And I’m back

Ok…I FINALLY have the internet at home, so this blog should be active again.

In the last week, my neighbor situation kind of corrected itself in that the abusive guy and his abused girlfriend left under cover of night. Of course, their banging things around as they carried them down the stairs and out the door kept me up all night, but they won’t be bothering me again. Not the solution I had hoped for, but hey, at least the neighborhood has improved.

Also, the new landlord took over, so I actually have a landlord. So far she’s already had the parking lot plowed a few times, though, ironically, the plow company she is using is owned by the old landlord.

Other than that, the snowpocalypse has been pretty boring. I’ve read some stuff (I just started on William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition, and I’m getting ready to start on David Wong’s John Dies at the End, I’ve watched some stuff (I just finished Extras with Ricky Gervais), and I’ve played some stuff (I’m almost through with Neverwinter Nights, and Fallout 3 is the bomb.)

So there you go. I should be on more often now. I know you are all thrilled. 😛

Christmas Goodies!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I know I did. On Christmas Eve, I went to my grandparents’ house. I really only see them during the holidays, even though they don’t live too far away. That’s just how we roll in the Nova posse. My brother and his girlfriend were there, as were my parents and my Uncle Mike. It was nice getting everyone together, but I try not to be overly sentimental about family, so I’ll stop there. 😛

On Christmas day, the otter and I had our traditional dinner at the Waffle House, a tradition that started last year when I had the flu and didn’t want to spread it to her family. We exchanged gifts and had great breakfasty-type-food, served to us by a waitress who looked EXACTLY like Punky Brewster.

I know that discussing Christmas presents goes against better judgment, especially after my apartment was broken into this summer, but I’m going to do it. Damn the fates, I say. I’ll only discuss a few gifts here, so if you got me something, and I didn’t mention it, either there was a good reason for it that you already understand, or it is something that I wouldn’t want the interwebs community to read about. Ooooooohhhhhh….secrets!

Anyway, I got lots of giftcards, which will be quickly used on stuff I need. Like more CDs. My brother and his girlfriend got me a gift card towards songs on the Rock Band video game, so that when I visit them, we can rock out with our…never mind.

The otter got me a lot of stuff, but the stuff of interest to the interwebs are the Heroes season one box set, and the book The Courage to Survive by Dennis Kucinich. I also got a new coat, which is keeping my incredibly warm in this..how cold is it…60 DEGREE WEATHER!?! What the hell happened to December? It feels like Spring out there! I also got some new clothes, which I needed desperately!

The otter’s sister got me an awesome DVD of a half-hour long Rube Goldberg device, called The Way Things Go. Jayson, this is the same one we saw at the Akron Museum of Art.

There were other cool gifts, too, as well as money. I’ve spent some of the money on the book The Delivery Man by Joe McGinniss Jr., as recommended by the otter’s friend, Zach.

Besides visiting relatives and getting gifts, I watched Elf on Christmas day, and have spent a lot of time playing Gladius and Jade Empire on the XBox. Good times.

So, how was your holiday?

Last Day

Well, today’s the last day of work before the semester is over. That means I get a month off from dealing with thesis statements, APA format, and, unfortunately, affording food. I tried (not as hard as I could) to get a job for the winter break, and I put an ad on Craigslist offering my skills as a tutor, but to no avail.

I can’t say I’m freaking out, though. I did manage to save a tiny bit of money, and the way my checks will fall, I will be able to pay my rent. I guess I’ll be spending a lot of time indoors, playing Gladius and losing weight. (And hopefully, writing.)

Welcome to the United Socialist States of Jaynova, Comrades!

I know, I know…it seems like every month I abandon whatever on-line game I’m playing and pick up another one. Right now, I’m playing Nation States. You get to create your own country, put its laws into effect, and participate in a mock UN (called the World Assembly). It’s free and browser-based, and it only takes about a minute a day to play…unless you get involved in the forums and the wiki. Which I have.

On the forums, I play in character as Jerzy “Jay” Novakovich, the president of The United Socialist States of jaynova. This is taking some time as I argue against (or agree with) other rulers and ambassadors.

