chidade.net

Dear Chidade,

Your Sincerely,

squiggle line goes here

1. I joined Scouts because:
Peer Pressure. Snark was on my case for a good year before I finally gave in. I think I was also probably dating a Rover at the time.

I had a brother, sister, Mother, Father or other family member in Scouts (please circle):
No. The thought of my sister in a Scout uniform is highly amusing though.

2. I acheived the following Badges/Awards (please tick)
None of the above. I only got the standard badges that they hand to you when you join up. Oh, and that special badge they handed out this year since it’s the Centenary of Scouting. Haven’t actually sewn any of them on my shirt, even after 3 odd years.

3. I took part in Scout Shows such as Gang Show, Camberwell Showtime, Strezlecki Showtime, Whitehorse Showtime (please circle):
Why doesn’t South Metro Showtime get any love? No, I only took part as an audience member. Twice. And both times, I regretted it.

4. I went on outdoor activities such as hikes, camps, water activities and pack holidays (please circle)
Well, there were two occassions when I had to sleep in a tent. I think that more alcohol than hiking was involved, though. Yes.

5. I attended a Jamboree, Cuboree, Venture or Moot (please circle)
Actually, I don’t think any ran while I was a Scout, least, not ones that I would actually pay to attend, as opposed to pay to work my ass off for bratty, snot-nosed, little shits. So no. But only by coincidence.

6. I became a sixer, patrol leader, unit chairman or crew leader (please circle)
What’s a sixer?

7. I attended a Youth Forum at Group, District, Region or Branch level (please circle)
See Number 5.

8. Three things I particularly like about Scouts are:
- Drinking
- Socialising (when I’m not in hermit-mode)
- Shenanigans

9. If I had a magic wand, three things I would change about Scouts are:
Look, I don’t really have anything against Scouts. I’ve just quit because I don’t have the time or the money right now. Scouts is bloody expensive. There’s all those slabs of beer we need to chip into, f’rinstance.

Rovers was fun while it lasted. It’s not very Scout-y. It’s not very much about getting badges for basket weaving and spending every school holidays up to your armpits in mud in some remote camping site. Although, if you want it to be, it can be that too. I’m not a Scouty type person. I don’t have a history of Scouts (while almost all of the members I know at least joined at Venturer level - having a new Scout at Rover level is really weird) and while I’m all for Service to the Community and Goodwill Onto Others and all that, I don’t feel like I need to act like the Queen’s pompous do-gooder militia to achieve it.

That last sentence was a bit of a mean generalisation. There are awesome Scouts and Scouts leaders around. I just wish some of the hierarchy would pull their heads out of their collective asses.

Meh, Rovers. For me it was very much about drinking, socialising and shagging in tents. They are a pretty tight bunch - I think I may have suffered there, because I only became a Scout at Rover level while everyone else knew each other and had stories to tell from Venturers, Cubs or just much younger Rovers. Still, they welcomed me. I was slack though. I never got invested. I was a Squire for the three-years-on-and-off that I was a Scout. And it never really mattered.

Never learnt the Scout Prayer or Promise. Never even learned all the words to Oogie Oogie Oogie.

I’m still going to be friends with all the Rovers I know, mainly through Snark. I’m glad I met these people. I have nothing against them, not very much against the Scout movement, and all-in-all I would’ve stayed if it wasn’t $250+ dollars a year and then another $15 minimum per meeting to do what essentially was socialising and gossip. No one gossips like a Rover.

Plus the time. Once a week and the few long weekend trips doesn’t seem like much, but I have precious little time as it is with university - any free time that I get I want to spend playing Ragnarok or in front of my Nintendo. It’s crying itself to sleep each night, my poor Wii.

No, the things I like doing through the Rovers I can in fact do without being a Rover. So sadly, circumstances dictate that I’ll be handing over my badge and uniform, look, it’s as good as new, only worn 6 times.

What, I’m supposed to keep them? And do what, exactly? Start a collection?!

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Wanna see something utterly terrifying? Have a look at this:

That, dear readers, is my timetable *cries*

I’m expected to study 12.5 hours per subject, per week this semester, including the actual class time.

