Ain't That a Kick in the Head?

This passed week has been mostly wonderful!

Isn't that a good thing?

It's been a while since there has been any updates here, and for that I apologize. This may be a lengthy one.

First things first:

Fallout New Vegas.

Has is been taking up a lot of my time?

The answer is "yes".

At this point I am at level...18? And well on my way. So here comes the "review", so to speak.

The beginning of the game may have been the biggest disappointment I have faced since Sonic the Hedgehog became 3D.

The storyline was god-awful, the startup of the game was slow, the area was boring and the new features were confusing.

Total play time before throwing down the controller: 45 minutes.

Total time spent bitching because the game sucked: 5 days.

Eventually I had some more spare time and I finally mustered up the patients to guts to pick it up again.

Same thing.

Total play time: An hour and 15 minutes.

Faith in Bethesda: Diminished.

"Oh, it gets better," they said.

"Keep playing!" They said.

Fine.

"You can launch Ghouls into outer space!" They said.

...

Well... in that case...

Controller back in hand, I trudged onward through the Mojave wasteland, trying to make the best of things.

Total playtime: 32 hours and 15 minutes.

Ultimately, it redeemed itself, making it a more playable game. Less frustrating, too. Here is a quick run through of what is good and not so good.

Good:

The dialog. I was extremely impressed with the dialog, this time around.

In Fallout 3, you could walk around and another character would make a nasty, offhand remark about you. Though, as soon as you clicked on them to speak, they were cheery as can be.

Here, that changed that. When they're mean, they're mean. When they're nice, they're nice. It is refreshing. Other than that, the dialog options are great.

Creatures and people.

The new characters and creatures in the game are awesome! Robotic dogs, firebreathing geckos, Elvis impersonators. Its great. A lot less run-of-the-mill.

Companions.

The companions you have follow you are swell. They also give you a lot of neat-o perks.

Let me tell you, Boone is just the bee's knees.

Fame:

Instead of just having good or bad karma, you gain fame an infamy amongst the other colonizations and groups in the wasteland. This is really nice, actually, because instead of having EVERYONE shooting at you, you only have a few people. Though, the disguises and outfits don't work as well as I had hoped they would...

Mediocre:

The storyline.

Perhaps Im just not far enough along yet, but I think that I like the other storyline a little bit better....

Housing:

It takes a bit longer to get your house here, I feel, but the options are greater. The first house you get, there is little or no attachment to the tow you're in. No reason to stat, reall. Evertually you get a really badass one.

Perks: There are some good ones, but there are also a lot of the same ones.... its disappointing. On top of that, you only get to choose a perk every-other level, which confused and upset me in the beginning.

Weapon mods:

Cool in theory, but a little too complicated for my liking. Especially the ammo. It is too time consuming and the menu screens are too cluttered for my to bother taking my time on it.

Bad:

THE BUGS AND GLITCHES.

This may be the reason that I permanently lay this game to rest. There are too many quest-breaking bugs. It stutters, freezes and stalls. People and items don't show up where they need to be, and we have has some file corruptions that set us back HOURS.

Ammo mods/Creation:

I hate this and try to avoid it at all cost. Too much of a pain in the ass for me.

Snow globes:

I miss the bobble heads! And they give you money, instead of skill points... Oh well...

Overall, its pretty cool, but it doesn't quite hold a candle to Fallout 3. After falling in love with those characters, it really sucks to have to start over again. The bugs in the game are excruciating and frustrating (along with the lengthly loading screens...)

I would recommend picking it up, for sure. But I may actually recommend that you wait until there is a patch out for it or you will just be wasting your time.

When not playing Fallout, I have been working overnights (hence the lack of updates.) Personally, I think it is awesome. Most of it was physical labor, which was a nice chance. Getting in to work at 9, then leaving at 9 in the morning was actually pretty sweet. (McDonald's bacon, egg and cheese bagels for dinner! YES!)

I didn't really like sleeping all day though. Didn't get to see Van very much either. But other than that, it was nice. A lot of hours and a lot of moving around. I dig.

Finally I caved and applied for college again. I just need to get my transcripts sent in. I'm going to be a High School English teacher. This is something I look forward to.

Right now all I can think about is food, so I'm going to go and perhaps play Fallout until Van wakes up. My sleeping schedule is all screwed up now, so I just woke up a little while ago and its 4 AM (I think? Daylight savings time has confused me a little bit, since the clock on my computer is already wrong?)

