The 25 Day Challenge

Before I get married, I need to finish some games. Here are my goals in order of importance:

Finish Fallout 3

I have only logged in about 8 hours into the game. Other than escaping the vault, I haven't finished a single quest. It's so flippin' hard living in a post apocalyptic world. All the nuclear bombs kinda destroyed everything and I need to find more bullets to kill things. This is my biggest goal out of them all and I probably won't really tackle it until Andrea goes home to do last minute wedding preparations. The idea of playing this super depressing game right before I get married is sorta pleasant.

Unlock all characters in Street Fighter IV

I can't stand the fact that there are still games where you have to unlock playable characters. I completely lost interest in unlocking everyone in Super Smash Bros Brawl because it just became so damned tedious. Play 500 matches? No, fuck you give me my characters. Anyway I've unlocked everyone except Seth but in order to get him, you have to beat the game with everyone. Not that bad when you play one round matches on the easiest setting, but again it becomes so tedious when you have to repeat the process 15 more times with characters you have little experience with. I just want the achievement so that makes the entire task even more pathetic and shallow, but eh.

In Peggle, score 20 million in Adventure Mode and Finish all the Challenges

The closest I have gotten is 17 million in Adventure Mode and that was a struggle. There's no way I'm finishing all of the Challenges either, but I'm supposed to be challenging myself.

*Goddamn it, I just realized I have less than 25 days to do this because I'm flying into the Bay a week early before the wedding. I could bring my 360...*

Finish Mega Man 9

Talk about skeletons in the closet. I have gotten to the Wily stages, but there is this one jump in the second stage that has infuriated me to the point of quitting. Since I haven't played the game in months I'm going to need to practice a little before I make any serious attempts. I am least likely to do this challenge though, but I'm just throwing it out there. If I can finish all those other things then I might as well try because I'll feel like hot shit.

Get all the Achievements in "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection"

Pretty straightforward, just need some time.


Finish Braid

Wow, this list is becoming unrealistic. I'll stop now.

Can't think of a title for this one.

Me on the JPAG Podcast

I went to the Joystiq Podcast Appreciation Group Meet-Up last Saturday and I got to hang out with fellow super nerds. We played Rock Band in the VIP room(aka the back of the bar that had a curtain separating us from all the March Madness freaks. Classy.) and we drank as much Goose Island drafts we could in three hours. I think I did 5. I had a really good time and I met some super nice dudes. The best part was that our little toy instrument party was right in front of the ladies room so we had all the hotties walking past us, awkwardly trying to pass in front of us while we were all fixated on watching the TV and hitting colored buttons and drum pads. Anyway they recorded some of their podcast at the bar so I was on there briefly. If you don't want to listen to video game chat then just fast forward to like an hour into the show.

Joystiq Podcast Appreciation Group Podcast 29

The Running Correspondence Podcast Episode Four: Andrea is a Computer Generated Voice

This week I got Andrea on the virtual mic to call bullshit on my desire to touch facial hair, getting laid off, but more importantly we talk about moving away from The Windy City. I apologize for the sound quality. I was going to try really hard to make the show sound better but I didn't save everything properly. At least that's what the laptop said. Anyway you don't listen to this because it sounds good. You listen out of pity and I gladly accept your pity. If you have any questions or comments, leave a comment on the podcast post on the blog at runningcorrespondence.blogspot.com.

Running Time: 44:19

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Game Center CX(the show based on Retro Game Challenge for the DS)

Sacramento Bound

So I was going to post a new podcast tonight but for some stupid reason I can't open the project file so I can't edit anything. Fortunately I exported everything before this computer decided to act up so I can post it tomorrow but I can't edit the first part and it doesn't sound as good as I want it to(the background music is louder than the voice track). Anyway I'm too annoyed to work on it now. I wanted to drop the news on the show, but whatever. I already told some people and all of Andrea's friends know so who cares. Thank goodness I backed up everything. Crap sounding podcast is better than no podcast I guess.

When I found out I would be moving to Davis/Sacramento my immediate reaction was FUCK. After a day of thinking about it I guess it's okay. It won't cost too much to live out there and I'll live two hours from the Bay and the Tahoe/Reno area. At least it's not LA. I would feed myself to the rats living in my walls if I had to live in LA. My only concern is what the fuck am I going to do in Sacramento? That question applies to my career as well as my social life. I've never lived there but I have visited friends and family there and all that comes to mind when I think of that place is "boring." As for my career I really have no fucking idea what I'm doing. I just assumed I would go back to school so I can get into the gaming industry on the development side but there ain't no developers in Sacramento. I really don't know what I'm going to do.

