Raithe

The tv had blown up the other night, so cleared an area so could get it off the wall. Whipped it up to the repair shop down the road. Took on the vagaries of cold weather and the chill of an attic to stash stuff away out of the way. Now just settling in for a late lunch and a hot cup of tea...

To take a slight diversion, I remember reading a critics review of the Lensman series when E.E. "Doc" Smiths books were re-released a few years ago.. and the critic was raining down on how cliched and overused it all was. Of course, when the books were first written he invented most of those points and ideas. But after around 60 years of other sci-fi writers copying them and using them for their stories.. they have become cliche. The struggle of original and exciting becoming commonplace and overused. Grand stories are always going to suffer under that, regardless of whether it's in a book, a computer game, or film. What are you going to do? Stop enjoying everything?

Hit the random and ended up with the strangely jaunty E-Type's Russian Lullaby

Just for the festive spirit.. and if you have 50 minutes or so to pay attention.. A christmas feast designed to put the festive mood and childhood memories back into you.. Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Christmas The mandarin mousse was poached in nitrogen which, when eaten, streamed out of his guests' noses in two frosty jets. The mulled wine was hot on one side of the glass, cold on the other. Reindeer milk ice cream.. gathered by sleigh from Siberia.. Even a meal made with gold, frankincense and myrrh.. Among a whole heap of strangeness..

Sort of. It was an announcement along the lines of they were acting as advisors / consultants to a company that has the rights to the WoT

Extensive fantasy series of books.. People divide up on either loving the hell out of them, or finding them annoying/boring. There was a fairly decent fps built around the Wheel of Time some years ago.. but there's been some talk of turning it into more of an rpg game style of thing.

The Warrior's Way Cowboys. Ninjas. Circus Folk. What more needs to be said?

Just spent a bit over 4 hours of my friday night working with a guy on getting some coding done. A touch of help and guidance given and now I actually feel as if I've achieved something. Which after the last few weeks of coder's block and frustration (which can be very soul-destroying in its way) is actually quite nice. Thought I'd get back into some gaming time, and decided to pick up a copy of AC2 cheap via amazon (it was about

Well to my mind it was more the whole.. he wakes up and it seems that it's a fait accompli. From what we saw it doesn't look like anyone asked him to make the choice..they did it regardless. And so far we haven't a clue on how badly injured he actually was.. thrown through a glass panel doesn't lop off his arms at the shoulders.. His arms might have been salvagable to some degree..but he wakes up and finds they were amputated and replaced with the cyberlimbs.. which while cool in their own right... still , having no-one check his wishes first would be rather..annoying. And dang, I still love that music in the trailer.

Just to show how ..bizarely uninformed people can be on general knowledge a series of questions and answers from various daytime quiz shows

To add to the mood.. a series of flying and pilot related quotes : "Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing." - At the entrance to the old SR-71 operating base Kadena, Japan "You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3." - Paul F. Crickmore (test pilot) "The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire." "Blue water Navy truism: There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky." - From an old carrier sailor "If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe." "When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash." "Without ammunition, the USAF would be just another expensive flying club." "What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, .... The pilot dies." The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" And "Oh S...!" "Progress in airline flying: now a flight attendant can get a pilot pregnant." "Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight." "A smooth landing is mostly luck; two in a row is all luck; three in a row is prevarication." "I remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous." "Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!" "Flashlights are tubular metal containers kept in a flight bag for the purpose of storing dead batteries." "Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it." "The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you." - Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot) "A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum." - Jon McBride, astronaut "If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible." - Bob Hoover (renowned aerobatic and test pilot). "Never fly in the same ****pit with someone braver than you." "There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime." - Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970 "If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to." Basic Flying Rules: "Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and outer space. It is much more difficult to fly there." "You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal." As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives, the rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks "What happened?". The pilot's reply: "I don't know, I just got here myself!" - Attributed to Ray Crandell (Lockheed test pilot)

So from the hints we've seen so far in trailers.. Jensen is the ex-cop turned Security Specialist, he has some sort of relationship with a female scientist working at Serif Industries.. During an attack on the place she gets killed, he suffers a batch of injuries..and when he wakes up his boss used advanced cybernetics to "save" his life. So he didn't exactly choose to get himself modified the way he ends up.. Guess they're planning on making that whole point key to the personal drama element...

