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Yesterday was a rainy Saturday, so Jess and I decided to check out an afternoon movie. After some debate, we decided to go see ‘Dan In Real Life’. The movie was surprisingly good, but the ordeal to see the flick was epic. Here’s how it began.

We hopped in the shower and got ready. On our way into town, we stop at the a local store and picked up some snacks since we didn’t feel like paying $6 for a soda and $4 for a bag of candy. Once we had our payload safely stowed, we were on our way. Or so we thought.

The drive into Wilkes-Barre was as normal as can be. Although, we did note that there was some unusually high traffic given it was 12:45pm on a Saturday. We just shrugged it off and continued. One we got within 2 blocks of the theater, we say tons of police lights. They had the entire road blocked off. No big deal. We turned off onto a side street and deiced to go around the block. No can do since that was blocked off as well. So, we double backed 2 blocks and down 1 more block, landing us on Franklin Street. We decided to head down to Ross and cut over, which would put us fairly close to the parking garage, and from what we saw earlier, past where the police had South Main Street blocked off. Couldn’t do that either since the police had Ross blocked off as well. At this point, it’s 1pm and the movie starts at 1:05pm. So, the next logical choice is to head to the square and head up South Main, past the blockade. NOPE! They have the square blocked off as well. So, running behind and a bit miffed, we decide to be rebels and cut through the Ramada parking lot, putting us on the square. Looking around, they have 2 out of the 4 entrance/exits to the square blocked off. Thankfully, the street we need, South Main, is open. We make our way around, and finally arrive at the parking garage. We make our way to the ticket counter and purchase 2 tickets. By now it is already 1:15pm, and the girl selling us the tickets assures us previews are still playing. We make our way swiftly to the theater, and indeed, previews are still playing. In fact, we walk in during the final preview. Just as we take our seat, the theater goes dark, and the movie begins. Mission Accomplished.

Not quite.

To make our experience all the more delightful, about 15 minutes into the movie, it stops, and the emergency lights come on. We all sit in darkness for a few minutes wondering what the hell is going on. Jess and I aren’t rally wondering that since this has already been an adventure trying to see this movie. A few minutes later, a girl from the theater comes in and tells us that the reason everything is blocked off is because of a fire (funny, we never saw smoke), and that the utility company cut power to the theater as a precaution. They have no ETA on when it will be turned back on. Great. Jess and I decide to ride out the storm. About 10 minutes later, the light and movie come back on, and we enjoy the rest of the movie.

All in all we had a great time, but this just further proves that nothing, not even going to the movies, can be easy for us. 

It’s hard to believe, but I have been living in the same house, and on my own, for 7 years now. It really fees like that I have only been here for about 4 years or so.

It’s amazing how time flies!

I’ve always been a gamer. From the days of the Atari 2600 with it’s fly wood grain finish, to the NES, all the way up to next gen PC games. I play games. I love games.

That is, I used to be.

In the past 3 year, gaming has taken somewhat of a backseat in my life. It’s not that I didn’t want to be playing games, it’s just that I could never quite find the time to actually play. Hell, if you do a search on the site for the term "Doom 3", a game which I literally waited years to come out, you can see how rarely I have played it. In fact, to date, I have yet to beat that game. I’m adding it to my to do list right now.

Up until last week, I can only think of 2 games that I have played for more than 3 hours in the past 3 years. Those games would be Guild Wars and World of Warcraft.

Then something came out last week called The Orange Box. It comes with 5 games, 4 of which I could honestly care less about. Don’t get me wrong, I am going to play them, but the real reason I bought the game was for something I have been watching in development for years — Portal.

I cannot remember the last time I have beaten a game. I beat Portal in 2 days. I could have done it in one if I go to the Korn concert the day it came out. I can tell you this though — it was extremely satisfying to finally beat a game I have paid for. I think the last game I beat was honestly for the Dreamcast. Now that I have a fresh notch in my belt, I’m going all out. I’m about 2 hours into Half-Life 2 right now, and I plan on installing Doom 3 again sometime this week. Possibly on Wednesday since I am off and Jess has to observe a class for grad school.

What this all boils down to is that now that I have my main system up and running, a decent processor, decent RAM, and a new video card, I can now play all the games that I always wanted to, but never could because of hardware constraints. I can be a gamer again.

What about finding the time?

Well, that may still be an issue, but I’m going to try and make the time. My work schedule right now is semi-consistent which is good. I think I can find a few hours a week to sit down and pull down some frags.

Hell, I even went so far as to setup my Steam Profile tonight. Having that really makes me feel like a gamer again.

I am the person I want to be.

