The linked album above is "complete," in that the entirety of the 571 images I paired down from the 3,200 are included. However, if you need an album that could do without you having to explain what phalluses are, why there would be a museum dedicated to them, or the cultural significance of the "shocker," there exists an alternative album (which I'll be showing my family/coworkers instead of this one).
Grand Theft Auto came out today but much to my sadface it will be a while before I can play it. I have outdoors and garage projects to focus on before I can do indoorsy stuff.
But all of you should buy the game for PS3. In a similar vein to what Mike talks about in this post (http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=5359&msg_id=5360#thd_5360), one of the main multiplayer modes is heists and rollin with your crew.
CMON GUYS
Bryan Cranston in his Walter White makeup could put on an orange jumpsuit with a large brown collar and play Gordon Freeman instantly.
Also, it's been too long since I've played HL2. Need to get on that this winter.
Aaaaaaaaaaand finished Voyager. Fuck you Rick Berman. Double fuck you Brannon Braga. I seriously can't believe how much they wasted the potential for what could have been a great show... if they had taken ONE RISK during the entire seven year run. All action, no consequences.
That being said, I still gave it a 4/5 on Netflix. Why? It is possibly the highest quality sc-fi show ever produced. Every episode went down like candy. So, while I was entertained, I was just so terribly disappointed because I wanted it to be on par with DS9 (and it could have been!). Perhaps, though, this show is really the most Star Trek of all the Star Trek series (episodic, idealistic).
One last note: I think Kate Mulgrew is underrated. She made terrible dialogue almost believable for seven seasons. Not quite a Patrick Stewart, of course, but definitely 2nd behind him. Note, however, that in terms of captains, it goes: JLP>Sisco>Janeway>>Kirk>Archer. In terms of dialogue quality (from the writers), however, it goes: Sisco>Janeway>JLP>Kirk>Archer.
Now to mop up the rest of TOS... then the Animated Series, and I'm done! Let the cheese begin...
Metal Gear Solid 4 may have a foot planted too deep in the stealth genre and not enough footing in the action/FPS genre to keep me entertained.
Really glad i didnt buy black ops 2 brand new. Still full of all the same old problems. And some of the movie cutscenes? Are gamers really so immature that all we want is cities blown up and exploded?
maybe playing last of us previously just had me really disappointed with this game.
Guys I just watched The Captains for the first time and it is the finest example of documentary film-making I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I don't know why I took me so long to get around to it, but you must RUN not walk to your nearest Netflix and see it immediately.
I would pay good money to watch a 3 hour long special chronicling the daily activities of Avery Brooks. Watching him and Shatner talk metaphysics in circles while he occasionally dabbles in some free jazz improv is a pleasure not to be missed.
SPDCA: The Ouya Game Console
The success or failure of a Kickstarter project to secure my backing depends a lot on what buzzwords the project can combine together into a single concept that speaks directly to my core principals.
Things that I have funded so far, based on my selling buzzwords:
And finally, the Ouya (www.kickstarter.com): "Android," "Open," "Game Console"
With the exception of Ortus (which was, admittedly, my first Kickstarter backing, and my worst decision), all of the projects I've backed have been funded, and I've had some degree satisfaction from it. All backing I've done has been around the $10-20 range, and usually only ranging upwards if I'm interested in a poster, or something that requires shipping.
The backing I gave the Ouya console was $99. I did this because it valued the things I find the most wrong about the games industry (closed platforms, extreme distrust of gaming, lack of innovation, lack of diversity). It embraced open source software, claimed to have open hardware, and appreciated the notion of customization and compatibility. I also funded it with the expectation that it would probably never succeed, as it seemed too obscure to gain traction. I guess I was wrong.
I was impressed to see that the Ouya project had been funded, and with remarkable financial support. However, almost a year later, when the box arrived, it sat for a couple of weeks before I even opened it. And even more before I finally plugged it in last night. The timing was poor: it's summer, I'm biking, I have projects, and there were other games that I had wanted to play.
I finally opened it and plugged it in. The device is surprisingly tiny (about the size of a coffee cup). It came with a single Bluetooth controller, an HDMI cable, and a power cable. When it started up, it started performing firmware updates, during which it displayed randomly chosen quotes and quips that reminded me of the quote generators from my own projects of yore. It was endearing.
Something that bothered me, though, is that despite having a Ouya account, and being a Kickstarter backer, I was required to enter credit card information before I even accessed the console. I don't understand the justification for this, being that the majority of the games are try-before you buy. That I would have been locked out of the device for not having a credit card bothers me a good deal.
