Like an arrow...

Wow, is it really that long since I've been here? (he asks rhetorically)

I've just finished reading Dave's latest blog, and feel that if he's going to pen to paper, then so will I.

What can I say about the last few months?

It has consisted of work, skiing, and PSP games.

Work is as work does.

Skiing is great. This Saturday will be the 5th for this season. It's been a warm winter, so I hope some more skiing can be done in March. But that will very much depend on how quickly the winter season starts to wane. Much improvement has been made; but there is much more to go. A couple of cartwheeling falls also served to slow me down. Having one's thigh bone rammed into one's pelvis can do that.

The rest of this post is strictly for geeks.

PSP has seen a return to one of the original games I bought: Star Wars: Battlefront II. When first bought about a year ago this game was played for a few days then relegated to the bookshelf by Grand Theft Auto. There was nothing wrong it, but its wanton killing sprees just didn't compare to the thrill of wanton killing sprees with carjacking. There it lay until a couple of weeks ago, when on a whim it got pulled out. After running around killing and being killed for awhile, I discovered that there are actually some points to these missions - awards, medals and promotions can be earned. So now my aim is to get my 8 abilities up to "Legendary" status. "Endurance" is there, with "Frenzy" (what a cool name for going crazy bonkers with a futuristic shotgun) coming in second on "Elite" level. The others are all at "Veteran", except "Marksman" which may forever languish at "Green" as I seem both unskilled at dishing out 6 head-shots in one mission, and unlucky that when I do find a malingering patsy, someone else blows him away first.

Two pretty cool missions spring to my geeky mind. Both involved conflicts with Darth Vader. In the first I was trying for head-shots in the Hoth battle, when I saw Vader's stark, black form walking across the white snow scape. BANG- one head shot. For a regular character this would cause instant death; Vader merely looked around, wondering what hit him. Reload, and BANG - second head shot. He turned and looked at me. While I was reloading he disappeared from the screen as he Force Jumped the distance between us, landing right in front of me. Force Jump requires a moment to recover from, and in that time I panicked and mashed the buttons to shoot him pointblank. Scratch one Vader. Which is pretty cool 'cause if he gets anywhere near you he throws his light saber and you're instant sushi.

The other was on Endor. I was piloting a commandeered AT-ST when I saw Vader. I shot at him, and he blocked the AT-ST's bolt. I shot again, with the same result. A third for the same. I realized that he was in some kind of loop - he could have run away, or attacked, or cut my metal legs out from under me. But instead he just stood there blocking the bolts. With my rebel scum buddies having almost overrun the rest of the map, I spent the last 30 seconds of the game pinning Vader down with my AT-ST. There's a perverse kind of enjoyment in exploiting a stuck game character - but it's especially fun watching Vader take no damage when going toe-to-toe with an AT-ST.