Month: May 2012

LOL ! 🙂

Cut's almost healed now and my head (and appetite) seem healthy again 🙂

Watched Avengers Assemble tonight – this movie is awesome. (Add expletives of your choice for emphasis)

Definitely one for the pre order. And I suspect a lot of people will agree, judging by it breaking all sorts of box office records. Hell, I watched it on my own tonight but I would gladly go back to see it again if someone wanted me to drag them along to it.

(And I promise to not stare at the Black Widow’s bum … too much)

And going from one brand of awesome to something deeply, incredibly, amazingly special : Paralysed woman completes London Marathon after 16 days. Can anything top that ? Seriously ! She’s using robot/bionic prosthetics to move her legs, as a spinal injury means she can’t move them on her own. There’s all kinds of WOW here :

We have the technology now to do this
And key – what a spirit this lady has. Inspirational. Truly inspirational.

That’s the story that greeted me as I got in from Avengers and turned on Skynews.

Google have licenced their autonomous cars. Not sure whether to find this scary or not. Hopefully it’ll go some way to making the roads safer by removing the Moron element. Trouble is, the remaining Morons will be the ones driving around without MoT (roadworthiness test in the UK) or insurance. We shall see. Oh, the car they’re using is very similar to mine …

Japan closes their last nuclear power station. Meh. Very meh. I’m pro nuclear power. It’s clean energy, despite what the scaremongerers would say. Those same green fanatics would see us using coal or gas power which pumps CO2 into the atmosphere. Nuclear does produce its waste but that waste is controllable and containable. CO2 is not. Nuclear is also safe, despite what the green loonies will tell you about :

Fukushima – closed down safely. Will cause no deaths (the few who died at Fukushima fell from heights) and the lessons learned will prevent similar accidents from escalating out of control
Chernobyl – was self inflicted sabotage where the plant was effectively deliberately blown up.

Yep – I see the way the greenies would like to take us and think they’re crazy. Don’t get me started about wind turbines ! 🙂

LED lightbulbs to last for ages. 23 years ! That’s longer than you’d expect to live in one house. Although my parents have lived in their current place for 26 and I’ve lived here for 10. I’m kinda a convert to energy saving bulbs, although not for them being cheaper. The ones I use in my living room light definitely last longer before they pop. So there might be something in this LED last ages thing.

Especially as it isn’t a thin tungsten filament that’s designed to take enough current that it glows and sets off gas in the bulb. I dunno, when people look back in 50 years on what we use now, they will not believe it. Just as we seldom believe that 30 years ago, ATMs were unheard of and mobile phones were in their infancy. Tech marches on.

Star Wars subscribers fall. Not surprised here and I doubt whether this game will last past 1 expansion. Having played it briefly, it’s a subpar WoW clone with its only distinctive feature being cutscenes. Games are supposed to be about gameplay, not cutscenes that get in the way. Mass Effect 3 had me going “Enough with the cutscene, WANNA SHOOT SOMETHING”.

I’m hopeful for better from Guildwars 2, although I think the MMO set up on Grind Lots for Little Fun may have had its day. People want fun from their games, 99% of MMOs are eternal grind for 30 minutes fun. Online shooters and games like League Of Legends show us the Grind is not necessary for Fun.

And that’s it for today – no game tonight. The other team didn’t just turn up, they’re not even in the league ! I suspect we’d have got half a game played (maybe) and then we’d have got rained on. Hopeful for something tomorrow, it’s another artificial wicket so we could get away with it. I’d like to be wearing spikes for the soggy ground but – keeping ? Nah. Spikes will be banned for me.

Good night !

PS One last one : Mechwarrior online looks awesome. I grew up on Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries taking a lot of my early PC gaming time and later played Mech Commander 2 to death. If they catch the MW2M gameplay again, this could be special.

so I don't have to tell you to wear a helmet
good

I have a feeling that saying will rapidly gain legendary Deja Vu status :

It’s the eve of the cricket season (for me at least). Oh, it was also the eve of the season on Wednesday last week too but that game was rained off. I suspect the three games this week haven’t got much chance of happening too, due to all the rain that drought hit Britain is seeing at the moment.

(I had half an intention to head into Bristol centre to not buy anything again which I cancelled due to : huge threat of rain & not knowing if Globe Sports would be open – I’ll go in on Friday pm if things work out)

But hey, if all things went well, I’d have three games of cricket this week to follow the cancelled game last week. I suspect the only one which has a chance of happening is the one tomorrow where we’d play on an artificial pitch. (“interesting” pitch, in a “wear a helmet or die” kind of way)

How am I set up for it ?

