Me and Aldaris (p32): Secret

Toby shoved some cold spaghetti in his mouth.  He'd wanted to hang out with some friends and catch dinner, but the Korean knocked out cold on the couch of his flat said otherwise.  He'd been excited when Cheonha first randomly showed up in his favorite cafe, but that was before the translation mishaps and Cheonha nodding off at the table.

I forgot the time differences.  Toby shoved in more leftovers and chewed.  Cold spaghetti is my favorite food.  It is right now, anyway.

Toby went around the bar that divided the kitchen and living space, then sat at one of his bar stools and plunked the plastic bowl of spaghetti on the bar. It was easier to keep an eye on Cheonha that way.  Not that she need an eye on her.  Since getting to the flat she hadn't done more than collapse on his couch and pass out.

Actually, Toby was disappointed with more than that.  He'd met an alien, but Aldaris was boring -- nothing at all like the Doctor, or any other alien in media.  Aldaris was no adventuring explorer, sage mystic, or sinister invader.  Toby's life wasn't at all more interesting.  So far, he'd seen two minutes worth of New York, had a nice dinner with a Chinese family, and become the unexpected host of a randomly appearing Korean.  There wasn't so much as one wild space adventure romp.  Toby made a point to ask Aldaris if they could orbit and look at the moon, next time he went up.  At least that would be interesting.

Come on now, Charlie, get that teleporter working!  Why haven't you tried to find Cheonha yet? Certainly you know when your teleporter is being used. Toby stirred his noodles into a tornado around his fork.  And next time I see you, try to be a bit more exciting!

Return to Nitpickery: Mystic Warrior

Alright, so our next Starcraft official novelist is Tracy Hickman, the guy who wrote Starcraft: Speed of Darkness.  He brings us today the story Mystic Warrior, book one of the Bronze Canticles series.

Return to Nitpickery: King's Man and Thief

Hey y'all.  So this blog sees the return of Christie Golden, author of the Dark Templar trilogy.  In my new series Return to Nitpickery, we'll be going over the original fiction of authors to compare it to the work they did when creating their entry/ies in the Starcraft official novel franchise.  It feels unfair to judge a writer based on work they did for a franchise they don't have the right to properly control. It's not their characters, not their plot, and their creativity is instantly limited, particularly if Blizzard had specific things they wanted to accomplish with the book.

So the first book up will be Christie Golden's King's Man & Thief.

I had to use this picture because it's the only one bigger than a stamp.

Me and Aldaris (p31): Human After All

There were some days when Lee Cheonha just didn't like to work.  This was one of those days.  Sure, working in a shop wasn't so bad, and the pay was enough for Cheonha's few expenses, but for the moment Cheonha was happy to be walking home.  She walked quietly down the crowded streets of Seoul, dodging all the young teens and twenty-somethings going out to have fun.  Cheonha briefly considered calling Eunha to go somewhere.

No, I do not think so. Cheonha hurried past a toekkbokki stand.  I am far too tired for the karaoke bar or the PC bang.  Eunha always wants to go to those places.

To Cheonha, nothing sounded better than simply going home and lying on the couch.  Maybe break open her english workbooks and study again, if she felt like it, though she wasn't convinced she could make a decision until she had the chance to kick off her shoes.  The rest of the walk home passed by in a daze, and Cheonha soon found herself unlocking her door.  

With a yawn, Cheonha stretched and plopped down on the couch, without even bothering to remove her purse (and forgetting entirely about her shoes).  She sat down on beside it, closing her eyes for just a moment.

Wait....that smell...

End of March Update

Hey y'all.   So it's almost two in the morning right now, and I'm still working on some outlines for school.  I can't go to sleep yet, because they're due tomorrow and I need to make sure that they're ready by two o'clock.  Yeah, weird 'net class due time.

In any case, that's why I haven't been posting as much lately.  I've been working on a lot of school stuff, and this particular class has got me nervous, as I'm struggling through it right now, and my graduation depends on how well I can do on the next three tests.  I can't afford much distraction right now.

On the other hand, I haven't let this blog slip.  For one thing, I am working on my next Me and Aldaris post, so expect that soon.  Also, I'm planning on doing a series where I read and review non-Starcraft works of the authors of official Starcraft fiction, so that we can see how well their original work compares to a book on another entity's franchise.  I've already gotten a William C. Dietz book from work ready to go.

So please be patient with me, good content coming soon!  Also, I get my associate's degree this May (this particular class notwithstanding), so in the summer I'll have more time to get some stuff going here.  Maybe one of these days I'll stick to a set schedule, but we'll see what happens.

Nitpickery: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Hey y'all.  It's party time.

Five Arguments Against Good Graphics in Video Games

Hey y'all.  So as a kid, I dreaded the future of video games.  Why?  Because graphics were getting better.  Sure, the sample display of Star Fox 64 at the video store (yeah, this was the mid-nineties) looked pretty fun, but I didn't like the idea of game consoles having really great, developed graphics. Star Fox 64 was a great game, but it was a sign of the future -- games were going to get more complicated and realistic, and there was nothing ten year old me could do about it.  The future was coming, and I didn't like it!

Granted, I'm not really sure why I dreaded it so much as a kid.  Guess I always was an old fogey at heart.  But now that the age of modern, high resolution gaming has come to pass, I agree completely with my old opinion.  Modern gaming has become a beast, with more darkness, less charm, and just a conglomerate of spend, spend, spend.  My younger friends rant and rave about modern games, but I'd rather not bother anymore.

Keep in mind that I'm not being entirely serious with this post.  While I don't particularly like modern games, that's for varying reasons.  Not the least of which is that I'm now a grown up, so I don't have time to waste playing them.  This is just my reaction to people whining about older games, as well as an expression of my old fogey-ness and love of the aesthetic style of nineties games.

Onward!

1. Good graphics force games to be more about story.