Two spooky weeks ...

What happened to Xy this week?

Well to be accurate this is about what has been going on, on and off for the last two weeks now.
I noticed one night the week before last that while I was listening to music through my headphones I was hearing voices intermittently.

At first I thought it was just part of the music tracks and didn't really think anything of it but after a bit decided to go back and listen to the tracks again and noticed there was no talking in them whatsoever.
The voices when I did hear them were muffled so I couldn't really work out what was being said but endeavoured to try and listen a bit more attentively and see if anything would stand out.

So I have spent about a week and a half now listening hard when I start to hear something abnormal "fuzz and crackle" for lack of a better term from my headphones (turning off my music hurriedly to listen to it better).

So far this is what I have managed to make out (as best as I can reckon):

*A young mans voice*
"I need you ....(missing words), I have to get ... to you."
I don't know if he is saying a name or if there is a pause and the second part sounds something like "my heart" but I can't tell for sure.
This one has repeated several times now over the last week and a half and I have had to try and piece it together from different parts of it being heard and re heard.
It is most definitely the same young mans voice every time.

*A woman's sobbing voice*
"Why did they *several garbled words* take it (away?)"
I have struggled with making this one out and have a few theories floating around about what she says but cant definitively say what she says in the middle.
I "believe" she is talking about her baby, maybe something to do with an indication of stillbirth :/.
It's really sad sounding with sobs and such through it that make her voice even harder to understand but if I hear it again I will try to find out if why I think she is so sad is correct.

*An older mans voice in a threatening tone*
"... last time ... will get to do that! *section garbled*"
This voice is very hard to make out and garbles a lot, I actually spent most of my time trying to work out what this one said and replay it in my mind from the two occurrences in which I heard it.
It could be a name or just linking words but the garbled second section I cannot make out at all just yet, maybe I will hear him again soon and get another try? :)
(P.S this is by far the most aggressive and scary voice I have heard yet)

Unfortunately these are the most legible and complete phrases I have heard so far but will continue to listen as long as they continue to talk and try to piece it together to write here and maybe make sense of it all.

Aside from all of that spookiness I managed to get my hands on Final Fantasy 12 for two glorious days and gave it a solid thrashing in which time and space seemed to disappear before having to take it back to video store :/.
I now pine for it's tender caresses as I wait to have a budget that will allow for the purchase of this wonderful artifact to add it to my collection in the series.

I can foresee with it's semi MMORPG approach to game play and looting system many many more hours being wasted as I farm for the best loot in the game in preparation for more battles with impossibly strong, godlike creatures.
(And the cycle continues *chuckles*).

Amusing/Obscure Conversations:

My roommate and I were out driving to do some food shopping and I looked around not the first time since moving to this part of Brisbane and realised I had no idea where the hell it is in relationship to the areas I have lived before that I am now at.
I have been here for a few months now and since the bus stop to the CBD is only several metres up the road passed the next house and the train station only a couple of blocks away so I have barely explored this region at all.

I said as much to him at which he laughed and decided to take me for a tour so that I could get my bearings, it was pretty embarrassing to be quite so lost in the city of my birth and where I have lived the majority of my life but finally after about 25 minutes I got my bearings on how to at least get to somewhere fairly nearby that I recognise without having to rely on someone else or public transport in the future.

Colourful moods:

Well spooked out would definitely have to find a place in here over the last two weeks what with spectral voices talking to me (although some people seem to like using this evidence to say that I have finally cracked).
I can't say it's a normal thing for me to hear voices and I am "pretty sure" it's not all in my own head so in this case it leads to some perhaps worrisome alternatives.

I shall be using my night light and hiding under my safety blanky for a bit as yet I think *whimpers*.

Hobbies and Interests Pursued:

Gaming! Yay!
Haha likely this section should just be a cut and paste affair for me with the names of games cycled as I get to them because seriously, it's the thing I love to do in all the world the best.

I know I should be spending more time writing but I really haven't felt like doing so recently for one reason or another.

