eye-shuh | Games Owned: 140 | Percentage Played: 35.00%
Full Steam Analysis Profile: http://lambentstew.com/webblog/miniproject/steamanalysis?steamid=eye-shuh
^ That is about to be Played = 100%
You guys can blame Loki for this. I am going to play at least one hour on every game I own on Steam. That is 140 games...as of right now. Steam's Summer Sale is coming up and I promised myself that I would not buy any new games until I made a good dent into the ones I already own but we all know that is a lie.
If anyone else wants to join me, do it! Just mark your posts on your blog/twitter/tumblr/G+/whatever so that I can easily find them. If you have ever posted a link to your blog on a social network we are both a part of, it is extremely likely I am already stalking you. However, if you decide to join in with me on this please comment with your url so I can follow along!
Friday, June 29
OK OK OK OK OK
Loki wins. I'll only use one blog. GOSH. This blog will just earn itself a new page with an awesome picture.
Don't worry Twitter, I will delete the updates once I hit "publish" on these so that I don't spam you.
Don't worry Twitter, I will delete the updates once I hit "publish" on these so that I don't spam you.
Thursday, June 28
RIFT is still pretty anyway
Well, on the plus side, I got a neat costume for the six months that I had been subscribed before I canceled:
On the down side...a lot of things. The shard that I am on right now is completely dead. Like, not a frickin soul. OK, actually, there was one other guy in Meridian running around talking about how there was no one else there except for me. Apparently the PvP servers have gone to shit and for some reason (I'm guessing stubbornness) Trion hasn't just condensed them all into one server yet so that there is at least a small pile of people together.
There are two PvE servers that remain at "medium" status which is a long cry from what the game use to be, but at least all of the servers aren't on low. I was going to play around in PvE for the month anyway, so it worked out for me. Of course I naturally picked the one out of the two that wasn't the most popular server in NA and now I have to wait 7 days (the limit on how often you can transfer) to plop all my characters in one place.
I still love to look at this game. Even though I have to turn down the graphics because my card is a piece of crap, I still get to enjoy the ethereal beauty of the cut scenes.
There have been quite a few changes since I first started, all of which from what I've gathered are complete carbon copies of World of Warcraft. This genuinely saddens me because the entire reason I played RIFT for the six month streak that I did was because it was such a unique game with ingenious systems of play.
I hated going through the starter area. It use to be that you could choose your first two souls (sub-classes within your specific class) and then you had to use those two until you got to the main city where you had to go on individual quests to grab each of the other souls. It set up the soul system incredibly well and it gave players a feel for how much you had to participate in closing a rift before you would reap rewards.
Now they basically play the game for you. It asks you what sort of thing you'd like to do after you pick your class and then it assigns you three souls and highlights each skill that you should pick for their "optimized" build. I'm not sure if you start with all the souls or not, I clicked stupidly on my skill tree before I experimented to see if I could change it to the souls I actually wanted. Now I'm stuck until the damn game lets me do a skill tree reset.
While I like some of the aesthetic changes--like big bars floating overhead telling you your health and your targets health with combo points but suspiciously not your pet's health--the whole thing is severely dumbed down. I will have to spend some time in PvP and wandering around with my main, perhaps jump into one of their new one and two man dungeons, before I completely judge this game as a loss. I am still impressed with all the content they have for post-level cap players. Unfortunately, I need a course in rogue tactics before I break my main out, so I'll have to muddle through with my newb and re-acquaint myself with the game.
Besides, I could use a high level rogue in both factions if I play beyond a month...also I didn't discover until much later that the Dwarf race on the Guardian side can fall from higher distances than any other race. That is their special ability, one that I could have used for my Eth Defiant rogue. I had so many deaths from falling off of tall cliffs...so many...the horror...the horror...
On the down side...a lot of things. The shard that I am on right now is completely dead. Like, not a frickin soul. OK, actually, there was one other guy in Meridian running around talking about how there was no one else there except for me. Apparently the PvP servers have gone to shit and for some reason (I'm guessing stubbornness) Trion hasn't just condensed them all into one server yet so that there is at least a small pile of people together.
There are two PvE servers that remain at "medium" status which is a long cry from what the game use to be, but at least all of the servers aren't on low. I was going to play around in PvE for the month anyway, so it worked out for me. Of course I naturally picked the one out of the two that wasn't the most popular server in NA and now I have to wait 7 days (the limit on how often you can transfer) to plop all my characters in one place.
I still love to look at this game. Even though I have to turn down the graphics because my card is a piece of crap, I still get to enjoy the ethereal beauty of the cut scenes.
