I Would Drive 500 Miles (Nearly)

As many/all of you may well know, from last Monday I have been working for YoYo Games in Dundee. As less of you may know, this involved moving out of the East Anglian countryside village I've lived in all my life and taking a 450 mile journey to a room in the middle of the noisy city. As I've said before, it's a huge system shock. But here's a little bit of information on the journey - I'm on limited bandwidth so I can't upload the large number of photos I took during yet but I'll add them later.

I went to bed at 11pm on Saturday 10th with an odd, and unpleasant, feeling. I was laying in a room that, for sixteen years, had been my room. Bar a few vague memories, it was basically where I'd slept, every night excluding sleepovers/holidays/whatever, for as long as I remembered. But, in eight hours, it would effectively be gone from my life. I'm not ashamed to admit I didn't sleep very well/much that night. As my dad was looking to set off early, we left the house at 6am, leaving a sad mother, and, to my complete disdain, three cats that were nowhere to be seen. No goodbye hugs or anything.

After a short while of not doing much, and realising I'd left my phone in my red holdall (buried under all the "cargo") instead of in my to-hand satchel, with a loud, non-automatically-stopping alarm set to go off at 8am, I just thought "meh", took out my iPod, put on the Ochre playlist and fell kinda-asleep.

At 8:20, I woke up to realise we were in a layby - dad had to stretch his legs. I seized the opportunity to get my phone out - despite his not hearing it, it was blaring away. It's only past this point that I was able to take photos (my phone's my camera). A largely uneventful "middle leg" of the journey followed - a second leg-stretch stop, a playlist switch to Owl City, and a level created in Innoquous 4 (for future me's sake, the level I made is called "Navarone").

At this point I really wasn't feeling great. The mixture of the length of the journey (I'm not travel sick but I get really tetchy), and continued thoughts of how this was basically crossing that line where the latest stage in my life is over, made me nearly want to vomit. I drank some water and laid back, though never actually fell asleep again - though I did miss our crossing the England-Scotland border because of it.The shot of relief came from seeing the first road sign with "Perth" on it. Thanks to the golfing tournament, most inns were filled up so instead of getting one in Dundee, we went to the nearest town or whatever it is, Perth. Wasn't a big fan of the inn though. The room was nice, but the bar was really depressing. To my surprise there were dogs running about in it though (I have pictures of one of them, will upload when possible).

So, the Monday morning saw us heading to Dundee. Without much time to find what is now my room of residence, we headed straight to the University of Abertay. My dad came up too to see the office (which would've been hell to find if it had not been for Mike Dailly coming down to lead the way!), and I set up the computer at my station. At 10am, we left to view the room. I accepted it immediately, which I assumed I would, and I headed back to the uni to complete the day of work.

Upon returning, I realised I would be put into physical exercise jeopardy - all of my belongings (of which there's a LOT) had to move from the car to the room. That's seven flights of stairs, and repeated journeys both up and down them to move everything. I'll happily admit I'm big and unfit. So it was murder! It was a relief to get it done though, and an unorthodox way of meeting one of my flatmates (*pant* *pant* "hi..." *pant*).

And that's pretty much it. My dad slept on the floor that night, then left early Tuesday morning. As we both somewhat lack outside emotion, and as I was still asleep, this consisted of the word "bye".

Despite the aforementioned system shock that is beginning to fade but still is there, and the odd pang of sadness (which is nothing more than a pang. Don't get me wrong, I'm not depressed or anything), I don't regret any of it in the slightest. The job itself is huge fun (getting paid to do something I've pretty much been doing for free for seven years? Yes, thanks!), I'm all set up in the room now (having today bought mobile broadband from the 0.04-miles-away Orange store, and a TV licence because I don't watch broadcasts, just play games on it, but whoever conjured up the TV licence concept is a bitch), and things just feel damn good. I'm in regular contact with my parents and friends, and the sheer amount of appreciation I've seen from the Game Maker universe regarding my position with the company is absolutely gratifying. If you're one of those that has commented positively on the Glog entry, Game Maker Blog entry or anywhere else, thank you.

Here's looking forward to life.

Why That Name?

For this blog entry I'm going to be going through why I gave the names to games I've made. It's here instead of NALGames Blog as it's more a point of interest. It also means I have a way of remembering these things in the future.

Fight of the Height (2005)

Oldest game on the list, Fight of the Height was a game I conceptualised when I was six (I always wanted to be a game developer!). It was named so because the original idea was to have the game take place on a series of skyscrapers that you jumped over the roofs of, shooting at your opponent. It changed a little for the games themselves though I did keep that idea for one or two levels.

