[Obligatory Post]

I can't really think of anything to write...Oh, I failed at NaNo. It officially ends in about ten minutes, and I only had around 10k words, and it was mostly just crap. Oh, well. Maybe next year.

On a happier not, it's going to be December in a few minutes. I freaking love December. I just like the cold, which is weird, because I never go outside. Go figure. Well, I guess when we start moving (hopefully soon), I will be outside, so that's good. I need to buy a coat or maybe a shirt or something. Seriously, I only own t-shirts. I've been trying to get my mom to buy me this "hoodie" (I hate that word...it sounds like a synonym of gangster), but no luck yet.

Oh, I also got this really cool program called Xpadder, so now I can play Half-Life (and just about everything else) with my 360 controller.

BRAAAIIIINSS

Man, I feel like a freaking zombie. All I've done for the past few days is use StumbleUpon. I've found some really cool stuff, like the link I posted last night, and this.

Hopefully I will have something to blog about soon. Blogging about this kind of shit is getting boring. I will be getting some money within the next week or two (and then some more at Christmas, probably), so I'll probably get some stuff that I might blog about. Soon (hopefully in the next couple of weeks), we will also be moving into the new house, so surely that will give me some new material.

I'm tired, so I'm just gonna go get a shower and get in the bed.

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!

http://208.116.9.205/10/content/14485/1.jpg


I've started playing Animal Crossing: Wild World again. I swore I'd never get into it again, but after playing a little bit of City Folk, I just got an uncontrollable urge to play WW again. Plus, let's face it; City Folk is just WW, but on a console. There is nothing really new to speak of. The "city" is bullshit. There's just a couple of shops, owned by a few of the random characters from ACGC and AC:WW, and some skunk that changes the color of your shoes. It's bullshit.

Happy Thanksgiving, I suppose.

I didn't really do anything today. My grandma came over with a shitload of food and cooked for like 6 hours, while most everyone else layed around and watched the Titans kick the Lions asses. Around 2:30 my aunt finally came over and we all ate, then we played Rook for a long time. So now, we have a fridge full of food, I've played enough cards until Christmas, and we actually taught Mallory how to play, and she's really not half bad. Fairly productive day, if I do say so myself.

WTF

http://consumerist.com/381845/let-best-buy-professionally-install-your-xbox-games

Last Night

First, let me give you a little backstory of my family. I was born in a town in Tennessee. Two years later, my brother was born. Three years later, my sister was born, and nine months after that, we moved to Kentucky and built a house on my dad's parent's farm. My parents have never gotten along too well. They've never been mean or hostile or anything, but they just never got along very well for about as long as I can remember. Anyway, when I was ten, my mom basically kicked my dad out. My great-grandfather (who had died not long (I don't remember how long it was. It may have been two years or two months.) before this) had lived across the street from us, and since my dad's mom then owned the house, she let him live there.

Since he lived right across the road, I saw him frequently and everything was basically fine (other then my parents being split up), and eventually my dad came back. Two years later when I was twelve, they split up again. My dad still lived right across the street, and again, everything was okay. Well, the years went on, and then last year, about a week after my fourteenth birthday, my mom moved to another town in Tennessee, about an hour from the first town, and my dad moved back to the house we built, and although things were a little worse (we now lived about two hours away from my dad), it was still fine. He called almost every night and came up to see us every so often, blah blah blah.

Now, Mason, my brother, has been staying primarily with my dad for the most part of the past year, and Mallory (my sister) and I have been primarily with my mom, just out of choice (it's not that any of us like a parent more than the other or anything, it's just where we've decided to stay for the time being, and we can go to the other parent's house at any time (within reason)).

Yesterday, Mason, had a dentist appointment. Our dentist is about halfway between my mom's and my dad's. My mom wanted my dad to bring Mason all the way here, so he could see the new house that we have all but bought, so they came yesterday. Everything was fine, it was just a normal visit, until right before my dad left.

See, my mom has been trying to get money from my dad (money that she used to pay for the Kentucky house to be built), so she could pay off some of the house we just bought. I knew all this, and I considered it to be relatively no big deal.

