Up late talking games & writing? You're...

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Misc: I live in a house, but it's one of those new, urban-friendly high-density types. Instead of the traditional structure surrounded by a yard and a white picket fence, it's a tall and narrow townhouse on a lot that contains three other separate townhouses. As such, I find that I bump into my neighbors fairly frequently. It's funny, though… despite being in such close proximity, I don't know them very well. In fact, I can't even remember their names. Instead, the wife and I refer to them by more descriptive titles -- Asshole lives directly next door, Eco-Friendly is kitty-corner, and Elvis is behind us.
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Out of the bunch, it's Elvis that has always been the most open and outgoing. In fact, on garbage day right after we moved in, he was nice enough to bring in my can and put it back where it belongs as a friendly gesture. It was a little thing and was never openly discussed or commented on, but I returned the favor the next week and it became a kind of unwritten agreement that we would continue the tradition.
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Fast forward 2 1/2 years.
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This little “I'll bring your cans in this week if you bring in mine next” has been continuing uninterrupted until last week. Out of the blue, Elvis didn't bring my can in. His was gone, but mine was still out there by the curb. It seemed odd, and I was even a little offended… I could think of no reason why he would break tradition. I mean, it's been going on for a couple of years and then this?
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I thought that maybe he was sick and his wife had brought in their can. Perhaps she didn't know about our little arrangement. I let it slide and waited to see what would happen this week.
After this most recent garbage day, his can was gone and mine was still out there.
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I was upset. Shocked. Two years of this neighborly exchange shattered in one weekend. Why? For what? It's hard to properly capture, but it just felt so... Rude; almost as though he was making some kind of comment. Somehow telling me that the honeymoon was over. What did it mean?
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This week, I came home a little earlier than expected to find both of our cans still by the curb. I debated bringing his in as a kind of goodwill gesture that might restore our silent pact, but decided against it after a moment or two. Bitter? Vengeful? Maybe, but I wasn't the one that started this…
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It’s on, Elvis.
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Games: I’m at the final boss in Phantasy Star Portable.
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I expected to have it done and on my shelf a few days ago, but the sharp spike in difficulty was a real turnoff and I decided to take a break before I'd be tempted to chuck the thing across the room.
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The game itself is nothing special, although I will say that I was in the mood for a loot-earning, clothes-changing dungeon crawler and it satisfied my craving perfectly. I would have been thrilled to complete it without much thought, but now it seems apparent that the only way I'm going to see credits roll is to grind out another ten or fifteen levels.
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After twelve hours of play this isn't exactly the way I wanted things to wrap up, but I imagine I’ll get back to it and chip away at the remains incrementally.
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In other portable news, I started Emergency! Disaster Rescue Squad for the DS and I'm thinking it's pretty good stuff. Basically, the game presents players with real-life inspired disasters -- Forest fires, civil unrest, automobile accidents, and so on.
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At the beginning of each stage, the appropriate emergency response units arrive and it's up to me to direct them where to go and what to do. It's all very straightforward and process-oriented, but the reality-lite approach is really quite novel and it’s a great change of pace to be tackling something like this instead of the usual shoot stuff, kill stuff, or collect stuff. I am a little over halfway at this point, but I would give it a very strong recommend, especially at an MSRP of $20.
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The publisher, Destineer, is definitely one to watch. Their profile has a very quirky underdog feel to it, yet the quality of what they've been putting out has been consistently better than expected so far. Thumbs up!
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One last little bit of game-related talk -- I fired up The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (360) yesterday and put about two hours into it. I don't care for the films that the Riddick games are inspired by, but the first one (TCoR:Escape from Butcher Bay) was superb and this new campaign hooked me immediately.
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I'll have more to say on it later once I get a bit further in the adventure, but so far I'm loving it. Very adult, very dark, and it's giving me that “can't wait to get back to it” feeling, which is definitely a good thing.
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Writing: The summer hiatus is over. Work resumes on the new book starting…NOW.
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