Okay: "I don't care that a member of FA's staff is a confessed rapist, or that the site owner is a rapist-sympathizer, or that pretty much everyone on staff are deeply misogynistic and that they're scrambling to censor anything incriminating said about them; I'm going to stay because I have so many submissions and followers and favorite artists here already. I really don't care what the people running the website are like as long as the site stays up"


NOT Okay: "Who cares about one little rape? Zouch and Dragonbeer are WONDERFUL PEOPLE and if you don't like them you're just a big drama queen. Go on and quit FA like a bunch of PUSSIES, all of you will be crawling back next week. FA is the best art site in the entire world and nothing will ever replace it. I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE AND I'M PROUD."





But hey thanks for making it really clear which of you need to be unwatched. If the only people NOT making Weasyl accounts right now are woman-hating, rapist-sympathizing human scum like you, that's a HUGE bonus for the rapidly growing Weasyl community. ;)

Seems like some people got advanced access to the poke bank, 'cause for the first time ever Meowths are listed on the Global Trade System.

Naturally, all of them want legendary pokemon in return... All of them except for one very generous person who wanted only an Accelgor. And guess which pokemon I had just acquired the previous day?

So, yup. I got myself a Meowth. And not JUST a meowth, but one knowing THREE very interesting moves they can ONLY acquire from breeding: Charm, Hypnosis, and Last Resort. Good find!


Naturally, I spent all last night breeding the little guy until his pelvis was bruised, and the end result is an ENTIRE PC BOX full of Meowths, all knowing the three forementioned moves. Most have "Technician" as their ability but a couple have "Pickup".


So, anybody want a Meowth kitten? I won't even extort legendaries out of you for them (but if you'd like to give me something interesting in return that would be just fine). Deposit whatever you want to trade me onto the GTS with Meowth as the requested trade, and then post here telling me what you put up.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5090878/

^ The above-linked journal is on the topic of the value of art. The following was my reply, and a full follow-up topic in its own right:

On this topic, I've had a bit of a debate in the past, both internally and with friends, if certain minimalist modern-art pieces can claim the same value. If I were to see in an art gallery, for example, a single black line drawn across an empty canvas, and art snobs enthusiasts were standing around declaring that single black line on a canvas to be utter genius and attributing it a value of hundreds of dollars... I would actually be a little angry. I'd be angry because I feel that art's value comes from the skill and lifetime of experience of the artist and the fact that most of us could not have made what any given individual artist gives to us, and that it is valuable because of that uniqueness (and partially due to the amount of effort an artist puts in to the work) whereas something like a single black line drawn across a canvas, literally any one of us could have made but none of us would have dared call it art. I feel angry when I see such minimalist pieces because they put them up next to the pieces such as Nocturne in Black and Gold and people say "this single line drawn on a canvas, that any one of us could have made, is of comparable value to this piece that only Whistler could have produced. This single brushstroke is equivalent to two days work. This lack of substance is as significant as this inspired vision".

What do you think? Is it a righteous anger or is it simply "not getting it" the same as someone who looks at any art and doesn't appreciate it?

Addendum: Anger is merely what I feel; I'm willing to accept that there IS something I'm not getting, if some person can explain it to me.




Update: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/GiveMeAB.....inglePage=true

Samsaranmusing posted this link on Tumblr. It's very relevant to the discussion.

TL;DR summary: a news channel took some art by highly-acclaimed modern artists, along with some pieces painted by common four-year-olds and some stuff painted by monkeys and elephants and then quizzed not only common people but also professional art critics and art historians on how they ranked the pieces.

Nobody could tell them apart.

Actually the pieces by the prestigious and successful modern artists often rated lower than the four-year-olds' paintings.



I'm starting to think for certain that modern art is actually about intentionally making a big deal over nothing for the sole purpose of having an excuse to be snobby and materialistic.

On the other hand I do have one friend who thinks pretty highly of the minimalist stuff and defended it to me at one point; he actually has a brother who produced a successful fashion show in Canada not too long ago, with the fashions all homages to some specific artist I forget the name of. Admittedly, I thought it all looked pretty stupid and if I wanted to look at people strutting around in silly-looking and impractical "clothing" I'd just watch a Lady Gaga video or something.

We argued on the value of modern art quite heatedly but I don't recall what conclusions were drawn..

