Why Can’t We All Get Along?

I started another (YES ANOTHER) blog.  This is the first post on it.  I really just can’t sit still anymore.  Also, behold the first blog post I’ve ever written that contains no profanity.  Now you know I mean serious business.

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I guess the reason I started this blog comes from the news that Rush Limbaugh was rushed to the hospital tonight with chest pains.  I  found this out on Twitter, which as you can imagine, is an infestation of everything wrong with the way we as humans think.  I was rather horrified to see people actually hopeful that this man would die.  Further, those who label themselves as conservatives or right-wing are taking the opportunity to generalize all those who may consider themselves liberals or left-wing.  WHY?

Because human beings, I have determined from 21 years of first hand research, are disgusting.

Seriously, let's all take a look at ourselves.  First we must categorize ourselves into completely ridiculous and arbitrary groups (conservative, liberal, religious, atheist, gay, straight, poor, rich).  Next, hate everyone who does not have the same views, ideas, and/or experiences as we do.  Bash the "other side" relentlessly.  And what does this accomplish?  Absolutely nothing.  This "us-against-them" game never ends.  Neither side will ever be able to get ahead, which in turn makes nothing change.

This is why I created this new blog.  I may only be 21, but I'm already sick of the way we think, particularly in America.  Seriously, try watching Congress or even one of the 24 hour news networks.  It's so reminiscent of high school it's not even funny.  Some of these people are 3 times older than I am and yet act less than half my age.  What happened to calmly discussing things like adults?  Cooperation?  Compromise?  Working together?  Respecting everyone around you just for being human, even if you didn't quite see eye to eye?  Maybe this never happened and I'm just ridiculously optimistic.

I honestly think we could change though.  With work and patience maybe we can start fixing things.  At this point, it's just me and a blog I've started out of anguish and frustration with the world, but I do hope there are others out there just as optimistic as I am.

The world just sucks right now.  I just see all of this fighting and bickering...and for what?  Nothing gets accomplished with screaming contests, insults, and violence.  At least, that's what I was taught in third grade. However, I don't see why that wouldn't work in the real world as well.  I have hope that we humans still have enough good in us to start viewing things in a different way.  Perhaps we'll learn that what we're doing isn't  working.  Perhaps not.

For now, all I can change is myself.  I'll be taking on the world though, one person at a time.  It's my 2010 resolution.  Game on.

The Sims 3 Review: 5 Months Later

Okay, so it’s been about 5 months since I last played TS3.  Has my opinion changed?

The answer is: slightly.

• Seamless neighborhood: still yay.
• Traits: yay, sometimes to a loltastic extent.
• Voice customization: has grown on me.
• Graphic effects: good, but I’m getting some really weird looking glitches this time around.  More on that later.
• Moodlets: yay, but like the graphics I think something is fucked up.
• Jobs: still enjoying them and the opportunities.  However, it still seems too easy, and I’d enjoy more careers.  Maybe that’s in the World Adventures expansion, I honestly have no fucking idea.
• Base items:  less issues with the lack of content with Mod The Sims and other custom content sites.  Current problems with custom content will be discussed later as well.
• Lack of Body Shop: given the amount of custom content, people have obviously found some other method of making their own shit.  So this is no longer an issue, especially since I don’t even play this game anymore.
• Faces: Less strange looking to me.  Then again I’ve been melting my mind playing Fallout 3, and the dead-shark eyes, stiff movements, and lack of facial expressions of those characters make most anything better.
• Motive system: can’t really tell because I don’t even pay that much attention to them.  Also, I don’t remember what the Sims 2 system was like at all.
• Behavior: nothing the Awesomemod couldn’t solve.
• Community rabbit holes: meh.
• Stand-alone game: I s’pose.  Again, it’s been so long since I’ve played Sims 2, and fucking ages since I’ve played Sims 1, that I barely even remember what they entail.
• One neighborhood: I think they’re fixing that with a Create-A-World program I just saw literally an hour ago.
• Storytelling mode: again, Awesomemod (and probably some of the patches, too) solved everything.  The shit that happens when I’m not watching makes sense now.
• Sims 3 Store: still a bunch of bullshit.  The uploads on Mod The Sims are better than anything I’ve seen in the store.

My main problem this go around is mainly with EAxis and the developers of the game.  Why?  This time around, there seem to be a shitton more glitches and issues.  From the quick searching I did, it seems like they’re more related to the patches.  Basically, their patches screwed up more shit than they fixed, or at least created more issues.  Then the guy who makes Awesomemod has to fix their mistakes, because he actually fixes shit in a timely manner and releases the mod for free, unlike the multi-million dollar company who just say they’ve identified the problem and are working on it.  Great.

First problem, I can’t install 90% of the custom content I downloaded.  I didn’t have this problem before.  It will say that the items have installed, but it will have lied to me.  Seriously, fuck you too, Sims 3 Launcher.  And others are having the same issues.  It’s not like I can’t play without custom shoes, but goddamn I would hope that a game I paid $50 for would what it’s supposed to.

Graphics issues are also quite apparent.  One of my pixel dudes was teaching his toddler how to walk, and he helped the child stand up from a good sim-meter away, not even touching the child.  Either that’s a graphical error or my sim is a jedi.  Their pixel lady neighbor also read a book but it was levitating a few sim-inches away from her hands.  Seriously, if the goal was to make all Sims jedi then that’s great.  Otherwise, I am concerned.

There are also some gameplay glitches.  Some of the moodlets’ influence on mood seems completely borked.  Teen!Mortimer Goth had the “Anxious to Advance” moodlet, which is something like –15 on mood. He also had the Honor Roll and Beautiful Vista moodlets, which I don’t remember exactly what their influence is but I’m positive they would outweigh the negative one.  All of his motives were in the green.  Yet, his mood was down in the red.  WAT.  I exited the house, switched to a different household and back, and it seemed to be fixed.  Huh.

Look, I understand that this is a ridiculously fucking complex game.  I think most people understand that.  However, it’s still a product that you want consumers to buy.  Consumers aren’t going to buy or want to play a screwy product.  I would be willing to wait longer to get something if I knew that most of the bugs would be worked out.  But it seems that EAxis just sort of throws patches together, puts them up and then walks away.  Even some of the Sims 2 patches were pretty fucking awful.  Seriously, they should just do more testing.  It’s definitely worthwhile in the end.  Or hire some of these modders, because they’re making EAxis look pretty bad.

Basically my point is, decent game, shitty development.  EAxis definitely needs to pay more attention to their consumers, or at least spend more time testing their shit to make sure what should be functional actually is.  Even if there are bugs, they get them fixed in a timely manner so that their consumers aren’t saying, “Well they’re not going to fix it anytime soon, so let’s see what we can do.”  Creates a nice comradery between them, but again, it makes EAxis look shitty and almost like a joke.

Time to go see if I can edit some files and get this shit working.

INTERNET ARGUMENT

On VFTW, I’m usually known as the person who will throw this image up whenever necessary:

It’s the truest damn image macro ever.

Take Twitter for example. Chris Brown deleted his account. People of course are making fun of that fact. This girl is arguing with fucking everyone about Chris Brown. I tweeted, “Chris Brown deleted his twitter? Nothing of value has been lost.” She tweeted, “So delete yours so we can make space for someone important.”

Now admittedly this is a very good point. However, I was commenting on the fact that people are acting like Chris Brown deleted himself instead of his twitter.

Me: I chose to comment on people taking a twitter account way too seriously. Yet somehow I offended you...?

Her (I’m assuming it’s a she): No. I'm Sorry.

This is my best aspect. I can make people who for whatever reason don’t like me, like me in seconds. My diplomacy skills are fucking legendary. Shit, some of my best friends used to think I was a total bitch. And I am, but I am a lovable bitch. Anyway, the tweets continued.

Me: Seriously, though, calm down. You can't change people's minds. Just enjoy your life.

Her: People are confused. They follow the trend of "Lets Hate this Celebrity". You can't change a mind that doesn't think for itself.

Me: (Ignoring the fact that I completely disagree with her, because that is beside the point) Then why argue? Especially online, nothing will be accomplished. You will never see eye to eye. Don't waste the time.

Her: Because I'm a Moron who argues with Morons... But you're 1 of the smartest ppl I met all night.

Me: Thank you. I don't know, I just don't see the point of endless arguments...but have a good night.

And then the other person who she’s been arguing with says, “@tinnerz10 is right. We won't solve anything. Wanna just agree to disagree and call it a night? My old ass is tired sweety.”

I am telling you, I should be a diplomat. No telling if their argument is going to stop, but hey, at least I put the point out there. Seriously, there is no point in arguing over the Internet. Hell, even some of this shit I wouldn’t waste my time in real life on. Stooping down into name-calling and insults because someone has a different viewpoint than you do is just fucking stupid. You’re not going to change anything unless both sides are open to the other’s ideas and you can discuss it with some civility.

Even on VFTW, I find that arguing with the Idol fans is just pointless. We will never agree. Sure, when they go through the entire registration process simply to tell us we’re lame, mean, ugly, fat assholes, they open themselves up to some flaming. But does that mean we have to give them that attention? All it does is start a huge circular argument that never ends until everyone moves to a different comments section and it all begins anew. If they want to come on and say shit, well fine, that’s their right. We don’t go to their sites and start flaming them (or at least I hope not…).

