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July 30, 2007
I Sorta Review Three Things: Flock Ver. 0.9, Mario's Picross, and Lucky Star
So here's a quick review of the new Flock. Once again, they've pretty well completely changed the interface. Some of the stuff they offer, I don't really want in my browser, but I understand why they put it in there.
They put this little bar of icons underneath the main bar. This has most of the stuff I had added to my original bar, so I don't mind too much. Some of the buttons on there I won't use. I don't see too much need for the "My World" page, although if I used RSS for things other than podcasts I could see me using it. It looks a lot like Spaeth's Google Homepage, actually, now that I think about it. So I suppose that's a good thing. Originally it was opening it in another tab along with my homepage. I changed that real quick.
Woah, I just realized I could change that little bar. I'm so doing that right now and taking what I don't like off of it.
Anyway, the fact that little bar exists makes it pointless for me not to use the Favorites Toolbar, because that little menu is PART of the Favorites Toolbar. I've never used it in any other browser, but since it's there I've decided to try it. So far, I've only put a link to Talking Time up there, but honestly, that's proved pretty useful as I check Talking Time all the fucking time. As far as other websites I need access to that quickly... I don't know.
The other big change, for me anyway, is that now Favorites, instead of opening in another tab (which I used all the time just to open another tab... but there's a new tab button I just put in that little toolbar, so that's no big deal) opens in a sidebar, like a lot of the stuff in Internet Explorer does. This made it pretty well impossible to look through all of my favorites. But this time, they let me put them into folders, so I took five minutes organizing them. It's actually easier to find shit now. Also, there's a "search favorites" function. So I guess that's fine.
I did discover a bug while sorting my favorites. I went to make a folder, decided I didn't need to, and canceled. Now there's this unnamed folder in my list that I can't rename and can't delete and can't add things to. It's just there. It's kinda weird.
Mm, the blogging window has spell-check now, I see. I don't agree with it trying to change toolbar to tool bar, though. Seems like you'd pronounce it differently that way. Thanks, blogging window, for telling me the correct spelling of pronounce, though.
Anyway, it seems to be working fine fine fine. If it has less random crashed than the last version, then I'll be happy, and I'm sure many people will be excited about how it has many more things built in. I can upload a video to Youtube straight from little upload button now, I think, as well as pictures to Flickr and such. Will I ever use this? Probably not. This just keeps being my second browser so I can have one browser open on each monitor with minimal hassle. But I like it. Anyway, that's Flock.
In other news, I really fucking like Picross. Okay, so Picross DS isn't out yet. (Holy crap, "Okay" isn't in the spell check dictionary? That's... a weird omission. Added.) But I did find a copy of Mario's Picross for the original Game Boy for a little testing. I needed to make sure it would be as fun as I thought it was, since literally everyone I've told about me wanting to purchase it tomorrow has looked at me funny. Well, I'm happy to report I'm right. Picross is a lot of fun, and every bit as addicting to me as Sudoku, which is exactly what I wanted. And it's selling at a reduced price, and would be much easier to control with a stylus, so I'm on board. I'm sure I'll end up typing up a stupid review of that soon, like I normally do. Do people actually enjoy those reviews? Who knows.
Tomorrow, I'm giving blood, so I needed something to watch on my PSP. I don't really have any TV series or anything I'm following right now, though. So after all the mentions on Talking Time and Megi actually watching it the other day, I decided to give Lucky Star a try. Check out the opening, it's all kinda crazy. The song is kinda addicting, though. I had to find a copy of it in MP3.
Anyway, the show's art is extremely, extremely loli. Extremely. It was really bothering me for most of the first episode. Even the adults look like little kids. And the content is pretty adult. Compared to, say, Azumanga Daioh, the content is a lot more dirty. Granted, it's not all the time, but it does happen. If you get past the art, though, the show is fairly entertaining. If it isn't influenced by Azumanga, it's in the same genre. All the female friends just sitting around and talking about weird things. It's just that they get to talking about MMOs and Hentai Dating Sims instead of Osaka's weird dreams and strange questions. If you need an anime to watch, it's certainly worth a go. I'm going to, at the very least, finish watching what's been fansubbed so far. But it's not really my favorite or anything. It didn't immediately capture my heart like Haruhi did.
Okay, that's enough for now. Back to internets before work.
Posted by poetfox at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
New Flock, New Blog Test.
