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I'm not going to do all of the snowflake challenges, but this one sounded fun, and gives me the chance to practice explaining why I like various things--something I'd like to do more of this year.
Day 2
Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.
Get ready for some >2,000 word fic with dark character interpretations and relationship angst, because that is my catnip.
Je le pansai, Dieu le guérit by en passant (Overwatch, Widowmaker/Ana Amari, graphic descriptions of violence, sexual content)
The cracks in the mirror extend down her reflection’s nose and across both eyes. A perfect T shape that warps her face. Her eyes are obscured, her nose broken and crooked, only her mouth remains a perfect image. She presses her fingertips to the glass, feeling the smoothness that puckers and dips into the crooked lines and cracks. It tears into her skin, just enough to draw blood but it’s cold enough in the bathroom that she barely feels it.
When did she break the glass?
Widowmaker, reflecting on the day she shot Ana, and thrilling at the idea of killing her again. The juxtaposition of violence and the pleasure Widowmaker takes in dealing it is deeply unsettling in a way that feels very in-character.
not when we could be enemies by cakecakecake (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Homura/everyone, sexual content)
homura's been close with all of them.
An angst-filled look (because it's PMMM, ofc) at the sexual relationships Homura has with all the magical girls. I didn't think it was possible to write Homura/Sayaka and have it be so tender, but this fic delivers while also breaking your heart. Some wonderful turns of phrase here; "not when we could be enemies" sunk deep into my brain when I first read it and hasn't left since.
born to die by x (Persona 4 Golden, Tohru Adachi/Yu Narukami, Yu/others, mild descriptions of violence)
You're not so different-- except that you are.
A darker take on what motivates New Game+ Yu Narukami. Does a great job of convincingly depicting Yu as someone cold, calculating, and methodically reaching for immense power; takes a game ending famous for its poignancy and turns into a much more ominous moment.
Day 2
Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.
Get ready for some >2,000 word fic with dark character interpretations and relationship angst, because that is my catnip.
Je le pansai, Dieu le guérit by en passant (Overwatch, Widowmaker/Ana Amari, graphic descriptions of violence, sexual content)
The cracks in the mirror extend down her reflection’s nose and across both eyes. A perfect T shape that warps her face. Her eyes are obscured, her nose broken and crooked, only her mouth remains a perfect image. She presses her fingertips to the glass, feeling the smoothness that puckers and dips into the crooked lines and cracks. It tears into her skin, just enough to draw blood but it’s cold enough in the bathroom that she barely feels it.
When did she break the glass?
Widowmaker, reflecting on the day she shot Ana, and thrilling at the idea of killing her again. The juxtaposition of violence and the pleasure Widowmaker takes in dealing it is deeply unsettling in a way that feels very in-character.
not when we could be enemies by cakecakecake (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Homura/everyone, sexual content)
homura's been close with all of them.
An angst-filled look (because it's PMMM, ofc) at the sexual relationships Homura has with all the magical girls. I didn't think it was possible to write Homura/Sayaka and have it be so tender, but this fic delivers while also breaking your heart. Some wonderful turns of phrase here; "not when we could be enemies" sunk deep into my brain when I first read it and hasn't left since.
born to die by x (Persona 4 Golden, Tohru Adachi/Yu Narukami, Yu/others, mild descriptions of violence)
You're not so different-- except that you are.
A darker take on what motivates New Game+ Yu Narukami. Does a great job of convincingly depicting Yu as someone cold, calculating, and methodically reaching for immense power; takes a game ending famous for its poignancy and turns into a much more ominous moment.
yells vaguely about cheap niche games
Dec. 31st, 2018 01:01 amThe Steam winter sale is almost done (it ends January 3rd), and i probably should have done this sooner, but here is a list of all the shmups I have played, their sale price, and my extremely biased thoughts on which ones are worth getting and which ones are not. d^_^b
Cream of the Crop
Danmaku Unlimited 2 ($0.99) - A straightfoward shmup with a beautiful esoteric soundtrack, a clean, minimalist graphic style and mechanics that are easy to grasp and connect in such a way that it's relatively easy to survive if that's what you focus on, but requires a high-risk, high reward approach for high scores.
Crimzon Clover ($1.99) A shmup classic and one that's frequently recommended by people who haven't obsessively played everything in the genre. Simple in the sense that gameplay boils down to "kill these waves of blisteringly fast enemies before they kill you," made difficult through brilliant enemy placement, variety and fiendish bullet patterns. Excellent boss design; the Stage 3 boss is one of my favorite fights in any game.
Trouble Witches Origin ($4.99) I cannot speak objectively about this game: it's probably my favorite shmup of all time. A horizontal cute 'em up where you control magical girls instead of ships, with a heavy emphasis on bullet cancelling rather than dodging. Has a large selection of characters to choose from, with very distinct ways of playing each one due to differences in shot type, familiars (a permanent 'option' that isnt' directly controlled) and magic barriers (the thing you use to cancel bullets). A little anemic on modes but the ones that exist (arcade/story, time attack and boss rush) are all very different from one another. For some reason has a rather robust storyline with a lot of cute art and an atrocious translation that makes everything hilarious whether it's intentional or not.
Ikaruga ($4.99) Another classic shmup. Has a "polarity" mechanic where you become immune to one type of bullet and you must switch frequently between types to get through patterns; doesn't feel like anything else in the genre. Rewards a more methodical approach compared to the pace of most shmups, so while it's not easy it's more approachable to those turned off by the twitchiness of more frenetic bullet hells.
Deathsmiles ($7.99) This is...another horizontal cute 'em up with magical girls instead of ships. It's quite possibly CAVE's (a legendary shmup developer) most popular release. Has a creepy/cute gothic lolita aesthetic and soundtrack. Notable for having a non-linear stage progression and the ability to set the difficulty on a per-stage basis, excluding the extra and final stages. This release has several modes with different mechanics, with some featuring an extra character and stage.
Worth your time
Hurricane of the Varstray ($1.99) Made by the same developers as Trouble Witches, this is a vertical shmup that takes on an edgy sci-fi look. Suffers the same awful translation as Trouble Witches, but the ~edgy quality leads to some truly spectacular turns of phrase (there's a lot of very bizarre swearing and insulting that goes on). Like Trouble Witches, you're expected to cancel bullets rather than weave through them; in fact, it's literally impossible to dodge patterns after a certain point as the enemies and their bullets literally fill every inch of the screen for the vast majority of the levels. Instead of dodging, you fill up a super meter that sets off a screen clearing laser, which charges up another meter that temporarily turns your ship invincible and allows you to ram into literally everything for points. Timing your laser/invincibility use to coincide with the heaviest waves of enemies is where the difficulty lies. It's also pretty grueling at 12 stages with a second loop on top of that, so it's not suitable for short play sessions, although there is a Caravan mode included.
Diadra Empty ($2.99) An arena shmup heavily remincient of Defender, you play as a young girl searching for her sister with her dragon friend. Has a level-up mechanic where you can purchase different upgrades in between stages such as extra options, faster shield recharging, greater speed, etc. Stages are cleared by surviving for a set amount of time, then killing the boss that appears. I have the Amazon release, and the Steam release was apparently riddled with bugs on launch, though it appears a patch has fixed that issue.
RefRain -prism memories- ($7.49) This is another shmup that eschews dodging for cancelling mechanics; at higher difficulty levels, bullet patterns are deliberately designed to be impossible to weave through. Using bombs converts enemies into prisms that charge your bullet-cancelling weapon, and proper use of bombs and bullet cancelling can wipe out bosses within a second. Has a cyberpunkish plot that influences the presentation in a unique way (the idea is that you're hacking into some kind of database and each character has her own user interface/operating system(I think?). One of the few shmups where the story isn't an afterthought or complete nonsense.
Mushihimesama ($7.99) Vertical shooter that offers several different modes of varying difficulty levels and altered scoring mechanics. Normal is a straightforward "kill everything, don't die" affair, Manic and Ultra modes have a more complex scoring system that revolves around collecting gems to increase the points received on killing an enemy, and the Arrange/Version 1.5 modes add even more changes. Stages and sprites are beautiful and unlike any other shmup on the market; you play as the titular "Bug Princess" travelling through forests, deserts and mountains in order to find the God of the Kouju, the giant bugs you happen to be shooting down (but also serves as your mount and options). Infamous for having a bullet pattern so difficult it took 13 years to figure out how to survive it.