I just don’t understand arguing about shit that has little to no affect on the world as a whole. Does what people say about Chris Brown or Adam Lambert affect the economy, health care, the wars we’re currently fighting, poverty issues, the education system, or the environment? Fuck no. If you’re going to start ridiculous battles about shit, at least argue over something that affects more than your own self esteem and/or psyche.

Besides, IT’S THE FUCKING INTERNET. I mean, if you tried to argue with everyone on the web that you disagreed with, you would die of starvation for sitting in front of the computer for days on end. Not only that, but you could totally hate someone on the Internet, then meet them in real life without even knowing it and think they were a totally awesome person. You’re only meeting a small part of someone’s personality on the Internet. There are things we all love and hate about the people in our lives. Having a limited perspective of a person skews how you think of that person. But overall, as I’ve said numerous times before, if you’re that bothered by something you read on the Internet, you should probably use it as little as possible. People in real life are stupid enough that they should fill your daily quota of annoyance nicely.

I’ve learned that there are some battles you just have to drop before they’ve begun. Made my life a hell of a lot more enjoyable. It’s probably why my depression shit was so awful. I was more concerned with being right about everything than my own wellbeing. It’s just not healthy. I just hope others, such as this girl on Twitter, are able to learn that sooner than I did.

University of Mary Washington: Yeah, We're Pretty Awesome

FUCKIN RAVE PARTY BITCHES.

All videos by yours truly.

Basically, this was a test of school pride because, since we don’t have a football team, we barely have any. Surprisingly, a lot more people showed up than I imagined. Trinkle Hall’s rotunda was pretty packed. It was also insane. Crowd-surfing, people throwing toilet paper and their class notes, hardcore dancing…seriously, something this crazy never happens at Mary Wash. It was so great. We need to have one every week, pretty much.And as an example of our awesomeness, a bunch of people, including my roomie and I, stayed after to help clean up. Also, the security guard enjoyed it as much as we did. That’s just how we are. You stay fly, Mary Wash.

Of course, the semester ended yesterday so now I’m home. And already bored. I’m listening to Sigur Ros and knitting. GOD I RULE. I was going to play Fallout 3, but it had some random update and then I forgot to reboot it until just now. Oh well. Also may play Sims 3 just to see how I feel about it after not playing it for 6 months.

Did some Christmas/me shopping. Got some speakers for my laptop and a few sweaters. Nothing too big. Christmas is coming soon enough, and AFTER CHRISTMAS SALES HELL YEAH.

Anyway. Just wanted to boast about flash raves. Back to being ridiculously boring.

2009: A Review in Music

Basically because I want to procrastinate from packing and finishing my 10 page paper.  I’m just going down my list of music in my “2009” iTunes playlist.

Amanda Overmyer – Solidify

I love Amanda, like most people on VFTW do.  She has that great blues rock sound that my parents listen to all the time.  This is a solid album, and really shows how watered down she was on American Idol.  Unfortunately I doubt many people who mostly listen to mainstream music would fully appreciate the talent she has.  Fucking shame.

 

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Keeping in line with my vaguely-hipster cred, I fucking love Animal Collective.  This isn’t my favorite album by them, though, and that title easily goes to “Sung Tongs.”  I think this one comes in a close third following “Strawberry Jam.”  MPP is a bit less out there than some of their other albums and slightly more mainstream friendly.  Still good, but I want another “We Tigers” esque song.

 

Architects – Hollow Crown

I have listened to “In Elegance” far too much this year.  Yeah, it’s metalcore, but this album is fucking fun.  Best listened to walking through campus or something else that’s mundane,  Expecting to hear more from these guys, they’ve got some talent in them.

 

As Tall As Lions – You Can’t Take It With You

I pre-ordered this shit.  I don’t pre-order often.  I love ATAL.  They are one of the few bands worthy of me actually having one of their t-shirts.  Sounds mundane, but seriously I don’t buy band merchandise usually.  This is indie shit out the wazoo, but I love it.  Very talented guys, chill sound, beautiful music.  Probably up in the top 3 for me.

 

Children of Nova – The Complexity of Light

A friend randomly recommended this band for me.  That person is my new best friend.  These guys are pretty much (and criminally) unknown.  They have won a ton of local awards in San Diego, where they’re based.  Excellent concept EP.  I’d describe them as hard progressive rock.  Great set of guys, I definitely recommend checking this shit out ASAP.

 

The Dear Hunter – Act III: Life and Death

TDH lets me hang on to the fond memories of The Receiving End of Sirens.  Of course, TDH is nothing like TREOS.  This is definitely indie prog, and is fantastic and epic.  If the “Act III” in the title doesn’t give it away, there are two other acts in this series of concept albums.  I wouldn’t say this is the best, I think I love Act II more.  However, this is a solid album nevertheless and Casey’s voice still makes me melt.

 

Dethklok – The Dethalbum II

The greatest thing about Dethklok is that despite the fact that it’s a cartoon band that is supposed to be making fun of metal music and it’s fans, it’s legitimately great music.  The lyrics are absurd and fucking hilarious, but the musicality is fucking amazing.  Most of all, it’s just fucking fun.  I can do two of my favorite things at once: headbang and laugh.  I think I like this one more than the first, too.

 

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Keeping in line with hipsterness.  Grizzly Bear, like Animal Collective, probably won’t be famous anytime soon because they’re so far out there from where mainstream music currently sits.  This is still fucking great.  Although I still like “Yellow House” the best, Veckatimest is pretty legit.  Great chillout and study music.  Always puts me in a calm, peaceful mood.

 

HORSE the Band – Desperate Living

I had nearly forgotten how great this band was.  I hadn’t listened to them in a long time until this album came out, then I remembered why I used to love them so much in sophomore year.  It’s fucking brilliant.  Mixing experimental metal-esque prog shit with Nintendo sounds?  FUCKING LEGIT.  This album is by far my favorite of the year, I’m not even kidding.  It’s fantastic.  It’s just so much fun to listen to, and the talent is just outstanding.  Fucking brilliant, I love it.

 

Kris Allen – Live Like We’re Dying

I’ve only listened to this once because I just obtained it like a week ago.  Unfortunately, I can’t even remember the songs except “Live Like We’re Dying” (which is obnoxiously catchy and has been the Earworm of Doom for a while) and of course the “Heartless” cover.  From what I remember thinking, it’s not bad.  Given that 90% of pop music makes me want to strangle someone and I did not experience such anger, I can safely say this sits in the 10% of pop that I can stand.  Not that it’s anything new or interesting, but it’s pleasant white noise.  Sorry, Kris.

 

MSTRKRFT – Fist of God

This shit is also legit.  Great fucking electronic/dance music.  I dare you not to at least bop your head to this shit.  I feel like one issue they suffer from is that some of the songs sound quite similar to each other, and it start to sound like one song after a while.  However, I’m usually dancing so I don’t usually give a fuck.  Fun, funky, energetic.  Fine by me.

 

Mute Math – Armistice

If it hadn’t been for The Receiving End of Sirens, Mute Math would have dominated my freshman year of college.  Their first album is pretty spectacular, but this one kicks it to a whole different level.  Funky, energetic dance rock.  I in particular dance a whole fucking lot to these guys.  And Paul Meany sometimes rocks a keytar.  That alone should make you want to listen to this shit.  Very legit, another one in my top 3 of the year.

 

Portugal.  The Man – The Satanic Satanist

I feel like I’ve used this word way too much in this post but LEGIT.  P.TM never fails to impress me.  Not only do these guys pop out a new album every year, each album is great and their sound evolves with every one of them.  Creativity abound, seriously.  I’d say this album is a bit more chill than the others, but it’s still great.  I also wish I could sing like John Gourley.  So.  Fucking.  Much.

 

Rx Bandits – Mandala

I just got into these guys this year, but they’re quickly becoming one of my favorites.  Great ska-esque rock.  Don’t have as much to say about them as the others since I haven’t been listening to them for as long, but they are a pretty sweet band.  I especially love that they use horns, rock music needs more trumpets and shit.  IMHO.

 

Saosin – In Search of Solid Ground

Unfortunately, I am not as impressed with Saosin as I was with their self-titled debut.  That shit right there was some legit screamo.  This one just feels like they’re becoming another mainstream band.  Less intense, somewhat formulaic.  A bit of a letdown, for me at least.  Still love these guys, but I don’t see myself listening to this album on repeat like I did the debut.

 

Tokio Hotel – Humanoid

Tokio Hotel would be my guilty pleasure if I ever actually felt guilty about anything I like.  Suck it, bitches.  Seriously, this is a pretty decent record.  I like the electro pop direction they’re going in.  “Love and Death” is a pretty kickass song, and I had no fucking idea Bill had that kind of range.  You go, Bill.  It’ll be interesting to see where they go after this one.  I wouldn’t mind even more electronic in their sound, it works pretty well for them actually.

