la la la

Pearson, apparently, now has free wifi! I am more than happy to abuse use this to tend to my neglected blog before flying to Los Angeles to meet up with Darren and, oh, everyone else on the planet :)

I am, at last, feeling human again and not spending the majority of my time within stone’s throw of a bathroom. The hospital doc initially warned me that I really shouldn’t fly if things didn’t get much better in a hurry; I couldn’t disagree with her. I seriously dislike people that, knowing they are ill and possibly contagious, put their needs above everyone’s and board a crowded flight, only to disturb everyone and risk ruining someone’s vacation. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. *cough*. Anyway, I’ve got a clean bill of health and I’m going to try not to annoy the heck out of everyone else around with my happy bouncy woo. I must have worried the poor US customs guy since he asked me about six times whether this was a round trip and I’d be returning to Canada. Duh: Always! The True North and all that :)

It was a bit of a rough week, if I’m honest. Vicious cycle. When you can’t keep anything down, you stop really caring about what you’re going to eat next in terms of ‘nutritional value’. No, no, no. You start thinking “Hey, I might as well buy out all of Baskin Robbins’ Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, you know, since it’s soft and easy to eat!” This is not how one should be making decisions. That said, I’d totally do it again, hehe. The weekend was much better since I got my butt to my parents’ place so I could completely turn off my brain and let them worry about food decisions while I just slept on every available flat surface watching movies and playing Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection (PSP). This game was made with love. My initial concerns about this being a dump job were unfounded, as it was obviously put together by people that share my affection for the original title. I love the redone sprites. The translation is polished (while retaining the proper money quotes, of course). But I did flip back to the non-arranged version of the soundtrack. The updated music is, indeed, fabulous, but I’m still far too attached to the original! I’m at Fabul, now, mega-powering up my team because I’m also far too attached to one-shotting monsters foolish enough to cross my path. It’s a compulsion, really.

FFIV will occupy most of my time on the flight. However, I also picked up F1 2009 (PSP) on a whim with FFIV and, uh, it’s hilarious…ly bad. Thus far I have not been through an entire quickrace because I keep quitting in a fit of laughter. It’s like they hired ‘some guy’ to make high-pitched engine noises! Colour me amused. The handling felt floaty at first, but it’s hard to adjust back to a tiny controller when you are used to racing with a wheel. I think I’ll like it more as I spend more time with it. That is, of course, if fellow passengers on the plane don’t have me committed for giggling like a crazy person while tearing around Suzuka.

I’m not sure what the internet situation will be like once I’m there. When you put eleventy billion geeks in a few square blocks, we just devastate all available bandwidth. I pre-emptively apologise to the rest of Los Angeles for your brutal internet speed this week. You can catch some of my coverage from the floor over at Hak5 with Darren and Paul. And I’ll be writing some smaller pieces to upload at night, with more articles to follow post-show. This coming week is blessedly insane and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And now for a quick ASK THE INTERNET aside: uh, do any of you guys live in Montreal? I want to get to the Grand Prix this weekend and I’m working on options. Would love some advice from a local!! ^_^

Tagged as: E3, final fantasy, psp, racing