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I feel very dizzy right now for some reason.
Saturday I slept until noon, ran nine miles, and then spent the rest of the day drinking beer and playing video games. That night S.T. and I watched a Chinese horror film called Invitation Only, which wasn't quite what we were expecting. I had downloaded it on the whim to watch some bad, cheesy horror as I am prone to do. First of all I hadn't figured from the description that it would be in Chinese and set in China. Also, it was of surprisingly high quality. China is a land of a great many scooters and there's nothing wrong with that. There was still plenty of gore and torture to go around, sure, but it was anything but a B-level torture porn.
I should admit openly that, for the most part, I don't like the sound of the Chinese language in most instances. I think that this is due to the fact that 99% of the spoken Chinese that I have encountered in my life has been in unpleasant situations. Technicians on the phone that cannot communicate well, next-door neighbors in Japan, pompous and spiteful classmates (can't remember her name but I'll always remember her face and that accent she had when speaking Japanese, like every syllable was wet. She was very good, in truth, but it always sounded like her mouth was full and everything came out soaked in condescension). It's instilled in me a uncomfortable feeling whenever I hear Chinese. Thankfully I think Invitation Only did something to alleviate some of that. I actually caught myself trying to mimick some of the speech. I was trying to catch little bits of vocabulary and sentence structure, cadence. For the first time it made me interested in Chinese as a language, as a harmless and objective subject of study. It has to have been the scooters. The main character was first introduced riding one. Don't get me wrong, Chinese scooters are the worst in the world, but a scooter is a scooter and all scooters are grand.
I considered starting a blog all about bad horror. Just a play by play of cheesy horror flicks that are good for a laugh. Maybe a rating system for how watchable they each are and for what reasons. Did it achieve a real sense of dread at any point? How likable were the characters? It seemed like an awful lot of work, though, and I disregarded it. Might be fun to do if I ever find myself with a lot of time on my hands, which admittedly I have already.
Recently I have finally achieved a positive net worth. For the last few years I have always had some kind of credit card debt that made it such that none of the money passing through my pockets ever truly felt like it belonged to me. There was always a burden of debt hanging over my head. I was always paying for what I had already gone through. Both cards are down to zero, now, and I don't plan to ever go back. Ironically this has meant a major switch towards frugal living. I believe I have eaten ramen noodles almost every single day for the last two months. Still enjoy them. Having any money at all, though, and being able to quantify it has led me to realize how little of it there can actually be. No longer can I allow myself to just put something on the credit card on a whim and figure that it'll get paid back eventually. For example, I have an interest in purchasing a Kindle. A few months ago I would have thought "$99? That's less than a hundred bucks! Here we come." and that would have been the end of it. The cycle would have continued. Now, however, I need to budget for it like an adult. I've allowed myself an allowance of 100 dollars per week for gas, food and other expenses. Everything else is allocated to paying back other debts like student loans. If the plan continues to work this will free me from all debts of any kind toward the end of 2013. Barring, of course, that I don't need to pay for anything like a wedding or a major repair on my vehicle. It's a nice feeling, despite how I make it sound. I like knowing that when I do buy a kindle it will be with my own money, not with money I'm borrowing from a future version of myself.
On an unrelated note, when I'm not on the ME subreddit these days I tend to be browsing what I consider to be scooter porn. Just Gotta Scoot might as well be my home page. It's just the same way that I used to be with computers. I bought and paid for my $2K computer, though (worth every penny, though it depreciates as every day passes) and I suppose that now I have moved on to a new technological obsession. As of right now, though I'd love to say I intend to buy American I think that my current dream scooter is the Kymco People GTi 300, which is pretty much the exact style and fit that I've been looking for. Maxi-scooter performance in an urban-commuter shape. Take it on the highway, take it around town. I can get over the issue of the tiny windscreen and the lack of trunk space. Come on... dat MPG! Such a gorgeous scooter. This is, of course, wishful thinking for the future. I do intend to see if I can find and contact the closest Kymco dealer, though. Just to talk.
I'm pretty seriously dissatisfied with my body recently and I know its because of the amount that I drink. I try to turn down the volume on reality far too often and its making me squishy. I don't like being this squishy. I'm not as out of shape as I've ever been but I'd like to get my runner back. I'd like to look like I'm knocking on the door of completing a half marathon instead of just feeling like I am.
Yesterday afternoon we got the gloves out and had the first catch of the season, and then actually got in a little batting practice after that. My batting average is absolutely abysmal though I can thankfully still seem to put the ball where I want to when pitching. Joel is a surprisingly great hitter though I'm not sure if its really his ability to swing the bat or my ability to consistently toss meatballs over the plate. I like to think its a combination of both. All in all its nice to know that baseball is still fun this year. Baseball. Baseball never changes.
Speaking of things that never change, it's time to pack up and head to work for the day. We were given a little lecture over the speakerphone by a team leader from California about how, if we ever want to get off the phones and promote within the company, we need to be actively applying to things and seeking jobs out. He told us that no one was going to tap us on the shoulder and offer anything to us. There are, of course, no available positions on the internal listings, but nothing will ever stop successful people from offering their sagely advice to their less successful subordinates. I'm sure that this team leader worked very hard to get where he is. I'm also sure that he was at the right place at the right time. For now I'll answer phones and talk to Chinese people and read reddit and look at scooter porn. And there's nothing wrong with that for now.
