that'll only take so long, like, maybe 40 minutes, and then it's back to home to play videogames alone until my brother comes home from town 5 hours later. And lonliness and Lorcan do not mix well.

So I'm heading to Dundrum, and I'm just praying "God, I feel really lonely. Can you... do something about that? please, help me out here." And I wind up in said shop searching for the backup present I had in mind, when I hear over my shoulder "Hey, is that Lorcan?" Bingo! I turn around, and there is Damien, one of my favorite people to hang with. Best of all, he was in Dundrum for similar reasons, because he didn't want to go home and play videogames all by himself for several hours. Now there's nothing more wonderful than finding someone with the exact some problem as you.   He is easy to talk to, makes me laugh, laughs at my jokes, and is just generally freakin' sweet to the max. And also, he is christian. Now, this is kinda important. It's just nice to be able to relax with someone who holds similar values and beliefs as you, and you don't need to feel uncomfortable around. He's not gonna start making vulgar sex jokes or start talking about people behind their backs. Well, as imperfect humans, we all probably do this at one point or another. But the point is we're both headed in the same direction, Jesus. So that was really nice. Also, it means I can talk about my faith without people rolling their eyes. Someone to relate to, y'know? At any rate, me, him, and Michael all spent the day hanging out in the mall (or shopping centre, depending on your persuasion), and then later went over to his house to watch Iron Man and have delicious chipper food. It was a really good time. I say this because it's one of those really obvious answers to prayer, I think. I say "Help me out, please!" and God lends a hand. I say this because I think these sorts of things are cool to hear from other people. Like a continuing testimony, as my friend/mentor Eric would say. Walking home, part of me thought "Bah, just co-incidence" And though I do believe in coincidences, I also believe this was God answering my prayers. Which was really cool to have happen really obviously and noticably. Our Father is pretty great, don't you think?

Oh! Also, on a totally unrelated note, as today was the last day of school before holidays, we had a free period in Applied Maths. So, me and my friend brian started gambling by cutting the deck (highest card wins), and as we weren't going to actually gamble, the stakes got pretty interesting. And luck was on my side. In short, I have won: Brian's lamp, Brian's Bedroom door, Brian's school tie, Brian's TV, Brian's Childhood from 1-8 ("Aw man, remember that time you were 7 and learned to ride your bike? Not anymore you don't, SUCKA!") Brian's laptop, Brian's health, Brian's future wife (now let's be specific, I don't marry her, I just own her.), Brian's Christmas presents, Brian's Trampoline, Brian's left leg, brian's first car, Brian's couch, and brian pays my first year's worth of auto insurance. (This means if he gets a car, I get that car, then he pays for it's auto insurance. :D ). I also won his dog, but he won it back. Darn.

Brian Won: 3 pairs of Lorcan's underwear, Every shoelace Lorcan owns, Lorcan's Finest chinese Silk robe, Lorcan's Ikea furniture, And Lorcan's bike.

Like I said, today was good.

"Lost the game"-Me! :D

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Punching you in the face, in yo' base, all over the place.

Hey, some of you that read my blog and have good memory might recall this post
 documenting my frustration with differenciation. My Maths exam was today. Now, *ahem*
*victory dance music begins* *victory dance ensues*
IN YO' FACE! IN YO' FACE YOU SILLY LITTLE METHOD OF DISCOVERING SLOPES! YOU AIN'T NOTHIN! YOU AIN'T NOTHIN' YOU LAME EXCUSE FO' A METHOD OF DISCOVERING SLOES! I DIFFERENTIATED THE CRAP OUT OF YOU, NOW DEAL WIF' IT! *vicotory dance music stops* *victory dance subsides*
Yes, about 85% of the test was differentiation, and thanks to my math teacher's generous action of taking me aside before school started to help me learn diffo, and Nicoleymoley's short grinds course in town on the subject, I was well prepared to differenciate the crap out of various numbers, despite what guises they took whether it be differenciate y, f'(x), or "find the slope of the given curve if y=blah blah blah". So that all went really well!

Mmm, English.

Right now I am eating a heavilly tortilla-based meal. 2 quesadillas with refried beans and cheese, and a scrambled egg burrito. My mom made me a scrambled egg burrito and now whenever I have Any tortilla-related food, I think of "Through painted deserts", a book by donald Miller. In it, him and his friend have a conversation about what they would like to eat most. At first, Miller's answer is "Eggs and them flour tortillas", a quote from a song that he listened to. Now whenever I think tortillas, I think "Them flour tortillas", and the companionship they represent, as someone else is making him eggs with not just any flour tortillas, it's them flour tortillas. Those ones he especially likes. Anyway, they're tasty. I had my english and Applied maths exams today, that was pretty intense. Question 3 of the App maths paper was crazy annoying, I messed up one part of it and it quickly turned into a swirling vortex of madness, beckoning me into it's swirling void like some sort of crazed miner gazing into the emptiness of a mine shaft. Effectively, I got irritating circular maths, like this:

3x=15x/5
3x=3x
0=0

Except more complicated than that. You spend 5 minutes of work to find out that yes, truly, zero does equal zero. Thank you for that, mister applied maths paper, I had no idea. I did well on most of the other questions though.

