syntheticgerbil

I think this kind of employee treatment by Hobby Lobby should get some wider press, if not already, I suppose I'm not tapped in. I can't believe so many people go to that store as it is, but it would be nice if some regular shoppers started to boycott and tried other hobby stores or even local art supply and craft stores. The thing is, unlike Walmart, you will waste way more money shopping at Hobby Lobby than other places. Most of their supplies for painting and crafts are incredibly cheap in quality and way too expensive for what you get. Plus the stuff they sell off the shelf, like tacky statues and the like are all just sloppily painted shit from China that you could get for about a third less at Garden Ridge, if sloppily painted shit is your thing.

What will happen is I will read up a little to get some idea of Ireland's history and then forget all over again. If there's some kind of good summary that's much better than wikipedia, I'd be thankful, because I would like to explore some of the historical sites, we have 10 days there. Oh I should have noted, we probably won't want to do much shopping besides maybe a couple of souveniers, just because of weight and size restrictions on baggage and how much we will have to stuff in our packs in order to make it. I'm guessing car space might suck too, since I think of every European vehicle as the size of a smart car. Haha, it's that fucking Rick Perry, he never stops uttering public idiotic things as part of some kind of half assed political stance. And thanks a ton for your responses, we are ruminating over all of the suggestions and it sort of looks like our only trips up north at this point might be for the touristy stuff, especially I would like to see the Giants' Causeway. Also in terms of natural beauty it seems like I should not miss these Ailwee caves you guys are mentioning. The pictures look spectacular!

Is there any chance Danielle will become almost a member or just member of the podcast? She always has a lot of in depth game talk to bring to the table and touches on games that other members wouldn't necessarily play. I like the mix. I sort of considered Steve Gaynor a member of the podcast even though he really isn't anymore. Is that canon? It's always nice when he comes back on though.

I just want to bite into those. Mmmm.

I suppose the main part of it is just the capacity and population problem, which I think is the motivator for making it mandatory, because like I said I don't know if the Alamos in other cities require the reserved seating in advance. You could potentially show up to one and get a reserved seat if it's open or drive to a theatre in advance to the ticket booth, pick out your seat, and avoid the online fee. But almost everything is sold out a couple of days in advance at Alamo especially if it's a big release, anything on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and harder to see films with limited showings. If you want to see a movie that has a limited release and has one day available (as the usual Alamo schedule goes, when they find time in their heart to not have another superhero movie), then you almost need 2-3 weeks heads up sometimes. I think it worked fine before when it was both general seating and reserved seating at any theatre, should you fear it would sell out. I think just about every theatre works like that, you just have to pay through the nose at Fandango. That was about 4-5 years ago and earlier, which was a very different Alamo back then when all of the locations were small affairs and it was more for seeing fringe movies and discussions with directors. It all flip flopped though.

Yeah his run speed is what really disappointed me the second I turned it on. It does allow for much more precision jumping but I guess somehow I get in to Mario NES mode the second I turn this game on and feel like i need to fly all over the fucking place. I'm hoping maybe there's upgrades for speed later. I will probably never get these achievements unfortunately. That's very painful for my OCD habits.

In theory forced assigned seating seems like good idea, but it's when fees are added on and when it's impossible to see movies the evening of when you decide to. It creates this tension with all civilians of the city that they must get their tickets well in advance, especially if everyone only goes to one chain ever. So then you're shit out of luck if the theatre also has a no refund policy on fucking everything because if you felt you had to get your assigned seating in advance because securing somewhere to sit is a headache, it ultimately always leaves empty seats where people couldn't make it and leaves open seats that could have gone to people who just showed up on the time of without a plan. Like I said, it's even worse if you run late, you're almost there, but there's also a no late policy and your also out of your $11 even though your seat will go empty and the damn place is distracting no matter what because of servers and bathroom breaks. I don't know, like I said this probably works well in cities where people are less insane about seeing movies, because Alamo used to do general admission and assigned seating if you really wanted online ahead of time. I guess showings got so packed that they felt they had to force it, but with all this headache, I feel it's just smarter to just go to the theatres on the outer city limits that all other Austinites are too hip for. Also animated movies in theatres are the worst only because the stuff produced in California must be family friendly garbage. Not sure why you guys even waste your time supporting all that Disney/Dreamworks/Sony owned stuff. How many times do you have to see a movie where you are told to believe in yourself and every stock Calarts expression in the book is used?

Strange, I always loved the swamp. It's weird, hearing you play it, it seems really bad, but I generally had fun with it the last time I played. I mean it had many bad jokes and some puzzles were needlessy obtuse, plus the graphics are terrible, but I found some parts charming and some puzzles inventive, including the bizarre Swamp of Time puzzle.

This is now the worst thread on Idlethumbs. No one is coming to my birthday party, since it's just going to be me, Rayman, and Globox eating popcorn and creating amazing levels in Rayman Designer for Windows 98. Also Sonic is dead on the back porch near the balloons.

I personally cannot wait until we have the Santa Buddies dogs with cannons.