Anyway, right before my dad left, both my parents called us three kids into the living room. I could tell something was wrong. After they started talking for a bit, they went into stuff that I already knew about, like my mom trying to get the money, but after a while, they started talking about not being able to do it...because they were still married. By this time, Mallory, who has always hoped that our parents would get back together, still didn't understand. I wasn't completely getting it, so I asked, "So it's everything BUT a divorce?" and my dad said "It is a divorce." Mallory started crying then, and I could tell that Mason was choking back tears. I was...unfazed. I mean, I knew that there was virtually no chance of them getting back together, but I didn't really expect an actual divorce to ever occur. Still, though, I didn't really feel bad. They kept talking and answering questions and everything, and then after a while, my dad left.

After everything settled down, I just got back on my computer and did whatever I normally do, I even play L4D with ACD for a while. I was never completely concentrated, though. I was just thinking about stuff. I wasn't really bothered by the announcement of a divorce. What bothered me was that I wasn't bothered by the announcement of a divorce. Isn't that something that you should typically feel something for? Even after I slept and was talking to my mom this morning, she asked me how I felt about things, and I just told her that I felt indifferent.

See, since my parents aren't fighting or hostile or anything, this is going to be a rather strange situation for a divorce. Apparently, nothing is really going to change, we can still go to either parent's house at any time and whatnot, it's basically just going to be a title change.

So, even though it's virtually nothing, shouldn't I at least feel a little bad? If I don't feel bad about that, then I feel bad about not feeling bad. Is that bad?

---

So anyway, this is another prime example of why I decided to blog. It has basically documented the last three months of my life. I like that.

I have some news unrelated to the house crap.

But I'm tired and I need to get in the bed, so I'll just post it tomorrow.  I need to sleep on it anyway.

More Relatively Large News

Well, my mom got a call last night - We have all but bought the house. They didn't accept our original offer, but my mom went up a little, and we got it, so it's ours unless something huge happens and we can't buy it.

It Totally Does.

Pretty Freakin' Big News

So, as probably none of you know, my mom has been looking for a new house, because the one we are currently living in is pretty small (2 bed, 1 bath) for the three of us (and sometimes Mason) living here. She's been talking about it for a few months now, but I figured she was just talking, and not acting or anything, but apparently not, because we were out all morning looking at houses. We found one that we all really like (although Mallory doesn't really like it because it doesn't have a Bay Window. She's been dying to have one for some reason. I asked her why and she was like, "Because you can put cute pillows on the seat."), and we liked it so much, that my mom actually put in an offer. It's about 5k lower than the asking price, but hopefully that won't be a matter of concern.

Anyway, I really, REALLY like the house. It's a 3 bed 2 bath, but it has a huge den (something like 21 x 11) that my mom will probably use as a bedroom/office, and a huge unfinished basement/two car garage that's as big as the house itself. I didn't look at all the bedrooms, but one I looked at hid FIVE FUCKING POWER OUTLETS (well, five wall plates, so it's actually ten outlets). That's fantastic, because I might be able to get rid of some of my power strips. There are a couple of things I don't like, though, like the entire house painted in bright colors (yellow, pink, and baby blue), but mom said we can repaint that.

My second complaint is a little more major. It's the town itself. I used to live in the town up until I was five, and then we moved to Kentucky. I moved back to a town about an hour away last year, but now we're going to move back to the first town. I don't like the town very much. It's the same town the lady who cuts my hair lives/works in, so that's even more of an excuse for my mom to keep going to her (I don't like her very much). Also, everyone in that town seems to be really weird. It's like they're all typical brainwashed school pride/blonde ditzes/preps. It's a little weird, but I never really get out of the house anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter all that much. I still don't like it very much, though.

So, my mom put in an offer, and hopefully we'll get the house, because I really do like it. It's a nice house in a good neighborhood, but I just don't like the town very much. Oh, well. I guess I'll have to get over it.


P.S. This was cool, so I had to post it. It's my score in iCopter for the iPhone.



