Author: Sleepypete

Yep.

Almost that day when couple and singles alike are united in dread. It’s daft that isn’t it ? Valentines Day should be about love, unconditional love. Except :

If you’re single then you’re made to feel broken or otherwise Not Right on this day of all days if you don’t have the excuse to treat someone.
If you’re a couple, then it’s an utter nightmare to find somewhere intimate to have that lovely dinner with your partner.

That’s the impression I used to have. It was better to have that quiet night in where you could devote your attention completely to your partner in comfort. If you went out, that intimate dinner would be shared with all and sundry, if you could even get a table.

Besides – it doesn’t take it being the calendar pointing to a certain day to mean you need an excuse to make a partner feel special.

I like to think I make people feel special all the time. Well, most of the time. I have that grin of mine which seems to be really contagious, getting people joining in. Especially the ladies. Perhaps that’s because it tends to come out most for the Pretty Ladies ?

I dunno – there’s something about the beauty that all ladies have which makes me want to see that beauty smiling. And I guess there’s an innocence in that grin that brings out that smile.

This year will be a little different.

I have no set plans, for this weekend at least. Part of that is because my legs are currently speaking to me. They’re saying that they hope I die a horrible, painful death. Yep. True. They really don’t like me at the moment. But I’m ignoring them and keeping on using them. They’re a little better on the outsides than yesterday, hopefully that improvement will continue although if I were to expose those legs to the unwary, they’d probably be ill.

Yep. Still looking like I’ve been dragged through those thornbushes. And the legs may actually be in worse shape on the insides (they’re not but they are making me very uncomfortable).

Different this year ?

I’ll be texting that little lady with the big personality and the enchanting bubbly chuckle. And I’ll be looking forward to Comic Con in March. I have the playlist for the car all ready, there’s a tonne of amazing music on it.

(I’m still amazed by how good Untouched is by The Veronicas – that’s probably my favourite song now out of the 13,000 in the library, although Song For The Leftovers and any number of other Nina Persson songs competes)

Yep. My personality is still going on those sub-orbital jaunts when it gets a message coming through. That’s one advantage of my memory (when it works properly!), I can hear that bubbly chuckle as I read the messages.

I’m rambling now though. I hope people have a good weekend.

I’m hoping for a restful one as I still have a tonne of repairs that I need my body to do so it hates me less. I may end up going out to see a certain film if a Pretty Little Lady comes calling 🙂 Not quite sure what to make of Fifty Shades. From what I hear, it’s a very sexy, kinky tale. However, from what I hear, it crosses a line over into the territory of rape. I don’t know how I’d feel if I watched that. It would definitely make me uncomfortable and quite probably make me very angry.

Don’t be too tempted by what the commercial people demand you do though. If you love another, you don’t need to show that this particular weekend by heading out. Make her feel special every day of the year. This weekend is just something the commercial people dreamed up.

Does that sound smothering ?

Sometimes the greatest gift is time. And that can translate into giving that time to others by being available when they need you. Just being around to chuckle at their jokes. To bounce off what they say with comments. To give them a hug when they’re sad. To lend strength when they’re weak. To indulge them in their whims.

I hope people have a good weekend, whether they spend it with someone, talking to someone from a distance or even just ignoring that whole commercial construct which is Valentines.

Cya ! Oh ! I will be indulging in another commercial construct coming very soon.

Mini Eggs are awesome.

PS I think I found the message I was searching for – it’s not the Day that’s special, it’s the people. Make every day a valentines day by trying to make people feel special at every opportunity.

Trying to think what I’ve watched in the cinema this year.

It does seem a little while ago since the Hobbit 3 was out, I think that’s the last film before these three that I watched in the cinema. It was also second date with Little Skye ! That was fun. If a little short lasting because we both had to disappear off places the next morning.

Hopefully I’ll see Skye again soon. I miss that bubbly chuckle and I want to explain the joking story earlier. It was a true story honest ! But a bit too worky to put here. It’s definitely a story with the potential to make people wonder what on earth I was doing. Muahaha.

Films ?

I’ve seen 3 in the cinema over the past week or so.

