Meekly leapfrog to payday

Payday2

Frogs goal as a criminal in payday 2 is to develop a lithe meekness through the practice of Aikido. In the footsteps of Steven Segal gently dominate the police, aiming to cause least harm to my opponents and least disruption to my neighbours. Following the way of water from the Tao Te Ching, seek opportunities of the greatest efficiency, like headshots and the least pain, like one hit KO.

Perhaps if other friends come to join the fun the developing the EMP mysteries as well as efficient first aid may be the way to go. But for now I believe the best bet is better concealment and leading up to confirming my ambidexterity.

Meek when approaching the target, neither brash nor bold.

Calm under fire, steady when stressed.

Humble in the midst of praise

Magnanimous in victory, not gloating over the conquered

Walk softly and carry a big stick

Avoid the extravagant escalation of threat as mentioned by [British Ben].


As it's happened I've been crouching in a froggy pose nearly all the time and the Four Stores missions ATM is the most reliable source of stealthy cash. Plus I can conquer the task with no casualties in under four minutes. As opposed to many of hte online with randoms missions that seem to take half an hour to almost compete.

Cowboy pistols sound like a great idea, as do Lazer beams. I put a budget silencer on my pistol because I wanted it to be quiet but now aiming down the ironsites doesn’t work and I’ve unlocked the playing cards item so that works much better for silently disabling cameras and the cards can be retrieved, I wonder why the capacity is not 52…

Unfortunately the first aid pack for friends and the EMP are mutually exclusive and since there is a limited number of skill points available I’m going to try to be a great Fugitive without ever using first aid. Helping people is more of an Anoikis thing to do at any rate.

 

There is a mod that apparently shows all the buffs available, RPG style. I should get that installed and then try some actual online play. Also due to the number of trips back and forth to collect loot it seems that missions in single player are long and tedious. Payday really is designed as a four player experience. The AI merely follow me and shoot at each other, my allies revive me if I’m downed but that is the limit of their aid. The only missions I can successfully complete are Mall Crasher and four stores, the two missions I did at level one and six respectively before I actually had any skills or modded weapons. Knowing how the map plays out is a much greater advantage than any of the items or perks that can be equipped. Therefore with 4 humans any mission should be ~4 times faster and probably 16 times easier than solo. Mainly because you can all interact with lootbags at the same time, monitor drills and have actual defence rather than meatsheilds. If the cop AI did not keep escalating their equipment over the course of a heist then I’d be able to Solo some more but the process is just too slow when the Taser ninja police arrive.

 

I should re-think the silencer on my secondary, pending the playing card strategy. This way I can go out guns a blazing with Akimbo and maybe snipe with a scary secondary. The main reason for dual wielding was always the extra concealment. Also yet to find a foggy mask skin, I like the wolf mask of humbleness, but have not found anything that I want to use to recolour it. Meh it’s easier to pull the trigger than throw a card, though the cards are much quicker at breaking glass in the jewellery store than either melee or bullets.

 

All done, unless I find somebody to co-op with, Just like life in general I suppose. I could let Frog loose online and play online with ransoms a bit, Otherwise rolling over to Shogun 2 with Stephan leading the charge is the plan. Been a few rounds in CardHunter, which leads me to believe It’s Skyzer the mad Logicians, turn to come out of his shell.

Can listening be a leadership skill?

Whether it’s a genetic and metaphysical pre-disposition or socio-economic and cultural massaging there is always a reason that people try to communicate with words, oft times its more important to determine why something was said rather than what was said, after all the greatest inhibitor of communication is language. If you don’t believe me then try re-reading that sentence again.

Listening as a leadership skill

Dad is really good at picking emotions and mood swings. He learnt to be a quick accurate judge because grandpa apparently had quick violent mood swings and you had to know when he was about to fly off the handle and when a joke would be safely laughed at.
For myself I think I’ve spent a relatively large amount of my childhood hanging out with adults who were discussing things like theology and proportionally small time learning how to competently catch a ball. I know the phrase “children are to be seen and not heard” but that was never the case for us growing up. I knew I could speak my piece and especially at the dinner table we all had our fair share to say, Even so with six people two ears and only one mouth means listen twice as much as you talk. So I think I’m fairly well positioned to give some points on how to listen to people, and thereby lead through manipulating the course of a conversation.

