More Stuff I Forgot I think I'm going to beat jet lag much better than last time. I forced myself to stay up by going to a THQ event last night where I did my first jet-lagged interviews! I'm curious to see how they turned out. Hopefully I'm not yawning on camera. Or maybe I should have yawned and said, "No, no, it's not you. It's just what you're saying." I've always wanted to get that on camera. Maybe next week with Stan Lee. Tee-hee! Anyway, here are a few things I forgot to mention about my trip. - Japanese Melon Fanta is my new favorite soda. - I really, really miss wearing flip-flops. - I really, really miss flip-flop weather. - Being away from the Internet and not having a mobile phone for a week is quite liberating.

They Love Me in Korea Wow. I've been back in the country for six hours and things are already silly. It started off when some idiot took my bag off the luggage carousel. I waited and waited for my bag, but it disappeared without my knowledge. So the airport personnel called this tool and I had to wait for him to drive back and drop off my bag. I wanted to hit him when he got out of the car. I sent one of my "too honest" emails. She must think I'm a total sap ... or that I own stock in the company. Sap, LLC. Oh, I totally forgot to mention that I met my tenth fan! Anka and I were walking around when this guy comes up to us and says, "You microphone good!" He's all happy and smiling, so naturally I assumed he was trying to talk us into going to his karaoke bar or something. He keeps rambling things that I'm not really listening to when I finally hear him say, "GameSpy." So I start paying attention to him again and discover that he's from Korea and a fan of my video interviews. After being told, "You very funny!" and, "Good, good show," I randomly went into this Martin Short from The Three Amigos thing and replied, "You think I'm very funny! That's great. I don't know how funny I actually am, but often I think it's the fans that let me be so funny by allowing me the creative license to pursue what I find to be truly humorous. If people like you didn't watch then my superiors wouldn't let me be 'very funny.'" (Or something to the effect.) He had no idea what I was talking about.

Shanghai Surprise I'm coming at you live from Narita again! My trip has been mostly amazing. It was so much fun, incredibly relaxing, and wonderfully random. Anyway, here are some random thoughts while I wait for my slight back to San Francisco.

- All Asia passes are great for when you want to randomly follow people around to other countries.

- In a continent with millions of beautiful Asian women, I latch onto the first white girl I meet. That sounds about right, huh?

- I'm convinced that all dogs bark in English, no matter what country they live in.

- The same goes for cats and meowing.

- Starting off the day with a lovely stroll to the fruit stand for some freshly sliced papaya and / or some freshly cracked coconut is delightful.

- Going to some island because I heard it mentioned in a movie was one of the most brilliant ideas I've ever had.

- Vacationing in countries with favorable exchange rates is totally boss. It's rad when a venti latte comes out to $2.83 USD.

- You know, I'm not sure I've been to a country that didn't have a Starbucks.

- It's really weird seeing small elephants strolling down the sidewalk.

- I really need to understand the metric system better. When someone tells me that we're only 7.5 kilometers from the next island it has no meaning � though it lets my brain exercise a bit by trying to calculate how many centiliters that is.

- Seeing who can find the coolest piece of washed up coral on the beach is a fun contest where everyone wins.

- The few days I spent in non-tropical climate probably prevented me from tanning so much that I turned orange.

- Vacations are good. I wonder why I haven't taken a real one in several years. Maybe I'll go on another in a few months. *Sends mental signals to Steve*

Sweet The Red Carpet Club in Narita has WiFi now. This makes it the best RCC ever. It's clearly the nicest one I've ever been in and the Japanese hospitality makes it comfy. And now I can blog from here while I sip oolong and eat Japanese Oreos. Score.

Adventure I'm off for an adventure. It should be fun, relaxing, and interesting. It's just a bit melancholy. I thought she'd be my adventuring companion. She's perfect for that -- curious, adventurous, and silly. I once told her that I saw 1,000 dreams and 1,000 adventures when I look at her. Stop making fun of me, I honestly meant it. I always thought my next trip like this would be with her at my side. Oh well.

