The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

This almost hurts me to say.

Culdcept Saga sucks.

Now, maybe it’s great with a few people online you’d like to just chat with, and you can flip around some settings to adjust game length. But as a single player experience it is GOD AWFUL. I’m stuck on the fifth map, and I can’t beat it. And it’s not the difficulty that’s bothering me, especially because you get new cards even for losing. No, it is the game length. It is way the fuck too long. Most games again the computer can easily take 2 hours, especially with multiple computer opponents like the map I’m on. During these two hours, at any moment, you can be subjected to the Risk problem. (I guess I’m trying to coin that as a thing, because I do find myself referring to it all the time.) What I mean by this is, you can be struck a blow from which it is clear you will never recover, no matter how well you play from that point on. In most games, knowing you’re going to lose wouldn’t be too much of a problem. You’d just restart the scenario and try again, yes? But this is a card game. You need to finish matches so you can get access to new cards to improve yourself. Skill will only get you so far. You need to improve your deck, too. So you need to actually let someone finish the match, but you can easily be dealt this blow an hour into the match, with at least another hour to go before the end. And I know I’m not over-exaggerating the whole “Now I have lost” point in the games, either, because every time something happens to me that makes me think that, I can no longer do anything. They take the one property I was banking on keeping for the whole match and built it up big, and then it’s gone, and I no longer have the cash to make one to replace it and the dice are unlikely to be lucky enough to me to let me retake it. I’m dead. And then I play on and on in a game I don’t care about because I already lost it just to get 3 cards and then try again. Add this to the fact that you have to watch slow and long battle animations over and over again, as well as every animation of every action your opponents take, and you can see how it would become annoying.
Now I could take one of these things, just because of my love of card games. I can take arduous, overly long Mario-party-esque animations for a deep card game. I could finish up games that I lose in the middle of them if I had some way to zip through all the bullshit at that point. But I don’t. And so I find myself not wanting to play it.
This game desperately needs a limiting factor. There needs to be some sort of escalation to make the games end quicker. Every X turns, all the toll values need to go up by 10%, maybe. I don’t know, just something, Or if they don’t want to go with an elegant solution, a simple turn limit would help things quite a bit. Also, having smaller boards. The first level has a tiny board that is just perfect for me and another player. I can play that. But I think I get weaker cards just for beating that level over and over. However, the map quickly gets too big, and the score goal keeps going up. I don’t want that. At the same time, without that, the game has a lot less variety, so I don’t know what to do. But someone should have made a decision that “Games of Culdcept are an hour” or maybe even half an hour, and then tweaked the mechanics to make that happen.
I hope to gods the online play has a turn limit option to make it playable. I haven’t checked yet. I also hope that I get cards after finishing an online match. Because I’ll be honest, I’m pretty well done with the single player. I hope to play the game with my Talking Time friends sometime, because it would be fun with friends and a limit set up. But gods, I’ve pretty well had enough of it at this point. And that saddens me. Because I love card games, and I’ve heard so much about this series. But I just really can’t play it.

So I think my “moody-ness,” as I call it, comes in a monthly cycle, but I have no proof. So I’ve decided to start marking my moody days with quick posts or tacked on to other posts with the tag “Moody Day.” This is mostly for my own curiosity, I suppose. Just letting you know.

Also, apparently Amphibian Sympathy is amazing? Somebody should have told me! I am so doing a Hardcore Boozetafarian Moxie-Sign Turtle Tamer run after this. (Why Boozetafarian? Because I’d like to try doing the Saint Sneaky Pete’s Day super-drunkenness adventures.)
Also amazing is this thing, which is some sort of KoL Ascension Database. You can look up any character, but that’s me, of course. The way it has a calendar tracking the whole run and what special days were in the run is incredibly awesome. Also, apparently I’m a fairly dedicated Softcore player. Like… 84% of the player base has less Softcore runs than me. Neat.
I hope my question got on the Jick Show. I suppose I’ll know tomorrow.

I should go to bed. I’m going to bed.

I’m bored and lost, and I should do something constructive. So I’ll knock another one of these out! Huzzah! Apparently I have Copy #1 of this signed and numbered series, so that’s exciting. also, Sarcasmorator put the track list online so I can just copy and paste, saving me valuable time.

Sarcasmorator’s Talking Time MEGAMIX

One: “I Only Want You” – Eagles of Death Metal: One Two, One Two Three Foarr. Okay, here’s some guitar… and some… weird vocals? Well, not weird, just… oddly falsetto…? Yeah, I don’t know about that singing, but the guitar is kinda catchy, isn’t it? Also, the refrain is also catchy. I only WANT YUUU! I only WANT YUUU! Heh, I dunno. Yeah, this is alright. I don’t see myself listening to it again, but this is alright. Woah, complete silence… and back! And again! Woah!

Two: “Trunk Fulla Amps” – Self: Okay, we got some guitar being all guitary… and what’s that kind of noise called… I don’t know… and some beeps… OH NOS, F-BOMBS! My poor virgin ears. But yeah, there isn’t much going on with the vocals just repeating the same thing over and over, and the music is only slightly changing, although again, it’s kinda catchy. But yeah, you’ve got basically most of what they say in the title there. Now we have this bridge here… and it’s… I wanna say tropical-sounding? Which is interesting. I don’t know why I think that, perse…there’s like some… sleighbell in there, too. Thrilling. Oh, it’s coming back… I wonder if he still has a trunk fulla amps… oh, no, still some… oh, okay, now he’s starting again. And I’m happy to report he still has a trunk full of amps. Also, FUCKA! Fucka! fucka! Alright!

