Raithe

My bad. I've got to learn not to quote on the fly...

I know a good one, but I'll have to look it up. My father read the original version - fart jokes and adultery and all - when I was a kid. It's great stuff. I've read several versions, but they're usually turn out to be abridged or have several stories removed totally. Or the only ones you can find are the child-friendly versions. Heh, I was tidying some things away and found all my old Al-Quadim books and boxed sets.. which has me kind of nostalgic.

Just to really throw some fuel on the bonfire then.. I could say that one of the few good things to come out of 9/11 was that a whole heap of Americans suddenly stopped giving money to the IRA.

I guess that depends on whether you happen to be feeling new testament or old testament...

Woke up with a dull headache from a slightly strange dream involving WW1 soldiers and Faerie Folk in a prisoner of war camp holding discussions about Honor vs Duty vs Practicality.... Not too sunny yet, but it'll probably turn that way as the day spirals on.

Some fresh looks from preview builds that have been sent out... Is Deus Ex an RPG? Extensive Hands-On + Q&A (Note this is a thread from the DE forums)

Templars are like Nazis. Easy bad guys to use. Potential zeolotry + conspiracy overtones = instant bad guy. We just haven't seen Zombie Templars yet...

And while there's a lot of people wanting to say about Free Speech.. What we tend to have is more "potential free speech". The upswing of the internet does partially prevent the natural bias of various corporate / political media groups that tend to have more of a lock on the papers and tv markets. But then you tend to lose a lot of internet based media because there's so much drivel and few people want to be bothered with looking around for the few gems in the mess. Or maybe I'm just cynical, jaded and apathetic..

BBC - Atlantis End Of A World, Birth of A Legend. Apart from a few mentions at the start and right at the end noting similarities between Minoan culture and what Plato had said about Atlantis they don't really look into that angle. Mostly concentrates on what life was like, how they worshipped, and what the pre-eruption would have been like and how they reacted to it before it truly blew its top. Some of it was obviously a touch over-dramatised, but hey, still interesting enough. Edit: And for further comparisons - Vesuvius has a nice pyroclastic flow of around 6km. Mt St Helens was about half a cubic km... Evidence at Thera suggest around 60km...

Feeling a little tired (no pun intended) of the string of bad nights sleep I've been having. Yesterday I kept dozing off at random points, nearly did in the bathtub. But the sun is shining, the weather is keeping somewhat on the gorgeous scale and I've managed to prevent the puppy from eating the cat several times already today. Had a short time to relax and caught a bbc production I've had saved, one of those half-historical documentary, half-dramatical adaption of minoan life and the eruption at Thera. Based upon a lot of the recent archaeological discoveries around the area. Little things like how the tidal waves caused by the eruption hammered into Crete for (potentially) several days, and the initial tsunami was estimated at over 60 feet high and would have been travelling at around 200mph... The volcano was about 3 times more powerful then Krakatoa, and about 100 times more then St Helens.. The ash put the Mediterranean into darkness for several weeks, caused a worldwide drop in temperature..and even stunted plant growth in Britain.. Definitely puts some perspective on things. Easy to understand how that sort of thing can take a civilization which had been kicking around for around 1300 years...and screwing it over. Then of course there's the various theories that it's the stories of Crete/Thera and the devastation of both that inspired Plato's Atlantis..

I was randomly pondering on the fact that it's about time to add a complete Arabian Nights to my library .. but there seem to be an awful lot of cut down versions out there. Anyone know of any particular good current translations?

I know I played a lot of the guild related quests and storylines... but I couldn't get into the main plot.. and I realised I was just forcing myself to play because I kept hoping that I'd get that Morrowind feeling kick in eventually. It's a game I wasted too much time on trying to enjoy when I should have stopped much, much earlier. And that's making me be very wary of Skyrim. As much as some of these previews are providing elements that look interesting.. I'm still in the "wait and see" camp.

And this is the trouble with getting so much news via the interwebs.. all the "mothers day" advertisements were geared for the North American date.. so it slipped by me and I lost all my current crop of brownie points by missing the UK mother's day. I tried pointing out "hey, I did give you a surprise present for no particular reason last week." and got told "that's why you're not even more in the dog house then you are."

And it was nice to finally see the pc version and some further detail on the hacking side of it all..

Anatomy of a Hack

It wasn't mother's day over here. It was mother's day in the States and Canada. Our mother's day was about a month ago..a bit before Easter.

Any that has the potential to add soul, excitement, and a means of having fun whilst playing the game.

