The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

FUCK YES! I AM FINALLY OUT OF MY FUCKING SYMPATHY HARDCORE RUN! Man, that was… man. I’m so happy. Here’s how it went. 41 days! And the worst part is, like I decided I wanted to do things in the mall in the middle of it, before my birthday. Gaaaaaah… well, at least I Hardcore Permed Sympathy, like I said. That is never going to be useless. But man, no more pathed Hardcore runs for me… my next Hardcore run is going to be no path, I swear… and is not going to be for awhile. Normal FTW, mann. I am so not optimal or hardcore.
But yeah, so me getting out of it meant I finally got to splurge on those Mr. Familiars I wanted! So I did! I’m now the proud owner of Garland the Ancient Yuletide Troll and Richard Aldente, the Penguin Goodfella. I’m not sure on my penguin’s name, (let me know if you have a better one) but I quite like the one for my troll. As per plans I think I previously outlined here, I’m going to do an almost 100% Penguin Goodfella with “gentleman’s” magazine run this time around, and then next one is probably going to be back to the good ol’ Mayflower Bouquet with the Troll… probably a Seal Clubber run, too, I think, to try out the Origami Riding Crop. (By the way, if you don’t get why the crop is good (Okay, okay, just when compared to normal items and not other Mr. Store items, where it might be kinda lacking, but I don’t have those Mr. Store items nor would pay the high prices for them) notice that it has no requirements to equip is and probably a good 70 or more power over anything you can equip out of the gate, plus the added Sleaze Damage. The real benefit is the chat effect, Innuendo Shopping, though.) Yeah, might go normal teetotaller, too, and get Pulverize… or if not, one of their great passive buffs, like Hide of the Walrus… but that’s in the future.
For this run, I’m going with Advanced Saucecrafting and seeing what all the fuss is about with those buff potions and such. I’m also experimenting, for the first time, with +Monster Level stuff. I figure I can do this because the Penguin (which, when I have a good supply of hit contracts, delevels every fight for a good amount. This was apparently considered a nerf when it came out, but I found myself annoyed that he wasn’t deleveling sometimes when he gave me a contract, since I’d have to use the contract to survive at that point. I don’t think I’d like him as much constantly giving out contracts… then again, I KNEW what it did before I picked it up, whereas those calling it a nerf was using it in its previous form before where it gave out contracts like candy, so…) should keep it in check. I tried maxing it from the beginning, but that went bad… (Luckily, I had summoned a Personal Massager) so I’ve had the Mind Control Device to around 5 or 6 this first day and it seemed to work pretty good. Supposedly I was getting more stats, too, though I don’t pay enough attention. We’ll see what happens when he gets up to full weight, if I can put it to 11 with no ill effects… by that time I should be spellslinging anyway, so missing with melee attacks won’t matter much.
Another thing I wanted to point out is, as I was playing with the Hatrack, I kept wishing I could find a good Potato/Ghuol Whelp hybrid, and I just realized that the two Mr. Store familiar equipments I have let me give either Whelp or Potato capabilities to any familiar. (granted, the Bouquet does a lot more and is thus probably better in general, but, you know, it’s not part of a set of five different things you can switch between) I have good taste in Mr. Store equipment, is what I’m saying. I know what’s going to make the game more fun for me. Heh.
Oh, I also find I have over 2 million in liquid meat. That’s a custom title or half a Mr. Accessory. That’s exciting! Maybe in another year of play I’ll have enough for a free one. Heh.

In Twilight Heroes news, I guess I’m grinding for chips again. Heh. I’m out of merit badges I want to work for. (I’m just going to buy the baseball bats for Joltin’ Joe Sombrero because, I dunno, it sounds extra boring and I’m not working towards hitting level 50 that way like I was in the other zones with sort of relevant enemies) So, you know, I guess I work towards having enough silver stars to get a free IoTM sometime. At least I have significantly better farming equipment than last time I tried.
I do want to know what the hell the Amazing Technicolor Dreampants do. Because, I mean, come on. They’re Rainbow DREAMPANTS. They supposedly do random things in battle… healings… damages… I don’t know. If they’ll be entertaining to me, I’d get them, but I’ve not gotten a clear indicator as to what they do. We’ll see, I suppose.

And I guess that’s it, for now. I’ve been really tired and that’s been making me moody, but I have done my best to persevere! Also, in writing this post, Ecks has already given me half of a MUCH better Penguin name, so that’s awesome. Yay!
Bye!

Happy April Salad Day everyone. I hope your salad has been going salad! Mine salad has been.
Salad.

