The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

A long time ago, I played, and apparently did not write about, an iPad game called Dungeon Defenders: First Wave. It was an alright game: Tower Defense with a little action twist. (This was far before games like Trenched, of course.) It was fun enough, but holy shit, the controls on the game were AWFUL. This was clearly not a game created with the iPad in mind, and yet here was the version of the game on the iPad. I wanted a controller badly. The virtual controls were just complete ass. What more, the game was clearly designed for multiplayer, which just wasn’t going to happen on the iPad.

Fast forward to now. Aesa, being the person that Aesa is, bought me a copy of Dungeon Defenders on the PC so we could all play together. Finally, a chance to play the game with a controller! I plugged in my Xbox controller and prepared to defend a dungeon.

OH WAIT THERE’S A BUG THAT MAKES GAMEPAD CONTROL NOT WORK. Fantastic.

So after being INSANELY ANGRY about that for quite some time, as I am likely to do about the stupidest issues in PC games, we finally got down to it and played. And then wiped like twice on the second map. And then quit for the night.
Basically, we’re awesome.

I tried the Huntress, who really needs to pull up her pants very badly. (Seriously, once I noticed this, I got really annoyed that she was my character. She’s super-deformed stylized cute. Why the fuck can I see her ass crack? What the hell.) She specializes in towers that are really kind of limited use items, like land mines and gas traps. You have to keep feeding them repair money to keep them going, but they’re quite powerful when they go off. Also, her weaponry seems really damn good for being at a distance. Much more powerful than the Wizard’s stuff, even if she has to reload from time to time. She was pretty fun, though she would be complete and utter garbage if you were playing by yourself. She works well in a group, though, because everyone else has basic towers covered.

Even though we were REALLY TERRIBLE (seriously, the difficulty much ramp up hugely, or the game must have been much, much easier on iPad, because I had no trouble with this level alone) it was still a pretty fun game. I don’t know if I would have paid what they’re asking for it, though. Seems more like a sale sort of game, though I’m glad I get to play with everyone now. Apparently they’re having special events and ranked challenges and I don’t know what? None of that really interests me. Just playing with my friends. This game lets you do that. Thus, it succeeds on that level.

I have a dog. His name is Q. He’s very gentle and kind and friendly. He’s everything I want in a dog.

He keeps trying to leave.

Three times today he has escaped the back yard. The first was while I was taking a shower. He sneaked out of the back yard. I found him quickly, though he apparently managed to walk all over the cul-de-sac first. I found what I thought was the hole he escaped from, and blocked it with some wood and a cinder block. I then left for my appointment in St. Louis.

On the way home from St. Louis, I get a call. It’s the vet. Q was found at Walgreens, and someone brought him to the vet because he had the vet’s address on the collar from his rabies vaccination. Walgreens is far from my house. He had sneaked out of the barrier I made, and walked that far away. I freaked out. My mom and sister-in-law were already looking for him, as my Mom came over to check on him and found him not there, and they were relieved. I came home, tried to calm down, and made supper. My father promised to help me come up with a permanent fence fix on Saturday. Then I went to work. I left the back door closed, so that he could not use the doggie door, get in the back yard, and escape again.

I got home from work at around 1 AM, and the back door was open. Q had pried the baseboard off the door, which had popped the door open, because I didn’t think to lock it. He had then slipped out into the back yard, and then out of the improved barrier my dad put up. I found him immediately. He was behind the house in the wooded area there. But fuck. How did he do that? It’s completely ridiculous.

Now I’m sitting here, spooked. He was so happy to see me. He likes me. Enjoys my company. He shouldn’t want to leave. Maybe he’s looking for me? I don’t know. But if he can get out then, what can I do to keep him safe? What can I do to keep him here? Do I crate him when I leave? I don’t want to do that. I want him to have the run of the house and be happy. But if he’s going to do this, isn’t that better?

I don’t know what to do. I have to work a full 8 hours today. He’s going to be alone again. I don’t know how to keep him safe. He’s sitting under my computer, happy as can be that I’m home. He’s my dog, and his life is in my hands. I’ve got to do something. I don’t know what to do. I’m tired, and I’m scared for my little puppy dog.