Threep: “Plug In Baby” – Muse: Yes, there seems to be a typo, but I like the sound of “Threep.” So I’m not changing it. All kinda noisy here at the beginning… and now we have a guitar solo… kind of electric-y sounds, but not blippy… Oh, wait, Muse… they did that Knights of Cydonia song that apparently everyone but me likes, right? Am I crazy? I could be crazy. Anyway, I thought that song was pretty mediocre, either way… and this song is approaching Rock Song to me, although not quite, because the guitars are different… but… hmm… let’s see… yeah I’m… I’m not focusing on the song. That’s a bad sign. HOOOOO-OOOOH-OOOOOOOOOH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! And then guitars till the end, I guess? Oh, just one sustained note till the end. I see.

Four: “Prelude to War” – Battlestar Galactica Season 2: BSG, huh? Another thing my boyfriend would like me to watch with him but didn’t keep my interest. I take it this is just an instrumental track… although I admit I’d laugh if you’d get a guy in there going like… “A PRELUDE TO WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR WAR IS COMING THEY’RE COMING THE CYLONS ARE COMING WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR! A PRELUDE TO WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!” But no, instead you have some nice strings here and there’s that kinda marching drum beat in the background, which I suppose is appropriate if you’re writing a musical piece to invoke the concept of war. In general, though, I find such music, even if completely awesome, to have little effect on me if I don’t already have some sort of emotional connection to the music. Case in point, the Smash Brothers Brawl Soundtrack. I’m sure there are lots better music out there than, say, this Kirby Boss Medley, but that music isn’t connected with all the fun I’ve had with all the Kirby games over the years, and that Medley just kicks ass, you know? And now we’re into marching band drum solo, I see… uh oh, and now here’s… oh, it went back to normal, I thought it was doing some like… mysterious spooky thing there for a second. But yeah, it keeps on going. It’s over halfway done… I think I’m just going to ramble about me and orchestral pieces more… like how I find them really useful for writing but I can’t listen to them much otherwise? It’s because normal music has lyrics and lyrics fill the word part of my brain while I’m trying to sing along, you see? What? That doesn’t make sense? Oh well. But yeah, this is a nice background piece, but especially at the length it just fades into the background for me. See, it was building there and I thought it was going to do something different, but it was just one big note and then it went back to normal. Oh well. And here’s a slow calm part for awhile with no drums… but I like the drums, that’s what gives it energy, you know? Okay, well, it’s adding more and more instruments and building back up now. Yeah, this is a nice little piece, certainly. Just, as I said, I only use this sort of thing in really specific situations, and even then, it needs to be energetic. Me and energetic music, we’re good friends. I think it’s almost over now…? Yeah, okay, there we go.

Five: “Big in Japan” – Tom Waits: Big in Japan, eh? How big are we talking, hm? Oh well, there’s some sort of sawing going on… and now we got some guitar. Woah, what’s up with that guy’s voice? Got some sort of effect on it, I think? But it’s weirdly kinda subtle. Man, that’s a weird voice. He’s got the truck, so he’s big in Japan…? Moves…? Cheese…? What? I think he’s just naming off random objects now. Or does Japan really like Cheese? I mean, I’m sure cheese is alright to them, but… Yeah, this guy’s voice is just annoying and weird, goodness… and the rest of the background stuff isn’t interesting enough to pull me into it anyway. I just realized, is Tom Waits a person or is it a sentence? Oh well, it doesn’t matter. Also, is having a whole nation on their knees a sexual thing? Or is my brain just going there because my brain goes there? Then again, it is called “Big in Japan.” I don’t know. Man, I don’t like this guy’s voice. Did I say that? I think he’s done singing now, though.

Six: “15 Step” – Radiohead: Ooh, that’s not too bad… okay, now he’s singing… still not too bad… let’s see what happens… I don’t know Radiohead. Even when they put up their album for free I didn’t try it. I don’t know what that says about me. I just never had a reason to want to try them, I guess? I wasn’t expecting it to be so electronic… with the MIDI claps in the background and whatever, you know? I mean, I dunno what I was expecting, either. This is a nice song, though. Here’s some ooohs… and now back to the normal stuff… Etcetera, etcetera… some electric-y bridge here… oh, okay, they brought the bass back in… yeah… that’s nice. This song, I am enjoying. Maybe I have made a mistake not trying In Rainbows or whatever that one they put up was. Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty good. I’d like to see if they did something even more upbeat.

Seven: “Knives Out” – The Flaming Lips: More Flaming Lips, huh? You guys have certianly made me listen to more of them than ever before, and I see ViolentVixen’s CD has another track on it. They haven’t grabbed me so far, though. This is looking like slower paced piano piece, so it probably isn’t going to do much for me just on the basis of being slower. Oh man, yeah, any song telling me to slow down is probably not in sync with my normal music aesthetic. Not at all not at all. Yeah, this song just keeps going and going and going and going and I’m not interested, really… a lot of talk of catching the mouse, though. I’m pointlessly tempted to attempt to make that into some sort of euphemism. “I’m catching the mouse, if you know what I mean, wink wink, nudge nudge.” And now we’re into long instrumental portion that isn’t really changing it up from the rest of the song at all. Aaaaand it’s over.

