ugh, fun times and some review...
Well this morning I got up and took the dog to get a groom. We had them check to see if she had any fleas since she's been scratching a lot more than usual lately. They called, she had no fleas, so that means she's having an allergic reaction to something. It's either her anxiety pills she has to take when it storms or it's her new food. We'll probably exchange her food out with something we know she's ok with and see if she scratchs less. Otherwise it's just her pills and since she doesn't take them THAT often (the wet months really are the worst, usually we can hold her off for just one half hour storm or so) she should be ok.
Before I left for work I went and picked her up and on the way home two stupid dummy lights in my car started blinking on and off. It's the brake and battery light blinking on and off so when I got into work I immediately called Ray Skillman. Though chances are pretty high it's a short since the lights never stayed on for more than a minute, I live by the "better safe than sorry" ideal.
For the Fourth I tried my hand at grilling some fruit, and other than having nasty peaches it turned out pretty good. The peaches however were months from being even close to ripe so they were sour as hell. BUT the topping I made for the peaches was amazing and we ended up just using it for toast! The pineapple turned out awesome, I was picking at it while my second set of pineapple was cooking. Since my little grill is already a little worse for wear I've decided I might buy a Weber grill when they go on sale after grilling season is over. It would also keep us from having to have someone else bring a grill over when we need to cook for more than four people. I can't complain though, I spent 15 whole dollars on the grill I have and it'll last the season.
I'm still trying to get the knack to getting the coals evenly started though. Practice makes perfect though, right?!
S'pose I should give my review on the recent Doctor Who's and InFAMOUS while I'm at it. First things first, InFAMOUS. I like the game. I like the comic strip cuts it uses to tell the story. It is a tad disappointing considering it's a PS3 game and the disc is more than capable for fully animated story cuts, but it adds charm. I have read that in the sequel there's going to be both animated and comic strip cuts so that should definitely satisfy. I love that every visible part of the game is fully explorable (except the insides of the buildings which well duh). If they make a third Uncharted I'd love if they'd employ the same kind of Parkour traits to Nate so I can climb more buildings and such.
The bad is the game is unfortunately quite a bit buggy. I've several times ran through walls, gotten stuck on an invisible wall, and I've aimed directly at a moving vehicle while falling yet I still landed off to the side. I'm hoping for the second game they do a lot more tweaking and get all the parameters worked out so this stuff doesn't happen in the middle of the game. I get on games like Ratchet and Clank or Uncharted you'll find bugs in the perimeter bits of the game play, but it's frustrating to be running down the road in InFAMOUS and all of a sudden your stuck due to an invisible wall or something.
Also the side missions are kind of tedious. There's about 10 total side missions but you do each one like 4 or 5 different times. It's not all bad because it's under different scenery, but it's really the same thing set to repeat. I'm hoping for the next game they give more of a selection when it comes to side missions.
And the MOST tedious part of the game is collecting the blast shards and dead drops. I wouldn't mind doing this so much if I didn't have to repeatedly hit a button every five seconds so Cole could use his spidey sense to see if there's blast shards/drainable electricity/dead drops in front of him. Considering there's five different sections of the city you explore and they are all pretty big it gets REAL tedious, REAL fast. If they had it set to where I could see at least the blast shard on the map then it wouldn't be so bad, I mean you still have to find the damn thing on the building it's not exactly super straight forward. Wandering around aimlessly and clicking the L3 button repeatedly is just boring almost.
Overall, I like the game. The story is interesting and the graphics are top notch. The voice acting leaves a little to be desired and Cole can be kind of a dick (which makes it hard to get deep into the game unfortunately). I'm definitely going to pick up the sequel that's for sure. Also if there ever was a game that was primed and ready to be turned into a movie this one is definitely it, I'm not sure Uncharted will work as a movie simply because everything is so fleshed out and beautifully done in the game. But this game could definitely use character developement that would come from a movie, and what would be cooler than seeing an action movie where the protagonist has powers of electricity, can grind El train rails and Electric wires, who can shoot electric bombs out of his hands and can channel an electric storm all while jumping from building to building Parkour style? It would be AWESOME.
Now on to Doctor Who. First I'll start with the Vincent Van Gogh story. I didn't really care for it. First off it was so heavy handed it wasn't even interesting. I like the Shakespeare and Charles Dickens story much better because it wasn't like they had to keep telling the audience every five seconds that these people were awesome but they didn't know how awesome they were at the time or how their books would last through the ages. Hell I'd even take the Agatha Christie story over this one and that was ridiculous, but it was still five seconds of hero worship and the rest was just inside jokes dealing with the fame of that person. This episode was just set up to FORCE the audience to feel bad for Van Gogh. The thing is, the actor they got to play Van Gogh SOLD it, he did a fantastic job. But it's hard to peddle shit to people who can smell.