Strange Day It's been a pretty odd, but enjoyable day so far. I started it off by going to Phil's to get coffee with the girl that I thought was my dream girl. I finally got to show her the brew that was named after her. It was nice catching up -- I missed her a ton, been more than a month since I've seen her -- but it was just weird. She's as incredible and charming and and unique and beautiful (even without makeup she's gorgeous) as ever. I think it's me. Maybe I'm scared of feeling that way about her. Maybe a month of sobriety has kept my usually extreme emotions in check. Maybe I no longer love her (or maybe I never did?). It just felt different. I might see her again tomorow night. I'm curious to see if it'll be any different. When I got home I had a lengthy chat with Kitten about it and an assortment of other things. I've felt this way for a long time, but man I'd be lost without her. She means more to me than ... well, words wouldn't do it justice. I'm immensely lucky to have her in my life. Sappy Bryan Adams lyrics are invading my head: "Oh, once in your life you find someone, Who will turn your world around, Bring you up when you're feelin' down." Since Kitten had to go and drop her dad off and I was still floopy, I called my daughter. In a really funny case of role reversal, I dragged her away from watching a football game so she could help me buy makeup. I am not the proud owner of MAC Select Sheer Pressed Powder, Studio Tech Foundation, and two brushes. My face is radiant. The girls at the Macy's MAC counter will know my name by the end of March. The weirdness continues! Ben is actually coming over tonight. He has some NES / SNES business with Kit, but I'll join them for dinner. I think this is the third time Ben has come over and maybe the eighth time he's come up to the city for purely social reasons. Oh, Petey just advised me to ditch Hoi An and go to Nha Trang. Wow, it's a good thing he caught me. Apparently Hoi An is going to be cold and that would really kill a lot of what I wanted to do.

Okay Company Kit, Rannie, and I saw In Good Company. It's an okay movie with lots of indirectly funny things. I enjoyed it, mostly because I didn't expect much and it has two of my biggest crushes in it (Scarlett and Selma). Here are some random thoughts on it: - It was really hard to get behind the main character. It wasn't because of the acting or writing. It was because he was an ad salesman. People in ad sales bring a lot of interesting things to my life and most of it isn't good. They make more money, they get all the credit, they have all the power, they multiply like Gremlins, they keep their jobs while my fellow writers lose theirs during cutbacks, and they generally tarnish many of the things I try to do at work. Ad salesmen are probably the group of professionals that annoy me the most, beating out lawyers, NYC real estate brokers, and accountants by far. It was extremely difficult to root for the noble ad salesman with a heart ... at other times it was just funny. - Movies set in NY make me miss it a lot. Seeing places I used to hang out at in Chinatown and the West Village got to me. Seeing my old office building on Seventh Avenue really brought me back. - Dennis Quaid has been a pretty significant celeb to me. I thought he was the coolest guy ever in Innerspace. He was my hero when he married Meg Ryan. And with this movie and The Rookie, he's now the older genleman I want to become. - An ad salesman with a heart. Ha! - I was surprised that The Shins were in the movie (but, sadly not on the released soundtrack). "Gone for Good" was used well, but it just seems weird that a relatively indie band was in such a mainstream movie. It's almost like when Letters to Cleo was in 10 Things I Hate About You. - The noble ad salesman ... it still cracks me up. - Topher Grace's character was amusing too. It reminds me of when I was at Ziff way back when. I was in a clique of young upstarts that was so into the company that we were seriously considering getting ZD tatoos. - Being in publishing since 1996 really makes it hard to admire the old, veteran ad salesman that teaches a young hotshot about what's important in life. In fact, it makes me laugh at the whole concept. - Kit remarked that he didn't like Scarlett's bad makeup in the movie. I really dug it since it added to her awkward college girl thing. Her voice is so sexy. I wish some hot college girl would try to seduce me to Diana Krall's version of "Besume Mucho." That was hot. - Wouldn't it be funny if ended up marrying a ad saleswoman. Ha! - Oh dear God, I think I've just condemned myself to a ridiculous fate.

Conked I totally passed out some time between 8PM and 9PM. I didn't wake up until 7AM. It was nice sleeping alone and not having to babysit. Since I woke up so early, I used the morning to enjoy a cup of Phil'z, get some traveler's cheques for 'Nam, and pick up / drop off some dry cleaning. I think today will be most domestic. I need to get something from Macy's and I'd like to go boxing, but I think I'll spend the bulk of the day cleaning up my room. Sad Girl's latest visit made me realize that I'm becoming immune to sweet talk. She says really nice things to me, but it no longer balances out the bad things she does. I know she means it on some level, but she doesn't act like it most of the time. Don't get me wrong, she's a good girl, but she really has no idea how to treat people. Other people's sweet talk isn't getting to me either. That really incredible girl I was spending time with between August and October has been sending the loveliest text messages. My heart flutters when I first read them, but it doesn't stay with me like it used to. It might be because I've accepted that it's not going to happen and I don't believe it ever will. I'm supposed to see her tomorrow and I'm really excited about it, but part of me is waiting for that call where she cancels. I think I'm getting used to women hurting me and disappointing me. That's kind of sad.

I'm So Excited Yes, I'm invoking the Pointer Sisters. And no, I'm not excited because I found the most adorable laptops in the world. I had a most interesting lunch meeting today and have a lovely side project to pursue. I almost forgot how much fun being jazzed about work is. Even though things are really relaxed and comfortable in the office for me now, it still isn't very interesting (perhaps this will change?). I haven't been this geeked up about a work thing since Kitten and I started putting our heads together (picture weak currents of electricity barely powering a light bulb).

