Game: Street Fighter IV (360)

I was actually lucky enough to play this way back in July at Battle of Destiny; you can read my initial impressions here; in fact you should as I'll mainly be talking the specific console additions here.

The game is as great as it was back then. Not being capped by a maximum of three wins and a ten minute queue meant that I now have a deeper understanding of the game; focus attacks now play a major part of lulling people into a false sense of security, cancelling and chaining are now respective sciences rather than exploited bugs and the new characters are all deep in their own right. This game really is a masterpiece, and I can't wait to learn it's every detail.

It's also pretty much been made for home consoles. The 360 version is wonderful, running at a full 60fps at HD resolutions; any slowdown is deliberate, mainly for you to link in a super combo or two. Sound is also up to par with pumped up soundtracks doing their bit to encourage a fiery fight.

Versus mode is where I'll be spending most of my time. Unfortunately there still isn't a proper round robin manager - it would be so handy (perhaps just for me) to be able to enter names and get the CPU to assign controllers with winner-stays-on rules. Arcade mode is fun and exhilarating; until you meet the major **** that is Seth, the final boss. One word: cheap.

A challenge mode rounds off the single player experience, with further timed, survival and trial modes to hone your skills on (regular training is also available). Rewards are in the form of unlockable art, colours, tags and characters, the last of which is particularly frustrating. Live online play is supposed to be impressive, but my subscription has expired so I can't say for myself.

A note about controllers: I managed to procure two Hori sticks a while back in preparation for SFIV, and they're pretty great. I will say that they're not perfect - I do miss moves sometimes and get myself in a muddle as I lose the instructive muscle memory I had with SNES and PS pads. I'll add to that the the 360 pad isn't all that bad provided you use the analogue stick over the horrid d-pad.

Anyway SFIV is awesome. It's already a classic if the roars of pain given off both sides as someone makes a heroic comback are anything to go by and I can imagine many a late night playing this (perhaps I'll get my 100+ streak again?). It's a game I already want to invest time and effort into, a buck in the trend of me wanting to get through a game as fast as possible. Absolutely and utterly recommended.

Game: Wii Fit

Meh. "It's a damn gimmick" I kept telling my dad (although without the damn part of course). "If you want to get fit then do some exercise!". Of course no one ever listens to me (I'm the youngest born you see) and before I knew it, a Balance Board sized parcel was delivered to our door.

I have to admit that it's a pretty smart piece of kit, in a simple and effective way I mean. For those of you who have an idea of what the Balance Board does, it's not just a scale, but four: one in each foot. This means it can tell you which way you're leaning - the "balance" part - and this in turn opens up some pretty nifty minigames.

Some are more effective than others. You have the Yoga and Workout ones, which rely on you to keep still on the board in order to indicate that you're holding a position correctly. The other games are literally for fun, with things like hula hooping, skiing, dancematting and tightrope walking. All very clever and very fun in a group.

But as fun as it is, will it make you fit? Well I'm convinced that it would have some kind of positive effect if done daily and properly (as always it's easy enough to cheat). I still think it's a gimmick in that sense, and that you're much better off going for a jog or something. But people don't jog and judging by the use Wii Fit is getting in this house they do use this. In those terms it is better than nothing.

Film: Bolt

Standard top class Disney CGI about a dog without super powers (you'll see what I mean if you get the chance to catch it). There aren't many surprises here - we have the same universal appeal, the same cheesy plot and lines which may make you well up (not me) and some awesome action sequences making full use of the medium. I won't say that Bolt is best of breed or even memorable, but it was certainly a blast while it lasted.

What did make Bolt special was that we watched it in 3D. Now all these optic-altering gimmicks usually give me headache, and there was nothing different here. Still the 3D was effective when I wasn't straining my eyes, and I'm guessing that it was just me who was having problems.

Bolt is definitely worth a watch, and pretty much compulsory if you have nephews to take. Recommended.

The Unconsidered Implications of Uploading

There's been a lot of flap about Facebook's daring change in Terms of Service this week, most of it a step behind what's actually happened. For most of us it had all been done before, Google's Chrome being the last to fall foul of idiotic God-like claims to our content. And like Chrome, even the mighty Facebook had to back down. Whether they originally knew what they were actually asking for is still up for debate; I for one think the distribution argument is a cop out. And just in case you didn't know, most content driven sites lay some kind of rights to the content you create or upload to them. They almost have to by definition. The problem I have is that this whole news story, and the frenzy we've all whipped up, is totally missing the point.

