lathany

OU Summer School - I'm about to disappear for OU Summer School; I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm really going to miss bateleur and the duo, miss my internet and miss my comfy bed (I sleep badly for the first few nights elsewhere and I'm only away for a few nights). On the other hand, it'll be a break from work and will therefore be more relaxing than the last few months and it'll mean I can get on with my project work (which this Summer School is all about). It's going to be odd to see who attends though. Previously, my literature Summer Schools were almost entirely populated by women older than I am (or was). However, tutorials of my current course are attended by students who are mostly much younger than me and about 50:50 men:women. However, I've read almost nothing (fiction-wise) since this course started so this may be a good time to pack some evening reading to fall back on if the social side isn't my thing.
Battlestar Galactica series 3 - Having been repeatedly warned by chrestomancy that the third season was seriously awful, bateleur and I put off buying it until it had substantially dropped in price and then watched it with some trepidation. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as we were expecting. It starts and finishes well - that much I knew. However I wasn't nearly as upset by the middle bits as chrestomancy (and others) were. I didn't mind the Apollo/Starbuck stuff (although I'm not a boxing fan and thus loathed the rest of that particular episode), although I found the Apollo/Admiral exchanges irritating as they appear to be trying to repeat the mini-series tensions. I found many of the middle episodes rather meh (boxing episode, Kat episode, Helo episode, Adama's ex episode, strike episode) and felt that some of them were suspiciously similar to B5 episodes (Boxing episode = TKO, Helo episode = Believers, strike episode = By Any Means Necessary). However, I liked all the Cylon stuff, the temple, the four of five and that lawyer reminded me so much of Auron! So overall, a bit of a win.
Indiana Jones - We saw the new Indiana movie and enjoyed it. It's nothing to write home about, but I felt it was a decent enough sequel to the franchise (certainly not as poor as some reviewers were suggesting) and it was nice to see the man himself once more. Were I to recommend an Indy I'd still go with Raiders, but it was a hell of a lot better than that Temple of Doom rubbish.
Pathologic - I can't remember how I found this game but it's turned out to be as seriously weird as promised. To give you some background it's a Russian game with a fanatical following and it won all sorts of home grown awards. It's billed as a puzzle game where you play one of three characters trying to stop/contain a plague in a small, weird town. It's set (checks box), er.. last century, probably mid last century (some things are quite modern but What No Cars?). The town has a social structure rather similar to vampire clans (and I haven't yet ruled out vampires, werewolves or anything like that) and has a theatre with a masks play that you can see every night (I've missed one and seen one). Sadly the play is still in Russian. In fact, that's one of the problems. The biggest, I guess - as the translation is, err, brave, but somewhat crap¹. This isn't helped by the fact that the original Russian is also supposed to be artsy and obscure in places. The actual thing plays like a cross between a murder mystery (with first person shooter perspective) and real-time The Sims (although I've never played The Sims so I could be way out here). In fact it most reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes game that huggyrei and telpher brought over last year with the huge map of London on which you could go anywhere. Because you get that huge map in Pathologic and you can call at/break into any house (or shop) that you choose; although you have to do all the walking. And the walking in turn means I don't play it for very long at a stretch as I get motion sickness. You play one of three characters (I'm playing Batchelor, the easiest - which is short for "Batchelor of Medicine" and in turn says volumes about the language/atmosphere in this game) and they all have different roles in the unfolding story. In fact you can't play the girl (Devotress) until you've played at least one of the other two (the other is Ripper - a surgeon). The game has a fixed length because it's sort of real time (speeded up that is, an hour of game time is - at a guess - about 5-10 mins real) and, as the game reminds you at the start of each of its days, there are 12 days to survive. There's a bit of combat, but it's mostly a quest and story thing. With constant marching around the town (and examining trash cans). I might suggest it to White Wolf enthusiasts who can handle the translation (although I might wait until I get a bit further into the story - it's only day 3).
Anniversary - bateleur and I have now been married for thirteen years (lace) and we celebrated the usual way - with a meal. Wrapped vine leaves, lamb in nice sauce (yes, I've forgotten what was in it) and then chocolate mousse with mango and clotted cream. This year we decided to do different wines with the different courses (Sancerre, Rioja and Muscat) which was rather lovely (and means we've been finishing the three bottles off all this week).

¹ APPEAL

According to the world statistics quantity of population on the planet comes to 6 bln. It witnesses of an extreme density of population and as a result of natural resources shortage. At critical point there turn on natural mechanism of population limitation. Natural cataclysms and outrages of new, unknown before diseases prove the said above.

Judging from that we think it is necessary to higher up the level of people training in critical situations. Hereby we offer for your attention the simulator of a human being behaviour in the condition of pandemic.

"Pathologic" is the initial game prototype of the simulator. The environment assumes lack of scientific progress and public evolution of the most primitive level; the disease and methods of fight with it are extremely conditional. The simulator is oriented first of all at a mechanism of taking right decisions.

The simulator is presented in electronic format.
Description:

- two CDs for installation and support of the simulator;
- a package with manual.

Before installation and start-up the work with the simulator, please, look through the manual attentively. It will help master the given didactic materials and increase your chances to survive accordingly.

Good luck,
IPL Laboratory