Five subjects, each of them have been assigned a colour, which you can see when I have an actual class or lecture for the subject. The empty blocks that are a lighter version of the subject colour are the times where I sit and study it, either at home or at uni.

The empty blocks with darker versions of the subject colours are also study times, but while I’m commuting to uni. Those hours will probably be complete write-offs, because I tend to get distracted by the street art along the train tracks, or I can’t find a seat so I can’t pull out my huge textbooks. I’m hoping that the podcasts of lectures that the university records will be useful during the commute though, because if I can’t study while I’m on the train then I’ll have to use up the little free time I have left.

Red boxes are ongoing social/extra curricular engaements. The coloured bars at the top and bottom just represent things like sleeping, getting up and ready, etc.

The white boxes dotted throughout are meal times and extra commuting where I can’t study, eg: bike or car.

The two chunks of white space on Fridays and Saturdays are all the free time I have. Which would probably disappear if there’s an assignment due or exams coming up. Even in quiet times, it’ll probably be spent doing things like laundry and cleaning and catching up on sleep >.<

Can you hear that? It’s the sound of my social life, blogging time and Ragnarok levelling ability grinding to a halt.

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A Rover’s Guide to Picking Up:

Step 1: Imbibe large amounts of alcohol.

Step 2: Play the poking game. During conversation, poke the target on the side at the squishy waist part. This is the softest, least painful and most ticklish part. If they poke back, this is a good sign, continue to step three.

Step 3: Poke randomly throughout the evening. You don’t need to be in constant conversation. Move around if there’s opportunity. No need to look too keen. Is there a dancefloor? Get on it. Make sure you’ve thoroughly completed Step One first, though. Just come back occassionally for a quick word and a poke. If the target is squirming and ticklish and yet still poking back, then start with the tickles. Chase them around the room tickling should the need arise.

Step 4: Offer to get them a drink. There’s a bar tab after all (or, in a camping situation like Mudbash or Surfmoot - an esky). Get them two drinks. You’ll be more successful if the target also completes Step 1.

Step 5: Dirty talk time. Jokes are good. If the target is still laughing then you’re still in. Tickles and random pokes should develop to massages and hugs and other telling body contact. If they reciprocate then odds are good.

From here on, continue with much the same until the evening is getting to the stage where people are going home/back to their tents and then ask if they want to go somewhere else/go for a walk/have some spare room in their tent because you don’t have a bed tonight.

Rovers are bloody predictable.

In a way, it’s nice to know that I’m still capable of picking up, or at least being the target of a pick up. But I’m so fed up with one night stands. I’d like a proper relationship now. I’ve been single for too long.

Apparently I’m guaranteed sex at next weekend’s Surfmoot. Hah, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. But no thanks. At any rate, if you shag a Rover, you’d better believe that everyone will know about it and gossip about it for the next two years.

Make that three years.

Oogie! Oogie! Oogie!

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wii-kend (noun)

A weekend devoted exclusively towards playing a Nintendo Wii.

Well…a weekend and a bit more.

I’ve been excited about the Nintendo Wii ever since I heard about the controller over a year ago. And even though I pledged never to call the Wii the Wii again, I’ve kinda been “Wiiiiiiiii”-ing a lot ever since last Wednesday night when the midnight launch was on.

Chadstone! Fashion Capital of Australia! And apparently, the biggest official launch site in Melbourne, which seems strange, as I would have expected a shop in the city to have big official festivities. Meanwhile in Sydney, at the same time, a single gamer waited alone in Bondi Junction, surely the New South Welsh equivalent of Chadstone, whilst the big launch party happened somewhere else in Sydney’s CBD…

Well, at least Matt managed to get first in line.

Anyway!

We arrived at 8.30pm since the doors to the shop were going to open at 9pm to hand out tickets. There was already a small crowd of people, including a family at the front of the line that came complete with camping chairs. Their young son was still in his school uniform, so the theory went that they picked him up from school and came straight over to line up. Apparently they had even ordered pizzas for delivery to their seats.

By 9pm, the queue was outside the doors and into the carpark.

By 9.20, the doors were finally opened and I managed to get number 29 in line.

