After reading with some interest that as predicted solar flares are now hitting earth's atmosphere from the sun, the resulting geothermal storms which will follow over the next century may have the capacity to render the entire electrical grid useless, meaning that basically nothing will work. I have limited belief in the 2013 theory of complete outage, however reading over previous data from total grid blackouts, it is actually a possibility, when combined with things like basic human error. Whether this materialises, remains to be seen. It is thought, that comms links, power outages, radio stations, tv networks etc will not be able to properly function, or reach a point of inoperable state over a period of time.

Referencing wikipedia, you can see, that this scenario, is a possibility, that is, if you are lucky enough to have power on just now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_outages

So tonight, I intend to do something that I have not done properly for around 10-12 years now, and that is the old magic human thing to do - sleep. I tried this a few weeks back and kept having nightmares waking up with sheets soaking with sweat. For around 3 days I sweated like a pig with little sleep at all, writhing around full o nightmare, which I am not liking so much. We'll give this a try.

After a game years old Doom, they made a mod for it giving it semi-proper graphics called jdoom. It is about the only shooter on netbook that plays fluid, but the gameplay is still classic. This would be way better suited to duke nukem, that would be good to see.

So, another day gone. A brief dialogue with a tenant who explained he'd just finished a 6 month home detention order whereby by had to wear shackles at home due to his violent nature when consuming alcohol. Never a dull moment to be had down at Franklyn, always full of news like this. Time for my paracetamols again...

Recently I stumbled upon thinking about these underground homes, which would be suited to the moon. As everyone knows, the world is falling to bits now, so time here, is getting pretty limited, especially with the amount of new cars running round making the weather worse. The underground homes on earth are all fine and dandy, but really, they are best suited to the moon, and maybe this is what Richard Branson is having in mind, now that his island was recently made uninhabitable with freak weather. Who knows? Just don't hire a kiwi builder, because it will leak, and in space, that's probably not for the best.

Last night went really well, with only 1 fight. It did get a little out of hand at one point, with attacker 1 threatening to aquire a knife and proceed to kill the victim, but obviously, this did not happen, with the proceeding bout consisting of fist punches and large amounts of foul language to compliment the scene. I did not actually see the event, but clearly heard everything from behind my bedroom door at precisely around 4am (just as I was about to nod off.) Of course, the local peelers turned up and duly charged the boys. It transpired through smalltalk in the canteen area, that this may have been due to a promiscuous lady who lives in this premises, but who knows.

Damn, damn. The hurricane Irene has caused a lot of flooding again. The state of Vermont is not looking so hot now, which is no good, because I knew a hot blonde from there, but nevermind that, judging from the photos, it's not the place to be just now. When is this bloody weather going to settle down?

After looking into immigration requirements for NZ, it seems that there is an unknown backdoor... If you sport the following tattoo, it would make the whole process so much easier.

Well, you know what these Kiwis are like, and these markings are everywhere to be found on the humans here, some have more than others. Certainly, it is something to frequent yourself with if trying to interact with the local communities.

Not a lot of happenings today, other than a mild migrane. One tenant did, however ask if I could "lend" him some condoms until his dole check arrives tommorow. Helpful as I usually am, contraceptives is not something I happened to be in possesion of, so unfortunatly, he'll have to wait until the brew pays him tommorow, or risk getting the clap... Another girl here explained how her boyfriend left her, and now she's only 18 with a child, we'll that's no good, but still, I can't really entertain these people. What else, well, another guy, told me of how 2 golddiggers commited suicide a few years back, due to mental problems probably, caused by getting involved in vice. Not so good. Franklyn village really is an entertaining place, if you look past the drug dealing and vice etc, although i don't really thing I can handle quite this much entertainment for too much longer, the quicker I move on, the better. A few more weeks of this torture should be about enough.

