My Little World10

the cia factbook is an interesting read - full of interesting facts, but obviously i cant think of them all now

apparently we have over 61 million 'cell' phones but only 60.6 million people, im impressed - thats more phones per person than probably any other country - i looked at america and they have near 300 mil people and a mere 215 mil phones - quite sickening when you think about the waste and pollution they must create

i also read on the area comparative bit about america that its almost 2 and a half times bigger than the eu  - whats the point in that comparison?? the eu isnt even all connected - you could say 'europe' as thats a landmass but the eu is just a fairly random assortment  - you might as well compare it to the commonwealth - oh wait but then it would be bigger than the us wouldnt it

71% of brits still consider themselves christian - although as the census proved only about 14% are practising and we have 23% none/undeclared compared with 10% in yank land - we know who's right!

and one more rant - the americans may not like the letter U but when used in a name surely they should retain it - our government is formed by the LABOUR party! not LABOR - it's a name (noun) therefore it shouldnt be changed, it isnt like the verb(?) labour, although it used to refer to that admittedly - it would be like changing someone called john into jean

wat the hell is wing commander? 

well i have finally finished final fantasy 4 - only took me 4 months lol! - actually it was only 23 hours playtime - ive been busy!

thats one of my life's little achievements out of the way and now i can move on to ff5, but seeing as four is somewhat legendary and regarded as one of the best games ever (for a 16 bit snes game - think old zelda games) itd be pretty cool completely modernised, although that may ruin it - for reasons i have previously discussed over ff7 

so what did i think? i think it lives up to its name well and when considering its age its a very good game which is still playable

my only criticisms of it would be related to its graphics and technological limitations, this wouldnt be fair considering its around 15 years old, it was a cutting edge game in its day

essentially the lack of detail and fmvs etc can be annoying to a modern player and the scenery isnt much to look at but that isnt why you play this game

the battle system is an improvement on the earlier games, but obviously still not as good as the later games which feature increasing amounts of features (featuring features!!) - atb was in its infancy in this game and didn't even give you a time bar which i found annoying, being an ff7 patriot and its a pretty rigid system, but again all a criticism when looking at it from 2006

the item system was the most annoying thing - you only had room for about 30 items, i suppose thats a bit more realistic but its a pain when it gets full and you're in a dungeon full of goodies - again a problem that was ironed out anyway 

however ff4 has probably got the hardest enemies ive seen in an ff game, i havent played 5 and 6 yet but ive been told this is true, it might not be the enemies so much as the characters weakness - mp runs out quickly and usually by the final  stages you can annihalate everything, but not so here - i still found a challenge right until the second to last battle (the final battle was a pushover as usual)

the story is pretty deep, once again considering its age - modern tech couldve made it quite a bit deeper so don't expect shakespeare but it clearly pushed the boundaries with dialogue at the time and also had lots of emotional crap with people dying and betrayal and sacrifice etc etc

so in summary a bloody good game, even if it is dated with a slightly annoying control system

oh yeah and the ending was a bit crappy - considering this was the ps remake i was expecting a slightly better fmv, basically everyone becomes king or queen of somewhere and the moon flies off, then there's a vid of a few scenes from the game done in modern cgi - which is pretty poor and very short

still i recommend it to any ff or just plain gaming fan - shall i score it?

nah, it's impossible to be objective about things like gameplay and graphics  

well i'm back from xmas visiting and it's over for another year - we're having xmas at home next year thank god (providing it doesnt fall down)

well what can i chat about? i don't know really - xmas tv sucks and in general christmas feels less magical - it's probably just age

kiwi girl is leaving soon, she just emailed me again, (at about 8am) - she's coming to blighty and i'll see her at new year, im slightly nervous at what the hell is going to happen but whatever, it's her holiday she should have fun and not be tied up with me

i do often wonder the point of christmas, some of my family wanted to go to church and did, i refused, naturally as i am well aware of all the bogusness of christmas as a christian holiday and jesus' birth, but i don't want to get into all that

so people usually reply why do you celebrate christmas and get pressies and stuff? the answer is because i do believe in christmas, and holidays in general - they are there for a reason, religion is just tacked on and sold with it, (statutory) holidays are a time when we can all relax and see our families and enjoy giving and receiving presents - it marks the end of the year and is a time for reflection on the past year and is a pleasant break from the ultimate futileness of working

so i suppose i advocate a materialistic christmas that embodies buying ridiculous amounts of crap rather than looking for any meaning or religious purpose - i dont like the materialism associated with it but i think it is avoidable and is very much a personal thing within families or groups, in the modern era i think its unlikely the meaning of the 'christmas' holiday will change from the christian belief so i think it would be a shame if it lost its religious aspect as it often grounds people and stops this particular hol from becoming another day when tesco and asda will open 

another of my confusing sat on the fence arguments complete!

ps. cheeky channel 4 putting a veiled woman on to do the alternative christmas message this year - blatant ratings winner, i dont really understand the point of trying to compete for ratings over the queens speech as its only 10 mins but whatever, i suppose deal or no deal was on afterwards

everything's finished! yay! all assignments done and i can start afresh again - (bar exams)

i wish to run around the room a lot - but alas i won't - i have to pack to go home tomorrow, irritating

so from now on these will probably get a lot more boring as i go home and do sweet fa for several weeks - i also have to work, so at least thats some social contact 

tho i can break out the playstation when i feel like it (without guilt)

i will start revising after xmas - the 28th sounds good - promise! presuming the god of marking assignments is listening

i'll be good!

