barely fatal

Today, I have something yummy for you. A workmate of mine started a webcomic, and he kindly allowed me to post it here. Lets call him Benjamin – since that is his name. He’s an awesome guy with a lot of interests, among them everything Japanese. His name written in Japanese means “Crimson Serpent”, ain’t that cool? My name probably means “French Toast With Pickles” or “Explosive Diarrhea Of An Elephant” or something like that.

Anywho, his comic is about a guy who happens to have his name and who struggles to write web comics about ninjas. Ok now, that might not be exactly new, but give him a chance, okay? He was inspired by Questionable Content, and readers of that strip will recognize the style. He’s just started, and although he repeatedly says that he “doesn’t even have a proper web site yet”, he does have a blog. He almost says that as if he was ashamed of the blog, one more reason for me to post its URL. Bada Bing.

I’ve decided to show you the second comic (out of currently 2). It shows the main character at work and it made me laugh out loud. So, here it is, finally.

Jade Empire arrived. It comes in a steel book, a heavy DVD case with metal plates at the front and back. The print has a metallic look inside and outside, it’s really shiny.

I just played for a good hour, so I can’t say much about the game yet. It runs absolutely smooth. The graphics are a little bit outdated, very well designed though. The style and animations are clearly above average. The menu is kinda ugly – but I don’t really care.

Anyways, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Like in every good role playing game, you have to create/choose a character and class at the start of the game. I usually choose the most balanced type – I’m that boring and develop my character on my own in the game. And I usually choose a female character. The big question is, why?

In the many MMOs I’ve played I had male and female characters, often based on characters from a book I used to write ages ago. The reason for that is pretty simple: I know those very well already. But in single player games, especially third-person role playing games, I often choose females. I always do when I cannot identify with any of the male characters. And then there’s the Lara Croft Effect. Lara Croft, because Tomb Raider introduced it to the global – at that time mostly male – gamership of the world. When you see your character for hours on end and always from behind – you at least want to look at a nice bum. Yes, I’m a man, too! Go to hell!

While I had no problem playing an evil male Sith Lord in KOTOR, playing an evil female character in Jade Empire is somewhat more difficult, and that’s what puzzles me. It makes you feel nasty. Nasty-er than if I were playing a big menacing dude with muscles and an evil grin – cute girls in a nice dress are not that persuasive. But I love being bad! So I’ve nonetheless decided to create the most evil, back-stabbing bastard cute-girl-in-a-nice-dress figure I can imagine. With a nice bum.

Okay, so my dear sister just called me. No, she didn’t ask whether I was doing well – she had an errand. She sent me a file she originally created with Open Office and that she saved in the .odt format. Naturally, at the place she stays this week she only has Word and so she can’t open the file. Now she asked me to convert the file and send it back to her. Of course, being the responsible and obliging older brother I am, I provided the service although she didn’t even bother to write a single line in her email. I wonder what will come next, she asking me to print her some files and then sending them back through the post? Anyways, going at rates like that, it’s gonna be a while ’til she finally builds her empire. Although … on a second thought … isn’t it all about servants and minions?

Tuesday’s night is doctor’s night. Tuesdays I start the evening with House, a show that I have began to love, although it’s always the same story and it basically has only one set (today’s episode was cool). After that, I conclude the day with Grey’s Anatomy (today’s episode wasn’t so great). Yes, I confess, I watch that hopeless hospital soap regularly and I enjoy it. I guess it’s because of the same reason I enjoy House so much: I like pain. All the characters – or at least some per episode – suffer in one way or another, and mostly not physically. Personal catastrophes have always been my specialty, and on TV I don’t even have to bother thinking about them when the show’s over; just watching gives me the dosis I need. That or I’m just stupid or psychotic or both.

Listen to KT Tunstall: Miniature Disasters. That’s it in a nutshell.

My sister and I, we don’t have much in common. We don’t like the same movies, we listen to different music, we don’t like the same food, she’s not into tech, sci-fi or anything, and I’m not into children, horses and whatnot. I’m an engineer of sorts, she’s gonna be something completely different.

The reason why we hardly ever argue or try to ‘convert’ each other is pretty simple: We know that neither of us would ever change an opinion we built up over years. We accept that the other one lives her or his life the way she or he likes, and that there’s no point – nor right! – trying to change it. There are still a lot of things we agree about and we make a formidable team. It’s more like harmony through tolerance and respect than strangeness because of alien lifestyles. I’m proud of what she’s doing. She’s gonna have her own little empire in no-time, that’s my best guess .

I ordered Jade Empire last night, out of a notion. It does not take place in WW2, a fantasy world or in the future, it’s from Bioware – so what can it do wrong. It is an RPG, yes yes yes yes YES already, it will eat a lot of time, but it looks so promising. The PC version comes one year later than the XBOX version, but they call it Special Edition for a reason, or so I’ve heard. I ordered it from bol.de, still a few days to wait but they offer it surprisingly cheap.

Question: What do you give your grandma as a present for her 80th birthday? Answer: A book about the time of her year of birth. Not very imaginative? True, but then what?