Year: 2012

Happy new year to you too CK 🙂

Happy New Year! (almost)

Let's hope that 2013 is better in many ways than 2012!

It’s almost here – the year that the doomsayers and believers in daft superstition* didn’t think would come …

That’s right – 2013 is just around the corner, or … for those of you reading where it’s already gone after midnight :

Happy New Year !

*(not all superstition is daft, I have lots of them for cricket. Oh wait, those superstitions are daft too)

I’m hoping that next year is going to be better :

Dryer – we lost a huge amount of cricket this year
Less leaky – I think there’s been progress this week with that darn skin condition
Less alone – goes without saying 😉
Freer – that skin condition again putting limits on what I do
Musical – I still have lots of music to listen to, hopefully I’ll keep finding new stuff
New – I get bored very quickly when I fall into routine

The skin thing does seem to be improving, now that I’m back in my own conditions. They’re not perfect. On the upside, the skin seems to be improving. On the downside, I get watery eyes. Perhaps I should be using that vacuum cleaner some more ;-). What is happening is that while I’m focusing just on me, I’m avoiding spending the cash. I have a few techie targets, all of which either need me to be in or need me to go fetch them :

Switching to an iPhone – I’m after a 64GB iPhone but don’t want to pay £269 plus contract for the privilege of having an iPhone 5. 3-Mobile have 64GB iPhone 4s’s on their website but they’re “out of stock”. I suspect they shouldn’t be listed.

Steering Wheel – looks like this will need to be a mail order thing as the local shops (including Novatech) don’t want to sell me one. Which needs me being in to accept delivery. There is an option near Coventry (for a pickup on the way past as I go to the parents place) but they’re asking for more money to pick up in store than it would be to deliver, which is f**k*ng crazy.

(I don’t swear much on here cos I keep it in reserve for when it’s really meant – so many people swear as a matter of course, where do they go when they need to emphasize ?)

Powerline networking – I was hoping these would come on sale so I can network my AV kit. To be honest, I’ve not looked. Perhaps a sale run on Wednesday on my last day of leave before heading back to work. Also, one of the drivers was the interruptions I was getting to my audio streaming. That’s not happened since I stealthed the wifi.

However, when you look at it how many of the above are truly essential ? To be honest, none. Although my Android phone is becoming an embarassment.

Any New Year’s Resolutions ?

One but it refers to gaming … I have a huge collection of games now. It’s grown over this last few months due to sales. The resolution will be to look again at those games and try to finish a few of them. Because I play the games to relax, I go back to the same ones over and over again. That means I don’t have to think to work out how to beat the new game. But that does mean I don’t get the value out of all the sales and all the impulse buys.

What games though ?

Currently it’s XCom Enemy Unknown – the new one. It’s not perfect, it has a bunch of bugs in it. But it definitely has potential as a game, even if it’s not finished yet. That’s a bit sad, because I’d be more curious about getting the downloadable content if the bugs were fixed. I’ve not seen many serious ones to be honest. I’m on the last mission now of a play through on “Normal” difficulty after “Classic” difficulty kicked my butt. I’ve reloaded a couple of times but that’s it.

All of the XCom games (including the old ones) are games that run for a long time. That means if a soldier is injured in a battle, they may not be around for the next. If they die, you lose them forever. What happened in the Classic game is that I kept losing my best people, which makes the next missions harder and harder.

Next on the list is Fallout New Vegas, which SteamGirl got me for Xmas (in return for me getting her Mass Effect 2). I also have Borderlands 2, F1 2012, all the D&D games off GoG, Dungeons of Dredmor, Far Cry 3 and a few that I’ve had for longer (Rage, Torchlight & Torchlight 2, Machinarium and more). Oh and Alpha Centauri and HoMM3 are likely to get bought on GoG very soon …

Must finish some of those games off 🙂

I kinda miss the multiplayer ones. The interaction mainly if not the gameplay. WoW’s gameplay was ok, what made me stick around in that one was the people. For so long it was the Mercs, until that guild collapsed in on itself (games can do strange things to people). And then it was Violence Reborn, although a lot of the originals stopped playing. (including the legendary Sandra!)

Wonder if Alex and DT still sing on Mumble …

Talking of singing – I’m listening to Coexist, the latest album by The XX. There’s no real standout tracks on there but it’s a great chilled out listen. Definitely enjoying it.

Hobbit tomorrow.

It’s been a bit different this christmas … Been off to the parents place for a few days so I’ve been a bit quiet. We don’t do the presents thing any more for a few reasons :

It can be quite stressful finding That Right Present and …
… We’ve usually bought what we wanted anyway.

(Unless it’s me waiting for the right sale to come along).

It’s been a bit weird too. We’ve all got health problems and those are all different. I’ll only talk here about mine though. Some things stay on the other side of that privacy wall. Personally, I think I’ve learned another allergy but it could well be coincidence. I’m still not free of the need to gunk up yet. It seems like the damage repairs to like 90% healthy and then worsens again. I’ll see what it’s like over the next week with me back in my own patterns of treatment, eating and living.

What else ?

