I'm still working my way through Okami, which used to own my soul with its stunning graphics and apparent superiority to Zelda, but has since revealed itself to be much much too easy.
I've never died, and I've only had to use one of my three "lives" twice in twenty-plus hours of play. Also, I'm getting really sick of that little bug immediately telling me the answer to every plot-central puzzle.
Do you know how many times I've died playing A Link to the Past? Are kids today just dumber than we were?
Perhaps I should just play more shooters. Goldeneye in particular stands out as a difficult videogame; I remember trying for the "Invincibility" cheat on Facility until my hands were sore.
A quick glance at the walkthrough (spoilers make my eyes burn) tells me that I have way, way more of the game left than I thought. Opinions will be revised when appropriate.
Dan's Webpage
Because everyone loves a farce
Friday, September 29
2:55 PM
Though the stray beads still elude me
Tuesday, September 26 12:32 AM
DR236: Motion to Extend Fall
Friday, September 22 1:39 PM
Freedom Day
Saturday, September 16 1:49 PM
Personality considered as the sum of a few slogans
Wednesday, September 13 12:26 PM
Blog post as proof of life
Sunday, September 3 2:40 AM
The New Place
Friday, September 1 3:19 AM
Choice, Distance, Delusions
Alles Wird Gut
Though the stray beads still elude me
Comments (1)
actually. i was surprised with the depth of the game too. I've played a link to the past as well, and i can beat every part of the game within five and a half hours, with out dying, or using a single potion or fairy. Us youthful people aren't all completely stupid... just some of us. I for one agree that okami is a tad too easy. i've gone through and beaten it and never died, only had to use a food pouch once, gotten most of the avaiable things throughout the game. but at the same time, the optional 8-point blockhead had me stumped for a while, and there are other aspects of the game that are slightly challenging. feel free to respond to me at my email: mastersullivan@hotmail.com
Tuesday, September 26 12:32 AM
DR236: Motion to Extend Fall
I biked to the St. Paul library today to check out Heaven, another sci-fi book by the Wheelers guys. It was a great day for biking and an easy trip.
Going back, not so easy... St. Paul is apparently in a valley, or something? This is the kind of thing I don't pay attention to when I'm driving. That hill sure was fun to go down on the way there, though...
I feel like I've wasted my summer in this new place, where I can bike right to downtown and walk outside at prettymuch any hour of the night with no problems. For that matter, I certainly haven't gone frisbee golfing enough. Barely enough to remember how not to play. I've realized: books, videogames, that stuff will keep.
And really: I'm, for the moment, one of those rare people with the time to do it all anyways.
I vote that we extend this Indian summer for another month.
It's like Bill and/or Beth say: fall is the most undervalued season. You've got the two coolest holidays, Thanksgiving and Halloween (at least in theory: I gather that Thanksgiving is awkward for many people, and well, Halloween might be the only holiday that I'm actually bad at), more interesting leaves, delicious cider and Oktoberfest beer, and a depth that none of the other seasons have, except maybe spring on a good day.
I don't like getting cold though, I mean, like all northern Minnesotans I can handle it while also complaining with gusto, but winter is trouble. Let's just keep it like this until I've biked and disced (I know!) to my satisfaction. I don't want to hear anything about winter.
Going back, not so easy... St. Paul is apparently in a valley, or something? This is the kind of thing I don't pay attention to when I'm driving. That hill sure was fun to go down on the way there, though...
I feel like I've wasted my summer in this new place, where I can bike right to downtown and walk outside at prettymuch any hour of the night with no problems. For that matter, I certainly haven't gone frisbee golfing enough. Barely enough to remember how not to play. I've realized: books, videogames, that stuff will keep.
And really: I'm, for the moment, one of those rare people with the time to do it all anyways.
I vote that we extend this Indian summer for another month.
It's like Bill and/or Beth say: fall is the most undervalued season. You've got the two coolest holidays, Thanksgiving and Halloween (at least in theory: I gather that Thanksgiving is awkward for many people, and well, Halloween might be the only holiday that I'm actually bad at), more interesting leaves, delicious cider and Oktoberfest beer, and a depth that none of the other seasons have, except maybe spring on a good day.
