have several things I want to say in this blog, hence the generic title. I shall be brief, and try and remember everything. I hope that all of you that are American and are older than 18 are going to be voting. I also hope you think long and hard about it, and make a responsible decision that is not based on whether the candidate you choose shares your beliefs on social issues, but rather choose the person you think will be best in terms of change. I also hope you remember that the President of the US has a great deal of influence internationally, and so vote according to who would be best for the world as well as your country. I hope that is not too much to ask. Please don't vote for a minor party, your system is flawed and while it will be a protest, it won't make a difference. It will mean you waved a white flag on difficult, pragmatic issues. I think I should have saved all that to last... I also think my liberal use of the word hope may have been a bit audacious, because I'm not trying to shove my views down your throats... sorry. I had my last class of the year today. The group doing the tutorial presentation brought in lamingtons with Australian flags on toothpicks to represent the Three Cheers school of Australian History, and licorice straps to represent the Black Armband school. It was fun. I've pretty much finished with Fable II. I'll go back to it some time, but I don't feel like playing the main quest again so soon. I am completely swamped with games... there's so much I've missed this year (Too Human, Force Unleashed, Fallout 3, Dead Space) that I need to catch up on, and then the next three weeks I shall also be buying games, (Gears 2, Mirror's Edge, Banjo N&B and the original). I'm sure there's one I forgot too... I saw the new Coen Bros. effort... pretty good, but not brilliant. It's not just the US elections... it's also that proverbial race, Melbourne Cup. I haven't picked a horse, but the Prime Minister's explanation for his pick, Zipping, is hilarious. He said he chose it, because it was "time to zip!". Though he does have a knack for picking a winner... last year he was spot on. Oh, and Californians? Vote NO on Proposition 8, otherwise history will damn you just as it damns those who supported segregation. Happy Voting!

At the zoo, there are two flamingoes that have lived together in the same enclosure, under the same massive tree for about 65 years. The enclosure is surrounded by a fence and a hedge, both of which cannot be more than 40cm high. Between them, they have only one eye that works properly. On tuesday, four kids 'jumped' the fence, and bashed the older flamingo. :( He's around 75 years old, and is completely blind. He is possibly the oldest flamingo in the world. His beak was bleeding, he couldn't walk, and the keepers were worried about brain damage. But do you know what the saddest thing about this story is? Because he was in the zoo's hospital, the other flamingo had to spend the night alone for the first time in 60 odd years. He's fine now. Or at least appears to be. Up on his feet, and back in the pond. They caught the kids, and they're being charged for physical abuse of an animal. I just thought I'd share the story, because on the one hand, it's a terrible thing to happen, but it also is kind of sweet, because the other flamingo would have been lonely without his friend. Aww, :). They are flock animals, after all. That is all.

That is, the whole blog thing, check up on games, post in unions... That's not to say I'm going to step, but it all seems a little futile. I don't know why. Maybe it is that summer is almost here? And I think I should be outside more? I've started to run again, not very far, but it's kind of nice to have something to do in the afternoon. I might actually join the rowing club at uni, more than eight months after I decided I should. The football season's over, so I'm thinking of a summer job. I applied at GAME, they're opening a new store in the Myer Centre, and I'm hoping that if I get the job, it will be not too busy because it isn't on the mall proper. That's really all there is to it, I guess. I feel like doing something. So I guess that I might.

It's fast becoming just that. The AFL Grand Final was today, and frankly, it was much better than last year's. Geelong versus Hawthorn, and it very much looked like Geelong would make it two in a row. But that wasn't to be. I believe the score was Hawthorn: lots.some.115, and Geelong: some.lots.89. I say some and lots, because I can't remember the exact score, only that Hawthorn won by 26 points. Hawthorn kicked the goals, Geelong were stuck with loads of behinds, most of them either missed goals or conceded points from a Hawk. It was a fast, and rough game. Good football was played. Franklin didn't shine, neither in my books did Ablett. I thought standouts were Rioli, Stokes was alright though kicked some shockers when he should have had goals. Chance Bateman somehow contrived to look more like he had been beaten up than he could have if he had in fact been smacked in the face a few times. I felt sorry for the Cats. It was their second loss for the season. The dominated the first-half in terms of play, but couldn't kick the goals. They lost it in the third-quarter, and were steamrolled in the fourth. Hawthorn really earnt the win in the final term, they played well. All in all, it was an enjoyable game to watch. Geelong missed out on back-to-back premierships, but one can;t help but think that if they weren't so strong last season, they might have had it in them. It was a nice win for Hawthorn, who hadn't a cup for seventeen years. It was sort of nice, I guess, for an all-Victorian Grand Final, because there are not many years left until the expansion means it is less likely for two of that state's teams to match up at the end of the season. I doubt though that West Sydney or the Gold Coast will be contenders for five or more years after their entry to the league. A good day was had by all. As long as you go for Hawthorn, don't care much for Geelong, or didn't break your foot. At least no one lost a kidney this year. Attendance was 100, 012, the highest since 1986. I bet Port are glad that an exciting game should push their chokeage of last year to the back of most people's minds.

