Can you believe it? A geek like me, and I don't own a copy of Diablo II? So I went out Friday night and bought a copy at EB Games. I have now learned a hard Diablo lesson: care for your weapons. Because it is not a good thing to suddenly have your sword break when you are deep in some fucking dungeon. No, it is not.
So I started over again with a sorceress. I've always shied away from playing magic users in any RPG game, so this is a whole new world for me. Your prayers will not go unappreciated.
Made it to karate class today. Spent two hours stick sparring. Funny how everyone there still makes light sabre sounds when we fight. I think you can't have a decent martial arts background without a decent helping of Star Wars mythology. When we switched to two sticks in each hand, someone made a General Grievous comment. Lucas would be proud. Or not, unless he could reshoot the moment and digitally enhance it.
It's late, and I have no wisdom. Bed beckons, and tomorrow's unavoidable hangover. Someone please tell me why I can't read during daylight hours, and why I don't get into books until one a.m? Anyone?
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Living an Arcade Fire Single
The power went out tonight at around 6:30 pm, and was out for two hours. I sat and read JSA Classified#3 by candlelight in the dining room. So it seems that Power Girl is actually a refugee from the DC Universe from before Crisis On Infinite Earths? Or is she actually Ultra-Man's cousin from the Crime Syndicate parallell universe? Or is she the daughter of Captain Marvel and Supergirl from the future? Is she an escapee from the Phantom Zone? Or do I not care at all as long as she doesn't change that uniform?
Also dug deep and picked up Green Lantern Corps Reloaded and the latest New Avengers. Have not read them yet. I did read the latest Conan, though. Busiek is adapting REH's The Tower of the Elephant, which I haven't read, so this is my first experience with the story. It reads very well, very well structured, and this first issue ends on a great cliffhanger. Really good stuff.
Outside, the lightning is forking across the night sky. Turn off the power, and it isn't long before a city begins to feel post apocalyptic. I drove out to try and find some place with power to get some dinner, and with the heavy rain, lightning, and the two CHRW disc jockeys discussing zombie movies, it bordered on the surreal.
Tired now. I was given two passes to A History Of Violence. Haven't decided if I'm going. I'm not sure if I can survive both David Croenenburg and Cher drooling over Viggo Mortenaragon.
Also dug deep and picked up Green Lantern Corps Reloaded and the latest New Avengers. Have not read them yet. I did read the latest Conan, though. Busiek is adapting REH's The Tower of the Elephant, which I haven't read, so this is my first experience with the story. It reads very well, very well structured, and this first issue ends on a great cliffhanger. Really good stuff.
Outside, the lightning is forking across the night sky. Turn off the power, and it isn't long before a city begins to feel post apocalyptic. I drove out to try and find some place with power to get some dinner, and with the heavy rain, lightning, and the two CHRW disc jockeys discussing zombie movies, it bordered on the surreal.
Tired now. I was given two passes to A History Of Violence. Haven't decided if I'm going. I'm not sure if I can survive both David Croenenburg and Cher drooling over Viggo Mortenaragon.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Sometimes It Works
The universe must have been preoccupied with something cosmic yesterday, because things actually went right.
Missed karate class because I couldn't find my gi--it actually turned up down in the basement, almost hiding in a corner. So I decided to go downtown and do the circle through the used bookstores and comic shops. Went into City Lights, moving through those cluttered, near overflowing corridors (I especially like the used RPG section, choking with 1st edition D and D books with the sign The Eye of Sauron Is On You to deter would be rogues), and found two books I've been looking for: Ian M. Banks' The Algebraist and Volume One of Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin. Stunned, I bought them, then waited for an anvil to fall on my head as I left the store.
Picked up two D and D figures from a local gaming store, where I think I was hit on by the twenty something university student behind the counter. She tried to read the back of The Algebraist through the bag I was carrying it in, and seemed fascinated by my purchases. Then she told me of her problems of trying to say 'Sod It' in Old English.
"Ye Olde Sod It," I offered.