I don't like getting cold though, I mean, like all northern Minnesotans I can handle it while also complaining with gusto, but winter is trouble. Let's just keep it like this until I've biked and disced (I know!) to my satisfaction. I don't want to hear anything about winter.
Do you know of the movement to rename it frolf? or gozbee?
Gozbee is new on me. I first knew of it as frolf, but soon discovered that no one I knew actually used that term, ever. Any unusual regard for copyright?
Friday, September 22 1:39 PM
Freedom Day
Freedom, freedom, freedom, oi! I'm a real employee now, which means that my workload has just tripled. Now instead of making as much in a month as a part-time mentally-disabled sweeper of floors, I'm making as much as a struggling part-time comedian.
One hundred years of debt repayment begins today.
Otherwise, lately I've been reading my way through The Dark Tower series and playing through Zelda on the SNES. Well, who cares what you think?
I know quite a few people for whom it seems like God, in their mind, isn't so much looking down and judging our sins as he is judging our apparent geekiness. The God of Hipsters, if you will. Looking back, I may regret being too straight-laced or awkward or paranoid or cowardly, but I've never regretted being geeky.
And so it also gives me great pleasure to admit that I love "The Wire." The first season, at least, which I just (yarrrg) downloaded last week. I'm constantly on the lookout for a good procedural drama. Preferably without sanctimonious lawyers.
(I mean, if, in the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two "separate but equal" groups, then why is the lawyer half of Law and Order almost always longer?)
There's a lot of good television out there, it's just really, really hard to find. The "vast wasteland" allusions of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip notwithstanding, I really do think that we're in a new golden age, especially for people much less picky than I am.
Lost has upped the ante for network dramas, comedies are trying a lot of interesting stuff (e.g. My Name is Earl's classic rock soundtrack and reliance on bit players), and even reality shows, by shifting their focus to talent and real-world achievement, seem to have improved.
The problem is that there are hundreds of shows to sift through; there's still a market for crap, because not everyone has perfect taste like me. If you want to take the medium seriously, you have to do the work. The same goes for... prettymuch every other medium. Ah, generalities.
T.v. junkie though I am, I don't know what's good this season yet; it's so easy to get wrapped in a show that stumbles a few episodes in and never recovers. It goes without saying that The Simpsons season is the worst ever, stay away.
One hundred years of debt repayment begins today.
Otherwise, lately I've been reading my way through The Dark Tower series and playing through Zelda on the SNES. Well, who cares what you think?
I know quite a few people for whom it seems like God, in their mind, isn't so much looking down and judging our sins as he is judging our apparent geekiness. The God of Hipsters, if you will. Looking back, I may regret being too straight-laced or awkward or paranoid or cowardly, but I've never regretted being geeky.
And so it also gives me great pleasure to admit that I love "The Wire." The first season, at least, which I just (yarrrg) downloaded last week. I'm constantly on the lookout for a good procedural drama. Preferably without sanctimonious lawyers.
(I mean, if, in the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two "separate but equal" groups, then why is the lawyer half of Law and Order almost always longer?)
There's a lot of good television out there, it's just really, really hard to find. The "vast wasteland" allusions of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip notwithstanding, I really do think that we're in a new golden age, especially for people much less picky than I am.
Lost has upped the ante for network dramas, comedies are trying a lot of interesting stuff (e.g. My Name is Earl's classic rock soundtrack and reliance on bit players), and even reality shows, by shifting their focus to talent and real-world achievement, seem to have improved.
The problem is that there are hundreds of shows to sift through; there's still a market for crap, because not everyone has perfect taste like me. If you want to take the medium seriously, you have to do the work. The same goes for... prettymuch every other medium. Ah, generalities.
T.v. junkie though I am, I don't know what's good this season yet; it's so easy to get wrapped in a show that stumbles a few episodes in and never recovers. It goes without saying that The Simpsons season is the worst ever, stay away.
That's the second time now I've heard that we're in a new Golden Age of T.v.
What's wrong with playing an old video game? Just like rereading a favorite novel.
