The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So I think my “moody-ness,” as I call it, comes in a monthly cycle, but I have no proof. So I’ve decided to start marking my moody days with quick posts or tacked on to other posts with the tag “Moody Day.” This is mostly for my own curiosity, I suppose. Just letting you know.

Also, apparently Amphibian Sympathy is amazing? Somebody should have told me! I am so doing a Hardcore Boozetafarian Moxie-Sign Turtle Tamer run after this. (Why Boozetafarian? Because I’d like to try doing the Saint Sneaky Pete’s Day super-drunkenness adventures.)
Also amazing is this thing, which is some sort of KoL Ascension Database. You can look up any character, but that’s me, of course. The way it has a calendar tracking the whole run and what special days were in the run is incredibly awesome. Also, apparently I’m a fairly dedicated Softcore player. Like… 84% of the player base has less Softcore runs than me. Neat.
I hope my question got on the Jick Show. I suppose I’ll know tomorrow.

I should go to bed. I’m going to bed.

So I was burning time in Toys R Us before class and I see not one, not two, but five copies of the original Phoenix Wright sitting in a clearance bin for 10 bucks a pop. I know the internet well enough to know that you cannot find it on the internets for less than 30. So after a little deliberation and calling Jonathan to make sure I wasn’t crazy on how much it was going for, I bought all five, and then went home and put them all up on Amazon Marketplace for 25 dollars. By the time I got back from work, they were all sold. I’ve made like 60 bucks and got copies of a game I love into worthy hands. So I suppose it’s a win all around, huh?
Anyway, sorry, I had to brag. That money is going straight into my “buy a laptop because I want one and I should buy one before they stop selling Windows XP” fund.

In other news, Diggnation is coming to St. Louis on the 20th? What? I’m almost tempted to go. I probably won’t, but as I said, I’m tempted. I’d have to say, meeting Kevin and Alex would be pretty neat. The downside is it’s obviously going to be at a bar that will be crowded and filled with very, very drunk people, if listening to previous live Diggnations is any indication.
…wait, the 20th is a Wednesday. So cancel that, I have class. Oh well, as I said, I probably wouldn’t have gone anyway.

Well, I guess it’s time to KoL before bed.

Beware, I’m going to ramble on really crazily about Kingdom of Loathing now. You’re probably not interested.

So just looking at the descriptions and such made me want a Naughty Origami Kit, (as well as the fact that I always thought the other items of this type, the Iceberglet and the Great Ball of Frozen Fire, were really neat) and I went, you know what, fuck it. And I picked one up. And now I’m wondering what’s up with it. I mean, like I said, it has some funny content in there. I love just about every message on the origami “gentlemen’s” magazine, for instance. However, that’s rarely going to be better than all the buffs and boosts from my Mayflower Bouquet. The Entangling Noodle effect of the Naughty Paper Shuriken on people with pants is nice, but most bosses don’t have pants, actually, so that’s kind of a problem, as that’s when I’d like to use it. The origami pasties are great, especially early on when the 100 power is way above anything I can equip, but not… flashy and visible. The origami riding crop has a really neat chat effect, but I’m never in chat, and some funny hit messages. I’ll probably use it when I run a Muscle class next for the first few levels, but I tend to enjoy Myst and Moxie classes more, in all honesty. Finally, the Naughty Fortune Teller… we’ll see on that one. Although hardcore players don’t use them, apparently, cookbooks feel way too important to my spellcaster strategy to equip a different off-hand item, and I’m currently a Sauceror. There’s some debate on how effective it is, though, as in it might be close to if not completely optimal, so that might be what I end up using. I do think that the mechanic of it is really neat, though.
Anyway, I find myself in a weird position. I originally didn’t buy Mr. Store items because I worried about having this dilemma, about not being able to always use these neat items I got. If I bought them I was going to use them, was the idea. My snap decision, purchase, and enjoyment of the Crimbo P.R.E.S.S.I.E. I bought in December, though, made me think that I should just go ahead and try it if it looked good, and I’ll probably enjoy it. So I saw this, and wanted it, and I got it. And now I’m confused as to how to use it effectively…
Basically, I don’t regret my decision at all, but in the future, I know I’ll probably be making my Mr. Store purchases later in the month, after I’ve come up with a firm plan of how I’m going to use whatever it is so I can enjoy it to the fullest.
I am such a weird player. I play so sub-optimally, and yet I worry about how best to take advantage of things like this, you know? It’s like I want to be good, but I want to be good to my eyes, and not actually good. I don’t know. I’m weird.

