Day Off

Another lazy Saturday almost over and done with. Not very productive but I'd already decided that I'd be taking it as a day off so that's not a problem.

Finally got round to going into Ayr this morning and trading in some old games that I never play. Some of them were pretty worthless but a couple of Wii and 360 games were worth enough that I ended up with £60 of store credit. This was, of course, promptly spent on Eternal Sonata and Final Fantasy XII, along with a plush Sonic doll.

I had heard of Eternal Sonata and dimly remembered good reviews of it so, since it was on special offer and I tend to like RPGs, I figured it might be a good deal. I originally bought my second-hand PS2 purely to try out some of the vast RPG library, something which I've singularly failed to do, so a new Final Fantasy game going cheap seemed like a good idea. I don't really have a reason for getting the Sonic plushy.

So I guess I can add two more massive RPGs to my ever-expanding list of games I need to complete. Maybe once I get my prelims, projects and hospital visits out of the way, I can go on a total gaming binge for a week, see how much I can do.

Well, even if I don't (and, knowing me, I probably won't), I can at least try to get a bit more done once everything serious is out of the way. I'm also way behind on my plans for a few other things, like VersusCOM and The Grey Line.

Anyway, no point dwelling on that now. This is my day off.

Which means that tomorrow is my first day back on again. I'm hoping to have a shot at tackling my Computing project so that I can get it out of the way and focus on Physics revision for the rest of the week.


It's just occurred to me that I've once again forgotten all about the woodle for this week. Never mind, I'll definitely have one ready for next time. It's relatively simple and my “artist” should find it fairly easy to draw, which means he'll probably do it. If he remembers.


I think that's about it really. Nothing too deep or interesting but there rarely ever is.

Oh, actually, there is one last thing. I bought a copy of Hey You, Pikachu! off eBay earlier. It's an interesting little game that the Wikipedia article can explain in more detail than I can be bothered to do. Unfortunately, it only ever came out in the US and Japan so it's an NTSC version and I don't have an NTSC N64 or a convertor, so until I get one of those, all I've got is a £17, voice-recognising paperweight.


And that's really it for today. I'll be back tomorrow, I guess.

On budget laptops, new games and the joy of decades-old television serials

I just came in from school (after a fairly hefty delay due to one of the main roads being closed) to find my Eee PC waiting for me. I'm just going to get something to eat and then set it up. More later.


It all seems very impressive so far but I've been running into some trouble while trying to connect to the wireless network. I've double-checked the password and the settings but it just doesn't do anything. Curious.


Well, after a bit more tinkering, I still haven't got the Wi-Fi to work. It came with one week of free tech support though, so I guess I can try that either tomorrow or at the weekend. Or during the week after that, in fact, since we go on holiday after this Friday. That would be a good thing, if it hadn't just reminded me that immediately after the holidays, my prelims begin.


I haven't got round to playing Mass Effect tonight, even though I said I would. I've been too busy fiddling with the Eee, in addition to my usual routine. I did manage to play Link's Crossbow Training for a while. I'm not entirely convinced that the Wii Zapper is such a brilliant peripheral but it works well with this game, simple as it may be. I haven't done anything beyond the first set of levels yet – the urge to chase high scores is just too great.

The only minor complaint I have is that the sensitivity and alignment settings aren't unique to each Mii profile. An odd design but I can live with it. It'll probably only be Erin and I using it and she seems to like the same settings as I do.

Hold on a sec, I've gotta watch Torchwood. Will I like it this week?


It was all right. A bit melodramatic in places but, well, it's Torchwood so melodrama's pretty much par for the course. Watching a bit of classic Who now, The Time Warrior, the serial which introduced Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans. It was one of the ones I got for my birthday, along with Carnival of Monsters (which has fast become one of my favourites) and The Hand of Fear (featuring the last regular appearance of Sarah Jane).

I still have a few more DVDs that I want to get out of the shortlist I made before my birthday. I got some Amazon vouchers for Christmas and that ought to cover a few. I'm planning on buying Life on Mars at some point, probably soon so that I can catch up and watch the sequel series as it happens. Someone said that it starts tomorrow so I'm going to miss the first episode at least but I'll try to record it.

Shows like Life on Mars that have a planned backstory and arc always make Doctor Who seem all the more strange to me. Every modern show almost has to have some kind of extended story between episodes and will usually have characters and plot arcs fleshed out years in advance. Shows like Heroes, Lost and Prison Break are the clearest examples of this (though the amount of long-term planning in some of them is... debatable) but even largely episodic shows have some connection between episodes. Such as the new Who series, for instance.

But getting back to old Who. The Time Warrior was broadcast just over ten years after the start of Doctor Who, from December 1973 to January 1974 and it was the very first serial to name the Doctor's home planet as Gallifrey. It had taken two years for another Time Lord to appear in the show (not counting Susan), five years for the now iconic sonic screwdriver to show up and it was six before the Time Lords were named as such and appeared as a proper civilisation.

In the scale of Doctor Who, it's not very much. But those ten years would be like the entirety of the first two Star Trek series going by without Starfleet being mentioned. It would be more than halfway through the original series before another Vulcan appeared and we wouldn't even know they were called that until Commander Riker grew a beard and told us so*.

I'm not sure why I find that all so fascinating but I do. There's such a history associated with it and a complicated weave of plots and characters far greater than any single series could come up with today, even, or perhaps especially, if it was meticulously planned out.


A couple more things before I go. I'm not sure what the problem is yet but it seems that a couple of other computers, namely the family desktop and my mum's laptop are having difficulty connecting to the wireless network as well as my Eee. It could be related but they're both a wee bit temperamental anyway so I'll probably still put in that call to tech support, assuming it doesn't all fix itself.

Also, I've got the last part of that Maths test tomorrow. It was technically only meant to be for two days but no one's got it finished and it doesn't really count as anything other than practice anyway. I think that with a bit more time I should be able to get through it but it's got me a bit more worried about the prelims now.

Physics might also be a problem. I'll really need to do some revision on that front. Computing, I'm not so bothered about. It should be fairly easy but doing the practice papers is proving to be annoying. The commercially produced ones, as opposed to the actual exams from previous years, are always quite low quality, often having questions that don't make sense or which give far too many or too few marks for a particular answer.

Anyway, I'll deal with them later. By which I mean tomorrow, since the first one is due in on Friday morning. Bah, I'll figure something out.


