livingtech

My emotional/mental/physical status has been in roller coaster mode for what feels like weeks now. Fortunately, the sexual relationship turmoil issue has been completely taken care of. Laura and I are doing better than ever. She was extremely good to me after I had my wisdom teeth removed. (Hello Nurse!)

Mentally, mostly due (I think) to the drugs from my oral surgery, I’ve been feeling not so fresh. My brain is like a pop-tart, hot and gooey inside, but all the sugar coating on the outside. I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean!

Physically, I’m a wreck. One minute I’m fine, then the next I’m near tears until the ibuprofen kicks in. (I even resorted to the prescribed vicodin last night, which I hadn’t thought I was going to do. I blame the donuts I really should NOT have thought I was well enough to chew… but damnit, they were krispy kremes!)

The aforementioned vixen and I hung out last wednesday. She will probably be reading this soon. (Hello Vixen!) Things were great, the event was quite stimulating, but not in a physical way. The jury is still out on that one. We have been writing longish emails professing our love for one another. (Without ever actually using the word love, or any of its synonyms. Or even professing anything, really.)

[note of clarification: This is not to say I am in love with the vixen, or that the vixin is in love with me. Love is a sticky subject and was only used in this context for comedic impact.]

Basically, the list is completely subjective and very rough draft. (I had about 60 at my initial posting.) The ratings are all based on my opinion, and some of them are not even all that informed, (as I frequently never finished playing the game in question). I know I am missing plenty, so help me out.

In some cases, mostly toward the top of the list, I’ve tried to rate games better based on plot and sci-fi content, but gameplay was always the foremost consideration. If a game isn’t fun to play, it shouldn’t really have appeared on this list at all.

There are so many games with sequels that in many cases I’ve combined the games into one listing. In some cases, a later version of the game is substantially better, and if that was the case I did try to split the games into two listings for the sake of their ratings.

Some games made the list that are probably only implied science fiction. The Myth series, for example. Usually this is because they are just too cool to leave out.

[Click "MORE..." to see the whole list.]
Continue reading ‘top 100 sci-fi video games’

So recently my friend Dr. Bombay posted a list of 100 best sci-fi films as decided by the Online Film Critics Society. It�s not a bad list, I mean, there are some great films on there. But there are also some notable absences, in my opinion. I started thinking about this when I realized that City of Lost Children makes the cut, while Jean-Pierre Jeunet�s earlier and more coherent masterpiece, Delicatessen, is nowhere to be found.

Ok, so that one can be explained away. It�s a relatively unknown french movie, and the english overdub version is known to be horrible. Not everybody likes subtitles. But far more disturbing in its absence is one of my favorite movies of all time, The Dark Crystal. That kind of negligence is criminal!

Also notably missing are humorous sci-fi movies. Toward the top of my list would be the parody Spaceballs. (Along with another great parody, Galaxy Quest.) Not to mention Mars Attacks!, which is hilarious and great.

I would like to have seen a list of all the submissions. I can think of a ton of other films that would maybe (probably) have made my cut, above some of the crap that was included in their list. (The x-men movie, Cocoon, Explorers, Final Fantasy, Ladyhawk, Legend, lawnmower man and David Lynch�s Dune, to name a few.)

Alright, so I haven�t thought much about the possibility that they were going for all sci-fi, and no fantasy. That would scratch the dark crystal, Ladyhawk and Legend off my list, I guess. But they include some that I would consider fantasy as well — Highlander (albeit low on the list), King Kong (which Nate pointed out was about as sci-fi as Jaws), Jacob’s Ladder, Pi and Donnie Darko. None of these movies were particularly sci-fi, for crying out loud!

My personal least favorite on the list is The Cell, although I know many people liked the movie, The Cell was barely sci-fi in my opinion. And while it was pretty to look at, the pathetic plot and poor acting would put the movie itself high on my list of worst movies of all time, lack of sci-fi not withstanding! I suppose it was technically more sci-fi than fantasy, however.

The list included Starman, (a shitty movie), but not The Last Starfighter! (Laura and Nate would also add Flight of the Navigator.)

More understandably, (especially if you were taking �how sci-fi were they� into account,) they included Superman, but not Batman (or Spider Man).

If we are including fantasy, a few more I would add to the list are Labyrinth, Willow, The Princess Bride, The NeverEnding Story, LOTR, and Harry Potter.

