It’s Time for Carnival!

Hot new navigation. Kindly refresh your browser if what you see is not making you wet yourself. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

It’s been a weird couple of days. I spent the weekend all hot and bothered with intense Warcraft III marathons, which gives you some indication how up I am on computer game culture. I mean, Warcraft III. That was, like, so summer 2002. I used to be way into video games, but I gave them up my freshman year in college because I had forty-seven classes a semester and the first few weeks of school I had nothing to do so I just played multiplayer Half-Life against my roommate but that didn’t last long because we were both music majors and soon found our collective asses chewed inside out by the unrewarding academic rigors of the arts.

I’ve had a few fits and starts of game obsessions since then, I suppose, but nothing as sustained as my love for Final Fantasy VII my senior year in high school. I mean, damn. My entire group of nerd friends, we hardly ever crawled out of our troll caves that summer cuz we were so busy hammering away. Metal Gear Solid kicked major ass and bore many inside jokes (“Huh? What was that noise? Huh… just a box.”), and long-time readers will remember my stint with Final Fantasy IX, which was most appealing because the main character’s name was Dane and he was all tryin’ to get with the princess and stuff, and she was so totally hot.

The game Max Payne had one of the greatest storylines ever, second only to the captivating plot of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3. I had my obligatory summer fling with Grand Theft Auto 3, and I picked up Grand Theft Auto Vice City when it came out, but I was whoopin’ ass trying to graduate and my roommate Doug took the helm, beating the game, finding the Apache helicopter and everything. I still play off his save games, cuz he’s got all the guns and the Miami Vice cars and everything.

So yeah, when I say I haven’t really been into video games since I left for college, I mean I haven’t really been into video games since I left for college. Playing Warcraft reminds me that I have no desire to become a raving video game fan, talking about scripting languages at work reminds me that I have no desire to become a full-on geek, and browsing the latest hot websites reminds me that short of going back to college to study 2D digital design I have little chance of ever becoming a notable graphic designer. Honestly, I have no idea what I wanna do. Except kick someone’s ass. And I’m okay with that.

So, thanks to Warcraft III and alcohol, this weekend I tried my hand at becoming nocturnal. I would stay up until 3:30 in the morning doin’ stuff, like gnarling my wrists gaming or shredding my fingers practicing bass, wake up at 11:00 in the morning, rinse, repeat. My friend Shane recently picked up The Sims House Party, so we spent the better part of Sunday night building houses and inviting people over to party. The hot tub would flood the living room. A police officer issued us a noise violation. Drey Carey dropped by. No one ever hung out in the den, even though it had modern art and a Tiki god.

Monday night I hung out with a friend and we grilled some meat and drank some beer and worked on transcribing songs. I figured out the bass lines to some Beatles, Elliot Smith, Beck and Weezer, and eventually the night degenerated into drinking PBR and watching Saving Silverman. I woke up in Sunriver at 7:00 and drove to work. That night I watched Finding Nemo and So I Married an Axe Murderer with my roommate, drank Red Stripe, and I rode my bike back to work at 9:30 p.m. to drink beer and help (hamper) the installation of a new T-1 line. Morgoth rocked the Euro Trash music stream and I rocked the Pabst and did a lot pf needed maintenance on this site (comment previews, comment listings, header hyperlinks, photolog index, hot navigation buttons, etc).

AT&T didn’t have its act together so the line didn’t get installed, but we were at the shop working, talking, coding and partying until 2:30 in the morning. I got on my bike and swerved home under a full moon, only to wake up five hours later for a morning meeting with a client. Tonight I watched the documentary American Pimp, revisted Warcraft III, and ever since I killed a spider in the shower this morning I have been convinced that I’m constantly being bitten by black widows.

With all the excitement it’s time to crash for the night, which is more exciting than it sounds because I’ve been having wacky dreams, lately. Last night I jumped out of a plane flying over the Cascades, riding a mountain bike. The night before I was flying the Space Shuttle, watching people kiteboard off the coast of Baja California.

And tonight, it’s time for Carnival.