English was allright, though I think I may have used stupid words. Or really awesome appropriate language. We'll know soon enough. 

Why is it called "English" anyway? I was thinking about this today. Back in the states we called the class "Literature". It was the same thing: studying poetry, reading and discussing books, and learning more about the written language. But "oh-ho!" You might say, "They're all in english!"
This is not quite true for our class, at least. We're watching "Il Postino" an Italian movie for a film analasys. And Shakespeare was originally Ye olde english, which is almost as good as a different language altogether. I do not say this in a "Hububhubub, America < Ireland" Sort of way, I mean, what I learn in english and what they teach is so much more than just words and why our language rox and whatnot. It's almost like a nature class, where they just say "Hey, existance is pretty cool, isn't it? Here's what a bunch of dudes said about existance. they said it very prettily, here's how to understand it." We need a new word for this class, I think, because it's so much more than English. I'd wager they study similar things in other countries and perhaps they name it after their language too. My proposed word? "Awsinium".

I wish my exam was like this. I get a page, and something to talk about, and go to town. Maybe the exam's supposed to be like that and I missed the point, who knows. I was supposed to write an article for a newspaper on why the gap year was wicked awesome, and I think it may have kinda dissolved into "HAY U GUYS IT'S AWESUM, YOO GET TO GO OUTSIDE AND THERE'S NEW PPL AND YOU EXPAND YUR HORIZONS AND STUFF 'N THAT'S WHAT LIFE'S ALL ABOUT, RIGHT?" I'm not sure though. I either did good, or bad. Not great, not horrible, not average, but good, or bad. Like I said, we'll find out!

Also, Rorshach inkblots are totally cool. Get some ink, fold a paper in half, drip some ink on that bad boy, smoosh the paper together, and BAM! Instant art form that actually looks pretty decent. 

-"My Knife, where is my knife, I kill man who took my knife" - Alexandra, a quote from my english exam.

Ambush and Fall back.

That's how you play the scout in Team fortress 2! A couple shotgun blasts to the back or side (you gotta make sure they don't see you) and then just bugger off and shoot at them with the pistol as you run off like the little New Yorker well hard man that you are. Don't be afraid to just leave them alive, someone else will finish them off in their weakened state. And your speed to return to the battlefield after dying creates an omnipresent sort of irritating buzz in the opposition's ear. And never underestimate the effectiveness of good demoralization through irritation. And shotgun blasts to the face.

Y'know in games, how you get experience points that you get to spend in what you want to spend them in? I think our knowledge and experience of life is like that. We don't change what happened, but we take it in and try to understand it as best we know how, and interpret it differently. One man's sorrow is another man's breakthrough, one man's bittersweet memories is another man's stupid sentimentalism. But what's cool about games is you can refund the points sometimes and just say "Feck it, that was a poor decision, I'm gonna re-interpret the best way to play this game." Although sometimes you can't, and you just gotta stick with what you learnt and try to slowly branch off into a different path, and pay for your decisions. I'm glad it's not like that. Though one has to question if their talent points have been spent properly. Like most things in life, there is grey and darker grey as opposed to flat out black and white. Or is there? Perhaps I haven't invested enough experience is perception. At any rate, it's super sweet how you can just restart what you've learnt in some games, and change your viewpoint. I think our minds are malleable enough to do that. I hope I spend mine well. Who knows. This is me at 1:43, I'm usually more uninhibited and crazier, and I think I just shortened my attention span by 3 seconds by playing the scout on Team fortess 2 for about an hour, earning me 105 points, and THE TOP OF MY CLASS! Yeah, so that was pretty sweet. I'm tired. Exams are Tiring. Not as scary as I used to think they were though. Who knows. Call the Leaving Cert the "Summer Quiz" Startiiiiiiing now. It takes a load of stress off, I assure you. I'm going to sleep now. But first, hygenie! Hehe, hygenie. I think I spelt that wrong. Yup, I did. Looks like hy-genie. like a genie that'd tell you to brush your teeth. Weird. Night!


-"Do you have any Idea who you're talkin' to? Any idea? Any idea at all? Basically? Kinda a big deal. Are ya listening? Ok. Sun shines, grass grows, and brudda? I hurt people." - The scout

Manly list.

I thought after that I should make a list of manly things I have done.

