Year: 2012

I just want the car because of the color.

It’s still amazing how far games have come …

Hell – that includes all types of virtual environments, which I touched on by mentioning how the models in 2001 look as good now as they did in 1968 when the film first came out. They don’t use models any more though, movie graphics get done in computers giving incredible amounts of shininess.

Movies can cheat a little though, as it doesn’t matter if it takes an hour to draw every frame if the completed thing isn’t going to be on screens for a while. Games on the other hand, depend on getting their images drawn very quickly and the hardware needs to be able to react to what the player is doing.

It’s no good having a view like :

If it comes on screen like the computer hamsters have their easel and brushes out, that’s no good. Bit like our machines at work at the moment when they do the daily virus scan (which is irrelevant with cloud data anyway). No – a gamer needs the graphics to :

Not slow when things get busy,
Not be too jerky,
And not interfere with the actual game play.

Think of if you’re driving and are blinking your eyes closed half the time. It’s tough. (Albeit highly tempting with the standard of driving at the moment). That’s what poor “frames per second” feels like as a gamer. The world is going on around you but you can only affect it when your eyes are open. To have good playability, games need images like the one above to come at at least 30 frames per second, preferably 60.

Uhoh – think I just detected a trace of philosophy coming from this addled brain. I promise to stop that.

So – you don’t really need graphics of the quality above, you need them to keep up with what’s happening. But it’s awesome when you can have your cake and not have it go straight on your hips. I was quite pleased when Skyrim told me it would be happy on maximum detail with my machine :-).

Here’s another pic :

That’s from high up in a town called Whiterun, which is located on the top of a hill. It makes for a spectacular view. The detail is incredible too. It puts other games like Star Wars Old Republic to shame, that one looks fairly crude in comparison. Deus Ex Human Revolution looked pretty good too but a key difference there is that DXHR has closed environments, Skyrim is totally open. Those forests over there – you can walk to them.

It also helps that, for a change, it’s a Bethesda game that I seem to be getting on with … I’ve got bored with their earlier efforts quite early. They allow a lot of bugs to get unleashed in the release versions of their games.

That quality does look awesome though. The wildlife areas are just as detailed and colourful as you might see out in the countryside. Possibly richer colours too cos you can cheat with the contrast on the monitor. With patches, the water looks incredible too. Instead of going for a certain visual style like games like Warcraft do, they’re looking for Ultra Real which helps with getting the player immersed in the game. Wonder if that’s why SWTOR didn’t catch me ?

And you can probably guess what I’m going to be up to very soon … More Skyrim !

Last thing though – it didn’t look good for our hero earlier :

(clicky on the various pics for higher res)

Oh – Real vs Virtual – the view from Whiterun is better than the view from Snowdon. But that’s because as we reached the summit, all the fog rolled in hiding the view ! Which is what they used to do in old games, they’d fog away the long distance stuff so the machine wouldn’t need to spend time drawing it.

PS If that guard says “but I took an arrow to the knee” again …

Lol – I think my brain is currently in a place where character development would be totally lost on me 🙂

Battle: Los Angeles was definitely action packed, but the dialog was cheesy and horribly written…it's great if you like things that go =BOOM= but not so hot if you want plausible characters.

The Spouse Thingy really liked it, though…he doesn't care about character development, LOL

With the hyperactivity lately, I’ve been going up and coming down at total random lately …

Tonight it’s a case of getting the shopping in (I found a place that recycles carrier bags – hurrah!) and then crashing … Not under the blanket type crashing (would really disrupt my sleep pattern and make me more tired) but I’ve gone for a movie that in no way will need rational thought. I’m feeling so tired that I’m not even jumping at the explosions. (Not long now until Easter and I’ll really need the week off by then)

That reminds me – it’s too long since the Crazie Mob went to the cinema, a fact reinforced by me having a pair of Vue vouchers in my wallet that expire at the end of this month … (Anyone wanna help me use them ?)

So what’s on now – even though my brain feels fried and my body wrung out, I’m still in that restless state of needing to do Something. It think it’s that fried brain still cooking away. That’s a contrast from the hyperactivity – yesterday I had so much energy left over I nearly ran around the block to start conditioning training.

Right – at the moment it’s Battle : Los Angeles. Be careful if you buy this, as there’s a mockbuster called Battle Of Los Angeles which in no way compares to this one starring Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez. It’s an action movie of the highest quality : great visuals and unrelenting action. It’ll keep you glued if you’re a fan of action movies.

