Meanderings of a Monkey Juggler

Uncle D has an X360 now to go with his slightly swanky new telly.  I was up there visiting him last night and got to play with his new toy. 

What to think?

Well first off it's really bloody noisy.  Apparently he's even got the newer less noisy model but it's still pretty bad.  But what about the games?

He started off showing me Kameo.  It's quite pretty and seems like a good adventure/puzzle wotsit.  Pretty much a one-player affair.  Next was Tomb Raider (the latest one).  It reminded me loads of the new Prince of Persia games but D suggested that it's probably the other way round.  He's probably right on that one.

These were the 2 "proper" X360 games I saw.  He had Ghost Recon too but this didn't float my boat at all.  Not the sort of thing I want to play.

After those we had a look at some he'd downloaded off XBox Live.  Some were ok.  One didn't work saying that he needed to set his output to something other than PAL50.  He wasn't on PAL50 and any tweaking of control settings (as prompted) didn't improve things at all.  But then he showed me "Geometry Wars".  I've heard that this is good and I am pleased to say the reviews aren't wrong.

Remember "Asteroids"?  Well it's like that on major steroids and stimulants.  It takes place in 2D on a space background.  Enemies are coloured shapes that move according to their programming.  Purple squares dash straight for you, green shapes seem to travel in random shapes etc....  Your ship moves with the left joystick and you shoot with the right stick (not a button).  This means you can fly up the screen whilst shooting across or down it for example.  It's very colourful and pretty and very smooth.  Oh and insanely hard. I got about 60000 and that was hard.  I've just had a look on't web and there are videos of people getting a good few million points.  Eek.

This is the sort of gaming I remember from years ago (only prettier).  Easy to get into and pure skill to get good at.  If you think of my all-time fave game (Super Monkey Ball) it's pretty much the same deal - dead easy game mechanics and just skill to get good at.

It seems an awful lot of money to play this game though.  I doubt I'll get me a 360 as this seems to be the only game I'd want to play at the mo. on it.

Now then let's talk graphics.  The whole point of the new 360 and the PS3 (as far as games go) is to swank up the level of graphics.  They've pumped millions and more into trying to get photorealistic piccies on their games.  And it hasn't worked.  They're nice graphics but they're still miles off what they want them to be.  Human figures just don't look right, they don't move correctly and Tomb Raider was noticeably stuttery too.  So what's the point?

On another note I've finished the major part of Pikmin 2 now.  You have to reach a certain target and I've now done so.  I thought that would be end of game. Problem is one of your 2 men gets left on the Pikmin planet so you have to go back and get more cash and try and find him.  So more (and harder) bits to do.  And I thought I was done with it.  Sigh.

Have fun.

I had occasion to buy some books whilst waiting at Gatwick en-route to Bg (as usual).  I managed to read one and most of another.  I'm looking forward to the third too.

First was "Margrave of the Marshes", John Peel's autobiography which was finished by his wife and children.  I'm a great fan of his as you well know and the book didn't disappoint me at all.  His writing is of the same standard as his broadcasting although at no point did he write any pages at the wrong speed.  His wife (all the extra stuff is written as if she's writing it, although we know that the whole family had a hand in it) manages to carry on the style perfectly well.  The stories are funny and moving but you're never feeling sorry for him because he never feels sorry for himself.  Well worth a read (especially as Amazon have got it so cheap at the mo).

I'm 2/3rds of the way through "James Cook: The Journals" from Penguin Classics.  This is a stunning work where Captain Cook's journals (from his 3 voyages in the 1700's) have been condensed and annotated for the modern reader.  Most of what's excised is tedious navigational detail so it leaves his observations about the discoveries he and his ships come across.  It reads better than many a yarn and it's all about real events.  Wow!  He comes across as a thoroughly decent chap too and he seems to want to introduce natives to trade and civilisation rather than conquering them.  We know this wasn't really the plan of his superiors though.  In one memorable entry he discusses the aboriginals of Australia.  He starts by describing them as the "most wretched creatures" he's ever come across.  But follows this by writing that they are probably the happiest people he's ever met because they "want for nothing" and have everything they need to live in peace and to the level of comfort that they want.  He has a level of insight that you might not expect in a empire builder.  A wonderful book if you like historical tracts.  I want more like this.  How about some documents about or by Wellington and others?