~In relation then to small group bible studies

Edit: I was trying to apply the KISS principle but this is turning into an essay, I’ll try again.
Lead by example; everything happens for a reason; Listen and watch before acting;

• First you need to be present. You need to forget your past and not plan your future but concentrate solely on the present. Try to lead by example and stay on topic and make certain it looks like you are actively listening. If you daydream, or start reading ahead/ checking the time then everybody else will follow your example.
• Participate, listen actively. So that they know you have not fallen asleep
• Listen with your eyes too; somatic comms will give you a lot more information than verbal. You can only hear what somebody tells you. But somatically you should be able to see why they are talking in the first place.
• Surroundings, what’s distracting them? Who do they not want to overhear their conversation. Is anybody tempering their language so as not to offend? Can you get away with polysyllabalistic esoteric spiritual jargon? Or will only half the group understand what is happening?
• Body language, it’s a thing. See them, what do they see you doing? What about others nearby? Leaning forwards, fiddling, folded arms? 
• Watch the watchers, how much are other people listening? Who is only listening and not talking? Should you direct conversation at them or allow them to be shy and comfortable?
• To steer the conversation passively talking is best. Don’t speak if possible as you might dam the flow of conversation, it’s better to be a pebble and change the flow. As a leader if you pay full attention to one person and they see you listening acutely to them. Then they are encouraged to continue and once others see this you make them the centre of attention.
• Give somebody permission to interrupt. When the speaker takes a breath at a full stop is the best time to switch to another person. As the audience listens they will form ideas and come up with something to say. Leave it too long and the thought is gone. Start too soon and the current speaker will feel disrespected. A listener will take a breath before beginning to speak, this is the time to give them your attention and switch the focus of the group.
• Be selectively rude and dismissive. Roll your eyes and sigh to move the conversation along. If the right person notices they will move the conversation back to the topic at hand. If people are distracted by their phones you can get yours out and hold it back to front and pretend to look at humorous cat pictures.
• Know the answer before you ask a question. Whenever a question is asked quickly guess three possible answers that might be given so that you can predict the flow of conversation.
  Likely answers will be:
  Incorrect- the question was misunderstood or the answer is unknown
  Short- one word answers slow the conversation but might be followed up by,
  Long- detailed descriptions may be informative but could go off topic.
  Attention seeking- if somebody always answers they may like the sound of their own voice and have not noticed that other people have opinions also.
• Names are powerful. I’m not so great at this but recall a person’s name whenever they speak. And remember who they speak about, relatives, school friends parents. Chances are they will come up in conversation again later.
• Go off topic; While you are all supposedly gathered together for the same reason you never know what gems of insight will be found at the end of a monologue. Also no matter how important you think it is to follow the scrips and stay on schedule, somebody may have a burning question or a miserable day. Ubuntu is more important than ruthless rationality, people will bond best when sharing wounds.
• If you are not making any progress at all then you are on the wrong path be flexible enough to

Stalker, the computer game you play as a chaotic neutral mercenary, you can listen to people but interactions are limited to shooting them or selling loot. Its based on a movie and book thate are set before the Chernobyl disaster. But set afterwards because that fit the plot better. I quite liked the movie and recommend you watch it on [youtube] with the English subtitles. It shows Stalker the guide as an effective leader yet he is always last and the least fortunate of all the people. Just like in the movie, in the game I never quite made it into The Room, so I cant say how it ends.

Rahab to Ruth

Read Judges this arvo, sort of following parallel to [The Story], which is a link I had not previously used. Anyway thought I'd stop at Ruth to see where in time I'm supposed to be. But first quickly checked Matthew as that was a name I recognized.

