Sdtrk: ‘The drowning man’ by The cure

After being harangued by a certain someone I know, due to the fact that I’m not writing as regular as I should be*, hier ist das post!

Yesterday I went out into the world to run a couple of errands. I began my day travelling south, toward downtown Detriot — well, past it actually; down Jefferson, and past Belle isle — as I’m attempting to get a student loan thru the Michigan Job Works people, and I was advised to speak to the people at the Conner branch. I was told that I’d have to bring my letter from the unemployment agency, stating my eligibility for getting dole cheques, but I apparently needed a copy of my resume via the Michigan Job Works Talent bank. It’s great; when you go on the dole, you have to register thru the Talent bank, and you get to create this rather basic & slapdash resume. It’s like a Fisher-Price resume, as it doesn’t go into great detail at all. So the lady that I spoke with said that all I had to do was go downstairs to their Talent bank offices, and print up a copy. Simple pimple.

Making a beeline for the office, the first thing I saw inside was a queue at the front desk about eight to ten people in length, waiting to sign in and be assigned a terminal. Apparently, you couldn’t just walk in, sit down, and go about your business; you had to basically be led by the hand over to a computer. I looked around for a couple of seconds, then headed straight for the first open computer, sat down, and logged in. Pulling up my resume & printing the bastard took all of two minutes; it would’ve taken about half that time, were the servers not slow as shite. Having pulled off that little circumvention, I headed back upstairs and left my ‘resume’ with the woman I’d spoken with. With any luck, I’ll hear from someone in a couple of weeks..

After buying a Dr pepper, I rocketed north up I-75 to my old job locale, Quest diagnostics, as one of my friends who still works there told me on Sat that they were hiring in the client service department. Normally, the thought of working aImost any other position at Quest diagnostrilsticks would be a severe non-option, as I’d already done my three-year tour of duty there, working as a specimen processor Monday through Friday (and one Saturday a month) from 8pm to 5am. The positions open, however, don’t require me to wear rubber gloves and handle other people’s bodily fluids; this was paper-pushing & phone answering. After gabbing a bit with a mate of mine working the Human resources desk, he gave me the applications, and followed that up with a five-minute typing test (three mistakes, 1% error ratio). My only problem is is that the client service gig goes from 9am to 5.30, which would be perfect if it was 9am to 5pm instead, as my class is at 6pm, and I’d have to fight rush-hour traffic for roughly ten miles down southbound 75. Hrm. We’ll see. With any luck, I’ll hear from someone in a couple of weeks..

Heading up — well, down — the motorway, going home, I stopped round to the Troy BestBuy, to see if they had vol.2 of Giant robo in stock, as I’d been there twice since late December, without knowing that the release date had been secretly pushed back, in some sort of twisted experiment to see how long it would take before I finally snapped, whereupon BestBuy would be littered with the disemboweled corpses of its blue-shirted drones, and not even the lure of the new Lindsey Lohan Cd being on sale would bring shoppers there any longer, due to the hauntings and the overpowering smell of carrion. But not today! Today, I got to sheathe my lucky machete, cos they had copies of one of the greatest anime serials ever made — and it was only $9.99! On top of that, I was finally able to use that $15 gift certificate, so I didn’t spend any money there at all! Rock on!

And also noteworthy: Friday eve, I was pleased to actually meet a fellow RealDoll owner in the flesh, as we both live literally a couple of miles away from each other. What are the odds? Phoebe‘s lucky lad mahtek & I had a cuppa over at a nearby Coffee Beanery for a couple of hours, trading tips, discussing the Synthetik mistresses that run our lives, and blabbing about other non-Doll-related topics as well. He seems like a nice fella; wouldn’t hear a word against him. 🙂 Always good to meet other like-minded individuals..

So there you have it! Up next on the list (what list?)
+ a bit or two about my current school experiences
+ and a hundred or so things about me.

*thanx for lighting a fire under my arse — again🙂

Why was I not told about this?? This looks better than Charlie and the Chocolate factory, which already looks good as it is. I’m excited. Are you excited?

Okay, so I’ve not posted in a while. I have to remedy that. Maybe tomorrow I’ll provide some sort of ersatz update as to my life & recent livelihood, but since there really hasn’t been a whole hell of a lot going on with me lately, I’ve no idea what I’ll be writing. Hrm.
As for right now, it’s like four hours past my ‘bedtime’, so I’m off

It seems that IREM is making a sequel to Zettai zetsumei toshi, known in the States as Disaster report. That certainly came out of nowhere! Disaster report is another one of those niche games for the PS2 that I love so desperately, cos apparently in all things, I must be obscure. Anyway, I’d write more about it, but instead, I’m simply going to Copy and Paste a review I wrote for Mike’s vulne pro Forum, back when we knew nothing about the game, and had no clue that it would be released domestically. *copies, pastes*

Topic: Zettai zetsumei toshi. Horrifying, yet strangely compelling
Posted: 4/29/2002 02:53

On Sun Derek clued us into a new game coming out for the PS2 in Japan entitled ‘Zettai zetsumei toshi’, by IREM, the phantastik company that brought the world R-type. I was like, ‘Holy crap, IREM is still around??’ Well, they are, and their latest offering is truly something to behold, and will probably never see the light ov day in the States.

ZZT’s premise starts out relatively simply. It takes place in 2005, on a manmade island off the coast ov mainland Japan. The story starts just after an earthquake tears the island to pieces. You are a reporter who, in a nutshell, has to look for anyone who is still alive & needs help, while trying to find a way to get the living hell off the island. Did I mention the island is still very much in the process ov falling apart? Take a look at the promotional video (sorry, that link is long dead), or check out the official site.

