I say that because I have been home for 2 weeks and I haven’t posted anything on my TDY. Will really wants me to post something, so he puts up a topic that he knows I would respond to.

First, let me say that Will knows my gaming taste very well. He has me pegged on all of them (except he called Contra III: The Alien Wars Super Contra - another great game, but not on the Alien Wars level…). I truly do love all those games and they have played a major part in my life as a video gamer. Each has touched some part of my life whether it was how it was obtained (I paid $85 for Chrono Trigger and I was at the store the day it was released…I believe it was the first game I ever paid for, too!) or the way it affected me with its outstanding storyline. As you can see by my choices, I was a big fan of the 16-bit era. I remember days when my siblings and I would play the SNES for hours. They loved watching me play FF III and kept up with the storyline very well. FF III introduced me to RPG’s. I love the genre because of this game. To this day, I haven’t beaten FF II and I haven’t played FF I. The other game that changed me as a gamer was PSO. That game logged my longest time that I have ever played a game without breaks - a whopping 12 hours! I forgot about eating, drinking and using the bathroom when I played that game. I have made many online friends and I have one that I still talk to today in Germany (hi Kurrgan!!!). I loved making characters and they each had a defining characteristic so that my online friends would know it was me…they each had the letters ‘Vy’ in them - Vyper the RAcaseal, Vyxen the HUnewearl, Mistress Vy the FOmarl, and Vyne the HUcaseal. I recreated Vyper in all the iterations that we purchased (Will’s HUcast 8-Man needed his female counterpart…). I truly did love that game in it’s PSO form. I make that distinction because CARD Revolution was introduced and I have not embraced that game.

I unfortunately cannot make a similar list for Will. His gaming past includes many SEGA games that I am unaware of. I loathed the Genesis during the 16-bit era and outside of Sonic and Shinobi, very few games caught my interest. I was a SEGA basher back then and until I was introduced to the Saturn did I not fully appreciate what SEGA could do. PSO pretty much sealed the deal and SEGA became my step-child. I do believe that many of the games in my list are shared with Will, but I cannot complete a list without those SEGA games.

Now on to my adventures in Colorado. The state is beautiful! It was 109 degrees when we arrived in Denver, but the lack of humidity made it feel bearable. Denver’s airport looks like a large circus tent! The land is flat farmland, but it is surrounded by mountains. The clouds hung over the mountains like a halo - you could see when it was raining in the next town. We stayed in Castle Rock for a couple of days, then moved on to Colorado Springs for the remainder of our time there. While in Colorado Springs, I drove up Pike’s Peak and visited the Garden of the Gods.

I drove up Pike’s Peak with my supervisor Wanda in her rented Suburban. My comfort level with large SUV’s is pretty low and driving one not maintained by me personally up a mountain on a dirt road with no guard rails was a pretty scary experience. The trail is 19 miles up and there was pavement for the first 9 miles only! We stayed in first gear as recommened by the guide, but several individuals felt that the 25 mph speed limit was too slow for them. I pulled over and let those assholes go by and quietly wished they would meet their demise off the side of a cliff (I know it’s wrong to say, but they were putting other’s lives in danger…there were many blind curves, 2-way traffic in 1-way space and very few spots to pull over…). I watched as an F-150 that was tailgating me up the mountain fishtail close to the edge of the cliff while taking a turn too quickly. He slowed down considerably after that. Wanda and I could not bear to look out over the mountainside - we learned that there was an inherent fear of heights in both of us! There were many bikers going up the Peak. We were scared to look over the cliff with the vehicle blocking our view… they had an eyefull of the land below at all times! I found that very strange, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Once at the top, we laughed at the fact that we made it up alive followed by tears because our lives truly were in danger the entire way up. We exited the car and immediately felt lightheaded due to the elevation. I noticed the MRMC crest and realized that they did research up on the mountain. The 3rd and final gift shop was also at the top. I got a shot glass that said “I survived the drive up Pike’s Peak”. Something about that was very unsettling…we had to make it back down. We start our descent and a crazed mini van driver tailgates us dangerously close. If there was one thing I remember seeing it was a sign that said “HOT BRAKES FAIL”. I tried my hardest to allow first gear to slow the vehicle down, but this particular asshole wouldn’t get a clue that their tailgating was not safe, even with my hazards on. I finally got to a spot that had a sholulder to pull off on and the driver had the nerve to look at me as if I was wrong. I wished the bitch and her retarded family a slow roll down the side of the mountain with a large explosion at the end so no one would survive and spread that stupidity gene. When we got to the mandatory brake checkpoint at the Glen Cove Inn, the guide stated that I was driving very well and that my brakes were no where near the failing point. The Glen Cove Inn gift shop was the second of 3 gift shops on the Peak and was by far the best. We continued our descent and couldn’t be happier when we were on pavement again. Our trip took 5 hours to complete and we were glad to have had that experience. If there is a next time, we are taking the train up!

On our next day off, I went to the Garden of the Gods with Wanda and Julie. This park had rocks naturally formed in various shapes that could be related to everyday objects and places. Similar to Pike’s Peak, we were allowed to drive through the park and identify the formations using a map. The history behind some of these formations is facinating. Some would say that you have to have a good imagination to understand this park, but its charm comes from wondering how these formations came to be. The most famous formation has to be Balanced Rock as determined by the large crowd that was there making the ability to take a picture of the rock by itself impossible. We unfortunately passed by many of the lesser known formations because we felt they were poorly labeled. Still, it was a beautiful park and it had a great gift shop!

