Insomnia makes you not sleep? Who woulda thunk it

For some reason i couldn't sleep last night. I guess my head was just full of stuff. Stuff i want to do, things i'd like to get done. I tried to make a coherant list, but despite the fact that i couldn't sleep i was sleepy. Weird eh? 

Of course, the phone call at half past two in the morning made it all worth it :) 

One of the things in my head was about art, and drawing. The other was that i blog a lot about WoW and maybe i should make something out of that. Another was that picture at the top of the post. I mean, lots of people carry around bananas and guns in their pockets. Women shouldn't just assume. Especially if your friend is a monkey or an officer of the law. 

Ho ho ho, and all that

So it's christmas time again. You eat too much, and you drink a little bit too much, stay out until 2 in the morning on Christmas eve and then show up for church at 9. Good times. I personally love the holiday season, except for the commercial bits, but you have to take the good with the annoying i suppose. This is the first year in a long while where i'm not in the advertising business during Christmas, and i tell you what, some of my cynicism has been worn away. 

Also, presents are nice. 

To escape the heat today, my mum, sister and i went to see Valkyrie. I honestly wasn't very interested in it, but it was the only thing that was on at the right time. It's basically a historical thriller, and some of it is very very slow. And i mean sloooow, i can't say much without spoiling the plot, but bear with it. It was also interesting to see the German Resistance to the Nazi movement, as opposed to the American and British perspectives that we see a lot in world war 2 movies ( and admittedly, videogames). 

Tom Cruise was alright in it, he seemed very American though, which i thought detracted a bit from the film. Half the cast is also British, and their German accents were sometimes pretty laughable. But all in all, i was a little choked up at the end. After all, the film is based on the true story of the German resistance and all that. Real people gave their lives to fight evil, and paid the ultimate price for it. 

I also really don't like Nazis. I'm part Gypsy, and yeah, the Nazis didn't like them much. All in all, if i were to rate Valkyrie, i'd give it 3 slices out of 5. Which is a lot of slices of cake to eat. 

Not photoshopped at all

I mean, why would i photoshop something like that? 

Pictures are like stories without having to talk to people

I do not often leave this great metropolis that is known as Suva. But when i do, i sure as hell make sure that there is photographic evidence! Here's a couple of the Pre-Christmas holiday that i went on...kind of randomly. 

That's me trying to harness the power of the Hard Rock Cafe for Awesomeness. It worked, as you can tell. 

Thats the sister and I at this really Remarkable Sweet Shop. It was actually quite remarkable at how remarkable this store was. I may in fact, make a remark about it. 

I like to point out things. For example, the fact that we are at The Fijian. 

Or those strange plant men hiding in the bushes.

And the Kraken. I took care of that though, with some Kraken-punchin'. I really love my awesome hat by the way. It keepses the head warm, a very important thing if you're planning to move to a cold locale. 

Finally, i made this really unprofessional looking collage of some of the landscape pictures i took. As you can see, i have absoloutely no experience in the realm of photography :P

Just got back from the West

and feeling browner and happier for it. Was kinda an unexpected trip, and those are always the best. Plus, i got to score an awesome new hat. 

Will post a longer and more pictureful post soonish. 

Also, merry christmas ya monkies! 

Comparin' Colors

So i drew the lines for this a coupla days ago at Maccers (the same day that Lawrence did his undead santa sketch i believe) and Wilson asked if i could send him the lines for him to color. So i did...and here are both of our results :D

Wil's is very...trippy. My sister approves of it more than my more traditional colors...but then again, my sister says my drawing looks like something on the back of a bus seat. 

Happy fun mount time

Just a Belf, a troll and their bears.

You sa deserve to be punished sara ga

Spent the day with the little brother today, he is quite articulate now. Also, tall. For an eight year old. Mucking around town with him, i was kind of reminded of a younger me. We talked about vidjagames, cartoons, all sorts of stuff. And girls of course. He's at that age where girls are still icky though, i remember that too. 