This Wired article concisely and clearly explains what happened and what needs to be done next, but the real message is in the comments; in short: "You either sign up & lose privacy, or you don't sign up at all. Is that simple.". Anyone thinking otherwise is being terribly naive; even if a website's intention is for the best, that alone will not stop bad things from happening. How many pictures have you accidentally seen on Facebook that you know was probably not intended for your eyes?

I hate to say I told you all so, but I blatantly did. To be frank I don't care whether someone puts pictures of themselves up on the Internet or not, but I don't think anyone has the right to compromise the privacy of others so flippantly. It's almost on par with Governmental "Big Brother" invasion of privacy which we often complain about. There's no difference between the two if neither considers your wishes.

To be fair I don't blame the people; well not directly anyway. Technology is moving so fast that people are failing to educate themselves - they literally know not what they do. Without being too dramatic it's actually disrespectful of the power such a global network like the Internet puts in your hands. At least one good thing about this Facebook fiasco is that people now have a clue, some idea of the implications that their actions have. On the other hand, there are very few of us (I hope) who would freely create multiple hard copies of their holiday/party snaps and send them to all they know either. There's no real justification for doing this over the wires either, yet we so easily do.

The solution is to make a change to your assumptions - instead of thinking that there's a small chance that the things you release into the wild will reach the attention of people they're not supposed to, think that they most definitely will at some stage. Expect the worst, even if it means compromising your lazy little attention-seeking social network and maybe then you'll not worry about a website claiming the inevitable truth - that once you tell someone a secret, it's no longer yours to keep any more anyway.

Shades

During a reading of plays written by young Muslims way back in October, I had asked the writers when any of them would make a full production. Their reply was ominous; basically there was no guarantee any of them would make it further than they already had. I said back then that I'd watch any of them if they did make the stage, and when I found out that Shades was running at the Royal Court, well I had to put my money where my mouth was.

Not that it was easy to get to see it at all - I managed to snag the last saleable ticket of the whole four week run this morning (it ends on Saturday). To be honest I was in two minds going on my own; it turns out that it would have been a massive mistake if I hadn't gone (not least because it turned out that I happened to know other people there anyway).

The Jerwood Theatre Upstairs seemed like a perfect forum for Shades, with its stage flanked by two sets of audiences. Maximum seating (all communal and unreserved) can't have been for more than 100 (Wikipedia reckons it's 85), and it was intermediately clear why you can no longer buy tickets for the play. It's a bit disappointing actually, since Shades deserves to be seen by as many as possible; a friend on the reserve list had been turned away already, and I know others desperate for tickets too.

Shades was quite simply wonderful. It was well written (although I had known that already from its reading), well acted and well produced; from an academic point of view there was very little to complain about since it was so well put together. The set was simple (as in, non-existent), with minimal props and costume and clever lighting used to create ambiance instead. This was a clever move, since it allowed writing, acting and story to shine without dilution. The talent were well picked, each doing a class job of their roles although I did find that a part of me was a bit irritated at how none of them were Muslim. Perhaps that's ironic, or perhaps that's not.

It's worth talking about the script in more detail, and not just because of how it came into being. Essentially Shades is just another modern take on Romeo and Juliet. In fact I wouldn't give it many originality points, and the ending was especially inevitable. This didn't take much away from the play at all though, I was on the edge of my seat with my knuckles in my mouth a fair few times as I eagerly awaited to see how the people I recognised handled the situations I didn't. It didn't hurt how ingeniously funny it was in places either.

I've seen a fair few "Asian/Muslim" plays (not least the one I saw on Friday) and Shades was one of the very few that I recognised at least part of myself and others that I know of in. Similarly instead of noticing how wrong a writer got it, or how they knew nothing about what they were trying to talk about, I was left nodding in agreement while silently screaming "at last". In fact there was at least a couple of scenes which had pretty much been played out word for word in real life; it was uncanny, reassuring and vindicating to have our contrasting opinions and attitudes so accurately portrayed. But regardless of familiarity the play did manage to express a fair few non trivial moral points regarding subjectivity and perspective without being preachy and it deserves an award for that alone.

