Lurker > Uglyface2

7.5

I have happy memories of Working Designs, but let's be honest: SSSC wasn't as great as we all remember it.

I haven't been following wrestling in the last few months (new job, less energy for late nights), but I have been following AJ's Twitter account. All I've got to say is, it's sad that her career is only going to go as far as she can stick her tongue down people's throats.

I've got two student loans out. If I were to consolidate my loans, the gubmint would reduce my rate by .25 percent. This all sounds nice; I owe about 16,000 on my loans including interest (which is about to be added to the principal), and paying one lender instead of two would be a bit less headache. I'm just worried that I'll wind up paying more in the long run. Anyone with a head for this stuff think this is a good/bad idea?

Tempted by Risen 2, but the reviews on the PC incarnation lead me to believe it'll have a price drop in short order.

I hope this rumor isn't true. I don't want motion controls. That's why I skipped the Wii! And all of this virtual reality stuff, so much hardware to have to store. Why can't I just get a box to attach to my TV?

Getting a fresh pizza at 3 AM would be wonderful. Can you imagine this being set up in a Holiday Inn Express? Genius.

Do you have a college diploma:

A: Yes

Are you currently in post-HS education:

B: No


What was/is your major?
Political Science. I got some bad advice about going to law school, so that's what I went for.

If you are not currently in school, or have a college diploma, what is your occupation?
Insurance follow-up representative

Any other information that might be relevant to this topic?
Yes. You can use any degree to get into law school. Political Science may be a major a lot of people at law school have, but you don't have to do that to get in.

I also have a job now because of vocational training, NOT because of college. I spent an entire year completely unemployed because nobody cared about either my soft skills or my college degree. I wound up going to an adult education training class the next year so I could obtain some marketable skills. THAT got some attention.

So basically, if you're going to college, don't waste your time on something you don't know how to monetize.

Yeah, Zynga's got a poker game. Get free chips, work your way up to the big leagues. I only played it because they had a promotion where you'd get a free item in Mafia Wars (while I was still playing Mafia Wars).

Mario, Link, and Samus.

And have her walk out before the third act? (Which, I might add, has one of the most beautiful introductions I've heard.)

I'd hire a call girl to watch it with me, but she'd just be on the phone texting her friends the whole time.

They're going to do a showing of the Met Opera's production of Les Contes D'Hoffman in theaters in a few weeks, and if my experience seeing it live is any indication, going to the opera alone makes everyone around you very uncomfortable. Women changed seats with their men, without exception, to get away from me. Were it not for the fact that I love Offenbach, I'd have been very distressed and not enjoyed the opera at all.

I need a girlfriend or something to come with me so nobody feels weirded out by the single guy sitting there watching opera.

When you've devoted a great deal of time and treasure toward obtaining qualifications that are supposed to lead to a more prosperous life than what being a sous-chef in a hotel in the slums can ever possibly afford you, then yes, it is tragic.

For what it's worth, I knew my degree by itself was going to be worthless; it was my intention to go on toward an advanced degree. When I lost my job, I tried to shop that degree around, and like these people, I found that there were no takers. In fact, these people did better than I did; they landed something, anything at all. I had to go in for a year's worth of vocational training before anyone would even look at me. I now make enough money to pay down my debts (barely) and not much else.

I just look to see if anyone quoted them later. Those usually don't get modded.

Got it. Noose around your neck, cinder block at the other end of the rope. Do a layup with the cinder block.

Why is she even still a thing?

I thought this was done, but I guess it isn't.

The game was Star Wars: Episode III on the DS. I was almost so proud of him for picking out Mario Kart DS, but then he changed his mind and went with the licensed crap. Sucks.

People want to know how old I am. I'm 34, she's 42. We live at home because, in my case, I just got employed and need to unbury myself from some debt I accumulated while I was unemployed, and in her case, because she had a messy divorce, doesn't have a job, now goes to school to try to get skills so she can get a job.

People want to know how crazy she can really be. Well, let's look at last year's 8-month period that she had a feud going with me. A few days prior to the start, she tried to get in a physical confrontation with my father. That didn't work because my mother sided with my father. So she started trying to push my buttons, to get me to say anything, and then one day when I started picking up after my niece (because she and her sister and her mother were about to leave), she got nasty again, and called me a troll. I'd reached my breaking point and called her a whore. She went BATS***, charged up the stairs, bellowed at me, and then slapped me in the face. I punched back. She very nearly called 911, until she realized that she started it, so she called my mother instead. Then she started hollering things at me, then she threw a heavy boot at me (which damaged the wall), then she threw a telephone at me (which hit the back of my head), then she spat in my face, hurled some more insults, and as I walked away, she pushed me from behind.

Yeah. She's that kind of person. Why didn't I call the police? Well, who'd be able to sway the two witnesses (her kids) before they arrived? Who'd be able to tell them I swung at her, and deny vehemently that she slapped me first? You know how the law operates. Plus there's my mother, who wants to ignore all of this. Even if nobody got arrested, I had no job and no prospects and nowhere else to go. I didn't want to get thrown out.

