| December 5th, 2009 |
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1) Kids Today, or: My City Is Better Than Yours
Last night, I was walking through the city centre at about half past eight in the evening. It's late night shopping on Fridays in the city, so there were many, many people around. Nonetheless, coming into Forrest Place (essentially the central city square), I was mildly disconcerted to see a crowd of at least a hundred teenagers, formning a circle about five kids deep, around... something.
Whatever was happening inside that circle, it was eliciting occasional cheers and a number of mobile phones out, filming whatever was happening. Somewhere nearby someone was playing music.
I went closer, got to a point where I could see inside the circle.
The music was theirs, and there were \teenage boys, taking it in turns to try and outdance each other.
They were good. A kid who had absolutely mastered the dancing style I associate with hip-hop. A boy no more than sixteen or so who could do that thing where you dance while doing a handstand on one hand. They were doing things I'm too old to know the names of, and doing them well, and drawing a huge crowd.
A bit later I had a brief chat with a cop. (I stopped to tell him that, just in case they were concerned, that crowd of teenagers were doing absolutely nothing wrong.) He said they'd been past the crowd a few times - they thought the kids were really talented, and were happy they were having fun and causing no trouble.
Rock on.
I am a bad, bad person
So, I'm playing Metal Gear Solid 4. I restarted my game on a higher difficulty - I intend to go back to the other one (which is in Act 5 now), but playing too much Batman: Arkham Asylum had confused all my button reflexes and I needed to crank back and retrain myself.
Anyway, the opening section of MGS4 involves trying to get through a city where a running street battle is taking place between PMC (Private Military Company) soldiers and a local militia. In theory you're not on either side; in practice the militia, if they win, will be clearing the PMCs out of your way and making it easier to sneak to your objective (and trying to get through without being seen by *anyone* is really really hard), and you can pick up a militia disguise that makes them think they like you more than they do.
Not to mention, at some points the fighting is rather fierce, and stray bullets are a health hazard even if no-one is actually attempting to kill you personally.
So the sensible way to go about getting through the area is to help the militia achieve their objectives, in as stealthy a way as possible, to help get rid of major obstacles in your own path.
However, the pragmatic and yet also kind of evil way to go about it is to let the militia die in very, very large numbers, so you can collect and sell their guns, the better to buy shiny guns for yourself.
(The cautious way to do it, when you don't want to risk getting killed and losing all your lovely Drebin Points when you restart at the last checkpoint: find a safe niche close to the action, and send the Metal Gear Mark II out stealthed to collect all the guns.)
I liken myself to heroes
I am developing a vague Thing about Leonardo da Vinci, mostly because he is a Historical Genius and Awesome Person who makes me feel better about myself. He and I share these characteristics:
- A tendency to obsessions, especially in research.
- A tendency to start things and not ever finish them.
- The capacity to be distracted really, really easily.
He was awesome. I could be too.
And now, excuse me: I must shoot down a helicopter.
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