Plus2/Minus2

I’m reading a book written by a spectacularly honest frenchman titled “How to talk about books you haven’t read”. In this book, among many other things, he says that a lot of authors refer to books they might have skimmed through or even not read at all. He uses a system within his own book that puts a certain tag next to each book he refers to, ranging from. He also uses a rating system from ++ to — to express his opinion on the particular book.

In detail, ++ is extremely positive opinion, + is positive opinion. – and — are negative and extremely negative opinions respectively. I think this system is perfect for sharing your disposition to something without having to use a 1-10 or 1-100 system. I hate it when people ask me to rate a girl, game, movie, or just about anything from 1 to 10. What’s a 1? Even more importantly, what’s a 10? Can you rate anything with a 10 without having any doubts about whether anything will surpass it, ever? Everything in life is experiences, including all the above, and experiences are rating-proof! By the way, before any of you say it: Yes, since the YRS (Yummers Rating System) is a 1-10 deal, I have concluded that it too is incomplete and needs revision.

I like the ++ to – – so much that I’ll use just it to describe what’s going on in my life at the moment by how much I like it!

++

Paradox Interactive. These guys are one of the best studio/publisher around. I’m seriously hooked with Europa Universalis III and Victoria. Hearts of Iron looks like a thing to check out soon (what am I saying, I already own two copies! I’m not going into detail with that, I want to forget…)

CouchSurfing. I just hosted an Italian guy, his name is Duan. 2 nights it was. I had almost forgot how nice and cozy hosting makes you feel, especially when it’s people you’d easily make friends with but will probably never appearin your life again.

SPACED!! After Hot Fuzz and Dawn of the Dead (I mean, um, a couple of years before those), comes Spaced. It’s awesome, pure awesome, and I recommend it to anyone who has a thing for cleverly stupid humour. Anger, Pain, Fear, Aggression…

Jose Saramago. This guy is quickly, and I mean quickly, becoming my favourite writer. Period. I couldn’t resist and gave ~100 euros to get 5 of his books together (along with the book I mentioned first and 1984). Which brings me to…

1984, by George Orwell. It shocked me. A masterpiece of 20th century literature. I may write something on it one day…

+

Soon I’ll be translating and subbing eco films, and not for free! I am excited for what may be my first paid job.

The Balkans, by Mark Mazower. An excellent read on the real side of “European Turkey”.

I’m entering a Guitar Hero contest. Yay?!

I’m learning Japanese… And want to learn Turkish. I want to communicate with the world! Is it normal that I’m only learning the languages of the… “bad guys” (plus german)?

We dressed up as vampires with Alex. It had been so long since I had done something like that…

In January we made a little cut-out animation for uni. It’s not completely ready yet so don’t expect to have a look if you haven’t already! 😛 It did turn out well though…

–

My money is running low much faster than would be desirable, even if we eat everyday at the Uni with Mario!

I still think I have no certain purpose or goals. That I’m not really good at anything but only mediocre in lots of things. Same applies to everything. Is this good or bad in the end?

Nationalistic idiots annoy me.

Pop songs that use Beethoven’s 9th also annoy me.

Waking up early to catch those pesky morning lectures is always a problem… So it is now!

No time for everyone that I would like to have more of in my life… You know who you are.

– –

Keeping my house clean is a nightmare.

Rain and cold. Cold and rain. And no central heating This pretty much sums up 2009’s weather up till now. And for the past week, it’s extreme rain and cold. Where’s summer? Where’s the sun?! I seriously don’t believe I’m uttering these words…

Every time it rains, my second room gets flooded. Argh! How can people be so stupid they mess up a balcony this much?

I hate the announcements in the ships. All of them. Lissos, Mytilini especially. I want to kick the (taped) announcers to death. Yes, that’s how much I hate them.

More and Less of 2009

More movies, more games, more languages, more activities, more biking, more photography, more people, more travelling, more new experiences, more love, more animals, more beauty, more cooking, more reading, more knowledge, more stars, more planets, more cleaning, more housekeeping, more real working, more specialisation, more subtitles, more cubimension, more music, more peace, more awareness, more spirituality, more science, more history, more dreams, more thoughts, more tea, more vegetables, more cake, more e-mails, more writing, more art, more friendliness, more phone calls, more letters, more enjoying the moment in the right way.

Less procrastinating, less shyness, less lazyness, less internet idleness, less msn, less stupid spending, less sleeping till the afternoon, less caffeine, less absent-mindedness.

These are my personal wishes for 2009.

Astronomy in games: does a realistic sky make a difference?

Originally posted as a Destructoid.com cblog.

Wouldn’t you like just sitting back and enjoying the night sky in a game, knowing that what you see is a perfect represenation of the actual night sky? It is true, a pretty night sky captures the eye (as most WoW players can testify) and there is no prettier sky than the only one we earthlings have had the chance to see, give or take a few planets, moons and nebulae.

