The combination of Smells and Memories.
I dunno where this post will lead me to, I'm very tired and ready to pass out but whatever.
Earlier today, at around 7 in the morning, I followed through a routine of sorts. Go to the toilet, be pestered by the cat who wants out, go downstairs and let cat out, get food.
As I went downstairs into the kitchen, a peculiar smell hit my nostrils, which IMMEDIATELY took me back in time to 2001, when I was addicted to GTA 3.
If I was to describe the smell, I would say it was like a very faint smell of cinnamon, with a miscellaneous spice added in. It's a very subtle smell, however upon ingestion, all of the good memories of the fun times I had with the game came flooding back. It's almost humbling to think that it was 10 years ago.. Time flies really damn fast.
I had another event shortly after, as I was about to walk up the stairs. This time though, while I couldn't put any relative smell to it, I could certainly add a location. I was at a very large hotel place for a holiday on the coast, April '98/'99. I had fun while I was there, and the smell I had experienced there was ingrained in my memory.
I don't have many others, but when I experience the next one, I'll probably note it down, including its' origin.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Trains, and the people you meet on them.
While on a recent trip to London (Wednesday 28th Septermber 2011) to see Lee Evans at the o2 arena, I kept catching myself looking at people, attempting to psycho-analyse them, try to understand what kind of person they might be, and if they were even worth befriending.
This, in hindsight, is a bit silly, but it did lead me to an interesting thought.
If you're like me and seldom make trips by train (to anywhere, not just london), then consider this. The people you see on the train now, you may never see them again in your entire life time.
I let this thought ring out through my head repeatedly on the train journey home, and it was geniunely saddening. Maybe I overthink things, but sometimes I feel I could have made a friend there, but it's all a bit silly to be honest.
There's some cases where having a "momentary friend" is a good thing.
Example.
When I was in the arena for the show, the two people next to me were very nice individuals and we got along quite well. I only got one of their names - a girl who lives in London, goes by the name of Emma. That's as far as I took it, because it just felt right, almost magical, to know I may never see them again, and I was okay with it, because the moments I shared with that person, you couldn't replicate it, and that's all my mind would want.
That's all I have to say.
This, in hindsight, is a bit silly, but it did lead me to an interesting thought.
If you're like me and seldom make trips by train (to anywhere, not just london), then consider this. The people you see on the train now, you may never see them again in your entire life time.
I let this thought ring out through my head repeatedly on the train journey home, and it was geniunely saddening. Maybe I overthink things, but sometimes I feel I could have made a friend there, but it's all a bit silly to be honest.
There's some cases where having a "momentary friend" is a good thing.
Example.
When I was in the arena for the show, the two people next to me were very nice individuals and we got along quite well. I only got one of their names - a girl who lives in London, goes by the name of Emma. That's as far as I took it, because it just felt right, almost magical, to know I may never see them again, and I was okay with it, because the moments I shared with that person, you couldn't replicate it, and that's all my mind would want.
That's all I have to say.
Saturday, 3 September 2011
32x Anti Aliasing, and why it's dumb.
Someone on twitter recently mentioned running Battlefield Bad Company 2 on a PC, settings being at "max", resolution being "1080p" (1920 x 1080) and the anti-aliasing being set to 32x (whether MSAA or CSAA is unknown).
Let me explain why doing that is completely retarded.
1. Gameplay.
Assuming this person actively plays the multiplayer and has any sort of sense for survival, it is good to assume that they are generally focusing on the gameplay aspect, rather than how pretty the game looks. Let me ask you a question. If you are someone who plays with settings ridiculously high, do you really notice it during the heat of gameplay? I know I don't.
Yes, there are games out there that will hurt your head if you play on anything below medium or high (see: Source Engine, or any game prior to 2007), but for the most part, modern games don't have this drawback so it's perfectly reasonable to scale a couple of things back.
2. Resolution.
1920 x 1080. It's a common resolution these days, most home entertainment devices support it, it is the resolution of the (as of current) HD standard and it has a ratio of 16:9. Most monitors that run at this resolution are between 20" to 23" diagonal. At this physical size, can you reasonably determine with the human eye a difference between something at 32x AA and something at 8x AA? I don't think so. If you're outputting to a 42" TV, it may or may not have an effect (assuming resolution is the same). I reckon to have any affect whatsoever, you'd have to be running at some offensively large resolution, but that to me seems unlikely, since not only are monitors for this few and far between, but with the sheer cost of the monitor and the hardware to run it (monitor and GPU combo probably in the region of £700 to £1500), you have to ask yourself is it worth it, especially considering my previous point.
So, Kyle, perhaps next time before you brag about your super abilities to run something like this, might want to reconsider for those who are computer literate, because we'll just laugh at you.
