Thoughts of a Dork Stormy Knight

#7745453

People who come up to your counter, slam an item/object down on the counter and clear their throat. Twice this happened to me today - both times when I was serving other people. From now on, you'll be ignored.

Also thank you to whoever stood on my pringles...I was looking forward to those

I spent the entire summer mentally preparing myself to be a university drop out, I searched out a career path, made sure I was financially set up and everything. But now I'm going back and I've been given a week now 6 days to prepare myself for going back. I'm not ready.

Okay so yes I only just got this game, but its a music game and to be honest, there is never a lot you need to know with music games. The important part are the controls, the responsiveness and the difficulty. Then all you need to know is whether or not you like the soundtrack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_de_amigo#Wii_version

the soundtrack can be found following this link, but having played the 2 previous versions - to some extent - and knowing that some of these tracks would be coming back and some new ones would be joining them. The chance to make an idiot of myself maracaing along to things like the theme from rocky, tubthumping etc was kind of appealing. Being a wii game the graphics are not top of the line hi-def or anything, but then neither is guitar hero or rock band - beyond the over the top opening videos and there's no need to be. There are different ways of controlling this game, thankfully theres no need to buy gimmick controllers (although there are some maraca add-ons for £10 approx available). The first is the obvious wiimote-nunchuck combination, but I opted against this because the wire between them bugs me. In what I believe is a first on the wii, you also have the option of using 2 wiimotes and this is the option I went with. It may have been something to do with how I calibrated them on start up but theres been a few instances where it either hasn't detected the shake properly or perhaps I was slightly off. So I suppose this is a slight issue. But it hasn't really affected my performance, I've yet to perfect a song but I haven't played the same song twice but there have been several almost perfects. This compared to what I used to be like at the Dreamcast versions is almost a hundred percent improvement. The Dreamcast version calibrated itself based on your height and you held the maracas high medium and low. On the wii you hold them upright/horizontal and downwards to relate to the high/medium/low of before. So even if they may not track perfectly I would say the controls are an improvement and I've been having a lot of fun with the game.

Overall I'd say its a great party game, and being a wii game it can be found for a reasonable price - mine set me back £30 which I would say is value for money, but to decide if its worth it for you you have to check out the track list and a general like of samba music.

Quick and easy review because I wanted to write something while my food was cooking.

I really need to start being more imaginative with my titles. Anyhoo I just bought samba de amigo and cleared the first 5 tracks. My arms are already tired. Oh and I've been invited back to redo year 2..have to reply by friday.

This blog will probably reveal more about me than I'd like and i'll be leading with a confession, I know a lot about wrestling, far more than I should. This is part of the reason why I gave TNA Wrestling on the PS2 a brief rental. I can't say I've really been following its progress through development by like looking at previews or screenshots or anything, so I was coming to the game completely fresh.I had been rather excited that this game was coming out however, as its something been needed in the fighting/wrestling game genre - competition. Without competition franchises especially stagnate, they don't have a reason to improve various areas that might need attention as it is either go with their product or you go without. Rumour has it this has also been happening with EA's Madden NFL series now they have a license monopoly , however I can't comment much on this as its not a game I play, well, not since Madden '93. So the fact a new wrestling game - one with some name stars attached has hit the scene.
Unfortunately while it is competition, much like the actual situation in the wrestling world, neither are much competition just yet. While neither of the wrestling games on offer currently are all that great, this one comes in a clear second (I'm leaving out Fire Pro as for one I'm not sure if its even available in the PAL regions, and also I haven't played any entries in the much acclaimed series). What I always go for in these games is the story/career type modes, they're the reason why I still play wrestling games, why I play Football Manager every incarnation, why I occasionally still play F1 2005 (as I can't justify another game in the series just yet) - always for the chance to play through some kind of story, however badly written, and to work my way to the top. Strange really as I've never really had any ambition to a real career other than the do a little more than scrape by.

I had quite high hopes for this however, as TNA has made some innovations with the Ultimate X match, and well when I've watched the product has had more of a focus on the actual wrestling rather than everything else that goes on around "sports entertainment" as its sometimes referred to - which is an advantage in terms of a game. However what strikes me with this game is exactly how limited it is, and I think a part of me expected this when I learned Midway were responsible for the game. That kind of comment might be a bit cruel and is definately an extremely broad generalisation considering the volume of their output, but I honestly can't remember the last game they did that I enjoyed. To make a big success of a license you need a big name or a good game and unfortunately with TNA Wrestling they have neither. The promotion are making progress within the states as far as exposure and everything goes, but I couldn't even tell you where to start looking for it on TV in the UK, I'm sure it'll be there somewhere given the multitude of digital channels now available given some of the trash shows there. But anyway I suppose I should get onto the actual game itself.

Theres only really 2 modes in which to play this game, theres the story mode - which is where I spent my entire time, and the exhibition mode used for multiplayer and quickplay of the various matchtypes. My first disappointment was to find that there is no create-a-wrestler mode, and considering the storyline of the game I thought this was the whole point of it. You also have to play through the story mode to unlock wrestlers to use within the exhibition mode. The graphics are not bad, I'm not sure how it'll rank up against competition on the xbox360/ps3 but they weren't bad for a ps2 game as you'd expect from a game this late in a consoles life. However Midway have gone a bad route with some of the cut scenes. There are two types of cutscenes which in short are one in which characters are moving and interacting and the other where for some reason everyones frozen and the camera moves through them very bizarrely while the main character does some summing up narration. The closest analogy I can think of to what its like is something I remember seeing in the old american series Police Squad, the prequel tv series to The Naked Gun film series. Often during the end credits the actors would 'freeze' and the cameras kept rolling, now imagine this happening and the camera panning about/moving through them and to me it just didn't work well.

