Dawning of a New Age

Well, I’ve been 26 for a whole two hours.  Feel any different?  Um, sure.  Just like being on fire feels different from burning.  I can never really tell if people who ask the "do you feel any different" question are serious or joking.  I guess it’s probably about a fifty-fifty split.  And this admission coming from someone who wades in a constant kiddie pool of sarcasm.  You’d think I’d know the difference.  But honestly, I almost never do, but just on that question.  Go figure.  Everyone has a weakness.  I guess I’ve found mine….number 3,158,010…or thereabouts.  Anyway…  I actually think I can say I feel different, but it has very little to do with age.  Nothing to do with it in fact.  When I turned 25, I hated pretty much everything related to life.  Now I actually like a lot of things.  Imagine that.  I actually think I’ve gained a lot of maturity in just the last few months.  Being confronted with the reality of Will and Mo did that to me.  I know for a fact that teenager Dave and early twenties Dave would’ve firebombed anything and everything in the vicinity of earth.  Mid-twenties Dave?  Handles the situation with the utmost understanding and grace.  Eventually, anyway.  I mean, there was that whole "I hate her so much" outburst….but that can be explained away with the ever-present, "Since when could I actually control my emotions?" thing.  Anyway (again)…  I don’t know what I was just trying to say.  It’s way too late for me to be awake.  Nevermind I gotta get up for work in four hours.  Eh.  It’s not like I have to try there anyway.

One thing I can say about myself, though, is that I’m much less prone to ridiculous outbursts of anger anymore.  I think that’s the biggest change I’ve seen in myself the past few months.  I barely even have them.  In fact…I don’t even remember the last one.  Considering they had become a near hourly thing for me…well…I’d call that progress.  Like HDTV is progress over radio.

I don’t even know why I’m still awake tonight.  Just don’t really feel the need to sleep, I guess.  If I’d known this, I’d still be playing Tales of Legendia.  Since February 8th (the day I got it in my grubby hands), I’ve put 51+ hours of my life into it.  And I’ve still got a little bit more to go.  I’m hoping I can be done with it and on to Grandia III before the end of the month.  I’ve been trying to stave off the growing urge to play KOTOR II for the 5th time.  ‘Cuz we all know that if I start playing it, I ain’t quitting until it’s done.  But I’m going to resist, at least for now.  When I’m done with Grandia III…..who knows.  Maybe a third go-round with Tales of Symphonia.  Which, by the way, is far superior to Legendia….not to say Legendia has been bad.  Quite the opposite.  At least the main quest, anyway.  It was great.  Fantastic, even.  Just a tad short.  But that’s because there’s what amounts to a sequel after you finish that part.  You get to see what the main party goes through after the events of the main story.  And you get to delve deep into the backgrounds of the other six party-members (because, really, the main story is just the story of the main two characters).  The character quests are good, but would be much better with, oh, I dunno….voice acting?  Yeah.  I’ve been reading text for the last 20 or so hours or it.  Some games that wouldn’t be so bad.  But the VO’s were actually quite good, so I was disappointed.  The separation of the character stories from the main story kind of sucks, too.  These things were all woven together in Symphonia.  Then again, that was a 42 hour game (same amount of hours on both play-throughs)…so I guess there’s something good about this.  Whatever.  I can barely even follow this train of thought anymore.  Time to advance forward…

Now Playing in Dave’s Mental Jukebox:  "Simple Kind of Life" by No Doubt,  "Downfall" by TRUSTcompany, and "Broken" by Seether

I’m dealing with yet another case of the sinus crud.  There’s something about a three day period that includes a 70 degree day followed by a few inches of snow that doesn’t sit right with the ol’ sinuses.  I can’t imagine why.  I hate Tennessee weather so much.  It never used to be like this.  Damn you Global Warming!  Which cracks me up because it reminds me of the South Park episode where people are trying to run away from global warming.  God damn that was funny.

Which "holiday" has less validity….Columbus Day or Presidents’ Day?  I lean towards Columbus Day, because at least I knew what Presidents’ Day was when I was five.  It’s like someone made up Columbus Day when I wasn’t paying attention at some point in my teens.  It just magically appeared on the calendar.  At least it hasn’t become a National Day of American Drunkenness….yet.  I think Bastille Day is going to be next for that…our pseudo-hatred of the French be damned.  We like to co-opt foreign holidays for drinking….St. Patrick’s, Cinco de Mayo (which no American could tell me what the hell that’s even celebrated for….except myself, I guess), those kind of days.  Bastille Day is next, I’m telling you.  Start watching out for July 14th.  It’ll be the new Boxing Day.  Or something like that.  I don’t even know what the fuck I mean anymore.  I love quasi-delirious entries incredibly late at night.  Been awhile.

But I think the time has come to end this one.  I’ve been typing for half an hour, and really need to get me arse to bed.  Despite not having to try hard at work…I do at least need to be there on time (who am I kidding?  no one notices my consistent lateness).  Whatever.  I ramble on and on, and to what end?  This one.

Sayonara.