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.