Monday, November 24, 2008

Dots per Inch

I'm all over the place today, and I can thank my new little electronic rodent for that. Yes, a new mouse. My old one crapped, and halfway through correcting a photo, it decided that the picture would look better with a big white smear through it.

As you can well imagine, when mice misbehave, they are taken out back and shot.
Well, no. I'm not that cruel. They get put downstairs as a spare for anyone that needs one. Even a malfunctioning - but functional - mouse is better than a dead one, so it's into the cupboard.

See that? That's a normal two paragraphs about a normal thing.

Lets talk about the future, shall we? I know I've often written about it as a great gaping maw, an infernal blazing furnace into which we insert our ambitions to be forged into reality. It's not quite that dramatic. Not now anyways.

I feel like I've woken up from kind of a slumber lately. I've been watching things, hearing things, and seeing things, but not really reacting. It all just gets absorbed and stored away. I can't imagine it being a malicious thing, but I guess I just needed an in-brain vacation.

I'm back now.

I guess while I was away from terrestrial thought, two friends of mine decided it would be a good idea to look at getting married. Correct me if I'm wrong, Trev and Trace, but if I didn't congratulate you two because I was out of the loop, I'm sorry, and I'm rectifying that shit here and now. If I didn't congratulate you two because it never actually happened, I'll go talk to a doctor about taking a permanent trip, so you guys don't have to put up with my lunacy.

I guess another friend of mine - who doesn't read this - left his girlfriend of two years. It was a strange and heartbreaking affair, made only stranger that now, two months later, they're back together again. I don't know how I feel about that, but I will say it's not warm fuzzy appreciation. Next couple to get into an unmarried fight in front of me is getting both their clocks cleaned by yours truly.

I guess the world's economy has collapsed. I've been slightly aware that work has been deader than usual, and the price of things has greatly come down. How this is bad for everyone, I'm still trying to process in my brain. From my understanding, a bunch of incredibly rich individuals and corporations have lost a lot of money on stupid gambles, and now they're trying to con and swindle the rest of us into footing the bills.

Well, not us per say, but the government - slash - governments, because I guess it's worldwide.
Somebody should tell that to the big-three automotive manufacturers in the US. Flying private jets to Washington to plead for handouts. Maybe you'd like your scraps on a gold platter too. And while you're eating, maybe you could design a car that's not a miserable piece of shit too. That's just my thought as a *cough* proud owner of a domestic car.

I almost said house car there. Akin to the feral house cat, the house car prowls in unused air ducts, stalking its elusive prey: the domesticated caravan. The house car has been listed as a critical species due to poaching and competition from non-native alley cars which were inadvertently brought to the mainland of North America on trade liners.

Back on topic.
So, economic decline. I'm seeing a lot of opportunity, but I'm guessing a lot of people are going to be out a lot of money as the markets tumble and crumble and mumble.
I have a feeling that we'll all be alright, and those who work hard, will only work harder to ensure they're taken care of. Either that, or now is a very good time to start dreaming. I know it sounds counterproductive, but a lot of forces that would be on your back for rising up have bigger fish to fry right now, so fly. Be free.
Or some other applicable rhetoric. In the words of the vortigaunts, "Be adequate."

Tomorrow is a long day. The plan is thus:

Currently, beside me, there is a large, blank slab of wall. Imposing. Bland. Boring.
After much consideration, and almost 70 8.5x11 prints, I will transform said wall into:
MASSIVE PHOTO COLLAGE.

Most of you will have a place there. The ones of you I've taken pictures of anyway. Those of you that I haven't, I haven't forgotten you. Not yet anyway. Though no guarantees once I'm over sixty.

And I suppose that bring me to my plans in the summer.
There is, in the back of my mind, a road map for a grand tour of our North American continent. I cannot decide whether to go north or south or west at this point, as I've already gone east, and I doubt they'd want to put up with my pasty, beefeating, angliphone ass for another week.
So the question is thus. Do I impose on BEAUTIFUL BRITISH COLUMBIA?
Do I thrust myself on the mighty US of A, HOME OF THE BRAVE AND LAND OF THE mostly FREE?
Or do I head elsewhere entirely?

Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

And I have yet no time

Between work and other engagements, I've been trying my best to keep up with the deluge of games coming out for the Christmas season. It's no mistake that companies do this every year - largely because their sales and PR departments are run by degenerate apes who tie in sales of everything to the Christmas season.

