I had another date with torque_tiger last Thursday, and that ( went pretty well. )

Since then, and in general since I last wrote, things have been fairly quiet. I've generally been feeling alright, though, and while things have been going more slowly than I'd like, I've managed to get some stuff done. I finished X-Men Origins: Wolverine (and will review that at some point), and I think I'm already used to my new phone -- it now has this snowleopard as a wallpaper, music from Lost Odyssey for the ringtone/message alert, and the theme from Persona 4 for the alarm. (It's awesome in a massively geeky way.)

Talking of massively geeky things, I've been given links to a couple of nifty sites. Manga Fox has, well, manga (foxes optional; though beware occasional ad redirects) for free, including some pretty popular series, and Crunchyroll does much the same thing for anime.

Finally, because it's Music Monday (at least on twitter), I figured I'd post a couple of links. Indie Paws is a blog with a good selection of posts and quite a substantial number of free mp3's, which is always a good thing. (Also, m'friend Mag [edit: magrcon] writes for it from time to time.) I've also been listening to some Fall of Efrafa, and at that link their entire discography is available for free.

Around this time last year, I'd just bought my Asus Eee PC 701 4G, and replaced my broken Nintendo DS with a brand new DS Lite. Of late, I've got hold of various add-ons and equipment to add to the functionality of those, along with rekindling some of my other 'geeky' interests: comics, anime, and roleplaying.

( First, the tech... )

That ties in nicely with the roleplaying, as both series are often touted as inspiration for and/or examples of Exalted-level combat. While I'm still very interested in that game, and continue to acquire books for it, I've recently got (back?) into the new World of Darkness. I had the core rules, and (naturally) Werewolf: The Forsaken since the release of the latter, but until recently I had not really looked at the line at all. A few weeks ago I picked up another of the main 3 games, Mage: The Awakening; and on Wednesday, I was able to get hold of Vampire: The Requiem -- completing my collection of the core three games -- and Changeling: The Lost.

As of last week, we'd begun to play a Vampire game run by Miquel; it is thanks to his efforts and those of kolat_ray that I've got back into roleplaying, and I can't thank them enough. The game we're playing is set in ancient Rome, and so far has proved to be quite interesting; it's really held my attention despite me not being familiar with new Vampire, or overly fond of vampires or Roman settings in general. (I also got interested in Orpheus, as Miquel owns the main book; although that and at least one of the supplements is fairly readily available, all six books may prove difficult to find.)

I tried to find some places to get cheap roleplaying books from, and I was surprised to find Amazon had some good deals. I've ordered Promethean: The Created and Hunter: The Vigil to complete the set of new World of Darkness main books, along with 3 supplements for Werewolf and two for general World of Darkness use.

I'm vaguely considering going to the comic/gaming shops in the near future, possibly today, as I've not been in a very long time; it'll be interesting to see what they have.

(How am I affording this? Well, it was my birthday last week, and I am eternally grateful for generous relatives. Also? They let me have a credit card.)

[continued from here]

The second theme of my time away (as well as the creativity mentioned in my last post) was the media I acquired while I was there. I explored two main interests of mine, which carried throughout the different things.

( Two main themes )

Finally, but by no means least, I managed to pick up Fallout 3 at a very reasonable price while I was away, and I've been playing it a fair bit. "Oblivion with guns" has been a comparison that's been made, as it's by the same developer and shares some superficial similarities, but if anything it's "Morrowind with guns" -- those who have played both extensively will know the difference.

In fairness, both comparisons do a disservice to a game that stands up to its heritage but also has its own identity and style. It's a lot more of an intense experience than many other role-playing games, and I've not been able to play it for very long in one sitting because of that. And, with the 50's-meets-scifi stylings, it knocks BioShock into a cocked hat, which I thought was overhyped and overrated in the first place.

I got back home today from a fairly long stay with my mum and stepdad; it was enjoyable, but I was ready to come back. It's likely to be more difficult for me to get there in the fairly near future; my dad's selling the house (and, to be honest, I'll be glad when it's sold and I don't have to go there -- not that there's really anything wrong with the place itself, just all the bad memories associated with it) and moving back down south. My mum and stepdad are still planning to move to Amsterdam, but that's much more of a long-term thing than the 8-12 weeks my dad's been quoted before the buyer is ready to take ownership of the property. From what he was talking about on the way, I still feel a little guilty about not going to this wedding I was invited to, but it's too late to do anything about that.

