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Imagist

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    WCT - [COMPETITION OVERHAUL - NEED IDEAS] The Writing Competition Thread

    in Competitions

    Posted

    I was going to write something here about how terribly dissatisfied I am with this because of the lack of time, research and proofreading that plagues it, and how awfully aware I am that the first and second halves, put next to each other, may seem slightly schizophrenic, but a teacher once told me never to qualify your work before presenting it so I'm not going to write anything like that.

    Nostalgic

    You know the winter's dragged on too long when you start getting nostalgic for spring.

    I wrote that sentence on the first page of my wrinkle-streaked spiral-bound notebook twenty minutes ago, and I've been staring at it ever since. The rain's been silent for a moment now, but my ear still hears the industrial rhythm of its half-frozen pellets colliding with the slanted swivel windows of my small attic hole. The wind whistling against the poor insulation of the single-pane glass as it competes with a passing ambulance weaves a melody that makes me suspect I should be shivering, but something provides a warmth that threatens to make me doze off.

    Oh, that's right: the heater at my feet.

    You ever had one of those anachronistic dreams that makes no sense in the context of where you went to sleep, but seems so utterly real you're willing to throw away the timeline you knew and go along with it? That's the overall sensation that flooded me upon waking up today. Only it didn't stop when I pinched myself. I didn't care about the radio, which roused me from my blank-slate sleep, announcing the latest-reported death toll from the earthquake in some third-world country two days prior; I fully expected to stagger out of bed, throw the French doors wide open and step out onto the balcony, where I would see the Córdoba boys playing soccer in the courtyard below and feel the presence of the freshest blossoms from Señorita Flores's street-side boutique drifting in on the warm breeze.

    My, a lot can change in a year.

    When John first invited me to stay with him, I wrote my eagerly affirming reply so fast I almost forgot to run to the student center for stamps before posting it. I was handling my academic endeavors about as well as a three-legged cat handles himself in a dog pound and besides, what use did I have for a theoretical education when I could learn to really live traveling Europe with my brother?

    That night I had trouble sleeping. I'd hardly slept for days already, but that night was feverishly rough. As I stared at the ceiling my brain vanished, seemingly replaced by one of the computer programs I was working on, executing endless processor cycles calculating the sum I'd need to scrape together from God-knows-where and musing as to when I might finally make it out to Spain. Max's early-morning snoring came as a relief for once, since it broke my concentration and I spent the rest of the night watching snow pile silently on the windowsill, as if an anthill under construction. The next day I decided that as long as John refused to make use of modern technology, fits of overthinking wouldn't solve anything until his next letter arrived.

    Of course, our actions don't always reflect our decisions.

    That's why this morning, despite deciding not to open my storm-shutter eyelids until I heard some tangible trace of a living, breathing John, I found myself slouching in the shower, lukewarm water bubbling over my feet. My hunched-over body knew how to cope with the inadequate height of the bathroom's slanted roof already: the whole process of hosing off yesterday's filth quickly became thoughtless routine, raising one arm after the other just far enough to scrub the armpits, squatting only to lather and rinse the long-past-manageable mane. Even after only a week, my mind remains free to ponder other matters.

    Other matters aren't always so pleasant.

    My pantry consists of some week-old flour tortillas and the meager remains of Señora Córdoba's raspberry jam, bestowed in consolation, so breakfast was a modest affair. I sat at the squat, crooked-legged table, allowing the crisp crumbs to tumble onto its surface, and watched the anti-spring clouds develop, unfolding from each other as if the rapidly multiplying children of a distantly detonated atomic bomb. Oh, if only.

    I'd barely touched pen to paper when it struck. The steady torrent smeared down the roof-walls surrounding me, rendering the neighboring rooftops and skyline an impressionist haze. And now it's returning, the persistent pounding of drop after drop more painstakingly deliberate than before in its effort to haunt, to torment me with the blizzard-blurred image of Mulhacén, the white-washed slope. I see my hand as it was then, pallid as if it were nothing but bone, melding perfectly into the background of the heavy snow blanket surrounding me despite shaking so violently, with such a constant vibration, that I'm surprised it doesn't emit a slight hum of its own frequency.

    “They d-didn't f-forecast this,” I hear myself say. My clattering teeth are a horse at full trot. But John, looking down at me from a few years further ahead, is ever a smile incarnate.

    “We're too far up to make it back to the village in time,” he says. “The shelter's not too far, and then I can go look for—”

    A quick, rolling rapping at my door interrupts him, followed by the word, almost as if in warning, “Policía!” Heavily, I sink down the steep stairs, the stairs that devour those crooked windows and lead me back onto the plane of the real world, where there is a Spanish detective with an oh-so-typical handlebar mustache standing in the hallway.

