24Apr2013 1800: Solid Ground

I'm grateful to be back on what soon won't be solid ground. My work trip to San Antonio was a week of beauty and triumph capped by three days of an absolute shitshow at my Dallas connection. We left San Antonio at the perfect time Tuesday morning to be trapped as soon as we hit the ground, and what followed was a cascade of cancellations and La Quintas. I might not even have made it back on Thursday; the flight back to Fargo was five seats oversold and nobody was volunteering to stay. My raffle luck came through in the end.

It's a damn pity that my lasting memory of the trip was of strife and airport shuttles rather than the overwhelmingly good time I had in San Antonio. I'd recommend a vacation there to anyone, and I'd recommend doing it for the exact duration and at the exact time of year I did. As I left temperatures were already sneaking into the 90s, and that is too many. Too many Fs.

When you're done perusing that photo album linked above -- and I imagine most people that come here have already seen it -- I invite you to shake yo damn rump. If you'll excuse me, my executive hair-slicer has arrived in the mail. I'm going to spend the next four hours shaving very, very slowly.

03Apr2013 1600: SUPER ADVENTURE BOX

I'm not going to be here next week. I have to go to San Antonio for a convention and I guess I'll go to Texas in April where it's 80 degrees and sunny if I have to jeez. I'm only kidding a little; I chose North Dakota for reasons, one of which is the cold. 80 degrees in April ain't natural. The potential for 90 degrees is debilitating.

Truth be told, I'm not even here this week, really. Guild Wars 2 came out with their April Fools patch and it is...it's goddamn amazing. It's a fully-realized game inside the game, a 3D platformer slathered in a charming aesthetic and a frelling amazing soundtrack. Damage is meted out in hearts, you can bomb cracked walls, monkeys throw coconuts at you; it's everything you remember about videogames.

That's not to say I was starved for Guild Wars content. Guild Wars is updating all the time, but everything so far was burdened with crazy restrictions like "plot". All the other content takes place in the real (virtual) world, extending their storyline and fleshing out events in the post-dragonpocalypse. Holiday extensions added new areas, but always in the same art style and integrated with the world at large. Super Adventure Box is the first upgrade that feels like completely new everything, a labor of love from the programmers.