Random Stuff

So I turned 33 yesterday. The years are creeping up on me. The good news is that people have finally stopped asking me what college I go to. Man, it is just so hard to look a decade younger than you really are. I'm sure you will all agree with me on that.

My big birthday present was one to myself, a new laptop. The only problem with it is that the wireless doesn't work. After about 2 hours with HP tech support, they are going to be sending me a new wireless card that I get to install myself. Hopefully the problem really is with the card, and not with the connector or the on/off switch. If that is the case, I will have to ship off the laptop for service.

And I knew that my laptop was coming when my fortune cookie on Tuesday night said "Good things come in small packages. One is coming to you." Of course, with a broken wireless card, I'm not sure that I can call that a "good thing." But it could have been worse; it could have been like this:

#1 Again

Last year it was baseball and crime. This year, it is water. Yes, St. Louis, MO, has the tastiest water in the nation, according to a group of mayors. I'm sure there are better distinctions out there, but we'll take it. I still claim that the Washington, DC water was some of the best I have ever had, and is better than the water in St. Louis, but obviously a majority does not agree with me.

Xenosaga

Those who know me well know that my entertainment interests follow a cycle, whereby I will be really into one thing for a while, and then drop it like a bad habit for a number of months, before getting all into it again. For example, I may read dozens of comic books and graphic novels for a month, and then hardly look at any for the next three months straight. I will then play a video game obsessively for six weeks, and then not play another game for six months. Then I might watch a lot of anime, and then watch hardly any in order to focus on every Gold Cup soccer game on TV. This behavior is normal for me, and has been the case for as long as I can remember.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is time again for console RPGs! Last week I realised that it had been over a year since I had played a console RPG, so I decided it was time to take the plunge again. Also, my birthday is in a couple days, and I am taking some time off from work without any real plans on what to do, so I figured a long weekend of video gaming would be nice, since I haven't done that in about a year-and-a-half. So, I headed out to my local Best Buy and picked up Xenosaga III, the final chapter in the Xenosaga series. I played (and mostly enjoyed) the previous two games, so it was a no-brainer.

I played through the prologue and first couple chapters over the weekend, and I like the changes that have been made to the system, especially over Xenosaga II, which just wasn't as good as it should have been. The voice acting is better, the story is tighter, and the music is noticeably better, as well. All in all, it should be a good time.

Summertime

My least favorite season, summer, is once again upon us. Some folks may wonder why I like summer the least of all seasons, especially considering that my birthday, and the birthdays of both of my brothers, falls within the summer months. Also, summer as a child meant that there was no school, so I could run and play (or sit and read, as was my wont) without worries of homework going undone. To those doubters and scoffers, I would like to submit as people's evidence the fact that summers in St. Louis routinely see high temperatures in the high 90s (with the occasional 100+) with 98% humidity, on average. Ah, the joys of living in a river town! The beautiful (aka, incredibly muddy and nasty looking) Mississippi! The (better looking than the Mississippi) Missouri! The (floods all the time) Meremac! The healthy and virile mosquitos! Yes, what could possibly be better?

At some point in my life I will be wealthy enough to be able to afford to commute to Canada for the summer (or, at least, west central Virginia). Alas, I am not yet so blessed. So, the season of suffering begins.

The Visionary

Here is the film I was in last weekend. Be sure to look for me in the third scene!

The 48 Hour Film Project

Ladies and gentlemen, I can now add "screenwriter" and "actor" to my resume. Why? I was involved in the St. Louis 48 Hour Film Project this weekend. A guy that I know asked if I wanted to be involved, so I decided to help write the script for the film on Friday night. For those of you who have never heard about this, the concept is to create a four to seven-minute film, and you have a total of 48 hours to do the whole thing. Right before kickoff, each team is given a genre (we got "superhero"), and every team in the grouping is given a character and a line of dialogue that has to be used in the film. This can lead to some interesting creative decisions, as sometimes you have to force things to use the character or the dialogue.

I was with most of the team on Friday night to write the actual script, and then on Saturday I got to play the role of the boss. The highlight of the film, to be sure, is when I get turned into a cricket. Yes, through the magic of film, the bad guy turns me into an insect. Gripping drama, to be sure. After my team wins the grand prize I'll be sure to post again letting you know how we are blowing the prize money.

New Comic Reviews

New comic book reviews are up on my website.