Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne's Blogocube

sa04 has left the library, sa04 has been saved

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:38:15 GMT

It's not quite a Reading Rainbow.

It's just two scenes. I wanted to get more done, but I put off writing it until late, and really... this story's been like pulling teeth. I think the end result is working out fine, but it's definitely forced its way out, outline disagreeing with what I write live disagreeing with my original idea going into it. In the end, whatever wants to be written wins and ends up on paper. In bits. Whatever.

Also, don't forget the holiday bonus material I posted with the last update. Enjoy!

Today's Twitterings

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:02:25 GMT

00:13 Posted my review of Avatar. (No, not the one with the airbender.) tl;dr, story weak, fun high. tinyurl.com/yc4gtvd #
14:35 Woot! Just beat Ordrak in Torchlight. Devouring Trap + Arrowhail Spam + Mana/Health Drain Pistols + Potion Spam + Repeat = WIN. #

Batman: The Last Battening

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:30:28 GMT

Someone on Twitter asked for the annotated Batman DVD guide I wrote up for a friend, so I'll Just Leave This Here. It's very subjective, though; some episodes I didn't care for, someone else might.

* Unmemorable episode, skippable unless you like the characters.
** A solid episode, worth a watch, especially if you like the characters.
*** One of the best in the series, or critically important for continuity.
**** Absolute personal favorite. I don't hand these out lightly.

[ORIGIN] Origin story for a character
[SIG] Signature story, highlighting character well

VOLUME 1

   *  1 On Leather Wings
  **  2 Christmas With the Joker
 ***  3 Nothing to Fear [ORIGIN:Scarecrow]
   *  4 The Last Laugh
 ***  5 Pretty Poison [ORIGIN:Poison Ivy]
   *  6 Underdwellers
 ***  7 P.O.V. [SIG:Gotham Police]
  **  8 Forgotten
   *  9 Be a Clown
**** 10 Two-Face Pt. 1 [ORIGIN:Two-Face]
**** 11 Two-Face Pt. 2 [ORIGIN:Two-Face]
 *** 12 It's Never Too Late [SIG:Rupert Thorne]
   * 13 I've Got Batman In My Basement
**** 14 Heart of Ice [ORIGIN:Mr.Freeze]
   * 15 The Cat and the Claw Pt. 1 [ORIGIN:Catwoman]
   * 16 The Cat and the Claw Pt. 2 [ORIGIN:Catwoman]
 *** 17 See No Evil
**** 18 Beware the Gray Ghost
   * 19 Prophecy of Doom
 *** 20 Feat of Clay Pt. 1 [ORIGIN:Clayface]
 *** 21 Feat of Clay Pt. 2 [ORIGIN:Clayface]
**** 22 The Joker's Favor [SIG:Joker]
  ** 23 Vendetta [ORIGIN:Killer Croc]
   * 24 Fear of Victory
 *** 25 The Clock King [ORIGIN:Clock King]
 *** 26 Appointment in Crime Alley
**** 27 Mad as a Hatter [ORIGIN: Mad Hatter]
  ** 28 Dreams in Darkness

VOLUME 2

  **  1 Eternal Youth [SIG:Poison Ivy]
****  2 Perchance to Dream
 ***  3 The Cape and the Cowl Conspiracy
 ***  4 Robin's Reckoning Pt. 1 [ORIGIN:Robin]
 ***  5 Robin's Reckoning Pt. 2 [ORIGIN:Robin]
 ***  6 The Laughing Fish [SIG:Joker]
 ***  7 Night of the Ninja [ORIGIN:Kyodai Ken]
   *  8 Cat Scratch Fever
   *  9 The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
 *** 10 Heart of Steel Pt. 1 [ORIGIN:Hardac]
 *** 11 Heart of Steel Pt. 2 [ORIGIN:Hardac]
**** 12 If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich? [ORIGIN:Riddler]
 *** 13 Joker's Wild
   * 14 Tyger, Tyger
   * 15 Moon of the Wolf
 *** 16 Day of the Samurai [SIG:Kyodai Ken]
   * 17 Terror in the Sky
**** 18 Almost Got 'Im [SIG:Several]
 *** 19 Birds of a Feather [SIG:Penguin]
 *** 20 What Is Reality? [SIG:Riddler]
**** 21 I Am the Night [SIG:Batman]\
  ** 22 Off Balance [ORIGIN:Talia Al Ghul]
**** 23 The Man Who Killed Batman
  ** 24 Mudslide
  ** 25 Paging the Crime Doctor
 *** 26 Zatanna [SIG:Zatanna]
   * 27 The Mechanic
**** 28 Harley and Ivy [SIG:Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy]

