Articles – Page 67

Armadillo Run

Over the last few days, I’ve mostly been distracted by Armadillo Run, a fabulous little shareware game (Windows only… for now) somewhat reminiscent of The Incredible Machine. It’s great fun, and the download is under 2MB, which makes it a reasonable download even if you’re on a modem (who does that, these days?).

Each level challenges you to get a rolling “armadillo” to maintain a position somewhere in space, by hooking up ropes, poles, cloth, metal sheets, rubber panels, elasticated ropes, and rockets, and modifying them with greater or lesser tension or by setting them to self-destruct on a timer. When you “run” your proposed solution, these objects interact with one another and with the armadillo in order to try to solve the puzzle.

The thing that makes it notably different from The Incredible Machine, apart from the very powerful physics engine – mentioned above – is the huge degree of flexibility you have in implementing a working solution. In The Incredible Machine, you had in your toolbox a set number of varied “parts” – everything from candles to monkeys. While there are less different “parts” in Armadillo Run, each “part” has a cost, and you must spread your budget accordingly and try to get a high score by saving as much money as possible. It’s remarkably cool, because this means that there are a huge number of solutions to any given puzzle.

Give it a go. I’ve got the full version if you’ve played the demo and would like to try a few of the actual levels before committing your £10 to buying a copy.

Abnib Breaks Stuff, Fixes Stuff, Keeps Ticking

As you might have seen, the new version of abnib went live this afternoon. Just so I don’t keep getting the same comments over and over:

Right now, it’s a little fixated on the PST time zone. I’m not sure why this is, but I’ll fix this soon.
For some reason, it’s silently rejecting all applications for a username and password.
There’s no link to Abnib Gallery.

What’s new?

If you’re logged in (hah!) you can block posts by author. Later there may be other ways to filter and prioritise posts.
It automatically refreshes as new posts come in. No longer do you need to keep whacking "refresh" every time you get bored: if you’ve got JavaScript enabled, it’ll quietly check for new posts in the background and pick them up and make them appear on the page.
It integrates with the as-yet unreleased new Troma Night website, so you can see where and when the next Troma Night is at all times. Yeah, and this updates itself without refreshing too.
It’s prettier. I liked the old theme, but I know it wasn’t to everybody’s tastes, and the "it’s ugly" people were louder than the "it’s pretty" people.
A couple of extra features that you can’t see because you can’t log in yet, either. Ahem. Will fix that soon, then.

What Did Matt Leave This Time?

Last time Matt visited, he left his mobile phone charger. It wasn’t all bad: it gave him an excuse to come back again.

This time, he left his razor and a can of deodorant. That’s all we’ve found so far; but we’re convinced that he’s trying to move in by installments. This gives him an excuse to visit again (to pick them up), when we anticipate he’ll leave three things, and so on in that fashion until he’s living with us.

In other news, I’ve just got back from an unexpected drinking session with random socialists.

Scotland Revisited

Wind conditions were better the second day, but not on Cairngorm, so we took a drive out to The Lecht where we were at least able to get some skiing in. We booked my sister’s friend Jemma and Claire into ski school, which gave Jemma her "first time" taster and gave Claire the confidence she needed to keep going at it (after the difficulties she’d had last year), and she managed to take on – very successfully – one of The Lecht’s rough intermediate runs by the end.

Then, having travelled South from Aviemore to get to The Lecht in the first place, we just kept on driving, getting back to Preston late last night. This revises our schedule a little: we’ll be leaving here after lunch and back in Aberystwyth this evening; probably in time for Troma Night at Paul‘s.

I’d forgotten how beautiful some of the Cairngorm-crossing mountain roads can be. Long, empty, winding, unlit roads surrounded as far as the eye can see by long, flat-bottomed valleys and snow-capped peaks. Fantastic.

Mobile In Scotland

I’m posting this from my mobile phone from a youth hostel in Scotland. I’m sure you’ll forgive me for any predictive-text-based typos!

