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Post-Graduation Boredom.

Seriously, I thought this whole, “WOOO NOT HAVING TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL EVAAARRRR” thing would be fun.  It’s not.  It’s boring and lame.  Also still looking for a real job.  Freelance writing isn’t really cutting it right now.  The economy does seem to be improving, so that’s a plus.  However, I doubt I’ll be able to move up to Northern Virginia as I wanted to, at least until I can afford it.  Housing up there is fucking expensive.  So I’m thinking of going back to Fred Vegas, because it’s a bit cheaper and at least it’s closer to NoVA than I am here.  Again though, a job is needed.  FFFFFFUUUUU adulthood is lame.

My Bachelor of Arts is pretty awesome though.  I mean, it’s just sitting in a box right now, but some day I’ll display it or something.  Even if a history degree is borderline worthless.

I went on this quest to listen to every song in my iTunes library and I sort of hate myself for being such a music nerd now.  Seriously, I have over 12,000 songs.  On the other hand, I previously had 14,000 and this exercise is helping me to clean out my iTunes.  I had a lot of shit that people gave me, I listened to once, and then promptly forgot about it.  Honestly, if it doesn’t hold my attention enough for me to listen to it at least a few times or even simply remembering what the hell it is, there’s really no point in me keeping it.  I’m like a music hoarder, damn.

I really need to get back into playing guitar, because I sort of miss it.  As of right now XBox and job hunting are sort of ruling my life.  However there was something really pleasing about playing random Radiohead songs and the Super Mario Bros. theme.  Yeah, definitely need to pick one of my 3 guitars that are just sitting there back up.  Seriously even just typing that makes me sad.

Anyway.  Time to go back to doing…nothing.

Red Dead Redemption (Single Player) Review: Holy Shit, I Feel Like John Wayne

It’s no secret to anyone around me that I was stoked about Red Dead Redemption for months.  My friends and I had a posse formed a solid month before it came out.  I’m happy to say that the game lived up to my expectations.

You play as John Marsden, a reformed outlaw who is now trying to live a quiet life as a rancher with his wife Abigail and his son Jack.  However, he hasn’t quite been able to escape his criminal past, and now is on a mission to hunt down his former partners-in-crime.  Basically, it’s a typical Western genre storyline.  It could have gotten boring, but because it’s Rockstar Games making a sandbox game set at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, it’s pretty impossible that this game wouldn’t be at least somewhat enjoyable.

There is plenty to do around the large map.  You can hunt wild animals, search for treasure, capture outlaws, kill innocents, help out random strangers, play poker, blackjack, or horseshoes; patrol towns and ranches for crimes, duel at high noon, and clear out gang hideouts.  Oh yeah, and you can do the storyline missions as well.  Seriously, there is so much you can do in this game that it’s almost overwhelming, but it’s good for someone like me who gets ADD after about 20 minutes of gaming.  Any game that can hold my attention for 6 hours in a row like RDR has is a good game in my book.

The game itself is also very, very well designed.  The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, even on the XBox 360.  I once rode my horse Dusty Butt off a cliff because I was staring at how fantastically rendered a mountain was in the background.  There were only a few moments where the frame rate dropped, which is astounding due to the sheer amount of shit happening in the open world.  I never experienced some of the weird glitches that some people did, such as humans accidentally being coded as animals (flying people and cougar dudes).  The two glitches I experienced were close to the end and at the very, very end of the game, and I’m not even entirely sure whether one of those was a legit glitch or it was supposed to be like that.  I’d explain it more, but I’d spoil the end of the game if I tried to.  Graphics aside, voice acting was also pretty good.  There wasn’t any dialogue where I was like “LOLWUT,” but then again I often space out during cutscenes so it’s entirely possible, even probable, that I missed something.

I kind of have to pull at straws to find any negatives in RDR.  A few of the missions were a bit confusing as to what I was supposed to be doing.  In the game’s defense however, as I previously stated I often don’t watch cutscenes and I’m also a bit of a dumbass.  It was never anything that took me more than a couple of tries to figure out, however, so it’s not a major issue.  There were also a lot of scenes of nothing but riding a horse or driving a wagon and chatting with an NPC.  They are basically there simply for the sake of the plot, but at times they were a bit tedious and too fucking long.  Some of these you could skip, but that’s only if you were the passenger on a wagon.  Again, I’m really grasping at straws here to find negatives.