By episode 60 or so it stops being incredibly boring and Justin stops being a weird goon. It's really not anything like McElroy makes today after he was well refined his presentation and comedy. And besides, Idlethumbs podcast is the best video games podcast, I imagine the old episodes are still pretty good. The only parts I hated was when there was a good 10 episode period where it was an hour of baboo every week.

I should probably be a little bit more fair. For whatever reason, the two Alamos in Houston seem to actually do well in showing movies I want to see that are not big blockbusters, as I usually see them come up on the schedule. Alamo in Austin seems to only do the scheduling I spoke of earlier. Also Houston was way more choice in terms of independent cinema than Austin because they also have the Angelika and River Oaks theatres. I don't know what it is, but it's like the Alamo in the city it was born in is the worst. I don't even know if any Alamos except the Austin one force reserved seating online in advance. It's funny because it's almost like the Regal, Tinseltowns, and AMC theatres in Austin are better because almost no one goes to them at most times of the day. I've had so many experiences with being one of six people in front of a huge screen on a Friday night. Also you've gotta smuggle in those snacks!

You were so close to death.

I've reported all of you to the mods.

Oh yeah, on a brighter note, the same friend filled me in on a similar Alamo story where Quentin Tarantino was there and I guess didn't understand how the transactions worked and failed to tip his waiter. I guess at some point he realized his mistake and came back the next day and gave the guy a hundred dollar bill.

Tonic Trouble is pretty good too, I used to love this intro: Fun trivia, Tonic Trouble has many of the proposed enemies from the previews for the prerendered 3D version of be Rayman 2 before it was scrapped. The 3D models were then taken over to Tonic Trouble and the game became real time, becoming the basis of the engine used for Rayman 2, which I think was later converted for use with Beyond Good and Evil.

Oh come on guys, give me some credit!

He's just a character design! I will give you that the face is a little bit odd, but it was really only odd in the first Rayman where every thing was designed with a circle in mind. No limbs is a neat concept and it gives you some cool mime style animations to work with. IN RAYMAN 2 HE PLAYS BASKETBALL WITH HIS BODY. THAT IS RAD OKAY. However, just play Globox, he's a solid character design that I will allow no faults to. He is the best in every game. Also Murfy, that's also a great character design, except when he is voiced by Billy West. That is some bullshit.

But it has a much more light hearted intro that ties in with the end of the film, cuts out the boring 10 minutes between the capture and the torture room and it has the clouds at the end! It also adds some jokes in that were written by Tom Stoppard because as Gilliam admits, he didn't exactly get the punchline at the time but later changed his mind. The European cut, which is what they had, is the worst. At least on the Criterion Director's cut it has the added jokes and the better intro. It just does not have the clouds at the end and has that droning 10 minutes of talking before the torture chamber. If there's one thing most Gilliam films tend to need besides better writing, it's good editing, and when the guy is pushed to make cuts for the sake of pacing I think he makes stronger films. What can I say, it's the cut I loved when I watched it long long ago on a VHS from Blockbuster and I really wanted to see it in a theatre, because I've already seen the Criterion one in a theatre and many times at home.