Snow conditions are reasonable, but gale-force winds closed the mountain so we haven’t actually managed to do any skiing yet. Instead we’ve spent today cantering about the countryside on horseback, firing arrows from bows, and climbing around a series of Aberdyfi-like high ropes courses. Rope burns aside, all great fun; and odds are good we’ll get to hit the slopes tomorrow.

Two very strange dreams recently. In the first, I was a human embodiment of the tree of knowledge from the Genesis story (yes, a dream in which I had memories of being a tree), come to Earth to warn people of a coming end time, but only a handful of people believed me. In the second, friends and I were at a comedy show at which Hayley was performing. She was extremely good. Then, later, I ended up having sex with Jen.

Comments that say I’m fucked up very welcome and already anticipated.

Edited 17th Feb: updated on a PC to add links and fix formatting.

Ski Time

Claire and I are off to Scotland for a spot of skiing while there might still be some snow left. We’re leaving tonight and we’re back at the weekend (probably on Sunday). In the meantime, we’re leaving The Cottage, Mario, and Luigi in the capable hands of Matt (Hat variety). We’ll be in Preston Wednesday and Saturday daytime, and I’ll generally have my mobile with me the rest of the time if anybody wants me. Oh, and Troma Night will be hosted by Paul this Saturday.

In other news, running Abnib through Pornalize is the funniest thing I’ve done all week.

Guess This Makes Me “Sad”

I guess it makes me pretty much the geekiest person at Troma Night to have, when watching Daredevil, been pissed off mostly not by the shoddy acting or the over-obvious CGI or the physics-defying abilities of the sight-deprived… no; what ruined the film the most for me was that the main character was able to hear a bullet from a sniper rifle coming toward him and dodge appropriately… yes, that’ll be a supersonic bullet he heard coming towards him…

Not the only thing wrong with the movie, of course, but the thing that stood out to me the loudest.

Poker Night, Geek Night, and Troma Night

Just a reminder about this weekend’s events at The Cottage:

Poker Night / Geek Night

As already announced, Poker Night / Geek Night (at which you can either join the poker table or play the usual selection of geeky board games) is tonight at 7pm. I haven’t a clue who to expect.

Troma Night

This week’s Troma Night is called "The Troma Night Where We Had No Fun," because Ellie has insisted that in her absence we’re not allowed to enjoy ourselves. The preliminary lineup looks like this:

Battlefield Earth with a RiffTrax (backup plan: Daredevil with a RiffTrax)
Some more Robot Chicken, because it’s fantastic
Perhaps Cyborg 3: The Recycler, unless Battlefield Earh was so bad that we can’t face another awful movie, in which case I’ll have a few suggestions ready and we’ll put it to a vote

We’ll also be trialling an experimental new layout for The Cottage living room, which should improve the availability of soft chairs and reduce the amount of "7pm fighting" that we usually get. Time will tell.

Happy Birthday To Me! Again!

Thanks are due to my Mum, my Dad, and my Aunty Anne for the lovely birthday cards I’ve just received from them. Also to my mum for my birthday present (some Wii nunchucks), a christmas card, two forwarded letters from Nominet, and a copy of Hoodwinked. Additional thanks go to my dad for the two business reports and for the stack of CDs, whose contents I’ll look at as soon as I get the chance.

Also thanks to the mystery person who sent me a parcel late in November. Sadly I may never know what it was or who you are, because it has since been returned to sender or possibly destroyed by the post office.

So why all this sudden influx of post? Well, it turns out that last year, not knowing my address for certain, my mum guessed. The address she guessed was the address of an unoccupied building up the street (except she’d also put the wrong postcode), where my post has been collecting for several months (except for the parcel that was returned to the post office on 31st November and abandoned). More helpfully yet, she seems to have told my entire immediate and distant family her guess, too.

So; thank you all, even mum, you silly old pasty.