I was going to write a belated blog about the multiplayer in GTA:IV and its virtues, but I have been moved to write this instead. Of course, I'm talking about Rock Band, which has only just been announced for release in Australia. Yes. Rock Band. Rock Band 1. The one that was released a full year ago in the US. I hope no one buys it. Not just as a message to EA that they can't screw us like this, but just because it'd be stupid to do so. Why? Well, there are numerous reasons. Guitar Hero II retailed for around A$130. That's what I got my copy for. You got the software, and a guitar. That's a pretty decent price, only $20 more than a non-Microsoft developed game. Rock Band is selling a bundle of a drum kit, a guitar and a microphone with the game for ~$250. That means even if we assume a normal software price of $110, they are charging $140 for the hardware. Shall we pretend the guitar costs the same as GHII, just for fun? That means that the drumkit and the microphone are together worth $120. I don't believe that. It is a rip off. For it to cost you $1 an hour to play, you have to play for 250 hours. Not likely. Second reason. It's an old game. It's a full year old. Guitar Hero World Tour, Rock Revolution, and hell, even Rock Band 2 are not far down the line. These are games that were made after Rock Band, sure they'll have different songs, but they've learnt the lessons from any mistakes or flaws that may have been present in Rock Band. They are superior products. Imagine going back from Halo 3 to playing Halo CE, or when it comes out, Gears of War 2 to Gears 1, or any number of other games. Interfaces improve, input improves, annoying things get fixed... it's impossible. Why would you buy something that is inferior when you can wait, in the case of GH:WT, five more days, and get a superior experience? EA don't care about the Australian market. They don't even care if they don't sell that many copies. I remember an interview with one of their bigwigs when the European release was announced, he said he doesn't give a crap, that's just the way it's going to be. I don't think that's a good attitude. Sure, it's a smaller market, and haulage costs are higher, but if you shave some of your profit off, then you establish a little loyalty, and have an edge over your competitors. That's the way competition and capitalism happens. (Although I don't believe competition is so alive when it comes to pricing in the video game market). It's especially more important in this niche, because the music rhythm market has a lot of players. EA, for me, are going to lose the new found respect I have had for them over the last year or so, as they have been putting more effort in to their business. Oh well. And so that's why I'm not getting Rock Band. And if the price points are similar for the others, I won't get them either. And I'd urge you to think along the same lines. Even if it's not to send a message to EA, even if it's just to save your money for something reasonably priced. Thanks for reading.

I know that the phrase is usually 'spring has sprung'... but it's only just beginning. Today was 17C (omg so warm! not.), which was a nice change. The blossoms have started on the ornamental fruit trees (cherries, apples, plums etc) don my street, freesias have started to flower, and the birds are singing. Today at 4 o'clock, it was actually relatively bright. The problem is, I'm going to be stuck inside more and more. I have a paper due wednesday, then an essay dues in four weeks, and then everything is due in the six weeks after that. I'm going to have to get loads of primary sources and do loads of research, which is terrible, because I get caught up in the reading and suck at the writing. Especially as it's Australian history. Last year, I spent 4 hours doing a 1 hour research assignment on a soldier from the First World War who is listed inside the war memorial in town. This time it's going to be worse. One of my friends found an interesting story from the 50s, when the Communist party was banned for two or so weeks before the legislation was overturned by the High Court. The state headquarters were raided by the police, and the reds somehow found out. They burned the membership lists, and in the main office, wrote on a blackboard, "if we had know you were coming, we'd have baked a cake". Thats the kind of story that is going to fascinate me and make it difficult to actually get the writing of an essay done. On the gaming front- I'm making steady process in Phantom Hourglass and have stalled in Prof Layton. It's hard. The Force Unleashed demo is really good, I'm looking forward to the game proper. I got the fourth and fifth season of Stargate Sg-1. It's steadily improving, I'm really liking it. Issue 32 of Knights of the Old Republic is really good too, I just hate the fact that now I have caught up to the releases, I'm going to have to wait three weeks to find out what happens in the story-arc. I saw the twist coming, because I had accidentally read some spoilers. :( But it's back to the really good art stle of... I think it's Ching and Atiyeh. Can't remember who's doing this one. The conclusion to the whole thing looks close though... on the one hand, 3 years is a long time to sustain a story by releasing an episode once a month, on the other, there is just so much more left to cover and I hate that it seems to be drawing to a close so soon after I started reading. That is all for now. I have nothing left to say, other than I don't want to do my extra reading assignment for Classics. It looks really boring, I chose a bad week. :( Cya.