( cut for rambling )

One of the things I missed while I was away was having incense burning. When I came back here, the air was a bit stale, and so I put some incense on. It's one of those things that I guess I only notice when it's not there, and it really does have a positive effect on the way I feel. I also have all my Buddhist texts, prayer books, malas and so on here, which I missed too. I also found out (thanks to Wisdom Books) about a course at Jamyang Buddhist Centre in Leeds, but it's next weekend so I almost certainly won't be able to make it; however, another event they mentioned (with a lot more warning) was HH the Dalai Lama giving a 5-day series of teachings in May next year in Nottingham; one of the particularly interesting features of this is the Vajrasattva initiation, a figure in Buddhism that I have felt strongly drawn to for quite some time.

I've been having a pretty good time in the nearly-a-week I've been here at my mum's, and I'm not returning until Wednesday of next week. The journey down was easy, though we stopped in town for something to eat and get some things my dad wanted -- and he also bought me a set of metal files that'll be useful for working with models -- before we left; remarkably, for the first time I can remember, he didn't have a go at another driver even once in the entire journey, let alone his usual near-constant tirade against other road users.

Anyway, though we've not done a huge amount, a few things we'd ordered arrived in the post; the .hack//Legend of the Twilight manga (in 3 volumes; the anime adaption should be waiting for me when I return home, as will .hack//Sign and some soundtrack CD's), along with both AI Buster books, the complete .hack//Another Birth series (four novels), and the guides for parts 2 and 3 of the game series (the one for part 4 is being shipped from the US which will take some time, and the guide to the first hasn't arrived yet -- though as I finished that game already, this isn't a big deal).

Also arrived were hardback versions of Tad Williams' Shadowmarch and Shadowplay, the first two volumes in a trilogy; I gave my paperback of the first one to my stepdad, along with some other small items I'd got for my folks.

*

( From Neuromancer to eXistenZ to Serial Experiments Lain... )

*

As pleasant as it is staying here -- and we have vague plans for the weekend, as my stepdad Neil isn't at work on Monday or Tuesday -- I won't mind going back home, either, as there should be a fair bit of stuff waiting for me there. I'm also planning on getting back into some machinima and possibly artwork when I'm back, as well as posting some music I've been working on. I got hold of some more dance/trance/whatever CD's the other day where the tracks aren't mixed together, so I'm hoping to try recording another DJ set too.

I'm headed to my mum's tomorrow, for a little over a week (though I may decide to stay longer), and as usual I'm going to have limited net access, as I'll want to spend time with them rather than online -- plus, there's three people sharing one computer, which obviously restricts use. Anyway, I figured that since I'll be away for a while, I should make something of a catch-up post here while I have the chance.

( Yesterday was pretty good. )

I was also finally able to track down a copy of Robotech: Battlecry, via the ever-useful Chillout Games. I'd borrowed it off kitsunefury and I think it's really good, but I couldn't find it in any of about a dozen other places I looked. I'm pleased to have found it, anyway. (Amusingly, to me at least, the automated transaction confirmation email began with 'NEW ORDER (Details attached)'.)

The only thing that's really bugged me today is that my mouse suddenly stopped working, so I had to go into town and spend the last of my cash on buying a new one, which I could have done without. It was the last one in stock, so they had to take it off the display. This mouse is cheap as hell and doesn't have a middle button/scroll wheel, even though I keep instinctively reaching for it. I'll just have to buy a better one some other time, but this is functional enough for now.

Finally, I wanted to mention that I started watching Angels in America last night, and it's really good. There's several friends I can think of that would like it; still, it's very evident that it was written for the stage rather than the screen, and I don't think there would be a lot of difference between watching the miniseries and seeing it in the theatre -- though as the play performed in both parts is about 7 hours long, having it on DVD and being able to watch just one chapter at a time (it's split into six, at about 1 hour each) makes it a whole lot easier.

[edit: kitsunefury came over for a little while this evening, and it was good to see him; I'm glad we were able to spend some time together before I went away. I slept rather too long in a nap and thought I'd missed my chance, but I sent an email anyway and he got it just before he left work, and was thus able to visit.]

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on here or not, but a few years back (2004-ish, I think), I was really into Project .hack. This was a very ambitious multimedia project, covering three anime series, four games, and several volumes of manga; I had the first two games (Infection and Mutation, the other two being Outbreak and Quarantine), though I never progressed beyond about the halfway point in the second instalment. I'd always wondered what happened in the story, but the games (apart from the first, which is reasonably common) became all but impossible to find not long after their release.

