The drought is over! I have not posted since August 4th, 2006 (17 weeks to be exact), which is a record for me (with the exception of the big drought in 2001-2002). Originally my goal was to make it one season, then I apparently decided to keep it going for an extra month.
Regardless, there is plenty of things to talk about since it has been so long. I have been very busy this entire time, which isn't good for me. I've felt like I was pushing things too much recently. There is a Taoist saying that equates to the harder you push the more life resists, and I've really been noticing that. There are too many things going on in my life, and too many of them are "urgent." All of the stuff that I have for school has been piling up, and then there is the supposed work that I am doing towards getting back into grad school, then there is the Emory women's ultimate team (by the way, we won the big preseason tune up for the entire country), then there is Chowning, then there is planning stuff with my family. It all has gotten to be a bit too much. So it is back to another Taoist attage, decrease and again decrease until you achieve harmony (or tranquility, or nothingness, I can never remember). I've known I've been busy, but I decided to do something about it when I was suffering through a bout of insomnia. I literally couldn't go to sleep on night last week, and I was thinking about how much shit I had to do the next day. It happened again this week, but I was eventually able to get to sleep (2 hours, it's like being back in school). For the most part I think I've gotten around it. Things need to stop being urgent and I need to let life come to me rather than chasing after it.
I think a large part of the stress came from Chowning and her pushing for me to propose. Well, that has backed off, which is nice, but I think it made everything else a bit more urgent. Then there is the fact that spend every other weekend up in Nashville or doing something else that makes it hard to get work done. What that has done has forced me to try to get work done during the week, when I have practices and am in general not able to work well. I'm not going to cut out my coaching, because it is probably the most rewarding thing I have going for me right now, but I can limit the things that I do on the weekend. I think it is a more natural state for me.
On the videogame front there has been lots of news. Most if it you know already. Video games hace had a good fall season. Many games have been delivering on what they promised with flying colors, at least at first. Guitar Hero 2 is everything it is suppose to be, there are no pre-existing flaws with the game. There are some new flaws, but they are small, and weren't in GH1 so it is hard to expect Harmonix to fix them without user feedback. The Wii has been a rampant success because it is fun to play and feels natural. I still can't muster enough time to sit in front a TV and really get into Zelda (I still love you baby, its just that my boss at the plant wants me to work overtime), but hoepfully that will be remedied soon. The bit that I have played has been great. The other games that I got (Super Monkey Ball and Wii Sports) have been stellar, and most importantly feel right. Rich and I had a fun experience going to a best buy early and getting in line to get one, and outside of one broken accelerometer in one controller, the console has been amazing. I've even got the original Bonk for TGX16.
In terms of video game journalism the Wii is the thing that people talk about briefly in between the other games they talk about. I think because it is doing what it was expecting, and is fun without being super amazing awesome it sort of sit in the background. Instead people spend their time talking about the PS3 and the 360. The trend that I have noticed is that while many games are getting good critical reviews and analysis in the beginning, many of these games don't have legs because two weeks later people aren't playing them anymore. Maybe it is part of the season, and maybe it is because I'm listening and reading journalism that doesn't have enough to do so it over analyzes things until finds flaws in them, or maybe it is just a feature of the games that are being made right now. I've recently started or seen people start many games (Okami, GTA: Vice City Stories, FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus, etc.) but the games that are still being played after a month are of a different type (Geometry Wars, FFV on the DS, Mario v. DK 2 on the DS, Guitar Hero, Super Monkey Ball, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, Wii Sports, oh, and Guitar Hero). They are all short duration games. Maybe Zelda will pull me out of this funk because it is an IP that I am highly invested in (would it be wierd for me to get a tattoo of the triforce on my back?) so I'll put in the time to go through it. Regardless, it has been an interesting fall in the gaming world, now that we have three consoles again we'll see what happens this Christmas.
Regardless, there is plenty of things to talk about since it has been so long. I have been very busy this entire time, which isn't good for me. I've felt like I was pushing things too much recently. There is a Taoist saying that equates to the harder you push the more life resists, and I've really been noticing that. There are too many things going on in my life, and too many of them are "urgent." All of the stuff that I have for school has been piling up, and then there is the supposed work that I am doing towards getting back into grad school, then there is the Emory women's ultimate team (by the way, we won the big preseason tune up for the entire country), then there is Chowning, then there is planning stuff with my family. It all has gotten to be a bit too much. So it is back to another Taoist attage, decrease and again decrease until you achieve harmony (or tranquility, or nothingness, I can never remember). I've known I've been busy, but I decided to do something about it when I was suffering through a bout of insomnia. I literally couldn't go to sleep on night last week, and I was thinking about how much shit I had to do the next day. It happened again this week, but I was eventually able to get to sleep (2 hours, it's like being back in school). For the most part I think I've gotten around it. Things need to stop being urgent and I need to let life come to me rather than chasing after it.
I think a large part of the stress came from Chowning and her pushing for me to propose. Well, that has backed off, which is nice, but I think it made everything else a bit more urgent. Then there is the fact that spend every other weekend up in Nashville or doing something else that makes it hard to get work done. What that has done has forced me to try to get work done during the week, when I have practices and am in general not able to work well. I'm not going to cut out my coaching, because it is probably the most rewarding thing I have going for me right now, but I can limit the things that I do on the weekend. I think it is a more natural state for me.
On the videogame front there has been lots of news. Most if it you know already. Video games hace had a good fall season. Many games have been delivering on what they promised with flying colors, at least at first. Guitar Hero 2 is everything it is suppose to be, there are no pre-existing flaws with the game. There are some new flaws, but they are small, and weren't in GH1 so it is hard to expect Harmonix to fix them without user feedback. The Wii has been a rampant success because it is fun to play and feels natural. I still can't muster enough time to sit in front a TV and really get into Zelda (I still love you baby, its just that my boss at the plant wants me to work overtime), but hoepfully that will be remedied soon. The bit that I have played has been great. The other games that I got (Super Monkey Ball and Wii Sports) have been stellar, and most importantly feel right. Rich and I had a fun experience going to a best buy early and getting in line to get one, and outside of one broken accelerometer in one controller, the console has been amazing. I've even got the original Bonk for TGX16.
In terms of video game journalism the Wii is the thing that people talk about briefly in between the other games they talk about. I think because it is doing what it was expecting, and is fun without being super amazing awesome it sort of sit in the background. Instead people spend their time talking about the PS3 and the 360. The trend that I have noticed is that while many games are getting good critical reviews and analysis in the beginning, many of these games don't have legs because two weeks later people aren't playing them anymore. Maybe it is part of the season, and maybe it is because I'm listening and reading journalism that doesn't have enough to do so it over analyzes things until finds flaws in them, or maybe it is just a feature of the games that are being made right now. I've recently started or seen people start many games (Okami, GTA: Vice City Stories, FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus, etc.) but the games that are still being played after a month are of a different type (Geometry Wars, FFV on the DS, Mario v. DK 2 on the DS, Guitar Hero, Super Monkey Ball, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, Wii Sports, oh, and Guitar Hero). They are all short duration games. Maybe Zelda will pull me out of this funk because it is an IP that I am highly invested in (would it be wierd for me to get a tattoo of the triforce on my back?) so I'll put in the time to go through it. Regardless, it has been an interesting fall in the gaming world, now that we have three consoles again we'll see what happens this Christmas.