Using the power of high-quality, zero-latency webcams and simple remote-controlled toys, this website lets you play with cats at cat shelters around the country, all from your web-browser, in real-time:

http://www.ipetcompanion.net/client.....humane-society

You can click to go to a different shelter, if the one you're looking at is offline or the kitties are all asleep or if actual people enter the room and you start to feel like a creep.

(if the above didn't embed right then: http://youtu.be/jofNR_WkoCE )

Originally found via Tumblr. http://cyclopette.tumblr.com/post/6.....eenragem0nster )



Update: I just made someone's 1k point milestone on Turntable extra special by encouraging them to play this song, and then posting the gifs from the above Tumblr page into chat at the key moments.

I feel very proud of myself.

So as far as the virtual world thing goes, we've currently got two very different ends of the spectrum.

We've got most MMO’s, which are essentially just single-player RPGs with optional co-op play, where you’re ALL individually THE ONE HERO and tied with a million other people for position of #1 most important person in the world, and you just go along your linear quest-lines interspersed with the meaningless filler of grinding and farming, and you see the shadows of other people and desperately try to pretend that they aren't also THE ONE HERO and sometimes you either have to wait in line to fight the infinite reincarnation of THE ONE SPECIFIC BAD GUY or else the game stops even trying to be massively multiplayer and sends you to an instanced map.

There’s NO IMMERSION there because you’re going through a pre-written story, the other players usually don’t even matter (and when they do it’s just for pointless PvP or an extra-big co-op party to fight a giant damage-sponge) and you never have meaningful interactions with the game world unless it’s a pre-scripted event in the pre-written story-line.

On the other end of the spectrum, you've got the flat-out Sandboxes like Second Life, where instead of too much structure you have NO structure; the world is only as wide and as persistent as any given plot-owner wants their Sex Roleplay Background to be, and you either have to make it a private instance for you and specific people, or leave it open to people planting 3D-modeled genitals or whatever all over your stuff. Either way, you've only got a Chat or RP backdrop, not a dynamic world.

What I have always wanted to see more of would be in the middle-ground. Something designed from the ground up as a virtual world, NOT as a pre-scripted RPG you can choose to share with others. Something that would give you the tools to affect and interact with the world, but with structured systems for making those changes, with a fully realized world as the starting point. I want to see an online world where the players can CREATE NARRATIVES. I want a land filled with mysteries to unravel, not by every individual player who takes a quest but by one dedicated sole among many who fail. I want a player, while exploring, to uncover an artifact of immense power, and with it and a group of loyal followers, attempt to conquer a small town, with success being an actual, possible outcome. And I want for other players to have the means to stop the villain, or undo what he has done, and cripple him such that he will need time to recover or need a new source of power before he can attempt such a thing again. And for people to see that player and know his reputation as a villain and a conqueror.

I want to see players as shopkeeps because that’s what they've chosen as their purpose in the virtual world, not just auctioning off the product of a bunch of menial farming, en mass. I want to see players as barons or even kings, others trying to usurp them or assassinate them. I want to have the possibility of making a name for myself not just by being the top name on a leader-board, but by accomplishing something worth talking about.

People say, “What you describe there you could get in EVE”. EVE is a nice game, for sure, and an attempt at what I’m yearning for, but it isn't nearly there. I can just play EVE like a game and unless I choose to participate in a fleet war or get directly ganked by another player, the only evidence that I or anyone else are a part of the game’s world are some gently fluctuating item values. At the end of the day I’m just derping around in a vast void trying to make some money. I have the OPTION to roleplay, but it’s something I’d have to go out of my way to do.

Consider the real world. Even if you never do anything NOTABLE, you’re still a PART of the world. Your life reacts to changes in the world and the actions or inaction of other people. If I put a box out on the sidewalk, I have now affected the world and other people have to either walk around the box or deliberately move the box. If I find a dollar laying on the ground and take it, that’s a dollar that nobody else will have the opportunity to take. But, they’ll find their own, separate opportunities in turn.

Even if you keep to yourself, you can’t forget that you’re part of the world (without smoking some serious shit, at least) because it just doesn't exist in a way that you can do that. Ignore it, try to escape from it, eventually you have to eat and pay your bills and get things done and all of that requires interacting WITH your world and the people in it.