Just want to get this straight...
1) Mass Effect 3 comes out to overwhelmingly positive reviews, save for the final 5 minutes, which many people feel throws a wet blanket on the entire series.
2) The dissatisfied fans, not wanting to be taken as entitled or immature, start up a fundraiser called "take back mass effect" and raise nearly 80,000 for a children's charity to draw attention to the fact that the ending feels incomplete, out of place, and full of plot holes.
3) The internet is saturated with news articles condemning "a very vocal minority" of "entitled" fans that demand that the ending be changed because it is "too bleak" and "not happy," effectively ignoring the core issue, as well as the charity.
4) Child's Play, the charity for which 80K was raised, officially requests that Retake Mass Effect disassociate themselves from the charity as they won't want the bad press.
So... a children's charity asks a vocal group of enthusiastic gaming altruists, who realize that their dissatisfaction with a video game is effectively a "1st world problem" and decide to focus their energy into something positive, to STOP donations simply because the internet media paints them as a bunch of entitled winers.
We'll find a new charity. You're welcome, by the way. The fundraiser got almost no press, but I'm sure the internet would SWARM if one person expressed regret in donating to a charity that would then effectively turn its back on its donators. No one is going to do that, though. You're welcome. Please use the funds we raised in good health to help sick kids with bigger problems than a video game with a lousy, under-developed ending.
We'll find a new charity. Doesn't even matter if the internet ignores the new fundraising effort, either. We'll know the score.
Before this game was released I spent a lot of time imagining adventures of young Quarians on pilgrimage and the difficulties of soft-hearted Krogan on a rebuilding Tuchanka.
I'd listen to Prodigy and the Crystal Method and these stories and characters, born of a full and vibrant galaxy teaming with myriad kinds of life and culture all coexisting somehow, would flood into my brain.
I watched the trailers for MA3 over, and over, and over again. I took a vacation day from work to get a start on it the Friday after it came out.
It was one of the greatest weekends in recent memory, full of rich story-telling and the harvesting of literary seeds that had been planted back in Mass Effect 1. I know that the game is finite and that there are only so many choices to make, but MA3 did really, really well at making you feel immersed. It made you feel as if these actions and decisions were really yours. Finally I was back in that world about which I had been daydreaming so voraciously.
And then, at 2:30AM on Sunday, knowing I'd only be getting 4 hours of sleep that night but unable to power down my PC until the fight was finished, I watched the ending. The Destroy ending, to be exact.
Something changed, then. That drive to imagine adventures in the Mass Effect universe? My young scrappy young Quarian and comically gentle Krogan? They were gone from me. The Mass Effect universe was gone from me. The magic of the previous games and novels were gone from me. A large part of my imagination that had been working at full steam with projections to continue churning on for possibly years to come suddenly closed its doors and shut down. It was as if it had never existed in the first place.
Forgive me for being dramatic but I was a husk walking into work today.
I give the developers credit; this was not something that anyone likely saw coming. No one can take away the fact that the game itself was spectacular and the series was legendary. The choice to apparently assassinate the very intellectual property, however, was an unforeseen move. I have a hard time wrapping my head around it.
The last thing that I'd like to see is a do-over. What's done is done. It would lessen the integrity of the franchise, I think, to simply release a "new" ending. An explanation, wouldn't be so bad. A few vignettes of the aftermath of the greatest catastrophe that this galaxy has ever known. An assertion that the destruction of the relays did not send every single system the way of the Batarian colony of Arathot. An explanation of why the squad was suddenly back on the Normandy, and where it was heading. Where was it that Shepard was waking up in the "best" ending and how did he get there?
These are not questions to which the answers would ruin any "mystique." Leaving these unanswered does nothing for the artistic integrity of the game. It doesn't make the ending any deeper or meaningful. It just makes it painful. Thinking about it does nothing but remind me of the magic that Mass Effect used to wield in my imagination and how the candle of that magic has been snuffed out. I'd at least like to understand why.
Lovely job on the N7 Collector's Edition by the way. The art book looks awesome on my coffee table.
Donated blood again today. It was interesting because they needed to know the details of the cruise we went on. I should have sent them here.
Got engaged today.
Also, Mass Effect 3 comes out in just a week! The Collectors' Editions are already sold out, so I'm glad I got mine early.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
Very professionally bottled. Poured into two chilled pint glasses to share with a beer buddy.
Surprising head, not too much or too little. Not what I would have expected from a homebrew at all. Most 1st brews come out undercarbonated. This poured very nicely and had a very premium-beer look to it.
Tone is a light, light brown. Almost coppery. Looks like cream soda when held up to the light.
Little smell to note. Hard to place what it reminds one of. Similar to a light beer.
Texture is thicker than expected, with a fuller mouthfeel than I would have expected given the hue.
Taste not overpowering, like a smooth brown ale would be. Little aftertaste to speak of with a tidy finish.
The head stayed at about a half centimeter by the time I was halfway through the glass. It threaded pleasantly, indicating a healthy body.
