I fully understand why this game won so many Game of the Year awards, and why even since then, many people have referred to it as one of the greatest role-playing games ever made. Despite its many glitches and often over-convoluted and sometimes wonky controls, this game provides an immensely satisfying story that builds based on the player’s decisions while also providing plenty of incentive to grow Geralt in power while exploring a fascinating world. I don’t plan on ever playing this game again, but it was worth my time to explore every inch of the main game and its two DLCs, completing every quest, and crafting all of the most powerful weapons and armor. There are aspects of the game that I would personally prefer were not there (the nudity and gore), but even those did not stray too far from their source material and still (usually) made meaningful connections to the story.

I played the game over the summer while I was also reading through the book series on which it was based. I did not realize until well into the game (when a major spoiler for the books was revealed) that the three games were intended to take place after the completion of the story in book series. By then, I was entirely wrapped up in the game, so I continued on even after learning that the game had no connection to the author of the books—who considers the ending in the books to be the official ending. I was surprised, then, at the care dedicated by makers of this video game version of fan faction in holding true to the original storyline while still expanding upon it in relevant and meaningful ways.

Interestingly, it seemed that I would come to places in the book series just in time to have elements of the video game brought to greater light. These coincidental double reveals probably led to my liking both the books and the video game even more. Ciri’s story (which is the main focus) had reveals at just the right time in both book and game over and over again. I don’t think that I could replicate such a perfect combination again if I tried.
 
My only complaint is that the conversation paths, while much better than copy-cat games such as Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, were not always clear where the results would end up, leaving me to often go back to previous saves (I recommend saving often) and to look up the “proper” paths on the Internet. This led to spoilers for the game, but also produced a much more satisfying experience for me. This was especially true for Ciri’s story, my preferred ending for Geralt’s relationships (with Yennifer), and for the ends of both expansions.
 
Speaking of the expansions, both are well worth playing. However, Blood and Wine is a “must play” for fans of the books as it brings back (in a not wholly convincing way) one of my favorite characters while also providing some of the best quests and stories in the game. In particular, it adds not only a satisfying way to further expand Geralt’s abilities, but also one of my favorite components of any RPG: building and decorating a home.
 
In all, this not only provided an entertaining continuation of—and ending to—Geralt, Yennifer, and Ciri’s story, but it provided me the opportunity to bond more closely with Geralt in a way that improved my feelings towards the character.

Today is set aside by the Catholic Church to celebrate the angels who watch over us every day.  These guardian angels protect us from the unseen forces that work against us in our daily activities.  They are the spot of luck that has saved us so many times throughout our lives.  They guard us from demons and spirits that bear us ill will, but more often they rescue us from our own mistakes and errors, keeping them from being more costly than they would otherwise be.

As a high school student, I loved Frank E. Peretti's This Present Darkness and its sequel Piercing the Darkness which gave us a look into the roles of angels and demons in their spiritual warfare that surrounds our daily lives.  I have always wanted to write a similar sort of fiction, but found all of my attempts to be too derivative of Peretti's work.

While this statement might make some people decide that it's time take my measurements for a straitjacket, I have felt the presence of angels and demons in my life.  Sometimes they are the inner voices (like the cartoon representations) that give me conflicting statements in regards to my actions; sometimes there is a more physical aspect, a reflex I didn't know I had, a movement caught out of the corner of my eye.

I believe that a guardian angel would be the perfect video game character to play.  While the protected person goes about his or her normal life, we would take the role of the guardian that keeps the forces of darkness away.  It would not need to be an earth-shattering plot, but just the daily dangers that our protectors keep from causing lasting harm. 

 

As I have a bit more time on my hands for the first time in over eight years, I have decided to spend a bit more of it outside.  Otherwise we have all been spending too much of our time either watching TV or playing computer games (especially now that Connor has caught the video game addiction).  And so for the past few days, my boys and I have been taking walks around our neighborhood and finishing with a few shots with the basketball.  