After piecing together a lot of information from the internet, things are probably worse than I originally thought. As suspected, media has done a teriffic job playing down events but basically here it is. 23 Banks in Thailand have been bombed this year. An Irish bank was bombed not long ago. In China the same thing has been happening, with one employee, recently throwing a flamebomb onto his collegues after being sacked. In Iraq, the banks there got bombed also as the local police and military were picking up their pay. A year ago, in Athens the same thing happened after a power struggle, the central bank there got blown to bits. Last year, a JP Morgan got blown to bits. In Pakistan, several banks have been destroyed, some of them private facilities. HSBC bank machines have also had explosive devices attached to them at several locations. Same thing in Nigeria and Ottowa, Canada. These are only the tip of the iceberg, from what information I have, which is pretty minimal. Trying to picture the scene from a few paragraphs is hard to imagine, but literally, I can't be bothered linking all the youtube clips to prove it. Things are ill out of hand these days and that's a fact.

Another day over and nothing new. The only thing of note today was one of the residents picking cigarette butts out of the bins, although a good few of them do this to tell the truth. Smoking is pretty disgusting at the best of times but that really is pathetic, and no these weren't ethnic minority types. The chances of meeting any sane females in this place are slim to nil. I can't wait to depart from here eventually, I need to meet some good people for a change, not to be confused with having fun, or any that crap. Make no mistake though, I am surprised at the amount of smokers in NZ, it really is the national pastime over here.

Due to all the financial chaos, something that seems to be the new trend again is million dollar squatting. It seems people have been capitolising on bank repos by moving into vacant buildings and then claiming squatters/tenants rights. It is a real shame, but obvious something like this was going to happen. Greed creates envy, envy creates jealousy, jealousy creates a world of hurt that nobody wants no piece of. Even these squatters should be aware of hurricane Irene which is ramping up the coast as I write. Evicting them is one thing, but evacuating them is another... Property is just not the golden nugget it is made out to be these days, it is relative of course.

I have been pricking around with this netbook for ages now. Acer Aspire One D255. There really is nothing in the way of tools to overclock it just now, which is a pity. The only thing that seems to have made any difference to speed was windows updates (which I usually leave off.) Windows 7 is only really worth having if you use this readyboost thing which basically means you whack a sd card into the side of your netbook and it uses it for extra ram. Until a decent overclock utility comes out, all this dual core crap is a waste of time, basically it runs at 1.6mhz whether it has 2 cores or not... duh... In honest opinion the msi wind is a better notebook, and my one was doing fine until it caved in after 2 years of use. This d255 is ok, but I still think the MSI is a better pad.

Well that's another week almost done and what more than after that last bomb I heard about, another bombing happened yesterday in a Mexican casino. There is rewards for catching these people responsible. The problem is, there's so much of this going on, it's hard choosing which one to persue... Oh well.

In fact, I've been thinking about housing and how basically, the smarter ones are going backwards into being a modern day caveman by building these underground homes. Of course, you can't beat the really old stone ones, but there are some great examples of modern designs floating around. The only problem is, that you need to surface now and again, as humans really do need sunlight and food from time to time, but it looks like a good life all things considered, way better than these town dumps. I wouldn't be surprised if many newbuilds are going this route now.

Must have stopped too soon, oops. Only after checking out the destruction that has happened recently, it appears I forgot to see, that indeed the same thing happened in Nigeria earlier this year and apparently again today. Just when I thought my sleep was getting back on track. No wonder I threw my TV away back in '97.

The internet news reports show a hurricane system aka Hurricane Irene, which is destined for parts of the US, currently circulating the Bahamas area. The last update I saw specified a cat 4 cyclone, which in lay terms is a pretty powerful hurricane to be dealing with (especially out at sea.) Any skipper that knows anything, is most fearing the weather, so I imagine a vigilant approach would be wise when facing such a large system. I'm hoping to check the news tommorow and that no major damage has been done, but from experience, it would be safe to expect at least some minor structural damage minimum. As usual, preparedness is the key, and no doubt panic buying has happened along the way. All in all, good luck to anyone involved in this one.

