| wow, it's christmas |
[25 Dec 2009|12:57am] |
i think this is the first christmas eve i've spent in san francsico and only the second in california (it's my 9th since i moved here in 2000.) usually, i'm already home by now or at least arriving this evening. but this year i am not going to visit my parents. i am going to visit my ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lostncove. and since we're not religious, and today was not a free day off in gamasutra-land, i stayed home and am flying out tomorrow (wish, pray, or hope for me -- weather conditions in chicago look a fright.)
tonight, instead of flying to pennsylvania, i had a nice time hanging out with the convalescent franken_bear and his hubby 50poundnote, sftekbear and blakes_7. we ate snacks and chatted under the warm glow of christmas lights. that's how i like my christmas eve -- low key and chatty.
adult life. i really feel like 2009 is the year of my adult life really beginning. it's peculiar to be coming at it so late, but as i've said before, i think it's also kind of typical these days, or at least in my circle of friends and acquaintances.
whew. all packed and ready to go tomorrow AM. i'm so excited.
and i'm 8.5 hrs into final fantasy XIII. i think i might try to bang something about it out on the plane or during my layover tomorrow, but right now i just don't have the energy. i'm all squirrely with anticipation of what's going on tomorrow as well.
whoever and wherever you are, merry christmas.
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| deck the halls |
[24 Dec 2009|10:03pm] |
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WITH FINAL FANTASY FUCKING THIRTEEN
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| forza and qore |
[24 Dec 2009|09:55pm] |
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i have download codes for some forza 3 DLC and a qore episode. i don't want either. anybody out there want them?
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| Merry Xmas |
[24 Dec 2009|06:24pm] |
Spent it getting ready for tomorrow. Looked up bad tattoos and watching AVGN.
Gonna go play SF2 pinball, watch British comedy and just chill the fuck out in the comfort of home.
Edit: P.S why do some people think they can get away with calling a mod a dickhead? Let alone when the forum in question is SRK? Banning an asshole is like the cherry on my x-mas eve cake.
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| Invisible War |
[24 Dec 2009|03:32pm] |
Man, I am not feeling this game at all. 30 minutes in and I'm debating on just shelving it. Levels are too small and claustrophobic (I seriously thing the reworked PS2 version of Deus Ex had larger level chunks), the load times still suck 6+ years after release, and the interface is just shit. Managing your inventory/mods/whatever is a total unintuitive mess.
The more I think of it, the less I want to play. What a colossal disappointment of a game compared to the first one and it comes as no surprise that Harvey Smith, after botching this project, has had trouble getting back into the mix. I mean, between blowing this, running Area 51 into the ground and then shittalking his employer.
I really hope Deus Ex 3 doesn't suck.
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| the horrible conundrum |
[24 Dec 2009|11:45am] |
feeling "why am i here today" about being at work on christmas eve does nothing to reduce your workload, and sitting here in a mixture of torpor, self-pity, apathy, and annoyance and not doing work doesn't help anybody get home and play final fantasy 13
must remember!
also THIS
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| most accurate review of lady gaga in 2009? |
[24 Dec 2009|11:00am] |
thanks, WBC.
seriously, these people are complete nutjobs, as we all know, but i have to say, i do agree with this statement about lady gaga: "as much as she'd like to pretend otherwise, there's nothing new or different about the hussy's pretentious prancing." i don't think i could have put it better myself.
via philbutrin
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| more framed pics |
[24 Dec 2009|12:34am] |
you've already probably seen my framed rockman box which was both the most special item in my framing set and the one that came out the best.
well, yesterday i got two more of my framed items back from michaels: a ma vie en rose poster and a tokyo subway map (that's still wrapped in brown paper.) i hung the ma vie en rose poster tonight alongside the evangelion poster i got back the same time as the rockman box.
you can see a bigger pic of the two posters here.
both of these films are very special to me, for very different reasons. i'm in love with the frame job for the ma vie en rose now that it's been fixed; the photo just does not do the silver wooden frame justice. it's beautiful.
the eva frame i am not thrilled with, as the words just run so close to the edge. if i had been warned about that i would not have allowed them to frame it like that but instead gotten it framed with some margin, or matted. but it's not so bad that i am barfing, and i am certainly too sick of them to take it back and try to argue into getting it redone. but it's okay.
love the poster, and that's what matters.
the ma vie en rose poster, i bought off of yahoo auctions (the US one. remember that?) in 2000 right before i moved to CA. i never hung it, always intending to get it framed. and i'm glad i waited till i could afford to. i have some other posters i did hang, and more or less ruined, and i now regret it... some, i even threw away, because they were so damaged. but this is pristine.
on the other hand, i got the eva poster off of yahoo auctions japan with help from johntv some time ago -- like 2001. thanks, john.