Today I was having a conversation with two friends of mine (Mario and Housemaster, if you’re reading you know that unlike the guys from d-toid!), one of them also a user of Destructoid. The kick-off for the conversation and the inspiration for this blog post was me complaining that Fallout 3 had a completely messed up night sky. I recalled my first experience with this upon exiting the elementary school close to the beginning of the game. The stars were all tiny grey dots of the same brightness. No constellations of course, nothing. It didn’t even have any significantly brighter stars that could form any shapes. Of course, that’s totally different than anything anyone can see if they look up at night in the real world. To top it off, at some point I had a look at the moon. Its position in the sky was totally wrong compared to its phase, a relationship which can normally be defined with two basic rules: A new moon is close to the sun so it sets a bit after the sun and rises a bit after the sun as well and the full moon rises when the sun sets and sets when the sun rises anew. This was completey screwed up as far as I observed in Fallout 3. As if that wasn’t enough, upon closer inspection the starry sky did not move at all. Instead, the moon was moving against the backdrop of a frozen sky, setting south-east. That is wrong in so many levels I cannot begin to describe. Surely the nukes didn’t stop the earth from rotating? Even if they did, there’s still night and day!

My friends told me that I had not grasped the feeling of the game, that I was looking at the sky when the game was NOT about looking at the sky (which in turn means that anything not directly related to the main focus of the game is perfectly OK to be made with minimal attention paid to it but whatever) and that since Fallout 3 takes place in an imaginary, alternative universe, the creators do not have to realistically depict the sky as it is today in the real world. But… Even though Washington D.C. features in the game complete with existing roads (correct me if I’m wrong) isn’t it safe to assume that the sky is the same as it was hundreds of years ago in-game? We’re not talking about a completely different universe, say Oblivion’s or WoW’s universe, but one pretty close to our own experience and one that derives from it and uses it to make said universe hit us harder emotionally, make us feel that we’re actually on Earth as it would be centuries after a nuclear war. Is creative freedom this powerful when talking about the imaginary based on reality? Why be realistic when it comes to sun movement but not care about the movement of the moon or the sky in general? Would a sun rising at 6PM be OK because it’s Bethesda making a game about something NOT real? At the end of the day, “who cares?” or “Hang on, I’ll call the care police”. That’s what my friends were saying and no doubt many of you.

Truth is I can see where they’re coming from. In this day and age observation of the sky is trivial at best. Erroneous night skies make their apperance everywhere from movies to novels to games… People don’t know better so they don’t really care (developers in turn don’t care either).The sky we see today is fundamentally the same sky people of ancient times wondered at and worshiped and the same sky Copernicus observed and realised that the earth rotates around the sun and it’s not the other way around. Till the 20th century, the sky was an excellent guidepost, the stars always pointing towards the right direction. Even the first foundations of time-keeping were based on the movements of the sky and moon (let alone the sun) and when during the night certain constellations appear. See Orion rise right after sunset and it’s winter alright, follow the direction of Polaris, the current pole star and you’ll be visiting the polar bears. And so forth. Today of course these observations aren’t at all useful for everyday life so the sky remains up there enchanting everyone with its beauty but giving little useful incentive for further exploration of tis workings and secrets.

I won’t lie, less than 2 years ago I was one of many, thinking that the night sky is pretty but difficult to get to know. The movements of the planets, the moon, why the sun rises and sets when it does and what the equinoxes mean eluded me. At least, though, I knew from a very early age that the earth rotates around itself anti-clockwise and that this is what actually makes the starry sky move, as well as the sun and moon, from east to west. And finding out how the rest of this stuff works wasn’t that hard at all. Since then I have been able to spot mistakes almost everywhere.

The final question is: Does it all matter? If both people making the game and playing the game can’t tell the difference, does it matter? I’ll compare the whole thing with having a game take place during a specific time period, say the Middle Ages in England. The game is superb in every way but the buildings aren’t correct or something else isn’t right, say the language spoken or a piece of armour. Few people will notice, but those which are fascinated by history and historical accuracy will promptly spot the mistake and instantly lose a bit of interest/immersion for the game. Maybe it’s not a great analogy because portraying an accurate sky is much easier than certifying the historical accuracy of a certain piece of armour and historical accuracy is much more important sometimes than having a correct decorative backdrop for a game’s universe. Because it is true. In the end, it’s all decoration with few gameplay implications, just like the building or the armour. But can we really justify these “astro-errors that were willingly introduced and indicate a profound lack of attention to easily checkable detail” (sic), using only the argument that nobody cares enough? Well, I care! And I’m certain that especially Fallout 3 must have attracted quite a number of people that will have spotted the same thing. Not to say that other games sport a richer nightly display; I’ve yet to encounter a game that has it right (with the exception of Wii’s Weather Channel — no, it’s not a game, I know).

Even if we break this down to pure aesthetics, which one of these would you prefer?

This:

Or this:

Creating a perfect recreation of the sky isn’t all that hard. It may be harder than creating a dark background with lighter dots and leaving it at that but I believe the coding required for the former would be easy. The skies would be realistic, pretty and keep all the astronomy buffs like me quiet and agreeable.

September 26th 2006-8

September 26th, 2006. This was the day that was to change some of the most superficial (but important at the same time) aspects of my life. Some days ago it was 2 years since that fateful day so I decided to write a little something about it all.

