The Sky Is Falling

Or, more accurately, the paper covering on my ceilings is coming down in the hall.

So, no, not a reference to the new Bond movie...

One strip of this paper, which had been hanging down in a quite distracting manner for weeks, came down with very little effort on my part.

There's something just not right about the ceilings in my flat... either they're leaking, staining and growing mould, or they're getting so bone dry that the glue used to put the paper up there is breaking down. I suppose it doesn't help that there's about a dozen layers of paint up there, so the paper is glued to a surface that is, to some extent, inherently unstable.

In other news, I've been called in to interview for a 10-month contract job tomorrow - I'd originally suggested this last Friday, given the option, but the company decide it's Monday or nothing... Strange, but still acceptable. Their address - or, more specifically, the postcode I was given - doesn't pinpoint their location very well, so I had to traipse down there just to be sure I knew where to go tomorrow. The route is simple enough and, just for once, it's not in Zone 1, so my journey would be slightly cheaper.

Meanwhile, I've made quite a bit of progress in Xenoblade - I'm in Agniratha, and at the point where I need to face off (har har) against Jade Face. So far, he's decimated me every time... I suspect I need to sort out my equipment and gems, to optimise my characters against his attacks. That he calls in support every so often - as one of his attacks - is a real pest, because it means breaking off from attacking him to deal with his support drones, allowing him time to charge up his other attacks. I'll get there eventually, I guess... It's kind of like that earlier story battle that gave me so much trouble, right up until it didn't...

I've racked up about 150 hours so far (possibly more), having gone back to previous locations to complete some challenge quests and pick up a few new sidequests. The setup, whereby some quests only become available when you have a certain level of affinity for a location, is quite novel... but it does get a bit frustrating tracking people down, and continually adjusting the clock to get the right people in any given location, in the hope that they will be ready to give out a new quest.

A couple of quests are no longer available to me - may not become available again - because of the battle currently being waged in Sword Valley/at Galahad Fortress... Not sure they're massively important...

One thing that really bugged me about one part of the game - Valak Mountain - was that there are a couple of areas of the map that are inaccessible except through complicated aerobatics. The game isn't really designed with these in mind, which makes some locations effectively impossible to get to. I'm sure it's all intentional - less skilled players surely shouldn't be allowed to try quests that would probably kill them... But the 'Balance of Power' mission is easily opened, yet ridiculously difficult to complete.

Of course, I can't sign off without mentioning Torchwood: Children of Earth. I wrote about it back in 2009, when I first saw it on telly, and my opinions haven't changed that much. I think the biggest problem with Torchwood as a whole, writ large in CoE and Miracle Day, was that too much of it relies on elements of Captain Jack's backstory that don't come to light until quite late in the story. Some of it - his past association with Captain John Hart, or the missing brother, Grey - are largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things... But, when you have a story like Children of Earth, it's a huge mistake to make Jack's more recent family ties a crucial plot point when they've never been mentioned before. Just like Miracle Day, a previously undisclosed element of Jack's past becomes the crux, and what could have been constructive backstory ends up very obviously shoehorned in, telegraphing imminent events all too clearly.

It wouldn't be so bad if Jack's big, emotional twist at the end actually made sense (hell, if any of the story actually made sense)...

I quite liked the aliens, and the fact that they were essentially using human children as a drug... that was an original and rather chilling concept... but then, if these aliens are basically intergalactic stoners, are they really capable of destroying the world? On the whole, though, John Frobisher's reactions to everything, particularly the way he 'took care of his family', were the most believable elements of the show. Killing off Ianto was cheap and unnecessary, but it did show what a weak character Jack Harkness is - the moment he's threatened, he caves in and starts begging.