Frenetic Pony

KNEW I'd say it wrong. It's an extreme either or, either matchmaking seems to match up completely unfair teams one way or another, and so my input doesn't feel like it counts in either case.

I think I figured it out, and this is going to make me sound like an ass if I say it wrong. I downloaded Dota 2 again and played a few matches, because I've been on a big game kick the last few weeks and beat Shadowrun and Uncharted 2 again, and now need a game. The first few matches for one night were fun. And then I got back into the swing of things. Last five games in a row weren't... challenging enough. I came out of the last match, a random draft, with my dead last pick essentially, Spectre. I ended up highest level on my team with 14 kill, 18 assists and 2 deaths. Again. I think the game was fun when I was learning it, and it was a challenge. But the empty, worthless feeling came over me when I continually get matches that, in essence, aren't decided by me playing my best. Either my team as a whole is outmatched no matter how well I do, or it's close enough that I end up as one of the top or the top player on my team and we won handily. I should stop harping on this. I've harped enough. I don't even like harps.

Ohhhhh my head. "Bro" with scruffy beard, who can't pronounce Falun Gong to save his life has heard "it's a type of medidation." "and... and... uhhh, uh.... like, they're, prosecuting them in China. Because, they do things that, China doesn't, want people to know about. And I heard like... they're where, transplant organs come from, because they're being held in uh... uh... like, concentration camps." Well, first it's a quasi religious movement which goes against the strict non religious ethos communist countries picked up mostly as a prevention of an alternative cult. Thus any persecution comes from the Chinese Communist parties paranoid grasp on culture and opposition to any show of "opposition" to "the party". Secondly transplant organs come from executed criminals in China, we know that because it's an official position and publicly available information. Thirdly there's a relative shortage of transplant organs because China has drastically cut it's capital punishment in the last two decades. So no, there is no "secret concentration camps" for the Falun Gong. If they're in jail, then they're just in jail, because the communist party doesn't give a shit or need "secret concentration camps" because, last I looked they ruled the entire country. But of course the Bro's solution to all this is that there's an online petition. And surely signing it will end the 1984ish grip of Party Paranoia on China and it will become a liberal democracy to shame every other country. Like it on Facebook man. A million likes and my Chinese girlfriend said I get to do anal!

The best bad movie of all time. It's absolute genius, like Paul Verhoeven was doing it all intentionally, and got some of the worst actors he could find on purpose without ever letting them in on the joke. Everything, from the PSA's "Would you like the know more?" to the exuberant extras "I'm doing my part! *Everyone laughs" even down to the choice of music. The opening literally has a song with the clearly heard lyrics "all is calm... all is well" just at the exact scene any movie would be establishing it's "everything is great" status quo right before interrupting it, which is of course what Starship Troopers does just perfectly. He even got Michael Ironside, totally straight faced, to say "They sucked his brains out." It's awesome! But I'm not sure if it "really" counts because it seems too perfect not to have been done intentionally. I'll have to watch Samurai Cop just to see what an earnestly bad movie is.

Just finished it. I liked some of it. The tactical combat was solid enough, and being able to take people by surprise if done right is a really nice change from X-com. Of course the downsides of tactical turn based combat are still there *Shoots at a guy a foot away, misses. But... it was too linear, all of it. Always ramrodding you into the same dialogue, the same path, the same "go here, now here, no do this!" There's basically zero opportunity to explore, and I even missed a payday because I didn't drop some quest loot off to the right NPC at the right time, and the next time I saw him it was somehow "too late" to turn in the quest even though it was just getting jewels fenced. I liked some of the characters, and it was sort of interesting to see the hired mercs mechanic at work. But splitting the difference didn't feel really great, the characters that might have been your "companions" weren't there often enough; and the mercs hiring wasn't interesting enough. I also sort of lost the story towards the end. The motivation for you character kind of felt like it dropped off, and the story ends in a sort of "go here because we tell you to, this thing happened because we need a way to continue the story". It's still a promising start, the setting was nailed, the RPG mechanics feel solid, the combat is good. But the writing and design need work if they continue on with the series.

Wut? Also I saw 2 Guns. B movie schlock. Washington and Wahlberg make it work well enough that I was just having fun, it felt like some B action movie from the eighties or early nineties, like I was watching an only somewhat less ridiculous Lethal Weapon.

