Video Games

From 2011_01_17

View from my front window this morning.

From 2011_01_17

View from the bus stop.

I've come in from shoveling snow (an activity in which I had never in my life partaken, until today) because it is snowing again on top of the, what, foot and a half we have already.. there is no class today, which means I can do more of what I always do at my desk.. though this morning I really just wanted to get out in that fine powdery goodness. And roll around. Or something. Sledding might have been cool. But shoveling was okay too. The teachers, without students around to keep them in line, became children, flinging snow on one another in liberal doses by means of snow shovel (okay that was only like twice before it got old). I'm going to be sore tomorrow. Or maybe tonight. I might go shovel some more later, but I'll wait til its sunny again to do that.

From 2011_01_17

Shoveling off the "veranda"

From 2011_01_17

Time to give up (for now).

The world looks awesome and ridiculous to me under so much snow. All features get smoothed over. Objects become murmurs in the smooth evenness of the snowscape. Sidewalks cease to exist. It's like a zen paradise of nothingness. I love it! But walking through it is difficult. I had no idea it was so deep until I stepped into it and it went up halfway on my calves.. and this was in front of my door. It only got worse going out, going north toward work. I was halfway there on the slow, heavy, chain-tired bus when my school sent me a message saying I could stay home today.

I'd kind of rather not heat my own house, though I guess there is some cleaning I could be doing.

You should have seen me yesterday. There was less of it then, but I had the balls/stupidity to bike in it. Because I had a meeting in Himeji and even in what little (comparatively) there was yesterday, I was not gonna drive. I biked to the bus station. Taking the bus is actually more expensive than driving, even paying for parking, but.. I've been thinking about things like public transportation, lately, anyway, since my trip. I'll share more about my environmental thoughts later, though.

Anyway.

I've been thinking about video games lately. It might be the winter, or maybe the way that I've been using a lot of Mario adaptations in class (MarioKart games, find-the-coin/star/fireflower/etc.) .. I keep having these flashbacks to video game parties or even just afternoons with Dean.

More recent was the Kansas apartment and occasional gaming with Dre or by myself. I won an XBox360, once, that I didn't really deserve because I didn't use it nearly enough to be owning such a thing (I mean, I used it some).. but lately I kind of wish I had it around, just to tool around in a gameworld. I am strangely averse to tooling around on a computer gameworld. I want it to be the TV. C'est la vie.

Anyway, I recently read this article and thought it was pretty cool, passed along from a friend who also posted a pretty weird (see: disturbing, took a while to get it out of my head) video called something like Mario, a Sad Story.

But this is pretty cool.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/20/101220fa_fact_paumgarten