The other time-waster is the wiki. Here’s the entry I’ve written. It’s a lot of fun, but it has pulled me away from this blog.

Anyway, if you sign up for the game, let me know which country you run!

On-Line gaming…

I’m going to return to the usual haiku and review sort of stuff I do on this blog tomorrow (I’m giving my brain a break after that last week!), but I wanted to tell everyone that I’m playing Nation States. It’s fun, and it’s slllooooowwwwww (You get to make 1 or 2 decisions a day). Anyway, do you think you can lead a country? Give it a shot! Look me up! I’m the president of The United Socialist States of Jaynova!

Zombie Game: Urban Dead!

I’ve been playing this since 2005, but here’s a fun, free, browser-based multi-player game of urban survival against the zombie hordes! Go to Urban Dead, and sign up for a free account. Then, look for either Joe Milton, who’s hiding out in Penny Heights, or look for Pvt novak, who’s in West Greyside, trying to contact his superiors to receive orders.

(I also have a character who’s a zombie, but you won’t find him…he’ll find you.)

Break in at chez nova

I got home last night to find my back door wide open, one of my cats missing, and a buch of my shit taken. The cat came back, which is the only thing preventing me from going all vigilante-death wish on some motherfuckers right now.

They did get my laptop. And all my discs with my writing from the last 2 or 3 years. So right now, as a writer, I’m completely demoralized and considering an occupation where the theft of something the size of my pinky can’t ruin my life (That’s my flash drive, not my laptop.).

They also got my XBox. You know…that super top secret XBox I talked about on my birthday. GONE. And my DVD player. So, even though they left my TV and most of my DVDs, I can’t watch anything.

They got my digital camera. So no more YouTube posts.

They also got some DVDs from the library. And some games I borrowed off my friend Rob. And a game and controler I borrowed off my friend Tom. So, you know, not only did I lose shit, but now I owe people money that I don’t have. This means that, because of these motherfucking bastards, I have to get a second job.

Besides shit that they took, they also ransacked my entire place, probably looking for drugs.

The end result: I owe people money, my hand hurts (maybe broken…I can’t afford to go to the hospital to find out) from putting it through a wall when I found out my laptop and discs were gone, and since it’s obvious that my neighborhood is becoming a high crime area (my car stereo was stolen last week, and there was another break in a few days ago), I’ve got to find a new place.

Seriously, can someone check to see if I have a sign on my back?

Meme time: Top 5 Favorite Video Games

Ok, ok…I haven’t been writing on my blog very much. I’ve been sitting at home, playing the XBox. Because of this, I haven’t had much to write about. So let me ask all of you: What are your top 5 favorite games? Here are mine, in random order:

Pac-Man–Arcade. This was the first arcade game I ever played, back in 1980 or so. I remember clearly: It was at Fisher Foods, a local grocery store. My mother had to lift me up to see the screen. I was running from the ghosts, and I suddenly reralized that “the big dots” made you eat ghosts! For my 3-year-old mind, this was the greatest thing ever. I have this game on my cell-phone, and I still play it (I beat my cell-phone highscore on friday!). Ahhhh, memories.

Gladius–PS2, XBox. I’m playing this one again. It’s a fantasy, Roman-Gladiator-style turn-based-strategy role-playing-game, that, while complex in the abilities charactes can have and in the strategy of puting those chaacters together, is actually easy to learn to play. I’m over 20 hours in the game now, and it only gets better as you go. The basic idea is that you must lead your gladiator school to the championship in Caltha, the capital of Imperia. To do this, you must travel the world, fighting the best that each region has to offer. This game is endlessly replayable, but a little too easy to save over your game (my ex-wife played for over 100 hours before accidentally erasing her game. She then played at least an additional 80 hours!).