Here goes nothing. If you see this, nothing is destroyed! Yay!
Posted by poetfox at 01:24 AM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2007
This is an amazing blog update. Prepare to be bloggified.
So this past week or weektime or something I've actually written shit. Two essays, actually! It's pretty impressive... wait, okay, I guess only one since my last post, as I mentioned the first one for Deadpan in there. He said on the show this week he had only gotten one entry for the Deadpan Is The Way Project, and since I sent that in, I guess that was me. Whoo! I'm first!
Anyway, I also wrote, on a complete and utter whim in the middle of listening to Deadpan, another essay about notebooks. BUT WAIT! It's completely different than my other two essays about notebooks, I promise! I just have a lot to say about notebooks, apparently. Anyway, it's called "No Need For Notebooks", and the Deadpan essay is called "Happiness Is You" and I'm going to update "Poetfox.com" after I finish this blog post for the first time in a long damn time so you can go over there and read them, if you'd like.
Oh goodness, they made Sharkey write an article about that witch-touching game. Recommended reading.
Anyway, in other things I've been doing, I've been posting on Talking Time and talking with Brer and Ecks and various other internet friends, which I'm sure is amazingly exciting. I'm back up to the Quest for the Holy MacGuffin in KoL, and I've managed to reaquire all the keys but Richard's Star Key along the way... which I actually should probably get on to. I forgot about that one until this very moment. I also beat the normal story mode in Lego Star Wars II. I give that game my seal of approval. It's not the most compelling experience for the single adult player, but it would be the perfect game to play with your kid, and it was charming and fun enough for me to play through solo anyway. I also deftly dodged a long conversation with Dai-chan last night. Shi's a great person, but shi's... I dunno, if we talk for too long about video games, we end up clashing and I leave in a bad mood. So I ended the conversation before we got to that point! Yay!
And... I dunno. I guess that's it for now. This has been an amazing blog update. Now to update my poor written crap site...
Posted by poetfox at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2007
I spent all day reading Harry Potter.
Here is the completely definately not spoiler review: The book starts fine, gets bogged down and draaaaaaaaaags in the middle, then has the excitement you'd hope would be there in the end. For a more in-depth review where I'm TRYING not to spoiler anything but I offer no promises, click here for my post in the Harry Potter Spoiler thread on Talking Time.
Literally all I did today was read Harry Potter, though. Goodness. Haven't done something like that in a long while. Wouldn't have done it if Brer had been around... perhaps it was good he wasn't, so I could blaze through it before spoilers attacked.
Man, I was wanting to write a long reviewish thing like I've been doing lately about Paper Mario, which I've been replaying on the VC, but I think I'll do that sometime next week, after I beat it. My eyes are tired. Also, I wrote a new essay actually, for the Deadpan is the Way project! Holy shit! I even recorded me reading it! But I think I'm going to wait to put it up anywhere until it runs on Deadpan... though if you wanna see it, ask.
I also wrote a fanfic for our Harry Potter release fanfic contest. It went over well. Everyone's was actually pretty damn funny this time around. Well, besides Buchhiet's. Because he didn't write one. But yeah, I'll get all those posted on the long forsaken Fanfic Competition Archive sometime soon. Until then, you may want to read our old Harry Potter fics. They're still awesome.
Okay, gonna lay down and rest my weary eyes. Tommorow, I am going to St. Louis for no apparent reason and then going to work. Fun times.
Posted by poetfox at 12:57 AM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2007
It's all about the Minimedals.
Yep, I'm still a part of Slime Knights, why do you ask? The website is all talking about the Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker now, which is fairly exciting. I'm glad it's coming over. I dunno. I'm sure I'll pick it up day 1.
Anyway, I suppose since I'm doing the Slime Knights link thing, I might as well talk about Dragon Quest. More specifically, I might as well talk about Dragon Quest III, which I've been playing on my PSP via emulation of the GBC version, since I don't want to dig out my SP to play the actual cart and also I'm fiddling with the homebrew powers of the PSP. Anyway, it's apparently it's a remake of the remake on the SNES in Japan? I didn't realize this, but I watched some Youtube videos of the original, and it seems to have added the entire system based on the "moods" or "character traits" or whatever you want to call it of you and your party. Basically, every character has a 1-word personality description that affects their stats, I assume. I don't actually know, because I've been playing without a walkthrough, which is strange for me in old-school games like this because so often there is very little direction in these older games, and I get pissed. It hasn't happened to me yet, although now that I'm off of n00b island, the place where you start, it may begin to happen. That Island was small, and it was easy to find everything important.
