Late to the Party: As always happens after I finish a game that I've spent over 100 hours immersed in, I really hadn't been able to settle on my next game to play yet. So I booted up the 360 for the first time in months (mostly to see what was available as the current Games for Gold download), and cycled through what I had stashed on the hard drive. I frequently download the free games and then forget about them, so I went through and deleted a couple that I'd finished and knew I was never going to play again, and then decided to give Borderlands a try. And surprise! (please read in a sarcastic tone), there was an update. Oh, yay. So it did its thing, and I tried to get the game to play, and it made it as far as the Gearbox logo screen and froze my 360. OK, I'm used to the occasional freeze, usually when playing LEGO games, so I shut down the console and restarted and tried again. Same result. Hmm... Off to the internet; Yup, update breaks the game on the 360. Solution found, third time's the charm. However, I can't play the game online, which I'm mildly disappointed about. Now, I'm not normally into FPS games, but Borderlands is fun so far. I haven't made it very far into the game and I die a lot, but fun is being had. We'll see how far I get and if I continue to have fun before the whole FPS thing gets to me.
My mom got me a $50 gift card to GameStop for Christmas, mistaking GameStop for Game Box, I think, but whatever, I'm thrilled she supports my habit. I haven't set foot in a GameStop in five years and I didn't feel like it now, either, so I just went to the website and ordered AC: Odyssey and the Spyro collection, which were the two games I was waffling between, and got AC:O on sale and was able to get them both for just $8 over what was on my gift card.
Reading: The new glasses make me oh-so-happy. I put myself down for 50 books in the Goodreads 2019 reading challenge. I started at the New Year, and I'm on book five already. The Mistress of Death is a mystery set in medieval England. Think Bones or CSI but in medieval times. I enjoyed it so much that I ordered the other three in the series. Unfortunately, the author died in 2014, so there won't be any more being written. The second book was The Last Kingdom, the book the TV series is based on. I haven't watched more than the first episode because I'd rather read the books first. Bernard Cornwell has always been an author I've enjoyed, so it's not going to be a chore at all. Book number three was an alternate history/fantasy novel set in medieval Scotland called The Temple and the Stone. I got it because I've really liked Katherine Kurtz's books in the past, but this one was only meh. The last book I completed was called Sky Burial: An epic love story of Tibet. It purports to be a biography, but it's been kind of debunked, so really a novel. Whatever. It was still a good read. And now I'm back in medieval Europe reading Rite of Conquest, another alternate history/fantasy novel by Judith Tarr. I've enjoyed almost all of her books, probably because she has a degree in medieval history and knows what she's talking about as well as being a good writer who can make her characters come alive.
Watching: Watched a really cheesy syndicated series that aired in the late 90s called The Lost World, very loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle's novel of the same title. Three seasons, each getting more and more improbable as time goes on. It was a fun watch requiring zero brain power, which was just what I needed at the time. Now I'm watching the second season of The Punisher on Netflix. Definitely my favorite of their Marvel series. Continuing with the medieval Britain theme, I also watched all of the Brother Cadfael mysteries. Which of course led to a British mystery series kick and included Grantchester, set in the 1950s and Midsomer Murders which are more or less contemporary. Did I mention I needed mindless there for a bit?
I now have the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender series on tap. I bought it on sale on Bluray with some of my Christmas gift cards.
Other stuff: Completed my first snowshoe race of the season last Sunday. I was 87 out of 92, which was better than I expected, as I hadn't been training at all this year. And it wasn't my worst time, either. And I've been chipping away at the morass of clutter that is my house. I have a large box going for Good Will, and I'm almost caught up on the laundry pile from hell (my mom gave me three rolls of quarters for Christmas, I think it was a pointed hint). Today, I'll make a dump run (my town doesn't provide municipal trash or recycling pickup, which is a major pain in the ass, as the dump is only open four days a week and only until four pm) before I go to work, where I will have to deal with the pre-snowstorm panic and we will sell out of bread and milk and TP before we close at 8 pm. One really has to view it as dark comedy or one will bash one's head in on the grocery belt.
Have a great weekend, Pixlbit Nation!
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