Crypto-fun-icon

I realized that I haven't written a word about the book I started reading on my way to Toy Fair. Chad loaned my Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, and it's even better than Snow Crash. Stephenson's got a very easygoing style and doesn't get lost in his prose in the same way Gibson does (Gibson's prose, I feel, often degenerates into a form of stylistic masturbation, while Stephenson wields his in a more subtle way). Plus, it's just a damn fun book to read. It's a meaty 870-some pages, but cruising through them is a pleasure. Stephenson seems to be one of those rare authors who can create action, dialogue, and descriptive scenes that meld together perfectly - one of those elements doesn't really stand out above the others as being "better" or more coherant. And, as a writer, I find that admirable to say the least.

Tonight I played some Castlevania. I committed the First Deadly Sin of Video Gaming the other night - I didn't save my game for a while, and then (of course) I died and lost a good hour's worth of progress. While not nearly as heartbreaking as the time I lost all of my progress on Black & White (almost 48 hours of gaming down the tubes because the game not only crashed, it took a large portion of my hard drive with it), but still enough to put me off of the game for a while. Of course, things I found simple the first time have suddenly become far more difficult, so I'm not even where I was before I died, but I'm getting closer. It's a fun game to play, but a little repetitive - I don't think it's as good as Symphony of the Night, which really was the last great sidescroller.

The whole time I'm playing, I keep thinking about how cool it would be to play a Belmont whip-wielding character in D&D - I started sketching up the whip itself as an artifact, including the history of it presented in this game. Hey, at least it gives me something to do in my spare time.