Timeline
There's quite a lot to cover, so let's get right to it.
First off, I'll say that this month's Salvador Dalí painting is entitled "The Ecumenical Council." It's very majestic, powerful, mystical, and quite obviously religious with the overabundant white, common use of crosses, and the implication of clouds and the sky or Heaven in general. As a work of Dalí, I can certainly see that it must have taken a very long time and is extremely intricate with great care put into the details such as the shadowing, subtle value changes within the clouds, and lovingly realistic rendering of Dalí's wife Gala prominently featured in the lower left quadrant. However, I find myself underwhelmed. I don't like it nearly as much as some of his trippier works. It is certainly classifiable as 'surrealist,' but there is nothing too visually engaging for my eyes. I admire its detail, careful color selection, and overarching religious implication (if there is one), but I would sooner spend more time getting lost in "Singularities" or "Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy." Plus, the admittedly religious symbolism goes right over my head much faster and faster than does regular symbolism. Don't misunderstand me, though. Despite my expressed overall displeasure at it, the painting is certainly worth your time and definitely something captivating to admire. So, please click that link above to view the work and read the attached wikipedia article.
In the working world, my immediate supervisor Javier has put in his two weeks' notice two weeks ago. Back on Friday the 21st, he and I played ping pong for the last time at Scholastic Book Fairs. He was a very friendly boss if a bit easy to distract. If something needed to be done and I offered to do it, he would say, "Eh, fuck it," and tell me to do something thing else that was also important, but not as urgent. I guess he liked having power more than having responsibility. No matter, though. In spite of it all, he really did have a clear sight on what was important in the grander scale of the warehouse. And now Jackie is going to be the new supervisor? Maybe Sean? That's unclear. I'm almost definitely going to be a shift lead now because I have seniority over about 85% of the part-time employees and 50% of the other full-time workers. With Javier gone, there are now only three of us full-timers. Very many of the other workers suggested that I should be the new supervisor. I appreciated the votes of confidence, but let's be honest. I'm not experienced enough to be in charge of a whole shift of people. It may be true that I know how most of the stuff in that place works, but Sean knows how ALL of it works, and Jackie is way more qualified that I am with more years under his belt. Perhaps I'm ignoring my own call to action. Perhaps I am afraid of dismal failure. Perhaps I don't want to be seen as the 'boss' who everyone under me would secretly hate, even if it's in the slightest degree. Well, Monday is almost here, unfortunately. And that will mark a new paradigm shift the likes of which I have never witnessed.
My pen and paper journal turned eight years old back on the 21st, as well. I remember turning eight. That's the year I first remember Dad ever telling one of his annoyingly funny word-play jokes. It was Sunday morning and I was excited to face the world with a new pair of eyes, probably. This was sixteen years ago, so my memory is admittedly hazy. But anyway, my family were already awake and groggily walking about the house when I sprang out of bed and greeted them all with a smile. After a few minutes of conversation, probably, the topic of pancakes for breakfast came up. Pancakes were typically the breakfast we had every Sunday, but the fact that it was my birthday made it extra special for some reason. Then again, silly stuff like that is always special to an eight-year-old. So I thought pancakes sounded like a great idea and expressed my approval of the plan. That's when Dad commented, "Nah, we don't have to make him breakfast." Upon hearing this, my heart sank. No pancake breakfast on my birthday? More poor little brain didn't yet know what sarcasm sounded like, so I was about ready to cry. I noticed Dad was smiling, though, so perhaps there was more to this titanic letdown. "Why not?" I asked. Even Mom looked at him askance. Dad replied, "He's just eight," as he used the number to sound like the past-tense verb 'ate.' Well, I may have been stupid in the ways of sarcasm, but I definitely knew what a homophone was, so I got that joke immediately and laughed my ass off. For some reason, that event always stuck with me. And now the pen and paper document of my life since October 21, 2003 has now been around for eight years and I have no clever joke.
