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Well as of last night the UK is on lockdown. I'm genuinely surprised they've done it given governments rarely operate on logic and sense* As it is, we're to stay home for 3 weeks. Only essential journeys and they're limited. Those at risk, are locked down for 12 weeks.

To be honest, for me personally, it won't make a lot of difference. I'm considering washing my car, which I haven't done in probably 6 months or so...

*should have done it earlier of course... But I'm still actually impressed they've done it at all!

I have decided to postpone looking for work until after the apocalypse...

Works for me.

Watch Contagion if you want a fun night in at the end of the world.

PCs being backward compatible is a myth... They're just not (GOG helps, but it's far from perfect), there are some era's that without correct hardware you can forget being able to play period games. It's why I've got four of the things: A Voodoo/PII/Soundblaster equipped Win98 machine, which for me covers the golden era of PC gaming from 1998-2002 or there abouts. Then I've got a couple of differently specced old Lenovos configured as WinXP and Win7. Finally I have my modern machine running Win10 (still about 10 years old mind you because nothing I run is up to date).

That said... one of the most bizarre games computers I have is a G4 Powermac running OS/9. The other myth in the computing world is the mac doesn't have any games. Well from that particular era, it's far, far easier to get a G4 to run games than an equivalent PC and the vast amount of stuff you can think of from back then is available on it. I ended up building that one first and in all honesty, it covered SO much ground it was untrue. Had I not been given the PII and the Lenovo's had cost absolute buttons, I simply wouldn't have bothered with them. As it was it was fun to build them, so I did

Back a few years ago the last hurricane that blew into south TX caused a run on gas stations and it took almost a week for things to return to normal.  The media was actually trying to help by telling people to stop and carry on normally and things would be OK.  Of course that didn't happen and people were driving all over San Antonio trying to find gas.  The storm blew east of the area and all the flash flooding, bad weather was pretty much nonexistent. I was making a joke about selling TP at the intersection and then I clicked on the below article and stopped thinking that way.  Is this a little bit of justice, getting 17,000 bottles of sanitizer shoved up your rear, for trying to profit off an emergency?  But I'm sure he is not out any money since he was selling it for $8 to $70 a bottle.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/he-has-17700-bottles-of-hand-sanitizer-and-nowhere-to-sell-them/ar-BB11blvS?ocid=spartanntp

A perfect example of why we are doomed as a species.

Nothing's really changed here in northern England. No real evidence of panic buying yet. That said, I think it's only a matter of time with the sheer amount of 'news' happening regarding the situation.

Which in itself is a riff on Ghengis Khan.

I also find it amusing that should the apocalypse come, people prioritise having a clean arse over just about everything else.

This is why we won't survive...

Ledger's Joker is still the best.

This is gonna be controversial...

Where as I may not have a favourite Joker or Joker movie, I think the Dark Knight is one of the most overrated films of all time. How much of this comes from Ledger's performance or untimely death afterward I don't know. But the film itself is just a set of loosely linked action set pieces, Batman/Bruce Wayne is barely in it, and when he is it's using the riduculous uninteligable voice someone thought was a good idea... Indeed it could easily be called Die Hard with the Batman it feels so little like a Batman film and more like a Joker film. Which is the ONLY thing that saves it. Batman Begins is a better Batman film.

I still prefer Keaton and think Batman Returns is the best of the lot in terms of being an actual Batman film.

[Citizenfour]

Citizenfour - So I was bimbling around the interwebs as you do and ended up watching an fascinating interview with Edward Snowden going into his past and his role at the NSA. I decided I wanted to learn more about the incident as I didn't really follow it at the time so picked up Citizenfour, the documentary of the actual whistleblowing as it happened. Which is even more fascinating and, quite frankly terrifying. Made worse because you have to remind yourself every now and then that it's real. Long have I known there's a US listenting station not far from where I live, I just never realised just how far it's went. Everyone with an interest in technology and how it can be abused should watch it.

Parasite was on my list because I like the director's other stuff. Sadly with the exposure, it's expensive on disc now, so I'll be grabbing it when I can pick it up for under a tenner.

[1917]

Took my godkids to the cinema. I wanted to see Sonic, they wanted to see 1917.

1917 - Where Shaving Ryans Privates was astounding for the Normandy landing sequence, the whole premise of the rest of it was just nonsense and ruined it for me. Even though it was technically excellent. This is different in that things in WW1 were much smaller and there was just this ever present dread which this film captures perfectly. That and watching young kids who thought they were signing up for an adventure, face the reality of being used as cannon fodder. Superbly shot, scored and cast. It really is a bit of a masterpiece.

