I’m driving up to New York on Saturday, and barring any hairpin turns of fortune, I’ll be able to file my final divorce papers at the courthouse on Monday. Other than the fact that it could have been finished much sooner, I think it’s ending in the best possible way. My ex and I are still on friendly terms, and I don’t think either of us has any hard feelings.
I’ll get to see some of my old work friends, too, over the weekend. I miss those guys. When I was working with them, I felt a real sense of belonging and cooperation; we really believed in the product and the company, and each other. Plus I miss the Half-Life fragfests.
I also plan to visit Ground Zero this trip. I haven’t been since September 7, 2001, when I grabbed a slice of pizza on Liberty Place before spending my last weekend as a quasi- New Yorker. I don’t quite know why I want to see it; normally you revisit a place and it reminds you of the past, but the absence of World Trade can’t bolster my memory, they’re in conflict. Maybe there’s still some small part of me that doesn’t really believe it’s gone. Maybe on some level I think it’ll provide some answer or explanation, just because there don’t seem to be any anywhere else. Maybe I’m just curious. Or maybe it’s just nostalgia digging its heels against the push of time.
I hope you have a good time!
Now, what on earth is a “Half-Life fragfest”?
frag /frg/ Slang. n. a successful kill of another player’s avatar in a multiuser game. “I hold the office Quake record with 40 frags.”
I think this is probably a corruption of the term, actually; it should refer specifically to an explosive death, such as would be caused by fragmentary grenade.
Half-Life is an excellent first-person shooter by Sierra. We used to play it in deathmatch mode, in which the players run around a confined space trying to kill each other as often as possible.