Jess and I went out last night to celebrate out first wedding anniversary. While our actual anniversary isn’t until the 21st, Jess has to work that night, so we decided to go out last night instead.

We had an great time.

We started off the night by going to Scranton and having an amazing dinner at Cooper’s. I decided to go a little exotic and avoid the usual steak and lobster. I started off with some fried calamari, followed up with a cup of alligator soup, and finished off some flounder stuffed with a shrimp and crab deviled stuffing.

Looking for something to do afterwards, and sick of going to see movies, we headed to the Clarion in Scranton to Wise Crackers comedy club. We laughed our asses off for 2 hours. We had never gone to a comedy club before, and after last night, we will be going back for more.

After the club, we drove home. While driving home on I-81, Jess suggested we go to the casino. That sounded good to me since neither of us has ever been there. Well, we weren’t missing much. We spent about 40 minutes there, and blew through $20 on the slot machines. Neither of us saw what the big attraction is. Quite frankly, I doubt either one of us will ever go back.

After all of that, we came home around midnight, and spent a wonderful evening together.

We both agreed that that was one of the best nights we have had together in a long, long time.

Jess and I went to the Korn concert on Wednesday (10/10/07). It was actually our anniversary present since we both like the band and neither one of us has seen them live. Our feelings on the concert was mixed.

The show was to start at 7:30pm, and according to the bill, there were 3 opening acts. Dinner ran a little long, and we got there around 7:20pm. As we walked into the arena, we heard one of the opening acts playing. One would figure that if they started the concert early, that would make the night go quickly right? Wrong.

I won’t go into too many detail, but let’s just say that Korn didn’t hit the stage until about 10:40pm. By that time, I was tired from being up at 5am, and was actually looking at my watch like an impatient old man. Once they hit the stage, the energy was at an all time time. Granted, it still wasn’t that much since we all waited over 3 hours for them, but the sad fact of the matter was that the arena was barely half full. Anyway, Korn had an opportunity to make the most of a situation. Instead, they fucked it up. They would play one song, which clocks in at about 4 minutes. Then the entire stage would go black, and there would be some ‘mood music’ from the keyboard player and guitars for about 3 minutes, and then Jonathan Davis would come back out and play another song. Repeat that for about an hour, and that was Korn’s concert. When they were playing, they were excellent. However, they just couldn’t hold the crowd’s attention enough. After about 5 songs, they said ‘goodnight’ and left the stage. This is usually where the crowd cheers for the encore. They did not however. Every there was in a full ‘what the fuck’ mode. Eventually, they started cheering and they came out for a few more songs.

We were both really looking forward to the show, but sadly, we both left feeling like we had been cheated. Granted, when Korn played, they were awesome. However, for $100 for 2 tickets, we expected more.

While I was transferring most of the music off my iPod, I started listening to what made it onto my hard drive. I came across two albums that I haven’t listened to in years. It still amazes me how autobiographical music can be.

The first album was ‘Hot Fuss’ by The Killers. This was the CD I listened to on the drive from Phillipsburg, New Jersey to Kutztown, Pennsylvania to move Jess into her new dorm her senior year of college. Her and I had only been dating for about a month at this point, and things were very young and new. It really took me back.

The second album was ‘7even Year Itch’ by Collective Soul. This was a CD JP and I always used to listen to while we worked at The Wall. After the store closed, we would continue to listen to it while working on i/o Comics.

Rob Gordon would be proud.

Funny, I used to enjoying being alone. In fact, I would almost make it a point to be alone.

In high school, I would spend most evenings up, locked away in my bedroom either reading, writing, or doing stuff on the computer. It wasn’t that I was antisocial — ok, maybe I was — but it was just that I preferred to be alone.

Then there came a time in my life when I was forced to be alone. That would be the 2 years I lived by myself. I just didn’t want to be alone, I simply was. It was in that time that I rediscovered the joy of being alone. I was able to do what I wanted, when I wanted, and how I wanted. I was only responsible for myself, and that was that. If I wanted to come home, watch a movie, take a 2 our nap, and then play games until 3am, I had no one to yell at me about it. I was my own King.

Then Jess moved in, and I was no longer alone. I enjoyed that feeling of always having someone there. I knew she would be there when I came home and I knew she would be the first thing I see in the morning and the last at night. She was my stability. However, even then, I longed for those ‘alone days’.

Now I come to a night like tonight. Jess is working all night, and I have the house to myself. My new video card is all hooked up and running like a bat out of hell. I’ve got plenty of games lined up that I want to play, and yet, I am not. I’m sitting here wondering how Jess is. Not to sound too much like a whining pussy, I miss her.

Now that I have the alone time I’ve sought, I don’t want it.

It’s amazing how things can change like that in a few short years.