Well, if everyone else is doing it, I decided I might as well take the jump as well.

I now have a profile up over at Giantbomb.com. http://giantbomb.com/profile/Chirotera/

I think the site is going to take some getting used to, but it has a lot of potential. I like its layout quite a bit more too. So the rest of you foos, feel free to add me, and I'll return in kind soon. :-)

I just wish I didn't feel the need to transfer my collection list over too. That's going to take... awhile.

It's hard for me to talk about what sort of dream job that I can envision myself undertaking for the rest of my life. This fact has contributed to the delay in writing this. Let's be serious for a moment here though, there are dream jobs and then there are dream jobs. The latter deals specifically with what job would be mind boggingly awesome to have; the former is similar to the latter in that same aspect but entail something altogether different in that they mingle with reality and what may be possible.

First, a detour, where I work currently; fast food. A local place, mexican food; it, as one might suspect, is not that great of a job. Customers complain about trivial things while not having the decency to not get angry about it, the management seems divided as to how best make us occupy our time while never telling us directly what they expect of us or what we might be doing wrong, and the employees serve as a cross section of interesting people, funny people, snarky college people, aged and past their prime people, young and still eveloped by high school politics people, real people, rough around the edges people, the kind you hate but would give your life for. Maybe hate is a strong word... Regardless, despite the negative feelings I have for the place, it has a soft spot in my heart. I've worked there for more than three years and that would not have occured if I did not enjoy it on some level. It's an easy place to work despite the drama, and laid back to the point where you don't have to bust your ass to keep your job. The pay level has always been decent too, for the industry, though minimum wage is beginning to catch up. And you get to smell like a taco! Who doesn't love tacos? This job is temporary at best. I can not imagine being employed there until I die. I'm sure not many would. Thinking about it I'm amazed that I've worked there as long as I have. At this point I'm starting to long for something more. Something more fitting to my specialized knowledges.

The unrealistic dream jobs for myself, I think, are fairly common amongst most people. Who wouldn't want to be a professional athlete? To get payed to play a game? Who wouldn't want to be James Bond? (For that matter I wonder how much money Bond actually gets payed! I mean, dude's been going on non-stop world saving missions for the past thirty years or so, sleeps with the most beautiful women, has an awesome accent, rarely gets injures and always saves the day - hell, I'll bet you they don't pay him at all, or they give him peanuts. Lots and lots of peanuts.) There are other jobs too that I think would be rewarding but I am personally incapable of doing. It'd be pretty sweet to be able to calculate new digits in Pi, for instance, or to win a nobel prize for contributions to the field of genetic research. Cellular biology and other science-y things, I'm a dork, I know, but I've always found them interesting. Unfortunately I've never seen myself as a mathematic wonder-kid, so those are out of the window. Being a famous musician too, or even a localized one with a small though dedicated following. I'm sure a lot of us take the time to imagine these kinds of things on varying degrees of importance.

So, what are the real 'dream' jobs that I'm aiming to achieve? I wish it were that simple. I am at a point in my life that I can see myself doing many things. Being a professor in philosophy someday, might be achieveable; or working as an advisor on some political campaign. Maybe starting or assisting a grass roots organization dedicated to combating poverty or other social issues. I can also see myself going into the field of law, hoping to protect civil rights or at the very least, be a lawyer that hasn't sold his soul to the here-under (corporate money). My real dream though is to become a published novelist. I have a few works of fiction lying around that I can tweak and work upon, but nothing too serious. I imagine it a lot though, the hours sitting and typing, thinking, creating imaginary worlds for myself. They say dream jobs are dream job because when you go to work at them, you do not feel like you are working at all. That's what imagining being a writer is like to me. It hardly seems like it'd be work at all. It'd be fun to do some freelance work as well, maybe in the video game industry, or maybe in philosophy, or opinion sections. Whatever my dream job ends up being though, I can't imagine it not being linked to writing in some way.

As always, I want to thank everyone for your responses. :-) There's a nice bit of variation there too, from gardening, to a fighter pilot, to computation awesomeness - dreams are as varied as the person that holds on to them. In most cases, I can only hope that we continue to hold onto them, continue to pursue them, and never ever let them go, no matter how tempting it may be.

Elsewhere, I decided to buy a PS3. MGS4 was awesome, very awesome, and I'll try to write something on it soon. I am quite happy with my oh so expensive decision. :-) Until next time friends, happy gaming!

