LadyCrimson

So is the new Obs "mystery thing" the reason for the forums being so very slow this early morning? Been doing a "Fall cleaning" this week. As I get older I find myself wanting to hang on to less and less "stuff." Every annual cleaning I toss more and more things out. Don't want to deal with storing tons of boxes full of items long-term anymore. Not like I remember where I put them, or even that I have them, half the time, anyway.

I'm currently "playing" with the character skill tree calculators for Borderlands2. Only 46 points to work with! Have become too used to the extra points from the BL1 DLC's. Not .... enough! I'm liking the trees, however, even if I can't get to/reach everything I might want, heh. The characters feels a bit more cross-balanced, yet with each still having their own unique flair too.

Oooo.....I just heard about this, playing catch-up. Exciting. Please be a new IP! At the least ... please be a known IP that isn't based on a cartoon series that I have no interest in.

$1100 in rolled up quarters, dimes, and nickels is very very heavy. And I haven't gotten to the pennies yet. Can I just throw those away?

Hop - well, the Pink Beret's were kinda cute. But every time the grumpy chick-bird who wants to be the new Easter Bunny opened his mouth, I thought about dancing penguins (Happy Feet). Gran Torino is the Dirty Harry in retirement movie. Ok, maybe not officially, but...yeah. Eastwood is one of the few "stars" where I'll be in a sad funk when he finally passes. I want him to live forever.

Borderlands1 - Friday night LAN session with beer-drinking husband = non-stop giggling wife. 10 more days for BL2. *impatient leg jittering*

Pagan bunting with 0 outs and no one on base, and making it to 1st .... priceless. Go Giants, whup those Dodgers. Also...I've gotten tired of the constant Google logo doodles, but the one today for Star Trek:OS tickles my nerdy heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETdRWL3rf6Q

Arnie just needs to move into slightly less "explosive" action films. I mean, it's not like Eastwood tries to do "kill everyone with my mini-gun as I run and jump from buildings" type movies. Hard to compare them really. Arnie's more in the Stallone category, and imo, he's always been way above Stallone (Rocky1 the exception) I dunno....watching Arnie mock his old age while killing dozens of villains in over the top ways, spouting one-liners as he goes....I'd still find that entertaining. In the right movie. That said, I don't know if The Last Stand is that movie. Hard to tell from a trailer sometimes, but it impresses me as a sort of tongue in cheek action film.

VISA points - I always look at the rewards lists and go "nah." I don't accrue them fast enough to get anything major before points start to slowly expire, but after years I could get some useable stuff. But I don't need any ipod accessories, bluetooth stuff, bedsheets, phones, giftcards, travel, red toy wagons, cheap compact cameras/mp3 players, etc. So today I could get either a Sony 9" portable DVD player or a Sony 2-ch. receiver. We use a cheap soundbar for the TV and it might be nice to fix these old, ginormous-woofer speakers (need new cones) we have to go with the receiver instead. Whole house shakin' bass movie watching! But then again, that requires hubby to actually fix those speakers....while having a small DVD player I can sit right next to my pillow while watching something in bed would occasionally be cool. .... but ... hrumph. Back to ignoring those points I think...

I've seen a lot of people who really like it for the episodic/periodical feel I think. eg, that the format can encompass bigger or more meaningful stories that way, or something, but waiting for installments in order to get/finish the whole game I paid for is not my thing. And interactive movies are definitely not my thing. So one should take the notice on Steam's game page that an Xbox controller is "strongly" recommended seriously, then?

Breaking Bad: Yup....I think Walt at least wants to be back on the track of "breaking good" (well, not good, but at least not doing anymore bad) but, of course, I'm sure life won't let him. But we'll have to wait until the next 8 episodes next summer to find out. Damn AMC for splitting it up. The last episode of this year was deliberately slow paced, with lots of subtle details/references if you catch them, but the last 5 seconds had you going "omg, finally that" with all kinds of theoretical possibilities flying through your mind. Loved it. Wanna know what happens next now. It's been interesting how time has sped up for season 5. The first 4 seasons appear to take place in approx a year's span, while Season5 seems to be covering almost a year on its own. And oh Jessie, how you've gone from a chr. that annoyed me most of the time to one that breaks my heart .... brilliant.

Dear Clint Eastwood: I'll always love you as an actor and director. I'm looking forward to your new movie. But while I know your little speech was supposed to be a light-hearted, political-poke adlib performance - seriously, what were you thinking? From legendary The Man With No Name to The Nutty Old Guy Talking to Empty Chair, in 10 minutes.

Wow, was that in 2000? Pretty sure I still have it around somewhere. Didn't play it much. Google search says you can get it to run on Win7, btw. I wouldn't know, not having it. But doesn't that make it that much better for GOG to update it? Don't know if it makes it better, but I'd have no objection to them acquiring it. I've bought a few games from them that I can still run via my discs on at least XP ... but I buy them anyway to support GoG or because I just feel like having a digital version that runs on Win7 and doesn't need a CD in a drive (or CD swapping...) to play it ...

Just squeaking by as a (US) summer release. I'm liking the graphical look of Divinity:Original Sin quite a bit. Crossing fingers for the gameplay...

Battleship. Yes, I knew going in it was going to be terrible, but I figured it would at least have some fun action scenes or something. I was wrong. Film lacked narrative focus of any kind and even the action stuff felt kinda unimpressive. Altho, the bit where they tried to make it like the board game was slightly amusing. Wanted to be some alien-invasion epic ala ID4 I guess, but total fail. Even Transformers was actually better. It was, however, kinda funny seeing "Todd" from Breaking Bad in there. I've never seen or heard of Friday Night Lights until I looked up Todd from B.Bad, so I guess that's where Taylor Kitsch comes from too. Poor Taylor. Hope he finds some better (or at least more popular) movies to be in or his career is going to go nowhere fast.