Overall an entirely unoffensive experience and a shockingly well-executed first brew. I'd say first "attempt" but that feels like it would be underselling it. All of the unflattering aspects such as a slightly, slightly underwhelming taste are overlooked based upon how this overtook my expectations. Looking forward to more from this brewer.
Next time, I'd like to talk about Mass Effect 3 and, more exciting, Operation Raccoon City. It seems like Capcom came up with Operation Raccoon City by looking up archives of what people used to come up with on the old AOL "Raccoon City RPG" chat rooms.
Next time, I'd like to talk about Mass Effect 3 and, more exciting, Operation Raccoon City. It seems like Capcom came up with Operation Raccoon City by looking up archives of what people used to come up with on the old AOL "Raccoon City RPG" chat rooms.
I kept a little bit of a daily log during our adventures in New Orleans, on the high seas, and island hopping. It's pretty choppy and not entirely informative but it's definitely better than the notes that I kept in London.
Day 1: New Orleans.
Day 1: New Orleans.
Woke at 3:30 AM after about 5 hours sleep. Not bad.
Got into car with friends on time, check in was no problem. Flight was on time. Played final fantasy and Link on the first flight, also read Dragon Tattoo.
2nd flight was easy to catch. Little waiting. Nicer plane. Scrambled to download a few podcasts before boarding. Got pieces of Carolla, Larry Miller. Mostly read dragon tattoo.
Landed in NO. Got luggage just fine. They had a sonic burger in the airport which we found neat. Booked two taxis to French Market Inn. Nice people but none of us could go to our rooms yet. Checked in, changed out of sweat shirt.
We walked the Jackson Brewery after being waved in by a dapper Cajun fellow who told us "yeah he's got room for 8." he was very insistent and funny. The whole city is full of people like our friend Shawn.
We set up upstairs. Everything wood, everything looks retrofitted. Chairs are like chairs you find in the attic but comfortable. Waitress is a transplant from another state. Beer is great: had amber, blonde, dopplebock. All brewed right there.
Walked around the parks. Jackson statue is straight from l4d2, same with staircase and bridge.
Back to the hotel for warmer clothes. Louis Armstrong park, lots of pictures and goofing around.
Back to the hotel for a nap. Woke up feeling awful about an hour later. Pepto, water, out of there around 8? We wandered around quite a bit, happened on Party Gras! Costumes and beads. Big band. One guy in a monster suit made of zip ties and vacuum hoses.
Landed on a place called Pat O'Briens. Not hungry and no draft beer so S.T. And I abstained. Everyone was drinking these things called Hurricanes, super powered rum drinks. They all got pretty wasted. Afterwards Joel really wanted to see some cabaret and there was indecision. The pack split, Joel Shawn and Neil went to Cabaret, Tris Greg and Buddy went elsewhere and Em and I caught the crescent city brewery for the last 20 mins they were open. Time enough for two Black Forest stouts. Thinner bodied than expected, but presentation was amazing. Tall glass, live jazz music, Em and I ended the night quietly at 11 laughing about stuff and drinking beer.
Caught some letterman.
Addendum: [redacted] apparently [redacted] with [redacted] at the [redacted]. Shawn went off into the night on his own and made some friends, drank the strongest drink in NO, and yelled at police officers.
Day 2: Leaving New Orleans.
Woke naturally feeling refreshed and great at 9:30am. Took a shower, water took a while to heat but it was really refreshing.
Walked to cafe du mon with s.t. tristan and buddy and Neil. Heard about everyone else's exploits. Holy crap. Coffee and beignets. Lots of Saints attire. Finally got everyone together again in hotel courtyard after checkout at 11 and had good laugh about last night.
Long and winding walk to the pier. We got turned around a little bit but made it for 1. Long boarding process. Cleared through customs and whatnot. Got up to stateroom after boarding and being overwhelmed by size. We're on 9th. Met everyone at cafeteria which is exactly like a college dining hall in every way. Got our bearings, visited fitness center on 11th, spa, then had to go back to room for evac drill, which was a little annoying cause a random stranger jumped into our conversation about when it was and flat out told me I was wrong, which was rude and unsettling. Dri was fine enough, then we headed to the 5th floor where the bars are. Sports bar was MOBBED for Saints game. The English pub next door was a little less mobbed but we soon ran into the realization that there is no draft beer on the ship aside from Heineken and Amstel light 0.0. I tried hard not to be disappointed, they did have John Smiths in nitro can. Had a pint, saw some Saints game, walked out and stood outside the sports bar as the tv in the pub was shotty. Walked back to pub for another round and met a couple from Pawtucket! Chit chatted a bit, parted ways.
Met with Neil and Joel at champagne bar, talked books and movies. This gets hazy here but at 7ish we were at the ice rink and caught the end of the saints game and then the entirety of the pats game at the sports bar where thankfully we got perfect seats. S.T. went back to the room and I went with the others topside, to the arcade where there was DDR 3rd mix and Joel and I barely remembered how to unlock maniac. There was basketball, water watching, a parade of some sort for some reason... We were out pretty late.
Day 3: Cruising.
