All right, I promised you guys that I would talk about GASP. The Gaming Association of Southwest Pennsylvania is a regional board and tabletop gaming group that meets monthly. We play obscure board games and on occasion roll a little of the polyhedra. Coincidentally, I tracked down an old module and have begun preparations to run a one-shot D&D session of my own during these times (there’s on the order of 50 of us, so it’s not like there won’t be people doing other stuff or I’d be monopolizing the event). So, that’s that; it’s pretty basic and nothing too spectacular.
I also said I’d talk about the whole ‘workout’ thing that I’ve been doing. To be honest, there’s not much to say– I’ve gone to the gym four times so far, today was the fifth, and I’m working on increasing stamina and maybe a little bit of ab definition and arm strength. The primary purpose is to just get me moving in a comfortable environment. I’m certainly not going to suddenly go overboard and work towards being an Arnold-like muscle mass. I’m about twenty years too late to want to do that.
There’s also my task of finding a literary agent for Blueberries; letters are going to be written and sent out, if not during the week, then on Saturday. I have my resolution to keep, after all, and a list of forty agents with more to come. I’m probably going to start sending out review copies to friends and family soon, so if you’re interested in giving it a look, please let me know.
Finally, MacWorld is tomorrow. I’m severely psyched for the show and the announcements, but the problem is that the odds are starting to swing away from an iPod/Touch refresh and more towards a MacBook announcement. Whatever “Air” is, it’s going to be ‘big’ but not for me. Moreover, it’s only been three months since the Touch was released, and I don’t think Apple would be willing to take that kind of a bath by dumping a new model this soon after Christmas. I’m looking forward to whatever’s up tomorrow, but for now my expectations are a little deflated.
While the net amount of time spent on this wound up being actually longer than it would have taken to write about it, the results speak for themselves. Watch– watch and feel the power of epic failure.
These past few weeks I’ve been pretty heavily indulging in the geeky pursuits closer to the LJ-style than those things which would be applicable to blog entries. That naturally leans a bit more towards these posts being somewhat leaner than the LJ posts; then again, to be totally honest, after a month and a half of neglecting gaming and anime in favor of writing, the balance needs to be maintained again. I wouldn’t count on my attention wandering back to writing for a few more weeks, anyway, but I assure you it will in time, especially given that I’m likely to be doing up the first batch of query letters at some point this week.
On Thursday I’ll likely have something to say about life that’s a bit… let’s call it, unorthodox for me. There’s also tech news from CES rolling in, and that’s completely neglecting the matter of the upcoming Macworld show where undoubtedly people will be inundated with remorse over their post-Christmas impulse purchases of iPods or iPhones. (I came about twenty minutes away from breaking down and getting an iPod Touch myself these past couple weeks, but I didn’t, and I’m counting my blessings with each rumor that arises.) If there’s one thing that I really miss, it’s a May E3; still, I remember when there was no E3, and CES was the big event for both tech and gaming. I’m sure I’m not the only one to remember reading about CES in Nintendo Power long, long ago. Anyway, the tech news might be better held on to until the middle of next week.
Unrelated and slightly gaming-related: Playing through the first few bits of StarTropics last night, I came across an NPC proclaiming herself to be “Miss C-Island 1990″. And holy crap did that make me feel old. Hmm… now that I think about it… Well, I’ll just keep that idea quiet for now.
Catch you all tomorrow on the other side. Maybe with some thoughts on StarTropics and a quick update on Eternal Sonata.
Also: After finishing the post for today, Steve over at the Wicked Good Podcast brought it to my attention that The Mole is returning. Let me repeat that so it sinks in: The Mole is returning. Twice before was I denied the opportunity to go on the show, but now… NOW….
Just a little reminder: this week, M/W/F’s posts are on the LiveJournal, while T/Th are here. I have a little bit to say tomorrow about something going on, but for right now, just go over to the LJ and check out what I have to say regarding Ai Yori Aoshi, Gundam SeeD, Eternal Sonata, and Geometry Wars.
Also, for the record? I really, really wish LJ had a better ‘drafts’ feature. Just sayin’.
Over the past few days, I’ve been seeing ads around town for a particular car dealership. Like most dealers, this one is named after the proprietor, whose last name is Italian and somewhat complex. Ordinarily it wouldn’t register very much in my mind except that I have moments of misreading, where a perfectly normal word is mutated upon examination to something dreadfully out of context.
