I've been beta testing more games, which has been a lot of fun. The first one is Champions Online, and the second is Webwars.
Champions is a superhero MMORPG put out by the same people who did City of Heroes/Villains. I can't say much, because there is still an NDA on it, but I will say they took to heart all of the requests and criticism from the players in the City games.
Expect good things.
The second game, Webwars, is put out by a local company here in Austin. This too is under an NDA but it's a lot like Neo-pets but less lame. If you're interested in playing, head over to their site, www.webwars.com to sign up.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
steam punk
So, after 6 months of writing a review every week I've finally gotten to the point where it doesn't suck up all of my writing time anymore.
Which is nice.
That means I can get back to all the other things I need to be writing. Like this blog. Maybe get back to more than once a month writing. That'd be cool. And, get started on my new novel. That'd be even better. Speaking of the new novel, I've stumbled across a burgeoning Punk genre called Steampunk. And, I say stumbled upon because I already knew it existed and had seen a few anime's in that style already. But, as I started researching it more I found the sub-genre was an off shoot of Cyberpunk and started back in the late 80s.
Which is weird, since that's when I was readng more than I was breathing air. I mean, I thought I would have read at least some of it then.
Anyway.
As I was saying- new novel. I've decided to write in the punk style.
Which, in case you didn't know, is a rejection of the Star Trekian philosophy that science is our savior. No, punk says that science and industry is our ruination, and the only choice we have is to rebel against that science and industry. usually the worlds are dystopian nightmares, and in Steampunk it's all covered over in a polite veneer of Victorian society.
Which really lends itself to that idea of science and industry being a destroyer as it was during this time child labor came under scrutiny along with cruelty to people and animals. It was the golden time of the industrial revolution.
So, yeah. The next novel, which the outlines began for it last week, will be steampunkish. I have started to outline several short stories as well, to get my feet wet in the genre, so to speak.
Which is nice.
That means I can get back to all the other things I need to be writing. Like this blog. Maybe get back to more than once a month writing. That'd be cool. And, get started on my new novel. That'd be even better. Speaking of the new novel, I've stumbled across a burgeoning Punk genre called Steampunk. And, I say stumbled upon because I already knew it existed and had seen a few anime's in that style already. But, as I started researching it more I found the sub-genre was an off shoot of Cyberpunk and started back in the late 80s.
Which is weird, since that's when I was readng more than I was breathing air. I mean, I thought I would have read at least some of it then.
Anyway.
As I was saying- new novel. I've decided to write in the punk style.
Which, in case you didn't know, is a rejection of the Star Trekian philosophy that science is our savior. No, punk says that science and industry is our ruination, and the only choice we have is to rebel against that science and industry. usually the worlds are dystopian nightmares, and in Steampunk it's all covered over in a polite veneer of Victorian society.
Which really lends itself to that idea of science and industry being a destroyer as it was during this time child labor came under scrutiny along with cruelty to people and animals. It was the golden time of the industrial revolution.
So, yeah. The next novel, which the outlines began for it last week, will be steampunkish. I have started to outline several short stories as well, to get my feet wet in the genre, so to speak.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
whoa
Wow, I totally missed March, April, AND May.
Well, I imagine that's because my writing duties have really picked up. Right about January I got a gig doing game reviews for a website- www.cybermonkeydeathsquad.com.
I know, about the most cumbersome name you could have, but the guy who runs it is pretty cool. He's only had to reject one review so far, the one I did for Red Light Center.
A so-called MMO that I do not recommend.
I am hoping to turn the reviews into something more professional. Yeah, I do it for free now but it's still published writing. This guy is putting my voice on his site, as a representation of what he thinks is good stuff. I really appreciate that.
Now someone needs to hire me to do that full time, or let me springboard it into a writing gig for something else.
My quest for a video game based job continues unabated. I recently phone interviewed with Sony and was passed up to the next level- about 3 weeks ago now. I don't expect to be hearing from them any time soon. I keep getting to the same point- phone interview and passed up to the next level, only to find they had already gone in another direction.
Is it me? Is it something I'm doing or is it just bad timing?
Well, what ever it is I have to find a way to over come it and land a job in the game industry. Maybe I should start looking to freelance some work in the old table top side?
So, yeah, enough rambling from. I'll be back next week to make up for the last few months absence.
Well, I imagine that's because my writing duties have really picked up. Right about January I got a gig doing game reviews for a website- www.cybermonkeydeathsquad.com.