The storyline itself as I previously mentioned is perfect for a create-a-wrestler scenario, you are a superstar who gets beat up beyond recognition and are dumped in a no name town in mexico. You wake up to find you have amnesia and plastic surgeons are about to rebuild your face. You decide to take out your frustations in the ring, and eventually find yourself back in TNA and eventually progress to the world title match. Predictable for the most part? Yes. Short? Yes. Limited? Yes. Theres no wiggle room, you have to win every match, if you lose, you just repeat the match. The matches all feel too similar and the story did very little for me to actually care about.

I also came across a number of glitches during my short time with the game. I would inexplicably fall through the ring and appear on the outside, I'd lock up with someone near the ropes and suddenly appear on the floor or I'd pull off moves, well a punch or a kick that wouldn't connect despite clearly doing so in a real situation so the collision detection is off as well. As far as the controls go there isn't really any issues I have with them other than the fact that they could've mapped so much more to them. For grapples they only had moves assigned the button, 'away' and the button and 'towards' and the button. This may be stating the obvious but there are 4 directions on a d-pad/analogue controller meaning there were 2 free obvious controls that could've been assigned to moves which would have definately improved my enjoyment of the game, it may have been partly my fault for not reading instruction manuals and so forth but it really felt like the infamous '6 moves of doom' often talked about among fans (typically towards the end of a match, especially in the wwe you'll notice finishes typically go in the same manner, the same sequence of moves) and it often felt like you only really had a couple of moves to progress through the matches with making the game very repetitive.

So after finding so many faults you're probably wondering why I played the game through to completion, well for one I wanted a quick game to complete so I could try my hand at a review (Force Unleashed on the backburner currently as I want to really enjoy that one), for two I don't really get to complete that many games, theres always another one that grabs my attention or I get bored, and for three I suck at a lot of games so I'm not good enough to get to the end. I suppose I was also kinda curious to see if there were any swerves in the story and where it was really going to end and to some extent it wasn't completely as bad as I've made out but the thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of issues with the game.

Overall, and this is the part I've been looking forward to, I don't actually want to give it a score because I agree with a lot of reviewers, its never the score its the body of the review that is the important bit. There have been many a badly reviewed game that I've enjoyed and even more well reviewed game that I couldn't stand (Super Mario 64, the majority of Zelda games come to mind) so considering theres no motivation otherwise to try and attract readers. But overall I'd say that this game is worth a rent if you;re a wrestling fan despite the faults as if nothing else it'll tide you over till the next release. As far as buying it, while it is great to finally see AJ Styles and the fallen angel Christopher Daniels and all in a game I'd say its only worth it if you're a big TNA fan and you're getting it for the PS2 as its only around £15 compared to the much more expensive 360 version.

Dang that summary was all over there...I'll work on that, anyhoo thats it from me today apart from this

Strange compliment #1
"you'd make a good granddad" - i'm not really sure what to do with that, especially since i'm only 22.

#213

People who use their phones/cameras/gadget that shouldn't play music but does to play music and play it through the terrible tinny speaker on the gadget rather than headphones...or those who do use headphones/earphones that you can still hear several rows away

Saying that makes me feel old..

I don't know if todays post was originally going to be just a general annoyance of mine or not, but I was going to comment on video games, the media, and the scary element lurking in the night - that creature known as jack thompson. But amazingly someone somewhere (florida) has seen sense and the guys finally been disbarred, and since all he ever achieved was self publicity, I won't bother servicing his ego further by being another blogger to have a go.
So I'm not reduced to 2 out of 3 points, and thankfully this week the media has played a big role in my desire to writing about this subject by making a complete tit of themselves. Not the specialist gaming media, thankfully they keep a more even head on their shoulders when such stories come out since they actually know the area in which they deal with (completely unlike people along with myself).
The stories I refer to are the murder the Advance Wars game has been tied to, and unsurprisingly the latest Grand Theft Auto game has been making the headlines again.
So first the Advance Wars story. Now the Advance Wars game exists in a genre where to be honest I've never really been able to exist, I see the point of the strategy game, why people would find it enjoyable but I just can't get my brain to think in the way I need to to actually be good at them. In short, I suck at them so don't play them. The Advance Wars games however have been a bit of an exception, having played all 4 of the english speaking country released series - in its native japan the series debuted on the famicom (nes) under the name Famicom Wars. The reason this shocked me is the fact that for starters its a Nintendo brand who have always been accused of almost being too family friendly (among gamers) and this series itself is very cartoony. The game deals with war in various different settings - varying from game to game - but the violence well, you see small pieces ie infantry, tanks, helicopters etc blowing up but theres no blood or anything nearing realistic while the generally limited story (it serves its purpose but its not a main reason to play the game) impresses upon you the horrors of war.
Details on this murder are still on the sketchy side, and all the developments so far at the questioning stage - from what little I've found out on the internet no one has been charged as yet - and the unfortunate victim was known to run a fan site/forum for the series/perhaps one of the games (as I said, details in the reports have been sketchy) and this is the only connection between the game and the murder and yet it has taken pride of place among a lot of the reports. So as far as I can see this link is merely being promoted to sell newspapers.
I can't really think of much more to say on this however until other details come out. As a sidenote however I found this a little bit creepy, the guy is about my age, a fellow Physics student - about to start at Nottingham Trent University - which was one of the universities I briefly considered.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7636821.stm

