The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

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Humor.

After I have an experience such as a birthday, which I have recently had this Wednesday, I tend to record my haul, partially because I am excited about it, and partially so I can say thank you for awesome in a public setting. I don’t know why this year would be any different, although I’ve been so busy it’s taken me a few days to write it up, as you can tell. So, without further ado, here’s my lovely haul for this year’s birthday!

Jonathan got me a Pokewalker! Uh, I mean, Pokemon Soul Silver. I’m much more excited about the Pokewalker. Can you tell? I’m probably going to write a review of just the Pokewalker soon! But no, this was exactly what I was wanting. It was kind of frustrating hearing everyone talk about it, but knowing I should hold off until my birthday for just this reason. I’ve got eggs from Spants so I have the exact Pokemin I want, and I’m rocking that Pokewalker all day. It’s great.

Shauna got me something… IN THE FUTURE. Apparently there’s a new Dominion expansion, called Alchemy, which is coming out in the next month. She has preordered this for me. This is awesome. I didn’t even know it existed until a bit ago, and now I am going to have it delivered to me. Dominion is still a fucking amazing card game, and I’m not tired of it yet. Bring on more expansions, I say!

Speaking of things in the future, my friends apparently ordered me something that I’ll be getting IN THE FUTURE as well. They did not tell me what it was in a crazy singing Pokemon card like Shauna did, though. Still, they have good taste. I’m sure it’ll be neat.

The parents hooked me up with both current Race for the Galaxy expansions, which I’m sure I will talk about my first time playtesting in a later blog. Short version: they’re pretty awesome. But my mom really had to jump through some hoops and bribe people to order things she knew nothing about it get me these, so I appreciate that. She also got me a copy of FFXIII on the Xbox 360. (Yeah, yeah, it’s supposedly the shittier version, but seriously, I don’t give a crap about visual fidelity. I’d rather have my achievements and useful friends list.) I have no idea when I am going to play the damn thing, but I am excited about doing it. FFXIII has really gotten me excited with its linear nature. I’m unsure I’ll enjoy the hand-holding tutorialness most of the way through, but we’ll see. I want to try.

And, of course, the parents and grandparents were nice enough to supply me with cold-hard cash. Enough that I could pay off my pretty new TV and my new lappy, respectively, which is very much appreciated. Since, you know, I use those all the damn time. Heh.

Oh! I was just going over the party at my house! I can’t forget people who gave me presents outside this setting. For example, Kale got me this completely awesome shirt a few weeks early for the birthday times. It’s awesome. I’ve been complimented about it quite a bit. Brer got me Kate Beaton’s Never Learn Anything From History book, which is sweet, due to the fact that Kate Beaton is fucking awesome.

Thanks to everyone who celebrated my birthday. I swear I got more birthday wishes and recognition for not dying for another year than I ever had before. Even my psychologist sang me happy birthday. It’s… great to be so loved. So fucking great. Thank you.

We had another night of Munchkin on Monday, and it was mostly good times. We played the original, which I picked up (which apparently made Shauna playfully angry, since she had suggested getting the game for me and Jonathan said that it wasn’t my kind of game) and I’m sure you’ll see a review of that tomorrow. Because it’s apparently Munchkin Week here at the bloeg. But for now I’m going to talk about something pointless, stupid, and depressing related to Munchkin. Ready? Okay.

I hate gender-based mechanics in casual games.

Okay, that description really doesn’t describe the phenomenon I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is casual games where game mechanics are based upon the player’s actual gender. This is normally done for funny joke time, to break the ice, or to give female players an advantage because the designers are assuming their boyfriends tricked them into playing or some shit.

Obviously, I’m a bit sensitive to such things. They put me in awkward situations.

Example from Monday. We were playing Cthulhu Munchkin again. I draw an early game Chibithulhu. I can easily beat it at the “male” difficulty, but at the “female” difficulty, I don’t have enough equipment. Everyone knows I have this card in my hand, due to a weird drawing snafu. If I am male, the right thing to do is to look for trouble, play Chibithulhu, take the extra treasure from being an Investigator, and level up. Everyone knows I have the card, and everyone knows I can kill it if this is the case. If I hold onto the card and don’t play it, I am, in their eyes, making an obvious play mistake.
This really, really, really bothers me for some reason. I try to learn rules and master them. I find that fun. I also don’t believe in playing at anything less than the best of your ability, as I find throwing the game only insults the people you’re playing with. (There are exceptions for humor value, of course, but in general, I feel this way.) I tried holding onto the card in reality. I didn’t play it for two turns. It drove me crazy. I didn’t want to seem like I was handicapping myself.
At the same time, I could have insisted I was female, I suppose. All but one person at the table I had had the talk with. That, however, seemed like I would be intentionally disrupting and ruining a fun night. We were all having a good time. Why should I be ruining it with my stupid bullshit?

