Having conceded that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is far too difficult to complete in the limited attention span I've got for it, I started to get the feeling that my burning desire to play video games for ridiculous stretches at a time had finally been quenched. Enter Blockbuster Video.
I'll be honest, I haven't rented a game in a long time, maybe even years, preferring to just go out and buy whatever game grabs my interest - a strategy which has worked wonderfully for my Gamecube, as every game I've got is considered great. But only a few of these games have left me bewildered and malnourished, blinking at the morning sun, unable to pry the controller out of my hand for days at a time. First it was Resident Evil, followed by Skies of Arcadia Legends, and most recently, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. But when I walked out of Blockbuster with The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, I had no idea what was in store for me.
After playing it for the better portion of the past 2 days, I've got to admit that it's a really fun game, but more importantly, it's just challenging enough to make you want to keep playing and earn your way to the next level. And with the incorporation of RPG level/skill building elements, it appeals to that side of me which took the time to level-up every member of my party to 99, in Final Fantasy III.
I feel like a kid again.
Currently: Taking a break to bathe and feed myself
Friday, November 21, 2003
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Edmonton 64
Ah, it's beginning to look a whole lot like a white Christmas after all. I woke up this morning to a wall of light, fluffy snow blanketing the city; at least a foot judging by how wet my shoes and pants were during my first lecture.
As I drove to the University this morning - perhaps it was the lack of sleep, maybe even the tub of gummy bears I ate the night before - the thick snow mesmerised me, and the landscape took on a surreal appearance. It felt like I was in a first generation N64 racer, with "fog" hiding all objects in the distance, and horrendous pop-up startling me at the last second. As I marveled at the polygon count necessary to render the Legislature Building in such detail, I was quickly snapped back to reality as my car decided to drive in ruts from 2 separate lanes, causing me to glide down 109 Street at a 45 degree angle.
Realizing there was no "R" button to guide my powerslide, I was forced to straighten things out the old fashioned way, preventing an untimely demise in the River Valley, and scaring the crap out of all the morning commuters around me.
On a completely unrelated topic, that's twice my future housing plans have been sidetracked by abandonment, condemnation, and demolition. I always thought the old high school would be a nice fix-er-upper, and once they tore that down I set my sights on Morrow's house...
Currently: Playing LOTR:ROTK on Gamecube
As I drove to the University this morning - perhaps it was the lack of sleep, maybe even the tub of gummy bears I ate the night before - the thick snow mesmerised me, and the landscape took on a surreal appearance. It felt like I was in a first generation N64 racer, with "fog" hiding all objects in the distance, and horrendous pop-up startling me at the last second. As I marveled at the polygon count necessary to render the Legislature Building in such detail, I was quickly snapped back to reality as my car decided to drive in ruts from 2 separate lanes, causing me to glide down 109 Street at a 45 degree angle.
Realizing there was no "R" button to guide my powerslide, I was forced to straighten things out the old fashioned way, preventing an untimely demise in the River Valley, and scaring the crap out of all the morning commuters around me.
On a completely unrelated topic, that's twice my future housing plans have been sidetracked by abandonment, condemnation, and demolition. I always thought the old high school would be a nice fix-er-upper, and once they tore that down I set my sights on Morrow's house...
Currently: Playing LOTR:ROTK on Gamecube
Monday, November 17, 2003
Absolutely Necessary
I was just browsing around the Internet looking for anything which might peak my interest for Christmas presents, when I found this at gameskins.com:
They've got gamer t-shirts, and boy do some of their designs take me back.
Currently: Microwaving hot beef burritos in my new microwave
They've got gamer t-shirts, and boy do some of their designs take me back.
Currently: Microwaving hot beef burritos in my new microwave
Mgmt.
After heavy consideration, and multiple conference calls with a consortium of highly distinguished website consulting companies, the proposed implementation of expanding the Shoutbox to include 7 posts, instead of the current 6, has been cancelled due to budgetary constraints and strict observance of web design feng-shui.
End Communication.
Currently: Contemplating the purchase of Final Fantasy XI
End Communication.
Currently: Contemplating the purchase of Final Fantasy XI
Hiatus Ended
Sweet merciful Lord, but it's nice to be back after my much-heralded One Month Anniversary. I don't know about you, but updating this Blog once, maybe twice a week really begins to wear a guy down, and the hilarious, spontaneous, incontabulous ideas don't always flow as freely as before. I hope you enjoy the changes I've made to the site, most notably expanding my Shoutbox to 7 posts, an incremental increase of 1, from the very vanilla setting of 6.