And Here’s The Weather

Just wanted to be the first to get a picture online of it snowing in Aber this morning. It started about 6:50am, and it’s pouring down at a steady rate and is just beginning to stick to the ground. Clicky for big pics.

Poker Night / Geek Night – This Friday, 7pm

This Friday (9th Febuary) there’ll be a combined Poker Night (run by Claire) / Geek Night (run by me) event at The Cottage. We’ll be kicking off at 7pm. I’m guessing (check with Claire) that the poker will be a pittance-stakes (pennies, maybe pounds) game of Texas Hold ‘Em, tournament-style, with gradually increasing blinds: safe for beginners but still fun for regular players. Meanwhile, those who like their board games more like a conventional Geek Night can join me in a game or two of Settlers Of Catan or Amun Re or something.

Either way, and excuse to drink at a quiet night in. All welcome.

The Ethical Slut

I’ve just been reading The Ethical Slut, by Dossie Easton and Catherine A. Liszt. Well, I say “just been reading” – I actually read it over two days last week (couldn’t put it down) – I’m actually just slow to post anything of interest to my blog, these days.

Anyway; I just wanted to share with you all what a cool book it is (although I appreciate that it’s content, like it’s message, isn’t for everybody). Its a handbook of ethical slutdom – consensual nonmonogamy, for those who prefer longer and better-defined words – and its a veritable wealth of information on alternative lifestyle choices from homosexuality to swinging. Did you know that there was a respected code of etiquitte for orgies? Neither did I. And while breaches of group sex manners are not a faux pas I anticipate having the opportunity to make any time in the near future, it nonetheless makes for fascinating learning.

The thing that impressed me most about the book, though, wasn’t what it gets rave reviews for. Its frank, honest, open and informative coverage of how to have successful polyamourus relationships were extremely good; that’s for sure – certainly great reading even if you’re only casually interested in the subject… but what really impressed me was its coverage of various aspects of relationship management: all as valid, extrapolated from the context in which it is presented, for “regular” serial monogomists as it is for polygamists. It talks about jealously, conflict management, ownership of feelings, respect, distance… all with a healthy dose of active listening on top. Its interspersed with some great stories that the authors (a relationship counsellor and sex therapist) have drawn out of their friends and colleagues, it’s charming, it’s witty, and it challenges you to think about why relationship norms are so popular: things most people take for granted.

The book’s biggest downside: it repeats itself. Now and then it’s easy to find yourself reading a few paragraphs, sure that you must have read this bit before, only to later realise that the authors had copied a whole paragraph to a place earlier in the book, in order to prepare you for them covering it later. It’s a little confusing. Still, highly recommended.

Edit: this comic says it all, really.

Troma Night At The Cottage

Tomorrow’s Troma Night will be at The Cottage. The plan is as follows:

7:25pm – an early kick-off for anybody who hasn’t seen the latest episode of American Dad – The American Dream Factory – and wants to.
7:55pm – a special extra treat, we’ll be watching what I believe is both the most gay and the most anti-gay music video ever. And yes, that’s one music video.
8pm – kick off as normal: we’ve probably got two special guests, at least one of which is a Troma Night virgin, so the usual rules apply.

Films are yet to be announced – for the last two weeks, people have been suggesting some great-sounding flicks to me (Ele, what was it that you suggested again?), and they all sound great: bring ’em along and we’ll fight over what comes. And, in a suggestive spooneristic turnabout, we’ll come over what fights. Joy.

If nobody is useful enough to remind me of what they suggested over the last week (or people like this plan), we’ll open with the RiffTrax we didn’t get to watch a few weeks ago (what was it? xXx?).

Update On The Weekend

It occurred to me last night, as I was thrashing Jimmy at Wii Sports Tennis and Boxing last night, before we whipped out Golden Axe for some proper old-school co-op beat-’em-up fun, that I hadn’t yet made a blog post to follow up the one I made before the weekend. So, here it is.