I liked the idea, that Van Gogh might not have been as crazy as he was because he was seeing a beast that no one else could see. But then they went on and on about how he was Bipolar without really saying it. They danced around the subject a REALLY long time. Then when they did bring the subject front and center it was when the Doctor was going to explain it TO VAN GOGH! How about NOT altering the time line like you ARE NOT supposed to do there, Doctor.
If the writing had been better and not nearly as heavy handed this episode could have been as awesome as all the other historical figure episodes. But in order for me to even stomach this episode then there's no way the 10 minutes of Van Gogh hopping a joy ride in the TARDIS to the future to hear about how awesome of a painter he is (and for the love of God I was going to punch the next character that said he was the greatest artist IN THE WORLD. Um. No. He was amazing, yes, but there is no "the greatest artist evah" category even available. First it's subjective, second there's too many genre's of art!). Talking about the possibility of driving a mad man madder, or even the possibility of giving Van Gogh hope so that he didn't commit suicide. Which would...ALTER THE FREAKING TIME LINE. It was bad, bad, bad. And done SOLELY to move the audience. I take issue when the story is trying to tell me how I need to feel.
Plus, again, Amy was useless. I want to like Amy. I do. But I really, really don't. Honestly I'd take another season of Rose over Amy. That's how much over Amy I am, at least Rose had a personality, Amy just...is.
On to the latest Doctor Who, "The Lodger". For the first time this season, even though the episode was flawed, I really, really, REALLY liked an episode. It was fun, light, and even though the resolution was ridiculous the episode was just that good that I was able to overlook it. Is it a coincidence that the episode with the LEAST amount of Amy is the one I think I liked the most? Matt Smith definitely sold himself as a 900 year old alien in this episode and I liked it. I also like that he still insists that bow ties are cool (gentlemanly, yes...cool, no). This episode was for the most part light fluff. I do find it weird that Eleven is having a much harder time fitting in with 20th Century humans than either Nine or Ten had, but again I can let it go. It was a rough regeneration so maybe Eleven is a man who grasps on to his alienness.
I also found it quite hilarious that Eleven spent the entire time in his room creating this weird metal merry-go-round thing that didn't seem to really do much of anything other than spin and look weird.
It was also kind of funny that in Amy's boredom she kept tinkering around with things in the TARDIS for no reason other than what someone would do if they were bored. Unfortunately the rest of the time Amy was on screen she was shouting and yelling. I mean seriously girl how many times does the TARDIS need to do the same thing before you realize that while you ARE in danger it isn't IMMEDIATE danger so the shouting is completely unnecessary.
What I didn't really care for was lack of explanation of the motivation to create a TARDIS and who it was that tasked the hologram to create a TARDIS. I don't like stories that happen and we are just supposed to accept it, but compared to the utter failure in writing for at least 5 other episodes, this one doesn't suffer nearly as bad.
Now we are headed towards the Finale. My thoughts on the season? It took a while but I've warmed to Matt Smith. I've only seen the new Doctor Who so he is the first Doctor who I can say works best WITHOUT a companion. Eleven isn't a godlike Doctor who needs someone to remind him that there's consequences to all his actions and sometimes he needs to face them and fix them even if it's a small fix. Eleven is an alien Doctor who is putting everything behind him and is moving forward with his adventure. I don't mind this, but a companion kind of drags him down, or at least THIS companion does. She's not adding anything to the Doctor, they are just two people who happen to be traveling together. I don't get a real bond between Amy and the Doctor, not like I did with Rose, Martha or Donna (or even Sarah Jane when she made a brief appearance). As nice as Karen Gillan is to look at, and even though she's a decent actress (not the greatest by any means, she plays Amy WAY too snarky and teenagery so it's hard to honestly LIKE Amy at the best of times) the writing for the companion is just subpar.
I know I've said it before but I'll say it again, there's NO WAY I'd watch an episode solely driven by Amy. I don't mind watching Rose wander around and lash out because the Doctor needs help and she can't figure out what she needs to do even though she has the TARDIS at her finger tips. I don't mind watching the bleakness of a world without the Doctor because Donna wasn't strong enough to make the right decision. I will mind any story to do with Amy because sadly I'm ambivalent towards her. I don't like her. I don't hate her. She's just there taking up space. I do care about the Doctor even when his alienness makes him a bit of an asshat (which, lets face it, Nine and Ten could be quite assy until reality kicked them in the balls and they faced the consequences of their actions).
My vote for next season? Let Matt be the Doctor. No companion, at least not right off the bat. Let Amy go and be married to Rory. Or bring Rory back to be a second companion because he was WAY more awesome than tabula rasa Amy.