I went and dropped him home in the arvo, and then took a stroll around the old neighbourhood. I had some good times up there, like the time i got in trouble for tagging that wall with a mate of mine, the first time that the same mate showed me the dog at number twenty five. Now this dog, barks like mad whenever you go past. And not the typical bark too, but this crazy, slobbering, i'm-going-to-rip-your-throat out bark that never seems to disturb you. It also always seems to wait until you are halfway past the gate, and then jump out and start it's thing. 

Anyway, we were walking past one day, the dog jumps out, makes us jump and my friend stops. Turning to me he asks "you want to see something funny?"

He turns to the dog, and makes a little spinning motion with his hand, and the dog stops barking, and runs around in a little circle. I swear to xenu, it was the funniest thing i had ever seem. Since then, everytime i would walk past number 25, i'd stop and wait for the dog to jump out, so i could make the motion and watch that dog spin around. The dog wasn't there today though, but i laughed anyway when the memories hit me. 

The reason that the punisher is up there is because John, Arjay (or Arc as he likes to called lately) and I went to see Punisher:Warzone. It was much better than i expected it to be. From the trailer, i was expected a mopey film, with a little bit of strange chandelier spinning action in it. Admittedly, the film had both those things, but it also had some brutal action, and a couple of cheesy one liners. If you're not doing anything, give it a shot. Hehe, i made a pun there, coz The Punisher shoots a lotta people you see? 

Northrend Bound

I have been having fun in Northrend. Despite the fact that the natives tend to be terribly hostile, and the cold. Seedus bought some thermal frostweave underwear yesterday though, so he has no need worry about the future generations of Little Seedus's being cold. Speaking of future generations, baby murlocs are too cute :D

Seedy had to rescue a few of the little tadpoles this morning, and after he did he made level 72. yay! Also, i had no idea that baby murlocs were called tadpoles, so you learn something new about fictional species of aquatic humanoids everday. I also really like Dalaran. It's a city of mages, and i spent a lot of time just walking around and talking to people. I also bought a bear, i think i will call him Barry. 

That's not Barry by the way, that's Berginald. Barry is much much bigger. 

What is that? is that the color of magic?

So Lawrence took us to a DVDer shop yesterday, and Eagle-eye John spotted it. It was just lying there, a DVD with a note attached to it. The note read "story like harry potter, 2 discs". I was a bit skeptical, having not heard that they were making a live action adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Color of Magic (the first book in the Discworld series, which i absoloutely love) and was actually slightly worried that it might be porn. I mean i dunno, when it comes to picking DVD's i usually manage to pick really bad B-movies, a skill i have inherited from my father. 

I bought it anyway, took it home and put the first disc on. For the next hour and a half, my face was like this: 

:) 

Basically they made a made-for-tv movie based on the first two books in the series, The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic. The story sticks very close to the plot of the books, so much so that i found myself quoting certain bits as the movie played. I have read those books many many times, and watching the actors go about their business was awesome. 

Complaints i have? well...none really, they omitted a couple of bits that might have been a bit tough to do the graphics for, such as the Temple of Bel-Shamaroth bit (and even then, they mention the temple like 3 times) and Rincewind the Inept Wizard is a little older than i pictured him in my mind. Okay, a lot older. This is mainly because i picture Paul Kidby's illustrations from The Last Hero when i picture him mentally, where he's a kind of skinny dude with a wispy beard in his late thirties, like the picture below:

Whereas in the Movie, he's played by David Jason, who looks like this:

I got used to it though, and Mr. Jason makes a pretty good Rincewind. I was also surprised at the amount of actors that were recognisable in it, like Sean "Samwise Gamgee" Astin as the Discworlds first tourist Twoflower, Jeremy Irons as Lord Vetinari (in a pretty small role admittedly) and Christopher Lee as the voice of Death. 

After watching it, i want to get my hands on the latest Pratchett novel that i haven't got yet. Also, i hope that they make a movie out of at least one of the Sam Vimes novels. Guard's Guard's! would be a great show. Or Thud! or Night Watch or the Fifth Elephant...okay basically any Sam Vimes novel would be good. 

Illustration from www.paulkidby.net who does most of the cover illustrations for the novels, check his work out, tis awesome 

Also, the story if you wondering, is nothing like Harry Potter. 

Remember that one time? Where i was all, Edd wants it?

