Driving is Dangerous

Some of you may know that I commute to work from the city. Since I am doing the reverse commute there's usually not much in the way of traffic. Usually it takes about forty minutes to get out to Suffern and around an hour to get back.

That's not the story.

I travel along two roads which are notoriously dangerous. New Jersey's Route 4 and Route 17. Both these roads have stores and strip-malls along the sides which means that along with people traveling from Point A to Point B, you get people traveling from Point A to that store, you know, there on Route 17.

Which leads to people slamming on the breaks and veering across three lanes of traffic so they don't miss the entrance for Bed Bath & Beyond.

I find this is very nerve-wracking and frustrating. Do these people not realize that they are driving a half-ton vehicle at 50 mile-per-hour? Do they not understand that behind them and around them are others doing the same? Are they suicidal?

This is why I work from home so much.

Save the Princess, Save the World

I recently completed Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii. It was a pretty fun game and definitely sucked up a lot of time (in fact it tells you how much time you have spent playing -- over 50 hours for me.)

Before I get into the detail, I want to say that I really enjoyed playing this game. The controls are solid, with sensible use of the Wii's motion sensor. The music is catchy and the visuals are pretty terrific. There are some really fun puzzles and a handful of challenging battles. All of which made me wish there was more game in this game.

Zelda starts you out in a small village, getting you used to the controls and introducing the characters.

This sequence (call it the first level) takes far too long to accomplish and contains way too many "what the f-ck am I supposed to do?" There was one point when I was trying to physically chase a cat across the map. Needless to say, this was not the appropriate solution to the puzzle.

Anyways, after you "rescue" the cat, retrieve the baby basket from the crazy monkey, and herd the goats you get to actually get on with the game. Once they're sure you've got the whole running, jumping, riding a horse, and swinging a sword thing down they let you continue with the game. Where they promptly... turn you into a wolf.

This is perhaps the problem with the game. The game takes a long time to get a rhythm and even then it constantly breaks stride. And it's only difficult when you have no idea what you are doing.

But if you have no idea what you're doing, then the game's not fun to play. After all, this is about a hero who saves the princess, not a bumbling idiot who can't just f-ing pick up a f-ing cat, goddammit!

But there are times when everything clicks together and the game comes up with an interesting puzzle or a challenging fight. This is mostly in the middle half of the game. And when the game ends (with its incredibly unsatisfying boss-fight and cinematic) I found myself let down by the sheer potential that this game showed.

However, after the near-disaster that was Madden '08 it was a pleasure to get to play a game that embraced the spirit of the Wii. And, when it comes down to it, that's really the thing Zelda does best.

The star of the Wii show right now is not the games, it's the console itself.

All Clear

Sorry for not updating you on the San Diego front sooner. The fires are out or under control or something. My brother and his family came back home to find the house covered in soot, but otherwise undamaged. It sounds like the final bits of cleaning that stuff up have been completed and everything is back to normal.

And my sister never left, but I feel like I should include her in my reporting. She's fine and except for a few extra days working from home, she was pretty unaffected by the whole thing.

Though the fires are out, it appears there's still some lingering danger. Seems like a dangerous place, that San Diego.

I Got Nothin'

I haven't really felt like blogging in a while. But it's not like I've fallen off the face of the earth. Let's see, what's going on with me?

I went to a frisbee tournament this past weekend. Here are some pictures of the fiasco. Including some of yours truly.

I had a really good time. It was great to get out and play some solid ultimate again.