Another Convert

Today was a pretty quiet day consisting of doing some of the ground work and preliminary thinking for the Job With No Name, and just doing some minor chores and errands around the neighborhood. In the evening, the Old Friend came ’round, something she hadn’t done in a few months, and now with the apartment fully set up and functioning, I got around to the one the thing I’d promising her since I arrived back in Canada.

I sat that gal down, stuck a plastic guitar in her hands, and made her play Guitar Hero II.

It should not come as a complete surprise to anyone with exposure to the game that she found it a little bit intimidating at first, but, since she’d taken piano lessons when we were younger, I was sure that some of the discipline in fingering and rhythm would actually help her and lo and behold, it did.

Her first reaction after completing Surrender by Cheap Trick:

“Oh. My. GOD. THIS IS AWESOME!”

She managed to pass her first few songs on Easy level on her first try and after that, she was totally hooked. She nearly blew a gasket when, after sitting down to take a break with cigarettes, I informed her, “In a couple of months a Guitar Hero 80′s edition is coming out.”

I’m not completely certain now, but the fact that she’s moving to a new pad and thinking of finally getting kitted out with a decent High Def TV may now also involve a trip with me chaperoning to the nearest game store so that she can pick herself up a PS2 and whatever Guitar Hero package they’re selling.

Yep. Gotta’ spread the word…

Sunday In The Suburbs

Work took a break today as we went out into the wilds of Mississauga. The Wife’s buddies in her illustration group were having a barbecue at their home, and so we got picked up by another Sketch Motel-er that lives in the Annex and motored on down. The Wife had never seen a typical North American suburb before and her first thought was, “It looks like a Tim Burton movie.”

We also met a few other new folks, some of whom now insist we come down for a visit to their studios, or, conversely, they come up and show us more of the Annex.

But on the whole, it was nice to just sit around outside, munch on burgers, and then, in true geek fashion, descend into the basement where I finally had a decent sit down with a Nintendo Wii and acquitted myself all right. Two strikes in bowling, a birdy in golf, though I apparently can’t play baseball to save my life.

I have to admit though, after actually sitting down and playing with a Wii, my enthusiasm for the console is somewhat diminished. I’m clearly NOT the target market for this thing. It’s fun, and I enjoy it, but I would get bored fast with only simple sports/party games to play, and by my particular tastes, there’s only one game worth owning, and that’s Zelda. All the other stuff is novel, but ultimately not very rewarding for me. I know the casual or non-gamers will go nuts for this stuff, but the Wii needs more games like Zelda before I’ll seriously want it.

Getting Tired Of Boring Posts Yet?

Well too bad. A Saturday afternoon on Bloor was followed by me doing some research. Yup, spine tingling stuff…

The Boring Friday

Work continues with another GameAxis article down and off. Just one more to go, but that can wait, since it’s a news article and that needs to be kept “fresh”. For now, I’ll just divert my attention to other stuff like another comic script for Liquid City, and some preliminary work that needs to be done on The Job With No Name. With any luck, it’ll be at least somewhat good stuff, and I’ll be able to move onto The Next Phase.

Another Boring Day

Errands took longer than expected, though Queen Street West was relatively fast, a visit to the doctor for some minor ailments took out a big chunk of time in the waiting room, followed by business at the post office, groceries and…

Now too tired and cranky to work. Bring on the movies and games…

More Work

Finished off another GameAxis article. Walked around in rain.

More Work

Stayed at home, avoided the thunderstorms that washed across Toronto and wrote an article for GameAxis.

That is all.

Semi-Productive

Today is really just about trying to tear myself away from the forums and get back to writing another script for one of the other anthologies. Speaking of which, I just found out that the Cities-themed anthology finally has a proper name. Henceforth, the story the Wife and I are doing will now appear in what is called Liquid City. I have no idea what the other anthology is called yet.

I also got a request to do some preliminary work on that Job That Shall Not Be Named, so I’ll have to put on the ol’ thinking cap for that and see what I can cook up. It will Very, Very Hard, but fun, I think.

Right, back to reading for-… er… working…

No Big Post Today

‘Cause it’s my birthday.

Wow. 35. How did that happen?

The Usual Saturday

A supply run to Queen Street West with a return to Bloor and then home to do some work. Or try to do some work if I could just stop reading the freakin’ Secret World forums for a minute…