Eight: “Lose Me” – Denali: Uh oh, this is sounding slow too. Doesn’t look good for me. There’s some cymbal… oh, female vocals… yeah, the chances of this picking up is pretty well nil, and the lyrics aren’t catching me enough… sometimes I feel bad at how I just hate slow songs for no real reason, but that is just how i am, I suppose. I could force an appreciation on myself, but that doesn’t sound like very much fun, does it? Well, it doesn’t to me. I’ve been trying to force an appreciation of older literature and poetry and stuff for years and years of college and haven’t succeeded at all. Oh, it ended.

Nine: “The Greatest” – Cat Power: Oh man, and I had such hope for a band named “Cat Power.” I’ll be honest, all these slower songs are not helping me stay awake… my body has been trying to force me to nap, and here I am trying to keep myself up by doing something constructive and here we go. But this has some nice harmony going with the vocals and the stuff… but yeah… more piano and slow music and singing that’s just sort of over this slow plotting piano… and I guess there’s some strings in there… violin? Or something. Well, that ended kind of abruptly.

Ten: “Strangers in the Night” – Cake: Okay, so all those things I’ve said up there about me not liking slow songs and stuff? For some reason it rarely applies to Cake. I like Cake. And I like this cover of Strangers in the Night. I don’t claim to be able to explain it. I’m sure the brass helps, though. Brass is nice. Also, the VIBRASLAP. I used to play the Vibraslap. It was GOOD STUFF. Anyway, I mean, granted, I wouldn’t listen to this like… a lot… like how I normally put songs on endless repeat? I couldn’t do that with this. But I like it.

Eleven: “Some Solex” – Solex: Accordion? Nice. Oh, and female vocals… and… that’s… weird noises… huh. See, I like the basic melody but it always ends with these noises and that light cymbal hit that my brain tells me sounds like a puff of steam…? And that bothers me. But the simple whatever is nice… yeah, you… you have a lot of this short thing repeated over and over under music, don’t you? Yeah, that’s something a lot of this CD has in common… I do kinda like those vocals too, although I’d like them applied to another song than this one, which I don’t think I like overall. It’s got these parts that are nice? It… It makes me think that I’d like other parts of their album or something. See, that “Some Girl EH eh…” part I think I’d like very much if it was over different music. It’s just so weird as to be distracting and not engaging.

Twelve: “She’s a Rejector” — Of Montreal: This is reminding me of something, but hell if I can remember what… woah, that’s… some interesting vocals there too. Not annoying, but unexpected. Come on, song, Break It Down after this. I think you have potential. Aww, not quite as much as I wanted. Still, I think I’m liking this song. This is a weird Bridge, though. Oh no, she’s a rejector. No no no… no no… yeah, this song isn’t bad. Yeah. Only halfway over, though? It feels most of the way over… I wonder what the song is going to do… or if it’s really going to fade out that slowly… songs need to know when to stop. if it would stop about here that would be nice, but it’s going to go on and on and stuff to make me feel like I need to invest more time than I should into the song… that always annoys me. Just keeps on going. Keeps on going. Bleh.

Thirteen: “Soft Velvety ‘Fer” – MC Honky: MC Honky… are we going to have a lot of bicycle horns in the song? Oh, okay, apparently a voicemail message. Some intense talk about dinner. Oh, and apparently it’s going to be remixed for the whole song…? Or just played over the song. I don’t think using them as the beat is really working. At least in my opinion. I mean, the voicemail messages are kinda cool in that weird sort of way. Oh, and there’s the name of the song. Aww, being very proud of the dog. See, that’s nice. Well, I guess except because she’s humiliated. Gotta be proud of your own. But yeah, this is surprisingly interesting. Weirdly interesting. Never going to listen to it again, but weirdly interesting.

Fourteen: “The Shape of Things to Come” – Battlestar Galactica Season 1: More BSG… this is from Season 1, so maybe I’ve heard it? I’ve watched like… 6, 7 episodes or something or other. But okay, yeah, it’s just an orchestral piece, right. It’s got that steady thing over and over behind it though, like I mentioned most of the CD having earlier. Yeah, again, there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s charming enough, but it’s not doing anything for me without… something for it to color. Does that make sense? Like without a scene for this to splash emotional feelings onto, it just feels kind of… wasted… kind of half done in my eyes. I guess that’s because that’s how I normally experience these orchestral works, while watching a movie or playing a game or something.

Fifteen: “Horse Tears” – Goldfrapp: Now I like Goldfrapp, quite a bit, actually, but I don’t recognize this title, which makes me think it’s on Felt Mountain, which is the only one of hers I don’t have. I don’t claim to know WHY I don’t have that one… then again, it could just be one I never liked and forgot the name of… yeah, it’s all slow and stuff… yeah, this is the other flavor of her stuff that I tend to be pretty mediocre on. I don’t know. It just doesn’t do much for me. Also, I prefer the more electronicish stuff. Heh. Anyway, it too has that piano bum Bah bum Bah over and over constantly like most of the songs have… does all that even make sense? It has this short like… 1 to 2 measure repeating pattern… yeah, it’s ending with a long instrumental, isn’t it. But hey, I think I hear some Theramin. Now there’s a cool instrument! If it’s not a theramin, it should be, dammit. I have decreed it to be so.

