computer games at hand: will they make STALKER 4?

It was another hot day, with rain and sunshine at the same time.  I reached level 17 in Castles Empire.  Very slow pace, have to turn it off and come back day later to get enough resources to build something.  I understand it's necessary to make money for company: you buy tokens and you can speed stuff up.  Looks like it will cost a fortune, or another ConEd bill to level up.  The game I got on sale: Storm Front Line Nation - I played it for 14 minutes, then decided it was too complex for enjoyment.  I felt as if I was doing taxes without an accountant: game supposed to relax you, not press on you.  I didn't get back to Max and Sam yet: I get sad hearing their jokes. I don't get that humor.  I think I will get back to Tropico3

I received a response from Castle Empire staff: my browser wasn't supported.  Using another browser, I was able to start the game and now I am on level 12.  It's a quite different experience from Settlers 7, but has all the same graphics and icons.  It's more exciting than Farmerama, but I can't say it will keep me at the edge of my seat.  The Settlers 7 had the issue with being too fast for enjoyment: Castle Empire has the opposite issue: too slow.
It was raining half of the day today.  It may rain tomorrow as well.  For dinner I had four gardenburgers, at work it was just single portion of rice, tomatoes and caffeinated beverages.
I used some knowledge from the book I bought and found it to be very valuable.  The book is written by J.V. Cerney and called "Accupuncture without Needles".
I didn't pick up laundry because it was raining heavily.  I have to remember to pick it up tomorrow.
I decided to put off the earlier alarm clock since I don't think I will be able to fall asleep for a while.  This should give me an additional hour of sleep.

no topic, bake in tropic

Bought plenty of various types of liquid drinks, with emphasis on aloe vera and mango.  It's very hot outside... Took my clothes to laundry, forgot where I put the ticket: it's written that I already paid on it.  Hopefully, they'll remember it tomorrow.  Bought egg-less large loaf of bread, bean curd pieces, tofu.  Egg-less bread costs twice more than the regular bread of same size.  Yesterday spent 10 and a half hours straight playing one mission in Settlers 7.  Won it by efforts of another AI player, too.  Still waiting to see that closed beta.  Sent email to admin asking when it will start, he's not responding.  I will continue playing Settlers 7 until the end of day.  Today it's easier: air conditioner is not shorting out and I can play on computer and have air conditioner on at the same time!

was it sgt.Elias with flare guns by the end of movie, or was it not even Defoe's character?

It was very hot yesterday.  Radio gave a warning not to overload the grid: simply turning both computer and air conditioner on would mean a short out.  I kept computer and a usb fan on instead.  I got paged from work: they had partial power failure.  Nothing I could do about it.  I received the beta-key for Settlers 7 online game, but it didn't start yet, I guess, so I kept replaying Settlers 7 campaigns.  I made a lot of fried potatoes with cauliflower yesterday, so it was my late dinner yesterday and my breakfast today.  Good news from abroad: Seven Stars are selling again.
Today I will see parents to hook up monitor to their old computer and tweak it to maximize speed.

have to check my email tomorrow

Ate a bowl of small shells pasta, with soy sauce and margarine.  Life became much more satisfying for a full hour.  Read an article uncovering the secrets behind some tobacco companies: it turns out they add a chemical that suppresses appetite, to entice the buyers into their "slimness".  Well, of course cigarettes suppress appetite, that's why I smoke, duh!  Unfortunately, as two people mentioned at work today, it doesn't help me with being slimmer.  The good news of the day: I received the invitation into Ubisoft roll-out of Settlers 7 a-la Travian mode (or Farmerama mode).  The bad news of the day: I didn't get the beta-key sent to me.  That means it's still 50/50 chance that I will get to play it.

almost midnight on the clock, time to shower

It was relatively busy at work, then I had soy lasagna for lunch and after work I boiled shells pasta with pesto sauce.  I took a short nap without any dreams.  Then I played the mission I couldn't finish before and won it.  However, the next mission didn't go so well: I think I wasn't trying to concentrate too much after the previous "victory".  There was a short rain drizzle, just like predicted.  Weather report predicts light T-storms for tomorrow and major rain during this night.  Today I had a surprise: I was pre-approved for a union credit card with more credit limit than I'll ever see in my bank account.  It was flattering, but I have a non-union job, it's recession, job insecurity time, so who knows if it could be used against me.  Besides, economy is collapsing and I have all necessities of life already purchased.  This is not a good time to get into extra debt.  So I won't.