I keep having problems concluding these posts. It's worst in the ones where I keep darting from topic to topic, such as... well, most of them. Including today's. I'll just have to fall back on my normal, poorly-planned escape route.

So, loathe as I am to admit to being unable to come up with anything more creative, have a nice day.






*If you don't get the reference, find the geekiest person you know and have them explain it, even though you probably won't like the answer. It's nothing bad, just boring.**

**If you think my timing is a little off with these references, then you're probably the kind of person that people will go to if they need it explained.

No Time to Title

You know what really annoys me sometimes? Copyright warnings on DVDs. Back in ye olde days of analogue cassettes, it was a simple matter to skip past them but that's now rendered impossible. What makes the whole thing worse is that I'm seeing them for countries I've never been to and in languages I'll likely never understand.

These are Region 2 DVDs in PAL format with English speech. Why am I seeing copyright laws for Australia in Swiss? For all I know, those Swiss ones aren't even actual copyright law. It's just some really bored guy who happens to know Swiss saying “Ha ha! You silly person who doesn't speak Swiss, I am wasting your time and there's nothing you can do about it! I crack me up sometimes, you know.”


Moving on. I promised yesterday that I would have a well thought out post that I would take my time with over the course of today. That's not worked out.

I have my excuses though. I've been wracking my brains trying to come up with some solution to my Computing project problems. I have a couple that I plan to test tomorrow and, if they don't work, I can always resort to just cutting the feature altogether and carrying on.

Actually, now that I write that down, I'm basically exactly where I was yesterday, give or take a few scribbled notes and a diagram or two.

What's really wasting my time these days is these stupid hospital appointments. I was thinking about it this morning and I realised that the whole thing takes over an hour on average. While I can handle getting up early, I then have to have a shower as well as deal with removing the bandages, etc. That second bit may not take long but it's hardly pleasant. That takes up to half an hour.

Then, after a rushed breakfast, it's about a twenty minute drive to the hospital, another ten minutes (again, on average) sitting around waiting and then a twenty minute drive back home.

By the end of all of this, I've basically been awake for an hour and a half before I can start my day.

It's more tolerable during the weekdays. I'm not making the trip just to go there – it's more of a detour on my way to school, a detour that at least lets me miss Life Skills occasionally. The staff on weekdays also know me and what to do by now, so everything there goes smoothly.

What makes it worse is that, as each day goes by, it becomes more and more apparent that I don't really need all this. That's overall a good sign but the wound packing today fell out before lunch and the only discomfort I've felt is from the now largely useless dressing. It just makes me wonder why I'm still going in there every morning.


Enough of that. I dislike complaining so much but the whole point of this blog is to give me somewhere to solidify and write down my thoughts and this whole situation has been weighing on my thoughts pretty heavily. The end is in sight but every time I seem to be getting closer, it moves a vague distance forwards.

Anyway, I really have to post this now. No time left. More tomorrow. Actually, here's some development about that Mass Effect debacle. The vapid “psychologist” actually apologised. Still waiting on Fox though.

More Mass Effect and More of My Life

Another late night post, I'm afraid. I really have to get out of the habit of doing these.

I'll begin with a brief update on the whole Mass Effect/Fox News situation that I've been talking about for the past few days. First of all, Joystiq has an excellent article from GamePolitics.com's Dennis McCauley that goes over the whole debacle and looks into just what Fox's attack and EA's stand means for gamers and the industry as a whole. While you're there, look through some of the comments for further insights.

The latest piece of action has been Fox's claim that they invited EA to appear on the offending show to provide a counter-argument, saying that they have heard nothing back and somehow trying to paint EA as the bad guy in all of this. EA has no reason to go on the show – they have done nothing wrong and so don't need to defend themselves, they could probably expect the exact same treatment that Geoff Keighley got on the original segment (being ignored and cut-off literally mid-sentence) and they have already made their point.

Let's face it, if you wanted to make a public statement that Fox News had made a huge mistake, insulted your company and several others along with hundred of thousands of gamers, would you want to make that statement on a Fox News program? No, of course not.

I'll keep my eye on this; I don't think it's over yet.


Anyway, not much else going on today. Managed to get into school fairly early, before lessons started. That meant that I got the whole of Computing in but I still didn't manage to make a huge amount of progress with my project. I now know exactly what the problem is and I've got two possible ways to tackle it – one I know will work but which will require a lot of work and another which is theoretically simpler but I'm not quite sure how the details would work yet. Sorting that'll probably take up a chunk of the weekend.

Other than that, it's just been a regular school day, except for the fact that I found my Maths lesson easy, which is good but fairly unusual. I spent most of my time playing Street Fighter or one of several N64 games that I brought in for the console that I finally managed to hook up. Now that I think about, the table that holds all the games and TVs is probably newer than anything sitting on it – neither the consoles nor the TVs are post-2000. Maybe I'll bring in a Gamecube again.

I'll have to wrap things up now, though I promise to have a better and more timely post up tomorrow. Anything to put off doing that Computing project.

On Torchwood, Life and the Gaming Community

So I was talking to my dad and my brother about Torchwood, which they each caught some of last night as well. We all agreed that the concept was pretty good but that the execution was flawed. There was some discussion about the quality of the actors, though I happen to think they're all okay, given a decent script. See, for example, any episode of Doctor Who, the show where Jack isn't regularly treated like a emotionally distant nymphomaniac.

The overall consensus was that it was all a bit rubbish but I think I'm going to stick with it – partly because I know it's going to impact on Doctor Who again at some point and partly because, as I said before, I like the concept and want to see if they can actually take it somewhere. If next week's episode is back up to the standard set by last week's (this week's being a bit too violent and melodramatic for my tastes) then I'll know the show stands a good chance.


Anyway, more of that some other time. I would normally just run through my day at this point in the post... so that's what I'll do. Got in more or less on time. Went over the Physics test I did a couple of days ago – managed to get an A but my marks were still a bit lower than I would've liked. It was apparently a hard test though, so I guess that's okay.

Computing proved to be a bit of a problem since I still haven't made much progress with my project, despite reassuring my teacher that I was doing exactly that every time he asked. Technically, it's not working right now, but I'm confident I can fix it fairly easily now that I've figured out the problem. If needs be, I can just remove the feature that's causing the problem. Seems like a bit of a waste but it might just be necessary for the sake of simplicity and speed.

