The Grax Domain

31 May 2008 One Word Blog Day

Commitment.

(...not that anyone does this kind of thing anymore)

23 May 2008 Wii thievery

My Nintendo Wii was stolen from my lounge on Thursday 16th May.

I didn't actually notice it was gone until the following Friday evening when I got back from work. But I didn't think anything of it, I just assumed one of my housemates borrowed it without asking. There was no one in the house to ask so I went about my business and went away to a friends house for the weekend as planned.

It wasn't until I got back that everyone in the house told me that none of them borrowed it. So someone stole it. Bastards.

There were two things that struck me as odd about the crime. Firstly there was no sign of forced entry. No broken windows, no damaged door, nothing. So I'm assuming that someone left the back door open so the burglar could just walk in (we've all gotten back into the habit of double locking again). But that could also imply that the burglar is someone who has already been in the house and knew where the Wii was.

Which leads me to the second odd thing about the crime. The only thing that was stolen was the Wii, two wiimotes, Mario Kart Wii (because in was in the console at the time) and the power cable. They left the composite cable to connect the Wii to the TV, they left the sensor bar and they left the CD case full of games. So what they nabbed is kinda useless (although you can get replacement sensor bars and TV connectors easily enough). But they also left the crappy TV itself, the Playstation 2, the stack of DVDs next to the TV. The burglar left a whole bunch of stuff. Either he was startled and left with what he could, or he's just a shitty robber.

I mean c'mon! If you've gonna robbed a place take everything you can!!

So that Monday I called the police. Not the emergency 999 number because, well, it's not an emergency. They said they would send someone over that evening, or the following evening.

Wednesday morning I get a call from them apologising that no one came on Monday or Tuesday and saying that someone will be coming that Wednesday evening. I don't really blame them for taking a while to get to my case. With all these many crimes and understaffed, overworked police force that are being tied down by paperwork; it's not exactly high on their priority list to see the guy who got most of his Wii stuff knicked.

So a policewoman came round my house on that Wednesday evening, after having the courtesy of asking if now was a good time for her to come over whilst the football final was on TV. Which... I thought was kinda odd of her, but nevermind. I told her what happened, told her a list of what was taken, and gave her some kind of way of identifying the Wii if they came across one (I didn't have the console's serial number written down, but I did have the Wii number written down). She took a statement, she gave me a "sorry you've been burgled" pack (complete with UV pen), mention that she'll pass the details to the burglary team of the force, mentioned something about how it might not be worth sending in the SOCO team for fingerprinting due to many housemates and the lounge was tidied up before I reported the crime to the police, aaaand.... that was about it really. Her demeanour was pleasant but I got the impression the whole thing was a bit "I'm sorry that your Wii was stolen, but there's not a lot that we can actually do about it."

The thing is I doubt I'll see my Wii back again, no matter how much I cross my fingers, and I can't replace it for a while because A) I have no home insurance and B) I have no spare cash to buy a new one. Which is a bit crappy really. Very crappy.

15 May 2008 Iron Man movie review

They release a movie based upon a comic character that you're not exactly a huge fan of. Oh sure you might have a couple of their issues and they may make the odd cameo appearance in your usual comics, but nothing that would make you take notice. Then you see the trailer for said comic character that makes the movie look totally kick-ass (like the trailer is designed to). What do you do? In my case I took a risk and watched Iron Man at the cinema.

Fortunately Iron Man was just as good as the trailer promised.

There's lots of different sides to the story. Yes there's Iron Man in action. But there's also Tony Stark, the arrogant yet loveable prick that makes people smile because he's that damn good. There's Tony Stark, the guy who get the life changing experience and gains the responsibilities of a super-hero (as you do). Robert Downey Jr. does a fantastic job in his role.

The pacing of the movie was good too. They did the old 'Tell the whole origin story but condense it into a short space of time and yet lose none of the details' trick, which makes it very accessible for everyone. You've not going to get lost with confusing in this plot. On the other hand there were lots of tibbets for Marvel fan that'll make 'em smile, not to mention all the hints they drop that scream "sequel!" (which they're gonna do) or "spin-off!" (which I believe they are also gonna do).

Iron Man is a movie I can easily recommend to people to watch. Even more so to comic fans. It had me smiling throughout. This movie has helped to restore my faith in Marvel movie again. Maybe now they'll stop making bad Marvel movies like Daredevil and Spider-Man 2 & 3 and keep making high quality movies like Iron Man.

Whatever you do, stay till after the credits.

11 May 2008 Pre wedding vlogs

Before my dad's second wedding back in mid April I did some preparation for my outfit. I recorded my activities as a vlog for a laugh and to show it off to people. Who knows, there might be some value to these videos. Enjoy.

Warning: the following vlogs may contain strong language and product placements.

7 May 2008 The thing about sleeping around...

... Is that it can be much more damaging than people realise, not just to an individual but for every single person in the world.

I'm sure many people remember a time in their lives when they were new to the relationship scene. They heard about this thing called love, this sweet union between two souls, and thought to themselves "I want in on that". But then they end up sleeping with the wrong person, hoping that this is The One™. When they open up to this person and say the 'L' word they get rejected. This can be for whatever excuse they feel like saying at the time. Perhaps they were just looking for sex, none of this lovey-dovey crap. After the first knock down you pick yourself up, learn whatever lessons you may learn and try again, hoping that the next one will be better. The next one is bound to be The One™.

But with each rejection, each mistakes, each "sleeping with the wrong one"; it chips away at ones self-esteem and expectations. Soon one starts to think "Actually no one is looking for love. No one will ever love me for who I am; they just want to fuck me". So they give up the quest for love and indulge in the act of sleeping around. After all everyone else is doing it, you might as well go with the flow. It has its advantages and disadvantages. And with a somewhat jaded opinion on human relationships you continue being content with having sex with different partners. Why? Because sex is fun, and having fun is awesome.

Then you sleep with someone who doesn't just want sex. They want something lasting, they want a relationship, they want love. But when they open themselves up to you after the act of shagging they get rejected by you because you don't believe that they are being serious. No one does this thing called love. And so this genuine person loses a bit of herself and starts to join the orgy of the masses that no longer believes in love. Thus the vicious circle continues.

Bringing someone down like that is a nasty thing to do because it hurts them, no matter how much they hide it. Also it makes it harder for them to find true love because they get the impression that everyone of that gender is a bastard (this applies to both men and women). Keeping people from this form of happiness is a cruel thing to do.

But the problem is bigger than that. Soon this shagging mentality spreads with each person that gets rejected, like a virus. No love and true happiness, only indulgence. Humanity becomes darker and less fulfilled in life and the world becomes a more depressing place to live in.

Not exactly a good mindset to be in, is it?