Push it, make the beats go harder
12:12 am Saturday, 20 September, 2008
This morning I had my breakfast sat outside by Lake Taupo looking over at MOUNT DOOM.
It was a good breakfast.
Archive for the 'nerdity' Category
Batman Always Wins
5:22 am Sunday, 24 August, 2008
So in Melbourne there is a Dame Edna Place and an AC/DC Lane. Obviously the Aussies like to name things after some local heroes.
There is also a Batman Lane, Batman Avenue, Batman Street, Batman Hill and a Batman Park (unfortunately not as cool as it sounds ) but it’s nice to see that even in the land down under Batman Always Wins.
Sleepyhead, come on let’s take a ride
2:11 am Monday, 19 November, 2007
Ah Sunday evening, Monday morning how I dread you so. Another week begins. Lets first take a look back at this past week.
I’ve just noticed that I have been posting an hour in the future for some time now. I wonder how I missed this. I bet it’s some sort of GMT/BST thing. Anyway please subtract an hour from the last few postings, thanks very much!
Right lets go straight back to Friday evening. I took the day off work because something was up and I had things to do. This wasn’t so bad. I got some things done but not everything, wait that’s the story of my life is it not? Anyway I still had to go out to Hammersmith because that evening I was going to see Ryan Adams and the Cardinals in the Apollo. It was a mixed evening. The bad, we were seated (the entire gig was) and about halfway back on the balcony so it wasn’t great. The crowd was basically a bunch of cunts. It was the worst crowd I’ve ever been with. From the moment they came on stage there were people shouting shit and throughout the entire gig people were shouting requests. It was just odd. Every song would finish and people would shout and shout and shout. Assholes. Now the other big problem I have with seated gigs is people getting in and out. There seemed to be no rush at all for people to take their seats or anything like that when the gig started. Everyone milled around, people sat in wrong seats and then shouted about it. So shit crowd, like I say basically a bunch of cunts.
The good however could have been so much better. If this had been in Brixton or somewhere like that, it could well have been the best gig I’ve ever been to. They played for just over two and half hours and the setlist was amazing. There was almost everything I could want to hear (opening with Let It Ride!) from all the albums. Really good stuff.
So that was good.
Saturday was quiet. I did some stuff locally in the morning before my sister came around to use the net for a while. Her job fell through and so it’s back to square one but I suppose from my point of view at least she has a flat of her own now.
Saturday evening I stopped by for a quick drink at Andrew’s birthday party before heading out to Alexandra Palace to see Arcade Fire. I was most amused to find the shuttle bus to be a green ex Dublin Bus bus still with all the signs inside. Anyway into the gig as the band took the stage and it was excellent. I wasn’t in the best of form at the time (and probably ain’t now either to be honest) and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would but it was still damn good. Little bit of a chore getting home as I took a wrong turn and spent more time walking than I thought. Oh well.
Sunday…dead. I was meant to be seeing Arcade Fire again this evening but it didn’t happen. I generally use Stargreen for all my ticketing needs in London. I provided them with a change of address when I moved but this seems to have caused huge problems for them and for me. Twice I’ve had to collect tickets from them and for Ryan Adams I had to get duplicates from the box office. Despite two conversations in the past few days, they knew I had not got my ticket for tonight and yet still didn’t get back to me to tell me what I was doing. Do you think they were open on Sunday? So not happy there, I’ll be onto them tomorrow for my money back. I’m considering a strongly worded letter…not that I’ll ever get to it, it’s so old fashioned.
Now to talk about some other stuff. Work, well I can sum that up simply. I don’t know. I’d add stop asking me please but to be honest I think most of you know that already. When I have something to tell you, I’ll tell you. I’m really unhappy about the entire thing but there isn’t anything I can do but wait. It sucks.
Flat, well my flatmate gets back from America tomorrow. Family has kept her there for the past couple of weeks and is going to have her moving back to there in December. I have no idea what this means for me. I cannot afford to take the flat here on my own and we are both paying a lot for this place because it’s a nice flat and we can afford it. I’m not optimistic about keeping it. Of course to add to the complication, we are under contract and I don’t know what, if anything, we can do about that. I’ve that to follow up on during the week.
So just when I thought all was okay on the home front and I could worry about work, I had been so afraid of having to deal with them both at the same time, here I am having to deal with them both at the same time. Not good, not good at all.
Hence the real need for some quiet time. It’s odd that with my flatmate away so much recently how little time I’ve had to myself. Between going out and about and having my sister around and of course KG, I’ve just been all over the place. None of these are bad things I’d like to quickly add but it just stacks up. I feel worn out. I slept until 12.30 today and I still feel so tired (and cold for that matter). I should stop going out so much, that’s out in terms of booking things and that but there is so much good stuff on that I really want to see. I have another 3 gigs this week and then I’m going away next weekend so I’m already looking at the week after for having some time. It’s kinda mad. Some of it’s really good but some of it’s just kinda mad really I think.