I know, about the most cumbersome name you could have, but the guy who runs it is pretty cool. He's only had to reject one review so far, the one I did for Red Light Center.
A so-called MMO that I do not recommend.
I am hoping to turn the reviews into something more professional. Yeah, I do it for free now but it's still published writing. This guy is putting my voice on his site, as a representation of what he thinks is good stuff. I really appreciate that.
Now someone needs to hire me to do that full time, or let me springboard it into a writing gig for something else.
My quest for a video game based job continues unabated. I recently phone interviewed with Sony and was passed up to the next level- about 3 weeks ago now. I don't expect to be hearing from them any time soon. I keep getting to the same point- phone interview and passed up to the next level, only to find they had already gone in another direction.
Is it me? Is it something I'm doing or is it just bad timing?
Well, what ever it is I have to find a way to over come it and land a job in the game industry. Maybe I should start looking to freelance some work in the old table top side?
So, yeah, enough rambling from. I'll be back next week to make up for the last few months absence.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Places We Call Home
How much do you know about the place you call home?
I don't mean your house, but the area you think of as home- that town?
Throughout my life I have never lived anywhere longer than 5 years. As a result of this nomadic lifestyle my concept of home is two things; where I am living right now and Washington, IL. I have family that still lives near there in Peoria. So, when they ask how will it play in Peoria I can make a phone call to find out.
Anyway, I was avoiding some writing by pretending to do some research when I decided to wikipedia Washington. It's still a mostly white town out in the middle of the Illinois cornbelt. I've seen it described as a suburb of Peoria. But, in my opinion it's too far away to really be a suburb or Peoria isn't big enough to have one that far away. In either case Washington is a charming small town out in the middle of corn fields. It's the sort of place people don't lock their doors. Well, my parents didn't lock their doors when we lived there. It's a great place to be from.
I learned some nice things about the town- like my 1st grade teacher was likely descended from the towns founder. A guy used to raise world famous Shetland ponies there.
It is also the site of a World War II prisoner of war camp where German men were forced to labor in the local fields and factories. The foundation of one of the guard towers is still visible at the intersection of Wood and Jefferson. I know where that's at. As a child during the summer Mike and I biked past there on our way to the pool. I think we even played on and around it. The actual prison was less than a mile away from Mike's house.
And, that kind freaks me the hell out.
I'm pretty anti-war and the place I think of as home was part and parcel of a war. Not in the way that husbands, brothers, and sons left and never came back- there were many like that and I value their sacrifice. No. This was a prison.
A place that I have an idealized view of, a place that I think of as good and safe was also a place where men were forced to work against their will, and if they tried to escape they would have been shot.
So, how well do you know the place you call home?
I don't mean your house, but the area you think of as home- that town?
Throughout my life I have never lived anywhere longer than 5 years. As a result of this nomadic lifestyle my concept of home is two things; where I am living right now and Washington, IL. I have family that still lives near there in Peoria. So, when they ask how will it play in Peoria I can make a phone call to find out.
Anyway, I was avoiding some writing by pretending to do some research when I decided to wikipedia Washington. It's still a mostly white town out in the middle of the Illinois cornbelt. I've seen it described as a suburb of Peoria. But, in my opinion it's too far away to really be a suburb or Peoria isn't big enough to have one that far away. In either case Washington is a charming small town out in the middle of corn fields. It's the sort of place people don't lock their doors. Well, my parents didn't lock their doors when we lived there. It's a great place to be from.
I learned some nice things about the town- like my 1st grade teacher was likely descended from the towns founder. A guy used to raise world famous Shetland ponies there.
It is also the site of a World War II prisoner of war camp where German men were forced to labor in the local fields and factories. The foundation of one of the guard towers is still visible at the intersection of Wood and Jefferson. I know where that's at. As a child during the summer Mike and I biked past there on our way to the pool. I think we even played on and around it. The actual prison was less than a mile away from Mike's house.
And, that kind freaks me the hell out.
I'm pretty anti-war and the place I think of as home was part and parcel of a war. Not in the way that husbands, brothers, and sons left and never came back- there were many like that and I value their sacrifice. No. This was a prison.
A place that I have an idealized view of, a place that I think of as good and safe was also a place where men were forced to work against their will, and if they tried to escape they would have been shot.
So, how well do you know the place you call home?
Monday, January 12, 2009
A year end reflection.