What I want is a world that comes close to being, by all means, a virtual world, as dynamic and changeable and full of possibility as the real world is, lacking from the real world ONLY the tedium and need for commitment and fear of permanent consequence. I want a virtual world in which you take part by existing, not by choosing to play pretend.

The closest anyone has come, I’d say, were certain MUDs of impressive scale. But, of course, they were limited in their complexity such that “the game” was still present, and more importantly immersion could only go so far by power of imagination alone, with little audio or visual presence.

I refuse to believe that what I’m yearning for “Can’t be done”. No, I think it’s only that nobody is TRYING. For the time being, they’re all content making their World of Warcraft and their Second Life and every iteration of the two, either too structured or not structured at all.

When will people start constructing true, meaningful virtual worlds for us to take part in?

What. Don't give me that look.

There was an actual rooster loose in our parking lot at work. :D

We had no idea where it came from or what to do with it. Poor thing wandered around peoples' cars before slipping underneath one and falling asleep. The girl who owned it told me her shift had just ended and we needed to get the rooster out from under so she could leave. Got a broom, poked it a few times, nothin'. Went from poking to light whapping for a while before it finally got aggrivated enough to leave... at which point the various teenage girls went chasing it in entirely the wrong direction (towards the store, towards the drive-through, basically anywhere except towards the yard). About fell over laughing when I started chasing it and it was all "bok-bok-bok!" ... even moreso when it tripped on the curb and fell on its face. Poor silly thing.

Called the police, told them we had a stray rooster and asked if they could send someone to capture it. So, an officer shows up like twenty minutes later and just tells us he isn't equipped to do anything about it. Leaves. Fucking great. Isn't animal control a normal duty of the police force? Why would they send someone WITHOUT the means to catch a stray animal when we specifically told them what was going on?

Had to start yelling a bit to get everyone to just leave the thing alone when it crawled under my car and tried to sleep again; I was going to be the last person to leave so as long as it stayed put under there it wouldn't get run over. Apparently some of the teenage employees from before got a handful of friends and managed to capture it. I have no idea what happened to the rooster after this but as long as it doesn't involve teenage animal cruelty I suppose I don't care. They could find it a home or keep it as a pet or feed it to their dog, whatever.

What a day, though.

But I'm sure I won't buy anything unless I already reeeeaaally wanted it; let me just take a casual glance at the store pa-

BORDERLANDS 2 ON FLASH SALE FOR $10

FULL SEASON PASS OF ALL CAMPAIGN DLCs ALSO $10

CHARACTER DLC's $3-something

AAAAAH

EVERYTHING ELSE IS ON SALE TOO

GAMES

AAAAAH

I thought I would put together a little FAQ for my friends who don't have access to the Steam Trading Card beta yet and are curious. Or those who are in but haven't figured everything out, yet.

Q: First of all, why should I care?

A1: You'll get cards for free by playing certain games, and if you don't care about anything else you can just put those cards up for sale on the Steam Market and get steam credit. That's right, free credit towards purchase of things on steam for very little effort. Or, you can give those cards to your friends who are collecting them and they will love you.

A2: Or, collect the cards yourself and redeem full sets for badges. Show off these badges as a testament to how much you like the game. Completing a badge also levels up your steam profile (which grants you the ability to show off more stuff on your profile at once) and gives you little vanity things like profile background wallpaper and emoticons for use in steam chat.

Q: Okay, well how do I get started then?

A: First, join the Steam Trading Cards Group. They email out access passes to people, supposedly, so it won't hurt to be eligible for some of those.

Then, if you want to get in faster, know that the trading card beta access passes themselves can be bought on the steam market place. Currently, for somewhere between a nickel and a dime. This however requires steam credits; If you do not wish to go buy a chunk of steam credits just to get in, consider selling a TF2 item for some or ask a friend who already has access to get you a pass with some of your card sellings.

I would be happy to get passes for my closest / most current friends, especially if you'll help me get some cards I want later. ;)

Q: Alright, I'm in. How do I get these cards?

A: First off, in Steam go under your named tab (to the right of Community) and look for the link to the Badges page.

This page lists all of the card-eligible games that you own, and keeps track of which cards you have and now many free drops you have available for that game. (The page also keeps track of badges not related to the cards, which also count towards profile level)

I'd recommend getting all of your free drops as soon as you can, for reasons*...

Simply play those games and you will automatically collect badges!

Q: I can only get half enough cards for a badge; how do I get a full one if I want one?