So I expected my first game of Betrayal at House on the Hill to be today, because I figured everyone would be free and come over? But everyone randomly came over yesterday, and we played two games. Besides me getting insanely unlucky when I betrayed everyone and the normal learning of the rules, everything went okay. It’s a pretty fun game, but man, people weren’t lying when they said the rules were a bit off. There are problems all over the place, and there are these huge errata documents, and you need them to play. But so it goes.
On Jonathan’s random suggestion that new Haunts could be easily created for the game, I found myself brainstorming at work and then writing three when I got home. Who knows if they’re balanced, though. Also, I couldn’t think of any good names for them. One is named “Il Cartographer” for crying out loud. Who knows if they’ll ever be used. At least I got them out of my head.
Anyway, we’ll probably play some more later today, I think. Hopefully with a full 6 people.
I also finished reading I Am America (And So Can You) last night at work. It is a damn funny book. I enjoyed it the whole way through, and people kept asking me on break what I was laughing at and I had to share. If you liked America: The Book, or if you just enjoy the Colbert Report in general, you should probably read the thing. Because it’s an enjoyable time. Anyway, now Jonathan gets to finally read it, and I… I get to keep reading Watership Down, which I started completely on a whim. Why? I dunno. But the first 10 chapters were pretty interesting. So I’ll work on that, I guess. I don’t know.
I got things and things and things to do. And things. To do. Things.

So I saw the Producers tonight, and it was as wonderful as always live. They did a really good job with obviously less people and money than the last time I saw a touring show of the Producers. It was a good time all around with my family. Huzzah.

I have also managed to ebay up a copy of the out of print board game Betrayal at House on the Hill, which, from what I hear, is both flawed and COMPLETELY AWESOME. So I’m looking forward to playing that with everyone. From everything I’ve heard, I think it’s perfect for my group of friends.

Also, apparently Brer is offline for a few days due to some silly something on his school network? And I wanted to ramble about how flawed it all seems. Apparently the college got some blanket “these people are downloading music!” shit, and so they apparently just randomly shut people’s connections down. Brer now has to pay THEM money to check his computer for “bad stuff” before he can have his computer back. This is insanely stupid because one, they have no real proof, and have said so, and two, anyone actually doing anything illegal and thus is smart enough to, say, use a bit torrent client is smart enough to TAKE THE DAMN STUFF OFF OF THE COMPUTER BEFORE IT’S CHECKED. It’s not like they raided his room or anything. He just has to take the PC down to the computer center sometime and pay “it’d be really bad if you lost your connection…” threat money if he wants his connection back. Anyway, it’s really stupid, and I’m sad to not have Brer for awhile, but at least it shouldn’t cause anything more than an annoyance for him. I’ll call him tomorrow for more of an update, I learned all this while at dinner with my family in a noisy restaurant, so we didn’t have much time to talk.

Also Also, Rez HD is pretty sweet. I really suck at it, but I totally buy the whole “Synthaseia” thing. It’s quite an experience. Who knows how long it’s going to take me to beat all 5 levels, though. I managed to get through the first two today.

What other short update can I ramble about… oh, right. My phone. I finally updated my phone’s firmware today, after Jonathan was all complaining at me that mom couldn’t call me to look up a word online? I’m just a reference tool a lot of the time, because they know I’m on the internet and can look anything up. Anyway, I finally updated it, even though I didn’t have the cable it said I needed. It all worked fine, though. Hopefully it won’t crash as much now, and it added these nice little “mute” and “speakerphone” buttons which are a TON more useful than how I used to have to do it. Also, it gave me this free Sudoku game, which was nice. I like the interface in Brain Age better, but it’s pretty capable.

I tried to get my mother to play Picross DS today. She keeps actually liking the random games I throw her way… she keeps playing Bookworm Adventures because it “helps her brain.” So I keep trying to throw more of what I own that’s along those same lines at her, and I really love Picross. I think she was okay on the concept, but I have a feeling it’s going to be too complicated for her. We’ll see. She got distracted and didn’t get through the tutorial.

Rapid Fire Ramblings is a good name for this sort of blog post. Maybe I should use that, like how I sort of stumbled into and kept “Review Extravaganza Xday” and such.

Buddy Holly
Electric Version
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Dani California

I’m proud of it, if you didn’t notice. I still can’t seem to get any on Expert, though. Expert Vocals is so, so, so picky. Mm.
Also, I bought Last Train to Clarksville because I wanted to, so fuck all ya’ll who don’t want it, because I bought it and it’s fun to sing, so there.

Great Batman Story or The Greatest Batman Story? You decide.

So I find that, even given that it’s been a couple years (okay, apparently a little less than 2) since I played an Advance Wars title, I am still burned out on it. I played the first two on GBA SO DAMN MUCH. So much. I can’t focus on more than maybe one or two battles in a go, and then I just have to put Days of Ruin down. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing, well made game… but I’ve just played it so much that even the new and welcome tweaks to the formula aren’t enough to get me over my… boredom, I guess, with the core gameplay. Not bored… I don’t know. I just look at the next mission and in my head I KNOW how many turns it will take me to beat, and I just don’t want to go through that. So I turn off the DS until later. I don’t know. Don’t let these comments keep you from buying it, because, as I said, it is a very nice re-envisioning of some of the more ridiculous aspects of the previous game (Dual Strikes were just… obscene and ridiculous and there was no way they were ever going to balance them… or most of the crazy-ass CO powers, really…) into a more balanced, interesting experience. It’s good. I just can’t play it for long periods of time. Just like I couldn’t when Mario Golf: Advanced Tour came out… I’ve played so much Mario Golf SO MUCH. I love it dearly, but oh so much of it have I played…
I should do a Review Extravaganza Xday on Undertow perhaps. I dunno. Whatever. I’m going to try to beat another mission in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin before I get sick of it again.