Now a complete lack of surprise greeted me when I saw the latest GTA game made it into the papers due to another controversy, but I mean really is this stuff really news? The games are now really well documented even in the mainstream media (although rarely ever completely fairly), the title implies at minimum you're going to be a thieving bastard and every single one of the series has come in rated at 18 or Mature (meaning 17+ in america) so to be honest if kids are playing this its their parents fault. Storylines/missions in this game have often involved assination/random killing, extortion, and while I can't yet speak for GTA 4 ( I still haven't sunk my teeth into this one) , the rest of the series is also infamous for being able to pick up prostitutes, take them back to 'your' car, have sex with them to boost your health - with the option of killing them to get your money back.
The latest addition to this series will be on the fantastically successful Nintendo DS and will be known by the subtitle of 'Chinatown Wars'. Now DS games, mainly due to the nature of the portable console are well known for having a strong base in mini games - quick blasts/distractions that can be completed and progress saved on a short bus trip. So in the realm of gangsters, one of the mini games is based around dealing drugs - which to me is perfectly fitting, I mean you shoot/kill/run over/otherwise attack other people so it makes perfect sense that you would deal drugs as well, if anything its less shady than many of the other aspects. However unsurprisingly the tabloids have been having a field day with this fact, getting quotes from anti drugs spokesman etc. However there are 3 facts that need to be taken into account.
1) Nintendo may be family friendly in the majority of their content, but GTA clearly isn't, and will unlikely receive anything less than the 18 rating given to its elder brothers.

2) You have to have something wrong with you to actually attempt anything in these games in the real world, yes they may glamorise some aspects of the underworld and make it seem like easy money but the fact is its so easy to die in this game, for something to go wrong and get blown up or something. Okay in the game all that occurs is you lose your inventory/some cash and wake up in the hospital, but anyone thinking this would happen in real life just isn't right in the head.

3) Parents, if you're worried about games like this getting into your childrens hands use your parental powers to prevent it, or at the very least do some research on it. Jon Davidson of former 1up fame, and still a fairly regular personality on 1UP Yours left to found a website www.whattheyplay.com - a parents guide to video games. Its an area I believe is heavily neglected and while I was sad he left 1UP at the time its the sort of resource that needs to be out there, and seriously needs to be promoted and pointed to because while it may often be bliss, ignorance makes fools of us all.

Thats all for now, time to cook me a roast dinner.

#101

People who say 'lol' and 'btw' in real life..

If you're actually interested in the subject of DRM or copy protection issues, Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com) currently have a guest blogger talking on the subject past and present in much more detail and knowledge than I ever could, so check it out.
And a belated congratulations to Advance Wars on becoming the latest game somehow linked to a death, I'll likely have more to say on this later

Still rather tired so only did my contracted hours today and am now listening to the free practice for sundays grand prix. Anyhoo I'm a fan of many webcomics , and being a video game enthusiast Penny Arcade is one of them. They're currently doing a mini series on cd copy protection which I've been finding more amusing than perhaps I normally would after blogging on the subject recently. Todays, part 2 of this series, did remind me of something. Something long forgotten, a bastardised idea of early copy protection - that many crackers found easy ways around mind you. And this was the disk wheel (first window http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/ ). Now obviously this is a comic so is prone to comic exaggeration, though trust me the amount of stress and annoyance on the face depicited is pretty dang genuine. I only ever had to deal with this method the one time for Nigel Mansell's World Championship (or well whatever his f1 game was called) on the amiga. The idea was , to verify the games legit it would give you 2 symbols which you'd have to match up on a code wheel, and input the third as the answer. In the case of this game, it was all different driver helmets. The trouble was, especially considering the fact that in these days (damn I feel old) games often retailed in the sub £15 region, so the code wheel was often supremely cheaply and rubbishly manufactured, little more than very thin card. After a few uses, especially by an 11 year old boy, the card was quite bent and certainly approaching sub useless conditions, not to mention the helmets you were supposed to match up were to my recollection black and white and incredibly similar (not that this is a major shock, it is copy protection afterall) which caused great frustration to my limited patience. This almost ruined what was a rather enjoyable game - looking back it wasn't great, certainly Formula 1 Grand Prix 1-4 were streets ahead and I still enjoy the odd blast on the original - but I loved it nonetheless and this annoying contraption, due to the fact this was not among the less than legitimate games I'd inherited from the previous owner, which wouldn't've been there if i'd obtained it through naughty means, almost ruined my enjoyment of something. Still, its a good comic and I'm rambling again.

I'm trying my hand at a review which'll be posted once I've completed the game on a second format, actual effort rather than the usual brain leakage that ends up on here. ttfn

It never takes me long, I always break my patterns and yesterday I didn't post here, the first day I haven't. Wednesdays are my days for doing nothing, my only day off from both jobs so I take it as a me day. Chances are I've been at the alcohol the night before, as anyone I was talking to would testify, as its the only day I don't have to be up at 4 or 7 or well, at all if I don't want. It was a lovely day of nothing. Today however I am more than knackered, I started at 5 having walked a mile and a bit to work, finished at just past 12 with only a 20 minute break, and another 20 minute break before starting my second job and I got home about 15 minutes ago. My legs are like lead.

Anyhoo 2 stories caught my eye today, but I can't comment too much with my brain in this state. The first was a little one I believe from Italy. Apparently a wife has been awarded the equivilent of £400 because her husband removed a urinating pet cat onto the balcony. Apparently the award was for 'distress caused'. Now surely this is a gigantic waste of a courts time and is like taking money out of one pocket to put in another?

The other being the prime space dedicated to another pedophile story. Now hear me out, that sentence maybe came out a bit wrong. The story was that child porn was on limewire, a file sharing website. My surprise was the fact that this is seen as a surprise. Now its been a long time since I've seen anyone use limewire, but I'm assuming that it has done nothing to become anymore legit in recent years, so is little different than bit torrent and other p2p stuff. It has a small almost niche element of legitimate uses where the rest of it is illegal to one extent or other so I was kind of shocked it was full page of newspaper news.

Otherwise david blaine big deal, I don't see his point that is all.

In between jobs at the moment, just got back in and leave for the next one 2ish so don't have time to finish the longer post I'd wanna post but still wanted to keep up the daily stuff.