ESCHATOS (Wonder pack with Judgement Silversword and Cardinal Sins) ($12.99) While it's possible to purchase ESCHATOS and Judgement Silversword/Cardinal Sins separately, there's no reason not to buy them together; ESCHATOS is a semi-3D spiritual successor to Judgement Silversword, one of the last games released for the Wonderswan system, and playing both offers a nice contrast in how perspective can alter otherwise identical mechanics. ESCHATOS offers a time attack mode where you have a limited amount of time to clear level checkpoints and various actions will increase or decrease the time you have left. Both JSS and ESCHATOS have simple, understandable mechanics and don't feel as punishing as other shmups, although I wouldn't call either of them easy.
Wait on it these are good games, but you can probably wait for another price drop
BULLET SOUL and BULLET SOUL INFINITE BURST ($5.99 each) For some reason, Bullet Soul and Infinite Burst are separate releases on Steam, while the 360 release (the version I own) has both Bullet Soul and Infinite Burst in a single package. Bullet Soul vanilla is a mediocre game; it has very little in the way of gameplay that elevates it from 'shoot things before they shoot you' beyond the bizarre choice to cancel an enemy's bullet pattern upon their death. This makes things forgiving to the point of dullness for significant portions of the game. The secondary modes like Caravan, Score Attack and Version B are more enjoyable but it's hard to recommend a game when the main mode is so boring. Infinite Burst is essentially an Arrange mode that adds a coin-collecting mechanic where coins bounce up from the bottom of the screen before floating away at the top; letting coins disappear lowers your score. Bombs are replaced with a super-shot mode that is charged by collecting coins, and instead of extends there is a shield system in place. Infinite Burst is a much better game, but it's also devoid of secondary modes due the split release. So uh, idk wait until they're bundled or something?
DoDonPachi Resurrection ($14.99) The most accessible of CAVE's legendarily difficult DoDonPachi series, this is...still a hard game. Comes with a plethora of arranged/reworked modes in addition to the base game, which itself can be a massive time sink with multiple loops with strict requirements to access them. Scoring revolves around keeping a combo counter constantly active by either killing stuff or having your focus shot on an enemy; the counter resets very quickly if you aren't hitting something. Unique to this installment is a laser beam system where you can push back enemy lasers with your ship's focus shot; this leads to some brutal laser-grids-overlapped-with-bullet-waves sections in later levels. A great game if you don't mind the steep learning curve to become remotely proficient, but I find it hard to recommend at $15 when Deathsmiles and Mushihimesama are both below $10.
DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviors ($24.99) The latest, and possibly, last release in the long-running DARIUSBURST series, this game has like a bajillion different modes, 9 ships with distinct, unique mechanics (and even more available as DLC) fantastic boss design and a eerie, beautiful soundtrack that stands out in a genre where a good soundtrack is practically a requirement. It is, in fact, so stuffed with content (which explains its high base price tag) that it becomes a little overwhelming: I've only played the arcade mode and cannot tell you much of anything about other modes. Arcade mode itself is quite robust; instead of a fixed level progression there are branching paths after each stage cleared and the boss you face at the end is determined by the route you picked. As a series that began in the 80s it features many of the design choices that defined shmups from that era--horizontal scrolling, several weapon types that you upgrade by collecting powerups, and tends to fill the screen with environmental hazards and varied enemy spawns instead of curtains of bullets. Has a "burst" system where you charge up a laser that can be shot and directed in several directions while your ship stays in a fixed position; against bosses, you can "intercept" their laser attacks by activating your own just before the opposing laser hits, which leads to enormous damage and can wipe out bosses quickly if you're willing to to take the risk. There's actually nothing bad and a lot that's good about DBCS; if you're a fan of older style shmups like Gradius it's worth buying even at this price, given that this is the lowest it's ever been. Still, it's significantly more than literally every other shmup on Steam, so a bit hard to recommend in that respect.
Not recommended for various reasons, i didn't enjoy these
QP Shooting Dangerous!! ($2.39) I played this very intensely for about a week then dropped it and I've never felt the need to revisit it. Not especially bad just kind of generic. There is only one character but there are a lot of option formations available but that's about all I remember.
Redux: Dark Matters ($2.59) This is R-Type stripped down to the absolute basic mechanics. Uninspired level design, some okay-ish bosses. Tends to be really easy OR obnoxiously difficult as the higher difficulty level just takes away some of your resources. Weird sound design that sometimes makes it hard to tell if you're hitting something or absorbing stuff with your bit, so dumb, unexpected deaths do occur.
XIIZEAL ($5.99) Vertical shmup that has a side-shot mechanic that you access by rapidly wiggling your ship from side-to-side. You're supposed to wiggle your analog or arcade stick to wiggle the ship, but in the PC release you can bind that to a button. The side-shot and enemy spawn patterns encourage you to use more of the screen real estate than most shmups but gameplay is pretty standard besides that. Has well-crafted sprites but the design is standard sci-fi military stuff.
Astebreed ($9.99) I played this for about 30 minutes and for the life of me I cannot remember anything about the experience beyond "I didn't like it." Uh, you pilot mechas instead of ships and I think meleeing enemies is involved?
Cream of the Crop
Danmaku Unlimited 2 ($0.99) - A straightfoward shmup with a beautiful esoteric soundtrack, a clean, minimalist graphic style and mechanics that are easy to grasp and connect in such a way that it's relatively easy to survive if that's what you focus on, but requires a high-risk, high reward approach for high scores.
Crimzon Clover ($1.99) A shmup classic and one that's frequently recommended by people who haven't obsessively played everything in the genre. Simple in the sense that gameplay boils down to "kill these waves of blisteringly fast enemies before they kill you," made difficult through brilliant enemy placement, variety and fiendish bullet patterns. Excellent boss design; the Stage 3 boss is one of my favorite fights in any game.
Trouble Witches Origin ($4.99) I cannot speak objectively about this game: it's probably my favorite shmup of all time. A horizontal cute 'em up where you control magical girls instead of ships, with a heavy emphasis on bullet cancelling rather than dodging. Has a large selection of characters to choose from, with very distinct ways of playing each one due to differences in shot type, familiars (a permanent 'option' that isnt' directly controlled) and magic barriers (the thing you use to cancel bullets). A little anemic on modes but the ones that exist (arcade/story, time attack and boss rush) are all very different from one another. For some reason has a rather robust storyline with a lot of cute art and an atrocious translation that makes everything hilarious whether it's intentional or not.
Ikaruga ($4.99) Another classic shmup. Has a "polarity" mechanic where you become immune to one type of bullet and you must switch frequently between types to get through patterns; doesn't feel like anything else in the genre. Rewards a more methodical approach compared to the pace of most shmups, so while it's not easy it's more approachable to those turned off by the twitchiness of more frenetic bullet hells.
Deathsmiles ($7.99) This is...another horizontal cute 'em up with magical girls instead of ships. It's quite possibly CAVE's (a legendary shmup developer) most popular release. Has a creepy/cute gothic lolita aesthetic and soundtrack. Notable for having a non-linear stage progression and the ability to set the difficulty on a per-stage basis, excluding the extra and final stages. This release has several modes with different mechanics, with some featuring an extra character and stage.
Worth your time
Hurricane of the Varstray ($1.99) Made by the same developers as Trouble Witches, this is a vertical shmup that takes on an edgy sci-fi look. Suffers the same awful translation as Trouble Witches, but the ~edgy quality leads to some truly spectacular turns of phrase (there's a lot of very bizarre swearing and insulting that goes on). Like Trouble Witches, you're expected to cancel bullets rather than weave through them; in fact, it's literally impossible to dodge patterns after a certain point as the enemies and their bullets literally fill every inch of the screen for the vast majority of the levels. Instead of dodging, you fill up a super meter that sets off a screen clearing laser, which charges up another meter that temporarily turns your ship invincible and allows you to ram into literally everything for points. Timing your laser/invincibility use to coincide with the heaviest waves of enemies is where the difficulty lies. It's also pretty grueling at 12 stages with a second loop on top of that, so it's not suitable for short play sessions, although there is a Caravan mode included.
Diadra Empty ($2.99) An arena shmup heavily remincient of Defender, you play as a young girl searching for her sister with her dragon friend. Has a level-up mechanic where you can purchase different upgrades in between stages such as extra options, faster shield recharging, greater speed, etc. Stages are cleared by surviving for a set amount of time, then killing the boss that appears. I have the Amazon release, and the Steam release was apparently riddled with bugs on launch, though it appears a patch has fixed that issue.
RefRain -prism memories- ($7.49) This is another shmup that eschews dodging for cancelling mechanics; at higher difficulty levels, bullet patterns are deliberately designed to be impossible to weave through. Using bombs converts enemies into prisms that charge your bullet-cancelling weapon, and proper use of bombs and bullet cancelling can wipe out bosses within a second. Has a cyberpunkish plot that influences the presentation in a unique way (the idea is that you're hacking into some kind of database and each character has her own user interface/operating system(I think?). One of the few shmups where the story isn't an afterthought or complete nonsense.
