Blood on the Rooftops

A somewhat disturbed night last night - I woke up at around half past three feeling hot and shivery and spent an hour playing Carcassonne on my iphone before I nodded off to sleep again until half past eight. Surprisingly I didn't feel too bad at that point, so after walking the dog I set to the task that I have been meaning to do for the last six months - to whit cleaning the gutters.

The gutters have been clogged by leaves since last Autumn and I have been feeling guilty about it every time it rains and the water overflows the edges rather than going down the drainpipe. There was even a plant growing out of the top gutter at the front of the house. Bad middle class house owner, I know. We played junk tetris in the garage and got the ladders out and I shimmied up and onto the sloping roof at the front. It was a bit hairy but I managed to unclog the down pipes and clear out a surprisingly large amount of verdant green moss that had been growing up there. The back of the house wasn't quite so bad as I had cleared that last year, but it still needed unclogging.

At least the job is done now, and I promise not to leave it so long next time.

After a well earned coffee and a nap, it was back to Nuevo Pariso to do a bit more hunting and one or two jobs for the Mexican Army that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I'm a veteran of doing despicable things in GTA games, but rarely have I felt so morally conflicted as when I was burning down a rebel village this afternoon. Nico Bellic would have done it without blinking, and Luis probably would have whistled up a helicopter gunship to do the job, but John Marston is cut from a very different cloth. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, but he don't gotta like it.

As well as being superbly written, if you need an example of just how gorgeous the game is then go and watch this short film directed by John Hillcoat. There are some spoilers for some missions early in the game, but if you don't already have it on your shopping list then it should whet your appetite. Even if you have no interest in videogames, it is worth a watch as an example of the state of the art, so at least you will be able to appreciate what I keep rambling on about.