The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I’m probably going to write more about Skylanders 3DS once I beat it, as well as do another review of all the new Skylanders I have because I am ridiculous and bought so many. However, I just feel like I should comment on how the 3DS game works mechanically, because I find it really interesting.

In normal Skylanders, you have your Portal of Power next to you at all times. By throwing stuff onto the Portal, you can quickly swap characters, add or remove a second player, or activate powerups. This is a really awesome process that feels very dynamic and natural. It’s also kind of a tense situation a lot of the time. “Oh crap, I need to swap to a Skylander with full health, but looking away from the screen to find my Skylander and slam it onto the Portal might get me killed, here goes nothing!” That’s really damn cool. That’s what made me such a big fan of Skylanders. That base mechanic of swapping out physical objects is just something you don’t get in a video game.

Now obviously they needed a 3DS version of the game. Gotta sell that second copy to crazy people like me, and get those without consoles proper hooked on the toys. However, the basic mechanics of Skylanders I’ve just outlined don’t work in a portable game. You can’t count on a player having the Portal of Power there at all times. You can’t hook the Portal of Power to the 3DS via a USB cable for near-instant transfers and swaps. You can’t expect kids to have their full collection of Skylanders on hand at all times.

Thus, they’ve got this weird storage system. You use the Portal to draw the souls of the Skylanders into these crystals. You can have two at a time, and swap between them, but you can only change crystals in between levels. With the powerups, you can store one of them to the R button, and it costs in-game radiance to activate, instead of having a limited use time in each level. They won’t let you just store every single Skylander and power to the game, because then you don’t need to buy Skylanders, you can just scan your buddy’s, which is kind of evil of them, but I also understand why that’s the case.

This solves the “I want to play but don’t have my tons of toys around” problem, in general, but I find it’s much less satisfying than being able to swap on the fly. The levels have Elemental Challenges, so you have to double check the level you’re going to play and prep Skylanders for those challenges before you go in, which, to me, is just a lot less fun than throwing in random Skylanders as the level calls for them. It also makes having more powerups less appealing. I can only equip one, and I’m me, so I’m always going to have the Healing Elixir. Instead of making you more powerful, able to do random stuff, you just kind of feel like you have all these powerups but none of them ever get any use.

Don’t get me wrong here. I am having a ton of fun with 3DS Skylanders. But it’s clear that this sort of thing doesn’t have the magic of the “main” game. It’s fun because I have the main game, and this is a little side story to fuck around with. However, I just can’t imagine someone with just this 3DS game getting as hooked on these stupid things as I am. The 3DS version just doesn’t stand up on its own, in my opinion, though it works great as a companion game. That’s kind of a shame, because the main game really is a lot of fun and I’m sure there are little kids out there that only have a 3DS or portable system who would love Skylanders. Oh well.

How about that Mass Effect 3, eh? That’s a relevant topic, right? Mass Effect 3? Right?

Yeah, spoilers or whatever, so keep that in mind.

Mass Effect 3 was okay. I was Commander Shepard, and I shot a lot of dudes and then there was an ending.

First off, let me just say that I really enjoy the combat. For some reason people keep being all down on the combat, calling it “not great.” I have never experienced this. Maybe this is because I’ve always played Engineer, a hands-off spellcasting class, but I love the combat in this game. I was happy to jump into the multiplayer and play more of it, and I was happy to shoot a bunch of dudes throughout the campaign. I personally think the encumbrance thing is a brilliant addition and really helps you play your way, even though my way involved NO GUNS AT ALL. Or, uh, bare minimum of guns, and only the shitty ones. It was heaven: a heaven of casting Incinerate over and over and over again.
Sure, the last encounter of the game was frustrating as hell, and I died like constantly, but for the most part? A joy to set dudes on fire. No complaints at all.

Storywise, the game was… weak? You do a lot of super-cool universe-changing things, like curing the genophage, but in general the whole story just seems… dumb. They want you to feel like you’re on this pressing mission to save Earth, but Earth is apparently okay enough for Anderson to be able to call you every two minutes and go “Man, it’s going bad down here.” You’re doing the most bullshitty fetch quests like… all the damn time for people. At least in Mass Effect 2, you’d be on a mission and just stumble onto something and go give it to someone. In ME3, you’re actively searching for stupid knick-knacks that people say they want. I just never felt like I was doing anything super-important in the grand scheme of things, like I did in ME2. I always felt like there was some stupid angle on whatever I might be doing that made no real sense.

