Raithe

Never knock the good effects you can get reading a book to a lady... especially in a comfortable, but slightly intimate setting.

Frankly I stopped shopping at Game years ago.. their selection of pc games was minimal.. a couple of shelves amidst a store of console games. That's what started me using Amazon to pick up my games...

Hm, 3.5 Eberron? If Eberron, Goblinoids have the whole.. Grand Ancient Civilisation fallen to ruin.. so Goblins can work as pc's... If you're working with a warforged.. I'd say pick a level or two of Artificer to help out on the "repair/craft" side of things. Whether Mounted Combat would work in that position.. that's something you'd have to talk with your GM about. Some guys I know would allow it..others wouldn't. It'll come down to GM fiat. I'd say Ride & possibly Balance and Climb would be useful skills to have depending on how small your character is and how big the Warforged you're climbing up and down on... Although you have to remember Warforged are Intelligent. They aren't just Golem types.. They're a playable pc race... So is this warforged another party member, or some npc type?

Isn't that all part of the fun of gaming?

Hey, the "we advanced aliens can't commit warfare for ethical/philosophical/neurological reasons, so we're here to get you humans to fight for us" has been used in way more sci-fi then just ADF's... Really? Which ones? I just like the notion that to some other species, I'm an ogryn. Tanya Huff's Confederation series.. - The Elder species are involved in a war and find humanity , offering to "uplift" them if they're willing to serve as military because as "advanced , moral beings they can't physically handle combat themselves.". They later discover a couple of other "young species" which can fight, but since humanity was first, it's the reason the Confederation Military is based around Human Marine design... A few of the Baen authors have done similar.. John Ringo's Alldenata saga for one (mm roast-suckling damn-beast...) Way more might sound hyperbole now.. but my memory has decided to blow chunks .. I know I've read a batch over the years that have used that to some degree or another.. .

Eh, I don't think it was a great roleplaying game... but it was a fun cinematic game. It might not have satisfied my rpg itch..but I had fun with it, and enjoyed more of than I disliked. And that's the key point about a game. I can see what I consider flaws..but it was still fun.

Hm, now I've only managed to play a few hours of Civ... but I'm finding the computer seems to take an awful long time moving other civilizations... It feels like I'm spending more time on the "waiting for other civilizations" than I am on my own turns... Almost as if I was doing a multiplayer on CivIV rather than a single player game.. Anyone else noticed this or do I just have too much junk running?

One thing to consider.. if that's the "opening sequence" of the game, we've already been told it's the insane, over-the-top, hero-kills-with-a-touch ...before you get the flash to the storytellers arguing over how it really went.... and then it goes back to more "realistic" combat. Or at least, not so crazy-anime-uber-killer style. Until there's more shown about both sides of the coin...

And I pay for my tv license and satellite tv... but I hardly ever watch anything except when I download tv shows when they're shown 6-8 months earlier in America and then choose to watch them when I have time rather than when the tv schedule says they're on... What I do find annoying music wise... is that if I go to Amazon.com there are music albums sold via digital download that you can buy for $4.. but they won't allow people outside of the States to buy/download them... and then Amazon.co.uk sell the same albums for

Hey, the "we advanced aliens can't commit warfare for ethical/philosophical/neurological reasons, so we're here to get you humans to fight for us" has been used in way more sci-fi then just ADF's...

Well.. because the parents went to the police over the matter.. both kids got cited with "underage sex" so there was the illegal aspect of it..regardless of how much it's "teenagers being teenagers". People have lines they'll cross to protect family. Especially dad's over protecting daughters. Dad's scare daughters boyfriends all the time, it's part of the job of being a dad.

The trouble is reminding yourself that there is so much stuff we don't know and have yet to understand. Things change. Science changes. Take the amount of simple "health" issues that have changed over the years, and biology is a bit easier to understand than physics. Given the vastness of the universe, the odds of there being some other form(s) of intelligent life out there have to be fairly good.. but the question would be.. if some alien intelligence is advanced enough to travel through interstellar distances.. why would they want to visit us? Apart from wanting to shut down the obscene amount of crappy reality-TV we've been beaming out into space for the last decade...

Yes.. to consider one point.. the French have always gone on about their higher safety standards (according to the law) for vehicles, but they don't actually enforce them as much.. while the UK has lower standards but rigerously enforces them. Note a few years back when we gave spot MOT's to French truckers as they crossed over, and they were all failing them miserably.. One of the those wonderful "political" byplays with the EU and the French truckers wanting to go on strike... Oh, and unpopular unless you're a French farmer or a Belgian bureaucrat..

