Dumb and….a new friend?
Until I get my proper writing head back on (struggling at the minute), here’s another silly picture for you:
The New Dr Who
This is a silly post, for some friends.
Apparently there’s a new Dr Who. Or is that Dr. Shmoo?
A funny thing happened on the way………
….to this blog post.
I checked in on twitter, and someone had a link up that went to a site called omegle. It’s a completely stripped down chat site, where you speak to one other person. Who you don’t know.
I suppose it’s the reaction to everything else supposedly making us all more and more connected to everyone. I can’t think of a real world analogy for it. Well, I can think of a few, but for different types of interaction that might happen, not for the thing as a whole.
Anyway, I closed the tab after two very short chats, which consisted of being asked asl?
But I thought it may be possible to have a proper conversation there, if a little unlikely. So I went back, and this was the first conversation that lasted longer than a couple of lines:
The Rebranding of Tiger Woods
I’ve not followed the Tiger Woods unique ‘rich man has affairs’ story particularly closely. As a gamer though, I was wondering what effect it might have on his game franchise.
Well, I’ve been sent a couple of images from a source that I obviously can’t disclose, but I felt they shouldn’t be kept under wraps.
Also, I’d realised that the last three posts in a row have been about ME, and having read in the last week that there are secret UK Medical Records Council documents that have had their unmasking dates pushed all the way back to 2071, it’s obvious the psychiatrists, insurance companies and govt. want us to just die quietly and it’ll all come out when our children and grandchildren are suffering instead. And theirs are still in charge, brushing something new under the bulging carpet.
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/The-MRC-secret-files-on-ME.pdf
I daresay they have a good reason. Like they do for trying to shut down wikileaks. Or killing all those Iraqis and Afghans. Or any number of other things.
Anyway, back to Tiger.
Newly repackaged 2010 version, ready for those Christmas stockings:
And the first draft of the next game in the series:
What a Week!
Wow, what a week! Life with M.E. is such a whirlwind, I haven’t managed to post here for a full 7 days. Amazing.
Ahh, that Sunday feeling. Thumping headache, puking up, feeling like death. How many times have we had that one? Mind you, I think I’ve had one alcoholic beverage in three months, and that was over a month ago, so unless they developed something ultra strong with a time release, this one isn’t self inflicted.
A fantastic day relaxing in bed playing “Do I/Don’t I (need to be sick again)”
Smashing.
All you folks out there must be so jealous.
None of those Monday morning blues for me, no siree Bob.
Instead of work, I got to spend the day bouncing between two fun activities.
Sitting on the couch, wondering if the nausea would ever go away, and
lying on the couch wondering if the nausea would ever go away!
Rock’n'Roll kids.
I can barely remember it all, but Tuesday was almost the same as Monday. Imagine that!
Best thing was putting a name to a new symptom. POTS. How daft does that sound?
I’m just in training on that one yet though. Practising at home.
It’s something to do with your heart, and if you’ve been lying on the couch, when you get up you virtually faint, and have to crouch or kneel and steady yourself.
Hopefully I’ll be well enough to go to the park in the summer and lie on the grass, then I’ll be able to show off by standing up and then collapsing again! It’ll be a scream.
And then Wednesday!
Was pretty much the same as Monday and Tuesday.
If you can’t keep up, have a break and come back later.
Oh no, wait!
Wednesday was a great day!
At about 8pm, I managed to slowly drink a herbal tea. Fantastic.
Nil by mouth until then. Well, unless you count the odd ibuprofen here and there, and the morning sips of water for the sandpaper tongue in the morning.
I even did some dishes. Get me.
There was big news on Thursday.
I was already down to the weight I used to be as a skinny teen, but managed to lose 8.8 pounds in four days without even trying! At this rate, I’ll weigh the same as I did when I was ten soon.
Sorry, making you jealous again? Ha Ha.
Maybe not though, I had some plain boiled rice on plain toast in the afternoon. When you don’t eat for a few days, it’s like nectar! No seriously, it really is.
And in the evening, Cheese toasted sandwich with some sun dried tomato. Lovely. But it made me feel a bit iffy. That could be cool though, maybe a lactose allergy for the symptoms list. Will check it out soon.
