Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Dear Gmail
I wish the "Delete Forever" button and the "Not Spam" buttons weren't right next to each other. It seems like a recipe for disaster. A very small, unimportant disaster that won't have any really serious consequences and will affect at most one or two people, but still a disaster. Wait, I should check the dictionary definition of disaster, I could be wrong.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Record Store Day
I went to Record Store Day with a friend yesterday! We went downtown at ridiculous o'clock in the morning (read, ten thirty) to check out Fred's Records. I've never checked out Record Store Day before, but now that I've actually got a record player I figured I should get some new records to play on it. I didn't get much, just a few cheap second-hand albums because I couldn't really afford anything new. I might go down another day to have another look when it's less crowded, there were a fair few people flipping through records and I didn't want to be in anyone's way by spending too long in one spot. I ended up getting an album of tango music, the soundtrack to Cats, Chris de Burgh's Crusader, and Eartha Kitt's Greatest Hits.
It's been a long time since I listened to Cats. I had forgotten most of the songs on it; I loved the musical as a kid when we had it on VHS, but when we lost the tape I kind of forgot about it. Mister Mistoffelees is still my favourite. It's just such a fun song!
Friday, April 19, 2013
BLASDFALSGKJFLADF MY FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
Just got back from the dentist's, I had a couple of fillings done. It's the first time I've been to the dentist in years, and the first time I've had fillings since I was a kid, so I had no idea what it was gonna involve. Turns out it involves my face feeling super weird, holy crap what is going on. Even my nose feels funny. Blhagghaghhh.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Ughh
I decided to start watching The Mentalist because people were telling me it was good, so I got the first season and I just tried watching the first episode. But some dickweed has hardcoded subs into the episode. Normally, I would not mind hardcoded subs. I prefer watching stuff with subs anyway, and even if the subs are in another language they're pretty easy to ignore when you can't understand them.
But these subs are impossible. They're for the wrong episode so it's hard to concentrate on the real dialogue when I keep seeing the wrong dialogue at the bottom of the screen, and because they're English I can't very easily ignore them since I automatically read every word. And they're fucking hardcoded, so I can't turn them off. God damn it.
But these subs are impossible. They're for the wrong episode so it's hard to concentrate on the real dialogue when I keep seeing the wrong dialogue at the bottom of the screen, and because they're English I can't very easily ignore them since I automatically read every word. And they're fucking hardcoded, so I can't turn them off. God damn it.
Stop Creeping Me Out
Denim tits and baby corpse. I don't know what denim tits would look like, but whoever used that search keyword has at least one odd fetish and I hope that they are not the same person who found my blog through baby corpse because that would be some seriously creepy porn. Is the baby corpse also made of denim in your weird porn things, person? Actually whoever found my blog through baby corpse must be one hell of a downer. Not only are they looking for dead babies, they didn't even find any. To the best of my knowledge. I don't have baby corpses on my blog, do I?
Monday, April 15, 2013
Dungeon World
We had our second session of Dungeon World last night, and holy crap, I am the best rogue. Well, technically thief, but I didn't really steal anything so much as I killed everybody in my path and looted the occasional corpse. Found some filthy coins in a supper-pot, though. Also, this game is fucking amazing. Last session I was a little disappointed that I never got to backstab anybody, but oh ho ho, did we make up for that this time. I am pretty sure my halfling thief, Mouse, killed more goblins than anybody else in the party. Mostly by sneaking the fuck out and stabbing them all in the back. Or by throwing knives into their backs. Whatever. It was an awesome session, is my point.
