April 1st and the succor mongrels receive thereby has ever been a source of perturbation. Game magazines, my erstwhile, informative friends the rest of the year are - during April - shot through with untruths and manipulative falsehoods. Certainly Gabriel finds such a miserable "holiday" tailor-made for his bullshit.

Robert's testing of the PSP (which involved playing an episode of Lost from the memory stick over and over until the machine collapsed, depleted) led him to believe that one could watch videos stored in this manner for five hours. Utilizing the profound wisdom of Gizmodo's PSP Omegapost, I leveraged the irrepressibly foreign 3gpp to convert two episodes of The Office (US), the new Doctor Who pilot, and, ironically, a new episode of South Park concerned with the PSP. If I had made serious choices about what I was willing to tolerate in image and audio quality, I probably could have courted even greater media density. As it stands, all of this stuff looks pretty good, and it all fits on a 512 with all my saves in tow. If the memory stick duo were less expensive and stored more, well, I guess I'm just sort of tossing coins into a fountain here. Locked platform requiring expensive media "for the win," as I have heard it said.

I cobbled together what I expected to be a cache of terrible science fiction I could detest beneath an umbrella, and instead it proved so excellent I've nearly exhausted my store. The Eyre Affair, apparently a part of some larger series, is sci-fi of such a constrained genre that I wasn't even aware it existed: romantic, literary sci-fi, for people who like stories about time travel, alternate universes, and classic literature where the protagonist gets married at the end. Ridiculous. Endearing. Like an exorbitant designer truffle too rich to eat in plain view.

Also! There is an old series - both of these books are pretty old, actually - by an author named Gene Wolfe called "The Book of The New Sun." I believe it was originally four books, but they've been compiled into two volumes - you may click those without fear, they are not "make me rich" links. I saw the cover, the one with the stern-looking scary sword guy, and declared aloud, "Yes! This is sure to be overwrought!" but found nothing of the sort. It's science fantasy the equal of which I've never read. I've also got Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son, a kind of early American fantasy as I understand it, and I tremble in the hope that I'll be three for three on this book thing.

Leaving in an hour for a place absolutely unsuited to my complexion. Strips still available each day, as per the agreement. Postcard from me on Friday. Newsposts replaced by a weeklong "symposium" of sorts hosted by different game designers. Be nice to Gabe while I'm gone. Feed the cat. Somebody play the Galactic Civilizations II beta, tell me if it's good.

I will miss our time together desperately. I understand that vacations are supposed to be awesome, but I don't think of my life as something that needs getting away from.

(CW)TB out.

in affectionate books, in children's games