Gamanstake (2006)

Stuck for an original name for a generic maze game, and with the promise of gammon steaks for tea, I took "Gammon Stake" and played with the spelling.

Blokkeid (2006)

The precursor to Elemence got its name as the gimmick of the game involves using BLOCKS as AID to complete levels.

Elemence (2006-7)

I wanted to keep the Blokkeid name for the game that was Elemence, but since there were multiple game modes it was irrelevant. So instead I came up with "Elements", then tampered with it for originality. After the unreleased sequels named after their difficulties (Elemence Easy, Elemence Refined), Gold got its name as it became a portmanteau of all the previous, making it a kind of compilation game. Then AuX is because Au is the chemical symbol for Gold, with the traditional X for "woo, awzum!".r!!!dicule (2007)The third in the r!dicule series, it was named after I was trying to think of a name for a premise and came to the conclusion that trying to name it was ridiculous.

FKR (2007)

Stands for "Fantastic Kinetic Reflexes", however that is technically a backronym. When trying to work out a name, I just went "...F**ker!", and decided to alter it to familyfriendlydom. Nowadays though I only ever read it as "Eff Kay Arrrrrgh!"

Fustercluck (2007)

Fustercluck was named after the song playing in the background - simples. Only later did I find out what Fustercluck means, though!

Rockit (2008)

A rocket simulator, but with a reference to the Herbie Hancock track I was thoroughly into at the time.

Mingitilla (2008)

No idea.

Zyousbox (2008)

An altered spelling of "Juicebox" with the J sound softened.

Signal Failure (2008)

At the time I was addicted to GTAIV (for the first of three times, the third still currently ongoing) and one of my favourite tracks on it was Padded Cell - Signal Failure.

Ne Touchez Pas! (2008)

"Do Not Touch" just didn't have the same ring to it.

Innoquous (2008)

Another song-based one, though the game was based around it. I liked LCD Soundsystem's "Get Innocuous!" at the time. The game was also initially innocuous in that there were no direct obstacles. Changed the C to a Q because to be honest I thought it looked better - it's still pronounced "in-ock-you-us" though, not "in-ock-wuss".

EverScrollingHue (2008)

Initially "Enzyme", ESH made more sense named as such because the in-game hues were indeed ever-scrolling.

Node (2009)

My first release of 2009, and not a very good one at that, was named so simply because the graphics were inspired by "nodes and links".

Dreaming on E (2009)

Made partly through 2008, Dreaming on E was inspired by the phenomena of odd dreams while on drugs. Yes, the E indicates "ecstasy". No, I've never done E. Yes, I read about drug-fueled dreams while making DoE to base stuff off it.

MINDRAPE (2009)

I initially heard the term in an episode of "American Dad!" and loved it. Therefore I kept using it, and based a game on the idea.

Infidels (2009)

From the song "Infidels of the World Unite", an amazing track by one of my all-time favourite artists, Fischerspooner. Initially called Infidel as you played the infidel, it changed when I reversed the story and so there was more than one.

Head Candy (2009)

Another term similar to MINDRAPE, I liked the idea of "Head Candy" and had seen it elsewhere.

The Hilarity of Murder (2009)

Initially Lite Town Wars - made in GM7 Lite, set in a town, depicting a war. Changed when I added a gimmick to make it fit a Game Jolt competition - it just made sense and rolls off the tongue nicely.

It Only Takes a Second (2009)

Another one that rolls off the tongue, and a fairly smart-arse title given the game's premise (you have to finish each level with one second left on the timer).

RKF (2009)

FKR backwards. Once again, I came up with a backronym to make it mean something else.

madnessMADNESSmadness (2009)

Made up in Game Jolt's chatroom, I described this as "how somebody suffering from madness may describe what they were suffering from". The idea is that they might say "madness" three times in quick succession, shouting the second one. The game is depicting a guy that is suffering from madness - hence the odd circular world, the unexplained walls and things, and the confusing poetry.

This is a Game with a Stupid Graphical Gimmick (2009)

I just felt like being blunt!

La Rolloux (2009)

Originally "Wolley", the name of the guy in-game and "Yellow" backwards, changed to La Rolloux as a portmanteau of "Roll", and the artist I loved at the time, "La Roux". Coincidentally, the guy's quiff was in the game beforehand - it took someone else for me to realise how close it looked to the hairstyle of La Roux's Ellie Jackson.