Crazy gamer today

I played Settlers 7 all day.  In fact, I played only two missions: one was done in about 15-20 minutes, the second one took me the rest of the day. AI kept changing and I decided not to lower the difficulty of game anyway.  Somehow I beat it the last time around, if my saved games go all the way to the last mission...  Anyway, I was unsuccessful...about 20 times.  I will play it tomorrow, too pissed right now.  It would be a much more enjoyable game if the creators of it would just slow its pace.
However, I gotta say, these computer games really take my mind off reality, sort of put every real emotion or thoughts in the back burner.  I sort of relax playing them.  Otherwise, my brain would continuously analyze everything and give me a headache.
I didn't eat a lot today: just potatoes with fried tofu for dinner.  At least something good happened today.  On the other hand, I smoked more than usually.

Happy Day with Gas-X

I just had the biggest three plates filled with various food at King's Buffet on 86th and U.  Very tasty, very fresh, not expensive, too.  Planning to play Settlers 7, as I did yesterday.  Day at work was not busy at all.  For lunch me and coworkers ordered Japanese hibachi.  Actually, I ordered udon noodle special, but that's what I got.  It was also delicious, from Kam Sushi.   Indeed, full stomach is the key to Earthly happiness.  But not when it stays that way too long, then it's gas.

Accupuncture: the new soul food.

It was quite a busy day at work.  After work, since my eye allergies were getting the best of me, I decided to visit Alice.  It helped for a short while, but I guess I have very persistent eye allergies.  I decided to re-install The Settlers 7: Paths to Kingdom.  I recall that when I bought it, I did not feel like finishing it considering how many good games were out...now I am forced to come back to it, since nothing is hitting the shelves any time soon.  However, I saw an ad for a game called From Dust.  It's not advertised that much and Amazon and other online stores don't carry it, but it looks pretty impressive.  It should come out some time this summer.

Suntanned Day

We had a large cook-out at work.  I had two veggie-burgers that were very delicious.  Also, I ate watermelon and had two Diet Cokes.  Now I am drinking Japanese Pokka black coffee and eating French bread with Veggie Slices, Swiss cheese flavor.  On the way home I stopped by Staples, bought pens for work.  There I bought a huge container of Office Coffee for almost 10 dollars.  Went to Stop'n'Shop and got more Veggie Slices cheese, cubed cut tofu and baby potatoes, whole sack.  I guess I will play Sam and Max through boredom, since I downloaded a shitload of episodes for little price...

I thought PAM was much better than it is.  It's "ok" for about 30 minutes, and then it gets too boring.  However, it still beats the Sam and Max franchise from what I've seen so far: it doesn't really make me laugh, more like crying pressing mouse buttons and listening to constant stream of B-rated jokes...  I think I'll go to bed earlier.  Money was wasted.

After Banya

Just came back from Russian Baths on Gravesend Neck Road.  Had tea, tarhun, mash potatoes and rice.  Food is excellent there, just like sauna.
Saw a huge sale on 10 games, Sam and Max.  I played one of them years ago, it was childish and cartoonish, not that great, but when I saw that you can get almost 10 games for under 7 bucks, I decided to purchase them.  I also purchased PAM on huge one-day sale.  I suppose it's a PC clone for Twisted Metal: Black with post-apocalyptic races.  That one was fun to play on PS2, so I suppose this one will be less interesting, but definitely "ok".

Breathing without a breathing tube, eating without a feeding tube - Halliluiaaaa!

I went with parents to Best Buy and exchanged the computer.  The new computer was more expensive, All-in-One HP 3.1MHz, 4RAM, with fancy graphics card and Touch Screen.  Wonderful computer, it was a pleasure to update it and install new programs on it.  Yesterday tried to play Bloody Good Time, but I couldn't get inspired by it for more than 5 minutes, so I switched to Tropico 3, where every time I come close to completion of all missions, Steam gives me a message that I am playing the game for the first time on my computer and deletes all campaigns making me start all over.  With such rate I don't have to buy any other games, I'll never finish that one.

Most of the day I was blaming my parents for all sins of the world (silently, of course) because they continued to give me advises on how to dress, what to eat, and kept teaching me how I need to go to dentist.  Reminding them that I am an adult now just wouldn't do.   I asked them if I can get a day-off from seeing them next Saturday, and like two old parole officers, they had a short discussion and agreed to allow me a day-off without seeing family on account of my good behavior.  I don't know which prison I was in for them to have me this way, none in my recollection, but I guess being born here could be considered a life without parole sentence.  It doesn't really matter: life is short and then we all die.  I guess the negative experiences will prevail in this lifetime as well as the previous ones.  It also doesn't matter for the same reason: even a bad pizza is a good pizza, even an old piece of bread is fresh to a hungry guy.  I will continue to play Tropico3 and await the wonderful time I will have dreaming during the night.  Then I will wake up and say: Bless I be, for having such a great luck to be born here.  But later I will still drink a lot of coffee and question that notion...
Just a philosophical slip of the keyboard...

