The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

What the fuck am I getting people for Chrissymas?

I mean, I guess, here’s the checklist I always do.
Jonathan: Half-Check (I got an idea already, but who knows)
Mom: No Check
Dad: No Check
Grandma: No Check
Grandpa: Half-Check (Have a plan, just have to pick it up)
Brer: No Check (Have some possible expensive ideas but I dunno)
Friends Gift Exchange: ??? (Are we doing that? What?)
Festivus Gift Exchange: Mostly Check (Plan still requires some work, but I mostly just have to send stuff out)

But seriously, I feel like I normally have some ideas, or I have, you know, time to wander about in malls and stuff until I get ideas? But I totally don’t have time. I’ve been too busy. TOO BUSY. Ugh. Maybe after Finals, but then it’s too late if I need to order something online… it’s… not optimal.
I really need to get brainstorming. I really do. Hm.
The important thing, though, is not to let myself get stressed. I’ve done such, such a good job this semester of staying on the ball and doing things the right way. I can keep this going, and hell, I can roll it straight into Chrissymas shopping. Really.
No, really.

So, it’s Turkey Day. The day when we celebrate the ability to get three strikes in three consecutive frames…
No, wait…

It’s a wonderful family-based day where we eat too much food and don’t have to go to work or school. Sweetness.

I’m actually sort of looking forward to a day with the parents, especially since Mom and I have this “Secret Activity” planned that I am HOPING will be fun for everyone, though the game got some mediocre reviews. But more on that in the future. I’ll write a review.

Anyway, I hope you have a good day. And for you Canadians who read this who’ve already had a Thanksgiving? You should have had it on the right day. Or something.

So it’s finally cold enough to get out my Slanket. Is that good? That’s probably good. I like a warm blanket, and dammit, this has sleeves. AWESOME SLEEVES.
At Kohl’s, though, there are off-brand Slankets! For much cheaper than I paid! OH NO! Half price! Are they as good? I don’t know. It’s fucking warm and awesome in any case. So I’m not going to be sad. Still, if you must have a blanket with sleeves and cannot pony up for what the website calls THE BEST BLANKET EVER IN ALL CAPS then, well, better an off brand, eh?

Oh maaaaaan, they have a nice green now. They didn’t have that color before. Not fair. Mine is Ruby Wine. I don’t even drink wine. Still, I couldn’t even pretend to justify getting one of a different color. Not when there are, say, awesome T-shirts out there I haven’t gotten yet.

…anyway, what was this supposed to be about?

Oh, it’s cold now, so I get to get out my Slanket, and I get to get out my coat, which I really like, though I wish it didn’t have those bullshit shoulders. When I move out, I am getting me two badass trenchcoats or something, a light one and a heavy one, and it will be totally sweet. Maybe. Hell, I don’t know. Do they make trenchcoats in lime green? Bright yellow?

But anyway, yeah. It’s cold outside. Have you been outside to see for yourself? Cause it’s cold. I’m a fan of cold. Well, more a fan of cold than hot. Yep. Still, no matter how cold it gets, I’m unlikely to switch from sandals without socks for footwear.
Yep.
I’m kind of ridiculous sometimes.
But I’m warm and happy in my Slanket, so nya nya nya.

Years ago at this point, I went to a Journey reading. I read poetry that nowadays would make me cringe. Yesterday, I attempted to fix that by standing up and reading at a new Journey Reading experience.

How did it go? Alright, I thought. I didn’t make any reading errors, perse. Got some chuckles from a few chuckle-worthy lines. It was about all I could hope for, really. I realized once I got there I had a lot of poems about sex, though. But it was cool! Really!
I was asked how to be introduced, and I had no idea, so Essner ended up telling Marsha to tell everyone the inside joke about how brownies and mac’n’cheese molested me as a child. Which was… an interesting way to start a series of all-serious poems, I suppose.

Essner, though. Dammit, he commanded things and captivated everyone. His completely fictional story, “Non Fiction” was hilarious and he performed it well. It was great. He did great. If there’s one thing he can do, it’s right a good, comedic story powered by dialog. Which is why he needs to succeed in his script-writing dreams. I do hope he can. He’s a fully funny guy.

