Raithe

A chunk of the 2nd mission gameplay for Saints Row the Third... Skies over Steelport Although warning, the language is probably nsfw if anyone tries watching it in public

Well for the random interest.. I ended up picking up an MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin-Frozr which seems to be certainly a lot smoother and quieter then my old card. Also dug into the savings to pick up a nice 24" LED widescreen monitor, and changing to that dvi connection provides a little bit crisper and sharper image. So... I'm happy. If more broke.

Apparently a recent psychological study in San Diego has produced evidence that spoilers can actually increase enjoyment in reading books or watching films... Spoiler's don't ruin enjoyment...

Righty-ho, on the slightly cheerier note for the day, I've just spent the last couple of hours getting out to pick up the new graphics card and monitor, then uninstalling the old one, doing one major de-dust and cleanup, and install the new ones, plus the whole update software and assorted minor "admin" things related. Now it's all nice and shiny. I'm pondering whether to attempt to have the old monitor as a 2nd screen for the current setup... But right now I'm going to grab a fresh cup of tea and do a stop and pause for a moment.

Depending on your relationships with great difficulty. Or with really warped humour. Case in point - one of my australian cousins was discovered to have multiple brain tumours just before christmas one year, and my mother was flying out a few months into the new year to visit the family there. Derrek refused to have chemo because as he said "it's fatal regardless of what they do, but I'd rather have a few clearheaded months to spend time with my family and build memories for them, then to drag everyone down for a 5 months while I feel crap and can't do anything." Anyhow, he insisted he would be at the airport to meet mom. My mother's response "Just as long as you're not counting your wife at the arrivals gate holding a bucket with your ashes as meeting me." Which he did get a laugh out of. They were batting that back and forth over christmas time. Unfortuntely, he did pass away before she arrived. But when mom landed, his wife was waiting there. With a bucket.

Honest Logos

Nasa releasing fresh pictures from the Mars Rover after 13 miles and a three year journey... New Pictures of Mars Crater

Another one of those questions and answers which might be of interest to the folks around here...

The original Buffy the Vampire Slayer Album - the assorted bands that played at the club during the series. I don't know why, but whenever I hear some of those songs playing it either puts me in a very Shadowrun frame of mind, or brings up memory of old dates/gf. Temptation Waits - Garbage

With the petition for including it in ME3 hitting 1,100 so far.. I thought I'd reintroduce this one which while technically not a proper game theme..

Paracetamol's generally not that good for headaches, at least if they are muscle-based. Anti-inflammatory stuff, generally ibuprofen around here, tends to work a lot better. Of course, if it's a migraine, then you're buggered. Well technically, they're a paracetamol, aspirin & caffeine combo. Pretty much just a general pain relief masking the symptoms and letting you get on with the day rather then curative Edit: 200mg paracetamo, 300mg aspirin, 45 mg caffeine, and some sorbitol.

Well.. it's kind of like the police doing to the rioters.. what the rioters were doing to some normal people.. Police Raid Rioters Homes..

Have a grinding headache that's kicked in something chronic over the afternoon which hasn't been the most fun, and the weather's turning grey and a touch grim. Also, my graphics card has crashed one time too many. So I think I'm going to have to give in to the inevitable before it damages my mother board and go out and pick up a new one manana. The joys of the credit card and then breaking into some of the savings. Of course, my sister returns home with the dogs this weekend as well after a week away, so I guess it's a good idea to be able to put in new hardware without the furbags around and getting in the way. But for the moment, i think a fresh cup of tea and some paracetamol.

Today has started well. I woke up, started taking care of assorted things, but there were all sorts of little things off. Then a few general inconsistencies , but I plowed on with some work, had some brain waves for various things that I made notes of, then.. things started getting a touch more odd. Finally it all collided together with some outright logical insonsistencies and I suddenly realised I was dreaming. I woke up (properly this time) and found I'd overslept. And now I can't remember any of those bloody brain waves, and I'm caught in that "have i taken care of this/done that work, or was that only in the dream" kind of fuzziness

It's the chemistry between the three presenters. They're sincere, enthusiastic, and extremely unconcerned with being politically correct when they're all as giddy as schoolgoys about cars. And Top Gear is something like the next biggest export for the BBC after Doctor Who to the world...