I watched some stuff recently. House continues on a grand little roll. I’m really enjoying it, to the point of watching it before I watch anything else which is unusual for me. I guess it’s mainly because Boston Legal continues it’s roll of not being very good. I hate all the characters with two obvious exceptions and dammit I’m starting to hate them a little too. I have not cared enough to watch Heroes for the past few episodes but I hear that it picks up a bit…it needs to. I’m not sure why I’m still watching Weeds, oh wait, yes I know why but it’s a shadow of it’s former self.
Gaming and another couple of big ones recently. This weekend I completed two major nagging concerns. Sewer Trial for a number of badges and then today with the Goodman brothers, the Praetorian arc giving me some much missed badges. It took a good while, we may have been at it for 4 if not 5 hours (oops) but it was nice to get it done from start to finish and get the missing pieces. It was good fun too.
As I think I mentioned recently, I’ve been reading the Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell. I’m on book 5 Sidetracked now. I took a brief interlude to read Slash’s autobiography which while being nowhere near as entertaining as The Dirt was still a decent enough read and did leave me dreaming of having been in Guns N’ Roses one evening. Odd that was. Anyway book 5 and there is a whole style to his writing that I just can’t identify. I was going to say it was translation but there has been at least two translators. Well if whichever blurb it was can get away with just saying it’s very “Nordic” then I’ll go with that too. I’m kinda enjoying them, it’s odd I’m really not sure if I am but I’m still reading and buying more anyway. I guess I should stop that but I like finishing what I start (that includes series).
I need to use my camera. I should have this weekend but it’s cold and wet. I’ve done a tiny amount of macro work late ate night recently. A few photos are up but most are crap (and some could argue so are the ones that are up…) and I just need to get out and do more. There’s that having time again…
I’ve missed so much at the cinema. There are so many movies out at the moment or out over the past couple of months that I have not manged to see. Not just random stuff but things I’ve actively been looking forward to seeing (Once, Into The Wild) and I’ve just not managed it. I need to get that into order.
Oh did I mention that the full length tracks with the Heima DVD are even more amazingly beautiful than I had expected? I didn’t. Oh well they are. Truly amazing stuff.
I’d quite like a holiday. First I’d like some money for it though. I seem to be just hemorrhaging cash at the moment. Instead of getting money back from people for tickets and the like I just seem to be getting more tickets. It’s fine, it’s just it seems to be racking up at the moment. I’m not stuck for cash or anything but I’m just aware of my bank balances a little more. It would be nice to get it all back and pay off a credit card and then just carry on. It’ll happen, just like everything else it’d be nice if it happened on my timescales as oppose to anyone elses.
Oh, I’m perfectly sober now, but I really must try and remember to tick the drunk box for anytime I’ve been drinking before going on the internet. Context is king, yo!
Finally here’s a thought. You know how there is the old line that if you think you are crazy, then you probably aren’t and that it’s the ones who think they are perfectly sane that are actally crazy? Well anyway there it is if you don’t know it. I wonder if it could apply to anything else…
oh caveat emptor open the atoms core
1:46 pm Monday, 12 November, 2007
Alright, it’s catchup time.
Who needs an order though? Last night I was home around 8ish and I cooked some dinner (sweet and sour chicken with rice seen as you asked) and I was looking for a quiet evening of taking it very easy. So when I pickup for an almost full team for STF came along, I thought to myself it was worth a shot.
And it was, it was awesome. One of the best teams I’ve ever been one. We stumbled a little bit at the start (a quick Warburg mish for some Shivans and the first badge of the evening for me!) but when we got going, we slaughtered it. The last mish was positively easy. We had one death for Recluse and finished that bit off in about 20 minutes. It was awesome. I got 4 badges for the evening and a couple of nice drops tho nothing really worth writing home about. So I went to bed in quite a good mood.
So backing up to earlier in the week. On Wednesday evening myself and Nathan went to see !!! in Koko and it was pretty good. A few beers before hand with a couple of drop in guests was nice and then yeah I enjoyed the gig, it was just fun.
Oh and before that, on Tuesday evening we did leaving drinks for the Hatters which involved a stupid amount of cocktails but was all in all a fun evening too.
Now forward to Saturday. Well, busy enough. I spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoons helping my sister move into her flat which all went well enough.
Saturday night though was White Mischief. For various reasons, I was photography pass-less which was a shame but I had a most excellent evening. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Kunta Kinte but then right after them, British Sea Power were awesome. Really good stuff as I briefly mentioned before.
So then a little more random music, a little cabaret, a little burlesque and then home around the two o’ clock mark and into bed about thirty minutes later.
Sunday, as I said I was doing more moving. I woke up feeling like I had slept for hours and hours and I was really surprised to find my clock telling me it was 9.36. I thought it was a bit early to get up so I read for a little while before dragging myself out of bed. I was cooking some breakfast when my sister made some comment about being good to have slept for so long and lo-and-behold, I have no idea how my clock was so wrong but it was now well after 2.30 in the afternoon. No wonder I had felt like I slept so well.
Anyway into town then for a brief couple of drinks that went really well I am very pleased to say and so all in all yesterday was a pretty good day.
Today is petty tough so far. I am embroiled in paperwork and I think it’s going to continue like that for a little while. More on that at some stage down the line though.