I keep thinking I should get back to writing about the vidjeo gamez, but I keep wanting to talk about life. How boring is that?

Cara and I, as we often do, had a long conversation at work about stuff. This time, about relationships. She was confused about how people can bounce between significant others as quickly as they do. She was worried about her sister, among other things.

It’s in these sorts of conversations where one is supposed to respond, show how one relates via their own experiences, and offer advice from such. This is what I try to do, but I always seem to get odd responses from her. Like I’m telling her crazy things. I know she respects me, but it still just makes me wonder just how off my view on relationships is.

It’s not just the furry thing, although certainly I have taken what values from the fandom I like and incorporated them into my own. It’s of my own making, certainly. It’s obviously off a bit, if recent heartbreak-related issues of my own making have anything to say about it. At the same time, though, my view has left me open to bring in so many people into my life that I sure don’t want to leave, including my boyfriend. Is it that wrong, if it’s doing things that good? I’m not sure.

I mean, I wonder about this, but I don’t worry about it. Nothing about how I go about such things breaks my personal code or anything. None of it is a problem for anyone else. If they don’t want to be a part of it, it’s not a problem to me, and shouldn’t be to them. What I worry about is the idea that because I go about things the way I do, that I’m completely unrelatable. Like, is it getting in the way of having conversations like this with my friends? It shouldn’t, but if the conversation keeps coming to a halt because me trying to make reference to my life is awkward to bring up in company, it is kind of a problem. Isn’t it? I don’t know.

It just bothers me when it feels like I have to deny relationships I have, close friendships and in some cases loves, just because it’s unacceptable to bring those sorts of things to light. It feels like I belittle the connection I have. I probably feel that way from years of being squeamish about mentioning I had a boyfriend, because people would miss the point and think me a gay man instead of a bisexual woman. It really felt like I was being shitty to Brer by doing that, even though he told me, time and again, that he understood and it was okay. I don’t want to do that to any of my good friends. But then I overshare? I don’t know. It’s not anything I’m ashamed of, but maybe I should be.

Nah, I shouldn’t be. But still. A strange situation I keep finding myself in with this. I don’t know the solution.

I’m living in a house that I own now.

Yesterday, I was really nervous, frazzled, and out of it. I cried when I walked in the door. I was kind of falling apart. I just don’t like change. I really, truly don’t like change. Even when it’s for the better. This is clearly for the better. I’m out. I’m about. I’m on my own. It’s a whole new chapter of my life. But I was scared. Really quite scared. I may have had my problems with my parents, but I liked my home. I liked not being alone in a place. I liked my life.

After a day, I do have to say that this is the right thing. Once the internet got hooked up this morning, I calmed down a lot. Granted, there’s a ton to get used to. I’ve been trying to cook for myself for awhile, but now the training wheels are off, and I have to. I have a new member of my family, who has been lovely so far, but who is still a mystery to me and will take awhile to get to know. I have who knows how many countless stupid house things I have to stumble upon, learn, and figure out how to fix. My new life is just getting started.

But I sit on my new couch, and chat, with dog curled up next to me, and watch stupid Giant Bomb videos on my television, and I know that everything will be fine then, you know? It’ll all be fine. I’m still me. I’m living as me. I am me, unchained. I am making my own family. I am making my dreams come true.

I think this will work.
Now if only a certain wuff would get his butt down here… but that’s coming. That’s soon, too. It’s all happening.

Here is a story of a love affair between me and a bag of chips.

It also started one day, you see, like any other. I was buying a snack from the vending machine at work. I wanted one of my favorite chips: Baked Lays. I pressed the button. But oh no! I did not get Baked Lays at all, but Southwest Ranch Baked Lays! Disaster! Or maybe it was fate. The chips were fantastic, and I continued to buy them, instead of Baked Lays, from the machine.

However, recently, the machine stopped having Southwest Ranch Baked Lays stocked in them. You don’t realize how much you love something until it was gone. I craved those things. I went to the store and bought some, and ate like all of them. I destroyed that bag. I was in love.

