LadyCrimson

It's funny becuase when the plastic bag thing started, I hated them. I was used to paper bags. I insisted on paper bags for a long time, annoying baggers at stores. Then it came to a point where no one had paper anymore. I got used to the plastic bags and found uses for them. Now they changed it again. Make up your minds, people. I wonder how many people who decry plastic bags use plastic disposable diapers. Not to mention all those monthly plastic feminine products.

I don't hate Steam ... I just hate when game companies use it as their only form of DRM so I *must* have Steam, or not play the game. Sure, I gave in and occasionally buy a Steam game (if I can play it in offline mode...), but this is largely because I can see that digital distribution is the way things are just plain going. At the moment Steam seems the best of these methods. It does not give me joy or anything.

I think, for me, games still have a sense of emotional disconnect most of the time simply because of the format. It's not the same as sitting on a couch all relaxed and staring at a TV (or reading a book), where you can be drawn, sometimes almost unwillingly, into the emotional pathos of a story because you're entirely an observer and can focus fully on such. Versus a game, where *you* have to pause to make decisions, you have to click on the environment/people to make things go, etc. It just takes a lot more effort/work for a game to get us to fully fall into an empathic emotional state because while playing a game, our brain is also heavily engaged in the logistics of task-orientation. Thus the simpler sight/sound stimulation routes (boo-scare! sexy! gore! beautiful landscape!) tend to be more consistently effective at producing a reaction. Some adventure type games do better at it tho.

Heh, I'm much the same way. It's not just patience, it's the speed factor. Alpha or not, I don't like to rush just to stress test stuff, so by the time I notice issues, they're usually going to be reported already. And I'm not an idea/sugesstion person. But I still like to see the changes firsthand, so I download and check each version a bit.

Gasland 2. ...after a period of time where it felt like it was sorta rehashing the first doc. (probably in case you hadn't seen the 1st doc), I think overall this was a bit better than the first Gasland. And quite depressing. Edit: I also saw Chasing Ice, which is about the melting glaciers and this guy/his team's efforts to capture it on time-lapse photography over a few years. Most of that one was centered around the team's efforts and all the work they had to do to set up, but it's still gorgeously filmed. And also quite depressing. ...eg, it makes you feel pretty fatalistic.

I think they passed the laws a few years ago but in some cities they had a long adjustment period of time where stores didn't have to do it, yet. Of course, how long this adjustment period lasted depends on individual city, it's not a Fed. regulated type of thing I think (yet). I'm not sure all of them charge for the paper bags (at the cashier, I mean, vs. just raising prices). And oddly, liquor stores seem exempt (or are ignoring it)...convenience stores around here are still tossing everything into plastic bags. (edit: it's possible the bags they're using are made of a different type of plastic, I have no clue) I always preferred paper, until my fingers/wrists became arthritic. It's hard to lift/grip heavy smooth paper bags. I tend to be a buy-groceries for 10-14 days at once sort, so having to carry in 5-8 tote bags or something is kinda irritating. Plus the plastic ones made good kitty litter waste bags - now I'll have to buy more bags-in-a-box for that. Oh well.

I guess their original intention/balance was that players would use the turret/vehicle strategy a lot more than "run and gun" and they were surprised that wasn't happening. So they're going to do some rebalancing re: that plus less enemy damage. I'm still messing around a bit with figuring out the mining changes but like you, mostly waiting for a rebalanced version before putting a lot of time into much else.

My local grocery has finally implemented the "no plastic bags" rule. So either paper, or bring your own bag. Which would be fine, except if you don't BYOB, you have to pay 10 cents per paper bag at the cash register (they count 'em up as you're standing there) - and most baggers have no clue how to bag efficiently, often leaving them half-empty. My husband once got almost all of our (massive amount of) stuff into 2 paperbags and the cashier was all "Wow." That said, I'm off to buy a few more tote bags. Sometimes I don't feel like BYOB (and 10 cents isn't much vs. the rest of the bill) but even so, guess it's time to always have some in the car, because paper bags don't usually have handles, and my arthritis likes handles.

Relatively smooth in both cases. This can, of course, be varied depending on the story-aspect of a particular area/map/town. eg, if a town is at war with a neighboring town, or in an area where raids by orcs/monsters/enemies are very frequent (or whatever), then it should shift to steep/sharp or relatively steep. So it's dependent somewhat on each situation, but my votes reflect what I want/like in the general sense.

oooh, it's up on YouTube, nice I found it interesting to note that the version I found on YouTube was about 10 minutes shorter than the one I watched on Netflix. So I had to watch both in sync to see what was missing. There's a short segment about Ralph Nader's possible influence on the business lobbyists, a segment that mentioned Schoolhouse Rock's "How a Bill is Made" bit that led into how it's "really done" today, some news interview bits with Schumer, some history about Koch's father making it in Russia/how he might have influenced his son's way of thinking ... and various other little things. None of them really alter the gist of the documentary, but I wonder why they were edited out....(either by the YT uploader or whoever the uploader recorded it from).

