Nom

Hell yes.

I'm putting money on my account tomorrow when Oracle of Seasons/Ages come to the Virtual Console, and I may get this with the leftovers. I feel like I may have to start a new game with the advantage of knowing exactly how all the children mechanics work if I have any hope of having units good enough to beat it.

At risk of sounding like a colossal wet blanket, I also have to say that I don't care for Nolan's films. The only one I've truly enjoyed is Memento. I just get this really . . . cold feeling from them. I like Range's explanation of why characters always ring false--because to me, they do. If I think about Inception it's to think about the crazy dream shit, not the characters or emotional power. It took me repeat viewings (and honestly, people want to watch that movie way too damn much) to even remember DiCaprio's character's name. Even now I only have his last name. And while I do think the Batman films are decent they seem to have been a self-fulfilling prophecy due to all the hype. Good advertising, I guess. And I really wish he wouldn't put that stupid DRAMATIC BASS THUMPING in every single scene. Makes it pretty much impossible to hear anything, at least for me, and cheapens any actual drama.

I have a confession to make: I had never seen a Bond film before Skyfall. Everyone said it was good, so I thought, seems like a fine place to start. I have no desire to ever watch another Bond film. The opening sequence was good and the title sequence was beyond cool, but the whole film just went downhill from there. People tell me Bond films aren't for everyone. I'll just say it's not my idea of a good movie. I just watched Moonrise Kingdom. Never seen a Wes Anderson film before. Didn't like. I think I'm noticing a trend here.

Nintendo aren't holding a press conference at E3 2013 so I don't know how you're defining 'everyone'. Presumably, you meant 'no-one'. They aren't holding a major press conference, no. They're holding two smaller ones in which they invite journalists and industry peeps for hands-on with the games. So, yes, wait for E3 where Nintendo will show 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Retro Studios, Wind Waker HD, etc. All those games we know nothing about other than that they exist. Many of these games will be released in the fall/holiday season and will presumably help boost sales for the Wii U. That's all I meant; Nintendo has been in a game drought with the Wii U. Optimists say that will change with E3. I see no reason not to give Microsoft the same benefit of the doubt. I was just questioning whether the focus of the conference was helpful or hurtful as far as how many other people will give them that benefit.

^That's why I don't really get why they chose to focus so much on that. I mean, I actually love integration because having a bunch of boxes is annoying, but I was under the impression the Xbox was for games. They kind of treated them like an afterthought, and funnily enough the one thing you can't integrate with the one machine is your old games. Sony talked a lot more about games, and even though the Wii U doesn't have many so far I'm curious to see what Nintendo shows at their new E3 model, which is all about hands-on with games. On the one hand Microsoft is huge so it makes sense they would try to expand to that market with the Xbox brand. On the other hand people do buy game systems for games and people interested in other stuff can get it elsewhere. I'd think they would a least be a hard sell, considering the system is likely to be pretty expensive with all that fancy tech. Everyone says "wait for E3" for Nintendo, so I see no reason not to do the same for Microsoft. But if they wanted to create a positive buzz it might have been wiser to bring games to the front more. All I hear anyone saying now is how they didnt talk about the games. I don't think that's the kind of buzz they'd want.

Yeah that's pretty awful too. You do tend to either get people who just say "cool," or people who go out of their way to pick apart every last clause until the larger effect has been lost. I feel like a lot of people don't realize that good constructive criticsim is a skill that needs to be honed like any other. I'm paid to give people feedback and there's a lot of training and reading about the subject involved. So it really annoys me when people think they're badass because they're brutally honest. A.K.A. unhelpful.

Bad critiques. I'm an English and Studio Art double major (har har no job etc) and the vast majority of people are really, really bad at giving feedback. Can't keep personal bias out of their evaluation and can't keep their mouths shut when they don't actually know what they're talking about. I just had a dude give me a line-by-line (which is the WORST critiquing style) in which he did not leave a single sentence unmarked. Maybe the writing was really that bad, right? Well, he was factually wrong about two rules of grammar in a single paragraph. And had the arrogance to condescend to me. The worst part is you can't really say anything back without sounding whiny.

But it will be glorious when they all converge.

This seems appropriate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L7FuA8Rry8

Oh. Wow. The last Wheel of Time book has been out for a few months now. Shows how much I care at this point. Sanderson's been doing a good job, though, and now I actually have time to read it.

Yeah I was expecting more things to happen considering how much is coming up. I figured they would do the bear pit but also the first of several weddings. I liked that it spent so much time with Jon and Ygritte even if some of it was a retread; GRRM definitely knows his characters better. Jon's warning about attacking the wall was probably the most interesting thing he's said all season. I'm guessing we'll get some Stannis next week so Melisandre can do some voodoo, considering that's the last episode before . . . you know . . . that one.

Man, season 2. Where they really started diverging from the books. Unlike a lot of people I know I don't really care that they change things; in a lot of ways they've made it better because if Martin is guilty of anything it's long-windedness. But I don't think they really got it down until this season. So season two feels quite . . . messy, at times. Buuuuut it also has some of the series' best moments. So hey.

Ha my ARHS final(s) were almost identical. Granted I'm a studio art major but I still didn't really give a crap. It's nice to know the history leading up to the world you're making your own art in, but half that stuff they don't even have a solid date on so you have to memorize ranges. Which is more numbers. And unneccesary. Glad I'm done with that stuff. Currently I'm procrastinating on the screenplay I have to turn in two days from now. Screenwriting was way more helpful than the English department's fiction classes. But I'm burned out now and gah why won't it just finish itself.

Anyone else reading David Sedaris' new book, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls? I'm taking it slowly because I don't want it to be over. First few stories didn't impress me all that much but it's picked up and become more like classic Sedaris.

*raises hand* I did. Freshman year of college (university to the rest of the world.) And I was like, well then. Moving on. I'm so well-adjusted.

There you go.

I recently got a lot of enjoyment out of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series and Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders. They're very different--Mistborn is a sort of fun twist on the classic epic fantasy formula while Hobb's books are all very character driven and actually almost turned me off by how slow they start. But man it's worth it. I would also recommend A Song of Ice and Fire . . . they're polarizing but I really enjoy them. Then again I enjoy most fantasy if it's not Eddings or Donaldson. Even Robert Jordan at least started with a cool story. YMMV. Edit: Also those recommended below me.

Yarly, and not just about veganism/vegetarianism. "You don't like X food? Why? It's so good! Have you ever had it? You must not have had the good kind, then. Seriously, why don't you like it?" ASDFGHUEJOIJFPAUUH(Q#FM My girlfriend is a vegetarian (I'm not) and she will consume your soul if you try to argue with her about it. I couldn't give less of a [bleep] but some people, mercy on their souls.

Benioff and Weiss deserve a hand for that episode. /thatguy

I'm bad at remembering book quotes >_> I like him too. Hope they give him some stuff to do before... later.

Oh lulz I remember this thread. Emulation is indeed only legal if you make the copy yourself. So no, you can't own the game and then download someone else's rom, because the very distrubtion of roms is illegal. You have to dump the files yourself. Also OMFG ALG LUCINA IN YOUR SIG

Was that the thing about being a bastard? If I remember right that came about after some of Mance's backstory was revealed, which they obviously didn't have time to do... maybe it will come up later and we'd still get the line. I love to hate Tywin. Charles Dance is terrifying. TERRIFYING.

Dude your entire story sounds like the opening of a CSI episode. People usually turn up dead after those.