Nostalgia

"Have you ever wondered how...nostalgia isn't what it used to be?"

--Friday Next, Thursday Next: First Among Sequels

I'm on a nostalgia kick. Lately everything I've done in my spare time is nostalgia related. Well, I guess you could say that about pretty much anything, but most of it has at least the roots pretty far back in my childhood.

Nancy Drew
*Playing Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill (Remastered)
They decided to remake the first game in the Nancy Drew series. I found it a definite improvement over the previous one in graphics, plot development, and puzzles. The main thing I'd like back is for the characters to sound more like their original counterparts (except Hal--he sounded virtually identical to his previous self). I found Daryl Gray to be much more flirty than he was the first time around and wondered why. Until, that is, I remembered that in Stay Tuned For Danger, Nancy comments that Rick is a worse flirt than Daryl--which in version 1 wasn't saying much, but in version 2 it most certainly is.

*Listening to Nancy Drew music from the first five games
A little while ago, I discovered that Her Interactive was selling the game soundtracks online. I used downloading SCK2 as an excuse for downloading the soundtrack that goes with games 1-5. Whenever a climactic piece comes on, the adrenaline starts pumping and I remember being in the situation where I race against time or stop the villain, or whatnot. Then there's the signature theme. Ah, the signature theme. Starting a game isn't the same without hearing that tune. I've turned it and a few other tracks into ringtones for my phone.

Veggie Tales
*Watching Lord of the Beans
I still wholeheartedly believe that Lord of the Beans is the best Veggie Tales video ever. I laughed at the jokes, though I knew they were coming. Especially during the laughing scenes. I love the songs (though they aren't at the top of my favorite songs list--except maybe Randolf's song about the beans). I know many youngsters won't understand all the references, but the story holds up on its own nonetheless.

Myst
*Rereading parts of the Myst books
I didn't read the entirety of each book (Atrus, Ti'ana, and D'ni) due to time reasons, but endorphins flew as I skimmed through, reminding myself of so many of my favorite parts. My primary reason for looking through was for my website a couple weeks back, but I must admit that it wasn't the only reason.

*Watching a Myst IV walk-through
Myst IV was the game I finished last, the game that the computer wasn't sophisticated enough to run properly, and certainly the most beautiful of the series. The end was spoiled for me, but it was a lot of fun getting through, nonetheless. Unfortunately, I do not have the games with me, and at the time I didn't want to bother Jessica and ask if I could borrow her copy. So, I went onto YouTube and found an excellent walk-through that makes me feel like I'm the one who's playing, except for when I click on the next video.


Writing
*Reformatting stuff I did in high school for my computer class
My computer class has been fun, but only because I find things I like and implement them into the assignments (lectures=meh). After I made my website, the assignment was to format a power-point. I decided to go with the book report presentation I did for my science fiction class, making only a couple tweaks to conform with the guidelines. I put in way too many unnecessary hours on that thing before, so part of that time I'm counting under this class. In my digital composition class in high school, we had to write an essay (I think it was a "how-to" essay, but I don't remember all the criteria); mine was "How to Scare a Musician." So when we had to format a Word document for my current computer class, this was the perfect choice, as it had many opportunities already built in for using cross-referencing. I like it even better than before. I think I'll upload it sometime.


*Working on a book I haven't looked at in months
When I was 10 or so, I came up with a book idea about a girl who is kidnapped by a group of witches and brainwashed. Over the years, I have played with it mentally and through outline form. It has grown a theoretical four-part series, and a couple years ago, just like George Lucas before me, I started with the fourth part. Today, I doubt I will ever write parts 1-3--it works better as back-story, in my opinion--and I still haven't finished writing part 4. It has turned in ways I didn't expect--some profound, some that I'm not sure how I'm going to get rid of yet--but I want to get it done. The current word-count is about 40,000 and is a little over half of where it needs to be chronologically. Now I just have to figure out what happens next.