Random Happenstance

(Mostly) Off-topic: Coming soon, and more.


It's still Wednesday as I write this, but with the holiday no new comics today. And I was getting excited to pick up Silver Surfer: Requiem, since it's the Book of Doom at Doomkopf.com, the Legion of Doom this week, and I'm guesting over there! Be sure to hit them up on Saturday, and see if it's worth buying, like the last Surfer limited, or if it's utter tripe, like the one before that.

I had other stuff lined up for here, but felt kind of lost today.

I miss video games.

I know that's probably an odd thing to say, since they are pretty much everywhere. Part of it is, I don't have as much time to sit around playing them anymore, either because of blogging or because of the kids. The Oldest and I used to play old school games on the Playstation 2 quite a bit, until the Youngest finally was able to roll off the bed if you weren't looking. (I swear, he only did that once, and he had never rolled before! 'Course, it did put him off rolling for a while afterwards...)

I picked up the X-Men 3 movie tie-in game a while ago out of a clearance bin; it's not a masterpiece of gaming, but I wanted to see why Nightcrawler bagged out of the third movie. Still, I haven't devoted any time to playing it; not because it's not interesting, but I don't seem to have the obsessive drive to finish a game right fricking now anymore.

I also miss arcade games, and the days when they were in every pizza parlor, convenience store, and mall. Oh, there's still a couple in town, but the games are becoming decrepit, eat quarters without starting, and are handled by progressively stickier children and surly pre-teens. And I've reached that age where I seem suspicious hanging out in an arcade without my own kids (thank you, Dateline...) yet taking them involves herding the Youngest and feeding quarters to the Oldest. My days of being able to quietly play Marvel vs. Capcom are over. (Also, my gaming skills are atrophying from age and disuse. I can't combo for anything...)

That said, I've been going to the gym again, doing yoga with my wife, and hitting the stationary bike and stair machines. I'm all about the cardio, and don't do a lot of lifting, but left to my own devices I'll bike or climb for an hour or two at a time. The problem now is keeping my mind occupied while droning along on the machine: the headphones are on, but that's not enough. Yesterday, one TV had WNBA, the other had the Rob Lowe movie Youngblood. Rrrrr. I've been re-reading Marvel Adventures collections--not the digest versions, so they're big enough to be easily handled and read, but I'm running out.

The Spider-Man game above was on sale at Target, and I waited a day before convincing myself I needed it more than air or food. I find myself doubting the gameplay is especially 'deep,' (Note: yeah, it's not.) but I like these little games as display pieces as well.

And after I jotted this down this afternoon, I went to the comic store anyway, since I had time after dropping the Oldest at basketball. Bought 14 bucks worth of quarter books, which I've barely made a dent on yet. I'll see what's worth a quarter, what I should've bought at full price, and what I should've got for less; and get back to you.