The illness will not leave, even using the power of chaotic evil lawyers. So I didn’t get much sleep last night. A by product of that was watching people go bat shit crazy over the unlocking of Portal 2 for PC. I totally understand that moment when you finally get a game you have been waiting for. As I talked about on the podcast the portal fever never took hold in me. Again it’s one of those moments as a gamer where what’s wrong with me. Granted a second later that feeling passes and I understand that all of us have games that don’t grab us the way they do other people. Don’t get me wrong I fully intend to play Portal 2 in the next few weeks. Maybe this time I can have some fucking cake.

Battled through game crashes and glitches to finally beat Icewind Dale. Now my crazy ass has moved on the the Heart of Winter expansion. Looks like more of the same which is just fine with me. Along with the thrashing of Icewind, I downloaded the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta. I hopped on about 4 or 5 death matches. I don’t feel super comfortable with giving you a solid impressions just yet. I can say if your worried at all about it being to different, well worry no more. It is still definitely GOW. Past that I need a few more rounds to tell you what I really think.

Remember a few days ago when I was lamenting the playoff outlook of the Detroit Red Wings? Well they are up 3 games to nothing on the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round of the playoffs. While this doesn’t mean I will be getting my hopes up, they are impressing so far. No matter what anybody else thinks, the Coyotes are not an easy first round. As the old cliches goes anything can happen in the playoffs. Speaking of the NHL playoffs I think the Bruins better bring a damn lunch. I get the sense the Montreal Canadians have come with a war like attitude. The NHL wouldn’t do anything for them so they will handle the justice themselves. I am not counting out Boston after last night, but I still give the edge to the Canadians.

I had one of those shit what do I say moments last night. I had a old friend call me wanting the type of advice you just can’t easily give. He had a near death experience the day before and wanted to know how he should handle it. I found it both amusing and flattering that he came to me with this. While I am by no means the near death experience world champion, I may have had one or two in my life. The problem is every person handles those kind’s of moments different. In this case it was something he is going to have to deal with given the job he is doing. I hated no being able to give him the catch all answer he was looking for. There simply is no one size fits all advice for that kind of deal. Considering he may be confronted with again at some point in the future I was able to tell him this. If it makes you fearful then it may be time to find a new line of work. Because really that is the line when it comes to close calls with death. If you start fearing what may happen it will happen. On the other hand if it just wakes you up to the fact that you need exercise caution in the things you do, then you can turn almost anything in to a learning experience.

That may sound a little mean or perhaps crazy, but it’s true. Still talking with him made me feel helpless and little bit mean. I just made sure he understood that I was there to listen to him and that he should consider the fear factor that I mentioned. People who tell you they have no fear are morons and fooling themselves. I think I have written in the past having fear is natural, it’s how you deal with it that matters. The closer you come the scrapping deaths door the more you realize how precious life is. My advice for the rest of you is try not to put yourself in to situations that can cause this type of scenario in the first place. To a certain extent it’s probably better living to 90 and slightly bored, than only make it to 40 and just leave a grease spot behind.