WDeranged

Less than one week, apparently. She passed away a few hours ago. At least it wasn't a long, drawn-out battle. Sorry to hear that mate

Woke up mid afternoon with a hangover, threw myself into doing housework and random tasks then did a few hundred rows on the rowing machine. Now I'm listening to random podcasts and playing guitar

I'm having an ignore the world day too, phone on silent, vodka in the fridge

Good update, it's nice to see the art direction taking on a more interesting style, I've not been blown away by the character designs before but these monsters look sufficiently monstery

Yeah it needs to somehow be profitable for everyone, not just for governments and large businesses. If the day comes where I can get clean energy as cheaply (ha) as the regular stuff I'll be the first to sign up, just as I'd be happy to buy products with less packaging. Companies plaster products with any number of green awards and certificates but the bloody things need to be replaced within a few years. An example I know well is washing machines, they used to last 10-15 years without serious problems, now you're lucky to get five years and then it ends up in a junkyard...not very green is it? It's not like we have the option of "going green" without taking a big hit in the wallet, by western standards I'm almost poor, every day is a balancing act and as I get older the pressure increases. I'd bet that my carbon footprint (uhg) is smaller than all but the most dedicated eco-drones and yet I don't feel the need to verbally harpoon people who live a more wasteful life than me, in my experience the quickest way to turn people away from an idea is to act like an extremist prick (I've been on both sides of that fence)...a bad messenger for a good message

I bike everywhere and I do really work myself but it's only short journeys, no long term aerobic benefit. I recently got given a half decent rowing machine but I haven't used it once, I used to do sit ups and push ups but those have fallen by the wayside...as usual it's obvious what I need to do but I can't be arsed to do it

That's a point I tried (possibly failed) to make, the issue of belief, believing in a scientific field is actually quite unscientific and it always irks me that environmentalists phrase it that way. I can't agree more about the softer approach, I do think we need to clean up our act but scaring the living hell out of children and trying to enforce lifestyle changes through punitive measures just feels dirty, not to mention profitable for those doing the punishing.

No but I've had one of my mum's round here for a while, I've been feeling tense and getting more headaches than usual so I thought I'd better check it out. The machine (fancy modern one) usually says I'm high to normal but sometimes it registers mild hypertension...and arrhythmia, but these things apparently have quite a margin of error when it comes to heart rhythm. Good luck old chap. Thanks mate, 33 feels too early for this stuff but then I haven't always been a good boy

I've watched a lot of anime but it's bloody hard to avoid the high school thing in the last ten years, the only one I've liked recently was The Melancholy of Harui Suzumia, mostly because it's bat**** crazy and they often use the tropes knowingly. Try this: I still find it amazing that Queen were as big as the Beatles in Japan, cool that Freddie still keeps popping up in Anime

Went to the docs with high blood pressure and they agreed it needs to be monitored, I've got to keep a log of my results for the next week so they can tell if it's a real problem...I'm under far more stress than normal this year so I'm hoping it's just this and nothing more serious

Believing in climate change has a slightly Orwellian ring, do you believe in Newtonian physics or quantum theory? Regardless of my own beliefs, your tone is the exact reason the majority of us will never go along with your agenda, you call us disgustingly wasteful primitives and preach from your green (on red) pulpit about the one true path. Humanity is no where near perfect but I see more beauty in the world than horror, free will and sanity should always trump emotionally manipulative agendas.

I've watched a lot of anime but it's bloody hard to avoid the high school thing in the last ten years, the only one I've liked recently was The Melancholy of Harui Suzumia, mostly because it's bat**** crazy and they often use the tropes knowingly.

Originally I wanted it to be the new Torment so I've voted that way...regardless I'm totally fine with what it's going to be, I'm just happy to be a part of Obsidian making a text heavy RPG.

I love to see books on a shelf but I hate being crushed under a 1000+ page monster and having to carry them around, the Kindle is a bit of a novelty but it's one that's got me reading again

I've spent a few days with the Paperwhite so I'll have a little ramble, with the light set to it's lowest level the screen is actually less white than my Kindle 3, quite a surprise but it turns out that Amazon intend for you to always keep the light on, the LEDs have a very slight blue tinge and this mixes with ambient light to give the illusion of a whiter background, it's a trick but it really does give the perception of better contrast. In a totally dark (bed)room the results aren't as impressive, it's more evenly lit than the Kindle 3's cover light but the screen has a ghostly blue glow and the fonts don't pop in the same way, if you push the light too far you find that the fonts become washed out and the uniformity issues start to show, it's certainly not bad on a reasonable setting but I feel like It'll take me time to adjust. Functionally the Paperwhite is much nicer to use than the Kindle 3, the interface is really fast and well laid out, I'm especially glad that it feels great to hold, the leather cover gives you plenty to grab and it's about the same weight as a small paperback, the Kindle 3 was slightly too tall and heavy. I'm not 100% sure I'll keep it but at least Amazon give you a month to make up your mind, it does feel great to use and in the right conditions it can look way more impressive than the Kindle 3, I'm just not sure that it holds up in sunlight and total darkness. I have a similar feeling when I realise that every Amiga game ever made can fit into a memory card the size of my thumbnail

If you enjoyed the movie, I highly recommend the book. The movie is just the first four or so chapters and then skips to the end. The book is simultaneously more insane and in the end makes more sense. It's sequel, "This Book Is Full Of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It" is slightly less insane but still highly entertaining. Yeah I could tell from the narration that it's based on a book so I'm really keen to check it out, thanks for the info.

Still enjoying Arkham Asylum, I think I'm about half way in, the difficulty is getting ramped up and new gameplay elements are being introduced, there's a nice curve to it and the Riddler Challenges can get genuinely tricky. I'm also chewing away at Oblivion, 100 hours played and I'm near the end of all the major questlines, I'm quite anxious to get into the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles, regardless of how janky Oblivion is they're two of the best expansions for any game I've played.

Just watched John Dies at The End, god help me I really enjoyed it, it's cheap, tacky and cheesy but there's some boldly bat**** crazy stuff going on.

I'm way too much of a fence sitter to participate but this thread has been a great read. It's hard not to feel personally attacked when your beliefs are challenged, this is one of those supremely divisive issues, I hope that after this everyone can still find it in their hearts to hate each other for things that really matter..like computer games

Good to know, I'm upgrading from the Kindle Keyboard which was the best £100 I've spent in years so I'm hoping the Paperwhite holds up, it's mostly the screen lighting issues that have worried me.

Best of luck Calax.

Mine will be here tomorrow, I've heard quite a bit about the screen uniformity problems but I decided to risk it as I'll just send the bugger back if it's wonky. Has anyone got any first hand experience with these things?

I'll admit that I don't mind the option of hand holding, it's just that most games are already so simplified that it just isn't necessary, on the other hand I really hate it when you can't disable the stuff ....

I can't think of much that defines the 00's, perhaps the rise of the Simon Cowell style of manufactured bands... Regardless, a good few of my favourite albums were made in the last decade.

I was tempted to buy Tomb Raider but I'll hold back until it's super cheap, the death scenes alone are enough to tempt me (that metal pole through the neck bit made me wince) but I'm not keen on the shallow survivalism aspect and ammo lying around everywhere.