Dustin also showed up, which was much appreciated! Much! And then shared that he was in some sort of relationship with the other reader who just seemed… like someone who wouldn’t have any interest in Dustin. And that was interesting, I suppose.

But yeah, it was a good reading overall. It went well. Not a huge turnout, but who expected one? It was good for me to get up there and read. And now I have.

I was testing out the NXE’s new “start downloads from your PC” feature when I noticed the existence of Domnio Master, the ultimate online domino experience. When did this come out? I had to try the demo.
Why? Well, two reasons. One, Uno on XBLA is hella fun, really. Not having played any with Talking Time people is actually kind of a problem I’d like to fix. I’d have nothing against more good, fun, simple games like that on XBLA. Two, I do have kind of an odd relationship with Dominoes. I never get to play them, but I have a kind of odd obsession or affinity with them after reading Nymphomation and loving it, much like I like all of Noon’s Vurt mythology stuff. So if it was a really compelling Domino game, I mean, who knows? I might buy it.

The first reason I didn’t buy it, of course, was the fact that it costs 10 bucks. Seriously? I have fully-featured Dominoes in Clubhouse Games, which only cost me, what? 20 bucks? It even has online play of a sort. So, yeah, no value.
The second is that it just has a really weird vibe. I got into a game, and the computer AI I was up against in the demo was a picture of a Fox wearing green shades with the handle “FoxyLady1991”. What am I supposed to make of that? I mean, is this AI supposed to be 14 years old? And if so, why is she foxy? Is it just a furry thing? I mean, that would be okay, but that would be weird to put in the game, I guess.
The last reason, though honestly I didn’t need any more but the price, was the fact that the game refuses to streamline anything. I would pick to place a bone, and there was only one option of where to put it, and it would still require another press to pick which play I want to make. That’s just kind of silly. There shouldn’t be that extra button press there.

In any case, seriously, Domino Master? When the hell did that come out? I mean, I pay attention to these releases. Why didn’t I know this? Huh? Did it slip under everyone’s radar? Where’s the 1up Review of this?

Well, at least the cuing the downloads on the PC worked perfect and awesome.

So my previously mentioned poem sequence keeps on evolving, though I think it’s to its final form. It turns out what I really wanted to write was a poem sequence following a couple, first with the man of this couple coming to terms with their relationship, and then briefly showing the woman’s side of things with one last poem. All of this following the track list of These Are The Good Times, People by The Presidents of the United States of America. Yeah, it’s kind of weird.
Still, I feel like it’s working well. There’s still a lot of tweaking to do, and there’s still about half of it to write (I had to scrap some of my earlier poems, though alright, once the theme got reined in.) but the individual poems are up to my standards for myself, which is always nice, and if nothing else, I feel like I’m painting a really nice picture. I hope it comes across.

Am I getting to close to this project, though? I wonder. I got really mad at Brer earlier due to how he was criticizing what I was showing him. I love constructive criticism. I mean, there are some things I won’t budge on (like, uh, my use of parenthesis. Sometimes I can use them better, which I’m happy to hear if that’s the case. But their inclusion kind of makes my poems work in my eyes. I’m not going to cut them.) but for the most part I love hearing different viewpoints so I can look at my work and think about how to make it so the reader sees my viewpoints. I don’t get enough of it.
I mean, I think a lot of it was my bad mood at the time combined with how easily I get mad at Brer when he argues with me. He just loves to put things in the exact wrong way to push my buttons, and it’s got to the point that even when he says things that just suggest that manner of speaking, I jump on him because I feel it’s going there. Not fair, I know, but I follow my emotions for better or worse. Life doesn’t work well if I don’t.
But seriously, is it that I can’t take criticism? It concerns me. I really don’t want to be that guy, and though I’m proud of what I make, I’m not pretending that my art is… I dunno… Art. It’s just neat things I do. That I hopefully might get published some day. But I don’t have any delusions that I’m some master artist, do I?
Damn, I dunno.

