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Sunday, March 27

Approaching people.

So I notice that a big problem I have, and a problem many socially awkward people have is how to approach someone. How to make small talk, things of that nature that seem like they should come natural are often difficult to..well the more nerdy of us.
I just recently came out of my shell, and I'm still having trouble, so I've developed, and read about some methods to help with the most basic of social interactions.

One thing that has helped me a ton is the fact that I smoke. I'm not an addict, I smoke very casually, maybe a pack a week.
So that gives me one very easy opening to get into conversation; "Do you have a lighter?"
It's simple, and it works. Conversation has been initiated, and through that you can ask the basic questions, the Who, where, and such.

Another strategy is, if you are a social gathering, to find out who the person is ahead of time.
"Oh, you're ________, right? Yeah ______ mentioned you."
And from there, you can build.

a third rather popular item is to find someone on someones person and ask about it.
For example, I wear a bobby pin and a rubber band around my wrist, soley so people have something to say if they want to talk to me. To do away with that initial awkwardness.
"Okay, dude, I hate to ask, but why do you have a bobby pin on your wrist?"
and there, he's in. Conversation initiated, the initial awkwardness is gone.

Monday, March 21

Fucking Russians, man.

So it's a bit odd this is my first post in months...but I find it necessary to share this with as many people as possible
Russian artists arrested for staging in orgy.
I can't make this shit up.

Wednesday, March 9

To anyone who played Persona 4

Jesus fucking Christ, man.
For those of you who didn't, at the beginning of Persona 4, and throughout it bodies are found hanging from telephone and electrical wires. They are usually around a time when the sky turns yellow, and no cause of death is ever evident. The game takes place in 2011.

Tuesday, March 8


Spring break is quickly approaching, and I'm excited.
My last one, exactly a year ago, was a drug fueled adventure. I don't remember much of it, but I know I had fun, and I know I spent well over four hundred dollars on misc. expenses.
Here's hoping for an encore even better than the last.
I've always thought about getting the five or six people that came with me last time, on my adventure. On the quest. And using our combined memories to compile a story, and I might try that for you folks to read. It should be interesting, at the very least. Though I doubt any of us can remember any more of the others.

Monday, March 7

The 1800's


I'm trying not to repost a lot of things, but I absolutely loved This.
They're photos of the American frontier days, during manifest destiny and beautifully illustrate the struggle and general hardship that they faced throughout their lives. It has the potential to really make one appreciate where he or she is in life, solely because of how easy it is. We really are one of the first generations to have the luxury of boredom, and it's time we realize that. To turn our boredom into happiness, solely because we're capable of having nothing to do, nothing to truly worry about.

Saturday, March 5

Battlefield 3

So yeah, I'm late to the party, but I'm tickled pink about this game.
I love me some good old fashioned massive battlefield battles.

Monday, February 28

Fixing Final Fantasy Fourteen

Finishing Fourteen.

XIV is a wonderfully flawed game.
You can feel the potential coursing through it with each step through a grassland, forest or desert. With each action the player realizes that something wonderful could happen, but the game ultimately falls short. It feels like a skeleton. A frame with no picture. A horribly empty affair. Final Fantasy fourteen needs work, and when it gets that work, it will be a work of art.

First thing’s first Square needs to take advantage of the things that are already in the game. There are chocobos that can’t be ridden, ports with no ships, plains with no monsters, towns with no activity, people with nothing to offer, an arena that can’t be entered. It’s clear square enix had something in mind, but they never implemented it. It’s highly likely that it will all be added in the future, but leaving it hanging there is just plain cruel to the player. To see the arena, or the ale port, your mouth waters, you expect the epic flight or epic battle, but when you arrive; there is nothing.

Fixing this is simple. Square should make these things functional. Turn the Arena into a PVP set up, letting players form teams and queue up for matches, then fight in real time. Letting other players watch and place bets. Open the arena up every hour, during behest, and let anyone they want file in for massive battles awarding arena guild marks for kills.  The ports are all close for an in game reason, either broke or under siege; they are unable to operate. This can be handled with the use of one of my favorite things in an MMO. An event.  Only once in each server, at some point in time open up a series of quests for players to help get the ports operational, and give one-time rewards, that only players who participate can get. War and Magic classes can break sieges, kill monsters, clear the way. Land classes can gather materials for recreating ships and ports, while hand classes actually rebuild the ports.



The empty, or practically empty towns and camps are perfect for quests as well. Not simply leves, but story based quests, with rewards that make them worth doing. The same can be said for the useless NPCs that dot certain cities.

