The Cassandra Complex

While we were waiting for the courtesy bus (which never showed up) at the seedy RSL next to the hotel where we were staying in Sydney, I founds that the NSW government has produced these handy fliers that give you the odds of winning the jackpot in a number of different games.

I nicked one - the most important bits are reproduced here for your edification:

Instant Scratchies - 1 in 960,000
6 from 38 pools - 1 in 2,760,681
Lotto Strike - 1 in 3,258,024
$5 Jackpot Lottery - 1 in 4,500,000
NSW Lotto - 1 in 7,059,052
Oz Lotto - 1 in 8,145,060
Keno - 1 in 8,911,711
$2 Jackpot Lottery - 1 in 11,800,000
Poker Machines - 1 in 52,500,000
Powerball - 1 in 54,979,155

On Sunday M and I went to my parents' house for a nice cosy lunch with them, my sister, both of my grandmothers, my three uncles, my cousin and one of my uncles' partners.

Uh huh.

There was much of the exchanging of gifts and the eating of the food. I felt guilty about the food the next day. Hell, I still feel guilty about it!

The present that wins the prize for me was from M - he got me the three Serentiy comics (they are set between the end of "Firefly" and the start of the "Serenity" movie); the entire Serenity collecters card set; and, best of all, an official memorabilia thingy of the movie which is a piece of Mal's brown cotton shirt. Squee! :D

Anyway, I discovered I still don't like my uncle's partner, R. She's got the tact of a hammer when impacted on a thumb; I think she does it deliberately to get a rise out of people. Fortunately they live down the coast so I don't have to see her more than once every few years. I also discovered that that same uncle has turned into an old man since the last time I saw him - he spent a great deal of time telling me how the internet and mobile phones were evil. It was a bit bizarre; he's my dad's younger brother and I remember him being the hip one when I was a teenager.

And my cousin (who is about 8) has grown a mullet. :(

On Boxing Day ... more food! What a surprise! This time a BBQ at P's house. TechnoHorror and CapitalMum were there (and Baby Bob), as well as M and L. Again, the food was good. And P has airconditioning in his house. I approve on all fronts.

The day after M and I went to Woden to spend all of the vouchers we were given (he scored big time there; $180 total compared to my paltry $30). And since them we've been playing Warcraft 3 networked. A lot.

Until today, that is, when M's PC got attacked by the bitch virus queen from hell. He's trying to get the data off it so he can reformat as I write this. I got all motivated to update my virus checker, but it turns out the new version needs Windows 2000 or XP and I currently still have 98. Doh!

It's been a while since I've updated this thing - what can I say, the silly season got the better of me. I also haven't watched the news in about a week so I am feeling very out of touch with the world.

A brief splat on what we've been up to (I'll do one blog post for each event, I figure)...

On 22st December M. and I drove up to Sydney for a two night visit. The primary reason was to go to M's grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary party on the Friday night (23rd), but we also caught up with some of Matt's friends, and various other family members.

Probably the most fun I had was over at the house of one of M's Socom buddies; we had a yummy barbeque and then all sat around and played poker, and a PS2 game called "Buzz". It's a music trivia game but has a game show format - you choose your contestant and then participate in a bunch of different kitchy games. It was fun though I came 3rd (out of 4) in both games we played. I was good at the part of the game where there's no time pressure to answer the questions but once we had the clock ticking I'd get flattened.

The anniversary itself was nice. They had a replica of the original wedding cake, and after they cut it they danced a waltz together. (Aww.) I had only met a few of the people there before, so it was a bit overwhelming, but I ran around with mum's very nice camera taking photos which was fun. I even danced a bit, which only served to remind me of how out of shape I am. M. wouldn't dance with me! :(

It was all very exhausting, and Sydney was very very hot. We tried to go to Paddy's markets in the morning on the 23rd, but it was closed! :(

When we got back I discovered that gummy lollies in a bag in a really hot car turn to liquid. Fortunately when the back of the bag split open the hot goo that was the lollies sealed it again straight away. :|

... but I am listening to my shiny new Firefly soundtrack (it's scary how many of these scores I can name the episode for without looking!), and I was in the mood.


Wash


Which Firefly Guy is For You?
brought to you by Quizilla


And here's a quiz for the guys...

ELF

You are an elf. An elf is like a
human but much fairer and pure. Elves are
usually tall, with pointed ears, and resemble
humans very closely, but elves are usually much
more beautiful. Elves are a distant race. They
prefer to keep to themselves, because often,
many of them feel that their race is superior
to humans. Elves symbolize wisdom, prudence,
love, and hope. They are very merry and happy.
They are forever young and delight in music.
They are natural artists as well.


