Magical animal

Today I learned that if you slice it thin enough, and cook it long enough, ham still does not satisfy a craving for bacon.

You'd think, coming from the same animal, that you could make it work. But no, you can't.

Pity. I have lots of ham, but sadly no bacon.

And no, this is not a metaphor for anything. It's about my lunch.

Meeting word count quota is easy...if you cheat

Today I learned it's very easy to double your daily word quota when you can steal half of them from something you've already written.

I restarted my novel from page one on the first of January, giving myself a 1000 word daily quota.
I'm using the Don't Break The Chain method to keep track of my progress, and so far I've got one two-day break in my chain, yesterday and the day before.

But today is January 13, and I've got 23,000 words written on "The Crack of Venus: The Secret History of How Galileo Galileo Saved the World in the Year 1633" -- that's almost double my quota even with two skipped days.

Of course, much of that is adapted from previous drafts of the story, so it's kinda cheating.

But hey, whatever works.

Incidentally, I'm really liking the way it's flowing now. It's a book I'd enjoy reading, which is really the only benchmark of quality that I can apply. It's not for everyone, but it is for me -- why would I want to write anything else?

Nerd alert

Today I learned that throughout my youth I was role playing with the wrong people.

I should have been playing D&D with these guys.

Atonement is boring

Today I learned that Keira Knightley has no boobs. No, wait, I already knew that.

Today I learned that film reviewers are not to be trusted. Atonement is heavily lauded by the film reviewer types, yet I walked out of it feeling a lot like Elaine on Seinfeld at a screening of The English Patient.

Come to think of it, the reviewers loved that movie too, and it was also boring as shit. A lot of similarities between the two, really.

I guess in its defense, Atonement is a chick flick. I'm sure if you liked The Notebook, you might also enjoy Atonement.

I didn't.

Half-Life 2 is a very good game

Today I learned that I really should try to keep up with the times. Half-Life 2 came out, what, over 3 years ago, and I only got around to playing it now.

And it's the best computer game I've ever played.

Don't get me wrong, there's something special about the Grand Theft Auto series -- those are some good games -- but they're uneven. For me, the fun of those games comes from just driving around and doing stuff. The actual scripted game, in all its pseudo-non-linearity, is secondary.

But this Half-Life 2...it's completely linear, but I love that about it. It works because the whole thing is so cinematic, it's like participating in a movie. A really good movie that's full of action, suspense, surprises...it's awesome.

The level design is out of this world. I just can't believe how well designed this game is. And although it's linear in that there's only one way through, it doesn't feel that way a lot of the time because of how much is happening. Many times you want to stop and admire what's going on around you, but you can't because people are chasing you and the adrenaline's pumping and you just have to keep going.

The puzzles are also excellent. Tricky, but not frustrating. There's always enough clues to work out what needs to be done. Always enough health and ammo, but not too much that you're not constantly worried about running out. A good assortment of enemies that increase in difficulty enough that it never gets boring.

So many games just get boring out of repetition, and try to increase difficulty by making the badguys annoyingly difficult to fight or by throwing a crapload at you all at once. Half-Life 2 manages to avoid this, and that's wonderful.

The innovation of the "gravity gun" opens up a whole bunch of possibilities for puzzles and obstacles. You can pick things up at a distance with the gravity gun and bring them to you. Then you can either drop them, or hurl them away. Or you can shoot a pulse of energy against something nearby to smash it/hurl it. Simple mechanics, but man, they can be used so many creative ways.

And it plays smoothly, looks simply incredible (even with the graphics turned down on my antique machine), and the audio is terrific too. Really great voice acting, with a top notch script too. Good music. Good ambient sound.

There a vehicles too, and unlike most games of this type that have vehicles, they don't suck. They're fun, challenging but not frustrating, and add a really vibrant element to the game's story as well as the gameplay itself.

There's just nothing to complain about with this game, except that it took me over three years to play it, and after it there are two more sequel chapters to play.

People have been telling me to play this game for years; I'm glad I finally listened to them.

Auto Repair: damned if you do, damned if you don't

Today I learned that replacing the gas tank on your car can be expensive, but it's still less than what I imagine it would eventually cost by not replacing it. All it takes is one guy wandering past and tossing a cigarette butt and...

Eventually it's going to reach the point that it's no longer worth repairing it. After all, it's 13 years old with over 310,000 kilometers on it; it owes me nothing. But as much as I can't afford to keep fixing it right now, I can less afford replacing it, so it shall continue to be held together with band-aids and duct-tape until something changes.

Let's hope the change that comes is the ability to get a new car, not the necessity of it.

Boxers + Longjohns = Bunchy

Today I learned that boxer shorts underneath long underwear are not comfortable.