RDR is probably my second favorite game of the year so far, after Mass Effect 2.  The only reason it’s not my absolute favorite is because I’m a Mass Effect fangirl.  It definitely has the feel of GTA, from the save system to the map.  If you like GTA, westerns, sandbox games, or shooters, I can’t imagine you not getting at least some enjoyment out of RDR.

9.7/10

Good News, Bad News

Good News: I graduate in about a month.

Bad News: WTF am I going to do after that?  I have to go out and be a real person now.  I’m not sure I can handle that.

Good News: Finished my thesis.

Bad News: My advisor hates it.  My meeting with him on Friday may end in tears for me.  Dread central.

Good News: Things with Potential Love Interest appear to be moving in the right direction.

Bad News: Suddenly everyone else has a crush on me, too.  Dammit you guys, why do you wait until there’s someone I’m interested in?  Seriously.

Good News/Bad News: Donovan McNabb was traded to my beloved Redskins.  Seriously, WTF.  I spent years hating this guy, and now I’ll be rooting for him.  I was pissed for a while, but after watching McNabb’s press conference yesterday, I feel much better about the situation.  I think we may start looking like a team instead of perplexed five-year-olds.  Who knows though; the Redskins never fail at being the Offseason Champions, so we’ll have to see what happens in the fall.

Good News: Summer seems to have arrived.  It’s 90 degrees outside.  It’s also April 7.  WHAT.

Bad News: I’ve had a fever yesterday and part of today, so I haven’t even been able to enjoy it.

Good News: Have weened myself off of caffeine, so I can actually function without coffee or Pepsi.

Bad News: I am now addicted to Gatorade, which probably isn’t much better.

Good News: REC 2 is out somewhere.  I need to hunt it down and watch it.  The first REC is easily one of my favorite horror movies ever.

Bad News: Watched Paranormal Activity.  Did people really find it that scary?  All I got out of it was a lot of time watching people sleeping, listening to a woman drop f-bombs on her dumbass boyfriend who keeps saying “dude,” listening to random banging that was probably supposed to make me jump, and failing to feel any sympathy for the absolutely stupid and arrogant assholes who were the main characters.  TL;DR Very underwhelming for all the hype that surrounded it.

Good News: Started getting frighteningly good at Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer.  Like, my kill-death ratio was actually going positive.  Once I had the most kills on my team.  WHAT.

Bad News: Now all I want to do is play MW2.

Good News: I’ll probably be keeping the rats after graduation.  SWEET.

Bad News: It would be sweeter if I had a job and a place to live.

Good News: Looking into freelance writing and blogging as a career option.  It sounds like something I would absolutely love doing.

Bad News: I have to look at options like that because there’s absolutely nothing out there for history majors.  Worst major ever.  I should’ve stuck to something practical instead of something I just “liked.”

Good News: I’ve made some new friends.

Bad News: One of said “friends” is my ex’s new girlfriend.  I’m pretty sure she’s trying to validate that she is the better option for him.  She’s probably also threatened because he still talks to me and IMs me a lot.  I always try to blow him off, because A) half the shit he says is ridiculous conspiracy theory bullshit, and B) I stopped caring about him quite a while ago.  She should be concerned with him, not me.  Potential Love Interest >>>> Conspiracy Theorist Ex.

So yeah, that’s my life in a nutshell right now.  Pretty average, yet aggravating.  Growing up sucks, I’m going back to 3rd grade.

OKCupid.com: An Experiment in Hilarity

Why oh why do I listen to dares?  This time it has landed me into OKCupid.com, one of those online dating sites.  While I have met one guy who seems somewhat cool (I’m not going to say anything about him, though, because 1. he’s a cool kid, 2. he has since deleted his OKC profile and we talk on AIM now so he doesn’t count anymore, and 3. there’s nothing to make fun of about him), the vast majority of dudes I’ve run into have been a bit weird.