VOLUME 3

  **  1 Shadow fo the Bat Pt. 1 [ORIGIN:Batgirl]
  **  2 Shadow fo the Bat Pt. 2 [ORIGIN:Batgirl]
   *  3 Blind as a Bat
 ***  4 The Demon's Quest Pt. 1 [ORIGIN:Ra's Al Ghul]
 ***  5 The Demon's Quest Pt. 2 [ORIGIN:Ra's Al Ghul]
****  6 His Silicon Soul
  **  7 Fire From Olympus [ORIGIN:Maxie Zeus]
****  8 Read My Lips [ORIGIN:Ventriloquist]
  **  9 The Worry Men [SIG:Mad Hatter]
   * 10 Sideshow [SIG:Killer Croc]
 *** 11 A Bullet for Bullock [SIG:Gotham Police]
 *** 12 Trial
  ** 13 Avatar [SIG:Ra's Al Ghul]
 *** 14 House and Garden [SIG:Poison Ivy]
   * 15 The Terrible Trio
**** 16 Harlequinade [SIG:Harley Quinn]
 *** 17 Time Out of Joint [SIG:Clock King]
  ** 18 Catwalk
  ** 19 Bane [ORIGIN:Bane]
**** 20 Baby-Doll [ORIGIN:Baby-Doll]
   * 21 The Lion and the Unicorn
**** 22 Showdown [SIG:Johan Hex]
 *** 23 Riddler's Reform
**** 24 Second Chance [SIG:Two-Face]
 *** 25 Harley's Holiday
   * 26 Lock-Up
 *** 27 Make 'Em Laugh
 *** 28 Deep Freeze
  ** 29 Batgirl Returns

VOLUME 4
Note: Characters got a visual redesign to simplify them and bring 
them more in line with the Superman series, which was airing 
alongside Batman. Stories took a bit of a dive in quality, 
focusing more on action. Still, there are a few gems, particularly 
since they started mixing in Superman and other DC comics 
characters, and moved time forward (Robin leaves Batman to become 
Nightwing, Penguin goes legit and runs a nightclub, etc.)

  **  1 Holiday Knights
 ***  2 Sins of the Father [ORIGIN:Robin II]
  **  3 Cold Comfort
 ***  4 Never Fear
  **  5 You Scratch My Back [SIG:Nightwing, Catwoman]
 ***  6 Double Talk [SIG:Ventriloquist]
   *  7 Joker's Millions
****  8 Growing Pains
  **  9 Love is a Croc [SIG:Baby-Doll, Killer Croc]
   * 10 Torch Song
  ** 11 The Ultimate Thrill
**** 12 Over the Edge
   * 13 Mean Seasons
   * 14 Critters
   * 15 Cult of the Cat
   * 16 Animal Act
 *** 17 Old Wounds [ORIGIN:Nightwing]
 *** 18 The Demon Within [ORIGIN:Etrigan]
**** 19 Legends of the Dark Knight [SIG:Batman]
        Fun note about this one; each story is told in the style of
        a noteworthy Batman artist, including a segment right out of
        Frank Miller's "Dark Knight Returns".
 *** 20 Girl's Night Out [SIG:Supergirl, Superman villains]
**** 21 Mad Love [ORIGIN:Harley Quinn]
  ** 22 Chemistry
   * 23 Beware the Creeper
   * 24 Judgment Day

OTHER NOTEWORTHY BATMAN MATERIAL:

Mask of the Phantasm: Movie-length, tells Batman's origin story 
plus a story involving Joker.

World's Finest: Three crossover episodes between Batman and 
Superman.

Justice League: Continues both the Batman and Superman 
continuities, mixes in tons of DC comics characters including 
Wonder Woman, The Flash, etc. Includes a good stand-alone Joker 
focused episode, "Wildcards", and an epilogue for Batman Beyond.

Batman Beyond: A sci-fi future batman, where Bruce is 70 and 
has retired. I've got the first season on DVD but nothing beyond 
that; the show itself was just OKAY. The "Return of the Joker" 
movie, however, is amazing.

Avatar: The Last Furry

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:12:34 GMT

Movie review time!

So, James Cameron's been poking away at his magnum opus for about ten years now. It's finally in theatres -- and just in time, since when he started, 3-D as a mainstream concept was laughable. Now, it's commonplace and accepted. Good for him. But does the movie work? Not "Does it live up to the hype", does it WORK?

Let's say it works despite itself.

I'll get the negative out of the way right now. The story is predictable and utterly tedious. Everything happens that you expect to happen -- a single sentence can summarize up the whole thing, "It's one of those movies where greedy white guys wanna displace the natives, except one of them goes native and leads a resistance." Done. You now know the entire plot of Avatar. The story unfolds exactly as you'd expect, a straight as an arrow path with no ambiguity and no nuance whatsoever. That makes the whole affair completely tedious... there are times when you just want them to get on with it, because you already know how it's going to go. For a movie so alive with color, it's totally black and white, and doesn't even bother trying to reach for anything beyond the basics.

So, if you aren't watching for the story, why watch? Three things: Characters, Spectacle, and Experience.

The characters are pretty nicely designed. They have distinctive voices and personalities, and the interplay of them as they move through the scenarios presented is interesting. Our hero is a bit generic, true, but everybody around him in Pink and Blue works well. None of them really surprise us or have any grey area to them, but they're enjoyable to watch and even the CG characters are so well animated that the ACTING comes through nicely. I can watch these guys and care about them, and that's the key to knowing if they work or not.

The spectacle is off the freaking map. Not just the 3-D, which is terrific (if a bit difficult to get into, since the image feels a bit too 'processed' at times) but the large-scale battles, the amazing environments, soaring through the sky... even walking around on ground level is amazing. This is a treat for the eyes and you always want to see more of it, with the movie only too happy to dish up new things to enjoy as you go.

That's where the experience comes into play; beyond Michael Bay-esque explosions and huge-scale objects to stare at, soaking in the WORLD that's been designed and coordinated by the artists is a delight. Even the more subtle visuals are quite a sight to behold, and they all blend together seamlessly into a living, breathing world... one that's easy to suspend your disbelief and revel in.