Seriously, though, these chips are so damn good. They basically taste like a hot salsa has been baked into the chip somehow, perhaps using baking. It’s the only potato chip I’ve ever had that leaves a bit of a burning in your mouth after you eat a few of them. Like, you know, a good burning. A spicy burning. I love Baked Lays, but I understand many people think they are flavorless. This chip totally solves that problem. It is a fantastic use of a potato.

I am going to try very hard not to eat a million of these chips. I offer no promises. But seriously, I loved these chips so much that I added a thing on my list of blog topics to write about these stupid chips that said “Those Goddamn Chips”. Now I have. Mission complete.

Now it is time to recount my iOS5 experiences for everyone to love and enjoy. Something like that.

On the morning of the fifth eyeohess, I downloaded an iTunes update. Well, I started it downloading. Then I went to work, and worked a fairly shitty shift. When I got back, I was so ready to put some iOS5 on my iPad, so I started it downloading. That took a damn long while, like over an hour. But that’s okay, now it’s going to start installing! Then I can use it! Neat.

I get something that says “Unexpected Error 3200.”
Well, maybe the fact that I didn’t reboot when it asked me to was part of it, I thought, so I rebooted, and tried again.
Same error.
Well, maybe I need another USB port. I moved the cord.
Same error.
It was then that I saw someone bitching about it on Twitter. Apparently the servers were overloaded, and that’s why I was getting this error that seemed to have nothing to do with servers. What a great error message, Apple! Thanks for that.

Anyway, I left to teach, and came back to try it again later. It worked that time! Installed and everything. Neat! But then it said “Restoring Apps.” There was a progress bar, but it wasn’t like, filling like a progress bar. My iPad, meanwhile, didn’t say it was syncing. iTunes seemed stuck. The stupid thing crashes on windows all the time, so I just force-quit it. When I opened it again, the same bar popped up. When I looked at my iPad, some of my apps were there, but others weren’t. Fantastic.
I just happened, though, at random, to notice it was actually adding more apps. Somehow. Without syncing. So I just kind of threw up my hands and left it there. When I came back from work, it was all fine. Working great now.

All in all, it was a pretty shitty experience! I don’t know. I’m not a huge Apple fangirl type person, but they always struck me as caring about not making their users go through this kind of thing over things like having features, and being able to do what you want it to. They just always seemed to go so far out of their way to restrict functionality to keep people from seeing that. Yet, here I am. I really did see all that! It was weird.

How’s iOS5? I don’t really know. All I cared about were the notifications, really, and I do have to say that the notifications are great. What they should have been in the first place. Glad they just blatantly stole them from Android. My various board game updates are very nicely organized now. That’s all I wanted, and I got it. Maybe some other feature will jump out at me at some point? I dunno. But notifications! And so on and so forth.

Let me tell you a story. It is a story of deceit, deception, and death. It is a story of broken bonds, and broken promises. It is a story of one town’s struggle to survive against insurmountable odds. It is a story of ponies.

