I tried to finish Bioshock, but it just keeps going on and on with fake climax after fake climax. I will play Empire: Total War instead I think. My previous post about Bioshock was pretty negative, so maybe I should list the things I liked about it.

The setting was novel. I really like the idea of an underwater metropolis. I loved the art deco styling everything had. The external views were gorgeous and fascinating, although I wish they hadn't used that ridiculous ripple effect to show "HELLO THIS IS WATER!!!!". As everyone knows, water on the other side of a glass window doesn't cause ripples. I think the wateriness would have been conveyed just fine with the fish, whales, and floating fish scales they used.

The sound design was fantastic. The big daddy's clomping and moaning, the freaky little rants and mutterings of the splicers, even the noises your hand makes when you select a new bio power were all excellent.

The game was very stable in the build I used, and on my hardware.

I also really appreciated the way Ryan, the founder of the city, dies. I've never seen a boss death like that in a video game before. Probably lots of people hated it, but I thought it was great.

#83: Ninja Assassin
It was cute. Some good action, but a lot of it is obviously CGIed (and I'm not just talking about the blood and sliced body). It's sad that there are tons of great movies made in HK and China in the 70s that have a lot better action with fewer cuts. All in all, it's okay. Not worth full price, and don't eat Italian beforehand.

As an aside, what is it these days with actors of Korean descent playing Japanese folks? You have a couple in this movie, Rain (Korean pop star) and Rick Yune (bad guy in Die Another Day), plus John Cho played Hikaru Sulu in the new Star Trek movie, Linda Park playing Hoshi Sato in Enterprise...it's just weird. Like there are no Japanese actors to play Japanese characters. I know Gedde Watanabe is still looking for work!

I'm still looking for stagehand help for the Nutcracker in Bloomington for next weekend at $50/performance ($300):

Th 5p - 9p
Fr 8:30a - 12:30p, 6p - 10p
Sa 1:30p - 5:30p, 6p - 10p
Su 1:30p - 5:30p


I also need stagehands for the weekend of 12/11 to 12/13.
Specifically I need people who can travel for the weekend, Fri morning (8:30a) until we get back Sunday night, doing 3 shows (1 in Bloomington on Friday morning) for $200 plus hotel, meals, and travel expenses covered.

And then the weekend after that (12/17 - 12/19) traveling Thursday morning through Saturday night doing 3 shows in Red Wing for $225 plus hotel, meals, and travel expenses.

If you are interested or know someone you think might be please let me know as soon as you can. Either reply here or email me at jeffrey [dot] r [dot] sherman at gmail.

Does anyone know of any classes you can take in mpls/stp that teach you how to reupholster furniture?

Thanks in advance.

Swept, mopped the whole house.
Scrubbed the hell out of the stove, then because I noticed them, the cabinets in the kitchen. cleaned the litter box, took out all the recycling, the garbage (kitchen and bathroom). Vanquished small dried stashes of cat puke (how do the get behind the swing of the door to puke?). Scrubbed the toliet, did all the dishes (even the ones not mine). Bleached the kitchen sink. Add this to the Holy War against the fridge last week (tossed everything I could, bleached it!).

My house is clean. Looking forward to guests tomorrow. Now I am drinking wine, eating lazy-dinner (rice noodles with frozen veg and salad dressing... it's sorta food).

inspired by kimya dawson's, "i like giants"

HAPPY BRIZDAY BUGFACE
(dorcus)

#82: Red Cliff
John Woo's return to big, exciting Chinese films. The whole time I kept thinking that this is exactly the feel a Knights of the Old Republic movie should have. Swordsmen with superhuman speed in flowing robes tearing down countless enemies...with three women in the whole movie.

Yeah, maybe a bit too Lucas.

Last night I started playing Bioshock and surprised myself with not especially liking it. After playing the game a little, I'm astounded by how gushy the reviews were http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshock#Reception

The beginning is quite cool, but already I was finding the controls kind of awkward. Normally in a situation like that, you would swim underwater to solve it. This seems even more natural since you just came from being submerged, but no. Fine, so you swim to the lighthouse. Cool. Doors swing shut behind you, locking themselves? OMG, did you really drag out that cheesy old trope?

Then I notice that the controls still feel weird, and there's a little bit of fish eye lens going on, which is an express train to motion sickness (for me at least). Fortunately I think I turned it off in the video options. Turning down the mouse sensitivity helped the controls a bit, but they still feel weird. Turning is really fast but walking is kind of slow and not smooth. I keep stumbling over and into things too. It seems hard to judge where my feet are.

Then I realize I'm supposed to enter the bathysphere. I leave that room and walk around, assuming there is some plot point I've missed that makes this decision make sense, but there is nothing other than the doors are locked. Honestly, someone stranded on a lighthouse is never ever going to jump into an antique bathysphere until they are on the verge of death. There are a million better options, including just waiting around for a rescue party to investigate and hammer the doors open.