No big news today, other than one of the guys here broke his tooth (only a week after his girlfriend did the same thing.) Ouch...

A few weeks back, or maybe a month or so, I don't recall. The Norwegian government offices were bombed with 87 victims claimed. The backlash of this in Europe will no doubt be immense. Personally, I believe it may be linked to oil prices and possibly co-incides with the amount of civil unrest currently ongoing out in Libya. It is a tragedy that people can bring themselves to perform these acts. Many people are only beginning to come to terms with the last terrorist 7/11 events that happened nearly 10 years ago. The video below was taken from youtube and clearly shows the extent of carnage caused. This madness doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon judging by the amount of displacement. A few similar events have happened in Russia over the last year or so, with government buildings being targetted.





Incidentally, there were several other bombings in Russia alone, stemming again from poverty judging by the situation.

Honestly, I have lost track of the catalogue of atrocities which have unfolded especially since around 2003. There could well have been maybe 7 or 8 power struggles on an international basis since that time. barcodes.

As I predicted a few months back, the oil prices are too cheap just now. From looking at the situation in Tripoli, it looks like the prices are either going to rise sharply or fall sharply, but i'm guessing that it will be a rise. It was clear for anyone to see, that a civil war was, and indeed is brewing out in the middle east. Poverty makes the population do crazy things. It will be interesting to see if this situation will cool down, I mean what with everything else like politicians using credit cards for prostitutes and the crazy weather that just won't let up. Nothing like a power struggle, to keep people running round in circles.

Checking the list of notable deaths today, I can clearly see a lot of good people deceased, also the military death list from Afghanistan is probably needing another server to cope with the amount of jpegs. On the downside, the list of higher education dropouts from Africa seems to be on the rise, well that's a shame, really.

Some interesting chit chat today from some of the locals around here. Seems that one tenant knew a lapd cop, who was black. He said about safety in the area he resided. Well, you need a gun on you at all times, he said, basically. Until, you make it into the car, where he kept an even bigger gun...

Since the Japanese meltdown in March, I was wondering how bad things really are. Obviously the government there and politics got in the way of actual results. The only trustworthy source of information I can see is through the Greenpeace website. My guesses were true enough - don't eat any fish for ages until this is sorted out. They have posted tests on marine life and it would be safe to admit, that they are not safe for human consumption anymore. This was no surprise. It would be good to find an overall picture of the extent of the situation. My guess is that America surely got a huge amount of the toxic vapour blown over there with the gulf stream. There was also reports of companies cashing in on iodine sales, but frankly, i'd play safe and take it. The official facts and figures are all a mishmash just now, but nothing a well made documentary wouldn't put straight. Of course the damadge is horrendous, not only for Japan, but every other country that imports/exports materials these days, which is pretty much everywhere now. There are stacks of fake information floating around the internet and the information on greenpeace is pretty localised, but you can check it here:- http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/nuclear/safety/accidents/Fukushima-nuclear-disaster/Radiation-field-team/#data

oh

also...

I noticed a well written blog about this subject, with a better update at:-

http://stop-u238.blogspot.com/2011/08/fukushima-depop-100-millions-dying.html#comment-form

Pandemonium, I finally got working through epsxe. It plays a little fast but what a game, one of the best PS1 games.

These two games, Raystorm & Einhander are good shoot 'em ups. Raystorm suffers a little from sound glitches in the emulator however is still perfectly playable. Einhander runs fluid though. Both these are stunning games, with the difficulty level pitched just about right. I'd say Raystorm is the easier game of the two, but have only had around an hours play of both these. Well worth trying out.

Despite all the woes of trying to find work here, i've noticed a lot of the tenants of franklyn village are suffering from urban stiffness. The last time I saw this was in some of the more run down areas of Queensland. Life is really tough here, with apparently 3 suicides in this building a while ago. I need to get working, this place is sucking the life-force out of me.

