dmanton300's Blog - 2old2play

Bleedin' furriners

All this talk about Gears Of War and how our poor North American cousins might have to wait another 24 hours for their copies. A whole 24 hours?!?! You poor wee lambs! Bah! Spare a thought you poor, hard done by peeps for us in Europe who still have a week to go. Bastards!
Still all the indications are that it will be thoroughly worth the wait. UK Clanners?
Patience is not so much a virtue as a fucking must right now!
Drewe

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What's goin' on ear then?

Hint:-
Do not try to pull the offenders head away from the victim's head when the victims ear is still in the offender's mouth. It gets very bloody very quickly!
This public service announcement bought to you by "oops, that looks sore" industries. . .

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Gimme the money!

14 hours overtime today (called in on a rest day). Scene preservation at what we euphemistically call "an incident which is being investigated". And all at double bubble. That's my Wii paid for!
Now I'm knackered. Bed time.
Drewe

p.s. Gears Of War draws closer!!!

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It's the smells. . .

Had to go down to the local custody suite last night (it's only twenty miles away!) and deal with a prisoner who had been nicked earlier in the day. Let's call him Jon Doe for the sake of anonymity. Mr Doe is a hopeless, beyond redemption alcoholic of the absolute saddest kind. A not altogether unpleasant character when sober (I've found him sober. . .once!), the siren call of the vodka bottle is too much for him. His MO is to go into a store, take a bottle of vodka from the shop display, pop the lid and then drink as much of it as he can before security get to him. He normally gets the whole litre down before being accosted. now THAT'S drinking sportsfans! Sometimes he has the money to pay for what he's drunk, sometimes not. Due to his habits he now has what's known as an Anti-Social Behaviour Order in place, one of the conditions of which is not to consume alcohol in any shop or off licence. Breach of this can mean a five year prison term.
He's breached it twice in the last three days. He's come to police attention four times in four days. Me and my partner took him home after he collapsed through drink on Friday night. On Saturday he breached his conditions by going into a shop, throwing money on a counter to pay for drink, and then drinking the bottle in store. Arrested, charged, bailed for court. On Sunday he was found in a public place completely out of it, and had shit himself as well. On Monday he was arrested at 8.35am for breaching his ASBO (a bottle of Vodka. . .at 8AM?!?!?) Bear in mind at no point over this period has he used any kind of toilet, shower, bath or similar. He is a piss and shit soaked mess sleeping it off in custody.
And I drew the short straw!
So when I get to custody I'm told I have to interview Mr Doe prior to charge. Oh Frabjous Day! So I get Mr Doe from his sell, and he basically DT shakes his way to the interview room leaving a trail of gagging humanity in his wake. The. Smell. Is. Indescribable. And I get to sit in an 8X10 room and interview him. You can imagine the pounding my olfactory receptors took. The looks of pity I got from the custody staff said it all.
Ten minutes in the interview. Says he can't remember anything (I believe him) but that it is the sort of thing he does. Good enough for me along with the witness statements. Just get me the fuck out of this room! Good enough for the custody skipper too who apologises to me for having to go through that and charges him with breaching his ASBO and remands him in custody for court this morning. Hopefully he'll go back to prison for a while, spare local officers the agony. He'll be dead soon, I'm convinced of it. I can't help thinking it will be a blessed release for the poor man.
I've seen and dealt with all manner of horrors and idiots in this job. It's the smells. Always the smells. They just get to me. I can't even bear to be around a person who's been drinking now when I haven't been drinking. The sickly sweet alcohol smell about them, on their breath and through their pores makes me heave. So I have to drink with them. Shame!

Take it easy
Drewe

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Summer's going fast. . .

Nights growing colder
Children growing up
Old friends growing older. . .

Anyhoo, ten points (not microsoft points!) for spotting the song. But the point of this entry, my first in several months is to say "I'M BACK!" With the nights drawing in and some cool stuff on the horizon I expect to be spending some more time with my 360 in the immediate future. See some of you around I hope. Can't wait for Gears Of War. And Wii. My main companion over the summer has been my DS Lite with either Brain Training or New SMB. But mostly been reading and working and seeing the new girlfriend.
Later taters!

P.s. the WOW South Park was funny as fuck! I'm almost tempted to re-install WOW, see if I can catch the MMORPG bug. . .

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It's all cyclic. . .