1n23g4r (2010)

First release of 2010 was another smartass one - pronounced "integer", the game sees you counting moves up from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 steps a go. They're all integers too.

SohoPogoHo (2010)

A pogoing ho from Soho. Sorted.

Acid R[ai/eig]n (2010)

Two meanings of the same-sounding phrase. It contains acid rain, and the acid reigns.

Remaddening (2010)

The sequel to mMm, unlike previous sequels, took an entirely different name. Why? Well, mMm had a convoluted name anyway, I wanted to shorten it. So I went in the style of many film sequels, which are like "Generic Action Film: The Redestroying". Stupid stuff like that. It very nearly took a The at the start but I just preferred Remaddening on its own.

Confusion Readily Achieved... (2010)

Yeah, another kind of backronym. However, it was just steered towards it this time. It was initially something like "Confusion Achieved Through Perspective and Dimensions".

Infinite Sporadic (2010)

I always liked the phrase "Endless, sporadic" so I went for something similar.They're the most interesting ones I can recall, anyway. Hopefully this has been an interesting little insight into my mind. Will be sure to blog again ASAP.See y'all! (and that's from Dog's Life on PS2)

Laptop

A month since my last post? Preposterous!Anyway, I've been meaning to post. Honest. I was initially going to do one chronicling (looks wrong?) my time volunteering at Redgrave Community Shop, as a couple of weeks ago I ended my nine month tenure there. But my computer crashed on that last day and by the time I had it back up (which took a while as it's over four years old and showing its age) I didn't really feel like it. There wasn't much to say anyway.

There have also been a number of other happenings since the last blog entry. I'll touch up on some now before the "main event".On the 15th May I celebrated my 19th birthday. I mainly got money (around £100 in total, with an extra £50 or so coming later or in cheque form meaning I couldn't get it very quickly) but also got a preorder of ModNation Racers and a few other things, including some old but lovely copies of such games as Far Cry Instincts on Xbox, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on GameBoy Advance (win), and Call of Duty 1 on PC (also win).

After staying up until 4am to play these for extended time, I was woken up three hours later by my dad asking if I wanted to go to Banham Car Boot Sale. Bleary-eyed and wanting bed, but realising that a nice supply of money + Banham Car Boot Sale = jackpot, I accepted. There, along with a couple of old GameCube games, The Getaway: Black Monday and a couple other throwaway items, I found an Xbox 360. It was £60 with a functional wired controller, a usable but dodgy wireless one, a headset, an additional component cable (basically old HDMI) and a copy of "Gears of War". I wasn't sure if I wanted it though. What if it was faulty and was a RRoD-bricked machine? I couldn't test it. But, thinking about all the games I wanted for the thing but never could get, I risked it. It paid off.

I now have, along with Gears of War and a copy of the excellent Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City I also bought at Banham for £20, these games: Dead Rising (£8 - stunning game bar a few blasted flaws), WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 (£2.30 - mostly to help complete the set, I now have 2006-2010 unbroken), Saints Row (£5, not very good, but to get some back story as I have the multiformat Saints Row 2 already), Project Gotham Racing 3 (£2.30, not keen but it has the slick Geometry Wars and Retro Evolved demo which both win hard), and Fifa 07 (99p, not played. Got it because it was 99p!).

On other gaming notes, I got a copy of Amplitude on PS2. I've only been looking for a copy of this game for seven years (more than a third of my life) - when I held it in my hands it was gratifying, akin to Mario holding Luigi's balls.

So, five days ahead and I got ModNation Racers. It was disappointing. After a couple of days loving it, I hit a difficulty spike and spent the next four or five slugging through the last stages with frustration beating out fun. Then I discovered it was region locked online. This means that, not only could I not play anybody else I know that owns it, but it also means that because 99% of UK MNR owners seem to hate ranked matches, I can never find one. So it's just lost all appeal.

Lastly, here are the answers to the quiz in the last blog.

1. Kaitlyn.
2. SNES - I've never owned a NES, PlayStation was my second console and Megadrive was something I got in the PS2 era for retro laughs.
3. Yellow, and at the time it was entertainment perfection.
4. Wheelcage: Test & Win, though all four are levels I've published.
5. XIII - I own the other three on Xbox, though prior to having SSX On Tour on Xbox I did own it on PS2, and I have Metal Gear Solid 2 on PS2, though not the special "Substance" edition.
6. Bottom - I have no Young Ones, a quarter of the Fawlty Towers series, and the entire Blackadder collection on DVD.
7. Robert Rodriguez - did films such as Sin City, Planet Terror and From Dusk 'Til Dawn. Tarantino would be second, I doubt either of the others would be in the top ten.
8. Yellow, though in the past it's occasionally swapped with green.
9. Inflatable sheep. I have no idea if he was even aware what it was meant for.
10. Pair of pliers. It also has a keychain which is all too good at getting in the way of the goddamn pliers.

