Why? Why not?

So, I’ve finished HL2 Episode 2. I ended up just turning down the detail so that my machine would handle to multiple striders and hunters without gagging, and it only took me one try after that. Guess an increased framerate does make a difference after all…

I started playing Vampire: Bloodlines, and it seems pretty good so far. I don’t think it would make much sense unless you’ve at least taken a glance at an old World of Darkness book, but luckily I have, so I’m lucky in that respect. I’m playing a Malkav, and it’s great fun talking crap to everyone…

Previously in Nick’s life:
- Mal bought Halo 3, and I finished it on his 360, scoring myself some achievements in the process. I’m pretty happy with my current gamerscore, since I don’t have a 360.
- I bought the Orange Box on Steam. I love steam. I get the games I would have bought anyway at FANTASTIC prices, thanks to the currently-great Aussie dollar, and also the warm feeling of having purchased software where most of the money went to the creators.
- Portal was the best game I’ve played in YEARS.
- I paid around AUD$15 for Vampire: Bloodlines on Steam as well. Great deal.

HL2 Episode 2 has been great, but I really, really hate the Hunters. Especially in the last big fight, there’s heaps of other stuff going on, and they’re taking away 1/3 of your health and armour in one salvo. And they are difficult to kill with your standard weapons… It seems you basically have to run them over with your car to kill them quickly. Unfortunately, my machine struggles with rendering car + everything else going on…

In a completely unrelated note, presented for your edification, intro sequences for the same cartoon.

Firstly, one you may be familiar with:

And next, one you probably haven’t seen before – the Japanese intro for the same show.

It seems to me that the Japanese one contains a much higher awesome quotient than the Western one. Plus, they somehow manage to make Jubilee look bad-ass. I wouldn’t have thought it was even possible.

Wow, that was a great, if busy, weekend. Friday night was the Garbage concert – which was awesome, as is Shirley Manson. They did a lot of their older stuff, which really rocked. Hard. My ears stopped ringing on Monday.

Saturday, we helped Mal and Elspeth move into their new place (conveniently just across the street from Trang and I). This was a surprisingly large amount of physical labour. Still, it’s all exercise. Then Saturday night, we went out to Summer Hill to watch the Tigers beat St George with Trang’s family. Watching sports with them is a lot of fun, as they tend to the rowdy, which I am not good at. Had an awesome Guiness and Steak pie as well.

Sunday morning was wushu, as always, but being the last training before the end of term, it was a bit quiet and I left early. Which was of course so that I could make it to lunch at Trang’s parent’s place, and have Trang’s mum’s Pho. Which is really, really good. Bummer was, one of the hoses from the water-cycling system decided to break as I was driving out there. Luckily, it was only a few minutes away from Trang’s parents, so I managed to limp back after having run out of water. Turns out that someone had done a dodgy fix a while ago on that particular pipe, and left it in place. Which is kinda odd, as a replacement pipe was only 8 bucks at Super Cheap Autos… Anyway, all fixed and better than before now.

Got a busy long weekend coming up as well, with LAN party action, multiple movies to see, and a Grand Final to watch. Should be great! In preparation, I’ve bought a new video card, which is very exciting. Read more

Well, that didn’t take long. The website was up for a week, and I’ve already had to download a couple of commentspam purging plugins for Wordpress… Sucks to be you, stupid free poker site!

I failed my Ps test. Again. I’ve got another one booked soon.

Been to see heaps of exhibitions and concerts lately:

• Harry Connick Jr and the Sydney Symphony: Was very good, if a little bit less symphony-ish than I expected.
• Bugs Bunny on Broadway: Lots of fun, especially if you’re like me and have seen a fair percentage of all the Warner Bros cartoons ever made.
• Eye on Photography: A history of Australian photography. It was kinda cool.
• Egypt Exhibition at the Australian Museum: Awesome. I mean, what else could it be? It had mummies, and mummified heads as well!
• Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2004: Truly an awesome photography exhibit, with some truly amazing photos.

As you can see on the right, I’m playing Eve Online at the moment. It is very good. Think Massively Multiplayer Elite, and you’ve got an idea of where it starts.