tock#d - waiting for the caffiene to kick in

tuesday, september 18

1:09 AM
I just printed out the manual to Ancient Domains of Mystery. Another roguelike. Seventy bloody pages. The game looks interesting, though the color set looks a bit off after playing nethack so damned much.
I downloaded another one this afternoon called 'Unreal World'. I haven't had the chance to try it out yet due to it being just the shareware version and it looking like the most complex game ever. Seriously. It's set in Finland during the Iron Age and it seems like a great deal of it is focussed simply on surviving in the environment rather than the typical dungeon exploration simulation that most roguelikes provide. Pity about the shareware thing. Wish I had a credit card to actually buy the thing, it looks worth it.

monday, september 17

7:40 PM
In roguelike games don't name your pets after your real pets. It's too distressing when they die.

saturday, september 15

3:13 PM
Heavy Liquid is probably the comic I have that I read the most. It doesn't diminish with time, there's so much in there. Yet it's so simple at the same time.

1:48 PM
The artist's city. More like hamburger city.
Besides, they killed art years ago. They killed it and replaced it with a simulation. Then life was replaced with a simulation.
People going to see the Mona Lisa, not to look at it, but because it's the Mona Lisa. Then they quit going to see it at all. They'd just stitch it in on a screen. A picture of a picture on a screen. A knowing, tired nudge saying, We've seen it all, It's all been done. Don't try anything new. We've used up "New."
... The Romantics never believed that, though. They'd say, Maybe you've heard it and said it all, but I haven't. So art isn't dead. It's just holed up in some second-floor studio.
All the same, I say to hell with the Romantics. They were never a sensible bunch to begin with.
Paul Pope, Heavy Liquid.

wednesday, september 12

2:27 PM
When the buildings collapsed it rained paper. They just showed something on CNN, footage from a doctor who had run to see if he could help just as the buildings collapsed and he's walking around in the dust and the ground was covered in sheets of paper. So surreal.

tuesday, september 11

10:29 AM
Argh. Got down to level eight in nethack and got my arse jumped by a yeti. Seemed like he had four or five attacks in one turn. Damn that smarts.

6:56 AM
Is it possible that anyone can ever do anything worthwhile in thier lifetime? Because I look around me and think that I'm wasting my life. But what else is there to do? Raise kids? Like the world needs an even more fucked up version of me, plus I have to accomplish the difficult task of finding someone suitable and willing to do that with me. Art? Possibly, but artistic pursuits aren't exactly the most economically viable in the world, so the reward and the support are very small. Buy shit? Fuck you! Science is too ethically thorny to say it's worthwhile.
Fuck it. There was a philosopher who said that the most noble thing someone can do in thier life is try something stupid and fail. Without failure there can't be any success. I like that idea. Until I find something better that'll have to do.

monday, september 10

6:27 PM
Hmm. There's a new look for Leisuretown. I'm hoping like hell new material is around the corner. Anyway, off to bed, fuckers.

4:35 PM
Played Nethack for a while earlier, a human rogue named Illabrat. He did allright until I got hungry on one level and remembered there was a store with rations on the floor above and I had some coin to waste. So up I go, without my cat who was off making noises and killing things in the distance. I thought it'd be just a quick run to the store. Got mobbed on the way there by a group of giant ants. If my cat had been there he would have distracted them while I killed them off with throwing daggers. But oh well. Yet another death.

3:10 PM
Oh yeah. The walk back nearly fucking killed me.

2:54 PM
Bullet with Butterfly Wings has to be ironic. I mean, come on.

2:53 PM
Went for a walk down the street. Actually, I didn't walk down there. I got a ride on with Mum on her way to work. She dropped me off near the computer store. From there I paid my internet bill. Another month of internet. Hooray for me!
While I was there I got a monitor cable, assuring the guy that I didn't want an extension but that there are bent pins on my current one. While he was processing and scanning barcodes a co-worker wanders up and comments that the price is wrong. I still got it at the marked price, though. Below wholesale and all, or so the coworker said.
On the way back I was followed by a pit bull. It was tame as fuck and dumb as hell. Apparently it was someone's house dog and it got out and ran away because there were people in a car following it and yelling a name. I couldn't figure out what the name was. The dog didn't seem too interested, either. It was more concerned with pissing on things.

2:35 PM
Just bought Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Welcome to the fucking nineties.

sunday, september 9

4:02 AM
I really gotta stop downloading games. I have too many to play already, including several massive roleplaying games and a a heap of strategy game all touted as being replayable and all. I'm not a collecter, I really don't even understand the idea of collecting unless you're going to make your collection available to the public. Go with what you like, I guess.
Even if I wanted to be, I couldn't afford to be, seeing as my ISP has a 'reasonable use policy'. Gotta love those.

3:47 AM
Mariah Carey should just do her filmclips naked.