I’ve even got a couple of ideas that I think would work, too. Nothing too concrete, but something that would at least get the creativity flowing and allow me to stretch those muscles, so to speak.

I used to write. I used to write quite a bit, any time I had free time to kill and a black sheet of paper. Most of the time it was really, horribly bad fantasy crap. Occasionally I’d try my hand at other genres, like horror (crap), satire (crap) and sci-fi (crap in space), but I almost always came back to fantasy.

Which is weird, really. I’ve not read a lot of fantasy. Most of the time I read science fiction, from the pulpy 30′s to the atomic 50′s, from the hard-science 80′s to the cyberpunk 90′s. Rarely any fantasy, though.

Maybe that’s why I wrote in that genre – because, to me, it was more open. I didn’t know what had already been done – and been done better than I could hope to achieve. I hadn’t already limited myself with expectations of what other writers would do, so I was a bit more free to try my hand at things. That would explain why ever horror story I tried came out like a really shitty carbon copy of a really shitty Steven King short story. It could be worse, I suppose. At least I’m still better than Peter David.

What I’m trying to say, is: I want to write again, and Peter David is a talentless hack.

How can you NOT want to see this?

Computer Desk - Click for Big

Obviously, there’s a lot of Doctor Who going on here, what with the two voice-changing helmets, talking Dalek toy and the TARDIS USB hub. And, of course, there’s the required Star Trek items – I think there’s actually something Trek related in almost every room of the apartment, and that’s beginning to scare me.

The mini Gamera and Ghidorah figures were imported from Japan, along with matching Dreamcast memory cards. Remember those things? They had built in LCDs, so you could play little mini-games when not near the home console? Well, the two that game with these had little Gamera/Ghidorah virtual pet games. They were neat, but I think someone erased both of mine. Someone who wasn’t me.

You may also notice I have a lot of Mac stuff. For the record, that’s the same laptop from the living room; I don’t own two Macbooks. Yet.

The camera get’s almost no use – I had planned on doing some sort of video blog, but once I saw how awesome some of them are, and how horrible the rest are, I lost all interest. Maybe I’ll focus (heh) on documentaries instead.

Next to the Desk - Click for Big

First, The Shirt: It’s a neat little number from Threadless, with a kick ass backstory and some awesome art. As with most Threadless shirts, it was a limited run… and, being a gaming shirt centered around a gaming icon, it sold out fast. I was only able to get an XXL, but I liked the design so much I didn’t care. I think it looks pretty spiffy hanging on my wall.

Yes, I have a TOS uniform shirt. No, I don’t wear it… And, yes, I also have the phaser and communicator to go with it. Got them all at the Star Trek Experience. Eventually, I hope to get a tricorder to go with them.

Table - Click for Big

The mother lode of Doctor Who stuff – a TARDIS from the 80′s, the new series TARDIS playset (which I’ll probably have to replace once the 11th Doctor takes over, seeing as how they’ll be redesigning the interior sets…), a 9th and 10th Doctor and Rose. Not pictured is the Capt. Jack Nadia got for me to mark nine months of being together…

Yes, the Apple Newton still works. It works very well, actually – in fact, if it weren’t so damn bulky (I mean, really! It’s HUGE!) I might consider using it on a day-to-day basis at work… Mostly as a gag.

There you have it – My computer nook. The part of the apartment with the highest concentration of geekness. With luck I’ll get the rest of the pad sorted out this weekend, so I may have some shots of the Game Graveyard, where all my older systems reside.

Follow me below the jump for happy fun image, and a breakdown!

The Livingroom

As you can see, the living room is filled with pricey electronic toys. There are also some stuffed toys, and – now – a picture to go along with them!

Some notes:

• The Kobayashi Maru is supposed to be an un-winnable situation – the whole point is to see how you deal with pressure and impending doom.
• The Picture of Nadia and me was taken at Minus 5 Ice Lounge
• The autograph is not to me – I picked the book up second hand. It’s in great shape though.
• Yes, that is an HD-DVD drive on top of the 360. I thought it would be a good idea.
  I was wrong.
• The Mario Bros arcade machine used to belong to my parents neighbors. They were just going to throw it away one day, and I quickly claimed it, fixed it up, and put it to good use.
• The mouse is for the Mac Mini. I’ve been considering replacing it with the Logitech DiNovo Mini. Any thoughts?
• The Hitch-hikers plushies are from the movie – One of the few good bits of additional material in that film.

There you are – a peek into my living room.
Hope you enjoyed it!

Next week – My computer desk!

One of them caught my eye, and just made me realized what a total geek I am:

My Geeky Bookshelf

A full break down – after the jump.

My Geeky Breakdown (Click for Big)

Mind you, this is just a very small portion of my collection of stuff – the entire living room (and, well, the rest of the apartment) is filled with samples of geek culture.

I’ll post more as I finish the cleanup.

So, not much really to say – I might write up some thoughts on Fallout 3, and some thoughts on the 3G iPhone later… But for now? Just trying to get back into the groove.

But, I would like to at least get something down – so here goes. Might not be the best piece of prose, but at least it’s an attempt at chronicling the events of my Birthday Weekend.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

PTs. Drinks with Coldiron.
Nadia showed up eventually, her friend Yanni followed later.
We had more drinks, talked, played pool.

Then midnight came…

Thursday, November 6, 2008
The new waitress brought out a cake, with candles… For me. Nadia and Coldiron and Yanni sang happy birthday. I was surprised, taken off guard. Mostly.