Off to scrounge up some Lucky Charms.

I'M GOING TO THE TAVERN!

Next time someone comes into my room in the middle of the night with an ice-pick, it would be greatly appreciated if someone would please tell them to leave and not stab me. Thank you.
That is the only explanation I have as to why I have the more horrific headache I have ever had in my entire life. Someone must have stabbed me through the head like a deck of used casino cards. Thankfully my roomie has some super meds that knocked it out pretty quick.

Yesterday wasn't all that bad. Class was just class, as it always is. We got to practice for our practical. I burned my hand pretty badly, but its okay. I had forgo ten to put the butter in my pastry cream and it was already poured out into the plastic wrap on a sheet tray, so I had to pick it up and squeeze it out of the plastic. While it was still boiling. So that was definitely no bueno.

And then I had a ridiculous craving for a large vat of Count Chocula with strawberry Nesquik, a really rare steak, really well done barbecue chicken, a cookie, and grilled zucchini. All at the same time. It was pretty bad.

If you haven't noticed, I'm going kind of backwards since my last update.

Then to the weekend.
Sunday was RP night. Totally awesome. It just bums me out and makes me wish that everything could be as easy as rolling dice.

You just tripped and fell down the steps. Roll six dice to see if you break your leg or not

or

You forgot your eclairs in the oven, roll 3 dice to see if you remember they are there before they burn

That would make life so much better. Sometimes.

But yes. RP night was great. I came home and my roomies asked what I did. Didn't bother trying to explain so I just said RPed.
Monica says "In bed?"
"No. I don't think he could handle me being a level 9 magic user."
Then left.

And yes, there was funyuns and mt dew.

The day before Van took me to the city to have dinner at Jekyll and Hyde's. Aaaand that was pretty awesome. Perfect place to take the kid that lives for Halloween and love horror movies. We went with Stokes and Lynn, too, which was fun, because the last time we hung out with them was valentines.

And then Friday we hung out at our friends' houses.

Generally a very good weekend. And its Tuesday, which means that Monday is over, which means that tomorrow is Wednesday, which means that I don't have that same chef anymore! Hooray!
Now, I think I'm going to go eat for the first time in a few days. Yippee!

Soup&Pants&FriedRice&Cake&Icecream&Bubbles&CDs&Strippers

I must say that I thoroughly enjoy soup and pants day.
Sometimes during the week, my buddy Vlad and I will sit around and watch movies and just have a great time. Yesterday we just sat in my room and blew bubbles and listened to music and ate cereal. it was really an awesome time. We wrote a wall of funny things that have happened and that we have said. Then we took a whole bunch of pictures. Today he gave me a sheet of paper with all of them printed on it. It was really great.
Girls night was on Friday. That was really fun. My roommates and I just watched Knocked Up and sat around and ate icecream and talked and had a great time. Some kid gave me shrimp fried rice and it was fantastic.
And then, last night, I went to Zac's birthday party. It was pretty awesome. I got in a borderline fist-fight with Zac and am covered in bruises and rug burn, Van some how ended up naked in the kitchen as my friend/brother walked in, Chux's mom tried to get with me, I ended up covered in green icing, and I have a new-found love for baked ziti. It was a really great time. I made a mix CD for Zac and it is freaking awesome. it goes something like this:

1. Vampire Breath - Dr. Acula
2. Safety Song -Tsunami Bomb
3. Open Book - The Rakes
4. Time Bomb - Rancid
5. Love Demon - Los Gatos Locos
6. Brown Eyed Girl -Reel Big Fish
7. Julia - The Horrorpops
8. Gentlemen - mewithoutYou
9. Pretty Rave Girl - I Am X-Ray
10. The Beer - Kimya Dawson
11. Lean on Sheena - Bouncing Souls
12. I Can Walk On Water, I Can Fly - Basshunter
13. Hypnotized - Notorious B.I.G
14. Your Retro Career Melted - The Faint
15. Bruises - Chairlift
16. Darkwave Surfer -Aural Vampire
17. Days Go By - Dirty Vegas
18. Gunpowder: A Ballet -Dr. Manhattan
19. (this one was a secret song, I didn't write what it was on the list. its Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley)

Each song gets longer and longer as the CD goes on. its pretty awesome.

