Sunday 16 March 2003

Pic of the day: Even my game characters are walkative. In Morrowind, they tend to walk (and run, and jump) between Balmora and Seyda Neen or Ebonheart practically every day.

Walkative thoughts

Isn't English funny? When people like to talk and talk, we call them "talkative". But there is no corresponding word "walkative" for those who like to walk. Perhaps it is because when we walk, we usually have a purpose, but not when we talk. Anyway, I am a fairly walkative person. Even at the office, I don't sit down for long. I get up and walk around. Often as not this is because someone has been asking for me, but if not I will find some reason myself. If I am at home a whole day, chances are I will take a walk even if I'm not going anywhere, but on workdays I don't need that. Today was not a workday.

Today I played Morrowind. I had started to play in order to get a desert picture for yesterday's entry, but after a while I realized that I had a rather specific desert picture in mind that I would have to get off Daggerfall. But I still kept the character I had created, and continued to play him today. The game is not so bad if you remember always to take Alchemy as a a primary skill. Anyway, I played until a while into the afternoon, then decided to take a walk in real life. I had just recharged the batteries in my minidisc Walkman, and set off playing those anime songs that I mentioned yesterday.

At first I repeated one track all the time, the intro song to Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto (the anime about a little catgirl princess). It is really cute. But after a while I got enough and put the player on random shuffle. I put it back in my pocket and enjoyed the last play-through of the song. Then I thought to myself:
"I'd like for Boy to be the next song." (The intro song to Tsubasa & Hikaru.)
"Wishing won't do, why don't you just select it?" replied myself.
"I have a feeling now that Boy will come up next."
"There are like a dozen songs, so it's not very likely you know."
"I'd like to think that it will come up next because I wished it."
"A minidisc player is a purely mechanical construct, following the laws of nature."
"Then it would be really creepy if Boy came up next, huh?"
"And remember, you gave up magic many years ago. So even if it were possible, YOU could not do it."
"Oh yeah. I guess so."
And then the song ended. And so did my inner debate, as both I and myself listened intently. I guess you all know by now what song came up next. Congratulations, you guessed right. Boy.

Of course I know it was just a coincidence. No reason to call the nice guys in white coats yet. When I announce that I'm going to walk on water, it may be time to react. Although, being me, it's more likely than not that I will try it somewhere really shallow.