Oh yes, I was also asked to do some online research for my roommates mum into some very interesting artwork that she recently uncovered in a change of residence piled away under a bunch of old junk so I have been keeping my eyes peeled for any and all information regarding it.
I mention this but have been asked not to hand out details about the artist because she would prefer to keep everything private for now until we have compiled the info we deem necessary to look into making a sale of it.
Tis a shame really or I would perhaps recruit the aid of those who read this site for finding info for me and make my job a whole lot easier :D.

Look before you leap:

Make sure you really want to spend a couple of weeks doing online research for other people before volunteering your services *sighs* ~_~.

Breaking my own rules

Rather than do a weekly update under the relevant headings like I normally would, I figured that seeing as it's Tuesday and I'm 2 days behind schedule already, and seeing as very little actually happened last week so half of the headings would be empty, that I'd break the [still new] tradition and just do a general blurb (presented thusly).

I hope everyone had a nice Easter and enjoyed the long weekend! I sure did, with it being somewhat difficult to drag my arse back into the office today, let me tell you. Might have had something to do with eatting lots of chocolate *shrug*.

About the only thing I did that might be worth mentioning was going to the travel agent on Saturday to book our flights for our overseas trip. I'm so excited! We go to Japan first and we'll be there for Christmas, then we head to New York (where we'll be for New Year's Eve), Manchester in England and then skiing in France for a couple of days, 2 days in Paris and then heading home. While in England we're also thinking of heading over to Scotland for a couple of days and down to London but we'd probably do those trips by train so we didn't have to book any of that stuff in just yet. It's VERY exciting!

Aside from that the weekend was really quiet, just got together with the family and did a lot of reading, watching of television and movies, and ofcourse, a bit of gaming.

Random occurrences

I was going to do a post about this but Ivan's thread at Extra-Bit computers summed the situation up perfectly I think *laughs*

Oops, I'm late too

Sorry for being a day late in posting this, but truth be told I just couldn't be bothered yesterday!

What happened to Mel this week?
Hmm, nothing overly exciting this week I'm afraid. I worked from Monday to Friday, had TAFE, studied my Japanese lessons two nights of the week... same old stuff really. I started a new subject at TAFE that deals with ethics in the public sector. The lecturer gave us a non-confessional general ethics quiz at the start of the class and based on my answers, I don't think I'm a very ethical person at all!

The weekend was also pretty quiet, but nicely so. As you saw from my photo, I got my hair done on Friday after work and I love it! I was somewhat nervous when she started cutting off my hair as there was so much on the floor, but in the end I am very happy with the result.

On Saturday, Katherine, our Japanese tutor, took Ivan and I to the Himeji Gardens on South Terrace which I didn't even know we had (see a couple of photos at the bottom of this post). They were really beautiful and we had such nice weather, it was a nice afternoon. We followed that up with a visit to the Central Markets for lunch and to look at some Asian grocery stores and pick up some Japanese food to try. That was about it for the weekend, with Sunday being spent doing the usual kind of housework and lounging around.

Amusing/Obscure Conversations
The hairdresser I went to on Friday, bless her, was a lovely lady and did a fantastic job, but trying to speak to her when the place was still busy and there were many hairdriers going was an exercise in patience. For example, I can't remember exactly what I asked, but by her response it was clear she hadn't heard a word I'd said, as her answer "Yeah, forever and a day" didn't match at all the question I'd asked. I wonder if the conversation she thought we were having was more interesting?

Colourful Moods
Um, nothing of note really. Mostly I'm excited about the holiday, panicked about how I'm going to save the money, pleased with work but frustrated at some fellow employees. It's been a standard week in that regard really.

Hobbies and Interests Pursued
We are getting close to booking our overseas trip, hopefully to be finalised next weekend. We spent a night or two going through a rough itinerary, only to discover that most of the Canadian tours we wanted to go on will be closed for winter, so we're not going to Canada after all. Instead, we are thinking of extending our New York stay and spending some time in France skiing. Me on skis... a funny thought indeed. I also discovered I am not saving anywhere near enough money so am now on an extremely tight budget to try and at least get closer. We shall see.

