miffy495

You can totally skip the opening video. Just hit A as it's starting...

Yeah, the board hires you and puts you where they need you. You can request specific places, but there are no promises. This is why it is entirely possible that I spent my school time training to teach early elementary school and end up teaching high school biology or something. Fun. Ysbreker, awesome news! Glad you're doing well!

My vacation is pretty much over as well. I'm technically not back at school until Tuesday, but am currently in the process of gathering up references and putting together my application for the Calgary Board of Education. Exciting, and nerve-wracking. I also have no fucking clue what a teacher CV is supposed to look like. At least people are agreeing to reference for me pretty quickly. That's a bit of a confidence-builder. It feels weird to be putting in my application nearly 4 months before I have the degree, but that's the process. I guess they figure my grades aren't going to dip too hard between now and then. At least I got a bit of a break before getting back into it.

YOU WOULDN'T IMPORT A CAR.

I believe I already have you, Jon, but if anyone else wants to add me, I'm miffy495 there, as anywhere. I've got ME3, Syndicate, and Battlefield 3 (the latter two of which were gifted to me ages ago and I still haven't had time to play. Whups.), and would be willing to get in a game if you catch me at a good time.

Snooglebum is back! Yay!

I think the question ties into whether or not you think we have an obligation to hypothetical future people (The obvious downfall of this being that if we act differently, the people who would have existed won't and different people will exist, so anything we do will result in the non-existence of an infinite amount of potential people), as well as the nature of said obligation. Personally, I am more concerned with the general world we leave to said people, and a consequence of this for me is that the concern of overpopulation is the main thing which would prevent me from having children. On the other hand, as Forbin says, it is intimidating as hell to see the amount of people being raised with ideals that I personally see as naive at best and destructive at worst. Naive is (in most cases) fine, and doesn't hurt anyone. My view of religion is that anyone can believe whatever the hell they want as long as they don't push it on others (and that goes for all those atheists who make the rest of us look bad as well), unless and until it becomes a cause of harm through action or non-action, and that some of the beliefs that current children are being raised with promote all of the above is very troubling to me. Further, the parents of these children don't seem particularly concerned with the same kind of thoughts that would prevent me from having children who would argue against them. Rather than fighting this by aggressive procreation, however, I chose to become an educator. As I said, I don't like evangelists of any kind, but in a lot of cases even being exposed to the idea that other beliefs exist and may have a point can be enough for someone (especially a young someone) to realize what aspects of their own beliefs may be dangerous. Full disclosure: though intellectually, I can't really rationalize adding a child of my own to the world, I've always really wanted to raise a little girl and still hope to do so one day. Can't justify it, aside from it just being something that I want to do with my life, but I still hope to. I may go the adoption route, and honestly it's probably more "moral" or whatever than adding one more baby to the world, but something about the idea of going to a place and choosing a child puts me off. I know it's a shitty stance to have, especially given how badly so many of those kids need loving families, but something intangible about it bothers me. My brain tells me it would be the right thing to do, especially given my own concerns about adding more people to the world, but my gut doesn't like it for some reason. Maybe that's just some internalized shit from my childhood rearing its head up, I don't know. Probably. Lots of time to figure that out though. I'm only 25 and starting on my first real career path. Thinking about my own child-raising is quite a bit away.

Just saying.

I picked it up and enjoyed the time I put in, I just didn't put much time in. The THPS3 level pack was super cheap yesterday for a flash sale, and I grabbed it for $2.50. Seemed worth it for that. Just installed it, and will play it in short bursts over the coming while.

I loved K&L1 when I played it, right around the release of K&L2. Got so stoked to play 2 immediately after, went straight into it, and couldn't stand it. Worth trying again? Did I just burn myself out trying to marathon the two games together?

