miffy495

Canadian politics time! I live in a province that, for the past 44 years, has elected Conservative government after conservative government. I was -16 when the Progressive Conservative Party took their first majority government in my home by kicking out the even MORE right wing Social Credit Party (founded by a guy who actually went by the name "Bible Bill"). They have ONLY ever had majorities. A thing to understand before I go on is that Canada basically has three viable parties. You have the Conservatives (at the provincial level, named the oxymoronic "Progressive Conservatives"), who I should not need to tell you the stance of, the Liberals, another poorly named party that's actually the centrist option, and the New Democratic Party, the left wing fringe group (if you ask the media, anyway) that has never actually held federal power and can occasionally get a premiership in the zanier provinces. There are always provincial fringe parties, but the only one of these that ever fields candidates in federal elections is the Parti Quebecois. In Alberta, we have the "so right wing it's terrifying" Wild Rose Party, which actually nearly kicked the PCs out in the last election and terrified anyone who is not attending church several times a week. With falling oil prices blasting the shit out of our economy and a lot of terrible PR choices, the PC have been taking a bath on the provincial level lately. This all culminated in Tuesday's election. Overnight, Alberta went from a right wing stronghold and the most conservative place in the country to being run by a very strong NDP majority. Wild Rose managed to take second place and form the opposition, but they have less than half the seats of the NDP. This lead to a Conservative cabinet minister at the federal level saying "I guess they're Albertastan now", which is a joke that both sides have rallied behind. The right wing people because ha ha casual racism, and the left wing because it means that THEY'RE actually afraid of US now. I am very proud of my province this week. Two days after that, unfortunately, bill C-51 passed. This is an invasive government monitoring program hastily introduced in the wake of a terrorist attack last year that allows citizens to be arrested and held without explanation. That is less good. Luckily there is a federal election still to come this year and I am latching on to this hope that the left wing resurgence in Canada from the last few years may actually come to fruition and we can finally stop being embarrassed by Stephen Harper. Keep us in your thoughts.

Or that the company will be giving proportional raises when the minimum wage goes up and this will somehow result in you making less after those go through. Happened to my girlfriend last month, and she and her manager have been fighting head office on her behalf to right it since. Luckily, her manager is a swell guy and is going to bat for her on this.

Hell to the yes! I'll tell my buddy as well. He's not a thumb, but he's good people and needs a crew.

PLEASE CAN WE PLAY THIS ON A SUNDAY? Seriously, it looks rad. I got up to like 50 points away from level 10 tonight playing with a drinking buddy, who is my ONE local friend who bought this game. It was a good time, but two people is not exactly a huge rolling crew. I need to get this running right!

I've had a weird thing where the framerate stutters when I'm driving. I heard that's a common thing that the last patch was supposed to fix, but didn't for me. That's not an issue with old or new PCs though, just kind of an issue in general.

It's Gordon's glasses.

Aside from taking like 8 years, the system transfer works as advertised. And anything that's come out on WiiU VC with gamepad support (and save states in N64 games!) will be heavily discounted if you already had it on Wii. I got Paper Mario for $2 yesterday! I sense a 4th playthrough coming on...

Nintendo will always win all impending console wars. Welcome home.

They finally released the DVDs this month! I now don't need to worry about Netflix for my KotH fix.

Can we get a weekend round of this for us North American schlubs? I made a punk rock girl with the first name that popped in to my head, did the few tutorial things, and am ready for action. Wombat will join the fight as soon as she's able to make it!

I stalled out 3/4 of the way through Wonderful 101. I should really pop in that disc and finish it up, I was loving it a tonne. The levels always felt a bit too long for their own good (and too long between checkpoints), but the STYLE man, THE STYLE.

Mondays, you say. Well ok then. I'll see you folks in July, barring some weekend shenanigans happening sometime. Hope it's still running.

Yeah, I realized that I hadn't played this since before getting Amiibos. Captain Falcon is my new Mario Kart main. Haven't even looked at the other new racers.

Ok, I bought the thing. Haven't played it yet, but it's installed now.

My girlfriend will be relieved to hear that. She references that movie all the time. I've never seen it, but maybe I'll give it a shot now.

I've never heard the term "boob-socking" before. Thanks for that.

I have Rocksmith, two cables, three electric guitars, and a bass now. I made the transition that Rock Band was trying to get me to make all of those years that I was playing on Expert and contemplating making the switch. I can play on my own, and if I want to play a multiplayer rhythm game, I can plug a friend in with one of my other guitars or bass and we can play real music together. The easy modes are simple enough that they still have fun, and the experience of playing a real instrument is so much better. I'm always down for more Rock Band drumming, but aside from that, I don't know what these games have to offer me any more. Harmonix won, but in the process made themselves irrelevant to me...

Watching the Flames-Canucks game tonight. Gave up when the last minute and a half of the third period reached the 10 minutes of real time mark due to all the fights that were breaking out. God, they played well, but this was fucking embarrassing. It's really hard to justify liking hockey when this is all that people who don't watch the games see. Blugh.

The person who posted the article about the procedure on Tech Times is also named Rex. Just sayin...

I don't get paid for the month until Wednesday, so would be out this week, potentially in next?

Ok, I played through Grim Fandango in 2001 with camera-relative controls. Tank controls were ALWAYS OPTIONAL. I don't get why the entire internet seems to believe that the rerelease is the first time you can play in a way other than with tank controls. That's been bothering me for a while. ANYWAY, the rerelease is still very worth getting for other reasons of quality. I'll be on my way now.

I enjoy Star Wars enough, but have never been passionate about it like some people. Curious to see this, but I doubt it will be an experience beyond "Huh, that was pretty fun" for me. That said, I like a fun time as much as anyone and this could be cool.

I have a great 6-piece Victorinox set as well! High five! I promised my class a popcorn party when their behaviour goals were met, and said party is happening tomorrow. While I was at Sobey's buying supplies, I walked over to the meat section just because. My girlfriend is a vegan and I only ever really have meat at restaurants (it's just not worth making at home when only half the house is going to eat the meal) but decided that tonight I was going to make a steak just because. I did not take a picture because I devoured it too fast, but damn. My mouth has not been that happy for a long time. I'd forgotten how much better meat can taste when you make it yourself.

If it goes on sale in time for summer vacation, I'm in! I have 10 weeks of school left, then 8 weeks off. For those 8 weeks, I would love to get in some multiplayer shenanigans in all sorts of games, GTAV included.

Am I gonna be the only one to say tell him about this place? If he's looking for a community of people, you're already part of one. I signed up when I was 16. It's been 11 years and I'm still here and this place was where I did a lot of growing up. I'm sure we'd be a reasonably sympathetic bunch for a kid who's going through shit, and it can't hurt to have someone join up with a community that ISN'T full of racism/sexism/homophobia rather than fall into one that is. Maybe it's the fact that this kid is exactly the type that I work with, but I'm all for inviting a kid who needs some people to listen to come and be listened to.