I Was Not Prepared
When I got home last night, there was a sign on the front door sporting the phrase "you are not prepared" all in bold caps.
No, My Beloved hadn't gone completely insane, but he had taken delivery of our copies of the World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade, which has been using the "You are not..." line in its pre-launch publicity.
Now, I've waxed lyrical about WoW before today, noting that it's pretty much the only computer game that's ever managed to hook me for more than a couple of days. I've played a couple of characters to the pre-expansion top level, though in a fairly casual way compared to some hardcore players, and enjoyed the social aspects of it, as well as the solo, 'exploring the world' way of playing that's probably constituted the bulk of my play. I'm probably the archtype of the casual player in this game's terms, as I'm very broadly experienced in its environment and play, but not in the kind of detailed way that people who run the same raid or instance four or more nights a week are with a view to getting the very best loot items. So while I was looking forward to having more world to explore, there was a part of me that really expected the experience to be a bit 'more of the same'.
How wrong I was. We spent the whole evening going '"Wow!" at each other from across the room as we each found some cool new area, character, item or aspect of play. I don't know how long it will take to get through the expanded world and ten new experience levels, but I'm pretty sure we're going to have a lot of fun doing so.
Cleaning House
I've been in a slightly odd frame of mind recently (and by recently I mean the last few months), where I've felt a definite need to clear some decks on various levels.
On a practical level I think this is influenced by the recognition that I'll shortly (finally) be putting my flat on the market, two years since I last actually spent a night in it. Exactly where we go next is open to discussion, as we're looking at that once we know exactly how much I clear from the sale and therefore what kind of a deposit is available. Which means that for at least a brief period I'm going to need to put some stuff in storage. Now, to the extent that one's life is represented by one's 'stuff', I've been disconnected from mine since I left the flat as there simply isn't enough space in David's place for all his stuff, let alone his and mine. So I'm facing the prospect of going through all my belongings and potentially junking a lot of it on the basis that I haven't used it in the last two years, so.... This is a thing I've done once or twice in the past when moving, but in the past it's been because I've just left boxes of stuff unopened for ages. This is different - there isn't a week when I don't at some point want to listen to some music that's in the flat, or pick up a book or comic that's there to reread, or check a detail, and I'm reluctant to render ever being able to do so impossible. But common sense says that a house move is a good time to clear decks and de-clutter, so this could prove to be an interesting exercise.
But on a different level, the deck clearing extends to more than just the physical. I wrote back in November that I was feeling rather negative towards a particular group of people over the way I'd been treated by them, and this feeling persisted to the point where I took a step actively to sever the connection with them as a group, which was quite an extreme thing to do. But it felt right, and gave me an opportunity to tell some key people why I was doing it without getting into a big wrangle. It also gives me an opportunity, as I said to them, to continue relationships with people as individuals rather than this undifferentiated group.
And it doesn't end there - I'm suddenly looking at all the elements of my life and working out whether they need changing or ditching. It's more than a little disconcerting, because I haven't at any point consciously thought that it was time to do so - it's just crept up on me as a significant part of the way I look at life.
Is this a mid life crisis, I wonder?
Gone Phishing
Considering how much stuff I do online, and the number of email accounts I have for various reasons, I went a surprisingly long time without receiving a single Phishing mail. But all that has changed. Now I get them from random addresses purporting to be banks I don't bank with, and shopping sites I don't shop with on a regular basis.
I've also started getting loads purporting to be from either eBay, offering me a new chance to bid on items I didn't win previously (which, you guessed it, I never did bid on), and pretty much one a day supposedly from PayPal telling be that something's wrong with my account and that I need to log on to confirm my details, though curiously never at an actual PayPal website. This morning's offering shows a particular lack of interest in convincing detail, even down to an almost conscious unwillingness to get the grammar right:
Dear PayPal Online,
We regret to inform you, that we had to lock your PayPal Online Access
because we have reasons to believe that your account may have been compromised by outside
parties. In order to protect your sensitive information, we temporaly suspended your account.To reactivate your account, click on the link below and confirm your identity by completing the
secure form what will appear.[Link removed]
We have seen unusual attempts for logging in regarding your personal account, therefore this
confirmation regarding your account its only for security reasons.
Ooh! Let me click! I want to give you all my PayPal account details! Here, rob me blind why don't you?
Tossers.
Into The Labyrinth
So - Pan's Labyrinth. Absolutely awesome. One of the best films I've seen in a very long time, and also, slightly unexpectedly, one of the most graphically violent. Perhaps visceral is the word.
Go see it.
Propped Up
Two little turbo-prop plane journeys in two days that happen to be two of the windiest days imaginable have left even this hardened flyer feeling a little buffeted.
Actually, that's an understatement - the flight back across the Channel today was violent enough that even I wondered if we were going to make it down in one piece.
Mucho Guantanamo
There's much discussion in the papers recently about the state of many of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, and a lot of attention in particular paid to two British prisoners there who, to every appearence were set up by the British security services and who are now being quite spectacularly not helped by the British government.
This piece in particular (okay, so it's by one of their lawyers) struck me particularly powerfully.
Sick As A Dog
I seem finally to have succumbed to the cold that David's been wrestling with since Boxing Day, and it's a bugger. The sinus-y headache is a particular worry, given the problems I had with my sinuses that saw me end up in hospital last year, so I'm not taking any chances and I'm staying bundled up in bed as much as possible.
Poor David's had this dragging on for well over a week now - I really hope I don't have the same.
Much Ado About Quite A Lot
Well, it was brilliant. Every bit as good as the reviews would have one believe, and possibly even better in places. The performances were outstanding, with Tamsin Greig's Beatrice the best of an amazing bunch, and Joseph Millson only just behind her, giving Benedick a superbly rounded turn. It's a character who can easily be left to the script to convey, because it's such a clever one, but he delivered with his face, body and voice equally. Greig's Beatrice, on the other hand, plays almost an older woman role (and explicitly is so is relation to Hero and the other women in the play) in the proceedings, and the passion she puts into her rage over Claudio's treatment of Hero is astonishing. Millson makes Benedick look afraid of her, and in this context, it's with good reason.
A big bonus too was the packed and very appreciative audience, including a number of families with relatively young kids, which gives me a certain amount of unaccustomed optimism.
It's only on 'til the weekend, which is a shame, because you probably won't get to see it. But you should.
“I would my horse had the speed of your tongue.”
As part of my Christmas present, David bought me tickets to the current RSC production of Much Ado About Nothing, with the very much one-and-only Tamsin Greig as Beatrice, and tonight's the night we're going. I haven't been to a Shakespeare play in far too long, and this is actually one I've never seen produced live, so between that and the outstanding reviews it's had, anticipation is running high.
We've also been catching up on Season Two of Green Wing (on the subject of Tamsin Greig) in preparation for the rounding-it-all-up special on Thursday evening, which will at this rate end up being one of only a handful of Christmas season TV items we've been remotely interested in (Doctor Who, The Vicar of Dibley and The Sarah Jane Adventures, in case you were wondering).
Here We Go Again Then
New year, new opportunities, new yada yada yada.
Happy 2007 one and all. Hope you had a good end to 06.