marasmusine

Our shubunkin, Dorey, died today. We did our best for him but in the end he keeled over. Our goldfish, Glory, looks a little lonely now.

New stuff.

The good ship "Week o' Wiki Wah Wah" has been launched onto the FM sea, thanks to One Life Left. I thought that I would be completely unable to listen to myself, since I cringe into a corner whenever I see myself on film. But on this occasion I think I managed okay, and didn't have to forward-wind throught the podcast or punch myself unconscious or anything.

I have joined the emo borg furry collective at DeviantART. I'm sure I'll be able to resist drawing pictures of pregnant anthropomorphic wolf girls with purple fur in schoolgirl outfits. Ha, I made that up for comic effect, but there they are. Really, I wanted a place where I could organize all my old artwork scans and it's the first place I thought of. Some of my pictures were quickly plonked into other's "favourites" folders. This might be a little meaningless considering the quality of the other drawings in those folders, but it made me feel cozy and welcomed all the same.

I am now 33 years old, which feels like both a short time and a long time.

Not sure what today's new Wikipedia article will be. Something off the "requested articles" list, I think. Eddy seems to be throwing tantrums non-stop recently, so it might be that I won't get anything done.

Today's new Wikipedia article is on the Amiga game Xenomorph - It wasn't a game I had played, but it was on the "requested articles" list. Looks like I might have enjoyed it during my Amiga days. Most of my morning was spent cleaning up the article on the game Pool of Radiance.

Traded in some old games, yesterday, for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Graphically, I was expecting something a bit more impressive - in 2007 was the year of Halo 3, GRAW 2 and CoD4, after all. My first thought was that Stalker looked and behaved like Operation Flashpoint. But that's fine with me - Op Flash was one of my faves. This does mean that I'm always expecting some odd physics and AI, since character models look a bit like kisekae dolls with clip-on cardboard guns (Indeed, at one point, an allied soldier seemed intent on pushing then trapping me into the corner of a building) The storyline and atmosphere is tremendously spooky, though. There always seems to be something going off in the distance, like a firefight, or a wild dog being tossed into the air by an anomaly - randomly, rather than scripted, making the world feel alive. I also like the RPG-style inventory system. Aww, man, someone should remake the Amiga games Captive or Liberation. Especially the latter, with its randomly generated missions.

Gratz Adam + Charlotte, lol lv. 50! kk.

Music or Programming day today, so updated Dunc's Algomusic Mk V a bit. Went to Derek's house to mix its output with a vocal track, but the audio capture barely worked making the tempo go wonky (with hilarious results.)

I looked into sorting out an audio capture for my PC, and turns out this is actually pretty easy. The trick is realising that some entries in Vista's "recording devices" list are hidden by default. "Show disabled devices", then select "Stero Mix" for input, hit record on Audacity, play Algomusic... it works, and doesn't seem to struggle at all! Just need to rememeber to change back to "mic in" for recording the vocals.

Got out from work an hour early too, yay.

Today's new Wikipedia article is Richard Shepherd Software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Shepherd_Software

It's pretty short as there isn't much about them in the World of Spectrum archive.

Looking at their ludography, I used to have Urban Upstart, which never loaded properly, and Transylvanian Tower, which I remember being a bit scary. I'm going to pop it in an emulator and see if it still spooks me.

I've just discovered a few YouTube videos of Dunc's AlgoMusic! (version IIIb anyway)
It's truly crap in a funky skillo kind of way, and I'm glad people have been enjoying it.
http://www.wikihost.org/w/doodleblog/dunc_s_algomusic/ if you want to play with the new version.

Today was Action Games day, so I played GTAIV, which I haven't played since last year. Quickly managed to get the hang of the controls again and completed some missions that were previously bugging me. Maybe it's because I have the 360 hooked up to the TFT now?

No new WP article today, as Wikipedia is running tremendously slow. So this was a generic mess-about-on-the-internet day with nothing interesting achieved.

