Deidre's all excited about her birthday today, and we had a great time last night. Hehehe, I'm still chuckling to myself as I remember.

On the way home from work last night, I was 'revving her up' about how I hadn't gotten around to buying her a gift for her birthday. And then I was talking about how I could go to the "$2 shop" and get her a couple of gifts there. We need some new egg rings for cooking poached eggs, so I was saying I could get her some of those at the $2 shop. She was getting frustrated, but I kept on smiling all the way through. I kept this up all night, even while we were at AD&D roleplaying. While I was setting up the laptop for wireless access (via the WAP at Matt's place, where we play at) she was complaining to the others there that I just didn't have a clue about buying for birthdays. Ben reassured her that I was a romantic, so he'd be very surprised if I didn't already have it planned out and presents bought. The general suggestion, however was that if I hadn't spent quite a few hundred dollars on her, then I didn't care enough. Everyone was talking about the hundreds of dollars they had spent on their significant others, or that had been spent on them.

You see...

This is the problem with living in a commercialised society, where love only means something if it comes with an expensive gift. My philosophy for most of my adult life has been that I don't need to buy an expensive gift one or two times a year to prove my love. I prove it every day, in many different ways. But that doesn't mean as much, it seems, unless expensive gifts are bought.

I've told Deidre a number of times that I never buy gifts. I was using that during the fun I was having last night. It's a little disappointing that she, like many western people, seems to feel more special when something is bought for her at her birthday or xmas. She may be disappointed in the future when I don't get into gift-buying as I have done this time, but I've made an exception from my principles simply because this is her first birthday with me in her life, and this first year is to be 'extra special'. Yes, that's my belief too. What we do in the beginning of a relationship sets up how we do things in the future. And what I'm doing is making sure she understands that she's special to me, but I am certainly reinforcing in her an understanding of my beliefs about this subject. Eg. buying gifts is not something I'm going to do all the time. Or if I do, it'll be at odd times, rather than just her birthday.

We had sex last night, and just as we'd finished, I looked over at the clock. It was 12:02am. "Happy birthday," I said, and she couldn't stop laughing. No one had given her 'birthday sex' quite like THAT before... Hehehe.

Many years ago, I had a bunch of friends in Adelaide, Sth Australia. Simon, Ben, James, Matt, Andrew... That was between 1988 and 1992. In '92 I moved to Canberra, ACT (Australian Capital Territory). Andrew had already moved there around '90-91, so I caught up with him again when I moved there myself. Over the years though, we drifted apart. You know how it is... same city, different lives. He was married with children, and I wasn't.

Simon, Ben, James and Matt... I left them behind. Regretfully, however. Those were the days of postal letters and relatively expensive phone calls, so it took 3 days for a letter to get from Canberra to Adelaide, weeks for a reply to be written (if at all), and another 3 days to get back to me. I couldn't afford phone calls across the country, so we drifted apart. Matt moved to Canada in '92 as well, I believe, and disappeared off the radar. I lost touch with everyone else.

Until last year...

I managed to track down James, who was a professor by then in Hobart, Tasmania. It was great catching up with him by email, but again, time had moved by and after the initial relatively brief summary of our lives, we haven't emailed each other again. Different cities, different lives...

A few years ago, I tried contacting Matt, and managed to get his email address from his brother Mike, but Matt never replied. Too busy to reply, I thought, or he'd moved on in life and wasn't interested in reestablishing old friendships.

I was never able to find any trace of Simon or Ben. Until a couple weeks ago, when I was again interested in trying to track down my past. I did a search for Simon on the online Adelaide White Pages (telephone directory), and found 6 people with his surname and first initial. I was going to call each of them and then figured I'd try Ben. There was only 1 person with his distinctive surname and first initial so I called the number. It was Ben! He was extremely surprised to hear from me... which is probably quite normal.

We talked for a few minutes and briefly caught up, and then he gave me his email address and also Simon's phone number. I rang Simon that evening and spoke to him. He was also surprised to hear that voice from his past, which, like me, he had apparently never forgotten. During that period when I was living in Adelaide, Simon was my best friend. We had so much fun together; roleplaying, movies, videos... I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with him on video. I saw Tremors with him. He introduced me to Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous. Ah, the good ol' years...

I got his email address from him as well, and that night sent both him and Ben a brief summary of my life since we last saw each other. I'll include it here as well, just for my own interests of recording my life.

In 1992 I moved to Canberra. I think I saw you again in '93, when I went back to pick up a girlfriend in Adelaide, but that would have been the last time I saw any of you. That girlfriend and I were together for 2 years before we split up. During that 2 years, I was still into sales (after having sold those Kirby vacuum cleaners for 2 years in Adelaide), and spent most of the time selling framed certificates of the history of surnames and coats of arms. It was interesting, but wasn't long-lived. I was offered Area Manager position in Sydney for it, but didn't want to move, so I instead moved into car sales. That lasted for 2 months before I found I wasn't suited for it.