There have been quite a few changes since I first started, all of which from what I've gathered are complete carbon copies of World of Warcraft. This genuinely saddens me because the entire reason I played RIFT for the six month streak that I did was because it was such a unique game with ingenious systems of play.
I hated going through the starter area. It use to be that you could choose your first two souls (sub-classes within your specific class) and then you had to use those two until you got to the main city where you had to go on individual quests to grab each of the other souls. It set up the soul system incredibly well and it gave players a feel for how much you had to participate in closing a rift before you would reap rewards.
Now they basically play the game for you. It asks you what sort of thing you'd like to do after you pick your class and then it assigns you three souls and highlights each skill that you should pick for their "optimized" build. I'm not sure if you start with all the souls or not, I clicked stupidly on my skill tree before I experimented to see if I could change it to the souls I actually wanted. Now I'm stuck until the damn game lets me do a skill tree reset.
While I like some of the aesthetic changes--like big bars floating overhead telling you your health and your targets health with combo points but suspiciously not your pet's health--the whole thing is severely dumbed down. I will have to spend some time in PvP and wandering around with my main, perhaps jump into one of their new one and two man dungeons, before I completely judge this game as a loss. I am still impressed with all the content they have for post-level cap players. Unfortunately, I need a course in rogue tactics before I break my main out, so I'll have to muddle through with my newb and re-acquaint myself with the game.
Besides, I could use a high level rogue in both factions if I play beyond a month...also I didn't discover until much later that the Dwarf race on the Guardian side can fall from higher distances than any other race. That is their special ability, one that I could have used for my Eth Defiant rogue. I had so many deaths from falling off of tall cliffs...so many...the horror...the horror...
Wednesday, June 27
Wil Wheaton playing Borderlands 2 at E3
I really love this video because:
1) Borderlands 2 is going to be the greatest game known to man
2) Wil Wheaton has been my hero ever since he made me feel like I had a home at my first PAX and from then on my life only got better and better
3) I react exactly like this while playing video games
4) I am also on fire a lot in video games.
(link to video on YouTube)
Stole this lovingly from Wil Wheaton's Tumblr.
1) Borderlands 2 is going to be the greatest game known to man
2) Wil Wheaton has been my hero ever since he made me feel like I had a home at my first PAX and from then on my life only got better and better
3) I react exactly like this while playing video games
4) I am also on fire a lot in video games.
(link to video on YouTube)
Stole this lovingly from Wil Wheaton's Tumblr.
oh RIFT, you saucy girl
Remember when I said I would probably never play an MMO again? I definitely lied. I just bought one month of RIFT to see how far behind my poor characters are. I bet my T2 Raid ready rogue isn't even fit to clean out the giant riding turtle stalls at this point.
This new trailer really emphasizes something I always loved about RIFT - the two factions have extremely similar origins with very different views on how shit went down during the apocalypse. You're basically choosing which side of the same story you think is more correct/interesting/legit. Now with their introduction of the three faction PvP, they have done the same very cool kind of thing:
(link to video on YouTube)
I am excite!
This new trailer really emphasizes something I always loved about RIFT - the two factions have extremely similar origins with very different views on how shit went down during the apocalypse. You're basically choosing which side of the same story you think is more correct/interesting/legit. Now with their introduction of the three faction PvP, they have done the same very cool kind of thing:
(link to video on YouTube)
I am excite!
oh hai Nexon and your adorbs game
I actually really love Nexon. They make super fun free to play games and I think they have done one of the best jobs I've ever seen with that model. Plus they are another company that sends really cool people to the Penny Arcade Expo, so you can tell they have love for gamers.
I use to play a lot of Combat Arms and before that I use to play a lot of MapleStory. I recently saw in the grapevine that they released a new class for MapleStory and it reminded me how adorable that game was. I actually attempted to download and play it a year or two back, but at the time they didn't support Windows 7 and none of the compatibility mode fixes I found after vast Googling could get the game client to budge. Here's hoping they added a little love for my system!
The above video (found here on YouTube) has a lot of down votes but it looks like that is due to some upset players who wanted their particular class revamped before seeing anything new to the game. However, it looks like with the release of Jet there will also be a revamping of the Thief class, so I imagine anything else that needs to be fixed will be coming down the docket. Plus, well, that is just the nature of MMO type games. No one is happy unless there is constant reshuffling of the classes and yet the constant reshuffling of the classes makes everyone unhappy.
I personally am totally down for a space cowboy. Now there is just the difficult decision of naming her Mal or Jayne. HMMM.
