Day Eighty-two: evening of October 23rd 2009

After last night, I was drained. During the day, I spoke to my sister, checked in with our vet regarding our pet‘s nocturnal adventure, took care of some other minor household work, and then I slept (deep, deep sleep - the text message notification went off on my iPhone in my pocket and I didn't hear of feel it).

I did manage to sneak in a little bit of Burnout Paradise, a racing video game. I’m not a big fan of racing games, but I’ve fun play its previous incarnation - Burnout Revenge. Rather than having a selection of individual race course locations, it uses a combination of street grid and open road as the race location. At intersections, you stop, rev your engine and, if your car is capable, you are issued a challenge scenario that can be a variety of activities ( some examples: beat the clock to the next marker, road rage, and positional races). Winning any of the competitions, results in a license upgrade and a new vehicle. I’ve been playing it for about an hour and a half, and even though I’m a relative newb at this game, I feel at ease with the controls. The city and country landscapes are vivid and enhance the visual effect, furthering the impression of speeding along. The ability to save at any point after a race or stunt event, is a nice feature. All this permits me to suspend disbelief, focus on the roadway, the cars surrounding me, and put the “petal to the metal.” Fun with a capital “F.”

Prior to my sister’s phone call in the morning, I was checking Facebook when I saw a post by one of my Senn alums/friends. He found out that I had more trophies in Uncharted 2 than he did and used that as a spur to get the platinum trophy (meaning he has gotten all the other trophies). That was a pleasant surprise. Now, the group of Senn alums want me to join in an online game, The only thing holding me back is my lack of a headset, so I’m going to have to get one so that we can communicate. I would really like to try a cooperative game with them. That would be a new adventure - will wonders ever cease.