Raithe

Oh, and after a hospital visit this afternoon, more fun stuff with doctors. Aka, the bone doctor who flat out said that "that's the worst knee I've seen. All bone is on bone, the joints, the knee-cap. The mobility issues and pain that causes must seriously impair quality of life" combined with how hip and spine are worsening.. He followed that with the whole "if I had my way, I'd have you in this afternoon to do the replacement and at least deal with that." Add lengthy pause, before the "Buuut, with all of the other issues going on, I'm just not confident that there wouldn't be any other complications due to all the other issues, so we aren't going to do it." Which leads into him covering his ass, and organising yet more time for the various specialities to write letters to each other, without ever actually doing anything... All of this has my mother in a very good mood...

Hm, having an odd start to the morning here. I have to admit, after having to spend the better part of 18 days with the groom's family during that trip to Mexico, I was really quite glad when we got back to have that time away and plenty of my own personal space. But for some reason I'm having that slight disconnect today, especially since apart from a chunk of last saturday, I haven't actually talked to anyone in person outside my family in the couple of weeks since I got back. Also, I definitely miss the fun flirty banter I got to engage in with the various pretty women in Mexico. Nothing serious or taken far, just.. fun and making them smile. Heh, of course now pretty much all of them are now in-laws of one sort or another to my friend... So having a slow cup of tea, and trying to figure what has me all discombobulated as the morning rolls on.

Heh, funny thing, it was built a fair few centuries before the Aztecs built what would later become Mexico City. They found it abandoned, and literally did teh "hey, we have no idea how to build something like this, so if we can't do it..no-one can. It MUST be the work of the GODS!!" So it become one of the central points of their religion that the Gods build that city when they created the world.... Edit: Oh, and to the size of the place? There are still a large number of the smaller pyramids that are still buried, as of yet they haven't been uncovered or excavated yet....

It could be worse. You could have woken up from a night out drunk with friends and found the writing on a lot of other places...

That's the thing, a well-run goblin or kobold encounter can be just incredibly vicious if they get the whole ambush, mob, snare/trap aspect rolling along. They are not stand and fight creatures, it's all about the hit and run and sneaky, devious, underhanded whittle away. They will attempt to cripple, blind, bleed, poison, infect.....

And to prove I made it up there.. The view from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun: And looking incredibly touristy and casual in my elegance..

Also, the views from Teotihuacan..

Since we have this thread, I suppose I really should throw up a few shots from my time away in Mexico.... Views at the nice little hotel we stayed in for the few days of the wedding "proper" : And yes, t he groom as prepped just before we left for the church:

Having a few nights of awkward sleep. I guess at least last night I managed to get some sleep, even if it was just faling asleep, waking up suddenly, half dozing off, repeat for hours.. The previous night I just ended up staring at the ceiling until some time around 5am or so before actually dropping off. Potentially that's catching up with this morning, but we'll see how the day shapes up.

The Esseles (republic) and Black Talon (imperial) are probably the flashpoints that are more story-centric, dialogue, and have potential choices that change how they play out. The majority of the rest are pretty much the same regardless of whether you're playing Imp or Rep - Except the story specific Revan related paired flashpoints that crop up around level 33-36. Although I will say it is surprisingly satisfying to finally be able to shoot Grand Moff Kilran in the face.

For the connections of the manly arts of camping on the other thread... I present to you "Macho Tent!"

Hm, and Origin have all the Kingdoms of Amalur dlc at half price at the moment. Decisions, decisions....

Picked up a cheap Kingdoms of Amalur via Amazon , I'll see how much that can distract me over the next week...

I wouldn't put it in quite that vein. After all, there are times when you can have a really great story in a game that you're enjoying, and then you end up with some annoying as get out, grindy, nonsensical and fairly meaningless bossfight that isn't about skill, technique or character.. but about mashing a few keys repetitively to avoid the boss attacks, while you slowly whittle down their 200k+ hit points using only specific moves because the bastard is invulnerable except in specific instances... If orgasm was like that, people really would stop having sex..

Heh, one of my friends did the Three Peaks Challenge last year. Which for those who don't know, is the mix of speed-camping and mountain climbing - As in, going up and down the three higheset peaks in the UK within 24 hours. The fun thing was that his dad did it with him, and that was about 10 months after he'd had a heart attack...

On regards to the Superman front, I have to say, yes Reeves managed to pull off both the Superman/Clark Kent role incredibly well. I'll always remember that scene that highlights the differences between the two "roles" when as Clark Kent he was about to tell Lois the truth..and his body posture completely altered and he kind of.. "unstretched" and it was like "wow, superman in a business suit".. then he suddenly changes his mind and his body language retreats into the completely awkward Kent. That was very subtle physical acting. But as to Lex Luthor.. Hackman's was just way too camp and tongue in cheek, and while Spacey is a great actor, his Luthor just kept me thinking of Norman Bates for some reason... I think I have to favour John Shea's Lex from the New Adventures of Superman. That just managed to portray him brilliantly, the mix of charisma, manipulation, balancing public persona with private mastermind. One minute charming and affable, the sort of guy who could win personal loyalty and respect , and then the next moment utterly ruthless and diabolical who could potentially scare the bejeebuz out of you.

Yeah, I have to admit, this one is really annoying to me as well. You'd hope that in a few months they roll an update for the pc version.. but.. I kind of doubt that.

The massed bands of the Royal Marines performing Two Steps From Hell - Invincible at the Royal Albert Hall amidst a few other ditties... Edit: Note the Two Steps From Hell starts at around the 03:30 mark...

The last time I went camping was a three day "stag do" camp out in the wilderness in the middle of English November in the woods. It was fun, if cold. The groom's father happens to be some major dude in the scout movement here, so he pretty much organised the camping side, the equipment, and setting up a few fun/interesting things during our time out there including soem basic camping lessons, fire building, knife handling, axe throwing, etc.. and besides having the keep the camp fire burning, the tepee tents which were pretty damn amazing, we did drag along a fair amount of whiskey, tequila, and assorted other extras. Safety, the name of the game.. I think in a lot of ways, camping can come down to the atmosphere of who you happen to go camping with. Or your mental state if you're camping on your own...

I have to admit I'm puzzled with FFG over it. I mean, they have a fairly good system for all the WH40k rpg's they developed. Albeit, they keep altering some of the basic mechanics between them while keeping most of them. Psychic Rules, hell, even the Toxic trait of creatures is handled completely differently depending on whether you have Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Space Marine or whatever. Then they go and produce some really weird mishmash that runs completely differently on Warhammer Fantasy... Lots of pretty pictures, but feels quite horrible to get into mechanics wise.

Dabbling on and off with TOR and the expansion. But can't really get myself into the mood to play for hours. Nor any other games really catching my interest right at the moment...

Yeah, I've been using a great duckdown sleeping bag that is literally older then I am. My dad picked it up when he was in his 20's and the damn thing is still going strong. And from all accounts of the people I've gone camping with, it's still warmer then the modern bags they use. Edit: And note for today, procrastination seems to be catching. Seems pretty much everybody in the family has been doing it, and I don't think I've managed to achieve anything today...

Is this time to start up a "Men of the Woods" meme?