Summer 2006, shortly after my final exams. My university plans were changing every week or so because of my: 1. Subsequent low exam scores 2. Failure at drawing subjects 3. Entry score boost of the school I wanted to get in (Audiovisual Arts in Ionian University, Corfu). Cultural Technology, Mytilini, had been my second option but the one I ultimately followed. Many discussions later and after having fought urges of preparing for another round of exams just to avoid the move to Mytilini, September 26th was, in the end, the day I took my first ship to Mytilini. It was Nissos Mykonos, leaving at 12:30. I’ve kept the ticket.

I was very scared while making that very first trip. That Mario person I had found through the nintendo.gr forums sounded really friendly and had offered to host me till I actually found a more permanent place to stay, but alone and unaware, I was heading to that strange town (which I still thought was closer to a village than a town). Turned out Mario and his part-friend-part-roomie HouseMaster were cool people. First night with them they introduced me to what still is the largest souvlaki I’ve ever seen or eaten. I repaid the favour by teaching them what Katamari On The Rock feels like! Important note: inside my very first baggage were my GC and PS2 along with all of my games for them: Mario had specifically asked me to bring them along so he could try some GC games he never had the chance to play. In the end, a night with them was enough for me to trust them. Ready they were, not only to show me the whereabouts, meet me to people, help me integrate over the course of mere days, we had great fun while at it! Plus, they helped me find my old place on Gravias 1. My hat’s off to you guys!

Left ro right: HouseMaster, Mario, me. October 3rd, 2006

Fast-forward to September 26th 2008. What has changed now then?

I’ve been living alone for 2 years. Before coming to Myt the idea alone seemed awkward.
Distance, physical and mental, has shown me who my real friends in Athens are. One of them now lives in Chios, another in Canada. Before coming to Mytilini I had contact with a lot more people. Now my real friends from Nea Smyrni can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
My love life has certainly improved a millionfold, although this took a while to occur. Most of my first year I was a proud pink glasses wearer. Now I have what I always wanted: a girlfriend I can trust, have fun with, dream about and love.
My life was touched and changed by CouchSurfing. In turn, travelling has become a major aspect of my existence.
As far as my actual university career goes, my end of 2nd year sees 17 subjects passed and 11 I’ve got to repeat. Cultural Technology has made me look at both culture and technology from a whole new perspective. Their combination definitely feels promising.
I’ve actually cooked some things.
I realised my plan to take up bass guitar. Let’s rock!
German language skills have certainly improved.
I met Mordread and Garret, two unique people to say the least. With them, I got to know many new things and broaden my horizons, especially with Garret. Mordread has been more of a (invaluable) all-around lover of fun. Though we have had many discussions, watched many movies, played many games, even teamed up for university, it’s been 2 years and I still feel I’ve hardly got to know these 2 any better.
My taste in games has changed. I no longer am the huge Nintendo fan I was when I first came here. I try to play many different types of games and by many developers. This became much more evident since I bought my Xbox 360. My Wii’s been gathering dust…
May old values I had have just crumbled to dust. One does change in the span of 2 years, especially between the ages of less-than-18 and less-than-20.
I’ve been reading books like crazy for almost a year now. Can’t say I’m complaining!
I launched Cubimension! But it’s still largely undeveloped… 🙂
I took up astronomy and astrology. The mysteries of the sky are no longer a silent interest of mine.
When I first came here, I was unsure what to think of it. It didn’t take me more than a few days to start liking it, and now I admit. I love living in Mytilini. It is so much better than student life in Athens although we do have some problems here, namely places to go out and variety of entertainment. But it all gets sorted out in the end.

Pink Dawn

It’s 7:30AM. Me and Mordread are sitting in my futon couch, going though the last, epic stages of The Force Unleashed, watching the final twists and turns of its plot unfold. Outside it is raining. The gentle sound of the drops hitting the street outside is audible even through the soundproof aluminum windows. It manages to reach our ears, as well as the lightsaber hums, Darth Vader’s iconic scuba breathing and the sound of lightning coming out of Starkiller’s fingertips. The sky is not entirely grey; in fact, its colour would be best described as a kind of dim pink. Soon I would witness what should have been the tie-in between the original and the prequels, the old and the new, the successful and the perhaps disappointing. My drowzy mind, amidst all this, was thinking that the line had been crossed; a new blog entry was finally at hand.

More than 3 hours later, the time is now 11:05. October 3rd, 2008. Rain sporadically cheers my ears but the sun has decided that its no time for playing hide-and-seek. The result is a wonderful colour of the sky. A fantastically unusual bright cloudy grey. Isn’t it strange that I often choose to write when my mind is working in ambiguous ways, powered by the strength of overnight determination but deterred by sleepiness? This fact could mean many things, quite controversial in their own right. Is it because I deem blogging so important a task that only the special moments of sleeplessness can truly get it going? Is it because writing is a time-consuming activity, best left for when my time constraints are only limited by my fatigue? Is it just because I’m bored and feel somehow special that I want to share my thoughts with the world (surrounding me)? I digress…