Mushihimesama ($7.99) Vertical shooter that offers several different modes of varying difficulty levels and altered scoring mechanics. Normal is a straightforward "kill everything, don't die" affair, Manic and Ultra modes have a more complex scoring system that revolves around collecting gems to increase the points received on killing an enemy, and the Arrange/Version 1.5 modes add even more changes. Stages and sprites are beautiful and unlike any other shmup on the market; you play as the titular "Bug Princess" travelling through forests, deserts and mountains in order to find the God of the Kouju, the giant bugs you happen to be shooting down (but also serves as your mount and options). Infamous for having a bullet pattern so difficult it took 13 years to figure out how to survive it.
ESCHATOS (Wonder pack with Judgement Silversword and Cardinal Sins) ($12.99) While it's possible to purchase ESCHATOS and Judgement Silversword/Cardinal Sins separately, there's no reason not to buy them together; ESCHATOS is a semi-3D spiritual successor to Judgement Silversword, one of the last games released for the Wonderswan system, and playing both offers a nice contrast in how perspective can alter otherwise identical mechanics. ESCHATOS offers a time attack mode where you have a limited amount of time to clear level checkpoints and various actions will increase or decrease the time you have left. Both JSS and ESCHATOS have simple, understandable mechanics and don't feel as punishing as other shmups, although I wouldn't call either of them easy.
Wait on it these are good games, but you can probably wait for another price drop
BULLET SOUL and BULLET SOUL INFINITE BURST ($5.99 each) For some reason, Bullet Soul and Infinite Burst are separate releases on Steam, while the 360 release (the version I own) has both Bullet Soul and Infinite Burst in a single package. Bullet Soul vanilla is a mediocre game; it has very little in the way of gameplay that elevates it from 'shoot things before they shoot you' beyond the bizarre choice to cancel an enemy's bullet pattern upon their death. This makes things forgiving to the point of dullness for significant portions of the game. The secondary modes like Caravan, Score Attack and Version B are more enjoyable but it's hard to recommend a game when the main mode is so boring. Infinite Burst is essentially an Arrange mode that adds a coin-collecting mechanic where coins bounce up from the bottom of the screen before floating away at the top; letting coins disappear lowers your score. Bombs are replaced with a super-shot mode that is charged by collecting coins, and instead of extends there is a shield system in place. Infinite Burst is a much better game, but it's also devoid of secondary modes due the split release. So uh, idk wait until they're bundled or something?
DoDonPachi Resurrection ($14.99) The most accessible of CAVE's legendarily difficult DoDonPachi series, this is...still a hard game. Comes with a plethora of arranged/reworked modes in addition to the base game, which itself can be a massive time sink with multiple loops with strict requirements to access them. Scoring revolves around keeping a combo counter constantly active by either killing stuff or having your focus shot on an enemy; the counter resets very quickly if you aren't hitting something. Unique to this installment is a laser beam system where you can push back enemy lasers with your ship's focus shot; this leads to some brutal laser-grids-overlapped-with-bullet-waves sections in later levels. A great game if you don't mind the steep learning curve to become remotely proficient, but I find it hard to recommend at $15 when Deathsmiles and Mushihimesama are both below $10.
DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviors ($24.99) The latest, and possibly, last release in the long-running DARIUSBURST series, this game has like a bajillion different modes, 9 ships with distinct, unique mechanics (and even more available as DLC) fantastic boss design and a eerie, beautiful soundtrack that stands out in a genre where a good soundtrack is practically a requirement. It is, in fact, so stuffed with content (which explains its high base price tag) that it becomes a little overwhelming: I've only played the arcade mode and cannot tell you much of anything about other modes. Arcade mode itself is quite robust; instead of a fixed level progression there are branching paths after each stage cleared and the boss you face at the end is determined by the route you picked. As a series that began in the 80s it features many of the design choices that defined shmups from that era--horizontal scrolling, several weapon types that you upgrade by collecting powerups, and tends to fill the screen with environmental hazards and varied enemy spawns instead of curtains of bullets. Has a "burst" system where you charge up a laser that can be shot and directed in several directions while your ship stays in a fixed position; against bosses, you can "intercept" their laser attacks by activating your own just before the opposing laser hits, which leads to enormous damage and can wipe out bosses quickly if you're willing to to take the risk. There's actually nothing bad and a lot that's good about DBCS; if you're a fan of older style shmups like Gradius it's worth buying even at this price, given that this is the lowest it's ever been. Still, it's significantly more than literally every other shmup on Steam, so a bit hard to recommend in that respect.
Not recommended for various reasons, i didn't enjoy these
QP Shooting Dangerous!! ($2.39) I played this very intensely for about a week then dropped it and I've never felt the need to revisit it. Not especially bad just kind of generic. There is only one character but there are a lot of option formations available but that's about all I remember.
Redux: Dark Matters ($2.59) This is R-Type stripped down to the absolute basic mechanics. Uninspired level design, some okay-ish bosses. Tends to be really easy OR obnoxiously difficult as the higher difficulty level just takes away some of your resources. Weird sound design that sometimes makes it hard to tell if you're hitting something or absorbing stuff with your bit, so dumb, unexpected deaths do occur.
XIIZEAL ($5.99) Vertical shmup that has a side-shot mechanic that you access by rapidly wiggling your ship from side-to-side. You're supposed to wiggle your analog or arcade stick to wiggle the ship, but in the PC release you can bind that to a button. The side-shot and enemy spawn patterns encourage you to use more of the screen real estate than most shmups but gameplay is pretty standard besides that. Has well-crafted sprites but the design is standard sci-fi military stuff.
Astebreed ($9.99) I played this for about 30 minutes and for the life of me I cannot remember anything about the experience beyond "I didn't like it." Uh, you pilot mechas instead of ships and I think meleeing enemies is involved?
i haven't done a journal meme in ages
Dec. 19th, 2018 08:05 pmBecause my mind goes blank every time I open up "new post," here is a ~thing:
Put "top 5" anything in the comments and I will answer ok go
Meme provided by![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
journalmemes.
Put "top 5" anything in the comments and I will answer ok go
Meme provided by
journalmemes.
get this stuff if you want
Dec. 16th, 2018 04:45 pmi've wasted a lot of time this weekend watching videos from a parody account of Tasty (a popular youtube/facebook cooking channel), Easy. it's like uh...if r/shittyfoodporn produced a cooking show:
other faves:
Emergency Spaghetti
Sushi Medley (be warned, this is the grossest one 🤢 but also the one that makes me laugh the hardest from start to finish)
anyway i hope everyone had a good weekend! ♥
other faves:
Emergency Spaghetti
Sushi Medley (be warned, this is the grossest one 🤢 but also the one that makes me laugh the hardest from start to finish)
anyway i hope everyone had a good weekend! ♥
why am i always busy around midnight
Nov. 30th, 2018 11:34 pm★ I had my final phlebotomy class today, and the important thing is, I passed the test with the worst score in the class orz I have a certification test next week but I can start applying for phlebotomy jobs now :o I'm not sure I will given how difficult I've found it, but at least it counts as contact hours for my LNA.
★ Google pushes a random assortment of gaming articles at me daily, some of which I understand and some which I do not, and sometimes I get stories like this: Fallout 76 canvas bags were given to social media influencers instead of the people who actually pre-ordered them? I'm not sure why Google thought this was RTMI given that I've played Fallout 4 for all of an hour, but then again, the Fallout 76 ongoing meltdown is fascinating enough to follow just for the drama alone. Everything surrounding it seems so....dumb? Why would you give away an item from an expensive premium game for FREE, to people who didn't need them, then replace the item you gave away with a low-quality version? Like just give the cheap bag to the '''''influencers''''' and let the people who actually pre-ordered the bag get....the exact thing they ordered???? EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS STORY IS SO STUPID
★ I think I might try some sort of posting schedule for December--not daily, but maybe weekly or bi-weekly. I forgot how enjoyable just sitting down and journaling can be. Maybe post in some semi-dead communities likegirlgamers too -- I've been thinking about doing some kind of 'your week in gaming' posts to encourage people to share what they're doing and hopefully start up some conversations.
★ Pink Gorilla gaming had another "Twitch Shopping Network" stream and I probably shouldn't have gotten anything but I ordered more Pokemon plushies.......they also have pre-orders up for a Gamecube console mod thing so that it can output in true HD and digital sound BUT even with a discount applied it's like $100. I think it would be a great present for my brother, who still throws Gamecube parties (lol), but $100 is...a lot for a HDMI input.