I missed being home, but Will and I spoke every day. The workload and some of my co-workers were driving me insane, but I made the best of the situation by counting down the days until I was back home. Will’s previous posts were hilarious and kept my spirits up about what was going on at home (although I did return to 3 weeks worth of laundry…). Luna couldn’t be happier to see me and she let out a long meow when I got home and I couldn’t be happier to be there with all of them.

I’m going to try to guess Nadia’s top video games of all time. Not in any particular order, mind you.

• Final Fantasy III (SNES): A game that she acquired through unusual means back in college, FF3 has to be Nad’s favorite game of all time. To this day, she still listens to the soundtrack and refers to Kefka as one of the best video game villians (if not *the* best) ever.
• Chrono Trigger (SNES): This RPG has to be very close to first place. The music, the story, the combat, the princess named Nadia - all reasons why this has to be Nad’s second-favorite game.
• Phantasy Star Online (DC): The day I brought this game home and logged on for the first time, Nad was enraptured by the graphics, the music, and the possibilities of endless adventures online. After viewing the gameplay for less than an hour, she ran out the door. Not too long later, she returned with her very own DC and copy of PSO. Six copies of the PSO series and several OSV compilations later, this game was responsible for my knowledge in LAN networking, a number of friendships that have lasted long after we stopped playing the game, and countless hours lost fighting Dark Falz.
• X-COM UFO Defense (PC): Once called “The Best Game Ever” by IGN, Nad and I devoted much of our precious study time in college to keeping those filthy aliens from landing on our planet. When we couldn’t shoot thier craft down over the ocean, we took the fight to them in city streets and farms. Why hasn’t this game been remade?
• Tournament Fighters (SNES): While Nad loves the Dead or Alive series, something tells me that there is a special place in her heart for this game. This Ninja Turtle fighting game was probably played by very few people, but Nad and I, as well as her brother and my brothers, enjoyed hours of turtle-on-turtle violence. RAT BOMAH!
• Super Metroid (SNES): Samus heads back to Zebus (at least, I think that’s where she goes) to stop the space pirates again. Nad never played the original Metroid, but this game kept her going for a long while. I should get her Zero Mission, the GBA remake of the original. I’ve also suggested playing Metroid Fusion (the GBA sequel to Super Metroid), but FFT takes all of her GBA time (more later).
• Super Castlevania (SNES): She still listens to the soundtrack of this game that her brother ripped (before the term “rip” was coined) from the stereo to cassette tape! There hasn’t been another Castlevania quite like this one. Sure, the new face of Castlevania (the one inspired by Symphony of the Night) may be good, but Super Castlevania is one of a kind.
• Super Contra (SNES): Contra at its best. While the original is an awesome game, and is the originator of the famous Konami Code, Super Contra is still the best. No Contra before it, and certainly none after it, matches its quality and fun factor. Whenever Nad sees another iteration of Contra, she always mutters, “It’s not Super Contra.”
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES): Probably the only Zelda game that Nad has devoted an immense amount of time to, aside from Majora’s Mask. Whenever I mention the game, she seems to remember the overworld music in the beginning of the game (you know, when it is raining) and hums it to herself.
• Final Fantasy Tactics (GBA): Portable games are designed to be played for very short intervals, like 15 minutes at a time. FFT is designed to be played just like that. Nadia doesn’t do that though. She plays for hours and hours and hours at a time. The only game she has spent more time on in her entire life is PSO - she’s clocked in well beyond 100 hours in FFT (versus PSO’s hundreds). What makes the time she has put into FFT funny is that I’m willing to bet that she isn’t any closer to actually beating the game. The game allows for tons of “experience fighting,” where you fight random enemies for more experience and money. Sometimes, I think Nad enjoys experience fighting more than she enjoys the story of an RPG. She’s had this game for two years now and plays it regularly, but still hasn’t properly beaten it. She’s even got a backlog of GBA games that she won’t start b/c she’s still playing FFT.

I originally wanted to limit this list to 5 games, including their title and console released on. A list of 5 games with no information on them seemed kind of meaningless though, so I included some details.

While there are many other games that Nadia loves (like the Lufia series, the Dead or Alive series, and the Tactics Ogre/Ogre Battle games), I imagine that she considers these 10 games to be the reasons why the interactive game medium was created.

So Nad, how many did I get right?

One of the things that I wanted most when we moved into our current home was a dedicated office area. In our old apartment, we stuck a PC (TELETRAN1, or T1) in the corner of the dining room area. After buying the second PC (TELETRAN2, or T2), it shared desk space with T1 until we bought a small second-hand desk for it to sit on.

Our “office space” was cramped, and made that part of the apartment look messy (honestly, the whole apartment looked messy, but the PC area just made it worse).

Once the basement was finished, I dreamed up an office space where Nad and I could work together in relative comfort without getting in each other’s way as well give it the appearance that it actually belonged there. As you can see from the images below, we don’t do a very good job of keeping the area neat and tidy.

My desk:

Nad’s desk:

Both: