Reading, Gaming
I've been playing a lot of Soul Calibur IV. It's fun, but while I do ok against the computer, I'm a total fish online. It's also addictive, in the way only something with a significant learning depth can be--if I'm not learning basic moves for a character, I can work on combos or timing, or play online to learn how to apply same against a real opponent.
On the phone, I've downloaded "Super Monkey Ball: Tip'n Tilt" -- a timing/coordination/puzzle game where your controls consist of tilting platforms one way or another. It's pretty fun and challenging, and having finally finished/unlocked all the levels, there's still some play in working on high scores and trying to beat the levels reliably. I've never played a "Monkey Ball" game, but this is pretty fun--though playing with an analog stick would be -so- much better than playing with a trackball, where your current scrollspeed is your tilt (so you have to keep scrolling to keep a platform tilted). Ah, I see; normal Monkey Ball is 3d - whereas this is 2d, with tiltable 2d platforms rather than 3-way tiltable platforms. That explains the 3dness of Super Moe Moe Ball -- though far as I can tell, the complexity of that game is purely (alas) imaginary.
I managed to avoid doing nearly any reading at all over the weekend (weird, huh?) between sleep, game, and dreading the books I had on me, but I've gotten into de Lint's Moonlight & Vines. Pretty good, actually, enough that I wonder if my issues with his recent novels (ie, meandering, not particularly compelling, preachy, to much reliance on investment in existing characters from short stories or other novels, etc) are much less prevalent in the short stories, and if I should try to read a lot more of those (I like short stories, but don't read a lot of them, partially because I have problems remembering which I've read and which I haven't, and while I've become more of a rereader over the years, I still don't like to).
On the phone, I've downloaded "Super Monkey Ball: Tip'n Tilt" -- a timing/coordination/puzzle game where your controls consist of tilting platforms one way or another. It's pretty fun and challenging, and having finally finished/unlocked all the levels, there's still some play in working on high scores and trying to beat the levels reliably. I've never played a "Monkey Ball" game, but this is pretty fun--though playing with an analog stick would be -so- much better than playing with a trackball, where your current scrollspeed is your tilt (so you have to keep scrolling to keep a platform tilted). Ah, I see; normal Monkey Ball is 3d - whereas this is 2d, with tiltable 2d platforms rather than 3-way tiltable platforms. That explains the 3dness of Super Moe Moe Ball -- though far as I can tell, the complexity of that game is purely (alas) imaginary.
I managed to avoid doing nearly any reading at all over the weekend (weird, huh?) between sleep, game, and dreading the books I had on me, but I've gotten into de Lint's Moonlight & Vines. Pretty good, actually, enough that I wonder if my issues with his recent novels (ie, meandering, not particularly compelling, preachy, to much reliance on investment in existing characters from short stories or other novels, etc) are much less prevalent in the short stories, and if I should try to read a lot more of those (I like short stories, but don't read a lot of them, partially because I have problems remembering which I've read and which I haven't, and while I've become more of a rereader over the years, I still don't like to).