Raithe

Although I do think. for the maximum scare effect.. Aliens Vs Predators 2, played with all lights in the room switched off..and the surround sound system on.. When you play as a Marine and you get that "skitter-skitter" sound from behind you...

Pottering through the day getting small things done, but not getting any real feelings of achievment out of them. Made time to read the last few chapters of a book I was reading to try to help clear my mind. Then having the whole realisation that next week is the first week of February , which is a bad anniversary. Makes me wonder on how much emotion would kick in if I didn't realise the date and have that "oh crap, its that time agian, I always feel crappy because of it". It's that random chicken and egg question, how much do I feel bad over that date because I have felt bad on that date.. reinforcement or actual.. Ah well. Bugger it. That's wandering into philosophy and psychology. Time for a fresh cup of tea and another attempt at kicking my mind back into order.

I really need to re-think the way I'm approaching this. It kind of feels I'm in a continual spiral of exam cramming. The way I'm learning stuff, knowing how to do it for a night or two..then its not getting reinforced and it's all floating away to understanding the general gist but all specifics have disapeared within a few days... Hm which also seems weird in that I can go from feeling confident and successful because I know and can use those programming skills...and then when my mind goes fizzle it rebounds to feeling quite depressing and frustrated. ... Oh the humanity. A fresh cup of tea in a moment I think before the evening grinds down too hard.

Simple. Learn sanskrit. Dammit, I thought I had. At least passably. What's bugging me most is that I seemed to have a fair grasp of understanding one night and then the next it all just ...went shazaam. And I have no freaking clue what happened to throw that switch.

Been trying to work on some programming with a guy who's been helping me brush up on it. Unfortunately it's just making me feel really, really crappy. It's that whole we work through stuff, I understand it. I'm all "yes, I can see how that works, I can apply it in this other way." Then a couple of hours later I have absolutely no freaking clue. I look back at the code and its like I'm trying to read sanskrit. I think I'm having a problem seeing it in parts. I'm getting lost in the whole thing and my mind's just not wanting to figure out any specific bits. So my mind blanks and chokes instead. That kind of makes it hard to ask for any specific help when your mind decides to go "blurugh" Which is both frustrating the hell out of me and depressing me. Maybe I'll have a cup of tea and try hitting the books again, see if something gives a mental jolt and knocks things free again.

Technically I've got my first run throughs of Fear 2, Dead Space and Borderlands on the go... Although for some reason I just haven't felt in the mood to play any for about 4 or 5 days now.

Well my main point was meant to be more that everyone has their own view for how much enjoyment they get out of time spent playing. While I can understand the challenge of trying to finish a game under x time.. Personally, I really couldn't count that as a fun way to play it. But that's just me.

Everyone has their own view of that balance sheet.. Expenditure of money on game balanced against the mixture of "enjoyment of gameplay/story/whatever" and length of time played. I might have really enjoyed that hour long game, but if I finished it in that really short time frame I probably wouldn't be as overjoyed at having spent 30 quid on it.. One of the good things about computer games is that for the expense you spend, you normally get a fairly decent amount of gameplay and length of enjoyment out of them.. Heh, it's like balancing out "I can go grab a meal with friends, then a few drinks, and that costs x amount and gives me about 4 hours enjoyment" or "I can spend x amount, and get 20-30 hours of enjoyment from a game." Note: That's not to say time with friends doesn't count higher, but was purely given in that example sort of way.

Something a few months old.. but still kind of interestingly funky. Marine Architecture wise... The guy has some fun ideas. Be interesting to see if any of them ever got built... The Physalia

music from Clint Mansell's score for The Fountain... damn good, but seriously tugs on the soul. Really not a good idea when you're in the wrong mood. Death is the Road to Awe First Snow Finish It

Stardust. A darn good film. A Neil Gaiman story, De Niro dancing to can-can music.. some highly amusing ghosts .. and plenty of general good natured fantasy fun.

Plenty of refined English courtesy going around...

Hm, and another couple of studios close up shop.. Bizarre Creations announce their imminent closure.. and Disney decide to shut down Propaganda Games.

Well.. you can get them quite big....

Tried to take an evening to have a total chilldown and not really think. Had picked up on dvd a copy of the old series Oddysey 5, so watched some episodes from that. Some entertaining insights from the commentaries by the main writer and peter weller.

Well I had noticed a tendency lately for arguments to seem a little more personal .. mostly it was just a random article of interest. Wasn't expecting it to kick off any huge discussion. How many key points of netiquette are there? Does everyone share the same view of netiquette? How many people here do push their viewpoints and use attitudes they never would if we were sitting across from a table from each other?

An interesting little article I stumbled across.. that seems perfectly valid for the amount of personal tide in arguments on the forum of late. Is the WWW poised to be a WMD?

You know you're rather seriously mentally/emotionally screwed when 10 years on you realise that there have been more nights where you've still thought about The Ex before falling asleep then nights she didn't wander across the mind. Kind of had one of those mornings full of all those petty little chores that needed doing rather then anything significant.. things that need doing but never feel as if you've actually achieved anything. Ah well. That and the annoying fact that I must have bitten my tongue in my sleep so there's that really annoying sensation in my mouth. Still, ever onwards with the day...

Apparently the Red Faction film is on the move.. Set between the events of Red Faction Guerilla and the upcoming new one.. With a list of actors put out headed up by Robert Patrick playing the role of Alec Mason.. Other Cast

The King's Speech. A damned good film. A lot of nice performances that work. Even a few quirkily funny moments thrown in. I nearly didn't recognise a couple of people in it, although Jennifer Ehle (of Pride & Prejudice fame to a lot of people) as Myrtle Logue was one that took me by surprise. Makes me wonder who put in the line "I don't believe you've met before?" when Logue is introduce to Colin Firth's King George. Guy Pearce's Edward VIII was also suitably keyed in.

I have to admit, I'm half tempted by Brotherhood for the pc just to see what on earth happens with the story and to see what Rome is like... But then it gets weighed up against the other games released around the same time and the annoying Ubisoft "constant internet connection requirement". So I think it'll probably fall into the category of "wait until its under a tenner many months from now."

Melt in the hand, not in the mouth?

I stumbled on some slightly interesting science-related trivia.. Leonardo da Vinci, whilst a total genius, made absolutely no great advancements to science. While he did make many scientific breakthru's much ahead of other people, he encrypted all of his notes and never shared them. By the time his notebooks were actually decoded, all of the discoveries he'd made in his lifetime had been discovered and credited to other people who had actually shared them with the world...

For the slightly random movie related news thats running a bit late.. Pete Postelthwaite died a couple of weeks ago.. And Speilberg once called him "the best actor in the world" after working with him in Amistad.