Random Dialogue

After work yesterday I went out and snagged some gifts, as promised. I basically now only have my mother and Katie’s parents to get gifts for.

I took a nap last night after I got home, and hoo doggies am I glad I did. I’ve just been so tired lately. I feel much refreshed today, though, so that was obviously a good decision. Katie and Brian dragged me out of bed when they got home from work last night and we watched my Netflix bestowed copy of Die Another Day, which was still not very good. The joy of Netflix: Watching movies again to make sure they still suck.

I still have to work through Mission Impossible 2 (yech, but whatever) and The Ring this weekend. I need to make sure to watch The Ring with people so I don’t scare the piss out of myself.

Tomorrow is, of course, Turkey day, and I’ll be spending the first part of it gleefully unconcious. After rousing myself sometime around 11, Katie and I will be having two turkey dinners. Gaaah. All that moving around on Thanksgiving is unnatural.

If you haven’t checked out my screenshots gallery yet, go looksie at my SWG Gallery. Last night I finally did some last minute errands before my account goes cold again. I picked up a charming Kaadu named (imaginatively) Strider, and checked out one of the player-run cities, a berg known as Vagabond’s Rest. Very impressive City Hall.

Remember, this Saturday, 7pm at Rocky’s East: Sasquatch 2, Electric Bugaloo.

Did some housecleaning last night, and we got our closet under some semblance of order. Hooray for $4 plastic tubs!

Man am I sleepy today. I’ve felt like my eyeballs are going to fall out of my head all day. Bleh.

The new position is a slow-starter. I’m feeling very mired. I have a feeling this may have something to do with the holiday. Did I mention how much I’m looking forward to four days off of work? Glee!

So, remember when I said I was going to read Masters of Doom? I lied. Instead, I’m reading Coruscant and the Core Worlds. Yeah, sometimes the weird things catch my eye. This will likely mean that I’m going to be hip-deep in SW RPG Books for a bit, as this is the tip of an iceberg I brought back with me from GenCon.

This, and Gabe ranting about the New Jedi Order series has prompted me to think mayhap I should throw those books into my library hold list. We shall see.

Oh, I also got all of my christmas shopping done yesterday, with a few exceptions. I’m going to take care of some other bits today while I’m out and about. I’m also thinking about picking up a hoodie. I am soo freaking cold here at work.

Being a intra-corporate traitor makes me a bad person, evidently.

This weekend mostly consisted of sleeping and playing XIII.

Not a bad way to spend time, if you ask me. Last night instead of game we watched a good deal of The Doctor, which as always was good and Dalek-tastic.

For various reasons, I’ve been thinking about Nomic today, which you really should learn about if you have the time.

I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving, and time off. Last week was extremely tiring, and I forsee more tiring weeks in the near future.

Hmm…probably should start working on Christmas presents, huh? You’re more than welcome to get me one, if you want to.

If you haven’t seen the Star Wars: Clone Wars toons yet, you’ve missed your chance until this coming Spring. Cartoon Network has stupidly taken them down from the Clone Wars site. I found this out when I went to watch the one I missed last Thursday. Annoyed, I am. Mmmmmm…

I have an editorial and an interview I wrote the questions for up at MMORPGDot.

I stayed home today so that Katie could have someone with her, because of her head. A lazy day, all around, and a quiet day.

We’ve capped off the day by watching the appendice disks for Two Towers. They’re simply tremendously good.

It’s been so good having a day off, even though the reason for the day off wasn’t that great.

Things in my life right now -

Reading Masters of Doom. Initial thoughts: The Johns are assholes.
Playing FFXI still. I’m a level 10 Red Mage. Kewl.
Also playing XIII, the cell-shaded FPS. It is really freaking great. The story, the graphics, the play. I highly recommend it. I’ll throw out a review when I’m done with it.

The weekend looms.

I have a new job. Again.

3 titles and 2 promotions in one year. Crazy. I’m now a “Junior Web Developer”.

A little more money and a lot more work is essentially all that this means.

I feel like I’m in a complicated spot right now.
I apologize if my posts are sparse for a bit.

A very nice weekend, all in all.

On Friday Katie and I went to a Hockey game. The Badgers tied with Minnesota, 3-3 in overtime. Pretty exciting.

Saturday was a quite lazy day. Mostly I played FFXI and read. Katie was gone for part of the day seeing a football game with her dad, but in the evening we watched a few movies. (Including Kiki’s delivery service, which may be my favorite Miyazaki film.)

Sunday we went to dinner with my family, and I finished reading Draconomicon. It was really nice seeing the folks. Paul is going to be having a film unveiling the weekend after Thanksgiving at Rocky’s east, which should be cool. I’ll put up more details later.

This should hopefully be a quiet week. I have reviews for Draconomicon and Things my Girlfriend and I have Argued About coming down the pipe.

Good monday, humans!

More about Final Fantasy because, hey, it’s my site right?

The game is not revolutionary, not by any stretch of the imagination. Nor is it really even evolutionary. It’s a pretty standard MMOG, for all intents and purposes. It’s just very very well done. The beauty of the cities, the attractiveness of the avatars and their movements, the pace and style of the combat…all make playing FFXI a pleasure and categorically not a chore.

I realized last night as I was taking out some elven agression on some defenseless forest hares that part of the reason I love the combat is that it makes you feel like a badass. Combat in Galaxies is sort of like watching a debate on C-SPAN. There are very few options available to you even at high levels, and everyone uses only the best options available. Therefore, when you enter into combat with something you almost always know whether you will win or lose. There’s not really any chance to it, and most people only get incapped if they take on something over their heads or they get aggro. Combat in FFXI is very fluid. You can move all around, there are useful moves that you gain access to as you advance in your weapon skills, each job has it’s own special skill, and you never know when you’re going to get killed. This may sound like a bad thing, but it makes for a much more exciting game. For example, yesterday I was putting the smack down on a rabbit. Now, I should have been able to hand this thing it’s ass on a platter, as I have done many times with members of the lepus family. The thing was, I kept missing, and it got several crits in a row. I got offed by a bunny! It rocked!

Combat is even cooler in groups because you can time and combine your moves such that they do even more damage. For example if I take a swing at something with my sword, and then someone else hits them with the right spell, we might get a combination of effects that leads to more damage and more experience. It encourages players to coordinate their efforts and make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Tonight Katie and I are going to go see a Hockey game, the Badgers vs. Minnesota. Should be entertaining. And then tomorrow I have a raid to attend with the GoA folks on a tomb near San D’oria. Should be a blast.