★ Google pushes a random assortment of gaming articles at me daily, some of which I understand and some which I do not, and sometimes I get stories like this: Fallout 76 canvas bags were given to social media influencers instead of the people who actually pre-ordered them? I'm not sure why Google thought this was RTMI given that I've played Fallout 4 for all of an hour, but then again, the Fallout 76 ongoing meltdown is fascinating enough to follow just for the drama alone. Everything surrounding it seems so....dumb? Why would you give away an item from an expensive premium game for FREE, to people who didn't need them, then replace the item you gave away with a low-quality version? Like just give the cheap bag to the '''''influencers''''' and let the people who actually pre-ordered the bag get....the exact thing they ordered???? EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS STORY IS SO STUPID
★ I think I might try some sort of posting schedule for December--not daily, but maybe weekly or bi-weekly. I forgot how enjoyable just sitting down and journaling can be. Maybe post in some semi-dead communities like
girlgamers too -- I've been thinking about doing some kind of 'your week in gaming' posts to encourage people to share what they're doing and hopefully start up some conversations. ★ Pink Gorilla gaming had another "Twitch Shopping Network" stream and I probably shouldn't have gotten anything but I ordered more Pokemon plushies.......they also have pre-orders up for a Gamecube console mod thing so that it can output in true HD and digital sound BUT even with a discount applied it's like $100. I think it would be a great present for my brother, who still throws Gamecube parties (lol), but $100 is...a lot for a HDMI input.
I'm definitely not ready for this test tomorrow :D
EDIT: I really needed to spend the bulk of the day studying but I cleaned up the living room and put up Christmas decorations instead because I'm great at procrastinating. At least the living room looks inviting and festive now, i guess.
I have not used my Switch as much as I thought but it's also the last week of class and I'm working on job applications which is a lot more tedious than I remembered. Should have a lot of free time this weekend to really dig into Let's Go Pikachu :D
It's been a pretty quiet day so there's not much to talk about orz
EDIT: I really needed to spend the bulk of the day studying but I cleaned up the living room and put up Christmas decorations instead because I'm great at procrastinating. At least the living room looks inviting and festive now, i guess.
I have not used my Switch as much as I thought but it's also the last week of class and I'm working on job applications which is a lot more tedious than I remembered. Should have a lot of free time this weekend to really dig into Let's Go Pikachu :D
It's been a pretty quiet day so there's not much to talk about orz
GUESS WHO HASN'T STUDIED AT ALL FOR A TEST THAT WILL HAPPEN ON FRIDAY YES IT'S ME
EDIT: okay and like 5 minutes after I posted this the internet went down and i had to contemplate posting from my phone or just calling it quits for tonight and settle for 'at least a post with some words went up so i don't break my NaBlo streak' but it came back on within the hour. pHEW
★ Phlebotomy class went well: I had six successful venipunctures tonight! Four of them were with the butterfly needle, which I've been struggling with throughout the course, but tonight I finally 'got' it. My sister was one of my volunteers tonight, and she said this was the first time she'd had a successful hand draw done on her, which was very nice to hear ^_^
★ Tumblr is getting real weird about what kind of content it will show in tags and whether or not NSFW blogs belong or not....so there's been a slight uptick in Dreamwidth activity as people start backing up their original content. I'm not sure if anyone will stick around given that the majority of communities are ghost-towns now :( I suppose I could start posting in some of them myself but all the ones I am interested in don't have active mods which could be an issue if spambots or real live jerks come around. :S
★ I sold off a huge amount of my gaming collection earlier this year, after realizing that I would never play large portions of it again (or ever, I am as bad as everyone else when it comes to buying games on sale) and...I feel like I should trim it down some more. There's not AS MUCH as there used to be, but there are still a lot of games that I'm not going to play any time soon, if ever, and they take up a fair amount of space. What's left is a lot harder to get rid of, though, due to emotional attachment or the rarity of the game itself.
Maybe I'll do some kind of Christmas giveway for the stuff that is hard to part with? When I'm attached to something I need to get rid of, I find it easier to give it to a friend than trying to sell it...
EDIT: okay and like 5 minutes after I posted this the internet went down and i had to contemplate posting from my phone or just calling it quits for tonight and settle for 'at least a post with some words went up so i don't break my NaBlo streak' but it came back on within the hour. pHEW
★ Phlebotomy class went well: I had six successful venipunctures tonight! Four of them were with the butterfly needle, which I've been struggling with throughout the course, but tonight I finally 'got' it. My sister was one of my volunteers tonight, and she said this was the first time she'd had a successful hand draw done on her, which was very nice to hear ^_^
★ Tumblr is getting real weird about what kind of content it will show in tags and whether or not NSFW blogs belong or not....so there's been a slight uptick in Dreamwidth activity as people start backing up their original content. I'm not sure if anyone will stick around given that the majority of communities are ghost-towns now :( I suppose I could start posting in some of them myself but all the ones I am interested in don't have active mods which could be an issue if spambots or real live jerks come around. :S
★ I sold off a huge amount of my gaming collection earlier this year, after realizing that I would never play large portions of it again (or ever, I am as bad as everyone else when it comes to buying games on sale) and...I feel like I should trim it down some more. There's not AS MUCH as there used to be, but there are still a lot of games that I'm not going to play any time soon, if ever, and they take up a fair amount of space. What's left is a lot harder to get rid of, though, due to emotional attachment or the rarity of the game itself.
Maybe I'll do some kind of Christmas giveway for the stuff that is hard to part with? When I'm attached to something I need to get rid of, I find it easier to give it to a friend than trying to sell it...
★ I finished up a bunch of paperwork for job related stuff today, then started studying for my phlebotomy class tomorrow...and ended up falling asleep for two hours W H O O P S. I got a call from the pharmacy for a refilled prescription during that time frame as well, so I started errands at, oh, 8:30 this evening. I also managed to get all the way to the post office before realizing I'd left the mail at home, so I had to drive back home then back to the post office. Also also, some of the main roads were washed out from the melting snowbanks and rain today, so I had to take several detours each way.
Then, because I'm a basic bitch at heart, I stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts to get a pumpkin spice coffee but they had closed, like, 10 minutes before I got there. I probably should have gone straight home after that, but I felt like I had to get SOMETHING I wanted but didn't really need tonight so I drove 5 miles down the road to a different Dunkin' Donuts that I knew would be open because I used to stop by there when I had an overnight shift in the area. Then it took 15 minutes to get home because of the aforementioned water issue. I might not be making the best life decisions right now...but at least the coffee was nice and I had a lot of it.
★ Game stuff: I did part of the tutorial in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, and even though it uses a 4 button layout with only two of those buttons meant for attacking (the other two are dedicated to tag-related stuff) I still found it difficult to grasp beyond, like, the basics of autocombo and dedicated instant overhead moves. ~_~
I don't expect much from the story and nothing in the prologue suggests that I was wrong in this assumption, but I am glad to hear the dub voices for Blazblue again. I disliked Centralfiction's story and I think some of that is because I had to read its' vast amounts of stupid exposition instead of listening to it. Like it's a bit easier to tolerate walls of boring text when someone is passionately trying to sell it to you. And I've always preferred Noel's dub voice.
I played a few rounds of Overwatch and Soulcalibur VI. Nothing particularly exciting happened in Overwatch although I had a few games where dudes were mildly toxic about me picking Ashe >:| Also I headshot a blinking Tracer!!!, so now I have to quit Overwatch forever because I'm sure that will be my peak.
I was just grinding out the "play x number of matches online" type achievements in SCVI and ended up with an exactly 50% winrate, a rank up and a ragequit. Yay? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
★ I've been...thinking about writing fic lately. Which doesn't amount to much, I suppose, but given that I haven't considered fic for months (years?) until Kinktober this year, it's a significant change for *me,* lol. It mostly boils down to no one writing the porn I want to read but tbh that's always been my single greatest writing motivator.
wrt writing explicit material, I remember reading a tweet somewhere that suggested starting with the sex scene first which sounds like maybe a good idea? I often give up writing a thing because I lose motivation to get to 'the good part' which is always the strongest scene in my mind when I'm starting...so maybe starting at the part that is most interesting gives enough motivation to slog through the rest of the fic. Maybe something to try for next month.
Then, because I'm a basic bitch at heart, I stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts to get a pumpkin spice coffee but they had closed, like, 10 minutes before I got there. I probably should have gone straight home after that, but I felt like I had to get SOMETHING I wanted but didn't really need tonight so I drove 5 miles down the road to a different Dunkin' Donuts that I knew would be open because I used to stop by there when I had an overnight shift in the area. Then it took 15 minutes to get home because of the aforementioned water issue. I might not be making the best life decisions right now...but at least the coffee was nice and I had a lot of it.
