Life

[Gormongous]

Seriously, reading that medical stuff makes me scared to even visit the US. What the fucking what.

 

Whatever, the solution's easy. Just don't get sick!

[dibs]

Whatever, the solution's easy. Just don't get sick!

 

Or get travel insurance, sheesh. You will be better off with that than most of the natives!

[Patrick R]

When my insurance at my new job kicks in, I might finally get that hearing aid I've needed for the past couple years. That is, if it is even covered by my insurance. Yay America!

[Gormongous]

When my insurance at my new job kicks in, I might finally get that hearing aid I've needed for the past couple years. That is, if it is even covered by my insurance. Yay America!

 

I ought to go to the dentist. My insurance has dental, in theory, but I don't really understand the circumstances under which I have access to it. I should figure it out soon.

[tegan]

I missed the mail this morning. I'll have to get my package later.

 

Instead I went to the mall and bought Lego and Pokémon cards. I am an adult.

[dibs]

Today when my boss challenged me on not wanting to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle I has to explain that was caus I am over 30 and want to be an adult mutant ninja turtle.

[Dewar]

Aren't all adults supposed to want to be teens again?

[syntheticgerbil]

Retro had a rare opening at the studio. It's for a concept artist. I probably don't have the chops, but I applied in high hopes that I'd be drawing Durnkey Kurng.

[dibs]

Aren't all adults supposed to want to be teens again?

I'm pretty much allergic to nostalgia. It is gross.

[Twig]

Retro had a rare opening at the studio. It's for a concept artist. I probably don't have the chops, but I applied in high hopes that I'd be drawing Durnkey Kurng.

I have a friend (well, more like an acquaintance, a former classmate) who works at Retro. I'm jealous. I long ago gave up on my childhood dreams of working for Nintendo (NST rarely does anything, Japanese devs don't hire Americans unless they speak fluent Japanese and EVEN THEN you have to WORK in Japan, etc.), but Retro? I'd still work at Retro in a heartbeat.

 

Speaking of working... STILL NO NEWS from that Dallas company. Had a fantastic interview with a local mobile social casino game developer earlier this week. I was very honest about my lack of interest in casino games, and very honest about my lack of experience in objective-C and they STILL seemed to like me, so that's great! The people seemed super cool. One of the guys I talked to is working on a really neat-sounding Rift project in his freetime, and we talked about Unity for like fifteen minutes after the interview portion finished. They said they're gonna let me know by end of day Monday. Please do.

[Nachimir]

Aren't all adults supposed to want to be teens again?

 

Oh Jesus fuck no.

[elmuerte]

There's LEGO cards now!?

[Roderick]

Lego has branched off into tons of weird things. The Ninjago and Chima themes both have a whole collectible/battling aspect to them, with cards and novelty toy mechanics. Hugely popular. Then there are the minifig collectibles, now at series 11 which will be themed around the movie and have zombies and Abe Lincoln in them. Aww yiss.

[elmuerte]

Gross. But I understand the need for it. LEGO simply has too much competition from non-creative toys. They need to spread to remain a viable business. I really think parent should by LEGO (or similar creative toys) for their kids, but they rather give them dumb video games.

[tegan]

There's LEGO cards now!?

 

Those were two separate items. Sorry.

 

 

Here's what I got, altogether:

 

 

 

It's a little blurry, sorry. Pictured:

• very small Lego Ninja Turtles set with Krang, a missile launcher thing, and a bench with some decoy turtles for target practice
• blind-bagged Lego minifig (cool Blacktron robot thing)
• Pokémon TCG Genesect deck (you can see the deckbox on the right and can sort of see the shiny purple Genesect coin in the middle)
• Pokémon TCG "Elite Trainer Box," which is like an MTG fat pack. It came with 40 Energy cards, eight booster packs, a bunch of dice for use as damage counters, 65 card sleeves (I have one standing up so you can see the nice Genesect design on the back), a couple of acrylic markers for Poison/Burn status, and a nice big card box with 4 dividers.