Recently I’ve also watched :

2001 Space Odyssey – This is a must see movie and still looks great 44 years after it was made. They got the science right (it’s an Arthur C Clarke!) and what gets put on screen looks as good as what CGI does these days. Trouble is, it also falls into the trap that Arthur C Clarke stories fall into – they’re decent stories but there’s something missing – reader/watcher involvement. Kinda like a lecture where the lecturer doesn’t appear to care if people are listening. The notes and subject may be amazing but his audience is off in the clouds somewhere.

2012 – another of the leave brain with popcorn seller. It’s a decent movie, which I’ll watch a few times more. But it falls into the AI trap of having too many endings. There’s unnecessary bits of story injected that stretch the tale out that little bit more. Decent movie but stretched.

The Day After Tomorrow – another of the awesome visuals. And it’s carried really well by Dennis Quaid. I still enjoy this movie even though I’ve seen it a silly number of times.

RED – this is the comic book derived one with Bruce Willis, John Malcovich, Morgan Freeman and the ever gorgeous Helen Mirren. This is just sheer fun as the watcher is carried along with the Mary-Louise Parker character.

I’ve been watching more but my brain is at that crispy fried state where I can’t remember them …

And there’s a huge amount more in the collection (dvd and bluray) to go !

And tonight’s shopping trip just happened to refill the popcorn supply …

It could well be a couple of Conan movies next (not bought the newest one yet). Love the music from the original Conan.

What to do later – I will definitely be under the shower until the water runs cold (baking my back under the sun would do too but the chances of that are … slim to remote). But I think gaming would be frustrating in my current state of brain.

TBB just shared this one on Facebook which made me laugh :

Especially as it’s the perfect follow up to yesterday’s apocalypse now post 🙂

Oh – I’d need another car if an apocalypse came that wiped out the tech. The Lexus is a great car, after 6 months I’m convinced it was one of the best car decisions I’ve made. But … one whiff of an EMP and all that tech will go byebye.

Now Chloe in my mum & dad’s garage … That’s another matter. Chloe is a Triumph Spitfire Mk3 much like :

(Chloe is a blue one too but hasn’t been out of the garage for many years due to crash damage)

In its day, the Spitfire was a direct competitor to the Spridget (Sprite & Midget were effectively the same car) and was a 2 seater convertible quite similar to today’s MX-5. It’s much more suitable than the Lexus for surviving an apocalypse as the only thing inside with a transistor is the radio (I think it’s a transistor radio!). Not quite so sure about it having the room to carry Apocalypse Supplies though and from what I remember, there’s not much room for an Anti Zombie Shotgun behind the seats.

It was a great little car though, which makes it time for the picture attribution : You could hire one like it here 🙂 – Greatescapes.co.uk. Chloe stays in the garage for now, awaiting its rebuild.

PS Since it appeared on FB, that calendar pic seems to have gone viral …

Been watching a few of these lately … Yesterday it was 2012, today it’s The Day After Tomorrow. I may watch The Core again at some point soon as I find that movie to be huge fun.

Kinda wondering – how would I do if a disaster struck ? I’m thinking of the big ones like asteroid strikes or alien invasion. Hollywood type stuff. Theories say that even if the big asteroid strike was on the other side of the world, there would be an electromagnetic pulse that would disable most of the world’s technology. So for my disaster scenario, I’m going to assume that most of the technology we take for granted would be denied us.

Physically, I think I’d be ok. I’m roughly at an ideal weight (with a little ballast that I could draw on) and while I carry the long term injuries, I’m blessed with a kind of natural fitness that let me do the 26 miles + mountain in a day for Snowdon without any preparation. So while I’d need to work up fitness and conditioning to run any significant distance, I can walk forever.

Hell, I could play a full part in a cricket match tomorrow if there was one going. (And then I’d be solid stiff for the next 3 days while my muscles whinged at me)

Injury wise, while they can slow me down, there’s nothing needing medication. And I can ignore them when I need to. I can go into a kind of survival mode where I keep myself going despite hurting myself. That’s when things happen like Day 1 of a 5 day thing in Brecon Beacons where I slipped on ice and twisted my knee. I was able to keep up with the rest of the people. It was a point of pride for me that I’d carry my own gear instead of inflicting it on the others.

(I think that was lost on the people running the course, same as they didn’t believe I could navigate.)

So I don’t need any special medications to keep going, although I’d have severe trouble without my glasses.

Navigation without tech isn’t an issue – I can read a contour map and translate it into a 3d visual inside my head. I’ll then manipulate that visual into seeing where we are. Same with most things really, I’ll see something mechanical and visualise it in my head. I can then usually figure out how and why it works. Especially if there’s books to work from. One book I have has a person preparing for the end of the world by collecting books on how to do things. If technology goes, there’s no internet to look things up on …

I think I may read Lucifer’s Hammer again some day …

So yeah – I think I’d be able to keep myself going and I think I could figure out how to build things again (given those books). I’d probably be better than I am now, as one of the reasons for my back being stiff is that I don’t use it enough.

