Katie & Scott & Simon & Cecily.

Tag: books (Page 1 of 2)

Day 223: longplay

There are video games that take me a long time to finish.

I’m reflecting on this tonight because I’m near the end of my first play-through of Mass Effect, a game which I started over a year ago.  It took me just as lengthy a time (if not longer) to finish Twilight Princess.  If I ever beat Fallout 3 or Eternal Sonata, it will be in a similar timeframe.

Compare these to those shorter action games that I devour quickly: Mirror’s Edge, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.  Sure, the genre of game has something to do with it.  With books, it can be easy to quickly finish a pulp mystery by Harlen Coben but a hefty John Irving can take quite a while.

Still, though, it’s also the attitude the game (or related media) gives off.  Certain games are heavy.  They present themselves as epic.  And when a game or book or movie sends out those signals, it makes it harder to consume quickly.  Movies are slightly different because they’re almost always consumed in one sitting, regardless of genre or length or heaviness.

But I find the same thing: a movie with a heavy moral message or an advertised epicness (like, say, a war/holocaust movie or The Lord of the Rings) tends to sit on the shelf or coffee table longer before it gets put into the player.  You really have to be in the mood to indulge your senses, to let yourself be weighed down by the media and experience it.

The end result also varies.  Finishing a longer game or book, watching a heavy movie, they all have their own rewards.  You feel like you really accomplished something.  After slowly making progress for a year, there’s a feeling of the overall journey.  Of getting somewhere.

There’s a different feeling I get when I consume something quickly, like with Batman or when I read The Prestige recently.  There’s a sense of mourning.  Of losing something you love so quickly, of a sadness that there’s no more game to play or no more book to read.  It’s harder to capture this in movies, but with some of the shorter Pixar films or certain of my favorite films (like Moulin Rouge! or Juno), there’s the sadness of knowing that I’ll never be able to watch the movie again for the first time, never again experience the surprise and awe of seeing certain scenes or hearing certain lines that I had never seen or heard before.

Anyway, I have to get back to Mass Effect.  I do actually want to beat it tonight and go to sleep at a reasonable hour.

Day 183: half done

Every time I mention that my Xbox working, it breaks the next day. I shouldn’t have jinxed it yesterday. It appears my only recourse now may be purchasing a new one. Sigh. Or, I guess, selling all of my 360 games and being done with it forever. But we all know that’s not going to happen.

It’s also a big milestone: I passed my half birthday yesterday peacefully and this will mark over 50% of entries written for the year. Only 182 more entries to go!

I finished reading The Prestige tonight, after a riveting and fast-paced few days. I haven’t consumed a book like that since the Harry Potter series. It left me wanting to read more, which is all you can really ask from a book, really.

My hair is entering that weird mid-stage length where it’s not short enough to just leave alone in the mornings but not quite long enough to cut.

So, the question is…what should I read next? And how long can I wait until buying another 360? And has anyone hacked an original Xbox to put a different OS on it before? I’ve managed to acquire a free one in the past week.

Day 182: temporary life

My Xbox has been temporarily revived!  I played Battlefield 1943 tonight with Ian and it was delightful.  I helped Japan to victory numerous times.

There’s a bit of graphical static that probably means that this new fix is still only temporary, but I’ve had my work (which was taking the heatsinks off and reapplying the thermal paste) rewarded with two of days of relatively solid play.  I am certainly counting the days, though, and not thinking of this as a permanent fix.  As the Elite is rumored to be price-dropping soon, I may be able to sustain my old 360 for just enough time.

The Prestige continues to be a page turner and work continues to be quite the learning experience.  I almost feel, with the basics I’ve been learning in 3D modeling and the systems and tools used on the team, like I’ve only just arrived.  It’s exciting, if a bit scary.

I need to drink more.  I feel dehydrated.

Day 180: words words words

Today, at work, I read a book during lunch.  That’s right – a book.  I can’t remember the last time I put aside some leisure time to just sit and read.

I started reading The Prestige yesterday.  I picked it randomly from our bookshelf because Katie had read it a while ago and liked it and mentioned that it was different enough from the movie to still be entertaining.  It is different, and it’s quite gripping.

It’s funny; in a small way, I almost wish that I hadn’t seen the movie yet, so that I wasn’t fully aware of all the plot elements that unfold as the story progresses.

But it was so enjoyable.  Instead of taking the lunch hour to read some blogs (which I do all day long anyway) or flounder around and try to get some work done in between bites or attempt to play a casual game or two, I just read.

Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since I’ve done anything so solitary and quiet.  Maybe it’s because the story is exciting.  Something about this book and the bouts of reading I’ve experienced over the past two days has been magical.

It reminds me of the unexpected delight of a brilliant game you’ve never heard of, of a movie on TV that makes you cry, of being at an sporting or musical event that turns out to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

And yet…it’s something more.  In this age of technology and flashing lights, the fact that simple words on a page still have the astounding emotional power they do is awesome.

Now, time to slip into bed and continue turning those pages.  Alfred Borden awaits.

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