Raithe

Hm, there's something to be said for Sam Manekshaw. The first Indian Army officer to be promoted to Field Marshal. His career ran through four decades and five wars... That, and he's pretty good for quoting: "I wonder whether those of our political masters who have been put in charge of the defence of the country can distinguish a mortar from a motor, a gun from a howitzer, a guerrilla from a gorilla, although a great many resemble the latter. "If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha." On being asked what would have happened had he opted for Pakistan at the time of the Partition in 1947, he replied "Then I guess Pakistan would have won (the 1971) war."

Okay, I'll admit, that one was a cheap throw. Although I was balancing the urge to say that or "Tony Blair". I would throw in for more serious consideration "The Information Age" given the shift in privacy issues nowadays..

Congress.

I mentioned Peter O'Tool had died to someone, and they promptly said "Oh no. Dr Doolittle and 'enry 'iggins!". I wasn't sure whether to slap my forehead, slap them, or just grit my teeth.

We could always throw in mention of this guy.. Pyrrhus of Epirus: The man who won his battles, but lost his war due to the costly nature of his victories over time. How many generals actually lead to fresh sayings and new terms used in the language? The good old pyrrhic victory.

Yeah, that's been an on/off bug for awhile. From what I've heard it doesn't always turn up, but by now so many people know of it's possibility, they tend to be careful of the attacks to not cause it to go active. It's along the lines of if you attack one with immunity near the start, it sets something up so immunity never drops, so you have to be really careful about only attacking the ones without shields from the get go.

Eh, they're by.. Max Allan Collins, the guy who wrote Road to Perdition. He's done a bunch of movie-novelisations as well. For what they are they aren't bad. There's no major screws loose, but they do follow the season 2 feel more then the season 1 style of Dark Angel. It's more that they flesh out what was actually going on with the cult and answer some of those mysterious hooks and questions. He pretty much crams what the planned "Season 3" arc was to be into one and a half novels.

Just for the effect... http://youtu.be/oiSn2JuDQSc

With SR4 they somewhat moved away from "porn" territory, which, supposedly was something THQ more pushed them to do than what the devs wanted to do themselves, and more into just straight goofball wackiness territory. Except they kept the sexual jokes and "The Penetrator" in the game. That's kinda why I'm boggled at it, the game. They have gimps and hookers and references left and right... hell even the DLC is "ENTER THE DOMINATRIX" and yet in game it feels like they try to say "SEX SEX SEX... aww we don't deal wit dat" I mean the entire backstory of Kinzie is that she got fired for being a dominatrix.... and yet her "super form" is basically her in a body suit and a hoodie. Hm, no, Kinzi got fired from the FBI because Matt framed her for all sorts of **** because she kept trying to catch him. That's why she hates his guts. The Enter the Dominatrix DLC is generally a lot of self-referential humour. The conversations between the gang as they talk about how the original "Enter the Dominatrix DLC" was reaaally supposed to go and why it didn't happen. It gets very meta, and very silly. But it did make me chuckle quite a few times.

great movie, the entire vengeance trilogy is just so sad I wonder when Hollywood knows how to make tragedies again, because right now they only know the heroes journey. I finished watching dark angel (tv series) I love season one, the Character of Max is perfect, I don't think there would be anyone who is closer to my perfect woman, but by looks and personality. But the second season ****s it all up, it's plagued by terrible writing, clichéd storylines, exposition dumps, and very out of character dialogue. Seeing a strong woman turned into whiny weak girl was a real shame. Seeing sociopathic characters show feelings and care out of the blue doesn't make any sense. It had some interesting things, but the first season is much better in quality. If you want the "finale" , they did 3 novelisations. Well, one is the story of Max post first escape, up until her arrival in Seattle. The 2nd novel is 1/3 the final episode of season 2, and 2/3 what's going on after, and the 3rd novel wraps up what was actually going on with the weird eugenics cult. Edit: And yes, the 2nd season gets very weird and incredibly plot-holey. I mean, c'mon. One minute they had no idea what any of the escaped group looked like after all this time and the next "oh we've actually had clones of you guys back at base that we forgot to look at."

Tried playing some Far Cry 2. Not really feeling any magic from it. Some stunning vistas, but the running back and forth and back and forth and back and forth isn't really catching me.

