Recently, I've found myself in the position of advocating Interactive Fiction (IF) to friends and coworkers not familiar with it. However, recently, my own IF-playing rate has dropped to near nil. This year's IF Competition is approaching, and I still haven't played a single game from last year's. So, I've decided to force myself to play some more, get back into the habit, by dedicating myself to writing a few reviews. (This commitment was much more spur-of-the-moment than it seems. See below.) I don't really have any goals except to play some games that I'd really like to play and that I can finish quickly enough to write five before the month is out. Along those lines, my selections will probably be rather (ahem) "unadventurous," as I suspect I'll be reviewing games I played and liked but never got around to finishing.

This is the case for Review #1: Savoir Faire. I played it furiously when it was released last year, but got stuck on a puzzle, set it down, and never picked it up again. I didn't get horribly stuck, if I recall; stopping the game had more to do with having to sleep than being particularly frustrated by the block. If you don't believe it, read my journal entries from that time. Subsequent journal entries seem to indicate that I was distracted from finishing by a date to see Enigma and some time to complete The Enigma. So, today, I played through the game. All of this is background that I wanted to vent before I wrote the review, which I will now write, and which will be posted in a bit.

Update: The review is now available for review.

I've been not-connecting with T. for a while now. It's frustrating. Between her trip to Mexico and my overloaded work schedule all we've had are a few emails and a brief "hi" during Mass. I don't like it, and I think I'm going to ask her out to another movie.

While dictionary browsing, I found this:

sex kitten n (1958): a young woman with conspicuous sex appeal

I want a sex kitten.

Now let me unpack that a bit. I don't want in the sense of ownership. Nor do I want an actual kitten to have sex with (thank you very much gutter-minded ones). But I would like to date some one with conspicuous sex appeal.

I found it interesting that, even as I let my lizard brain do the thinking, I didn't want to go out and find someone solely on the basis of their perceived "sexiness," instead I wanted to find someone brilliant and beautiful and then be lucky enough for her to be a sex kitten as well. It's almost the inverse of swisscheesed's "Well, it's nice that you have a brain," where it's the brain that's the pleasant afterthought.

( Back to life... )

Today I got email from Ex and T.

My anger has receded regarding the Journal-gossip-Ex matter, and she sent a very nice letter, to which i was able to respond a bit more myself, telling her a bit about the tired moving this weekend.

T. emailed me in response to an email I sent a while ago. I know that her life has been a bit busy. And she's still busy. But it's always nice to know that she remembers I'm here, especially when I haven't gotten to see her at Mass.

It's my sister's birthday. How did that happen? I guess with her graduation I wasn't paying attention. So I've got to find a gift fast.

Started a correspondence on Match.com. Don't know how it will turn out, definitely friend material, though. And I've not forgotten about T. I'm going to try to get her to breakfast/dinner soon.

FriLATX: 7:45. I miss the New York Times.

Today at Mass, the visiting priest said the following:

Matthew, out of all of the five Gospels . . . um, four Gospels . . .

T. was there and wasn't angry and happily gave me her email address after we caught up on the weeks we'd missed. She's starting a new Youth Group at the parish. (I got the sense that she was pointing me out to the girl she was sitting next to, but I was probably just being overly self-conscious.)

For now, I'm going to watch the Mexico match. More soon.

Gentle readers, if you ever have trouble getting to sleep due to an upset stomach, think for a moment to be certain that you've eaten something in the last twenty hours.

veek: What were you thinking!?
tablesaw: Obviously, I wasn't.

That's the reason I didn't get to sleep until five o'clock yesterday afternoon. It was at about four when I realized, "Perhaps eating food will help me to sleep." Oddly enough, it did.

The Parish Center was closed yesterday. I will call today and talk to or leave a message for T. before sleep. Which hopefully will be earlier than five o'clock (although today is shudder laundry day, so who knows).

TueNYTX: 5:30. I was rather upset that 14A and 58A weren't theme entries. TueLATX: 7:15. Didn't get the theme until the end, but I still don't understand how 62A fits in.

A while back, my firm transported their proofreading team to Anchorage to work on a case. Today, they just dump loads and loads of tapes to be transcribed. Personally, I'd prefer to travel north.

I haven't been sleeping well since getting back from North Carolina. I don't know why. Normally, I sleep very deeply, without interruption. This past week, my sleep has been shallow, and I wake up every few hours. The result is that I feel I've gotten less rest than I actually have. So I need to get home and sleep. I need to go to Mass tonight and apologize to T. for losing her phone number while on vacation. I hope it's not detrimental. If I sleep through Mass, then I'm really screwed.

FriNYTX: 16. FriLATX: 10. SatLATX: 5:45. I should note that I made an error on 3D because of an obscure Muppet Show that I've never been able to forget. SunNYTX: 25:30. Fun theme entries. SunLATX: 20.

Thus far, the fallout of OBX Loneliness has been lots of sleep and much staying out at coffeehouses and shopping. These are both very nice things, though somewhat trying when they try to occur at the same time.

Also, where the hell is T.'s phone number!?!?!?!?!

I've some time to kill before a family function. My cousin is receiving her first communion at 10am. Much oohing and aahing over the incredibly cute blond girl in her pretty white dress being able to become an active participant in what has been, till today, a strange and passive rite.

I saw Spiderman with D and friends. Very fun. If you enjoy the comic books and Stan Lee's odd self-mocking melodrama, you will most certainly enjoy this near-cartoonish movie version. The casting is superb, and all of the acting is wildly over the top.

I talked with T. yesterday while I installed the DSL. It turns out that her phone has been acting weird, and she had just purchased a new one the day before. As I called she was driving into the city, so I didn't want to keep her tied up for too long. But I did broach the idea of a meal date next week, to which she was open.

With the DSL installed, I now face the arduous task of switching my phone number from the house line to what was previously the modem line. I need a new phone, and I need to find my old answering machine as well. Plus, it's not on any open telemarketer lists, I don't think, which is a nice plus.

SatNYTX: 45. SatLATX: 10.

(Spelling note: LJ's spelling checker recognizes "oohing" as a word, but not "aahing.")