Well – A few weeks ago, a depression “inspired” post led to me abandoning the Pink Hat Project that I’d been talking about. And for good reasons too. I have a lot of my old speed and agility back but I don’t know how long that’s going to last. I have worsening RSI in my wrists that will affect fielding. I can’t bowl any more. My leg, while 90% healed is not perfect yet. So I didn’t want to lump so much pressure on me that I’d play no matter what (I would) and turn light damage into heavy damage by playing through injuries.

How am I doing really ?
Legs – duff hamstring but full power available. I don’t talk about the infected leg thing from last year any more because while it hasn’t completely healed yet, there’s good tough skin there now and I think it could withstand me diving around.
Back – yeah, this will be what slows me down. However ! It also likes me to be moving around, such that running around a cricket field will actually keep it limber.
Shoulder – is knackered. Can’t bowl any more. But that’s not likely to be a huge problem if I keep to the infield, stay behind the stumps and Not Get Angry (If I make a mistake, I get very angry with myself and forget to keep throws to safe limits)
Hip – yeah, this still feels slightly torn but is another one I’ll happily live with.

That’s the thing about cricket – players will very often play with minor injuries. Sometimes they play on through fairly major injuries. Like players who are due for a hernia op on a Friday but play through the game Tuesday to Thursday. We’ll play with broken fingers. I think I played through half a season with a cracked tibia.

Feeling quite good about this season actually. Because my old team didn’t do pre season practice, I’d usually go into games with no clue as to how I’d get on in games. The new team had two limited sessions (not many people took advantage of them) where I learned :

To wear a helmet when standing up to the stumps as a wicket keeper (duh!)*
That my batting seems to have gone aggressive this year 🙂
That I can keep standing up to the stumps to medium pacers 🙂
Can’t bowl (confirmation)

*(the cut has nearly completely healed now and the ‘tache’s days are numbered)

Hopefully we’ll get a game on this week but I suspect the rain has already beaten them. I’ll be shopping later in the week as I still want a couple of things :

Perhaps some wicket keeping gloves (the New Team gloves are maybe too big)
To feel out some inner gloves (never worn them, need to know + or -)
Seeing what facemask/grills are like
Grabbing some pink rubbers
(whoever raised an eyebrow there is a deviant – lol, perfectly innocent explanation)
And perhaps, perhaps … a new bat.

Pink Hat Project is still a go by the way. But not in a Pay Per Game. That’s just rewarding mediocrity, which I abhor. I’m also not too comfortable with collecting money off people, which is another Big Thing about why I’ve not gone ahead with setting up a Justgiving.com page. What I will do is set a bounty on the exceptional stuff :

25 runs = £2 donation
50 runs = £10 donation
Stumpings and run outs = £5 donation
Catches = £1 donation
(those may go up)

That might collect a decent amount from me. Anyone want to join me ? Send an email or leave a comment and I may well set up that Justgiving page anyway. The chosen charity will be the same one that the girls at work choose for a cake sale that’s due this month.

Had something very weird happening at work on Friday – I had the feeling people were staring at my chest.

Not used to that, although I guess my female readers will know what I mean. I can be a little guilty of that myself, although I try hard not to stare. Actually, I may get more defensive than average when confronted with someone attempting the distraction technique in trying to persuade me into doing something.

A little bit of distraction can be a very wonderful thing (some of the perfumes that walk past are highly distracting) but if it’s at work with someone attempting to persuade me to go in a particular direction, then I’ll look more closely into their reasons for asking.

So by attempting to exploit the male stereotype, they’re actually making me a bit tougher to persuade.

That’s at work though. Outside of work, I’m a sucker for a pretty face 🙂

Anyway – what was causing the staring ? Here we go :

Yes – that’s kinda artistically arranged for hiding of faces but it’s about the best I could do with arranging my phone for a mirror shot.

It’s a cricket top and it was perfect for Friday at work. We don’t have an official dress code where I work but having a smart appearance is Expected. Most people wear what they like, although that depends heavily on them. Professional Sleepypete wears shirt + tie. Other people wear the same stuff they’d wear at a football match. There’s also the ones who look as if they’re ready for an afternoon at the pub (some are) and others who look set to dance the night away at a club.

We have all sorts. I go for the professional look or smart casual on a Friday as that’s what I expect me to be wearing. If I was heading out the office for a customer or supplier facing meeting, I’d stick to the professional look. Credibility comes from your impressions on people and a lot of those depend on outfit. For my work, the professional outfit is the suit + tie. But that would be wholly inappropriate for a garage or hands-on engineering work.