I have ^_^

After finishing up another round of Market Research work, i scored some monies and a copy of Wrath of the Itch King. Lich King? Something like that. 

Seedus was the first to go to Northrend, for some reason (i was still unsure whether i would buy the expansion) i had respecced him from Arcane to Fire. I think i knew...besides, fire is the coolest spec ever, what with all the new instant spells you get for going aaaall the way down to the bottom of the tree. Too bad Living Bomb is useless :( 

It's a damage over time spell you see, and as a mage, you can't allow an enemy to be wailing on you while you wait for some DoT to take effect. We are not warlocks with huge health pools...we are weak little glass cannons. So, for the final payoff for the high end burst damage tree to be a DoT is a little...meh. That's the only complaint you'll get out of me about Fire as a tree. 

I just re-read those last two paragraphs and realised that if you knew nothing about WoW it would read like a foreign language =_=

Anyways, looks like i'm northrend bound now :)

Where a man can still be free...or a woman if you are one

'ello. So i've got a phone again thanks to John. He verily hath saved my buttocks, and he even made me go to Vodafone yesterday to get my sim card replaced. I think he just didn't want to go home :P

anyway, while waiting for John to show up and pick me up from my mum's office i drew things. Most of em weren't my idea, my sisters friend asked me to to draw her (my sister, not her friend) so i did, and gave her a sword. Then i drew myself...and gave me a biiig honking sword. Then John...and Lawrence, and before i knew it i had a whole bunch of characters :) 

So while lying in couch last night i tried to come up character classes and special attacks and stuff, for my friends and i. So, from left to right we have: 

Wilson (Totem-slinger): wields two axes (because Islanders have bonus to axes, it's a racial ability)  and has the ability to plant totems that boost the partys abilities. Can also heal people, so thats what we get him to do. 

Limit Break: Freak out! Wilson brings out a radio with awesome techno tunes that boost the partys attack power and damages all enemies that are not immune to music attacks (like old people, and nuns) 

John Michaels (Threat Manager): For some reason, John has the highest HP of eeeveryone in the party. We don't know what it is, just something about him. For that reason, we put him in front of whatever it is we are fighting, and get him to soak up the damage. Has abilities to get an enemies attention when he loses it like Threatening Email, and Bork!

Limit Break:  Shining Beacon. John begins to glow with the power of a thousand watt lightbulb, increasing the amount that he gets from healing, and all the bad guys tend to look at him more. And also has a chance to blind them with its awesomeness. 

Albie (Semi-employed Swordsman): wields a huge ass blade that doesn't look very sharp, but still could damage you plenty if he hit you with it. Also has the ability to affect the ebb and flow of time, speeding up allies and slowing down enemies. ( the techniques for that are annoying rib poke and  short story reading respectively) 

Limit Break: Overcompensation. Hits you with his huge sword several times, each blow doing slightly more damage than the previous one. Has the potential to finish fights quickly. 

Noodle (Ranter): Combination healer and damage dealer (like a paladin! but not like paladin...because they annoying) with a hammer that can heal or hurt depending on the situation. How does that work you ask? basically, if she hits a friend it heals them, if she hits an enemy they get hurt. Also has access to hammer space. 

Limit Break: Lkjhgfdsa. Unleashes a Rant of epic proportions, shattering the enemy's morale until they are naught but gibbering fools. Unless she's already fighting gibbering fools, then they are immune. 

Siannie (Mini-feminist): Has various status effects depending on the gender of the ally or enemy. For example, there is the Feminist Propaganda spell, that will either increase a males attack power, or boost a females magical power. What? you thought it would have debilitating effects on males? tsk tsk

Limit Break: Tutti-Frutti: Deals [Ice-cream] damage to the enemy. No one said all limit breaks have to be cool. Don't worry though, it has an awesome animation.

Lawrence Cass (Zombeh Summoner): Caster class with minions (sound familiar?) and spells that cause plenty of damage over time (yes...really familiar). Lawrence, as his class suggests, summons zombies to take damage instead of him in the form of meatshield or to simply harass the enemy. 

Limit Break: Zombeh Hordezors: Summons a horde of zombies that wipe through the enemy, destroying all in their path. At the end of it, a dimensional portal is summoned to send them all back to the netherworld...has a small chance for the dimensional portal to fail...

