On a Scale of One to Ten, I Hate You

I work for a market research company doing surveys over the phone, and one of the common sort of questions that gets asked in these surveys is the "On a scale of one to ten, where one is strongly disagree and ten is strongly agree..." and I've noticed something about this sort of question: It's complete bullshit. No one answers it properly.

Dead Space

I was playing Dead Space today, and as I was playing it I found myself becoming rather frustrated. It seems like it should be a pretty fun game, but there are just these things that make it constantly irritating.

How to Deal With Cold Callers

Shut Up and Listen

This is counter-intuitive because you're probably going to want to either interrupt the caller or just hang up. Don't do that. Believe it or not, you actually want to hear what they're saying.

During their opening monologue they will deliver three pieces of information that you want. They'll tell you the name of the company they're calling from and what they actually want and who they're actually trying to contact.

Gemini Rue

Well, Gemini Rue was released the other day, and I was really looking forward to it. I pre-ordered, even. It sounded awesome. But it isn't.

After Emerald City Confidential and Puzzle Bots I should have been prepared; unless Dave Gilbert is directly responsible for it, it's just not worth playing. But I keep thinking "The Blackwell games are so good, these people clearly know what makes a good adventure game, they can't be so terribly wrong again."

But they can be and they are.

Cider: The Horrible Truth

Recently, apparently normal, sane people have started drinking cider. Lots of them. It's become pretty common. Normally, what people choose to drink is their own business, no concern of mine. If you want to drink cider, go ahead. It doesn't affect me at all. Or does it?

Andy Capp

Andy Capp is a comic strip about a man called Andy Capp, his wife Flo and to a lesser extent, the people they know. It first appeared in 1957 and is still being published, but something strange has happened to it.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

I started playing this game years ago but didn't finish it, so I recently decided to replay it and actually get all the way to the end. In many ways, it's one of the best games I've ever played. In other ways, it's shit. But overall it's very much worth playing.

Ben Harper

So excuse me Mr.
but I'm a mister too
and you're givin' Mr. a bad name
Mr. like you

So I'm taking the Mr.
from out in front of your name
'cause it's a Mr. like you
that puts the rest of us to shame
It's a Mr. like you
that puts the rest of us to shame

This song annoys me every single time I hear it. If you put someone to shame it means you're doing better than them, making them ashamed of their own efforts. Given the context of the song, I am entirely certain that that is not what Ben Harper meant when he wrote that. In fact, his choice of phrase means that the chorus says basically the opposite of what the rest of the song says.

Why did you do that, Ben Harper? Why?

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

I'm a big fan of SVU, I've been watching it for years. The characters are great and the crimes are interesting. At least, they were. I've noticed recently that I just don't really enjoy watching it any more. I still have been, but I've realised that it's more out of habit than anything, and I think I've worked out what's gone wrong.

Comics

It's hard to believe they allow this sort of thing in newspapers...