First up – Good film (or at least I thought so !) – Ex Machina. This is about a programmer who wins a competition run by his reclusive megaboss. The prize is to spend a week at the megaboss’s retreat. But … megaboss has an ulterior motice, he has an advanced Artificial Intelligence robot and he wants the programmer to run the Turing Test* on it.

*The Turing Test is about the question of consciousness and self awareness. It has a person talking to a computer, if the person cannot distinguish the computer’s responses from a human, the computer passes the Turing Test and can be classed as being sentient.

I enjoyed this movie. I’d like to see it again to see how many little hooks were in there that you’d easily miss the first time round. Ok, there were some major plot hammers that were very obvious on the first viewing but I’m sure there’s more subtleties that were missed.

I enjoyed Ex Machina, although it’s not for everyone. I’d recommend it, purely as a Make Your Own Mind Up film. It’ll make you think, about many things.

Did I mention that the AI was also very pretty and able to convey a certain sense of vulnerability ?

Bad film – that’s gotta be Jupiter Ascending. This is a space scifi epic with space ships, mechs, spacebikes, lasers, warpdrives, immortality, machiavellian despots and Mila Kunis trying to have some fun.

It’s strange. It has all the ingredients, save one. What’s missing is good writing. It’s a fantastic film waiting to burst out but is shackled by that terrible writing.

One to avoid, although it’s definitely a spectacle. Perhaps one to experience as long as you’re not expecting to get anything cerebral out of it. In fact you may even walk out in disgust at the appalling writing and complete absence of coherency in the plot.

But it does have Mila Kunis attempting to have fun. (Must see some more of her stuff, she’s a feel good actress).

Dunno what to make of it film ? Has to be Kingsman.

This has an ultra secret service run, of course, by the Brits. Colin Firth is the lead spy, although he’s not the boss of the organisation. Nigel Davenport joins in too, as does Mark Strong. But this one’s about the boy who gets in trouble and gets taken in by the Kingsman organisation.

Oh and there’s a dastardly plot to take over the world, led by Samuel L Jackson (a characiture level performance), ably supported by hit girl assassin Gazelle (played by Sofia Boutella). The hit girl kinda steals the show. She’s so graceful and I bet she had a lot of fun playing the part. You can usually tell that with actresses, there’s a certain glint in their eye.

So – Kingsman. It’s incredibly silly. There’s wholly unrealistic toys on show. Some of the jokes are tasteless, some of the effects are truly daft, there are ultra violent scenes, it has an “execution” device which is a bit nasty. But that’s the whole point. If it’s a match for your sense of humour, you’ll find this movie hilarious.

It’s a light hearted spy romp.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, although it’s not for everyone.

I suspect me enjoying these films is down to me being in up cycles when I saw them. My state of mind has been going up and down like a yoyo. Some days I’m strong, some days I’m weak. If I’m strong, I’ll enjoy stuff. I kinda enjoyed Jupiter Ascending despite the writing being so appalling.

So – good film, bad film, dunno what to think film. I kinda enjoyed all 3 for different reasons, despite that writing.

My recommendation ? Make your own mind up. Experience these things for yourself. And, look to enjoy first, critique second.

Not too many left in these now …

First up is a blokey band who I’ve added to the Collect All They Do list. It’s Maroon 5 and it’s not my typical vibe but they’re different, quirky, boppy, make you feel better bouncy music. Their latest is V and it’s pretty decent again. Highlight is My Heart Is Open.

Another quirky mob who I’m getting to like more now is Kasabian. They’re in here with Velociraptor and I love that title track “He’s gonna chase you, he’s gonna eat you” in sing-song lyrics. Not the best track here though, I’d call that Switchblade Smiles.

Good album. I’d heartily recommend it.

And one I’d totally recommend is Velveteen by Tranvision Vamp. I was reminded of this band by a Driving Songs collection cd and the song that stood out was Baby I Don’t Care. Any song that starts with a Wendy James scream is going to get my attention, with that attention being held by a damn good song.

Garbage have been around forever it seems following up an excellent debut with Version 2.0, their second album. This one is filled with amazing songs and I think I’d pick out The Trick Is To Keep Breathing.