I use to play a lot of Combat Arms and before that I use to play a lot of MapleStory. I recently saw in the grapevine that they released a new class for MapleStory and it reminded me how adorable that game was. I actually attempted to download and play it a year or two back, but at the time they didn't support Windows 7 and none of the compatibility mode fixes I found after vast Googling could get the game client to budge. Here's hoping they added a little love for my system!
The above video (found here on YouTube) has a lot of down votes but it looks like that is due to some upset players who wanted their particular class revamped before seeing anything new to the game. However, it looks like with the release of Jet there will also be a revamping of the Thief class, so I imagine anything else that needs to be fixed will be coming down the docket. Plus, well, that is just the nature of MMO type games. No one is happy unless there is constant reshuffling of the classes and yet the constant reshuffling of the classes makes everyone unhappy.
I personally am totally down for a space cowboy. Now there is just the difficult decision of naming her Mal or Jayne. HMMM.
Sunday, June 24
RIFT: Conquest kinda makes me miss RIFT
Really, every update for RIFT I see makes me miss that game. It was (and I'm sure still is) a great game. I had bought the game when it first came out and there was little to no disappointment. In the end my reasons for canceling had more to do with the MMO model itself than the game. RIFT was my first real MMO and while I really enjoyed the game, it got to the point where I felt like I had to sit in my computer room and obsess over it every single day to get the most out of paying out each month. It's why I never played an MMO before that, and why it's unlikely that I would ever play again.
I have to admit though, their Conquest update is incredibly tempting. I'm not a fan of the giant robots but I would totally own this guy:
This update includes some pretty interesting additions like:
- Three faction PvP, which sounds a lot more interesting than just Guardians vs. Defiant. The hate and random name calling between those two groups gets rather old.
- There is "mentoring" where a high level character can get some kind of progress while helping out lower level characters. I really love this idea because that will make asking your buddies to power level a new character for you a lot more interesting for them.
- And oh my gosh, a barbershop. I almost couldn't stand to play my high level most tricked out character because I hated her hair so much. Like, I literally could not stand to look at her without a helmet. I have no idea how I even got her that high level, I hated looking at her so much.
I think it's very clear not just from these updates, but from previous ones as well, that Trion Worlds really does make a huge effort to listen to player suggestions. That in itself makes me want to re-up my subscription, especially since I know first hand how cool they are from meeting some of the staff at PAX Prime.
They might tempt me back in someday. This isn't the type of game that would ever go free-to-play, since it's way too elaborate for that sort of model, but there might come a time where I could justify doling out the straight up $120 for a year's worth of game. We shall see.
I have to admit though, their Conquest update is incredibly tempting. I'm not a fan of the giant robots but I would totally own this guy:
This update includes some pretty interesting additions like:
- Three faction PvP, which sounds a lot more interesting than just Guardians vs. Defiant. The hate and random name calling between those two groups gets rather old.
- There is "mentoring" where a high level character can get some kind of progress while helping out lower level characters. I really love this idea because that will make asking your buddies to power level a new character for you a lot more interesting for them.
- And oh my gosh, a barbershop. I almost couldn't stand to play my high level most tricked out character because I hated her hair so much. Like, I literally could not stand to look at her without a helmet. I have no idea how I even got her that high level, I hated looking at her so much.
I think it's very clear not just from these updates, but from previous ones as well, that Trion Worlds really does make a huge effort to listen to player suggestions. That in itself makes me want to re-up my subscription, especially since I know first hand how cool they are from meeting some of the staff at PAX Prime.
They might tempt me back in someday. This isn't the type of game that would ever go free-to-play, since it's way too elaborate for that sort of model, but there might come a time where I could justify doling out the straight up $120 for a year's worth of game. We shall see.
Friday, June 22
Team Fortress 2 cartoon coming to Adult Swim?
OK, I am already sold. Bring on the awesome.
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Thursday, June 21
chat roulette for Xbox Live. i just died a little on the inside.
Oh lord...there is a chat roulette for Xbox now. It's called Avatar Random Chat and made by Gameccino. If you have Xbox Live you can connect with random people for a voice chat and see their avatar on screen.
WHY.
Am I really so old that others have forgotten the terrible and frightening days of AOL chatrooms? Why do people feel the need to chat with random strangers?
Oh, I know why. So they can figure out new and exciting ways to show you their dick over the internet. I don't know how people are going to accomplish this with a voice chat only app, but mark my words, it will happen.
WHY.
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| image credit to gamespress.com |
Oh, I know why. So they can figure out new and exciting ways to show you their dick over the internet. I don't know how people are going to accomplish this with a voice chat only app, but mark my words, it will happen.