Connor is riding his new, but already too small, bike.  He's still getting the hang of the pedals, and today was the first day that he made it up the first hill by himself (I still had to push him up the second hill).  The training wheels are still on, but he needs a bit more practice with the steering and pedaling before they should come off.  Rowen, meanwhile, is learning to stay to the side of the road and is able to run for quite a while.  It is cute to see him bend a bit and rest his hands on his knees when he gets a bit winded.  Trevor still likes to prove that he can beat all of us home.

My basketball skills have certainly atrophied, but my boys make me look like a pro star.  Connor can nearly get the ball up to the basket, Rowen just throws the ball randomly, and Trevor thinks hitting the post makes his shot a "close one."  Today, a neighbor child came over with his football as well, and so I found myself juggling a football and basketball as I seemed to be the boys' favorite target.

I have also liked our walks and time outside as I've been seeing more of my neighbors these past few days than I have almost the entire time that we have lived here.  I truly did not realize how much my extra work was isolating me from ... well ... everything.  It is clear that I need to get us all out even more often.

Yesterday, I got home later than I expected from work.  I was getting school stuff done (more than I expected, but not as much as I wanted) while my carpool partner was sitting on an interview team.  I arrived home a little before 6pm, ate dinner, and then had company over until 10pm (we played Carcassonne with two expansions).  I turned on my computer to write a post (for which I had an idea that I have since lost), saw that my brother was online and then played Starcraft and worked on logic puzzles until about midnight.

In short, it was a good day.

I've been playing Starcraft games for almost sixteen years.  I don't know what it is about the game or its story, but both keep me interested and entertained no matter how many times I play through the games.  I've played through the campaigns multiple times, completing them on the highest level and finishing all of the additional awards in the Starcraft II game.

I had liked Warcraft II quite a bit before I was introduced to Starcraft, but once I started playing the latter, the former never really got attention from me again.  There's something about the concept that grabs my imagination, and the gameplay is balanced enough that I enjoy each time I play.  Well, almost every time ...

It was my brother who introduced me to the multiplayer aspect of the game.  I quickly found that while I was able to do very well at his LAN parties, playing on the wide open  Internet was much more problematic.   As I have gotten older, my reaction times have not kept up with the required curve, and I have not dedicated time to practice an hone my skills as my time is pretty limited as is.

Now, playing Starcraft II multiplayer is one of the main ways that I spend time with my brother (who lives a time-zone away).  Much of the time, I enjoy building a strategy with him and facing off against opponents who are more devious than the game's A.I.  Sometimes, however, it's just frustration.

Last night, I had to put up with a couple of harassing players.  I was already on a losing streak, but this just rubbed salt in the wound.  In the second case, we even won, but a member of the losing team made it a point to tell everyone how terrible of a player I was.  I know that it was just the taunting of an immature mind, but it stung nonetheless.  It turns out that he was "griefing" the game anyway.  I am only ranked at silver (which is only one rank up from bronze, the lowest category, where I usually sit).  He had a master ranking (4 ranks higher) but was playing as "unranked" so he could harass lesser players (such as myself).

The problem is that I revert to my lizard brain when I get that frustrated.  I start yelling and cursing at the game.  I yell at my kids if they're in the room.  I pretty much turn into a monster version of myself.  A part of me wants to quit playing the game entirely as I don't like that side of me, but another part says that I need to keep playing so that I continue my quest to learn how to lose more graciously.

I will keep playing.  There is still the third part of the story that needs to come out, and I like getting to spend time with my brother, even if it is virtually.  Perhaps I need to tape a note to my monitor saying "Deep breaths; it's just a game."  One way or the other, I shouldn't let moronic minds determine my own emotions, or make me stop playing a game that I love.

It was the first English ship to sail around the world.  It was captained by the pirate/privateer Sir Francis Drake who not only raided Spanish ships along the American coasts for the interest of the English crown, but also returned in time to delay the Spanish Armada from attacking England for a year, enough time for the English to prepare itself.