Well, alright, that CD definately had a few hits for me, but at least as many misses, if not more. But so it goes, I guess. It was supposedly over a wide range of musical tastes, or at least Sarcasmorator’s musical taste range, but I felt they all had a lot in common. Hm.

So I was burning time in Toys R Us before class and I see not one, not two, but five copies of the original Phoenix Wright sitting in a clearance bin for 10 bucks a pop. I know the internet well enough to know that you cannot find it on the internets for less than 30. So after a little deliberation and calling Jonathan to make sure I wasn’t crazy on how much it was going for, I bought all five, and then went home and put them all up on Amazon Marketplace for 25 dollars. By the time I got back from work, they were all sold. I’ve made like 60 bucks and got copies of a game I love into worthy hands. So I suppose it’s a win all around, huh?
Anyway, sorry, I had to brag. That money is going straight into my “buy a laptop because I want one and I should buy one before they stop selling Windows XP” fund.

In other news, Diggnation is coming to St. Louis on the 20th? What? I’m almost tempted to go. I probably won’t, but as I said, I’m tempted. I’d have to say, meeting Kevin and Alex would be pretty neat. The downside is it’s obviously going to be at a bar that will be crowded and filled with very, very drunk people, if listening to previous live Diggnations is any indication.
…wait, the 20th is a Wednesday. So cancel that, I have class. Oh well, as I said, I probably wouldn’t have gone anyway.

Well, I guess it’s time to KoL before bed.

Beware, I’m going to ramble on really crazily about Kingdom of Loathing now. You’re probably not interested.

So just looking at the descriptions and such made me want a Naughty Origami Kit, (as well as the fact that I always thought the other items of this type, the Iceberglet and the Great Ball of Frozen Fire, were really neat) and I went, you know what, fuck it. And I picked one up. And now I’m wondering what’s up with it. I mean, like I said, it has some funny content in there. I love just about every message on the origami “gentlemen’s” magazine, for instance. However, that’s rarely going to be better than all the buffs and boosts from my Mayflower Bouquet. The Entangling Noodle effect of the Naughty Paper Shuriken on people with pants is nice, but most bosses don’t have pants, actually, so that’s kind of a problem, as that’s when I’d like to use it. The origami pasties are great, especially early on when the 100 power is way above anything I can equip, but not… flashy and visible. The origami riding crop has a really neat chat effect, but I’m never in chat, and some funny hit messages. I’ll probably use it when I run a Muscle class next for the first few levels, but I tend to enjoy Myst and Moxie classes more, in all honesty. Finally, the Naughty Fortune Teller… we’ll see on that one. Although hardcore players don’t use them, apparently, cookbooks feel way too important to my spellcaster strategy to equip a different off-hand item, and I’m currently a Sauceror. There’s some debate on how effective it is, though, as in it might be close to if not completely optimal, so that might be what I end up using. I do think that the mechanic of it is really neat, though.
Anyway, I find myself in a weird position. I originally didn’t buy Mr. Store items because I worried about having this dilemma, about not being able to always use these neat items I got. If I bought them I was going to use them, was the idea. My snap decision, purchase, and enjoyment of the Crimbo P.R.E.S.S.I.E. I bought in December, though, made me think that I should just go ahead and try it if it looked good, and I’ll probably enjoy it. So I saw this, and wanted it, and I got it. And now I’m confused as to how to use it effectively…
Basically, I don’t regret my decision at all, but in the future, I know I’ll probably be making my Mr. Store purchases later in the month, after I’ve come up with a firm plan of how I’m going to use whatever it is so I can enjoy it to the fullest.
I am such a weird player. I play so sub-optimally, and yet I worry about how best to take advantage of things like this, you know? It’s like I want to be good, but I want to be good to my eyes, and not actually good. I don’t know. I’m weird.

So I expected my first game of Betrayal at House on the Hill to be today, because I figured everyone would be free and come over? But everyone randomly came over yesterday, and we played two games. Besides me getting insanely unlucky when I betrayed everyone and the normal learning of the rules, everything went okay. It’s a pretty fun game, but man, people weren’t lying when they said the rules were a bit off. There are problems all over the place, and there are these huge errata documents, and you need them to play. But so it goes.
On Jonathan’s random suggestion that new Haunts could be easily created for the game, I found myself brainstorming at work and then writing three when I got home. Who knows if they’re balanced, though. Also, I couldn’t think of any good names for them. One is named “Il Cartographer” for crying out loud. Who knows if they’ll ever be used. At least I got them out of my head.
Anyway, we’ll probably play some more later today, I think. Hopefully with a full 6 people.
I also finished reading I Am America (And So Can You) last night at work. It is a damn funny book. I enjoyed it the whole way through, and people kept asking me on break what I was laughing at and I had to share. If you liked America: The Book, or if you just enjoy the Colbert Report in general, you should probably read the thing. Because it’s an enjoyable time. Anyway, now Jonathan gets to finally read it, and I… I get to keep reading Watership Down, which I started completely on a whim. Why? I dunno. But the first 10 chapters were pretty interesting. So I’ll work on that, I guess. I don’t know.
I got things and things and things to do. And things. To do. Things.