That was fun :P

Off the grid again :(

Phone is missing again, i have lost count of how many fucking mobile phones that makes. I think i should stop wearing these pants with the tiny pockets. From now on it's giant cargo pants for me. 

/sigh

anyways, Pic of TJ and Raj up there, the dynamic duo from the ill fated TJ Bounty: Bounty Hunter series that i worked on with Lawrence. Was watching TV last night and drawing, so my mind must have been on automatic. It came out pretty well though :)

Click! Click!

So, long weekend after a week of being sick? check. Was definately a weekend to remember though, and it went pretty much according to schedule. Go out with the mates? yep. Get stopped trying to get into O's? yep. Some form of drama? yep. Watch a good flick at John's place? Gotcher. 

Things be good mon, things be good. 

Haven't done a whole bunch of drawing this week, the ol' art supplies have run low again. So as soon as John pays me back the failmoney that i gave him for Wrath i will have to make wonderful purchases of erasers, inking pens, markers and freaky fresh paper. I love that fresh paper smell, when you rip open the packaging and see all that lovely blank paper. 

I ran into a couple of old friends from school this weekend. And i'm not talking like, high school old, i'm talking primary school old. It was...interesting. The first thing i did when i saw him was sneak up behind and yell, "oy! fuck you!" in his ear. He remembered me after that. 

I would tell you about Drive Thru, but i'm sure Lawrence will tell you all about it, i give it two bob-ombs outta four though, so if you're looking for a slasher flick that will give you a laugh, give it a go. Also, i have learned that if you want to grab my attention with a movie, waiting for wiggas to get chopped up by a killer clown is a sure fire way. 

Imma go and play some more final fantasy tactics now, i'm stuck at the same place i was years ago when i was a twelve year old trying to wrap my mind around this grid based game. It seems i still haven't changed much from that kid. It's cool though, he's a pretty neat fellah. 

Hey uh...howsit?

yeah, due to sickness i have forgotten to mention that i finished final fantasy 12! yesh, it was early on tuesday morning, at around 3 o'clock, when Vayne the Undying finally fell to my blades and Magick (no one uses the Technicks, they are the useless). What a ride it was. Looking at my play time, i logged 60 hours into that game, and according to various websites, had only finished half of the sidequests. It is still up in the air whether i'm going to go back and finish them, i think Arjay might want his PS2 back.

Wondering if i can squeeze a little bit of FF7: Dirge of Cerberus in, before i hand it over :)

Also managed to get my hands on the PSX version of Tactics, after watching the intro to the new remake on youtube. 

yes, i am a Final Fantasy Fanboy, and damn proud of it. 

I threw a beanbag at her

I am depressed. There are all the signs, (and the sighs) and this bug that my lovely cousins have bestowed upon me. Then there are all the usual worries that i have, that i'm not doing anything in particular with my life, that the girl that i love is a thousand million kabillion miles away, that i don't have a job! 

man...i'm going to give myself early wrinkles and a receding hairline if i don't deal with this soon. 

I hate it when photoshop crashes

because it never does just after you save something. It will crash on you when you're just about to save a piece you've been working for the past hour on. 

A surprisingly informative post

I don't know why, but lately i've taken to googling pictures of beaches. I think some part of me wants to go to the beach =_=

Today is the last day of November, which means that tomorrow the "Holiday Season" officially begins. Prepare to be inundated with commercials telling you to buy many many different things. To counter this, you might want to consider creating a personal mantra to ward of unnecessary purchasing of things. Mine is, "you are broke". 

Seriously though, if you haven't thought about it yet, now is the time to start thinking about what you want to do for holidays. Are you buying people presents? Do you need to send cards out? Can i afford a trip to visit Aunty and Uncle out in the sticks? that sort of thing. Don't be afraid to write out lists, those can really help to organise your thoughts. 

Finally, if you are like me and slightly strapped for cash (for many reasons, un/semi-employment, purchasing too many vidjagames, cocaine addiction) now might be the right time to start reminding people that you love them. Also, try dropping subtle hints that you are broke, so that they aren't disappointed come the 25th. I know, i know, i'm a genius. 

