It's been a long time. And this is probably going to be a dorky one, so get ready for that.

So I'm taking a film theory class and it's semi-interesting. I keep reminding myself in the class that it doesn't help me too much because my whole purpose for taking film classes is to apply what I learn to game development. Which isn't all that true anymore, but anyway. Unlike film analysis, film theory is interested in film as a whole rather than any specific film. So it's interested in film as a medium or art. And that's what I want to explore with games but I just assumed there are no "game theorists" out there yet. But there totally are and I just found them and I'm excited. And I guess there are already two schools of thought. Exciting, right? No, you don't care. But whatever. If you're interested Wikipedia has an entry about Game Studies  and there's also an academic collaborative blog called Terra Nova.

Other fun game things. Anyone who knows about Mirror's Edge should be happy about the just announced downloadable content. It looks amazing and Penny-arcade has even said, "When I see the (frankly, supernatural) trailer for the DLC, my heart skips a beat: that's the game I want." I love the new EA.

Umm, what else? I guess I'm going to New York. Should be fun.

Alright I'm done.

So I just played the game Braid, which is an Xbox Live Arcade game. It's only $15 and these games are usually just mindless fun. But this game was so amazingly well done and so thought provoking that I've been reading interpretations online all day. The best so far is from a blog called Feministe, which usually doesn't talk about video games too often, but one of the blog writers happens to also be a game developer. She talks about how the game messes with the whole helpless princess archetype that games have been using since Atari. And it has to do with one of the best parts of this game. It has pacing. It begins with the same boring, sexist helpless princess story. But it slowly starts to turn it on its head. I won't ruin it for those who want to play it, but Feminste's take on it is a really good thing to check out. It's also an indie game, meaning it wasn't published by any multi-billion dollar corporations, and it's selling incredibly well and is now the tenth highest rated game on the Xbox 360. Right under Half Life 2, Bioshock, and Guitar Hero II. So that's good to see.

I've been so bored lately. It's probably a good foreshadowing of when I'll inevitably have to live alone. For now I just pet Sailor and roll around on the floor.

So I guess I should post stuff. Been a while. I'm so used to thinking of this as my place to post stuff about traveling places, but I haven't gone anywhere. Well, I did go to Las Vegas. And it was pretty cool. I rode on this ride on top of the tallest building west of the Mississippi (The Stratosphere) that swung me over the side so I could see the 1,000 feet to the ground. It was one of the most horrifying things I've ever done.

I've been doing a lot of writing on this dorky project of mine, but I don't plan on talking about it on lj. I think I'll use Blogspot or something for my more public things. Whenever I have something to post on there.

Sooo video games are fun. E3 was a couple days ago. It was disappointing again. Nintendo pretty much announced they just don't care anymore because they're making tons of money on games that take them a month to make and release. Final Fantasy XIII was announced as a non-exclusive title now. Sony was angry, I'm sure. Penny Arcade summed it up much better than me. One thing I'm super excited about is Mirror's Edge. Not only does it star a woman who doesn't have huge boobs and no clothes but killing is an option rather than an obstacle. You even get an achievement for never killing anyone.
( Video behind cut )

Maybe I'll post things again.

So there's a really interesting article in the New York Times talking about how people feel overwhelmed with contradicting advice on how to 'be more green.' I don't know a single person who hasn't had this happen. Things like recycle glass or not? It costs a ton to transport the heavy material and it takes energy to recycle it. Or the whole nalgene bottle thing, the mercury filled fluorescent light bulbs. It gets a bit crazy and people are starting to feel warn out from trying to do the right thing.

So there's a new site to make it easier. Hopefully. www.simplesteps.com updates every week with ideas on how to do one more thing in a greener way and it gives you levels of commitment to choose from. So, I guess... that's my super fun post.








LAMP

I knew coming back to the U.S. was going to be weird and probably a bit hard, but it's harder than I imagined. It's not really a bad thing. I'm just constantly aware of what makes this America rather than anything else. And I'm totally not going to do the "welllll, in Europe everything is better," because that's totally not true. Some things are definitely better, but some aren't. I've been a fairly productive person since I got back. I've written a lot, mostly parts of things.

The ol' family is pretty much the same. Although, they did start recycling. And my parents now have a little Japanese car rather than a big suv. So I suppose those are good things. The whole gas thing was a really big surprise. It was going to get this high, I just didn't think it would happen this soon. Either way, I can't help but think of it as a good thing. American's gas usage hasn't gone down almost at all in the last 5 years. It seems like higher prices will force everyone to be a bit greener, hopefully. I just wish it didn't also make it harder for transportation of food to countries that need aid.

This having a baby around world isn't really doing it for me. I like to be loud and swear and drink. Apparently those things aren't acceptable around babies. It should be fun once he's like 4 or 5, when he can play video games and doesn't spit up milk all the time. It would be hilarious if he somehow read this someday. Better friends lock it, right?

My car is broken and lame. It should be fixed sometime in July, but for now I have to rely on Lindsay. I got her presents, so she can drive me around. I got other people presents, so they can buy me drinks in Iowa. ...also, I was gone for a long time so everyone has to buy me drinks. And you all missed my birthday, so you have to buy me drinks. Buy me drinks.

If you haven't already heard, California affirmed the right for gay marriage. So now California and Massachusetts are the only states allowing gay marriage. Two is twice as good as one, right? Anyway, it's a really good thing. It's bound to be a huge topic for the presidential election. I'm sort of excited to see what they say, but I'm also a little afraid.

I'm still trying to see if I can get an earlier flight home. I don't really like the idea of hanging out in Dublin by myself for 2 weeks wasting my money and waiting to go home. If I can't get an earlier flight I'm probably just going to travel to some  places around Ireland I haven't seen. And, of course, explore Dublin even more. I would really like to be back in Iowa City as soon as I can, but I'm not sure if that can happen.

