Two Million Things I'd Like to Choose...
Man, do I ever agree with somebody. Okay, several somebodies, but I'm only talking about one right now. Tango is fun! Especially the promenade with underarm turn I learned two weeks ago. Seriously, I've been having a blast taking lessons at Dance Factory in Arlington. It's a very friendly independent dance studio (as opposed to Arthur Murray's or Fred Astaire's franchises, I guess). I've learned some basic figures for the Tango, Foxtrot, and Waltz - like 2 each. Dance Factory hooked me in with a free, 30 minute one-on-one lesson; their manager's special. I wish I could afford more private lessons, but the group lessons give me a chance to dance with a lot of different people and work on my communication skills. I had no experience with Standard (or Smooth) ballroom dances before - I'd only ever done the little bit of single-steppin' East Coast Swing that Elisabeth (withans) taught me. My second set of lessons starts in January; I'll be doing more Foxtrot start learning Triple Swing and Rumba.
I've started playing some fantastic independently developed computer games that I discovered through Play This Thing. Other than a few browser-based games, I'd been merely reading Play This Thing. Which, when I think about it, is a crying shame! Cave Story and Iji have really stood out so far, but I've enjoyed everything played so far. The subversive Mighty Jill Off didn't take long to finish (hurr hurr), I'm considering sharing the peaceful student project Cloud with my mom, and the deliciously slow-paced scrolling space-shooter Gamma Bros. might have a permanent home on my hard drive. Back to the stand-outs, Cave Story and Iji are both action/adventure 2D platformers, and nostalgic labors of love. Cave Story hearkens back to the days of the NES, and Iji looks reminiscent of Delphin Software International's vector-based "cinematic platformers" (Another World, Flashback) from the early 90s. I'm not sure I'm qualified to call something masterful, but that's how I want to describe them both.
Of course, the games I'm having the most fun with right now are low-tech. I know that Houses of the Blooded is supposed to be about tragedy, but nobody in our group can help buy laugh at our convoluted labyrinth of intrigue, sin, and revenge and our oh-so-flawed characters. We haven't started playing yet, but I'm really excited about the game Joe ( severefun) is setting in the Read or Die universe, using Arc Dream Publishing's Wild Talents rules (you can see how our agents for the British Library are turning out here). I might need to make a "Let Me Tell You About My Character" post for that one. Jeff is running us through a Torg adventure at the Strategist, too. I'm not entirely sold on the game, but the setting and system hang together better than most, and our sessions are full of goofy fun.
PS - OMG - LJ's Rich text editor uses and tags instead of and tags! And I can check the markup by clicking on the HTLM tab! I wonder if Semagic has finally started to use lower-case tags (its the way the wind is blowin'). Things weren't always this way; now all is right with the world!
OK, maybe not, but at least I don't feel compelled to type everything out anymore. And yeah, the new editor isn't compatible with Firefox's in-line spell-checker, which is sad. But still, these might be steps in the right direction.
I've started playing some fantastic independently developed computer games that I discovered through Play This Thing. Other than a few browser-based games, I'd been merely reading Play This Thing. Which, when I think about it, is a crying shame! Cave Story and Iji have really stood out so far, but I've enjoyed everything played so far. The subversive Mighty Jill Off didn't take long to finish (hurr hurr), I'm considering sharing the peaceful student project Cloud with my mom, and the deliciously slow-paced scrolling space-shooter Gamma Bros. might have a permanent home on my hard drive. Back to the stand-outs, Cave Story and Iji are both action/adventure 2D platformers, and nostalgic labors of love. Cave Story hearkens back to the days of the NES, and Iji looks reminiscent of Delphin Software International's vector-based "cinematic platformers" (Another World, Flashback) from the early 90s. I'm not sure I'm qualified to call something masterful, but that's how I want to describe them both.
Of course, the games I'm having the most fun with right now are low-tech. I know that Houses of the Blooded is supposed to be about tragedy, but nobody in our group can help buy laugh at our convoluted labyrinth of intrigue, sin, and revenge and our oh-so-flawed characters. We haven't started playing yet, but I'm really excited about the game Joe ( severefun) is setting in the Read or Die universe, using Arc Dream Publishing's Wild Talents rules (you can see how our agents for the British Library are turning out here). I might need to make a "Let Me Tell You About My Character" post for that one. Jeff is running us through a Torg adventure at the Strategist, too. I'm not entirely sold on the game, but the setting and system hang together better than most, and our sessions are full of goofy fun.
PS - OMG - LJ's Rich text editor uses and tags instead of and tags! And I can check the markup by clicking on the HTLM tab! I wonder if Semagic has finally started to use lower-case tags (its the way the wind is blowin'). Things weren't always this way; now all is right with the world!
OK, maybe not, but at least I don't feel compelled to type everything out anymore. And yeah, the new editor isn't compatible with Firefox's in-line spell-checker, which is sad. But still, these might be steps in the right direction.