And here are the Very Best Of albums …

First up is Nina Simone. She’s an absolute legend with an incredible voice with great range. Her only anti-mark is her racism. I have no place for stuff like that, be it positive or negative discrimination (I’m looking at you MOBO awards). But … it just means that certain of her songs, I won’t listen to. I’ll enjoy listening to the non-racism songs which have utter brilliance like I Ain’t Got No, I Got Life.

That seems like a strong opinion doesn’t it ? I guess it is. Question – would a MOWO Awards see the light of day ? I dunno. Although you could say it already is, they just don’t connect the white origin with the name. I’m getting into territory I don’t want to talk about too much though. Nina Simone – absolute legend of a singer. I’ll enjoy most of her music and avoid the stuff I don’t like.

Sheryl Crow has another Very Best Of (you could call this White Origin!), country and western at its best. This is a great collection of amazing songs, like Everyday Is A Winding Road or There Goes The Neighbourhood.

Harking back a bit are The Eagles with another Very Best Of. There’s some really obvious choices here for highlight so I’ll pick something different – Take It Easy is my highlight. (Ok – it’s a really well known one but I like the message in it !)

I was in a Frankie and Bennys having a dinner and Bobby Vinton was on over the tannoy. Made me think – why don’t I have any of this ? So I picked up his collection just for Blue Velvet.

I keep collecting Air albums too, although when they get cheap. They did the soundtrack for The Virgin Suicides. Ok album but you won’t miss much by avoiding it.

Coldplay get in here with Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends. Gotta admit, all of Coldplay’s music mushes into the next track for me. They’re ok to listen to but not really a highlight.

But oh so different – Edie Brickell’s Volcano. Another pretty decent album from Edie here, highlights are the title track Volcano and there’s a few more here too. An album I enjoy when its turn comes.

There’s lots in W so I’ll leave that one until later. That’s it for now !

Cya

Today’s been a better day.

Not fixed, not by a long shot. But improved.

Maybe.

But I think drinking loads of water yesterday has started setting me right. I have to admit, one reason for the extreme cramping problems I was having last night was my dinner … Yep. I raided the chippie between getting off the bus and reaching home.

Something I’ve always been susceptible to is having extreme cramp from mineral imbalance. My system has to have :

Lots of water
Not much salt

I believe that’s related to the neurotransmitter chemistry (I gave up biology before getting that far) but as far as I know, your nerves work off a balance of Potassium and Sodium. And salt is Sodium Chloride. So by having chips which have lots of salt on and combining that with a lack of hydration, I effectively salt bomb myself and get that massive cramping due to confusing the nerves with an imbalance of that Potassium and Sodium.

This week, I’ve been out of office a lot and away from drinking as much as I try to. Add that to the skin problems causing my body to pull in all the fluids to help repair and … lots of cramp. Hence me experiencing lots of pain …

I don’t believe that’s an arthritis pain. Let’s see actually :

Muscles – is that salt bomb dehydration effect making them cramp.
Wrist – is genuine RSI and is possibly getting worse through arthritis attacking it
Hip – I think my problem here is a ligament (needs checking out)
I think the wrist and possibly my ankles are the only areas I have genuine arthritis building up, although I’ve never regained full use of my shoulder and my knees and back/neck are as creaky as ever.

Yep. Yesterday was a really low point.

Today has been better. I don’t really know why today’s been better, possibly it’s going a little while without doing too much more damage to myself. Perhaps I got a decent night’s sleep last night.

I still have my bad ear though. I didn’t mention that yesterday … I have like 90% hearing out of my left ear but my right ear is pretty bad. It’s down to maybe 10% (and I’m trying not to fiddle with it and make it worse) but I have tinnitus from it which is jamming the good ear. (That’s jamming as in presenting a stronger signal than what I want to hear).

I’m getting by with it, I’ve been able to function with my hearing at work without missing much and it doesn’t affect my balance like some ear problems can.

I know what would brighten me up – hugs from good people. Let’s see :

I sat on the bus next to a very old friend last night. She’s amazing. And always great to talk to. I think that chat helped more than I thought and although I didn’t get the benefit last night, that slow burning chat-hug might be what’s got me pointing back in the right direction.