"No, that's Middle English," she said.
"Stop showing off your education," I replied. "It's off putting."
She smiled. I'm old enough to be her father.
Headed down to Heroes, where Brahm had imported some Japanese Metal Gear Solid 2 mini statues. I couldn't say no, so I picked up Cyber Ninja.
Came home, had dinner. Cher and I watched two more episodes of Deadwood (it's slowed down a fair bit, and loses that feeling of anarchy and danger very present in the first few episodes: still good, but it does tread water instead of swimming bravely forward). Cher returned to reading A Hat Full Of Sky, because she's a sad Pratchett fan, and I returned to Metal Gear Solid, where I hid and cowered from Fortune's attempts at suicide.
Now it's Sunday. My Dungeons and Dragons game starts in an hour. I need to run today, or I'll just collapse into a stinking pile of geekdom.
Missed karate class because I couldn't find my gi--it actually turned up down in the basement, almost hiding in a corner. So I decided to go downtown and do the circle through the used bookstores and comic shops. Went into City Lights, moving through those cluttered, near overflowing corridors (I especially like the used RPG section, choking with 1st edition D and D books with the sign The Eye of Sauron Is On You to deter would be rogues), and found two books I've been looking for: Ian M. Banks' The Algebraist and Volume One of Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin. Stunned, I bought them, then waited for an anvil to fall on my head as I left the store.
Picked up two D and D figures from a local gaming store, where I think I was hit on by the twenty something university student behind the counter. She tried to read the back of The Algebraist through the bag I was carrying it in, and seemed fascinated by my purchases. Then she told me of her problems of trying to say 'Sod It' in Old English.
"Ye Olde Sod It," I offered.
"No, that's Middle English," she said.
"Stop showing off your education," I replied. "It's off putting."
She smiled. I'm old enough to be her father.
Headed down to Heroes, where Brahm had imported some Japanese Metal Gear Solid 2 mini statues. I couldn't say no, so I picked up Cyber Ninja.
Came home, had dinner. Cher and I watched two more episodes of Deadwood (it's slowed down a fair bit, and loses that feeling of anarchy and danger very present in the first few episodes: still good, but it does tread water instead of swimming bravely forward). Cher returned to reading A Hat Full Of Sky, because she's a sad Pratchett fan, and I returned to Metal Gear Solid, where I hid and cowered from Fortune's attempts at suicide.
Now it's Sunday. My Dungeons and Dragons game starts in an hour. I need to run today, or I'll just collapse into a stinking pile of geekdom.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Addicted Again
Okay, I'm officially addicted to Tales of Symphonia.I didn't mean to be. I'm very happy with my relationship with Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance.
Sure, I had my brief flirtations with Super Smash Bros. Melee, but it was meaningless. My heart belonged to Snake and that loser Raiden.
Then I was given Tales for my birthday.
I put it in the Gamecube. It started off terribly cheesy, with that annoyingness that some anime seems to glorify in. Still, I played on....and then two hours in, I fell in love. The story suddenly took a turn for the dark, and the characters were in serious trouble. And-more surprisingly--I cared.
Besides, any game that teaches you how to make cabbage rolls deserves my undying love.
Sorry, Snake. See you soon as I can.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Death From Above
I had a ceiling fall on me today. Which may explain my mood.
I wonder about people. I wonder about people whose focus in life isn't their families, but their jobs. I know people like that--people whose kids are complete fuckups, their husbands and wives are accessories, something they had to have by the time they were 25, so they could have kids they could then ignore, then complain to their coworkers when Little Johnny is hooked on speed and L'il Jenny is pregnant with her third set of twins by 14.
And yet these people seem to breeze through life. I think it's because they've taken selfishness to new, epic levels: they just don't let things bother them for long, because that's icky. So they put on the proper face when Little Johnny calls for bail money from Texas, (stick out bottom lip, furrow brow), then breeze into work, giggling 'Good Morning' and talking about shows they watched last night.
