Raithe

I will say the Smuggler falls apart in chapter 3. At least in my opinion. Not helped by the final class-quest mission which has you face the big bad.. and then gives you an annoying post-Boss fight series of grind fights against small mobs of easy kills before you can leave the map.

I think it comes down to a story that you pretty much forget, but the individual missions are usually quite good (if you approach it in the pure sneaky style attempt). There are irritations about some of it, notably the context-sensitive button meaning that places you think you should be able to jump you can't. Or small piles of stuff you can't actually climb over where an asthmatic cripple probably could. The freedom of configuration is quite serious in the options available to turn on/off pretty much everything.

Woke up from some mixture of weird dreams about a couple of ex's and some separate line about being stuck in an 80's style cartoon. Definitely has me in a discombobulated headspace as the day's moved along. Can't seem to quite find my balance or figure out what I'm really in the mood to deal with.

io9 - Worlds Largest Aircraft Unveiled

Well, may the best of news arrive, and you get to take him home shortly Enoch. Congratulations on that, I'm sure we'll start breaking out the cigars on general principle now..

Been spending a few hours playing Thief. Hm, definitely a mixed bag I'd say. The general art style and the city tends to have the right feel, and when you focus on the individual missions and stalking through the darkness, avoiding guards (apart from picking their pockets) and trying to figure your way around sneakily.. it's pretty damn good. I can't really say much about the story so far, but there's nothing too memorable about it yet. The voice over is a bit flat, and it kind of suffers from the same as the old Thief games in the "I'm a master thief..but I'm more of a kleptomaniac who has to steal everything not nailed down that's only worth a gold piece or two" approach. The ability to turn off everything you don't want is quite good, so you won't be spoiled by focus or waypoint markers or pretty much anything HUD related you can think of. The fact you have a context sensitive button that handles climb and jump gets annoying. Especially as it means you can never, ever jump except those context related moments. The button mashing to open windows gets old fast - it might work on a console, but is just irritating on pc.

Let's settle down and just go with random pretty girls..

Well, I've only got two characters at 55 now, and I've really only been doing endgame content with one of them. My SI has a mix of 66-72 gear now, and I've been getting his companions set up with 58-66 mostly.. I've got two characters at around 52-53 (my consular and juggernaut), and I don't really have any intentions of levelling my Jedi Knight past 50. I do keep thinking that now my Bounty Hunter is 50 and re-speced as a healer, I should start doing flashpoints to make sure I know how to heal and generally see what that's like.. I find I keep going back to my SI to earn money and just to idle around now and then, do the once weekly run through oricon and the czerka planet, the makeb weekly, and pick up extra cash to send out to my low-level toons as I might need it. Working my Agent through Hoth at the moment, and I've left my Trooper idling around before I take him to Nar Shaddaa. Still haven't done any operations.

Hm. You got: Malta You’re endlessly curious and love nothing more than getting stuck in a good book. You like to take walks in order to figure out what you’re doing in life

Trying to ponder how I've got the knack for helping friends and family sort out time management, project management, and general facing assorted tasks and split them up to deal with... But I'm somewhat hopeless at doing it for myself.

Okay, how about I go on a quest and gather a fresh random assortment from the depths of the internet to keep things moving on track...

Heh, I had to read that for prep when researching and writing up an analysis of the effect of Pablo's capture on certain other groups. It certainly throws up quite a few interesting tidbits around events of the time.

DeusExCentral - Deus Ex: The Fall

I've got a whole bunch of work docs to read through that I'm idling around. I know I've got to make a push on some of it, but I'm having that "I'm sinking and I need to start swimming" feeling. Which invariably leads to procrastination and allowing distractions from other sources. Apparently they're switching out mom's gliclazide for insulin shots, so I've got to run through the "how to change needles and stab people" lessons. Hm, Amazon UK is doubling the cost of Amazon Prime membership, but then giving you access to streaming tv shows and movies. Huh, and family members only get the free-post benefits, they have to "upgrade" and pay the same about if they want streaming video. Yeah, I think I'll be dropping that in a few months before renewal. Ah well, time to cook some peshwari naan for lunch and enjoy a cup of tea. See if I can firm my mind up on a few things.

Fears as Bitcoin Exchange Collapses

Because it had to be done.. http://youtu.be/B3YbODo7ieQ

“I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.”

Hm, on book related news.. The Honor Harrington series is going multi-media.. io9 - The Legendary Harrington - New Adventure Movies

Watch Dogs Release Date Already Decided

Groggy as hell. Since my sister dropped her dog off here to look after while she was out of town on work, I ended up having to put a mattress and bed in her old room in an attempt to get the galloot to settle somewhat. That partially worked in the sense he didn't whine and claw at the door like the last time it happened.. but it did mean I kept having a rather large german shepherd loom over me panting anxiously, sitting on the mattress and stepping on me, occasionally sprawling out across me, or hitting my stomach with his head at various points all through the night. Not conductive to a great nights sleep....