So I was going to write a full review of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, but then realized I didn’t want to, so here’s the short version. The game is good. It’ll tap into FFVII nostalgia that you didn’t know you had because you’ve since become a gaming hipster and FFVII is no longer in style. The combat system is really quite deep, being an improved version of Kingdom Hearts, basically. The Roulette wheel is completely random and not really a system like the game tries to make it out as, but I like random. It’s a good game. If only it wasn’t $40 bucks. Damn you, Squenix.

Quick KoL stuff I want to just say… I’ve abandoned Lucre for the rest of my run. This makes me sad, but I am sick and fucking tired of being in Hardcore. This’ll really speed things up. Today’s salad slowed me down a bit, though, but hopefully, like this, I’ll be done before the end of the week. I also picked up a Sp’n-Zor’s Grimoire of “Tasteful” Gifts, which is a new kind of Grimoire, obviously, and I look forward to loving it. But again, I am now oddly playing for speed, so besides summoning my “Tasteful” Gifts for the day, I’m probably not going to mess around with it much until I ascend. First impressions, though, are that the personal massager is completely awesome and that as someone who is suboptimal and does rest, the various decorations should get me to rest at the campsite instead of on my clan’s couch, so that’s neat. Also, it still needs to be spaded, but if what it’s saying is true, the Cheap Studded Belt could come in VERY handy during boss fights.

My current “Best of 2008 April Salad Prank” is probably this, and yes, it’s not about salad. Well, maybe a little salad. It’s just so… realistic. I could totally see Hollywood making that trailer.

I guess that’s all I wanted to say. Salad.

So I’m reading up on the rules for Dunwich Horror. Looks great, as a fan of Arkham Horror. Just more stuff all around, and some really harsh “kick them when they’re down” sort of effects that could really screw us over in the right situations, or be perfectly fine in others. I love it. We rarely have trouble with the base game with Curse of the Dark Pharaoh mixed in. I’d like more challenge.
In any case, this makes me go and look up about the other small card expansion, the King in Yellow, that’s out. It sounds pretty awesome too, I will admit, and it introduces these things called Heralds, which are alternate sets of rules for a greater challenge in which there’s a great monster or being whose appearance heralds the appearance of an Elder God. These Heralds are extra-deadly if combined with a certain Elder God, but really annoying otherwise… so they have the Herald The King in Yellow in the box of that one, and they’ve put more, free Heralds on their website for The Dunwich Horror and the Dark Pharaoh, to be used with those two expansions if you have them and want that extra challenge. Those almost look a little too hard, though. We’ve got plenty to get used to here, first.

Anyway, the reason I was rambling about this was to get to the point where I was looking up reviews and information on Board Game Geek, which is a site that could really be set up better but has a lot of info. Everyone on there was talking about how they don’t mix in the cards from the little expansion and find it much more enjoyable to use them from time to time using the “Traveling show/exhibit” rules in each set, and that just mixing them all in and playing with everything they found to be a really bad experience.
Now, all this is certainly personal preference, but I don’t get that at all. We tried playing Curse of the Dark Pharaoh in that “Traveling Exhibit” mode, and it kinda sucked. It sort of just removed all of the base stuff from the game that we liked, and replaced it with these other mechanics, not to mention a ton of these Exhibit Items, which, besides Parchment of Elder Sign and that one bell thing, all really kinda suck. Now, as something you get occasionally, those items are fine. The kickassness of getting lucky and getting a Parchment of Elder Sign is awesome, and the various masks don’t feel as useless when you only have one instead of 3 or 4. But basically, everyone decided “Let’s never do this again” and we mixed in all the cards and have been happy since.
Using these small expansions by themselves doesn’t really fix the one thing that I’m buying expansions to fix, and that is repetition. You’re playing with a much smaller card pool than the base game when you use these things in “Traveling” mode. Maybe it’s just the way we play, but it is not hard for us to flip through an entire deck of encounter cards in a game, so when you have even LESS encounter cards, you get repeat encounters, which just sucks. I want MORE things that can happen. That’s why I want more cards. I want to draw different things every game, and be surprised, having forgot about this or that when I pull it in a future session. By mixing all the cards in, I get that.
I guess the real issue is one of storytelling. If you use just the small expansion decks, you are telling a clear story. It’s not a vague Elder God threat, it’s “Cultists are stealing Egyptian artifacts, and bringing a curse upon Arkham” or “An evil play has come to town, and is driving all who see it crazy.” There’s a definite narrative involved. I can appreciate a narrative, and I could play for a narrative, say, in a position where it’s an almost full RPG experience, where we are telling stories to connect the encounter cards as we play. That could be cool, though the question then becomes “Why aren’t we just playing, like, the Call of Cthulhu pen and paper style RPG?”
That wouldn’t happen, though. That’s not how my friends roll. That’s completely fine. But that makes this more a game than a storytelling experience, and the gameplay is more fun if there is less repetition. Thus, mixing everything in is a “good thing”.
Man, I really rambled a lot just to say that, huh?

