johnke.me
David Mitchell and Robert Webb (PC and Mac in the UK adverts) were in Dublin promoting their new film, “Magicians”. After the screening, they were taking photos with people and signing autographs. So, naturally, I asked them to sign my Macbook.
Five days to go!
Some things are still up in the air. When we land in Rome on Sunday, we’ll be going into temporary accommodation until we can find somewhere to live. This means that when the movers come on Friday, they will be taking all of our stuff and putting it into storage until we give them a call and say “Yes, we are living at this address now, please bring all our worldly possessions to us.” And since we don’t know when we’ll actually have a place to live, this means that we might not see our stuff for anywhere between two weeks and six months.
So right now, I’m hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
What does that mean? Well, it means that I’m reassessing everything I own and think “can I live without this for six months?” While everyday clothes are cheap and easy to replace, I have to think about all the possibilities. I should bring formal clothes, because there will inevitably be some function where I will be required to scrub up nice. So that’s a no-brainer.
But what about the other stuff? Movies and games? There’s no way I can live without those.
This is a tough decision. I’m totally addicted to my Xbox 360 now, and what better way to keep in touch with my nerdy Irish friends than by kerb-stomping them over Xbox Live? And what better way to maintain a sense of accomplishment than increasing my gamer score? But as much as I love the 360, it’s far too heavy and takes up far too much space for me to bring on my own. It will have to come with the movers.
I’ve decided to only take my PlayStation 2 with me. I’ve dumped the boxes for the games so that the actual disks are in a couple of CD wallets and I’m bringing my PlayStation 2 in my carry-on luggage. This means that I’ll at least have a couple of games to play when I get there (Final Fantasy XII, God of War 2).
We’re taking a Macbook, so we’ll have something to watch DVDs on. But what DVDs? I’ve got a CD wallet especially for movies, and now I have to decide what I should fill it with. This isn’t an easy task. I mean, how do I decide what movies to bring? How do I predict my tastes and moods for the next six months? I realise that there are people who could fit their entire DVD collection in one of these 72-disc wallets, but there’s a reason I have as many DVDs as I do - I’m a fussy, temperamental little shit.
And this leaves us with a little thought-experiment: if you were moving to a foreign country and you could only bring one DVD, one game, one book and one CD with you, what would you bring?
Not just a clever name: I’ve recently started moving towards web apps myself, not wanting to be tethered to a particular desktop.
I love his smug smile at the end. He knows that’s hot shit.
Thanks to all those who came out on Saturday. It was great to see everyone together at once, and we went home feeling very special indeed. The rest of the mugshots are up on flickr.
For those of us who love this game, this is probably as close to a back-story as we’re going to get.
For the Lebowski nut in your life
According to Eurogamer, Ken Kutaragi is retiring from his role as CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment. Kaz Hirai will be replacing Kutaragi as CEO.
I have to say, I’m more than a little disappointed by this news. Double-crazy double-K was always always good for an entertaining quote. Almost everything out of his mouth was like something from a megalomaniacal supervillian - things you can almost imagine Ming the Merciless shouting at people. The best Kaz Hirai has given us so far is the embarassing “RIIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRRRR!”
So here are some of my favourite Ken Kutaragi quotes:
“It will be expensive … for consumers to think to themselves ‘I will work more hours to buy one’. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else”
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“If processors of high performance and wide bandwidth like the Cell were linked together without sufficient security, a worldwide system crash could occur with one attack.”
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“The PS3 will instill discipline in our children and adults alike. Everyone will know discipline.”
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We’ll miss you, Ken.
I’m fast becoming an expert on guide books to Rome. So far, my favourite is “City Secrets: Rome”. I like it because it lists the things to see and places to eat followed by a short anecdote by someone who knows the place well, and explains why they recommend it in real, human terms.
For example, this is what Virginia L. Bush says about the Colosseum:
“A new visitor to Rome should go first to the Colosseum. Since it is said that Rome will stand as long as the Colosseum stands, and the world will last as long as Rome stands, it would be good to check first that everything is in order with the universe”