I ended up playing the card, and asking for help to kill the monster. Everyone at the table complained. “What are you doing? You don’t need help to kill that.” I gave in, took my treasure, swallowed my feelings on the matter, and kept playing.

But it obviously bothered me enough to write a bloeg about it.

And that is why gender-based mechanics suck. The end.
Okay, I guess I didn’t actually prove that. Just that I hate them. I understand why they exist, and I think that’s a fine thing. Nothing wrong with breaking the ice in such games. But dammit, it’s stupidly hard. Annoying. Yes.

And that’s it for that rant. Stay tuned for more stupidity.

Yay for me.

It’s another time passing marker. I get presents for not dying. I’m down with that, I guess. And at least, this time around, I can’t say I’ve sat on my laurels. Look at all the shit I’ve accomplished since last time I had a birthday. I got a college degree. I started grad school. I finally got my ass in gear and started actually useful therapy. I’ve done shit. The list is only going to grow next year, too.

To everyone who might want to celebrate with me: thanks. I really do appreciate it. More than you know. I’ve been out of it recently, so I may not seem super excited. Maybe a little low key. But know that having you around is some of the best stuff in my life. I can’t ask for a better gift than you all, as cheesy and silly as that is.
Just don’t call me “birthday boy.” That shit is kind of old. Heh.

But yes, onward and onward. Maybe I’ll take a break today. I don’t know if I really can, but maybe I will anyway. Maybe I’ll relax and feel good. That’d be awesome. Maybe I’ll grow older, keep doing the shit I love, and do more stuff I need to do every day. That’d be awesome too.

Go go linkdump!

I completely forget how I stumbled upon this. It’s very furry, but blowing my mind with awesome, I will admit. Maybe I haven’t seen enough suits like that, but that is just amazing for a non-anthro costume.
But on top of that, think of the story which lead to this post on this blog. Now, I don’t know what the website actually is. I haven’t been there, besides this link. But seriously, this is completely furry and outside the realm of any sort of gadget blog. Think of the writer justifying it to the people who run the site. Or maybe he’s there, sweating and worrying, and the people running the site just shrug. “As long as it’s bringing in the clicks.” Then they go back to counting money. I dunno, I feel like the story behind it is almost as entertaining.
In any case, the people in the comments are also stupid. This is obviously a creation of craftsmanship. It should cost that much. Whether the average person would get use out of it to justify that price is another story. I know I probably wouldn’t. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t mind having it. But oh well.

Let’s see, what other links are good? How about this one, which leads to Brickroad’s very long co-op LP of Secret of Evermore? This is a link worth following if you are a connoisseur of fine LPs. It’s slowly being posted, but it’s great. Even if they are just grinding for levels with the Spear forever and so on. Heh.

Finally, LBJ was apparently pretty amazing. I feel bad for Joe Haggar.

Anyway, that’s some stuff. Apparently. Enjoy your stuff and your day, I’ll try to think of something vaguely interesting to write for next time, promise.

And now, I launch a new ongoing feature, where I point at something and say “What is up with that?”

Okay, this probably isn’t a new ongoing feature. But I’ve recently been pondering a little stupid thing and I wanted to share.

Why is it that iTunes lists podcasts with the latest episode on top, and my iPod Touch lists them with the oldest episode on top?

I’ve always thought of Apple as being these masters of the user experience. As much as I’m going to stick with PCs, I have to admit that Macs are pretty slick and easy to use, and I certainly think that iPods are, easily, the best MP3 players on the market, now that my iPod Touch has made me a believer. They just know a thing or two about how to make sure what you need is always in front of you, but no more than that. They tend to force most programs that run on Macs to adhere to this unified look and structure. Even Word for Mac is completely different than what Microsoft is doing on PCs, because Apple demands it to be such.

How can something so stupid and simple slip by them?

I mean, really. That’s such an easy, simple change. It’s such a little part of the user experience, but it’s constantly in front of the user. One thing I LOVE about my iPod Touch is that I can start a podcast on iTunes, and then sync it and immediately be where I was in my iPod, and vice versa. With that being a feature, you’d think they’d unify that sort of thing. I really don’t understand why it’s different.

What’s up with that, Apple?

On our last episode of Being Social, I was talking about how weird, but cool, it was to be running around with people outside my normal friend group. And now, the thrilling continuation of that post.

On Sunday, things happened.

Basically, Cara invited me out to lunch. I’m like “Sure, I can grab some food,” so I went out. Then Cole joined us. Then we came back here, played Soul Calibur of all things (We had had a long discussion about Ivy during lunch) and made Dungeons and Dragons characters.

Then Essner called, and wanted to throw down in some Arkham Horror.

This “mixing of friend groups” is not something I have had a lot of experience with. Certainly, if nothing else, the sorts of conversations I have with Cara and Cole are, in a large part, different from what I have with Essner, Spaeth, and so on. They’re all awesome people, but I honestly had no idea if they would mix well. My only previous experience with this, really, was Natalie, and she just didn’t really click with my friends at all. She was a completely different type of person.