    “Señor McQuinn?” he ventures. He appears to doubt himself upon glancing me and my month-old bear over and noticing I am only half-dressed in flannel pajama bottoms.

    “I don't speak Spanish,” I say, and consider shutting him out.

    “Yo sé que hablas,” he rattles off quickly, sticking his hand against the door as though anticipating such a move, “but no matter. You're a hard man to find, Mr McQuinn. I've gone through three different addresses to locate you.”

    “I'm having a hard time settling down.”

    “Comprendo perfectamente. Anyway, it's a good thing I found you.”

    “What do you want?” I have to shuffle my feet a little; the real world is definitely cooler without the aid of a space heater.

    “Well, there have been some recent developments in the investigation.”

    “What investigation?”

    “Sorry, that's just our formal term for it. The search.”

    I feel a well-cast stone settle on the bottom of the turbulent sea in my stomach. “Until you've found my brother alive, I don't want to hear anything you've got to say.” My hand rests on the doorknob.

    This does not seem to disturb the detective in the least. With a stroke of his mustache, he explains, “The onset of spring has melted some of the snow covering the mountains. We were able to recover something.” He reaches into the messenger bag at his side and removes something rabbit-sized—like a magician pulling out of a hat—but rather foot-shaped, presenting it to me delicately with both hands. “Does this look familiar?”

    Of course it looks familiar. It is Achilles's heel, sliced right off his pre-Christian corpse and preserved, petrified in amber. Or, more accurately, it is just a boot. John's boot. The puke-green hiking boot he wore that day, however many months ago (I don't care to count). I see it now; it is all I see, as I lay on the stiff ground by the infantile fire. If I crane my head to watch him go, my eyes are just barely level with his ankles.

    Objections have been raised, but he will not hear them. He glances back at me over his shoulder and says, for perhaps the third or fourth time, “I won't be long. Just sit tight.” And then the door springs open with the violent howl of the storm outside, small flakes are leaping in with desperation and stinging my eyes, and before I know it, with just as violent of a band, the door closes and he is gone.

    I do not know how many hours I lay there, in that otherwise abandoned shelter, alone, taking the notebook out of my backpack to dry it by the flames, throwing my spark-spitting camera aside as a lost cause. Nor do I know how many minutes I stand here, in my own doorway, staring at the boot before me but lost in the man-eating Sierra Nevada some hundred kilometers away, until I finally, simply reply, “Yes.”

    He nods—why did he ask the question if he already knew the answer?—and continues, “We found it still half-buried beside a sharp drop. There must have been no knowing what was in front of him with the blizzard raging like that. As soon as it warms up some more, we can search the bottom of the cliff.”

    My gaze is still fixed on the boot as he slowly extends it toward me.

    “Mr McQuinn,” he addresses me, and I look up to meet his eyes, full of sincere pity, “I have nothing to offer you but what belonged to him and my condolences.”

    The glossy glimmer of pity in his eye sparks something in my breast that may have once been pride. I am not entirely sure what it is, but it is the only driving force besides hunger that has fueled me for weeks. Drawing in as swimmer-worthy a breath as I can manage, and feeling my windpipe swell like an out-of-control pelican's beak, I say in exhale:

    “Thank you, but I don't want that. It's time to move on.” For good measure, I add, “And please, call me Miguel.”

    I trudge back up those stairs into the heat-saturated hole, into which a faint sliver of sun darts from behind the clouds, and sit once more at the crumb-covered table. Beneath that sentence, long since grown cold after its conception over an hour ago, I add:

    But maybe, if it lasts long enough, you can forget the past and take the new year as a fresh adventure.

    __________________

    Now where is everyone else? Get to it!

    WCT - [COMPETITION OVERHAUL - NEED IDEAS] The Writing Competition Thread

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Isn't there supposed to be some kind of a competition starting soon?

    ...Why are you all staring at me like that?

    Hey, listen! The steadily improving spring-like weather has been stirring the creative juices in my brain, and I'm not entirely appalled by the verbal feces that's oozing out, so I hereby issue a challenge to the four corners of the Internet regarding this next competition: Let everyone who knows how to join two words and form a sentence come together and put in their best shot. Let's make this the best damn competition yet. I'm really not in a position to use the Internet that much, but you can bet your procreative powers I'm writing, so I hope someone carries this message for me to all the appropriate recipients both new and old, because I want to test my craft. And just so I don't sound like an arrogant, selfish bastard, I swear upon the hole in my grandmother's roof that I will buy an ice cream cone for anyone who bests me. The next time I see that person live, of course.

    And yes, you can get triple scoops.

    (I just couldn't stay away for two whole years!)

    WCT - [COMPETITION OVERHAUL - NEED IDEAS] The Writing Competition Thread

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Haha. Write your little hearts out, indeed. And if you guys are still around in two years, I'll be sure to come back by.