Friday was a complete whirlwind!
Put a clothes wash on!
And rice on toast for lunch!
And pasta and tomato sauce for tea!
And then I felt a bit ill, so will have to rein myself in from the hedonistic heights of food with ingredients for a while yet.
So rice on toast it is. For a while at least.
And rice on toast for supper!
Hmm, what am I going to do with this brisk, sunny Saturday.
Go for a run? Play footy? Go for dinner? Record a song?
Nah.
I’ll put the clothes away!
And maybe have a shower!
And then I’ll see if I’m ready for another monster week.
I’ve got big plans for this week. Make a huge pan of rice, so I can just microwave bits as and when I want them.
And each day, try rice on toast, with another ingredient!
Sorted. Soon see what foods make me worse. This game’s going to be great.
Better stop writing and get on with it.
Bet you’re jealous again. Ha ha.
Ha ha ha ha ha !
HA HA HA HA HAA HAAAAAAA !
ha
One and Other – A week on a Plinth
(This is an older post from a blog I’d put aside for ‘proper writing’, then never did anything proper that wouldn’t fit here anyway. So it’s here now, and the other will be closed.)
I’ve been following the latest Antony Gormley project “One and Other“, where a different person gets to be a living portrait of present day Britain for an hour each over a 100 day span.
I wrote about my initial impressions early on in the process, but after a full week, how much more have I learned? Well, not a great deal I don’t think. I’ve been enjoying it, and found it a comfort to have a look at every now and again during the long nights of this current insomniac phase, but I think it’s confirmed initial ideas more than told me anything new.
In spite of a few people doing the same things, I don’t think there should be any worries about variety across the plinther spectrum. Obviously I haven’t seen everyone who’s been up on the plinth, but I’ve caught quite a few, and taken screenshots of most of those, and there’s been a few surprises already. Singing, dancing, painting and generally interacting with the crowd were probably the most obvious that were bound to happen, but writing a play, campaigning against female genital mutilation and making a Gormleyesque bread man sculpture were possibly less expected.
There have been a lot of people campaigning for a cause, again covering a broad spectrum of styles, from taping up their own mouths to getting a crowd gathered and dancing the Time Warp with them. So far though, where plinthers have been pushing an idea or organisation, it’s been largely for a charitable cause or a right thinking ideal. How long that lasts though is still to be seen. The longer the project goes on, and the more publicity and momentum it gains, the bigger the temptation to turn your hour into a marketing or advertising exercise will get. Who will be the first to sell themselves during their hour in the spotlight?
Over this first week, it’s been very apparent that there’s a point late at night were the plinthers are more likely to become the watcher. A natural tendency though, when the audience in the square has all but disappeared through the early hours of the morning.
With the whole event streamed over the web as it happens, there is a second audience in addition to those physically close to the action, and there’s a lot of comments and opinions freely given. Personally, I’ve been following the twitter comments, mainly with the #oneandother tag. It’s interesting to see that the usual taking of sides that happens in web comments is yet to really take off on this twitter #tag. With 100 day project though, I suspect it’ll kick off a few times.
One thing that I suspect will be one of the first to cause friction is the desire some watchers have to be entertained at all times. Others see that it’s not a talent show, and some of the plinthers are being rather than doing. Sadly, I think there could be a mismatch in momentum between those interested in art, and involved in the project, and the demands for now, now, now entertainment in a short attention span society. One of this evenings plinthers was sitting reading, and was constantly harrassed by one drunk in particular demanding to be entertained. But given a lot of virtual watchers inability to grasp that ‘just being’ is as valid as anything else, what hope for a drunk at 4am on a Tuesday morning?
I’m a natural pessimist, and I do worry that on some of those long summer weekend nights, things might get a bit hairy. Flashmobs, and other events in Trafalgar Square could cause friction with plinth watchers. I think it was the Jesus army that were competing with the plinthers on Saturday afternoon, and there was a surprise addition for a guy who was up there in a suit, but with his bike (?) when an air ambulnce paid a visit.