General Annoyance #1

Part a)
This would be me, hence it being potentially multi-part, as there are many things about me that bug me. For now though a - When i'm tired throughout the day in need of a nap but i perservere and stay awake to get back on routine, but when it rolls around a sensible bedtime, in my case 9pm for a 4am wake up, I'm wide awake...

General Annoyance # 42662

This is the kind of one that could backfire if she ever finds out, as one of my friends is guilty of this, but chances of her finding this blog are slim to none (for those who know the horror movie 'rules' this is the equivilent of saying "i'll be right back"). Anyway - vegetarians. Not just any vegetarians though I mean I don't care if you don't like to eat animals, it means more for me , I mean the type who call themselves vegetarians despite the fact they eat fish, and/or poultry.

So for the past few days I've been trying to come up with an appropriate post on something I saw the other night. I'm a big fan of the shield and I've been enjoying the final season thats just recently kicked off. One of the secondary stories in the last episode (season 7 episode 3), involved a missing girl. To cut to the chase she was found, and it transpired that her brother -upon discovering she was a lesbian- arranged the kidnapping, had signed over temporary custody of her sister where she was given some 'alternative treatment'. She was raped by other kids of a similar age and heard 'words of encouragement at a critical moment' , the idea being that it was such a humiliation, such a dishonor to the family name a brother arranged and paid for his sister to be raped straight. It was such a bizarre disgusting idea and now I do realise its fiction, its one of the reasons I like the show, the fact that its not afraid to shy away from many subjects and its gritty no nonsense realism. This is part of the problem, the fact that this storyline did seem believable, that someone would do this in the sense of honor. There have been a number of 'honor killings' in recent years, and there is also the very scary ex-gay movement which is a whole nightmare in itself. However I couldn't put it altogether in any kind of way that make me satisfied and more than likely offend many many people. So I'll just leave it at that.

General Annoyance #1423
Bus drivers who miss stops. I don't just mean the full bus having to drive past, I mean the type who just accidently drive passed when there are many seats available, or hearing you ring the bell and carry on regardless, it pisses me off.

If you were wondering I was on a bus, rang the bell in plenty of time, upstairs was pretty empty, people at the stop stuck their hands out and the driver just kept on going...so a less random annoyance today

#40012

People who when wanting to be served at a fast food place or cinema kiosk (or anywhere with multiple tills to be honest) in their group but buying/paying for it all individually. If there are 2 other tills with no one at them with people saying 'next please' 'can I help' or another variation upon just might be willing to help you out.

I'm tired and cranky after having to get up at 4 this morning for work and the customers got to me a little, taking a nap now

Now that the mating season is winding down from chavs and they're returning from the love nests of spain, greece etc, does that mean hunting season will soon be opening on them to you know, thin the herd a bit? It'd give the people who miss fox hunting a way to scratch their itch

#43257
kids under 4 with genuine earrings , and not just the clip on ones, proper pierced through ears earrings. I don't care if the kid cried for a week and that was the only way to shut him/her up its still wrong.

#77554
whoever told people that a polo shirt with its colar up was a good look needs their head examined. I'm ranked around the last person ever to give or be asked for fashion advice but I sometimes physically shudder with disgust when I see that..and that is rarely a sign something is good.

Well theres nice little bonus, the 2 versions of donkey konga I bought were both brand new..excellent

Now I was going to spend my blogging time today talking about something a bit more serious, but something else caught my attention leaving me able to a bit more fact checking and do something a bit more proper (hopefully) with the subject.
Anyhoo today was spent tidying, going to the store whose website i'd bought the game from as it was faulty and finding I can only go through the website - but they responded to my email within a half hour with instructions and a FREEpost address which a lot of returns procedures don't so top marks there. And I did some more house stuff and shopping, bought myself Donkey Konga 1 and 2, both with bongo's, Canis Canem Edit or whatever Bully was renamed as over here, and Amped 3 along with Enter the Dragon and Batman Begins on hd-dvd bringing my collection there to a shocking 35.

Anyhow it was while I was paying for these items when I came across this - http://www.gamestation.co.uk/product.asp?id=man0304 . Gears of War 2 'hardcore' edition. Now here I'll have to make a confession and my username will give you a clue. I'm a dork, a geek and I do get excited sometimes by limited edition things. When Lord of the Rings came out on dvd I bought 2 of the 3 special editions with the gifts so I have the Minas Tirith ( I think) jewelry box and Gollum Statue along with seperately bought action figures etc. But there is a difference between that and the point I'm going on to make here, these special editions only set me back in the region of £15, which is only a few quid more than the absolute maximum I'd normally pay for a dvd.

First I suppose I should give you a quick rundown of what it comes with. There are 3 versions of this game coming, the standard edition which will be coming in at around £45, the limited edition at £50 (this kind of price difference I find reasonable) and the limited edition comes with pretty standard fair "The edition will feature alternate cover art, a SteelBook case with a bonus content DVD, a book entitled "Beneath the Surface: An Inside Look at Gears of War 2" which includes concept art and story-related information, a keepsake photo of Dom and Maria, and an exclusive Xbox Live code to unlock a gold-plated Lancer rifle for online play." - according to the GoW2 wiki page. Not bad for a fiver extra, an extra 10% well, just over that on the price for some decent stuff. We then step over to the HARDCORE version priced at a whopping £129.99. I saw this and thought theres not a chance anyone would go for that, but I was quickly corrected by the sales assistant and a couple of people had placed a preorder. Now for this extra £70 you get a gold painted replica lancer , which rather than being a completely cheap plastic rip off, as it actually weighs in at 5kg seems to have a little substance, and it is said that there will only be 500 of the gold painted ones, but thats all you get extra for the £70, other than that its exactly the same as the limited edition.

