Ugh, so I’m older again. This time the number is 27, and it’s about as sucky at 26, in that virtually nothing has occured in the intervening time. Alas

So what did I get for my birthday (I’m such a kid):
I got some kitchen implements, towels, utensils, odds and ends, from my parents. Further, they got me Mario Kart, which was my brother’s idea. It’s pretty fun, I kind of sucked at it at first, but using a heavier class of character compensated for my lack of steering skill. My parents also picked up an extra wheel as they thought it didn’t come with one. But it all works out, since it’s useful for the second player to have one as well. And given my penchant for external harddrives, they got me a shelving unit to store them all.
My brother and his girlfriend Amanda got me a new alarm clock, an ipod mount (that only cost $5, it was a bonus prize), and a waffle iron. Yes, a waffle iron.. I asked for it. I dunno, I just felt like waffles.

Alicia unfortunately got me Mario Kart as well, which I think is the first time that’s happened… so she did a little emergency shopping the next day (I was quite prepared to give her an extension, heh). We met up later for dinner and movie. She got me novelty door hangers for work, the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (which goes to the top of the reading list, and is now 5 books long), I haven’t read any of it yet so I can’t give any insights. She got me a bottle of Magnotta sparkling ice wine, which is a new one for me. It’s presented in such a way that it’s obviously something you drink on a special occasion, so I’ll be hanging onto it for a while.
The last gift she got for me was a game called Okami, and it’s really a stunning game. The whole game is presented in a cel-shading japanese parchment look, and one of the main gameplay dynamics is the ability to freeze the action and paint symbols on the screen, like a line for a slash or a little bomb to create one. It is, however, just a tad talky. We wanted to head out with 15 minutes to spare, and so I started playing it just to get a taste. 18 minutes later, the initial backstory and intros and endless textboxes were done and I gained control of the character. Wow.
Also, I have one of the game boxes with the cover having the IGN logo, pretty funny.

For my brother, I got him a Barbecue, they wanted one for the balcony. It looks quite nice.

Anyway.. I haven’t posted in a while, work has been even more all-encompassing than usual, but I’m at the threshold of sleep. And in september I’m part of a group staging a trip to Greece, but we haven’t finalized quite yet.

Until next year.