Literally 30 minutes after I signed up, some guy IMed me.  He was quite odd.  He seemed cool at first, he lives in Fred Vegas, Redskins fan, personal trainer…but after a while the constant “watre u doing” got really annoying and creepy.  I wish I were joking.  I am glad he seemed to get the hint I was no longer interested and stopped contacting me the next day.

Next guy has family in Greece.  I should mention that on my profile I talk about how ancient Greece is my focus in my history degree.  For some reason, people with Greek heritage think I will throw myself at them because of that simple fact.  No.  Also, that was pretty much the only thing I had in common with this kid.  Plus he started getting creepy.  That was the end of that.

Next Greek guy was actually from Greece.  I saved his message for future giggles.  The subject line is, “DiD YOU EVER COME GREECE?”  Instant lulz.  The actual message reads, “HELLO,I AM [deleted] FROM ATHENS.DO YOU EVER VISIT GREECE?”  This guy is also 46. I didn’t even reply.

After that comes Strange Broken Hearted Guy.  This is his message: “Hello.. I hope I'm not bothering u at this time.. My name is [deleted] and after looking at your profile.. It would be an honor to chat with you sometime.. I'm 22 and I'm an aspiring artist. I like games (board, card, video, and sports of course lol) I've had much bad experiences with women and I think I deserve someone sensible. So I hope you consider this note and reply as soon as you can. Take care :)”  Honestly, this doesn’t seem like a bad kid but you shouldn’t just come right out and mention your past relationship issues.  Or maybe that’s just something that bothers me.  Anyway.

Facepalm Guy 1: “I had to actually google your religious view lol "Agnosticism" very interesting but I totally get it.
What are the qualifications for being a nerd ?”  First of all, this has to be the only person I’ve ever met in my life that didn’t at least know the basic idea of agnosticism, and I’m including a couple of 12 year olds in that pool.  Secondly, if you have to ask about nerd qualifications, you are not one, sorry.

HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK Guy: I saw that this guy had viewed my profile one day, but I couldn’t tell what the hell was going on in his profile picture.  So I looked at his profile, and lo and behold, it’s a 45 year old guy wearing a banana hammock, a collar and a leash.  Then he imed me.  I panicked and not only closed Firefox, but shut down my entire computer.  Just……no.

Facepalm Guy 2: (Sidenote: I mention my hydrophobia somewhere on my profile just for lulz) “are you seriously afraid of water? Out of everything there is you are afraid of water? or is it just large bodies of water...”  After I stopped laughing, I had to reply to this guy.  As with my religious beliefs or lack thereof, I usually don’t have to explain it to people; it’s pretty obvious what I mean by it.  I love chugging water and soaking in bath tubs, I’m not going to run screaming in the other direction because someone’s holding a bottle of Aquafina.  I mean, honestly, guy.

Those are all the funny ones so far.  I have learned some shit about myself in the process, which I guess makes this a worthwhile experiment.  Firstly, I have some ridiculously high standards.  I mean, goddamn.  I seriously need to chill out.  It is next to impossible that I will find a guy who is like Thom Yorke, Joel Hodgson, and Eli Manning all wrapped up into one person.  Secondly, I have a severe aversion to replying to people unless I really have something to talk about with them.  I’m fine in real life, which is strange because you’d think talking over the Interwebs would be easier.  Not for this weirdo, apparently.  I suck.  Also, I should be less self-deprecating.  Actually, fuck that, it’s fun and I will never, ever be accused of having a huge ego.

So anyway.  I was totally going to delete this shit after a month or so but I’m receiving so much entertainment from it that I’ll hang around a little longer.  There doesn’t seem to be too many creepers on there, and the matching system seems pretty decent, so why the hell not?  Though I’m not really concerned about relationships at this point (especially because I’m preoccupied with graduating college and actually becoming an adult and shit) I figure what the hell, it’s there.  Hopefully I’ll get some more funny shit soon.

An Open Letter to Justin Bieber Fans

Dear Bielebers or whatever you kids call yourselves,

You know, one day I was just like you guys.  Except back in my day, we had *NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, BBMak and O-Town. 

