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1,786 responses to “Talk Amongst Yourselves”
MONTAY
What should I get for lunch? Didn’t make any meals over the weekend so need to buy.
Buy ingredients for a brie, turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich. @freezespreston got me onto these, and they are decadent.
If you spring for the triple cream black label brie you won’t know what to do with yourself once the sandwich is gone.
I could just buy a load of brie and be happy with that tbh 😀
I recommend leaving the brie out of the fridge for at least an hour before eating it. For best results it should be really high (well, as high as brie can get anyway – I prefer a bit of well-aged Crottin de Chavignol myself http://androuet.com/crottin-de-chavignol-43.html )
Anybody else read that sentence incorrectly? 😛
but yeah, warm soft cheese, just melts in the mouth 😀
After triple cream, double cream tastes so… hollow. Now I’m addicted to chasing the cream, no multiplier is ever enough!
This is correct. I have a wheel of triple cream brie at home that is allllmost at it’s “expiry” date, so it’s going to be perfectly, beautifully ripe this weekend!
Try leaving it for a couple of months after the expiry date. Trust me on this. http://www.gourmetcheesedetective.com/can-cheese-be-used-past-the-expiration-date.html
You’re right. The best cheese is the stuff they’re discounting because it’s close to expiry!
I know! Win-win!
Upgrade to quadruple cream?
I think it’s time to learn how to make soft cheeses
And the art of dairy distillation.
cheeselinks.com.au is a good place to start if you’re interested in cheesemaking. I’ve used their yoghurt cultures from time to time to make home made yoghurt.
I’m commenting so I can come back later and write this recipe down. All three are my favourite foods, how did I not think to do this before…
Last time I did them on Turkish bread. Put all the ingredients in and then used the (sadly now broken – not by me!) work sandwich press to warm it up enough that the cheese was melty.
Mmmmmmmmmmm *drools uncontrollably, shorts out computer, gets fired*
Sounds so much better then my usual toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. Must visit the supermarket tomorrow.
Costs a bit more but not as much more as you’d expect.
You could also get the yum cha from Noodle Box. It’s impressively delicious.
No Noodle Box in Milton 🙁 I used to live off it when I worked in Cannon Hill and there was one across the road. Lots of Vietnamese places around here for some reason though
Mexican is always the answer
Unless it’s Salsa’s. Then just go home and reassess your life.
Salsa’s chips aint bad, still go zambreros over Salsa’s, and mad mex whenever im near one
There’s no Mexican around my work D’: the closest I could get is Pita Pit with Mexican stuff thrown in. Actually, that sounds like a winner. Still, I could sure go for a Guzman burrito right about now
I could ALWAYS go for Guzman Y Gomez. Goddamn them and their delicious food and tasty Margaritas and constantly beautiful staff.
If anyone’s in Adelaide, down near Flinders there’s an awesome Mexican place called Lucky Lupitas – awesome tacos and quesadillas!
I don’t know if I’ll ever get to Adelaide, but if I do, I will make sure to check it out, thanks!
Beef vindaloo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T1pXsJp_go
Never seen this, will watch properly tonight 😀
The answer is always sushi.
Hard pepperoni
Camembert
Jatz
Combine & scoff the lot
You. I like you
Morning all! Hope your weekends were fantastic.
Recent news suggests that new episodes for both Life is Strange and Game of Thrones games are imminent. It’s a good time to be a fan of narrative games.
😀 I need G.O.T!
How many life is strange eps are there to go? I don’t want to start it until I can play the lot
The one coming out soon is the fourth one. There will be five in total. They seem to be two months apart, so best guess is that you’ll be playing in September!
Oh well, I can wait that long. I’m going back through the games I started but never finished at the moment so that’ll keep me going for a while
Happy 13th birthday @rocketman!
Today is the day you become a man. *sniff* So. Damn. Proud.
Happy day of the one time event that is your birthing day @rocketman!
if Freeze’s comment is anything to go by its time to talk about the birds and the bees..and how they stinging and shitting on every goddamn body round err
I splatted many pro-sleep people, the heathens!
Also prototyped my new zipper watch strap for my pebble. The lack of a buckle/tail makes it awesome for wearing to sleep (my original strap kept getting caught on my pillow!).
https://goo.gl/photos/U8YQPHff2r9w1znT7
https://goo.gl/photos/KuhUrtRX3whK6qZ77
Lookin’ nice and ghetto there. Love the staples 😛
Staples are only there to hold the pieces in place before they’re stitched, once it’s done with nicer materials it will almost be indistinguishable from a striped NATO strap.
I have navy webbing, narrower orange zips, and white thread to go into the final version. It will look like this:
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0153/3399/products/Steinhart_OVM_ocean_one_on_a_navy_blue_white_and_orange_NATO_strap_replacement_nylon_watchband_1024x1024.jpg?v=1413826457
How easy is it to put on/take off one-handed? Seems like it’d be kinda tricky.
That was the big test, and it’s actually very easy due to a couple of changes. For it to be viable, I made sure I could put it on either wrist single handedly.
Where the two ends join I put a “speed bump” which means you don’t have to hold both sides of the zip when doing it up, it just clicks into place and zips. Way easier than any jacket I’ve tried doing up with one hand!
The “tail” of the strap is also a bit longer than necessary to give you something to pull. Once done up it tucks into a loop under the watch.
It also has just shy of 20mm of length adjustment!
Wait it has length adjustment too? I thought it must just be fixed. How does that work, is it some different kind of zipper to the usual, where you can join it at any point or something?
Nah, it’s much simpler than that, and is comparable to the adjustment found on a metal watch bracelet.
The zipper is fixed, but the strap that runs under the watch is “ruched” to an elastic backing. This creates a series of small loops which the spring bars go through to affix the watch. You move the watch to more inboard loops to increase the slack strap length.
It’s not rapidly adjustable, but once it’s set you’re done.
The elastic also lets you attach the charger more easily, and stops it disconnecting as readily (which is a bit of an issue with the pebble for some).
Bought cards against humanity. Awesome game.
I’m yet to try this, but from what I’ve heard, I’m not sure it’s something I want to.
From the sound of it, it’s a chance to laugh at inappropriate things. But it also makes jokes out of things you probably shouldn’t laugh at. I might be sounding a bit precious, but from what I’ve read is seems to cross the line from making awful jokes about child abuse into making child abuse victims the butt of the joke.
Only if you want it to. Nothing stopping you from not playing the combination that insinuates that.
True. But if you don’t go hard for the shock value, is it still a funny game? Or do the jokes end up just being a bit “eh”?
I guess that all depends on your groups sense of humour too.
Shut Up and Sit Down nailed my thoughts on the game far better than I ever could: http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/blog/post/review-cards-against-humanity/
I always find Matt’s insights into the games quite enlightening. His notion of owning the jokes was on point.
Some of the horror stories from the comments were also off putting for me. And there seem to be so many games out there that are better able to make you laugh at your friends, rather than laughing at minorities.
Here’s what I think: All games are roleplaying games, in some ways. You put on a role, whether it’s “Rail baron” or “Catan Settler” or “resistance member.”
The role you play in Cards Against Humanity ends up often being “laughing sex offender.”
There’s a little bit of sex offender in all of us I guess?
@negativezero It’s not a role I feel particularly comfortable playing, hence my distaste for CaH
Fair enough. I don’t mind it but it really depends on the group and the context. And there are games I’d rather play.
But that said, I recently obtained my copy of Barba*rossa, in which one takes the role of the alternative-universe Wehrmacht (you know they’re parallel world versions because they’re all scantily-dressed anime women) rushing to take over alternate-world Russia to defeat the evil witch Stalin.
(Sometimes it’s more fun to just take games at face value)
I definitely agree with the part that it’s not a particularly great game that gets old after one or two plays. You have a quick snigger at the absurdity of it all, but then you’ve seen it. Even most of the way through the first play it gets a bit old. Think I’ve dragged it out three times and no desire to ever play again.
Onward to better things!
I can agree with a lot of that. I’ve never found it particularly fun because the jokes feel like mad libs with naughty words to giggle at and it’s got that whole cheap, safe thrills for boring people vibe about it. However the reviewers really seem to take it way to seriously. There are parts where they’re reacting like it’s just a front for terrible people to say terrible things they genuinely believe while being able to deflect blame if they hurt anyone’s feelings by saying ‘the game did it, not me’.
It’s almost like when people take multiplayer death match games literally and insist that killing someone in the game is an attempt to role play murder rather than just a score system. Cards Against Humanity is attempting to sell itself with shock value the same way massive, brutal gore is used in those games, but that doesn’t mean it leaps to real world harm. It just makes it sort of lame.
It really depends on the cards you’re dealt. I’d say it’s not exactly the same thing as shock value – there’s fun to be had from the absurdity. Sure, if the prompt is “_______ is my six year old’s favourite candy” and you play a card like “pearly white cum” (I have no idea if those are real cards, I just came up with an inappropriate example) then you’ve chosen to go for shock value. But you could also have a card that says something relatively innocuous like “chuck norris’ beard”, which is more absurdity than shocking, and enables you to save your pearly white cum for another, less paedophilic scenario.
True, but you never know what context the pearly white will be placed in. That kind of the main crux of the thing isn’t it? in one context the cum would be kind of logical and maybe a bit dirty. But in another, it’s completely inappropriate. But because you have no control of what context the two parts get put together, it really is just a random crap shoot of words that hopefully work.
But say you take out all the possible offensive stuff, I’d imagine the possible jokes that would flow out of the deck would be quite flat. Maybe a little giggle here and there, but mostly just bland.
Again, I’m speaking as someone who’s never played it, so there is that caveat.
You’re not wrong, it really depends on what you might expect from your friends. My friends and I, while generally not sociopaths, would probably not hold back. We’re happy enough with the “expect the unexpected” side of things, as long as it’s not sincerely hateful. For more sensitive audiences, there’s no reason certain cards can’t be removed – but there’s no mistaking that CAH is pitched as a terrible game for terrible people and if the concept of potential vulgarity just isn’t entertaining to you, then I’d probably give it a miss.
You might be more interested in Superfight, which uses the same sort of absurbity mix & match scenario but instead of playing offensive madlibs, you play a character card which other players then add modifiers to. Your opponent that round does the same. You then pitch why your character would win, and everyone votes.
I’ve seen the Rooster Teeth stream videos where they play Superfight and while the games seldom have the energy of CAH streams, it’s amusing enough. You might potentially have a 50 foot Hitler with really bad farts fighting against a microscopic pope with laser vision (again, vague examples that might not exist in the game) but if that isn’t problematic then that’s another option.
Superfight is great because there’s a game under the random flipping of cards to make funny combinations. You have to make an argument about why your combination is going to win.
Funemployed is another one like that (although I don’t know if it’s on shelf anywhere). You’re applying for jobs and the cards are character traits you’re trying to sell as reasons why you should be hired.
The creative bit after the cards are dealt is what makes or breaks these games. CAH does not have that. At all.
Well I had 2 game and found it fun. Lasted about 20 mins. It was 3 people. Yeah some parts are wrong, but it’s just a game. If you take any part of it seriously even a little or just are a sensetive person, then this is definitely not the game for you. And it’s a game to laugh about stupid and shocking things. So yeah, probably won’t last long. It’s not exactly a thinking game.
That’s true. One of the horror stories on the Shut up & sit down site for their review of CaH was when the joke was produced it was basically about child abuse, and one of the people playing had actually been a victim of that. Obviously things don’t go well after that.
I know this would probably go alright with my group of friends, but I personally don’t feel comfortable promoting something that actively encourages mocking people who are usually in difficult circumstances purely for the fun of it.
The shock value of the game has little real value. It’s somewhere just above the level of sniggering at FCUK because it looks like a naughty word. I’m not offended by the content but I am offended at how poor an attempt at humour it is.
There’s no real thought put into it. The cards could just as well read “poop boogers” and get the same result.
As a game, it is mechanically weak. Players routinely get beaten by the deck when people play with Rando Cardrissian.
Played a couple more rounds of Letter from Whitechapel and Love Letter. Both solid. Although my friend who was Jack stuffed up and said she hadn’t been to a location when in fact she had. I’ve never felt the importance of trust in a game so much as when that trust is undermined so suddenly. It pretty much broke the game for that round.
Love Letter is still an impeccably designed piece of gaming though. Does so much with so little.
Looking at getting a MAME arcade cabinet. Anyone in Sydney heard anything good/bad about this mob?
http://goodsngadgets.com.au/
Wow, those are totally affordable. Is the process as simple as plug and play?
Yep. It’s a standard JAMMA cab and it comes with a 2019-in-one board, so you can change it out for your own boards if you want.
Morning!
I had a good weekend, I moved into a new place with my girlfriend in Northcote which is a little closer to my work which is great. I got to try out some Netflix and watched three episodes of Bojack Horseman. On Saturday I took @blackdahlianz to his first REAL soccer game at the MCG, boring game but good company. Apologies though for the Simpsons references, the paper aeroplane thing was too good to pass up lol.
I also watched an episode of ‘Real Humans’, a Swedish Sci-Fi about Cyborgs on Friday. It scared me.
I’ve heard good things about Real Humans. I don’t watch a lot of TV myself, but my friends who do are fans of this show too. Does sound creepy though.
The concepts were intriguing to me, I think it might have just been that I was ready for bed that I was a little weirded out watching it lol.
Congrats on the new place!
Thanks! It’s only for two months though, I’m half renting half house sitting/feeding fish and frogs lol.
Haha, frogs?! Wow.
I should clarify, they are hibernating currently so I need t o water their enclosure every couple of days to make sure they don’t dehydrate.
They’ve been ‘hibernating’ since May, which I’m not sure if this is proper for frogs to do this or if I’m just ‘watering the plants’ that live in the enclosure. To be fair I haven’t seen any frogs so far lol.
You know, it’s possible there just might not even be any, and your friend is punking you.
Frogs can definitely hibernate. Wood frogs in Alaska even become partially frozen and survive : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_frog
For three months though?!
Northcote’s good. Easy to get to Yarra Boulevard or out to the hills round Epping, convenient when the track cycling’s at Darebin and correct side of the city for Kinglake or Arthur’s Creek rides! Easy bike commuting. Good pubs and venues. Northcote Social Club! 🙂 Welcome to the northside…
Saturday I was too busy watching the rugby to watch roundball. Anyway, the proper football starts on Saturday 8th August. Wimbledon at home to Plymouth. :-p
You’re a Northcote man too? I’m kinda from the Northside, I grew up in Taylors Lakes and Essendon lol.
Live in Coburg, but that’s only a short hop-and-a-skip to the west from Northcote. 🙂
I grew up in Shackell Street, Coburg! I have a memory of being chased down the street as a 4 year old with my Mum and sister by the biggest rottweiler dog I’ve ever seen down Bell St lol.
I’m over near the Bunnings in Coburg North. Been in the suburb for 7 years. I like it.
Heh, we used to live in Coburg too, just off bell street. I was very young so I couldn’t tell you the name of the street off the top of my head. I live just outside Melbourne now in the west. 45mins to city centre via train.
I fixed up the bookmark
http://imgur.com/FKiyX1V
Morning all.
I’m looking forward to watching the EVO VODs over the next couple of nights. Unfortunately I already spoiled myself for half the smash finals while fumbling around for a ‘mute hashtag’ option in the official twitter app, so I’m just going to stay off twitter completely for a while.
Started up on that Ingress ARG last week since a friend started playing, interesting concept. Not sure how long I’ll stick with it but it does at least make a lunchtime walk around the city more interesting.
Overall just getting back into the daily grind now that all the big events for the year are done and dusted. Got jury duty coming up soon, been told to turn up in a suit and tie and they won’t keep me around for more than a day. We’ll see how that goes.
Shiny hunt draws closer to conclusion. Palkia is the latest one down, only 6 to go now. Thinking I might even dust off the vita and get into purse owner for the daily commute once the pokeymans are done and parked for a while.
Did they say anything specific about assless chaps?
Nothing was specifically mentioned…
Purse Owner!!!
Do eeet!
In Purse Owner you can catch demons & train them, good way to wean yourself off.
(Wrote that as ween & thought it looked to much like Ween so googled it)
I was wrong. Spyfall works quite well with strangers.
Awesome. I will have to start hunting for a copy. Any good highlights?
In our first game, I was the spy and after being asked a question, I panicked and said something along the lines of “I’m going to jump out the window. I’m the spy and we’re on a train.”
We were on a space ship.
My jumping out of windows featured in several other rounds.
Most of it, and I’m sure this is going to be true for most sessions of this game, you just had to be there.
Good Morning. I finally got around to finishing and 100%ing A Link Between Worlds, it was pretty fun, felt a little short maybe. The puzzles were just easy enough to make me feel smart :P. Now to pick another half finished game to knock off the pile.
Anyone else finished anything interesting recently?
I’m on the last level of Shovel Knight
Morning taybes! We watched the first episode of A Young Doctor’s Notebook on Netflix last night and it was super good. Also got to see the Prince episode of New Girl 😀
Is that like The Young Poisoner’s Handbook?
Ah, not quite!
Hello page 1. It’s been a while.
Hello, is it me your looking for? No? alrighty then
Howdy!
*tips hat as old western gunshot noise goes off*
*looks over, trips on tumble weed*
*Pings the spitoon from across the saloon.*
*plays some rootin tootin piano*
*smashes through saloon doors ready for dancin’*
*slides a glass of whisky along the bar*
Hola Tay
I had a busy weekend. Went to the Hungry Hippo on Friday, played Cash & Guns, The Resistance, Last Night on Earth and Hanabi (HANABI!). Saturday, went to a mate’s down South and played Magic the Gathering (Commander). Lots of fun, I finally played my Counterspell deck and it went pretty well- one more time around the table and I probably could have won it, but someone had a card out that penalised you for how many cards you had in hand and I couldn’t empty my hand quick enough. Sunday, I helped some friends move, and I’m glad I was there for that- they were not the most organised sorts, so I think needed someone just to say “let’s do it this way” for a bit. Got to do some lovely driving through Blackwood and Belair, which are forest suburbs, so that was nice.
A Monday Morning Question: What’s your big tip for moving house?
Hire a truck. Way worth a little money over messing with trailers and way cheaper that removalists.
My tip for moving house is simple: avoid it where possible. I’m sick of moving and we’re about to do it again in a month.
Get lots of people to help you, and pay them in beer. But, and this is the most important part, pay them afterwards.
Don’t. It’s the worst.
Get as much help as possible, call in all favours
Wear gloves to protect your hands. Trying to get up and do more stuff the day after a move is pretty terrible with blister covered hands.
Hire movers if you live in an established house (as opposed to moving out of a room in a house, you know). We did this last time we moved (I mean, we had to since we have a piano), but it was just SO much better to let a bunch of hefty lads lift with their knees into a big-ass truck then run around trying to do it ourselves.
Also, if you’re a renter, hire bond cleaners.
Drink to forget once you’re done.
Figure out where the local take-away places are in your new area before you move. You’re not going to want to cook that evening.
EDIT: Also if possible, move during the week instead of on a weekend. Less people around to get in the way / neighbours to annoy, and the moving companies often have better rates too.
Label every box. I also recommend setting one box aside that you open first once you are in your new place, which contains a basic kit for when you’re still unpacking everything else.
A plate, cutlery and cup per person, towels, toiletries (like soap, washer), and sheets. Nothing like slipping into a freshly made bed after a long days moving and unpacking. Coffee, tea, sugar and long life milk are also a must, some biscuits to munch on till meal time as well.
Get removalist boxes – packing everything into standard sized boxes makes things easier for the removalists, and they stack much better in a truck than random boxes.
Dipped my toes back into Destiny over the weekend. I originally planned to just do some patrols and weeklies while watching videos online but some of my US friends were online and invited me into their party so I wound up doing a level 34 Prison of Elders which went surprisingly smoothly, scoring me a weapon core in about 37 minutes, not that the weapon on offer from Variks was at all interesting.
I don’t think I’m ready to go back in yet. I have a feeling that now that I’m out of the habit, there’s very little to pull me back in. We’ll see how I feel when the DLC is out but for now… meh.
I’m planning on going back at the end of year 2 when an ultimate collection is out before Destiny 2 comes out. I’m not interested in the PVP any more because of the imbalances. I could more than hold my own, but there’s no fun to be had in a broken game.
Also, I’m not really fond of the idea of giving support to a developer whose first instinct is to take out anything that benefits the player yet leaves in game crippling bugs for a later patch. Gamers will find ways to play a game that the developer didn’t intend. Some developers embrace this. Bungie have not.
At this point I don’t think I even care about playing, I’ve had my fill of that. Unfortunately I want to know where the story is going, and playing is the way to unlock grimoire cards, which are genuinely interesting.
http://destiny-grimoire.info/
Problem solvered.
exiledexo.tumblr.com is actually pretty good, if you find the grimoire cards a little disjointed.
I keep meaning to follow that, he posts in the Destiny subreddit from time to time.
Saw Inside Out yesterday afternoon. Come in to work this morning and fire up Pandora and it starts playing “Who’s Crying Now” by Journey.
…so that’s the way it’s gunna be, huh?
I want to see Inside Out but I think it’s going to wait til it’s on Netflix or something since if I do pony up the cash to go to the movies anytime soon I’m pretty sure it’s going to be to see Jurassic World.
Yeah, including crappy food we shouldn’t have forked out for it cost $44 for two people to go see it. The only thing that really pissed me off about the price was that we had to sit through (no exaggeration, I was eye balling the time) 20 minutes of ads before the short started. Our 3:15 movie started at 3:40…
In fairness I see trailers as part of the moviegoing experience and generally enjoy watching them – I’ve badly wanted to see Inside Out ever since I saw the trailer before Tomorrowland. But the endless advertisements for local businesses all seem completely ponitless. I’m generally travelling well out of my way to see a movie, and don’t live in the immediate area. I assume the same is true for a lot of people. I sort of live “near” Liverpool and Bankstown but once this movie is over I’m probably not going to remember the name of the cafe I saw an ad for 2 hours prior, even if I did think to myself “shit yeah, we could go get dinner there afterwards! Thanks cinema advertising, you’ve saved the day!”.
What I really hate are the cinema ads for cinema advertising.
“It really works cause the audience is already suckered into sitting here watching!”
Shameless as hell.
When I was younger and went to the movies a lot, I had this down to a science. I would go in just late enough to see the tail end of the ads and sit through the trailers. Then randomly out of the blue a movie started AT THE SCHEDULED TIME, either with no ads or trailers or possibly the trailers all happened in some pre-roll that only people who actually got there early had to see. Completely unheard of and I missed the first 20 minutes of the film.
So since then I always go in a few minutes ahead of the scheduled time, and have accepted that 15-20 minutes of bullshit is a small price to pay to offset the risk of being the guy coming in late.
I should have specified: there were no trailers. Just ads. The only thing close to a trailer was an ad for some food place doing a Minions tie-in. And yeah, totally agree on the effectiveness of cinema ads.
NOPE. Dude. For real. Inside Out > > > > Jurassic World.
I really want to see Inside Out but my wife seems to be the one with the “masculine” movie tastes and is strongly opposed to seeing some feelings-driven animated movie, wanting to instead see either Jurassic World or Terminator. I have zero interested in Terminator Genisys (because I’ve heard it’s rubbish) so Jurassic World is a reasonable compromise since I want to see that as well.
If we’re going to pay $40-$50 to see something it’ll have to be something we both agree on.
But Inside Out has way fewer dinosaurs.
While looking for a movie to watch Saturday night my wife say “Housos vs. Authority” in her Netflix recommendations and while the prospect looked terrible and we weren’t prepared to commit to a movie, we did decide to at least give the show a chance… and wound up watching 6 episodes in a row.
It’s uh… I don’t know how to explain it. I feel like it conveys the sense of community that people in low socio-economic lifestyles might feel towards one another while also enabling others to sneer at the “Housos” in contempt because the better off genuinely believe that anyone on the dole is a criminal or scam artist with gambling problems and a tendency to sleep around and have more kids every five minutes.
If there’s one thing I guess I really like it’s commitment to the joke. Whenever one of the characters has an opportunity for redemption, they actively choose not to take it.
Also since my wife grew up in the Ermington/Ryde area, she finds it amusing that most of the show is situated in her old neighbourhood which all things considered isn’t that bad an area. Also she couldn’t resist pointing out when they went from the interior of the West Ryde shopping centre to the outside of the Ermington Woolworths, and we had a little giggle that during a medical emergency they went from Ermington to Hornsby via Merrylands then wound up back at Auburn.
Movie magic!
Saw an episode of that a while back. It sure is something.
Probably a show only Aussies could make.
Isn’t that made by the Fat Pizza crew?
Yep. There’s even a Fat Pizza vs Housos movie.
Apparently, though I never saw any Fat Pizza either. I’m sure I’d probably enjoy it, but I never checked in on it.
It started off pretty good but they seemed to run out of ideas until they were just traveling the world eating pizza, doco style. Dunno if they did it in character or not, I’d already lost interest.
There was a character in the first series that suddenly disappeared in the second called Sleek the Elite, probably he wasn’t acting so they got rid of him, maybe.
He was a total dick, piss funny & the show lost something after he left.
I remember Aussie celebs would make cameos, like the kid from Cheez TV & Big Kev (I’m excited!).
Uh, Sleek was around for ages. He got abducted by terrorists in season 3 because he was having sex with all their women. You sure you kept watching the same show?
Really? I thought he got replaced early on, maybe thee series ran longer than I remember.
I was thinking that he got ditched after the first season too, despite watching (and videotaping!) the whole series religiously. According to the googles he was in the first two seasons, and out the third though. Weird.
It’s a low budget SBS comedy. There’s a non-zero chance that it aged really, really poorly.
Fat Pizza is brilliant. Completely bonkers.
I grabbed Shovel Knight & Oreshika Tainted Bloodlines the other night.
Both fun, SK seems super short, see what this new game + brings.
@sughly should check out the art for Oreshika, I don’t necessarily recommend the game since he’s too poxy to even finish P4G, but the art demands attention.
If you go for the achievements/100% it’s a lot longer. The no checkpoint run in particular was a lot more fun than it sounds.
Yeah, not an achievement guy really. Will at least do New Game +
Fair enough. Still worth looking at the list though. The challenge in no falling deaths or breaking all the checkpoints really adds to the game even if you don’t care about achievements (assuming you like the general gameplay).
Yeah, I flicked through, dunno if I could handle breaking all the checkpoints
Hahaha, yeah I doubt I’d buy it, but it does look pretty I’ll give it that! Maybe in a sale one day, if I’ve finished P4G ^^
…poxy?
Just watch some high quality vids on YouTube or something, the stills look great but they mix in some of that 2D feudal Japan looking animation from Muramasa with some 3D models.
it’s really beautiful.
Yes, poxy. »:-|
How you finding Oreshika jimu?
Not bad, super simple. It has a lot of options you can let the computer decide for you or you can mix & match. Decid a few yourself or decide everything yourself.
Also, I had it Se to really easy mode because that’s automatically picked in the demo (I transferred my save.).
I’m still early in but it’s for diehard JRPG fans only. Not like Neptunia with its in-jokes but very mechanic focused.there’s a story with great 2d animated cut scenes but so far, very little character development.
It’s more a visual & audio feast, so beautiful.
It’s going for this bittersweet thing when clan members die but it’s not working on me, they have 0 personality & die off so quickly.
I’m really enjoying it though, mind numbing grind for anyone not a fan.
Oh, screw you autocorrect
Is the really easy one the really quick playthrough? That might be part of the reason your peeps are dying off quickly! I think when you opt for the longer playthroughs you get more attached to your teams and kids etc.
Yeah it is, they’re still soulless puppets though.
Not complaining really, I played the first year on the demo, fell in love, bought it. Knew what I was in for.
I’ll probably switch to the extra mode they added that changes up the tming somehow, once I read a guide to confirm how.
I recommend the game to anyone who loves some turn based dungeon running.
How do you deal with toxic friends?
Decontamination unit!
23-19
A bit of an oxymoron there imo.
Calling him a moron is just what his toxic friends would do! FOR SHAME! 😛
and I’ve never been oxidised. I would probably die from that.
People I know have dealt with toxic friends by ignoring me.
Is this a genuine question and these jackals are not helping?
Yep. But I don’t mind a good laugh.
What exactly are they doing that’s toxic, buddy?
We’re monsters!
Didn’t Britney write a song about it?
Yeah, her second best song.
As long as they are Britney Spears, I’d make nice 😉
Get busy with other things?
Guess it’s a matter of weighing up where you see the friendship in the long term, and put that on a scale of try to fix – disengaged ambivalence – sever ties.
Blunt honesty. If they’re friends then they’ll realise they’re being dicks and stop or stop being friends
Cut them loose.
Man, just went on a run for the first time in like… fourteen months. Made it two blocks. It’s gonna be a long climb back to running 4k. XD
Don’t go to 4K immediately. Start off slow by doing 1080p and see how you go.
Yeah, 420p sounds more realistic at the moment. 😛
Blaze it?
Yeah DC!!!
You’d be all proud, fit guy! I made healthy meals for the week too and froze them!
HEALTH KICK!
All part of my training montage to punch @shane right in the face again!
This got a genuine snort from me that led to a nosebleed 😀 D:
Sure @dc didn’t just punch you in the face through the internet?
Angry, angry young man.
https://twitter.com/hermitdc/status/622934889671688192
My health kick this morning: Ooh, I’m going to eat some strawberries. Love me some strawberries.
*Grabs them, cleans them, cuts them up*
You know what would go well with these? Chocolate sauce. *ruins any healthy aspect*
I’m still fond of a good dusting of icing sugar on strawbs.
My life would be ruined even further if I had a chocolate fountain, because chilli chocolate on Strawberries is my Achilles Heel of food, which is saying a lot given how terribly I usually eat.
Chocolate fountain + slightly-soggy-thanks-to-sitting-in-the-bowl-for-the-entirety-of-the-party chicken flavoured chips turned out surprisingly ok.
Good stuff 🙂 I started walking to work again (Alderley to Milton) and it feels good to be back stretching the legs out. Then I stopped for a week and the definition that was starting to show has gone back into hibernation. If my knees weren’t shot to buggery I’d be building up to running to work, but far too many hills in the way
Hills are the worst and the enemy of man!
Another fun-filled Splatfest over. Spoilers for results:
Victory for Team Eat!There was a pretty big disparity between the votes (65-35 or thereabouts) but Team Sleep got something like 2% more victories and Sleep players have been quick to point out that this meant they got more wins with less people and are therefore better (the usual smack talk). Slight issue with that: there were too many Eat players compared to Sleep, and as such any excess players that can’t be paired with the opposite team get paired against their own team (Eat vs Eat in this case) which results in a guaranteed loss and victory, or a null result for the Team total. So, in essence, it was 50% vs 50% with some other people on the side not affecting results.I lost far too many games against team sleep 🙁
I don’t know what happened to all the good players, there were so few matches with any actual teamwork this time. Though this time around I also could hardly aim for shit either most of the time, so that didn’t really help. Always lost control of the big area up the back of Saltspray Rig within the last half minute or so, never had anyone backing me up. Also a large number of matches on Bluefin Depot the other team were right up in our faces the whole time, didn’t even make it down onto the lower platforms. Worst.
You seriously just described the first hour and a half of my Splatfest experience. I jumped out, switched some gear up and went from rolling back to guns and suddenly started carrying teams, eventually getting a solid team and blasting through a heap of wins.
Also, I am now in love with mines. So good!
How’d you go with matchups? I started playing at 3am for a couple of hours and only had three of my first 20 matches come up Eat v Eat. Then at 4pm played another three hours or so and got through 30 matches, with 16 of them (six in a row then four in a row after a two-match break) being Eat v Eat. Started playing again at midnight and of the 28 matches I got through before it ended, only four were Eat v Eat.
I was expecting the opposite, with team sleep being too busy sleeping to play 😛
Yeah, had about a third of my matches Eat vs Eat. It comes back to the votes: two thirds of the votes were for Eat so it was pretty inevitable there’d be a lot of it.
Good morning everyone. Hope you all had a good weekend. To soldier through the chill weather, I went to a barbecue where I somehow managed to impress people by bringing fried haloumi and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. Twas very tasty.
The other day was for RPG stuff and we played some 40K Black Crusade, Chaos shenanigans. The group consisted of all psykers with one player being a Thousand Sons sorcerer. We joked that the sorcerer was basically having to keep everyone else on leashes to prevent us from exploding our minds with supercharging our psychic powers. Despite their efforts, the group:
– stole a Rhino from a vehicle depot;
– stole a captive Astropath from inside the fortress of a Khorne warlord; and
– pushed psychic powers all the time with multiple instances of Perils of the Warp (however no one died or summoned daemons so we were very, very lucky).
My character has now mutated to have wings while another character now has horns and can spew acid. So yeah, Chaos most definitely happened.
I am very pleased by your bbq offerings – well done!
I have been designated bringer of entrees and nibbles for any future barbeques because apparently it was impressive. I’ll have to up my game for next time.
Squeaky cheese!
Mutations?! They sound like enhancements to me! 😛
Nnnngh… Too cold…
Is this Geelong or Canberra?
🙁
Also, morning.
Anyone up for Rocket League sometime this week?
I will rocket league at times, just on PS4.
Me! I am about half-way to getting all the unlocks so I’ll be having a few games every night this week (except tonight).
Hi TAY,
I hope your weekends were fantastic.
Mine was splendid. I ate delicious Thai food, my AFL team won and I did absolutely zero work towards my thesis. Beaut.
However, Yahar’gul is killing me softly and makes me want to never turn Bloodborne on again. Other than that – Bloodborne has been great. I really enjoy how From and Based-Miyazaki games are so silent. Forces you to experiment which, as a scientist, I thoroughly enjoy.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t explore about half of Yahar’gul, since my solution to get through it was the good ol’ fashioned “run forward screaming.”
There’s another way to explore that place?
Well, I talked to people, and they were like “how did you find the fight against these people?” And my method of fighting them had been to run away because they looked scary, so I think I had some differences to other people.
The big jailer guys? They are very, very mean.
Hahahaha, nah. They’re nothing.
Play Bloodborne, FOR SCIENCE!
Ha ha, it is a bit brutal isn’t it. Those chime maidens and amygdalas are bad enough, but then you get onto the real fun…
If I never hear another bell ring in my life – that will still be too soon. Those damn maidens making me wanna cry.
What sort of Science do you practice?
Medical, Research legend!
Hi, TAY. Here goes another Bloodborne update. Long!
I beat the King guy on the roof of some building. He was pretty tough. I got him down to past a quarter health one time before he got me. Resolved that I could definitely beat him next time. Pants comes and sits down to watch me. Then he slaughters me twice more, one time by constantly planting a sword-firing turret over and over and over. As soon as Pants leaves, I get him first go. Noticing a pattern…
Also beat the big skull pile beast thing in Yargelforknqweifyug, whatever that places name is. The place with the respawning enemies. On my first go, too ;D /totalsmug I didn’t realise you could go up onto the balconies to kill the annoying fireball witches until after I beat the thing though… that would’ve come in handy to know 😛
Unlocked a new place with a tower that screams and throws darts when it sees me. Decided that place was too annoying so went and backtracked a bit. Stumbled across a hidden boss somehow when I was totally unprepared. Paarl, I think it’s name was. He destroyed me. But then I stocked up and beat him on my second go in under a minute. No idea how that happened… I just ran in and started wailing on him non-stop and he died. I dunno. Didn’t complain, though.
