Crushing souls
Seriously, the God of War collection (720p God of War 1 and 2 for PS3) has hit me where it hurts. I was Hell-bent on getting it, and don't get me wrong, it's awesome to be playing the game again, but it's kind of not the same game. For reasons unfathomable to me (and to everybody in every forum, everywhere it gets addressed), they took out the experience reward for ending a 10-hit throw with a throw-kill. It's a persistent goal throughout the entire game, and part of what made it so fun and rewarding. It's just gone. What the hell, guys? It actually kind of ruins the experience, not only because the game is less fun without it, but because now I have to go through both games looking for more little adjustments that hurt gameplay.
But I made out like a bandit this Christmas. Terabyte external hard drive for my mad backupz, little zen garden, the aforementioned game, and the bossest Mp3 player that can be found without having to install special software to manage. I could write a whole post about how badass this thing is, but I'm having so little time to post as it is. My cup, she runneth her ass over.
Some of it is music, and the acquisition thereof. Just about every band or musician I would want an album from has either put one out this year or announced that there will be one in early 2010. I'm getting collector's editions all over the place. After Forever (I figure I owe them some money), Bo Burham, Epica, Dethklok, Rammstein, Leaves' Eyes, and those are just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head. Just the collector's editions. The amount of new music that has hit me has just been overwhelming, and full of total awesome. Epica's doing something new with their singer. It's different, but it's definitely working. I'm so glad they left the corny, singsongy tunes of The Divine Conspiracy behind them. This album rocked my face off.
Speaking of musical influence, I am now officially supportive of the breakup of Azure Ray. As tragic as it sounded to me at first, it led to the development of some incredible individual styles, and the resulting projects have been delivering unceasing soul-crushings over the past month or so. I have heard some truly staggering musical pieces in my day, but though I've heard of the experience, I've never actually had my mind blown by a solo. And this was a banjo solo, and it wasn't even being played like a banjo. It am utterly had. I would take a bullet for Orenda Fink, and I'm willing to put that to paper.
Since I'm already talking about music, lemme just go ahead and say this. Fans of Nightwish. Come on. Shut up. The band really liked their lead singer. She was their image. She was their focus. And you'd have to mess up pretty bad in order for them to come together as a band and say "Okay, it's gotten to the point where we have to rip this still-beating mother out of our chest." She's gone. And you know what? She wasn't even that good. You're just used to her. Really listen to her on the long notes. She breaks down. She wobbles. She warbles. She's uncomfortable a lot of the time. She had her really good moments, sure, but she had some very audibly bad ones, too. She wasn't Nightwish. Tuomas Holopainen is Nightwish (holy crap, I spelled that right on the first try). Marco helps like a sumbitch, Emppu and Jukka bring the vision to life, but Tuomas is the dream weaver here.
Sure, Anette isn't as intimate a singer, but listen to Sahara or The Cadence of her Last Breath. She's strong. She's accurate. She can bring it. She's a little poppy, yes, and she does her little girlish dance around on stage, but is that any less embarrassing than Tarja waving to the audience with big grins no matter which song they're playing?
BUT ENOUGH OF THAT.
I did not go see Avatar. Why pay any amount of money, or give any more of your time to see a movie that you saw in its entirety the first time you saw a preview for it? There's nothing in it that's going to be significantly more visually impressive than what's in your average video game these days, so no thank you.
Oh, hey, I found the entire script online. Reposted with permission from 20th Century Fox:
FERN GULLY happens, but with ALIENS. [end]
So stop asking.
Randomness now.
I've heard the word "superficial" a lot of times, but I've never seen a super fish.
People who get bowl cuts cannot be trusted to make their own decisions.
ATTENTION PEOPLE WHO SPEAK SPANISH: "R" does not equal "L." You guys are worse about this than any Asian culture. Listen to somebody rolling an R. More than likely, they're being lazy bastards and rolling an L. Know who's the worst about this? Latinos. Eric Estrada, remember his appearance in that Burger King commercial, pitching his imaginary personalized shades? Remember him pointing to it, and saying "Est-lala?" You want proof? Watch Dexter. Watch Maria Laguerta try to say "Miguel Prado." It's like she's going out of her way to emphasize that it isn't being done right. I wonder if she's making fun of the culture.
I'd like to find the guy who coined the phrase "Latin America" and punch him in the face. Words mean things, asshole.
You know, the Pilgims could also use a shot in the pills for leaving from a place called "Plymouth," and naming the first place they came to "Plymouth." Squanto shoulda set your boat on fire.
I'd also like to meet the first person who said "I could care less about..." and find out whether he/she actually intended to say that. How did that ever catch on?
Geek out over this link.
The commercials for 2012 made me laugh. Scene. "Predicted by the Mayans." Scene. "Confirmed by science." Like that's not hilariously vague. They might as well have put quotes around the word.
