Raithe

It actually worked a lot like the trains here.. Although trying to make sure it's not looking back with rose-tinted specs and all.. They seemed to run a lot more efficiently when they were Nationalised. Which is bloody strange by anything run by the government... But the things get privatised.. and they seem to have both gone to hell.

Heh, I kind of had to put up with the reverse of that. A whole batch of Northeners who'd ended up at my university down south..and they spent a lot of time hassling the non-northeners about being effete slackers and class douchebags regardless of whether the people they hasled were from a good or bad background. I never could figure out why they all ended up down here if they hated the people so much, since there are some quite decent Universities up north. Cultural wars do seem to go back and forth a lot without much reason behind them...

Technically... The Protheans didn't build the Citadel. They found it , just like the Asari and all the rest did... But that's getting a little nit-picky.

Hm, having that rather annoying situation where I pulled out the credit card the other day for Steam.. and now I can't find the bloody thing anywhere..

And did you realise that actually was Boxleitner's real life wife? But no matter what happens, or how space opera it gets.. there's so many good lines and snappy dialogue coming out of various characters..

While the North spends way too much time following Big Brother and Katie Price... I'll have you know I ignore as much celebrity news as I can.. Although if you exchange office politics for family politics you might be closer....

Finished the first act of Secret of Monkey Island.. I can see the amusement of it..but it's not pulling me in like Fate of Atlantis did.. I'll keep going tomorrow maybe and see how it goes. Picked up AI War Fleet Command bundle in the sale.. have to figure out a time to have a poke at that.

The trouble is.. are you talking Beer, Ale or Lager?

I realised I'd never actually gotten around to playing the Monkey Island games.. so thought I'd pick them up in the sale..

Yeah , politics and such within groups can be a pain. The guy who tended to enjoy being a DM for my old group basically refused to look at anything that wasn't traditional western fantasy. So trying to get him to experiment with other systems or settings was always a bit of a drag. That and he loved "low-level" type of stuff, so no matter how long you played in his campaigns, he'd keep treating the characters as if they were zero-level dweebs and when you started reaching the point where it was natural for characters to have influence in the world.. he'd get tired and want to start another campaign. The other guy who would DM from that group tended to get a bit whimsical at times..and his sister was one of the players. So we'd tend to find she'd corner him for some one-on-one rpg time for her characters when no-one else was around.. which can get a little annoying. Especially when you have evil campaigns where everyones ready to backstab each other.. But yes, I think I still stand with Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition as one of the more fun and flexible systems that I've played around with.

Guiness Record - Red, White and Dead Zombie Walk

The latest video..

It always amuses me the way history twists.. The French King provided money for weapons to the Americans.. mostly as a way to aggravate the English. But the very success of the American Independence... helped inspire the revolution in France. Edit: And they originally based Mel Gibsons character on a real guy..until they realised the rapes and brutality to slaves that the historical one committed might be classed as "not-quite-heroic" so they decided to go the fictional route..

The Steampunk Bible - A fully illustrated compendium tracing the roots and history of the subculture from the founding fathers of Jules Verne & H.G. Wells, to the modern day and the community of craftsmen and artists that continue to spread it... Arrived today and I've been flicking through a few pages here and there.. definitely one for the quirky interest.

No, we're educated that we were like the Roman Empire. We brought good things and bad things. But everybody likes to make cheap shots and only talk about the bad things, and make the case that everyone that wasn't the British Empire were pure and white and totally concerned with goodness on their side...

Nonsense. All my delusions are about Godhood. I mean, if you're going to have delusions, you have to make sure that they're the really satisfying ones.

Well the thing there is that it was actually being kept quiet. They'd managed to get Harry out there and he'd been working on the ground for a bit without anyone realising. The British press were asked to keep quiet about it, which they did. It was thought that if it became known, it would paint a big-ass target on the prince and his unit. It was only when the American press figured it out and started reporting on it that everyone had to write about it. Of course, I always liked that she sued The Sun for breach of copyright, then when she won, had them donate the money to charity. I think people forget that the Royal Family is a lot like the iceberg metaphor. What you see isn't all that there is, or what they're actually doing.

Charles reached the position of commanding a naval vessel that took part in a lot of anti-drug operations. Andrew was flying helicopters during the Falklands war, and the more recent issue, Harry was out in the sandbox, and is due to be headed back soon. William is involved in a lot of search and rescue. So you class none of that as military service? The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended over 900 events last year. How many people of their age do you know who keep working with that sort of schedule? And that they'll pretty much be doing that till they die. Look at how busy the Queen Mother was right up until the end.

Gee, do people like to paint a generic picture of our Royalty because they don't have any of their own? Fine, taking out the purely figurehead aspect of our Monarchy, the traditions behind it, the tourism and national image/identity.. What does that leave us with, oh, well, there's the international influence/diplomacy aspect we get from them. The way the government can use them for goodwill tours and such.. The way they happen to have lifelong training behind being a certain type of diplomat for the nation.. compared to so many who are just politicians there for a couple of terms of office.. You might not agree with it, but a lot of people still react a certain way when presented with a reigning monarch or their immediate family. Then of course the assorted military service they're all expected to do.. and just because they're royalty doesn't stop them being put in harm's way while they serve. On a more personal level, Charles for onedoes an awful lot of charity work, and puts large chunks of his personal fortune behind those he believes in.. Duty, responsibility, sure those might be dirty words to a lot of people these days but a lot of the royal family put serious consideration into them.

I'm pretty sure in one of the old interviews they make mention that you can't activate everything in a single game... So specific playstyle is encouraged rather then a "i can do everything" approach. But I might just be imagining that...

Wife tries sneaking huband out of jail in a suitcase...

Urf, well the weekend was spend doing mass laundry, cleaning and all post flea-discovery on the cat. Then found a flea on the puppy yesterday, so that was immediate anti-flea shampoo baths for all the animals again. Kind of unfocused today. Trying to figure out what actually needs doing , but I seem to keep sliding thoughts off and dealing with utterly random things that aren't really achieving much. So a fresh cup of tea at lunchtime and see what I can actually gather together of my mind.....

Since its the colonials celebration time, I'm avoiding making too many snarky comments on the subject...

Had one of those slightly annoying nights where the moment I got into bed.. my mind suddenly decided it was totally awake and not at all tired. So pretty much didn't fall asleep until the dawn had started creeping in and the birds were singing outside my window... And after a weekend of cleaning and hoovering and assorted spraying due to the discovery of some fleas on the cat... we've now found a single flea on the puppy. ... I'm hoping it's just one that was trying to flee the cat.

Since The Force Unleashed 2 was going on sale ... I thought wth, I'd see just what it was like. After all, lightsabers and silly force powers, there has to be some fun to be had. At ?7 that translates as about ?1.70 per hour of game play you get. So, eh, not too bad. But yeah, short and way too manyt QTE's.