It has been really good to see the people again, although my temperament has been suffering from constant itchiness and the need to leave the itchiness alone lest I develop into Bad Stuff. Part of that temperament issue is needing to find someone I can trust to talk about the health problems mentioned above.

iPhone will be on the way soon 🙂 I’ve got sick of my Android phone being unreliable and Apple are apparently selling the iPhone 4s in 64GB again. My music library is now too big for a 32GB … I’d like an iPhone 5 but the entry fee for one of those is £200 more. It’s just a phone …

How come that library has got so big ?

Lots of soundtracks … Been collecting those lately. One thing about Good Old Games is that they throw in all sorts of stuff with the games they sell. Things like pdf’s of the manuals, artwork and the soundtracks. Yep, these games are from the time when proper paper books came in the boxes. Yesterday saw a massive D&D game sale, which I just had to go for :

Baldur’s Gate 1 + 2 – enjoyed but never finished
Icewind Dale 1 + 2 – never tried
Neverwinter Nights – played to death
Planescape Torment – never tried, has massive reputation
And a couple more fillers

All of the above have massive soundtracks for download. Now I just need to time to a) listen to the soundtracks and b) play through the games.

Steam’s sale is going on still too – with a bit of gift giving happening there too. Steamgirl has helped keep me sane over the past year or so by making me laugh at stuff, she’s a Mass Effect fan but didn’t have the second game on PC, so a copy went her way for Xmas. In return, I’ll be playing through Fallout New Vegas at some point :-).

Driving conditions have actually been ok, although Christmas Eve got a bit hairy at times with rain not clearing from the roads sufficiently.

Quite tired now though, so I’ll leave it there.

Hope you had good Christmasses and I’ll wish you a Happy New Year 🙂 May 2013 be better than 2012 …

I'm still poised over that "add to cart" … 50% off at the moment in the Steam sale. Don't think I'll get the DLC, that's got no discount on it at the moment..

I thought that the DLC for B2 was pretty good value – especially if you buy the £20 'pass'.

The Captain Scarlett missions are definitely worth a fiver…

Today’s been hugely hyped …

Yes !

It’s finally here !

Steam Winter Sale !

Wait – you were expecting something different weren’t you ? Muahahaha. I think my wallet may have been safer if the end of the world had happened today.

That said though, there’s huge numbers of weather warnings out for the UK for tomorrow. Good job I’m not travelling until Sunday then isn’t it ? The weather warnings are for heaps of rain, which causes its own problems (there’s a few potential flood zones to go through) but not nearly as many as snow does.

The whole country would literally ground to a halt if the snow came. It’s not looking likely, temperatures are in that zone :
Cold enough to want to wear a jumper
Warm enough to make you warm in the jumper

I’m happily in a jumper at the moment, although I am having to watch out so I don’t damage myself more. The skin thing is definitely improving … but it’s so incredibly easy to set back the healing and do more damage. But enough of that …

Been chilling out this week. Been catching up on some of the recorded telly, although there’s still enough recorded that I need to watch a little more to make room for Xmas telly. I’m surprised actually, all I’m recording over Xmas Day and Boxing Day is Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who and Full Metal Jousting repeats.

Still lots of music listening to do. I have the Puss In Boots soundtrack on at the moment and the album after that will be the excellently atmospheric soundtrack to Deus Ex Human Revolution. (Not forgetting Paramore’s Brand New Eyes).

I’ve been watching a fair few of the Yogscast livestreams too. They’ve been raising money to send charity bees over to Africa. They’re mixed, they can be hilarious but some of them are not worth watching at all. It’s about playing games with commentary that amuses the audience, some of them just happen to be saying stuff as they bury themselves in the game. I can recognise that as I do it myself, when I’m tunnelled into WoW raiding (and this is one of the reasons I stopped) I’ll tighten my focus such that everything outside of the raiding is tuned out.

Mall today – I’m not getting or giving that much in the way of presents these days (boo hiss) but I do still get the cards. So today was a quick trip to the Mall to get cards, have a bacon sarnie (and coffee!) and get stuck in the traffic.

Almost saw Hobbit – but that’ll keep. It’s going to be in the cinema for a little while and I’d much rather see it with friends than go on my own.

Not been playing that many games to be honest. Because my brain’s been a bit fried, I’ve fallen back to the games I find more relaxing. I’ve worked out Moo2 and Settlers IV, I could play them in my sleep. I don’t win all the time but that’s partly due to randomness (Moo2) and the pooter messing up my plans (Settlers IV has many bugs). I still find them relaxing to play though.

However … I still have a playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy in the early stages plus a Deus Ex Human Revolution run going. But there’s many more in the collection that I’d like to put a bit of time into : Far Cry 3, F1 2012, Torchlight & Torchlight II and a couple more …

Trouble with the Steam sales is that they look incredibly tempting with their 75% off things … But then after I get them, it’ll get maybe 1 hour or 2 and that might be it. There is one common factor though – value.

