Sleepypete's Pillow

Been spotting a few hits in to this post …

Gotta admit that I've given up League of Legends. It's a good game, very well supported by the developers and mercifully bug free across the wide range of PCs.

But … it's crippled by the community of players that inhabit it. If you can do a regular team of 5, this would be an awesome game. However, randoms as a solo player are too painful to contemplate.

So I've been concentrating my gaming time on stuff that's guaranteed fun, instead of LoL which is a fun game let down by its community.

Hi Anon – I guess where the Elkie collection falls down is that there's possibly too many tracks in it. The not-so-good ones get in there as well as the great ones. And there's some outstanding tracks in there 🙂

BK – lots of variation in what I listen to helps me avoid getting bored with what I have 🙂

That's quite an eclectic collection 🙂

Elkie Brooks can rise above singers like , Coolidge and Streisand. Her ability to sing all types of music is excellent. The other two cannot sing Rock or Jazz as well as Brooks.

Not quite sure why I picked that title, except that it’s the track playing in iTunes at the moment …

The library’s expanded a fair bit over the past couple of months. Some old, some new, some rediscovered and some given a second chance.

The old are Rita Coolidge, Barbra Streisand and Elkie Brooks where I’ve acquired a few “greatest tracks” type albums. All 3 of them have amazing voices, they’re from a musical era which demanded its stars could sing and not just dance. Autotune hadn’t been invented when these ladies were singing their hearts out. Of the 3, my pick has been Barbra Streisand as the choice of tracks is consistently outstanding when it doesn’t break through into stunning. The Rita Coolidge album is good but not as brilliant while the Elkie Brooks collection is very patchy. It’s a shame, there’s the excellent voice and the well written songs but something goes horribly wrong in the middle. Bit like when Kate Bush tried to sing Candle In The Wind and somehow ended up butchering it.

That’s the trouble with cover versions, you’d think a great singer would combine with magical lyrics to make something unforgettable but you end up with something horrific instead. I’d pick out an example but I don’t think I want to go there in case it sticks in my head and makes me go ~wibble~ at work tomorrow.

Rediscovered :

Just listening to the Once More With Feeling soundtrack from Buffy. It’s the actors and actresses singing so it’s rather different to commercial manufactured pop. It’s a hell of a lot better. There’s so much feeling put into the singing that you can’t help but sing along.

Ok – maybe behind locked doors where noone can hear you try to sing along (I’m a wuss like that) but you know what I mean 🙂 Under Your Spell is most definitely the highlight there and I think I’m going to take a little interlude to watch the vid on Youtube … Oh – forget any disparaging remarks about the singing quality – Amber Benson could easily beat any X Factor wannabe.

Something new :

Evanescence’s self titled 3rd album appeared … This is an ok album. It’s not as good as their first two but still hangs together as an album. There’s just no stand out tracks like My Immortal or Hello. (And my brain just triggered a memory of a bad cover – Katherine Jenkins should have left Bring Me To Life well alone)

Something old (but not stale) : Meatloaf’s Rock N Roll Hero is always good for a listen. This kinda goes in the 2nd chance box but I’m saving that for later … Everyone will know what follows the words “On a hot summer night …”

Something given a 2nd chance : I have to thank our Klingon Spirited RCA for this one. I’d written off Snow Patrol’s Fallen Empires as a) More of the same and b) Pretty bad. That’s what random youtubing can do … But our RCA had me listening to Fallen Empires in the car … and guess what appeared in the library not all that long after :-). No stand out tracks on this one again but that doesn’t make it a bad album.

Past & Present :

I’d been missing a Cardigans album … To be honest, half the tracks on Emmerdale I’d already got with their Life album. So I’d been missing 7 tracks that were easily worth the price of a cheap album. That’s Past, as the Cardigans split up a few years ago. Lead singer, Nina Persson, went to a new band called A Camp which makes Present with the appearance of the Colonia album in the library.

Future ? Not got that yet. But I’m looking keenly at it in the hope it becomes available over here for a respectable price. The temptation is coming from getting Edie Brickell’s Volcano album which is more excellence from a criminally underrated artist. Hey – why future if I’ve got the album ? Cos I’ve not got the next album yet … There’s a self titled Edie Brickell album which doesn’t seem to be too available over here, I can’t get it on iTunes and it would be £12.30 from Amazon. I don’t like paying that for movies, let alone cd’s.

Weird – the magical music box of Hannah Peel is a must check out. He says going off to Youtube to find Tainted Love to sing along to (which has actually turned into being an album track Don’t Kiss The Broken One).

The Wall Of Text alarm just went off so I’ll just summarise the others … Cults, White Stripes and The Rasmus are worth checking out if you’ve missed them. Kaiser Chiefs Employment was ok but not up to the hype. Dirty Vegas (Days Go By acoustic is a stop n listen), Diamonds And Pearls and a whole heap of random classical has turned up too.

It’s definitely enough music to keep me busy for a while 🙂 The library is up to 5202 tracks taking up 27 GB of my laptop now and I’d need to have the laptop playing for 14 consecutive days to listen to it all.

Deadliest Roads had Lisa … definitely watched that 🙂 Alabama Dave came over better in Deadliest Roads too.

The Ecuador series should be good.

Sounds like you had a good break 🙂 I needed one too as 2011 was hell on toast work-wise.

I enjoy Ice-Road Truckers too. have you seen the new series 'Deadliest Roads' where they sent them to drive in the mountains of India? Hairy stuff!