Which mythical creature resides in your soul? (11 Results + Pictures)
brought to you by Quizilla

M. got a dragon.

I want a dragon. :(

(Sorry for the incoherent post - I had to take codeine (sp?) tablets for a headache and I am sort of stoned at the moment... )

My sister called earlier today to tell me that they had to put the family dog, Tara, down. She had been having back problems for the past week - she couldn't walk some of the time (she'd collapse) and started to lose control over her bowels. They weren't 100% sure of what the problem was.

The vet said that they had the choice between keeping her locked in a cage for six weeks on pain meds (without any guarantee that it'd make a difference), spend $3,500 on exploratory surgery, or put her down. So that's what they did. I can understand why - as much as it pains me to say it I couldn't afford that sort of money for an operation for Jinx or Tasha either.

Am very sad about Tara. I lived with my parents till 2001, so she was my dog too; she used to sleep on the end of my bed every night, and even after I moved out she still slept on the bed. Only dog I knew with a room of her own.

Gonna go give my puppies another hug now.

"My blood cries out for vengeance of my people's blood, which can only be repaid with at least twice as much blood! Or maybe THREE times as much blood! Like, if you went to hell, and it was full of blood, and that blood was on fire, and it was raining blood, then maybe THAT would be enough blood! Eh.. but probably not."

(Larger version...)

... for it will never lead you astray.

I spent twenty minutes googling to try and find a page that lists all the quotes from Warcraft III (which I have been playing obsessively) to try and find a cool name for the orc photomanip I have been doing for the past two days. Finally it was wiki that came up with the goods. (I didn't even know there was a wikiquote.com!)

You can find the page here.

I think the human sorceress has the best geek quotes:

* "Let's chat on Battle.Net sometime."
* "Click me baby, one more time."
* "I don't remember casting Slow on you."
* "For the End of the World spell, press Control, Alt, Delete."

A Spiritwalker quote for Capital_Mum:

* "Fear my moo of fury! MOO!"

Quotes from the Blademaster (an orc hero) also had me giggling:

* "My blade can cut through armour, and still cut a tomato!"
* "Twin blade action, for clean close shave every time!"

Find your favourites and post them here! :)

I have had this DVD for ages, but I've only just now watched it because M. refused to watch it with me - said it wasn't his sort of movie. I don't know what he's talking about - it had New York (sorry, Belleville) Mafia, abductions, car chases, gunfights and explosions!

Of course, it was also in French (with no subtitles - it felt like a silent movie with sound, if that makes sense) and had a very ... unique animation style, but still! I liked it, and the music is funky. And the grandma and dog (pictured) rock.

Highly recommended. I give it five pickles.

M. and I got most of our Christmas shopping done last weekend, thank goodness. We also put up the dinky little Christmas tree we bought last month. It's a fibre optic one and it changes colours and makes cool patterns on the wall. (I've never bothered with a tree in this house before - didn't seem to be any point when it was just me.)

I wonder how long it'll be before the puppy decides that the tree is just another chew toy?

I don't consider myself a Christian but I still quite enjoy Christmas because it's fun to get together with family and friends, stuff ourselves with unseasonably hot food, laze around in the sun, and laugh at the shopping mall Santas as they sit in front of overworked electric fans in their winter gear.

Gotta love an Aussie Christmas!

Anyway, we also watched "The Polar Express" on Sunday, which M. bought for me last month. I'd never seen it before, and it was ok (though "Shrek" and "Final Fantasy" have spoiled me - I can't see half-animated faces anymore and think they look anything other than scary!) and it got me to thinking about the whole Santa thing.

I don't really remember discovering Santa wasn't real myself, but I do remember telling my sister. I had found a photo in the album mum and dad drinking the milk (and scotch - we left scotch out for Santa too. No wonder he was so jolly in the pictures!) and eating the cookies we left out for him.

That was mean of me, I guess, though I saw it more as a kindness at the time. And it probably wasn't very smart of my parents to leave that sort of evidence lying around!

What about you? Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing in him (if you did)? Do you remember>

What's with showing the first episode of "Medium" - whose plot features a psychic helping the Phoenix police to select a jury that will vote for the death penalty - the night before Van Nguyen is to be hanged in Singapore... given that a lot of people will have already started their vigils for him by then?

Very poor taste, Channel Ten.