Published by james on August 17, 2005
in Pets.
Yesterday we lost our oldest cat, Jiminy. He was 13 and one of the best cats, if not creatures, I have ever known.
Jiminy was the rarest of rare when it came to his personality. Always quick to give you attention when you needed it the most; Jiminy was fixture in our household with his easy swagger and dominating purr. Equally fatherly to both of our other cats he always welcomed new pets and people into the home with equal abandon, be it a family friend or the cable guy. The only thing he insisted on was that the fire in the fire place was well tended and that his spot at the hearth was open.
We miss you Boom-Boom.
Wrapped up The Elric Saga, which I’ll admit felt more like a chore around the point when only 300 or so pages remained. There definitely exists an inverse relationship between length and enjoyment when it comes to Moorcock’s writing; the longer each book became the more bored I was. The first three or four books rocketed along, being short and dense with the result being a high level of enjoyment. By the middle of the fourth book things began to stretch out and the plot felt muddled, character motivations were untidy and muddy and I found myself checking to see how many pages I had left like some obsessive clock watcher. I hate reading when it becomes a task to chewing through pages.
Beyond the length of the work there were some character inconsistencies about Elric that often drove me to distraction. The saga opens with Elric’s motivation centering around his cousin and true-love, Cymoril, and like all good epics she provides a solid one dimensional cornerstone for our hero to go out and do battle with evil. Her death at Elric’s hands provides the motivation for his wanderings and his stoic existence, however, temptation proves to great as he quick falls into bed with another woman, Shaarilla. Following that indiscretion are several other woman, sometimes treated as temptresses, like Queen Yishana, others like awkward, quasi-pedophiliac prizes–Zarozinia. Why was Elric so quick to toss away his love for Cymoril? I’m not sure. I might have understood it better had Moorcock maintained the monk-like lifestyle and introduced Zarozinia as Cymoril reincarnate.
The books antagonists were often recycled being cast from the same mold only getting blurrier with each reintroduction. It was clear what the struggle was between Yyrkoon and Elric: power, love, and jealousy. However, Theleb K’aarna appeared to be no more than just a fool and I was left wondering why Elric would expend so much energy hating him. Really, just let him have Yishana. Jagreen Lern, sure he is supposed to be the earthly representation of the opposite balance, Elric is Law while he is Chaos, however all the fury stems from some petty insults. I’m just not feeling the motivation.
However, complaints aside, I recommend The Elric Saga to anyone looking to while away sometime and who isn’t afraid of a protagonist who ought to be in medicated therapy, sword play, and sorcery. Regardless of the the series lengthening towards its conclusion and my apparent fidgetiness it was still a highly entertaining read and worth nearly every page it was printed on.
Yes, it is true. I am the original Thunder Nerd.
Well, my eagerness to add another game to the collection proved to great, hopefully I’ll be able to see this one to completion. Jade Empire is a game that I have been salivating over since the first details were revealed nearly two years ago.
Only three hours in I am finding the best aspects of the game play are the mixing of the deep support and combat styles ala Knights of the Old Republic with more action orientated fighting in a similar vein as Dead or Alive. While the camera and targeting system are stiff and can work against you the combat is slightly forgiving and can be adjusted for those with less than twitchy reflexes. The environments and character models are top notch and it is easy to get lost in just exploring the the world about you.
The game is laid out in the same manner as Bioware’s previous game, Knights of the Old Republic, in that you are presented with a series of moral choices that influence the outcome and trajectory of the story. Typical for me I am attempting to play the game as saintly as possible, though there exists the possibility to be cruel or just a boring fence sitter committing to neither the good or bad paths. What really makes this game unique is the setting.
Taking place in a mythical far distant past of China, replete with mysticism, myths, and monsters from the nation’s folklore. The attention to detail is incredible from costumes to scenery the game feels as if you are in a Kung Fu epic like Once Upon a Time in China or House of Flying Daggers. The only thing that serves to set the experience back is the voice acting. The dialogue is top notch and the voice acting is done extremely well but the voices themselves are misplaced. For example, the first character you encounter opens the conversation with a long Southern drawl; not exactly what I was expecting to hear.
Though I have heard the game is on the shorter side, particularly compared to the 45+ hours that was Knights of the Old Republic, I am still looking forward to seeing where the game goes and how it will end.
Do not eat sesame or poppy seed bagels over the your laptop keyboard as the seeds are damn near impossible to remove, even with a can of compressed air.
Quick post, another friend of mine as made the plunge into the world of Linux. His Windows 98 box was getting a little flaky a couple of weeks ago; enough to make him look for solutions outside of Redmond. So a copy of Ubuntu 5.04 and a reconditioned PC were tossed together to take the place of his old machine. Quick, simple, and easy, not to mention stable.