A: Normally* you'll need to obtain the rest from other steam users, either by buying them on the market or trading for them. If you go to your badge page and click on an individual game, it will tell you which cards you are missing AND if anyone on your friends list currently has one of those cards!

The most effective way to complete badges without spending any money is to decide which games you are okay NOT getting badges for. Get all of your card drops for THOSE games and trade or sell them to get cards for games you do want badges for!

Q: What were those asterisks about, bub? / What's this about Booster Packs?

A: If you have already obtained all of your drops for a game (Just gotten YOUR drops, you don't have to have completed a badge) you become eligible for Booster Packs for that game, containing three more random cards. You want to become eligible for your booster packs as soon as possible, because Booster Packs do not drop from playing the game like the other cards did.. Instead, a Booster Pack is granted to ONE RANDOM ELIGIBLE PLAYER every time someone completes a badge for that game. You are also only eligible if you have logged into steam within the past week..

Make sure to get ALL of your card drops for the games you want cards from first, before all else, so that you'll get chances at booster packs. Then, get all of your drops for everything else as soon as you can so you'll have more chances at more free cards in general.

Q: Foil? What's the difference?

A: Yes, foil cards are a thing, you have a small chance to get a foil version card in place of any regular card. The only PRACTICAL difference between foils and regulars is that a full foil set grants more profile XP and will get you rarer emoticons and profile backgrounds. More importantly, people are actually willing to pay over ten times as much for foil cards as they do for the normal ones, so think of a foil as finding a free $5 in steam credit instead of a free $0.40. Pretty nice, huh?

Q: What if I just really want a specific emoticon or profile background?

A: You're in luck! Not only can they be sold on the market once acquired, but their value is often much LESS than any given individual card! (excepting the rarer emoticons, which are worth maybe all of your free drops for any one game)

You want a little Borderlands psycho face or a little Don't Starve Wilson to post in your steam chats? Think a specific profile background looks cool but not even own the game? Go sell yourself a random card and buy -several- emoticons with it.

I dreamed of orange, four-eyed cobras slithering up out of the sink. Startling to say the least, but they didn't seem hostile.

I dreamed that a single little fish in a tiny, desktop aquarium somehow progenated an entire aquatic ecosystem, with miniature versions of sharks and other oceanic fish.

I dreamed of going to ask the apartment manager about the sink-cobras. His building, on the entry floor, was well kept and tastefully furnished, in good condition... but descending down into the basement (where he lived) it was a deep complex of over-cluttered, dusty, abandoned apartment rooms with no light (I went, with my cousin, by phone-light). It would have been a field day for an urban explorer. The manager was a drugged up old man wandering around in the dark and he offered no help for the cobra infestation. In fact, he blamed me for not taking some seemingly unrelated precaution.



Aquatic life and eerie, abandoned places are themes that often show up in my dreams. The snakes are new, though.

When they start raving about how the FBI is murdering toddlers... and that it's somehow because of gun control?

What? D:\

I just awoke from some shit that makes the most high-octane nightmare fuel you could find on FA look cute and cuddly by comparison.

How to even explain it.. it was an undead apocalypse, but so different from what we're so desensitized to now. It didn't start with humans. In fact, I don't think I saw one human zombie. It was the animals, and they weren't merely zombified, they were... purpose-crafted abominations. It was as though some grand necromancer had simultaneously killed and reshaped every non-human animal to be found, overnight, and I had awoken to being hunted by them.

Towards the end my mind started ruining the theme by mixing in some decidedly less horrific themes. Some facebook-y casual strategy game nonsense started happening about the time the surviving remnants of humanity were getting a proper settlement going...

This was one of those nightmares where afterwards you have to just sit and... forget everything you saw... in order to put your mind back together.

http://crashfu.tumblr.com/post/5136.....-about-the-off

In summary, I challenged the most common fan interpretation of a character from tumblr-beloved game Off with my own headcanon.

I posted this late Saturday night. When I went to bed, it had twenty posts. By morning, over a hundred. Seemingly every time I refreshed my page afterwards it had about a hundred more, somewhere over a thousand when I left for work at six. Got home at 1am and it's at nearly three-thousand notes.

The most surprising part? Hardly any of the comments are very nasty. Some folks have stated (and not even rudely, either) some facts that Off's creator, Mortis Ghost, has said, and I think one person called my post pretentious, but other than that..