Nadia gave me a great coat and a spiffy card. Coldiron gave me a Unicorn pen. Yanni brought chocolate. The cake, too, was chocolate with chocolate frosting, my name in green and little hearts or flowers in purple. Green and purple for Nadia and I… I still have some of it in my fridge. It is yuummy.

We all went our separate ways shortly after.

That Morning

Work kind of sucked. I was tired, I was ready to go home almost as soon as I got there. I did my best to just make it through the damn day.

My dad took Rosenberg and I to lunch, and later my co-workers sang to me, a ritual in this department. Off key, at the top of the lungs… A cacophony of comradery.

That night Nadia and I had dinner with my folks. She gave me a watch… I love watches. It was actually a total surprise – I loved it.

We had sushi.

Friday, November 7th

Slept in. Played some games… Saw Repo! with Nadia. It was a great movie.

Saturday

We painted at my parents house. It was… Okay. I had an asthma attack- a bad one. It kept bothering me for a few days, too… I just didn’t mention it much.

Nadia and Dad made fried Spam sammiches. They were yummy.

Sunday
Sushi again. I love raw fish.
With Nadias auntie and uncle.
It was fun. I enjoyed, because I was with her.

Had red bean ice cream, it was different.

Eventually I went over to Coldirons. We played and drank some White Russians and Mudslides then played Halo 3 until 4am.

Monday I slept. I watched Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter.
It was pretty good.
I missed Nadia.

Tuesday

Met Nadia for Lunch at the Fashion Show mall. Ate at an Italian place. She bought me a Dragonforce CD.

That night, Rosenberg, Coldiron and myself saw Dragonforce in concert. We sat in the VIP lounge, drinking free Mudslides.
It.
Was.
EPIC.

My Twitter feed could not contain the epicness, and my iPhone camera scored and EPIC PHAIL when trying to get any pictures.

Nadia, and the guys, and I, and Anna, had a late snack after the show. They had seen Mama Mia, it got out at the same time.

It was neat.
It was a grand weekend, five days off…

One more day to chronicle tho…

Wednesday
We saw Repo! again.
I am sure now that I like this movie, and parts of it have entered my daily working vocabulary.

There are pictures on the Facebooks, and .Mac Galleries… Eventually I’ll get around to collecting them all and posting them here… Or linking to them or something.

But, all said: It was great.

I just wish I had the words to describe it in full.

Last night, after watching two good episodes of Doctor Who (Run Away Bride + Smith and Jones) and eating chicken wings with my dear Spy (what appears to be our Wednesday Night “thing” now), followed by her going home much earlier than I would have liked (if I had my way, there would be no “going home” ), I spent an hour or so reading “World War Z” by Max Brooks.

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this book at least once or twice before as it’s been out for quite some time, but what with one thing and another I’ve never managed to finish it. I read it a few pages at a time, and then get distracted by something else only to pick it up again a month or two later. The way it’s written – documentary style – lends itself to this style of reading. It’s not something that seems destined for a full sit-down, focus on just it kind of read, but more a “got some downtime, let’s have another story” kind of read.

It is, as the title may suggest, an historical look back at a world-wide zombie epidemic, as told by those who survived it. I’m just now to the bit where the zombies are breaking out en masse, and it’s pretty good. Very satirical and witty.

The point being – this has gotten me, once again, wondering about what it might be like to live through such an event. Something Kitty mentioned last night when people were panicking about being on the moon, but were strangely calm when alien ships landed, makes me wonder just how close to reality these kind of books are.

See, being confronted with an army of the undead is scary, sure. But, it’s also absurd – it’s fairly well removed from the realm of possibility and plausibility, right? It’s one of those Things That Can’t Happen… And, as such, I’m starting to think that were it to happen, people would freak out a lot less than they tend to do in the popular media.

Yes, bombings scare the shit out of everyone – as well they should. It’s something we can wrap our fear around. But, a dead body shambling around trying to eat you? Creepy, to be sure, but so absurd that you just can’t come to terms with it enough to actually be panicked. Scared, sure, but not panicked. Not totally out of control with fear, more “this can’t be real, what the hell” kind of denial.

The kind that’ll help you keep your head – as it were – and very likely mitigate the chaos that will ensue.

Well, for those who read this – I’m really digging the old school CLI interface. I have to say, this is probably my favorite theme for WordPress. At one point I was considering using it for a different project – Project Tax Dollars – but since I epic failed at getting that off the ground, I decided this would be a good place for it.

I like how it causes a good number of people to forget that the mouse still works when using this site. Yes, I know it’s all scary and DOS like, but it doesn’t magically disable the mouse.

I hear that’s a feature in the next version though.

One of the things the potential move has caused me to realize is I have a bunch of stuff. In my living room alone I have a ton of things that I’m not looking forward to moving, most importantly the Mario Bros. That thing took two of us to get up the stairs to this apartment, and takes two people to move from one room to another.

I’m thinking it’ll be the last thing out of this place, an the last thing into the new place.

Other than that, just a bunch of DVDs and books. I do have a wad of games and systems, and more little toys than is healthy… and that has got me considering getting rid of the majority of them. I’ll keep some stuff, like my Doctor Who stuff and my H2G2 stuff, but other than that? Not a lot staying.

Well, okay a *few* Star Trek toys too, but other than that? All gone.