Colossal Ruminations

Well, I've finished Shadow of the Colossus, and am overall very pleased with my experience. I gave a brief overview of the game a few posts ago when I bought it, so rather than repeat myself I'll get right to the specifics. Shadow of the Colossus is all about atmosphere. It's light on story, has very simple (albeit flexible) gameplay mechanics, and has a huge sandbox with almost nothing in it, and all of these serve to really put you in the role of the nameless protagonist and immerse you in his world. Whether riding your horse across an open field and watching the birds flying alongside you or dodging a sword 100 times your size as it crashes into the ground, it's very easy to leave the couch and lose yourself in the game. Also, there are all kinds of little, inconsequential and undocumented details that really give you a feeling of participation in the gameworld. Feeling hungry? Then shoot a nearby bird or slash a nearby lizard and chow down. And if that's a little too grim for you, then have some fruit hanging from a nearby tree. And if you like, you can riddle either the corpses or the fruits with arrows until they look like a pincushion. For more fun with arrows, you can walk up to a tree and thunk arrows into it to spell "Hi!". If you find a thin tree and sink a few arrows into it, you can then go around the other side and see their ends protruding. Bored with arrows? Then run over to the local pond. Whoops! Careful about tripping over a turtle. It'll hide in its shell an send you stumbling. Once you find a fish, go ahead and grab on and watch it thrash. Anyway, you all get the idea-- it's very fun and immersive.

And the boss battles. Oh my. These battles are essentially the entire game, and they don't disappoint. I've never seen a game so effectively convey a sense of disparity of scale. The moment you see a colossus, you get the distinct impression that it could squash you like a bug. From watching the ground and trees shake when it walks, to running between its legs and climbing up its back, and finally to desperately hanging on as it tosses about its head, you're always intimately aware of the comparative size and power of these things. And those are just the mundane ones. Eventually you'll be hanging on for dear life as colossi fly through the air, dive underwater, or burrow underneath the sand. This is made all the more stressful by the fact that, while you're desperately trying to stay alive, you also have to figure out how to kill it. Each colossus has one or more weak points that you can stab or shoot to injure it, and for the first one its simply a matter of getting up there and doing the dirty deed, but things quickly get more complicated for subsequent colossi. This is because, although it may not be immediately obvious, this game is essentially an obfuscated puzzler/platformer hybrid, much like ICO was before it. The colossi themselves serve as giant puzzles, and also as giant platforming stages once you climb onto them. For each colossus, you have to figure out how to make it expose its weak point, and how to get to it, which is generally not immediately obvious and generally is comprised of several steps. So, half of the fun (and eventually frustration) is in figuring out how to kill each colossus. This being the case, I suspect that this game would essentially be ruined if you made use of a FAQ or walkthrough. Just to give an example, one particular colossus took me 2 hours to beat the first time around, but only took my ten minutes during a later time attack (more on this later). So, although some of the more convoluted solutions may have you pulling out you hair, it's well worth the time and effort, and the sense of accomplishment as they stumble and finally crash defeated to the ground is significant.

Now that I've got all of the gushing out of the way, I do have to admit that the game is not perfect. The game world is one large seamless environment, streaming data as you move around, so if you gallop everywhere on your horse, you'll notice the textures move and suddenly take on extra dimensions of detail as you approach them. Also, I've read many reviews lamenting the camera and the controls, which I generally disagree with. Some people seem to have had many problems with the camera, but I'm given cause to wonder if they knew how to control it properly, since, aside from a couple of specific problems in key situations, I found the camera to be flexible, intuitive, and responsive. And, as a cute added bonus, the camera is always enabled, even during otherwise non-interactive cutscenes, and even during the introduction, idle demo sequence, and title screen, which is new to me. As for the controls, despite having heard the opposite from other reviewers, I found them to be simple and intuitive, although I do wish mounting the horse was a little easier (I often found it easier to run and launch myself onto his saddle than to just walk up and get on, since the mount button is also the jump button and you have to be placed perfectly to mount with it).