By an astonishing coincidence, I got 2 Genesects in the booster packs, so I made a custom deck with all my new cards themed around my four Genesects. The Pokémon TCG also gives you download codes with the cards, so after today's server maintenance ends I'm gonna' go on and redeem my codes for 140 digital cards. I started playing this game again recently because I am a dumb idiot dumb butt.

[elmuerte]

I knew you didn't mean "LEGO cards", it's just my kind of humor to take advantage of language ambiguities.

 

Those are some really tiny Ninja Turtles A couple of months ago I found out that there's a dedicated LEGO store in the city I live in, I still haven't visited it. I'm still not sure if I want to return to LEGO. I more or less said goodbye to LEGO once I got access to a compiler.

[dibs]

i've heard two rumors from my old workplace this week. The first that they were going to try and hire me back, the second that i had already been hired back. I told my sister who lives in that town to start spreading rumors i'd come back for six figures^^

[elmuerte]

I'd love to be there when they reveal where in those 6 figures the point is.

[Nachimir]

Gross. But I understand the need for it. LEGO simply has too much competition from non-creative toys. They need to spread to remain a viable business. I really think parent should by LEGO (or similar creative toys) for their kids, but they rather give them dumb Video games.

 

I used to think this, but looking back at the plainer lego sets I had a kid, they look horrifically naive next to a lot of modern toys. I think it's better that creative toys like this survive through licensing than die swimming against the tide. Plus, they still do their own cool stuff. I think Monster Fighters is pretty much one of the best themes they've ever done.

[elmuerte]

I might need to buy set #21103

There are also some awesome ghostbuster sets on cuusoo

[Roderick]

A few years ago I really loved some of the themes Lego did. The modern Pirates line and Pharaoh's Quest were amazing. Atlantis had it's fun things too. Licensing-wise it's a mixed bag. The Indiana Jones sets were splendid, Star Wars is occasionally good, Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean were disappoinments.

Right now I've quit buying any of the store Lego sets, and focus exclusively on the marquee adult sets. The modular buildings are breathtaking, and there are tons of enormous (and expensive!) boxes only available online or in official stores. I didn't know they had one in Gouda, by the way. I know Fokkido in Zwolle, but that's about it.

Oh, I am a fan of the Superheroes sets though. This week I purchased Arkham Asylum online, woo!

[elmuerte]

Apparently it's run by true LEGO fans. This is one of their creations which is/was in their store:

http://www.123website.nl/playtoday/

[Roderick]

Walking through Den Bosch this morning, I encountered a young man flyering. I generally don't pay attention to them, but he approached me and asked if I knew Lindsey Stirling. That rang a bell: she's that violinist who achieved some fame with gaming-inspired compositions and Kate Bush-style dancing. So I told him, and he was very excited to finally meet someone who knew her. Turns out he was campaigning to get people to vote for her in the upcoming Dutch Top 2000 list, which runs every year and is a completely useless collection of popular songs, topped by a predictable, nigh-immutable summit.

He didn't seem very comfortable on the street, his eyes rolling this way and that as I spoke to him. He seemed very nervous.

I thought this was a such a wonderful, but strange thing to spend your energy on. He actually had nicely printed flyers. I asked him what his connection to Lindsey was, but he wss just a fan trying to get her name out.

Then I went home with my German copy of Er Ist Wieder Da, the big 2012 hit about Hitler returning to present day Berlin and becoming a media star.

[clyde]

I enjoyed hearing about this encounter. The fact that you knew who he was talking about probably made him feel ecstatic for a moment. I don't experience ecstacy every day, but when I do, it motivates me for a good while.

[dibs]

Coincidentally, i was watching some of her stuff on youtube last night. Her phantom of the oprea cover was agressivly terrible in some spots. I can see why the internet loves her and all, but I was not won over.