So Zero Punctuation just reviewed Zack and Wiki, and it makes me sad. Because he gives it a good review. And the game was pretty good. But thanks to the Wii controls that supposedly make it neat, I can’t play it, because it requires too big of a commitment. Now, this is going to sound lame, and it probably is, but I want to enjoy my games from this computer chair if at all possible. I very much enjoy having access to the internet constantly while playing, able to casually play for a few minutes, respond to a few messages, and then play some more. Because Zak and Wiki makes me point at the screen to move Zak around, I can’t play this game from this chair. If I could move him around with the Nunchuk, I could play from here, still point at the screen for the occasional puzzle, and be much, much happier. As I type this, though, I realize I just assumed you couldn’t. Yahtzee has a nunchuk drawn in most of the pictures of him playing, so maybe I can… testing… Yep, I’m right. You can’t. So if that changed, maybe I would love it. It would also be an awesome game to play, say, curled up on the couch with a significant other, talking out the puzzles together. It even lets you use additional Wiimotes as pointers to help out this sort of thing. But it just doesn’t fit into my current sort of gaming lifestyle at the moment, unfortunately.

So I got back on the horse today and have gotten to all my classes thus far and gotten all my homework done. I’m doing great! I have to format a paper for MLA when I get home from my poetry class tonight, but otherwise I’ve got all the high-stress stuff done for the week… I’ll probably try to write that other paper tomorrow, though, or at least some of it. A starting point.

So here’s the plan for Friday. At 8:!5 pm, when Jonathan gets home from work, we shall be fighting the elder gods in a game of Arkham Horror, now with Dunwich Horror expansion. I’m not clear on whether we shall be playing a very Dunwich game, in which we only use the new adventure cards for this first time to see the new stuff, or if we’ll go ahead and mix them all in, but it’s going to be quite an exciting time. Show up early and get in some Rock Band or Smash Brothers Brawl, if you’d like! All are invited until I feel like there is going to be more than 8 people. Then you can fuck off and not come. But it should be a good time. After the game, though, I shall have to quickly retire because I got a stupid writing aptitude test in the morning, which will suck. Whee!

So Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates may have the worst story ever in a video game. And I say this having followed the exploits of Ethan Waber in Phantasy Star Universe. At least you could laugh at the horrible, horrible voice acting in that. This story is just so kiddy, and the main character such an idiot… I just hate him. This game is a dungeon-crawling game in the vein of PSO or Diablo 2. This sort of shit shouldn’t be stopping me from running through dungeons, killing monsters, and getting new patterns and supplies to make phat loot. It’s so frustrating. The bit of multiplayer I’ve played so far, though, is exactly what I wanted. Totally awesome. Jonathan still claims he’s going to buy it, so then me and Spaeth will have another person to adventure with.

I also just want to say, on the record, that yesterday, March 25 of 2008, was a really, really damn good day. I don’t know, everything just went right. I got everything I need to get done done, and then some. I had fun. I spent time with my friends. I had a REAL awesome time with Brer… it was a damn good day. I wish I had more days like that.

Wikipedia, source of all human knowledge, tells me that everyone hates Tales From Watership Down. Apparently I am supposed to be “poorly receiving it” because I “want a true sequel.” Well, fuck that. I mean, I’d like a real sequel, but at the same time, the book is really self-contained, and a sequel could very easily muck it up. It is just so good how it is. Now, I could see how someone would get pissed if they just looked at the front cover and started reading. I mean, my copy says, on the front in a fairly large font “The long-awaited sequel to the beloved classic!” That’s completely not what this book is, and I can see if someone actually believed that about it, they would be mad. But I, you know, looked inside, read the preface, saw what the book was before I bought it. (for cheap, I might add, although it was also in that teeny tiny paperback format that I hate so much, so I guess it was a tradeoff) I saw what it was, said to myself “More tales of El-ahrairah? I’m all over it.” and walked up to the counter to buy it. The book has some problems, thus far. Adams has tried to make these stories seem more… connected by having them start with the characters talking about this or that, and then asking for a story, and the character telling the story, like in the main book. I really don’t think it needs that. Then again, I suppose it barely detracts, either. It just seems like a sort of desperate attempt to make legit what is already legit, in my opinion. Apparently the last third of the book is actual stories of things that happen to the Watership Down warren after the novel ends, so that might be bad, I dunno, but for the time being, it’s an enjoyable sort of… side experience to enhance the novel and make me continue to wish I could play Bunnies and Burrows with someone. But definitely not a sequel. Oh no.