So after buying several topups for internet, you'll be surfing the net in no time downloading etc. Nah, forget it, for some reason the net over here cuts out all the time, making downloads basically impossible. So really, you don't have internet, what you have is email access and that's about it. It's a shame, things shouldn't be this way, when you are paying good money for these services.

What's new to say? The weather in the South Island has taken a turn for the worse... There is heavy snow reported in the Christchurch & Cantebury areas, which is not normal for this side of the world. I have not posted any pictures of this, but the mainstream TV is running several reports about it. Apparently it has not snowed here in any capacity since about 1978. Up here in Nelson, the weather isn't too bad, i've seen better, and a lot worse.

This one brings back memories... Tomb Raider 3...

Well, another night of PS1 emulation is having to make fit for games. This Die Hard Trilogy 2 is a good one. I owned all these originals years ago, but didn't get time to play them through. DHT2 is a great game, the levels are well designed. It is a bit frustrating here and there but definatly a classic. Best thing is, it's 100% works perfect through the PSX emulator so it's basically the same.

Well, nothing new today except the weather is taking a turn for the worse here, with it offering to nearly snow. One of the guys here was sent home from work in case he got snowed in.
The parcel I had been waiting weeks on with leads for my sony ps2 arrived, but unfortunatly one of the leads is missing, what a shame...

This Crash Team Racing, is pretty decent through the emulator. It's an old game but still very playable.

A small amount of investigation last night cleared my mind on the subject of Scottish warlocks. It transpires, that the word is basically meaning "oathbreaker" or "cunning man." These representations you may see bearing likness to viking looking gods are fake or refer to a different type of warlock. There is not much else to report today. The weather is a bit rainy.

Over in countries like NZ where they use cleaners that really work, there is often times of ridiculous boredom. There are some interesting facts here. They say there is 3 women for every man etc. It doesn't specify what type of women though... Basically, yes, there is a lot of slags here. There probably is better educated slags going around, but I just haven't met them yet. Most of the slags i've seen so far are the dumb type and they're just no use to me at all. I wouldn't bother with this type - been there done that. I'm guessing most of the maturer sort are probably hiding away silently somewhere.

I'm very tired just now, sharing with so many people is very difficult. The security guy looks like he could really use a holiday badly. People around here need constantly looked upon. Last night for example, the neighbouring rooms tenant decided to take back one of these dumb slags I mentioned before and I could hear the sound of them for around an hour. Well, we all gotta live I suppose. Anyways, the security guy did his job and told them off, but it made no difference. Pure disrespect, that's the way it is here, i'm slowly getting used to it, but it's definatly no my style at all mmmnoo.

Sometimes the only way I can take my mind off things is to play some games. This is Ridge Racer 4 through the emulator. Crash Team Racing is also a decent game. Both these run perfect. Netbooks are ideal for this.

Something that I found today relating to the gulf of Mexico oil spill that happened recently was a distressing video of the cleanup crew dying off. Apparently a chemical called Core exit was used and also used in the '89 exxon spill in which most of the crew died off. It seems that the US president Obama owns shares in these chemical companies. Anyways, check the tape yourself. Obviously the risks are immense and I'd highly recommend anyone to get the hell out of the Gulf of Mexico, unless you fancy seeing scenes like Resident evil. No, really.

Wikipedia contains the lowdown on Corexit. It was banned by the UK in 1998 for not passing the required tests (ie rocky test.) Basically, there was an alternative substance available which seems to have been overlooked in the gravity of the situation. The manufacturer of Corexit is a very large chemical outfit, and the laws in the US are seemingly way less stringent than the UK. An educated guess would assume that really, it should have been taken off the menu in '98, but, it wasn't. The other problem with corexit is that it bioaccumulates in marine life, going right through the spectrum. Combine this with all the nuclear waste poured off from Fukushima, and I doubt that the fish is going to taste the same for a while. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corexit

After feeling the big cyclones first hand out in Australia. I can assure you, it is an experience I would far rather forget. Disaster seems to have struck again, but this time out in China, the weather system is giving the place a real pelting causing major damage. Tropical system Muifa has caused $480Billion worth of damage already with loss of life and general bedlam. The news reports have been generally quiet over here regarding this matter which is surprising as usually these situations are highly hyped up.

