The Day The Other Sam Was Poorly
Added at 9:30pm and filed under Offline, family, gaming
I don’t know, I’ve been sat here at my laptop trying to think of how to ease myself into this paragraph, but there’s not an easy transition, really. My parents dog – a gorgeously fluffy, dopey, friendly German Shepherd who shares moniker with my first born – is really ill. On Monday he stopped breathing – simply quit breathing in and out, just like that – and my mother had to give him mouth-to-mouth to bring him around. (Aside: I originally took this with some skepticism. I think I’d assumed that she’d simply been mistaken, that maybe Fluffy Sam (as he’s referred to in order to distinguish him from my own Baby Sam) been heavily asleep or unconscious, but my brother was there at the time and said that when they tried to move him he was utterly lifeless so I’ve since had to reassess.) Today he went in for exploratory surgery, the vet looking for a blockage or a tumour or anyfuckingthing and the surgery itself is risky to a dog of his size and age (he’s 9 – 10 in April – which is a solid age for a Shepherd). He’s come out the other side okay, albeit groggy and a little tipsy on his feet, and whilst they can confirm that he’s fit and healthy, with a strong heart and good organ function and healthy lungs, they haven’t found anything to explain what happened.
Which leaves my mother spending the remainder of her birthday nursing her poorly doggy and frightened shitless every time he closes his eyes.
And he’s such a gorgeous old thing. So sweet and happy and affectionate. Even though I’ve never lived with him, the thought of losing him hurts as much as any dog we’ve lost prior. To him, M, S and I are family, as Fluffy Sam is very much family to us. :(
Anyway.
Finished up Fairytale Fights tonight. It’s been my game of choice recently and Sam (Baby, not Fluffy) and I have been playing through on multiplayer for the last couple of weeks. I have to say it: the boy haz skillz. Although there’s not a hell of a lot of combat dexterity required for it (it’s as insane a button-masher as I’ve ever played in my life – even gives Street Fighter a run for its money), there’s plenty of places where tricky timing and jumping skills are required and he pretty much nailed them. Mummy’s so proud. Heh.
The totally weird thing about this game is that it came with a 16+/Mature rating which is just . . . bizarre. I spent twenty minutes or so with it at the Eurogamer Expo last month and couldn’t figure it out. Now I’ve since completed it, I still don’t understand. Yeah, there’s violence and you chop people up with axes and kitchen knives but it’s all bright and cartoony and no worse than any old Tom & Jerry or Ren & Stimpey episode. So whilst it’s definitely not suitable for all, you definitely don’t need to be able to vote (or drive a car for my Stateside friends) to stomach it. ESRB doesn’t give much away, so my only guess is that the occasional curse word (bastard, ass – not much worse than that I don’t think?) must’ve pushed it over?
And finally, did you know that I broke the global exclusive that Akira Yamaoka – sound director and latterly producer of Silent Hill – left Konami? Yeah. Little me. Weird, eh? It’s been a surreal couple of days.
I’ve chucked the whos, whys and whats of my whole Yamaoka story behind the cut, so if you’re not interested in my nerdy SH stuff, you can promptly escape. Go on. I won’t hold it against you . . .
Comments: (11)
The Day it Was December
Added at 9:57am and filed under Oh Mama, family, gaming
I cannot believe it’s the first of December. Where the hell did the rest of 2009 go?
I’m usually pretty good when it comes to Christmas. I give myself plenty of time to consider and purchase gifts, and S’s presents are usually all wrapped up – Ha! Great pun! – by the first weekend of December at the latest. This year? Not so much. I have a handful of stuff boxed up in the spare room and . . . well, that’s it. Pretty lame. We haven’t even really decided what to get him yet. Every year to date he’s had a thing, you know? Spiderman or Doctor Who or SpongeBob – something particular that he’s all chatty and obsessed with. But this year there’s nothing; he still has a passing interested in Who and Spiderman, but this is the first year where he’s all teenagery and meh about stuff. His main loves right now are football and video games and whilst this isn’t a tragedy or anything (you can imagine where the love of video games has come from!), it does make him harder to buy for, not to mention more expensive. We’ve flirted with the idea of a puppy (YES I know dogs are for life, not just for Christmas, but trust me we’ve wanted a dog for YEARS) but I won’t have one until M’s dogproofed our gardens and I know our home is safe. He keeps promising he’ll do it but promptly doesn’t – much like my missing bathroom floor.
