The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Thank god.

I mean, my time as an intern was a nice time as an intern. I really have no complaints. It’s just that it was the one thing that threw me over the top on stress. It amounted to a second job, and if anything, I learned I am not a person who can easily handle holding down two jobs. It was so stressful.

But now it’s over! Overall, it was a really, really positive experience. I learned quite a bit, and I got experience that I can wave in employers faces (and I will. Ooooooh yes, I will.) but mostly, what I got was a supreme shot of confidence.
There was always this kind of… odd feeling that “sure, I can do this, but I can’t do anything real” or whatever. A feeling that my skills, though seemingly applicable to actually jobs, weren’t. That there was something they needed to be pushed up into the “real” category. I can now easily state that that isn’t the case at all. Everything I did I already knew how to do, and I did a damn good job of it. DAMN good. I am a GREAT working, and an asset, and I deserve to be hired and I will do a good job. I have no doubt in my mind that I am qualified. Was it silly of me to be doubting it before? Probably. But I’m glad that it’s behind me anyway.

One more paper, some finals, and then one more semester. I can do this shit, and then I will get a good job, a good therapist, and be a happy, happy person. Yes.

My dad just sprung an early surprise Christmas gift on my mother: A new Dachshund puppy. She’s a girl this time, black, and has a bit of long hair in her. She is adorable. I’m frustrated that I don’t have any time to really get to know her until Thursday.

What? Cute puppy pictures? Like this one? Or this one? Or this one? Sure, I got those.

Yeah, this kind of came out of nowhere, but I have to admit, I’m excited about having a pet around the house again. I still miss Frisky sometimes, but it’s kind of past the point where I need to move on. And my mom is, honestly, kind of lonely around the house sometimes in her retired state. This is a great thing.
No name yet, though. We’re waiting on Mom for that. It’s her puppy. Dunno what she’ll come up with, but hopefully it’ll be good. Heh.

More on this as it develops.

So the other day I finally found that this stupid thing I’ve been wanting to try is finally in open beta, so I can try it. That thing is PMOG, or Passively Multiplayer Online Game. It’s basically a Firefox extension that you install and then it attempts to turn the simple act of browsing into a game. It sounds potentially lame AND potentially awesome, and I’m proud to report that, so far, it’s been pretty awesome.

Basically, you get two datapoints for every new domain you visit in a day. These datapoints are experience AND money. What basically happens is, as you move around the game, you get money, and you use the money to buy the tools to let you do the stuff that you want to do. As you do whatever you feel like doing by using these tools, you level up in different aspects based on what you do the most in the game. You can leave crates on websites to leave people gifts, set up portals to teleport people to other places when they go to a website, lay mines to damage people who come to a website, equip armor to protect yourself from mines, deploy St. Nicks to keep people from laying mines, and finally, set up lampposts as the links in building a mission.
Missions are basically guided tours of certain topics. I saw one that showed me a bunch of iPhone/iPod Touch games, for instance, where I found out about this. So as you’re browsing a site on a topic, the game will pop up a mission that goes to that page, which you can accept if you want to find out more stuff. It’s actually pretty damn cool. Alternatively, you could find a gift there from someone, or you could get mined for going there, or whatever. You can set up your own themed missions to guide people through things, or leave gifts for awesome people who visit the same websites you do. Hell, you can even work for browsing achievements for going to certainly websites religiously.

If this sounds lame, well, you probably won’t like it. But if it sounds vaguely interesting, I highly suggest you join. And then add me as a friend. This is my profile. I’m going to keep on leveling up, and I’m sure I’ll tell you if things get better as I unlock more stuff. I’m trying to mostly be a Benefactor and leave gifts and whatnot, because I hear eventually you can get puzzle boxes where you can add trivia questions and stuff that people have to answer to open them and get the goodies. Also, I just enjoy giving out stuff. See, say, my Pouch of Many Lost Things love.

So, on my way home from interning, I saw a guy in front of Little Caesars wearing a Little Caesars’ mascot costume. It was actually a pretty good costume. He even had a spear prop with a little pizza stuck on it. But still, it was kind of weird to see.
This begs the important question, “What the fuck?” Then, it begs the more interesting question, “why would they pay someone to wear that?”

I mean, has a mascot costume like that ever convinced ANYONE to go somewhere? My immediate reaction when I see someone in such a costume is “Wow, they’re actually paying someone to do that? Crazy.” It just doesn’t seem like a good idea. Then again, what was that number in my press class? That the average person needs to notice a brand or a product about 14 times before they consider buying it? These sort of costumes certainly draw the eye and make you notice them, I guess. And I mean, if it works, more power to them. Keep paying that guy.