So far only about a twelfth of the time has passed, so there’s time for many more Pigeon outfits, paper plane throwing, ballon releasing (don’t people relise what they do to birds?), reading, writing, sitting, possibly more tents, tai chi and teaching. Definitely a lot of dressing up.
..and maybe even another haircut or two?
I’m not sure whether to write any more about this. I’m bound to have a look every now and again, but you can only watch a small fraction of the total, and I feel that the next really interesting phase will be the last few days. There will be changes of feel and style among plinthers before it gets that far. There’s the darker nights still to draw in by the time it ends in October don’t forget.
Then the real work probably starts for the people behind the project, producing whatever book/dvd/permanent website they come up with. The plinthers are already archived on the current website, but in the same way that you can’t watch it all live, you can’t watch them all back either. It’ll be a long time before the dust settles and we really know how it all went, and what it all meant.
Of course, having been interested even before it started, having now watched the beginnings of it all, the resistance to applying that I had months ago has gone, and I’ve done it. I don’t whether getting a place would be good or bad news now. What would I do?
Well, if I do get a yes, I’ll write before and after blogs I’m sure. And one thing I definitely won’t be doing is talking on my mobile phone. I know it really is a sign of how we live today, so should be a part of this portrait, but my I was already bored of it before I got into the swing of watching. (I think at least my first three tweets were on the subject).
Anyway, one that I missed was Godzilla, but geraldc was definitely a favourite among the #oneandother twitterati, so I’m off to watch his youtube plinthers diary.
A Harrowing Halloween
Losing something can be sad. Losing someone is likely to be even sadder. Losing many people and things in one go, and then more along the way can be heartbreaking.
I should admit at this point that Halloween never really meant much to me, but thanks to my good friend Paul, and the wonderful Ian and Jo who arrange Halloween weekends in wonderful places, that changed a few years ago. Getting to be Edward Scissorhands, Rob Zombie and the American Werewolf in London’s first victim (and friend), for an evening thanks to the costume and make up skills of my girlfriend, was pretty special. And now after a few years off, it was happening again this year.
Of course, this year I’ve been trying to work out what’s wrong with me. I’ve even had a diagnosis of ME, but having now read up on it a lot more I’m not entirely convinced. There’s definitely something not right. It could be ME, but there were a couple of other suspects I’d found before really hammering away at trying to get a diagnosis from the doctor. They were Lupus and Fybromyalgia. Various thyroid conditions have joined them since I’ve been researching again.
One of the biggest problems I have at the moment is trust. It seems fairly certain that a group of psychiatrists with connections to insurance companies have taken on the cause of ME, invented a more nebulous condition brining in those with depression and various mental illnesses, and branded them all malingerers, creating the term Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and branding this broad group with that fictitious condition. This effectively removes any urgency in finding out what the least understood conditions are, and finding treatments for them. It removes the need to pay out for the insurance companies in most cases. And it props up the psychiatric profession, which has very little going for it these days as most effective treatment for just about anything are brought about by practitioners in other disciplines.
Given that this has been going on for decades, there is a chance that some of these people have held up the development of a treatment, or more importantly a vaccine. That makes me very angry. Not a good idea either, as adrenaline is quite definitely not my friend these days.
ME effects a lot of people though, and is likely to effect more, but in the same way that MS and Lupus were ‘all in the mind’, and Polio and AIDS were ignored at first, the chances are that even if I do actually have ME, I’m unlikely to be the only afflicted person readers of this will know in their lifetime.
So that’s why I’d had a gentle, relaxing week leading up to the return to Halloween festivities for this year. Having to pack very quickly on the Friday was a bit stressful, but I should have done it during the week. On previous occasions I’d have done it in 20 mins the night before. Of course I’d have worked on the Friday, and driven as well, but having no job, car, or energy anymore, independence is another victim. I very much appreciate being driven to and from the venue, but it’s hard not being able to just do normal stuff.
I took it easy on the Saturday, trying to conserve energy to enjoy the evening fully. The only thing I did was have a short walk up to the local shops (which were shut at 3pm on a Saturday?), and took a few photos of the house and it’s surroundings.