Last three lessons were all taken up with Maths of some sort. I picked up some revision sheets that I had rather foolishly left behind yesterday and spent a while going through them until I was fairly confident. I then sat the test and I reckon I did well enough. I'll probably find out tomorrow.


Okay, that's that little record of my life updated for today. On to something more important and interesting.

You may recall that, a few days ago, I provided a link to a Fox News piece about Mass Effect which not only managed to completely misrepresent the game but also to prove just how incredibly stupid all the people on it were, except for the one reasonable guy who got cut off in the middle of his rebuttal.

Well, EA, parent company of Mass Effect's developer BioWare, has written a letter to Fox specifically addressing all the points raised in the segment and systematically shooting down each repetitive and equally incorrect one. In my opinion, Jeff Brown, the man who wrote it, has taken exactly the right tone – he comes across as calm, as opposed to the sensationalist piece itself, and he doesn't make any demands or accusations.

He basically tells them that they were wrong and that they should know better before politely asking for an apology and some clarification. He makes his point eloquently and presents a far more intelligent and dignified image than the supposed journalists and experts responsible. I rarely find myself in agreement with the yearly-incrementing sports franchise factory that is EA but in this case I have to say that I'm delighted to see them taking a stand.

Yes, they are defending their own product, but they have every right to do that and in doing so they send a clear message that the video games industry and gamers themselves are not the depraved fools that the media often suggest them to be and that, if attacked, they can and will defend themselves on the public stage.

On another note, even ordinary, non-corporate giant gamers are making a stand. Just take a look at the reviews of the so-called expert's book on Amazon.com. She was the one who laughed when asked if she had even played the game she was on national television attacking – I very much doubt that she's laughing now, or that she'll be so eager to make similarly unfounded claims any time soon.

The whole thing makes me proud to call myself a gamer.

Fretting and Facepalms

Well, I left this late again but I'm not in such a rush. I just have to finish a Computing presentation that I've half done...


I really need to get on top of this whole procrastination thing. I still need to do my Computing project, I'm regularly lax about getting work done in school, either in class or in the common room (where it's nearly impossible anyway), I have two Maths tests coming up that I've hardly revised for, I was meant to go over some questions before I tutor some kid with them tomorrow and haven't, that I managed to get past today's Physics test seemed to be pure fluke, not to mention my Physics project, where I still feel like I've no idea what I'm meant to be doing... Then there's prelims.

And that's just school. I've got my usual array of lengthy to do lists lying around at home but my main priorities probably ought to be choosing a university course and thinking about driving lessons. My current excuse for both is that prelims are coming up.

With universities, I'll admit that I'm a little scared to make a final decision. It's a huge thing to decide and so far my only thought on the matter is that I shouldn't deal with it right now. Part of it may yet come down to, effectively, where everyone else is going.

As for driving, my parents, and, in fact, most of the people around, seem to expect me to basically just hop into a car and on to the road the moment I hit 17 but I'm not to happy about it – I know I need to learn and that I'll have to do it sometime, I just don't really want the pressure and the timing, right before prelims, doesn't help in the slightest.

So that's most of what's on my plate right now and I suppose it feels good to get it off my chest... I'm not sure how it was on my chest and plate simultaneously in the first place so solving that paradox has probably lifted the weight of my shoulders... Yeah, enough metaphors. Especially since that last one just served to remind me of my ongoing shoulder pain. That seems to be clearing up though, which is good.


In other news, there's a brand new video game controversy going around between people who have no understanding of video games but love a good bit of controversy – the mainstream news media. Just check out these Joystiq articles and the related ones they link to.

There's this one, linking to a Times article that I haven't yet forced myself to even skim through. The quotes on the page where enough to tell me just how much utter rubbish it was.

It's definitely a bad sign when you want to punch everyone in a news broadcast except for the guy who gets cut off in the middle of his rebuttal but, nevertheless, Fox News seems to be doing all right for itself. If you can make it to the end of this video without feeling an unbridled hatred for everyone but Geoff Keighley then you deserve a sainthood. If you manage to hunt down and bitchslap everyone in that video but Geoff Keighley, you are equally deserving.

If you followed the links, you'd know that it's all been sparked off by Mass Effect, an Xbox 360 RPG that's caused controversy because of it's depiction of sex... by which I mean implication of sex and partial nudity... for less than two minutes in a 30+ hour game... in an optional section...

The whole thing was inspired by the article, which I won't link to, that inspired this Penny Arcade comic, which I just did link to.

The whole thing just gets me so incredibly mad – it's not just that my hobbies are being vilified and grossly misrepresented, it's also that this vilification and misrepresentation is par for the course in most media outlets today, which seemed to be staffed by talking heads and attractive bimbos with no concept of journalism or proper research.

But enough about that. I still have work to do and I have no doubt whatsoever that another opportunity to rant about this will appear very soon.

Have a nice day.

I don't have time to think of a title relating time pressure and Guitar Hero!

I've said before, I believe, that I enjoy working under pressure. This goes some way towards explaining why I've only just begun to type tonight's post at twenty to midnight. It also factors into the tale I'm about to tell you, concerning a particular event, and the series of further events that it sparked off, which occurred during my school day today.

The latest craze in the common room is Guitar Hero III on my friend Joss's Xbox 360. Now, I've nothing against Guitar Hero – I haven't played it very much but by all accounts it's a good series and I was considering getting either it or the related game Rock Band for my birthday. Guitar Hero is of course a music rhythm game, based primarily around rock songs.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of said genre but I do find it annoying when it's constantly being played, often badly, throughout the entire day – something made worse by the limited selection of people's favourite songs. But, nevertheless, it gets played all day.

Anyone familiar with 360s and their design flaws has now no doubt realised what happened not long after lunch today.

We first assumed and hoped that the 360 had simply overheated and that unplugging it and leaving next to an open window would solve the problem. Everyone, their entertainment taken from them, began to filter out of the room, save for a few of us, three to be precise – myself, Sam Potter and a girl called Philippa.

We decided after a time, when the console had evidently cooled down, to try it again. No luck. The Red Ring of Death was still present, mocking us with it's glowing... red ring-ness.

Our first plan of attack was to panic lightly as we tried to think of what to do. Sam and Philippa took turns pressing the power button in the hope that it would fix itself and I decided to pace up and down, occasionally yelling randomly.