Today the council accused us of fly-tipping because we put some junk in the back alleyway yesterday.
This is despite us phoning the council the week before, agreeing that we'd be putting the junk in the back alleyway, and paying them to have them remove it.
I presume someone saw us shifting the wardrobe/couch/etc and phoned the council to complain. The good old DMBC then sent someone to our house to fine us, without checking their facts first. Dolts.

Worked a bit on my algorithmic music generator, which will be providing background noise to a radio feature I may or may not be doing.

Completed Condemned - Criminal Origins (mostly because it was taking up a lot of room on my hard drive). I love spooky games with that urban decay theme (like Shadowman or Silent Hill). Condemned used some shock factor, but a lot of it was creeping horror too - unexplained shadows; mysterious figures that dissolve into a swarm of rats; investigation of crime scenes. The presence of guns but heavily restricted ammo was interesting. Every shot has to count, making each shot rather satisfying when it connects with an enemy. It was fustrating that I couldn't carry both a melee weapon and a gun, though. That made no sense and caused a bit of to-ing and fro-ing. The bad guys were also a lot of fun. They're all human, but some behave and look so monsterous that it makes you wonder what kind of derrangement they must've gone through. There's also internal logic - when a baddy fires a gun which you later take for yourself, you find that yes indeed, those rounds of ammunition have been expended. Errant weapon swings that hit other enemies also cause damage and seemed to initiate some "monster in-fighting", to use a Doom term.

Yesterday's Wikipedia day resulted in a stub article about Automata UK [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automata_UK]. I also got upset and punched a hole in the wall.

Today was Action Games day, so Derek and I smashed a leather sofa up, lugged a large box about, then watched Brion James being mental.

I am now going to do nothing significant.

Today was "tidy up!" day, so I got stuck into it as soon as I got up.
There is now a visible flat surface in the living room (which I've immediately obscured with D&D stuff) and I can see the kitchen worktop! Also washed some dishes and my duvet. Hurrah! Schedule is working for me. I perhaps should've spent a bit more time preparing for D&D yesterday, my notes are a bit sketchy, so I'll probably end up winging it, again.

So yes, okay, didn't play any scheduled action games yesterday, but I did see two action films. Ator was cheap Italian 80s sword-and-sword fantasy. 3 out of 10, but it did include the requisite 8 encounters required for a D&D adventure. Ator himself was a straight forward Fighter, possibly a Battlerager due to his light armour and the fact that he looked like a sack of hit points. Token bimbo Rune was clearly a Brawny Rogue who had multiclassed into Ranger since she occasionally used some two-weapon encounter powers. If the film-makers had been aware of the D&D rules, they might have given her pointy ears. Her platinum hair and bow proficiency was quite elf-like.

Wolverine had lots of fun fights in it, but some dodgy special effects. If the dialogue had been a bit snappier, or the droning musical score a bit less prominent, or some cliched scenes (such as "we have to get these kids out of here") had been removed, it might have got a bit more than this 6 out of 10 review score.

Today is my wildcard day - I can do any of my favourite things. So, off to the hospital to have my teeth x-rayed then! Followed by washing the dishes then going to work.

Wikipedia day turned out pretty nice. I managed to start one new article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trouble_in_Little_China_(video_game) but mostly pratted about. Took Eddie out to Hexthorpe park, enjoyed the weather, listened to a D&D podcast called "Diagonally Through the Woods".

Today is "Action Games Day", but will mostly spend it watching films with Derek. I'll take Eddie out now to give Janine a breather.

Well, "strategy games day" didn't turn out quite like that, because I ended up getting up with Eddie quite early, then taking him into town (hobble hobble, poorly ankle) , after which I was too tired for anything. I did have time to caputre Milan with my Venetian army, so yay.

Today is "wikipedia day", but I need to go into town again (council tax...), have a bath, do the dishes and take Eddie out again later on. Also D&D Character Builder has just been updated with the Arcane Power stuff so I might tinker with that.