Honestly Stalin was more influential, he killed more people and the USSR lasted far longer than the Third Reich, and even he was fomented by Marx in the first place. This will be insulting to anyone that believes in religion Bismarck and Boneapart maybe... perhaps along with Isaac Newton. But I wanted to limit it to the top 10. If I hadn't Alexander the Great and Muhamed and any number of other people would have been on there. As for Eurocentric... well what else do you want I suppose? Banking, calculus, modern guns, capitalism, democracy, communism, fascism, the list goes on and it all came out of Europe. Frankly I blame banking and the printing press, the first funded the entire creation of the modern age, the other spread it across the globe. Before them every civilization in history rose and fell in a cycle or at most just stayed stagnant for centuries. I'd include whoever came up with the modern bank, but I don't think anyone knows specifically who that is beyond maybe somebody at the start of renaissance Italy.

I was thinking, what are the top 10 most influential people in history? Making a list: Karl Marx: Without him no Marxism, no communism, perhaps no Moa Zedong, no Lenin, no Vietnam, no anti communist hysteria, etc. etc. Definitely a negative influence overall, but one of the most influential people none the less. Genghis Khan: The largest single empire in history, at least to uniting so many territories and countries it's unbelievable. Of course the empire broke up after his death, but many peoples that weren't unified before were unified because of Khan. Albert Einstein: The two great physical theories of science we currently have are hugely influenced by this one man, who not only was one of the largest contributors to modern quantum physics, a field that is increasingly influenced so much of our technology, but deserves the majority of credit for general relativity to begin with. Not to mention his letter to President Roosevelt concerning the creation of a nuclear weapon, a feat the Germans never managed. Elizabeth the First: Under her rule England ruined Spain as the great world power of the time, supplanting their naval dominance with that of England's and expanding trade and expeditions, which would lead to the greatest empire in history and the spread of capitalistic and democratic all over the globe. John Adams: The leader of the US war for independence, and thus a man without whom the US may well not exist. More importantly the example set by the US of a democratic revolution has far outlasted Marxism and rocked countries for over two hundred and thirty years now. Alan Turing: After nigh a century of pie in the sky thinking from the likes of everyone from Charles Babbage to Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing demonstrated for the first time the proof of the greatest invention in history, the computer. Not only that but he helped develop much of the concepts we use today to understand computing, and even helped build the first computers in the world. Well that's what I've got anyway. Lot of bloody Englishmen that's for sure. I realize it could be called "Western culture centric" or some such bullshit, but take it up with history itself yeah? What is it about a dreary, rainy island off the coast of Europe that makes people there think "I should do something that will change the world"?

Which begs the question of how warm nostrils are.