Well, no doubt about it, these London riots are quite spectacular, some of the finest i've witnessed in a long time. What a terrible situation, ill out of hand. Below is a video clip that was posted on youtube depicting some of the events. There are 3 events akin to this which have taken place recently. The last one I can think of was the immigration centre in Australia that was burned to the ground and the recent uprisings in Syria. I forgot to mention the recent Ivory Coast situation & Libya civial war...

London Riots 10/08/2011

Sydney Asylum Centre Burned. 04/2011



Syrian Uprising 17/03/2011



Ivory Coast Civil War 04/04/2011



Libyan Civil War 03/2011.



Welsh Oil Refinery Torched 2/06/2011



So, as you can see, in the space of 4 months or so, quite a lot has happened. Residents in NZ warn me that Auckland is also a boiling point situation. Having been there, I would tend to agree.

This is Battlefield Vietnam. A game that is nearly 10 years old. It runs ok on the netbook with everything turned right down. OK, it's a pretty simplistic game, so to speak, just running around shooting, however it is a good example.

Well, I'm sure you probably hear this all the time, but really this world is going through some tremendous changes, faster than any human can keep up with. Today, I was frequenting the list of notable deaths, once again, only to be shocked by the spate of recently deceased. Most notable in the last few weeks, we've had Amy Winehouse die, a handful of very well known businessmen and looking through the roster, a plethora of politicians or very high ranking military personnel etc. They are natural deaths in many cases, merely down to old age. The point is, they just don't exist any more, and once, these important people, with connections are basically no more. Also, a quick check on honour the fallen website, dedicated to Army personnel who have been victims out in operation Iraqi Freedom & Enduring Freedom etc, is stacking up numbers in incredible levels of frequency, many of them well - educated college graduates with families overseas. It is incredibly depressing sometimes.

There is a public list of plane crashes which also today, I referred to, which details of a plane crash yesterday killing all 11 onboard, and also 2 days prior another army plane crashed wiping out all 47 crew in Afghanistan.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2011

http://militarytimes.com/valor/search.php?conflict=1&nm=1

http://planecrashinfo.com/

If anyone can think back to a peaceful time, I'd be delighted to hear about it. There's enough crap to deal with in modern life as it is.

Victoria in London

To the best of my knowledge, I heard of riots in London yesterday. It seems 16000 extra Police were sent in to quell the situation. Reports of looting, break-ins, assaults and general bedlam arose from the TV giving me the impression, the situation had basically gotten out of control very quickly. I am uncertain as to what could have been done to prevent such an event. My understanding is that these areas had risen to boiling point over a period of years, stemming from things like, criminal gangs, poverty, vice etc. The original cause of these riots appears to be down to a criminal that was shot by officers defending themself. In lay terms, the criminal pulled a weapon on the officers, and they duly took him out. After this happened, gangs took control of the neighbourhood, causing extensive damage to property & businesses operating in that area. I am concerned for any genuine residents that may have been caught up in it all and sincerely hope any casualties were kept to a minimum. I will be silently in prayer about it all over the next week or two as the world can see what is going on, due to the extensive media covereage on terrestrial television. This is not going to fare well for anyone who had booked tickets to the Olympic games that were pencilled in down the line. My guess is, there will be a lot of people expecting a refund. A great deal of planning and negotiation went into securing London as the official home of the next Olympic games and it just doesn't look like it's going to work out at all. I hope this all settles down, and quickly.

