Happy Halloween!

Best day of the year!

Chamberlain and Chance #45

eehhhhh....

Chamberlain and Chance - Not so fast, Nintendo

Dear God, let this end.

I don't want to brag or anything but I own many plaid over shirts

Because everything will be fine on November 9th! Probably.

Civilization VI is a perfectly average game.

I'm spending an effectively reasonable time with a game that has absolutely no sway/grip/sleeper hold on my free time whatsoever. It's fine. This game is... fine.*

*I'm fibbing. 

 

So Civ VI is uh... pretty... good...

I mean I don't HAVE to keep playing. I can stop anytime I want. I just don't want to right now. Ok? Get off my back! Damn.

Baxter RIP: 2012-2016

Look, it was my sister's first.

I lost a close friend today. Baxter, my yoga ball. Due to a surgery I had I can only do crunches with a decent sized pocket of air between me and the ground. I don't have washboard abs or anything, but I like what I've accomplished and I have a giant purple yoga ball to thank for that.

My first weekend in 8 months...

I... can take a road trip! *HACK!* *WEEEEZzzzE*

I've had a terrible work schedule for almost a year. But now, after pretty much bribing a co worker, I have two consecutive days off for the first time in months. Permanently! Or at least... semi-regularly! God, I'm tired.

I didn't suck at Overwatch for a whole 18 seconds!

I don't know who made this, but thanks!

I say "sh*t" at the beginning because in the 26 hours I've spent with it I've only gotten POTG once. Thanks for the upload, Chance!

Time for a change...

I've recently gotten a job waiting tables that pays... oh, 2.5X  what I'm used to. That's not, "hey I've got more beer money!" It's more "Hey, I can get an apartment twice as big as this rat hole!" So naturally I upgraded my phone and, horror of horrors, my old Jakobs case won't fit. Guess I'll have to find a new o-

There. There it is! That was fast...

These Violent Delights...

So it's not the next great big thing... but it's still really good though, right?

Westworld Review: Tin Men and Wire Trees.

I got one question for you, would you want to follow an act like Game of Thrones? No. No you wouldn't. It's the biggest hit in HBO history and one of the most beloved shows of the past decade. If you go into Westworld expecting to be grabbed like Thrones,  you're probably going to be disappointed. You need to dial back your expectations a bit.

The characters aren't as witty, the themes are more heavy handed, and there's a few dull main characters to sit through. In fact, after watching both episodes I had kinda written them off as a "7". An inoffensive but lacking "7". But seeing as I might have been a bit too intoxicated on the first viewing, I watched them both again. It's weird, but I liked the show almost twice as much the second time around.

Even when he's just showing up for a paycheck, he's more compelling than any of us could ever hope to be.

I began to understand character motivations clearer, the script was smarter than I gave it credit for, there's a good mystery swirling behind nearly every main plot line, and then the biggest thing clicked for me: this is all about video games. All of it.

All the engineers talk about are guest choices, interactive plot lines, and the logistics that keep them strung together. This is the first main stream/big budget... anything exclusively about game design. I'm not kidding around, almost half the show is about how the park works. I.E. philosophical discussions of mechanical souls and reworking the "Hosts" dialogue trees for new "narratives." Once I finally wrapped my head around that, my geeky little heart almost burst.

But there's more to it than that and I'm not just talking about the scrumptious vistas, robot shootouts, dust choked saloons, and uh... the scalpings. There's quick visual jokes like hosts breaking when a fly lands on them and the recurring theme of milk. Seriously, milk comes up. Like a lot. Also all the well worn Blade Runner stuff is acted and presented well enough so you won't cringe. I honestly can't tell if  all the Host facial ticks are cgi or not, because some of those misfit robots are so well acted that I could be convinced it's all in the performance. That "meet my maker" scene in particular was a barnstormer.

So yeah, I'm on board for now. Ed Harris is a spectacular Man in Black (and he looks like he's having one hell of a retirement party) Evan Rachel Wood is playing the girl next door at the moment but will probably be a Sonny-esque liberator. She's also great. Jeffrey Wright and Mr. Hopkins are... well at least you know what you're getting with them.

For better or worse, this is the most interesting thing on TV right now. Outside of politics*, anyway.

I'm a "skim" man, myself.

*;)

 

This card... is frustrating.

 

Ahh, the agony and ecstasy of high end pc gaming. More often than not, your new card will kill with a thousand cuts. While the games run fine (not what I expected but fine) the loading times in fallout 4 have become exhausting. upwards of 1:45 seconds. Tried without mods, off my external HD, complete reinstall, and it's the same loading time. Every time. It's insane, this is supposed to be top of the line! I... I hope their IT gets back to me in a couple days. I'm thinking I'll need to switch it out.

What did I just do?

Only 12 left?! Well now I have to. Right?

Sometimes you just need to treat yourself. Especially after you nail down a job that pays a solid $600 more a month... in the slow season. So yeah, instead of putting the $536 I don't need into a prudent and acceptable savings account... I got a 1070. It was literally twice as good as the one I had and it was going for less than a PS4.

By Christ, I will max out Fallout 4.

Arrival, guys.

Humanist SCI FI! Can there even be a taught thriller about Xeno-linguistics? God damnit, I hope so!