"You won the race, AND THE CHAMPIONSHIP!"

Another week, another broken computer part. No joke. And this time, it's the hard drive. Luckily, not the one on my personal machine - it was the work rig. It was acting odd all morning, then after I did a restart after the blue screen of death... The system32 folder was empty. And Documents & Settings for my account as well. Maybe it was just a failure, maybe it was a virus... Either way, I spent practically ALL day Thursday reinstalling everything. Windows, Photoshop, Corel Draw, Firefox, Foxit, FinePrint, Thumbs Plus, IRFanview, etc etc. And just for the record - I LOATHE serial keys that combine letters and numbers and dashes and odd spacing. Gah. It's ridiculous how much work it takes to get a program installed, running, and registered especially for a legit copy. It's really sad when you get treated like a possible software thief installing something you own, especially when it's easier and quicker to install a warez version. Sigh.

I beat Grid this weekend. I've said it before, I'll say it again - I hate final/boss levels where it isn't just more challenging, but the computer/opponent cheats to make it difficult. In this case, the car I was racing against had superior traction control, acted as a metal wall during collisions (so I bounced WAY off, while he stayed on course, even at the lightest tap), and could magically accelerate faster than me. Even though we had the same car. Like, we go around the bend and I have a 50m lead on the guy as I floor it into the straight. And he SOMEHOW manages to get up onto my bumper after 30 seconds. It made no sense. He only had one weakness though - he would do everything he could to avoid hitting you from behind. So when he accelerates faster and harder while doing tighter corners than you can do while coasting, it takes some special tactics to get in front of him. Something along the lines of plowing straight through the dirt fields that surround an S curve. Doing 300KM/H. In 6th gear. Needless to say, after finally getting past him I drove like an absolute ass, taking advantage of his zero-contact policy. For the rest of the race I did nothing but watch my rear-view and stay in front of his path. Good times. The most satisfying part of many games, for me, is finding the best way to bend the rules and find cracks in the system to beat unfairly enhanced opponents. I find this happens the most with RTS games though.

Annnd... I don't have much else to say, really. I went to the Calgary Zoo with my grandmother this morning, and saw all manner of creatures. The river otters were pretty hypnotizing to watch. Oh, and it's only when you actually feed the giraffe that you realize how long and slimy and gross their tongue is. Some quick Grid fanarts, then maybe some gamin' before bed.



Oh, speaking of which... I had a look at my Steam profile and had the stupid idea to pull a calculator out. So far, I've spent some one hundred and fifty hours playing Team Fortress 2. Holy crap, that's almost an entire work month. My most played class, the Demoman, has about 40hrs unto himself. Yiza.
-Cril

PS- More lazor goodness here.

From the deepest, darkest depths of...Whitby!
Comes this sordid tale of speed...
Murderous mayhem...
Cataclysmic combustion...
Picturesque powered pistons...
Accelerating automotive alarms...
Stunningly stupefying stereo stunts!
One man... a dream... a car... a 1984... Plymouth... Horizon...

Arrogant Worms - Horizon