a weekend by any other name

been a while... what's up? oh, nothing much:

- just finished season 5 of Star Trek: TNG. you could say i'm moving at a considerable pace, seeing that i just wrote about finishing season 3 a little over 2 weeks ago. as i said then, i'm able to watch so much because there's absolutely nothing else on regular TV, so sometimes i get in 3-4 episodes a night. seasons 4 and 5 were great seasons. seasons 1 and 2 set things up, then the show starts to get its bearings in season 3, and really hits its stride in 4 and 5. there's only 2 seasons left (6 and 7) so i'm wondering if they keep on rolling or if there's a reason they stopped at 7 (if it got old). we'll see.

- started watching New Amsterdam, Bizarre Foods w/ Andrew Zimmern, South Park, and Spectacular Spider-Man. New Amsterdam is... ok. it's only 6 episodes (so far) and with nothing else on, i'm willing to make room for it. Bizarre Foods this past week was in Iceland and it was a BEAUTIFUL episode. Iceland has suddenly and unexpectedly made it on my list of places to visit before i die. South Park's first episode of its 12th season was pretty good. i'm definitely psyched for the new season - moreso than i've been for the past few years. and Spectacular Spider-Man... well, it's so good it needs its own post (above).

- finished World War Z a couple of weeks ago. really should get around to posting about it, as it deserves its own post. anyway, great read. one of my favorite books. it could have went on for 100-200 more pages and it would have been perfect. oh, and if there were some hard numbers in terms of how many died, etc. oh well. still a great book.

- currently reading Spider-Girl. i'm on volume 4 of the trades (issue 20 or so) and i've got several more to read. it's a good series that's starting to come into its own the more i read.

- learned the new Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed, has been pushed back AGAIN - this time to August. while i'm saddened that i have to wait even longer to play it, i'm kinda glad too. there's just too much coming out in April (when it was supposed to come out) - Grand Theft Auto IV, Persona 3: FES, Arcana Heart, Baroque...

- i finished that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix video game i said i was playing. in fact, i think i finished it a day or two after posting about it. the game was short (maybe 6 hours) and basically had you reenact the movie/book (though there were probably sub-plots missing) and discover things around Hogwarts. the real joy of course came from walking around a virtual Hogwarts and mimicking wand movements with the joystick. however, it wasn't enough to keep this from being a pretty mediocre game.

6.0 out of 10

- currently playing Mass Effect for the 360. it's a sci-fi third-person shooter/RPG hybrid. i've got my complaints, but overall it's a pretty great game. i'm about 30 hours in and will probably beat it in another 5-10 (so, this week sometime). after that, i expect to write a review.

- haven't touched Halo 3 since my work buddy and i stopped playing it. at first it was weird not playing, but now it's not even an afterthought. i'm sure the Halo bug will bite me one of these days and i'll start playing it again, but for now i'm actually glad to have the time to be able to beat other games like Naruto, Harry Potter, and Mass Effect.

- i'm headed to Phoenix in a couple of months. i'm headed there for a little over a week in the middle of May, the week before Memorial Day. i'll be visiting all my AZ buddies, a couple of friends coming down from WI (they are seeing if they want to move down there), and my parents! it'll be quite the trip. looking forward to it!

- and finally, i'm excited about writing again. for the past year or so, i haven't really been doing any writing on the side because i've got to be pretty creative at work and it drains me. well, now i've got an idea that's got me excited about writing again. it's a sci-fi story - my first actually. with all the sci-fi i've been surrounded by lately - Babylon 5, Star Trek, Mass Effect - it's actually surprising it took me so long to come up with my own idea. it's just... any idea i would have always seemed like a "been there, done that" sort of thing. but this idea... i don't think it's been done before. i hope. at any rate, i'm pretty private when it comes to my personal writings, so you might have to bug me to find out more... but just know that i'm writing again. and it's fun.

have a good week all! Happy St. Patrick's Day today and Happy Easter this coming weekend!

-k