In that it was foggy. Only the fog was from the cold, not from pollution. It was really cool, you couldn't see further than 100 metres down the road. And it continued to past 9 o'clock. By the time I got to uni though, there were just wisps around the office blocks in town. A pretty much no-name Australian came third in the 100m backstroke yesterday. In the paper this morning were stories about how he has a phobia of putting his head underwater. That amuses me. I'm stuck in the Phantom Hourglass. I think I may need to ask The Internet for help. That's all, apart from I think I have my uni stuff all worked out. A lot of work to do, but if I get my act sorted now, it shouldn't be so hard. I had to pretend to be Billy Hughes in my history tute. It was funny to have the girl being Daniel Mannix yelling at me. The End.

Im stairblog, au blog de stair, to Stair's blog. Hey everyone. I'm pretty pumped for the Olympics. They start in an hour or so. (Yes, I realise the soccer has already begun in Shanghai). This is the time in the quadrennium, or even olympiad, where every Australian is an expert on whatever they watched on television the night before. Here's something pretty cool, one of the Opals, the women's basketball team, went to my primary school, and my mother taught her year seven maths. She's a pro in the US too, I think. I wrote a blog a few days ago, but it wouldn't let me post it. Apparently my html code was bad, but i didn't even try to do anything. *Shrug*. It doesn't matter. All I wrote about was how one of my friends doing first year history chose the exact same name off the roll of honour as I did last year. Captain Thomas Charles Richmond Baker DFC, MM & Bar, an ace. He was killed exactly a week before Armistice. A girl in my tute last year also researched him, as did the guy sitting next to my friend on wednesday. Weird. It was an awesome research project though, because we actually went to the War Memorial and chose the names ourselves in our own time. I had more to say, more to add to what I tried to say the other day, but I can't think of it now. Now it's only about 35 minutes to the beginning of the Olympics, because I've taking ages and gotten sidetracked writing this. It was funny, because today's Advertiser (the city newspaper, and, incidentally, the beginning of the Newscorp empire that includes Fox), had on its cover a photo of Grant Hackett, reigning Olympic 1500m freestyle champ, and Libby whatever-her-name-is-now-but-formerly-it-was-Lenton, reigning Olympic something-champ, in fancy hi-tech swimsuits. But the angle and the pose, and even perhaps the types of suits they were wearing, made Libby Lenton look so much more massive and muscly than Grant Hackett. /End of funny. Half an hour left. :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D It's bad that they are on during term time this year, in 2000, when we held the best games ever, they were during the spring holidays. But it's the beginning of the term, and the first week is the most awesome week, but I have to prepare a politics presentation for wednesday. :( Enough rambling. Seeya Stair. Dance, dance

Hey everyone. It was my second day back at uni today, and in contrast to yesterday's sunshine and warm early afternoon, it was miserable and dull.

Second year has really arrived. Last semester was just like first year, only with slightly more words to write. But now I have three presentations for Classics and an academic journal to write, and two-hour classes for all of my subjects.

It's kind of nice to be back though. I'm taking 20th C Australian History, and there are about ten American exchange students who know nothing, which will be amusing; Classics- Afterlife and the Underworld, in which there is a really posh upper-class English guy from Durham University; and International Studies Core, which is run by the International Studies guy, and it's going to be him doing all the compulsory politics we've *already done*, in one semester.

In Classics, one of our essays is a comparison of the descent to the underworld in The Clash of the Titans/The Fellowship of the Ring, The Temple of Doom/The Last Crusade, and The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi. Think of the part of Aladdin where he goes to get the lamp out of the cave, that's a metaphorical descent into the underworld. :D This part at least will be fun.