( However... )

Another series (though this time shorter) I'd always wished I'd seen the conclusion of was Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. I'd become frustrated with the first part and traded it in, but I was recently able to find both parts again at a very low price (in fact, I got both for less than the normal price of part two). In many cases I find that if a game (or anime, etc.) has a strong and interesting storyline, I'm prepared to put up with shortcomings in other areas, and this is true of both .hack and SMT:DDS.

Two things about .hack made me think. For a start, the game-within-a-game structure reminded me of ARG's, and the online game style brought to mind the idea I've been having on and off to go back to World of Warcraft, as I'd recently been sent a free trial of the expansion. It's a massive timesink, but I know a few people who still play.

For the ARG's, there's been a number of them going around lately; perhaps one of the higher-profile ones, Iris, is to do with Halo 3, though I've not really been following it. [edit: I also forgot to mention that I recently picked up the ARG-esque In Memoriam, though I've yet to delve into that too deeply.] There's also ones to do with NIN's Year Zero, and Lost, which I believe I've mentioned before. Interestingly, Lost creator JJ Abrams is responsible for a movie trailer for a project variously known as 1-18-08 and Cloverfield; there's all manner of speculation about this, but my gut feeling is that it's somehow related to Lost, and that an ARG will almost certainly spring up around it, if it hasn't already done so.

We'll see.

The last few days have been pretty good. Friday morning I was playing Baldur's Gate -- probably the closest computer games have ever come to pen-and-paper roleplaying -- and doing various other bits and pieces on the computer, then in the afternoon kitsunefury came over (I had the pleasure of his company for a little while this morning too, but I'm getting ahead of myself). It was good to spend time with him, and he was around for longer than anticipated by either of us; still, this was no bad thing, and after he left I had dinner and went to bed early for a change.

( Yesterday... )

Today has been less busy; there was the aforementioned visit by kitsunefury this morning, after which I went back to sleep for a while. When I woke, I put on Night Watch (apparently they're making films of all three books, but this is the only one released so far) and got some food. It occured to me that it'd make a great setting for roleplay, then remembered I had the PC game and I've hardly played it.

I got a call from kyu_diary to ask if I wanted to go to his place and spend time with him and imperial_wolf, but I couldn't as dinner was in the oven; a shame really, but I needed to eat. I might get to see him later in the week; similarly, fangkit plans to come over in the next few days, and (if I remember rightly) mikosquirrel is in the country for a while. So I might threaten to be sociable this week.

The only bad thing, really, is that my bed's a little broken now. The thing that supports the mattress has cracked at the end, and doesn't support it properly. Thankfully it's at the bottom rather than the top, so it's not a huge problem. Meanwhile, I've been rearranging my PC desktop (changing picture, moving icons around for easier access, changing the colour theme, etc -- screenshot here, and that's Torak in the background image; photo by megadog, I believe), updating my profile, and I probably should get on with writing a turn for Monster Island PBeM soon, as the last to be processed was a month ago today. Seems I'm not getting too bored anymore these days; in fact, I'm quite often finding things I still want to do by bedtime that I have to put off until the next day.

As I was up fairly early (around 10am) yesterday, and the weather was fine, I decided I'd head out and meet folks for a bit, with the intention to just see how things went and then come back home after a couple of hours.

( It didn't quite work out like that. )

After a while, I decided to leave, and I seem to have engaged a very advanced form of the beer autopilot, managing to somehow get home, order and pay for takeout, consume that and what was left of the coke while watching anime (Heat Guy J, which notably features a bishi werewolf -- not that I'm biased in favour of that combination at all), unpack and play the Hitman games which had finally arrived, and take my meds, before finally falling asleep. I have almost no recollection of any of this, and I can only assume I bought takeout as I'd chucked out all the old boxes and stuff already, and there were some new ones there when I woke up (at 3am, dying of thirst, though I got back to sleep eventually).

Surprisingly, I'm not in the least bit hungover today.

Today's not been a bad day. I'll get to the main point first -- over the weekend, I wrote a new piece of music, which I've uploaded to share. (I'm thinking I should rotate the songs I have on MySpace at some point, too.)

• Schrödinger's Dog - Fire or Snow (3:24, 4.96mb .mp3)
  
  Dreamy, trancey electronica; icy synth fragments and broken beats merge with insistent bass and jangly guitars. A female vocal segment ties it together in the final minute.
  
  I'm really pleased with this one; influences drawn from My So-Called Life and Enter Shikari, among other things. For J. (If you think this means you, it does.)
  