From there, I unlocked the Upper Cathedral Ward which is easily the worst place in the game so far for me. Not only is it totally scary, but there are tonnes of those tentacle guys that steal your insight (worst enemy in the game). After about 10 minutes of running around trying to seperate two of them that kept attacking me at the same time; one of them stunned me, ate my health. As soon as I recovered, the other one stunned me and finished me off. Rage-quit 😛
——————————————————–
Also, for the first time, Splatoon update!
The Splatfest is so damn fun. The change in music/setting is great. Tonnes of Miiverse art everywhere. Really feels like an event! I kinda wish the lobby setup was available all the time (ie. that teams aren’t randomised after every match) – it’s really great when your team is on a winning streak and everybody is calling out “Nice!” to each other when they see you do something good. The normal mode is fun too but hopefully that becomes a thing soon.
Haha, I did the same thing for the skeleton guy. Beat him first try and then wandered up to the platforms and instantly facepalmed.
I saw them, went “what’s the bet there’s some path outside to reach them (like the stupid whatsisface and the gaping dragon in Dark Souls)?” Then was pleasantly surprised to see a path up there, so I ran up, murdered them, and then had my face eaten by the boss a few times in a row because I’m awful.
Oh, Paarl, I killed him. Always be attacking.
Paarl was the fourth boss I beat in Bloodborne. First attempt, he went down. He lost his electrickity when I wailed on him, and spent the rest of the fight trying to get it back. Aggression is rewarded in that fight.
Are you aware that if you attack the sword-firing turret, you disable it?
I have no idea how you beat body-parts-boss without venturing to the upper levels. Drop attacks, killing the witches, and avoiding his acid pool by climbing were all essential tactics for me.
One of my favourite things about Bloodborne was that the bosses constantly change their tactics. It’s not just a matter of grinding out a victory with the same tactics; you gotta be on the ball the whole time. Love it.
Upper Cathedral Ward is tough. Those werewolves, man. Thank god they can be cheesed.
Oh, I was very aware of that! Trouble was as soon as I did, he was already in the middle of plopping another one down. Literally did that 4 or 5 times in a row without pause while whittling down my health from swords/getting caught in the deployment explosion 😛
Didn’t really have much trouble with the wolves I found (other than scaring me with bursting from unexpected places :P) – it’s the tentacle guys that I just cannot beat easily. Every time I’ve found one they manage to get at least 4 insight from me 😛 Even worse now that there is more than one in some areas.
I’ll get through it eventually.
Stones are your friends. Draw one at a time.
Also, you’ll only need to kill them once ever.
Even when it’s 1v1 with no enemies around I still struggle with them 😛 I should go practice on some of the early weaker ones to get their moveset down.
EDIT: Woah, really? That’s just in the Upper Ward? The earlier tentacle guys definitely respawn.
Oh yeah, they respawn. But if you get through the part with two of them together, you’ll have no reason to ever go back.
I don’t remember that part.
Emotionally
Splatfest music and art really make the event awesome.
I’ve been humming and whistling the tune ever since…
I especially like how the music ramps up in the final minute of the match. It does that in normal matches but with the Splatfest music it’s just better.
The music is the one part I don’t like about Splatfest 😛
Too light and nowhere near as punchy as the regular stuff.
You’re the one part I don’t like about Splatfest!
(Nah, you’re pretty cool. Even if you did vote for the wrong team)
The only thing wrong about my team is that it means siding with Callie instead of Marie!
But…Callie was Team Eat.
Marie is best though. Despite her continued Splatfest indiscretions.
I’m glad we can agree on this.
EHRMAHGERD Post Modern Jukebox brought in Ariana Savalas to cover my favourite Gaga song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTOpdlZJ8U
Uh… I mean… Lamb of God and Slayer and Cradle of Filth….Satan? *cough*
05 Sep – Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Whhhaaaaattttt!
Also the Tivoli? Everytime I’ve been there its been for a metal concert. Interesting.
http://postmodernjukebox.com/events/
Hi everyone. I had a decent weekend. Played Rocket League until my hands were sore on Friday night. Saturday night was the circumnavigation of the Skellige Isles in The Witcher 3 (plus Gwent). Sunday we decided to go on a train trip to Gosford to have a look around. I discourage people from doing this. Gosford is a ghost town after about midday on Sunday. I did play some more The Witcher 3 on Sunday night though, so that was good.
Wow, that’s intense! I can’t remember the last time my hands were sore from gaming. I think you’ve come up with a good idea for another thread!!
I put it down to the white-knuckled intensity of the game 🙂 Either that or my hands are just getting old 🙁
So, i have just been to the doctors and it’s not heart attack OR deep vein thrombosis. It’s an inflammation of the ligaments around my ribs which is causing other issues
Relatively speaking: good news!
Hooray…ish?
I get this a lot and it sucks. Have thought I’m getting a heart attack multiple times. Then I realized it can’t possibly be because I notice it most when I’m doing nothing and least when I’m actively working out. Also, the fact i’m not dead.
Ola.
I started playing Catherine on the weekend. It’s quite weird negotiating the choices between ‘this is what I would really do/want to do’ and ‘I want to see as much as possible’. The biggest example being (for the moment) my plan is to ignore Catherine wherever possible. Where I left off yesterday, she was sitting in the bar waiting for me to talk to her. So I want to leave because that’s the story I want to play, but then I’m wondering how much content I’m missing by doing that. So I turned the game off (but not out of spite or anything).
I’m sure that lends it to replays quite nicely, but.
I do wish the morality meter, or whatever you call it, wasn’t colour-coded. It makes it seem like choices are either good or bad and nothing in-between, so when you get questions like ‘are you more anxious alone or with company?’ and one of the answers suddenly swings you into the red, it feels like there’s a wrong answer, so that’s bugging me.
It’s not right or wrong, it’s a personality thing. What the core of the game is are you happy with safe, secure with a future or do you want excitement, thrill of uncertainty. It’s just framed in a adulterous choice.
In some ways, I wish that’s what this game was all about.
But they muddied the waters a bit by
making Catherine a possible demon, and source of all the world’s apocalyptic misery, and by making Katherine seem like she’s faking a pregnancy to manipulate you into sticking around.It makes for a great narrative, but makes a shambles of the ‘personality/morality’ meter.Sadly, I never finished the game, though, so I don’t know where it all ends up.
It wouldn’t be anime if it didn’t throw out everything it built up in favour of the last third being bugfuck insane.
If I remember correctly it has about 8 different endings. I got one where I ended up with Katherine and just stayed being her boyfriend (I think). I have yet to go back and do the other endings. One day…
That’s, uh, a spoiler, right? They explain this clearly at the end, you’re supposed to think it’s good/evil.
Right?
Personally, I dug the surprise
How is the entire premise of the game that’s on the back of the box a spoiler?
It’s on the box?
Ok, was a nice suprise for me 🙂
My problem is just that blue/red are synonymous with good/evil as moral compasses in most games. Something trying to be a little more ambiguous with those systems but still using the same colours is what’s throwing me off.
It’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things though. Just I select an answer sometimes and it feels like I’ve done something wrong.
If you don’t feel like your selection was the wrong one, maybe you should be taking a good hard look at what you believe.
This is the real point, yeah?
It’s to spark self awareness, right?
I was joking, but yes, that certainly could be touted as a feature of the game.
That’s probably a very clever way to make people second-guess tough moral choices like in real life.
I think I finally accidentally bumped into a PS4 person I know (@liondrive) in Rocket League over the weekend…or it was someone with his name. Either way it was fantastic timing: I’d just finished a great round and then proceeded to totally tank every action in the next couple of games before crashing out.
Isn’t it awesome? You can go from being a total god getting 5 goals in a match to pretty much ruining a match for your whole team (at least, I can).
Rocket League
discussion.Tips for free goals in Rookie Mode!I’ve started a season, and am six or seven games in. Here’s what I’ve learned.
By the time the game is 4 seconds in, I am nearly always up 2-0, simply by rushing the ball. And I get similar opportunities to score after 3 out of every 5 goals scored. It’s making it nearly impossible to lose a match. Anyone else found this?
“Anyone else the best at this game? Just me?”
Hahaha, not what I’m saying at all. I’m in Rookie mode. Seriously, if you’re at the 15% angle, you just boost straight towards the ball, you can get a goal. Goal. Skill not required. If you’re directly facing the ball, you boost until you hit the second boost pad, and just accelerate into the ball. Goal. Again, no skill required.
Playing the AI? Cause that won’t work against players.
Have you got the AI set to Rookie? They will never rush the ball at the kickoff on Rookie, so you’ll score a goal every time.
Whee! My shameful secrets are all revealed!
I only know because mine is set to the same..
Ha ha ha, here I was thinking you were talking about online matches. I thought, hmmm, I’ve only scored maybe once or twice like that in about 70-80 matches. Sometimes no-one from the other team rushes and no-one from your team interferes and you start from a good position to score. The rest of the time the ball ends up somewhere up in the air.
One time I did some god-like anticipation and delayed my ball rush just slightly. I then rushed in, popped up into the air just as the opposing team hit the ball. When the ball flew up into the air I was able to meet it in mid-air and punt it into the opposing goal. Good times…
It was a brutal change, going from Rookie (WHEEEE, EASY WINS ALL DAY ERRYDAY) to All Star. My method of winning in All Star is to run back to my own goal, and whenever the ball is near to try and punt it as far away as possible. Then, it’s up to my two AI allies to actually score goals. I have a… maybe 2/3rd success rate like this.
I highly recommend playing online. The chaos is just hilarious. You have people second-guessing themselves and trying to outsmart the opposing team combined with comical mix-ups where people leave themselves wide open. That being said, I think the AI in the game is pretty top-notch.
I’m happy to only ever play it online with TAYbies. I don’t want strangers to associate my name with “that guy who flies past the ball 80% of the time.”
Lol, my philosophy is ‘go big or go home’. I may stuff up spectacularly, be largely ineffectual, or score like a pro, but damn it if I don’t have fun in the process 🙂 Occasionally I run into players who seem to be really good so I watch how they play and get some tips for next time. Most of the time it doesn’t help, but I think I’m better than when I first started.
Last night I managed to score 2 own goals in a game and cost our team a win, then jumped into the next round and scored an own goal 8 seconds in. Laughed my arse off and everyone on both teams joined in.
Oh man, in single player I did something I couldn’t believe. I drove in, hit the ball, it bounced just off the top of their goal, and went all the way back into mine, without anyone else touching it.
Turns out it gives the point to the team (the guardians, in this case), rather than trying to bullshit up a player.
Yeah, but then you get to let your shame build nicely during the replay.
Tips for playing well:
– Someone should always be contesting for the ball. If the enemy player has someone going for it, your team should too. No free rides. Just be aware that 3 team mates fighting 1 enemy for the ball isn’t a good idea.
– Don’t over commit. I’m really, really bad with this (especially cause it’s a lot of fun), but don’t go all in unless you’re confident of your chances. That’s not to say don’t do whatever it is you want to, but set yourself up for a recovery if necessary.
– Praise your team, even on a shit shot you should congratulate them, and laugh with them on a screw up. Morale is a thing. Use it.
Tips for having fun:
– Do whatever the hell you want. Or don’t. Who am I to tell you what to do?
Another tip:
If you’re the furthest from the ball on the kickoff, don’t rush the ball, stay back until the play becomes more fluid. If you’re closest to the ball on the kickoff, definitely do rush the ball, otherwise you’re practically giving the other team an open shot.
Oh dear god, yes. If you start in the middle, make sure someone stays in goal for kick-off. It should always be the person starting in keeper when that spot is filled.
An open goal is begging for an easy score.
Weekend in reverse. Sunday was spent mostly playing Splatfest. Saturday was mostly sleeping.
Friday night, met up with some friends to see Avenue Q. Along with Dare Girl (retconning the name Flue Girl, because this one has more relevance and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it in the first place :P), who I hadn’t told any of them was showing up. We contemplated using this to prank the others, but kind of accidentally found them before we had a chance. But it sort of worked anyway, since my friend’s girlfriend had no idea I’m all beardy and also wasn’t expecting me to be with anyone, so she was totally confused. Also didn’t help that I’d been messaged by one of the others at just the right time to be head-down trying to punch something out on my phone.
The show was awesome. Didn’t really know what to expect other than songs and puppetry, but it was really good. Also didn’t really expect it to hit as hard or close to home as it did. So that was… something. Probably would’ve been good to see it when it first came down here back in what, 09 or something? Yeah. Also led to interesting discussion with Dare Girl after dropping her back at her place. Trying to explain hesitance and stuff. Probably failing to do so properly. Ugh.
At least the pizza and ice cream were good.
Oh man, Avenue Q hit so much harder this time than last. 2009 I was 18, in year 12, doing reasonably well, and I had the promise of uni and life ahead of me.
Now I’m old and bitter, worrying about my wasted life.
Still, I hope I have a chance to put all my experiences and knowledge into a show, that’d be rad.
Ah, what a great weekend. Played some Pillars: made some questionable decisions in the Endless Paths* that resulted in many, many deaths; got caught lying and had to murder someone I was trying to befriend; convinced a fifteen-foot tall ogre to not murder me, and offered him a job.
*Seriously, why did I think it was a good idea to drop down into a pool of blood and gore and limbs? How did I think that could possibly end well? I managed to find a way out eventually, but jeez – for a good fifteen minutes, I was convinced I was stuck between a wall and a large drake many levels higher than me, and would have to load a save many hours old.Played some more Destiny – did some prisons and got my fourth Elder Cipher finished – Lord of Wolves number two. Played some strike playlists, too, something I’d not done since around November, iirc – it’s a lot more fun when you’ve got access to 365 elemental primaries, a decent shotgun, and are 6 levels higher than everything. 😛 Finished with the Psion Flayers, something I’d not touched since last time I’d done the playlists – the strike that stopped me from doing the playlists because the bosses’ shields were extremely annoying to whittle down. Had a blast, and quickly wiped out their shields with my Fatebringer, Lord of Wolves and a void RL respectively – might have to do that more often when I get bored of patrol bounties.
Man I should get back into Pillars. And start the Witcher 3. Or finish Bloodborne.
…
I am good at games.
Shall take you oblique recommendation and go with pillars I think. Once I have done enough crashing in dirt rally.
Pillars will take FOREVER
ba-DUMB-tishWhere’s my FIRST cipher? 🙁
🙁 Need to do those 34s – they won’t drop on 32s.
I’m happy doing 34s! Let’s go!
😀 Zephyr, Sky and I have organised to hop on for a 35 tonight sometime, but should be able to find time for a 34 too, depending on when we start. But don’t be worried about asking for a group for prisons – I’m always keen to run 34s (unless an opportunity for a 35 pops up), especially towards the end of the week when all we have to do are bounties, and I know Zephyr’s usually the same.
Cool. I’m not as worried about 32s now I have a full Kellbreaker set on each character – I’ll try to get a 100% Fallen set on my Titan to help with that 35 run but I’m otherwise ambivalent. I do need to do 34s until I can get my ciphers… …so I can get those elusive Wolves exotics.
Do need another Hard Crota at some point. Still need a Crux and wouldn’t mind Word of Crota to help with stupid void crucible bounty. 🙂
Mum’s off in New Zealand and my sister was at her boyfriend’s last night, so I had the house to myself. Probably wasn’t the best idea to marathon horror movies a few days previous. At least the dogs were here to let me know if murderers and/or aliens broke into the house.
But what if the dogs were the murderers/aliens! *gasp!*
Pretty sure they were murderer aliens THE WHOLE TIME
Food poisoning weekend, yay! I knew to be wary of salmon puffs but it was a crab puff that got me on Friday arvo.
Still feeling a bit seedy today, when I remember that this Monday is Curry Lunch day.
There’s a Japanese philosophy of ‘hara hachi bun me’, which is, ‘Eat until 80% full’.
I practice uhm… hara hyaku-juu bun me. …Eat to 110% capacity.
There’s also Hara Kiri to help you take your mind off that stomach pain..
…
Why does this not have more likes?! =P
Sorry to hear man, I don’t think I’ve eaten either of those but now I know to rid them from my to try list completely!
Suddenly I need to map out the chord progressions of a whole bunch of songs to try and figure a bunch of stuff out but wish there were a less tedious method of doing so than with pencil and paper and slowly going through them one by one.
My solution is simple, work out the opening chord, then assume that it’ll go one, five, six-minor, four. If that doesn’t work, try five, six-minor, four, one. Continue this.
If none of those work, give up since the song isn’t worth it.
*insert obligatory Axis of Awesome 4 Chords reference*
Bleh, that’s the annoying part. Translating them from chord letters into interval numbers.
I’m thinking of colour-coding them to make them match up better visibly. Then hopefully I’ll be able to easily pick out which parts can slot in and out and jumble the whole lot together. Also pondering how I could programmatically do this, have all the pieces in some kind of tree/mesh structure with each node having children they can continue to or parents they can continue from. Though then comes the question of how to traverse the whole thing with minimal repetition, if any. Actually I could also assign a length value to each segment, so then I could do the whole thing for a specific amount of time too…
Friday: after work beers with good friends ( @os42 – theurbanpanther and his missus 🙂 )
Saturday: slow-cooked lamb, guests, beer and a very exciting rugby match. Folowed by Destiny.
Sunday: first bicycle ride in AGES. I’m BACK!!!! Wooo. And then I continued my Great Expedition in Elite: Dangerous while the missus mainlined Warehouse 13. I can watch TV from the PC so it’s quite effective.
Rode to work this morning for the first time in 5 weeks. Was lovely.
Jesus, Evo 2015 USFIV is hype as hell.
Watch here:
http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo1
And now it’s Grand Finals…
And that’s it!
That was nuts. 🙂
Hello TAY. Hows things with you lot?
Weekend was pretty ok.
Was sorta struggling throughout the week. Trying to get over the bullshit of the previous weekend. But I’ve got some pretty rad friends who decided I shouldnt have to do this alone, so they insisted I hang out with them & they helped me stop dwelling on things that are out of my control.
Went out to a whiskey bar after work with them on Thursday. Never been into spirits that much, but goddamn… this Japanese whiskey was tasty. Also the smokey one. & the other two which sorta tasted like being electrocuted. om nom nom. also, unlimited pretzels. and tasty dumplings after. good night.
Friday went out to watch bands. Royal Headache. their fist show since their one at the Opera House a few weeks ago ended early coz half the crowd rushed the stage. Every time I go to watch these guys it blows my mind how out full on the crowd are. I mean, shit… they’re just a poppy-retro-rock band (sorta like early Strokes, but not as over-produced) but holy shit. crowd was intense. another good night though.
Saturday, went out & watched more bands. High Tension this time. Hard punk act with a bit of metal thrown in. brilliant show. definitely one of my favourite live acts to see.
Sunday… well. Depressed relationship stuff. Spoiled coz it’s boring & I’m just talking
three days of being ok caught up with me. thought the hardest part of this break(up[?]) with my partner was over. nope. just a flood of uncertainty hit me. last weekend she said she still wants to be with me, but needs time to herself to work on some things about herself & hopes we can re-connect in a bit.I’d really, really like that, but I’m fucking scared of getting my hopes up & just being broken again. I dont know whats gonna happen. Just gotta be patient & trust what she says & that she’s doing what she said she’d do & see what happens.
but the uncertainty is killing me. just wish I knew either way so I could fucking get on with whatever i need to do next.
so yeah. weekend. 7/10.
Dude, that’s the worst. I hope it resolves, and soon.
thanks Red. So do I. My brain isn’t the most optimistic guy at the best of times, so this is really not fun.
one way or the other, I’ll be fine soon enough.
Made a smart-arsed comment in the EB article about Mark DiStefano deserving to be hit that got removed, and rightly so.
Apologies to @campbellsimpson (who appears to be stuck mediating what will more than likely turn into a shitstorm).
As The Simpsons is always relevant, I felt more like this when I remembered there’d be comments: http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b163/kimiecatclaw/Abe-Simpson-walking-in-and-out-the-simpsons-7414427-320-240.gif
Definitely
going to beis a shit storm… particularly as the ‘shares’ on that post have entered 4 digits.Can’t remember the last Kotaku post I saw that went that high.
Makes me wonder if there was an internal EB communication about it.
(Typical media department stuff: “This is what you are and aren’t authorized to say. Advise press enquiries to contact the media dept on: (XX)XXXXXXXX, etc.” To make sure the company stays ‘on message’ through its employees and their interactions with customers.)
You’re such a cynic. It’s almost as if you’re had to deal with actual humans at some point…
They’ve fired up the twitter machine about an hour ago.
So far it’s a canned response to what is going to be an ocean of tweets… Will be fun to watch if they change their tune at any point. Even more fun if the tune changes at some point.
What’s interesting is that it hit Fairfax media a little while ago and didn’t appear to gather much traction, it’ll be interesting to see if the Kotaku article generates a bigger groundswell. They might have adopted a “duck-and-cover” approach last time to just let it blow over, this time I’m not sure the tactic will work given the… err… general ‘gamer’ attitude to causes they get passionate about… They may just get ripped a new one if they’re not careful.
Nah. Here’s how it goes: They’ll carry on as if things are roses. To fix a problem means admitting you have one. They do not have problems. They are EB!
This is an ‘isolated incident’ which is in no way indicative of broader company policy.
They have a standing series of bullet-points they can point to as being employee-friendly ways to resolve internal HR issues, with a hotline that can be called and internal reports that can be filed.
It just so happens that none of the employees concerned have made use of that system, which means there are no problems. After all, they’ve made resolutions to disputes available internally… what more can they do?
Anyone going outside of that system directly to government regulatory bodies, rather than making an earnest effort to use the framework provided by EB, are probably trouble-makers seeking attention or trying to deflect blame for their shoddy performance and work ethic.
Whether those internal dispute avenues are effective or not, and whether those reports actually stay on-record if they are filed, whether those avenues are an express lane to Centrelink are purely unsubstantiated rumours and hearsay that doesn’t give the company the benefit of the doubt.
…Mark my words.
I’m sure you’re right.
But if more people start to come out of the woodwork, particularly those who’ve since moved on, there’s a likelihood that state and/or national bodies start paying a bit more attention. Then it gets interesting to see how robust their HR systems and processes are and whether they stack up against a growing body of evidence.
It gets to a point where they’re forced into an undertaking of some description or someone(s) get sacked as a result.
What I’d like to see is a direct response to Kotaku and the allegations. Although as Delimiter has pointed out Kotaku probably has to step carefully from here to avoid any legal ramifications.
I probably would have said worse. That whole article was horrifying.
You’re probably not going to see much of me for the rest of the week on TAY or the Twits. I’m off to have weird chemicals dripped into my eye tomorrow morning and probably won’t be looking at bright lights for a bit while I recover. But maybe I will. Dunno. Eyepatch might happen.
Can we call you “Captain Neggie”?
Mirror Universe Neg.
Alternatively, Neg Plissken.
I’m already mirror universe Neg, don’t you remember the beard?
Riker grew a beard in the normal universe though.
I still like Neg Plissken.
If you’d like, I can dictate my comments and send them to you.
(get well soon!)
Wait, wait, we can all record ourselves saying other people’s comments, without any indication of who we are for that day, and see if he can work it out!
…
This would probably work better if he actually knew what we all sounded like first, wouldn’t it?
I expect one of you to run through all of the comments posted on TAY each day and read them all out in a completely dead, emotionless voice so I have no idea who said what.
Siri read me Kotaku comments
Do-do
“Why would you want to do that to yourself?”
I MISS YOU ALREADY
Liar.
I DOOOOOO
All the best, Neg! 🙂
Twitter isn’t being nice to meeeeee 🙁
Is your timeline currently empty?
Because I know mine is, which is a smidge odd.
All the old stuff is there still, but it won’t update.
Also, the computer I’m sitting at today keeps playing up, I need Twitter to amuse me while I wait to work.
I suddenly realize how fragile all my relationships are with you online folk! WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ALL GO AWAY AND I CAN’T CONTACT YOU!
…
Then I remember everyone has given me their phone numbers! XD
I have managed to amuse myself. Gonna look weird once it comes back online though
YOU HAVE MY OLD ONE, SUCKER! >:D
:'(
Those crocodile tears won’t work on me XP
Only Freezy and another guy you know have my number 😛
TIL that the company DeNA is supposed to be said as ‘D.N.A. and not ‘Deena’.
I’m still calling em Dinna
*stomach rumbles hungrily*
I kinda always assumed that’s how they wanted us to pronounce it… This, and watching someone else play Portal 2, reinforces just how differently people think.
On Saturday I played Sunset.
You may remember it as that walking simulator about a housekeeper, or that game where the devs have decided to never make a commercial game again because nobody bought their walking simulator (Tale of Tales, it’s worth noting, basically just makes “art” games).
It’s good. More Gone Home than Dear Esther, fairly straightforward, and fun to flirt with a person you never see.
Some of the spoken diary entries felt like they were spoken at the wrong time though, and its visuals are a bit crap (needs something extra for it to really hit the stylisation they were probably going for), but it’s interesting, and odd, and not exactly fun but I enjoyed myself so hey go pick it up in a sale (assuming you like weird, arty games where you stroll around a lot). I’m kind of tempted to replay it, do things differently, but I think I’m better off not knowing.
I like walking simulators and weird arty games, but for some reason this one never appealed to me. :S
Yeah, it’s definitely different. Gone Home was this lovely look at returning home to find that things aren’t quite the same, the shock of realisation having grown up a bit, and so forth. Dear Esther was basically just “hey, explore this cool looking island” and you pieced some stuff together, and also didn’t because it didn’t play all of the diary thingies in any one playthrough.
This is… different. It’s a little contrived, a little odd (hey, clean the floor then look through my stuff), and.. yeah. I dunno, pick it up if it’s ever for sale. Has music by Austin Wintory, if that helps!
I was actually about to post a question regarding walking sims when I saw this one. I have days where I can’t function properly as a human being. I find walking sims helps me keep my focus elsewhere for awhile, and it’s not taxing on the old brain.
Are there any you guys/gals recommend? I have gone home already, grabbed it when I saw it on sale during the steam specials.
Oh and thanks in advance!
Firewatch is coming out pretty soon, worth keeping an eye out on that! The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is completely brilliant and a little deeper than most walking sims. The PS4 version only just came out as well. Dear Esther and Gone Home are the only others I can think of at the moment, but If I remember any more I’ll keep you posted!
Greatly appreciated.
This one’s not on consoles, is it? I remember seeing a trailer and being interested.
Don’t think so, no.
Not sure I can even do the “it will play fine on less good PCs” thing I like to do, since it ran a lot worse than I would have expected on mine.
Yeah, I remember reading about that one and thinking it might be worth a look when it drops down to five bucks from twenty (US).
(Wasn’t particularly impressed with some of the guff coming out of the developers’ twitter accounts, but I’m going to chalk it up to them being disappointed and disheartened. No-one could actually genuinely hold those untempered opinions without being a caricature ripped straight out of South Park, right?)
Since Phil Fish completely ruined Fez for me (it not being all that good didn’t help (I kid, it’s an extremely smart game, but not really for me)) I’ve more or less tried to avoid seeing what devs say, unless it’s straight up hate speech.
I recently grabbed it as part of a bundle but haven’t got around to it yet
When was the last time you played a game so much your hands hurt afterwards, and what game was it?
Credit @zambayoshi for the idea for the question!
My hands are stronk. I can grind Spelunky for hours without any discomfort.
Probably the last game to have any effect was Guitar Hero/Rock Band. After that, my hands become stronk.
Hmmm, I remember contorting my hands in Heavy Rain could be a bit painful. Haha! Platformers I get a bit carried away and press buttons extremely hard. So maybe Rayman Legends? XD
Ugh, I can’t remember what the game was, all I remember was that it was on the 360 and I spent so long with the thumb-stick pointed in one direction that it dug into my thumb… GTA5 maybe?
Need For Speed? lol
Pfft, who plays racing ‘games’? 😛
I usually don’t, but I really liked Need for Speed Underground (Modding your car and driving to different parts of the map to start races appealed to me. I also kinda liked the plot… )
*looks down shamefully*
(Psst. I love that meta-game stuff too, and don’t mind racing itself too much either… I just really hate the cheap bullshit that so many of them do where your giant lead gets completely ignored by teleporting opponents in order to better punish you for any mistakes. So many seem to do that complete bullshit thing.)
Torchlight 2, so much clicking
Not Clicker Heroes? =P
Batman Arkham Knight, before that it was The Witcher 3. It’s never really hands hurting afterwards, more just discomfort from extended use that lasts for a few days.
Just the other week when I got the SNES back out to play Starwing.
That was mainly because the SNES controllers suck though, it didn’t take particularly long at all.
Any game on PSP.
I usually hurt my thumb playing fighters for too long.
Also Donkey Kong Country returns on both Wii & 3DS because the controllers are square
Destiny; back at launch I think I developed a mild case of RSI from how long I’d keep at it >.
When I was thinking about it, Destiny was the game that gave me the hand stiffness. My thumb was raw from holding it on the thumbstick from 9.30am-9pm (with a lunch and nap break too lol).
Oh hell yes I got that. That was painful.
My last fling with Crusader Kings 2 had me sitting pretty much in one position for 6-7 hours on a Friday night using my mouse, which hurt the wrist a bit.
I got PSP cramp a few times, gods that thing was unergonomic
I’ve had EUIV cramp before, I don’t play for anything more than 2 hours now lol.
Rayman Legends. I couldn’t get past this one level, and I just couldn’t let it go. I had to own it before I could clock off for the night.
Oh man. Dark Souls is still the only game to give me crippling tendon pain.
Dark Souls seems like the kinda game where you don’t want to lose everything you’ve done, because of a poor grip on the controller. It seems too unforgiving for you to die at any point.
Err.. so I just read the EB article. I have a $60 preorder on the Batman console – how can I get my money back? Will it be just a simple refund?
Should be, yeah. Just walk in, say you want to cancel your preorder and that no, you don’t want to move it to a different preorder or store credit, just a refund. That’s how I’ve always done cancellations in the past.
Yeah, best bit about eb is easy returns/refunds
Man that EB article eh! Here’s hoping it builds enough momentum to really hurt EB’s bottom line.
I’m fearing for the honest workers that may lose their jobs over this backlash if it does go that far. Yeah it was hell for some of them but it was still an income to help them feed themselves.
From what I’ve been reading seems like the income comes below the minimum wage when you look at actual hours worked.
This actually has a larger societal impact of creating an uneven market environment for other worker’s in the industry allowing EB to maintain a monopoly on the market by utilizing what’s effectively slave labour. So yeah I feel bad for the people who’s jobs might come under fire but currently it has a larger negative impact on the market space. It would be like BHP paying their miners a third world salary in order to maximize profit margins which would in turn drive honest competitors out of the market space effectively destroying any bargaining capacity exploited employees have in the long run as it reinforces the formation of a market monopoly.
Spoilerising this unhappy story
My ex girlfriend (Currently lives in Portugal) was working as a teacher and they were treating her pretty poorly. She was putting in extra effort for her students, ensuring they had quality education under her wing, even took on extra hours for free as they don’t pay overtime there, yet they still gave her shit because she wasn’t trying to “Sell student contracts” as much as the other staff. The way it works there these days is the schools she could get into were privately run schools, so the management “Encourages” the teachers to try and advertise to their students’ friends to get them to sign up as well.Anyways, they one day suddenly decided to try and reassign her to Lisbon, which was a 3-4 hour train ride from her place, literally on the other side of the country. She either had to suck it up and go there and back every single day (Which would kill any chance of ever sleeping properly again), move to Lisbon to be closer (Which by no means she could even close to afford), or resign. You can guess what she had to do.
When it becomes an employer’s market through monopolies (Which EB was certainly leaning towards), it’s beyond hell for some people because the employers know they can always get more that want to sign up.
I am shocked and appalled. My friends didn’t say anything this bad when they worked there, but seriously, that DiSephano guy has got to go, pronto.
As @liondrive said, I’m going to give them an opportunity to respond (though their twitter response has been rubbish thus far).
If not, I’ll make Fallout 4 the last big thing I get from there/
There’s only so much you can say on twitter, in their defence.
The accusations of bullying and not handling a sexual assault case properly, while terrible, do not impact the hard workers at my local stores. It has literally nothing to do with them, so I don’t see what boycotting them would do.
If it was them complaining, then yes, I’d be boycotting the store, as they are associated with the bully in question.
As for working unpaid. I can’t determine if this effects all stores, some stores, or what, so I’ll let current and ex employees take that up.
I’m more concerned on seeing the outcome of this. Obviously they want to keep it quite at the moment, hell, any business would, but I want to see it resolved, and depending on how it is resolved will impact on my future with them, not rash decisions made in the heat of the moment.
A link to a statement would be nice in this instance I think.
Exactly. I want to see how they respond.
I don’t have any particular loyalty to EB- for example, I have ordered Fallout 4 from them, but got Batman and will get MGS V from jb. I duck into both of those stores on occasions (EB has magic cards, and if I feel like cracking a pack they’re the best option) but I don’t have a particular loyalty.
A couple of things to factor into your considerations lion; EB have a market monopoly. As far as I’m aware they’re the only retailer out there that purely sells games and gaming merchandise.
Their staff are stereotypically young individuals who love gaming. Two criteria that are likely to translate to ignorance of their rights in the workplace and even if they are aware their love of the industry is likely to make them hesitate to exercise those rights.
In order for accusations to reach this level of public scrutiny and the number of people coming out to collaborate means EB’s internal HR systems have thoroughly failed. This means they either don’t care or didn’t think people would ever care enough about themselves to take this public.
Finally what other options within the industry do their employees have? If you love games and want to work in a game related role even if it’s retail where else are you going to apply? Most suburbs, country towns only have a single EB Games store. If you happen to get the golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory you aren’t exactly going to start complaining about how the chocolate tastes like shit are you?
Now to take your view into considerations; yes I’ll acquiesce that this probably doesn’t effect every single store out there. Like you say the peeps working in your local store have never experienced any of these situations and it shouldn’t have to impact them but they are part of a franchise. Negative publicity can translate across a franchise even it’s only a single region or store being the source of this publicity. The responsibility falls at the feet of the head franchisor who has a responsibility to the working conditions for employees under their franchise. Either through ignorance or negligence they’ve let these situations spiral to this stage meaning even stores that are likely un-impacted by these allegations will cop a national backlash.
It is worth remembering that historically it is normally the minority of an abused population that are vocal about the abuse. People only feel confident enough to speak up about abuse when they realize it’s happened to other’s they know and eventually build enough confidence to make it public. If I assume the people that are collaborating the stories of people in Mark’s article are the vocal minority; then that translates to way too many people out there who are being exploited.
As someone who’s first job was in a very abusive racist workplace I can tell you it’s a lot like being in an abusive relationship or being sexually abused. You spend most of your time there thinking you’ve done something wrong, you start belittling yourself and lose confidence and feel like there isn’t any other job you could be worth applying for or any other employer that would take you. It’s only when you realize that there were others like you in the same situation that you get the strength to fight those feelings off and do something about it. Maybe I’m completely wrong here but the way this thing is playing out so far hit’s way too close to home to be a coincidence of circumstances of a few isolated disgruntled workers.