It is the beginning of a new year. Well, a couple of weeks into it anyway but the shine hasn't had time to wear off yet. While the demarcation is arbitrary it is certainly necessary. You do have to mark a spot between then and now. Otherwise how would we know the difference between them? Right?
For those playing the Home Game, 2008 was not as good a year as I had hoped. In fact, it was likely the worst year of my life so I am not going to rehash those elements. And, in the news we know that this year has been fraught with momentous and truly historic occasions. We've had elections that spoke about the change that came and left America. There have been events that have changed the world here and abroad. People have died, and more were born.
Just perusing the news sites will give you endless columns and articles about the most important people, events, or top ten lists of best this or worst that. Magazine covers will have sexiest man or woman alive for this year and tell us how we can have the best sex of 09 and lose those unwanted pounds.
However, I believe in all the historic hullabaloo they have missed one key detail. One important fact has slipped through the self-appointed, the over-paid, and obsessive society note-takers.
No more state quarters.
No, seriously, they're done. Alaska came out at the end of the year. No more. Finite. Over with. Ended. All 50 are out. A quick review in Google news reveals not one story about this. Not one mention of a decade long project coming to its end. No one bothered to write down that the single largest sustained project by the US Mint has come to an end. And, it ended on time.
And no one talked about it.
For a decade these have been quietly coming out on schedule. No longer will you have to flip through the change in your pocket to see if you've run across the latest issue. Although you probably will out of sheer habit, but there won't be anything new.
Unless you're a slacker and still haven't gotten Alaska.
I can't help but want something from this. Something portentous maybe. Or something that has some value or meaning beyond the act of collecting a certain type of money. Something about the minor act of taking a moment out of my day, every day I got a quarter in change from something, to give it value. Something to show the time was not wasted.
But I can't, really. I now have a small blue folder with roughly $12.50 in it that I will never spend. And, if I die and pass it on to my children they will likely not spend it either. So, it will sit on a book shelf not doing anything.
Or they will have found it when they were 12 and spent it on candy without my knowledge.
A lot of time and consideration was put into this project. Not on my end, but on the Mint's end. Whole state governments were involved, and for a short time people cared about what the quarters meant or showed or said about their state. For a time these quarters were very important to a lot of people.
But now that is over with and who really cares what the quarter from New York says about the state? Or that the Wright brothers appear on two different state quarters?
I want something from this project, and it's not there. My sister in her time in Vietnam handed out the state quarters to the people and students she met there. And I have to wonder if those people still have their quarters? What do they think of them? Do they represent a dream, an idea, are they more than just a alloy of metal stamped from a sheet? What do the people of a poor communist nation think of their piece of America? Their piece of the idea of Money and what it means to them.
Then I think that maybe I think too much. They're just quarters. Things. And I shouldn't place value in a thing. Value resides in the people I know. Value is in the relationships I have with people not in things I own. That I should embrace the Taoist idea of being and doing rather than thinking.
Maybe I should combine the rejection of the material from Nihilism with the Taoist idea of being into a new philosophy of Taohlism. One that rejects the culture of consumerism and ownership and combines it with the Toaist idea of harmony with the universe by being open and true to your own nature.
But then people would probably pronounce it with a T and not a D, and call it Towelism. Then create iconography and open a shop in ebay to sell it. Which bums me out more than the state quarter project being over.
Maybe the real value here is that no one noticed the end of the state quarter program. No one noticed because it really is trivial. That the quarters from Ohio and North Carolina are just two more reasons why I win Trivial Pursuit games and not something to think about. That act of people living and dying has more value, more meaning, than a piece of the idea of money.
So, yeah. We decided when one year ended and another one began. People lived. People died. The world changed how it was organized. And we talked about that. Some people were more sexy this time than they were last time. Magazines organized what was good and bad about it all for us. Something ended, quietly, and we did not talk about it.
And that's okay.
For those playing the Home Game, 2008 was not as good a year as I had hoped. In fact, it was likely the worst year of my life so I am not going to rehash those elements. And, in the news we know that this year has been fraught with momentous and truly historic occasions. We've had elections that spoke about the change that came and left America. There have been events that have changed the world here and abroad. People have died, and more were born.
Just perusing the news sites will give you endless columns and articles about the most important people, events, or top ten lists of best this or worst that. Magazine covers will have sexiest man or woman alive for this year and tell us how we can have the best sex of 09 and lose those unwanted pounds.