Anyway, the thing that amazes me about the GBC version is the almost pointlessly elaborate monster attack animations. Every monster has two animations, one for spellcasting and one for attacking, and they're... well, they're elaborate. It's almost weird to see the Slimes doing their little back and forth dance when they attack, or the little knights unsheathing their sword to swing at me. The rest of the game looks so low-tech, it kinda stands out.
I've picked about the most boring party possible. You've got me, whom the personality test at the beginning spit out a very accurate paragraph, and then gave me the 1-word description of Lonely. (I don't really think I'm lonely. Sometimes, maybe. I'm often conflicted about being around people or not. I enjoy being around people I like, but at the same time I often just want to be left alone. The paragraph talked about that struggle. "Lonely" does not indicate it) I have a Cleric, who is Alert, I think. I have a Mage, who is... I forget. And I have a Fighter, which appears to be a Final Fantasy Monk Analogue, because he can't equip much armor, all weapons lower his attack power, and he has really high HP. Anyway, he's Lewd. Which is a good word. Lewd. In any case, that's about the most boringly balanced party you can have, but I figured if I didn't pick the boring dependable party I wouldn't get anywhere. The game is already old-school enough that I will suck and find it a challenge. It's been working out okay for me.
The other thing about the game is a real lack of descriptions of anything in the game. I have some spells that I have no idea what they do, simply because there isn't screen real-estate to give me descriptions and I haven't experimented and casted them. What does Upper do? I really don't know. I think it ups attack power, but again, I haven't tested it. What does Sap do? I think it drains HP from enemies, but again, no idea. This kinda bothers me and makes me want a spell list to refer to. But eh, I'm making it okay. I'm mostly just playing this to sorta wind down in bed before I fall asleep. Do a dungeon or grind for a little while, then go to bed. We'll see how far I get. I expect to give it up when Picross DS comes out in a week or so.
I've been writing alot since I started doing these quasi-essayish reviews. Huh.
Posted by poetfox at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2007
Torchwood: "Everyone is Bi and Depressed"
I guess I'll just keep writing about what I'm watching, eh?
So I finished watching season 3 of Doctor Who (the final 3-parter started strong and interesting with the first two episodes, and then fucked up the last one with a Deus Ex Machina worse that the ending of Season 1), which was pretty good overall. Really good episodes balanced with really shitty ones. But anyway, I have no new Doctor Who until Chrissymas, so I thought I'd look into the spinoff show, Torchwood.
It's not really that good.
Now, the show had a lot going for it. The main character is Captain Jack Harkness, a character I enjoyed in Season 1 and I enjoyed his return in Season 3. The idea behind the show was to make a more adult Doctor Who, which would be a nice thing. There are moments in Doctor Who that feel restrained because of it's wide appeal. I'd like to see a gritty no mercy people actually die sometimes sort of Doctor Who show. That's what I wanted Torchwood to give me.
However, it's version of "adult" is what a 12 year old would consider "adult." All of the attempts at a more grown up show simply come with more freedom of language and sex. The sex is really kind of blatant, too. Not the subtle, actually sexy kind. I mean, the second episode had an alien who needed to fuck to survive. It was all kinda silly. And because the series is trying to be darker and more adult, the silly doesn't work like it does in Doctor Who. In Doctor Who, it's silly and campy and ridiculous, and plays to those strengths and that is its charm.
Also, Captain Jack was constantly reprimanded by the Doctor for attempting to shoot people in Doctor Who. The Doctor kept him at bay. Thus, one would assume that, while not with the Doctor, Captain Jack would shoot people. This is not the case. There are guns, sure, but outside of the pilot (which had a little of the silly retardedness I'm talking about, but it could be written off as it trying to find itself... it found itself, just not the self I wanted) nobody really shoots, nobody gets shot. When a problem could be solved easily by pulling the trigger, it isn't. This is disappointing. You're already hitting all the adult content flags, you might as well shoot some people. (Then again, perhaps that's a difference between Europe and America. We try to be adult, you get lots of violence and a little sex. They get a lot of sex and a little violence. I dunno. I'm rambling a little here.)