Early on, we stumbled across a room with four sleeping goblins. We spent most of our first session in this same cave, and we've already had goblins noticing us and ambushing us with their other goblin friends, so we didn't really want that to happen again. So the group discussed what we should do, and in the end, I chose the most logical option for a halfling with questionable morals but a stern sense of self-preservation: Mouse quietly picked the lock and walked into the room, grabbed a pillow from an empty sleeping roll, and held it down firmly over the first goblin's face as she slit his throat. Dungeon World being the delightful game that it is, the DM decided I didn't even need to roll for it, the goblin being sound asleep and completely unable to defend himself. He did suggest that Mouse's alignment might end up changing from Neutral to Evil due to this, but in my defense, Neutral for a thief just means avoiding detection or infiltrating a location, and I completely succeeded at infiltrating that room and evading detection from the sleeping, soon-to-be-dead goblins. Evil is shifting blame from myself onto someone else, and no way am I letting anybody else take credit for my amazing skills at murdering sleeping people. I considered killing them all like that, but I figured it would be mean to steal the fun from my party mates, so I invited them to get in on the action. That didn't work out so well, in that the shapeshifting druid Nils was less-than-stealthy and woke up the other goblins when he fell and knocked over the cooking pot, but it did lead into a very fun fight that gave me some more opportunities for stealth-murder, and other kinds of murder.
At one point a goblin escaped the room and ran out, presumably to alert the other goblins of our presence. So Mouse chased him and threw a dagger at his back. Unfortunately for Mouse, this goblin was quite a bit quicker than the others we'd faced so far, and he actually dodged the knife, caught it as it whizzed by him, and spun around to throw it back at her. Unfortunately for the goblin, this started a game of Knife Pong. Mouse ducked to the side as she saw the knife come at her, grabbed it from mid-air as it went past her head, and threw it back at the hapless goblin. He was not good at Knife Pong, and that was the end of him. Just as Mouse was retrieving her dagger from his corpse, though, there was a racket from the sleeping-room behind her where her teammates were. Apparently, some more goblins came charging in through another entrance, and there was more fighting. Since they hadn't seen her, Mouse ran the long way around so she could come up behind them and backstab the fuck outta those dicks. Thanks to some truly delightful rolls, she moved like lightning, killing the first goblin in one stab before he even realized she was there, then charging down the hallway to the next goblin, also in the dark as to her murderous rampage, and stabbed him through the throat, spraying his blood all over one of her companions in the process. Backstabbing is awesome.
Of course, that's really nothing compared to the end of the game. Just before we finished up the session, we had to track down one goblin who got away. We could hear him hollering at the end of the path, and again, we wanted to avoid an ambush from him and his friends, so Nils and Mouse decided to sneak after him, by Nils going ahead transformed into a rat and Mouse following behind, so she could hear him tell her what was up ahead. Nils had taught Mouse how to talk to animals when they first met, so she could understand him when he was transformed. Anyway, the plan had been, sneak up, decide a plan after we found out what was up ahead. Unfortunately, Nils rolled a one when he transformed, so the DM decided that instead of successfully becoming a tiny, sneaky rat, he turned out to be quite a bit larger than intended. You might even call him a Rodent Of Unusual Size.
As you might guess, this quickly became silly and hilarious and, yes, amazing. Nils and Mouse went down the cave-path, and saw the single goblin hammering at a large wooden door and screaming. We had been distracted by some very interesting beetles for a while, so he'd been there shouting for about five minutes and it was clear there wasn't anybody nearby to hear him. Initially I had thought that since he's distracted, Mouse will just walk up behind him and backstab him. She does so love backstabbing, after all. Nils, however, had other ideas. Better ideas. So we went with those.
Imagine yourself in the place of this poor goblin: you had just been beaten to a pulp by a druid who was, at the time, large bear. The bear was accompanied by a paladin in shining white scale armor with a large, nasty, painful-looking halberd, and an unimpressive halfling who killed half of your little goblin friends before you even realized she was there. You decide that nope, you've kinda had enough of this crap, you want out of here already. So you take off running down the hall until you find yourself at a locked door, but no matter how loud you yell or how hard you pound the door does not open and you are all alone. Suddenly, you hear screaming behind you, and you spin around to see the last thing you will ever look at: the halfling from before, brandishing a short sword and howling a battle-cry while riding the largest, meanest-looking rat you've ever seen. You don't try to defend yourself; you simply stare, hopeless, knowing that your death is imminent as the giant rat leaps and lands on you, crushing you beneath its weight and putting you out of your fear and misery for good before chewing your face off. This is not the best day for you.
