It’s my first set of wheels and I couldn’t be happier. I’ll get into the specifics later — I’m still cleaning. Here’s a showcase pic:

It’s a 2006 Saturn Ion 2. My friend on TNL joked that he’s never heard of a male actually driving a Saturn and told me “Congrats, I think.” LOL! =D

I’ll take shots of the actual car (which is dark grey btw) in a bit…after I’m done cleaning.

And straight from Hong Kong, too!

Leave me alone until the import review, pls. =D

I’ve got a pet peeve or two. Possibly a zoo’s worth, actually, but I’m thinking of one in particular right now.

“Interactive”. Never, ever describe a game as an interactive anything. If it wasn’t interactive it’d just be a DVD.

In order to keep this from being two lines long, I’m going to take this opportunity to gripe about being sick. Lately, whenever I catch a cold, it goes straight to my throat and I sound like something found living in a box in a bad post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie. As a somewhat talkative person, this puts a crimp in my entire life, especially since I work retail and can’t sell a thing when I’m sounding only slightly better than a wheezy whisper. Headaches and coughing are part of being sick, and though I’m not fond of them I can deal with it. Losing my voice, on the other hand, really sucks.

Now playing- GTA: Vice City. Due to circumstances beyond my control I never gave it much time back in the day. It’s still the weakest in the series, thanks to a really boring city, but I’m going to play through the missions just to see the plot. It’s also much, much easier than I remember it being. Maybe because I just beat Liberty City Stories the other day.

There’s an LCS review coming up soon, once my eyeballs don’t feel like they’re trying to expand out of my sockets, but in the meantime I’ve got one comparison between it and the older games in the series. The low level of detail in LCS, thanks to its PSP roots, means that the PS2 version can push much more stuff around on screen than previous GTA games. I’d trade the higher polish and greater polygon count in Vice City for LCS’s low-poly world in a second if it meant I could have streets that didn’t feel so completely deserted. A city is a lively place, for the most part, and I’d forgotten how barren the older GTAs tended to be.

Also, a busier city means that when one car explodes, the chain reaction is a glorious thing. The only thing missing is a combo meter.

This revolution is brought to you by the developers of morphine.

Ignore me. I was earlier bitten by a black widow (I know, true story.) and then put in the hospital. Hooked up with anti-venom, morphine and some other crazy shit. I was out of my fucking mind.

Morphine’s a hell of a drug.

Ah, summer. Time to kick back and chill out a bit, take a few vacation days, and get outside a bit more often than normal.

For yours truly, summertime means that life is even busier than normal, since my weeks and weekends are occupied by fun but time-consuming things like baseball games, family visits, trips to Atlantic City, and so on. Of course, I’ve still got my 8:30-to-6 regular job. That doesn’t go away, no matter what time of year it is.

Generally speaking, all this extra time on the go translates into less console and more portable gaming. It’s nice I’ve got my PSP and DS Lite with me most of the time.

Lately I’ve been alternating between two ridiculously similar games on each platform - Field Commander on the PSP and Advance Wars DS on the (you guessed it) DS Lite. I find it terribly funny how much of a “rip off” FC is to AW, but yet with that said I enjoy it more. I think it’s because of the silliness of the story in AW, or the more cartoony aspect of it. Both are great fun, but if I had to pick just one I’d take Field Commander in a pinch, even if it blatantly steals each and every idea, right down to the action descriptions.

The other things I’ve been doing lately is going to all sorts of great events, like a couple of Phillies games (Phils-Mets and Phils-Yanks). While I am a Mets fan through and through (and have been for 24 years now….damn I am old), the beautiful ballpark in Philly is only 40 minutes from home and about 87 million times easier to get to than dreary old Shea Stadium.

I’ve also got tickets to see two of my favorite bands in July - Ryan Adams & The Cardinals then the Black Crowes - and was able to catch Pearl Jam earlier this month. And I can’t forget about (finally) taking my wife to see The Lion King on Broadway for her birthday in August. She’s been asking me for years.