★ Game stuff: I did part of the tutorial in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, and even though it uses a 4 button layout with only two of those buttons meant for attacking (the other two are dedicated to tag-related stuff) I still found it difficult to grasp beyond, like, the basics of autocombo and dedicated instant overhead moves. ~_~
I don't expect much from the story and nothing in the prologue suggests that I was wrong in this assumption, but I am glad to hear the dub voices for Blazblue again. I disliked Centralfiction's story and I think some of that is because I had to read its' vast amounts of stupid exposition instead of listening to it. Like it's a bit easier to tolerate walls of boring text when someone is passionately trying to sell it to you. And I've always preferred Noel's dub voice.
I played a few rounds of Overwatch and Soulcalibur VI. Nothing particularly exciting happened in Overwatch although I had a few games where dudes were mildly toxic about me picking Ashe >:| Also I headshot a blinking Tracer!!!, so now I have to quit Overwatch forever because I'm sure that will be my peak.
I was just grinding out the "play x number of matches online" type achievements in SCVI and ended up with an exactly 50% winrate, a rank up and a ragequit. Yay? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
★ I've been...thinking about writing fic lately. Which doesn't amount to much, I suppose, but given that I haven't considered fic for months (years?) until Kinktober this year, it's a significant change for *me,* lol. It mostly boils down to no one writing the porn I want to read but tbh that's always been my single greatest writing motivator.
wrt writing explicit material, I remember reading a tweet somewhere that suggested starting with the sex scene first which sounds like maybe a good idea? I often give up writing a thing because I lose motivation to get to 'the good part' which is always the strongest scene in my mind when I'm starting...so maybe starting at the part that is most interesting gives enough motivation to slog through the rest of the fic. Maybe something to try for next month.
I think I have said this multiple times every year i do NaBloPoMo, but I really ought to set aside some time to write instead of waiting until 11PM to get started. WHOOPS.
★ I went to the day phlebotomy course to make up for the Friday I missed. Our instructor saved the liability/risks and dangers video for the last classes because it's uhhhh kind of terrifying. "Here's a recreation of a draw that ended in permanent disability for the patient!" It was hard enough doing draws on classmates & volunteers after weeks of practice...I would have quit the class if I'd seen the video BEFORE performing my first venipuncture.
The course ends December 8th. I'm not sure I'm going to apply for phlebotomy jobs specifically anymore, but I'm glad I took the course and like...found that out now instead of later, I guess. Next January I will hopefully be able to start a medication distribution certification course to broaden my prospects but I think I'll have the job I want anyway well before that.
★ I got a Nintendo Switch today! My sister had like, a bunch of coupons she wanted to use before her Gamestop membership thing expired, and they were running a promotion where you got a $50 gift card with the purchase of a Switch console, so...now seemed like a good time to buy one. I only have Let's Go Pikachu and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle right now; I don't want to get too many games because I don't have the time to play the ones I have :( But it's hard because the Switch has a bunch of stuff I'd LIKE to play.
Also it took me like 45 minutes to create a Nintendo account because I kept getting mixed up at the "sign in with your nintendo network id to easily make a Nintendo account, which is not the same thing as a nintendo network account" thing. @_@
Adventures in SCVI's Libra of Souls:
★ Mitsurugi abandoned me because uhhhh I guess he wants to fight people in Japan now
★ I beat up the Wind Priestess from yesterday, who turned out to be Talim's older cousin. Still haven't met Talim but I think that's for the next visit. I'm not sure what the purpose of this questline is beyond making sure my automaton avatar meets every character in SC canon, but maybe something interesting happens later on?
★ I was enlisted in the "Bring Seong Mi-Na home" army (I didn't have a choice orz) which i guess means my avatar has straight up replaced Hwang like a true Mary Sue AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
★ A weapons dealer tried to beat me up for my sword so I stole one of his weapons instead, which apparently is an Important Decision
★ I met Groh in a field full of rocks, told him "the truth about everything" and he ASSUMED I WAS LYING WHAT THE F U C K
★ Azwel showed up for the first time and in a mode filled with primarily pedestrian dialog he was GLORIOUS AND CAMPY and now I love his goofy evil!Jesus-lookin ass
★ Libra of Souls has a food mechanic where you "equip" a piece of food to get buffs, and because this is the 16th century like over half of the sidequests involve you protecting spice shipments. This means I have a sack full of rare and expensive spices and absolutely nothing else. So I keep imagining my human-sized doll shoving a big satchel of black pepper into her mouth before every fight. X)
★ On that note, absolutely no one has commented on the fact that my character is a giant, sentient ball-jointed doll. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Adventures in Overwatch
★ I had some goooooood games playing Ashe tonight (and a few not so good ones but whatever) I'm a little better at using B.O.B and detonating dynamite early. Still struggling a bit in sniper duels but I'm generally coming out on top in Ashe v. Ashe and Ashe v. McCree fights. Also been pretty consistent in taking out Pharahs, but a lot of people are playing Pharah way out of position after her direct damage buff so maybe it's less me being good and more them being reckless.
★ Managed to win a match without a shield tank on Hollywood defense while playing Mercy, which was PRETTY UNEXPECTED like no one on the team is quite sure how it worked. But that's Overwatch for you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
★ I went to the day phlebotomy course to make up for the Friday I missed. Our instructor saved the liability/risks and dangers video for the last classes because it's uhhhh kind of terrifying. "Here's a recreation of a draw that ended in permanent disability for the patient!" It was hard enough doing draws on classmates & volunteers after weeks of practice...I would have quit the class if I'd seen the video BEFORE performing my first venipuncture.
The course ends December 8th. I'm not sure I'm going to apply for phlebotomy jobs specifically anymore, but I'm glad I took the course and like...found that out now instead of later, I guess. Next January I will hopefully be able to start a medication distribution certification course to broaden my prospects but I think I'll have the job I want anyway well before that.
★ I got a Nintendo Switch today! My sister had like, a bunch of coupons she wanted to use before her Gamestop membership thing expired, and they were running a promotion where you got a $50 gift card with the purchase of a Switch console, so...now seemed like a good time to buy one. I only have Let's Go Pikachu and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle right now; I don't want to get too many games because I don't have the time to play the ones I have :( But it's hard because the Switch has a bunch of stuff I'd LIKE to play.
Also it took me like 45 minutes to create a Nintendo account because I kept getting mixed up at the "sign in with your nintendo network id to easily make a Nintendo account, which is not the same thing as a nintendo network account" thing. @_@
Adventures in SCVI's Libra of Souls:
★ Mitsurugi abandoned me because uhhhh I guess he wants to fight people in Japan now
★ I beat up the Wind Priestess from yesterday, who turned out to be Talim's older cousin. Still haven't met Talim but I think that's for the next visit. I'm not sure what the purpose of this questline is beyond making sure my automaton avatar meets every character in SC canon, but maybe something interesting happens later on?
★ I was enlisted in the "Bring Seong Mi-Na home" army (I didn't have a choice orz) which i guess means my avatar has straight up replaced Hwang like a true Mary Sue AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
★ A weapons dealer tried to beat me up for my sword so I stole one of his weapons instead, which apparently is an Important Decision
★ I met Groh in a field full of rocks, told him "the truth about everything" and he ASSUMED I WAS LYING WHAT THE F U C K
★ Azwel showed up for the first time and in a mode filled with primarily pedestrian dialog he was GLORIOUS AND CAMPY and now I love his goofy evil!Jesus-lookin ass
★ Libra of Souls has a food mechanic where you "equip" a piece of food to get buffs, and because this is the 16th century like over half of the sidequests involve you protecting spice shipments. This means I have a sack full of rare and expensive spices and absolutely nothing else. So I keep imagining my human-sized doll shoving a big satchel of black pepper into her mouth before every fight. X)
★ On that note, absolutely no one has commented on the fact that my character is a giant, sentient ball-jointed doll. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Adventures in Overwatch
★ I had some goooooood games playing Ashe tonight (and a few not so good ones but whatever) I'm a little better at using B.O.B and detonating dynamite early. Still struggling a bit in sniper duels but I'm generally coming out on top in Ashe v. Ashe and Ashe v. McCree fights. Also been pretty consistent in taking out Pharahs, but a lot of people are playing Pharah way out of position after her direct damage buff so maybe it's less me being good and more them being reckless.