Hang on, I read Joshua last week, isn't that like 300 years in the past, surely that's not the same Rahab? Apparently I was correct on all accounts Though these two sheilas are a generation apart they span some 300 years. Well I suppose Joshua was 110, maybe Rahab was a 12yo prostitute? After reading about the Benjamites, well worse things have happened.

Found another genealogy chronology with heaps of stuff.

You will have to follow this [Link] to be able to read any of that.

so you have this

then six generation later get

Who married Rahab, who is the mother in law of Ruth, King Davids grandma?

Kicked the bucket list

Nicole asked me a while ago if I have a bucket list, I had one but I think everything got crossed off already, almost. Must mean that its time ti update my ten steps


1luxuries
Well dollar a meal rations still ongoing, so luxuries shared now includes meat as well as coffee alcohol, potato chips and antipasto. Mostly this seems OK.

2prepare
Well as far a plans go I think I’ve completed every milestone I’ve aimed at and overcome every challenge God has put before me with the exception of filling a quiver with arrows. Currently there is nothing I really want to add to my bucket list. So I suppose I just reiterate old milestones and aim to improve skill and efficiency.

3efficiency
I really am sick of returning home to a big empty house and want to have somebody else to at least fill up a spare room. Current proposal is free board is somebody cleans for me. But I don’t really want to advertise as that wasted a lot of my tile previously.

4mental
New computer games, and guitar is coming along OK and presenting many challenges. I don’t think it’s something I can finish getting better at. So it’s merely a matter of how many hours I spend with Elva.

5physical
Can almost do a handstand, seems that before that is reliable I’ll be able to go into a bridge. Handstand walking is a long way off. Next step in Kitesurfing is backrolls. I can jump reliably either direction and change tack mid air no worries. My rations I think have made me leaner but now that I’ve been eating vegetables I’ve still got plenty of energy. Trying to survive on instant ramen noodles was a terrible idea. This reminds me of the book [Lucifers Hammer] and in hindsight could be the reason this winter was cold.

6spiritual
Leading a bible study has almost got me back into reading the bible which is nice. Since we are working chronologically I’ve been reading it like a novel, rather than a chapter a day.

7emotional
I think this is always the hardest category to come to terms with and thus I have the least I want to say about it. Which I suppose means I have room to grow and I should share more with my friends. After all a good friend is somebody who has a lot of knives and could easily stab you in the back and yet they don’t. I think if I got engaged next week my best men would be Josh and Tony and I’d have to invite Stephan and the Parfits along with the Doohans, aside from family of course.

8recover
Well I survived the 15k cane to coral run without any adverse effects this year. And it was fun running with Marc and the reservists plus the 160pushups. I didn’t enjoy working on the Rovema installation in packaging, mostly due to a lack of communication and not getting a chance to actually test and commission any of my programming. Nothing else springs to mind at the moment.

9fun
I really cant say I have had a lot of fun this last ten months or so Partially being cold and slightly ill due to winter. Social events I’ve tried to organise have generally been half as effective as I’d hoped and my house felt lonely. But I really don’t like to complain so sacrifices and compromises have to be maid to maintain a balanced lifestyle.

0shame
Only really ashamed of my lack of progress and sour attitude. In reality I’ve overcome a lot of challenges and been able to debrief at least with myself to see that things went about as smoothly as they could have gone with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. I think I have done a pretty good job of being meek lately. Then again that’s really hard to qualify and define. Thus the reason I’ve aimed for Meekness.

