Planet Sillicon

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

By blog on Apr. 30, 2009.

It means whatever you want it to mean!

I love that line in Seinfeld. Frank Costanza delivers the first line with such vehemence, and Elaine Benes delivers the response. The idea of those two facing off is always funny to me, always.

I have been re-watching all my Seinfeld DVDs, currently I am up to season 5. I have to say, each and every time I go back and watch the series in order, I have such a good time. I have also become quite engrossed with the ‘Inside Look’ features that many episodes have. It is quite interesting to see the actors behind the characters, though one of the actors doesn’t do too well here. I will get back to that.

Jerry is a lot calmer in the Inside Looks, he seems to have mellowed out and is less acid tongued and appears to be a little more friendly than his TV show counterpart. Julia seems to be nicer than Elaine, not that Elaine isn’t nice, but Julia seems again, more friendly and less prone to nastiness. Jason is so very unlike George, he seems very confident and easygoing, and the neurosis of George appears to be completely missing from the actor. That just leaves Michael… He’s the one that doesn’t do too well in comparison with his character. Now, occasionally, Kramer can irritate me greatly, but for the most part, Kramer is very funny to watch, and occasionally you see an almost childlike side to him which is very interesting.

During the Inside Looks, Michael seems so unlike Kramer, and not in a good way. He seems so much smaller than the larger than life character of Cosmo Kramer. He also seems a little petty and egocentric. The way he spoke of not wanting to be paired up with Wayne Knight who played Newman, seemed to me as if he thought everyone would buy that the ‘ego battles getting in the way’ was coming from Wayne, nice try Michael, but we aren’t stupid. You watch the Inside Looks with Wayne and you can instantly tell which of the two is Mr Ego. I have to say, Michael’s racist tirade at a heckler during a stand up routine didn’t help him out either. I am not going to link it, even though it is all over You Tube, just because I think his outburst was disgusting.

His apology, which was on David Letterman appeared sincere, as well as uncomfortably personal, yet it still felt overshadowed by his ridiculous rant. It made me feel two things, firstly, good on you Jerry for trying to support a friend whilst having the guts to say that Michael’s actions where totally wrong, and secondly, if Michael wanted to be taken in all seriousness, why would he chose a comedy show as the medium for his apology? Anyway, enough of that crap.

So yes, re-watching favorite TV shows can be so much fun. As long as they can stand the test of time. Some don’t, and those ones should be left to fond memories, but the true classics, like Seinfeld, bear being watched over and over.

I cleaned out me desk drawer

By blog on Apr. 30, 2009.

I know I mentioned in one of my previous blog entries that my computer desk has only one little drawer in it. The drawer itself is above my tower case computer, and I noticed yesterday that stuff had started falling out of the drawer and was now sitting on my computer… Okay, fair enough, time to clean out the drawer.

So I went through it, old bills that I had paid, receipts, computer game manuals, instruction booklets to my mobile, iPod, glasses case and cleaning stuff, USB stuff, Mines of Moria cloth map… and all my old mobile phones. Three of them, sitting in there crowding up the back of the drawer. I had always planned on recycling them, but never gotten around to it. I think it was the laziness factor, I couldn’t be bothered taking it into a store to drop in that little recycling box.

I knew that if I didn’t get rid of those old phones, my desk drawer would remain cluttered… I had to dispel the clutter curse, and these three items were the focal point that, if dealt with correctly, could do away with it all! I looked online for where the closes recycling point would be, and stumbled across this nifty site. Fonebank lets you recycle your phone without going anywhere, plus they give you money in return… Why didn’t I know about this? They will even send you the envelope! So I started the process and should be receiving my envelope shortly.

In the mean time, I have all the rest of the drawer contents spilled around my desk, and I am slowly deciding what goes back in, what goes in the bin, what goes in that drawer in the kitchen that is desperately overflowing because I refuse to file anything, and the few oddments that actually belong somewhere else in the house. I had a look round the web and enjoyed seeing other people’s funny and strange desk drawer issues, it was quite affirming.

It was fun seeing all the stuff that came out of that tiny drawer, it was like the clown car of drawers! Stuff just kept coming out of that little space. Now I have the ongoing task of attempting to keep it neat in there… Not sure if that is going to happen. Look out this time next year for an entry about this very same topic.

When one game takes over

By blog on Apr. 29, 2009.

Sometimes you start playing a game, or even return to a game, and then once you have started that game, it takes over all your gaming time.

I installed Sim City 4 on my PC a couple of days ago, and now I haven’t been playing anything else! I have to admit, I missed the game when it originally came out, so this is my first play though, and I am having a lot of fun.