    So, I'm all critiqued out on your poem, Random Hajile. Yeah, it took me three months, whatever. Now I'm going to finish my thoughts on Washington Maverick's story, and I may even have time to put together one more little surprise for you guys... but for that, you'll just have to wait and see.

    Critique of "Walk" by Random Hajile (linked because it's too large for one post)

    WCT - The Writing Competition Thread [Short Story Results]

    in Competitions

    Posted

    It's that time you've all been waiting for... yes, you know it...

    THE RESULTS ARE IN!

    Runner-Up: GA Jedi Knight

    1st Place: Ubernym

    Here's the vote spread:

    TheHands - 5

    Darklink42 - 2

    Opterion - 3

    Ubernym - 14

    just64helpin - 5

    ZeaLitY - 5

    GA Jedi Knight - 10

    Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard, not just in this competition, but in all the competitions of the past year. It has been a fun time, and I'm really going to miss doing this with you guys every couple months.

    That said, the future of the competition is now in the hands of GA Jedi Knight. I've spoken with him and he's agreed to take over the responsibility for it, so you guys won't have to go without a forum for your writing jitters. So basically, as of now, everything is up to him! He is an incredibly responsible fellow with a keen eye and mind for writing, probably even more so than me, so I trust you guys will hardly miss me. :-P

    I have almost a week left until I leave, so I still plan on finishing those critiques I promised (and I've already started! Honest!), plus maybe some more for this competition if I get to it. But you won't see much of me, anyway, so I guess this is goodbye, folks.

    Fallout 3 for the PC

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Dhsu pretty much answered it but I'll elaborate.

    Not so much not actually playing it, it's more based on whether my pc can play it. What good is a game that won't play at least decently enough on my system..? Rather than letting it sit aside as nothing more than paper weight, I'd wouldn't mind selling it to some one who can play it and enjoy it. Which also made me consider selling my older stuff since currently they are all nothing more than one time expensive, now relatively cheap paper weights.

    As for not considering getting the PS3/360 version, I just don't have an xbox360 nor a ps3, still waiting for the titles that would eventually push me enough to get a system; more likely the PS3...

    I... nope, that still doesn't explain the existence of the thread. From what I can understand (which still isn't much, as you aren't being very explicit with your motives...) you might as well have made a post in the sale/want thread, especially since this thread becomes misleading with "Fallout 3" in the title when it's only indirectly about Fallout 3.

    Guitar Hero World Tour

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    also, has it been confirmed yet if ghwt instruments for wii work with rock band? i was thinking of getting just the disc.

    As far as I know, instrument compatibility only works the other way; GH:WT has promised compatibility with Rock Band instruments by shifting two of their lanes into one (to match Rock Band's four-lane tracks), so you could feasibly buy the RB/RB2 bundles and get just the GH:WT disc.

    Guitar Hero World Tour

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm kind of on the fence with this one. I own GH II and III, and I really liked III (though on my new setup, the mono thing on the Wii version really hits hard).

    The answer to this question could be the decision maker, though, so I hope someone will be able to answer it:

    Using the music editor, can I, absent the full package (e.g. no drums/mic) make a GH version of, for example, Wily Stage 1 from Mega Man 2?

    From what I've seen, you can make anything you can imagine using just the guitar. Of course, the demo I saw used the guitar touchpad, so I don't know. If you can do it without the new guitar, you might even be able to use just a regular controller.

    But as far as GHIII, you realize Activision offered a replacement disc program months ago? I've been rocking out in full stereo since March or so. The offer is probably still around, somewhere.

    Looking to liquidate my old Pokémon cards, need suggestions...

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have replied.

    To the newest messages? Because I sent two PMs after you made your offer yesterday and haven't gotten anything since.

    Slight deviation from the topic, I remember hearing about a Pokemon online game, where it was essentially like the hand held series, but online. Wonder how that went. I'm surprised there isn't an online Pokemon card battle, suppose that wouldn't be as good since part of the charm of card battles is collecting the cards.

    There are a couple of Pokemon MMOs, which range from really, really awful to decent. And there are some pretty nice ways to play TCGs (not just Pokemon) online; I used to play Apprentice, which allows for loading custom card databases and creating and saving any number of decks to play games via direct connections to your opponents. At the time I was involved with some communities that designed tournaments around the program, so it was pretty fun, and a heck of a lot easier than physically collecting cards to build decks (although not nearly as satisfying, I guess).

    Guitar Hero World Tour

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    That may have been true months ago, when Rock Band 2 didn't look like it was going to support Wii DLC (but GH:WT had confirmed it), but RB2 Wii has since confirmed DLC not only for RB2, but for backwards-compatible RB1 songs. Now Rock Band 2 is pretty much the only one to get, unless you really really care about the GH:WT songs.

