I keep wanting to buy stuff.

So, Bioshock came today. It. Is. Awesome-o.

It’s the first FPS I’ve ever bought, so I set it to easy. One of the great things about this game, for me, is that I don’t die. Well, I do. But I’m revived in this pod-type thing. Slightly annoying that I don’t wake up where I was in the first place, since I have an awful sense of direction (inherited from my mum, thanks for that), but much better than starting the game over. The only other FPS I’ve played before was Star Wars Jedi Academy, which is a good game, but I kept dying, because I was a bit rubbish really (this was padawan level), and when I died, my character made this awful groaning noise, and it made me feel bad. 😦 In Bioshock the dude still makes a groaning noise, but he’s a dude, so I don’t take it so personally.

The graphics in Bioshock are, of course, uber. It makes me very proud that Mr. Laptop can play it – as l0ng as I set the resolution low, it’s fine. Also, the characters are great. The only difficulty I have with the game is that when someone is attacking me, I find it hard to navigate myself into a suitable position in order to retaliate. That is, moving the mouse to turn my head in the right direction, and also using the keyboard to move in the right direction, which is why I keep dying. That, and I get a little trigger happy and suddenly find myself with no bullets and no Eva for my plasmids. So now I want an Xbox 360 controller, to make my whole gaming experience easier.

Of course, at the moment the only game I can use it with is Bioshock. Maybe when I get some more games and reach full gamer/geek status, I’ll reward myself with it.

Or even better, put it on my Christmas list.

I stand corrected

Well, okay, so I actually have accomplished more than I had thought. Kind of.

On the next start up, Mr Desktop appeared to have sorted out the flickering screen by itself. And now, it seems to turn itself off, although my mum says she can still hear it whirring away after the screen has gone blank, and while I was trying to nap, she said it wouldn’t switch on again. So I’m not sure what that’s all about.

Either way, technology enjoys proving me wrong. But I still need to do something – as we speak I’m being called into the dining room to uninstall Avast and reinstall eTrust, which we apparently paid for and still has a couple of years left. Maybe after I’ve done that I’ll be able to go lie down, or something.

*Yawn*

Well. I was going to write this entry at least an hour ago. However, iTunes apparently didn’t want me to. I thought I’d sit in the kitchen on my new laptop, play a little music, Bullet For My Valentine, maybe some System of a Down, pick a nice theme for my new blog, do some actual blogging, and relax. The thing is, yesterday I attempted to transfer my music from the PC in the dining room to Mr. Laptop (yes, that’s its name), along with all my other files, so that today I could reinstall Windows on it, which might just fix the shutting down problem we’ve been having for the past…year. But when I tried to transfer my music it said it was going to take so long that I gave up before it was even halfway through. I transferred some, but seriously, it would have taken all day.

Today, I reinstalled XP on Mr. Desktop. So now I have all of my music on my iPod, and less than half of it on Mr. L. I found a website which told me how to get the music onto iTunes (show hidden files on iPod, go into iTunes and add folder to library) but the music wouldn’t add. I click, and it does nothing. So now it looks like I’m just going to have to go upstairs and get my CD’s, and put them all on that way.

Even transferring files yesterday wasn’t easy – I managed it, then stopped for dinner, give Mr L a little rest, and when I came to switch it back on in the evening, Mr PC was missing, as in, Mr L wasn’t recognising him as part of the network. So I transferred the remainder of my files by memory stick. Now I’m wishing I had taken the time to do that with the music as well.

Not only that, reinstalling XP hasn’t fixed the shutting down problem with Mr Desktop. As in, it hangs at Windows Is Shutting Down. It’s a stupid, annoying machine and needs to go. Also, since I reinstalled XP, the screen has gone all wavy and flickering every time I scroll. At the moment it’s taking its time installing service pack two, which I’m hoping will fix the shutting down problem, but it’s very doubtful. I’d like to say I don’t care about it anymore, but this whole experience has been an oppportunity for me to test my 1337 IT ski11z. So what have I achieved these past two days?

• Transferring files within my home network
• Printing a word file from Mr L via my home network
• Reinstalling XP on Mr Desktop
• Reinstalling Works, the printer, setting up the router on Mr Desktop
• Finding anti-virus software for both computers
• Becoming very tired for no real reason. I could sleep easily right now, and it’s 16:33.

Nothing very impressive. And what is still not quite right?

• The screen still flickers on Mr. D
• Mr. D still won’t shut down
• My music isn’t all on Mr L
• My energy level

At least Korn are on Scuzz.