There are several other aspects that I've heard people take issue with, and they are essentially the same things that I already lauded earlier. There were several design decisions made in order to enhance the atmosphere, and whether you love them or hate them seems to be largely a matter of personal opinion. The narrative is simple and lacking in detail (although there is a surprisingly robust ending waiting for anyone who finishes the game); the only other real character that's around is your horse, who doesn't talk; there's not much in the way of power-ups, items, or menus; there is a huge, seamless environment that offers no reward for exploring it other than the experience itself; and, finally, there are no minor encounters to fill the space and time between colossi. Although I'll admit that I found the reward-less exploration a bit frustrating, since exploring every nook and cranny in search for goodies is my usual modus operandi, I found most of these things to be a refreshing change of pace. The only other real complaint that I've heard is the length, and I fervently disagree. I finished my first game in roughly 20 hours, and with each passing year I am increasing of the opinion that no game should be longer than 20 hours, so I was entirely satisfied. It kept me busy for the better part of a week, and that's plenty for me. However, even if you do take exception to the length, the fact of the matter is that the minimalistic gloves kind of come off after you beat it once, unlocking a new game plus in which you can time attack each colossus, earning fun game-breaking special powers and items if you beat them quickly enough. Additionally, a hard mode is unlocked, and if you beat it once it too has its own new game plus in which you can earn a second set of powers and items in hard time attacks.

In any case, depending upon the type of gamer you are, you might love or hate Shadow of the Colossus, but if you fall into the later group, you're an uncultured Philistine. :-)

I Found Religion...

...and its name is "Sudoku". I'm sure that everyone has heard of it by now. It's the puzzle game sensation presently sweeping across North America, or at least its newspapers. I first encountered it a month or two ago when I was at the Sheraton for BackBone's information session, leafing through a copy of some major paper (National Post? Globe and Mail?). I glanced at it, got the impression from the description that it was currently "all the rage", spent about thirty seconds seeing if a solution jumped off the page at me, and then, having had my fill, promptly moved on and forgot about it, assuming it was some silly new fad. Well, it is. But I love it anyway.

My next encounter came a few weeks ago when I first noticed that it had made it's way into the Gleaner (which, incidentally, is entirely too expensive give it's quality, running roughly $50 for 3 months). I again paid it no mind, although I did stop to do that day's Target (my grandmother got me hooked on Target when I was young-- I'm actually good at it now), finding the 9-letter word almost immediately. After that, I ran into it on Gamespot, as apparently it's coming out as a mobile phone game (for which it is uniquely suited, incidentally). However, this version was spelled Sudokou, which, according to the way I learned to romanize Japanese, means that it ends in a long 'o' sound instead of a 'u' sound. I have yet to learn conclusively which pronunciation is correct, although I have seen the kanji for it and probably could have found out if I wasn't so lazy. In any case, I ignored that Gamespot article as well.

Now, fast forward to earlier this week. There was a news post on a webcomic that I read regularly talking about it yet again, but the difference this time is that I generally find myself in agreement with this person, so, taking him at his word that it was indeed fun, I decided to try out Web Sudoku. Thirty or so games later, I find that I can't stay away. It's just so simple and addictive. The last thing that I needed was yet another time sink, but here we are.

It's a fairly simple game, really. You have a 9x9 grid of spaces, separated into nine 3x3 sections. Each space can hold any of the numbers from 1 to 9 inclusive (it can actually be any arbitrary set of nine distinct symbols, so the numbers themselves aren't important, and it's definitely not any kind of math game, which might otherwise scare some people away). To begin, some subset of these spaces are already filled with numbers, and it's your job to fill in the rest such that no row, column, or 3x3 section has the same number occurring twice. There is only one unique solution to each puzzle, which means that the solution can be arrived at without any guessing at any point. Sounds easy, right? Well, it is, at least at first.

Introductory puzzles have lots of numbers filled in already, so it's largely just a matter of looking for rows, columns, or sections that are very cluttered and figuring out what's missing by simple process of elimination. These used to take me upwards of ten minutes at first, but I can usually finish Easy puzzles in 3 or 4 minutes now. However, once you move onward to Medium, Hard, and Evil, there are far fewer numbers to start with, and the strategies that you use to solve them have to adapt accordingly. I find that the game feels like Minesweeper in a lot of ways, both in the feel of play, the addictiveness, and the way in which it can insidiously suck up your free time. Much like Minesweeper, as you play harder and harder puzzles, new strategies emerge organically, bringing with them new dimensions of gameplay, and areas that would have been hard to solve become solvable almost by rote.