Then, this morning, I left from the party with Van and we went out to get breakfast. As I ate my sandwich, this old lady kept staring at me and wouldn't leave me alone. It was so incredibly frustrating and awkward. She kept looking at me as if I were the Antichrist or something similar. I nearly got up and started strip-dancing on her table, just to be obnoxious, but I didn't. Someday I will do something like that. but until then I shall sleep and it will be wonderful. Goodnight, blog.

OH! Today was Soup and Pants day, too and Vlad and I watched Stranger Than Fiction. Gotta love Maggie Gyllenhaal. She is delicious. A delicious ginger baker with tattoos. That will be me someday!

Every Saint Has Past, Every Sinner Has A Future

Everything has been super crazy lately. Between me being a borderline alcoholic, being in a love-pentagram, starting a new relationship and getting back into classes, I feel like a bunch of glow sticks in a blender. It'll all be okay in the end though. I know it will.

IN A STATION OF THE METRO

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet black bough.

Yesterday I decided to listen to Tsunami Bomb for the first time in a while. I really enjoy Tsunami Bomb and was really really sad when they broke up. Well it turns out that they got back together for one last benefit show in January. I wish I had known about it then, I would have tried to go! But, for my birthday I asked for their benefit show t-shit. All the money goes to help this woman pay for medical expenses. There are only 3 things I really want for my birthday this year, and they would be 1. that tshirt; 2. an acoustic guitar; 3. Money for my tattoos. I wouldn't complain about getting a pasta roller either, but that's a bit of a stretch.
Watched SLC Punk again yesterday with Shannerpuss and Vlad. got some Chinese food and totally snarfed it. It was awesome. A nice chill day.

The day before was Valentine's Day and honestly, it was awesome. I've never had a real Valentine's Day but this year I did and it was great. We went rollerskating, which I had never done before, so that was an adventure! And I didn't case it and fall on my ass at all! Woohoo! And then we went out to dinner. Which turned out to be my friend Chux's house. Van had set up the living room like a restaurant and Zac was the waiter and Leafy and Chux cooked grilled cheese. Its really hard to explain through writing how nice it really was. I've honestly never had anyone do anything so nice for me before. It was really great.

And now I'm sitting here eating my 1.5 pound box of Lucky Charms. And its phenomenal.

I;m sure Ill think of something else to write about soon. I haven't really felt like writing about anything really heavy lately. There's just too much going on for that. I promise there will be something more interesting soon. I really hate writing all of this stuff about me, because really no one wants to hear it. They like to read about other things more. So I'll think of something soon!

Magically Delicious

Sometime last week I had a bowl of Lucky Charms with milk. Which is awesome, because milk is pretty hard to come by in a dorm. I finished my Lucky Charms and set the bowl on my infrequently visited desk. Now, my desk is so infrequently visited that I ended up forgetting about this bowl of milk that had turned and interesting greenish blue color from the cereal. honestly, I can't figure out what the color its. Its like..a like minty/seafood green, but its also kind of blue...but..its also kind of yellow..and..also kind of pink...so I really can't tell. Anyhow, I had forgotten about this mystical cereal milk that reflected the entire spectrum, and I eventually found it later. Well...two days ago. A few days before I had added more milk from other cereal so I could wash it all at once, but I of course forget. Now, I find it yesterday and to my surprise there was no mold growing on it, but the sugars from the cereal had caused it to now have the texture of brie cheese. Or really thick pudding with a skin over it. I used a plastic spoon to scrape it out and to clean the bowl in the bathroom. I assumed that the "milk" would have smelled really awful, but strangely enough it gave off the aroma of provolone cheese. Anyway. It was pretty gross but also fascinating. My bowl is clean, but I'm still afraid to eat out of it. Perhaps I will use a plastic cup today.

As a trained espionage agent I could tell that she was attracted to me.

No better way to spend a day than watching crappy old horror movies and eating cereal. If only every day could be like this. The choices of the day were Carnival Of Souls and Creature From The Haunted Sea.

Both were pretty freakin epic. Mostly CFTHS though. And cereal of the day was Lucky Charms.

And Im so being the creature for halloween.

That is all.

Silly Rabbit, My Ass.

As I ate a bowl of Lucky Charms, I remember that the shape of Trix cereal had been changed. Can I just mention how much this bothers me? Trix used to be so cool, with all of its bright colors and amazing fruit shapes. Now they're just little balls, like a big bowl of rainbow Cap'n Crunch. This is disappointing. And look at them, saying "NEW SHAPE!" as if its some grand accomplishment. What is that? What is this nonsense! I rid my hands of you, Trix cereal. I rid my hands of you.