thebitterguy

Well, the NES (Nintendo Entertainmetn System) is now 20 years old as of yesterday (its US debut was Oct 18, 1985). In honour of that, I've set the theme to Super Mario Brothers as my ring tone.

As with all anniversary's rounded off to a number divisible by 5, it makes you realize how long ago something was. This is 20 years ago. And, even worse, I now remember that it came out a generation AFTER my console of choice, the Intellivision.

I was a hardcore Intellivision player. I never picked up the Intellivoice, but I was big on the AD&D and Tron cartridges. And I could play Astrosmash until the cows came home, or my dad shut it off (why he didn't just ask me to pause the game, I dunno). Utopia probably initiated my lifelong love affair with sim games and RTS.

A few years later, when I was getting into working on my C 128 (you know how they say your first million words will suck? Mine were all on C128), my brother Uday got an NES. It wans't enough to distract me from SSI's Gold Boxes o' pleasure (which kept me from tossing myself in front of a CP Rail train over the worst D&D game ever), but it was an a cute diversion. I never got into Final Fantasy (Uday enjoyed it, but it never clicked for me), and the only games I really enjoyed were Star Wars one, primarily for the setting. Although I think they may have come out on the SNES.

So, now, that's 20 years ago, and I'm just getting older and older as the days go by. Xbox is my love now, as my PC is too decrepit for me to play anything fun on it (and now I can't even run Galactic Battlegrounds, which means until I get that resolved bnddbl07 will have to wait for his whuppin'.

Ah, well. Time flies.

Open Note to all: Guy Fawkes Memorial Halo Party at Casa Bitter Nov 5. Any To based folks interested in play? I can probably squeeze a few more in. Dinner will be pizza and beer, beer optional. Fireworks, hopefully. There will be bomb games to commemorate papist treachery, if nothing else.

Well, the editor did publish the first of the two accepted reviews. He edited it quite strongly. For example, he removed every instance of the words "I" and "Me". Now, I hate John Wick, so I always use those words in my reviews. I use them a LOT.

I also use the same tone I use in this journal. I'm like that. I talk a certain way, and lots of stuff gets written like it would be spoken.

So it was kind of jarring, reading the published version side by side with the written one.

He did a good job editing it; his changes made sense, and worked mostly overall. But it didn't FLY, dammit. It didn't SING anymore.

Ah, well. No more singing for supper money.

Someone asked me recently why they hadn't seen a new Bitter Guide lately.

I actually had to think about. I've got one in the works, and have had it on the back burner for some time now.

Then it hit me. It's a huge waste of time. "Yeah, sure! I'll write a few thousand words with NO feedback, and that'll have NO chance of ever accomplishing anything!"

Why not. Every other aspect of my life seems to have been fucked up beyond repair anyway.

I love Sundays. Lots of sleeping, and sitting in front of the computer at 1 pm, wasting time in a bathrobe.

Night the last we had B. and his lovely wife O. over for dinner afore Karaoke.

I made Chicken n' Apple stew, and this was the first time I was able to use Apple Butter in the proper proportion. Let me tell you, it made a HUGE difference. The sauce had a wonderful consistency it's been missing before. It thickened it up just enough. The broccoli was a bit wintry (it had the sense of having travelled). But the Pillsbury rolls were perfect, as always.

We skipped Karaoke and watched Unbreakable on dvd instead. What a great movie. What a great ending.

The 'extras' are a bit un-necessary (Oh, look. Michael Chabon talking up his 'super hero as the immigrant experience' again. I'd give it credence if most immigrants could lift freight trains. What? They can? Fuck, Justin robbed again. And Trina Robbins, who is neck and neck with Jamie Sale for 'creepiest smile'. Whereas Sale makes me think she'll flip her head open and something horrible will jump out and consume humanity (her smile has a San loss of 1/d2) I just think Trina Robbins smile says "and you're here because of why, exactly?"), but the movie is good to see. Now, we must watch Moulin Rouge.

Now, today, Cindy is marking, and I must write. I will update at day's end.

Okay, much as I think he's a wonderful self promoter, I think everyone who writes for money (even, like me, a little) should read this article by Robert J. Sawyer. http://www.sfwriter.com/gst.htm He basically outlines why, if you write, especially for Americans, you should have a GST number. Mainly, because you can get back GST on everything you spend that's business related (i.e., plane fare to conventions, computers, etc).

Oh, yeah: I beat Deus Ex tonight, on all three endings. I'm so proud of myself. :)

LIfe just doesn't make sense sometimes.

I'm working on a project for someone. I've spent the past month (the first third of the time pre deadline) ruminating on the project. What I've been working on is a fantastic Arabian Nights setting.

I've created a central religion (taking elements from Islam, Zoroastrianism, and other fun stuff), worked on a history, created the starts of a society. I submitted a few hundred words of ideas to the managers.

Who, it turns out, have apparently assigned me something ENTIRELY different. Man. They do think I can do the first book, and then expand it into another few. Which is good. I just have a strange feeling like a train that's left the tracks.

Ah, well. In the morning, everything will be okay.