However, I believe in all the historic hullabaloo they have missed one key detail. One important fact has slipped through the self-appointed, the over-paid, and obsessive society note-takers.
No more state quarters.
No, seriously, they're done. Alaska came out at the end of the year. No more. Finite. Over with. Ended. All 50 are out. A quick review in Google news reveals not one story about this. Not one mention of a decade long project coming to its end. No one bothered to write down that the single largest sustained project by the US Mint has come to an end. And, it ended on time.
And no one talked about it.
For a decade these have been quietly coming out on schedule. No longer will you have to flip through the change in your pocket to see if you've run across the latest issue. Although you probably will out of sheer habit, but there won't be anything new.
Unless you're a slacker and still haven't gotten Alaska.
I can't help but want something from this. Something portentous maybe. Or something that has some value or meaning beyond the act of collecting a certain type of money. Something about the minor act of taking a moment out of my day, every day I got a quarter in change from something, to give it value. Something to show the time was not wasted.
But I can't, really. I now have a small blue folder with roughly $12.50 in it that I will never spend. And, if I die and pass it on to my children they will likely not spend it either. So, it will sit on a book shelf not doing anything.
Or they will have found it when they were 12 and spent it on candy without my knowledge.
A lot of time and consideration was put into this project. Not on my end, but on the Mint's end. Whole state governments were involved, and for a short time people cared about what the quarters meant or showed or said about their state. For a time these quarters were very important to a lot of people.
But now that is over with and who really cares what the quarter from New York says about the state? Or that the Wright brothers appear on two different state quarters?
I want something from this project, and it's not there. My sister in her time in Vietnam handed out the state quarters to the people and students she met there. And I have to wonder if those people still have their quarters? What do they think of them? Do they represent a dream, an idea, are they more than just a alloy of metal stamped from a sheet? What do the people of a poor communist nation think of their piece of America? Their piece of the idea of Money and what it means to them.
Then I think that maybe I think too much. They're just quarters. Things. And I shouldn't place value in a thing. Value resides in the people I know. Value is in the relationships I have with people not in things I own. That I should embrace the Taoist idea of being and doing rather than thinking.
Maybe I should combine the rejection of the material from Nihilism with the Taoist idea of being into a new philosophy of Taohlism. One that rejects the culture of consumerism and ownership and combines it with the Toaist idea of harmony with the universe by being open and true to your own nature.
But then people would probably pronounce it with a T and not a D, and call it Towelism. Then create iconography and open a shop in ebay to sell it. Which bums me out more than the state quarter project being over.
Maybe the real value here is that no one noticed the end of the state quarter program. No one noticed because it really is trivial. That the quarters from Ohio and North Carolina are just two more reasons why I win Trivial Pursuit games and not something to think about. That act of people living and dying has more value, more meaning, than a piece of the idea of money.
So, yeah. We decided when one year ended and another one began. People lived. People died. The world changed how it was organized. And we talked about that. Some people were more sexy this time than they were last time. Magazines organized what was good and bad about it all for us. Something ended, quietly, and we did not talk about it.
And that's okay.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Superman II: the Donner cut
I warn you now- there are some minor spoilers and then some even bigger spoilers throughout. If you're one of those whinny movie goers that can't bear to know a single thing, let alone the ending, stop now. Know this before departing- the Donner version is three times better than the theatrical release.
Now that we've gotten rid of the panty-waists, onward!
In 1981, Superman II was unleashed upon an unsuspecting America. This movie was so terrible, I swore off hero movies in the theater until the first Burton Batman years later (I saw III on rental and still haven't seen IV). And, this movie has always occupied a special benchmark in my heart. Superman II is the movie I compare all terrible comic movies to- in terms of departure from themes, cannon, and concepts.
And, the only movie to actually be worse is the Dolph Lundgren Punisher. I mean, riding a Harley in the sewers while fighting Ninjas. Seriously?!?
But, I digress.
One of the reasons this movie blows chunks- the producers fired Richard Donner 75% of the way through filming and replaced him with Richard Lester. And, Lester himself stated that he had no idea who or what Superman was when he took over the job after Donner was fired.
You know, I have to wonder about the wisdom of hiring a guy that knows zero about the main character. Not what I would call an A-list move.
Then a friend of mine mentioned that Superman II had been recut, and restored using the unfinished Donner footage to complete the movie the way it had been originally intended- a direct sequel to the original. And, I was not exactly sure why I should care about it.