Between '94 and '96 I was doing office work here and there, getting into administration stuff. Then I started my own business as a freelance web designer, after having got a computer and internet access in '96 and teaching myself all about it. That was going along quite nicely, and then in '97 I was headhunted by an ISP who employed me as their inhouse web designer. From there I moved into internet tech support and admin, before I quit in '98 and went back into freelance web design. However, in '99 the owner of the ISP came back to me and asked me to manage the place, which I did for about 8 months before quitting again in early 2000.

By this time I had met an English woman who lived in New Zealand, so after a couple months of consideration, I packed up and moved over to be with her. It didn't work out though, so we split up after 5 months. She went back to the UK while I stayed here, as I'd managed to get myself a very nice job as a helpdesk analyst in a large IT support company. Which I'm still at today, but I've moved up in the world, so to speak, and am now doing a dual role of Systems Administrator and Service Delivery Manager.

I'm currently living with a lovely lady who I met early this year, and it seems that she might be the one I've been searching all these years for. I'm still renting a house, but working out strategies on how to create my own empire based around property investment. My partner and I are planning on moving back to Australia next year. She was born in NZ to Aussie parents, both of whom separated from each other when she was 18 and moved back to Australia, so she wants to live there to be closer to both of them. It's funny... I feel like I came here for a reason, and now that I've found it, I can return home again. *smile*

Now onto the serious stuff... Roleplaying and other gaming!

I've never left it behind. I continued PBEM Diplomacy and other PBEM games for a bit while in Canberra, but gave it up in '93. I did more tabletop Diplomacy with the Canberra Diplomacy Club until '95, and then gave that up too. Throughout that period, I also ran my own AD&D campaign, as well as Cyberpunk 2020, which was so much fun. In '96 I met some people who introduced me to GURPS, and I spent many a year enjoying various genres of roleplaying with them, until I moved to NZ. Almost immediately, I met some people who played AD&D, and I joined them. I had a break for a year in 2003, but then rejoined them early 2004 to start my own GURPS Cyberpunk / Werewolf campaign, which went for 3 months before they got tired of it. I had another break until early this year, when I started playing AD&D with them again, and last night I started a new GURPS Cyberpunk / Werewolf game with some new people. Cyberpunk is my favourite genre of roleplaying. And movies. My internet 'nickname' is Neo, which I adopted after seeing The Matrix in 1999.

In 2000 I started roleplaying by email (PBEM), playing in Star Trek settings. It's more like collaborative creative writing, where a group of people collectively write and evolve a story. In 2001 I started my own game, which was my own ship, where I was the CO and created missions and managed the game. Loved it so much I created my own Fleet in 2002, where I facilitated a number of games underneath my fleet 'umbrella'. Star Trek PBEM has been dying down a little though, so I gave up my game and my fleet early this year, to focus on other creative endeavours. I'm currently working on a new PBEM game based on some of the history used in the X Files, about aliens and secret government conspiracies. It's still being developed, and I'm probably going live with that within the next 2-3 months.

Computer gaming. Miscellaneous games over the years, with the current game capturing my attention being World of Warcraft, an online multiplayer roleplaying game. I'm a 20th level Paladin at the moment, and I started my own guild for others to join. I have too much creativity in me, and roleplaying helps me exercise it, and forming 'environments' for others to be part of is just another aspect of it. When I enjoy something, I help other people enjoy it too. It seems to be the story of my life over the past 10+ years.

Spirituality. I discovered in 1992 that there was more to reality than I thought, and I gave up being an atheist to become a spiritualist. I taught my own spiritual development group in '93-94, but gave it up when I realised most people didn't know how to deal with reality, let alone SPIRITuality. I moved away from teaching and learning about it and moved more into just learning about life and human nature. I figured that it's best to help people grow by understanding life and their role in it, rather than by helping them understand things that had very little meaning in life. Who cares about spirits and reincarnation? They want to know how to deal with the stresses of life, like how to feel less stressed about things, and how to have better relationships with people. THOSE are the important things. Anyway, I'm more into Taoism these days as well, which nicely reflects my attitudes. Or maybe I reflect the attitudes of Taoism... not quite sure on that one yet. :-)

I'm working in IT because it's enjoyable, it pays nicely, and I do a lot of what I want to do. But it's not what I'll be doing forever. I'm moving forward into psychology and counselling, with an emphasis on relationship counselling, maybe even just male relationship counselling. It's where I see my future. Too many guys don't have a clue when it comes to women, and they screw it up for themselves. So I want to help them do things better.

I can't believe I've just explained my life and me in just a few paragraphs! There's SO MUCH between the lines. Wow. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I hope to hear back from you with your own adventures through time. *grin*

I didn't get an email reply from either of them, so I called Simon again on the weekend, and Ben happened to be there too. They were playing a game... ah, the memories. So I spoke to them both, getting more information from Ben about his life than from Simon, but it was good to chat to them both. I also got Matt's email address from Simon...

I sent Matt an email, briefly 'announcing' myself, just in case the email had been spelt incorrectly and I was sending it to the wrong person. Less than 12 hours later, I got a reply back from him. Woohoo!