Overall... you can enjoy this movie, provided you go into it with the right frame of mind. It's a summer blockbuster, a popcorn movie. The writing is not nearly on par with Cameron's other work. But that's fine, if you go so you can watch blue people fight space marines and explore an MMORPG-esque fantasy world. And now is the time to go, while you can still catch it in 3-D... on home theatre systems it'll still be impressive, but it's not going to be 'what the doctor ordered'. So, if you've got an afternoon to kill and want something that'll entertain the hell out of you even if it doesn't fire up your neurons, it'll play nicely.

Today's Twitterings

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:02:07 GMT

01:56 AGH. My life-draining pistol in Torchlight? I accidentally disenchanted it. There goes most of my strategy. Time to scrounge... #
02:07 ...and ten minutes later I find a unique pistol that'll replace my old one. Excellent. #
12:10 You gotta be kidding me. Torchlight's on sale for $5. Keiko, sooo sorry I pleaded to get it early. Coulda saved you money. ;_; ! #
15:28 Hurrah! After some firewall wrangling, we've got iTunes talking to each other across the home network. I can listen to Jen's tracks, etc. #
00:01 Just finished writing up an episode list / quality guide for Batman:TAS for a friend. Rated them by awesomeness / continuity. #

Today's Twitterings

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:02:29 GMT

02:03 Happy holidays from #anachronauts sa04 with new scenes and some bloggy bonus material! Share and enjoy. tinyurl.com/ykenwxg #
11:39 Ahh, the melodious sounds of holiday music. A fine tradition! Oh, and Muppets. (I love Muppet viral videos.) tinyurl.com/yau4tea #

sa04 wishes you happy holidays

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:02:43 GMT

A few more scenes -- but wait, there's more!

Here's a holiday bonus for the fans. Enjoy!

ANACHRONAUTS HOLIDAY WISH LISTS

QUEEN EMILY MOONTHISTLE OF THE FAERIE COURT

* Some nicer dresses, for when I have to put up with nobles and visiting dignitaries with their blah blah blah yakety yak.
* Two boxes of Pensworth Ballpoints. I swear I go through one of these a day.
* An Elfstar compliant iThing.
* Copy of "iThing for Dummies."
* FOR SCOUT: New underwear and socks. I've heard horror stories.
* FOR UNA: Data file of "1001 Recipes for Cold Fun".
* FOR NEL: I think she was eyeing those silver slippers the elvish metalsmiths made. I can't imagine them being comfortable, but...
* FOR MYSELF: A better tomorrow.

SCOTT "SCOUT" REINHOLD, LION OF SUMMER AND QUEEN'S CONSORT

* 1 FrontLiner FOG (Finger of God) Sniper Rifle
* 1 FOG Scout configuration accessory pack (scopes, weather sensors, etc)
* 20 lbs. C4 explosive
* 20 C4 detonators
* 1 Field Sewing Kit for Uniform Repair
* 1 copy Sun Tzu "Art of War"
* 1 copy Bloom Media Repackagers Modern Samurai Megapack (Ghost Dog, Kill Bill, etc)
* 1 Elfstar compliant iThing
* 1 Copy "Imagine: Puppiez" for iThing
* FOR EMILY: 1 Copy "Personal Fitness Trainer" video game.
* FOR UNA: 1 pair flight goggles.
* FOR JESSE: 1 tin metal polish.
* FOR MYSELF: Nothing required.

UNA ZERO POINT ONE OF ARCOLOGY #A076

* An iThing, so I can talk to father and my friends no matter where I am.
* Those really nice silver slippers I saw at the elvish craft bazaar!
* A scrapbook! I think it might be fun to 'print out' some of my data to physical media and assemble it in a pleasing manner.
* A perfume set. I'd love to experiment a bit with one.
* FOR SCOUT: A toy foam dart pistol. It'd be funny!
* FOR EMILY: A neurodampening mood organ, so she can sleep easier at night.
* FOR NEL: I've pulled some strings so I can get her a near bottomless requisitions account with the Arcology outfitters! I can't wait to go shopping with her again!
* FOR MYSELF: I don't need anything, but I've been a good girl, and I hope that the joyous rotund bearded pagan winter spirit descends the nearest combustion chute and leaves some "coal" in my stocking. And by coal... I mean a renewable energy source my people can use to save themselves from running out soon.

NELLIWYN MYFANWY

* A flask of genuine Sparkle Grove bathing oils, from the oasis dryads.
* "Aromatherapy" candles. They sound intriguing.
* "Hairstyles for the Modern Woman," from Barwood & Court, an Eastusa publisher. I need new ideas for illusion spells.
* A deep-wood elven travel belt, with flask ties, pouches, and enchanted pockets of holding.
* One of those iThings, since everybody seems to have one and I don't want to be left out.
* A personal neck massager device from Eastusa and batteries. I have heard they are very... theraputic, for persons with my frustrations.
* FOR SCOUT: "1001 Funny Jokes" so he can cheer up.
* FOR EMILY: Scented massage oils from Sparkle Grove. I think her and Scout would enjoy them, I know I would.
* FOR UNA: It's taken a few months of working in secret, but I've crafted an ornately leather bound complete set of the works of Jules Verne, hand-copied in Elven calligraphy. I can't wait to give it to her!
* FOR MYSELF: The one thing I want most in life isn't something I have any right to wish for.

JESSE THE RUNEBLADE

* A proper battle dress, of elven make.
* Some metal polish.
* Direction in my life, once this fool's errand is done with.
* I require nothing else and have no interest in satisfying the desires of others.