★ Managed to win a match without a shield tank on Hollywood defense while playing Mercy, which was PRETTY UNEXPECTED like no one on the team is quite sure how it worked. But that's Overwatch for you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
i should have been in bed like 2 hours ago for class in the morning, W H O O P S
instead of a five page essay on why Assault mode sucks, here's some words about Libra of Souls
mitsurugi what the FUCK
what's happened so far (besides getting KICKED AWAKE BY MY TRAVELING COMPANION):
★ I traveled to the Philippines for ???? reasons but I couldn't meet Talim because she's deathly ill from the Evil Seed. :( There are other Wind Priestesses, though; the "last" moniker that Talim has is because she's the only one who uh is channeling the power of the ancestors i guess. the Wind Priestess turning people away told me to come back later because my Automaton character is full of neither good nor evil potential despite the soul scale thing clearly being weighted to evil, so maybe she's not great at the whole priestess thing.
i feel like there is Some Metaphor with the Evil Seed as the harbinger of colonialism and the eventual loss of almost all pre-Magellan culture with it but i'm too lazy to come up with more than "this fictional bad thing precedes a genuine historical tragedy" at the moment.
★ Soul Edge turned a previous traveling companion into a malfested & his brother asked me to kill him so i did. This constituted only the second time a significant choice has been offered. (significant as in, it changes how your scale is weighted) I'm a little annoyed that big colorful flames are next to both choices to really take any guesswork out of which choice is bad and which one is good. On the other hand, I think the conversations prior to the kill him/spare him moment were pretty well done in the sense that it really sold 'kill him' as only reasonable option...too bad the Flames of Clarification undercut that.
★ There is a reoccurring unlucky merchant character who keeps asking for money and I don't give any to him. I'm not sure if this is a thing I will regret later on.
★ Groh is stalking me and i think he challenged me to a fight in the 16th century equivalent of a parking lot. i'm not sure if i have to go or not, i think it's a side quest so maybe i'll just ignore him. he's an assassin but he and his buddies kinda come off like Pokemon game baddies...
instead of a five page essay on why Assault mode sucks, here's some words about Libra of Souls
mitsurugi what the FUCK
what's happened so far (besides getting KICKED AWAKE BY MY TRAVELING COMPANION):
★ I traveled to the Philippines for ???? reasons but I couldn't meet Talim because she's deathly ill from the Evil Seed. :( There are other Wind Priestesses, though; the "last" moniker that Talim has is because she's the only one who uh is channeling the power of the ancestors i guess. the Wind Priestess turning people away told me to come back later because my Automaton character is full of neither good nor evil potential despite the soul scale thing clearly being weighted to evil, so maybe she's not great at the whole priestess thing.
i feel like there is Some Metaphor with the Evil Seed as the harbinger of colonialism and the eventual loss of almost all pre-Magellan culture with it but i'm too lazy to come up with more than "this fictional bad thing precedes a genuine historical tragedy" at the moment.
★ Soul Edge turned a previous traveling companion into a malfested & his brother asked me to kill him so i did. This constituted only the second time a significant choice has been offered. (significant as in, it changes how your scale is weighted) I'm a little annoyed that big colorful flames are next to both choices to really take any guesswork out of which choice is bad and which one is good. On the other hand, I think the conversations prior to the kill him/spare him moment were pretty well done in the sense that it really sold 'kill him' as only reasonable option...too bad the Flames of Clarification undercut that.
★ There is a reoccurring unlucky merchant character who keeps asking for money and I don't give any to him. I'm not sure if this is a thing I will regret later on.
★ Groh is stalking me and i think he challenged me to a fight in the 16th century equivalent of a parking lot. i'm not sure if i have to go or not, i think it's a side quest so maybe i'll just ignore him. he's an assassin but he and his buddies kinda come off like Pokemon game baddies...
Some weeks ago, a prominent Overwatch streamer, Seagull, released a video titled The State of Overwatch. This video touched upon several topics that had--and continue to be--discussed frequently by the player base over the past year, such as:
-Game balance after the introduction of Brigitte and the increasing dominance of tank/support heavy compositions;
-The ultimate "meta" essentially boiling down to "have more than the other team"
-General feeling of the matchmaker being inadequate, leading to games where teams have multiple players with identical/overlapping hero pools;
-The team nature of the game means that when your team is working well together you feel great, but if you're not you feel helpless and this contributes to toxicity and the urge to blame those around you;
-All of the above combining so that actually playing Overwatch becomes frustrating and unpleasant and ends with players leaving the game altogether
The reaction to the video has been mixed; there's widespread agreement that Overwatch isn't all that fun to play anymore, but no real consensus as to why these issues exist, or on what to do to address them. I'm no different; there are a lot of aspects of Overwatch design, balance, and approach to matchmaking/social features that have bugged me for a long time, some for years at this point, and now seems as good a time as any to voice them.
Sorry, this is going to get...whiny.
( Hero balance, why triple tank/triple support is strong, and why supports keep getting nerfed )
-Game balance after the introduction of Brigitte and the increasing dominance of tank/support heavy compositions;
-The ultimate "meta" essentially boiling down to "have more than the other team"
-General feeling of the matchmaker being inadequate, leading to games where teams have multiple players with identical/overlapping hero pools;
-The team nature of the game means that when your team is working well together you feel great, but if you're not you feel helpless and this contributes to toxicity and the urge to blame those around you;
-All of the above combining so that actually playing Overwatch becomes frustrating and unpleasant and ends with players leaving the game altogether
The reaction to the video has been mixed; there's widespread agreement that Overwatch isn't all that fun to play anymore, but no real consensus as to why these issues exist, or on what to do to address them. I'm no different; there are a lot of aspects of Overwatch design, balance, and approach to matchmaking/social features that have bugged me for a long time, some for years at this point, and now seems as good a time as any to voice them.
Sorry, this is going to get...whiny.
( Hero balance, why triple tank/triple support is strong, and why supports keep getting nerfed )
*cough cough*
Nov. 23rd, 2018 11:58 pm★ I caught a cold :( It was bad enough today that I had to miss tonight's phlebotomy class, but my instructor is okay with me coming into the day class on Monday as make up. On the plus side this gives me some more time to catch up in the textbook. The instructor doesn't teach from the book directly, it's provided as more of a reference so there's no specific chapter I need to have read up to, but I feel like I'm behind in what we are covering in class. The class ends this month so I don't have a lot of time left to study....
★ My brother got a Switch this morning and Let's Go Eevee so now I like....have to get a Switch lol. But I think they might all be sold out around here already? Been hearing a lot of stuff on FB and Twitter about people already having to find Switch consoles through resellers. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the demand given the power of a Pokemon game and a gigantic Smash title at the beginning of December.
★ I always have a hard time drumming up motivation to finish up nablopomo after Thanksgiving, usually because there are only a few days left in the month and something about the shift into extreme Christmas Consumerism is draining and kills my motivation to do anything besides sleeping :/ But there's a whole week left before December arrives....maybe I'll be able to finish some of the longer, meta-driven posts I've been chipping away at for most of the month. Or maybe I'll just talk about them vaguely then give up as I normally do. WHO KNOWS?
★ My brother got a Switch this morning and Let's Go Eevee so now I like....have to get a Switch lol. But I think they might all be sold out around here already? Been hearing a lot of stuff on FB and Twitter about people already having to find Switch consoles through resellers. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the demand given the power of a Pokemon game and a gigantic Smash title at the beginning of December.
★ I always have a hard time drumming up motivation to finish up nablopomo after Thanksgiving, usually because there are only a few days left in the month and something about the shift into extreme Christmas Consumerism is draining and kills my motivation to do anything besides sleeping :/ But there's a whole week left before December arrives....maybe I'll be able to finish some of the longer, meta-driven posts I've been chipping away at for most of the month. Or maybe I'll just talk about them vaguely then give up as I normally do. WHO KNOWS?
natural endings
Nov. 22nd, 2018 11:44 pmHello everyone! I hope you had a lovely Thursday wherever you are, whether or not it was a holiday for you. :)
Today's Thanksgiving was the last year my aunt will host dinner, which she's done for the past 30 (give or take a few) years. I thought things would get melancholy because of that, but it was a very mellow, pleasant affair all around which was nice. It also highlighted why it's probably a good change of pace for the extended family to make plans that don't boil down to "go to aunt's house" as people arrive later and leave earlier each year--everyone is busy both the day before and the day after the holiday, and travelling by car gets worse every year. (especially in the Metro-Boston area where my aunt lives) The effort involved in having everyone at one place for one day is tipping pretty heavily towards "not worth it" so now is as good a time as any to end the tradition.
In retrospect, I can't really remember anything specific about the past 10 or so Thanksgivings; it's not that I didn't enjoy them, but they were simply...pleasant? The memories I have from my childhood all the way up to college are etched in my mind so clearly it feels as if they happened today, but after that...? And maybe that's why I didn't feel much sadness over a tradition that we've held for as long as I can remember. If the purpose of Thanksgiving is to help us appreciate the bonds we have with our family and friends, this particular way of celebrating has run its course. Things will be different next year, but I'm looking forward to visiting the parts of the family that haven't been able to make it to the "big" Thanksgiving we have in Massachusetts.