This past Saturday, I, along with a few of my fellow associates, enjoyed the sweet, succulent fruits (think Asian pear juiciness) of our diabolical scheming - the first kegger I've ever hosted, and what an evening it was. The evening of debauchery could not have been possible without some quick (and inebriated) thinking the week before, when Lambda Chi Alpha threw their first Keg Party in several years, which saw 4 kegs of Kokanee enter the house, but only 3 get tapped!
The fine young men who organized the party claimed they did not collect sufficient funds at the door to cover the cost of all the beer, so when we returned to the house several hours after the party had ended, to find the doors wide open, all the lights on, not a single soul in sight, and a full keg just sitting there, we really had no alternative but to purloin the sacred silver Ark of beer and smuggle it away in the trunk of my car.
Oh, the sheer unadulterated pleasure we reaped from the days which followed, with each cryptic ransom note raising their ire higher and higher - the threats, the pleading, the eventual acceptance of their inattentiveness - and the weakening of my rear shocks with every bump I traversed.
But every cloud has a silver lining, and the party thrown yesterday was a resounding success, enabling us to collect enough money to pay for the liberated keg, enjoy many a Boat Races, and recover this morning with nary a hint of a hangover. Up until the party I'd been battling a particularly stubborn cold, though it's now become clear that the sheer volume of beer I consumed has either scared those pesky viruses straight out of my system, or rendered them incapable of performing said cold-perpetuating duties.
What a great week, and God bless the dedicated folks working on liver replacement technology, wherever you are!
Currently listening to: Matthew Good - While We Were Hunting Rabbits
This past Saturday, I, along with a few of my fellow associates, enjoyed the sweet, succulent fruits (think Asian pear juiciness) of our diabolical scheming - the first kegger I've ever hosted, and what an evening it was. The evening of debauchery could not have been possible without some quick (and inebriated) thinking the week before, when Lambda Chi Alpha threw their first Keg Party in several years, which saw 4 kegs of Kokanee enter the house, but only 3 get tapped!
The fine young men who organized the party claimed they did not collect sufficient funds at the door to cover the cost of all the beer, so when we returned to the house several hours after the party had ended, to find the doors wide open, all the lights on, not a single soul in sight, and a full keg just sitting there, we really had no alternative but to purloin the sacred silver Ark of beer and smuggle it away in the trunk of my car.
Oh, the sheer unadulterated pleasure we reaped from the days which followed, with each cryptic ransom note raising their ire higher and higher - the threats, the pleading, the eventual acceptance of their inattentiveness - and the weakening of my rear shocks with every bump I traversed.
But every cloud has a silver lining, and the party thrown yesterday was a resounding success, enabling us to collect enough money to pay for the liberated keg, enjoy many a Boat Races, and recover this morning with nary a hint of a hangover. Up until the party I'd been battling a particularly stubborn cold, though it's now become clear that the sheer volume of beer I consumed has either scared those pesky viruses straight out of my system, or rendered them incapable of performing said cold-perpetuating duties.
What a great week, and God bless the dedicated folks working on liver replacement technology, wherever you are!
Currently listening to: Matthew Good - While We Were Hunting Rabbits
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Golden Showers
As in the all-encompassing, victorious radiance of the Green and Gold, Edmonton's very own Eskimos! Now, I'm not one who regularly follows football, but since the Oilers don't look like they'll be hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup at any point during my remaining years on this Earth, I'll take any local sporting victory I can get.
It was very apparent that the gaggle of announcers employed by CBC were residents of that moral cesspool known as Eastern Canada, as they refused to acknowledge even once that Edmonton played well, and chose to sum up the game by outlining the unfortunate mistakes befalling the Montreal Alouettes. In fact, they took a break from their post-game discussion to kick puppies and vomit bile from their circumambulating heads.
Currently: Joining the Age of Atomics by getting a microwave
It was very apparent that the gaggle of announcers employed by CBC were residents of that moral cesspool known as Eastern Canada, as they refused to acknowledge even once that Edmonton played well, and chose to sum up the game by outlining the unfortunate mistakes befalling the Montreal Alouettes. In fact, they took a break from their post-game discussion to kick puppies and vomit bile from their circumambulating heads.
Currently: Joining the Age of Atomics by getting a microwave
Saturday, November 15, 2003
"Whoa..."
To put it quite frankly, Matrix Revolutions sucked donkey balls on such a grand scale, that mere written language cannot properly convey the details of this unfathomable plateau of disappointment.
