Just Another Day

Wrote a bit of comic, wrote a bit of children’s novel, played some GTA IV.

Weekend Of Work

Started on the next High-Def Digest article, did some tax-related stuff plonking receipts and their amounts into an Excel sheet, wrote a bit of comic, a bit of novel and raced a bit in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. I have bought and raced my first Ferrari.

Okay, so NOW I understand what the big deal is with those cars, good God, those things are BEASTS on the road…

Quiet Friday

Little bit of writing the comic and novel, a little bit of shopping and gallery visiting on Bloor, and I finally watched Sunshine on Blu-Ray. A little weird towards the end, but pretty enjoyable. Felt like real literary science fiction as opposed to the normal fare for movies.

Wednesday Is Manageable

Wrote some comic and some novel, shopped around Bloor and, just for kicks, messed around with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for a bit. I think I’m getting impatient for GTAIV, but it was nice to hop in that crazy VTOL jet and scream around San Andreas, parachuting into streets and stealing cars. GTA is still a good game for popping in and messing around even after you’ve played the hell out of it…

Just Another Tuesday

A bit of shopping, a bit of writing the comic, the children’s novel, and getting approval for the next High Def Digest article. Oh and playing more Dirge of Cerberus.

Routine Continues

Ran errands around the neighborhood, tried a new restaurant, wrote GameAxis article, wrote children’s novel, played Final Fantasy IX, and that’s about it…

Oh Yeah…

I was writing a novel, wasn’t I?

I actually went back to it and worked on it some today.

Dead Platforms

A minor–but by no means insurmountable, though extremely annoying–hitch has occurred in what I thought was going to be a straightforward task. One of the things that my agent is asking for to keep my material updated is the original synopses I wrote for the earlier novels. Unfortunately, those synopses are not on the current computer, and were scattered across two old laptops that I’d used during my time in Singapore. The first and older, was a badly manufactured local product with broken hinges on the monitor (meaning it could no longer stand on its own power and needed the screen to be rested against something behind it, like a stack of phone books). The other was the laptop I moved onto after the first started to fall apart.

The problem was trying to get said files off of these two laptops.

In the case of the first laptop, the broken monitor hinge had also cut the wires that connected the monitor’s power to the laptop. It still worked, but ONLY if the angle of the monitor were adjusted to some arbitrary degree that the wires would properly connect and the monitor would work. Once I’d managed to achieve that, I tried transferring the files off by use of a 3 1/2 disk (you remember those, I’m sure…) except that, to my horror, I found that the disk drive no longer worked. It whirred, gurgled and made all kinds of interesting mechanical noises, but it failed to be detected by the computer, let alone format a disc for use.

In the case of the second laptop, it still worked as well, but, being slimmer and designed for portability, its 3 1/2 disc drive was external. I plugged that in, and it too failed to work. Both of these laptops were manufactured a few years before USB ports became standard features in computers, so I can’t even just plug in a USB flash memory card and transfer the data off that way.

Which leaves me with the old school solution; I dragged out my most recent laptop, which DOES have USB ports built in, set up beside the first laptop which, after much fiddling, I managed to get working with its screen, and then, for fear of losing the “magic,” left it exactly where it was and broke out the newer laptop to use those touch typing skills I somehow had the foresight to pick up in high school (I figured at the time if I was going to be a writer, I should learn how to type. Probably the last time I ever used logic in my life) and managed to re-type my synopsis for my first novel.

Now I am going to do the same for the second today, and spend the rest of the time tidying up all this new stuff I have to give the agent, including my new blurb, reflecting my married status, new home in Toronto and–although it’s still a few days from now–by dedication to Rock Band.

Oh hey, what a segue! SPEAKING OF ROCK BAND…

IGN has now released the first online review of the game. It’s a bit weird how they approached it. First, they have different individuals that chose to specialize in different instruments give their take on each one, and then a final review of the game itself is given, totaling up an impressive six pages. This in itself is not what I find to be the weird part. I suspect that there may have been fears of being accused of being Harmonix fanboys, since they spend the majority of the six pages concentrating primarily on the flaws of the game. For every single instrument and for the game in general, they talk about what really bothers them about the game, and what potential pitfalls gamers face when they pick it up. They make almost sound like they don’t like the game very much… and then they give it a 9.4, decisively beating Guitar Hero III which, in their reviews, they had nothing but good things to say about, and, if their write-up is to be believed, was a very nearly flawless game which they gave an 8.9 to.

This is not to say that they bash Rock Band out of all reason, they obviously don’t, they have a great deal of love for the game. But I suppose that because the game is fairly expensive, and because some of their comments are based on the pre-production controllers they got (they weren’t big fans of the new guitar) they decided it would best to say “trust us, the game is good,” and then get the relevant concerns out that people who have to drop the dollars might want to know about since it’s a much heavier investment than a typical game.

They have also posted a video review which takes much the same tack as their written review, although the lack of score makes it out to seem like they don’t quite like the game as much as their final score would indicate.

More Writing Stuff

I have to sift through old laptops and go searching for files that have been scattered willy nilly in the wake of two hard drive crashes in as many years for manuscript files, plot synopses and other assorted Writerly PR things. I got an e-mail from my agent asking to update all my stuff, and to send him digital copies of all the previous books since a lot of publishers have apparently realized that the 21st century occurred and are now finally embracing digital formats for novels. I don’t know whether that means he actually has any publishers requesting to see the files, but still, who am I to argue? I also have to update my blurb on his website, since the last time I submitted it, I was a) in Singapore b) incredibly bitter and c) not remotely married. All these things have dramatically changed in the time since I wrote it, so I need to get on that. Oh, and finish that kid’s novel I’m working on.

And… just because you didn’t possibly think you’d get a post out of me without seeing something Rock Band related–FIVE DAYS! YEEEEEES!–here’s a video side-by-side comparison of songs that appear on both Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, but played on Hard. For some reason, Games Radar, the creators of the video, then made a bizarre leap of logic, saying that GHIII’s hard was equivalent to GHII’s Expert, and that RB’s Expert was equal to GHII’s Hard. I’m not entirely sure how you make that leap of logic when you play both games on Hard, and then arbitrarily make a decision about one game’s hard level based on playing it, then another about the other game’s Expert level WITHOUT playing it, but oh well…

Strange Days

Having just woken up before midnight, there’s barely anything to talk about at all. Before bed, coffee was purchased at a local shop in the neighborhood, some of the children’s novel was written, that’s about it, really.

And, to keep the Rock Band fever going, here’s a quick video of some of the venues that players will find themselves performing in…