Well, congratulations on the success of the courting so far Wals.. may it proceed smoothly. After not getting to sleep until aroun 4-5am and then waking up with a joyful joyful headache digging away... I've been taking the morning slow. Have to try braving the darkness and dangers of a cold attic to dig out some of the christmas decorations to put up on the tree at some point and some other things to poke at work-wise.. Have to see how well the ibruprufen kicks in.

Actually (to be a touch pedantic) she claims she wrote them to suit the people growing up with them.. so while book 1 was written for 11/12 year olds.. book 3 was supposed to be for 13/14 year olds, and book 6 was meant for 16/17 year olds to be reading..

Camp Nowhere - It's amazing how a night with insomnia can leave you finding old movies.. well, early 90's is getting a touch old. Fun movie from the childhood years in its way. Christopher Lloyd working his usual magic as a manic ex-drama teacher bribed into playing the role of fake summer camp director. And one hell of a lot of faces of "before they became famous / semi-famous". Including a blink and you'll miss her Jessica Alba.

Any game that posits a half decent story, with the potential of multiple paths to complete things and different consequences resulting... is worth a look at. Although I would like to see a bit more detail on some of the "social path" type of thing they've talked about. I remember one of the interviews a few months ago made some mention of picking up on facial expressions in conversations to react to.. So I'm a tad curious on just how that sort of detail will handle.

Running late with various things, just getting dinner out of the way at half 7 in the evening.. And right before christmas I manage to lose large chunks of brownie points and offend my mother... She's talking about one of her friends and making a complaint that the friend has a habit of starting a conversation to tell you something, then meanders and goes off on tangents and details you don't need, then doesn't reach the point of what she started at for a looong time.... At the end of mom venting and telling me this story.... when I make the comment that I'd noticed over the last year that she had started to do the same .. I got "the look" and a comment of "I stopped talking to your father so much years ago when he said something similar about how I talked like the neighbour with Alzheimers." I feel I stepped in something I really shouldn't.

Apart from a 5 minute nostalgia nip around with Deus Ex... I just haven't managed to get in the mood to play anything in weeks. I haven't had any game oomph since I finished a run-through on FONV...

It's all about the Origami, baby

It's just one of those things.. I'm wondering if the Lib-Dems are pushing that. I hate to generalise, but they do tend to push a lot of the fuzzy-left version of pacifism.

Grunts by Mary Gentle.. It's an outstanding read if you enjoy twisted humerous looks at everything from the Bad Guys Footsoldier version of the whole fantasy light versus dark battles.. Orcs who commit war crimes.. Hobbits with s&m tendencies.. Good guys who really aren't as wholesome as they should be.. Its dark, it's humerous, it's twisted. Not for the squeamish, but when the Orc's get twisted by a dragons curse into becoming ...Vietnam era style Marines.... it really takes on a whole new light. If you don't recognise the standard fantasy/tolkienesque tropes you might not get all of the humour, but its still worth a read. In ways, it's almost as if someone took Lord of the Rings, dosed it down with a mixture of Starship Troopers and Rambo. Inverted it all, and then slathered it with black comedy. Quote for the day. "Pass me another elf, this one has split"

One of those days where for no apparent reason I am in a really foul mood. Trying to stir the christmas spirit and not snap at everybody. On a side-note, got a powerball for wrist/forarm exercise. Supposed to be good for battling off any effects of repetitive strain syndrome and the like. Gyroscopic wonders for making your forearm muscles feel as if they're wrapped in fuzzy wool.

Yes, but my meaning was while it's one level of cruddyness to copy a cd.. to lend out a present you got for your son just takes it to something way more twisted.

What amused me was that in some Shadowrun supplement published post DX1, they slipped in a few offhand comments about UNATCO and Liberty Island.. I'm trying to remember exactly where it was.. but it was some throwaway paragraph...