A Holiday Tradition

Two years ago saw the weekend of Thanksgiving completely rendered lazy and nerdy, as Jen and I spent the entire weekend doing absolutely nothing but play Left 4 Dead.  Last year saw the weekend of Thanksgiving completely useless and lazy as just about all the time was spent playing Left 4 Dead 2.  Needless to say, it’s kind of been tradition to more or less do absolutely nothing but sit around and play video games during the weekend after Thanksgiving, in our house.

Seeing as how there was no Left 4 Dead 3, this year Jen and I were forced to go our separate ways.  Since we don’t really have any good co-op games, and I just didn’t really feel much like playing a shooter or anything that required that much thought, Jen opted to finish out the original BioShock, and I decided to seek, find, and blow the dust off of an old copy of the original Final Fantasy Tactics, and go down memory lane with that one.  The fact that there’s only one television in the living room was irrelevant, because the old 27″ tube and Piss1 fit fine in the other corner of the room.  And I didn’t feel like I was getting short-changed by not getting the 50″ plasma, because quite frankly, playing FFT on anything but a 3:4 tube television, and getting frustrated at enemy Chocobos, just doesn’t seem fitting.

The Thanksgiving and Brack Friday post

I passed out from the triptafen in the turkey a little while ago, and I’ll probably be up until 3 a.m. as a result.  For what it’s worth, Thanksgiving was a pleasant and successful affair this year.  Despite the fact that I kind of wanted to go visit my family back in Virginia this year, finances, and the residual fear of leaving home, being unable to defend it from batarians, it turned out to be a good holiday regardless, with tons of good food, in the company of friends.

Brack Friday was just as successful this year, and most importantly, very low-stress.  I already have a big-ass TV, decent sound system to go with it, the house already has an XBOX 360 as well as a Piss3, and we’ve got a lot of decent video games.  The movies I want to watch I can see via Netflix or other means, and I’ve got functional computers, as well as a perfectly good netbook.  So in other words, I had little reason to want to go out for Brack Friday this year, but still felt compelled to seek out a deal, because that’s what we do as capitalist Americans, still desire to purchase shit.  In the end, I found an awesomely priced 14-gallon shop vacuum for the garage from Lowe’s for $29.99 down from $79.99 that I was able to secure online, and pick up in-store without having to awaken at ass-O’clock, and when we did eventually go out to shop, at a “normal” hour, I was able to acquire a Logitech wireless keyboard / mouse combo from Radio Shack for $20 down from $40, and some clothing from Old Navy for relatively cheap.  Despite the fact that I didn’t really have the disposable income to blow in the first place.

But anyway, I’m feeling contented, and pleased with the way the holiday has gone so far, and I’m hoping that this year will mercifully end as relatively low-stress as this Thanksgiving has been.

Irony is . . .

Being so good at what I do, that the company realizes that they only need one freelancer instead of two, and opt to keep me.  But then being so good at what I do, that I breeze through the rest of the project which was projected to be finished on December 1, today, thus potentially putting myself into a position where I essentially worked so efficiently, to the point where I might supplant myself.

Saving relics

Just a few months ago, I had no idea what Four Loko was.  All I really knew is that it was seemingly the choice drink of college kids, and apparently somewhere down the line, some college student died from alcohol poisoning from shotgunning, or funneling Four Loko.  Needless to say, it developed a cult-following in a short amount of time.

Naturally, anything that’s this much of a craze has gotten to be illegal, or made illegal eventually, and from what I understand, this drink is already banned in a few states, and there’s conflicting news and stories about how Four Loko is going to be banned nationwide, the company that makes Four Loko, promising to remove caffeine from the formula in order to keep it legal, and other rather unconfirmed reports about its inevitable demise.

So, without genuine understanding, and having never actually tried this stuff before, I’m still a sucker for novelties, and mostly just curious, as well as just wanting to have a few cans as a keepsake.  I stopped by three different liquor stores while running errands today, and the first one was completely dry of Four Loko; the shopkeeper telling me that the FDA banned it outright.  The second store I went to had only Watermelon flavored ones, so I bought a couple cans, one to keep, the others to try/share, and had a spirited conversation with the girl behind the counter about the Four Loko craze, and how it had been selling fairly well as of recently, likely for the same reasons that I was buying mine.  And then the last liquor store I swung by, happened to have a better variety, and I got two cans each of berry and orange, and the last can of fruit punch.

For all I know, this stuff might not go extinct, or it just might.  Demand, and the subsequent profits that could be had from meeting it are a hard thing to ignore in this capitalist world, so it’s hard to believe that Four Loko will truly go extinct.  But in the event that it does, I’m glad to say that I have my souvenirs of the ride, and I don’t know when, but I’ll look forward to when I can sample these drinks of supposed death.

Bad Movie Review: King of the Fighters: The Legend of Mai Shiranui (2010)

I tend to fall behind movie releases very easily, so when I get really bored, I literally comb through individual weeks, and see what’s been released, so I can procure new material to watch when I’m bored, which is a lot. During my last perusing of movies that I likely missed, one particular title caught my attention: King of the Fighters.

Admittedly, in the video game world, I prefer Street Fighter over KOF like people prefer a filet mignon over a Big Mac, but for what it’s worth, I’ve been admittedly entertained by SNK’s bastard retarded attempt at a fighting game franchise before. Long story short, upon learning that it was directed by Gordon Chan (Typical HK director) I knew what I was getting myself into, but I decided to watch it anyway.

Fucking Hong Kong directors – they pretty much always find a way to ruin any existing properties, and it should come as no surprise to anyone, that King of the Fighters was a piece of garbage. However, the bigger question is, how does it fare to Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li?

Continue reading “Bad Movie Review: King of the Fighters: The Legend of Mai Shiranui (2010)”

One positive to a rekindled angst

With my head not necessarily on straight these past days, I’m finding it easier to run in the mornings.  Furthermore, due to the fact that the current gig is 47 miles from my house, in the worst traffic part of Metro Atlanta, I’ve forced myself to wake up at 6:30 a.m., instead of forfeiting any working out at all.  And at least for the last three days, waking up at 6:30 has been less troublesome than when I awoke at 7 a.m. in order to run and do some working out prior to getting to whatever gigs want me there at 9:30-10.

Or maybe it’s the subconscious reminder of rejection that is unconsciously driving me to want to improve myself further again, starting with the physicality, and making running and lifting in the mornings less of a nuisance, and more of a motivation.  Maybe it’s just the structured routine that I’m always aspiring to have that’s doing it.  Either way, good for me, for exercising.

The work itself is easy, time-consuming, and in a way, therapeutic.  I can more or less turn off my brain and mow through assignments like a weedwacker.  Two freelancers were brought in to undertake this project, and I felt that it was unnecessary.  Turns out that I was right, and that while I’m still here, the other guy was sent home.  Not to toot my own horn, but I know I’d be an asset to any fucking company that just had the balls to actually hire me.

A cranberry vodka sounds like a fantastic way to end the day.