Edit: I feel bad for the peeps at your local EB store if the backlash hits their bottom line but EB need to answer and I think their employees should band together unaffected or affected to get an answer out of them. If this doesn’t happen well you can see that consumers are already banding together on their behalf.
I hope you don’t get take this long response badly! I like to debate and if you’d like me to shut up just tell me and I’ll keep my opinion/thoughts away! =P
Opinion is fine, and I welcome debate, but I still thoroughly do not see the point in boycotting a store, a particular store, that as far as I’m aware has done nothing wrong.
I’m not supporting the alleged practices. I am reserving judgement until I see the outcome from the allegations and to see if more come forward.
My local workers have done nothing wrong (to the best of my knowledge), so boycotting them only hurts them.
Boycotting the guilty stores while supporting the honourable stores sends just as much, if not more, of a message.
You say if I won the golden ticket to Willy Wonkas chocolate factory that I wouldn’t complain that the chocolate tastes like shit?
I say I would. Nay, I know I would.
Hell, I have. I’ve had pay disputes that ice taken to an ombudsman and that I’ve had resolved.
Fair work is a right that everyone is entitled to. It’s a fact. If you are in those situations you do one of two things. You fix it, or you leave. Why stay? Again, if the Willy Wonka comparison carries, you tell him that it’s bad and to fix his recipe, or you leave.
EB aren’t even a monopoly in the market. JB often have lower prices. Hell, Target often have lower prices, and the internet has opened up substantial new markets.
It’s really not a monopoly, it’s just lead you go believe that it is.
As for stereotyping that their workers are young and influential, I’d argue that the average age of their store assistants is mid – early 20s, which is more than old enough to know your rights and to enforce those rights, leading me to question how far reaching these practices really are.
Again though, I hope that the outcome reflects the severity of these claims, but I see no point in boycotting a store that to the best of my knowledge has done nothing wrong.
Few people know and understand their rights. Not just as employees but in a whole range of situations. If they did, lawyers and industrial advocates would have nothing to do all day. Young people who haven’t been in the workforce for long are even more susceptible to that. If they’ve only held one or two jobs before, they probably have no idea what nonsense their employers have gotten away with.
Second job at the time, I was 17 at the time.
Not saying I’m the rule or the exception, just that you know when something isn’t right.
I’ve worked for a union. Trust me, most people don’t know their rights.
@trjn
Even if you don’t, it’s easy to check.
Again though, you can tell when something isn’t right, like being made to work unpaid.
Even if people are aware that something isn’t right, they may not be aware that there’s anything that they can do about it. Even if they’re aware that there’s something that they can do about it, they may not be willing to act.
Not many people are willing to risk their job because their employer is doing something illegal. Keep your head down, don’t make a fuss. It’s disturbingly common and a good chunk of that is because employers hold a significant amount of power in these situations.
And again, more often than not people just don’t know that stuff isn’t meant to happen.
Sorry for the lack of response lion; got hit by a nasty fever the past few days and been officially out of commission D=
I don’t! If EB loses money it’s the employees that will suffer not the managers / supervisors. I hope they have a hard look at their abuse and harassment system and fix it.
I’m seeing the bigger picture impact of their managerial decisions; they’re creating an unfair market environment to monopolize the labour market. This prevents any future franchises from getting into the market and making meaningful change because there’s a competitior in there getting free labour.
To summarize – Get workers to work a few hours for free -> get better margins than competitors -> push competition out the market -> get more workers to work more hours for free -> build larger market share -> get workers to work majority of of hours for free -> monopolize industry -> destroy any other alternatives workers can have to not work for free in the industry. Dictatorship complete.
Edit: Yes it sucks in the short term but it evens the playing field in the long term allowing better working conditions.
They’re not monopolising the labour market though. They’re attempting to monopolise the video game market.
And the free labour thing, that’s why we have a) unions and b) labour laws. I actually think the big push here should be for a union like the SDA to sign a bunch of people up and change the labour practices.
Sorry I should’ve explained better; I tend to take leaps across my train of thought when I get worked up over something. EB games are the only “pure” game retailer in the marketspace; for people who are looking to get into video game related retail they are the one and only employer, this allows them to dictate market conditions as they see fit. When you take into account employees in this market space are relatively young and passionate when compared to other employees in other industries this allows EB to maintain a hold on their ideal section of the labour market.
When your ideal employees have no other options to consider as an employer you’ve created a no-choice environment. Similar to getting Boardwalk =P
Edit: Kids these days aren’t taught to fight for their rights; hell that was something I had to teach myself. Too many people go into the workplace thinking their bosses are going to have their best interests at heart.
I don’t think “pure” game retail will sustain them: Hell, go into an EB nowadays and look at the amount of merch they have like Adventure time/pop vinyls.
EB’s position is continually being eaten by online sales/digital downloads, and they’re selling to a market that’s very, very tech savvy. Now, they’ve been able to use their buying power to see some competitors off, but they’re not the only game in town.
And their “hold” on the labour market can be shattered. Enough stories like these come out, they’ll become less desirable as an employer. Sunlight, as always, is the best disinfectant.
Of course from a consumer perspective there’s plenty of other options out there in the digital landscape, from a physical landscape however I only know of JBHiFi and EB. When you take that to an employee’s perspective the only workplace you’re guaranteed to have a job working closely to games in retail is EB as JB boost their bottom line through diversification. As I understand it (could be wrong!) there’s also considerably more EB stores out there than JB.
From a labour market’s point of view EB is going to be your first, second and depending on where you are your third stop.
As you say however hopefully these accusations going public will force EB to do something to change.
I don’t shop there anymore anyways; always thought their prices were a colossal scam. I used to go in there for the experience back when my local stores were staffed by game savvy staff who would happily engage with you for half an hour and trade stories and recommendations on games. My more recent experiences have been scripted sales interactions I’d expect from a car salesman.
I just don’t think “working in games retail” is a strong enough career goal for it to be a big thing. Sure, EB gets a lot of young people in, but there’s other retail jobs that will compete for the same people.
If anyone at SDA/United Voice read Serrels’s story today, they would have openly salivated. Combined with the recent heat Grill’d is getting (pun intended), a campaign to sign up retail/fast food workers would be huge for them.
Any union worth their salt could get a lot done with the information that’s out there.
Hmm, I’m not a huge fan of that line of thinking. I’d rather find ways to support other retailers, who can hire people away from EB.
Yeah. Best case scenario is a flurry of industrial relations complaints made resulting in heavy fines and closer investigation, putting the compay ‘on notice’, resulting in a huge improvement to HR and working conditions.
EB’s market share is way too big in Australia for Gamestop to want to pull out of the country just because they can’t exploit cheap labour as heavily as they do.
Hello friends.
I tossed up between posting this or not.
So yeah, that @markserrels EB article…
I was an employee at my local EB Games for about 2.5 years, only leaving to pursue a career in IT (which is another workplace horror story altogether). I struggle with a lot in that article, because my time at EB Games was nothing but positive. I still have friends who work for the company, and are passionate about games and working for them. My old manager runs a local gaming competition, putting up a large chunk of his own money for prizes.
Now, let me preface by saying that I believe everything that happened in that article probably happened and that I had no contact with anyone involved, or heard any stories of the like, from my store or other stores. Our store would win multiple performance awards at the company conferences. I’m not going to go into victim blaming of that “they should’ve contacted fair work” etc, because it’s easy to sit back and say that, but get put in that situation and it’s hard.
Do I believe that EB needs to take the accusations more seriously? Without a doubt. Their generic response at the moment is more than below average and I genuinely feel sorry for the abuse that will be being hurled at them when they’re just doing what they’re being told to do.
I also understand that I may be an outlier here. I worked at a high performance store in a regional area, where we would keep up with the bigger metropolitan stores, so you could imagine we were pretty busy.
I can’t give insight to the more serious claims (such as rape and harassment/bullying), but as I mentioned, at the store I was working at, it was not present.
Again, do I believe they’re fabricated? No.
I also, based on my own experiences, believe the incidents in the article are generally isolated, albeit to one area manager, who again, I have never met or had contact with. He may indeed be an absolute cunt. I do know a lot of the area managers and store managers in Victoria and all of them are nothing but supportive of their staff.
Again, do I believe that Mark DiStefano needs to take responsibilities for his behaviour? Absolutely.
Now, I can’t speak for managers wages, because I was never on them but I dug up an old fortnightly payslip from my time there.
A quick Google search puts this $7.4425p/hr above minimum wage (at the time), and based on the jobs I’ve worked, a pretty average wage.
I was also never asked to work overtime where I wasn’t paid (hell, I used to do the payroll some weeks as 3IC where required). If I had a look through I could probably find a payslip to prove it (although, as a casual, there were few weeks I’d break the 40 hour threshold). I was also paid for every midnight launch I’ve ever worked.
Managers not getting annual leave and sick leave I also have an insight to. There was a running joke (it still is) between me and my old manager that he “must be due for holidays” because he would take 2 weeks, almost every 6 months. The AM would also take leave when he felt like it. There was a point where he also had about a month off due to sickness (I can’t remember EXACTLY what it was…), and it was all covered by his sick leave he had. I do know that he did run out, in which case he was given unpaid leave.
Oh, and regarding “carrot dangling” for promoting; when I started my manager was the assistant manager (AM). The assistant manager was the 3IC. When the manager left, the AM was promoted, the 3IC made AM and I was made 3IC. I obviously have since left the company, but the 3IC who replaced is now the AM at my old store, and the AM is the manager of another store. Does any of that make sense?
So, what’s the point of this post? I don’t even know. Half of it probably doesn’t even make sense and I probably repeated myself a lot, but yeah, I don’t believe EB are the “big evil corporation” that everyone appears to want to make them out to be.
Whelp, that turned out longer than I thought it would…
I can believe that the problems EB has are not systemic and are limited to some areas with poor regional management.
However, it is still a clear problem that the upper management must deal with. On top of that, the casualisation of the Australian work force means that stories like this are becoming increasingly common. It may be a few bad eggs within a major franchise or common practice. Either way, I’d just like to point out that unions are actually pretty rad.
Funny how stories like this are popping up right after the royal inquiry into unions that was meant to smear Bill Shorten.
Thanks for taking the time to write up your post cake; at the very least it’s convinced me that the issues raised in that article might be systemic to a specific region of EB stores than what I believed initially.
A happy majority are usually considerably less vocal than an unhappy minority after all =]
It’s worth noting, in regard to pay, that since you were a casual, your actual pay rate was (presumably) something like $17.34, assuming a 25% casual loading bonus (which is standard, AFAIK), since I assume they’re calling it “base rate” to distinguish it from penalty rates.
Or you were earning the loading on top of that, which seems like a decent whack for a retail job, not that I’d know at all.
This doesn’t actually change anything, I just have a reputation to uphold.
As do I.
Fuck you, BlaghsCasual at EB is about $22.50 an hour. Not terrible at all. The EB I work next to staff are happy enough with their jobs and the girl managing it tells me the area manager is a decent guy if a little overly strict on standards. Only issue she has is staff keep not bothering to turn up and having to cover them from somewhere.
Failing EB has here is giving the area managers too much power to handle things by not having a proper HR solution in place and not dealing with serious allegations appropriately, again something which could be vastly improved with more involved HR management.
Awesome to see another side to the article, it’s important to see more than one view point rather than totally smash a place on the back of a little bad press and your negative perceptions of somewhere.
I’m personally pretty convinced the blame lies somewhere in the logistics of how they allocate hours and how they determine performance bonuses for management.
Systems of poor management and worker abuse come from setting expectations top-down, underlings fall into line.
Sales is a highly competitive business, and I have no doubt that the conferences these folks hold only serve to drive the ultra-competitive to compete even harder with each other, and at some point that comes at a human cost. One which sees these managers rewarded.
If senior management made industrial relations compliance and workplace health and safety their highest priority over sales, and based manager performance on employee peer reviews, it’d be a completely different company. They have the power to do that, but they don’t do it.
There’s a LOT of HR-related tidbits coming out that indicate their employee assistance programs are tick-boxes, not genuine avenues for support, which gels with a lot of what I’ve seen of corporate culture in general, not specific to EB.
Employee peer reviews? What kind of companies use this measurement tool? Everywhere I’ve ever worked it was all about KPI’s!
From the sound of it you were in a store that could easily perform well enough to run properly and required above average management. It doesn’t sound like the sort of store they’d let some idiot run into the ground and it sounds like they were bringing in enough money that they didn’t have to cheat on the overtime in order to look like they were doing well. It sounds like your managers were willing to go to bat for the staff and actually had the influence to back it up.
Let me ask you this, did you ever have to go higher in the chain of command to resolve a problem? That would probably give you a better idea of how EB works than the people you were working with directly.
When it comes to big corporations it’s not that they’re evil, it’s that they’re large enough that staff members with bad attitudes can get into positions where their bad attitude influences operations for large groups of people. Someone good up top takes the pressure off those under them, but without the proper structure someone bad up top puts pressure that’s felt all the way down. You put some demanding asshole with insane expectations in charge of an entire region and most of the managers are going to have to be jerks just to keep their jobs.
Soooooo much this.
Yeah I have no doubt people worked at EB Games and had a fantastic time. I don’t doubt your account at all.
However, the sheer volume of people coming to me before this article and in the wake of this article is crazy. I’m just going to leave it there.
Oh yeah, I’m not trying to discredit what you wrote at all. Hopefully got that across in my comment. It is, in traditional Serrels fashion, an excellently written piece.
It’s entirely possible that the little corner of EB that I worked at is the exception to the rule. It was a afterall, a very small part of the entire company that I had an insight too.
Thoroughly enjoying Rocket League
Im only 2 achievements away from platinuming it, sucks that those 2 will be the longest to get (Collect all items and drive 500km) but thankfully im enjoying my time with it so I will have my hopes set high to getting this
So Journey is out tomorrow for PS4 apparently
Could have sworn I bought it for PS3. In fact I know I did because it’s still unplayed on there. But it looks like it’s not properly cross-buy? Or maybe I bought it on my AU account like a moron.
Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be able to play it for a bit (or will have to do so in pirate mode) but I guess I know what my next gaming goal is.
Kantai Collection?
I was so late to the game but easily makes it into my top 5 gaming experiences ever.
Id happily rebuy on PS4…
Just have to get that PS4.
@sunsoar77: did you end up making any further progress in Kantai Collection?
I took a bit of a break last week, didn’t play much. Currently working on a few goals. Getting Chikuma to 70 for her remodel (currently at 60, but the amount of XP from 60 to 70 is about the same as what it takes to get from 1-45, so maybe 2/3 done) and also doing the same for Fubuki (at 67/70, very close now) and also trying to clear out World 3-5.
There’s a large-scale event in the works that the devs have said is based around the Solomons. That terrifies me. The very first event I played in was 2013’s Solomons, which was ridiculously difficult. Unfair branching rules, night battles, and bosses that took about 5 kills to take out and had regenerating health so if you didn’t knock them out in about 24 hours they’d be back to full again. Clearing the event rewarded Musashi, with rewards of I-19, Noshiro and I-8 along the way, and drop-only CLs Agano and Yahagi. Yahagi was ridiculously rare and was a trophy waifu for many players. Personally I was brand new to the game at the time so I only managed to clear the first map. The I-19 I got is still one of my faves. The Ironbottom Sound map that ended the event was notorious for living up to its name – the regen meant that a lot of players took big risks, pushing ahead with badly damaged ships and ending up sinking them.
The game’s gotten significantly easier since then though.
I’m still playing (slowly!) and it’s the worst distraction when I’m trying to watch/listen to a uni lecture!
Still grappling with some of the mechanics and balancing the fleets. Trying to clear 1-4 but keep having to retire well before the boss so done a few runs as 1-3 to get a few levels.
I’m starting to understand the collector side of the game when I got Shimakaze and my eyes popped. They popped again when I saw her damaged art too. =D
1-4 is the first real level cap you’ll hit. Especially since at that point in the game your heaviest ships are probably heavy cruisers and you won’t have a carrier. It’d be even harder now, because you *need* air superiority or the enemy Wo-class will do unspeakable things to your girls.
For 1-4 you need to get minimum of 30, ideally 60 air power. Air power is calculated by, for each aircraft slot, multiplying the +AA stat of the fighter plane (green) by the square root number of planes in the slot it’s in. So for example, base level Shouhou has 3 slots – 18, 9 and 3. With a Model-21 Zero fighter (the shittiest fighter in the game, +5 AA), her top slot has floor(sqrt(18) * 5)) which is 21. You need 30 to have AS on all nodes in World 1-4 (check the wiki), so Shouhou can do easily this by putting the Model 21 into her top 2 slots (18 and 9) and a torpedo bomber into her small slot. This will actually net you 36, which is good enough on that map for a buffer (some planes get shot down). Obviously different carriers have different slot sizes and are going to differ in usefulness here. Hiyou and Junyou at base have 12,18,18,10 which you can see is enough to get Air Supremacy (double the AS figure) which basically shuts down enemy carriers completely. Ryuujou (9,24,5) can get AS, but not AS+. These are fairly easily obtainable light carriers. The only one that can’t do it is Houshou (11,8) – she can get to 30 air power but will lose planes before getting to the boss. Any of the proper fleet carriers can make the figure easily. Also if you have a better fighter (Model 52 is next step up, +6) it gets easier too. I first beat 1-4 using Shouhou as my carrier. She drops sometimes in the boss node and node I in World 1-4 but might be better to try building a carrier. 300/30/400/330. Construct that once or twice. Has about a 40% chance of yielding a carrier, much higher chance of a light carrier. Also a good chance to yield a Chitose/Chiyoda (get to 12 ASAP and remodel to sub tender for midget subs for your Kitakami!).
Make sure you unlock the battle quest to sink a carrier. I don’t know if the light carriers in 1-4 count but the wo-class at the boss definitely does. This quest rewards Akagi, one of the best carriers in the game. If you have her, 1-4 should be easy, so that might be worth exploring. She’ll eat all your resources though. Akagi’s appetite is prodigious.
For gearing:
– non-Kai destroyers should have 2 main guns. 12.7cm, or if you have any, 10cm high angle.
– Destroyers get a Kai upgrade at around 20 for most of them, this will give you 10cm high angle guns. They’re better in every way to 12.7cm. Kai destroyers have a 3rd slot. For high-luck DDs (20+), put a torpedo on – 2 main guns + torpedo gives you a night cut-in attack. Otherwise put whatever. Ideally you’d put a radar there but you won’t have any yet.
– CLs should have your 2 best guns and a seaplane. Most likely that’ll be 14cm guns, maybe 15.5 triple (they take a minor accuracy penalty for using these). Can fit Heavy Cruiser’s 20.3cm guns but there’s a big accuracy penalty for doing so, so avoid it. 15.2cm main is the best gun for CLs, but you won’t have any for ages. 2 main guns + seaplane gives you Artillery Spotting when you have air superiority or air supremacy. This will let the CL double-attack during the day and also is a double-attack night setup.
– CLT (Kitakami, Ooi, Kiso Kai2, Abukuma Kai2) should equip a midget sub (Ko-hyoteki), torpedo, and ideally a 15.5cm triple *secondary* (yellow) gun if you have one. The secondary gun adds accuracy. You can get Ko-hyoteki by either constructing them, or more likely by getting Chiyoda or Chitose and leveling them to 12 and remodeling twice (Chitose/Chiyoda have *six* remodels, Seaplane Tender, Seaplane Tender Kai, Submarine Tender, Carrier, Carrier Kai, Carrier Kai2).
– CAs should again have your 2 best guns and a seaplane. They get 4 slots at Kai. Ideally put a radar in. Extra floatplanes are okay too (adds accuracy). CAs are okay during the day especially with air support, but they’re at their deadliest at night. Higher luck CAs can put a torpedo in the last slot but that’s really limited to Myoukou Kai2, Aoba and Prinz Eugen. Ideally for CAs you want to use the Myoukou (Myoukou, Haguro, Ashigara, Nachi) or Takao (Takao, Atago, Choukai, Maya) classes as they’re the best. Tone/Chikuma are worth long term investment. Mogami is shit but likely to be the earliest access to aviation cruisers for you. Kinugasa is bad but has great equipment and low Kai2 requirement. I never leveled CAs much early on personally.
– BBs should get 2 main guns and a seaplane. 4th slot to radar if you have it. Size of the gun is actually pretty important for BBs. Fast battleships (Kongou-class) are better off with 36.6cm. 41cm at a pinch but they take accuracy penalties for having bigger guns than designed. Fusou/Yamashiro and Ise/Hyuuga can use 41cm without penalty. Nagato/Mutsu can use 41cm and 46cm, but will take penalty. Yamato/Musashi can use 46cm and 51cm, but 51cm incur a big penalty (that said, my Yamato has 2x51cm because why not). Anyway, the trend is always 2 red main guns, 1 seaplane, one other thing (not a gun). It means you get day double attack from artillery spotting and night double attack. When I’m running a big battleship fleet I actually will put AP rounds in the 4th slot on half which enables cut-in as well, but that’s advanced use.
– Carriers should always have your best fighters on the biggest slot. Torpedo bomber on the second slot, fighters on the rest. One carrier ideally should carry a Saiun (yellow icon scout plane – not a floatplane) in smallest slot because it prevents you from being T-crossed.
For getting through the harder maps:
– Modernize your girls. They need more armor. Feed the ships you don’t want/need to your primary fleet. Always add enough that you are getting +2 in at least one stat (so eg 2 destroyers to get +2 torpedo). Reason is that the number it says there is a theoretical maximum increase. If it says +1, it can increase the stat by +1 or fail. If it says +2, it can increase it by +1 or +2. Anything above +2 has a chance to increase by +1 up to whatever that number is. So +2 (usually 2 ships) is guaranteed increase.
– Sparkle your girls. You’re using KCV I believe, so this surfaces all the girl’s morale levels. 49 is default idle morale. 50+ their portraits will start to sparkle, and at 53+ they get a massive bonus to evasion and accuracy. Conversely below 40 they get an orange sad face and this corresponds to penalties to evade and hit. Below 25 they’ll go red, and this is a massive penalty. Also ships that are fatigued (red morale) are much more likely to sink. Their sinking lines are heartbreaking. Don’t sink them. 🙁 Anyway, getting MVP twice in one battle will take their morale from 49 to high 50s. The way you do that is simple: take two level 1 destroyers. Strip them bare. Put your main ship you want to boost morale on as flagship, fully equipped. Other 2 level 1 destroyers as 2nd and 3rd members of the fleet. Go to world 1-1. Your higher-level ship will usually easily out-perform the gimped level 1s, who will also draw fire. Just don’t advance if any of them are at red health, because they will sink at the second node and that’ll hurt morale. This is hardest with DDs, anything else should be fine. May take some hits periodically but most of the time it’s fine. Don’t night battle or anything, you just want to zoom through 1-1 and have your flagship get MVP twice. Do this with all your ships.
– Use line abreast (bottom right formation, —-) on all nodes on 1-4. This gives a big bonus to evasion, reduces damage taken, but also reduces damage given. Use line ahead (top left, |) on the boss. It’s always safe to go to night battle with ships that were hit to red during the day battle. DDs, CLs and especially CAs are deadly at night – night attacks add torpedo and firepower stats together. Biggest attack I’ve ever seen was over 700 damage from Kitakami at night in a cut-in on an enemy destroyer.
– Don’t get frustrated and don’t rush. Take it slow. You’ll eventually get through it. Sometimes RNG is a bitch.
So. Much. Info.
So daunting… Equipment is one thing I haven’t had much time to play with yet.
But I’m pretty sure I’m ready to chop down some ships as I’ve got duplicates of a few plus about a page I don’t even use. I’m guessing the method here is strip the guns off if they’re worth something (12.7’s, 14’s or 15.5’s if I’ve got them?) and then use them to boost ships I’m actively using. Does level play a huge part there – ie. using a bunch of level 1 ships to boost the others? Or do I need to level them a bit? Or is that something I should worry about a fair bit later on…?
Bonus you get to stats is based off the ship so a dd at level 1 will still give +1 torpedo at 19. The stat bonuses go up at Kai and Kai2 but not usually worth grinding them up for that. Isuzu is one exception – Kai at only level 12 and has a big +AA bonus. Maruyu is the only other one but she boosts only luck and is for high level players.
;D
managed to get a Sydney trip out of work. It looks like it’s for a different reason that what I put forward but Brisbane was also mentioned, so maybe I can go there as well 😀
Better see you this time or u get a knifin’
Them’s are quite the fighting words.
Soz boz
Yood bedda bee
Shovel Knight
Shield Knight is lame & she preps the shield to slow, not often enough & where I’m not.Did you try getting good?
What a surprise
BLOODBORNE
I found a Marty dude on a roof and he hates me. Also, Ghost ladies are annoying but Ludwig’s Holy Blade is a beast of a weapon.
Holy blade makes me feel good.
Come at me bro while I’m winding up a heavy attack.
I dare you.
I double dare you
Oh god oh god oh god
It sounds like they’re making gameplay changes too. Platforming and stuff. Hope they also make some of the characters easier (Mercedes especially).
But holy shit, Odin Sphere on PS4 & Vita? So sold.
Also they’re teasing a new project to be announced in a few months:
Looks science fiction? I’d be totally down with playing a Vanillaware game in a SF setting.
You know what I have right now.
These got here today. Cost more than I care to admit particularly once that fucking extortionistic US shipping kicked in, but eh. Wasn’t going to miss out yet again, and the Bad Idea Bears made me feel better about it anyway. YAAAAAAAAY!
I wanna see purchase 1 – 150719
Earliest one would be 09XXXX, I think. Sorry 😛
Dark Souls 3.
Some notes on the changing combat.
http://www.gamesradar.com/how-dark-souls-3-combat-changing-post-bloodborne/
Hooray! More like Bloodborne!
As long as it is viable to play through the game without sitting behind a shield, I’ll be happy.
Always was. As long as it’s possible to play the game with something other than starting weapon + shity gun then I’ll be happy 🙂
Dark Souls 2, definitely! That’s how I played it (magic/sword ‘dual wielding’)
Dark Souls 1 though I kinda felt pushed into using a shield when I didn’t want to. Might’ve just been me though.
Maybe. It does make it easier but I have done a light armour, no shield, no magic run without much trouble.
Can’t you go two swords in DS2?
I’m hoping fervently that there is an item/stance/option to have Bloodborne levels of agility. I’ll trade off high-protection armour for that sidestep.
But I want to hide behind a shield!
I’m scared, sounds too fast, my biggest issue with BB.
I can do it, but I’d much rather take it slow.
Life is Strange Episode 3 was the best of the lot. Massive improvements to the dialogue in particular. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Is that a new one or is there ANOTHER coming out in the coming days like you prophesied?
The fourth ep is apparently coming out at some point in the next week or so.
😀
Wait. That date might be old news.
More recent revelations suggest a vaguer release schedule.
(@dc, I want to be pals again! Hella besties!)
We were always
frenemiesbest pals!That’s fetch.
Did you kill the plant? D:I DIDN’T MEAN TO 🙁Everyone on my friends list who played the game killed the plant! 😛
Did you save Kate at the end of Ch2?I kept it alive through Ep 2, but then it died in Ep 3. But there was a message from your mum telling you NOT TO WATER IT TOO MUCH. MAKE UP YOUR MIND GAME!!Yeah, I watered it in 1 and 2, and it had drowned by the start of Ep 3 🙁@shane:
Now I’m super nervous about this hamster! 😛@dc
Do you mean Kate’s rabbit? I fed it a carrot, and it looked at me like I was retarded. On the plus side, maybe it doesn’t exist in this revised timeline.@shane:
Oh yeah, it was a rabbit. Lost some fanboy points there! 😛@dc
I only played it last night, so I kind of have the memory advantage here.Kate’s alive. Oh man, that was teeeeense!WASN’T IT JUST. I love all the little tells that let you know how you’re going. Say the wrong thing, Kate shuffles closer to the edge. Say the right thing, and Max moves towards her. After I saved her, I played the scene again in collectible mode, just to see how it differed. She can be saved earlier and die earlier than the point in the conversation that I reached in my first playthrough.There’s some really clever game design choices under the hood fuelling the tension there, and some really savvy plotting.@shane:
I loved the little details like choosing to take the phone call at the diner and wiping the message off the mirror. So many small touches. Was telegraphed really well that she wasn’t doing great and I like how the game followed through on it for better or worse. Did you kiss Chloe in ep 3? I didn’t. My Max is all about Warren, I think. Haha!My Max kissed Chloe, but it wasn’t a romantic thing (game confirmed). It was just a dare, a refusal to back down from a playful challenge. Since saving Kate, Max is a superhero, and is now all about taking risks, being assertive, unafraid, learning to be punk. (This approach was validated plenty when she was given Rachel’s clothing, and then [by choice] launched into an attack on David).Also, Max kept telling me in her monologues that Warren and drone-girl-whose-name-I’ve-forgotten would be a great couple, so I’m aiming for that. Keeping Max purposely oblivious to his obvious crush on her. She even said no to the movie thing, which ended up being a pretty good choice, because it turned out he’d already asked drone-girl. The two-timing bastard.Incidentally, I was so sure that Chloe and Rachel were a couple, but the game seems to be going out of its way to confuse me on that score. Rachel’s had a fling with drug-douche and Chloe is a mankiller (in Max’s words)… but also Chloe confirmed that she crushed on Rachel. I guess high school girls can do bi.@shane:
I’m almost convinced that Chloe’s trying to fill a Rachel void with Max. It makes me a bit nervous. I also feel like Chloe is a really selfish friend at times. Still love her.I’m a monster. I couldn’t save Kate :'(Also, up until the end of Ep3, I was leaning towards the idea that Chloe just isn’t good for Max, even from a friendship perspective. I feel like even though Max is getting a lot more assertive, Chloe was definitely taking advantage of her submissive nature to talk her into things that I don’t think Max would have done otherwise
That ending though :'(
I kind of saw it coming, to be honest. As soon as she changed the past and saw the photo with the birthday car for Chloe, I guessed the ending. Still pretty upsetting, though, even without the shock factor.I’m really keen to see where it goes from here, though!
PS: Hi Nova! \o
I figured something would change but I didn’t expect that. My whole response was NO NO NO, YOU CAN’T DO THAT. Played on my mind for at least a week after I played itI think I’m enjoying Sleeping Dogs more than Arkham Knight which is weird because Arkham Knight is definitely the better game.
I loved Sleeping Dogs on the 360 so much that I bought it again for the PS4. Looking forward to getting stuck into it again!
You can do it!! XD
I’m definitely going to buy it on Xbone next time it’s on sale or I have a void to fill in my gaming. At the moment I have backlog and no money so it can wait. But it was easily my favourite game of 2012 and I’d love to revisit it.
Most likely because the setting in Sleeping Dogs is unique instead of once again being the same superhero in the same city as the last game.
You know what tastes pretty rad without sweeteners? Coffee and milk. So why does the 600ml bottle of sugar free iced coffee have 1L of artificial sweetener in it?
How’s the snack embargo going? Mine is barely holding on by its fingernails…
You can do it! 😀
It’s doing okay. Probably because I’m not trying to do too much yet. Just sugar. So something like a flat white no sugar I’m happy with. Snacking isn’t something I do a whole lot of to start with so not hard to avoid that. So just waiting for the damn sugar cravings to stop before I start cutting down on portion sizes.
Make your own ice coffee then?
I started doing this a while back, though I need to look into a thermos so I can actually bring it with me. Takes like five minutes at night, and five in the morning, and I don’t even have a french press or anything, I just strain it through a little filter thingy.
Way cheaper, too. Really need to get back into it.
So last night My RPG group finished their first mission, I was quite proud. And no-one died this time 😀
Kinda hard to when all except for two enemies killed each other before we got in 😛
Well there was a third too but Roxy scared him off rather than shooting him, and then I rolled a 1
Stupid public transport being crap because it rained a little this morning. Apparently trains need to go at a snails pace through tunnels because it’s damp…
112 days/16 weeks/3 paydays until Fallout 4 😀 I’ll choose to measure that time in paydays
I can’t believe it’s still so far away but also probably the next major release I’ll buy because there’s nothing else I’m interested in right now. I guess I recently got Arkham Origins and Evil Within super cheap and I’m still playing Watch_Dogs but damn. 4 months with no other new games? Either this gen has been super slow to take off or I’m becoming more discening in my old age.
I’m putting it down to the expectations of AAA getting bigger and bigger with each generation meaning those games take a lot longer to create. Also the increasing cost of them means fewer developers can afford to make big blockbusters. In the PSOne days, Square rattled off FFVII, VIII, IX and Vagrant Story within 2-3 years of each other. Now there’s going to be a 6 year gap between Final Fantasy XIII and XV.
There’s definitely been a slow start though to this gen, even though it’s seen a massive uptake of the new consoles.
Oh bugger.
By those measurements there’s very little chance of me affording a full PC upgrade in the 8 pays between now and then.
Well, most urgent point is that my 8 year old core2duo will really struggle. So that means new CPU, mobo, RAM in one hit. I should probably start scoping out the possibilities of how painful that might be (especially if the AU$ drops during that time as well)
I don’t want to consider how much I’ll need to spend, especially as I want my next build to be 4k capable. By the sounds of it, my PC is in the same state as yours. Mind you, I don’t play many newer games on it
*enters TAY, does Vanillaware victory dance, exits*
Oh thank god that guy is gone.
You are my bestest bud this week, every thing you type to me is soooo lovely
Only because you friend zoned me.
This in regards to Odin Sphere?
Never played it, what is the quick breakdown of the game and why is the dance worthy
2D action JRPG with amazing art & animation.
I’m more excited by the art to be honest, even though I’ve bought it twice now, I didn’t get that far in. But I was having fun.
You level up your hit points by eating fruit that you grow by feeding seeds the souls of your enemies.
So we had a wonderful but decidedly stressful weekend
On Saturday we had a 1st birthday party of Tiglet starting at 1pm. Got her down Friday night and things were mostly on track, a list of things to do in the morning but plenty of time to do it.
Saturday morning we get up and Tiglet has a girls worst nightmare, a breakout of red marks on her face, the day she is the centre of attention. Go to get her changed and she has a rash of little spots covering her entire chest and back.
eeekkkk push the button “OCTONAUTS TO THE LAUNCH BAY”
So then random running about trying to get a doctors appointment. She was happy and didn’t have a fever or anything but our biggest concern was that we had pregnant women and younger babies coming and had no idea if she was contagious or what.
Although the worrying thing for us was that she is still a week or two shy of getting here measles etc shots. Anyway ending up being a fairly common and mild virus that wasn’t contagious so an hour before it started we finally knew that we actually could have a party.
Ended up being far less organised than we would have liked, I didn’t get a chance to do my dip kraken and the cake was a bit rushed but turned out ok. I ended up having to do a few shuttle services back to the house as we remembered things we forgot.
She was very spoilt and recieved a lot of really nice gifts and she seemed to have a good time.
And her rash wasn’t too bad, we just said it was scurvy which suited her.
She certainly does take her cosplay to the next level
http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd405/WNxTigerion/IMG_4085_zps7hz2ujdg.jpg
Sunday was mostly spent recovering and sorting and cleaning post party
Now sure how but Tiglet seems to have gotten more adorable, and I think it’s only partially the costume.
She does. At that super cheeky stage right now
Happy birthday Tiglet!
