I've moved to a blogger blog because it's a super sweet interface and because they are owned by google.

here's my new blog...

I won't be back here except as a browser.

I don't know how recently I've harped on about comics, but yesterday I picked up an Overstreet price guide update magazine. I think it was overstreet.

Anyway, they had info and updates on prices fetched by the CGC - the first people to do "authentic" comic grading. Comics they grade are returned in sealed clear holders which are made of hard plastic. So when your comic is graded, it stays in that condition. Thus, CGC graded comics are selling for many multiples of their book value.

Some of this stupidity is Amazing Spider-Man #300. I have it in what most would class as NM -- I class it as NM-, but I'm incredibly picky. Book value is US$75 if I remember rightly. CGC graded 9.8 (NM+): just over US$3,400.

I'm not complaining, mind. I would happily ship my copy over to the States, pay the $15 to get it graded, and chuck it on eBay for a start price of US$1000. And I'm sure I'd sell it.

But the REAL insanity comes with comics graded 10.0 - GEM MINT. There are people out there buying brand new comics off the shelf, getting them graded immediately, and getting 10.0 grades for them. OK, my story is lacking at the moment, because I forgot the title that was used as an example, but one of these comics sold for US$200. It is still available for cover price on the shelves. Right now.

Granted, the comic will remain in 10.0 condition while the case is kept intact, but that's just nuts.

But it makes me feel good about always having been so pendantic with all my comics. Those who know me well enough know that I go ape when they so much as LOOK at my comics wrong. In fact, my zeal has put one friend of mine off collecting.

At least I can sleep at night knowing that when it comes time to sell my collection, spending a few hundred dollars on getting a few choice issues CGC graded, the value of the collection will go up by several thousand. Now whether I can get that money in New Zealand for them is a valid question, but eBay will always be an option. I'm starting to wonder if I haven't insured them for enough.

I had a bit of a stink day today.

First Tanya told me that I missed an awesome accident practically out the front of our house, then at about 3:30, she discovered that somebody had attempted to break into our house while she was out.

The accident, which I'm gutted about missing, involved some moron driving down our street too fast. As he came round the slight bend, he saw a cop parked down the road. So instead of braking carefully, he slams on his anchors and loses control because the roads were wet. He slips, he slides, and he slams right into the cop car.

I imagine they slapped him round a bit. Pity that his kids were in the back of the car and had to see what a moron their dad is.

And then later on this arvo, Tanya rings me at work and tells me that someone had tried to break into our house. They wedged a screwdriver or something into about 3 windows, and one opened a little, but for some reason, this was on the street front. even better, we're right on a corner, so the cock would have been spotted right away.

The cops have been round, talked to the neighbours, and even victim support rung up to see if Tanya or anyone in the house was affected by it and needed some support.

Tomorrow a fingerprinting team is coming around.

Pretty sweet. And I'm glad they didn't get in.

I don't know what I'd do if I lost my xbox and my porno collection. I don't imagine they would have taken my comics, but they could well have damaged them. Shit. That kind of puts it into perspective.

argh.

I feel so violated :(

we got internet back at home. this time it's not cable, but flat rate adsl. yes, telecom are offering FLAT RATE... I'd say hell finally froze over, but that happened when apple released iTunes for windows.

once users of the flat rate adsl hit a predetermined limit (10gig for my plan) the speed is dropped to 64k. This is a million times better than having to pay by the meg like with cable. you'll remember my last bill which killed me was over $800. I was billed at 20c a meg... now telstra have dropped their surcharges to 2c a meg which is pretty damn good - albeit a little late for me. so now I am a telecom customer.

again, something which normally would have warranted another level of hell freezing over.

hey, maybe that's why it's been so cold lately..

I'm really, more seriously thinking about moving to Australia. Even if I don't get the job at White Dwarf. I've always hated Oz because it's too damn hot and, it's too damn big.

But I'm at a point in my life where I need to make a major change. Things have just been the same here for too long. Couple that with the fact that I have been able to save NOTHING for a house and the Oz government gives away money to get people into their first home, I think that it's starting to sound appealing. chrisom is in Melbourne and says it's pretty good over there.

The first step is to sell most of my stuff. I have games, spider-man figures, collectible swords & knives, my R/C car and truck, old clothes, and so much more shit that's just been collecting dust for too many years. I have to get rid of it all. I can't bring myself to sell my comic collection, although most of it really is crap now.

If I was to sell some, I'd probably just keep my Batman, original Battlestar Galactica, ROM, Doctor Strange, the latest Lady Death, Green Arrow, Usagi Yojimbo, all the KISS comics, Conans, Swamp Thing, Lobo, and a few random minis like The Last American and Cops: The Job.

