The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m still COMPLETELY EXCITED to play Gamma World this Friday with people. I mean, totally excited.
But man, the main rulebook leaves something to be desired.

I swear there is a chapter missing in this thing. The book makes references to things like “worldlines” and all kinds of crazy stuff, but there’s no section in the book which actually describes the setting. Now, I’m not a lore person, but still, you have to give me, as DM, something more than nothing so that I can create a setting that is thematically appropriate. All you really get is “crazy, destroyed world with mutant powers.” I guess that’s enough, but goodness, it seems a little questionable, especially when you have all these other elements showing up in your descriptions of monsters and gear which refer to things you haven’t referred to.

It also seems weird that, by using the rules in the box, you can’t create several of the player characters that the pictures in the rulebook show you. For example, there are several pictures of a mutated rat person, but following the rules, you can’t be a mutated rat person. You can be a swarm of rats. An entire swarm of them. But not a rat person. It’s just odd.

Still, I really like the card mechanic in general. I am looking forward to seeing how that adds random fun to the game. It should add some! I think that’s neat. I’m not so hot on the booster thing, but if it works fantastically well and everyone is interested? Well, who knows. Maybe. I still feel like they should have been stand-alone expansion packs of powers or loot, but I guess I don’t get to make the business decisions at Wizards, huh?

It’s pretty obvious to me, though, that Wizards has a potential hit. It does seem to be handled pretty badly, though. Hopefully they can turn it around. It’s still going to make for damn fun role-playing this Friday, though. I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes. There will be pews, pows, and things of that nature! Believe it! Like a Naruto!

I kind of want to write something else, but damn, I have like 20 tabs open in two different browsers, so that means it’s time for…

RETURN OF THE SON OF LINKDUMPING!

My good friends (note: I don’t actually know them) at Rocketcat Games are preparing to release their next little game, and they made a trailer. These guys have the very amazing grapplehook genre down pat. If you haven’t spent the dough on any of their more expensive games, and you should, at least get this one when I rave about it after it comes out.

This link lets you play Dominion online. The interface is a little rough, but it totally works. How badass is that?

Nothing will bring a smile to your face more than another Hiimdaisy comic dub. Well, at least, if your face is my face. Or similar to it.

Do submit comments on this new Proposed Land Use Action.

I don’t know what this is, but it’s been open in a tab for weeks, so… yeah.

This thing lets you randomly generate names of your Lands if you were playing Sburb. Which is kind of fun for a few minutes if you enjoy Homestuck as I do.

Here is a dice roll I made for Jan in the game I’m playing on Talking Time. It’s on this neat site that lets you roll dice and save the result in a thing where you can link to it, which is fantastically useful for playing on a forum. It’s neato, if simple.

Finally, here’s a link to this article about a manga I keep meaning to look up. I want to read a story about an actual, healthy poly relationship, which supposedly this is. And, you know, I guess there’s fucking in it too, which… well, you know, that’s nice too!

I’ll go ahead and leave you with that thought, I suppose. Remember that fucking is nice, too. Cause it is.

I have a test today.

I have no fucking idea why.

The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. Why do I have a midterm? What sense does that make? This test basically does nothing to actually gauge my skill. It simply makes sure I’ve read, which I have, because I’ve been discussing these novels in class for weeks. It’s just kind of crazy.

Hear me out. I’m a grad student, and this is a grad-student-only class. All of us in this class have degrees. We’ve done our time. We’ve shown our commitment to learning, and proven we learn. This is what tests are for: to provide a score that proves learning, and to give incentive to pay attention in class to people who aren’t fully invested. But we’re grad students. We’re fully invested. We don’t need to do matching on quotes to prove our commitment to this thing. You’ve already caught us. Just let us learn.

It just seems extra crazy to me, given that part of the test is a take-home essay assignment. The topic for the essay could, easily, be a much longer essay than required. I mean, I don’t particularly want to write a long essay on this stuff, but at least that would make a little sense. That would prove my skills at grappling with these theoretical topics, instead of matching quotes for no reason for half the test score.

Grad school gives me benefits when I’m working through complex topics in my own way. The reason I’m there is to be pointed at the “right” topics to be concerned about, and then see how I deal with and interpret them by working through them with other people. It’s not about memorizing quotes, and it’s not about getting 100%. It’s about actual learning, with people who want to learn. This test isn’t that. I don’t get why we’re having it, and it annoys me that I’m wasting a whole week of class time on this.

The best news ever has been announced, by the way. Figured I should blog and let you know.

Level 5 and Capcom are making Professor Layton x Phoenix Wright.

This may be the best thing ever.

It’s no secret I love both series to death. It’s a crazy-ass crossover that makes no sense, but now that I’ve heard about it, I want it so bad. SO BAD I WANT IT. It’s going to be fantastic.

Just think of the possibilities.

