I finished the video game Mass Effect 2 just a little bit ago. Work has been rough for the past few weeks and Helen was going off to a glass class in DC. I decided that pushing through a video game I hadn't tried but knew would be good, would be fun. And I pushed, from Thurs. night to Mon. night at 10pm I played 49 hours and 45 mins total time.

I completed the game, saved the universe, rescued my captured crew, got all of my squad through the alien base alive, and got the girl! I did have a little help from the internet, not much really b/c I tried to find out the story on it's own. I would try to explain it but it would take too long and it's a little involved.

I'm glad I was able to finish it though, it was like reading a good book or the end of a really good tv series. Something that even though you want to know how it turns out, you still don't want it to end.

I do plan to replay it, It will let me take the character I made in this game and replay it with all of it's bonus' from the beginning. That is probably the best way to make a game 'replayable' that I've seen in a while. Starting over from scratch is hard in video games because usually the story has nothing new. In this case, there are a lot (a lot!) of dialogues between the different characters and interacting differently between them can cause different outcomes in the games. I don't know that I would play it very differently though.

I think my own personality came through a lot in the dialog choices of this video game. There are two scores, Paragon and Rebel, that as you interact with people, increase. The paragon score determines how much you can influence people by either inspiration or force of will. The rebel score determines how much you influence them through force or general jack-assedness. Before I even got close to the last mission my Paragon score was at the top of the scale.

I have this problem with most RPG's, that the choices in the game are not ones I would make. I didn't feel that way with this game, I saw the choices I would make and they were 100% in line with exactly what I would do in the same situation. If I replayed the game, I wouldn't really play it any differently, except to make it a little harder. I wouldn't want to force the results any differently than they turned out. Except for maybe asking out a different princess... since there are 3 to choose from.

Dad always used to say the you ccould tell when company was coming over b/c the plumbing would break. So yesterday evening we were going to have lasagna at home with my older brother John when the kitchen sink got stopped up, and the snake got bound up in it coiler and it broke, and someone hid all the flash lights so none were in their 'normal' spots...
We went out for pizza instead.

This was a long weekend where all my time was taken up by work on Saturday. That was a really rough day and it was a pain to get through. It also kind wrecked Sunday b/c I couldn't sleep Sat. night and I was up late and both days I had huge headaches and general malaise.

Monday was good, spent time working on the Minecraft server (minecraft.rdex.net, we got exploration happy and exeryone ran to the four compass points and the server got over loaded and died a memory-swapping death. The biggest problem is rebuilding b/c we had to jump back a day in server time, and so a lot of previously built things got reset and will have to be rebuilt. We're not all happy about that.

Ok, well I guess bloggin isn't really getting ready for work, but at least I'm up. Helen's getting ready for work and so I stay out of the way while she does her thing, then I do mine.

After weeks of busting-butt in OT work I have reaped my rewards in the form of a bunch of new anime DVD's. Romantic comidies and sci-fi adventures, my kind of sappy & imaginative crap.
Love Hina (I love the theme song for this one, It's just so bubbly)
Galaxy Express 999 (Helen says we've seen this, but since it's been out of print for 20+years I don't think so)
Adieau Galaxy Express 999 (The follow-up movie to the above)
Troll Hunter (Ok, It's not anime, but I still got it)
Dirty Pair Part 1 (More old school anime. I'm glad to see some of the old shows coming out finally)
Air: The Movie (Another sappy anime-romance, by the same people that did Clannad which was fantastic.)

I've pre-ordered this one:
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzamia (This has gotten great reviews and I really liked the TV show, so I'm looking forward to it a lot.)

In non-anime news, well there isn't much. I've been so busy with work recently that I haven't really been able to do much else. I got to take the dog for a walk last night, He liked getting out, but was so tired after walking a short distance he just kept laying down in the middle of the sidewalk.

A new blog to replace the old one. I've still got the old one, goes back to 2005. I'm just not sure it matters though.

I spent today working, having lunch with Helen & my parents and watching anime. It was a good afternoon. Helen &I treated ourselves to some Starbucks. Coffee is a good thing, it's in the 90's today so it was iced, but still worth it.

The anime for the afternoon was one called, "Clannad ~After Story~". It is the second part of a series that started with, "Clannad". It follows the life of two highschool sweethearts graduating and learning to move into adulthood. The biggest lesson is that it is hard at times but worth it and you can depend on family. I highly recommend it and the preceeding one, in order it's "Clannad" then "Clannad ~After Story~".

The irony is that I don't mind supporting my family but I don't like them staying at my house. Interesting dichotomy there...

My website got hacked which is why I have the new minimalist look. :-)

I hope to have more of it rebuilt in the next few days. It just takes time and desire...