Still, the whole idea doesn’t sit easy with me. Maybe it’s the furry in me, but I really feel like if you’re going to wear a costume, you have to have an affinity for it, whether it be a fursuit, where you’re bringing out the inner you, or something like cosplay, when you’re doing it for an extreme love of what that costume represents. I mean, I’m a huge fan of Little Caesar’s Pizza (Well, mostly of the cost to quantity of food ratio. There are countless better pizza places about, but none with such convenience or price.) but I would never be able to be excited about being in that costume. And you know the person in there isn’t excited, either. It just seems so wrong. There’s no way it could work out.
I mean, I remember an article I read about a guy who was working at Disney World as someone in a Jack Sparrow costume, and talking about how excited he was to take the job, and how extremely rigorous the rules and application process for such a job was, to be sure that they got people who walked around in costume that were excited about it. That’s the way to do it, you know? That’s what makes costumes, and being around people in costumes, fun. That’s how you gotta do it.

I am likely thinking way, way too much about a stupid little thing, however.

What the fuck am I getting people for Chrissymas?

I mean, I guess, here’s the checklist I always do.
Jonathan: Half-Check (I got an idea already, but who knows)
Mom: No Check
Dad: No Check
Grandma: No Check
Grandpa: Half-Check (Have a plan, just have to pick it up)
Brer: No Check (Have some possible expensive ideas but I dunno)
Friends Gift Exchange: ??? (Are we doing that? What?)
Festivus Gift Exchange: Mostly Check (Plan still requires some work, but I mostly just have to send stuff out)

But seriously, I feel like I normally have some ideas, or I have, you know, time to wander about in malls and stuff until I get ideas? But I totally don’t have time. I’ve been too busy. TOO BUSY. Ugh. Maybe after Finals, but then it’s too late if I need to order something online… it’s… not optimal.
I really need to get brainstorming. I really do. Hm.
The important thing, though, is not to let myself get stressed. I’ve done such, such a good job this semester of staying on the ball and doing things the right way. I can keep this going, and hell, I can roll it straight into Chrissymas shopping. Really.
No, really.

So it’s finally cold enough to get out my Slanket. Is that good? That’s probably good. I like a warm blanket, and dammit, this has sleeves. AWESOME SLEEVES.
At Kohl’s, though, there are off-brand Slankets! For much cheaper than I paid! OH NO! Half price! Are they as good? I don’t know. It’s fucking warm and awesome in any case. So I’m not going to be sad. Still, if you must have a blanket with sleeves and cannot pony up for what the website calls THE BEST BLANKET EVER IN ALL CAPS then, well, better an off brand, eh?

Oh maaaaaan, they have a nice green now. They didn’t have that color before. Not fair. Mine is Ruby Wine. I don’t even drink wine. Still, I couldn’t even pretend to justify getting one of a different color. Not when there are, say, awesome T-shirts out there I haven’t gotten yet.

…anyway, what was this supposed to be about?

Oh, it’s cold now, so I get to get out my Slanket, and I get to get out my coat, which I really like, though I wish it didn’t have those bullshit shoulders. When I move out, I am getting me two badass trenchcoats or something, a light one and a heavy one, and it will be totally sweet. Maybe. Hell, I don’t know. Do they make trenchcoats in lime green? Bright yellow?

But anyway, yeah. It’s cold outside. Have you been outside to see for yourself? Cause it’s cold. I’m a fan of cold. Well, more a fan of cold than hot. Yep. Still, no matter how cold it gets, I’m unlikely to switch from sandals without socks for footwear.
Yep.
I’m kind of ridiculous sometimes.
But I’m warm and happy in my Slanket, so nya nya nya.

Years ago at this point, I went to a Journey reading. I read poetry that nowadays would make me cringe. Yesterday, I attempted to fix that by standing up and reading at a new Journey Reading experience.

How did it go? Alright, I thought. I didn’t make any reading errors, perse. Got some chuckles from a few chuckle-worthy lines. It was about all I could hope for, really. I realized once I got there I had a lot of poems about sex, though. But it was cool! Really!
I was asked how to be introduced, and I had no idea, so Essner ended up telling Marsha to tell everyone the inside joke about how brownies and mac’n’cheese molested me as a child. Which was… an interesting way to start a series of all-serious poems, I suppose.

Essner, though. Dammit, he commanded things and captivated everyone. His completely fictional story, “Non Fiction” was hilarious and he performed it well. It was great. He did great. If there’s one thing he can do, it’s right a good, comedic story powered by dialog. Which is why he needs to succeed in his script-writing dreams. I do hope he can. He’s a fully funny guy.

Dustin also showed up, which was much appreciated! Much! And then shared that he was in some sort of relationship with the other reader who just seemed… like someone who wouldn’t have any interest in Dustin. And that was interesting, I suppose.

But yeah, it was a good reading overall. It went well. Not a huge turnout, but who expected one? It was good for me to get up there and read. And now I have.

So, Left 4 Dead is a lot less fun when you can’t communicate.

I mean, I knew this already. Talking with friends while doing something? Almost always improves a gaming experience. Hell, friends improve almost any activity, do they not? Even like, you know, sex with friends is better than sex with strangers. Maybe. I don’t know what I’m saying anymore.

