taimatsu no monogatari

 Why not post more things if I have things to post? This one can be public I guess? 

Compared to olwy I am a gamer. Compared to Real Gamers I am not really a gamer but who cares? I like playing computer games of various kinds. (I also like playing board games but that's another post.)

I have my phone nearby most of the time, so that's where I play a lot of games. I enjoy puzzle games - I recently played 'Isoland' 1 and 2 which were good, small, point-and-click find-things-and-solve-puzzles games. I had to resort to a walkthrough a couple of times where I'd just missed something or got the wrong end of the stick, but that says more about my tolerance for mild frustration than about the game, I think. 

Also on the phone I have been playing Eden Obscura, which is a tap-and-swipe swinging-around-an-abstract-floral-landscape thing. I like it a lot because while it has goals, it is also a very open kind of gameplay - you have a level, you have five goes in which to complete it, you can choose powerups before you start but you don't have to, and you have to find the goal location and fill it with 'pollen', but meanwhile you can choose your route and the way in which you get where you're going, and whether you complete the thing in a couple of goes or take all five and explore along the way. It also doesn't nag you to buy things - in fact, most of the time you can't buy anything at all, it just has a once-a-week powerup sale.

The thing I spend too much time on is 'Love Nikki Dress-up Queen' which sounds bananas and it is. It's a dressing up game, which is also a RPG. It's set in a world where all conflict is resolved by having a dressing-up contest. You collect clothes and complete challenges. It's not just one thing, the game contains quite a lot of different ways to interact and score different kinds of points and progress. The downside is that it's very, very tempting to spend money on it and some of the special events can't be completed unless you do so. The game originates in China, so the dressing-up clothes are very varied and much of the wardrobe is fantastical. It's problematic in a number of ways but it's still fun. I am slightly embarrassed to be telling you this but sod it, life's too short to be embarrassed about fun things. 

I have just started playing 'Alto's Odyssey' which is a side-scrolling sand-boarding game with lovely graphics. I am not very good at it yet, but it's enjoyable. 

I have a bunch of other games on my phone which see less action - June's Journey (hidden object/finding things), SailorDrops (sailor-moon-themed Match 3), Threes, Two Dots, Hidden Folks, a Sudoku game, Anodia (a brick breaker thing), Piyomori! (throw little sticky chicks at plates of food to form a pile, I kid you not, it's Japanese and amazingly silly), Alphabear, Moxie (a word game based on changing one letter at a time), a Solitaire game, a Mahjong matching game, and of course Frotz (an iOS interactive-fiction interpreter). On the web-on-the-phone I play Fallen London, which is a text-based choose-your-adventure thing with a 'dark and hilarious' sensibility. It's good. 

Off the phone I have done less gaming recently, but my big computer is back online so that may change soon. On PC I enjoy: Sunless Sea, which builds on the Fallen London setting and involves navigating a ship around the Unterzee (the underground ocean); Stardew Valley, which is a cute farming simulator (I cannot get the hang of the bit of the game involving chatting up villagers, but it's still enjoyable without that); and Lord of the Rings Online, which I haven't picked up for a while but which is a Tolkien-themed MMORPG.

On Olly's PS3 I really enjoy Dragon Age: Origins, which is a fantasy combat RPG thing for which I have an elf mage character (ranged combat all the way, I can't react fast enough to do melee properly). 

Gaming! Yay! 

Edited to add: my phone is an iPhone 5S - no guarantees any phone games mentioned are available for other platforms, though I'm confident most of them are. 

I'm shifting from my LJ account to using this Dreamwidth journal instead. Ugh, and suchlike noises of discontent.

Post-Bicon, people often make public posts with anonymous or screened comments, welcoming anything people might have meant to say at Bicon and didn't manage. So - hello, I was at Bicon, I'm Lucy, I played the guitar and wore a very sparkly white outfit on Saturday night. If we talked, or even if we didn't, and you'd like to say hello or keep in touch, leave me a comment. They aren't anonymous but they are screened, and I won't unscreen them unless the comment says that's ok.

You can leave me a comment even if you didn't go to Bicon, of course.

If I were going on holiday soon and wanted to buy a digital camera which is better than that on my iPhone 3GS, takes SD cards (because I already have one) and costs under £100, what should I buy?

I am Quite Pissed Off.

I signed up for eMusic on a whim last night, knowing that Eve had used the site before and that they had some of the sleep/relaxation music I wanted. They claim to support Linux, and I knew that when Eve was first using the site she had been able to download MP3s without using any special software.

NO LONGER.

( Ranting and geek-help-needed under here )

I want blue gloves for The Wave on Saturday. Where can I get them? Sainsburys only have washing-up gloves in yellow, green or pink. Woolly or blue-nitrile gloves would be fine too... I suppose woolly would be best as my hands would be simultaneously warm and blue. Ideas welcome. Has to be well under a fiver though.

Place bets now on whether I'll manage to learn the Splashdance in time!

People I'm seeing this weekend may be particularly interested in this little gem from the Muppets. Thanks to weds for bringing it to my attention.

I've been thinking of this one recently. Have a poem.


My Dearest Dust
Lady Catherine Dyer

My dearest dust, could not thy hasty day
Afford thy drowzy patience leave to stay
One hower longer: so that we might either
Sate up, or gone to bedd together?
But since thy finisht labor hath possest
Thy weary limbs with early rest,
Enjoy it sweetly: and thy widdowe bride
Shall soone repose her by thy slumbring side.
Whose business, now, is only to prepare
My nightly dress, and call to prayre:
Mine eyes wax heavy and ye day growes old.
The dew falls thick, my beloved growes cold.
Draw, draw ye closed curtaynes: and make room:
My dear, my dearest dust; I come, I come.

Epitaph on monument erected in 1641 by Lady Catherine Dyer to her husband Sir William Dyer in Colmworth Church, Bedfordshire.