Yes, back 13 years ago, when many of you were still but a wee infant, or even a fetus or a zygote, I was a squealing fan girl.  I had t-shirts, posters, CDs, the fucking *NSYNC marionettes and fruit snacks (oh yeah, they existed, my friends), everything.  I fought tooth and nail with bitches who dared to make fun of them.  Shit got real more than once, let me tell you.  Sure, I enjoyed some Radiohead or Incubus, but at that age I was far too young to fully appreciate their musicianship and it was usually placed in the “things I’ll put in my 3-CD stereo whilst I sleep” category.  Besides, did Thom Yorke or Brandon Boyd ever bust out some slick dance moves?  Well, Thom does some crazy ass dancing but that is beside my point.

I even had an *NSYNC fan site!  Friends, I’m telling you, it was fucking LEGIT.  Number 8 on a fan site listing on Geocities.  I was on like 5 webrings (do those even exist anymore?).  I learned guitar so I could learn to play these boy band songs and tabbed them out to put onto my website.  INTENSITY.  I breathed, ate, pissed, spat, cried boy bands, *NSYNC in particular.

Now you may ask, “But what did you do about the jerks on the Internet who were mean to them?”  Oh, I flamed.  I ranted.  I unleashed the fury of caps lock.  I compared them to the great men of decades and centuries past.  If I had known about my senior thesis topic back then, I would have compared them to Leonidas and his 300 Spartans without hesitation.

Then, something strange happened.  Radiohead and Incubus and others started to sound more appealing to me.  Perhaps I was turning into an emo kid (read: I was) or my music lessons were allowing me to hear the more intricate aspects of musicians who played actual instruments (not to diss people who don’t, because I listen to plenty who use primarily computer generated music).  I started listening to less and less boy band music until one day it appealed to me no more.  The marionettes were packed away into a box, the shirts were jammed into a far corner of my closet, posters were taken down, Geocities account was deleted (BTW, RIP Geocities, you were a great friend).

Looking back, it was strange to recall myself arguing that I would love *NSYNC “4EVA” and that I’d never stop liking their music.  I remembered talking about how they were the greatest people ever and how talented they were, and was a bit surprised that I had changed.  Now I was one of those people making fun of them, rolling my eyes at my past exploits or pretending that it had never happened at all.

So what does this have to do with Justin Bieber and you?  Well, I’m telling you all this because it will  happen to you.  Believe it or not, 97% of you will cease to care about Justin in 5 years.  I say this as someone who has been there.  All of these attempts to keep Justin on Twitter’s trending topics, to flame anyone who insults him, to declare yourself as his #1 fan will all be completely forgotten.

Am I saying you should stop being Justin Bieber fans?  Hell no, go and have your fun, be young and enjoy whatever you enjoy, and don’t let people take that away from you.  However, if you can, learn to not take everything so seriously.  Honestly, life is much more fun when you can poke fun at yourself and the things you enjoy.  I mean, I told my friend Em we should have a Radiohead party since we’re both big fans.  She replied, “Yeah!  We’ll sit in opposite corners of the room, and avoid making eye contact while Thom Yorke moans about how unloved he is.”  That’s fucking brilliant, my friends, brilliant.  I laughed so hard my ribs ached.  Poking fun at everyone and everything, particularly yourself and things that pertain to yourself, is so much less stressful than fighting everyone.  If you like it, fuck what everyone else thinks.

Hell, I still have my boy band albums on my iPod.  I still listen to it occasionally, mostly to reminisce and to laugh.  BBMak’s CD is still really good, in my opinion.  I mean, you can’t devote a good chunk of your adolescence to something and not still have a soft spot for it later on in life.  But understand that these pop star phenomena happen seemingly every 10 years.  Before *NSYNC and BSB, it was New Kids on the Block.  Before them, it was New Edition.  Before them, Jackson 5.  Before them, The Beatles.  Anyone who was an intense fan girl over these pop stars can probably attest to most of what I write in this post. 

However, don’t become like the Claymates or Glamberts (Clay Aiken and Adam Lambert fans, respectively).  These groups harm the object of their affection far more than they help.  The difference between them and you guys is that you guys are mostly young girls, and therefore it’s much more acceptable for you to lose your shit over a pop star.  No offense, but at the age most of you are it’s not like you have a hell of a lot of other stuff you have to think about and take care of.  You can afford to spend your time on it.  However, if you’re over 30 and dressing up like your favorite star, making t-shirts, arguing over the Internet about them, etc., that’s when it becomes very troublesome.  Please don’t become Frau fans.