Working seems like a great idea until you actually have to lug yourself out of bed every day (in the later afternoon for me), and make your way to it. Not only is it time consuming, it leaves you a bit apathetic to doing anything else during your free time. This, for a gamer, is not a good thing. But, to afford the things we want, and to support our hobby (addiction), we must work so that we may game. Granted, not all of us are so lucky to be able to devote our income solely to our hobbies, so let's just assume I don't need to cover all of the other benefits that having a job can bring.

The question(s) I am leading up to, and the main reason I am posting this... what job occupies your time? If it isn't your dream job, what job do you dream of one day having? Have some fun with this one, if you will. And I'll respond in kind.

I cans I cans has job!

::cough::

Brief update today.

I have a job, so hopefully I'll be able to save up and afford the MGS4 PS3 bundle in June. It doesn't start until after next week so that gives me lots of time with GTAIV. Speaking of;

GTAIV is starting to get reviewed and has gotten perfect scores everywhere I have seen it. This makes me crap my pants and sends my hype into a fever pitch. I hope that I am not disappointed.

Well, that's all for today. I have a Lost Odyssey review that I'm writing in my head, but I wouldn't expect that anytime soon. I am secretly hoping to get it done before Monday... but if you've been reading my blog you should know by now that my ideas don't always come to fruition. ;)

What does everyone have planned for the summer?

That's all. For now.

Ok, it's not so much science as it is excessive amounts of reading, but you just can't pass up making a nod to Portal.

The semester is slowly winding down and soon I'll find out if I have achieved my best one semester GPA of my academic career. I still have much work to be done between now and Wednesday though, so I'm going to keep this brief.

I finally beat Lost Odyssey with 980/1000 points. I have no desire to go back and complete Treasure Trove. What an evil little achievement. The game, overall, was quite enjoyable, though it really dragged on towards the end. It took me a month and a half to get through it, a fact I blame on school. Still, I recommend picking it up. School, Lost Odyssey, and friends when time permits... that's how I've spent the time since my last posting.

More importantly though summer vacation is almost upon me. Here are a few things I am looking forward to in the next few months;

Relaxation.

Being able to tear into my own reading list at my own leisurely pace.

Grand Theft Auto IV... seriously, I've been so busy the past three week I can't believe it's almost here.

Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundle. I think it might be time to take the leap, but if and only if;

Finding a job. I'm having trouble. I do have one job lined up through the parents, but it is, less than ideal to say the least. I need to find something soon or else not only will I have to forgo picking up the PS3 MGS4 bundle, but also taking another semester off.

Good weather! It felt like Winter wasn't going to end this year.

Blogging more. I make no promises, but I need to get back to updating this thing more often. A few game reviews couldn't hurt also.

Catching up on other titles I've been neglecting, namely, Half-Life 2. GTAIV and potentially MGS4 might make this hard to do though. I've achieved no less than 100% in the main GTA games from the PS2, III, Vice City, and San Andreas. I'd like to keep this streak alive and net 100% on GTAIV. The game itself looks amazing and I have no doubt that my mates and I are going to have a blast online. (If any of you reading want to add me for some GTA fun, feel free to do so).

NHL Playoffs, Detroit advanced past the first round, woot! I'm looking forward to their run lasting well into June.

My birthday, the big two-five. 25. It's a scary thought but as of May 3, I will be 25. I'm not a kid anymore but oh how can I feel like being anything else?

Well, that's all for now... if anyone is reading, thank you! Hopefully I'll have the time to get a serious non-life updating blog in soon where I take a serious look at things I've wanted to touch on for a long long time now. :-)

Tschuss!

Hello everyone!

First, I need to apologize for my lack of updates over the past couple of months. College has turned out to be more arduous than I had originally planned. I spend my days now, sifting through 100-200 pages a week and writing more papers than I could ever care to write. Add that on top of still trying to maintain a social life and gaming, these days, has become quite the task.

The past few weeks I have been able to combine the two by being invited to a small social gathering of friends to get my feet wet in some old-school Halo 2 action. It has been quite enjoyable, but on some level, it just isn't the same as being able to sit down and tear through a game on ones own time. That time, no longer exists. :-\

I recently ordered Lost Odyssey (about 5 minutes ago), in spite of my lack of time. I have been desperate from this type of RPG, and while I was apprehensive in dropping the money on it (money is thin these days), I'm really looking forward to diving into it. On the positive side of things, Spring Break is but only two weeks away, which will give me plenty of time to curl in some blankets and take it on.

That's about it for now. I just wanted to get a post up to show everyone that I am, in fact, not dead. Just buried. Buried under books and losing sanity. I apologize for my lack of comments lately. I am still reading your blogs! Just time, as always, is short.

I hope everyone had a good V-Day. :-)

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry and safe Christmas!

