The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I feel like I’ve spread a meme around here, even though it’s probably unlikely.
It’s just occurred to me recently how often I now hear the phrase “No worries.” I’d never really heard the phrase before a few years ago, when I read a book with a character that used it (I think it was one of the Rincewind Discworld novels) and went “You know, that’s exactly what life needs. No worries.” Then I started using it often.
Now I just feel like it’s everywhere around this area. Random people at work say it to me. My brother just sent me a text message with it in it, which is what prompted this. I feel like everyone is throwing it out there, when it wasn’t in use before.
Now, I mean, I know it’s stupid to think it’s all my fault, but at the same time, I’ve seen my quirks and memes spread to my friends before. I know it happens. I’m likable and somewhat charismatic when I try to be, and I suppose I, you know, rub off on people the right ways. But this is just… on a much larger scale than noticing one person has adopted one of my mannerisms, I suppose.

In the end it doesn’t really matter whatsoever, and hell, if more people can live their lives with no worries, so much the better. I know I want to. But it’s just… neat, I guess, if it is true. And something stupid that I thought about if it isn’t. And dammit, this blog is a collection of my thoughts. So here, blog. Collect my thoughts.

This semester is officially over, and, frankly, it’s about fucking time.
I mean, honestly, I had checked out a week ago. It’s good to finally get those finals out of the way. But damn, they didn’t pull ANY punches. Those were two of the hardest tests I can ever remember having. Still, the fact that I KICKED ASS this entire semester will more than make up for any, you know, B-level grades on those tests. I should be fine.
Man, though, I think 94 was my magic number this semester. I got 94% on like… everything. It was kind of ridiculous.
Anyway, I suppose it’s time to be REALLY LAZY. Well, besides work. Me and my silly picking up several shifts this weekend…

For the first time in a long while, I am relaxed.

I don’t think it’s any huge revelation that this semester has stressed the shit out of me. I was in shitty moods and generally having a bad time. I mean, I was keeping it together? But I never had time to just sit back and recover.
Now that the semester is over, and I’ve had several days to just be completely and utterly lazy, I’m starting to feel kind of normal again. Damn, but I missed it.

It does kind of scare me for the future, though. I never want to be that busy on a permanent basis. I always want to be able to take days every once and awhile to just sit back and enjoy the wonderful nothingness. Is it going to be that way? Am I going to be able to find a job where I can just sit back and relax every once and awhile? I mean, I don’t think that’s completely unrealistic, and I don’t want to be greedy. I’m fine with working. I need some working to keep me from feeling completely useless. But I can’t just be without leisure, you know? All work and no play…

I don’t know. No matter what, though, I am feeling a whole hell of a lot better, and I’m damn glad for that.

So they came out this with No Doubt track pack? Say what you will about where Stefani went after No Doubt, but damn, they had some good songs. So I bought the pack, even though it was a bit expensive, and I was not disappointed. It’s got every single No Doubt song you’d ever want. Well, I’d ever want, anyway. It’s nice. I’ve been having a lot of fun belting those out.

But the point is, I suppose, that it got me to boot up Rock Band 2 again. Man, that game is still so great. I can just come back to it and sing again and again. And maybe it’s sad that I’ve spent this much money on DLC or just a sign of how awesome the game is, but I seriously have so many Rock Band songs now that I play on random and still get songs I don’t recognize, or just have completely different experiences every time because tracks are never repeated. Unless I want them to be. This is how a music game should be, dammit.
So yeah, I spent hours singing, and then Spaeth came over and I sang for a few more, during which I bought one more new song, Tempted. We discovered it was about as Spaeth was completely randomly going through and previewing tracks for sale. It was only a buck! It is hella fun to sing, though “put you asleep” easy on everything else. But who cares, I just sing. It was a great surprise to find that song, but even more of a surprise to find it was by the same band that brought us Cool for Cats. What. The. Fuck. Could these two songs be more different? Mind=blown.
We also found out that a three-pack of songs by a band named Locksley seem to have a ton of awesome potential and might get bought in the future. Also, two of the three songs by Siouxie and the Banshees seem pretty great, too. I’ll have to consider all these for future pickup.

But seriously, I don’t know. It may be expensive buying all these plastic instruments, but dammit, this game has legs. I’m willing to pay that much for a game I come back to over and over again. I totally am.