----------------
Now playing: They Might Be Giants - Man, It's So Loud In Here
via FoxyTunes

Review: Galaga Legions (XBLA)

As you may know by now (whether by talking to me or by reading my review of it), I'm a pretty big Galaga fan. When I first saw Galaga Legions being demonstrated at E3 '08, I was a bit skeptical. It instantly reminded me of Pac-Man Championship Edition, which, while it was an okay game, I didn't like it all that much (although I've never been a huge fan of Pac-Man, anyway. I like it, but it's nowhere near my favorite game). Since I'm such a big Galaga fan, all I was doing was praying that they didn't screw Legions up. Somehow, they changed a lot of the gameplay mechanics, but still made a pretty cool game, even by Galaga's standards.

Like I said, they changed a few things for Legions. The first is that you can move all around the screen, and not just left and right. Second, you have two turrets which can be placed anywhere on the screen, or you can just leave them attached to your ship for extra firepower. Third, the enemies and the way they act are way different. They can now come at you from any direction, and there are often very, very many of them. Since there are so many coming from all directions, the developers added a cool system that draws out the path of the enemies and shows you where they're coming from about a second before they do come. It's simple, helpful, and it looks really cool.

Speaking of looking cool, the graphics are a really neat-looking futuristic kind of thing. As I said before, the graphics really remind me of Pac-Man Championship Edition, so if you've seen it, just imagine a white spaceship and about a million green aliens, and you have Galaga. Another neat feature is you have three graphics style options to choose from, Original, Vintage, and Ancient. It's a little confusing, because they could all mean the same thing, but Original is the new, updated Legions graphics, and Vintage and Ancient are the 1981 sprites, but placed on the cool backgrounds and explosion effects.

The controls are much better than Galaga. You have two shooting modes to choose from, Manual and Automatic. You're only going to want to choose Manual if you're looking for a challenge, because you can have as many bullets as you want out at one time, as opposed to only being able to have two in Galaga. But, even if you do choose Manual, you can shoot with the Right Trigger, which feels a lot more natural than mashing the A button. You also use the Right Stick to place and position your turrets. I like the turrets because even though the eliminate the (need for a) double ship, they add a whole new dimension of strategy to the gameplay.

The sound has (obviously) been revamped, with techno/electronic music that, thankfully, stays in the background enough that your ears won't bleed. It also has a techno/electronic version of the little riff that I guess you consider the Galaga theme. The shooting also sounds really good, and the explosions sound pretty good.

There are a few flaws with Legions though, however small they may be. First is that there are only five areas. There are five levels in the five areas, but it's still not very many. Thankfully, the levels aren't that short, so it's not really a game that you can beat in twenty minutes. Second, sometimes there are too many enemies on the screen, and some of them may be shooting, so if you get caught up shooting aliens, you can forget to dodge bullets, resulting in some (seemingly) unfair deaths.

Overall, I really like Galaga Legions, and I think it's a worthy sequel/"enhanced remake" (it actually feels more like a sequel than an "enhanced remake", as the Wikipedia page insists) to the original Galaga, and it's way more than just pretty graphics, it's an entirely new game. 4 out of 5.

Review: Galaga (XBLA)

I was never a big fan of arcade machines. Hell, by the time I was old enough to really enjoy them, most of them were gone. Plus, I lived in a small town, so the only one I really ever played was this one in Pizza Hut, and it was a game I'd never even heard of (and unimportant enough that I don't remember the name). There were a few exceptions, though, and Galaga was one of the biggest, and remains one of my favorite games to this day. I first got interested in this type of game while watching my dad play this, and I thought it was so cool. Little did I know, the real thing was so much better, and the XBLA port/remake of the 1981 original is nearly as good.

The gameplay is the exact same as it was in the arcade. You fly around, moving your ship left and right, shooting aliens as they fly around and shoot back at you while they try and divebomb you kamikaze style. It's a basic idea, and it's done really well.

There were a few changes for the 360, however, like changing how many lives you start out with (up to 4), and changing how many points you have to get before being granted another life. The other major change is how you "Continue", if you can even call it that. Instead of having the choice to continue when you die, you're taken back to the menu, but you have the option to start from whatever stage you got to, but you start with no points. This is useful for getting some of the Achievements, but that almost makes the game feel a little too easy. Almost. One change that would have been more than welcome was a Co-op. I think that would have been pretty cool.