Quick breather!

11. Lopham. "Redgrave & Lopham Fen".
12. Lindstrom. La Roux inspired "La Rolloux", LCD Soundsystem did "Get Innocuous!" which was one of my addicted songs at the time of a particular gravity flipping game, and Padded Cell did "Signal Failure" which was, of course, a direct influence. Lindstrom did influence a game name, but that game got canned very early in so it doesn't count.
13. A Bug's Life. But I still like it, which is testament to how good Pixar are. Now don't screw up Toy Story 3, right?
14. Insert, because I hate that thing when you type and it autodeletes stuff infront of the cursor.
15. Crazy Taxi 2 on DC. I own Crazy Taxi on PS2 and CT3 on Xbox, and played the Dreamcast version of the original at a 1999 motorshow.
16. Goes Forth. The only series I don't like is the first.
17. Impaled it on a screwdriver, which in bloody retrospect was a bad idea!
18. The Matrix. The others are poor.
19. Jesus.
20. A woob woob woob Dr Zoidberg!

Okay, so now that's done, the laptop. I've needed one for quite a while, given possible future needs to move house and that the computer I use and have done since April 2006 is a family desktop that's horribly outdated and unreliable. So, today, I ordered one. Total cost of £603.50, though without the reductions it would've strayed into £810-odd. To save the effort, here are the specs.

Module Description Base Intel® Core™ i5-430M (2.26Ghz, 4Threads, turbo boost up to 2.53 GHz, 3MB cache)
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English
Memory 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
Keyboard Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Video Card 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470 Graphics Card
Hard Drive 500GB (5400RPM) Serial ATA Hard Drive
Optical Devices DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software
Wireless Networking Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g)
Cables 1 Meter Power Cord (3 Wire) - UK
Shipping Documents English Documentation
Gedis Bundle Reference N0655803
Standard Warranty 1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
Enhanced Service Packs 1 year of coverage included with your PC
PalmRest Silver chainlink palm rest – with Black Chainlink cover only
Order Information Studio 1558 Order - UK
Primary Battery Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
Carrying Cases No Carrying Case.
Dell System Media Kit Studio 1558 Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)
Camera 2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
Colour Choice Black chainlink
Accidental Damage Support No Accidental Damage Support
Online Backup DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year
Theft Protection Solution Computrace LoJack for Laptops, 1yr license - included with your PC
Telephone Contact NO - Dell may NOT telephone me in relation to my order and related products and services
Labels Wireless Label CI5
LCD 15.6" High Definition (1366x768) WLED
DataSafe (Services Owned) Datasafe Local 2.0 Basic
Microsoft Application Software Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Word Starter, Excel Starter)
Protect your new PC McAfee® SecurityCenter 15 Month Subscription
Power Supply 90W AC Adaptor
Operating System Recovery Options OS Media MUI Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT) Resource DVD

That's about all there is to say. Oh, it doesn't mention - it's a Dell laptop. Should be here in about two weeks - if I can get round to it, I'll put up my thoughts on it when it arrives.Anyway, that's all for now. See y'all!

Facts, Disguised as a Quiz

So, here's some obscure stuff about me. But that's just boring. So, here are some multiple choice questions about me. You're not likely to know many, but please feel free to guess at them. No prizes for winners. Answers in the next blog post!

1. Which of these names was considered for me when I was born?
a. Katrina, b. Kaitlyn, c. Kim, d. Katherine

2. What was the first game console I ever owned?
a. SNES, b. PlayStation, c. Megadrive (Genesis), d. NES

3. Which Pokémon game did I play first?
a. Red, b. Blue, c. Yellow, d. Stadium

4. What's the name of my first published LittleBigPlanet level?
a. Wheelcage (Test & Win), b. Woodworld, c. Vector Fortress, d. Slam

5. Which game do I own on both the Xbox and PlayStation 2?
a. XIII, b. SSX On Tour, c. Burnout 3: Takedown, d. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance

6. For which British television series do I own all but one item of on VHS?
a. Blackadder, b. Fawlty Towers, c. Bottom, d. The Young Ones

7. Who is my all-time favourite film director?
a. Quentin Tarantino, b. Peter Jackson, c. James Cameron, d. Robert Rodriguez

