Here is a review of a game

oh spore

you could have been so good

why did you suck instead?

Currently (re)reading: Crime and Punishment. Such a good book. One of the few "classics" that completely deserve that title.

Currently reading: Things Fall Apart

Last Movie I saw: No Country for Old Men

Was it good: Oh hell yes.

The following blog was inspired by old milwaukee

Sometimes I like to pretend that I'm a good socialist, all liberal and revolutionary, but what I really want out of life is this: A big house that is falling apart, a fat wife, a happy and stupid dog, a big garden, some old friends to drink with, and a daughter or son I can feel proud of/frightened by.

Yeah, I still believe in the american dream. Which is why I'll never be the member of a left wing organization. I found myself talking to some liberal political types last week. Most of them were vegetarians, and I doubt that a single one of them had ever tasted venison. Most of them were wine drinkers too. What is the meat-eating, beer drinking, pro hunting leftist supposed to say to people like that? You want to win the working class vote? Just promise us that you'll bring all the jobs back, somehow. It worked for Romney. I mean, c'mon. My county has an unemploment rate of 12%. We'll believe anyone who promises to bring the jobs back. But try explaing that to someone who has spent their entire working life so far in college. Someone who would turn their nose up at an egg, ham and cheese omelet. Someone who thinks that even the local craft beers are "sub-par". There's just no reaching some people.

I doubt that I'll ever vote republican. I come from a long line of upper midwestern democrats. My ancestors are factory workers, farmers, and teachers; anarchists, socialists, and, god forbid, communists. But lord, oh lord, if liberals don't piss me off sometimes.*

*Was I drunk when I wrote this? Oh, most definitely.

Currently Playing: Dwarf Fortress, Afraid of Monsters (old Half-Life mod)

Currently Reading: Tom Jones, random poetry (mostly Yeats), some sort of critical essay on Brendan Behan

Currently Drinking: Kriek? Some sort of cherry beer a friend gave me. Far too sweet for my taste. Shared a bottle of very cheap wine with the same friend earlier this evening.

Currently Working: An awful, awful dishwashing job. At least it will be over when the season ends. Of course, then I'll be unemployed.

Currently Writing: This, and nothing else.

Currently Enjoying: Summer.

I've been playing a lot of Dwarf Fortress lately. If you needed any proof of my masochism, the simple fact that I love this game would more than suffice.

Speaking of masochism, I am now reading Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, and rereading George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. Both excellent books, but painfull as all get out to read. I've also just picked up short stories by Ambrose Bierce, a copy of George Gissing's New Grub Street, and a collection of short stories by various french writers, including Albert Camus, Max Jacob, and Sartre. Some good reading ahead for me, without a doubt.

I always feel as though I should be using this place to talk about games. After all, this is a gaming website, right? But, and I'll be honest, I always feel as though I'm completely unqualified to talk about such things. I mean, I never buy new games, I rarely think about the games I do own, etc. My attention is focused almost completely on my preferred addictions: literature and alcohol. (You've got three guesses as to whether I'm drunk right now, and the first two don't count.) Well, regardless of all of that, here's some thoughts on the games that have molded me, the games of my youth.

#1 - Ultima 5 - Ultima 5 was the first game that I played that really had a plot. And what a plot it had! Ultima 5 introduced me to the idea that morality could be mutable and that ideals could be distorted and perverted in order to serve a particular agenda. Aside from that, it was just plain a fun game, far more complicated and involved than 90% of the RPG's that have come after it. It's difficult to explain the effect this game had on my mindset; perhaps it's worth mentioning that I first played Ultima 5 when I was four or five years old. It influenced me, man.

#2 - Digger - Ok, so I know this isn't the most complicated game, or the most well known. But you know what? I've got a diary entry that I wrote in the first grade that reads: "I like Digger. It is fun. I like the chery's (sic). I like Kelly,". Yeah, I was a precocious kid. No, I don't remember who Kelly was.

#3 - Santa Paravia - Ok, so this game isn't on Gamespot. What the hell is with that? Santa Paravia was an awesome little game where you took control of an Italian city state and had to... make it prosperous or something. Introduced me to economics, politics, and Italy, long before most of my peers even knew what the word "it" meant.

#4 - Flightmare - My first flying game. My cousins and I spent months, and I mean months, trying to figure this game out. Like most of the Games of My Youth (tm), our copy of Flightmare came from some of my dad's friend's who were really into computers. Ah, the golden days of freeware.

#5 - Civilization - No, not Civ 2, 3, or 4. I'm talking 'bout the first one. The first CD game that my family ever owned, the first CD game that I ever played. In fact, it was my first introduction to the fact that these things called "compact discs" even existed. And dear lord, how it influenced me. Where else would I have learned about the Babylonians, but from Civ? Where else would I have heard the name of Napolean, but from Civ? I was six years old, and this game opened up the entire world for me. It hasn't been closed since.

That's it for now, ya'll. I got about five pints of beer that are callin' my name.

There are three things in life that I believe that I will never grow tired of. Reading, cooking, and music*. There's nothing quite like home-made soup. Mix it together with a bit of John Coltrane and George Orwell, and well, it's just about impossible to go wrong.

*Two others - Good conversation and gardening. Both in short supply at the moment, sadly, but what can ya do?

I wrote a dang old haiku

frog and lily-pad

and pond upside down

drunk again

Consider this my tribute to Issa, who is by far my favorite haiku poet.

Every winter feels just a bit harder to get through. Mid-march, and still there's two foot of snow outside my window. Still waiting for the sun, still waiting for just a day, just one day of real warmth. I'd pay any amount of money to see something green and growing. Winter will end eventually, I know, but days like today it's damn hard to believe. Just have to sit tight and hope. Focus on the things that keep me going. A few good friends, a bottle or three of a good homebrew, an old, well-thumbed copy of Down and Out in Paris and London, and god dammit, life is worth living. For a few days more, at least.

The ravens were out in force today, sex-crazed and raucous. A good sign.

There's always one. Some singer, or group that you've heard about your whole life. You know the names of a few songs, maybe you've even heard one or two, but for whatever reason, you've just never felt the need to find out what they're all about. But one day, maybe you see an album in the 5.99 bin, or a friend plays you one of their favorite tracks, and you finally listen, really listen for the first time and - damn. It hits you right where it needs to. And you've gotta know, who is this guy? What the hell is he doing now, and where in god's name can I get it? And you get the answer: "Oh, he passed away a few years ago."

This is just my roundabout and inadequate way of saying that I wish to hell that I had found your music sooner, Warren Zevon.

In the past week, I have read books, essays, and short stories written by Jean-Paul Sartre, Emile Zola, Anatole France, Albert Camus, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Alexis de Tocqueville. I seem to have developed something of a fixation on France.

The fact that I prefer Camus to the rest of the lot probably says something important about me, but I'm not sure what that is.