    Looking to liquidate my old Pokémon cards, need suggestions...

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Pojo's price guide for older cards hasn't been updated since 2005-2006 (I don't remember the exact year, it might even be earlier than that). Pretty much every price in there is significantly lower by now unless you are selling to a desperate collector, because most of the older cards aren't nearly as useful for actual play any more (either outdated in terms of power/effectiveness, or replaced by something just as good and easier to find).

    So yeah, trust that lower price.

    Looking to liquidate my old Pokémon cards, need suggestions...

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I am kind of curious of the same thing. I have at least 1,000 (I don't know exactly how many, but like I said, at least that many) cards from the original set through Neo, including almost 200 rare cards (several dozen of which are holographic) and various 1st edition or foreign ones. When I priced them a couple years ago the rares alone were "worth" $800, sold individually, but I never got around to it then, and it seems like an awful lot of effort to try to get rid of such old cards one by one. But to sell them as a large lot, most eBay auctions go for significantly less--even a tenth as much as they might be "worth."

    WCT - The Writing Competition Thread [Short Story Results]

    in Competitions

    Posted

    ...And I still have only two votes. Well, two and a half, including my own. That's just not gonna fly. I can give you all three more days to vote, but no more or we'll be running into November!

    Tonight was my last night at work, so tomorrow I'll be sending PMs around to tell everyone to get on the ball, and hopefully getting around to some critiques (or at least the ones I promised in July's competition!) in the next week and a half before I leave.

    Macbook Brick Pro

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    What I mean is that "showing what's left" is never consistent. One minute it's 4:30, then it's 1:57, then it's 2:08, and so on.

    Well, you're not likely to find any reading of the sort that is accurate and consistent. This is largely because the "life" of these batteries is largely dependent upon inconsistent factors like temperature.

    Macbook Brick Pro

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Yeah, the entire process is supposedly more environmentally friendly than ye olde methods, not just in the recycling of materials but also in the lack of various chemicals and such that used to leave something of a large carbon footprint. Although there is a bit of an uproar over the exclusion of the Firewire 400 (or any Firewire at all, for the regular MacBooks) port that has been standard in Macbooks over the last five years.

    Branching out Your Music Taste

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The "Explosions in the Sky" Channel on Pandora has been getting a lot of play through on my Pandora account, instrumental like this I've only heard in great films...

    Sounds like you and I could be friends. Also, sounds like you need to be listening to Do Make Say Think, Mono, This Will Destroy You, and quite a few other bands of that post-rock ilk if you aren't already.

    For me, it wasn't really a question of when I started branching out, but more when I started paying attention to music and actively seeking it out. Before 2005 or so, I never really listened to anything by choice except OCRemixes; my only other musical experience was whatever happened to be in the car, riding with my parents or friends. Then I was introduced to some alternative music on another forum I was visiting at the time. Those guys took me all the way from Franz Ferdinand ("Take Me Out" was probably the first song I fell in love with), Modest Mouse and the Pixies to the likes of British Sea Power, Broken Social Scene, and The Unicorns. About that time I also discovered that a few of my friends were listening to some (at the time, it seemed to me) weird music, including Air, The Flaming Lips, and various vocal-oriented post-rock outfits such as Sigur Rós and Stereolab. Everything I listen to now is just a result of taking those foundations and investigating their contemporaries, who they've influenced, who influenced them, etc.

    At some point in the beginning of 2007 I randomly picked up LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver, not even realizing it was a brand-new sophomore release, and I got a music-boner for James Murphy that's never gone away. This opened me to a whole new world of non-generic dance music and electronica I never explored before, and is probably the only real branching point I have to speak of. Now my tastes are a pretty thorough amalgam of that sort of dance-oriented rock/electropop, various indie pop-rock outfits like Voxtrot, and Okkervil fuckin' River oh my God I am so obsessed with Will Sheff. I still listen to quite a bit of post-rock, post-punk (both old school and the '00s revival eras) and '80s/'90s alternative rock, not to mention the occasional smattering of everything else, but my tastes lean most strongly toward dance-punk and "teh indie pops."

    Nintendo Wii

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Maybe developing for the PS2 is cheaper than the PS3. And lots of people still have PS2, and since the PS3 can play PS2 games (it still can, right? They haven't made any crazy BC cuts, have they?), they still get that market. It's a smart move, actually.

    The latest versions (the only ones currently selling retail) have no PS2 compatibility to speak of. This is pretty awful, because it's not hard to do the software emulation the last couple versions have had (which is not total compatibility, but at least it's something), so clearly the move is motivated by greed or retardation. Maybe both.

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