Dante's Divine ComedyI figured I have to post something. I have about 5 posts typed up on various subjects, and they just sit in Google Docs.

So almost two months. What's that about? Well, I got West Nile Virus. That was a good time. Not really. Did some moving. Saw some stuff. Turns out, I relax more in the summer. Oh and my computer's power supply broke and was out of commission for a few weeks. It was around the time I had West Nile, and my fingers peeled when I got better, which makes switching out power supplys a hassle.

Let's see. I talked a little about E3. Not as much as I would have wanted to, but I got my bases covered. You'll really get to see the fruits of E3 when I post my "Games to the Video 6." I need a catchy theme to go with 6. There's 6 pack, but that's kinda gay. Unless you are talking about cold ones. Actually, "Games to the Video 6" doesn't cover too many games from E3. I think "Games to the Video 7" will be a huge one. In fact, I started typing up 6 about a week ago, and I have had to delete four of the games off my post because they moved the release date. I had checked the dates right before I started typing it up, and in the last week, I read news posts of the release dates changing. Crazy on how many games are getting pushed to 2010. I just watched a clip from XPlay that addressed that.

So I am working on "Games to the Video 6," and it's almost done. I have to do the Honorable Mentions, and make a little image for the post. I think I'm going with the 6 cold ones theme. Other then that, I have my bases covered. Expect that probably either this weekend, or next week. It has to be before August 25.

I have been reading the Divine Comedy by Dante. I finished the Inferno yesterday and I have to say, it's really good. I read A.S. Kline's translation, and downloaded it from his website. I read it because of the video game Dante's Inferno. Probably very little similarities between the book (considering that Dante doesn't fight anyone in hell in the poem) but the game still looks really sweet. I really liked Kline's translation because in the PDF file, he links names and other things during the reading to the notes about the person, or other side note. So when Dante mentions Julius Caesar, his name is a link to Kline's notes, and there's a little blurb about Caesar and how it relates to the passage in the poem.

It's a poem, but since it is translated from Italian, it is more like a symbolic book. It's fairly easy to comprehend. I recommend reading a little bit about Dante and the time when he wrote the poem. I just read the the little blurb they had cliffnotes.com [broken link - removed] about the Inferno. It's only a few pages long and helps you understand the poem a lot better. You could just read the cliffnotes, but I noticed that they don't give specific names to the people that Dante meets in hell. Although the analysis from each canto is very helpful. I kinda wish they had something for the two other parts of the poem, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

What I find interesting about the poem is how Dante makes the punishment fit the crime. For example, thieves stole each others' forms in hell. Also how Dante interpreted how serious each sin was. The deeper in hell he went, the more sinful a person was, as well the worse the punishment. He divided hell into 9 circles, but he also had divides certain circles even further. There's 10 parts in circle number 8, for example. Very violent circle. That's when things got graphic. Not only that, he puts several famous people he knew of into hell. In fact, Virgil (the poet) guides him through hell. Even Mahammed is down there. It's just interesting. Dante shaped hell like a cone. The top part is wider, and the bottom point contains Satan. That's also when the world flips, and Dante and Virgil ascend into Purgatory. I haven't started reading that yet though.

I finally started Starcraft: The Dark Templar Saga. I'm on the final book already. That's how good it is. I usually don't read books that fast. It takes place between Starcraft Brood War, and Starcraft II. About four years after Brood War, actually. An archaeologist, Jacob Ramsey, discovers a dying protoss and the protoss merges minds with Jake. The protoss is a preserver, a protoss who keeps all the memorys of every protoss. Even way back to the beginning of their species. The book details various points in protoss history. Jake has to relive these memories. It's cool to learn about the protoss, and you even get to know Adun. Any protoss fan needs to read this searies.

I think I'm done with this post.

Oh, one more thing. Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. Buy it from Steam, Direct2Drive, or XBox Live. Fantastic game. It's a remake of the original Secret of Monkey Island. It has updated graphics, voice acting, and remixed music. It's fantastic. And for the hardcore fans, you can also play the game with the original graphics and music at any time during the game with a click of a button. I relived some good memories playing that. I played the game like in 2001 for the first time. The games was released in 1992 I think. So I'm not that old, kiddies (although I was alive in 1992). Tim Schafer wrote story and script for the game. You know, the guy behind the upcoming Brutal Legend. Can't wait.

Anyways, Bye peeps.

All hope abandon, ye who enter in.
-- Inscription on the gates of hell; Inferno