Recently like the rest of you jobless sods ive been worrying about what to do with my life. Things are as you can tell are rather gash right now. No work,No Money,No cheese.Well there was cheese but not edible cheese and that came from 5 days of no washing HELLO !. Anyway Ive spent the past 2 weeks complaining about my position. Because lets face it, its not a good position, The Spread eagle is a much better one but since that doesnt get you a job I guess thats out of the question.Unless your a hooker. Then spreading eagle is a requirement. But since im rubbish at that too then I guess pimping myself is out of the question. Anyway off the point now.
The story takes place yesterday. On my way back from Cardiff on the train I sat opposite this guy. He was about 45/50 ish I would guess. He was short sighted and was very nicely proportioned. I mean really nicely. Like a lorry nice. He had a "cardiff bus" hat hat on and judging by it he was coming home very late from work. Probably to a tv dinner but there we go. He was sat on his own. And you ever get that feeling when you see someone and you have that weird feeling as if the person is in pain and you want to help. I usualy get it with old people. Its what I call puppy syndrome.But this guy changed that. He was reading a newspaper when some kids came on the bus. They were the usual 16 something plastic bitches that live all up and down our great nation. They sat next to him. And I saw the one give him a right look. They were so trying to be superior and stuff. As if they were in some sort of elavated position to say and do what they like to this man. I dont think he really noticed and continued to read his paper. Anyway later on I caught a glimpse at him. He was staring out of the window. He blatantly had a million and one problems. And here my fellow readers is where I had my epiphany. You see ive spent my weeks moaning to any S.O.B about my problems. How work is rubbish. No money etc. Yet there was this guy who was blatantly not very healthy, Couldnt move very fast or far and had a rubbish dead end job. The world looked against him in my eyes but here is the thing. He didnt look miserable. He looked dignified. He looked as if although all his problems content in himself. I didnt know why at the time that out of all the life experiences Ive had this one had such a profound effect on me. Now Ive realised why. Because Ive had it before. Few years back I went to a nursing home to see a relative. While there I saw this old man in a chair. A pale thin man on his last legs. By his side was a very frail old lady. They were sitting together. She was visiting her husband. It could well have been her last. I was never sure. Yet she did the most amazing thing in the world. As she got up to leave she didnt make a big fuss she just kissed him on the head and told him she would be back tomorrow morning. This doesnt sound like much but this was something that made me feel that my problems in life were minimal to something as large as loosing a loved one who you have spent many years with. Looking back I can see the relevance in that and the more I think about it the more I have realised that actions like these can shape us as humans. Back onto the train story. Just before he got off I had this need to speak to him. I did not know how though. So i wrote this for him. It reads...
" Dear Man on Train. Why are you so content? Can I have some please? Love Nick
He never recieved my letter. Yet I still think about what his reply would be. So there we have it. My story of the man on the train who may have possible changed my life.
Picture the scene. 1998.Or 1999. Neither have any real significance other than this is the time I had my very first computer. And one of those very first games I played (and stole off my cousin) was Duke Nukem 3d. It came in one cool as anything box that you dont see these days, You know them epic large (word) jewel cases. It had 2 sections to put disks in although looking back I dont see the relevance of the 2nd as it had no other games in there. Maybe I could store my forthcoming duke nukem games (lol) inside. It was also about this time that I heard that there was a sequel to Duke Nukem 3d coming out that year (if you know anything then you will remember when that release date was in relation to the dates mentioned above). The game was Duke Nukem sometime in the future.....or forever. Here is said trailer for game. I did not have the interwebz at this time so it wasnt until 2004 that I saw this trailer but I like to pretend I saw this in whatever year it was.
Check that out !
The trailer told me to bet on Duke. Like some sort of musclebound gambling addict. And I would. I would have at the time bet a lot of what I didnt have for that. But there we go. In Hindsight Betting on Duke was not Such a great idea.
