Oh… Right…

Happy New Year.

I forgot that was today.

Oh well, back to gaming and sleep…

The First Dinner Party

But I’ll talk about that tomorrow as tonight was spent a) preparing for said dinner party, b) having said dinner party, and c) playing too much Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga post dinner party, and then going to bed.

Or rather, NOW it’s time to go to bed, since this post was actually made some time after 2 am, but I hate leaving an empty day on the blog these days…

Nothing To Report

Because I’ve got a script due out tomorrow and I’m cramming that in between playing Wipeout Pure on the PSP and the Wife’s game, Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga on the PS2.

Nope, it ain’t an adventurous life, but I’ve made my peace with it…

The Wireless Post

Holy crap.

I’m making this post wirelessly with my PSP at a Starbuck’s.

I feel so futuristic…

The Cold

As in, I have one.

Despite the fact that it’s a tropical country, I still occasionally find myself coming down with the ol’ sore throat and sniffles and this is one of those times. The Wife blames it on the cigarettes. In an act of mercy, she allowed me to buy a “Christmas pack” to smoke, and I went a little overboard on the frequency. She figures I clobbered my immune system by doing that or something.

All I know is I have that tired, run-down feeling. It’s good thing I’m a writer and not a construction worker, or this would lay me out. As it is, I’m still able to at least work on the script I have pending, I just do it with a handy box of tissue paper near by to deal with the constantly runny nose.

At least I won’t have any trouble going to bed because of the tiredness…

Boxing Day

In which no boxes were actually tossed, but pasta (In the form of the ultra-rare–at least in Singapore–ravioli) was consumed, coffee was drunk, and generally much hanging out clients–the Wife’s–was done, while I either eulogized about my thoughts on the future of the gaming industry, or simply showed off my Christmas gift and thought smugly to myself, “I am no longer a gaming loser! I have a PSP,” which in itself, signifies that I am a real life loser, but oh well…

It’s black and shiny and sexy and I didn’t expect to get one dammit, so I’m pretty darn happy.

Of course this wasn’t a one sided affair. I also got the Wife gifts which came in many forms, from a clock, to a lava lamp, to a general art reference book that spanned ancient civilizations to contemporary installation pieces, to a ring, to a necklace, to a, believe it or not, video game for the PS2, because this particular game, Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga is part of the Shin Megami Tensei series of games which tends to explore deeply philosophical themes like Nihilism and the possiblity that the Christian God is an evil sadist that delights in randomly inflicting suffering upon people for his own amusement, and the Wife likes twisted stuff like this, so surprisingly, it was a big hit, rather than turning into one of those Homer Simpson-esque moments where I say, “Well, if you don’t want that bowling ball, I’ll just use it myself so it doesn’t go to waste.”

But now that Boxing Day is done, it’s back to work tomorrow (Remember kids, Singapore isn’t predominantly Christian, so Christmas only really entitles you to a long weekend, not the entire week off) and I’ve already started up on a script for Nanoboy that I’ll have to try and finish by Friday. Normally, this is easily doable. But the allure of Wipeout Pure keeps calling out to me and I find it increasingly difficult to resist its siren call…

The Haul

I was a good geek this year. Now it’s time to hang out with the in-laws some more…

You Know You’re Married When

Even though you haven’t set foot in a church in years, you end up going to Christmas mass because it is, after all possibly the last time you’ll be able to have Christmas mass in Singapore with your in-laws.

I guess I’m just lucky that at least I have a Catholic background so I knew what to do, sort of, though I was told I do the sign of the cross differently than they do, which really puzzled me. Also went back to the In-Laws to collect more presents and sit down and have an actual conversation with my Father-In-Law. I am told this is an unprecedented event, and that he must really like me to have an actual conversation with an exchange of information and everything, so he must have already resigned himself to the idea that he’s stuck with me.

Merry Christmas and all that…

The Eve Before Christmas Eve Post

Did nothing, hung out with the Wife who got outta’ work early because they were having fire drills in her office tower during the afternoon, so the entire company decided to call it a day.

Other than that, went shopping and sat around in a hair salon playing Final Fantasy IV on the Nintendo Dual Screen.

That is all.

Geek Clock: Counting Down

Whoo hoo! It’s now out in Japan as of today!

Kingdom Hearts II, the sequel to one of my surprise favorite games of 2002, Kingdom Hearts. I’d almost totally ignored this game when I first heard about it because of its premise; Square Final Fantasy characters mixed with Disney characters and worlds. I thought this was headed for Disaster and that Square had made another of those missteps like when they made The Bouncer (A side scroller fighting game in the style of Final Fight or Double Dragon. Bad… Idea…) because Disney doesn’t understand video games. Every video game based on a Disney character up until this point had been one of those awful platformer style games that weren’t much fun to play at all, and were only going to appeal to kids who wanted to make Mickey or Donald jump.

Kingdom Hearts changed all that, and I suspect the reason for it was probably because Square told Disney to Stay The Hell Out Of Our Way. Disney may know how to create entertaining movies, but they didn’t understand how to make games AND tell an entertaining story. Square does. Plus it also helps that they included the magic ingredient that Disney has thus far completely failed to incorporate into their stories.

Bittersweet endings.

I won’t give away anything here for people that haven’t played the game, but I figure it must be a Japanese thing. Since they have this cultural agenda to pursue honor, that often means that a truly honorable act involves sacrifice. And for whatever reason, when you do that with characters in a story, it tends to suck you in emotionally more than a typical Disney happy ending ever could.

2005 is shaping up to be one hell of a year for RPGs. Final Fantasy XII, Rogue Galaxy, and Kingdom Hearts II VERY close on the horizon (Some people are speculating March but no official date has been givien yet). Hopefully Haley Joel Osmet will be returning to voice Sora…