The Uncharted series of video games (a great set of stories in their own right) are focused on a descendant of Sir Drake.  Two of the games even suggest that Sir Drake had a role in finding some of the great hidden cities and treasures of history.

In short, the Golden Hind is one of the ships in history that I have been interested in since at least high school.  I even wrote a short outline of two young time-travelers who stow away on the ship during its famous voyage around the world.  That was even before I read the journal of the Hind's chaplain, Francis Fletcher, for my class on exploration in the Pacific.

So, when I saw a model kit for a miniature version of the Golden Hind while on our vacation, I had to get it.  I just got around to putting it together, and I am ridiculously happy about it.  It wasn't a massive ship, but it was only the second ship to make it around the Earth, and I have a small version of it that I put together.

I love playing Skyrim, to the point that I am rather addicted to playing it.  Aside from StarCraft II which I frequently play with my brother, I have logged more hours into Skyrim than any other game ... by far.  I like the sense of exploration and fantasy that the game brings.  I feel a level of immersion when I play that I don't feel with most other games.

Still, one of my original complaints about the game stands even after all of this time: so many of the quests are either evil or nearly hopeless.  If I am tasked with looking into the disappearance of a person (or a family, or even a civilization), it is an easy bet that whatever I am looking for came to a bad end.  Too often, the choices I am given in the game do not include a choice that I would make.  Many times, the only options are ones that only have bad endings themselves.

While I certainly appreciate the freedom that Skyrim (and games that attempt to be like it) give, it saddens me that I have to make "evil" choices to complete large portions of the content.  Actually, this often means that I miss out on large portions of the content because I refuse to make those choices.  Worse, there's no reward for being faithful or good in most cases.

However, those complaints obviously don't stop me from continuing to play, and enjoy, the game.

My daughter recently purchased a new computer, putting her on a two-year cycle for upgrading (laptops seem to die sooner than desktops).  My discussion with her about it brought to mind memories of the times when I either bought or received a new computer.  I was having trouble figuring out the actual timing, so I decided to work it out on this post.

First computer: Apple II+
I think that I was in seventh grade (1986-7).  My family got it through my uncle from an older woman who never really used it.  It can a green-scale CRT monitor and a 5 3/4" floppy drive and only a couple of disks.  I remember playing a Donkey Kong-like game with a construction worker removing rivets to trap monsters and Moebius, a ninja-adventure/exploration/fighting game.

Second computer: Commodore 64
I traded the Apple II+ to a friend for his Commodore 64 (he already had a 128) and a tiny color TV (which I still possess) in the summer of 1988.  No one was really using the Apple II+ besides myself, and while my friend was somehow able to make a good deal of money from selling a hardly-used Apple II +, I still think this was one of the best deals I ever made.  I had a large collection of games (most of the copies from friends), but my favorite game was the SSI series with Pool of Radiance.  

Third computer: 386 (Can't remember the brand) mini-tower desktop
My father sent me this computer in March of 1993 to help with my college work (although he also hoped that it would keep me distracted from sex; my daughter was born in December of that year, so he considered that goal a failure).  It used Windows 3.1 as its operating system (although I often had to have my games run in DOS).  I remember being astounded that it had megabytes, MEGAbytes, of RAM and hard drive space.  It did see me through college and reengaged my love of computers.  I remember seeing the 3D polygons of the X-Wing Fighter game and being in awe of how far computer graphics had come.  My favorite game was Betrayal at Krondor, which got me hooked on the writings of Raymond E. Feist. 

Fourth computer: Pentium I (Can't remember the brand) tower desktop
We purchased this computer soon after arriving back in Michigan in the summer of 1996 during a clearance sale at the closing of the office supply store where my sister worked.  This computer would undergo several upgrades over its existence, actually maxing out its motherboard (all with way with a 133 processor).  One of its main features that I liked was how easily its case could be opened to deal with these upgrades.  It ran Windows 95 and was the first computer that I ran Myst and Warcraft on, not to mention my favorite: StarCraft.  I really don't remember what happened to it.