So when I happened to see the latest ad for what I initially read as “Castrato Cars”, my mind went to that creepy place that it should not have been permitted to go. I even composed a little slogan for this just plain wrong dealer: “We bust our balls to get you in our cars!”
So, things are quiet this morning. Yesterday was quite relaxing; nothing of any real interest happened, except I treated myself to the last trip to the Chinese buffet for a very long time.
I also went to see The Golden Compass, which was a bit of a mistake; the film wasn’t bad as much as it was disappointing. It didn’t have an ending so much as they ran out of film and just put the credits on. Put another way, it felt like they were making the movie as if it were an episode of a television series, and not even a particularly well-paced one either. If they bother continuing it– which I would doubt at this point– the next one is going to be criticized for starting with a huge set of downers. Ah well.
Anyway, nothing much else to report right now; there are a few things I have to say about the gaming and anime accomplishments, especially Senko no Ronde, but those can wait until tomorrow. It’s strange, really; the first day I try to focus on life stuff, and my acute lack of a life hinders it. I suppose it’s no less than I deserve, though. Catch you folks tomorrow.
At 2:21p, I cleared Story Mode with four characters in WarTech: Senko no Ronde on the Xbox 360. This is the first game cleared in 2008. The next game that is closest to completion is Eternal Sonata (360), followed by Touch Detective 2 1/2 (DS) and (nothing else started).
The seal on purchasing new games will be broken on April 1st, 2008 if there are greater than five Game Clears before then, or March 1st, 2008 if there are greater than eight.
(Xbox Live Update: Gamercard is back to normal! Yay! And the little thing on the Xbox page reads “Up and Running”, so hopefully I’ll be (theoretically) able to play online matches! YAAAAY! Not that I’m going to, since I have Eternal Sonata and Senko no Ronde to go through, mind, but if I wanted to, I could.)
[Don't forget that today starts the Split Updates. I made a post on the LJ about the gaming and anime plans for the year, specifically Ai Yori Aoshi and Eternal Sonata. Head over there at your leisure.]
Well, it’s the new year, folks, and after much hype and talk about it, 2008 is finally here. All those ridiculous discussions about what we were going to plan for this year are now, hopefully, past us, as we embark on what’s been called the big, scary, fun adventure ahead of us. Many of you are probably still asleep as I write this, and I don’t blame you; I figure after 2007, most of us deserve a little bit of rest. Me? I’ve done something I haven’t really done before: I opened the curtains in my living room, and I’m sitting here in the darkness. Waiting.
My living room window faces east, you see, and previously it was a bit of a nuisance. I remember when I first moved in here in August of ‘06, and I hadn’t thought to bring curtains or anything else besides my computer or a couple of blankets– the circumstances were rushed, mind, and I had been forced to spend the night here before I was really prepared. When the sunlight caressed my face early that summer morning, and I looked out into it, I will admit to being somewhat annoyed. “I’m exposed,” I thought. “This place is going to be totally exposed unless I do something. This is a problem.” My mom sent along some heavy curtains, and I put them up presently– blocking out the eastern sunlight. There have been days I’ve wished I hadn’t picked an east-facing apartment, but today? Today is definitely not one of them.
We always look to the beginning of the year as a time of new beginnings, and yet we’re too smashed from our celebration– our mourning– of the old year to really get up and appreciate the new one’s arrival. We have another three hundred and sixty five sunrises, we think– what’s this one more? (I didn’t miscount; it’s a leap year, remember?) But there’s something inherently beautiful about the first sunrise, I think. There’s something in those first rays of sunlight– which functionally are identical to any other castoffs from our closest star, being simply some electromagnetic radiation that’s the result of nuclear fusion– something there that makes it feel different. Makes it feel, I don’t know, more significant.
I really do wish I was asleep again. I really wish I could just go back to sleep and ignore the first sunrise just as I have every other time. I suppose if I really wanted that, though, I would have shut off my alarm clock. Instead, I’ll just sit here for a little while longer, safe and warm and calm, and look out the window.
And wait. Because, for me, until that sun rises? The clock hasn’t yet started ticking down, and the world is still full of hope.
