Nine · Muses

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Wow… I watched this movie, after seeing the game mentioned on Slashdot and Penny Arcade, and I was indeed in awe. This, as much as any Final Fantasy game, may be the thing that makes the PS3 a must-have for me.

Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

I officially hate Ghost Whisperer.  At the end of last season’s ending episode, Andrea, the best friend and co-store-owner of the protagonist, Melinda, dies.  She doesn’t know she’s dead at first, but she figures it out right at the end.  When I watched that, I cried.  So, I’m five minutes into the season opener and I’m torn between screaming and praising the writers for their skills at emotional manipulation.  Melinda tells Andrea that she’s not dead yet, that she’s in a coma.  (They have had spirits outside of bodies before when close to death, so it’s not outside the continuity.)  Then there’s a panicked moment where Some Bad Thing is happening, and suddenly Melinda wakes up.  It was a dream.  She turns and tells her husband that she dreamt that he’d found Andrea’s body and that she wasn’t dead yet.  So now we know that wasn’t actually true.

So, dead.  Not dead.  Dead.

…

As I said, I’m screaming at and praising the writers, in the same breath.

Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

I don’t know how it is my WoW friends find these things, but one of them posted this link today:

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So, there’s a new show on CBS called “The Class” that I caught on the Tivo preview (and then the actual pilot was Monday night or so, I think.) It’s got that whole ensemble thing going for it, and I’d think their goal is to be the next Friends. Considering that I haven’t found anything comedic that interests me in a while, I decided to give it a shot

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So, I’ve made the switch over to WordPress, more or less. I have mirror blogs (in theory) at Blogspot and at Livejournal, though only the Blogspot one has posts. Once I figure out cross-posting, they’ll all be about the same.

I’ve found a look that I like, though I haven’t done any customizing yet. That’s still to come.

Oh! I was real surprised that there’s an import from Blogger option, so all my posts from the last year have already been moved over, with comments and everything. Though it took two tries to completely succeed, it was amazingly easy.

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It’s Wednesday, but there aren’t any game releases I’m excited about today. There’s quite a few next week, however, Harvest Moon DS being at the top of the list. I’ll just have to try to be patient until then, I suppose. The release schedule really ramps up this month.

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I had some serious fun RPing my little druidess last night. I wasn’t sure how well I could pull it off. She is supposed to be misanthropic and mocking, but a bit on the tortured side (so emo!) I think I actually managed it okay. She insulted people’s intelligence, etc., but it worked in the context of her delivering the prophecy for our little relic storyline. I went too far at one point I can think of. (Gel drove me to it — she’s just too much fun.)

I met my goals, though:
I delivered the prophecy.
I established that she doesn’t like to be touched.
I was mockingly rude but not to the point where I drove folks off.

It was good.

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Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

It’s a few years late, perhaps, but I finally finished the Neverwinter Nights second official module, Shadows of Undrentide. I was running through it because I really really (really) wanted to have a character that I built up to use in Hordes of the Underdark. Shadows hadn’t really managed to captivate me before, and it didn’t do much better this time, but I pushed myself on through it. The thing is, I’m not sure one should have to push their way through a game to get to the good parts.

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I don’t remember the earliest things I read so well. I remember reading a fair amount of non fiction about whatever caught my interest. (Horses, castles, dinosaurs, wildlife, etc. I could go on, if I tried.) One of the earliest books I distinctly remember reading was Escape to Witch Mountain when I was maybe eight or nine years old. I checked it out from the school library. I was already reading voraciously then, so I’m sure there were many others. I’ve just lost the memory of them in the general fog my childhood memories have become.

Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

Yesterday, I applied to beta a new upcoming game, Seed. It looks like they’re trying to be actually (not nominally, as is the norm) different from all the other MMOGs out there. Nowhere is this more obvious than in their decision to not have combat. This also means that there is no death, so no discussions about death penalties that mean something.

The primary goal of the game seems to be information/resource gathering and management and social interaction and management. There seems to be a strong roleplayer following already. Also, the art style is unique. It looks much like a comic book with a little more depth to it (not quite the flat look that most cel shaded graphics have). The interface is small and unobtrusive in their screen shots (a series of buttons down the left side).

I’m intrigued, to say the least. I was intrigued enough that I even posted in a couple of the “introduce yourself” types of threads. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll get into the beta early enough (or in such a capacity) that I can really test the game, rather than just the sort of open ended playtesting that most people think of for MMOG beta tests.

Oh, in case you were wondering where the post title comes from, that’s what they’re (jokingly?) calling the followers of the game. It might only refer to the newer ones. I haven’t quite grasped the whole gist of it yet.

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Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

I need to start writing again, need to start using this again. I think a three month hiatus is plenty long.