Lol, kid’s birthdays are a lark. And by lark I mean way too stressful for something the kid isn’t going to remember. But we do it anyway because the momentary happiness they get is worth all of it.
Also, dipping your kraken doesn’t sound appropriate for a kids birthday….
Also also, I actually have one of those Octonauts buttons, alarms and everything. I hate it.
Well Tiglet has only just started get an interest so we don’t have any of the toys or the like.
I can see that button being horrible really quickly
So one thing I gotta deal with soon is getting a new computer together as my current home one is on the way out and I’m planning on budgeting this one at $2-2.5k at absolute max, w/o Monitor/Peripherals. This’ll be my first SSD hard drive when this gets done 🙂
Yet another Bloodborne update! (sick of these yet?)
I finally, finally managed to clear the first half of the Upper Cathedral Ward. Damn brain tentacle things. In the end I figured out how to sneak up on them and get a visceral hit so I was able to pick them off before more were alerted. Learned a new gesture and hightailed it outta there.
Walked across the bridge and embarrassingly jumped a mile when an alien snuck up on me. But my jump also made Pants jump. So there’s that.
Beat the alien boss fairly quickly and then wandered around for the next 20 minutes trying to figure out how to open the next damn door. Pants had said something about the Make Contact gesture being “the most important gesture in the game” so I went around and just did that in front of everything I could 😛 (I almost slapped myself when I figured out how to actually open the door)
During the chalice dungeons, I found that the most effective way to get rid of the brainsuckers was to kill them with fire! Load up on molotovs and chuck away!
Also you should now go back to the lamp that appeared after the alien boss and read the notes on the floor…
Can’t help but laugh at some of the comments in that EB article bemoaning EB’s “ridiculous” KPIs. I’ve seen them. They have 4 of them related to upselling. A whole 4.
My job has 13 and if we don’t hit them we get pulled into a meeting to discuss our performance. One of them is customer numbers. As in if we don’t get enough coming to the counter we’re held personally responsible. Another is customer feedback numbers. If we don’t get enough customers sign up to our website and complete a 40 question survey with long answer questions we get held personally responsible. Customer wants a key cut? Better make sure they get their shoes fixed and a new watch band while they’re at it. They didn’t want that? Well you just failed the company. Franchisees can have their contracts voided and their franchise taken off them for not meeting the targets and company employees dace sanctions for not.
EB has some severe management problems it appears but having to push a few game guarantees and loyalty cards isn’t one of them.
In fairness, KPIs are the devil.
My store that is 80% run and staffed by myself had the highest net profit in south east Queensland, 6th highest customer satisfaction in the country and 3rd highest TSS (Total Shop Score) in Oceania and I have multiple awards for service and figures.
Yet I’m ranked an “average” employee because my KPIs aren’t as high as those who falsify their sales to boost KPIs.
An average employee would make excuses like that.
KPIs are only a tool. Unfortunately, the people who assess them frequently are as well.
When I worked in retail (Angus & Robertson), we had a KPI regarding customers entering the store. There was actually an infrared thingy across the front that counted the number of people coming in and out. There was a further KPI regarding conversion of traffic to sales, to prevent staff from fiddling the first one by dancing around near the entrance. And a further one regarding the amount spent on each sale. Once, when I bought a book using my staff discount, I was asked if I could buy some more titles, just to big up the store’s stats. Ridiculous stuff. So much of it is beyond the employees’ control.
I’m fairly sure that KPIs beyond an employees control are always added into the mix so that the company can always throw in a “failed to meet KPIs” as an excuse for anything. Makes me wonder if anyone has ever challenged them.
I know that I once had a job with KPIs that relied on someone else’s sales.
We’ve got an engraving one related to the number of upselling $8 engraving sales. There’s another one demanding a $19 minimum spend on engraving. Meet one you fail another.
The idea of KPIs are usually new to the kids who work at EB, unless they’ve come across from another similar retail environment. I went there from Kinko’s and at Kinko’s we didn’t have KPIs other than “do the job the customer gives you and do it well”. We didn’t upsell them to nicer paper or more expensive prints.
But pushing game guarantees and game guides, shaking down kids for every last cent of their pocket money, was not the issue I had in my brief stint there.
Retail in general needs a solid boot up the ass. Workers rights are being held hostage under the (very real) threat of unemployment.
One of the things which bugs me about the whole situation in general is the exploitation. I’ve known young people – friends, family – who’ve experienced similar, and every time it is the loss of innocence that shows in their faces and their posture that enrages me.
Honest, enthusiastic, well-meaning kids who just wanted to make their bosses happy ended up getting taken advantage of. And when they’re still young and innocent, they don’t recognize this bastardry for what it is.
There’s a process there, as reality sinks in and the awareness that ‘this isn’t right’ wars with their naive faith in authority and/or human fucking decency. It’s like watching hope die.
Anyone who robs a child of some of their innocence makes me fiercely, unbelievably fist-clenchingly angry. It’s something precious, to be protected. Because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever, and their world is never the same again. It is lesser.
All the ‘just grow a spine and stand up for yourself’ comments piss me off for similar reasons. My life hasn’t been fantastic, it made me somewhat tough in that I can take a lot of shit without breaking down if I have to, but that’s not a good thing. I’m a cynical asshole and a big part of that is because I’ve always been on the defensive. I don’t need my retail employees to be battle hardened I need to be able to walk into a shop and buy a game without participating in exploiting the people who work there.
Y’know, something that *really* shits me is when I hear about managers reducing or not offering any shifts at all for casual workers for whatever improper bullshit whims are going on at the time. Withholding long rant here though.
The practice I used to work at went from the worst performing, based on stats, to one of the better ones in the space of a year.
The key difference? One of our doctors started inputting BP records in the correct field (he wasn’t used to the software we use). KPIs are a joke.
I find it funny (read: terrible) that health care systems are being bogarted by people who don’t understand what health care means into requiring KPIs.
And apparently the funding some hospitals receive is dependent on them reaching their KPIs (none of which is actually constructive towards HEALTH CARE just in terms of time or whatever). FR RRRR that makes me angry.
This is the worst part about slavish worship of Key Performance Indicators.
KPIs themselves are not inherently bad. They are there to serve a purpose! But when people chase the stats over the purpose, no-one wins.
In the Telstra call centre I worked at, a big focus was average call time. Surface level, this makes sense: shorter calls means less time on the phone, meaning more operators available to take calls – less time customers spend on hold. Reasonable!
But I had an argument with the centre manager about her comparing the stats from the graveyard shift guys unfavourably against the morning/midday/evening shifts. I showed her the maths of it, the reason that someone’s average call times will be higher when they only take 10 calls in one night compared to someone taking 90 during the day (most of which will be transferred). Averages. Median. The impact of sample size.
Understanding dawned, I saw it on her face… and it warred with the little corporate drone inside, who eventually won, as she declared, “Well that’s all well and good, but these are the targets we’re given and I’m not wearing it.”
To watch someone willingly choose ignorance and unreasonably penalize their employees to preserve the sanctity of the KPI… that’s not the KPI serving a need, that’s serving the KPI itself.
It’s staggering how so many management areas blinker themselves to that pursuit of the KPI, losing sight of what purpose it served.
Holy shit, I wish I could explain my logical thoughts in corporate double-speak.
All I get is blank stares or more corporate double-speak answers.
I bought another car! This is indeed a good week. 😀
*Casts expert eye over picture*
Yep, that’s certainly Benny standing next to a *squints at text* 2008 Ford FG XR6.
Yep, that car can certainly… drive forward? Also I imagine it sometimes reverses?
And brakes. very important feature, that.
I can see the hood of the steering wheel, so I guess it can probably turn, maybe?
I made sure that the dealer included that feature.
Good decision, that.
If you squint really hard, you can make out all the vehicle details on the pink slip.
I still remember the look of shock on the salesman’s face when I went to get a new car a few years ago. He saw a male in his early 20’s come into the yard and started rattling all these highly technical things that he must have assumed I was interested in. My response to him – “As long as it has an accelerator, brake and steering, I’m good”. You could see the carefully scripted spiel shatter before your eyes.
I thought you said you bought a car? That’s a cardboard homeless shelter with wheels.
Cardboard homeless shelter but with power!
Congrats buddy! So coooool!
I thought the number plate said “$280 AUD” for a second.
Bargain!
Going up to the Gold Cast tomorrow.
I’ll be there for ten days. 😀
http://www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au/major-projects/queens-wharf-brisbane.html
This was just approved last night for development in Brisbane. So exciting. We should have a distant future meat there! 😛
Queens Wharf meat at unspecified location in 2017!
Should… I tag people? 😛
Lock it in. I’m booking flights as we speak.
I would actually be up for that 😛
Do it! And be less sick this time, haha.
I’m always sick, Jane. Fully.
Only ten more meats until I won’t be super awkward around Jane too! *flails arms*
*Construction starts in 2017, expected to take 6-10 years…
meat at unspecified location in 2027?
That new pedestrian bridge connecting the wharf to South Bank will be super handy as well!
Last night I found myself listening to Splatoon music on Youtube and…oh man, I really want to buy the soundtrack.
…
…
*loads it up again*
Oh yeah, finished the main story of the game too. Good fun, and totally worth it.
The last boss though, right? The last boss.
I found the last boss boring, overly long, with the only challenge based in its laser where I couldn’t see the warning beam half the time.
But then, we all know that I’m a monster, so I don’t know why I keep bringing it up.
Wrong.
Best final boss in recent memory.
I think it was a really great middle point between being hard and being inclusive. Difficult enough to not be a boring cakewalk, easy enough that younger gamers can still get through. Plus, thematically it was great 😀
Ran Skolas last night, took a grand total of 2 hours, 3 minutes from start to finish. Wiped twice on Skolas, and had a couple of close calls (two people dead during the second half a couple of times), but the taint mechanic is pretty forgiving once you get a feel for it – if two people die, as long as one of them had the debuff, the remaining person has just enough time to do a full circuit of the arena to draw adds away, res them and pass the debuff before they die to it. Also, having two self-ressing sunsingers helped a bit. 😛
TONIGHT!!!!! I have the PS4 all to myself ALL NIGHT as the SO is off for a meal with friends and I have been released as “it’s gaming night, isn’t it?”
See you soon… 😀
skolas skolas skolas skolas
Friends! I do not know what these things are called (ascii emoticons?) but they are so stupid that I love them and want more. I know these ones:
(ง •̀_•́)ง
༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My smug favourite: ( ̄ー ̄)
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
┬─┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)
(╯°Д°)╯︵ /(.□ . \)
٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶
ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
╚(ಠ_ಠ)=┐
New favourite library: http://hexascii.com/
(=^・^=)
First Penny Arcade, and now this? You’re killing my productivity man!!!
\(>o<)ノ
(ゝ౪^)ノ♡
HELLO HOLY GRAIL!
Well, most people call me Transient or Cam, but I’ll take Holy Grail.
Man I was late to the party with an inferior website…
~(>_<~)
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ Praise the emperor!
DANCE PARTY
░░┌──┐░░░░░░░░░░┌──┐░░
░╔╡▐▐╞╝░░┌──┐░░╔╡▐▐╞╝░
░░└╥╥┘░░╚╡▌▌╞╗░░└╥╥┘░░
░░░╚╚░░░░└╥╥┘░░░░╚╚░░░
░░░░░░░░░░╝╝░░░
You guys are all too emoticon savvy for my liking, all I know is 🙂 😛 and at a push D:
http://www.kawaiiface.net
Do it.
ALSO VERY EXCELLENT (づ。◕‿‿◕。)づ
Emoji.
I like my Apple emoji just fine, but sometimes you just wanna (づ。◕‿‿◕。)づ you know?
I ended up purchasing a pre-owned Sunset Overdrive a couple of months ago, and got a hankering to try it out about a fortnight ago.
I feel vindicated in my decision to buy it after release, it never seemed like a ‘day one purchase’. Did anyone else buy it Day One?
EDIT: Awful page get /o\
I wasn’t super hyped for it but I brought it day one. I’m a sucker for mayhem so I absolutely loved it. It’s not perfect but it struck that same nerve Crackdown did for me. A big sandbox that’s fun to run, jump and shoot in.
Also try playing as a female character. There’s no real difference in the script, but the voice acting feels better and the dialogue seems to suit the female more than the male.
I thought that the girl voice over was better as well, I’m playing as a female character that looks kinda like 4Kim lol
Did you ever play Mercenaries? More games need to let you call in a nuclear strike.
Good call. I’m probably picking up an xbone next year and will likely Sunset Overdrive at some point.
I enjoyed it, very colourful and pretty game. Gets pretty hectic during some fights but it’s a heap of fun. It has some funny bits although other bits just fall flat on their face.
That was what stopped me from buying it in the first place, I feared it would be ‘Too self aware’ but I’ve been pretty impressed with the humour even though some of it misses the mark.
I loved it, heaps of fun, great colourful style. The jokes aren’t too bad as long as you’re not too uptight about your humour.
I’ve been catching up on 3DS games that I haven’t had a chance to play lately so I’m going through Project X Zone. The story is threadbare, the mechanics don’t really exist, but I really enjoy this game. Has enough flash and action going on to keep me entertained and the fighting system is basic but really nice to master. I kinda now want to track down and play a few of the featured games but that’s unlikely to happen due to a lot of Japan-only exclusives. Still, interested in PXZ 2 whenever they decide to make that.
Also sprites. I love good sprite-based games and I wish there is more of that in the future.
Sushi and a video or two of Many A True Nerd doing his 1 health bar New Vegas run. That’s a blissful lunch break
Ahahah oh man, you guys are the BEST. These are all going into my phone and everyone’s gonna hate my texts forever 😀
(>^^(>O_o) >
Uh.. what the hell is this one, exactly?
(☞゚ヮ゚)☞
Well that was interesting. Got a heads up from a couple of people that the guy who is franchising all of the Gold Coast’s shops is going around interviewing people about why he should hire them across when he takes over. So I get myself all prepared with why he should.
Needn’t have bothered. He turned up and spent the whole time telling me how much better it would be working for him, telling me all the benefits I’d get and asked if I would work for him. Seems like a genuine guy. Ex military so he comes across pretty strict which god knows is what we need of around here. Plus with him working alongside us would mean he’d be more aware of the issues affecting us than some vague headquarters that never talk to us besides marketing mail outs.
He sounds ambitious and keen to make the business work for him. That’s a good thing.
He may not be able to deliver.
You are in a good position to help him deliver. This should be a great opportunity for you. Just don’t get your hopes up for a great change.
The day to day won’t change in the slightest. Still be business as usual but hopefully he fixes my biggest issue of staff constantly calling in sick and having to cover for them all the time. We have 2 staff who between them have 12 sick days a month and it makes it really difficult on everyone else. When it comes to better bonuses and perks, well, actions speak louder than words and I haven’t seen any fine print yet.
Do you have a dedicated HR team? (*ba-doom-tish*)
Even if there isn’t one – someone should be able to produce (relatively easily) an absenteeism report. Plonk that down in front of the staff in question and ask them what the deal is.
Always an awkward conversation but usually fixes the issue… they stop getting so sick or they quit.
One of them is the area manager’s daughter. Honestly think she shouldn’t be working in the same area as him. But the new owner has already told me he’s not interested in hiring her on.
So what’d you tell him?
Freeze is a man of action
This all sounds very positive, and it sounds like he’s heard good things about you, man (whether from head office or not, I obviously don’t know).
I hope it works out well.
I failed in my no Maccas thing.
A month, only a month 🙁
That’s still a month in which your arteries loved you. It’s a good thing.
Now you can leave it for another month before you go there again!
I’m stuck in a writing limbo at the moment where I’m waiting on feedback, but I’m not even sure feedback friend got the e-mail due to lack of reply… but I don’t want to seem pushy and e-mail them again. And now I’m just sitting here procrastinating and doing no writing at all. D:
Send it to meeeeeee! I’ll send an instant confirmation that I received the email.
…and then not reply.(゜◇゜)
Haha, remember when I did that to you?
Ha…ha…
*gulp*
I do now.
I hope my death comes swiftly.
It will not.
Indeed, it may never happen.
But you will always be watching, waiting, unwilling to let your guard down, even for a moment. And that, my friend, is what delicious revenge tastes like.
No… wait. That’s laziness.
Oh well. At least it’s delicious.
Drake/Sully slashfic?
I knew I should have copyrighted my fanfic …
He could change it to a Drake/@sughly fanfic to avoid a lawsuit?
“c’mon, @sughly, let’s chase the treasure of Atlantis!”
“Sure, we could, but there’s a Nicholas Winding Refn retrospective on…”
Ok thats pretty good
Doona Bae commenting on the soccer World Cup final.
Thats just a sentence made up from a word cloud of my tweets.
I’m a couple weeks late for the excuse to have been “Can’t, finishing Anna’s Quest” 🙂
Haaaahahahahahah oh man, this is gold, Jerry, GOLD.
Great, now you’ve ruined the surprise twist at the end.
*deletes word file*
As long as you’re polite (and a reasonable enough amount of time has passed) there’s no reason you shouldn’t chase the feedback up. Mention to this person that you’re keen for the feedback to help you move forward with the story. Don’t be nervous, don’t be rude, and you’ll be fine.
Then
procrasturbatebe patient.Good advice! YOU’RE THE GREATEST!
Yeah, but he struck out his good advice. :/
Email yourself what you think the feedbacker was going to say, then move forward assuming the opposite is true. :P.
BEST ADVICE!
We got a guillotine at work today (for paper, sadly we’re not cool enough for the beheading thing). Based on the sounds, and it generally seems like an unstable mess of a thing, it is absolutely going to take off someone’s hand one day.
The big advantage of a guillotine is that you can get a stack of hands and chop them all off at the same time. Much more efficient.
So Shorten has managed to do the impossible and found himself with a lower approval rating than Abbott (27 to 33) while the ALP still manages to be well in front of the LNP (53 to 47). It’s getting near time the ALP started thinking about pulling Shorten out and lifting up Albo or Plibersek into the leadership. Personally I’d like to see Wong in there but not sure that would sit well with the general electorate despite her being more than competent.
Wong will never get leader as long as she’s from South Australia.
Not factionally powerful enough. she had to fight really fucking to even get number one on the senate ticket even though she’s the most visible South Australian Labor Senator.
Yeah, but imagine the apoplectic fit Christensen and Bernadi would have if she became PM. Worth it for that alone.
Rudd had no factional power either. There’s more to it than just factions.
Wong’s biggest problem is that she’s in the senate. Traditionally, the major parties have their leaders in the lower house so that the party leader can also be PM.
There are other problems in her way, such as factions.
Rudd was unaligned. Wong is firmly in the left.
And yes, she’d likely have to switch houses
I kind of always thought Plibersek would be the one to contest at the next election, it’s looking more likely than ever now.
Issue with Plibersek is her partner is a convicted drug smuggler.
So? He went to jail and did his time. God knows we need some real people with real lives running the country.
You know that, and I know that, but the smear campaign writes itself.
Are you suggesting the LNP is not above a spiteful smear campaign? I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you.
The libs smear each other just as badly.
I’m not voting ALP next election if I can avoid it, but if they had Wong as leader, I’d change my mind. I’ve seen that woman speak. I didn’t know who she was with at the time, all I knew was this person has a sound head on their shoulders.
She’s lovely in person as well.
+1 Albo 4 PM
It’s the long play – the shittier the leader now, the greater the mediocre replacement looks in contrast come election time.
And in the meantime, it’s just “me too” politics. If they actually acted like an opposition, we could possibly be going to the polls a lot sooner.
They’ve pretty much locked themselves in to take Shorten to the election. Part of their big rejiggering of how party leadership is elected included some attempts at looking stable by committing to one person for a long term. That was silly.
Albo would’ve been a great opposition leader. I don’t know if any of the top faces of Labor would be a great PM. Better than Tony is too low of a benchmark :p
The problem they had was changing leader whilst in government. There’s no issue changing leader while you’re in opposition (how many leaders did the coalition have post-Howard? 4?). Plus, having Shorten as opposition leader means that they can dump him before the election and he will never be prime minister. I’d much prefer Albanese or Plibersek as Prime Minister.
The ideal setup for Labor would have been to have Albanese as opposition leader for ~2 years, absolutely hounding the Abbott government on every mistake. Then Shorten comes along, takes the top job about a year before the election. Instead, they locked onto the idea that presenting a stable, united front was important while in opposition. That’s why we’ve had Shorten doing nothing for so long, because he wants to be the one going to an election.
Which is also kind of why he shouldn’t be the one.…That could be my inherent distrust of ambition, talking.
Substitute appropriate terms where necessary.
Albo + Plibersek are desperately needed!
Plibersek or Wong would seriously be my dream PMs. They are both absolute badasses who speak their mind, are intelligent but also know their own weaknesses. Many potential leaders don’t have all of that encompassed.
Yes I have major crushes on both of them and I AM NOT ASHAMED TO ADMIT IT.
But women. “We saw how that turned out last time”.
The only way I could see Labor risking it again is if the LNP took Julie Bishop to the election. Or maybe Bronwyn Bishop, she seems super popular, everybody is talking about her!
I know, Bronwyn’s really taking off. It’ll be a real chopper.
Both parties are suffering from being seen as incompetent and out for number 1. There’s little faith in politics these days and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next election turnout is as low as it’s been in a long time
The last two elections have both set new records for informal voting – this one’s gonna be off the charts, I reckon.
My ideal parliamentary make up (not the ideal bit my subjective idea of it)
Greens to win a bit under a quarter of the seats.
A smattering of independents.
Rest split between ALP and LNP.
Minority government formed between ALP and Greens.
Basically the Gillard government but much more tempered by Greens and Independents.
What they need to do is do an old fashion wrestling switcheroo, where they fire shorten and then hold a press conference, albo gets on the podium and says “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome your new labor leader!” Albo then steps aside music and Pyro goes off and out walks Malcolm Turnbull. You then have one fuy on announce go WHAAT!? And the other go “GOOD GOD ITS TURNBALL I DONT BELIEVE TURNBALL IS HERE”
Thats what I wish would happen
Hey guys, i have a disney infinity captain america figure i don’t need. Who wants it?
Also a skylanders water trap
It’s a trap?
Nope. I’m giving both away for free.
Indentured servitude is technically free I guess.
If someone doesn’t take it, I’m donating it to charity. The water trap is gone though
I have a tickle in my throat
Innuendo alert? 😀
If you like 🙂
@liondrive take it away
I have a cream for that.
Let me rub it better.
It’s deeper than that
Are you sure, Jimu?
Are you sure? 😉
Am I using my safe word?!
I thought your safe word was “deeper”?
Worst. Safe word. Ever.
Apart from the one you can’t remember.
http://i.imgur.com/Pqh2G.jpg
Journey is up on the PSN store. It’s currently 20% off for PS+ members.
If you bought it on PS3, apparently it’ll appear in your DL list after a bit.
I never did! Looking forward to finally, finally playing it.
I’ve been avoiding spoilers for so, so long.
There’s little to spoil, it’s not a “narrative” experience. Spoiling it would be like spoiling what happens on a beach holiday, or an ocean cruise.
I thought it’d be more like spoiling a desert hike.
Gawd Rize, spoilers much?
It’d be really awkward if that was somehow a spoiler because I haven’t actually played the game…
Well, you can get it on PS4 now.
@redartifice I would like to experience the game to its fullest, which means running into random players unexpectedly, but I was way too late in getting a PS3 for that, and I don’t have a PS4.
It’s really not spoilable, because it’s an experience based on how it feels, not how any specific story plays out.
Now that I’ve played it, to this I say “yes… and no.” It’s still something I’m very glad I knew little about when I went into it.
Yeeeeeessssssssssss.
Oh neat! Was it a PS+ freebie at some point? Something in my memory is saying yes…
Don’t believe so, but it may have been.
\o/ Looking forward to playing it again.
Not if you bought the physical version apparently. =(
I was about to boast that it was free for long-time devotees (read: people who bought it originally on PS3), but then I checked and saw that it wasn’t.
Super confused for a while there, until I found this:
So don’t go buying it if you already did. Just be patient!
It’s there – go to Journey in PS Store, Select Version, and Download: Free is an option. Done.
Is now. Definitely was not before. I know because I reloaded the page every 15 minutes after posting this, and it took about 3 hours to change.
Nice. 🙂 I posted because I’d mentioned it to a couple of other people and they’d missed the drop-down for the free version.
Anyone up for Rocket League at 8:30pm AEST tonight?
Crazymeat on the Gold Coast?
Afraid not. Sorry.
*zombie groan*
Aight, Can’d Meat time.
Tags, from TAYtags.
Syney Peeps: @35 @alexpants @anonymous_pessimist @batgirl @batguy @cakesmith @cj @cookingmama @dkzeitgeist @doc_what @effluvium-boy @fatshadylive @gingerchris86 @gorzilla @harli @hugo_the_hungarian_barbarian @mawt @morkai @markserrels @mrtaco @novacascade @powalen @pupp3tmast3r @ruffleberg @shiggyninty
Canberra Meeps: @bdkiaf @blaghman (Silly Blaghs, that’s me!) @rize (Silly TAYtags, Rize doesn’t live in Canberra) @shane @trjn (and Freyrjrjrjr, but I’m too lazy to remember how to tag her correctly)
Freezing Beeps: @freezespreston
Other people: @sernobulus, @f4ction, @rocketman,
People I want to annoy: @dc
As always, the usual applies, anyone feel free to jump in here, anyone else can request to stop appearing in this list.
*beat starts in the background*
Canberra Meat, you know the drill,
Come to my house, and watch as I chill,
Play some games, and eat some weird food,
Don’t forget to drown in some booze,
Notice that the last rhyme was shitty,
Remember why I no longer ditty.
So, Saturday, September 12 is the new date I’ve pulled out of nowhere, though I can shift it around if there’s a strong contingent who’d like it moved. Usual rules apply, feel free to turn up early and leave late, my house is open, as always. There should be drinking, video game playing, probably Cards against Humanity because there usually seems to be, and plans to make punch that never come through.
Reply here if you’re interested, please and thank you, or send an email to blaghman(at)gmail(dot)com if you need information, or if you just want to chat. *wink*
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. Oh yeah, usual stuff with like, car pooling and shiz. I don’t know. Whee, helping.
In.
Happy to carpool again with @alexpants. I promise not to get literally no sleep the night before this time so I don’t sleep the whole way.
And @freezespreston if he decides to join.
We had some sleep. A whole hour nearly.
Worth mentioning I don’t have a car at the moment and my ability to exist as a transport slave is entirely dependent on my parents not selling that old monstrosity of an automobile so consider a plan B.
But like, in.
Well, we’re to Canberra so I guess we should take the helicopter.
On a more serious note, last time Freeze and I went down we just hired a car. Split it a couple of ways and wheeeeee!
Even just between the two of us it wasn’t much, split 4 or 5 ways it would be pretty insignificant.
#Nobslaughter2015 ?
No invite for nob? Is this because I didn’t put out last year?
Nob is love. Nob is life.
“Other people” … I see how it is. All those times you said “I love nob” were a lie. ='(
And by that I mean, I’m interested!
Words can barely express how much I love Nob.
And everyone knows that actions speak louder than words. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I’ll tell work tonight.
Ergh, tempted. Very tempted.
It’s not too pricey to fly down to Sydney on Friday night, catch a lift down with someone. Always a good time. 😛
Any volunteers?
While you’re here you should try to convince Rocketto to join you. 😛
I might be able to help there, let me double check with Anton and see if we are able to go 🙂
If being stuck in a car with me sounds like fun then you’re welcome assuming I get the time off.
Polite decline.
Witty remark.
TAY in-joke.
No Dads Zone.
I think it’s a fairly safe assumption I won’t have anything going on then.
Maybe.
G Quick and I have been contemplating a trip to our nation’s capitol for a while.
Yeah, maybe.
I am a msybe, could combine it with a visit to my fam in the highlands. I’ll put it in the diary
In.
You should also tag that @pixel_the_ferret_viking guy. Because reasons.
Yeah, inviting @pixel_the_ferret_viking is never a bad idea.
He does like to invade places…
Just got approval from the
bosswife. I’m in if I can find a way from Sydney.I hear air travel is all the rage these days.
To Canberra? Not sure I have the requisite credit score.
Does anyone here?
But yeah, happy to split a hire car again. Sounds like Pow, Pants and Nobs are potentially keen as well. I’d say a hire car would be cheaper than all catching the bus as well.
Murrays/greyhound have relatively efficient/cheap buses, if nobody else wants to drive.
Cards against humanity? No thanks.
I’ll bring some good games instead.I’m going to find a giant cardboard box and turn up at your place Friday evening wearing it with pride.
I’ll be there AND I’ll be square.
Rock Band?
Rock Band.
I’m in. Not sure about Ash at this stage, but I’ll let you know
I dunno, man. It’s such a long way to travel…
Lazy
Aight
Yeah, aight.
I gotta work that night, but I’ll try and get the Friday Saturday off to come down!
just found this
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-21/male-gaming-bullies-are-literal-losers-study-finds/6636320
#notalllosers
I’ve said this before, I very rarely ever play with girls online. Even if I wanted to I could t find any female players to abuse
I’m a total gentleman by the way for those wonderingAnd while I’m here, Brisbane friends: @beardymcmuttonchops @beeawwb @cufcfan616 @dc @freezespreston @gutsoup @janexo @jimu @lambomann007 @popdart5 @sernobulus @strange @sughly @transientmind @welbot @virus__ @rocketman
I’ll be in Brissie on the 8th of August, so if anybody wants to meat up for food and/or alcohol, yaaaaaay. Pulling a time from nowhere, something at 7PM. Yay, nay, whatever?
I can’t think of a witty comment so I guess I will just say, I’m in.
I feel like this should be merged with the Rocketman meat at The Burrow!
Also if we go to The Burrow we should get some firm numbers soon-ish and make reservations. Plenty of beer places scattered around for drinks after too!
So long as he doesn’t mind me repeatedly attempting to steal his thunder throughout the night (this is a euphemism for playing with his penis that I didn’t really think through), I’m happy for it to be so.
This cool with you, @rocketman? I don’t think we locked down a date for your shindig!
Theres a rocket meet at the burrow..?
Did you know Rockets’ girlfriends aunt OWNS The Burrow? Now you do, Sughly! Now you do!
Not yet but there will be.
I am definitely a yea.
That’s funny, you don’t look like one.
#page2soon
Bit far out to say with certainty at the moment, but I should imagine the chances are better than average that I could attend 🙂 Would be great to do a double meat with Rockets!
A Saturday night generally means a yes from me.
Almost certainly in!
Mebbeh
You have disappointed me for the sixth time, Jimu.
I was going to say “last” initially, but I figured that’s a bit of an absolute, and I do so hate dealing with absolutes.
I’m still sick 🙁
Daytime is alright but cold night air is a pain in the lung.
Otherwise I woulda seen Jurassic World & Antman already 🙁 🙁
Yes.
Hi!
Might have to bail on this – it’s the day before I leave for my big OS holiday, and I know I will not have packed yet. Sorry duder!
Love me some advance notice.
Count me in.
In!
I have bought a new 3DS. What’s the best way to transfer my save data? I have a lot of retail games, rather then downloadable ones.
System transfer?
Might be some additional jiggery pokery with the SD cards but I never tried it myself.
System transfer doesn’t move anything that’s on the SD card, from what I read. It’s also a bit slow. I’m worried about losing my saves as my friend lost hers when she did the transfer.
Best bet is to then make a copy of your SD card.
Physical game saves are stored on the actual cart, aren’t they? You shouldn’t have to do anything.
But System Transfer is the only way to move digital stuff to a new system.
Let me be clearer. I don’t want to lose my pokemon shuffle save =P
System Transfer is the only way, then! There’s lots of guides on Youtube if you want something to step you through it.
Alright, I’ll check them out tonight. I’m most concerned about my pokemon shuffle and picross saves.
…
I freaking love picross.
@dc @shane
http://9gag.com/gag/aNKznWb
There’s been some AMAZING cosplay tweeted from their official twitter account too. People have skills! SKILLS!
I thought you would like it, hence the tag.
Woah. Amazing
Sughly’s game Anna’s Quest will be on Good Game tonight, folks! HEADS UP! ABC2 at 8:30pm!
Is Kotaku dying for anyone else or is it just my Internet that’s being shit?
It was for me, seems to be fixed now though.
Okay, well I’m off to bed.
Goodnight, TAY.
Goodnight, moon.
Goodnight to the sniper playing Hearts, shooting the moon.
Heads up everyone, MK8 soundtrack just went up on Club Nintendo. 2000 points, just finished punching in cards for mine ^_^
Had a few “expired” ones I’ll have to call Nintendo about though. Apparently Pokemon White worked fine, but Black was expired :/
I’ve got a bunch of expired ones that I figured was a matter of too late, too bad. Not sure if I can be bothered digging all the codes out again to work out which ones might be claimable since I probably can’t rack up enough points anyway.
I think that’s how I feel. I may check to see what I have though.
Okay, so I checked my australian one and I had 100 stars. Can’t get anything.
Checked my UK one and got two digital products. Mario and luigi and also the panorama of london for Mum.
@freezespreston Anton and I are in if you wish a lift, so it seems you have options 😀
I’m at work early. I’m wet from the rain. Remind me why I’m not at home under multiple blankets watching 3rd Rock From The Sun on Netflix?
On a side note, QUT open day on the weekend to look at going back to uni
Ugh, I got rained on too 🙁 Note to self: steal a coworker’s umbrella. And I went to QUT. For awhile. What do you want to study?
*QUT fistbump* KG or GP campus? They are so different.
Gardens Point, and a couple classes at the now long-defunct Carseldine. GP has such a nice vibe to it.
The botanic gardens are pretty sweet, and it’s nicely… flat compared to KG. But KG is where all the eye-candy is, and the groovier coffee shops and junk. (GP end of George St is a bit dingy…)
I have fond memories of living off GIANT CHOC-CHIP COOKIES (@dc *fistbump*) from vending machines when making use of the Z-block computers to do assignments all night the day before they were due while listening to MP3s through Winamp, but getting there was a dog.
(Good exercise, though. Getting off the train at Roma St and sprinting the length of George St to drop off assignments 15min before cut-off was always exciting.)
And Carseldine… I considered anything to do with going there to be some kind of punishment.
Those cookies, man. So good. Combined with chocolate milk! <3
Also Gardens Point is going to be amazing when Queen’s Wharf is redeveloped!
I used to work at UQ St Lucia and plenty of eye candy there (buildings and otherwise ;P ). Then I worked at Herston, not so much the eye candy there. Not much special in the way of food though at St Lucia 🙁
Winamp? Good God man. Showing your age there
It really whips the llama’s ass!
I AM NOT OLD YOU’RE OLD
I’m not ol…*checks receding hairline*…as you were. Each day is a day closer to retirement
What’d you study, Janey?
PR & Advertising. Yeah, that’s right, I wanted to be a Mad Men before I even knew what that was, hahah. But then I dropped out because I hated all the politics we had to study, and I became a librarian instead. Library college was way more fun. Surprising amount of drinking.
I did part of a business degree attached to my IT degree and holy crap, all that marketin & internatoinal business stuff was soul-crushing.
HEY, I spent 4 years studying economics
I avoided the soul crushing stuff by watching The Simpsons on repeat and playing Total WarAlso a QUT dude! Kelvin ftw!
