BULLET POINTS
It's been, what... two weeks? Yeah, two weeks. I guess a lot of stuff has happened. I'm going to throw up some bullet points.
- I finished watching the jPod series in the space of a week or so. It wasn't particularly good; considering the source material, it just struck me a being kind of safe. 'Spaced' is an example of a sitcom that's dark, surreal and subversive. jPod should have been, but isn't. I expected things to have been changed, but there were certain changes that just seemed to be in direct opposition to the book. Also: Rubbish ending. I'm done.
- My Xbox 360 red-ringed! It froze in the middle of a game of 'Splosion Man (Which is okay, but nothing special, I wasn't missing much), and interrupted my playthrough of Bioshock, which I'd just started a couple of days before. I spent a weekend cursing Microsoft's broken site, and then phoned them on Monday. They sent me a UPS label, I packed up the 360 and had UPS collect it from work on Friday a week ago, and I got it back yesterday! I haven't tried it out yet, so it may still be broken.
- In the absence of my 360, I got my gaming kicks from one of Steam's indie games bundles. This one has Braid (Which I bought on XBLA when it was released), Blueberry Garden (A short art game, which is pretty sweet), The Path (Another art game; I played the demo, and it was certainly atmospheric, but I haven't play the full version yet), Everyday Shooter (Which is pretty swanky, though a couple of things annoy me about it) and World of Goo. I finished the latter this morning, and it's amazing. Worth the price of the pack on its own (Which, actually, is what it usually retails for). So, in closing, get World of Goo.
- Super Cock Blockers was finished and released in time for the Adult/Education competition over at TIGSource. I'll post about it, and my soundtrack for it, in the next entry.
- After jPod, I bought two more of Douglas Coupland's novels; 'Hey Nostradamus!', and 'Generation X' (Obviously). The former is pretty nice, but it didn't grab me like jPod did. 'Generation X' is pretty sharp so far.
- Two of my housemates are moving out in September. This is going to change a few things around the house, as a lot of the furniture and appliances are theirs. The landlord's going to replace most of the stuff. I am probably going to have to get a TV though. Frankly, it's time I had one that isn't a crappy 14" CRT. I'll probably aim for something around the 30" mark.
- Myriam suggested we work on a webcomic together. Of course, it would be about the two of us. I was initially kind of resistant to the idea, due to not really being able to draw, but I thought about it a bit more, and figured that it was a stylistic issue; if I could find a style that suited me, and that wouldn't require a tablet and a huge amount of effort, maybe I could make it work. So, I decided on drawing 16-bit style sprites. I've done pixel-work before, and while I'm not particularly good at it, I can bluff my way through. I've done a couple of preliminary sprites, and they look pretty good!
- Wow, I've got more bullet points than I anticipated.
- Girls! I sent a message to this girl on OKC, which was actually a reply to a message she'd sent me back in 2007. The reason I never replied back then was that I was going out with Sarah at the time. Really stupid reason, frankly, but I dunno, I just felt a bit weird about it at the time. Anyway, it turns out she's really cool. Gamer, music student, cosplayer (But she makes her own costumes, so I'm not holding it against her!), and general geek. I think we really like each other.
- Oh yeah she lives in New York.
- Crap.
- Okay, last item: Scott Pilgrim! After hearing that Edgar Wright was directing the movie, I figured I'd check the comic books out, and they're pretty sweet! Definitely pretty geeky, but interesting and well written. I watched Edgar Wright's video blogs on the production of the movie, and they kind of got me excited about the movie!