barely fatal

… how many references are made in Borderlands to other popular games, movies and people. The Mad Mel / Mad Max reference is a no brainer, but yesterday I stumbled upon Jaynis Cobb of Jaynistown – anyone remember the Firefly episode Jaynestown (one of my favorites) in which Jayne Cobb becomes the local mudder’s hero figure?

“My pound of flesh” – Shakespeare

“Spa vs Spa” versus Spy vs Spy (from Claptrap DLC)

“Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? ‘No!’ says the man in Washington, ‘It belongs to the poor.’ (…) ” (also Claptrap DLC) – Bioshock

“My Brother is an Italian Plumber” achievement – Mario

“I’m going to need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21-… Oh hey! Welcome to my secret lab.” – Back to the Future

“Bruce McClane” is John McClane is Bruce Willis

“A hive of scum and villainy” – Star Wars

“Nikola is a friend of mine” challenge – Tesla

… and those are only the one I’ve noticed and can remember right now.

So after finding a place to live I’ve taken my time to calm down and get back to normal mode. The next steps are going to be: find movers, visit my local IKEA, cancel my cable, find out about the new phone number so I can get a new subscription (internet, phone), prepare a bazillion letters for all the people who need to know where I will move to and when.

It might also be a good idea to sign the contract once I get it (I have a written, legally binding “reservation” saying I’ll get the flat as long as I check out fine in the debts department).

At work, things continue to go downhill. I obviously cannot give away much, but let’s say, I have an Advent calender I will put to good use in November.

Hmm. I finally gave in a bought Plants versus Zombies on Steam’s Halloween sale. I enjoy kicking some Borderlands co-op and I’ve finally beaten The Force Unleashed. Tomorrow’s a bank holiday in this part of Germany, and I’ll go back doing all the business I talked about then. But today, no plans, no tasks, only some good ol’ shooty games and pizza. Haven’t had that in a while.

Last week was Lucas Arts week on Steam, and I grabbed The Force Unleashed, which lets me hurl around Stormtroopers and crash them into obstacles or each other. Doesn’t get much better than that. Empire At War lets me command Star Destroyers in space and Lord Vader himself – again, ’cause Unleashed has that too – as he slays Ewoks and Wookies and stuff.

Gee, I miss the good old times when the first trilogy was the only trilogy, everyone could cite Peter Vankman, wore Batman T-Shirts with pride, watched the A-Team and played Duke Nukem 3D. Hmm… has there been anything really *new* lately?

2012 isn’t as bad as friends made me believe, it has more than 20 minutes of nice CG to look at, but they’ve been right about one thing: once they get onto the ark, the whole thing finally jumps the shark.

And that’s about it. I’m kinda stuck in between things right now and the more I think about it all, the more I wish it was over already. It’s these times of uncertainty and transition that drive me crazy, even if everything is going well (which it is, I think).  Thinking about the near future still numbs my mind and makes me want to go back to kick Stormtroopers of off high ledges, but that’s pure escapism (yeah that’s a word, I looked it up). My new mantra: take it slow, things happen as they happen one at a time, no reason to over-think them. Practice what you preach, dingbats.

KT’s new album comes out next week, definitely something to look forward to.

Visited the GamesCom in Cologne today. Saw Portal 2 (sweet!), sucked at Medal Of Honor multiplayer, avoided 2-hours+ waiting lines, ate a bratwurst. It was fun, but the silly 18+ only booths, long lines and partly pretty empty-feeling halls made it all a bit emotionless.

Forgot to mention something in yesterday’s post. In the A-Team movie, when they go to the Frankfurt main station, they actually show a sequence of the main station in Cologne. Big laugh in Germany. Also, they show a car with an “FF” license plate, which in fact stands for Frankfurt – but a different Frankfurt (we got two). They also show real “F” plates, too, though. It reminded me of the Germans in the first Die Hard movie, those were brilliant. Well they tried. It’s the A-Team. It’s part of the charme.