I am seriously thinking about making my own list. Almost as hard as putting them in order will be thinking of all of them. I wonder if that was the OFCS�s real problem. (I could make a separate list of top fantasy movies.)

Nate and I have been talking for a good hour now about what makes a movie sci-fi. I personally would rate movies that show the science above movies that are just conceptually sci-fi. Unfortunately, this leaves a lot of the older sci-fi classics right out of the picture, and also my original beef with the list, Delicatessen.

Anyway, this is a huge issue that I could probably think about until the end of the world.

Well, I heard back from the vixen. No dice on the date night. Clark is right, it may be impossible to convince anyone to be part of my dating schemes. (See yesterday’s comments for a gargantuan exposition on non-monogamy.)

I feel really rejected. She was so clearly interested! She claims that she doesn’t feel “led on” or anything, she’s just not interested in being second, which is of course not the way I put things — but I can hardly argue the point.

Damn.

While pondering a subject line for this entry, it occurs to me that I could have saved telling her till after the date. I mean, did I do the right thing? If I’d been right there when she found out, would it have been better or worse? She made it clear that this was a tough decision for her to make… I still haven’t responded, and I’m liable to make a fool of myself trying to convince her there’s no harm in trying… Moot point now, but I think everything is probably better this way. No big surprises.

And now I have an appointment on Tuesday to have all my wisdom removed! How will I pick up chicks then!?!

I promised I’d post this yesterday, so for better or worse, here it is (some tenses changed for coherency).

I’d been in a bad mood all day because Laura and I got into a fight that morning. (Lunch was a brief reprieve, because I got to see a few friends I hadn’t seen in awhile.)

Anyway, Laura and I really didn’t fight. I was (and sort of still am) just upset because I feel like lately we never have time to have sex.

There, I’ve said it. I think I really need to tell someone about this, and, well, I guess the blog is it. (You know, since I’ve had a blog, all my serious email correspondence has gone to shit. I can’t even remember the last email I sent someone that was longer than a page — those used to happen daily, damn it.)

Anyway, we have sex at most once a week, sometimes once every two weeks. Sure, if you’re not in a relationship, once a week seems like the holy grail, but when you fall asleep naked next to someone, and wake up the next morning with a hard-on pressing into their ass-cheek every morning, you’d think that proportion would dramatically increase.

I don’t know what it is. Obviously there’s a combination of things. We’re both busy as hell, and never end up going to bed until Laura’s so tired she falls asleep before my head hits the pillow. (Most nights I’m up way later than her anyway.) For whatever reason, she doesn’t like to have sex first thing in the morning. (I’m not exactly prince charming at that point either.)

Lately, (ok, the day before yesterday) the frustration was unbearable. Jerking off doesn’t seem to help because it somehow just reinforces the whole neglected feeling, and doesn’t really help the sexual frustration. (That doesn’t seem to make sense logically, but it’s true, I can give myself at least 3 orgasms and still feel “horny”, but one “sex orgasm” and I’m usually spent.

Am I insane to get upset about this?

I love Laura, and don’t want to do anything rash. I think I’ve made it clear that this is not at all a threat to our relationship, it’s just that I wish she would DO something about it. And, so far at least, she hasn’t really shown any sympathy whatsoever.

This is not the first time this “issue” has come up. I have definitely felt sexually neglected before. I know at least one time previously we talked through it, ended up having great sex, and the problem went away for awhile. This last “dry spell” has lasted at least a couple of months. Let me clarify that I’m not saying I want sex on a daily basis. Even twice a week would probably be sufficient.

On top of all this, I think a lot of our friends assume that we have this great sex life. I’ve had some recent conversations that gave me this impression. Laura is doing those parties where you sell sex toys. She’s hosting her first one this week. Everyone I know is going to be hanging out at our house, talking about sex and buying sex products from her. Something about the juxtaposition of that fact and this “situation” seems to exacerbate my frustration.

Maybe someday I’ll regret posting this, but I’d seriously like to know what people think.

The plot does thicken… because Laura and I have an open relationship. I could probably solve all of this by just finding someone else to sleep with once a week… I do occasionally think about it, but finding someone willing to be the “other girl” ain’t easy, and as I’ve already mentioned, I don’t exactly have oodles of free time.

Well, I’m going to stop being a whiny bitch now.

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