May it be blessed with the good company of friends and family... and of course video games.

Game on!

This isn't much of a large update, though I do have a couple of things in the works. Including narrowing down a rating system, a potential Mass Effect review (assuming I can pull myself away from it), and a funny (I hope) editorial that I have titled 'Confessions of a Serial Gamer,' where I examine just how many virtual lives I have killed, maimed, and destroyed. It's still in the planning stages though, so don't get your hopes up for that any time soon. My planning stages can sometimes last months. :-)

Right, with that said, I notice that I have a rating listed for Hellgate: London. This rating is a not too flattering 1.0. I have never played Hellgate, though the game seemed fairly cool. Why a rating is up for it is beyond me, though I suspect I may have accidentally done so during one of my research tours.

So to Hellgate, I'm sorry... it's not you, it's me. Honestly! I'm sure you deserve a much higher rating than a 1.0. I mean, that rating is reserved for the truly horrible games. Games like Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. From what I understand you aren't a great game, but by no means do you deserve the honor of being mentioned in the same breath as Big Rigs. No game deserves that honor.

To those that have played Hellgate, did you enjoy it? Can you suggest a rating for me to slap on it? I'd hate to think that the game's overall rating might be dragged down by either a glitch in gamespot, or a lack of my understanding of how things work.

Until next time...

Well it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Reality often falls short of my ideals, I'm afraid. But let's take a moment to be honest here. We're racing towards the end of what has been the best six months of gaming that I can recall going all the way back to the NES. I can actually afford the games that are coming out though and I think that might be a factor. Let's review. Since September I have bought and played;

Halo 3

The Orange Box (barely touched outside of Portal, for shame)

Eternal Sonata

Ace Combat 6

Guitar Hero III

and NHL 08

That's six games in four to five months. Normally I'd be hard pressed to have a new game once every two to three months, with a glut of christmas presants filling out what I missed previously. The worst part is these have all been, in my opinion, must have titles. The problem compounds when you start looking at November. In the next month I will purchase;

Assassin's Creed

Mass Effect

and Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

The first two titles promise to be deep and time consuming. Kane & Lynch will equal to quite a few hours of co-op goodness with a good friend of mine. Still, I don't have time to play all of these titles fully as well as being able to dive further into other games I've been neglecting. I barely have time to play the games and as such, this blog has suffered. I haven't been able to review anything (or find a good criteria to do so). Then of course you have Christmas upcoming and I anticipate receiving;

Call of Duty 4

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War (Yeah I know, but I actually enjoy games such as this)

and A distant hope of a PS3 and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, or Resistance: Fall of Man

I doubt I'll even be done with Assassin's Creed or Mass Effect by that time. In retrospect though, it's a damn good problem to have. The games I'm playing now I can easily see myself continuing to play well into the summer months. 2007 has been great for gaming, bad for my wallet, I only hope that beyond GTAIV and MGS4 that 2008 takes a step back and gives me time to gather my thoughts and retune my skills.

My questions to any of you readers out there (if you yet exist) what games are you playing or looking forward to? How are you affording them? And do you have the time to actually play the ones you want to play?

This is the first post in what I hope will become a rather solid blog. I have always wanted to transform a hobby that I love and cross it with another of my passions, writing. My grand hobby is video games and has been since I first touched an Atari when I was but a wee lad at the age of no more than four. Twenty years later and I'm still at it, gaming and enjoying every minute of it.

It's an interesting thing growing up with video games. They are as old as I am. When I was young the only magazine available for gaming that was worth the paper it was printed on was Nintendo Power. I learned how to read because of that magazine and was often ahead of the class. And now, here I sit, in a position I once thought to be unfathomable, staring at the potential of a new blog. I can't promise I'll always update it as much as I want to but we'll see. I've never written a game review before, and I desperately want to give that a go. I've also noticed quite a few things in today's industry that I can write about. I just need the time.

Building my collection on this site has been a trip for nostalgia though I am currently thoroughly enjoying my Xbox 360. I have plans to pick up a PS3 and a Wii at some point but it's just currently not in the budget. College has a way of making a lot of things not be in the budget and given the choice I'd rather purchase games that I can play than drop the major money on games I want to be able to play but won't be able to afford afterwards. All in due time. Anyways,

Welcome to the maiden voyage on your left you'll notice the console wars are in full swing, on your right you'll notice Switzerland. For your own safety make sure you buckle up and keep all hands inside the windows. There are rabid fanboys to deal with and if you aren't careful you could very much lose a hand, or worse, your sanity. Keep your chairs in the upright position and take a moment to hug the person next to you, this could prove to be a very bumpy ride.