Hmmm. . .nearly two months since I said anything here. I'm in one of my video gaming "down" phases. It's too hot, I'm too busy and not much is catching my attention. . .save for my beautiful DS Lite and New Mario, which is fan-bloody-tastic to mess around with each day for a short while!
In news about a girl. . she and I are now an item. Twenty five years I waited and had this unrequited school crush (well, not after school, I never saw her so the crush went away. . .but the attraction was still there). I know not what the future holds, but am looking forward to it. Ain't life funny?
Having been totally overcome with indifference to the supposed miracle console that was the PSP, I sold mine on Ebay last week. Sorry Sony, it's a lovely piece of engineering and all that, but you have singularly failed to capture my heart with the lack of quality titles, so unlike the DS where upgrading to the Lite was a no brainer! On the upside selling the PSP has allowed me to invest in a singularly lovely red and black leather corset my other half had expressed a great liking for. I'm fairly certain I'll get more fun in 15 minutes lacing her into that than I got in 9 months of PSP ownership!
I'm sure when things cool down here in blighty somewhat and things get back to a more even keel I'll be back into my gaming. For now I'll continue to browse at new developments and wait for the bite again.
ciao fer now
Drewe

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About a girl. . .reprise

So we kept up the chat. And yesterday due to a confluence of events we actually met up. For the first time in twenty years. (We were in the same class at school and said a brief hello at the school reunion a few years ago, but to all intents and purposes the last time we saw each other was on the last day of my school career back in May 1986). We spent a happy day at the seaside, just chatting about the last twenty years. I think this friendship may have legs.
Cheers!
Drewe

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Idiot times three

Arrested the same man three times last night. Once for a public order offence, then further arrested him for assaulting a pregnant girl earlier in the day. He hurt himself in custody (absolutely paralytic and fell cutting his chin) so the custody skipper bailed him for the ambulance to take him to hospital. I escorted him for treatment and after a while there he kicked off again and I had to arrest him in A&E department (ER to you yanks). . .not a place I want to be rolling around fighting someone. This time he went and stayed in custody.

The expression "What a complete fucking twat" springs to mind. Lets hope his hangover is all he deserves this morning!

Should I buy UNO and get in the mix? Nightshades tales of trash talking UNO tounraments has piqued my interest, and I have three rest days starting tomorrow!

Drewe

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Important discovery. . .

For anyone who is issued High-Mark body armour as part of their job. If you relocate your pocket note book to another spare pocket somewhere the actual PNB pocket on your armour is a perfect fit for a Nintendo DS. It could have been made for the job!
Anyone for Mario Kart?
Drewe

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What a day. . .

Spent all last evening with a father at the beach as his 19 year old was being recovered from the swell. He never stood a chance. Had to be with dad as he identified his son. Im used to dead bodies now, but when hes 19 years old it kind of hits home in a much more visceral way. I shortly have to go and open the coroners inquest, and later on have the onerous task of again dealing with dad to take a full statement. I like to think Ive been sensitive, and of some confort in this unbelievably trying time for the poor man, but am painfully aware that later on I have to go and pull some very fresh scabs off of those mental wounds. Some days I wouldnt do this job for all the money in the world, and yet have to.

In other news about a girl, things are much better today, weve talked and she wants to keep the lines open, so thats all good. Ive left it in her hands.

Can I have a Wii pweeease?!?!?

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About a girl. . .

This seems like a place to vent. So here it is.
A few months ago I made contact with a girl I had a crush on at school. This was twenty years ago, the crush is gone, the pedestal demolished. At our school reunion a few years ago I finally admitted my crush to her, and we went our seperate ways. This girl was one of the definitely not in-crowd at school. She was spiky of temperament, and , well, basically not the kind of girl the popular guys have crushes on! I wasnt popular, so it was okay! But I knew she had *something* that caught my attention.
At this reunion I was gratified to realise shed become a beautiful woman. . .it appears I could see that all those years ago.
Flash forward to now. . .shes having a SHIT time in life (and has a background story I could never have guessed in a million years). Shes trying to cope with a divorce, 3 children and a warehouse full of baggage. And I want to be a friend. Nothing more, just want to be a friend. Shes started opening up to me, and has suddenly started trying to distance herself, telling me to forget her and get on with my life, that basically shes a big encumberance no-one should have to put up with. Ive tried to tell her that I have little invested in this past some time at a keyboard sharing thoughts. Shes scared of something, scared of me, scared of everything, lost and confused. But Im not 100% convinced she wants me to stop contacting her or that she wants to stop writing to me. Does she just need reassurance that Ill be here to listen? I cant do anymore than say "Ill be here" even just on the other end of an email (we live in seperate parts of the country, like I said, I have nothing great invested and nothing much to lose in real terms) can I?
I just think its so fucking wrong that this intelligent, beautiful, smart and oftimes funny girl thinks she has to do this alone and "just get on with it". Theres no real reason for me to care, but I do. My life will continue along its path with or without her, but Id rather it was with her friendship. Balls in her court, Ive assured that if she demands I leave her alone thats just what Ill do. But Ive asked that she doesnt. This is easy for me, my life has been, all things considered, pretty idylic. I have spare capacity to care for this girl from my past, and I want to be allowed to.
What to do? What to do? Suggestions on a postcard.