8. What's my favourite colour?
a. Red, b. Yellow, c. Green, d. Blue

9. When on holiday with a friend, the friend attempted, but got refused due to age, to buy a what?
a. Copy of Viz, b. Inflatable sheep, c. Pack of tampons, d. Vibrator

10. My multitool consists of a torch, a knife, a saw, a bottle cap opener, two screwdrivers and what other function?
a. Corkscrew, b. Lighter, c. Pair of pliers, d. Pair of scissors

11. I enjoy walks around a Fen which is located partially in my village. Where is the other part located?
a. Lopham, b. Botesdale, c. Rickinghall, d. Hinderclay

12. Which of these musical acts have not inspired the name of one or more of my games in some way?
a. La Roux, b. LCD Soundsystem, c. Padded Cell, d. Lindstrom

13. Which film by Disney/Pixar do I LEAST like?
a. Finding Nemo, b. A Bug's Life, c. Toy Story 2, d. Cars

14. I pulled the Caps Lock key out of my keyboard, along with which other key?
a. Insert, b. Scroll Lock, c. Right Shift, d. Tab

15. Which of the following have I never played?
a. Crazy Taxi (DC), b. Crazy Taxi (PS2), c. Crazy Taxi 2 (DC), d. Crazy Taxi 3 (Xbox)

16. Which series of Blackadder is my favourite?
a. 1, b. II, c. The Third, d. Goes Forth

17. When given a free copy of Table Tennis on Xbox 360, what did I do with it?
a. Sold it, b. Gave it to an X360-owning friend, c. Kept it incase I ever get a 360, d. Impaled the disc on a screwdriver

18. Which film from the Matrix anthology is my favourite?
a. The Matrix, b. Reloaded, c. Revolutions, d. Animatrix

19. I once convinced several gullible friends that I had a fairly odd middle name. What was it?
a. Jesus, b. God, c. Fuck, d. Punisher

20. And an easy one to finish: Which character from a cartoon am I most likely to impersonate?
a. Homer Simpson, b. Peter Griffin, c. Roger Smith (AD! alien), d. Dr Zoidberg

Edgar Mueller: Pavement Art

As suggested by a friend, today I'm going to write about one of my favourite artists, and certainly one of the least conventional around. Edgar Mueller (or Edgar Müller), whose art you may well have seen, paints his art onto pavements, in such a way that when viewed from a particular angle, they seem three-dimensional. It's usually known as "perspective pavement art" or a variant. Because of this, I find his works very intriguing. It's amazing that something, done right, can completely trick your mind.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SNYtd0Ayt0]

The other unconventional aspect to his work is that it's done with non-permanent paint. He will spend days on a stunning piece of artwork, then a single rainstorm will wash it all away into nothingness. Rain has, on at least one occasion, ruined a piece of work prior to its completion - he will now generally cover the art up with a tarpaulin during storms so it can at least be completed.

Mueller's website can be located here. To view pictures of his perspective pavement art, click here (this includes some of his works along with progressive pictures to give you an idea as to how he goes about his artwork), or search his name on Google Images. If you haven't seen it already, I would highly recommend it.

Politics: Why I Don't Vote (Updated 5th May 2011)

There's a general election fast approaching here in England. As a result, voting fever seems to have swept the nation. But I don't vote, and it irritates me when people cannot understand that. So why don't I?

First and foremost, I really don't care about it. Seriously. I have faith in any of the three potential leaders to... well... lead. Everyone's saying Gordon Brown was an awful PM, but I really didn't distinguish him, Tony Blair, and that bloke before Blair that scarily resembled the IT assistant at my old high school.

I don't want to be caught up in arguments related to it. They're boring, stupid, and get you absolutely nowhere. You always know that whenever someone asks "Who're you voting for?", it's more likely than not that your reply will be greeted with an immediate, long, pointless argument about why your opinion is wrong and why you need to vote for [x] instead. As I've seen happen with friends, these arguments never persuade you. Ever. If anything, they make you MORE against the people they like because they all seem like such dicks about it!

If I'm pressured into voting, the people I voted for win, then they cock things up, I'll be getting blamed by friends that voted otherwise. Again, cannot be bothered.

Everyone just tries to stuff it down my throats. Not just talking about voting friends here. We get The Mirror, a newspaper that seems intent on putting down the Conservative party in any means possible (including a remarkably pathetic "Don't Get Conned", with the "o" of "Conned" replaced with David Cameron's face). And there are billboards all around the UK which just have cheesy, smirking MPs smiling for a photograph. How am I meant to make a decision of my own when everyone else is doing it for me, and not giving me anything with which to make a logical decision myself?