(Aside: do you know I haven’t had flooring in the bathroom for TWO AND A HALF FUCKING YEARS? No, that’s not an exaggeration. We have had nasty bare floorboards for years and they’re not the rustic, beautiful kind, either.)
Where was I? Oh yeah – the dog. So I won’t get a dog unless I’m certain it can’t get out, as we back onto a very busy road. So then we thought about a little aquarium for his room, some pretty fish to help S learn how to look after things, teach him about responsibility, but M pulls a face every time I mention it, so it’s like . . . okay, smartarse, can you suggest something else? And then he goes all quiet, avoids my eyes and changes the subject.
Talking of whom, I haven’t a clue what to buy my husband, either – nor him me, for that matter. There’s nothing particularly I want other than a game or DVD or two, and I hate having/buying stuff for the sake of it. We have kickass tickets to see Paul McCartney next month, which – as I’ve hearted him forever, ever since I was a little kid listening to the Beatles with my dad – is honestly the best gift I could’ve asked for, Christmas or otherwise. We also have tickets to see Billy Connolly in late January, which is all kinds of awesome. And whilst it’s nice to have something tangible, trust me – these tickets cost a bomb and made me infinitely smiley. Give me a voucher so I can pick up Bayonetta in the new year and I’m set. Honestly.
Anyway, I’m not the only busy one; the school timetable has exploded and I’ve felt l like I’ve handed over hundred of pounds this week to fund S’s festive activities, funding for everything from raffle tickets to pantomime trips to (sigh) church visits. We spent the weekend trawling around trying to source a costume for S’s Christmas play. In previous years he’s been a reindeer, a king, a Paige – all nice, Christmasy things, I’m sure you’ll agree – but this year? This year he’s an alien narrator. Yeah, you read that right – AN ALIEN. Quite what’s festive about a goddamn alien I have no idea, and I can confirm that – going by the complete absence of alien outfit online and off – the stores don’t know, either. Alien costumes are decidedly lacking in the dress-up racks this year.
So today’s he’s gone off to school today with a carefully labeled Link costume – and by Link, I mean one of the Monsters Vs Aliens variety, rather than a badass, princess-saving one. I hope that the teacher meant it when she said that the costume could be any style or colour – I suspect what I sent him in with today was a bit of a stretch. Heh. I could’ve made one but seriously . . . my creativity doesn’t bend that way. If he’d gone today with a homemade costume it would’ve involved a saucepan and acres of kitchen foil . . . and I love my son too much to send him in looking like that.
Comments: (8)
The Day I was Back for Realz This Time
Added at 8:06pm and filed under Geek Speak, Offline, awesome, family, go me, health, travel, updates, wordpress
Why, hello you! No, this isn’t a mirage or a sick, sick joke – it really is me, updating and everything! Come on in! How have you been in the zillions of months since we last spoke?
There are loads of reasons I haven’t updated, but none are particularly satisfactory, unfortunately. I suppose the main reason is that I got sick of self-editing; too many real-life people have this URL, and whilst I’ve never been anyone but myself in the confines of this journal, it does make it a tad more difficult to slag someone off when you know they’re probably reading. I also got a bit bummed at the lack of comments, and I’d become aware that my entries weren’t particularly engaging – which potentially explained the former fact, of course. So I took some time off, worked on other stuff whilst, as always, balancing my clients, too. (Work has slowed right down in the last six months or so, but I still have just enough dripping in to keep me ticking up. Just). I also, finally, finished up SHH.com in July which was not only a fucking miracle, but also infinitely satisfying, too.
And then, a few months back, I got an idea for a new layout. It’s so hard to work on something for yourself when you have to design to order (I don’t think it’s just me – lots of other designers seem to say the same thing) so this nugget of an idea took me by surprise, quite honestly. So I mulled it over a bit and half-heartedly opened Photoshop and then, a few weeks later – voila! A brand new look. (Hit the link to reload the theme if you’re still seeing an existing layout, BTW).
So, I’m hoping that the new look inspires me. My last theme had been up for three years – THREE BLOODY YEARS – but, unfortunately for you lot, I really liked it (I still do, actually!), so I wasn’t ever particularly motivated to change it. But the code was aging and there was little scope to include new stuff like Twitter updates etc., so I went back to the drawing board. What you see now is the sum of several months worth of chopping and changing but I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out and am glad that I took my time with it, even if the WP loop utterly kicked my ass for a while there.