We tried various different tactics – hitting it, turning it on and off again, hitting it harder, drawing a poor facsimile on the wall behind it to try and convince Joss it was the real one. The best plan we could come up with was telling him that it was stolen. In broad daylight. By Batman. Who broke it.

I considered trying the “towel” fix – wrapping it up to overheat it further and let the components, distorted by the heat, fall back into place for a short time. It wasn't until Sam Stafford got there that we actually plucked up the courage to try it. We used our blazers and had Stafford sit on it to make it warmer still.

After another half hour or so, we unwrapped it to find only two red lights instead of the three that show a fatal system error. Our joy was short-lived as it quickly returned to where it had been before. We knew we had a problem on our hands as the day was ending and one of us would have to explain what happened. I somehow drew the short straw.

The whole explanation, withheld until he was above me on the stairs and we were heading in opposite directions (me at great speed), took about five seconds and I ran out of there.

To be honest, we knew he wouldn't mind and he didn't. I can't say why but the whole ludicrous exaggeration of the situation made it an awful lot of fun.

I may go on more tomorrow but I've only got five minutes to publish this online so I'll have to stop for now. Still, I've managed over 600 words in fifteen minutes. Not too bad.

Right, nothing more that I can say until tomorrow. Sorry for the rushed post which may or may not be funny. I don't have time for a quality check.

Have a nice day.

I haven't done a "lack of a title" title in a while

It's under a week until the end of the holidays now and I still have to do all of my homework. I really need to get on with that tomorrow.

The current problems I'm facing, other than the whole laziness thing, is that I've suddenly become addicted to the original Half Life. Beyond it being a classic and brilliant game, the convenience of just being able to swivel round on my chair, open up my Beaten Up Old Laptop^TM and play it whenever I want within seconds is just great.

Which is why it's been distracting me from my work so much. I need that laptop on in order to do my Computing project but I've done none of that so far. I need to sit at the desk with it to do the Physics practice papers that I only dug out this morning. I just keep using it as an excuse.


Bah. I can't be bothered with much more writing now. I started quite early but then I got distracted by... well, by looking up old text adventure games on eBay and trying to play the online version of the Hitchhiker's Guide game. I ought to play that some more actually.

But not tonight.

Or tomorrow.

Or at any time until I've got my goddamned homework done.

Okay, that's it. This is an actual mini post tonight. To make up for it I'll link you to this... nope, can't find anything.

Oh, well. Have a nice day.

Almost forgot to publish this

Uh-oh. Rapidly approaching midnight with a blank NeoOffice document staring me in the face again. I personally blame season 4 of House and the ease with which one can acquire it on the internet.

I'm not entirely sure what I've been doing all day. I can recall doing a wide variety of tasks that generally involve DVDs and video games but I'm not sure how they add up to the fact that I've apparently not had time to either write this post or even read my daily dose of webcomics. Seriously, I just skimmed through all the dailies and closed the tabs for the ones that won't be updating tomorrow so I could read them then. I just don't have the time or the patience right now.

I still have a whole bunch of open tabs for the Half Life wiki but I'll deal with that in a little while, after I've dealt with this.

Actually, that's something I have to say. Well, I don't have to say it but I have it and I wish to say something about it... it being a thought or experience of some kind.

What was I talking about?

Ah, yes. I completed Half Life 2: Episode 2 with the developer commentary today. As I've often noted and stated, I'm a glutton for trivia of all kinds and I wanted to find out more about the game development process. It was fairly interesting although I wouldn't have minded something slightly more in-depth. I'll have to dig back into some of my game design books, see if I can find one that's actually vaguely intriguing and readable.

Who knows, maybe I'll write a book like that someday. I hope to go into video game design and I hope to write a book at some point so it would seem fairly efficient.

I also got round to playing the first episode of Sam & Max Season One that I got off Steam a couple of days ago and so far I'm quite impressed. The humour hits the mark more often than not and there's a distinct shortage of good point and clicks out there, as far as I know. I'll play more of it tomorrow, along with Psychonauts.

Speaking of point and click games, my copy of Starship Titanic arrived from eBay today. Tomorrow's task is to make it work on one of my computers. It should be compatible with XP but it may still require a little (more probably, a lot, knowing my luck) fiddling.

I still haven't made a start on a whole load of other things but at least I'm enjoying myself while I waste time.

This post really has been very video game oriented, hasn't it? I don't think I really set out to do that. Of course, I didn't really set out with any topic in mind... Maybe there's something psychiatric-ish in there.

Nuts to it. I have a headache now. And a whole load of paragraphs on Vortigaunt culture to read before I go to bed.

TWToday Christmas Eve Special

My body clock is all thrown off because I went for a nap in the middle of the afternoon. On the bright side, it seems to have got rid of my headache for a while. I should now be able to wait up until midnight in order to catch Santa. I'll get him this year, I can sense it...

I'm joking, by the way. I'm not actually sad enough to stay up until midnight to catch a glimpse of Santa. That would be ridiculous.

I'm staying up past midnight to bid on an old PC adventure game by Douglas Adams that's being sold on eBay. I'm hoping that that's so ridiculous that no one else will have stayed up to bid against me.


Not much else going on today. Taking it kind of easy, as evidenced by the nap. I bought an old Doctor Who game (Destiny of the Doctors) on eBay earlier today and that might require a bit of fiddling to get working on XP but we'll see about that once it arrives. I've also been looking at various bits of import equipment for the Gamecube (FreeLoader and a Japanese memory card) for Erin, who finally completed Donkey Konga 2 today and wants to move on to the Japan-only sequel.

In other news, you may have heard that the jet dragster Richard Hammond crashed while filming for Top Gear has gone up for sale on eBay. It's not working (obviously) but people are still bidding for what the seller describes as “a genuine piece of UK automotive history” that's “a little the worse for wear after its much-publicised excursion into the weeds”. It's technically being sold as scrap but the owner says he hopes it'll get him about £5,000-10,000.

As I write this, the auction is at just under £19,000 with 69 bids so far and over five days left to go. Impressive.

I'll keep an eye on that as it goes on. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes over £100,000. Might even get closer to one million. Who knows?


In other news that's more related to me, my grandparents, who are coming round for lunch tomorrow and with whom my cousins will be staying later in the week, are under the impression that my brother and I are infectious.