well - did i mention my presentation a few days ago? i probably did - turns out i/we got a first - 78, bloody insane mark

i am happy because i essentially wrote the bloody thing and the style of it was applauded and the parts that i specifically wrote were highly praised, which is classic - and these were marked in the 90s (which is very insane) it was however dragged down by the actual presenting of it (mostly not me) which was a bit mediocre - this slightly annoys me as its probably the easiest bit which basically requires a bit of practice, and maybe a few useful personality traits - i know i shouldnt feel like this because i wasnt the one doing it and we still got a top mark, but we couldve done better! i just feel that as i actually created the thing and it turned out so good that i have been cheated - which i havent really

its also the fact that its annoying because we couldve easily got a better mark which wouldve made the written part a lot easier and made it easier to get a high grade overall - i dunno, at the end of the day i wrote it, and it was the content that won the day and the presntation of it is fairly secondary in the grand scheme - content is much more useful for future assignments and stuff so overall im happy - just niggled slightly

anyway id better go to bed 

well i just watched forrest gump, tis a very good movie indeed

its a film about, well a bloke, a very stupid bloke who achieves more than anyone else ever will

to me i think the point is that everyone is equal and capable and talented in their own way, forrest is about as stupid as you can get before retardation and yet his simple view on life is brilliant, he obviously has an excellent memory and practical skills, if nothing else

a lot of people would turn his innocence into something that becomes exploited by the world, or something about emotional scarring in childhood, but forrest just wanders through life - meeting presidents, vietnam, playing table tennis, fishing, runningand becoming a millionaire and suceeds with no ambition or desire

anyway good film, i need to be up early 

well, first i must congratulate tony on nearly demonstrating that he had some balls - attack the bloody foreigners!

he was being fairly diplomatic and flowery about it but in politics terms it was pretty tough, (short of banging fists and shouting) basically he said that immigrants (essentially mouthy muslims rather than drunkard ozzies and kiwis) have to contribute to the community or something if they want public money

presumably this means they have to be doing something worthwhile (like football for kids) rather than idiotic religious crap (building stuff) if they think they can claim our money - ive made my feelings on funding religion clear enough before and im just glad tony basically said "either get used to it or f*** off!" which is what ive been saying for about 3 years - i appreciate that this was essentially about 'immigrants' but we all know there is only one real problem group in this country, and they are religious and that is why they do not integrate

i still prefer john howard's line on the issue tho

anyway in my uber-exciting life i have another assignment to do...it never bloody ends i swear - at least it's just the one currently, unfortunately i have no books and can't find any in the library so this could be tricky - wikipedia may need to save me

my head is currently full of violent thoughts - however as i am completely reliant on food and drugs (caffeine) this can be changed within a few minutes 

who else can i offend? - oh yeah while i was procrastinating i was looking up facebook on wiki and apparently america has dry-campus unis (or 'schools' as they call them - idiots)

first can i just say - hahahahahahahahhahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha thats bloody hilarious - you bizarre backwards hillbillies 

it doesnt surprise me, slightly offends me (as ive got older and stubborner i do actually feel offence) that an institution can tell you what to do like that but what the hell - you arent supposed to drink til youre 21 there anyway (like that happens) - at our unis we have the right, being adults, to do what the hell we want - admittedly we live in private housing anyway but alcohol and weed are quite accepted in uni halls too

stupid country - anyway im off before dinner burns 

ok i know yesterday i said i couldnt think of a rant - well now i can dammit!

along came the pre-budget report - thank you mr.brown!

so apparently doubling the tax on air duties protects the environment, hmmm - yes i agree that planes create lots of pollution and thats very naughty but how does doubling the tax reduce this?? the fact is the traveller is the one paying for this - 40 quid per person, which for a family could be 120-200 quid just on duties! most families in britain save up all year for a yearly holiday and i somehow doubt they consider 200 quid of it for tax 

so i suppose the incentive behind this measure is that less people will be travelling, therefore less planes? - i cant say i agree with coercing people into staying at home (britain) or getting a boat - surely its a persons right to fly if they want to and not be bullied by the government, ok you could easily argue with my logic here but this seems an unfair burden on air passengers as pretty much every form of transport is polluting and i dont see how taxing the consumer solves anything! another excuse to tax petrol into the ground as well - this is not how you win votes mr.brown, although admittedly prices have dropped 10p in the last few months people still hate tax increases (its 70% tax already!)

seriously - target the industries and developers, not the general public! that wont solve any problems, if however you fix the nhs, education and pensions with these raises then i will allow it 

why do we need a statement that jennifer aniston and vince vaughn have broken up - why do i care? yes they are celebrities but surely it's a bit contrived releasing a statement yourself? hey world, i broke up with sheila today! why would you assume people want to know?

anyway time for noel edmonds! 

ive been stalking!!

facebook is both fun and damn scary at the same time, i have been 'researching' the people at my uni and on my course, just because i could - it seems there are people out there who don't like me...imagine that! it's quite interesting seeing how links of friends intersect and how likely i am to see people who dislike me, or whom i dislike - you can also research people if you know their name before you meet them - freaky

it would be quite nice if people (women) stalked me, but alas that aint gonna happen but i suppose ill be better off that way

i really have got writers block lately - i cant think of any way to offend any religious groups/nations/twats

i am pining slightly for kiwi girl, or any girl really but thats just the frustration combined with her impending visit, stupid women - there are a lot of fit birds at the library i have noticed, pity it's silent - maybe thats better in my case tho

anyway - ill think of something soon, meanwhile got an essay to do... again 

well, the work deadline is approaching - nearly home time for xmas and hopefully it will all pull together

im screwed basically

now has anything interesting in the news annoyed me substantially?

not really, well it probably has but i can't remember at the mo - i wish theyd hurry up and ban smoking in pubs