"Hands down." People use this to describe an easy or decisive victory. "He just kicked that guy's ass, hands down, man." This has always agitated me. Do people not wonder where these expressions come from, and whether they sound stupid saying them? That kind of reminds me of that bullshit explanation of where "Mind your p's and q's" comes from. ARGH. NOW I AM ANGRY.
No, I can't be angry listening to this song. My serenity > people who talk without thinking.
I want somebody to send me too many text messages, so I can threaten to kick them in the texticles. Don't you?
Come on, guys. Orgasm as a verb? Now you're just getting lazy.
Oh! That reminds me. PEOPLE NOT IN CALIFORNIA: Where you live, do people ever refer to a movie as a "show"? I need to know that it's isolated to the drones in Sacramento, or at least to this brain-dead state. "The Matrix? Oh my god, I loved that show, it was so deep!" This is why I write exceedingly violent books. I need an outlet to release what these people give me or it will rupture my cerebrum.
I know, I bitch about the degeneration of language a lot, but that's because complex ideas require specific references in order to be conveyed. If all similar words end up carrying the same meaning, new ideas cannot be developed and spread. I see it everywhere, and I have to explain myself in nearly everything I do. How many times have you found yourself telling someone "I didn't SAY that, what I SAID was..." and they're just not getting it?
I absolutely, truly hate having to explain what I meant by something. I also deeply, aneurysm-havingly despise having to tell somebody they're wrong about something, which I have to do far, far too often. In order to understand a lot of what I do in my life, I have to point out to people the inconsistencies in their own lives, their double-standards, and the many time-sensitive hypocrisies that they carry around all day. You know those people who say "rules are meant to be broken"? These are the same people who throw a big fit every time someone sneaks into their house and rapes their nine-year-old. No, dipshit, rules are meant to identify, stop, and/or punish people who are doing things that are detrimental to society. You don't get to satisfy your urge to be naughty if you're going to freak out when your kids do the same thing, either. People get defensive when you tell them this, and deny everything, and start hating you, and decide to be an ass to you at every opportunity, which is one of the reasons I (as mentioned above) hate telling people when they're wrong.
Boy howdy, do people need to have it prettied up when I tell them that they have no more self-awareness than a Roomba.
That reminds me, I should integrate the phrase "I don't want to talk about it" a little more deeply into my daily routine.
Hey MS Word, stop trying to predict what I want to highlight with the mouse. What I want highlighted, I WILL HIGHLIGHT.
Take ten seconds and go here: http://www.survivingtheworld.net/Lesson149.html
You will be a better person for it.
Final note: ENOUGH ABOUT TIGER WOODS. JESUS, PEOPLE.
But I made out like a bandit this Christmas. Terabyte external hard drive for my mad backupz, little zen garden, the aforementioned game, and the bossest Mp3 player that can be found without having to install special software to manage. I could write a whole post about how badass this thing is, but I'm having so little time to post as it is. My cup, she runneth her ass over.
Some of it is music, and the acquisition thereof. Just about every band or musician I would want an album from has either put one out this year or announced that there will be one in early 2010. I'm getting collector's editions all over the place. After Forever (I figure I owe them some money), Bo Burham, Epica, Dethklok, Rammstein, Leaves' Eyes, and those are just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head. Just the collector's editions. The amount of new music that has hit me has just been overwhelming, and full of total awesome. Epica's doing something new with their singer. It's different, but it's definitely working. I'm so glad they left the corny, singsongy tunes of The Divine Conspiracy behind them. This album rocked my face off.
Speaking of musical influence, I am now officially supportive of the breakup of Azure Ray. As tragic as it sounded to me at first, it led to the development of some incredible individual styles, and the resulting projects have been delivering unceasing soul-crushings over the past month or so. I have heard some truly staggering musical pieces in my day, but though I've heard of the experience, I've never actually had my mind blown by a solo. And this was a banjo solo, and it wasn't even being played like a banjo. It am utterly had. I would take a bullet for Orenda Fink, and I'm willing to put that to paper.
Since I'm already talking about music, lemme just go ahead and say this. Fans of Nightwish. Come on. Shut up. The band really liked their lead singer. She was their image. She was their focus. And you'd have to mess up pretty bad in order for them to come together as a band and say "Okay, it's gotten to the point where we have to rip this still-beating mother out of our chest." She's gone. And you know what? She wasn't even that good. You're just used to her. Really listen to her on the long notes. She breaks down. She wobbles. She warbles. She's uncomfortable a lot of the time. She had her really good moments, sure, but she had some very audibly bad ones, too. She wasn't Nightwish. Tuomas Holopainen is Nightwish (holy crap, I spelled that right on the first try). Marco helps like a sumbitch, Emppu and Jukka bring the vision to life, but Tuomas is the dream weaver here.
