Let it go

Filosofikal rambling of the day: HOPE. It's written in childish script of crayon on a cut-out piece of paper, and idly abandoned on the table, until it's swept up and into the garbage to make room for the incoming possessions of the world.

Sounds horrible, right? Well it actually happened - I was cleaning up the lab at work to make room for an incoming shipment. Lo and behold, there was a piece of small scrap paper cut into a circle with HOPE written on it in crayon. I think one of the many childrens at the office did it. Anyhoo, it seemed like a wildly profound moment. Never mind the face that there was a similar piece of paper with "CUCUMBER" written on it. They both ended up in the trash.

Moving on, I finished Avatar about a week ago. It was a pretty solid, epic ending. Uncle Iroh and the White Lotus group were wildly unexplored and a bit of a letdown. Which is a bit of a drag. There were moments that were horribly childish (go figure, for a Nickelodeon cartoon), and kinda pulled me out of it. I wish it would've been a bit darker and depressing (what can I say, The Dark Knight has left an impression on me), but considering what it was I guess I don't have any solid complaints.

There's a chill in the air, it's like a switch was flipped at the beginning of the week. Which I guess makes some kinda uncanny connection with how my sister just left to go back to school, after my Dad and bro came to visit. The oncoming autumn chill seems to have signified the end of a season not only in nature, but also in life.


I nabbed Beyond Good and Evil from Steam this past weekend for $5. So far I'm only about an hour or two in, but I have to admit there's a certain charm to the game which has me excited to play some more after I finish this post.

And to get closer to that objective, behold! Ye art!



Don't you just wish you knew the story behind it. Well too bad.

...

(There really isn't one)

Oh! And also, I dare you to find me a better music video than the one below. Man, it's gorgeous. The saddest part is that it isn't official - it's done by a third party. If more vids were like this... There would be a lot less crappy music videos.



And that is all.
-Cril

Honesty
Is what you need
It sets you free
Like someone to save you
Let it go
But hurry now
There's undertow
And I don't want to lose you now

All right
Sit down and spill your heart
Lets start from the very start
Cause I can see by your eyes
You're wasted
Your energy comes and goes
You taking your time, you know
Nothing can change what happened, you know

OneRepublic - Someone to Save You

I wait around and then...

Okay, I'm feeling kinda lazy, so here's a shameless copy-and-paste excerpt from an email conversation I was having with my bro:

Mafia
You know when you went into staples a few years ago, you saw this $10-15 bundle with Max Payne 2 and some 'Mafia' game that you never heard of? And you figured the deal was tempting, but you'd never heard of the latter title so you didn't bother? Well, I should have really picked it up. I read an IGN article a few weeks ago about the 100 best game titles evar (The list itself was pretty so-so), and in the top 20 or so, was a game called Mafia. Basically, it was GTAIII in the 1930's. I figured it might be interesting to try, so I downloadified it and was pleasently surprised. The atmosphere of the game is so unique and well done. Fedoras, tommy guns, smuggling Canadian Whiskey, meeting in the back of a restaurant, etc etc. Oh! And the music! This great old-timey stuff that changes from area to area and really set the mood. The story was fantastic too - your standard start-from-nothing and go up through the ranks, but the game takes place as you're talking to a detective and telling him all your stories so that he'll take you and your family into protective custody. It then shows how you rose and fell in the organization and whatnot. Overall, I was pretty impressed. The gamplay itself is pretty bad though - sparse chackpoints, the cars are painfull realistic (soooo slow), the police give chase for seeing a weapon, speeding, blowing a red light, etc. (the last two offences are SUCH a pain for the timed missions). There were also some major bugs - basically there were a few instances where for whatever reasons the triggers just didn't work, so you had to reload and try it again and hope that it went properly. All in all it was a bit frusteratin, but the story and atmosphere were absolutely incredible - I'll be in line for Mafia 2 when it comes out.

/end of email

I basically bombed through that game in about two weeks. Right now I'm working away at Test Drive Unlimited, which I have mixed feelings about. The RPG aspect of buying real estate, clothes, and cars is kinda neat. Having free roam of the Hawaiian island (whichever one it is) is kinda cool too. But I'm not quite sold on the actual driving aspect... I guess Grid has spoiled me something fierce. They don't really handle quite right, and I have a hard time feeling connected to the drive. Also, for some reason, the traffic seems to be kinda difficult even though I've played many a Need For Speed title with other cars on the road. /shrugs

I've finished watching Top Gear, seasons 7-11. What a fantastic show, I really don't know if the American version will be able to even remotely be as good.

Art:


A house. Go figure.

Oh, quick shout out to the podcast and story-lovers of my faithful readership of 1.5: The Moth is a podcast that lasts 10-20 minutes, and is basically people telling true stories of things that they've done or experienced. Several of the stories thus far have been pretty funny.
-Cril

So build me up (build me up)
Buttercup
Don't break my heart
I'll be over at ten
You tell me time and again
But you're late
I wait around and then
I went to the door
I can't take any more
It's not you
You let me down again

The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup

But it's not what you're sure of, It's what you don't know

Well, what a mediocre end to a less than mediocre week. Both of the fine gentlemans I share the office/room with were in pretty miserable moods. Believe it or not, the reason for one of the foul moods was computer problems - my bosses' machine inexplicably crashed. On the plus side, I wasn't the one who did it! I think.

I'm really trying hard to get through Season 3 of Avatar - but I'm having horrible luck. I figured I'd do it with my sister, as she was rapidly burning through the first and second seasons, until... The last DVD of Season 2 was missing. After a few days of looking, I finally downloaded the four missing episodes. My sister caught up to S3, so we started watching... And got all of three and a half episodes in before the media device crashed and refused to work for the rest of the weekend. Which meant I ended up loafing around down here in the basement for too much of the weekend, watching some Top Gear, loafing around... And loafing around some more.

Until I read an IGN article about the best games ever, and ran across one called "Mafia", which I proceeded to downloadify and installed this morning. So far it's pretty good - I really dig the atmosphere and story so far. Hence the art for this week:



And now I'm feeling fairly crappy - a headache and unsettled stomach. Blech.
-Cril

We all had positions, we each had a role
We'd over-rehearsed it; we had full control
They can't teach you acting it's there in your soul
It's the same with a bank job and each thing we stole


So I don't need attitude
Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
Wait by the phone

I was the driver; you ran the show
You had the last word, the go or no go
I knew every laneway in Ontario
But it's not what you're sure of,
It's what you don't know

It should have been filled with the usual ones
Throwing their cash into mutual funds
We all had our ski masks and sawed off shotguns
But how do you plan for a bank full of nuns?

Barenaked Ladies - Bank Job