I don't think that I'd enjoy doing them in the newspapers now though, since the convenience of the web version has spoiled me. I have my options configured to let me enter subscript possibilities in empty boxes and a competition clock to let me know how I'm doing, not to mention the convenience of easy deletion (although, generally, if you make a mistake you're pretty screwed anyway) and the joy I take in comparing my scores to the statistics the site has collected. In any case, I highly recommend Web Sudoku to anyway looking to kill time in front of a computer, whether you're waiting for a large app to compile or you just feel like you're not getting paid enough. :-P I'd suggest starting with a few easy puzzles and then moving on to medium and hanging out there for a while.

Shameless Birthday Plug

So, this past Thursday was my birthday, and I decided to treat myself with an ill-advised trip to Electronics Boutique (which I think officially changed its name to EBGames at some point, but will soon become GameStop) that ended up costing me almost $200 of money that I don't have. I was there to pick up two preorders, make two more preorders, and browse the used Playstation games section, looking for a classic RPG gem like I always do (incidentally, due to the merger, EB will soon stop selling used PC games, since GameStop doesn't deal in them-- they've already stopped accepting used PC trade-ins). The games that I picked up were two that I'm really looking forward to playing: Fire Emblem for GCN and Shadow of the Colossus (formerly Wanda and the Colossus) for PS2. The former is the latest in the Fire Emblem series, a long-standing series of turn-based strategy RPGs that have been phenomenally popular in Japan since the days of the Famicom (the Japanese version of the Nintendo), but have only recently become popular here with a pair of GBA releases. I have yet to play either of said GBA releases, but I own both, and suspect that I'll play through all three games in a row at some point. I know that I'll enjoy them, since I've played emulated versions of previous Japanese Fire Emblem games.

The second game that I bought has me even more excited, however. I've been following Shadow of the Colossus for some time, and am eager to play it now that it's finally out. It's the latest effort from the team behind the critically acclaimed but financially unspectacular ICO, and is apparently quite similar aesthetically, although a bit of a departure in gameplay. You play a fellow looking to resurrect a dead woman (presumably a love interest), and, towards that end, pursuing a morally ambiguous quest to kill roughly a dozen+ towering behemoths who generally just wish that you'd leave them alone. Essentially, the game is a series of visually spectacular boss battles, and as such isn't particularly long (which is music to my ears these days). It hasn't been getting quite the same universal critical love that ICO did, but it's not far off, and I'm sure that I'll enjoy it.

While checking out the used PS games, I happened to notice that there were several copies of Minna Daisuki Katamari Damashii (known here as We <3 Katamari), a game that I've been resisting the purchase of for some time, since I can't really afford it and it doesn't really offer much improvement over the first game, which was delightfully fun and off-the-wall. However, it was my birthday, and I'm a weak, weak man, so I bought it as well. How else is that sumo wrestler going to put on enough weight for his title match if I don't roll him over lots of tasty food? Besides, if I wan't more fun and innovative games like it, then I should be willing to invest money in it so that developers can feel more confortable taking a chance on similarly zany projects in the future. I suspect that it'll be a while before I get around to playing it, but hopefully by then it'll all feel fresh again. And I can't wait to listen to all of the fun new J-Pop on the soundtrack.

The two games that I preordered were Mario and Luigi 2 for DS and Suikoden Tactics for PS2. Like Fire Emblem, both of these are sequels to games that I own but have yet to play, and again like Fire Emblem, I'll probably play them in sequence when I do finally get around to it. I've heard only good things about the Mario and Luigi games, zany RPGs with a sense of humour similar to the Paper Mario games. As for Suikoden Tactics, it's a turn-based strategy direct sequel to Suikoden 4, which I have yet to play and have heard bad things about, but apparenly die-hard Suikoden fans still liked it, and I count myself among that group. Since I've always liked the army battles of the Suikoden games more than the more traditional RPG battles, a Suikoden turn-based strategy game has me quite excited.

