Cavalcade Of Cold Calls

Whilst I'm on the subject of lost time, I think I'd be amiss not to write a quick post about the absolute avalanche of telemarketting calls I have been receiving over the past week.

Without any word of a lie, there have been instances where they have been coming in back to back they're that frequent! The worst part is, I know why.. It's because I'm polite.

Going back a week or so I received a cold call from a company conducting a survey trying to gauge what the average household looks like.. Or so they said. Not being born yesterday, I was skeptical; but being polite I took on board that we all have jobs to do, and this was there's.

I couldn't see as they could do a lot of damage with the information they were asking for (your brand of TV, your brand of washing machine etc), and it was towards the end of the week; so I figured I'd cut them some slack.. Which it turns out was a little short-sighted given the number of unwanted calls I have subsequently received. Calls I specifically told them I wasn't interested in receiving.

Would I like a call about PPI? No. Would I be interested in a call from Extra Energy? No.. You get the picture.

Have I received a call about PPI? Yes. Have I received a call from Extra Energy? Yes.. Again, you get the picture.

So, when I received yet another call tonight about an accident that I'd been in, in the past two years I decided to play a little game with them. Nothing serious, and nothing sinister. Just something keeping cold-callers on their toes, and making them go off script. Nothing like a little mischief.

The conversation went a little something like this..

Them: Hello, is that Mr Thomas Grimshaw?
Me: Who's calling please?
Them: My name's so and so, I'm calling from blah blah blah with regards to the road traffic accident that you've had within the past two years.
Me: Okay. Tell Me more.
Them: Sorry?
Me: About the accident I was in.
Them: I never said you were in an accident.
Me: You just did! Tell me more about the accident.
Them: No, our system indicates that you've been in an accident in the past two years.
Me: Where have you got this information?
Them: From your insurer.
Me: Which insurer?
Them: From when you renewed your motoring insurance.
Me: You are aware that I don't drive, and don't own a car right?

This was the point where they gave up.. But it was fun whilst it lasted. In just over a minute I had enough pauses out of them to fill a William Shatner monologue, and had taken them so far off of their script that they had to resort to making crap up on the spot; which is never going to work out for you when you're speaking to one of the only people that would possess that information, if anyone did!

The best part (well, other than the sheer joy of the shenanigans)? I wasn't rude. It's easy to curse and blind at nuisance calls like this, but as I have said previously; they are just doing a job. One that I have no doubt they'd sooner not be doing. So I'm not going to go off the deep end at them.. I will however politely dick with them for my own amusement.

It's good training for them, and it's free entertainment for me.

Making Time

Making time to do the things you want to do can be hard.

What with the twists and turns of responsibility that come with adulthood, it can seem that life is constantly pulling you in every other direction than the one that will allow you to embrace your inner child.

It's a bit of a problem.. And we all know how I feel about problems. They're there to be solved!

This one as it turns out, wasn't too difficult to solve. After sitting down and analysing the problem at hand; I determined that there were two main causes for my shortfall in free time.

Procrastination & tradition.

Not a lot of time went into working out that procrastination was a bit of a problem (thankfully, as the irony wouldn't have been lost on me). If I'm sitting around doing nothing, that time has to come from somewhere; and it can't be from the time needed to do the things I actually need to do!

That means it must be coming from my free time, so it's a bad habit that I need to kick. Hard!

Tradition however took me a bit longer to spot, but I'm glad I did. This covers things like always doing my job search on a Saturday, and my food shop on a Friday.. When there's no need!

I do these things at those times because generally speaking it's what I've always done. It's tradition.

Now you may think that moving things about doesn't solve much. It still takes the same amount of time, right? Well, yes, but there are other ways of being more efficient other than just reducing the time taken to do something. For example, I moved my job search to a Monday morning, before I go to work.

On the one hand, I'm losing a couple of hours in bed; but on the other hand I have just completely freed up my Saturday as a result of giving up that time. I call that a win. Not to mention all the other positive effects that come with the breaking of tradition in this instance..

