Pokemon White 2: Review so far

So! About a week or two ago I bought pokemon white 2, while very very patiently waiting for White and Black 2 -- that is, the first Pokemon White and the Black sequel, no I didn't buy the same game twice.

Having gotten through the majority of Black before the grinding got to be a bit too monotonous for too little gain (Levelling up to try and take on Cynthia and the elite 4 for a second time) I know the main story line, it's just the little final details of finding the last of the sages, capturing Tornadus, and so on. So! I was waiting, most impatiently, for the sequels to arrive. (Okay, not really, I had other things to do as well) But, eventually I received the game! Whoo hoo. (A pox on assignments needing to  be done in the same time frame, but, priorities)

Spoilers below the break!

Jackie Chan - I'll Make a Man Out Of You

Oh. My. Goodness.

You know, when you think of Chan, you think of comedic action, kung fu and jujitsu, Rush Hour and Shanghai Knights, Snake in Eagle's Shadow, you compare him to other oriental action stars like Bruce Lee (I believe he was, at one time, being groomed to replace Bruce Lee, but Chan was more fond of having the combat being entertaining not just awe inspiring) and if you look out for his movies, you think of old school chinese films, or the blooper reels for his later movies like the Tuxedo, or instances where he's broken his leg or nose or arm, in the middle of shooting a movie because he does all his own stunts. One thing, however, that you are near guaranteed -not- to think of when Jackie Chan is mentioned is ....music.

Driving! And sharks :(

I passed my last driving test yesterday. If you do not know, I am in australia and we have a VERY in depth drivers education system to get permission to roam around on four wheels.

I'll also be talking about our sharks after the break, so please read through, it's important!

When you're 15/16 you get to take a 'keys to life' test, which is a written test to make sure you know the basics of road rules, who to give way to and so on.

Then when you're 16/17 you can go to your local licencing centre to get your first learners permit. This allows you to be out on the road around other cars ...with an instructor in the passengers side. During this time you are to learn how to drive, park, turn in a circle, not crash and all that sort of thing. Then you can go for your Logbook. Which is ANOTHER test, with an accredited driving examiner, where you'll drive around, following their directions and obeying road rules and so on. If you pass this one (and it'll take you at least 2 attempts, on average, due to nerves or various other reasons) then you get your log book. Dun na da na! You now get to drive around (with L plates and a licenced driver in the passenger seat) and have your hours of driving logged. You have to drive for more than 10 minutes at a time or it doesn't count. I needed to get 25 hours in at least 6 months, but the number has gone up recently in laws, to 50 or 100 or something. Now, supposing you do aaaall this, are you allowed to drive on your own? NOPE!

Re: Your Brains

You know, I think I love Jonathan Coulton's songs....they're awesome. And these clips are pretty good too. Yay for spiffworld!

Also; Downloading illegally is bad. Please hunt out and buy his songs as they are cool! Here are some more for sampling :D

Happy feel-good

After a week where not one, not two but THREE things have had happy-sad endings -- Reading the Hunger Games trilogy, Episode 5, Season 7 of Doctor Who, and the season finale of the Dollhouse written/directed by Will Wheaton, I have been in need of some happy feelgood. Arugments are unpleasant, and ontop of -that- trio of a bomb shell I haven't been handling it very well. Thus! We have some happy feel-good that I wish to share with the pineapple and fruit bowl that actually check in on this.

Education

This is one of my 'identity journals' for my sociology unit, as I'm studying Psychology with a minor in criminology. I love sociology, it is rather interesting. Sort of like economics, but with less numbers :D. This topic was 'education', and how I felt that the education system reflected on me and so on, using sociological theories that I had just read about as part of that weeks lecture.