Re-reading? Hah! I missed out on a lot of classic SNES games, so this is my first time through. With the possible exception of the Playstation, it's like the last previous-generation system with anything left for me.
Not re-reading? Then you are merely catching up on your Zelda cannon in preparation for Twilight Princess.
Let's use Golden Age again: SNES was the Golden Age of RPGs. But you strike me as a much more action-RPG type, since you have an apparent Zelda obsession. Can you find Illusion of Gaia? I know some people detest the game, but it was more action oriented. Metroid was also perfected in that era, and every 2D interation of the series is basically Super Metroid all over again.
In retrospect, I spent way too much time with the Final Fantasies of that era.
Garden State: was all right up until the end where they "got together". It was a distinct Hollywood end and it ruined the film entirely. As a film, I'd forgotten about it completely until I saw the link on the side. Braff's modus operandi reminds me of the old guy PC/young guy Mac commercials. If having a Mac makes me like that fella, no thanks. I'd rather be the guy with a great ability at physical comedy and pratfalls.
Iam Holm was good, though.
I agree with you on the Mac/PC analogy (and wow-o-wow, do I hate those commercials... our generation is becoming really smarmy) but I stand by my dislike of the entire Garden State gestalt.
I feel like you've been... tricked in some way, like all those people who liked A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
Saturday, September 16 1:49 PM
Personality considered as the sum of a few slogans
Spotted in the wild, a real live Reagan Republican. I love that exclamation point:
Bumper sticker taxonomy has always held a certain fascination for me. I still remember the "I'm Pagan and I Vote" car in B-town, and yesterday I saw an honest-to-goodness Constitution Party member ("Get the U.S. out of the U.N.!") in downtown St. Paul.
This is apart from the Twin Cities' usual sea of Kerry and Wellstone bumper stickers, some of the latter looking positively ancient. (I haven't seen a Gore sticker in a while; presumably they've long since reached the end of their bumper span.) Is the lifespan of bumper stickers from the previous presidential election correlated with national partisanship? I haven't been paying close enough attention to know.
However, I do know exactly what bumper stickers I want for my car — they're "apolitical" by most definitions of the term, albeit not mine — but those are luxuries. And this is, or at least I've been calling it, the Last Tight Month.
In related news, about a month ago I saw a guy in a "Punks Not Dead" (sic) shirt on the Midway. I've never seen a more appropriate omitted apostrophe: very punk. There's absolutely nothing wrong here.
All in all, having once been a rather pointy-headed (code for ignorant, among other things) prescriptivist, I find a descriptivist reading of public writing to be generally both more humanizing and more amusing. Less snickering and more deep, hilarious truths.
Bumper sticker taxonomy has always held a certain fascination for me. I still remember the "I'm Pagan and I Vote" car in B-town, and yesterday I saw an honest-to-goodness Constitution Party member ("Get the U.S. out of the U.N.!") in downtown St. Paul.
This is apart from the Twin Cities' usual sea of Kerry and Wellstone bumper stickers, some of the latter looking positively ancient. (I haven't seen a Gore sticker in a while; presumably they've long since reached the end of their bumper span.) Is the lifespan of bumper stickers from the previous presidential election correlated with national partisanship? I haven't been paying close enough attention to know.
However, I do know exactly what bumper stickers I want for my car — they're "apolitical" by most definitions of the term, albeit not mine — but those are luxuries. And this is, or at least I've been calling it, the Last Tight Month.
In related news, about a month ago I saw a guy in a "Punks Not Dead" (sic) shirt on the Midway. I've never seen a more appropriate omitted apostrophe: very punk. There's absolutely nothing wrong here.
All in all, having once been a rather pointy-headed (code for ignorant, among other things) prescriptivist, I find a descriptivist reading of public writing to be generally both more humanizing and more amusing. Less snickering and more deep, hilarious truths.
Yeah that Reagan sticker is modeled on the Wellstone! sticker/sign...
how. very. ironic.
Wednesday, September 13 12:26 PM
Blog post as proof of life
Yeah, I've been busy. Editing, oooo, delicious editing. Grammatical errors are my anti-drug.
And booze, of course. I spent a few hours at "Big V's" yesterday night for Graham's b-day party, the first such that I've had to pay a cover to get into.