I'm glad that in this matter, ending a long-standing family tradition feels like a natural end rather than something that stopped because of loss as is often the case. It it might be a bit strange to say this, but I am thankful that today was calm and uneventful, and left me with warm feelings and excitement for what lies ahead, not anxiety due to the unknown.
Today's Thanksgiving was the last year my aunt will host dinner, which she's done for the past 30 (give or take a few) years. I thought things would get melancholy because of that, but it was a very mellow, pleasant affair all around which was nice. It also highlighted why it's probably a good change of pace for the extended family to make plans that don't boil down to "go to aunt's house" as people arrive later and leave earlier each year--everyone is busy both the day before and the day after the holiday, and travelling by car gets worse every year. (especially in the Metro-Boston area where my aunt lives) The effort involved in having everyone at one place for one day is tipping pretty heavily towards "not worth it" so now is as good a time as any to end the tradition.
In retrospect, I can't really remember anything specific about the past 10 or so Thanksgivings; it's not that I didn't enjoy them, but they were simply...pleasant? The memories I have from my childhood all the way up to college are etched in my mind so clearly it feels as if they happened today, but after that...? And maybe that's why I didn't feel much sadness over a tradition that we've held for as long as I can remember. If the purpose of Thanksgiving is to help us appreciate the bonds we have with our family and friends, this particular way of celebrating has run its course. Things will be different next year, but I'm looking forward to visiting the parts of the family that haven't been able to make it to the "big" Thanksgiving we have in Massachusetts.
I'm glad that in this matter, ending a long-standing family tradition feels like a natural end rather than something that stopped because of loss as is often the case. It it might be a bit strange to say this, but I am thankful that today was calm and uneventful, and left me with warm feelings and excitement for what lies ahead, not anxiety due to the unknown.
★ I am s l o w l y improving at performing venipunctures in class. I had 4 successful ones tonight and one that started but the vein was blown early into the draw, but it does not look like there will be any complications beyond a bruise in the area...phew. I still have over 15 venipunctures to go until I can take the certification test and I hope on Friday I won't have an unsuccessful draws...but I don't know. I'm not sure phlebotomy is going to be something I look to get employed in, but at least now I know a lot more about how it works which should help out in my field regardless.
★ I tried out PC Overwatch and it's basically the same as console Overwatch except my framerate fluctuates more and I'm really bad at just like, moving around with the WASD layout BUT my accuracy across heroes is up by like, 15%?!? I missed every single sleep dart I shot as Ana, though. And I was playing against the A.I.
Did a bunch of QP matches with my brother and sister tonight (on console) and I think I have a decent handle on Ashe. I feel like the hardest thing I run into right now is not being able to get the kill I need when I need it, because aiming can be squirrelly and repositioning to get better LOS isn't always an option, but that particular frustration is becoming less frequent. Getting value out of dynamite is also iffy--throwing it behind a barrier means you can't shoot it to detonate it early, and it's easy enough to walk out of its radius before it explodes--but I've been having better luck with that, too. I still don't know what to look for in terms of optimal ult use...B.O.B is pretty great at drawing aggro and mowing down slow-reacting players, but besides being a big shooty tank that disappears after a few seconds, I'm not sure what to do with him.
★ Still making my way through SCVI's single player stuff, the writing is uh. Pretty dull in a lot of spots and even in entire character stories? Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua were all pretty bare-bone plots about how the power of NPC friendship will help you in the dark times ahead. Taki's would have been more interesting if i could keep track of the like, 5 or 6 different organizations/people trying to take Mekki-maru from her...although some wanted her to re-seal Gel-o-Fury and some i think wanted to kill her just because??? This storyline was needlessly complicated.
In Libra of Souls my character left Maxi's crew (there isn't really a choice involved BOOOOOOO ) and I get to hang out with Mitsurugi, who is incredibly dumb. I'm not saying that I dislike the character (although, I've never had too much interest in him), it's that in SCVI there is a clear, concerted effort to portray Mitsu as the absolute stupidest character in the roster because....humor? It is, as the kids say, a weird flex but okay.
★ I tried out PC Overwatch and it's basically the same as console Overwatch except my framerate fluctuates more and I'm really bad at just like, moving around with the WASD layout BUT my accuracy across heroes is up by like, 15%?!? I missed every single sleep dart I shot as Ana, though. And I was playing against the A.I.
Did a bunch of QP matches with my brother and sister tonight (on console) and I think I have a decent handle on Ashe. I feel like the hardest thing I run into right now is not being able to get the kill I need when I need it, because aiming can be squirrelly and repositioning to get better LOS isn't always an option, but that particular frustration is becoming less frequent. Getting value out of dynamite is also iffy--throwing it behind a barrier means you can't shoot it to detonate it early, and it's easy enough to walk out of its radius before it explodes--but I've been having better luck with that, too. I still don't know what to look for in terms of optimal ult use...B.O.B is pretty great at drawing aggro and mowing down slow-reacting players, but besides being a big shooty tank that disappears after a few seconds, I'm not sure what to do with him.
★ Still making my way through SCVI's single player stuff, the writing is uh. Pretty dull in a lot of spots and even in entire character stories? Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua were all pretty bare-bone plots about how the power of NPC friendship will help you in the dark times ahead. Taki's would have been more interesting if i could keep track of the like, 5 or 6 different organizations/people trying to take Mekki-maru from her...although some wanted her to re-seal Gel-o-Fury and some i think wanted to kill her just because??? This storyline was needlessly complicated.
In Libra of Souls my character left Maxi's crew (there isn't really a choice involved BOOOOOOO ) and I get to hang out with Mitsurugi, who is incredibly dumb. I'm not saying that I dislike the character (although, I've never had too much interest in him), it's that in SCVI there is a clear, concerted effort to portray Mitsu as the absolute stupidest character in the roster because....humor? It is, as the kids say, a weird flex but okay.
it's 20,november
Nov. 20th, 2018 11:53 pm★ seeing as today is 11/20 it's everyone's obligation to listen to DJ nagureo's 20,november, an early Bemani masterpiece.
★ i have no idea what i am doing for thanksgiving this year WHOOPS. well, okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, i have some idea of where I'm going, it's just that several family members are holding Thanksgiving celebrations and i've been invited to all of them???? i was just planning to visit my aunt since this is the last year she is hosting Thanksgiving, but given how many other dinners are being hosted this year i am trying to fit in at least one more during the day. the travel conditions are Not Looking Good, unfortunately, so i may just stick with the one dinner.
★ been waffling on whether or not to get a Nintendo Switch this holiday season, and with the slate of upcoming games in the upcoming months i'm leaning a lot more towards 'yes' than 'no' these days. thing is, i barely have enough time to play all the games i have right now so i don't exactly need another console to buy exclusives i might not play due to the time crunch. On the other hand, one reason i've been playing my X1 almost exclusively for the past few months is because my brother and sister and I all play Overwatch together; we're all ready for a change but there's nothing on the X1 that appeals to all 3 of us. The Switch looks like it might be a better fit for our multiplayer needs right now.
★ there's been a lot of tumblr drama over a recent string of unexpected blog deletions, the tumblr app being deleted from the Apple store, and tumblr posts with links not showing up in tags...there is a lot of misinformation and speculation being bandied about as to why all these things are happening, but i haven't followed it too closely because i don't follow tumblr stuff all that much these days beyond stalking rarepair tags and dead fandoms.
BUT. this not-fully-understood blog deletion thing has people seeking tumblr alternatives, one of them being PillowFort, which is some kind of tumblr/twitter/dreamwidth hybrid service that is in closed beta ATM. I am a big sucker for trying out new social media platforms intended to compete with tumblr/twitter even though i think it's almost impossible for them to succeed (RIP imzy, you lasted not even a year) and I really want to try this one out...there is a $5 "donation" fee to get an invite into the beta though. That's not an issue for me personally but i know that's a pretty big hurdle for lots of people for a variety of reasons, and if there's not a lot of people already in the beta that share my interests (video games, almost exclusively) I probably won't post much, if anything, on my own.
I am mulling over donating enough to get several invite codes and then distributing them to friends and others who a) blog about gaming and b) are interested in trying out another social media site. The last part is the hard one because I don't think a lot of people are SO dissatisfied with twitter or tumblr that they're inclined to abandon them entirely for a new platform that does the same things but...different.
★ i've been getting a lot of ideas for fics recently, but no motivation to actually write them out lol. but, having ideas at all is better than not having any.
I'm trying to tell myself that, if all i want to do is Porn Without Plot for rarepairs i don't need to justify it, that i should just PUT IT OUT THERE, but that's easier said than done when you are full of self-loathing and depression.