Anywho, as the subject of this post might be seen to imply, I've had a pretty uneventful week, and for once I'm not really pissed off about anything (well, aside from the NASCAR race I just finished watching, but none of the readers that I'm aware of will care about that), so I think I'll leave things there. See everyone in another four days (that's the gap I've been consistantly aiming for recently, and I've been somewhat successful thus far).

Please Stop-- I Need More Time!

Well, we're fast nearing November, and the release date of the XBox 360, the first in the next iteration of consoles, is nearly upon us. The next generation of console gaming is coming, promising better graphics, greater levels of connectivity and customization, and expanded multimedia functionality. Yes, a veritable gamer's utopia is fast approaching. And I desperately wish that there was something that I could do to stop it.

We don't NEED a new generation right now. Previous console generations, while similarly timed, often produced quantum leaps in graphics and gameplay, or at least a considerable difference. But to be frank, I just don't see that happening this time (although, admittedly, the Nintendo Revolution, if successful, could provide such a leap to gameplay). I've seen lots of pretty demos, and talk of teraflops and what not, but no actual gameplay footage that I've seen is that much of a graphical departure from what is achievable on current systems. As for connectivity and customization, I hate the first, and consider the second silly and unnecessary. And as far as expanded multimedia goes-- I don't WANT a console that will let me play AVIs, play DVDs, and browse the internet. I want a gaming console that will, get this, PLAY GAMES. I don't want it to do anything else besides that. Admittedly, I've gotten use to the idea of watching DVDs on my PS2, but if I have to give that up to get a pure gaming console, then I'll do it happily.

And then there's the games. I have... *pauses to count*... 19 games still shrink-wrapped for my current consoles (and I'll be buying two more this week). I need more time to get through all of those games before I can worry about games for new consoles. And think of the shelf space! I already have an entire coffee table devoted to my current generation of consoles-- there's no room for more. I'll likely be able to replace my PS2 with my PS3 entirely, but backwards compatibility is less certain for the other two consoles. Which is scary, because, as far as I'm concerned, backwards compatibility is the single greatest change in gaming brought by the current generation. I owned my PS2 for roughly a year before I played any actual PS2 games on it (excepting brief trysts with a pair of dismal launch titles, Summoner and Kessen), with Final Fantasy X finally breaking into my library, and a pause of almost another year after that before I played any more. Because, quite frankly, the PS2 launch lineup was awful. Which just goes to show you that the 360 is hardly screwed at this point. So, essentially, for 2 years my PS2 was a glorified PS that would play DVDs.

I hate how the game industry always forces new consoles upon me like this (yeah yeah, "free will", blah blah). They always make me invest in the next generation before I'm ready (although, to be fair, the N64 came out of the gate running, and I loved it from day one), and I think I'm finally getting wise to them. When the PS2 came out roughly half a decade ago, I waited in line outside Toys'R'Us for hours, before the mall even opened, and was one of the first few people in town to own one (3rd in line, I think?). Well, not this time. I'm not buying any of these new systems until there are some games for them that I actually want to play. And even then, I might hold off a bit (I own three DS games right now but have yet to buy a DS). So, until Bioware finally releases their first game for the 360, I'm not going anywhere near it. I hope.

More Final Fantasy News than you can Shake a Chocobo at

There's been a great deal of activity in the world of Final Fantasy as of late, and surprisingly little of it has made front page news, requiring some digging on my part. First off is the region 1 DVD release of Advent Children. If you look around on-line, most retailers have a late-November release date listed, and, depending on where you look, you'll find that it may or may not have an original Japanese audio track on there. While this may not seem important to all of the kids waiting for the English dub, it'll be a cold day in hell before I buy if it's dub only, and I know I'm not alone in this. That being said, SquareEnix is one of the few last hold-out companies that refuses to release any of their video games with an original Japanese dialogue option, so there's really no precedent. But I'm still hoping, because not including it would be a very stupid decision on their part, IMHO, because there are lots of people like me waiting to throw our money at it that will have to settle for the illegal Japanese DVD-rips if it's dub only. As for the dub cast (which I really couldn't care less about), apparently almost noone has been announced yet, although there's been some speculation that they'll have the FF7 actors from Kingdom Hearts reprise their roles to fill out half the cast. This seems unlikely to me, however, since, IIRC, Disney used all in-house voice talent for that game. Finally, the release dates on-line are questionable, since, according to SquareEnix, not only have they not decided officially on the DVD's format/options/packaging, they also haven't decided on a release date.

