Stray Dog Strut

*************************************************************************************

It’s been a long while. I don’t seem to have the energy, I really don’t. I’ve been reading some of my previous posts as a catch-up but things have really moved on.

I got accepted to Uni – I’ll be doing a degree in Games Design (Story Development) come September. I’m still trying to sort out funding but it should all work out, I just need to watch money as i’ll be throwing in the towel at work quite soon (thankfully). I am excited about it but on days like this I feel pretty low, like i’m still stuck in a rut .. i’m sure i’ll be properly excited/terrified when september comes around.

I finally got BattleStar Galactica Season 2 on dvd. I bought it about three weeks ago but I still haven’t watched it. I might watch a few episodes tonight. We have Virgin Media digital t.v.(previously owned by Telewest) at home. There was a big fall out between them and Sky over the price of the channels so Sky has pulled all it’s channels from Virgin Media’s catalogue – ie. No more BattleStar Galactica. Kind of annoying that private companies are allowed to have that much power over what we want to watch, considering Sky One was the only channel I watched, and even then it was once a week. So now i’m just catching episodes of Doctor Who on the fly and watching House on Terrestrial t.v. I might start collecting the House dvds.

Got myself the original Half-Life (and add-ons) as a sort-of pick me up, but again I ordered it off Amazon Marketplace weeks ago but I still haven’t played it.

I have to be in the right kind of mood for certain games. I’ve mostly been playing quick hit stuff like football and 2D shoot-em-ups online. I pulled out my old Master System II and played a few levels of Alex Kidd and Kung Fu Kid. I don’t know if I still have my old Mega Drive – I want to play Sonic and Flashback again. I’m making a list of all the old games/consoles I want to get, lol.

I went through a period of playing Kessen II – it’s a Chinese military game – I think i’m at the last stage: Cao Cao is backed in a corner with Liu Bei’s forces closing in. It’s a nice strategy game, if it is a little hands-off (you don’t directly control your troops).

I’m thinking of playing the original Tombraider again – I’ve completed it before but accidentally wiped it. I’m considering getting Legends, although the style is different to Core’s work. The new Tombraider Anniversary looks good, but do I really want to play a reworked version of the original Tombraider? I’m not sure – it might be a nice change. I’ve yet to complete 3,4 and 5 anyway.

I’m reading Peter F. Hamilton’s The Reality Dysfunction at the moment. It’s the first of the Night’s Dawn trilogy. It’s a good book, but i’m not enjoying it as much as his two Commonwealth Saga books (Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained). I’m a little bit disappointed, considering he’s more famous for the Night’s Dawn trilogy. One of the more prevalent themes in the book is sex. I’m perfectly comfortable with books that cover the subject if there’s a point to it but it seems every chapter involves characters having casual sex – which in the universe described is perfectly normal – but it does nothing for the story as a whole as far as I can see. Despite that, it is shaping up like the other books – a growing threat to humanity and all the characters slowly crossing paths. I’m waivering though – I get the feeling the auther could finish the story in this book but it’s the first of three, and the rate at which he’s killing off the main characters has me expecting some big twist to come (as we already know who the enemy are, even if the main characters don’t).

After this trilogy I have a book called Gloriana (or The Unfulfill’d Queen) to read. My dads friend got it for me for helping to rid his laptop of loads of viruses. I’m not exactly keen to read this book. It looks like traditional fantasy and I had to read the back of the book twice to figure out what it was about. Still, this Uni course is about story development so I need to read a broad spectrum of genres. I also have Philip K Dick’s A Scanner Darkly and A Maze of Death to read that Falling got me.

I’ve pre-ordered the next Harry Potter book too, having speed-read The Half-Blood Price after a break of a few years(!). Should be good. I want to read some more of Asimov’s books too I think – busy busy!

I can smell dinner now so I’m going downstairs for a look. I’ve been skulking about today, not being very sociable despite feeling a bit lonely. Think I’ll watch BSG after dinner which should help and last night’s Red Dwarf marathon was fun – more dvd’s to collect…

See ya!