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| the song retains the name |
[24 Dec 2009|11:45am] |
| [ |
music |
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The Song Remains the Same - Dread Zeppelin |
] |
Sometimes I'm stunned by how much music affects my mood. I've got a whopping plateful of bugs and emails to respond to, and I was feeling the need for a cuppa joe, which I've prepared -- but more than caffeine, sitting down and having DREAD ZEPPELIN playing is energizing me to get through all this today! Their reggae-Elvis stylings of classic Led Zep songs never fail to bring joy.
Plus, Tortelvis cuts the same august figure as Santa. Ho-ho-ho.
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| it's such a mystery, she said to me |
[23 Dec 2009|05:29pm] |
today is just not going as planned. i wanted to come to work and kick ass, and instead came to work and got distracted and now it's 5:30 and i have gotten done not nearly what i had intended at first. when i look at what's left for me to do tomorrow, i realize: there's no way i can leave now. so i'm going to have some tea and get the fuck back to it.
i'm not going to get to play much FF13 before i have to leave for MI. while there's absolutely no contest between randy and FF13, it's frustrating. i think it probably would have, in retrospect, been worth the fucking $140 to get it last friday. harrumph. i'd say that's a lesson learned, but i have a hard time believing i will ever be put in a similar position. unless they decide to make phantasy star V.
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| zzzz |
[23 Dec 2009|01:10am] |
not much time for FF13 tonight. so far, it's conclusively gorgeous, and i like the pace. gameplay systems are still building as for 4 hrs, but that's as it should be (for the most part.) not minding that it's not all lumped on you at once.
ended up going to michaels and getting the pics. there's a small fuckup on the mat for one, but it's otherwise perfect, and i am just gonna cut my losses and run. the other looks ideal now.
overall i'd never recommend this place. maybe other locations are okay, but stay away from the one in colma.
the guy who runs the department is called dana. he seems like a nice guy, and he's pretty timid. i think i actually intimidated him when i chewed him out on the phone a couple of months back when he was giving me guff over the mat for my rockman box (this being after i'd already clearly spelled out what i wanted to someone else on the phone but somehow they never communicated that info to him. this also being two months after i took it in.)
anyway, when i picked up the pictures today, i was reminded that manipulating people is fun. dana wasn't there, but to the college kid who was, i said, "bet dana's glad to be done with me." kid laughed too enthusiastically, confirming my suspicion. i mean, it's funny: i'm the annoyed customer and i deserve to be, but to those guys i'm an annoying customer. well, tough shit.
i'm only 90% happy with one and about 80% with another, and two are perfect. but at this point i think a better idea is just getting on with my fucking life. michaels can fucking suck it.
bedtime. past bedtime. tomorrow is the "get everything the fuck done day" so i can be out of the office all next week. ya-ho.
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| I'm in JRPG Heaven |
[23 Dec 2009|08:04am] |
Enjoying two of the biggest JRPG franchises all at once! Both are really fine entries in their respective series. That's all I can say for now.
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| of interest (but not immediate interest, mind you) |
[23 Dec 2009|02:35pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 nervous |
] |
| [ |
music |
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Deep in the Horchada - Death Vessel |
] |
Report: US industry employment count rises marginally // News: Employment within the US games sector has risen slightly on last year thanks to the opening of a number of new games studios dedicated to social and online gaming, research has found.
A census of North American gaming companies found that employee numbers have risen from 44,400 in 2008, to 44,806 in the US. Of that small rise, many come from an unusually large number of new studios, particularly social and online ones, which have sprung up to counterbalance the closures felt throughout the rest of the industry.
Meanwhile Canadian companies have seen "explosive" growth throughout the year, said the report, with the establishment of new studios and the expansions of existing ones contributing to a 30 per cent increase - to 12,480 - in the region's employee count.
The findings come from the third annual Game Developer Census compiled by Game Developer Research.
California remained North America's heavyweight area, with 20,815 developers employed there (46 per cent of the US total). Washington was the second most popular with 4500 employees, and Texas third with over 2600.
However, anecdotal evidence uncovered by the research indicated American game development was becoming less clustered around urban centres.
