Blogging on the Dock @ Herne Bay

image

I wanted to give my new Android phone a proper workout, so I thought I’d go somewhere new, beyond my normal stomping grounds, to give it a better workout. Since I also had a hankering for sea air, here I am.

An overcast day is at least making my new HTC Desire usable outside, albeit at maximum brightness. I’m pleasantly surprised at how well I can get along with the on-screen keyboard, thanks to the excellent predictive text gubbins.

Herne Bay itself is an interesting place. It’s not a big place, but not a nowhere town either. The signs pointing to the place call it a coastal leisure town – which sounds about as promising as a Council Designated Fun Area, but unlike some other little seaside towns it isn’t, thankfully, a chav-fest.

The high street is blessedly almost free of recognizable names, and is instead full of independent shops that I haven’t seen the like of in years. The place seems to have survived in part due to a thriving water sports scene – the sea is full of speed boats and jet-skis.

Anyhow, time to leave, I looked for a nearby supermarket on Google Maps. After getting more lost than I thought was possible on such a short trip I gave in and tried the freebie satnav Google Navigation. It took me straight to the well hidden Morrisons (with its car park cunningly hidden on the roof.)

So there it is, back I head to my girlfriend’s place – no idea how to get there from here, but I’m sure the satnav will know. With any luck this magic box in my hand will mean I can never get lost again, and will always find the nearest Pizza Hut. And I can blog about it _before_ I get home. The future rocks.

Profoundly in Love with Pandora

Text, writing from my fingertips, omgosh a blog, etc. I always neglect these things. No matter, just carry on as if nobody noticed – as if anyone reads this anyhow.

I actually had a good weekend. Managed to escape up to Nottingham for a little while, had a nice meal (rowdy table neighbours notwithstanding) and sunk some quality time into some multiplayer Borderlands – the first-person-shooter/dungeon-crawl hybrid. Diablo with guns. If only the loot had been better. . . need better guns. . . just the luck of the draw I suppose, when you have randomly generated weapon drops. The game does seem to work better mutiplayer, though it would benefit from voice comms, rather than shouting to the next room (that particular strategy isn’t going to work when we try and get it working over the internet.)  Still, much fun was had wandering around planet Pandora, killing the 3 different kinds of bad guys.

Looking ahead a little, it’s almost time for that new ought-to-be-good movie Avatar. It has Sigourney Weaver, direct by James Cameron. . . it should be awesome. It’s sci-fi, in the future, with aliens and robots and all sorts. I just hope it doesn’t end up being as naff as the trailer looks. For some reason it just looks like it will be bad, and possibly preachy. Time will tell I suppose. I just dislike how I can imagine what’s going to happen from the trailer. . . The humans come marching in to exploit some far off land, but of course the blue aliens will get to keep their planet, Pandora. Hmm.

A quiet Sunday was had. I’m discovering that my stupid little netbook (MSI Wind) is actually really good for getting old games to run, particularly those which don’t like fast processors and that don’t like modern graphics card and drivers. Particularly happy that my eBay purchase had arrived while I was away and I’ve been able to play the magnificent Crimson Skies again for the first time in years, without it crashing out and the graphics screwing up. For those who don’t know it, it is the best arcadey flight-sim of all time, with an awesome setting, and an emphasis on barnstorming (flying under/through stuff you really shouldn’t) and blasting things with big guns. It’s set in an alternate history, in which the USA is fragmented, and pirates roam the skies in fighter planes, carried around by airship aircraft-carriers. I’m just glad that once again I can shoot down some bothersome english fighters, find the treasure, and dock back with the pirate airship, the Pandora.

Sex and chocolate

It is a common saying that chocolate is like sex.
I don’t know how it became a common saying… chocolate makers probably started it to sell more of their product to lonely people.
It’s also a ‘fact’ that chocolate releases the same feeling in women that orgasm does.. again, I don’t know who decided this fact, because I’ve never had the same feeling after chocolate that I do after orgasm. I don’t reach for the chocolate when I’m horny.. a vibrator maybe, but never a bar of chocolate.
But, the saying and fact persist, so I’ve decided to make a list of how they are the same.