Wednesday, June 20
i hate you Red Faction
First of all, when I press the "m" key, there better be a damn map! "M" is for map! Not messages! I don't give a crap about my messages! Look at this guy, this is not the kind of guy with great cave navigation instincts. He doesn't read signs well. He runs in a lot of circles.
So, normally baddies in games have stupid ridiculously good aim, right? Well in this game I would say their bullets hit you maybe 15% of the time, tops. There is a lot of time to line up head shots for a one hit kill. Plus these guys drop guns, ammo, explosives, and first aid kits all over the damn place so there's not much worry. You can just kind of leisurely wander aimlessly through the cave system and get turned around a few times without having to worry about the guards shooting you up too bad.
AND THEN A GIANT ROBOT COMES OUT OF NO WHERE AND YOU EXPLODE.
So, normally baddies in games have stupid ridiculously good aim, right? Well in this game I would say their bullets hit you maybe 15% of the time, tops. There is a lot of time to line up head shots for a one hit kill. Plus these guys drop guns, ammo, explosives, and first aid kits all over the damn place so there's not much worry. You can just kind of leisurely wander aimlessly through the cave system and get turned around a few times without having to worry about the guards shooting you up too bad.
AND THEN A GIANT ROBOT COMES OUT OF NO WHERE AND YOU EXPLODE.
OK OK, that's fine, you tell yourself. No big deal. It was pretty easy up to this point, the game may or may not have difficulty settings and if it does we are definitely set to easy. Like anyone would do in this situation you just hit the "restart" button and hope it drops you somewhere near the robot.
NOPE. It drops you at the very start of the game. Like, pre-cut scene introduction start. Apparently there were no check points.
I rage quit. There was lots of rage.
Animal Crossing irl
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| click image for credit to chichacha on flickr |
As much as I love and think about Animal Crossing, I am actually kind of terrified to play because there is a chance that I forgot to charge my batteries or that I will drop it and I will have to see the wrath of Resetti. That mole had a more extreme effect on me than I think the game was trying to convey. They want you to not cheat...instead I'm so afraid of accidentally being perceived as cheating that I don't even want to play!
HE SCARES ME.
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| source is cl0se-combat.tumblr.com maybe? except that tumblr seems empty to me. HMM. |
Tuesday, June 19
duke nukem forever first impressions
I am a pretty huge Borderlands fan so it stands to reason that I look forward to anything that 2K/Gearbox lay their beautiful hands on. I was actually pretty excited when I first heard about how Duke Nukem Forever was coming out for realzies this time. I tend to play my video games in spurts as the mood takes me so despite being excited for this game, and despite how short it is, it has taken me a shameful amount of time to actually sit down and play it.
So far I pretty much hate most of the game mechanics, which saddens me since I figured it would feel at least similar to Borderlands. Instead the whole thing feels like a big ol' mess. I hate that I can only hold two weapons though I'll admit it doesn't entirely matter since ammo and different guns litter the ground so much in normal mode that I can find what I want to use pretty much as soon as I feel like using it.
I also hate the puzzles. I hate everything about puzzles that are really simple in concept and you know exactly what you are suppose to do, but the mechanics of them are so difficult to use that it takes forever to "solve" them. Puzzles have no place in my FPS games. Make it stop.
Hated everything about being tiny and having to drive this stupid car:
I think Operation: Rainbow Unicorn is going to be a smashing success.
In the end, I am rage quitting Duke for today. I can only handle these terrible mechanics and random puzzles that don't belong in the game for so long before I feel the need to punch my computer screen in. Plus, the boss fights so far have involved nothing but running in circles and occasionally shooting at the boss in the middle. Not very exciting and especially frustrating when the regular mobs are more of a challenge.
I do think a lot of the dialogue is funny though, so I will soldier through to see how things turn out.
In parting...what is with this girl? Does she think this is attractive? Honey, you need to lay off the shrooms.
So far I pretty much hate most of the game mechanics, which saddens me since I figured it would feel at least similar to Borderlands. Instead the whole thing feels like a big ol' mess. I hate that I can only hold two weapons though I'll admit it doesn't entirely matter since ammo and different guns litter the ground so much in normal mode that I can find what I want to use pretty much as soon as I feel like using it.
I also hate the puzzles. I hate everything about puzzles that are really simple in concept and you know exactly what you are suppose to do, but the mechanics of them are so difficult to use that it takes forever to "solve" them. Puzzles have no place in my FPS games. Make it stop.
Hated everything about being tiny and having to drive this stupid car:
Dear Jesus that thing wasn't easy to control. That could be in part to my complete inability to drive vehicles properly in any video game though.