Still, when you get out of that macro level, there were plenty of great little character moments in this game, and that’s what I was there for. I made a “funny joke” in the title, but I did think the Garrus Romance Payoff was kind of nice for not being more fucking. I mean, you get to do that later, too, but it’s nice to pretend they have a normal relationship thing going on. Hearing Garrus comment on everything that was going on was really entertaining, too. He acted like the one guy who had always been in my active party always, like he was. I doubt that was something that was modified just for my game and the choices I made? But it felt like it. It felt like he was talking more because I had way more history with him than any other character.
Similarly, I really rather enjoyed James. He seemed like a dude that would, say, actually be involved in shit like this, unlike some of the characters you usually get, who just don’t really seem that much like someone who shoots dudes for a living. He was a career soldier. He was also flirty, funny, and awesome. I really enjoyed his characterization. That’s why I brought him everywhere as well.
I was really sad that they got rid of Kelly at first, but Traynor was pretty cute and awesome as well. The way she tries to get you to fuck her is… pretty fantastic! I approved, and almost did it, but, you know. Grasshopper Man. Also, you know, I watched the scene and man, this game is pretty silly sometimes! Let’s wear a bra in the shower, but no panties! This is how an actual person showers! Clearly!

Anyway, I guess I better mention the ending before I finish this. I understand why people were upset about the ending. It’s just as lame as, say, the ending of Deus Ex: Hero Reconciliation, with how you just kind of pick based on nothing you’ve done earlier, really. It’s pretty dumb in that regard. That said, people who went all apeshit ridiculous stupid over it are just as insane as I figured. It is pretty clearly a sub-par to bad ending. But it doesn’t ruin the game or the games before it at all, really. It’s ridiculous to get all worked up about it. I mean, clearly, all the stuff with the little kid was fucking STUPID. Clearly. Let’s just move on with our lives.

I will say, though, that the one thing I enjoyed about the ending was the moment where the lady calls you and is like “Commander Shepard!” and Shepard is all like dying but struggling to her feet and going “What, what do I need to do…” That’s the exact right reaction for a lady who has done literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE GALAXY’S ERRANDS at one point or another. I liked that.

Anyway, Mass Effect 3. That sure was a thing. Glad I played it. It didn’t rock my world, but it was fun. It’s a fun thing to play.

RAPID FYAAAAAAAAAA!
Okay, never doing that again.

We have this new process at work that is going to add like an hour to every single shift, and it just flat-out pisses me off. Everybody has to carry this printout with all these prices on it. When we come to specific signs listed on this printout, which we will have to check on every single sign, basically, to know of, we must determine whether it needs a special topper or not by comparing prices to the list. All this could be displayed on the fucking COMPUTERS we carry with us and gives us sign information. They could SAY this stuff right on there. Why the hell are we having to do this? I don’t know. It’s extra frustrating because they keep shorting me on crew on top of it all. More to do with less people? Excellent. That’s what I want to be doing. Damn, I want to get out of this job.

I learned yesterday that I have 2/3rds of all possible Skylanders. I really don’t know how this happened. I didn’t try to buy like… every one. Just the ones that were cool, and also having one of each element… and then I got the 3DS game and I wanted a whole new set of cool ones of each type… and then they had all the adventure packs for sale at sane prices… well, uh… anyway, I own most of the Skylanders now. I will probably end up owning every single Fire Skylander before it’s over, too, because I know I will probably eventually grab the last Adventure Pack with Sunfire in it. Goodness. Well, at least I won’t need to buy any Skylanders when Giants comes out! (Ha ha, sure, like I’m not going to buy all the new ones, too.)

When I’m grading my student essays for my “students who need help” writing class, I always wonder if I should be easier on them. I can understand their essays. Maybe I shouldn’t be taking off points for not having a good point or not making it relevant to an audience. But then I think about what this class is supposed to do. This is supposed to prepare them for more classes. Without a basic understanding of these things, they are never going to pass College Writing, and never make good papers for classes. I have to push them in that area. I have to force them to learn this stuff they didn’t learn in school, even if it ends up with them feeling I grade really hard. Hopefully, in the end, the results will speak for themselves.

Anyway, lots of work to do. Best get back to it. Have a good day, everyone.

Cards Against Humanity is the best game.

Okay, let me back up here.

Apples to Apples is a card game many people like for these reasons: 1) It’s really simple to learn. 2) It feels creative, even though, most of the time there is no creativity involved. (There can be if you play the game the right way, which is to argue for your card with fucked-up logic, but many players do not do this.) 3) It’s competitive, but not directly competitive. In other words, you aren’t actively working to make another player lose, but you still get the satisfaction of winning if you win.