I’ve been distracted for awhile, so I haven’t gotten back to it, but I gave in and bought A Kingdom for Kieflings recently, and I’m glad I did. On the surface, it looks really boring. Basically, it’s an RTS without the combat. It’s all tech tree and resource management. That’s the entire game. But it’s shockingly relaxing, fun, and rewarding. I just found myself sitting there, for long periods of time, just gathering resources and building buildings. The way the game unlocks new customization vectors is about right, too. No sooner are you getting bored with building things when you’ll unlock, say, a building to let you paint houses a bunch of new colors, or you’ll build a statue-maker to make gigantic statues in your honor, and then you have to go play with those and put them all about.
I think I’ve mentioned before how important podcast-friendly games are? This is the DEFINITION of such a game. It’s fun, but it’s not taxing. It keeps you busy while you listen to a podcast or music or whatever. It’s wonderful in that regard. It’s also the perfect “waiting for people to log on and invite me into Left 4 Dead” game, as you can play in tiny bursts and still make progress. Not to mention, it’s amazing how many hours of gameplay is in there. For my 10 bucks, I’m almost to 10 hours logged, I believe. Sadly, I don’t always get that much gameplay out of full priced games.
If you enjoy games that relax you, that are casual, like, say, Picross DS or Puzzle Quest or whatnot, you should really give this game a go. Ninjabee hit it out of the park with this one. I came in so very doubtful, downloading and deleting the demo several times, but it won me over, and I’m glad it did.

So Left 4 Dead on Easy is a totally different game.

After a night of Ticket to Ride followed by some connection issues followed by a solid Dead Air advanced run, Morbid Coffee and I were left with one plan, and one plan only: To, uh, get me the Akimbo Assassin achievement. We did this by, of course, going to No Mercy on Easy.
I was shocked and surprised. It was INTENSE. A full game of Left 4 Dead normally takes about an hour and a half, maybe longer if there are a lot of failures. Coffee and I burned through the game in 22 minutes. 22! AND I was doing the Akimbo Assassin achievement, like I said, so I was holding myself back and only using pistols! It was a whoosh and a swoosh and it was nothing like the Left 4 Dead I know and love. And it was totally sweet.
Seriously, on harder difficulties, the game is all about survival. As it should be! But suddenly, on easy, that wasn’t even anything to even pretend to care about anymore. It was all about speed. You had to run fast, and shoot just enough zombies to sneak past. It was a total rush, and man, I can’t wait to try some speed runs with a full group of people, instead of two computer players. Attempting to beat times could make for a really great alternate Left 4 Dead night. I can’t wait to try!

In a swirl of spending TONS of money, my Gift Buying is going well! Here’s the list!

Jonathan: Check
Mom: Half-Check (Plan in place, just have to get it.)
Dad: Check
Grandpa: Check
Grandma: Check (though kind of hesitant. Wondering if I should supplement)
Brer: Check
Festivus Gift Exchange: Like one tiny thing away from completely checked.
Friend Gift Exchange: No Check. I have NO clue.
Friend White Elephant: No Check.

Also, I’ve spent a ton of money! Wait, I already said that. Oh well. My funds are quite low! And they’ll be even lower soon, since Amazon should be charging me for Persona 4 + Expensive Extra Goodies Pack today. Though once I get some reimbursement for some stuff, I’ll be a little better off… and then, you know, paychecks, I suppose. I won’t have much to want to waste on myself after I finish all this gift buying and have Persona 4 to take me up to Chrissymas day, right?
Either way, I’m not totally screwed. I just never like seeing my funds drop this low since I got, you know, more responsible. I like having that buffer.

Anyway, my Chrissymas preparations are going much, much better since last I mentioned them. Huzzah!

So as I realized and sat down to order the Double Jump Persona 4 guide for when Persona 4 comes out this week, I realized that I’ve spend almost plastic instrument music game money on this game, what with the expensive goodies pack, the game itself, and now this guide.

Man, I must really like Persona.

And I mean, I do. Not only is it, luckily, a completely awesome and good game, but it also OOZES style, and man, if there’s one thing that can really sell me on a game, it’s having a strong style. Art, music, everything coming together to create a perfect, awesome mix. Persona 3 did this, and everything I’ve seen of Persona 4 suggests it will too. And so I buy the stuffed animals and the T-shirts and…
Well, I won’t apologize for wanting things I want. Just the cost of what I’ve been doing, that I’ve pushed into triple digits spent on this game, struck me as I was ordering. And I thought I’d share.