Also, I HATE spelling 'bourgeoisie' I can never, EVER remember how it's spelt off the top of my head and it is very vexing.
~~~~

Education...hmm. This is a bit of a tricky topic. The notes taken for this weeks lecture would have me put squarely in the 'bad guy' category, of the bourgeoisie, as I went to a private school for the majority of my education. I spent hrm, the first 4 years of my educating life in a public school, and that was found to be a little 'lacklusture' by my parents, even if I did adore one of my teachers specifically. My year 2 teacher, Mrs Ketelle. We all called her Mrs Kettle, the poor dear, but she was brilliant.

And then for year three I had a Mrs Finlay or something and I think she was not quite as clever as she thought she was. If you are a teacher and do not know how to spell 'spaghetti' when asked, and another student tells you -how- to spell the word, do not argue with that child until they get the mother loving dictionary and open it to the page and point out the word and how to freaking spell it, as how THEY were SAYING IT. Argh. Yeah. I was that kid.

Year 4 had me going to a private school, which was both better, and worse. See, better education, but slightly worse with the social interaction thing, as the classmates were no longer people from wherever, but the 'upper class' of that particular town, and the majority of them were rather hmm... clique-y. Didn't help that I wasn't part of the fashionable crowd and far too fond of books but... eh. No matter.

I enjoy learning. I am happiest when I am learning something new, -and- when I have something physical to balance it out, however, this isn't always the case and I do end up rather tired at the end of the day without much time for the whole, rest and relaxation thing that isn't sleep. I am also the first and only member of my family (including cousins and extended family) that has gone to university, so there is that. There was a lot of pressure from my parents (particularly my mother) all through my schooling years to get good grades and go to University. I start -going- to university and my mothers pressure turns to 'get a job! Just start working! Get a job and don't worry about the education it's a waste of time what you're doing'. Go figure. So, I drop out (she convinces my dad to stop paying for my tuition, and won't let me get a HECS debt) and then she turns on a dime and pushes for me to go to TAFE instead of uni (It's cheaper and does the same thing!) which... yeah. Bleh. My dad encouraged my learning, my mother forced it down my throat and nothing I did was ever good enough for her. Hrm. But none of this really relates to the specifics of the topic.

I -can- see the difference between the public school systems and the private schools, not so much between suburbs as I was a country kid and it was, you know, two towns. One only had a public school, the other had one of each. Not exactly spoilt for choice. But I attribute the major difference to the fact that public schools have a what, $60 per term tuition fee, while the private schools had around a $2000 per year tuition fee. Sure, it's a little bit more -- plus the cost of the books and uniform -- but it enabled the school to give a better quality of teaching. Class sizes were 15-25 or there about, rather than the 30+ from the public classroom. Less students = greater individual attention from the educator and more emphasis on the parents getting the most out of the school because of how much they are investing in their childrens education. Compared to the public schools, where most parents nowadays are not so interested in their childs welfare, or education especially, because it is 'boring' and 'difficult'.

But, eh, there isn't really all that much, that I can see, that can be done about it. Oh, and the school education trend where kids 'can't fail'? Utter balony. If you give no consequences to not paying attention, and no real reward for them to excell then the point of it is lost to the children and the value of the education reduces. Drastically. In my opinion, at least, as I went through school going from getting letter grades, like B+ and A, to getting 7E and a paragraph to explain what it meant. -_-

In university sure, that sort of thing is helpful, as you can see where you're going wrong and where you need to improve and you still get a 'letter' mark at the end of it, rather than 'halfway between 7M and 7E' what does that meaaaaaane?!!?@!?@ Gyah.

I worry about the education system, when teachers are valued less than a babysitter and they do so much more.

Clean and tidy vs clean and messy vs dirty and messy.

This is just to get the definitions out there for folk who seem to have issues with it.

Clean and Tidy

Clean and tidy people are people that have everything tucked away into cupboards, all the surfaces in the house are completely dust and ornament free, the floors are kept meticulously dirt free, carpets either new or vaccuumed/steamed so often that you don't dare set foot on them because odds are, your feet'll be dirtier than the carpet. Even fresh out of the shower. And it's some pale colour that would show up that dirt really easily and with malicious glee. Everything is cleaned two or three times a week to keep it in that sparkling 'zomg new house' state. Personal hygeine is up in the lists of 'must do', along with ironing every little piece of clothing from the $400 suit to the underwear.

Obviously, I am not one of these peoples.

Clean but messy

These are your more 'common' types of middle-classish individuals, where they keep things clean but have more crap than cupboards and end up festooning surfaces with said crap. These types of individuals clean the bathroom, floors or whatever once a month or so, when they have the time, or inclination, unless something epically dirty happened -- like an entire plate of nachos landing nachos' down on the floor. *sigh* and then it's all guns blazing to remove the mess before it dries and becomes a bigger problem. Personal hygeine is up in the lists, but having perfectly ironed clothes from the shirt to the underwear ... not that big of a deal.

Voila, this is me.

Dirty and Messy

These are the people that have a more 'laid back' attitude towards hygeine and cleanliness, the sorts that have last weeks take away leftovers sitting on the table getting eaten by the ants sort of 'laid back'. Everything is everywhere and there is not just dust on the surfaces but greasy grime and muck and ickness. The spilled drink staining a sticky patch on the floor two days after it was dropped and so on.

Not me either!

(Also, I found this post unpublished from all the way the hell in the -past- and I have no idea where I was going with this o.o but, here we are! Enjoy)

~Think of the Possibilities.

Google+

Firstly, I give my belated apologies to whoever posted a comment about my lack of a facebook/twitter like button and whatnot. I am so sorry but I have absolutely NO IDEA on how to update that or put it on, and if you like me great! Spread the word the old fashioned way, by word of mouth! Or copy paste the link into your facebook feed. Or SOMETHING. I don't know. Ahem.

On that note, however, I have now put all -three- of my blogs onto google+ under the one profile. Yes. Three. This one, and another one that I dedicate solely towards sharing my fine cooking skills with the sporadic few that may be interested in them, Sustenance Sans. It is located here if you desire to have a bo peep. Fair warning, I hardly use facebook -or- twitter at the best of times (twitter is @shaedowdancer) so odds are I'll barely use google+ as well! Other than, you know, to tell the watermelon and paper bag with a face drawn on it that I posted whee! I also have a deviantart page here if you want to have a look at sporadic art updates, a more general update is a furaffinity page here which has more arts and pictures and oh god the horrorrrrr that is me in a couple places. View at own risk! (Seriously, there is a lot of crappy pencil work in there my god).

Give me a shout hello, or something. Love to hear from people that are not trying to sell me things, thanks. :D

~ Think of the possibilities.

Midnight Cravings

The Darkness surrounds me,
light is a distant memory,
haunting the shadows of my mind.
I do not mind the darkness
nor the sibilant whispers,
ever craving for justice, or revenge.
It matters not which.

To drown out the silence I remember.
I recall those hated days,
the long, desolate, lonely nights.
Rotations of a cycle that always, always
lead up to that Day.
And the Night that caused it.

Recollections of then, the long ago,
the distant warmth, turn, turning
(Sister, I am sorry. I miss you)
The sun, ever warm, ever burning.
Sometimes it crackles like fire,
but mostly it just hangs, ominous.
Tormenting me with silence.

It is so quiet up here.