• It's early, so there are less things to distract me. As a result my job search is more focused.

• You can almost guarantee that your job application will be one of the first e-mails they open (by aiming to be the last e-mail they receive before they get to the office).

• Psychologically speaking, experience has taught me that recruiters generally prefer early birds.

So, besides the benefits that come with freeing up my Saturday, it also stands me in better stead for achieving my other on-going goal of securing a "better" job. All just for the sake of saying, "to hell with that tradition".

This is only the start of things to come too. There are still plenty of things that I do, when I do them, just because I always have. Time to have a serious think about how I'm spending my time.. Just not for too long. Procrastination and all. ;0).

Some Like It Hot

Some like it hot, some like it cold. Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

When I order a Vindaloo however, I'm certainly expecting the former. In fact, I'm expecting a fair bit of gastric distress in the hours to come. So imagine my surprise when I ordered one a couple of days ago only to find that to my palette it was no more intense than a Madras. A mild madras at that!

Something wasn't right here. Initially I though that the restaurant had screwed up my order, but with what's happened between now and then; I'm not so sure.

With Friday's events in mind I bought a bag of Doritos Heat Burst yesterday. It wasn't a planned purchase, but I needed to break a note for some change, and I saw a opportunity. These chips were supposed to be hot and spicy, so if I ate some and found that was the case, I'd know my curry from the night before was a dud.

So I chowed down on them, and nothing. Barely a tingle.

I could sense that the chips were hot, but I had none of the expected side-effects (a running nose, elevated temperature, etc) associated with eating overly spicy food. Just like the curry.

This wasn't a massive surprise however. It's the job of marketing to oversell their product; something that happens particularly often with spicy foods. It appeals to men wanting to be macho.. Well, as macho as you can be whilst eating a corn chip.

So, putting this barely scientific test aside I reached for my "hot or wot", chilli and ginger sweets. These I KNEW from past experience were both very hot and very spicy. In fact, I'd compare the initial experience of sucking on one of them to the sensation of biting into a raw green chilli (the little ones). These babies pack quite a punch.. But you guessed it, much like the curry and the chips I was aware of the heat but felt no ill effects; and it did not slow or deter my consumption of the candy.

It appears I have developed a superpower! I am Spicy food guy!

Probably not enough to get me into the Justice League or The Avengers, but it might come in handy at some point.. Maybe. It also does make me wonder, just how far along the Scoville scale I can push myself?

Speaking Of Time, Games, And Pacts

Reviewing my last post, something has just occurred to me. It's been nearly a month since I last broke out the dice bag, and had me a session of SCRAWL.

This simply will not stand, as Eric will have gathered cobwebs by the time I get back to him at this rate.

Now I could argue that time has somewhat gotten away from me of late, and what time I have had has been spent doing the essentials.. But isn't gaming an essential? I think so. I mean you only have to look at The Shining to see what all work and no play results in!

So instead of making excuses, I'm going to follow the pattern of my last post for getting stuff done. I'm going to make a pact with myself..

I hereby solemnly swear that between now and before the next Sunday (9th April) has become the following Monday (10th April), I will have engaged in a session of SCRAWL. This is my word. My word is my bond.

That should do it!

UK Games Expo: T-Minus Two Months

Time really does fly. It seems like only yesterday that I had a whole brand new year ahead of me.

Yet here we are, April 2nd. Four months and change into that new year, and two months away from the UK Games Expo. Not that it looks like I'll be going this year. Not at this rate. Not unless I pull my finger out at least.

This all goes back to the pact that I made with myself:

"If I don't have a better job by the time expo (the UK Games Expo) comes round, then I don't get to go"

Those were my words, and I intend to honor their intent.

Now I know some people may find it strange if I don't end up going because of this. That I don't end up doing something I want to do, when the only factor stopping me is my own stubborn pride; but I think it's important. After all, if I went back on my word so easily what good is my word?

So it's less about being stubborn and prideful, and more about my word being my bond; and the value I place in that.