He'd included some photos of himself, his wife and his new child. How amazing it was to look at the photos and see him looking very proud and happy - and just like the Matt I remember. Although a bit older... hehehe. Time waits for no one and everyone changes. He had the same eyes though, and the same mouth. Less hair.

After 13 years of being 'apart', I'm now back in touch with my best friends of 13+ years ago. I feel great about it!

But how long will this contact remain? I hope for a long, long time. When I go to Australia late this year, I'll be in Adelaide for a week as well. I definitely intend catching up with Ben and Simon. And maybe Matt will be back there for xmas, but I don't know. I'll find that out later.

It's awesome to get back in touch with people that were once very important to me.

It's Deidre's birthday tomorrow. She turns 33. I bought her a present today - two CDs, both of kiwi artists. One is by The Feelers, and I think it's one she's always wanted but never gotten around to getting. The other is Nature's Best, with a whole bunch of different kiwi singers. She only said last night that it's the only CD she would go out and buy before she leaves NZ to live in Australia, as it has the best of the kiwi artists and songs. So hopefully she'll be happy with them.

If not, I got a couple exchange vouchers as well, to allow her to swap them for whatever else she might want.

I met Arwei in Auckland last week, as I mentioned here. It was nice seeing her again, but I got the feeling that she wanted to be more than just friends. She talked about being confused about why we kept on 'finding' each other again. She believes very strongly in destiny, and so felt that us coming together again was destiny in action.

Her mind is that we had been emailing each other for a year, and then we met, but even though I was single, she wasn't, so she didn't want to pursue anything. Fair enough. However, now that we've met again, she seems to think there's something mysterious and magical in it. Now that she's single, I'm not, so she's seeing a reversal of our last meeting.

She sent me a text message today saying that she believes if our geographic positions were closer - eg. in the same city - then she would be singing to me as I came home to her tonight.

I'm going to have an interesting time telling Deidre about this tonight. I told her my impressions of Arwei last week, so this will be something else that will add to her impressions of Arwei being a strange girl.

I've been completely open with Deidre about everything to do with other women in my life, past and present, so I don't see the need to be any different. I'm just happy she's not insecure about it all, and is very open-minded.

We were having a coffee at Starbucks in the city on the weekend, and rating women as they walked past. Only once did we reach an agreement on a woman, with both of us rating her a 7. Yes, I know it's all very shallow, but hey, rating women is good, harmless fun - if you're doing it with the right person. And most people do it anyway.

Welcome to this blog. I'm going to assume you're reading this 'cause you're interested in who I am. Thanks! I appreciate the interest.

More information is available over here at the FAQ.

Anyway, that's me on the left, with my partner, Deidre. I was born in 1966 in Australia, and I moved to Wellington, New Zealand, in 2000. After being single on and off for a few years, I'm now happily partnered with Deidre, my 'significant other'. I met her in January 2005, and we've gotten along like a house on fire. Without all the burning though...

I'm a very philosophical and spiritual person, and a lot of my journal entries relate to a philosophical or spiritual perspective on life and the experiences I have. The subjects I love writing about in my life are:

• spirituality
• philosophy
• dating
• relationships
• photography
• news
• politics

You can find mention of them throughout this blog by clicking on the Tag Cloud (above) or clicking on the categories in the menu at the top.

My hobbies include:

• writing
• roleplaying
• web design
• driving
• philosophy
• spirituality
• photography
• people watching

Oh, and I guess drinking chai lattes at Starbucks while hanging out with my friends and watching people walking by.

My Photo Blog pages have the best of my photos. Every time I take a bunch of photos, I upload the best of them to this blog. If you like any of them, you're welcome to buy them from me.

I work in IT as a Systems Administrator (SysAdmin), which I find quite interesting. I've been with my employer since July 2000. I'm currently moving into a new role (as of mid 2006) in Services Improvement, which should be quite interesting.

So that's me. I hope you enjoy what I write, and feel like coming back to read more. It'd be great to see your comments on here as time goes by. If you're interested in commenting, of course...

After playing with this blog format with my political blog (Eyes On The World, linked from the right there), I've come to really like it. So I've decided to continue my journal adventures using this format from now on.

The biggest reasons for this are:

1. It's part of a 'blogging community', which allows for increased public exposure through the 'Next Blog' click-through button at the top of most blogs. Increased public exposure means more people possibly finding an interest in what I have to say.
   
   
2. The days of the forum format being popular seem to be long-gone. (Click on 'My old journal' on the right to see that old format.) People rarely post on it these days, and the community aspect of it seems to have died. All those who had their own journals on it no longer post to it. Many have moved on.

So the experimenting and evolution continues. I've been journalling since 1998, and I hope to continue journalling for the rest of my life. But I'm open to changing the format according to the times. Everyone seems to be 'blogging' these days, and it's incredibly popular and interactive, so I've joined the 'sheep'. Well, I don't plan on BEING a sheep, but hey, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

I hope you enjoy this format and that you bookmark this site and that you continue to come back to it in future.