Happy commercialized holiday!

It doesn't feel like Christmas this year. There's no snow on the ground, and we didn't bother putting up a tree this year (we just had a two-foot stand-in on a table). Let's see what booty I got this year:

-New Canon 5.0MP digital camera (I might return it in favour of a smaller model, if I can find one at the same price. Quality is fine and all, but bulky cameras are no fun to carry around)
-Poker's Wild! (A game from the creators of Sequence. Might be fun every now and then)
-shirt and pants (love the pants, the shirt is ok)
-Battlefield 1942 (looking forward to play this via LAN, but not sure if I'll get around to playing it solo for a while)
-Yoshi's Island DS (yay!)
-Lego Star Wars 2 (I happened to burn this from a rental the other day, so I'm going to return it and get Okami for PS2 instead)
-large cash donation for me to buy things for myself (my mom wants me to get a Wii, but considering the lack of great games and my current backlog of games for GC, PS2, PC, and DS, I'll spend it elsewhere and buy a Wii later on in 2007. I'm going to get that video card which is now on sale at Future Shop for Boxing Day.)

I've also added Metroid Prime to my "to play" list. It's the top rated GameCube game, and third highest overall at GameRankings.com. I'm on the last chapter of RE4. For the first three days, I was able to play through a chapter per day, but the fourth chapter took me a long time. I should be done this game in a few days, and then I'll move on to The Warriors. I should be able to finish that in a week and a half, and when I get back to Waterloo I'll probably move on to whatever I'm in the mood for. In the handheld division, I should be done Megaman ZX in less than a week, and then I'll play my new Yoshi's Island DS.

Hugh says that by scheduling video games like this, I take a fair chunk of the fun out of it by destroying the spontaneity. I suppose that's slightly true, but I think that with games taking 20+ hours to beat, and with some games having pretty steep learning curves, it's too difficult to jump back into a game that you've already started and still take as much out of it as you would if it were still fresh on your mind.

So far Adam and I have played 5 (or maybe 6) games of Carcassonne. I think the game works very well with fewer players. There's much more of a "screw over your opponents" element. I played Settlers of Catan with Adam, Grant, and Chanel, and they all seemed to enjoy it. We had to cut it short since Adam had to go somewhere, and while we were playing, Martine and her boyfriend came over. I think we stopped with a three-way tie where Grant, Chanel and I all had 8 points. I'm sure they'd like to play again if the number of people fits. I still want to play with Sheena.

After Adam left, the five of us played Bang!. I started off by stripping a lot of cards out (character cards, more complicated action cards) to leave more of a basic game. After the first game, we added the characters and some more action cards and played again. My one qualm with the game is that it seems to take forever to kill anyone. After playing ten minutes, everyone might still be at full health. I think it would be better to play more rounds that are quicker to play. To remedy this, I think I'll take out some "Missed!" and "Beer" cards (which evade shots and restore health, respectively).

Well it's nearly time for Christmas dinner, so I'm going to go shower and put on my new clothes, then stuff myself with delicious goodness.

Listening to... Rage Against the Machine - Freedom
Link of the moment... Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about the new board games I've got my eye on. Lucky you.

Nothing screams "back in Thunder Bay" like a can of Razz Blast

I loaded up on Safeway Select pop today. It was on sale for $2.50 a pop (here, I cleverly used "a pop" to stand in for "a piece" and also as metonymy by referring to the case of pop as "a pop". I am so clever). Among the six flavours I got was Razz Blast, which is a blue raspberry flavoured concoction that might be described as some to be a sugar orgasm.

Sleep has been very odd since I got home. The first night I got home, I went to bed at 11PM and woke up at 3AM. I think that was a combination of getting up earlier that day for my exam, and sleeping on the way to the airport. I could tell when I woke up that I wouldn't be falling back asleep, so I played some Resident Evil 4 for a while and watched some Beverly Hillbillies until my parents woke up. Then I got some McDonald's breakfast and did some early morning shopping. I guess most of my shopping is out of the way, except for my sister, for whom I have no idea what to get. The local Walmart is open 24 hours through the Christmas, so I think I'll go there some night at 2 in the morning when I have nothing better to do.

I fell asleep no fewer than three times during the day, sometimes for ten minutes, sometimes for an hour, depending on when I was awoken by some distraction. I went to bed last night at about 12:30 and woke up twelve hours later, perhaps due to my lack of 'real' sleep the night before. Tonight, I can't seem to fall asleep, as it's 4AM. 48 hours ago, I was already up for the day. Peculiar, if you ask me. I wonder what time I'll be rolling out of bed, and I wonder what time I'll be falling asleep tomorrow.

Since starting Resident Evil two days ago, I've blown through the first two chapters. I'm on something like 3-2 now, so nearly halfway through the game, I think. If I keep this up, I should be done before Christmas. It's a pain playing in the daytime, because the sun is usually shining on the tv screen, and it makes for a pretty nasty glare.

I played Carcassonne (: The Discovery) with Adam and Sheena last night. They both seemed to enjoy it, and said they'd play again. Adam kicked our asses. I look forward to playing Settlers of Catan, but getting exactly four people to play might be tricky (six would be fine too, but I think four makes for the best game).

Future Shop recently had Battlefield 2 for $20 (Reg $40) and Guild Wars: Nightfall for $40 (reg $50), but I didn't buy either. I'd better not buy any games 'til after Xmas. I played BF2 with Andrew a few days ago, and to be honest it was kinda boring.

I think I'm gonna ask someone to go see a movie perhaps tomorrow. I haven't seen a movie in a while, and Casino Royale might thrill me. There's a particular someone who I may or may not have some chemistry with, and she may or may not be the only single girl I'm friends with in this city. I may or may not make a fool of myself if I put myself out there, and I may or may not care if I do or do not. It's a very dubious situation.

Do you think it's wrong to put the moves on someone without the intention of having any sort of prolonged relationship with them? It seems like the last two times I've made out with a girl, it didn't materialize into anything, and I had no plans for it to do as such. I realize that if you look at my love life in the last two years, I look like much more of a sleaze than I used to. Just getting my jollies with girls without any commitment. Maybe I've turned into a sleaze. Maybe my standards for "realtionship girl" have risen above that of "make-out girl" in the last while. Maybe my libido is just starting to take over. Maybe I've come to the conclusion that starting a relationship with anyone in Waterloo or Thunder Bay is futile anyways. Yes, I think it's a combination of all of those things.

Listening to... Cold - Just Got Wicked (Winamp Radio)
Link of the moment... lolz? Kitties are cute.