It looks a little odd, this little box on my HD monitor, but what the hey, good games are timeless! I am still getting the hang of it, trying not to bankrupt my city, trying to bring in enough of a population that I can actually make some headway, and generally having a good old time. It’s always fun when you don’t really know what you are doing with a game, and yes there is a good tutorial, but I can’t really be bothered going the whole way through it… I am just like that.

Other games have done this to me too; Rune Factory 2: A fantasy Harvest Moon on the DS for instance. Since I started playing that, I haven’t made any progress whatsoever on Hatsworth or Ninjatown, and these are all very enjoyable games. I think it is the building type games that do this to us; The Sims and Civilization are prime examples of this type of game and what it does.

Any game that brings out the ‘one more turn’ or ‘just a little bit longer’ mentality seems to bring a screeching halt to the playing of any other game. They suck you in, make you think only of getting just a little further in, and before you know it, it’s 2:00am and you realise you haven’t moved in three hours. I actually know of an incident when my SO was younger and still living at home. She went off to bed one night, whilst her mother sat playing the original Sim City on the SNES. When my SO got up the next morning, her mother was in the same place… still playing the game…

That’s obviously going too far, but you see what these games do!? You see!? Bah, I am off to play more Sim City 4… I am working to get my city population over 2,000.

Why can’t it be simple?

By blog on Apr. 29, 2009.

My SO and I have been with each other for nearly nine years now. It’s been quite a while, and there are no intentions from either side of this partnership, of things coming to an end. And yet my mother finds this a difficult concept to grasp. Yes, she still doesn’t think we are ‘right’ for each other, or believe we will stay together, and still insists on talking up available women to me.

My mother is often meeting people, she is quite sociable, and she often tells me of what she has been up to, who she has been meeting, that sort of thing. As I have said, she lives in a retirement community, and there are all sorts of staff there. Nurses, activity coordinators, admin staff, etc. My mother will often tell me of how lovely this nurse is or this nurse is, over the phone, and I don’t say a thing. I don’t really care that they are nice past being appreciative that they are kind to my mother. Oh and if you said anything about this to my mother, she wouldn’t have a clue what you are talking about. It is such a subconscious thing that she doesn’t realise she is doing it. I have wondered if it is just me being odd in how I perceive her, but I have talked about this with other people and their reactions confirmed it… it’s really odd behavior.

Recently my SO and I went to visit her, and she started talking about one of the staff at the retirement community. She went on and on about this woman, about how nice she was, how she was available, how she was thinking she was going to end up a spinster. All the while, my SO and I are exchanging the most covert of looks to one another, her trying very hard not to crack up. She isn’t a fan of this behavior, but this was the first time it had so clearly been done right in front of her. Before this it was always over the phone, but it is an ongoing joke between us. To her credit, she managed to not laugh throughout my mother’s recommendation of this particular staff member.

So I ask myself, why can’t it be simple? Why can’t these two rational, friendly, caring human beings get along properly, rather than the pleasant but oddly tense relationship they currently have. I don’t know what it is about mother in law and daughter in law relationships, because these two used to be quite close… it seems to me that no one is immune from the curse that is this particular association!

Bittersweet book endings

By blog on Apr. 28, 2009.

So I finished Reaper’s Gale yesterday… And well… I am a bit sad, actually. One character in particular was taken out, and I really didn’t want him to be. Trull Sengar had gone through so much, to be taken out at the very end like that… ahh, it is really sad. And the grief that his best friend, Onrack, felt… or Hedge’s reaction to Trull’s death… I am personally not in favor of Quick Ben’s actions regarding the murderer, I mean sure, torment for a short while, but that kind of permanent hell like torment? No, that isn’t right either. But then they clue you in to Seren having his child, and whilst I am really happy about that, I am still frustrated and saddened that some moron could be the one to take out Trull… He stood before waves and waves of Edur, but no, one guy gets to stab him in the back.

Although that does lead me to question if he really is gone, I mean look at all that happened with Silchas Ruin and Scabandari Bloodeye… but anyway. No, none of that. Today I am now feeling a little melancholic and I feel the need to look over other books that have contained these bittersweet endings. I find they leave you unsatisfied, but you aren’t angry about it… It is a very strange emotion to identify, actually.

When I talk of bittersweet endings, the first fantasy series that comes to mind has to be Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s self-recrimination and his leaving for the Grey Havens is a very sad ending for such a brave little hobbit. You aren’t surprised by his leaving, you don’t feel as though he should have stayed, but it is still sad that he does go.