Once past that, I decided to test out a few games. Towerfall is one that most of the game review sites I visit spoke well of. I queued it up for download, and bid my time visiting some of the system options. I had heard that one could plug in or even associate PS3 controllers with the game console. I attempted to do so, only to find that the association process disabled Bluetooth entirely, and required a reset of the game console before I could get the Ouya controller back into place. I was interested to see this fixed (as I would have wanted to have multiple PS3 controllers paired), so I spent some time troubleshooting. Apparently, there is a "bug" such that plugging anything into the USB port of the Ouya causes the Bluetooth radio to go out. That, to me, is sort of a killer bug. I know they're working on firmware updates. I would hope that is something that could be fixed in software, as otherwise that is a critical hardware flaw.
Playing Towerfall and a number of other games, I was pretty impressed. There could be some interesting things done with the Ouya, particularly with the resurgence of "retro" gaming and graphics from indie game developers. There are also available console emulators that allow you to play a number of NES games (with more console emulations to come).
I like that the Ouya happened. I want to play with it more, experiment with it, and potentially turn it into a media server. However, I don't know how well it will do to compete with the bigger game consoles. The PS4 and Xbox One are trying to make "openness" a selling point, and with their improved hardware, name recognition, and already-signed veteran development studios, it will be hard for the Ouya to compete. In addition, Valve has plan to come out with a Linux-based Steam platform, with modifiable hardware and access/support to its existing games library. Right now, the Ouya has only the Android games that were easiest to port from their mobile phone counterparts.
But hey. It's $100, compared to the $300-$500 price tag on the bigger consoles. As the community develops for it, it'll likely have all the goodness that things like Linux or Raspberry Pi have to offer. If people starting coming up with custom firmwares, or allow booting from external media, it could be an interesting/portable computer. Or it just be a neat idea, collecting dust in my basement.
SPCDA: The Last of Us
I'll try my best to operate without spoilers, but, eh, there's only so much I can do.
I've been making a lot of little, poor choices lately. Shining example: my clean laundry (read: underwear) is downstairs, and my bedroom and bathroom are upstairs. For some reason I refuse to rectify this, and every morning I have to furtively dart downstairs in a towel, pajama pants, or yesterday's underwear in order to collect enough items to finish dressing.
I laugh at this a little bit, but also chide myself. I'm 28 next month. This is, perhaps, not the sort of thing one does, and certainly not something I'd be proud of should somebody observe this in action. When I think on it, and things like this, my concluding thoughts are, inevitably, who would you try to impress otherwise? It's just you.
It's sort of a defeating thought, but eventually things get done. I'll eventually get the laundry upstairs (about the time for the next cycle to begin). I'll eventually get the house vacuumed. But for now, especially summer, I just have other things that are more interesting, or at least, better hold my focus.
Somewhat recently I bought a blender. A nice one. And I've been, well, blending, a whole lot. So much so that I really, really should have been worried about the hepatitis contamination that occurred in the frozen strawberries and blueberries from Costco. So much so that I've probably gone through two dozen bags of individually quick-frozen strawberries since April. I've dropped ~12lbs down from then. Victory comes in slurry form.
About the same time, I also had the misfortune of buying alcohol from Costco. No, no, no hepatitis there. The issue being: I bought what I thought to be a sufficient amount of beer, vodka, and liqueurs for a group of people, and they weren't drank (nobody's fault). My attempts at outright leaving it at other's houses never ended in success.
And so... so I've been working through them, making room in my fridge. Slowly. And usually combined with strawberries, blueberries, bananas, yogurt, and spinach. It's actually not that bad. It doesn't necessarily help with the diet, but it helps if I'm lacking inspiration for programming or writing. Maybe the alcohol sterilizes the berries, I don't know.
Anyhow. All this to say, the first night I played The Last of Us, it was too hot upstairs to do anything. I decided to make a cool booze smoothie, and play for a few hours. I sat on my coffee table, across the room from a pile of clean underwear. I sipped, and waited for my PS3 to update.
I don't want to spoil the beginning. Or the rest of the game. But damn... I'm not a parent. But I know parents. And I know their kids. Were I a parent, I might have had to turn the system off that night. Maybe the vodka dulled my emotional distance emulation layer, but the game starts off intense, and doesn't really ever stop. To quote Jerry Holkins:
Children carve something out of you, a place for themselves; people can twist the knife in that spot, and it just bleeds and bleeds.
The Last of Us is an interesting game. One that I'll probably be talking about for a while, or at least, hanging it over people's heads until they play it and I can finally discuss it freely. I've described it as a combination of the game Dead Space intersected with The Road. It is hyper-violent (particularly when you die, and you die often, though it isn't a grind). It is challenging at parts, especially those that absolutely require stealth, or where you've managed to paint yourself into a corner by expending too much ammo.