I hate Drafthouse, I will go out of my way to another corporate theatre and eat food somewhere else now. They have a lot of advertising, but just for themselves. Every other theatre chain has a strict no talking policy as well and they have people who will check. Drafthouse is an incredibly expensive endeavor where you get an $11 burger that is just ash between bread. It was good maybe before the assigned seating and everyone moving to Austin, but now it's just a monopoly on choice theatre locations. They also fail to show anything good or original anymore (foreign, small releases) unless it's intentionally terrible movies on special nights in the downtown location. Parking downtown is a whole extra thing too where you get charged $3 or $7 depending on your luck parking. Last time I parked for the downtown Alamo I got out of the car and saw a pile of human shit on the ground. Keep Austin weeeeird man. I tried to go see what I thought was the U.S. theatrical cut of Brazil back in February, because that is the best cut and is not usually the one seen, it's what they had listed on their website and I asked them both by e-mail and Facebook to make sure that was the one. Sure enough, I get there and it's the European cut. The fuckers hardly even know what they are playing unless it's some kitschy ironic VHS movie that is funny for about 10 minutes and then you just sit there for another 80 eating subpar food. Oh and let's talk about their rules. Sometime in 2011 or 2012 they got rid of the reserved seating for fanatics and made it required reserved seating everywhere. Since Austin is well past capacity now, I guess that was the solution because actually showing up to an Alamo on a whim to watch a movie was not possible. So they carry over the extra fee for reserved seating and if you want a chance of seeing a movie, you'd better do it online and hope there are two seats next to eachother should you have a date. Then you pay the online "service fee" which is a $1 complete bullshit because you have no other choice but to use it. So now Alamo is fucking Ticketmaster I guess, because apparently to run a website with transactions you need $60 per movie (or however many it seats to capacity) for locations all over multiple cities. If you are even about to see a popular movie on a weekend, you'd better plan that shit by Wednesday, because you will not be able to see a movie until next weekend at Alamo. God forbid you mess up and miss the movie because something comes up, there are no refunds and you cannot cancel before the showing. Oh yeah, they have a no late person policy, should you get stuck in traffic in the city with the worst congestion in Texas, you will not be allowed to enter and they keep your money. It's the most expensive theatre in Austin for so many reasons. And they also treat their employees like shit. Tim League, the owner, had an AMA on reddit and only answered the easy questions, completely ignoring multiple employees asking why they were always put an hour short under full time so that they could not have benefits. Should you want to work part time because you are getting fuck all for working right under 30 hours, then they will apparently just start cutting your hours ridiculously low. You are not good to them until you are nearly full time. I guess they have to save that money so they can charge $6 dollars for a beer. Then there's Harry Knowles, the Ain't it Cool News movie critic who is Tim League's friend. He doesn't tip and he's an asshole. Apparently there's a notorious story where the fucking asshole couldn't get up and so he just sat in the chair and pissed himself while the urine ran down the floor of the theatre. Then he of course didn't tip or acknowledge he did that and Tim League had an employee clean that up. There's more gross stories I hear about Tim League from my friend in the Austin Film Society, but they don't really pertain to the theatre. There was a time when Alamo did show fringe stuff that was good as well as foreign films, but they are done with that phase. Most locations are just showing Spiderman or Avengers. Unless I have free passes, a friend really wants me to go with them, or there's something I want to see that I can't see anywhere else I go somewhere else and pay a couple of dollars less per ticket. Ugh, that felt good. Fuck that theatre. Also I should say in general at corporate movie theatres, I can't recall any terrible experience except for an AMC my wife and I regularly went to when we lived in a sleazier part of Houston. Sometimes there'd be people talking or looking at their phones, but even in 2006-2007 people would still walk up the aisles and shush them and stare at them until they stopped. Corporate movie theatres don't want talking just as much because it means you are going to get a refund if you complain. This illusion that Alamo is some amazing movie oasis is just false. Also we loved AMC because they had an automatic ticket kiosk outside where we could buy children's movie tickets and pay $6 (at the time) and no one ever checked, even if you were seeing a rated R movie. The workers don't get paid well enough to care or argue. That was pretty sweet, I miss those times Oh yeah, the Fargo ending maybe could have went out with more of a bang, but I'm really glad the miniseries exists. I certainly had a good time with it and wanted to know what happened every next episode.

I have a WiiU code from the Kickstarter, I guess I should try it out over the weekend. I wasn't sure if I should go with the 3DS version because they had a neat little streetpass usage thing going on. Maybe I'll get both at some point.

I'd say the radness factor of his 90s design, stemming from that awful Amiga look of using all colors, was completely abandoned in favor of a better design in 2. Which game? They are all competely different. Anyway, every major Rayman game except for 3 is solid platforming. 3 is great too, it just doesn't measure up to other installments. Rayman 2 was the best platformer on 64 (and Dreamcast), not that frustrating and often tedious Mario 64 game.

Woo, I have an interview in two weeks for a part time job needing a "Flash Technical Animator" at a game studio started by some EA rejects. A programmer friend tipped me off before it was even listed. However my bank account is very sad and I haven't been able to find a part time job since starting school this month outside of going to door to door with fliers for my old old boss and her new summer camp video game making thing for kids. But that was a week before my wedding that ended and it was only like 12 hours a week for two weeks because I could only manage like four hours of nonstop walking a day before my feet died. So I'm really concerned about this crazy amount of debt I've been racking up on my credit card bill, thanks to a very inconsistant temp agency and my inability to get something stable. Hopefully this one works out if I can make it without being too much of a burden on my wife. It'll definitely pay way more than serving coffee or working retail. Biggest thing is I'm not quite sure what the technical part of the animation position is. I asked about it in my cover letter and they said they'd discuss it when I met with them. If it's coding I have to figure out I can't do it. I don't know how to code anything unless a programmer sets something up for me or tells me step by step what I need to do with Actionscript ahead of time. If it's just rudimentary Flash functions I can search for tutorials on the internet it's fine. I don't know how much actual animation I would do or if it's just setting up. Gah, so many what ifs. I'm all antsy.

I just found it completely unhelpful for creating, but as a diplomacy tool I suppose it's fine. The best people I've worked under are completely specific in what they require and what they are thinking instead of just pulling out a stock phrase that covers bases. Alternatively, another term I hate is, "Try taking it further." Also meaningless.

Oh yeah, since Sean brought it up, it's totally agonizing to me every time I hear someone respond with, "interesting" or, "that's interesting." The thing is, especially in the podcast world, almost everyone does this. But I had a similar problem with a terrible art director who had no business being one where the negative response to something was, "interesting" as a way to shrug off any conversation and never return to it. However, it was incredibly confusing because that was his default response to pretty much everything in life. I heard it hundreds of times a day and I just wanted to call him out on it. I feel like it's a phrase everyone says these days as a way to sound smart or to appear as a thinking man but as a word not in the context of a sentence, it is utterly meaningless. Gah.