Such a busy time of year!

Happy Belated Birthday to ivy03 ! I hope you woke up to the dulcet tones of a British butler and smiled this morning. And potentially yesterday. Whenever you plugged that baby in. I hope it actually woke you, too. Happy Birthday to someone whose enthusiasm for fun things never flags; whose wide-ranging interests are as interesting as they are diverse; and whose good cheer is a balm to me and many others. Happy 29th!

And a very Happy Birthday to once and possibly future roommate ecmyers ! It's totally awesome that it's your birthday, but it's kinda totally sucky that we won't get to celebrate together. I would totally treat "you" to more Korean BBQ. (Okay, so it would kinda be a treat to me.) But that's how awesome a friend you are: you introduced me to, like, the best food ever. Consider this a solid IOU for dinner and another trip down to Philly where you and I and feiran can go on an extended bike ride/roller-blading session. Until then, stay the sort of person who is always quick witted and usually too sarcastic for his own good; the kind of person who you can trust to share your troubles and make your triumphs all the sweeter; and the type of guy who's totally up for anything, no matter how insane it seems at first glance. (You can always write about it, after all.) Have a great one!

It's been a while

I go through cycles of playing no video games to doing very little else. I had a lazy weekend, and I finally let myself play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I love it, of course. The story remains engaging, though I do wish we could move on from the character that the games have become about. I like the character, but he'll cease to be interesting if we stay exclusively with him. It's time to move on to someone else, another time period, maybe even deal with the present where our hero is. It's completely addictive, though. It is, in game form, what the XBOX is with its achievements: you just feel like, as you're playing, that, hey, what's one more item/quest/viewpoint? I can play another half hour. Maybe just one more...

Friends, I was up until 5 this morning. I'd been playing, almost without stopping, since 5 pm the day before. I'm actually not tired yet (that will probably come later), but my wrist is killing me. Part of the problem is that you have to hold one of the trigger buttons pretty much always. I think I have carpal tunnel. I didn't even do very much to advance the story. I just gleefully went around pointing at people I wanted to have die and having my baby assassins kill the shit out of those people. (My babies! I'm so proud!) I will get achievements or something for that, but it's really just fun to point and have death rain down from above.

Despite my twelve hours of gaming, I did manage to read, like, four hundred pages of A Game of Thrones so that I can eventually watch the TV show. It's very good--obviously I think so, seeing as I covered half of it's not inconsiderable length in a day (you know, the one I didn't spend gaming) and that I was able to keep reading even while being in the same room as moonlightalice  while she was playing Assassin's Creed. I don't know if I can sustain that pace, though. It's all very exciting to get into a book that much again, but it's exhausting to realize you can read THAT MUCH and still only be halfway through a book. I think I have worked something out about the structure, though, that gives away some of the game (no pun intended). I won't say what because a) it might spoil some of you and b) if I do say, some of you might spoil me by telling me whether it's true or not. Since I couldn't help but be spoiled for a major plot development as a result of its happening on the show and driving everyone watching that bonkers, I'm trying to avoid spoilers where I can.

Also, I can has a museum for this? Look at that catalogue, people. It is TO DIE FOR. I'm so sorry for Debbie Reynolds that she never got a museum for these pieces together. The thought of some of these festering in private collections away from the public is a goddamned shame. I love seeing movie costumes in person. I nearly died that time I went to the "Superhero Fashion" exhibit at the Met.