That’s not enough though. Surviving the aftermath of an apocalypse needs a bit more than the physical stuff. It needs courage but not enough that you take daft chances. Because without tech or hospitals, you don’t have the backup in case those daft chances end badly. I have a lot of curiosity and that curiosity would bring zombies …

I’d need to be around other people, mainly to give me the motivation but also as a “you’re planning to do what – you’re kidding right ?”. I’m also more footsoldier than leader.

So yeah :
I think I’d handle it physically,
I could hunt the information I’d need to do stuff out of books,
I can figure things out on my own when I have to,
(did most of the maintenance on my Astra & Fiesta)
But I’d need to be around other people.

Because it’s other people that give me the motivation I need to get me doing useful things, instead of just listening to music, watching stuff or gaming. And because I worry about people too, my World View depends on people I care about being happy. So that World View is a little shaky at the moment because two of the people I care deeply about are currently not happy at all …

Yep – with the right people cheering me on, depending on me or just giving me a smile, I feel I can take on the world.

I think the reason for it is that the home repair should always be Easy.

However … like my rusty nuts, someone buggered up the original installation so it couldn't be undone later.

home repairs make me crazy, even if someone else is doing them
the chaos is always there

love the little hug waiter, that's lovely

Finally …

Found a tool that let me budge those rusty nuts … If only ever so slightly. I’ve given up on the loo repair for now, as multiple things are conspiring against the lazy solution :

Rusty nuts
Lack of access

(It only took so long before starting the repair because I knew I’d need to have the heating turned off with the mains water and I didn’t want to freeze).

It’s actually the lack of access that’s the killer, a friend at work lent me a pair of small molegrips that managed to turn one of the rusty nuts about 10 degrees. But that was it because, even though they are tiny teeny molegrips, there’s just not enough room around the nuts to get a tool in.

So I’ll leave it another few days (cos I’m currently sick of the job and am having severe* energy issues right now) for frustration to ease away. Then I’ll look seriously at replacement loos and methods of switching them over. I’m pretty confident I can do that job, although I might need a hand with the lifting. All my strength is in my legs, there’s not much in my arms.
*(had something at start of the week that bit back – either bad milk or a definite “avoid pizza for like – forever”)

Talking of strength … There’s someone out there who is being a total legend at the moment.

Not only is she dealing with an incredibly difficult situation at home and letting no trace of that leak through to work, she’s also caught up in what is akin to a custody battle at work. They’re moving all the teams around soon … with my project being one of the ones which is getting moved. We’d like to keep our best people with us though and this lady definitely counts as The Best. She’s been one of the reasons our project has been so good to work for over the years.

And, as is common in a lot of custody battles, there are people who aren’t playing fair which just makes the situation that much tougher to live through.

I know it’s affecting her but you wouldn’t notice in how she’s keeping going. But she is deserving of all the hugs she can get.

Earlier, I had a look back at the first days of this blog to see how I handled a similar home situation and the answer is : I ran (again). In my case, although initially I reacted ok I was utterly dumbstruck by my partner wanting to move out. I had an idea it was coming, due to a couple of events combined with a growing feeling about it. So when the time came, my reaction was along the lines of “if you love them enough, you have to let them go”. But not fighting it doesn’t make it any easier, I was hurting a lot and really didn’t want to see her again because at a deep level, I felt betrayed. Being hurt makes us do things a saner mind would be horrified at.

Even though I was ready for it, I had trouble adjusting to it and didn’t come to terms with that breakup for a very long time. It helped that I have a bunch of awesome friends (and an understanding boss) who were amazing in having the patience to help me through it. I guess I’m still coming to terms with that break up and I need to properly talk it through with someone I trust utterly. (I’d count candidates on the fingers of 1 hand).

Oh – what did I mean by running from it ? I’d just started playing Warcraft together with some friends at work and basically buried myself in work and that game for the next 6 months until my brain nearly imploded on me. The snapping point came when I felt no longer able to do my part as the Guild Leader due to stuff going on.

The friend who’s struggling at the moment is most definitely one of those who helped me through that time. Just by being around at work and listening when I needed to babble insanely (I can’t actually remember too much of around that time).

And through that listening, she’s definitely earned as much time as she asks of me for listening, talking or even just getting away from the stress with a bit of Sleepy insanity. But I’d do that anyway ! That’s me – help a friend before sorting out my own stuff 🙂

Last thing to post is a picture I’ve used before :

PS It made me grin reading this post where I first started using codenames, with the Snow Queen promptly guessing it straight away as always. It shows how long my project has been great to work for. And there was 5 years before I started the blog too 🙂