Raithe

[media] [\media] It's always fun to post via phones....

Well, enjoy your break if you do decide to wander to other areas of the internet or that dangerous area known as real life Hurl. Hopefully we'll see you around at some point in the future... On a totally seperate thing, I have to say it is both somewhat odd and yet pushes the warm fuzzies when three kids pretty much adopt you and tell their mother that she has to keep you.

A mix of she's just finished recovering from brain surgery about 9 weeks ago, the upcoming holidays where travelling from North Carolina to Georgia to visit family, and she doesn't want to go into surgery and be recovering during my last two weeks of visiting here.

Spent a chunk of the day experiencing the US ER and medical system, friend expecting to go in for neurosurgery in a couple of weeks woke up with a headache and balance issues so I was providing moral support as they're fighting to not end up with the surgery right now. I've never noticed NHS hospitals providing recharge points for mobile phones/laptops etc in the waiting rooms and open wifi, so that seems a definite difference to US hospitals...

Bribery and Corruption. I've learned that letting my friends kids have access to games on my steam earns me brownie points and keeps them quiet...

For some of the examples..

Got back from attending FaerieCon. Interesting experience, my first "big" convention. Not quite my geek, but still fairly interesting and the atmosphere was pretty damn amazing. A whole mass of very open and friendly people mixing, and a heap of eye candy and pretty in costumes going around. That mix of Fairie / Supernatural / Steampunk / Anime influences going on. They had a "Good Faerie Ball" on the friday, and then a "Bad Faerie Ball" on the saturday. The friend I was with was the "Jello Shot Pixie" and went around handing out about 200 jello shots to anyone and everyone over those two nights. Of course, on the saturday, we held an "Orphan Party" in the hotels lounge - The orphans being the opened but not finished bottles of alcohol people had. Due to the various US state laws about "open containers" and such, we'd been passing the word around that anyone with open bottles of booze should gather there, and then let the party run through till dawn while making sure all the alcohol was passed around and emptied... Definitely can say it's an experience when you have that sort of crowd, and then you end up playing a game of Nerds Against Humanity with a group of people dressed up in some very funky (and in some cases very revealing) costumes, as dragonberry rum, absinthe, various ****tails, whipped cream vodka creamsicles, and assorted other drinks are constantly being passed around.. Then a lazy sunday wakeup, the winddown of the convention, and a 6-7 hour drive from Maryland down to North Carolina. Today is pretty much a crash out and recovery in a very lazy manner.

http://youtu.be/RV5WqRnFejI

If we're going to derail with Polka, there's only one way to end it.. http://youtu.be/MRJILK3NxSM

To derail this to pictures of women...

"What are you meant to be?" "A shaved wookie..."

Doing the final run through of luggage and checking its weight, along with all the updates and last minute tweaks to the aging and creaking laptop before I leave manana for the airport. All of those little things that get double-checked and organised...

Well, historically the whole thing with Astra was a major significant part of Constantine and what made him Constantine if I recall correctly. And the original pilot had him sending her 20 blocks out of her way to see that murder scene in an attempt to manipulate her into working with him. They just flipped it since they decided the girl wouldn't work in the long run. So that was much more of the manipulative bastard aspect then comes out in the reshoot.

Be warned, it is not politically correct Bruce. Your social justice warrior might find it jarring..

Wild Target. Bill Nighy as the aging solitary Assassin from a long and respected family of assassins, who gets hired to target Emily Blunt's klepto / full of life roguish lady who scammed the wrong person - Rupert Everett's art loving criminal. Of course, something about her wild and free attitude (along with being a pretty lady) causes Bill's assassin to not kill her and start protecting her, which ends up involving Rupert Grint's slightly idiotic bystander who becomes his apprentice.. Along with Martin Freeman as the sadistic second professional assassin brought in to deal with the problem. A fairly low key british comedy that is apparently a remake of an old French film..

http://youtu.be/QKmn1ZGDbLg

I think part of what you miss is a sense of individuality in the various cultures and leaders. There's nothing in game to really differentiate them. Nothing storywise, just some minor gaming mechanics, a bonus to this, a bonus to that. In several short games, they've all gone different ways, so it's not like they apparently always take the same affinities either. Sure, you have a "this one is more military, this one is more espionage, this one is more economic" but no really serious depth to them. Even with Civ V, the different leaders all had their own personalities of sorts, and each culture had it's own unique feel to lesser or greater degrees. Edit: Also, building Wonders doesn't really feel that wonderful. Doesn't really show up on the city, and you get some basic "moving blueprint" thing with a small quote that's vaguely philosopher-sci-fi when you build one. All they are are various in-game bonuses.

Just caught episode 3 of The Flash. Maybe it's because you see more of Barry's dad in this one, but it suddenly clicked on why I recognise him. He played Barry Allen in the old 1990's series of The Flash. Nice little touch there.

It has a slightly weird feel to it. It's like playing Civ V.. but it's not. The basics are the same, but handled in a slightly different manner. Then everything else grows from there. Frankly the only reason I picked it up was I realised I had some coupons and got it silly cheap from Goodman Games and I needed some mental distraction that wasn't stressful. You can slide into almost auto-pilot in playing it because everything is so similar. But because of all those small differences in what things do and how they work will mean that your "normal rules of Civ play" don't actually work and you need to start poking at it from another angle.

I don't know, I think this one captures it more..

Well, it's kind of amusing to see all the people going into frenzy because it hasn't unlocked in the UK at midnight like they said it would. Apparently 2k is talking to Steam to find out what's going wrong with it.....