Yup you read that right.. Spider-Man is not on that list. I may keep some, but Marvel have destroyed him, and Marvel themselves suck. This means that I'd potentially be selling several hundred Spidey comics, including all the great stuff I grew up with. The down side is that I'd probably get nothing close to their actual value in this country.

Moving to the States - my ultimate goal - is just a pipe dream at the mo. It'd be too difficult to get a green card, and I'd need far too much money to set myself up there.

Speaking of Pipes, he's nearly converted. He's got a loan and is probably going to buy a Mac.

what does it say about me when my livejournal client is updated more than my journal?

I don't have any decent updates, but I have been doing some wargaming, and Tanya is getting into it with her Orc & Goblin army.

I've also applied for a job at White Dwarf magazine in Australia. Don't know what my chances are, but they were zero before I applied.

that I haven't updated this in a while.

I never thought I'd say this, but I've read two Stephen King books recently and am half way through a third. I'm even enjoying them!

The books are the Dark Tower series which are a little different from King's standard fare.

I'm also part way through writing my own book based on one of my sci-fi characters. It's a space adventure featuring a guy called Joe Keno. I had previously decided to write it as a comic, and then I turned the first issue into a television screenplay and have nearly completed that.

But I decided to write a novel set further into his adventuring days and it's going quite well. In 3 evenings I've written just over 6000 words, which for me is very good :)

I haven't done any work on my game, and I badly need a shave, but I've written more than I have in a while and I've drunk more beer than I have in a while. Which reminds me, I better go buy some tonight...

I haven't had an internet connection since the 19th of December. I still don't: I'm updating this from work.

Telstra cut me off (including my phone and cable TV) because I still owed them $800. Understandable, but I was a bit annoyed that they did it in the middle of the billing cycle.

Then because the account is still active - it's just the services which have been suspended - I got a bill for the month of january. So I owe them $115 for service I'm not going to get. I got incredibly mad and told them to cancel my account. If I do sign back up to them it'll be cheaper to pay a reconnection fee than another months rental.

It's all real inconvenient because I don't have any new porn, tv shows or cartoons.

However, I have been watching a show I copied off a mate. Firefly, created by Joss Whedon (creator of the ultra crap Buffy), is a space western and is incredibly funny. Somehow it failed because of low viewership, but it's one of the best shows I've ever seen. It shows the American mentality. Shows like Buffy, Star Trek, and other drivel do really well, but shows that are actually well written do very badly.

Americans suck. I know, I know... I still want to move to America, but they still suck.


ahhh... users... back to work.

Well, it's been a while since I've written an update, and due to an upgrade of my updating client, I thought I'd test it out...

So here it is. A boring update, not much to say.

Oh, OK, I may as well make this worth while.

I did try to watch a movie called Squirting Illustrated. The scene is set at the beginning when a hot chick with massively inflated tits is masturbating in top of a large rock in the middle of a desert. She gets herself off and a bucket of water is dropped over her minge to make it look like she squirted.

The rest of the movie was old hags with silicone pumped tits having fake orgasms.

I seriously don't know how they think that shit will sell - I'm just glad I downloaded it before buying it. the films flaws:

1. Old bitches pushing 40 and 50
2. Super inflated tits that looked like they were ready to burst
3. Fake orgasms
4. Fraudulent squirting. Anyone who has actually fucked a girl who has squirted will just laugh at this pathetic excuse for squirters.

Nothing can save this movie. It's a complete waste of money - or in my case a waste of bandwidth. Don't even bother pirating this piece of shit.

Seeing as I haven't updated in a while, I guess I should try. The difficult part is remembering what I've done.

I haven't done any writing, so that's easy.

I have read several comics and bought a giant price guide book. The book is labelled 2003, but was compiled mid 2002, so is missing every issue since then. Otherwise, not bad. It's not the Overstreet, it's the Comic Buyer's Guide version. It's prompted me to thin about writing a script to convert the Excel files I get from comicspriceguide.com into postscript files with small text, and multi columns. That way I get the info I want and only the titles I want, rather than this 800 page colossus.

I might kick that off now.

great. They say it's an Excel file, but it's HTML. Fuckwads. Now I have to load it in excel and export it as CSV, and work with that.

Damn Excel produces CSV's which contain no line feeds. just carriage returns. When I load the CSV into Excel, edit it, and save it (again as CSV) I am told that the format may not support all the features in my document. A completely fucking useless default message every time you save anything to CSV. Even when the source document is CSV. I'm so glad I didn't pay for this shit. Oh yeh, I have Mariner Calc... I better use that.

Hey Microsoft, you SUCK!!! Your software isn't even worth pirating, let alone paying extortionist prices for.