Right away, I'm finding it really hard to follow the plot. An objectivist utopia on the bottom of the ocean? That's pretty ridiculous, but ok. I guess that's the premise. But doors that lock behind you are kind of antithetical to the whole Ayn Rand, freedom of will concept the city was founded on. In an exploration game, the setting implies the plot, which you figure out from clues in the environment and then resolve. Right away, there are mixed messages all over. Gorgeous decorations and banners seem to imply that people struggle to get in here. But doors that lock behind you seem to imply that people are forced into entering by a trick. Is it steampunk or post WWII? Is it a genotech nightmare or a supernatural nightmare? Is it objectivism run amok or just some jerk violating everyone's freedom of choice?

Then you run into the genetics stuff. I honestly don't know much about genetics, but even what little I know makes their constant gene gibberish super distracting. Genetic therapies don't glow in the dark. Genetic therapies don't require gigantic syringes, nor do they take effect in a matter of seconds. The game would have been much better served if they'd just said there was a Substance-X that gives you super powers and left it at that.

I'm finding all the genetic game mechanics super confusing too, but maybe that'll all clear up with a little time. I can't figure out what the difference between Adam and Eve are (two substances that seem to power your magic abilities). I can't tell which substance my abilities use up. I thought I'd figured out that I have a fixed number of slots for my super powers, but then I gained a power where lightening shoots out of me whenever I'm wounded, and that seemed to take up a slot in a different set of slots, the graphical representation of which was exactly the same as the first set of slots.

I also seem to not be able to use my shooter skills very well. It's really hard to hit your enemies as they jump around like jackrabbits and it's super hard to see anything. Enemies are always jumping around in the dark while some brightly illuminated thing obscures your view with glare. The enemies also seem to let loose various glowing effects that further obscure your vision. I often find myself aiming for the center of the glowing, swirling shit and hoping for the best. I'm on easy, so really you can just wade through their tommy gun fire, and it's no more damaging than walking through a hail shower, but that's unsatisfying. It makes me feel like a dufus whenever I have to absorb 4 or 5 machine gun bullets before I can place a bullet on target.

Then there is the character interaction. There is a guy who contacts you via radio and gives you advice and instructions except he does so really quickly, in a thick Australian accent, and so quietly I could only make out every other word. Why is the game delivering critical game instructions so quietly? It wasn't immediately obvious how you repeat the instructions either, but after some time I figured out that if you hit M for map, then you can page through several menus to reach recordings of your instructions. Not exactly intuitive. In most other FPS games this information would be accessible via the tab key, and his speech would be captioned on screen while he's talking.

The game's famed "moral dilemma" doesn't really strike me as such. There are little monster girls who you can either choose to save or harvest. If you harvest them, you can use them to do something - fuel your powers maybe? If you save them, they turn into normal little girls and run away. The dilemma is supposedly that you have to weigh doing good against helping your cause, but what kind of a character would really find the idea of killing children for ammo appealing? Unless your character was already a human trafficker, he will probably find the idea of killing even one little kid to save his own skin as abhorrent. (Let alone a continuous stream of them.)

The ham-fisted dramatics bother me a little also. There is a big armored tank of a character called a Big Daddy, and early in the game from a glass skyway, you see one walking through another glass skyway. He's several hundred feet away, but his foot steps shake the floor you are standing on. Then, when you're in the same room as Big Daddy, his footsteps don't shake the floor. Early on a hook wielding splicer nearly rips your bathysphere apart with his bare hands, but once you get a weapon in your hands, it turns out that splicers (at least all I've seen thus far) are really wimpy.

I just watched the Zero Punctuation review of Bioshock, and I have to agree with everything he said except the atmospherics aren't really working too well for me yet.

Looking for a PS3? This black friday, you can choose from any number of retailers proud to offer you the device—to the point of highlighting it in their holiday ads—at the low, low, bargain price of Full Retail Price.*

Nothing like a little price fixing to keep the market operating efficiently.

* Best Buy is the only place I've seen advertise an actual "deal." You still pay full retail price but you get two free games. You don't get to choose the games, but I guess you can sell them secondhand or bring them back to Wal-Mart.

Getting ready for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Finished much of my Christmas shopping online tonight. We're doing Thanksgiving proper on Saturday with monstersocks' family so tomorrow is just the two of us.

I've got one more Google Voice invite if anyone is interested.

I haven't figured out anything to do with Google Wave yet, but I've got several invites for it.

Oh, today:
Installed headlight with help of brother. Radiator seems to have leaked, maybe from cap. Will have to keep eye on it.
Worked for Que. Began listening to Use of Weapons.
Bought anti-freeze to top up radiator.

