Sometimes life is for the living, and monsters are for the kicking

As mentioned relatively recently, I stubbornly eked out some time to revisit The Callisto Protocol (and to update the Twa Thousand Corbies endeavour), and took an entirely normal number of pictures while out and about on the surface of the moon. More crags, scarps and stormy skies await! I also took a lot of indoor pictures and took more time to consider the shipwreck as well, but in the interest of keeping this post reasonably tidy, we'll save those for another time.







This one wound up with a bit of a ðŸŽ¼ Stay away from that trapdoor! ðŸŽµ kind of vibe, and that makes me happy.




And a close-up on Jupiter's Great Red Spot, with surrounding storm clouds - it was really hard to get a clean shot of the planet here because the moment you step off the lift, a cutscene starts, and you can't play with photo mode there. While you're standing on the lift, there are mechanisms and rails in the way. Far be it from me to be demanding but let me photograph Jupiter, dammit!

Also, this final image is quite a bit later on in the game, during a brief stint on Europa, but it absolutely could not wait. Something caught my eye, it took quite a bit of zooming and fiddling about with exposure and contrast, but it's just about visible...


Jupiter cakes!!! Which frankly sounds like a euphemism for hash cakes, like the Fantasy Brownies or summat (that is a thing that exists, they probably don't actually contain pot.) There also appears to be some kind of robot spider doing double duty as an oven or something? Not entirely sure, but either way, it made me laugh, so 'ere we are.
And yes, I will absolutely be attempting to make some actual real-life Jupiter cakes at some juncture - maybe something like a modified madeira cake and there must be some spices involved. Suffice to say, this idea is a work in progress...
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Further rambling

Twa Thousand Corbies

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Going to start this post with an illustration, because of this blog layout, posts lacking images tend to look a bit pants. The art here is by G. Howell-Baker. A while back, I was joking about gathering together as many versions of Twa Corbies as possible, and finally, here we are. This is going to be a continually evolving list, so if you know of a version that needs to be included, or if you've recorded one of your own, then by all means, let me know. You can put a comment here or e-mail me at looksinnocuousnenoughchaps [at] gmail [dot] com. Let's begin! 1.  Folly Bridge - My personal favourite, performed completely a capella with some beautiful, eerie harmonies. 2.  Hamish Imlach - A live version, and a very close second favourite. Hamish's distinctive voice works wonders here and we're treated to some elegant sitar as well. 3.  Ayreheart - This one features the lute and a passionate vocal performance, it's quite pleasant. 4.  The Corries - Quite a brisk and e...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Some thoughts regarding Silent Hill Downpour

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Getting up at 3am for work is never a recipe for focussed and cogent thought, but it does seem to result in getting down some rabbit holes. On this occasion, after feeling an overwhelming desire to know what A Lyke Wake Dirge would sound like done in the style of Pookiesnackenburger (for the record, Alisdair Reynolds' version is my personal favourite) and weighing up whether or not to pursue a change of setting in an absurdist comedy script-in-progress because it feels like a repurposed shipwreck might provide more fertile ground than a haunted theatre, I got to thinking about Silent Hill Downpour for a bit. This game gives me some very mixed feelings; overall, I'd come down on the side of being fond of it, there's definitely a lot to love here but there's a near-equal measure of things that are frustrating about it. I guess the one-word summary would be "undercooked". It's got a lot of potential, and the green shoots of some really interesting ideas, but...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Revisiting Crapston Villas (while actually sober)

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So recently, I played the Silent Hill 2 remake (really enjoyed it, a nicely done update of an old favourite) and while scrambling about in the flats, something emerged from the dusty caverns of long-buried memories: namely this stop-motion animated cat, lurking in the sallow light of a knackered hallway with blood dripping from his jaws. Quite the sight. Look upon him!!! To be honest, if it were a toss-up between the cat and Pyramid Head, yeah, I'd rather take me chances with the Traffic Cone Twat, thank you. So as it was, the only other things I could remember about Crapston Villas were an homage to that one King Crimson album, a scene involving a horrific-looking fish, there was a lot of gallows humour and the fact that I was howlingly drunk on questionable ale when I watched it (this was around 2013.) Incidentally, it seems to be a running theme with people that I've talked to over the years, whenever the topic of Newcastle Brown comes up, someone always has a story about...
'Ave a gander 'ere