TheFlyingGerbil

See, I think you have the 'correct' pronunciations but mostly in this country (or at least around here) the wrong versions are used and it is only relatively recently that the correct pronunciations have been introduced (last decade or a bit more?) but because of their late arrival the correct versions seem wrong.

While we're on the subject of brands, how do you guys say Nike and Porsche? "nye-key" or nyk. "poor-shuh" or poorsh.

Scotland has more devolved powers than Wales, but isn't more it's own country than Wales is. They are both 'proper' countries, whatever that may mean. The commonly held myth about Wales being a principality and not a proper country is not true.

I think a lot of people (especially the English) would be surprised by the amount of hatred and resentment many Scots feel toward England. E.g. if England play Germany at football, there will be a lot more Germany fans than England one north of the border. At the moment you can move freely about the nations, you wouldn't be emigrating if you moved to Scotland and wouldn't need permission - they could introduce immigration quotas but I don't believe they could apply to English or Welsh people as we would all be EU members, but it would still require paperwork which it doesn't now. I can't imagine anyone going over to the Euro at the moment. That would be seriously bonkers and it would be unlikely to go to the trouble of creating an entirely new currency. My guess is they would keep the pound with an eye to moving over to the Euro when it is more stable. The biggest thing I would worry about is the North Sea Gas and Oil. I would hope that would not go entirely to Scotland, but other than that I would be happy for them to go. I have a feeling that be careful for what you wish for would be an appropriate phrase for them were it to go ahead. It is such a small country, I don't think they realise how insignificant they would be and don't appreciate what they get from being part of a bigger political power. I certainly hope Wales never fully devolves.

Whenever I've bought the cheaper version of something (even if it does everything I need and more) I always regret it eventually, wishing I'd bought the better version and it sours my enjoyment of the one I did get. But if I buy the version with all the bells and whistles I pretty much forget about the extra money I spent the second I step out of the shop. It's like with my PSP, I saw it new really cheap and even though I knew I wouldn't really use it (and I don't) I knew if I didn't buy it I would regret it. So I'm happier with it sitting there gathering dust than I would have been with the money in my pocket so I know the £230 would be a bigger waste of money than £280. The extra £50 buys me piece of mind and that's priceless . I guess I have unhealthy shopping habits.

when I get it I will have to get the 3G version, even though the first thing I will do is turn the data connection off. I do think I will be better at waiting for the Vita than I was with the 3DS though. I only managed a month with that.

What do Americans use for the different eras of your history? Ours are generally related to the monarchy, usually the king/queen of the time. Table courtesy of Wikipedia (where else?) Anglo-Saxon period (927–1066) Norman period (1066–1154) Plantagenet period (1154–1485) Tudor period (1485–1603) Elizabethan era (1558–1603) Stuart period (1485–1714) Jacobean era (1603–1660) Caroline era (1625–1649) The Interregnum (1649–1660) Restoration era (1660–1800) Georgian era (1714–1830) Victorian era (1837–1901) Edwardian era (1901–1910) World War I (1914–1918) Interwar Period (1918–1939) World War II (1939–1945) Modern Britain (1945–Present)

I hated ecclestone's portrayal, as he seemed to be embarrassed to be playing the Doctor, so I personally wouldn't start there as it may put you off. Although I dont; think everyone disliked him as I did I think most people would say he is the least favourite of the new ones. I'd probably go Matt, then if you want more go back to ecclestone and then tennant so you have a good bad good sandwich.

Wouldn't it end by Link and Zelda finally sealing/destroying Ganon permanently? I think Ganon knows he keeps coming back but I don't think the other two do? So it would be quite cool if just before his end he said something like 'you've doomed yourselves too. mwahaha...' Even then though, that wouldn't necessarily mean the end of the series as the games don't follow on chronologically. Plus we still haven't had anythjing set in the great war or whatever it's called - the one referenced at the start of skyward sword.

Is there a reason for pre-ordering? It's unlikely to sell out and if Japan is anything to go by there will be price cuts soon after release.

I just hope they lose the failure tag as I think the stench of failure just makes consumers and developers less confident in a product even if the reality is that it is doing well.

Interesting The Grauniad is so much higher up the list than the Observer as they're sister papers. No surprise about the BBC though. I hope they don't mess about with its budget too much. Also surprised the ITV news is ahead of Channel 4 as it is a lot more sensationalist which I cant help but think makes it seem less trustworthy. I think of it as the Daily Mail of TV news. I'll seriously stockpile tablets for when I get old/terminally ill if they don't have anything in place by the time the inevitable comes around.

Made some shortbread today which is my very favourite biscuit. Half with chocolate chips and half without. Had a warm one while it was still soft and another after it had cooled and gone crumbly. Both gorgeous even if I do say so myself.

iTampon:

that suits me fine! I just might be able to complete it

Well, I just tried out the best ever way to make cheese sauce, AND IT IS LIFE CHANGING. but I guess that isn't healthy. How does everyone else make cheese sauce? I have the tastiest soup recipe ever, which I will post tomorrow.

Finally got Kirby's Epic Yarn.

I watched Heartbeats today - I liked it better than his (xavier dolan) first film 'I killed my mother' which I think I probably put in the OK thread. I loved the music on it. It's about a male and female best friend who both befriend and become obsessed with the same man. The style was much less wearing than the first one, but I would say French Canadian is still very french style wise.