 

Shit I have but I haven’t listened to enough to form an opinion

• A Storm of Light – Primitive North
• Amesoeurs – S/T
• Olafur Arnalds – Found Songs
• The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Fruit
• Bon Iver – Blood Bank
• Cage the Elephant – S/T
• Clark – Growls Garden
• Converge – Axe to Fall
• The Fall of Troy – In the Unlikely Event
• Faunts – Feel.Love.Thinking.Of
• The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
• Isis – Wavering Radiant
• Just Went Black – Crossroads
• Lacuna Coil – Shallow Life
• Mastodon – Crack the Skye
• Maybeshewill – Sing the Word Hope in Four-Part Harmony
• MONO – Hymn to the Immortal World
• Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
• Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor

Expect those reviews to come later.  Time to stop procrastinating.

Soooooo.

First off, I’d like to say that I really, really wish VFTW would stop talking about Adam Lambert on the front page.  He’s not interesting, and it’s not even funny to laugh at his “failures” anymore, it’s just boring.  Still love the site and the people on it, but it’s like reverse tarding sometimes.

It’s snowing pretty good outside here, the first snow of the season.  It looks pretty.  Of course, I’m stuck in here finishing up finals.  We’re supposed to go downtown to the Christmas parade, but I’m wondering if it’s still on for tonight.  The sidewalks don’t look too bad, but it could be icing up.  Who knows.

Modern Warfare 2 is pretty fun.  Not quite worth all the hype, but whatever.  I haven’t played online multiplayer since the whole Javelin glitch thing.  Basically, the Javelin is a grenade launcher, and when people shoot you it explodes, killing you and the person/people shooting you as well as everyone around you.  It’s a way for really shitty people to get kills when they can’t get them through not cheating.  Hate to make wide sweeping generalizations but given my experiences on Xbox Live I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the glitchers are the 13 year olds who are probably too immature to be online.  I mean, I suck ass at multiplayer, partially because I don’t sit around and play video games for more than 2 hours at a time and thus don’t get in valuable practice.  However, I’m not going to cheat just so I can rank up or some shit.  Fuck that, I’m not that much of a douchebag.  Until the glitch gets fixed they’re starting to ban people for 24 hours, which for some of these kids will feel like an eternity.  So at least they’re doing something, but it’s still fucktarded for those of us who play fairly.

Brutal Legend is also pretty good.  The problem I had with it was that there seemed to be a lot of graphical issues.  A few times textures would just drop the fuck out.  More often, I’d be in these epic battles and the frame rate would just fucking plummet.  It was quite obnoxious and several times I was concerned about the safety of my console.  Otherwise fun game.  Haven’t tried multiplayer yet.

We got some Neti pots.  Sinus irrigation FTW.  I was quite unsure about it because I have hydrophobia (not like, ZOMG A GLASS A WATER, I mean I don’t like large, open bodies of water) which stems from a fear of drowning, and as you can imagine pouring water into your nose kinda makes you feel like you’re drowning for a bit.  After I quelled the onset of a panic attack it wasn’t that bad.  My sinuses have been giving me issues for almost a month now, so I’m kinda worried that I’m getting an infection.  The neti pot doesn’t seem to be doing too much for me, so I’ll probably need to talk to my doctor.  Fuck.

Also I wish my roommate would let us know long beforehand when the Christmas parade is.  Apparently she wants to leave at 5.  Which is in half an hour.  We were both thinking it would be closer to 7.  LIKE FUCK.  I’m still sitting here in pajamas and I haven’t eaten since breakfast.  Goddamn.  Love people sometimes, but come on…

I guess I’ll get my ass up.

I am ridiculously sick of papers, so I’m writing about AI fans.

No seriously.  I feel like I’ve done nothing but write papers for the past two weeks.  I’m burned out.  My Anglo-Saxon art paper is total shit right now just because I cannot get it going, or get myself to care.  This is terrible.  Luckily these are only supposed to be rough drafts, because this shit is certainly rough.

Also, the posts on TopIdol about this woman named Holly (latest post here) are really fucking disturbing.  I know people, including myself, enjoy learning about the insane things people do and getting a good laugh out of it (because if I didn’t laugh I’d probably curl up into a ball in a corner and cry that people like this exist).  However, when you think about it, and read about women like this who are even more unstable than most, it really is cause for concern. 

For instance, this Holly stalks every woman seen with David Cook, calling them a bitch, whore, skank, etc.  Just because they are seen with him and happen to have a vagina.  Seriously, what the fuck.  Furthermore, this woman uses a shit ton of sockpuppet accounts to make it seem like there are more people involved in these shenanigans other than just her.  It’s obvious that they’re sockpuppets too, because the writing style is the same, the same spelling errors are made, and when she posts of TopIdol she doesn’t bother to change her IP address.  So basically it’s a woman, a ton of accounts on a message board she started, and a helluva lot of free time.

BUT WHY?  Does she think she’s trying to protect David Cook?  This is what it sounds like from one of her comments on TopIdol.  Can’t remember the exact quote, but it was something to the extent of “we’re trying to protect him from himself.”  That just raises more questions for me.  Why does this woman think that David Cook needs protection? (She’s probably insane.)  What is he doing that is hurting himself?  (Nothing.)  Does she really think there’s a “we” involved in this?  (I wouldn’t be surprised.)

This brings up more points about rabid fans, not just Holly.  Why do so many people get so emotionally attached to celebrities?  They don’t know them personally.  Do they just need something to latch onto, and something about a particular person appeals to them?  Are there issues in their own lives that they’re trying to escape from, and therefore try to live their lives vicariously through these stars?  I really just don’t understand.  Hell, even at my lowest point I was never like, “I MUST MAKE SURE RADIOHEAD IS SUCCESSFUL IN EVERYTHING THEY ARE REMOTELY INVOLVED IN.”  (Nevermind the fact that they’ve been successful for like, 17 years now with little help from me.)  Fuck, the only Radiohead merch I have other than their music is a poster.  I see pictures of women with every magazine Adam Lambert or Clay Aiken or David Cook ever appeared on, dolls they’ve made, t-shirts they’ve bought or made themselves, etc.  You can be a legit fan without completely losing your shit and dignity, people.

And another thing: why come the really off the wall people seem to be older women attached to American Idol contestants?  WTF.  In high school, and even now as a college senior, I only know a few people who actually give a shit about this show.  And those few usually forget about the show once it’s over, though they may still enjoy the music of one or two of the contestants.  Is it the personal light that the show puts on the contestants?  Does that make them more relatable to people who may need a connection such as that?  Still though, it’s not healthy.  This phenomenon also seems to have become more rampant in the past few years, with the exception of Clay Aiken.  Or maybe I just haven’t been paying attention.  I mean, I do feel like there is something happening culturally that affects this, because you can find insane fans of about anyone, but those that stick out the most seem to be AI fans.

But the age thing.  Completely baffling to me.  Why the fuck are so many of these women grown and often with families of their own?  And why are they spending so much time and energy on a celebrity instead of their families, who are right there and may actually need them?  I remember reading on VFTW or Idletard about a woman whose son who was becoming an alcoholic among other problems, blew up at her over her intense Clay Aiken fandom.  She seemed baffled as to why in her post.  It makes me wonder if his problems could have been amplified by the fact that she wasn’t paying much attention to him because she was busy scouring the Internet about Clay.  And many of the husbands have to feel like shit if they don’t like the same person or want to join the fandom.  How many more families are screwed up by this?  I tend to give younger fans a break, because we do tend to latch onto things more as we’re younger, but these obsessive like states usually don’t last too long.  Also, many of them become busy with school or other activities.  They don’t have families to support.  These older women should know better.

If I were a psychology major, this would be the most epic senior thesis ever.  There’s so much weird shit within these fandoms that it’s just mind-boggling.  I’ll probably never be able to understand.  I’ve never known anyone to be so obsessed with something (except maybe Ben and Halo, but he grew out of that 2 years ago because he finally realized that there are much better FPSs out there, thank God).  It’s like a whole different dimension of people for whom these activities are normal, and they cross over into whatever the fuck dimension I’m living in like some Stargate shit and give me epic mind fucks.  That is the only explanation I can come up with.  Stargate. 

Damn my mom completely ruined me for life with the Star Trek/Stargate/MST3K triforce.  Time for class.

Ah fuck.

Eye strain. Fuck.

Yeah, and I'm blogging. It's seriously from my laptop though. I was reading that monitor refresh rates below 70 Hertz or so causes a lot of eye strain. So I'm like, oh great, I'll just change it to 70 or 75 or something. BUT NO. My laptop does not allow me to change it to anything other than 60. FFFFFFFFUUUU... Hence, I am on my desktop with my 75 Hertz of refreshment. I hadn't booted this shit up in a good 3 weeks, and I forgot how awesome desktops are. It's over 3 yrs old now, but good ol' Spartacus has done well. Other than sometimes refusing to communicate with the monitor properly, but even then it will reboot itself and start functioning again. I know, weird.

I know there's got to be a way to tweak my refresh rate on the laptop. The problem is, I really don't want to fuck it up. It's already been through some shit (HP's shitty hard drive exploding randomly one day. I'd only had it for 2 months, too). Plus that's $1200 of beastly hardware and if I somehow screw it up (which is inevitable if I try something like this) I will probably cry a bit.