Seriously, friends, enjoy it while it lasts.  Just don’t go overboard with it.

 

Yours,

Tinnerz

Mass Effect 2 Review: I Wish to Marry this Game

Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a total Mass Effect fangirl.  Like, seriously hardcore.  I own the soundtrack(s).  And actually listen to them.  I have serious issues.

My game arrived last Friday, just in time for a gaming weekend since both of my roomies were gone.  I finished it Tuesday.  About 36 hours of playtime, over 5 days.  When I realized this I cried a little bit, but wiped away my tears and vowed not to turn on my XBox until this weekend’s Snowpocalypse (seriously, we’re getting 2-4 inches of ice in addition to 20 inches of snow.  Virginia suddenly became Minnesota or something).

I don’t want to say Mass Effect 2 is better than the first, but I’m thinking it might be.  It’s definitely (and understandably) darker than the first, but I also found it much more humorous. The story feels a bit weaker than the first, but it’s sort of understandable because the player already knows about the goings on in the Milky Way, granted they played the first one.  There’s less to flesh out, so the story is more driven by the characters themselves. The characters are once again well developed and I found myself getting rather attached to my team.  It gives you more impetus to complete everything before your “suicide mission” in order to ensure everyone’s survival.

Upgrading is definitely different this time around.  You don’t have to worry about an inventory limit because you don’t have an inventory.  Instead, upgrades are received by doing missions, scanning planets for minerals and using said minerals to research new technologies.  I liked this system much better, if only because I spent an awful amount of time in ME1 sorting through my inventory.

Weapons are pretty badass.  My infiltrator owned with heavy weapons, but even the pistols aren’t too shabby.  Because I’m me, however, I mostly stuck to the Sniper and assault rifles.  I fucking love sniping, and the sniper upgrade is absolute love.  I do have one warning: for heavy weapons, be careful with the M-920 Cain.  Make sure you aim at enemies who are far, far away from you.  First time I tried it out I killed everyone, myself and my team included.

I really didn’t mind scanning planets for resources or side missions, but I know many people who absolutely despise it. The annoyance factor of planet exploration really depends on the player; instead of the Mako you scan planets, which I personally like because the Mako makes me so angry it’s not even funny.  The cursor is rather slow at first, but there is an upgrade that makes it faster.

The romance scene remains awkward and creepy.  My (male) Shepard hooked up with Tali.  It was bizarre.  It wasn’t explicit at all, even less so than the creeptastic romance scene in the first one, but there’s something really, really strange about it.  That’s all I’m going to say about it.

There were some graphical issues, but no game busting ones that I found.  Sometimes teammates would climb over an obstruction and suddenly be 20 feet above me.  Also, for some reason husks kept falling through the floor when they died and ended up just sticking out of the ground like daisies.  It was confusing, but my room mates and I lol’d pretty hard.  Otherwise the graphics definitely looked better than ME1, and it’s still an absolutely gorgeous game to look at.

Basically, I love this game.  I enjoyed every minute I played it, and my room mates enjoyed watching me play it (seriously, they gathered around like it was Project Runway). BioWare has never failed me yet, and I hope they never will.  I do recommend playing ME1 first, though, if only for the starting bonuses and to get a feel for the Mass Effect universe.  I definitely, definitely give this game an A.

I love bullet points.

