Chillin’

A quiet weekend this week; spent most of it reading and playing Diablo II, with sidetrips into fixing the extension cord for my wife’s hairdryer (which worked) and having a plumber in to sort out the heating in the dining area (which didn’t).

I’ve just finished reading Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist, as I’m on an economics kick at the moment, and studying it in a half-hearted sort of way. Harford’s book explains all manner of economic points in an accessible manner, from who really gets all the money from designer coffee like Starbuck’s to why the Shenzen Free Enterprise Zone was set up in China. I still struggle to see why in a perfect market the price, cost and value of an item would be the same, but now understand the concept of monopoly rents and why economists generally favour globalisation. I probably need to read this again at some point; right now I don’t know enough about economics to decide whether Harford’s comments are fact or opinion, although his arguments are clear and plausible.

Meanwhile, the adventure of upgrading Nick’s computer (we eventually had to put it back the way it was and give up on Spore; too many graphics artefacts, but kudos to CEX for their enlightened attitude to refunds) has led me back to older games. It started with an observation to Nick that he has a number of quite serviceable games he has never finished; then I thought, actually, so have I. I couldn’t get Fire Warrior to run, and the original Diablo lacks a number of conveniences such as waypoints and respawning, so I gave up on it after an hour or so; but Aliens vs Predator 2 and Diablo II work just fine. Diablo II in particular is a classic, completely capturing the feel of Dungeons & Dragons as we used to play it in the late 1970s, and still in my opinion the best game for LAN parties; Nick and I played with one of his friends all Saturday afternoon.