Dan's Blogvent Calendar - December 6th

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I woke up this morning to find this post already sitting in the Giant Bomb text editor, written but un-published. I can only assume it's what my drunken mind thought would pass for a Blogvent entry. Given I've already missed my deadline, I figured it was probably best to just tidy everything up and post it as-is. Apologies for the late post, guys. I'll try not to let it happen again.

If yesterday's Blogvent contribution amounted to the ramblings of a half-drunk man, then tonight's instalment fully crosses the line into 'rantings of a completely drunk man' territory. For that reason alone, I intend to keep tonight's Blogvent entry very short. Cue bullet points!

• I am now less than two hours from the end of the audiobook version of Stephen King's The Stand. As I've come to expect from him, it feels like the novel's end should have come over an hour ago. I'm now listening to the epilogue-ish tale of Stu Redman and Tom Cullen as they make their way back to Boulder, and the whole thing smacks of the "I know this should have ended, but I'm going to let the pen keep going" feeling that I've had from pretty much every one of King's books that I've read (Carriebeing the only notable exception). I'll keep on listening, but I can't help but think that the real ending happened a couple of chapters ago. Man, King really isn't great with endings, is he?
• I am three badges into Pokémon White, and about to contend for my fourth. I'm enjoying the game, particularly its 'all-new' approach to the availability of Pokémon. At times it can feel a little patronising and hand-holdy, but that's probably because I've already spent so much time playing Pokémon this year, and the stories of these games are geared towards a much younger audience embarking on their first ever RPG. To be honest, I'm just excited about adding new types to my Pokédex, in the hope that I can eventually migrate everything over to Pokémon Y and bring the National Pokédex towards some kind of completion.
• I learned this week that a friend passed away. He wasn't a particularly close friend, but at the same time, I knew him a bit too well to simply call him an acquaintance. He used to captain one of the local darts teams, and it was in the local league that I first met and got to know him. Due to his illness I ended up seeing a lot of him through work over the last year, and it was gut-wrenching to see a man I knew become slowly more and more debilitated. It's comforting to know he's no longer in any pain, but I can't quite believe I'm never going to see him again. He was a great man, and I'll miss him terribly.

That'll do for tonight. Please come back tomorrow for another Blogvent, when I promise I won't be quite so merrily slaughtered. Thank you for reading and goodbye.

Dan

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Currently playing - Pokémon White (DS)