***stardust

Now, as frustrating as it is to die in a game, especially when you've played for an hour and a half and you *know* you haven't saved (having been under the impression that this was the sort of game where you *can't* die) is...

I think I found something worse.

*Dying* in the game.

And going to what seemed to be Hell.

*shudders* Despite the amounts of Faust I've been reading and Mackie I've been writing.. And *in* spite of the rather cartoonish graphics of an old 256-colour game at some ridiculously low resolution.. Watching anguished faces cringe at being shoved into a barrel by a demon's pitchfork, two persons grappling with each other and consequently ripping the flesh off one's face..... *shiiiiiivers* Not exactly the best thing to be doing late at night, in a silent house, with only a black cat for occasional company. -_-;;;

Sooo, happy new year! *laughs* Had a fabulous time over at Bethie's, same group (only sans Laur, due to a previous engagement; Erik showed up late and had a terrible headache..luckily, he *finally* had the sense to go home shortly after midnight) as the Great Northern Pizza shindig the other day, so it was great fun. We played the '90s edition of Trivial Pursuit (and, alright, I give in, it wasn't as bad as I'd thought it might be), and it was ridiculously close. *giiggles* Jeff had all the pieces in first, then Daf'n'I did, but it was Bethie'n'Nate, who had all the pieces in last, who actually won.
But EEEEEEEEEEEEE omg!!!!! There was U2age and I *FLIPPED*, Mackie stalks me again!!!! ^________________________^ It was, who had the question, I think it was Nate'n'Bethie, yeah.. it ran something along the lines of "What writer with a price on his head left a crowd of 75,000 people and stood onstage with U2 in 1993?"
One of the first Mackie-speeches I ever got hold of, and still a huge favourite. One of my absolute favourite authors.
And to top the craziness off - I *JUST* read an account of that particular occasion last night, as I was flipping through the Propaganda book (which Megs got me for Christmas cos she rocks like that <3) for a bit before going to bed, skimming for Mackieness.

We'll not even go into the very odd sound I made as I tried to swallow back my, eh, enthusiasm. *giiiiiiggles* They didn't even get to "U2" in reading the question before I clapped my hands over my mouth, wide-eyed and excited, and let out a rather garbled muffled SQUEEEEEEEEL!!!
I am such a dork. *giggles* whee.

Took us until.. heeee right about 11 O'Clock to finish the game (someone asked the time, Daf said 11 O'Clock and I answered "Tick Tock" *giiggles at own dorkiness*), after which we managed to actually get in an episode of Monty Python. *giggles* One I'd seen before, but not for a good long while.. The Lumberjack Song, The Man With a Tape Recorder Stuck Up His Nose.. homocidal barber.. s'aaaalll good yo. Flipped channels briefly cos no-one present was exactly a major fan of Regis (who was filling in for Dick Clark this year).. some random dizzy reporter down in Times Square talked to people with blank smiles and pithy comments.. and then one of the guys standing near by, once the camera was on him, kneeled partway down in front of a woman who hadn't seemed to be paying much attention, and said his resolution was to ask the girl he loved if she would marry him, fumbled with a small box which he opened toward her...
And never have I seen a more disinterested face, I suppose she might've just been caught entirely off-guard, but it seemed to me far more like "oh fuck, I can't stand this guy, how do I turn him down on national television?"...
The camera cut away just after he asked.

Watched the ball sparkle and slowly descend, everyone said happy new year.. Daf'n'Jeff snuggled and kissed a bit.. and the rest of us found a new topic of conversation, pretty much, it was rather an anticlimactic moment. *laughs gently* But what's a new month, a new year.. time is time, I really don't see what our compulsive ennumerating of it is really worth...

..*laughs a bit* and I've probably been writing Mackie-stories too long.

Hung out there 'til about 1.30, Julie decided she should drive herself and Matt back before she got too tired to drive, Jeff decided about the same, as he still had to drive back home to Attica.. So, came home, talked to Mel briefly before getting kicked out of her room *giggles*, came up here, checked messages and e-mail, then scrounged around The Underdogs for a new game to play, having beaten Beneath a Steel Sky after two nights of playing. ^^;
And then, of course, spent another hour at least trying to get them to *work*... Blue Ice, I can't get to work yet, tried the suggested sound-device download, to no avail - still crashes at me, so I dunno. Cosmology of Kyoto, though, I was determined. *giggles* Took me a bit to sort out how to set it to open in 256 colour mode, as it didn't automatically..I'd set my display down to 16 bits already, however it didn't exactly agree with my current windows skin. Sooo, I didn't realise that the 'run in 256 color mode' box wasn't checked for rather awhile. ^^; S'all good though, got it now, and spent a..well, I suppose a cheerful, fun hour wouldn't quite be the way to describe it.. seems to be set around the same time period as the anime series "Hundred Stories" I watched awhile back (there are references to some of the same stories in the game), so it's pretty dark and bleak. And creepy. You've got random demons popping up now and again, starving beggers and lepers everywhere, servants of richer men who'll casually slice off a child's head...
Thankfully, the game's old enough that it's not really graphic by any means, the characters are very stylized, cartoonish...but it's *still* freaking me out.

ANYWAY..

I really can't remember if there was a reason I was posting, other than to make the first few comments about going to hell in a game.

...luckily, due to the spiritual elements all around, there's a way back out.
In the game, that is.

*Ananda Daydream * 5:14 AM * *

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~