More * More
Weeeelll ….
Boardgames and co-op computers
Electric Bass Guitar; In a band, Blues riffs, walking bass and Rocksmith
Save for next overseas holiday
Whatever happened to camping? I havent been bush in ages.
Spend so much time in the surf and the sun that my belly never hangs over my belt.
Youtube tongue twisters in alternate languages.
House paid off in 2020
Be the most Meek.
Sell a computer game that I helped make.
Handstand walking + wall flips.
And then [This] I wanted started by last Christmas

Find some girl

• Computer games camping beach, dance.
• She can worry about insurance, tax, medical, bills and stuff.
• At 31 married
• At 35 house would be paid off. Some children (Dad will be 62, year 2020)
• At 40, retired to spend time with kids, run my own business / pastor / musician
• At 53, 18yo children
• At 65, settle down, sell home produce, booze and computer games, ready for grand kids. (Dad will be 92, year 2050)
• Will I have grand kids at an age younger than Dad?
• I probably won’t be the oldest kitesurfer, computers and games are tax deductible, still play the bass at church.

All in all I reckon I can cope with a bit of time travel even now. I’m prepared to be unprepared and with the help of God no challenge will be insurmountable

Shedmen 4th September

I’ve put some words together for Shedmen at my place on the 4th September. I’ve avoided listing any arguments/pro/con/bible verses. First I have some dot points ill talk around then I’ll mention what the concept actually is and I’ll maybe add the bit about tradition. We have not had much theological debate at Shedmen lately and I’m not that keen to talk about my like so I thought to start something heavy instead. So what do youse think? 

Women’s ordination.

• Back when I went Baptist the Calvinistic double pre-destination was a big deal. But mostly us of uni student age were sick of the argument and didn’t think it actually effected day-to day life. Some people are predestined for Heaven. Some predestined for Hell.
• Been an ongoing issue for a while 1932 in Canada.
• I think that because we are human we like to disagree, there will always be something to argue about and something that causes division within the church. It’s one of the tools the devil uses to attack us. Just like in the Screwtape letters by CS Lewis.
• I believe pastors conference earlier this year decided that they were unable to advise SYNOD what the Lutheran church should do. That is to say theologically they were not confident enough that the bible is for or against women’s ordination.
• This has been an issue of discussion in our church for more than 10 years I think. Every so often it’s put to the vote that the LCA will allow ordination of women, but they need more than ~70% of people to vote yes. I wonder if as a church we vote yes this year, would it go to the vote again at the next SYNOD to take away all the women pastors?
• Another story I’m reminded of is when the Israelites asked Solomon to give them a king, they nagged enough that eventually God said yes.
• Also in Australia I believe that the only occupation not available to women is being a priest of the Catholics or a Pastor of the Lutherans. But by the same token churches have an anti-antidiscrimination allowance in federal law. This is how we can discriminate against Muslims and not allow them to partake in Holy Communion.
• It’s not merely a question about gender equality, I’m a mathematician. Given 12ab=3a, therefore 4=a. Ergo gernder equality can be acheived by removing the difference and nolonger acknowledging anybodies gender.

Finally what does it even mean?
Given that a lay worker like Wayne Dionysius can get away with almost everything.
Women, humans what have a uterus, wouldn’t say boobs cause seems some blokes have them now.
Ordination, process of consecration for the performance of religious rites and ceremonies
i.e. only a Pastor can Baptise, consecrate Holy Communion and ordain more clergy.


From the LCA website:
Pastors are part of Christ’s plan for his church and he himself instituted the office of the ministry as a gift to the church. This is a distinct ministry which complements the discipleship and service of the whole church.
The pastors’ role in the Body of Christ is to feed and lead congregations and communities through the ministries of preaching and teaching God’s Word and administering the Sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In fulfilling this ministry they are involved in various tasks: preaching, leading public worship, teaching, visiting and giving pastoral care.
They are ordained (placed into this office) according to Scripture and the practice of the apostles, and called by Christ, through his church, to serve in various ministry contexts in the Lutheran Church of Australia, including New Zealand.
Pastors serve in a variety of ministry contexts in the church. While the majority of pastors still serve parishes and congregations, some also work in school ministry, chaplaincy or in special roles in overseas missions.
The role of pastor in Christ’s Church is a servant role. Pastors exercise humble servant leadership, representing and imitating Christ himself by placing the needs and welfare of those they serve first.
They are called to receive and work with the guidance and direction of the LCA College of Bishops, accepting their leadership in ministry. [Link]