Add this to the characters, who, as far as I've seen, Ecks has summed up pretty well with his statement I quoted in the title: "Everyone is Bi and Depressed." Everyone is willing to have sex with everyone, because it's an adult show and there should be sex. Captain Jack's Bisexual flirting was entertaining in Doctor Who, yet he's the secretive boss, so we never see glimpses of him doing it. He's either all business or flirting with members of the Torchwood team. And none of them are interesting. The main lady appears to have went to the "you'll never be in any danger" academy of police training. Then there's the guy who keeps being important and I keep hating. He's bi, he's moody, he ruins relationships for fun, and I don't like him, yet he's been a minor focus of the episodes I've seen. The other two people, the asian computer search girl and the doorman hacker person, could be interesting, but only because I don't know anything about them.
Also, they hired a helicopter, and dammit, they are going to have lots of dramatic aerial shots.
Seriously, listen to the theme song for the show. Just the song feels like they're trying way too hard, and that's exactly how the whole thing comes off. I'll probably watch one or two more episodes, to see if it recovers, but I kinda doubt it. It's decided what it's going to be.
Posted by poetfox at 06:34 PM | Comments (0)
Farscape and the Importance of the "Fuck Yeah!" Moment
So, as I normally do, I realized something about how I feel by trying to explain it for the 40th time. So I thought I'd over-explain here.
I've been watching Farscape with Brer. It's fine, but it's not really grabbing me. One of the reasons is because it never has any "Fuck Yeah!" moments. Early on, the show was episodic. Every episode was just a new little adventure and nothing really changed afterwards. I liked that show. But then it changed to a character and plot-driven show with occasional episodic episodes. That show pissed me off at first, because it became that way incredibly terribly. I started getting used to it, but it's never caught me as a show like that because there are no "Fuck Yeah!" moments. There are no victories.
In an episodic show of this sort, every episode is just "let's have a wacky adventure and escape from X or find X" and nothing really matters. The heroes escape, or find X and it's not what they thought, and then everything is back to how it was before, and they go out in search of adventure next episode. However, when you're trying to have character development and plot, having most of your season be episodes like that does not fufill. It starts to feel like your characters never accomplish anything. They never win. Not even little tiny wins. They always just barely manage to escape. I cannot remember a moment in this show where I was happy to see the crew of Moya win. This is because they never do win. They just manage to escape, and may or may not be worse off from what happened. The show never makes what they do feel significant in the overall plot. It doesn't try to.
Here is an example. In a recent episode I watched, D'Argo got news that his son was about to be sold into slavery. The show made D'Argo get angry by this news. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier!" he yells. This turns this news into a bad thing. However, D'Argo's motivation is finding his son. He had no idea where he was, or even if he was still alive, until that moment. The should could have completely framed this moment as a victory. A hopeful moment. Sure, his son is about to be a slave, but WE KNOW WHERE HE IS. The crew can find him now. D'Argo is a million times better off than he was before. But it doesn't frame it that way. It's just another peril. It's not a small victory, like it could have been.
Every potential small victory is framed like this in the show. I'm sure this is a decision on the part of the people making it, to try to make it a show that is depressing and realistic or something. But as a viewer, it's not satisfying to see them fail over and over and over again, and for their only "wins" to get them back to the shitty position they started from.
The show, I'm pretty sure, tries to lighten this sort of thing with most of Crichton's dialogue, but I just don't like it. It's not funny because he's, 80% of the time, being an ass to his fellow crewmembers. At the point of the series I am at, he's been on Moya for at least a year, if not more. Him continuing to use pop-culture analogies to explain things to his crewmates is nothing but assholish. He KNOWS they won't understand them and he'll have to explain them a second time. Why he does this during emergency situations is completely beyond me. Now, when he's talking to himself, working out things for himself, mumbling to himself, this is perfectly understandable. He's trying to keep himself calm. That's cool. I could find that entertaining. But he does it when interacting with people. It just seems pointless and frustrating for everyone involved. I don't know why he does it.
Anyway, there is some Farscape thoughts. It's Pizza Hut Lunch Buffet time.
Posted by poetfox at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2007
I was going to ramble about something OTHER than KoL, honest!
Okay, so, beat the Naughty Sorceress yet again. Fun times. This time she was NS13-style, though. Which wasn't too bad. Just required using a whole day grinding in the Haunted Ballroom. I just wonder about how easy it'll be with a Mysticality class like I am now. Since she can now stop skills but it didn't seem like special attacks, it might be more difficult. Then again, Saucegeyer no longer has its damage capped against her, so I should only need it to land like... twice per form.