People are digging the scarf. Their comments let me explain where it came from – the playoff final last year where I took my dad to see his team win.

Smile ! There we go.

Having the mental strength to not be fixated on one particular little lady. I still very occasionally watch her videos but when I do, I see the divergence between what she says and how she acts. She’s very closed in. Perhaps I’d say something different if I was in her little circle … but I tried to break into that and abandoned it after numerous attempts over a significant period of time. She still makes good videos but isn’t making anything I’m interested in watching at the moment. She was worth chasing though.

Looking forward to text messages from another little lady. There’s lots of films on at the moment and I hope she’ll let me take her to at least one of them. This one is definitely worth chasing !

(Films are one aspect where I want the ear problem to go away – films are about the soundtrack as much as they are about the visuals).

Oh and having a few key friends who I know have their eye on me and want me to be ok.

Yep. Better day than yesterday. Hopefully that’ll continue tomorrow and then I’ll have a really chilled out weekend to come and I’ll be looking to stay healthy over that weekend.

Perhaps I’m feeling the benefit of the kindness of those around me ? The people who return the smiles, the people who keep an eye on me. The people who give me that metaphorical pat on the shoulder. The people who give me hugs.

I’m missing hugs. I may have to go hunting people to give me hugs tomorrow at work.

So if you see me at work – run !

Haha – kidding.

Cya !

Oh my

I think my body is trying to tell me something.

But the stubbornness is keeping me grimly hobbling along.

Yep. Could do with a break – apologies if this turns out to be another of those Sleepy Is Struggling posts but I need to express it so I can deal with it.

So what’s up ?

Me tired. Very tired.

I think that’s going to be me on Saturday and Sunday. The way I’m feeling at the moment, I may submerge under those covers on Friday and stay there until Monday morning. But not yet.

Travel tomorrow, meetings on Friday. So I’ll keep myself going for those. Incidentally, that’s why I’ve not bothered the doctor about it yet although I really should check if there’s something available on Friday pm after those meetings.

What do I need ?
Another course of antibiotics – to clear out the last of the infection problems and to sort out a cold I seem to have had since before Xmas. I think that last leftover infection nasties is why my skin is getting to like 90% sorted and no further. It’s frustrating because some of the patches that were the most awful have healed to invisibility.

That skin problem is also exacerbating a dehydration problem that’s really biting at the moment. Most of the fluids I’m taking in are going into repairs. But … my muscles complain when they’re not being fed enough water.

So I’m having to deal with cramps as well as managing the other problems.

Yep. Pain at the moment. Lots of pain.

But not unmanageable.

I’m looking to try and maintain a positive attitude.

Even when that seems harder than reasonably expectable.

I am struggling at the moment. But I compare to how I was a couple of years ago and … I’m doing better than I was back then.

I’ll go see the doctor when I next get the chance, which should help my body get over the last of the infection problems. In the meantime – lots of water to drink. And rest always helps. Well, usually.

I’ll survive.

And to all those who are reading this and getting worried, I’ll seek a bit of help soon. When I can.

Next post will be brighter – promise 🙂 And I’ll hopefully have a doctor’s report to pass on too. Cya !

More music !

Coming to the end of these now and I’ve actually listened to everything in the library now. So – on with the show.

The first few U’s are Ultimate Collections. I have a few of these, from Barbara Streisand, Bob Dylan, Elaine Paige and Clannad. All top music. All but Dylan are there for the voice, Clannad have always had a gift of making their music flow with the voice and Dylan’s always been about the writing. Oh, there’s Prince as well with his own distinct character.

On to the newcomer. Rachel Sermanni is another who I got introduced to via iTunes’ Single Of The Week. That time it was Waltz, a magical tune that really shows off that voice, with the album Under Mountains continuing that trend with some lovely songs. Hope she comes out with more.

I’ve been following Avril Lavigne since her first album. She combines punk attitude with another wonderful voice. Under My Skin is another great album from the Pop Punkster. Highlight for me is How Does It Feel.

I’ve followed Tori Amos as well since day 1 and her second album is Under The Pink, which is loaded with incredible tracks. There’s so many good ones to choose from here but I’ll pick out Space Dog for its character.