I'm kind of overwhelmed. My previous record was 69 notes, and beyond that only a couple of my posts have gotten as high as 20... to get 3000? That's... wow.

I didn't know this was a flavor they had, but there it was at Kroger and a little cheaper than all the other varieties, to boot.

According to wikipedia it seems this variety keeps being discontinued and reintroduced. Guess I'd better enjoy it while they still have it.. again.



Also the bottle label has a picture of a goat drinking the beer out of a stubby wineglass or a chalice or something with the words "Tastes Good". Odd, but makes it easy to identify.

*sip* ... Tastes good.

I’ve been toying with some concepts for a specific race in a fantasy setting I’ve been thinking about. Right now I’m leaning towards either of the following:

Physically speaking, they’re a completely human-like tribal race whose culture involves individually picking animals to emulate and crafting wooden masks of those animals. They would have some method of spiritually connecting with their totem animals but I haven’t decided how that would work exactly..

Or

They would be a race of tribal -beast- people, extremely predatory, who normally wear masks patterned off of animals they either prefer to hunt or otherwise spend most of their time with (If their culture has shepherds, then one might wear a sheep mask, for example). After the arrival of a human settler race, many of them take to wearing unintentionally creepy human-masks over their beastial faces… whether this is to be more relatable to the humans, to mock them, or hinting that they view them as prey, is unknown. One thing is certain: their core beliefs dictate that they only show their faces to other living beings if they either trust them completely or are about to eat them…

Thoughts?

aka. Neil Cicierega, aka "That Guy who made all those flash animations we watched on albinoblacksheep.com when we were in middle school"

Some of my favorites of his musical work include:

'Lemming Demon' http://youtu.be/uoS-mbJF8l4

A remix of a particular song from one of the old Lemmings games. I rocked out way more hard (and more physically) to this than I have any right to.

'Super Hey Ya' http://youtu.be/AAGYmLLyOpI

The original 'Hey Ya' by Outkast was a pretty high-energy song to begin with; This remix doesn't actually change a whole lot, but it does erase what little aspect of laid-back-ness the original had and the result is possibly the most ADHD song I have ever heard... I sometimes ran around feverishly melee'ing things to death in Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer to this song.

'Zero Gravity' http://youtu.be/G1V1E1iiPvU

I have also played ME3-multi to THIS song quite a few times. The tune says to me... "stress-free getting stuff done".

'Reaganomics' http://youtu.be/VjCyVfBiwpE

I don't actually know anything about Reaganomics. I'm not sure if the concepts were just never covered at any point in school or if I've forgotten them, but.. I found this song smirk-worthy, quite listen-able, and hey look a full music video.

And finally 'Mouth' http://youtu.be/XAsPeY8BsQU

Well, it's... a remix of a certain Smash Mouth song, it's shrek-related, and it's succeeded in making me feel uneasy.

I'd like to take this opportunity to give a shout out for Double-Fine productions' Brutal Legend, available on steam and various consoles.

Instead of explaining in detail my experiences thus far, I think it will be more effective to simply list off what you will find in this game:

* Jack Black
* Ozzie Osbourne
* Tim Curry
* Exploration
* Combat Driving
* Lots of brawling
* Surprisingly, RTS mechanics
* Way more metal than you can shake a stick at, including:
* Classic stuff like KISS and Black Sabbath
* Newer stuff like Dragonforce
* Some tongue-in-cheek stuff like Tenacious D and Dethklok
* Guitar solos that literally melt faces
* A really awesome roadster
* EXPLOOOSIOOOOONS!
* Exploding steel-blade-quilled porcupines
* Bear-things with chromed faces
* Laser Panthers
* Some kind of giant zombie-sloth slash guillotine monster
* The above three things are all ridable
* A rich creation-mythology explaining the heavy metal fantasy setting
* The opportunity to thrash glam-rockers
* Demonic sado-masochist attack squads
* An uncomfortable amount of demons in pink bondage
* Zombie M-preg
* No seriously, Zombie M-preg
* Humor at every turn
* A low price (especially if you grab a used console copy)

As far as mythology goes, the hero myth is one of the most common and perhaps the most celebrated of all. The hero inspires us, his story teaches mankind how to live a life with strength and virtue. Even across differing cultures, from one era to the next, the core concepts making up the qualities of the hero rarely change.