I was one of those strange people who had classes between KG and GP, sometimes on the same day. Thankfully the shuttle bus between the campuses is pretty good. And yeah, definitely agree on the massive difference between the students at the different campuses. At KG I could see guys running around in kilts and doing the coconut gallop from Monty Python. GP just had computer labs and science labs forever. GP Guild Bar was far better than KG’s though, at least until they built the newer and fancier one.
I’ve heard Caboolture QUT is pretty good, except for the whole Caboolture part of it. (Apologies to any Caboolture residents).
Don’t apologise. They know what they did.
Urban Engineering and Quantity Surveying. I’m hoping my economics degree from back home can go a little way towards the economics module but not holding my breath. The only thing I need is citizenship so I can get Aus Study and not have to pay as an international student. After 7 years over here it’s probably about time I got it anyway tbh 😀
Whoa that’s like, crazy legitimate study, haha. Good luck!
Sure is. When I have mini-me’s running around I’ll definitely be telling them to hold off on uni and experience the world so they know exactly what you want to do. Much better than building up tens of thousands of debt in student loans and credit cards. There’s a reason I did that to myself, so I can impart my (lack of) wisdom onto the fruit of my loins 😀
(Take up a humanities subject. Go to Kelvin Grove. Trust me.)
But I can’t stand humans
Depressing page get so total edit:
After seeing that vid & realising I’d missed some of Ground Zeroes, I looked up a guide & headed back in.
Turns out, I’d not finished the Deja Vu mission, Kaz gave me a bum steer claiming I only needed to recreate one scene from MGS1 & exit via chopper.
Turns out…
If you recreate all the scenes a new exit appears which leads to a quiz on MGS1 which earns you the low res skin. If you do it all again on hard you can open the lo res ninjas skin & I think getting the S rank opens lo res skins for the guards & prisoners.Also shown in the vid is an Easter egg mission where you use a torch which is found on a specific gun to erase the logos of all kojima directed games.
Having never grabbed that particular gun, I missed it.
Good stuff, nice to get more out of that allegedly short game.
Yeah the Deja Vu mission was awesome and the quiz was pretty cool fan service too.
I found the deju vu mission to be the worst from a gameplay perspective.
Was pretty boring overall compared & I needed a guide.
All the fan service was great.
Did you find the two prisoners & see the Foxdie Easter egg?
It was very tense, that’s for sure and so too was the quiz – I didn’t want to fuck anything up. Got every question of the quiz correct up until the last (or second to last?) anyway it was the one about the weight of the elevator or something and just thought, this is ridiculous, and totally got it wrong. Then had to go back and do it all again.
Hmm the Foxdie deaths don’t ring a bell.. I don’t remember that.
If you go back to where Paz & Chico were in the main mission, there are two new prisoners that trigger it.
Any 3DS games you babes would suggest for several long-haul flights? I was thinking of starting Animal Crossing again, all fresh. I also hope that the plane has charging dealies in the seats, because man that battery life ain’t so long.
All of them! 😀
Long flight
I have two 10 hour flights with a couple hours between them, a 12 hour flight a week later, and then a 13 hour flight two weeks after that. Woof.
Better get Shin Megami Tensei IV then
or not since only I like it & @bish tolerates it :-sI like it, just got to a point towards the end where it dragged.
Did you go balanced route?
I found all the shitty side quests were hard to find & complete which slowed my progress considerably but the pay off at the end was really worth it.
hearing those depressed humans cheer up really did it for me(╯◕_◕)╯┻━┻
Haha… well what are your favourites?
Link Between Worlds
Pokemon Y
Luigi’s Mansion 2
Super Mario 3D Land
New Super Mario Bros 2
Mario Kart 7
Bravely Default
Ocarina of Time 3D
I told you there’s lots!
I enjoyed the Ace Attourney series, otherwise Project X Zone is good and ive heard good things about the new Harvest Moon game
Excellent use of emoji! When you leaving for your adventure?
August 10! Eeeeep.
Excellent use? I am regretting linking that site. 😛
ಠ╭╮ಠ
See?!
٩◔‿◔۶
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Bravely Default
Mario 3D World
Crimson Shroud
Attack of the Friday Monsters
Link Between Worlds
Majoras Mask
Devil Survivor Overclocked
Resident Evil Revelations
Cave Story 3D
Oh yeah, Pokemon Y
Luigi’s Mansion 2
Link Between Worlds
Monster Hunter 4
The 3D zelda remakes (OoT & MM)
Ace Attorney games! All of them!
Haha, it’s funny you say that! A long time ago when I moved to Canada, I took the first Ace Attorney game with me on the flight – and it made me FURIOUS. I had no flipping idea what was happening and no way to work it out! Don’t get me wrong, I really like those games now, but they were not very helpful to a first timer, haha.
I have some at home that I never play, you’re welcome to them. I have Monster Hunter, a Pokemon (I think it might be X… not sure though) and a Mario Game if you like?
Edit: I also have Majora’s mask as well!
From memory there isn’t anywhere to charge stuff, I was flying economy with Etihad and Emirates and there weren’t any charging points I remember.
I’m at about 40 hours into Theatrythm. Nothing else is needed, all other games are just shallow pretenders, tragically masquerading with the knowledge they’ll never truly measure up.
Games that aren’t already mentioned like Luigi’s Mansion or Link Between Worlds or Resi Revelations and are awesome:
-Shinobi
-Kid Icarus Uprising
-Star Fox 64 3D
-Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (turn-based strategy, unexpectedly good)
-RE Mercenaries
-Steel Diver (not to everyone’s tastes)
If you’re going to clean slate AC, do it a few days before the flight. Day 0 with the tent and no island is a little limited.
Edit: Also Fiyah Emblerhm ain’t too bad, you probably don’t need me to say anything about the pokeymans too.
Ooh thank you for the reminder, that’s a very good point!
Oh and also you can squeeze a few more hours out of the machine if you play with 3D and wireless off, screen brightness on lowest and the power saving feature on. I forget the exact stats when I tested it with OoT, timing each stretch from full battery to red light, but it did help quite a bit.
Get a seat with a power point, or a powered USB port. Problem solved!
Spend the whole trip in the toilet!
Genius!
I am disappointed in everyone (myself included) for not listing the best 3DS game ever made.
Babby making simulator (AKA: Fire Emblem: Awakening)
I spent a majority of a 14 hour flight breeding Pokemon once.
I’m not even talking about in game, either.
Bodily fluids everywhere.
I… Um… Ah… Hmm…
Nevermind.
Shovel Knight is a good game to just play for a long period of time. If you do something like the no falling deaths or no check point runs can be a good distraction to focus on.
http://www.seatguru.com will tell you lots of info about your airline, plane and facilities at each seat.
Have you considered a usb battery pack for game-life-extendy-goodness? I have a little solar one and it gets me one recharge on the Vita or about 2 on the iPhone.
Thanks for the link! I have a little USB pack dealy, but I’ll probably try to save that for my phone. It’ll be fine, really. There’ll be movies on the plane, and I’ll have a couple books with me.
Holy moly, this site is GREAT. It shows which seats have power, wowowow.
Isn’t it? Very useful when checking in online. 😀
http://collider.com/the-muppets-pilot-video-pitch-that-abc-greenlit-to-series/
The new 30 Rock/The Office-esque Muppet Show looks amazing! XD
Kermit needs to walk into someones office with a cup of iced tea talking about something obscure, take a sip of his tea and say “That’s none ‘my business though“
I’m a lifelong Muppet Show fan and apologist.
I watched this… and didn’t love it.
To be honest, I think I love the idea of it more than the execution, but I think it had its moments! 🙂
You know what I would love instead? The Muppet Show.
This so, so much.
Are people up for Rocket League tonight?
I would be but it depends on if cathryn wants to do something tonight
Aw heck yes.
After Numenera, perhaps!
;_;…
KotOR II!
How can I put money on my Steam account?
Credit card only??
Throw wallet at screen.
I thought that only worked for buying destiny emotes
I’m pretty sure Bungie & Activision have installed Paywave machines onto the new Destiny PS4s so you can literally throw your card at it and buy things
You can purchase things through paypal.
That’s my credit card too :-s
You can link your bank account to PayPal
That sounds dangerous :p
You can buy a gift card as well
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/618456760272261483/
Ah, so eb sell credit. Damn eb *shakes sjw fist*
For $27 you get a $20 steam card
Bargain!
What’s your user name? For $7.49 I’ll just gift it to you and save you the hassle of going to EB.
Really?
I think it’s JimuHsien
I hardly use it.
Not showing any users by that name. TheChumpDoctor? Picture of a portal sentry as an avatar?
Nah,
It should be some variation of jimuhsien.
Jimu?
Ummmm, @greenius, what’s my Steam name?
This is confused, JimuHsien is only my log in
My name is the start of me email for some reason
mij69_96jim
That seems the reverse to what it should be, how did I manage this?
Damning evidence of why I can’t PC game very well…
Damnit. I need you to accept a friend request before it’ll let you accept the gift. Alternatively I can send it to whatever e-mail you’re using for Steam.
David?
Steam uses my actual name? Weird. Anyway, done and done.
You are a scholarman & a gentle
It’s kind of disconcerting watching Bill & Ted today. They’re still hilarious, lovable doofus’ but with an unfortunate propensity to scream fag at each other at the slightest hint of male affection. I get it was 30 years ago with different public attitudes but still, it ruins the characters a bit.
In related news I just discovered Keanu Reeves wants to make Bill and Ted 3 using 3 directors, Scorsese, Coppola and Herzog. That… That would be an interesting film.
I did the exact same shit as an idiot kid.
Never hated homosexuality, but I dunno. It’s very true the the stupid spirit of early 90s rock/metal.
I’d argue that even by modern standards, Bill and Ted’s occasional use of the word “fag” comes from a place of affection, in the same way Jay might refer to Silent Bob as his “hetero life mate”, Sure, in Bogus Journey the evil robots call Bill and Ted fag (in the perjorative) right before they kill them, but they’re evil robots. They also attempt to rape Bill and Ted’s princess girlfriends and run over cats, which I think we call agree is behaviour worthy of condemnation.
Non non heinous example of most egregious behaviour.
I think today everyone’s just more aware of those people who’re ultra pc and who want to put a stop on any word that might be ‘offensive’ and as a result you question whether it’s appropriate. As @kermitron said though, context is important and in the day of internet catcalling, context is more often lost than not.
We have a ‘Christmas in July’ trivia night happening later today for the staff in my area of the University, so getting into the spirit I wore a reindeer Christmas top.
I have just been called into a meeting with my boss and her boss in 10 minutes.
⊙▂⊙
The only safe option is to remove your pants, so they won’t notice the top.
Wait a minute. Rudolph was a reindeer not an elepha…. OH MY GOD!
You give me too much credit.
This on top of calling yourself Kotaku? Sounds like someone’s angling for crazy reputation!
Crazy….? DON’T MIND IF I DO!
I saw ‘Kotaku’ liked my comment yesterday. I must admit, I was disappointed when it was just highperformance. I’m not sure what I was expecting though 😛
What happened? TELL ME I NEED TO KNOW
Well it was the first time I met my bosses manager, he told me ‘I’ve heard good things about you, but nothing about your choice of clothing‘.
And I kinda got my leave approved for next year, so a positive experience I suppose?
「(゚ペ)
Also I didn’t run with the pants off bit.
Words will have to do to express the crushing disappointment I feel right now. I am one quarter of the way to understanding how my parents feel about me. You should be ashamed of yourself.
BLOODBORNE UPDATE
I didn’t play Bloodborne last night.
I did, however, watch some of that new ABC show Glitch on iView. Pretty cool! Especially if you enjoy the sight of dirty, naked people climbing out of graves. …Which I do not, of course. (But seriously, I liked the first episode. Will watch more!)
Also, Sughly’s game on Good Game! I can’t believe they didn’t talk about the fantastic people who helped beta-test the original episode…
They didn’t even mention the people that didn’t help with the game but shouted him a beer that one time.
Or that guy that never did nuthin but he likes his jacket
Thankfully those extremely attractive people who tested Anna’s Quest can take solace in just how intelligent, rugged, and well-versed they are.
Don’t forget humble.
I feel like their modesty should go without saying!
I’m the best in the world at being modest.
Apparently the whole series is up on iView now so we don’t have to wait for weekly eps, either.
That’s what the newspaper told me. I don’t know how much I trust it though.
Question.
Spotlight has a foil machine for sale for $150. I want to check it out, but if I decide it’s for me, do you think people would be interested in a kickstarter for shiny pokemon bookmarks? It would be a special edition that is only shiny bookmarks, created by the foil machine. Something that I would only really leave for conventions as a luck dip chance.
How far would a kickstarter selling Nintendo trademarks unlicensed go?
That’s very true.
Maybe I’ll just save up and hope that they don’t get rid of it, as Spotlight is prone to do.
I feel really stupid now. Ugh.
Lay-by? Is that still a thing?
Shut up, richy rich!
(Colon pee if it isn’t obvious, carry on)
…I don’t know if Spotlight does that anymore
If they do lay-by I think they’d make her pay the full price not the sale price. Not sure though. My only experience is when I was a kid I’d do it with games. I should go to K-Mart and see if they’ve got a stack of SNES games awaiting payment with my name on it. I was a pretty dumb kid so I probably put half their electronics section back there and forgot about it.
Oh crap, I do remember that from Target sales (the last time I ever lay-by’d anything).
Why feel stupid?
Because it seems logical now.
Maybe a pre-order? =P
ಠ ‿ ಠ
( ̄ー ̄)
ب_ب
ಠ_ಠ
(✿´‿`)
I love this one lol.
ヾ(〃^∇^)ノ
Oh dear, emojis even work here
✌.ʕʘ‿ʘʔ.✌
•(⌚_⌚)•
I hate emojis.
None of these are Emoji though. They’re ASCII thingoes.
See? I hate them so much that I don’t even really know what they are (Though I program on computers and stuff, so I really should work this shit out)
。(⌒∇⌒。)
I hate them because I don’t know how to do them
Copy paste my man:
http://hexascii.com/
Man, neighbour politics. Sometimes you just gotta… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM
I am ashamed.
Or am I? It’s pretty damn catchy.
Playing through New Vegas yesterday, word of advice, no matter how tempting it is, don’t take a grenade rifle to the Legion guys in Nipton. Legion assassins coming at you for getting on their wrong side are ridiculously overpowered in terms of armour and weapons when you’re low level…but still, the grenade rifle is mighty satisfying to see them flying through the air
Fuck Caesar’s Legion.
NCR Fo lyfe.
I joined ceasar but to be honest, I didn’t like any groups.
NV has a grey world I LIKE.
Brotherhood of Steel forever! *
*Once we oust all the psychos and morons in positions of power
Ugh, The Brotherhood Outcasts is where it’s at!
They did have spiffier uniforms…
Ok, thanks to the kind generosity of @dogman I have a KotOR II.
Polygon claims the update added controller support, will my dual shock 4 just plug & play?
Dual Shocks don’t. XBOX 360 controllers should
I don’t have a wired one.
I tried to buy one once, walked out with a second wireless 🙁
http://support.xbox.com/en-AU/xbox-on-other-devices/windows/xbox-360-wireless-gaming-receiver-windows
They’re about $15.
That’s what I’m using. It works pretty well.
Also, 3 times now I got my DS3 working & 3 times it stopped.
Will attempt this:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/how-to-connect-a-ps4-controller-to-pc/
That’s what I use. Works great.
Is that a good tutorial?
Been a while since I set it all up, but I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same process I used.
That works, although it doesn’t so much make your computer recognise the PS4 controller as it tricks your computer into thinking your PS4 controller is an Xbox 360/One controller. Biggest problem with that is if a game prompts you to press a button it will display the Xbox 360 button layout instead of the PS3/PS4 controller layout.
Yeah, that’s the best I could get with my DS3 in the past.
What’s the legit way of getting it running?
Update claims KotOR II supports DS4
NUMENERA: TALES OF THE NINTH WORLD
Shit just got damp.
TONIGHT 7:30 SA TIME ASSUMING YOU’RE AVAILABLE
cc @popdart5 @tech_knight @blaghman
ALSO STREAMING
I’ll be there.
Also it’s a bit more than just damp considering we’re underwater. 😛
*Looks at Journey Machine 2.0*
Uhhh.
*Lovingly caresses Journey Machine 2.0*
I will be… busy tonight. With…
*Kisses Journey Machine 2.0*
Things. Yes, things.
(All prepped and ready to go, but I may resort to singing songs by Journey to fill this void)
I might be a bit late but I’ll be there
I love it when we get new shoe care products sent out to us. No explanation as to what it’s for, what it does or how to use it,just an expectation to sell it. I know, I’ll look at what written on the packaging. “To refresh and protect”. Oh right, same thing that’s written on everything. Errrgh. Stupid work.
Well they’ve given you some free samples for trying out, performance testing for yourself, right?
…Right?
Totes not what happens…. *cough*…. Totes.
Find someone who looks either thirsty or scared and start hawking.
So SWTOR is going offline for a 12 hour patch today. A whole bunch of stuff is being added/fixed etc., but most importantly, they’re adding a new playable race: the Togruta (think Ahsoka Tano or Ashara Zavros). No idea if I care enough to create a new character, but it’s nice to see them adding more options considering how many races Start Wars has to draw from.
Now hurry up and let me make my Ithorian Jedi!
Do they still have that 12x xp boost for subscribers thing going?
Yup. It runs till something like spring/August, I think.
Cool. I’d be interested in playing a Togruta but I don’t really want to go through 1 – 50 again without the boost.
With the boost you literally don’t need to do anything but class missions if you don’t want. They’ve retooled the low level commendations system so you can keep your gear easily current, too.
Any idea what classes they can be?
We should really play more SWTOR instead of once a week just to do the weekly quests …
No idea, they’ve been fairly closed about it…I also haven’t looked very hard. I’m happy to find out after the patch hits.
I was thinking about jumping back into this, have kinda been going through a massive star wars phase again 😛
Do iiiiiiit. join usssssss.
But I’m so far behind everyone and I don’t want to make you guys go through the same stuff all over again
Subscribe for one month so you get the level bonus. It really is easy with the 12x exp bonus.
EDIT: Honestly, it doesn’t really bother me to start again. As long as a few of us are grouped together it still ends up being a blast!
Went to download it, down for maintenance 😛
Will try again tonight!
At least i have my Sith… Something… Which is lvl 24 i think so that’s not too bad…
I think the only class I don’t have up at a reasonable level is the Jedi Consular. Although I am considering deleting Lards and remaking him as an Evil Consular.
Currently playing as a “practical Jedi” as an almost 40 Shadow which essentially has me bouncing back and fourth between being good and evil. I found the early stuff where I chose to be Dark Side didn’t feel like it fit into the story, but once I got past 20 and again at 30 it started to fit in far better. So, if you’re going Dark, you may initially regret it but moving forward it gets better.
Not gonna lie, the biggest reason for wanting to make lards as a consular is because you get to eat people. Also the idea of a massive fat guy running around in stealth is hilarious. Also, also i don’t like the evil jedi knight story might make more sense if I go light.
Oh crap, that reminds me I really need to get back into SWTOR again before they finish doing the big exp boost that lets you play it more like KOTOR than MMOTOR.
So many games on the pile of shame, and here I am seriously considering buying a steam version of Kotor II, a game I’ve completed at least a dozen times.
Yeah, it IS a pretty great game, and it’s on sale too. Plus that new patch is pretty great. It sure would be awesome to play it again, right?
…have you caved yet?
I much preferred it to the original, though maybe that’s because I played 2 first.
Hngh, must resist
I love them both for different reasons, but the Revan/Malak story makes 1 my favourite.
Number 2 improved on the first game in every way (in my opinon) but like you, I love the Revan/Malak story so it’s a tossup between the two for me.
One big point for 2 (minor, but mattered to me far more than it should): robes have physics. They’re limited, but compared to 1 it was a biiig step up.
I’m probably not going to notice that too much in my new playthough as I will be playing a heavy armour wearing juggernaut of death. =P
But then you lose a bunch of force user feats/abilities…or could you bypass that in 2? I don’t remember…
I loved using minimal armour and using force speed to obliterate everything 😛
@rize
No feats are armour restricted but about 50% of force powers are. That being said there are a fair amount of force abilities that have no armour restriction.
EDIT: Probably the biggest one I will miss is “Master Speed” which gives you 2 extra bonus attacks, double movement speed and 4 defence bonus.
The cut-content mod is on the workshop, for easy and fast integration!
I’m gunna be back in here tonight asking how to work this.
Total puter fool here, much help needed
Well, I’ll have to check it out myself. I THINK I have it…
I started a new game. =P
The patch is great, basically it just adds a hell of a lot of fan mods that make the game playable on modern PCs. Plus we can’t forget the all important achievements!
Extra area, isn’t the factory in?
Yeah, stuff despite being basically finished didn’t end up in the final game.
Excite!!!
CC: Seemingly all of TAY
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/07/tips-for-playing-rocket-league/
Out of specifically just the 3 new consoles not including anything else which do you use most.
Little Jimmy: PC
Excellent work little Jimmy. *pats on head* Your short bus is almost here to make sure you get home without swallowing your own tongue.
Old jimmy said handheld ;p
Protest vooooote! It’s like writing ‘Jedi’ under your religion on the census! Nowait… something less dumb. It’s… it’s like filling in your ballot paper with a picture of party leaders performing lewd acts with farm animals! Hm.
No, hang on, I can come up with something reasonable and relateable I’m sure.
Of the three, I only own Wii U. So, to answer your question – none.
I’m seriously considering buying a tablet for easy access to instructions and my notes when I’m sewing, and for my magazine subscriptions (after hiring one of those iPads on the plane for my son and using it to read a magazine after he’d consumed all the content that interested him. The content was really crappy, but reading a magazine on it was a beautiful experience).
I hate every Apple device I’ve used (except for the original Mac :P), but I think I may be leaning towards an iPad. Who wants to talk me into or out of my decision?
Edit: Thanks for all the responses, they’ve really helped me realise that yes, I want to risk going with the iPad, and yes, as soon as the tax money comes through, if there’s anything left after paying my daughter’s exorbitant Public school fees, I will grab one. 🙂
Oh, and I need a new music-at-home solution. My first gen iPod Touch and its little dock with speakers isn’t working very well any more, partly because it’s stopped being supported with updates. Given that I mostly have music playing all day, every day through Google Play Music, does anyone have a good solution for me? My Sony phone and Bluetooth speakers or something?
Man, mu iPod classic just won’t die!
Agreed with the Mrs, the day it dies I can just replace it. ITS ALMOST A DECADE OLD & SHOWING NO SIGNS OF DEATH D:
*sobs*
We have a broken iPod Classic if you want to sneakily make a switch…. 😛
Ha ha! Thanks, no. It’s actually running really well, even the battery lasts a long time.
I think my original green screen iPod died so quickly because I used it something like 8 or more hours a day every week night for 2 years. Working nights as a cleaner.
This one gets a much milder workout.
My ipad mini is pretty great for having next to me while cooking. Loaded up with recipe PDFs that I access through the Dropbox app.
Also I can then watch Youtube or something when I get tired of watching boring old food cook 😛
This is actually the entire reason I placed the new “family” PC right next to the kitchen, with the screen highly viewable from the prep area. 😀
I dunno, I bought my wife a 2 just before 3 came out & she didn’t want it but uses it every day. My son also loves it.
I’m not allowed near it because I might taint it with games or something, not sure.
But yeah, wifey was deadset against it & is totally addicted now.
If I get one, there’s no way I’m letting either of my kids even glance at it, let alone touch it! 😛
I don’t use my tablet (Nexus 10) all that much, but it’s really handy to have. Mostly, it’s a comic reader, though I do use it for Netflix, either in bed, or so I have a screen to watch on as I do computer stuff. I consider it a worthwhile investment (but I didn’t pay for it, so I’m just being facetious here).
I use an ipad! It’s great. 😀
A combination of music + Marvel Unlimited on it has made it basically the best thing ever.
Do you just listen to music through the iPad’s speakers, or do you have another set-up?
Headphones. Just like what I use when commuting. The speakers are surprisingly loud, though, when I’ve had them on. My guess is they were made to compete with the free-standing speaker units that people plug their iDevices into.
One of my buddies connected everything in his house to Sonas speakers via wifi. Expensive, but awesome. 😛
That’s my dream. 😀
I have an old Nexus 7 that’s getting very, very creaky. I’m looking at maybe a Samsung 8 inch tablet or going whole hog to the Sony one.
ANDROID YEAH
I really like the Sony one. It has the advantage of apps crossing over with my phone and them probably talking really well together. But on the other hand, it’s kind of just a larger version of my phone, which feels weird. 😛
So? An iPad is a larger iPhone.
More seriously, it depends what you want to do. I have an entire library of humble bundle games that I can sideload onto Android. The comic viewer I use for non marvel stuff (For example, Humble Bundle cbrs or *ahem* eyepatch stuff) synces wirelessly with my PC on Android, doesn’t even exist on iOS. I can watch youtube, Netflix, I can read Kindle books. All of the above is sweet androidy goodness.
I dunno about .cbr readers not being available on iOS. I’ve definitely used a couple in the past that were pretty drag-and-drop. Also, the Netflix app on iOS is better than the PS4 one.
Can’t argue about the humble bundle games, but hey… if you’re ever in the market for exploitative F2P energy-timer-locked games, you can’t beat the Apple ecosystem!
I meant that specific app which syncs across. I’m sure there are iOS ones.
I still consider Humble Bundle a huuuuuuge reason why I think Android is ultimately better than iOS. There’s other, more rational reasons for and against each OS, but the stuff you can get from Humble (and the prices!) are just so great. Hell, go look at the current Neo Geo one.
My wife has an Xperia phone and tablet and loves the familiarity she has between the two. No extra learning, less confusion etc. Also, the Xperia tablet is friggin’ awesome. Great performance, looks awesome, and is waterproof.
It’s weird but it works. I brought a Samsung tablet for my nan because it matched her large Samsung phone and it worked out really well. One account running everything, the interface remains the same, the options are in the same places. I’m sure you can wrap your head around two operating systems but it’s still silky smooth having everything run the same way.
Having an Apple and Android device is good if you want the best range of compatibility options but it’s not really that important. Most things are either on both iOS and Android or have a good alternative on the other platform.
Also I don’t know if they’ve lightened up in recent years but Apple devices are a pain in the butt to deal with. Android isn’t perfect but it’s more flexible. Do iPads even let you use SD cards? Does everything still get routed through iTunes?
The only great thing about Apple devices as far as I’m concerned is that they have a huge range of third party accessories. You’re pretty likely to find what you want in a Samsung main series compatible form, but you’ll definitely find the iPad version of the accessory first (probably with half a dozen results to choose from too). You’re pretty handy though, so I’m guessing you’d be able to play around and make your own kitchen bench stand if for some reason you couldn’t find a decent one to hold your specific model of tablet.
iPad’s currently don’t have SD capability and yes everything still is accessed through iTunes! 😀
I prefer Android phones but there’s something about the ipad I find much more appealing than Android tablets. No real reason why. We’ve got a couple in the house for the kids and wife uses one for work. The mini is a pretty good size to use as a more portable solution. My mother uses one as a Netflix controller for her chromecast,so she can use the Netflix app to browse around while the show plays on the TV.
Once you’ve got one you find yourself using it for a whole bunch of things you never really thought of.
Tablets can be fantastic, just make sure (like with any computer/expensive purchase) you take the time to shop around. Duck into places like JB Hifi and try out various iPads, Android, and Windows models to find out which one you like the most.
In terms of function for what you’re after they’re pretty much all the same, but…personal bias: an iPad usually means iTunes, which means uuuuuughhh.
EDIT: I should add, when you try stuff out in store, do it without a salesperson standing there blabbing on. It’s a much better experience 😛
I use Google’s Play Music, even on myiPod. 😛
And yeah, I tried out the iPad on the plane, and tried the Experia tablet in store at a JB and I think that’s why I’m leaning towards the iPad. I just really hate their phones which my husband uses, and my iPod, all of which just don’t seem as functional or reliable as my own phone which is why I’m hesitant.
With iTunes, I actually meant things like backing up, updates etc. You can bypass iTunes for most of it these days but some stuff is still (unfortunately) a good idea.
Aha! Good point! I have to have it installed on the computer for my daughter’s iPod though, so I’m okay with that.
I have an iPhone but don’t even have iTunes installed on my computer thanks to Spotify!
I successfully use my iPad without connecting it to my PC/Mac at all. There’s some advantages in terms of syncing and backups, but the device can be used to it’s full potential as a standalone.
I generally didn’t like Apple stuff much either – yet I have an iPad Air, Macbook Air and a 160gb iPod Classic. They serve their respective purposes well. I don’t dig Apple’s walled garden in terms of both hardware and software, but they do make some really nice, easy to use products.
My iPad is pretty much purely a bedside TV episode/YouTube/browsing/games machine – a luxury. My iPod is great because it’s got a massive capacity and a simple interface. And my Macbook Air is purely for work and being an ultra portable laptop with a battery that literally lasts all day.
But PC is still my choice for gaming (obviously) and for any power/custom builds I do myself.
The trick is finding out whether what Apple do is for you, and disconnecting from any fandom when doing so. Again, they make some really nice hardware, and like me, you can use both Apple/Mac and PC quite happily. Each has it’s pros and cons.
Classic iPods are sweet though. Click wheel, using them as a memory stick, tons of accessories, all awesome. I didn’t even have to get it out my pocket to use it. Half the reason I hated my iPhone was that it replaced my iPod while ditching almost all the features I loved.
Sad the Classic got thrown under the bus. Happy I got a new 160gb just before they did.
Spent a while trying to get my ipod 3G working again. sigh. it did one thing, and it did that thing really well. my phone’s ok for tunes but but but but. 🙁
Using a smartphone as a MP3 player is like using an emulator and keyboard to play old games. You can do it and it does a passable job, it even does a few technical things better, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing.
Not sure if this has already been posted, but there’s some fairly unexpected news regarding the Minecraft movie.
http://deadline.com/2015/07/minecraft-movie-rob-mcelhenney-its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-1201482930/
I need to re-watch It’s Always Sunny …
I need to watch more of It’s Always Sunny…
I never want to watch another episode of It’s Always Sunny…
I need to watch an episode of Always Sunny…
You’ll love it!
No, it’s basically modern-day Seinfeld with worse human beings!
Those are exactly the reasons I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen, yes.
…You’re a monster, @blaghman.
You do realise I had Soup Nazi on my year 12 jersey and religiously watched Seinfeld as a teenager?
Whereas my year 12 jumper said “Monstrosity” so I feel like I’m just hitting the expected bar.
I refused to buy a year 12 Jersey because I had a lot in common with Squall Leonheart.
ASiP is so good.
I need to start watching It’s Always Sunny…
Dooo eeeeet
Booooo
Honestly, I think this would fit better narratively after the next comment. 6/10
I actually used to watch it daily, thanks to the Comedy Channel on Foxtel.
Comedy Channel was one of three channels that I had hooked up to my building, so I got to watch a lot of it. And because I was working shift, I’d catch the ‘repeat’ sessions of the channel, because the programming is really just a 6hr chunk of shows that gets repeated several times a day.
Pretty sure I’ve seen every episode of the first few seasons like… a dozen times, each.
If the movie was just the Always Sunny gang playing Minecraft for two hours, I would watch that.
Ha. Jimmy Barnes cracking the shits about Reclaim Australia playing his songs at their rallies. “None of these people represent me and I do not support them” then tells them to stop playing his music.
Aha! I had heard this! I’ve been exposed to a lot of Real news today.
Did you know that the dude in the new The Bachelor tv series actually already has a girlfriend?! It’s like the show doesn’t actually mean anything at all!
Did you hear about the scandal that hit the latest season of The Bachelorrette in the US?
Apparently it was shocking that she admitted to having sex with a bunch of the dudes. Because she must remain pure and chaste, or something. And it’s totally unreasonable that when judging a bunch of presumably attractive men she might also want to judge their penis use.
Never ceases to amaze me how shocked people get when someone admits they enjoy sex. Have these people had sex lately? It’s pretty fantastic. Highly recommend it.
I am reminded of that South Park episode where men keep scanning around looking for the presence of women when remarking with disbelief on why so many rich and powerful men seem to keep abusing their power to cheat on their older spouses with the young, attractive women who are drawn to their power. The obvious conclusion is that it must be aliens and mind-control.
I’m honestly amazed Reclaim people aren’t getting thrashed wherever they jump up. Not because they’re racist, but because their kind of racism doesn’t fit in with the lazy passive racism of the rest of Australia and if there’s one thing Australians hate its people who are intolerant of other people.
Side note: at this point I’m pretty sure Australia pre-dates ancient Greece if only to provide definition to the word “hypocrite”.
Well, from memory one of their rallies had a few hundred people, and around a thousand counter-protesters. I know the Canberra one was something like 50 protesters, and 150 against them. So it’s not like they’re actually a big group, just a loud one.
Also, there is mad police presence at their things, and I think the majority of incidents were caused by the anti-racists…
But Islam is taking over! What with the tiny percentage of the population that is Islamic and the power all being held by old white Christian men and next election, oh ho ho, Islam will dominate us, with the choice between the two old white Christian men and then… Wait, I forgot where I was going with this…
To the bottle-o for a packa durries and a six pack of VB*?
*Substitute VB for XXXX, Tooheys, etc depending on your state of residence.
Six-pack? What, is that an arvo snack?
Get a couple slabs if you’re knockin’ off early.
Smoko, mate.
My favourite is “I have nothing against Muslims, I just don’t like Islam.”
:/
If any statement begins with a disclaimer, you know you’re in for a treat.
*imagines the broken, shattered expression on the face of every bogan racist in Australia*
Yes. This pleases me.
Fuck fascists.
To use the vernacular:
Onya Barnesy
There’s a lady in my office with peanut butter donuts and I want one (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
‘Excuse me, does this smell like chloroform?’
Walk up to their back-left. Tap them on the right shoulder, and quickly grab one as their attention is drawn away.
Take it to the roof so you can cry about what you’ve done in peace as you eat it.
*rubs eyes* Ugh. I need to go home. Skim-reading I assumed you were starting to provide detailed instructions on how to snap a neck.
The final sentence did nothing to correct my assumption.
Take your shirt off and say you didn’t get abs like these by eating peanut butter donuts, but say you’ll safely dispose of them for her then wish her well on her fitness journey!
…
Then take it to the roof so you can cry about what you’ve done in peace as you eat.
Why would somebody ruin perfectly delicious donuts by adding peanut butter?
Maybe to poison someone with peanut butter allergies? *strokes beard*
When you put it that way he’d be a criminal not to steal and eat the donut.
Maybe to cover up the taste of the arsenic? *strokes notbeard*
You know nothing Jon Snow.
I am the Bane of the accounting world.
My Venom is Coffee, and instead of getting huge muscles, I get huge spreadsheets.
Hmm
Mmhmm.
mmH
I like where this is going.
I went to the library to borrow a book on abdominal surgery
Someone had removed the appendix #dadjokepagesix #hi@strangeOld pirates retire and grow corn for a buck an ear.
This new DC is a little unsettling.
I like to imagine him saying these jokes with zero emotion.
The psychiatrist told the genie his emotions were all bottled up.
He’s trying to tell us something. In code!