Also, I'm sick. Not swine flu though, which is always a plus. It's a head cold, basically. Actually it's starting to feel like a sinus infection. Lovely, but I'll take it over any flu variant anyday. My head sort of feels like a balloon right now.

I'm also keeping track on Ghost Adventures Live. My mom always watches shit like this because she's a sci-fi nerd like that, and passed along that trait to her kids. One of my roommates and I were watching one of the episodes before the live one, and basically just making fun of it. Not because we're skeptics, but because the guys on the show are such bros. Seriously, they are just a few popped collars away from true bro-dom. We are now going to call each other "bro" all the time, and utilize phrases such as "Dude, bro...." "Oh, bro...dude..." "BRO...DUDE, BRO!" Excellent.

I love how my parents still hone in on every health issue of mine. I can't really blame them, with all the shit that happened a few years ago, but the amazing speed at which they respond to Facebook status changes is legendary.

Speaking of which, I've never really understood why some people are so afraid of their parents on Facebook. I think it's a combination of 1) my mom's fuckin cool and wouldn't really give a shit, 2) my sisters and I don't do anything that would be embarrassing, 3) I don't have to worry about friends putting up anything stupid. I just don't do stupid shit. Hell, I can't get drunk for medical reasons (1 oz. of wine every week really doesn't do anything, lol), and it's not like I'm sleeping around with tons of dudes. There's really nothing I need to keep secret from my parents. And hell, a good chunk of my family is on Facebook as well. Again though, I think it's just the situation I'm in. I'm sure if I were in someone else's shoes I'd feel much differently.

Sleepytime tea fuckin rules, too. Just throwing that out there.

So I found this website, King.com, through StumbleUpon (which is my new addiction, BTW). I don't know if it was intentional, but if you say "king-dot-com" out loud it sort of sounds like "kingdom come." This is the sort of thing I figure out when I can't sleep at 3 AM. Anyway, it's actually pretty shitty, but oddly addictive. As a free member you pretty much are just doomed to mediocrity, because they only let you play a few levels/minutes of each game, therefore there's only so many points you can get. Excellent strategy though: have addicting games like BeJeweled, give incentives to play such as "building a castle" and "earning jewels," tell people they have to pay for moar awsum features, ????, PROFIT!!! I refuse to give in, though, because I'm already paying $50 a year for XBox Live and that's way cooler.

My other roommate is on a night hike. My maternal instincts are freaking. Especially because there are only four people, apparently. I am not okay with this. I probably won't be able to sleep until she gets back.

I am still highly confused about Adam Lambert. Do people really freak out over him? I don't know anyone who actually knows who he is. The few friends who do watch American Idol are like, "which one is he?" Then I go online and see all these women going apeshit over him. I do not understand. He's not bad, but he seriously sounds like a million other artists out there. And he has a ridiculous album cover that reminds me of the Lisa Frank backpack I had in Kindergarten. It had baby seals on it, along with rainbows and stars and other Lisa Frank goodness. I digress. His "glam" also fails pretty hard. He should get lessons from Dir En Grey or one of those other Japanese visual kei bands. That right there is some serious modern glam. The lead singer of Dir en Grey also mutilates himself onstage, and I can't decide whether that's fucking awesome or fucking worrisome. Adam can leave that aspect to him.

But seriously, it's like there's an entirely different world out there of pop stars and actors and whatever, along with their rabid fanbases. Actually, now that I've mentioned Adam Lambert, I wonder if some random fan is going to come here. Then again, why the fuck would they, because like, this is a clearly insignificant blog and probably more of a waste of bandwidth than a lot of things. YET I KEEP TYPING.

Also, I have gotten so many messages about the Sims 3 blog post I did in June. This is another thing I don't understand. How are these people finding my blog? Why are they all Sims 3 fans? Honestly I forget the game even exists sometimes. Pretty sure I haven't played it since July at the latest. Console gaming is just way more fun. I like talking to and playing with my friends. And I've become an achievements whore. Maybe Sims 3 people are looking for stuff on the expansion that's supposed to come out and looks sort of lame. No seriously, I used to get so fucking excited about Sims expansion packs, but now it just feels like they're pumping out the same shit. What is this one, "World Adventures" or something like that? I liked it better when it was called Bon Voyage/Vacation. I'm sure there's something that differentiates it from the other two but I still just can't get excited over it. They should've made a Nightlife/Hot Date type expansion instead. I'd much rather they give you more options in the current neighborhood.

Odd as it sounds, I think I'm going to do some homework. I AM THAT BORED. And hell, might as well utilize this time.

Random thoughts of the day.

• Some guy was singing Bel Biv DeVoe's "Poison" outside of my window five minutes ago. And very well, I have to add. I am confused, intrigued, and a bit in love. Thank you, neighbor.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 on Legendary was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I feel slightly disappointed. Or maybe I'm just intensely skilled. Doubtful.
• John Winthrop made me want to pull my eyes out. I had to read a biography of him for one of my classes and holy sweet Moses, that was the most dry, grating thing I've ever experienced. Now the next time I hear someone say "a city on a hill" I'm going to become blind with rage.
• Took a test for my American South class. My test had 40 questions. There were supposed to be 50. My awesome professor, who I've had for 3 classes now, just graded what I had, so I got an A anyway. BOOSH.
• Found that everything is better if you listen to Dethklok whilst doing it. "Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle" is my normal coffee run song, but I didn't recognize the power of the Dethklok. Took the most brutal shower ever last night. Sort of hard to headbang while shaving my legs, and I can't recommend that part.
  
• A friend from high school committed suicide on Monday. Very, very strange. Definitely the last person I'd expect to do that. Hadn't talked to him in at least 3 years, but apparently it went downhill pretty fast. I've not been feeling very well for the past few days, and the emotions that it brought up just made it much worse. Right now I'm just depressed and ill. So many questions that no one can answer. Way too many emotions right now.
• Fall break starts tomorrow, which is good. However, I will be spending most of my time working on assignments so I don't even consider it a break. More like, "extended weekend."
• Reading around Idletard/Vote for the Worst, astounded that fantards still care about any of these contestants, especially Adam Lambert. I never hear a thing about American Idol anymore except when I go on those sites. It's a relief, but it's weird that people think he's a household name and going to be super successful or something. He probably has a better chance than most, but I wouldn't hold my breath. His rabidly insane fans will ruin whatever success he has anyway. The one person I know that actually keeps up with that shit was turned off of Lambert because some frauen kept harassing her about not being a "real fan" because she can maintain an objective view whilst liking someone. A slow clap to you, ladies.
• Apple tech support is awesome and it makes me angry that more companies do not have the same emphasis on customer service.
• Redskins didn't lose on Sunday. I wouldn't call what they did "winning." Jason Campbell made me sad that I own his jersey. Very close to selling it, because he looked fucking terrible. They apparently hired someone to help out the offense, but this guy also calls bingo, so I don't even know. Dan Snyder, I'm looking for employment opportunities when I graduate in May...
• Attempting to watch the news makes me angry and depressed. Already have clinical depression and a short temper, so I read HappyNews.com instead. Because fuck you, mass media.
• Speaking of which, I tried to take a survey about television the other day. It asked me what shows I'd watched in the past week. The only time I turned on the TV was to play video games. The 'x' in the corner of the window was clicked. I don't know if I've watched any TV in the past month.
  
• Trying to catch up with my friend Ben in Xbox Live gamerscore. Gamerscore gets you nothing, but I like swinging my e-penis around. Speaking of Ben, I need a power hug, stat.
  
• About to make myself filet mignon for dinner. Because fuck you, campus dining service. I actually eat healthier now that I make most of my own meals because I know that the meat will be properly cooked and the vegetables won't be smothered in fucking lard. Only in the south...
• Didn't realize how happy MST3K makes me until I watched it for the first time in a few weeks yesterday. Instantly brought my mood up. Thanks guys.
• iTunes is getting a major cleanup over break. I have 13,994 songs. This is a bit insane, and I bet a good bit of those are duplicates. Also I need to stop being a music whore.
• Dear God I really want that filet mignon. Bye.
  

Hail to the Redskins? No, go fuck yourselves you guys.

Someone on the official message board had the best response to someone who was bitching at all of us Redskins who are fed up with this franchise: "I didn't leave the Redskins, they left me."

It's strange for me to get so emotionally invested in football, though it has been a major part of my life. However, when your team plays that badly against a team who hadn't won a game in nearly two years, it's upsetting. Yes, the Redskins haven't been that good since the 80s, but at least they tried, and at least it was still entertaining, even if in a MST3K-way. Right now it's just painful to watch. Seriously, save for a few players, they gave up in the 2nd quarter, and I followed suit soon after.

Skins fans are all trying to point fingers right now. It's not a clear-cut issue, but it's quite clear that there are some major issues up at the top. Dan Snyder has no fucking idea how to manage a football team, and needs a general manager who actually knows football to make the big decisions like drafting players and picking coaches. Snyder runs this shit like a Madden 2010 fanboy and just buys the most expensive players because he can, regardless of whether or not they are actually worth that (I'm looking at you, Haynesworth). It'd be a dream come true if Snyder sold the team, but it's his cash cow so I sort of doubt he will unless something drastic happens.