I feel so conflicted. I can't help but be disappointed but I don't want Andrea to feel like I blame her. Neither of us really had any control over where we were going and Andrea ranked UC Davis really high because they have an awesome Pediatrics program. Why the fuck should I be unhappy?

• We goin' goin' back back to Cali
• it's closer to the Bay and Tahoe
• only 1 hour away from Ma.
• Cheap cost of living, could even by a house
• At least it's not LA

The idea of leaving Chicago and moving to Sacramento frightens the hell out of me. I'm fucking ridiculous. I'm never happy. As soon I found out I was going to leave Chicago in June I got really sad. Dude, I've spent all these years cursing this fucking place and now I'm going to miss it. When I moved from the Bay to Chicago I was scared, but I was excited and I had no preconceived notions about Chicago. I have negative feelings toward Sacramento so I'm scared and I'm not that excited.

Andrea, no matter where you go and no matter down I may be feeling, just take my face into your hands and just tell me that I'm going to be okay. I'm no good to you Andrea unless I'm ready to make calls, pack and unpack boxes. I'm doing all of this for you because I love you.Be happy. Who cares what I think. If it's a really good program, that benefits the both of us.

I didn't even get into how the fuck are we moving all of our shit.

I'm not writing anymore.I'm leaving. I'll post better tomorrow. You want me to be happy just buy some direct TV and a sweet screen to watch it on. I'm still angry.

Questions for Andrea

I'm interviewing Andrea tomorrow about Match Day for this week's podcast(tentatively titled Episode Four: Andrea iz Real). If you want to ask Andrea a question, leave a comment or e-mail me your questions. You can ask anything.

NYcorrespondence

Ive really been meaning to post about lately but there are a number of factors that have been a hinderence. The main attributing factor is that they restricted any and all internet usage at work and Ive been trying to adjust without going mad. Its a lot like fighting drudgery demons in the pitch black darkness.
a borderline living hell. My only saving grace is https proxy sites that sneak around the work watchers but even then Its not flash or even java script enabled so no checking emails, no fantasy player kansas city shuffles but IT LOOKS like i can blog post.

Ive also been playing entirely way way too much video games. If not every night I will mostly play thru the weekend nights because a good friend of mine, Dann comes over from down the block and well get serious on some gaming from NBALive to little Big planet and of course LOADS of SF4. While Ive been out of the
fighting game loop forever this game brings me right back to my junior high days when i was so hyped on SFII on super nintendo... I was so hyped on that game I remember attempting to force myself to try to dream about the game before going
to sleep by playing imaginary matches in my head before i slept. This however never translated into me being a good player though as a few years down the line I would get my ass handed to me everytime on the arcade SFII alpha we had in our office at midway. I vow to redeem myself...

Ive joined a gym - and try to go at least 3x a week but thats been hard to upkeep especially after 3oclock in the morning late night gaming sessions during weeknites. Ive tried to combat this with shoplifting 5hr energies drinks from the duane reade
next door but I literally boosted every single dual pack in the store and they either realized that they've been disappearing and arent restocking or they moved them to a less remote spot in the store.

Wedding planning is like that research paper you know you have months to complete but really wont pay no mind to until crunch time.... its been a headache and a half. at times i wish we could ditch the plans for a vegas runaways weekend drive thru wedding. keep in mind though, that thats just the lazy in me speaking.

(update)
what we might do is just postpone the whole deal until a later date.
i'll further post on this on a later date if and when its official. but nothings official yet and as of now we still have an appt. for our folks on thurs to put a downpayment on.

psGUYS... id like to work on something with somebody if you guys have any short stories or projects that I could either add illustrations to or we could work on I'd love to get down. like the zombie Gangsta story... hope everyone is doing good out there...

Tournament Pick 'Em

Lemme know if you're interested. I'll start a Yahoo dealie tomorrow.

Podcast schedule

So next week I'm planning a two part episode extravaganza because next week I'm finding out where I'll be moving later this year. I'm planning to interview Andrea before and after Match Day(the day all the medical students find out where they'll be doing their residency. It's like Christmas except there aren't any trees or decorations).

I have decided that I am not going to ask anyone to be on the show anymore. I will leave that up to you guys. If you want to be on the show, let me know. I am opening this to anyone who wants to be on the show. I'm going to try to keep a schedule of recording on Sundays and Mondays. I'm going to edit on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the show should be up no later than Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Anyway let me know if you want to be on tomorrow(or Monday) and I'm gonna record again on Friday so let me know.

RSVP's are due by next Thursday

Seriously, if you haven't RSVP'ed yet please do so. I need to see the final guest list so I can do some last minute inviting. Thanks.