Winter's coming again and I still needed to configure a better rainy weather hut for my 1 outdoor cat. I had just set up, near the sliding glass door, this tall, covered plastic litter pan (with foam/pads inside) for him to stay out of the wind/cold when he wants. He loves the thing, don't ask me why. But it isn't terribly waterproof because it has cat-litter-pan ventilation holes and no eaves. Looked at a lot of these fancy and/or "cutesy" premade cat huts - refuse to pay $200 for a prebuilt outdoor cat shelter "house" that doesn't even look that watertight or durable. So I bought a giant, long, plastic storage bin, a hacksaw and some heavy duty scissors to cut out an opening on one end and just plopped it on top of the litterpan bed he already likes so much...plus the extra length in front should act as a roof/eave to keep driving rain out of the actual sleeping pan. $27. I rule.

Wow, was that in 2000? Pretty sure I still have it around somewhere. Didn't play it much. Google search says you can get it to run on Win7, btw. I can't think of too many for myself, personally, that either can't be made/forced to run on Win7 or XP or aren't already out in some updated version somewhere. I was never into "platformer" style games and most other older games I don't have much desire to try/replay at this point. I did notice that GoG recently got Tombraider 1-3, however...I might get those.

Yeah, that's kinda what I meant. More like...say...during an attempt to save someone else that he remembers he cares about (besides himself) even if he doesn't absolutely have to. Doesn't erase what he's become/what he's done by any means, but that sort of smidgen of emotional redemption. But could also just be a defiant Butch Cassidy-Sundance Kid moment. Watched Side by Side, the documentary about celluloid film vs. digital (in terms of movie shooting format) with Keanu Reeves narrating and interviewing a bunch of famous people on the topic. I don't think Reeves makes an awesome interviewer, but it's an interesting topic and what the interviewees have to say was even more so. I liked it quite a bit.

Breaking Bad's final season (part 1...part2 next year, sigh) has been pretty awesome so far. A lot better than last year, imo, where it was kind of annoying/slow for many episodes until near the very end. Fun to speculate on how it will all end, especially with that Eps.1 future-opening. Only thing I'm pretty sure about (but not 100%) is that Walt's cancer will come back - but that could be too obvious, so maybe Vince G. will surprise us. Other than that .... sheesh I dunno. Will Walt find a smidgen of compassion/redemption at the end or has he gone so "Bad" that redemption is impossible? And Jessie? Oh man, the way he's gone from stupid/annoying to the awesome (but still kinda stupid) over the seasons is marvelous. Walt/Jessie combo are a great chr. pair arc. It's almost tragic. Also, from the most recent episode:

Pets are the awesome. There are so many moments when my cat/pet is what literally keeps me going, mood-wise. I'm trying to work up the motivation to go to the DMV. I'll probably put it off again...

From the What are you playing thread: Sweeping Wind has become the Frozen Orb for Monks. I've tried/used it for long periods, and it does help if your dps is still low (or enemies are weak), but a troublesome Inferno Elite mob is still going to feel like a troublesome mob. It just increases your overall dps, in a manner of speaking, so mobs die a little bit faster. I tend to prefer more panic button skills than overall blanket dps skills, at least in solo/Inferno. Playstyle. Keep in mind that a Monk doesn't require major dps numbers. What they do need is LoH, resists, and if you can get enough of it, dodge and life regen. Critical Hit Damage/Chance is, of course, nice for any chr, but for Monks, it's not nearly as huge a factor to their tanking survivability (especially solo). My overall build didn't change much...it looks like this now. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bUTXgQ!XUd!ZbYbac You can use Fist of Thunder instead of 100Fists, a lot of people prefer that one, but I'm still partial to 100Fists. Heh. I use Guardian Path passive since I dual wield (more/easier LoH that way) and the Dodge boost + speed boost from dual-wielding helps a lot. Shields are not "necessary"...again, playstyle. With the recent patch, 7-strike improved enough I used it over Blinding Flash, although to me it's kind of a toss up. 7-Strike does have the invulnerable aspect, but BF can be used more frequently. Oh...if you use a companion, mobs will all beeline for them when you 7-Strike, like you're suddenly invisible, so that can help get you unstuck too ... although this means sometimes the 7-strikes don't fully hit walking-away enemies, which can be annoying.

I think the game is fun as single-player action-rpg as you're learning the game. I mean, I spent quite a bit of time on it after all, even with the frustrations. It just doesn't have longevity. But if you have a couple friends to play with, that could make it last longer. Do play the demo....and keep in mind that Normal difficulty for most people is akin to super-super-easy. I know, right? It was bad before, but I swear since the patch it's even worse. If you spend tons of time looking, you can occasionally get a "steal" but overall it's crazy.

Wait, wait, wait .... Beckett, Gonzo, Crawford, Punto traded to the Dodgers? Holy heck, I didn't see that coming. Figured they'd pull back the waivers. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised...especially re: Beckett, but ... holy heck, I'm just floored. Well, at least that's one way to reboot a team. ....so now when the Dodgers play the Giants, I'm going to feel all kinds of weird. Hope Beckett/Gonzo don't go on a "happy to be traded" awesome streak and equal Dodgers beating Giants. For me it's akin to, but not quite as bad as if they went to the Yankees....