Fifth computer: Pentium IIm Dell Laptop
Back when schools were receiving a decent amount of money and before Michigan went into an economic downslide, the State of Michigan decided to encourage teachers to better use technology by purchasing a computer for every teacher for the 2000/2001 school year (we go ours in November).  Like many good ideas, this one got messed up in the politics.  The computers were purchased through a "lowest bidder program" and most districts missed the part that there were supposed to be the teachers' personal property.  I could at least take my laptop home, but I never bothered with upgrades due to the district's claim that I would have to return it at any time.  By not allowing the teachers to truly own this technology, most teachers didn't really invest time into the devices.  I remember that this one ran the rather buggy Windows 2000 Millennium edition.  I did, however, use this computer to run multiplayer games of StarCraft in my home with some of my fellow teachers who also received similar computers.

Sixth computer: Pentium IV Dell tower desktop
We got this computer about a year after being in Burr Oak for a couple of years about a year after upgrading my Pentium I as high as it could go (2003?).  This was my first time ordering a computer through the Dell site (and during the time that everyone was quoting "Dude, you got a Dell?").   It ran the "new" Windows XP, which is still one of my favorite operating systems.  This was the first computer where I found that my older programs (back from the 386) would no longer run.  I still have the case in my basement (anyone know a good electronic scrap dealer?).

Seventh computer: Intel? Dell laptop
As Janelle started taking classes at Western, we decided that she needed a computer that should could take with her to campus and back.  As we were pretty happy with Dell computers, we decided to go with them again.  I don't know much about this computer as it was Janelle's and I only touched it when she was having problems with it.  It died (apparently due to video card overheating) and some parts of it have found ways into some of her art projects.

Eighth computer: Intel Centrino Dell Laptop
This is my baby, my favorite, and it died on me a few years ago.  I purchased this computer in June of 2005 after I had to return the teaching technology initiative computer back Colon (even though it was supposed to be mine) after taking my current job.  I wanted a computer that I could take back and forth as I was about to live with my sister during the work week and back in Burr Oak on the weekends while my wife finished her degree.  I also wanted a computer that could hold up to my brother's LAN parties.  Again, I went to the Dell website and put in a near-perfect order.  While I held back a bit on the processor and ram, I got the best video card that I could (and would later update the ram), and a 17" screen.  I even special ordered an olive green laptop case/carry-on bag.  I loved this computer and was (and am) depressed when it succumbed to the same problem that my wife's laptop had.  If anyone knows how to fix it with relative ease and small expense, please let me know.

Ninth computer: Intel Duo Core 2 Dell Slim desktop  
After the death of her laptop in 2009, my wife wanted a new computer of her own.  We found a great deal on a Dell computer (with a monitor that of which I am still envious) at Sam's Club (well before we began our boycott of all things Koch brothers).  This is still my wife's main computer.  Unfortunately, we got it just before Windows 7 came out and so are stuck with Vista.  Again, as this is my wife's computer, I usually only deal with it when it is experiencing some sort of problem.  Unfortunately, one of its fans has started to occasionally make a great deal of racket.  My wife is also looking for a little more power now that she is putting a lot of her art online.  She's looking seriously at Macs right now.

Tenth computer: Intel i3 Core inside Toshiba laptop
In March of 2010, my "baby" fried its video card (and still sits next to my bed on the side where I sleep).  We couldn't afford for me to get a top-of-the-line system like the last time, so I picked up a well-rated, but inexpensive Toshiba.  While it has a better processor, its on-board video card can't compete with my "baby."  I still insisted on getting a 17" screen, and we can hook it up to the TV if needed, but it is not my favorite computer to use and has already had a couple of its ports go dead.  However, it did come with Windows 7, which I like nearly as much as XP.