Tony Hawk and Jet Set Radio are nothing alike. That said, as an afficionado, HD is fine for nostalgia but probably not great if you're brand new to the series. I think THPS may have been one of those "of a time" games that wouldn't really work anymore, and having just the same levels as THPS 1, 2, and (if you get the DLC) 3 but now in the Unreal engine is pretty much only appealing to you if you're a sucker like me who unlocked absolutely everything with every character in the original three games. Strangely, never played one after 4, but did pick up HD for a go. It's fun, but I imagine it is only fun because of my love for the originals, not because it's any good on its own merits. I'd say that unless you're die-hard nostalgic for the old days of THPS (me), it's pretty much only valuable as a curiosity.

I have one dungeon left in this game. I should really finish it before school starts again.

Driver San Fransisco is not an easy driving game, but well worth the experience. I'm a dude who rarely plays racing-only games and tends to suck at those (testify, Formula Thumb-ers!) but when there's an extra objective or it's an open world thing I improve drastically, so San Fransisco was kind of exactly what I'm good at and I still thought it was a bit harder than most. That said, the last hour-ish of game is fantastic and ridiculous, and the rest of it leading up to it is a really enjoyable ride, if a bit clunky here and there. For $7.50, get it. I know you're a dude who always tries to finish his games before moving on, but I'm going to say to everyone else considering this game that this is a thing you should really do with this one. It took me about 10 hours to beat, 9 hours was a pleasant, pretty fun but not stand-out driving game, and the last hour went batshit crazy. That last hour makes the game, and if you don't intend to see it through, I'd be tempted to say that buying it is a waste of money. Maybe that's putting it a little strongly, but you definitely aren't getting anywhere near the experience the game could give you if you duck out early. Also, Tanu, beating Burnout Paradise is no joke. I'd say you're perfectly equipped to handle Driver. The physics are a little weird, and handbrake turns threw me for a while (they definitely do NOT work like in Burnout), but you'll cope just fine.

For about a month I've had a Darksiders II save file at the door to what I assumed was the final dungeon in the game. I'm used to the last level of a Zelda-alike being this big sprawling thing that will take me hours, so I'd been saving it for an afternoon that I had to kill. Currently staying in a different province with my folks, and had a whole day ahead of me, so I thought "now is the time!" and fired it up. Turns out, there is no last dungeon. There is only a door, then a boss fight. It's not even that impressive a boss fight. Took him down easily my first try. Then credits. A month of waiting to finish that game for a 10 minute experience. Oh well. Overall, I think I liked Darksiders II. I opted to enable my save for an eventual New Game+, and may do that some day if I have a week off and nothing better to do. I liked 1 a lot more though. Still, pretty good.

The slambanginest!

Yeah, I'm totally stuck on #79 right now. No fucking clue what to do from there.

Merry everything, folks.

I met my new upstairs neighbours last night. Turns out, their little daughter was one of my favourite students from practicum last month. The "HOLY CRAP, MR. W???" moment was awesome.

Try rolling down a hill. It may attempt to return to its natural environment.

I thought John Carter was fun. Not great, but it was free and I enjoyed myself. Would watch again if it was on TV as I was flipping channels or something.

I don't know about overall goty, but Sleeping Dogs has definitely taken my open-world-goty award. Each year there's one open world game that totally grabs me. Past contenders have been Just Cause 2, Saint's Row 3, and Red Faction Guerilla. I get sucked into them and can't stop until I've done EVERYTHING. I got every collectible in Sleeping Dogs, did every security camera thing, every race, even all the damn karaoke songs. I completed the shit out of that game, and I'm about to start the Halloween DLC. Guys, that game is pretty good.

I will be playing the back half of the game for the first time. I got up to Colossus 8 on PS2, and then fell off with (surprise!) the start of a semester. Will give it my all to keep to a one every two weeks schedule this time around.

My internet has been down for 90% of the time since Sunday, so I'm only now catching up on things, but thanks! It's weird to be 25 and not have an excuse for childish bullshit anymore.

Bioshock Infinite's ending will trigger Levine's sleeper agents across North America, bringing his new world order to glorious fruition.

I have the HD rerelease. I'll give it a shot to be in on this, but no guarantees once school starts up. I don't think I turned on a game console for about 2 months this past term.