Mass Effect 2 humour

The funniest Mass Effect 2 moments. Spoiler alert, obviously.

Tali and Garrus about the good ol' times.

And the most epic of wins, Joker and EDI during the Collector attack on the Normandy.

Caro Emerald

I'm in love.

Seriously. What a great song, and blinky-blink, what a beautiful woman. If this doesn't make you happy, then you might as well kill yourself now, because there's just no pleasing you.

Class. She has it.

Government

And here we are, the new year barely under way, and the government is about to fall apart. Good times, good times.

After years and years of blocking an investigation into the Dutch involvement in the illegal war in Iraq, our prime minister grudgingly buckled under the pressure early 2009, and ordered an independent investigation, the outcome of which was presented yesterday.

It was a bit of a shock. The report was extremely critical: the war was illegal (and as such, we should have never given our support to the US), and the Lower House was not given all the information the government had access to - which is a major political offence in this country. This harsh outcome came as a total surprise to the government, even though most of the rest of the country already knew this.

The outcome was indeed a shock, but the situation only turned full-scale ugly when the PM held a press conference yesterday, during which he basically declared the entire report to be nonsense. What made it worse was that he spoke for the entire cabinet without actually conferring with the three parties that make up the cabinet. One of those three is extremely pissed off about that.

The problem is that all these three parties are currently extremely unpopular, and as such, they are willing to swallow a whole lot of each other's stuff to prevent elections from taking place. We've had numerous sticky situations, but they were all resolved because of the mutual fear of elections. This time, however, it could actually happen. One of the most despised governments we ever had could fall today.

It's about fcuking time.

New England

Now this is something I haven't talked about a whole lot. In fact, few people know of this desire that I have. A desire that came out of nowhere. A desire hindered by several obstacles I won't be able to overcome.

For reasons unknown to even myself, I've gotten this idea in my head that I want to move to New England (CT, perhaps?). I haven't ever even been there, so this desire makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are so many obstacles blocking this desire that it makes little sense to even take it seriously - I'm happy where I am now, I get homesick quickly, and moving to the US would mean taking a few rather large steps backwards in civilisation compared to The Netherlands.

Most of all, however, I can't leave because I'd miss my parents, my best friend, and my other friends. How in the name of fcuk can I leave any of them behind?

This whole thing just doesn't make any sense. I'm attributing it to a case of late onset idiocy; I never went through a rebel phase when I was a teenager because… Shall we say, more serious concerns demanded my attention between the age of 8 and 20. I guess this is some lame pathetic attempt by my psyche to catch up.

Jesus Fcuk, I can barely spell "Connecticut".

Gilmore

There's kind of a running joke between my best friend and I. Whereas Renate is pretty much a tomboy (although you can't tell by looking at her), I'm more or less the opposite, immortalised by Renate's brilliant remark: Thom, sometimes, you're just like a guy.

It really doesn't help that my favourite TV series of all time is… Gilmore Girls.

It's the setting, the acting, the colours, the ever-present feeling of absurdity, like everything and everyone in Stars Hollow is slightly off-centre - Burtonesque, really. And, of course, the dialogue, which is so incredibly well-written, witty, well-executed, and filled to the brim with obscure references to films and music nobody knows. It's brilliant.

Ever since Eugenia started talking about colour grading, I realised that the crew of Gilmore Girls really know their shit in this field. Every setting has its own grading, making colours pop out, or wash out, in sync with the people and topic of the scene. Emily and Richard's house in Hartford feels slightly washed out, dark, and imposing - like a thick layer of whale blubber draped over the viewer, pretty much the sensation Lorelai has when she needs to go there. Stars Hollow, on the other hand, is packed with colour, making the town feel alive, happy, and safe - the complete opposite.

This extends to the music, which, throughout the entire series, remains mostly simple - acoustic guitar, a base line, and maybe some other minor instruments, augmented by variations of "la la la la" - you get to know this music, and you know what type of scene is about to come after hearing the first few chords.

Then there's the characters. This series has some of the best characters from TV history. The main characters are all very well rounded, with detailed histories, but on top of that, Gilmore Girls is packed with incredibly funny flat characters that play a big part in that whole absurdity thing I talked about. Taylor, Kirk, Babette, Patty, Michel, the troubadour - these people are caricatures of themselves.

However, the main attraction of this series is, of course, Laura Graham herself. I don't know where they found her, what she did before being Lorelai, or even what she's doing now, but she fits this role so well it makes me wonder if it's even a role at all. I'm generally quite intelligent and understand the difference between role and actor - but in the case of Lorelai, it's like role equals actress and actress equals role. It's not an easy one to portray, but she does it so well, so natural, so… Effortlessly - as if Lorelai is based on Laura herself.

Whether she's happy, sad, or angry - she's a joy to watch in whatever she does in this series.

And of course, the whole setting of the series is fascinating. Lorelai, from an old, wealthy, and Europeanesque New England family gets pregnant at sixteen, runs off to a small town, away from her old-world restrictive parents, and finds her place there, raising her kid on her own in this town where everybody seems a little off, a little crazy. She vows to do everything different from her mother, but as time goes by, Lorelai is more like Emily than she'd like to admit, and Rory is more like Lorelai than she cares to admit.

Don't get fooled by the girl designation of Gilmore Girls. This is top-notch television, and you owe it yourself to watch it, if only to experience something truly unique. I'm currently re-watching all the episodes again.