Mafia Little Pony: The Avatars of Discord

It all starts with a scream, a loud scream, from the library. It’s an inappropriate wake-up call for the town of Ponyville, but most go about their daily lives, only momentarily wondering what happened. They do not take the scream as the omen it is. Five friends, however, do heed the call. They rush to the library, panting for breath, looking to one another before shoving the door open.
The scene before them was not a pleasant one. To one side of the scene, a crying unicorn, her purple hair mussed from just getting out of bed. This pony’s name was Twilight Sparkle, and this was the worst moment of her life thus far. Before her was a young dragon. His eyes looked shocked. His expression was mostly vacant now. He wasn’t moving. Dragon’s blood oozed slowly from his neck, dripping onto the stack of books he must have been gathering for his morning’s work.
Spike was dead.
The five gathered friends gasped. They expected some sort of problem, but not this. The ponies stood there dumbfounded, unsure what to do. Fluttershy started crying, at the back of the pack. There was silence but for the sounds of sobbing.
Rarity finally broke the silence. “This is terrible.”
“Who would have done something like this?” Rainbow Dash asked, anger simmering in vocal undertones.
“It couldn’t have been anyone around here. Nopony in Ponyville would do… would do that,” Applejack said.
“I…” Everyone turned. Twilight was getting back on her hooves. “I will figure out who did this. I will bring whoever did this to justice.”
“And we’ll be right here to help you,” Applejack said.
“All of us,” added Rarity.
“Look, in his mouth!” Pinkie Pie declared.
Everyone turned. There seemed to be a piece of paper stuck in the poor dragon’s mouth. Twilight picked it up and read it aloud.
“My Faithful Student, I’m afraid send you terrible news. After your battle with Discord, I thought peace had been returned to Equestria. But I was wrong. Discord had a backup plan. He summoned six spirits, avatars of horrible things, into the world to destroy the Elements of Harmony if they were to be used to stop him again. Unfortunately, that means they are coming after you and your friends, bearers of the Elements. My magic has tracked them to Ponyville, and I have erected a barrier around the town to seal them away. Unfortunately, that also seals in you and the citizens of the town. You must find these avatars and destroy them. It will not be easy. They are using a powerful enchantment to make them look like any other pony. They could be anyone in town, even someone you know. They will attack you if they find you. Enclosed is a spell to hide your identities. Use it to move around the town in safety, find these threats, and stop them. I apologize for putting you in such danger once again, but I know that you, and your friends, can stop this if you all work together. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.”
The six ponies looked at each other. Then Twilight spoke again. “Spike was killed to keep us from getting this message. They didn’t want the Princess to warn us.”
“Poor Spike… even in his last breath, helping out…” Fluttershy said, sniffling.
“Girls, we have to stop these avatars. Let me prepare the spell. Rarity, could you give me a hoof?”
“Of course, darling, though you’re a much better magician than me.”
“We’ll… take care of Spike,” Applejack said.
“Yeah, he deserves better than to be sprawled on the floor like that,” Pinkie Pie added.
“Thank you…” said Twilight, taking a breath before turning to her magic.
It didn’t take long until Twilight had all of them enchanted. They looked at each other in wonder.
“This is amazing!” said Pinkie Pie. “I can’t even tell who you all are! Who am I, huh? Do you know?”
“Yes, Pinkie, we know it’s you,” Twilight said, “but once we leave each other’s presence, it’s going to be near impossible to tell.”
“I don’t like all this hiding. Let’s just go out there and blast them,” Rainbow Dash said.
“But we could hurt someone else!” said Fluttershy.
“Right,” said Twilight, “so we’ll have to be sneaky for now. Let’s split up, and gather information. We can figure out who these avatars are in no time if we all work together.”
They all nodded, and headed out the door, only to stop immediately. There was a gathering at the town square.
“…need to be stopped.” said Mayor Mare. “We’re all trapped here, and I have been told we will not be freed until this crisis is taken care of.”
The crowd was complaining loudly.
“We must take this into our own hooves. We must save ourselves.”
There was a rumble of agreement.
“So I am enacting a rare clause of our town charter. Every day we will vote on who we think is one of these creatures infesting our town. Voting is mandatory for everypony. Whoever wins will be dealt with quickly. Soon, with all your help, we’ll have solved the problem. I’m sure of it.”
There was another rumble of agreement. Twilight shuddered. She had read the town charter, and she assumed nobody else knew how serious those rules were. “Well… we’ll, just have to find them faster, before anyone else gets killed…” she told herself. “I hope…”

—

Players will either be citizens of Ponyville, one of the Mane 6, or an Avatar of Discord. Normal citizens of Ponyville have no powers, but have been empowered to vote and lynch, as per usual. The Mane 6 are the powered citizens, and can also vote and such, of course. The Avatars of Discord are the Mafia. They get a night chat, as per usual, and a night kill. They are also empowered.
The avatars win if they kill all of the Mane 6, or establish a voting majority. The town wins if all the avatars are destroyed.

Days are the standard 72 hours. Nights are the standard 48. Ties in voting are broken first by who has the most members of the Mane 6 voting for them, and if there is still a tie, then by dice roll.

