Reality Is A Bitch.. I Want My Fantasy Back!
January 30, 2007 (One Response)
WE’RE BACK from the absolutely amazing Monart, and it was more than I expected, much much more. Absolutely top class food, wine, rooms, service… in fact it was so good that it was hard to leave and return to reality. So our Year Of Debauchery is now finally closed off, and what a year that was - but more on that later.
The only problem with doing the kind of break we just did is that you get so chilled, so absolutely relaxed and de-stressed that when you return to reality you get a serious case of the ‘Ah Fuck It!’ variety, and can’t be arsed actually doing anything you don’t absolutely have to.
Unfortunately work gets the batteries firing again and of course I’m buried in it, and then there has also been that major release of Wordpress (now V2.1) which I need to apply to my site and lastly there is some hardware upgrading I need to complete on my system… none of which is going to get done until the weekend. Not a fucking chance!
Because I just can’t be arsed.
Not yet anyway.
Normal service shall resume soon, hopefully… most likely when reality gets a full grip on me again, but for now I’m going to take it easy and cling to the last vestiges of an amazing weekend, and try to retain some of that sense of that fantasy where I was completely chilled out and de-stressed. At least I’m going to try anyway 
Year Of Debauchery: Monart
January 24, 2007 (No Responses)
OK, SO TECHNICALLY speaking the Year Of Debauchery is over, as of 5.30pm on the 4th January when we returned from the Berlin gig and put it all behind us. Technically it could be argued that this is an entirely new year and from this point forward it’s just plain old 2007. However, one item remains before we put the wraps on 2006, you see SusiQ had organised one last adventure as part of my Christmas present, but I’d already booked Berlin for the New Year so we had to postpone the other one for a while.
Well, for a few weeks actually
This coming weekend is my birthday, and SusiQ decided to bounce this last fling, this final extravagance of our recent Year; this one last monumentally expensive celebration of all things debauchery-related until this weekend. It’s actually a very very fitting way to end our extraordinary year.
This weekend we are going to Monart - one of the top ten luxury spas on this planet, and by a very weird freak of geography it’s actually located in Ireland, which is nice; no mad airline travel required. For anyone who doesn’t know what Monart is (I counted myself among you until recently)… it’s not a health farm or get fit spa, far from it in fact.
Picture the most luxurious rooms and surroundings you can. Now add in a dash of the best food and wines and stir for a while. Then simmer with the very best relaxing treatments possible, on demand, night and day and you have some seriously fun and entertaining options for couples or indeed individuals. Swimming pools, saunas, local amenities (quad-biking, golfing, fishing, horse riding etc.) Just look at the relaxation room on the right hand side there… are you jealous yet?
Needless to say, while we are away updates at the site will be pretty much missing-in-action… but you can rest assured I’ll post about the Monart experience when we return, assuming of course I can raise enough energy to type
If this place lives up to it’s reputation I’ll be two things for sure by the time I return - seriously broke and seriously chilled out! Still - I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the ‘official’ end to our Year Of Debauchery. We head off tommorrow, returning Sunday so behave yourselves while we’re gone.
Bring It On Baby!!!
7 Most Wanted PC Games For 2007 (Part 2)
January 23, 2007 (4 Responses)
OK - SO WE’VE had the nostalgia trip, the eye candy, the cheesy goodness and even the adventure on the first part of this countdown… but what does that leave then? Well - for those of you who can count - it leaves three games spread across distinct genres. We have a frag fest spectacular, some teamwork taken to a new level and of course the most ambitious game of the year too. So let’s get started then and complete the list of Howl @ The Moons! top 7 games for 2007 (Part 2):-
Next up is an evolution of one of the main reasons I got so into playing games online in the first place. Up until I played Enemy Territory (ET), I was pretty much a confirmed offline gamer with the odd addiction to a game called Tribes, but for the most part I didn’t get much of a kick from online gaming. ET changed all that. For starters - it was free, and to make things better, it was also the best implementation of a teamwork and role/class based game available at the time. Winning a round wasn’t possible unless the sides worked together as a team, sharing roles (such as Engineer, Medic, Covert Ops etc.) in order to achieve common objectives.