As an aside I was lucky enough to sit next to Alia Bano during the show; although I didn't get to talk much to her about her brilliant work I did unashamedly do the groupie thing and got her to sign my copy of the script (for her part she recognised me first from Unheard Voices, but that's neither here nor there. Ahem). It was good to see the whole thing come together so brilliantly, especially after seeing it at such a seminal stage before. I'm not ashamed to admit that the whole thing was pretty inspiring.

And I think that's it really - I liked Shades. I liked it a lot. The trouble now is how to recommend a show that's totally sold out. The Royal Court do run a returns list but you have to get there pretty early (around 6:30pm should do it) to stand a chance of getting in. So I guess that's it then: I totally recommend you make all the effort you can to watch Shades; it really is that much of a rare treat and I can only hope that it gets developed further enough to be seen by the numbers it truly deserves.

Unveiled: New Art From The Middle East

A bunch of us once again returned to the Saatchi Gallery down on King's Road to check out what we thought was a collection of Islamic Art. When we got there we realised that what we had in our heads wasn't what was put out on offer; this stuff was more modern, abstract and possibly controversial than what one might classically imagine Islamic Art to consist of. I think that this was new art by Muslims, rather than art derived from Islam, a stance that know can't be an absolute one.

The overriding theme was that of liberation - be it women from oppression or the West Bank from occupation. They were all striking, although some more than others; ironically though I can't quite remember much of it and am finding it difficult to pick a favourite.

However, almost cliche like, the art did generate debate amongst those of us who went. We found ourselves talking about honour, liberation, gender justice and other things - discussions completely triggered off by what we were seeing. As thought provoking art this was definitely it.

As is the case with all the Saatchi exhibitions, Unveiled is free so you really have little excuse not to check it out; although I won't say that it's worth going for alone there's plenty of other things to do in the area to make a day out of it.

The Annual Inevitably Cynical "I Hate Valentine's" Post

It's an especially hateful Valentine's Day this year - I won't bother explaining why and I won't be responding to any questions either so don't bother. I'm serious. Cough.

So what can us singles collectively bitch about this year? Commercialism is lame (and easily avoided by celebrating the day before or after), complaining about how difficult it is to find someone is annoying (I'm sure) and just stating that those who happen to be in relationships are losers is just too easy (no matter how true it is). You do all realise it's just a matter of time before you break up, right?

So how about we flip the script a bit? I think that conventionally this annual post shouldn't be deep or long, so just bear with me on this one: how about I make the suggestion that those of us still single are such purely out of choice? Make it due to laziness, high expectations, fear or whatever you want; the point is that if any of us really did want to celebrate VD (snigger) with a loved one then they totally could. It's in our hands people.

Still, at least I won't be totally and utterly alone watching a film this year. No, tonight is all about curry, poker, foos-ball (and bitching about those in relationships whatever their gender. We are equal opportunity haters). I guess I should be thankful for having such lovely (and chronically single) mates. And you know what? There's no reason whatsoever that we can't celebrate the unique love that exists between friends during this day either.

An Impromptu Half-Marathon

This morning my running partner neighbour surprised me by challenging us to run an impromptu half-marathon.

Now there's nothing wrong with the distance itself; I've done it many times before, mostly during marathon training, but sometimes as an individual race and came away with some pretty decent times.

Just to give you some measure though, my last race time was just over 2 hours, with my fastest being around 1 hour 33 minutes (although again, since that was during training that's not an indicative time really). The longest I've run out of competition/training was nine miles a couple of weeks ago, during which I managed just under 8 and a half minute miles; the aim was to match that today (and so get a total time of under 1h50m.

Conditions were not ideal. For a start it was a surprise mentally, but I also hadn't really stretched appropriately, had zero carbs and water loaded and had some bad quality sleep last night. But since I had missed last year's Roding Valley Half Marathon (due to being in Israel) and will be missing this year's too, I thought I should give it a go.