Oh, I guess I should say. This ascention, I'm Sauceror again. I know, I know. What about Turtle Tamer? It's the only class I haven't been. But I want Torso Awaregness SO BAD, and if I went Turtle Tamer, I know there would at least be something I'd want to permanent. (Something useful and passive, like Skin of the Leatherback, Wisdom of the Elder Tortoises, or, if I go crazy grinding, Tao of the Terrapin) Sauceror does not have anything to seduce me away from Torso Awaregness, besides perhaps Expert Panhandling, but I already have that permed. (If I had to pick one to do next on a Sauceror run, I would probably get Advanced Saucecrafting so I could delve into the world of Scrumpcious Reagents) The fact that the Sauce spells now have "splashback" against non-saucerors makes perming something small and spellicious like Stream of Sauce unappealing, and since I enjoy Kingdom of Buffing, most buff-spells would be an unimpressive choice. So Torso Awaregness it is.
And with it comes a need to collect shirts for my newly-found torso. I need a General Sage's Lonely Diamonds Club Jacket for my End of Day More Adventure Getter outfit, but otherwise, I don't know what I need in a shirt. The Vampire Cape and Yak anorak are appealing choices. Also, all of the Chef Staves are amazing, and I need them as a Mysticality class. So I'm probably going to collect a couple of those... not all, though, yet. Only ones that boost hot and cold spell damage are useful to me as a Sauceror. I'll probably leave the rest for future Pastamancer runs.
Oh, I just noticed I need Spirit of Rigatoni or a Special Sauce Glove to use these. Huh. Maybe I'll just leave the whole damn thing until another Pastamancer run and perm Spirit of Rigatoni.
Anyway, that's MORE than enough talk about KoL for today. I was going to talk about something else. But now it's late and I dunno if I want to.
So I'll do it later. Goodnight.
Posted by poetfox at 02:56 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2007
Liveblogging The Else
Hey, I bought The Else. Once TMBG sent me an e-mail telling me about the bonus disc of podcast content, I got out there and got it. So let's try liveblogging my impressions! HUZZAH!
Track 1 - I'm Impressed: I'm digging it. I am impressed. It's upbeat, and I could see me thinking of this song every time someone says "I'm Impressed." So far, the album is 1-0 (One win, one loss). I guess I'll put short versions of this on my twitter so it's a real live blog.
Track 2 - Taking Out the Trash: Flans song. Also upbeat. Catchy. No "Damn Good Times", but I like. 2-0. Ooh, the break is pretty awesome. (Is that what it's called? The Break? I think so)
Track 3 - Upside Down Frown: Linnel song. The music is catchy, but not quite my thing. It's about the lyrics, but they're not clicking. Maybe with more listens. For now, 2-1.
Track 4 - Climbing The Walls: Yeaaaaaaah, no thanks. The music feels generic for this kind of Giants song, and the lyrics do nothing for me. 2-2. Do like the Future of Sound in there, though. GO FUTURE OF SOUND!
Track 5 - Careful What You Pack: Weird opening. It's a slow song, so it already does little for me. Lyrics don't save it from my slow song hate. 2-3. Short song, though. Huh.
Track 6 - The Cap'm: Nothing about this song wows me, but I find I'm liking it. Great Future of Sound Solo. 3-3.
Track 7 - With The Dark: Old-tymey opening. My slow song hate is eating it. And... oh my, it picked up. Love these horns. And now the lyrics are getting really weird. And now it's getting exciting again... and... huh. What a strange song. I liked it once it picked up. 4-3.
Track 8 - The Shadow Government: Upbeat. Punky guitars. Not really doing it for me, but listenable. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. 5-3.
Track 9 - Bee of the Bird of the Moth: I've heard this before. It's slow, but catchy. Future of Sound horns. Yay! 6-3. Not going to be a favorite, though? But it's cute.
Track 10 - Withered Hope: Digging the opening. Oh fuck yeah. Great horn action. I love this song. 7-3.
Track 11 - Contrecoup: Eh, no. Slow. Generic. Not liking it. 7-4.
Track 12 - Feign Amnesia: Good lyrics. I dunno. Distracted by Justin Spaeth being a jackass.
Track 13 - The Mesopotamians: See Track 12.
Well, Spants kinda distracted me from finishing. Oh well, it's a decent album.
