The Trouble With Being God

Use Real Sugar

Posted by Bill under Music

In addition to the work on the book, I’ve decided it’s time to start exploring another creative channel.  It’s been about ten years now since Tommy and I started DJing.  We quit quite a while ago, but we still have our love for it.

The latest plan isn’t to DJ again though.  It’s to finally start making music, which is something we had always planned on doing.  Since it’s been ten years and we haven’t done anything, we figure if we don’t actually do something, we never will.  So we are.

Use Real Sugar is coming back.  We’ve got a lot of the gear already.  I picked up one of the last remaining pieces today: a used Fender Cyclone electric guitar.  We still need a few more bits and pieces, but the major things are now in place (although I’m still waiting for a few things to show up in the mail yet).

Anyway, here’s the treasure trove.

The Book Is Written, Now I Just Need to Write It

Posted by Bill under book

Yesterday Hope got a membership to a local health club.  Today she is there working out, and she took Liam with her.  He’s currently in their day-care area.  This gave me a chance to sit down and try writing some more. 

Today I figured out what the path is from where the book is to where it ends.  It was always there… but I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.  It’s pretty exhilirating to know my path now though.

It looks like I’m about 5/7 of the way done.  Now that I have everything else planned out though it could potentially be smooth sailing.  Also, since I have always known how it ends the ending part will potentially be the easiest to write (although it could be the hardest, since it could be the hardest to translate to words).

Anyway, I wrote two new chapters today - a total of four pages.  Yeah, I know they’re short… but the next one is going to be pretty damn long I think.  I also wrote a quick outline of notes about the rest of the book.  No, I am not going to post them.

Here’s a new short snippet though.  Probably won’t make much sense… but here it is.

SPOILER ALERT:

The door to the bar opened, although no one paid it much attention.  No one other than Steven, at least.  Into the bar walked a woman, probably in her mid-thirties.  She was pretty, with blue-grey eyes and long blond hair down past her shoulders.  She was dressed conservatively: charcoal slacks and a long-sleeved black blouse.  Steven looked to her eyes again and they met.  There was a shared emptiness.  She took the seat next to Steven.

“What are you having, miss?” asked the bartender gruffly.

“This gentleman next to me would like to buy me a scotch and soda,” she replied.

“I would?” asked Steven, a bit incredulously.

“Do you want to fuck me or not?”

Lost: Via Domus (XBox 360)

Posted by Bill under Videogames, book

The LOST fans that Hope and I are, we pretty much had to get the new LOST videogame for the XBox 360.  The reviews weren’t all that great, but it’s LOST so that sealed the deal right there.

Anyway, we’ve spent a few hours since Wednesday playing the game, and I think I’ve played enough to give some of my opinions.  This is not going to be a real review, since I don’t feel like writing a whole review.  I do feel like posting something on the blog now though, and I figure this is as good a topic as any.

The gameplay in Via Domus is pretty basic adventure fare, and unfortunately suffers from a lot of tedious missions and gameplay dynamics.  Basically, find coconuts, trade for torches, try to find your way through a cave and not fall into a pit.  There’s also the minigame type things where you have to put fuses into place on a circuit board.  It’s quite similar to the hacking system in BioShock, except it’s not fun at all.

The voices for the most part are also not the original voices, except for Ben, Desmond and a few others.  Locke and Sawyer are pretty horrendous, but Kate and Jack are passable.  It really pulls you out of the game when the voices don’t match the faces… but the strangest part is that the sound that is played when the LOST logo is displayed on the screen at the beginning of each episode isn’t the same one as on the TV.  I find it hard to believe they couldn’t get rights to that sound from the show, but I also find it hard to believe they would have gone through the work of creating a new, but similar sound for the game.  Just doesn’t make sense at all.

The flashbacks are also an interesting addition, and essential to really making a LOST game.  Unfortunately the best way to pass these seems to be to take pictures of random areas of the room until you get a signal that you’re at least in the right area.

The main character’s backstory is barely interesting so far… except it does seem to have the potential to tie in to the LOST story arc if it keeps going in the direction it appears to (we’re currently about 2/3 of the way through the game).  We’ll see.

At any rate, the game is a really easy way to earn achievements, and it’s something that Hope and I can play together… and we’re going to get our $60 out of it, dammit.

On a completely different note, our new laser printer should be coming today.  I’ve been wanting to reprint what I have written so far in the book (currently about 170 pages) so that I can re-read parts to refresh myself as to what is all going on.  Yes, I know I wrote it - but some of it was written like 8 years ago, so I can’t recall all the details.  I definitely know the story and it’s main events, as well as the general path to the eventual ending (the ending has always been the same).  Regardless, it will be good to remember the little things too so that everything ends up tying together the way it was meant to.  It will also help me get back into that world so the words come more quickly.