Well that's what I should do... So I want over to a State Park. I was intending to take photos along with taking my dog for a hike. I got most of the way there and saw suddenly become a solid bank of clouds in the sky. Shite! But after a few minutes of moping I figured if Roger Deakins can make overcast work in Skyfall, then I damn well can too! Continued onwards. And it was worth it. The start was foggy as shit in the middle of a temperate rainforest. So foggy it really did rain, the solid mass of overhead trees condensed the water and produced rain from the branches. At one point later on there was a steeply angled (but not straight up and down) ladder that there was no way to go around; to continue one had to use the ladder, and it was more than a ten foot drop off a rock straight down otherwise. I had my dog with me, so games up right? But she clambers onto the ladder after me, all four paws on the wooden slats (They're biggish, for a ladder). But she won't go down more, she knows dogs aren't designed for going down ladders. Still, I say screw it, I'll guide her down and I'm more than flexible and strong enough to catch her if something goes wrong. She's hesitant but otherwise gets down little by little, I have to coax her down each and every slat even though she'd got a firm grasp on what to do, front paws on the bottom one, back on the upper, step down to the next one paw at a time. It takes a while but finally success! The hike continues, down to the town below. A short break there and its time to go back up, even though its solid overcast and it's getting late. I hadn't intended to get there late, or take so long getting down, or take much of a break. All added up I went back uphill, or rather mountain, on an even longer return route. The sun set little by little, though I could not see it behind the slate grey clouds covering every inch of sky. Eventually, as the mountain was ascended and I entered the clouds, it grew rather mystical, dim grey light scattering through the mist and a half glimpsed forest outline. But I wasn't there yet. It grew darker and darker still. I came upon some grassy hills, steep slopes on either side. There was enough fog to not see more than fifty feet in any direction. Combined with the darkness it felt grim, peering out at a featureless dark word of iron grey, the low light sapping the color out of everything, the forlorn hills only worsened by the glimpse of dark forests all around. I'm sure classic horror stories have featured such settings, but I was still enjoying myself, and yet finally after what seemed forever a sign said 1.7 miles back to the car near the ranger station. And then I entered the forests again. It was dark, very, very dark. I didn't have a phone, I didn't have a flashlight. The trail winds round enough steep hillsides to make a big misstep possibly fatal. I pulled out my camera and fiddled with it. After a while I figured out the bright orange LED meant for focusing in dim lighting was near as good as a flashlight. I depressed the shutter button halfway every few steps to light up the path in front of me, though the fog scattered anything more than fifteen feet away. I was always lead by my dog, who seemed to be having no trouble. We walked, and walked, and walked. 1.7 miles stretched out in front of me and behind me, seemingly forever. Walking and more walking and more walking, slipping on wet roots in the darkness. I didn't know where I was exactly, there was no one else on the trail obviously, and the trail was in the middle of a massive park stretching for miles in almost any direction. I was utterly alone. And then my camera went out. Dead battery. Down on my hands and knees, feeling along the dirt, afraid to go too fast lest I make a wrong step. Just one might due it. But I had to continue on, I had to try, what other option was there? And then I got out of the forest and back to another hill... and finally my eyes adjusted! Oh yeah, idiot me. I've a genetic mutation that gives me superb night vision, if I hadn't relied on that stupid bright as hell LED I'd have been fine. I was fine actually, I could see the trail right in front of me despite being past nine at night and the sun having gone down quite a while ago and the fog. Derp. The ranger station was only about two minutes ahead anyway. And you know what? That was fucking FUN. It was fun doing something new, it was fun being in danger, it was interesting and not an everyday routine. Routine routine routine, that's what's killing me. What do I have to look forward to with routine, any routine? The same thing I did yesterday and the same thing I'll do tomorrow. And my photos turned out great! Some of the best I've ever taken. As for anyone concerned about my dog, well... she's kind of nuts all on her own. She'll happily chase after full grown cows that look to weigh over a thousand pounds, barking at them and trying to get them to play. She'll jump at the chance for a walk, including in pouring rain and nigh below freezing with the windchill, she used to be best friends with a German Shepard that was nearly triple her weight, she'd play rough with him and headbutt him at full speed to knock him over. I've had to take her for stitches twice after she ruined her own nose trying to get through a fence to another dog, and after getting a long bleeding cut from what I can only assume was a barbed wire fence; a fact I had to discover myself because she made not one hint of injury or complaint while walking over a mile back. Her only audible concern the entire time was me going into a coffee shop during the break, because I'd tied her up outside and was ten feet away and perfectly visible through a doorway. She whined the entire time. Her priorities are rather strange. Still, it felt like a great, interesting trip. How does one go about becoming a professional photographer? I think I'd jump at the chance to film something like Planet Earth, travelling the world and setting up crazy camera rigs. Or anything like that. I suppose I can just Google "how to become a professional photographer" but beyond that I've not a clue.

I've got very little motivation to do anything recently. And I mean anything. Responsibilities that I do have, and are very important, and I can't bring myself to do them. I literally can't force my way through a mental block, you could put a gun to my head and promise you'll shoot me if I don't do it and I'd still struggle to get anything done. The same can be said of even so much of supposed leisure activities. Put a gun to my head and ask me what I would do if I could do absolutely anything at all in the world, and I'd have a truly hard time answering. Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh

Just watched Oblivion. Same director as Tron Legacy, except he wrote Oblivion as well as directed it unlike Tron (not a writer there). And considering the Daft Punk soundtrack was the main good thing to come out of Tron I didn't have high expectations. Which was probably good, because Oblivion managed to exceed those low expectations, if not by an incredible amount. Trying to avoid spoilers, the movie was great to look at. A very unique take on an apocalyptic earth despite have more than enough of that recently, and some stunning shots in general to boot. But that was the only particularly standout effort in this film, the rest was almost, but definitely not, good enough to be in a really good movie. There were action scenes that were well paced, well filmed, made sense in context, but never really got terribly exciting or impressive. A story that was cogent and coherent, that twists and turns, that just wasn't quite original enough or had enough going on in it. A set of actors that were competent veterans and solid in their parts and did their jobs, that never managed to be a charismatic enough hit to carry the entire movie like Johnny Depp in the original Pirates or Sam Rockwell with Moon. So all in all it was the sum of its parts, almost good enough to be really good, but not crossing the finish line. Still, it was nice to see a science fiction movie that was actually coherent and at least tried, and even often did, make sense. The utter crap that Damon Lindelof and crew have been dreking in Hollywood recently (Prometheus, etc.) has been more than enough thank you. So that combined with "almost good enough" still made it worth watching, even if it's not particularly memorable

I understand ragequitting, but someone being an asshole towards you just makes me think of success. That's the first person I ever had with me trying to write fiction. I figured if someone whom I've never met in person went out of their way to be an asshole specifically to me then I must be getting somewhere. I should really get back to that. Sad to see Fez 2 go down though, regardless.

