Wow, sorry for that sudden burst of silence there. It's been another one of those situations where every day I think to myself, I gotta blog, then I don't. Those will get you. Meanwhile, it seems that my brief look last time at Dr. Strange #18-19 didn't go entirely unnoticed. I actually got a link from fellow Dr. Strange afficianado Neilalien, whose site I've been a fan of for awhile now. So that made feel uh, I don't know, special or something. If you for some reason you have come back to my poor excuse for a blog: Thanks, Neilalien.

In other news of my currently incredibly uneventful life, I have recently discovered (much later than anyone else) a game that will likely be in my top ten favorites for some time to come: Anachronox. This game is absolutely classic. Really there just aren't enough comedy games out there. And when I think about it, the vast majority of my all-time favorite games are in that category. The Monkey Island series, No One Lives Forever, Freedom Force, and so on. Really if I thought hard about it and made a top ten list the only three games I can think of that would go on it that aren't funny would be Deus Ex, Arcanum, and Ultima VII (not that U7 didn't have some funny moments). I don't really entirely understand the fascination with nihilistic gore-fests (as opposed to Nihilistic gore-fests - no that's not the game I'm waiting for). I mean, they're good every now and then sure. Catharsis or whatever, but really I'd rather have a game that makes me laugh. Kate Archer gunning wildly at a mime while riding on the back of a large Scottish man on tiny pink tricycle - now that's entertainment. I'll take that over exploding zombie heads any day.

It's weird, I sit down with no intention of writing something like this then somehow I do. I'm gonna go get a coffee.

Matt on 10.27.04 @ 04:33 PM PST [link] 

It's always fun to start the day by realizing that you forgot to take you contacts out the night before. It happens to me oh, say, once or twice a year, and it usually goes like this: "Uhhhnnn. Musst wake up. Must waake uup. Ok. Ok. Waking up. Opening eyes. Hmm, I can see really well. Damn it." (I am vaguely undeadesque most mornings). Which means that for the first four or five hours I was up today I had my contacts soaking and was pretty much blind. I did dig out my ten year old glasses, but believe it or not my vision seems to have deteriorated in that time, though actually my old glasses don't look too bad on me.

That said, it's been a pretty good day so far. The highlight being that Lynnea came home from school and had a present for me. See, I've been looking for a little batty pin to wear on my jacket for a few weeks now but it seems that Halloween swag is not as prevalent this year as it is some other years. Anyway she found one at her school bookstore that is black and glossy with orange rhinestones for eyes and a few little regular rhinestones on each of the wings and bought it for me. Which was delightful. And then I got to go out to lunch with her which was also fun. So yeah, it's been a pretty nice, low key day. I'm also on my fourth or fifth cup of coffee which makes things more fun. Thing is, I need it today since not only am I tired, but it's ridiculously cold outside. People are pointing out incessantly that it was 80 degrees on saturday and snowing in the mountains last night. Which is admittedly a little strange, but whatever.

Speaking of Strange, I feel compelled to share the following image, from Dr. Strange v1 #19:


Matt on 10.18.04 @ 05:04 PM PST [link] 

Yo yo, comin atcha with a brand-new post ya'll! Nah, I'm just kidding. So Monday's Star Wars post wasn't actually meant to be the only one all week, it just sort of happened that way. I was a little busy tuesday and then I actually got kinda sick and didn't really start feeling better until last night. The thing is though, it was the most general sickness I can even remember ever having. I didn't really have any real symptoms, aside from a slightly scratchy throat and plugged ears, I just basically felt bad. It was kinda strange. Anyway, I'm feeling quite a bit better now, though perhaps closer to 85% than 100%.

That said I really can't think of anything to post about, with the possible exception of my sad continuing Neverwinter addiction. The thing is, I was going to take a break from the whole NWN thing for awhile. The I made the mistake of going to the Neverwinter Vault just out of curiosity concerning what sort of user modules people were coming up with. One thing led to another, as they say, and I'm now about 5 hours into an NWN conversion of the classic C64 game Pool of Radience with a new character, this time a female human bard. So far, I'm under the impression that bards are basically somewhere between a rogue and a ranger, only useless. Oh damn, a massive army of horrible gibbering pit-spawned things! Wait, I know, I'll sing at them! Seriously, what the hell? And you have to pour all your stat points into Charisma or you can't cast spells. Meaning you can't fire a crossbow to save your life, but everybody likes you. Oh, joy. Anyway, I suppose this NWN addiction will be quelled soon enough. After all, Bloodlines is out in like three weeks. If it's anything near what they promise... well, what's the point in codine when you gots heroin?

Matt on 10.15.04 @ 08:51 PM PST [link] 

Something occured to me this morning just after I woke up. I was thinking about the recent release of the the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD, and the two Stormtroopers in front of the local Circuit City encouraging people to buy said DVDs. I was wondering how they justify deep within their geek hearts the fact that Lucas is gradually destroying the movies that they obviously loved enough that they've built their own costumes and props and enjoy prancing around in them (they were appearently part of some kind of Star Wars costume club). That's when it hit me: I have never seen the original Star Wars trilogy.

Oh, I mean, I've watched Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi more times than I care to know, but I was watching them on VHS, which, for most of the history of the format, and definitly for me, meant Pan-and-Scan. Other than very dim memories of seeing Jedi in the theatre (since that was '83, I must have been about 4), I never saw the widescreen version until the Special Edition came out in theatres. I remember just being kind of amazed at things like set design and the fact that yes, actually wait there are sand people down there, I can see one of them now. That was way cooler than ridiculous crap like Han talking to Jabba, Biggs showing up, or (anger) the removal of Oola's dance number. It also occurs to me on writing this that that was also the last time I watched any of the original trilogy. Maybe SE just left a bad taste in my mouth. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, however, I do happen to have in digital format a rip of the widescreen THX Laserdisc version of the film, ready to burn onto DVD. Considering the fact that I own the Original Trilogy Box Set, the THX Box Set, and at least one SE Box Set (I only bought the first one, the others just somehow ended up with my videos after various roommates), I think that even the more stringent copyright folk would have to consider that format shifting. This is making me think that one of these days when Lynnea's busy with school and I'm left home alone all night, I need to sit down and watch Star Wars for the first time to see if I can remember why I like it so much.

Matt on 10.11.04 @ 06:57 PM PST [link] 

Wow, ok. So I just now finished Shadows of Undrentide, which, for those not in the know, is the first expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights. Honestly... a little too easy. I mean I don't want to be that guy who's all like, dude I totally dominated that game, but seriously there were a couple tricky battles but otherwise, not that tough. And the last battle... I think I finished the game uninjured. Now call me crazy but with a final battle shouldn't I kill off the boss when I'm just at my very last hit point? Not completely uninjured? Shouldn't my character break a sweat? Something? Ah well, it might not have even come close to being as cool as the original campaign but it was an ok time while it lasted. And there's always Hordes of the Underdark. Which I don't think I'll get to immediately but before too long probably.

So that's all that's really going on tonight. Lynnea's off at some group meeting to get ready for a presentation in one of her classes and I'm just killing time till she gets back and we can have some dinner (we're having knockers which I'm told are like smoked bratwurst and sound tastylicous). So now that I finished the game I guess I have to figure out something else to do. Might be more tricky than it sounds, I'm already at reading saturation (I think I read like, 40 issues of Dr. Strange today followed by a couple chapters of scifi) and I'm not feeling sufficiently motivated to actually try to do something creative. Oh well, something will come up. I'll start playing with something and then suddenly it'll be much later. That's usually the way it works...

Matt on 10.11.04 @ 02:33 AM PST [link] 

that it's much much much easier to skateboard around on the street if you're using street wheels instead of ramp wheels. I guess the kind I had were ridiculously hard and meant for doing all those things which I will never do. Who the hell knew they made different kinds of wheels? It's crazy I tell you. My board looks weird with these big fat gray wheels on it though.

Matt on 10.06.04 @ 11:38 PM PST [link] 

Hmm, wednesday you say? Alright, whatever. So yeah, I'm back in the coffee shop, without internet once again, though as always it was working until just a second ago. Which is slightly annoying, though not as annoying as as the fact that I seem to be incapable of waking up before 10-10:30 lately, no matter when I go to bed. Not that it really matters, but being married to someone who gets up at some ridiculous time like 7:30 or something every morning just so that she can have two hours to hang around the house being productive before school makes me feel a little lazy. Of course I realize that I'm more than just a little lazy (the term "horrendously lazy" comes to mind), but I don't want to feel like it.

