zrath

State Of The Kzin
I have recovered from my fall. The bruises have just about disappeared.
However, I started having back pain last Saturday.
I'm not sure whether this is an "aftershock" from the fall or not.
It's now Friday, and the pain has lessened.
Which is good, as I'm planning to go to LOSCON tomorrow and spend the day there.


Pascal and I went to see "The Prestige" on Sunday.
We were planning to see "Casino Royale" and "Happy Feet", but the lines were long.
We will try again Sunday.
In the meantime, we enjoyed "The Prestige" a lot.
It's definitely from the same mind that brought you "Memento" and "Batman Begins".
And from someone who researched magic and got it right, from my limited experience.
When my friend Spino started to learn magic, I went with him to the magic shop on Saturdays.
I saw him practice his tricks and watched other magicians do their own tricks and share information.
I also read several professional magic magazines while there and learned about the history of the craft.
"The Prestige"'s setting rings true enough. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale turn in some intense performances.
The icing on the cake for me is the presence of Tesla and his work, and Tesla himself being played by David Bowie.
So yeah, good stuff, highly recommended, and will keep you guessing until the end. No, really.
Abracadabra...


My buddy Mitch Beiro was in town on Monday, so I took the day off and we hung out.
Those of you who are 'furries' might remember him. He is an artist and foamcore sculptor extraordinaire.
He doesn't have an online presence, but here's a picture of him with the ZonieCon '99 foamcore standee.
And this is his submission to the Mephit FurMeet 2003 t-shirt contest.
And this is his submission for the 2004 version.
Anyway, I was glad to see Mitch. He lives in Tucson, AZ, and goes to a lot of furry cons, but since I haven't been able to
go to cons lately, I haven't seen much of him. He's doing good, working two jobs, one of which allows him to work on his art.
He's got a kickin' laptop, better than the one I have at work, and a scanner so he can work on his art.
Mitch traded in his Dodge pick-up truck for a quad-cab version, so with a bit of luck (in other words, money!), I will be
carpooling up to Further Confusion 2007 with him. And we'll drag Warren (No LJ) along. This is cool.
When Mitch got here, we went to lunch at In-N-Out Burgers. He tells me that Tucson will get not one, but TWO In-N-Outs in
the very near future, and he will be first in line! He's planning to order a 6X6. Oh my...
Then we checked out a few local places, then did some light shopping.
Back at my pad, I showed him stuff on the computer, then burnt him a few music CDs while watching "Appleseed".
We had a light, late dinner at Del Taco. He thought they had gone out of business, for some reason.
He was dismayed to learn that Tower Records had been bought and was being liquidated. He has worked for five years at a
Tower Records store, and this was where he honed his foamcore carving and sculpting skills.
Eventually, Mitch left to visit another friend. Later, he would visit his mom for Thanksgiving.


Thanksgiving for the sibling and I was pretty low-key.
We enjoyed a turkey dinner at the "Pirates". It's a local diner with a slight pirate theme called "Pepy's Galley".
Then we watched "Sympathy For Lady Vengeance", an odd and interesting Korean film. It had no martial arts in it.
After that, we watched "The Fifth Element". I think it's only the second time my brother has seen it.
He really hates the mugging scene at Korben's apartment ("Gimme the cashhhhhhh!!!"). Bad acting he says.
I think it's funny. The guy is all twitchy and obviously having some weird drug withdrawal symptoms.

At some point, I fired up my recently-bought copy of "Serious Sam II" ($9!) on the PC and played for a couple of hours.
Boy, it's different from the original. Instead of the original "essence of Doom" gameplay, there's some storyline and
supporting characters and your implanted computer now speaks and it's even harder than the original!
And there are vehicles and turrets to man. And lots of cut-scenes. Don't worry though, the dialogues and jokes are still
atrocious and off-kilter in that special Croatian-to-English sort of way. Not to mention the enemy designs.
There are huge armored footballers who go "hut-hut-hut!" and toss exploding footballs, for example.
I also saw big red minotaurs with plasma cannons for arms, somewhat reminiscent of old "Doom".
And I was assaulted by a dozen gigantic four-legged robot spiders, much-much-much larger than the old "Doom" ones.
At one point, I reached a village and the chief looked Sam up and down and asked "Are you Samus?". That was kinda funny.
So far, this game is kicking my ass. I now know why I get several lives this time around.

Aside from "Serious Sam II", I had also ordered "Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy" ($9, PC) and "Midway Arcade Treasures 3"
($4, PS2) which is an all driving coin-op compilation including stuff like "Rush 2049", "Hydro Thunder", and "Badlands".
I have not installed "Jedi" yet.
"Midway 3" is disappointing so far. Its implementation of "S.T.U.N. Runner" and "Race Drivin'" largely suck.
"Race Drivin'" has pretty bad controls translation and is very hard.
As for "S.T.U.N. Runner", it's operating at the wrong friggin' clock speed. That's right, it's running at double-speed!!
This was my game! I played it at the arcade all the time, and I even beat the score and got the Atari t-shirt!
So I know this game inside out, or at least, I used to. And I can tell you the game never ran this fast.
I played "Rush 2049" for a bit and that seems to work fine. I suspect "Rush: The Rock" and "Hydro Thunder" probably operate
correctly as well. But I'm glad I only paid $4 for this. The whole package has a shoddy slap-dash feel to it.
None of the controls are configurable. Some of the games can't be exited without starting a play. There's nothing in the
way of extra content like in the Atari or Namco compilations. And "S.T.U.N. Runner" is just about unplayable.
Curse you, Midway!


Well, I better go. I have to prep whatever I need for LOSCON tomorrow.
I hope y'all had a nice Thanksgiving.