I'm not entirely sure how they came to this conclusion, especially given that the entire point of my surgery was to remove the infected tissue completely. Maybe they thought it odd that my brother gets it so soon after I did but I'm still half expecting them to claim that my humours are out of balance. Mum seems to have convinced them that we're safe enough to have lunch with and let the cousins see. Not that they could really stop us from the latter.

Speaking of humorism, I made that same joke about my grandparents with Sam and Erin a couple of days ago and only Sam laughed. (Un)Surprisingly few people get jokes based on classical and medieval medical theory.

And yet, as Sam noted later on, we did. Neither of us had any reason to know about it. We hadn't discussed the subject before. But we both knew enough about these obscure little facts to make jokes about them at the expense of old people. Strange.


Anyway, I'm going to wrap things up now. For once, I can say that I'm not going to bed. Unless my headache gets worse and I can't be bothered staying up any later. As always, we shall just have to wait and see what happens.

Have a merry Christmas.

I wish the gun from Portal was real

I don't think I mentioned this yesterday but I finally completed Portal. The fact that it took so long is mostly a product of my own laziness and my computer's tendency to blue-screen when running it after ten minutes of startup and loading so I'll stick to the common criticism that it was too short.

Otherwise, it was excellent. The game somehow managed to make me laugh and chill me to the bone at the same time, all while providing mind-bending but logical puzzles on a proper difficulty curve. Like seemingly every other person on the planet who's played it, I can't praise this game enough.

Oh, and if I ever have to fake my death or pretend that an assassination attempt was successful, I'm sending my enemies or would-be killers a link to the ending on YouTube. You'll know what I'm talking about if you've completed it.

My next goal is to complete Half Life 2: Episode 2 so that I can re-immerse myself in the stories and rumours sites surrounding the HL mythos without fear of spoilers.

That likely won't be done tomorrow though, since Sam's coming round and we'll hopefully be working on getting various old consoles sorted and made ready for sale on eBay. Theoretically. Or we may just end up watching Planet of Evil. Who knows.


Nothing much else going on today. Got my new issue of NGamer with a full update on upcoming games in 2008 – some real gems by the looks of things. I'll go into more detail once I've looked over some of the reviews and I'm maybe doing some sort of general “looking forward” post. It also came with a glow in the dark Wii remote sleeve, by the way, which I just found lying on my bed, covered underneath all the other stuff I tend to heap on there in the morning.

I really need to tidy my room.

But that's at the lower end of my list of priorities. Currently at the top is going to bed and getting some sleep because I apparently need to get up even earlier tomorrow. Not sure why but more yelling will doubtless ensue if I don't.

First, though, I think I'll go and put an mp3 of that song from Portal on my iPhone. Just in case I ever need to amuse myself or scare small children.

Have a nice day.

A Good Day

There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you finally rip apart someone's testimony in Phoenix Wright. And there's nothing more infuriating than knowing where the contradiction is but not knowing what exact combination of evidence the game thinks will prove it.


Today's been a damned good day, actually. I'm hugely enjoying playing Phoenix Wright (we'll go with that title now, for the sake of simplicity) and I'd recommend it to any fool who hasn't tried the series yet. I'll undoubtedly play more tomorrow and I'll have to try to pick up another game with which to pass the time.

Most of the gifts I ordered for Christmas were delivered today. I'm still waiting on a book and some action figures for my little cousin but among the things that did arrive were the Master's laser screwdriver and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. I was planning to give the laser screwdriver to the elder of my two little cousins and the sonic one to the younger, but it occurred to me that, since this model of sonic screwdriver doubles as a UV pen, it might make more sense to give it to the one that can write.

Doesn't matter much in the long run – I'm sure they'll share whatever they get anyway. Assuming I don't give in to temptation and keep the toys for myself... I've been trying my hardest not to rip open the packages and run around shoving the psychic paper wallet in people's faces before ageing them until they look like a house elf.

...What?


Further brightening my day was the fact that I received another confirmation of an unconditional university place. This time, it was Computer Science at St Andrews, the course I was really hoping for. That's me got all my offers back save for the Comp. Sci. and Physics joint course at St Andrews, which will presumably take longer as it has to pass through two departments.

And that's more or less been my day, apart from the usual humdrum existence and the daily morning trip to the hospital. That's become ridiculously routine now, so much so that I can be halfway to the hospital before I properly wake up. As inconvenient as the whole thing has been, it does get me up a lot earlier in the holidays, which makes me feel better, given my usual tendency to sleep in annoyingly late.

That said, once it's all over, the first thing I'm going to do the next morning is lie in until it's the afternoon.


Oh, a couple of other things. It looks like Duke Nukem is still alive, as are his “unique” brand of humour and his liberal interpretation of the word “deadline”. This isn't the first time a trailer for the game has been released so it's not worth anyone getting their hopes up. To be brutally honest, I'm hoping it's never released, just so I can keep making jokes about it.

And while we're on the subject, here's The Duke Nukem Forever List again. Always worth a look and a laugh.

This, as with all such stories about politicians not doing their research before jumping on the video game hatred bandwagon, both depresses and amuses me.

I bought some USB rechargeable batteries in the same order as all my Christmas presents and they just finished charging, so I'll give them a go tomorrow and then report on that.

Yes, reviewing batteries. I really can stoop so low.

On desktops, Christmas and fictional legal proceedings

I've finally managed to clean up all the files that have been clogging up my desktop for months. Only took me about 10 minutes, not including the time I spent listening to and watching some of the stuff I came across. A lot of it was just dragged into other folders but none of them were quite as bad as the desktop to begin with so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Now I just need to try the same thing with my thousands of bookmarks.


I can't quite believe that it's only a week until Christmas. Doesn't feel that way at all.

I've been finding myself somewhat bored recently, mostly because I've finished all the DVDs I was watching and won't be getting any more until Christmas. I've still got some books to finish, as well as various games, but none of them are really helping shake the monotony.

Though Ace Attorney: Justice For All (or maybe Phoenix Wright: Justice For All... or Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright: Justice for All... or about half a dozen other combinations) is doing its best. I got pretty well hooked on the first game but I haven't picked up the second since my sister got it... I can't even remember when. Months ago anyway, maybe for her birthday in October. It's shaping up to be as good as the first, at least.

My problem seems to be less about actually playing the games once I get going and more about breaking out of my little rut of just watching TV and reading websites. The fact that I've now seen most of the TV shows and movies available to me along with my running out of good websites to browse where I haven't seen all but the latest content means that I'll probably be forced into doing something else I enjoy.