@MasterDex: Yes, there do need to be more gay characters in video games, but: me: And I hope I don't need to point out (at least on this forum, though I'm sure I would elsewhere) that the win state is not a world full of muscle march or even a gay character in every game. It's just to have the world that we escape to to include a few of the more bits of the world we're escaping from. I don't want gay smooshed into every game. Even in most games. But that the ratio of gay characters to straight characters is way off whack to the real world. I don't want game designers to feel compelled to put gay characters in. What I (optimistically/naively) want is for the game designers to want to put gay characters in. If they want to create the best game they can they should be thinking about things like this. With regard to your novel. It really depends on what you were writing, but If you were writing a novel with a large cast and you were trying to write a convincing portrayal of modern life then you should be thinking about putting a diverse cast of characters in yourself from the outset. It's just lazy to not think about anything outside your own sphere of experience and would make for a very poor novel. You may as well just set up a twitter account. With regards to the complaints you would receive I guess that depends on whether you are driven by artist intent or money. Obviously video game companies are driven by money but I would like to think that a bit of social responsibility could be thrown in to the mix, in the same way environment and local communities are looked after in megacorps corporate responsibility initiatives that cost them money, why can't publishers do a bit of the same instead of spending extra money they could take a risk that including a diverse cast may impact sales. They don't have to do it with AAA titles, but maybe in download games or DLC These people are coming up with entire new world with poilitical systems so complicated they make ours look like a rock paper scissors decision making process, and yet it cannot occur to them that everything that exists in this massive world they have created is not straight and male, or big breasted and slutty. I guess the main difference is if you are discussing reality or what you would like to be true. I'd like game designers to want to put gay characters in to make their games better and to make the world better. I know they put whatever the hell they think sells in there.

Maybe by having more gay representation in the media we wouldn't live in a society were having a gay person in a game would piss people off and tank it's sales?

Amazon are keeping annoyingly quiet about the touch and fire seeing a UK release. >:[

Well, I just wrote out something that bordered on the coherent, but that just vanished into the ether. My points were: You don't need better writers: If in that trailer Marus Fenix had looked down at a photo of himself with his arm around a guy, that would not need better/more characterisation, and it would not have involved any sort of stereotyping. The entire rest of the games writing could have remained unchanged. The problem here is that people seem to think that gay characters need to be written differently in the first place. They don't. 99.9% of what I say would be the same whether I was gay or straight. All you need to do differently is change a gender pronoun every now and again. I think that progress should be made in the opposite way that most people seem to think. Push for representation first and then make it better. How can it improve if there is nothing there now to improve upon? Get the bad gay characters that make the young gay people to want to get into the industry to improve them. Now they just think "it's not for me" To quote Gandhi: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” At the moment we are mostly at the ignore stage, but when there is a sighting there is plenty of laugh and fight to push the status quo back to the start. We need to stand our ground and endure at points 2 and 3 if we are ever to forge ahead to winning. And I hope I don't need to point out (at least on this forum, though I'm sure I would elsewhere) that the win state is not a world full of muscle march or even a gay character in every game. It's just to have the world that we escape to to include a few of the more bits of the world we're escaping from.

[i am adding in this disclaimer: this post is a rambling mess, because on this issue, I am a rambling mess] Making the main (or any) character gay would not make them shoot or climb or throw better, no. but that is the point. Being gay doesn't make you better or worse at anything than being straight. If a character was shown to be entirely 'normal and capable' (dare I say it, straight acting) and he turned out to be gay it may make a few of the on the fence bigots out there thing "hey, not all gay people are limp-wristed nancies". It doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) shoved down people's throats to be effective either. People say sexuality doesn't come in to most games so why even put gay characters in? I can assure you the main characters (hetero)sexuallity is nearly always referenced and it doesn't just have to be terrible mannequin sex either but it is in nearly every game and it is always hetero and becuase of the world we live in it doesn't even register for most people, Take the GoW2 trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=v1EIaWtGwto#t=18s Right in the trailer you have the main character looking at a picture of his wife so you know before you even play the game that the main character is straight. Most people in the comments sections of articles about sexuality in games prove that a majority of heterosexuals don't notice the constant affirmations of heterosexuality in games. And fair enough there is no reason they should but you cannot argue they are not there and so any gay references should equally not be there. Not referencing sexuality at all so a character could be gay is not the same thing either, because as I've already stated it will just be assumed the character is straight, but something as simple as the photo in the trailer would work and you'd have to be a hardened bigot to get your knickers in a twist over that. Problem is that a lot of gamers are hardened bigots. Saying game writers are to poor to be able to tackle it isn't great either - if we can have poor straight characters why do the gay ones to be brilliant and believable? We can't realistically wit until game-writers are any good at it - they just need to write equally badly for a diverse cast. As to why the world needs gay characters at all, when you are gay and struggling to come to terms with your life being different to everyone else's and you feel alone it does help to have a gay visiblity wherever and in as many different places as you can find it so you know there are other people out there like you and that gay people aren't just the things that are shouted at you in the playground at school. It is perfectly valid to think 'it's only a video game why does it need to try and solve the world's social problems?' and you'd be right. It doesn't, but why the hell shouldn't it?

To start my own business, though I already know I won't keep it so I don't know if it counts :/