It's pretty clear that Jim Zorn is not head coach material, and I figured that when they first announced that he'd gotten the job. Again, his hiring goes back to Snyder. Why hire someone who has had never been a head coach or even had experience as a coordinator? Who fucking does that, other than a goddamned idiot? Zorn also has had a lobotomy or something, because he runs the same play every fucking time they get near the endzone. Run the ball to the left. Unfortunately the other teams aren't as fucking retarded and know that we're going to that side, thus they defend accordingly. Yet in the post-game conference Zorn said, "It was a very solid play." Fuck you in the neck, sir.

There's also some guy named Vinny Cerrato who has the completely bullshit title of "Executive Vice President of Football Operations." He was hired because he was one of Snyder's racquetball buddies. I'm only semi-joking. He was also the star of some 1994 movie called "Kindergarten Ninja." Basically, dude is a fucking joke. After yesterday's shitfest , a journalist wrote: "As soon as we made eye contact, Cerrato said, 'No comment.' It was the first time in 20 years as a journalist someone declined to answer a question before I even had the opportunity to ask one." He's a useless bitch who should go do something he'd actually be good at, like flipping burgers.

Player wise it's a bit better, but there are some clear weak links. A good chunk of the defense needs to GTFO. London Fletcher is actually my favorite person right now (other than Hunter Smith, who is actually the punter but scored the first touchdown with a fake field goal that made everyone shit bricks and gave me some faith). Fletcher brusied his rib, yet continued playing and played harder than fucking anyone else even when the rest of his team gave up. He is the top player in the NFL for tackles right now. He also just admitted this morning on TV that they're a shit team and haven't been since the late 80s. So yay, Fletcher, for acknowledging that fact (though it's obvious, it's nice to see that they recognize it so they'll hopefully get their shit together) and for being awesome.

Jason Campbell is looking steadily worse as a quarterback, dropping the ball and taking way too fucking long to throw the damn thing. I have a jersey of his, but it's at my parents house in a box somewhere, so that tells you how I feel about him at this point. I also have Clinton Portis' jersey, but he's looking totally worn out these days. They run him entirely too much, and it's showing now. Chris Cooley is another bright spot on the team, but amidst the sea of suck that is the offense he can't really shine like he should. Everyone else just ranges from shit to mediocrity and don't stand out in any way.

It's clear that the team has completely lost heart. They've had some low points, but this is probably the lowest ever. Redskins used to be one of the best and most respected teams out there, now they're a laughing stock and an embarrassment to those of us who still root for them. They play like they don't care anymore. Whatever is happening behind the scenes, in the locker room, or at practice is really doing a number on these guys and it's rather disturbing and upsetting to watch. They have as much ability as other teams, and if they don't want to give it their all...what can you do? I don't want to root for a team that just goes through the motions. I've always been a self-deprecating fan (and person in general), but even I have my limits. They're not even a football team right now, as I see it.

At least I'll have 3 more hours on Sundays to get things done now.

Show Choir: Part of a Series on Bad Ideas

No, I'm not in a show choir. And if I had any desire to be in one, it would have died quickly tonight.

It's Family Weekend here, which means a bunch of performances and exhibitions of "OH LOOK, WE'RE TOTALLY NOT WASTING YOUR MONEY." My roomie from last year and another friend of ours are in orchestra and jazz band, respectively, and both were part of the big musical shindig tonight. I always go to these things because I am a former band geek, I support my friends, and I enjoy live music and I've never seen a bad concert from these guys. So I call up some more of our friends and we get ready to go.

"You realize that between the two, you'll have to sit through show choir, right?" I was told as we headed out into the rain.

A bit of background here: Last year, near the beginning of the term and when my roomie and I were still somewhat awkward around each other, she came in totally ROFL (she was actually on the floor at one point) about show choir. Whatever event she had gone to, she had experienced show choir and it was totally horrendous. According to eyewitness reports the men had on bright blue sparkly shirts and were trying to act ridiculously cool. Roomie and her friend had made the mistake of sitting in the front row and had to hide their faces in their programs because they were laughing so hard.

This year they're supposedly better than the trainwreck last year, but seeing how bad they were tonight I can't imagine it being worse. There were no bright blue sparkly shirts, which was thoroughly disappointing. The ladies had on shirts that had a bit of sequin action around the collar, but nothing completely absurd. The men were boring and just wearing all black. Wardrobe aside, the singing and dancing was absolutely god-awful.

First they did "I Believe" from Spring Awakening. The program said the song was written by Duncan Sheik and as a result I have "Barely Breathing" stuck in my head. Spring Awakening is actually supposed to be a pretty good show, but you wouldn't know it from this performance. It began with them just walking out, but doing what I call the Dance Walk where you step toe-first instead of heel-first. This went on for an entire minute. Then they stood there, with some people in the front sitting down and totally rocking some arm-shelves. Then a jazz box. Then some rainbow arm movements. What I'm getting at is that visually they might as well have just sat the fuck down because watching them wander around seemingly aimlessly was not doing it for me. It would have been nice if, since the dance aspect wasn't there, the singing was good, but it was not. The ladies weren't too bad, and only had a few times when they sounded off. The men, however, were a hot mess. I kept wishing they'd find a key and stick to it, because it sounded like a bunch of cows in a field. But the key was never found, to my bemusement. Finally the song was over, which was good because my ribs were aching already.

Next, "Sing, Sing, Sing." They tried to do swing moves. I was sitting with other swing kids. We cried together. It was an affront to all that is swing. Swing is supposed to be goofy, I know, but goddamn there's a difference between hamming it up and throwing away your dignity. Fuck, you guys. I cut them a bit of slack on the singing, seeing as to how they actually were moving in this song. They of course sounded winded and were dropping out all over the place, which I sort of expect, but you would think that with practice they'd get a bit more used to it. Again, I was too dismayed at the dancing to really pay attention to the singing.

Finally, "I Move On" from Chicago. Oddly enough I've never seen Chicago, and I've done two routines to music from it. Probably should fix that at some point. Anyway, the solo girl was clearly the glue that held this whole thing together. She was this tiny little black girl that had a surprisingly good voice. It was clear why she got the solo. However, some guy also got a solo, but it took me quite some time to figure out who the fuck was singing, since he wasn't prominently displayed like she was. Bad choreography, I think. He sounded like shit compared to her. The dancing was still terrible, so I started looking at the individual performers.

There were a few people who were seriously fucking into it, and then others who looked like they lost a bet and as a result had to join show choir. There was this really tall girl who already stood out, but insisted on making her moves really fucking huge. Close to her was this really short guy who looked like a creeper and threw his whole body into the routine like it was a life or death situation. Looking totally bored was a really tall, lanky black guy, and several brunette girls. Oddly enough, most of the people who were really into it were guys. You'd think that they'd be really concerned about their masculinity with something like this, because there is no way you can look cool doing this shit. I respect that they are comfortable with themselves enough to do this, because I am not.

I half expected some of the older people in the audience to enjoy some cheesy shit like this. However, the group of parents in front of me were laughing as hard as I was. Looking around I saw a healthy mixture of facial expressions: bemused confusion, straight up confusion, incredulous, horrified, totally bemused, laughter, and blank stares. I have never experienced that in any audience before. So I didn't feel so bad giggling uncontrollably, but I still tried to suppress it, just out of respect.

This being my first experience with a show choir of any sort, I had no idea what I was about to watch. I really cannot believe how haughty and arrogant they sounded after the show when we were waiting for our friends to meet up with us. I don't think it's possible to look good while doing that shit. Hell, in swing we know we look retarded and don't even try to pretend that shit is cool. And for the first time ever I honestly have to say that someone else is worse than us. Show choir is just a terrible idea in general. It's awkward to take songs that belong in the context of a full-blown theater show and just throwing in some random choreography. It's also pretty clear that the majority of these people are not dancers, and a good many aren't doing so great as singers either. Putting all of it together, it's only entertaining to the audience for all the wrong reasons.

Random thoughts that I have, and thinking doesn't occur too often for me.

