Finger info for chunky@icculus.org...



[2002-07-01-later]

Brief addendum to the ending of MGS:
"I chose not to choose life. I chose something different"
I couldn't help but keep thinking of Ewan in TrainSpotting for the whole
of that ending.


[2002-07-01]

MGS VR Missions. 94%. Stuck on 3 missions:
1) Variety #7: Millions of flying saucers come at you. You have one
weapon to kill them with, but it's a homing missile and you don't have
time to let it lock on. Once I've beaten this one, I can move onto the
other 7 misions in this section.
2) Puzzle #10: Last puzzle mission. I've worked out how to beat it,
it's just that I keep messing up [running too fast so the guard loses my
footprints]. It's easy to beat in theory, but in practice I keep messing
up just near the end. Last of the puzzle missions.
3) "VR Mission": Which sorta counts for 10 missions... basically, I can
get to about level7, but if you mess up you have to start from the first
one again. Not too hard to beat, but requires more of my time.

And then I'll be able to walk all the way up to the nasty pixellated
models to take photos. Hmmm. You can kinda tell the age group this game
is aimed at...


And to clarify: You may now refer to me as "Chunky Kibbles, BEng". W00t. A
letter for each of the years I've been doing my degree. It almost seems
as if it's worth it.


[2002-06-30]

OK: Several things are now cleared up:

FedEx: The guy turned up and then left. The next day, he turned up, and
left. The people back at his base phoned to ask where I was;

"In the Goodricke Porter's Lodge, a lot like I said I would be. Where
is your courier?"
"He turned up but you weren't there"
"If he turned up at all, he certainly didn't look for anyone waiting
for him
 I'm wearing a black baseball cap, blue jeans. Make him come back and
do his bloody job"

And so now the contract has been sent. At great expense, it will now
get there 3 days late. Most of the crap Americans do is really bad, but
at least you've got customer service right. "Chunky's giving us money,
let's be nice to Chunky".


My Degree: Well, I got an honors degree. It's a piss-poor honors degree,
but if I call it an "honors degree", that officially puts me in the same
group as people who got a First.


Metal Gear Solid: Whupped. OK, I beat it on easy, but at least I got the
"good" ending. It's so *sniff* I'm so torn up *sniff*.
I'm apparently rated as a "puma". According to a brief bit of googling,
I'm rated 8 out of 12 for playing it on total cripple. Ho, hum. I suck.

Several notes on Metal Gear Solid:
1) The weapons lady is there for a good reason. If I'd thought to equip
chaff grenades and ring her up, I'd have found out what they're for. And
I then wouldn't have spent about 4/5 of the game running from security
cameras with guns, instead of shutting the stupid things off.
2) It's a bit odd that I get to snog the woman who's genetically
engineereed to be frigid.
3) This game f***ing rocks.
4) The whole story was actually really good, IMHO. Lots of plot twists &
the like. In a kind of actually-I-didn't-see-that-one-coming kinda
way. Which makes a change.
5) When you're playing MechWarrior, you and the guy stand there facing
each other blasting away. You'll probably win.
  When you're playing Heavy Gear, you and the guy stand there facing
each other blasting away. You'll probably win.
  When you're playing MGS, the bad guy stands there in an almost
invincible mech, and you stand there in a T-shirt, facing each other
blasting away. Playing it like that, you're onto a loser.


[2002-06-27]

FedEx. Grrrr.

Yesterday, I recieved my contract for CH. Yes, the update on that one
is coming soon.

I had a shufty through the contract, and signed it. Put it in an
envelope... and started looking for a way to ship it to the US fairly
sharpish.

Seems the choices I have, if I want it to get there quickly, are FedEx
or... some other company whose phone number I couldn't find. So that's
that.

Ring 'em up.
"Need to send about 10 sheets of paper to CA. What can you do?"
"We can pick it up sometime between now [2.20 pm] and 4.00
  - It'll get there Friday before 10 am"
"That's cool."
"25 pounds 80p, please"
[note: that's about 40 bucks for you yanks - ow]
"Mmmmmkay"
<boring snippage>
"Can we have your phone number please?"
"xxxxxxxxx"


Roll on 4.20, by which time I've been sitting around for in excess of
2 hrs.

"Uh... you said you'd be here by 4.00. It's 4.20. Surprisingly enough,
my pick-up address may be York University, but I do have elseplaces to be"
"I'll do <stuff>. I'll ring you back within half an hr"
<hang up>

<15 mins later>
"I've found you ordered something. I'll find the courier for you now"
<hang up>

<Wait 20 mins>
"He came to the pick-up at ten to 3. You weren't there, so he left"
"I've been here since 2.20. Why did you take my phone number if it wasn't
for the courier to contact me?"
"<mumble, totally unrelated>"
"And this is now going to arrive 3 days later, right?"
"Yes, sir, there's nothing we can do about that"
"I've been sitting here for better than 2 and a half hours waiting for
you. As soon as this arrives in the states, I get a rather-seriously-needed
infusion of money. And now it's going to take an extra 3 days to get
to me. Is there anything you can do about it?"
"Sorry, sir, I'll get the courier to come to you tomorrow. 12 to 2 pm ok?"
"Can you pick it up in the morning?"
"Nope. Afternoon pickups only."
"Do I have any other option?"
"Not really"

So. Looks like in future I shan't be using FedEx. I was possibly standing
in the car park at 2.50, but there's no earthly reason for the guy not
to ring me if I'm not there. That's why I give them the bloody number. If
a pizza guy can ring me when I'm only paying a fiver, I'm fairly certain
FedEx can ring me when I'm giving them 40 bucks.

And I'm fucked because I needed to speak to the university with regards
to a, uh, "non-trivial", debt. I was going to go there at 4, but was
waiting for someone who wasn't going to come and gave no message that
he'd been and gone [if that's actually what he did]. Generally, this
has really fucking put me out.

If anyone can recommend a decent cross-continental shipping service for
future reference, I'd be greatly olbliged...


[note: old plan entries are all avilable at
http://icculus.org/~chunky/oldplan]

When this .plan was written: 2002-07-01 14:20:05
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