James

I hope you feel better, ThunderPeel. EDIT: I said some other stuff, but it probably wasn't appropriate.

I think most life does the same, to be honest. I imagine it makes some sort of evolutionary sense to tend to one's immediate needs first, but that general principle is often gravely inappropriate in the lives we lead now. I suppose the reason to single out humanity is that we have the capacity to know better.

I was wary of it for similar reasons, but I'm also curious. He'd certainly be capable of making something more interesting than what I'd otherwise expect; whether he actually did or not is another matter.

DO IT.

On the subject of Drive, that was the second Nicolas Winding Refn film I'd seen, the first being Bronson. I didn't initially realize that he'd directed Drive, but it made a lot of sense once I did. I found the plot a bit strange, and the violence quite surprising, but thought the driver's character was fascinating and the film itself undeniably stylish. Previously, I'd really enjoyed Bronson, which was a film fascinated with its strange and violent central character, but also a film with a strong and surprising aesthetic. I've heard Bronson described as not really having a plot at all, rather being more of an installation. I think that's a fair observation, and something that probably puts a lot of people off the film, but it's not something I really minded. The film does move from a point early in Bronson's life to a point much later on (albeit not the present day), but not a lot really changes. Characters don't really develop, to the point where you could pretty much rearrange most of the film without breaking continuity. All the audience it doing is spending some time in the presence of this madman, yet the directorial flair Refn brings to makes it worthwhile for me, and I've re-watched the film several times in the past couple of years. Drive has a much more traditional plot, in that there actually is a plot, but as far as I'm concerned it's still a film primarily concerned with character, violence and aesthetic. The film would be immeasurably diminished if the driver didn't have such a remarkable capacity for keeping his cool; an actual cool character, rather one that's cool in the "hey, that's cool!" sense. I don't mean to dismiss the story – it was good – but it wasn't what made the film stand out for me. I don't know, I never feel entirely comfortable analysing this stuff, because I fear I've fundamentally missed the point, but that's the impression I got from those films. It sounds a bit dismissive, but I really don't mean it like that. I love directors with such a strong sense of the audio-visual. I'm curious to see whether Refn was able to translate his sense of style into something appropriate to the setting of Valhalla Rising.

I saw The Artist yesterday. It was lovely in a way I don't feel entirely comfortable discussing. I fear it would undermine my carefully cultivated air of manliness. Seriously, though, I found it disarmingly heart-warming. I recommend it to anyone who can stomach nice films with no helicopters exploding in them. From what I remember, he pretty much just looked like Benedict Cumberbatch. Holmes is probably the most different I've seen him, and that's only really because of the hair. Yeah, I disliked that bit for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they describe the memory palace as, you know, a palace, and then immediately show it as more of a memory Kinnect, which seems inconsistent and silly. Secondly, that Minority Report-style stuff is pretty cringeworthy in its own right by this point. Other than that I'm enjoying the new series quite a lot. I had a few reservations about the first series, and it seems it'll be the same way this time around, but it's nothing I can't look past. I find Moriarty rather too cartoonish, and some of the editing and stylistic elements (such as some of the kinetic typography) a little too swish for the programme's own good. I can understand the concerns raised earlier about the depiction of Irene Adler, but I think that overall the character is treated with a reasonable degree of respect; perhaps she deserves more, but she's shown to be very capable. I'm not entirely against the idea of ninety-minute episodes, but I'd agree that neither of the two shown so far have filled the full time well. I was happy that they kept going, because I was enjoying them, but the time could definitely have been used more efficiently. Other than that I've been watching the first few episodes of Breaking Bad. It's looking like it might actually be as good as everyone says it is, which is nice.

I heard a programme on Radio 4 about people who live entirely off food from supermarket bins. There was a guy who said he occasionally spent about 50p on seasoning, but felt it was a shameful indulgence. I work for a company that sells physical stuff, and, like everyone else, has limited warehouse space, and therefore has to throw out unprofitable or less profitable stock in order to make space. We used to have an employee who was taking some of this stock and selling it on eBay, but my boss put a stop to that, because he felt it undermined the value of the brand. In the case of perishable being discarded due to age, there is the additional concern that the product line hasn't necessarily been discontinued, so giving out discarded stock potentially undermines your own sales. Obviously it'd be much better for the world and for the general populace if more food was available for less money, but unfortunately that's not really the imperative for most companies, and understandably (if not forgivably) so. On the subject of deliberately destroying things, have you guys all seen this? Anyway, good luck with your endeavour, Sombre.

FUCK YES What is that thing called?

Happy birthday fellow(s).

Glögg is nice. Also: pepparkakor and saffron buns. Speaking of which, what am I doing sitting at this computer?

I agree with all of that, and have very little to add other than that when I discovered it was directed by the same guy as Bronson it suddenly made a bit more sense to me (not that they are similar in content at all).

These are some pretty funny pictures.

Birth

In seriousness, it sometimes seems like I spend way more time listening to other people talking about games than actually playing them myself, which is way worse. And I don't even have any professional involvement in the industry at all. They're just all so big and the Internet is so immediate and distracting.

One Saturday about four years ago I didn't hear the driving instructor ring the doorbell. I missed that lesson and never got around to arranging another one. I am organized.

Certainly more than playing video games OHHHHH SICK BURN wait what

The demo level was a cave with a lava pit and a bridge over it. The enemies were skeletons and pig men. I controlled the sword by wildly flailing around with my mouse. For one bit I was dangling upside-down and everything was thoroughly disorientating. Sometimes one of my legs would get chopped off and I'd hop around for the rest of the match. If I won, I wondered how hollow the victory would feel for the protagonist. He was, after all, minus a leg, and probably going to bleed to death.

I was kind of interested in the free sword control thing in Die by the Sword way back when it came out. The demo ran like shit on my computer. It seemed like the best strategy was to run around swinging your sword around above your head. True story.

They're hard to measure because they jiggle so much.

He sure plays a mean pinball.

Oh of course. I guess with that stuff it's the more you can feed it, the better.

Swear it the fuck up! I was surprised to see 16 GB in that spec. To me 8 GB is still a big deal. I felt like I was quite the fancy-pants splashing out on that much a little over a year ago. I've sort of been thinking of upgrading recently, but I think I'll see how well Skyrim runs on my PC first.

I would also be interested in such suggestions. I've previously done stuff in a not-entirely-or-at-all-legal copy of Sony Vegas, which worked pretty nicely and was certainly worlds better than any of the free alternatives I've tried, but I'd like to move away from that whole shady realm, partly on ethical grounds, and partly on the grounds that it's sometimes really fiddly and annoying. Sadly, the main version is very expensive, and I'm unsure of how limited the lighter editions would be. If there's a similarly powerful free (or even cheap) alternative, that'd be great. I can't really justify spending real money on it, because I'd only use it for stupid things. Because I am not creative or a producer of things of value. Speaking of which, for a few of the minutes you fine people have been creating worthwhile stuff, I was throwing together this dumb thing. That's about as far as my imagination extends.

What. (I think the confusion concerns the word "needs"; specifically, whether it refers to a general requirement, or one which is specifically at this moment unsatisfied. BBX took it to mean that the machine doesn't have an operator yet, and is therefore in need of one, and will have to occupy itself with grape-peeling until one arrives. What Nachimir presumably meant is that the fact that the machine is not yet advanced enough to operate without a human operator is the only reason it's practising skin-removal on grapes and hasn't yet moved on to its true target: humans.)

HAPPY FOOD POISONING.