Let me explain why doing that is completely retarded.
1. Gameplay.
Assuming this person actively plays the multiplayer and has any sort of sense for survival, it is good to assume that they are generally focusing on the gameplay aspect, rather than how pretty the game looks. Let me ask you a question. If you are someone who plays with settings ridiculously high, do you really notice it during the heat of gameplay? I know I don't.
Yes, there are games out there that will hurt your head if you play on anything below medium or high (see: Source Engine, or any game prior to 2007), but for the most part, modern games don't have this drawback so it's perfectly reasonable to scale a couple of things back.
2. Resolution.
1920 x 1080. It's a common resolution these days, most home entertainment devices support it, it is the resolution of the (as of current) HD standard and it has a ratio of 16:9. Most monitors that run at this resolution are between 20" to 23" diagonal. At this physical size, can you reasonably determine with the human eye a difference between something at 32x AA and something at 8x AA? I don't think so. If you're outputting to a 42" TV, it may or may not have an effect (assuming resolution is the same). I reckon to have any affect whatsoever, you'd have to be running at some offensively large resolution, but that to me seems unlikely, since not only are monitors for this few and far between, but with the sheer cost of the monitor and the hardware to run it (monitor and GPU combo probably in the region of £700 to £1500), you have to ask yourself is it worth it, especially considering my previous point.
So, Kyle, perhaps next time before you brag about your super abilities to run something like this, might want to reconsider for those who are computer literate, because we'll just laugh at you.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
TDU2, Y U NO ONLINE SAVE?
Oh fucking brilliant.
Recently, I reinstalled my windows because I had been running on something that's existed since 2008 (so I was well overdue).
With that, I reformatted my drive, reinstalled the OS, downloaded all the shit I needed and got back to playing.
To my surprise, when I load up TDU2 and log in, I'm sent straight back to where I first started - As if I had just bought the game and had no save. By logic, this is true, however bear this in mind.
This game uses both an Offline Profile, and an Online Profile. For 98% of the time I played, I was using the Online Profile. This lead me to rationally assume that stats, saves, progress and whatnot was saved serverside, I mean that totally implies some kind of online-ness, right? Not in Atari World it seems. They think that Online means HDD, and yet not have the decency to notify us. What cunts.
Recently, I reinstalled my windows because I had been running on something that's existed since 2008 (so I was well overdue).
With that, I reformatted my drive, reinstalled the OS, downloaded all the shit I needed and got back to playing.
To my surprise, when I load up TDU2 and log in, I'm sent straight back to where I first started - As if I had just bought the game and had no save. By logic, this is true, however bear this in mind.
This game uses both an Offline Profile, and an Online Profile. For 98% of the time I played, I was using the Online Profile. This lead me to rationally assume that stats, saves, progress and whatnot was saved serverside, I mean that totally implies some kind of online-ness, right? Not in Atari World it seems. They think that Online means HDD, and yet not have the decency to notify us. What cunts.
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Paradoxes.
I'm starting to doubt how much humanity is left in me. Yesterday while chatting to someone, they managed to make a paradox, and it severely hurt my mind. Seriously, my brain was being COMPRESSED by the amount of processing it was trying to do. It hurt too. I thought I might crash.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
American cars and/or their drivers.
I live in an area that might be considered to be "infested" with americans. I certainly cannot think why. Maybe it's because I live near two of the biggest RAF/USAF bases in the UK... no, that cannot be right. [/sarcasm].
Having lived here for the entirety of my existance, I've met my fair share of americans. This has lead to me subconsciously making a library of things that might ID an american. This is the tricky part though - I cannot for the life of me actually pick out one thing (other than their accent) that would immediately tell me that a person was american. I'm fairly sure it's something to do with their looks, but that's as far as I can go.
With this, I move on to the cars. Yesterday, while traveling home from a BBQ, I was stuck behind a car for about 5-10 minutes. Being the passenger, I had the opportunity to examine the drivers' style. It became apparent quite quickly that the person in front was relatively new to UK roads. I had come to this conclusion based on the corners (it was a winding country road) - They often braked when it was completely not needed.
On any other day, I would have simply passed it as someone who recently passed their test, but here's the thing; There were no P plates, and the car had a distinctive look about it.
I'm not sure what it is about american cars, but they just stick out amongst the euroboxes that commonly show up on our roads. It's not the lack of curves, I know that much, it just looked "american". I cannot fathom why.
It certainly wasn't a bumper indentation with the word SATURN on it, I only noticed that when it was making a turning away from the road. It might have been the rear lights - Their position, cluster and formation. It could have been the colour (Beige/gold). For all I know, it could have been the era of the car (mid to late 90's model). I really don't know.