Fun fact page six: The Mk 1 grenade, as developed by the Americans for the first world war, was designed to be the simplest, most elegant grenade of the time.
It was so simple that the opposing forces would often demonstrate how to arm it by throwing it back at American troops who had failed to do the job properly.
(As a note, the Mk 2 (or pineapple grenade) featured what is more or less standard today, a safety pin, and a handle that pops off and arms the grenade as it does. The Mk 1 required you to remove the pin, take off the top of the grenade, and then I think you had to twist the handle to pull it off before throwing.)
Okay, so that isn’t fun, but I found it interesting.
Okay, wait, had this one been mentioned?
Some sort of common wisdom holds that “room to swing a cat” refers to Cat O’ Nine Tails, and the amount of room on a boat. Common wisdom is, in this case, wrong. The term predates the use of Cat O’ Nine Tails when referencing punishment by something like 30 years, and by appearance looked to be in a common vernacular form by that point.
So yes, the term almost certainly refers to felines, and based on contemporary works, the swinging was most likely by the tail.
For another cat fact, cats spread their scent around to mark their territory by rubbing their bodies all over them. Cats have a number of scent glands around their body, including in their face, head, and tail, which will emit a cat’s distinctive odour when the cat rubs itself against something.
So when a cat nuzzles its face against you, really it’s just marking its territory. At least it’s more pleasant than a dog marking its territory.
Reminds me of Red Dwarf’s Cat. “This is mine, this is mine, ALL THIS IS MIIINE”
Except that bit
That bit is yours.
I don’t want that bit. But all the rest of this is… MINE.
And an aside, is it just me, or is it rather strange that contemporary could mean that something is either from the current day (contemporary politics), or from the time of whatever you’re talking about (Billy the scholar’s contemporaries)?
English, right?
I think the same thing about “original”. If you’re talking about THE original, you’re talking about the old one. If you’re talking about AN original, you’re talking about a new one. Stupid words.
http://askthepast.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/how-to-play-with-cat-1658.html
Possibly relevant.
One thing I read involved tying two cats together by their tails (I assume with rope, not just like winding their tails), and then throwing them over something so that… well, it wasn’t clear, I think so they fight while hanging via their tails.
That reminds me of the whole “camel through the eye of a needle” thing.
There’s some Biblical thing where Jesus says it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. There’s a lot of talk that the eye of a needle refers to a city’s night gate, which was often small and any heavily laden camel would have to be stripped of its load before being able to pass through. Similarly a rich man should give his wealth to charity in order to be able to enter heaven.
There’s another explanation that I much prefer, Jesus was being a sarcastic bastard and he was talking about a literal needle. Fuck the rich! Property is theft! Buy this Che Guevara tshirt!
Grandpa joke page six.
Why don’t Chinese use phone books?
There’s so many Wings and Wongs someone might wing the wong number.
*Grandpa chuckles loudly to himself as mortified family try to pretend they didn’t hear it and not make eye contact with the staff of the Chinese restaurant they’re having dinner at*
http://giphy.com/gifs/antm-racist-thats-PBJw6ZSMYmzXq
Wow, that woman’s mouth and chin combo is almost as offensive to me as Reese Witherspoon’s.
Oh god, my last major extended family lunch…
*flashbacks* *shudders*
Ahhhh casual racism, the language of country towns
My Grandpa does something like that. Whenever an person of Indian descent walks past, he says in an Indian voice, “We do not wanty,” and everyone just pretends they didn’t hear him.
Costume scouting mission required surprisingly less driving than I was expecting.
Third op shop I went to had some snowboard (I think?) boots, which were in my size, way more comfy and flexible than those stupid ski boots, and half the price – $15. Pretty much just had to get them on principle. Hopefully I can just paint them the colour I need.
In other news, it’s apparently impossible to find some plain red swimmers. Unless you want to get some speedos for $40 at Rebel. Guess I’ll just hit up Spotlight and make what I need from scratch. Also when I was checking out there, the yellow vinyl that was there every single time I went in the past has now disappeared, and seems to be discontinued. Of course it is, now that I’m actually looking for it. Dammit.
What do you want to paint them? And what material is it made from?
Red, mostly. Maybe some white around the sides of the soles. Not sure what they’re made of exactly, I presume it’s all vinyl and not leather, and maybe polyester or nylon or something. Seems pretty synthetic. It’d be nice to be able to just go over it with the spray can and hope for the best 😛
If it’s vinyl try a leather shoe paint. You can get it at mister minit. Otherwise use fabric paint.
What it sounds like you really need is a shoe product to refresh and protect.
If only we knew of a professional familiar with such a product.
Alright, I re-read that again. http://angelusdirect.com/collections/paint This will be good for fake leather, leather and the sides of the sole. Mister Minit sells something similar which is cheaper.
As for the rest of it, if it’s synthetic, you’ll want a fabric paint. Try to get a fabric paint that doesn’t require heat to set. SoSoft is one of those you may want.
Cheaper? Ours is twice the price of that stuff. It’s the Waproo product rebranded as Minit.
Minit aren’t the cheap option for anything at all. Trade off is we generally don’t deal in lower quality products. Everything we have is fairly high end.
When you exclude shipping, it’s cheaper. Angelus comes from america, so, I think it might be better to check mister minit.
What’s the costume?
Gooky never tells.
Well now I just have to maintain the legend don’t I 😛
Also I spotted this on the way out of the place I got the boots. I don’t know what it is but it made me think of an Octoling costume or something.
Too rich for my blood though, had to leave it behind 😛
So…what’s there to actually do in the Gold Coast?
You could join a gang?
Hang out at one of the many kebab shops
Bleach your hair
Seek gainful employmentNot get punched in the facePlay winter sportDrink coffeeCatch decent public transportSwim at the beach
Think that’s about my list, sorry.
Theme parks!
SCOOBY DOO SPOOKY COASTER!
Drugs.
Rollercoasters, and eating amazing food with the Freezes.
Numenera: Tales of the Ninth World – Thirty-third Session Recap (8th July 2015) starring:
– Blaghs aka @blaghman the tough Glaive who masters weaponry,
– Elandar Kintan aka @popdart5 the foolish Nano who controls gravity.
– Scrappa aka @tech_knight the mechanical Jack who talks to machines, and
– Storyteller aka @redartifice the awesome GM who weaves tales.
The Deschn was piloted to float alongside the Jaekel raider ship so that the Redfleets and the party could scavenge as many valuables as they could. Blaghs, Scrappa, Zippa, and Elandar boarded the Jaekel ship while Captain Ieza coordinated his crew to strip the ship of any important components and replacements parts. Scrappa attempted to repair the control mechanisms for the ship however the fight with the Jaekels and the Arashka had severely damaged the power conduit and it was not going to last long until it needed to be replaced. The Redfleet crew began carving out metal planks and engine parts while the party proceeded to rifle through the small collection of valuables that the Jaekels had hoarded.
Read more at http://taynumenera.tumblr.com/
Mr. Strange bought The Witcher 3 on the weekend. I’m torn between not watching him play so I don’t spoilerise myself, and watching all the pretty. So pretty!
Witcher, So goooooood
Don’t spoil yourself if you can. There’s some pretty fantastic twists and turns, especially in the main story.
So this is quite the nifty thing.
Think I’ll grab a few for home and work.
Neat idea but my phone has a waterproof cover over the ports which make this useless for anyone with an Xperia phone.
So the cover would be stuck open?
Guess you’d need to be really committed to the idea to butcher the original cover.
I quite like the idea for work as I’m always fumbling for the damn cable and then need to get up quickly when I get a call that I need an office for.
Yep, I’ve back that to grab a couple. Love the idea, and hopefully they reach the custom designs stretch goal. Iron Man adapter looks rad!
At first I was like “really? It saves you that much effort?”
But then I realised that having a connector like that would save your phone’s plug from being worn out and/or risk being broken (thus dooming the entire unit) with the constant plugging every night to charge. Might actually have to grab a couple.
I highly encourage everyone playing Rocket League to use the Konami code on the main title page.
I can’t find the B, A or start buttons!
My plan ruined!
PS4 = O X Options
SUPER! SONIC!
Acrobatic-Rocket-Powered-Battle-Cars!My lame claim for fame returns!
Game of Thrones Telltale Game – Chapter Five
Spoilers are coming.This is your last warning. Next tag has spoilers.Shit got real. At last.I let Asher die to save Rodrik. Not because I think it’s a particularly good choice, but because it fits the roleplaying, and made good sense narratively.Great episode in a great series. Really enjoyed this one.I got so excited about The Sith Lords that I forgot this.
NUMENERA: TALES OF THE NINTH WORLD
ELANDAR: Ate delicious fruit
SCRAPPA: Untangled a lost jellyfish
BLAGHS: Studied Sea anemonemonemones up close
A lovely underwater jaunt!
THanks for playing guys!
cc @blaghman @tech_knight @popdart5
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q20yunhllFU
/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\
I won’t accept you contract!
111 days til Fallout 4 and I’m sure someone’s added an extra day into this week. It’s not Friday? This is witchcraft.
My cat is also claiming that I should spend the day in bed. Who’m I to argue with that? Unfortunately my cat can’t write a medical certificate to be off work 🙁
I feel like I should be making more progress in re-reading The Wheel Of Time. Started again as I never finished the last book and everything else has largely gone out of my head
Whyyyyyyyyy… Why resubject yourself to the entire series?
I think if I get around to cleaning up 12 – 14, I’ll just jump in cold and figure it out as I go.
Just reading the Sanderson trilogy might be sufficient. It feels in a lot of ways like a new series.
Things did pick up with the Sanderson books, but then again that was the business end of the series. (I’m setting myself up here for disappointment), all I’m hoping for is that it doesn’t end with a ‘the wheel turns, a new age starts, the story begins again just with different characters’. I have no idea if that does happen or if there’s proper closure for the series, but my other favourite series which will go un-named for spoilerage reasons did the whole ‘story starts again with a slight change’ at the end which was annoying to say the least
Spoilers:
You’ll probably like the ending.Man, I started reading that while I was at uni. I think I made it to like… book 8?
I vaguely recall a trio of young adventurers as scions of prophecy, an Order of alternately swooning/bitchy sorceress fangirls whose inner voices seemed to be written in a man’s voice speaking in a higher, strained pitch, and their stoic, dual-purpose dog-metaphors/man-candies. A young fella who may have been the demon lord reborn, or… at least the reincarnation of an evil man who is the only evil capable of defeating the demon lord or… hell if I know.
I think the last cogent thoughts I recall from the series are:
1) “Get on with it already.”
2) “Well now you’re just making shit up.” *pause* “Well. I mean… Obviously, it’s fiction. But still…”
Books eight, nine and ten were all pretty dreary. Massive return to form for Jordan’s last book and Sanderson’s three, though. It’s really up to the individual whether fighting through 2000 pages of drudge is worth it, though.
Yes, get on with it!
It does get drawn out a little, but in a good way for me. Great character development
I like your second point 😀Hey, verisimilitude and believably organic narrative consistency are totally things! Things I didn’t have language for at the time, and am still wobbly in the use of. (As evidenced here.)
Morning all! My console received an update for Life is Strange yesterday. The reason: to make all the necessary changes for the release of Episode 4.
So it’s coming. And probably very soon!
@dc @highperformance
And oh my god, can I please have some bleach to scrub my brain? I’ve read some internet commentary (*drawl* well, there’s your problem right there), and so many people seem to feel betrayed and ready to take up arms because the next chapter is a week behind the loosely defined ‘schedule’. ONE. WEEK.
I get that these people are excited about the game, but it really irks me when enthusiasm decays into entitlement.
*takes a long drag on a cigarette*
Hmf. Rookies. Were they there for Wolf Among Us ep 2? Don’t talk to me about war, man.
*thousand-yard stare*
Sure, but that’s not even a long wait compared to the significant delays that AAA games routinely undergo. Arkham Knight, Witcher 3 and Bloodborne were all subject to significant delays after being made available to pre-order, but the overall response seems to be: “that’s disappointing, but okay, as long as they need the time to improve the game.”
Episodic content is somehow expected to be different, though. People feel betrayed and ripped off by a delay of a week, or a fortnight, or even a month. For my part, I am absolutely amazed that Dontnod are able to make an episode of Life is Strange in an eight week period – I have no idea how they are doing it. (From what I understand, they were a company on the verge of bankruptcy prior to this game and each episode is being funded by the sales of the game to date, so they didn’t make it all in advance…)
Yeah, but to the layman, each new episode isn’t a ‘new game’, see.
Initial development – the groundwork of building the engine and figuring out how your assets are going to interact with it, setting the rules for the world – is probably generally considered to be the hard part that takes more time.
The rest is ‘just’ content. Maps, writing, movement/event scripting, VO, any new art assets, making sure that all those things play nice with each other and don’t break anything.
There’s a lot of recyling there, which people assume chops time off development of the next episode. It’s a lot harder to invent a car than it is to build one from a blueprint. They figure the blueprint is there.
And frankly, that’s partly how I think/thought about it, to an extent, but from what I’ve seen of game design in general, content may well be the hardest part.
I mean, we’re talking about a body of evidence such as the cost of campaigns as kickstarter stretch goals, the failures to implement them, the sparseness of MMO content (the lofty goals/promises of ‘no content droughts’, followed by solid efforts for a few months then years of content droughts), the staggering number of indie games with promising game mechanics who waste their potential by going into a short-lived, cannibalizing market of multiplayer-only… there’s gotta be a fair bit more to that whole ‘content’ thing.
This is true, I imagine people have an expectation that these episodes ‘already exist in some form’ where there are just some simple things to update and then send it out.
I think the ‘episodic’ nature of the game means it’s like waiting for your favourite TV show, it’s very rare for a T.V show to be put back a week and only really happens with animated shows (South Park, etc.) on a very rare occasion.
Yeah, they’ve done such an amazing job maintaining their release schedule that we can give them a break for a one off slip . They owe us nothing. Just make a damn good ep and give it to me whenever. 😀
Many hype for this, I’ve downloaded the first 3 eps but I think waiting for another one so I can binge over a weekend feels right too me 😛
Allow yourself the slow burn. And explore like crazy. Talk to everyone. Experiment with choices. Take it all in, fitness friend!
This is good advice. There are actually ‘choices’ hidden away in optional exploration!
And unlike Telltale and Quantic Dream, it’s not cheating to see what alternate outcomes are. It’s encouraged.
So I have a job interview on Friday thats good, I need to be clean shaven thats bad, I haven’t been growing my beard for awhile so im not that attached thats good, all my shaving stuff is in a box at Cathryn’s dads place thats bad.
If you have to shave for something in the future (the horror), I reckon you should probably shave right now. Give your face some time to get used to the new conditions.
Any time I’ve had a really long growth that I’ve got rid of, the irritation afterwards has resulted in much redness which looks really weird for a while. Like a rash.
Yeah I get the same thats why I have to drive an hour away after work to get my shaving stuff then an hour back haha
…. Can I go now?
Did you eat all your Froghurt?
Gooooood morrrrrning TAYetnam.
That was probably inappropriate? Maaaaybe.
I love the smell of taypalm in the morning!
I’m picturing you with your nose deep in @sernobulus ‘s hand right now.
Ew. Just ew.
*sniffs own hand* Hm. Hand-cleaner? *shrugs*
YES. Utopia returns, August 19.
Ahh coffee people.
Gathering around the soon to open Cafe like sharks around a wounded seal. Fidgeting and badgering the staff like junkies desperate for a hit.
Makes me laugh sometimes.
Hey man, you got that…uuhh…EFTPOS? Yeah? Cool man, cool. Can you grab me…uuhh…*scratches arm vigorously* Extra large latte on full, two extra shots, one sugar?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY CARD WAS DECLINED? DON’T DO THIS TO ME, MAN!
It is time to joke like a dad.
I once went to a surgeon who was a part time comedian.
He had me in stitches.
Someone just threw a bottle of Omega 3 tablets at me.
I only suffered super fish oil injuries, but I’m lucky I wasn’t krilled!
– Do you want to hear a joke about a tailor?
– No
– Fine, suit yourself
A glue tanker overturned on the highway yesterday…i was stuck in traffic.
Patient: Doctor I think i have 5 legs.
Doctor: Oh my!…how do your pants fit?
Patient: like a glove…
https://41.media.tumblr.com/f586ca0759f7e48ba9e787f3d2e7dc79/tumblr_mugxeo52CN1r1fp27o1_500.jpg
This is always what I think of.
I always heard this with penises & always thought it should be 3 penises since you already have 2 legs
My wife keeps complaining about her nine to five job.
I must admit, 4:51 is a strange time to start work.
I like vegetable puns because they make me feel good from my head tomatoes.
The past, present and future all walked into a bar at the same time. It was tense.
I was messing around with the sauce bottle at dinner last night and it squirted right in my face……
In Heinz sight it wasn’t a very good idea.
Mum: Doctor you have to help me! My son swallowed a roll of film!!!
Doctor: Well let’s hope nothing develops!!
Why was the mushroom invited to a party?
Because he was a funghi.I’ve been running in the morning for four days now and my legs feel like they’re about to break. I think I might have to investigate this… rest day… thing?
I tried some non-shufflewheezing exercise this morning, and I think my knees have fallen off. On the bright side, you starting to run kickstarted my competitive side, so I’ve been better this week in regards to exercise than I have been for over a month.
And rest days are good. Soooo good.
The competitive thing is a good tool in getting fit, I find. It’d be nice to have a pal to go running with in the morning so we can push each other more. But hermits gonna hermit. Well done, Blaghs!
The good news is, my body’s response to me starting exercising again was to gain two kilos.
*Shakes fist*
*Arm gets tired quickly, stops shaking fist*
Join Runkeeper and add me and @cookingmama so you can stare at my months of inactivity!
Nah, decided I’m not going to put any pressure on myself. Got a highly sophisticated running strategy of trying to get to an extra power pole each day. XD
Have a rest and then go do a parkrun on Saturday. You’ll survive (I promise) and then you’ll have a time to try and beat next time.
Try doing a day where you only walk in stead. It’ll help create the habit and won’t overly stress your body.
Your sexy, sexy body.
You’re the voice of reason lately! The whole wise dad thing is really working for you, bud! 😀
REST IS FOR THE WEAKKKKKKK.
Actually rest is an awesome thing, I’d recommend for you since you are getting back into it for a while I wouldn’t run any more than two days in a row. Also, invest in one of these bad boys and roll out the fascia in your calves and upper legs so you don’t feel so tight!: http://www.realsmart.com.au/everyfit-eva-grid-foam-roller-33cm-black.html?CAWELAID=730009170000069984&CAGPSPN=pla&catargetid=730009170000080640&cadevice=c&gclid=Cj0KEQjw_rytBRDVhZeQrbzn_q0BEiQAjnbSHIVlDpI-TdlGJQaXh8QuJ_P7gT4Kdd291-PNwM-XwrMaArbi8P8HAQOoooh, thanks for the advice, pal! Might go running on Monday and Tuesdays and Thursdays and Fridays then and regroup over the weekend!
That only applies to resistance training, not cardio! And if you don’t want sick gains. GIT GUD HERE
Do not, do not, do not take anything in this post seriously. But do watch the videos, they’re hilarious if you spend any time in the gym to recognize the stereotypes/behaviour.I’ve realized I’ve made a lot of jokes about Milk recently, and it might cheese you off but I’m going to make another. Before you say how dairy! Hear me out, I zinc you will like it.
What does the cow do with extra milk?
It gives it to udder peopleOh you!
Udder People sounds like a horror movie theme.You’re thinking like this? It might be NSFW:
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=udder+people&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=707&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI7qej7YLwxgIVxBSUCh2iwgFD#imgrc=bqWQ7vwXoVOiDM%3A
That animated one with the face is horrifying.
Still in bed.
Want to go and have a shower, but can’t get up…
I’ve bevome Lazyguy… 🙁
Oh! Dude. Dude! Dude. Duuuude.
Lazyguy rhymes with Crazyguy.
*handsplosion*
Real Talk:
The Sith Lords new mod is great!
Big ups to @Dogman
Woop woooooop
@dogman truly is man’s best friend!
Great minds think alike!
…except for the part where I felt it was necessary to include a joke about rolling over with Beethoven.
I thought it complemented my comment nicely! 😀
…
DEVIANT!
If dogs are a man’s best friend, is @dogman the result of the friendship being taken to the next level?
Boring IT post alert:
Just a heads up for the people that may have to deal with this: there seems to be a substantial increase in Cryptolocker (well…the unofficial spawn of) infections hitting a lot of place in Australia at the moment.
It might be a good time for your ICT security teams to organise a pointless email that no one will read identifying potential sources of the infections and how to avoid them so you later have something to point to when you’re berating yet another user who has lost a bunch of data because you can’t recover it.
EDIT: “This just in, Rize has set a new standard in the field of ‘Shittiest Page-get Ever’. Time to start upping your game, everyone else!”
Our users put IT emails straight into trash. Unread. I kid you not. Emails containing information that said users require and enquire about days later.
Yeah, but if you send them out at least you’re covered when they say “WHY WASN’T I TOLD?!?” 😛
Followed up with, WHY IS THIS EMAIL IN THE TRASH? I DIDN’T PUT IT THERE MY COMPUTER IS PUTTING MAIL IN THE TRASH. THIS IS AN IT PROBLEM FIX IT.
“News about this update and where to find the instructions was on the browser homepage intranet news page. It still is.”
“Who reads the intranet?”
“Everyone should. Every day.”
An interesting behind the scenes look at Frontline (1995). A very small crew meant that the creators were the stars, writers, editors, sound guys, cameramen, marketers, etc. A really interesting look at a small group of people jumping between different roles – it looks like an amazing experience.
That was such a fantastic show 😀
Haha! Sounds like a film school thing! Everyone doing everything!
That Pixels movie looks dumb and all, but I can’t compute the extra hate I hear for it.
Adam Sandler is always making dumb films, Billy Madison is one of the shittest films I’ve ever seen & I absolutely love it because it’s so funny!
I feel like Pixels is getting extra hate because everyone loves 80s arcade games. Like it’s personally insulting them because that’s their thing?
Similar to how I always see nerds writing essay long comments about how The Big Bang Theory doesn’t make sense or how throw away gags add up to proving the Jewish guy is a rapist or something.
Over thinking trash.
I think big bang is crap btw, not defending it or pixels, just don’t see where all the extra energy comes from.
I don’t care about Pixels at all. It’s a shitty, cynical cash in on nostalgia.
That’s exactly why other people are mad. They see it as their nostalgia. Something they treasure being exploited. When a big chunk of your identity comes from a rose-tinted perspective of some niche hobby, seeing that hobby dragged through a heaping pile of shit doesn’t seem very good.
This identy as job or hobby needs to stop. Really.
Gamers are dead.
Is punk still dead?
Schrödinger’s punk.
I strongly disagree.
Or do you just mean self-identified gamers, but not self-identified petrol heads, metal-heads, musos, artists, foodies, writers, and so on?
People have been defining themselves by their jobs, social roles, and their passions for as long as identity has been a concept, and it’s normal and healthy. It is a sign of clarity of purpose and the confidence that insight provides.
What else would you identify as? Your specific vital statistics? Something that defies categorization… and thus is identical to every other ‘special and unique’ person on the planet?
A means, a label, some way of separating yourself out from the mass by a more narrow identification is the very point, the definition of identity in the first place.
What needs to stop isn’t the self-identification by your primary – or even defining – passion. It’s the exclusion of others from your passion based on their degree of interest or competence. It’s the attacking of those who don’t follow your passion. What needs to stop is restriction or judging someone by the passion that they have chosen to define them as a person.
What gives you or I the right to define someone else for them, to deny them their self-determination? Nothing. We do not have that right. And we do not need or deserve it.
And just like that I’m reminiscing about Asterix & Obelix.
Best childhood series ever. I re-read those recently… think I’ve had more fun reading as an adult. They are totally enhanced by an increased awareness of pop-culture and language.
Because I think we’re all more than what we simplify ourselves as. I feel like we pick these little hats & then let it define us more than we let our own individual thoughts & desires define ourselves.
I feel like people draw lines in the sand & stunt their own growth because they’re too busy trying to fit into a cookie cutter shape which others define. Worrying too much about what everyone else thinks & ignoring what really drives us.
I don’t think any human is so simple they can be defined by these labels we use. I don’t think its believe they are either, but I do believe it’s stopping them from growing.
I don’t think we should be so selfish that we ignore others but I do think we need to look inside ourselves more.
I think we choose these labels, then take it personally when people shit on our loves as if we are being personally shit on ourselves.
We need to take a step back, look at the bigger picture.
That’s like saying no-one can be defined, or shouldn’t be defined. It’s only the people who fear being limited by it who refuse to embrace it. Without it, there is no separation, and without separation there is no identity. The core of identity is what distinguishes you from everyone else.
Seriously though, if you hear someone say they’re a gamer and you think, “I wish you wouldn’t identify yourself as a gamer,” what are you REALLY thinking?
Are you thinking, “I wish you wouldn’t limit yourself to representing the brightest facet of yourself that you want to present because I worry that you will let that focus result in neglect of all the others (as if that were even a bad thing),” or are you thinking, “I wish you wouldn’t use that label as a justification to act like a prick?”
Rejection of labels is self-defeating. If everyone is ‘special and unique’ then nobody is.
Humans grouping up and forming social bonds by their interests and philosophies is natural and important. The ‘whole world’ is NOT your social group. The Dunbar number is real. When you have too many connections, they become vague and meaningless. See: Any teenager’s relationship with their facebook ‘friends’ past the hundreds. Labels serve a useful purpose. They come with the drawback of also being used for negative purposes… but that isn’t in itself the fault of having labels.
Humans absolutely are so simple that they can be defined by the labels they use, as the first step of a sorting algorithm. Otherwise there’s simply too much data to be useful. You can’t see all of everyone in one go, but the broad strokes are the first step to knowing where to find connections.
I’m a gamer. Or a ‘gaming enthusiast’ if you dislike the term appropriated by assholes using it as justification to be assholes.
I don’t just play games. I talk about them, I read about them, I think about them, they are my passion. I take an active interest in who makes them and the process behind them. They’re not just another piece of ‘consumed content’ like movies are to me, or even less-frequently, books.
That’s not common. It can’t be assumed when you meet someone. It has to be asked about, and without the label, the difference between ‘enthusiast’ interested in the guts of the hobby vs occasional sampler is the difference between a deep and rewarding conversation, and small-talk.
That’s a USEFUL label if you want to find someone to talk about games with. It by no means indicates that I don’t have any other interests or knowledge, or common ground to relate to people on. But if you’re also passionate about games, then that declaration, that definition, makes your investment of time a much surer bet. And that’s useful.
‘Gamer’ or any other label is not exclusionary. It’s time we stopped treating labels as if they are.
Standing back and looking at the bigger picture has no point outside of the very broadest of generalities that might apply to all within that picture, such as how you treat people as people, and other general philosophies. And as a good rule, you can save a lot of time by going with ‘all equally’.
Looking at the big picture means you can’t see the detail. And the detail is where we live.
I dunno, why do I have to be a gamer, why can’t I just say ‘I like games’?
I feel like because we use the label, all these issues occur because people take sides.
It stops being a hobby or job or whatever & becomes a group & then people fight & whinge or whinge & fight.
Like being a proud ‘Australian’ instead of ‘living in’ or being ‘born in Australia’ comes with all this other baggage that starts wars (in the worst circumstance).
Does that make sense?
It’s not even the group itself I’m not down with, just the consequences of proudly advertising it & taking offence to anything anti/counter to it.
I think changing the language around the tribal behavior can change the way we think of it & the intent behind it. Then in the end stopping the shit that occurs because of it.
You don’t have to be a gamer. But I should be able to.
There is, I contend, nothing wrong with seeking out a group, based on your passions.
That’s absolutely nothing new, and very likely hard-wired in. Humans are gregarious by nature, we find connections and work to cultivate them. You might not mean much to 4 billion people, but if you can mean something to a dozen or a hundred, you’ll be happier with your place in the world.
Because of that, identifying yourself by your passion, saying, “I’m a gamer,” instead of “I like games,” could in fact be done with the goal (primary or side, conscious or unconscious) of declaring yourself as part of a group.
And if you attack that group… well yeah, that’s tribalism in action. Good idea: Don’t attack groups based on labels, perhaps? Utterly pointless and frequently hypocritical. I’m finding it pretty hard to find any good excuse for people to do that for hobbies… maybe if your hobby is racism? But not gaming. Anyone who did that would indicate some pretty profound ignorance for what actually falls under the label, and no small measure of hypocrisy in judging people by their chosen label.
Context is also important. I’m always happy to say I’m Australian. The culture of our nation has some unpleasant stains, but there’s an ethos to it in the international context that I find has merit, and among our international friends (rather than those we short-change), we’re pretty well-behaved. Interact with folks from other nations much and you’ll probably hear that Australians are considered to be generally more laid-back and easy-going. I consider those strengths. Do I value that because it’s the one of the few merits we actually have, in the world stage, and I’ve got to take the best pick of what’s available because I can’t change that identity? Or do I stay here and not choose to identify as something else I could adopt, because I genuinely believe there’s no-one better to live on the planet? Bit of both? I certainly don’t bother with letting that pride delude me into believing that there’s some kind of genetic or socialized superiority to, say… the Japanese. Or the Swiss. Just differences. Being Australian works very well… in Australia.
When you talk about national traits, though, I don’t say “I am a gamer.” And it’s context which matters. If I’m sitting among a group of my middle brother’s friends, a bunch of gay men discussing the politics of sexual orientation, I don’t identify as a gamer, in that context. I identify as a straight man.
Labels, and identities, are not fixed ‘if/then/else’ categories. They’re more like tags. Collect as many as you like, identify by whichever is most appropriate in context. There’s nothing wrong with overlap, or with prioritizing any tag in particular… in context.
Which is the truly crazy part. Like I pointed out when it was announced Adam Sandler is one of the few people making this sort of thing that’s actually old enough to have played these games in arcades when they were new. He’s a thousand times more likely to have skipped school to play Donkey Kong with his friends than 99% of the people complaining he’s not legit enough for their fetish.
I get that it’s aimed squarely at those people, the only reason was made is to cash in on nostalgia, so if they don’t like it that’s fair enough. I just find it funny that Adam Sandler isn’t enough of a gamer to reference the childhood these gamers wish they had.
I’m not defending that point of view but there are literally millions of people in the right age bracket and I’d wager a good chunk of people working in Hollywood today at the same level as Sandler are about that age.
I don’t think being about the right age is indication that someone could be “enough of a nerd”.
Mostly though, I doubt it’s about being enough of a nerd and more that Sandler has a long standing reputation for being really shit.
No, it just looks fucking terrible. Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore and it’s ilk were genuinely funny. Not well made but funny, something Sandler hasn’t been in nearly 15 years.
I didn’t say it looks good, I said I’m not defending it.
I’m asking why people are taking up pitchforks & calling for heads. Didn’t hear nearly as much complaints about that movie where he was a dad or his own twin sister.
Nobody cared.
Now everyone’s taking it personal because he’s shitting on Donkey Kong. I love Donkey Kong, the games will not be diminished by this movie any more than the comic of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was by that shitastic movie.
I think it’s kind of the inverse of the Federation Force dealie? In that people feel as though the existence of Fed Force means an “actual” Metroid game can’t exist. Although they are mistaken there. Whereas here, it’s a familiar premise we’ve seen and loved (that Futurama episode) but it’s being done badly… so it’s extremely unlikely we’ll get to see it done properly instead. So in a sense it kind of is (or at least feels like it is) taking something away from us.
Kinda similar to how I was getting all huffy about the Majora remake on 3DS instead of Wii U 😛
My issue with Big Bang Theory is that Sheldon is a horrible person who needs mental health support.
Sounds like Seinfeld or It’s Always Sunny or Two & a Half Men or Spin City or Friends or Coupling or…
Yeah, but Seinfeld characters were equally nasty, and usually to the outside world. Sheldon is emotionally manipulative to his supposed friends.
I’m not going to get into a deep dive on this, I just get put off by the type of nastiness he exhibits.
Chuck Lorre has made a career out of “These people have serious emotional and developmental issues, let’s all laugh at them”.
See, this is interesting to me.
That ‘nastiness’ is why I buy into the idea of Sheldon as having some kind of learning/socialization condition like autism. Because I’m not convinced it’s (entirely) intentional nastiness as much as low emotional intelligence and an extremely low instinctive (not learned) empathy. The normal world is speaking a language he doesn’t understand and often doesn’t even realize IS another language.
There’s a great deal in some of his lines that I can relate to, where ‘normal’ people exhibit frankly nonsensical behaviour that runs counter to their purposes, but at a certain point it has to be explained to him (or me) that this is a ‘social convention’ that you observe out of respect for the people who follow it.
I strongly relate to that. The frustration you might feel with the absurdity of the social convention has to be stifled in order for you to observe it… which you do for the sake of the feelings of the people you care about. You don’t have to understand why something is important to someone to respect that it is.
It’s good to see that lesson being shown on a screen.
It doesn’t help for that to be seen when I’d wager that a great deal of his interactions are selfishness at the expense of others, but it’s just those glimpses into someone else’s take on something I understand that interested me.
That said… I haven’t seen past the 2nd season.
After season 3 Sheldon becomes an autistic narcissist who occasionally feels bad when other people point out to him that he should.
None of the characters have developed emotionally but I kept downloading new episodes week on week in the hopes of some kind of change, anything that indicated I was watching actual story arcs instead of just padding things out til the inevitable cancellation. I finally stopped watching the show when Netflix arrived in Australia and all my piracy came to a screeching halt, so I couldn’t tell you what happened at the end of the most recent season. I only really held on because I thought it was ending but apparently it got renewed.
🙁
Yes but some of those shows bother to write jokes, not just disjoined punchlines.
Again, not defending the quality.
I love Coupling to death but those guys are arseholes
The big difference is that they’re meant to be arseholes and the show works because of it. BBT lacks that self-awareness.
Everyone, I need some advice/reassurance.
My brother keeps asking I make him a user on my computer. I don’t want to, but every time I say no he calls me selfish and asks what my problem is.
I let him use it, if he pays Mum and I’m not using it. If I make him a user, I take the power away to make him pay Mum. I don’t really know what to do, as I keep responding with silence, or excuses.
What do?
“No. It is my computer and that means I control how it is used.”
He’s an ass. It’s not selfish or unreasonable to deny him using it at all.
Yeah, I’ve got to agree. He sounds like an unreasonable jerk.
Easier said than done though. I don’t like people looking over my shoulder or touching my stuff, especially when it comes to my computer stuff*, and my sister just can’t comprehend why someone would feel that way about a stupid computer.
I can even see where she’s coming from when she gets huffy about it. I’m not saying Scree is being selfish, but when I’ve been in that position I know some of my reasoning is self centered in that I’m putting my comfort above what I consider more valid reasoning and it makes me feel way more selfish than I’m being. It’s very hard for me to respond to ‘but why?’ with ‘because’ when I’m perfectly aware that ‘because’ is just short for ‘because even though I know nothing bad will happen I still don’t want you touching my shit’.
It’s also hard for me to bring up my more solid arguments. I can’t say ‘remember that time you filled me GameBoy with sand? You were 17. That’s too old to be pulling crap like that’ or ‘go press Reset on my N64 and see what you did during that one night I let you borrow it’ without sounding like you’re hung up on things that happened when we were kids, even though in the years after I stopped letting her use my stuff she clearly hasn’t improved. I can’t ask ‘how does a grown woman’s laptop, which she uses for work, end up in this condition’ without being a jerk.