It was pretty tough going. The first half (quarter marathon?) was positive, with us hitting 8 (and a bit) minute miles and going strong. The Roding Valley track is undulating (something that makes it quite popular) and the ups were painful with the downs not really giving as much back as they should have been. The second half was much worse, my knee beginning to buckle bringing my pace down to around the nine minute mark. By the end of it I could feel my tank literally empty with hunger and dizziness arriving in equal measure. I reckon my knee will be out of whack for a week at least.

We finished our adapted circuit in 1:47.30, something which certainly surprised me; I wasn't anticipating a pace that close to the 8 minute mark. It turned out that we had miscalculated the route - we had actually run 12.1 miles which brought my pace back up to a more understandable 8m53s. Still it was under 9 minutes which was better than my last competitive half-marathon, although I suspect an extra mile would have battered that pace.

I'm glad I went out today. Considering the conditions I think we did alright and I no longer feel that I'll be missing out on the annual Roding Valley event twice in a row. Under race conditions and with more adequate preparation I'm almost certain I could hold a pace of 8m30s, and quite possibly do even better than that.

Where's My Desi Soulmate?

An Asian play about single people striving to find their other halves? 'Cos, sure, that's not been done before, right? I guess relationships really are all us lot think about, eh?

So no, I was never going into this with high expectations of originality; instead I was hoping to rely on a good script and acting to get my money's worth. Unfortunately Desi Soulmate failed on all this counts (and then some).

I guess the biggest problem was that of energy (or rather a distinct lack of the stuff). The play was slow and punctuated with massive silences, certain scenes went on for way too long and the acting was wooden and confusing. Stage-wise, the set was simple yet versatile, although I felt that video was overused especially on the shabby screens they were projected on. Further technical glitches (one dropped to Windows at one point) further highlighted the amateur quality of the show. I think it turned out a bit too clever for its own good.

There was also a distinct lack of insight; it all had been well trodden and discussed territory (imagine GGM live and you'll come close) and so nothing was fresh. You could probably get more sitting in on one of our infamous local relationship group chats. In a nutshell then, the play wasn't very good.

HOWEVER: there was quite a bit of audience participation during the show, with Cherry Mirza (geddit?) coming down to us often and getting us to talk into her mic. One experiment involved pulling up two random single guys and two random single girls, giving each boy girl pair matching tokens, and then asking them to find each other during the interval. The concept was quite amusing in itself, but perhaps more so considering how I was stitched up and picked as one of the boys.

Alas it took a massive fifteen minutes for my matching girl to to meet me at the stage, under the big floating heart like we were asked to - and even then it was only to get her share of the sweeties were all rewarded with; I didn't even get a name. Still, even with that I managed to do better than the other guy, whose match didn't turn up at all (it turned out later that she was a relatively public figure so perhaps that had something to do with it?).

But it still wasn't over as we were publicly asked during the second part how it all went. The other obviously didn't have much to say except how his date sucked for not turning up. I'll spare you my embarrassment, although needless to say I was, or at least tried to be the perfect gentleman and so didn't release too many non-existent details. I did score massive sympathy points though (and a friend told me later that she overheard people talking about little ol' me in the ladies bathroom. I'm choosing to totally believe this blatant lie).

So yes, that much was pretty fun. The play though was rubbish. Avoid.

Happy 1234567890 Second!

Just in case you missed it, the clock just struck 1234567890 since the beginning of Epoch/Unix Time. For those of you who already know, where were you when this arbitrarily unique event ticked over?

For the rest of you, please move on.

New Music

High School Musical Special! But first, the normal stuff:

Avenue Q - Avenue Q

From the previously watched theatre production, the lyrics still have me in stitches. And as an OST it's top class too!

Use Somebody - Kings of Leon

My current rock ballady track. Crap lyrics but who cares?

Run - Leona Lewis

Far superior to the Snow Patrol version which she covers, this is even more class from the girl from Hackney.

And now what you've all been waiting for:

High School Musical - High School Musical

Only Breaking Free and Stick to the Status Quo, mind.

High School Musical 3 - High School Musical 3

Now or Never, I Want It All, Can I Have This Dance, A Night To Remember, Just Wanna Be With You, High School Musical.

Camp Rock - Camp Rock

We Rock, Here I Am, Our Time Is Here.