Almost a year ago when Halo 3 shipped it also had 3 'sku's or different version, where the legendary edition came in at £40 more than the limited edition and came with something i'd rank only slightly below the gun sorry rifle. At the time news sites and podcasts I follow were prophising a worrying trend that I quickly dismissed, but they now seem to be being vindicated. The legendary edition is the version of Halo 3 that I own, but this quickly came down in price and I dipped my feet in at £50, still overpaying more than I'd want but the standard edition was still tough to find sub £30 so it was in my self justifying range. But now £130 for what is still just a game is kind of worrying, we've seen it coming for a little while I suppose in some ways, Guitar Hero coming in at £60-£70, then Rock Band £100 nowadays but originally £130 and sold in massive quantites. The difference being that these expensive sku's came with an actually useful extra - the guitar or general instrument set that can actually double as a normal controller..though I must say I don't recommend the combination of drums and halo...it does not end well.

Its annoying I suppose but the phrase " A fool and his money are soon parted" and working in a cinema you realise people complaining about prices doesn't stop them paying the stupid prices. But I have to say I won't be buying it, well unless it falls to about £15...I'm out

Its been an interesting night. My roast dinner I'd budgeted time to cook for my roast but not any time to eat or travel to the pub where I was going to meet my sister, her boyfriend and their friends. I got there just in time to move pubs and see my sister go home as she was ill. Enjoyed a couple of pints and conversation with people I still don't really know aside from my sisters boyfriend and left after a couple of hours. The reason for this was 2 fold, one I really need to get back on my old sleep routine, I'm due in at work at 5am on saturday and I've been nowhere near that routine lately. The other that I had an invite for a night out with cinema folk old and new. I was equally late for this arrangement as I hadn't planned to go at all, being strapped for cash, but a last minute change of heart occurred as often does when alcohol is involved. The place was packed however, and instead of trying to find them, I went straight to the bar. Pint in hand, I did a quick walkthrough and came up short and without mobile signal. Making the best of a bad situation I found a table (amazingly given the rammed nature of the place), a chair and started reading the book I'd brought with me for my bus travel - Michael J Fox's autobiography if you must know - and just sat. It was maybe a bit loud to do so, but the selection wasn't bad with Ace of Spades, Welcome to the Jungle, and some disturbed track I can't place at the moment among others. And I just sat there, nice book, pint (Worthingtons - not great but at £1.69 and the choice between that and lager it'll do) and decent music and the general sound of life on the outside. It was peaceful, relaxing, and something I think I should do more often..Its cliche but it can be the little things in life that make it worthwhile

And not the nice kind just a short message. Anyway a new game arrived today which will monopolise my time for a little while. Had my final exam, it was the only one that went well so nice to finish on a high. Just have to wait for the verdict now. But i did it right, got drunk last night and consequently made a bit of a tit of myself among friends which they're hopefully not too annoyed by and woke up feeling well rested this morning hangover free.
Treated myself to a chicken when food shopping yesterday so I have a lovely roast dinner to prepare and enjoy now. If i'm going out I'm trying to go out in style, with a nice £6 of smart price vodka (very classy) in my fridge to enjoy at a later date or 2. So thats it for me today

As you may guess from the header there, I'm likely to come off seeming hypocritical here as I feel like ranting about internet fame and the lengths people go for it. Having a blog kinda leaves me open to apparently going for internet fame, but well you can either go and call me a hypocrite which is perfectly correct - I am a hypocrite when it comes to many things - but I don't pander to an audience or do anything to get attention. I just happen to write in a style that implies I think people actually read this..and to be honest thats just my natural writing style - to write like I'm talking.

Anyway I believe youtube illustrates this more than anything, after successes of numa numa guy, star wars kid who've been featured on the real news and in other tv shows. Another one that is hard to escape is Chris Crocker I believe the name is? The annoying leave britney alone guy who has been one of the actually successful stars having been parodied in that *oh so funny* (note the sarcasm please) film meet the spartans and being used as an 'internet correspondent' on a show or 2. So following in the footsteps of these 'stars' we get a new generation of people willing to go to any lengths for the same level or at least a taste of the same level of fame.

This was an example I came across when I was finding out who the hell chris crocker was after hearing the name so many god damn times. Anyway I found an example that illustrates this point perfectly. This girl was claiming to be the female Chris Crocker, and she posts this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBxYhovsUjE in short having seen another - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH0i-xPuQ7E video either on an advertised place on youtube or due to having a couple of thousand hits she just copies her. They're both videos of girls pieing themselves in the face, just to get attention. It worked for one on a small scale so the other follows suit hoping to get the same glamour or whatever that apparently comes with website/youtube hits.

Now many people will think whats the big deal? Its attention seeking and its kinda stupid/funny whatever. But what does this fame bring? Well unless you're incredibly successful money definately doesn't enter the equation, even with the google advertising monster powering it. These videos by now, 6 months to a year on after posting are hovering around the 20-25k mark this actually might qualify for some kind of monetary reward if you agree to the advertising deal I've heard about on youtube - this could be rubbish as I only watch videos so feel free to correct me - but it took so long , much longer than our internet generation demand. If anything is to be gained it needs to be almost immediate for them ,and in a way still me, to be deemed any form of success. Slow burners, to coin a sales term, aren't of interest.

But eitherway just a scroll down the comments on these videos reveals a worrying erm, thing. I mean it starts off with a weird face, and replied to by the author with a hopeful 'subscribe to me'. But scroll further and further down and you start seeing weirder comments like "Ha,, this is the way to get subscribers... if you pie yourself with an entire can of shaving cream and cover your entire face...I guarantee I will get you at least 70 subscribers today!! " - "Lol. Thanks I think? You should subscribe if you havent.
Next week I think im gonna melt chocolate and pour it on my head. ". I mean if you like to do that kinda thing, sure go ahead, but otherwise for 70 subscribers? big deal. They don't actually do anything, but more on that tangent in a minute. But why do something to placate an audience you get nothing from if its something you don't wanna do? The majority of the comments continue in such a way, and theres a follow up where she just goes straight into something messy, in my opinion just to placate the fans. She called this one pie in face or whatever she actually did to hook people, but placed it at the end video with the idea she'd do what she'd normally do with this as a hook to increase viewers at the end - a typical tv trick, but already the next day she was giving in and just going straight to the apparently viewer high segment.