I, along with Steph, Bender, and Ross, hoped to curb our lingering doubts about the movie by seeing it on the Imax screen, but for the combined $66.00 we spent on admission, it would have been far more frugal to simply bathe our eyes in hydrochloric acid and walk in to traffic. For the $16.50 each, however, we were treated to a theatre experience that did not include a single ad or preview, and a tremendous screen which I could only dream of using to play one of the many epileptic-inducing shooters that Dean has in his massive collection of video games.
When the movie ended, and thank God it eventually did, the assembled viewing audience arose from their seats, shuffled towards the exists, and did so in such a silent manner that you'd think an enforced vow of silence was included in the ticket price. I had but one thought going through my head, "Now that I've seen this third movie, I really wish they'd only made the first one."
Bah!
Currently: Playing the Beyond Good & Evil demo
I, along with Steph, Bender, and Ross, hoped to curb our lingering doubts about the movie by seeing it on the Imax screen, but for the combined $66.00 we spent on admission, it would have been far more frugal to simply bathe our eyes in hydrochloric acid and walk in to traffic. For the $16.50 each, however, we were treated to a theatre experience that did not include a single ad or preview, and a tremendous screen which I could only dream of using to play one of the many epileptic-inducing shooters that Dean has in his massive collection of video games.
When the movie ended, and thank God it eventually did, the assembled viewing audience arose from their seats, shuffled towards the exists, and did so in such a silent manner that you'd think an enforced vow of silence was included in the ticket price. I had but one thought going through my head, "Now that I've seen this third movie, I really wish they'd only made the first one."
Bah!
Currently: Playing the Beyond Good & Evil demo
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Gots'tha Sauce
My unhealthy, crack-like cravings for sweet sauce and spicy meat has reached an all-time high, as I've begun the most insidious undertaking of my University career - the inception of and subsequent implementation of my Edmonton Donair Log Book.
The budding pages of this eventual donair tome keep track of all the necessary data I've accumulated, listing restaurant locations, toppings, and overall satisfaction. Arising from countless hours of wracking my brain, I've devised three distinct satisfaction categories - Excellent, Good, and Terrible (aka rat feces). Substituting Caesar salad dressing for the necessary sweet sauce almost instantly relegates any donair to the afore mentioned Terrible category, whereas the perfect blend of crisp, spicy meat, sweet sauce, complimentary toppings, and fresh pita will earn a much higher ranking, regardless of price, inconvenience, or resulting hours spent in the crapper for the next 3 days.
Taking advantage of my newly acquired Sociological Statistics capabilities, my log book will eventually be expanded to include numerous categories (serving size, price, atmosphere, xdays unsettled stomach) which will provide the necessary figures to plug in to my measures of central tendency and dispersion, thus allowing me to complete a parameter estimation on my overall donair satisfaction within the city of Edmonton.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to use the bathroom - for the sake of my continued research.
Currently: Heading back to Vegreville to crash Dean's "crib"
The budding pages of this eventual donair tome keep track of all the necessary data I've accumulated, listing restaurant locations, toppings, and overall satisfaction. Arising from countless hours of wracking my brain, I've devised three distinct satisfaction categories - Excellent, Good, and Terrible (aka rat feces). Substituting Caesar salad dressing for the necessary sweet sauce almost instantly relegates any donair to the afore mentioned Terrible category, whereas the perfect blend of crisp, spicy meat, sweet sauce, complimentary toppings, and fresh pita will earn a much higher ranking, regardless of price, inconvenience, or resulting hours spent in the crapper for the next 3 days.
Taking advantage of my newly acquired Sociological Statistics capabilities, my log book will eventually be expanded to include numerous categories (serving size, price, atmosphere, xdays unsettled stomach) which will provide the necessary figures to plug in to my measures of central tendency and dispersion, thus allowing me to complete a parameter estimation on my overall donair satisfaction within the city of Edmonton.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to use the bathroom - for the sake of my continued research.
Currently: Heading back to Vegreville to crash Dean's "crib"
Monday, November 03, 2003
House Harkonnen
Curse working four consecutive months of graveyard shifts! Curse Tri-City Drilling to hell! My inner-clock, my circadian cycle, is still 12 hours opposite of what it should be, even two months after being back in school.
*eyes the clock wishing he'd been asleep four hours ago*
Well, I guess it is giving me ample time to catch up on my reading. I've read seven books in the Dune series...only two more to go.
Currently listening to: Kill Bill Soundtrack (Japanese version)
*eyes the clock wishing he'd been asleep four hours ago*
Well, I guess it is giving me ample time to catch up on my reading. I've read seven books in the Dune series...only two more to go.