Because of this, the Hero's tale often follows a certain formula: The hero begins with humble origins, often little better than his fellow man. Through the strength of his virtues and perseverance, he gains power, allies, and fame. At the end of the story, the hero conquers a problem once seen as insurmountable, often taking the form of a great enemy he defeats to protect those he loves.

Why, however, is that the end of the hero's tale? Surely his life continues after this point, surely there are loose ends left to tie up? Although his lands are safe and prosperous at the present, perhaps their future still must be secured? So why DOES the myth (usually) end at that point? The easy answer, I suppose, is that it's a much happier story when you end it there. Should we continue to follow the hero past his great triumph, we'd find him facing not the clear-cut evil of his great foe, but the turmoil and confusion left behind. The foe's armies and his allies wouldn't likely vanish into thin air after his defeat, they would continue to wreak havoc but now without direction, their violence more senseless. Villages or even the great kingdom itself may be just as confused, trying to pick up the pieces after a great war and needing guidance.

Further down the road for the hero, he would become conflicted; With the fame and importance he once knew waning by the day, does he struggle to continue making a name for himself before he becomes too old to fight? Before his allies are gone, before his sword rusts, before his strength fails, and he becomes nothing but a joke? Or does he put forth his efforts to train and inspire the next generation of hero, relinquishing his position in the spotlight in order to ensure the show can outlive its former star actor?

We don't like to think of our own mortality, our eventual decline, and so we rarely tell a tale like this. Perhaps, though, it would be worth telling. Perhaps it would be worth making us consider the waning life that one day awaits us, to think of how we can best use our time and our talents even after our prime has come and gone.

In truth, such a story would likely leave me more than a little uncomfortable... but if it were a game I'd sure as heck play it through.

Edit: Specifically, I think this kind of tale would work great in the form of a game. In most games, you start off with basic abilities, gain more and become more powerful as you go, and in turn face more deadly odds. This would reverse the trend, starting you off at the peak of power and making you adjust to gradually losing your abilities, growing weaker and slower, while the challenges around you actually diminish (maybe more or less so depending on how you play) And what started off as easy tasks mockingly become harder until the point where a particularly large rat is giving you a run for your money.

Then finish off with multiple endings depicting how your actions have affected life for those who come after you, and how your personal legend is remembered. Yeah, I'd play that.

www.playstarbound.com

Yep. Like Terraria but bigger and better and also in space. And it will be on Steam.

Pretty much that's all I know. But I am excited and have it preordered with a friend.

Also the playable races seem to include:

* Humans
* Avians (Yo fox get this guy off my tail!)
* Simians (Basically Planet of the Apes)
* Plant Girls (You could be a plant-dude too but why would you?)
* Three-eyed Mudkips
* Robots.


Go make an account at the official site and play with the character generator! I've posted some of my attempts so far up on my tumblr page: http://crashfu.tumblr.com/post/4826.....-i-know-so-far (Look they've got my hair as an option and everything. :D )

A few things in the category of PC-gaming that I'm quite looking forward to, and want to make sure my friends have heard of.

First we have the Oculus Rift: http://www.oculusvr.com/

Head-mounted stereoscopic 3D displays are not exactly a new thing, but this particular model seems like something to look forward to for a few reasons. Namely, the Field of View it is capable of is CRAZY high, filling your entire field of vision with game (or movie, I would assume) and the head-tracking is supposed to be really sensitive. Currently they have a "for developers" model available, but it suffers from low max-resolution; they have stated the planned consumer-edition model will have a for more attractive HD resolution, as well as other improvements. (and by then there will actually be games other than TF2 that will support this hardware). Look for the consumer model whenever it comes out... if you've got a few hundred bucks to spare, that is.

Next comes Transistor: http://supergiantgames.com/?p=1816
The next big game from Bastion-creator Supergiant Games, all I know is what you can see in the trailer there. The setting seems futuristic and way cool-looking and the hero is a red-haired chick with an interesting fashion sense. I'd probably have to get this game even if it wasn't being produced by such a well-respected development team. Sadly, not available for preorder yet. Believe me, I was trying to figure out how to get my money into their hands halfway through the trailer.