In other news: I saw the Dark Knight. It was *awesome*. It was a little long, and it was sort of a pity that Harvey Dent died instead of The Joker, but I guess he didn't *explicitly* die, and so could come back. Plus they obviously didn't know about Heath Ledger when they shot the film. Speaking of him, he was brilliant. Not just because he's dead, not just because it was good acting in a genre that is usually lacking in that department; he was just THAT good.

I rented Alone in the Dark. I don't understand the criticisms, it's not perfect, but I think it's a bit more engaging that The Darkness, which I think is the most similar game to it. I had a lot of fun, and I haven't finished yet. I think i will rent it again. Some of the ideas were brilliant, like the inventory and the blinking was certainly interesting. The names of the creatures I guess are hangovers from the earlier games, but apart from that, it was good. If you don't know much of it, I'd characterise it as a cross between The Darkness and Bioshock.

I finished the Elite Four and have the National Pokédex in Pokémon Diamond. I'm having a lot of trouble with Mesprit. I guess I could get it on the net from someone, by cloning my Chimchar or something, but you know. Persevere.

I bought Dune: Messiah. It's quite different from the first, still very good, but I think I understand less of some parts (I'm reading at night before I go to sleep... that might be a contributing factor).

I'm getting in to the comics of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I don't like that it comes out once a month, because I'm not used to waiting that long for stuff... but it's really good. Vector isn't that great, but at least it's in the past.

OH. Most important! Avatar has concluded! I think the last four episodes would have been better if a whole nother full season preceded it, but they were still great. Some things were left dangling, and some were rushed. But it still Rocked. :P

That's all for now. We've had the coldest temperatures for thirty years, but that isn't saying much. Adios! Stair.

Hey everyone. I haven't really had much to say for a while, but I feel like writing something. I have numerous things to say, and I'll give you a quick list so I don't forget one while writing another. Last, vomit, Fallout, Overlord, paint, footy. I'm sure you've seen by now, Fallout 3 has been banned in Australia. Well, you know, refused classification. Because of drug use. I think that's a real shame, I would have liked to play it (though I guess they could resubmit...). I know this is going to begin a new round of OFLC-hating, but let's be serious: the legislation is flawed. The OFLC operates within a framework saying games have to be suitable for 15 year olds. Taking that into account, I'm glad they put the foot down. I know some 15 year olds (probably some of you are 15!), and it's a good thing that they are not easily able to see this kind of thing. I guess Bethesda took a bit of a risk making the game realistic in this way, and I don't really want them to compromise the game by resubmitting it with cuts. Why don't I want 15 year olds injecting on screen avatars or smoking crack pipes? Because they are nuts. My friend's sister's 15 or 14, and there are stories I can tell about her... one time, her and her friend drank all the alcohol in the refrigerator, and a heap of spirits from the drinks cabinet, photographed themselves while doing it, went for a walk at 3 in the morning, ended up at someone they know's house, and came home at 7am. Everything was documented on the camera, which her parents saw. Another time, she was meeting her mum at the record store in the mall near their house, she had been drinking in a park, and came up to her mother yelling "I'm not drunk!" so that she wouldn't realise. The main point of that is to segue into my latest binge-drinking story. Me and some of my friends decided... we should get absinthe. So you know, we got it, it's ridiculously expensive, it's 68% proof. If you drink it straight, ie. shoot it, it hits the whole of your mouth all at once. Anyway, I got pretty much s***faced off that and vodka... I drank more than I intended, because I wasn't feeling it fast enough. Cut a long story short, drunken text messaging, vomiting three times, not fun in the end. Kevin Rudd should tell kids that they'll feel like crap if they binge-drink, not raise taxes. It would work better. I wasn't hungover, but the avoidance of alcohol poisoning is horrible. I started playing Overlord again. It's actually pretty fun still, though easy because it doesn't matter if you minions all die. I started a Last.fm profile. It's actually pretty cool, because it provides me with lot's of lovely statistics about my music habits, which I have falsified. Do I say actually a lot? I think maybe I do... It was good at the footy on the weekend, because the supervisor, having had an anonymous letter sent in about how she's horrible, suspects everyone in South of sending it, so she's avoiding us and we get to do our job cheerily rather than hen-peckedly. If you have been reading Paint the Line 2 at Penny Arcade, you'll already know, but it is awesome. You should check it out if you haven't already. That's pretty much it. I have two more weeks of winter break after this one. Uni should be good, (despite the fact that the former Foreign Affairs minister, Downer, has been given a visting professorship). My Classics lecturer has written in his bio that he likes to show that 'antiquity rocks!' :P Stair out.