Once again, I am COMPLETELY BEHIND! Then again, people are behind in sending them out. But I’m behind. So I’m inspired to finally do one more. So I will! Sorry this too me so long, TheSL.

Heavy Metal Gear
Listening Time Volume 12 by TheSL

1. Bringing Back the Balls to Rock by Lordi Yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yaow!~ Oh, man… yeah… all… growly… I think the boyfriend likes this kind of music, but I don’t normally enjoy it. I think it has a lot to do with me not liking bringing my voice that low, even though I can, and growling like that for the whole song makes my throat hurt… I like to sing along with songs. That’s a good vector to me liking something. Anyway, ramble. It’s… I don’t know enough about this kind of music to find differences… I don’t know. It’s… it’s… well, it’s not Rock Song, because Rock Song doesn’t sound like this… but… maybe it’s Metal Song? I dunno. But Hail in the name of Rock and Roll, though, most definitely. A sort of nice little solo, though, but then they got back to the growly refrain. And it just… ended. Yeah.

2. Concrete Jungle by Black Label Society Woaaaaaowwwwww… well, that’s the sound the instrument is making… I mean, that’s a guitar, right? But it has some effect on it. And they have this effect on the guy’s voice too… that makes it all… muffled? I don’t know why that would be. And now it’s gone for the refrain. Huh… if there’s one thing I can say about this sort of musical thingamajig is that it certainly has an energy behind it, you know? It’s not one that tends to click with me, but… Apparently nobody gets out, and I should be ready to die. That’s kind of unfortunate, as I have a class to get to after this and being alive and not in my house would help with that.

3. Like Light to the Flies by Trivium And we’re right into the screaming. Man, I wouldn’t like to do something like that in Rock Band. Heh. I wouldn’t last several phrases before I starting singing in my light little falsetto stuff. Oh, okay, so here’s some other singing… Like Light to the Flies… I heard the title! Something about bleeding out the eyes? I don’t know? See, again, the screaming growling stuff has energy behind it, but I can’t like… tap into it because I’m not going to scream like that… I don’t know, I’m weird, I guess. Shame on me, I guess, for my head thinking all these so far are Metal Song. Well, I guess the second track was a little different. I don’t know. The non-screaming voice is like… weird… I don’t know how to describe it the way I’m thinking of it… it’s like it should be in another sort of song. And here’s a big solo… no tambourine, so I wouldn’t be entertained at this part in Rock Band. I’d be doing horrible dances to attempt to horribly distract people horribly. See, this solo is long. I’ve found that I really hate songs that just solo forever, no matter how interesting they may be. Put it into a neat Instrumental track, but leave the song alone so I can just have that “good stuff” when I want it, you know? I am rambling about nothing now, I think.

4. Washed-Out World by God Forbid And right back into it. Well, if there’s one thing about this kind of music, it’s that it wastes no time starting with silly fade in pianos or something, just straight to the ROKK!~ YEAAAAAAAAH! Or something. Is that inappropriate? I don’t know. Mm, this guy doesn’t have the… oh, wait, now he’s doing that growly scream. I was almost worried there for a second. It’s going back and forth and back and forth between the two vocal styles, and it’s just doing it’s thing in the background. See, I also like trying to catch lyrics most of the time. I can’t tell what the fuck they’re saying when they’re growling like that. Drum roll part with something about the future and telling it, I think… more and more of that… and more of that… oh, I think they added some guitar there… and more of that… future future… Ooh, now there’s some solid screams. What does the future hold? That’s a good question. I assume 10 more tracks of similar music? Will I like any of them? Who knows. I’m doing bad at blogging this, aren’t I?

5. Superbeast by Rob Zombie This is the Dragula guy. That’s all I know. Okay, it’s starting. There’s some space sounds in the back. Charging the laser… mmkay, got some guitar… yeah… yeah… okay… wee wee woaaaaah, wee wee woaaaaaah… and some whispery growling this time… yeah, I’m there… I’m there… my head is bobbing to the beat… the beast is super, yeah… okay… Hey, Yeah. I’m getting behind this one. Not something I’d go out of my way to listen to, but I’m liking it. I couldn’t begin to tell you what makes this song different from the first four tracks though, that’s making me click with it. Which is kind of bothering me. I should be better at explaining such things.

6. Light Discovering Darkness by Soilwork Okay, it’s all guitaring and stuff… okay okay… yeah… not letting it destroy me… you better shut it down, apparently… yeah, this is… calmer for a lot of the song than previous songs… it’s also got some sort of something over everything during the echo-y parts… mmm…. I better shut it, though… aww, he sounds kinda sad about feeling it… but now back to the growlyness. What kind of work would you do with soil anyway? Planting? Are they metal farmers? Tilling the fields? Oh, it’s over now.