Oh look ! Another Tori Amos with her latest, Unrepetant Geraldines. This one isn’t as good as Under The Pink, releasing so much music has diluted the creative instinct, just a little. My highlight here is Weatherman.

The Verve introduced themselves with Urban Hymns, which is another pretty good one albeit outside what I usually listen to (mainstream again). There’s lots of good songs here too, like Sonnet. Bonus – I can sing along to them !

Except not at the moment because the bugs that I was fighting off a couple of weeks ago still have a bit of a hold on my throat.

But that doesn’t really affect singing along to the next guys – Guns N Roses brought out a pair of albums called Use Your Illusion. There’s some amazing tracks here amongst the stinkers. Still, tracks like November Rain more than make up for the bad ones.

Looks like there’s a good few in V, so I’ll leave those until next time.

And talking of that – I’m watching another few Outlaw Star episodes now ahead of Superbowl later. I dunno how long I’ll stay up for the Superbowl, I have another 240 miles travel to do tomorrow. I have the luxury of a normal start time for that, although I’ll look to get to my destination early so I can get some work done there outside of the meeting I’m headed to.

What’s Outlaw Star ?

It’s an anime sci fi space series. It’s fairly old now but it’s a credit to the impression it made on first viewing that I remembered it as something special long enough to hunt down my own copy. It stars two lads who are joined by various colourful characters along the way and a rather special space ship.

It’s something special. Cya !

Today’s order of business : Get the car serviced.

It’s hard to believe I’ve had it a year now. 2014 flew by in a blur. Shall we have another pic ? I think putting in the occasional pic has really helped my writing. It breaks up the wall of text and makes it more readable. Ok, so I break up the wall of text anyway with single sentence paragraphs that I use pretty much as punctuation but pictures are way better for that.

There it is again – the Grey Ghost.

I’ve been loving this one. It earns its name by having the capability to be ultra quiet. I’ll be at traffic lights listening to other people’s engines. So what’s the stats ?

0 to 60 in maybe 7.5 seconds. I haven’t timed it myself – that needs two people really, one with the stop watch and one to pilot the missile. Also needs a suitable road.
45 mpg genuine.
CO2 stats of just over 100 thingies. I forget the actual unit but it means I only pay £10 in tax, instead of the £200 plus of my old Focus. Oh – the Focus was also the same potential speed but at below 30mpg.

How’s it do that ? It’s a hybrid. As well as an engine, it has a couple of motors in there which make up a continuously variable transmission. Instead of 4,5 or 6 set ratios, it chooses the right ratio on the fly. So instead of accelerating through the revs, rarely being at that top power or torque, it’ll hold the engine at the most optimum revs.

Translation – it gives you all its got. Every time. When you ask for it. And when you ask for it to be gentle, it can do that too.

Oh – there’s no clutch either. When I went fast in my manual cars, you’d lose that drive when changing gear and I always knew there were those plates grinding together in that clutch. Too aggressive and you burn life out of that clutch.

Another of my long term injury issues is pain in my left leg. It’s associated with a back injury, where that injury compromises my sciatic nerve. That’s the one that controls the leg. Well, since switching to the auto box, that pain has lessened and it’s actually gone away.

So – forget about that fancy system under the bonnet and beneath the boot, it’s easier to drive and it’s less pain for me.

About that service ?

I take the car to Lexus Cheltenham. It’s a bit of a drive from where I live but I’ll definitely keep going back there. Yep. They want your money first but most of all, they want to keep you as a customer.

It’s a level of customer service I’m not accustomed to as a driver. Ok, maybe I am getting more used to it now.

There’s courtesy, politeness and most important of all, respect. They’ll talk to the customer in the most appropriate way. I have a light that comes on in my car, it looks at the tyre pressures. It’s been coming on because it’s cold out. Cold air is less dense, so the pressure in the tyre goes down. I know that because of my chemistry and physics education, as well as engineering knowledge and from following stuff like Formula 1. So I’m ahead of the sales people and usually know way more than they do about the engineering. And they indulge me on that.

It makes the customer feel better.