Up at 8:15, breakfast at 10. Inclusion conversation with s.t. Walked to start of art tour but then went to find Joel at gym. Had inclusion convo. Went and read on the topside. Bit windy but you could turn over and see the bluest water ever to be seen. Read and met with the others to spy on Neil in the public pool. Changed into bathing suit and had the hot rub experience. Shawn refused to fill my drink. I dried off and went to find Em at the screening room where they were showing Super 8. I stood out there for 20 minutes thinking she had as much difficulty finding it as I did. She was inside of course, a step ahead of me. I left almost right away when I remembered I had lent my towel to Joel and not returned it which could result in a fee. Return lady said he had not returned it as when I found Tris and the rest in the DC none of them had seen Joel. The towel lady said not to worry about it but I felt bad. We left the DC together and bud Neil and I went to see if S.T. Was down for mini golf. She said she'd meet us. What followed was the most amazing session of extreme wind mini golf and pingpong ever, especially once Shawn and the rest minus Joel joined us. Shawn wanted to investigate some raffle in the casino and I ridiculed him for it but we went. We also checked in the football game. We ended up in the top deck at sunset getting destroyed by gale force winds so strong that you couldn't fall backwards. Shawn lost his glasses but we found them after a valiant search. We decided to look nice so we all returned to our rooms to dress snazzy and I went down alone to the pig and whistle for a pint. Shortly after Neil and bud joined and the empty promenade began to fill up. I became fascinated by a pretty red haired girl a few seats over at the pub. She was laughing and there with a friend. Seemed carefree and she was beautiful. 3 pints in I started wondering what she was doing with her life and thinking how lucky the people were to be in her life.
We made it upstairs to the formal dining room and everyone looked fantastic. I was pretty buzzed on John Smiths and Murphy's so I felt fantastic too. Gave Neil a hard time for eating my ducky brothren. After dinner caught a music in movies tribute at the theater amidst a steadily rocking boat. Was pretty spent after that an headed to bed after one more trip topside to see the pool splashing around everywhere.
Day 4: Cruising.
Up at 8:15, gym, long breakfast with the crew til about 10. We got outside for some air and saw it was ridiculously windy. Trivia was booked up at the pig and whistle however so we got changed and headed back up to hit the hot tubs for a bit. Even then Buddy and Neil were brave enough to chance the Solarium pool. Briefly. We'd been training for Harry potter trivia all morning and Tristan was our ace in the whole. I decided to hit the schooner bar a bit early and secure a few seats in case it was mobbed with kids once trivia began. Pretty good move since it filled up pretty well. We tied for 1st place like a boss. Headed to the windjammer after that for lunch where I got two hotdogs, which in retrospect was a mistake. We tried to go for the dodgeball tourney after that but couldn't find a way up top to the court and assumed it was off due to the wind. We hung out on the deck for a while and just enjoyed looking at the water. I drank a Heineken on draft and met another dude named Derek. Eventually we returned to the windjammer for progressive trivia where we met our rivals from the previous day, dodgeball medals in hand! Grr! Also present was the red haired girl from the night before. More drinks, more trivia. We didn't do so well this time but it was fun. Headed back to promenade, I paid gratuity and got all bummed out about it because it was such a heavy extra expense. Drowned sorrow at the Pig and Whistle, getting pretty drunk at that point. Talked with S.T. quite a while there. She went to lie down at the room a while and I joined the others for dinner and ate WAY too much sushi. S.T. joined up when we were a while in. We went to the piano/comedian show after that but I bailed after a few songs. Just wasn't into it and he never seemed to get to the comedian part. Collapsed in the room, feeling full and extremely gassy. It was only around 9:30. There I stayed.
Day 5: Jamaica.
Early morning announcement from the captain let us know that Falmouth was not going to work due to weather but Montego was available. We went to breakfast for 9 and could see Jamaica from the windows. I was reminded of the island from Lost and how irregularly shaped islands don't really have "sides." We went topside to watch the boat pull in. Jamaica got closer and closer; it took the shape of all of those pictures of Rio de Jenaro. I was wary, however. Montego is not a beach community. There was a ship shod shopping center with dozens of people crowded around the entrance, ready to greet and provide a friendly accosting to the incoming tourists. It was right next door to an industrial shipping yard on one side and a massive cement foundation being dozed on the other. I was is no major rush to go ashore and neither was Buddy. Joel was sick and in bed from partying the night before. Neil was gung ho for going outside. Greg had already left for his ATV excursion. It started to rain pretty heavily, though, and we decided to wait it out poolside. We headed back to our staterooms to change and I hit the bathroom pretty hard. Everyone was ashore and so we had all of the pools and hot tubs basically to ourselves! We stayed there for a good while before deciding to change and get back together to head ashore for 1. Our trip was a short one. We went straight into one building with a few duty free shops an got right back on the boat. We grabbed lunch at the DC and hit topside for some sun. Only stayed a short while, went to gym for 3:15. Ran the 10k in 58.01, which is about average recently. I like this idea of going 6mph for the first half hour, 6.5 for minutes 30-40, 7mph for minutes 40-50, and then belting out whatever is in the tank after that, steadily increasing every minute as much as I can. I feel quite a bit better but still a bit bloated. Running this much every day has been nice and I need to make this a priority. S.T. And I hurried to meet everybody minus Joel and Tristan for movie theme trivia. Everybody actually had something to contribute and we took 1st place after two sudden death rounds! Shawn was our ace in the hole, admittedly. S.T. and I took a stroll around the lower outer decks during sundown and talked about do androids dream of electric sheep and natural protein synthesis. eventually we wound back upon level 5 where there would soon be a massive sale on watches as soon as we hit international waters. S.T. and I kept discussing books til 7:15 when we snagged a watch for my dad. We watched a but of big band on the promenade and I had yet another pint. From there we hit dinner for 8. Standard fancy dinner where I was too loud and silly. After dinner we hang by the elevators awhile and then hit some classy cabaret at cleopatra's needle. I was in the throws of some strange physical relation issues and whispered them to S.T. in the chair before me. It was nice to be all together an in such a classy setting listening to live music. We left a but early and actually ended up at Johnny rockets singing holocaust versions of monkeys songs while the dudes ordered milkshakes. I made my way through a delicious cherry rum and coke. By the time we hit the comedian it was just Shawn, Neil, S.T. and I. Way better than the previous guy. Bud something... Very funny. Resisted the urge to go out drinking more as it was 12 midnight and a busy day was ahead.