So, in news for today, I managed to burn my fingers like a clutzoid. See, we have this water dispenser at my work that gives both refrigerated cold water and scalding hot water. The little indicator says the hot water is at 186 degrees. So, I’m trying to get the water in my little paper cup, and I have it tilted slightly to try to get the water to the bottom. (I’m making oatmeal and it never seems to mix well at the bottom.) I guess I tilted it a little too far, because I felt my fingers burning right off. I’m suprised I didn’t drop the cup. I did spill a little still.

So, the skin between my index and middle fingers is red and very tender. At least it didn’t blister. It hurts to type. And yet, today is the day I decide to start blogging again. Heh.

Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

This is exactly what I love most about Science Fiction, and Mr. Card has managed to define for me what I have had such trouble with. My attempts to explain why my favorite Science Fiction (movie or book) is my favorite have all fallen short of this. And he nails exactly why Serenity is such an incredible movie.

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[Vaguely humorous comment extolling the virtues of the best World of Warcraft forum thread I have ever read.]

Edit: Sadly, this post has gone the way of the dodo. It will be missed.

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Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day!

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World of Warcraft launched their RP-PvP servers today. I guess they were a hit because I had to wait in a queue for an hour to get in to make my characters, and I noticed a third server of the type before I left for the night. I did manage to make some characters, finally. I made four just because I can’t decide what I’m going to play yet, and names are pretty important on an RP server. I didn’t want to lose the chance at the names I’d like best, though some things I often use were quite suprisingly already taken, like Threnody, Hiro, and Hana. I expect them to be taken in the first few days, but they’re not usually gone right off the bat.

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Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

Vacation over! I was away for a bit, and then took a couple of extra days off from writing once I was back — a couple of extra days off from pretty much everything. I barely even played a game until this past weekend. Even this, I’m going to probably keep short (and my entries over the next few days as well). I somehow managed to wrench my shoulder and typing is excruciatingly painful. Pain builds character though, right?

Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

I’m sure we’re all watching the news in New Orleans. For many of us, it’s hard to conceive of something as enduring as that city being devastated to the extent it is. One thing I found interesting, amongst all my news hunting, was this blog. His world has altered (along with others there) and yet he keeps blogging, keeps working, keeps going. It’s an interesting read, seeing things from the perspective of someone that’s in the midst of things.

A couple of other things I’ve found interesting are how people are using Craigslist and other such sites to offer shelter and other assistance, and to find missing loved ones. You keep hearing on the news about how awful things are, but these offers of assistance remind you how good some people can be.

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From time to time, I beta test PS2 games that have online functionality. They send me invites. I click a button and sign up. Easy!

This time, the invite was for the first PSP online game beta test. I was all excited about it, but had to update my PSP to the 2.0 firmware to sign up for it since using the PSP browser was a requirement for that.

The update was actually pretty easy (once I found a USB cable with the right sort of end — my cable box is organized now at least). I had to make a couple of folders on the memory card in the PSP, copy the update over, and then run it on the PSP. It took me a while to do, though, since it (oddly) required that the PSP be plugged into the AC while running the update and I didn’t have the AC cord available at first.

So, I finally got it plugged in, did the update, set up the wireless connection, and started up the web browser. It’s a pretty smooth little application. Text entry is reminiscent of text messaging, but a little easier. (I’m looking forward to playing with it more tomorrow.)

I pulled up the sign up site for the beta test, all excited… and for the first time ever, I was too late. The test was full. Ugh!

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Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

Sometime last week, probably my first day with my Nintendogs, I found this Bark Ball toy. It makes noises when it hits the ground. I tossed it to Hoshi, and he just barked at it, like he was really scared. He wouldn’t go anywhere near it. It made me laugh, though I almost felt sorry for my e-puppy, being so scared and all.

After I bought Hana, I tried it again, with the same result. Both dogs were scared of the Bark Ball. They might shove it with their nose and then run away, but that was as close to playing with it as they’d get.

Sunday night, I bought my third puppy, Gwen. She’s a little Corgi (and much harder to train than the others — they really do have different personalities). I decided to try the Bark Ball again and see what would happen. Gwen ran right for it. She wasn’t scared of it in the least. After maybe ten seconds of watching this, Hana decides she’s not scared of it anymore either, and starts playing with the Bark Ball and Gwen. I left the game running, just watching the puppies interact (It’s amazing how fun just that little thing can be.) and noticed after about fifteen minutes that Hoshi had finally decided he was tired of being left out. Now they’re all happily playing with the toy together!

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Originally published at Nine Muses. Please leave any comments there.

It’s official. Asheron’s Call 2 has been cancelled. I’d just recently reactivated my account, finding again how absolutely beautiful the game world is, and how much I loved much of the mechanics (though the control scheme left something to be desired — I never could get mouse look to work well). Oh well. I went ahead and re-cancelled my account yesterday, since I was due to get billed next week. I don’t see a good reason to get into the game when it’s going away in three months anyway.

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