And in this corner...

Later turned out to be much later.

It's not yet seven and I'm barely awake. Last night was the battle between good (the weekend) and evil (Monday morning). Good lost, as per usual, but it put forth a damn valiant effort.

I think it must be the weather changing; although it seems somewhat springy in the air (or should I opt for the term 'autumnal'), it still seems like it's 76 and balmy in my apartment. The TV is on for background noise as I wander aimlessly through cyberspace. I finally finished The Godfather -- twice -- the first time sort of backing into it and the second confidently ploughing through the entire mess of four families and a whole lot of crooked and/or dead cops each in under 40 hours of game-time. That sounds like a lot, but that essentially works out to fifty cents an hour, and I don't remember keeping myself occupied for an hour with two quarters in any arcade that didn't require ID to enter. The truth is that I'm far from a "gamer" -- as if the phrase "loser geek dweeb" needed to be summed up in one, marketable term -- and it occurs to me each time I delve into the world of PC games that I don't buy many, if at all, simply because I find too few games are so well done that they keep my attention; The Godfather did. There are some flaws in the overall play of the game, like the tedious need to drive everywhere (how many more times must I be forced to drive across the Brooklyn Bridge?), or the sometimes sticky gameplay, or the duplicate compounds, warehouses, transport hubs and businesses. And most odd, the game tries to include all nationalities in their portrayal of the various shopkeepers, so there is an Eskimo who owned -- in my most recent completion of the game -- a flower shop. Granted, the eskimo wasn't the proprietor of Louis' Italian Restaurant in the Bronx, but he should have been relegated to the fishmonger's place. I don't mind buying swordfish, salmon and lobster from an eskimo -- hell, I figure an eskimo's had his paws on my seafood at some point between when the fish comes out of the water and lands on my plate -- but I just don't see many people nabbing a dozen roses with baby's breath and a mini harpoon as decolletage. Then again, maybe I'm wrong.

Meanwhile, Kaia and I have taken to watching tv shows in quasi-real time; the few shows we enjoy are usually broadcast, luckily for us, at the same time on both coasts (thank you, HBO East) and we manage to do the coast-to-coast viewing party as if (almost as if, to be precise) we were sharing the same couch, the same blanket and each other's body heat. Until June, however, that is as good as it gets; since she's slammed at work as am I, we're not going to have the opportunity to get together before then. The one plus is that there's a party happening in the first or second weekend of June that's being given by a good friend, so I am looking forward to us spending time with friends and having a blast as per our usual.

Other than that, everything is typical -- work is good but keeping me busy, and with the onset of summer in the next four or so weeks, if not sooner, I'm looking forward to Mother's Day, my mother's and grandmother's birthday, and Kaia's birthday in July. And more time and energy to stop in here more often and actually produce something of merit rather than simply a run-through of minutae. On some level, I'm sure that this and all blogs is, or can be, put to that end. ANd barring a sexual tilt, this blog strives to be the best it can be. So if it's not hitting the mark, too damn bad -- go get what you pay for.

Finally, at left I've added a new link to a site entitled "Release Guide." It's a compendium of release dates for movies (in the theater), DVD's, music/CD's, games and books. It appears to be a tad mainstream, but I really can't recommend any site more or with more confidence; it's like a website for me personally. No more hitting Ice Magazine, Amazon and Moviefone for info; this sums it all up, and with pretty little thumbnail pics to boot. It's definitely a keeper, so stuff it into your net favorites and don't look back.

I'm off to lay low and hibernate for the night; I'll be sure and come back mighty soon, however, so don't stray too far.