Year: 2008

Lol – my last vacuum got defeated in the Battle Of The Living Room. It got too hot and something popped off the side that shouldn’t have popped off …

I’m glad you got a smile 🙂

Thanks for playing, have fun this weekend!

Re: #3: with a vacuum. Happy Friday Fill-ins!
http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

I finally got around to doing another one of these ! For the original site, please see Janet’s site here.

1. Right now, I’m feeling a little nervous of what will get reported at the car service tomorrow …
2. Having dinner with a beautiful woman is where I want to be.
3. How does one stop the rebellious march of the dust bunny army ?
4. The barometer that is my friends keeps me on track.
5. Please don’t judge before knowing all of the facts.
6. A smile from a pretty lady always fills me with joy.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to just plain chilling out (Lost In Space on now!), tomorrow my plans include getting the car serviced and Sunday, I want to relax, chill out, play some games !

Today’s post is dedicated to the Blonde With No Name (although I now have a good idea what that name is !) Mrs B walks past my desk most days, with today being slightly different. As well as Mrs B, there was a balloon being pulled along. It said “Happy 50th birthday”. Unbelievable ! Mrs B has the smooth grace of a dancer and is often seeing going Zoom up the floorplate in cycling gear on her way out the door. There’s a lot of energy in a tiny frame there but that’s not the thing that stands out.

It’s the big smile 🙂

A smile from a gorgeous lady will always brighten the day and Mrs B always has that cheeky little grin ready and waiting to erupt. My team moves across site in a week or two and it’s the big smiles from a few of the ladies in the teams next door which is something I will really miss.

Happy 50th birthday tomorrow Mrs B !

Not posted too much over the last week – been a little busy, away from home for a couple of days and missing ideas for things to post. And a little caught up in games too 🙂

Warcraft has been my main game for the past few months, with occasional sojourns into Master of Orion 2 for a bit of Galactic Domination. However, there’s a phenomenon I call “just-70-depression” that tends to hit people. Warcraft has an experience system called “levelling”, where as you play your character gets experience. As they gain more levels, they can wear better equipment and they hit harder.

Just one problem … There’s a level cap. You can take the character up to level 70 but no further. Until Blizzard (maker of Warcraft) come out with an expansion pack that is … There’s one of those coming next month and I’m really not sure if I’ll buy it this time. (Yeah right – I’ll have a pre-order in when I get the interest in WoW back). Up to 70, you can explore the rich world that Blizzard created for WoW, getting variation from going through the different areas. At maximum level, it’s repetition time …

I’ve reactivated my sub in another game now – Eve this time. Eve is a space game, still massively multiplayer and allows a much slower, more relaxed pace. WoW is a lot more immediate in comparison. You can’t totally fall asleep in Eve but at least it’s not twitch gaming like most others. There’s no level cap either in Eve, a character keeps on learning different skills so they can fly different ships, shoot different guns or make different items.

Anyway – all the above is deja vu from a couple of years ago – I tend to switch between games to suit what I’m interested in at the time. Bit of twitch gaming – Warcraft. Galactic Domination – Moo2. Wargame with ZZZZs – Settlers IV. Relaxed multiplayer space – back to Eve.

Oh – I mentioned I was out of town for a couple of days. I was up norf in Glasgow on business, which was nice – change of scenery is always good. Joked with the girls on the hotel front desk about stalkers, not had one of those for a while and I kinda miss it. Was a bit knocked out though for a couple of days after. Think one of the bugs I’ve been carrying got some revenge on me.

I don’t tend to have sick days, even though my diet is something that would make a nutritionist recoil in horror. Or rather, I’ll keep plodding along not allowing anyone to see just how much I might be suffering at any one time. But what keeps me going is things like having Miss A ask me how my weekend was as she’s walking past my desk.

Right – time to grab some food, get ready for having the Grand Prix delayed coverage on in the background and maybe sneak a quick mission in before it starts … And update the A to Z challenge on my disused other blog with another book read 🙂

LOL!

Can you believe I had to explain the word “nowt” to my Canadian partner when my sister used it in a text message just recently?

The thought of that still makes me giggle.

Watching the Alone In The Dark film adaptation of the game at the moment. Sometimes film/game tie ins actually attempt to remain close to the subject. I should probably give an impression of the original game (which I played to death!) to show what the contrast is …

The original Alone In The Dark was an all time classic. It was inspired by the HP Lovecraft stories, specifically the Cthulhu stories. It’s centred around a paranormal investigator, Edward Carnby, who is looking into a mansion. He then gets trapped in the mansion and the objective of the game is to get him out again. Just going out the front door wasn’t an option – you’d get sucked out into some swirly vortexy thing.

It was kind of a forerunner to the Lara Croft games, although the Croft games like to think they’re totally original. It didn’t have any acrobatics and the gunplay was minimal (I’ll come back to that) but the basic structure was there. Inventory system, free running and walking were what made this game a huge step up from the Point & Click games that were extremely common when it came out.