Finally, I have to mention that Skullgirls, the hit fighting game by Reverge Labs, is currently in the process of a PC port (including Steam, of course). Now, I am absolutely terrible at fighting games. The only person I could ever beat was my own little brother. Skullgirls, however, has such an irresistable art style and such great character design (also I hear it's got good game mechanics) that even I will have to get it once the PC version is available. I should probably mention that they've been running a thing on fundraising site indiegogo in order to add new characters and features to the game: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/k.....lgirls-growing

I just finished participating in my first league event in Path of Exile.

For those who don't play, the league events are a race of sorts in which you must create a new character in a special league, cut off from your normal shared stash and, of course, in hardcore mode. Apparently they sometimes enact special rules like turbo-speed monsters or everyone uses their health instead of mana or such like that.

Points (which accumulate on your account, towards the winning of unique items) can be won by being the first player to do certain things. Complete a specific quest, kill a specific enemy, clear out all the enemies in a specific area, reach a certain level first, or survive the event with the highest experience total. For all the people who can't be the first or the best, they can still earn a varying amount of points by surviving the event within different level ranges.

11-19 nets you a single point. At 20, it jumps up to three, and then every few levels after is an additional point.

SOMEHOW, in my first try at this thing, I managed not only to survive (into Act 2, no less. Ain't no Brutus or Merveil going to stop THIS marauder!) but I hit the milestone level 20 with thirty seconds left on the clock. Exhilarating indeed. :D

This is something I'm sure we can all relate to.

You're driving home late at night, or worse, walking.. heck, maybe you even just look out your window in the middle of the night.. and you see something that you can almost identify but... not quite. Something about it is off. Off just enough to make whatever it is a bit unsettling.

Next thing you know you're fumbling your keys at the front door in a mild panic and chiding yourself for feeling fear over the kind of thing only a child should.



I bring this up because just a bit ago I pulled up to a stop light and on the corner to my left, there was something that kind of looked like a really muscular dog-body. And I say body because, although the mystery object had four legs, I couldn't see a head. Realistically, it was probably just some odd inanimate object... it certainly wasn't moving at the time... but my imagination ran with it just enough that I was conjuring up horrid headless dog-monsters as I pulled away from that stop-light. Perhaps they would have mouths in their fore-paws, or... perhaps if I had stayed there a little longer it would have lifted up a head I couldn't see at the time and it would be something horrifying beyond all imagining, like a big eel-head or somesuch..


Anyone else care to share some nightmares they've cooked up out of shadowy figures in the night? :)

Tune in and watch a really good anime movie with me. Y'know, if you've got nothing better to do on a syaturday.

https://new.livestream.com/accounts.....events/1923946

(You'll need a livestream account but it takes like thirty seconds to register one, c'mon)

This will by no means be a comprehensive list, and not all of these things will be right for everyone. However, the following are all revelations that made a real difference for me, so if anyone out there is feeling a lot of turmoil in their life and are not sure what to do, maybe one of these steps will help.


Do What You Wanna Do

Your friends, family, and mentors all want to look out for your best interests. They want to expand your life experiences and help you grow. They don't, however, know what makes you happy and it's ultimately up to you to decide which of the things they set before you are actually right for you. Be grateful for their suggestions and concern, but do NOT feel obligated.

Don't go to college just because your parents and teachers told you that's what you're supposed to do. Go if you want, don't go if it's not what you want. Your friend wants you to play X game with them. Look into the game and give them a chance to tell you why they're so sure you'll like it, but only play it (or accept it as a gift) if you really want to play it, otherwise let them know what you are into at the moment and see if you can find something you'll both enjoy.


Let's Talk About Those Vices in Your Head

We all have our vices. That's not something to be ashamed of. Failing to identify them or letting them run our lives, however, IS. So what makes something a vice? The way I'd put it, a vice is anything that makes you feel good in the short term, but is harmful or degrading in excess. Alcohol. Coffee. Tobacco. Marijuana. Gambling. Pain relievers. Games we're addicted to long after they cease being fun. Unhealthful and or excessive eating habits. Excessive masturbation. This is just a sample list off the top of my head.

Look at these habits, and any other things that form a big part of your daily or near-daily existance. Ask yourself, "Would this habit be harmful to someone if they were doing it several times more often than me?" Then ask yourself, "Would it be a big deal to me if I stopped doing this for a while? Have I ever caught myself thinking that I NEED this habit or thing?" If the answer to either of these is 'yes', you may want to tone down your indulgence of the particular vice.

