Prior Restraint

Yesterday I got a phone call while at work at the Help Desk, here on campus. It was from my friend Aaron Jaco. What did he want? Well, he wanted to tell me about how he purchased a copy of Guitar Hero III and how he wanted me to drop by his place last night and join in on the fun and merriment.

So I did.

And it was awesome; The new tracks are difficult and a real chore to get through with decent scores. Once you get past the first few sets? Its like murder. Of course, we were playing for a bunch of hours in a row, so the fact that my hands stopped working around 10:30pm isn't say that much, considering they'd been strummin' for nearly four hours by that point.

We had wraps (turkey and cheese!) and Cheetos and I brought my own soda and we played and played and played some more, and I never got tired.

Until One by Metallica came on and glitched up a bit.

After trying to figure out why it was glitching on us so frequently failed to yield any positive results, Aaron and I darted over to the 24-Hour Wal-Mart (I drove, because Aaron had imbibed some choice alcohol) to attempt to make an exchange, but the customer service desk closed around 11pm so there was nothing that could be done. We had to call it a night.

Which was cool, because I can't imagine how tired I would be today if I had been up another few hours. Real tired. Yeah, I think that's how tired I would be. Real tired. Uh huh.

I consider it a sign from on high, though, that I had to quit that game last night. I had played enough, or so the fates decided (I don't believe in fate, by the way. I also don't believe in choice. Yeah. It is confusing, I know) that it was time for me to drop it. And then I played a few more songs and the fates were like "OK, time to shut this sucker down." And thus...

Aaron is inviting me to rejoin our powerhouse duo this evening, post night-class, for some more rollicking good times... but not only am I real tired, but I also don't want to jinx it anymore than I already have. Maybe this weekend sometime, or Thursday night perhaps. But not when I have classes in the AM on Thursday.

So... while I indulged somewhat, I'm still going to show all the correct forms of restraint I placed upon myself. I really, really want to buy that game. But I know better. I don't want it. Not in my dorm room. Not yet, anyhow.

Hope everyone had a great October, and I'll post tomorrow and next month? Yeah, I'm going to be better at posting than I am now (I think I say this at the end of every month, but... yeah). So, yeah. Check for that.

AIGHT!

Restraint

Guitar Hero 3 just came. I didn't really pay attention to the tracks that would be on it because I wanted to be surprised when I put the game in my Playstation and booted up the playlist. But today I found out that Cliffs of Dover, by the one and only Eric Johnson, is on it and... Well... It made me want to go out and buy it right away.

But I won't.

Turns out I blame most of my semester-long apathy toward school on Guitar Hero 2 and the countless hours I played that stupid game to death. I wasted so much time doing that instead of studying or participating in social activity (unless there was Guitar Hero involved. Then, of course, I was there). Why? Why would I do this?

It was easy? That's a solid answer. It was easy. In the same way playing World of Warcraft during every waking hour was easy. WAY easier than going to class or doing homework or talking to people in real life. Leveling up or beating songs was instant gratification. I longed for it. I always will. I shy away from real challenges most of the time because I don't like to risk failure or defeat or - heaven forbid! - embarrassment.

But grades are kinda like instant gratification. I was instantly aware of NOT getting good grades, so I'm pretty sure that I would be aware of getting them, instead.

Another answer could be that I was just not interested in school. High levels of apathy and what not.

Bottom line, though... Guitar Hero 3 would be a terrible idea. I wouldn't do anything. I'd just sit around and play that. And I need to graduate instead of.... not.... graduate. So, yeah. Guitar Hero 3 for Christmas baby, oh yeah 2007 live!

Hope all is well out there in where ever you are. Dorm rooms or houses in Arkansas. Schools places. I don't know. I'm still kinda sick and I am tired and going to sleep.

October Should be OctOVER

This has been a long month.

Yesterday my friend Aaron and I went to Iowa City to collect a bass guitar from my older brother, Pete, who is a Dr. in those parts. World famous, too. Well, not really. But it is fun to pretend.

We went to the new Saw film and it was OK. I'm not a huge fan of the series, but the last two (3 and 4) have taken the series in a different direction and really change the flow of the entire franchise, in my opinion. If you're a fan of them, there's no reason to not see the new one.

Then we (we being Aaron and I) went out to a pre-Halloween party at Tim Schmitt's place, Tim being this awesome guy that I technically work for here at this blogging thing I'm doing. His band played and sounded pretty-OK but it was the first time I'd heard them, so I have nothing to compare it to.

I got this album the other day, Journey's greatest hits album, just for one track: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) and it is great. Great band. Yeah... yeah...

Then we (we being Aaron and I) went to TKE's Halloween party, Washing Machine. Good place to get drunk if you're into that kind of thing. We didn't wear costumes or anything and...

...the whole point of this post is I'm sick. I have this terrible cold and its making me all crazy and I can't imagine life being any more cruel to me. I want October to end but I don't want November to start.

I'm scared of December.

I'll explain later.

Road Trips

I have seen quite a bit of road in the past week, and will continue to see some more.

I don't typically consider going home to be a "road trip" but it does take nearly five hours and that's a lot of time on the road, so I'll start with Fall Break.
A good chunk of break was spent in Des Moines, all of Saturday being spent touring downtown a bit with my girlfriend. Otherwise, it was to home and to meatloaf for Skyler. And lord on high was there meatloaf! Oh boy, it was great.

