What's Up

If I seem a bit absent these days from online life it’s for a couple of reasons.

Firstly I’m on my Spring Break this week, and away from university so I don’t have access to their free, though extremely slow, Internet. That means I’m falling back on my home 56K dial-up connection for my Net fix. That in turn means I have to put up with parental scrutiny of the phone bill.

Secondly, I have a couple of essays due in the next few weeks, so I’m busy with those. The topics, in case anyone is interested are:

For English:

Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the representation and treatment of women’s experience in Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Forster’s Howards End. In considering this question, you should give particular attention to the implications of the chosen narrative technique.

And the other assignment, for Media, is:

Choose three commodities of different kinds (both material and intangible goods and services) known to be widely marketed in South Africa, and point out ways in which they have recently begun to provide consumers with “new ways of doing things in life”, affording people access to new socio-cultural resources and modes of social conduct. Point out how these commodities have been culturally constructed and positioned in the marketplace (e.g. how they have been discursively promoted in the media), to what extent they indicate patterns of social change, illuminate the complex interaction between ‘people’ and ‘things’, and how they might be brought to bear on the production of identity in South Africa.

If anyone has any ideas for the commodity discussion, please share them. I know I’m definitely looking at all those SMS Flirt / dating services. I think a lot can be said about that.

Thirdly, I’m currently playing Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (now R200 at Game). I presume I’m pretty far. The Prince has just fought and defeated the Empress of Time and is surprised to find the Diahaka still pursuing him in the present. As soon as I’m finished I’ll be keen to spend more time on my PC doing things other than gaming and varsity work.

Anyway, this last weekend was a relatively unsocial one. I spent most of the time during the day reading for English or working on my essay. On Friday night I watched DVDs at Paul’s – Van Helsing (which, like the similarly post-modern stylish League of Extraordinary Gentlmen starts off well but melts into a puddle of action-packed nonsensical shit) and Constantine (which I’d seen at the cinema, really enjoyed, but mostly slept through this time).

On Saturday evening, despite being dressed up, the outing to Burn didn’t happen. Instead I played a bit of Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War; then was introduced properly to Quake III: Arena, which presumably is going to make a big come-back at our next group LAN. I didn’t actually do too badly, although I despise the rocket launcher, both in my opponent’s and my own hands.

On Sunday later afternoon, Paul, Mark and I went to Kate’s for her birthday braai. There we met up with Toti G, and much of the evening, between getting tipsy on punch (and nauseous in Paul’s case), chowing down on guacamole dip and then gorging on braai meat and salads, involved a lot of World of Warcraft discussion (I really have to get around to seeing that game now).

Afterwards, later into the evening, we became involved in a marathon session of 30 Seconds, involving 5 different games (including 2 without dice rolls because the boys’ team- defeated twice in a row by the girls’ team, with lesser numbers- was bitching about their bad rolls). Apart from 1, I was on the winning team every time.

I know I get a little competitive when I play *cough* (perhaps it’s my need to prove the knowledge of BA students), but it is just such an awesome game. And it’s great to see dumbasses fold under pressure. Some 3rd year Computer Scientists at the party were utterly useless. For example: That guy who writes plays- William someone... and no one got the answer. For the record, Mark, always the jock, was excellent on the guy’s team.

I really don’t know why 30 Seconds has never been made into a TV game show. It is just too funny. For example, a few prize quotes from the evening:

‘The name of Yousaf Islam when he used to be white.’ Answer: ‘Cat Stevens’.

‘That place in Scotland, like Edinburgh, but with a B’. The Answer: ‘Belfast’.

‘The big wild dog that hasn’t had sex’. The answer: ‘Virginia Woolf’.

‘What WWW stands for’. The answer: ‘The World Wide Internet’.

Then again, given the dangerous, un-PC things that could be said, perhaps a TV show isn’t such a great idea. Anyway, next time we play I think I’m taking my Dictaphone to capture some of those great moments.

Noelle out.

Comments

Pfangirl said…
Usless information is very important. It separates us from the amoeba.

And Sci, I'm scared to play against you... *gulp* You're too pro for me, I'm afraid.

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