About Me: It's not that I haven't bothered to change this, I just don't especially feel like talking about myself. Plus I'm really not that interesting.

No, I haven't forgotten about you guys. Just been alternating between really busy and really unmotivated. Back to normal soon, I hope.

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And so I survived.

Rather than jump into the thread in the previous post I figured I'd just start a new one announcing that I have returned and that I did not get eaten by a bear. I consider that a win.

It was a good week, and entirely tech-free. Turned off the cellphone when I got there, and it stayed off until I got back home. No handhelds, no laptops, nothing. It's kind of funny, because every time I do this (and this is my first "real" trip since 2006) the first night is always a bit of a panic-filled affair as I sit by the quiet firelight thinking, "What the hell have I done?" But it's always passed by the next morning and life is good again.

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... for a week or so, anyway. On Friday I'm taking my tent, my canoe and my own sorry ass out to live like a primitive savage for awhile. No PC, no internet, no nothin'. Gonna be sweeeeeeeeeeet.

Anyone else enjoy distinctly lo-tech breaks from their hi-tech lifestyle?

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I play hidden object games, by the way. Lots of 'em.

Just sayin'.

I don't think I can take it anymore. Take what, you wonder? Glad you asked. Grand Theft Auto 4. GTA4 on the PC is a mess. The system requirements are ridiculous (I'm running it at settings I thought I'd left behind around the middle of last decade) and worse, the game is buggy as fuck - which I have no doubt is largely responsible for the first complaint.

It's really too bad, because it's obviously an excellent work in most other ways. The characters and the script are absolutely brilliant. Much of the gameplay is hugely fun. But between the rampant glitches and the incredibly frustrating inability to save mid-mission - and on a PC, that should never be the case - is making it too much trouble.

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The other thing that interested me about Braid relates to the whole deathly-tired "games as art" debate. Braid was obviously very artfully presented, with fantastic visuals and a very evocative soundtrack (albeit an entirely licensed one) but unlike most other games, the actual gameplay was a central component of the experience - by which I mean, different aspects of Jonathan Blow's vision in the context of the game were represented directly by the gameplay. You weren't just playing to experience the art, the playing was the art. Or was it?

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What an absolutely miserable week it's been. One I wish I could forget, and never will.

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