I haven't started the 3rd book yet but it's "The Voyage of the Beagle" by Charles Darwin.  I'm intrigued by Darwin and this should be a good one.  It's a shame "On the Origin of the Species" wasn't in the shop at the time though, I'd of preferred that,

Have fun.

...with a Chinese Gun!"

Welcome back to all and sundry. 

I've been on another jaunt to Bg with K and there's stuff to be told.

In the first day or so we were supposed to meet up with Paula and Pete (visiting her house).  After numerous calls and SMSs we didn't hear anything so assumed they were ignoring us.

So instead of meeting them we went out with some friends for a slap up meal.  As we entered the restaurant I saw a couple of familar looking people and thought; "Hmm they remind me of Pete and Paula".  I mentioned this to K and she went to have a look.  Turns out 'twas indeed P&P.  They'd had a delayed flight and no sleep.  Thus when setting out to Turnovo they'd been all a twitter and left their phones in their hotel by the sea.  Hence no contact.

So a nice meal was had and the following day I went with them to have a look at P and ma's place. Very nice - need pics tho'.

The following week was me and K's first ever go at running our Bg business idea.  A colleague and her husband and 4 year old were due to spend a week at our house and being escorted around the region.

Problem 1: Our house isn't ready.  The electrics are not done and there are no working showers or kitchen wotsits.  Oh and no furniture.  Thankfully they were happy to spend their nights either at the flat or K's mum's place.

Problem 2: No car.  Actually there is a car but it's a 27 year old, gas-powered Lada which has problems of reliability.  So we got them to agree to paying for a hire-car and we'd pay the petrol.  Fair deal I reckon.  Sadly everywhere in VT that laid claim to being a "Car Rental" company had no cars to rent - at all.  One place - and this tells you so much of the Bg service ethic - sort of shrugged and told us that they had no cars.  Well actually they might have one 15 year old car but they couldn't say whether it would be available or not.  Handy.  The problem was eventually sorted by one of K's pals who knows everybody in town and he pulled some strings to get us a 10 year old Astra.

So we managed the basics and headed off to pick them up.  They were arriving early one morning so we were to stay at one of K's friends places in Sofia overnight.  This avoided me having to drive across country over-night.  (not a pleasant prospect in Bg).  The flat was pretty poo as well (that was supposed to say "poor" but I think I prefer the typo). Before showering I was told "Don't worry about the cockroaches; they won't kill you."!!!!??!  A hurried stab at a shower wouldn't have worked properly anyway as the flow was so poor as to render it nonsensical to call it a shower.  More a dribble.

The guests arrived on time and we started their week's holiday.

Spent the week looking at local sites and eating in cool restaurants. 

The title of this post is a direct quote from their son when he was waiting in the police station.  Katya gave him one of Yosko's old toy guns which turned out to be made in China.

The guests apparently had a wonderful time; least ways they said so and I doubt they were lying to spare our feelings.

What did we learn?  If we can get advertised well enough then we know that there is enough to do and see for potential guests.  Our plan will work!

I drove them back to Sofia over-night despite my reservations.  It turned out that there was one hell of a storm to the west and we were driving straight to it.  Eeek.  That wasn't a fun ride.  Impressive though.

House stuff done afterwards and now I'm home again.  Back to work tomorrow.  Sigh.

And I checked my mail today.  "Genius" starts in Sept and my show will be on Radio 4 on October 5th at 6.30pm.  Turns out that's a Thursday.  They are cutting only 1 idea from each show so my chances of being on are better than I thought but I still don't know which idea will be cut. Fingers crossed.

Have fun.

PS  Many thanks for the extremely excellent search terms that are leading here.