But with the other guy, he didn’t know why his light was coming on and salesguy was quite patiently explaining the issue (in several differing ways cos of an understanding problem !) to him. We both go away happy for different reasons.

Oh and they’ll only sell you the car that you actually want. They won’t oversell the next one up or the one they’ve been instructed to get more orders on.

I’m looking at you PC World with conning my parents into getting a piece of trash Asus Transformer. They went in to get a laptop, they came out with trash that didn’t suit the need.

Time to wrap up.

Shiny car is shiny (no issues on the service and less wear on the tyres than expected).
Happy customer is happy.

Wow. I’m beat.

Tired I mean. It’s been a long couple of weeks with lots of travel and this weekend will be my first chance to properly relax since a few weeks ago. Saying that though, I’ll be getting the car serviced tomorrow morning which means another early start.

And then there’s another week where I’ll have maybe the grand total of … 3 hours at my desk ? Maybe more. Depends how a few meetings ago. Yep. On the road again. And now I’ve managed to do it once, I know what image I MUST HAVE on the start up screen for the car :

Yes. I do believe that’s going to have to go in the car at some point. At the moment, it’s the Feed Me Mini Eggs dwagon.

Upsies Downsies ?

That’s what my personality has been doing lately. I feel better able to take on my problems now. I’ve set aside some of what was causing me stress and depression and put that back in the past. I’ve moved on from a couple of things and can better recognise the positives.

I’m still a decent way off being properly healthy but I’m so much better than I was even maybe a year ago. The problem is still one of avoiding doing damage to myself. It’s figuring out how to get myself off to sleep better (lack of sleep leads to fidgeting leads to damage). It’s avoiding idly worrying at the bad bits, only to make them massively worse. With that sleep, it’s figuring ways of positioning that don’t put more stress on faulty skin.

Avoiding stress basically. And having those smiles come my way too.

I seem to be able to talk to people much better than I used to be able to. I still stammer and struggle to get the right words out (part of that is the various head injuries) but I’m at least able to hold that conversation without going off into blank-face. That’s one strange thing about the difference between me writing here and in the real. I can do massive Wall Of Text here but am quieter IRL.

I dunno, maybe it’s recognising that there’s more to talking to girls than the simple “Would you like a coffee ?” Treating people like equals is always good. And I’m equally liberal to everyone when I pull out the smile and grin at them.

Actually, I don’t treat everyone as equals. There’s some who are up on that pedestal of awesomeness.

Perhaps it’s seeing a bit of value come back from others.

There’s the little lady who I see as a Big Sister. (You know who you are and it’s a huge lift to know you’re looking out for me !)
I’m sure one of the cleaning girls has a crush (which I’m not trying to encourage at all – honest)
Friends, old and new have their eye on me and want to know I’m ok (even the one who recoiled in “that’s nasty !” at seeing a mostly healed forearm)
That certainty of feeling that suggests someone is watching your bum as you walk past their desk.
People are digging the scarf (there’s a stranger on the bus who chats)

People just seem to genuinely like me and having me around, which honestly puzzles me. I know I treat people right and can usually add some value to what they’re talking about through experience, knowledge or just the Crazy. But I struggle to accept being that centre of attention person.

Perhaps it’s because I look to others for approval a bit too much. I’ll focus on a very small number of people I see as super special and I’ll look for approval from them and in doing so, miss the virtual and not so virtual hugs and SMILE PETE’s that come from my core friends.

I think me simplifying down that group I was looking for approval from has helped boost me. The negatives from not getting responses (positive or negative) have gone away. That’s weird isn’t it. By giving up on 2 people in particular, losing hope you could say, I’ve got happier.

Perhaps it’s in seeing occasional clues that one of those people is keeping her eye on me, even though there’s rarely a message from her to me. Things like seeing a screen capture from a livestream get used for a Youtube thumbnail (I’m sure it was mine, it’s too similar to be someone else’s). That got me doing an “Oh wow ! :-)” when I saw it, although it was irksome that I didn’t get a reply to the “didja use my pic, if so awesome”.

But all that pales into insignificance compared to the smiles and boosts I from talking to one particular little lady.

