God, where have I been?

It's been near on a month since my last post (speaking of, thanks for all of the encouragement on the dating front, guys!  More on that in a minute.) and I feel remiss for this.  There's been a bunch of stuff going on, so I think I'll handle all of it in lovely, lovely bullet-points!

• I'm still dating the woman.  Her name is Kristi.  Things are going fairly well there, taking into consideration the sort of baggage I tend to travel with.  I'm getting better at not freaking out completely and pulling away and screaming when someone tries to get emotionally close to me.  That's mostly because she's a great girl and I'd like to not do such things to her.  So there's that. 
  
• Oh, man, Criminal Element.  I got in some really fucking good writing over the past day or two.  Edited some sections, rewrote a section.  Now I just have two chapters that I need to expand from notes into actual, "i'm a real writer" text and the Shotgun Bible should be ready to go. 
  
• Speaking of Criminal Element, I had the great honor of doing a podcast interview about my game on Rob Bohl's Independent Insurgency.  The podcast isn't up yet, but should be soonish, so I'll post a link as soon as it does.  You can check out previous podcasts over here.  It was the first time I'd ever been interviewed about the game and, if I'm going to be honest with myself, I'm not sure if I did my best work on "selling the game", but it was a great conversation that Rob and I had, and I think it might be an interesting thing for the people out there that are interested in any kind of game and design, or who just want to see what the hell I've been working on for the past five (!) years.  A huge thank you to Rob for having me over his place and giving me a chance to talk about my game.  (Sorry I couldn't meet up with you at PoliCon man.  You're still doing DexCon, right?)
• I should mention that I was sorry to miss PoliCon to Don as well.  eruditus , sorry man.  Work's been a bear, but that should be clearing up sharpish.  Still up for some DexCon, yeah?
  
• I'm being transfered from my current location at the Major Video Game Retailer I work for to one that is further from home, in a mall, and is open considerably later than my current store.  I'm not terribly happy about this...
• ...though I might have another job prospect lined up that will amend that situation quite nicely.  I'm not wanting to say too much, in fear of jinxing it, but hopefully I'll be able to be more lose with the tongue in the next couple of weeks. 
  
• Thanks to the kindly intervention of feanor1138  and feanorsgrrl , I was able to see the current "it" noir movie at the Philadelphia Film Festival.  "Blast of Silence" was a fantastic, bizarre, lurid crime novel committed to film, with a slick, seedy monologue laying over top of the whole thing that sounded like "Donald Westlake's Choose Your Own Hitman Adventure".  I found it completely different from what I expected and absolutely enjoyable.  Criterion Collection has secured my twenty-odd dollars for their upcoming release. 
  
• A lovely flub committed by my bank has left me with a negative balance in my checking account, when I should have something that is very much in the positive.  I've been afflicted by this for near on a week now.  I'm not happy, to say the least.  I should have enough gas in my car to at least travel to and from work tomorrow, so at least I have that on my side. 
  
• I bought Rock Band for my 360.  My band is called "Parker Black and the Magnificent Bastards".  This automatically makes my fake band more Rock n' Roll than Fall Out Boy.  I've also four-starred Run to the Hills on Vocals at Medium.  This makes my fake band more Rock n' Roll than Daughtry.  Info on a Rock Band based party action soonishesque. 

That should take things up to the present, so let's have enough of this "Previously on... Mike's So-called Life."  What have all of you magnificent bastards been up to?

There is a game coming out called Rose and Comellia. In it, you play a 19th century English lady who must defend her honour and put others in their proper place by bitch-slapping the hell out of them.

Trailer here.

This must come out for the Wii. Must.

It's twelve o'clock, or there abouts, and it's my day off.  The one day off that I get where I actually get to spend the afternoon on my own, doing my own thing, hanging out, relaxing. 

But not today.  Not this tuesday.

As most of you know, I work for a major video game retailer in a management capacity.  (That sounds kind of cool when I phrase it like that.  Maybe I should say that more often.)  Also, today is the advance release for God of War II (click link for loud, flash-driven official site), the sequel to one of the few PS2 games that was actually worth more than ten minutes of play.  Unlike most PS2 games (i.e.: unimaginitive, repetitive, not actually fun to play), GoW was an action platformer that was undeniably cool. 

Sorry, I'm still bitter about the death of the Dreamcast. 

Anyway.  Out of all of my coworkers, I'm the only one of us that has a car.  This means that when the shipment arrives later today, I'm meant to go all the way to Cheltenham and pick it up.  A forty minute drive for thirty five copies of GoW II so that seventy people can come in the store and try and buy it and we can be out of stock. 

The responsibilities of management. 

I hate to dog those people that read this and work non-retail jobs, but I really think that all of you get paid more than I for what amounts to a lot less work and frustration.  Remember when you were twenty two, working your way through that last year of undergrad by folding clothes at the Gap or selling CDs at Tower or slinging soda at a movie theatre?  You know how you look back on those times and you're thankful that you're no longer doing that?  Well, I'm still here, and God can I not wait until I get through with my teacher's certification. 

I've found myself with a need to keep my mind busy.  I must have something running through it at all times, and it's preferable that something be light or fun or entertaining.  I haven't been able to build up the courage to sit myself down at the drafting desk and draw, or do any writing on the RPG, and I am deathly afraid of painting right now.  So I've gotten into my videogames and movies and such more recently. 

This has also gotten me to buy something I normally wouldn't have: a collectible card game.  And not just any CCG.  The fucking World of Warcraft CCG. 

Or, I'm sorry, the TCG.  Because Wizards of the Coast trademarked the phrase "collectible card game" back in '98 or so, so it's a "trading card game". 

The game is fun, oddly enough.  Each player is a hero, with both race and class abilities.  You assemble weapons, armor and items for your hero, send him on quests, find allies to adventure with, and of course beat the everloving tar out of the other adventurers.  'Cause this is PVP play motherfucker. 

I tend to approach CCGs in a way many people do the board game thing.  I like to get enough cards so that I can assemble two or three good play decks.  Then, whenever I'm bored and there's someone else around I can just pick up the game and get a couple of rounds in.  And there is actually an option to pick up Raid decks, which are pre-built raids that players team up on and attack together.  So basically, one player is the DM with his dungeon, the other players all take up their heroes and buddies and go smash some monsters.  Smart. 

Now I find myself with the need to do two things, both of which will make me a big loser. 

1. Buy more cards.  Because I'm trying to make a really great Troll Hunter deck and I need some of them Ravenous Strike cards, son.

2. Start playing WoW again.  Because now I want to make up a Troll Hunter and adventure in video game la-la-land. 

Can we plan for some kind of intervention about... let's say a month from now?