1) It goes straight to the thighs
2) If you get a cheap variety, it leaves a funny taste in your mouth.
3) You feel guilty in a group of there’s not enough for everyone.
4) It’s best when there’s no one around to share.
5) You feel guilty if you steal someone elses.
6) Fat people feel ashamed when they buy it.
7) You often regret it as soon as the wrapper comes off.
8) Too much in one day makes you feel sick.
9) The best sort includes nuts.

Highschool Star Trek Musical

Okay, I’m late in reviewing the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie. Everyone else has decided they love it already. For various reasons I missed it at the cinema and only recently saw it, and so only now can I recount all the reasons why I hated it.

The very concept of remaking Star Trek used to be the example I would use of stuff they would never remake, despite the Hollywood obsession for stealing other peoples ideas and making them worse. (Oh dear, you can tell where this is going already), but they did it anyway. I always knew I was going to have mixed feelings about this remake, that it would be “both awful and awesome” in some combination. The final result though was, in my opinion, pretty soulless.

Seriously, it could have been a lot worse. I can accept flying motorbikes – no real reason not to. I can also accept a ship full of cadets going in to battle – Kirk did much the same against Khan. Sometimes though the plot-shoehorn was just a bit too blatant, such as Kirk becoming Captain in a day because the old Captain knew his dad. Mostly they were very kind to the source material. There were lots of little touches and mentions to flatter the old Trekkies.

The cast was a mess. I liked Dr Mcoy but I didn’t find him believable as McCoy. I found Sylar a very believable young and arrogant Spock, but didn’t like him. And Kirk. . . I just didn’t like Kirk. He was basically an asshole, as if he knew his character sheet had all his stats at 20. He didn’t earn the respect of anyone, he didn’t do anything particularly clever – even his Kobiashi Maru reprogramming was very childishly blatant. Scotty was pretty hollow too. These people are supposed to be characters I know – I know what they’re like, and these people are nothing like them beyond a superficial resemblance.

Perhaps you were always doomed to get that Star Wars Episode 3 feel . . . we all know these characters are going to do X, Y, and Z before the movie is over. Luke and Leia will be born, Anakin becomes Darth, we just want to see how they’re going to do it. You know the Enterprise crew will form up with everyone we know where they’re supposed to be. They squeeze in a nonsensical villain who is upset at Spock for trying to save his home planet so must use his time machine to destroy the Federation instead of, I don’t know, preventing the thing he’s so upset about. Best not to think about that one too much.

The day after watching this movie, I rewatched Star Trek – First Contact. The feel of the two films is so different its hard to describe. The new Trek is all action, in so much of a hurry to get through all the things that have to happen to get the crew together and let them do something useful all in one movie. There is no human element, no moral dilemma, no emotion. Picard stands in his ready room listening to blaring opera, staring into space as he knows the rest of Starfleet is in battle with the Borg, knowing he has to go back himself and face them, and still haunted by nightmares of his past assimilation.

Every member of the Next Generation cast is more likable, has more charisma in their little finger than anyone in the new Trek movie. I accept the new movie for what it is, a mindless action film, and not a bad one at that, but it is not “Star Trek” in any significant way, to me. The special effects are. . . good in places. The bridge of the Enterprise looks very plastic compared to anything we’ve seen before. The Enterprise is somewhat pretty, even with all the machine guns it seems to have now, but it is not the prettiest Enterprise.

There’s a bit in Star Trek – First Contact, when the Enterprise crew decide enough is enough and go to do battle with the Borg. As we watch the battle, the USS Defiant is centre screen, about to ram the Borg cube in a last ditch effort when the Enterprise E rolls across the screen between the two ships, gigantic and menacing. It roars into view with the brass and strings of the soundtrack, and I literally get chills up my back every time I watch it. That is what a spaceship is supposed to look like.

If you want to watch a lovingly done remake of the original Star Trek, with an excellent cast and a believable plot, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so. It’s called Galaxy Quest.

Everyone loves Sam Townsend… apart from CCP

Picture this, the human race, millions of light years from earth, stranded for a million years, evolve (or devolved) to separate races.  Mighty Empires, brutal corporations, pirates, smugglers, space battles, ancient threats and the perils of cloning.

This is the Universe of EVE.

Into this universe steps Sam Townsend, Hero of the Minmatar, under the guise of Irion Felphamy he fights well generally cos he finds it fun.