Now for fixes of things that are actually, currently in the game.

Leves need to be changed. They’re a beautiful concepts, and I do enjoy doing them, but I dislike their luck-of-the-draw nature, and the way the cool down and turn in concepts work. The easiest fix is to chain them together. The first three leves you get for a zone will be the three easiest, and once you complete them, you unlock the next tier. The more difficult, more rewarding leves will be unlocked as you complete the easy leves.  While still being allowed to redo to certain older leves, which are randomly generated each time the leve clock rolls over, much like they are handled now. I would also suggest each individual leve have a twenty four hour cool down, at which point it can be replaced, on top of a natural 36 hour cool down at which point all of your leves can be replaced.



Fatigue also needs work.

I understand why fatigue is in the game, but for a dedicated player like myself, who has an end goal, and wants nothing to do with things other than that goal; it’s annoying.
I want to DPS. I don’t want to make hilts, cook pies, or pick flowers, I want to hurt things.
So yes, I could level Lancer, Marauder and Archer, alternating them as one is fatigued, but I want to be an archer, and the game is not supporting that goal. It’s lowing down the progression of end game characters in general. Fatigue set in should be slowed down, and its effect should be much less. It will still accomplish what it was meant for, while still allowing me to reach max level and rank with an unnatural hindrance.



And finally, things that should be added.

PVP! This is massively important for a good MMO, and can be handled easily with a system that already exists in the game. Firstly, the arena, that’s easily. Secondly, for big, actual battles, square enix should use guilds. Enemy guilds. Sort of like the Scryers and Aldor from World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, except with actual battles and violent combat. The player will join one of the guilds, and enter a guild either a real time guild battleground, with objectives, and players will battle to take the objectives. Every 36 hours, along with the leve rollover, the objectives will roll over, the guild with the most complete, successful objectives will offer discounts and special items the next 36 hours, until the results are announced for the current battle.

Endgame.
Raids! Raids! Raids! Endgame PVE shouldn’t be holding lower level characters hands through combat, it should be twice as difficult as leveling. A struggle against massive beasts for even more massive rewards.
Tiered raiding is my personal favorite. Tier 1 bosses could be defeated by a skilled party of characters just below max level. Tier 2 bosses require max level characters and coordination. Tier 3 bosses would require max level characters, with gear from beating tier 1 and 2 bosses, and a large amount of coordination. Finally, tier 4 bosses are those that only the hardened, insanely geared, groups who act as a single unit.



One might wonder while I still play FFXIV even though I have all of these complaints. It’s simple, really. I have hope in the game, I trust that square will fix it, because they have slowly been fixing it. I trust that in less than a year Eorzea will be fleshed out, and wonderful.
And I also play fir the most lovely girl in the world, but that’s another story.

Sunday, February 27

WOTD

I haven't gotten a chance to watch the entire thing, because I'm on my lunch break from work right now, but what I did watch of it was very interesting. Here's hoping you guys enjoy it as well.
The speaker is David Axe, who runs Warisboring, one of my favorite military blogs.
At this point, these guys voices alone are classic.

Saturday, February 26

The birth of a world.

"Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope an international team of astronomers has been able to study the short-lived disc of material around a young star that is in the early stages of making a planetary system. For the first time a smaller companion could be detected that may be the cause of the large gap found in the disc. Future observations will determine whether this companion is a planet or a brown dwarf."
More here.

Friday, February 25

Obama extends patriot act.

Come on man, what the fuck.

WOTD

I'm just trying to get the feel for this, for blogging, for sharing.
It's an odd thing. I feel very narcissistic when I write too much, and very empty when I write too little.
The most likely thing is that I'm thinking to much into it.
So I thought the best thing do would be to nice to start a daily..something.
So here it is. The wallpaper of the day.
I don't know how I feel about this. I liked the first one, sure, but how often is a sequel to a comedy move really worth watching? Almost never. I see virtually no possibility that this will be a worthy successor to its namesake, but only time will tell.

50 facts

This is pretty fun, I'm not going to lie.

Thursday, February 24

Rumors swirl around Libya.


Rumors are dancing around the possible death Gaddafi. The situation in Libya is truly amazing, if not beautiful. I have nothing directly against Gaddafi (any more so than other dictators) but the end of an oppressive 40 year old reign is something of awe.
Here.
Jesus Christ. I'm excited about this. I played Morrowind and Oblivion religiously. To the point that I can no longer even stand to load the games up, and god damnit. I'm ready for round three.