ChimpsAhoy

I have to admit that I’m a Valve fanboy – I’ve loved everything they’ve touched since the original Half-Life series. The Valve team is a leader in the video game industry in both multiplayer dynamics and art direction. And as my recent spike in late-night gaming can attest, their award-winning game “Left 4 Dead” is no exception.

However, as I see it, Valve’s greatest impact in video games isn’t the quality of their games, it has been in their marketing. Aside from being a juggernaut in video game buzz generation, the company has changed both the delivery of PC video games through the Steam platform, as well as redefined consumer expectations through the delivery new content months, and even years, after launch.

Keep reading this entry…

There are only two games I enjoy losing at:

(1) Winner Gets Punched in the Sweets
(2) Toboggan Jump 2002

While everyone should try the first game, Toboggan Jump is certainly more inviting. It’s almost more fun to screw up than it is to win.

This team is certainly on fire…

TJ downloaded some old video game system emulators for his computer and right now he’s playing X-Men 2 for the Genesis. I apologize for any lack of quality in this post because I can’t stop looking over to see him blow stuff up. I bet it’s not very fun for TJ because I keep shouting commands at him. “GET THAT HEALTH, TJ!!!” “You need to shoot him in the EYE!!!” “Why don’t you jump over those fireballs, you crazy man?” I bet he wants to kill me while I sleep.

Things seem really busy lately. It feels like I’m hurrying through one thing just so I can get to the next thing and hurry through that. I had to frantically try to clean the house yesterday between going to school and whatnot; as many people know we had our first onecommunity meeting (went really well, lots of fun). I spent all of today checking my watch while in school, looking forward to getting out so that I could do homework and go to Savers to buy my Halloween costume. It’s just one thing after another after another. I guess I’m just trying to hurry up and get to the weekend…tomorrow Greg, TJ, and I are leaving on our third annual trip of reflection to Sedona. We’re actually going to camp out overnight and then hike all day Saturday. So exciting, so relaxing, so much fun. Hopefully that will put an end to all this craziness.

As I mentioned earlier, I went today to buy my Halloween costume (to be worn down to Mill Ave. on the fateful day). As a group, we’re going with a superhero theme (anyone who’s interested in joining us is welcome…just let me know so we can work things out). I’m going as the Incredible Hulk:

I got the pants, I got the wig, now all I have to do is whip up some crazy homemade makeup I found on the internet. Hopefully it won’t stain my skin…I have class the next day and the thought of going in with all my skin tinted bright green is very unappealing.

Well, I’m off until Sunday, probably. When I come back, I will have the serenity of Caine, from Kung Fu.

“When one eye is fixed on the destination, you have only one eye to search for the way.” – Caine

That entry title refers to the activity that besot my day. I downloaded the public multiplayer demo of Battlefield 1942 (a great game, by the way). It’s meant to be a large multiplayer WWII battle, but Greg and I played by ourselves in an in-game diversion I like to call “Smite My Chum with a Big Kielbasa-Shaped Torpedo”. We take turns driving a jeep around the island while the other guy follows in an airplane and drops bombs on the fleeing, bunny-like automobile. It’s fun, until you realize that you wasted a couple hours playing essentially the same scenario over and over.

On the more productive, social side of things, TJ moved in today, we went to the “welcome back” Campus Crusade meeting, and I had my first taste of Rally’s fries. Having TJ back is very nice indeed. He’s an important part of my friend dynamic. When I would go out of control hyper and start flipping out, he’s like my soothing dosage of medicine that keeps me under control. Seriously though, he’s a mighty good friend and I missed him much over the summer. It was good to get back to Campus Crusade, as well, and see some people that I hadn’t been around for a while. After the Crusade get together was when the quality time started.

We went back to the apartment where it was just Greg, TJ, and I. It’s nice to get away from large social gatherings, drop the guard a little bit, and catch up with some friends. Us roomies took the long, scenic walk along Tempe Town Lake over to Mill to partake in some Cafe Boba beverages. It’s really beautiful walking along there at night if you can get over the fact that the whole thing is artificial and somewhat surreal. There’s really nothing like walking along a nice path, greenery all around, gazing out over the shimmering lake with the reflections of streetlights and the city playing across the water. Oh yeah, and then a 747 flies over. Trust me, once you get your hearing back…it’s nice.

Cafe Boba had another delicious beverage in store for me: Citrus Boba Smoothie. My enjoyment of this fine beverage was enhanced because it’s not on the menu…I felt like a regular receiving some special privilege. On top of all this goodness, the guy got confused along the way and charged me for a small but gave me a large. Very nice indeed…I pointed out the mistake, but the fault already having been committed, he wished me well on my free extra boba.

We walked back to the apartment, went for a refreshing swim, and then I finished off the night with a real touch of class….

Greg and I took turns bombing the 3d rendered deuces out of each other.

(for the record, and make note of this in future blog entries, deuce is a euphemism for crap)