Curses.

That might also help me start writing or maybe it'll just give me another excuse not to but we shall see. It's only twenty to eleven now, so I suppose that if I end this now, I can actually get to bed relatively early which should hopefully lead to more sleep and fewer late night headaches. Which is good.


Damn. I was just looking through my bookmarks and I realised that I completely forgot to watch that Segway polo match on Sunday. The video will hopefully be up for download somewhere. And with that minor disappointment, I say farewell and have a nice day. I'm off to bed.

Late to Today

I've really left this far too late again, for which I apologise. I'm not quite sure why, but I just seemed to keep putting it off and not realising the time. But anyway, on with whatever I have to say for this post.

...

Which isn't much.

I guess I could talk about school. Today's common room movie was Donnie Darko, which I rather enjoyed, though I was disappointed that I didn't get to see the ending. I think we've got it on DVD somewhere so I'll have to dig it out.

I'm happy with my Maths now, more or less, and my Computing is still coming along. No way I'll get it done before the start of the holidays, but it shouldn't be too difficult to get the bulk of the coding done by then. I'll try to do as much as possible, since I hate always having holiday homework hanging over my head. I love alliteration though.

Lunch brought up one of my pet peeves. People who talk over movies. I don't mind the occasional comment, provided it's useful or, at least, funny but some people are just perfectly happy to chatter inanely on in the background no matter how many times you ask. You can turn up the volume all you want and all they'll do is talk louder. When you eventually try to kick them out, they'll act as if you're the one being rude.

Of course, there are worse things in the world. Such as people who constantly ask questions during films. “Where are they?”, “What's it about?”, “Who's he?”... all asked at the worst possible moment and before the audience is even expected to know such things. No one but those actually trying to watch the film and find out the answers themselves realises how ridiculous and annoying this can be, and usually is.

It's like having someone tell you that they're reading a murder mystery novel and then asking who did it. Absurd and bloody annoying; even more so, in the case of the latter, if someone nearby has seen the movie, isn't watching it and takes it upon themselves to explain every plot point in detail.

I really should turn that into a “Things that Bug Alasdair” post.

Anyway, after lunch we went to see the junior department's nativity play. It's usually kind of funny though the seating arrangements left much to be desired. We were on the floor of the gym (fortunately, I'd brought along my cushion, or else I truly wouldn't have been able to take it) and I had the bad luck to be sandwiched between two groups of idiots.

As it became clear that we had more space than we thought, all the rows shuffled forward a bit to give everyone more room. Except the jackasses in front of me, none of whom moved an inch and most of whom took the opportunity to stretch their legs in the metre wide gap now available to them.

Behind me, I could hear a pair of girls who did nothing but complain that they couldn't see. Except when they started to complain about there being songs. In the junior school play. Like there is every single freakin' year.

Other than that, it was mildly entertaining. Not as good as the one our class did at that age, though. And I swear ours was longer. And less gimmicky.

And then last lesson, I was bored out of my skull as other people took over the games area to play Guitar Hero on the 360. Watching someone play that game well is quite impressive for the first wee while. Watching someone play it badly is amusing enough for a few minutes. Listening to the loud, repetitive music as well as hearing an awful lot of “miss” tones for the better part of an hour without being able to play anything, is neither. It is very dull and very likely to induce a headache.

I could probably have had a go if I wanted but, as I remarked later to the agreement of Sam*, I didn't want to have my first go at such a game in the common room because I would, logically, suck at it. Normally, I'd be able to practice but in there, I was fairly sure that someone else would snatch away the controller and I would be forever known as unable to play Guitar Hero.


Still, for all my complaining, it wasn't a completely awful day. It was rounded off quite nicely by some rather impressive kill counts in Halo 3 online. Speaking of which, I've somehow acquired a reputation as being bad at that, too. Not sure how, since I managed to get 25 of the 100 kills my team (of eight) needed to get to win the match, just a couple of hours ago.

Oh, well. That's me off to bed, I suppose. Right after I pack my bag for the morning...





*Who had disappeared for most of the lesson to finally go talk to a girl he had “unofficially” asked out yesterday, after months of everyone knowing about his crush and bugging him to just get it over with. Very nearly including her.

I did it!

Success! I have finally completed my life's goal!

I have completed the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES, a game I've owned since... well, since as far back as I can remember, anyway. That game practically defined my childhood. Kind of nice when you think about it – I got it in nursery school and completed it in Sixth Year.

That single little achievement has been enough to cancel out almost all the day's other woes, from failed Maths tests to general boredom and annoyance at the rest of the world.

Speaking of boring and annoying things, it looks like I'm still going to need my wound dressings changed every day past (and including) Christmas. And then I'm probably going to need further treatment to keep hairs away from the area for a long time (years were mentioned) afterward.


I've left this post really late for some reason and I've been distracted by trying to find a copy of Twinworld for the Amstrad CPC. So it's now quarter to midnight and I've got no time to write anything else.

Sorry for the short post. But I don't really care. I've completed Super Mario Bros. I'm on top of the world.

That's it from me. I'm off to... well, not to bed actually. I'm in the middle of an MSN conversation. But once that finishes and I do a couple of other things, I'll go to bed. And then tomorrow I'll wake up and try to get some comedy writing done (had a few more ideas for a CSI parody tonight) then do my Computing project and my Maths homework.

Have a nice day.

Time, Crocodiles and Journalistic Integrity

I thought this post was going to be rushed but I've actually been able to take my time on it. Incredible.


I got up an awful lot earlier than I normally do on weekends today because I had a hospital appointment. That, and the fact that it's getting dark around here before five o'clock, has really screwed by natural body clock. As opposed to my unnatural body clock, which I had surgically implanted several years ago so that I would always know the time. It's really useful but it makes me seem kind of like that crocodile from Peter Pan.

As such, the day has gone by really slowly for me. Not slowly enough for me to actually bother to do any kind of work or anything, but I feel that it's taken noticeably longer for me to go from waking up to writing this.

If the same thing happens again tomorrow, and I don't get distracted by practice Maths prelims and Visual BASIC programming, I might find the time to sit down and write a bit more of The Grey Line. Some interesting plot points have been coming together in my head recently, I just need to figure out where to incorporate them. I also need to focus a bit more on ideas for the beginning since it's the part I'm actually writing.