Ok. More than one, because our Snow Queen has been keeping my spirits up letting me talk through stuff. But I know SQ won’t mind a bit when I say that the messages from Cupid’s Gift are doing that much more to make me smile.

CG makes me laugh. She can keep up with my mind when it goes on its strange tangents. She’s smart and interesting. She understands me and I really do hope we get to see each other again soon. Cos I’d like to do more than buy her desserts and cookies. I’d like to be that island for her too to allow her to properly relax.

Which is what I’m intending to do when I get back from the car service tomorrow 🙂

Yes. The cake (actually a white chocolate igloo with edible penguins) was delicious.

PS Go see Ex Machina if you can ! Excellent movie. Thoughtful, thought provoking, superbly acted, keeps you guessing. Really enjoyed that today.

I’ve been keeping an eye on GoG.com lately.

One family of games I grew up with was the Star Wars games. Ok. I grew up with the movies and then descended into a kind of second childhood as a TIE Fighter pilot.

GoG.com have been bringing back those old Star Wars games lately. Which ones drew me in ? Or at least, which ones did I get ?

First up is X Wing. This had the player piloting the famed craft of the movies. It’s HARD. Very hard. I came to this game after playing TIE Fighter to death, winning through all the missions on it. XWing is very tough. Some of the missions are totally unfair. Lol. That’s how games used to be. A proper challenge with gameplay time extended by difficulty instead of repetition.

I didn’t actually get to the Death Star mission on XWing. Perhaps if I acquire it again from GoG.

Gog’s secret is that they take old stuff, fiddle about with it and make it work on modern systems. Master Of Magic is a prime example, this needed something called EMS Memory and was tough to run even on the systems of the day. For the new release, it gets a wrapper to load in and … even runs on systems it was never meant for like my Macbook Air.

In XWing and TIE Fighter’s cases, you literally couldn’t play them without a joystick and the wrappers let the old software connect to what they need through the new software. Magic.

TIE Fighter saw you flying for the bad guys. It set you up first in the super fragile TIE Fighter before progressing through Bombers, Interceptors, Advanced and the rather silly Defender. Sometimes you got to fly Gunships, which looked a bit like the shuttles. The toughness in this one was amplified by the lack of shields. About 2 hits would be enough to see you into space dust.

But it wasn’t all about the high energy stuff. There was a strategy game in 1998 which saw me haunting games shops until it was finally unleashed. This was Star Wars Rebellion (or Supremacy depending on region). Honestly, this was a bit of a disappointment. Nothing really happened in my games and you could stalemate easily by using multiple shield generators. I got bored with it and went back to Moo2. Which I still play.

Another genre was the first person shooter and Star Wars had a first here with Dark Forces. It was one of the first games that demanded 8Megabytes of RAM. Get that. The processor in this desktop may have more memory on board than that. These are truly games from a different age. It did have another first, it allowed you to aim up and down.

Cracking game too and it spawned a bunch of sequels which turned you into a bit of a lightsaber wielding nutter Jedi.

Other games ?

I’m hoping that the old Pod Racer game comes to GoG. I loved this game. Adored it even. I was hooked for way too long and I don’t play it now because it has a bit of an amnesia problem. You can install it on Windows 7 but it can’t see where the save games go. So, you save your game, go away, come back and reload and … no save game. Hopefully GoG will sort that out at some point.

For a slower pace, there’s Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. This is a game set 4000 years before the movies and runs the encounters using a variant of the D and D 3rd 3d d20 rules. I actually works extremely well as a game, plus there’s a good story in there too. Oh and Jennifer Hale does one of the voices. Bonus.

Other games ?

I enjoyed X Wing vs TIE Fighter, which had the gameplay of the old games but with far superior graphics. It also had a multiplayer mode and in such, was a game far ahead of its time. There was very little multiplayer scene available at launch and the latency of dial up kinda killed the multiplayer. Full marks for starting off the multiplayer revolution though. I didn’t play XWing Alliance, as by this time the gameplay had been mired in more mission silliness. I heard bad things about this one and avoided it as Not Fun.