I am philosophically opposed to covers, and the much-too-loud live music they invariably support. The music did get progressively better as the night went on, but after two bad vodka gimlets (the bartender called sweetened lime juice "some New Age thing") and a little random chit-chat with the myriad acquaintances we all expect to see at Graham-related functions, I was outie. As they used to say, and undoubtedly say no longer.
And booze, of course. I spent a few hours at "Big V's" yesterday night for Graham's b-day party, the first such that I've had to pay a cover to get into.
I am philosophically opposed to covers, and the much-too-loud live music they invariably support. The music did get progressively better as the night went on, but after two bad vodka gimlets (the bartender called sweetened lime juice "some New Age thing") and a little random chit-chat with the myriad acquaintances we all expect to see at Graham-related functions, I was outie. As they used to say, and undoubtedly say no longer.
Sunday, September 3 2:40 AM
The New Place
I'd gone too long without a home; apartments and dorm rooms aside, I knew that I was never sticking around those places for long, and while I'm sure to abandon this place at some point, in a few months for all I know, the important part is that I don't know when. Very satisfying.
It helps that this (my fourth) is easily the best apartment I've ever lived in. Windows, carpet, a huge closet, wireless high speed internet, my own secret backdoor to the parking lot... these simple things please me. Matt willing, in a few days I will have a real bed and this room will be complete.
It's fitting that this move should be accompanied by some corresponding change in my "professional" life: on Tuesday I have my first real editing assignment, and in a few weeks I should be "set free," editing 30+ hours a week instead of 5+ or 10+.
(From this computer, too; I should figure out how often I need to close my bedroom door to give Jenna at least the illusion that I leave this apartment.)
The living room needs a bigger couch, the walls are universally bare, but otherwise the apartment has prettymuch taken shape. I've got some stuff to pick up when I go back to B-town tomorrow, the stuff I was holding in reserve until I actually had a real place to live. Like I said: satisfying.
It helps that this (my fourth) is easily the best apartment I've ever lived in. Windows, carpet, a huge closet, wireless high speed internet, my own secret backdoor to the parking lot... these simple things please me. Matt willing, in a few days I will have a real bed and this room will be complete.
It's fitting that this move should be accompanied by some corresponding change in my "professional" life: on Tuesday I have my first real editing assignment, and in a few weeks I should be "set free," editing 30+ hours a week instead of 5+ or 10+.
(From this computer, too; I should figure out how often I need to close my bedroom door to give Jenna at least the illusion that I leave this apartment.)
The living room needs a bigger couch, the walls are universally bare, but otherwise the apartment has prettymuch taken shape. I've got some stuff to pick up when I go back to B-town tomorrow, the stuff I was holding in reserve until I actually had a real place to live. Like I said: satisfying.
Friday, September 1 3:19 AM
Choice, Distance, Delusions
A mesmerizing three-part Law and Order miniseries airing the night before I have to move, the night before I also have to drive to Minnetonka in the morning, and mere hours after a good, albeit less-than-rousing Mariokart drinking game? Oh, and there was ice cream, a lot of sugary sweet ice cream.
Fate is cruel, and I am weak.
It's my last night at Passive-Aggressive Place. The apartment is filled with boxes — how can girls, how can anyone, own so many things? — and, with both my roommates absent, it already seems empty.
I don't look forward to moving tomorrow — though I know from experience that I can move everything I own in about three hours, Jenna and Markie are pretty dug into this place — but having-moved (and sleeping afterwards)... that will be sweet. For as little time as I've lived here, it feels like I'm getting a blank slate of sorts by moving ten minutes east.
Fate is cruel, and I am weak.
It's my last night at Passive-Aggressive Place. The apartment is filled with boxes — how can girls, how can anyone, own so many things? — and, with both my roommates absent, it already seems empty.
I don't look forward to moving tomorrow — though I know from experience that I can move everything I own in about three hours, Jenna and Markie are pretty dug into this place — but having-moved (and sleeping afterwards)... that will be sweet. For as little time as I've lived here, it feels like I'm getting a blank slate of sorts by moving ten minutes east.
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