Sid Meier’s Pirates!–XBox,Genesis,NES. This game is one of the original sandbox, or open-ended, games. there is a main plot, and you can finish the game without even touching on that plot. I played this game on the NES fiorst, and it was my favorite game for that system. The Genesis version was better, with improved graphicsa and sound. The XBox game added features, like the ability to take the daughters of the governors to the Ball (where you hit certain buttons in rythym to dance well and impress them). I think any version of this game holds up well, but the XBox version manages to improve on the game without changing what made the early versions so great. You can play this game from beginning to end in a few hours, just blowing up enemy ships and stealing their loot, or you can get into the story and hunt for your missing family. You can decide to call yourself a pirate-hunter and kill the 9 most notorious pirates on the Spanish Main. If you like, you can even do nothing but buy and sell goods, only fighting to defend yourself from pirates. Come on, though…who doesn’t want to be a pirate?

Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight-PC. This game is not the best 1st person shooter. It’s not the best Star Wars game. It doesn’t hold up well against games today. So, why is it a favorite of mine? Well, it was the 1st game I played online. I met lots of friends (with whom I have completely lost touch), I honed my online gaming skills (although, really, what skills do I really have?), and hey,I got to play as a Jedi. How cool is that?

Marvel Ultimate Alliance-XBox. I know, this game’s a little new to be called one of the best. However, it has many of my favorite characters (Dr. Strange!!! Spider-man!!! Silver-Freaking-Surfer!!!), and though pretty mindless, is pretty much infinitely replayable, as you can go back through the game, levelling up to get every power for every character. I’ve beaten this game 5 times, in some cases making my own teams (S.H.E.I.L.D. Black Ops:Nick Fury, Electra, Wolverine, Deadpool; The Mystic Avengers: Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Elektra, Blade, with Thor in reserve), and other times using pre-designed teams (The Defenders: Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Luke Cage, Iceman). It’s a great game that does everything that the X Men Legends games did right, and corrected the mistakes of those two games.

So, what are your favorite games?

I’m looking at you:
Amuirin AND Imtay (I want posts from both of you!)
Matt
Zach
David B.

Fucking teeth.

Well, today, my work (a local college) was closed for the second day in a row due to weather, which means that I don’t get paid for Monday or Tuesday. I was doing all this extra work to get ahead, but now I’m just breaking even. That is, I’m breaking even if I don’t go to the dentist.

This is also where it is fortunate that I had the day off: I didn’t sleep last night. At all. My tooth is throbbing so bad that it’s all I can think about. Unfortunately, because of these two days off, I can’t afford to do anything about it. So, I probably have an abcess, and I probably will just have to suffer through it until the infection goes to my heart and kills me. Yay American health care!

On the plus side, the day off let me beatt the Resevior Dogs video game on XBox. Pretty easy game, concidering I beat it on normal difficulty, and got the best ending, in a total of about 5 hours, while suffering through this tooth thing.

I’m not proofreading this entry; I’m going home to try to get some sleep.

Wasted Time

Well, tomorrow, I go back to work after a 2-week break (The Writing Center opens in another week, but I’m going in to file paperwork and do some other clerical things). I promised myself that I would write at least 5 days a week during my unpaid “vacation.”

Move ahead two weeks and one measly page of script later, and I realise that I wasted an opportunity to get into the habit of writing.

So, what did I accomplish during the break? Well:

I watched all 25 episodes of Robotech: New Generation.
I watched 3/4 of the 1st season of Heroes.
I beat Robotech: Invasion on the XBox.
I beat X-Men Legends on the XBox.
I started reading X-Men: Watchers on the Walls by Christopher L. Bennett.
I started reading a collection of writings by C.G. Jung.
I started reading How to Write for Animation by Jeffrey Scott.
I attempted (and failed thus far) to repeat my initial success at lucid dreaming.

And that’s really it, besides the Walleye Drop and posting videos on the blog.

I’m actually kind of dissappointed in myself. I really intended to get some writing done. It’s just that there always seemed to be something in my way. I frequently forgot my flash drive with my stuff I’m working on when I had my computer, or I was just without my computer. I always seemed to have somewhere I had to be. I was sick. I don’t know. I always have some excuse.

Well, hopefully, starting tomorrow (new week and all) I will start getting motivated to write. Or maybe after I beat X-Men Legends II.