Musings of the Day

No amazingly coherent topic today, so the following is a bunch of potentially speakworthy thoughts I've had in the last few days.

Today, the 3rd Humble Indie Bundle was released. I haven't played any f the games in the pack, but I bought it anyway - I've heard very good things about VVVVVV (well, heard its difficult at least), and have seen "And Yet It Moves" in action, which was kind of interesting. Besides, supporting Indie devs and charities simultaneously is awesome. Buy it. Now.

Why did Amy Winehouse's death bump the Norwegian slaughter off the front page of the news? One (admittedly) talented, trainwreck of a woman dies (likely due to a Charlie Sheen-like dosage of some illicit material), and due to her fame, appears to get more exposure than a freakin terror attack. I realise this is an old complaint, and not particularly fair to Amy or her family, but surely there was a fubar there somewhere?

This morning I got off the train at Central Station (as I tend to do on my way to work), to find that there was a large group of people waiting at the door to get on the train. Said group of people refused to move to let me off the train, and wondered why I pushed them out of the way. (I'm fairly sure I made a rage comic about this and posted it somewhere...) Maybe next time, I'll just stay on the train and block their path on -.-

Also, this morning, I was walking up the hill from the station, to work (again, as I have a tendency to do). Unfortunately, I got caught behind three people walking together, who blocked the entire footpath. This isn't such a problem really, except for the fact that they were all smokers. Who were continuing to smoke as they walked slowly up the hill. When they exhaled their smoke, it stayed where it was (as it tends to do if there's no wind), which forced me and the other poor souls behind them to walk through a massive cloud of cigarette smoke.
Smokers - I don't mind if you decide to slowly poison yourself with those contraptions. Really, its none of my business. What IS my business is that your stupidity forces me to endure massive stinky clouds of death in my face. If you're gonna light up, at least do it somewhere where other people won't be forced to inhale your second-hand smoke. Have a little common sense, geez!

I've been fairly steadily playing through Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection. It's quite good, though it does feel excessively long. This is likely due to the fact that I am essentially playing three games in one - the third one being episodic in nature. Not to mention that they're all RPGs! Other things I have been playing are listed on my Backloggery page. I urge you all to make an account there, that way we can compare games :P Feel free to add me to your multitap!

I apologise for the lack of posts in recent times, but I've been fairly busy at work (been moved onto a different, short project with a tight deadline. Also, the project itself is boring) which has been utterly wiping me out, making it difficult to come up with a coherent, semi-interesting topic, let alone put words into that topic. I will try to do better in future.

Random Ramblings

I haven't been sleeping well lately. This is due to a lethal combination of playing Final Fantasy XIII until late (working on all of those hunting side missions!), my brother's snoring, and his alarm. Unfortunately, I share a room with him, and he gets up for work early in the morning (commonly known as the "wait, there's a 4.30 AM now?!?" period). This, in itself, isn't a problem. I used to do the same thing. The problem lies in the alarm he has selected - he uses his iPhone for an alarm (which many people, myself included, do). THe iPhone allows a great many options for alarms and ringtones (though sadly, not for SMS tones), in fact, anything song you have saved on your phone you can use as an alarm.
So why in all the flaming circles of hell did he decide to use Apple's default siren as an alarm? This is a siren which makes it sound like the room is going to explode and we are all evacuating. As a wake up tone! Which almost always wakes me up along with it.

I swear I'll throw that phone out the window one morning...

I've been listening to a fair bit of music by the Black Mages lately. I know I'm late to the party, but for those who don't know, they are a band formed by Nobuo Uematsu to perform rock renditions of Final Fantasy music. They have subsequently broken up, and since then Nobuo has formed another group called Earthbound Papas.
One thing I find strange about this, is that they do a rendition of "To Zanarkand", the piano song from Final Fantasy X. All well and good, but its identical to begin with, until, two minutes in, it suddenly kicks in with guitars and drums etc. And lyrics.
I wasn't sure how I felt about it until I heard it a fair few times. I like it, oddly enough. I will take this as further proof that Nobuo can do no wrong (as if I needed proof!).

This is the song in question

Why do I get the feeling I've written the above paragraph before?

So, apparently the world is going to end tomorrow. I don't know where people get these ideas from, just because some old guy in America (where else) says so, and a bunch of people don't even bother looking at the facts. Facts such as him having claimed the same thing for years ago (and I think the world still exists today... well either that or we've been plugged into the Matrix and don't have a clue). Also, the fact that he claims that Gay Rights movements are a sign of "The End" makes things even more suspect, in my eyes (and in the eyes of most reasonable human beings, I would think).

Artist's rendition of the guy making said predictions

Tomorrow is work on the costume day again. It's starting to come together a bit more now, though I would be lying if I said I was completely confident in my (our? I do have a lot of help here...) ability to get it finished in time for Supanova. Also, the fact that I will be wearing what is, for the most part, a completely white suit worries me slighlty. Mainly because it likely means I will not be allowed to eat.
Which is probably fine, since how am I going to find gluten free food there? I might have to pack something for nomming on... >.<

Random Thoughts

No single, coherent topic today, though I have some more random mini-topics, so words shall be typed, and you shall read them.

This morning, I got a chance to give Crysis 2 a quick bash. In 3D (goggles and all). Yes, my last post was about how I hate 3D. I still hate 3D. However, this didn't hurt my eyes as much as usual, and it even had a slight 3D looking effect on the gun. It may be possible to make this thing work after all, though that wasn't the point I was arguing (it probably is possible to do 3D well. Just not yet).
I will probably pick up Crysis 2 at some point to play on my gloriously 3D-incapable monitor, because the graphics are so pretty...

My face to face Pathfinder group hasn't had a session in months. This is due to one of our players constantly being annihilated by work (at Maccas >.<) and uni (last semester of a teaching degree). Once that's done, we will likely resume a more consistent play schedule, though by that point we'll all have forgotten what had happened in the game as well! Thank God for the Madboards Pathfinder to tide me over!

Speaking of which, said Madboards Pathfinder is becoming increasingly difficult to moderate due to Krug. SMK, I know you're gonna read this, and I'm glad you're staying in character, however the last action you took may well lead to your death. Well, that or break the plot irreconcilably. Either works.
Plot wise (and there are minor spoilers here), there is a plot-scheduled pub brawl that is supposed to begin (and will very soon), however it is supposed to be weapons free. The material I am using states that the moment someone draws a weapon, the Sheriff will be on them like Donkey Kong, which makes sense. If people are fist fighting and someone draws their blade, then that guy is the biggest threat. Krug has drawn his greatsword, so he will have a level 4, fully healthy fighter bearing down on him. Not pretty at all...

Cityrail failed more so than usual yesterday. Somehow their signal box at Sydenham station managed to die (I was told some vandals got to it), and caused pretty much every train to be stopped indefinitely. I was at Revesby station at 7.30am, to go to work. I arrived at work at approximately 10.30am. Something's wrong here...
They'll likely try to apologise to everyone by having a day where train travel is free. This seems to be their standard apology method. However, there is a big issue with this - it doesn't actually make up for the failure to the people who were put out by it.
For example, someone takes the trains to work regularly. They likely buy a weekly (or even fortnightly) ticket, since its cheaper than to buy a return ticket every day. So ShittyRail schedules a day where travel is free. The people who have already paid for this weekly ticket don't get any benefit - they already paid for that free day.
And the people who used the trains as a one off the day they failed? What are the chances that they need to use the train on the day they pick to make free?

Fail.

Dino D-Day is horrendous. Don't waste your money. This guy explains it all in a 20 minute video - and explains it better than I ever could.