The key to Alone In The Dark was figuring things out. You had to solve certain puzzles, unlock certain doors, find how to get through some rooms and there were one or two bad guys to sort out too. I’m currently remembering the Ball Room, where if you touched the dancers, you’d explode. They start static, thereby blocking the exit, so how do you get around them ? Start a record playing ! I also had a save point ready to roll at the start of the encounter with the Zombie Pirate Swashbuckler. That encounter was a fencing fight and I used to get paid biscuits by my housemates to help them get around it.

There were guns in the game but the game wasn’t based around clearing hordes of monsters, it was based around thinking through the puzzles to allow you to not fight the monsters.

On to the film – the scene that inspired this post, for all the wrong reasons, comes up halfway through. You have Carnby and Aline Cedrac (token love interest, along with token sex scene) in a warehouse/museum with Big Monster chasing them. They get to where the guns are and then … Cue heavy metal music, cue rifles to full auto and we get oh so close to a Babes With AK47 moment. (She still has her clothes on but the rest is there)

Ok – the game plotline of “One Bloke Alone In The Dark Trapped In Mansion” probably wouldn’t have worked in a Hollywood type film but it could have been interesting to at least try to have a psychological type thriller instead of a Wake Up The Neighbours film where they fire off the contents of a small ammo dump. Will have to try and film Relic again, I seem to remember that was a decent Scary Monster Movie.

There’s a new Alone In The Dark game just come out – the word (i.e. PC Zone intel) is to avoid it like the plague. Games should be fun, not tortuous and the new Alone in The Dark game looks like it errs on the side of masochism.

I watched another new film to me last night – this one was Rise starring Lucy Liu as Another Vampire Movie. Not a bad start this one and an interesting take on the vampire myth. I don’t think I’ll be buying the dvd though, sometimes once is enough for a film. However, Lucy Liu is always worth watching, just needs better scripts.

PS The plant in the wardrobe was deadly.

Just finished watching the Lord of the Rings saga again and on looking at the TV guide, I notice American Gangster is on Sky Movies … They’re both excellent outstanding films but when it comes to the question of “do I want to watch them again ?” it’s a case of :

Lord of the Rings – yes please
American Gangster – hmm, mebbe not

So what makes a film something you will want to watch over and over again ? And what makes it a Great Once ? This is kinda like the question that Mike the computer asks in Robert Heinlein’s book The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. What makes a joke funny once and what makes a joke funny all the time. It’s something that will probably never be answered fully but in the meantime, here’s 13 films I’ll never tire of seeing :

Thirteen Things about Unforgettable Films 1…. Lord of the Rings. Just finished watching the saga again, will undoubtedly wear the dvds out before their time. 2…. The Fifth Element. There’s a definite sense of style here, from the acting to the quirkiness, in the Gautier clothes and the epic locations. 3…. Big Trouble in Little China. This is a really silly film, typical of John Carpenter. He’s a master of making Fun Films that are easily watchable. 4…. A Knight’s Tale. Must watch this one again, it’s a great film to remember the late Heath Ledger by. 5…. Saving Private Ryan & Black Hawk Down. Lumping these two in together because the subject they depict is one we should never forget. We must learn from the mistakes of the past in order to avoid them in the future. 6…. Superman – with Christopher Reeve. I grew up on these films and Christopher Reeve will always be Superman for me. And that impression was very definitely reinforced by the courage he showed in battling the aftermath of his horse accident. 7…. The Princess Bride. More lighthearted fun 🙂 8…. Conan The Barbarian. Great action but what I like most is the sense of Freedom that the characters exude. There’s a very worthy mention for Red Sonja here too. 9…. Shrek – for turning the heroic fantasy completely on its head while having a huge laugh. 10.. My Fair Lady. It must be fifteen years since I watched this classic, which is far too long. It’s a tribute to the beauty of Audrey Hepburn that I can still recall her face from that film. 11.. Where Eagles Dare. Ok, we all know the story here because we’ve seen it so many times but it’s still utterly compelling all the same. Just as we’ll always come back for more of watching Steve McQueen bouncing his ball in the cooler. 12.. The Man With No Name trilogy with Clint Eastwood. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly is one of the greatest films of all time and its absence leaves a huge gap in my dvd collection. 13.. The Star Wars saga. The question of “which trilogy is better ?” will never get a final answer 🙂 Personally, I like the Epi I to III ones better.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

There’s a few films missing from the list above, I’m starting to wear out my copies of Sin City and 300 too. Aliens is a cracking film but the films that followed it in the series are a bit weak. Casino Royale was a fine return to form but at the end of the day, it’s Yet Another Bond Film. The Indiana Jones films are Must See but they didn’t really hold my attention when I watched them again before Crystal Skull (not seen) came out.

And then there’s the Matrix … Wound me up the first time because it got mired in its own symbolism but when you ignore that part and refuse to try and make sense of the insensible, they’re a cracking set of films and a technical masterpiece. No soul there though.

Right – Star Wars got watched a couple of weeks ago, just finished watching Return Of The King, what’s next ? ! 🙂

Muahaha – always remember the two Golden Rules :

Hear all, See all, Say nowt.
Drink all, Eat all, Pay nowt.