So much for 2011 Xmas break 🙂

Back to work tomorrow. I needed the long break as the batteries were running down. I’ve filled it with some gaming, taking advantage of Steam sales to get a few more for the collection. I managed to resist going berzerk on getting games I’d rarely play too.

It’s not all been gaming though. Itunes tells me I’ve listened to at least 844 different music tracks since being away (recently played list doesn’t count duplicates) and I’ve been struggling to stay ahead of all the recorded Xmas telly so much I’ve only watched 1 blu-ray. Hanna is a film very much worth watching although it earns its 12. Oddball characters, bonecrunching action backed up by an excellent soundtrack and a decent plot.

What have I been watching ?

Well – I currently have about 12 films recorded with Megamind and Dawn Treader being the highlights so far. There’s also been :

Buffy – now at end of season 5
10th Kingdom – wonderful theme (Wishing on a Star) and passable story. Worth a second watch.
Deadliest Catch – this had a series break during the last season and I missed the second half. Caught up now 🙂
Shaun and the Dead is on now – moderately amusing.
A Bridge Too Far – World War 2 film of the failed Operation Market Garden.
Sherlock season 2 – loved the first episode, likely to preorder the blu-ray.
Terra Nova – enjoyed this series, hopefully there will be a second.
Ice Road Truckers – still decent although it might be outliving its time and wearing itself out.
Puss In Boots – saw this one at the cinema, it’s a good laugh. Well worth catching before it disappears …
Doctor Who Xmas special – was ok but nothing brilliant. The strength of the current writer is in setting up series arcs, his individual Xmas episodes can be a bit weak.
There’s been more too as I try to keep the box clear.

Stuff I started to watch but abandoned :

Snow Queen – first heard of this a few years ago and it inspired a nickname. The Snow Queen of the story steals the heart of the bellboy. I sadly gave up on the TV miniseries after being bored for an hour. Besides, the shallow one on screen doesn’t compare to our Snow Queen.
Season of the Witch – Nicolas Cage film. Didn’t last long.
Brain Dead – not sure when I’ll learn that cheap flicks on horror channel will rot your brain.

Think there were a few more abandons too but I’ve managed to banish the memory.

Managed to get out to the Mall for the sales, although I didn’t actually pick anything up. I think I’ve already bought the stuff I actually want or need.

Still – back to work tomorrow. And right back into keeping ahead of the game in terms of what’s been going on over the Xmas break. It’ll be good to catch up.

There is only one way to know what Dots is thinking and it involves communication. Whatever the reason, as long as you enjoy gaming then keep on keeping on 🙂

Been thinking (in the time when I’m not thinking of other stuff) of why I do the gaming thing …

I think it’s as a distraction. Something to stop me thinking of stuff that does drive me to distraction. There’s someone I know. To save me putting … instead of a name, let’s just call her Dots (not Dotty cos that’s what I seem to be).

So – at the moment my head is being dominated by thoughts coming unbidden of what’s Dots up to ? Is Dots ok ? How’s she doing ? What would Dots think of … ? Etc. There’s a word for that I know. I think the reason the thoughts are coming out now is because when I first knew Dots, there was no chance of thinking of her as anything more than a little sister. Now though, there is the possibility for more so that mental wall has come down. Even before then, it’s always been about Dots. What did she think of the Bright Young Thing that caught the eye a couple of years ago ?

Where does the gaming come in with all this ?

It helps me forget.

Gaming tends to need either complete focus in the case of skill games or allows the brain to go to sleep in repetitive tasks (Moo2 in the endgame epilogue grind stage). That focus lets the part of my brain that’s asking the Dots questions have a bit of respite. I’ll descend into focusing on how to beat the game so much I’ll barely hear the music blaring out over the other side of the room.

Some people might call that unhealthy or borderline addiction. I don’t think it’s addiction, at least it’s not addiction any more. Game addiction is neglecting studies or work and a self destructing path of either alienating friends (like in the true WoW addicts) or destroying health. In my case, I should have flown through uni to get a 1st Hons MEng. I only have a 2:2 Hons MEng because I allowed myself to develop the gaming addiction that saw me firing up the PC as soon as I got in, not to do studies but to take over mystical worlds.

Game addiction means you are glued to the screen at every opportunity. You’re not in the game for fun or the classic storyline or because it’s a puzzle that’s not been cracked yet, you’re in it because that’s what you think you should be doing. The quest/reward cycle that defines games like World of WarCrack is at the centre of the cause of gaming addiction.

I don’t think I have the addiction any more, the various fallout from the breakup of the Mercenaries WoW guild gave me enough aversion therapy and lessons from seeing how other people behave under addiction to pull me out of that addiction.

So why do I game now ?

It’s definitely not for my health. At 37 years and struggling to keep the weight off, I should be getting outside more and exercising. I can’t get away with Natural Fitness as much as I used to for cricket. Sitting in a chair in front of the pooter barely moving anything but a finger on a mouse doesn’t do much for burning calories or shifting fat. It’s not for human contact either because I’m not playing the multiplayer aspect of the games I do have.

But as something that allows me to turn my brain away from distracting thoughts, to forget, it’s a lot better than some things people do to themselves. I don’t drink to forget. Even if I had the capacity to do so without being ill, I’d hate to think of what that would do to my liver.

And I can feel those “what would Dots think of this post” “will Dots realise who I’m talking about” thoughts coming through again. Need a distraction !

Time to continue the quest of a bionic man from the near future … (Trying Deus Ex Human Revolution now that I have a pooter that stands a chance of playing it)

PS Wonder if the Snow Queen will guess the identity of Dots as quickly as she guesses the rest of my codenames 🙂