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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Stupid jet-lag. I thought I had it all sorted out, but I woke up at 4am today and I can't get back to sleep. It took me almost two weeks to get sleep sorted out in Japan; I suppose it'll take about the same back here. Before I type more about our trip, here's something different: thoughts on War and Peace, and the Nintendo DS.

War and Peace

I had a great time reading the last half of Ulysses while on our trip to England a few years ago. Lots of plane and train travel means lots of reading time, and it's a great end to a vacation/trip day to read some nice good work of fiction. I thought I'd try and so something similar in Japan, so I picked up a new translation of War and Peace.

I've always wanted to try reading it, but it just looked so daunting. Even in small print, it runs to almost 1400 pages. And the other Tolstoy novel I've read (Anna Karenina) took me several months to finish - the second time I recently tried re-reading it, I only got half way through.

I'm only half way through War and Peace after our trip, but I feel it's much more likely I'll finish it than Anna Karenina. I've never read a more epic (in several senses of the word) novel than this one. There are dozens of plotlines, in spans many, many years, and it covers, as the title suggests, events in both war and peace time. The inter-weaving of characters and their stories is masterfully handled. As in Anna Karenina, the author finds ways for every major character to react to every other major character; here, however, because of the nature of the story and length of time it spans, it feels less forced. As compared to Anna Karenina, the novel has a wider range of situations. In Anna Karenina, the action is mostly about who loves whom and why; here, romantic relationships are a major part of the stories, but so too are plotlines about dealing with wealth, terror and courage in war, politicians and courts, and historical figures. It is as if Tolstoy wanted to write the definitive novel about everything he knew.

As compared with Anna Karenina (it seems almost impossible not to compare the two, there's nothing else in literature quite like these two novels), the novel is, as a result of all these plotlines, less focused. It can be easy to get confused about the differences between characters, and trying to remember events that happened to them 400 pages ago. No doubt this is why Tolstoy decided to be more focused for Anna Karenina.

Nintendo DS

From high-brow to low-brow culture in a paragraph. With all this talk lately about all the new-fangled consoles coming out, I'd been trying to decide which one (if any) I'd like to own. The answer, of course, was the Nintendo DS, which isn't even considered next-generation.

Why the DS? The reason, as it usually does with consoles, comes down to games. How many games does the system have that I'd like to play? After looking at each of the consoles, none of them seemed to have a large number of compelling games. But then I started remembering all the fascinatingly quirky DS games I'd been reading about. And then I remembered all the interesting Game Boy Advance games (which the DS can emulate) I'd also heard about. The other major factor was the price. The system was $150 - a Wii is about $250, X-Box 360 about $300, and PS3 about $600. Also, the games are cheaper - new ones top out at $40, while new console games go for at least $60. The choice seemed clear.

So I picked up a lovely Coral Pink DS, along with New SMB, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Brain Training (for a mere total of $250). After a couple of days with it, I'm quite pleased, and have learned something: the DS really is the next generation system, not the 3 big consoles. To explain this, I'll relate a story. When I got home with the purchases, I made sure the games all worked, then handed it off to M while I made a sandwich (I was starving). She loaded up Brain Training, as this was something she really wanted to try. After a couple of minutes, I heard her talking, and asked what was going on. She replied that she was playing the game. I didn't understand. I came over to see. The first thing the game does is test your "brain age" by making you do the test where it shows a word with a colour, and you have to say the colour. (The catch, of course, is that the words themselves are colours, so you'll get for example Red coloured black and have to say black, not red). M was actually saying the colour, out loud, and the little DS heard this, intepretated it, and verified if she was correct.

I was astonished. I had no idea it did such a thing. The next thing I knew, M was drawing with the stylus on one of the screens, and the DS was reading the words and numbers she wrote (not with total accuracy, it must be said). Again, I was astonished. Then I read the system also has wi-fi capabilities. All these of things together is a great idea, and when used, the DS actually feels like something new - as compared to the consoles (even the Wii - the movement controls there feel a bit floaty) which really just have prettier graphics.

I should mention one other reason I went with the DS - always go with the system which has the next Dragon Quest. That, along with the fact that the DS has an incredible subscriber base, ensures a bright future.
Comments:
Wow -- I hadn't realized that the DS really was so advanced. Even I (with my limited time and inability to focus on games) could get into a DS I think. Also, I love that you bought a Coral Pink one!

One day I'll read Anna Karenina and/or War and Peace. One day.
The three colours for the latest version of the DS were black, white and pink - black and white were just so boring!

I think you might like brain age. Also, check out this cool little music-making thingey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3v6npP8OZk
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