Day 6: Grand Cayman.
Up at 8:15. 10K in 57:40. Shawn swung by the gym looking pretty perturbed. It looks like he lost his sea pass card and passport but they had found his passport. He was still pretty upset and I felt bad. Had no time to shower back at the room so I hit the bathroom (running always shakes things loose) and headed down for breakfast at 10. I figured I could wash off in the Caribbean waters of Grand Cayman. S.T. was already up and about elsewhere on the ship. Note: it occurred to me that we're sailing about where the Redguards would live we're this TES. We had breakfast (I had two) and broke to head off to the ferry to grande cayman after a brief stop back at our rooms. Shawn, Tristan, S.T. and I waited for a full rotation at the ferry and Joel still did not show so we got on without him. He met on the boat, though. It was jam packed with people eager to get ashore. Honestly it was an odd feeling, seeing the massive voyager grow smaller in the distance. It was alongside a few other cruise ships from other lines. A small fleet of massive luxury liners at a decent price. Grand Cayman was a crowded place but not at all unfriendly. I was able to pick out some sunglasses and watch a few scooters go by. We caught up with Buddy, Neil and Greg who had all been on a submarine excursion. We walked about a few shops, S.T. picked up some rum concoction and Shawn got his obligatory currency. Eventually we flagged a taxi and all of us made it to the beach. This is what we had all been looking for. Crystal clear emerald waters with little minnows in it, in the hot sun on a topic island. What is there to say? Lots of beautiful people with beautiful bodies and whatnot. My friends buried me in the sand, leaving me sandy the rest of the day. The line to get back onto the ship was massive and I wore a towel on my head to stave off the heat. It was a labour of love. S.T. returned to the room for a shower and I grabbed a snack with the rest at the promenade cafe. We all met upstairs to hang out in the pools and hottubs, forgoing the very temping option of movie star trivia. Neil and I split a six pack of red stripe. The red haired girl from before was in the hot tub that we wanted to use... I almost refused to go in. But i did. No conversation of course. She was there with who I assume to be either her father or the father of her friend. S.T. and I hung around the deck reading after the others vacated and eventually went back to the room when it got too cold. I showered there. Sale at the promenade at 7:15 for s.t., dinner at 7:30 with the guys. Nothing at all to really do we discovered. We hung out at the empty champaign bar going over plans for the next few days. S.T. and I hit the Pig and had a drink and talked a while. There was a guitar man pulling people on stage to do karaoke. We fled the bar and met with Neil and Bud at the Needle where family karaoke was running late. Ehhh. We spent the rest of the night tracking down Shawn and Tristan so Joel could get back in his room. S.T. and I watched Thor and went to bed.