Why on earth does Duke jump without moving his arms?! I need to make a .gif of his dumb looking jumps.
He looks like he is trying to be a beautiful ballerina. I guess I can't hold that against him though since I did change the game to bring out his feminine side:
In the end, I am rage quitting Duke for today. I can only handle these terrible mechanics and random puzzles that don't belong in the game for so long before I feel the need to punch my computer screen in. Plus, the boss fights so far have involved nothing but running in circles and occasionally shooting at the boss in the middle. Not very exciting and especially frustrating when the regular mobs are more of a challenge.
I do think a lot of the dialogue is funny though, so I will soldier through to see how things turn out.
In parting...what is with this girl? Does she think this is attractive? Honey, you need to lay off the shrooms.
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| the snozberries taste like snozberries! |
the butt crack of Dead Island
I haven't finished Dead Island yet. I fully intend to finish it someday. Probably. I will probably finish it. It's actually a pretty fun game. The quests get boring after a while, but the spawn frequency and points for the zombie hordes keeps things exciting.
Anyway, one thing that really bothers me about this game is all the butt crack:
Do people really wear their swimsuits like that? I mean, I got no problems with the zombie women wearing bikinis. That's going to happen in a game set in the tropics. But do these zombies not care at all about their constant wedgies? Do issues like wedgies not make you uncomfortable anymore when you crave brains?
I'm told that in the tropics thong bikinis are more popular. Now, that makes sense--but these aren't thong bikinis! They just look like regular bikinis shoved up their butt cracks! I can tell you from experience that the material swim suit bottoms are made of is not at all comfy to have shoved up your crack for extended periods of time. You gotta take care of that right away...unless you're a zombie, I guess.
It also bothers me that their swim suit bottoms have the same pattern and are just paint bucketed different colors. It occurs to me that maybe I just missed a butt crack swirly pattern swim suit fashion craze.
Anyway, one thing that really bothers me about this game is all the butt crack:
Do people really wear their swimsuits like that? I mean, I got no problems with the zombie women wearing bikinis. That's going to happen in a game set in the tropics. But do these zombies not care at all about their constant wedgies? Do issues like wedgies not make you uncomfortable anymore when you crave brains?
I'm told that in the tropics thong bikinis are more popular. Now, that makes sense--but these aren't thong bikinis! They just look like regular bikinis shoved up their butt cracks! I can tell you from experience that the material swim suit bottoms are made of is not at all comfy to have shoved up your crack for extended periods of time. You gotta take care of that right away...unless you're a zombie, I guess.
It also bothers me that their swim suit bottoms have the same pattern and are just paint bucketed different colors. It occurs to me that maybe I just missed a butt crack swirly pattern swim suit fashion craze.
Saturday, June 16
short reviews of Prometheus plus Snow White and the Huntsman (no spoilers)
I went to a double feature of these movies at the drive-in. Yes, there is a drive-in theater about 15 minutes away from me and yes, it is awesome and makes me super cool.
I posted very short reviews immediately after viewing each on Google+ and felt like preserving them here:
Prometheus -
G+ comments: Prometheus. I don't get it. It was weird. Scary parts were good with the suspense at least. Rest of it made fuck all sense. But seeing as I hate Segourney Weaver, Beau informs me I'm missing information that might help with its apparent complete nonsense. I feel like the entire movie is pointless. Like, literally, nothing happened in this movie. A bunch of random barely strung together events for no reason and then it ended with a dumb reference that was kinda tossed in because why the hell not at that point. tl;dr you kids can keep your crazy inception bull shit movies. I don't care if it makes you think I'm dumb. Way I see it, I'm too smart to fall for this crap.
Additional thoughts: My friend Robert then pointed out this amazing blog post to me that describes all the little details of Prometheus and what they mean symbolically. I still think the movie is incredibly dumb, but now I understand how dumb it is on a whole new level. He also linked to this video, which I am distressed that I did not think to create myself because, just yes. Yes to it all (note: video DOES contain spoilers):
Snow White and the Huntsman -
G+ comments: Kristen Stewart is not as bad an actress as I thought, but at the same time her dead eyes make you think she doesn't give a crap what happens to anyone through the whole movie. I liked her sensible armor and the official looking Snow White dress. Nice touches like that made the movie. Pacing was too slow but it worked ok. Funny that the dwarves were regular sized actors with movie magic applied. Thor needed a hammer.