'Bye Kaite!

i think i might have had the longest weekend ever. Friday was...strangely long. I can remember beginning the evening as per usual, with the gang at Bad Dog. There were drinks, and much merry making, (not too many for me though, gotta watch the liver and all that) and then Griff showed up and surprised everyone. We went for Karaoke, sang songs and laughed at the new television commercial with some constipated fuck in it. 'Twas quite hilarious, if i do say so myself.

Some people went home, some went to traps. Since it was kinda early-ish i decided to also go to traps. I also wanted to hang out with Griff, because i missed him. Ended up bumping into Ronron and Kait and their gang there, as well as a couple of my juniors from high school. I'm always slightly amused when i see people younger than me drinking. It's like, awww, i used to see you awkardly hang out with your little friends, look at you all grown up. 

At the end of the night, Griff, Arjay, Wilson and i tried to get a taxi. It was pissing down with rain and for some reason there seemed to be an awful lot of competition for taxis. The fact that we probably looked like drunken, wet fucks might not have helped. Long story short, Wilson and I ended up walking home at three in the morning from town. Emo much? 

I awoke in a strange couch the next afternoon. The reason that it was strange was because i was sleeping in the opposite direction to how i normally sleep on the couch. For a full minute i wondered where i was, and then it hit me that i must have been really tired the night before. That afternoon, i met up with Griff in town to get stuff ready for Kaites farewell party...and Rejis birthday party....and some other stuff too, it was one of them combination deal partys. Fiji was also playing rugby that night, we might have been celebrating that too.

Griff and i sat on the benchs at Terry Walk while we waited for John to arrive with his (sharkys) flash card, so that we could buy cheaper beer. Yes, we are that broke. It was interesting conversation, we talked about women, and how god is lazy with sunsets sometimes, and the strange bond between man and cars. He ate Tim-Tams, i smoked a couple of cigarettes. 

It was funny buying that carton from the shops, because as we were buying them Griff pointed out to the cashier that cigarettes harm unborn babies. taking the packet from the receptacle, the cashier studied the bold lettering on it intently. With complete seriousness, she declared that these cigarettes didn't hurt unborn babies, and instead only caused heart disease. She was either a comic genius or an idiot. Because i am a nice guy, i'm going to assume the former. 

We arrived at Ronrons place, and had the usual food and merry-making. Went out to the clubs again (oh my poor feet) where they had some competition thing going on. The plan was to stay up until 7Am so that we could see Kaite off in her taxi. The girls would of course take her to the bus and see her off, but i wasn't going to do that...i mean staying up until seven in the morning is enough. So we did, i was pretty proud of my stamina, seeing as how i'm usually asleep at ten-ish anyway. Imma miss that crazy hippy chick, her robot loving antics are always entertaining. 

I think i'm going to go back to bed now. 

ZZzzzZZzzzZZZZzz

Spoony?

quite possibly the most ridiculous line in the entire final fantasy series. From now on i am calling people who annoy me spoony bards. 

Ambrose and Doomy!?

Today i was a total bum. I got a little propaganda work done in the morning, but that was about it in terms of productivity. I did however, manage to get some more colors done. Heres a coupla pieces, one of em fer Lawrence, since he pointed out that i didn't draw Doomy. 

Also, yeah i noticed too how the pictures kinda read like, "are you omegavondoom", i was going to change it, then realised that i was thinking instead of journeying to the Tower of Pharos in the Ridorana Cataract. Silly me, wondering about things when i should be playing Final Fantasy XII.

Alligator colors, shotglasses and thread

So i bought me some alligator colors at the MHCC while i was searching for birthday candles for my grandmas cake. The family could not find candles anywhere, and so i was assigned the quest of finding them. I was this close to buying 70 candles, seeing as how she turned 70, but instead i bought 24 and some colors. It's been a while since i colored anything by hand, but i'm pretty happy with how these turned out. I still need a lot of work! 

yeah, i made my gran a card and bought her a shot glass. Well, it was either that or an ashtray, and i don't think she would have appreciated that joke as much. You may say, Hey, why would you buy a seventy year old a shotglass? 

You shouldn't say that.

