09/22/2004

In The Heavens Above…

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

So Katamari Damacy didn’t come out yesterday after all. Big surprise, huh? I got the same ol’ “call back tomorrow” response, though now I understand that almost no one got theirs in on the day it was expected. But it’s just as well; it would have been hell dealing with the long lines at EB (or Gamestop) for the Star Wars DVD that also came out yesterday.

Speaking of, I went to the LucasArts event yesterday morning. They were in town to show off the nine million Star Wars games coming out. I only sat to check out Battlefront which wasn’t that bad. I really appreciate the fact that there are two separate campaigns, one for each trilogy. I simply cannot stand how every Star Wars game that takes place in the classic trilogy now has to have at least one stupid Naboo vehicle or Gungan running around.

Normally whenever I go to a press event on the behalf of Nick, it’s hard to find an excuse to check games out then they’re clearly not in the Nick Mag demographic. But in this case, it made for a short visit, which I was happy about (not much later in the afternoon I was scheduled to give a speed to my boss Kate’s production class, since they’re all doing video games for their senior projects). But I felt bad leaving since I got the feeling that the only reason why people were stopping by was to snag a copy of the DVDs which I predicted was being given away, and they were.

Despite my strong distaste over what has been done to the films, I’m at least glad I don’t have to make Lucas any richer to appease my curiosity. I have to admit, it is nice to have a pristine DVD quality version of The Empire Strike Back (stupid change with the Emperor and all). And as bad as the new special effects still are…. the exchange of gun fire between Hand and Greedo does indeed look better, as does the new CGI Jabba, but he still doesn’t fit in the scene… there is one change I really did wish they made, and that’s changing the name of the poor fat X-Wing pilot who dies at the end of the first film to anything but “Porkins”.

I really wanted to sit and watch all three films, but I just have too much stuff to do nowadays. Besides the aforementioned press junket and public appearance, there’s still my regular day job which now is getting heavy on the website side of things. And of course, I’m still polishing the design specs for SB, doing the same for the book proposal, plus figure out what I’m going doing for PSX, and finish writing a letter for a friend that’s taken me forever to finish (whenever I almost get done, I get sidetracked, stuff happens, then I have to start from scratch). And that’s on top of trying to keep abreast of all the breaking news from the world of games, which there was plenty of yesterday, with the top item (at least in my book) being the first bits of info regarding Mizuguchi’s new game for the PSP, Lumines.

Last night, and at the last minute, I found out that Lemony Snicket was making an extremely rare public appearance, but I actually passed on it. I was just tired of juggling a million things (I also blew off a show by Ex-BDFer, Brian Klunk) so I had a nice quite dinner in Brooklyn with a someone I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was quite nice, and the total opposite of the night before…

I really don’t like to talk about my personal, personal life here, but the thing is, I am currently without a mate. So I’ve been pretty busy doing the whole dating thing this summer, and actually, I’ve been on quite a few. Unfortunately, while most seem to go fairly well in my book, things never seem to go very far for reasons unbeknownst to myself. While I’m not going to provide a list of all such situations (though if I did, the time I tried dating a lesbian would be on the very top), I will say that on the night prior, Monday, was by far the most ridiculous.

Long story short, I met my date at a bar (perhaps the only one in NYC that I truly enjoy) for some drinks to help break the ice. Things started off great; the conversation was fast and loose, and everything was going great. Then I took her to what I feel is the best Italian restaurant in the city. Again, we were both having a good time, and things could not have gone any better…. that was until she found out I was an Aries. No big deal, right? Not to her… she started to genuinely freak out. “I can’t believe I always attract Aries!”

At first I thought she was joking around, but I would eventually realize that she was deadly serious. I tried to lighten the mood by talking about the time I was a telephone psychic while in college, but seemed to makes things worse. You’ll have to excuse me if I find all of the astrology stuff mumbo-jumbo. Anyway, the date was ruined, and even now I don’t know why I simply didn’t walk away instead of hanging in there till the very uncomfortable end.

The thing is, it’s one thing to get rejected by women for “real” reasons (“you’re not my type, you’re too much of a nerd, you’re fat,” etc.), but when the reasons are so bizarre and retarded, one can’t help but feel frustrated. Though, it all goes to prove that one should always listen to their instincts. If a girl sounds sorta nuts on the phone, she probably is in real life.

  • Jake

    I’m waiting for KD as well… granted I live in the middle of semi-rural Pennsylvania, I wonder if it’s going to be in any stores around here. I love that the soundtrack is still in.

    BTW, I just found your site through Insert Credit, and find it very entertaining!

  • https://www.fort90.com/ Matt

    Hey Jake, thanks for stopping by (and good luck on finding a copy of KD)!

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