In the Grand Tradition

Five-point Update

1) Still working for IMMC - I love the job and I love the people. I don't necessarily love the hours, but I will do what I do until I can do it no more.

2) Being poor sucks: Right now I'm on a tight-as-Hell budget on account of me having to pay two-months worth of rent in one pay period, on top of a car loan... and utilities. I'm not making a killing - just enough to get by and live how I wanna live. Is that so wrong? Well, apparently I think so, because if I emptied my TV fund, I'd be fine in an instant. But I want that TV...

3) With LOST over, my mind wanders to other things... I've actually started reading again, and while I've found this to be extremely rewarding, I find fault with it because I know that, in the fall, when AMC debuts "The Walking Dead", I'll be right back where I started; in front of a television.

4) I don't write anymore, personally. This is something I'm aiming to rectify as we speak.

5) Music - still - is the soul. Never before have I had faith in any concept as strongly as I have in this one. ...and the fact that there is no such thing as choice. Which, of course, there isn't.

Just Googled myself. Here's an update in five sentences:

1) I didn't move to L.A. because, in the end, it turned out that true love was not made of horrible parenting, lame-ass excuses, and abysmal failures.

2) I am, once again, living in Des Moines, working at Iowa Methodist, and - as always - I am made of awesome.

3) I have slowly started to "eat" music, and by this I mean I collect it, I listen to it all, and I don't care what it is, all in the hopes that I will gain a better understanding of music's doorway into the human soul.

4) I still obsess over the television show LOST, although not nearly as much in this final season as in years past.

5) If I could do any one thing right now, at this point in time, it would be to get on a bus and just go somewhere and not have to worry about things like money, family, love, humanity, or the lack of cake I'll likely only ever continue to encounter as I get older and older with each passing minute.

New Blog Post! New Blog Post!

This summer I am in Iowa City, living with my older brother Pete. Pete is a Dr., so he can afford to take care of me. Also, he is a nice guy, so I think I can stomach to hang out with him a bit, I suppose.

I'm still being educated, currently, working on getting some stuff done so I can enter the technical writing field at the start of next year. Its an area I'm really interested in and think I would do well in, also. So, I've got that going for me. In the meantime, I'm working at a place called TMone this summer (those of you in Iowa with Facebook have probably seen the ads all over the place, I'd wager), saving up money to pay off a car, buy tickets to go to L.A. (more in a second), and buy food and gas and stuff and stuff.

In regards to L.A., my girlfriend, Aliona, moved back there at the tail end of May and, since the two of us are like "we're super duper cool and stuff" and we love each other, we're just gonna work through the distance thing. Because the other option is stupid and neither of us are interested in that, nope, not one bit. So I have to work and work and work and save and save and save until I can visit on occasion and eventually - as is the plan - move out there (I hope) near Feb. 2009. Which will make me 23-and-a-half years old, by the way. I'm an old man.

I'll be 23 on July 5th. That's scary. I always thought getting older would mean getting cooler. But I guess all it really means is that I can't ride down the stairs on a pillow anymore without getting hurt and all bruised up :(

More... as it happens, including:
-Evaluations of all of Pete's friends
-How I like my job (I'm going to try to get promoted in a couple of weeks, too!)
-What is in store for my immediate future
-A Dark Knight review (since that movie is going to be so awesome it makes little babies explode upon being birthed)

Have a good'n!

Leapin' for Leap Year

Well, today was the 29th of Feb., an almost magical day where... nothing different happens.

I spent it like I spend most Fridays: bored at work, spinning around in an office chair, taking calls at fixing problems at ye olde Drake Computer Help Desk (which we're supposed to start called Drake Support Center, but I don't see why. We're supposed to do this to avoid possible confusion with people thinking we're a help anything desk, but if you toss the word "computer" in there, I don't think people will be confused. Support Center sounds like a place you call if you think your friend is going to take their own life or something). Andy and I (Andy being my awesome co-worker, the one that does most of the work) fixed many things, talked about a bunch of stuff, and then I left.

Then I took care of some business on phone lines, as I always do. Whenever people organize, they call me to be middle man. I don't understand why.

Then I took my super-duper awesome girlfriend, Aliona out to get foodstuffs and stuffs and it was great. I mean, we went to TGI Friday's which isn't really the "top of the pops" so to speak (although who would ever describe a place as the "top of the pops" as it is clearly an event that takes place on July 4th...), but it was good and I feel well fed.

Tomorrow starts another month, another 31 days of homework, and another eight posts I get to make for you crazy kids to read! So strap in and hold on tight because...

...well, I don't know why.

ANOTHER POST

My Writers and Critics event went OK, I thought. My story ended up being more complex than I'd hoped it would be and, as a result, ended up being kinda like a rough draft instead of a finished story, but that's OK for the most part, I think, because now I have something I can work on a bit more in depth in the future.