All feelgood, teeny boppy, and musical. I won't say any more since I've already lost any street cred I might have had. I'm going to go jump off a cliff now.

The Great Debate

A bit heavy for a Friday night, but since it's so important it has to be discussed as soon as possible. A picture paints a thousand words though so:



For me there is no debate. The most correct way to hang your bog roll is B: there's a larger "grab" space, it's always easier to roll towards you rather than away and due to the angles, it's easier to "swipe" and tear just the amount of paper you need (and so you don't have to touch the paper at all).

Of course I still respect the opposing stance (even though I take it upon myself to switch As to Bs whenever I can and wherever I happen to be. You mat think this weird, but apparently I'm not the only one who does this). No, the real criminals are the fence sitting morons who don't have an opinion at all, as if this isn't an issue worth thinking about at all. The only thing worse than a wrong answer is an inconsistent one.

Thanks to Steve for the tip.

Link of the Day

Nokia Cupid

Be romantic and send a free Valentine's message to your unsuspecting target's mobile phone number (assuming you actually know it of course). The the thing for those of you too cheap or cowardly to do something better. My only regret, of course, is that I have nobody's digits to plug into the website myself. Hopefully someone reading will find a use for it though.

And don't worry; the hate will resume tomorrow as normal.

Food: Osteria Italia

A cosy yet swish Italian down on Golders Green Road. Clean, with nice and friendly service I would say that the food is a slight let-down - my jaw had a bit of a workout getting through the dough in the pizza/garlic bread.

Cost wise, it came to 15 per head, slightly pricey for what we got, but considering we were left to our own devices and allowed to chill, it's not a totally unreasonable price.

The Kelvedon Hatch

Deep in Ongar ways there's a not-so-secret nuclear bunker, originally built to house the Prime Minister in times of war. It was functioning in some role or another all the way up to 1994 (presumably they've built a more swish place for our heads of state now), but is now privately owned and open to the public. Interestingly though it can still be activated at any time - amusingly there was a colour status thing on the outside indicating that the country was at level "Special Black", which isn't the colour for peace.

It was pretty much what you'd expect from a pre-war building - dingy and dank, with that smell of rotting dust in the air. It didn't feel as deep as I expected as we took the long sloping corridor down to the lowest level of three. We saw the radio stations, the emergency broadcast rooms and communications and operations facilities; most of it was tarted up with shabby props and the like, but you could still imagine the history there. I was especially impressed by the fail-safe and redundant communication infrastructure they had at that time; pretty ironic since I assume back then it might have been seen as a waste of taxpayers money, just like similar initiatives are seen as now.

War rooms, dormitories and medical centres made up the rest of the place, the building capable of housing 600 of the most important people in the country. All in all it was a decent way to spend a couple of hours; one of those things with enough character to give you a feel of the history it represents.

Snippet

xxxx says (22:42):
    *ELECTROCUTE * 
    Blanka btw
Shak says (22:42):
    i reckon youre a fake
    youre just saying random stuff to get boys hot under the collar
    it's okay, i do the same with ladies fashion
xxxx says (22:42):
    LOL

Film: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

It's films like this which make me wonder how others can claim to be feelgood. Nick and Norah is pretty much just that; it's classic boy meets girl at its core, with a full coating of charm, wit and music on the outside.

I wouldn't describe Infinite Playlist as deep though - there's isn't no insightful moral commentary or point here. You're just hanging out with a bunch of kids as they look for Fluffy as well as themselves (aww).

Michael Cera and Kat Dennings do a fine job as the young Romeo and Juliet, with the supporting cast doing enough not to be completely sidelined. The film was well put together if a bit random, but that turned out to be something which just added to the charm of the film as a whole. I have to say that I was underwhelmed by the soundtrack, but not enough to have been left disappointed.

Forget the rest; if you really need something feelgood and easy going look no further than Infinite Playlist. Totally recommended!

Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

First things first: this film is long. It feels long. There were times I fell asleep and didn't miss much. I'm not saying the film is boring but, well, just think about taking a pillow if you decide to watch it.

