Donuts n Drifts

What a fun weekend! I had a chance to catch up on loads of movies, gaming and most importantly had a real blast with the kids. Saturday morning saw the three of us head to the shops where my daughters proceeded to buy their own choice of Christmas trees and decorations. I had told them that this year they get to make their own Christmas trees up, being able to choose everything. The results were surprisingly good their choice of colours all matched and were actually quite tasteful. The trees they decorated look fantastic! My house is starting to feel very Christmassy indeed and we are all getting in the festive mood.

Gaming wise saw some real progression in DIRT3 and I’m pleased to say I’m getting offers left right and center from racing Teams to join their squads. I am having some problems though. The Gymkana stages are a huge amount of fun, but I have to say I’m distinctly average at it. I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. Yes, I can do the donuts and spins and drifts, but not with the precision required and it does take me a few precious seconds to get a donut or spin started in the correct zones. When you’re doing a time trial run those seconds are incredibly important. The highest medal I have achieved so far in those stages is a Silver. If you know me and driving games, I’m a bit of a perfectionist and my inability to grasp the intricacies of this particular part of the game is driving me round the bend! (excuse the pun). Practice makes perfect. I’ll get there I’m sure. 

Other gaming fun included a load of EQ2 action with my daughter who’s Fury, Eucalipto is now level 36. We hit Runnyeye, Kaladim, completed some of ‘The Journey is Half the Fun’ HQ, completed the Raptor mount quest and after that, did little else except bounce around Antonica on her new mount which she absolutely adores. The account she is using is an old one of mine and we hopped in to Legends of Norrath to see what free LON cards she has got and found out that she had 45 unopened card packs to get through. It took about 15 minutes to open them all, but she was incredibly happy when she won one of the new and very rare flaming horse mounts. She also won a couple of cloaks and a load of paintings. Of course the won paintings started the conversation on player housing (one of my favourite parts of EQ2) “Dad, where do I put all these paintings I’ve won?” She is a keen Free Realms player and is hooked on decorating her house there, spending hours getting things just right (like I do in EQ2). So she is particularly excited about getting her hands on a new residence to exert her artistic touch upon. I promised her next time we play we will get her sorted. She has her eye set on the ‘Vale of Halfpint Delight’, a Halfling hole on a small island. It’s Prestige Housing, so will cost me some SC, but it’ll be worth it to see my girl smile.

Sunday night saw me attempt to get online for another Call of Cthulhu gaming session but my youngest daughter decided to be an absolutely nightmare at bedtime and I ended up missing most of the session that turned out to be one big fight it seems. All exciting stuff and I’m a bit peeved I missed 90% of it. It sounded like it had been a great evening.

Movies wise, I watched Paranormal Activity 1, which I turned off half way through. It wasn’t too bad but I get the impression it needs to be watched in the dark without interruption to let the suspense build (it’s a very slow starter), but my youngest has a cough at the moment and every time she had a coughing fit in bed I had to pause to go check she was OK. It kind of killed the moment and suspense.

I also watched Skyline, an Alien invasion movie. It was OK. I liked the special effects and the way the story was dealt with, but the acting was particularly wooden, which surprised me. Donald Faison (Turk from Scrubs) was in it and he’s great in that. But I guess comedic acting is different from serious acting and he really wasn’t that good in it. The biggest problem I had with it was the ending. A nice unexpected twist, but I really would have liked it to have developed that story dogleg a bit more, the flick kinda just, ended..it was weird. I think it could have done with an extra 30 mins or so to develop that line of the plot.

I also spent some time catching up with Homeland, TBBT, Modern Family, New Girl and the US Office.

But, it’s Monday now. Work again.

Be well.