When Things Fall (Part 1)

Consistency, journals and me are three words that I think will never join in perfect harmony. The weakest link being between me and consistency. However, I do have an excuse… I was err… busy… (what follows is a list of busy excuses).

(Sunday) …going on a road trip to Niagara Falls. Now I am not the type to become excited about going to a popular tourist attraction. Its not that I am anti-social. I am introverted not anti-social. Its not that I am anti-tourist. I like seeing tourist attractions, and sometime in June become one myself. Its just I don’t subscribe to the Hollywoodish-glitz-idol-worship type of tourism that Niagara Falls seems to radiate. But Rob invited me to come so I did.

So Rob, Tanguy, Echo and I left Mississauga for Niagara around noon. Had a unexpected stopover in Hamilton. Everyone ate and enjoyed ribs at Tony Roma’s. Arrived in Niagara around 5:30. We all were kinda overdressed for the trip. Echo stated the need for fancy attire to get into the Casino. She probably watched too much Casino Royale, as we later found out. The weather turned out chilly, and Tanguy and Echo ended up hugging each other for warmth for most of the trip’s duration. Noone wanted to take the Maid of the Mist trip. I can report that Niagara Falls are still there. And still are falling. Lots of tourists. Lots of glitsy wax figure museums and “haunted” houses lined the streets in the downtown.

After a quick coffee, we proceeded to Casino Niagara. Got carded. Twice. Because having a single piece of photo ID is not enough. As my first time at a casino, I was cautioned not too overspend. I took one look around… and saw the most boring “gamespace” games invented by mankind. How could anyone sit, and toss coins into a slot machine beats me. As a game developer, I could code a slot machine in a matter of minutes, play and not loose any money in the process. If I were bored.

Instead I followed Rob around for a bit, observing entranced people. After starting to read McKenzie Warks’ Gamer Theory, I believe that casino games are the worst games. They work and reward players in a gamerspace manner, will giving the illusion of a game with the perfect rules and equality of other games. Needless to say, I became bored. And started to think about ways to play in the casino… which would of led to my person being banned from casinos. Instead Rob and I went off to buy cards played by the casino. Those turned out cheap both in terms of expense and quality. We decided to extract Tangay and Echo out the casino.
We ended off the day by walking back to the Falls, and watched the well done pre-Victoria Day fireworks.

I must leave off here. I will continue what happened Monday and yesterday a little bit later.