Late November Christmas

This week has been like Christmas come early! There's a remastered, re-release of Nine Inch Nail's Pretty Hate Machine, which was the first CD I ever bought. It's seems pretty outstanding, everything hits clearer and harder than before. It actually makes the old one sound tinny and far away.

It really takes me back to my childhood. It's probably one of the more nostalgic albums I can think of.

I was also pleased to remember that Kanye West's new album comes out today, as well. I grabbed it and gave it a listen. I was really, really impressed. I think it's his best since some of his earlier albums. Maybe it's better, but time will tell.

I grabbed Poker Night at the Inventory for some reason. I'm that into Team Fortress, Sam and Max, Strongbad or Penny Arcade (but I like them all just fine) OR Poker. But it seemed like such a nice little package. And I actually like it a lot. Even though you just play against the computer AI, the amount of personality they pack into each character goes a long way to help me understand Poker. Confidence, humiliation, skepticism, joy and anger are all emotions that are evident, and it helped me understand the mental game of betting a little better, since i was totally clueless.

I knew Poker, in a general way. I know the hands and all that, but playing as a kid I would always get annoyed and I didn't understand. I thought Poker was fullhouses and flushes and 4 of a kinds. In reality, it's pairs and high cards and a lot of weaseling.

So it's fun, and I learned a lesson. I really am pleased with it. I kind of wish it had online play, but at the same time I feel like I'd never make use of that anyway.

And finally, today the Mac version of Civ V came out. And, thankfully, it's a SteamPlay title, which means since i own it on Windows, I get the Mac version for free. I wouldn't have bought it again, so I'm relieved to see their good sense is in tact.

Hopefully this means I can play it more. It runs great on my Macbook when I run Windows 7, but that means i have to conscientiously say "OK, I won't need Photoshop or access to my files or anything for the rest of the night... time to boot up Windows!"

Sure, I reboot and bounce back and forth. But that's enough of a hurdle to make me not bother unless I'm really serious about playing it. So that's great! Although Steam Cloud doesn't work yet and I don't have access to my saved games. Which is a major bummer.

But still! Awesome!