We got up today at 12:20pm. D woke up and was pissed! He started yelling “Turn the goddamn light on! Turn the light on now!” I was still half asleep and was flailing around for the light and not finding it right away. Finally I got the light on and asked, “What’s wrong?” “We slept too long again goddamnit!” Davin is such a character.
We hurried upstairs to catch the tail end of breakfast at the Great Outdoors. It was overcast this morning but we still sat outside and watched the sea. Then we went back to our room and I spent a long, long time writing yesterday’s update because I included an entire cruise ship comparison. Davin and I discussed our opinions about the two ships together and I wrote it down. Since we don’t care about the amenities on the ships, we kind of like the Norwegian Sun better due to its laid back atmosphere. However, the QM2 is the dedicated ship for transatlantic cruises, the Sun just happens to be repositioning, so chances are you have to take QM2 to get across the Atlantic. Davin also worked on his RPG while I was writing. He is still working on his complicated, but more fun, system for hacking security locks.
We had a late lunch (around 4pm our time). We went up to the buffet. The sky had cleared, so we regretted the fact that we’d forgotten our sunglasses. We ate stuffed bellpeppers, salmon with lemon and rice.
Back in our room, D played Max Payne 2, and worked on his RPG. I tried to find a new game to play. I tried Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It frustrated me though because the new version removed quick saves, so it only saves at certain checkpoints. That wouldn’t be so bad, except on hard mode it is difficult to figure out how to get past certain points before you are inevitably killed. It’s also more frustrating since I’ve already played the game before, so I know what happens next. I was planning to replay Butcher Bay before playing Assault on Dark Athena, which I haven’t played before. Perhaps that is a silly idea though, since the two games don’t seem to actually depend on one another. I set Riddick aside for now however, and tried Gothic 3.
That was a huge disappointment. I had been looking forward to playing Gothic 3 the way I had played Gothic 1, as a warrior with some magic. I really enjoyed the combat system in Gothic 1. Then in Gothic 2, I made the mistake of playing as a full mage. I didn’t enjoy the game play as much as I had in Gothic 1. So I loaded up Gothic 3 only to find that the combat system has been completely revamped and dumbed down. Plus, I wasn’t having much success surviving the very first monsters with this new system of spamming the mouse button to swing. Anyway, I was even less satisfied with this game choice than I was with Riddick.
So I moved on to Assassin’s Creed. I finally found something that was fun and interesting to play. D has advised that I only do the minimum of required tower climbing in Assassin’s Creed to avoid burning out on the game play before the game ends. He gave me similar advice for the random planet missions in Mass Effect and I disregarded his advice. It was a mistake. As awesome as that game is, I risked getting burned out because I played all the boring side missions before the main storyline. So, I will listen to Davin’s advice this time around. Besides, with my huge gaming backlog I need to beat games as quickly as possible and move on to the next one! No time for dillydallying!
At 7:30pm our time, we went for our daily run. Our pursers were happy to get a chance to clean our room. We ran 2 laps again today. It was easier for me than it was yesterday. D claimed to have had no improvement, but, after he had finished, he did sprint to catch up to me and had no problems. We are staggering our running so that we aren’t running together. We don’t want to risk feeling the urge to compete. Anyway, D starts first and ends first, so I always run past him at the end to reach my goal.
Since we were already downstairs, we investigated the dinner menu at the sit down place and found it wanting. We went upstairs and checked what the buffet was offering. We decided we would eat at the buffet later. We had an ice cream. Davin said he wouldn’t have had one if it hadn’t been for me. However, I’m using my chocolate ice cream, with chocolate syrup, and chocolate sprinkles as my motivation to keep running. In my mind, if I complete the two laps or whatever goal I set for the running, then I get to have my ice cream. I imagine my cup of chocolate ice cream floating in front of me while I’m running, and I chase it all the way to my goal!! It’s nice to be running for the cardio, and not to lose weight, so I can indulge myself. :p I’ve been eating smaller meals to make up for it too. I <3 Chocolate!
We returned to our room and found that our pursers had left a cute towel animal on the bed with a time change reminder. I took it for an opportunity to get our daily picture. Then I showered, and read Kurt’s Europe 2009 Memoirs. I had told him I’d be interested to read them something like five months ago. I feel bad it took me so long to get around to it! It wasn’t because his trip was boring, to the contrary, I just had different priorities. Anyway, I’m glad I waited to read them until after I completed my own European tour because I could then compare our trips. I also turned reading the memoirs into a game where I mapped Kurt’s trip onto a map of Europe while I was reading about it. Every time he moved to a new location, I connected the cities with red lines in Photoshop. Meanwhile, D worked on his RPG some more!
We went up to the buffet dinner around 10:30pm our time. We ate spaghetti bolognese prepared at one of the ‘action stations’. It was too meaty for my taste. Back in our room, I read the memoirs a bit more, and D worked on his RPG. Finally, D set his RPG aside and we watched one Voyager before going to bed at 12:30am. The ship changed time again, so we went to bed at 9:30pm ship time.
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