Have you ever noticed that you could only look at the last 10 months of archives on this site?

Didn’t think so, but still, it bothered me.
However, through the magic of much angry screaming and yelling, I have managed to create an archive page! Bask in its glory!

Bask, dammit! It took me a long while to make it work.

So in class today, we were talking about the end of Twelfth Night. It’s kind of a bad play. It has so much potential in looking into gender relations and it squanders all of it with stupidity and a much-too-quick ending.
But anyway, we were talking about why Sebastian goes along with Olivia, who is spouting crazy talk about how she knows him, and marries her. And I’m just like “Come on, hot girl with lots of money falls into your lap, why wouldn’t you go along with it?” Because that really seems like Sebastian’s motivation, combined with a little naivety of youth. Then, someone in the class, pointed out that that was a very “male” point of view, and that she doesn’t think that’s the right reaction at all, because she’s a woman.
Ugh.
And then, immediately following the bad taste that left in my mouth was a discussion about how everyone in the class “can so clearly tell if someone is a Tranny.”
Ugh.
I mean, I had a lot of problems with some of the discussion in class anyway, since it seemed to me that a lot of the interesting things going on in the play were based more about power relationships than gender relationships (of course I admit that those things were very much tied into gender back when the play was written and that it is still the case to some extent today) and so there was a lot of throwing about of characters not being feminine and whatnot just for showing some initiative. But man, that kind of stuff just made me want to drag the class to a halt and throw a little fit. I didn’t, of course. I’m not an ass or anything. I just seethed for awhile and eventually got over myself. But just… dammit. So much of this shit is just a cultural illusion and meaningless. It’s fine that you disagree with me and think that’s because of how you were raised as a woman. It’s even fine if you think I think a certain way because I was raised as a guy. But dammit, I don’t have a “typical male response” to anything. I’m me. It’s my response. It’s the same reason why I dread being in lit classes where most of the class is female, because at some point during the semester I will get turned to for a “male” perspective and will have to shrug that off to my satisfaction and the awkwardness of the class.
Anyway, I guess that’s about the only interesting thing that happened today. Well, thus far. The day is still young and whatnot.

Why I Want Attention
An Essay By Alexis Long

The reason that I want attention is.

I mean, fuck, I dunno. The thing that really gets me is that here are people wanting to do something with me and then I turn them down because it’s not the right kind of attention. How fucking stupid can I be, you know? Geh.
I hate myself when I get like this. I have wonderful friends. I don’t need to be like this. I am such an idiot. Such. An. Idiot.

Anyway, that’s totally lame, so let’s talking about things that aren’t totally lame.

I have found a new favorite Jamiroquai song, and that song is The Kids. I’ve listened to it approximately 40 million times these past two days. Man, seriously, is there anything NOT awesome about Jamiroquai? Cause I love thems so much.
Also, my iPod touch makes me actually pay attention to album art. Why does all the Jamiroquai albums have the guy from Ico on them?

So earlier the Calories Man walk all having trouble thinking of what to write for Gamespite and talking to me. And I had a good idea for a blog post that didn’t apply to him: Podcast-friendly games. I find I don’t really have any of those right now. Well, besides my browser RPGs. I can’t listen to podcasts while playing Fable because I find the dialog too entertaining to miss. I keep wanting to play some version of HoMM to scratch this itch, but don’t want to try to find my discs nor spend money, so I don’t. Anyway, is it sad that, at any particular moment, I would like to have a portable game, a podcast-friendly game, and a game game? Maybe that’s greedy. I dunno. I mean, they can overlap, if they wanted.

Anyway, I’m going to end this thing. I hope you didn’t read the beginning. Or any of it, I suppose, there’s not a lot of value in it.

You know, even though this blog exists for me to type out and think about things like that which is below, I really hate leaving them on top. I get self-conscious. I make sure I write them, because that’s important, but I don’t want things to be awkward. So here’s some Rapid Fire Ramblings for you.