GILBERT GEARHAUS, HONORED CALCULATOR

* More broken sprockets, loose cogs, valves to replace, and other things breaking down horribly so I have something fun to do around the Mermaid.
* A chain for my pocket watch. I lost mine somewhere.
* One of those "iThings", so I can take it apart and see how it works. Electronics! Such a novel concept!
* FOR JESSE: Perhaps a comb and brush set? A fine gift for a lady of class and taste.
* FOR UNA: My copy of 20,000 Leagues is a bit thumbed through, but I believe she'd love to have it.
* FOR NEL: Not sure. She's rarely away from Una's side, I don't quite have a feel for her yet. Perhaps something they could share together, like a chess set?
* FOR JEEVES: A new bowler hat. His is looking a bit dinged lately.
* FOR MYSELF: A fitting goodbye. Perhaps saving orphans from the stomach of a giant shark that's falling out of a burning building which is under attack by Martians. Now, THAT would be fitting!

THE J-33 VALET AND EQUERRY SYSTEM

* Concordance.

Today's Twitterings

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:03:55 GMT

01:11 One extra scene for #anachronauts sa04. Also, I'm gonna start linking to the feedback threads from Twitter. tinyurl.com/ygkdmyy #
13:01 .AMR files for ringtones sound like the devil being castrated. I'm off to find some proper MIDI files instead. I do dig the Adlib FM sound. #
13:44 Hurrah! I've figured out Bluetooth! I'm less old now! And I got a pic off my phone camera! ...it kinda sucks. tinyurl.com/ydzdr3v #
15:33 Merry Christmas (with ObDisclaimer) to all. Looks like I'll have a relaxing xmasu with the family this year; no obligations, no visits, etc. #
19:42 Jen got me 8 bags of assorted chocolatey Lindt Lindor Truffles. Clearly she wants me to get the diabeetus and die. Pray for me. #
21:58 New RB2 Drum Kit + LEGO Rock Band's "No Kick Pedal" Cheat = Happy Disabled Gamer. Drumming is fun instead of frustrating and impossible! #
23:38 Honey roasted cashews are mortal sin in nut form. #
23:54 Adjusted LoudTwitter to post at midnight instead of 2am, since I usually do story updates after midnight, and those should take priority. #

Today's Twitterings

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:01:02 GMT

10:40 Between the foul weather, work schedules, holiday events, etc. it's hard to find time to go see Avatar. Maybe Sunday night, Jen? Wants 3Dee! #
11:44 Set up my tweets to echo in my LJ. I am socially embloggerating the interwebs 2.0. Next I'll be texting from a Starbucks or something. #
12:07 Does sum up my feelings on "snuggies" rather nicely. The D: !? factor is where folks are wearing them in PUBLIC. tinyurl.com/acez4u #
18:12 I really wish this wasn't photoshopped. Now I'm trying to think of a good excuse to have one custom made. tinyurl.com/y8s2fmx #
01:11 One extra scene for #anachronauts sa04. Also, I'm gonna start linking to the feedback threads from Twitter. tinyurl.com/ygkdmyy #

sa04 is pumping out some "jock jams"

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:08:53 GMT

It's not exactly the 'beautiful game', per se.

This scene kind of ran away from me, by the end of it. I wasn't expecting to cut it off where I did, but that's fine; this actually serves the story better, since Melvin's turning out to be a lot more of an insistent and angry young lad than I was originally planning in my outline. I listen to my characters and write them how they want to be written; my plans can be changed to better suit what they develop into. It'll all work out in the end.

Feedback welcome. I think my auto-twitter-summary thing fires off in an hour, which may nudge this post down, but hey.

The Microbloggeration Postulation

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:43:47 GMT

I'm considering setting up one of those thingamagoobers that 'daily digests' up my Twitter posts into my LJ.

Used to be I'd LJ once or twice a day with my thoughts, feelings, project updates, reviews of things, wacky links, etc. Nowadays I've spread my focus across both equally, and to different purposes. For long running rants or observations, and for project feedback, it's LJ. For spur of the moment thoughts and wacky links, it's Twiter.

I try to make sure both get Quality Content(tm) which is amusing, entertaining, or at least weird enough to justify reading -- no "I'm taking a poo!" messages. (Unless it's really exceptional poo. Or there's so much of it that it defies description. Or it's such an embodiment of biological horror that it makes you question the existence of a loving God. Y'know, like two weeks ago.) So, presumably my twitterings will be of the Interesting flavor rather than the Annoying flavor.

Sooo. Anybody know how I can set that up?

As for my life, today I'm back at the office and still banging away on the 'ol inbox backlog. This is the problem with vacations -- they rest me up and give me time to enjoy myself, but when I get back, whoa nelly. Job security in the form of being the only person capable of wrangling this role has its drawbacks.

sa04 is studying for midterms

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:33:02 GMT

O hai, story I haven't written in awhile.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I'm done being horribly ill, I've moved into my new place, my vacation is done, and things are resuming a nice pattern... it's time to get back to anachronauts. This chapter was VERY hard to outline, because I had no actual ideas beyond "some kind of Harry Potter parody". According to the poll I ran, this is what you guys wanted to see (although Los Muertos and the lunar adventure are coming too).

Eventually, I managed to get a plot together, one which goes beyond just making fun of Hogwarts and actually delivers an anachronauts flavored experience that furthers my various plot points. Hope you like it.