Day 7: Cozumel, Mexico
Up at 6:45, thankfully we changed the clocks again and got an extra hour. Brief breakfast at 7, hustle to La Scala for 7:45 to wait for everyone to show. We're leaving for the Tulum ruins excursion. Once again we nearly lost Joel but he showed and it left a bit later than planned. We got ashore and snapped a few pictures before being swept into a rather large ferry. It was very clean and had the interior of an airplane. The swaying was rather intense. It felt a bit like a roller coaster at times. I read nearly the entire time. I'm really, really enjoying The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's excellently written, the mystery is well spun, and the characters are great. We landed after about 45 minutes. We were in a mall of sorts right on the coast. Water as beautiful as anywhere. There were a number of tour group packs and it was a short walk to our meeting point. Cozumel is a dry heat but not at all unpleasant. We walked by a few small construction sites and I felt awkward walking with a tour group while guys right next to us sweated it out swinging pick axes. We boarded a few busses where our tour guides Diego and Nacho talked for nearly the entire drive about Mayan history and the like. They're good folk. We hit Tulum and thankfully there was a fair bit of walking. It's not so much ruins tucked away in the woods as it is a nationally preserved park. We all got headphones and receivers with which to listen to Nacho as he narrated the experience. We saw quite a lot of wildlife and ancient structures. They gave us ample time to wander around on our own and take pictures. Learned a few things and S.T. really seemed to enjoy herself. The tour guide kept pointing to Tristan whenever he mentioned fertility and women being the cave of life. At 12:15 we were back aboard the bus and headed for the beach. The beach was, as S.T. said, seemingly a hotspot for rich Europeans to go on holiday. There was a buffet style lunch with Mexican rice and chicken and the like. I drank two bottles of water and we spent a good 45 after that on the beach behind the property. Joel Neil and I stop and tried to get swept up in every wave we could. The sea was absolutely full of red seaweed. There was no escaping it. You got used to it after a short while. Afterward we piled back onto the bus and it was siesta time. I read for the most part but did nod off a little bit. Again we hit the ferry and then walked through the construction sites and finally got back on the Voyager a bit before 5. We all stayed together to organize taxi logistics with customer service and then Neil, Joel buddy and I hit the gym exactly at 5. I ran another 10k, this time in a bit over 58 minutes. Showered, dressed and headed downstairs to the schooner bar where it was just buddy and I for a while. It was cool talking with him one on one for a bit. Shawn joined us, an then Neil. Soon it was all but Tristan for tv theme trivia. By our powers combined we got 19 out of 20 somehow and won it. We all got umbrellas. We hurried to dinner for 8 and I actually had lobster tail. What the heck is going on with my life. We went to High Notes, a fancy club on deck 14 and there was old people karaoke going on with the same girl from mississippi that did our trivia. I worked up the courage to do Fat Bottom Girls and it went over pretty well. I got heavily intoxicated on shots and rum drinks and we ended up topside to use the hot tubs. I decided to just go in my boxers. Who was there but the red haired girl from before and her friend. I got right in an made a comment about how Neil looks like a G.I. Joe. We must have talked with them for more than a half hour. It was amazing. Her friend was way cooler than she ended up being, not to be judgmental. Sarah, the friend, does music therapy for children (?) and the redhead does cosmetology. I felt such a rush of accomplishment for just having talked to them. I was also very drunk. S.T. understood that it was entirely an ego thing and nothing more. I still came to her bed every night. I went back to my room in just my soaking boxers around 1am and changed back into my clothes. I met the others on deck 5's cafe where we ate bad pizza and laughed. Soon they all trickled off except for Tristan and Greg who accepted my pleas for them to stay. I had one last drink from the casino and we stayed up talking til 2am.
Day 8: The Journey Home
Ow ow ow my head. Up a little before 9 and took some ibuprofen. Laid about and chatted with S.T. about what the heck happened last night. Took a good long poop. We hit breakfast with everyone around 10:30. I didn't bother with the gym that day but felt back up to 100% before the afternoon. We spent quite a bit of time up top reading, some in the shade and some in the sun. I nearly finished Dragon Tattoo. After lunch S.T. and I plate a round of mini golf together, a rare activity alone, which we tied 28-28. We ran into everyone by chance after that and took some pictures in the sunset. We got a few great ones of all 8 of us. I stayed in the room for a while to finish Dragon Tattoo in the dark before heading down to the dining room. We wet to the actual dinner that night and said our farewells to Raj. Shawn and Tristan had won a bottle of champaign at the mystery dinner which we all shared up top that night as the boat cut further an further through the darkness towards New Orleans. We goofed off a bit and i spent some time jut laying on the deck, trying to lock in the feeling of the ocean moving below us. I was really going to miss that. We returned to the room to finish packing and, with horror and amusement, check the status of our expense account.
Day 9: Delays
This day was a bit of a mess, but an enjoyable mess from my perspective. Unfortunately not everyone seemed in agreement. We forced ourselves out of bed around 6am and met for breakfast with buddy and Neil for 6:30. The rest of them showed nearly an hour later as we were leaving. We all met on time in a very crowded Cleopatra's Needle for 8:15, though, where I spied Sarah and the redhead with their father close by. I laughed to myself, both in amusement in the way we had all parted that night in the hot tub (we'll never see you ever again) and in triumph for simply having talked to them at all. The strange, neurotic narcissist in me hoped that they saw us see them and saw us not acknowledge them.
We got off the plane and through customs very oddly quickly. Thankfully we took our own luggage rather than having to hunt it down in the massive sea of bags by the gates. I had to furiously pee by the time we were waiting for the bus in NO and thankfully had time to do so. We caught a packed bus to the airport. The driver was a creole fellow that told us stories over the loudspeaker the entire time about Katrina and other things. I wanted to take him with us.
The line was massive to check in at the airport. Tristan firmly stated she was still on vacation until we reached Rhode Island, to which I agreed wholeheartedly. I was mildly irritated when one TSA agent cleared me to go to the body scanner with my hoodie and hat on and then a 2nd one at the scanner told me to take them off and run them through the belt, forcing me to go back against traffic and hold people up. We got through, though, around 10:30AM.
