Burning Out

Burnout 2 fucking rocks. It's definitely my kind of racing game. Basic road handling is fairly straightforward, and its all about the fun. I'm not entirely sure of the morality of a racing mode where the idea is to crash and cause as much damage as possible (in dollars), but at the same time it is fucking fantastic.

So that was one of the things I got in the post yesterday. The rest were just unpacked and put on the shelves to be watched in due course.

And of course there turned out to be a simple resolution to the Harry Potter tale. The tale about our copy of the book, I mean, not the Harry Potter tale. From what I gathered when I went to pick the book up this morning, instead of filing undelivered copies of Harry Potter away with other undelivered parcels sorted by name so they are easy to find, etc, it would appear that they had a separate area for all the HPs. All is not by any means forgiven, but there is certainly an element of All's Well That Ends Well(TM) about it.

And another DVD arrived today. One I ordered on Friday. Friday? I think it was on Friday. Maybe Thursday... *checks old diary entries* Thursday, it would seem. It would also seem that I haven't mentioned ordering it since then. ANYWAY, yes, I ordered Eddie Izzard: The Circle on DVD, and that arrived this evening, and we've just been watching some of it. Alison has this thing when watching Eddie Izzard that she ends up falling asleep sooner or later. It's not that she finds him boring or anything negative like that, it just happens. It's happened watching other stand-up comedy too... she reckons she just finds it all so relaxing she just nods off. We think this isn't going to be the case at the live gig, but only time will tell.

Going back to the XBox issue, I'm so fucking fickle. I played Buffy virtually non-stop when I bought the box, then I sat down and worked out how to play DOA:XBV and then played that virtually non-stop, and now all I'm interested in is playing Burnout 2. I am gonna go back and finish playing Buffy, and I'm gonna get more and more of the swimsuits in DOA:XBV, but right now I want to drive imaginary cars stupidly fast into other imaginary vehicles. Testosterone is back in the game :-)

Those who will protest at this point that DOA:XBV is all about the testosterone have missed something. DOA:XBV is a two-faced game. On the one hand (or face, or whatever), there is lovingly rendered tits and arse along with blatantly gratuitous cut-scenes designed purely to titillate the most base elements of the male psyche. And let's face it, only males are gonna fall for the rendered version instead of the real thing. On the other hand, there is the part concerned with choosing swimsuits and accessories. Blokes(TM) would argue that the only reason for choosing different swimsuits is that you get the chance to see more tit. Not so. I've gotten far enough along in the game that I've realised that the skimpier the swimsuit, the less realistic it looks. And the less realistic it looks, the less your mind is gonna let itself be titillated by some imitation. No, the whole fashion aspect of the game is there to appeal to feminity. Or, to put it the way Blokes(TM) really wouldn't like, to appeal to their inner gay man.

So yeah, I have a feeling that there were at least one or two females involved in the development of DOA:XBV who made sure that there was an element to the game to sneak men in touch with their feminine side(s) without the poor guys even realising it. Yeah, I know the grammar in that sentence leaves a lot to be desired, but I really couldn't give a fuck.

And I've been writing again. On Sunday, which I realise I haven't mentioned at all before now, while Alison played in an open-air concert I sat and listened and jotted down more of my as-yet-untitled scifi trilogy. My current name for the first book is Shackles, but that's something like the fifth name I've given it. I've now started both chapter 1 and chapter 2. While they do follow chronologically for the most part they are separate plot threads so there shouldn't be much difficulty in taking this kind of approach. Once again unplanned-for characters are muscling in on the story. I'm also tempted to jot down bits about the end of the second book, as that is a fairly key piece that keeps presenting itself to me in my mind. Other than the characters who have to be there at that point, I'm not making plans about who lives and who dies this far in advance of knowing how the plot fits together at the microscopic level. Pepper Rats taught me that I'm a sneaky bastard who keeps that sort of information secret until the last minute, particularly from myself.

Speaking of Pepper Rats, I haven't touched the editing for over a month. Yes, I need to touch it. I do also have a sequel in mind, which at the moment I have a few basic plot elements for. Tempted to leave it at that for the time being and then NaNoWriMo it come November.

And I've been tinkering with the optional fields in the guestbook. Heh.