Now flash forward a few years and the team behind ET are releasing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (ET:QW). Picture the teamwork from ET, combined with latest state-of-the-art graphics and the character attributes of the various half-human and pure monsters from Quake. Now add a dash of strategy, a pinch of tactical control and a lot of repurposing (salvaging parts from partially destroyed vehicles to improve or repair your own, ripping out body parts from your fallen enemies to help repair your fellow team mates etc.) ET:QW has all the signs of a brilliantly balanced online shooter which cannot be dominated by just FPS heads with a quick trigger finger. It’s fast and it’s futuristic but it will take teamwork, tactics and some seriously explosive playing styles to win this one.
Check out the video promo on the EnemyTerritory website and you will see why I’m excited about this one. Might be worth a read of some reviews as well (IGN, Eurogamer, Gamespy). Current release date is set for the end of March, but this is one that I’d also count on slipping into Q2. Read more
7 Most Wanted PC Games For 2007 (Part 1)
January 22, 2007 (No Responses)
OH MAN, 2006 was so dissappointing from a PC gaming perspective. There were some near misses, lots of delays and just enough anticipation to keep things moving along, but basically it’s up to 2007 to deliver on all the promises. From my perspective there are 7 games in particular which will make it all worthwhile, for very different reasons, however I should point out to all you elflords and demonhorde out there that this is a personal list, so it doesn’t include any MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or Dungeons & Dragons Online.
When I sat down and thought about this I realised that I wanted each of these games for very specific reasons, some of which surprised me. I’m going to list them in alphabetic order, because to be honest I’d probably go slowly insane if I tried to seperate they into some sort of priority list; basically I’m going to be happy whenever each game hits the shelves, no matter what the sequence. So - if PC gaming is your ‘thang’ then sit back, get comfortable and prepare to drool as I give you Howl @ The Moons! top 7 most wanted games of 2007 (Part 1):- Read more
Crafty Bird At Work
January 21, 2007 (3 Responses)
Can’t Question The Legality Of War In U.S.
January 19, 2007 (2 Responses)
A US ARMY Lieutenant who questioned the legality of the war in Iraq and refused to deploy there when ordered is currently running out of options because a judge has ruled that he cannot use a defence which questions the war or it’s legality. The ruling released Tuesday in the case of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada sets the stage for a Feb. 5 court-martial. Watada could face up to six years in prison for his failure to join his brigade in Iraq last June, as well as for his outspoken attacks on the Bush administration’s conduct of the war.
Defence attorneys had hoped to argue that the war in Iraq is illegal, in part, because it violated Army regulations that call for wars to be launched in accordance with the United Nations charter. However in a ruling, Lt. Col. John Head said that “whether the war is lawful” is a political question that could not be judged in a military court.
In other words - the proceedings in February are more disciplinary than justice orientated. Questioning the war is no longer an option for this poor sod. Now it’s just a case of how much of a book they throw at him, and how long he will be locked up for as a result.
Now before any of you gung-ho types start branding the lad a coward, please note that he has gone on record as stating that he would be happy to serve anywhere else on the planet and proud to do so for his country, but in the case of Iraq he does not believe that the USA has any right to be there. He came to this conclusion after researching the issue and made his own mind up about it. Unfortunately for him, it’s free thinking like this which will probably condemn him to a very long time behind bars.
I actually admire the stance he has taken; there are times when you just have to stand up for what you believe is right, for your principles, but I don’t hold out much hope of him getting any sort justice in the military tribunal system he now faces with the amount of political pressure that will be brought in to the mix.
Still - it’s easy for me as an outsider (non military, non American) to take such a stance, but I would like to hear from some of my American on this one, I’d like to know what you think of the case.
Let me know where you stand on this one folks!
Alien Baby
January 18, 2007 (2 Responses)