It’s been almost 3 months since my last blog entry. 3 busy, important, fascinating months. My last entry was written just hours before our journey to Europe had begun. Now, in mere weeks 2 months will have gone by since we returned from our trip. I won’t go into much detail about how it was, what it meant to me/us, if it was interesting or if I have any pictures to share. Answer to last two questions is yes. To the first two it is… well. I just can’t do it now. When I first came back from the trip, I was eager to tell everyone about it! Trying to remember every little detail so that it doesn’t get lost somewhere in the mists of memory lest it isn’t readily available so as to tell anyone who might be interested or write right here in Cubimension. But my enthusiasm was quickly discouraged. Not all that many people, especially friends, were genuinely interested in what I had to tell or show (I might write something else on this subject one day. It’s a deep matter). A lot of them will never read these lines either but the sentiment remains. It does sound too self-important, (as much of this particular entry, forgive me!) but I think it does have some right to be. Anyway, to not sound too melodramatic about something that doesn’t deserve it, if anyone would really like to ask me anything about our experience out there, I’d really gladly discuss anything! YEAH! But as it is now, I just can’t bring myself to summarise 38 days of travel for a questionable audience. Alexandra says that if we write all that happened down (something we did try to do…) we’ll remember it much easier. I kind of agree but writing it down isn’t exactly easy in the first place (hell, visit this topic on MyAegean and maybe you’ll catch some of all the previous feeling: http://my.aegean.gr/web/ftopict-991.html. But when it comes down to it, for whom do I opperate this site anyway, is it just to showcase what I do and am all about or is it too more like a personal dia… ANYWAY! My apologies for this nervous breakdown! 😀

OK after this last bit my post has lost the aethereal tone it had in the beginning. Fudge it, it was taking too long to think of all the difficult words anyway! What else has been going on? Well on August 23rd I first walked through the door of my current home. It was the week I was looking for my new place to stay. I was with Kira/George/Darthy. I’m not sure he had a good time, since I had to wake up early every morning just to take care of all the sudden obligations and do some new-home-hunting. We did have our very fair share of nargile and WoW discussions though (yes I was always the debunker! Sort of…) August 23rd was also Mordread’s 20th b-day. This can’t have been random cause now he’s my new neighbour! Walks in for gaming sessions, brings Pepsi along, takes care of the cat when I’m away — everything a good neighbour should do! Thanks Mordread, you’re a star! 🙂 After another week in Athens, IKEAing, meeting up with long lost friends and celebrating Alexandra’s nameday, it was time for me, her and mum to come back to Mytilini armed and ready! September 3rd-8th was the moving to brand-new home preperations. The two girls helped me a lot and I do so love them for it, even though one of them worked significantly more than the other, oops shouldn’t have let that one slip! 😀 It was a great time us being together, had some talks, some good breakfasts and stuff. And I can’t forget mention: whut!! We played Rock Band all together. Mum played a video game. As we say in greek, many bakeries fell in ruins on that day…

The real fun started when mum left, which was right on the day we moved! For another week, it was just me and Alex taking care of the brand new home. We painted every room in crazy happy colours, pondered on what should go where, watched sick and crazy funny movies, cooked some tasty food (I tell you, squeezing meatballs isn’t nearly as disgusting as it once seemed… nor is chopping turkey), quarreled for a little bit just to break all the happy tension, played lots of Geometry Wars (and Alexandra made a brave new footing into the world of Hexic! A round of applause for our would-be hardcore please), explored the new surrounding area, discovered that afternoons are sexy too (sometimes sexier than evenings), quarreled a bit more to keep things balanced, and had to keep Yuki’s teen sexual heat under contro as well. Shut windows, air-condition. Yeah. This is what brought that happy week to a close. I did something I will never forgive myself for doing which was nevertheless necessary… *read on*

I had to have Yuki neutered. I wasn’t happy that I had to keep windows shut to keep her tomcat-seeking skills at bay and neither was she. But having little Yukinos around wasn’t the problem here. The problem was that there’s the bloody busy road just down the street. One sexy night out for Yuki could be her last, as she made a perfect white contrast against the cold, hard pavement . They’d be one in their lifelessness… Nightmare inducing, I agree wholeheartedly. So for us to be both happy (or for me to be happy and at least hoping she will be happy rid of her sexual distractions or at least indifferent to their absence — pleasure or pain) it was a tough, not to mention costly decision. Seeing her dizzy from the anaesthesia was a cruel pleasure though, have to admit! She also bit her stitches out, had an open wound Mordread thankfully treated while I was away in Chios visiting good old Fanis, ignorant and blissful about Yuki. We had her second stitches removed yesterday. All is well with Yuki now. She’s as playful, active, cuddly, hungry (for “milk” and more serious food) as ever! Minus her uterus.

While Alexandra was here I tried another first. I pursued the foundations of some career as a waiter/barman at none other than Mousiko Kafeneio. Yes, the one and only! It took no less than 2 weeks of me trying to make coffees and other beverages, failing, drinking my concoctions and always looking somehow confused to realise that I was not entirely suitable for the job. Not because I wasn’t any good at all at it but due to new emergency weekend tactics by me and Alexandra that can’t allow any weekend work obligations. No less, of course because of Piscean inherent looking-for-excuses when being in situations I don’t particularly like, behaviour; that woman pulled no punches when it came to rookie training. She demanded I took full care of bar and service within my second week! Negotiating unacceptable. Hey, at least now I have some experience. And hey, I did eat and drink for a few days for free. That’s something! And now I can set out for some less stressful work solution. English teaching here I come (?!).