Tim Bascom, the guy that people actually came to see, read from his book and it was also very good. His story is about his life growing up in Ethiopia, so I wrote about my travel experiences as a way to kinda work with his text, rather than against it. Which is what I would have done if I'd read anything else I've put together in the past six months.

Otherwise, everything else is going OK. I'm finally getting back on track with some stuff I've been letting slide and that's good, since we aren't at midterms yet, this means I can kinda pick up some slack (I hope!). Otherwise, not much else has been going on.

In other news, though, I have done this thing on Facebook which I think is awesome. Basically I've created a group that has only one purpose: To make fake albums.

The Facebook group's URL is as follows:
http://drake.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10182729001
All you have to do is follow the directions and stuff and you can make your own fake albums! Join up and make some junk! No one cares how quality your picture ends up being, either. We all just like to look at them!

Cheers!

I Forgot:

-Help Deskin' @ 8AM
I apparently decided, in the past, that it was a good idea to volunteer to work a full day from 8AM-4:30PM. I found this out, again, way too late to really take care of it in a smart manner. So now I'm sitting here, exhausted out of my mind, and wishing I could go back in time and punch myself in the stomach for signing up for this, then making that version do the work of convincing a different self from even further in the past to not sign up for work and to stop using so many italics in the future. Obviously, based on the nearly obnoxious levels of italics found, this didn't happen.
But I'm getting out of work at 3:30, an hour early. Because I'm tired. As Hell.

-Writin' for a Readin'
I have been working on the thing I'm going to read for the Writer's and Critics event I'm guest reading at, but only in my head. I have nothing on paper, yet.
The worst part is, I'm limited to ten minutes of read time, and the thing I'm working on in my head is LONG AND HUGE and, well... this will only cause problems.

-Eatin'
Since I've gotten better - after my battle with bronchitis - I've found that my appetite has ever-so-slowly started to reemerge. But, because I'm already used to eating rarely and very little, I find myself starving all the time and never around foodstuffs.
Learning to remedy this is taking more time than it should.

-Blackboard
I just found out that most of the important stuff - like the assignments - for my Witchcraft class are posted on Blackboard and not on the class syllabus or announced in class. This is after a week of having figured I'd just missed the information every class and showing up unprepared in every possible fashion for two classes in a row.
Now that I know, I'm going to actually start doing readings for that class. Its amazing how knowing what the readings are can help you do the readings.

Should be Writing

That Writer's and Critic's event that I'm doing a pre-reading at is in less than a week. Actually, I'll be done with it in exactly one week from right now. And I haven't even started really putting words to Word, yet. Which is bad. Really bad.

But the problem is, I don't usually feel compelled to write until the last minute. Or if there is no challenge I can see. And usually being "down-to-the-wire" is enough of a challenge for me to produce something. It works for every Writer's Night Drake has had that I've desired to go to. I've only once read something I'd produced way before. Otherwise, I'm usually late because I just finished whatever it is I am going to read and the printer ran out of paper halfway through printing it.

In this way, I'm a terrible writer.

Some people - I've found out - write ALL THE TIME and are constantly putting something together. Some idea in their head goes onto paper or into a Word document. That's not me. I only produce under extreme challenges or - in rare cases - when an idea is so grand I can't fit it in my head anymore.

A few of these examples include the script my older brother and I put together one week, this short story called 10 Up/Down, a recent story, Dust to Dust, and then a few other, random things. Like this book I wrote this one time. Yeah, it wasn't very good.

Otherwise, I can't finish anything. I started writing this book over the past summer, but I ran into what I call my "anti-muse" and have not been able to produce a single page really since. I put together a few scraps over Christmas break, but nothing worth - heh - "writing" home about. Aside from that, there are about half a billion "false starts" on my hard drive that will never ever get any farther than that.

And that's sad.

I came to realize over the past few years that I need to constantly create. But this just doesn't happen, anymore. I produce a crummy web comic twice a week, I write here in this blog, and I make stupid pictures and post them on Facebook. But otherwise... I'm not doing even a tenth of the creating I want to do.

I must learn to remedy this.



Please tell me how to remedy this.

Being a "Special Guest" (also: Some Yoga Stuff)

So on the 26th the Writer's and Critic's series is having a special guest reader, Tim Bascom, come over from Simpson to read from his book and, as of late, the English dept. has been having guest readers give a reading of their materials before the main show. These secondary special guests have been English students. This time, for Tim, the secondary student guest is SKYLER BARTELS.

That's right. So come one, come all, and see your least favorite classmate, peer, friend, or whatever give a reading about London or something, I don't know. I've barely started writing the thing which - I am aware - is a bad thing. I should probably get on it pretty quickly, here. So I probably will.

