As I mentioned in a previous blog post, completing my PhD thesis has given me some time to disconnect myself from the real world and to take some pleasure in escapism. I had a huge list in my mind of things I wanted to do – games I wanted to play, books I wanted to read, TV shows and films I wanted to watch, and activities to pursue. So far I haven’t done too badly, though I’ve merely been scratching the surface.

Firstly, I delved into Fallout: New Vegas on the Xbox 360. I loved Fallout 3, so I was really looking forward to this. I played through the main quest and several side-quests in the game and logged around 50 hours of gameplay. Initially, the game didn’t quite grab me the way Fallout 3 did – I guess I can put this down to post-apocalyptic wasteland fatigue – but as it progressed, and as I finally found my feet in the world, I became hooked. This did take a considerable amount of time investment prior to being hooked though, so if you’ve played a lot of Fallout 3, it’s pretty much more of the same. You’ll enjoy it, it’s definitely a great game, but it might not grab you the way Fallout 3 did. If you’re new to the Fallout universe, you’ll probably love it. Also, I totally did not realise that Matthew Perry was voicing Benny until the end credits scrolled. I guess Bethesda gave him a call when they found out he crippled his hand after playing so much Fallout 3. I also got around to completing Halo: Reach, which was probably my favourite of all the Halo games I’ve played – excellent soundtrack too!

Around the time I was finishing off Fallout: New Vegas, I became a bit ill. Funnily enough, my supervisor in Health Sciences at my university told me this would probably happen – apparently it’s pretty common for a person’s immune system to take a beating once the adrenaline wears off after submitting a thesis and exhaustion takes grip. I couldn’t really face playing games, so I lay in bed for a few days watching Twin Peaks. For those who don’t know of Twin Peaks, it was a TV series created by David Lynch back in 1990. Think of it as the weirdest, darkest, funniest, most out there soap opera you could imagine. It was hugely popular back at the time when it was airing, but due to pressure from the TV networks to maintain high ratings, certain parts of the plot were forced to be revealed early, which meant half way through the second series the show hit a bit of a plot slump. Thankfully, it managed to get back on track for the final few episodes of Season 2, but sadly did not got recommissioned for any further series. I took a chance on this series, buying the boxset before I’d even seen one episode, simply because I’d read a little about the show and its cult status and it sounded right up my street. Thankfully, it was fantastic. It’s sad that the show was cut short, but even now, 20 years on, the show was a breath of fresh air to watch. If you have never watched Twin Peaks, I highly recommend you correct that error as soon as you can. It is… excuse me… a damn fine TV show. I’ve watched I can’t tell you how many TV shows in my life, but this, this is one the best (obligatory show quote reference). It made my illness somewhat bearable (although it did give me some pretty messed dreams, thankfully not as messed up as Cooper’s dreams).

Next, on to books. I’ve bought so many books over the past few years and barely got the time to read any since my eyes were always ridiculously tired after each day of work. So now was a fine time to get down to some reading. First up, I read J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye for the first time. The book is narrated by Holden Caulfield, a cynical teenager who is disillusioned with the world and the people around him and who gradually falls into a downward spiral. Part of me wishes I had read this when I was a teenager as I think I would’ve connected a lot more with the character’s angst and cynical views of the world. Reading it as a 26 year old, I found it hard to sympathise with the guy, and actually quite disliked him as a person. I know this is considered a literary classic, but, sadly, it really wasn’t for me. Next, I moved on to something a bit more my style – Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. My first encounter with Neil Gaiman was watching the excellent film, Coraline, which was based on his novel of the same name. The book centres around the character of Bod (short for Nobody), a young boy whose family was brutally murdered when he was a baby and who unintentionally escaped to the nearby graveyard where he was taken in and raised by the spirits there, determined to keep him safe from the evil man responsible for the murder of his family. The book took a while to lure me in, but yesterday I spent a good 5 or so hours reading the second half of the book which was absolutely captivating (no mean feat given my short attention span!). A recommended read – likeable characters, enchanting scenarios and a great plot, particularly in the latter half. I’m now intent on checking out another of Gaiman’s books, The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch.

On the musical side of things, 2011 has already brought plenty of great albums from the likes of (Youtube links to tracks contained within): And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Radiohead, The Joy Formidable, Mogwai and Cut Copy. More goodness to come throughout the year as well, notably from Explosions in the Sky – shaping up to be a great year of music already.

In addition to all this, I’ve also been trying to develop my skills a bit by brushing up on C++ programming and having a go at iPhone app development. I also intend on finally playing with that Arduino I got a while back. Free time is chuffing great!

One final thing, I was giddy as a schoolboy watching this new Skyrim trailer earlier today. 11th November really cannot come soon enough!

It’s amazing when you actually get some free time – you make a list in your head of all the things you want to get done, subsequently occupy all free time trying to get all these things done, and inevitably don’t have enough time to get all those things done. I guess the important thing is I’m putting my free time to good use, even if I don’t get to do everything I intend to, right?  Anyway, blogging just happens to be one of those things, and today I made a start on that, and man did I forgot how long it can takes sometimes. I spent most of today writing a blog on my top 10 favourite albums of last year – not exactly timely, but music sharing and discovery need never be untimely! You can check out this post over on my Alpha Waves music blog: My top 10 albums of 2010.

In other news, I saw this trailer last night and thought it was fantastic. It merely intrigues me about the game – it doesn’t suggest the game will be good, since it doesn’t show gameplay – but damn it if it isn’t one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a long time. This was all over Twitter last night, so I’m guessing it’s provoked a high level of hype, and so whoever put the trailer together has definitely done their job well. Check it out, here’s the trailer for the upcoming game Dead Island (warning: contains simulated gore):

Normal blogging service will resume shortly. Since I submitted my thesis I’ve taken ill (I guess better now than while I was working towards a deadline).  Anyway, saw this yesterday and connected with it way too much. I am too damn excited for the new Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim. Although, maybe not this excited*:

* Debatable.