JS

So, it’s been a week.

I’ve spent about a week’s worth of time in the new year. (Funny math you say? Well, I gained about 20 hours because of my flight east across the date line on New Years. [details])

So, here’s a summary of “new things I’ve started to spend my free time doing”

1. 1박2일 (1 Night 2 Days, a.k.a. 1N2D). A Korean “reality”/variety show featuring a fixed ensemble cast of Korean celebrities — as is often the case with these shows in Korea. More details to come, but I hear it is very similar to 패밀리가 떴다 (Family Outing). I’ve only watched a couple episodes, so rather than attempt to describe it here: [Wikipedia]
2. Defense Grid: The Awakening. A tower defense game by indie developer Hidden Path Entertainment, it takes the very worn tower defense formula and polishes it to perfection. I got this for a measly 2 bucks on Steam and to quote myself, You might think it’s just another tower defense game, but it’s only just another tower defense game the way Geometry Wars is just another arcade shooter.
   The only bad thing I have to say about it is that Hidden Path really should have taken the time to adapt and optimize the user interface for keyboard and mouse. The game was original targeted for console downloads, and it shows in the UI.
3. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. Yet another Steam Holiday Sale purchase, I’ve wanted to play this game for quite some time. My competitive edge may be in first-person shooters, but my love will always be for RPGs. It’s sort of a “want what you can’t have” mentality, because I am so often left unsatisfied by RPGs.
   The Witcher has thus far met and  passed my expectations. I am looking forward to sinking a lot more time into, but the sound, graphics, visual style, storytelling, and gameplay have all gotten me excited. It has also reaffirmed my love for RPGs from European developers, e.g. the Gothic series. Always darker, less fantasy and more medieval, the worlds feel more substantial and emotionally palpable. Very different in almost every facet from Bioware RPGs, which I am extremely fond of as well.
4. Twitter/Tumblr. I’ve just always liked to write, and I’ve just been doing more of it. I don’t consider it “blogging” in the sense of contributing to the “blogosphere.” So, I still reserve the right to make scathing remarks about said people (in jest, of course). (dangling modifier, you figure it out.)

Details of how I have 20 hours on everyone else who stayed in UTC-08:00.

I was in Seoul for the new year. My flight left in the afternoon on January 1st (local time) and the local time at time of landing was 8 hours earlier than my departure time. The flight took about 9-10 hours. 8 + 10 = 18, ~20 hours. Voila.