★ i have no idea what i am doing for thanksgiving this year WHOOPS. well, okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, i have some idea of where I'm going, it's just that several family members are holding Thanksgiving celebrations and i've been invited to all of them???? i was just planning to visit my aunt since this is the last year she is hosting Thanksgiving, but given how many other dinners are being hosted this year i am trying to fit in at least one more during the day. the travel conditions are Not Looking Good, unfortunately, so i may just stick with the one dinner.
★ been waffling on whether or not to get a Nintendo Switch this holiday season, and with the slate of upcoming games in the upcoming months i'm leaning a lot more towards 'yes' than 'no' these days. thing is, i barely have enough time to play all the games i have right now so i don't exactly need another console to buy exclusives i might not play due to the time crunch. On the other hand, one reason i've been playing my X1 almost exclusively for the past few months is because my brother and sister and I all play Overwatch together; we're all ready for a change but there's nothing on the X1 that appeals to all 3 of us. The Switch looks like it might be a better fit for our multiplayer needs right now.
★ there's been a lot of tumblr drama over a recent string of unexpected blog deletions, the tumblr app being deleted from the Apple store, and tumblr posts with links not showing up in tags...there is a lot of misinformation and speculation being bandied about as to why all these things are happening, but i haven't followed it too closely because i don't follow tumblr stuff all that much these days beyond stalking rarepair tags and dead fandoms.
BUT. this not-fully-understood blog deletion thing has people seeking tumblr alternatives, one of them being PillowFort, which is some kind of tumblr/twitter/dreamwidth hybrid service that is in closed beta ATM. I am a big sucker for trying out new social media platforms intended to compete with tumblr/twitter even though i think it's almost impossible for them to succeed (RIP imzy, you lasted not even a year) and I really want to try this one out...there is a $5 "donation" fee to get an invite into the beta though. That's not an issue for me personally but i know that's a pretty big hurdle for lots of people for a variety of reasons, and if there's not a lot of people already in the beta that share my interests (video games, almost exclusively) I probably won't post much, if anything, on my own.
I am mulling over donating enough to get several invite codes and then distributing them to friends and others who a) blog about gaming and b) are interested in trying out another social media site. The last part is the hard one because I don't think a lot of people are SO dissatisfied with twitter or tumblr that they're inclined to abandon them entirely for a new platform that does the same things but...different.
★ i've been getting a lot of ideas for fics recently, but no motivation to actually write them out lol. but, having ideas at all is better than not having any.
I'm trying to tell myself that, if all i want to do is Porn Without Plot for rarepairs i don't need to justify it, that i should just PUT IT OUT THERE, but that's easier said than done when you are full of self-loathing and depression.
deep sleep
Nov. 19th, 2018 11:59 pm★ Overwatch will be free to play starting tomorrow and the free play period runs until Nov. 26. I made a battle.net account to see how it feels on PC when compared to the X1, despite complaining about getting burned out on the game literally yesterday lol. I feel like simultaneously loving and hating a game is inevitable after you've put so much time into it, though? You get exposed to stuff that you wouldn't ever encounter in something you play infrequently. And your opinion on what is good or bad becomes more influenced by the community so you think about your experiences differently...I remember having similar feelings about Resident Evil and Borderlands after literally hundreds of hours sunk into them.
★ Dead or Alive 6 released a character reveal trailer and I am ALL OVER IT because:
-BEST GIRLS LISA AND KOKORO ARE CONFIRMED so now the roster officially has every character I care about, also the casual clothing Tina and Kokoro are wearing looks SO GOOD ♥
-The brand-new character NiCO looks fucking ridiculous and I love her already. what is a lighting technomancer anyway???? i really enjoy that DOA6 is going all in on the crazy science angle, it's a series that just...doesn't do serious shit that well.
★ Dead or Alive 6 released a character reveal trailer and I am ALL OVER IT because:
-BEST GIRLS LISA AND KOKORO ARE CONFIRMED so now the roster officially has every character I care about, also the casual clothing Tina and Kokoro are wearing looks SO GOOD ♥
-The brand-new character NiCO looks fucking ridiculous and I love her already. what is a lighting technomancer anyway???? i really enjoy that DOA6 is going all in on the crazy science angle, it's a series that just...doesn't do serious shit that well.
★ Went to Another Anime Convention today; it's in a different, smaller venue than it usually is, and because of that, a lot of stuff was reduced in size or cut altogether. There was no video game room, only one video screening room, and the dealer's room/artist alley was outside in the parking lot under a tent...a day after half a foot of snow fell. :S I had fun, but it sucks that so many things had to be compromised this year. :(
★ I didn't bother cosplaying. Today was the perfect weather for my Mei cosplay BUT i have so many bulky props (endothermic blaster & tank, Snowball) that it's extremely hard to manage on my own, so even though I really like cosplaying as an easily-recognizable character (lol) I just didn't want to deal with the logistics of it. The hotel didn't have any nice outdoor areas for taking photos anyway which is the main reason I wanted to wear the costume, and the halls were very narrow and crowded so it was the right decision, I think.
I decided to wear my yukata instead, which is meant for summer but it's also incredibly easy to put on and comfortable to wear (at least when it's not below 50F lol) I wish I had a fall/winter kimono for this time of year but I feel like there are not a lot of occasions where I can wear traditional Asian clothing and not seem out of place...I have thought a lot about wearing culture clothing in public places recently, being an Asian in a mostly white area. I sometimes think about wearing cultural clothing out in more casual public settings like restaurants or when out shopping at higher-end places, because a) it's beautiful and b) I think an important part of making a cultural practice seem less exotic and more acceptable is by doing it (or in this case, wearing it) as often as we can. But people who don't understand what you are doing and why make what should be a simple thing (wearing beautiful clothes you like) difficult by making fun of you either subtly or....not so subtly. :/
★ Tomorrow is the swap meet/yard sale and ~*~TEA PARTY~*~ which I am very excited for! I have a bunch of stuff that needs a new home and dressing up for the tea party is always funi've been preparing FOR MONTHS, good job me
★ I didn't bother cosplaying. Today was the perfect weather for my Mei cosplay BUT i have so many bulky props (endothermic blaster & tank, Snowball) that it's extremely hard to manage on my own, so even though I really like cosplaying as an easily-recognizable character (lol) I just didn't want to deal with the logistics of it. The hotel didn't have any nice outdoor areas for taking photos anyway which is the main reason I wanted to wear the costume, and the halls were very narrow and crowded so it was the right decision, I think.
I decided to wear my yukata instead, which is meant for summer but it's also incredibly easy to put on and comfortable to wear (at least when it's not below 50F lol) I wish I had a fall/winter kimono for this time of year but I feel like there are not a lot of occasions where I can wear traditional Asian clothing and not seem out of place...I have thought a lot about wearing culture clothing in public places recently, being an Asian in a mostly white area. I sometimes think about wearing cultural clothing out in more casual public settings like restaurants or when out shopping at higher-end places, because a) it's beautiful and b) I think an important part of making a cultural practice seem less exotic and more acceptable is by doing it (or in this case, wearing it) as often as we can. But people who don't understand what you are doing and why make what should be a simple thing (wearing beautiful clothes you like) difficult by making fun of you either subtly or....not so subtly. :/
★ Tomorrow is the swap meet/yard sale and ~*~TEA PARTY~*~ which I am very excited for! I have a bunch of stuff that needs a new home and dressing up for the tea party is always fun
My sister volunteered to have her blood drawn for my phlebotomy class tonight, and afterwards I took her out to dinner as thanks. We went to a brewpub and in a testament to my age by 9:30p I was ready to go home and fall asleep. The brewpub is a new establishment that took the place of a much older restaurant and while my sister had been, I hadn't. I had a cranberry-flavored berliner weisse, which was nice (pretty tart, but I prefer sours to be, well, sour) and I was too tired to stay around for more. The food was mixed--we shared pulled-pork nachos, which came with excellent house-made tortilla chips--but the cheese/pulled pork/jalepeno topping was heavy and kind of bland? The haddock chowder was excellent though. Very mild fish taste and had a wonderful warmth and richness for the first snowfall of the season.
I am going to Another Anime Con this weekend but I still haven't decided what to wear, WHOOPS. The schedule for tomorrow doesn't have much that interests me, but Sunday has both the swap meet and the lolita/steampunk tea party which, together, take up almost the entire day. I'm pretty excited for it, as this is the year I will have a full-on gothic lolita coordinate to wear.
I am going to Another Anime Con this weekend but I still haven't decided what to wear, WHOOPS. The schedule for tomorrow doesn't have much that interests me, but Sunday has both the swap meet and the lolita/steampunk tea party which, together, take up almost the entire day. I'm pretty excited for it, as this is the year I will have a full-on gothic lolita coordinate to wear.
