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.)

So, I've been following up with some of the tech things I've mentioned in past entries.

( Yes, this is a little geeky. )

Thanks to salith, I should be getting a pretty decently-specced PC custom-built and ready within the next two or three weeks; we decided on the parts a few days ago, and I gave him a cheque yesterday. It cost substantially less than I was expecting it to, having looked at prebuilt machines of comparable specification, and it should be pretty expandable as time goes on. The only thing we were unable to find on the site used was the live bay thing for the Audigy, but I could feasibly take it out of this machine. I'm planning to keep this one around as a spare, as it still works OK and everything; it's just not very powerful. Alternatively, I may get a KVM switch so I can run both machines as necessary, but I'll work this all out when I actually have the new PC.

Talking of PC stuff, I found a couple of useful sites for desktop backgrounds/wallpapers. I've had the most use from DesktopNexus, though 4scrape has some pretty neat stuff too.

As there's been some malware going around on Twitter lately, LongURL Mobile Expander is a pretty handy add-on that lets you see the full address for shortened URLs, in case of any doubt. I recall reading somewhere that people are substantially more likely to click links in a Twitter feed than in an email, despite such things not necessarily being any safer.

So, now I'm back home from nearly 3 weeks with my folks, I figured I'd spend some time writing about what happened, seeing as I didn't manage to find the time to write while I was there.

( I'm going to split it into two posts to avoid WALL OF TEXT. )

The last thing I want to mention on the creative front, and something that kind of leads into the next post I want to make, is that I got Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg; it looks at writing as a form of Zen practice, and I'm hoping it'll give me some ideas to not only write better in general, but also perhaps to start doing some more creative writing as well -- I've always rather envied people who manage NaNoWriMo and suchlike.

I think the best thing, really, that's come of all this is a sense of hope and greater confidence in myself. I'm a bit behind with uni work -- on the photography course at least -- but I should be able to catch up, and the tutor for the arts course I'm doing called me the other night to introduce herself and give some advice. We also arranged for a tutorial by phone next Wednesday, by which point I need to have read the first chapter of the textbook. Should be manageable, and with a bit of luck I'll successfully complete both courses this time.

Oh, and I changed my journal layout and posted the answers to that lyrics meme.

Seeing as it's been exactly a month since I last wrote a regular post here, it's impossible to catch up with everything that's been going on. Nevertheless I'm going to try and recap some of what's happened and what the present situation is.

( Short version: Could be better. )

I'm planning to go visit my mum and stepdad in Leeds before long, and I think it'll make me feel better. The problem is fitting it in around this photography course, but I'm not entirely sure how much I care about that. I don't want to be stuck at home for 10 weeks solid just because of some stupid course.

I guess I should eat, and maybe go out in a bit. I'm sure I'll find something to occupy my time, regardless, and hopefully by the time I next come to write here I'll have something more positive to say.

It's looking like my stay with my mum and stepdad is finally drawing to a close, and at present, I'm planning to go home on Tuesday. Unfortunately, they're fighting at the moment (I won't go into details, but it's really Not Good) and so I've been hiding in my room pretty much all weekend. With luck, though, things will have got better before I leave for home.

That being said, I had a good time with my stepdad ( last Tuesday. )

There's a couple more things to add. Games-wise, and especially with the DS, I often play things for just a little while before deciding I want to keep or get rid of them, and with a lot of titles, especially RPG's, you can't make a judgement quickly. To this end, I've spent the last couple of days playing all the DS games I have here, and I'm pleased to find I've chosen well.

Next, although I've talked about books already, there's a couple more to mention. I decided to further my interest in wolves by getting a further two novels: Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver, the first in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, and Promise of the Wolves by Dorothy Hearst, first of the Wolf Chronicles trilogy. I can't find any info about her or the book on Wikipedia, so I'm guessing it's a first novel -- it did, however, lead me to find rather interesting articles -- I suspect footpad may well want to check them out -- about wolves in fiction and werewolf fiction.

Finally there are two technical issues. First, it seems that my phone is damaged or something, as in a few calls I've been unable to be heard. I haven't tested this extensively but it seems like I need a new one. Secondly, I see no point in renewing the domain name for my old site loopback:reconnect, having done nothing with it in about four years, so some really old links and images may be broken.