As I said before, the main game remains virtually unchanged, so it's got the same graphics and sounds. The controls, however, are a little different. The left thumbstick works well enough to move the ship, but mashing the "A" button to shoot is a little different. It works, but it might take some getting used to Thankfully, they added a Rapid Fire button, so you always have that option.

Galaga is a game that has stood the test of time. It was a great game over twenty-five years ago, and it still is today. It's been through several ports, and while I haven't played them all, I consider the XBLA version to be the best, and even though the graphics and sound are way outdated, it doesn't retract from the overall experience at all. 4 out of 5.

More L4D

Well, ACD and I finally beat L4D, and then played some Versus. I can't speak for him entirely, but I think we can both agree that it is easily one of the top contenders for Game of the Year.

I've been sitting here for 30 minutes, and I can't think of anything else to write.

HOLY SHIT

This game DOES kick SO. MUCH. ASS. I haven't played it much (ACD left me before we beat the first scenario D; ), but what I have played is so awesome. This is EASILY a Game of the Year contender. I haven't played past where ACD and I got, because I want to wait for him. I don't know if I can, though. I've been playing Versus mode for a while now. It is SO. MUCH. FUN.

Ok, going to play more.

T-Minus 5 Hours!

Just 5 hours until L4D!! Hopefully ACD will get online soon so we can play. This game is going to kick so much ass. That's pretty much all I have to say, so I'm just going to go play UT3 for a while.

That's Unreal, man!

I bought the Unreal Deal Pack thing on Steam today (which includes Unreal Gold, Unreal 2: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Unreal Tournament III, all for $40. A damn good deal if you ask me.). So far I've only played Unreal Gold, but I'm getting ready to play UTIII. I got it for the PS3 from GameFly about a week ago, and I really liked it.

So far, Unreal Gold seems to be a lot like Half-Life (which makes sense, since HL was made using the Unreal Engine), so that's a plus. The textures aren't as good or anything, but that's to be expected. One thing that I find a little strange is that there's no consistency in the levels length-wise. Some levels take me five minutes, some take me forty-five. Oh, well, it seems to be a good game anyway.

I'm off to play some UTIII.

eMusic kinda sucks.

I signed up for eMusic, mainly to get the song Man, It's So Loud In Here by TMBG, but when I signed up, it gave me 25 free songs. There's a problem with that. They're mostly Indie music, so they don't have hardly anything I like. We also got pizza from Pizza Hut tonight, and it came with a code for 50 more songs. So now I have to try and find 61 (I still have 11 left over from the first 25) songs worth downloading before my 14 days are up. I may just end up downloading stuff I don't really want. I don't know.

So that's pretty much my day. I need a life. NO. L4D comes out in a few days. Having a life would just get in the way. I can't decide whether or not to play through the game in Singlplayer or in Multiplayer first. Probably Multiplayer if any of my friends are on.

100th Post!

Holy crap I need a life. This is officially my 100th post on this blog. It's been nearly 3 months. Gosh, that's 1/4 of a year. Yesterday, I was checking my messages on deviantART, and I saw that I had posted a journal entry at the end of August, basically just directing people to this blog. I read that and then remembered I had been posting in that journal for a long time (not daily, mind you), so I decided to read it. Doing so made me realize why I have been blogging every day. It's not for anyone else. It's for me. I was reading a years worth of posts, and I saw how much I had changed. I mean, I was reading posts that really made me sound like a dickhead. I hadn't realized just how different I was back then. I was 13, sheltered, a homophobe, I didn't cuss, and worst of all, I was a Weird Al megafan.

Anyway, that's why I wanted to blog every day. I may not have known it, but I think that's why I started it, and why I don't intend to stop any time soon.

I don't try to make it a secret that I don't like having my picture taken (it was hell just getting my avatar picture), but I feel that blogging produces almost a 3D images of my current self. Will I really care how many zits I have in 20 years? Man, I sure hope not. That would mean that my life really sucks.

Anyway, I'm just saying that I'm glad I've been blogging, and I'm glad I don't want to stop. I just think that words are a much better way to convey the person that I am as opposed to pictures. Thank you and good day.