So, a few things going to try and run on the netbook. Battlefield Vietnam is supposed to run pretty good and possible Medal of Honour Pacific Assault. Both these series have various expansion packs for them also. A friend who also runs a similar netbook runs Return to Castle Wolfenstein pretty fluid. Although these fps's are from the 2003 sort of timeframe, they are still pretty decent titles. I was too busy working most of the time to play them anyways. Fingers crossed these ones run, it would be good to progress through these classics, before they are buried in the channels of time. I recall getting into BF1942 and getting through the first MOH, but then work all suddenly got busy etc. Although these newer titles like Farcry, Crysis etc all look pretty decent, I think I will still have more fun getting through the older stuff. I've still got a PS2 with a stack of games gathering dust. I left that sitting 3/4 through God Of War 2, and I really didn't want to do that... Again, busy shifting around, working etc. Nevermind "it's all good" so they say here, lol ;)

This is a selection of images I took today while out walking in Nelson. The weather is pretty good. You'll notice the clocktower has scaffolding on it just now - it must be getting repairs or something - the scaffolds have been up for at least the duration of the last 3 weeks.

Today, I did a little shopping at the local supermarket and chilled for a while. Most of my days are spent avoiding tapping residents that want either money or fags (usually both.) It feels like a game of hide and seek sometimes... I was thinking back to Australia. Where I was living was very close to where a detective lived. You'd think these guys, get all peeled up and work from the station, right? Nah, even the law, has wised up, and works from home. Yes, that's right, my detective neighbour, never left the house. I thought about this for a while, and it sort of makes sense. You'd see him on occasion, sitting puffing on a nice tobacco pipe, probably working on pending cases. There's so much dirt going on in Aus, i'm sure, the hard part, is choosing which case or scene to investigate. I had to hand it to him, pretty clever stuff. I have seen such things before, sometimes even a house or accomodation provided in the countryside, almost like a safe house. It has to be this way sometimes.

So, after a little research I found out that videos on the internet are now getting even smaller... People used to download .avi files but now this .mkv files are the ones to go for. A movie at normally 700MB is now the same quality at 450MB. I tested it by recompressing a movie and right enough, you can't tell the difference. It took about 3 hours to re-encode it. The savings on hard drive space will be phenomenal for anyone who collects movies. The only thing about .mkv files, is that you need a relatively fast computer to play them, on older machines the playback will probably be choppy. They play through a player I use called GOMPlayer, which I found to be the best of the bunch out there at the moment - because it has a lot of filters built in allowing you to adjust sharpness, softness, add noise etc. The program I used to convert .avi to .mkv was called ripbot 264. It's all new to me these .mkv files, but I gather the codec has been on the go for a few years. It uses a combination of codecs like divx, i268 etc in order to get the resulting .mkv file down to a small file. Very interesting.