• I totally won State of the Union bingo last night.  It excites me because I rarely win anything/do anything right.  A “close up of John McCain” sealed my victory.  Totally hung that shit up on my wall.
• Tomorrow afternoon/evening I am going to go help my friends remove a virus/malware from their computer.  This is how we nerds spend our Fridays.  It’s apparently the Malware Defense one, which seems pretty nasty.  We may lose the battle, but fuck we’re going to throw everything at it.
• I really hate myself for not telling Amazon to ship my Mass Effect 2 on release day.  Right now I’m dying over it.  I WANT IT SO BAD.  I hope I get it tomorrow, because then I can spend all weekend playing that shit.  I am such a total Mass Effect fan girl it’s not even funny.  I squeal and flail every time I see an ad for it.  I realize that I need help, and lots of it.
• My thesis advisor ended his email to me about my paper proposal with, “Charge on!”  I am rather inspired now, and also filled with mirth.  He’s probably one of my favorite people in the history department.
• Some friends and I are doing a fun social experiment with OKCupid.  I’ll probably dedicate an entire post to it soon, because there is some serious hilarity.
• Pretty much everyone hates my room mate’s boyfriend.  This is the same one from my last entry.  That entry was on a Friday; he was at our apartment from Thursday to Tuesday.  It would be less obnoxious if she was the one that had her own room, but they sleep out in the middle of the living room on an air mattress.  Meaning, a huge chunk of our gathering space is gone.  So we were rather annoyed by that.
  
  Then this week, he fucking comes back again.  She said, “He’ll only be here one night.”  He stayed for three.  Now I would have less of a problem if a) she had asked us first, and b) he wasn’t a fucking douchebag creeper. 
  
  Need examples?  No problem.  Firstly, he barely acknowledges anyone.  If you’re in our apartment for five straight days, I would expect to at least have some meaningful exchange of dialogue once.  Secondly, there was a commercial for Yaz (the birth control pill) on TV and he openly said to my roomie, “Should we try that one?”  Holy fuck, keep that shit under wraps.  Third, he’s supposedly going down to NC to live with his grandfather who has cancer.  It sounds honorable at first, but it gets weird when you take into account the fact that my roomie doesn’t know what type of cancer it is.  As someone whose dad had a cancerous colonic tumor removed (and luckily it was caught before it spread – btw this happened when I was in 4th grade and back then my mom told me it was just a simple removal, but I found out this summer that it was fucking serious and I seriously almost lost my father – but I digress), and my other roomie’s mom is a breast cancer survivor, I know that when you say “cancer” it’s almost always specified due to the sheer amount of types there are.  Fourth, I noticed the infantile, speaking-down-to that my other roomie noticed before.  And it is seriously disgusting.  I mean, I’m far from an ultra feminist (my main goal in life is to be a stay/work at home mom, for fuck’s sake), but seriously, this guy isn’t even going to college and is basically just bumming around.  He’s the last person that should be talking down to her. 
  
  Seriously, I think all of her friends hate him.  Even our friend Anthony, who likes everyone regardless, despises him.  I usually get along well with people and can become friends with practically anyone, but this guy totally turned me off.  Not to mention she gets totally weird when he’s around.  Also, I share a room with her and if they’re both back here, I can’t sit back here in my Awesome Space (tm).  I usually have to bring my laptop out there and just wait until they get bored or whatever the fuck.  I’ve had many offers to come over and stay at other friends’ apartments, and if this trend of him appearing randomly for days on end continues I may have to take them up on him.
• Our rats continue to provide some awesome entertainment.  I was talking to my dad on the phone, and Bella climbed up onto my shoulder and started nibbling my hand and my phone.  They really don’t like it if you don’t pay enough attention to them, hahaha. 
  
  As if that weren’t enough, when I finally got Bella to stop messing around, my troublemaker Chryseis jumped up my leg and climbed up to my arm and then clicked a lot at me, which means she’s happy from what I’ve read.  Well that’s nice and all, but goddamn I’m on the phone! 
  
  Later that same evening, the last one, the runt of the litter Buffy who has finally realized that our hands do not mean insta-doom for her, followed me all the way down the hall to my room.  I usually don’t like to let them in our room because one of them (probably Bella) decided to chew through one of my power cords.  However, Buffy was too cute and she was looking at me with those little eyes and I gave in and let her in.  I was about to take a shower, so I picked up Buffy and put her back into the living room.  Lo and behold, she ran after me again and followed me into the bathroom with her little nose conveying “HI WHAT’S GOIN ON IN HERE?”  It took several minutes and a piece of a tortilla chip for me to get her out.  I’m flattered she likes me so much, but shit.  It’s like having mini dogs.
• Anyway.  I want to read ahead for one of my classes, then I have to watch Project Runway with my roomie.  IT IS ESSENTIAL.  I am seriously losing a lot of my tomboyishness and I’m actually not that sad.  Fuck yeah, estrogen!

