Word of the day: "persiflage"

Just heard from The Most Fucking Zen Person I Know (ARGH! ADOPTING GABRIEL-STYLE NOMENCLATURE! MUST.. RESIST... THE.. DARK SIDE!) - that he's been thrown out of his teaching job at McPherson Secondary. Now, this guy is the most serene, nirvanically-in-touch-with-the-world individual I know; think Tom Bombadil, without the attitude. Currently studying medicine in Imperial College, he once survived for six months on instant noodles. WITHOUT the flavouring ("It's bad for your health, and I don't really like the taste anyway.") OR condiments ("Carbohydrates are all I need. Just add some soya sauce and boil can already."). And it's not like he can't afford food - he lives on Caldecott Hill - but he can simply transcend the need for physical luxury or even sustenance at will.

Anyway, he got fired for - get this - child abuse. Not exactly abuse, but he hit a Sec. 2 student in class who was, (sic) "fucking annoying the hell out of me." At first we thought it was some base impulse of anger lashing out through his bare hands, but he described in sardonic detail how he premeditatedly hit the offending student with a book. (Social Studies workbook, rolled-up for extra pain induction). The kid burst out into tears, and a week later, he was told that "Your services are no longer needed."

Ah, how I miss the highly porous, pseudo-onionskin paper of a Social Studies workbook. These days they actually use proper pulp for all their educational texts, I hear.

Completed Grandia 2. Cliched ending; cliched story - now I know why I weaned off Jap console RPGs in the first place. They take up godawful amounts of time (bloody random encounters!), and their stories all have the same hackneyed melodrama amidst the excellent (if a somewhat acquired taste) visual aesthetic and polished production values. I must admit Grandia 2 is one of the better constructed RPGs; it hews to all the console conventions, but it does them well, and it adds enough elegant touches to make it playably time-consuming. In addition, it's not as obscenely long as a Final Fantasy.

Fortunately, in anticipation of the post-game emotional downer; last weekend I went out with a friend to purchase some new games - Celtic Kings: Rage of War, Medieval: Total War, and Icewind Dale 2. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a copy of Syberia, and I wanted to read a few more reviews before I bought Mafia!.

Medieval: Total War should be an engrossing, semi-strategy romp, even if it is going to highlight the geriatric qualities of my PC and graphics card. Icewind Dale 2: proof that the Infinity Engine can still deliver the goods, even after all these years:)

I had more to blog last night, but they were lost (as usual), in the Mists of Ravenloft upon clicking "post & publish". Thankfully, it has been saved through the prudent use of the hallowed copy-and-paste-to-text-file tactic, and while I forgot to mail it to myself at work, I shall try posting it this evening.