Daaang, that was a really good session. I can hardly wait until next week.
At least twice as awesome as this gif.
Early on, we stumbled across a room with four sleeping goblins. We spent most of our first session in this same cave, and we've already had goblins noticing us and ambushing us with their other goblin friends, so we didn't really want that to happen again. So the group discussed what we should do, and in the end, I chose the most logical option for a halfling with questionable morals but a stern sense of self-preservation: Mouse quietly picked the lock and walked into the room, grabbed a pillow from an empty sleeping roll, and held it down firmly over the first goblin's face as she slit his throat. Dungeon World being the delightful game that it is, the DM decided I didn't even need to roll for it, the goblin being sound asleep and completely unable to defend himself. He did suggest that Mouse's alignment might end up changing from Neutral to Evil due to this, but in my defense, Neutral for a thief just means avoiding detection or infiltrating a location, and I completely succeeded at infiltrating that room and evading detection from the sleeping, soon-to-be-dead goblins. Evil is shifting blame from myself onto someone else, and no way am I letting anybody else take credit for my amazing skills at murdering sleeping people. I considered killing them all like that, but I figured it would be mean to steal the fun from my party mates, so I invited them to get in on the action. That didn't work out so well, in that the shapeshifting druid Nils was less-than-stealthy and woke up the other goblins when he fell and knocked over the cooking pot, but it did lead into a very fun fight that gave me some more opportunities for stealth-murder, and other kinds of murder.
At one point a goblin escaped the room and ran out, presumably to alert the other goblins of our presence. So Mouse chased him and threw a dagger at his back. Unfortunately for Mouse, this goblin was quite a bit quicker than the others we'd faced so far, and he actually dodged the knife, caught it as it whizzed by him, and spun around to throw it back at her. Unfortunately for the goblin, this started a game of Knife Pong. Mouse ducked to the side as she saw the knife come at her, grabbed it from mid-air as it went past her head, and threw it back at the hapless goblin. He was not good at Knife Pong, and that was the end of him. Just as Mouse was retrieving her dagger from his corpse, though, there was a racket from the sleeping-room behind her where her teammates were. Apparently, some more goblins came charging in through another entrance, and there was more fighting. Since they hadn't seen her, Mouse ran the long way around so she could come up behind them and backstab the fuck outta those dicks. Thanks to some truly delightful rolls, she moved like lightning, killing the first goblin in one stab before he even realized she was there, then charging down the hallway to the next goblin, also in the dark as to her murderous rampage, and stabbed him through the throat, spraying his blood all over one of her companions in the process. Backstabbing is awesome.
Of course, that's really nothing compared to the end of the game. Just before we finished up the session, we had to track down one goblin who got away. We could hear him hollering at the end of the path, and again, we wanted to avoid an ambush from him and his friends, so Nils and Mouse decided to sneak after him, by Nils going ahead transformed into a rat and Mouse following behind, so she could hear him tell her what was up ahead. Nils had taught Mouse how to talk to animals when they first met, so she could understand him when he was transformed. Anyway, the plan had been, sneak up, decide a plan after we found out what was up ahead. Unfortunately, Nils rolled a one when he transformed, so the DM decided that instead of successfully becoming a tiny, sneaky rat, he turned out to be quite a bit larger than intended. You might even call him a Rodent Of Unusual Size.
As you might guess, this quickly became silly and hilarious and, yes, amazing. Nils and Mouse went down the cave-path, and saw the single goblin hammering at a large wooden door and screaming. We had been distracted by some very interesting beetles for a while, so he'd been there shouting for about five minutes and it was clear there wasn't anybody nearby to hear him. Initially I had thought that since he's distracted, Mouse will just walk up behind him and backstab him. She does so love backstabbing, after all. Nils, however, had other ideas. Better ideas. So we went with those.