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| steam Xmas sales like mad |
[22 Dec 2009|09:59pm] |
shit is ultra cheap on steam.
of note:
- braid for $2.50. get it if you've never played it. the PC isnt the best place for it, but... fuck. come on. $2.50.
- mirrors edge for $5.
- stalker for $2.
- pretty much everything ever put on steam by eidos, for $50 total for the whole package.
also, roushi pointed out: http://www.gog.com/en/page/xmas09
shitloads of good games on there, also ultra cheap for Xmas.
ho ho ho.
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| Stalker for $2! |
[22 Dec 2009|07:49pm] |
My god. The Steam and GOG sales going on right now are fucking. Insane.
I'm serious, do not visit either page. Do not do it right this instant. You will buy and you will buy a lot. The deals are flowing like water, baby.
STALKER is $2 on Steam right now. Mirror's Edge is $5. Unreal Collection is like $13. The entire Telltale catalog for $50 (75% off). The Witcher for $13. Indigo Prophecy for $3.
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| frames |
[22 Dec 2009|11:17am] |
well! my items are done at michaels. i'll be going in, i guess, tonight, to pick them up.
good news is that michaels is open till 11 cos it's xmas shopping season.
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| It's Monday: All's of yah's |
[21 Dec 2009|06:10pm] |
Had a friend over from pinball league help me diagnose the issues on my SF2 pinball. It's now in playable condition. It was mostly fuses, which was embarrassing. I swore up and down that I changed all the fuses after putting the machine back together. Yet for some reason, changing them again fixed most of the issues. Now I just need to check the Chun-Li flipper motor to see if it is burned out (it is supposed to spin a flipper during gameplay), check why the car crush mode doesn't work, check why my boards still boot up garbage (temp fix is to hit reset on the board, which lets you go into the game normally) and tweak some flippers (they feel spongey...and the left one isn't properly positioned).
Today I finished gift shopping, with what little I could use for cash. Yay!
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| omg |
[21 Dec 2009|05:13pm] |
that has to be one of the best albums of the 2000s. i am listening to it now! it's been far too long. i adore this woman.
i am not going to do some dumb pitchfork countdown of what's awesome. but it might be fun to try to figure something out. hmm. i like recommending good shit. it beats complaining about bad shit. i really think so!
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| neurosis update |
[21 Dec 2009|04:15pm] |
as bear_with_me noted, i have a tendency to really overanalyze things. so i am going to strip down to just the most obvious thing.
FF13 is my most anticipated game since i was a teenager. i don't want games like i have wanted this one anymore. i have not cared this much about a game release in years. seriously: i think the last game i can think of wanting this much was final fantasy VI in 1994. and i am just not used to this kind of fanboyish mentality since i have both matured and become jaded, and it is driving me nuts. not just because i'm like OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG whenever i stop to think about it, but also because i now think i should have grown out of this shit.
i have realized i have become very repressive of my feelings and i am wondering why and i need to fucking stop because it just adds a second layer of neurosis.
anyway, there's other stuff going on, sure, and it's also driving me crazy, but i need to just let myself ride this ridiculous fucking white water raft through the fanboy canyons. it's been EIGHT FUCKING YEARS since the last FF game like this. it's been FOUR AND A HALF since this fucker was revealed at E3 2005.
i tried to play dragon age yesterday and while there was nothing wrong with it, i just couldn't care. FF13 FF13 FF13 FF13 FF13
i mean this may be the ONLY intellectually honest way i can describe how i am feeling right now:
squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
for serious.
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| grumble |
[21 Dec 2009|12:28am] |
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so my macbook has been crashing more frequently lately. today i finally did the apple diagnostic (fast and extended, both) and found no problems. good thing that the RAM is okay, i guess, but boo toward this stupid computer for crashing. i guess i'll make a genius bar appointment in the new year. but from what i hear, i don't expect much. well, one step at a time.
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| okay |
[20 Dec 2009|04:40pm] |
even that last post was pretty inadequate.
i think what pushed me over the edge totally into needing my own place from just being sure i wanted my own place was going to andrewv's place in orange county last weekend and seeing what you can do when you create your own space deliberately.
i really did love having my own 1BR in orange county. but i've been living in SF for awhile and became acclimated. vestal's place not just reminded me what it's like to have your own space in terms of privacy but also in what you can do with your own intention -- it's your place, no compromise.
berkeley seems like a nice place to be because it's convenient, less city than the city, yet still culturally relevant and full of fantastic food options. really, all i care about is restaurants and supermarkets, i think, in my general vicinity. and a target.
i just did a little more browsing at SF places on craigslist and the inner richmond seems like it's moved into possibility space rentwise (i've always liked the neighborhood) and the castro is just not plausible.
but it seems like in berkeley i might be even able to get a 2BR with parking, which would be pretty amazing as i could set up a study/office in one of the bedrooms, a bedroom in the other, and have a true living room for entertainment (both for myself and others.)
that sounds like a pretty fucking rad dream to me...
anyway, i'll be pondering and looking at places. i am in no major rush as my living situation here is totally stable, so i don't see why i can't be choosy and see what all there is on offer.