Eleventh computer: Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook 13-inch laptop
At the request of my social studies department head, I joined a technology initiative at my school which provided all participants with a MacBook, iPad, and iPod Touch in the summer of 2010 (yes, not that long after I bought the Toshiba ... had I known ...).  Unlike many of the participants who got their technology through the new bond, mine was provided through a grant from the special ed department whose director specifically worded it so that the equipment became my property (unlike the other administrators, she had learned the lesson from the TTI in 2000).  While I can't stand how small the screen is (and that we got the MacBook rather than the MacBook Pro), this is my main computer for most of my work for school.  I am amazed by how easy it is to use, its track pad technology, and its power consumption.  That said, as it doesn't play PC games ... I probably wouldn't purchase one for myself in the future.

Twelfth computer: AMD Athlon64 X2 Dual Core - Self assembled (w/brother) desktop
Last summer (2013), after hearing me complain about my computer for the thousandth time while playing StarCraft II, my brother gave me a motherboard, processor, new case (which makes it easy to install updates), and a couple of hard drives (it loads off of a small solid state drive).  I have since added a secondary hard drive with a terabyte of space, 8 gigs of ram, and a GeoForce 660 video card.  I have two older, but still LCD monitors hooked up (I hate only using one monitor now).  While I will need to put in a new motherboard and processor at some point in the future, this is a computer with which I am very happy right now.

I asked my younger sons what I should write about and Connor gave me several options.  Two of them (the deaths of Annie and Domino) I've already written about.  A third idea "Why Dad Is Awesome" is a little to difficult for me to write about.  And so, I'm going with his fourth choice: "Why I Love Rowen."  Here are some of the reasons that he (and Rowen) suggested.

He is cute.
- I know most people think that their children are adorable, but mine truly are.  Rowen, as the youngest, certainly has some extra doses of cute on hand.

He likes to sleep and eat.
- I don't know why Rowen wanted me to include this, but it's true.

Everybody loves him.
- Well, as long as everybody's doing it ...

He is awesome.
- He is.

He's fun to play with.
- Generally, they do seem to play well together.

He's nice to everyone.
- I don't know how true this is all of the time, but he can be quite the sweetheart.

He's a nice friend.
- Connor said that this should be the last one.  He likes having a little brother to play with.

Now they want to know if I can play Skyrim.  Who am I to deny my children?

I have already admitted to a video game addiction, but in some ways it goes deeper than that.  One of my largest problems is that I don't just want to beat a game, I want to conquer it.  I want to beat every aspect of the game.

This partially stems from my overall personality, and partially from the fact that we only had two games for our first six months with our first video game system (a Nintendo Entertainment System): Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.  I learned every aspect of both games.  While my father set and made a goal of "rolling" the score with Mario, I set both speed and completion goals.  My final goal: complete the game without warping and without losing a life.  I managed to complete that goal before I received our third game (it would be another six months before we would get our fourth).

That third game was the NES version of Ninja Gaiden.  I played the game so often that I had memorized (with different voices) almost all of the dialogue from its (at the time) innovative cut scenes.  Beating the game on a single life proved to be a goal that was beyond my skill, but I did manage to beat it without having to hit "continue," an achievement about which I still hold a bit of pride.

Video game creators know about people like me, and so they often load their games with extra content and challenges beyond what most people would attempt.  In truth, I kind of hate them for that.  Some of the challenges have become so obscure and sadistic that trying to accomplish them is a form of punishment.  Worse, my compulsive desire to beat everything goes unfulfilled, leaving me with a vague sense of being a "quitter" and more than a little residual anger.

The worst offenders are games that give achievements for aspects of the game that are outside of the normal game's purview.  Examples of this are games like Starcraft II that only gives 100% campaign completion if a player puts hours into its Lost Viking mini-game (not just beating the mini-game, but beating it multiple times) or the Arkham Batman games that require completion of combat "challenges" in a mode separate from the main game.

Following closely are games that incorporate multiplayer elements that count towards completion of a game that is primarily single player, or vice-versa.  After this are "cheap" awards for beating a level in a certain time limit or without taking any damage.  I call these cheap because well-designed levels have additional challenges that require more than just rote memorization of the level.