Additional thoughts: I was probably too impressed with not hating Kristen Stewart to really give this movie a good look, but again, my genius friend Robert made the extremely good point that the second half of the movie is kinda pointless. The Huntsman falls into the background, barely says anything, and then the movie ends with a battle scene and a feeling of "...so...is that it?" I get the impression they did this because whoever wrote the script saw that they had two romantic possibilities for the "Prince Charming" type character and no real way to resolve it. So they just didn't.
Recommendations:
Do not bother with Prometheus. Even if you've seen the Alien movies. And especially if you haven't seen the Alien movies so you don't even get the tiny moments of "oh! that thing!"
Wait until Snow White and the Huntsman comes out on DVD and then watch it.
I posted very short reviews immediately after viewing each on Google+ and felt like preserving them here:
Prometheus -
G+ comments: Prometheus. I don't get it. It was weird. Scary parts were good with the suspense at least. Rest of it made fuck all sense. But seeing as I hate Segourney Weaver, Beau informs me I'm missing information that might help with its apparent complete nonsense. I feel like the entire movie is pointless. Like, literally, nothing happened in this movie. A bunch of random barely strung together events for no reason and then it ended with a dumb reference that was kinda tossed in because why the hell not at that point. tl;dr you kids can keep your crazy inception bull shit movies. I don't care if it makes you think I'm dumb. Way I see it, I'm too smart to fall for this crap.
Additional thoughts: My friend Robert then pointed out this amazing blog post to me that describes all the little details of Prometheus and what they mean symbolically. I still think the movie is incredibly dumb, but now I understand how dumb it is on a whole new level. He also linked to this video, which I am distressed that I did not think to create myself because, just yes. Yes to it all (note: video DOES contain spoilers):
Snow White and the Huntsman -
G+ comments: Kristen Stewart is not as bad an actress as I thought, but at the same time her dead eyes make you think she doesn't give a crap what happens to anyone through the whole movie. I liked her sensible armor and the official looking Snow White dress. Nice touches like that made the movie. Pacing was too slow but it worked ok. Funny that the dwarves were regular sized actors with movie magic applied. Thor needed a hammer.
Additional thoughts: I was probably too impressed with not hating Kristen Stewart to really give this movie a good look, but again, my genius friend Robert made the extremely good point that the second half of the movie is kinda pointless. The Huntsman falls into the background, barely says anything, and then the movie ends with a battle scene and a feeling of "...so...is that it?" I get the impression they did this because whoever wrote the script saw that they had two romantic possibilities for the "Prince Charming" type character and no real way to resolve it. So they just didn't.
Recommendations:
Do not bother with Prometheus. Even if you've seen the Alien movies. And especially if you haven't seen the Alien movies so you don't even get the tiny moments of "oh! that thing!"
Wait until Snow White and the Huntsman comes out on DVD and then watch it.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy KalingMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book! To be honest, this is what I had wished I had gotten out of Olivia Munn's book. I love Olivia Munn but dear god her book was a terrible, unfunny, poorly written mess of a tl;dr blog post.
Mindy Kaling takes this sort of informal blog-ish style and actually makes it into a decent book! Plus she's a hellovah lot funnier, intelligent, and clever in her execution. It was a mistake for me to read parts of this book at work because I came pretty close to choking to death while trying to hold in the loud guffaws trying to burst out of me at any given moment.
The only bad thing is that you don't get a lot of bang for your buck. The book and writing and humor is worth the asking price, but the length of the book is not. I would have expected something twice as long/dense. There are a few moments, like when she's listing her favorite moments in comedy, that you wonder why she's listing such commonly known moments in comedy and what the book really gains from it. However, these moments are few and far between. Most of the book is a hilarious look back on her life and career.
I borrowed this book from the library, but I am very tempted to buy it just to support her. This feeling partially comes as a possible way for me to pay penance for constantly thinking of her as "that crazy Indian chick from The Office" when I feel like she deserves more respect than that in my thoughts after reading her fantastic book.
View all my reviews
Thursday, June 14
screw you self magazine
I am signed up to get email updates from Self Magazine. They send me little tidbits on health and fitness with free recipes and exercises. I thought it was pretty cool. Every once in a while, they would have a give-a-way for a free bag of this or pack of that. I usually entered.
For the past while they've been doing daily give-a-ways in conjunction with Whole Foods. So, every day I would log onto their website and enter into the daily contest. The first time I entered, I got an error message and had to go back because I had forgot to check something in this box:
So I clicked "no" and entered the give-a-way. The next day, and every day after that, the website kept my information and preferences logged so it would be a simple click of the "enter" button to submit my name into that day's contest. All my information and preferences except for one. The one above. Every day after that first day, even though I had clicked "no", the box above was highlighted as a "yes". So, every day that I entered I had to remember to move the button to "no" again before submitting.