There’s a few on there that I’m interested in and a few more I may acquire …

X Wing Rogue Squadron – missed this one. Am very interested …
Indiana Jones and the Fate Of Atlantis – Lucasarts did more than Star Wars !
X Wing and TIE Fighter

And avoid :
Grim Fandango – there’s an excellent playthrough from Duncan of the Yogscast.
XWing Alliance – silliness in missions
XvT – because it didn’t really add anything over the originals.
Rebellion/Supremacy – nostalgia is nice but … Moo2 > Rebellion.

And there’s a few more there too.

To finish off – the best thing about these old games was probably the music. You didn’t get the full orchestral Star Wars music in the original games, typically it was MIDI tracks turned into music by the eponymous OPL3 FM Synthesiser which made early sound cards affordable. This made passable buzzes and wheezes. What was so brilliant about X Wing and TIE Fighter is that the music adjusted to what was happening while playing.

In a furball firefight ? Dramatic music
Grabbing a quiet moment ? A peaceful lull in the music.

It was great stuff and the music sounded natural. Or as natural as OPL3 FM synthesised music can sound.

I’ll not buy them yet, there’s a certain place for nostalgia. It can be Shiny. But sometimes those old games belong … in the past. And they don’t have goodies like those soundtracks I love. The goodie count in these games is rather stingy to be honest and I’ll hold my cash back until either sales or more goodies.

I can be reserved with me cash sometimes ! Honest.

Unless it’s Thorntons. Somehow I escaped the Mall tonight not with the iPad I was eyeing up but with a bag of Butter Tablet, a bag of Chocolate Fudge, a Chocolate Mouse and a bag of Mint Crunches.

Oops.

Cya next time and when you buy stuff, may your goodie count always be high.

Been off to see my mum and dad this weekend.

All told, easy trip, traffic had the occasional idiot but on the whole, no holdups, no hassle. And a relaxing weekend with the mum and dad.

They’re still shaking down their new place, putting things where they need them and all that. But it’s quite cosy and well arranged. Not as big but that was the whole point of moving. It’s also closer to where their friends are.

Win win.

And they still have :

Ben, the Valiant Protector.

He’s a Staffy Bull Terrier who’s actually getting quite old now. His coat’s good but the grey has taken over his whole muzzle now. Makes him look rather distinguished.

He’s a lovely dog, typical Staffy. He looks after his people, loves to be around them (and is perfectly well behaved when they’re out) and gives us huge amounts of fuss.

Ben’s amazing.

And that’s the little fella at play. You can really see that poorly paw there. Both have had trouble :

Both paws have a genetic defect that makes them turn in, putting huge stress on the lower joint. It causes Ben a lot of pain when he forgets and goes jumpy.
The right paw was broken as a puppy, which paradoxically made it the stronger. It healed straight, which sorted out that genetic defect.

Pub run ! Yep. Dad’s birthday next week. I couldn’t make that though (car is in for service), so we gathered at a fairly equidistant pub for a decent meal (steak was edible but on the raw side of Medium Rare). Which meant I got to drive on possibly my favourite road. Twice.

It has lots of corners which can be taken at nice high speed (nothing above 60 – promise – cough). It has one little complex which is especially challenging. It’s in a dip, with the sharp corner at the bottom of the dip. And then there’s a hill after. You can take the sharp corner in perfect conditions at 70mph, if the car is cooperative.

What makes a well handling car ?

Reactions. It has to settle back to neutral very quickly after finishing one corner. Some cars are still settling 50 yards (or more!) after the corner. They’re still wobbling around as you enter the next corner.

The IS ? Ate up the corner with relish and I actually laughed. I like that corner.

Back home and tired now though. I’ll watch a few videos, maybe game a bit and then :

Poor fella. All tuckered out.

I’m going to hope to get as many pictures as I can old Old Ben. He may not be with us for many more years. I hope he’ll keep hobbling on but I have that feeling that it’s getting closer to his Time.

But not just yet. There’s life in the old dog yet. And he definitely showed that when he had his ruff up defending us from unexpected visitors today :-). (Before heading outside with the mum & dad to give said visitors a good slurping in true Staffy style).

(PS If anyone’s wondering, the reason the tail isn’t visible except in that last photo, is that it’s disappeared into a wagging blur of happy dog wag. The family doesn’t believe in tail docking !)