nothing to do, but work, work, work

I figured out why I couldn't shoot in Bloody Good Time and fixed the problem: the controls were not automatically assigned in arcade mode.  After fixing it, I still did not find any interest in playing that game.  Instead of playing games, I boiled some large shells and ate them with soy sauce, pesto sauce, margarine and soy cheese Parmesan flakes.  It was delicious.  I don't feel like playing the old games.  Just ordered a new so-so game, it should arrive in a week.  I have to go with parents tomorrow to exchange their new computer for another one because it doesn't work.  It's been raining today.  Actually, I thought it would rain much more and much longer.
I think I am going to bed much earlier tonight.

chilling

Yesterday was a busy day at work and I overstayed 1 1/2 hours.  Today I overstayed only 1 hour: it got less busy by the end of the day.  For lunch I had lots of watermelon pieces and hot macaroni.  Now I am eating cherries.
I ate vinegret and matza.  Just took a shower.  It's been hard concentrating after work today.  Only this post took me about 5 hours.

It's been 36 years so far...let me see how long it will be...

I am 36 years old and I still have nothing to say.  Maybe I will gather enough intelligence and wisdom to say anything at 40 years old.  Or it is possible I will not gain enough wisdom and intelligence.  It is yet unknown to me.
It's 3:25 am.  I've been up after a nap for few hours.  I have to go to work in about 4 hours.  It is possible the wise decision would be to see acupuncture specialist after work and get a full night sleep in order to clear my mind.

Tomorrow is an Event at work: have to be there in 7 hours from now.

Finished all campaigns in Greed Corp.  Purchased another discounted (less than 4 dollars) game: Bloody Good Time.  So far tried to play it, but just getting killed and still can't figure out how to shoot from the inventory.  Does not look like I will be trying to play it much longer, but then again, it cost me less than daily lunch.  Parent's computer is in a constant self-deleting-self-restoring loop: tried to tinker with it, but it doesn't work.  I thought it had something to do with my lack of Windows 7 system knowledge, but when a computer resets to factory settings and deletes everything on drive every time you restart it or shut it down and turn it on, it doesn't take a genius to figure out something is majorly wrong with it.  Since it was purchased less than 30 days ago, I'll escort my parents to Best Buy this Saturday to return the computer and exchange it.  It did not ruin my opinion of Asus computers: I knew from the start they are more specialized in laptops.  But I guess it was on a very good sale...
Had a discussion with father about life: we both agreed on one thing for sure: it's short, whether you are satisfied with it or feel like you didn't get your share of positive emotions.

4th of July, holiday day off

Played Greed Corp.  Booked a vacation for November.  Don't really feel like traveling at all to any place in this world, but I figured maybe I will want later.  May as well buy tickets in advance while they are cheaper.  Just chilling all day, not planning even to go outside.  Ate Johny Tofu, rice balls on a stick, potatoes.  Tomorrow is another working day, but today I can sit in silence.

Greed is Good (but only in computer gaming)

I got tired of playing Brink and decided to see what else is out there.  Since new games are not that great, I went for old, discounted games and found a gem: Greed Corp for just under 3 dollars.  I was playing it all day.  Then parents came: they brought new air conditioner and installed it.  It works great.

Japanese Supermarket Event

Did a lot of shopping in Mitsuwa.  Very good stuff, but it got more expensive than before.  The only decent prices left were for ready made udon noodle soups, onegiri and soba noodles.
Got Japanese coffee!  Went to mall with parents.  Felt like I overate all day, got home and realized I was very hungry.  Strange.  Not very strange after the dreams I had tonight though.  That was strange.  By the way, the food in Mitsuwa is always splendid.

By the way, I still don't get this new Brink game.  It's like I am playing it, but I am not with/in it...

still nothing to play...sort of...

 Sometimes you are not sure when you are winning and when you are losing in this Team Fortress 2 clone.
I am sure it will get more fun once I will unlock more abilities, however, meanwhile I couldn't finish Challenges Level 2 on everything except Tower Defense.  The weapons need to be upgraded.  Artwork is great though.
Tomorrow I am planning to have a family trip to Mitsuwa Supermarket.

eating knishes, not doing dishes...

So, I installed Brink, on Steam as a mandatory option.  It's ok, it works better now ever since I decided to custom size it for graphics card.  I was not disappointed, since I didn't get my hopes up.  Interesting customization, surely, but the gameplay is the same as Team Fortress 2.  Actually, it looks like they hired the same art group to do the characters.  The game is not inspiring but it is something to do.  For some reason I don't feel like taking an evening shower.  So I won't.