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| my last post |
[20 Dec 2009|03:52pm] |
there is a reason i posted that poll, of course. it wasn't context-free. blakes_7 complained that it was impossible to vote without knowing the details, but i consider that too conscientious. i am not going to offer my fate to an lj poll.
one thing that i have decided is that i am definitely going to be looking for a new apartment in the new year. i've been in this place nearly five years, i'm sick of coming home to roommates, and i'm tired of the fact that nobody (including me) has any desire to make the public areas livable because we're not friends -- so i have to live in my room. since i already live in my room, which is crammed full of my (pretty much) everything, i might as well look for something more workable for just me.
the reasons i am considering berkeley include:
- cheaper rent
- change of scenery
- easier access to east bay friends
- work is convenient to bart
there are cons, of course:
- more difficult to see my SF friends
- more likely to become a recluse without impromptu SF friend access
- harder for SF partying (bart stops around midnight; can't drink if i intend to drive)
of course some of these can be mitigated (i.e., i can crash with friends after party nights.)
anyway, i've not made up my mind.
i was just about to go to look at SF cragislist ads but someone has apparently spammed it with fake ads today and they're gumming up the works completely. awesome. finding a decently priced 1BR place in a neighborhood that makes commuting possible in a reasonable timeframe and has parking is not trivial. street parking is just a nightmare pretty much everywhere in the city and i know for a fact it's not something i could put up with outside of a few select areas.
so yeah. i haven't fully thought it through, but i am tired of this apartment on a number of levels. i am really starting to hate having roommates and it's stressing me out. it's also stressing me out because (surprise) i feel guilty about hating having roommates because they're nice people. i just need to get away from all of that bullshit. i don't like my commute, i don't like my apartment anymore, and i don't like the living situation. it's time to move on.
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| Best of this year |
[20 Dec 2009|11:53pm] |
Best movies I saw this year
1. Inglorious Basterds
2. District 9
3. Michael Jackson's This Is It
4. Ip-man - technically came out Dec 2008 but whatever
5. Ikigami - I was surprised by this because I read the manga and thought it was great, and the movie was actually just as good to me. Again, 2009 release but whatever
Other than these I watched GI Joe, Transformers 2 and some other movies, but while they're great popcorn flicks they didn't really impress me that much.
I don't watch a lot of TV shows nowadays because Japanese TV generally sucks and there are no series worth following on there, so I have to follow shows via torrents usually. :/ Soooo the only shows I've been watching are Dexter (bloody AMAZING), Modern Family (also amazing!), Glee (sometimes good, sometimes omg awesome) and WWE, heh. Anyway!
Top 10 Games (only completed games)
1. Uncharted 2
2. Dragon Quest 4 (US version)
3. Street Fighter 4
4. Assassin's Creed 2
5. Saints Row 2 - On the last mission, so technically this is as good as done. :P
6. Red Faction - I have not finished this but by god it's amazing.
7. GTA: Chinatown Wars
8. Dragon Quest 9
9. Batman: Arkham Aslyum
10. The World Ends With You (US version)
There were some other games I really wanted to put on here, such as Dragon Age, Killzone 2 and Bayonetta, but I really wanted to just put games that I finished on this list, and not stuff that I stopped midway or I simply haven't finished yet. I only broke this rule with Red Faction because it impressed me so much that I can't really look at another open-world game now unless it has something awesome like Geomod implemented into it. And yes, some of those games are from 2008, but I was slow and only got them this year. :P Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and feed ma bairn!
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| this city |
[20 Dec 2009|01:14am] |
Poll #1501235
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12should i move to berkeley
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| White Elephant 2009 |
[19 Dec 2009|07:41pm] |
I participated in the White Elephant on Shacknews this year (first time doing so since 2006) and I was more than a little nervous about it. On one hand, was the person I was giving free stuff to going to dig what I sent their way? On the other hand, what the sweet hell was I going to get in my mailbox? How was I going to do a writeup of whatever I got? If I got some really thoughtful, cool stuff, how was I going to do justice to the sender with a rambling writeup that everyone was just going to click past?