Anyway. She proceeded to make me feel as unwelcome in the house as she could for the next eight months, prohibiting her children from interacting with me. See, that's a usual tactic whenever she has a tantrum, her kids are her pawns. It's hard to point out the other, subtler ways she made me uncomfortable, but they were there.

And it went on for eight months. That's the kind of person she is. There are other, smaller blowups, but do you see now why I want to avoid fights with her? She could probably kill me in cold blood and get away with it.

So that's why I wanted him to keep a secret, because I didn't know if she'd blow up like that over me doing something she didn't have absolute control over. I walk on damn eggshells as it is with her around. So much of what I do has to do with what will keep her from flipping out. Park in the street until I'm sure she's done for the night, don't buy food that needs to be refrigerated because she might want the space, just a lot of little things that make living with her unbearable.

Was there anything else you wanted to know? I don't remember.

EDIT: Oh, right, why he couldn't play games.

Some degree of mental illness seems to run in the family. I've got some crazy pills of my own I have to take, and he's been introduced to a cocktail of stuff over the years. They're trying to modify his behavior, and they're trying a lot of different things.

Remember, I wasn't against him not playing games, I was angry because they didn't do anything to fill the gap that taking them away caused. When he was playing games again, I thought it was ok, except that his mother didn't have a stranglehold on me taking him out.

Lying to his mother and simply not telling his mother something are two different things. And if he thinks this kind of s*** isn't going to get the crap beaten out of him in middle school... well, he's got some serious pain on the way.

He wasn't caught playing it, he actively went and told his mother. He didn't have a box for it lying around or anything (it was cartridge only).

SantaRPidgey posted...

Are you seriously going to fault the kid for being honest with his mother?

Really?

"Alright, now don't tell your mother you've got this, ok?" (Trying to avoid a fight)
"OK."

A few hours later:

"HAY MOMZ GESS WAT?!"

I'm calling the doctor a quack because of some unfounded opinions I have of him. He took away my nephew's videogames in an effort to address some aggression issues in him (ok so far, got to try different stuff), but he completely forgot to have it replaced with something else. He left my nephew without a pretty big pastime and a gaping hole in his schedule, which to me is more "punishment" than "treatment".

The fries are pretty good, and I like the big, cheap drinks, but I'm iffy on the sandwiches and I don't care for the chicken at all. I mean, I'll sometimes eat a McDonald's sandwich if that's what's on offer, but it's not somewhere I actively seek out most of the time.

Just about to say the same thing. I've had him on ignore for months. Feels good.

I live with my parents, my sister, and her four kids. The oldest one just "graduated" elementary school (that's the first seven years of school, roughly ages 5-12, for those of you unfamiliar with the US system). I happened to have a coupon for a Buy 2 get 1 Free on preowned games at Gamestop; I thought it would be a good gift to get my nephew a game with that.

His quack doctor wanted him off games for a while, so I held off for about a week. Eventually I saw him playing his DS again, so I asked my dad if it was ok to get him a game now. He hadn't heard anything about the doctor, so he had no opinion. I thought, alright, he's back on games now so I'll get him a game.

A little thing about my sister: she can be very controlling regarding her kids. What I had in mind for my nephew was something I didn't necessarily want to clear with her, because... well, she can get bats*** crazy about absolutely anything.

One afternoon, I took my nephew out to McDonald's, bought him a shake, and I had a chat with him about junior high and some of the things people never told me. Afterward, I took him to Gamestop to get him the game. I was disappointed in his selection, but oh well, it didn't cost me anything but a coupon.

I asked him to keep the game a secret. I didn't want his mother finding out I'd taken him out.

What happened next is the problem: apparently, he ratted me out that very day. My mother just told me about it tonight, and while my sister is apparently very composed (for her) about the whole thing, I'm ready for her to go nuts about it.

My mother thinks my nephew acted with integrity and is proud of him. I think he stabbed me in the back in one of those situations where you don't tell your mother something. My mother can't understand why I'm angry about it.

Who's right? Was it right for me to get my nephew the game and ask him not to squeal about it, or was he right for running to Mommy so he could get a pat on the head and play the game, too?

McBonesII posted...

oh I didn't know this was out

my dad somehow found out about this game and kept sending me e-mails once a month or so with new pictures and previews, telling me to get this game so he can play it

really ****ing weird

Just buy him a copy of Barely Legal and he'll leave you alone.

Maybe I just like the idea of pizza.

Admit it, you're still going to go see it.

8.0/10

Good game, great sense of humor, but there were a few areas that weren't terrific.

BUNNYYYYyyYYYYYYYyyyYYYY!

Buy your own "sample set", fund your own transportation, and get paid on commission. Once you've run out of pity sales (family and friends), you generally run out of sales. Fun!

It was a good film series.

Most fruit, most vegetables.

Oh, they smell good (mostly), but when it comes to actually eating them, I choke.