Review: Ricochet (PC)

As a reviewer, I feel I should be somewhat balanced in my scores, to not seem so biased. Last night I got to thinking, "Most of the games I reviewed have all gotten fairly high scores. Maybe I should try to find a bad game to review." I was thinking about all that again today, and then I remembered I had gotten Ricochet as part of the Counter-Strike 1 Anthology from Steam (which also included Deathmatch Classic, Day of Defeat, Counter-Strike, and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero), and thought "That game is PERFECT for a bad review!"

Ricochet. The Half-Life mod that nobody knows about (or has tried to erase from their memory). It makes me sad to think that this game has disgraced the likes of Half-Life for eight years now. I was sitting here, thinking about what I was going to say in this review, when I realized that this game is so bad, I'm not sure I can put it into legible words, but I'll give it a try.

Now, I've never seen the movie Tron, but I'm pretty sure that Ricochet was inspired by it. The neon graphics look similar, and I think that there were some throwing discs in the movie.

I'll admit, I haven't played very much of Ricochet, but there isn't really much to do. It's kind of a one-trick-pony. You go into a game (if you can find one. The most servers I've ever seen open at one time was 11, and at 10:30 P.M. CST, there was only 10 servers, and only one of them had any players, and even THEN, there were only two players and they were both assholes.), and you go from platform to platform throwing discs, trying to knock people off the platforms and down into the abyss, where they die and you get a point. There are a few problems with this. First, you can't jump. You just have to run onto little arrows on the platforms which flings you across to another platform. Second, your discs are your only weapon, and you can't aim them up or down. That's right, you can only throw your discs parallel to the ground (more on that in a minute). Third, you can only have 3 discs at a time, and even though they replenish, they don't do so nearly fast enough. When you have 3 discs saved, you can right-click to throw out a Decapitator disc, which is just what it sounds like, but even that is boring.

Now, back to the aiming. There are several levels of platforms which you can get to by going to the right jumps. Separating those platforms are bars that you cannot shoot through. They just bounce off (hence, the title of the game). Since you can't aim up or down, you can only shoot someone when you're on the same platform as them, or when you're in the air. The problem with that is, when you get shot by a normal disc, it doesn't kill you, it just pushes you a little, meaning if you get shot in the air, you'll probably end up missing your jump completely, and then fall to your death. Another problem is that this is one of those games where you can't walk through other players, so if two people are jumping at one another, they bump into each other and fall, killing both. It's also hard to hit people unless they're right in front of you, because your discs move extremely slow.

There are a few power-ups, although they're all things you've seen in plenty of other games, like Multi-Shot, Power Shot, and one that just freezes you, leaving you defenseless.

The graphics are really, really bad, even for the year 2000. They're boring, lifeless, and I think that Half-Life looked better, despite being two years older. Actually, I took a screenshot (click to enlarge (that's what she said)).

When I decided I wanted to review a bad game, I think I did good in choosing Ricochet. This is a game that should never have seen the light of day, much less the $5 that Steam wants you to pay. There is not an ounce of fun in this game, and I really tried hard to like it, but I just couldn't. As a reviewer, and as a person who doesn't generally wish the worst on people, this is a form of torture that I couldn't wish upon my worst enemy, much less recommend it to anyone I care about. If you already have this game, you have my condolences. 1 out of 5.

EDIT: I forgot I took this video earlier today, when there were about 10 people on.

Review: MotoChaser (iPhone/iPod Touch)

There are a ton of racing games on the iPhone. It just seems like the perfect platform for them, and some of them work rather well. MotoChaser seems to fall right in the middle.

There are 3 characters and 10 tracks. Aside from looking different, there is no difference in the characters that I can tell. The maps, however, are totally varied. Like I said, there are 10 maps, (almost) all in completely different locales, ranging from the desert to an icy place that I'm guessing is Russia, because I saw a hammer and sickle sign somewhere.

To call this a racing game would be a stretch. There is no real racing involved. There is a time limit, but I still don't consider that a race. There is no real story, just a couple of pictures in between races. I think that's supposed to explain the story, but it's just a bunch of pictures of guys with masks on holding a cat with a bandana.