And to finish everything off, even though it's belated I gotta say...
CONGRATULATIONS!
...to stephiny. Yes gentle readers she has OFFICIALLY GRADUATED! Woot!
Before I left for work I went and picked her up and on the way home two stupid dummy lights in my car started blinking on and off. It's the brake and battery light blinking on and off so when I got into work I immediately called Ray Skillman. Though chances are pretty high it's a short since the lights never stayed on for more than a minute, I live by the "better safe than sorry" ideal.
For the Fourth I tried my hand at grilling some fruit, and other than having nasty peaches it turned out pretty good. The peaches however were months from being even close to ripe so they were sour as hell. BUT the topping I made for the peaches was amazing and we ended up just using it for toast! The pineapple turned out awesome, I was picking at it while my second set of pineapple was cooking. Since my little grill is already a little worse for wear I've decided I might buy a Weber grill when they go on sale after grilling season is over. It would also keep us from having to have someone else bring a grill over when we need to cook for more than four people. I can't complain though, I spent 15 whole dollars on the grill I have and it'll last the season.
I'm still trying to get the knack to getting the coals evenly started though. Practice makes perfect though, right?!
S'pose I should give my review on the recent Doctor Who's and InFAMOUS while I'm at it. First things first, InFAMOUS. I like the game. I like the comic strip cuts it uses to tell the story. It is a tad disappointing considering it's a PS3 game and the disc is more than capable for fully animated story cuts, but it adds charm. I have read that in the sequel there's going to be both animated and comic strip cuts so that should definitely satisfy. I love that every visible part of the game is fully explorable (except the insides of the buildings which well duh). If they make a third Uncharted I'd love if they'd employ the same kind of Parkour traits to Nate so I can climb more buildings and such.
The bad is the game is unfortunately quite a bit buggy. I've several times ran through walls, gotten stuck on an invisible wall, and I've aimed directly at a moving vehicle while falling yet I still landed off to the side. I'm hoping for the second game they do a lot more tweaking and get all the parameters worked out so this stuff doesn't happen in the middle of the game. I get on games like Ratchet and Clank or Uncharted you'll find bugs in the perimeter bits of the game play, but it's frustrating to be running down the road in InFAMOUS and all of a sudden your stuck due to an invisible wall or something.
Also the side missions are kind of tedious. There's about 10 total side missions but you do each one like 4 or 5 different times. It's not all bad because it's under different scenery, but it's really the same thing set to repeat. I'm hoping for the next game they give more of a selection when it comes to side missions.
And the MOST tedious part of the game is collecting the blast shards and dead drops. I wouldn't mind doing this so much if I didn't have to repeatedly hit a button every five seconds so Cole could use his spidey sense to see if there's blast shards/drainable electricity/dead drops in front of him. Considering there's five different sections of the city you explore and they are all pretty big it gets REAL tedious, REAL fast. If they had it set to where I could see at least the blast shard on the map then it wouldn't be so bad, I mean you still have to find the damn thing on the building it's not exactly super straight forward. Wandering around aimlessly and clicking the L3 button repeatedly is just boring almost.
Overall, I like the game. The story is interesting and the graphics are top notch. The voice acting leaves a little to be desired and Cole can be kind of a dick (which makes it hard to get deep into the game unfortunately). I'm definitely going to pick up the sequel that's for sure. Also if there ever was a game that was primed and ready to be turned into a movie this one is definitely it, I'm not sure Uncharted will work as a movie simply because everything is so fleshed out and beautifully done in the game. But this game could definitely use character developement that would come from a movie, and what would be cooler than seeing an action movie where the protagonist has powers of electricity, can grind El train rails and Electric wires, who can shoot electric bombs out of his hands and can channel an electric storm all while jumping from building to building Parkour style? It would be AWESOME.
Now on to Doctor Who. First I'll start with the Vincent Van Gogh story. I didn't really care for it. First off it was so heavy handed it wasn't even interesting. I like the Shakespeare and Charles Dickens story much better because it wasn't like they had to keep telling the audience every five seconds that these people were awesome but they didn't know how awesome they were at the time or how their books would last through the ages. Hell I'd even take the Agatha Christie story over this one and that was ridiculous, but it was still five seconds of hero worship and the rest was just inside jokes dealing with the fame of that person. This episode was just set up to FORCE the audience to feel bad for Van Gogh. The thing is, the actor they got to play Van Gogh SOLD it, he did a fantastic job. But it's hard to peddle shit to people who can smell.
