My Mind, or: The Haunted House

Wow, it's almost scary how happy I've been for around a month. Yes, I've had pretty stressful shit as well, but I truly believe I am/have: Able to deal with it 100x better than before Surrounded myself with the greatest group of people I can imagine Recently, because of my boyfriend's, Alex's, past, I've come to appreciate my own family even more. Not only that, but I will ALWAYS feel indebted to Dad. More or less, he gave me a second chance at life. The amount of stuff both my parents have done for me since "THE" accident is... Here, I'm at a loss for words. Ek is sooo inniglik lief vir julle, dankie vir al julle moeite! I can't quite explain the dramatic turnaround I've experienced since the events of around 2004/2005. I <3 them SOOO much more. It's is one of the, actually numerous things, the accident has provided me with. If that wasn't enough, I have the most amazing boyfriend. Fuck-it, everyone ...

I've always considered myself a very open and honest person. I REALLY struggle with anything besides a white lie. I simply find it a helluva lot easier to keep your story straight, when I say what ACTUALLY happened, not some convenient fabrication that helps me. True, I've lied. EVERYONE has. If they say they haven't, they're lying right then IMO. It's a lot like e.g. pleasuring yourself. Maybe it's not that common among girls, but which GUYS don't.  Having said that, I can't really be dishonest. Not telling the whole truth, yeah, but lying outright? Not me. I'm taking it to the next level. I believe that white lies serve a purpose. I'd still sort of filter what I say to friends. I'm not gonna say something in a social setting about how I've always considered that person to be a gigantic penis. Last night, as we were falling asleep, we watched a House episode about frontal-lobe inhibition. It was a tad scary, and a ...

Have I had an "interesting"/hectic and stressful/messed-up week... I suppose, thinking back, it all started when I was involved in a near-fatal car accident on the Tuesday morning. LUCKILY, no injuries were sustained. I cannot stress how fortunate that was. A Corsa-bakkie company car collided with A and I leaving for work at around 06h00. We endeavoured the "good-old" cross-country haul between our economic powerhouses. Actually, scrap that. We didn't even make it close to the N1, since the route leading to it was oh-so-lovely completely jammed up. We tried to avoid the mess by rather taking the N14. After the necessary observations, I tried switching lanes around the stationary vehicles in front of me. That's when the Corsa did its thing.  Since the bakkie wasn't seen, I can't be 100% sure, but I am CONVINCED that the bakkie was doing around 90 km/h in a 60 zone. For god's sake, post-collision it only came to a halt around 30m later....

So much of life we simply take for granted. I always thought: "Well yeah, those are dice. We use them for gaming, so?"  You might wonder why there's a negro (anyone who knows me, knows I use the word in THE MOST BENIGN possible way. A term of affection; I love black culture. It all started with my "back-then" best friend, E) wielding a gun on your screen. His nickname is Lil' Dice, and Cidade De Deus (2002) was one of my Top Ten Favourite Films. He features rather prominently in it. I suppose the little tyke was just what immediately came to mind when I thought of "Dice. Good idea? Bad idea?" ANYWAY, before I digress like I do it for a livin'...I had the opportunity to finally spare dice a thought after a gaming session involving my good friends A, L (/"waits for gasps": a LADY friend(!) who's damn cool and plays games with the boys as if she grew up with them), R and P. Now that I've offended any females who mi...

What's new in the world of your G.G.J. (ginger games-junkie)? It will come as an insect-sized surprise to the more observant among you that I've been jamming a beta release by pretty-much the best publishing/development package in the world of Warcraft (pun inte/slap...OK! I'll stop) and other great works of fantasia - the almighty Blizzard. I've recently referred to the affectionately named Blizz as Midas. The reason is obvious: they simply never miss. Everything they touch.../ tremendous applause and whistling . From the ancient-but-amazing The Lost Vikings  and Blackthorne  to what I like to call the "-Craft collection" ( Warcraft , Starcraft & the crack-like World of Warcraft ) every single release seems to be mind-blowingly great. So...what's so cool about Hearthstone? Hmmm...let's see. The artwork and tone for one. The soundtrack features the tavern (where you log in and out, mostly) music from WoW. When you end your turn, an o...

...you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed. Who would have thought the great poet himself would have something so eloquent to say about life? I'm only being very slightly facetious when labeling Eminem a "great poet". People who know me, understand that I LOVE rap/hip-hop/call-it-whatever. Eminem is a LYRICAL GENIUS. His are truly very well thought-out. I'm pretty much a fan of his very early work. In addition, he was never a rhythmical master. I suppose it's my great love of the English language. Its expressiveness and variation are, IMO, unparalleled. Some people find the journey I made, pretty much becoming English, to be weird and off-putting. Crazy, some would say. To be perfectly clear, I am not embarrassed, AT ALL, to admit my Afrikaans roots. Having said that, I just find myself not-quite-agreeing with some of the more traditional/conservative beliefs. Reading that statement again, it ...