Finally, these comics are hilarious, but completely stuffed with Apollo Justice spoilers. Just wanted to link them so I don’t forget about them.

Smash Brothers is an exciting experience. No, seriously, it is. Just check out this comic, for example. Exciting. Also, I love all of Pikachu’s expressions during the whole thing. Makes me want to use them as avatars.
Anyway, I’m probably going to be playing that with the Talking Tyrants tonight, so I’ll enjoy myself.

So, it’s Easter. Yay! I guess! It’s a day before my birthday! Yay! I guess! I’ll probably write a depressing post tomorrow about how another year has gone by and I’ve accomplished nothing… except that I’m closer than ever to actually being done with school, which is huge… I have made progress this past year… and I can keep doing so. Hopefully. I just have to keep it together. I say that all the time, because my nervousness gets me so out of whack so often… Brer probably is right, it probably is something that’s past the point of normal and should be looked at by somebody… but eh, who knows.

And now, here are some goal lists.

Goals For This Week (By Day)
Monday: Make it to class, try to enjoy busy birthday, make it to work.
Tuesday: Make it to class, write at least half if not more of Shakespeare paper, lazily do research project while spending time with Brer.
Wednesday: Make it to class, critique poems during class as per usual, finish Shakespeare paper.
Thursday: Make it to class, write at least half if not more of other lit paper, make it to work.
Friday: Make it to class, finish other lit paper, laziness.

If I do everything in chunks and don’t let it overwhelm me all at once, I shouldn’t have much of a problem, I hope… I probably could wait till next week to finish up the other lit paper, but I should be good and do it this week, then I can spend extra amounts of time on my portfolio. Also, I think I have to give a presentation next week, which shouldn’t be too much work, but it would be nice to not have to do that and my paper at the same time, eh?
Oh, I guess I said “lists,” didn’t I?

Goals For My Next Ascension in KoL
1. Recover from being annoyed with this hardcore run by really enjoying the softcoreness of the run.
2. Perm… something. Either Tonuge of the Walrus/Otter (although that might be better for another Hardcore run, since it would make those runs less stressful in the future) or maybe Advanced Saucecrafting, so I could enjoy those potions and Milk of Magnesium.
3. Get the Tome of Transcendent Olfaction. I’m going to end this run just a handful of Lucre away, so it’s time to get that and start saving up for the puppy.
4. It’s time to enjoy the Astral Mushrooms and Tiny Bottles of Absinthe. They aren’t expensive, so I should buy a handful of each and get in there and get a full set of the equipment in each and enjoy the content therein. (Well, okay, they’re both more expensive than I thought, now that I check, but definitely not enough to keep me from doing them, especially when I can use guides to get me the items I want on the first try.)
5. Get two more Mr. A’s and pick up a Yuletide Troll and a Penguin Goodfella as birthday splurging gifts to myself, and do a 100% run with the Penguin equipped with the origami “gentlemen’s” magazine. (I’d use the Troll first, but I want to use the magazine, cause I haven’t yet, and the Troll already does ghuol-type stuff.)

There. Two lists. Whee. Now it’s plural.
Anyway, happy Easter. Eastar. Whatevs.

So I am currently having an odd conversation about pornography. It’s… interesting.

But the main reason I wanted to post, for no apparent reason, is to post this comic. Because it just makes me giggle every time I look at it. That third panel is just amazing. And seriously, Team Fortress 2 Spy Humor NEVER gets old. At least, it hasn’t nearly gotten old for me yet.

I should get to bed. I think I’ll get on that.

So this is mostly just a moody day post, feel free to scroll down and read me rambling about my little games.
But I’m really moody today, and it’s flooding and shit, and I dunno. I’ve got to keep it together for the rest of the week, but this has been an inauspicious start. I know that once I take that first step towards keeping it together, and not give in, I’ll make it, even if I am moody. I have to do that tomorrow. Wish me luck on that, eh?
Anyway… I guess I’ll get back to the moody-ness. I’m sure I have a lot of it to get through before work.