Tomorrow my flatmates and I are planning on buying some cases of beer, sitting on the stoop in front of our flat, and drinking all day long. We'll all be done with finals and it might be the last time for us to hang out. It should be fun. Padraic has stated that our goal should be to set something on fire. I'm not sure if that's the best idea, but you never know what might happen.

Okay, so this was really dorky and fun. I was listening to these Dubliners, a man and woman, talking about Ulysses and I decided to write poems using only parts of what they say. Fun, right? I really like how the Irish use the word like.

So I have plane tickets for London near the end of May. Hostels? Hotels? Nope. I'm trying this new fangled couchsurfing. It's free and I'm sure I'll meet some pretty crazy people. Mostly I'm doing it because it's free and I have about.... -1millioneuro. Which is so much worse in dollars let's not even talk about it. But I'm pretty excited to do it. I'll be traveling by myself and that should also be exciting. It's like one final test for me in my mind. I mean... I already traveled by myself to Dublin. But I had huge American universities supporting me then. Now it's pretty much just me.

I only have two more finals left and they're both on Monday. Let's talk about how the Irish do finals. There's a huge, huge, huge building usually used for things like entertainment venues. In this one giant room there are about 5,000 desks in perfect rows, each with their own number. You get a number and you sit in some random area with people in who the hell knows what class sitting next to you. Directions are given to you by a very formal sounding Irishman with a loudspeaker. It's all very military. Although there was one nice moment when the loudspeaker-guy made a joke about your cell phone going off and how much trouble you'd be in. But then it was just creepy when 5,000 students all laughed nervously.

I've decided I hate cords more than anything else technological. There's just nothing more annoying than a short. And it seems like only the best things in the world have cords. Like my ipod, or my computer. And then the cord breaks for the 50th fucking time in the last week. Hurry up, science.

Other than going to London I don't feel like I have much reason for me to be here anymore. I mean, I don't mind it. It's Dublin. But I would like to get back to Iowa City again. I really miss it. Time should hurry up, too.

It's pretty much official at this point. Grand Theft Auto IV is now the highest rated game of all time. Right there above my favorite, which has held that spot for a decade. Maybe it's a nostalgic thing, but better than Ocarina of Time? Better than Portal, Half-life and Bioshock? Better than every game ever made? I sincerely doubt it. Unless Rockstar has gone from being the most offensive thing ever into the deepest, it doesn't deserve that spot. San Andreas, the last game in the series, edged into racist. Just another ism on their list, really. I've read arguments from people that having the option to kill a sex worker is somehow much deeper than simply not allowing it. So if the option exists and you still choose not to do it you've overcome some sort of ethical obstacle. It's a pretty good argument, really. But from what I've seen of every other game where Rockstar has made this an option, they don't present it as a moral choice or an ethical obstacle. It's presented as funny. So unless they've decided to hire the best writer in the world who can take decades of offensiveness and somehow make it the deepest, most enjoyable, most exciting thing ever played, game critics swallowed the hype and I'll find it hard to trust them again. Of course, I haven't played the game yet. So maybe it will be that good?

In other news I got drunk by myself last night and watched the L Word. It was a good time. The first time I've ever been drunk by myself. People always warn you not to do it, like it's a sign of depression. And I can totally see that. But it was my reward for finishing my huge, and last, paper. And I didn't break anything or set my flat on fire. Success!

Oh, it's real late in the morning. Sentences like that are fun. My flatmates all go on a trip to Amsterdam tomorrow and I pretend to write a really long paper on Ulysses worth 100% of my grade. Should be fun. They'll be gone for about five days. I haven't spent a single day in Ireland completely by myself. Five will probably be interesting.

I'm reaching the last stretch of this study abroad thing. Classes are over and all I really have left are finals. I'll probably go on one last trip and then that's it. It only ever feels like I've been here for a long time when I remember what it was like my first few weeks. Comparing my views on pretty much everything now to those before I left makes it feel like I've been here forever. Iowa City will feel a little like freshman year winter break, that first time you went back to your hometown. Only a little similar, though. I won't hate being in Iowa City. The longer I stay here the more homesick I get for it, actually. That sounds like an obvious thing, but for a long time I was too obsessed with Dublin to think too much about Iowa. It's a good, healthy feeling to have multiple cities I love to be in.

Healthy is sort of the word that always comes to mind when I think of the ways I may have changed. The proof of change won't come until I'm back to my normal life. But I don't mean healthy like eating and exercising or whatever, because we should all know by now that exercising in my mind must be unhealthy in some way. At least psychologically. I mean something more like, I can leave for six months and survive on my own. Survive mentally, anyway. There's no way in hell I'll ever be able to survive without being financially dependent. I think in Iowa City I was almost unhealthily dependent on several other people, things and hobbies. Like smoking. Hopefully now, when I get back, I won't fall back into dependency.

Bah, too serious. What's with this twittering thing? Even Firefox's spellcheck recognizes that word. It doesn't seem all that cool or necessary or helpful to have constant updates sent to my cellphone telling me that Bob is watching tv and Nancy is angry at her boyfriend. I can understand the Facebook updates because you choose to sit down and go to a specific place where you want and expect small updates on all of your friends. But I don't want Facebook/twitter texting me every two seconds with those same updates. I would like a life outside of texting on my cell phone. Regardless I got an account just to have one in case it's somehow cooler than I recognize... I do that a lot. I have accounts on every shithole site on the internet. You never know. Pat got Myspace.com/pat and I want my cool username when a site gets popular. Dorky.