Instead you should be asking, what do you get a seventy year old. In her many years my grandmother has aquired all manner of items, goods and knick knacks. There is nothing that i could buy her that she probably doesn't already have. 

Me: Gran, i bought you this amazing Dragons Egg, i had to journey to the Kingdom of the Aethrazids to purchase it, the journey was long and arduos but yea, i did prevail.

Grandma: Oh i have one those, picked it up in 1967 at a garden fair in Lautoka.

Me: /facepalm

So i got her a shotglass. Thats the short story. 

I also got my eyebrow done today. It hurt like the dickens. But so far, two seperate women have told me i look pretty. It is still up in the air whether this is a good or a bad thing. 

Words of advice

Verily tis true, for he who sets off without the down of a phoenix faces the screen of Game Over-ness. 

Rar! It'sa Dragon!

Did the above in about ten minutes in between drawing little children inside of peapods. Some people have strange fetishes.

Yeah, so i've been doing some more work with the Pod people, as well as the Feminist Propaganda and the random jobs that Art and Soul (or Fart and Hole as a certain member of my family is wont to quote) have given me. So for an unemployed bum i've been pretty busy. Who says semi-employment can't pay the bills?

i do, because quite frankly it doesn't =_=

But, i am not one to bitch, i'm pretty healthy, good looking, and articulate to boot. So it's not as if i everything isn't going my way. Have seriously considered spending money on the Wrath of the Lich King when my pay comes in this weekend. I mean, i've come this far. I might as well, as master chief says, Finish the fight.

Grandma turns 70 tomorrow, she's a tough old bird that one is. Apart from berating me on my nicotine addiction, she thinks the world of me. I must purchase her something nice, and at the very least make her a nice card. Thank gawd the Pod people paid me today or i'd have no money with which to buy her things.

Oh yeah, and i'm going to be in a commercial for toilet paper. The depths to which i sink. 

What me, worry?

I have been unhealthily uncreative lately. spending too much time playing Final Fantasy 12 and not enough time drawing and writing :P 

This will change after i have finished it of course, but in the meantime theres a part of me saying, oy, do some drawing you git. So i drew a shark guy and some armor bits for him. It was good fun ^_^

The Carchari are the warrior class of the Sharkpeople, and are especially chosen to protect the Carcharadon. At a young age their tails are amputated and they are trained in the ways of combat. Since they do not have tails, they are more manouverable than their other sharkpeople brethren, and many normal sharkpeople find it difficult to fight them. The disadvantage to this is that they are much slower when it comes to swimming, they're trained in the use of ranged weapons such as bows and stuff though to compensate. 

Published! ZING!

The following is a short story that was published in Living in Fiji. Yay for me!

Derek: The Wonder Years.

Derek was a nice guy. He always turned the other cheek when it came to confrontation, always let little old ladies have his seat on crowded buses and pretty much let women walk all over him. This isn’t so bad, mind you; there are worse things to be than a nice guy. However, Derek’s problem is that not only is he a nice guy, but he is also very unlucky. So, when it comes to excitement, you can usually find Derek at home, trying to beat the last level of Super Mario. He can never quite get that last jump right.

It was on of those nights that fate decided to throw a metaphorical bone at Derek, basically to see if he would bite. As Derek was sitting at home, playing his videogames, the door burst open and through it came a whirlwind. A whirlwind named Gary. Now, everyone has one of those friends, the guy who is a bit of an arse, who makes lewd comments and passes out on your front lawn. Derek’s was Gary.

            “Derek! This is an intervention!” he cried, as he marched across the room towards Derek’s desk.

            “What? What the hell are you talking about Gary?”

            “You haven’t been out of the house in three months! It’s time for someone to do something! It’s time for you to do something!”

            Grabbing the power cable for the computer, Gary wrenched it from its socket, and the computer gave a small fizzle as it winked out. Stunned, Derek stared at the dark screen for a full thirty seconds before blinking. Now normally, one would be angry if someone came into their house, uninvited, and turned off their computer. Derek, however, was a nice guy.

            “Dude! I was using that!” he said, standing up and turning to face Gary.

            Gary sighed, his world weary, heart heavy sigh, and punched Derek in the nose.