Now you may be wondering why the hell I give a damn about stuff like this. Well that is a very good question and I often say that people will be dumb regardless of what you or I do. However this is actually an area in which I have a bit of experience. Rewind the clock 5 or so and I used to run a yahoo group which is still about, but unfortunately I'm locked out of any admin controls for. Anyway it was something I used to give back to a community I took a lot from and felt I should give something back. At its height it had 5000+ members which you might think is pretty cool, and at the time it was rather an ego boost for me and the other person involved. However 5000 members really means diddly squat if no one contributes and to be honest there were less than 10 people who contributed, whether it be photos, videos, stories or even comments on material. When you take that into account, and to an extent blame lays with me for not getting the community more involved, you begin to realise how meaningless that number is, sure its people looking at whatever you're doing, accessing your material but you get fuck all for it. Excuse me, I don't like swearing even when I'm typing but to an extent it does annoy me that much. Its just a community that'll take all it can and give nothing in return.

Obviously a group site and a yahoo vlog or whatever you wanna call it is different but in my opinion viewers/site members/hits are equally meaningless as at the end of the day you get nothing from them. I believe in this post I've proved an old saying, you are what you drink, and I'm a bitter and stout man in both senses of the word. But fyi no alcohol was consumed in the makings of this rant, even if it should've been to distract me from making it, Dork out

halfway through another blog, so this'll be quick. But I hope someday when I leave a job that I'll be missed like this guy - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21448 . Great tribute video and I will be missing him as well, I'm a big fan of the 1up podcasts

So I was sitting in the exam hall again today, my mind drifting off to unimportant things as per usual as the questions made less sense than if they'd been in esperanto. This led me to thinking, as I'm sure you can understand 'what the hell am I doing here?'. Its a question that has been asked with increased frequency over the past few years "what are you doing at university?". I'm still not entirely sure over the answer. I've always been able to give I suppose...adequate answers but they've never seemed right for me. On the one hand I guess I was following in the footsteps of my brother. I've often idolised him, I was 5 when he left home, he went to Oxford met his wife there, eventually used his degree to get a good career and now has the 4 bedroom london house wife+2 kids. I've always been compared with him, I look a lot like him, act like him etc etc, so theres some truth in this answer but not enough by itself.

Another answer is of course I was interested in Physics. This was definately true for a little while, for the first term and doing the first topic at 6th form was definately true, but it did seem to go downhill from there. After a while it wasn't about getting A's or 100%s or as close as I could, it was about doing enough. There's always been the excuse that I was diagnosed with diabetes during my AS level run-in and missed a bunch of coursework but to be fair I'm not entirely sure how much impact, if any, that really had on my studies. So again I suppose there was a little truth in this bit too.

Finally we come to what I've always felt has been as close to the real answer as I'll get. I was 18 when I left 6th form, having only spent 2 days in a job before quitting, youngest child of 3, only had one girlfriend in a long distance relationship which had recently ended and I was faced with 2 options - university or the real world and the rest of my life. I deferred entry to university not wanting to go straight across the country away from my parents, and not wanting to go straight from 13 years of schooling to what was going to be 4-5 years of a degree due to my need to complete a foundation year to gain access to the degree itself. So I did dip my toes in to the real world but in the comfort of my parents house.
Then of course I went to Uni here in Sussex, the first year went well and I flew through the foundation year, but towards the end I noticed some of the -just doing enough- attitude creeping back into my life, which annoyed me but has remained with me to this day. The second year, the first proper one of the degree started well, I was in a relationship that ate up a lot of my time and was partially responsible for sending me into a bit of a depression that in part remains with me, slumps I've found are hard to get out of. But I can't blame it on that, there were a lot of issues, and I finally got a job at the start of that year - my cinema one I still have, just about - which again ate up some time, but was frankly a relief to have especially when university got tough. At the end of the year though I squeezed through but knew I didn't know as much as I needed to and was still a bit...well, very out of sorts.
Then we come to the year I'm finally coming to the end of now due to resits, with tomorrow potentially my final day as a university student. I struggled with 2 of my courses in the first term, which obviously had a bit of a snowball effect and being the time of person who prefers to ignore problems rather than deal with them, it wasn't really till almost easter, 2/3rds of the way through the year that I realised just how much trouble I was in, and how much help I'd need. Help is always something I've had trouble asking for, after some therapy the prevailing theory is that I feel I shouldn't need it, that even if others do I should be able to plow through solo because I should be better than that. So to be honest I stopped trying, at least for the most part. I attended my lectures, attempted to hand at least something in for my assignments, knowing I was going to fail and hopefully get a chance to resit the entire year. Unfortunately this is the first year my university doesn't automatically allow you to resit, its done on a case by case basis and they may not deem me worthy of a second shot. Which is the position I find myself in now, I didn't get to do any of the studying I needed to over the summer as I needed to build up my plan B and well C to be fair, career etc.

So thats the position I'm in and to an extent what happens next is out of my hands. The fact is though I'm not even sure what I want, as I've said in a very lengthy way above, the reason I went to uni was because I was scared of the real world. University was a way for me to escape having to live a real life for a few years, and I've done that now. I sorta know what I might wanna do in the future, and I've taken steps towards that so in many ways university may have served its purpose. Don't get me wrong however, there are many things about the real world that scare the shit outta me, but I'm not so timid anymore that I can't face them.
On the other hand, I've already sunk £15k into university life, not to mention family loans, 'gifts' and naturally lost earnings through studying rather than working a full time job so its almost as if I'm committed at this point and 5500 characters in I'm still no clearer about which option I'd rather take. I suppose that means in many respects its a good thing the decision is to a large extent out of my hands, I just need to wait and see. 1 more exam tomorrow then I could be gone. £15k the price of fear eh?