So, tonight I went for a walk to the garage at around 9pm. On return, the weather basically looked like the image above. Black sky with streaks of intermittent lightning and mild rain. This is still very very mild compared to the badass tropical thunderstorms I witnessed and was part of in Australia. Still, it shows that this international bad weather is worldwide now. My guess is that the residents of Cantebury have a gut instinct to get themselves out of there, due to the recent earthquake panic. These dreary rainy days, earthquakes, and general all round crap weather are such a life sucking pain. My personal take is that 10 years from now, most modern towns will be uninhabitable due to huge weather events ripping them apart. With non stop ultra high oil consumption tearing the atmosphere apart etc and the ozone layer cut in half, letting the sun bake the hell out of places like America. Put it this way, the weather mechanisms of old, are not fitting in with the lifestyle of the modern. In Australia, I personally witnessed brand new company cars being washed off the roads with rain (I recall seeing a salesman with a bucket, scooping water out of his new ute, for example.) Other than that, when the weather is good here, it's pretty fine. It's pointless cursing the darkness because nobody listens anyway. What I have learned though, and this is a fact. When the weather is crap at one side of the world - don't expect to jump on a plane and for it to be radically different at the other side of the world, because, from what i've seen, it's either on par, or even worse (and that's gospel). For example, when my normal dayjob came to a grinding halt in the UK due to flooding and severe snowstorms - I said, damn it, and went and worked in Australia... But... They had very severe flooding also that year - and when it wasn't flooding, it was incredibly sticky hot heat. Overall, it was pretty crap weather in my opinion. So, my theory is that if the weather is basically ok, or normal in one country, it will probably be reflected if you go abroad. Hard to believe, but seemingly true. This, took me a while to compute and rationalise. It would be easy to believe, or fool yourself into thinking that there is some way to escape natures ills - but in fact, it is impossible. Very puzzling indeed, I was sure in the back of my mind when working that the weather would be paradise elsewhere, but no sir. It will only be paradise, if your current location has relatively good climate in place ;) Don't believe me?! Put it to the test... So far, I have travelled to France, Spain, Yugoslavia, Norway, Finland, Australia, Portugal, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, and probably more I can't even think of at this point in time. Every time, if you leave a location that has some extreme type weather thinking that the next destination will be radically different, prepare to be shocked. You may go from freezing weather to flooding, to drought etc. It's a hard call to gauge.

After about a year producing an album, I officially released it in 2010 through a service called Tunecore which distributes to all the main retailers. It took months getting everything verified and approved etc but now finally at least available through services like ITunes and Amazon.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ashinface/id333779161

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B002QTAN8C?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=digital-music&field-keywords=Federalnoise

This album represents 20 years of work, sequencing electronic music.

After taking in a lot of fat information from wikipedia, a few of my concerns over previous weeks are beginning to ring true. Today I learned that the conglomerate of international bankers want to start charging customers fees for holding money for them in the $50Billion mark. My guess is as good as yours - horrendous fees, no doubt, driving wealthy customers away (bloody dogs). This happened as recently one of them publicy fled Afghanistan for reasons I do not know (nor want to know). 3 weeks later (today 5/8/2011) it transpires... Copy & Paste wikipedia current events...

The HSBC bank announces plans to cut 5,000 jobs now and 25,000 by 2013. (Reuters)

A senior intelligence officer in Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, Payenda Khan, is killed in a bombing in Kunduz Province. (CNN)

Suicide bombers attack a guesthouse used by foreigners in the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz with at least four security guards dead. (Reuters)

Stock markets around the world fall on the back of concerns about global economic growth with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by 4%. (New York Times)

The biggest immediate problem I forsee, being again, that old favourite, mother nature.

There is large concern currently speculating uncontrollable weather events situated in the Oriental regions. To quote:-

• Typhoon Muifa approaches the Japanese island of Okinawa causing localised flooding, cancellation of flights to and from Naha International Airport and thirty thousand homes to lose power. (Stars and Stripes)

Tropical Storm Emily is expected to make landfall on Haiti where it is expected to cause heavy flooding. (AP via Houston Chronicle)

Tropical Storm Emily moves towards Puerto Rico. (NOAA)

• The People's Republic of China warns residents of [[Zhejiang province] and ShangHai] to prepare for the arrival of Typhoon Muifa tomorrow or Sunday which is expected to be one of the most powerful storms to hit China in recent years. (China Daily)
• 
  
• Tropical Storm Emily forms in the Atlantic Ocean with tropical storm warnings issued for Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Desirade,Les Saintes, Marie Galante and the Dominican Republic. (National Hurricane Centre) (NOLA.com)

These ferocious weather events will no doubt worsen the terrible situation in Japan regarding a recent nuclear meltdown at one of their largest reactors. It may also cripple the current condition of China's strong economy if extensive infrastructure damage prevails as a consequence.

America is having a bad time also with reported:-

Fourteen states in the Southern United States are on a heat alert with several dozen deaths since July as part of a heat wave.(MSNBC)

My current location in New Zealand is still recovering from heavy displacement that recently caused major civillian casualties and damage in the Christchurch region a few months ago. Many residents unsure of how the future will unfold for that city. Again, quote.