The controls can be quite...not really awkward, they're just touchy and unresponsive a small percentage of the time. Sometimes while I'm driving, for some reason, the game will think I let go of the gas button, and if that goes on long enough without you noticing, your iPhone can actually go into sleep mode when you're in the middle of a race. Oftentimes while you're "racing", you will drive up by the guys with masks every once in a while (it happens far more frequently on the later tracks), and you have to hit a button to punch them. This turns out to be more of a hindrance than a fun gameplay mechanic.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about this game is that the steering is too touchy, and it really is. Most games have an options menu where you can change the sensitivity of the accelerometer, but you wont find that in the current version of MotoChaser. Having a far too touchy accelerometer not only makes the game more frustrating, it also makes is nearly impossible to play in places like a car. On the bright side, there is a difficulty slider in the options menu, but that doesn't change the sensitivity, it just adds more time on the clock, which can certainly be helpful, although I would have preferred a sensitivity slider.

Some of the graphics look pretty good. The character models are all look really nice, but the environments ...not so much. The character models remind me of something like Valkyria Chronicles or maybe even No More Heroes, while the environments look like a close-up of Mario Kart 64.

The sound isn't very good, simply put. The only voice acting in the game is some girl who says "Ready...Go!" at the beginning of each "race". Other than that, it's all just generic rock songs that get really old after a while. They're not as bad as some generic rock tracks I've heard, but they're pretty bad.

Don't get me wrong, I like Motochaser, at least in short bursts. This is not a game I'd want to play for hours at a time. However, it is a fun game (and only $1), if you can get past the sensitivity and the awful sound. 3 out of 5.

Version 1.2 of MotoChaser was reviewed.

WARNING: THIS POST HAS SHARP EDGES

DO NOT TOUCH THE EDGES OF THIS POST

I have been doing NOTHING in the past few days. Sure, I've been playing Gmod with ACD a lot, but I've been doing nothing of real importance.

I haven't played much L4D online today, but the L4D public demo came out today, so there's sure to be a steady flood of dickheads and asswipes. I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT UNTIL THE FULL GAME!! It's going to be so freaking awesome playing as a hunter or a smoker or something in Versus mode. Arrg, I don't think I can wait a week. I guess I can just keep playing the demo over and over.

I've been filming quite a lot of stuff lately (several gigs, in fact), so hopefully I can get some videos up in a few days.

Okay, I can't think of anything else to write about, so I'm just gonna go to bed now. Fare thee well.

L4D Demo

Well, I've been playing the L4D Demo for several days now, and I've had Fraps for a while, so I figured the next logical step was to film myself playing through the demo to make people who haven't played it extremely jealous (no offense, ACD). The result:
Part 1


Part 2

Current Music Tastes

I used to think I had diverse music tastes, when in reality, I don't. Sure, there are a few songs that are different from the rest (Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis, You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette, and Time After Time by Sparklemotion are all a little different. Don't judge me.), but other than that, it's all pretty much the same. I wish they had more PUSA, YFF, and TMBG, but alas.

Side note: I think Lump is my all-time favorite song. It never seems to get old.

Other side note: I'm also listening to Man, It's So loud In Here by They Might Be Giants, but imeem doesn't have it (they do have a remix, but I like the original better), so otherwise it would be on the list.

Fallout 3 Videos, A Heartfelt Poem, and a NaNo Update

I wrote an intentionally shitty poem last night.

I was sitting there, on my computer.
Not doing anything, nor harming anyone.
Just posting RickRolls, but not intentionally.
“I swear I didn't mean to, officer!”
But it was too late.

I never understood why it's still considered a poem if it doesn't rhyme. Sure, it's literature in some form or another, but I don't think it should be considered a poem. Whatever.

I finally put Fraps to a good use today. I filmed a couple of really cool parts of Fallout 3 and uploaded them to YT. The first video is a demonstration of sorts of the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.), one of Fallout 3's best combat options.


In this second video, I found an overturned truck, and found out the hard way that it explodes. I decided to save and blow it up intentionally, with a variety of weapons.



I have decided to go a different way with my NaNo. I can't say anything about it on account that He will find me.

