OK - so I'm still not posting much. I blame Chuji. Still playing a LOT of Final Fantasy. Josh made it online for like 20 minutes on Sunday - and he did in fact take the catgirl thief - who we promptly outfitted with the "bondage special" strappy armor. Here's a pic of the group: Here's a better shot of Josh's character: And here is the fabled shot when I remember that I could go into first person mode - this is SasquatchUA from Charrock's POV:

OK, so it's been a while since I posted. Several things have conspired. 1) GDC was last week and took up a bunch of time & energy. 2) I've been playing a fairly high amount of Final Fantasy XI. I blame Chuji. 3) I've got some allergy thing - for the last week or so I've been nursing this sinus headache. That means I've had several nights this week where I've just vegetated in front of the TV as opposed to doing anything socially constructive. GDC was the same as always really - seems like it's getting smaller, but I still went to a couple of really good talks. I also took the opportunity to try out the Palm Reader ebook software - read Neal Stephenson's In the Beginning, There Was the Command Line and Cory Doctorow's Eastern Standard Tribe Both good reads, and it was neat to have good reading in places/times I normally wouldn't. Lastly: a quick web link. This essay is an awesome explanation of the cardinal sin for a programming lead. I've said similar concepts before - but Vince says it more eloquently and cleanly than I've ever managed. Good stuff to read.

Wednesday was the first time I had played Magic Online in a month or so. We've been playing at work - so I've been getting my fix via physical play and MTGO has been fubared all over the map with the new set release. Anyway, I won a draft. As in "took the good medal - got the packs and crushed the opposition" won. I often win the first round in a draft and winning the second isn't unheard of - but this was the first time I went the distance. Go me! Ninja Gaiden is out of the pool. It's too hard, and I don't have the gaming time to fuck around with that kind of nonsense anymore. That's two strikes against Tecmo - enough to spend the goodwill Dead Or Alive 2 and 3 generated for me. I'd be totally in DOA Online - except for the need to spring for Live as well. Of course, I might decide I want Pandora Tomorrow on Live - so if I spring for the cost then maybe I'd feel better about DOA. I picked up Lifeline this week - the voice activated game from Konami. It's got some interesting tricks, but the voice recognition is flawed enough to be frustrating. And the designers inexplicably made "guess the noun we used for this" part of the game - which has a nasty synergy with dodgy recognition. The voice stuff definitely makes for an interesting intersection with survival horror. The best parts so far have been the horror movie moments with interaction. The heroine actually responds to yelling "Don't go in the door!" at the screen. :-) The jury is still out on this one - maybe I'll decide this weekend.

Springtime in the Valley is really to be treasured! Today I got home around 5:15 - and I got slightly over a hour of sunlight on the back porch. I so dig the early schedule! I've been out back with the trusty laptop, drinking my new Belgian beer, and watching Urusei Yatsura. Laptops with DVD drives just rule. It's getting kind of twilighty - I'll probably go in soon and do my Tai Chi practice - but damn do I love this time of year!

You know, if you borrowed my long network cable, and got a copy of Everything or Nothing for PS2 we could try the online coop play. Oh and get a voice headset as well. I think they sell them at the EA store - if you know somebody who can shop there for you.