"Career Aspirations"

The only title
I ever want:
"Dungeon Master."

"Figment, Spitted"

So:
here's the famous
-nay, infamous, if I was to buy his line,
though I don't know if I even buy "famous"-
writer,
with his beer bottle collection,
daily zazen,
heavy metal records and t-shirts,
incessant smoking, piles of books,
and who knows how many other
affectations
(I'm sorry, "idiosyncrasies").

Weird hours,
lazy skateboarding
(stop being a pussy, dude),
Chinese studies,
broad yet shallow intellect:

All this shit is absurd enough,
but where is the output to justify his status?
Where are the novels, poems, essays?
Am I really expected to take his word for it,
or worse,
these words as proof that he's a "writer"?

Please.
There are teenagers who've written more,
and had better receptions
on- and off-line,
than this guy.

I'll take a page from his book
(The Big Copout: Recent History and Personal Failure)
and leave it be for the time being.
Maybe he'll write something in the interim that breathes life into
the author he sometimes thinks he is,
and that the future
-in his mind-
might not revere, but at least relegates to
a comfortable cult niche.

Nice try.

Grazie, Ezio

Earlier this year I played Assassin's Creed 2. Tracey got it as a surprise, and a surprise it was, given that I liked the original game somewhat, but not enough to even get close to finishing it. The story was compelling, but the gameplay was lackluster. The sequel, however, was a blast from start to finish, due in no small part to the setting: Renaissance Florence. Everyone from Lorenzo "il Magnifico" de Medici to Niccolo Machiavelli to Leonardo da Vinci showed up at one point or another, and the historical notes about people and architecture showed that the design team wasn't merely content to slap a facade of historicity over a generic game. I loved it.

As a result, I've picked up an additional, if not quite as intense, line of study. As you may know, I'm currently studying Chinese at the University of Houston, but I've started delving into Renaissance Florentine history. I intend to read up on Venice, and possibly other major Italian city-states/republics as well, but for now I'm concentrating on Florence. It's fascinating to read about the myriad factors that not only helped birth the modern era, but the place itself.

Now, I have no intention of dropping Chinese in favor of Florentine history, but it's refreshing to have an interest in a subject as captivating as Chinese language and history that doesn't require as massive an investment of time as Chinese does. My interest in Florence reminds me of my long-standing interest in the Great War: both are compelling without being so to the point of fixation, and both shed light on my understanding not only of the past, but the present. Which is, of course, one of the foremost reasons to study history.

Who says video games aren't educational? Now all I have to do is wait until November for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, wherein I get to explore Rome- the Eternal City which at one point was seemingly populated only by prostitutes and priests. In the meantime, I'm tempted to put aside my autumn playthrough of Bully in favor of replaying Assassin's Creed 2, but who knows if that'll happen.

Here's to history, games, and where the twain shall meet!