Currently listening to: Kill Bill Soundtrack (Japanese version)
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Teodor Semeniuk (1916-2003)
Ted, Gido, Grandpa...all of these names I've used to describe the strongest man I've ever known, who at the ripe old age of 87, passed from this world to begin his next journey.
I had the opportunity to race down to Two Hills on Thursday evening, after receiving a phone call from my sister, Debbie, informing me that he had suffered two consecutive strokes, and it would probably be my last chance to see this beloved patriarch of the Semeniuk family, as he wasn't expected to survive another day.
In all of his 87 years, despite a massive stroke when I was a child, despite the heart surgery, and various cancers, those last few hours I spent in his presence were the first I've ever seen him incapacitated, unable to move or speak, unable to respond. It was the first time he ever appeared weary, and though he'd fallen in to a coma before I was able to arrive, I was comforted to see him at peace - stricken but not defeated.
Comforting my Baba at his bedside, with tears in her eyes, she proudly told us stories of how he was just hours earlier, struggling to talk he asked about each individual member of our family - if I was enjoying University, how all of his grandchildren were, even the secret stash of Halloween candy he'd won at Bingo and was saving for them. Even as his body continued to fail him, he remained strong willed and proud. When my Baba, wearing a cast on her arm from a fall, tried to feed him, he told her lovingly in Ukrainian, "I can feed myself...you've got enough to worry about."
I've shed many tears over this man I love, and there will be plenty more in the days that follow. His strength will always be there for me to draw upon, and his compassion for those he loved is the greatest lesson in selflessness I've ever experienced.
87 years of life, and love to spare...we should all be so lucky.
Currently: Playing Zelda, 'cause life continues to move on.
I had the opportunity to race down to Two Hills on Thursday evening, after receiving a phone call from my sister, Debbie, informing me that he had suffered two consecutive strokes, and it would probably be my last chance to see this beloved patriarch of the Semeniuk family, as he wasn't expected to survive another day.
In all of his 87 years, despite a massive stroke when I was a child, despite the heart surgery, and various cancers, those last few hours I spent in his presence were the first I've ever seen him incapacitated, unable to move or speak, unable to respond. It was the first time he ever appeared weary, and though he'd fallen in to a coma before I was able to arrive, I was comforted to see him at peace - stricken but not defeated.
Comforting my Baba at his bedside, with tears in her eyes, she proudly told us stories of how he was just hours earlier, struggling to talk he asked about each individual member of our family - if I was enjoying University, how all of his grandchildren were, even the secret stash of Halloween candy he'd won at Bingo and was saving for them. Even as his body continued to fail him, he remained strong willed and proud. When my Baba, wearing a cast on her arm from a fall, tried to feed him, he told her lovingly in Ukrainian, "I can feed myself...you've got enough to worry about."
I've shed many tears over this man I love, and there will be plenty more in the days that follow. His strength will always be there for me to draw upon, and his compassion for those he loved is the greatest lesson in selflessness I've ever experienced.
87 years of life, and love to spare...we should all be so lucky.
Currently: Playing Zelda, 'cause life continues to move on.
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Bachelor Chow
Ahh-haha-aha--aahaaha! The simple joys of being a young bachelor are seemingly endless! Aside from spending entire days in my pajamas, nay, weeks, the culinary arts remain a strange and forbidden realm that should only be traversed with step-by-step instructions.
However, a late-night expedition in to the "kitchen" (or area where food is supposedly stored and prepared for consumption) I happened upon a marvel exquisite in it's simplicity, and insidious in it's conception. Here's what you'll need:
01. Salted soda crackers
02. Margarine
03. Medium cheddar cheese
04. Tabasco sauce
05. Oh, and a knife or "cutting and spreading" instrument of some sort.
Put some margarine on one side of the cracker, generously cover surface with Tabasco sauce (the margarine prevents the Tabasco from seeping in to the cracker and making it mushy), and, BAM! top with a slice of cheese.
Currently listening to: Gastro-intestinal tract rebel against me
However, a late-night expedition in to the "kitchen" (or area where food is supposedly stored and prepared for consumption) I happened upon a marvel exquisite in it's simplicity, and insidious in it's conception. Here's what you'll need:
01. Salted soda crackers
02. Margarine
03. Medium cheddar cheese
04. Tabasco sauce
05. Oh, and a knife or "cutting and spreading" instrument of some sort.
Put some margarine on one side of the cracker, generously cover surface with Tabasco sauce (the margarine prevents the Tabasco from seeping in to the cracker and making it mushy), and, BAM! top with a slice of cheese.
Currently listening to: Gastro-intestinal tract rebel against me
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