I’m always very keenly aware of Value For Money. It’s why I avoid the first person shooter online games, it’s why I’m avoiding getting the latest WoW expansion. I’d love to get the game Spore … but it’s several years old and only has 50% off it’s original price of £30. That’s shockingly bad value for money. I’m tempted by Borderlands 2 but they’ve been pouring out downloadable content for that which I don’t consider good value. To get the full game, you’d need to spend £50 (down to £35 with discount) with DLC.

That’s very meh.

But – I will spend some cash in this Steam Sale period. I’ve already picked up Dungeons of Dredmor, which at under £2 is a fairly amusing little dungeon crawler. If you like the Munchkin card game, you’ll like this one. I have Torchlight 2 in the cart … and I’m hoping the older D&D games appear for cheaper than just 50% off in the GOG sale.

We shall see.

Just cos I’m not getting or receiving pressies doesn’t mean I can’t get myself some ?

🙂

PS Tonight’s Yogscast livestream isn’t being particularly good. I see more Dungeons of Dredmor in the very near future …

[lol]

Come to think of it, can’t remember when I last had anything nutty …

Started my winter break 🙂

Really needed it. I could feel the energy reserves being at absolute minimum. Kinda like running past where the fumes ran out. That’s the point where I have to watch what I’m doing quite carefully, or absent minded gaps and errors start appearing in what I do.

(if I miss ay n’s out, it’s cos this keyboard needs some attention!)

I’ve needed it for other reasons too. Like hopefully more progress with the skin thing.

It’s getting better – honest 🙂 I’m closer and closer to getting back to that healthy pasty white shade of geek. I have to maintain the discipline though because interfering with the bad patches puts the healing back. The bad patches are steadily subsiding but I’m not completely free of the need to use the gunk yet. Not needing to get ready to go to work where I’m spending far too many hour sat in a chair is helping. And not because it means I can use that gunk when things get a little leaky.

Actually, gaming here is not exactly ideal. The sit&game posture puts the wrong kind of pressure on my bum, which is one of those bad patches. But – it is improving to the point where I’m actively thinking about preparations for next year’s cricket. I’ll need a couple of things ticked off there – can’t wear a helmet right now because of my ears and I’ll be looking to pick up something to protect my skin for when I’m diving around (which is likely to be a bad idea cos I’ll probably cook with it on !)

I’m not going to be lounging around the house all day though. Will be raiding Tescos for shopping later. I’m down to just one apple, so I’m needing supplies. I suspect the Crazies will be heading off to see The Hobbit at some point this week too (cabin fever may see me heading off to the Mall for it myself!).

What have been up to so far ?

Lots of cricket watching. At least, that was the plan … It’s actually ended up in me fast forwarding through most of the play between India and England. One reason I like cricket is because it’s a game where at any point, anything can happen. Batsmen will score, chances will happen, wickets will be taken. In a one-day game, even a ball with no score is an event. Game changing things will happen all the time.

At least, that’s the plan. This latest game has been one of the worst games I can remember, nothing has been happening in this game of much consequence. This India vs England series will be remembered as 3 good games followed by one mindnumbingly tedious game. The kindest description would be “tortuous” and that’s coming from a cricket nut.

There’s also been :

Strictly Come Dancing semifinal. Been really enjoying it this year, it’s the first year I’ve watched it all the way through instead of catching it when at my parents’ place for the weekend. It’s down to just 4 now, with Lisa Reilly being voted out over the weekend. She’s an example for everyone to look up to, she’s a big girl but oh so nimble. The show’s been blessed this year with a lot of genuinely good dancers and Lisa’s been no exception there.

Looking forward to the final 🙂 I’d like little Dani to win but I think it’ll be Kimberley. Any of them really could win it.

Sports Personality. I occasionally watch this yearly event. Bradley Wiggins won it this year, which I’m ok with. He has a personality, whereas the previous winner Mark Cavendish … doesn’t.

Gaming 🙂 Yeah, it’s a little unhealthy right now but there’s a few different aspects of “Health” that need to be looked after. So while it’s bad for my skin, going back to those familiar classic games gives my mind the relaxation it’s needing right now. Over the weekend, it was Master of Orion 2 (Endless Space = bit naff) and last night I started off yet another run in Deus Ex Human Revolution. I’ll have to try and resist the urge to do a Perfection run through DXHR, as that can take lots of time …

I picked up Far Cry 3 as well and am very curious as to what will be in the Good Old Games and Steam Sales. The Steam sale hasn’t started yet and I haven’t seen anything I really want yet in the GOG sale. That may change if the D&D games appear for cheaper. That steering wheel has stayed unordered too, although if Xmas travel plans work out, there’s a store near Coventry that’s on my route …

Music. It wouldn’t be the same without me listening to a tonne of music. I still have over 400 tracks in the library (mostly soundtracks) that I haven’t listened to yet. Next album up is from David Bowie with the one after that being the Red Sonja (classic film) soundtrack.

And I see that scroll bar getting to the point where it tells me I’m Wall Of Texting !

Time for a little bit more Deus Ex, followed by a run to Tescos. It should spookily be around the time for dinner and they’ve had a Dominos replace the Shiny Chippie that was there before. I won’t be going to Tescos just yet – it’s chucking it down out there …