I don’t get Xbox. I’ve found its advertising scheme (aimed mainly at pre-adolescent boys and dude bros who play nothing but FPS) mildly nauseating for years, and the system itself has never really interested me. I’m mainly a Playstation gamer, and in comparison Xbox has inferior graphics, a selection of games made up mostly of sports games and multi-generational shooters where the few standouts are PC ports or already available on my own system, charge me through the nose for the most basic of services, and offer me an online social group generally comprised of the target audience described before. But above all this, the system names have always left me mildly bewildered.

Xbox. Ok, nothing mind-blowing, but it was fairly box-like, and it had an “x” on it. Odd, interesting, but somewhat sensible.

Xbox 360. The system’s second incarnation, released around the time the Playstation offered its third. I’m convinced it being “360” instead of “2” was a cheap attempt to make it look like 3rd-gen system instead of a 2nd-gen. But with the PS3 to compete with, and a fairly ignorant, mindless fan-base to appeal to, perhaps they thought it would work.

But now the newest system is on the horizon, and developers have announced it as the “Xbox One”.

This is a more puzzling choice than anything before, a more puzzling choice even than the Wii was. And it makes me look back on their previous titles from a fresh view point. Maybe the 360 wasn’t just a cheap ploy; perhaps the Xbox’s producers just have no idea what our numbers system actually means, and are simply applying them to their consoles at random. Will the next generation be Xbox 8? Or how about Xbox 234? Or maybe they’ll just call it Xbox Infinity and get it over with.

Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux (via pjrbcb)

I’ve been watching Defiance and Sinbad back to back the last week. It has turned into an un-intentional family affair, as Stephanie Leonidas plays Irisa in Defiance, while her brother Dimitri plays Anwar on Sinbad. Especially now, seeing them right after the other, I’m kind of blown away by how much they look alike. (As well as moving, talking, and acting alike. 50% of the time Anwar’s on screen I’m thinking “zomg I keep seeing Stephanie in so many of his expressions”.)

Also the minute I saw Datak, I was instantly reminded of a white-out Tony Curran. Turns out it is Tony Curran. It’s wierd hearing him talk with an American accent, I’ve never heard him in anything other than his usual Scottish before.

bibliobimbo:

in my house there are only two water temperatures: winter is coming and fire cannot kill a dragon

I’m bored and feel like talking. So ask me something! Anything! As long as it’s not obviously skeevy or trollish I will do my best to answer. 

Andrew Boyd (via middlenameconfused)

Emir, Sinbad

I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.
I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned,
Since from myself another self I turned.

My care is like my shadow in the sun,
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.
His too familiar care doth make me rue it.
No means I find to rid him from my breast,
Till by the end of things it be supprest.

Some gentler passion slide into my mind,
For I am soft and made of melting snow;
Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind.
Let me or float or sink, be high or low.
Or let me live with some more sweet content,
Or die and so forget what love ere meant.

On Monsieur’s Departure - Queen Elizabeth I