Having one of those odd morning starts. Kind of wrapped up in feelings of frustration, tiredness (of the mental/soul more then the physical), and a few other things. That mix due to frustrations with re-shaping my mind back to adequate skills of programming, mental flexibility and such.. dealings with the ex, some of the passive/aggressive atttitudes of my father, the way my [older] sister can still pull off acting like a spoiled 17 year old, and my mothers medical conditions. Also partly that "where did the better part of the last 10 years of my life go while i was doing the 'primary carer' routine." Maybe that's due to how many weeks now pass between evenings spent in the company of my friends. It's that natural roll out where you have the core group of nearly twenty years now, but it hits the point where careers have kicked off for them (that and marriages, kids and the like). Other hobbies that they don't share with everyone else in the group taking up time... But it's that thing where you meet new friends at work , and at those various external hobbies as you grow up past university... And because I've basically been stuck at home like this, which means dealing with the family and not fresh faces.. I haven't met new people to form friendships outside of that core group I grew up with. That and government support doesn't really give you the money to get out on fun and exciting hobbies. Not that I can totally blame that, I've always been one of those people who can be perfectly happy on my own as much as in a group. So it doesn't bother me that much when a month or so passes and we don't have any gatherings, but I'm aware of the way it's happening. Ah well. I think I might find the time to sit down and pull out my old copy of the Count of Monte Cristo to read this afternoon. Some well plotted revenge extravaganza and see the old school "magnificent bastard" routines. That and carefully compartmentalise everything and repress again. If there's one thing the English can be good at, it's repressing.

Invited to a gathering of friends, got asked to bring along a batch of dvd's to provide movie options. Where they picked the Count of Monte Cristo for viewing pleasure, and I found out that none of them knew what the story was about, had seen any of the film versions, or even knew there was a book much less read it... Sometimes I feel like the odd man out..

I finally had the chance to put Tron Legacy on this afternoon. Between the hdtv and the blu-ray player, that looks totally crisp and the colors just pop out. It's an entertaining film in its way, but yeah, it still feels a little disapointing after the hype and the 20 year wait.

Animated series. Imagine if James Bond was an alcoholic, sex-crazed mysoginist but also with a lot of neuroses, with M as his equally alcholic mother (and the cause of all of his neuroses) who seeks to marry/sleep with money. - Archer's possible father is the Head of the KGB as well... who keeps up with phone/telecommunication sex with Archer's mother even after all this time... And he was basically raised by a gay English valet/butler. Running a private spy organisation with a group of equally "hopelessly inept but so brilliant" staff. Each episode is about new covert shenannigans...

What bugs me about the upcoming is that they've recast Chris Evans as Captain America. I mean, he's already played one marvel icon in two films. It's just weird they're re-using him for a different character. Actually in some ways it's being a bit of a relaxing weekend start. My sister's gone away for the weekend and taken the dogs with her, so I don't have to worry about them. On a seperate note, having the joy of needing to keep reminding myself of one fact, while struggling not to think about that fact. Which probably sounds really bizarre and illogical but. eh, its one of those.. I have to do one of those to stop being too grouchy and demanding, whilst the other to stop being too griefy and frustrated. Emotions. How much is chemical, how much is mental, and just which bit comes from the soul?

Thor. Some impressive visuals and architecture in Asgard.. I almost didn't recognise Colm Feore under the disguise of the Frost Giant King..and I totally didn't click to Rene Russo as Frigga. Manages to cram in the basic story of an overweeningly proud Thor slammed to Earth and learning a bit of humility and care. Although it takes about half an hour before the action actually reaches Earth. Loki is sneaky but doesn't really feel as if he has much presence so I'm a little meh over that. Heimdall got some dry lines in which amused. Natalie Portman looks pretty as the astrophysics geek looking into einstein-wotsit bridges and wormholes.. (which by another name get classed as the Bifrost or Rainbow Bridge...). They have a nicely uncredited appearance of Clint / Hawkeye when Shield turn up and play the big spooky men in black role. The ending is set up so while the "story" completes.. it hangs a massive notice of "This is where the sequel is going". - Note: And apparently Loki and a bunch of background characters from this film are on the credits for The Avengers film...

On a slightly random note.. I caught a Time Team episode the other week, where they were digging up one of the worlds biggest flamethrowers from the Somme. It was used quite smartly and was one of the few locations where the British made an advance with minimal casualties on their side. They got the Royal Engineers to build one based on the designs and it was seriously nasty-impressive when they tested it.

Some of it's not that surprising.. I mean they said with ME2 that one of the key reasons they didn't give you the same team you had in ME1 was so there was no chance they'd be dead by the time ME3 came around. - Although after making a point of saying that, they then put Tali and Garrus on the squad again.... So I guess they weren't overworried about their survival. I guess it made sense to throw Tali in so you could have the whole Quarrian connection and possibility of "woo-ing" the Quarrians to your side before ME3 kicks off. Heh, and the thing about 70% of players did not remain faithful to their ME1 romances. I mean c'mon, Ashley or Kaidan (whoever survived) treat you like crap when you return without bothering to listen to your reasons.. it's pretty much written to cause you to feel as if that relationship breaks before you start flirting with ME2 squad-mates. Though you do get a rather toneless email semi-apology from them at a later date... But apparently if you "cheated" on whoever it was, there will be some form of consequences.