Sure, Anette isn't as intimate a singer, but listen to Sahara or The Cadence of her Last Breath. She's strong. She's accurate. She can bring it. She's a little poppy, yes, and she does her little girlish dance around on stage, but is that any less embarrassing than Tarja waving to the audience with big grins no matter which song they're playing?
BUT ENOUGH OF THAT.
I did not go see Avatar. Why pay any amount of money, or give any more of your time to see a movie that you saw in its entirety the first time you saw a preview for it? There's nothing in it that's going to be significantly more visually impressive than what's in your average video game these days, so no thank you.
Oh, hey, I found the entire script online. Reposted with permission from 20th Century Fox:
FERN GULLY happens, but with ALIENS. [end]
So stop asking.
Randomness now.
I've heard the word "superficial" a lot of times, but I've never seen a super fish.
People who get bowl cuts cannot be trusted to make their own decisions.
ATTENTION PEOPLE WHO SPEAK SPANISH: "R" does not equal "L." You guys are worse about this than any Asian culture. Listen to somebody rolling an R. More than likely, they're being lazy bastards and rolling an L. Know who's the worst about this? Latinos. Eric Estrada, remember his appearance in that Burger King commercial, pitching his imaginary personalized shades? Remember him pointing to it, and saying "Est-lala?" You want proof? Watch Dexter. Watch Maria Laguerta try to say "Miguel Prado." It's like she's going out of her way to emphasize that it isn't being done right. I wonder if she's making fun of the culture.
I'd like to find the guy who coined the phrase "Latin America" and punch him in the face. Words mean things, asshole.
You know, the Pilgims could also use a shot in the pills for leaving from a place called "Plymouth," and naming the first place they came to "Plymouth." Squanto shoulda set your boat on fire.
I'd also like to meet the first person who said "I could care less about..." and find out whether he/she actually intended to say that. How did that ever catch on?
Geek out over this link.
The commercials for 2012 made me laugh. Scene. "Predicted by the Mayans." Scene. "Confirmed by science." Like that's not hilariously vague. They might as well have put quotes around the word.
"Hands down." People use this to describe an easy or decisive victory. "He just kicked that guy's ass, hands down, man." This has always agitated me. Do people not wonder where these expressions come from, and whether they sound stupid saying them? That kind of reminds me of that bullshit explanation of where "Mind your p's and q's" comes from. ARGH. NOW I AM ANGRY.
No, I can't be angry listening to this song. My serenity > people who talk without thinking.
I want somebody to send me too many text messages, so I can threaten to kick them in the texticles. Don't you?
Come on, guys. Orgasm as a verb? Now you're just getting lazy.
Oh! That reminds me. PEOPLE NOT IN CALIFORNIA: Where you live, do people ever refer to a movie as a "show"? I need to know that it's isolated to the drones in Sacramento, or at least to this brain-dead state. "The Matrix? Oh my god, I loved that show, it was so deep!" This is why I write exceedingly violent books. I need an outlet to release what these people give me or it will rupture my cerebrum.
I know, I bitch about the degeneration of language a lot, but that's because complex ideas require specific references in order to be conveyed. If all similar words end up carrying the same meaning, new ideas cannot be developed and spread. I see it everywhere, and I have to explain myself in nearly everything I do. How many times have you found yourself telling someone "I didn't SAY that, what I SAID was..." and they're just not getting it?
I absolutely, truly hate having to explain what I meant by something. I also deeply, aneurysm-havingly despise having to tell somebody they're wrong about something, which I have to do far, far too often. In order to understand a lot of what I do in my life, I have to point out to people the inconsistencies in their own lives, their double-standards, and the many time-sensitive hypocrisies that they carry around all day. You know those people who say "rules are meant to be broken"? These are the same people who throw a big fit every time someone sneaks into their house and rapes their nine-year-old. No, dipshit, rules are meant to identify, stop, and/or punish people who are doing things that are detrimental to society. You don't get to satisfy your urge to be naughty if you're going to freak out when your kids do the same thing, either. People get defensive when you tell them this, and deny everything, and start hating you, and decide to be an ass to you at every opportunity, which is one of the reasons I (as mentioned above) hate telling people when they're wrong.
Boy howdy, do people need to have it prettied up when I tell them that they have no more self-awareness than a Roomba.
That reminds me, I should integrate the phrase "I don't want to talk about it" a little more deeply into my daily routine.
Hey MS Word, stop trying to predict what I want to highlight with the mouse. What I want highlighted, I WILL HIGHLIGHT.
Take ten seconds and go here: http://www.survivingtheworld.net/Lesson149.html
You will be a better person for it.
Final note: ENOUGH ABOUT TIGER WOODS. JESUS, PEOPLE.