The Robot's Thoughts

I visited my friends in Chesterfield, whom I haven't seen in nearly 2-3 months, and it was an awesome celebration. When they throw one of their open parties, I find myself bored at the antics of obnoxious band geeks trying to be crazy/sexy/cool and all the drama that ensues.

Thankfully, since they were road tripping on Saturday, Friday night was a quiet, intimate thing. A gather of the circle of friends I used to belong to (and still do, but like the really dumb guy from friends, Joey, I've branched off onto my own spin off.)

So it was good to know that I'm actually thought of, and in fact, missed at times. And as Lisa put, "I can't believe that I've known you for four years. That's pretty amazing."

Yes, it has been pretty amazing. The college clique: We've bought each other PSPs, paid each other's rent, traded furniture, seen each other naked, sung along to the postal service, gone shot for shot, passed out repeatedly, used it each other for job references, and other crazy stuff that won't be written about, because the stories belong just to us and that's the way (uh huh, uh huh) we like it.

The Friday night party definitely had some craziness. Including a certain topless girl running around yelling something like "Duty Tuty" or what not. This led to a discussion of the, haha, 'gentlemen' present of how to encourage a topless dance party. However, since this wasn't one of those infamous star parties which have disqualified me from ever holding public office, the discussion promptly ended, and I went back to stealing jeremy's pretzel sticks while everyone else was drinking.

Lisa and Erin spent some time catching up. They haven't hung out in ages. I've always encouraged the two to hang out, as friends they complement each other well, and I think Lisa could stand to have some non-male dominated space, as she's currently living with three guys. Or as she put it, "We need more real vagina in this place, and less digital pornstar vagina."

I did miss two people I wanted to visit this trip to Pittsburgh: Greg and Abby. Abby and I have open a small dialogue, and I would like to start keeping in touch. If the rift I somehow created in our friendship can't ever be fully closed, I'm prepared to accept that, but I'm not prepared to do nothing anymore and left the friendship atrophy into nothing. Greg is just freakin' cool, and its been forever since I've talked to him, which means I've probably missed out on some good times. I wanted to catch up.

I also had an opportunity to play with a Nintendo DS. I played the new Mario Kart. I am really impressed with how the DS feels. The screen is incredibly bright; not as bright as the PSP, but with two of them, it is still impressive. The controls are responsive, the WiFi just works, the battery life was pretty decent, and the game play and graphics were fun and amazing. I didn't think there could be so much power in a lower end system. I didn't think the games would be that good on a portable. I've seen some games on PSP that truly suck ass: The Madden game, for instance. But it seems like Nintendo "gets" portable gaming better then Sony. I will probably pick up a Nintendo DS/Mario Kart bundle this week, right after I get that pesky car payment out of the way.

It just feels like a portable system I would be happy with. And from some of the musings of the Penny Arcade crew, I know I'm not alone. Also, the online gaming seems to have some 'magic' that is missing elsewhere in the console world (I haven't tried Xbox Live, so I can't speak for it). My friend Chuck and I have pretty much knocked anyone who thought online gaming was "teh future".
Other then one FPS, I never game online. When I want to game, I'm more interested in getting away from people, not interacting with them, but what Nintendo's doing with Mario Kart and Animal Crossing seems to make people as anti-online gaming as Chuck and myself convert.

So I'm excited for that. I might even post a few friend codes online here.

But I do hate the fact that it seems like I've drank the nintendo kool-aid. Its bad enough I'm an apple fanboy. (The MacBook Pro will be mine!)
Especially since I was a sega kid growing up, this makes me feel like a defector, but considering that Sonic can only be played on the Xbox and the gamecube right now, you really have to pick your poison. And while I would love it if Activision would publish some of its MechWarrior games for the gamecube, I'm not going to spend money on more then one portable system and one gaming system: I'm not in the mood, and I don't game enough. And while the PS2 would be THE system to have if you're just buying one (Shadow of Colusses, DDR, Guitar Hero, Shadow the Hedgehog, the Final Fantasies and Dragon Warrior) I made my choice and I'm sticking with it.

Besides, the PS2 doesn't have Zelda.