LadyOaks

I don't care whether you're a fan of The Witcher books or not – you have to get The Witcher game. It's fabulous eyecandy. No, really. The game is superb and although I can see why it could be a blasphemy for you when you're a die hard Witcher novel fan, there's no excuse to not play it. (And yeah, I'm somewhere in the middle of the gameplay )

I found myself giggling through most of the story-wise elements in a stupid, fangirly way and you know what? I'm not ashamed of myself. For me it's a kind of intricate alternate world fanfiction, good fanfiction to boot.

Because, make no mistake there, the action of The Witcher game takes place after all's said and done and Geralt's very very dead. On the other hand, most of the game's characters are the ones you know from the books or short stories, introduced as new. Some storylines, mostly those from short stories, are reused in some fashion or other. But then, there's so much 'gold' for one that knows books, like Triss saying, after you give her ring: "So you love me now. You've forgotten about her." Every person that read through books or stories knows who she is talking about. And then there's a story told by a barkeeper in the village of 'Deeps' about a princess called Cirilla – this story sums up the action of the whole The Witcher book saga.

Writing is good in The Witcher. Mostly because the dialogues are often a direct quote or a paraphrase of actual dialogues in the books. I don't know how much was Sapkowski himself involved in the making of the game, but some of the speeches I can't remember for my life from books reek of him. (I think Sapkowski's a good author – not a great one, but good – and his short stories are the best. He has a certain penchant for writing dark fantasy social satire. One of the dialogues I remember the most is a satire of the first sentence written in the polish language, which sums up to the archaic saying: "Give me this, I'll be beating the butter and you go get rest" which was paraphrased into a not so archaic: "Give me this, I'll be beating the butter and you go to the cellar and bring us beer".) There's a lot of candies that will be only understood by Polish, like: "Where's law and justice?", random shout by the city dweller, or Hierophants' "Two brothers (… ) they were changed into wild swans. Or was it wild ducks?".

And I scored it with the Princess of Temeria! Go me! Adda's card was the most lewd I've seen so far, even the town hall's worker wasn't so bad. But I like the idea of the cards, they're much more tasteful than similar things in other games. Really.

Battle system. I love it. I friggin love it. Seriously, I love the 'talents' idea, and I love how the actual fights take place. A word of ADVICE for you, peeps, if you decide to play: invest into silver and steel group fighting. It's going to bail your ass more often than not. I know it saved my ass more often than not.

Well, probably I'll get creamed later on by Kościej/Koshchey (You know, The Road with No Return 'Boss', With the Question "What is Kościej" and Answer: "I Think it's Death":>. I'm not going to friggin try to translate this name into English because the first thing that pops into my mind is BONER. The name implies 'made of bones' and 'bony' together with connection to several names for Death that are bound to its/her/his image as a skeleton.) I mean, I'm doing strong and group styles. He will probably need fast :>.

All in all, if you aren't offended by 'fuck', some lewdness and other slightly immature things, like a good story-wise, not exactly linear (should I kill the werewolf or not? What impact will it have on a later gameplay?) and not exactly cliché action rpg game,
BUY THE WITCHER!

(I know the game has some stability issues on Vista, but fuck-yeah, if the system restarts can't stop ME – and I get highly annoyed very, very fast – they won't stop YOU!)

You get to screw Merigold more than twice – and get two different cards so far :>~~ Will inform later on~~

PS. Happy New Year all around~~!

PPS. Anyone feeling generous enough to donate in some form the text of the English translation of The Witcher first book, The Last Wish ? I know it was already published in UK

...don't do seafood themed drinking parties... ever...

...especially when some of those things were suspiciously cheap...

...kamoboko is vengeful...

..that, and fried sardines...

...ugh?

PS. And that was a third time we had one of these. At least no octopi in own sauce... this time.

So... Today, in the evening, I got home. Procedure went *almost* okay. (I should have been on local aenesthetics, but, alas, the doctor makes the cut and I go: 'AIEEEEEEEEE~~!'. Then I remember slowly fading into black and waking up next day with a damn hangover after total unpaining.) I've got four stitches - and I was told by the nurse I'm lucky because those are the kind that does not stick to the *body*. I wonder how much will it hurt to get them out >.>, in two weeks time.

Oh, and I've got SAND. Known otherwise as Piasek. Not Piasecki. So, there's a much bigger procedure in my future that may include CUTTING OUT ONE OF MY ORGANS! (Sorry for the caps, but I feel like histerics right now. Trauma. The first time I was on gastric in hospital, for one day, I've seen around 4 people carted off under the sheets. It doesn't tend well to your trust in modern medicine.)

With all that was going around - and god forbid I get a complaint that your pet was in coma and I'm insensitive or something - I feel it went fairly well. Including my almost getting away from hospital two hours before my operation. No kidding, I started to put on my shoes. Going back to coma. Shit. I may be sarcastic or anything, because it is happening to my family member.