There's just something that sticks out about americans, their cars and how they drive. Not to mention how in the past they "cannot roundabout, i have the dumbs".
Having lived here for the entirety of my existance, I've met my fair share of americans. This has lead to me subconsciously making a library of things that might ID an american. This is the tricky part though - I cannot for the life of me actually pick out one thing (other than their accent) that would immediately tell me that a person was american. I'm fairly sure it's something to do with their looks, but that's as far as I can go.
With this, I move on to the cars. Yesterday, while traveling home from a BBQ, I was stuck behind a car for about 5-10 minutes. Being the passenger, I had the opportunity to examine the drivers' style. It became apparent quite quickly that the person in front was relatively new to UK roads. I had come to this conclusion based on the corners (it was a winding country road) - They often braked when it was completely not needed.
On any other day, I would have simply passed it as someone who recently passed their test, but here's the thing; There were no P plates, and the car had a distinctive look about it.
I'm not sure what it is about american cars, but they just stick out amongst the euroboxes that commonly show up on our roads. It's not the lack of curves, I know that much, it just looked "american". I cannot fathom why.
It certainly wasn't a bumper indentation with the word SATURN on it, I only noticed that when it was making a turning away from the road. It might have been the rear lights - Their position, cluster and formation. It could have been the colour (Beige/gold). For all I know, it could have been the era of the car (mid to late 90's model). I really don't know.
There's just something that sticks out about americans, their cars and how they drive. Not to mention how in the past they "cannot roundabout, i have the dumbs".
Saturday, 13 August 2011
REVIEW: ASDA 'Chosen By You' Giant White Chocolate Buttons
In this post, I shall be reviewing ASDA's own brand of imitation Milky bar buttons. I shall cover cost, taste, texture and packaging.
1. Overview
Front: Black bar on top, stating brand and range, along with a small logo, which appears to be several flying saucers.
Underneath, a few graphical indications of the individual pieces of chocolate surrounding the central name, along with a "New!" in the top left.
Below that, there is a clear film showing the actual contents. The contents colour isn't that far off the graphics.
Back: Nutrition & storage information, along with a tidbit of information about the 'Chosen By You' range.
2. Contents
In the bag, there are, at an estimate, between 50 to 75 buttons. They are around 4cm in diameter, 2-3mm thick and are mostly uniform in shape. On their undersides, there is no brand pattern, just marks from what I assume are the conveyor belts at the factory.
3. Taste
Upon sticking one inside my mouth, I was shocked at how they tasted like the Milky Bar buttons. The flavours were 95% if not 99% bang on to the brand, and the texture was almost as creamy, but one thing that did stand out was the slight after taste. I wouldn't call it savoury - It's a hard taste to define - it's what they call a "rich flavour". Other than that, it works fine.
4. Cost
At the time of eating, these cost £1 and could be found in the confectionary aisle. They also do a smaller size (around the same size as a Milky bar packet) for 38p.
Conclusion:
For the money, these are definately worth a try. Considering they nearly match the brand flavour and you get quite a bit for the dosh, I would consider this a replacement for the brand should I get the craving. They also do a milk chocolate version which I am yet to try, but I wouldn't be surprised if they tasted like the Cadbury's Dairy Milk buttons.
1. Overview
Underneath, a few graphical indications of the individual pieces of chocolate surrounding the central name, along with a "New!" in the top left.
Below that, there is a clear film showing the actual contents. The contents colour isn't that far off the graphics.
Back: Nutrition & storage information, along with a tidbit of information about the 'Chosen By You' range.
2. Contents
In the bag, there are, at an estimate, between 50 to 75 buttons. They are around 4cm in diameter, 2-3mm thick and are mostly uniform in shape. On their undersides, there is no brand pattern, just marks from what I assume are the conveyor belts at the factory.
3. Taste
Upon sticking one inside my mouth, I was shocked at how they tasted like the Milky Bar buttons. The flavours were 95% if not 99% bang on to the brand, and the texture was almost as creamy, but one thing that did stand out was the slight after taste. I wouldn't call it savoury - It's a hard taste to define - it's what they call a "rich flavour". Other than that, it works fine.
4. Cost
At the time of eating, these cost £1 and could be found in the confectionary aisle. They also do a smaller size (around the same size as a Milky bar packet) for 38p.
Conclusion:
For the money, these are definately worth a try. Considering they nearly match the brand flavour and you get quite a bit for the dosh, I would consider this a replacement for the brand should I get the craving. They also do a milk chocolate version which I am yet to try, but I wouldn't be surprised if they tasted like the Cadbury's Dairy Milk buttons.
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