And lastly, something which has been touched on in the previous points, it just causes arguments. It's like religion - its primary purpose seems to be to divide people and have them fight each other. The main difference between religion and politics is that, unfortunately, politics can be proven to exist. Everything else is the same - a single authoritative figure that embellishes truths and seems to be great when (s)he probably isn't, a group of followers comprised of a balance between people that actually believe in what the higher up is saying, and people that are just brainless sheep or simply trying to fit in.

So sod politics. That voting slip will make a good bonfire starter for when I can incinerate more of my junk later today.

EDIT: A YEAR ON

There's a point I forgot to touch on when I wrote this last year. I've heard a lot of people mention that "if you don't vote, you can't complain". This too, to me, is bollocks. I assume the point behind this is "you can't complain about [party 1] if you didn't vote for [party 2]. But this isn't what I'm doing. Just because I can poke fun at [party 1] doesn't mean I think [party 2] would have been better, or even as good. For all I know, they could have been absolutely dire.I've nothing against other people voting, don't get me wrong. I just don't want any part of it.

A Day At Norwich

Well, not a day really. Five hours or so.

But earlier today, me and a friend (same one as from the "Falsettoing like Matthew Bellamy" musing) went to Norwich, the nearest legit city to here. We went to watch Iron Man 2, so I'll discuss that first.

It was generally a fairly decent film. Certainly enjoyable, just a bit naff and with a slightly crap story behind it. But the effects used were brilliantly done, the fight scenes were well thought out and great to watch, and some of the humour, mostly by Downey Jr himself, was very funny.

The downside was the price. The ticket itself cost £7.10. It goes up by about 50p a year. Extortionate in itself, but then I got the slush puppy. That was a further £4.50. Money grabbing bastards.

The other main thing we did, after Iron Man 2, was wander down to the mall. I went into Game Station and got myself five old gems of games. Matt, being highly opinionated, basically slandered all the old games as rubbish because of their age. It pissed me off but at the same time an inner part of me smiled at his elitist ignorance. I will, on occasion, get a game that's only been out a week or so, but I don't see the point in doing it constantly when I can... well, today's finds bring up a good example. I got a copy of The Getaway on PS2. It'll provide me with a few hours' entertainment and I'll have fun with it. It cost 98p.

The other games I got were True Crime: Streets of LA, Wild Wild Racing (incidentally the first PS2 game I ever played), and WipEout Fusion, all for PS2, and Virtua Tennis 3 for PS3 (an odd choice, but I remember having fun with the demo, so what the hey).

Anyway, I reckon it's time to enjoy this more-than-acceptable stack of games, while Matt is likely at home playing one drivelly shooter that cost him four times as much as my pile did in total (£10.96!).

One last note - happy birthday, Greyson!

Falsettoing like Matthew Bellamy

So yesterday I went to a friend's house for a few hours, after my weekly shop shift (which, pleasingly, I have a week off of next week, meaning I only have to do one more until I hit 19). We fit in some gaming. He played a couple of my creations - madnessMADNESSmadness and Confusion Readily Achieved Perspectively Through Unrealistic Relative Dimensions. That's beside the point though. As well as quick goes on Fallout 3 (my game, but he's borrowing it at the moment and loving it) and WipEout HD Fury (also my game, got it on disc and took it over) we had a go on Guitar Hero 5. He has the entire kit.

So, with him on the guitar, I had a choice between drums and singing (I'm awful with the guitar so I couldn't do bass). And, despite every inch of me thinking it'd be more humanly kind not to, but with encouragement from him as the drums are a pain in the arse to set up and require makeshift drum sticks... I sang. To mixed in-game results.

We started off with Michael Jackson's "Beat It". I annoyed Matt with a joke about how he's probably not beating it any more, then the song started. We BOTH blew it and lost about halfway through, though I was seeming to hit some of the screechy chorusy bits.

We did several other songs. My worst result came from Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" - I couldn't physically hit the lowest note sung in it, and if I went an octave higher I kept missing all the highest ones! A couple other songs basically proved to me that I'm a lot better when I know the lyrics off by heart. His fairly small TV makes lyrics difficult to read, especially as they're streaming across like lightning and split up into syllables. I was also generally worse at verses than I was at choruses, possibly also due to the unfamiliarity (pretty much everyone can do the chorus of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak", but all the verses are all over the place).

