Might As Well Face It, I’m Addicted to DS

I’ve become entirely addicted to my Nintendo DS-Lite lately, squandering at least an hour or so on most nights trying to slay zombie cleaning ladies in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, or otherwise trying to pry the little bugger out of Carole’s Mario-Manipulating fingers.  So far, I’ve accumulated quite a little stack of treasures.  Here are the games I’ve picked up so far:

• Castlevania - Portrait of Run: great, excellent, fantastic game.  Love the character swapping and the old-school platformer style.  Much fun.
• New Super Mario Brothers: Looks very fun, but I haven’t been able to play much due to my DS-hijacking wife.  On the plus side, that gives me some time to play Twilight Princess on the Wii.
• Brain Age: Apparently, my mental age is something like 67 years old.  Not good. 
• Super Mario 64: Looks great, haven’t played it yet.  Look forward to catching up with 3d Mario with some travel I have coming up soon.
• Elite Beat Agents: Played this one for a few minutes.  Pretty innovative and fun.  Want to try this one out some more as well.
• Final Fantasy III: Only played this for a little while so far, but I have high hopes for it.
• Super Mario Kart Racing: I loves me some go-karts.
• Yoshi’s Island II: Another one I bought for Carole.  She claims this one has too much “button pushing.”  I’ve yet to pass judgement on the Egg-Master.

Games I’ve ordered, but have yet to play:

• Super Princess Peach: Uh, this one’s for Carole too.  Yeah, that’s it.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: sounds interesting.
• Trauma Center - Under the Knife: Because anyone who can operate with a d-pad the size of a midget chicken nugget deserves to be called doctor.
• Animal Kingdom – Wild World: Uh, this one’s for Brighton.  Yeah, that’s it.

All hail Nintendo, King of the Destruction of Productivity.

NaNo-NoMo?

I was ready to throw in the towel and admit defeat today … after all, it’s not likely that I’ll be able to write an average of 3,500 words over the next five days until the novel is complete.  Brighton had been pretty fussy the last several days, so I’m way behind with my word count. 

Also, next week is the last real week of classes, the graduate colloquium, the creativity showcase, and a few important meetings. 

I’m not quite ready to give up yet, though.  We’ll see how tomorrow goes…

Slashdot | Drugs Eradicate the Need For Sleep

Hmmmm … This seems like it might be … zzzzzzzzz 

Huh?  Wha?  Who’s there?   Zzzzzzzzzz

Link to Slashdot | Drugs Eradicate the Need For Sleep

NaNoWriMo: 30k, Hey Hey Hey

A little over 60% done now.  The end is in sight, but man, it’s getting tough.  As soon as this novel is done, I’m heading over to Bill O’ Reilly’s crib to play some Madden.

NaNoWriMo: Half Way There, and Livin’ on a Prayer

Whooah, we’re half way there
Livin’ on a prayer
Take my hand and we’ll make it – I swear
Livin’ on a prayer

As much as I hate to quote him, Bon Jovi actually got it right on this one.  25,000 words are now on paper, but I’m four days behind.

Here is what I need to do to actually finish on time:

Where I should be: 31,673 words
Where I am: 25,000 words
Deficit: 6,673 words
Days Left: 10
Extra Words Needed Per Day: 667.3
Total Words Needed Per Day to Finish on Time: 2,334
Average words written per day on non-NaNoWriMo tasks: ~3,000
Total words I’ll need to invest over the next ten days: ~5,300

Whoooah, Livin’ on a Prayer!  The only thing that will possibly get me through this is my fierce competitive instinct.  Well, that and copious amounts of heroin support from friends and family.

NaNoWriMo UhOh MeSlow NotSo?

Never thought I was going to be able to make my 1,667 words tonight. After a hard day of editing (who would have ever thought it could take an entire day to edit and revise a 11,000 word book chapter? And I’m still not done with the dang thing! Plus, I have another one I have to get done tomorrow!) Hmmmm … maybe I should start passing off some of this work onto my soon-to-be student assistant …

Anyway, I was out of juice and time by 11:00 when I started writing. 45 minutes later, though, I clicked the “Word Count” button and I’d gone from 16,828 words to 18,421 words. Not bad. Around 1600 words in 45 minutes. Plus, I got to introduce a new character, which was fun. Her name is Shelly, she looks to be around 100 years old or older, and she takes no nonsense from anyone. She should be a good influence on Tim-bo, who often is a little too curious and rambunctious for his own good. He should learn to be careful when dealing with the spirit world. Word is, the Oldman fella who is in charge of that place has a bit of a temper on him.

Of course this pales in comparison to the prodigious output from my pal Berserker, but that’s okay. As long as I don’t skip a day, I feel good about being able to finish this thing. We’ll see — I just took a look at next week’s schedule on my calendar and it’s going to be a Killer with a capital K. Just hope I can survive long enough to enjoy some turkey and mashed potatoes…

NaNoWriMo Day 9/30: Worst. Day. Ever.

If only I could remember who got me into this 50,000 word novel mess.  If only I could pull that one little factoid from memory, the world would be a better place.  Because I could sent Mort after that person.  Indeed.

NaNoWriMo Day 8/30: Wrists Hurt. Brain Hurt.

Well, lucky I had an extra buffer of 200 words from yesterday, because I just barely managed to squeeze in my word count for today.  This is becoming markedly more difficult as the days go by.  Story is still fun, though.  Just wish I could get someone else to type it for me

Wired 14.11: Posts: Disco Inferno

 Wired writes of a new hybrid, propane-fueled modification of Dance, Dance Revolution.  Stay on target and you’re free to shake it up like nobody’s business.  Misstep, though, and it’s Krispy-Fried time.

This would be interesting to adapt to the classroom.  I wonder if it’s possible to get funding for a set of 30 flame-retardant suits.  Not paying attention?  WHOOOOOSH.  Miss an easy question?  WHOOOOOSH.  Cell phone ringing?  WHOOOOSH.  WHOOOOSH.

You get the picture.

Link to Wired 14.11: Posts

Barbados Faces Invasion by Giant Snails

And here I was worrying about silly things like global warming, nuclear holocaust, deadly hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, and avian flu.   I don’t know about you, but Barbados is a little close for comfort.  I’m stockpiling salt starting tomorrow.  No way am I going out like that.   

Link to Barbados Faces Invasion by Giant Snails