Posted by poetfox at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2007
No sir, away! A Papaya War is On!
Here is some wisdom from Justin Spaeth:
"His penis is only a dick's length away."
This has been wisdom from Justin Spaeth.
So, Phantasy Star Universe. If you liked PSO and don't mind paying the monthly fee, there is a lot to like. Being able to switch between Hunter, Ranger, and Force at will is a nice ability, though I haven't been a CAST so I don't know if they can be a Force in this one... Anyway, your TP is now, well, a weapon statistic. Each weapon you have has TP. Each weapon can be equipped with 1 or 2 Photon Arts, which are either neat special attacks, like a spinning vortex attack on the Swords, or the spells you're used to from PSO, like Resta, Zonde, Barta, etc. You equip Photon Arts to the Y button (I'm playing the 360 version), and X is your normal attack. Spellcasting weapons, like Staffs and Wands and such can have spells equipped to both X and Y, but have no regular attack. Switching weapons is very easy, and is mostly the point. You have a "Healing Staff" for casting healing spells, and a "Attack Staff" for casting attack spells if you're a Force, for example, and switch between them when you want. That, combined with new visuals and like 5 planets to explore, and there's plenty to get a PSO vet giddy.
However, as an offline experience, it's not as full as, say, PSO Ep 1 and 2 for the Gamecube. On there, you could do 2 player split screen offline co-op (you could do 4 player, but it really wasn't optimal. There was lots of lag), which was a ton of fun, and in some ways, better than playing online, just because it's someone you know who is right there. There is no option like that on PSU. In fact, you can't even play a lot of the content of the online game offline. You have to play the Story mode, riddled with cutscenes that are long and boring and serve exactly 0 purpose. Once you get to the fighting, it's pretty fun, in normal PSO style, but it's bogged down with all of that. You're also stuck playing as Ethan Weber, with his green space hoodie. As you play the story mode, you unlock Extra mode, which is "playing the online game offline," with all the character customization and stuff you're used to, but even when you unlock it, it isn't complete, requiring you to play through ALL of story mode to have access to everything. Also, all of the achievements are tied to this story mode, and put together really lazily, honestly.
It's not all perfect, but it is fun, and if you're willing to buy a GUARDIANs Licence (which is on top of my Xbox Live Gold fee, which is just about the stupidest thing ever), it's sure to be a great time. I'm enjoying the combat in the story mode, but I'm sure I'll be burned out on the game by the time I beat it and get all the achievements. Which is fine. I have another used game sitting here, and another that should be arriving in the mail tommorow. I should be set until Bioshock arrives.
Wingin' It 3D's lack of F-bombs is retarded. There, I said it. Also, if they really expect me to put a dollar in the jar for saying fuck, then they shouldn't bleep it out. Also, anything encouraging words that replace fuck but serve no purpose but to replace fuck (like, say, frack and frell) is an incredibly bad thing.
I need to accomplish things this week... yeah...
Posted by poetfox at 03:31 AM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2007
Primetime Adventures: A Report
Quick Summary: It was fun, but didn't go anywhere near as I would have hoped, and didn't end up seeming like something that would become constant in our playing rotation.
We spent a lot of time brainstorming what we wanted to do. Essner wanted a reality show because he wanted talking heads. Jonathan wanted crazy thing. Spaeth wanted Spaeth things. Brian and Jessie wouldn't contribute. I wanted something with a Monster Hunter, apparently, although I really wasn't concious of it. What we ended up with was a show I titled Necrofamilia. It would be better named something like "My stepdad is a zombie!" We did the classic boss comes over to dinner scenario. The mom, Jessie, doesn't know the dad, Spaeth, is a zombie. The zombie is apparently a brain surgeon. Jonathan was the "wacky" neighbor, who was a monster hunter obsessed with pitchforks. The boss, Brian, was trying to win over the mom's heart. And Essner was a 14 year old boy named Elizibeth (who would rather be called Z-Beth) who wanted his stepdad dead, because he's a zombie.
Memorable lines (which probably aren't funny without context):
"Oh honey, it could have been any number of European rock bands!"
"What else could happen?"
"You say that every time you come in here and it's never true."
In any case, we had fun, but I don't think it was a success. I know we're capable of laughing and cracking jokes like that while actually having a narrative. I just think we didn't pick quite the right... genre, perhaps. We needed something that would make everyone interested in the story as well as the funny, but what we got was just a loose premise for acting like an idiot. Which was enjoyable. There was much laughing. But it's not as good as it could have been. If we try it again, more planning might make it a better experience. In any case, that was how it went.