Guitar Hero Harmonica Picture

About a week ago, I posted my review of Guitar Hero: On Tour, and I mentioned that it came with a Guitar Hero Harmonica, and I think somewhere in the article, I said I'd post a picture, so here it is in all it's glory.


Posted via Pixelpipe.

Random Ramblings

Well, last night I was really mad and tired, hence the terrible blog post. Tonight I'm tired, but not as mad.

I signed up for eMusic.com, just to get the 25 free songs. So far, I've only gotten 4, because it's all Indie music and I can't find much of anything I want. They DO, have, however, all (I think) of Jonathan Coulton's albums, both of What Made Milwaukee Famous's albums, four of the Young Fresh Fellows albums, a few of They Might Be Giants albums (I finally got my digital hands on Man, It's So Loud in Here), the album from The Giraffes that Chris Ballew was on, Chris and Tad's only album (which I already have), and two of PUSA's albums (both of which I already have), so I'm sure I can find something to get.

The Left 4 Dead pre-order demo came out today. This game is EPIC. Sure, there are a few bugs here and there, but if they can work them out, I can easily see this a the Game of the Year, although this year, it has some pretty tough competitors. I'm trying to talk my brother into pre-ordering, so he can get the demo, and ACD wants it, but he'll have to talk his mom into letting him get it. I hope he can do it, too, because no-one should miss out on this game.

AUGH, I'm so behind on NaNo. I haven't written anything for a few days now, and I'm just stuck in the story. I'm thinking of just writing portions of stories, and then compiling them all in one book, you know, so you can make up the ending for yourself. That way, you will never be let down by a shitty ending. Kids today need to use their imagination more anyway.

Hmmm

Well. Let's talk about censorship. My mom saw me posting a huge post about a really bad time I had getting a haircut tonight, but she made me stop. She thinks I'm being "unreasonable". If you would've read my blog post, maybe you would think so too, but I don't really care. I'm pissed. I was going to shorten it down to a tl;dr format, but even that would probably be deemed "unreasonable" by my mom. I think she's the one being unreasonable, but whatever. Let's just leave it at "I think that two hours is too long to spend getting my hair cut. I have many better things to do than listen to gossip about people that I don't even know, and I don't appreciate being bitched at for not having my driver's permit and for spending 'too much time on the internet'."

RB2 PUSA DLC KICKS AWESOME!

The PUSA Track Pack 01 (!!!) for Rock Band 2 came out today, and it kicks major ass. It's especially strong on Bass, which is great, because there are generally very few bass-oriented tracks in RB2.

In other PUSA-related news, their new music video for Ladybug, which has been exclusive to Xbox Live for around two weeks now, was supposed to be put up on the internet today, but I haven't seen it yet.

In actual Presidential news, both Obama and McCain suck ass. I should probably care more about the election, but I just don't.

*BRRAAPP*

Ugh, I've been burping up hard-boiled eggs for an hour. They're damn good the first time down, but not so much the second time through. I don't like the yolk, though. I used to, but I just can't get myself to eat it now. I cooked the eggs, though, and that's like the first thing I've cooked that didn't involve a microwave in like, I don't know, a year maybe?

I had such a strange dream last night. Two, actually. I don't remember the second one, though. Oh god, this is so weird. I just remembered one of the details of the dream...it makes absolutely no sense. Anyway, here's what I do remember.

I was in a car dealership, and it was really tall. like, maybe four stories or something. I was in the top floor, and I was in a cylindrical room with spiral stairs in it. I don't remember if I was racing somebody or if I was running away from them, but nevertheless, I was trying to be faster than one of the people who worked at the car dealership. Anyway, there was a door to the outside on all the floors, and they were all locked except for the ground floor, so once I got out that door, I ran out to the parking lot where they keep all the cars, and right up front, I saw a minivan with no doors and no windshield. I ran over to it and jumped in, and then I realized that the pedals were weird. There were three pedals in all, and they were, starting from the left, a reverse pedal, a forward pedal, and then the brake pedal. So, not only were the pedals switched, the brake pedal was in the passenger side floorboard.