In a way, I'm looking forward to going back home. I want to escape the bad stuff that's happening right now -- though maybe that'll be gone tomorrow -- but I also have things waiting for me, and I can hopefully sort out something positive for my future.

I try and avoid rambling about games too much (perhaps with limited success), but the new Alone in the Dark is, for me, a very pleasant surprise. I was expecting very little of it, having seen next to no coverage and feeling even more dubious when there were no reviews until a few days after release, yet it's quite possibly my favourite survival-horror game since Silent Hill 2 (which was nearly 7 years ago, improbably). I'm going to write a review of it when I finish it -- and I will finish it, unlike so many others -- but I'd certainly recommend it if you can put up with some control awkwardness (but since when has there been a survival-horror with a smooth control scheme?) and the occasional frustrating sequence.

With that out of the way, ( today was pretty good. )

The general point that I'm getting at with all this is twofold: first, as has been remarked upon by a few folks, it's finally starting to seem like the future, as promised to us in sci-fi and especially cyberpunk in the mid- to late-80's and early-90's, is here. This is as self-evident -- I mean, I just bought an entire computer that's smaller than the screen of the monitor on my desktop -- as it is fucking awesome. Which means that the future of the future will be even more awesome.

The other part of what I'm getting at is a little bit more difficult to explain. I'm still a fluctuating percentage of certain that I'm Buddhist, but even so, I don't think that withdrawing from all things of the world is either practical in the modern-day context, or even something that would particularly benefit people. That's why I've been interested in documentaries on the natural world and books on what I suppose comes under contemporary sociology.

I think this is technically Engaged Buddhism, though at present what I'm doing is more a process of learning than taking any action as of yet. I'd prefer to be in a position to make a well-informed decision that's somewhat planned, though, than to just go after whatever cause seems appropriate at the time. I tend to think more than act, anyway, though I'd like to be able to make some kind of change for the better, even if it's only something minor.

Tomorrow I have to go to the doctor's to get a new prescription; I can't just get a repeat this time, as I have to see the doc periodically to confirm the meds are still right. That being said, I can't get them changed any time soon, for various reasons, so it's all a little pointless.

On Saturday, as I said, I have my ticket booked to go and stay with my mum and stepdad for a while. I should be in Leeds for about 2 1/2 weeks, picking up the stuff I've ordered while I'm there and hopefully seeing a few friends. It'll be nice to see my folks again and find out how their trip to Amsterdam went, and I could do with a break anyhow.

Yesterday was a great day for me; it felt like a lot was new, or at least changed. Once I was ready to go out, I put on entirely new clothes that had never been worn before, and it was a sunny day to boot (though perhaps a little too bright at times). I went to town as usual, though I tried to be brief, and got some good deals on music and DVD's (and some holiday reading -- namely Chuck Palahniuk's new novel, Rant), as well as a couple of games for my neglected DS, which I suspect may be useful on holiday (when travelling at least, or if momentarily bored in a cafe or whatever) too. I'm really looking forward to it.

( Anyway... )

Today, it seems like a lot of time has gone by already, and I still have a reasonable amount of stuff to do. My dad's picking me up tomorrow to take me to my mum and stepdad's place, and then on Sunday we're flying out to Amsterdam for 10 days, including my birthday, staying here; I'll be at their place for a few days after we get back from 'Dam, too. I've also arranged to see shirosirius on Friday, which should be good; it's been a while since we spent any time together. That being said, I'm mainly just looking forward to having a break.

I finally got back home today, after nearly a month at my mother's place. ( First of all a recap of yesterday... )

I was somewhat agitated and ratty this morning, having probably not got enough sleep, and packing seemed to be going interminably slowly and taking up far more space than I'd anticipated. I'd left it late due to taking a little time to be creative, and trying to rebuild the track I accidentally erased. The journey home with my father was fine, and uneventful, and when I came back to the house it wasn't as bad as I'd thought, though it does need work. There was a lot of stuff in the mail, which caused some anxiety due to finding a phone bill and a daunting form to fill out with regard to my benefits.