The Mane 6
Twilight Sparkle: Representing the Element of Magic, Twilight is a master spellcaster. Once per night, she may cast a scrying spell and inspect a player, finding out their affiliation as either citizen, avatar, or member of the Mane 6.

Applejack: Representing the Element of Honesty, Applejack is a hard working, athletic pony with significant skills with a lasso. Once per night, Applejack may lasso and tie up a player, keeping them from using any powers they may or may not have that night.

Rainbow Dash: Representing the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash’s speed is unmatched. Rainbow Dash may choose to perform a Sonic Rainboom during the night. This will be announced publicly, though who used the ability will not be revealed. That day, her vote will count for double, though again, this won’t be revealed publicly unless it breaks a tie or something of that nature. However, the act of doing such a complicated trick will tire her out, and she won’t be able to use the ability the next night.

Fluttershy: Representing the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy has learned many ways to be nice. Once per night, Fluttershy can pick a player. If that player were to die from a nightkill, Fluttershy’s care will save them instead, leaving them alive. If she saves someone, though, she’ll be exhausted, and won’t be able to pick another player to save for two nights of rest.

Pinkie Pie: Representing the Element of Laughter, Pinkie Pie knows how to throw a party. Once per day, Pinkie Pie can send a message to the GM requesting an invitation to a private party be sent to a player. She can then night chat with that player the following night, though the identities of either side of the conversation will not be revealed by the GM.

Rarity: Representing the Element of Generosity, Rarity knows that good fashion can be helpful in even the most dire of times. During the night Rarity can elect to create a stunning outfit for a player, and send it to them as a gift. That player will wear the outfit the next day, and be looking so overwhelmingly fabulous that nobody will be able to vote for them. That a person is wearing such an outfit will be public knowledge. However, once Rarity has given such a gift, she won’t be able to give one the next night, as it takes time to create a new outfit.

The Avatars of Discord
Avatar of Evil: This spirit has been blessed with the ability to look into the darkness of one’s soul, and find out what’s truly there. Once per night, the spirit can inspect a player, and learn if that player is a normal citizen or member of the Mane 6. That information won’t be available until the next day starts, however.

Avatar of Lies: This spirit is made of pure disinformation. Once per night, the spirit can pick a player to forge the identity of for any inspections that night and any lynches the next day. The avatar may pick whatever they’d like to come up as their false report.

Avatar of Mutiny: This spirit is built to hinder co-operation. Once per game, this spirit may, before a day moves into its final 24 hours, put a fog of mutiny over the town of Ponyville. All players must switch their votes, and may not vote for who they currently have a vote on that day. Anyone who does not change their vote is considered to have not voted.

Avatar of Darkness: This spirit dislikes the light, in all its forms. Once per game, the spirit may, during the night, elect to make the next day shorter by 24 hours.

Avatar of Madness: This spirit enjoys playing tricks, and breaking down the walls of sanity. Once per day, this spirit can send a message to the GM requesting that an invitation to a private party be sent to a player. The spirit can then night chat with that player the following night, though the identities of either side of the conversation will not be revealed by the GM.

Avatar of Silence: This spirit is jealous of the voices of ponies, and steals them away. During the night, this spirit may elect one player to silence during the next game day. That player can only vote, but not otherwise communicate. No shenanigans with voting to get around the spirit of the power, please.

It’s times like these when you have to look at the good things in life. Like links on the internet.

Today was pretty shit. I had to take action about a lot of things and stand up for myself. I don’t like that. I like being positive. But when people are being assholes to me, what are you supposed to do? Sometimes you just have to call a restaurant you were at and tell the manager about the awful experience you had of people making fun of you within earshot just so you can not let it ruin your whole fucking day, you know?

Anyway, links, motherfucker, do you have them? I have them. Well, some.

Been grading to the Napple Tale soundtrack recently. Damn, that’s just so good! Here’s a new favorite track from it. Just so excellent.

Great cosplay picture? Or the greatest cosplay picture? You decide.

Someone is really serious about the writing in Oblivion. I found this pretty impressive.