Posted by poetfox at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2007
In which I write way too much about my first Mr. Store item and then do other ranting.
So after seeing the item of the month for July in KoL (Bottle Rocket Crossbow. Not exciting for me, but kinda neat, I suppose, especially now that I realize you can pick the type of bottle rocket you fire) I decided I wanted the May item of the month. But it isn't may any more. So I went and bought a Mr. A, and then sold that for meat, and then used the meat to buy a Mayflower Bouquet. I was left with like 600,000 meat, too, which is a nice bonus, considering the most meat I've ever had at once in the game was 100,000, when I bought my display case. Anyway, so now I have the bouquet and I can't wait to try it out, but I had already used my adventures for the day. Have to wait until tommorow. Aww.
I wanted, it, though, because it seems like something that's always going to be in effect. If I, say, bought that crossbow, or a familiar, I'd feel obligated to use it all the time, because it bought it. I'd want to get my money's worth. I'd want to always use it's cool effects. But there's always going to be times when I'd want to use a different weapon, or try out a different familiar, or a different familiar would be more appropriate (like for grinding meat or whatever). But the Mayflower Bouquet... it gives +5 to familiar level. I would say 90% of all familiar equipment in the game does that. However, it also gives various other bonuses to things. Increased drops of meat and items. Increase experience and familiar experience. Occasional enemy distraction. And random dropping of flowers that give fun buffs. It is better than any familiar equipment in the game, completely and utterly, that isn't another Mr. Store item (The Plastic Pumpkin Bucket is probably better. The Lucky Tam 'O Shanter, miniature gravy-covered maypole, and wax lips are probably better in some situations. The Wax Lips are almost definately better during speed runs, for example), and those Mr. Store items would be hard to get. Whatever familiar I'm using will probably have the Mayflower Bouquet equipped for as long as I play the game. And that's why I decided it was a good investment.
That was a ton more than I expected to write about that. Wow.
I think we're playing Primetime Adventures tonight. FUCK YEAH. I even think Essner is going to play. It's exciting times. When Essner wanted to do something, I debated pulling out, but he'd do a great job. It's all about improv. If nothing else, I could watch Jonathan and Essner improv all night. They do such a great job. Anyway, I'll let you know how that goes.
What else... watched 2 episodes of Farscape so far. It's not bad. The title has little to do with anything except sounding cool. I don't particularly like any of the characters. They're just kinda there. Maybe that will change. I'll watch more.
In any case, it is Taco Tuesday, a nationally recognized holiday, and I must eat tacos and Potato Ole's and snuggle with boyfriend now, to prepare for Primetime Adventures in the future. AWAY!
Posted by poetfox at 06:03 PM | Comments (0)
July 01, 2007
It Goes Ding When There's Stuff.
So I realized today that my DS has gone unplayed for a hell of a long time. That's really weird. I'm usually carrying that thing EVERYWHERE. But right now, I'm sorta just waiting for Picross DS... Hoshigami Remix is tempting, but I haven't really HEARD anything about it besides that it is hard and is a port of a PS1 game and it similar to FFT. Anyway, it's weird.
But shit, it's been awhile since I posted... let's see... oh, here, look at this. That's a good start.
So Carcassonne Live. Sometimes, it is hard to get your tile to where you want it because it hops around the available spots so fast. The music also gets annoying after awhile, but you can turn it off. That's really the only complaints I have about it. It's a really good version with good AI for the computer (they tend to beat me... apparently I suck at the game) and it's totally worth your Microsoft Fakemoney.
Band of Bugs is also worth your Pointmoney. It takes the general concept of FFT, mixes it with a little Fire Emblem, and spits it out as a nice strategy game set up for short matches lasting no longer than say... 15 minutes. The campaign was fun, if a little short, but the map editor and Co-op off and online play make it a complete package. I had a very good time with it. I highly recommend it.
Other than those little mini-reviews, I dunno what's been going on. It's mostly been business as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary. Working, coming home, blah blah... well, Brer and I have been watching the new Doctor Who, and he's having fun, which makes me happy. It's just so enjoyable! But other than that...
NOTHINGNESS. That's what I'm all about. Yeahyeah.
Posted by poetfox at 01:58 AM | Comments (0)