A quick google shows that I'm not the only one to draw parallels between Benjamin Button and one of my favourite books, The Time Traveller's Wife. Both introduce a weird time warping twist to their respective stories, neither are science fiction novels and both are almost totally character driven. In fact I'd probably ask you to have a read of my take on TTTW since it largely reflects how I felt about TCCBB. In short the curious affliction Benjamin has been afflicted bit is secondary to his (and his wife's) coming of age story.

Which leaves us to the other, more filmy, parts of the film. The acting was superb, with Brad Pitt once again showing us that he's not just a pretty fa...body. Cate Blanchett is equally good, as is the production as a whole really. The story and script present plenty of laughs and tears, as each anecdote of Benjamin's life is told in a particular and unique way (Benjamin's take on causality part way through the movie was of particular interest to me).

In fact the only gripe I really have of the film is its length. Ordinarily this isn't of much concern - I've seen more than enough Bollywood to have become accustomed to sitting on my bum for that long. No, it's more that the film seemed a bit laboured at times, as if it was trying too hard to make very simple points. I guess it's safe to cover all the bases and make sure your whole audience is on the same page, but personally I would have preferred a good half hour or so to have been trimmed off.

But in the end I will recommended Benjamin Button. It's different and enjoyable enough not to pass up; just make sure you take a pillow and blanket with you.

Abstruse Goose

Aaaah good ol' Alice and Bob. I always knew Bob was a romantic:


A fine use of asymmetric cryptography if I ever saw one.

Rebel Muzik

February's edition of Rebel Muzik was just as cracking as the last: once again we had an open mic session stuffed with talent you could hardly describe as being amateur; and once again we had a fantastic main show with talent like Manage and Kingpin busting up the mic and J.Kas providing some awesomely eclectic stuff too.

There were two hits for me this time. Ottoman Empire Soundsystem, four guys from Germany, were just plain fun - their performance was charming, amusing and full of quality and we laughed and sung along with the group.

Secondly there were the beautifully talented Pearls of Islam; a poetic/spoken word duo who seemed as brilliant off stage as they did on it.

So yet another fantastic night out, with Rebel Muzik once again cementing its guarantee of providing spiritually uplifting, inspiring and most importantly brilliant music each first Thursday of the month.

Food: The Canopy

A small but plush eatery in Limehouse of the "halal-shisha" variety, The Canopy isn't really that special in a market full of this kinda thing. And just like is the case with its competitors, The Canopy was chock with students (which you may or may not like depending on your viewpoint).

The food was passable if a bit pricey (EDIT: and as I found the next day gave me a belly ache), but the service and vibe was fairly good. Nothing special, but something to check out if you're in the area.

Video of the Day

Here's a simple message put in accessible terms:



Who knew poetry could be so compelling?

Ta to Fug for the link.

Film: Bride Wars

Buddette movie about a couple of best friends who accidentally book their respective weddings on the same date, with each then refusing to reschedule for the other. What results is around 90 minutes of tit for tat as they each try to ruin the best day ever for each other.

Despite the promising set up, Bride Wars wasn't all that funny - in fact I was left wondering how Judd Apatow et all would have dealt with the same context. I was also disappointed with the lack of any romance, with the film choosing to focus on the friendship between the two brides rather than the ones they had with their respective fiancés.

Still, what you do end up with is a charming and feel good enough film about friendship and forgiveness. It's hardly the deepest of flicks (it all seemed a bit of a rush job actually), but it wasn't all that bad. Recommended if you don't want anything too heavy on a Saturday night.

Game: World of Goo (Wii)

Here's a cute little Wii Ware game, the concept of which will appeal to anyone who was a fan of Lego, Mecchano or any of those other construction sets things.

The aim of the game is basically to use Goo to construct a pathway to a pipe or goal. However, as you've probably guessed by the name, Goo isn't very rigid and so is at the mercy of gravity (Goo collapses under its own weight), wind and other environmental influences meaning that you have to construct your structure in imaginative ways to succeed.

And that's about it really. As usual it's the simple concepts which prove to be the most engaging; World of Goo is accessible to everyone and we've even been playing it as a group, huddled around the screen collectively figuring out the best engineering method to build a bridge across a chasm. Good stuff!

Game: Castle Crashers (360)

My first paid for XBLA game, Castle Crashers is essentially Golden Axe updated for a new age. For those of you too young to remember the seminal hack and slash game, you play one of a possible four characters travelling from left to right, striking down enemies with your sword as you go along.

