It’s t-minus 7 days until the launch of the Nintendo Wii, and while I don’t usually consider myself a fanboy, I am going to try my damndest to pick one up on launch day. But I’ve been waiting for that for a while, and I needed something to fill the gaming time between, so I picked up a Nintendo DS. (Actually, it was practically given to me by a friend who had upgraded to a DS Lite.)
Anyway, until getting the DS, I had pretty much given up on portable gaming as a platform. I just didn’t feel like the really small screen provided a very good gaming experience, and when I had my Gameboy Advance, it seemed like all the games that I really enjoyed were just ports of much older games for much older systems. So I was skeptical. But after having the DS for a few weeks and trying a few games, I must say I’ve been won back over.
The graphical power of the system is probably along the lines of a PS1, maybe slightly better. But the real breakout feature of the DS is of course it’s use of dual screens, one of which is a tough screen. At first, I thought this was a gimicky feature that had few useful applications. I have so far been pleasantly surprised by how many games have used it, though.
But anyway, this isn’t meant to be a review of the system or a commercial. I just wanted to say that the DS has made be believe that portable gaming systems are still a viable platform. (And I can’t wait for Phantom Hourglass. That’s going to be frickin’ awesome.)
I realize that I said my last book was going to be “Tropic of Cancer,” and I’m still reading that, but I also picked up an audiobook of Stephen King’s “Cell” to listen to while I worked. And I just finished that. So, I’m not sure how this fits into the timeline of my reading, but here goes.
I am an unabashed Stephen King fan. I’ve never read anything he’s written that I haven’t liked, even if I knew it wasn’t always award-winning literature. And this book probably won’t be winning any awards anytime soon. This was King’s homage to the zombie horror genre of books and movies, and he does a fine job. He uses a somewhat silly-sounding premise (a “pulse” sent out over all cell phones turns the user into a mindless zombie) to build a survivor road trip story around. There are a lot of similarities between “Cell” and King’s own “The Stand,” except that in “Cell” there are mindless zombies chasing the survivors around.
As for listening to it as an audiobook, I must say I had my doubts at first. But now it feels like I just read it, even though it was in the voice of some B-list actor. I may have to check out other audiobooks.
[This article is part of the 26 Books project that I'm doing this year.]
So a friend of mine and I decided to mosey on down to EB Games early yesterday morning to pick up preorders for the Nintendo Wii, which will be officially released on Nov. 19. It turns out we should have moved at a faster pace than a mosey.
When we arrived, there were already more people in line than preorders available. As a matter of fact, I think the guy in front of us was the last to receive one of the little cards that said he was entitled to one. At first, my friend and I were downtrodden, knowning that if we’d been there a little earlier we could be assured that we’d be playing “Twilight Princess” at the earliest possible date. Instead, we have to risk not getting one from the first shipment, and that could mean a week or two delay, totally unacceptable.
But upon further reflection, my friend and I decided that we were glad that there was a demographic of losers — all looked in their late 20s, maybe 30s, stilling fighting acne, still convinced that army jackets are cool, and still probably living in their parents’ basements — that were one notch above us on the übergeek ladder. (I am aware that this insult is being flung on a blog, and I’m aware that that is ironic.) So F you EB Games, and F every other nerd who had more foresight than we did.
Besides, Wal-Mart will start selling them at 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 19, and EB Games doesn’t open until 10 a.m. So we shall have a full 10 hours of Wii-ness before you even get yours. Ha!
< /rant >
This short play about a terrible misunderstanding kind of left me feeling cold. I mean, I guess there are one of two ways of reading it: Either you’re on the side of John or on the side of Carol, and depending on which character you immediately identify with, that’s the character you’ll probably end up rooting for by the end.
In the first act, a student visits her professor in his office, and he goes off on a few bizarre tangents and tells some stories about himself and about his philosophy of teaching. In the second act, Carol is back in John’s office and we are told that Carol filed a complaint with the tenure committee, claiming that John had sexually harassed her during the meeting that we witnissed in Act 1. The third act finds Carol back in John’s office, where John is trying to understand why and how Carol was able to not only prevent him from getting tenure, but to get him fired, and maybe even charged criminally.
The play is kind of dry, but it’s an interesting examination of how words can get twisted around, and how they can be used to give one person power over another.
I like David Mamet’s screenplays. He is the author behind such great movies as “The Untouchables”, “Glengarry Glen Ross”, “The Edge”, “Ronin” and “Spartan”. He’s also the creator of TV’s “The Unit”. So the man’s created a lot of stories that I’m a huge fan of. I maybe wouldn’t recommend “Oleanna” to a casual play reader — the dialogue is hopelessly choppy — but I would heartily recommend any of the above films.
Next book, “Tropic of Cancer” by Henry Miller
[This article is part of the 26 Books project that I'm doing this year.]
Looking down from the tippy-top of South Sister. Legs. Hurt.
Check out Flickr set of Michelle and I climbing South Sister, a 10,360 mountain near where we live. We actually climbed a little under half of that, but it was brutal. It was the most difficult thing we’ve ever done, physically, and will probably stay that way for a long time.
It was really, really hard. Harder than I thought it would be. But then, my shape is not so great. But we didn’t stop until we reached the top, no matter how much we wanted to. But really, that’s about all I can say about it. Check out the photos for the whole story.
Oh, and I checked that off of the list of things to do before I die.
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