I like many of the more ingenious challenges that make me think about the game in ways that standard gameplay does not.  However, I would prefer to not deal with a lot of the crap that games incorporate to supposedly create "replayability" but are, in truth, just annoyances.  That said, I have recently been playing through the Assassin Creed II games in an effort to finally get "100% synchronization."  My wife says that such goals are "stupid," and she's probably right; I recently threw one of my controllers in frustration (the "tank" level of Brotherhood) with enough force to damage it, something I haven't done since my Super Nintendo days.

Still, I finally conquered the level.

First, I know that the title isn't the most inspiring or original, but this is a concept that I had in mind after playing the original Zelda back when I was in high school.  I drew up a few maps and slowly added gameplay changes over the years.  It wouldn't be until my sophomore year in college, after playing Betrayal at Krondor, that this game idea fully cemented in my mind.  Sadly, it hasn't moved much from that point. 

Second, this is more of a video game idea than a story idea, but the story part of the of game is where I got stuck.  This concept is one of those where I might have over-thought myself.  Basically, I wanted to create a game that encouraged multiple (I mean sixteen) plays, each with a different view of the game and the story.

The gameplay is like Zelda, a top-down exploration/adventure fantasy game.  The player starts with a standard main character.  Originally, I was in high school when I designed this, all of the characters were male.  Were I to start work on the game today, the first character would be a female knight looking to prove herself and save the world.  As I was stuck on the stereotype, her village is destroyed and her secret heritage is given to her.  She is told to seek out other heroes to help her save the world.

The Knight goes through her section of the world, following whichever storyline the player chooses.  She has basic sword-wielding attacks, her sword takes on different powers, and she can deflect with a shield.  Depending on which direction the Knight goes, a second character is met.  The three other characters are a Wizard who is trying to recapture a demon he accidentally loosed on the world, a Ninja (it was the early nineties) who is trying to restore his (her) clan's honor, and a Jester (who is my personal favorite) who wants to find a story worthy enough to bring him back into the good graces of his liege.  Each has unique special abilities, attacks, and stories.  The Wizard can hit things at long range, has fireball and lightning attacks (I was playing D&D based games on my computer), and can teleport short distances.  The Ninja has fast, close attacks, can climb, and can turn himself (herself?) invisible.  The Jester somersaults everywhere, throws his juggling balls as weapons (that bounce off enemies and walls to appear back in his hands), and can send everyone (friend and foe alike) into paralyzing laughing fits.

The player can only play one character at a time.  This makes it so each character opens up new means of exploration and new ways of dealing with encounters.  The lame story explanation is that their essences are all held in a crystal which only allows out one at a time.  Yet, somehow, in story sequences, they would all be there.  I still haven't worked a better way out of it.  

The player completes each of the four main areas, bringing the each character's story to a completion, before arriving in a final end area where evil is defeated.  Pretty standard.

The twist is that once the game ends (or maybe because of how the story ends), the player gets to start the game again as any one of the four characters.  If the player chooses the Knight again, the first part stays the same, but the story changes depending on which character the player goes for next.  For example, let's say that Knight first teamed up with the Ninja and then the Wizard, but on the next play-through went for the Wizard first and then the Ninja.  The Ninja's story would be at a different place because he (she?) had to face his (her?) Act 2 choices without the help of the Knight.  Meanwhile, the Wizard's situation would not have been as dire.

But the player doesn't have to start as the Knight.  Depending on the character chosen to start with, the game takes a different tone.  Whichever one chosen first is the "hero" of the story.  In fact, after playing The Bard's Tale, Bastion, and The Stanley Parable, I thought that having a narrator (in this case a different narrator for each character) might be a nice addition.  This makes the Ninja's tale more mysterious, the Wizard's tale more magical, and Jester's tale much more comical.  However, whichever character is added last has the most tragic story.

I even thought of adding a fifth character (a dark archer searching for redemption) while still keeping the game to only four acts and a finale.  This way, one character is forever lost, but the added level of complexity, not to mention macabre, might be a bit too much.  As is, the game basically needs sixteen different plot lines depending on who is the "hero" and the order that the characters are chosen.  I would not want any of the endings to be the "correct" ending; players should feel both satisfied with any ending they get as well as curious about how everything might change were things slightly different.

