PixlBit

Two weeks ago, the school where I work conducted their "Black & Gold" (school colors) basketball game night to kick off the new season. It was basically all the varisty teams playing scrimmage but it was also an opportunity for a bake sale and God knows what else. Honestly, I stayed the hell out of that building unless someone reported a mess that needed to be cleaned up.

I've gone over this before on my blog but I hate hate HATE basketball season, i.e., I hate cleaning up after home games. There is something about that main gym that entices people, young and old, to treat it like shit. I don't get it. When I got to work that Tuesday afternoon to prep the gym, one kid had already taken a shit in one of the urinals. Every night for two weeks, I've had to deal with one rotten young goof who fucking loves to lock restroom stall doors from the inside. Everything is a jungle gym.

One Wednesday night, the gym was used for a combination Christian rock concert (local band or student band, I suppose) / skit performance that lasted for 2 hours but extended to 3 due to students just running around and going nuts and making noise for an hour. I sat in a nearby office, taking a breather and getting really impatient because of the delay.

The next Thursday, one final football game for the junior varsity and 7th grade teams took place. The only good thing about that event was that it finally brought their seasons to a close. I still had to worry about a playoff game last Friday (on a cold ass night in the low 20s, of course) but I'm hoping the home team gets stomped and the football season wraps up for good. [Update: It didn't. They won which means they'll probably play again if they have home field advantage.]

It felt like a truly punishing work week so I took one Friday off. My mother, one of my aunts and my sister were in town so that evening I drove to my brother's house to meet them, visit and eat at the local Ruby Tuesday. I don't eat out at restaurants like that very often but the spicy jalapeno pretzel-bun burger I ordered was so damn tasty. Afterwards we went back to my brother's place, ate some dessert his wife had prepared (she's a damn good cook) and watched the Star Trek film reboot on FX (very fitting, seeing's how this is a family of Trekkies).

I returned to the local cineplex for the first time in 3-4 months so I could see John Wick and Interstellar, both of them satisfying viewings. John Wick is a sleeper of an action flick with Keanu Reeves in one of his best performances as a retired legendary hit-man who picks up the guns again after some stupid Russian gangster punks break into his house, steal his car and kill his beloved dog. Wick then basically shoots everyone in the face (no joke; he loves those headshots). At 90 minutes (give or take), its a slick actioner and the director (a stuntman who was Reeves' double in the Matrix films) shows considerable promise.

Interstellar has been polarizing audiences but I'm suspecting that a portion of the people rejecting it are doing so for the most childish of reasons. Christopher Nolan films have created a sense of expectation and anyone expecting another Inception or Memento or The Prestige will most likely be disappointed here. This isn't a bleak, mind puzzle game. Nolan has crafted an epic that is very optimistic and truly wears its heart on its sleeve. The film plans to recapture the importance of space travel and how we need to utilize it long before a scenario arrives when mankind's existence is at stake. Lemme put it this way: if you watched Inception and you think the point of that last scene was whether or not the top falls over, you'll probably have a problem (maybe only initially) with Interstellar. 

Gaming wise, still plowing through Destiny. I've got all Legendary gear for my level 28 Warlock and some exotic weapons so the endgame stuff feels like a fair challenge. Also a fair challenge is my performance in the Crucible. I'm not a stickler for kill/death ratios - since I really don't do well enough for that to even matter - but they're improving. The defacto deathmatch mode, Clash, is where I usually do good. I once hated Control but I've warmed up to it. Playing with friends is still the way to go and I can depend on my friends to be online so that can happen. 

Diablo 3 has turned into a nice pick-up-and-play game with the Adventure mode. I've pretty much been gold-farming since I've spent so much upgrading my loot chest size and converting gems. I still haven't played through any of the rifts but I guess I'm waiting for some friendlies to share that experience with. 

I restarted my Gamefly membership AGAIN so I can play the numerous new releases that I can't afford. Wolfenstein: The New Order came in recently and so far, it's been an enjoyable game. It definitely has a better story than you'd expect from that franchise.

I've never been a big fan of the GTA series. I can admire what they've done for open world/sandbox games and the innovations in graphics, game world building and even writing can be respected. But I've never liked playing a criminal. This didn't seem to stop me from buying Vice City, San Andreas and GTA IV when they were on sale back in October via PSN. I only spent about $11.50 for all of them so we'll see if I can warm up to them. If not, I don't feel like I've hurt myself money-wise.