Also, as I stated in an earlier post, I've started doing yoga stuff. I was asked by Aliona to go and I said "sure" for once and so I've been going. It's been kind of off-and-on since I had bronchitis and didn't really feel like going for, like, a week or so. But otherwise I'm learing new things about my body! Like... for example... the ways it won't move and the ways it will move. Turns out, there are far more ways it won't move than I'd previously figured. Huh.

Otherwise, I'm supposed to be typing up a paper tonight and I'm also supposed to be going to bed pretty quickly. But I'm doing neither of these things, it seems. Instead, here I am, blogging on this thing. Which I've done rather frequently as of late, even though I said I was probably going to quit.

I guess I just don't know how to quit you!

Oh, That Ice

The first time I noticed the ice in my gut, it was when my younger brother came up the stairs to interrupt my video game playing to inform me that my sister, Sarah, may have passed away. A huge chunk of ice, sharp and cold and dense, grew within an instant. It was uncomfortable, it was weighty, and it was all things wrong.

This block of ice, chuck of ice... whatever, has invaded my gut time and time again. It always manages to vanish, always dissolves back into nothingness. But every one and again, it shows up like a bad habbit or an annoying mosquito when you're trying to sleep and its dark and you can't see it to swat and kill it, but its there. Oh, God in Heaven, is it ever there.

Sometimes I know why it shows up. Specific events have caused it to surface. Over the summer, some student loans people kept trying to talk to me and I figured it was something horrible, maybe that they weren't going to give me any more loans and I'd be out on my butt in the streets rather than out on my butt at Drake. But they wanted to update my address for shipping and letter purposes, nothing more. The ice was there, however, letting me know it was ready to make me wish I was dead.

Other times I don't know why the ice is there. It simply is. It shows up, most times, like this... and usually signals something huge or major that is going on, either behind the scenes - literally - or just in my subconcious. Something huge or major, but most definately bad.

Today I have that ice. And I'm trying to determine what it is there for, this time. If I can figure it out, I can usually get rid of it pretty quick like and move on with my life again. But sometimes I simply can't. Every once in a great while, I never solve it. And either the major or huge thing takes place and I feel completely blindsided, or nothing ever seems to happen and I just move on (but something probably did happen and I was just naive to notice it).

I hope its nothing. Maybe its always been nothing.

I don't know.

I don't want to grow up.

Bronchitis is _________

(Hint: the answer is "Stinky")
_______________________


So, yeah, I figure you've got this gathered and what have you already, but I've been suffering from bronchitis for the past - nearly - week. Really started to hit pretty hard last Thursday where I was found wandering around almost aimlessly at the All-Majors career fair (which should have been called All-BUSINESS-Majors career fair...). My girlfriend tells me I looked dazed. Aliona also tells me I look way better today.

Which is good, because I feel way better, now, than I did a few days ago. Friday, when I went in to see a dr., I felt like death. Seriously. Like death. I just wanted to lie in bed and cry. But I didn't. Because I'm a man. I whimpered like a pro!

I had to miss some classes yesterday because I was still running a 102ish temp, but today I was right around average temperatures, so I went to classes and everything was fine (for the most part). Then I did some homework, made some stupid pictures with MSPaint, hung out with the girlfriend some (where she told me I looked way better), and then came back to do more homework!

Oh boy!

Nothing like getting over being sick to remind you of how much you hate homework.

Tomorrow: BUILD-A-BEAR THING!

PS: Also, I started doing Yoga. I'll fill you all in.

AMC

When did AMC, a movie channel that is supposed to be dedicated to broadcasting American Movie Classics begins showing junk?Today I was flipping through and caught a shot of Lara Craft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.

This is not a CLASSIC. This is a recent movie that did "OK" at the box office but in all truth failed to really bring about any change in people. Isn't that why we consider movies to be classic? I think of classics and I instantly think of Casablanca.


This is a movie that will always be remembered, throughout all of time. Love it or hate it, no one can deny that it is a classic in every sense of the word. It is a powerful and wonderful film that more people should see. This is the kind of movie that should be on AMC. Not Tomb Raider. What the hell?

In twenty years if people were asked to list movies they regarded as "classics" I can bet you more people will have Casablanca or Citizen Kane in their top 5-10. No one will have Tomb Raider on that list.

Tomb Raider isn't even so bad that it can be considered a classic in regards to its poor quality. Its a well made movie, for what its worth. Is there a great plot? No, but its OK. The effects any good? Sure. Acting? Passable. Concept and overall followthrough? Fine.

A movie like Snakes on a Plane will be considered a classic, I feel, but not because its a "great movie" or anything like that. Simply because of the cultural impact it had on a nation so devoted to it (mostly online). People knew it wasn't going to be a fantastic example of cinema art, but thats not why they went to see it. And thats not why it will be considered a classic. It was so bad that it was exactly what everyone expected it to be. And it never had any higher goals. It ended up right where it wanted to end up.

