RPG Heaven, Weighing In, and Meatballs

This was probably the most game'ingest week I've had since I left for college 10 years ago. :-)

It all began a week ago; last Friday. I was getting an RPG bug. RPG meaning Role Playing Game. Bug meaning that I've been in a feeding frenzy for this genre that really hadn't been playing too much before.

So, Friday night, Michele and I rented "Paper Mario 2: The Thousand-Year Door." This is a GameCube game that came out earlier in the year.

We played it a bit Friday night, but Saturday morning is when the run began. As usual, I played the game, while the Yog played wingman. We battled through for hours...around 8 or so Saturday. Sunday was much the same, Paper Mario almost all day. By the end, we were almost halfway through the game!

Also during this time, I downloaded a trial version of "Guild Wars." My friend Sean, at work, told me about this game a couple months ago, and I was interested in trying it since. I'd hesitated buying it because I wasn't sure how well my laptop would be able to handle it. In fact, I uninstalled the demo TWICE before figuring out that I could get it to play quite well with the right settings. :-)

So I played through some GW scenarios to see if I liked the game and, WOW, do I like this game. So, I'm getting it! I'll start my real game next week sometime.

Back to PM2, Michele and I played it Tuesday night as well and we've gotten 5/7 of the way through the game. (You must find the 7 Crystal Stars.) It's an incredible game, if incredibly lengthy. We've played for almost 24 hours of accumulated time!

Alas, it was a rental, and we had to return it tonight. Fortunately for the modern consoles, the save game sits safely on our memory card, and we merely need to rent it again in a week or two to finish it out from where we left it. :-) And, we will...

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As for my diet...it is COMPLETE! On Monday morning, I woke up to a weight of 178.5! My goal weight was 180, but I wasn't going to quit until I saw the 170's. The diet, though, will continue...I'm just adjusting two things:

* I'm no longer keeping my food journal.
* I'm allowing myself the occasional 2500+ calorie day.

This just means that I'm allowed to go to Cinzetti's on occassion, and pizza is OK. In fact, I've still stuck to my diet since the big day.

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The other big news is that one of my best friends, Mr. Chris Calabro, is coming to visit!!! Yeah!!! He's coming October 24th, and we have big plans!

Among the planned events are a tour of Invesco Field (and you get to go on the field!), a trip to Idaho Springs, a trip to Estes Park, a Halloween Party and Haunted House hopping with the Adventure Club, Dave and Buster's, and more!!! Can't wait, Chris!

SHMUCK!

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This weekend is the in-laws' anniversary. We're headed to Heritage Square for a show. Always entertaining. Also, next week, as I said, I will be immersing a bit in Guild Wars...but rest assured...it will not deter me...from...

AVATARA.

Avatara hasn't seen a code change in a week, but I am designing out the gameplay feature. Some workarounds are in order for now as the gameplay will depend on the new map editor, which isn't scheduled to be worked on until after the gameplay is worked through. For now, having one player sit in a "white" chair and another in a "black" chair will suffice to start a game.

Here's what is going in to Avatara this month:

* The sit/stand command.
* Game classes on the server side to handle move broadcasts.
* A playable chessboard hooked up to the chess engine I wrote last month.

When done, it will be rough, but you'll be able to play a game nonetheless. The neat stuff like chess clocks, stored results, and other glitter will not be there yet...but those are all distinct parts that will come in time.

Well, time for me to get to sleep. I have a big day of sitting in the truck and getting the shit kicked out of me tomorrow. Night!