First off, let me say that sometimes I make some really fucking stupid decisions. When I decided not to use the Combat Action Bars back when they were released months ago? Someone should have slapped me. That interface makes playing KoL a lot more fun when using more than one skill a combat. I mean, yes, most of the time, I am just using one skill a combat. But now that I’m diving into Hobopolis for the second time, I am using multiple skills constantly.

That’s right, I’m back in Hobopolis. The first time I tried it, things did not go very well. I learned that you can’t plink Hobos, which made my “Oh, I’ll be a Moxie class and it’ll be fine and the fact that I’m stuck with this familiar for my 100% run won’t matter too much” strategy work like shit. I ended up having to borrow a V for Vivala Mask and a Navel Ring of Navel Gazing and bum a ton of buff potions just to get to my goal, which was buying my Hobocobo. It really kind of embarrassed me, having to depend on all the help, though it did point out how completely awesome my friends in KoL and Twilight Heroes and whatnot are, which I, of course, completely appreciate.

This time, though, things were different. I was a Seal Clubber, which, as far as I’m aware, is about the best choice, as muscle classes have it easiest for most of Hobopolis (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) and I also have pretty powerful Mr. Store gear of my own, that being my Haiku Katana, which can really lay the smack down on just about everything in game. I got to pick my familiar this time, thanks to the update where I could complete my 100% run when I break the prism, instead of when I ascend, and thus am using my P.R.E.S.S.I.E. cause, well, it’s Crimbo season and it’s a pretty good familiar who is also giving me stats so I can keep improving. So I can now kill Hobos in the town square with little effort, and I’ve been working on the Hoboes at The Heap, and I seem to be able to deal with these stench-aligned ones with little problem as well. I couldn’t take the ones at the Ancient Hobo Burial Ground yet, mostly because a lot of my damage is from some Elemental boosts, so their resistance to elemental damage was really cramping my style. But I’ll get there.
The general idea is to keep killing Hobos until the Crimbo content comes out, and then re-evaluate. Until then, though, this is certainly a fun time, and I look forward to getting to buy some gear with all the Hobo Nickels I’ve been getting. Also, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the name generators. Completely. Awesome. Still, it’s pretty obvious most of the REALLY cool stuff comes from playing with many co-ordinated people. But I dunno if that’s going to happen. Heh. But you never know! It might! Still, I doubt I’ll keep this up long before I get the ascending bug again. But it would be kinda cool if I got a telescope and the level 30 trophy before I did, though. Who knows.

So, on my way home from interning, I saw a guy in front of Little Caesars wearing a Little Caesars’ mascot costume. It was actually a pretty good costume. He even had a spear prop with a little pizza stuck on it. But still, it was kind of weird to see.
This begs the important question, “What the fuck?” Then, it begs the more interesting question, “why would they pay someone to wear that?”

I mean, has a mascot costume like that ever convinced ANYONE to go somewhere? My immediate reaction when I see someone in such a costume is “Wow, they’re actually paying someone to do that? Crazy.” It just doesn’t seem like a good idea. Then again, what was that number in my press class? That the average person needs to notice a brand or a product about 14 times before they consider buying it? These sort of costumes certainly draw the eye and make you notice them, I guess. And I mean, if it works, more power to them. Keep paying that guy.

Still, the whole idea doesn’t sit easy with me. Maybe it’s the furry in me, but I really feel like if you’re going to wear a costume, you have to have an affinity for it, whether it be a fursuit, where you’re bringing out the inner you, or something like cosplay, when you’re doing it for an extreme love of what that costume represents. I mean, I’m a huge fan of Little Caesar’s Pizza (Well, mostly of the cost to quantity of food ratio. There are countless better pizza places about, but none with such convenience or price.) but I would never be able to be excited about being in that costume. And you know the person in there isn’t excited, either. It just seems so wrong. There’s no way it could work out.
I mean, I remember an article I read about a guy who was working at Disney World as someone in a Jack Sparrow costume, and talking about how excited he was to take the job, and how extremely rigorous the rules and application process for such a job was, to be sure that they got people who walked around in costume that were excited about it. That’s the way to do it, you know? That’s what makes costumes, and being around people in costumes, fun. That’s how you gotta do it.

I am likely thinking way, way too much about a stupid little thing, however.