beware the MSG

I now firmly believe that there are mood enhancers in instant noodles.

I just had a bowl of instant soup with noodles. Prior to having it, I was feeling very sad and moody. And now I feel… well, not happy, but decidedly not sad anymore. I have been drugged. I’m sure of it.

Not like I mind at the moment, seeing as how I don’t like being sad and any alternative is welcome. It’s just a tad concerning, I suppose, how easily altered my mood is after having one damned bowl of instant soup. And it didn’t even taste that good!

 

on self-censorship and being open

It’s unfortunate that some of the things I can most eloquently discuss are the same things I can’t publish for public consumption.

Cardinal rule of online life: post only things that you’re comfortable being judged for. Whether it’s a blog post or a photo or whatever else, if you upload it, you accept the risk of your being pigeonholed as being something or other for it. We do it all the time ourselves, really. We surf the net and then draw conclusions about people based on some snippet of his life: his character, his personality, his identity. Sometimes we’re right on the money, but more often than not we’re lucky to be even half-right.

We come up with these grandiose assumptions about how someone must be great or petty, ordinary or wonderful, hot or not. As a matter of principle this is unfair, but it’s also a fact of life. We don’t often have the luxury of waiting for life to give us a chance to get to know people better. Sometimes what little we glean about them is all we’ll get before having to decide whether or not to have dinner with them, side with your friends for or against them, or perhaps even sleep with them.

 

just chillin’

Oh my GOD it’s cold these days. 27 degrees Celsius, according to my wall thermometer, and that’s indoors. And it’s not even raining, or windy.

I’m not generally a wuss when it comes to feeling cold, but I’m not completely back up to proper health from a bad weekend illness. I would have been fine by now if not for a very intelligent decision to clean the house two days ago. Hello, relapse, nice to see you again.

Ah well. It’s all good; I’m sure I’ll be fine in the days to come. It’s December!

Aside from very interesting work developments this past week, I’ve also finally gotten around to playing this, shortly after finishing its predecessor, Covenant:

 

chasing alessa

Still alive and kicking, yes.

I’ve been playing Silent Hill Origins for the PSP (as referenced in my prior blog post). I’d been waiting for it for months, and it does not disappoint. I’m very impressed with how Climax, the new developer, took a strong console/PC experience and made it viable on a portable system. I mean, come on, how much real horror would you expect to have from a handheld gaming device? I was very pleasantly surprised at how well they managed to preserve the ambient scare factor of the franchise.

You do need to make two concessions that they ask of you at the very outset: play with the lights off, and wear headphones. I suppose that’s fair, and I admit that headphone audio is one of the most overlooked yet potentially most compelling aspects of video horror. Most horror movies/shows/games, for instance, rely on the bombast of loud speakers and totally controlling the viewer’s environment. Effective horror is about immersion, after all, and there’s no greater sense of immersion than denying the viewer the chance to have any stimuli that could break the spell. With SHO’s two simple requests, the game already grabs you by the lapels and doesn’t let go. Unless you chicken out and “cheat,” of course, with either lights or non-headphone audio.

I’m glad to see the Silent Hill franchise still alive and well.

In other news, I’ve been these at various points in the past three weeks: busy, quiet, wistful, harried, moody, distracted, naughty, happy, tired, engrossed, wet, and deliciously wicked. I really should get back to blogging, before the compulsion to write passes completely.

 

three words

It’s finally here.