It’s not perfect; known issues include a weird footer FUBAR in Opera on OSX (bizarre – usually Opera renders EXACTLY the same as FireFox) and a bizarre header misalignment in IE6. I could get sanctimonious and say that it’s a deprecated browser that was crap to begin with, let alone now in 2009, and insist that people using IE6 should REALLY get with the times and update. But since 40ish% of you guys seems to still be using it, I did go through and hack as best I could to make it legible. So whilst it’s readable, it’s not ideal and I will go back to it with fresh eyes. (And no, I’m not too proud as to refuse help. If any of you wish to take a peek at my CSS and suggest where you think I’m going wrong, please do!). Update 30/11/09: BALLS. There’s a header error in IE7, too, according to my work PC (even though it’s okay on my PC laptop at home – must be due float class and the screen resolution?). Have obviously arsed up some coding somewhere. Anyone got any ideas?? I think I’ve fixed the error now(?). I only have access to IE6 and IE7, the latter of which is stuck at a shitty resolution so may still be telling me all in a-ok when it’s not, but I’ve gone back to the code and think I found and fixed the error. Please let me know if you’re on IE and still having problems!
Otherwise I’ve tested it on FireFox (PC and Mac), Safari (Mac) and IE7 (PC) and I think everything is okay besides a stray code sitting expectantly on my links page that I can’t remove as it has something to do with WP’s auto-listing of links. I don’t have access to IE8 or Chrome (which is still PC only – boo), so please do let me know if you’re having problems viewing on those platforms – just drop me a comment and I’ll try to fix the place up. :) In the meantime, please be patient if things go screwy but do let me know if you think you’ve stumbled across something I missed!
Site aside, I’m doing pretty good. We – and by that, I mean all three of us – have just come back from a long weekend in New York City, which was – as always – thoroughly awesome. I started my MSc last month and while I’m crapping myself and struggling to find the time to do all the reading, I am enjoying my first module. Work is . . . well, work is work, but let’s cover that in a passworded entry another time (there’ll be more passworded entries – I’ve decided it’s the only way I can still write here without stressing about who’s reading it). I’ve shifted almost 40lbs since this time last year, which I’ve managed to do whilst balancing my desire to be thinner at the same time as never fully restricting myself. I don’t go hungry and I’m doing my best to be a little more active and it all seems to be working right now. Keep your fingers crossed I can keep it up! Sam lost his first tooth, and then promptly lost another. He also went through a horrible spell of being picking on in school where I’d never felt as helpless as a mother as I did right then. I think it’s mostly settled now, but it was a shitty time and one I hope never to experience again. Kids are so fucking mean sometimes. But otherwise I still completely love being his Mum and spend all the time we’re apart wishing that we weren’t. Heh. He amazes me every day and I’m so, so proud of the little boy he’s become.
Let’s see – what else? I’ve also picked up a writing gig at aeropause.com, a kick-ass site by gamers for gamers, and I’m loving every second of it. I went to the Eurogamer Expo in London last month and even though I went alone and was gawped at most of the time I was there (thirty-something blonde gals don’t really fix the gamer stereotype) I had a riot. Look out for Bayonetta and Heavy Rain – they rock.
So . . . yeah. I’m back. I’m sorry I disappeared. It wasn’t cool to up and leave like that, I know that I’ll regret this in years to come; my journal has always been about me and for me, and the moment I started worrying about other people was the moment I backed the hell off. I’ll now have five-month gap where I won’t know what happened, and all because I’m a prat. Pft.
Anyway, that’ll do for now. If you think I’ve missed something critical do feel free to drop me a question in the comments and I’ll bring you up to speed!
Comments: (15)
The Day with Girl Gamers Suck (6)
Introducing my latest project – girlgamerssuck.com.
You know me. I like games. I often don’t have time to play as much as I would like – and when I do play, I’m often kinda crap – but I’ve grown up with gaming and I love it. It’s part of my childhood, part of my life and [...]
The Day I was Ill. Again (2)
Ugh. I’m ill again.
I think I recall crowing last year that I managed to miss most of the flu/coldy things floating about. My Fate God heard me, laughed outrageously, and has been making me pay ever since. Bastard. It feels like I’ve spent the last three months coughing and spluttering. I wouldn’t mind, but the [...]
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