The thing that really strikes me the most about this game is that it really seems to convey a sense ov ‘everything everywhere is fucked forever’. The video alone is aktually pretty scary to watch, in some respekts. It’s one thing to have zombies or monsters or whatnot chasing after you, but it’s another thing entirely when the very ground that you’re standing on – something not normally known to shake & jump around (at least not for us Michiganders) – starts doing the hokey pokey beneath you; and when something like that happens, there’s really no place you can go to escape. My impression ov the fakt that this game comes out ov Japan, the very land where people have to deal with potential situations like that at least once in their lifetimes, leaves me feeling rather odd. That’s as if a games manufakturer in Pompeii were to create a game about trying to leave a town that’s situated at the base ov an erupting volcano. I suppose you could see ZZT as a training for any future natural disasters, but it still makes me feel weird.

Having said that, if ZZT ever made it Stateside, I would pick it up almost immediately. It has an entirely compelling story, and much like Shenmue, exploring in the game brings across a sense ov being in Japan. Only falling apart and on fire. And the graphik design ov the box itself is very ace/ominous. Will it show up in our chain stores? I doubt it, as the game is very, very Japanese. But then, I’d said that about Shenmue.. personally, I’m not holding my breath. (I’m just waiting for the PS2 mods to come out that’ll let me play it!)

Zettai zetsumei toshi. Know it, learn it, live it.

And now there’s a sequel! Nothing’s been heard about any Stateside distributors, so we’re all kinda holding our collective breath, here. Regarding Disaster report; the bad news is that it’s somewhat difficult to find stores that still stock copies. The good news is whenever I’ve seen it, it’s been $20 or less. And if you can’t procure a copy, you can always see what Tycho & Gabe of Penny Arcade said about it, which was pretty apt.

It’s a fine game. A creepy game, but a fine game

A certain friend of mine commented to me today that if I would only have some sort of ‘wish list’ located somewhere on my site, detailing the things that I myself would like to own, that it wouldn’t be so hard to shop for me.

That is a cracking idea. And now, as if by Magick, there exists such a wish list, sponsored by Amazon.com, and located towards the bottom of the lefthand sidebar! How is that even possible?
Well, actually HTML makes it possible, but you didn’t hear that from me

So what comics do I like, you axe? Well, I haven’t read print comics in several years, with the exception of Max Cannon’s Red meat, and that’s only because it’s printed in our local alternative paper, so my choices would be predominantly Internet-based.

As most of them are daily, I’ve got ’em bookmarked in a folder of tabs. In order of reading preference, I’ve got
+ Brian Clevinger’s 8-bit Theatre
+ WIGU, by Jeff Rowland, which just concluded its three-year run at the beginning of this year. Before that, he did When I Grow Up, and now he’s working on Overcompensating, which is basically an illustrated Blog. He’s got some super-secret project that he’s supposed to be starting soon, so his readership is waiting with bated breath
+ Diesel sweeties, always a winner
+ Krakow, by Krazy Krow
+ Dorothy Gambrell’s Cat and Girl
+ Barry Smith’s Angst Technology. His site, InkTank.com, contains three ongoing comics, but Angst Technology is really the only one I like. Weak-end Warriors never really appealed to me, as it’s all paintball-based humour, and Sorry, We’re Open started out alright, but now it seems to be just a series of RPG-based gags. If you learn nowt else about me, you’ll discover that I hate RPGs
+ Achewood took a while to grow on me, but it’s rather enjoyable
+ Pathetic, Inc. ‘All images are found with images.google.com. Images are arranged into humorous patterns with Adobe Photoshop.’ How cool is that??
+ Daily dinosaur comics, on qwantz.com. Yes, it’s always the same six panels, but it’s what they say that’s funny, maaan
+ Can You Believe I’m Single?, which seems to be in some sort of holding pattern at the time of this writing
+ You Damn Kid! has been kinda hit-or-miss recently
+ Updated whenever, Van von Hunter usually never fails to amuse. It’s been how many years, and that rescued princess/sidekick still hasn’t mentioned her name?
+ Sometimes Questionable Content gets a little too indie for my liking, but it’s worth it for Pintsize
+ The Useless Superheroes, which would be cooler if Mark S. Inman actually updated every once in a while
+ the brilliant Scary go Round, by John Allison. One of my all-time favourites. Also worth reading is his previous series, Bobbins. Scary go Round is a lot more surreal version of its former self, whereas Bobbins is more of a soap opera filtered thru Seinfeld. In fact Jerry Seinfeld makes an appearance in a couple of Bobbins strips! WINNER
+ My other all-time favourite? Penny Arcade, baby. I save the best two comics for last

Runners-up would include The Karnak Hates Everything Show, Maakies, the My new filing/fighting technique is unstoppable/Adventures of confessions of Saint Augustine Bear/Get your war on cabal, and Leisure town (which you can’t really count cos no new ones are being made). I tend to gravitate towards comics that area either surreal, or darkly humourous, or both. And these fit the bill. Above all, they’re original. They don’t rely on recycling the same goddamn joke or gag over and over ad infinitum. Even at their unfunniest, they’re still miles better than reading sanitised ‘comedy’ that makes me miserable instead of happy

Hey kids —

look what I found. 🙂 Archives for Leisure town, the best goddamned online comic ever made. It even includes interviews with Tristan Farnon, and a couple of other ‘interesting’ links. This seriously made my day about 50% less shitty

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