Despite that, my place still has the 'safe' atmosphere that made me feel better at my mother's place, leading me to believe it's a state of mind rather than a location that's the key here. I noticed that a lot of the programs I run on the computer are dark (IRC and terminal windows with a black background, and so on), which may affect my mood, so I'll try and change that. I'm thinking I might migrate the consoles to the other room, and the better TV as well, moving the old one downstairs and putting the cooking stuff back in the kitchen, as it's patently obvious by now that they're never going to come back and finish refurbishing it. I also want to put up the mandala cloth/prayer flag thing on my wall, and buy some posters so that room is not so bare.

It turned out that I'd missed a couple of items being delivered; I imagine they were the rare PSX games I'd ordered, and the mystery Xmas present from m'boyfriend. The card said to wait 48 hours to pick them up, and that they'd keep the items for 3 weeks; hopefully I'll be able to pick them up tomorrow, even though that's three weeks precisely from when delivery was attempted. It means I'm going to have to go to bed when I'm done here, as the collection office is usefully only open until about noon.

I'm pleased with the things that *did* arrive, though. I got Metroid: Zero Mission for GBA, an excellent remake of Super Metroid, which in turn was a remake of the original NES Metroid (which can be unlocked upon completing the game).

My copy of Nintendogs arrived too, though I'm not sure if I got the right version; the one I picked is 'Dachsund & Friends' (with the Miniature Dachsund, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Pug, Siberian Husky and Shih Tzu available from the outset -- no prizes for guessing which one I want), but the other two have desirable breeds as well ('Chihuahua & Friends' has the German Shepherd Dog, Shetland Sheepdog, Boxer, Chihuahua, Cavalier K C Spaniel and Yorkshire Terrier, of which I'd want the GSD, and 'Labrador & Friends' features the Minature Schnauzer, Toy Poodle, Miniature Pinscher, Kembroke Welsh Corgi, Labrador Retriever, and Shiba Inu, the last of which is the cutest thing ever, and may just eclipse the Husky). Still, all the other breeds can be unlocked during gameplay, and I think I'll be playing it a lot; the dogs are really cute and lifelike, and the whole thing is just so totally innocent and charming that I can't help but love it. It's also probably the closest I'll get to having a real pet, as I'm not allowed to keep one in this apartment; staying at my mum's, I realised how much I missed having animals around.

The DVD Region X disc I ordered after accidentally breaking mine also arrived, and I've (at least temporarily) shifted the PS2 into the other room so I can watch movies or play games while sitting or lying down, which will be good as the pain in my back continues to be a problem. The last thing that I tried was Genji; it's not bad, but I'm glad it was only cheap. The English dub is terrible, and the Japanese-language audio track isn't great either. Still, it's fairly good-looking (though not a patch on Soul Cal 3) and pretty slick with a lot of style, though it draws obvious influences from the Devil May Cry and Onimusha games -- it's by the same game director as those, in fact. Stuff like Bujingai, Blood Will Tell and the O.to.Gi games are possibly better, but it was cheap and I like the genre.

Anyway, it's about time I went to bed, if I'm going to go out tomorrow morning and get this missed delivery (and have a bit of a browse), so I'll close here and write more, well, when I have more to write about, though I'm going to lay off buying too much for a while, as I've acquired more than enough over the Xmas period to keep me going. I'll post pictures soon, too.

Okay, I know I haven't made a post with much content in the last ten days orso, but I saw this on syrenwolf's journal, and it amused the hell out of me. This may be because I am slightly drunk, and thus even more easily amused than I normally am.

( I'll be nice and cut it. )

I have a fair bit of stuff I want to write about, having made quite a few entries in my notebook, but I think I might try and split it between a couple of entries so it doesn't end up being one of those huge posts that takes me forever to write and no-one ever reads. :P

Also, I just ordered Nintendogs for the DS, which should be there waiting for me when I finally go back home on Wednesday, along with a few other bits and pieces (and hopefully no bills). This threatens to suck away time like a time-sucking whore, so you may not hear from me as much; to top it all off, there's a DS incarnation of Animal Crossing on the way. G'bye, social life (wait, the DS is portable, duh) and all other hobbies. <3

Also also, wtf.