As we played a bit of Texas hold em our plane was delayed again and again. S.T. Neil and I decided around 1, when we should have been leaving, to go get a "well, fuck it" drink at the airport bar. Neil downed his quickly, however, when Shawn called him and let him know that they were going back to the service desk because we were apparently now going to almost definitely miss our connecting flight in Philly. After some hesitation S.T. and I followed them, back out of the secure zone, to the US airways both. The clerk there told us nothing but bad news. No flights to Boston available and nothing else nearby for the rest of the day. No, they wouldn't put us up in a hotel since it wasn't their fault that it was snowing. Our best bet was to just take the flight to Philly whenever we could and hope for the best. We talked about maybe renting a car and driving home, which would forfeit the price we'd paid for our connecting flights. I didn't much care for that aspect. Trying not to be perturbed, I followed the others through security again, where the strap broke on my watch as I took it off for what felt like the 30th time that day. S.T. and I went back to the bar to resume our "well fuck it" drink and get some lunch. I had a decent Reuben and two more pints of Sam Adams. We received a few urgent texts, however, that our plane was "early" and that we needed to haul it to the gate. We did so and still waited around, and still the plane didn't take off until the scheduled delayed time of 3:10. Better safe than sorry, though. I listened to Carolla the entire time, having thankfully been able to preload a few episodes for the 2h10m flight. When we landed we were actually greeted by a middle aged half elf looking for us in particular. He was vey nice and handed us some vouchers for the ramada inn and let us know that we had missed our flight. He'd gotten seats for bud and Neil for a flight at 8pm but the rest of us were splitting two hotel rooms and leaving the next day. Weirdly enough Buddy seemed the only one that was angry. He ran off without saying bye. We saw Neil off and found our way to where we could get a shuttle to the inn. We looked at it this way: none of us had to work the next day, we weren't spending any extra money to drive, and they were paying for a nice hotel. We got there on a crowded shuttle with a nice elderly couple also coming from a cruise. They were originally from New Jersey. We found the hotel nicely enough. There was a long line to get checked in because apparently we were not the only ones delayed. We got into the rooms, which we gorgeous, and I took a much desired shower. We all met downstairs at the bar in the hotel and feasted. I had three Sam Adams and a quesadilla. It was actually a great time. I found out that Tristan was also a dragon tattoo fan and we talked about that. I shared my longing to do something for a living that involved working on projects and whatnot rather than sitting tied to a phone putting out fires. We fell asleep in the room watching Unknown.
Day 10: Suddenly there
Up at 5:30AM. Checked out very easily. The weather outside was absolutely frigid and quite honestly I adored it. Sleepily we made it to the airport via shuttle with plenty of time and our flight was only delayed by a half hour for de-icing. I drank a diet mountain dew and worked steadily through The Girl that Played with Fire. Our plane was tiny and there was a brief moment of terror when they said that they were oversold and that if they don't get two volunteers to get delayed that the last two in line would get automatically rerouted. Thankfully there were two volunteers and S.T. and I were right at the front of the plane. She didn't even have anyone next to her. The flight was short, and we were back in around 9 or so. Nice and cold. Ground is hard and frozen. I couldn't believe how early it still was.
What have we learned?
Neil still has a lot to think about when it comes to his job. He doesn't find fulfillment in what he does now buy I don't think he can make any rash decisions. He and I probably talked more one on one this week about Dragon Tattoo than we did about anything so far our whole lives. That was awesome.
Joel is convinced that he's done drinking forever. This may be so. Probably isn't. I find that anyone that makes all or nothing resolutions has a hard time matching them. Myself included. He's going to make a fantastic full time teacher and I think the future is bright for him.
S.T. and Tristan actually seemed to grow a bit closer by the end of the trip. It warmed my heart to no end to see them quasi-confiding in one another. One S.T. got into her groove I think it was easier for them both.
Shawn is exactly the same. He's an emotional beacon of humanity. Unstable but solid as a rock at the same time.
Tristan and Greg seemed to have a good honeymoon. You can tell that they're right for one another. I can only hope that they bring us along on the next one. I agree with S.T.; I've never felt quite so bonded to Greg. He's a good guy.
Buddy.
And me? I'm going to talk with Laurie about my future with the company tomorrow at our meeting at 1pm. I'm going into another sober month in February and I feel like I've got my legs back. If i can keep working on my 10k every day an not drink for a month I might be able to drop those last 10 lbs. That would be delightful. We'd like to get a poker game going. I've gotten back into reading and I'm in love with and inspired by The Millennium series. Great times. And now we have plenty of time to catch the Pats game.
I ran into a girl at the liquor store the other day that, upon seeing the last name on my credit card, suddenly looked interested. She looked at me and then at the name a few times before leaning in with "Petrarca... (that's my last name)... are you related to..." Normally this question ends with "Tony Petrarca," which is the name of the local weather man and has been since I was a small child. She didn't ask me about the weather man, though. Instead, she surprised me and asked uncertainly if I was related to "Ernie Petrarca."
I was taken aback. I still drove out to this liquor store now and then specifically in hopes that this day would come. Ernie Petrarca was the name of my grandfather and he worked at that very liquor store for his entire life. Every time I went there to make a purchase I always hoped that a former employee would recognize the name and ask me this very question. This isn't out of any particular closeness or tenderness that I had for the man. I barely knew Ernie Petrarca at all. The last memory I have of him is the day we stopped by his house for a visit before seeing the Will Smith version of Wild Wild West. My brother and I were excited about it. Ernie Petrarca mentioned how it was based on an old television show, and that it was pretty good, but now they remade it with "some colored follow in it." I was 13 years old, and yet this is likely my first memory of any kind of overt racism, regardless of how subtle.