Imagine yourself in the place of this poor goblin: you had just been beaten to a pulp by a druid who was, at the time, large bear. The bear was accompanied by a paladin in shining white scale armor with a large, nasty, painful-looking halberd, and an unimpressive halfling who killed half of your little goblin friends before you even realized she was there. You decide that nope, you've kinda had enough of this crap, you want out of here already. So you take off running down the hall until you find yourself at a locked door, but no matter how loud you yell or how hard you pound the door does not open and you are all alone. Suddenly, you hear screaming behind you, and you spin around to see the last thing you will ever look at: the halfling from before, brandishing a short sword and howling a battle-cry while riding the largest, meanest-looking rat you've ever seen. You don't try to defend yourself; you simply stare, hopeless, knowing that your death is imminent as the giant rat leaps and lands on you, crushing you beneath its weight and putting you out of your fear and misery for good before chewing your face off. This is not the best day for you.
Daaang, that was a really good session. I can hardly wait until next week.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Damn Boy
I want this shirt. I think it costs something like thirty bucks so I'll never buy it, because what lunatic pays thirty dollars for a fucking tank top even if it has a rad design, but maybe someday I'll figure out how to do that thing where you can print stuff on shirts you already own and make your own fantastic designs. If I can figure out where the heck this shirt came from, I'll post a link to credit.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Or Maybe Not?
Luckily, we've got a half-decent vinyl collection already. I think this was the perfect record to start out with.
I was only gonna post the first picture, but damn if that is not an awesome image of Vader.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Now I Just Need To Buy Some Records
I got a record player today! Well, actually, a combination record/cassette/cd player and old-timey-looking radio. It was my grandmothers, but we got it when she moved to Ontario to live with my aunt. Check it out!
Now I kind of desperately need to find a copy of Phantom of the Opera on vinyl. To Ebay! And probably the nearest thrift store as well! I seem to recall seeing tons of records at Value Village, and even if I can't find Phantom there I'm sure there will be a few other neat things to pick up.
Now I kind of desperately need to find a copy of Phantom of the Opera on vinyl. To Ebay! And probably the nearest thrift store as well! I seem to recall seeing tons of records at Value Village, and even if I can't find Phantom there I'm sure there will be a few other neat things to pick up.
Monday, April 8, 2013
I Shouldn't Be So Quick To Judge
I was going to write a post about how I've been trying to find a new blog reader ever since Google announced the retirement of Google Reader, and that the one I ended up trying out kinda sucked. But then I realized that most of my complaints seem to be "It's slightly different from the real Google Reader!" and "It doesn't show blog updates as quickly!" The last one might be legitimate, but I vaguely remember reading somewhere that they're working on that. And for the first one, well, it was a dumb way to react to a new site. Of course some things are going to be slightly different, but that doesn't mean those different things are flaws. They're just...different. I need to stop seeing every slight change as the end of the world. You'd think we'd all have learned that from Facebook by now -- they change their site constantly, but everybody manages to get used to it enough that when they change it again they start demanding that Facebook revert to the old new version.
At least one of the things I was going to complain about wasn't even the site's fault, it was me not noticing that I could change that setting. So not only is it dumb to complain just because something is new and different, if you start complaining before you give yourself a chance to get used to the new thing, you might just end up looking like a complete moron.
Basically, I need to work harder on not deciding that things are The Most Awful as soon as I start using them. I gotta learn to give stuff a chance before I turn into a judgy jerkface about it just because it's not exactly the same as the other thing. Again, you'd think I'd have learned this by now with Facebook. I guess I'm just really slow at personal growth.
I was going to find a picture mocking new-new facebook, but it's three-thirty in the morning and I can't be bothered. Have a tiny speckled lizard on a tiny golden tricycle instead. It's adorable.
At least one of the things I was going to complain about wasn't even the site's fault, it was me not noticing that I could change that setting. So not only is it dumb to complain just because something is new and different, if you start complaining before you give yourself a chance to get used to the new thing, you might just end up looking like a complete moron.