So yeah – outfit counts for a lot. It says who you are and your general attitude even before you open your mouth. And even your general competence (like the garage suit who hasn’t worked on an engine in years, they ain’t gonna be working on my car). But too smart = more interested in looks than getting stuff done.

I’m getting distracted again aren’t I ?

Cricket top got a huge amount of attention on Friday. It was perfect because I could wear it all day and therefore keep my back warm. Didn’t expect it to get more looks or comments than my various subversive message “Don’t follow me, I make it up as I go” t-shirts get :-). Could be that people instantly understand what it is and therefore have something to comment on.

To be honest, this top isn’t likely to see a cricket field. I have another sleeveless top which is 20 years old so it has some of the stitching coming loose. I’ll use that one if it gets so cold I need it. I generate so much heat though when I’m running around that I can’t wear jumpers on the field.

PS It probably looks like my place is in severe need of redocorating. Yeah, I’d agree with that.

Apologies if I go off on a rant again 🙂 Need better ideas so I can talk about good stuff and not stuff that’ll make me rant.

Gis ideas ! If there’s anything my regulars would like me to say what I think about – lemme know 🙂 There’s an email address in my profile. And I’m kinda running out of inspiration for these walls of text … Enough of that – on with the post.

Been looking at Tomshardware again (I know, they make me rant) and they’ve got an article on about the history of computer role playing games. It’s a spectacularly crappy one as, over 16 slides, it shows 14 games from last century and only 2 from this one. There’s lots that came out over the gap … Instead of pure “they’re rubbish” rant though, what computer role playing games (CRPGs from here) do I think show how they’ve evolved ?

In the early days there was text. Pure text. Nothing but text. The early days of true CRPGs and true massively multiplayer games was founded by MUDs (Multi User Dungeons). These were games based on Unix mainframes where the only access was via the terminal emulator. I know. Archaic right ? But very playable. Such that later games with shinier clothing harked back to the easy gameplay of the MUD.

MUDs probably took at least a few % points off my degree score as I tried to level my character up in labtime.

Text based dominated a lot of early pooter gaming. It’s all the machines could really handle. The game would put text up on screen and your imagination would paint the scene in your head. But you can’t really call those early text games or point&clicks RPGs because they didn’t tend to have statistics associated with them.

I missed a lot of the early proper RPGs, mainly because I couldn’t afford them or the hardware to run them on. Or I wasn’t interested in that genre. I did run through Alone In The Dark a few times though and became the one people in the house turned to when they wanted to swordfight past the pirate.

But it’s partly because – a lot of the games in the TH article, I wouldn’t have considered worth playing as they are too crude. Until Baldur’s Gate came along, CRPGs were rather Meh with very frustrating interfaces.

Baldur’s Gate – it’s an isometic adventure game centred around the Protagonist (you) and the companions you gather. I ♥ Imoen (yes – even crazy Imoen from BG2). This seriously broke the mould by translating what before had been crude text, into pictures on the screen.

Very shiny. So shiny that the same basic game engine got turned into a heap of other classics including Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment to name just two.

The next big step came with turning that 2d isometric into full 3d with Neverwinter Nights. I didn’t actually finish BG or BG2 but played NWN to death. And then I downloaded player created adventures and played those.

NWN was so flexible that people turned it into 3d graphics versions of those MUDs. Nice idea but a little limited in scope due to the Dungeons and Dragons level limits.

By the time NWN was getting old, Massively Multiplayer Online games were starting to come in. Games like Everquest that laid the ground for World of Warcraft. The amount of time I sunk into WoW is silly. It’s probably the apex of fantasy CRPG. At least until GuildWars 2 comes along. (Yes, I’ll preorder that and hopefully get more value out of it than SWTOR).

Roughly at the same time, you’ve also got the Fallout series. I like the setting of Fallout but sadly never really got into the games. Dunno why. And that counts for the different genre that Fallout 3 went for too. Perhaps it’s because I liked to sit back and watch things happen on the screen rather than have my skill determine success. RPGs are supposed to be about how the character, not the player.

RPG with character attributes – success should depend on the character build
Fallout & Elder Scrolls – success depends on the player fighting the interface

Skyrim is the first Elder Scrolls game where I’ve not felt like I’m fighting the interface. I’ve actually had more fun from that one, compared to the frustration of trying their earlier games. WoW goes the other way, success is totally statistics based with the only player skill being able to mash the button fast enough.