7. Destroyer by Static-X This is softer. Well, as in there isn’t like this… wall of sound in the background. It’s just like one guitar… well, okay, now there’s some bass there too. Anyway, it’s calmer in the back, even if the voice singing is more whatever ever ever. Anyway, simple? Softer? What’s the word? Oh, okay, here’s like… a solo and it’s a little more… busy in the background like these songs sorta tend to be… You do it again, you do it again, Destroyer… taking it down with a hammer thing… and doing some something something… oh, wow, that ended extra abrupt.

8. More Time to Kill by Lamb of God Duut duut duut DAA DAA! And the guitar is going all up and down up and down in the background as he growls… oh, well, okay, I guess it changed at this point, now it’s more… one constant note. There’s some woooooooAAAAAAAAAH! God Damn! Oh, and here’s the bridge, I suppose… still more guitar guitar guitar guitar… and now this is like a screaming solo? Or something… and now we’re into the real guitar solo part. With just real fast notes and stuff as these things tend to be… and like machine gun sounds… Yeah, I don’t know. Also, I don’t know if this is really taking away the sins of the world or anything. Have mercy on us. Yeah. Yeah. Metal. Yeah. The end.

9. Driving Down the Darkness by DevilDriver Well, this one sounds a little more desperate, perhaps, than the other songs. Oh, I liked that Dah dah duh duuh… thing it did at the beginning. I’d like more of that and less of crazy electric guitar stuff. Oh, there it is again! I win! Okay, and now we got some growling, and he’s threatened to kill me apparently… yeah, okay. Okay, I guess this is the refrain, because I hear the title. That’s always a good sign. Yeah, I don’t know, these songs are just all the same to my ears. I’m a horrible music listener. And I mean, okay, they are different, but what they offer me, I feel, is exactly the same. There is no like… different feeling in there to make me listening to this song mean anything different from listening to any other song on this CD or even like Dethklok or something. Bleh, I’m sorry. I have no idea what I’m going to say for these last 5 tracks. I’ll pretend it’ll be interesting. Oh, they kicked up the pace that little bit towards the end. Double time! Man, all these songs just end, too. Bam. Done.

10. Halo by Machine Head If this isn’t a love ballad to Master Chief I’m going to be disappointed. Well, not really, but I’ll pretend to be disappointed. I suppose if it was, though, we’d be having some riffs playing off the Halo theme here, huh? This part is pretty nice, though. Intense but not overwhelming. Oh, okay, now I guess we’re out of the introduction and back to business as usual. Yeah, there’s the growling screamy vocals. Apparently it’s time to fight… the Covenant…? Maybe? No? I didn’t catch what they said at all in that refrain, so it very well could be. Okay, I think I can make it out this time. The Halo Over us… something something… well, that’s all I got. So, okay, that’ll have to do. Mm, less than halfway over, apparently. I don’t know what the rest of this song could be though. I mean, besides more of the same. Oh, okay, they’ve picked up the pace a bit… right… right… Okay, now w’ere in a big solo part… and there’s a lot of scales being played… up and down… and lots of little probably very hard to play flutters and stuff… And then we slow down and dramatically rock out for a second… yeah… and then it’s sort of… hmm… I don’t know how to describe that part… it reminds me of the Minibosses playing Mega Man music, but I have no reason to think that. What? Female vocalist singing something? Hey, LOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Fall, OOOOOOOOOOOO! And then I guess we do this slow stuff with extra screaming vocals over the top until the end? Oh, I think I heard Swallow in there. Oh, okay, they switched it up with those drums there building to the end… oh, I thought they were going to end there. But they went back to normal. And I though they were going to end there, but they didn’t… And then they ended there. Okay then.

11. Inhale by Stone Sour Stone Sour is an interesting band name, I think. Not as good as the recent band name some friends of mine came up with. Check this out: Extended White Chocolate Experience. Now there’s a band name. But okay, this is normal singing, and it’s a bit more restrained. That’s nice. But I bet he’s going to start screaming when we get to the refrain. There’s some base under building up to the… he’s not screaming. Oh, woah. Woah. That’s a nice change, to switch it up from earlier, but I can’t say the song is doing much for me other than that difference, you know? But there it goes again. Oh, okay, now he’s doing the screaming growling, but it’s over halfway through the song before he got there, and he’s going back to his normal voice. See, I can get more behind that, though… sort of… spot growling for emphasis. It’s sort of like… if you end every sentence with an exclamation point, then it’s not really adding any extra excitement or emphasis to the whole thing, you know? Oh, they seem to be having some technical problems… the tape is slowing down and stopping… need to get a guy on that, stat! Oh, too late! The song is over!

12. Senzafine by Lacuna Coil Oh, this sounds different and promising. Female vocals! Neat! And a guy coming in there… see I expected him to come in screaming around there. Okay, this is obviously in another language and I don’t know what it is. I want to say Spanish but I’m probably crazy. Some keyboard in there. Yeah, this is like just an overly dramatic-sounding song and not really what I would think of as Metal. But I mean, I guess it is? I don’t know? I would assume TheSL would know better than me. Hmm, okay, this AHHHHHHHHH! with singing over it part I’m not really too thrilled with… but it’s all winding to a close, so… okay then. Aww, some windchimes.