Making good on this particular pact in time for this years expo however is going to be a push. Not that I mind hard work, but given all the graft that I am already putting in with regards to job hunting; it's hard to see what more I can realistically do.. Still, I'm not one to admit defeat that easily.

The way I see it, you haven't lost until you've given up.

So with every fruitless job hunting session, rejection, and set back; I'll just pick myself up, dust myself off, and press onward. It isn't over until the fat lady sings!

Meeple Arcade #3: Midnight Cinema

Video killed the radio star; and escape games killed the point and click adventure genre.. Or so it seemed.

Which whilst sad, doesn't surprise me any; as when it comes down to it they're not too different. An escape game is just a point and click adventure without the plot.. Or to put it another way, it's a point and click game made by lazy developers.

That's not to say they're all bad.. Just the overwhelming majority of them; which often rely on obscure puzzles and combination locks to pad out a lack of imagination. Which is okay if you like that sort of thing, but it's no substitute for a genre that has included such classics as Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Broken Sword, and Flight of the Amazon Queen.

So, being so nostalgic about the classics as I think of them, it's nice to see that some developers are still producing point and click adventure games; and better yet that they can be played in the comfort of your own browser.

My first pick for Meeple Arcade within this genre is Midnight Cinema by Carmel Games.

Midnight Cinema is the first of this developers games that I had the pleasure of playing, and whilst it is far from the most challenging of games within this genre, it was none the less enjoyable. So much so, that I have subsequently found myself playing through a handful of their adventures every week. Midnight Cinema is still however in my opinion, one of the best games that they have released to date.

Pleasingly illustrated and  presented in the style of an episode of Tales From the Crypt, Midnight Cinema follows the exploits of Vova as he tries to gather the items required to bribe his neighbor into handing over their ticket for the late night screening of a new horror sensation.

Not that games like this are ever that straight forward.

With gameplay that will be familiar to anyone whose played a point and click adventure game before, you'll be traveling from location to location, interacting with NPC's and, overcoming obstacles through the creative and intuitive use of the items in your inventory.

This is probably the only area that this game falls down in.

It isn't too hard to fathom out how and when some of the items should be used (like the crowbar and the screwdriver), and part of the fun of some of the more offbeat classics was the weird and wonderful way in which stuff in your inventory interacted with the world.

That is such a minor criticism though, of an otherwise nicely executed game; that I'd highly recommend to anyone whose a fan of the genre.

Links

Play Midnight Cinema at Armorgames
Play Midnight Cinema at Crazygames
Play Midnight Cinema at Kongregate
Play Midnight Cinema at Mousecity
Play Midnight Cinema at Newgrounds

Super New Project, Super New Blogs

Everyday is the same.. Everyday is different.

Everyday I take the same buses, make the same commute, work in the same place, at the same job, before coming back the same way, eventually retiring to the same bed.. It's a bit samey, going on for plain old monotonous.

One thing that does change almost by the day is the people however. Different bus drivers, different passengers, and as chance would have it; yesterday one of those passengers was a familiar face.. Not that I immediately recognised them, as I was away with the faeries after a long day of tedium and data entry.

Thankfully they recognised me however, and we got to chatting; catching up and discussing our shared hobby of gaming.

I talked about SCRAWL, the 10 x 10 Challenge, and how I'd got back into blogging after a break away from it all, and they told me about a new project that they had been working on. A rules light supers skirmish game.

As the conversation progressed I was both intrigued and impressed. It transpired that not only were they working on the project, but they were also managing it and funding it themselves too. Sourcing artists, working on the system, drafting, editing, layout.. It's a lot of work to undertake. So I really admire them for putting in the hard work and effort into something that is nothing short of a labor of love.

So, knowing all that was going into this, I was surprised just how low the price point was (£8 for a softcover copy as I recall).

If this game sounds like your kind of thing, please check out the blog for the project here.

You can also follow their other supers and miniatures blogs, here, here, and here.