Tradition Vs Traditionalism 
From my dictionary
"Tradition is that body of practice and belief which is socially transmitted from the past. It is regarded as having authority in the present simply because it comes from the past, and encapsulates the wisdom and experience of the past. For some, the very idea of tradition is anathema. It is characteristic of modernity to reject the authority of the past in favour of the present deployment of reason, unencumbered by tradition or prejudice. While prior to the seventeenth century tradition was largely unquestioned as a source of insight, and in need of no defence, since the Enlightenment the notion of tradition has been defended by traditionalists such as Burke and, more recently, Hayek. Upon inspection, however, traditionalism, if not indefensibly irrational, turns out to be a demonstration of the overlooked rationality contained within traditions. Traditions often turn out upon inspection to be not so much irrational as subtle and flexible deployments of reason in particular spheres."

When Dad gets home from work mum has the Table set and dinner ready and mum always cooks and cleans.
Traditionalism:
We do this because my grandfather did and his grandfather before him, its right and proper and the way things are always done.
Why not change: old habits die hard, if it at broke …
Tradition:
Dad knows how to cook and clean from when he went to uni. But he is terrible at it; dinner would be late and warm baked beans on burnt toast is not very appetising. But mum got taught how to bake biscuits by her grandma and they are way better than anything in the stores.
Why note change: There is a meaningful story behind it all and I like it better this way.

4 month Recap

Overall:

Has been a while, just like [Levi], [Tony], [Beth], [Alice] and [Andreas]. We get motivated for a while then distracted.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve not done anything noteworthy in the pasy year, I have not felt like ben much. A few times ive asked myself am I here doing this because I actually want to? Or am I obligated? Or is it just a habit that I have?

But I have achieved a lot of things, in fact everything. A while ago Nicole asked me if I had a bucket list, Well I did have one but I think everything has been crossed off. Except for having a quiver full of arrows. That came up again recently from watching “Smarter every day” on YouTube [Psalm 127].

Our bible study is probably coming across my probably favourite bible verse soon, Joshua 1:9 do not be terrified, do not be afraid for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you shall go. Also I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. I suppose that’s how I’ve accomplished everything I’ve set out to do, God has blessed those endeavours, certainly not by my strength lest I boast, but by the grace of my God have I achieved these things.

So yes, while I have put pen to paper a couple of times I’ve not hit the publish button. And what remains is to find somebody to keep me warm at night. Certainly has been a cold winter this season and I’ve found myself wearing trousers more often than not. I’ve keen for a bear skinned summer [Link], when I started to lean on the bass I spent most of my sessions standing in the middle of the lounge in just my undies wondering if the TV would think I was playing naked.

So where am I at now? What small things have been left undone? What storms have I been though that ended up residing in a cup of Earl Grey [Link]? How have I set out to be a better Ben [Link]?

I’ve usually got a few notes of what I’m currently up to in game. And looking back through my to do list there are a lot of games unfinished that I’m not currently having fun with but may go back to soonish or maybe at Christmas.

Speaking of which I wonder how I should spend my long service leave? Sometimes I feel like this blog shoulnt have as much private into on it, sometimes I figgure nobody reads it anyway. At least I have a little control on what I put here other that facebook.

Warframe

Debonair Limbo, for Spy missions, exterminate, capture: Try map unlocks
Massochistic Nekro survival/excavation for potatoes/nurodes

Grinder to Host sab tower, 4 peeps should get my shade levelled up again
Playing as a gundam is also fun.
But the main reason I’ve stuck with this is so that I’d have a good support character in case we have another bash at it for a few Sojourns.

ESO

Quick levelling is done through hard(ish) questing.

Run quests at my level, or 5 levels higher.
Cat needs skill points to be a better thief to get cash to increase lootbags and movespeed.
AnOCD, needs public dungeons to level up undaunted for the bone shield / bound armour
Heal, shield, aoe heal, buff, buff, ult
Was good fun for a couple of weeks playing with Josh after my birthday. But I only know 2 people who currently have the game and at $80 price tag I’d be more inclined to recommend new people try GW2 or RAR, as they are both more friendly to new players. ESO is just too generic and too single player.