The wisest men, the dedicated monks and gurus of the world, usually seek to give up ALL forms of vice entirely. They learn to live without them so that the temptation is not even an issue. I don't believe that sort of extreme of purity is necessary for the common man, however. Our vices, after all, are fun. They add an element to our individual character. With a rational mind and a little strength of will, I believe it is possible for most of us to enjoy our vices without them running (or ruining) our lives.


Less Competitive, More Co-op

While it is true that competition can be a powerful motivator, making us push harder and give our best, it also unfortunately brings out the very worst in humanity. Let's talk specifically about competitive games, although this all would apply similarly to anything else of a competitive nature in our lives. Perhaps you, personally, aren't bothered by the spiritual and moral corruption of other players around you. Perhaps you don't worry about how well you stack up against others, and are perfectly happy just playing the game. If this is the case, congratulations! You're the kind of person who should be playing competitive games!

For others, however, winning becomes more important than playing the game. We find that we have something to PROVE. Respect for our fellow players dies, simply because the game dictated them to be our enemy and they are standing in our way, or maybe our teammates fail to perform to our standards and we think they are dragging down our potential. The desperate may even resort to cheating. At the end of the day, what do we have? Stress. Not the personal best competition was supposed to bring out, but rather a decay in personal standards. Maybe, at best, a handful of people impressed with our skills and at least as many others we've created hostility with. If this describes your experience when playing competitive games, then you should probably avoid them altogether.

Likewise, if you were more like me, perfectly willing to enjoy the game win or lose, willing to respect your opponents as much as your teammates but frequently finding the experience ruined by the failings of others, finding yourself [/i]angered[/i] when others cheat or give you unwarranted hostility. Maybe even angry at yourself for not living up to your own expectations of greatness... then you, like me, should probably also avoid playing competitive games. Ideally, you would be able to find a healthy bit of competition away from all the less desirable players, but... it probably isn't going to happen. Even if your personal friends are all fine, upstanding people who would never cheat and play every game like true gentlemen, well... there's a good chance that their friends aren't. Let me tell you, that gets awkward really fast. No, best to just shy away from competition.

Co-operative Games, on the other hand, are something I can't sing the praises of enough. Regardless of your relationship with competitive games, co-op games are something you should make a habit of playing often. A GOOD co-op, that puts the success of the players in each other's hands, has a remarkable way of bringing out a spirit of brotherhood in people who don't even know each other. It's you, a human being alongside other human beings, being faced with a soul-less representation of evil. It is an experience that forges friendships and brings existing friends closer. If it's NOT a good co-op game, well... you'll know it because your 'allies' will start to feel more like 'competition'. (Exceptions to the rule include games like Zelda: Four Swords or Magicka, wherein you're at your teammates' throats but mostly it just comes out humorous. You're antagonizing each other yet enjoying it... you know, like having a pet cat)

A good co-op game will give you as much opportunity to feel and look like a total badass as any competitive game would. Only instead of being an unstoppable killing machine, you get to be a hero. I'll let you ask yourself which is more satisfying. Maybe instead you're the weakest member of the team? It becomes an exercise in trusting others. At the same time, you'll feel compelled to better yourself because you don't want to hold them back. From the other end, playing with less-skilled players teaches us patience for our fellow man, because (if the game is designed well) there will be no incentive to leaving anyone behind.

I get a routine Java update, right? And during the procedure I fail to uncheck a very tiny box tacking on the install of one 'PC Tools Registry Mechanic' software, hitting 'next' before I realized it and being unable to go back until the Java update was complete...

This program does essentially nothing except pop up windows several times a day saying that I have over seven hundred crucial errors in my registry, that it will ONLY fix if I purchase the full version of the software. Useless and annoying, right? So I fire up my trust Revo Uninstaller...

And I can't uninstall anything from the main window. The option to uninstall (plus a few other things) are greyed out and un-clickable. So, I switch Revo to Hunter Mode and target the shortcut to PC Tools Registry Mechanic directly...

It starts uninstalling my anti-virus software instead.

I target PC Tools Registry Mechanic again. It attempts to uninstall Path of Exile in its place.

The uninstall executable in PC Tools' own folder seems to have worked but I'm still pretty concerned, after how far it went to prevent Revo from touching it...


The lesson here is whenever you get a software update, EVEN if it's something you completely trust like Java or Flash, look at EVERY page carefully and don't hit next if there are ANY checked boxes.