MerseyMal

Play
====

Skyrim (PC) - As I wasn't very far into the game I decided to re-roll
(give easy respec please) to a chap that concentrates more on 2-handed
melee and archery.

Mario Kart 7 (3DS) - ace


Want
====

Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)
+
Guild Wars 2 (PC)
Prey 2 (PC) - maybe
Far Cry 3 (PC)
Trackmania 2 Canyon (PC)

Bin
===

New shower mixer tap allowing cold water into the hot water feed.


Expenditure
===========

£ 67.71 January
£ 20.84 February
£ 71.89 March
£ 74.55 April
£106.06 May
£ 31.98 June
£119.87 July
£ 20.36 August
£ 88.81 September
£156.77 October
£ 22.08 November

£ 4.50 December so far...
+
£ 0.10 Fruit Ninja (Android)



--
XBLA/PSN/Steam/Twitter: merseymal
? the ? of Wolverines on ? (SWTOR, EU) - coming soon (but not soon
enough)

Kendrick Kerwin Chua

In article <MPG.294ff233725efb3a989c8b@news.individual.net> ,
MerseyMal <spampit@merseymal.com> wrote:
>
>Play
>====

Skyrim (360) - Finished the main quest on Sunday. Didn't mean to, but I
couldn't tear myself away. No spoilers, but it's a fully spectacular
series of visuals (OMG too many dragons!) and in my mind functions as
something of an apology for the lackluster ending to the main quest in
Oblivion. I regret not running around Sovngarde more to meet all the
characters from the previous games.

It's tempting, in retrospect, to view Oblivion and Skyrim as companion
pieces in a literary examination of western conceptions of the afterlife.
The Imperials of Cyrodil are very much the Romans in this analogue, and
their Oblivion embodies all the things we think of in a medieval hell.
Mehrune Dagon's fiery pits evoke familiar visions of Hades, and
Sheogorrath's Shivering Isles have regions and capricious rules that lie
parallel to Dante's nine circles. As stand ins for the Vikings, the
Nords' Sovngarde is transparently meant to be Valhalla, where your good
deeds are rewarded by endless food and drink, and the presence of lost
loved ones.

From an anthropological perspective, it's not hard to conclude that
centuries of plague and famine shaped the western ideas of an ideal
afterlife. If you're starving and lonely, why wouldn't you hope for a full
belly and the voice of a lost parent or child? In contrast, it's
interesting to observe that the popular interpretation of the eastern
afterlife is filled with pleasures of the flesh, rather than sustenance or
kin. Is heaven always offering what we don't have enough of in the mortal
world? Is a Chinese or Saudi sociologist ever going to point out that
societies with gender parity also seem to be getting more sex? This is all
by way of saying that I can't wait to see what the Khajiti or Redguard
afterlife is like in the next Elder Scrolls game.

Guitar Hero (PS3) - Not as popular in the workplace this time around.
Fewer young men, vacations and general year-end stress make people less
fun. I don't assign blame, but music games are always more entertaining
with an audience.

>Want
>====

Fallout: New Vegas GOTY Edition (360/PC) - Out in March, I think? I'm
strongly considering skipping the console iteration and going straight
into the PC version, with all the naughty mods that come with.

>Bin
>===

'D' and 'H' keys not working on the laptop (PC) - The key that turns the
wireless NIC on and off seems to bounce randomly too. Insert Slashdot "NO
CARRIER" joke here.

>Expenditure
>===========

Oh dear.

Balance Forward - $1,755

Contra 4 (DS) - $5
Dragon Quest VI (DS) - $17
Red Dead Redemption (360) - $12

Total year-to-date - $1,789

-KKC, who has missed his $1,000 spending cap by a country kilometre.
--
-- "Step 8: Make a list of all the persons I | kendrick
have harmed, and file them alphabetically | @io-nyc.com
for ease of reference." |
- David Javerbaum, "The Last Testament" |

MerseyMal

In article <0_mdnQgVFeVXc3jTnZ2dnUVZ_jqdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
kendrick@nospam.io-nyc says...
>
> 'D' and 'H' keys not working on the laptop (PC) - The key that turns
the
> wireless NIC on and off seems to bounce randomly too. Insert Slashdot "NO
> CARRIER" joke here.

Not sure whether /. was first or comp.sys.sinclair to that one.

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/cssfolklore/index.html

--
XBLA/PSN/Steam/Twitter: merseymal
? the ? of Wolverines on ? (SWTOR, EU) - coming soon (but not soon
enough)

John Dow

MerseyMal the Monkey was never naughty:
> In article <0_mdnQgVFeVXc3jTnZ2dnUVZ_jqdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
> kendrick@nospam.io-nyc says...
>>
>> 'D' and 'H' keys not working on the laptop (PC) - The key that turns
> the
>> wireless NIC on and off seems to bounce randomly too. Insert Slashdot "NO
>> CARRIER" joke here.
>
> Not sure whether /. was first or comp.sys.sinclair to that one.
>
> http://www.worldofspectrum.org/cssfolklore/index.html

Pretty sure it was css. Although I tended to emulate PPP rather than
micronet, with the net result that there were lots of '}' characters
included in the }}}$£$}}£}"£$%}}£%}NO CARRIER


--
John Dow <jmd@nelefa.org.invalid>
... Blog : http://www.nelefa.org Writing : http://www.johnmdow.co.uk
/|\ Constructed using slrn and vi.
/ | \ Zomoniac is Wrong. Fact.