If we undserstood something together with my little sugary crabby (believe me it sounds better in greek) these weeks, it’s that we cannot manage to be apart for more than a few days. Meaningless misunderstandings through MSN (which is the DEVIL!), general dysphoria and everything just proves that. We couldn’t not meet last weekend (even though there were more fights last week because I didn’t have any money, which by the way made me cook some truly good but thick chickpeas (name sucks in english, revythia all the way) but it was urgent so I could just find some but it doesn’t work that way and and and and it wasn’t hard for things to just settle right. Last weekend in Athens was just made in heaven. Everything was so great! We had such a great time within such few hours. If our emergency weekend plan ends up like this, it’s going to be grand.

Well. It’s 13:05 straight! Hah, I’ve been writing for 2 hours straight. And now again, it’s all stuff that only interests me in the end. Maybe Alex as well. But I feel very satisfied that I finally came down to writing something! If you’ve reached this end, dear reader, we should hang around more!

Next blog may be (but it may also not be) about all the new games, movies, music, books and cool stuff that has come to my attention recently. It’s going to be big! Don’t expect it soon! 😀

On studies

After reminiscing my days in Rodos, my exams are finally underway since Wednesday. Well actually since Tuesday but I decided to not sit for Globalization; I felt that I still haven’t studied it properly. My copper project was rushed but completed and my respective exam went well. Yesterday and today, though, I gave in two blank sheets. I hadn’t studied for these two subjects, namely Graphics & Animation and Introduction to Digital Audio and Video Editing. They were both subjects that require a more involved, deeper kind of studying. Since last year, I’ve been mostly putting off studying for subjects such as these; I already did it for the alleged Flash project, which turned out to be too much for everyone. Today, while my attention was hovering over my perfectly white sheet and the disappointingly incomprehensible questions on the much less white one sitting right next to it, I wondered.

The main reason I chose Cultural Technology as my theoretical career path somewhat less than 2 years ago was because I thought that it’d give me all the valuable knowledge and technical expertise for a job I would enjoy in the future. Isn’t that scandalous? I believe that in university, one has the perfect opportunity to explore themselves and their true interests and develop as a person, learn lots of new things about the world. Discovering that, in the end, it’s all there to throw another person in the job market is rather shocking. Where’s the real knowledge? Why do we receive 15 huge books every semester but only a tiny little fragment is ever taught or needed? Professors themselves only assign certain parts of books as study material as if the rest is irrelevant. And how can anything work when students and academics alike all know that there’s cheating going on? Why would anyone want to cheat in the first place? The prof today casually announced “If you’re gonna cheat, at least don’t make yourself obvious”. What?

Myself, I hate cheating for the reasons stated above. What’s the point? We’re in university to learn, not get a stupid essentially worthless piece of paper. If I feel like I haven’t had enough of a particular subject, I don’t even sit for it. Neither do I sit for it if I haven’t completed a difficult and experience-rich project or essay for it. Yet an alarmingly high percentage of people think it’s perfectly OK to pass subjects they have no idea about just by cheating. And what happens next? They get the same bachelor’s as me, perhaps even with a higher mark, and then proceed to discredit me and others that have the same degree by not having a single clue about their job.

Generally, I have this feeling that I’m not going to get really involved with Cultural Technology in my life. But only time will tell. I’m not really worried about my studies, the above were just thoughts I had today and have had for some time now. Maybe it’s because I’m LAZY and not a model student. Still, I do feel that I’m way more responsible than most of my fellow students but that can’t be good exactly. Maybe I should take a more focused approach, but I can’t NOT enjoy my time when Alexandra is here and when such a full and exciting summer is ahead of us…

Hobo for a day! Also, Rodos.

I’m sitting at a net cafe in Rodos. The past 2 days I’ve slept a total of ~6 hours. I’m watching Eurovision and I wasn’t cheap about it; 6 hours cost 10 euros (that’s what I got ><) and LAN parties here cost around 3 times as much as they do in Mytilini. I mean, ****! (insert favourite 4-letter swear word here). 4 hours of LAN-partying cost 4 euros. And I plan on staying all night here. How did I get myself in such a position? Well, here goes.

I’m in Rodos for two reasons: First, today and tomorrow is the 2nd (now annual) Medieval Festival in the Old Castle Town. I was here last year as well for the very same reason and even wrote a little something for the occasion. Back then of course I hadn’t even thought of such a place as a “cubimension” but it’s on my MySpace blog if you want to read it that badly. Anyway, the second reason I’m here is because my uni’s cultural week (πολιτιστική εβδομάδα) starts on the 27th and goes on till the 31st. During it, groups from all over the uni islands present what they’ve prepared the past year and it’s generally considered a time of meetings, parties and Aegean University students getting together. Basically, what MyAegean stands for. And guess what: I’m taking part as a Mytilini MyAegean representative. That means that I’m staying for free and going home for free! Of course, the university isn’t paying for my fascination for castles and knights so basically till the 27th I have to find somewhere to stay.