• Writing a screening report for the film "Double Indemnity." Good movie, but I had to watch it about 4 times just now to analyze the mise en scene, cinematography, editing, etc. for my film studies course. Fun class because my friends Tommy, Brian and I just sit in a row and MST3K everything. I am Tom Servo, albeit less red and my head isn't transparent. But it does take the fun out of film watching, because I was watching Kill Bill this weekend and I was like, "HOLY SHIT MEDIUM CLOSE UP REVERSE SHOT."
• Chris Sligh's blog post that people are losing their shit about right now is totally the truth and people just want to see everything with rose-colored lenses. Unfortunately, the world sucks and when you accept that fact things seem easier. What I'm trying to say is, if you're offended by anything that he says you should probably just kill yourself.
• Fuck. I've spent too much time on the Internet. Don't kill yourself. However, do feel free to sit down and shut the fuck up, or at least read the entire thing and understand it before you launch into a half-informed fury.
• The dance we are doing for my modern dance class is fucking ridiculous. It's set to Owl City's "Fireflies," which is a totally shitty yet fucking addictive song (I've listened to it way more than I'd like to admit). At one point I have to pick another girl up and swing her around. I'm glad I worked out this summer and thus have some upper body strength, otherwise it'd be bad for her. We also have to run around with our arms stretched out like we're catching fireflies. I feel so retarded.
• In other dance news, swing dance is fucking retarded too. I'm the treasurer this year, but it's shitty when no one else does what they need to so I can beg for money from the school for it. The president wants a budget tomorrow but no one else has given me figures, which they were supposed to give me by Saturday. Thanks, guys. Also, the president is pissing me off, from general disorganization and fucktardery. I mean, she acts like the newbies are in kindergarten and can barely walk. Basic swing dancing is not fucking hard, I taught my dance-retarded roommate swing in about 45 minutes and my bitch looks pro (not really, but still pretty fucking good.) Yet the prez goes through about 3 dance moves in each hour-long lesson and the kids get fucking bored. I'm doubly bored because I've been doing this shit for 3-4 years. And they've all got the moves down, it's just that the prez has no fucking idea what she's doing. I've brought this up to her, and she gave me some half-ass answer. I figure I'm the treasurer so I should focus on money-grabbing/managing and just let the shit fly, but if she doesn't pick up the pace people aren't going to stick around long.
• We got pet rats for our apartment. BITCHES ARE CRAZY. Mine is fucking out of control. She must see everything up close, and learn what it is and if she can eat it. We let them out last night, and while her two sisters wandered around but stayed close to the cage and us, she was all over the living room. I do not know what is wrong with her, but I guess that's a rat for you. I'm so used to reptiles (I haven't had a mammal as a pet since I was six) that I'm like "WHAT IS THIS WARM BLOODED CONTRAPTION WITH FUR?" I really do prefer my reptiles, I have learned that about myself.
• I've also learned that I am a total fucktard. I mean, I had my suspicions before, but now it's just fact. I seriously just do shit that screws myself over all the fucking time. And I never hurt anyone else, because if anyone else is involved it'll be done right. If it's just me, I will fuck myself over. I think I have deeprooted loathing of myself.
• I walked to my Medieval Europe class listening to "Flashdance" the other day. Felt so badass, yet really fucking strange. "What a FEEEELIIINNG...to talk about the Lombard laws!"
• There's a new place in downtown called University Cafe that's sort of an offcampus dining place for students. The first time I walked in I was like, "HOLY SHIT THEY'RE PLAYING RADIOHEAD!" Radiohead played the entire time I was there. I was so fucking happy. A+++ will dine again.
• I think I've just consumed half my body weight in M&Ms. Wait that'd be like 60 pounds of chocolate. Okay, no.
• Speaking of my weight, I lost 10 pounds this summer due to switching my medication. Shitsux because I don't really have that much weight to begin with, and now a good bit of my clothing doesn't fit anymore. Fuck. And I've probably lost more because I haven't weighed myself in a while, and I eat considerably less when I'm at college than at home. I don't look anorexic but I am apparently noticeably thinner. FFFFFFUUUUU...
• I hate being a Redskins fan. Why am I such a diehard fan/masochist? Bitches suck right now.
• And I really, really need to go to bed. My eyes are starting to cross.
  

So. New pets.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but my gecko Draco died in May. Infection. He was badass about everything, but was finally brought down. My entire family was sad. I fucking cried for two days straight. Over a gecko. But I'd had him for seven years, so we'd all gotten pretty attached.

So. Here at MDub. My roommates and I were like, we should really get something, pet-wise. And I mentioned how my best friend owns three, and how awesome they are. Their reactions were "HOLY SHIT YESSSS." And this was all yesterday.

Today, we actually went out and bought them, one for each of them. Talk about an impulse buy. We spent the afternoon reading up on care, and the lady at the store was very knowledgeable and helpful in answering the rest of our questions, and picking out necessities.

So yeah. In less than 24 hours, the population of our apartment doubled.

Mine is named Chryseis. Because, fuck yeah, Homer's Iliad. There's no other reason, really, I just wanted to be really fucking nerdy, as a wanna-be Ancient Greek historian. She is ridiculously curious about fucking everything. My laptop just got a full scan: every key was examined. I too received a very thorough look over. Her little nose goes crazy sniffing everything. It's hilarious to watch. Chryseis also enjoys crawling under my hair and licking my neck, which is awful because I'm am ridiculously ticklish on my neck. She must like me as much as I like her, because when I tried to put her back into the cage she fucking freaked. Like, clinging to me and squeaking. I felt bad, but I wanted to fucking eat and she needs to be with her sisters anyway. I finally got her in, but she gave me this look like, "You bitch."

Pictures coming tomorrow, I suppose. I have a fairly busy day, with our first swing dance meeting of the year (and there are always tons of people for the first couple of weeks, until we weed out the ones that aren't as serious). I also need to go to the lady in charge of club finances to beg for money, and fill out a fuckload of forms. The joy of being treasurer.

More shit later.

Senior Year Already?

Fuck this shit.

Seriously, I feel like I should still be a sophomore. What the fuck, where did my life go, Mary Wash? I just turned 21, and I cannot believe it.

With the economy like it is, I'm probably fucking screwed out of a job, or one that's any good. FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUU...

Anyway.

It's the second week of senior year (ugggghhh). It shouldn't be a lot of work, which is good. I just have a shitton of papers to write. It's what I get for being a history major. No labs or equations to memorize, just tons of writing and reading. I don't mind it too much, depending on the topic.

I'm also in an apartment this year. It's a complex owned by the school, so I just pay standard room and board. My roomie from last year and our friends live across the hall from me, and it's really nice. I'm happy with my roommates, even if they 'sploded the dishwasher.

No seriously, second night here, we had just cooked a meal and were starting to clean up. I have my Film Studies class at 6, so I was heading out of the door. I saw Leila putting stuff in the dishwasher, and I fleetingly thought about the fact that we didn't have detergent for the dishwasher, but it didn't really register in my mind until the damage was done. So I come back to a kitchen full of suds and water.

"What the fuck. Did you guys put dish soap in there?" I asked.

"...Oh, you're not supposed to?" Leila replied.

I literally facepalmed.

"Oh fuck, that didn't even register that she put it in there," Kristen moaned.

So basically, we all failed hard that evening. Kristen and I failed twice, because not only did our brains not catch the impending doom, but we later suggested, "Let's run it again and clear out the soap!"

THIS DOES NOT WORK.

It's great though, because if I'm going to fail, I want to fail so gloriously that I win. And we totally achieved that, according to my main dudes Chris and Matt. So shit, I'm happy. We learned an important lesson and definitely won the Fail of the Month award. Possibly Fail of the Year.

The apartment is sweet though. I will have to post pictures one day. For some reason ours is much, much nicer than some that my other friends live in. It's really odd, and you really wouldn't think that they'd all be so much different. For instance, our living room, bedrooms, and kitchen are way bigger than all the other ones I've been in. Considering the fact that Kristen and I just chose something random and close to my old roomie, that's fucking luck.

School is otherwise fine. The workload doesn't seem like it will be too bad. I'm sad that my academic building is renovated, so I get to spend my senior year classes in the old health center, the drama building, and a trailer. Then again, the building was the oldest on campus (which makes it 101 years old), and when you walked through the halls it felt like you were about to crash through. Also it still had asbestos. So maybe this is a good thing, but still, I loved my historical history building. Bitches.

All in all, I think this will be a good year.

Other Blog.

So I'm starting another blog that will be solely based on reviews. Two reasons for that: 1) I want to keep this one more geared toward knitting/life, and 2) I am thinking about doing reviews as a career, and I need to build up a good portfolio of sorts.

Read it, bookmark it, flame it, curse me out, whatever.

http://elitistreviews.blogspot.com

Sims 3 Updated Review.

So I've been playing Sims 3 for over a month, and the discussion in the comments in the other post (HOLY SHIT why do people read this shittastic "blog") compelled me to do a slight makeover of my viewpoints.

First off, I still don't like the game that much.

However, I think that's due more to the fact that I've gotten into shit like Fallout 3 and Prototype. Also I now have my XBox 360 so I hardly ever use my PC for games anymore. And even with that, I don't have the fucking time or money to really spend a lot of time with video games. For instance, I got the Broken Steel DLC for Fallout 3 when it came out, like 2 months ago, and I just picked it up and finished the first level two days ago. And I'm a total Fallout fangirl.

Anyway, Sims 3. I'll just go through all the previous points.

The Good

• Seamless neighborhood is still nice.
• Traits are enjoyable.
• Voice customization is...a bit pointless, but fun nevertheless. Create a style is still meh.
  
• Graphic effects are nice, especially now that I can fucking see them on my new laptop.
• Moodlets still fine.
• Jobs and the new interactivity is still a good change.

The Bad

• Still could have done with more base items. However, the modding community is starting to figure out how to create their own objects (EA made it fucking difficult this time) so I doubt I'll care anymore. Not that I really give a shit because as I've said before, I rarely play.
• Lack of body shop goes somewhat with the above bullet. EA really wanted to curb people making their own free items and force them to buy from their damn store.
• I still hate their faces, even if I can get them to look less round. Also, they did something with the facial structure models or something because you have to fiddle a lot to make a Sim that looks vastly different than everyone else. Or just download a slider hack.
• Motive system was off until I discovered mods for it.
• Behavior is still ridiculous sometimes, but again, MODS.
• Community lots still rabbit holes. I hope this will change in an EP or something, especially the way people are bitching about "OMG I CAN'T TAKE MY SIMS TO THE NIGHTCLUB AND PICK UP CHICKS."
• I stand by my statement that this is really not a sequel to the other two. It really stands alone as a game.