I liked the idea, that Van Gogh might not have been as crazy as he was because he was seeing a beast that no one else could see. But then they went on and on about how he was Bipolar without really saying it. They danced around the subject a REALLY long time. Then when they did bring the subject front and center it was when the Doctor was going to explain it TO VAN GOGH! How about NOT altering the time line like you ARE NOT supposed to do there, Doctor.
If the writing had been better and not nearly as heavy handed this episode could have been as awesome as all the other historical figure episodes. But in order for me to even stomach this episode then there's no way the 10 minutes of Van Gogh hopping a joy ride in the TARDIS to the future to hear about how awesome of a painter he is (and for the love of God I was going to punch the next character that said he was the greatest artist IN THE WORLD. Um. No. He was amazing, yes, but there is no "the greatest artist evah" category even available. First it's subjective, second there's too many genre's of art!). Talking about the possibility of driving a mad man madder, or even the possibility of giving Van Gogh hope so that he didn't commit suicide. Which would...ALTER THE FREAKING TIME LINE. It was bad, bad, bad. And done SOLELY to move the audience. I take issue when the story is trying to tell me how I need to feel.
Plus, again, Amy was useless. I want to like Amy. I do. But I really, really don't. Honestly I'd take another season of Rose over Amy. That's how much over Amy I am, at least Rose had a personality, Amy just...is.
On to the latest Doctor Who, "The Lodger". For the first time this season, even though the episode was flawed, I really, really, REALLY liked an episode. It was fun, light, and even though the resolution was ridiculous the episode was just that good that I was able to overlook it. Is it a coincidence that the episode with the LEAST amount of Amy is the one I think I liked the most? Matt Smith definitely sold himself as a 900 year old alien in this episode and I liked it. I also like that he still insists that bow ties are cool (gentlemanly, yes...cool, no). This episode was for the most part light fluff. I do find it weird that Eleven is having a much harder time fitting in with 20th Century humans than either Nine or Ten had, but again I can let it go. It was a rough regeneration so maybe Eleven is a man who grasps on to his alienness.
I also found it quite hilarious that Eleven spent the entire time in his room creating this weird metal merry-go-round thing that didn't seem to really do much of anything other than spin and look weird.
It was also kind of funny that in Amy's boredom she kept tinkering around with things in the TARDIS for no reason other than what someone would do if they were bored. Unfortunately the rest of the time Amy was on screen she was shouting and yelling. I mean seriously girl how many times does the TARDIS need to do the same thing before you realize that while you ARE in danger it isn't IMMEDIATE danger so the shouting is completely unnecessary.
What I didn't really care for was lack of explanation of the motivation to create a TARDIS and who it was that tasked the hologram to create a TARDIS. I don't like stories that happen and we are just supposed to accept it, but compared to the utter failure in writing for at least 5 other episodes, this one doesn't suffer nearly as bad.
Now we are headed towards the Finale. My thoughts on the season? It took a while but I've warmed to Matt Smith. I've only seen the new Doctor Who so he is the first Doctor who I can say works best WITHOUT a companion. Eleven isn't a godlike Doctor who needs someone to remind him that there's consequences to all his actions and sometimes he needs to face them and fix them even if it's a small fix. Eleven is an alien Doctor who is putting everything behind him and is moving forward with his adventure. I don't mind this, but a companion kind of drags him down, or at least THIS companion does. She's not adding anything to the Doctor, they are just two people who happen to be traveling together. I don't get a real bond between Amy and the Doctor, not like I did with Rose, Martha or Donna (or even Sarah Jane when she made a brief appearance). As nice as Karen Gillan is to look at, and even though she's a decent actress (not the greatest by any means, she plays Amy WAY too snarky and teenagery so it's hard to honestly LIKE Amy at the best of times) the writing for the companion is just subpar.
I know I've said it before but I'll say it again, there's NO WAY I'd watch an episode solely driven by Amy. I don't mind watching Rose wander around and lash out because the Doctor needs help and she can't figure out what she needs to do even though she has the TARDIS at her finger tips. I don't mind watching the bleakness of a world without the Doctor because Donna wasn't strong enough to make the right decision. I will mind any story to do with Amy because sadly I'm ambivalent towards her. I don't like her. I don't hate her. She's just there taking up space. I do care about the Doctor even when his alienness makes him a bit of an asshat (which, lets face it, Nine and Ten could be quite assy until reality kicked them in the balls and they faced the consequences of their actions).
My vote for next season? Let Matt be the Doctor. No companion, at least not right off the bat. Let Amy go and be married to Rory. Or bring Rory back to be a second companion because he was WAY more awesome than tabula rasa Amy.
And to finish everything off, even though it's belated I gotta say...
CONGRATULATIONS!
...to stephiny. Yes gentle readers she has OFFICIALLY GRADUATED! Woot!