Departures, Dan Simmons, and Project Gotham Racing.

[packbat]

This morning, my parents left on their trip to meet my sister at summer camp. They called twice during the day to confirm they were alright – they took the train out there, and will help my sister pack her stuff, ship most of it home, and take the train home with the rest.

I will leave for a fifty-mile backpacker the morning after they get back, but that's alright.

In any case, after they left, I slept in for awhile longer before caring for my sister's rabbit and beginning my Internetting. I also took the garbage, etc. to the street and ate a bowl of cereal. However, the interesting part does not begin until nearly the afternoon, when I put a pot of water for the noodles on the stove, and opened my mom's copy of Dan Simmons's Hyperion.

Hyperion is an interesting book so far. My mom told me to expect a lot of poetry in it, and there is; it also has some truly fascinating plotlines, and interesting new ideas involved in them. I'm interested to see where it all ends up.

Incidentally, I took a shower at some point in here, and donned the new "Alaska" T-shirt I got a few days ago. Unfortunately, it is quite literally three sizes too large, but it remains a cool shirt. Maybe I'll give it to somebody sometime.

Later in the afternoon, there was a knocking at the door, and it opened to admit nanakikun. After a short time, (and after he ate a bit of the leftover noodles,) he invited me to play Project Gotham Racing with him. I assented.

Of course, of the five people whom I expect to read this post, I doubt more than three (including myself) will know what Project Gotham Racing is. It's a racing game. In fact, it's a racing game which bears absolutely no relation to Batman or any related stories. Instead, it features a rather nifty idea which it calls "Kudos".

Not an entirely new idea, of course. Giving people points in a driving game has been standard since the Pole Position arcade machine, and probably before. However, Project Gotham Racing gives points specifically for crazy driving – 'drifts' in corners (when the car loses traction and slides), 'air' on hills (when the car loses traction and flies), even 'two wheels' (when the car loses traction and ... leans to one side) – and it gives bonuses, sometimes big bonuses, if you do a lot of these stunts in a row. This means that the game has specific modes that are all about getting piles of Kudos. And it lets you do multiplayer ... where the win is determined by Kudos.

And that's not the best ... well, no, it is the best part. But there's another good part too, and that's the "Half Block" track.

Which is exactly what it says. Half a block. The thing is .2 miles (~3 km) around. You can finish a lap in under 20 seconds in almost any car. It's completely stupid, and yet it's absolutely terrific, because there's nothing there but turning right a lot and pressing the accelerator and brakes.

My thumb still feels funny from the last 30-lap Kudos one-on-one. I'm still grinning like an idiot.

Today's a cool day.