Do pick up Gargoyle's Quest. It's a fine take on platforming which eventually led to the excellent Demon's Crest on the SNES. By itself, it's challenging and quite fun.

Advertising exists before videos. And during videos. And if you're not fast enough, after videos. But it exists, and may the executive who came up with the idea burn in eternal torment.

That said, sometimes you have to watch an ad before a video. But how much ad are you willing to watch before you say, "YouTube, go f*** yourself, this isn't worth it"? What is the proper "Ad to Content" ratio?

It sure as hell isn't 30 seconds for a minute and a half trailer. Why am I being forced to watch a commercial before I watch a commercial? Why, it's because some jackass in an Armani suit can jingle some more change in his pockets!

GO TO HELL, YOUTUBE. YOU HEAR ME?! I'M NOT WATCHING A 30 SECOND COMMERCIAL FOR 90 SECONDS OF ENTERTAINMENT THAT IS ALSO A COMMERCIAL.

Magic Schoolbus has its own, self-contained Rule 34. I'm equal parts amused and horrified.

How am I having dreams about this game when I've never played it and only seen it in action for a few minutes? Somebody explain that to me.

Alright, so right now it's Disgaea 4 for $35. After this is a headset, and then that's it for the day.

No. Doug Funnie was like what would come out of a corporate meeting on what kind of a character kids would most relate to. But in a WACKY CITY! Honk honk.

Amazon has some Gold Box deals going. Deal of the day is Prototype 2 for $30. Then there are the lightning deals; there's a World of Warcraft one coming up soon, a PS3 RPG deal a couple of hours later, and then some headset after that. Go look.

Enjoy this time while they're still little kids, because when they hit eight and start watching those damn Disney sitcoms for hours at a time, you'll know the meaning of hate.

I hope you do better monetizing that degree than I did with my political science thing.

I say to hell with all these new games, go back and play San Andreas. It's a marvelous game, and I haven't felt the need to play anything else since I picked it up on XBox Live Arcade.

Do they have it on PSN? I don't know.

How did I miss this for over a month?

Corridors of Time.

8.5

Well done for what it is, but gameplay-wise, what it is isn't spectacular, merely very good.

All this, and apparently she's married or something. She's got a ring on her left hand, which tells me she's either married, engaged, or unwilling to deal with potential suitors at this job. There weren't any visible rocks on the band, but it was a nice enough ring where I wasn't about to ask questions.

I call entrapment on this, though. She most emphatically was NOT wearing a ring when I first saw her. Coincidence? I'll buy that, but only because I can't come up with any other good explanation.

I'm just (re)starting my retirement funds. My new job has a 401k program, and starting next month I'm putting 10 percent of every paycheck towards that goal. I'm putting something like 40 percent of that into stock funds, spread between small-, mid-, and large-cap stocks. I've got another 25 percent in a "balanced" fund, and I can't remember where the other 35 percent went. I'm sure I'll find out when the statements come out.

Being an uncle can be a lot of fun. It really depends on whether or not your sibling uses their children as pawns when they have their histrionic episodes, where they tell their kids that despite the fact you live in the same house, they are not to talk to you, and then she'll make things as unwelcoming as she can even though she's just as much a guest as you are and WHO THE HELL DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?! DOES SHE REALLY THINK SHE HAS ANY GODDAMNED SAY AS TO WHO I CAN AND CAN'T TALK TO?! WELL, SHE CAN GO TO HELL! I'VE FREAKING HAD IT! I'M SICK OF NOT BEING ABLE TO BUY STUFF FOR THE REFRIGERATOR BECAUSE SHE'S GOT ALL HER CRAP IN THERE. BUT OOOOHHHH, THAT'S FOR THE KIIIIIIDS, SO THAT MAKES IT ALL RIGHT TO MAKE LIFE COMPLETELY UNBEARABLE FOR BOTH ME AND MY PARENTS.

Anyway. So long as your sister isn't completely unhinged and isn't intent on making life as hellish as possible, being an uncle can be fun.

Also:

Skies of Arcadia
Chu Chu Rocket (although the online bit is gone; still fun)
Space Channel 5
Samba De Amigo (REQUIRES maracas to be fun)
Sword of the Berserk
Crazy Taxi (actual songs, too! Oh, for the freewheeling days of the early century...)
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (much prettier than the PS1 version)
MDK2
Record of Lodoss War (if you want a Diablo clone, it's still pretty good)
Tokyo Extreme Racer (OK, this may not suit a lot of people, but I liked it)


Alright, that little trip through the GameFAQs archives was a neat bit of nostalgia. You should be able to get some of the above games for a couple of bucks. Others... well, you decide if they're worth it.

But Crazy Taxi is great. Original arcade music, a few extra modes, and just a blast to play. Plus you'll find it cheap.

Bid seems to have stalled for now. Maybe you'll get more attention when you get closer to the end of the auction.

So basically, no matter what I do it's going to be creepy. Story of my freaking life.