~~~~

Years ago, days and centuries to turn,
too many to count, sweet Celestia bore
the love, the warmth, the adoration;
most often she, the sun, was in folklore.
The soft shadow, ever present,
ever quiet and shy, forgotten Luna,
the fair moon of neglect.

Present and unassuming, secondary
(or so the rumours say)
to the Suns bright presence
for which the ponies would play.
Until exhausted, they lay to sleep
under the nocturne shroud
and the silence it needs to keep.

Soft and fine in ways the Sun was not,
the night, the moon, a pale shimmer glow.
A cold light oft shunned, eyes turned away
to favour the brilliance of the dawn.
To thaw the frost, ease the breathy chill,
bright colours in cold rain, light across the sky
voices lift in joy, incandescent ecstatic thrill.

Fair moon, sweet Luna, shut not your eyes;
let not the silent bindings twine and bloom.
Lock not your heart to the warmth.
Play, sweet Luna, you will soon rejoice
but not before, rich with fear
you awake as Nightmare Moon.

To eternal darkness the Sun objects,
a clash of wills, crossing of twin horns
the feathers dark and pale flutter and fall.
Water eclipsed, dripping dawns soft warmth;
silence held in a locked heart, ice pierced in twain,
with a dark shaft of rainbow night, pushing,
binding the Nightmare to Luna's moon.

Mythos, mares tale, disbelieving whisper.
Rumours of the sweet, shy Luna.
The Mare in the Moon, ever silent
ever shy, ever watching, trapped;
a cage of her own making, bars of silence hold
locked by broken-heart tears of the Sun.

Ten times ten the bars will hold,
keeping the Night at bay.
Seven tears fell, seven stars conspire;
time to end the hold of Day.
(Sister, I am sorry. I miss you)
Still the silence, locked within
binds to keep the pair apart.

In blackest Night, in brightest Day,
seven stars conspire and will hold sway.
Bars to be lifted, the night roams free.
Sweet Luna, turn not your face,
harden not your heart and rejoice
to know the end of Nightmare Moon.

Seven tears fell, six voices raised
not to banish, not to silence,
rather cut the bindings and thaw the ice,
Sweet Luna, fair Moon, shut not your eyes.
Be welcome in the warmth,
welcome in from the frozen chill
(Sister, I am sorry. I miss you)
the binding silence is shattered.

From the writings of history,
the pony interpretation of that Day
and the Night that caused it.
A tidbit of detail to be forgotten,
for if she has her way, soon,
this will be the all and only, a record
of she who never was; Nightmare Moon.

~~~~~

I feel the silence now, it is part of me,
but it doesn't strangle me, now.
Not any more and never again.
I look to the familiar, silver orb,
my gaol, my cell, my home;
And I smile.