     Three months ago, Derek, Gary and Penelope were relaxing at the seawall, watching the sun go down. They were young, restless, and full of hope for the future. Basically, the world had yet to crush their souls.

            “What do you think we’ll be doing in ten years Derek?” Penelope asked, turning to look at him,

            Derek thought about it, he had just started work as a chemical engineer. Having high hopes for the job, he was understandably optimistic.

            “Well, hopefully the same thing we’re doing now, hanging out with our friends, although hopefully richer.”

            “And maybe by then you’d have gotten laid Derek.” Gary said, slapping him on the back and bursting into laughter. Penelope laughed politely, and Derek stared out to sea.

 

            Derek woke up in the passenger seat of Gary’s car, his nose throbbing and his head aching.

            “Gary! What is up with you man?” he asked as he reached over to roll down the window.

            “Derek I’m sorry, but I couldn’t think of any other way to get you out of that house, man. I mean, I know you’re still hurting after the Penelope thing, but three months? I mean, I’d understand if you had actually…”

            “Just, shut up Gary, okay?”

            Gary raised an eyebrow; this was new, Derek protesting?

            “Where are we going?”

            “Why, to the clubs of course! Where else would we going on a Friday night?”

“Well…I was up to that last level in…”

“There’s a time and place for everything Derek my man, and Friday is let’s see how much I can drink before I pass out time.”

“I don’t know Gary; I just don’t feel up to it.”

“Listen to me, okay? How long have you known me?”

“Since primary school.”

“And how often have I been right about the need for drunken debauchery?”

Derek thought about this.

 

They were sixteen years old and at the back of the school.

“I don’t know about this Gary…I mean, what if we get caught?”

“Who goes around to the back of the school Derek? Honestly, sometimes you worry too much.”

Gary pulled the bottle out of his bag and waved it in front of them. The girls clapped their hands and Gary gave a little bow. The day before Gary had passed the word around that he and Derek would be throwing a little party behind the school. In retrospect, he could have been a little more discreet.

“Hey! What are you kids doing back there?” yelled a voice.

In a flash, the kids were up and scrambling into the bushes that marked the school boundary. Running for their academic lives, they managed to reach the short cut that led to the main street. Looking back Derek saw that one of the girls had tripped and fell, and that the teacher was running up the track after them. That was the day Derek met Penelope. It was also the day that Derek got suspended from school for a week.

 

“Do you want the number of times you’ve been wrong about drunken debauchery?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s all in the past Derek! Let it go! Let it be free like a little bird of freedom!”

“Gary…”

“Derek! Tonight is about letting the past go, so let’s go.”

Gary jumped out of the car, straightened his shirt and shut the door behind him. Taking in a deep breath of the humid Suva night air, Gary turned to lock the car behind him to see Derek still sitting in the passenger seat.

“I’ll buy you those girly drinks you like, come on Derek.”

“With the umbrellas in them?”

“Yes…with the umbrellas in them”

And so, with the prospect of drinks with umbrellas in them, Derek and Gary went out to face the night.

 

Now, a nightclub isn’t the best place to have a conversation, the music is loud, people are either drunk or pissed because they are designated drivers and can’t get drunk, and the floors are best not talked about. In other words, Gary was in his element.

Soon Derek and Gary were in a decent corner, sipping beverages and watching people gyrate. Eventually, the beat and the strawberry daiquiri began to get to Derek, and he found himself tapping his feet unconsciously.

“Now, go ask one of those girls to dance.”

“What?”

“Go ask one of those girls to dance, Derek!”

“Oh…I dunno Gary.”

Gary threw his hands up in the air in frustration.

“Are we going to have to discuss every little thing D? Just listen to me man; I know what I’m doing!”

Derek took another sip of liquid courage, before placing his drink carefully on the table.

“Houston, we have lift off!” Gary cheered.

“Cut the chatter Red 2, accelerate to attack speed.”

“I swear Derek; if you quote star wars one more time I’m going to punch you in the nose again.”

“Hey, at least I didn’t say, I have a very bad feeling about this!”

“Great…now I have bad feeling about this.”

 

It was soon after the day at the seawall that Penelope called Derek up at work. Derek was working on a particularly difficult chemical equation when he got the call, and was surprised to hear Penelope on the end of the line.
            “Hey, Derek? Can we meet for lunch today?”