You're making the mistake that "european" is based on genetics... if you're going to say that you just need that mix of danish, irish, german, dutch etc. background to be "european" then wouldn' that make a whole bunch of people in america "europeans"? Nah, European is a cultural thing, not strictly a geographic & genetics thing. And for a whole bunch of reasons, the UK has never quite walked to the same tune as Europe proper. Maybe it's an island thing....

Hey, and you have to be careful on the use of British... That's like.. the collective of English, Welsh and Scottish. Which is really annoying with how a lot of government forms these days don't list English as a possibility to put down. If you want to say you're English you have to tick "Other" and write it in yourself..

Hm, I've been playing as Ramses.... and by 1940 Catherine and the Russian Empire has around 20 cities minimum... She really seems to be pushing the expansion..and the conquering other nations. It's odd considering we started as neighbours.. she tried invading me once.. i stopped her cold..and since then she keeps offering me research pacts while stomping around the rest of the world... I must say, getting all the social policies that offer defensive bonuses within your own territory can be very worthwhile...

Arg. I don't know if its the lack of sleep, or the troubled dreams when I have managed to sleep this week..but my mind's been feeling like mush the last couple of days. Combined with a few annoying needles from life..I am forcing myself to try to stay upbeat. I think I might try calling a halt to the whirly-gig of reality today and see if installing and playing the new Civ for a couple of hours might break through and focus me...

Schlock Mercenary.. it has it's ups and downs.. but the ups can be quite...amusing. And the many references to the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates (which include a list of more than seven rules) :

But does it have the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates?

Grans visiting family in America, so popped over to her place to fix some things out in her greenhouse. Hm, and for the slight vent.. There's an organisation in my city that is basically an umbrella group that organises all "volunteers" in the city.. so if you want to do volunteer work, you go to them, fill out a few forms, and get shown a list of all groups/organisations/charities/companies that use volunteer workers in various situations.. you point out which ones would interest you, add in when you could be available..and then they forward details, handle a lot of the communication back and forth.. I went to them back in November last year and put my name down, got posted to a bunch of groups I thought it would be either interesting or useful to do some work for (both for general interest, and having something on my CV while I struggle to get back in the actual jobmarket).. Since then, I've been notified of forms being passed along, several emails saying "cool, but maybe in a few months", and a few places where you get asked to come along to fill out a few more forms and then get told to wait some. Then after even more months of nada, I got asked to come into a meeting, where at the meeting they told me I needed to get some forms of ID and fill out another form for the CRB report (basically background check for criminal history/sex crimes etc.). That was the whole point of the meeting.. to tell me I'd need to get id to come back another time and fill out this form... I was like.. "jeez, why didn't you just say come to this meeting with id and the forms can get done right now". Still, I did that. Two months later, I chase it up as to why I haven't heard anything and today I got an email "sorry I haven't gotten back to you, we've just got your form back..apparently in the time it was in the post they changed the forms. So we're going to send you another to fill out." .....10 months of paperwork and waiting. All because I just wanted to do some volunteer help work. I am so tempted just to say feck it now.

I just played ME2 again last weekend. I have now played it more times than BG2. Mildly concerned by this development, but it's like crack to me. The more I play it, the more I think of Mordin's writing. And the more I am bored by Samara and Thane. Any character that can work in a sensible reason to break into a Gilbert & Sullivan song mid-game is totally going to be classed as well-written... Samara and Thane do seem a touch..flat compared to some of the others. Although the dossier info in Lair of the Shadowbroker did add a certain depth to Samara.

magic missiles from behind bricks that won't actually work on a lot of enemies if they have shields/armour.. so basically everyone if you slide into insane difficulty.. I enjoyed Vanguard in ME1.. then ME2 just..nerfed up biotics. I mean, if I squint a little, I can kind of see what they were aiming for by changing biotics and tech that way..but it really doesn't feel like it worked. Although I have to admit, I'll still try importing my save on to ME3 to see how they change Vanguards for that...

But the general "public perception" still tends to be "games are things that kids play" even though a lot of games these days come out with various mature / 18 ratings depending on the board... Of course most parents don't check those and will still buy those games for their young teenagers... but that's the parents fault not the game makers.

Isn't that the fun one that Governor Arnie is spearheading to cut down violence in media ..? I'm not sure if that counts as hypocrisy or irony... Although to be fair, I think he's been pushing more the "in media that children are exposed to" rather then media in general..

In the midst of this metal and rock mixture... I shall interupt with the soundtrack to Serenity..