Some more summer time stuff. Been mostly packing and playing with my new Blackberry the past few days (very exciting right?). Four days until I start the drive westward. I can’t be more excited.

Happy Thanksgivings! Be sure to keep your family close this holiday.

It was snowing here in Philly yesterday. The weather was a bit surreal, not because I’ve never seen snow before, but because it’s been so long since I’ve seen snow in this area. And also to think it might be the last snow I see for a while…

Something a little sunnier and green is definitely in order.

I sure imagine this is what Ithaca looks like more or less at the moment. This was taken last winter and you can almost make out the roof couch on top of the barn (it’s covered under a nice layer of snow, but we put a tarp on it so it should be good. Right?).

I might be finding myself up there this weekend actually… Here’s to hoping it doesn’t snow on Friday!

The bestest little house on South Aurora St. Taken from our roof couch (yes that’s right, we had a couch on the roof of our barn and it was awesome).

Boy I miss that place.

Oh the wonders on the walls of Emerson Hall. This was some of the better graffiti, however.

Taken in Downtown Ithaca, NY outside of HSBC (the one with the big black railing that you can lean off of).

Also working on adding a little functionality via WordPress plugins, and have been attempting to get Gravatars working, but this has been to no avail, however (haven’t been racking my brains too hard on this issue though). Kind of toying with the thought of adding Twitter stuff as well. Would that make me want to use Twitter more or less?

On days (read: weeks) where I am too bogged down by things to construct an actual post worth reading, I am going to start posting pictures, urban art, interesting visuals, and other things I have lying around my computer.

This is one of the many pictures I’ve taken from around Ithaca that I’ve always liked. I’ll probably be posting more of these in future installments, at least until decide to sit down and write a post, that is.

Lake Cayuga as seen from Dillingham Theater, taken on my current cameraphone, which incidentially has more megapixels than my digital camera does. The quality isn’t as good as you’d expect, but I think the picture takes on a quality of its own due to the “medium” (cameraphones are ironic like that).

Fallout 3 has been taking up a fair amount of my time recently. Between that and moving all my things from Ithaca back to Philadelphia this past weekend, I’ve had little time for much else. Well, besides voting. I did that today.

But back to the more important matter at hand, Fallout 3 is incredible. When I went to purchase the game I knew very little about it, other than it’s pretty much the same as Oblivion (also developed by Bethesda Softworks) and that both Fallout 2 and the original Fallout kicked irradiated ass. Whereas Oblivion caters more to the Cheetos-munching D&D crowd, Fallout 3 is a thinking man’s game. A sad, lonely, psychotically gory thinking man’s game.

One of those chunks is probably an eyeball

Violence aside, Fallout 3 has immersed me as no other game has in a long while. So far I’ve put in a little over 25 hours into my first character. I tend to be pretty meticulous when it comes to RPGs, so those 25 hours include mostly side quests and rummaging through any corpse, footlocker, or front door I can get my hands on. Spending so much time in The Capital Wasteland (the game is set in Washington, DC) has taught me a few life lessons, however.

1. Radiation isn’t really all that bad

If you ever find yourself the victim of a nuclear holocaust, survival isn’t really that difficult. Drinking irradiated water will only give you as much as a sore throat and harvesting meat off of the genetically mutated fauna might not taste all that great, but at least you won’t grow a second head by eating it. Also, if you happen to get too toxic, you can just see a doctor about relieving you of your “radiation”. Still no cure for cancer though.

2. Your pockets can hold as many weapons as you can carry

Let’s say your more of a pistols person, meat and potatoes as I like to call it. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a sniper rifle or a shotgun for those chance encounters where an enemy (ie. everyone) is just too far away/right in your face to be killed by your measly pea-shooter? Don’t worry. Having all these weapons and more at your disposal is possible, IN THE FUTURE!

Sometimes I just can’t be satisfied by blowing off someone’s head with my hunting rifle, so instead I choose to blow up their entire person, and any persons in the vicinity, with my missile launcher. I currently carry 9 different weapons with me at all time. Variety really is the spice of life.

3. Patriotism is still alive and well in post-apocalyptia. Also bigotry.

One neat feature of your Pip-boy, your character’s do-everything wrist-mounted device which lets you view your inventory, character information, etc, is the ability to tune into radio frequencies. Unfortunately there are very few choices to tune in to for your listening pleasure. The station with the strongest signal is called Enclave Radio and is hosted by the new president of America, John Henry Eaton.

Music on Enclave Radio consists of patriotic tunes like The Star-Spangled Banner, Stars and Stripes, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home peppered with “inspirational” dialog from the newly “elected” president on All-American topics like baseball, voting, and yes even apple-pie. Malcolm McDowell does an excellent job as the voice of Eaton, a sinister yet appealing propagandist spreading the word of what America will be like once we get rid of all the “impurities” dotting the Wasteland.

Parallels to vault-dwellers, people who were fortunate enough to be chosen to live in special fallout shelters during the nuclear war, being of a privileged status and ghouls, those horribly mutated by radiation from the war, being scorned by normal society add an extra pseudo-layer of reality to the Fallout universe as well.

4. Cataclysmic destruction breeds new and exotic types of drugs

They say that in times of hardship people tend to turn more towards drugs and alcohol, the vices. Not only is this true in Fallout 3, but new super drugs have been invented to ease society’s pains. There’s no real magic system in Fallout, buffs come in the form of pills and injectables which increase anything from strength to your ability to make enemies explode from the impact of your bullets. You can also become hopeless addicted to these substances, just like in real life! My character has been the victim of not only Buffout addiction, but also an addiction to Whiskey! Who would have though only two drinks would render me a slave to the bottle?

Do not fear however. Doctors can cure addiction. No methadone for this kid!

5. Fallout 3 is really the best game ever

I could only come up with four of these before being hit by the overwhelming urge to play more Fallout 3. I’ll come up with more of these after I execute some Raider and Merc scum. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a future to save.

Oh also, go vote today!