It has been a bit strange around here for the last few days. I have been working at night and sleeping in the day so I have hardly seen Karin or any daylight for ages. It’s been weird. Still, my work is now going well after I realised that worrying about it won’t get me anywhere. I have made good progress on numerous fronts, including getting past an annoying problem where I had, in effect, painted myself into a corner by piling additional complexity onto a solution that didn’t really require it and then became the problem itself! That doesn’t happen very often with me as I do so much of my work on paper first but at least all is calm now. As hard as it may be you will just have to come to the realisation that even I make mistakes. Sometimes. Occasionally. Rarely. Ho ho ho.
I’m going to Stockholm on Saturday (Karin will be later today I think) for Karin’s Father’s Birthday so that should be a nice break, although at the moment I feel that I’d rather just continue working - that will no doubt change though as Stockholm is always good fun.

As a break now and again I have been playing the strangely addictive game Fate. It’s a roleplaying game of the Diablo\D&D mold with much dungeon delving and monster slaying. Graphically it is very impressive with a bright, bold, cartoony motif running throughout. Between bouts of delving ever deeper into the bottomless dungeon your character spends time in a small town where potions, spells, weapons, armour and other nik-naks can be bough to aid you. Additionally quests can be taken on from various townsfolk proving a randomly generated task for you to complete for a reward.

The core gameplay mechanic (kill monsters, get experience points, become more powerful, get better weapons, repeat) can’t be said to be original although numerous twists are present including “Socketable Weapons” (ala Diablo 2) and pets. Socketable weapons can have magic gems implanted bestowing the weapon with specific powers or skills that can prove useful when defeating some of the tougher monsters. The idea of your character having a pet that follows him/her about is used to good effect - The pet has it’s own set of experience points and levels up independantly of your character and can be transformed (momentarily or permanently) into a number of different, and more powerful, forms for extra help. Together with a solid combat and magic system this all makes a nice little package. Best of all the game is available as an online download for a mere $20 (~£11 or ~143SEK)! Not bad at all.

Right, I’ve spent 20 minutes writing this and mooching about so I better get back to some work and then maybe some sleep (as it is gone 5am!).

As you may have noticed I have changed the look of this blog somewhat. I have been meaning the change it for a while but finally got around to it last night and this morning. Based upon a lino-print that Karin made in ‘99 (shown below) I have simply cut it up for use here. The plan was originally to go for a cartoon-esque space style theme for the blog (again based on Karin’s artwork) but for now I quite like the little scientist dude.

Sticking with the artwork theme I knocked up a couple of concept sketches for the style of buildings in my demo game:

Currently the editor is resembling some kind of Sim-City style game. You can lay down roads, place buildings and add details like street lights and rubbish bins etc… So I am feeling confident about the whole project. Not quite confident enough to show any screen shots of the editor yet but soon! I am gradually moving onto putting together the code for the game itself and things are going well. Still have a hell of alot to do but if it’s not a challenge why bother doing it, right? (Ho Ho Ho…).

Remind me never to do anything this large on my own again. It is not good for your sanity. Or your bank balance. Or your parents’.

In other news my parents have acquired the house they wanted in the Forrest Hill district of London and if all goes well should be moving in within a couple of months! The new house (which I haven’t seen myself yet) looks very nice and the area is great. It will be funny to have no family connections linking me to Reading soon, but I am sure I will still be gracing the Coopers Arms once again!

(NOTE: The new design for the blog doesn’t work quite right in Internet Explorer at the moment - the menu appears centered vertically instead of at the top. I am working on it though…)

Found on a lamp post outside Kalmar Nation in Uppsala the weekend before last.

For this experiment you will need:

1. A pack of hot dogs.
2. A bundle of wires (Gamecube to GBA connector leads work fine).
3. A game\DVD case.

Now for the instructions:

1. Pack a large bag or suitcase full of clothes and assorted items. In the middle of the bag place these three items stacked on top of each other (Game first, then hot dogs, then wires).
2. Arrive at the airport for your flight late. About 20 to 30 mins before the flight leaves is fine. Because time is short the staff there will ask you to take all your luggage (including what would normally be checked in) with you directly to the gate.
3. As you reach the security checkpoint notify the guard that you are late and he will allow you to skip the queue of the afformentioned 150 people and jump right to the front.
4. Put all your bags through the X-Ray machine.
5. Walk through the metal detector, setting it off because you forgot to take off your metal belt buckle.
6. Get searched.
7. Wait for your bags.
8. Look at the concerned look on the X-Ray operator’s face as he scans your bags.
9. He will now be looking at something like this…
   
   Is that a BOMB!?
10. While the 150 people are delayed behind you, gradually getting more and more pissed off try your best to answer the guards questions. An example script follows:

Guard: “Er…Sir….Is there anything I should know about in your bag?”
You: “Well, I have a tray for baking Yorkshire puddings.”
Guard: “Hmmm…You can keep that…Anything else?”
You: “No, I don’t think so.”
Guard: “Right then, let’s just unpack this here…”
(the 150 in the queue collectively groan)

The guard will now rummage through your bag asking you what everything is, and occasionally scanning things or swabing them for some kind of analysis. Because your bag is so packed this will take at least 10 minutes. Until he comes to the hot dogs that are, of course, packed in a sealed manilla envelope.

Guard: “What’s in here?”
You: “Hot Dogs.”
Guard: “Hot Dogs?”
You: “Yeah, Hot Dogs.”
Guard: “Just Hot Dogs?”
You: “Yes. My girlfriend loves them. They are hard to get in Sweden.”
Guard: “Ah…Why are they in an a brown envelope?”
You: “Had to put them somewhere. Open it up if you want…”

So the guard looks confused for a bit. Then he lightens up and relaxes as he figures that anyone mad enough to carry around hot dogs in a manilla envelope is probably not capable of building a bomb and let’s you go.

11. You now have to pick up your underwear and other items of clothing off the counter top and re-pack your bag. Fast.
Now a mad dash the whole length of Heathrow Terminal One takes place because, of course, your gate will be the furthest one from the security check point. When you finally reach the gate, just in the nick of time, and sit down in the plane - sweating like a pig - Karma will kick in. Thought you were going to get away with pissing off those 150 people earlier? No way. Now the otherwise ready to leave plane will be delayed due to a leak in the kitchen. Next the right engine will refuse to start and an engineer will be called out to MANUALLY START THE ENGINE FROM OUTSIDE THE PLANE! This will take 1 hour. As the captain informs you over the intercom that the right engine will be manually started a passenger will ask one of the stewards:

“What happens if the engine needs to be restarted in the air?”

And the incredibly re-assuring answer will be:

“Oh that’s no problem. The pilot isn’t planning on turning it off until we land.”

—

Beautiful.

My life is never dull. I don’t know how this stuff keeps happening to me…