When I'm 34

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:21:46 GMT

I always seem to neglect my blog when I'm on vacation. Huh.

It hasn't been a very PRODUCTIVE vacation, in a creative sense. We did get the house 90% set up and I've settled in nicely, which I suppose counts as productivity. Last night I did outline sa04, but I wish I'd done that days ago, so I'd have time to work on it before it's back to the grind at the office. Ah well.

Also on the 'meh' list, it's my birthday. I'm 34 now. I dislike getting older. I'm past the point where media is really aimed at me -- it's all about youth and rebellion and living it up in that core 18-25 bracket where everything is happening and stuff is awesome and so on. After that point you're pretty much expected to shut up, sit down, cycle your days through your career, and eventually end up a grey-haired murder suspect on Law & Order.

Still, I can't complain about my QoL. The new layout is spectacular, and I've got plenty of awesomeness around me which I can pick up and goof off with at a moment's notice. Once I get back in the writing seat (which I delayed on owing to massive illness and busyness moving in) that itch will be scratched, as well. So it's not like I think the future's gonna suck, or that I hate my life. It just gets on my nerves when once a year I'm reminded of how far I'm drifting away from my youth. A minor complaint when you look at the larger scope, but a harsher one on the local scale of a single day out of the year.

So. Yeah. Happy birthday to me, dammit.

Home Unboxing / Film at 11

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:18:49 GMT

Haven't posted since my "I aen't deade" post.

I've been busy as hell, is why. Wake up, wrangle unpacking and assembly and organization for several hours, finally breathe, eat dinner, party party party, wash up, chill, game too late into the night, go to bed. That's pretty much been my thing for the last few days, so it was nothing really worth blogging about.

Sat down to watch Return To House On Haunted Hill, for some inexplicable reason. I love the 1999 remake -- it had a good mixture of witty dialogue, fun characters, great visual design, and even a number of dodges and swerves that switched it up so what looked like ghostly kills were con jobs and vice versa. The followup Castle remakes for 13 Ghosts and Ghost Ship played to the same formula, with terrific visuals and sharp scripts.

The Hill House sequel? Aaaaanoneofthatstuff, pretty much. A bunch of grizzly, sexy people go into the house with a lot of guns because they like Money and because apparently a boring MacGuffin was behind all the evil rather than man's indecency towards man being to blame, black guy dies first, lesbian dies second in an allegedly sexy way, people croak, boring things happen, things stop happening, the end. I only kept watching because I don't like to stop things once I've started. In the end it was an incredible waste of time.

Now, back to my life.

I'm pondering anachronauts. I put it on hold after beating down NaNoWriMo, so I could focus on the move -- now that I'm here I think I need to mix in something of constructive substance during my week's winter vacation, lest I end up playing Torchlight 24/7. Trouble is I've kinda roped myself into doing a Harry Potter parody, and my parody ideas are thin on that front. I do think I have a good plot, though, which just needs some prodding into shape. We'll see how it goes in the evenings ahead.

Gonna unwind with some TF2, I think, then sleep and tomorrow go buy a TV for Jen. Later.

Splatterhouse

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:04:47 GMT

Okay, so.

Tuesday I come home from work and immediately engage in a wild tailspin of horrible things coming out of both ends of my body. I rarely get sick, honestly -- but when I do get sick, I go hardcore, apparently. And this time, it just wasn't stopping, to the point where I got incredibly dehydrated and screwed up in all sorts of ways.

The next morning we threw in the towel on hoping this would go away and went to the hospital. I hate hospitals. I spent a lot of my childhood in them, after all. But in this case, I CRAVED the hospital, I wanted to go, so I had nooo problems when they went to put in the IV and it took three attempts. Like, whatever. Ow, ow, ow, done, gimmie my damn bodily fluids already.

I ended up staying 18 hours, with the practical upshot being a complete end to the nausea (the worst part of the equation) and a lot of sleep. By the time I checked out... I was moved into my new house. They'd up and shuffled the boxes from one location to the other while I was being medicated.

Now, it's still going to take a lot of work to UNPACK and set up the house, and I'm still marginally sick (I'm eating fine but the end product is not coming out quite fine yet). But overall, I'm a happy camper. Yes, things could be better, but I'm "on the mend" in all aspects and I have a week of vacation coming up to further mend during.

I'll have pics of the new pad once it's fully assembled, assuming we can find all the parts. Thanks to LJers for your well wishes while I was undergoing a David Cronenberg movie shoot.

sick.

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:38:54 GMT

Fever of 100.3. Belching/throwing up, diahrrea. Can't sleep, burping every 20 seconds, keeping me up. Kinda delerious. Sitting up and focusing on letting the meds do their work.

EDIT: Why didn't I think of this before? Vacuous children's cartoons and sitcom reruns while lying down on the couch keep me engaged enough not to give into delerium, AND let me rest a bit while I wait for the burping to go away. I feel (marginally) (very marginally) better.

EDIT #2: When you've been lying on your side for an hour, do not lie on your stomach unless you want to horf up all the medication you've taken. Agh. I'm upright and weirdly energized right now, so, hitting the web.

EDIT #3: PROTIP: Soda bad. That's horf #5. I give up; no more drugs and no liquids except water until I sleep.

EDIT #4: Monty Python is too disorienting when you have the flu. Tried a little water, lied down, horf. Trying ice chips and uprightness. Seriously considering the emergency room, I have NO idea how the hell I'm going to be able to get to sleep.

