Turtles and Dinosaurs

So in some senses I'm still just a 9 year old boy.

Nostalgia is one of my running blog themes, but as I start this slightly late blog in the middle of my actually pretty interesting History of Universities class, I am caught up in the blogging because I am totally distracted. Spam Boa and I are chatting about dinosaurs, which has lead to a deep excursion into Wikipedia, reimagining of Spielberg's velociraptors, and mental wonder at just how long 125 million years really is. When I was actually 9 years old, around 2nd third and 4th grade, I was really into dinosaurs. I had more dinos memorized than when I took a Dinosaurs class in college.

Add to that, I've stumbled across old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons on youtube. This was one of the first toy obsessions I recall as a kid. It's no wonder Green is my favorite color. I'm having a blast following my favorite and what I feel is a unique set of characters because they are so popular despite no associations to Marvel or DC. In a time when X-Men and Batman were king, the Turtles managed to carve their own niche in the scene. Also, a few months ago I opened a debate with Dungeon Daddy, Spam Boa and others about who the best ninja turtle is. Spam's favorite is Raphael. Raphael is my favorite too but I also really like Leonardo who I think gets a bad rep like Cyclops cuz he does his duty. Dungeon Daddy is of the opinion that Donatello was the best. Silly people. Turtles have also been in my mind because Cardmaster Cider and I made Tall Bear watch the late 80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live action movie to prove he'd seen it and it was sooooo fun. Jim Henson's hand at humor and of course puppeteering is amazing.

Sorry this blog ended up posting so late. I'll have another tomorrow, so this one will be short. I want to end with the theme of stereotypically "boys" stuff: dinosaurs, comic book character debates, and now video games.

Spam Boa has been trying desperately to get me to play Diablo 3, which is on beta this weekend. While I am really excited to play the game, and truly looking forward to its release, I also have continued to refuse to play. My rationale is this: I have several games that I've been playing lately already, including Star Wars: The Old Republic, Demon Souls and League of Legends, though TOR is the only one I haven't "beaten," which is an important term. I realized that I hate leaving games unbeaten. I hate not knowing how the story ends and I am not one to look up something like that for fear of spoilers. And beaten to me is not just finishing the story. I want to feel like I've really taken the game to the depths it deserves. I don't want to play as many games as fast as I can to say I've played them. I want to enjoy them and get the most out of them. This is why I've picked up Demon Souls again, this is why I haven't opened Skyrim yet. Because I want to devote time to these games and honestly, I don't have that much time for games (and already spend to much time with them anyway). I know myself well enough that if I start a new game, I will want to rush through it for several hours to make a dent in it, especially if its a game I really want. I really want to play Skyrim, but that's a loooong game. So I wait until I have the time to devote to it. Diablo 3 comes out less than a month before I leave for China. So I probably won't get it because I won't be able to play until mid-summer when I return. So I resist now because I don't know what I am missing, but if I start playing then I just have another distraction. I must be getting a little older...

See you when I post tomorrow!

-James

Listening to: By the Way- Red Hot Chili Peppers

Reading: Book reviews for a variety of documents on the History of Higher Education

Playing: Lately mostly SW:TOR