RAR

Still has novel ideas though it’s a bit buggy and a bit dated now.

I was playing it back in 2007, for a year or so until I decided against subscription model games.
Organic: Green machine, ye olde healer to play with Josh, maybe a little like Anoikis. As this was my first main healing character. I remember I only started playing as a healer/support because they were so hard to find ingame and the only way to reliably group with a healer was to play one. I also ended up naming most of my characters after complex chemistry, because all the names I tried were already taken. I should not have this problem anymore.
Here be a yoyo healer, built for teamwork
Need a second character incase I wish to play without Josh/Levi, maybe I should roll another healer then?
Skyzer the chaotic spinning dual wielding buff/debuffer Disciple of Kaine. I vaguely remember doing this previously and having fun in a group of three where each of us had chosen a different mastery path. Apparently this class has very good 1v1 survivability.

DawnOfWar II

And then following on from RAR, this got Levinathan and myself back into Co-Op Retribution which now had both acheivements and cards. Anoikis has gotten a fair bit of a workout lately, so I had to go and find [This] old forum post which ties into [That] old intro which I've recently updated here:

• "The Psychosomatic Anoiki’s abilities centre around the restoration of life. Whether or not the patient was living in the first place. Known in some circles as “Saint Anoiki the Axe” or merely “An OCD Healer” Anoiki sets out not to be good or a hero but often ends up that way. Given a penchant for necromancy and a desire to make friends Anoiki may be found to take things a little too literally. But when the opportunity arises would much rather heal the living than animate the skeletons of the deceased. Thus assumptions about Anoiki’s evil nature often result in Anoiki taking the role of an Anti-Villain. Taking whatever friends can be found in the beginning but when it all comes out in the wash Anoiki would prefer to heal everybody rather than hurt anybody. Though there are times that the suffix “the Axe” becomes readily apparent, very red and apparent. If everybody is healthy and whole then no healing can be practiced, and if you want to get better then practice practice practice."

Ergo grabbing the terminator armor, prefferably for 4 squads and priotitising health then melee, losing as many battles as possible to ensure we cap all the points of interest.

SR2HD

Not using cash for much, need to search for a new droid to patch me up and a scanner from the black holes. Proceed as normal; questing and saving systems. May be able to tackle 10 ships on my own now, and I suppose I should begin building up a fleet. A fleet will be my new replacement source of experience now that my charisma has fallen. I was going to rely on my charisma to get people to join me but they did not seem to keen anyway. I’m also curious about the ships available to the pirates. Apparently one of them is extremely fast. Also change race to human, probably the only time I will be a human character.

Aim still to be an evil pirate with a fleet of minions. Mainly keeping the Shadow of the Empire. On a subsequent play through I may try out the fast pirate ships and switch teams. But not now. So I need to persist with the blackholes to locate robots. And it is probably time to capture coalition systems rather than fight the dominators. First I suppose I can take all the military bases.

Currently only have half technology so I should be able to use blackholes a lot to travel, Thus I don’t really need the black goo. I’m not too fussed about recovering things from the dominators as I’ve seen much better equipment in the black holes and I can now effectively search them. I wonder if I should try to get maxed skills this play through?  Well I need tech and commander to make the best use of this ship. And that will set me up well for late game. Then I may want to use my XP to upgrade my robots instead.

Another goal is to upgrade my ship, which will require a huge amount of cash. Easiest method for that is the dominator planet recovery battles, main question thee is whether it makes and difference if I get the upgrade at a science or pirate station.

