So yeah, the CDT didn’t print me talking about looking for books that examine the sexual mores of American culture, but still, they quoted me.

It seems like nearly any time I’m out and about in State College, I spot because we have similar haunts (90% of the time, it is either in or near Webster’s). While I’m always tempted to introduce myself and say “hey”, there’s just something way too creepy about meeting somebody for the first time by saying, “You don’t know me, but I read your blog.”

That’s the same reason why, upon meeting Bagel at a LAN party, I didn’t follow up with, “As in ‘ofangst’?”

Thanks . Your friends list has provided me with any number of opportunities for uneasy introductions.

Here’s a tip to you, from me.

Do not polish off a jar of Tostito’s Salsa Con Queso at nearly 2AM and then immediately go to sleep. If you do, you might end up at 6AM with your chin resting on the edge of your toilet while you marvel at the consistency and color of acid soaked tortilla chips.

It has been several years since I’ve last vomitted. I had forgotten how unpleasant it could be.

I haven’t flown anywhere since Brandy and I went on our honeymoon in ‘99. Pre-9/11. When getting into the airport was relatively easy.

Now, not only do we have to go through increased security, we also have a disabled child coming along for the ride. I’ve been hanging out at the Transportation Security Administration website to see what their tips were on this process. It’s definitely a pain, but something about this part just made me groan:

Know that if your child is unable to walk or stand, the TSO will conduct a pat-down search of your child while he/she remains in their mobility aid, as well as a visual and physical inspection of the equipment.

Not because it’s difficult, really, but just because I’m very saddened by the fact that my four year old son will have to be patted down to make the world a supposedly safer place. Fortunately, Gareth is relatively used to strangers handling him in odd ways due to all the medical attention he has received. But still, this just feels wrong to me. Sure, it is possible that somebody would strap an explosive to a kid with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair, but it is certainly not probable.

It wasn’t bad enough when I registered a MySpace account (only to get to the Guitar Hero profile, I swear), but now I’ve gone and posted inane material to YouTube. Not even Bob Saget would want this stuff.

Perhaps it is time to take my internet away.

Side note… The original Star Wars theatrical releases are coming to DVD! FUCK YEAH!

I don’t know what’s up this year, but I seem to keep going places. That’s odd for me since I hate leaving my house, but just over a month ago, I had a trip to DC with the family. In two weeks, I’ll be off the Seattle to attend WinHEC. Then, two weeks after that, it’s another family trip to Disney for the last Star Wars Weekend of the season. Then, in October, I’ll be hitting the Video Games Expo in Philly.

Thankfully, I just received my spankin’ new Sony DSC-H2, so I’ll at least be able to amuse myself with some poorly composed photography.

So I went to my first FITHlan in months over the weekend. We had 9 people, which was more than any LAN since I bowed out. Was it a good time? For everybody else, yeah. I had an okay time, but nothing stellar. Even playing a “new” game (SS2) was boring to me. For the most part, I just don’t enjoy the typical LAN environment any more. Mostly, I can’t get into smack talk. I don’t really enjoy dishing it out, and I don’t enjoy receiving it. Being loudly referred to as “retarded” for an errant shot that cost my team a flag capture made me wonder just why I thought it necessary to come back to FITHlan.

Seriously, I just don’t enjoy insulting people while playing games. Everybody else, however, seems to love it. It just ruins the experience for me. Same for Xbox Live – if I’m playing with somebody who is just hurling insults over the mic, I’m done.

Brandy attributes this distaste to “maturity”. I’m not convinced of that considering all of the other immature stuff I do, but I guess it’s possible.

So, what do do? Largely, I’ll just stick with Shackers on Xbox Live. My experiences with them so far have been stellar. They’re really a great group to game with and, to date, I have not heard one person put down another, even in jest.

It also looks like I’m going to be starting up a quarterly LAN party at work. There are about 10 people interested in doing so, which is a good number for something small. We’ll probably have our first MiniLAN in September. We’ll see where that goes. The usual LAN issues apply - not everybody is available on the same day, has the same games, et cetera. One interesting twist is that all of these people have family lives, so they don’t want to spend more than four hours playing. We’ll need to stick to fast games with low learning curves in order to make the afternoon worthwhile.

These people know what time it is. It’s peener worship time! (NSFW)

Holy man, I haven’t updated since mid-February? What a slacker.

First, a selection of poetic spam that I received today (formatting is my own interpretation):

smash the monkey, the nose
but pleasure a delicate
but fold some screw butshock
be color see swim onhook the middle
stage see credit on berry
aeye in delicate a smoke
in control on boy in stomach!
gray not top try.
dependent it rat it’s bulb may book sometable
not degree see bad it’s window
it’s complete in last,
sharp it’s cheese it.

Very dramatic.

Second, I ended up purchasing about half those games on my list in the last entry. Beatmania is fucking hard.

Third, this is the year for vacations. The family went to DC a few weekends ago for the start of the cherry blossom festival. We’re currently planning a trip to Disney World. And in October is the Video Game Expo in Philly. Lots of stuff going on.

But now I have to go finish the taxes, so… later.

This happens every few months - tons of releases all drop in a short time period. So, as is my custom, here’s the list of titles I desire.

Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II (3/2) *
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (3/7)
Burnout Revenge (3/7) *
The Outfit (3/13)
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (3/15)
Me and My Katamari (3/21) *
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (3/23)
Rumble Roses XX (3/28) *
Beatmania (3/28) *

Those titles marked with an * are considered Must Buy titles for me. Everything else falls into “interested, but will wait for reviews and/or demos”. After that bumper crop, there’s nothing of interest to me until Tomb Raider Legend ships on 4/25.

Elder Scrolls Oblivion is in March, as well, but I’m torn between its inherent sexiness and my usual boredom with RPGs.

My copy of DJ Max Portable arrived today. Just before lunch. As a result, I’m now hungry as hell since I wasted the entire hour playing my PSP.

The game is quite difficult (for me, anyway), but it’s a lot of fun. I’m sure part of that is just the novelty of having a portable music game. Taiko for the PSP just didn’t interest me enough to pay the premium to import it, but DJ Max looked like a much better fit for the platform.

What’s interesting is that this game looks like it could have been a nearly direct port from the PS2. It’s put together really well, the graphics are good, the sound is good (assuming you’re listening through headphones). I wish Konami would jump on this and get some Bemani published on the PSP, but I’m pretty happy with what I have in my hands right now.

Kudos, Pentavision. How about some wireless multiplayer if you do a sequel?