| The Sunday Mail: 'The Cult of Emo' |
[16 May 2008|10:38am] |
Bwahahahahahah.
Idiots; Emo isn't bad because it's an emotive cult, it's bad because it's lame.
Srsly.
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[16 May 2008|10:00am] |
(So yeah, I found the screenprint function)
I probably should have done this from the start, but I didn't think of it. It's not so much a Grand Tour (having explored a lot and moved through to the endgame already), but more of a What I Did On My Holidays; or, more accurately, What I Did While Becoming the Incarnation Of An Ancient Saint Prophesied To Unite The Nation And Strike Down The Mad God.
Anyhow, a couple of days ago, I did some exploring on the far south-east corner and I found this:
It's a statue above the shrine or Azura, a Good Daedra. She stares out over the ocean and holds a a star in one hand and a moon in the other. Her time is Dawn and Dusk. She sent me on a mission to prevent the other Mad God (whose name escapes me) from interfering in their bet.
Yesterday I went around a bit further, convincing the Houses and Tribes to name me their champion. After getting all of the tribes inline, I headed into the Ashlands to explore some of the interior. Amongst other things, I found a pair of Dwemer ruins. The first was full of vampires, so I exterminated the vermin.
I'm going to have to come back to this one - partially to show off the beautiful observatory within, but also because I there was too much loot to carry off in one go.
After that, I found another ruin, which I have yet to explore...
As well as the guard statues, I found a broken mechanical Ballistae in the grounds. It's details like that which make this game so cool.
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[16 May 2008|02:20am] |
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Gaaah. I can't sleep. I'm too tired to work, and I hate reading archives. (I like to buy booooooks....) Maybe if I hit myself over the head with a hammer? Yeah, I'll try that. Ow.
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| Queen of Hearts: Vintage Inspired Millinery |
[16 May 2008|10:13am] |
I thought I'd post a few pics from a photo shoot done in Brighton with the lovely </a></b></a>![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gothindulgence and model </a></b></a>official_bitch and myself (Queeny) for my business Queen of Hearts: Vintage Inspired Millinery.
We're relaunching today... check out the website and enter the code LAUNCH16TH to get 15% off your order... offer expires at midnight on the 16th.
www.offwithherhead.co.uk
 
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[16 May 2008|04:59pm] |
According to GQ, Steven Spielberg likes playing some bizarre version of Bioshock which has levels and mysterious spider-gods.
Over the course of their collaborations (which continue this fall with Caruso’s Eagle Eye and next summer’s Transformers 2), Spielberg and LaBeouf have grown close.
“One time Steven told me to come to his house ready to go skeet shooting,” says LaBeouf. “I get there and stick my head in to ask if he’s ready—and this is classic Spielberg—he says, ‘Nope, Shia. I’m trapped!’ ” LaBeouf then starts playing both parts—concerned protégé and faraway mentor:
“You’re trapped? Steven, what are you talking about?”
“I’m trapped back here. Follow my voice.”
“Where are you?”
“Over here… Here… Here!”
LaBeouf kept following the calls until he got to the director’s office. And there was the master himself: shoes off, socks on, dressed in shooting gear, but sitting behind a computer, stuck on the fifteenth level of a first-person shooter called BioShock.
“This is like months to get to this level, and he can’t get past this one little mysterious spider god, and he’s losing his mind. He’s like, ‘I can’t do it, Shia! I can’t do it.’ ”
Dear mainstream media,
You're haemorrhaging market share to new media, including games. Two-thirds of Americans play computer games, and the average age of a gamer is about 35. These are the people you make money off. Is this really the best time to look even more outdated and out of touch, by referring to 'levels' which have been a rarity in computer games for some time now, and failing to get the details of a game right?
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| Unnatural Biorhythm |
[16 May 2008|01:39am] |
Going to bed now but first
I've been up late the past four nights playing BioShock. I got it for Christmas last year and played a bit, enjoyed it, but put it down in favor of, I dunno, brownies or a DS game. Something took my attention away from it.
The other night, I was looking along my shelf for something to play and, having reached a stalemate, shrugged and went, "Alright, fuck it." I put BioShock in and, for the sake of my extremely exhausted self I'll be blunt, I made the hellafuckyes right choice. Four short-sleep nights are testament to that.
Anyway, having a blast. Most of the hyperbole you heard about this game is true. I'm generally not a fan of the first-person perspective in games (I'll talk about that some other time) but I don't think BioShock could've been conveyed with the same deft hand if the developers hadn't gone that way. In fact, it uses what are normally limitations to its advantage: hallways, darkness, source lighting, first-person--the trademarks of the Unreal Engine, really--and supports those decisions with context. And not stretchy-elastic context that's really trying. BioShock delivers its characters and story smoothly. Very well done so far. I have only a few chapters to go and then I'll be done. I reckon Saturday night, maybe Sunday.