1 and 3 are valid reasons for liking the game. (And Cards Against Humanity has both of them.) However, once you really dig into playing Apples to Apples, 2 just kind of falls apart very quickly. The “funny” cards aren’t really that funny. Matching them with adjectives does not set up situations for laughter, really. Usually something is just wrong, flat out, or right. There are times where you can push the boundaries of what a word means, and it is those times when Apples to Apples is actually fun, but they are honestly few and far between. There is a guise of humor, but in the end, after a game or two, no humor really exists in the game. It’s kind of a soulless endeavor.

Cards Against Humanity, on the other hand, while playing basically the same as Apples to Apples, has a soul, and that soul is as crude as it is hilarious. The questions and memes the black cards put forth are, in many ways, entertaining in their own right. They’re often absurd on their face, and even when they are more standard, they’re designed to be pretty funny, no matter what card you play with them. Similarly, the white cards are written for comedic effect. There are “straight man” cards that are funny in certain situations, but also help to highlight how insane the more insane cards are. Little touches, like having the card say “Bees?” instead of “Bees” just show that this is a game made by people who get it. It’s a game where drawing random cards off the deck creates, most of the time, a logical and hilarious response. You will laugh while playing this game, unless you’re easily offended. It’s fantastic.

We played multiple rounds, and they were such a blast. We played using a suggested house rule, where there was a pretend extra player named “Rando Cardissian” who would just draw random cards off the top of the deck and play them. It was pretty amazing that, a lot of the time, it was hard to guess which card belonged to Rando! Similarly, it was great to really be able to play to the strategy of playing the cards that you think the current Card Czar would vote for. That’s sort of a thing in Apples to Apples, but there’s just not enough variety to do so. In Cards Against Humanity, it was pretty easy to pick “Harry Potter Erotica” for what kept Shauna up at night, or “Tasteful sideboob” for anything Spaeth was reading, and be rewarded for it. We laughed so damn hard, and I can’t wait to play it again. Sure, the game probably has a shelf life. Eventually you will have seen all the cards one too many times. But until then, fuck, this is an amazing party game.

It’s sold out right now, but BUY IT WHEN IT COMES BACK. Seriously. Do it. You will not regret it.

I’m playing this game of Arkham Horror over a forum, and it’s a lot of fun. But recently it’s just kind of occurring to me how messed up the gameplay of this game is as compared to the flavor.

My character in this game is Minh Thi Phan. She’s a secretary who stumbles across a copy of The King in Yellow, according to her bio. She’s also a spell-slinging, monster-murdering badass warrior lady. Well, so far. Maybe she’ll be organizing some files later on in the game. I dunno. But the point is, who she is on the card is nothing like her in-game stats and gear. I’ve armed her for war, and I’ve gone out and done war with her. Kamikaze attacks. Murderous rampages. That sort of thing.

Arkham Horror is based on these stories of people fighting against insane odds and taking on the unknown while probably losing. The little story snippets on the investigators and things like that really highlight that sort of thing: these are supposed to be, with a few exceptions, normal people thrown into extraordinary circumstances. That’s certainly, say, the theme of Call of Cthulhu, if you do it right. You’re fucked, but you’re struggling: you don’t fight head-on unless you’re in a really shitty, desperate situation. Sure, you can take it in a more pulpy way. In some ways, the cover of Arkham Horror does this. But all the flavor suggests the sort of desperation of normal people against the supernatural.

Basically, Arkham Horror is a game that doesn’t know exactly what it wants to be, flavor-wise. Even with the “weak” characters, if you make it a priority to be a murder machine, you can make that happen, usually. The “unknown” is pretty known, most of the time. Enemies appear and you steamroll them or dodge them with ease. Really, you’re more in danger of forgetting to play exterminator, which will you over because of the Terror Track, than dying from enemies the majority of the time. All that’s fine, mechanically, but when you’re also supposed to be roleplaying a, say, lounge singer that wants to find out what killed her boyfriend or something, it kind of strikes a weird tone when she’s going around slaying demons with a broadsword.

I’m probably thinking too much about it. But that’s sort of the problem with all these games, conceptually. I have such a great time, say, roleplaying Trail of Cthulhu games where everyone is actually as weak and in as much danger as the situation suggests. That’s really satisfying. But the mechanics of Arkham Horror, with the mass slaughter of enemies and collecting of their heads for fabulous prizes… well, that’s nice too. Still, it seems like there would have to be a way to flavor the game to make those mechanics make more sense. I dunno.

