24th September - The Key to Success in a Life or Death Situation..?

Have you ever, instead of unleashing that killer arrow, buffed yourself instead..? Cast a bolt instead of a heal.?? No..! How about this then you MMOG challenged fool, you forget all of those short-cut keys for Word or Photoshop??? A-ha, see! I knew, you have haven't you!? Just when you thought you had memorized all of those fiendishly easy to remember CTRL-Shift-ALT key strokes, and have dropped that pile of paper all over your office/study/bedrrom floor and can't find your flash card with all the key strokes on it, and because you haven't used a particular app for 3 days in succession, your brain turns into pancake batter...

Well, fear not, the Art Lebedev Studio has the answer. How about an image on every key..? Yup, icons/buttons can be uploaded. Looks like anyone wanting to buy one will have to wait until Summer of 2006, but I can't wait tbh... I'm sure it will make playing MMOGs and FPSs a lot simpler, and imagine, games and apps could even come with their own uploadable keyboard layouts! And no matter how many different games or apps you switch between you could possibly have the layout in front of your eyes, err.., fingers.

23rd September - Perplexed..? You Will Be...

Now in between all of my online comings and goings (Rose Online was a hoot!), I somehow came across an ARG. Now where - rakes through memory - oh yes PC Zone magazine and strangely a policeman. So thanks to PCZ and PC Ripley (just call me Tex.. Oo ), I am now becoming increasingly addicted to something called Perplex City... as and when I have a bit more time I'll post stuff on here, but atm, just follow the links, it's great, buy some cards and if you live in Toronto, especially in and around GTA get your butt to one of the Famous Players cinemas tonight and join in the hunt for the Receda Cube by finding out what The Receda Approach have to say for themselves...

Truth;

Perplex City Wiki
Unfiction Blog and Update
Unfiction Forums
Card Index

Fiction;

Violet's Blog
Scarlett's Blog
Kurt's Blog
The Sentinel



More to follow, believe me...

23rd September - FairTrade..?

Over the last few days, I have found myself listening to a lot of my old vinyl, finding some of the songs that had meaning back in the day when I bought and listened to them, hoping to rekindle that meaning and memory during a dark period of life. It's strange how certain things do that, music and smells do it mostly for me...

Any how, I stumbled across a box of my 45's and ultimately got to Billy Bragg's "Levi Stubbs' Tears" which seemed to fit my mood perfectly. Although I love my vinyl, I am a technophile so had to be able to play it digitally, so off to the handy Real Player search function and there I found a very nice free downloadable live version of Billy back in 1992 at the Barton Theatre in Eccles near Manchester. After listening to it for hours I realised I had no idea who Levi Stubbs is/was, so after a quick trip to my favourite friend, the Google Bar, no, not a drinking establishment, but the thing at the bottom of the page...

And some how I ended up on a Billy Bragg forum and someone asking about the hidden meaning in the song. So after a couple of hours reading from the forum and surfing in and around it, I noticed a post called 'FairTrade', with the question, other than Billy Bragg and Chris Martin could any mention any 'Fameos' (that's a word I use; fame-o's, not; fam-e-os) who support FairTrade. Someone said Sainsbury, who, somewhat missed the point and then someone else said that the Co-op seem to lead the way with FairTrade, and went on to say how much of a presence the Co-op had at Glasto this year, sponsoring Leftfield...

Now call me cynical, but hold on, the Co-op is a profit making organisation, and one of the only reasons they would champion FairTrade is if it was a profitable option for them. Also The Co-operative Group is exactly what it says on the tin, a co-operative, made up of it's members, unlike a PLC whose main drive is to keeps it's shareholders happy, a co-operative is dependant on it's members. Surprisingly the demographic of The Co-operative Group's membership age group is between 42 and 92, which peaks at 67. This is a big problem when you are running far behind the likes of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's etc. So think more of the presence at Glasto as merely a membership drive and 'Brand' promoting to the age demographic that they are going to need, so that they can survive once the older members shuffle off this mortal coil.

lol, oh yes, thx Liz, Levi Stubbs was a singer in the Four Tops, as refered to in the song; "she takes off the Four Tops tape, and puts it back in it's case", as well as other Motown references, such as "Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong", writers of Marvin Gaye's, Heard It Through The Grapevine, "Are here to make everything right that’s wrong", as well as "Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too", probably the most prolific writers for Motown in the early years, "Are here to make it all okay with you".

23rd September - Farewell. . .

A period of drought, although a lot of rain has fallen.

It's very strange how a simple incident can prove so devastating, and make you feel that everything we do is so very, very trivial.

I have said my private and personal farewells, but after losing two of my closest colleagues and friends it seemed only appropriate to say it publicly. John and Alison, you will be so greatly missed...

3rd September - Fear and Loathing. . .

Now, if you've taken the time to read my profile, you would of seen that I listed MMOGs as one of my interests, and this is by no means a small interest. At one time, I would have listed RPGs rather than just MMOGs... hmm, just incase you are of the unenlightened, I'm not talking about rocket propelled grenades here, to clarify, Massive Multi-player Online Games and Role Playing Games.

I've played RPGs in one format or another since the age of 13. I fondly remember the first day I ever picked up the book entitled 'Sorcery!' in one hand, pencil in the other hand, and feverishly skipping from page to page, step by step which ultimately led me onto the pencil, eraser, pen & paper, and in some cases a small miniature lead-like figure or figures acting as your avatar, or the foes you were up against. Some of the time these were merely replaced with a button and coloured beads depending on the frame of mind of your fellow gamers, or genre of RPG. After all this of course came the age of the chip, and I'm not talking about fried wedges of potato, or if you reside in the Americas, thin slivers of the root vegetable fried to a 'crisp', I am of course talking of the sillicon type, which revolutionalised day-to-day living. This brought about the long standing and much beloved 'text adventure', very reminiscent of the Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy books, but on the screen, and although I enjoyed them, they were less tactile and didn't have the same pleasure for me somehow. . .

Anyhow after playing around in the MUD for a while, the day finally came when MMOGs were truely born and I dived in fitfully, totally and, venus-flytrap-like I was devoured. . .

lol, what I'm trying to get to is that recently I stumbled, nay tripped head over heels, across Kingdom of Loathing which takes a long hard look at everything that has gone before it and says, "eat my meat" with a tongue-firmly-in-cheek attitude. I've played for 2 days so far, and I can honestly say that never have I ever bought a piece of "chewing gum on a string", to dangle it down the sewer to see what I can attach to it. I have been battling tins of asparagus in the Haunted Pantry, chatted to the Captain of the Gourd in the town's Gourd Tower, not to mention a visit to Mt. Noob and speak to the bird there, the Toot Oriole. A very funny affair which comes with a great community and very friendly, no nonsense chat area.

2nd September - My Life is Brilliant

James Blunt is as sharp as a pencil, but also examines the male psyche in his tune, "You're Beautiful". I've heard this song tons of times, but while stuck in traffic on the M1, heading back from Alfreton up to Durham I actually listened to the lyric and smiled to myself.

Other than practising the art of how to look insane sitting in a car, an art which I practice daily, either by talking, singing or laughing along to the radio. Of course the hands-free mobile phone has made this less of an art form, than a random nodding of heads and thinking 'on the phone', rather than the thought of 'nutter' running through their minds.

But do men really think that a pleasant smile can mean so much..? or even more, to write a song about.??

Then there's the religious side that men think Angels are female, a - I must admit - common popularisation and image, although most religious visitations, and maybe a fact of wiring of my female brain, have a male appearance, although lacking a vital 'tool' in the pants department.