"He's my grandfather," I told her. "He was my grandfather," I corrected myself, awkwardly. What a strange thing to say. And stranger still that of all the times I'd hoped that this moment would come I never imagined what I would say beyond this point.
The girl behind the counter seemed stunned, though happily so. He was her grandfather too, she said. It turned out that she is the granddaughter of woman that my grandfather had married after splitting with my grandmother. I'm altogether unfamiliar and uninterested in the details of this split but I can only assume that it happened early; my new-found step-cousin was not yet even born when Ernie and her grandmother married, and she had always considered him to be her grandpa.
We called the same man Grandpa and we probably never even met each other outside of his funeral. She shook my hand with a big smile on her face and told me her name and wished me a happy new year. Bumbling, I shook her hand and wished her the same. I told her that she had made my night, and clumsily mentioned how I'd always hoped to meet someone in this liquor store that had known him. I failed to tell her how this blew my expectations entirely out of the water.
Only now do I remember that I had been in the most foul of moods, that night. I'd worked from home all day and then, right when my shift ended and my responsibilities came to a close, I felt an enormous hollowness inside. A gaping emptiness. S.T. recommended that I take a drive, which is why I ended up at that liquor store. I'm glad that I did. That unexplained downtrodden feeling, those low-hanging clouds, cleared away pretty quickly after my brief encounter with a distant family member. I considered it a going-away present from 2011.
Super Short Review: Very difficult to not compare to Left 4 Dead, but it really stands on its own. Go at your own pace, open world, more realistic zombie-bashing event. I'm enjoying it but more as a way to hang out with friends in a mission based, social and casual setting. Best enjoyed alone or even better with close friends. Never for those with strangers or in a hurry.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
Speaking of my obsessions, all it took was a video clip of Morrissey performing on Conan the other night to completely reignite my rather unhealthy appreciation of The Smiths and Morrissey himself. Pandora seems to think that I like The Cure as well, which I suppose I do, though nothing I've heard from The Cure strikes a personal cord anywhere near as vital as Moz and Co. "People are the Same Everywhere" is rather simple in construction but I can't quit listening to it anyway.
Speaking of Conan, S.T. and I watched the recent remake of Conan the Barbarian the other day. Not nearly as bad as I would have imagined, though I don't owe much to the original so my glasses are luckily untinted. We can always use more high fantasy movies and if jumping on the heels of the remake bandwagon is the only road to the glory days of the fantasy epics of the 80s, so be it.
Another contributing factor to my distraction is the realization that with two graphics cards comes the capability to display things on two monitors. Also, TVs count as monitors now. This has eliminated the need for any kind of media server or DVD player as we now simply have an HDMI cable always running from my computer to the television. Never did I think I'd live in a world with untold amounts of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Mongrels, and Archer available by command. yesterday we had Hulu running on the television, which seems odd to me but it was sure useful.
If I sound vapid and uninteresting it is because I am.
I was asked to apply for a position as a Configuration Engineer at work today and did so. I feel vastly unqualified for the job, but being that they want to fill it and that they requested me to offer myself up I see no reason not to. The training is apparently intense, the pay increase would be relatively substantial, and they are looking for someone with more customer service skills than technical aptitude. Maybe I have a chance.
It feels very strange to be looking at what finally came of an idea that'd been riding around in my head for the last three years. Flaw, Timothy, Gunther, Casey, Lafcadio, Prophet and Blight have all had a permanent home somewhere in the back of my severely impaired creative center of the brain. Now that it's on paper and I've put a date on it I suppose that means its time to consider them to be officially moved out.
Goodbye, Timothy. You were annoyingly pathetic and not nearly as pragmatic as you envision yourself to be. I suppose that was the point of you, though.
Goodbye, Gunther. I hope you were as likable as I always thought you would be. I would have liked it if you could have been a little more of a hero and less of the comic relief, though.
Goodbye, Casey. I feel like I robbed you of what could have been a few shining moments, shoving you into the background. Too bad because you could have been the narrator and probably would have done a better job than Tim. I named you after a girl I used to work with at KFC.
Goodbye, Lafcadio. How do you feel about what you've done? I hope you know that I respect the reasons behind everything that you did. When it comes down to it, though, you were just a child like everyone else. Oh, and thanks for bringing that girl Fern. I never planned on her being in the story until you brought her along.
Goodbye, Prophet. We hardly got to know you but I hope that the special connection that you shared with so many came through the way it was intended. Thank you for taking it like a champ.
Goodbye, Blight. You weren't the monster that I always wanted you to be. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Goodbye, Flaw. I'll miss you most of all, I think. You ended up being a bit more on the simple side than I had originally thought but there were a few times when I considered not having you speak at all. You represent an idea that is extremely dear to me. Thank you for trying to bring that idea to life.
It's corny but I'm thankful to have spent time with these imaginary people. Now it is time to move on, though. Time to clean up, turn the lights off and see what idea would next like to rent out that mental space. Taking applications now for next November.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