Yesterday I forgot to move it over and accidentally submitted with it on "yes". Instead of the regular "you are entered" message I am taken to a page that says "Thank you for your subscription! We will bill you!"
No verification that I actually wanted a subscription, no way to back out, no customer service numbers, no way to tell it that I didn't want a damn magazine subscription.
I've gotten no less than three emails telling me that I am now subscribed and owe them $15. All of the emails except for one that I tried to reply to gave me a "not able to deliver" message. The one that I was able to reply to sent me the same auto-reply I have received so far in my many attempts to get a hold of some kind of customer service representative. The auto-reply messages all say someone will talk to me some day when they feel like it.
I am pretty pissed. I think I can safely say that they trick a lot of people into magazine subscriptions and owing them money this way. I get that magazine subscriptions is how they make money, which is why I didn't mind all the pop-up ads about subscribing, but it's pretty low to force people into accidentally subscribing and scraping their information from entering a give-a-way in order to bill them, with no option to cancel.
Suffice to say, I will not be paying them. I will send any magazines back as "return to sender" and if I see so much as one bill coming my way I will be contesting it.
I will definitely never be visiting their website again, unsubscribing from all their email newsletters, and never again recommending any of their information or articles to a friend.
Seriously, screw you Self Magazine.
For the past while they've been doing daily give-a-ways in conjunction with Whole Foods. So, every day I would log onto their website and enter into the daily contest. The first time I entered, I got an error message and had to go back because I had forgot to check something in this box:
So I clicked "no" and entered the give-a-way. The next day, and every day after that, the website kept my information and preferences logged so it would be a simple click of the "enter" button to submit my name into that day's contest. All my information and preferences except for one. The one above. Every day after that first day, even though I had clicked "no", the box above was highlighted as a "yes". So, every day that I entered I had to remember to move the button to "no" again before submitting.
Yesterday I forgot to move it over and accidentally submitted with it on "yes". Instead of the regular "you are entered" message I am taken to a page that says "Thank you for your subscription! We will bill you!"
No verification that I actually wanted a subscription, no way to back out, no customer service numbers, no way to tell it that I didn't want a damn magazine subscription.
I've gotten no less than three emails telling me that I am now subscribed and owe them $15. All of the emails except for one that I tried to reply to gave me a "not able to deliver" message. The one that I was able to reply to sent me the same auto-reply I have received so far in my many attempts to get a hold of some kind of customer service representative. The auto-reply messages all say someone will talk to me some day when they feel like it.
I am pretty pissed. I think I can safely say that they trick a lot of people into magazine subscriptions and owing them money this way. I get that magazine subscriptions is how they make money, which is why I didn't mind all the pop-up ads about subscribing, but it's pretty low to force people into accidentally subscribing and scraping their information from entering a give-a-way in order to bill them, with no option to cancel.
Suffice to say, I will not be paying them. I will send any magazines back as "return to sender" and if I see so much as one bill coming my way I will be contesting it.
I will definitely never be visiting their website again, unsubscribing from all their email newsletters, and never again recommending any of their information or articles to a friend.
Seriously, screw you Self Magazine.
Friday, June 8
eating naturally. it is hard.
I've been reading a lot of Nerd Fitness lately and one thing that really stood out for me is that he always emphasizes that if you want to be fit and lose weight, 80% of that effort is going to be from eating a healthy diet. Now, I've seen this advice in other places too - you will see it talked about a lot on r/loseit as well.
For me, this actually wasn't the case. I lost the majority of my weight not through changing my diet but through exercise. Sure, I ate a better here and there, I had more veggies with every meal, I tried to cut back on the cake, but I didn't do anything extreme. Of course, Nerd Fitness will tell you those are exactly the right little steps you need to take.
Now I find myself not wanting to go to the gym for two hours every day but rather be able to continue to lose weight through an hour or less of running daily and start up weight training. I think I've hit a point where I'm ready to take the next step up in being healthier, which for me is more of a re-haul of my diet.
I think the Paleo diet is dumb. It has a dumb name and a dumb premise and I think people are on it for mostly dumb reasons. But here comes Nerd Fitness and his stupid reasonable posts making me rethink at least some of the ideas behind the diet. I have no desire to go full Paleo. I am fairly confident my life would have no meaning without birthday cake. BUT another BUT, it does make a lot of sense to me to start severely cutting back on super processed foods including refined sugars and flours. I don't think I need to completely give them up to be healthier, but after a lot of research on top of this article I am convinced that in order to take the next step in being healthier I really need to start eating a hellavah lot more veggies and delicious meat fat and a hellavah lot less carbs.