  I've set myself the challenge of completing this album, The River of Light, hopefully by the end of the year. As it is laid out so far, there will be nine tracks in total, grouped into three triptychs with similar themes and names. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to manage it.

Previously: Ghosts in the Snow

( I got more done over the weekend, too. )

Yesterday came as a great relief for me. I'd been feeling quite low for a few days, but yesterday I managed to wake up in the morning for once (admittedly thanks to an alarm; I'd been oversleeping pretty heavily for whatever reason), and found it to be a warm, sunny day, with clear blue skies. It was the first day this year, I believe, that I'd needed to wear sunglasses, and even wearing a light jacket over jeans and a t-shirt was a little too warm.

I went out almost immediately after waking, and when I went to pick up my benefits, there was next to no queue in the post office. I did the usual tour of town, though there was little of interest until I found that the manager of the indie games shop I frequent had traded in a bunch of anime he didn't want anymore; I managed to pick up another two volumes of RahXephon (and subsequently found the rest at an enormous discount on Play, along with the last two volumes of Hellsing, the first time I'd seen these for anything like a reasonable price, and I'd been looking for a long time), the complete series of Tokyo Underground, and Requiem from the Darkness volume 1, as well as a couple of other non-anime movies.

There were various others available, but nothing really grabbed my attention; I got hold of DarkStalkers 3 for the PS1, also, only to find out that it seems to be the same game as Vampire Savior, which I already have on the Dreamcast.

I went to Games Workshop, and for the first time in years I had a game of 40k, playing as (of course) Eldar, versus Dark Angels, for whom a new Codex has just been released. I had to use some of the shop's stuff, which was kindly loaned to me, and we played using the Combat Patrol (aka 40k in 40 Minutes) rules; though there were some flaws in my strategy, I won a fairly decisive victory. Both my opponent and a few people who were watching made some constructive comments, and overall I really enjoyed it; I'm intending to assemble and at least do some basic painting on some of my own stuff, so I can play more often, something made more easy now they're open late every Thursday night for the forseeable future.

I came home and fixed the light in my room -- the lack of which, I think, had contributed to my low mood -- and just chilled out and watched a movie (Taking Lives was pretty good) before it was time for dinner. I got takeout pizza, and watched (perhaps ironically) Super Size Me; it made me think, especially reminding me of college years ago when I'd have fast food for lunch pretty much every day.

The last thing worth noting is that I turned off the computer on Monday night, and (as a test, pretty much) I decided to see if I could do without using it for 24 hours.

It was a complete success.

I was originally going to see my folks this weekend (had planned to go on Friday and come back next Thursday), but I changed my mind at the last minute as I had a fair bit to do here, mainly on the computer.

One of these things was to sign up for various social networking sites; there were a few I'd heard of already, some were recommended by friends or people I know, and Wikipedia has a fairly comprehensive list. I now have accounts on several of these, though I've not yet finished creating profiles and so on; eventually I'll put a "places to find me" section on my bio and other locations, as not everyone I know uses lj, and I'd like to get in touch with more people if I can. I may not be the most gregarious person in the world, but everyone gets lonely.

( Anyway, yesterday... )

I got on a tram home pretty much straight after that -- and it was *still* raining -- and found that my copy of Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings (in the Thomas Cleary translation) had arrived.

Unfortunately, in the night, I suddenly began to feel very unwell; my head was fuzzy, my chest felt tight, and I had aches all over. It subsided a bit, and I was able to sleep, but I've still not been feeling quite right today. Even when I've not had any physical discomfort, my state of mind has been pretty strange, as if in a dream...

A couple of days ago I finished watching the anime series Escaflowne, and thoroughly enjoyed it. (Each episode is presented with a particular Tarot card, but more on that in another post. On a slightly related note, I'm hoping to buy the complete Gravitation manga from kitsunefury.)

Anyway, one thing that struck me about the series, which was perhaps otherwise a little formulaic, was the appearance of both winged humans and dragons (the former implied as descended from the latter). I don't know why, but I've been drawn to winged humanoids for the longest time (though only when the wings are feathered, for some reason). I've never particularly believed in angels, at least not in the Christian sense, but the imagery is still very powerful for me.

( Rambly! Finished other things too. )

That's pretty much all there is for now. A little narked that no-one had anything to say about my machinima from the other day (though thanks to spikeedragon for the sole comment on the latest music I posted); that being said, lord_kook emailed me to say "don't think about not writing in yer journal (or feel down) even though you feel like no one pays attention to anything but the TMI or the icons", so I'll still be posting -- comments are a pleasant bonus, not the motivation.