The Greatest Video Game Ever Made

Sorry, Mario. You may be the most instantly recognizable video game character of all-time, and you've been the star in many great games. But none of them were The Legend of Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda was released by Nintendo in America in 1987, and it was every young boy's dreams realized. I was too young at the time and didn't know much about the history of video games to fully appreciate the genius that is Zelda, but looking back now, I see it for the incredibly well-designed game it is. And that's not just nostalgia talking.

For starters, as the wikipedia article puts it, its "gameplay defied categorization." Zelda contained elements of action, adventure, and puzzle-solving. As opposed to being a side-scroller, the screen follows our hero, Link, from a bird's eye view. He has various weapons, faces enemies of varying difficulty, and explores both the overworld and underworld. The land of Hyrule, where the action takes place, is truly a world fully-realized, or at least, as realized as an 8-bit system with limited memory allows.

But ultimately, what Zelda boils down to is this: a boy and his sword, a damsel in distress, magic and sorcery, and the hero's journey. Sure, all this was done to death before the game's release and it's been done to death since, but rarely has it worked better than in Zelda.

Tiger Woods Is Too Good

As soon as that ball left his putter yesterday evening, there was no doubt Tiger was going to hole that near-sixteen footer on the 18th to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Never. A. Doubt.

The guy's just too good. This is his first win since June of last year, when he hobbled his way around Torrey Pines on a BROKEN LEG to earn his third U.S. Open title in an 18-hole playoff and thus claim his 14th major victory overall. All he needs now is four more majors and he'll match Nicklaus's record, one which many people believed was unbreakable.

In the middle of the round yesterday, the broadcast flashed an incredible stat: he'd made every single putt that was six feet or less from the cup.

If you're not a golfer, you might be thinking that's easy. But let me assure you it is not. That is quite a feat, considering how quick and tricky these greens are in PGA tournament golf. It takes a lot of skill, a deft touch, and good solid technique.

But what it takes most of all is mental toughness.

You have to have guts to consistently hole putts like that. Physically-speaking, Woods might be the most impressive golfer the world has ever seen. But when it comes to his his mental game, he's tougher than Nicklaus and rivals even Hogan.

Ghostwriter Publications Makes It Official

Ghostwriter Publications has made it official on their blog today. The UK print version of The Unearthed will be available as early as June of this year!

And don't you worry, all you Anglophobes. Neil Jackson, the man with the plan at Ghostwriter Publications, has assured me he will keep the American English spelling and word choice intact. So that troublesome letter "u" won't pop up in things like color or flavor. Nor will "s" replace the "z" in words like authorize. The characters will continue to drink coffee, as opposed to tea. Exits shall remain exits, and not "ways out."

And finally, the only things that will be referred to as "bloody" will be all the dead bodies.

What's Romanian for "Great Story"?

The Carpathian Shadows Volume II is a collection of short stories set at Lord Erdely's Castle in Transylvania. A group of travelers, most of them strangers to one another, end up stranded at this "tourist trap" for a few nights. Each story in the collection offers a different point-of-view character, or set of characters.

Seana Graham wrote "The Scholar," a story that follows a textual scholar, his wife, and a Romanian friend/colleague on their outing to the castle. Ostensibly, the story is about the scholar, Howard Green, and his quest for information to further his research on the area. But as the story unfolds, Seana deftly spins a yarn that is both unpredictable and very enjoyable. Disguised as a horror story, "The Scholar" is every bit as much an exploration of love and marriage. I won't say more because I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

I have yet to read any of the other stories in the collection, but I do highly recommend it based solely on Seana's contribution. Seana takes everything that's good about old-fashioned storytelling and adds to it her own acute sense of observation when it comes to her protagonist, Howard:

"After all, unlike him, she was actually on vacation. Must be nice, he thought begrudgingly, conveniently forgetting that it was his project that had been the catalyst for this trip."

As many of you know, Seana is a prolific blogger, who is somehow able to manage four of her own blogs while still frequently contributing to many other blogs as well. She works for a bookseller at a large independent store in Santa Cruz, CA.

Promote Whatever You Want On My Blog

In one of the Yahoo groups I participate in, someone has complained of seeing too many posts about my book. Mea culpa, mea culpa.