Jobbed Steve Jobs made a giant splash at MacWorld -- big surprise. The reality distortion field is in full effect. The iPod Shuffle and the Mac mini will be two of the hottest products of the year. I think they're really beautiful products that are cool, will help Apple gain marketshare, and offer nothing interesting from a technology standpoint. There's no way I'd get a Mini, but the Shuffle is interesting enough to get a look from me. It would complement my 40GB iRiver nicely. The product I was most interested in was iWork, particularly the Pages component. I hate Microsoft Word. It's stupid and bloated and forced upon me. I don't think I've been happy with Word since 5.1 for Mac OS. I've been tooling around with free alternatives like Open Office and AbiWord. The latter is pretty good, but it still lacks some features I want. Pages looks like a great word processor. I really want to check it out. From what I've seen so far, it makes the platform more attractive and interesting. If Entourage improves greatly in its next release, the Mac platform would be a nice alternative for me.

Sapped It was a combination of a sappy movie, having it reaffirmed that I enjoy being disconcertingly spontaneous, and an innocent, "I miss you." It went on to a possibly foolish reply of, "I miss you more. I meant that so truly." It left me a weepy mess for several hours. Sometimes believing in "big love" is difficult.

After Further Examination... I've been dubbed an ENFP. Some of it actually makes more sense to me. I never thought I was the judging type. This fits better methinks.

Daughter Dearest I was pretty determined to be a hermit over the weekend. I skipped out on Friday's bowling fest, partially because I was a little sick and partially because I wasn't feeling social. Saturday I skipped on a rather large karaoke jam. Kit was pretty hammered and that's always fun to be around so I'm mildly sorry I missed it. I pretty much read, watched DVDs, and did some work. Yes, I had this idiotic idea to do some work over the weekend so I could goof off more during the week. I think ten days of rain had something to do with my mood too. Sunday rolled around and I was ready for another day locked in my room, but Glenda called. Daughter dearest dragged me out of the house, bought me lunch, kept me company, and made me talk to other people. It's a good thing she came along actually. I was starting to enjoy the solitude and I was feeling a bit sad. She lopped off two feet of her hair. Check it out. Isn't she just precious?!? My daughter's hair rules. In fact, I think you should drop her off a comment to let her know how beautiful her hair is. Go pester her at her site.

WTFJ Ben inspired me to take this Jung (you know, Freud's bitch) test. Apparently I'm an ENFJ. Sure, I'll buy that. Here's a description of that type and another, shorter one. I wonder if I answered all the questions honestly or if I even read the descriptions thoroughly. Sometimes I think I'm afraid of learning about myself. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. Drop me an AIM or something.

Ends and Odds Uhm ... happy new year! January theme song: "Security" -- Joss Stone. It's for you. New Year's Eve was totally mellow. Kit invited a few people over and it was fun catching up. I invited Sad Girl over. She ended up staying for four days. I handled it much better than last time. I still had moments when I felt like a D.I., but she can't really hurt me right now and I do enjoy her company. Anyway, here are some pics from new year's eve. There's a rumor going around that I'm going to ask some short girl to marry me in the near future. To quote Captain Jack Sparrow, "That's interesting." I decided to spend my 2004 bonus on an adventure. Relaxing for a week was excellent, but family obligations didn't allow much time for introspection during Xmas break. So I bought a ticket to Bangkok on United (I have system-wide upgrades expiring at the end of January) and I bought an All Asia Pass from Cathay Pacific. I can go to more than 20 cities, but I better stay away from the Philippines. If I go there and don't visit family it'll be death by ceremonial yo-yo (Pinoy joke. Look it up.). I'm a big fan of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, but I should probably try out some new places. Hopefully I won't spend most of my time going around KL hopping with glee when I come across a place where a Jackie Chan movie was filmed. Work has been relaxing. Not everyone is back from break yet and there aren't a ton of games in. This month should be interesting. There are a lot of changes that are going to happen with many people. Some are leaving, some will have to move, jobs will be changing, etc. I wonder how it will all play out, aside from it being poorly planned. So yeah, Sad Girl was around for a bit. We watched a lot of DVDs and she drank a lot of vodka -- though not as much as usual. She's doing a bit better actually, though she's started a really scary habit. Since I'm in a better place and I'm not drinking with her, I behave a lot better with her. She's off again with the drug dealer so I won't be acting as her consolation prize for a while. She left with the rest of the vodka and my Napoleon Dynamite DVD, which I really want back. I doubt I'll see her until next month. Hmph. I really want that DVD back. Oh, I got the cutest fan mail the other day. This reader is sending me some graphic novels from my Amazon list and said some really, really nice things. He ended it by saying, "PS: You're easily my favorite game journalist, offline or on. You really seem like a regular geek who happened to get into gaming journo. Sweet." It's nice to see that not all the kids want me to shut up and die.