In this post:
1. Just all the stuff that’s been going on.
2. And an alternative to all that GDC nonsense, as witnessed by a man in a diaper.
Had a nice, pleasant weekend, just what I needed after last week (which I bitched about in my previous post and should perhaps be embarrassed about, since it’s somewhat emo, but whatever). After my diatribe, went out to Ridgewood for yet another Babycastles opening; I arrived on the late side and ended up missing Tristan Perich‘s performance, but was still able to chat with him afterwards, and that was definitely cool. Played the new, semi-post Olympics themed games on exhibit, including the absolutely brilliant QWOP and the equally hilarious Winner Vs Loser (which you can only play at Babycastles, so if you’re in NYC, get your ass to Brooklyn/Queens… it’s right on the border). Afterwards, myself, Joe Salina, Jon, and Kunal all went to the comic book bar in Bushwick that I had head so much about (well, from Joe at least), and it actually lived up to the hype!
Saturday night was spent at Kenka with Katie, along with Salina once again. Some folks why I bother with that place, since the food there totally sucks, which is the truth, but the drinks are nice and cheap, plus the ambiance is neat, provided the place isn’t too packed to the gill with annoying NYU students (that’s where the booze comes into play, to help drown them out). Though I had a specific reason for going; to have another helping, plus take pictures of, their curry dish, for that curry blog that I haven’t written for in ages. I’ll pass along the link once it’s up (since everyone’s in San Fran for GDC, there’s no real point in writing it up before the weekend), but long story short (spoiler alert), perhaps the worst Japanese curry you’re going to find served in any restaurant across Manhattan. It thankfully wasn’t as bad as the time Hilary and I tried the curry with hamburger steak, with both the gravy and meat being a sickly grey color (this past Saturday I tried it with the pork cutlet, which was better, but only marginally so).
Sunday evening was Joe Simko‘s long-awaited “Destroy Oscars” bash, which did not disappoint. Ended up eating at least 20 deviled eggs and got super drunk thanks to Sweet Rot’s homemade rum cake, of all things; not only was the batter heavy with booze (he used more than the recipe called for if I’m not mistaken), plus the glaze had quite a bit of rum in it too. Also, the four or so glasses of wine beforehand certainly helped I’d imagine. Anyhow, it was another spirited gathering, in which we all yelled at the TV over assorted Hollywood bullsh*t (needless to say, the stupid interpretive dance number got the most boos, along with anytime James Cameron’s puss appeared on camera) and argued amongst ourselves. The most heated debate sprung from Jay’s observation that the John Hughes tribute was longer than Stanley Kubrick’s when he died, and I did have to agree that it was mostly designed to pander towards the 80s nostalgia crowd. Granted, I loved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and plenty of his other films, and Hughes did indeed help to define a generation, no question, but so did Kubrick for his time. Along with how he broke new ground in filmmaking, as well as made better movies, period. Just saying! Anyhow, I obviously don’t need to state the obvious, like how the awards from top to bottom was a boring and at times nauseating display of ego and excess, with no one who truly deserving recognition actually getting any, cuz that’s just the way it’s always been, and to be honest is what makes it so much fun (to get angrily drunk at). But hey, at least Avatar didn’t get the main awards! Thank God. Needless to say, all the Avatards out there have not taken the bad news well at all. Here we have conclusive evidence that Avatar fans are indeed more insane that Harry Potter or any other psychotic, diehard fan contingency. My fave quote would have to be: “I guess Cameron has to take it to the next level now. He probably didn’t want to, but now he has no choice. He will make them see.” Epic lulz.