OMEGA EDIT: Okay, I twittered what happened, but couldn't log into LJ from my mom's Kindle to repeat it here.

I ended up being hospitalized for severe dehydration and nausea. They moved me from the ER to a full hospital room soon after that. IV bags kept me going and medicated, gave me system a chance to recover. 18 hours later I was discharged. Got back to my NEW house (whee!) and set up my PC and networking stuff and here I am.

I'm still under the weather with a GI (gastrointestinal infection), something that's apparently been going around here. But under the weather is also under control, with fluid intake and a stomach that's calmed down considerably. Over the next few days I'm taking it easy, going slowly with the unpacking and setup of my new place.

Thanks for your well wishes, folks. It's been a horribly ugly pair of days. PROTIP: Don't drink from water fountains right next to men's rooms. I suspect that's what did me in. Some jerk not washing up and then going for a cool drink.

It's Like Ju-on With Asphalt

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:10:12 GMT

One accident at the Intercounty Connector highway construction site on a Monday morning holding up traffic for an hour is unfortunate.

Two accidents at the Intercounty Connector highway construction site, each on a Monday morning, each holding up traffic for an hour is the work of dark powers.

I suspect that in the pre-dawn hours, as men in orange vests drive around bulldozers, one is sipping at his cuppa joe and glances aside, distracted by something, and when he looks back there's this creepy Japanese girl with hair in front of her face right in front of his bulldozer and he screams and veers off to the side and WHAM! the Foreman is cleaved in half by the metal blade of the unstoppable machine. And then an old woman with one good eye shakes her fist and says "I warned yoooou, but you wouldn't LISTEN!"

Cue terrifying music and reaction shots.

Alternative explanation: bad luck.

The move is allegedly on for Thursday. As many ducks as can be put in a row have been put in a row, and for my part, I'm dealing with the suspiciously helpful people at Comcast. They've been stalking me on Twitter for awhile now, searching for any mention of "Comcast" and stepping right the hell in even if you say "Comcast sucks and poured sugar in my gas tank and sodomized my housepets" with a "Hi, I'm Melissa with Comcast, can I help you?". It's unsettling, like your grandmother reading your tweets about how baked you got at Trevor's frat party.

But apparently it has uses, as I was able to tweet my question, get an immediate response, and start up and email chain with someone who actually KNEW what the hell I was talking about when I said I needed to transfer a pair of CableCards from one account to another. Beats being on hold for a half an hour and then passed up the chain to Level 2 tech support.

Cross your fingers that everything else goes as smoothly.

The Childhood Trauma That Made Me Paranoid About Failing Video Games

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:38:16 GMT

Someone asked, so I may as well go into detail.

It was the early 90s. My only game console was a Game Boy -- my parents had zero interest in me owning an NES. (Hence I missed out on a good portion of gamer culture, but hey, that's another rant.) I'd gotten the "Final Fantasy ~~Adventure~~ Legend," an RPG port that had the FF name tacked on it, and was playing through it for hours and hours while visiting relatives up in Maine one cold winter.

Early on, I'd discovered something interesting. It didn't really matter what your class was, or anything like that, as long as you bought an item from stores which was essentially "lightning in a box". They were cheap, available everywhere, and could one or two shot everything in the game. Overjoyed, I made this the core of my tactics -- stock up on lightning boxes, obliterate everything, collect profit, move on. I got through the game quite rapidly and without any resistance from the enemies worth note.

About 20 hours into the game, and I get to the next to last boss.

Who is immune to the lightning boxes. And because I hadn't learned any tactics, hadn't done any build work, basically never learned how to "properly" play the game, I couldn't proceed and win the game. I tried fighting him again and again and every single time met crushing failure. I couldn't go back to an earlier save, because there was one save slot and it was right before the boss. I was dead ended, stuck, and had failed completely.

Given I was a kid, this was incredibly demoralizing. And ever since then, I've made it a point to research builds, learn what I need to know, and tread very carefully in games lest I make some irreversible mistake and end up needing to either start the whole game over or abandon it. This was a pretty common feature of 90s games, such as Sierra adventure games where just stepping on the wrong pixel can kill you, not have an item you overlooked five hours before that was now critical, or action games where you can hit a skill wall nice and hard or not have the right tools to get through.

So, needless to say -- I am a fan of light death penalties, freely available respecs, changeable difficulty settings, and quickie-shot games like fighters or shooters where mistakes just mean you start a new round. Games with good design that, unlike early games, don't completely screw you over arbitrarily. Games which promote fun first and challenge second. But even then, I tend to be very cautious... timid, even, until I feel comfortable with how the penalties for failure work.

It's a silly fixation, I know, but it's what I gots.

Teh Metalz & Teh Mirrorz & Teh Movez

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:57:00 GMT

Brutal Legend! I haven't actually gotten to the RTS elements yet. I'm about to; that's the next mission. So far, it's been an enjoyable romp with AMAZING art direction and fun writing, but traditionally I suck badly at RTS games, so we'll see if the fun level slopes away sharply. I'll talk more about that next time.

I unfortunately accidentally got a major plot twist spoiled for me by watching some multiplayer videos, of the flavor of "Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal". Honestly, though, that's fine; I care more about WHY a twist happens than the twist itself; I'm still curious to see how Character A got to Point B. I'm also curious how the Drowning Doom, the 3rd faction, fits in... I like 3rds factions in stories because they provide an alternative to Pure Good and Pure Evil, some sort of sideline viewpoint that has legitimate reasons not to trust in either camp. Sadly, I don't think that's the case here, but we'll see.