Haircut

I’ve had my hair cut. This wouldn’t necessarily be so notable if it wasn’t for the fact that I haven’t done so in… oooh, about 8 years? Maybe more? I woke up on Saturday morning and decided to change it from reaching to my bum to barely reaching my shoulders.

Dan - Shorter Hair

It’s taking some getting used to. Whenever I pull a shirt on I still instinctively reach behind my head to pull my hair out from it, and I’m cautious of sitting on it when sitting down.

DanceSoc and Troma Night

Saturday night’s DanceSoc event – Diversion – was great. Beth, Claire and I – along with Jimmy, who came with an open mind but left once he realised that drinking wasn’t solving the problem of him not liking the music – drank excessively and danced wildly. Perhaps indicative of my dancing, at least two separate people tried to buy ecstasy from me (WTF?). It was surprisingly busy in The Bay (both upstairs and downstairs), possibly a result of exam week ending, which helped create a great atmosphere.

Meanwhile, I gather from the discussion on Paul‘s blog, Troma Night failed to kick off. Less good.

Gorillamania 1

Sunday night was the Gorilla Monsoon comedy night, at which I was the first act. The turnout was reasonable, albeit late and seemingly about half made-up of people I know: particular thanks are due to the people who went out of their way to lend me their support – Heather, who looked quite unwell and probably should have stayed in bed, and Gareth and Penny, who zipped over from Cardiff just in time – but a big thank you to everybody who came really!

In the end, though, I disappointed myself a little. The audience laughed at the right places, and groaned at the right places, and the whole segment about bumblebees went down a storm, but I was far too nervous to perform as well as I could have: I forgot a few key gags, on at least one occasion I needed to consult my “panic card” (a 12-line reminder of my show, written on the back of a business card and hidden behind the amplifier), which is usually only there for reassurance, and I generally know that I could have done better. It was good, but it wasn’t great, but I know exactly where I went wrong and what I need to do to fix it.

The comedians from Cardiff were fabulous, too. Of particular note was my favourite of Clint Edwards’ jokes, which I applauded but which nobody else seemed to have got (it relies on knowledge of police issue firearms to be as funny as it could be, which is a brave thing for a comedian to rely upon). Not only did this trio’s skills lead to an entertaining night, but it’s also valuable networking: a little more practice down the line, and I might find myself with an opportunity to perform in Cardiff with them. Win.

The Parcel Mystery

I realise that I never really answered questions asked of me about Matt‘s strange parcel, which arrived the other day. The Guinness glasses box turned out to contain Tesco cookies! A big thank you is due to Matt, there, then. Oh, and Paul – we’ve still got your carton of juice: come drink it at some point.

Right; that’ll do for the updates for now.

Plans For The Weekend

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Abnibbers and Troma Knights: I present to you… some of this weekend’s events.

Friday Night: Post-Exam Curry

Have you had exams this week? Well, sucks to be you. But it’s all over now – come out with us for a curry and we’ll pretend it never happened. Paul‘s behind this one, but if you’re looking for synchronisation so you don’t arrive when we’re done eating, it’s me you’ll want to call. I can’t send texts at the moment, so give me a bell if you’re coming along. Yum.

Update: 8pm, Spice of Bengal. See you there!

Saturday Night: Troma Night and DanceSoc

Troma Night this week will be held at Bryn’s Place (i.e. where Paul lives). It kicks off, however, at 8pm at the Arts Centre, where the classic "Gremlins" is showing.

Why is Paul hosting this week? ‘Cos Claire and I (accompanied by Beth and Jimmy) are at Diversion at The Bay. Which you can come to if you prefer. Up to you. They’ll both be fun nights: one will have a horde of rampaging monsters with a dehydration problem, and the other will involve watching Gremlins.

Sunday Night: Gorilla Monsoon

And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you about Gorilla Monsoon which is on at the Coopers Arms at 8pm on Sunday night. I’ll be your supporting act, and there’s three funny-sounding comics coming all the way from… well, Cardiff… to please and tease you.

Now you can’t say I didn’t tell you.