Gone for a Few Days

After today, I might actually have to go a few days without a post at all. I will be without a PC and an Internet connection where I'm going. We're leaving early tomorrow morning to drive down to Louisiana to visit my wife's family and have a little mini-vacation. We'll only be gone for five days, but we're packing a lot in!

When I return, I'll likely hit "Mark all as read" for most of the gaming blogs I read (except for a few that I know won't have a bazillion posts by time I get back). That's always fun. I do that occasionally. I really only need Kotaku and/or Destructoid to give me the gist of what happened while I was gone, all other news blogs usually get marked as read so I can start fresh. Blogs such as The Brainy Gamer, Sexy Videogameland and 8-Bit Joystick don't tend to have a ton of posts over a period of a few days (and they're my favorite blogs anyway), so I'll read everything that goes up on those.

All hail Google Reader! ;)

Post of the Day: 3.15.2009

Ten Plus Spots Gamers Should Visit in Japan.

The Return

I've returned from the south after a grueling 15-hour (or more?) drive yesterday, thanks in no small part to the horrible storm we ran into around St. Louis. In the few bits of time I had to play Crisis Core, I got pretty far in the optional mission progression. In fact, that's all I did while I was gone this past weekend. I didn't want to get much into the story because I was worried I'd miss something, given that I was playing in the car most of the time.

Before I left last week, I had tossed around the idea of doing a blog dedicated to Japanese RPGs. You all know of my love of that particular genre of games, so I thought it was a good idea. But, there's a couple problems: 1) I can't speak or read Japanese and 2) there's way too much news to keep up with.

So, I think I'm leaning toward just keeping my blog the way it is. As usual, you'll see a focus on RPGs and JRPGs in general, but I'll be talking about gaming in general (and other things that strike my fancy). I guess I'll just stick to keeping things simple. Even though I'd still love to do a blog dedicated to JRPGs, I would likely need more time and support for it to work.

8th Grade Great America Trip

This weekend, on Saturday, I got the chance to go with my wife and her co-workers as they took about 100 8th grade kids up to Six Flags Great America, up near Chicago. Its the first time I had been there in years. I was rather out of practice riding all those high-speed coasters and such.

Due to the fact that it was on a weekend, the park was packed full. We waited in massively long lines and only got the chance for three coasters and a train ride around the park (in addition to lunch and checking in with the kids once during the day). The three we rode were probably the three best in the park, though.

First we hit Superman, which is the newest of the three we rode. Its interesting in that, once you load into the cars, the seats rotate 90 degrees so you're face is facing the ground. You know, so you can "fly" with your hands out like Superman. Unfortunately, the restraints needed to keep you safely in that position didn't really allow for you to put your hands fully above your head.

After that we went to the Batman, which I've ridden before. Its been around for a while, but still an awesome ride worth the wait. If you haven't seen or heard of it, your feet dangle freely from the cars, and the cars hang underneath the track (as does the Superman) instead of sitting on top of the track.

After that, we ate lunch. After we let it settle a bit, we wandered toward the Raging Bull. This is one massive beast of a coaster, that's for sure. It starts with a 20-story, 60 degree drop which nearly pushes the air out of your lungs. It has several more smaller hills and drops, one of which takes you through an underground tunnel. It was pretty fun, and the most thrilling of the three coasters we went on.

All in all it was a pretty good day, but with limited time and it being on a weekend we didn't really get to go on all that many rides.

Road Rage

We left for Louisiana about midnight last Thursday night and I was super tired. Even with the Monster Energy drinks I was downing I was dead tired the entire time down.

So, that was the situation. Somewhere in Mississippi between Memphis and Jackson I was passing this semi, which is a fairly normal occurrence. I'm going at a pretty good clip so I'll end up passing the semi pretty quickly. All the sudden out of nowhere this other semi speeds up from behind me, I didn't really notice it before, but when they're moving along at 80+ MPH I imagine it doesn't take them long to sneak up behind you.

I'm about half way pass this semi I'm passing and the other semi is right up on my rear bumper and starts honking and carrying on. I was going the speed limit...a little over actually...about 75 MPH (speed limit is 70 MPH). This truck must have been moving along at about 85-90 MPH. I speed up a little bit but apparently it wasn't enough for the truck behind me. He kept honking and I actually flashed my brake lights at him a couple times 'cause I was tired of his asshattery.

Finally I get around the semi I was passing and get back over into the right lane as soon as possible, and that semi behind me sped forward and honked as he passed me. I honked back. He was out of sight in about 15 seconds.

I don't understand this. When does it become acceptable to "boss" someone around for obeying the traffic laws?

Upcoming Outings

In the next couple weeks I'll be taking a couple trips - one a ways away and one not so far away. A week from Friday I'll be heading down south for my sister-in-law's graduation weekend in Louisiana. The weekend after that I'll be going with my wife up to Great America, near Chicago, with a bunch of middle school students for their annual trip up that way.

Unfortunately, I can't blog from either of these locations (no high-speed Internet in the boonies of Louisiana)...but I'm going to see if Blogger is still set up to receive photos from my phone. Hmmm...I used to have it set up to be able to send pictures from my phone to my blog...wonder if it still works...