As for the soundtrack... honestly, I'm not a metalhead. And yet, I'm enjoying this, particularly the classic / standard stuff from Sabbath, Maiden, Megadeth, etc. It was enough to make me wanna fire up iTunes and let the wacky Genius^tm thingy put together a nice metal playlist to enjoy last night while playing some TF2. I think the emphasis on the sheer awesomeness of rock rather than the GRR BURLY MAN MAN KILL EAT ENEMIES sort of aggression that metal typically carries these days helped a lot. Humor and metal go together well and help take the piss out of it all.

Mirror's Edge! For a game that's basically "Do it right or die horribly over and over and over" and focused completely on speed runs, I'm actually enjoying this. I think it's because of the very minor penalty for failure... if you do become street pizza, you immediately respawn not too far from where you died, to have another go at it. It's fast, it's forgiving, and it's less of a bitchslap than other games deliver to you when you screw up. Borderlands is the same; if you croak, you just zot over to town with slightly less money but no worse for wear. TF2? Respawn, move out. Booyah. (L4D2, well, MUCH stiffer penalty since you could have to restart the same campaign mission over and over. One reason why I prefer Versus/Scavenge.)

I'm all in favor of forgiving death penalties, ever since being traumatized by a JRPG which basically dunked me into an unwinnable, unfixable doom scenario after 20 hours of play because I made a build mistake two hours into play. Being able to roll back without a cascading series of crippling drawbacks makes it easier to experiment a bit and try alternate approaches without being punished for not memorizing an extensive FAQ or not having twitchy l33t sk1llz.

Finally, the move is on -- I pack up and move to my new house next Friday. Packing is pretty much done, although there's a LOT of stuff down here, and miscellaneous odds and ends are going to turn up constantly over the next week without a proper box to put them in. Plus there's the iffy relocations of sensitive/gigantic/weird things, like my MAME cab and my skeeball machine and the pile of game consoles around the TV... ugh. I just want this to go off smoothly and stress free. (Which is gonna be tricky considering the Child's Play charity event in Second Life is that very night. We have plans in place to handle it, thanks to my resourceful mom, but it's gonna be a tight squeeze.)

First Impressions: SHOOTAN RPG

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:17:08 GMT

Hope you're prepared for a bunch of 2f Yammers On About Games posts. Anachronauts fans, more IS coming, but I'm taking a hiatus post NaNoWriMo to entertain myself a bit.

So. Borderlands!

While I'm glad I got it at a massive bargain, I gotta say, this is a pretty good game and definitely 40-50 bucks of fun. I'm still on the first chapter, though, so color these as First Impressions, as noted.

I've never played a Diablo clone before. I've played DIABLO, like, once. It was a bit too chaotic and difficult to play, with all the fog of war and different powers to use as swarms of things attack you, etc. Borderlands boils it down a bit -- shoot guns, occasionally use your class power, 'nuff said. Once you cut through all that, then the core mechanic of exploration and killin' things and gettin' stuff really shines through nicely. It hands out candy at regular intervals in the form of levelups and new gear, which keeps you going "Okay, one more quest. One more quest..." But, nothing new to Diabloalike fans, I guess.

It may eventually get damn grindy, especially if I start running into things that just outmatch my skill levels. I had that problem when I tried to take on a 'whack bandit dude' quest that was +3 levels to me; I didn't see anything more my speed available, until I realize the L10 mission "talk with TK again" was actually a prelude to a bunch of L7 missions. Weird. If I run into too many head-against-wall scenarios like that, I can see the fun level plummeting. But so far, it hasn't been too bad.

Oddly, I don't mind the lack of a story. The art style is great, the action's there, and the game is exactly what it says on the tin. It's almost a relief not to have to care anymore about narrative, kind of like the raw and simple fun of L4D2 or TF2.

Tomorrow I'll dig into Brutal Legend a bit. Oh, and I finished all the setlists in DJ Hero; satisfying, although clearly they were scraping the barrel for mixes by the end and just tossing together stuff they had rights to and hadn't already jammed against each other. Maybe DJ Hero 2 will have a broader range of tracks.

Quickie Reviews: Various Heroes

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:49:55 GMT

My apparently not a bargain copy of DJ Hero arrived today. Played it for, like, four hours. Summary review: Awesome, with caveats.

MUSIC: The mixes are 20% amazing, 50% fun, 30% weaksauce. That's enough of a win in my book. There's JUST enough Daft Punk in there; once you've heard Robot Rock mixed four times you've heard it plenty.

PRESENTATION: Other than the crappy "hero" character style which demands hideously deformed muppet people, everything around them is great and syncs well to the music in terms of camera work, lights, animations, etc.

CONTROL: Here's the trouble. The DJ turntable thing is amazing, and a great idea. But the difficulty curve is completely insane. Basic taps aren't bad, and scratching works, but the crossfader is sloppy and the game requires absolute precision going in and out of fades, even at Medium skill level. Honestly, I found Medium utterly frustrating and not fun, and that's not just curve, that's the controls not being up to the task. ...and then? I bumped it down to Easy, where it's just taps, and I had a LOT of fun. It was challenging enough for Casual Gamey Me, got me into the music, and I couldn't wait to tackle the next setlist. SO... provided you crave Nintendo Hard or enjoy Casual Easy, you're fine. Anywhere between and you may wanna look aside.