That may go some way to explaining the 'potential drop out' comment in my intro...anyway thats all I have to say for now, I'm out.

No I'm not about to rant on Britney Spears. I just bought 4 hd dvds..I have no money....why????

Oh well , at least I will probably watch 3/4 of them

Transformers 2 disc version, Shrek 3, Disturbia and Babel...Shrek 3 is the only possibly not out of that at least. And worth the tenner perhaps..Still i'm an idiot

This was something I've felt like commenting on for a while and one of the reasons I decided to start this blog. Now anyone who follows the gaming news, and in particular PC based news will already know about this, and anyone who has will likely have an opinion and this here is mine.

Now http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169913 this is the kinda of story I'm refering to, just so you know. But first i'll backtrack, a bad habit of mine is just to write things as they pop into my head, there isn't much order. But anyhoo, copy protection has been around for donkeys years , and for donkeys years minus a little bit people have been trying to break it. For some its the challenge, much like cracking into computers was in the early days, others its the more obvious piracy angle. To my memory theres only one real game I can think of that didn't really have any copy protection, and if it did, well it didn't make a blind bit of difference. This was Championship Manager 97/98, a series (now Football Manager) that I still play today, in fact pretty much the only pc game I play for the last 3-4 years despite what my collection implies. As I recall this game had the option of the full install, which meant that after you'd done this, you no longer had to use the disk at all and therefore were free (ethical argument aside) to sell it on and still enjoy the product. Obviously this is going a little far in the wrong direction but i'm sure there must have been other products like this, the whole community and companies were a lot more trusting. Things obviously changed and progressed, software and pc games started coming with licenses, and it was this license - not a physical product that you were paying for. When this happened things began getting complicated, and copy protections started getting out of hand.

Now over the past 3-5 years there have been a few incidents like this, but to my recollection never really with such a hyped mass-market product like spore. The copy-protection on spore allows for only 3 activations, meaning if you're a family with multiple pc's , or a dedicated (I hate the casual-hardcore thing) gamer who is likely to mod/update their computer or for some reason have to reinstall windows, you can only do this a further 2 times before you get locked out of the game. Now there are plenty of other products that do this too, Microsoft Office for example has a limited number of activations, but with games its not such a common occurance, and its not like you take office online regularly plus people don't like the idea that they're only seemingly renting the product from EA after paying £20-£30 etc. The other issue of course , the family one, where you can only go on one at a time is a major frustration but one I can almost buy into to an extent, but only if this copy protection actually did its job.

Surprise surprise the copy protection was broken, and the game has been available for download around a week before its official release. In fact thanks to the crackers certain annoying aspects of the drm have been dealt with and a pirated copy is in fact superior in many ways to the version that actually costs money. This has lead to HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people pirating the game rather than buying it, I'm sure its still selling fine but thats not really the point. In going overboard with their copy protection they've actually driven a bunch of their consumer base to piracy and really what has it been for? It can't have been much harder for the crackers its been available for download a full WEEK before it was available to buy in stores. And before you ask no, this isn't me condoning piracy or saying its a good thing in any way.

But piracy aside this has had other effects too, I mean just look at the amazon site for the game

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts-Spore-Mac-DVD/dp/B000FN7K2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1221589280&sr=8-1

for what has been a highly acclaimed game and much anticipated release, its review score is barely 2/5. But look at the break down, around 20 people each have reviewed it between 2-5 stars, whereas 162 have rated it at 1 star - a clear reaction to the frustration being caused by copy protection that made no difference. It is this kind of thing more than the piracy that I believe will hurt EA's pocket. Piracy will always be there, but thats another rant for another time, but this is the kind of game pretty much anyone can play, and much like the Sims will be played - in my opinion - by people who don't play games often , unless you count solitaire while at the office or a facebook application. To people like this, people who won't have seen the article like on 1up will be put off by such a low amazon store and more than likely will opt for something else.

But at the end of the day companies will be idiots and EA's large enough to be able to take this on the chin, and fingers crossed will learn something from their mistake.

Anyway daily non-me rant over, some facts may not be entirely accurate because its not like I research any of these, I just rant on things that bug me on stories I've often just skimmed. Anyway, not like this'll be read anyway Dork Knight out

Well I have a genuine day off today which very rarely happens to me. I'm coming to the end of 2 weeks booked off from both my jobs as I'm currently resitting my end of Year 2 exams at uni, they've not gone well, I'm already guaranteed not to progress to Year 3 so I've decided to enjoy the day off instead of hitting the book. Besides, university are now within their rights to refuse me entry to Year 2 as a repeat as well. Anyway to get back on point, I've been enjoying a well deserved day off so far. However I'm never very smart when these things happen, especially when I go in to a shop to browse. I had a lovely tedious task to do today, renewing my bus pass whoop-de-do, so in order to at least do something borderline interesting I decided to browse the local charity shops. Now I'm not quite sure what goes on in my head, but I seemed to be wired like a horder, especially if something is listed as cheap or some form of offer/sale/bargain. Due to this I've accumulated an ungodly amount of tat, but in recent weeks finally found it in me to get rid of at least some of it. Unfortunately today I merely replaced it with new tat.
Now in recent times I've noticed a bit of a decline in charity shops, well not so much of a decline, more of a shift. They seem to be a lot like new shops now rather than what they once were. For example I bought dungeons and dragons from The Works about 2 years ago for £5, I never used it and donated it a few weeks ago, I think to The Mind charity shop and when I checked back a week later and they were asking for £15 for it, and surprisingly it was unsold...But I did actually manage to find one that acts like a real charity shop, with kindly and chatty assistants. I ended up with 13 books, 2cds, a dvd with 20 'top games of 2004', and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and all of that didn't even set me back £10. Maybe I did go a little overboard, I mean I doubt i'll play even 2 of the pc games I got, I'm kinda interested in Final Fantasy XI, and Prince of Persia but I know deep down I don't really bother with PC games. And some of the books I picked up, they were 10p each, I may read a couple of them - I was extatic to find the hardback, photos galore, Ayrton Senna tribute, and the Camra (Campaign for Real Ale, which while I'm not a member, it is what I drink rather than lager...ugh) Dictionary of Beer which could prove an interesting read.