The WTF EA?

• One neighborhood shit is still stupid, but that's been fixed by hackers, so no more complaints from me.
• Storytelling mode was fixed by the Awesomemod, and then 3 weeks later EA shat out a patch. What happened was that when you tried to disable storytelling mode, it really didn't disable and therefore caused the random Sim disappearances.
• The store still pisses me off, but people started pirating that shit almost immediately. Unfortunately, none of it even looks good enough to illegally download. Again, the modders will step in and create free shit. I mean, why would anyone pay $20 for a damn set of pixel-furniture? Binary dolls are not worth that, unless they can come to life and fix me dinner.

My main problem is simply this: the game really doesn't seem like it's worth the amount I paid for it. I'm probably (fangirl alert) spoiled from Fallout 3, where you can easily spend 100+ hours wreaking havoc in the post-apocalyptic D.C. area with good replay value. Plus, the DLCs for that have all been spectacular, and add on even more playtime, objects, and people to interact with/kill. Even games like Mass Effect, where you can play once through, then play again as the same character without losing anything and with the ability to kick way more ass.

Also, my other problem is that I'm having way more fun with my own life than with a binary doll's life. I've started to feel sort of weird watching Sims interact with other people while I sit somewhere alone, staring at a screen. Changing interests. If I want to play a video game, I want complete "this is so implausible" escapism. Again, this is all my own fucking opinion, and based on an activity I spend <5 hours a week on.

Anyway.

Basically what I've been doing with my life is knitting, reading, working, watching random movies, and sleeping. Doesn't sound like fun, but I'm an extremely boring person and therefore enjoy such things.

I have knitting patterns and other reviews to do, but they're for other posts. I basically just wanted to get that Sims 3 shit out of my system, even though the game itself is collecting dust right now.

Double Review: Prototype and The Room Rifftrax

Prototype

If this game were a man, I'd marry him and bear him at least 3 children. He's only mildly attractive but when you get into him you're like OH HOLY SHIT.

What I mean by that is, the graphics aren't that great, but the gameplay makes up for it and more. You play as Alex Mercer, who wakes up on a morgue slab just as he's about to get autopsied. He has no memory of who he is or what happened to him, so you're figuring this out as the game goes on. Also, Manhattan is being overrun with a virus that is turning people into zombies. FUCK YES ZOMBIES. Also you have a shitton of kickass powers. You can shoot a blade tipped tendril out of your arm (or shoot a whole bunch out and destroy everything within radius of you), run up fucking buildings, glide through the air like a sugarglider, consume people and become them whilst gaining their knowledge and energy, and TURN YOUR WHOLE FUCKING ARM INTO A GIANT DOUBLE-EDGED BLADE. HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS?!

I'm only about halfway through right now, because A) I like having a life, and B) shit is fucking hard at some parts. Seriously, there have been times when I just have to turn off the Ecks Bawks and meditate so I don't explode. Even though you have all these kickass powers, each enemy has a different weakness, so you're constantly changing which power/move to use depending on what you're fighting. Also, you're often fighting both the (virus) infected and the military, sometimes simultaneously. Because of this I normally use a hit and run tactic like the chickenshit I am. Jump from a high area, kill some dudes, then run away and let my health regen/consume bitches. It's how I roll.

Seriously, a kickass game. There are some people who bawl about it not looking great or being too similar to other games or not having a deep storyline, but they can go fuck themselves. I game to fuckin' destroy shit, not to get Schindler's List in high-quality game format.


The Room (2003) + the Rifftrax of it

Oh hi, Danny. I'd heard someone mention The Room about a year ago, but I never thought to look it up until about 2 months ago. Sweet Jesus. This movie may be worse than Manos: The Hands of Fate and Plan 9 From Outer Space. Seriously. The writing is atrocious, the acting is stroke-inducing, and you can FEEL the incompetence surging through your screen as you watch it. It garnered MST3K + Rocky Horror midnight viewings in which people throw spoons whenever the mindboggling framed picture of a spoon appears on screen, shout "FOCUS" when the film goes out of focus (and this happens quite frequently), reenact scenes at the front of the theater in costume, and fake walking out of the movie. I really need to attend one of these.

The plot...is nonsensical. The main plot appears to be a San Francisico-set love triangle between Johnny (Tommy Wiseau), a banker of indeterminate foreign origin (I think it's Latin Amerifrenchkoreansomalian), his future wife (NOT FIANCE) Lisa (Juliette Danielle), who is BEAUTIFUL (not), and Mark (Greg Sestero), who we know through at least 3000 lines of dialogue is Johnny's best friend. Then we have Lisa's mother, who comes in for 3 minute visits, introduces a whole slew of possible subplots that never get mentioned again (Lisa's mom: "I got the test results back today. I DEFINITELY have breast cancer." Lisa: "Don't worry about it. They're curing stuff like that every day.") There is also Johnny and Lisa's college-aged neighbor/surrogate son Danny, who seems like he's supposed to be slightly mentally challenged but no one ever says so, and who for five minutes is a drug dealer. Oh, and he has a crush on Lisa for the first half of the movie then just gets over it, I guess. There are also some other characters who do absolutely nothing and do not further the plot at all. Other than the main characters, I mean.

There are so many notable, shitastic things in this movie I don't even know where to begin. It's clearly not much more than Wiseau (who, as well as starring, directed and wrote this shit) masturbating over himself. The way he protrays his character as an innocent victim leads me and pretty much everyone else to believe that this is autobiographical. I'd love to know what this real life woman thinks now, if she does exist. The best part of it all is that he clearly made it to be a completely serious drama. When he found out that people were laughing at it, he did a 180 and claimed that it was intentional, and that the film was meant to be a black comedy. And thus thousands of Bullshit Detectors sounded.

From the games of football, which consist of tossing a football back and forth whilst standing 3 feet from each other, the laughable dialogue including "YOU AH TEARING ME APAAAAAHT, LISAAA" and "It feels like I'm sitting on an atom bomb that is going to explode," and the characters that come from fucking nowhere, this film is unintentionally a masterpiece. I'd heard that you should first watch this movie with others, but I watched it by myself when I was sick and STILL had a blast. I laughed so hard I vomitted.

The worst thing about this movie are the sex scenes. There are 3 in the first half hour. Now you may be thinking, "FUCK YES, SEX!" but I assure you, watching these scenes will make you wish your genitalia would cease to function. There is NOTHING remotely sexy about any of it. And the shitty softcore R&B music just makes it all even more vomit inducing. I don't want to think about it anymore.

So, the Rifftrax. I was super stoked when I saw on Bill Corbett's facebook that they were doing this movie. And in my very biased opinion, they did a fucking superb job. The movie makes me laugh just by itself, but there were moments when I was literally crying with laughter with the Rifftrax. They completely nail Johnny's ridiculous accent and the constant "Oh hi, *insert character's name*" greetings. When Bill compares Lisa to "the bloated corpse of Britney Spears" I was immediately sold. The one thing I wasn't very fond of was that they do little sketches during the sex scenes so that they didn't have to try to riff that shit. I completely understand that, but the sketches aren't that great. The rest of the riffing is so good that this becomes a mootpoint, however.

So if you want to buy The Room, guess what! It's only $8.99 on Amazon (or free if you're a pirate)! Then buy the accompanying Rifftrax for $3.99. If you're not convinced of the sheer greatest of this shit, here is some YouTubage.

Sims 3 Review

So, being a Sims fan since it first came out, I was pretty damned stoked for the third installment of the series. Okay, I was fucking ecstatic. When I sat down to play for the first time, I was giddy with joy and the excitement of something new. However, over time that has mellowed out to "meh" and in some cases, outright disgust. There are great new aspects, but the cost of new things seems to be some of the old that were loved by the gamers and part of the reason why so it grew so huge. Without further ado, the super awesome review.

The Good

• Seamless neighborhood. Seriously, anyone who doesn't like this is a fucking fool. Those goddamn loading screens everytime I wanted to go to the park...grr.
• Traits. I enjoy my excitable, kleptomaniac, inappropriate, friendly vegetarian.
• SOME customization. You can change the Sims' voices, and create a style for interior decorating has killed many hours for me. I'll explain why I say "some" later.
  
• Some cool graphic effects. The light changes gradually throughout the day, instead of "Hey, it's 6 PM! BAM PITCH BLACK OUTSIDE." Also, plants move and sway, and according to some people you can see birds, but I'm not that observant and/or my comp sucks too bad for that.
• Moodlets. Again, just adds a sense of realism. Watching a good movie does make you happier, for at least a while.
• Jobs. I like the opportunities, or little projects that your sim can accomplish outside of work like reading a book, giving a speech, or delivering something to city hall. They boost job performance. While working, you can also choose how your sim spends their time. They can meet their coworkers, hang out and socialize, work hard, or slack off. Pretty nice.

The Bad

• Hardly any base game items. The ones that they have either don't look good or are obvious rehashes of those in Sims 2. But the obvious reason for this will be discussed later.
  