Had a brew, and Laura did my nails at about 4pm, and I went for a bit of a lie down before getting dressed up for the evening.
I’d read about people with ME only having enough energy in a day to get a shower, and that’d be it. That’s not counting those that are completely bedbound and hypersensitive to light and sound of course.
I had a haircut, shower, and then had to get costumed up. Which didn’t seem too tiring, but shortly after that, I felt I was flagging a bit, so I had a lie down until 7pm, and meet up time. With a theme of Hammer Horror, I was one of Dracula’s three brides, though I think we ended up with more Draculas than brides, and a whole load of vampires altogether. Always one of the fun bits of the night, seeing what everyone’s turned themselves into.
Having lost my social life over the last year (probably longer really), I really pushed the boat out in having the one alcoholic drink at the beginning of the evening, joining the guys with a glass of blood red champagne!
And then the games began. I think it was the balloon shaving first, fitting in with the host’s Sweeny Todd and Nellie Lovett costumes. Followed by ‘Who’s in the Pie’, a surprisingly tricky quiz with celebrity faces merged into pies. One of our number thought at least four were Sol Campbell, though sadly for them, he wasn’t actually there at all.
Another game was going on in the background, a hugely expanded version of Cluedo, with all of us as the suspects. Cards were swapped and you had to try and figure out whodunit, where, what with and why. As the big sit down meal drew nearer, it was starting to look like I might be the culprit. The despicable murderer of poor Andy Peters.
It was about 10pm by this time, and I could feel tiredness starting to take a hold, so I sat in the quiet of the games room to recharge a little. Sadly, sometime around half past ten, before the meal was served, I knew I had to go and rest properly for a while, so I headed off to the room, and lay in bed for a while.
I must have nodded off, and I think it was around midnight that Laura came up and checked on me, and taking a couple of pictures of me with the relevant cards showing that I had indeed been the murderer all along.
I knew by then that I was done for the night and wouldn’t be able to join the party again, so I got up, took off my wedding dress and went straight back to bed and to sleep for the night.
For someone used to being last to bed at just about every party I’ve ever been to, being first by such a margin is as weird as it is annoying. In spite of my early dart, I was one of the last up, though that’s much less unusual.
So I have to apologise to the other spooks for various things:
- Not having the energy to really get into character (even forgot contacts).
- Not being very lively or joining in much.
- Not being there for the meal.
- Not being there to take my punishment for the murder of poor Andy Peters.
- Not being there to explain myself over the murder of poor Andy Peters.*
- Not making it back to the party having vanished so early.
Mind you, if those psychiatrists I mentioned earlier are right, it’s all in my mind. Of course, having enjoyed the three previous Halloween weekends I’ve been to so much, I figured I’d use this one for a bit of attention seeking, by going off and sleeping for most of the important bits. Fucking genius me you know!
Apart from the bits I did know about missing, it was only on the Sunday I heard about the lantern based fun out in the garden. Bugger.
So anyway, I started with the sadness of loss. I’m still sad about many things I’ve lost so far. I suspect that more will be lost in the future (unless I can recover from ME, or find out what might be wrong instead and then fix that, there will be no more Halloween trips for me). I have no choice but to learn how to pace myself.
A silver lining is the fact that even if it is in fact ME that I have, I don’t have it anything like as bad as a lot of sufferers. There are also people to look to for inspiration in changing direction, coping with illness, and getting on with a new and different life. Stephen Hawking comes to mind first. To continue to work and write in spite of his health issues really is an inspiration. You never know, I could always be a remote presence at future Halloweens…….
* Some may have thought the only possible reason would be ruining Top of the Pops, but for me it was making sure I didn’t get to have a career as a voice over artist when he took the part of ‘Baggage Handler’ in Toy Story 2.
A Neutral View on the Plight of Portsmouth
At the time of writing, Portsmouth are basking in the light of a silver lining on the single cloud covering their sky. They sit at the foot of the Premier League two points behind the team immediately above, having played a game more.
