Scrobbs

Childhood memory: destroyed.

Haha! yeh, sorry. We were planning to swing through Tallahassee as we'd talked about, but halfway through the trip you jobbed a job and then a house! So we just missioned straight to Tampa. T'was a shame.

Ah. Well we didn't know this - all anyone had really told us about in Austin was Franklin's. Never mind. Austin was our favourite place though, we think.

http://sf-to-tampa.blogspot.com/ Almost over, unfortunately, but also very cool.

Can I say HHGTTG? After that, was Eye of the Beholder 1,2 & 3. Then: Doom [Remember a friend excitedly coming into lectures with a huge sheaf of printouts - installation instructions and stuff about it. Think it was 0.6d or something at the time. We got hold of a copy]. I also remember playing it at uni (on my 486 DX2 dontch'a know) with the lights turned off and the sound piped through my stereo. The speakers were behind me. Absolutely terrifying - especially those pink bastards that would snarl from the darkness. X-Wing/TIE Fighter around the same sort of time. Dark Forces, another one that Tycho mentioned, although that was a bit later and I had to play it on a friend's pentium when I should have been revising for my exams. This was also back when star wars games were any good . Then I couldn't afford a PC, and everyone had PS1s (excepting me) - until my friend, who wouldn't stop banging on about this game called 'Half Life', booted it up. ZOMG! I stayed as late as I could, but had to drive back to bristol. Still skint, so it wasn't until 2000 that I actually got to play through it. It was in this period of being poor that I also missed Full Throttle and Fandango . As it happened, at this time I was sys/network admin of a multimedia company, who had HL DM games at lunchtime. Bliss. Also discovered Q3A online (then CS, DOD and the rest), and that was it. Cue many, MANY late nights using the company's 256K leased line (woooOOOOOooooo! Price at the time: £11K/year) for mass murder in space. Depends on your definition of immersion, but it wasn't until I got hold of a more powerful machine to play Rome:TW that I got so absorbed again. Like 14 hour game sessions absorbed. Fabulous game. I'm sure there were a few between then and 'modern' times, but more recently Dishonoured and Journey. Not much can absorb me now - so few games actually grip me long enough to finish them. Dishonoured as well became more of a trial towards the end, which killed the atmos, as I was just racing to get through it rather than *playing* it.

Hah, yeh I saw that in the printed copy.The web version needs a link to the Daily Mail though.

I really liked the Tintin movie; I still read the books now. The story was a bit wierd for me (cos I know the particular one so well) but you can let that slide. Thought animation style was fab.

Just look at Iceland's economy now. They ignored the austerity stuff, and arrested & prosecuted the bankers. They seem to be doing quite well thank you.

Oh christ. I've just re-read that post - 'meaning people who have more disposable income who then have more disposable income'. WELL DUH!

Thought it was pretty boring me'sen.

Even before I read that, the austerity thing seemed a bit unusual to someone of modest macro-economic understanding (i.e. me). Surely when no-one has cash, spend more on building roads, infrastructure etc - this will create employment, meaning people have more disposable income who will then have more disposable income. When private firms are going bust, the only one with the power to create employment is the state itself.

As a quick aside, there's a really good article from the NYT aaages ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/opinion/krugman-the-austerity-agenda.html?_r=3&hp& Sounds about right eh? Any road up. America is fun!

My (thug)life is complete. http://www.gizoogle.net/

I think Series 4 has one of my fave moments. Can't remember which episode it's at the end of, but it finished with Walt lying under his floorboards where he stores the cash, laughing like a maniac. Fab.

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds > Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds - The New Generation. There are some nice new effects in the new version, but by and large, Burton's gravitas carries it. Oh yeh - the guy playing the Artilleryman, someone from Kaiser Chiefs, fails pretty badly at his part.

"I prefer to criticise from a position of ignorance."

I watched Tu Sera Mon Fils last night. That's worth a go too. It convinced me to order a bottle of wine with my dinner, a decision that I'm regretting as I have a 3 hour drive ahead of me.

Accounting, then booze, followed by a phone call to a certain friend at a certain company, boozed up, screaming down the phone in an alcoholic sugar rush that one of her colleagues is a complete dick. Maybe.

What's drip coffee? That just the term you use for filter coffee, rather than instant?

ADHD cut.

Agreed. What about if later, she found out you knew - would she be likely to resent you for not telling her?

Oops! I just assumed that Finland was part of Scandinavia. 'Pols brkl, Nappi.

You know full well what I meant you mischievous Scandy!

Just mention in passing when you're next chatting that you met 'so and so'. Say something neutral like, "He can be quite forthright <insert non-insulting adjective of choice> can't he?". That should give her enough of an opening to mention something. If she says, "Him! He's a cnut!" or similar, then you can progress with the full story. If she likes him, well - that's another dilemma for you to solve! Chances are she won't though. If he's so contemptuous of her to someone he's just met (her) and rude to you, likely he won't be guarded or exceptionally discreet in the office area and she will know what he's like.