“Sure thing Penelope, I’ll pick you up from your office then.”

Derek went back to his equation, pondering slightly about Penelope, she sounded a bit flustered on the phone, as if she had something on her mind. In his pondering, Derek forgot to add the seven and minus the two.

A few hours later, Derek and Penelope were having lunch at the Last Chance Café. Derek was eating the smoked chicken sandwich, and Penelope the salad. They made small talk, about Penelope’s new job at the law firm, and Derek’s chemical equations, and then there was that lull that happens in most conversations.

“Derek, you know Pete right?”

“Tiny Pete? The guy from the commercials with the ladies pouring juice down his abs?”

“Uh…yeah, he kind of asked me out.”

“Oh…okay. That’s nice I guess. He works out right?”

“Yeah, what do you think of him?”

Derek couldn’t think of one thing to say. His mind was still struggling to process the fact that Penelope was going out with someone. Penelope! The queen of singledom! If he had known that she had wanted to start dating he would have…what would he have done? It was then that Derek realized that he had feelings for his best friend, and his nice guy-ness wouldn’t let him do a thing about it.

“He’s a good guy, I mean, professional you know? Not many people could carry off juice being poured on them with dignity, but he does it. God, how he does it.”

And so, his heart feeling strange, Derek went back to work in time to catch the explosion as a chemical equation went horribly wrong. Because someone forgot to add the seven and minus the two.

 

And so, we find Derek, unlucky in love, and an all around nice guy, walking toward a girl in a nightclub. He had seen her as soon as he entered, granted it was dark, and the strobe lights were flashing directly in his eyes but she was attractive and Derek was feeling courageous.

Her back was to him as he approached, and he attempted to tap her on the shoulder, when an arm reached up and grabbed his.

“Look out mate.”

Derek looked around for a couple of seconds, in his slightly inebriated state it took a while for him to register that the voice was coming from below his waist.

“Tiny Pete?” he said in disbelief. Of all the people to run into, he had to run into her boyfriend.

“Derek?” Penelope turned around, looking surprised, “where the hell have you been? I haven’t heard from you in months!”

“Umm…hi!”

Pete wasn’t going to take this lying down though. He had honed his three foot frame to perfection, and no one was getting away with calling him tiny.

“What did you call me?”

“Tiny Pete…um...Pete.” Derek said, in confusion. Unfortunately in his confusion Derek had the tendency to be honest.

“That’s it, I’m going to make a lesson out of you!” and for the second time that evening Derek was punched. This time however, it was not in the nose.

 

They sat there in silence, the sound of the sea crashing into the breakers and the cars rushing by punctuated the night air.

“You could have stopped him from biting me.”

“I’m sorry Derek, I really am alright?”

Derek shrugged.

“It wasn’t that bad an evening you know? I mean, the daiquiri was nice.”

“And you’ve still got me!” Gary said.

There was more silence.

“Don’t ever say that again.”

“Alright.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            

How did i not know about this game?

Final Fantasy: DISSIDIA for the PSP. How did i not know about this? Basically it's Square-Enix's answer to Super Smash Bros. They're taking a whole bunch of heroes and villains from their extraordinary long line of games and making a platform for you to live out your fanboy dreams of who would win in a fight between Cloud Strife and Squall. Or Sephiroth and Squall...or...

Basically, they're taking one villain and one hero from each of the Final Fantasy games up until 10. So you've got 20 playable brawlers (and not to mention the unlockable crap that has to be in it, as if it wasn't awesome enough already) whom you can choose from. I haven't been able to find out if they're all available from the get-go though. I'm not too excited about playing Kuja from FF9 (he was the very ghey bad guy by the way) but aww yeah, bring on the Cloud vs. The Warrior of Light.

Kefka is in it! And he looks...creepy. When you're playing a game where the main villain is a sprite, its a little hard to get creeped out by this evil clownlike figure (yes, he is the joker of final fantasy) but i was. Now he's in 3D! and i can kick his ass. again.

Hey, Noodle! Borrow your PSP for this one mada :P

Website here: [link] i wish i knew Japanese...