MerseyMal

In article <p0hhr8-mmt.ln1@bague.nelefa.org>, jmd@nelefa.org.invalid
says...
>
> MerseyMal the Monkey was never naughty:
> > In article <0_mdnQgVFeVXc3jTnZ2dnUVZ_jqdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
> > kendrick@nospam.io-nyc says...
> >>
> >> 'D' and 'H' keys not working on the laptop (PC) - The key that turns
> > the
> >> wireless NIC on and off seems to bounce randomly too. Insert Slashdot "NO
> >> CARRIER" joke here.
> >
> > Not sure whether /. was first or comp.sys.sinclair to that one.
> >
> > http://www.worldofspectrum.org/cssfolklore/index.html
>
> Pretty sure it was css. Although I tended to emulate PPP rather than
> micronet, with the net result that there were lots of '}' characters
> included in the }}}$£$}}£}"£$%}}£%}NO CARRIER

same here

--
XBLA/PSN/Steam/Twitter: merseymal
? the ? of Wolverines on ? (SWTOR, EU) - coming soon (but not soon
enough)

John Dow

MerseyMal the Monkey was never naughty:
> In article <p0hhr8-mmt.ln1@bague.nelefa.org>, jmd@nelefa.org.invalid
> says...
>>
>> MerseyMal the Monkey was never naughty:
>> > In article <0_mdnQgVFeVXc3jTnZ2dnUVZ_jqdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
>> > kendrick@nospam.io-nyc says...
>> >>
>> >> 'D' and 'H' keys not working on the laptop (PC) - The key that turns
>> > the
>> >> wireless NIC on and off seems to bounce randomly too. Insert Slashdot "NO
>> >> CARRIER" joke here.
>> >
>> > Not sure whether /. was first or comp.sys.sinclair to that one.
>> >
>> > http://www.worldofspectrum.org/cssfolklore/index.html
>>
>> Pretty sure it was css. Although I tended to emulate PPP rather than
>> micronet, with the net result that there were lots of '}' characters
>> included in the }}}$£$}}£}"£$%}}£%}NO CARRIER
>
> same here

Both are valid anyway, cos the NO CARRIER bit comes from the hayes instruction
set, so is carried out by the modem itself and is therefore protocol
independant.

J
--
John Dow <jmd@nelefa.org.invalid>
... Blog : http://www.nelefa.org Writing : http://www.johnmdow.co.uk
/|\ Constructed using slrn and vi.
/ | \ Zomoniac is Wrong. Fact.

Kendrick Kerwin Chua

In article <j69mr8-f12.ln1@bague.nelefa.org>,
John Dow <jmd@nelefa.org.invalid> wrote:
>MerseyMal the Monkey was never naughty:
>> In article <p0hhr8-mmt.ln1@bague.nelefa.org>, jmd@nelefa.org.invalid
>> says...
>>> MerseyMal the Monkey was never naughty:
>>> > In article <0_mdnQgVFeVXc3jTnZ2dnUVZ_jqdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
>>> > kendrick@nospam.io-nyc says...
>>> >>
>>> >> 'D' and 'H' keys not working on the laptop (PC) - The key that turns the
>>> >> wireless NIC on and off seems to bounce randomly too. Insert Slashdot "NO
>>> >> CARRIER" joke here.

Incidentally, the keyboard is replaced now. I was surprised to discover
that the seller mislabeled the item and shipped me a UK-spec part. I was
excited about being able to type the pound symbol until I discovered that
nano has it mapped to some control character input which prevents me from
typing it. So now I need a UK-spec operating system UI to go with my UK
keyboard.

>>> > Not sure whether /. was first or comp.sys.sinclair to that one.
>>> >
>>> > http://www.worldofspectrum.org/cssfolklore/index.html
>>>
>>> Pretty sure it was css. Although I tended to emulate PPP rather than
>>> micronet, with the net result that there were lots of '}' characters
>>> included in the }}}$??$}}??}"??$%}}??%}NO CARRIER
>>
>> same here
>
>Both are valid anyway, cos the NO CARRIER bit comes from the hayes instruction
>set, so is carried out by the modem itself and is therefore protocol
>independant.

It feels like we've lost some valuable cultural touchstones now that
computer error messages are so sanitised and obfuscated. Although the
Office Space 'PC Load Letter' gag still gets a laugh at the office.

-KKC, who has no idea what 'Alt Gr' means.
--
-- "Step 8: Make a list of all the persons I | kendrick
have harmed, and file them alphabetically | @io-nyc.com
for ease of reference." |
- David Javerbaum, "The Last Testament" |