To atone for my shameless self-promotion, I'm making everyone out there in the blogosphere this offer: feel free to plug whatever you want by commenting on this post.

For the next two days, I'll leave this post at the top of my blog.

There is only one rule: you cannot promote anything for me.

Aside from that, you can promote whatever you want. Own a pizza shop? Writing a book? Get a promotion at work? Getting married? Is your wife pregnant? Are you starting you own business? Is your band playing somewhere soon? Got a blog you want people to read?

Don't limit yourselves here. Just run with it.

____________________

Friday, March 27th: This is a lot of fun. I'm considering doing something like this every month.

British Invasion? Ha

It's been nearly fifty years since our friends from across the pond started their pop art invasion of the United States. The Beatles, the Stones, etc., have all had their day, many days in fact, to shine. Well my friends their time is over.

For too long have the Brits and the Irish dominated the arts. It's time we Yanks took the power back.

I'm not afraid to lead the charge. And so that's why I'm pleased to announce The Unearthed will be available in print in the UK. I've signed with Ghostwriter Publications, a small press specializing in horror. Ghostwriter will be doing a print run of The Unearthed, and we're also discussing an audio version as well.

We're still ironing out the timeline, but once I have some more information, I will let you know.

(DISCLAIMER: Most of my favorite authors and actors are British and Irish.)

Flight of Joaquin Phoenix

The wife and I just took in Two Lovers, a film written and directed by James Gray and starring Joaquin Phoenix in what could prove to be his final role as an actor.

Okay, I'm not falling for Phoenix's publicity stunt--that he's given up his acting career--one bit.

The film is very good at being both sad and strangely happy. I won't give away the ending or spoil the plot in any way, but it left me happily depressed. Or, sadly happy. It's an interesting film thematically, at times a romantic comedy but more an exploration of what love really is. The film manages to strip away any sense of sentimentality and presents love in its crudest, ugliest, messiest forms.

I'm really starting to dig James Gray as a director. He impressed me with We Own The Night, a film I had dismissed unfairly when it hit the theaters. Two Lovers has a lot of style to it, but in an unobtrusive sort of way. The effect, while understated, is still felt.

So will this be Phoenix's swan song? Or will he rise from the ashes like a...oh god I can't even write it.

Recap of Last Night's Reading

When I said "I'll be reading from my novel. It's a thriller," there was some eye-rolling, but thankfully the groans were barely audible.

Whoever said know thyself should have followed it up with "know thy audience." The literary crowd that attended the Open Mic last night was there to hear their classmates and fellow English majors recite their villanelles, sestinas, triptychs, their flash fiction written for senior seminar, etc. They weren't there to hear an excerpt from Chapter One of a paranormal thriller written by the weird older dude that graduated from college eight years ago and who shouldn't have been anywhere near a campus, let alone hanging out in the student lounge.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only alum there, and the event turned into a reunion of sorts. I hung with some old friends I haven't seen in awhile, including John Slinka who also very recently entered the blogosphere.

There were a lot of good readings from the students last night, and it's great to see how the arts have taken root at Widener and grown substantially since I was an undergrad there who spent way too much of his free time reading Ayn Rand and arguing with everyone.

Widener Open Mic Night

For anyone that's interested and local, tonight I'll be attending Widener University's open mic night, which starts at 7:00 PM EST. Against my better judgment, I will be doing a reading of The Unearthed. I say against my better judgment because it's just the sort of story I would have thumbed my nose at as an undergrad English major, because it wasn't "literary" enough. Oh how the not-so-mighty have fallen.

So if you're in the area, stop by. There's a free bookmark for everyone who shows up.

Off topic, but does the word "mic" look strange to anybody else? I used the term in several places in The Unearthed, but I spelled it "mike" because that looked better to me.

La Fheile Padraig Sona

Happy St. Patrick's Day! And yes, I know the Irish in the title requires accents, but I don't know how to make them on blogger.

How are you going to celebrate today?

After I get home from work, I figure I'll drive all the snakes out of Glenside, Pennsylvania. If that proves too difficult or dangerous or time-consuming, I'll take the wife to a pub somewhere where we'll eat some greasy food and drink our fair share.

Once we get home from the bar, we'll probably turn on an appropriately-themed, albeit historically inaccurate movie and continue drinking.

