I am posting because it's what I do.

Life has taken a turn for the interesting but i figure it's happening for a reason. Work is still the same old. Insanely stressful with little reward at the end, but ah well. Gives me something to do.

I'm doing martial arts on Friday. I say that like I've been doing it for ages. I started last week, second lesson will be tonight. Sensai is a pretty cool guy, though he is a bit of a hippy. Thanks to lacrox for pointing me in his direction.

Um yeah. That's it.

Armageddon last week. Gave one of my cameras to Franky to take photos, and I put it in to be developed last night, should get them tonight. Could be good for a laugh.

2. What Am I?

I am a person. I have basic needs. I need to eat and drink. I need to sleep. I need to survive. This makes me no different to any animal running around outside. But what makes me me?
Psychologists and philosphers have spent hundreds of years studying and writing about man with varying levels of success. Will I be any different? No. No two people are alike. It is genetically impossible for them to be.
I am constantly changing. Growing. Aging. How can I beging to describe who I am?

I need social contact. I need psychical contact. I need to be accepted.

Like everyone else.

If I'm not. I start to shut down. I start to fade away and disappear.

Am I nothing more than a machine designed to replicate time and time again until I finally shut down?

4. Why I Am So Stoic

Things to not affect me. Or they do but I do not show them. News reports about death and destruction do

not affect me. Or I should say do not affect me outwardly. Destruction touches everyone. We live our

lives only to be destroyed in the end. This is why it doesn't not affect me. All we have created in our

lives will be destroyed some day. And when it is we will rebuild. I will rebuild.

I am affected by stress easily especially to the point I need to step away and distance myself from it.

But I don't show it. People have a hard time reading me, reading my language.

It upsets people.

People are selfish creatures. We do so by nature. It's how we get ahead in life. I don't hold it against

anyone. I don't hold it against you. It is a natural thing. The world 'selfishness' has negative connotations to it when it should not. Do you feel ill-will towards a rat scurrying around look for food to survive?

When you are not selfish people look at you in a different light. Look at you as if you are trying to show them up. This is not the case. I do not feel better than you. I do not feel worse than you. I am just the same. Living my life the way I know how. The natural way.

1. Who Am I?

I am an average person. I live an average life. There is nothing special about me. I do not wake in the morning and 'praise the lord' or regret waking up. I get up and go about my day. I eat breakfast. I go to work and do my job.

I do no gloat about how I am better than anyone else or look down on them.
I go out of my way to help people and do not stop even if it causes me trouble, or pain.

Does this make me special? Does this make me a better person?

If I was to die and stand before Heavens Gate with His Holiness there. Would he let me in? Or would he condemn me to live in the firey pits for all eternity or would he let me out once my sins are clean?

Do I deserve a better place at the table? I do not have an accomplishments. I have not fought in any wars bar my own personal ones. I have come out the victor, but nobody notices. Nobody will because they are my battles, not theirs.

Another year another manifest.

Like the sucker I am, I go expecting to be disappointed, but this year I was wrong, very wrong.

I ditched work early on Friday and headed over to the showgrounds, where surprisingly enough, it was held this year. Waited around outside for my pass to arrive and headed in.

I had been to the showgrounds for Supanova, and thought it was pretty impressive, but Manifest? It's a whole different show bag. (Thank you, more puns will be coming)

First thing I noticed was how professional it looked. No longer was it a group of people pretending to be professional, no, this was the real deal. Manifest had grown up, and was showing the big boys it knew how to roll.

The big players were there showing their wares for sale (Madman, Tamarket, the Box Hill anime store whose name I keep forgetting) along with a dozen or so fantraders all with amazing artwork.

While wandering around I caught up with a friend doing some work for ANN.au who had come down from Sydney for it. We walked around, found an anime theater hall in a vast shed (which was quite weird) before settling down in the smaller theater and watching a few episodes of Guu.

It wasn't hard to tell that the Friday would have been a very quite day had you been there all day.

The following day, it was an early rise as a friend needed to go early to pick up his pass. Back to the showgrounds, only this time to line up. After waiting in line for an hour it finally started moving. While he went to get his pass, I ducked out and started looking for cosplayers. All the staple cosplayers were there. Your Narutos, your loligoths and your Ouran High's. Also of note was a 420chan cosplayer.

There were a handful of K-On cosplayers which didn't go astray.

The rest of the day was your standard convention. Screenings, traders, cosplayers. On hand were several Japanese food stalls selling average Takoyaki (I guess once you have it in Osaka, everywhere else is average) and curries.

A friend from Adelaide mentioned how the cosplayers in Melbourne were of a higher quality than Adelaide. I kinda mumbled a response as I tend to gloss over cosplay. There are only so many Narutos you can see before they all start looking the same, but upon closer look, the amount of work that goes into them is very high. It's amazing what going to a convention with someone who cosplays can make you see.

Sunday I had a chat with a guy I have spoken to online for 8 or so years, without actually meeting. We talked about Manifest, where it had come from and where it had gone, and he made me realise something.

This years Manifest was easily the best one yet. Over the very poor last couple of years, Manifest had actually improved on itself, and is possibly one of the best conventions in Australia.

Hopefully it will keep up the high standard.

Photos here

I have one of those blog things. Check it out homies.

Here

Zombie Apocalypse? It's more likely than you think.

AUSTRALIANS could soon be asked to stock their pantries with food and water and prepare for an emergency, according to the Federal Government's pandemic flu plan.

This phase recommends that the Government implement border surveillance. It also recommends people develop plans to stay at home. This includes a direction to stock pantries with supplies for 14 days.

The city changes at night, mutates into something entirely different. As you walk down the street music floats towards you from all angles and disappears as suddenly as it came. The stench of alcohol, urine and rubbish comes rushing towards you as you pass another laneway off the main street.
Wait, didn't you just pass that one before? In the shadows of night each laneway appears like the last.
Couples walk hand in hand. A woman clings to her boyfriends arm oblivious to his wandering eyes as a younger girl walks by.
Couples fight on street corners, yelling obsenities fueled by a long night of drinking. Men stare at women walking down the street and ask them if they want a good time, getting annoyed when told to 'get fucked'
People bump into each other and get into arguements. Both sides at fault, but blind to see the truth of it all.
Cars blast their horns as someone stumbles across the road not caring he has no right to do so.
A cold blast of air comes through, the kind death rides in on with his sythe at the ready to collect what is his. Everything stops for a moment as people shiver and try to fight it off. Will this be it? Will this breeze be strong enough to blow the filth and depravity of this corrupt town?
Then life starts up again. Music keeps flowing, couples keep fighting, cars keep blasting.

I love my town, but I am repulsed by it at the same time.