My solution was to make a slideshow, and it seems like people really enjoyed reading it. Thank god, because it took like an hour and a half to shoot with the cats constantly deciding that the toys belonged to them and that they were going to go play under the bed. Armorhide is still fearful of the siamese cat of death.
Tons of really, really awesome stuff in the haul and I'm exceedingly thankful to Dahanese for the goods. Likewise I had a ton of fun building a box for Deathlove and was happy to know that he was able to give a good home to the stuff I had festering in the garage.
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| today's dilemma |
[19 Dec 2009|03:37pm] |
i was just at the post office mailing off some packages in what is probably the worst possible saturday for shipping stuff of the entire year, i'd guess.
i got in line for the APC (automated postal center -- a self-serve postage machine that is pretty damn efficient. it has a built in scale, ATM pad, prints stickers for you, etc. a one-stop shop for mailing packages.)
at the machine when i got there was a middle aged woman with her husband, using the machine very slowly. i can mail four packages on the thing in about a minute and a half, probably. she took about 5 minutes per package.
behind me was a later-30s guy, probably gay, kind of a yuppie.
in front of me was a young father (probably my age) with his toddler son.
in front of him was a straight couple (again, probably about my age.)
in front of them was a guy, again, around my age. he was smirking and even chuckling to himself every time the woman made a mistake.
the woman got to her fourth package after maybe 15 minutes and suddenly couldn't get the magstripe reader to take her card (after doing it right 3 times prior.) she ended up canceling out.
at this point i lost my patience and shouted out, which is one of my major weaknesses when i'm stuck in this kind of situation. i said "please select 'yes' and try again" (the prompt on the screen says "would you like to try an alternate method of payment?" or something like that.) i said it because she would have to start over if she picked no.
she pushed no, of course, and then it offered to print her out some "reminder" of how much it would cost to mail her package, i guess something you can take with you so you know how much money to bring next time or something.
at this point is when i lost my patience for real, and shouted "oh, no, now you're going to have to go to the front!" she'd made some comment to her husband about having to go mail it with the front (huge huge line to use the actual post office window.)
as she was starting the process for package number four over again from scratch, the man in front of me looked at the line of patrons heading for the manned windows and said "i would have been at the front by now," to me. i made a noncommittal noise, and he said "the people who were at the back when i got here are at the front now."
hmm.
so the woman is struggling with the machine. the guy behind her is just about cackling to himself. the young couple is just standing there, the dude laughing at the toddler's antics and the woman totally nonresponsive.
the middle aged woman is struggling with the APC. she's back to the card reading part and totally confused. it's not taking her card. she quits. she stands there and makes some protestations to nobody in particular.
i mime reaching out and grasping the machine and making it work with my hands. the guy behind me laughs.
she asks her husband to help her with the machine. he says "honey, i don't know how to use it." he's not even standing with her -- he's leaning on a counter about 5 feet away.
at this point i look at everybody in front of me in line. the woman isn't going anywhere. she's defeated. but she's not moving. she's complaining -- about the machine? to the machine? they're all just standing there. i'm thinking, "is nobody going to help this woman?"
so i walk past these people and go to the machine and say, "would you like me to help you?"
she says yes, and i quickly mail her package for her. she's amazed because i put in her husband's debit card at the right angle and take it out quickly rather than leaving it in. you know, how you use an ATM.
i get them out of there fast, and head back to my spot in line. the guy behind me thanks and congratulates me.
as she's walking away from the machine, the woman is really pointedly saying things like "i didn't know you should take the card out so fast when you put it in... it took the card the first three times but not the last time." her husband is still putting on stickers and dumping packages into the mail bin. at this point, she's dying of embarrassment. we're all still there and she's stuck. and she says, "i fucking hate christmas!"
i feel really bad. what she hates is being dragged out of her comfort zone, thrust into the miserable world of the post office. and she regrets using the machine, which got the better of her. she's really embarrassed. they leave.
this is happening while the next guy uses the machine. he gets done in seconds, and when he's putting his label on his box, the father says, "what took you so long?" and dude makes a joke. then the dude looks and me and says, "thanks. you're doing god's work, helping someone out like that at christmas." it's a weird mix of a sincere thank you and a cynical joke about the god's work thing. at this point i'm just stewing in my own embarrassment about heckling the woman so i say, "yeah, whatever, thanks."
