The Default State Is Broken

I've examined the NDA for my beta test this weekend, so this post will avoid specifics and deal in only generalities. The short version is: I liked it, but not sure I want to buy it. The longer version is: Jean and I played up to 13 or so over the weekend, in a real binge run that took most of Saturday and part of Sunday. I'm sure that if I wasn't binging, I probably would've liked it more. Jean stuck to the force-user healy class (shocking!) while I went with the blaster-wielding DPS. First caveat: the roles in SWTOR are NOT as explicit as the roles in WoW, so I'm being a little cagy about it. There are some very clear Bioware influences, too, including the morality slider and lots and lots of social interactions that change the way the world sees and responds to you. It's quite nifty. Also, as Jean pointed out, the morality is much more clear. Unlike in WoW, where both sides are roughly morally equivalent, it's VERY clear who the bad guys are in SW...

A caveat: I am a gigantic fan of everyone who performed on Wednesday the 16th -- the Doubleclicks were the opener -- so this particular review will likely not be particularly even-handed. There is no hate in this post, only love. The Doubleclicks started the show, with a six-song set and five of the songs were new since the last time I was at a show for them. Sadly, I haven't been able to support them nearly as much as I wished, but they're starting to get a real name in the Nerdrock sub-genre, and that's very cool to me, considering that as a Doubleclique (the fan club) I have a serial number that, as far as I can tell, is the lowest number available. And I have a t-shirt with that serial number on it. So you could probably call me a fan, if'n you wanted. Aubrey (cello) and Angela (uke and guitar) are, as far as I can tell, a young and attractive female version of Paul and Storm . In the vein of Garfunkel and Oates , though really much more cerebral (not a knock...

Having now purchased and listened to the new Jonathan Coulton album, I am reassured that my first impression of the newly-electrified and studioized JoCo was correct: I very much like his music, and his work is as good or better than his previous stuff, but his live shows suffer from the inevitable "volume problem" -- the plugged-in stuff ends up being played at a level that washes out the melodic subtleties that make his work really touching, as opposed to just clever. Artificial Heart is really good. Like, really really good. Space Doggity , Always the Moon good. You should buy it now ( go here ) -- it's $10, which is a fucking steal these days -- and I especially encourage you to listen to Nemeses , Nobody Loves You Like Me , and Glasses if you're on the bubble about it. JoCo has moved impressively past his "nerd-core" beginnings without forgetting about it or leaving his audience behind, finding a tone and voice that makes him a legitimate breakout th...

Obligatory Politics Post: GET INVOLVED. President Obama's "American Jobs Act" is probably the very least we can do to prevent a double-dip Recession and get us back on a possible path to recovery. Contact your Congresspeople, contact the leadership, contact everyone you can think of and get them to pass the damn bill. This link will tell you who your reps are. This link is a list of the current leadership in both houses, and how to contact them. Call, write, fax (don't email, email isn't impactful enough). DO IT NOW.

I think the problem here is that I'm an active user of Google+, which damages my need/ability to spend much time posting on my blog. Especially since the feedback on G+ is nearly-instant, while the feedback here is nearly-nonexistent. Things that have changed since my last post: I'm seeing someone pretty seriously now, and I'm happy about it. I'm thinking about my job prospects. Work is starting to heat up as we approach the holidays. I saw Jasper again, and he's huge and willful and a beautiful boy whom I love more than ever. I've decided that waiting for the right time to start AP back up will mean that it will never happen, so I'm committing to just making it happen. I've got a Lvl-50 Tauren Protection Paladin on Proudmoore, and have joined a guild, and I already have a lvl-10 undead ranged hunter alt that I'm working with. I've got a couple of 360 games at home, but I'm not really playing them, because most of my time is b...

So, I did two things in the last week: finished L.A. Noire , and started playing World of Warcraft . I'm going to talk about L.A. Noire first, because I've talked about my WoW experiences elsewhere. So, first off: I liked it. It wasn't brilliant, and there were a number of things I didn't like (which I'll enumerate in a second) but I'd argue that it's probably the best noir feature since Brick . I liked that the main character was a deeply flawed, imperfect man who nonetheless tried to do the right thing, even when it wasn't easy. I liked that "the right thing" wasn't always clear, or the thing that gets you the best result in the game. It stuck to the noir concept that there are no good guys, just some that are worse than others. Also, it was incredibly gorgeous, with a very cool feature where it was in either an incredible, technicolor/panavision version, or a really amazing, crisp black-and-white version. It did not suffer fro...

I think I may have a bit of anxiety going on right now. I say this because I am having the most realistic, vivid dreams I've had since high school (when I discovered lucid dreaming mostly in self-defense), and the dreams are all, I kid you not, nightmares about home improvement. And they're the worst kind of nightmares, that are absolutely terrifying while you're having them and then you wake up and realize that there was *nothing* terrifying or horrific about them. At all. The subject of the dream itself was entirely and completely mundane, and yet your heart is racing and there's sweat everywhere and your body apparently thinks that something just tried to kill you. Case in point, the dream I had last night (which is all of a piece; my dreams are often serialized and this week has been no different) where I was remodeling my bathroom, woke up and forgot about the fact that the bathroom was under construction, took a shower, and then realized that there were giant ...