-Played Metal gear solid.
-Can do a decent solid snake impression
(Do I need anything after that?)
-Made fire
-Poked fire
-Breathed life fire so it wouldn't die (combustion CPR!)
-made marshmallows
-Used a Wrench
-Fixed a flat tire (on my bike)
-Made something out of wood (A chessboard, but still)
-Made several knots (I've forgotten them all)
-Obtained several badges in scouts, in knives and axes and cool stuff like that.
-Punched things.
-done stuff to fix a computer
-read comic books
-Shaved face
-Worn Cologne
-Once jumped over a chair. For reals.
-Gone parachuting (ok, not really, but doesn't it sound good?)
-Gone rock climbing (this one for real)
- Spat off a cliff

Dah da na nah na Da da na nah na Da da

So! Cut to the quick, I got my legs waxed. Yup. Legs. Totally waxed. From calf to knee. I'm going on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Ghana this year and we desperately need money. So we're doing this leg-waxing thing for sponsorship. I've got about 100 euro, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Kudos to Nexus, who gave 20 euro out of generosity and/or sadism! I say generosity. It was pretty painful, I'm not gonna lie to you. Nicoleymoley was the excecutioner, I'll have you know, she will be waxing 4 teachers on friday, so she needed the practice. I screamed like a little girl, but only a few times. Most of the pain noises I make end up being tiny mews or "oh!" kinda noises. Though I dit confuse some bats' sense of direction a few times to be sure. I think I can add this to the list of girly things I have done. Well, now that I've typed it, I can hardly not share it with you.

-Been in a ballet (didn't have to wear tights at least.)
-Worn hot pink nail polish
-Worn stage makeup-Sampled a small amount of lipgloss to "Feel the tingle"
And now, 
-Waxed legs
-Shaved legs

I'm sure there's more to it then that, but there's a certain darkness in learning how to shave your legs with a razor before learning how to shave your face with a razor. Also, those things are bloody sharp! I wiped some of the hair off the cheap-o razor my.... *sigh* my mom uses, and I noticed later I had 5 cuts in my thumb! Sharp stuff. Yes, there was a video taken that shall be going on youtube, but we are giving the net adress out to people that have donated 2 euro to the cause. If you live far away, the promise of impending sponsorship will do. Just because I know Bernard can't wait until the next time I see him to miss me screaming like an injured animal. That's about it, I guess. Talk to you later! leave a message if you'd like to see the video, I'll send you the link!

Society is changing, it would seem

I was home sick today, and it was around lunchtime, so I thought I'd have lunch. Recently my mom made me an egg burrito, and that was pretty tasty, so I thought I'd try that. Then I realized I didn't know how to scramble, or really even fry an egg. So I followed my natural response for when I didn't know how to do something. I looked it up on the internet, and sure enough, I found a page on eHow for How to fry an egg.
I think that's pretty weird.
I don't know how to cook, I'll just look it up on the internet!
That strikes me as weird. Anyway, the burrito is delicious.?

You are not prepared- Illidan Stormrage

Cha Cha Cha Changes!

Hormones are weird. They addle your brain and make you feel all bipolar. And growth spurts! I have had growth spurts the past few days and I can tell you that they are decidedly odd feeling. They are caused by your bones growing, and your flesh has to grow with them, but there's usually a period of transition where the skin and muscles are put under tension, and this causes the pain. As far as I can understand, anyway. I should read up on it. I thought I would share this for the sake of two really weird experiences.

1)I just woke up one morning, and then in school I made a fist, but it was really uncomfortable. The source? My knucklebones had grown and expanded and my skin no longer fit comfortably over them. It was decidedly odd.

2) I woke up one morning, and my breathing and movement felt a little weird. My ribcage had expanded and now no longer fit in my chest, making it sore!

I only say this because I thought it was really weird. I mean, the concept of waking up and suddenly parts of you don't fit inside yourself. Weird!

Also, my bike bust. It's another funny story! My bike has a quick-release mechanism on the front wheel which, while convenient, can be a little unsafe, I guess. Unscrews a little by itself over time. I noticed it was a little loose a few days ago, but neglected to do anything about it, and forgot about it for a few days. Untiiiiiil! I was biking home downhill, and started lightly bouncing my front tire. I pondered the physics of it all. How my own arms could pull it up. Does that work? *boink* I thought it was kinda like outer space. Could you will yourself *boink* off the ground like that? Maybe it worked *boink* like a Normal force, where it just *boink* repels you when you apply a force on the *boi-chrk* *CHRK* *SCRRRR* *FWOO* *CLUNK* *CRASH* My front tire just completely de-railed and the front chassis of my bike just hit the ground and brought the bike's front to a skidding halt. But let it not be said that the bike stopped! The back was still moving, and as I was going downhill it moved forward and over. I did a flip! This was as not much fun as it sounds, as I hurt my arms and got a scraped knee in proper 4-year old fashion. It was crazy! Some nice people asked me if I was ok though. I also totally bent the front tire, but we got a replacement, so that's all good now. I am also playing WoW again, *dun dun dun?* It's not as bad as it sounds, I guess!

"WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! GOODNIGHT!" -Morbo