Crap. I'm hungry and I already brushed my teeth.
Alright, bed now. I'm really tired.
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[15 May 2008|10:43pm] |
More futurist blather (from a somewhat more moderate position). This time, over on RPGnet.
Warning: Hella long.
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| LTGV Update |
[15 May 2008|11:15pm] |
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mood |
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 accomplished |
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Second day of writing in the bag. More words, more interesting stuff.
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| "Lifting the Gingham Veil" writing begins |
[14 May 2008|11:40pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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accomplished |
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So, with the outline outlined, the plot plotted, the characters ah..characterized and the contract signed and the first payment received, I started work on the novella based on the Aletheia RPG, as discussed earlier on this LJ.
Working title is "Lifting the Gingham Veil" and the target word count is 30,000. Due date: on or before June 1.
First batch of words out of the gate. Onward!
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| I have keys. |
[15 May 2008|08:49pm] |
And a fucking amazing view of Mt. Hood.
I need to steam out the carpets, and open the windows and air out the place, but it's mine, mine I tell you!
Who wants to help me move in on Sunday?
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| Strange Little Girl, reprise |
[15 May 2008|11:07pm] |
She sang in the talent show today - did it a cappella.
Her entire class cheered for her. Even the kids who don't like her that much.
...and when they handed her a certificate for her participation, her name was spelled wrong on it.
Such is our lives.
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| He wants something of Optimus Prime's put deep inside him. |
[15 May 2008|11:00pm] |
Shortpacked!: Shouldna been standing there, Ronnie.
 Last month for my birthday, my pals pitched in together and got me a complete Generation 1 Thunderwing! Though it had all its parts, it was missing some stickers, so I ordered some Reprolabels. A week or so later, the stickers came in, then I got some Animated toys, found a buttload of Joes, went to BotCon... so talking about him in more depth was pushed off quite a bit! (I toldja I got a full queue.)
Thunderwing is a Pretender!
No, no, wait, don't click away! I know Fans! is back, but I promise, Thunderwing is cool anyway! Hell, he didn't even use his inside robot guy over here in the Marvel US comics, and the shell itself can transform, so it's like he's not even a Pretender!
(Ha, you see, Pretenders are unpopular.)
 Thunderwing is one of those dudes in the waning years of the original toyline who would have slipped right off the shelves into obscurity if it weren't for the Marvel comics. There he was a powerful Decepticon leader, obsessed (eventually) to the point of insanity with possessing the Matrix. He got his paws on it, and Optimus Prime was forced to kill him and forfeit the Matrix to keep him from destroying all his men. (And Thunderwing's men, come to think of it.) Despite ending up a complete nutjob, he was pretty charismatic, and he got lots of pagetime, so he's quite loved on eBay. (Thus why Graham, Steve-o, and Ron had to team up to afford him.)
Thunderwing is a Mega Pretender, meaning that not only can the robot transform into vehicle and back, so can the shell! And the two can combine in either mode. The concept is a lot cooler than the execution. As you can see from the photo above, you basically stick the tiny Thunderwing jet under the nose of the big one. Inelegant! On the other hand, much is forgiven when a toy has giant honkin' guns like those. (The single four-barreled gun he carries in the comics is a complete fabrication.)
 My enjoyment of the toy's mechanics would be increased if I could slip the robot in and out of the shell more easily. It's either a really tight, precise fit to shove his tiny robot legs into the cavities of the large shell legs, or this thing's just not that well engineered. What I do enjoy, though ironically, is how little his tiny jet mode looks like a jet without the stickers. It doesn't even have a cockpit! It's just a wedge! Oh, late G1 toys.
And in a cruel twist of fate, he's actually smaller than the Small Headmasters. That's just wrong! So much for their scary Big Bad.
Oh man, I should not be knocking this toy like this. It is one of my most favorite birthday gifts. Thunderwing was really cool in the comics, I swear! That's what makes him so awesome!
I'm just digging myself deeper, aren't I?
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| 5 x 5 |
[15 May 2008|09:52pm] |
Origins event went very smoothly! The site worked well and both mrsmetallian and I got all of our first choice events. ^_^
I am feeling much better today, and unless I relapse tomorrow night I should be at Green Key. I'm even 95% packed.
I don't think I was entirely in my right mind yesterday, so I stopped taking the decongestant with psuedoephedrine in it and switched to a not-as-effective one that doesn't make me crazy or elevate my heart rate. The difference in my mental state is considerable. If I get really congested again, I might try a half-dose of the psuedoephedrine-based one. I'm pretty sure I was getting 24 hour durations on what was supposed to be a 12-hour dose.
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bored
reading