Speaking of November, the XBox 360's debut is fast approaching, and things aren't looking all that great. Their launch lineup is decidedly lacklustre, and recent press events have taken on a far more subdued tone (that is to say, they've done away with all the dancing women and loud music). Speaking of lacklustre, one of the early expected releases is a 360 port of Final Fantasy XI, the MMORPG that should have been called Final Fantasy Online which has not done nearly as well as SquareEnix hoped it would. I can't imagine that it'll finally find an audience on the new XBox of all places. That being said, if the 360 is anything like it's predecessor (and that certainly looks to be the case), it'll be an RPG-starved system, so perhaps it's good to have at least one initial entry into the genre. On the Xbox 360 RPG horizon, however, are several promising 360-exclusive entries, and by promising I mean that they promise to make me buy one of the damn things. First is Blue Dragon, the freshman effort from Mistwalker, a team of ex-Square vets. It marks a reunion of sorts between the producer, character designer, and musician behind the masterful SNES epic Chrono Trigger, and what I've seen so far looks depressingly good. Speaking of depressing, just as I'd previously feared, Bioware has recently announced their official exclusive support for the system, and they have a 3-game sci-fi epic in development with role-playing in the vein of KOTOR (although apparently new and improved), with real-time squad tactics replacing KOTOR's combat engine. *sigh* I REALLY don't want to buy an XBox 360.

While on the topic of things I don't want to buy, it was recently announced that Dragon Quest 8 (known as Dragon Warrior here in North America) will come with a playable demo of Final Fantasy XII, the first real Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy X. Square has a history of putting together really bitching playable demos, but I'm trying my hardest to stay away from DQ8. I'm actually a long-time Dragon Quest fan, and I love Dragon Quest 1-4, but I've got to cut things out of my bloated RPG hole somewhere, and, with it's archaic menu system and outdated graphics (DQ has always been about nostalgia over improvement), DQ seemed like the logical choice back when I made a decision not to play DQ7 last year. Unfortunately, I'd already purchased it, but, when I found out that it was quite possibly the longest RPG to ever make it to North America, and furthermore wasn't really that good, I sold it to Aiden (aka Requiem), who I don't think has ever played it either. Still, DQ8 is supposedly quite a departure from previous DQ's, for better or for worse, so I may end up buying it yet.

There's been a trio of GBA Final Fantasy announcements recently. FFIV (also known as THE GREATEST GAME EVER MADE, which I'm actually playing through yet again these days), V, & VI will all be ported to GBA, complete with TBA extras, but I wouldn't expect anything major. I'd guess something like the bonus dungeons that Dawn of Souls had. And maybe some more dreams for Shadow or something. Rumours include new playable characters (some more General Leo action maybe?), but I wouldn't hold my breath-- that sounds like a lot of effort for SquareEnix to put it.

In DS news, and this one kills me, but apparently the reason that the FFIII remake for DS (FFIII being the only Final Fantasy yet to see a domestic release) has been taking so long is because they're making it 3D. *SIGH* Fuckers. They couldn't just leave well enough alone, could they? Maybe I'll just play the ROM like Aiden is. I don't want to play it in fucking 3D. Also on the way for DS is Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles DS, which, to my mind, is a much better idea than the original Gamecube Crystal Chronicles was, and won't require jumping through any expensive hoops to play it.

Finally, and although this is only tangentially Final Fantasy related, I've been told that Kingdom Hearts 2 has been delayed yet again recently. I generally don't follow release dates, since they change all the time anyways, but lots of people do. In the case of KH2, although I'll certainly buy it when it comes out, I've long forgotten the plot of the first game, and although I was very excited for it at the time (thanks to a bitchin' teaser trailer at the end of the first game's credits), I've long gotten over it. It's done when it's done. I'm sure bad-ass Mickey getting down with his bad-ass self will be a sight to behold, whether it's a few months from now or a year from now.