It's hard, man! I learned that I am not at all creative when it comes to making meals. Beau and I went out and bought a food processor yesterday so I'm going to chop me up some veggies and experiment with attempting to be more creative with pairing them with grilled chicken and steak to take to work for lunch. I have been meaning to eat more eggs anyway, so the food processor should make it less painful for me to prepare veggie omelets with bacon in the mornings for breakfast.
That was/is my biggest issue really. They make it so easy to just grab those Hot Pockets off the shelf and scarf them down after a mere 60 second nuke in the microwave, don't they? The hardest part about trying to eat naturally is not going to be the food part. I already have a love for meat and veggies and nuts and fruits. The hardest part by far is going to be actually taking the time to make my damn meals.
But more but, hey, I managed to get off my ass to go out and run every day, didn't I? Yes, I did. I will concur you kitchen! Prepare yourself! And prepare my meals while you're preparing yourself!
For me, this actually wasn't the case. I lost the majority of my weight not through changing my diet but through exercise. Sure, I ate a better here and there, I had more veggies with every meal, I tried to cut back on the cake, but I didn't do anything extreme. Of course, Nerd Fitness will tell you those are exactly the right little steps you need to take.
Now I find myself not wanting to go to the gym for two hours every day but rather be able to continue to lose weight through an hour or less of running daily and start up weight training. I think I've hit a point where I'm ready to take the next step up in being healthier, which for me is more of a re-haul of my diet.
I think the Paleo diet is dumb. It has a dumb name and a dumb premise and I think people are on it for mostly dumb reasons. But here comes Nerd Fitness and his stupid reasonable posts making me rethink at least some of the ideas behind the diet. I have no desire to go full Paleo. I am fairly confident my life would have no meaning without birthday cake. BUT another BUT, it does make a lot of sense to me to start severely cutting back on super processed foods including refined sugars and flours. I don't think I need to completely give them up to be healthier, but after a lot of research on top of this article I am convinced that in order to take the next step in being healthier I really need to start eating a hellavah lot more veggies and delicious meat fat and a hellavah lot less carbs.
It's hard, man! I learned that I am not at all creative when it comes to making meals. Beau and I went out and bought a food processor yesterday so I'm going to chop me up some veggies and experiment with attempting to be more creative with pairing them with grilled chicken and steak to take to work for lunch. I have been meaning to eat more eggs anyway, so the food processor should make it less painful for me to prepare veggie omelets with bacon in the mornings for breakfast.
That was/is my biggest issue really. They make it so easy to just grab those Hot Pockets off the shelf and scarf them down after a mere 60 second nuke in the microwave, don't they? The hardest part about trying to eat naturally is not going to be the food part. I already have a love for meat and veggies and nuts and fruits. The hardest part by far is going to be actually taking the time to make my damn meals.
But more but, hey, I managed to get off my ass to go out and run every day, didn't I? Yes, I did. I will concur you kitchen! Prepare yourself! And prepare my meals while you're preparing yourself!
Thursday, June 7
Mister Rogers Remixed | Garden of Your Mind | PBS Digital Studios
I had to put this on my blog too. This is the greatest thing ever. PBS played a huge part in my childhood and it is absolutely awesome that they asked the guy behind Symphony of Science to make a video for them. I watched a lot of Mister Rogers in my day and while I was too young to remember most of it now, I do have bright and happy memories of a wall turning into a puppet town.
If I ever win the lottery, PBS is going to get one hell of a check from me. Thank you for making my childhood amazing with your programming. And thank you so much for this video.
If I ever win the lottery, PBS is going to get one hell of a check from me. Thank you for making my childhood amazing with your programming. And thank you so much for this video.
Wednesday, June 6
today is national running day!
I have been successful this week so far in sticking to my 5 miles a day, but perhaps today I will attempt to do something more. Maybe I'll try to convince Beau to come out with me or treat the dog to a run.
Now that I stopped going to the gym, running has become the most important part of my weight loss and fitness regime. I don't think I'll ever feel competitive enough to go out and start running marathons, but improving my own times and jogging around the neighborhood is quite enjoyable. Plus, I have been planning on going out for the occasional 10k for charity which is great fun.
If you're not a runner, I highly recommend putting in a mile today! You will feel liberated! You won't have to worry about eating that donut! Your legs will look like a Greek God's! (OK, actually that will take a while and they will probably just hurt if you only go out once, but hey, it's the START to Greek God legs)
Go run people! Don't let the zombies shuffle faster than you can move!
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