• No Body Shop. Yeah, you can't make your own clothes, hair, skintone, eyes, etc. without going in some roundabout way. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was the reason why Sims 2 did so well--the vast options to customize our pixel people. But that just gets ripped away.
• Round pudding faces. Everyone has the same damn facial structure and double chins, even if they're the thinnest sims you can make. I readily acknowledge, however, that this may just be because I'm so used to Sims "You can make the eyes bigger than your goddamn head" 2 and I'll get used to it.
• Motive system seems off. While Sims sleep for fucking ever and are hungry all the goddamn time, I've only had to tell mine to pee twice. Um...if that happens to someone in real life they should probably see a doctor/drink way more water.
• Ridiculous behavior at times. After Woo-hoo (sex) they just go back to their "relaxing position" (stretched out on the bed with their arms folded over their torsos calmly) and chat. At least in Sims 2 they cuddled, and in some instances congratulated their partner (I'm not kidding). When feeding babies or toddlers, the bottle is pulled out of thin air, and when finished, vaporizes again. Also, all it takes to change a diaper is to toss the child up in the air spinning like a fucking top and they are instantly clean. I WISH THIS SHIT WERE POSSIBLE IN REAL LIFE. But since it's not, and this game prides itself on realism, and the other two were more realistic in this aspect, I don't understand why it would be so hard to put it in this game. Again, I readily accept that this is just something I'm being picky about and may get used to.
• Community lots. All of them, save for parks, are "rabbit holes" (meaning you can't actually see the interior. This makes since for workplaces and schools, but restaurants and stores? Honestly? Part of the fun of them was seeing your other Sims dining or shopping and having them interact together. I guess this means no hilarious shenanigans at nightclubs anymore, either.
• It's a whole different game. Fuck all this "it's simply a more realistic Sims 2!" Most of the features from Sims 2 ( and by that I mean "all of the good ones") are gone. It plays nothing like it. Playing feels like playing a game that was meant to be on a console ported to PC.
  

The What the Fuck, EA?

• Only one neighborhood and no option to make your own. In Sims 2 I never played the pre-made 'hoods except when I was learning how to play and trying out the new features. Why? Because I like creating ridiculous neighborhoods filled with mentally unstable pixel people and seeing the binary sparks fly. Shit is awesome. Plus I hate pre-existing storylines. I want my Sims to be the most ridiculous soap opera ever. Like Twilight but without all the suck and fail.
• Storytelling mode. This is the thing that has made me rage the hardest. In previous Sims games, you played one family at a time and all the other families were stuck in time, or limbo you might say. You would go back to them later and they'd be doing the exact same things as when you left. Now, however, they all continue living. Meaning they'll grow up, die, get jobs, meet new people, fall in love, wed, AND EVEN FUCKING MOVE OUT when you're not paying attention. No, seriously. I started a nice, charming little family and moved them into a house. After getting them accustomed I switched to another house. The Sim there was reading a newspaper that popped up saying that the other family had moved away. I went to view the neighborhood, and sure enough, the family's house was now occupied by a random family that I did not create nor put there. Needless to say, I was pretty fucking livid. If I create a damn family it's because I want to play them, fuckers. Further, I've also left a sim in a nice, stable spot, and returned later to find her pregnant and nearly broke. She'd apparently gotten knocked up some random townie and went on a book shopping spree.
• The Sims 3 Store. This is just fucking hateful, and what I think is clearly the reason why there's hardly any objects in this thing. They want you to pay more money for their crap! Yes, in this economy with a nearly 10% unemployment rate in this country, they expect you to pay $20 for a fucking binary code furniture set that still looks like shit, on top of a $50 base game. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME, EA. How fucking greedy are you shitheads? Not to mention a high number of Sims players are teens and young adults, meaning we don't have that much money to spend. We got you to the point where you can boast that you have the highest selling video game. You should be paying us, because without us you'd still be making Sim Ant or whatever the fuck, you fucking twats.

Going off of that last statement, I think EA is just treating their customers like shit in general. When they started putting SecuRom on their disks, which is a copy-protection program that has been sued numerous times for being potentially harmful malware, they tried to silence anyone who lodged a complaint on their forum. They had also started the Sims store shit then, which was not popular, especially since regular players always had better looking stuff, and for free. So it seems like they're trying to force it by making customization much harder and not putting a lot of material in there. And I understand it's a business and they want a profit, but dammit, they've never had a problem before and they seemed to be doing as well as ever before they started this. After...I don't know.

I know I'm not the only person pretty disappointed. Just taking a cursory glance at some forums I see that many people have the same complaints. Many more people are just not buying it. EA clearly didn't understand the concept of "ain't broke, don't fix it." I think I'm going back to Sims 2.

OWWIE.

Dance shit is going to kill me over the next few weeks. In addition to my modern jazz class, which leaves my body aching like I got hit by a truck and my knees looking like this:

swing dance is getting fucking dangerous. Seriously, there are about 30 ways for me to die in this next routine we're doing. First I'm flying through the air, then I'm fucking plummeting to the floor and hoping my partner catches me by the hands or--in one really scary instance--my fucking neck. OH GOD. I may be agnostic but I have prayed more times this week to not die just yet.

So, Ben Folds concert next monday, the 30th. Expect my full review/fantardgasm sometime soon after. I gave roomie a few songs of his so that she'd get a feel for what to expect, and like I thought she would, she didn't get half of his lyrics. When I explained them, she was like "HOLY SHIT THAT'S CLEVER." Pretty much. Ben Folds is a clever motherfucker.

In Greek we're translating Homer's Iliad from the original Greek and SHIT'S SO FUCKING COOL. I don't think I've ever gotten this excited to do work. What can I say, it's a classic fucking text and I get to do my own translation. Goddamn it's so awesome. Except that Achilles and Agammemnon just need to stop bitching at each other and get shit done. Like some goddamn middle schoolers. And the gods fucking suck. Besides the storyline, the Greek language is just so fucking cool. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't translate well into English, so reading the original text is sometimes just mindblowing.

Enough of my nerdism. It's 1:30 AM and I'm getting silly-minded. Or even more so than usual.

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Now playing: Motörhead - Damage Case

MY LIFE.

My life is fuckwads of crazy at the moment. I'm surprised I have time to piss and eat, much less be on the Interwebs. I have about 10 minutes before I have to roll out for 2 hours of swing dancing.

It's Junior Ring Week at the Mdub, which basically means, "HAHA, YOU HAVE TO GO OUT THERE IN THAT JOB ECONOMY IN ONE YEAR, SUCKERS! Oh, and here's your class ring." So they're having all of these activities for us. Yesterday there was a concert, today there was an easter egg hunt in which SHIT GOT REAL, and lots of other bullshit. By "shitting getting real," I mean roomie and I were fucking hardcore about it. We ran like idiots all over campus, climbing trees for better scouting, etc. Egg hunts are serious business.

So to be uber-nerd and combine my two loves of video games and knitting, and because I'm moving into one of the university-owned apartments next year, I'm making some kickass video game themed placemats. Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 3, etc. 'Course I have no time for this shit now, so it's a summer project. I did get the patterns worked out one weekend so I got the worst part over with.

Annnnnndd it's already time for me to go dance. I gotta get my shoes and get to swingin'.

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Now playing: SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS - Ha Hen

The Most TMI Post You'll Ever See From Me.

No seriously.

If you're a guy, you probably don't want to read about this. Actually, some chicks may want to avoid this post too.

I'm writing to throw in my outstanding review of the Diva Cup. It's a menstrual cup.

*Waits for people to get grossed out and stop reading*

I heard about it a few weeks ago from my roomie, who saw someone gloating about their DC on Ye Ole Book of Faces. We were like, "WTF" and immediately did intensive Internet research. The more we read about it and the glowing reviews, the more we both wanted them. I mean, eco-friendly, reusable, money saving, and AWESOME? It's like win molded into a cup.

So last week roomie got her dot and traversed 45 minutes to the nearest Whole Foods store (nearer to her home in Northern Virginia) to get hers. We oohed and ahhed. Roomie ran to the bathroom to try it out. 20 minutes later she came back looking rather bleak. "I got it in, but then I freaked out while pulling it out and IT FEELS LIKE I JUST GAVE BIRTH," she told me, curling up onto her bed in anguish. This did not dampen either of our spirits, and I went ahead and ordered mine, along with the Diva Wash, from southcoastshopping.com. Later, roomie was successful and there was much rejoicing.

Today, my DC came. I nearly ran to the post office in excitement, cursing Tampax and Always on the way. Back in my room I read through the directions with glee, giggling like a fool. When I was ready, I went into the bathroom and tried the folding technique in the handy instruction sheet. Except that MOTHERFUCKER, it hurt like a bitch. After nearly destroying my vagina I went back onto the Internets to get some better folding techniques. Success! The 7-fold is definitely doable, and my vagina isn't as angry at me. Best of all, that fucker popped right open with little turning.

So I'm quite pleased. The only thing that confuses me is why the DC has measuring lines on it. I really don't need to know how many ounces of old uterine wall comes out of me.

And there it is. My new love, the awesome Diva Cup. Oh, and you get a kickass lapel pin too. Like wtf that shit's badass.