The shining part of this game, however, is its character development. Joel and Ellie feel like real people, and their fears and perils become your own. Which makes navigating a terrifying post-apocalypse all the more harrowing.
The Last of Us is also interesting for what it represents in gaming overall. It is a game that, though crafted with the polish of a big-budget game, is very apparently targeting what is now the average age for a video game player (37, says Wikipedia). This isn't a criticism, but a nod that the gaming industry and the gamers are maturing. The Last of Us isn't even the first game to ask these kinds of questions, and hopefully will not be the last.
Having finished the game, it has left me reflective (and sleepless), much like any good book, movie, show, or game. I wonder about what's important, about what I have to do, and what matters. About what I would do if nothing mattered. Or if only one thing mattered.
(scratches neck) I have some laundry to fold.
This (www.youtube.com)is why Brandon Sanderson is the most ridiculous writer ever. Who the fuck live-broadcasts writing a book???
Because my Internet addiction requires automated tools to support, having Google announce that their Reader application is going down come July was annoying. Where appropriate, Reader is largely how I stay on stop of things that I care to stay on top of, and catch up with things that I miss. I treated it as my "choice meats" of the Internet, giving cognitive surplus first to my feeds, then to having the rest of the Internt wash over me like warm surf.
But anyhow. A tool is a tool. And it's time to migrate.
I'm currently looking at The Old Reader (theoldreader.com) to see how it matches up. I'm not sure I like that I can't group my feeds into tags/folders, but maybe I shouldn't have 100 feeds to clutter the screen to begin with (paired down from 140, I'll have you know). I enjoy that it has the "sharing" feature Google Reader had prior to Google Plus migration. If enough people were on there, I would feel slightly less guilty about littering somebody's inbox with horrible shit (imgur.com).
Or, you know, go play outside or something. Or shorten your URLs for Twitter.
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Man, my impulse buying has been out of control this work trip. Amazon had a bunch of mp3 albums for $1.99 today. I only bought three, but, Josh, one was for you - Tegan and Sara's newest. I figured I needed to listen to the band that I constantly give you shit about. So now I am.
...it's not so bad, I suppose. I also bought Passion Pit. Fun times.
SPDCA: Avatar - The Last Airbender
I woke up yesterday to it sleeting against my window. I resolved that I was going to try to take care of things around the house. I spent yesterday cleaning my bathroom and watching the last season of Avatar - The Last Airbender. And either by way of the fumes from the cleaning supplies or the show being great, I made the day of it, and ended up being very impressed, and very touched (and ended up being awake until 3am last night thinking about the show).
The show is, ultimately, about growing up. Which is a hard thing to remember as an adult, and a hard thing to deal with as a kid. As children, we're aware of the adult world in which we inhabit but we lack the experience or the practice to be able to deal with things adequately. We're thrown into an already adult world, expected to pick up the right things to do from context clues, and to hope that others will forgive us for our mistakes when we inevitably make them. We learn from our parents and our peers, but learn that they are all ultimately as flawed and as prone to misstep as we are.
The show captures this absolutely perfectly. And does so in an interesting, beautiful, consistent world. Reading on it afterwards, many of the themes and magical systems are based on the tenets of Hinduism and Taoism, but the religious undertones are never overt. The subjects covered in the show deal with many schools of thought, and are often given considerable deliberation on the part of the characters and the show at large. Questions about loyalty, non-violence. personal responsibility, guilt, and forgiveness are throughout, and are handled with multiple degrees of subtlety and personal depth.
The show has its protagonist, 12 year old Aang, the reincarnation of the "Avatar," a powerful magical figure meant to bring balance to a world in need of balancing. However, he only appears in the show long after he was "needed," having been in suspended animation for 100 years and awaking as a child in a world devastated by a war that he must find a way to resolve.
This sounds threatening, and scary, and it is, but the way the show slowly works in this overall arch is, well, from the eyes of a child. Aang, when first introduced, wants to play, and to forget his obligations, and to run away. It is only through his own journey of personal discovery and development of his friendships does he gain the power and the confidence to take on the world.
My niece watched this show, almost all the way through (and almost in one sitting), and absolutely loved it. Its messages are communicated on many levels, which while seemingly simplistic at first, shouldn't be mistaken for being simple. They are just conveyed in such a way that aren't laden with the obfuscation and context-heavy notions of the adult world. As such, this is a great children's show, as well as a great show for adults, or parents.
For those with children, or those about to have children, I can't stress enough that this is something you and your kids should watch. For those without, it is still a compelling show, bereft of the dirt and grime of a world obsessed with sex and drugs and the wreckage of souls.
I feel it is important. I hope you do, too.
