Look Out He's Got a Gun and the Crushing Weight of the World on His Trigger Finger!

I have just been hit with crisis. I have realised that a lot of people who are talented and famous are the same age or even, god forbid, younger than me. No longer can I use the excuse that they have had longer to get talented, because I have had just as long. It is highly unlikely I am ever going to gain any skills in music, acting or even learning to draw. This has nothing to do with the rest of the post.

Today I have been forced into a life of crime. I have not yet committed this crime but it is bound to happen and purely to blame is our consumer culture and the nature of the retail industry in Great Britain. As you may be aware I am a fan of the finer, some crass individuals would say nerdier, things in life namely video games. Today whilst out and about in Swansea I spent a bit of time looking round shops selling these items (because there is bugger all else to do in Swansea other than sit on the beach, drink and drink whilst sitting on the beach) when I found a game I hadn't played for years: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Now it's a good game and one I don't own for some reason or another BUT it's old and I wasn't willing to pay a fiver for it. So the only other legal option was to take advantage of the 3 for £10 offer on certain games which would have meant the game only cost like 3 quid. But for some stupid reason all the other games on offer were either rubbish or I didn't want them.

And so with that in mind the only reasonable option I have left is to either download it or see if a friend has it lying around and burn a copy of it which of course is tantamount to the totally illegal crime of PIRACY. So there you have it the offers provided by our retail gaming outlets as well as the innate materialism driven into me by SOCIETY threaten to turn me into an outlaw, and in a world where pirates are snipered the hell out of by US special forces this is not a situation I want to find myself in. But what else can I do? As I said SOCIETY has put me into this position and who am I to argue against society? It is is bigger and older than I am. I only hope the judges and/or snipers will be able to see my point.

updates on other stuff: this week I have mostly been discovering the joys of last.fm and buying and reading yet another volume of Scott Pilgrim which are both awesome but make me feel completely inadequate for not being a musician, a cartoonist or Canadian. Also I sat on a beach and then drank. I have not been learning Dutch.

Is my life to boring or am I just lazy?

Its the laziness one actually, I've been up to rather a lot of interesting stuff WHICH THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW!

First off Belgium (and I'll make this quick). Belgium is awesome. Belgium has a bar which has 900 different types of beer, and I assume as it had 900 in just one bar there are a fair few more to try as well. The fact that I sampled a wide selection of these beers may have coloured my view of Belgium I admit but I still maintain that it is frickin awesome. It looks beautiful, the people are great, the food and drink is fantastic and it has my new favourite beer, Ichtegem's Oud Bruin. So having enjoyed both the Netherlands and Flanders I have resolved to learn Dutch somehow. Maybe I will keep you updated on my progress (though if it goes well it suggests I'm not lazy and was wrong so I'm not sure.

And yes I ate tapas in Belgium, it was well good.

Now for the other major thing that has happened recently to me: my brother got married last weekend. Seeing as the trip to Belgium was for my Brother's stag do I guess my life has been a bit my-brother-centric recently, but that's okay, he's an awesome guy. I was given some duties for the wedding, which was nice, I was an usher and, exploiting the fact that I am big fat loudmouth, also did the reading at the service and was master of ceremonies at the reception afterwards. Now all in all this was not much responsibility but I was stupidly nervous, however everyone said it didn't show so I guess I have discovered a new talent: I do not show fear. I consider this a pretty badass ability to have and look forward to new excuses to use it.

Wait where was I? Oh yeah my Brother got married. It's sort of weird to be honest because him and Sam have been together for years so I didn't really think it would be much of a big deal, but it actually was in a way that's pretty hard to explain. I will admit I nearly cried during the service which was a bit unexpected. But that's the way these sort of things are I suppose, you can never predict how you're going to feel about something until it actually happens. Well enough of this pointless rambling. Good luck David and Sam, I hope India is treating you well (they went to India on their honeymoon! lucky...)

Oh before I go yesterday I bought Scott Pilgrim volume 1 and a Leslie Nielson box set, both of which are awesome and worthwhile things.