It Hurts to Type-- Fuck You DECH

So, a few days ago I made a trip to the hospital to have some bloodwork done. At 6:45. In the morning. Meanwhile, my dad has an appointment at noon and he's bitching that it's not as early as mine. I just don't DO 6:45. Even when I'm staying up all night, I like to get to bed by 6 or so in order to get to sleep before the sun comes up. And I sure as hell never get up at 6AM (which is what I had to do in this instance). In any case, I actually managed to get to sleep at a half-decent hour, and got up at 6AM with a good 4-5 hours of sleep. I made it to the hospital at 6:40, walked inside and took my number, which was 506. Then they read out the number they were currently at. It was 482. Yeah, I got well acquainted with the waiting room.

See, it turns out that every asshole with an appointment before noon showed up at 6:30 so that they could get in early (which they are specifically told not to do). So I didn't get my number called until 7:30. A guy waltzed in at 7:20, got the number 507, and actually got in before me since the lady who called his number processed him more quickly. So, yeah, I'd have been far better off just sleeping in and showing up at 7:30 than actually trying to keep my goddamn appointment, because apparently noone is this fucking city sleeps in. Once my number finally did get called, I was allowed to walk into the next room, which was another waiting room. Fifteen minutes later, a chair opened up for me. Apparently someone hadn't showed up that morning and they were understaffed. Of course, the moment the lady got around to me, I had to tell her that I'd fainted before, and then I was sent back to the second waiting room to wait for a bed.

At the point, I should probably digress and explain that a little more. You see, I historically have never had a problem with needles or blood tests. In fact, I've been tested for diabetes every couple of years since like age 6, mostly because of the large volumes of water that I drink. But roughly a year ago, that all changed. That day, like always, I managed to get the new girl, who peppered my arm with holes in an attempt to find some blood. I've never had anyone get successful on the first try. I didn't think that it was bothering me, and in fact, I was engrossed in a novel through most of it, but then she asked me how I was doing. I thought about it for a moment, then said "Actually, I feel a little..." *black* Next thing I know, I'm on my back with 4 people leaning over me and explaining to me that I fainted.

I've never fainted before (or since), and I found the whole experience of losing a few seconds of my life very disconcerting, and now, wouldn't you know it, bloodwork bothers me. I've essentially been ruined for life. What used to be routine is now a trial, and I'm obligated to mention it every time I go in there (since, as my doctor put it: "None of those girls could pick someone your size up from the floor"), and have them fuss over me like a baby, which I find infuriating and humiliating. And inevitably, they always ask me how I feel over and over, and I never know how to answer, since the one time I did faint I had almost no warning, which makes them fuss even more. *sigh*

Anyway, back to my most recent trial by needle. They got me a bed, and, wouldn't you know it, they send the new new girl to poke holes in me. After poking around both of my arms (both with fingers and needles), she left me and they called in the expert on staff. Seeing that both of my arms were no longer viable, she decided to take the blood out of the back of my right hand. All 8 vials. How I envy the normal people who get to go in and just have 2 or 3 vials taken. I don't think I've ever had less than 5. This actually wasn't too bad though-- she said that it hurts worse to take it out of the hand, but I felt barely a twinge at the time. Then she gave me some orange juice, had me lie down for a few more minutes, and then I was out the door to get some breakfast in preparation to come back in two hours for my post-eating vial.

Since I was in there for over 2 hours, the parking cost me $3.00, and then at McDonalds I had to wait out by the drive-thru for 15 minutes because apparently a hashbrowns-only order is too fucking complicated. Then I went home, played a little Final Fantasy II-A/IV-J and drove back to the hospital. Fortunately, I'm always allowed to just waltz in past the waiting room for the follow up, so the second trip was relatively painless. Figuratively, at least. Since pretty much every other part of me was full of holes, she decided to take the last vial out of the ring finger on my other hand. I HATE getting blood taken out of my finger. I can think of few sensations less pleasant than the scraping of the vial along the cut to get the blood. At least I'm told that I bleed readily out of my finger-- it's good to know that it comes out somewhere. This visit only took about 5 minutes, and then I was right back out the door, feeling confident that I could stay on my feet after the finger prick. Another $1.50 parking payment later, and I was on my way back home where I could finally relax.

Now, several days later, both of my hands hurt. The back of my right one, from which the majority of the blood was taken, is essentially one giant brown welt, while the ring finger on my left hand hurts every time I have to type a 'w', 's', or 'x'. And unfortunately, I can't really give them a rest, since pretty much all of my leisure activities save perhaps television require the use of my hands. Oh well, I'm sure it would be a lot worse if I was working.