WRRRRYYYYYYYYYY

So much to bitch about.

So my favoritist band in the world besides Radiohead, The Receiving End of Sirens, are reuniting, hopefully for good.  I was pumped and ready to go up to Mass. on May 8th, until I realized it’s my graduation day.  FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…I seriously hope they’re reforming for good, because goddamn.  Fucking love those bitches.  When they broke up/went on indefinite hiatus I was depressed for an entire week.

I have the virus from hell right now.  Kinda feel like my head is about to explode.  I spent all of yesterday evening, last night, and the better part of today in bed drifting in and out of consciousness.  I hate getting sick because when I do get sick it’s fucking bad.  My immune system is good until something actually gets in, then it just creates a giant clusterfuck with my antibodies and white blood cells and they’re all like “OH GOD WHAT IS THIS FALL BACK!”

Also, it’s weird how my sister and I both always get sick at the same time.  ALWAYS.  We don’t even see each other that often.  I saw something on her status about being ill this morning, and I was like, “WTF I’m sick too!”  She apparently has the full-blown flu, I just have some nondescript shit that has the possibility of turning into a sinus infection.  Still weird though.

My roommate’s boyfriend is spending the weekend here.  Because of my current condition I actually haven’t met him, but my other roomie was kind of turned off by him.  Apparently he kinda talks down to roomie #1, which if that’s true, I don’t feel comfortable with that.  I mean, I gave him my seal of approval because he likes the same type of music as I do and roomie #1 seems to be crazy about him.  And roomie #2 really isn’t one to make something like that up, or see something that isn’t there.  I dunno.  If I feel better tomorrow I’ll see if I can gauge him a little better.  I really have problems with guys who do that sort of thing.  Sure, roomie #1 is rather innocent and sheltered, but seriously, that talking down shit is not cool at all.

First week of my last semester of college actually went by well.  It shouldn’t be too bad, except for my big thesis that I have to do.  30+ pages about the battle of Thermopylae pass during the Greco-Persian wars.  I can do it easily, it’s just that it’s going to be a lot of work.  Will be starting on that probably this weekend.

Buffy, the rat that used to freak out whenever you tried to pick her up, has finally learned that doom will not befall her if a hand comes near.  She still sort of seizes up, and she let out a tiny squeak when I picked her up one day, but she no longer bites and is pretty calm as you hold her.  This is great, because she’s actually rather cuddly when she realizes she’ll be alright.  A couple of days ago she stole a wrapped piece of chocolate from one of my roommates and then scampered away.  I nearly died laughing.  Rats apparently do laugh, it’s just that it’s beyond the range of sound humans can hear.  I’m sure Buffy was giggling while running around trying to dodge my roommate.  Hilarity and a half.

Anyway, time to eat some vitamin c tablets, listen to Iron Maiden, and play Modern Warfare 2.  It was what one of my friends told me to do to get over this illness.  Might as well give it a shot!

Sims 3 - World Adventures EP

I broke down and bought the Sims 3 expansion pack, even I didn’t think it looked all that great and, as previously demonstrated, I’m not crazy about the base game.  However, I am the master of impulse buys and later deep regrets.  The deep regret of this purchase hasn’t quite hit, or at least not yet.

Basically, if you’ve played Sims 1 or 2 and know of Bon Voyage and Vacation/On Holiday, you know what to expect with World Adventures.  You can take your pixel dolls to China, France, or Egypt and immerse them into a very watered down version of the actual countries.  It would have been sweet if your sims had to learn the languages and were standing there holding a translation book mispronouncing everything with the sims who live there just stand there and laugh, but hey, I’m a history major, not a game designer.  Whilst there, the sims can go on these crazy adventures that lead them into tombs and such.  They can also steal precious artifacts so they won’t be taken care of properly and future generations will not understand past cultures and humans and therefore will be doomed to make similar mistakes or just being rock stupid in general.  /historymajor

I actually found these little quests quite fucking tedious.  Maybe I’m just lazy (80% possibility), but it’s not like Fallout 3 or Borderlands where you just point the analogue stick/mouse while holding down WASD to get through one area.  You have to click around each maze to keep the sims from killing themselves.

