Raithe

Cat Run. A movie that can't quite decide if it's a comedy or a thriller or what.. Catalina, a single mother who happens to be a hooker is hired for an orgy in Montenegro - with an Eastern European Weapons Dealer as the host - and a corrupt US Senator who accidentally kills one of the girls, which results in the security attempting to kill all the girls there as part of a cover up... Cat manages to get out and goes on the run with evidence of what happened, whilst the bad guys try to find her, the evidence and destroy it all. The unlikely heroes of the piece being a couple of young Americans who are just opening a private detective agency in the area and get involved trying to find Cat thinking her father will reward them.. Add a seeker/assassin who is basically a very cold, "evil" version of Mary Poppins who hunts them for half the film, before ending up trying to protect them becaus she gets crossed by the people who hired her.. Some amusing moments, but the fact that it can't seem to make up it's mind of exactly what its trying to be loses it points. The actors are playing characters too straight for it to be comedy, but they're a bit too wacky/out-there or overacted to be part of a proper thriller.

Picked up a bottle of Warre's Quinta da Cavadinha vintage port (1996) and some 12 year old Glenfiddich for the engagement party. Hm, of course now that means I'll probably have to figure out a way to take a proper glass decanter along since I don't think they have one .. Have a bunch of potentially useful or possibly interesting work related documents to read through as well. The german shephard has managed to break his front teeth by running/jumping into the stone bird bath in the garden (he was meaning to chase the frisbee and somehow lost direction).. And I just blissed the cat out by giving him a rather thorough brushing.

Been somewhat tired and cranky and all that. So since I've had to spend a chunk on various things this last week or so, I decided to have a splurge for myself and really shatter my budget this week. Picked up a pair of Arturo Fuente Anejo 77's, and a Montecristo no.4 for this engagement party I'm going to, still have to head out to find a really good bottle of port. Splashed out on some books, and a random-make-her-smile gift for a friend.

I'm not so sure of that, since Warzones give you rewards even without the assorted "daily/weekly" missions you can pick up that relate to them. So there's getting extra cash for doing them, and the warzone commendations which some people push to pick up the pvp gear... The flashpoints are similar, plus I know a few folks who overlevel , then pretty much solo the flashpoints to get the story side experience, plus some basic credits/loot or farm light/dark side points.

For the amusing anecdote - back during unversity, one of my friends got a waterproof cellphone because he was into scuba and such. So he was bragging about it and showing it off to us at the pub. To prove how good it was, he then dropped it in his pint. Several seconds went by, and then he suddenly realised he was supposed to put a small plug in the powersocket on the phone first. By the time he fished it out.. let's just say his phone was a touch..inebriated.

Well post-merging, there's pretty much a solid 2-300 people on Fleet most evenings, and during the afternoon's there's quite often 40-70 people on planets. - And we're talking UK time zones here, so I imagine if you're in America and using the East Coast servers it would be a bit more significant. Gualt was/is a bit annoying, but I found once past tattooine the BH cleared up some. Alderaan had its ups and downs, but the whole getting adopted into Mandalore's clan, and doing the Blacklist hunting was interesting. My BH is now at 45. Which has him balancing with my Jedi Knight, I don't want to actually run Belsavis with both of them around the same time, so I'm deciding which to concentrate on, and potentially have some poke at other classes at lower levels again. I've got two level 50 characters (Smuggler and Sith Inquisitor), and a Sith Warrior just hitting 31. I've just filled out the last 3 characters on the server with the Imperial Agent, Jedi Consular, and Trooper. Not going to really play them now, but I've got them to poke at later and see what the stories are like.

Finished off Prototype 2. Not bad, felt a little short, and while the gameplay in general had some handling improvements compared to the first, the character of Heller is just.. bland and fairly stupid. For a guy who is supposed to have been a valorous, highly trained and decorated soldier - even if he's blinded by rage and a need for vengeance - he's just surpisingly dull and non-smart. And then they end it on that potential hang out for a third game. Which of course, will likely never happen with Radical's layoffs and shift to being a "support group" for other Activision titles.

I think my exotic travel happened when I was a kid. My mother used to work for P&O when I was growing up, so we'd manage to get relatively not-so-expensive cruises in. Down West Africa, around the Med, up the Bosphorus.. Although hitting Odessa and Yalta during glasnost days in the early 90's was kind of interesting. It was always slightly bizarre to see Sierra Leone in the news and recognise streets of Freetown I'd walked when I was 8 years old.. And being about a mile off-shore of Madeira on new years eve and seeing the whole island light up with the fireworks displays is one that's going to stick with me. Compared to that, in the past ten years, I think I've only managed to get out of the country once, and that was a flight to California for a friends wedding. Hm, although I do have another wedding in Mexico next year that I've got to renew my passport for..

As I'm actually residing in merry olde england.. I'm going to do my best to ignore the tv and all the olympic related waffle going on..