People. Fucking people.
I need to listen to the Clash. Loud.
I wonder about people. I wonder about people whose focus in life isn't their families, but their jobs. I know people like that--people whose kids are complete fuckups, their husbands and wives are accessories, something they had to have by the time they were 25, so they could have kids they could then ignore, then complain to their coworkers when Little Johnny is hooked on speed and L'il Jenny is pregnant with her third set of twins by 14.
And yet these people seem to breeze through life. I think it's because they've taken selfishness to new, epic levels: they just don't let things bother them for long, because that's icky. So they put on the proper face when Little Johnny calls for bail money from Texas, (stick out bottom lip, furrow brow), then breeze into work, giggling 'Good Morning' and talking about shows they watched last night.
People. Fucking people.
I need to listen to the Clash. Loud.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Oh La La! Comics!
Collapsed into chair, reached down to Pile of Guilt, read some comics:
Young Avengers #1-5: This book really should blow. I dismissed when I saw it on the stands, because a) it's another Marvel spinoff, which generally means it should be used for fertilizer or pulped to make toilet paper and b) the idea just sounded creatively bankrupt. (Again, that seems to be SOP for Marvel Comics these days.) But friends kept singing its praises, so I picked it up.
It rocks.
The story is fairly standard Avengers flavoured--time travel, Kang, end of the world stuff. But what sets it apart is the fairly original concept behind the series, the tight, funny writing, and the art of Jimmy Cheung. The first storyline is over, with the team refitting itself to bypass admonitions from Captain America to never try superheroics again. Again, Young Avengers is another 'teen' book in an industry that is in currently in love with the concept (Teen Titans, Robin, Batgirl, Supergirl, etc) but the vulnerability and sense of discovery of being a teen is kept alive here. I just find it odd that teen books are so popular, considering that most comic readers are in their late twenties and thirties. Is it dirty old men staring laviciously at Wonder Girl that is selling these books, or is this where the best writing is currently to be found?
Oh, and Kang? Enough of him, already. DC Comics makes a point of using the Joker only once every two years or so. They understand that great villains should be used sparingly. Kang has been in Avengers Forever, he was the major badass in Kurt Busiek's overlong Kang War, and he played a major role here in Young Avengers. Granted, of the three, his prescence made the most sense here, but still....retire the purple face mask for a bit.
Young Avengers #1-5: This book really should blow. I dismissed when I saw it on the stands, because a) it's another Marvel spinoff, which generally means it should be used for fertilizer or pulped to make toilet paper and b) the idea just sounded creatively bankrupt. (Again, that seems to be SOP for Marvel Comics these days.) But friends kept singing its praises, so I picked it up.
It rocks.
The story is fairly standard Avengers flavoured--time travel, Kang, end of the world stuff. But what sets it apart is the fairly original concept behind the series, the tight, funny writing, and the art of Jimmy Cheung. The first storyline is over, with the team refitting itself to bypass admonitions from Captain America to never try superheroics again. Again, Young Avengers is another 'teen' book in an industry that is in currently in love with the concept (Teen Titans, Robin, Batgirl, Supergirl, etc) but the vulnerability and sense of discovery of being a teen is kept alive here. I just find it odd that teen books are so popular, considering that most comic readers are in their late twenties and thirties. Is it dirty old men staring laviciously at Wonder Girl that is selling these books, or is this where the best writing is currently to be found?
Oh, and Kang? Enough of him, already. DC Comics makes a point of using the Joker only once every two years or so. They understand that great villains should be used sparingly. Kang has been in Avengers Forever, he was the major badass in Kurt Busiek's overlong Kang War, and he played a major role here in Young Avengers. Granted, of the three, his prescence made the most sense here, but still....retire the purple face mask for a bit.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
The Years of Decline Begin....Now
So I'm forty. Supposed to be either wise, bald, or sleeping with my secretary by now. Am none of the above. But I do have this to offer, and what you do with this is up to you. This is what I've gleaned from living for four decades here in the upper middle of North America:
There isn't as much juice in EverFresh gum as there once was.
