What to do with my time (or lack thereof)?
Alternatively titled: Reasons I don’t need a Wii (right now).
It’s ~9:00pm and I just got in from working on my car. Did quite a bit really. Installed a new air cleaner gasket, new hood lifts (goodbye prop bar!), and adjusted the shift points a bit. The thing shifts so much smoother now. Don’t let anyone tell you 1/16th of an inch won’t do anything! …Anyway it was a very therapeutic session (despite the frustration) after a long day of remotes and work that started at about 6:30 this morning. My shade tree mechanic work didn’t take long, maybe an hour or so, but it’s something that’ I’ve been trying to find time for for the last two weeks at least. Just haven’t been able to squeeze it in.
There’s just so many things that I’m really interested in right now, and it’s hard to balance it all out to the point where you can look back on any one thing and see significant progress. I’ve been really enjoying Guild Wars as of late. Our guild just finished up a weekend long festival of games and competition. It was a blast, but it soaked up just about any free time I had due to the time that was required to get all the prizes together and organize the event. Not that it’s a bad thing, like I said I really have been having fun with it. But it’s a big reason why I didn’t get around to working on my car until tonight. Lame or not, judge me if you must. I’ve also borrowed a copy of the new Zelda game which I’ve only put about two or three hours into and is also a BLAST! But between everything else it kinda falls through the cracks. Not to mention trying to find time to just sit down and spend some time with Andrea (though she’s been playing alot of Guild Wars lately too hehe)! Sadly the blog has been suffering as of late too.
I know, I know. It’s life and everyone that is reading this can tell the same sad story. I guess I just wanted to express my frustrations and get it out of my system. Not really looking for answers because there aren’t any realistic ones. Just hunker down and do what feels right at the moment. Oh and about the Wii. It just doesn’t seem like it’d be a good investment, as in money in exchange for entertainment value. I have so much backlogged that I really enjoy the crap out of that I’m afraid the Wii wouldn’t justify the cost unless I completely abandoned everything else. I’ll get a Wii. But not until I 1) Beat Final Fantasy XII, 2) Beat Zelda Twilight Princess, 3) Beat all the missions in Guild Wars. That should take care of most of my backlogged video games. And then I can handle keeping an old car running and kicking ass in Wii Tennis at the same time!
When you can’t find a Wii.
I swear we stopped at every Wal-Mart from Wichita to Manhattan on Sunday night. And no one had a Wii. I was dead set on getting one to. But in desperation we decided to pick up Guitar Hero 2 since Andrea got addicted to it last weekend at her sister’s house.
It’s pretty fun. A lot like that Dance Dance Revolution game. But I’m convinced that it’s harder than actually playing a real guitar!
Woo Hoo for Wii!
Jamie and Bryan bought a Wii and I’ve had a couple days to give it a try. What fun! It’s a lot different than I expected, but not sure what I expected. I took the Wii age test and I am 54. There’s lots of room for improvement! I can’t say I will run out and buy the system myself, but I bet I play it quite a bit when I go to Jamie’s!!!
Crazy dreams.
Well, I stayed up way too late last night. Seems like lately I’ve been running around doing a bunch of stuff, and look back and can’t quite figure out if I’ve accomplished anything. I feel busy, but it feels like I don’t have much to show for it. It doesn’t really bother me though. I guess that’s just what it takes to maintain the status quo for now. Last night Andrea had to work, and I stopped by to keep her company on her break, but when I got home I decided I wasn’t going to do anything constructive, I was just going to play Guild Wars all night.
All night turned out to be an understatement. Biebs is working on a new character, and since my character is already “maxed out” or whatnot, I was going to help speed the progress of his new character. Around about 12:00am a little message pops up saying “You’ve been playing for 4 hours, please take a break.” Ha ha. Well I couldn’t take a break! We were almost to Lion’s Arch! 
So about 12:30 and 4 1/2 hours of some intense gargoyle madness and frustration, we made it and I was drained. By this time Andrea had been home for a while and actually joined our crusade, so we all exchanged virtual kudos for a job well done and I pretty much went straight to bed. I fell asleep almost instantly, and as always, the night seemed all to short by the time I awoke. Then I realized I had dreamt all night about Guild Wars, the game I had just been playing. I dreamt that I had discovered a combination of skills that allowed me to kill anything in one hit! Ha ha. And of course, then I woke up.