Luckily, I’ve found a CouchHost. But he’ll only be able to host me starting tomorrow. And yes, I have no place to stay for tonight. I’m a hobo for a day! I’ve been walking aaaall day long around the town, looking for somewhere to spend the night and generally exploring. I’m exhausted, my legs and back hurt (good thing I’m only carrying around 3 bags… travelling light yes?) and I’m now wondering how I’m going to cope in a couple of months, when me and Alex will be walking this much close to every day! The first day of the Medieval Festival was really good – beer, food with no forks, great medieval music, happenings, swords ‘n’ stuff – I ended up using Housemaster’s idea: I’m spending the night at a net cafe. But it’s EXPENSIVE!

So Eurovision ended and Greece didn’t win. Thankfully! The Russian song that did, however sucks just as bad as the greek one if not more. ICELAND should have won ;D. Anyway, I’ll try to go to sleep now. I hope the net cafe guys don’t have a problem with that…

Uncommon Ways: A Subjective Look At Rare’s Ventures On The Xbox 360

I got myself an Xbox 360 last Christmas. It was purely coincidential (or was it?) that I found the premium edition along with Perfect Dark Zero and NFS: Carbon for only 120 euros new. If it wasn’t for that super bargain I may not had been writing these lines about one of my most liked developers: Rare.

Up till then, I had been chiefly a Nintendo gamer; as such I had played and loved most Rare games after Donkey Kong Country, even the more obscure ones like Jet Force Gemini or Blast Corps. Classics like Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country 3 and GoldenEye all enjoy the view from the top of my favourite game list. Obviously, I was full of anticipation when the GameCube was just getting released, sure that Rare’s slew of great games would continue on Nintendo’s latest console. The announcement of Microsoft buying and Nintendo selling hit me hard. I knew I wouldn’t be playing Perfect Dark Zero or Donkey Kong Racing any time soon, if at all.

Things didn’t change much during last gen since Rare wasn’t all that active during that period. I didn’t even try Star Fox Adventures (though I’d like to try it now)… Games Rare designed for the original Xbox seemed heretical to my preteen eyes, as anything they made could only be associated with Nintendo in my book.

When I got that Xbox 360 with Perfect Dark Zero, again I didn’t expect much from the game. I remembered hearing a lot of criticism during X360’s launch… How the game had little to do with the original and how Rare had dropped the ball for its first major release since the buyout. Sceptical, I tried it for a few hours and indeed, the game was a total disappointment. I couldn’t understand how they could mess it up so much. But the worst had still to come.

Let’s have a look at Kameo: a new IP in Rare’s arsenal, Kameo was first shown along with Donkey Kong Racing as the games they were working on for GameCube’s launch window. When within that same window fell the company’s trade of hands Kameo was moved to Xbox and Donkey Kong Racing was, of course, cancelled. The former reappeared after a second delay as a launch title for Microsoft’s new console hand-in-hand with Perfect Dark Zero, heralding Rare’s supposed revival. Supposed… A friend of mine got me the game for Christmas shortly after I got the Xbox so I had the chance to play it only shortly after the mess that was Perfect Dark. What can I say about this game?

It wasn’t a TOTAL disaster. For instance, the graphics and sound production were of high quality all around, nicely showing off 360’s initial capabilities. The gameplay was fine too: transforming into different creatures and killing stuff with combos? Sounds great! And it did play decently. But as I progressed, more and more did I feel like something was wrong. Every time Kameo uttered so much as a word my face transformed into a mask of disgust, every time I had to play the SAME boss to gain a new Elemental Warrior I slowly shook my head, every time I flip-kicked a boulder using Kameo I’d wonder why it wouldn’t budge when just running into it would make it roll around as if it was a giant titanium ball filled with helium. Yes, every time I played the game I’d find more and more cringe-worthy characteristics: the story (ouch!), the characters (yuck!), the presentation (ewww!), how Kameo’s horse would be too scared to go anywhere near buildings but it’d run head first into huge crowds of identically modelled and animated trolls (what?? trolls are like orcs now?), how the game tried to be fantastically epic but failed so miserably it hurt. OK, as I said the gameplay was fun and enjoyable but picture this: it took me over 2 months of on and off play to get to the last boss of this weekend-filler game and I still haven’t defeated him. Even the respective (high scoring) achievement wasn’t enough of an incentive… To sum up, Kameo played kinda like a Rare game, that is unrivaled when it comes to fun and fulfilling gameplay, but it fell flat on its face concerning the other aspect that make Rare games great: the personality, the humour, the flair and vibrance that make them unique. Kameo felt like it was just trying to be all of these, trying to mimic something long lost… As if it was another company that made the game. Thankfully (?), there was something that reminded me who made this piece of perfumed crap: there’s a hidden radio somewhere within it that plays the Banjo theme remixed in metal! Oh joy! An island of hope in this sea of mediocrity…

That track proved to be much more than what met my eye at first. I liked it so much I looked all over the net to download (still haven’t found it). Meanwhile, I did some research and discovered that it was none other than Grant Kirkhope himself, composer of Banjo-Kazooie music (among many other Rare classics, not least GoldenEye and Perfect Dark) who was behind this remix, a heavy rocker himself. I found his profile on MySpace and asked him about his projects himself, while commenting on his work (add him guys and gals, he’s an open and down to earth guy!) Then I found out that he had made the music to Viva Piñata. Something clicked. Add to that I’d heard good words about it, and next thing I knew was that it had come to my posession for a mere €30.