Really, this announcement just makes me wonder why the hell we don’t have more fantastic crossover stuff out in the gamespace. Why is it only Capcom willing to make these deals? I mean, it’s completely fanservice-y, but it knows it, and it’s going to rock in that regard. I mean, look! It’s classic Phoenix! Not hobo Phoenix! There’s screenshots of them apparently being against each other in a courtroom! There’ll be puzzles! What more could a fan of these series want? It’s easy to do, once you get the deal figured out, and both companies get benefit. It just seems like it would happen more often.

Alas, most companies want to keep all their toys to themselves. Besides, I dunno, stuff like Super Meat Boy, and some fighters, it’s not in the cards. But I’ll love my crazy-ass dream game of my dreams. You know, the one I’m going to buy a 3DS for. Because I will. I will be all over that shit, and it will be marvelous. I hope this game sells well, to inspire more such shenanigans.

(Also, I think I stole that title from somewhere, though I’m not sure. If it was your genius, thanks! It is genius.)

I’m writing this on my iPod.

You see, this evening was really quite horrible. Sub-par! Was decent before that, but busy. I changed some oil, beat a game, and so on. Therefore, my planned ramble about Lost Planet 2 never happened. And now I’m blogging on an iPod. Yeah.

This WordPress app isn’t great. Then again, any app designed around typing a huge amount of text is going to be a bad experience on an iPod, but still. The interface goes crazy when I rotate the screen, for instance. Not solid.

Still, I guess I have it to thank for having content today, however horrible, so thanks, WordPress app! I’ll probably never use you again.

Okay, time to try to sleep.

Edit: And now, it’s the morning after. How did it do?
Passable.
It claimed to have posted on the wrong day, which I fixed, but the twitter integration did work, which was surprising. I figured that also would have fucked up.

Yeah, as I said, passable. A passable app. Maybe it would work better on an iPad. Then again, on the iPad I could just use the web interface I’m using now, so it’s kind of moot. Oh well.

Linkdump day! Linkdump day! Hey everybody, it’s Linkdump day!
Sing that to the tune of the Cartoon Planet Mailbag song.

But yes, it’s that magical time again where I have way too many tabs open. I need to fix that! Let me fix that. Here, for your enjoyment, are some tabs I have open.

Here’s a very impressive little song and hand dance routine that I was linked by Brer. It’s fun! I can’t get over the expression on the guy’s face.

This link is me being excited that Tron Bonne was officially announced for MvC3. I know that’s kind of old news now, but I missed the offical announcement, and recently discovered it. I have excitement. Tron is my super favorite.

I laugh every time I watch this touching moment with Sonic the Hedgehog.

Val linked me this short film. It’s pretty damn solid, though I dunno, some of the music is weird. Still, impressive. Worth your 15 minutes.

Anyway, there’s some viewing enjoyment for today. I hope you have fun watching them. Maybe I’ll write something significant tomorrow! Then again, I always say that and never do, so…

I think what I’m really wanting is a respect for what I’m doing. That’s all. I’m not against doing favors. I’m not against waiting a little bit longer if it makes everything else go smoother overall. I am against doing these favors, and they are completely favors, if it isn’t understood what I’m sacrificing to do them.

I feel like my dad gets it. When we talk about these things, he talks about it in a way where it’s clear he understands how much I’m hurting, and how significant waiting is. He makes it clear that he wants to help, and will help, but that this is how he sees it going down the best. He isn’t really on board with the idea, completely, but he knows my mind is made up and I have to do this to be happy, and he’s going to do what he can to make sure I’m happy in the smartest, best way possible. I can respect that. I want it to go down the best, and I’m willing to do what it takes to have it be the best. My family is super important to me, for better or worse. I can handle doing something for them, as long as they’re behind me.

My mother, however, doesn’t get it. Every time we talk about it, it’s clear, to me, that she’s simply stalling. She’s attempting to discourage me, and she doesn’t have my best interests at heart. She’s being dismissive of my problems, and how much waiting is going to hurt me. She does not take a decision to wait as anything significant. She makes me want to cry. She makes me angry. She makes me want to go “fuck this!” to doing things the right way and just get it the hell over with. She makes me wonder why I am even trying to connect with her and make her happy, when she seems so uninterested in it.

For my dad’s reasons, I’ll wait till after the wedding, no problem. If it means a stronger connection with my family, and more support when the actual time comes and things get tough, I can stall for a tiny bit longer. For mom’s reasons, they can just fuck off, because I have to start living my life. I only get one life. I’m tired of wasting it, and I get absolutely nothing out of waiting in her scenario.

I’m going to keep talking to them. I’ll probably have talked with them again before this goes up. I hope things go better. I wish I had a solution to all this bullshit. I wish it wasn’t crushing my belief that things will get better.
I wish a lot of things. Of course, in the end, I have to go out and make them happen.

Mercenaries is fun.