Might be able to just win but I would rather be a pirate,

Bass

Possible Wednesday orchestra? Ask Lyn Duldig for details and music

Blues chords/ walking bass lines. To play songs sans sheet music.
Play for fun not practice
New coloured stickers for 7 notes
Have heaps of free DLC from [Custom Forge] now, generally I'll get 70% accuracy on the first play through but I still really need the instructions when playing in church. Thats where a bass riff would come in. They can fit on any song, making me essentially a drummer, maintaining the pace and backbeat.

Cash

Last year or so has been a bit of a different struggle. Bills (particularly council rates) have been increasing faster than my pay. Finally at Christmas 2014 I was able to get my shower properly repaired, then had to replace all 4 of my car tyres because they had gone too flat for too long. So that put a rather large dent in my savings.

I’d also recently got into a habit of eating packaged meals as they were simple and quick. Though I had not realised how expensive they were. Say around $10 per meal and 20 meals in a month $200 per month on dinner. In January sometime I realised this and found some blogs with how to live on $1 USD per day. Therefore subsequently switched to cereal for dinner and meatless pasta for lunch, I have not recorded this religiously but:

Brekky

1kg musley at $5, use about 100g per meal = $15 per month

1L milk at $1, lasts about the same so, = $3 per month

Lunch

frozen stir fry at $0.3 per 100g

Pasta at $0.3 per 100g

+ Oil, salt, spices = $0.60 per meal, $18 per month

Dinner

One of the above two, occasionally rice. Say $12 for 20 days.

Then the other ~10 evening meals I’ll have visitors or may eat meat.and that may be $40 for a single evening.

Ergo my base food expenditure has been ~$58 per month all year.

Other than food I spend my cash on:

Bills

Homeloan repayments

Petrol

Charity (10% of income to church + Humble bundle)

Finance is the past... Seems from 2009 till mid 2014:

Holidays in 2009 and 2014 overseas cost me a bit ~$5k each

New car in 2013, will have saved me cash in repairs compared to the Commodore.

PC in 2009, kite in 2012 & 2014 other than that I’ve spent less than $1000 per year on myself.

Other than, other than that:

On average Bills have increased $2000 per year

On average Pay has increased $2000 per year

On average spending $14,000 via credit card, primarily food and petrol

Last year received $49969.83 in pay, after tax.

And yet I still really don’t have the cash to splash on alcohol or Kitesurfing gear. So my cheapest entertainment remains going home to play computer games. All the infrastructure is already in place and the ongoing cost is already incorporated into my bills.

Kind of makes my social life dull though. Recently through church people have highlighted what happens to "shut ins" and there was an interesting interview a while back about a girl in the states. Initially she got noticed due to an online rant about how hard it was to get ahead. A small lack of funds can quickly turn into a large lack of funds that is nearly impossible to recover from. Just this week I heared another story of a homeless man who found thousands of dolers in cash, turned it into police, then the local community raised even more cash to honor his morality and he turned it down as he wanted a job not handouts.

Ball

Would you beleive that i wrote this sometime back in March? Whilst I mostly remembered how to dance and picked up the steps without too much hassle; Totally forgotten what social outings are like:

There were wallflowers, some on purpose some not.

Some people were inappropriately dressed or did not put any effort in. For me the first half was fairly blurry and then I was focussing on faces, mayhap I should have been trying to chat up the girls with low cut blouse and miniskirts.

There were groups of people than knew each other well and a few like me that barely knew anybody. At times I’ve sought out the lonely and empathised with them or otherwise been inclusive. But this time I mostly just asked the closest girl when the dances were starting and talked to whoever my partner was at the end of each set.

And then for a Christian event there seemed to be very few people actually going to church in the following morning. The Towoomba spring ball is now only a fortnight away and I'm pretty keen to see if I can get my grove on again. This time I'm actually a little organised and knew it was coming up [Link] yay for FB.

 And one final tunish [Link] made me want to drive my car to work on Thursdays. This is pretty much the least amout of wordsmithing I've dont to a blog post for ages. Hopefully its readible enough that I wont get confuzzled in a year or so or whenever I look back at it. Magically the font and line spacing seems to change. I should halve edited this in HTMS and linked all the sub headings.