~ cvodb

Alex Higgins, RIP

Posted: July 25th, 2010 | Filed under: Entertainment, Various | Tags: , | No Comments »

In another time and another place we were students with lots of time on our hands. We spend all week on the couch, reading the papers, drinking cinnamon tea and spice biscuits and taking the mickey out of each other. And then we got BBC 1 and 2 on our cable. Overnight we turned into fans, gobbling up the brilliant comedy (Spitting Image, Not the Nine O’Clock News, Fry and Laurie) and wasting many, many hours watching sports coverage as the Brits introduced us to their exotic games of darts, golf and snooker. Under the influence of the Beeb, darts and snooker took off in our country. We got a darts board and even tried our hand at snooker, in some of the new snooker halls opening up around the city. It was the era of Steve Davis famously ‘earning the right to be boring’, Dennis Taylor with his specs and Jimmy White. We liked White, but my favourite was Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins, because he played faster than anyone else, because he was a real character, because he wasn’t Steve Davis. Because he headbutted that referee.

Funny, unpredictable, volatile, Irish. Alex Higgins, legend, died of throat cancer on Saturday.

A wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily

Posted: November 6th, 2007 | Filed under: Entertainment, Gaming | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

I’m at level 4 in WoW and level 5 in LOTRO/Shadows of Angmar. I’ve only just started. Don’t laugh, I suck. I’ve never played MMORPGs before and was never much good at games in general. But I’m enjoying it, LOTRO in particular – familiarity with the subject helps – and I’d like to get a little better. I’m a little shy talking to other players and when someone invited me to a fellowship some timeduring the first two days I played, I declined. That’s how much I suck. Maybe it would be easier if there was someone around who I already know and can maybe teach me or help me get better. I’m tired of the spirit healer already. Anyone?