Anyways, I jumped in and took a few seconds to figure out the pedals, and then I took off (for some reason, it didn't need a key or anything) and drove through the glass double-doors and started driving through the car dealership. Another weird thing about the pedals was that they were really loose and the car didn't go very fast. It felt exactly like what I would expect a golf-kart to drive. So, I was driving through the place, and most everybody was just talking on their phones and not even paying attention to me, although a few people gave me weird looks.

I kept driving (through several more panes of glass), and ended up in what looked like the clothing departments in Wal-Mart or something. I ended up driving all the way to the front of the store right behind some people who were leaving and one lady said "I'm never coming here again." and when I heard that, I felt a twisted sense of satisfaction. After I drove through those doors, I just went out and parked in the parking lot with all of the other shoppers. I was lucky and got one of the front spaces, too.

So I walked back in and was just minding my own business, and being overwhelmingly surprised and happy to see that nobody had realized that I was the crazy guy who just drove a really slow van through the store not two minutes ago, and then I saw this girl about my age following me and she said "I know it was you." I was like "Whatever.", so she started yelling "SECURITY!!!", trying to get me in trouble, but nobody was paying attention to her, so she went over to a girl who was stuffing clothes in her purse, obviously shoplifting. The second girl started yelling "HELP ME, I'M BLIND!", trying to help the first girl get someone over to get me in trouble, but her attempts weren't working, either. Just then I saw the first girl start shoplifting, too, and I started yelling "SHOPLIFTER!" and three guards ran over and arrested the girls.

After that, I started walking outside, extremely giddy that I had just gotten away with all that. I got my cellphone out (it was weird because it was my old phone, and not my iPhone.), to call my mom to pick me up, but I couldn't remember what number I had her speed dial set to, and I couldn't remember her phone number, so I just started messing with my phone trying to get into the address book. I was walking the whole time, and by now I was close to the end of that parking lot, and I was walking next to four bikers, and when I did, one of them stuck his hand out and grabbed my face and I said "Don't do that, please." and one of the other bikers said "Yeah, leave him alone.", so I just kept on walking. When I got to the end of the parking lot, I was just walking around the back of a Bank for some reason, and then the girl came back and was taunting me and stuff, trying to get me in trouble, saying stuff like "Why don't you go back in the store? You won't get in trouble.", and I was just like "Piss off. You're just trying to get me caught.", and then I woke up and had to pee really bad.

I think this is the strangest dream I've ever had.

More NaNo #2

Well, so far I have 4265 words. I ended up typing about 1500 more words after I posted yesterday, but I haven't written much today. I'm still about 1000 words above what I need for today, so I can afford to just stop for tonight. I've just been really tired lately. I went to sleep at like, 7 P.M. yesterday.

Oh, and if you didn't know, today is Daylight Savings Time (or just coming out of it, I don't remember. I do know, though, that you set your clocks back an hour.), so don't forget to set all your clocks.

I played some more Fallout 3 today. It's just so freaking awesome. I've been procrastinating, though. I haven't played t as much as I've wanted to. See, I get scared really easily. I even used to be afraid of my bedroom curtains when I was 3 (but that's an entirely different story for another time) and just watching my mom play Myst would give me nightmares for a week. I was scared to death of those talking books. Fallout 3 is a lot like Oblivion in the sense that it's got "dungeon"-like places, and those things scared the shit out of me. It's just so dark and creepy, and several times people and enemies just pop out from around the corner and almost literally scare the shit out of me. FO3 and Oblivion are both fantastic games, but those freaking dungeons scare me half to death.

More NaNo

Well, NaNoWriMo starts today. I've gotten 1857 words so far. You only need 1666 words per day to make the 50k in 30 days, but since I finished today's early, I'll probably write even more later, because I know that eventually I'm going to get bored writing, so it'll be good to be ahead, just in case I miss a day or something.

Mallory (my ten-year-old sister, if you didn't know) has been bugging me a lot lately. She seems to get obsessed with TV shows really easily, and it seems like every time she has talked to me in the past month, she starts the conversation with "Hey Matthew, I was just watching Family Matters and..." She even woke me up one night to tell me her theory as to why Steve and Stefan (Steve's clone (she didn't know he was a clone at the time, hence her theorizing)) can be in the same room at the same time. It's really getting annoying.

Oh, well, I'm going to go play Guitar Hero.