Games don't need a special season. They can sell whenever. But I get where they're coming from. Try telling that to a big-wig CEO who wants to see some black numbers for Q3, or whatever bullshit lingo they use for the Sales Season.

Anyway, off that rant, and onto the games I've been playing:

Fallout 3:

In all honesty, I was expecting... I don't know... more. I'd been playing STALKER up until the release of Fallout 3, and since I've never played the original or Fallout 2, I'm missing a lot of what happened in the universe prior. My largest problem could just be that fact. A lot of the content is delivered with a sly wink, like it's some inside joke, and I'm just not getting it. Sorry home-slice, but back in the day, I was more interested in piloting fighter-craft through solar and extrasolar mines.

It's been fun so far, don't get me wrong. But after playing STALKER, which despite bugs and horrible translations, still oozes atmosphere and made me jump more than once. After dropping a Super Mutant who was menacing me with a minigun with little more than a switchblade, I decided that perhaps this wasn't the game for me.

Dead Space:

Yes, I'm coming back to it, simply because I've now started my second play-through. Despite having grossly upgraded weapons and better suits now, the game still fucks with my head, convincing me that certain death is still around every corner. Honestly, you could put me in a goddamn mech with the hand of God as my weapon, and I'd still shake with fear at every long hallway and blind junction. It's just that good.

Fable 2:

One of my few titles for the X-box, Fable 2 was bizarrely addictive for about the first three days. I've played through as both good and evil, pure and corrupt, and I like the amount of work that's gone into realizing the world, and more importantly, its mechanics. In all honesty, if you wanted to, you could marry yourself to thirty different women (or men) and just spend the rest of the game trying to keep them all happy, while simultaneously trying to micro-manage your rapidly multiplying progeny.

Yes. You have kids. In the same game where you get bonus experience for scoring a headshot.

WoW: WOTLK

Yes, I choked and went and bought the new expansion, largely just so I could play as a Death Knight - a class that I was looking forward to playing way back when the game first came out. As you can probably imagine, I was very disappointed when I discovered that there were no Death Knights, but I'm pleased the situation has since been remedied.

On top of those titles, I've also been passing some time playing titles such as Braid, Castle Crashers, and of course, the ADHD Ritalin-fest that is Geometry Wars.

I know there's a lot of other titles still out there, but I'm pretty content with my platter thus far, and I will probably be so for well into the new year.

Cheers.

Monday, November 10, 2008

A Time

Snow crunches underfoot, and a kind of hush falls over the valley. Snow drifts lazily down, almost standing still in the air as each flake tumbles a wild, slow, sad dance to the ground.

"This is your favorite season?" she asks, almost sadly.

Looking out across this frozen, sleepy landscape, I nod slowly, breath hanging in the air. Beneath all the white, beneath the freezing blanket, the land sleeps. Trees and grass and wildflowers. They all sleep, beneath the curls of hoarfrost and the spinning flakes of winter's first deluge.

"It is," I reply, finally.

The sun is setting - though at this time of year, it barely even rises. Right now, it's little more than a smear of orange and pink across steely slate clouds. After nearly eight months under its baleful gaze, it's a relief to be able to look upon the burning orb and not have to wince.

Winter is going to be painfully short. It has been and it continues to become moreso. I remember as a child living under the oppression of eight months of snow, and in those cold, reclusive months, I learned to find the subtle beauty, the lonely solitude, that winter affords. It's a time for sleep and reflection.

And most of all, it's a time to be alone.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Onwards, Upwards

It sounds like Barack Obama has won the election and become the 44th President of the United States of America.

Well, congratulations to him. I know a lot of people all over the world that are sleeping a little easier tonight.

On a completely unrelated note, I picked up two new games not long ago. Dead Space, and Fallout 3. Not to mention Fable 2 for the Xbox, which I've been playing and since have beaten.

Dead Space is by far the most intriguing title in my collection so far. It's a survival horror that's combined my favorite aspects of Aliens and Resident Evil into one title of sheer terror. I had to cease playing 15 minutes into the game, just out of sheer terror at the thought of having to walk back across a shadowy catwalk into - what I thought was - certain and gruesome death.

Dan, if there's one horrific game you get this year, I'd recommend Dead Space. The rest of you, I'd only recommend it if you enjoy playing in an atmosphere of unadultered terror and discomfort.