And earlier today/yesterday (as of this writing, it’s about 3 in the morning, so I guess Monday has technically passed), I ended up having a meeting with one of the creators of OkCupid, Sam Yagan. Why? Well, it’s for a thing I’m working on, which I really can’t get into at the moment, but hopefully soon! In fact, much of yesterday was spent talking with various folks about various things that I can’t speak of, at least not yet, or which I can spill the beans on, but it would be somewhat pointless since it’s big announcement level kind of stuff (which is the very best, as far as I’m concerned) that would go mostly ignored, due to the Game Developers Conference, which officially kicks off in a few hours. Speaking of, and as also noted last time, I wanted to pass along all the video game news and nonsense from the past couple of days before GDC got underway, to clear the plate, but I’ve just been too busy with assorted business. So instead, since there aren’t any major headlines to speak of quite as of yet (other than we’ve all been expecting and sorta know already, like Steam for OS X, which is awesome btw)…
I’m fairly certain that I’ve mentioned in the past that I finally got XP properly working on my Mac as of late, which means at long last, I’ve been able to enjoy many of its splendors, primarily games of course. Including, you guessed it, The You Testament. Inspired by Dave Mauro‘s numerous exploits, Katie and I have both gone on spiritual journeys also, though we haven’t done nearly as good a job as cataloging them as dmauro has. Mostly because I didn’t realize the screencap function till way after the fact. Otherwise I’d have plenty of pics of Katie’s epic beat-down of Jesus that lasted well over half an hour (unfortunately, no matter how much you punch and stomp the son of God, he won’t die). At least Katie was able to make some progress afterward; if you leave him alone, he’ll eventually begin to trust you again, at least enough to allow you to tag along and do stuff with/for him. Whereas I can’t get past NOT assaulting him; it’s hilarious how, if you beat Jesus enough, he threatens to kill you! Anyway, I’ve already pointed towards Dave’s epics posts from the forum at least once before, but here are his findings in their entirety, cuz they’re just so damn awesome not to share:
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2/23/10
Here we have the life and times of Judas Priest, disciple/enemy of Jesus Christ (?). At first Judas Priest was a little confused by John the Baptist’s cryptic speech. He began his path to true knowledge by giving a random stranger a banana who was quite happy to receive the gift.
Someone got smart with him on the bridge, and Judas Priest was not afraid to cause a little ruckus with the knife that he found on the ground.
But violence begets violence…
So they chopped off Judas Priest’s hand.
After this he stumbled around with next to no life getting yelled at by guards to get off the ground and then quickly getting beat back to the ground as soon as he stood up. There was a fish on the ground that looked like it would be enough to help him recover, but try as he might, Judas Priest just could not pick that fish up with his stump arm.
Judas Priest began going around town begging strangers for help, but they didn’t seem to understand him.
Things were not going well for Judas Priest.
And that’s when Judas Priest found out that he could hug people.
It’s so easy to hug everyone! You just walk towards them and they can’t say no. They might hit you a bit afterwards, but I’m sure that guy from the bridge that he stabbed would have said to simply “turn the other cheek.”
Judas Priest embraced his poverty, and even when someone offered him some money he declined.
Which led to him getting beat up again.
But nothing could keep Judas Priest’s spirits down, he was on a hugging mission.
Then he met up with that guy he nearly stabbed to death on the bridge. This man saw a lot of promise in Judas Priest.
Judas Priest learned he could use the force to sit in a different position and make a skill tree window pop up, but couldn’t do anything with it.
Judas Priest was quite the promising disciple, but then he wanted to see what would happen if he jumped into a well. His experiment was a success: he was completely stuck in the well and a soldier who didn’t like the look of him followed him in and put him out of his misery after about ten minutes of hugging.
The end.
2/25/10
There’s a new disciple in town. He’s a 1′ tall guard named Godjob. Things are getting interesting with him:
OH SHI———
2/26/10
Meet Mrs. Jesus:
Her story is unraveling as you read this!
edit: Spousal abuse is not a laughing matter.
Mrs. Jesus’ first kill was the best. She took him under the bridge and stabbed him to death with a knife. When she finished the deed, a man came along and drank of the soldiers blood.
She thought she would be satisfied having rid the River Jordan of that scum, but when she saw a one-legged guard in a nearby town, she couldn’t help herself.
It felt too good not to kill him.
It was the start of a serial murder revolt. She was happy to have dispatched several more soldiers to hell before the law finally caught up with her. They pinned her up and for good measure did the same to her husband. Those chauvinistic pigs probably considered him just as culpable for not keeping his woman in line.
The inscription is short for: Mrs. Jesus of Nazareth, Queen of the Insurrection.
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That’s it unfortunately; once Espgaluda 2 arrived at Astro City, Brooklyn, Dave’s attention became squarely diverted (still waiting for my copy, believe it or not; got the cheapest of the cheap shipping via Play Asia, which I will never do again). I’m hoping to have further adventures myself (gonna have at least one starring each character from Law & Order: SVU), plus Katie’s still got her character, Persona 4. Plus maybe Pat will finally chime in as well.
