miffy495

Yeah, I think TNT was Ryan's baby and they don't feel right about doing it without him.

When I was 10, an N64 game was $80 in 1997 prices. A "budget" game was $60. (This is Canadian dollars). Today, a full price game is $70 and a budget game is $40 - $50. Even ignoring inflation, games are cheaper now.

Photographers at the Calgary Folk Music Festival this weekend approached myself and my girlfriend on several separate occasions to take our picture for their blog. I guess they dug our style. Here's one: (My shirt is from an Amanda Palmer tour, hers is from Dinosaur Jr, because we're cool like that.)

Dude, HULU isn't even available to people outside the US.

As a person who teaches math to ten-year-olds professionally, the backlash from parents is astonishing when you try to teach that problems can have multiple approaches, that there are many things that are still up for debate/unproven in math, or pretty much anything that may actually show that math can be incredibly interesting. The amount of times I have to bite my tongue when my older sister talks about not be able to help her kids with "all this new math nonsense" is very frustrating to me, especially because new math isn't some otherworldly thing that's taught instead of the methods that she learned 30 years ago, it's showing other methods that also work while teaching the way that she learned. She's at least nice to me because I'm a math teacher and her brother, but what I get from the parents of the kids in my class does not get put diplomatically. I have seen little girls who will declare that they will never be good at math and hate the subject in September be beaming with pride at the leaps that they've made and say that it's their favourite thing by the March reporting period, and the parents still hate it because they think that if math class isn't miserable for the kid, it's not rigorous. UGH. It's even easier if you live in Alberta, because sales tax here is 5%. Look at the tax number, multiply by 4 (because 20% is what I tip), call it done.

I've spent a lot of time over the last little while playing Assassin's Creed Unity and I feel like in a world where ACII was the last game in the series to come out, this would have been mind-blowing. It's like the series just entered an alternate timeline where on one path the previous 4 games happened and on this new one we had a hiatus and they put Unity out after years of anticipation. In that universe, Unity is an amazing leap forward for the series. I think I really like it, but will always need to qualify my like with that kind of description of it.

I just realized that this shit has been going on for nearly a year now. It still feels fresher than that, for some reason, so I didn't notice. What the fuck? How can people have maintained this level of toxicity for a full fucking year?

I had some friends over on Friday night because season 2 of Bojack Horseman dropped and we marathoned it together. A buddy lived pretty far away, and so crashed on my couch. When he woke up yesterday morning, I installed Rocket League and the two of us played for about 4 hours straight, including going through an entire co-op season. This game is super fucking fun. The fact that it has 4 player split-screen has motivated me to finally take the plunge and controller up. Now that there's this, Towerfall, Sportsfriends, Starwhal, and probably a bunch of other shit that I'm forgetting, the PS4 has found a spot as a dedicated couch party game machine. Awesome.

Congrats! Job interviews can be rough, but in my experience the best thing ever is just to be totally and completely transparent. If you don't have something nice to say, say something not nice diplomatically. I got hired in gifted education in large part because I was in a gifted program myself as a student and during the interview pulled no punches about how lacking their exact program was from a student's perspective. Because I also said what I would do differently instead of just tearing it down when asked what I'd thought about it, they liked me enough to give me a shot and it was the best job I've ever had. It certainly felt like a disaster at the time (in a "hmmm... maybe I was a bit too blunt" kind of way) but any time I've tried to sugar coat something I have not been hired, while any time I was willing to be honest and call someone on something I've got it. Another (lower stakes) example was when I was in school and getting a part time job at HMV. "What can you tell me about any of the artists on our top 40 wall?" "Honestly, I think most of the things you guys play in the store are horrible. Here's what I do know about..." Scary to do, but if you value being able to speak frankly with a supervisor, may as well start early and diplomatically (ie: keep it constructive).

All of the GBA ones are on the Wii U's virtual console, if you're looking for a way to play the best of them. Aria of sorrow is really good, as is Harmony of Dissonance if I recall correctly.

Furious 8 confirmed?

The. Fucking. Worst. I am so bummed about this right now. Having come of age in the Gamecube years, Iwata was the first executive I remember actually recognizing, and he was always friendly and amazing. This sucks a whole lot.

Man, what I would give for that to be a real campaign and not a horde survival mode. Zombies has done some cool things over the years, but the fundamental game is just totally unappealing to me. I want the game that that trailer is for, but I know it's just going to be a multiplayer tack-on.

My entire family. My stepdad is a professor of Economics and smokes more than anyone I know, but pretty much just as an afterdinner thing.

I believe you meant the "pronounial yous", not "proverbial".

I believe my plan right now is to see Inside Out on Tuesday if all goes well, Zeus. I'll report back.

Two and a half years after buying it, I sat down and demolished Far Cry 3 this week. I have tried to play every Far Cry game to the point that this one had come out (tried starting 2 like 5 times due to Thumb acclaim) and bounced off every single time. I'd even tried 3, getting so far as the third mission and unlocking two radio towers before bailing. On Sunday I decided to go back in and see if I was in the mood for it. 28 hours and 100% completion later, I guess I was. I have no idea why it clicked with me this time around, but I had a lot of fun. The story missions were often bad and frustrating, but approaching camps and clearing them out was ALWAYS awesome. I loved the way I'd meticulously plan out my approach, stealth through so much of a camp, and then find one dude who'd been hiding in a building or something while I scanned the place who'd set off the alarm and cause me to improvise and do ridiculous shit. If that dude didn't exist, I felt like badass silent death. If he did, it was always super fun to improvise and figure out what the hell I was going to do on the fly. Great gameplay, really stupid story that did nothing for me. I'll definitely give 4 a shot next time it's on a Steam sale, and in the meantime I've also had Blood Dragon in my Steam library for forever. May come back to that later this summer.

I want a yarn yoshi so bad. Is there even a North American release date for that shit yet?

So I found the shot that is all of metal gear in one picture.

Mmmm... Mad Tom. Hard to get out here in Alberta, but always worth it.

I was 11 when Neopets hit, so I was into it for a while but fell off quickly as I became a teenage boy who was too cool for that shit. I have fond memories of it and had no idea it was still running for so long. I'd totally read that.

Happy birthday, Apple Cider! Also, day-late birthday wishes are in order for toblix! Happy birthday to two awesome thumbs!

I thought the humour was tired and boring, but the gameplay of Guacamelee was so tight and fun that I forgave it. I loved playing that game, so tuning out the stuff around it wasn't too hard.

School's done for the year! I'm in starting on Monday!

You can get the GBA port of Yoshi's Island on WiiU VC at least. It's not perfect, but it will let you experience the game and you could remap the controls if you want.