Shit, what now? I understand, ONE coma. Everybody deserves them there one coma. But waking up out of the coma, and DAY LATER slipping into another one!? FUCK! That's kinda low. And then, waking up out of your second coma, and then falling into THIRD ONE!?! That's low. I mean... have some decency. It's not like somebody hit you with the pan. No. You just had to go on a diet first, and then somehow manage to get your hands on a fuckton of sweets, and then eat nothing again? Christ. That's sick. You're not suicidal, you're just STUPID!

As for uncle, no change. He's terminal. It may take more or less time, but there's no denying. He may get out of the down, but that just means a few more months then.

Okay. Stop with depressing stuff. Before I got carted off to hospital, I got onto RF. Kobu... is... such a monogamous slut xP~~ It's sad there's only that little customization to the game because it's kinda pretty. (still, in his leather uniform he looks hot, and without it - sweet.) Okay, not Kobu, but that's my 'token' name for male characters (other tokens are Luce and Lust x3). He's swords are... well... lets hope it's not compensating xP~~ I think I'll make Luce a ranged class with pistols.

And after I got carted off. Well. I've got ideas. Sadly, my skills are lacking. F&A agreed to help. ~~

I'm checking into hospital. I'll be undergoing certain procedure tomorrow. I'm really afraid. So, as there is a slight possibility I may not come back (no matter how unintrusive this procedure is supposed to be, all procedures done on stomach are potentially deadly), I've asked a friend to upload certain things if this comes to happen. I'm so fucking afraid I'm crying for two days now already. I've lost my contact book for my cellphone, and it freaks me out because it seems so fucking ominous. So yeah… I'm terrified. Yesterday I was puking anything I've eaten, and today I'm not even allowed to eat. Bye. Hope to see you soon. I'm sorry for being a bitch, or not being there, or whatever. I'm posting the same thing on two other forum boards. Bye.

My country was once a People's Republic. It's full proper name still is 'People's Republic of..' but its more of a customary and older title than you might think. Not people's republic of the communist type (which we were from the time of the World War II till quite recently), but people's republic from old old times when it meant 'the thing of all people' or 'the thing that concerns all people' - Rzeczpospolita.

Poland was once Polska Republika Ludowa (PRL) - People's Republic of Poland - and it was a time of repression for all. Now, with the right-wing coalition at power, Poland strangely starts to resemble PRL they (rightists) oppose so. Ruling party's program seems to be centered around wiping out the opposition - the communists, the criminals - as they call the leftists.

And now, the tragedy struck. During the search in the early morning hours - 6 a.m. - of Barbara Blida's home, she shot herself. Or so they say. There's too much lies surrounding this case.

Barbara Blida was a former member of parliament and leftist minister. ABW (Agency of Internal Security) entered her house in the morning and proceeded to carry out a search warrant. There was no independent witness for the search (which in Poland is both customary and sanctioned by law - even in communist times there was always a witness except in cases when the breaking of individual's laws was blatant - and that never went unheard of), there was no tape from the search (except the one that is from before entering the house and lasts around 10 seconds), and quite possibly, there was no female officer.

Mrs. Blida asked to use the toilet, and, according to the most recent version we were fed, the female officer went in with her. There, Mrs. Blida took a gun from the cabinet and shot herself. In the chest. When the police officer was turned to her by her side. Let me rephrase that. The officer that supposedly went in with Mrs. Blida into the room, never turned her back on the accused woman. And Mrs. Blida took a gun out of the cabinet and managed to shoot herself in the chest, fatally. The gun that was in the cabinet is said to had the SAFTY TURNED OFF and been RELOADED. It's no friggin US of A where everybody and their dog has a gun. It's Poland, where the gun laws are very strict, and it's damn hard to get a permit - not to mention a gun itself.

And to shoot yourself in the chest? Fatally?

But the funniest thing is the whole scenario was to be a badge of merit for one of ministers. As it seems now, they had no proof warranting a search. They DIDN'T KNOW she had a gun (and yes, she and her husband were registered, it's quite easy to obtain this kind of information in Poland), and DIDN'T ASK for it. They most probably let her be ALONE. And maybe, they shot her. We will never know. But we will know they are lying. Because if government official tells during the press conference that he CAN'T say who they ARRESTED, he's LYING and COMMITING FELONY. He's withholding information he's obliged by law to present to the press. Because if government official says they acted upon the statement of accused person and that person publicly REFUTES this, HE IS LYING!

And you know what is the worst thing? Hah, you will never guess. It's… when you become angry enough to criticize them publicly… and you have a lot to say about the ruling coalition… and you suddenly stop, because you are AFRAID! You are afraid this will be traced to you because you know of people that were slapped with fines or even arrested for doing just such a thing. And you are strangely reminded of Peoples Republic of Poland, terror and censorship, exactly what the ruling coalition wants so desperately and fanatically distance itself from. Isn't it ironic? Never was the saying 'you become what you hate' so true as it is now. That's a country I live in. Fuck it. I can't wait to get away.