I Made it a Week

When I read a blog (or any page, for that matter), I generally check daily (if I visit with any less frequency, I have trouble remembering the page exists at all), and when there's not an update every few days, or when an update is short and/or lacklustre, I find myself disappointed. It has recently come to my attention that most people are not in fact me, and that the frequency and length of my posts are a little much to stomach. So, in the interests of not scaring people away, I've decided to make an effort to space out my updates a little, which is why this post comes one week after my previous post. The longest break I'd ever had before this was four days, which I used to feel was a bit much, but, again, I guess that's just me. This change brings with it both benefits and problems.

The first clear benefit is that, if I have nothing to say for a few days after a post, I needn't feel pressured to come up with something right away. Although I have had a bit of writer's block on occasion, anyone who knows me well knows that having nothing to say won't stop me from typing until my fingers are sore and bleeding (more on this colourful imagery in a moment). The second benefit is of course the time savings. I'd like to consider myself a competent writer, but in writing, as in most other things, I am very slow. Typically, one of my lengthier posts will take me roughly 2 hours to write, compared to the two minutes it takes to read. So, the savings of a couple of hours a week that I get from less frequent posting will be welcome, although, to be frank, if I was really looking to save time I'd just abandon this foolishness altogether.

Which brings me to the problems. The biggest problem is my memory. Generally, when I write one of these posts, it is because inspiration has struck or I have something that I really want to vent about. And, while I could (and do, sometimes) keep a list of post topics as they occur to me, the specifics will be long gone from my head by the time I get around to actually writing the post. Another alternative would be to write the post in its entirety when it occurs to me and then sit on it for a few days before posting. However, it feels so silly to keep it to myself when I'm already finished, and I suspect that if I got into this habit I'd quickly amass a backlog. The second problem is that I actually find it relaxing to ramble on at length, and I'll miss the more frequent stress release that my inconsistent flurries of posting activity provided.

In any case, as I said, people have expressed displeasure with the length of these posts as well, so I'm going to move on to the next topic.

I Just Don't GET Music

I have several friends who spend a non-trivial percentage of their timing listening to music, but I just can't fathom how or why. I can barely bring myself to listen to music at all, let alone care about any part of it outside of the listening experience. My exposure to music that is not accompanying some other, more enjoyable experience (TV, movies, video games, etc.) consists entirely of what I listen to in my car, and that's simply for lack of anything better to do in my car, and I often forget even that if I'm distracted by other thoughts when I first leave the house. My life would be essentially unchanged if music ceased to exist altogether, with the notable exception that many of my video games, with their oh so catchy tunes (the ones without licensed music-- I hate it when games use licensed music, and wish they would use the licensing money that they're wasting elsewhere), as well as movies and TV shows, would be less enjoyable, although still perfectly viable activities. I find that while music does definitely add flavour to those other things, I could still easily enjoy them without it.

That being said, if lyrics were to disappear altogether, I doubt I'd notice at all. Most of the non-licensed accompanying music that I listen to has no lyrics, and, when it comes to the licensed music that I do listen to, I tend to care more about the tune than the lyrics. This is because I generally find most lyrics incomprehensible. I've always had a problem parsing and interpreting speech properly (I often need my friends to repeat themselves when I completely and sometimes comically misunderstand what they've said), and this problem is compounded when I try to listen to music lyrics. Although I can usually piece together part of a song with some effort, I'm not interested in understanding only part of a song, so I usually abandon the effort altogether and content myself with tapping a finger to the tune. I think that this directly impacts my enjoyment of music, but, to be frank, that really doesn't feel like much of a loss to me.

What really blows my mind are those people who can listen to music as a leisure activity in and of itself. To my mind, music is something you do while you're doing something else. To just listen to music seems like such a terrible waste of time to me. However, even as accompaniment, it's usually unwelcome in my vicinity. I'd generally rather do whatever it is that I'm doing without the distraction, content to either focus more completely on my task or devote the time to thinking about something else rather than waste it listening to music. Music just seems to me to be a pointless and wasteful societal drain. I just don't GET it.