So I just want to talk about KoL. Sorry.
Tonight I did a bunch of research about Basementing. I would like to have a telescope. But that just seems so damn boring in a game where I feel like I have so many other goals to work for… if there was something like that in Twilight Heroes right now? I’d do it, no question. But here… maybe after I get bored of collecting skills, but not yet. No.
Other than that, though, it’s weird to me that now that I’m doing a hardcore run, I want so badly to do things with the Mall (which is one of the things you can’t do in Hardcore). I want to buy an Ancient Yuletide Troll. Why? I dunno, the carols just seem like fun, and they’re still selling for only a little over a Mr. A. How do I know this? Well, I recently found out about this nifty Mall Market Search Thing. It’s really cool! And it makes me think about picking up cheaper Mr. Store items I missed… the other maybe would probably be the Penguin Goodfella. It currently costs LESS than a Mr. A in the mall! And it’s certainly useful, if not completely impressive… but having more items to Funksling is always nice. They apparently cost meat to use, though… but weight times 3 meat… At most it’s going to get up to 40 pounds… 120 meat is nothing at all, really, in softcore, which is where I normally live. Anyway, it’s an idea. I’ve finally warmed up to the idea of Mr. Familiars, really, especially since I am in the process of loving my Mad Hatrack to death… He’s probably going to be a dedicated familiar for my hardcore excursions because he works so well and so neat, even without my Mayflower Bouquet or origami “gentlemen’s” magazine, and especially since he can’t use those anyway. Well, he can, but he’d be 1 pound of useless if he did.
At this point, in all honesty I should probably wait until there’s an Item of the Month I don’t want, and then pick one of these up instead… but who knows. It’s almost my birthday. I might give in and treat myself. We’ll see.

I still think the Virtual Reality Helmet is really boring, though. I had this rant at Brer, but I think I’m going to try to sort of… sum it up… basically, as far as what I will and won’t donate for in these sorts of games… I want to be entertained. That’s why I play. I play because it’s fun, and if you’re making a game that’s fun, I am more than willing to support you by slipping you some cash. I don’t think, however, it’s unfair of me to ask for some in-game benefit, and that’s where the items of the month (and, in the case of Forumwarz, removing the annoying ads) comes in. When I get such an item, though, I’m not in it to be better, faster, stronger, whatever. I want more entertaining things to do. The Virtual Reality Helmet makes me better at things I can already do in the game. This is boring, and I do not want it. The Hero’s Cape, an item so expensive and so coveted right now, is boring to me. It lets me cast more spells, but I can already cast spells. Unlike some players, I don’t MIND burning turns resting. There’s always more I can do tomorrow. Now, the Pouch of Many Lost Things, the one donation item I DO have in Twilight Heroes, now that is fun. It lets me do something I couldn’t do otherwise. It gives me fun little buffs with fun little descriptions. The buffs themselves may not be special, but the fact is that not everyone has a pouch. Especially as time goes on, those who have one will become less and less, and those buffs will become more and more unique, and I can help people out by buffing them with them. This is really appealing, and the fact that it gives you a bonus effect for buffing someone else (Toasty Heart) just makes it all the cooler. That is something new and different I couldn’t do before, so I wanted it. Granted, there are powergaming benefits, too. The Lost Remote Controls and Lost Toys are really damn useful to cut down on turns resting, and before I dump the pouch out its a fairly effective piece of farming equipment.
Does this translate over into my KoL acquisitions? I believe so, although for different reasons in most cases. Most KoL items I have picked up because they entertain me. Sure, they offer game benefits as well, but I’d be lying if I told you I picked up a Crimbo P.R.E.S.S.I.E. for any reason other than the Can Has Cyborger buff and all the humor that comes with it. I picked up the Mad Hatrack because it does so many different things, and has so many different messages for me to see and laugh at. Naughty Origami Kit was a combination of loving the magazine messages and liking the whole mechanic of one item being many, and you can keep changing it about at the cost of damage. That’s something nothing else in the game does, so it interests me. Compare this to some of the high-powered items I have passed up. The Libram of Divine Favors is crazy powerful, but I can do everything it does by other means, although not as well. The Green Pixie I found kind of boring, thematically, and although there is a lot of content in the Worm Wood, which you’d think I’d want, I can get there easily just by buying tiny bottles of absinthe in the mall (where they’re selling for a mere 200 meat), if I ever want to experience it a few times and get the outfit there. After that, I doubt I’d be the sort of person to want to farm Not-A-Pipes, so I really don’t need extended access.
Does my theory make sense? I’m not saying Ryme and the KoL guys should NOT make items that are just powerful. They obviously sell, and get people who enjoy the fun of investing in and playing the market to buy more of them. I want them to succeed, so if that gets them more money, they should have at it. But if you want my money, you need to give me the silly stuff. The fun stuff. The enjoyable stuff that I can smile at again and again. Every time I return a lost item to someone, or try out a new hat to see what my Mad Hatrack does and how useful it is, I am getting all the benefits I could really ask for. I’ll keep getting those items of the month.