Basically, I need to work harder on not deciding that things are The Most Awful as soon as I start using them. I gotta learn to give stuff a chance before I turn into a judgy jerkface about it just because it's not exactly the same as the other thing. Again, you'd think I'd have learned this by now with Facebook. I guess I'm just really slow at personal growth.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Go Get A 750Words Account Before May 1st
750Words is a journal website. It's not like LiveJournal or a blog or anything, everything you write is private instead of being shared with the world. The goal is basically to write three pages every day, of pretty much anything. You don't have to, but if you want to challenge yourself to it there's the option. Personally, I just use it to write early drafts of blog posts or to rant and get stuff off my chest without boring my friends. It's a pretty awesome little site.
And on May 1st, they're going to change it from free accounts to paid accounts, so they can afford to keep the site running. But anybody who had an account before May 1st automatically gets upgraded to a free lifetime account. I really recommend the site to anyone who either keeps a journal, wants to be a writer (I frequently use it to work out stories that I dream of writing but never actually get around to), or just thinks that someday they might possibly want this awesome free journal. Go get an account! It won't hurt, and if you ever decide to keep a journal you'll have access to a really nice online one if you sign up now, before they change it to paid accounts. Or you can just support the site and buy an account, that works too!
And on May 1st, they're going to change it from free accounts to paid accounts, so they can afford to keep the site running. But anybody who had an account before May 1st automatically gets upgraded to a free lifetime account. I really recommend the site to anyone who either keeps a journal, wants to be a writer (I frequently use it to work out stories that I dream of writing but never actually get around to), or just thinks that someday they might possibly want this awesome free journal. Go get an account! It won't hurt, and if you ever decide to keep a journal you'll have access to a really nice online one if you sign up now, before they change it to paid accounts. Or you can just support the site and buy an account, that works too!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Castle
I've been catching up on Castle. I'm on the first episode of the fifth season now. About ten or fifteen minutes in, actually. It's a good start to the episode, it had me cracking up. But there's one thing that I just can't get over, that I've been thinking for pretty much this whole series. This huge glaring flaw that stops me from really, thoroughly being able to enjoy this show in its entirety.
Beckett's season one hair was so nice, why did they have to change it!?
See? So nice! And it changed styles, but it was still pretty every time. It was a really distinctive hairstyle that suited her really well, but it was still versatile so she wasn't stuck in the same look all the time. And now she's just got...long hair. And sometimes it's curly. It's so boring. And it seems a little unprofessional -- I've never seen a policewoman with long loose hair, it's always tidied up so it's not in her face or flying all around her head. I've got long hair, I know how inconvenient it can be. In the first season, Beckett's hair was pretty, it was unique, and it suited her character's lifestyle. Then it grew out and it looked more generic and it didn't make a lot of sense for her character to have it in the styles she wore.
Other than that though, I guess the show's good. The banter's always great, and Nathan Fillion is an absolute darling. The crimes have gotten better, too. I remember in the first season I would be able to guess who the killer was in every episode, way before the characters figured it out. I can't really do that any more, it's a surprise more often. I choose to believe it's because the crime-writing has improved and not because I've become stupider in the past four seasons. I really hope the crime-writing improved.
Beckett's season one hair was so nice, why did they have to change it!?
See? So nice! And it changed styles, but it was still pretty every time. It was a really distinctive hairstyle that suited her really well, but it was still versatile so she wasn't stuck in the same look all the time. And now she's just got...long hair. And sometimes it's curly. It's so boring. And it seems a little unprofessional -- I've never seen a policewoman with long loose hair, it's always tidied up so it's not in her face or flying all around her head. I've got long hair, I know how inconvenient it can be. In the first season, Beckett's hair was pretty, it was unique, and it suited her character's lifestyle. Then it grew out and it looked more generic and it didn't make a lot of sense for her character to have it in the styles she wore.
Other than that though, I guess the show's good. The banter's always great, and Nathan Fillion is an absolute darling. The crimes have gotten better, too. I remember in the first season I would be able to guess who the killer was in every episode, way before the characters figured it out. I can't really do that any more, it's a surprise more often. I choose to believe it's because the crime-writing has improved and not because I've become stupider in the past four seasons. I really hope the crime-writing improved.
Adblock for Pirate Bay
I'm sorry, Pirate Bay. I know you (and most other sites) need the ad revenue. I see where you're coming from, I do. I wish I didn't have to adblock you.