Like Jimbob McGee here.  First time he was going through a tomb in China I was like, “Oh, he’s probably smart enough not to walk through fucking fire.”  When the Grim Reaper showed up to take away the now toasty Jimbob, I realized I was putting too much faith in the programming.  Sorry, Jimbob.  Again though, tons of clicking.  And if you want more than one person to go through a tomb, expect even more.
The visa system is an interesting new twist, though.  All sims start off with a level 1 visa for each location, and must acquire points through adventuring in order to gain a higher visa level.  On visa level 1, they can only spend three days on location before getting booted into a loading screen regardless of what they were previously doing.  Because I’ve been playing an epic amount of Red Faction:Guerrilla and I’m now back at school, I haven’t managed to get anyone past level 1 yet.  I’m also not trying very hard, so there’s that.

Sims can also enjoy the new hobbies photography and martial arts.  Martial arts is hilarious because they start off fighting with the sissiest half-hearted slapping you’ve ever seen.  Photography is sort of silly because the challenges are pretty weird.  One of them is to take a picture of a tissue box.  Yeah.

With every expansion, of course, there’s new shit to pimp your sims out with.  Such as this hairstyle, and this eyeliner that looks like an earthquake hit in the middle of the application process.

 
Seriously, what the fuck.

There isn’t a ton of new shit, which is understandable given that there are basically 3 more neighborhoods instead.  In general, it’s a few new Create-A-Sim shit like hair and clothing (men are once again largely overlooked unless you want like 12 new hats), as well as some nice Chinese, French, and Egyptian styled furniture and decor.  There’s also a totally bitching moped that made me giggle furiously.  Other than that, gameplay back in the normal neighborhood is pretty much untouched.

Of course, because this is EAxis we’re talking about, there’s some pretty gnarly bugs in this expansion.  The biggest one is the fact that the launcher refuses to install a bunch of custom content, even if it’s content from the Sims Store.  That’s right, if you were willing to pay money for some little pixel furniture, guess what?  You can’t even use it unless you use some insane fix that involves converting files or sacrificing to Odin or something ludicrous.  Great job, EAxis!  Further, I personally have had weird shit like sims not going to school or work and therefore performance slips to ridiculously bad levels, an issue that I’ve only been able to solve by using the Awesomemod’s “backtowork” command at 9 AM, 3 PM, and 8 PM.  That or just letting everyone fail and then sitting back and laughing, but usually I actually want to play the game as they meant for it to be played.  Another weird glitch is that sometimes inventory objects will just vanish.  Shit sucks if it’s an adventuring item that you need in order to get more visa points.  I never thought I would ever actually say “FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU…” in real life, but I did that day.

Honestly I don’t understand EAxis’ bug fixing policy.  Some of the issues people have been having have been around since the base game.  Half the bugs EAxis doesn’t fix are fixed by fan-made mods like the Awesomemod.  I understand the economy sucks and they may not want to hire a whole bunch of testers, but if some regular guy can fix this shit for free and do it within a couple of days, what’s EAxis doing?
I feel like I rant about EAxis every time, but sweet Jesus, I don’t think I’ve ever played a game this buggy that doesn’t get a patch within a few days.  Hell, wasn’t Modern Warfare 2 patched like the day after it was released because there were issues with multiplayer?  Infinity Ward, go help EAxis or something.  Damn.

Anyway.  It’s hard for me to recommend this expansion pack, but I feel like that’s probably because of who I am.  Currently I’m having a ton of fun beating dudes with a sledgehammer in Red Faction.  World Adventures, by comparison, is kinda boring.  If you enjoyed the other “journey to another land” expansion packs of Sims 1 and 2, you’ll probably enjoy this one.  It’s a good expansion, but I wouldn’t have used it as the first one.  I think they should’ve done something like Nightlife/Hot Date and mix up everyday gameplay a bit.  Again though, I study ancient Greece so my opinion is moot, really.

Final verdict: meh.  Hold your money until a patch is released.

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.

*********

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.