I've been watching this story (work your way up from the bottom to see it progress) with great interest. Essentially, a reviewer (Jeff Gerstmann) over at GameSpot gave a mediocre review of the game Kane & Lynch at the same time that the publisher of said game was running a huge advertising campaign on GameSpot.

Not long after, Gerstmann was fired and rumours started flying. See the link above for all the details and rumours, some of which are just silly (the suggestion that he didn't play the PS3/Xbox 360 game the full way through simply because his Xbox Live account doesn't have enough achievements) and some are a bit more grounded (the obvious implication that either the publisher or the GameSpot higher-ups didn't like the negative review of a big game).

What I will say is that, if corporate pressure was indeed the cause, then it reflects very badly on video game journalists and the industry upon which they report. I'll keep my eye on it for now and maybe voice a more definitive opinion once more is known (i.e. once all the relevant parties stop saying “no comment” to every question).


Well, I'm off to bed because my eyes are starting to hurt and I'm getting too tired to type. See you all tomorrow. Whoever you may be. That reminds me, I need to ask Skippy for the visitor numbers for the last few months...

Zappers and CSI

My cold's still keeping up. With any luck, it'll be gone by Friday, since I'm having some minor surgery and I'm not sure what'll happen if I'm ill.

Anyway, it's been another passable day in the wonderful world of Alasdair Corbett. What to do for a post... how about some notes?

First off, I've been watching some more of CSI: New York and I've now got into the third series. I'm slightly worried that there hasn't been a single episode without girls in skimpy outfits. I'm not necessarily opposed to the basic principle, it just worries me when a show I like starts showing similarities to CSI: Miami. A show I most definitely [put on glasses dramatically here for no reason whatsoever] don't like. The introduction of uninteresting love interests and apparent mummy issues that appear out of thin air don't help either.

What does help is that mentioning CSI: Miami means that I can link to the everyday happenings of Justice Shades and sometimes Justice's friend, Boberto Consuarlez.

Other amusing things that I feel like sharing are this video, showing a 360 game that gets you a full 1000 achievement points for all of 2 minutes work. What do you reckon the rentals on that go up a bit in the next wee while?

Sticking with a game theme, the Washington Post's views on the Wii Zapper (follow the link on the GamePolitics article) seem a little... odd. I've read the article through and, while it does seem to give the views of some extremely paranoid people (“Why don't they enclose an application to the NRA in every box as well? ... The marketing person who came up with this brainchild of an idea should be fired,” quipped one member of the public) and the usual video game article suspects (a couple of teenagers who like FPSs and don't like trying to string together sentences), it concludes rather well.

Of course, that doesn't explain the big long section about the history of toy guns, particularly water guns being filled with ammonia and other dangerous substances. Since the Zapper is, as one person interviewed pointed out, a bit of “plastic that clips to a video game controller”, you'd have a hard time filling it with any liquid, let alone getting it to fire out of the infrared receiver. I didn't really need to highlight “receiver” there but it does help point out the absurdity of the whole thing.

Hmmm.... I seem to have started off a rant on one of my larger pet peeves, the idea (and the people who support said idea) that video game and simulated violence instantly translates into every problem the world has ever faced.

I'll have to cut it short for now. Maybe once I get out of this depressing little routine of late night posting that I've worked myself into, I'll write something longer on the whole subject. Hell, I could probably write a book on it.


But for now, I need to pack my bag for the morning, move some files around, watch some more CSI and then go to bed. Have a nice day.

If someone invented chocolate chip video games, my life would be complete

After going through my usual Sunday routine of waking up late, reading my webcomics (only about eight out of a hundred or so update on Sundays, so it's fairly easy), downloading some software updates and having a mug of Ribena and some chocolate chip cookies in lieu of an actual breakfast, I finally got around to playing Portal today.

I haven't finished it yet, but I got very close to the end before failing a challenge and restarting before I'd even done the previous one. That was the only time I disliked anything about the game and the checkpoint system had worked fine until then. Of course, the fact that I got so far in one sitting does highlight just how short the game is and, as with most puzzle-based games, there's very limited replay value unless you want to do some speed-running.

It's brilliantly atmospheric though and you'll often find that a statement by the slightly creepy computerised voice will make you laugh at the same time as shivers pass down your spine.

You know what I've just realised? I forgot to do a woodle again this week. I'll try to remember for next week, but I really need to just get into a routine, like I have done with my daily posts here. Unfortunately, I seem to have fallen into a subroutine (I'm trying not to make any programming jokes, I really am) where I do them really late at night.

Well, at least I've now pretty much got my university application done. It just needs to get checked over by a teacher tomorrow and then I should have it sent away by the end of Tuesday. I may well spend a whole lot of time worrying about getting information back but I suspect it'll be more like my exams, when I just got them over with and more or less forgot about them until the envelope got tossed on my desk.

I also managed to play a bit more of Half Life 2: Episode 2 today and was hugely impressed by it as well. More than any other game, Half Life's plot always manages to keep me interested and guessing. My only grievance is that so far, at about halfway through this expansion pack, I've fought a lot of ant lions and relatively few enemy soldiers.

It's really a very minor problem and I'm sure I wouldn't even have noticed it if it weren't for Halo 3, where I rapidly tired of fighting the Flood and rarely replay those levels. I prefer having more options when attacking my enemies than “AAAAARGH!!!! Where's the shotgun?! I need another energy sword!!”. Half Life does add a slightly tactical edge with different variations of ant lions, “thumpers” which hit the ground and drive them away, providing a temporary safe haven, and the ability to command the creatures at points. But in Halo, the Flood always disappoint me after I've just found the fifth way to kill the Scarab walker in the previous level.

I wonder if that type of enemy is worth writing up for TV Tropes... Might give it a shot, see if anybody else has some ideas. But that's all from me tonight. I may put up a short-ish post tomorrow before I go for a hospital appointment and then edit it later, just in case. I doubt it'll be a problem, but the appointment's relatively late and it's a bit of a drive... and I've got some homework to do then as well... Yeah, I'll figure it out as I got along.

Have a nice day.

To Be A Gamer

My iMac just did the weirdest thing. I brought it out of sleep mode and all of a sudden it started making this huge racket. It normally makes a few noises (hard drive, DVD drive, etc. starting up) when I activate it but this was... louder. Like a hoover would sound from a few metres away kind of volume. Same sort of sound as well. It must have been a fan or something but I swear I've never heard anything like it before, at least not from my computer. It took a couple of minutes to die down and now it's stopped.