SOMETHING I JUST DON'T GET: Why did we need a turntable? X, Y, and B plus the analog stick for the fader would've done the same job and probably done it better. It wouldn't be the 'experience', but it might've moved more units off shelves if it was more akin to Frequency / Amplitude and didn't need $120 of plastic. I guess Activision just got greedy... and paid the price, much as they're bathing in blood over Tony Hawk Ride.

OH, AND I ALSO TRIED VOCALS ON THE BAND HERO AND GUITAR HERO 5 DEMOS: and found both to suck. It's just way too picky, and has a lot of trouble dealing with consonants. Songs I could full combo easily on Expert in RB2 I was maybe 90%'ing in this thing. Add the aforementioned "hero" character art style (also known as "To The Pain") and, well, guess I was right to pass up the Black Friday deal on this thing...

Once Steam finishes downloading it, I'll be giving my bargain bin copy of Mirror's Edge a try, and Borderlands arrives tomorrow along with Brutal Legend. All three were in my Sorta Want category... technical problems or gameplay style issues, but interesting enough to merit a sale-buy.

Auspicious Beginnings

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:35:46 GMT

...or is that the right word? I'm a writer. I ought to know these things...

This morning, I woke up ten minutes late (not a huge deal), forgot to take ibuprofen for my arthritis (kind of a big deal) then got stuck in an hour-long snarl on one single road in my morning commute (pretty much a big deal) which made a one hour trip into a grueling, joint-cracking two hour commute (big deal period). Not a fun way to start the week.

I'm moving into a period of transition -- moving into my new apartment, specifically. It's all very vague and annoying however, as we've been packing and preparing for weeks, but there is no set move date. Could be this week, could be the next. There's also that constant question in the air of "Are we prepared enough?", with larger subquestions of "Exactly how independent is this independent living and do I have what I need for it?" and smaller subquestions like "When should I de-ice my fridge prior to the move?". And I'm on the edge of this, with the rest of my family doing the heavy lifting. I can't imagine how screwed up THEY feel right now.

Also had a weird weekend in terms of expenditure. I'm moving, I'm buying one or two high profile gifts for family, and every credit card bill has at least one $500+ piece of furniture on it. As a result, I feel really iffy about buying things for myself and angst considerably about each decision. For every "Hey, $50 game for $20, that's a bargain... right?" I also have "$100 for DJ hero with $40 Amazon store credit (minus $10 for shipping)? Hooray! ...wait, what do you mean I don't apply for the credit because it was through a third party seller and I basically just paid retail price for a ridiculously overpriced yuppie toy game?". End result is feeling iffy about doing things that allegedly are going to make me a happy and entertained person.

Add to that the usual holiday funk and, well, it's been a very strange and uncomfortable couple of days. Hope the rest of the week is either smooth or at least uneventful. I'll take either. I'll be happy when all this is over and I can get my life back on a predictable and simple path.

Banana Stickers

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:29:38 GMT

I've always wanted to try NaNoWriMo, but it always seemed impossible -- a whole novel in one month? Implausible. Inconceivable. But, after I finished the "First Age" series and realized that the official limit of 50k words was definitely within reach... I figured I'd go for it.

I'm not a struggling writer. I don't need a push. (Well, I DID need a push, and I periodically need pushes in the years-long droughts between projects, but that's besides the point in this case.) I was a bit worried I had no right to claim this 'no-prize' since I write so fast. That I was devaluing the efforts of others. That I was scum.

Then I noticed some folks in the middle of November with word counts of 165,000 on the NaNoWriMo forums and decided I'm definitely not some sort of all-conquering fiction god and I fit nicely in the middle tier. Comfy and cozy, and deserving.

So, let me start off Thanksgiving by being thankful to whatever it is that has powered this project forward. It's really given me something to look forward to again, other than just beating up dudes in video games and watching detectives detect things on the telly. I'm looking forward to writing more and above all else... thank you for reading.

Set the Controls For The Heart of the Sun

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:49:13 GMT

While I won't swear to obey the will of the masses, I am curious. So, poll time.

I have a number of possible stories to tackle next in the Second Age series (the standalone tales of the world of anachronauts). For the time being, until the Forsaken Shores ends, I'm restricted to tales about Eastusa, the Faerie Court, and the Fringe. But there's plenty of room to explore things we haven't seen yet in the series. So...

View Poll: #1489351

I'll get to all of these eventually, I'm just not sure what to focus on first. Let's see what tickles someone's fancy. Or hey, someone might have an Other idea I hadn't considered with makes me sit upright and go "Hey, yeah!".

Also don't forget my previous LJ posting, where fs02 went draft complete. Danke.

fs02 is pleased to meet you, hope you guess its name

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:31:49 GMT

Aaaand that makes us draft complete.

Since I've now passed the 50k mark, and since I'm actually out of material to write, I think I'll switch to my Editor's Hat and start doing revisions like I said I would awhile back. After that I think I'll do one or two Second Age standalones, before rejoining our Westusa crew.

Also, I'd like to point out Desert Bus For Hope, a terrific charity event by the guys at Loading Ready Run. They're playing the world's most boring video game, with the hours they're forced to play dictated by how much money people donate to Child's Play. It's the finest combination of sadism and selflessness I've ever seen and it's a lot of fun to watch.

Feedback welcome, goin' to bed.