I had always heard so much about Mercenaries, but of course, not having given a shit about any Resident Evil, I never played it. In 5, I wanted to try it.

But fuck, it’s hard.

To unlock more levels and characters, you have to get A ranks, a feat I simply couldn’t do. My brother and I tried the first area multiple times, and didn’t even get close. Twitter came in and attempted to give me some advice, but to no avail. I couldn’t do it.

Then I realized there were Resident Evil fans out there, waiting to help me.

It only stood to be the case that anyone playing pickup games of Mercenaries online at this point was really good. I hopped on Xbox Live and joined a random game. My focus was purely on survival. I knew I was dead weight, but I figured as long as I stayed alive, everyone else would carry me along.
I was right.
Soon I had unlocked several characters and maps! Awesome! Of course, then I got to the point where I couldn’t survive without actually being passable, and I stopped progressing. Still, I was having fun. The combat of RE5 is intense, in it’s own broken way, and all the balls to the wall co-op combat was addicting. I kept hopping into games and playing rounds until they booted me out for sucking so much.

It was fun!

I still wish it would have been easier. I could really enjoy the mode with friends if the difficulty was dialed down just a little bit, to the point where I could unlock all the toys and everyone could play with them. Man, though, that really is neat. Something like that with some custom classes built into the mix… I’d pay 10 bucks to play that online, easily. It really is a huge little extra mode.

Of course, it’s only significant to me because this one has co-op, but, you know. That’s why I enjoy Resident Evil 5.

A wise man once said, “If you’re going to cut it, cut it close.”

This is about the closest I’ve cut it on my “daily post” idea since I started it. Seeing as it’s already the day of this posting. Still, I’m doing it! I mean, I teased Brer about writing a guest post, but I was going to get something up here, dammit!

Of course, I never promised it was going to be interesting.

Oftentimes, when I remember I need to write one of these, I sigh and wonder why I put such importance in it. I mean, I know some people read it, and that is super cool, but I doubt anyone would cry if I stopped posting. (And now it’s looking like I’m looking for people to tell me they enjoy this and blah blah… not what I’m wanting, really. Just being unable to think of another way to say what I’m wanting to say here.) It’s not a job or something like that. Having a website is something I am paying money to have. It’s something I’m doing for me on some level. But what if what I want to do is play a game? Or sit on my ass? Why do I make myself write?

Whenever I feel that panic that I haven’t written something and it’s getting late, I know why I do this.

I am damn, damn proud that something goes up on this site every day, even if it’s mostly useless ramblings and very biased game impressions. I think it’s fantastic that I am generating so much text. Am I proud of all of it? Not all of it. I find typos sometimes days later, and I’m not golden every day, or most days, even. Am I proud that I haven’t missed a day in years? That’s right, multiple years? You better believe it. This has been the most successful project I’ve ever undertaken, and I think that’s neat.

Am I going to let the fact that I’m busy as fuck stop this blog? Nope. You’ll get bullshit every day. Come back tomorrow! I’ll tell you about Resident Evil 5.

My class this semester won’t talk to me.

I try, I really do, but they just won’t talk to me. Usually there’s always at least one or two people in a class like this that will bail a teacher out and respond, even when nobody wants to. I don’t have any of those students in this class. It’s a complete failure in that regard. It got so bad that I had to give a listening comprehension quiz the other day because they simply would not have any discussion about an essay in question.

I’ve had to break them up into groups with specific questions to answer in order to get them to talk. I really would prefer not to do this. I feel like they’re going to get more out of an experience which is less guided, where they are free to come to their own conclusions about the text, and then get feedback from me about how they did. It’s there they can learn that they can disagree, they can take other angles of attack, and they can pick what they feel is important. These are all lessons I wish I had figured out earlier in my college career, and I want to give that to them early. They just won’t do it, though! It’s frustrating.

Still, on Friday, I really got them to talk, due to something really stupid.

I put a list of discussion questions on the board, as I’ve been doing. Then, simply because I do things just to entertain me, I added an additional question. “What is the best artificial flavor?”

Debate ensued.
Every group had a different favorite. Cherry. Strawberry-Kiwi. Orange “drank.” Blue Raspberry. Every time a group voiced a favorite, everyone wanted to talk about it. It was amazing! The class could actually discuss things!
Of course, it then became really hard to get them back on the topic of essays. But, well, at least it’s something. Small victories.

I’ll probably attempt to refer back to this discussion when we talk about the Evaluating essay, as this is exactly the sort of topic they can write about then. That’s really one of the things I’ve found you have to do to be effective as a teacher: you have to be willing to let the random stuff work in and entwine with what you’re teaching. You have to make what people already care about relevant to what you’re doing, and not in a way that feels fake. I can do that with this. That’s good.

Still, I’d rather they have just discussed to begin with. I was spoiled last semester with a class of people who were really passionate about writing, even if they never turned anything in. Oh well.