Look before you leap
I couldn't help but burst someone's bubble at work last Monday when they came into a meeting overjoyed at the fact they'd found a file we'd been looking for for months. Unfortunately, we'd located that file the week before and put it on the shelf, and had even reported this fact in the Minutes, so bursting that person's bubble was quite enjoyable I must say. The moral of the story - deep down, I'm an evil bitch.

And now, as promised, some photos from the gardens.

8 Days make a week?

Hey Kids!, sorry for the late update but it's rude to upstage/overrun a lady when she is looking so fantastic so I decided to leave it another day :).

What happened to Xy this week?

Oh god I feel boring right now looking at that question.
The short story that everyone who looked on without knowing the inner details would be, not a whole bunch.
But to those few who knew the real story there are a whole set of undercurrents in the realms of imagination that have been delved through the written word this week that have opened realms of opportunity and imagination seldom seen as we go along with our existences.

In other words, I spent a great deal of time lost in books this week and looked around blinking myopically with raging headaches from the poor lighting conditions I was in and wondering just where the week had gone to?

That's another subject right there, I possibly should be wearing my glasses or something while reading or perhaps find another comfy locale to do so since I spent at least half of the week with eye popping, head wrenching migraines for my troubles.
I don't recommend it, it's not fun at all :/.

Amusing/Obscure Conversations:

Well I have tried to be a good boy this week and almost pulled it off but slipped into my old ways at the end being silly and saying things I probably shouldn't to certain people but I realised right at the end of the week that I really didn't care anymore and that I personally have a great deal more fun with my life when i don't try to censor what I say ... to a certain degree of course :D.
Although it is great in theory to always speak the truth and not hold ones self back, one should also look at the consequences of simply letting ones mouth run away with them.

A simple and illustrative crystallisation of this point would be a knuckle sandwitch in the mouth after telling a mate his girlfriend is hot, thankfully, no this didn't happen this week but I have said some things to some people they wouldn't want repeated here (and I wont repeat because they read this page too *covers his ass*) that just after having said it I immediately cringe and think "oooh perhaps that could have done with some censoring in my head first Xy".

Hmmm i believe this possibly also covers look before you leap for this week but I feel it is an important lesson that many people would do well to take on board when deciding to let their rights to express themselves roam free.

Colourful moods:

Pain, a whole lot of head pounding pain!
As a result of this I have either been distant, stroppy, irritated or downright belligerent this week so I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to those of you who felt I may have been for lack of better words "A pigheaded ass!" this week and I hope that I can rectify the situation and be a little more pleasant to be around soon.

In the course of censoring myself for most of the week as well I felt quite sad that i wasn't sharing things with my closest friends that usually bring me joy so lets hope I can find some kind of middle ground between being a thoughtless ass and a buttoned down, clammed up introvert *chuckles*.

Hobbies and Interests Pursued:

Lots and lots of reading!
Over the course of this last week I have read several books written by Terry Pratchett, the discworld series as a matter of fact which up until this point I had avoided because I thought it would just be silly drivel.
To my great surprise though it hasn't just been one long attempt at a series of terrible gags followed in the background by a late show'esque *badoomtish* to let you know something funny was meant to have just happened and for the audience to clap now.

There are in fact some amazing stories in amongst it all and some thought provoking ideas about our universe in general whether what we see and hear is the total of our existences and thankfully for once that doesn't have anything to do with religion when exploring existentialism.

Somehow he manages to mesh all that together with some great story elements and even some pretty scary stuff that keeps you on the edge of your seat with a cast of very lovable characters filled through with enough character flaws that if they were cheese they would be of the porous European variety.
It's their frailties that make them so engaging and as heroes, their willingness to put their best foot in the other direction and then quickly followed by a series of other rapid steps whenever the opportunity to face danger presents itself that makes them quite so enjoyable to follow.

Look before you leap:

Please read above to points 2 and 3 for info on this section :).

Riddle Answers:

Well with the great lack of success of the riddle post I have decided to call it a day and enjoy them to myself in future :).
If anyone is interested at all they can PM me for the answers and I shall send them their way.