Now Sam is a pretty OK guy, he builds robots and Terminator suits.  But it appears that he is CCP’s (a company that seems to be responsible for the entire economy of Iceland) enemy number one.  Why?  The nerf.

The nerf?  nerf being a term used on the internet to describe the reducing of ability of a certain ship, axe, character or race in a MMO or other updatable system.

It seems that CCP, aware that Sam is still owed a mission writing for him, is trying to drive him mad.  It seems that Faction Battleships (I apologise if this gets technical) have all be buffed (the opposite of a nerf) save for those personally flown by Sam Townsend.

No there are a couple of ways of disseminating this.

Firstly you could all ignorantly assume that Sam is a whiny MMO player who wants buffs so he can be 1337  (LEET or Elite).  Actually this is false. Sam has played the same things as far as I know for a while, and in a game when you can train anything he doesn’t gravitate to a new battleships which are good.

Secondly, CCP are out to get him.  You see Sam paid to write a mission for EVE and CCP have avoided contacting him.  Suspicious? This revelation could crumble CCP and the entire Icelandic economy.  Remember, these guys are Vikings.

No actually…

Its a psychological things.

Having looked into this all things have been buffed.  The thing is if you listen to Sam’s ramblings on the subject, they have been buffed. But, the psychology of human beings is that we all feel aggrieved if we are lowered in esteem or pride compared to others or that we perceive that we are lowered or that others are raised without obvious merit.

Could we apply the same logic to world politics?

Does Iran taunt America because it is jealous of the love the US shows to other Arab nations?  I am sure lots of people quietly hate America.  Is this because the Iranian people secretly don’t see why the Americans give arms to the Saudis who have no pretence of Democracy, whilst Iran, a Republic almost in the mould of the US?

Is it less complicated than we think and everyone just needs a hug?  Probably not. But I think we are a race of insecure people, even if we are not insecure on one aspect we are on a thousand other aspects.

So EVE to Iran in one blog?

Damn Straight.

Rock and Roll, Over and Out

Jake “Jiggybeast” Roberts

Insufficent Japandomness

As I once again try and enthuse myself into the world of console gaming (which is kind of working with the purchase of Soul Calibur 4 for the 360), I find myself reminiscing with fondness for the days of the Playstation and Playstation 2. The one thing the XBox has always lacked is the randomness of obscure Japanese games like Ring of Red, or Trapt. These gems were, frankly, pretty bad, but they were wonderfully random, different and interesting, jam packed with weird mythology or alternate history.

As the age of consoles moves on we see fewer and fewer little random titles, replaced by a few big name games in styles to appeal to western gamers. Even the new Front Mission is going to be a third-person shooter, not turn-based strategy. For shame. There need to be more games with “Tactics” in the title. Maybe I need to buy a DS instead.

Right…. Welcome to the Jungle, we got fun and games

Right, here is something simple.

By 2018 Britain will generate less energy than it needs to survive.

The people of Britain proclaim a hatred of wind turbine, clean coal stations, nuclear power, biomass burner etc.

NImby people of Britian, fucking grow up.  So what the hills are pretty, we need energy!  I’m callous am I?

The day that a child dies because of an energy shortage, Kingsnorth Power station will be allowed.  It’s simple, Wind Power is not effective, evironmentalist hate the best power source, tidal barriers as it disrupts wildlife.  If we build clean coal and get rid of the fucking lunatic fringe who make the climate discussion into a fucking circus.

This is the truth of the matter, Earth is Boned. Seriously, we need a proper solutions, proper engineering solutions not delievered to us by scientists who look at numbers, they are statisticians not scientists.

Geo-engineering or technology is the only solution.  Climate change is a religion, people like the doom and gloom.  Self-denial. Vegetarianism.  It is run by fanatics who will not accept that there is a solution that is less painful.

There is only two solutions:

1.) We live with climate change. Politicians, statisticians, environmental protestors you can do nothing.  THe only people who can save the world is everyone else.  Engineers, Scientists, Business Leaders.  None of us want to kill the plant, we are not Captain Planet style villians.  All we can do is build our domes.

2.) We develop more, more technology.  We fight this with geo-engineering! lets do this.

I plan to layout some plans for sorting out global warming soon.

