Dead Space

A quick one.

OMFG! This game Dead Space is awesome. Absolutely gripping gameplay. Reminds me of System Shock 2 only a million times better. Aliens aboard a damaged spaceship. You blow off their limbs to slow them down. Tons of extras and nail biting stuff.

Beg, borrow or steal a great PC and get this game. I guarentee you will totally love it.

JJ

The Big 40.

40 today. I was feeling sad at about 7 in the morning. Not about turning 40, but about some extra classes and responsibilities which are making me have to re-schedule my guitar lesson, my one truly educational hobby. It will now be shunted to a poor Monday night as I teach Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and take Oi to uni on Saturday mornings. Phit was late to arrive at the school too, and I hate being late.

All these dull thoughts were shattered however, during the opening classes of the new term. I was teaching about the face and had a scream with the kids; drawing the mouth above the eyes and gags which get them shouting "No!!!" and then drawing big noses and hair on the ears and stuff like that. It was really funny and we topped it off with a game of Hangman. They are only Kindergarten 3 but very bright and brave. Afterwards, they pour out of the class and mob me. Someone always manages to punch me in the nuts too. It's like some horror movie being swarmed by psychotic, laughing children slapping your arse and kicking you, about 30 of them. Trapped in the corridor unable to push through the 10 foot radius of naughty killer zombies.

I have actually been very happy lately, though exercise has fallen by the wayside as the bud is in town. I'll be starting soon again, and I think I like the mornings best when it's dark and fresh.

Life with Oi is fairly pleasant. We can both take care of ourselves and meet up on the sofa every hour or so for a break. I purchased Crysis Warhead, a total head fuck but very, very pretty. I think each individual blade of grass is draw these days. It looks fantastic and they have structured the game very well. You have all different types of levels; all out war, alone in the mine, speeding on vehicles etc.

I must tell you about this new music I have acquired; Putumayo. Type it in and start downloading. I was watching Bloomberg the other day, such is my life, when this brilliant interview came on with some cool, hippy business tychoon who records music from traditional bands from all around the world, compiles and sells it. He has a hip, world clothing shop in New York. So far, I have extracted Mali, Sahara, Turkish, Cuban and more on the way. There's about 20 albums of all different cultures and music.

I am really enjoying Of Human Bondage, which might have opened me up to books again after a long and bitty absense.

I found now that I sleep much better slepping with Oi. I certainly wake up later and feel nice and cozy instead of wanting to make a coffee and check out the news on the PC.

The financial crisis? Well...I assume that productions will come to a grinding halt. Actually, it's already started. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs, and of course tons of human beans have already lost life savings with their shares and invested money. I should state that I am really sorry for anyone affected, and although I am pleased with what is happening on a global scale, obviously I am very sad for the individuals affected by this current state of affairs, both those I know and don't know.

Where does it go from here? Well...I imagine it will still be kicking in at about Spring next year. Crime will increase and beans may be forced onto the streets to find stay alive. This could result in riots in places you might not think it could happen.

After that?

It might be that another force will come into play, like a war or environmental disaster, to roll on the emergency. People without commitments might want to locate to a safe distance before the fireworks kick off.

Oi bought a tiny lap top and in the evening we both have a little gaming session. I'm playing Peggle and Crysis Online, don't even go there, and she's on Bejewelled 2 which I played for about 3 months. But she says she doesn't really like to play video games. I know how she feels.

So, birthday. I don't really celebrate birthdays, or Christmas for that matter. I might go for some Guinness on Friday though.

Strange Honeymoon

We rode the motorcycle through the countryside and along the coast to Songkhla. The main roads are awful and quite dangerous, so even though it is a fair bit further, it is a very pleasant ride. The rice fields and the solitary figure of the farmer in the distance. It's a very peaceful scene. The muslim village as you hit the coast is worthy of note. It's smells of fish and the faces of the dark villagers look up in surprise as you speed along the roads.

The two best hotels that we wanted to stay at were both full. One had a bloody conference going on - full of half wits pretending to be important and actually interested in the boring subject matter. God, is there nothing worse than those awful conferences? The shits you meet at them, peddling their crap with such gusto.