Wow, that turned into quite a rant. I just wanted to mention one more thing. This about card games, specifically the World of Warcraft card game. Tycho posted a short description of him running the Molten Core raid deck with Gabe and friends. I realized then and there how badly I wanted that experience. It’s… it would be like playing something like Arkham Horror or some such, only totally a collectable card game. I want to play! But I don’t want to invest in the WoW card game that much… Gathering Ground sells WoW singles at non-crazy prices, though… so a plan has entered my head based around making several people order up just one deck, shouldn’t cost them more than 10, 15 bucks if they don’t buy any crazy rares. This deck would be the kind of character they’d like to play in a WoW raid. I’d do a shaman deck, Jonathan would tank, whatever… and then we’d just use those decks just to play the new Raid decks as they come out. Maybe buy a few more singles to spruce them up, but have no other connection to the card game.
This is probably completely a dream, but I can hope. I really want to give those three raid decks a try.

Through marathon reading sessions the last few nights, I have finished Watership Down. Damn, what a great book. I don’t really read often anymore, now that I have internets and can afford most if not all the games I want (both a blessing and a curse) but when I do, it’s nice to get the pleasure of reading such a cute but strong and fun piece of literature. If you’re the reading type, and you haven’t read it, you really should. I’ll loan you my copy or whatnot. Just be prepared for hardcore bunny action.
It does make me wish there was something like it to follow it up with, though… I had a bit of a discussion with Brer about it the other day, I think, and he couldn’t think of anything sort of… directly like it. Certainly not Adams’ other novels. I’m sure he’d know, too, since he does reading often… like… too often perhaps. Well, okay, not too often. At least he finishes all the books he gets, I suppose. Heh.
Anyway, happy St. Sneaky Pete’s Day, everyone… hope you have a lot of fun drinking or whatever. Me, my whole plan consists of putting on a green shirt in a few minutes and then it’s the day as per usual.

I’m almost there, dammit… I can do this one now, and then I’m almost there! Here’s ringworm’s mix.

Listening Time Volume 17 – ringworm’s mix

1. Indie Rockin’ by Common Rotation: I think these guys opened for a TMBG concert I went to once… I remember the name… I don’t remember really liking them or anything, though? This isn’t too bad, though? It’s got a bit of energy to it. Yeah, it’s pretty nice. It’s not going to become my favorite song or anything anytime soon, but it’s nice. It’s like… a song I wouldn’t skip if I was listening to the whole CD, but wouldn’t pick out on its own? Does that even make sense? It’s also a song I’d buy for Rock Band just because, you know, it’s alright, and more Rock Band content is always good. Anyway, it’s a decent start to the CD, but it’s over now.

2. North American Scum by LCD Soundsystem: Some woodblock? Rockin’ the woodblock? Fuck yeah? Uh huh huh huh? Maybe that’s like… a keyboard woodblock… yeah, I don’t know about this singer…? But I’m not sure. Like, he’s not making me angry or annoying me, but I just don’t know about his speaky half-singy style… okay, now that it sort of broke in the background, that’s a little better. Yeah… yeah, I think I can dig it. Yeah, it’s about the same overall reaction to the last track… it’s nice enough, it’s getting me going a little, but it’s not going to become my favorite song anytime soon. I have a feeling I might love something else by this band, though, if I heard it. Ooh, what is that, some scatting there? I’m all for that sort of some. NORTH AH MERI KA! That’s what this song is like. Heh.

3. Party For the Fight to Write by Atmosphere: Okay, this is sounding like a rap song here at the start… yep, I’m right. They just have a sound, you know? Mmm, not bad, though… yeah… “Bring your own agenda and embrace your flaws” I’m down with that. Thumbs up for that. It is just sort of another rap song about rap songs… they’re so self-referential… but yeah, this is pretty fun, I suppose… no worries… I do wonder why, though… I was so against rap yesterday… I wonder how my mood is different today, or if this song really is just more friendly to my sensibilities… who knows. Okay, we’re just going to repeat this part a couple ten times or something as an ending? Well, alrighty then.

4. Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song) by Incubus: Heh, well, that’s an appealing little riff… some drums… okay, yeah… yeah… okay… still building… more and more… and now there’s a lot of tambourine and singing… huh… yeah, I think I like this… the guitar is just fun stuff, you know? Maybe? Maybe you know? It’s… yeah… maybe I’m just like super-agreeable this morning, I have no idea… or maybe I just like this mix so far, four songs into it. Heh. I guess I shouldn’t be so negative, it’s not like that isn’t an option. Oooh, saxophone. Yeah, nice! Very nice! Ant. E. Grav. Ah. Tee. Awwwww yeaaaaaaaaaaah.