1. A photon checks into a hotel and the porter asks him if he has any luggage. The photon replies: “No, I’m travelling light.” 2. “Is it solipsistic in here, or is it just me?” 3. What does a dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac spend most of his time doing? Staying up all night wondering if there really is a dog. 4. A TCP packet walks into a bar, and says to the barman: “Hello, I’d like a beer.” The barman replies: “Hello, you’d like a beer?” “Yes,” replies the TCP packet, “I’d like a beer.” 5. An electron is driving down a motorway, and a policeman pulls him over. The policeman says: “Sir, do you realise you were travelling at 130km per hour?” The electron goes: “Oh great, now I’m lost.” 6. Pavlov is enjoying a pint in the pub. The phone rings. He jumps up and shouts: “Hell, I forgot to feed the dog!” 7. How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb? A fish. 8. There are 10 types of people in this world. Those that know binary, and those that don’t. 9. When I heard that oxygen and magnesium hooked up I was like OMg. 10. The barman says: “We don’t serve faster-than-light particles here.” A tachyon enters a bar. 11. A Buddhist monk approaches a hotdog stand and says: “Make me one with everything”. The monk gives the vendor a 20 bill and then asks for change. The vendor answers: "Change must come from within." 12. What do you call two crows on a branch? Attempted murder. 13. An Englishman, a Frenchman, a Spaniard and a German are walking down the street together. A juggler is performing on the street but there are so many people that the four men can’t see the juggler. So the juggler goes on top of a platform and asks: “Can you see me now?” The four men answer: “Yes.” “Oui.” “Si.” “Ja.” 14. Never trust an atom. They make up everything. 15. How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None, it’s a hardware problem. 16. A student travelling on a train looks up and sees Einstein sitting next to him. Excited, he asks: “Excuse me, professor. Does Boston stop at this train?” 17. Did you hear about the jurisprudence fetishist? He got off on a technicality. 18. Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel, and Noam Chomsky walk into a bar. Heisenberg turns to the other two and says: “Clearly this is a joke, but how can we figure out if it’s funny or not?” Gödel replies: “We can’t know that because we’re inside the joke.” Chomsky says: “Of course it’s funny. You’re just telling it wrong.” 19. A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers, and says: “Five beers, please.” 20. Did you hear about the man who got cooled to absolute zero? He’s 0K now. 21. An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The bartender says: “What’ll it be, boys?” The first mathematician: “I’ll have one half of a beer.” The second mathematician: “I’ll have one quarter of a beer.” The third mathematician: “I’ll have one eight of a beer.” The fourth mathematician: “I’ll have one sixteenth of a…” The bartender interrupts: “Know your limits, boys” as he pours out a single beer. 22. What does the “B” in Benoit B Mandelbrot stand for? Answer: Benoit B Mandelbrot. 23. Jean-Paul Sartre is sitting at a French café, revising his draft of Being and Nothingness. He says to the waitress: “I’d like a cup of coffee, please, with no cream.” The waitress replies: “I’m sorry, Monsieur, but we’re out of cream. How about with no milk?” 24. A classics professor goes to a tailor to get his trousers mended. The tailor asks: “Euripides?” The professor replies: “Yes. Eumenides?” 25. A programmer’s wife tells him: “Run to the store and pick up a loaf of bread. If they have eggs, get a dozen.” The programmer comes home with 12 loaves of bread.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. I'd say it was fairly nicely done. Some of the background music picks up the emotional aspects, and Idris Elba works hard to carry the role as they travel through Mandela's life.

Well, between a disturbed nights sleep, that wake up, doze off, wake up, doze off, repeat cycle... and my sister dropping off her big dog here when work takes her out of town for a couple of days.. I'm feeling a bit worn. Kind of sat with a pile of work notes, assorted documents to read, and a bundle of emails about it all, and trying to get my mind to organise what the first steps are that I need to do.

Morrowind was the first Elder Scrolls game I ever played. The sandbox and background lore pulled me in, I dabbled with various mods, and spent a long time just enjoying the hell out of it, even with the somewhat bleh combat. On the strength of that I pre-ordered Oblivion. And was struck dumb by the sheer horror and soul-destroying nature of that game. I've never been able to finish it. The storyline wasn't interesting, the characters were bland, and the daedric gates just.. yeah. I've never understood why so many people seem to have loved it. The mechanics weren't any better, and the world while technically impeccable and pretty, just drained me of a will to live.