Things may seem quiet, but behind the scenes, my future is
being decided. So mysterious!
What isn't mysterious is my participation in GameSpite
Issue 6 - Extra Deluxe Action Edition! You can check out
my article on the wonderful SNES action game Cybernator
by following any of the handy links above. (You may also notice
that my article made the coveted issue banner as well, surely
due to the stunning quality of its writing.) This article
marks my debut as a, I kid you not here, a Professional
Game Writer. Because the only requirement for being professional
writer is that someone is paying you to for it.
Trapped beneath a winter wonderland Tuesday, March 11 2008
Snow is the best thing about winter. Think about it: without
snow, winter would be cold, dark and ugly. Add in that magical
white fluff and suddenly everything is beautiful! You can
ski and sled, build snowforts, jump off of buildings and,
best of all, everything gets magically quieter when there's
a nice layer of snow on the ground.
But this is maybe taking things a bit far.
We're approaching a record amount of snowfall in Montreal
this year, and due to the design of our back yard there is
a mountain of the stuff currently piled up behind
our apartment. Not quite sure what I mean? Bear in mind that
the snow is almost piled up to the window...on the second
story. To give you a better idea, here's a view from our living
room:
It's impressive, but also kind of creepy. At this rate there's
a decent chance that we'll be shoveling out our back yard
in mid June.
Full disclosure: the major snowstorm that drove things from
"pretty" to "overwhelming" actually happened
a little over a week ago. Since I can't seem to update in
a timely manner, I've decided to backdate this entry by a
week. This also means that I have the prescience to know that
my new Nephew-to-be-Named-Later will be born tomorrow morning
in Victoria. Happy birthday, buddy! You'll soon come to appreciate
Uncle Mike's talents for divination.
The one true purpose of the internet Monday, February 18 2008
Here is a picture. A picture of my cat.
(It's a bit blurry, as the rules require it to be.)
The cat is a fairly recent addition to our household, we
picked him up from the SPCA about 2 weeks ago. He's adorable
(naturally), friendly and fairly energetic. Despite his looks,
he's a mere 6 months old and still behaves like a kitten more
than a cat. He has taken to climbing into all sorts of places
where he really shouldn't be going, but I'll be damned if
I have a clue how to prevent this from happening. I imagine
that experience will eventually teach him that certain places
are better left unexplored (how many times must I rescue you
from behind the TV??), but one should only expect so much
rationality from a cat.
You may notice the prevalence of impersonal pronouns in the
above paragraph; this is because we have yet to finalize a
name for our kitty. Several have been proposed and internally
I am currently thinking of him as Nigel. There is no reason
to believe, however, that this name has "gone gold"
and will be presented to the public. Suggestions are always
welcome, but be forewarned that I will under no circumstances
give my cat a name like DeathBringür or Flan.
Also of note: today, upon flexing my right arm, I made my
shirt explode. This was kind of sad, because I really liked
that shirt; on the bright side, I now have one more thing
in common with Hulks both Incredible and Hogan. I'm not at
liberty to say what other traits we share, but I will say
that I am completely green from head to toe. Actually, I just
totally made that up.
Year of the KitKat Thursday, January 10 2008
Would you look at that, it's 2008. Another digit gone forever,
another calendar thrown away and another chance to make the
same mistakes all over again. Or to make all new ones, whatever
you prefer. Since the beginning of the year offers us a proverbial
blank page with which to start anew, I thought I would literally
offer you a blank page and push the old news posts into their
own little corner. If I had some sort of blogging software,
it would probably do this for me automatically, but as it
stands I like to get my hands dirty mucking about with the
innards of this site manually.
It's still a bit early to determine just how 2008 is going
to go, but if there's a theme to it thus far it is clearly
Japanese snacks. I'll admit that I'm no stranger
to Pocky (since I am a huge nerd), but 2008 looks like it
will be a banner year for exotic snacks that come from shiny
bags within stylish boxes. Behold: the chestnut KitKat!
One of the PhD students in our lab went to Japan
over the holidays and was kind enough to bring us back some
of the wacky KitKats they have over there. There was also
a green tea flavored KitKat included in the haul, but since
I don't really like green tea I elected to try this one instead.
Turns out it's actually pretty tasty! The most surprising
part was not the chestnut-flavored filling (which was actually
pretty subtle in its chestnuttiness), but that the wafers
were coated in white chocolate. Truly, a wonder to
behold.
Since inaugurating the year with a description
of a foreign candy bar seems a little weak, I'll throw in
my latest media consumption and some annotated thoughts about
the various items consumed.
Shake Hands With the Devil
About once every two years I give myself a "serious"
book to read, which ends up taking a good 6 months for me
to get through. Such was the case with Romeo Dallaire's recounting
of the Rwandan genocide of the early 90s, although I actually
read about 60% of the book in the space of 3 days at my parents'
house. It's a chilling tale of man's barbarity and unwillingness
to help people in need! Not the feel-good book of the year
by any stretch, but I'm glad I fought my way through it -
hopefully some of the important messages contained within
will stick with me for a little while, despite the best efforts
of videogames to dislodge them.
Half-Life 2 and Episodes One & Two
Speaking of which! I've spent a lot of time
playing these games, included as they were in The Orange Box.
They were good. Maybe an 8/10 on my personal scale, good fun
but not (as I'm fond of saying) life-altering. The included
Portal was a neat little bit of entertainment as well, although
it suffered greatly from the ridiculous overhyping that the
internet has been inflicting upon it since its release. With
my expectations set that high, it was impossible for it not
to disappoint a little bit - if Valve gets around to releasing
some new content for it, I'll snap it up right away and hopefully
get to play through it without bias. Finally, there was Team
Fortress 2, which surprisingly seems to have become my favorite
part of the whole package. Why that surprises me is a mystery,
since I basically spent an entire summer doing nothing but
playing the original Team Fortress (via Quake) while working
at IBM in Bromont. It was fun then, and it's fun (and pretty)
now.
I think that's about it for now. I'm currently
tackling The Yiddish Policeman's Union by
Michael Chabon, which I'm very keen on so far, while simultaneously
getting in touch with my geeky roots by replaying Final
Fantasy IV. Well, not actually simultaneously, but
maybe we could agree on "concurrently". Yes, that's
what we will call it.
Anyway, let's all try to make the best of 2008.
Keep your eyes peeled, hopefully soon I'll have another article
posted over at GameSpite.net for your perusal. In the meantime,
why not go back into the news archive and relive the glories
and tragedies of 2007? It beats working for a living.