5. Games You Play by Splashdown: Launch conditions? I’m glad all of them are pretty good… I was worried about that launch… okay, that’s a rapping kinda beat… but that’s just singing… and female vocals, too! I wasn’t expecting that! Oh yeah, that’s… yeahyeah… that’s really pleasant, too… again, I feel like I’d really like a different track by this artist, but this one is pretty good too. Yeah, see, this “EveRY OPoSItion” part is a lot of fun. I like that. Oh, it’s went in a different direction for the bridge. Then again, I guess that’s sort of the definition of a bridge, huh? Oh, it was short and it went back to it. Okay. Set you free from the games you play it’s over!

6. Footsteps by Pearl Jam: Pearl Jam? Doesn’t sound very delicious on toast or an English muffin. Oh man, no, this is… no. The slow acoustic and that vocalist… with the odd something to his voice… that’s not really what I’m wanting. Is it going to pick up? I really doubt it. Yeah, this is just like… one of those slow songs I just hate because they’re slow… Man, the disc was batting a thousand before that. Or something. Yeah, this song makes me not want to listen and want to focus on the fact that I am crazy hungry at the moment… maybe I should get some breakfalunch or something. But no, I’m doing CD now. After CD. Oh, hey, there’s the song title. Pictures on my desk, it was you, so… let’s finish the song then. It has been established. Alright. There we go.

7. The Flag by Barenaked Ladies: Barenaked Ladies continues to have not impressed me. Will this song do differently? The opening says that no, I will feel the same about it as other songs by them. Yeah, this is trying to be slow and important and emotionalish and it’s… just not doing it for me. That doesn’t do anything for me. My prejudices kick in and tell me NOOO! But that’s just me, I guess… nobody has won the war, though, so that’s kinda sad, I guess. But just, you know, don’t go to war. That’d be a good idea or a good plan. But then again, it isn’t a war, it’s a relationship thing. Like war? Shocking. Well, here’s the bridge… and it’s about birdies and angles, I guess. Or angels. Angles or Angels. One of those. If it’s an angle, I hope it’s an 180 degree angle. Those are fun. Of the flag of the flag of the flag… and over.

8. Fake Empire by The National: Piano… sort of upbeat piano… Yeah, not really upbeat piano… it’s a piano and singing song… oh, there’s the title! But yeah, another slow song. Sometimes I feel like I am missing a lot with my pointless prejudices, but eh, it’s just what I like. I like what I like. That’s how it is. Hmm, that drum seems to be building towards something… oh yeah! That’s better! Much more exciting. A lot more fun. I don’t know if it saves it overall, or if I like it overall, but that makes it a little better to listen to the rest… then again, maybe it’s going to go back down after this instrumental part to how it was before…? I don’t know, that seems like a normal musical move… but man, we got horns and all sorts of stuff. Neat. And we’re done, I suppose.

9. That’s Just What You Are by Aimee Mann: Aimee Mann is a gender confusing name… but oh, it’s a female. Neat. But yeah, we got the sort of… standard acoustic guitar rhythm back there… and there’s some piano… is it going to break it down… after this refrain-y part…? Nah, it’s not. Yeah, it just kinda is, isn’t it? There’s some vocals in the background, though, so that’s nice, I guess. There’s the title repeated twice… yeah, it’s okay, but oh man, it’s going to go on forever, isn’t it? It’s not even halfway done. Mann, Aimee Mann. What are you up to? Instrumental break… and now we’re back to the song, and it’s the same stuff… and there’s the title twice… three times! Yeah, I wonder if the rest of the mix will keep going down this road or go back to where it started… I liked where it started, I’m not really digging this part so much. Although I guess i can see, at least a little, the similarities between the two halves. Sort of halves. Whatever. Okay, this one’s over.

10. Electricity, Electricity by Goodness: Female whispers… oh… huh… this is… this is potential… this is a cover, isn’t it? I feel like I’ve heard this song by someone else. Or at least that repeated title part is based on something else… but eh, I don’t know enough to tell you. And now they’re explaining how a generator works. Yeah, this is like… school house rock stuff, isn’t it? Heh. Rock on then, this gets my seal of approval. It’s not necessarily the most fun song to listen to, though, but I can be fully behind it WOAH screaming! Well, um, okay. Hope nobody got shocked. Too badly. And we’re doing a lot of guitar noodling (is that the technical term) to the end, here. Yeah, again, glad this song exists, but it wasn’t really all that whatever for me.