My adopted onee-san came along with me, although I’m really not sure why. She’s not a gamer or a geek in any way. In fact, she freaks out at the idea of going into Akihabara, where she says “it stinks like otaku“. She also came along to the Melbourne eGames Expo a few weeks back. All this it seems, to take photos of Australian otaku and show them to her friends back home. The friends all seem to be amazed by the fact that there are Australian gamers and geeks. I think she regretted going to both eGames and the midnight launch of the Wii. She seemed really bored. But what could I do? I warned her plenty of times about how boring it would be for her.

Luckily, once I received my ticket and paid for everything, we were allowed to wander around. Outside the shop they had a few consoles set up to play on, but I figured I better get onee-san out of there for a break and we went to grab coffee and cake.

Mmmm, death by chocolate. And a much needed hit of caffeine. The cake arrived in a slightly unexpected way though. Maybe they were trying to tell me something at 11pm.

Some time-killing phone calls to Bondi Junction, where Matt and I were basically trying to out-geek each other, and I decide it’s time to head back to the action at 11.30pm.

There was quite a long line now. It seems that the first 100 people received blue tickets (which included me) and everyone after that had purple tickets. The queue was going to the doors even after I had picked up the console and went home. I wonder if they managed to serve everyone?

Music was booming and there were a few competitions going. A Wii Tennis tournament was well underway. Someone had dressed up as Princess Peach, complete with a papier mache turtle missile. There were plenty of fake moustaches around. A huge Link statue - which apparently they were going to give away to the best cosplayer, but since there was only one, they decided to give it to that first-in-line family. Someone will be rich from eBay now.

People were lining up for collection at last. We were handed party poppers, hehe. Then, the countdown! I was promptly hit in the back by an exploding popper. It fucking hurt. But no matter! Because I’m about to get my Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

All up, I ordered the console which came with Wii Sports, the Wii Play pack that has an extra controller (known as Hajimete no Wii in Japan), The Legend of Zelda: Twighlight Princess (of course! The shop had about 5 times more copies of Zelda than any other game for sale on the night) and Rayman: Raving Rabbids which I knew I would buy after seeing the comical series of teaser trailers. Here was a game that brought back memories of Sam and Max, The Neverhood and other nonsensical PC games. I had high hopes for this game.

Finally picked up my goodies and got out of there at about 1am. 29th in line and I still couldn’t get my stuff for about 40 minutes! The staff were apparently on 18 hour shifts or something ridiculous. And apparently not getting paid any more for it! Stupid industrial relations laws! *shakes fists*

Anyway.

Two things I am unhappy about with the Wii - it is region locked. Utter stupidity. The Nintendo DS was region free and sold like hotcakes. While I was in Japan, there was a point where the DS had actually sold out - I’m sure this was in part due to people importing because of the larger colour choices and games. Surely Nintendo could’ve used the same approach for the Wii? Region Free = Awesome.

Second bitch: The price of games! AUD$110 is recommended retail price! What?! Are you insane?! JBHiFi, however was selling them for AUD$79 so I managed to get a price match. Honestly though, what bastardry. $110?! Unbelievable. With the console and the games, I paid AUD$740. That put a dent in my account, but not as much as the PS3 will next year, I’m sure.

Anyway, I’ve now had about 5 days to play around with it. It also seems to have the Rovers’ stamp of approval. Especially Rayman, which was as ridiculous and humorous as was expected. In fact, I played so much that I had sore arms and shoulders for days! Note to any potential Wii owners: stretch before you play. It’s really a workout.

Haven’t really had a chance to get into Zelda yet, but I will this week.

One great thing about this console is that it’s great for parties. I’ve already taken it to two and people had heaps of fun with it. Even the non-gamers, which is exactly what Nintendo were aiming for in the design on this console.

Mission Accomplished, Miyamoto-san.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

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Today was the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, or JLPT, which is held around the world every year on the first Sunday in December. It was my first ever go at this exam, after studying Japanese in Year 6, a semester in my final year of university and after spending 10 months in Japan itself. Needless to say, I attempted the lowest level. Needless to say, I’ll fail miserably.

I didn’t study as much as I’d have liked since my adopted onee-san is currently in Australia and living with me until she gets her own digs. This means I’ve been spending a lot of time with her and travelling a bit. She’s helped me study a bit but memorising kanji is something that’d I’d have to do myself.