Ouch, a useful paper with a bad grade because "it's late". Yet another reason to not like how Academia works, because you just know a dozen useless papers got at least as good a grade as you did. And then there's the citations. Citation after citation after citation, a million billion citations, a labyrinth of mountain high material. This is what Academia teaches you, but at least in computer graphics I hate that shit. It's boring and trite and doesn't apply to anything I care about. If you came up with a new way to make a character's skin look more real or something then just tell me, as often as not the entire history of such does not need to be involved. Then again I'm just ripping on the worst aspects of it all, it's not to say everything works as such and is horrible.

I think I just proved that attraction to large boobs, and in fact large boobs themselves, are a recent evolutionary occurrence in human history, thanks in large part to the invention of the bra. My first scientific paper, at least first one that has a new hypothesis and may actually get published (I've done research papers for classes before). It's all just come together so clearly, kablooie! Mind blown, excitement high, on writing a damned research paper! Academia sucks, they force you to write research papers on things you KNOW aren't exciting or original. That sucks the fun and motivation straight out of them damn it! You write a paper because you go "OMG it makes so much sense now!" And you want to tell others about it, and you want people to try and prove you right (or wrong)! Making into a generic assignment is why forcing kids to read the Grapes of Wrath sucks the fun out of books. 95% aren't going to enjoy The Grapes of Wrath, and thus they're going to associate negative feelings with reading altogether. Good job modern education system, you've taught us what to do but not why almost anyone would enjoy doing it.

Ah, there we are, added an s at the end to the front tag. Oops

Trance: Damn it James McAvoy you're better than this! I mean, it starts out well enough. It really felt like a waste of talent.

So that wonderful composition at the end of "Ballad of Fallen Angels" episode of Cowboy Bebop was apparently a composition done especially for the episode. You listen to it on youtube of course:

Oh, and the game looks really, REALLY held back by this generation of consoles. Their lighting is still incredibly flat in shadows, they cheat with storms by making water around coastlines is always calm no matter what, their ship destruction is basically canned, there's no swinging or swaying lines or nets on boats to cling onto, etc. etc.

I agree that the Assassin's Creed games have gotten... uhm. Easy is to easy of a word, dim? Illusory, that's a good word. Like Skyrim and a ton of other games. They give the illusion that there's some sort of challenge to overcome, and then the illusion that you've won a victory. It's the non interactive, televisionlike experience except for a video game. Which is great for business! A ton of people enjoying lying on a couch, with their brains off, being delivered the phantasms of success and etc. through no effort of their own. It's just not something I enjoy most of the time; and when I do enjoy it it's not something I look for in a video game. And the idea that there ever was such a thing as a "difficulty setting" doesn't seem to have occurred to any of these "Triple A" developers. Rockstar excepted of course (You rock Rockstar!). Which is all a shame, because I really enjoy some of the look of this. I really like the Master and Commander series of books, a naval combat game is right up my alley. I love the idea of a fully interactive Sid Meir's Pirates! type game. I just wish it wasn't stuck with Ubisoft or Assassin's Creed. Because if I'm a pirate, I want to be a fame and fortune seeking murderous douche, that's what a pirate is. Any sense of nobility or whatever is kind of ruining the point.

For that specifically? No, because there's two DVDs with a mandatory 8 gig install for the 360 version. In almost every other way imaginable? Certainly, but whatever it looks like a blast anyway.

I just watched Lethal Weapon 2... Oh My Fucking God! This is the most cheesily, obviously exploitative movie in ever. It's... it's just... the mind boggles at what this movie wont do for the most cliche ridden, nonsensical, exploitative bullshit. There's no stops pulled, there's no stone left unturned, no idiocy it won't go to, no moronic one liner it doesn't pull. I wish any of what I just said were the slightest bit, even the merest iota of hyperbole; but it isn't. By the end I was just laughing at the how utterly set up the entire thing is, how trope ridden it can get, and yet the movie just doesn't give a shit, it grins and keeps on going. I don't even know what to give it, just... wow. I feel it worth it just for the experience alone, just to say I saw it.

The exploratorium is fun! For breakfast go the Blue Bottle Cafe. It's about as hip as you can get, being an entirely signless non descript building off a side street in downtown SF with a nigh perpetual line out the door. But it's worth it! Also I absolutely love Yosemite, hope you enjoy hiking and/or taking pictures, not that you actually need to enjoy either to enjoy it.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Just what I walways wanted! :eyebrow: