open other end

This is a sort of a draft, something I want to work up as a set piece to perform when I ever get around to performing again:

And did those feet, in Ancient times
Walk up on Queensland’s mountains green?
And was the holy lamb of God
Ever in Queensland’s pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our granite hills,
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among the tropical sugar mills?

Bring my slab of Forex Gold
Bring me my eskies of desire
Hand me a beer, make sure it’s cold!
Bring me my Holden ute of fire.
I will not cease to sober up
Nor shall me tinny sleep in my hand
Till we have found Jerusalem
In Queensland’s warm and pleasant land.

No apologies to Blake, but perhaps a shout or two. Not Gold of course, not even Forex.

[The title of this post is apparently from the safety instructions on a Taser]

I’ve been talking to a few people about my plan to use my stimulation bonus (aka Pennies from Kevin) in an entirely frivolous way, ie to get into video games.

So I’ve drawn up a shopping list:

• EBGames’s XBox 360 Pro bundle includes an Xbox 360 Pro, an HDMI cable and Gears of War for $398.
• Umart have a Samsung Syncmaster 2333SW 23″ widescreen monitor with a DVI-D input that supports HDCP for $285, and an HDMI to DVI-D cable for $16.
• PGR4 and SEGA Rally are in EBGames’ “2 for $50″ sale
• So are Assassin’s Creed, Stranglehold, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Eternal Scroll IV: Oblivion and the “play and charge” kit for the XBox 360 wireless controller
• Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII is $19.95 new or $17.95 used
• The Xbox game Crimson Skies is $14.87 used, I’ll have to download the backwards compatibility pack.

Along with perhaps an extra pair of headphones the total ends up so close to $900 there’s nothing in it. However I’m aware that I’ve left out some notable titles, specifically:

• Fallout 3, Bioshock and Fable II all interest me, but I haven’t fit a new release into my initial purchase. I’ll be looking at demos and rentals before making another step in that direction. Same is true for Call of Duty and Brothers in Arms.
• Likewise air combat games involving jet aircraft and AAMs. I’m pretty old-school, even leaning toward steampunkishness with aerial combat games. It seems the console world is a little impoverished in retro aviation games, though that’s a situation I hope will improve.
• Likewise the GTA series: I’ll probably get GTA IV eventually. Same applies to genre-mates like Saint’s Row and Crackdown, though these may present less expensive intermediate options.

So in any case, that’s my initial research, and my list of choices based upon it. I’m keen to hear from others about “must have” games. On the one hand, I’ve been perfectly happy with the Civ series on computers for so many years now that I expect I’ll mostly be happy with a handful of games, but it does seem that in the console world new games are a constant need.