Ah well, I’m not too fussed. I didn’t need to pass this exam. I won’t be working in Japan anytime soon. I basically just did it for myself, because I’d like to watch, read and play Japanese media without the aid of subtitles one day. At any rate, I used today to get the jist of how the exam works so I can try for Level 3 next time.

I learnt one thing though - even if I had studied everything that I had planned to study, then I still would’ve had trouble today. It’s very fast paced - 40 questions in 25 minutes - and of course everything is written in Japanese. The main thing I’ll need to practice is reading hiragana and katakana quickly.

Anyway, now that my so-called studies of Japanese can be relaxed a bit, my next goal is finally clocking Final Fantasy VII. I can’t see the obsession with Sephiroth, personally. Vincent is clearly the better bishie. In human form, anyway.

One last thing tonight: Thoughts go out to Duane’s family. Duane was a former Rover who died tragically today. He’ll be missed in Scouting circles. Rest in peace.

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i’ve joined the Rovers again since I came back home. Rovers, for those who don’t know, are Scouts, between the ages of 18-26. But rather than doing voluntary work and trying to get that next badge for Basket Weaving, Rovers are more concerned with drinking, shagging and generally socialising. Oh, there’s the badges and volunteer part too, no fear. I think that our Rover Crew actually does more for fundraising than the Joeys, Cubs and Venturers in our district combined.

Lately though, I’ve come to the conclusion that Rovers have one important function in our society - keeping it down to earth. Take our last two activities, for example. We had a Shonky Golf night, where we dressed up in the most geeky golf clothes we could find (P had outdone himself in tartan) then ran around town taking photos of us playing golf in the most unusual places we could think of.

My team went to the local bowling alley, the cinemas and the game arcade where we posed on the Dance Dance Revolution machines, for example.

Then this week we had a Scavenger Hunt with another Rover Crew. We were given a list of things we had to do and a video camera to prove we had done it. This to-do list included:

• Group hug a police officer (30 points)
• Get a grocery clerk to sing a well-known song on camera (30 points)
• Go to a petrol station and get 30 cents worth of fuel - with a receipt (40 points)
• Film your team in a stranger’s living room (70 points)
• Serenade people sitting outside a restaurant with songs that they request (20 points)
• Suffer narcolepsy while ordering food at a McDonald’s (40 points)

…and so on.

As you can imagine, a lot of these activities involved walking up to strangers at night time and doing unexpected things to them. It takes a lot of trust and goodwill on their part to put up with our larrikinism. As an aside, my team won. It may have to do with the fact that we were all females. Or maybe because we cheated a bit and asked everyone permission first.

But seriously, I find it amazing that people were still willing to let us do strange things to them - and on camera! They only had our word that we were scouts doing an activity that night. None of us were Muslim males - I wonder if it would have been less successful if we were?

My Dad has a theory that Australia is becoming worse than the Communist Poland he grew up in and ran away from. “Howard was planning this. First he took away our guns and now he’s slowly taking away our rights” - all while trying to make us cower in fear. Now, my Dad does have a tendency to be a melodramatic exaggerator on occasion. But when you hear stories about bobbies in Britain arresting children for damaging trees while making cubby houses - or the gated communities in the U.S. - or when you look at the security cameras on every street corner in the CBD…it was a relief to find that people could still be “relaxed and groovy” about young adults mucking about.

I’m the new Secretary of our Rover Crew. Not sure how I got sucked into doing that. But I think that I could start something that I hope every Crew would do when they have activities like the ones we’ve done. Just send out a letter - like a card or similar - saying thanks for putting up with us. Put the Rovers and Scouts emblems on it, have a forwarding address. Let people know that they were right to trust us and and thank you for doing so.

It doesn’t have to be anything formal and boring either. That bowling alley where we played Shonky Golf - they were so awesome to us. They even let us out the back so we could have a look at the machines that count and set up the pins. I’d never seen them before, so it was kinda exciting. We played golf next to those machines, too. They asked for copies of photos of the night. So, I’m designing a kind of poster with the photos and a thank you message from our Crew. I think I’ll do the same for the people we approached on the Scavenger Hunt night. Especially since they helped us win.

Rovers: Keeping the Community Relaxed and Groovy For Over 100 years!

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