Ok, so I haven't posted a week or so. And I know those 3 people who F5 this page daily are mildly interested to know if I fixed the skyline. Well I didn't.

I bought a new CAS from my local Arab wreckers, threw it on, plugged it in, dialed it in. Turn the key... still fucked. Well, less fucked in a way. It now revs freely when you first crank it, but stalls after a few seconds. This is new, but just as annoying and ambiguous. And the car is obviously just as undriveable. I tried shorting the fuel pump relay in case it was the pump switching off. Nope, not that. I tried a bunch of settings in the PowerFC controller, no goods. Maybe there is a massive air leak somewhere I can't see, or the maps have been nuked. Neither are things I can be arsed looking at, right now. Deciphering air or ignition maps is about as intuitive as trying to read the Japanese throughout the rest of the PowerFC menus. That said, I know what symbols they use for On or Off. Regardless, the cold snap turned me off the idea even more than frustration did.

Playing Diablo 2 with the lads (and ladette) re-introduced me to the idea of wasting time playing a video game, seeing as working on the skyline was apparently just as pointless. Defeating Bhaal was like Renton's last hit in Trainspotting. Once that quick fix was over, I vowed never to play it again. Of course, not everyone can stop that easily. Thompson is hounding randoms now to rush him through Nightmare, within a few months he'll probably have reverted to that pudgy kid with the goofy smile - a tragic reminder of what life is like without self control when it comes to Diablo 2. That said, I have cherished memories of playing Diablo 2 while back at uni at a mates house in Carina in the middle of winter. His place was in some horrible gully or something that resulted in stupid cold winters and stupid hot summers. Fighting demons wrapped up in a doona with upturned mattresses around the doors to keep the cold out. Good times.

The new game that drew me in was Mass Effect. Its got a cool story and the dialogue is surprisingly not cheesy. Its a blatant copy and paste from any and every sci-fi movie you can name though. The last mission I did was pretty much Aliens meets Star Wars Episode 2. Its a lot like watching one of those parody movies, you know the ones, Epic Movie, Scary Movie 4, etc. Except not funny, though its a stretch to call those parody movies that anyway. That's not to say its completely unoriginal, the main story is great, its just the missions you do aren't exactly new plot ideas.

One thing about Bioware games is they like to have a bit of interaction between the party characters, even back in Baldur's Gate you could chat up members of your party and have them fall in love or some shit. They took it a step further with Mass Effect and you can bone them (off-screen). One of the aliens is some kinda xenophile bisexual chick, so regardless of the character you play you can smash it. Which is appropriate because I've got a Michelle Rodriguez style character, who clearly prefers trim to a him. Scissoring aside though, the game is pretty cool.

Which contrasts with the real world lesbian I have to train at work starting next week (the Irish girl previously mentioned on this blog). Lets just say I think she enjoys ladies soccer. Not that I care or am prejudiced at all, in fact I'm sure it'll be handy to have someone around in case I need a jar opened or something.

Anyway, back to video games. One thing that always felt a bit wrong about them is how when you are running around with swords or guns or whatever - just generally looking like bad news - theres always someone coming up to you and asking for assistance with some trivial matter like delivering a letter or whatever. See in real life, its not really something you'd do. The person with eviscerated alien all over their combat armour isn't likely going to be helping you carry your groceries. I've generally found people just don't approach me for this kinda thing anyway, like they presume I'm the selfish and arrogant person that ex-girlfriends tend to describe. Then on the weekend I got invited over to my neighbours place for a phillo curry lunch, had some middle aged woman ask me to give her a hand with her some drama on her car and then even more randomly I'm out shopping and I have some guy come up to me and start telling me his life story EXACTLY like they do in games. He was some diabetic chef from Birmingham, who had his car written off (it then later blew a head gasket on the same day), he hitchhiked to a train station with a interstate truck driver but then proceeded to leave his diabetic gear, passport and drivers license behind in the truck (which was heading to Townsville), and so on. In the end all he wanted was a ride to a doctor nearby so he could get his insulin and then later visit his son (who surprisingly wasn't in hospital with rickets, though at this stage it probably wouldn't have really mattered).

Bit of a sob story, but a fairly epic tale of a day gone wrong. I did the mission and he thanked me and told me he believes in karma, which to be honest didn't mean a lot to me. I was hoping to gain a level and 5 skill points.

The other thing I did on the weekend was gate crash some Nissan Patrol forum day out. Now, Nissan Patrol owners are a bit like Skyline owners - fan boys to the extreme. If there's one thing they can't stand its some tool in a Mitsubishi with no exhaust ruining their day out. And theres nothing more upsetting when your brand new Patrol with 15 grand worth of ARB gear can't climb a hill that some budget Pajero climbed first go. Even more so when you lose your secondary battery dumping acid all over the engine bay, taking out A/C, compressor and air locker and smash your rear tail light in the process. Later, on the drive home on the M1 we noticed this horrible smell, which in the Pajero isn't completely unusual of course. It grew stronger and we spotted its source. The same tool who smashed up his Patrol on the hill also nuked his clutch in the process. He couldn't even maintain 100km/h. Needless to say I drove by at full noise with a big smile on my face.

Karma? Fuck that shit.

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