Que 2001. I was in a french class. Not a class in france but I class specificaly designed for the teachings of french. And by this time i had kind of forgotten a lot about the game. Because as I said earlier this was the time before the internet and such I was a bit behind on the news. But my friend dropped me a disk on the table. It was for the new PC gamer. It had apparently the most kick ass trailer of Duke Nukem foreve....ever (not duke nukem foreverever but as in the best trailer for it in a specific time space). I took it home. Opened the disk tray, Put the disk in, Closed it. And it didnt load...theres the end of that. So using my amazing ability to use the school computers I fashioned myself a fancy google search and found the new trailer. Holy me I thought. That looks rather spiffing. I must be purchasing this game eventually. When is it out I asked... "When its done" Balls........of steel. What kind of half brained date is that. But if only I was a bit older I would have realised what I have now realised that this date would be an epitaph to 3d realm's grave...its shallow grave ( because duke lets face it was a bit shallow )
But none the less I wanted this game. I infact begged my parents for a new pc. And after about an age of begging we got a new computer.And a free copy of splinter cell....Nice. Years past and nothing. After that all to brief (apparent all made up) footage from the 2001 trailer which I am not going to post up here because I frankly cant be arsed there was nothing. No more news. Sure we had Duke. We had a fair share of duke at the begginning of the decade. I had just purchased me copies of Time To Kill and Land of the Babes and the talk of a new Duke Nukem side scroller was all too exiting. But where was Duke? Where was he really? There were all these other new characters taking the spotlight. Master Chief had just done that thing where he pissed off a million fanboys calling his franchise milked after just one game. The internet revolution on consoles seamingly came out of nowhere and exploded onto the scene. But where was Duke? Answer. He had fucked off. And I had too. All the way up untill 2007. December 17 2007 infact. A little teaser showing Duke being Duke appeared all over the internet. I exploded with exitement.I didnt care where he had gone now but he was back ready to kick ass. Then nothing. Dead...no more Duke. For another year. We had some nice little screenshots of Duke Nukem forever inside Duke Nukem 3d on xbla. Exitement again. Then nothing..Silence...until may 2009 You know there are those people. Idiots I call them. They say such rubbish as "Can you remember where you were at 9/11". Or any of those kinds of things. Well I cant. I cant remember what I was doing but for any loyal Duke Fan there is one day you can remember. The Day we saw that really awful "goodbye" picture on the Duke Nukem forever website (www.3drealms.com). We were all shocked...well we werent because lets face it they had made jack all for years but there was still that weird sinking feeling. Loads of people were linking me to websites. You heard this? You heard that. Yes I have. But little did I know this was just the beginning. Im not going to bore you with any more details really but you all know what has happened this past year. Videos,pictures,court cases,date teases,rumours etc. Its as if the Duke Nukem hype train found one last lump of coal before spluttering Thomas the Tank Style. Crude Photoshop to prove a point.
This isnt one of those blogs to rip into 3d realms. Nor is it an analysis on how they went wrong. No this is a look back at the time ive spent with Duke. Since Duke Nukem Forever first came into my life I have purchased No more than 5 Duke Nukem games. One of those is 3d which I got for xbla and will be purchasing the upcoming Duke Manhattan project. I had a Duke Nukem action figure who would regulary Duke (ha) it out with the resident evil cast of figures and I have been one of the only people I know who wanted to Keep the Duke Dream alive. Sadly that is not the case. Duke left me many years ago without telling me. Like an affair if you will. I feel like he cheated on me behind my back. But that could be because ive been reading too many mills & boon novels. But would I take him back? After all he has done. Would I let that man back into my life. Yes I would. Id let him back to assault my bad taste and rob me of even more precious years we spent appart as I waited patiently like a puppy at the window for his return. You can come back one more time Duke. But after that your out the door. Because im a new woman etc etc etc.... Ive had many in my time. From the green steely grip of the chief to the warm soft embrace of a necromorphs claw. But you were one of a kind duke. You werent like one of these others. You were a man. You were THE man. You were The King.
