Stray Dog Strut

So my second season in Pro Evolution Soccer 3 didn’t start too badly – 2 draws and I’m getting back to my former skill on level 3 (I can easily win 5-0 on level 2 but scratch a 1-0 draw on level 3?)

I lost a game tonight but that’s okay, I can recover, we’re only 3 matches into a half-season game…

Now, Portugal, stats look pretty good, lets go at them with everything we’ve got – excellent, 10 mins in and i’m winning 1-0. Thierry Henry you are a god. Slightly annoyed at the ref for disallowing another superb goal because we were offside, but it’s okay, we just need to keep cool and get one more goal…

..he intercepts the pass, run your ass off Mr Henry…float like a butterfly..one..two defenders dodged…just the keeper to beat…run you lazy git..now chip it…beautiful…cool as ever my main man chips a sweet ball over the dumbfounded keeper to increase my lead to 2-0..

We can win this..forget the goal drought of late..we’re on the home stretch..we’re back on top, we’re..gone? WHAT?! *stares at a dark monitor in an even darker room*

The editor would like to point out at this point what followed was a torrent of curses aimed at all the football gods for their treachery, however it was a whole 2 minutes later that the truth surfaced – someone forgot to buy powercards (mother!).

We have a really nice system for electricity over here – we can either pay by Direct Debit or buy £5 power cards to top up the meter whenever needed, with £15 worth of emergency power. It’s nice when you actually buy the cards and not when you’ve used up absolutely all of your emergency power too!

So, £20 lighter due to an act of kindness, I was willing to forgive and forget and have another crack at Portugal. It is worth mentioning at this point that I don’t trust myself very much. To this end I play PES3 with the Cheat Prevention Save enabled. What is that I hear you ask? basically it penalisies you for resetting a game in the middle (say, if you’re losing for example). It’s a good way of making every game and every point count.

Well, one flaw in that neat system was about to rear it’s ugly head – In killing the power the game thought I had reset the match and somehow (How??) saved my game mid-powercut. Thinking I’m a cheating little git it swapped my 2-0 lead for a 4-0 loss. You swine!!

Needless to say I spent alot of time venting my anger at the console and subsequently losing my next match too due to a lack of concentration (fouling every player on the pitch is not a good way to make friends with the ref). We redeemed ourselves though with a 2-0 win over Italy and I must admit I thought Henry’s head was going to fall off the way he managed to head the ball into the back of the net while looking the other way.

I’m about 7 games in and ten points behind the leaders. It’s doable if I pick up points fast but i’m not very hopeful.

In better news, Falling was here for the weekend and we watched Corpse Bride and Delicatessen. I didn’t realise Corpse Bride was stop-motion until I read the box, because it looks that good, I thought it was computer generated (in a good way). Delicatessen is a weird French film about a butcher who kills guests in his tenament block and sells the meat to the rest of his tenants for grain. Sounds freaky huh? It’s very funny though (seriously!) and one of the bits that made me laugh most was the woman who kept trying to kill herself (Because she was hearing ‘voices’) but failed everytime – standing on a chair with a noose around her neck, a shotgun lined up at her head, the gas on and ready to swallow a whole bottle of pills…and it still didn’t work! It’s excellent, the whole thing has been filmed in a very earthy brown tone too which adds to the isolation of the place. One to watch.

I’m going to play Eve now and maybe try and make my subscription worthwhile again. Adios.

Unless your on good terms with the Don…

Just finished watching The Godfather. Now I know what all the fuss is about.

My rent’s taped it for me last week – although it was too long for the tape so they missed about 20mins finding a second tape (We so need a digital recording device…) but they filled me in – it was great. I loved the film. Apparently it’s the best of the three so i’ll see what I make of Part II which is on tomorrow night.

It was hard to remember all the character’s names but when I get the dvd i’ll watch it more seriously – my rents talked through alot of the film!

They also taped BattleStar Galactica last week when I was at my (last) Spanish class – so i’ll watch that on saturday, then watch the repeat of the episode that was on tonight.

I also want to watch Glasgow Celtic play Motherwell on t.v. tomorrow night. Glasgow Celtic are my favourite football team (soccer).

So much to watch, so little time, and I hardly ever watch t.v. nowadays. I just catch the news in the mornings and my favourite sci-fi programme once a week in the evening usually.

Anyways, I got a payrise at work – woohoo – it won’t work out as much over the year and after tax. Dad thinks an extra £34 quid a month (He’s so precise!) but atleast it’s something (£34/$60/49Euro) to help towards the holiday savings.

Well, time to chill…enjoy yourselves everyone…

Just got back from seeing Jarhead at the cinema with Soul and Fe – It was brilliant! Not your typical war film as there is actually no combat in it at all really, but it was captivating. It’s about the boredom of war and how it messes with your head.

It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Anthony Swofford (“Swoff”), a new recruit who ends up in the Gulf War after a short stint of boot camp, trained as a sniper in the Elite STA unit. They spend months in the baking heat of the desert waiting for the fight to actually begin and watching for the Iraqis. It’s funny and serious at the same time and a real insight. I don’t know alot about the Gulf War as it’s yet another subject I haven’t gotten round to researching yet, but people have said the film is very accurate so who knows?

Anyway, I won’t say much more as I don’t want to spoil it, but you should go see it even if war films aren’t your cup of tea (Fe doesn’t normally like them) as it might suprise you.