In Threes

Some administrative or technical glitch kept me from knowing about next year's accommodation contract signing; only by chance did I find out it was today. [Update: it now seems there was confusion regarding undergrad. vs. postgrad. signings.] (Admittedly there are far worse horror stories on record.) Meanwhile, a certain unwanted visitor has been scouring this place again, and Maria remains apparently advice-retardant. The cumulative effect of which is that I am thoroughly disgruntled: when a sequence of even minor misfortunes emerges, the effect of each new addition is to reinforce a tiresome impression that the world has it in for me.

Strange rights, strange game design constraints, and a spot of awful dialogue

Strange phrasing of the day: 'Germany's highest court has restricted the right of the security services to spy on the computers of suspected criminals and terrorists.'

The right? This twist goes somewhat beyond mere rights inflation.

Puzzling quotation of the day: 'Videogame developers should dis-incentivise gamers from long periods of play by allowing players to achieve the highest scoring aspects of a title early on in the game's life cycle.'

No, I don't know what it recommends either. Until the minutes are published I shall have to assume that the fault doesn't lie with the journalist but that the recommendation really was so unclear that a professional games journalist could phrase it no better—which scarcely bodes well.

Oddly enough, I keep reading (very reasonable) complaints about long periods of play necessitated by poor placement of save points. I wonder whether Parliament is also on that case.

As for the 'absence of evidence ≠ evidence of absence' line, hopefully I break no libel laws by merely drawing attention to the total absence of evidence that John Carr is— oh, fill in the blanks yourself.

Bidding to break the despondency for this last section: here's a nice example of amusingly bad dialogue, courtesy of Lufia: The Legend Returns. Today is frustrating, but at least I don't have a Tower of Death or a Doom Island nearby.