Tanya got a new PC on friday. DTR rung her back and took away what was left of her PC (monitor, printer, scanner, keyboard) and gave her a brand new presario with a combo printer/scanner/copier and a nice 17" monitor and some super sweet JBL speakers.. I'm most impressed with those speakers and the keyboard which is the nicest I've ever had the pleasure of using. The JBL speakers can be cranked right up with no distortion. She lets me use the keyboard on my coding PC, but won't let me have the speakers.. so I'll look into buying some good speakers for my laptop...

damn it all.

I bought a radio control car from the warehouse yesterday for $140. it's not the level of car I used to race, but it does the job and is good for blatting about. the steering on it sucks shit so I'm going to try and modify that. also looks like it can take rechargable battery packs, so I'm gonna have to mod the fucker...

and get my arse into gear and get my other car and my truck working again...

Date:	2003-11-06 16:18
Subject:	forgot
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

forgot to mention that I completed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic after having played it solid every night for a week...

I played a good Jedi, and the results were interesting. Tanya tried to play a dark Jedi, as did Rich, but she couldn't be arsed finishing it.

Speaking of Tanya, she just called me and told me that her computer, which had been in to get a dead hard drive replaced, had been sold by DTR.

Apparently they fixed it, and a couple of days afterwards, sold it as a 2nd hand PC.

This was back on the 15th. Because she works, she hasn't been able to pick the damn thing up. Understandably, she's a tad upset at the moment.

Next time I think she'll let me fix it.

Date:	2003-11-06 13:29
Subject:	annual update
Security:	Public
Mood:	bored

I'm sitting at work playing with the new version of OSX.

I just got it yesterday, and so far, it's pretty sweet. it definitely seems snappier, and features like Expose really make it worthwhile. The fact that OSX recognises all 5 buttons on my mouse surprises the hell out of me. I've assigned one of my side buttons to the Expose exposer, which is fucking handy. I don't have to minimise windows, and I can control them all with my mouse without need of the keyboard.

I'm particularly glad that I'm doing a writing course which qualified me for a student discount, so I saved about $100... otherwise I would have had to wait longer to get the upgrade...

I haven't yet plugged in my firewire drive, although I think I'll be OK, because the drive is only firewire 400, not 800, but I'm being cautious anyway...

The biggest problem with the upgrade was that I wasn't allowed to pick and choose what would be installed. Because of this, the language updates took about an hour and a half. I was just getting more and more frustrated. The log showed me that a lot of files weren't even being updated, but it was infuriating.

Apple REALLY need to allow people to CHOOSE whether they want all the language packs installed.

So at 1am, when the fucking thing was finally installed, I played for about 10 minutes and then went to bed.

Today all the pain from the drawn out install has gone away.

Expose is the best invention on the planet.

Apple, you fucking rock.

Date:	2003-10-18 13:58
Subject:	The Xbox - clearly by Microsoft
Security:	Public
Mood:	annoyed

I was quite proud of myself when I managed to overcome my prejudice for Microsoft and buy an Xbox.

Moreso when I bought and started playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The game really is legendary, set 4000 years before the Star Wars movies. I won't go into how great this game is, but suffice it to say that it's worth buying an Xbox for.

Somehow, although it's not running Windows, my Xbox has crashed twice in the last 24 hours. Admittedly I've been playing it a lot lately, but it doesn't feel like it's overheating. Last night when I was trying to infiltrate the Sith Academy, the game crashed when loading a new scene. The screen went black - no, not blue - and just froze. Suspecting it may have just been a faulty CD, I fired it back up, followed through the same steps I had previously made, and it continued without a problem.

This morning, I am making my way through an ancient temple infested with Sith vermin and after just defeating two very tough droids, the game freezes yet again.

Perhaps it's not freezing at all. If it's due to overheating, maybe I'm provoking a core meltdown. Of course, it could well be a faulty disc. This isn't something I've ever seen on any other CD based console - PS1/PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast (Although most games are built with a Windows bootloader - and my Dreamcast did die a horrible death when it decided one day that all my CDs were pirated.)

Either way, it's incredibly annoying, but something I feel really drives home the "Microsoft Experience," so I've accepted it as a feature.

Way to go Microsoft.

This is why my computer is a Mac.

I bought Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic over the weekend and it's good!

Rich was over from Thailand for his grandmother's funeral, so I managed to take his mind off it by letting him play all day Sunday :) He played a Scout who started turning to the ways of the Dark Side of the Force.

It was pretty damned interesting.

I tried to go to a model railway/train show on Sunday and although it was reasonably priced ($5) the tossers didn't take EFTPOS. I'm fucked if I was walking back into the city center to find and ATM machine. Damn hick operation. This kind of annoys me more than normal, because it probably would have been the motivation I need to build myself a proper track and get my trains going.. oh well, they can rot for now...