But I'm getting really, really sick of the constant softcore porn pop-ups, Pirate Bay. Literally every time I click anything, you pop up another one. And the noise-making sidebar or banner ads, oh my god they need to die. Especially the noise-making sidebar ads that repeat, or that wait five minutes to start so when they finally do make noise, they're lost somewhere in my tabs and I have to go through them one-by-one to find which page is pissing me off. Also, gotta be honest, the ridiculously photoshopped "sexy facebook" ads are getting on my nerves too. Basically, if an ad on a website is loud or pornographic or is unduly irritating (like by telling me hot girls are messaging me and want to meet for sex TONIGHT! or otherwise assuming that I am a complete idiot), I'm gonna adblock you mothertruckers. Not just you, Pirate Bay. All of the websites that make leaving ads up too annoying. Yeah, shitty ads mean people do stuff to avoid dealing with the shitty ads, who knew.
But I'm getting really, really sick of the constant softcore porn pop-ups, Pirate Bay. Literally every time I click anything, you pop up another one. And the noise-making sidebar or banner ads, oh my god they need to die. Especially the noise-making sidebar ads that repeat, or that wait five minutes to start so when they finally do make noise, they're lost somewhere in my tabs and I have to go through them one-by-one to find which page is pissing me off. Also, gotta be honest, the ridiculously photoshopped "sexy facebook" ads are getting on my nerves too. Basically, if an ad on a website is loud or pornographic or is unduly irritating (like by telling me hot girls are messaging me and want to meet for sex TONIGHT! or otherwise assuming that I am a complete idiot), I'm gonna adblock you mothertruckers. Not just you, Pirate Bay. All of the websites that make leaving ads up too annoying. Yeah, shitty ads mean people do stuff to avoid dealing with the shitty ads, who knew.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Look
No really, look. LOOK AT THIS. Look at how beautiful it is. So majestic. So graceful. Animals simply have natural abilities that we humans can never match.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Fuck Winter
I have spent all evening bundled up in pj's and a robe and fuzzy slippers and still feeling ice-cold. I only just realized that I'm freezing because some asshole turned off the heaters and opened the kitchen windows. It is like, minus five or something! Stop making the house cold, assholes! Stop being cold, house! Stop being winter, Winter! Stop being not boiling, kettle water! I need tea.
Deep sleeper
I wake up at the oddest things. Normally I would say I'm a deep sleeper, because I can sleep through a lot. To date I have slept through countless very loud, very persistent alarm clocks, I have slept through thunder and lightning, I have slept through the phone ringing right next to my head, I have slept through people talking to me and shaking me, I have slept through video games my brother is playing on a projector with the boom box hooked up for maximum authenticity when the artillary starts dropping, I have slept through fire alarms, I have slept through my great-grandmother falling and breaking her hip and being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. I can sleep through a lot of stuff. So that would make me a deep sleeper, right?
Except sometimes I wake up at the oddest things, too. Like somebody talking in another room. Not even very loudly, or to me. This morning I woke up because Dad answered the phone in his bedroom and told Mom who it was. I didn't wake up at the phone ringing, but I jerked awake as soon as he spoke to my mother about it. And whenever I'm having a hard time waking up in the morning, all I gotta do is put on my glasses and suddenly I'm wide awake. It's like an on-switch or something.
Basically, sometimes waking up is weird and for some reason I thought it was important to broadcast this to the world at large. Go back to your regularly scheduled morning.
Except sometimes I wake up at the oddest things, too. Like somebody talking in another room. Not even very loudly, or to me. This morning I woke up because Dad answered the phone in his bedroom and told Mom who it was. I didn't wake up at the phone ringing, but I jerked awake as soon as he spoke to my mother about it. And whenever I'm having a hard time waking up in the morning, all I gotta do is put on my glasses and suddenly I'm wide awake. It's like an on-switch or something.
Basically, sometimes waking up is weird and for some reason I thought it was important to broadcast this to the world at large. Go back to your regularly scheduled morning.
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