Joker - I went into this one with a bit of trepidation as it's been described as this generation's Taxi Driver. I don't like Taxi Driver... More of a study of mental illness than anything else and Phoenix portrays it well. His decline is realised with understanding and pity for the character. Which is how all good villains should be, because as far as they're concerned they're the heroes. It is grim and cynical, but not a seminal masterpiece or an incendiary hate piece as the media has tried to sell it. It's a good film with a stunning central performance.

It makes me want to see a Batman film done in a similar style in this universe. We got nattering about casting afterwards and my choice for Bruce Wayne/Batman in this world would be Ryan Gosling. Someone easily as capable of being as disturbed and violent as the character should be. As far as I'm concerned no-one's come close to getting that right since Keaton.

The Irishman - Scorsese flexing for 3.5 hrs. There's some proper acting (in capitals) going on here, and some of that is really good. There's a look between Pesci and DeNiro with no words said that's just brilliant. The setting is stunningly realised, Pacino dials down the 'woo' enough to make a charismatic Hoffa. Some of the aging/de-aging effects can be a little uncanny valley, but it's not that distracting. It's well done but for me it's too long and spends too much time admiring the scenery and the acting... That's not that it ever was a numb-bummer (when you notice when a film is long and start shuffling), it's just that I felt it could be tighter and slightly less self-indulgent. It feels like it was aiming for the Oscars if you see what I mean. Well worth a watch, certainly, from a nice comfy sofa, with snacks.

Wind River - From the dude who wrote one of my favourite films of all time (Sicario) and one I thought was just bloody brilliant (Hell or High Water), comes the third part of his modern frontier trilogy. Wind River covers a murder on an Indian reservation from the point of view of a local and a out of place FBI agent, played really excellently by Hawkeye and Scarlett Witch. It feels much more like a Scandinavian noir than a Hollywood film and is all the better for it. Indeed avoiding many of the usual Hollywood tropes which is really rather refreshing for something from the other side of the pond. Highly recommended.

John Wick 3: Parabellum - If video games were films. Better than 2, not as good as the first. You know what you're in for.

Phantom - It's been a while since we had a sub flick of any worth. This one has a lot of Hunt for Red October about it. Some big (B list) names dotted around. Nothing earth shattering. There are worse ways to spend 90 mins.

Dawned on me that I'd never posted pics of the new PiCade. I used to run a Mk1 which was bigger with a smaller screen, the new one is smaller with a bigger screen So 10" screen in a ickle box. Also I splased out on a Sanwa joystick for it with a stiffer spring because the supplied stick, though much better than it was with the initial run of the Mk2 cab, ain't as good as that.

Picaage attatched. Even a gutshot, no soldering required (bah!). Really nice kit though. Just add Pi.

Bit of news, the WHO has given this bug an official name

Wow, Roger Daltrey is really branching out...

Just finished Control on the Xbox and I have to admit, I really quite enjoyed it with some slight reservations. It's very twighlight zoney plot-wise (it actually steals wholesale from an excellent mini-series called The Lost Room from 2006) and as such some of it requires you to go along for the ride with it a bit. For example I played it knowing nothing about it and I'm walking around this building thinking 'some of these rooms don't have doors into them, that's just shitty Q&A'. It's not, it's very much by design and makes sense. Especially when you realise that the map is a bit fluid... That was a 'oooooh' moment for me. Indeed it's cool coming into it knowing as little as the protagonist because of the way the story is structured.

The not so good is can be simple navigation due to this 'fluidity' at times. There were a couple of moments in game where I had to consult the internet to figure out where the hell I was supposed to be. Which can be a little immersion breaking. Then there are the side quests that culminate in bosses. I dislike bosses, but I quite liked the side quests. It's one of those moments where I wish games could have multiple difficulty settings so that I could leave it as is for the main game and dial it down for the bosses because I just find them frustrating. You learn their patterns quite easily to be honest, but you can get to them when you are not particularly powered up and actually lack the tools to deal with them. The good news is that you can avoid them completely if you wish and come back to them later. However that meant that I completed the main quest, did one, then ultimately was kinda done with them as there was no real reason to do the others. I think with a little bit of tweaking (like a bloody restart point for the boss battles to make you not have to re-track all the way back there and start again!). As I say, you can avoid them completely, the shame is those side quests were interesting, but ultimately too frustrating for me to complete.

Overall a good game. Not as good as Quantum Break, but definitely worth a play.

Back to Wreckfest for a bit... (lvl 30 now)