Then this past weekend my younger brother and I got up on Saturday and drove to Peoria and Pekin, Illinois to see the legendary comedian Emo Philips. It was another five-ish hour drive and we listened to some great music and had good conversation and everything was pretty much awesome. We stayed overnight with my aunt and uncle in Peoria and that was cool, too. The comedy was fantastic! I recommend checking some of Emo's stuff out on Youtube if you get the chance, otherwise here is a joke I loved from his show:
"I don't like it when people insult Bush's intelligence, because he's pretty crafty. He got that bill passed to make cloning illegal, so now we can never find out how many of him it would take to screw in a lightbulb."

Classic.

Otherwise, on Wednesday, my good friend Aaron and I are going to Kansas City to see Porcupine Tree play live and... rest assured... that will be probably the coolest thing that has ever happened to me in regards to Kansas City. Oh yeah.

Otherwise, after that I'm hoping to get some rest from driving. Too much excitement in cars the past few weeks and maybe, after we get back on Thursday, all of us - the people and the cars - can get some much needed rest (never gonna happen).

The Best Days of my Half-Life

In... 1998-9ish... I don't remember, my friend Steven Samson introduced me to a video game called Half-Life. It was the first REAL PC game I'd ever purchased and the kickstart to my gaming life. I'd bought it for our first computer capable of running "high-spec" games, the family's old Dell desktop. I played the ever living hell out of that game.

I loved that game. I loved the two expansions. And I loved Gordon Freeman.

Then I had to wait. Forever. For Half-Life 2.

I remember not knowing what was going to happen, forever. It would be years before something did happen. But I remember clearly seeing the image of a crowbar making a shadow on the ground, a clear representation of the number 2. It was my junior year of high school. And I was in love all again.

HL2 was a waiting game for me. It was coming out, so they said, on September 30th, 2003. I had no money. So, I had to get a job that summer and earn the money to buy a computer that would run the game. And I got that job and I got that money and I got that computer. And then September 30th, 2003 came and went. And there was no Half-Life 2.

Nearly a year later and I was walking out of a Best Buy here in Des Moines with my copy of Half-Life 2 (which was on store shelves even though it wasn't supposed to be out for a couple more days) and then I did the unthinkable.

I'd waited for games before. Metroid Prime on the Nintendo Gamecube was a chore to wait for. But I managed. Warcraft III was also a long wait. But I got those games and I played and beat them in standard amounts of time. Half-LIfe 2 would be different.

Having the game installed before I could play it (you had to wait and activate the game through the internet. It was a painful process that the game company still makes its customers do for its new games) meant I could do all my homework in advance. It also meant I could stockpile food and drinks. It also meant I wasn't leaving my room for any reason at all.

And so, under my lofted bed, with my blanket covering my gaming space, my cream soda ready to fuel my way through the game (I'd started drinking cream soda to play games around the time I got Final Fantasy IX)... I played Half-Life 2 in one long, two-day sitting.

It was glorious. And then it was done.

A few years later and an expansion came out and it was awesome. And then the new expansion just came out, now. And they have been great (he who says video games aren't art is an idiot). But not the same, just as the expansions to the original weren't the same.

There is one final expansion that will come out, most likely, near this time next year. And I'll play it and beat it and love it. And then I'll wait for four-five years for Half-Life 3.

I don't know what any of this means, however. I'm just sharing that I'm a huge nerd.

POST PENDING

I'm going to have a massive and huge post here tomorrow about something.

And then the next day about something else.

I'd do it now, but I'm tired and this way I will have to make these posts here on time.

Because otherwise I'll look like a liar.

No Stalgia

I'm dealing with the fact that I'm nostalgic for so many thing, these days. I... I'm finding out so much right now that I want to go back in time and either redo or relive so many different times and experiences. Many people wish this, but most of the time it is understood that people want to go back in time and relive things with what they know now, so they can change things or alter the course of their history.

I just want to relive them the way I did.

I'm finding things from my first year here at Drake. I'm thinking about things I did in the summer between educational aspects of my life. I'm remembering events from high school. I'm viewing things from my childhood.

I was in a car with two of my friends talking about the old Nintendo game, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! and wishing I was playing it. Why? I would get bored with it in a few seconds, or I would beat my old records to a pulp. Chances are good that one or the other would happen. But I want to cling to the past so much anymore that the present merely seems to be a blur of the now mixed with desires for the then.

I'm watching these old Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons on DVD, borrowed from one of the friends mentioned above. These used to run on ABC on Saturday mornings and were darker in themes and tone and content. There was talk of people dying and things were not ever so great for the characters.

I remember watching that show, watching it every morning. I remember a "thrilling" two-part episode where the characters went back in time and how I'd taped the first one and watched it with my father and then had to wait to see the second half with him because he was excited for it as well (although, looking back, it could have merely been because he just wanted to spend the time with me, not so much for the story... but as a child, it was great knowing he was as invested as I was). Then I remember the final episode and how much of a cliffhanger it was and how much more I wanted.

Then I remember waiting and waiting for the new episodes. Eventually, the waiting became growing up, and the show was gone.

Watching these DVDs, though, I'm sensing small parts of myself and my love for these characters. Sure, now the animation is pretty crummy and the writing is lackluster ("How fast were we going, Sonic?" "We were rootin' and scootin!" "Really? Rootin' and scootin'?") but the themes are still there. The sense of urgency and survival paired with mild frivolity. I miss that.

I never know what I want. I never know whats going on (anymore). All I really know is that some days... being in the present only makes me yearn for the past.

Yeah.