It didn’t take me more than an hour to realise just why everybody was so hooked with the game: I was hooked myself! Several tens of hours later, more than a LVL50 of mad gardening skillz, 5 gardens filled with little, colourful and oh so childish piñatas and an intense addiction with the game that has thankfully relaxed recently — how else was I going to touch Lost Odyssey? — I can say with certainty that Rare has neither lost their talent nor their soul (although Microsoft may state otherwise). In fact, all the crappy games may have been an unfortunate break for the rest of the great games to come. Viva Piñata was the first game of theirs that I really enjoyed after almost 8 years and that’s 8 decades when it comes to the entertainment industry. Brilliant music, just as expected from Mr. Kirkhope, beautiful graphics and wacky artstyle, addictive-as-crack gameplay and more of our beloved Rare flair with just enough Microsoft casual undertones and direction to make it bearable and suitable for the kids but not without the innuendos that only we “adults” would understand. Definitely not without its flaws — why do I have to whack the entire garden every freaking time, and I’m-fine-thank-you-Miss-Costalot-yes-yes-bright-eyed-bushy-tailed-GET-ON-WITH-IT! AND STOP PUSHING THAT DAMN SLOT MACHINE LIKE A RETARD ALL THE TIME! Eat my melting chocolate coins. — and annoying moments, thankfully they’re not enought to deeply spoil the otherwise satisfying gameplay.

So details for the new Banjo were announced just a few days ago, with Grant Kirkhope perfecting that early metal remix that had appeared in Kameo. Most fans of the old games don’t like the direction of Nuts & Bolts and have erupted into riots about how Rare sucks now and how they’re ruled my M$, how they’re constantly taking wrong decisions and the like. I know that a good chunk of them are still Nintendo devotees like I would have been had I not got my Xbox 360 by the strange twists and turns of luck and may not have had the chance to play some recent Rare games. Viva Piñata is a good indication that the old Twycross chaps haven’t lost it all, even with all the staff changes that they have endured recently and before they became part of Microsoft. I have trust in the new Banjo game’s ambition and scope, how creativity is such a big part of it. I welcome the fact that they’re changing the feel of the series and are taking it to another, more personalised style of platforming. Some things may seem strange at first, like the removal of Kazooie’s moves, but that will only make her bitch and complain about it and how the game would have been better off with them, in-game! The guys know what they’re doing and the crew that is behind this is mostly the same as it was back in 1998, which wasn’t the case with Perfect Dark Zero. I’m now eagerly awaiting what looks like not another great Banjo game, but also another great, groundbreaking Rare game… The kind of groundbreaking and reinventing we had almost forgot they could manage and systematically deliver.

Rare managed within this generation alone to virtually burn its already dying self to ashes with its X360 launch games. Viva Piñata was the little baby phoenix that was born out of the ashes. It’s my belief that with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and to a lesser extent Viva Piñata 2 they will revive themselves into one of gaming’s great, brilliant phoenixes. And the gamers will be happy once again.

Rareware

Dusty Low Spirits

I don’t really know how to begin. For one, these last days have been eventful and uneventful at the same time. For one, I haven’t really been going out. Since last wednesday when my finnish couchsurfer left (she was alright), I’ve been mostly indoors. I finished Heroes Season 1, which had too happy an ending I might say and I’m curious to see how the writers have made it go on, I watched The Big Lebowski with Garret and HM, Lola Rennt (AGAIN! What an awesome movie), The Nines (what a strange but also intriguing movie), I watched most of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (what an otaku fest this is), played some Lost Odyssey, more Boom Boom Rocket, more Viva Pinata, watched some more Blackadder, made some research at the uni library for me and my team’s project on copper and how to preserve items made of it, StumbledUpon pages and pages and pages (it definitely is the most complete time killer since the advent of the internet), read a very interesting article by National Geographic on memory, put up a couple of posters using BlockPoster (cheap and easy way of making posters out of any picture), and finally, made some arrangements for our summer eurotrip. This is a good point to start talking about what went wrong.

The past few days the weather’s been absolutely terrible. For one, there’s this dust cloud covering the sky. It makes sunny days almost look overcast… The stars aren’t visible at night and it generally feels humid, moreso than usual. Today the heat (probably in conjuction with the dust cloud) was sweltering. Spring’s upon us for sure, although the heat reminded of June… It was a deafboil as we greeks sometimes say. I used to like rain and moody weather once… Really like it, that is. Now, I tend to prefer warm, sunny and vibrant days. It makes me more cheerful… This sticky tropical kind of situation really gets on my nerves though. Another thing: I can’t seem to get anything done. Apart from going to the library, I’ve done little else for my other interests or obligations. I just sit around being lazy. I hate that, cause I feel like my lazy hours aren’t earned in any way. Even practising for my bass guitar lessons (yeah I finally found a teacher and he’s good to boot!) feels like a chore…