Meanwhile in sunny Florida, my parents will be busy celebrating their 31st anniversary!

And while all that is going on, my buddy, Nate Green, will be treating lucky bar patrons in Reading, PA to his mad skills on the bagpipes!

I really do plan on going in to work on Wednesday. Really, I do...

Read An Interview And You Could Win A Copy of The Unearthed!

Ruth Schaller, who was kind enough to give The Unearthed a five skull review, just posted her interview with me today on her blog. Check it out if you get a minute, and you'll have a chance to win a free copy of my book!

Proposition 3-17: Join This Important Cause!!!

Tomorrow, as you should all know, marks the one of the greatest days of the year: St. Patrick's Day.

You too can show your support for this holiday by signing Proposition 3-17, a petition to make the day into a national holiday.

I'm proud to say I'm the 435,584th person to sign. They need 1 million signatures, though, so we still have a long way to go!

Use It Or Lose It

The wife and I just saw I've Loved You So Long a French film starring Kristin Scott Thomas and written and directed by Phillippe Claudel. Pretty good film, fine performances, but that's not why I'm writing this post.

I took four years of French, and at various times in my life since I studied the language formally in school, I've tried to relearn it, mostly to no avail. The film was subtitled, and I managed to catch a few words here and there during the movie. But when I tried to watch a scene without referring to the subtitles, hoping that body language and the context of the story itself would aid me, I was utterly lost.

Why do we Americans struggle with foreign languages so much? The old stand-by answer is that we don't study languages aside from English usually until high school, unlike our European counterparts.

I managed to take four years of Latin, four years of French, and two years of Greek (ancient Greek) in high school, and most of it's gone. Sure, I remember things like "amo, amas, amat." I'm able to read the Greek alphabet still. And French primer texts are comprehensible. But aside from that, it's all gone. And this coming from a guy that won an award in high school for how well he did in Greek (yeah, I was a nerd).

To think high school was only twelve years ago.

In my two minutes of Internet research, I came across this article, which explains why it's so difficult for anyone aged 18 and older to learn a new language.

So why do we Yanks wait so long to learn foreign languages?

This Is Troubling

Craig Playstead wrote an interesting piece for MSN Lifestyle, wherein he advocated parents teaching their kids to bend/break certain rules.

When he said "sneak snacks into movie theaters," I was on-board. When he urged kids to question teachers, I was nodding vigorously. When he explained the value of a white lie, I wholeheartedly agreed.

But when he said, "Bend the rules when playing sports," he lost all of my support.

Sports are about competition. But they're just as much about honor and respect for your opponents. Or at least, that's what they should be about. The problems start to arise when people place too high a premium on winning and ignore little things like decency.

It's why we were taught to line up after a game and high-five the other team. It's why you tell your opponent "good shot" after he stuffs a five-iron six feet from the pin.

Sports are not about "flicking the elbow in hoops when the other guy's shooting" or "holding the other player's jersey." I'm not naive enough to think this stuff doesn't happen or that it will stop happening at some point. People are people, after all.

But the guys who did these sorts of things were not liked, or admired, or respected much. They're the ones who try not to follow the letter of the law whenever possible, and who don't even know a spirit of the law exists.

Step Brothers Or Role Models?

Well it's a toss-up for me as to which was the best comedy of '08. Both films have a lot of replay value. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly playing forty-year-olds who are somewhat mentally challenged and emotionally handicapped? Or, Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott playing big brother mentors to one rambunctious kid and McLovin if he were from Middle Earth?

For me, Step Brothers was a very welcome change of pace for Ferrell. His most recent movies, aside from a great turn in Stranger Than Fiction, rather lazily employed the same premise: put Will in a somewhat odd profession and roll camera--Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Blades of Glory, Semi Pro, etc.

On the other hand, Rudd and Scott have never been better than in Role Models.

You can't go wrong with either. And if you're going to ask me to pick one over the other, I won't. They're both great comedies.

What say you?

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Another great review for The Unearthed just came out!

Trevas of eBookGuru (www.ebookguru.org) had this to say: "This was one of those books that I couldn’t put down (I stayed up till 3am to finish it), and I am highly recommending it to anyone who enjoys a good thriller."