So Droid totally bought an Eee PC. I’ve been wanting one of these for awhile, and I played with his for a few minutes, and now I want one all the more. The thing could probably fit in most of my big pockets, it’s so small. The screen was a bit small, but everything was very clear and visible… he was running XP on it and it was working flawlessly… oh man. I do want one.
Problems with me getting one: It costs money that I would have to pay, I don’t have a USB CD or DVD drive so I couldn’t install any other OS on it myself, if I wanted to install Windows on it I don’t have any sort of “key” with which to do that. I went and looked for how cheap OEM copies of XP are… good lord, they’re expensive. Fuck you, Microsoft, seriously. I’d buy a legal copy if it wasn’t 150 bucks. For 20 bucks more I get another Rock Band bundle.
Anyway, I was this close to buying one yesterday, and resisted… I can keep resisting, I’m sure, but man, I want one…
Oh, while researching it, I also found this. It can apparently like… streamline and shave down your Windows installation and stuff. That would be useful for installing Windows on that little lappy with the 4 Gig SSHD.
Oh man, I dunno. I’ll keep resisting for now…

So Brer and I had this like… several hour argument last night? It was over nothing, and my feelings certainly aren’t hurt or anything, and I highly doubt his are either. I mean, we were talking about Fallout 3 and stuff. But it was very heated. A little ways into it, I really wanted to drop it, because it was going nowhere, but I found I wasn’t letting myself do that. And as it kept going I think I figured out why.
Brer is a very informed person. Like… very. He seems to have facts on hand for everything. And, you know, that’s awesome.. It’s part of who he is, and I love him for who he is. But it… when I get into any sort of argument with him, he lists these facts, and I don’t have them in my head to point out where he’s wrong effectively. That’s also fine, in general, because, you know, I could go and read up on everything and stuff, and choose not to. That’s my call. I’m fine with making it.
The problem is he takes the argument or discussion out of the realm of sort of… vague intellectual debate and into fact-checking when he does this, and that means I can’t… win. There’s pretty well no way for me to be able to do it, you know, because every sort of idea I have to try to dismiss these things and bring it back to an arena where I can compete is met with more facts I can’t compete with.
I’m not stupid, you know? There is a difference between being informed and being intelligent, and I’m intelligent, but not always informed. But constantly losing and having my ideas shot down just makes me want to… want to win once, so I can say “See? I can go toe to toe with you.” I don’t think I’m that notch below him on the smartness scale, but I feel like that sometimes, and I don’t really like that feeling, you know? So I argue and argue and argue over nothing, trying to make him concede something, anything… and then it’s like 3 AM and nothing has changed.
So yeah, that’s why I keep playing devil’s advocate and fighting on and on once these things get started, even when I agree with him. I don’t know. Just how I feel.

So I played Rock Band tonight online with people from Talking Time. It was a lot of fun. I sang on Hard. I found that I am a lot more accurate if I like… sing everything falsetto and breathy and feminine. I don’t know why that is, but I was getting like… 90% instead of my normal like… 86% when I try to sing like the singer and such. Who knew? Also, I find I like Electric Version quite a bit even though Essner really dislikes it. I mean, not like Mass Romantic levels of like, but enough for me to seek out a copy of it. Oh well. Too bad for Essner, he’ll just have to not enjoy it as I play and sing it or whatever. Also, I found I suck ass at singing Reptilia. Mostly because I realized after I had picked it that I had never sung it before. Seriously, I got like… 67%. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is playing online with a full group is just about as fun as offline, though the malfunctioning of the headsets made it hard to… talk much. But oh well. Hopefully we won’t have that problem next time.

I should be in bed, but I’m not.

Also, I’m probably late to the party, but did you see this video of the Bionic Commando Remake for XBLA? I tried the original back when I picked up this little Capcom Classics GBA cart from work on the cheap, and I sucked at it. I’m horrible at old school games nowadays. But that looks to add more interactivity. And co-op? Fuck yes. That’ll get ten dollars of Microsoft Funmoney when it comes out.
Oh, and while I’m linking shit, they have this flash demo of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney over here. If you ever wanted to know if you’d like playing a Phoenix Wright game, try that out, and then imagine that over a whole game, because you do basically do everything you do in the games in that demo… well, okay, besides the investigation parts, but you know… the text… that’s the important part… if you like that.

I’m tempted to write something here about how my mom thinks I’m a failure and keeps communicating this to me in a roundabout, covert kinda way, but I don’t think I want to get into it. I think thinking about is what made me so drifty and unable to concentrate and quietly depressed this evening. I think I’ll just go to bed, play a little Picross, and sleep.