I guess that’s what it comes down to. If she was just someone passing on the street I’d gladly tell her all that but she’s my sister. I’d rather just have a pissy little fight about it every now and then where I’m a selfish jerk and everything is fine 20 minutes later than risk actually hurting her feelings.
*My browser history is fine as far as things like porn are concerned, there’s nothing in there that I wouldn’t openly admit to looking up, but the idea of someone seeing how I lay out my browser UI is like having every I have dragged out and judged. It’s crazy but sometimes crazy is just who I am. =P
[Edit: All that said I do agree with the core idea. She shouldn’t feel bad about being assertive on this. I was just explaining why it’s difficult for me to be assertive in similar situations.]
Yeah, a home computer is a pretty personal thing. Just like a mobile phone. You’ve got no obligation to let him use it. If it’s your property, it’s your choice!
It’s even right there in the name 😛
“Buy your own”.
It’s yours. you have the right to say no. You could make him a user, but not tell him the password so he still has to pay your Mum to get the password put in?
And change the password hourly. Run up some big bucks.
I thought your brother had been kicked out?
He had, but Mum spent the entire weekend worrying about him so he’s allowed to stay. I’m so unconfrontational though
I think you’re within your rights just to say no. Don’t engage in his power games, don’t budge, just say no.
No. It’s your computer: you do what us best for you with it.
You owe him nothing. Don’t give in to his bullying.
Next time he asks for it smash him on the head with the monitor! ….. That works in real life right? Not just in cartoons?
Tell him why
I’d say setup an account that has no rights beyond basic usage, then change the password if he stops paying or starts taking advantage of the situation, but if you were comfortable with that path I think you would have already done it.
How formal is this arrangement? Does he know that if he stops paying your mum you stop letting him use your PC? I mean is he trying to push you into backing down on only letting him use the PC under those conditions, or is he just trying to use the computer more without realising what’s going on (or is he just playing dumb because you haven’t outright said it)?
If you did setup an account for him do you think you could follow through with removing the privileges if he stopped paying your mum? Personally I’d be reluctant to go down that formal path specifically because when it’s informal I can start making excuses as to why he can’t use the PC, but if I gave him an account there’s a definitive line and action that must be taken. If he’s using my account I can ask ‘have you paid mum yet’ where if he has an account with those rules I have to say ‘you haven’t paid mum yet, so I turned it off’.
I get the impression you want to say ‘I’d make you an account if I could trust you to pay mum, but I can’t so these are the rules and that’s the way it’s going to stay’. From what I gather that’s perfectly reasonable but it’s not easy to say something like that.
Generally he’ll ask to use the computer and I’ll respond, “have you paid Mum?” He usually cracks the shits about it, starts ranting about how he won’t be skipping town and he doesn’t carry cash on him all the time, but he usually does go and grab the money afterwards.
I also don’t like the fact that if things don’t go his way, he’ll thump the desk. He saves things to the desktop, changes the sizes of my windows in windows explorer and chrome, won’t give up the computer if I ask him to (says “I’ll only be a minute” and then proceeds to take a few hours) and will jump on it if he sees it unattended.
Did I mention he is only using it for the internet? And that he blamed my computer for him being a victim of credit card fraud despite the fact he uses the friggin’ card everywhere?
Sounds like setting him up a user profile would help isolate a few problems but it won’t actually stop him treating your computer like crap. It would also result in you having to fight him to use the computer whenever he gets there first (I assume right now your account is password protected, so for him to use the PC you have to login for him). I suppose you could make him a user profile and set the permissions as low as possible so he can’t break anything, but not give him the password. It wouldn’t get him off your back but it might keep the mess to a minimum.
It’d be a lot easier if people understood that even though to them our computers are just a keyboard plugged into the internet they’re still expensive pieces of equipment that we can’t just replace if some spills a drink on them. They may be able to get by with the browser on their busted up smartphone if the computer breaks, but I spent all this money on my computer because I actually use my computer. Hell, even when you’ve got the cash to instantly get the machine up and running again it’s still like having someone set fire to your bedroom.
Don’t I know it?
He won’t let me use his car, so why should he use my computer?
My shop is literally surrounded by over 100 people in their late teens. Haven’t had a customer in over an hour as none can get through, they’re ignoring me asking them to move somewhere else and security can’t clear them. The fuck?
Take off your pants.
Tell them that Uncle Freeze would like to have a chat.
You always have the best solutions 🙂
It comes with being so damn handsome.
No good punk kids! *shakes fist*
Get off my shop lawn.
Start playing music that would embarrass a teenager. Loudly.
Then start singing along to it, making sure you’re singing louder than the music.
You’re assuming I don’t do that anyway.
*sings* You can try to resist
Try to hide from my kiss
But you know
But you know that you can’t fight the moonlight
Ha. Police turned up. After arresting two of them the rest cleared out.
O_o
I know kids are dumb, but…what were they doing other than loitering? And did they actually not leave when asked to by police?
They were literally just standing around talking and told the cops they can’t force them to do anything.
I doubt the two arrested ones will get into any serious trouble. Probably just held for an hour or two before given an official warning. Depends if they start mouthing off on the trip to the station or not I guess.
Probably worth it for the OMG! TOTES DRAMATIC! conversations they’ll be having for weeks! 😛
Damn I hate moody teenagers / am deeply embarrassed on reviewing my memories of having been one.
Paddy Wagon selfie!
Guy to GF: “Prison changed me, babe. I just missed you soooo much!”
*cue ten minutes of awkwardly making out*
Don’t leak your scripts online, DC.
HI TAY! I’ve been sick and away from work 🙁 and you bastards went past page 6 and it’s not even Friday!! =@ NOT FAIR D=
We’re either too fast or too slow with posting for your liking! MAKE UP YOUR MIND, MAN! 😛
Also, hope you’re feeling better.
You can also call me goldilocks! =P
I’d love to see you deal with being past page 20 before Friday.
Ah, the good old but not old old days.
I’ve known some TAYbies for 5 years 😀
Did we ever make 40? I remember 36 before Blaghspam ran out of steam but not sure if we made that milestone.
I’m tempted to call for an attempt at a record on like Sunday afternoon or something but it wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t legit and was just spam.
Ehh, the old records were all from spam anyway.
Heh.
Hehehehe.
HAHAHAHAHA.
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*Considers changing name to Blaghspam, but decides he’s too lazy*
We all know your true identity, anyway.
We’ve all sean his face.
That is fucking awful.
*Upvotes*
@blaghman
We’re still talking about your face, right?
Hands up, anyone that has read Ready Player One
@beardymcmuttonchops has.
@beardymcmuttonchops!
DAMN YOU AND YOUR EDITS! NOW I LOOK LIKE A PARROT! 😛
Hey Hellscream? Hope you’re well!
*Rawk* want some rye
*rawk* Course ya do
Polly wanna point and click?
If I had a parrot it would probably just sing Little Mermaid songs all day and I’d laugh nervously and say… I don’t know how it picked up that song! *shifty eyes*
I’d try to teach mine to be Iago.
It took me far longer than I’d like to admit to figure out who Lago was.
Right? I wrote it, looked at it, and was like “ehhh, it’s me, so they’ll work it out.”
Me. I love it and I can’t wait to read Armada.
Ar… mada?
Cline’s newest.
New book by Ernie Cline that’s just come out.
Nothing. What’s armada with you?
*groan*
*upvotes*
This review is pretty scathing.
Woahhh. This review makes the book sound terrible. There’s only one quote from the book included, but it backs up this impression well.
Yeeaaah I enjoyed it but there were lots of frustrations
*raises hand*
I have. It’s.. fine? I guess? Trades very heavily on nostalgia for old video games and movies.
It’s in the Pile Of Shame. Near the top, so will probably get to it quite soon.
Yep! I have!
Oh man, Journey is so beautiful… And, given I just played through the first area last night to remind myself how beautiful it is, I feel guilty for leaving the person I was playing with. Good luck, whoever you were… even though you’ve probably finished it by now…
And, I guess, apologies in advance to any future companions who have to put up with my patchwork memories of where all the murals are… :3
Does the PS4 version have a new trophy set or the same set?
Something that will stick with me for a very long time
is attempting to communicate the concept of just sitting down for a minute through little more than a series of chirps.For that matter, on the first play not knowing about the
companion, and running up to one chirping excitedly without even realising what I was doing.Same trophies, as far as I can tell, but you’ll need to re-earn them.
Now that I’ve played it and subsequently reviewed the trophy list, I think one of my companions was trying to make me sit at one point. In the end he got so frustrated he logged off. OOPS.When you log off, your character will sit down for a moment and then disappear.Yeah, but he spent about ten minutes getting up and sitting down and chirping at me. I had no idea what was going on 😛
Yeah… that one’s on you.
Took me ages to even figure out how to sit down. Then when I did, the other guy promptly stood up, so I don’t even know whose fault it is. Probably still mine.
I sat down at the summit with a new player. He spent a few minutes running around in circles, clearly trying every button combination. I sent him a message afterwards :p
When you go to log off, or close, or something, you sit down, so it’s also possible they were just quitting (I’ve experienced both, usually if they chime a bit, sit down, then chirp at you they want you to sit).No, no, this was a thing that lasted several minutes.
Then, yeah. Yeah…
You’re a monster.
For the sitting thing, it’s easiest to pull off at the end. Most people will derp around a little before ending the game and more than a few have sat down there.Thanks for reminding me I need to pick Journey up. Hopefully I don’t bring anyone down by being a first time player. I’m assuming you need a PS+ subsciption for the multi, even though it’s not a traditional multiplayer experience?
Yes, unfortunately. PSN store page lists “Full game requires PlayStation Plus membership to access online multiplayer.”
Heh, I imagine I will annoy so many replayers with my first play, rambling everywhere and ocd checking every nook and cranny.
No way, the dream of the white cloak is to play with someone who wants to companionably do their own thing. We* should be there to guide and assist, but never to force you on your way. If you want to rush, we rush, if you want to explore, we can help you. It’s your Journey.
*I haven’t re-earned my cloak yet, but give it time
You’re mostly right but there is a limit to rushing. I once paired up with another white robe who was essentially trying to speed run the game. I think we took about an hour from the bridge to summit.
Then again, I’ve also played through with a different white robe where we went through every easter egg, mural and glyph just because. That was rad.
Journey is rad.
It’s hard sometimes, trying to communicate what you want to do.
Do I show this person this glyph that they’ve missed? If they’re right near it, sure, but what if they just want to go through the game? How can I help them have the best time? ARE THEY JUDGING ME FOR MY PRETTY CLOTHES?
I like to stray towards collectibles and whatnot. If they come towards me, I’ll lead them to others. If they forge ahead, I go along for the ride.
I had my white cloak on PS3… it will soon be mine once more… then I will follow along with anyone I find, and point out things they miss. I feel my job as a white cloak is to assist where I feel necessary, but not lead them by the hand – after all, discovery and exploration are important parts of the game.
I reckon Journey will work if we’re party chatting, as people who’ve played it many times. Anyway, tonight hopefully a 34 prison and then some journey.
I honestly don’t know how you’re going to manage to pair up with someone. The multiplayer system is random and the player base just got a huge boost.
Not what I meant. Having a chat with real friends while we’re all pootling about the desert interacting randomly with randoms seems like a really pleasant way to spent a couple of hours.
Freya and I have done that before. We played while I sat at my desk and she was on the couch.
Somebody sent my boss a Louis CK youtube video. Now he’s got into the related videos and all I’ve been able to hear is howling laughter for the whole morning.
Ahh, the ‘related videos’ maze. Otherwise known as ‘my personal 90s jukebox’.
I’m more surprised that he hadn’t heard of Louis CK until now.
Blow his mind and inform him there’s a whole TV show!
I don’t think he has the lung capacity to keep up this level of guffawing!
Sounds like an opportunity to create a mid-level vacancy and push for promotion!
Many a plan has been foiled by surprisingly large lung capacity.
See: Yodel-offs, Guybrush Threepwood style holding of breath for ten minutes, Attempts to hold saxophone notes for the longest time.
If I didn’t have a friend (well, “friend”) who doesn’t talk about much other than comedy and keeps linking youtube videos at us despite everyone’s total lack of interest, I wouldn’t have heard of him either.
Do they watch live comedy, or just stuff on telly/youtube?
Watches and participates in live comedy, yeah.
Gizmodo posted an American article about NBC’s fantastic Tour de France coverage.
They have basically the exact same product as SBS (I think even their Tour Tracker is just a rebranding of ours) but charge $30 for it. I’d happily pay $30 for this sort of thing. The only problem is that I’ve been enjoying it for free for years. And we get Gabriel Gate to boot!
It’s a shame that Sky is still dominating. I haven’t really been able to get into le Tour for a while because of them. Jerkbags.
What’s your issue with Sky? That they’re British, or tall poppies, or suspicion of doping, or something else?
Their riding style is incredibly effective to the point where it takes all the fun out of the race.
EDIT: I don’t think they’re doping, either. I just think they’re really good.
Fair enough.
I disagree, I think it’s been a fantastic tour so far and while Sky have been strong, they’re not dominating the way they did for Wiggo’s win. In fact they didn’t look that strong for Froome’s win and last year they were all over the place. Froome’s running out of support and there’s 3 big days to go – if Sky are spent up and Froome gets isolated, he could easily lose a couple of minutes and be very vulnerable.
Also, has that descent into Gap ever NOT been completely brilliant to watch? 😀
Wait, last night finished in Gap? I’ve fallen off this year’s coverage. Time to watch the highlights.
EDIT: For those that don’t know (which I assume is everyone) that’s where Cadel Evans put on a goddamned amazing descent in the 2011 TdF. The only reason it’s not remembered that well is the chase in stage 19 and time trial in stage 20 were what secured him the yellow jersey.
It also happens to be just one of those places where amazing things happen.
Monday night before the rest day was Gap. Sagan descending like a monster. Geraint Thomas getting t-boned, flying off the road, headbutting a pole, falling a couple of metres down a bank and getting back to only lose a minute on his group. 😮
Some video clips for stage 16 here (including last 20km video…) http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/
Last night was Big Alps. So are the next 3 nights, with Croix-der-Fer and Alpe d’Huez in Saturday night. Woop woop!
And yeah, the Cuddles attack in the wet on the descent into Gap set up his win. Amazing. Also where Beloki has his career ending crash (OK, he did get back on a bike but he was never the same) and Armstrong did the impromptu cyclocross. Plus many others going back…
was wondering why my bank balance seemed a tad low.
turns out my flatmate hasn’t paid rent in 6 weeks.
yay. we get to have a fun conversation tonight.
also, my computer is being silly & not working with half the things i try to do with it. seriously. try to run a game? 90% chance it stops responding while launching. change the system volume? volume control stops responding & then all sound stops. task manager to stop unresponsive programs? task manager stops responding. EVERYTHING STOPS RESPONDING. reset. repeat.
so yeah. gonna build a new PC sometime soon. definitely before Fallout 4 drops. should be fun.
anyway. hows things with you lot?
Ugh. Why would the room mate think that would be cool? :S
it’s a pain in the arse for sure, but if the guys having financial trouble, I’m happy to be flexible & work something out. just wish he’d told me.
on the other hand, if he’s not been paying coz I haven’t mentioned it, he can fuck right off.
DORK STYLES THREE countdown. Just seven months to go.
Here are some recent analyses of the new combat system, and the Bloodborne influence.
POLYGON: http://www.polygon.com/2015/7/20/9002955/dark-souls-3-bloodborne-combat-influences
GAMESPOT: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/dark-souls-3-combat-takes-cues-from-bloodborne/1100-6429056/
The game will apparently be playable at #gamescon, so there’ll be more news after that I expect.
It feels like just yesterday everyone was discussing the first game.
I talked about it yesterday! That probably explains the feeling.
THURSDAY TAYDRENALIN SHOT
The Muppets are coming back! Who is your favourite Muppet, and if your answer is not Rowlf, why are you so wrong?
What’s a Muppet?
GET OUT
You were supposed to say:
Well, it’s not quite a mop and it’s not quite a puppet… but man (laughs). So to answer your question, I don’t know.
Not quite a mop, not quite a puppet…
Fozzie! And I’m not wrong.
I always appreciated his pathetic attempts to ingratiate himself to the audience with substandard art. I wonder why that resonates…
Also his name is a total amalgam of Frank Oz (who has a permanent place in my heart for being both the voice and puppeteer of both Fozzie and Yoda), and I just love it for that.
Tangentially related, I really hope this new show is a lot like the old show, in that it divides the screen time between on-stage and off-stage antics.
(I didn’t get the impression from the trailer that this would be the case, but then the original Muppet Show pitch didn’t bear much resemblance to the show that ended up existing either)
And just in case you still don’t believe me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_pRKPp4L4
Wrong! 😛
Edit, aaaand i just saw your second link
Dammit… Well played Shane! 😛
I forgive you because you were enthusiastic. 🙂
PEPE THE KING PRAWN!
Animal.
He’s pure. There is no dishonesty to him. He just wants to rock. And eat. And smash things. And stuff.
This
Elmo.
No wait.
Modigliana.
Woh, flashbacks!
Always liked Beaker.
meep meep mee meep!
(How has no-one said Statler & Waldof?)
Because this thread happened while I wasn’t here.
*coughs*
He’s a new one to the fold, but he’ll always be in my heart.
I normally prefer non-main characters as my favourite character for anything… Why? I do not know this.
But my favourite is Kermit The Frog. I affiliate with his moral compass and the whole Lipton Tea Meme really has got him over the line for me.
Is the cookie monster a muppet? If so cookie monster!
If not then I choose pipboy!
Beaker. It wasn’t until I was older and started doing science in high school that I got the joke.
I’ll let you take a guess!
“What are we waiting for? ”
“For it to get tacky.”
“Another first for this show. ”
“How’s that?”
“It’s the first time we’ve had to wait for it to get tacky.”
“Do-hohohohohohoho”
Swedish Chef?
Why can’t we have both?
“Urrrrgggghhh.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“It’s either this show, or indigestion. I hope it’s indigestion.”
“Why?”
“It’ll get better in a little while.”
“I’m looking forward to enjoying this evening!”
“You’re planning on enjoying the show?!”
“I’m planning on enjoying watching TV!”
*unpacks TV*
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/this-is-what-would-make-more-aussies-stop-pirating-20150722-gihqbh.html
The results of the government’s commission are in and…. It’s exactly what everyone kept saying that they refused to listen to. Good fiscal responsibility guys. Glad you’re not Labor, spending all their money recklessly on silly things like infrastructure and investing it wisely on commissions like this chaired by governmental figures.
Don’t worry, they’ll find a way to interpret the results to find a way to make that money back. I expect that because it’s cheap, popular and works, they’ll criminalise Netflix (which is the same thing as piracy, according to 100% of results consisting of a survey of Rupert Murdochs) and create a new system where all homes get Foxtel for free, with an unrelated luxury tax quietly being added to all income brackets except the top one.
This. is. gold. We should run for office together kermit; I’ll be the Doug Stamper to your Frank Underwood!
I completely lost it at this point. While drinking. There was severe spit-take fallout.
I read something the other day (can’t find it for the life of me now) is that people who ‘pirate’ actually end up buying more legitimate content than those who don’t.
I’m not endorsing pirating by any means but it adds another brushstroke to the bigger picture of timely affordable access to content increases demand and encourages competition. I thought that’s what the lib’s were all about private enterprise and competition that ‘benefits’ the consumer… well maybe that’s back when they were lizard men…
The most we can expect to happen out of this is the government chastising the commission for not releasing findings that are in line with existing government policy.
The purpose of research is to support your position, not to inform your position. Duh.
Wow, there is some genuine hatred out there for this fine website: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kotaku
Don’t forget, the US Kotaku doesn’t have Mark Serrels propping it up.
(Also, those definitions are six years old, which is a lifetime in internet clocks)
If anything, I think the hatred for Kotaku has grown over the years. People really hate the Gawker Media Group (I remember when Elly wrote a response on… Giz? Lifehacker? in response to some “terrible date” story that had been posted and gained internet traffic, and there were all sorts of posts appearing about how all of it was a big conspiracy to drive up traffic).
I blame the government
Gawker is pretty awful.
I read the AU Allure stuff, and io9.
Gawker itself has some terrible practices, and there’s lots I don’t like about the various other websites in the group, but I just don’t get the whole vitriolic hate thing.
Also, Reddit hipsters who can only orgasm if they’re yelling, “REPOST.”
Are you bored Transient? I have a question for you which I’m not sure that can be answered in 15 words or less? (Or maybe it can…?).
HIT ME
Why did Reddit nearly self implode and have a CEO sacked?
*braces self*
Because reddit.
I am probably the worst person to ask about this. My nearest guess from disinterested reading, and not actually USING Reddit? And 15 words or less? Hm.
Long:
There had already been some upper management/CEO changes, which included philosophical changes to the site and how it ran. (Such as closing down and censoring hate speech.) The implosion/sacking came about as a result of long-running tensions over these changes in managerial direction, and a perceived lack of communication over things which impacted moderators/removal of powers that moderators had enjoyed in the past.The ‘Franz Ferdinand’ shot that started the war was the sacking of a popular community figure who practically ran the backstage of the high-profile AMA (ask me anything) segments, making moderators’ actions difficult, if not impossible.
Moderators responsible for several popular subreddits (forums) locked off all access out of protest. Some of the more strident voices were asking for nothing less than the sacking of the CEO they held responsible for all the communication problems.
Reddit kind of lives or dies on its ad traffic and donations, and with nothing to view, and no reason to donate, it didn’t take long for the wallet-hurt to cause the CEO to step down and be replaced.
15 words or less:
Unpaid moderators frustrated by decreasing support locked their forums after unexplained firing of pivotal staffer.
Wow, very eloquent. Upvote as well for Franz Ferdinand reference! (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
Also, thank you!
There’s some other stuff to it (RAMBLING AHEAD).
Ellen Pao, the now ex CEO more or less first came to prominence on the internet when she sued (gender discrimination lawsuit, technically) Kleiner Perkins (who she was a junior partner at at the time), saying that she was subject to sexism (A case she lost in late March, though it’s worth noting that through all my reading I’m still really not sure whose side I believe (when it’s probably even greyer than I think)). After being appointed as CEO of Reddit in November last year she was more or less fine until June. In June, there was the closure of five subreddits whose whole purpose seemed to be targeted hate speech (Fat people hate, Coon town, and so forth).With the destruction of their social bastions of cruelty, these users began to flood the rest of reddit (often just creating or joining subreddits with the same purpose as those that were banned), and at this point Pao started to become the subject of directed hate (as opposed to the more just general hate she’d previously held as a woman CEO involved in a gender discrimination lawsuit), which funnily enough, was mostly directed at either her gender, or her race (this is important only to help my point that scum are scum, and reddit’s not a bad place for it).
The bubbling hatred for her really hit the boil more recently, when Victoria Taylor -one of the few community involved members of reddit’s staff, and liaison for many AMAs- was fired without warning, leading to a cessation of AMAs, and a community follow up in solidarity for her, and as a group effort targeted against Pao who they foresaw as the enemy, presumably firing her for a very visible gaffe (of sorts) earlier that week.
The main problem here is that while Pao “took credit” for firing Taylor, as was her job as the CEO, she wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger, not to mention the fact that Taylor was most likely actually fired because she lives in New York, from memory, not San Francisco, where reddit want all of their staff to be. Oh, and the person who has now admitted to firing her is one of the founders of reddit, and the whole community is more or less ignoring it now, because THEY WON.
Just look in the comments, plenty of anger there to, like a certain car themed avatar person seemingly only to exist to sneeringly deride every article as either SJW crap or corrupt and paid for.
I didn’t see them in the first instance, interesting usernames: ‘Kuck Fauxtaku’ lol.
I meant in Kotaku articles around here.
I’m with you now *taps nose*
As a rule I generally try not to read anything that might be battlefield for MRA/SJW shitfighting. If the article looks REALLY interesting, just try to read the article only then get the fudge out.
Even just read a Tech review on Gizmodo by Campbell Simpson and people seem obsessed with the idea that he’s a corporate mouthpiece.
The dude seems thoroughly level-headed and open, to me. c.c
They’ve been pointing out corporate links between Allure/Fairfax/Stan for ages. And been critical of same organizations at times.
There’s a certain graphics product named user that’s been irritating me for a bit.
Mr Etch-a-Sketch?
Pity. Always seemed like such a nice person.
LOL; it’s only fractionally as insane as the definitions for gamespot or 4chan =P That said Gawker media doesn’t have the greatest rep out there.
Books! What are we reading atm?
Who even are you?! (new persona red?)
Finishing up the Siege storyline on MU =]
Robin had run its course, and I liked the muppets discussion. If I get bored I’ll go back to Hellboy!
Also, MU: I started the 2005 X-factor run last night. The one with Layla Miller. Who knows stuff.
TAY.
Ooooh what’s it about?
It can’t seem to make up its mind. Also it’s very childish. There’s this one character named Freeze who just repeats the same tired old jokes when he’s not whining incessantly. What a dork.
The Autumn Years is a 19th Century Russian novel by Tyodor Alexeiovitch Yeltevski. The hero, Timothy, is in love with the beautiful Anna, but is kept apart from her by the events of the Napoleonic war and in later years the machinations of his rival Yoram. A true classic.
Console Wars – Blake Harris
Nearly finished, as a marketing guy reading about Kalinske is pretty inspirational how he turned Sega’s fortunes around.
Recently started reading the last Hunger Games book.
Also got all the Girl with a Dragon tattoo books sitting on my shelf that will be my next read.
I am reading The Narrow Road to the Deep North. It’s beautiful, and it’s gonna devastate me I know.
Listening to Armada by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton. It’s pretty awful, honestly. Will reassess when it’s over.
I’ve heard Wheaton is a good narrator, at least
Wheaton is doing a surprisingly good job, actually. I’m just not sure that Cline is a particularly good author.
I heard that somewhere else (not just two pages ago here) too. Ready Player One has been on my “see it cheap and pick it up” list for ages.
I’m reading the Dragon’s Blood series by Lindsay Buroker. Has been quite good so far, not as good as his Emperor’s Edge series but still worth a read.
Ace Attorney Dual Destinies Visual Novel
Now that I know a bit about this kind of game, I’m seeing all the pieces and how they fit together. It’s obviously a couple of steps above what I’m capable of putting together, but broadly speaking, I’m thinking “I could do that,” for a lot of things, and it’s quite honestly made me lose a little respect for the series 😛
The Skull Throne, fourth book of Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle series. Honestly, it’s a little less generic than it sounds. Something about demons rising from the earth’s core every night to wreak havoc and devour mankind… it makes for an interesting setting, despite the whole “prophesied saviour of mankind” cliche.
Attempting to finish the Culture series by Ian M. Banks.
I’ve found them a bit hit and miss and Matter is a bit of a slog so far, but it’s the 3rd to last book so I’ll keep going.
Read them?
I thought they were something to throw at people you dodn’t like.
😛
Slowly picking my way through Seraph of the End vol 7. Have to use a magnifying glass to read the characters though because my eyesight is shit. 🙁
When’s your surgery?
Already happened
@highperformance
The loot crate of glorious australian candy arrived earlier this week. And, uh, the first glorious loot crate might’ve found it’s way to me in the end. I’ll see by tomorrow.
😀
This makes me very happy that there’s a chance you’ll get both boxes, I didn’t want to look like a pathetic liar that ‘sent’ you a box of chocolate that never came. I’m trying to remember what I wrote in both notes in the box, I tried to keep them kinda the same but I’m interested to see the shift in my mindset between boxes lol.
I’d just be assuming you sent two boxes slightly apart to cover yourself.
It will have the dates I sent it on them though… I AM VINDICATED
Ah, the post office gave me two notices on separate for the same package, lol. I’m afraid that first box of sweets is forever cast into the void. I’ll get a good ol’ Snacktaku review up soon enough, pictures and all.
Dang!!! Lucky I sent the second one lol.
Bored nob posts random shit!
I started a new character in SWTOR (Jedi knight) to try out the new race (Togruta) that was added last night. Character creation for them is pretty nice, lots of different choices for skin colour / tentacle head dealie colours. Anyway, I load into the first area and the first thing I see is like 50 other Togruta players. It was a pretty great site. The general chat was actually alive too, people talking about the new race and the lore of the game (I didn’t even see one “LoL WOW IS BETTER”). Sure, majority of those people will probably only play for a week then not log in again but it was nice to see some life in the low level areas of the game.
Does changing your race change your attributes? I haven’t played this in a long time. It’s been 84 years…
Last time you played was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?
To answer your question, race has no impact on stats. You do get a “social ability” which is just a unique gesture/dance. Also it’s worth noting that some races can’t wear helmets (basically the ones with tentacle head dealies)
You can actually wear some helmets but they’re specific instances, not certain types etc.
Having said that, putting a helmet on my Twi’lek assassin makes her lekku disappear and she suddenly just “generic humanoid female”.
I recall there actually being a note on the character creation screen for the Togruta saying you can’t wear helmets.
Ahh, fair enough. Well, at least they specifically state it then.
Just so you know, if you get a hat then would affect your speech that should still come into effect. It’s happened with my Togruta companion for my Sorcerer with a bunch of helmets.
Haven’t made a character yet, but I checked out the character creator. Wasn’t a fan of the face options, but all the different skin colours was cool. Of course I’d just end up making an orange one, because I’m boring.
Just finished playing Journey for the first time. That was certainly a journey.
I thought I was going pretty well, but then I got teamed up with a guy whose scarf was twice as long as mine. Ended up playing through most of the game with him. Since he’d obviously played through before I stuck to him like glue. Ended up stuffing up once though and got us attacked by one of those flying worm things. Felt really bad about it because he ended up losing half of his scarf because of it. It was really cool playing through the game with another person though (or people, since my ending said I got paired with 3). Easily one of my favourite multiplayer experiences I’ve ever had.Not that far in but doing good, scarf longer than anyone else I have met (aww yeah) but then
In the downhill speed run bit I got distracted by another player and missed a scarf piece.So now I’m sitting at the bottom sulking.
On my grab-all-the-glyphs-I-missed run earlier tonight one of the downhilly bits was the only one I missed (I’d already grabbed it, so no great loss), which did sadden me a bit.Sydney peoples! It seems we are going to have @trjn inside us this sunday!
@35 @alexpants @anonymous_pessimist @batgirl @batguy @cakesmith @cj @cookingmama @dkzeitgeist @doc_what @effluvium-boy @fatshadylive @gingerchris86 @gorzilla @harli @hugo_the_hungarian_barbarian @mawt @morkai @markserrels @mrtaco @novacascade @powalen @pupp3tmast3r @ruffleberg @shiggyninty
This calls for an impromptu boardgames night at mine on sunday night from 6pm till about 11pm
let me know if you want to come and I’ll let you know my address, either here or on twitter 🙂
BOARD GAMES!
What time? I’ll be the city for the aroma festival
6pm til about 11pm
Aw, Sunday’s no good for me. D: Have fun ya jerkbags!
Sense 8 impressions!
I like the general premise of the show. I think it’s a cool concept and is generally a cool show, though I don’t like the overarching story of the show.In a statement, I think it would have benefited more from a contemporary artistic approach, rather than a typical approach.I really like seeing how each individual interacts with each other in their personal lives, but I don’t like the typical story of “We’re special and being hunted and we need to work together to survive”.
I think it took a very safe approach in that regard, and I think it’s worse off for it.
I really enjoyed seeing each individuals story (particularly the Indian woman’s and the gay man’s (I’m in love with the gay man)), but I just couldn’t care about the cop and the trans-woman at all. Their story is so… cliche.
I’d rather just see how each person was effected by each other in their specific lives, like how the Indian woman thought that the Berlin man was sent from her god, or how the Korean woman helped the African man fight for his mums medicine. I like that. More of that.
It’s still a good show, but I liked the initial cultural exploration seen from a new perspective at the start of the show (Indian woman seeing a naked man, African man flying for the first time, and so forth).
Friend sent me a job ad he thought I might be interested in.
It’s pretty much a big buzzword bingo that also goes a long way towards not only describing what I do, but what I’m good at doing. It’s in the same industry that I’ve worked in for 7 years (so I’ve got the experience/knowledge thing really covered), it’s probably better pay and better employment conditions.
I’ve always been mindful of the concept of waiting for the right thing to come along, and realistically speaking I couldn’t come up with a better concept or description of what the ‘right thing’ might possibly be. The more I think about it past the first curious skim, the more I’m feeling like this is a serious opportunity that I shouldn’t just ignore.
But … it’s also a difficult plunge. If I go down this path, I’m potentially setting myself up for a long term career of changing jobs every 3 to 5 years. I mean, that’s predominantly how this industry works, but it’s still that point of confidently forging my own way instead of being an asset at a particular company. Scary stuff.
If you just keep doing what you’re doing for the next few years are you going to have to change jobs anyway? If that’s the sort of industry it is you’re going to have to choose to go with it or leave sooner or later, so I say go with the new job, see how it fits, then if you find yourself not liking it later down the track bail. If you do have that eureka moment where you realise selling ice cream is the only job that will ever make you happy you can just quit and pursue that. If that job does exist you’re more likely to gain practical experience for it by moving your career forward along a serious path than sitting around waiting for inspiration to hit.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do, as if I’d be walking down the street, see a job and fall in love at first sight. Eventually I realised that I don’t need to love my job I only need to not hate it. My dream job is whatever job stays out of my way while I enjoy the parts of my life I already know I love.
If I keep doing what I’m doing am I going to have to change … maybe. Maybe not.
I’m in a job where theoretically I keep getting that change without the finding a new job part. Only that hasn’t really come through so well lately and I won’t really be able to tell until next year whether things are getting better or not.
Totally agree with @dogman, loving your job because it suits your skill set is an awesome thing that not everyone gets the opportunity to realise.
The average number of career changes in a persons lifetime is between 4-7 and something like an average of 14 jobs per person. I understand your worry about job security, however working in successful business with evidence of developing new skills, etc. will help to create a stronger CV (working in teams, leading change, influencing people, etc.).
I say go for it!
Got a job( who paid for an RSA and Management of Premises certifictae (helloooooo resume!)), uni starts next week, have a guy interested in renting out a room, and have a dozen donuts on the bench.
Things are on the up and up for O’lStewie! 😀
Sitting at Max Brenner…
Having a hot chocolate with mini marshmallows…
So decadent…
Yum…
MAX BRENNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My first ever Max Brenner was spent with @freezespreston.
I spilt soufle all over my white jumper…
Mixed emotions that night.
Happy, sad, frisky (what, Freezy was across the table!).
Great night! 😀
@shane, @highperformance: Life is Strange ep4 is coming out on July 28th
YES!! Thanks, man! 🙂
There’s a trailer too, but in my experience… don’t watch the trailer. Usually spoils the whole ep! Also it warms my cold black heart that you’re genuinely excited! 😀
The third episode really turned me around on it. I thought it was pretty amazing.
Oh, and I wasn’t gonna watch the trailer. But thanks!
Thanks, friend!! I won’t watch any trailers! How are the legs feeling?
