For the People who are Still Alive

Steam has a rating that rates you on how much you've played Steam games over the past two weeks. I'm around 3.9 or something, "Master of Nothing". This isn't very high, despite playing Portal for 9.5 hours since its release at 8:00AM on Wednesday morning. I have played it to completion three times, I have completed the Bonus Maps, and have made a start on the timed/limited runs. I managed to play it from clicking "New" to the final drop in one hour and six minutes. That record will be broken next time I play.

For those of you unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, it's a new game, called Portal.

A while ago, I can't remember exactly, probably about ten months ago, a trailer for the game appeared on YouTube, and I eagerly told everyone I knew about it. The game, set in the Half Life Universe, involved solving problems, not by jumping, but by shooting portals in the walls. This new game mechanic interested me, as they set about it in a realistic way. Well, as realistic as a physics defying idea can be. And like most stuff Valve does, I expected it to be great.

In the waiting time I downloaded Narbacular Drop, the original game which introduced user placed Portals. I enjoyed that and played it through many times (it was only really a proof of concept, so very short). But as Portal came out, un nouveau raison d'etre was came to light. Despite its short length, I can't stress how much I love this game.

"Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death."

I've barely even played Half Life 2: Episode Two. Well, I have, a bit, and I'm seeing fantastic cinematic effects. Just a couple of minutes in and I'm catching a glimpse of something through a window, not long enough to see what it is, just enough to know I'm being watched. It was far more effective and scary with the absence of suspenseful music, something a lot of Hollywood could take a cue from.

I'm not going to say much more on the subject of videogames though.

The JCS started again last Tuesday, for the first time with myself at the helm. I never though I'd make it as President, but I have become the first white President the society has ever had, if I recall correctly. And despite not having a stall at the Fresher Fair, and relying on old mailing lists and posters, we had a massive amount of new members. HUGE SUCCESS. I know that most of them we won't see again, but it's enough to keep the society alive.

I had a strange phone call last night. I was playing Portal (sorry) and my phone rang. I checked the time, it was 1:15AM. The call went something like this (I start):

"Hello?"
"Hi, I'm calling from BT Answerphone, I was wondering if you could design us a new logo."
"Design a new logo?"
"Yes. Is this a bad time to call?"
"No, it's a brilliant time to call."
"Well we just need someone..."
"Where did you get my information?"
"From Facebook. Should we just send you an email?"
"Yes, send me a Facebook message."
"Ok, can I just take your name?"
"You can get that from Facebook as well."
"Ok, thank you."
"Goodbye."

A few flags went off. BT never calls outside business hours unless. In fact, nobody does unless it's an emergency or they're from Australia. My mobile number isn't on Facebook to anyone but friends. There's no info about my graphic design career online accompanied by my mobile number, and if there was they'd know my name. On top of that, he sounded like a thirteen year old lowering his voice and his friends were snickering in the background. Either it's some ill-planned prank, or the worst scam I've ever come across.

I had a horrible thought. Last night, I'm in my room, flying through Portals, and while I'm looking, I see something. A tiny, red, square dot. I can't figure what it's meant to be. A little below that and to the left, the same thing, but green. These dots are standing out against a dark background. And I realise, one of my worst fears: dead pixels. The fear plagues every LCD monitor owner, something that can ruin something so beautiful. Trouble was, I'd shut down my computer, and was lying in bed. I'm getting dead pixels in my dreams. This is probably worse. They've gone now, but still, scary.

I did dream about Portals last night as well, it's strange. I used them just to help with the shopping.

Anyway, I'm off to work in a few minutes. The PHP websites don't code themselves.

If At First You Don't Succeed, You Fail

Portal. Portal portal portal. Portal. Portal portal. Portal portal portal portal, portal portal portal. Portal portal portal. Portal portal portal portal portal portal portal. Portal. Portal portal portal portal portal.

Portal portal.

Portal portal portal portal portal. Portal portal. Portal portal.

Portal portal portal portal portal portal portal portal portal. Portal. Portal portal portal. Portal portal portal portal, portal portal portal. Portal portal portal. Portal portal portal portal, portal portal portal. Portal portal portal.

Living with Living with Living with Not Dying from Disease

All the work I have been doing for this company, and instantly, most of my paycheque is spent in a day. And I don't have much to show for it. But I don't mind because I had a very fun day.

My last night in New York last Summer was spent at the Nederlander theatre, watching Rent. Since then, I have been quite a fan of it, and have heard/seen it in most of its forms. Every so often, my mother emails me about theatre tickets I can get for free for new shows that haven't had their critical reception yet. One such show is Rent (Remixed), showing in the Duke of York's Theatre. And I once again was given two free tickets to go and see it.

Through Natasha's probably interminable kindness, Kiana came with me, and we went to see a new take on an old favourite.