I also think of Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy when I consider bittersweet endings. Fitz has to be one of the characters most prone to this writing format. Okay that could be Hobb’s penchant for that kind of thing, but anyway. Fitz gets kicked around for most of his life, and at the conclusion of this series is out in the middle of nowhere all by himself. I think the end of the Tawney Man trilogy is even worse, he ends up with some girl he has been pining for his entire life, who was never particularly nice to him, isn’t particularly smart, pretty, kind, or anything. I hated Molly, she was a little snit who should have been booted from the series and Fitz should have married that other girl from Ripplekeep, Celerity I believe.

Anyway, enough of that, because tomorrow I start Toll the Hounds!

Still have that whiplash

By blog on Apr. 25, 2009.

Not too long ago, I was involved in a small car accident with a very mean and very small old lady. In her effort to leave a supermarket car park too fast, she drove into the rear end of my car. I am still feeling the after effects of this indecent, even though it sounds ridiculous, when I say it like that, but there it is.

As I mentioned in that blog entry, I got out of the car and went over to make sure she was okay. She was such a tiny old lady, rather frail looking too, that I didn’t think of myself at all. Well that was a mistake, I didn’t realise just how much damage could be done with that one bump. I am still having issues with my neck, I don’t have a normal range of movement and going to the chiropractor twice and week is time consuming, I am just lucky that the NHS covers it because of the accident.

I said that she didn’t have insurance, so when I made the insurance claim to my company they were none too pleased about it. She happens to be among many people driving around uninsured at the moment, I have noticed the greater amount of that mentioned in the news, but still. I hate making insurance claims too, half the time you feel like you are presumed guilty of doing the wrong thing and you have to prove yourself innocent. I know insurance companies are especially like this at the moment due to the current economic turmoil bringing out less than the best in some, but it still makes for a largely unpleasant experience.

So yes, I am seriously considering filing a whiplash claim against this woman, not something I look forward to, but seriously, this could be the thing to get that horrid driver off the road. I have actually had to have multiple telephone conversations with this woman, as she is paying for half of the damages to the car, and not once has she asked me if I have had any adverse effects. I am at a loss whenever I get off the phone with her, as she fits into the ‘randomly mean’ category I mentioned in a previous blog entry. I am as yet undecided for sure, but that whiplash claim is looking more and more likely. Being in pain whenever I work – I am so glad I can touch type or it would be much, much worse – is almost too much. I think I am talking myself into making that claim right now.

SNEStacular!

By blog on Apr. 25, 2009.

Earlier today, I had a longing to play Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. That got me started on down the track of memory lane. Nostalgia beckoned, and I followed! :yes:

Ahh, it has been a very fun afternoon, wandering through the hallowed halls of best SNES games ever. There have been so many games that have had a great impact on my preference for gaming these days, the genre of gaming, games with more in-depth stories, games with that awesome Japanese vibe to them that were always so hard to get a hold of, I could go on! I think I will just point out a few that have really stood the test of time well.

One of my favorites was Chrono Trigger, I loved this RPG and had so much fun investing hours and hours of my gaming time into it. Another RPG that holds a very special place in my heart is Secret of Evermore, I loved seeing what my dog would look like in each time/world. Being an RPG lover, Final Fantasy II and III were really up there too! Ahhh, good times.

On the flip side to RPGs there were some really great action and fighting games on the SNES. My favorites where Contra III, even thought it was monstrously difficult, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, again, stupidly difficult and yet highly addictive, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, plain old fun side scrolling beat ‘em up, and Street Fighter Alpha 2.

No SNES favorite list would be complete without Super Mario World. :>> Hours and hours were whittled away on this game, and it still remains my second favorite SNES game. It shipped when the SNES originally shipped, back in 1990, and I was as excited as when Oblivion shipped with the XBOX 360, except I wasn’t dissapointed.

Number one favorite SNES game ever will always be Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I wish we got awesome TV commercials for games like this Japanese ad for Link to the Past. This is pure awesome and win. It really, really, cool.

The house sold!

By blog on Apr. 25, 2009.

I mentioned a while back that my mother had moved to a retirement community – which she is still loving immensely – and that she offered her house to my SO and I, and as we didn’t need it, we put it on the market. With all the turmoil of the housing market, I wasn’t sure if it was the right decision to try and sell it now, or wait for the market to bounce back somewhat.

