LadyCrimson

So about 81F? ...that's an average (literally), pleasant summer day here. Barely break a sweat weather, unless you're running a marathon in full sun at 1pm. But definitely nice weather. Not too hot, not at all chilly.

This bit made me laugh and laugh .... but I can't say why without spoiling it.

After reading Keyrock's experience of Tombraider I think I'm going to assume that my old-fashioned husband wouldn't like it. We did finally get around to playing some of the Borderlands 2 Tiny-Tina DLC late in the evening. So far, it's definitely the best DLC of BL2 and perhaps the best one for both games. Like the silly humor, new enemies, the additional effects enemies can do on ya, like that they finally put in something else to spend the purple bars on, the boss fights seem a bit more interesting, etc. And less focus on vehicles (actually, none at all so far). I've never been fond of the vehicle stuff in BL. We're using our lvl 50's (Siren/Commando) in True Vault, so most enemies are 49-52 .. but there's been a few lvl55's which led to a lot of hollering and me running around in circles while hubby took shots+turret as I ran by.

Hubs: "I want to go out today." Me: "Ok, I'm coming with." *hours in a car seat later* Me: "Where are we going anyway?" Hubs: "Where the road goes."

From the title, I was expecting some pictures of Walsh sitting on a dryer in his heart-covered Valentine's Day boxers or something. I am disappoint.

Tombraider, eh? Hm. That's certainly a steal for a pretty recent game. Wonder if hubby would want it...he's asleep tho, can't ask. But can anyone tell me why the sys. requirements list "internet connection?" What's that needed for? Just a one-time verify, or is it somehow an always-online required? Me too, and me either. But while I found it an interesting program, since I'm not much of an ... astronomical builder ... after looking at it and going "neat" for a few hours, it didn't have much appeal beyond that. Still....it's a fun little thing to check out, especially for that price.

Or she knows who is, and they told her.

But did any of them have lasers attached to their heads?

Decided I had to stop watching documentaries for a while. So since Netflix had Expendables 2, I watched that for a 2nd viewing earlier today for some irreverent, cheery, over the top violence and macho male bonding. It's as silly the 2nd time as it was the 1st time. Just what I needed. Oh and the other night I surfed to SyFy and saw the start of some movie where man eating rubber sharks were all swimming around in some giant storm whirlpool tornado or something, where they'd chomp on anyone who got close to it/sucked into it. I was all "wtf?" ... Ah, SyFy, I remember when I was excited that a channel was going to be devoted to sci-fi stuff...

110 dumbells wouldn't make it over my head...or if they did, they'd immediately drop to floor again as my arms came out of their sockets. Hurlshot, that's an awesome thing, making a dance studio in the garage for your daughter. ...chicken/cabbage stir fry for dinner, settling down to watch some Red Sox and A's baseball.

Uplay is why I haven't bought FarCry3 - not because of crashing but I just don't want Uplay. The sale price is a bit tempting tho. ...and yes, I looked at Steam today. Couldn't help it. Luckily, nothing interested me. Maybe because I already have more games on my plate than I have time/energy for, heh.

I don't find lots of large or all-encompassing tattoos personally attractive, but if someone wants to have them, it's their body/choice. Doesn't affect me at all. I also don't find over-stylized hair (on men or women), make-up, bizarre piercings, or certain clothing fashions personally attractive, but as they say ... who cares what I think. I often feel a lot of personal decoration is largely about making statements, whether private/personal, social/cultural, psychological or billboard, etc. Perhaps to some, tattoos are a sign of larger commitment ... unlike peace sign earrings or a pink ribbon button, you can't take them off (well, not easily anyway).

I am being fair. The amount of landfill, possible water table contamination and other pollution issues with plastic diapers vs. reusable diapers (as well as the manufacturing impact) is a legit concern. Of course, on the other side, if everyone used washable cloth diapers, then one has to wonder/worry about the water usage outweighing the benefits they have (which includes, hopefully, the sanitation of the waste water, vs. all that human poo being in landfills - which then makes you wonder about the environmental impact of how they sanitize the water, if any...). The point is, there's pros and cons to everything, if you start to look at it from all angles and perspectives down the long chain, with no truly awesome solutions. Let me state that I am not exactly PRO-PLASTIC-BAG (or for the over-reliance on cheap disposable plastic for many things). What I get grumpy with is when scare tactics are used to frighten the masses into thinking one particular option is 100's times more evil than another, and then even the choice is forcibly taken away. ...plus I'm overly grumpy from watching too many depressing "humanity rather sucks" documentaries. Edit: I found this interview's various stated viewpoints interesting...with the usual caveat that when it comes to some of their statements, I haven't researched their validity. It's just an interesting discussion. Do Plastic Bag Bans Help the Environment (Host Michel Martin discusses the issue with Michael Bolinder of Anacostia Riverkeeper, and Nick Gillespie of the libertarian magazine Reason.)

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.