I guess I’m older today? That’s cool.

Anyway, most of the party times were last night, and it all went pretty damn well. We went out to eat fancy with my parents and grandparents at Olive Garden, of course. I got this grilled Parmesan chicken in a weird Parmesan wine sauce, which was fucking fantastic, and of course, I had some Zuppa Tuscana, which was also fucking fantastic, as always.
Awkwardness was, for the most part, minimized. My grandparents were polite to Aesa, though mostly paid him no mind. My parents continued to be awesome about it. There was some frustration about a card from my grandma with “Grandson” written on it, but I was expecting that and tried to shrug it off.

After that, I had a party with my friends where we played some awesome card games. We threw down in Cards Against Humanity, which was as fantastic as I had hoped, and The Resistance, which was received well by everyone. In-depth write-ups of those games forthcoming. Still, it was a fantastic evening: it had been way the fuck too long since I got to spend time with Spaeth and Essner, and Aesa fit in without issue, which was something he was worried about.

But yeah, it was a pretty fucking awesome birthday, even though it took place before my birthday. I’ve been having a fun time messing around and stuff today too, but having to do my taxes and going to work later really made yesterday seem more birthday-y.

Anyway, the haul.

I got a Teacher Bag from my mother. I think it will work for my purposes, although it’s strange 3 compartment structure might cause issues. I’m going to give it a try, in any case. Way better than carrying all those fucking books around.
Shauna, Jonathan, and my parents teamed up to buy me a pink 3DS! I’ll update my gaming info page with my Friend Code sometime soon: tell me so we can Swapnote and shit. I don’t actually have a game for it yet, though Skylanders 3DS is on the way. Heh. I’m going to save the Skylands again, motherfuckers.
Jonathan and Shauna also found a 3-pack of Skylanders I didn’t have yet, and grabbed that for me. (Well, I do own Whirlwind, from the pack, but I haven’t opened my individual Whirlwind, and I hear there’s resale value to these things, so I’ll just flip the extra unopened one and use the one from the 3-Pack.) That means I will have 6 new, unleveled Skylanders for the 3DS game (plus all the ones I already had: not all of them are max level!) which is nice.
Kale wrote me a very sweet letter and made some sort of crazy Minecraft shrine to me, which is adorable of him.
Aesa got me a copy of Tanto Cuore, the Maid Deckbuilding Game. I tried that today: it seems like a real interesting Dominion Variant without adding too many additional rules. Writeup Forthcoming.
And, of course, I got some cash from my grandparents, which is always appreciated.

Yep! Birthday Status: Pretty sweet. I’m happy, and lucky I have such awesome people in my life. ONWARD TO BEING ALL OLDER AND CRAP!

Sometimes I am just at a loss at what to do to help the students in my reading class.

Here’s the current situation. The chapter I’m teaching is called “Relationships” and it involves seeing what sort of organizational structure a paragraph uses. Here’s how a typical question in this chapter would go. The student would be given a paragraph like this:

The Zojirushi 16 oz Stainless Steel Thermal Mug is a miracle of modern design. The stainless steel construction is designed with preserving temperature in mind. In tests, the Zojirushi managed to hold heat in better than several other common thermoses available today. Similarly, the Zojirushi is designed with transportability in mind. The flip-top cap not only seals the bottle completely, but also gives you quick access to your beverage. A lock mechanism helps to keep it closed when you want it closed. Finally, the Zojirushi comes in a wide variety of fantastic colors to fit any style. Clearly, the Zojirushi 16 oz Stainless Steel Thermal Mug is the Thermal Mug of choice for the discerning Mug-purchaser.

Then they will be asked this question: Is this paragraph organized as a list of items, or in time order?

Clearly, this is a list of items, right?

My students can’t answer this sort of question. They’re trying, but they can’t, and I have no idea what to do. Usually, when a student has a problem, I can conceptualize where they may be having trouble seeing what’s going on, and thus extrapolate another way to explain things that would get around that blockage. With this, I can’t. I can’t understand how someone could be having trouble with this. Thus I just really don’t know how to show them how to figure this out. I try to point out key words within the text that indicate a paragraph is working chronologically, or try to show how the topic sentence of the paragraph wouldn’t work as one or the other, but they struggle. It’s not that they’re not trying. For the most part, I really feel they are. But something isn’t working, and I don’t know how to fix it.

This class has been by far my most challenging teaching experience. It’s all so… difficult. It’s difficult to teach people these things. Hopefully I’ll figure it out.