So, it seems like I keep having these good insights and/or interesting thoughts which I mean to post about but then by the time I'm back at the computer, they have evaporated into the ether whence they came. However, I did discover something the day before yesterday that I thought I should share. It turns out that a normal household vegetable peeler can become, with just a little ingenuity and a little carelessness, a thumb peeler. It's true! And actually very painful. But at least I have my Hello Kitty band-aid to cheer me. And this is the second time in recent years that I've managed to remove a decent chunk of flesh from a fingertip during food preparation, so I'm getting used to it. And the last time was much, much, worse. In fact it makes me slightly queasy to think about that one. Plus being wounded gave me an excuse to drink rum directly out of the bottle, and I am always fond of all things piratey.

Matt on 10.06.04 @ 10:18 PM PST [link] 

In the immortal words of Cathy C and Kathy K: Mondays huh? Actually I do not fear the dread spector of the Moon's Day this week, basically because I did so incredibly little yesterday that the prospect of having something semi-important to do sounds like it could be vaguely satisfying. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing like a day where you don't leave the chair in front of your computer for more than an hour or two total, but all that doing nothing gets taxing after awhile. Who knows though, it might lead me to actually work on something that I want to work on instead of just being distracted all the time. That said, my druid is already up to level 11 and climbing, and I read the majority of Warren Ellis' Planetary. Of course it's beginning to disturb me that I have gotten no book reading done since we got back from the honeymoon. I read the first chapter of Noon: 22nd Century by the Brothers Strugatskii about three weeks ago, and that's the last time I touched a book.

Wow, you know it's getting pathetic when I'm lamenting that I spend too much time on one form of recreation as opposed to another. Sometimes I fear that my penchant for escapism will be my undoing.

So you may be saying to yourself, "Ok self, what's going on here? This is his third post since thursday. Did I click the wrong link? Is he somehow trying to compensate for the entire month and a half in which he only did one post? Does he think he can win my affections back after I was so horribly treated? Like three posts will make up for months of neglect?! That bastard!" But no, this is not the case. There's actually something far more sinister going on here. You see the thing is, I like to start off every day by having a tasty coffee beverage at the Roasting Co. Well, the thing is there's something weird going on with the WiFi here where it works for a little while then completely stops. So I'll be in here working for 20 minutes or whatever then suddenly there's no net. Which leaves me here with most of a latte and not much to do. And conveniently I just finished said latte.

Matt on 10.04.04 @ 01:46 PM PST [link] 

Ah, October. I started a post yesterday on how October is my favorite month and how I was happy that it's here, but it seemingly got lost amidst a flood of open browers windows and was accidentally closed. Not that I really had much to say, so it's not that big a deal. At any rate this is the first time in about 7 years that I've gotten to enjoy October all the way though in a temperate zone. I love San Diego, and admittedly come late January I may be quite seriously wishing myself back there and out of this frozen wasteland, but it does not give off that Autumn vibe. There's just something about a month that begins with relatively warm days and green trees, and typically ends in rain and decaying leaves. Watching nature die all around you can be kind of exhilirating.

Meanwhile, not a whole lot is going on around here. I picked up my tube-o'-posters from my parents' house today and now the office room is coated in my fine collection of Ramones posters, plus a few more. I don't think Lynnea is crazy about the look but as long as it's confined in here she doesn't seem to mind. And since we were in California (Oregon has evil evil state-run liquor stores) I also bought some rum today, as I'd been craving some since I had this really excellent mai tai in Maui. If anybody knows any good rum drinks, send them my way. (I actually invented an incredibly good one once: Ceylon tea, honey, cream, and dark rum. It's such a tasty drink that I've yet to come up with a clever enough name to do it justice.)

Well, Peter Murphy just informed me that the sky has gone out which I suppose means it's the end of the of record and the end of the post. Next time I post I suppose I'll have to use some kind of sharp implement to tap into the more creative areas of my brain, because after reading this back to myself I realize that this blog is getting closer and closer to the Platonic ideal of Dull.

Matt on 10.02.04 @ 06:16 PM PST [link]