Still, I wasn’t going to let nervousness get in the way of fun, so soon, Essner, Ben, Essner’s uncle Terrence, and Justin Spants showed up at the scene, and we got down to some Arkham Horror. I set out the millions of decks of cards, and we prepared to stop Yig, though we figured that wouldn’t be too hard, since we found out from Wikipedia that Yig is “easily pleased.”

Yeah, we had a blast, though. Cole and Cara were joking right along with everyone. They took to the game pretty well. (Cole, especially, commented on how fun Arkham Horror was.) Sure, I stepped in to make sure some inside jokes were explained, but that was just more fun, as I got to retell the stories, and everyone laughed at them. It was a really damn good time, and they fit in pretty damn well. My nervousness was completely unfounded. The night ended with Cara and Cole commenting that I had some pretty awesome friends.

And you know what? I do. All around. And doing things with them? Completely awesome. I’m stupid to be worried.

Anyway, I’m going to have to get them involved in more geeky board game fun sometime. There’s a whole world of board games I have yet to show them! Yes. Yes… heh heh…

More and more, I’m being social, and it’s kind of weird.

I never think of myself as being Anti-social. I’m very social online, and I can hold my own with other people. It’s not really something that I’ve ever felt I had a problem with. However, I have, for the most part, stuck to my own circle of friends. I’ve known them forever, and they’re completely awesome. I don’t regret a thing. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Hanging out with them, though, has a very particular dynamic, and I’ve become used to it.

Now, suddenly, I’m hanging out with people from school. Fellow TAs and whatnot. It feels weird.

Again, I don’t feel like I’ve been sheltered, perse, but when I interact with these people, in this very different environment, I feel like I know so little about this stuff. I don’t do bad. I have fun, and I’m not awkward. At least, not any more than I am naturally, and not in a way that makes me uncomfortable. But it’s such a fucking unknown. Everything with my normal circle of friends is a complete known quantity. Hell, how everyone I hang out with online is also a known quantity, for the most part. There are no surprises, just good times. Not being able to completely predict how Cole or Cara or whoever are going to react is… interesting to me.

Frankly, it’s probably good for me.

I know I state this point over and over again on this blog, from time to time, but that’s only because it’s important. The idea that I will move away at some point is scary, but true. After I get my master’s I’m either going to go on for a PhD or get a job somewhere where my editing skills could be put to use. Neither seems likely to happen in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. At some point I’m going to have to move away. If I get lucky enough to move to somewhere where I already know people, using the power of the internet, so much the better. But more than likely I’ll just have to make new friends and such from scratch.

It’s good to break out of my bubble. It’s good to have fun with new people. It’s good for me. And unlike vegetables, it’s fun. I should push for it more. I shouldn’t hesitate and be safe. Hell, I’m in the process of making one of the least safe moves I will ever make in my life via transitioning. Going out with people who are not Matt Essner or Justin Spaeth is not that hard, right? Of course not.

Not that I’m going to abandon the awesome friends I have. Just… should be open. I should be social. That’s a good thing.
It’s a good thing.

I came home from the press yesterday and I passed out for several hours.

I guess you could call it a nap, but it certainly didn’t feel that way. It was a stumble upstairs haphazardly, hide in bed, and then where did 3 hours go kind of affair. I had debating skipping and just not showing up to work to sleep, but I was good, and went. Yeah. Good.

Anyway, basically, I’m tired. I’m running constantly all day doing things, so I stay up late to have free time. Then I wake up early so I can get things done so I can stay up late. I slowly whittle away more and more.

More and more and more.

And I’m pretty tired.

It’s spring break now, but I have plenty of shit to do during it anyway. I’ll still be waking up, working, and not having enough time to really unwind.

I’m awesome like that.

I think I’ll go to bed now.

My TA friends were nice, and invited me to go work on homework with them this evening.

I turned them down.

The idea of leaving the house filled me with dread. I was supposed to relax this evening, but already I was drawn to a family dinner and seeing my brother’s new house. I already had to commute up to St. Louis. I already had to do a lot of things. None of these things are things that I hate. I wanted to do all of them.

But what I really, really wanted to do was relax.

I wanted to sit down and beat my game. I wanted to snuggle and unwind. I wanted to not be running constantly, and not have to worry about doing anything in particular.

I turned them down, and went back to my game, but I can’t concentrate on it. I feel like I have failed by not going to get my work done. I can’t relax and play any more. I can’t ever relax. I have so, so much to do. I have so many nice people in my life, but they want things from me, and I’m already stretched thin. I have so much I need to handle and take care of.
So much.

Fuck this.

I should not feel like this.

Fuck this.

…guess I best get to bed so I can do it all again tomorrow.