There’s not much point to this story, other than it’s the first time I’ve ever dreamt about Guild Wars. Not the first time I’ve dreamt about video games though. That secret Super Mario 64 level I discovered in my dreams about 9 years ago is still vivid enough in my mind to draw a picture. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve sat down and put some real solid time into a game. Of course it used to happen all the time. I remember playing GoldenEye and Perfect Dark with Paul until the sun came up. Only difference was, I could sleep until noon then, today I had to go to work. =P
I played with someone’s Wii.
Okay, the Wii jokes are just too easy. I wonder if the Japanese thought of that when they picked the name, or if it was just another announcement that made Nintendo of America put their face in their hands knowing they were going to have to deal with the P.R. of it all.
Names aside I was pretty impressed. All I played was Wii sports with Stooks but it was a blast. At first, I’ll admit, I felt a bit insecure standing there with a Wiimote in my hand pretending to be holding a tennis racket, or a bowling ball, but once you get into the game and realize how really fun it is, you’ll find yourself lurching and swinging just as if you were right there in the game. I always though that simple wrist flicks were all you really had to do for the Wii to interpret the movements, but it really does work better if you go through the full range of motion whether it’s swinging a golf club, or pitching a baseball.
It was a good time and it tempts me to run out and try to find one. But I’m in major money saving mode right now, and I keep telling myself I’m not getting any more games until I beat Final Fantasy XII! Now if someone were to give me one on the other hand…I suppose I’d find a way to deal with it. 😉
Wicked Cool.
I made it back from SWK and brought an early Christmas present with me. “It’s-a me! Mario!” Mom got me this sweet neon-ish sign. I decided to hang it in the living room with all my games and such.
I haven’t forgotten.
I haven’t been posting lately. But as the picture above shows, I haven’t been just ignoring the blog. I haven’t even had time to play any games for the past week! So you KNOW I’ve been busy. I’ve just had a lot going on.
I went up to Sabetha to see all the grandparents with some time off I had the end of last week. Grandpa Wayne doesn’t seem to be getting any better. He’s lost most of the strength in his legs and has trouble getting out of chairs and has been using a walker to get around. Grandma called today and said they ran some tests and that he needs to stop taking chemo immediately. So say a prayer that he can start feeling better one way or another.
Between then and now it seems like I’ve just been busy doing odds and ends stuff. Fixing little things on my car, and doing stuff around the house I’ve been putting off. I’ve been strangely motivated lately and just haven’t been on the computer much longer than to check e-mail, and haven’t played any games or watched TV or anything.
I did get a chance to see the new Bond movie. It’s what a lot of people said it would be, more like the early Bond films. There’s really no gadgets, although there is plenty of high tech stuff. It’s all just a lot more believable. It’s certianly a different Bond film, and I think a nice change of pace for the series, and great timing to introduce the new actor. Check it out if you have the time, and the $8.50 to buy a movie ticket. =P
Coming up I’ll be heading to SWK for the Thanksgiving weekend. I’ll be eating a total of 4 Thanksgiving dinners this week, so I’m hoping to not pack on more than 10 pounds. Wish me luck!
09.14.06New Nintendo – November 19, 2006
The new Nintendo system called Wii will release this November 19th. It will sell for $249 and come with one controller and one game included! Remember the days of people actually including a game when you buy the system? Ahh, those were the days.
I don’t know that I’ll be getting one right away. Fighting the crowds, limited selection of games, limited availability. I think I’ll probably end up waiting until after Christmas to get one. But who knows, I might just get crazy!
Edit: Corrected release date. Thanks, Brian.
now i dont think i ….
i’m still alive, contrary to rumour. i’ve never had such a stressful school year in my entire life. but i’ve broke free from those chains and now i’m loose for three and a half wonderful months.. until they drag me back. (i think the relation to prison is actually quite appropriate.)
well i didnt get my n64 for xmas but im sure itd prolly would have been slightly less as exciting this kids xms
05.10.06Play Station 3…
I was at work today and caught a glimpse of PS3. I gotta know…Is this thing really gonna cost $599? Does that price include a maid to do all the housework? Whoa! Maybe I misunderstood the caption under the consumer reporter. Was he talking about buying stock in the play station company? We don’t have the t.v. volume up at work, so it is possible I misunderstood.