i get my packages mailed and leave. i walk out of the post office and up to the upper level of the shopping plaza to go buy lunch. and i am fucking mortified at myself for heckling this woman. i am second guessing my entire motivation for helping her -- it was just to get the line moving.
i am not a nice person. i am a bad person. i helped embarrass this lady everybody else just saw as an obstruction but was prepared to quietly endure. she did something she probably should not have done (engaged technology) and lost. it was super inconvenient for the rest of us. but i am also the only one who felt empathy towards her confusion and embarrassment. but i was also the worst to her -- i heckled her. i was also the kindest -- i helped her. even her husband wouldn't try.
am i jerk or am i a nice person? i am both.
mostly posting this anecdote to illustrate how fucking neurotic i am. life! in the city!
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| haha |
[19 Dec 2009|02:27am] |
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addendum to my last post: then you catch up on twitter and you hate humanity again. FYI.
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| life is weird |
[19 Dec 2009|02:06am] |
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just when you think it's a pointless grind, you can really have your faith in life affirmed. i'll never figure it out.
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| augh |
[18 Dec 2009|02:30pm] |
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my mood has devolved to totally rotten and uninvolved by the end of this week. i need my break. i need my boyfriend. get me out of here.
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| change? |
[18 Dec 2009|01:24pm] |
so. larry got a job. he'll be heading to the ukraine in a month.
this is not the afghanistan job, which would have meant huge piles of $$$. this is just a reasonable job, with reasonable $.
what does this mean? i have no idea quite yet. i might be moving back to MD. i might bring the crib with me. we shall see.
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| I'm a nerd |
[18 Dec 2009|12:02am] |
Gunbird 2 remake? Neat-o! *straightens taped glasses and snorts*: it isn't a side scroller Kotaku.
Got back from pinball league. Fuck. I really need to finish a pinball write up. F-14 Tomcat is addicting as hell. Even with the cheesy jet, cold war theme.
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| the nature of RPGs |
[17 Dec 2009|02:52pm] |
i am on this week's active time babble podcast (direct mp3 link) discussing the very nature of RPGs -- what makes an RPG an RPG, what is and isn't an RPG, etc. also nerdy little bits about telenet and some etrian odyssey stuff i don't have much to say about but which may well interest you, since jeremy and kat do!
this is the new-ish 1UP RPG podcast, for those who haven't been paying attention.
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| Four hours into Final Fantasy XIII.... |
[18 Dec 2009|01:52am] |
Hope is like, everything every non-JRPG fan thinks a JRPG protagonist is, for real. Oh my god the moment that dude appeared on screen I wanted to strangle him. SO annoying and so hopeless. Yes, pun intended. The sad thing is that he'll probably turn out to be the guy with the best debuff/buff system in the game (he starts off with Enhancer and Healer classes), so if you wanna get creative in battles you're going to need him. :( Vanille is way too bubble gum cute for her own good. Overall I like her design but holy jesus she's oblivious to everything happening around her. I certainly hope there's a good explanation for this! Oh yeah, and yeah, she totally looks like Mari Yaguchi. I can't even unsee this shit! Sazh is faaaantastic. Really liking his character. I thought he was gonna be all stereotypical black dude because of his animations and design but he's turning out to be a good character. Let's see if this holds up! Lightning is somewhere in the middle because she's the typical stoic character but she's pretty feisty and has some sass to her. She's already punched the fuck outta Snow on two separate occassions! Speaking of Snow... he's way cheesy but not nearly as bad as Hope. He's probably second worst in the game for me now though. I saw Fang briefly in a couple of cutscenes but can't really comment on her. I really like her design though. After Lightning she's got my favorite character design in the whole game. The story is just getting started so I can't really comment on it, but the actual dialogue is kind of hit or miss to me. There are some scenes that turn out to be pretty good but some are borderline mediocre. I haven't run into anything amazingly bad but I'm sure Square won't let me down. :P Battle system is pretty fantastic right now. It's a lot faster than FFX-2 which was pretty god damn fast for a turn-based RPG. You gotta keep careful attention to your stats in this one because there's shit flying all over the place and party members and enemies are attacking at the same time and countering each other, so it can be very hectic, but it's really fun. The level up system is pretty good too, although because it's rendered in 3D it's a fucking pain in the ass to properly select your power-up sometime. Luckily I haven't fubared a power up yet. Let's hope it stays that way! Graphics are amazing and the cg scenes are great too, albeit with a lot of overacting with some of the characters. I also don't like how static everything is, it makes it feel very last gen to me. Also... the game pulls a major FFX with a lot of linear paths, so linear in fact it makes me wonder why there's even a mini-map to tell you where the fuck to go lol. Lastly, one thing I don't particularly like is the fact that save points AND auto-heal after battles exist in the game. It makes about zero sense to include both because traditionally save points are there to make dungeons/areas challenging. They're supposed to shout out to you "proceed at your own risk, because if you get owned you're getting sent back here!" With the auto-heal after battle, the threat of actually dying and restarting is much less... oh yea, did I mention that if you fall in battle, you can just retry anyway? Square would have been better off just going with a checkpoint system or quick save option instead of the traditional save spots for this game. So yeah... there are quite a few negatives I have with the game right now but I'm still having a lot of fun with it. Killing stuff in this game is a lot of fun with the battle system so I can see myself really enjoying it till the end! |
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| sigh |
[16 Dec 2009|10:16pm] |
rifftrax fail. the feed was fucked up -- it looks like they just record it with a dish network DVR and for some reason it crapped out -- so we got kicked out after 30 minutes / refunded. woot.