Forumwarz Episode 2 hits this week! On Wednesday! Just in time for me to enjoy the new content over my fall break weekend! That’s really exciting times. I’ll be sure to ramble about all the new shit, since I’m sure you care, and all. What? You don’t? I’m shocked. But you’re going to hear about it anyway. That’s what you get for reading my blog.

So have you all seen this Persona 4: Ultimate Expensive Goodies Pack? I, uh, kinda already preordered it and the game. I’m pretty amazing like that. But at the same time, I’m willing to put forward the money for things I’m really passionate about, to support them. I’m willing to get all the little goodies to say “Hey, I’m a fan” So it’s preordered. I mean, I’m only spending imaginary future money, right? So it’s fine.

On a Dungeon-y and Dragon-y front, I looked at the Adventurer’s Vault the other day. First off, it kind of blows my mind that it’s 10 bucks cheaper on Amazon. Why isn’t it 10 bucks cheaper everywhere? $30 for that tiny book is ridiculous. Still, looking inside, there was definitely some really neat ideas in there. I like the inspiration. It gave me lots of cool ideas for phat lewt. Makes me wish we could play a little more. Of course, there was also lots of cool lewt in there that my friends would never use. There was this neat set of bags where the inside of both is essentially the same place, so you can say, share a stash of potions easily. My friends would never work together and use this. Ever. Sometimes I think this a shame, but their assholery to one another is very entertaining, so I guess I can’t complain much.
It’s also apparently offical that I’m playing this 3.5 Edition game this Friday. I still wish it was 4th edition, but eh, what are you gonna do. I also don’t know the guy running it, and maybe some people playing it. I just don’t know! I also need to make a damn character, or at least approach the session with a very firm idea. I’m planning vaguely a Sorceress with a fox familiar, but I mean, I dunno. I don’t have any ideas about her personality or anything, nor any cool names… I need to do some thinking this week.

So I’m once again on my “I should write erotica” mindset. I get like this from time to time when I basically go “dammit, I can’t find stuff about the weird shit I want.” Then it occurs to me that I can write pretty damn well, and I should just write it for people, put it out there, and see what they say. But I don’t have time to write things that actually need to be written. Bleh. And I don’t know how sexy I would actually be. I mean, I had the idea for Fetish, a sort of horror/mystery/erotica thing based on all these weird-ass fetishes that the furry community has exposed me to, but it hasn’t gone anywhere. I swear, at some point I’ll feel like I have little enough stress to set time aside to write, eh?

So on Friday, I was going to buy an iPod Touch. Well, there were literally no iPod Touches ANYWHERE in Cape, so that plan was foiled. I still have this Best Buy coupon that expires tomorrow, and a girl promised me that there will be some in then. So we’ll see if I get to waste money on that tomorrow. If not, well, I’ll have to put up with my old MP3 player for awhile longer. iAudio, I loved you, but you are really getting on my nerves, I swear to gods. I just want to be able to listen to music to and from work, dammit!

Oh, and finally, I never officially registered my complaint here, so now I will. WHAT THE FUCK, RHAPSODY DS? I will gladly admit that the original game was far from the pinnacle of perfection. Still, I had nostalgia for it and never owned a copy so I bought the DS version. THEY COMPLETELY CHANGED THE COMBAT. Again, the original combat system wasn’t perfect, but the quasi FFT style gave the game extra amounts of unique charm, and it was all the charm that won me over, not the mechanics. In this DS version they have replaced this combat with the most generic jRPG combat imaginable. Why the hell would they do this? I mean, first of all, who is even buying this game except people like me who are nostalgic for it? You’re just shooting that group of people in the foot and laughing by changing the combat. Secondly, if you’re going to completely overhaul the combat, you could, I dunno, make it fucking interesting or something. In the original, from what I can remember, you at least had to balance keeping Cornet close enough to the puppets to buff them while staying far enough way to keep her from getting killed. The combat is set up so that you’re actually ATTACKING with Cornet in this game. Augh.
So yeah, a complete disappointment, there. I was looking for a quick fix that I could play through and enjoy (Rhapsody is a short game) and instead I get this. Bleh bleh bleh.