Quest for Awesome

I have been on a bit of a nostalgic kick in the last few weeks. In between extreme bouts of homeworkitis (if that's not a real disease, it should be) I have been whiling away my time with some Quest for Glory action. For those of you not familiar with Quest for Glory, I'm so sorry. But you missed out on what I would consider an iconic game of our youth. Perhaps you've heard of King's Quest? No? For real? Did you EVER play video games beyond your Super Nintendo? Shame on you.

Regardless, Quest for Glory is a ton of fun. It's considered a point-and-click adventure game. That's because you... y'know... point your mouse at stuff... and then click stuff and.... stuff happens because of it. Okay, that doesn't sound that intriguing, but I swear it's a complete blast. You usually have to find items, or find ways to retrieve items to get you to the next step of the adventure. In Quest for Glory you also level up certain skills (which I think is different in King's Quest... but I didn't play those). There were five games in the series and you could import a saved character from a completed previous game into the new one and continue with the skills and items you developed previously.

You would select a fighter, mage, or thief (from the third game on you could make a Paladin as well) and you solve puzzles differently based on your class. It's a pretty fun experience. There aren't too many games like that as the genre isn't around much anymore. The best part is that some of these games are being remade for free. There's a company called AGD Interactive that has remade a number of the King's Quest games along with Quest for Glory 2. They did an excellent job as well. They also made an original point-and-click game. Might be worth looking into if you like the games they remade. Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Mother's Instincts

You know how your family can have "family friends?" That is to say, YOU might not be friends with them, but your parents are, so you are by default? When I was 13 or so, living in California, I remember we had some family friends with 3 daughters at the time. One was having a birthday party at a park 45 minutes away one Saturday. Now, normally this is no big deal. But the birthday girl was turning 8 or something. At 13, I did not want to go to a party for an 8-year-old. I remember walking into my mother's room to explain my case...

"Mom? Can I stay home? I don't really want to go to this party. It will be a bunch of little kids, a bunch of adults, and me, 13, with nothing to do and no one to talk to."

Apparently my logic was sound, because my mother agreed to let me stay home. I ran to my room, kicked off my shoes, and proceeded to fire up the Nintendo. Not a few minutes later my mother came into the room...

"Garrett, I don't know why, but you have to come to this party with us."

"WHAT?! You just said I didn't have to go! This is so stupid! I hate this!"

Life was now the worst experience ever. The sun was shining outside and the weather was perfect, and when I got home I was going to kill myself. I hated the world and everything in it. Not only did my mother go back on her word, but the party was EXACTLY what I said it would be. A bunch if screaming idiot kids, a bunch of parents pretending they all knew each other since high school gabbing away at who-cares-what, and me. Alone. With nothing to do. I spent 2 hours hitting a tennis ball with a plastic bat. All the while with this creepy red-headed lady staring at me and making me uncomfortable.

Nothing helped. I finally decided I would nap the rest of the day away. I went over to one of those shade-things. You know, those things that are kind of like a gazebo, but they're just 4 pillars and a roof? I leaned against a pillar, put my head on my knees and closed my eyes.

Just then, my mother ran up, "Garrett! Garrett! Don't look, just listen!"

I heard a voice behind me, "Duuuuuude, you ready to go?"

I knew that voice.... that sounded just like Cody from Step by Step on the TGIF program. I turned around and there he was! His daughter was at the party! I didn't factor in that this family friend was a hair dresser to the stars! Her daughter went to school with Sasha Michell's kids! What's more, the creepy red-headed lady? His wife! She walked up and said, "I've been staring at your son all day, he reminds me so much of Sasha when he was young."

BOOYA! Did you hear that? I got "Cody's" autograph and had a great story to tell. This was the best day I had ever had to that date.

It's a good thing my mother listened to whatever told her I had to go to that stupid party, wasn't it?

The Zombie Apocalypse is Here (I'm living-dead proof)

Two years. Okay, I'm ready to admit that I hate to write. Not that I hate the creative process of writing, I just hate the time commitment. In my defense I work full-time, I go to school full-time, I'm a new father (okay he's over a year old now, but that's kinda new still), and I perform at an improv comedy club and teach classes there. For a guy that would pay cash money to stay at home playing video games and watching movies the rest of his life, I qualify this as, "near impossible busyness."

I'm tired. Not the kind of tired that one experiences from a hard day's work or a grueling endurance run through the Alpines (why the Alpines? No idea.), but tired in a way where I look in the mirror and I wonder how it is my body is choosing to function. This is how the zombie apocalypse will come about. I'm sure of it. Masses of people who put too much on their plate and somehow find the will, energy, and presence of thought to see it all through.

I can see it now: The streets are barren, nothing but silence. Not even the wind dares an utterance lest the wind be defiled by the endless hordes of the dead exhausted, shambling to the nearest coffee hut or caffeinated beverage stand. In the distance the first sight of the undead sleepless can be viewed upon with horror.

It would seem that in this case, our best option as a defense would be an Ambien rather than a shotgun.