And there’s a heap of other classics or “could have been’s” that I’d love to talk about (but I’m hitting Wall Of Text limit already) :

Awesome – KOTOR, Mass Effect series (although ME is more FPS than RPG)
Could have been – Vampire Bloodlines
So so or tedious – Dungeon Siege, Divine Divinity

Talking of Knights of The Old Republic, it’s the anniversary today of one of my favourite films and something I grew up to :

May the Fourth Be With You. And while you watch this video (Youtube link), ask yourself like I am : why didn’t I know that one of those was coming out ? I Want.

PS The Youtube link is to the Yogscast, who are a couple of videoing gamers who don’t take themselves or games seriously. When they get going, it’s hilarious. If only they didn’t spend so much time on another CRPG – Minecraft.

One thing I spotted while peeking around the various news sites was that UK ISPs are starting to ban The Pirate Bay.

I’m anti-piracy. I’m with the “it’s theft and shouldn’t be tolerated” crowd. But not because it’s against the law. I don’t actually care too much about the law abiding aspect. No – I care about the damage that the pirates cause.

But wait – what is The Pirate Bay ? It’s a place you can (perhaps!) go to in order to find out where to steal media content available online. That can be music, games or video. And there’s probably more stuff on there too. It’s like having a “How To Rob HMV” or “How To Shoplift” manual available on the web.

Did the looters in London get widespread condemnation ? Yes.
Do online pirates get the same treatment ? No – and a lot of people join in.

There’s no difference, except that online pirates don’t go out to do it, they do it from the anonymity of their internet connection.

The damage ? If I like something, I’m always hopeful there’s more from the same place coming soon. If content is stolen, then that’s cash that isn’t going to the developer, author or artist. I’d like there to have been more Alisha’s Attic albums. But they got miffed and left the business. Good software houses close because rampant piracy means they can’t afford to develop sequels to classics. We got ever more draconian and brutal copy protection measures built in (I boycott Ubisoft because of that).

By stealing stuff, you’re taking cookies from the hands of coders. (Cookies are an essential part of the diet of software people – honest). You’re preventing the next generation of classic media from being created.

That’s enough of me getting on my high and mighty pedestal though.

I have been known to send a music file or two over MSN. I’ll send “you might like this” type selections over to my sister and they’ll come back my way too. That’s technically stealing too but in my defence, a lot of those files have gone towards me or my sister picking up albums we’d never have looked twice at. I don’t see a difference there to posting Youtube links.

We’ve discovered artists like Aimee Mann, Hannah Peel, Goldfrapp (5 albums and counting), Bat For Lashes, Kasabian that way, to mention but a few. If we like it, we’ll go out and buy the albums. And then more albums come out later. But what we won’t do is open up the Torrent tracker and download them.

That’s just the way I feel about it.

Stealing is bad – all sites like PirateBay do is encourage it. Although what some of the online sellers do (charging extra for digital distribution ? Withholding content that’s on the disc ?) approaches theft.

Yep. Really. There’s one sitting in the fridge right now silently taunting me with its presence.

Not to mention all the Mini Eggs in there too. I’d say I have a year’s supply but that’s because I know I’ll keep them back for when I really need them* and I’ll resort to other stuff before then.

*(Mini Eggs have a magical combination of chocolate, additives, colourings and other Stuff that’s almost guaranteed to kick me out of a low and activate the hyperactivity. Not something to be abused, so I keep ’em for when I need the kick)

It’s very weird struggling to feel hunger … My hunger sense or “my belly is empty/full” sense seems to have gone walkabout since the latest whack on the head. The only signs I’m getting are when the earthquake rumbles strike or the “I need something to stay busy with” acid reflux strikes.

But – there’s a way around every problem and mine is sensible : Don’t snack and therefore overeat (I’m not sensing “full” properly either) and eat according to timing patterns. I.e. Teacake for breakfast, normal lunch, pay attention to “cookies are evil” note in afternoon calendar, normal dinner. That’s like – just keeping to what I’d be doing anyway. Easy !

Hunger aside, I still don’t trust my brain yet after getting the whack. That’s another weird thing, not knowing from the inside if you’re a little bit different to how you were before. However. I do know that I’ve been seriously lucky twice now (3 times if you count the incident with the beautiful woman bowling me over) with bumps to the head. The most damage I’ve had is a broken nose, a touch of amnesia and people thinking I have a coldsore.

And that’s something to remember.