In any case, the last time I played Versus mode, in the first round I encountered a pretty shitty bug. We started the game in split screen, letting Jonathan and Essner try the Infected. Split-screen works alright for the campaign, but it is nigh unplayable online. There just isn’t time for the one person with a headset to go between and co-ordinate both the other split-screen player and the people on the headset. Add to that the fact that you can mostly forget about your computer partners in offline co-op, because the AI is so good. You need to know where everyone is in online games, and you simply can’t see enough. Finally, when you’re playing as the infected, this helpful info box is on the screen. However, it basically covers the ENTIRE split-screen area, making it completely impossible to set up ambushes well, since you can’t see until you spawn. Don’t play split-screen online, kids.
In any case, eventually they left and so I left the game, killed the split-screen, and jumped back into the game, only to find I could no longer talk to people on my team. This. Sucked. All the energy and excitement I had in Left 4 Dead the first time I played with it online was all gone. It was a depressing experience of frustration.
Eventually, I figured out that what was causing all my chatter to disappear was having a Guest signed in who wasn’t playing. After I logged the guest back out, I could talk and communicate again, and then the game got completely awesome again. Still, it was pretty striking how such a great game can get so much less than great without friendly banter and strategizing. At the very least, it convinced me to never, ever attempt an online game of this. At least, not without having friends fill up my entire team and murdering the random XBL kids.

So my previously mentioned poem sequence keeps on evolving, though I think it’s to its final form. It turns out what I really wanted to write was a poem sequence following a couple, first with the man of this couple coming to terms with their relationship, and then briefly showing the woman’s side of things with one last poem. All of this following the track list of These Are The Good Times, People by The Presidents of the United States of America. Yeah, it’s kind of weird.
Still, I feel like it’s working well. There’s still a lot of tweaking to do, and there’s still about half of it to write (I had to scrap some of my earlier poems, though alright, once the theme got reined in.) but the individual poems are up to my standards for myself, which is always nice, and if nothing else, I feel like I’m painting a really nice picture. I hope it comes across.

Am I getting to close to this project, though? I wonder. I got really mad at Brer earlier due to how he was criticizing what I was showing him. I love constructive criticism. I mean, there are some things I won’t budge on (like, uh, my use of parenthesis. Sometimes I can use them better, which I’m happy to hear if that’s the case. But their inclusion kind of makes my poems work in my eyes. I’m not going to cut them.) but for the most part I love hearing different viewpoints so I can look at my work and think about how to make it so the reader sees my viewpoints. I don’t get enough of it.
I mean, I think a lot of it was my bad mood at the time combined with how easily I get mad at Brer when he argues with me. He just loves to put things in the exact wrong way to push my buttons, and it’s got to the point that even when he says things that just suggest that manner of speaking, I jump on him because I feel it’s going there. Not fair, I know, but I follow my emotions for better or worse. Life doesn’t work well if I don’t.
But seriously, is it that I can’t take criticism? It concerns me. I really don’t want to be that guy, and though I’m proud of what I make, I’m not pretending that my art is… I dunno… Art. It’s just neat things I do. That I hopefully might get published some day. But I don’t have any delusions that I’m some master artist, do I?
Damn, I dunno.

So I got Left 4 Dead and I’ve had one solid night of trying it.

Holy crap. Seriously.

We only had 6 players, but with 8 players? It would be bliss. This is by far one of the best multiplayer games around. Hands. Down.
We started by playing the Campaign, of course. Four of us trying to beat No Mercy. Advanced is much harder than in the demo, it seems. We couldn’t beat it! Wave after wave… it was so very intense. And even though we kept dying, it was a ton of fun. Still, eventually we decided to try to see something else, and joined up with another couple of people, and played Versus mode.
Now, I wasn’t buying this game for the versus mode. I figured I wouldn’t like it much. Picking on people as the infected didn’t seem like fun, and I just wanted the co-operative teamwork of the campaign.
I was so very wrong.
Campaign mode is great, don’t get me wrong, but Versus mode is probably THE BEST competitive multiplayer experience I have been a part of. The sides are small enough to be intimate, and you are constantly working with each other and talking strategy on both sides of the equation. It plays different as the survivors because, with the increased special zombie count and knowing there are human players behind them, you really have to be careful about things like stopping to heal… anything. You have to clear rooms, check every one for an ambush. I mean, you do in the single player, to the extent, but knowing your opponents are scheming makes it even more intense.
And the Infected! Dammit, that was fun shit. I expected it to be boring, since you spend the majority of your time respawning. But now, you’re spending that time scheming with your fellow zombies and cheering them on when they manage to pounce someone or get a swarm after them. I thought it was going to be a more solo rogue experience, but you are just as co-ordinated and a team as the survivors, and when you catch them in a good trap, it’s fucking sweet. But that just makes you all the more nervous next round, knowing they’re trying to top it.

I am so high from… gods, what, three hours of gameplay? A versus match is an all night affair, but it is a FUCKING SWEET all night affair. I hope we can play so, so many more of these. And that’s just the first impression from ONE CAMPAIGN. I haven’t even tried the levels that weren’t in the demo yet.

Man, I can’t fucking wait.