In the realm of video games, I have been impressed and very satisfied with Descent that I bought and downloaded from www.gog.com, that site I told you about last entry. At the current moment, I am Saturn's largest moon Hyperion. It's always interesting how these levels can seem gigantic and intimidating at first. But then I explore more and more and gradually I mentally map out each area until it's not a big deal. I am having a blast, literally, entering firefights with other ships evading missiles, returning fire, taking hits, destroying other ships with fast and frantic laser blasts and even dreading combat if my energy reserves or shield strength is particularly low. If my shield (or health) were to just recover on its own like it does in Halo or any other modern video you care to mention, it would remove all sense of tension and excitement.
Games that give you back your health for not taking damage for a few seconds are coddling you and reducing the fun you could be having. It breaks the flow of the game. Plus, the shield orbs (med-kits in other games) are like beacons of hope that make the game that much more engrossing. I just love the situations I find myself in when my shield is low and I see a single shield orb at the end of a lengthy hallway. "I NEED that orb to recharge my shield. But is it worth it? Will there be an enemy ship waiting for me there to reduce my shields by even more?" It is small moments like that which make a simple gameplay mechanic into a meaningful experience. Do I continue on how I am or risk further damage to gain a slight advantage? Plus, the environments, ship designs, and graphics, while severely dated and lacking the over-abundant polish that today's games have, are still impressive to me at least. Flying down a narrow corridor into a gigantic room that sprawls out in ALL directions containing seven or eight missile ships, laser drones, and cloaked scrapers (I never learned their real names) is a gameplay experience that I haven't seen a lot of lately. Sure, I can see the pixelated walls bobbing up and down as my ship hovers there, but at least I can tell the difference between that wall and a flying spiky metal pig robot that shoots me with a vulcan cannon. Now that I think about it, are there any games nowadays that allow full 360-degree motion and the freedom to travel in any direction you choose within the level? And more importantly, do they amp up the tension by having a dark red bright-green-eyed robot slowly drift into view shortly before firing a few homing missiles at you?
The other game that I'm also having a great time with is Thief: The Dark Project. I'm finally out of the haunted cathedral and have turned the eye over the Constantine. Now, I'm in his mansion trying to escape. I'm still in those twisted pink corridors trying to find my way up to the first floor. It's tense because I start with just my compass and very basic equipment. I have to find everything else that I used to have. It's tense and fun because I started the level with half of my maximum health and there are enemies everywhere with quick attacks and direct confrontation is obviously a death sentence. Thankfully, I love being sneaky and stealthy. With that trusty blackjack of mine, I can knockout most, but not all, enemies I encounter. It reduces the number of enemies I deal with, but the amount of time I spend walking up behind an enemy, knocking him out, and then dragging the body into a shadow so it isn't discovered makes me really feel like an infiltrator and that any moment now, I'll be spotted and chased like Benny Hill. How come games don't do that anymore?
Finally tonight, I need to replace my front two tires of my car. It's pretty bad. They are both practically bald. The driver side tire is slightly better than the passenger side, but they both desperately need to be replaced. I was actually at Pep-Boys today. But I forgot that tires are not sold with the rims already inside like you can find at junk yards. Forgetting this and figuring that I could just buy two complete tires, take them home, and simply replace them myself, I ended up buying a quart of motor oil, and tire pressure gauge, and a cell phone charger that plugs into my cigarette lighter. I did not get my tires changed because by the time I got there, the service center on the side of PepBoys was already buttoning up due to it being Saturday and about 1800 hours. That's a lie, of course. They weren't buttoning up because both the service garages and parts store are open until 2000 hours on Saturdays and I was ...scared? apprehensive? embarrassed? ashamed? nervous? I don't know, but the key here is that I did not get my tires replaced when I could have. Most glaringly of all, there is a crack in the passenger side front tire. It isn't deflating, but still: structural damage on such a crucial car component can't be conducive to correct car function. Tomorrow (today), I should must go to Pep Boys again or just the local junk yard and get better tires back on my car. I simply have to.
This year's NaNoWriMo is only about a week away!
-Bryan