Pretty sore. Decided to finish off the week with a fifth run, but next week I’ll follow your advice and only run for two days in a row at most. I don’t know if it’s in my head, but I certainly feel fitter already. Haha!
Massive double take and a big wish-i-was-back-there moment… http://www.500type-eva.jp/
Evangelion themed shinkansen to celebrate anniversary of Evangelion and the type of train.
Still no sign of the last rebuild film 🙁
My wait to watch them in one go is taking a lot longer than expected
Japan’s train and subway systems are so good.
78 Saab retrospective on right now:
http://isrv-stream-1.vzb.conexim.net:8000/tripleh-32.mp3
I like how it’s no longer a problem finding amiibo on release day any more. A dozen of each of them in every store I tried today.
Still a problem finding ones without flaws in the paintwork or assembly though 😛
Can’t sleep… Too hot…
Why am I awake at 1AM?
Guess subconscious brain cares more about this job stuff than I thought. Silly brain.
Edit: for clarity – http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/07/talk-amongst-yourselves-337/comment-page-7/#comment-3388787
Big project due?
<— see previous page
Go for it.
Do eet.
It’s the opportunities you didn’t take that you will regret later in life.
Apply for it.
The two outcomes are that you don’t get it and the decision is set, or you do get the offer and then you can decide. Until you get the offer there’s not really a choice.
I’ll be working at the Melbourne Careers expo today and tomorrow, come and see me for all of your tertiary education needs!
Or just to distract you and try to get you in trouble for being caught goofing around?
If I get caught goofing off I’m in a damn lot of trouble, I’m supposed to find 8,000 studentsish to come and study at the Uni this year :O
Do a strip show.
That’ll get them interested 😉
Interested? Maybe. Repulsed? Likely.
Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Remastered with Missing Content Mod Update
Sponsored by @dogman
So my craptop can’t handle the pure AWESOMEness that is The Sith Lords.The load screen takes longer to appear than it does to load & then the transition back to game is just as long. But I’m persevering.
Going Dark Side route because even though I tried to sit on the fence my first full playthrough, these games really don’t like that, very binary. I ended up going Light in the end.
I’ve also chosen a male, again, because I did the opposite last time, I’m keen to see the female optional recruit in action.
Did the tutorial at the start to familiarise myself with mouse controls, left it on default because I’m using touchpad as a mouse, all my mouseseses seem to get broke at home.
Chose Asian face with Jackie Chan hair. Funny , I already saw my twin bro in a cut scene XD.
Copy pasting @gingerchris86’s post from yesterday:
let me know if you want to come and I’ll let you know my address, either here or on twitter 🙂
So yes. Board games. Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY. Pester Chris for the where (you’ll giggle when you find out his address, so you should do it just for that).
Oh, that poor bastard and his address.
It’s true. I did!
I kind of want to know how Chris’s address holds up against my old one. I used to take Johnson down to Woodcock and then turn into Gaylard.
You used to be such a tart
Still is, he just doesn’t advertise it as much.
I live on the corner of a lusty boner
Sorry gang, I can’t make it.
108 Fallout days to go and it’s Friday 😀 I have plans to…tidy my room. Gee that makes the weekend sound less appealing than it should be. Ooooo D&D tomorrow 😀 I need more dead bodies for my necromantic ways
Allllright! Give me an F! Give me a Riday! 😀
Sorry, I have no F’s to give.
Actually, that’s not true, it just felt like a joke that had to be made.FRIDAY \o/ TFFFFFFFFFFFGIFBut they were my last ones! :'(
*Hands over an F & a Riday*
It’s alright Kotaku I’ll shout you lunch today =P
I’ll give you an F…
/pretend sleazy
Friday! Friday! Got to get down on Friday! Everybody’s looking forward to the weekend!
If I didn’t love you, I’d give you such a downvoting.
(~˘▾˘)~ (◕‿◕)
Why are you kissing a dead person?
Everybody has a hobby, Freeze!
Peanut Butter Cups on Fridayyyyyyyy
I’ve got a confession to make, fitness pal. When I went to the U.S. I bought a giant pile of peanut butter based chocolates and hated them all! D: Even the M&Ms!
Monster.
I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than @dc.
That’s going on the resume! Best character reference I’ve ever had!
Peanut Butter and Chocolate go great together, but I dislike the majority of commercial versions. They sweeten the PB too much, and it ruins the whole thing. You need the contrast of harsh saltiness to go with the smooth chocolate.
I mean, I’ll still eat them, but they’re garbage.
That’s because peanut butter in the US *is* sweet.
Congratulations, you are sane!
Well, I wouldn’t go THAT far.
I found Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups at Kmart for $1.75! That’s the cheapest I’ve ever seen them!
$1.75?! WHY MUST THE WORLD TEMPT ME AT EVERY TURN
We we we so excited!
We so excited!
Calm down you two.
Hooray! Friday!
Wait, I work Saturdays. What’s so good about Friday? You people are horrid *sobs*
This is Wheel of Fortune Jane. That will be $100 please. 😛
Anyone want a copy of Arkham Origins or Call of Duty Ghosts for the 360? I got them for free a while back and I need to test my new account with Toll.
You’re a good man! Unfortunately I only am using an Xbone 🙁
the more Lords of the Fallen I play, the more I want to go back & do another Dark Souls 2 run, and the more I want to do another Dark Souls 2 run, the more hyped i get for Dark Souls 3.
This is not a bad turn of events.
It’s not a particularly great game is it.
if you compare it to the Souls games, no.
but, as methadone is to heroin, Lords is to Souls; it stops me robbing people at knife point for my next fix.
Edit: …mostly.
Ducted gas heating installed yesterday! \o/ God, how did we ever live without it?
Excited by temperature control? I’m getting old.
particularly old and particularly warm.
It’s the best. Get a blanket and sit on a vent. It’s all the power of heating a house stolen from the family and compressed into a space slightly larger than your body.
Went and drafted magic last night: drafted one of the best decks I have ever made. Black/white enchantment matters. Zombies and fallen knights and other grisly things including a card that has been nicknamed Dead kids
Which didn’t stop it mana screwing then mana flooding me against my first opponent. Beat my second one, then went down to the third.
What does one mean when they ‘draft’ magic?
You sit at a table with 5-7 other people and 3 packs. On “go,” you all crack the first pack in front of you, select a card from it, and pass the remainder to your left. You continue doing this until you run out of pack one, then crack the second and pass right. From this, you accrue a “pool” of 45 cards, from which (adding basic lands) you build a 40 card deck and fight it out 1v1 in a mini tournament.
Good way to practice your game skills, and experiment with different deck types. I much prefer it to the constructed stuff they do at stores, a good deal cheaper to get into and you get some cool stuff.
This is a seriously cool idea.
It’s the best, especially if you have a FLGS with a capital F. Last night I fucked up my first pick and the guy who owns the store was my first pass, and he just looked at me and said “I think you should try again with that” and passed back a card I’d only half read.
Greetings TAY, long time no make with the talky-talk. I’d like to say I was super busy on earth rattling business, but I’m just a slack arse with nothing to say.
KOTOR II wow, KOTOR II. Gotten back into this game in a massive way since the patch the other day. Just made it sooooooo much better. Even better if this renewed enough interest that people got modding, I needs me some extra goodies.
I am missing the handmaiden robe exploit, feeling very poor at the moment and I really want that Onasi blaster.
Oh and because I know you all miss it so much…
SKYRIM!
Anyone else hoping they’re testing the waters for interest in a KOTOR III or similar-type game?
The plotline’s shot to hell as SWTOR continues the story in the MMO. Also I believe Disney declared the Kotor series non-canon but somehow Swtor is canon. It’s a huge piling mess of crap at the moment so it’ll be interesting to see if they do bring it back.
As far as I’m aware, SWTOR wasn’t canon either? Because if it is, then KOTOR is…because it’s the same story and most (if not all) of the facts from the first two games are in SWTOR 😐
I stand corrected; as of 3 months ago SWTOR has been confirmed to be non-canon! So KOTOR 4 is possible? See link @shane @dc @transientmind seems discussions have at least started around this?
http://gamerant.com/obsidian-knights-old-republic-star-wars-game/
Yeah, I figured that much. It’s why I added “Or similar-type game.”
Maybe set in a time period closer to the movies, for instance. I’d be down as hell for that.
Wait what? Considering how much of KOTOR blends into SWTOR, how can KOTOR not be considered canon?
On a side note, I like that Darth Malak is probably the best not-Vader Vader that Star Wars will ever have. KOTOR II was great because it moved away from the standard idea of a big, single bad guy to focus on.
Yeah up until 3 months ago the official statement was EA games are considered canon however they specifically said KOTOR games were not canon. So this left SWTOR in a grey area which they clarified in a statement recently.
I thought the same, but didn’t dare to speak it!
SWTOR is KOTOR3. With co-op!
There’d have to be a huge amount of convincing done, they’ve gone on and on about SWTOR being the replacement for KOTOR 3 for years. Also (big spoilers for the SWTOR story):
The stories for KOTOR 1 & 2 have both been wrapped up in SWTOR, with both the Exile and Revan becoming one with the force as part of the main story.The Jedi Knight in SWTOR is also effectively what the story for KOTOR 3 would have been, and it’s pretty great. Having said that, I am a fan of the game and of MMOs so I’m aware of my bias.
On that note I completed Ravagers and ToS for the first time earlier this week on SM!! =D Now on to HM!! =O
I actually preferred using the non-Force characters in SWTOR. Jedi and Sith are all the rage but my Imperial Agent and Republic Trooper stories were damn great and a refreshing change.
I absolutely love the Knight story because it was so very KOTOR 3 (for lack of a better comparison) but yeah, the Agent is a fantastic story.
I don’t even think it needs to be a KotOR 3, just give me another single player RPG in the Star Wars universe with good writing and characters! 😀
Definitely agree with this, with the rights now belonging to Disney and all the rubbish about what is canon and what isn’t, a fresh start would be best.
But only if they can keep to the spirit of the KotOR games, still so damn good!
Exactly! Massive single player RPG would be fantastic. I forgot how amazing the characters in KOTOR II were.
I would forgive them if they changed their minds! 🙂
Spiritual successor: Sith for a New Empire
YES PLEASE
I’d even be happy if they ported these remastered to consoles
HUUUUUUUUGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Clubby?
SKYRIM! KOTORII!
HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII STRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNGGE!
p.s. Clubby says Hi too!
@redartifice Did you back the Strange enough to get the latest supplement, Worlds Numberless and Strange? I got mine last night and read a bit of it. Some of the recursions are downright creepy and insane while others are pretty awesome. It’s quite impressive how many recursions they’ve managed to come up with.
You said “strange” too many times not to include a “Hi @strange!”
It’s lucky for you that I was here.
*jumps through hole in wall*
I have the dl link, haven’t had a look yet. Gonna be cool.
@strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strange @strangeDon’t want to spoil it too much but the King Arthur one is messed up. I really like that they twist some of the established fictional stuff and come up with something brand new.
I also liked the “Totally not Star Wars” recursion. The new lore behind some of the Earth organisations and the main recursions of Ruk and Ardeyn were pretty cool too.
After some digging around on Netflix last night I found a bunch of Stephen Chow movies.
God of Cooking
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
Shaolin Soccer
Kung Fu Hustle
If you haven’t sent them you really should, especially Kung Fu Hustle which is one of my favourite films.
None of them are showing up when I search for them on Netflix AU. This makes me sad.
The search function is broken. Searching for stuff specifically by name sometimes doesn’t bring them up, and then you see the title you were after in a “related” or “because you liked….” section. With all the moneys Netflix gets, you’d think they’d have a less broken interface by now.
The web interface is better for finding things, if that helps.
Wait, Kung Fu Hustle is on Netflix? You don’t know how long I’ve spent in the Eastern Eye sections of JB looking for that movie (among others)
Netflix AU really needs a better interface for browsing.
EDIT: Oh, it’s not on Netflix AU? That would probably explain that then… 😛
EDIT2: So it is on Netflix? Ow, my head!
Kung Fu Hustle appears in the regular section of JB.
Really? haha I’ll have to have a look next sale. It’s weird that it wouldn’t be in the International section as well though, they do that with the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movies.
Oh well, thanks Strange 😛
Wait, you’ve been specifically looking for a DVD for a while now & didn’t check online ???
I_o
Just a “if I happen to see it cheap, I’d buy it” situation. Haven’t been actively hunting for it.
o_!
!_!
It’s not under Eastern Eye! It’s in the general A-Z.
It might be US only. I tend to use the US version as they have a heap more Asian films and anime. Occasionally jump over to the Canadian version as they have so many B grade revenge films for some reason.
How are you accomplishing this oh master of the teleporting arts =O
https://www.unblock-us.com
Sign up, set it up and set whatever region in the world you want to see using a drop down menu as you see fit.
Not a VPN or anything, just a DNS solution.
Hey this is similar to that tvunblock thing @transientmind mentioned before =O I really need to set this up, can you swap back to an aussie dns without any issues?
You can turn it on or off by right click, turn off in the system tray.
I need to get on this =O Might hit you up at some point next week when I look to set it up in case I hit technical difficulties =P
Unblock US is a paid service that makes things easier – system-tray right-clicking, for example.
TVUnblock is free, but requires dicking around in your network settings a little to set the servers manually.
After initially dicking around with TVUnblock I felt the $40 for the year on Unblockus was more than worth it. One click region changes.
Forbidden City Cop and From Beijing with Love were pretty enjoyable back in the day, also.
Shaolin Soccer was fun but I didn’t get the fuss around Kung Fu Hustle. Maybe I’ll give it another go.
I was the other way, I think the hype for both made them lesser experiences for e but I was expecting it more in Hustle.
It’s funny, if you speak to someone who understands the culture behind it, KFH is filled with in jokes the average Westerners will miss.
Tax time money is scary. Last year was good, because I knew half was for helping pay for 70K, and half was for helping pay for my sewing machine so I didn’t have to make any difficult decisions.
This year I have too many things it would be handy for to choose between, so I’m just sitting here changing my mind all the time. If this goes on for too long I’ll probably get drunk one night and blow it all buying fabric online. 😛
Buy a 3d printer and 3d print quilts!
Good problem to have 🙂
Indeed!
If my biggest problem right now is struggling between selfish spending and for-the-good-of-the-family spending then I’m very lucky!
Can’t wait to get our refund. Just had a $1400 vet bill so could use the $$$ now
HOLY SHIT HE’S HERE SOMEONE HIDE THE SMURFS.
I don’t bite …much
No! My low level LoL account!
You really know how to party. =P
Between Anton and I we have our wedding paid for! thank you ATO!
Why is Australia and New Zealand the only western countries with an active arcade industry? It’s given that Asia Pacific is still strong but arcades are virtually nonexistent in Europe and North America.
Dearest TAYbies, specifically
@35 @alexpants @anonymous_pessimist @batguy @cakesmith @cj @cookingmama @dkzeitgeist @doc_what @effluvium-boy @fatshadylive @gingerchris86 @gorzilla @harli @hugo_the_hungarian_barbarian @mawt @morkai @markserrels @mrtaco @novacascade @powalen @pupp3tmast3r @ruffleberg @shiggyninty
Yes my own name is in there.
(also any vagabonds that may wander into town)
You are cordially invited to what I’m tentatively titling The Powswarming (No Pants [We’re Allowed One {And That One Is Me}]) Powalen and Pants Housewarming Gala and Lazer Light Disco 2015
We’re looking at having our little shindig next Saturday from the afternoon into the evening, but I figured we’d get a potential show of hands before committing to anything. I’m scared of commitment. And yet here I have an apartment. So let’s celebrate that.
I mean, if you’re free and all… *kicks up dust*
I would but I wasn’t invited.
I wasn’t either.
Let’s spend that night badmouthing Sydney on Twitter.
I’ll be doing that FROM Sydney.
Yep, no one’s better at badmouthing Sydney than Sydneysiders.
You know what you diiiiiid
I could be persuaded.
*puts two hands up*
Did you want up?
*picks up Chris*
http://ih0.redbubble.net/image.16263422.7663/flat,220×200,075,t.u1.jpg
Hey, hoes the job etc?
I will be there for the lazer light disco.
Do not disappoint me.
🙁 I can’t make it on account of being in Cambodia.
Boooooo! Boooooooooooo!
Think Im working but I might be able to drop by briefly.
LASERS?
NO. LAZERS. THE Z MAKES THEM COOLER.
Two Sydney TAY meats in a row! \o/
…I might need to find a babysitter.
Hey guys, i just want to say that with pax approaching, if anyone needs advice or help with cosplay stuff, I’m happy to help. If you tag me on twitter, I may not notice for a few hours though because I am terrible.
No I’m terrible!
Don’t be so nice! You’re already swamped with cosplay obligations that are stressing you out!
Advice doesn’t hurt anyone. I meant like that, not like “Hey, send me your stuff and I’ll make it for you!”
I have a story to tell that was told to me last night and I’ve been thinking about since. It’s kinda one of those, ‘which side do I fall on’ type moral stories. Wall of text incoming.
I had my parents over for dinner and my dad and I were conversing, he spoke about life as a public servant. Currently at the ATO, he recalled working at ETSA back in the early nineties and when he was just starting out, he remembers one other employee reaching their forty year milestone. This other individual received a pendant on reaching the milestone and my dad went over and said to him, ‘Hey Jerry, you’ve been here forty years. They should have given you a gold watch.’ The real kicker is what he said to my dad in response.
‘No, Angelo, it is I that should be giving them a gold watch. They have paid for my children’s educations, accommodated my lifestyle – food, housing, cars. I’m happy to remain APS2 for the rest of my life. It is still a substantial life.’
Personally my view is of the fact that he worked for his keep, it wasn’t just free money from the government. Essentially it was him that funded all that he mentioned, his employer merely payed him for his services, however it is a great topic nonetheless.
My question to you guys: which side do you fall on in regards to feelings for your employer?
I hold no allegiances, never have. I’m there for the cash only.
Cash is good.
I have a love/hate thing going. I hate that I need it & how much it can control my life but I’m also too lazy to barter & trade items, so I love the ease of use.
Money, it’s a gas.
Get rich or die tryin
Having lost my job due to cutbacks, job security is something that seems to be very rare these days and any employer that will keep you for an extended time is certainly one to be grateful for.
Having said that, you are certainly right in the fact that he worked for that money, he earned it.
They’re not giving me anything. They’re making far more from what I’m giving them then what I’m getting in return. Sure, the money had paid for food and education for the kids but they’re getting luxury cars, beach front homes and a bunch of gold watches off the back of my efforts. So no, I don’t feel particularly like I owe them.
To quote a movie,
Fuck you, pay me.
Best comment.
Payment for a job leaves both sides on equal footing, but prolonged loyalty should be rewarded from an ethical and practical point of view.
I’d say job security has more to do with what industry you are in than any benevolence from the employer.
Especially at the bottom of the corporate pile, it’s at best a square trade of wages for work.
I’m on TAY during work time.
’nuff said.
A longer answer: I have no idea how the government feels it’s getting its money’s worth out of me, but I am grateful that they do. I’m qualified for literally nothing else.
That being said, I come here every day feeling like I’m giving this place the best years of my life. I’ll never be in my twenties again, and I’ve spent about half of my waking twenties staring blankly at a government-owned computer screen. And for what? I don’t know. I don’t feel loyal, I feel almost ripped off.
Maybe my frustration is misplaced. Maybe I’m angry at my workplace because society’s rules forced me into work I dislike.
Either way, though… *refreshes TAY*
The movie Office Space is still relevant today.
That’s kind of fucked.
If you didn’t spend that time at a government screen you would have spent it doing some other unfulfilling bs to put food on the table.
Just the nature of life and work.
Yep, I know this.
This is by far the best option available to me… at least until I write a bestseller.
That’s the dream right? Find a way out of the grind.
I hope you make it.
Twenties is not the best years of your life. Thirties is great, but I have a sneaking suspicion my forties will be even better. Maybe the fifties are the best years of your life, so you’re working hard now in the not as good years to better be able to enjoy those.
If you work for a corporation, the value they extract from your efforts is worth much more than what they pay you for it. If that weren’t the case, they wouldn’t hire you. That’s how non-goods-related service industries are capable of generating billions of dollars in profits.
As an example, first figures I could find: the Commonwealth Bank broke records for profits in 2013.
$21B in revenue. Spent $5B in payroll. With other expenses (including tax), it was nearly $8B in profit.
No physical goods or products to add value. That’s all labour/capital.
Government doesn’t extract the same value, but they don’t pay as well either. They only pay whatever’s required to actually convince people to do it, when they could be earning more in the private sector.
So, no. No gratitude for them getting a great deal on your effort for most of your life.
I’ve had 5 jobs in the past 4 years in 5 different fields and out of all them there was only one job I felt remotely loyal to. But that was because of how awesome my supervisor was; the company couldn’t have cared less about its employees. So definitely on the gimme money and fuck off your corporate assholes side of the equation =P
Edit: I actively look for new/better positions every 6 months; I think most people I know in my generation have 0 job loyalty after watching their parents get screwed over during economic depressions/recessions etc.
Finding an employer that ‘matches’ you is pretty damn important. Equally important is ending up with a manager that also matches how you work.
I feel like I won the lottery picking up a job at a company I’ve grown to love and has presented a number of very good opportunities. It’s easy to get lost as a cog in the machine here but in the last 5 years (been here nearly 10) I’ve found out how I can improve the work others do and support them to get results. It’s the most rewarding feeling when I’m getting calls from all across the east coast asking for guidance and support from people I’ve never met and didn’t even know.
Same goes for getting calls from managers 3 removed from me asking for input on reporting and process changes because the reporting I’ve produced and support I’ve provided has trickled up the chain.
So for me, at the end of the day the pay is nice and I want to be rewarded for my work but it’s been less important to me in the last few years as I realise having a job I enjoy doing that supports me and my family is what is most important.
I don’t think you can get that support and enjoyment from your employer unless you find a role that you want to do for reasons that extend further than simply collecting a pay packet every few weeks.
Handsome, charismatic, intelligent, generous, wonderful, diligent, smart, amicable, charming, sincere, humorous, witty, friendly and dare I say almost heroic.
I may be self employedPlanning on transitioning to this in 6-12months time; I’ve come to realize I have this personality where I just wont do my best for a job unless I have a leader that can acknowledge and inspire me. None of this KPI bureaucratic BS that corporations/HR flaunt as a rule book to management.
Good luck, it is tough but if you stick it out things can be great
If you want to run anything by me before you take the plunge the offer is open
…employer?
I meant Business Overlords.
Ah, there is a sucker born every minute, in this case me.
Just received notification of EB Games newest Fallout 4 edition.
EB Games Fallout 4 Nuke Pack (ohh ahh)
Steelbook (meh), game (duh), Print (pretty), Lunchbox (SWEET it can gather dust next to my F3 one) and Bobblehead (EVEN SWEETER now I can have TWO Fallout Bobblehead on my TV)
2 seconds later, pre ordered.
Just had to, so much like my Fallout 3 edition I had no choice… really, I didn’t
*sigh*
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Now to get a job so I will have money to be parted from.
I just want the steelcase
Fallout Anthology is $100 from EB.
Easy decision, then 😐
I unsubscribed from the latest newsletter. After getting so very, very angry about the ‘dream job’ article by Mark (and the retail/hospitality industries and increasing trend toward casualization of the workforce in general), I’m leaning towards a boycott. But… but pipboy!
But then you’re making it harder for them to meet their KPIs! MONSTER!
EDIT: I’m actually more annoyed at the money grab for different versions. There’s the Pip-boy edition, now the nuke edition, and wouldn’t all all go great with these games you already have for $100?
To get all extras is now like $350…
I refuse to negotiate with terrorists when it comes to other peoples’ lives!
…I’d totally negotiate with terrorists for friends and family members.
I’m not going back to them until I see a statement that deals with the issues that have been raised and not the corporate/legal PR bullshit saying its being looked into; wait 3 months for people to forget and never do anything about it.
The case it comes it looks pretty cool. Not $100 cool though.
It’s apparently $50 in the US, so why not like $70 here? I’m still not sure I’d go for it for $70 but $100 is a definite no, especially if I’m still going with the Pip-boy edition of 4
Played some Splatoon ranked matches last night and was amazed at how quickly I was levelling during it. It made me wonder why more people didn’t play ranked because I won 3 games in a row and got 1800p per game.
Then I lost a game and found out that when you lose you get 0p. OK, makes sense now 😛
Just be glad it’s not going -200p or something when you lose
Nah, the up/down ranking system is separate from levelling, thankfully 😛
And once you get near A rank, you’re raking in 3200-3800 points per win!
But considering that you only get maybe 400-1000 per game in regular (maybe more depending on your choice of weapon and what maps are available), I still reckon ranked is the way to go for leveling.
I average about 1000p per game because I’ma huge painter at the moment. I use mines to dissuade people which buys more uninterrupted painting time 😛
As a charger user I’d usually top out at 900 or so per match, usually maybe a little lower on average. Although I’ve been testing out the scoped E-Litre the last couple of nights, and that seems to push me over the 1k mark. Even scored 1255 in one match last night, and that wasn’t even on Dome which generally seems to yield higher scores. Think it might’ve been Skatepark.
So I’m potentially planning an inva- erhm i mean “road trip” to Canberra in September due to the @blaghman extravaganza shindig… Last year @f4ction and I managed to make it there and back in 1 tank of petrol (a measly $60)
Is there any Melbourne taybies who’d be interested in joining in? I’d tag people but that’s too much effort on a phone 😛
This is purely me putting out feelers for interest so there’s no commitment of you say yes but then have to back out (hell I don’t even know if I can go yet)
Any and all people are welcome (though I can only squeeze 4 people in the car so first in first served)
Edit – yay for exposure THAT’S HOW YOU PAGE GET @rize
You’re garbage. HUMAN GARBAGE.Ohhh, I get it now.You can. I checked.
Sah-weet! So you cleared with my missus?(form 444b signed in triplicate?) and cleared leave with work? YOU’RE THE BESTEST FRIEND EVER!
Better: I’ve organised a foolproof Pixel disguise for her, and she’s going to go to work for you!
Pixel confirmed for Blagh’s Meat.
You should totally drag @f4ction along again!
Done! @f4ction you’re not getting a choice! XD
Who are we talking about? @f4ction ?
Who’s @f4ction?
Yeah sure invite the Melbourne Taybies and just ignore the sydney siders =@
Tell you what, meet us at the midway point and I’ll give you a lift XD
…so….my house?
*looks at map*
Heeeeey! That doesn’t make sense!
Silly @Cakesmith, the earth is round? Not flat like a map so when you take into account the curvature of the earth you ca- *voice trails off*
I’m 5 hours from Sydney and 5 hours from Melbourne. Middle point if you take the inland roads.
So what you’re saying is, you live too far away from everyone?
Hey, it’s still significantly cheaper to fly to and from here than it is Canberra.
Confirmed! PRE-MEAT AT @RIZE’S PLACE!
@greenius is!
Oooh maybe! Keep me posted pls
yes*
Yes?
Yes? D:
Yes!
No
Maybe
I don’t know
Can you repeat the question?
;_;
Maybe. Depends on when you leave / come back. As I just started working full time again so asking for leave wouldn’t be the best (as it is I have to ask for time off around PAX).
Also, EUGH at the following for tagging me;
@cakesmith
@rize
@freezespreston
But @f4ction !
Going for my first-ever eye test tomorrow.
Fingers crossed for no glasses. I don’t want to become a nerd.
But hey, if I do then maybe people won’t punch me in the face as often.
*holds hand up* How many fingers am I crossing?
*squinting* …wait a minute, why is his hand moving towards me like that?
punched in the face
Pow tomorrow.
I did not sign up for living with a nerd.
NEEEEEERRRRRRD! (says the Nerdy IT guy with Glasses on)
Should have gone to Specsavers…
*shoots self*
Wow, those ads are getting dark.
But you can get those black rimmed glasses and become a true hipster.
What I think of when I hear ‘eye test’
https://youtu.be/-aXlXjVfg0A
Dear Brain
Where did you put our phone?
Asking for a friend.
Love,
Fingers.
Fingers,
I keep telling you, my name is Brian.
And for the ninth time: up the butt.
– Brian
Send me your number and I can message you so it makes a noise so you can find it 🙂
Promise they won’t be sexts… 😉
I do not approve of this message, can confirm half nudes in my inbox currently because of this man.
Shoosh you, or I’ll send more >:P
Love fingers. Are there any better kind of fingers?
Woo, house to myself for the next few days!
…
*does the same nothing as usual*
Don’t forget to hide in your room all weekend and still make sure to put pants on when you leave your room just on the off chance people are there at your door. There is never the freedom to confidently walk around naked if you don’t live by yourself
BoughtAnAeropressCoffeeMakerItMakesGreatCoffeeButI’mNotSureIfIShouldHaveAnotherJustToExperimentSomeMore
If you haven’t experienced omnidirectional movement through the 4th dimension, you have had enough.
Ah shit. Just got visited by my uncle, pretty upset, saying things weren’t looking good for Nonna. Suggested going around and saying goodbye while she’s still conscious :/
Dude, that’s the worst. Thinking of you.
It’s bad because it doesn’t feel anywhere near as bad as it did with my other grandparents. We were always much closer with them than with these ones, it’s hitting my uncle and dad pretty hard. Meanwhile I’m just sitting here kind of neutral about it, like I’m acknowledging intellectually that it’s bad but not emotionally. Then guilt takes its place.
I know what that’s like.
RED’S CURRENT FAMILY DRAMA
About two months ago my Pop, my mother’s father, got diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. I have two surviving grandfathers, this one and my Father’s father, whom we’ve always had a lot more to do with, which is making this a weird experience. The other wrinkle is my Pop’s wife, who pop married when I was about two- her and my mother have never got on, so about 25 years of tension is coming to a head atm.Went and saw Pop – for the first time since his diagnosis, him having missed a family outing or two since then – and visited him at his house. By my count, this is probably only the 4th or 5th time I’ve EVER been into this house, which he’s lived in for 19 years. It’s bloody confusing.
I bet your Pop appreciates you coming though, the tension is shit however being with him would bring him a lot of comfortOh, it was great, and I’m glad I did. Just tied up with other stuff in parrallel, which I won’t bother repeating here.Definitely do it, and say your piece. When I was worried my grandpa might not make it through a surgery, I sat down with him and told him what he meant to me. We talked about morality and what he’s achieved, etc. We talk pretty regularly now, I strongly recommend seeing her ASAP.
I’m not really a talker. All the other times I’ve just been the one standing there to the side, silent while everyone else talks. Then waits for everyone to leave so I can say goodbye and struggle to get even a single word out.
Went down and stayed by her side though for a while though. She was mostly out of it, drifting in and out of consciousness, could never really tell if she knew I was there or not. My sister came by after about an hour, and my uncle a little after that. She left and the two of us stayed there, then I came home for dinner after another hour.
See man, that’s rough. When my grandma died, I was so, so happy that she was lucid until the end
Yeah, my nanna’s not got long to go. Had to put her in a home a few months back because she got dementia & wasn’t taking all her medication properly.
Sucks.
Skeletins!
Skeletonnes!
Skellingtons!
Skeletors!
Funnybones!
https://youtu.be/fF4nASfZGO4
Fish!
No up vote for you!
Aw 🙁
Says you!
Played SMTIV yet?
No upvote for me too 😛
You know if you’re Brisbaning yet?
Nup! Sydney is practically confirmed though.
And this racing stripe here I feel is pretty sharp
HIghschool friend wants me to get Dialbo II so we can play it co-op tomorrow.
Don’t think I’ve ever actually played a Diablo before, despite somehow recognising Dungeon Hunter 2 and Heroes of Ruin as “diablo clones” when I tried each of them.
One of the more recent D2 patches legitimately removed all copy protection. One game can be installed on several PCs for multi now, from memory.
Whenever I LANed, we just had one copy that got passed around and one person hosted a TCP/IP game. Worked since before Lord of Destruction.
I thought we had to do something sneaky like change a registry key on each PC to make each one different, or launch with the CD or crack it or something… And then an official patch (ladders – 8 or 10?) just removed the copy protection completely.
I’m too lazy to check patch notes to actually verify this though.
The no CD crack was handy but burnt discs using the same key sufficed. Hell, I think a full multiplayer install on an external hard drive got straight up copy/pasted a few times.
Patch 1.12, June 2008
If all required Diablo 2 ‘.MPQ’ files are installed on the hard drive, the game will no longer require the CD to play.
If you want a great diablo clone, torchlight 2 is great and pretty cheap
Oh hey I actually have that from one of the Humble Bundles. Might download that and see if he wants to give it a shot.
Any Dark Souls II veterans feel like explaining the rules for this finite respawn mechanic to me? On my original character I killed this Old Knight guy near a bonfire heaps of times, but I just started a new character and he stopped respawning after like kill number 10. I was hoping to get my Endurance and Adaptability up a bunch early on.
It’s 12 times.
Damn. I guess that’s handy if I want to clear some of the more obnoxious enemies but I got a few good drops the first time that I was hoping to get again.
If you have any bonfire ascetics, you can burn one at the bonfire to reset the enemy’s spawns, the downside being that it ups the area to NG+ difficulty.
The upside is that drop rates increase a bit in NG+ IIRC.
Anyone else go to Video Games Live in Melbourne tonight? Or is anyone planning to go to it in Sydney next week?
I wasn’t really a fan 😛
Still at work *collapses*
Repost time 🙂 Sydney peoples! It seems we are going to have @trjn inside us this sunday!
@35 @alexpants @anonymous_pessimist @batgirl @batguy @cakesmith @cj @cookingmama @dkzeitgeist @doc_what @effluvium-boy @fatshadylive @gingerchris86 @gorzilla @harli @hugo_the_hungarian_barbarian @mawt @morkai @markserrels @mrtaco @novacascade @powalen @pupp3tmast3r @ruffleberg @shiggyninty
This calls for an impromptu boardgames night at mine on sunday night from 6pm till about 11pm
let me know if you want to come and I’ll let you know my address, either here or on twitter 🙂
Yep
Sorry I can’t make it!
I played Rust for the first time last night…
Started off doing stuff on my own, but then I died and respawned in the middle of a bunch of guys fighting each other, which I got caught up in. But then we declared peace and teamed up because we were all black, though I was slightly less black. Then we set off chasing down a prepubescent racist who attacked us. There were about 6 naked black guys chasing a naked white guy. We all stopped and posed so the white kid could take a pic. Then we killed him.
Then we headed off to the beach to recruit more people. Climbed atop a big rock and set some campfires as beacons. But then we got betrayed by a new recruit… So we decided to just kill everyone who tried to climb our rock instead. Especially the racist kid. Lasted most of the night, but then I died when six people attacked me and the last guy standing. And then I respawned beside our friendly neighbourhood racist… He started chasing me and then another guy got involved, he attacked the racist and we both survived and teamed up and became detectives. Solved a dispute between two players, then we went and investigated talk of a band of murderers near the airfield. We died a lot… And kinda caused more crimes than we solved. Managed to take a few scumbags out though. Kinda hard when they have crossbows and guns and we had hunting bows and wooden spears… At least we had pants.
Just saw my friend off, after playing maybe 14 hours of Diablo. Minus time for pizza.
Hmm.
Trainwreck lived up to its name.
I’ve never genuinely hated a movie as much as Michael Bay’s Ninja Turtles adaptation, but this is right up there with the awfulness of that.