Let's not discuss how I got to watching this movie. Let's just discuss that after viewing it I can tell you that this movie is vastly superior to the theatrical release in exactly three ways.
And, those three things make this movie astronomically better than what was originally released, and even take it out of the “eh” range and into the “not too bad!” range.
Don't get me wrong, there are still some unanswered questions like how do the three Kryptonians understand and speak English, exactly how did human Clark and Lois leave the Fortress since they flew there, and why did Superman kill the last three Kryptonians (keep in mind part of the cannon is the Big Blue doesn't kill) instead of saving their lives. And, frankly, I could go on. So, there are a lot of things about this movie that are still really sloppy, and it could have used a few re-writes to clean them up.
Which is why it's “not too bad” and not higher up on the chain.
Oh- and a bit of a spoiler ahead so stop reading now if you don't want to know more:
Lois figures out Clark is Superman in the first 5 minutes of the film. Which, I feel is a lot better. How they deal with it is good, and makes sense. Also, did I mention no Super Kiss that makes her forget?
Well, they still have to separate at the end, and while there is no Super Kiss the resolution isn't all that much better. Supes does the lame time rewind thing again and resets the world. Although, it doesn't show what he does different to save the world, only that he rewound it to before Zod and minions show up.
So, there's that too.
But, in comparison to what came before?
At least three times better.
Now that we've gotten rid of the panty-waists, onward!
In 1981, Superman II was unleashed upon an unsuspecting America. This movie was so terrible, I swore off hero movies in the theater until the first Burton Batman years later (I saw III on rental and still haven't seen IV). And, this movie has always occupied a special benchmark in my heart. Superman II is the movie I compare all terrible comic movies to- in terms of departure from themes, cannon, and concepts.
And, the only movie to actually be worse is the Dolph Lundgren Punisher. I mean, riding a Harley in the sewers while fighting Ninjas. Seriously?!?
But, I digress.
One of the reasons this movie blows chunks- the producers fired Richard Donner 75% of the way through filming and replaced him with Richard Lester. And, Lester himself stated that he had no idea who or what Superman was when he took over the job after Donner was fired.
You know, I have to wonder about the wisdom of hiring a guy that knows zero about the main character. Not what I would call an A-list move.
Then a friend of mine mentioned that Superman II had been recut, and restored using the unfinished Donner footage to complete the movie the way it had been originally intended- a direct sequel to the original. And, I was not exactly sure why I should care about it.
Let's not discuss how I got to watching this movie. Let's just discuss that after viewing it I can tell you that this movie is vastly superior to the theatrical release in exactly three ways.
- No taffy-pull S shield move in the Fortress.
- No “here I am! Tee-hee, no I'm not!” illusion moves.
- No Super Kiss.
And, those three things make this movie astronomically better than what was originally released, and even take it out of the “eh” range and into the “not too bad!” range.
Don't get me wrong, there are still some unanswered questions like how do the three Kryptonians understand and speak English, exactly how did human Clark and Lois leave the Fortress since they flew there, and why did Superman kill the last three Kryptonians (keep in mind part of the cannon is the Big Blue doesn't kill) instead of saving their lives. And, frankly, I could go on. So, there are a lot of things about this movie that are still really sloppy, and it could have used a few re-writes to clean them up.
Which is why it's “not too bad” and not higher up on the chain.
Oh- and a bit of a spoiler ahead so stop reading now if you don't want to know more:
Lois figures out Clark is Superman in the first 5 minutes of the film. Which, I feel is a lot better. How they deal with it is good, and makes sense. Also, did I mention no Super Kiss that makes her forget?
Well, they still have to separate at the end, and while there is no Super Kiss the resolution isn't all that much better. Supes does the lame time rewind thing again and resets the world. Although, it doesn't show what he does different to save the world, only that he rewound it to before Zod and minions show up.
So, there's that too.
But, in comparison to what came before?
At least three times better.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
What I miss
You know what I miss?
Dirty truckstops.
I mean the kind with bathrooms so foul you wonder if you’ll get a venereal disease just walking through it. The kind with the novelty condom dispensers. The sort of truck stops that have glory holes carved through the wood dividers for the stalls.
If you don’t know what a glory hole is, I am not going to be the one to tell you about it.