Here’s a nice interview about Poison. I personally would like it if they just embraced Poison as transsexual, of course, but at least it looks like they’re making sure they treat her with respect, even if they’re keeping her in a vague space. Also, she looks fun to play.

I should probably write more, something fun, but I’m not going to. I’m sorry. Today is all out of whack… sorry. I just don’t know how to deal with this. How did these completely assholes decide to come out of the woodwork all in the span of two days? It makes me feel a bit paranoid. I mean, people can think what they want about me. That’s fine. I think many things about many people. But I don’t understand why you shove that in someone’s face. Why do you make a big deal out of it? Why is it a problem, especially when you’re working and it’s a simple transaction.
I don’t even know what I’m saying. Sorry.

I know you all were scared, but you didn’t have to worry. I remembered what I wanted to talk about. The Roku!

I bought my parents a Roku a long time ago because I thought it would be a simple thing they could use to stream Netflix, and that my mom might like that. She used it a bit, certainly, and watched some TV shows. It was nice. Fast forward to the Netflix price hike, though, and my parents just totally killed their Netflix all together. Thus, the Roku was unused. So I basically stole it. Then I hooked it up in my room just because.

Roku is awesome.

It took me like 2 minutes to download the Giant Bomb channel and start streaming Whiskey Media stuff onto my TV. Somehow this damn thing streams better than my iPad does when I hook up a direct feed. It’s awesome. It’s magical. It’s exactly what I’d rather be watching in bed anyway!

In a few more minutes of fiddling, I had Tested on there, and Crunchyroll if I am desperate for an anime, and what’s best, Amazon Prime Video Streaming. I knew I had Prime Video Streaming, since I have and love Prime, but I never used it. However, damn, Roku makes it easy and a fun idea. I watched some Next Gen with little effort. Huzzah!

The only thing that’s been a complete disappointment so far is blip.tv. They say they have a Roku channel, and frankly, that would be great. How awesome would it be to be able to easily stream, I dunno, the latest Chip and Ironicus Let’s Play? Super awesome. That’s how awesome. But instead all you can watch is their “official” shows. I watch a TON of shit on Blip.tv, but nothing I watch is one of their “official” titles, so I can’t stream it. Obscenely stupid.

Really, the entire experience is just polished. It could be better with a keyboard, or a search in the channel store, or a slightly faster processor and/or RAM to get in and out of menus quickly. It also could really use a way for me to stream stuff from my PC: if I can get a 3 dollar app that does that to my iPad flawlessly, there has to be a way for me to do it on a Roku that isn’t a pain. That’s just about it, though. It’s just a damn good little device. It was totally worth what I paid for it. I now wonder if I’m going to have to buy a SECOND one for my house, so I can have one in the living room and one in the bedroom. I suppose we’ll see how much I use it. But I am enjoying it for now! Buy a fucking Roku and stream some shit too, hm?

Molly has been really attached to me lately. People, including myself, have been trying to come up with theories as to why she’s sticking to me like glue and sleeping with me, when she’s never slept in my bed before, really, unless the parents were gone.

My mother’s theory is perhaps a bit too personified to be real. She believes that Molly is sleeping with me now because her and my father snore too much. While Dad, especially, is quite the snorer, I don’t really understand how this would be the case. Surely Molly would never have slept there if that’s something she actually minded.

My theory is self-centered. It’s also based on hormones, because that’s my reason for everything nowadays. (Only sometimes is it a joke.) My theory is that I must be smelling female to Molly now. I am really the only one who punishes her, and she listens to me more than other people. Because I’m now female, then, my theory is that in Molly’s mind, I have ousted my mother as the alpha female of our little pack, so she has to be all nice to me to earn favor. Again, kind of a self-centered theory.

Cara’s theory is one I didn’t consider. Cara thinks that Molly can somehow tell that I am about to move out and move somewhere else. I guess it’s one of the things that dogs can sense? Molly is trying to keep me around, so she’s trying to play nice so I will stay. I suppose that’s possible? But goodness, that’s some good intuition if Molly can figure that out. I don’t know what has really changed about my habits to have clued her in on that if it is true.

What is the real reason? I have no idea. But having Molly curled up with me is awesome. So no complaints here!