moments of reflection.
At last, a fairly restrained weekend. Saturday we started the ramen stock - a pretty huge undertaking in the end. We watched Barton Fink, an early Coen Brothers film that was really excellent. We watched some cartoons, too. The clocks sprang ahead. Sunday we did not do a whole lot. We cooked the ramen some more, I played some Dark Souls, and we unfortunately got some Burger King.
Other thoughts, in no particular order:
- This month - specifically, this week - is when I get back to working out. I've put it off too long as it is and my muscles are flabby and sore all the time.
- I think (for the moment) Dark Souls has bested me. I got past a confusing area where I'd been stuck for months, finally reached the terrifying and strange boss, and he killed me in one hit as I tried to learn his patterns. It turns out that there is a level of futility that even I will balk at.
- I played a level of Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall. It was pretty fun! Kind of X-com type combat. Not the best to play on the big screen as some of the text is still a bit too small. I made a troll Decker named Lady Gaga but since I failed the first mission I don't know how many more of her adventures we'll see.
- I read just a little more of Two Serpents Rise. It seems very solid, but I was having attention span issues, as may be obvious from the previous two notes.
- I am thinking of doing a variant of this to use up some turkey and (mostly) stuffing. http://justbento.com/handbook/recipe-collection-mains/pan-fried-crispy-chicken-turkey-nuggets-gobo-burdock Update: it worked pretty well.
- We watched three episodes of Twin Peaks. Sometimes it's hard to tell when it's weird on purpose and when it's weird by accident.
- Jill and I were both thinking it'd be fun to get pulled into a video game like ~the old days~ but it was hard to decide on one, so she mostly played Monster Hunter and I fizzed around with various things. I couldn't get the controller set up properly for Legacy of Kain: Defiance, which made it pretty unappealing to play. Sometime I should set up an x-padder type program and note which of the Logitech inputs map to what - I've had this problem before and it's exactly what I don't want to deal with when firing up a game.
- I feel pretty caught up on podcasts, which is perhaps to say that my brain is full of words.
- Lately I've had a taste for dark chocolate, but my attempt at brownie muffins was not great and my last stab at Nestle Mexican hot chocolate was likewise disappointing. It had this artificial sweet aftertaste and I'll probably toss the rest of the box.
I have been trying to be better about being willing to throw things out when they're not good. This in addition to being more focused on using things up in general. The mixed root panzanella from AB's spatchcocked turkey, for instance, is merely okay... which wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't so much of it. A more traditional stuffing would have been better and is something I've been wanting to cook for a while.
Last night I played some more video games. ZombiU and the Last Story. I got frustrated with ZombiU and turned it of, but I also had to admit that it's really good at what it does. Like, I don't totally have the controls and the timing down yet, but that is part of the Dark Souls-yness of the game. However, it makes me feel more tense and on edge than any zombie game I've played since about Resident Evil 2. As an example, with my last character, I threw a flare to distract 5 zombies and run past them. But two of them followed me and I accidentally locked myself INSIDE the building with them, and couldn't get out past the zombies. This is clearly a stupid thing to do, but it's the sort of raw panic you would expect in a situation like that.
I also played about 45 minutes of the Last Story, which was 2 chapters of the game. Very slight spoilers for that amount of the game follow. Also, I have no idea how many chapters it has. It was fun, but after Dark Souls and ZombiU, felt really easy. That was part of the reason I turned it on in the first place, but then it felt a bit unsatisfying. The game feels sort of like a sped-up jRPG - in the sense of, we know our beautiful young man protagonist has to get a special power after seeing someone close to him injured near death so let's just get it over with and make it a core mechanic! There! There's your magic tortured yet relatable hero!
That's kind of refreshing but unfortunately I know from Nintendo Power issues that what they really wanted to do was make a darker sci-fi RPG and I suspect that's what I'd rather play as well. (Both because it's more fresh and I'd rather see the project that the creator is really amped up about.) The fantasy trappings (viewed through a vaguely anime lens) seem a bit threadbare by this point. Still, the game is solid and I would recommend it if you want an actually finishable jRPG for the Wii, but it didn't grab me in particular.
Yesterday (Monday) I was feeling in a nostalgic, anime-centric mood. At least, I thought so. When I fired up Last Story, I wasn't so sure. Sometimes I just have these days when I question the direction I've been taking mentally. Yesterday was one. "Why don't you change gears completely and do a crunchy anime-esque game for your next campaign?!" I am feeling less of that today. But there is just this thin wall of sencha tea between me and the frustration that Daylight Savings Time brings.
