Raithe

Woke up this morning with that odd mix of laying so comfortably I really didn't want to get up.. but with that annoying pokey headache just lurking on the edges which wouldn't actually let me settle back properly. Then we got the phone call from family about one of my cousins just died. Looks like meningitis. She went through her graduation ceremony the other week, then this week gets rushed into hospital, and suddenly slips into a coma and then brain death with no-one at the hospital realising just what it was she had. Apparently they just thought she had some generic virus right up until she hit the coma.

Hm, so I've just got the notice that I'm in the weekend on the Saturday 10am CST time slot.. dang it..which translates to about 4pm gmt... and I've got a friends birthday party in the evening..

Well since all the Fallout New Vegas dlc is out and on sale, I've decided to pick them up finally.. now I just need to be in the right mood to replay the game again...

Not directly science..but still, it's something DARPA are kicking around.. DARPA attempts to "game-ify" software verification techniques

Download limits, so 1990s, but that's what you get when you live in a 3rd world country. I'm going to try out Trooper because it's the most interesting class and NOT available for Empire (which sucks). My main at launch will most likely be Sith Sorc healer. I hope I get the full weekend to test, accepted invitation early Monday and had it installed during the evening. Download rates went up and down but were somewhere between 4-6MBit/s the whole time. Heh, I thoroughly enjoy my unlimited broadband.. so I'm blithely ignoring that issue, although I read a lot of comments about it from various people. Hm, I'm considering trying out the Trooper myself to start off the beta weekend, I think while it looks like it has a few interesting features, it's probably the class I'm not going to play in the near future when I get the game proper.

Heh, there's a fair amount of nerd-rage on the TOR forums over the realisation that it's a staggered beta test, so a chunk of people won't get into the game until sunday, thereby giving them about 14 hours to play the game. Apparently they're missing the fact that it's a stress test Beta, not a free demo, and not something they're entitled to. They volunteered to be beta testers, and they haven't spent money on getting the game... If it's going to kill a large chunk of your monthly download limit, then I can understand some annoyance factor - but that just means you have to weigh just how worth it is to you for the potential 14 hours of playing around..

Hm, and in the book line.. apparently Anne Mccaffrey has passed away, aged 85. She brought us the assorted Dragonriders of Pern.. but also the Ship Who Sang, and that helped pave a whole subgenre of sci-fi.

While their web server is absolutely hammered, I got the download at a nice, steady 3.30MB/s. And I'm making some headway at 793 kb/s...

Popped along some research for work related efforts.. juggled the attention seeking dogs. Hm, and the joys of my sister. Trying to find out if she was eating with the family.. Her: "What?! I've a had a bleepy day at work , okay." Me: "Right, so you're taking that out on the rest of the family?" Her: "I was planning on ignoring you all, but you wanted to talk to me, so deal with it." Oh the joys.

I managed a relatively fun time over the weekend and tonight on Saints Row the Third. Some lines and sets do push the humour buttons. Burt Reynolds for one.. And then for the surreal aspect, zombies. That kind of comes out of the blue.

It ships out on 20th December, pre-orders will have (potentially) be playing it up to 5 days before then... They did say that they won't lock you in to servers depending on your location (ie, those in Europe could join the American servers if they didn't think the lag would be bad) or such like, but that might have changed in the couple of months since they'd considered that. So I imagine it would be quite possible for the Obs folks interested in it to end up sharing a server at the end of the day for at least one character..

Ah, you must have missed the finale.. He survived, was chatting happily with them during the celebrations.

Poked at work, had plumbing issues, so had to spend a chunk of time with the cistern and workings of the downstairs toilet. The fun of 30+ year old systems and lead piping... Hm, was supposed to be geared up to play Saints Row.. but for some reason it hasn't arrived yet. Dang it, they sent it out yesterday and now it's floating somewhere out in the postal system...

Heh, i've got Saints Row the Third supposed to be turning up tomorrow.. and then I've got the "we'd like to invite you to the beta test of SWTOR for the weekend of the 18th and 19th" I do believe there might be some time cramming in there... Decisions, decisions.

Okay, not so much funny as more wtf.. but.. Frozen Planet Climate Change episode pulled by Discovery Channel - because viewers don't believe in Climate Change

I can't quite figure out if I didn't get any sleep last night, or if I was just stuck in that doze in and out of conciousness every half hour state... Urf. Nearly midday and I'm still trying to feel somewhat awake and lively.

Hm, I've only ever actually played.. Final Fantasy.. VII. No.. actually it was VIII. Yes, the one with Squall, Rinoa and Balamb Garden.

SWTOR had over 1 million hours of testing last beta weekend

Hm, proceeding along the day. Have a slight pressure headache in the background. Juggling the dogs and assorted chores looking after mom. Although it seems with the pressure changes from the weather its kicking off a chunk of her joint pains to add to the fun, so she's tending to hit her pain meds more and doze a touch. Some poking at work. I keep having small "zone out" moments. I should probably give some thought to lunch in a moment..

I might have overloaded on some potassium last night. About 5 bananas diced, then built a layer in the base of a pyrex bowl, scattered sultanas across, coated in brown sugar, sprinkled cinnamon, splashed some rum , a bit of cream across... then repeated building layers like that until all the banana was used up. Then in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes...

Good old Games sounds clarion against DRM

Walked in on someone channel surfing and caught a piece of "The Only Way is Essex" or whatever that program is called. One of those annoying reality fly-on-the-wall documentary type of shows... and good god. The myth of the Essex-Girl is alive, well and totally proved. One of the girls (in their twenties) actually turned around and did this "Wow, did you realise the sun and moon are actually two different planets? I always used to think they were like, the same thing. Just one side was dark when it turned towards us at night and the other side was light during the day.." And she was totally, utterly serious.

Hm, one of the reasons that I'm avoiding Skyrim at the moment is that I got suckered into pre-ordering Oblivion due to my love of Morrowind. Then I found it to be a game that while brilliant on many technical aspects, actually was incredibly lacking in soul and fairly uninteresting to actually play... I take it that people are finding Skyrim to actually be an enjoyable game?

And for the sideline introduction.. Getting Fit the Skyrim Way...

There's nothing I'm really in the right mood to play at the moment.. I guess I'll just wait till friday and I'll probably spend a chunk of the weekend being a little silly in Saints Row.