The Sasquatch Journal

Gauntlet or the Grade?

I'm writing a personal video game related story for MTV, and thought I'd share it here. Some of you have heard this before, some of you haven't, and if you're female, I advise you to stop reading here before you lose all respect for me...

It was dreaded Finals Week my junior year of college and I was halfway home. Two down, two to go. Unfortunately, on this day I had an epic two-hour, 150 question Macroeconomics final at noon. I was and remain awful at math, and never would of taken a step near an economics classroom had it not been required for Journalism school.

The night before, I had studied a little, splitting time between Macro and a history final I had the next day. My procrastinating nature won out and I convinced myself that instead of staying up late studying, I would wake up at the crack of dawn and studying for several hours leading up to the final.

I woke up about 8 a.m. and headed over to the Student Commons area with books in tow to hunker down with studying. There, of course, was a danger in going to the Commons...there was an arcade downstairs and I was hopelessly addicted to "Gauntlet: Dark Legacy", a multiplayer sequel to the Nintendo classic "Gauntlet."

I staved off initial temptation to play though because I had no cash on me, and I had a ton of studying I needed to do. My final was in 3 hours! It didn't take long for my willpower to crumble though. I was staring at the words on the page, but it was like they were in a foreign language, I couldn't absorrb anything. The only thing I could thinking about was sending my bomb-throwing jester against waves and waves off killer mummies and orcs.

Stop, I told myself, even if I didn't have to study, I still didn't have any money! But that's when it hit me. In the hall near bookstore, there was a table set up for students to sell back their textbooks for cash. Suddenly, I slammed my book shut and walked over to the line with a sly grin on my face.

I would of liked to have gotten more for the thick Macroeconomics book, but $12 was more than enough to last me a few hours on "Gauntlet." So, that's what I did up until 5 minutes before my final...and with only the slightest of guilt. Studying means little when you're busy trying to save the entire realm from the evil clutches of Garm.

Which one looks more fun to you? That's what I thought.

I ended up getting a B-minus, on that final, by the way. And I beat the Spider Queen in the Jungle level, so all and all, it was a successful finals week.

Update MTV wants me to tell the story on air next week. Funny stuff.

My Brother, the Villain

For years now, I have casually talked about writing a book about my brother, Keegan. Now, whenever my brother does something outrageous, my Dad even says something about "putting it in my book."

I don't really think I could actually do it (even though I've written a semi-true short story about him) because I wouldn't want to inadvertantly glamorize a type of lifestyle James Frey pretended to have but never did. The rebellion of bad boys may seem cool and interesting, but its mostly just selfish and wreckless and cowardly.

The new information I heard this weekend from my parents is this: after a year and a half or so of marriage and "reforming" his old ways, Keegan's wife Jenny wants a divorce because of his continued infidelity. This comes while she is six-months pregnant with their second child (both of them also have a child from a previous relationship.)

Since then, he he gone back to the bottle, and back to his old friends, while my sister-in-law gets to take care of three children on her own.

Sure, I could write a fascinating character study about him, about how him and I turned out so different (like the two brothers in "A River Runs Through It")....about some of his Bad Boy exploits like getting kicked out of school for going crazy on the principal and ripping a door off his hinges, taking literal craps in public places, and all the sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, but its a sad, terrible life.


--On a lighter note, I recently ran into my first celebrity (almost quite literally) since I've been out here... My friend Claire and I were driving through an alley near the Third Street Promenade last week and when we pulled out to the street, there was British actor John Cleese of Monty Python fame.
Granted it wasn't THAT close, he was 6 to 8 feet away, but it was close enough that we got *a* look. He kept on walking in a very brisk, very British way, and made an exaggerated motion to look at his watch. I said "Sorry, Mr. Cleese" softly, but I don't think he heard me.