So I'm kind of going into a dark tunnel of expectations.
The last hostel I stayed in, in the Peak District, met my low expectations: dark Victorian furniture, threadbare carpet, thin mattresses and a chill wind blowing down the corridors.
With series creator Hideki Miyazaki back at the helm for Dark Souls 3 expectations for the latest in the notoriously difficult action-RPG series are probably higher than they've ever been.
But if the run-up to Greece's election on January 25th has proved anything, it is that politicians have become masters in the dark arts of expectation management.
Some even see a dark side to surpassing expectations.
"Everything about this dark, disquieting story confounds expectations," Marilyn Stasio said here last year.
But from then on, everything about this dark, disquieting story confounds expectations.
Like most of their previous meetings, the one taking place on Friday between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will occur under a dark cloud: a yawning expectations gap on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
A 3% increase in the value-added tax (VAT) at the beginning of 2007 cast a dark shadow over Germans' expectations; it was the largest tax increase imposed since World War II.
But then, defying expectations, the dark and innovative films that made up much of this year's roster began to create a stir, and suddenly the odor of infirmity drifted away.