We ended up checking into a cheap hotel in The Dark Side - the notrious part of town, where fat, white, drunken engineers from the oil rigs swill around on the barroom floor in lager and cheap whores. It's always a good place to watch pickled turds mouth off about how rich they are as they force another pint of flat lager into their enormous guts.

We checked out the newly opened "Sea World". Not so much a world, but a room with some fish tanks in. I observed three bods from management as I stepped outside into the sunshine. They smiled and looked professional, wondering why the place wasn't heaving. The snazzy new car park and entrance court suffered badly from "ponding" and large areas of rainwater cut fat, middle-class Chinese families from off from their giant Silver 4x4 leisure cruisers. I'll leave Sea World to the imprisoned fishes that haunt it.

We only stayed two days. Such was the level of excitement in Songkhla, but we did strike gold last night and caught the amazing Reggae/Ska band at Chai's bar. I had been there before with Patrick, when indeed, we were forced to attend some crap English conference. Our collective pain was lanced and drained by a visit to the Irish pub, where we consumed pints of Guinness, and sloped across the street to the Ska party. The Canadian owner gave us some grass and we had a right old time. This time was less spectacular, but still very cool and we met the fat boy with the birds nest hair who plays a mini trumpet. Last night he was on bass and they performed winding, loose reggae tracks. We got talking and found out about a party he has the first Friday of every month. So, we might be making a return visit.

Two days was enough and we came back this morning. It was Oi's birthday and I found a learner's version of The Call of the Wild which she read right through. She is now sitting through Charlton Heston's rendition, which has moments of greatness, but is also lame in a very bad way. Watch at your peril.

However, we are back at home surrounded by our technology. It was a strange honeymoon - it rained most of the only full day we were there. It reminded me of rainy holidays in England. Looking out at grey nothing through the hotel window. I thought of all those lonely businessmen who spend most of there lives in hotels. So, we had moments of being trapped in a cheap hotel. At least there was a mini-bar.

Home Sweet Home

I arrived back in Hat Yai at 6 o'clock this morning, travelling on the sleeper train.


It was a great week with Kyle and Joe. We had plenty of discussions, meals, j's and Civilisation 4 sessions (Kyle's fav. game). Civ 4 is a highly evolved race management game starting with warriors and developing right through to the space age.

We enjoyed a wide variety of meals including Lebonese, Japanese and Indian and drank plentiful cups of home ground coffee. I went to the new Paragon Centre and the famous Panthip IT store.


The sky train is good fun and there is always tons of babes on it.

We had a crazy night in Soi Cowboy with Tom and Joe. Crazy fun and no harm done.


I bought a load of books, including Thai versions of Siddhartha and The Alchemist for Oi and Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maughm. Joe gave me The Crack in Space by Philip K Dick and I gave his those famous East Asian tales by Maughm; deadly.


We had a lot of dicussions about the Financial situation and Kyle is not only a fantastic mathematician but also highly political and avidly reads webpage after webpage of news articles. He has anachistic tendancies as do Joe.


It was great to see them and I was sad to leave, but missing Oi and it was wonderful to arrive back early this morning and find her curled up asleep in bed.

Today has been a chill day and I got an extra weeks holiday from my boss so I can spend time with Oi. So that's great.

JJ

City Of Angels

Well...here I am in Bangkok staying with old buddies Kyle and Joe. So far so good.

We're going to an old Indian restaurant tonight in Chinatown which should be fun and then on to watch some blues near Kao Sang Road.

The boys are in great form and still in the same house as 3 years ago on my last visit. Kyle works Saturday and Sunday for 30,000 a month which is a very easy ride. Joe has something similar.

It's a real blast being in BKK. The place is crazy and an adventure every time you go out. Obviously there are some stunning babes about as in any city.

I had some awesome German beer today which was possibly the best beer I have ever tasted. Could go for one more of those. Also picked up Marmite and Vegetamite though both are quite expensive. Kyle took me to an awesome supermarket stacked with delicious foods from all over the globe. Bkk's great but you need some bucks to go crazy with.

Tom arrives in town tonight so we'll probably hook up with him too, though he is after a pub that shows 24 hour baseball.

Oi is still working back in Hat Yai and won't be free until 15th Oct.

I will go home at some point and we'll take a break together before I start back on the 20th.

Yo!