Let me say off the bat that while it was enjoyable, I didn't think that much of the film. There wasn't much wrong with it, it just didn't transfer to the big screen from the small stage. It did, nonetheless, bring Rent to a world that hasn't been to New York, and missed it while it was in their town (I know it closed after a short run in London, and I was too young to even want to go). This adaptation, however, took a lot of what I took for granted a moved it around.

Several of the characters are from minorities, and through the years onstage their ethnicity was preserved, and all (bar Sarah Silverman) were transferred to the productions I was aware of. Characters that we were so cemented with black, Oriental or Hispanic actors now became pale cockney redheads or cocky American blondes. Mimi Marquez shouldn't conjure images of someone who looks like Alysson Hannigan. British accents were dotted around, despite still being set in New York. But despite the nationality of some of the cast, there were some very good American accents, faithful to what I've known for the past year.

The set was always rough, black brick, steel pipes and rusty furnaces. In this version, the set is extremely Tate Modern. Almost minimalist, and filled with far more implication. It might have been the highlight; dotted with strange things being lowered from above, and well placed projections making powerful suggestions. The characters in costume looked so out of place with the sterile, monochrome environment, it was very effective.

The songs were different. Not just in order (which threw both of the seasoned Rent fans), but reworked. Oddly, for music that we're so used to hearing, the changed and remixed music wasn't a desecration. They were actually very good. Today 4 U had its backing track totally redone, completely to its credit, one of the surprising improvements. Out Tonight takes you by surprise with a total genre change, and one of the sexiest performances I've seen in a long time (although whether the change suits Mimi's character is up to debate). Happy New Year, one of my favourites, was changed very nicely, and gives the second half a very fresh feel. Take Me or Leave Me, as Kiana noted afterwards, was much more of a pop song, which worked well, but perhaps not as well as the original. It was extremely catchy though. My favourite, I'll Cover You was, luckily largely untouched. And its reprise was perhaps more effective in its sparsity. Watching Contact was probably the most surreal experience I've had in a while. It's subtext wasn't anywhere near as blatant as in the New York production, but it worked well.

However, some additions didn't work anywhere near as well. Maureen's MCing was effective, but somewhat cheesy (despite my appreciation for what Denise van Outen did with the character). As was Angel's ascension. Mark's character seemed too over the top for the usually deadpan delivery I have known. It was somewhat overacted. The end also seems anticlimactic, and while better than the overly Hollywood approach in the film, lacked the powerful emotion of the New York production. Finally, due to some staging issues and my occasional inability to hear the actors, I wondered if people who hadn't seen another production before would be able to follow it.

Despite these criticisms, the acting was of a high calibre and I found myself mouthing along to every word. I recommend it to fans and newbies alike. It's certainly a different vision to what Jonathan Larson saw, but it was enjoyed by two major fans, and I hope it has a decent run this time.

Little Round Mirrors

Well it's been a busy few weeks. Not only have I been working as a Technical Support assistant lecturer (helping them open computers, remove CPUs, plus in PSUs), but I was assigned to be a guest lecturer for 3D Animation.

This meant that last Tuesday morning I had to show my Animation to the new third years, and had to give a speech on how I did it, what inspired me, and what they should do. I had great difficulty sleeping the night before. But I was really happy with how it went, and was even treated to two rounds of applause (thanks Tables).

Now I'll speak to some senior staffers and with any luck I'll get the full guest lecturer fee. That wouldn't be too bad, but it's not necessary because the work I'm doing for this publishing company is pretty lucrative. It's not a fortune, but I enjoy what I do, and PHP pretty much writes itself.

Best of all, none of the work I do really eats up much of my day, so I'm getting alright money for not much of my time, and I like that. It's cash in the pocket and that helps.

My sister is coming down next weekend, for my mother's birthday, and while my mother is having plenty of her work friends around, we'll make ourselves scarce and go somewhere for a party or a movie or some kind of fun excursion.

Speaking of movies, I've been sitting down for Sky Movies the last couple of nights, to see some things I've been meaning to see. The host is a Korean monster/comedy film. Less comedy than most, but it's very funny in some parts. But I saw it and it left me thinking about it for days. I thoroughly recommend it, I was riveted the whole way through. I am, however, unable to watch it again. But see it if you can, it's definitely the best Korean film I have seen. But I haven't seen Oldboy yet, so who knows. Last night I watched a History of Violence, that quiet film with Viggo Mortensen. I liked that too. Not as much, it was much slower, but still a barrel of fun. Viggo is one of those really cool guys. He'll always be Aragorn to me, but this film was a very new and interesting character. He's kind of up there with Clive Owen cool.

Anyway, I have work in a few hours, I'd better go and prepare. For nothing.