This is actually a slightly experimental post, as it is being written by request, after I asked my facebook friends for subject ideas. The title is based on the way this suggestion was phrased, i.e. ‘The continuing plight of Portsmouth FC from an entirely neutral footballing perspective’. I think there are actually two sides to the Portsmouth situation though, and it’s the behind the scenes element that prompts the use of a word like plight. That may seem an odd thing to say about a team that’s just lost seven league games on the trot and props up the table, but I think they’ve been on the wrong end of some close games, and with them finally getting a win under their belts, they may now have a little more confidence and momentum to start the long hard climb up the table to safety. As long as the traumas over their ownership and financial problems don’t carry on for too long, or in fact get worse, then I don’t think they will get relegated.
It seems that no side has lost their first seven games of a Premier League season and gone on to survive, but I really do think that Portsmouth might buck the trend. Sadly, the team stats pages on football365 no longer show a comparison of results against each of the other teams in the league for the current and previous seasons, but while they did it was something I found a more real way of seeing how my team was getting on if it felt they weren’t in a league position that really reflected the way they’d been playing. Even without that though, we can see who it is that Portsmouth played and lost to in that horrendous seven game run.
For a couple of seasons Pompey were in the group of teams outside the real title challengers, but in with a decent chance of a European place and maybe a good cup run. Last season they fell off that pace a little though, and finished 14th in the table. The teams they’ve lost to so far this season all finished above them last season, apart from a promoted Birmingham City. Five of the seven games were only lost by a single goal, with Villa beating them 2-0, and Arsenal 4-0, though they certainly aren’t alone in taking a beating from the Arse this season and pretty much any other in recent years. Given that 1-0 losses have been against Everton and Fulham, that makes up positions 4 to 7 from last season, Man City were 10th but I doubt anyone would expect them not to improve on that, and even the lowest of last seasons finishers were Bolton, and you never quite know which Bolton will turn up, and losing 3-2 to them isn’t exactly shameful. Given that as a list of fixtures prior to any of the games being played, I doubt many football fans or pundits would give Portsmouth more than 6 points at best, and maybe if they got draws with Bolton and Birmingham, only 2 points, which prior to the win against Wolves would leave them in the same position at the bottom of the table anyway.
I watched the televised game against Everton, and on the balance of play, Portsmouth deserved at least a draw*. From watching results shows and Match of the Day, I’d say they were a side having a very poor run, but not one that was getting easily turned over on a regular basis. Given that there have been so many difficulties off the patch, a massive amount of credit is due to Paul Hart for at least keeping them near the right track, and when the opportunity presented itself to finally put some points on the board in their most recent game, they managed to keep their lead.
Oddly enough, as I’ve been writing this, news has come through that Ali Al-Faraj has completed a takeover of the club. I dare say this won’t be a cure all, but if it means stability off the pitch , it should hopefully let the players get in with playing, and the manager get on with doing his job.
Four of Portsmouth’s next five fixtures are against Hull, Wigan, Blackburn and Stoke. It’s often said, but in spite of the fact that no games are easy in the Premier League, that is a much kinder run than the one they’re coming out of. The next game is a very big one for them too. What better way to go into the four games mentioned than on the back of a home win against their ultimate Judas when Spurs visit on Saturday. If they only get one scalp from the teams near the top of the table this season, the timing of this one could be enough to keep the momentum going, and take them to safety before other sides even realise they’re starting to slide in the other direction.
An extra filip could be the fact that in spite of their poor league record, they hadn’t entirely lost the ability to win. Granted, the opposition wasn’t of the highest standard, but they’ve progressed through a couple of rounds of the League Cup without any sign of a banana skin, scoring seven goals in the process.
* Impartiality only goes so far. I do think that Portsmouth should have got more from the game against Everton. Most likely a draw, they’d have been flattered by a win, but beyond any doubt they should have had a red card for whoever it was that tried to decapitate Bilyaletdinov almost as soon as he came on (I think it was Kaboul).
The Small World of the Web
And slinging mud at comedians.
Over recent weeks, there have been a couple of cases of comedians that I’m following on Twitter getting a bit of a negative press. Well, I say press, but I haven’t read any of this on paper, and strictly speaking, the most recent isn’t really the press anyway, but a website, catering specifically to those interested in comedy.