That's essentially it really, although there is depth in the form of new weapons and combos, magic and levelling up. Every now and then there's a boss or minigame, all welcome distractions to something which would otherwise be a bit samey. The graphics are fun and colourful and the style of the game is such that it provides a certain level of humour throughout.

It's not very difficult, although that probably defies the point really - with up to four players in the main game as well as versus modes this isn't really about challenge or depth but more about having a laugh with mates. It certainly doesn't lose points for that!

Game: Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 (360)

You know, I never was a fan of these new fangled first person army games. They just seems way too uptight and pretentious for their own good: I didn't know the difference between an AK-47 or Mig-whatever. I just wanted to, you know, shoot and stuff.

Call of Duty kinda changed all that, and I've now begun to appreciate the drama and production of this genre - for me it's about watching the story unfold while figuring out the best way to get from one checkpoint to the other. In that sense it's kinda like an action puzzle game, something those of you who already play these kinda things would have already realised ages ago.

RB6V2 is a bit generic in that I can't really tell the difference between it and anything else, but that's no bad thing since it's always fun to snipe from a distance or defend your team from a flanking enemy. I think that there's some sort of tactical twist to RB6V2 in that you're supposed to direct the rest of your team, but I don't bother with that especially since I'm exclusively playing this in split screen co-op mode.

I don't think these games last that long either - something that doesn't really bother me as much as it should. Self containing episodic gaming like RB6V2 is right up my alley, during a time when I don't really get a chance to play for extended periods.

I'm Not So Different After All

Just goes to show, no matter how unique and alone you think you are... You're probably going through the exact same thing others have. That's actually quite comforting in a way.

Thanks to Zany for the heads up.

That's What Friends Are For

One of the biggest questions which befuddles the parents of those of us still single is the following: how can we be finding it so difficult to marry someone when we each have so many friends of the opposite sex?

This same thing was asked of me last week as I settled down with a bevy to watch Dirty Dancing and the answers are just as typical: "I just don't see them in that way", "if it was to happen it would have already", "we're just mates" and "there's no specialness there", none of which are answers at all really. And while we usually console ourselves by thinking our parents just don't understand our respective lives, I'm not sure any of us are really convinced by the arguments we give back.

It doesn't just stop at misinformed parents though. A wise friend once asked me a question along the same lines, fully expecting what I was going to say. However this time she responded in asking me why I didn't think it was possible to, consciously or otherwise, prompt a further development with an existing friend. Why the cynicism?

The thing is that, technically anyway, her and my parents might just have a point. I'm sure that no one would deny wanting to be friends with the one they finally end up with, and in that way we'd be half way there. Of course I'm not suggesting for a minute that any friend could become something more (gosh no), but to think that none would out of that many potentials is taking things a bit too far. After all if I'm confidently able to say that my single female friends would make great wives, why wouldn't that apply in the situation where I was the one married to them?

One theory is that in our lives of free-mixing and making friends of different backgrounds and qualities, some of us might just have become desensitised to what makes a boy-girl relationship so special. For example, others who possibly wouldn't have had as much friendly exposure to the opposite sex might only just need what the rest of us have in order to kick off something bigger. Put another way if we're lucky enough to have so many special relationships how can we pick just one on which to build something more on? What would make that special?

There are other reasons why we'd want to avoid asking a friend out. A fear of messing a good thing up is an important one, but I suggested this to be pretty irrational in a previous post. I think that generally there'd be little fall out in approaching a (mature) friend, whether they decline you immediately or you both find out that it's not going to work later on. Any action you take doesn't have to impact what you already have, provided neither of you want it to.

A crucial part of all this is whether or not you believe that chemistry or a spark can be created between two people at a date later than when you first met. Some of us want a relationship that had picked them rather than the other way around, to talk about how they didn't have a choice in the matter and so just knew. People generally want to fall in love, not climb up a tree, pick their spot and jump into it.

I guess that's why it's easy to assume that if it doesn't happen straight away (or at least by the time you feel you really know them) then it'll never ever happen at all, as if relationships are statically capped beasts. But if we analyse it a bit more that's not really true: sometimes we have to help things along ourselves.