More than 26,000 people have permanently left New Zealand'sCanterbury Region since the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake in February. (AAP via News Limited)

This information, is but a scratch of the current events worldwide today, but probably the most serious ones to be aware of in my opinion. These hurricanes, cyclones, earthquakes and thunderstorms are coming thick and fast now, causing extensive damage lasting weeks/months if not permanently.

So, after being used as a peeler around here (as usual), i'm getting very bored with it all. Hoping to get going again soon. As I suspected, a large majority of residents here are plain skint, or claiming the dole... It's Friday night here and still the talk is high pitched and in good spirits, I guess. There is someone here, i'd like to get to know better, but time will tell. These communal arrangements are always complicated. From what I can see, if you have at least one decent tattoo, or a variety of piercings, you'd go far down here at Franklyn village accomodation. You'd be "in" so to speak. As per me, i'm ravy & piggy so i'll just have to sit it out for now. It's a lonely life. Man that's getting rowdy out there, I can almost hear them scratching. I'm sure, give it an hour or two and the uniformed peelers will prolly show up again. Yesterday I spotted them arrive on 3 occasions, if this keeps up, we should chip in and at least provide a coffee machine. I'm getting sick tired of running down to the kitchen to fill up all the time. Really, it's not that funny, no.

So, am playing this golf fame called Hot Shots Golf 2 at the moment through a playstation emulator. There really is little else to do at the moment. The coppers are constantly round at this building, which is an old Hospital been leased out to tenants - however, the majority of tenants here appear to be claimants from the local brew, aka dole office... There are some ok folk here though. I need to get back into paid employment soon though, as this boredom is going to drive me up the wall. Hopefully something will come up.

After some light investigation it dawned on me why I have seen the pentagram on several occasions now - usually in places where there is no obvious reason for it being there such as in town centres on a wall, or sometimes a path. It is possible, that according to ancient Scottish ancestry I may be classed as a Warlock, or in basic terms, a male witch. Warlocks were common in Scotland, it would be no surprise for me to learn this has been passed down from generation to generation. Certainly, I don't wish curses on any human, and try and use my better judgement to resolve problems as they arise without suffering inflicted or minimal intervention (if that's the right word.) One thing I became clearly aware of, especially while in Australia near the rockfaces - as I mentioned earlier - if I am anywhere near granite areas or high concentrations of particularly quartz or precious stones, I can literally feel an elevated life energy that simply can't be replicated by other means. Recent research I did, let me to discover that those stones emit a radiohalo, which is basically why this phenomenon occurs. My understanding, from Wikipedia, is that a Russian intelligence agent was found murdered, who was investigating Polonium 218 - the key element within the Radiohalo arrangement. Hence therefore, why I have chosen not to look any further into the attributes of Radiohalos.

Something about this area, or certainly worthy of note, would be the presence of freemasonry or witchcraft. The other day, while out biking I clearly saw the pentagram scrawled onto a wall with a can of car paint. This can mean either witchcraft or freemasonry, or both, who knows. My understanding of these entities is limited. All I know, is that white witches are supposed to be for the good, and black ones are the trouble, but frankly, it all scares me a bit, messing around with forces that probably don't like being disturbed. Centuries ago, these practices were common, especially around europe. Germany, in particular has well documented manifests about this. Of course the penalties were pretty damn severe in most cases, often leading to burnings around burial sites or standing stones. It would be no surprise for me to learn that witchcraft still exists today, like drugs and vice and pretty much all the stuff that's really best left alone, but I frankly can't recall the last time i've ever heard of anyone being convicted of witchcraft. I'm sure a smart lawyer would have a field day trying to make head nor tail of it. I'm hoping that if there really is that going on here, that it's the white ones operating, damn those black witches, life's hard enough as it is...