Firstly, Richard Herring was interviewed, quoted and discussed in a Guardian article about a new breed of bigoted, misogynist and/or racist , and as far as Mr. Herring and his fans were concerned the man and his material were misrepresented in that last category, possibly even shoehorned to fit an agenda that came before the writing of the piece. The Guardian gave a right to reply, so a rebuttal was printed (Brendan Burns was also involved, but I don’t follow him, hence not mentioning him earlier). A further reply from the writer of the original article, and things had run their course. Whatever you might think of the articles themselves, I don’t think there can be much doubt that the commenters on all three pieces came down firmly behind Herring.
In the middle I think there was a scathing piece written about Stephen Fry, the darling of Twitter, but I haven’t read that, and I guess with the man reaching National Treasure status, it was more easily ignored and brushed aside by Fry fans.
And so we come to the current furore, which hasn’t fully played out yet, unless the writer of the original piece in this case leaves things as they are and doesn’t follow up on this rather quicker rebuttal. David Jesudason wrote a piece on chortle.co.uk titled ‘Off the artistic roll call‘, in which he took Watson to task for taking money to be in an advert. An additional swipe was aimed at Mitchell and Webb, though mainly Webb, for the same, plus a documentary voicover. There was also a claim to not want ‘a world where every comedian is a Bill Hicks-style clone’, (which rang fairly hollow in the context of the article), and a statement that the role of the comedian ‘is to highlight the ills of our society’.
In my opinion, a fairly nonsensical piece, easily dismissed as silly, but then it wasn’t about me. And in this connected age, on a site dedicated to comedy, it wasn’t overly surprising to see a reply from Mark Watson himself within a couple of days. In fact the two would have been together in the Chortle articles list if it hadn’t been for an additional reply from Carl Donnelly separating them.
He points out the obvious, that a comedians job is to make people laugh, and that highlighting the ills of society is the job of activists. I’d add that it’s the job of investigative journalists too, which puts Mr Jesudason very much in a glass house/stone throwing situation.
As an incurable insomniac, I had tweetdeck open through the night, and then into the day today, and was able to follow some of the ‘action’ in real time. This is obviously something that didn’t happen in the past.
Say, Frank Carson had had a negative article written about him in the 80s, he may have been able to get a reply of some sort printed, though I doubt it. That would be it. Article, reply, end. Maybe a dig in a routine somewhere along the way, particularly if that right to reply wasn’t forthcoming.
Now though, you can in some cases follow the process as well as see the outcomes. On twitter last night, Mark Watson linked to the offending article, and had a bit of a rant, and in fact with his last tweet of the night, thanked his followers for indulging his ranting. Of course that begs the question, why write and publish the rebuttal on chortle then? The Jesudason piece was likely to get short shrift from Watson fans in particular, and any comedy fan that hadn’t pigeonholed themself in the ‘Agit-com or Death!’ camp.
Which is another parallel here. I know it’s not quite the same as comments in the Mail (the downside of twitter for me, people link to the Mail as if it’s news, without any disclaimers or warnings), but the authors of the offending articles have been rounded on in a similar mob rule fashion. I don’t have a lot of sympathy with the specific articles in these cases, but that may just mean they fucked up. Hardly unusual. I actually have a little more sympathy for them after writing this, as evenhandedness is like a writing equivalent of a straight-jacket. I guess how you deal with adversity is what gets you through when you hit a rough patch. The reply from Brian Logan was a bit limp in the Richard Herring case, and as yet we don’t how Mr Jesudason will follow up on this, if at all.
Anyway, enough of these petty squabbles. What about synchronicity? Through the night, while twitter was all quiet, I was organising my writing folder on the computer as the previous folder set up was an illogical mess, and as part of the job I copied the few posts I’d written in a blogger.com blog last year into documents so I had copies on my machine. While I was at it, I checked up on the blogs I’d subscribed to over the last year or so, one of which is a very funny football news blog – Extravagant Nonsense (the other is the cutest thing I’ve seen on the web – The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee).