Sad movie news.. Peter O'Tool dies, aged 81.

Delved into the darkened depths of the attic to retrieve sundry Christmas decorations, of which I've been putting up in doses through the day between various other tasks. Not feeling the Christmas spirit, so much as slightly light headed and disconnected as I've been running around and juggling it all. Pondering on bills, presents to wrap, and why the spaniel has decided of late to keep running into my room, digging my sheets back and burying itself into my pillows. Also, the cat has had a very fun day. boxes to jump in and out of and dance along. Christmas tree to wind around, sniff at, pounce at lower branches and lick at, along with nibbling of power cables.

"So this needs to be done, and this, and this. Oh and while you're doing this other thing can you also go out and do something else."

Hm, got a whole list of various tasks, errands, admin stuff and all sorts to deal with today. Kind of half-heartedly making a start on it but finding the enthusiasm wildly lacking.

Nope. No discount on AC4 on steam during the sale. It was on for 50% off at Amazon about a week ago. Yep, it was just on Amazon to Prime members. I have it under my Christmas tree thanks to that sale right now. I looked at it here, but for some reason they only knocked about £5 off it at Amazon.co.uk.

TV Drinking Games Star Trek: Voyager Take one drink when: Something that ought to be irreplaceable is lost or destroyed. The show tries to interest you in Kes' love life. The holographic doctor does something adorable. Seven of Nine shows that she knows everything the Borg know about everything in the universe, but doesn't understand basic human stuff. Drink and chaser when: Janeway says she's not changing her mind about something, and then changes her mind 10 minutes later. Shipper bonus ****tail: When Janeway and Chakotay show obvious signs of romantic tension. Swig from bottle when: The crew wastes all their time worrying about their latest holodeck scenario when they're trapped hundreds of light years from home. Game of Thrones Take one drink when: Daenerys screams about her dragons, or anything else. There's pointless nudity to bribe us into listening to a lecture about the history of the Targaryens. Varys or Littlefinger tell the truth and nobody listens to them. Tywin or Lady Olenna put the smackdown on someone. Drink and chaser when: Someone makes a dreadful decision, that you can tell will lead to ruin even if you haven't read the books. Swig from bottle when: There's insane sadism, mutilation or general inhumanity depicted right on the screen. Arrow Take one drink when: Ollie being awesome dissolves to a flashback of Island Ollie being a twerp. Diggle proves that he's right about everything and totally the best at everything. Felicity steals another scene. Every time Ollie takes his shirt off for no reason. Drink and chaser when: Ollie looks guilt-stricken for his past mistakes, and/or someone is yelling at Ollie for being such a jerk. Swig from bottle when: Another DC Comics character is introduced, and is handled better than anything in Green Lantern. Blake's 7 Take one drink when: Avon says something brilliantly sarcastic. Vila is hilariously cowardly and lovable. Dayna comes out with some awesome new weapon. Travis acts like a maniac. Shipper bonus ****tail: Whenever Blake and Avon stare at each other and talk about how much they love/hate each other. Drink and chaser when: One of the computers on the show serves up an awesome burn to the stupid humans. Swig from bottle when: Servalan shows up wearing another amazing outfit and either kills someone or seduces someone or both in the same moment.

io9 - Yellowstone's Megavolcano is more than twice the beast it was thought to be

I have to admit, I grabbed the email and GTN kiosk on ship, just for saving all the running around at times.

Be careful getting stuck with Windows 8 on it. I know there was some grief over media player no longer comes bundled with DVD reading software as standard or some such. Also, for consideration, I know you said no minimum size for your screen, but will you have to show people any models or shiny images for your work? Or will you be able to project any presentations?

Getting woken up in the early hours of the morning by a large dog bursting into your room, leaping onto your bed, and landing on sensitive areas does not make for a good start to the weekend...

Okay, to take a spin away from the bikini range at the moment..

While I don't have a firm grasp on all the details, I have heard that wind turbines really aren't that efficient or that cost effective for the amount of power they do produce. They tend to be more of a.. feel good / pr thing that of practical use in providing power to a city. They can be good for small remote places that don't need much power, but you'd need a ridiculous amount of them to equal a small "traditional" power station.