And that's where I got stuck.  I haven't really plotted anything out as the concept would take a great deal of time to etch out and I don't have the programming know-how to make the game a reality.  Still, I like the concept; although, I would like a better title.

I love video games ... probably too much.  That said, I can't afford to be an early adopter.  At best, it is usually at least two years after a system has come out before I purchase one.  Still, I try to keep myself abreast of all the news about them.  These are my thoughts:

PS4 - This is the one that I am most likely to buy just because it holds some of the games that I most like (games from Naughty Dog and Insomniac in particular).  I am disappointed in its plan to not have backward compatibility and in the reported battery life of its controllers.  I've been disappointed by the lack of motion control support by Sony in general.  Basically, there's nothing that makes me want to get this system now (or even this year).

Xbox One - Xbox games have generally not been in my favorite game categories, and it seems like it will be the same for this system.  I don't care about online gaming (with the exception of Starcraft), so Microsoft's superiority in this area does not impress me much.  Most disturbing to me is the always-on Kinect camera; that's a little too close to 1984 for my taste.

Wii-U - Nothing really sells me on this system, at least until a fantastic Zelda game comes out for it.  Unfortunately, it looks like Nintendo's support for its own system is dwindling.  It's an interesting concept, but since it is basically a Wii upgraded to HD, it's currently not worth the purchase (especially considering that the Wii has been relegated to the second TV).

It looks like my video game purchases are going to be lighter than normal this year.  The old systems don't have great games coming out and I don't plan on buying the new systems just yet.  We'll see if a "killer" game changes that plan. 

Two weeks of vacation around Christmas and New Year's Day (and my birthday) make up one of my favorite perks about my job.  These breaks usually don't see me getting much done as far as work or home-improvement are concerned, but I usually get the chance to recharge my mental and spiritual batteries.  As this break is coming to a close, I wanted to share some of the highlights:

1. I didn't put out my back.  Last year, I ended vacation with the most excruciating pain that I have ever experienced.  And while the snowpocalypse might still hit tonight or tomorrow, I have thus far avoided a similar experience.  This, by itself, makes this year's break a hundred times better than last year's.

2. Time with friends and family.  While a GNOME (Guy's Night Of Monster Evisceration) didn't occur, and I haven't seen some of the people whom I love this break, I had tremendously enjoyable times with people I did get to spend time with.  Every family and friend get-together this break was better than I thought they would be (even when I had high hopes to begin with).

3. Dungeons and Dragons became enjoyable again.  Since mid-summer, my enthusiasm for role-playing has been waning.  It was starting to feel like too much of a bother with not enough pay-off.  All it took was one great session with wonderful people to restore my love of this type of game/get-together.

4. The Last of Us - I can only play this game at night due to its horrifying, brutal, and profane content, but this game has one of the best stories that I have experienced this year.  I don't know why I like the post-apocalyptic genre so much, but this game has presented the most realistic (for a vombocalypse story) and still mildly uplifting view that I have yet seen (I refuse to watch The Road).  The gameplay is good.  Still, my favorite parts of the game are when the characters aren't in combat, but are simply exploring the desolation of their world and getting to know and understand each other a little better.  

5. New Year's Day mass - Due to a time mix-up, my mother and I attended the mass on New Year's Day at Queen's rather than St. Mary's.  Between the readings and the guest preacher's sermon, I left this particular mass inspired to a degree that I hadn't anticipated.  I truly wish that more people could experience the grace and contentment that this mass filled into my soul.

6. I turned 40.  The Pirates of the Caribbean marathon went better than I expected (that second movie is just crap), but I was most surprised about how at peace I've felt with reaching this new marker in my life.  Turning 30 made me feel the weight of all that I hadn't accomplished; turning 40 made me appreciate more all that I have.

There are certainly more elements that have combined to make this a favorite winter vacation.  That the snowpocalypse might extend it is a nice bonus.