Monte Carlo

No, I have a day job. I only started writing two years ago and I've had an agent for six months. I'm in my early 40's and if I play my cards right and all my financial ducks are lined up properly I reckon I can give writing full-time a go in about five years, as a second career. I'm learning that (a) female readers are *very* important and (b) so is America. Like I say, I want to be a commercial writer to that's where I think my writing is heading.

I have a bargain bucket movie called 'Valhalla Rising' which I might watch later. It looks really, really bad. Not Dolph Lundgren mit plastic dragon bad, but bad nonetheless.

I am at a grand total of 7000 words.... ta-daahhhhh!!! But I too have a weekend free for writing. Luckily I have made lots of notes for a change and the plotting is done. It's filling in the gaps. If I'm up to 20,000 words by Sunday I will be happy, that's 25% done. Still waiting on a US publisher at the moment about my other tome.

^ And this is why the barb is the weakest D3 class and most challenging. A tank should be able to tank, even if it requires an optimal skill / equipment build. I hope they address it, in MP I feel completely outclassed by (especially) Monks and Demon Hunters.

Steam console, anyone?

You're probably right, Entrerix one of us should start a thread in WWOT.

Euuccchhh. Couldn't the director simply have fellated Spielberg in private and saved us the movie?

A strong literary novel can be fairly short, The Road is a good example. For crime / thrillers the reader, not unreasonably, wants some bang for their buck. Don't get me started on sci-fi / fantasy, where a 100K word count is completely standard as a starter for ten. My first book went in at about 120K words, agent told me to carve it back to 90-odd, which I did. That was a near miss with several mainstream publishers. The next went in at about 85K and it's with two publishers who like it and are considering it. Don't get me wrong, it's not like there are hard and fast rules (typically a novella is less than 50K, there you go that is a rule) but if you submit 60K it needs to be very original and tighter than a swan's arse plotwise. Good luck. Will happily take a look at the first three chapters for you if you PM me. An agent will look at the first five hundred words if you're lucky.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/20/diablo-iii-completed-on-inferno-with-hardcore-character/ There ya go.

Dude, that's a big novella. Aim for 80,000, 75K at least. Edit: If you don't most agents will be handing you a bumper blister pack of WTF tablets.

My Barb is now level 57 and I'm still Act 2 Hell. I've spent a lot of gold on gear and am now getting the hand of it... max runed Earthquake, Stun and Vengeance seem to be my core abilties at the moment. At medium levels, with core equipment, the Barb sucks. You need, in my albeit limited experience, to really carefully equip and choose skills to go toe-to-toe with elite mobs. I still end up kiting some, dropping eathquakes, stunning and chipping away with max rend / vengeance attacks.

I'm trying to remember how long it took for the D2 XP to come out... I don't think it was *that* long. One of my problems with D3 as currently constituted is that I preferred the old character classes better. Assassin was better than the DH, for example. The Paladin was a solid solo melee / healer class. I want them back!

World War Z by Max Brookes (I think) Didn't think it would be my cup of tea but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A clever, occasionally witty, thoroughly entertaining exercise in world building. Recommended.

If you ever served with the British army of the Rhine then you'd know that BIELEFELD WAS REAL. I was there in 1989 and I think 1991. It was a sleepy garrison town, nice castle, decent beer. The only thing ruining it were all the British squaddies, TBH.

Has anybody completed inferno yet? In other news, I am marvelling at the economic literacy of the Auction House. it was clearly designed by the Greeks. How can fifty similar Legendary items vary so madly in price? Why do people put items up for about ten million gold?

Is Leah the most annoying JNPC ever? If she tells me about her fricking plan to build a tavern one more bloody time...

There is no comparison: my last monitor was a Samsung Syncmaster, perfectly OK but this one is in a different league. It's omni-adjustable, bigger and with very crisp, lush imagery and colour. CoH looks, frankly, stunning on it. I can't beleive what I was missing. Also, for writing the bigger monitor is good for me, less eye-strain.

This is my problem too. I love high-level skilled gaming but a.... sport? Gedouttahere.

There will be a basic Tunnel module, entitled "The Tunnel on the Borderlands." That was so completely obvious that it didn't need mentioning, whelp. After that you may purchase original, authorised and authentic (A)FIT adventure modules. I hope this clarifies matters.

Sorry Ros, I'm not one of the usual suspects but when the name **** is language filtered, and other normal words, then you have to call BS.

I maxed out everything on Diablo 3 which looks great on the new monitor. Next up is of course Company of Heroes, of course this ain't much of a systems hog either being over six years old. I think a maxed out Shogun TW2 might test things a bit better.

I watch a lot of CoH tournies and APM is pretty important, that and an almost sensei-like understanding of the meta-game.

http://www.gadgetroad.com/thermaltake-tt-esports-challenger-pro-gaming-review-4456/ LOL

The keyboard is from a company called Tt and I got a gaming mouse too from the same company. Basically there's a slot in the keyboard where a tiny fan lives. You slide it out and plug it into a little jack-plug on either side of the monitor and angle it at your hand. Seriously, it's a tiny fan module and quite powerful. Strange. I've never suffered from Hot Gaming Hand TBH but then again I'm not a l337 gaemer so whaddoIknow? The computer is very impressive. Virtually silent. Monitor is great (HDMI connection). I'm running umpteen apps at once (installing Diablo, Word 2010, AVG and Steam simultaneously and it's *very* fast, like whooooosh! Will be testing out Diablo then installing my Steam library overnight and keep you in the loop but bejaysus this liquid-cooled case is damn quiet. Makes my last rig sound like a Huey.

I have Das Beast am about to switch off this rig and consign it to a fate as yet undecided. Will let you know how things pan out with this new machine. I also LOL'd when I saw that the keyboard came with a tiny fan "to keep your hands cool whilst gaming." Srsly.