12:11 am Saturday, 8 September, 2007
I need to rank the Star Trek movies 1-10 from best to worst. I’m going to need a) some time, b) a pen and c) some paper.
Its not a matter of you versus me
11:48 am Friday, 24 August, 2007
Alrighty then.
I’m sat at my desk and somewhat struggling with the screen. I’m sure I’m going to have a headache by lunchtime. I’ve just taken a little break and instead of diving back into work I’m going to dive into some major major nerdiness.
I bought my first desktop computer (my second computer of my own) in October of 2004. I bought a desktop, and will always have a desktop so I can game. Now gaming can usually come and go for me, if I get into something I’ll spend a lot of time playing it and then I’ll give up and maybe come back later. There have been two games of note.
The first, Eve Online. It’s a space based MMPORG. It’s gloriously pretty, at the time of release there was nothing that looked better. It’s now showing it’s age a bit. I did re-up for a month while I was in the US but played for less than a day I think. It’s not a single player game, in order to truly enjoy the game you need to work with a group of people. And it’s not a casual game, it requires effort and time to get everything setup. So both of those put me off a bit.
However I have one glorious moment from Eve. There was a major war going on for some new space stations. They could finally be controlled by players and well the corp I was playing with was part of a pretty strong alliance. We had some stations, 3 as I recall and we had to defend them. And so came fleet battles. It remain the most fun I’ve had on a computer. I woke my flatmate sometime around 3am shouting at the screen as the battle raged. (I warned you this would be nerdy). There were at least 100 ships on each side and the lag was so intense but it didn’t matter. Teamspeak was up and running, targets were shouted, we’d turn, aim, fire, reload and repeat. The graphics were good enough to actually look like a proper space battle.
This is a screenshot of my final moments in battle from the person who got the kill (bastard). You can see the streams of missiles heading into me. Everything else on the screen is a target. Drones, ships the entire lot. It’s just manic.
It was glorious. Loosing the ship didn’t matter, it just took a while to replace and we won the battle and held the stations. If I could play a game where I could just login and take a ship into a fight like that with 200 other people, well sign me up for life. It was glorious.
I did warn you this was going to be nerdy.
The second game of note is City of Heroes. There are two moments from this one. The first was just despair. I was there from the beginning. I was playing inside of Issue One. All the good stuff in the game that there is now wasn’t there. It was a simple case of logging in, finding a team and fighting crime. And man it was a tough game. It’s much easier now than it was way back then.
The night Issue Two came out, I was a level 20 something scrapper. I, like most games, had stuck to my first character. I hadn’t realised a lot of things and had wasted slots on Brawl and Rest (oops). So when character respecification came along, I went straight for the Task Force. I’ve still never seen a zone as I have that evening.
We ran Terra Volta 12 times that evening and failed every single one. I hit the debt cap pretty quickly (and back then debt meant debt) but still we went on and on and on. Finally around 3, maybe 4am I called it a night. I had to sleep. By this stage we could get clear to the last room in about 30 minutes but then the waves and waves would overwhelm us. We made it to wave 8 once and that was it. We’d just faceplant. It was a slaughter.
The next day they took down the Task Force for balancing. That night we beat it first time, barely blinking and I had my Respec. And damn if we had not gone out and earned it. I was one of the first with Transcendant, back when badges and respecs meant something.
It took a long time to work off that debt, 249K at level 24 was nothing to be laughed at. So it was a slaughter, and it was glorious. It remains my defining COH moment.
Yesterday though I broke. I was fed up and I decided I’d just login for a little while. And so I did and I got a team pretty quickly. Not just a team, but a good team. A good leader, a bit of healing and some damage dealers. And we just did some missions and then all of sudden, two things happen. I get my 15 month Veteran badge (that’s spread over 3 years) and in my 459st partrol in hour 427 on that character; *ding*.
It was nice.
So a few more mishes and then I spent some time figuring out enhancements and stuff. Took my nice cool 44 million and was left with 22k after starting to buy everything I need to get my IO set bonuses.
And then I rolled a Peacebringer and it began again. Man, I’m so glad they realised the key hurdle to new characters is lack of a travel power. I have so many alts that I got bored with by level 10 because I’d just get fed up of waiting. So having a decent fly power from level 1 was pretty damn nice.
I have tried World of Warcraft, I played for a while in the US mainly because I could play it on my Mac which was nice and remains something I’d like to see more of. (I know I can play COH on there but I really don’t want to run dual boot). It was okay I guess. I should like it more than I do…but I just don’t. I got to somewhere in the mid 20s I guess, maybe even 30ish. Never did find a good Guild.
So yeah nerdy. But hey, just be glad I didn’t talk about my WarHammer army, my multiple CCG collections, the Heroquest/Space Crusade collections. And ya know, I’ve never LARPed…I know there are some of you that cannot say the same.
Though I did note with considerable interested that D&D fourth edition was announced within the past couple of weeks…
(The post title is of course a lyric, this time after searching my iPod for “Game”, it had to be The Cardigans and My Favourite Game although Queen’s Play the Game was a very close second.)