Anyway, I kinda miss them. Not the glory holes, but the dirty truck stops. Over this last year and some I have had the opportunity to drive a lot between Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. And, in the back-and-forth between those cities I have topped at just about every place you can stop.
They’re all very clean and neat.
It’s quite the let down, really. As a kid my mother hauled us back and forth between Minneapolis and Peoria. So much so, that to this day I have that route memorized. And, let me tell you, some of those stops were barely more than a shack with a pit dug out to store the gas in the middle of a flat spot covered in gravel. They were the sort of places where you wondered if the 18 wheeler idling on the edge of the lot had a dismembered hooker in the sleeper or if the driver was just tweeking on meth; and the dishwater blonde behind the counter that was missing half her teeth and called everyone Hon.
I mean, those road trips had character. They had danger! You had to gauge if you could hold it a little while longer, or if thought of peeing your pants had finally become a fate worse than death. Those Truck Stops had racks and racks of porn mags with unshaven men with intense and downcast eyes that jingled the change in their pockets at a furious pace. And, you had to guess how long you could tarry over the covers before mom caught you. And the food? Yeah, you didn’t want that burrito. Under any circumstances. But, damn, if it didn’t look like the best thing you could ever have at 2 in the morning.
That’s excitement you just can’t find in the brightly lit Loves Truck Stops, Shell, Chevron, Exxon, or other Road Super Stops. Now they sell family friendly dvd’s, energy drinks, and franchised fast food. The porn mags are safely wrapped in their blue bags and behind the counter. The Novelty condom dispensers have been replaced by Koala Diaper stations.
The mystique of the Road Trip has been well lit, neatly packaged, and sanitized for your satisfaction. We have lost something, I think, in the corporatization of America. In the endless asphalt ribbon one place has become just like any other. There is less of a reason to stop and look around because the Racetrack in Texas will be like the Loves in Kansas and like the Super America in Minnesota.
So, in the journey of your life if you find one of those dying breeds of truck stops, one of these pearls in the slop, stop and check out the porn. Maybe buy the burrito.
But, I still wouldn’t eat it.
Dirty truckstops.
I mean the kind with bathrooms so foul you wonder if you’ll get a venereal disease just walking through it. The kind with the novelty condom dispensers. The sort of truck stops that have glory holes carved through the wood dividers for the stalls.
If you don’t know what a glory hole is, I am not going to be the one to tell you about it.
Anyway, I kinda miss them. Not the glory holes, but the dirty truck stops. Over this last year and some I have had the opportunity to drive a lot between Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. And, in the back-and-forth between those cities I have topped at just about every place you can stop.
They’re all very clean and neat.
It’s quite the let down, really. As a kid my mother hauled us back and forth between Minneapolis and Peoria. So much so, that to this day I have that route memorized. And, let me tell you, some of those stops were barely more than a shack with a pit dug out to store the gas in the middle of a flat spot covered in gravel. They were the sort of places where you wondered if the 18 wheeler idling on the edge of the lot had a dismembered hooker in the sleeper or if the driver was just tweeking on meth; and the dishwater blonde behind the counter that was missing half her teeth and called everyone Hon.
I mean, those road trips had character. They had danger! You had to gauge if you could hold it a little while longer, or if thought of peeing your pants had finally become a fate worse than death. Those Truck Stops had racks and racks of porn mags with unshaven men with intense and downcast eyes that jingled the change in their pockets at a furious pace. And, you had to guess how long you could tarry over the covers before mom caught you. And the food? Yeah, you didn’t want that burrito. Under any circumstances. But, damn, if it didn’t look like the best thing you could ever have at 2 in the morning.
That’s excitement you just can’t find in the brightly lit Loves Truck Stops, Shell, Chevron, Exxon, or other Road Super Stops. Now they sell family friendly dvd’s, energy drinks, and franchised fast food. The porn mags are safely wrapped in their blue bags and behind the counter. The Novelty condom dispensers have been replaced by Koala Diaper stations.
The mystique of the Road Trip has been well lit, neatly packaged, and sanitized for your satisfaction. We have lost something, I think, in the corporatization of America. In the endless asphalt ribbon one place has become just like any other. There is less of a reason to stop and look around because the Racetrack in Texas will be like the Loves in Kansas and like the Super America in Minnesota.
So, in the journey of your life if you find one of those dying breeds of truck stops, one of these pearls in the slop, stop and check out the porn. Maybe buy the burrito.
But, I still wouldn’t eat it.
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