today has been largely fail-oriented.
did i mention i have work to do still?
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| Recently... |
[16 Dec 2009|05:35pm] |
- I don't think I've ever agreed with a Yahtzee review quite as much as the Demon's Souls review:
- Completed Vice City. Shame the last 10% or so of the game totally drags out to be as long as the previous 85-90% combined and that it so totally kills the fun that was had beforehand.
- San Andreas is fucking wonderful. Like, holy crap Batman, that game was amazing. Not perfect by a long shot, but it damn well blew my mind and I wish that there was a San Andreas Stories companion piece. Lots of great characters, tons of awesome in-jokes and late 80s/early 90s pop culture references. It blows my mind how massive the game world really was and even after I beat it (~27hrs!) I went back and played around some more, stealing the passenger aircraft, assaulting the military bases, strafing las venturas in my harrier, jumping dirt bikes off of the mountain top, etc. Just so damn much fun to be had.
- Played through Uncharted! Encounter design was pretty shitty (oh look, a giant room! I wonder how many waves of enemies I get to fight now?), but everything else was so good that it made up for it. Somehow sunk in 8 1/2 hours over a two day weekend, something I almost never get to do for a game (let alone so effortlessly).
- Started playing Uncharted 2. Improves on the first in every way possible; manages to provide a more cinematic experience (not just in the cutscenes, but in the camera work during normal gameplay) and a far better cutscene:gameplay ratio than Metal Gear Solid 4. Only about 4 1/2 hours in or so, but I'm really, really digging the hell out of it.
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| ... |
[15 Dec 2009|08:40pm] |
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i had two vodkas at the mass effect 2 party and i am too drunk to do anything but too sober to not be bored. hmm.
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| Vangelis Runner |
[15 Dec 2009|07:13pm] |
It's hard to call anything an "all-time favorite", but Blade Runner is so good in so many ways. The mediocre street detective is one of young Harrison Ford's best performances. Definitely his deepest until he becomes old Harrison Ford and is The Fugitive or the guy that works in the CIA...Secret Service...whatever he was in those terrorist movies. Yeah, yeah Indiana Jones. Blah, blah Han Solo.
I didn't mean to spin off about Harrison Ford.
I've raved about the set design, costumes and lighting before. Lighting. Holy shit when is the last time you've seen any film lit like this? What happened to noir lighting? Where the fuck did it go? It isn't static either. It's timed. Moving. It's an actor hitting it's spot while the other cast members hit theirs. Shadows upstaging not to steal, but to compliment.
The story and it's messages have been copied by lesser men. It doesn't follow very closely, at all, with the book. People get ass rash over this. I think it makes the film stronger and not wind up heavily tied down by something that worked in another medium.
You know. I have the Blu-Ray version yet I haven't watched it. I gotta get in the mood to watch it. I didn't mean to spin off about the movie either.
What I am eventually getting to is the soundtrack. It's no Ennio Morricone. Speaking of, the only scene you need to see from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is this marriage of Ennio sound with Sergio imagery:
That's the point in the movie where you tell everyone in the room to shut the fuck up. It's the film's most important, well crafted cinematic climax and it never fails that someone has to fucking talk or ask questions during it. No! Clint Eastwood is not trying to kill him. No! He is looking for the grave with the buried treasure. Have you even been paying attention to the first two hours? No! This is not boring. No! The gunfight that follows isn't the climax! This is the climax! Get out of my god damn house and take your copy of Mean Girls with you!