You’re getting links today. Sorry! I’ve kind of ended up taking the day off. Well, sort of. I still work all day. But I’m not taking on any more work! So here’s some nice links for your clicking pleasure.

The most important question: What would Molydeux?

It’s animated gif corner! We have only the finest of gifs that have been animated for your pleasure.
How about this gif?
Not the anime type? Well, how about this one?
Too many words? Perhaps this one is more your style.
Not a fan of the bomb squad since they sold out. Then try this gif.
All the gifs! We have all the gifs here at animated gif corner.

I feel like this one is pretty accurate.

You need videos? We have videos.
This may be the best glitch of all time. A massive improvement on the game.
Here’s a video of pure joy to get your day started.
Have you ever wanted someone to walk you through the complicated rules of the games kids play? There is now a video series that does just that. Please watch both videos, and they are both amazing.

See you tomorrow! At some point I’ll finish the dumb half-article I’ve been plinking away at, and you’ll see it.

I mentioned I hadn’t watched Chinatown when asked by my boyfriend if I had seen Chinatown. Then I was forced to see Chinatown immediately. I didn’t mind.

I’m probably lame, but since I played L.A. Noire I could not help but compare the game to the film as I watched it. It was just so obvious how many millions upon millions of cues that game clearly takes from this movie. It looks basically exactly the same, and not just because if the era. It seemed to be that the game was really trying to ape shot style and even the kind of grain I thought I saw. The music is like the same goddamn music. Same kind of stings, and everything. It was kind of crazy in that way.

Seeing Jack Nicholson being all young and shit was really weird, too. It was clear he wasn’t carrying all this baggage with him from his career, unlike in other films I have seen him in. That was pretty neat to experience, certainly. He was all being awesome and generally badass.

Overall, though, I have to admit it was a pretty fucking great film. It was a bit slow, but that’s because modern movies have killed my attention span, and it was totally worth the slowness. (Unlike my experience with, say, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which I just couldn’t stand because it was so slow.) It also made good on a lot of the memes and references I’ve seen out of context over the years. They still totally paid off.

So good job, Aesa. You won with this movie pick! Yay!

I’m still kind of sick. Did you know? I’ve been really sick.

Last night I wasn’t feeling great, but I had heard horror stories about what happened the night before when I wasn’t there. Kathy had stayed with them, apparently, and done a lot of pestering, rushing, and so forth. This basically made the shift suck for everyone involved, and they were there very late. I decided I’d call in and check on the situation before I said I wasn’t coming. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. If it was going to be a nightmare, I could probably push and make it in for my team.

I call, and it’s like the worst-case scenario. The only person there, and the one that would have to stay, was Deedee. I’ve talked about my general issues with Deedee before, and I won’t go over them again. Our conversation went like this.
“Hi, Deedee. I am still feel pretty bleh, but better than yesterday. I just wasn’t sure if I should play it safe or call in tonight. I don’t want to push myself and make myself sick again, but I don’t want to leave you all hanging.”
“Well, things go terribly without you around. They were here really late last night.”
“Yeah, I heard. But I couldn’t do it last night. Barely in consideration tonight.”
“I’m the only one here to stay, and I know nothing about it. Chris is here, but he’s not you.”
“Yeah, though he knows his stuff.”
“I’m not going to tell you to come in. But I don’t want to be here until 2 in the morning.”
“I don’t either. I’ll get sicker.”
“Well, I mean, it’s up to you. But you’re needed.”
At this point, it feels clear to me that she doesn’t give a shit about my well-being either way, she just doesn’t want to stay. I see the night ahead for my team.
“I’ll come in. But if I feel bad, I’m just going to leave, and the floor will have to finish in the morning, okay?”
“Awesome. And I’ll call in everyone early so you can get done.”

I get to work, and she hadn’t done that, by the way. Didn’t even try to call anyone.

Anyway, I felt like shit and barely got anything done. But we actually did get all of the ad done as a team before it got too late, even with me working at maybe 40%. (I spent a decent portion of the night laying down in the break room recovering.) My team is pretty awesome. However, I felt kind of sad we weren’t going to leave them extra work. Then someone said “We should leave them a stack of fake signs!”

So I did.

I took a few printouts, and put them on top of a big stack of blank paper, and left it on the desk.

They didn’t call me this morning complaining, so hopefully they could take a joke.

Anyway, I really hate this job more and more. I wish I could leave it but take everyone awesome I work with with me to wherever I go next so I wouldn’t feel so conflicted about wanting to leave.