Really weird.


You know what I've noticed lately? Now is an awesome time to be a gamer.

Think about what's been out in the last couple of months and what's going to be out soon. We've had new entries in the Halo, Half Life, Zelda and Metroid series with a new Mario game, Smash Bros Brawl and Metal Gear Solid 4 all on the horizon (well, some nearer than others but you know what I mean). Then you've got new IPs like Zack and Wiki, Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed all gearing up to make their mark.

And that's just off the top of my head; I'm sure it's far from an exhaustive list but you get the idea. There's no real point to any of this, though maybe I could find one if I had more time and patience, but it's an interesting thought. It's also quite annoying since you can be almost certain that you're missing out on something great if you don't have a solid gold wallet.

I have a whole lot of games that I need to play and a whole lot to say about them but that'll have to wait since, once again, I've left this far too late.

On the bright side this is hilarious, particularly if, like me, you can't stand CSI: Miami. I also came across Flame Warriors, a comprehensive guide to the various types of asshole that you are likely to meet on the interwebz. See how many you can recognise. See how many you are.

That's it for today. Actually, here's another Weebl and Bob cartoon. I'd forgotten how much I loved these things. While I'm at it, this is funny as well, particularly if you are or know people who are afflicted with a Halo 3 addiction.

I need to play games more often

Woah. It got to be quarter past eleven somehow. When did that happen?

Anyway, just a short post tonight, due to time constraints and a lack of much interesting to say. I don't need to get to bed earlier than normal, but I'll probably get yelled at if I don't because my eyes “look red and sore”. I personally don't notice anything about them even when I look in the mirror and you'd think I would feel something, what with them being connected to my central nervous system and stuff. Apparently, that doesn't matter.


I've had another nice relaxing day. No huge pressure to do homework or anything, so I've been able to kind of take the day off from doing nothing and play some games I've been meaning to get round to.

I've managed to get further in Phantom Hourglass. I'm still not too far in but I've been “encouraged” by the fact that Sam told me today that he had beaten it. It's a great little game and, while it takes a little while to get used to the differences to previous (particularly console-style) Zeldas, it's a very solid entry into one of the best franchises in video game history.

I've also been playing Metroid Prime 3 and I've finally got around to cracking open The Orange Box and continuing the Half Life saga. I've got a lot more to say about both of those games, and Phantom Hourglass, but it seems that it'll have to wait until tomorrow, owing to time constraints and the amount that I want to say.

I've just realised that I've failed to do a woodle again, despite my relaxed day. Instead, I offer you a link to a mildly amusing video in the style of a fake movie trailer. It has Donkey Kong in it.

Every time I see one of these things, I keep remembering the big long list of parodies and short films that I keep tucked away in my head, waiting for a word processor and a camera. I really need to write some more of that stuff...


One final note. After a long hiatus, Skippy has started posting at the MacTake again. We'll see if he can keep it up this time. I've already had to correct his spelling once.

Lot of Stuff to Bold Here

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe I've discovered the nerdiest item in all of space and time:


I saw it in a book shop this morning and had to get it, if only to find out what the hell it was all about. I also picked up volume 2 of Bleach and volume 4 of Dragon Ball while I saw them, since I don't think I'll be getting near another Forbidden Planet for a while, which is where I like to get manga. Well, apparently. I've only really bought manga there once, when I went there with Sam, Skippy and Jimerson while we were meant to be at an Edinburgh University open day. But it was an enjoyable experience.

I actually need to read more of Dragon Ball. I got the first volume... last Christmas, I think. Read a bit of it and eventually handed it to Erin, who seems to like them. I think I'll probably end up taking a couple of volumes, either the first two of DB or Bleach and Star Trek, into school on Monday to give me something to do when I get bored of beating people at Street Fighter.

Actually, holy crap. School starts again on Monday. Damn and blast. I need to get a peer review for a friend's university application written. It shouldn't be hard, I've known him for most of my life and he has all the right qualities for his course, I just suck at doing that kind of thing. Well, pressure generally helps me in these situations so I'll probably leave it to Sunday evening or so.

Saturday, as with much of this afternoon, will likely be spent playing The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I'm about 3-4 hours in and it kicks some serious ass. The controls, once you get used to them (which only takes about 5 minutes), are excellent and while it deviates a little from the standard Zelda formula here and there, it still retains that essential feel of the series perfectly. I'll probably write more tomorrow once I'm further into it.

Also to do tomorrow, is play The Orange Box, which I also picked up this morning along with Zelda and my manga. My brother and I may end up taking a trip to PC world to upgrade the sound card on the gaming PC since it's been in trouble for a while and I don't want to miss any good stuff from Episode 2. It's kind of odd - the sound always had trouble during pre-rendered cutscenes where it cut in and out repeatedly but it never had trouble with Half Life 2 because that was all done in-engine.

Meh. I'll figure something out or just end up putting up with it. And then I can play me some Portal as well. I've read a lot of good things about it. In fact, the only bad thing I've read about it is that it's too short, which seems to imply that it's a damn good gaming experience. May discuss that more tomorrow as well. In the meantime, here's a video of Half Life 2 modded to use the Portal gun.

And since it's now almost 20 to midnight, I'll end tonight's post here. I'll try to get a woodle up for tomorrow, since I just remembered it. I also remembered that I meant to get a podcast done this week with Sam. And I also remembered that I've got to watch the latest episode of Heroes. Busy, busy, busy.

I got a new chair!

I got a new chair. It's blue, like my old one, but this one has a significant advantage: the cover on it is intact and it doesn't leave chunks of yellow foam all over my floor. I still have the other chair in my room though, so the foam problem hasn't really been eliminated. But the new chair is nice and comfortable. I thought you ought to know that. No real reason. Just to rub in the fact that I have a new (well, second-hand but in very good condition except for a small tear in the fabric on the back, you can hardly notice it, really) chair and you, probably, don't.


I think I kind of consciously took the day off from doing anything very much today. The whole family got dragged out for a walk around Culzean country park, which is a nice enough place, I just don't like being dragged anywhere. I was planning on discussing it at greater length, but I'm tight for time again and I didn't manage to get a copy of some photos that I wanted from my brother. Meh. I may discuss it again.

Probably not tomorrow though, since that's a day for working and for playing Phantom Hourglass.

I