Well, the Dota 2 game idea was prototyped and I realized I'll have to change it. Why? The format of the game, the hundreds of choices, are better suited to the computer than a board-game. So, I'd like to take inspiration from it, but to not make it exactly the same. Walking into a toy-store looking for a random object, a display of a "Pirates!" colouring book caught my eye. Suddenly, a couple of ideas flew into my head. No. 1 - I LOVED playing Sid Meier's Pirates! Truly a legendary game. Then I thought back - I had been SO INTO pirates and everything that goes with them when I was a kid. I clearly remember a pirate-themed birthday party when I was around 8 or so. I'd been thinking for a while that I really find the draft portion of a professional Dota 2 game to be fascinating. For a board-game, I'd have to narrow the number of possible selections down to around 20-30, for production efficiency and play railroading reasons. Choice is good, but som...

I would very readily try King of Tokyo  again, but my very first impressions were that  It was a hilarious party game It would prove VERY stimulating Then, I played it. I'm glad I did, but I'm also glad I didn't buy into any hype yet. Why, though? It's very simple. I would say that my two main gripes with the game are: When a player gets eliminated, a common occurrence, he has NO further part in the game Instead of feeling like a powerful monster, I felt like a very weak praying mantis. You can literally die in one or two turns. Sure, I suppose you could in Richard Garfield's other big property, but it's EXTREMELY unlikely, whereas in King of Tokyo , you could die very easily. I literally went from the starting 10 health once, down to 9, and felt like "OMG. I'm gonna die again." It's hard to describe, but you really just don't feel like something stomping on Tokyo. You feel like a fragile glass cannon.  ...

When I mention I LOVE boardgames, I often get exactly that question. Let me answer it, once and for all. "No!" would be a perfectly suitable answer. However, it's not as simple as that. " Another 9 1/2 Weeks ? Gigli ?" That's a similar question to the title, but about films. Obviously I don't consider the J-Lo joke masquerading as a film as the quintessential example of a beautiful film. That's RIDICULOUS. In a very similar way, I don't consider Monopoly and Cluedo fine examples of design. Perhaps they were decent at some point, I don't quite know when, but they're certainly not right now. They're vaguely OK. I have played and enjoyed them. But they're quite simple. I suppose that is part of the appeal for a casual audience. In fact, that's a good way to group them. "Casual games." That's exactly what they are. I suppose I'd rather play one of those with the grandparents on a Sunday afternoon, than a g...

I was quite ill the last week or so, hence updates were sporadic. Over it now, mostly. I suspect it was flu, but not the sniffles-type "flu". I want to mention that I have lived an extremely happy life this last while. In no small way has it been due to A. He makes me very happy. I'd love for him to be just as happy as I am, since he's still young and happens to be a bit neurotic about stress. But I digress... I have several immense sources of strength in my life. First and foremost, and the inspiration for this entry, my family, lover and friends. They are amazing! They truly are. So often, in the past, I've been really quick to anger, ungrateful and selfish. Not to mention, stubborn. However, they're still with me. Now's the time to give back. When something/someone threatens this source of strength, the natural instinct becomes to defend it with one's life. You know, Gandalf on The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm. This is exactly the way it should be....

"This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time." I don't think too many films impacted my life as positively as this one, and it happened to be a blast at the same time. Many films such as this can come across as fake and unwatchable. It's a credit to the writer, director and the main actors that it came across amazingly well instead. I recall being around 16 or so, in Wynand's company, and wondering aloud "What thick book is this?" It turned out to be the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.  "Fight Club," Wynand replied.  "Oh, I see..." I then ventured, not too impressed. "Ever seen it?" he politely asked.  "Isn't it a jock-thing?" was my silly reply. Suffice to say, it's not, and it wasn't at the time. It's an "I'm human," thing.  I should take this moment to note that Edward Norton is my favourite actor. Has he been in a bad movie? On...

A blend of Hong-Kong-style kung fu to get your blood pumping, this is sure to have a similar reaction with some feeling: "Ag no...not the stupid Matrix again..." Let me explain why I believe this was an entirely monumental and culture-changing iconic film. I was in my junior year of high-school when this came out, so either 13 or 14. After we came out the cinema, I'll never forget that a whole host of kids were running up against walls, and then bouncing off, desperately trying to display some of the tricks shown in this film. This continued for many, many years. Even today, you wouldn't be surprised to be at a party or braai and witness someone (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) showing off Neo's bullet-time moves. Come on, ridiculously cool games like Max Payne shamelessly ripped it off. Hell, at the previous place I worked, there turned to be a guy known as someone from here, which ended up being a constant source of amusement for me and my colleagues. T...