On a seperate note IstillwannaWii!

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Here we go again. . .

Last few hours of my rest days. Start a seven day rotation of late shifts today. Couple things in the pot for the next week. Couple of drugs warrants to effect (you know, knocking on the door with the 50lb key, lots of shouting and screaming and then a search. . . kind of like storming into a room in Halo unarmed and not knowing what youre gonna find!), and the usual Friday/Saturday UK based sport of playing with the drunkards at kicking out time "Piss off son or yer gonna get nicked", that kind of thing. Wherever you find drunken Brits in the world youll find the local poh-leese playing this game! Might try and nail a drunk driver or two along the way (I fuckin hate em, absolutely no excuse).
Be good kids. See yah on the flipside!
Drewe

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The smitten kitten. . .

Just downloaded a whole bunch of Wii videos from IGN. You know what? I may just save the money I would have spent on PS3 and use it for Wii software. Im convinced. I want one. Badly. I cant wait to get a bunch of friends and a couple crates of Grolsch round and spend an evening with it. After Ive done the nostalgia bit of course and downloaded the classics I want (Do I really want to complete Mickey Mouse and the Castle Of Illusion again? Why yes, yes I do!)
Colour me smitten, this looks like a winner to me, and I can see why its the talk of the town that Nintendo took E3 this year. WIth even M$ and $ony reps calling Wii everyones "second console" things must be pretty rosy inside the Nintendo camp right now. Why did Sony screw E3 up so badly I wonder?

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MAMED again

Dunno why but since switching to a Macintosh again I just never really thought about the joys of MAME. This weekend the talk about XBLA and some of the footage of upcoming classics from E3 made me think. And search. And lo, it does exist on Mac, and with the startlingly original title of MacMAME! So now I once again have my Paanacea of arcade games, Mr. Do! at my disposal. To be honest there are very very few games from that era that really stand examination today, so Ill never be a collector.
Ill also go on record as stating that Ill happily pay for these same games on my 360 if and when XBLA gets them. In fact if there was some way of paying for the ones I have Id happily do that.
So lets hear it for Mr. Do!, Time Pilot, Gyruss and Salamander!
Now I just have to find a decent controller. I bought one USB pad from PC World this weekend, but it still sticks on the directions. . I think because these original games were so simple they cant handle two direction inputs like can happen easily when running a thumb over a pad to change directions. So the game sticks or the irrepressible Mr. Do! goes off in exactly the wrong direction. Any hints/tips/help welcome!
BTW, Mario Kart DS fucking rocks, and I cannot fucking wait for Wii!
TTFN
Drewe

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Mario Kart DS vs. Oblivion

Well, I carried my threat through and today traded Oblivion for Mario Kart DS. After a few false starts I managed to get online with my DS and have been playing Kart for a while now. And you know what? Its sooooooo amazingly cool I could cry at the sheer wonderfulness of it all. Really, no exaggeration, it confirms for me that when Nintendo nail something its definitively fucking NAILED! All games should be this much fun. I went from feeling aimless and overwhelmed and thinking I must be missing something in Oblivion to giggling like an idiot as I concentrated on a 2.5inch screen with Mario Kart DS. Now, whether that says something about Oblivion, Mario Kart or me Im not sure, but its probably me. I wonder if Tokobots will be as much fun when I fire up the PSP? (I also traded Kameo for that today, leaving me with one 360 game, GRAW). I somehow doubt it but Im open minded to the possibility.

In other news 10,000 days continues to impress and grow in stature to these old ears.

TTFN
Drewe

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