I had concerns, to begin with, that the house wouldn’t sell, regardless of it being in a good location for long term investment. But to my astonishment, there was actually a great amount of interest in the house, right from the get go. It wasn’t long before we had an offer that was actually a little better than our ‘highest hopes within reason’ figure. A nice middle aged couple were buying it for their daughter to live in whilst she attended university, apparently this is an emerging trend.

I can’t say how enjoyable it was to call my mother and tell her the house had sold for more than she’d asked for for it, now I know she will be able to afford to live in that retirement community, in the better rooms, for the rest of her life. With the constant economic issues effecting everyone, my perceived ‘world mood’ has been somewhat dour of late, so it was especially nice to have this turn out well. I had half been dreading that this would turn into a saga of having people look through the house but never buy it, I am still amazed that it has sold, been finalized, and my mother in possession of a substantial amount of extra savings.

Whether it is the right time to sell your house depends on so many different factors right now, it was for us, but there are houses in my general area that have been waiting to be bought for quite some time. We all know the slump in both sales and prices that has hit the UK housing market is going to take a long time to bounce back, but I am noticing that the market is evening out somewhat. Sure the market isn’t as good as it was the year before last, but they sure as heck aren’t as bad as this time last year.

Randomly mean people

By blog on Apr. 24, 2009.

Something I have always enjoyed about Seinfeld, is the disproportionate amount of randomly mean people. I love it! I think it is because you can sit back and laugh heartily at the absurdly rude actions of these strangers, largely in part because I don’t have to deal with these people.

You see, it is because I have encountered people in real life that are as unpredictable and as rude as those memorable characters like George’s father, Elaine’s flatmate, and the old guy constantly calling Jerry and idiot, that I can fully appreciate the humor laden, yet strangely real, depiction of these people. It sometimes seems that you can’t walk down the street without some unsavory looking character uttering something almost incomprehensible, but most likely offensive judging by the look on their face, in your general direction.

I don’t understand why people feel the need to rude, I mean, I am a ranter, a person who finds things really annoying that shouldn’t be really annoying, and yet, I would never consider being as rude as some of the schlubs you encounter. I have been walking across the road and have had profanities yelled at me by someone in their car, because of the contents of my shopping bags… what’s with that?

Sometimes I wonder if there is just something wrong with a large proportion of the population, I wonder why these people lack common courtesy. You see it come out in particular situations too! Like waiting for a taxi. People can get really rude and really mean whilst waiting for a taxi. I have been waiting at a taxi rank, and have seen young people hurry forward to get the cab that just arrived, when they can clearly see that a little old person was the next in line. And then those little old people will look over at you, with a pleasant smile on their face, as if to say it’s all fine with them… I would be rather angry, I have to say, but that’s no surprise now is it.

Another instance of absurdly high rates of rude people is in upmarket retail stores. You walk into this place and they have this look as if you say, ‘You, scum, should not be here’, and even if you do purchase something, they still look at you as if you shouldn’t be there.

Rude people seem to be everywhere, you can’t get away from them. There are websites devoted to them! But I think the rest of us, non-rude people, can all have a good laugh at those strange rude people.

24, Dammit!

By blog on Apr. 24, 2009.

About a week ago, I decided I was in the mood to watch 24. So I wandered on down to my local DVD place, the only one near by that doesn’t put their discs in those horrible little plastic slips… Okay back on track. At this store, they only had seasons two, three, five, and six. So I picked up two and three, I had seen all of one so it would be okay.

So after watching the entire second season, I am loving the the show again! I love the fast paced, take no crap, get results character of Jack Bauer! How refreshing is it to see a hero who isn’t reluctant!? There is something about this character that people respond to, he has his own Wiki page! And Bauer facts are starting to pop up in the same fashion that Chuck Norris facts do.

Now, every good protagonist has a catch phrase or in some cases, a curse of choice. It took me a few episodes to figure out exactly what Bauer’s would be, but it turned out to be ‘Dammit’. As far as catch phrases go, dammit is pretty okay. I mean, it’s not overly complicated, it’s not profane, and I am personally all for the single word catch phrase.

I have to say, I am finding season three less than impressive… I don’t know, it is just so annoying to watch people fuds all over the place and not listen to the dude who saved their asses the last time. I hate watching all the CTU workers question each other’s competency, and then be wrong… every time!

I think that is the only downside to watching TV shows on DVD. Aspects of the show are paced for TV, for people only getting forty minutes per week of the show, so I do understand. Yet it still is annoying when you watch them all back to back, or within a week or so. By the end of watching The Sopranos I hated Tony so I suppose 24 is doing okay by the fact that I don’t hate all the characters… just some.