And RAW (wrestling) was actually entertaining last night. No stupid bullyboy shit. Well, not over the top, anyway.

I've been doing a bit more writing lately and have nearly finished my writing course. I just have to write a mock letter to a TV producer. I've already done the exam and all the other tutorials.

I'm happy about it, but at the same time, it's rather daunting. I've completed the course and should be able write publishable material. I'm looking forward to seeing the certificate, and I'll get a graduate Press Pass which will be very cool indeed.

My main 2 projects are:

- A pirate story
- a sci-fi action adventure story (which was originally going to be a comic, but is now being written as a TV script.)

I'm also looking into doing some technical writing. Although I could apply at NewsForge/Linux.com, I haven't been into Linux for the last three years. I can still build servers and so on, and have built an entire ISP before completely on Linux machines, my focus now is Solaris and OS-X.

if I could get paid freelance work writing technical articles for either of those two OS's, I'd be a very happy man.

My other option is to write some short stories and enter competitions. I've never been good at short stories, so I don't feel this would get me much in the long run.

I don't seem to spend enough time with Tanya which annoys me. We don't have the money to go out anywhere at the moment, but if we did, I don't know what we'd do. I have cut down on updating my porn site, so this gives me more free time at least.

But I'd like a quiet place that doesn't have an internet connection so that I can just sit down and write. Hell, I'm writing now.

I'm going to transfer the energy into my pirate story.

well, seeing as it's been a very long time since I updated my journal, I'll do it now :)

Last weekend, I had the misfortune of paying for my ticket to Armageddon - the national pop culture expo. I've never been to any in Auckland, but all the ones here in Wellington I've been to have been complete arse.

This was no exception.

I looked forward to seeing Peter Mayhew and Dave Prowse, but the rest of the con was so lame that it pained me to linger. There was also some wrestling demos, but again... I couldn't be fucked waiting...

Tanya and I went with a couple of friends, and they certainly couldn't be fucked waiting either.

I calculate about 80% of the whole thing was YuGiOh. Stupid little kids, and stupid big kids all playing their gay little fucking card games.

The Xbox stand was just a tent with a bunch of consoles lining the walls. Some fags were playing a rugby game which was being projected onto one of the walls, but aide from that, the stand didn't provide me with anything I couldn't have got from walking into any games store and doing there. No advertising for games, no chicks taking their tops off, just black fucking walls lined with game consoles. whoopdeefuckingshit.

Some homos were selling mini RC cars. The stand was a 4 foot square table which a gripper got to race a car back and forth on. whoopdefuckingshit. I bet he was bored out of his skull by the 3rd day.

I don't think Games Workshop had a stand there - which wasn't a surprise. The Wellington store is doing very badly since the cinemas in their complex shut down. They get no foot traffic, and may end up closing. No big deal.

Comics Alley was just the usual shit. Not many creators this year. Last year a bunch of local artists hung out there selling their comics, but this year I only saw a couple..

Overall, it was a huge letdown, but this wasn't a surprise letdown.

We all went to see Pirates of the Caribbean, which was fucking awesome. After that, we went to Neil's place to watch some DVDs and Sonya and Tanya chose REALLY badly.. One was a gook flick which had subtitles, even when they were talking english..

The other was a Jackie Chan movie which was real strange. It was called Gorgeous I think. None were spectacular, and not memorable.

Since then... well, I've started working on rules for a skirmish wargame. The basics are all worked out, and I just have to flesh it out and make it readable.

Right now, I'm not watching the wresting because Smackdown has turned into a bullyboy fag-fest like Raw. Brock Lesnar is beating up on Steph McMahon and doing a piss poor job of his acting.

my girlfriend, tanya, is a teacher aide for an autistic kid called Hayden. she related me a tale of his yesterday.

he's not too good at taking flak from other kids and gets very upset. most kids know to stay away from him and not tease him. One little bully called Jay decided to keep on picking on poor Hayden. teachers told Jay to stop, but he persisted.

In the end, Hayden got up, hands on hips, stomped his foot in front of Jay and declared "I DON'T LIKE THAT!" and promptly undid his pants and pissed on Jay.

Now if only I had the gall when I was a kid to piss on people that ticked me off. The world would have been a happier place.

Now today, Jay is either going to go postal, or he will stop being a bully because he's too embarrassed.

Way to go Hayden! you're the man! and you showed off your little willy giving all the girls their jollies.

rock on.

looks like somebody here on LJ is linking to my porn. I guess I should be flattered that I'm popular enough, but it's annoying nonetheless.