Yeah so as you can see I lead a real interesting life since its 3.30pm and thats all thats really happened to me today. If anyone knows how to keep such hording and impulse buying in control please leave me a message or something, my overdraft will be grateful.
I'll probably be back with a few more posts later today probably equally interesting and useful and I'm tempted to add up some of my writing just well, to have a digital record considering what I'm like at losing things...now wheres that key

Dork Knight out

Now over the past 24 hours there has been a couple of news stories that've grabbed my attention and I felt the need to comment on them. I realise no one at the moment realise and that chances are, especially with 50 million+ other blogs and bloggers out there, that no one ever will, but screw it it makes me feel better.

Now the first that grabbed my attention was this one : -

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ipppcZU-H4xC9lQiAOQFSF-cfrdAD935H3G80

Now for those too lazy to click a link, i'll summarize. Basically over in America a 33 year old woman has been arrested after stealing her daughters (15 year old) identification to enroll in high school and fulfill her own dream of being a cheerleader. I'm sure many among you will already be picking holes in this plan, and their are many, and I can't help but wonder how they didn't go through this womans head and how she ever thought she'd be able to keep up her charade for the erm, 3 years? or however long American high school lasts. I'm not without sympathy for this woman though, don't get me wrong. We all have dreams that go unfulfilled and things in life we sometimes wish we could go back and do-over. In her case she wanted to go back, get a high school diploma and live part of a childhood she missed out on, something I think many people wish they could do but even Hollywood don't try to get away with casting someone in their early 30s as someone in their midteens. And I myself, absolutely hopeless when it comes to women and even worse when it comes to guessing someones age would have had no problems noticing something was amiss in this case.

However this to me was not the most shocking story. This dubious honor goes to this article
http://news.aol.com/article/student-auctioning-virginity-at-brothel/169951

unlike the associated press link I think by the link most people will get a picture of what this article is about. This isn't the first time something like this has happened, back in 2004 an 18 year old lesbian student auctioned hers for £8400 which was won by a bt engineer - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/3554121.stm . I remember at the time as well there were some copy cats who noticed how much money she'd made and thought it worth a shot themselves. Anyway I'll mostly be commenting on the new story.

There were a few things that stood out from this new story, the old one I had some sympathy for, even if she was also doing a useless subject of sorts - at least it was a fair bit more useful than the newbie - this American not so much, and I view this with an awful lot more cynisism than I perhaps did the first time around. There are a number of reasons for this. First off shes a student and she's already finished her degree, she's doing this for her masters. A normal degree is enough for most, hell I would love to get out with just a normal degree right now, of any classification. Of course this was a degree in women's studies and I can see why that might not be the most useful of degrees in getting a job, but her chosen masters is in 'Marriage and Family Therapy' which I kinda view on the same level as her degree..So yeah there's that.
She's commented how she hopes bidding will hit $1million...and while I wouldn't say I wouldn't go as far as not even throwing this girl a freebie, afterall I'm no catch myself and it has been a while, but this is just a *little* hopeful, even with it being a *virginity*. I feel the location of this auction will have a damper on the final price...she's holding it at a brothel, a brothel which her sister by the way, also works at. Now if I'm gonna be paying for sex, not saying that I ever would bar a marriage gone wrong, but with a choice between one sister at a set rate who knows what shes doing and as its her job will at least be able to fake her enjoyment, or another who'll likely cost more and will always remember this encounter and be unsure whats she's doing and most likely be dreading it I think I know which i'd rather be screwing..

But thats if I take the story at face value, which I am struggling to do even given my young age. I'm a bit of a cynic. A story like this, particularly in America, particularly around election time with family values etc coming further to the forefront of the media etc, I can't but think she's just doing it to get 15 minutes of fame and a bucket of cash for selling her story before and after, I mean the news article on Aol already says ' in a flurry of interviews'..

Anyway thats all the comments I have on those for now and those crazy Americans..Dork Knight out.

Well anyway I thought I'd better post a little introduction.

I'm in my early 20s, a potential university drop out who works in a cinema and a supermarket. Oh yes indeed I'm living the glamour life here. I spend most of my existance in Brighton nowadays, having spent the majority of my first 2 decades in Yorkshire.
I've finally decided to enter the 21st Century and get myself a blog. Although I must admit this is not the first time, having very periodically used both livejournal and the myspace facilities over the past few years. I have a bad habit of getting into something, doing it for a few weeks then getting bored and moving onto the next pet project. I've previously burned through running an online radio show, a gaming website or 3, a writers community, a cult, among others. At the end of the day however its the writing that keeps coming back to me, and the bug has recently bitten me again, as it usually does when I'm stuck in an exam, finished and unable to leave. So I intend to use this as my creative outlet and primary time-killer, and expect in future to see writings, drafts, bare-bones ideas both from the past, present and potential future projects. I'll probably also do some commentary on recent events in both my life and news articles that catch my eye, a few of which I'll probably post right after this. Anyhoo thats it for my introduction.

Dork Knight out...for now