Be Excellent To Each Other

Wow, I haven't created a new thread in ages...

Anyway, this week, on my PC, I have been mostly playing X-Com [UFO]: Enemy Unknown. I used to have this back in the day on the Amiga, but just found it far too bastard hard, plus I could never get it running on my hard drive and the load times from the floppies used to drive me crackers, so I just never, ever got on with it. I'd subsequently tried the Playstation version, and I'd definitely tried it on the PC before, but again, it never clicked with me. I've just always figured it wasn't for me.

Until this week. I've absolutely no idea why, but it totally has just 'clicked'. Somehow I've learned to use actual proper decent tactics to not end up losing all my guys in each mission and I seem to be doing okay at it (admittedly I'm playing at Beginner difficulty). But I'm loving the damn game! All that lush praise that was heaped upon it by others is starting to make sense to me, it's fucking excellent! And it's only taken me 16 years to realise it!

So, does anyone else have any examples of stuff you feel totally differently about now to how you did? Stuff you used to hate but now love? Stuff you used to love but now hate? Let us know of it and rejoice at how fickle a species we can be!

The Smiths.

From pure hatred to complete love.

And:

Brussels Sprouts
Girls

I used to dislike Queen (the band) but heaven knows what I was thinking because now I think they're bloomin great!

Still hate Brussels Sprouts but I have had a turnaround with Celery. Not quite love though.

Microsoft.

Oh fine, getting into games consoles now, are you? Typical bloody empire buil....oh this is fucking amazing

*fzzzzzzzt*

Hey, my 360 blew up.... must run to shops and buy another while the original is off being repaired.

Nin-fucking-cunts-tendo.

Used to hate all sorts of food, usually in that "I've never had it but I just know I don't like it ok?" kind of way... the main ones which now figure quite often on my plate are eggs and coleslaw, with an honorable mention to leeks.

BANNED!

Another one bites the dust.

Whiskey and olives. Both used to make me physically retch, now I can just about take them. Never tried them together, mind.

Oh! Olives is a good one! Used to think they tasted foul, now I love them.

Sleeper. Christ, I can't believe I bought their first 2 albums. I listened to them again recently and they're shite. Louise Wener really should have been encased in concrete and dropped in the North Sea at some point around 1993.

Jesus.
DOUBLE BANNED WITH EXTRA BANNING ON TOP!

Oh, I dunno, I still like Sale Of The Century. And I still 'would' Louise Wener, but then I am single nowadays and not so fussy.

twitter, dinosaur jr, scotch whisky and cod.

She hasn't aged brilliantly, sadly. But can be seen playing gigs in Crouch End by stalkery types.



Sonya from Echobelly has fared even worse, though I was never a fan of her as a teen (I'm sure she'll be upset to know).

Celery can still GTFF though, Zardoz. And I've pre-emptively raised a finger of silence to my mouth to those who use the "it's great as a base" defence.

There is no where else you are ever going to see this list!

And the scary thing is, you could enjoy them all simultaneously.

I'm going to put it up on twitter.
Anyway its the fish not the game. Although I'm bloody sick of the games, change the engine already.

Amusingly, Little Savages.
I could never get why people played it, then one day (a good few years after I wrote it) I was looking at what my test savages were doing and had the sudden urge to create them a family, and "click".
I played it solidly for about a month and then it unclicked again, to the point where I can't remember what I liked about it.

I was stunned to see that LSav 2 was still going when I checked back a couple of months ago. And that I still had over 100 savages.

BOOZE.

I didn't drink until I was almost 18 (and never tried to buy the stuff from bars etc, which is why I used to take getting asked for ID far too personally). Then I broke up with a girlfriend one day, and a week later was in the girls' dormitory on a ridiculously dull biology field trip, and one of them had smuggled in a few bottles of wine. It was a memorable experience.

It's only recently that I was able to enjoy beer/lager/etc at all, too - it's an acquired taste. And I still find a lot of it quite nasty, to be fair. Fortunately the local shops have an impressive range of semi-obscure ales and lagers and that.

Oh, and wine. I still hate most wine, but have found some sweet, typically cheap white wines delicious.


Sex. No, really. It wasn't until the Czech girl that anyone I tried it with actually did it well, so I found it incredibly dull and frustrating. Particularly oral. No sex is better than bad sex.


Cur your Enthusiasm. I never found it very funny, and it seemed to think it was hilarious, which always annoys me. But I just 'got' it after a while. It's basically Alan Partridge crossed with Victor Meldrew, but with enough American character to make it distinct from both.

Roleplaying games. I don't mean the utterly generic dice-obsessed bore-a-thons about elves that have been exactly the same as every other such RPG since 1980, but in recent years I've found that deliberately playing in a particular, perhaps restrictive way, to be 'in character', can be really fun and show you a side of a game that you never considered before. Examples include adding hunger mods to games like Fallout, to make survival feel more like a basic thing you need to be prepared for.

Miki won't let me kill it.

/waves to Miki

She's here, you know.

Didn't someone here buy a bass guitar from Louise Wener? Or was that somewhere else?

Amusingly, historical re-enactments. Always thought there was something odd about such a hobby and its enthusiasts.

I remember moaning to Malia prior to a trip to the US in 2007 that I'd found out that on the day I was planning on visiting Harper's Ferry*, West Virginia, there would be a group of re-enactors 'occupying' the town. I then spent most of my trip trying to avoid them (though I did watch a firing demonstration).


*Where the Shenandoah meets the Potomac, and one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.

Presumably the Miki who joined a couple of days ago?
Hello Miki!

Lager is one for me, too.
It was less than a year ago that I started drinking it without lime in.

That's because you're a southerner

She never said.

Hi Miki.

Who is Miki?

Miki is OUR friend, so ner.

_{Me and Grim, that is.}

Miki is a poor judge of character.

Eh Miki? Eh Miki?

She's so fine she blows my mind.

Toast - Used to detest the stuff. But now I love it.

Onions - See above

Malia.

toast??! WTF?

It was all dry and nasty and belrg.

I suspect it was the cheapo bread that my parents used to buy use. All thin and blackened crusts. These days I love a nice buttery slice with a cup of tea. I like the taste of toast and tea at the same time.

Toast should always be accompanied by a hot drink (preferably coffee, but I'll allow tea).

It the leaders of warring nations were forced to get together to discuss their disputes over toast with <spread of their choice> and <beverage of their choice> most of their differences would be resolved without bloodshed.

Crummies though. So began the great Dustbuster war of 1964

Yeah, I used to think he was all right, as well.

I am, hi guys who are my friends
and hi guys who might become friends
I was looking for a place to introduce myself but couldn't really find a safe spot to jump in
then grim... subtely 'nudged' me some more

I formally give permission to kill LS2 as it has been frozen in time for months and I feel I should trade it in for this new forum
and there's always LS3 ...

about myself, please forgive any bad spelling as I am a Dutchie, obviously never forgive bad grammer
I would have voted yes on AV but being a Dutchie I couldn't vote at all
I live in Holland with my English husband (that I met on the same forum as I met grim... and warhead) and our little forum baby girl
I love photography and films so I'm planning to chime in there some.

Awesome! Welcome

Welcome!

HUZZAH!!!

P.S. They're a bit fixated on compooter and console games here, Miki, but they're not a bad lot, really.

thanks for the welome

yeah wh I obviously noticed the games element
I just hope people won't hold it against me I just play Little Savages and games with colourfull blocks or bubbles...
my husband plays loads of games if that is any help?

Welcomes!

Hello Miki!

Hi Miki! Don't be afraid to start threads.