Tuesday, May 17, 2005
I did 1,198 words on Chapter Three of Daughter of Hounds yesterday.
Last night, while I coloured monster doodles, Spooky read more from To Kill a Mockingbird. Hearing it again is making me want to read a biography of Harper Lee. I'd forgotten the effect this book had upon me as a kid — the scene where Atticus kills the rabid dog, for example. I'd also forgotten that Scout gets her ill-fated batton at a V. J. Elmore's. In Leeds, when I was growing up, we had a V. J. Elmore's Five and Dime. Since that was before the age of Big Box Stores like Wal-Mart, Elmore's was sort of important to us. You could probably put at least fifteen Elmore's inside any given Wal-Mart, but it seemed huge in 1974. "The dime store," as we called it, finally closed down sometime back in the '80s. I assume that all Elmore's are closed by now. In Leeds, the building where it had been became the Public Library (previously, the library had been in an old bank across the street). And speaking of colour monster doodles, here another:
I have only three monster doodles left to colour (yay!). After my arm finally tired of colouring and Spooky tired of reading, I finished Doom 3. Gods, what a lousy and yet oddly satisfying game. I assume that I am not the target audience. I assume the target audience is 14, male, and fond of death metal. Certainly, that was the sensibility of the game. Not a drop of characterization whatsoever. No, Big Buff Marine Dude is not a character. Neither is Evil Bald Marine Dude. They're mere templates, at best. The story, such as it was, was ultimately fairly nonsensical. So, no characters and no story (not so you'd notice), no thought necessary. Just pull the trigger and vaporize the monsters. I enjoyed that part, I'll admit, otherwise I never would have made it to the end. I rented this game because I wanted to kill, kill, kill, and that urge was satisfied. But it would have been a hundred times more satisfying had there been characters and a story and some point to the whole thing. And it was a beautifully deisgned game, in its own stomach-churning way, filled with some nice moments of both horror and terror, but this only adds to the disappointment that more care wasn't taken to flesh it all out. In the end, Doom 3 is about as bright as a sack of mud. So, yeah. Anyway, bang, bang, it's over. I should stay clear of the XBox for a time, but I probably won't.
Only nine days remaining until the Big -1 (if you count today). It's not too late to take some of the pain away. Verily, the dogeared goddess of paperback writers will smile on you.
Also, eBay, and we have another copy of the "Alabaster" chapette up now. Remember, I will only be selling four of these. This is number three.
11:55 AM
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