11. No Regrets by Aesop Rock: Uh oh, a lot of talking about Lucy. What did Lucy ever do? Okay, so that’s rapping there. Yeah, it… no, it’s not just my morning mood, I don’t like this one too much, I don’t think. Man, I wish I understood my sort of… rules for enjoying rappy stuff, cause I really don’t have anything I can clearly say… there’s a refrain there… with some counting… yeah, I dunno… I don’t really feel the want to keep listening to this… oh man, it keeps going… it’s like only half done… there’s a lot of talk about dreams, I hear… and there’s someone dying… that Lucy person… yeah, I just… not for me. This isn’t a song for me.

12. Jacksonville by Sufjan Stevens: Sufjan Stevens is an Essner band… my friend Essner… which means I can probably listen to this but very likely won’t like… “love” it. Some banjo stuff there? I like banjo stuff. Then again, doesn’t all his songs have that? Maybe? I could be insane. Insaneish.  Well, it’s good to know he’s not afraid… and doesn’t care about the captain… yeah, again, I don’t think this is a song for me… it’s too slow. I just hate slow songs, don’t you know… but it is kinda catchy, which I can appreciate. It’s not catchy.midi, but.. (sorry, inside joke.) Yeah, there’s some horns… horns are nice… it’s a nice song! It’s definitely a nice song. It’s just not a song I can get behind and really get into a groove with, you know? Oh Sufjan, you have at least enough song to give it, oh, two more tries at least. You don’t have to just give it one more. But, you know, if the spirit doesn’t change, maybe it’s not worth it. I dunno. Yeah, and here’s an instrumental part and then we have a little repetition at the end? Oh, no, it’s something else, only it’s got like… backup singers. And fast tambourineing. Is that how you spell that? Oh well, it’s a made up word, who cares.

13. Paper Bag by Fiona Apple: Okay, we got drumming. Got a drum beat down. Got some female vocals going. Got that down. It’s slow and lazy feeling… the singing is kinda fun… she’s got some energy, but the song itself doesn’t have energy, perse… her singing is definitely the focus, and I can dig that, but I don’t know about the song as a whole… there’s some piano… the piano helps a bit. Yeah, it’s catchy and enjoyable… it’s a good song. Yeah. Yeah. I can. Yeah. Not bad.

14. Avatar by Universal Hall Pass: Last song. Universal Hall Pass is a pretty good name. Uh oh, quiet creepy-ish piano… female vocals… who are divining my future… any way the cards fall… I can dig that… cards are good… oh, wait, it’s speeding up a little… like going down a hill… is it… is it going to break it down? Is it going to? No? No. Doesn’t seem that way. Okay, it’s doing this same downhill building thing again… oh man, this is a long song, I just noticed… and now we’re into some sort of piano thingamajig here… and now there’s talk about flying off to nowhere… man, I will do my best to sit this one out, but I really want to stop… Ooh, it’s building… and building… and building… faster… stronger… more… building… adding some nice drums… more… building more…! Just keep on building! Or just stop completely. Oh, now we got some synth stuff going on… well, okay… it’s building more… it’s louder… her voice is more upfront… man, what’s gong on, mann? I don’t know where the tragic chorus is! I’d like to know! And now there’s quiet… or some wind noise… lots of quiet… are we doing secret track shenanigans? Lots of quiet…. not even halfway through this track yet, and lots of quiet… Yep… quiet… yep… silence… yep… should I fast-forward to see if there’s something else? I’ll listen to the quiet, I guess… Okay, here’s a guitar. Man, hidden tracks are so lame.

14. Hidden Song: Okay, so there’s acoustic guitar and the singing similar to the last song… Oh, there’s some  male backup vocals this time… the song seems to keep referring to the number 18, so maybe that’s the title of the song… 18 a life to go? Is that what they’re saying? Fuck, I dunno. Courtship with a gun, huh? Eh… yeah, these lyrics are doing nothing for me, and the music is doing little for me… was this worth sitting through the silence? I would say not. 18 in life to go? In? Is that it? I dunno. Blew that child away… and yet, if I had left the “away” off of there, it would have been an extra horrible thing to sing about, now wouldn’t it? Think about that for awhile. Or don’t. Because it’s disturbing. Why am I writing about this? I guess because I don’t like this song and so I’m distracting myself since I’m easily distracted. Distractions! Oh, the song is about over. Good, then I can get some food. I HUNGER.

All in all, this CD started really strong, and then went into stuff I didn’t like there at the end… also, hidden tracks are lame and artists should stop doing them.
Only Brickroad’s left to go! Maybe I’ll do two in one day! You never know! But probably not.