Felt like some general silly violence, so having a poke at Prototype 2. Carnage can be fun.

When I flew out to San Diego a few years back, I had to change at Charlotte NC. Got various grief from the security guys there, after having cleared all the security at Heathrow the ones at Charlotte decided that my grandfather's tiepin I'd inherited had to be confiscated or mailed back to my home rather then be allowed to continue to fly with me, because it turns out (and I didn't know it until they found it) it has a small 4 mm blade concealed inside it. Of course, the other trouble I had was the intense urge to start mimicing their accents. I had to keep stopping myself from adopting that whole southern drawl. I just didn't think it would add that well to the hassle I was getting...

I can't make up my mind on the new Batman. There were bits I liked and bits that just..didn't feel right. I'm not sure where it ended up balancing. I actually worked through the "Harper's Island" mini-series last week during my lack of internet. That was quite decent. 13 episodes to tell one serious horror/murder mystery style thing. Almost like a slasher film, just done in 13 45 minute episodes, with a lot more plot, intelligence and character to it. Along with the "who'se going to get killed and how in this episode?" vibe to it..

I've heard the tailors in Hong Kong are fan-tabulistic. As in for a really good price you can get a bloody good hand-tailored suit rather then just some off-the-rack thing... Edit: On the personal note, survived one of the worst freaking migraines I've had in ages today. Now I'm forcing myself to eat something adn re-hydrate. That and the important things of checking email and forums now that I can look at a computer screen without piercing agony flaring up in my forebrain...

Had a go at Batman Arkham City, enjoyed some of the wandering around and the combat still has that fluid feel of the first game. Nothing too different or new, but generally entertaining, and Mark Hamill voicing the Joker still does a rather fantabulous job. Guess it'll be one to while away an hour here or there over the next few weeks.

And on the slightly divergent process, it looks like Catalyst Games have just released a "Shadowrun 2050" book - so the current generation of pnp rules can be used to play back in the "good old days" of original Shadowrun..

Now that I'm back online I was able to finish downloading Space Marines via Steam.. so I'm about to give that a try and see how it feels..

Aahhhh. Been without internet access for the last 8 days. Technical difficulties finally resolved Man, it's good to get it back before the withdrawal really got going. But damn, email and all sorts to deal with now...

Hm, weird. I've noticed for one-on-one the Jedi Knight (mine is Sentinel) can be quite a killer. Not so great with mobs en-masse unless you can focus and control.. but definitely got more bang then say, the Sith Assassin (which is really sucky versus mobs). I have to say, after having started off with a Sith Assassin, and then a Smuggler.. the shift to playing characters like the Bounty Hunter with heavy armor is really bloody noticable.

Poking around on Crusader Kings 2. Made up a Genius King of Georgia, and so far I've managed to marry a Byzantine Princess and somehow my son is now heir to the Byzantine Empire..

hm, picked up Space Marine for just over

Well I picked up Crusader Kings 2 and Lost Horizon.. Put a couple of things on wishlist so I'll see if they go into daily deals at any point soon..

Got an invitation to a friends engagement party / bbq in a few weeks. So currently perusing online cigar shops to see what I can pick up. My friend is engaged to a nice lady from mexico, and whenever he travelled there he came back with some fine cigars he always shared out. Since his fiancee has been in the UK studying for the last year, he hasn't travelled and picked up any new ones.. So I'm thinking of turning up with some cigars and port along with the usual suspects.. But good gawd, I understand why he always said he loved cigar shopping in Mexico, the prices in the UK are high. I'm recognising names and brands we've smoked, that he always chuckled over picking up for $10 or $20 and they're costing silly money here.

Okay, its changed in the last few years. What it used to be was that you got a "Student Grant" from the government that covered basic tuition if your family earned under x amount. As the amount of money your family made went up, the amount the Student Grant covered went down. What the government has also set up, is a system of "Student Loans" which you can take out that cover the cost of tuition as well each year, have a ridiculously small interest rate, and you only have to pay back when you earn over x amount per year. If you hit 45 without ever getting an income over that amount, the debt is wiped. A few years back, they scrapped the student grants and basically shifted everything to the Student Loans side of the market. I knew folks who would take out the loans, stick them in high interest accounts and plan to not touch them for the years they were at uni, pay them back and keep the interest. Of course, by the end of 3 or 4 years, the number that actually didn't touch that money was quite a bit smaller then those who planned not to touch it .. Of course, if you switch degree courses, or have to retake a year, that's not actually covered in the money you get access to, so that's purely from your own pocket from the get go..

If you get through all the qualifying examinations and wotnot. That and the assortment of testing and usual "sell yourself to the univeristy" thing you have to do... Edit: But that's just tuition fees note. That's not covering living expenses, books/study materials, the cost of booze and wild parties.. and all that jazz..