I appreciate that mining for the minerals doesn't feel completely restricted to a few spots or something, but there's two things I don't like about it in the new version: --what minerals you get feels mostly random. In the same spot you'll get sand + 1 copper then next time you strike get sand + 2 iron. The colors don't seem to be an accurate representation anymore. Either that or the new graphics just make the colors/textures harder to distinguish, which is just as bad ... I liked how copper/the other minerals looked before - it felt a bit more "natural". --the cursor is wonky. Many times I hover back and forth and that big bubble will turn blue for a mirco-second but it won't settle there, so in effect it's always a giant red 'can't dig here' bubble. Thus hard to fine tune where you want to dig ... aggravating if you're trying to make flat land.

I certainly wasn't thinking that. It's just that I've so often gotten the "how can you be so unsympathetic/and you're a gurrrl" type of comments in the past (in RL especially) that I have a tendency to over-explain why I don't often find stuff like child in peril or family-drama dynamic stuff in entertainment heart-tugging/interesting. Especially when it's inserted into the more action/thriller-oriented entertainment ... it can definitely be used effectively, but a lot of the time it just feels like a lazy device used by writers to garner instant sympathy.

Painted the town for a few hours, earlier, which made me realize ... my town doesn't have a whole lot to paint on Wed. evenings. But it does have a very tasty ice cream shop. There's a dimly lit, karaoke bar that has some very talented regular singers (eg, it's more bar lounge than singing), too. Altho technically that's not in my town ... it's in the town one over. And no, I don't sing. Came home and did the usual. Now heading to bed ... before 2am, for once. Imagine that.

How big her role is wasn't really my point...

Planet Explorer's alpha .6 increased the danger of the night-time crab-spiders 100 fold. A few torches and a flashlight no longer protected me....I eventually needed about 30+ torches in a huge circle and that mostly worked. Guess I'll actually have to use the turrets for border protection when I want to mine out in the open at night, now...

Planet Explorer's new alpha added a whole lot of new stuff/features ... and now needs a pretty massive difficulty rebalance (especially that durability issue...), at least if they want to maintain the sandboxy "do what/when you want" feel. The digging also doesn't feel quite as ... natural or easy to "control" as before, altho graphically it looks a bit better. But I still like it. I think with more polish it's going to become one of my fave sandbox games. Assuming it ever gets that polish. Something about it...I can start it up, go running out somewhere, start digging/building/exploring and just ... get lost.

Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream ...I can't speak for it's veracity, but it did make me feel momentarily guilty about buying Brawny paper towels, since it's owned by Koch Industries, and the doc. doesn't seem to like Koch very much.

Themes of loyalty, love, loss, bonding, wanting to protect/cherish what you care for etc. are universal and not exclusive to blood familial relationships. ... I actually tend to find stuff like two enemies coming to grudgingly respect each other (or friends becoming enemies) or comrades-in-arms bonds/losses via their horrifying experiences a lot more interesting than the parent/child themes that get presented in most average entertainment. Of course, that could be because I don't have any kids. Just cats.

I should be doing my wash the dishes before I wash the dishes routine, but I'm feeling especially irreverent (in a good way) this late afternoon. Dull chores would ruin it. Hence I'm going out to paint the town, instead.

*thinks about making a Diablo2 desert mercenary spear-jabbing joke* *better not*

I liked (but didn't love) the old series that I saw as reruns as a wee lass. I saw the ads for this movie and "Depp" and "Bonham Carter" = "nope." Not because I don't respect their potential abilities, but because I'm so so tired of their schtick. But it did look like the action scenes might be entertaining.

What in the world is that canned food, anyway? Rice and squash with gravy gel? ...played some Planet Explorers, strength-exercised my knees/legs (short periods multiple times a day...sigh), danced around the living room with a cat (one day I should try to get a video of that), watched TV, smooched the spouse.

I've spent entirely too much on gaming since Sept. of last year. I think I won't even look at the sale, this time.

Planet Explorers - now with a lot less flat terrain, more animals (including difficult ones) spread out everywhere, not just in certain areas, and weapon/gear durability finally implemented. Which wouldn't bother me except in the previous version, the only way to get a lot of "money" fast (which is just animal meat, basically) was to kill things. So based on that past experience, there I was, whacking animals with a lowly stone sword to gather meat, and it didn't take long for it to break - not long at all. And I don't see/have no idea how/who/what to repair it in the early game/areas. I was about to get kinda mad about this, but then... ...I discovered a certain type of tree (common) now gives you chunks o' rubber, where it didn't before (so I guess it's a rubber tree), so all I have to do is chop down several trees, sell the rubber for meat, repeat as often as you want and wallah. I can buy whatever I want in the store to start me out quickly. And in this game, if there's one thing you aren't likely to run out of, it's the trees... I found it interesting tho, with all the discussions on durability in the P.E. forums ... me starting to get annoyed over it (because the rate seems too high), then finding a solution/option that let me get around it. Later it's all about guns/ranged and durb. is less of an issue. I may still think it's too fast, tho...I'll see how the higher quality/self-made items do first.

I consider any non-fiction or novel about global pandemics to fit this category.