I’m Batman

Okay..okay, lets think Nightwing is now Batman, Robin is now Red Robin, Damien Wayne is now Robin, Spoiler is now Batgirl, Batwoman is a lesbian, Huntress is a lesbian with the Question, who is the former officier Montoya and Oracle was Batgirl.  Burce wayne is now a cave man.

Seeeesh!

So Arkham Asylum, back where Batman belongs, Bruce Wayne is batman, the resident captain scowl.  The Joker takes over the asylum.  And bat man has to stop him…  simples?

No an honest review of this game is it is cool, but does somethings badly…

Slowdown in combat that gets you hit by people whose “spider sense is tingling”.
The fact that whilst guns are not that deadly, it means that batman has to stealth anyone with a gun… actually fair play on that one.
The fact that batman walks through the open, I mean its nice when batman is perceived by people as near mythical, not just a particularly violent and effective police officer with parchant for the theatrical and a flying rodent obssession.

But is it worth my beer tokens?

Yes…yes it is… mainly as I think that Batman deserves this sort of game.  And I know that yahtzee will rag it for not being arty or haveing enough homo-erotic rapists in it, but I think that if you like batman and you own a game playing machine buy this, so I can have a sequel…

Kick ass, rock and roll, over and out.

Beardman

bus journeys

And thus it came to pass that while sat on the bus, Emma did have two revelations.

The first one was literal, looking out the bus window I got an unfettered view of a naked guy doing his washing up in his ground floor kitchen. My eyes have yet to recover from the gleaming white flesh that made even me look tanned.
The second, on the way home from college in the wind and rain, looking out the window to see a tall slim girl in a very short dress and thinking.. ‘how the hell does she keep that skirt in place!’ having seen a girl in a similar dress on the way to college struggling to keep it down over her underwear.
Some girls just have the knack I guess.. or copious use of tit tape along the thighs.

It is 6.30 am.. I have been awake for an hour already. I have yet to have one of those promised visions that lack of sleep are supposed to bring.. but then, when I manage 5 hours a good day on a regular basis, I suppose my brain just get’s used to it and saves the hallucinations for when I get a full 8 hours.

College, it started yesterday, oh yes it did, and it was.. surprisingly painless. I shall be starting the big course in january, this is the pre course, and it’s teaching me to listen (useful skill for a trainee counsellor) but my internal dialogue was interfering as usual, and I kept thinking ‘ she’s wearing bloody awful lipstick’ when the tutor spoke.
Nice woman though, talked with her hands a lot.
They are also going to train up our empathy.. no joke! We have to learn to be empathic not sympathetic.. and she asked if we had any questions about this… my inner geek (which is large) had to fight the urge to make star trek references.

Favourite Websites Vol.1

Boredom prevails, and so its time for a quick roundup of websites I like. Beyond the obvious eBays and Googles of this world there are a few little sites tucked away in dark corners that deserve more love. Nothing Earth-shattering, just neat.

I call them bases, you call them trees.

I call them bases, you call them trees.

Adrian Werner’s blog chronicles the multitude of reasons why PC gamers should be glad they’re alive, with a ton of reviews and links to more of all kinds of games, big titles and unheard of gems.Quite easy to lose half an hour browsing down the list – the best kind of website.

In particular this site lead me to a wonderful freebie RTS game called Dyson, which unlike its real-life counterpart does _not_ suck, and is currently a freebie. It’s a simple little beast, your units are seeds that fly between asteroids, plant themselves into tree-bases, make more of themselves, and fight other seeds. Different asteroids give rise to different strengths in the seeds grown there (speed and strength). Alas, there is no multiplayer . . . for now.

Next on the list,dafont, a wonderful resource full of free fonts. Again, this is one of those sites that you can lose yourself in for far too long, but this time because everything is so purrrdy. Not only regular fonts but also dingbats, making it a handy clip-art resource too. For instance, this is sooo cute.

And finally, an oldie for sci-fi fans everywhere (or at least the space-opera nerds), Jeff Russell’s Starship Dimensions has pretty pictures of spaceships all drawn to scale, so you can see how big an Omega Destroyer from Babylon 5 is compared with the Roger Young from Starship Troopers. (The latter is a prettier ship.)