Weekly Log - 24 through 30

Monday Nov 24

I'm probably the only human being on the face of this blue orb of debris that is bored enough to find hearing the neighbors curse because the elevators are broken and everyone has to climb their way up the building extremely entertaining. It's quiet in the house, since my Mum's at work and the kid went to school. So I've spent most of my morning hearing grumbles, curses and complaints to nobody in particular through these very thin walls. I knew I wanted a first or second floor apartment for a reason. Imagine the poor guy who lives on the eleventh floor...

Tuesday Nov 25

Thermometers dropped everywhere, all of a sudden. Yay Winter. I pride myself of having some resistance to the cold, and up until now I've been wearing short sleeves about the house. When I need to put on a sweater, my Mum is halfway frozen already, to give you an example. Today I put on an effin sweater and walked with a blanket over my shoulders half the time. I'm very sure I could breed penguins in my kitchen.

Wednesday Nov 26

Three things worry me today, in this order, from most worrisome to less:

First off, the Internet provider hasn't sent me a bill yet. It's been nearly three months. I can live with the 'net dropping from time to time, after all, this is a wireless modem, and I learned all about how shitty wireless is since I had wireless controls for the Genesis, this isn't anything new. I get pissed if I have no means of contacting 90% of my friends. Still, no bill on the horizon... it worries me not only because of this, but also that if they make trimester bills, I'm gonna have a stroke once it finally gets here. Out of sight out of mind my ass.

Then there's the fact we at this house are hardly equipped for Winter this year. Two of my blankets mysteriously vanished, can't find half my Winter clothing and the other half is getting too big for me, we don't have heaters and having several outside walls made of plywood isn't helping. See, in this building, windows go from ceiling to floor. The previous owners of this house thought it'd be a good idea to close half of it with fake wall. Of course, fake wall is shitty against cold wind, and since now the window glass only covers half the window... do the maths. We are gonna freeze our butts off before New Year's Eve.

Last but not least -not by a long shot I'm afraid- I'm a little concerned with my budget until the end of the holiday season. No job companies calling me, I'm gonna end up working with Pops, but only on the second of next month and for the minimum wage. Everyone's well aware the holiday season fucks up wallets very easily, and mine isn't very healthy. I either find a way to save some serious cash 'til January, or I may as well start looking at the part-times from five to nine. Which is about as easy as picking your nose with boxing gloves.

Thursday Nov 27

Grandma went into surgery, Grandma came out of surgery, Grandpa beat it back to the South without waiting for the surgery results. And people say I'm exaggerating when I tell them he doesn't give a rat's ass for what happens to his wife. Marrying for fifty years never seems so stupid on itself as it does when I spend a few minutes with these two. Me, I fired up Manhunt 2 and killed a few people with syringes and pens. Very amusing - took me ages to get the game to work, but it's worth it. Rockstar games are awesome: easy controls, some of the best one-liners I've heard in a game ("I've got the hands of the Devil. That's why I jerk off." had me giggling like an idiot for quite some time) and likely a very nice story. Several Grand Theft Auto installments plus Canis Canem Edit cannot be proven wrong. Manhunt 2 is great.

Friday Nov 28

It hailed all day long: rain, rain, rain. I kinda like it when the weather's like this, provided I don't need to leave the house. Of course I wouldn't be so lucky: my brother weaseled out of shopping duties by finding himself an outing to the mall, and my Mum has a cold, so I eventually had to crawl out of my warm and comfy bed to face the elements for a loaf of bread, a box of coughing medicine and some milk. Apparently everyone in this block was expecting a mild November, like last year's, so they're all coughing, sniffing, sneezing, complaining and talking funny. The guy on the coffee shop whistles from one nostril when he breathes in too, in a display of possibly one of the most irritating and hilarious afflictions one can have due to a cold.

Saturday Nov 29

Bored. Spent the day sleeping. No cigarettes today. Also, Mum took up to playing Pokémon: Gold. I wonder what is it to Pokémon games that makes them so addicting. I'll be honest, I hate the franchise to kingdom come. There was a time, a couple years ago, when everywhere you looked, there was Pokémon. Every time I saw a Pikachu somewhere, I cringed. You couldn't walk out your door without spotting at least one kid with a toy, clothing item, backpack or Gameboy featuring Pokémon. And then it was suddenly gone, like all other fads... still, the games were -and are- sickeningly addictive.

I first played Pokémon Blue Version much before it was well-known here. It was one of those games you could get easily, bootleg for the PC. It took a while to reach this part of the world, since stories of epileptic kids having seizures because of it followed the franchise wherever it went. Still, I played the game, and loved it. Then the series debuted on national TV, and the shit hit the fan. Years ago, after finishing Silver, I said to myself I wasn't gonna pick it up again. 250 cute fuzzy animals to fetch is way too much.

Still, here I am. My Gameboy Color (the sea-green sort) still works, and Mum just started Gold so... she's bound to need some Pokemon from trading right? Ah, excuses... old habits die hard...

Sunday Nov 30

Manhunt 2 is great. Very stress-relieving. I managed to get my hands on an uncut copy. With the censorship on the normal copies, you can't see anything. And I mean it, you can't tell what the heck you're doing. Reminds me of the noise filter from Silent Hill: 0rigins, only three times as bad. And that you can turn off after beating the game, there's no turning off to Manhunt 2's censorship. There's probably nothing like being pissed at someone, go home, fire up one of these games and hack off some heads. I particularly like the bat: slam and half the head's gone. Seriously, everyone who enjoys a little gore with their game should get an uncut version. And all the talk about violence? Come on people, this isn't much worse than The Suffering and the controls are so much better.

Manhunt 2 was one of the most banned games I can recall. Europe didn't get it on all platforms and when it did, it had censorship up the butt. I heard somewhere it was recalled twice. Now I finally managed to get a working copy and -whataheck? This is nothing, people, it's GTA with more red pixels! If soccer mums are okay with their kids playing GTA this is just a step above! Besides, with all the warning labels on the cover, it should be enough for any impressionable kid's parent, provided he's paying attention half the time, not to let him play it until he's twenty-one! When did the rest of the world become so pussified...?