13. Another Hero Lost by Shadows Fall Acoustic guitar? Okay, maybe he’s faded to something completely different in the end. Or is it going to Break it Down into Metal stuff later? I don’t know. Oh, okay, now it’s a duet with a female voice. Forever is waiting, apparently. I hate to leave Forever waiting, but I have a bunch of shit to do. Oh, okay, there’s some electric guitar. But it’s still slow and not what I think of these songs as. It’s nice that he’s going to have a nice day at the beach, though, getting buried in the sand or whatever. Okay, and now we’re to the solo instrumental part. And yeah, okay, it’s a slow sort of rocking out, but I guess I see the Metal-ness in there… oh, especially now with that quick scale sort of stuff… and his voice is getting more Metal as it goes on and on… or maybe not, now it’s back to normal… eh, who knows. Well, this fade-y ending is fairly nice.

14. Let the Bridges Burn by Killswitch Engage Okay, here we go… last track… and it’s making an annoying sustained note at me… okay, and now it’s into the guitar thing. Oh, alright… they got lots of people to scream in the background there for a second… oh, and they’re back… alright. And now the main guy is screaming too. Oh. Mm. Yeah, that… yeah. Am I ready? Willing? For what? I missed the for what. But I guess I’m ready enough. I mean, I dunno. Ready-ish? Okay, now it’s slowed down a bit… but he’s still screaming and screaming. A blast from a stones…? No, I must have heard that wrong… Misery… turned that away… that sounds like a sound plan… hm… oh, wait, maybe it’s BURNED away… since the song is Let the Bridges Burn. Oh, and here’s crazy drums and guitar all fast and he’s still screaming… and screaming… about Ashes now and dust and how he should dust, I guess. Going from dust to dust, making sure he gets it all… Let the Bridges Burn! Let the Bridg. Es. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuawwwrn… BROTHERINAJAR!

Yeah, this… yeah… this was completely not my music. At all. But I’m sure some enjoyed it, and, you know, it was worth a try, I suppose. But try as I might, my head threw most of these in the same box and called it a day. Oh well, so it goes.

So I saw the Producers tonight, and it was as wonderful as always live. They did a really good job with obviously less people and money than the last time I saw a touring show of the Producers. It was a good time all around with my family. Huzzah.

I have also managed to ebay up a copy of the out of print board game Betrayal at House on the Hill, which, from what I hear, is both flawed and COMPLETELY AWESOME. So I’m looking forward to playing that with everyone. From everything I’ve heard, I think it’s perfect for my group of friends.

Also, apparently Brer is offline for a few days due to some silly something on his school network? And I wanted to ramble about how flawed it all seems. Apparently the college got some blanket “these people are downloading music!” shit, and so they apparently just randomly shut people’s connections down. Brer now has to pay THEM money to check his computer for “bad stuff” before he can have his computer back. This is insanely stupid because one, they have no real proof, and have said so, and two, anyone actually doing anything illegal and thus is smart enough to, say, use a bit torrent client is smart enough to TAKE THE DAMN STUFF OFF OF THE COMPUTER BEFORE IT’S CHECKED. It’s not like they raided his room or anything. He just has to take the PC down to the computer center sometime and pay “it’d be really bad if you lost your connection…” threat money if he wants his connection back. Anyway, it’s really stupid, and I’m sad to not have Brer for awhile, but at least it shouldn’t cause anything more than an annoyance for him. I’ll call him tomorrow for more of an update, I learned all this while at dinner with my family in a noisy restaurant, so we didn’t have much time to talk.

Also Also, Rez HD is pretty sweet. I really suck at it, but I totally buy the whole “Synthaseia” thing. It’s quite an experience. Who knows how long it’s going to take me to beat all 5 levels, though. I managed to get through the first two today.

What other short update can I ramble about… oh, right. My phone. I finally updated my phone’s firmware today, after Jonathan was all complaining at me that mom couldn’t call me to look up a word online? I’m just a reference tool a lot of the time, because they know I’m on the internet and can look anything up. Anyway, I finally updated it, even though I didn’t have the cable it said I needed. It all worked fine, though. Hopefully it won’t crash as much now, and it added these nice little “mute” and “speakerphone” buttons which are a TON more useful than how I used to have to do it. Also, it gave me this free Sudoku game, which was nice. I like the interface in Brain Age better, but it’s pretty capable.

I tried to get my mother to play Picross DS today. She keeps actually liking the random games I throw her way… she keeps playing Bookworm Adventures because it “helps her brain.” So I keep trying to throw more of what I own that’s along those same lines at her, and I really love Picross. I think she was okay on the concept, but I have a feeling it’s going to be too complicated for her. We’ll see. She got distracted and didn’t get through the tutorial.

Rapid Fire Ramblings is a good name for this sort of blog post. Maybe I should use that, like how I sort of stumbled into and kept “Review Extravaganza Xday” and such.