Tomb Raider is just worthless and a throw-away film. Really, the only moment I remember (aside from the split second I watched just a bit ago) is Lara Croft punching a shark in the face. As cool as it was, even when I saw it the first time (I think flying to China? London? I don't remember...) I thought it was stupid as hell.



AMC has been showing terrible movies in an attempt, I think, to boost ratings. But this is what happened to MTV and VH1 that made them so terrible. They needed to do other things than show music videos and, as such, ended up having stupid reality shows and game shows and now, for the most part, barely have anything to do with music and/or music videos.

AMC, stop doing what you're doing and show classics. Thats what you were born to do, and so few of us know what we're on this Earth to do. Use your gift for good.

Not for stupidity and ratings.

Thanksgiving Related Text

So I'm home for Thanksgiving, playing a loaned-out Guitar Hero 3 with my younger brother, and looking at old family photographicals.

First off, the drive was OK. Zak (my younger brother) and I got out of Des Moines before it snowed and, although it did snow here a bit today (it has all melted, for the most part) before it snowed here, too. I hate snow. I hate most weather, though, so this is to be expected for the most part.

Second, while I said I wouldn't own Guitar Hero 3 while I was in school, that shouldn't stop me from borrowing it. So I did. I played Even Flow, which was awesome, but Cliffs of Dover on Expert is killing me. Like, literally. Killing me to death with its hardness.

Third, food. While our Thanksgiving dinner isn't until Saturday (on account of my lame old Dr. brother, Pete not getting home until Friday evening), I have eaten so much food that I am about to burst. String cheese, chocolates, brownies, chili, pumpkin rolls, crackers, cookies, more brownies, and more Dr Pepper than you can shake a stick at... Its the good life.

4th (still can't spell that), I finally saw Live Free or Die Hard and it was great and had lots of explosions and, if I could, I would trade my family for explosions. So... it was awesome.

5th, last night I looked at a bunch of old family photographs we have in photo albums and, you know what? I looked like a goon when I was a young lad, too.

I will return again shortly with another post. But I may be giving this up after the new year.... I'm just not very good at keeping up with it anymore...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We're Living in a Computerless World...

...and I am a computerless girl... what?

So, I have my computer working again. I got a processor fan in the post and replaced my old, janky one (it was making a lot of clicking noises and/or not spinning at all) and it runs smooth and silent and it works again. And its like a dream.

But for the three short days in which I had no computer and had to live in the library, here at Drake, I felt disconnected from the world.

In my first year at Drake I felt I had spent too much time on the Internet and not enough time on studies, so I removed my Ethernet cord and lived a disconnected life for a week. It was torture and I got less done because I simply played computer solitaire instead of reading and studying.

But, that's because I had a computer. While I wasn't connected to the world through the Internet, I could be connected to Midgar in Final Fantasy VII or my imagination through MSWord.

But those three days where I had no computer, I couldn't help the characters in the first Final Fantasy save their world, I couldn't talk to my girlfriend online until 2AM, I couldn't catch up on webcomics, I couldn't write homework or fiction, and I couldn't even browse through my folders.

Some people are big on cars, others on sports teams or just the sport itself. My computer is like an extension of my being, like another limb. Without it, I feel like I've lost an arm or a leg, and I stop functioning altogether.

I'm glad I have it back.

Stranded here on planet Earth

".....its not much, but it could be worse."

My computer - which I built sophomore year, here at Drake - is non-operational. The processor fan is either burned out or burning out and so I can't really use it. I mean, it will run, but eventually the processor itself will die and the rest of the parts with it and... well...

Back in high school I helped - along with a few other students - build all the computers in the building. By the time I'd graduated, I'd probably put together more than three dozen computer towers. Way more than that. I knew how to do it and I was good at it.

But then I stopped doing it and then I got parts from my parents to put my own together and, well... There is a difference when you are putting a computer together for a school and putting a computer together for yourself. If you really mess up at school, the school will frown upon it, sure, but they need those computers and so they will buy another one. If you screw up with your own, well.... You have to hope you had warranties on the parts and you have to hope that you backed up your hard drive onto some other form of information holding device.

Regardless, I took a lot more care in the construction of my own computer, whose name is Amalgamar because he is combined from parts of about three computers, now. And anytime there is a flaw or a strange noise or something is slow... I always flash back to that evening in my dorm room in GK, first floor... Lying on the carpet in barely any clothes (static free environment!) and putting those things together, and wondering what I'd done wrong.

The answer is probably nothing. The fan could have simply run its course (I've basically had my computer on non-stop since I got it up and running, back in 2005) and I have already ordered a replacement part. So, everything will be back to normal.

But the worst part is I'm stuck, here, now. In the library on campus, cut off from the E-LEC-TRONIC world (no idea why I broke it up like that, don't ask). I struggle without a constant online presence.

It will be an interesting 3-7 days...

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.