Just woke up after some bad sleep.
Feels like I just survived a shipwreck. Like I just barely made it to shore and collapsed in the sand after a lot of hard swimming and swallowing a lot of sea water and getting all bloated and wrinkly and dehydrated.
And now, having finally made it to shore, I am lying there in the sand, and the sand feels so very warm and soft and dry, and I know I will have to get up and look for water soon but for now I am just enjoying the sublime bliss of having beaten death.
Call it the Survivor’s High.
Bought a game this morning, System Shock 2. It’s quite ancient, came out in 1998. So its graphics are somewhat primitive, but at least it supports the maximum resolution of my monitor, so at least the somewhat primitive graphics are smooth and look good.
I bought it because it was fairly cheap (around 10 bux) and it has a Metacritic score of 92, and it sounded pretty interesting.
The basic premise is that you’re a cybernetic soldier of the future who wakes up out of cryo sleep on a starship to find that the place has gone berserk and it’s up to you and some lady who talks to you over the intercom system to figure out what the fuck is going on while not getting killed.
I’m a bit over an hour in. And so far, there has been no combat whatsoever. SO not exactly feeling the danger.
Plus the game did something which pissed me off solid. I get to this part where it is obvious that I have to duck and/or crouch to get through your typical person-sized air duck…. but they haven’t told me what the crouch button is yet.
And I can’t do what I would normally do, which is look up which button it is in the Options section where they let you reassign keys, because this game is from before that became a standard thing.
So I have to hit every key till I find it.
Turns out it’s Caps-lock.
Despite the lack of combat, so far the game is interesting enough to keep me going. I am currently stuck behind a door I haven’t the skills to hack and can’t find the right keycard for, but I am sure I will figure it out.
Or look it up. Whatever.
Still, I suppose I could still return it. I don’t want to, largely because I don’t want to get in the habit of being unable to actually commit to a game and getting cold feet over and over when the game isn’t perfect.
Plus the game is pretty darn good so far. Great sense of presence in the environment and atmosphere, cool science fiction plot and setting, good voice acting.
Kind of wish I was seeing action but I am sure that will come with time.
Plus I have plenty of other games to play around with. Bought a bundle off of Humble recently. Might do reviews eventually, if I run out of angst to vent.
But uh, don’t hold your breath.
More after the break.
Fie upon the world!
After struggling with the universe for nearly an hour, I finally managed to order some goddamned food from Foodora.
I thought my plan was good. Can’t order without receiving a verification text? Fine. I will just sign up for one of those free SMS website like I have done before and give them that phone number instead of the landline and the problem will be solved. Yes?
No. Turns out the world of free text messaging has gotten WAY more complicated and now, if there is a way to RECEIVE text messaging for free, I have not been able to find it before running out of patience.
I tried three different services that said I would be able to receive text messages but did not for various tricksy reasons.
Finally I just called Joe and asked if I could use his number, as he is the only person with a cell phone whose number I have memorized.
So I used his number, and he called me to tell me what the verification code was. Hated to impose on him like that, but I was a desperate man.
Just for that extra kick to the adenoids, in the middle of all this, the place I was originally trying to order from closed, and I had to start again from scratch.
Why must the universe vex me so?
The crappy cherry on the shit sundae of all of this is that I now have to call Joe back to tell him to expect a phone call from the driver when my order arrives.
I clearly did not think this through too well. Classic tunnel vision caused by focusing super hard on the current obstacle and not thinking about what comes after.
I am never doing this shit again.
Sorry, Foodora, but you are not friendly to us folks without cell phones.
Is there such a thing as a cell phone that costs nothing if you don’t use it?
Otherwise, today has been okay. More bad sleep, but what the fuck.
C’est la vie chez moi, non?
My resistance to a card-based lifestyle is at an all time low. I am very close to just depositing all my cash onto my reloadable VISA card every month so that I will be free to spend it online if I so choose.
The problem with that is that I would have to then either get cash out of ATMs on a regular basis or pay with the card with attendant small hassles.
Plus I would be paying to access my money, which I find galling.
So I don’t know. Perhaps a compromise would work, where I figure out the amount I am likely to want to spend online (like the $20-$30 I budget per week for my Saturday ordering in) and put THAT on the card, but leave the rest as cash in pocket.
There’s always the possibility of wanting to buy games online too, though.
So I dunno.
Clearly, I need to go think this whole thing over.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.