Wire-d

Actually that title probably deserves the cliche achievement I attached below. It's been difficult to read a newspaper without bumping into an article about "the best show on television" (TM) - today I even found myself picking up a LondonPaper to read what actually turned out to be a rather good, if largely unoriginal, piece on its appeal - I just hope it's the sort of thing that gets people tuning in tonight.

I am glad that the overexposure hasn't turned me into the sort of person who, when something niche they were into strikes it big, turns into a massive hater, purely on principle. It was touch and go at the start of season 5, but I'm actually rather excited at the whole thing being blitzed on the BBC, an episode a night for - presumably - the next four or five months.

It really is a stand-out show (there's a new thought), the TV equivalent of a song like 'Stuck Inside of Mobile...' or a film like 'The Godfather' or a book like 'Red Storm Rising' that you can listen, watch or read again and again and again and again and still get a slight thrill when hearing the opening harmonica, seeing the opening wedding or experiencing the opening terrorist attack on an Azerbaijani oil refinery. It's one of those things you feel lucky about encountering whenever that happens.

Whore

I'm within tantalising proximity to the 'magic' 10k achievement point tally, which has led to me booting Left 4 Dead out of my Xbox (for what seems like the first time in ages) to try and hoover up some cheap points.

I've only rarely gone out of my way before to get these points, so hadn't quite realised how fun it can be. For instance storming the mock-up ship at the start of COD4 takes on a puzzle element as you try to trim a few seconds off your run each time (ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: NEW SQUADRON RECORD). This was one I actually picked up a while ago, but today I had a quick go at COD:WAW, mainly because I dimly recalled some achievements based on sniping a German general. Time pressures intruded, so I only picked up a measly 15 point bonus (ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THE PROFESSIONAL) and that was only thanks to some consultation with Gamefaqs. Just goes to show, there's no intriguing puzzle that impatience and access to the internet can't ruin.

I do understand the achievement whore mindset a bit better - when you're actually going for a self-imposed milestone (a certain proportion of points for each game, or a total of points overall) each step which takes you closer is exciting. It can also be a rather insidious tie to the Xbox above other platforms - why play the same game on PS3 when there's a chance to add to your gamerscore?

Left 4 Dead 4 Ever

The hold this game has over my free time is scary, especially as I now know the way to Mercy hospital probably better than I do the way to my local supermarket. The most insidious thing has been the way that various friends have joined up at intervals so that now, rather than relying on the - often very good-natured and enjoyable - random teams collated through match-making, I can count on a solid team of three (regular fourth slot yet to be filled).

This is before our group has even got seriously stuck into versus, so that whole aspect remains largely untapped (and this with the expansion due next month). L4D seems to be a title with a very long tail. It remains to be seen how far Valve cater to this with new maps (of which the expansion has none).

World of Potential

Just as the ipod really got me into listening to music again simply through having my entire record collection to hand wherever I happened to be, so a few days of Spotify have seen me listening at home in a way that hasn't been the case for a while.

It's taken me a time to appreciate it, but with Spotify you have whole oeuvres of music that you might otherwise never listen to just a few clicks away. I've got quite a few CDs but have never felt the need to go crazy on buying early American blues-folk. Happy to say that I've spent the best part of the day listening to Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and John Lee Hooker.

It's hugely addictive stuff and it feels great to listen to swathes of music that you feel guilty for never having heard before. Just goes to show how the internet still has the capacity to upset cynicism and throw up something that feels fresh, useful and expands your horizons in a way that felt impossible a short time previously.

Revival attempt number 2

The usual applies - I'm setting out on this with good intentions and all that but we will see. Main touchstones in life at the moment are attempts to elbow my way into the law (at a time when practically everyone else seems to be leaving), far too much Left 4 Dead, and an ongoing and unhealthy obsession with American politics and history.