As long as I have a steady supply of podcasts I don't mind taking Eddie out. One problem though is that the sound of traffic usually drowns out the feeble power of my headphones, so its no good for going into town with.

That was the dullest journal entry I've done in a while. Why not respond by telling me what films you can think of that are set in Canada? I can only think of Brain Candy.

Because I've got less time for my hobbies now, I've decided to schedule them. It goes something like:
*Monday - Programming or music
*Tuesday - Strategy games
*Wednesday - Wikipedia
*Thursday - Action games / Xbox
*Friday - Something else - perhaps painting some minis.
*Saturday - Prep for D&D or GURPS. Enjoy day off work.
*Sunday - Tidy up. Play D&D or GURPS.

Yesterday (Monday) I did end up playing with Wikipedia and Medieval 2, but I did manage also to tinker about with the Ataxia II code, which I haven't done in two months.

Today is Strategy Games day. I've got plenty installed that I had completely forgotten about - Galactic Civs, Colonization, Republic. The thing with these is that, unlike action games, one doesn't really "complete" them. They accumilate on my hard-drive asking to be replayed.

So, er, Gears of War. That didn't take long to complete. I can't remember when I got it off Derek, but I think it was only a week ago. I've been playing on Hardcore for about an hour a day, and here I am at the end. Just gotta beat the end-of-game baddy, which might take another hour depending on how much of a pain-in-the-arse he is.
Many of the sections of the game seemed to be the designers going "Oh, oh, look at how exciting this is!" But those sections seem rather forced - the mine carts; driving the rig through the darkness; manning a mounted machine-gun to take down oncoming aerial enemies (designers think that what might be exciting in films - Star Wars, Pearl Harbor - might work in a game. NO. This just pisses me off in first/third person shooters)
The third act, set in a cave system, was beginning to make me wonder if I wanted to bother continue playing - it was just dull and I was already numb from having to repeatedly retry the bugged "pushable cover" sections of the previous act.
But then act 4 opened and I was back into exciting (daytime) urban combat, with thrilling tactical fighting in courtyards. But huh, all of a sudden I'm at the end.
Also, a hint for Lee Perry. If you're going to have exploding enemies, don't drop several of them point-blank into a tightly enclosed train carriage with the player. Haven't we learnt anything from Rick Dangerous?
Overall, I'd give 7 out of 10. No, really.

Okay, I think I'll be okay, thanks for all your messages. I just may be a bit quieter than usual.

I hate myself to the point of sobbing uncontrollably over some sausages I was frying, before deciding I couldn't eat them.
My temper keeps snapping like a little dry twig. I'm fed up of feeling this way and I don't know what to do.
Where's the sunshine? It's supposed to be spring, dammit. What's all this gray crap?

Started a wikipedia article on Soundtracker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundtracker

I've only just started to get into podcasts, to listen to at work and whilst taking Eddie out on walks.
I've been enjoying this serialized D&D game session by the peeps at Penny Arcade and PvP (two webcomics I've never read) and Wil Wheaton (of Stand by Me / Star Trek:TNG fame), probably gobbledegook to people who've never played before but still a lot of fun: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4pod/20090218
Exhausting that, I've also been enjoying the BBC6 Music Adam and Joe podcast, as I usually miss most of the radio show due to Eddyness. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/adamandjoe/
I'm now listening to the back catalogue of One Life Left 'casts. It's always pleasing to hear Derek get lots of compliments, and the last two guests - Steven Poole and Dave Green - were great. The song explaining the plot to Halo also made me grin. Going through the episodes in reverse order... http://www.onelifeleft.com/category/podcast/

Tonight the neighbours are having a barbeque, shouting lots, and playing drums (like, Turkish drums or something.) It's only 9pm so hopfully they will quieten down later.
Janine usually watches NCIS now, but Eddie is refusing to go to sleep.
It's Friday alreay? Well, that was another holiday week down the drain.

In other news, Grognak the Barbarian and Dangerous Darog have just defeated two ice beetles. Yes, I've resorted to playing D&D by myself :/