My best result? For Muse - Plug In Baby. For anyone that knows Muse, you'll know that the lead singer, Matthew Bellamy, frequently implements falsetto (really, really high) vocals into the band's songs. Plug In Baby features this. Thanks to my dumb voice, I hit the falsetto part NEARLY perfectly. I cocked it up with the final huge word, in which I began coughing uncontrollably. After the song I retained a headache for the remainder of the night, and my resulting sore throat continues to bug me right now, despite the medicine I took a few hours ago. I got 98% overall on Plug In Baby, by the way. I didn't drop below 60% in any song we played (we did about ten-fifteen), and only went below 70% in one - the first one.

But it was fun. I'm feeling the after-effects, and I'm sure Matt regrets ever letting me get my mits on that microphone. It was nothing short of fun though. I'm sure if I go over there again sometime we'll play it again.

I think my singing career is done for now, however.

Chat Roulette: A Follow Up

So a week or so ago I did a blog on NALGames Blog on the current Internet fad Chat Roulette, a website that lets you, a webcam owner, join up for a discussion with another, completely random, webcam owner. Often to sickening results.But here, along with the 50 original Chat Roulette results I got from Round 1, is a further 50. I'll try to include some stats too.

1. Chavvy looking guy, normal

2. Chavvy looking guy, normal

3. Normal looking guy, normal

4. Someone holding up a piece of paper with an MSN address and cybersex offer

5. Naked guy masturbating, head and... parts... off camera, thank god

6. Pakistani normal looking guy

7. Assumed normal looking guy, laying down, most of him was offcamera but he was clothed

8. Normal looking guy

9. Some guy's torso, clothed

10. Spambot - just showed a screen capture for a website

11. Normal looking guy

12. Normal looking guy, but with sunglasses on and a really stupid light (angled camera)

13. No webcam, just a sound feed, which consisted of someone presumably fiddling with the mic

14. Normal looking guy

15. Top-half-naked guy with sound feed, wasn't sticking around to find out his intentions

16. Normal looking guy in black and white

17. No video or audio feed

18. No video feed, audio feed was just someone crackly playing crap music

19. No feed

20. Two wiggers and some crap rap music

21. Normal looking guy who needs to learn how to zoom with his camera - I could see his chin and part of his jumper

22. Same sort of shot again but different person

23. A hand holding up a piece of paper asking (kindly, I might add) for boobs on the webcam feed

24. Normal looking guy but awful sunglasses

25. No video feed, crackly audio

26. A cock

27. Another cock

28. Bored looking guy, normal

29. Man in briefs but not doing anything bad

30. Bored looking guy, normal

31. Someone just out of shot

32. Bored looking guy laying down

33. Bored looking child

34. Guy that was top-naked (at least), only head and shoulders in shot

35. No video, crackly audio

36. Nobody in shot, was a cam pointed at a dark area

37. An actual woman! Japanese origin too, woo! Quit on her, couldn't be bothered

38. Guy with backwards baseball cap, glasses and tank top. Muscly, looked a lot like wrestler Batista

39. Naked guy masturbating. Cat sitting in the background... poor cat

40. Someone's elbow

41. Nothing

42. Naked guy masturbating. Disturbingly included audio feed. Actually missed the close tab and hit Imageshack's thumbnail out of shock - same closing effect