I didn't mean to spin off about Ennio Morricone.
Blade Runner's Vangelis alone isn't Morricone. Vangelis with Scott, however, is almost everything great that Morricone had with Leone.
I got in the mood to try and find the Blade Runner soundtrack today. It winds up that it is actually very nearly impossible, as this interesting Youtube video describes. This is kind of the climax of the post I was working towards.
Who needs discs, however, when Youtube is right there. Yeah, poor quality audio I am sure. I'm sorry audiophiles.
P.S. The only part of the Blade Runner soundtrack...actually, of Blade Runner period, that I don't like is the end credits music. It's like someone backed into a mountain of tin pots, which disturbed a bull that was sleeping in the china shop. I'm not calling it "bad", it's just incredibly contrast from everything else. KAPLOW! PEW! PEW! KABONG! KLANG!
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| film fest update |
[15 Dec 2009|03:32pm] |
unfortunately, theres a deal going on with a distributor, they're trying to sell a 'best of' DVD... and nobody is allowed to post anything. not for a long time. we're assuming we'll be on the DVD, which means as long as its selling, we're not allowed to give it away for free. :P
update direct from kevin: http://www.crisislab.com
so... if anyone wants to see it.. you'll have to find me in person sometime, and i can show it to you.
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| current |
[13 Dec 2009|10:55pm] |
a pic from the christmas party on friday. putting it up because
(a) haven't posted a recent pic with
(1) current hair length (really like it)
(2) current beard length (ditto)
(b) haven't posted many pics period of me in a suit
(c) haven't posted many pics of me smiling recently =P
people have been commenting on my hair and beard a lot -- mostly positive. however, i always suspect (half realism, half paranoia) that people wouldn't say anything with a negative opinion. did get one negative beard opinion, am discounting due to personal satisfaction.
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| what |
[11 Dec 2009|11:22pm] |
the irvine spectrum does not open till 11. what is that shit?
i mean, i'm not a morning person, but i might like to go to the mall before 11. really now.
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| so stupid shit (and maybe some smart shit) |
[11 Dec 2009|05:58pm] |
so today kotaku posted a really fucking stupid article written by a porn "star" (note: i have a feeling the word "star" is applied after the word "porn" with a similar regularity to how, at some point, anyone who has been in front of a camera became a "supermodel", but it's not like i'd know who the fuck this lady is, i mean, obviously) called five steps to total pwnage of a gamer girl's heart.
it's a stupid article whether it's serious or whether it's a joke. it's just vapid. it's unbelievably dated, too. it seems like something from the '90s.
leigh decided to pick it apart on sexy videogameland and i think that is a good thing. (note: brian DID NOT AGREE.) and then i decided to pick apart web publishing in the comments. (scroll down -- i left 3 4!) because really this dumb article probably says more about the nature of publishing to the web than i think it says about gamers.
without dismissing the notion that this article is pretty crass (while also, let me say, it's totally cool [ethically] that this girl has to make a living and she decided to do it this way, even if i find her approach to reality ridiculous) i think it's more indicative of the way things are going than the way that people seem to WANT them to go, that we'll all be smart and egalitarian and sit around talking about stuff like brain having humans. cos we ain't.
so yeah. thing. if you care about porn stars, or web editorial, or kotaku, or what i think about something (HA) then there you go!
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| It's Friday: Ranbat |
[11 Dec 2009|04:43pm] |
Going to Keystone tonight to play in some Ranbats. Haven't been there for a couple months. Haven't really played Street Fighter, let alone IV. I plan on getting worked, but fuck it. Mainly going to interact and see if I can play Fei Long.
Stroke Guy btw. Amazingly, he hits every thing I hated about the new movies in the first video. He did some funny as hell Star Trek review movies as well...for those that have never seen him before.
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| did i forget to mention |
[11 Dec 2009|02:18pm] |
(a) that shitty car's cigarette lighter is broken so no GPS for me
(b) my hotel has a view of the taco bell corporate headquarters
yay
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| ORANGE |
[11 Dec 2009|01:39pm] |
i am in beautiful irvine california.
i drove to the wrong hotel first so it has taken me awhile to get situated.
i rented a terrible car (see above.) it handles like a boat.
i listened to KROQ and they played 311. i never understood how anybody liked 311 in the 90s and i do not understand it any better now. the lead singer has a voice like a dial tone.
i had lunch at the el torito near the old gamespy offices. nostalgia. sort of.
halp
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8 (66.7%)