barely fatal

For the last week and a half, I’ve been having problems with my Internet connection. A lot of the time it was fine, unfortunately come evening my ADSL router just starts dropping the connection until around midnight. I’ve checked it by connecing the router directly to the master socket using nothing but a modem cable and it still didn’t work, so clearly a fault on my line.

After a week of convincing BT that it was not a fault that I could fix, they finally sent an engineer around yesterday afternoon, who’s agreed it’s a line fault. He went away to do some more work on it elsewhere and now my phone line is completely dead.

It’s times like this that make you realise how much you depend on a few wires connected to your home.

If you happen to know me, dear reader, you may be aware of me being not exactly keen on celebrations and anniversaries. I seldom congratulate others. Some think that was because I had no birthday after all (which is wrong, that’s Hekaron, the ‘other guy’). Some just call me rude. But the truth is, I just dislike feigned formalities and courtesy.

It’s my birthday next month, and I know what I want: a DVD player. Now that I have a real TV I no longer need my PC to watch movies. The advice I need from you is the following:

Which DVDs do you recommend to pick up with the player? And I’m open to everything, not just Sci-Fi. So tell me your favourite DVD, special edition, director’s cut, you-name-it. Go, comment!

PS. Already on my list: Memento and Batman Begins.

Well I was quite shocked when I saw this. I just wanted to make breakfast, and I what I got was subconscious patriotism at its best. Help!

Update: This is a pretty good article about the current flag-madness in Germany. Sorry, it’s in German only.

If your computer manages to run Doom 3, go right ahead to www.prey.com and download the demo of Prey. You will be amazed for at least an hour (or more, if you like to test the multiplayer part).

Prey is a FPS that puts the 3D back into 3D games. It comes from 3D Realms (yes, the Duke Nukem Never Ever guys), but that’s not what I meant. Try it out, you’ll understand.

It looks great (Doom 3 engine), sounds great and has some neat, fresh ideas on how to approach standard FPS weaponry, equipment and story telling.

I know this sounds a lot like marketing or fanboyism, but I really liked it. Give it a try, it’s worth every meg (out of the 400 something). After seven years 3D Realms really seem to get a thing done, and even make it good. Is there hope for the Duke? … Okay, yes, just kidding.

So if I managed to convince you, I have one final warning: If you happen to have a weak stomach, don’t eat before playing and keep a bucket ready. It’s not the splatter or gore I warn about (although there’s plenty), your equilibrium sense will get a lot of stress.