And that’s not all. Weird flylings have started appearing and getting on my nerves, my internet connection enjoys making me want to smash my modem (which by the way I have to return to HOL once I move out) and generally makes the Tower of Piza look like a masterpiece of stability in comparison… and today I was in bad spirits all afternoon. The arrangements about the eurotrip I talked about? Well, me and Alex tried to find the cheapest ticket to Finland for July. After a bit of looking around, we found what looked like a deal: easyjet from here to Berlin, then another flight to Riga and then another flight from there to Helsinki with AirBaltic. All for a grand total of €90 + LVL80-., LVLs being the Latvian local currency. When looking up the exchange rate for LVLs, I confused LTLs wtih LVLs. The LTL, the currency they have in Lithuania, is several times cheaper than the euro so 80 of that seemed a good deal. Well… I should have looked up my Baltic countries’ currency twice; the LVL is actually worth more than the euro, and that made what once looked like a good 20 euro bargain a horrible 120 euro rip-off, something we thought we had totally steered clear from. And I only realised that after buying the tickets… Luckily, I had deemed it a good idea to buy cancellation warranty but AirBaltic can’t decide whether they give refunds and how they go about it. Still, I can’t believe I was so careless, especially when we were in penny-pinching mode with Alex.

So, I’m off to do whatever I’m going to do. Probably watch another episode of Blackadder. Yeah. Or read His Dark Materials. What about german? Ohhh Ill just go to sleep. I only hope that the upcoming Easter holidays will help me take it easy and focus.

Yummers!

(I know I haven’t posted for a while. Great things are stirring!)

Relatively often, we all catch ourselves wondering:”Which is my favourite food after all? How could I possibly rate my favourite flavours and reward the ones that tantalize my taste buds the most? Respectively: “Which is the most horrible, attrocious taste ever, the tang that proves even my bravest of attempts to keep in my sudden regurgitation inadequate?” I’m sure everybody has these thoughts in mind every now and then, so, in association with Marioland, we present to you:

The Yummers Rating System!

What is it? A simple to perceive 1 to 10 rating system designed to rate flavours. The forks may be implying that only food is involved but actually any flavour is eligible to a Yummers rating, from food to drink and all the way back.
What exactly does it rate? Flavours concern texture as well as the aroma, oomph and aftertaste. It is everything relevant with food and drink that has nothing to do with satisfying needs.
Why does it exist? As I described above, it is often that we want to express how much we like or dislike something, but there is no proper gradation. With the advent of the Yummers Rating System and with using it properly it is possible for everyone to understand just how much we enjoyed that souvlaki (I’m not going to argue about what we’re going to call it.), milkshake, or that fasolakia with yoghurt.
How does it work? Each 4-pronged fork represents a single point while the 2-pronged fork represent half a point. In other words, even if the score goes up to 5, there are 10 scores.

Verbal representation of ratings:

Yummers2

I’d much rather eat my own feces.

Yummer1

If it is what it takes to survive…

Yummer1 Yummers2

Edible. Just.

Yummer1

Bland, but won’t cause any stomach trouble.

Yummer1 Yummers2

The flavour goes pretty much unnoticed… Failure to impress either way.

Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1

Mildly enjoyable. Unsophisticated but fulfilling.

Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummers2

Things are getting interesting! While not memorable in its own right, when remembering the particular flavour my senses tingle. 1st level of Yummer!

Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1

4 squared! This denotes a flavour that is indeed among my favourites. I know it, like it and savour it!

Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummers2

Almost, but not quite! But that does not change the fact that I could probably live on this alone. Mentioned in any discussion concerning food and drink.

Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1

5 yummer forks. My taste buds are long screaming in nearly painful orgasm. If taste was a DnD skill, 5 yummers would be rank 100. Stuff of legends. I could cherish this every day and still never ever get bored of it. In fact, the perfect definition comes in 6 words: I could swim in this stuff.

You may use this scale to share with us your favourite flavours. Don’t be afraid: use it in your everyday life as well! Let it be known, the one and only true system for measuring yummers!

POSTSCRIPT: After reading some of your comments, I’d like to add that personally I haven’t, yet, had a food or drink that is pure 5 yummers good. 5 yummers denotes something you may even eat just once in your lifetime and remember the exact flavour for the entire rest of it. It’s something truly special, not just chocolate or pizza… That’s what I believe anyway. Here are some yummers scores for me (in their best renditions I remember):

Pumpkin Soup: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 Chick Peas: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummers2 , Brocolli: Yummer1 , Kinder Bars: Yummer1 Yummer1 , Shandy Rock: Yummer1 Yummer1 , Coca Cola: Yummer1 Yummer1 , Souvlaki: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 , Sushi: Yummer1 Yummer1 , Cauliflower: Yummer1 , Kiwi: Yummer1 , McChicken: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 , Singapore Sling: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummers2 , Pina Colada: Yummer1 Yummer1 , Fasolakia with Yoghurt: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 , Lacta Chocolate: Yummer1 Yummer1 , Cherries: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 , Peaches: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 , George’s Failed Rice: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 , Alexandra’s Fondue: Yummer1 Yummer1 , The cod I ate today at Michalis’: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1 , Domino’s Parmesana Pizza: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummers2 , Cadbury’s Dairy Milk: Yummer1 Yummer1 , Caipirinha: Yummer1 Yummer1 Yummer1