You don't always have to be explicit about things though. In fact, it's reasonable to say that the trigger to a further development with a friend could just be more time, or a particular event, situation or conversation - something that suddenly makes you look at them differently without you looking for it.

An example we can all relate to is that of Monica and Chandler from Friends (and no, I don't take all my philosophical cues from sitcoms. Honestly!). They had been unassuming friends for well over a decade before an unintentional fling somewhat forced them to consider a further opportunity. For them, it was a sexual relationship which switched things into a new gear.

Sex is (probably) out of the question for many of you reading. Casual dating (as in seeing someone who you don't yet have a spark with) is another strategy some use to nurture something, but that too might be deemed inappropriate. There are other options though and not all triggers are culturally out of reach. It doesn't necessarily have to be left to chance either - all it could take is an adult conversation with someone you really like (as a friend). The point is that you might have to pull that trigger yourself if you think it's something worth exploring on paper.

Whether it's something worth doing or not is up to you. I've spoken previously about how I'd like to build a case for a potential before vocalising anything and the chance are that you already know whether you and a friend are compatible or not, but alas the only real way to see if you can build chemistry is to try to and see.

Originally drafted 30th August 2008

Free Newspaper, Sir?

This afternoon I managed to fulfil a long standing dream of mine: to hand out free newspapers at the exit of a popular train station. The paper in question was a local community rag aimed at uniting Muslims in the area. We spent around 45 minutes in front of Ilford station from around 7 onwards, hoping to catch the tail end of the rush hour coming home from work.

The last time I did anything like this was to collect at Oxford Circus for Islamic Relief a couple of years ago - that was quite fun and comfortable since we were there doing an obviously good thing with permission and on in an official capacity, we were indoors and so warm and it turns out that people actually liked to give and engage.

Today on the other hand was quite the opposite. We were there on our own to promote a local project and it seems that people generally have nothing but contempt for people handing out free stuff for them as they're trying to get home. It didn't help that it was freezing either.

It was interesting to see how moody and impolite some people were. I mean hey, I didn't mind the rejection much (being oh-so used to it by now) but a simple "no thanks" was absolutely appreciated every time it was said, even if it meant a newspaper would not have been taken at that time. Being blanked does hurt, and I'm glad I take the time out to thank-but-no-thanks those that try to stuff things down my passing by throat.

Still, bizarrely, it is a real test of character and confidence and by the end of the session we were giving away papers to passer-bys and pretty girls. As with anything else it wasn't as difficult as it was initially thought to have been but having said that I totally have a new found respect for those who do it on a regular, sometimes daily, basis.

Picking a Python Web Framework

A big reason I decided to work on this current project of mine was to learn new things. For that reason I had pretty much settled on using Python on the web server side - it's a programming language with lots of support and mindshare, and happens to be pretty fashionable right now too (which probably means it won't be once I get to grips with it).

There are many frameworks for creating Python-based web applications. After reading up on them all the two I narrowed my decision down to was the ever-popular Django and TurboGears in its latest and bleeding edge version 2 guise. Since I had come as far as I could merely reading about them, I decided that the best way to proceed would be to spend some time actually playing with them.

I first played with Django. I have to admit that it was a pleasure to use: the tutorial made sense, everything installed and worked first time, I felt that I was learning and could imagine how I could leverage it to do what I wanted to do.

TurboGears 2 was a bit more difficult to come to grips with. The documentation was out of date, the install broke a few times and I had to join an IRC channel to get some help and I felt like it was a general struggle to get to grips with. That said I could see how it offered more potential in the long run, having including JSON libraries, widgets and AJAX support.

This pretty much reduced my decision to the following question: do I want to to get on with things now simply and easily only to possibly reach a head at a later date, or invest in something with a steep learning curve that will allow me to do almost anything I wanted?

With time at stake I've decided to go with Django. I think I'm at a stage in my project where progress in the short term is more important than in the long term and I also think it's important that I'm actually enjoying what I'm doing. That's not to say I don't appreciate either - in fact there would have been a time when I would have relished the learning challenges TurboGears brings... Perhaps I've just become lazy in my hey day.

EDIT: It seems that there is a third option; that of Ruby on Rails. Ooo. Time for another tutorial I think.