This and that and my birthday

Time for another one of those posts where I jump from one thing to the next, ranting about meaningless, mostly personal matters that don’t interest you. Broken down in categories for your reading convenience!

Blog

First of all, I pushed the Zombie Week back a couple of weeks, because there was no way I could’ve written all those reviews in time. I haven’t even watched all those movies yet. I mean, I have watched each of them more than once before, but I haven’t watched all of them again for the purpose of reviewing them. I kind of like how this event will coincide with the release of Left 4 Dead.

Secondly, I have removed the tag cloud from the sidebar. As the number of tags rises, it becomes a hassle to browse them via a huge, messy cloud. I might start using sub-categories to make things a bit easier to find. The tags are still there, obviously. Just not accessible from the sidebar.

Getting older

I turned twenty a few days ago and I’d like to dedicate a few words to this. I don’t really mind birthdays; it’s one or two days before that it really dawns upon me that I’m getting old. This particular birthday came and went rather painlessly and I’m now in my 20s. Most of the people I expected to remember it, remembered. Some even surprised me by sending wishes I didn’t expect at all. So thanks! You’re awesome.

I also fed a stray dog that was sleeping on my doorstep in the evening of my 20th birthday. I felt better about myself and about the world.

Reading books or even manga

My reading list for the past week was birthday-themed. I read Birthday Stories, an anthology of short stories selected by none other than Haruki Murakami. I was a bit suspicious about this at first. I thought the inclusion of a popular novelist’s name was nothing more than a good way to sell more copies. But the selection is very interesting and Haruki contributes a foreword, as well as a short story. [Incidentally, that short story is about a girl turning twenty.]

Then I began reading 20th century boys, which I find oddly compelling. It’s your standard Japanese pop narrative: a bittersweet, melancholic story about growing up, which is, of course, mixed with a pretty ridiculous fantasy story about, erm, psychic powers and robots(?).

I don’t really know yet, because I haven’t read the whole thing (it’s huge!). I plan to, though. I haven’t really finished any manga series before, yet this seems to captivate my interest. Also, if it sounds dangerously similar to Evangelion, believe me, it’s not. This one has a human, personal quality to the narrative that Eva lacks. Not to mention that the ZOMG ROBOTS parts are, so far, much less pronounced.

Oh, and the image used in this post is from the manga.

Playing video games

Last week I finished Mother 3. It was awesome. In fact, I think I may have spent the exact moment I turned twenty playing the game.

The thing is so perfectly made and with such attention to detail, that I can’t think of anything I would remove from or add to the game to improve it. Or anything I’d change, for that matter. Itoi’s story ties together magnificently. Not a line of dialogue is wasted, out of place or otherwise unnecessary. The story sequences are fantastic. The graphics are beautiful and stunningly animated. The soundtrack is a worthy successor to that of EarthBound, which was one of the best SNES soundtracks (and that’s a real testament to its quality).

Yes, the game a bit short and more linear than the previous entries to the series, but I prefer it to both Mother 1 and 2 (or EarthBound Zero and EarthBound). If EB was a brilliant, deconstructivist take on the JRPG genre, this one is a much more standard JRPG and excels at it. One of the best games I’ve ever played! Give it a try, or disappoint every Mr. Saturn in existence.

After failing to run Corpse Killer (see previous post), I decided to play Snatcher instead. I’ve devoted some hours to Earthbound Zero as well. No time for huge games, so an adventure game and a primitive RPG will have to do.

Speaking or RPGs, I got a collector’s edition of Fallout 3, mainly because that Vault Boy bobblehead is so awesome. And looks great on my desk. It’s surprisingly well-made, too (I’m looking at you, Big Daddy statuette from Bioshock!). Keeps me company while studying. I’ll probably post my impressions of the game once I’ve actually played a bit of it.

Bonus content

For those of you who have read this far: I was walking to the bus stop yesterday morning, when I notice a van parked somewhere near my house with a radiation warning sign on it. I immediately went closer (ha!) and discovered it was a vehicle used for the transportation of radioactive material. I might have been irradiated.

That’s all.