Rum Doings Episode 49
by John Walker on Nov.18, 2010, under Rum Doings, The Rest
Very welcome are you to Episode 49 of Rum Doings, during which we absolutely don’t discuss whether it’s time that PC local councils stopped trying to ban Christmas.
Instead we discuss which bits are best in Private Eye, the cream tea emergency that is the Easy-Boy Armchair, and what shops will be gone in ten years time. Then we lament books. And Star Wars. And SCUBA diving! Nick invents Abuse Therapy, and John is fat. And of course gay videogame characters.
Re Nick’s suggestion, here are the links to Bastard Of The Old Republic, parts one, two, and three.
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[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/rumdoings_e49.mp3]
November 18th, 2010 on 16:47
Isn’t Angostura Bitters the part of a long vodka you swish around the glass and throw away? I didn’t realise people drank it :O
November 18th, 2010 on 19:34
On the banning of Christmas, Rebecca Watson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ScEuw7zJAU
November 18th, 2010 on 19:52
I’m not sure if I should be worried: whenever I start shaking my head in disagreement at something John has said Nick almost always interjects with “You are incorrect”.
Although Digested read in the Guardian isn’t really very good it has recently “done” books by George Bush, Keith Richards, Prince Charles and Philip Larkin. I’m sure even John would “get” them.
I should stop “speaking” in quotation marks.
Incidentally when should you use ” and when should you use ‘?
November 18th, 2010 on 22:00
Your plaice or mine?
November 18th, 2010 on 22:00
If you’re going for the videogamer takeaway vibe,
HADDOCK-EN!
November 18th, 2010 on 22:23
You can get the bends by surfacing from less than 3 metres actually, John, actually.
So there.
November 19th, 2010 on 00:27
Just an small, pedantic correction: the phrase is actually “champing at the bit”, rather than “chomping”.
November 19th, 2010 on 03:57
Ezri was in the one memorable episode of the new Outer Limits, where she was an undercover Space Lizard.
November 19th, 2010 on 13:37
I think secondary school can be considered abuse therapy really for some people. i think it worked for me, because i got so much stick and insults in school it doesn’t really bother me any more lol.
November 19th, 2010 on 16:18
Another good podcast, and only 1 away from an episode 50 special (I assume).
Nick, I wonder if the “broken” home families were told thats what side of the experiment they were playing?
November 21st, 2010 on 10:31
While bastards of the old republic is a lovely piece of writing, and shows how talented bioware can be, it does show the classic dichotomy between good and evil in most games- you can evil hug someone, or kill a kitten. You can either kill a small child, or release them from their torment.
I also feel like your 10 years time predicitons are based on an assumption of greater tech savvy on the part of the population. I suspect dvds are going to stay a while longer, at least until we all get better broadband anyway..
November 21st, 2010 on 16:32
We almost certainly will get better broadband by 2020, though. Think about it, ten years ago hardly anyone had Broadband.
November 23rd, 2010 on 12:13
Books are obsolete! That doesn’t mean they’ll be disappearing any time soon, but still. They are! The form of the book is due to be revised into something new. Apart from the transformation from objects into data that films and music are already undergoing, books also have all the possibilities of hypertext available to them, including hyperlinking, embedding other media, user/reader collaboration and agency, and all the myriad formatting that a modern HTML browser can do.
Writers are only slowly starting to take advantage of these. “253” (ryman-novel.com), MSPaintAdventures.com, and, uh… hm. That’s just about all the significantly-new-style texts I can think of! (Though I’m sure there’s a few out there that I’ve missed). But, anyway, there should be more, and paper-ass books can’t handle that craziness!
November 23rd, 2010 on 17:13
One thing that really worries me about digitisation of media, and this is something that I’d be interested to see you guys discuss, is data becoming obselete. We have books from millenia ago that are still readable, but there are data formats that we can barely read. In terms of video games consoles from earlier generations mostly don’t work anymore, and video tapes are out of date, leaving libraries with the choice of laboriously copying out MASSES of data or just losing all of it. I suppose fully computerised formats may last longer.
November 23rd, 2010 on 19:30
Oooooh, because John seems to think that only Bioware can do competent gay video game characters, I point you in the direction of Persona 4 and the wonderful Kanji, whose character can be best summed up by the articles on Gamasutra( http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22015 ) and Escapist Magazine ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/89016-Is-Persona-4s-Kanji-Gay-or-Not ). Gay characters as a rule of thumb are almost impossible to find in games but it’s getting better, even if it’s only by a tiny margin.