I've been really pathetic about keeping up this blog in the past 2 months. I've been online, commenting here and there but the need to update slowly eroded away recently. Either I'm too lazy or I felt there was nothing worth posting about.
This shit weather has cost me financially. I was able to make it through the snow/ice storm of December and still make ends meet but when the shit came back for seconds at the beginning of this year, I felt even more uncomfortable. That's two weeks worth of work down the drain, hours that I lost. Sure, I enjoyed sitting at home, keeping warm and enjoying creature comforts but I can't sustain that kind of living with this godawful winter mess. No one can.
Christmas was fantastic. I got the whole week off to spend time with my family. I won't see them again until March (due to high school basketball season) so it was a damn good week. I read The Shining (excellent; I'm currently plowing through Doctor Sleep, the sequel), watched some films (The Wolf of Wall Street, 2 Guns, Elysium, The Wolverine, The World's End) and played Assassin's Creed IV (I"m only 52% finished).
Here's my Christmas loot:
After I got home from vacation, I went to work when I could. This past week, I worked my first full work since early December.
I rented The Sly Cooper Collection from Gamefly and I enjoyed the first game so much that I just bought it from Gamefly. Now I have Grant Theft Auto V in and after playing it for a few hours I think I may finally like a GTA game.
I've also played Limbo on the Vita. It's well designed, challenging at times and while I hate those big spiders, I was really drawn into it and compelled to finish it in a couple of 2-3 playthroughs. Yesterday while at work I started Thomas Was Alone and I'm very charmed by it as well. It's reaching a point, however, where I wonder where it's going; I hope it doesn't overstay its welcome. Good narration and I like the Atari era-ish graphics.
Right now I'm watching Arrow on Netflix. My queue is so large that I just chose something at random. It's a better show than I expected. I've never read any of the comic books so I have no idea how faithful it is to the source material.
I'd like to post a blog on my favorites of the past year, both games and films, but I feel I need to play and watch a little more. Maybe I can have a better idea by the end of the month. One only has enough hours in the day.
Well hey there! I've been AWOL on the blogging front for a while, too.
Hello! Read your recent blog. I'd say you've had good reasons for your absence. I hope things are getting better.
By the way, I try to play Zen Pinball 2 on my Vita and you've achieved some crazy high scores on it. I keep trying to beat or reach them, to no avail.
I'm a bit competitive when it comes to pinball. I used to play a lot in the arcades, more so than video games, and also in college. Due to chronic wrist issues, I can't play much on the real tables anymore, so I get my fix on Pinball FX2 and The Pinball Arcade.
hey man, nice to hear from u. You're the only person I know who also knows that Avid Acrid Jam song. 
Glad you have been getting in some good gaming and I'm glad u had a nice holiday. Xmas was nice here too.
Now I have that song in my head playing. I don't mind.
I was out for pretty much all of Fall, simply due to work and graduate papers, so I get the not blogging thing.
My mom told me my aunt up in Wisconsin simply didn't go outside for weeks, because with wind chill,it would have been -14 degrees outside! I definitely thought about what her heating costs must be. This is one time I'm glad Texas doesn't get as cold.
I probably won't see my family again until March, either. That's my birthday month, and apparently the relatives are coming. I forgot about basketball season. I wonder how the Jacks (I go to Stephen F. Austin State University, our mascot is a Lumberjack) and the Mavericks are going to do this year.
I never knew there was a sequel to The Shining. I've seen the Kubrick movie, but only reviews of the TV series said to be closer to King's book. I want to see Elysium. I forgot what 2 Guns was, is that the one with Sandra Bullock and that woman from Bridesmaids, whose name escapes me? I liked the other three you mentioned, saw them all in the theater. Well, kind of. I fell asleep during World's End, but caught it on Red Box later. I'd play Assassin's Creed IV if I had a PS4 or an even better laptop than the fairly awesome one I already own.
I loved the first Sly Cooper game. I beat in one rental, but I played it quite a bit after that. I never bought it, cause the PS2 was my brother's, and there was an unspoken rule that we rented, but didn't buy, games on each other's systems. I've always liked GTA to some degree, I just always got tired of watching other people play it aimlessly with everything unlocked. I prefer to be given tasks and context. But hey, I own every one of them except V, which everyone seems to agree is the best, thanks to Steam, so we'll see. In fact, I also own Limbo thanks to the same Winter sale that I purchased that GTA pack during.
Arrow is based on Green Arrow, right? May keep that in mind once I'm done rewatching House of Cards with commentary. I don't really read comic books either, though I'd like to (I own Batman Noel and Watchmen), so I wouldn't know how faithful it is either.
I only watched 13 movies in the theater last year (I saw WoWS around New Years), only played Fez and Arkham Asylum (aside from online games like freetetris.org, nintendo8.com, ssega.com, etc.), only read maybe two books outside of grad courses (Cathcing Fire and Mockingjay from Hunger Games trilogy), only remember a few pop songs released last year, despite running an alternative rock radio station, and only watched Legend of Korra online and House of Cards on Netflix as far as "TV." So my "best of" lists would be pretty pointless, but I look forward to yours.
Great loot, though, especially the movies and the Superman shirt, which I thought was a jacket at first. I've gotta stop responding to blogs with blogs ...
Thanks!
King may be happier with the tv miniseries of The Shining but it's not as well regarded as the movie is.
2 Guns is a "buddy-cop" movie of sorts with Denzel Washington and Mark Whalberg. You're thinking of The Heat.
You can play Assassin's Creed IV on PS3 (which I did) or Xbox 360 as well.
Don't own any of last gen's systems, unfortunately. Unless you count DS.
I missed out on the Sly Cooper games during the PS2 era. So that collection on PS3 was awesome. All of those games were great. I didn't know that Stephen King wrote a sequel for the Shining. Hmmm. Interesting.
Doctor Sleep is quite good. Don't expect the intense, psychological horror of The Shining. It's a different brand of horror, one that is tempered with themes of aging, substance abuse, life experience and failure (not to mention it has death on the mind). The character of Abra Stone is one of King's best creations. And it ties really well with the first book.
Oh man, the weather has been terrible this winter. I'm so glad I only have a five minute walk to work.
The Sly Collection is great. I have fond memories of solely playing that game for two months while I worked six days a week.
Yeah, the weather continues to be nasty but if its just low temperatures and winds from here on out, I'll be content. This snow and ice shit needs to happen only once in the south, if it all.
Life does what it does, atleast your back to say hello. Nice swag from Xmas, I'll need to share mine soon. Sucks you were out of work during that time. maybe you could make up for that by shoveling snow?
One of the few things that sucks about my job is that, unless something can be arranged, there is no makeup option. The weather has improved recently (just peaks and valleys of temperatures) and as long as no ice or snow shows up again, I'll be content. Well, that and no more school basketball games.