So I can’t play Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.
I thought it was just that I couldn’t play MUCH of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin? I’d play it in little spurts. That’s fine, I thought. It’d last me awhile. But I’m to the first level where I’ve hit a stalemate, and it’s going to take me gods know how many turns to break it. And I just don’t want to. And I don’t. I mean, I want to push through the campaign so I can unlock all the COs for multiplayer, but I just can’t do it. It’s just like in Risk. There comes a point where you know a player is going to win. They’ve won the game. But to actually beat everyone in the game, it’s going to take another hour of pointless dice rolling. Hard Advance Wars levels can easily get like this. I know I will beat the computer. I’m not in danger of losing. But the number of turns it would take is just not worth my time. And so I put the game down.
Now, I’m not saying Advance Wars: Days of Ruin isn’t a good game. Because it totally is. It’s a great game, a vast improvement from a mechanics standpoint from Dual Strike, very friendly to those new to the series, and offering the robust online play that the hardcore want. But I know how to play the game. It hasn’t taken me too long to get most of what there is to know about using the new units. (I think Carriers might be more powerful than I’m giving them credit for, but that’s about it.) And once I figure that out, all that’s left is this great game, but a great game I have played to death, and when it confronts me with these “waste 20 turns to push past this stupid bridge” moments… it’s hard to care.
This all got started because Parish put out a call for “what should we ask the people behind Advance Wars” for this interview they were doing, and I eventually wrote up some things I wanted to hear, a lot about their process in making units and balancing them, as well as justifying the attempt at a serious story in a game with silly gameplay mechanics, but it made me realize that I hadn’t played the game in like 2, 3 days. So I put on a podcast and start and I put it down in like 10 minutes. I dunno. It’s just… it’s kind of depressing, I guess. Advance Wars is one of my favorite series… oh well, I suppose I have Culdcept Saga to enjoy next week.

Also, there seems to be a lot of talk recently about how I seem incapable of getting tired of Kingdom of Loathing. Here’s why, in a numbered list. 1) It doesn’t take much time in the day to do. I rarely play marathon sessions and when I do, it’s after not playing for like 4 days, so it’s not old. Also, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t care about being optimal, so I don’t mind if I don’t play for a week and then come back. 2) It’s perfect to play while podcasting. 3) It’s neat to see my set of skills build over time as I perm them and make me more flexible and more powerful. 4) I play as one class for like… 2 months. And then I ascend and switch. The classes do play differently. Not a whole lot, but enough that it keeps the combat from being completely old. I’ve been every class, but for the past few months I’ve only been Pastamancer… so now that I’m a Sauceror, the various splash buffs make the experience different. 5) I listen to the Jick and Skully show and thusly I am constantly hearing about all the new stuff they’re working on, and it’s all really neat. 6) I’ve still got goals to shoot for. I want the Tome of Transcendent Olfaction and the Pompadour’d puppy. That takes a lot of time. And when I get done with all that, I do want to see all the cool content in Bad Moon. Hell, just going Hardcore Oxygenarian to get the Plexiglass Pocketwatch made the game feel a lot different, because as a “normal run” player, I do get dependent on Hagnk’s and the mall for various items. It also made the game slower, which meant I could play less often and not lose any turns, which is good for getting over boredom with the game. If I feel boredom setting in, I’ll be doing another Hardcore Oxy run, you can be sure. Probably as a Seal Clubber. 7) Finally, even being on my tenth ascension, there are still jokes that I missed that I will randomly get and make me laugh my ass off.
Anyway, there’s some reasons. Does that clarify? I don’t know.

This has been a look at two games I love, one that I’m sick of and one that I’m not. Feel free to use this to figure out how I get sick of things. Or something. Hell, I dunno.

So many better games I could be playing or reviewing, and yet this game captured my interest basically all day.

So… It’s time to slam jam.

Imagine, if you will, someone who likes Charles Barkley and the sprites from Barkely Shut Up and Jam, and has watched Space Jam enough to write elaborate fanfiction on it. This person is who made Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. You too can download this game here or just watch the trailer for it here, if you prefer.
Basically, this game is an RPG Maker creation, though it does seem to be hacking pretty thoroughly. There’s actually bits of interesting battle system in there. You’ve got action-based attacks like in Paper Mario, for example. You’ve also got some interesting monsters to fight, like this Robotic Gatorade I was fighting earlier.
But mostly what you have is a game that is seriously making fun of things by taking them overly seriously. This game has an almost scarily thought out back story for what is such a completely stupid concept. There is an explanation for everything, even if its done using concepts such as “Negative B-Ball Energy.” There is a tale behind how Barkley accidentally brought about the Great Baller Purge, and how the earth was plunged into this Post-Cyberpocalypse. It’s all so ridiculous, but as I said, so complete that it’s hard to look away from it. I don’t even know most of the basketball players being parodied in the game, and it’s still intriguing.
The game also uses this overly serious style to attack other things. All of the save points, for instance, spout at least 4 screens of rant about how things from Japan are better than things from the west. I’m almost certain these are copypasta that I don’t know the source of, but they’re funny because they’re so amazingly serious and sincere. Of course, they also apply the same lens to furries at length, which, you know, I’m fine with. It was sort of weird how much I agreed with some of the dialog, though.
There’s also plenty of odd, humorous parodies. There was a long parody of the whole hunts thing in FFXII that I enjoyed, for instance.
Anyway, I guess the point is, it’s pretty decently written and not completely abysmal in the gameplay department, and it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot. You might end up pointlessly entranced like me. It’s not going to revolutionize anything, or probably impress many people, but I enjoyed it. I guess that’s the point. If you watch that Youtube video and think more of that would be funny, give it a go.