Other thoughts, in no particular order:
- This month - specifically, this week - is when I get back to working out. I've put it off too long as it is and my muscles are flabby and sore all the time.
- I think (for the moment) Dark Souls has bested me. I got past a confusing area where I'd been stuck for months, finally reached the terrifying and strange boss, and he killed me in one hit as I tried to learn his patterns. It turns out that there is a level of futility that even I will balk at.
- I played a level of Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall. It was pretty fun! Kind of X-com type combat. Not the best to play on the big screen as some of the text is still a bit too small. I made a troll Decker named Lady Gaga but since I failed the first mission I don't know how many more of her adventures we'll see.
- I read just a little more of Two Serpents Rise. It seems very solid, but I was having attention span issues, as may be obvious from the previous two notes.
- I am thinking of doing a variant of this to use up some turkey and (mostly) stuffing. http://justbento.com/handbook/recipe-collection-mains/pan-fried-crispy-chicken-turkey-nuggets-gobo-burdock Update: it worked pretty well.
- We watched three episodes of Twin Peaks. Sometimes it's hard to tell when it's weird on purpose and when it's weird by accident.
- Jill and I were both thinking it'd be fun to get pulled into a video game like ~the old days~ but it was hard to decide on one, so she mostly played Monster Hunter and I fizzed around with various things. I couldn't get the controller set up properly for Legacy of Kain: Defiance, which made it pretty unappealing to play. Sometime I should set up an x-padder type program and note which of the Logitech inputs map to what - I've had this problem before and it's exactly what I don't want to deal with when firing up a game.
- I feel pretty caught up on podcasts, which is perhaps to say that my brain is full of words.
- Lately I've had a taste for dark chocolate, but my attempt at brownie muffins was not great and my last stab at Nestle Mexican hot chocolate was likewise disappointing. It had this artificial sweet aftertaste and I'll probably toss the rest of the box.
I have been trying to be better about being willing to throw things out when they're not good. This in addition to being more focused on using things up in general. The mixed root panzanella from AB's spatchcocked turkey, for instance, is merely okay... which wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't so much of it. A more traditional stuffing would have been better and is something I've been wanting to cook for a while.
Last night I played some more video games. ZombiU and the Last Story. I got frustrated with ZombiU and turned it of, but I also had to admit that it's really good at what it does. Like, I don't totally have the controls and the timing down yet, but that is part of the Dark Souls-yness of the game. However, it makes me feel more tense and on edge than any zombie game I've played since about Resident Evil 2. As an example, with my last character, I threw a flare to distract 5 zombies and run past them. But two of them followed me and I accidentally locked myself INSIDE the building with them, and couldn't get out past the zombies. This is clearly a stupid thing to do, but it's the sort of raw panic you would expect in a situation like that.
I also played about 45 minutes of the Last Story, which was 2 chapters of the game. Very slight spoilers for that amount of the game follow. Also, I have no idea how many chapters it has. It was fun, but after Dark Souls and ZombiU, felt really easy. That was part of the reason I turned it on in the first place, but then it felt a bit unsatisfying. The game feels sort of like a sped-up jRPG - in the sense of, we know our beautiful young man protagonist has to get a special power after seeing someone close to him injured near death so let's just get it over with and make it a core mechanic! There! There's your magic tortured yet relatable hero!
That's kind of refreshing but unfortunately I know from Nintendo Power issues that what they really wanted to do was make a darker sci-fi RPG and I suspect that's what I'd rather play as well. (Both because it's more fresh and I'd rather see the project that the creator is really amped up about.) The fantasy trappings (viewed through a vaguely anime lens) seem a bit threadbare by this point. Still, the game is solid and I would recommend it if you want an actually finishable jRPG for the Wii, but it didn't grab me in particular.
Yesterday (Monday) I was feeling in a nostalgic, anime-centric mood. At least, I thought so. When I fired up Last Story, I wasn't so sure. Sometimes I just have these days when I question the direction I've been taking mentally. Yesterday was one. "Why don't you change gears completely and do a crunchy anime-esque game for your next campaign?!" I am feeling less of that today. But there is just this thin wall of sencha tea between me and the frustration that Daylight Savings Time brings.