Finished watching: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou - This show has an interesting premise, but I think it needed to be more carefully thought out, and I found the anime-isms very jarring. My impression is that the premise was not "let's make a show where you can't figure out what the hell is going on" but rather "let's make a show that explores extremely low levels of action and pacing, and set it in a world that is post-apocalyptic but completely peaceful". I really liked the sequence where it takes the robot girl at least 2 continuous days to make a cup of coffee. I'd never seen anything like that in cinema before. A new idea! But I didn't like not understanding why she'd stopped moving at normal speed, and started moving at this new glacial speed. Again, maybe it's better conveyed in the manga? Regardless, I was glad I was able to see it, and I'll be glad if I never see it again.

Today was one of those days where I was reminded that when life is good, and you bring on new things that are also good, you don't always lose the past things you once treasured. You just change the frequency to share time and attention with the novel editions.

The morning started out with a physical therapy session with Bossany to help with her neck muscles (her head is tilty). She liked the doctor, but the therapy not so much. But we had a good morning of it, and drove around while she sang me songs. I dropped her off at daycare where her day would continue to go splendidly.

Then, I magically transformed to being 23 years old again as I slummed at the tea bar for four hours listening to ambient techno and organizing my artwork and art sales. I sipped Fresh Phrase and laughed with the baristas. I dinked around on the web, chatted, did the lazy "I'm a guy with a laptop at a coffee house with nothing you'd consider important to do" role.

Once this, as the kids these days put it, chillaxing was done, I stopped by the office to have Aric sign the autographed art and mail it out. I become 30 and a dad again, and continue my pretend commute back to daycare to get Bossany early.

Spend all evening playing with baby, roommates, dog, cat and the new kitty, and also tending to a sick wife by making her cream of chicken soup and trying hard to let her relax. Crap. I mean chillax.

Then, everyone goes to bed, and EP and I play video games wherein I get a combination of gear drops and skills such that I am become Death, Destroyer of Worlds. And now it's 2am, I post this as a finale to my serendipity, hoping I can pull off an equally excellent vacation day tomorrow.

I doubt it, but I'll try.

Norwegian. Super fucking catchy beat. Looks a bit like Adam Ant, and has a great voice. I am also so proud of myself for asking my buddy if they were rural, because they had 'mushy' accent, and calling it correct. I miss speaking funny languages. Once in a while said norski and I chatter and drive everyone else nuts because they can't understand. It's a fun game :)

Read: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow
Much of the book is angry arguments between protagonists. The point of the book is supposed to be in illustrating a combination reputation management system and currency called "Wuffie", but it is only ever treated in a fairly vague manner. None of the characters are particularly endearing, except perhaps two of the villains. There is some half-assed post-humanism and a quarter-assed murder mystery. I would have to say this book seems like a failure.

Began watching: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (a record of a Yokohama shopping trip, or something like that)
Finished first episode. The story is famous for nothing happening and being very peaceful and beautiful. I'd hoped this would distract me from the anime-isms, but no luck. I expected nothing much to happen, and even less than that actually happened. It was kind of amazing. But somehow two robot girls still kissed. Oh, Japan. You are very silly. Very peaceful, yes. Not beautiful enough though. Maybe the manga is more so? Not interesting enough to find out.

Finished reading:
Little Brother - Cory Doctorow (Decent read. Villains too cardboardy. Scenes of young love, surprisingly accurate feeling. Made me hate childhood again. Raised in sentience desert.)

David Attenborough's Life Stories (Delightful as always. Would gladly trade 4 grandparents for single grandpa Attenborough.)

The Draco Tavern - Larry Niven (Niven still has it! Forget Ringworld Engineers. It never happened.)

The Mote In God's Eye - Larry Niven (Brilliant hard sci fi. Moties are fascinating aliens. Characters forgettable.)

Consider Phlebas, Matter, The Algebraist, and The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks (Deserves good reputation. Delightful in tone. Pleasant and fun, but also intelligent. Minimum of grandpa sex.)

The Difference Engine - Willian Gibson, Bruce Sterling (Invented steampunk. Odd took 10 years to catch on. Odd story arc. Well executed.)


Watching:
WWII The Complete History (13 part series) - Bad narrator. Best writing yet seen in WWII documentary. Explains why Churchill wasn't Jesus. Explains why Chamberlain wasn't idiot. Points out instances of continual Nazi improvisation. Explains why Poles and French collapsed. Explains why Poles weren't martyred saints. Possibly makes Mussolini into too much of buffoon. (Must have done something right, no?) Makes case for war starting with Japanese invasion of China. Explains how still was not a world war even in 1941. In other words, shakes up lots of cliches and looks at substance behind them. Terrible narrator.

Venture Bros. - Sometimes go too far. Makes uncomfortableness. Mostly funny.

What is your favorite reasonably priced glassware store? I'm looking for specialised glasses for fine alcohols. :)