Games that really don’t go well together (but I’m going to play anyway)

Since I’m taking advantage of the fact that I’m currently unemployed, I have been finding ways to spend my time. Now of course, shopping is always nice, but not such a bright idea if you have no income.

Long story short: I’ve returned to an old love of mine. Games, that is. Meaning I started using the boyfriend’s X-Box. I started with Carcasonne, which I actually really like as a board game, too.

The heavier stuff came when he bought a copy of Devil May Cry 4.

I decided to give it a go. Now keep in mind, the last time I played with a games console things were still in 2D. Yes, that long ago. I did have some 3D stuff on the Game Boy, but that’s hardly the same. The 3D thing does take a while to get used to, but to my great surprise I didn’t get absolutely slaughtered. I played the game in human mode, which is supposed to be for beginners. There is actually a rather great run through the controls in-game.

I’m still getting used to the game. I’m unsure if it will be in my favourites eventually, but I’m loving the graphics. Besides anatomically bouncy babes, Nero and Dante are actually rather nice as far as male eye-candy goes, so that keeps me happy. Eye-candy aside, the setting is beautiful and the swords are just übercool. The game itself is sometimes a bit of a weird combo between killing things and puzzle-ish things, which imho kind of disturbs the pace of the whole thing. But we’ll see. It looks like I’ve reached addiction level anyway.

Another thing I’ve been playing is a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team game for the Game Boy. Yes, I know the target group are kiddies. But I always liked the Pokémon games – it appeals to the collector in me. This on is slightly different, because you play as a Pokémon (I’m Torchic). It is a bit more childish than the other versions I played and there is slightly too much talk in it too my liking. Yet I find it strangely charming in some way. So I’ll be playing that, too. And now the door is open for a whole range of new addictions!

Dead Rat Bulging

My ex sent me some interesting pictures recently. Don’t get me wrong, this is not some sort of nasty break-up retaliation. We’re actually chatting on pretty much a friendly basis. He just let me know about the carnage that went on in his house.

Recently he had been terrorized by rats. He actually tried to build a non-lethal trap, but the things didn’t want to be caught in it and ate through the linoleum. Now, I like rats a lot. I actually had one as a pet. But when they start eating your house, action needs to be taken. So he did. Slaughter ensued.

Now the thing that struck me – you know how sometimes in comic books corpses have bulging eyes? – well, this is a dead rat with bulging eyes! Go figure! It’s actually based on fact. Well, I’ll keep this entry short. Enjoy the corpses!

Tata,

K.

PS: If you really haven't had enough dead rat, here's its dead mommy

The Science of Vomit

The boyfriend and I went to an Iraqi restaurant in Ghent on Wednesday night. We went, of course, not to bomb the poor people but to broaden our culinary experience. The buffet we had there was indeed an interesting feast for the taste buds. There were some very extraordinary combinations of meat stuffed with what I believe were raisins, pasta and chicken that somehow had an olive taste, and even some foods that I actually had eaten before, like the börek. It was not the greatest meal on earth, but by far one of the most surprising I've had lately. The people serving us were also rather nice, and I suspect the establishment might have been new.

Anyway, the morning after, the boyfriend wakes up from having to vomit. To this day I don't actually know if it was related to the food, or if he just fell ill coincidentally. I was fine in any case, and I ate pretty much all the same things that he did.
Being the strange people that we are, we actually started talking about vomit later that day. In fact, we even took to googling it. And yes, good old Wikipedia actually supplied us with an article all about vomit.

I learned things about the human body that I never really wanted to know. Like the fact that there is such a thing as fecal vomiting. Yes darlings, that would be rather shitty.

But, more interestingly than puking poo, is that there is actually such a thing as the science of vomit. It's called emetology.

Allwords.com descibes it as :The study of the causes of emesis, i.e., vomiting, usually sub-specialities of gastroenterology or neurology.

The fact that it's a sub-speciality is kind of disappointing. I was already imagining the kid that would go up to his or her parents and say: "Mom, dad, I want to study vomit when I grow up. 'Cause frankly, puke makes my heart beat faster."
Now off course there's plenty of jobs that don't really count as things that people want to do passionately. But most of those jobs don't require you going to med school first.
Then again, you could be a highly educated emetophile. I suppose there really is a fetish for everything.

Ah, people - you got to love them. Just sometimes it's safer to love them from a safe distance. Like out of vomiting range.

In vino Veritas

(scroll down for the English thingy)

Een paar dagen geleden wandelde ik over de Vrijdagmarkt in Gent, toen de bovenstaande affiche me in het oog sprong. Ik dacht, wat krijgen we nu? Is dit een affiche van de Vereniging voor Liefhebbers van Pseudo-Hentai met Lesbische Ondertonen? Maar nee, het is de nieuwe reclamecampagne “Hello New Me” van de goede ouwe Veritas. Juist ja, dezelfde Veritas waar onze bomma’s knopen kopen en onze moeders terecht kunnen voor al hun kousebroekwensen. Blijkbaar willen ze zichzelf een nieuw imago aanmeten. Ik hoop voor hun dat hun nieuwe doelgroep nu geile puberjongens zijn. Tienerjongens die van knopen houden.
Ik vind het amusant, maar vermoed dat de mensen van de reclame misschien net iets teveel wijn hebben geconsumeerd...

English version

A few days ago I was walking around on the Vrijdagmarkt in Ghent when the above poster caught my eye. I though, what’s up now? Is this a poster from the Association for the Lovers of Pseudo-Hentai with Lesbian Undertones? No, it’s the new advertising campaign "Hello New Me" from good old Veritas. Yes, that would be the Veritas where our grannies go to buy buttons and our mothers go to have all theirs dreams about tights fulfilled. Apparently they’re going for a new image. I rather hope their new target group are horny teenage boys. Teenage boys who like buttons.
I remain amused, but I suspect that the advertising people might have consumed slightly too much wine…