When you’ve been hurt, look at it from the outside. Think : “how bad is this really ?” Often, it won’t be nearly as bad as it seems. And if it is, there’s always friends around to help you through. Everything feels better after a hug. For the latest whack, sure – lots of blood. But after that was dealt with, I was able to rejoin the practicing. No need to run off to hospital immediately.

Friends count. They kept me in WoW for far longer than that game deserved (it was broken by devs removing the challenge). Although that friendship struggled to continue under the pressures of raiding. The abiding memories I’ll keep from WoW are :
Making our Overqueen dissolve into giggles while trying to raid lead due to a whisper of “weird positions on the kitchen floor” in response to something I can’t remember,
Getting our new shaman and 30 minutes in whispering to the Overqueen : “I like this one, can we keep her ?” (that’s you Sandra !)
Singing along on Mumble
And trying to follow what the delightfully insane VR girls were up to

I guess that’s what I wanted to do with this post. Yesterday’s was very whiny. And I really dislike resorting to whinyness. I felt obliged to knock it off the top 🙂

No where did I leave those mean, taunting Easter Eggs ?

PS I found surprise shards of Easter Egg in the fridge. So I not only have been able to indulge the Easter Egg
craving, I have another one intact still 🙂
PS2 Today also sees an anniversary, which is another reason I want to look on the bright side of things and remember Good Things. The sad thing there is that this is from something more than half my life ago. Still miss him. Happy Birthday wherever you are now !

One of the things I watch regularly is a series called Dexter. It’s one of the better series on at the moment (although the Rita character was getting seriously tired) about a serial killer who works for the police as a forensics blood spatter expert.

If you’ve not seen any Dexter, it’s recommended. We’re into the 6th series now on FX over here and it’s still going strong.

Anyway – one of the scenarios Dexter is in at the start of series 6 sees him hunting a mark at a school reunion. He’s frustrated by all the attention he’s getting … Instead of being anonymous, everyone wants to talk to him making it tougher to investigate his target.

He’s getting the attention because he’s :
Single
Independent
Professional
Intelligent
Physically fit
And apparently without vices …

I share a lot of that, although I could do better with a couple of them. I’ve been living on my own (with a couple of medium term relationships) since leaving school and I think I’m doing ok with looking after myself. Although perhaps the vacuum cleaner and the ironing board should be seeing more use.

I have the professional living pattern, which keeps me in my home and with enough means to buy what I want (I’m not too extravagant which helps with that). I have my own unique intelligence which I hope shows in these posts. Although I describe myself as “a little extra”, I’m now at a strong weight. The only place I have excess baggage is around my middle. That’s part of my standards thing. I expect very high standards from myself (not necessarily from others) so having that baggage is a Not Like.

I have sufficient natural fitness that after long periods away, I can get straight back into cricket and within a couple of games it won’t look as if I’ve been idle. I can be somewhat frail and break things easy … but people rarely realise until I show off the bruises. I daresay I could still provide the muscle to push start cars on my own like I could while at uni.

The only vice I have is being an Information Junkie. (Games used to be but that addiction has faded into “something to do”). And that just means I’m interested in the world around me.

So you would have thought with all that, I’d be a magnet for people looking to bop me on the head to drag me off to their lair ? Nah. I must be avoiding the places where all the cavegirls like that go. Or I’m just not getting the chance to meet them.

I suspect part of it is whether I show interest or not. And that tends to be limited only to those people I’m actually interested in. I’ve never caught the Bristolian habit of saying “my love” to every half stranger out there, I keep terms of endearment for those people where I really mean it. “Love” is a very special thing and should be treated that way. Keep the term in reserve for when you really mean it and the recipient will know you think they’re special.

Dunno if that makes sense or not.

Where I do get frustrated is when I get blocked, shut out or just plain ignored. I find that very hard to deal with. I think it’s quite rude. I suspect one reason I jumped into my two Bad Idea long term relationships is because the other person showed interest in me. I’d have been so surprised I would have ignored the “Are you mad ?” voice in my head. (For the first it was “she’s mad and a user”, for the second it was “you’re only interested cos she’s broken”).

But yeah – every time where I’ve made that first step of seeing if someone’s interested in Me, I’ve ended up being shut out. Ok, some of those times I’ve had no business asking and realised that not long after. That doesn’t stop the rejection through being blanked any less tough to take though.

Perhaps I need to go to some of those reunion thingys.

PS There’s one slight problem with the school reunion scenario for me … I went to an all boys grammar school. I’m not interested in boys ! I am curious though as to where the girls (actually 2nd/3rd year students when I was in my first) who used to watch us play cricket are now though. Strange that I can remember the names of two of them but not the third.