The football blog regularly had me laughing, so I decided to have a look at the main site it was attached to, which is an equally funny spoof wiki about the beautiful game. The Michael Owen, Roy Keane and Maradona entries were particular favourites, though I noticed they were missing a Nick Barmby page, and wondered if they might be up for submitted pages. Quick look around at who’s who, and part of the team is only our good friend Mark Watson! Who’d have thunk.
So then with my hopeful hat on, I can see myself drinking and laughing with the rich, famous and beautiful people that I’m now best mates with having got to know them over the internet. Potential contributor and spelling advisor to Mark on his football sites, through the night insomniac twitter confidant to @Jason_Manford…
Nope, hugely wishful thinking there, and single reply tweets from John Amaechi and Curt Smith are hardly going to give me red carpet entry to the novel writing elite either are they? Ditto the odd retweeted #tag tweetgamepost (?).
I’ll just have to make sure that by the time I’ve finished it, my novel is at least a bit commercial. Mind you, this reality TV style tweetdeck watching and blog rambling isn’t get that novel written at all. And those #tags too. Dammit.
I’ve never been one for getting overly excited by meeting the famous. There were opportunities when I was in bands, and most of the time I didn’t bother at all. But the illusion of connecting over the web can be oddly attractive. The old who you know game, though now it’s who you’re kidding yourself you know.
Most likely reaction from any of these people to submitting work is likely to match that of Josh Olson: ‘I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script‘.
A return to gaming, and new steps in cooking.
Damn, I didn’t mean to do it.
It has been a long time since I have though, so I don’t suppose it’s the end of the world.
What did I go and do?
I ordered a game for the ps3. Not only ordered though, but pre-ordered!
It’s the first time since Forza 2 I think. And it’ll be the first proper racing game for my ps3. It was sad when my Live account got stuffed up (due to having had a hotmail account since they were only .com and Microsoft not being in any way helpful about switching the registered country on that account, which at some point must have been assumed to be in the US. They change their security, they break my account. I don’t pay anymore, or buy anymore games).
Anyway, I came across some videos of Need For Speed: Shift, and for the first time in ages was excited about a game that was due for release. It was good to feel that again, certainly with Forza 3 on the way soon, as that would have been a bit of a temptation to get a new Live account, but I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. I’ve dipped into the long running set of NFS games over the years, as they’ve tended to be a bit hit and miss, though I did quite enjoy the Underground period.
This new one is heading more towards the simulation side of things though, as they’ve decided to split different styles off into separate NFS titles. After watching the vids I had a little search around for a bit more info on the game too, and some of the guys that were involved in the (now shelved?) version of GTR for consoles. Oddly enough, I had a sneaking suspicion there might be a connection. GTR not appearing, and some of the vids from Spa set my sensors off.
It’ll be good to have a go at a serious racing game again. Although any dreams of becoming a star of the online racing scene were put to bed on Forza against some of the guys at the now sadly defunct xbox360leagues site (though I could more than hold my own in the racing elements on Flatout there).
I have got a couple of games for ps3, but mainly from asking for vouchers, and then putting them to good use. Oh, and picking Haze up very cheaply when VirginZavviHed were looking in their bargain bins for some cut price elbows and arses. And I probably have a couple of grand of gaming budget to spend. The joys of moving the previously cigarette based spending. I got to a point though were I had more than I could possibly play on the 360, so the budget has become more theoretical now, and there’s the time element too. Most games these days eat time.
And that’s before the web based (non-console) games I play too. The real time consuming elements are all done for those anyway though, so it’s only a few minutes needed here and there for the footy management games I play. (for linking purposes, they are: managerzone, FML, manager-mania and xpert11)
Apart from a bit of time thinking about gaming, my other recent activity has mostly centred around cooking. I’ve been enjoying Economy Gastronomy on the iPlayer, and have ordered the book from the series now, but even without it have been using some of the principles they talk about already. I’ve got various tubs in the freezer, having made large pans of veggie pasta, and a big veg soup. Not on the same scale, and not frozen either, but a medium pack of turkey strips is going to do at least a couple of days worth at the minute.
And for the first time, I used some chicken bones and slightly older veg to make a stock. I have no idea what to do with it now, but I’m sure I’ll find a use for it.
My First Stock