It's disappointing, really. I received a package of EverFresh--the best damn gum in any universe--for my birthday. And that big explosion of tooth decay juice you used to get when you bit into it? Just a squib. Barely noticeable. Didn't stop me from chewing the entire package like a ravenous dog--if dogs ate EverFresh gum, which they shouldn't, but if they did.
So there. That's all I have to offer.
**************
Now that I'm a senior citizen, unable to wipe myself and smelling vaguely of sherry, I must be more diligent in finishing my video games. Which is why I'm still toiling away in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. (I love that it's called Substance after Hideo Kojima's favourite Joy Division album). I actually restarted the Raiden mission because once again, I had managed to get very deep into the game with next to no weapons or things you actually need. I swear, when I play Legend of Zelda I can get to the Last Boss Battle with one heart and a slingshot. I just rampage through game code, doing everything wrong, everything the hard way, then am screwed a la royally at the end.
This has happened in Knights of The Old Republic, where I managed to get trapped in a Tatooine cave with bounty hunters picking me off. Metroid Prime was a...prime...(sorry!) example of this as well, with me blundering through cavern after cavern, triggering events I had no chance of surviving, let alone understanding. Ditto with Fable. So now I'm going back, studiously checking a walkthrough, and making sure I do it right.
Soooo,now I have the M9, and can shoot bad guys without having to sneak up on them. (Never worked.) I have the thermal goggles. I've learned the joy of smoking and getting lectured from my girlfriend. I've learned the Colonel like sneaking into women's washrooms. And...and...I discovered--sans walkthrough--that if you pull the triggers on your XBox controller during Codec scenes, you get to hear Raiden's innermost thoughts on the person he's talking to.
They are, so far:
"Why don't you do it?"
"Whatever."
"She's so cute I can't stand it."
"I want you."
Which, umm, really isn't that big a deal, is it?
I'm such a Metal Gear otaku. No wonder girls don't call me.
There isn't as much juice in EverFresh gum as there once was.
It's disappointing, really. I received a package of EverFresh--the best damn gum in any universe--for my birthday. And that big explosion of tooth decay juice you used to get when you bit into it? Just a squib. Barely noticeable. Didn't stop me from chewing the entire package like a ravenous dog--if dogs ate EverFresh gum, which they shouldn't, but if they did.
So there. That's all I have to offer.
**************
Now that I'm a senior citizen, unable to wipe myself and smelling vaguely of sherry, I must be more diligent in finishing my video games. Which is why I'm still toiling away in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. (I love that it's called Substance after Hideo Kojima's favourite Joy Division album). I actually restarted the Raiden mission because once again, I had managed to get very deep into the game with next to no weapons or things you actually need. I swear, when I play Legend of Zelda I can get to the Last Boss Battle with one heart and a slingshot. I just rampage through game code, doing everything wrong, everything the hard way, then am screwed a la royally at the end.
This has happened in Knights of The Old Republic, where I managed to get trapped in a Tatooine cave with bounty hunters picking me off. Metroid Prime was a...prime...(sorry!) example of this as well, with me blundering through cavern after cavern, triggering events I had no chance of surviving, let alone understanding. Ditto with Fable. So now I'm going back, studiously checking a walkthrough, and making sure I do it right.
Soooo,now I have the M9, and can shoot bad guys without having to sneak up on them. (Never worked.) I have the thermal goggles. I've learned the joy of smoking and getting lectured from my girlfriend. I've learned the Colonel like sneaking into women's washrooms. And...and...I discovered--sans walkthrough--that if you pull the triggers on your XBox controller during Codec scenes, you get to hear Raiden's innermost thoughts on the person he's talking to.
They are, so far:
"Why don't you do it?"
"Whatever."
"She's so cute I can't stand it."
"I want you."
Which, umm, really isn't that big a deal, is it?
I'm such a Metal Gear otaku. No wonder girls don't call me.
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