Heh, one of the leading crop of e-petitions at the government site.. Rioters should lose Benefits

And if you just want the tv version, I think it was the BBC that did three of the books as 90 minute "films" this last year.. entitled "Zen" and with Rufus Sewell in the lead role

So mom's pre-op was today.. and that was a joyful 3 hours and a bit.... They realised they had to cancel fridays surgery because it was booked for the wrong anesthotologist. Then they had other realisations, such as finally noting that her notes mentioned she has MRSA and the history of complications and drug reactions and then they look at the medicine she's on... So getting it all rescheduled and the fact that they might end up having to take a day surgery and turning it into 3 days or so of potential testing before-hand to be on the safe side and various other aspects... Go medicine.

A nice turn of article from a magazine written by kids that got twitted by Neil Gaiman as a "sane editorial" Riots - The Voice of Youth

That's not the whole truth, isn't it? Germany and Austria for example only fully opened the labor market to Eastern Europe this May 1th. Granted, the EU makes a lot of pressure, but letting everyone in en masse is more the fault of Westminster rather then Brussels. It's half and half. It's a chunk of the labour government a few decades ago, and it's Blairs fault for signing certain EU treaties even though most of the country didn't actually want them. Throw in the welfare system that is so cheerfully abused by a certain portion of the population... Hm, for a couple of the worst stories (at least in their own way): One couple wandered out into the streets with their baby girl in a wheelchair to yell insults at the police, when a reporter talked to them the young twentysomething father was all "This is brilliant, we heard it was all kicking off here on twitter and came right here. I wanted my daughter to see what was going on because this is part of history, the people are fighting back." We've literally got packs of teenagers causing this now. How are riot police meant to handle mobs of 8-15 year olds who are throwing stones and petrol bombs? I mean, if the police have to resort to physically restraining them they'll end up crucified by large sections of the press. The description that seems to be going around today pretty much sums it up "packs of feral rats".

Actually, part of it is also the whole "open border immigration" thing pushed along by the EU. We've actually got a fair few of those yob gangs are romanian and eastern european immigrants. Hell, we have an extremist moslem who was refused entry because of his suspected ties to certain organisations.. he managed to get into the country illegally, was discovered within a week but we had to let him remain and even claim benefits because he pulled the whole "EU human rights" thing to stop us kicking him back to where he came from. One of the things that the police have been saying is that they don't want to have to start cracking heads to get peace because for the last century and a half the british bobby has generally worked with the community to solve problems rather then enforcing in heavy handed manners. The moment they do start firing rubber bullets and bringing the hammer down, it's going to have a serious effect. But at the moment with the general public worry, and the fact that most people are away it's more a surge of pure criminality rather then political indignation, I think a lot of the public wouldn't find it too objectionable.

Plus.. I would say that the key news and example is from the pre-launch build that was shown to reporters about 4 months ago and they were still tightening up some of the elements... Who is to say that the adverts as shown in that are the exact way it'll be handled when the games released?

Well over the course of last night Copycats kicked off in Manchester, and some in Birmingham and Nottingham as well as some continuation within London. But from what I've heard it's not so much angry rioters as again, groups of yobs trying to take advantage of the public worry and general sense of chaos. They had a bit over 16,000 police in London and a few armoured vehicles patrolling the streets. The rumours of potential Army involvement keep spinning around. Oh, and of course now there are the conspiracy theorists at work, trying to suggest that a lot of the rioting/looting done by masked individuals isn't so much as criminals but black-ops agents of the evil government as a means of building an excuse to "repress the poor". The fact that a group of looters knocked over a fancy dress store to steal masks to wear when they hit some shops down the street apparently got ignored by the people who started that one up...

The question is if they lied or if they were mistaken. As I said, if you're going after a known armed criminal, and he happens to be holding a gun.. If you hear what sounds like a gunshot, you'll probably take a shot at him. Okay, so it turns out afterwards when they do the after action report he didnt, but you thought he did, you'll report what you perceived even if it ends up that you were wrong. I'm just saying it doesn't automatically mean they were lying. Edit: and remember, the armed police over here have to go through a ridiculous amount of psychological testing and other assorted testing before they get on the armed response squads. It's pretty much one of those "if you ask to get on it, you'll be turned down" type of career options in the police.

True. Even the family of the guy who was killed are saying they're shocked and surprised by the riots and wished that the civil unrest wasn't happening.