In my blissful 70s youth, I have fuzzy recollections of falling asleep to Dr Demento and offbeat hits like “They’re Coming to take Me Away” by Napoleon XIV or “Hocus Pocus” by Focus. The outro/epilogue to the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” used to scare me with its dramatic orchestral flourishes followed by the mysterious, “Breathe deep the gathering … Read More
Video Game Myths Debunked
Not that I would advocate exposing my son to such graphic images of violence before the age of, say 12. But this article I came across on the PBS website of all places pretty much sums up how I’ve felt about (mature) video games for a long time. I have spent many post-baby bedtime hours playing violent video games (GTA … Read More
Super N00b Update, April 2009
Here’s what I’m in the middle of currently: Xbox 360: Dead Space, RE5, GTA IV, GTA TLAD (Unreal Tournament 3, Ghost Recon/FIFA & NHL 09, FIFA Street) PS3: Killzone 2 PC: Crysis (crymod), Fallout3, World in Conflict (World of Goo) GTA IV could take as long as a year to play at my pace. (On a related note, I concur … Read More
A Homework Assignment
Three times in my quickly moving 42+ years on this planet I have written to important people in my life to let them know what they meant to me. (And I DO mean hand written, WELL into the digital age.) In 2 of those 3 cases, the person I wrote to passed away within six months of receiving said letter. … Read More
A Little Perspective
Rummaging through my hard drive this Xmas evening, I came across some old blog postings from a now defunct blogging website I ran called “We Left Buffalo” 4 years ago. I felt they were worth sharing. All from 2004 and early 2005, they are listed from most recent. I am MUCH happier now, with a beautiful wife and son (and … Read More
Middle Age Gaming
I am very grateful that such quality (HD, 1080p) gaming didn’t exist prior to my college years. I might never had made it through high school. The first game I EVER beat (fairly recently) was God of War: Chains of Olympus on PSP. Just finished Halo 3, Gears of War, Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 4 on … Read More
Great Moments in (Personal) History
Or great moments in self-discovery. The summer of 1983 was a transformative one for me. A longstanding, nagging groin/hip flexer injury, compounded by an exploratory surgery (for what turned out to be an abnormal appendix, and ergo removed) kept me sidelined from my number one passion: the beautiful game. (That’s football for all you non-Yanks.) So I dove into what … Read More
Buffalo: A Great Place to Be…From
I used to have a (not uncommon) recurring dream of being back in high school. I typically would wake myself once I realized: “Wait, I’ve already DONE this!” Since moving to California six years ago, that exercise in frustration has been replaced by another frequent visitor to my REM state. In this new one, I am back in Buffalo, working … Read More