43. Video feed was pointing at light, audio crackly

44. Naked guy masturbating. Wasn't very well endowed.

45. Girl looking very bored. Crackly audio feed

46. Girl looking very horny. Desperate kind of horny. Looked Hispanic too

47. Normal looking man but appeared to have a spliff going on

48. Guy top-half-naked, bottom half was off shot

49. Two guys blatantly stoned

50. Boring guy with baseball cap

-----

51. A bunch of random Japanese letters

52. White screen

53. Guy, top-half-naked. Bottom half out of shot. Had moobs though wasn't really fat

54. Two girls with a dodgy audio feed (but no cup)

55. A picture montage of a load of penes, vaginas etc

56. Guy. Scene style. Dark room - couldn't see much more than the part of his face not covered with hair

57. Presumably a guy, clothed, torso only - no face or lower half. Dodgy audio feed

58. Nothing

59. Black screen, fuzzy audio

60. Bald man and naff music

61. Same as #55

62. Some gimp, sitting cross-legged on the floor, with a Transformers mask on

63. Guy masturbating

64. Guy, normal looking

65. Two normal-looking guys, third one was off-camera talking

66. Normal-looking guy. Seemed drowsy

67. Guy masturbating

68. Normal-looking guy

69. The same normal-looking guy as above

70. Normal-looking guy, dodgy audio feed

71. Normal-looking guy

72. Normal-looking guy

73. Normal-looking guy, same as one a bit further up

74. The guy in the Transformers mask again, this time sitting on a bed

75. Woman in bikini. Sat on this one for ten seconds or so just to verify that

76. Guy, probably masturbating - offending area off shot but arm was going up and down

77. Odd bot

78. Woman, looked bored

79. Woman with dildo in mouth, possibly (probably?) prerecorded

80. Someone's clothed torso

81. Guy masturbating

82. Static

83. Nothing

84. Normal-looking guy with painful-looking nosering

85. Odd-looking guy. Either very, very pasty or that was the camera's doing

86. Guy masturbating

87. Guy masturbating

88. Normal-looking guy, was talking to somebody off-camera

89. An empty computer chair

90. Japanese woman giving man a blow job, prerecorded as a website watermark was onscreen

91. Girl singing and performing arm actions to some fuzzy-sounding music

92. Piece of paper up to webcam asking for boobs

93. Bored but normal-looking guy

94. Webcam pointed at softcore porn

95. Girl masturbating

96. Guy with trousers down to knees but boxers still on, laying on bed with head out of shot

97. Some chav's naked torso

98. Normal-looking guy

99. Clothed guy, head out of shot

100. Normal-looking guy

So that is 100 results from picking somebody with a webcam at random and seeing what's happening on their end (sometimes worryingly literally).

Of the 100 results:

5% contained females that weren't doing anything rude. 6 girls in total.

50% contained males with (seemingly) no rude intentions. Some of these had two males in one shot, one had three.

0% had both a male and a female in the same shot.

2% were female naughtiness, though half of this may have been prerecorded

In comparison, 19% was male naughtiness, either through requests for females to get naked or just through masturbating.

1% was showing off his small cock. The others were surprisingly large - well, I guess HAVING a big prick comes naturally when you ARE one.

And about 10% of the results were bots, pretty much all with an advertisement nature, many of which were also pornographic.

If you don't mind getting the odd social reject that feels the need to tug his dick off on the internet, Chat Roulette is fairly fun. There are SOME decent results to be had out of it if you're just going into it for a nice conversation.

...but I guess if dicks are your thing then go ahead. Have a mouth-watering time!

Time Travel: Possible?

Time travel; a concept thought about for centuries. There are so many thoughts on its (non-?)existance, it's unbelievable. It's the primary gimmick of more than a handful of films, programs and literature, including many high-up examples as the Back to the Future film trilogy, and the several-decade-long UK sci-fi series Doctor Who. Time travel is everywhere.But from a realistic perspective? It seems impossible. Possibly the most famous example disproving time travel is the Grandfather Paradox: "If you went back in time and killed your own grandfather before he gave birth to the relevant parent, how could you have been born and gone back in time in the first place?" But there's a side-road to this. Perhaps nobody currently in existance could/would do it for fear of erasing themselves. Anybody that would, and did, simply wouldn't exist in the first place.

One idea is that time is not a single, linear line. If you did go back in time and do anything to alter the future, it would simply create a new "branch". These two timelines would then run independently. As odd as it sounds, and as incredibly difficult as it is to visualise, it's plausible.

Perhaps time isn't even a dimension. There is no line. There is no possibility of back and forth. It's just something that... "is". It's only the fact we've given it a measurement scale, something that when applied with anything else can be humanly or naturally adjusted, that the idea of time travel comes to light in the first place.

There's another theory, which starts dipping its toe into religion-esque concepts and seems completely unplausible but not disprovable. What about if humans, at one point in the future, did discover time travel. All hell broke loose, either related (people constantly altering the future) or less so (something like global warming). The vast majority of the human race was killed. The remainder, in an effort to recouperate, went back in time to restore the Earth to its original natural status, free of all technology and vandals of time - kicked the device for time travel into the nearest pit and started copulating. Hell, maybe there was only one guy, so advanced in skill and everything, but NOT HUMAN, that went back, invented humanity, dinosaurs, and all other life forms. Maybe he was called Godfrey. But, in effect, what I just said above prior to the time travel never happened. Maybe humanity today is the result of a process of perfection from repeated journeys through time.

Those that know me know I'm not a religious person. But something had to happen to bring us to where we are today, and when you don't believe, you owe it to yourself to speculate.

Any comments on your opinions of time travel (keep them as un-religiony as possible, please - unless it of course pertains to your theories) are more than welcome, and I will likely reply and share my thoughts on your own speculation.