Top 10

Today we go back to the 90’s and find some computer games that I played over and over again

MY TOP TEN OLD SCHOOL COMPUTER GAMES!

I’m skipping consol games, only because we didn’t get a consol until late in the N64 cycle, and thus missed out on most of the video games from then.

FIRST: A couple of honorable mentions.

Jill of the Jungle-a fun little platformer with shapeshifting puzzle rooms.

Duke Nukem-another platformer that was great fun, and the replay factor was very high.

Pipedream-a puzzle game where you tried to make a path for the slime though the pipe pieces given.

Wolfenstein-Doom for the WWII crowd, I didn’t play this one so much as navigate for other playing.

Sim Farm-Run your own farm!  What not to love, besides escaped animals, buggy fields, encroaching towns, and polluted water supply?  It was a fun little diversion, though

And now... 

Number 10:

Sim Ant

This game was great.  I loved sending new colonies out, and letting them expand territory, and thus winning the game without actually having to do any of the heavy lifting.  Plus there was the whole sending out an army of ants to kill a caterpillar, or even better, the dastardly spider!

The most awesome thing I've seen today

That is all.

Friday! Book review

Happy Friday!

This week, I have another YA fiction for you titled:

Helper 12, by Jake Blaine

This book is set in a dystopian future, yet again.  I’m not sure why I am drawn to these, but a lot of the books I’ve read recently are, weird.

In this future, unless you have lots of money, you are assigned to a role at six months, be it laborer, ‘leisure doll,’ thinker, or baby helper, like our main character, Benna.

She is 18 years old, but only goes by Helper12 in most circles.  She cares for babies aged 0-6 months, before they are tracked.  That is, until a member of ‘society,’ one of the rich folks, comes in and buys one of the babies in her care, and Helper12 right along with him.

Benna already had a special relationship with the baby, who she called Jobee, and the next half of the book is her getting used to society living, and all the drama that entails from that, intertwined with descriptions of her previous life, and bits and bobs about how paths are chosen, or changed, in the case of our protagonist.

This book started relatively strong, even if the writing was rather simplistic.  It seemed like a style choice, but by the end of the book, the twists made it clear that it wasn’t a choice.

Helper 12 does have several twists, though only one really seems to flow nicely with the story, the rest being forced, hackneyed shite.

The author does a nice job of setting the scene, you really feel like you know what the world is about, though the limited worldview of Benna really hinders some portions, and is partially to blame, I think for the forced feeling of several of the twists.

The ending, though, was a titch infuriating.  It was waaaay too pat, too easy for the protagonist to get where she needed to end the book.  It really felt like the author hit page 190 of his manuscript, realized that he needed to end this sucker in ten pages, so boom, done.

Overall, this was an ok book, read if you like the dysopian future books, otherwise pass.

2/5 bungled tattoo removals

Today in music History: 1999

Oh, 1999.  I was a freshman in high school, riding the the bus like a boss, doing sit-ups to "Angel," and hating gym because of it.  Oh, and there was this little thing called the Latin explosion, and the first of many was...




"Livin' La Vida Loca" by Ricky Maritn!

This song is so slick.  You can practically hear the producers in the background, directing him in every single movement he makes.  Catchy as hell, though.

The video was decent, nothing to write home about.  Clothes and hair were mostly normal.

I do remember this song being performed at the Grammys, I think, and everyone gave it rave reviews, possibly because expectations were so low.

I do rather enjoy the song, even if it is produced as all get out.

SIDE NOTE:  How did we not know Ricky Martin was gay??!

Glee: Black Sue and Original flavor Sue lay the smackdown

Oh, Glee.  Pretending you can be a drama-filled like a big boy show.  How cute!

So Coach Beiste comes to school with an impressive shiner, and some of the peanut gallery, mainly Santana, joke about how she gets beat by her husband.  Coach claims a punching bag hit her in the face, but of course, Roz(as played by Nene Leeks), the black Sue, and original Sue call the girls out, and make them ‘take back the songs about abuse’ because it’s no laughing matter, obvs. 

The girls mangle the assignment completely, but Coach Beist can’t handle it, and it comes out that, oh noes, her husband actually did hit her.  The rest of the episode was essentially a PSA about getting out of abusive relationships, though Coach Beiste doesn’t in the end anyway.  I guess we’ll find out how that plays out in the last couple of episodes this year.

In other news, Whoopi Goldberg comes to McKinley to audition Kurt and Rachel.  Long story short, Kurt sings an unexpected song well, and Rachel chokes on her standard she’s sung a million times before.

Lastly, Puck realizes he has one class that he’s probably going to fail, and thus pulls an all nighter on the day before the big test, and still manages to fail anyway.

This episode was terribly uneven.  The best part was the intercut scenes of how things really played out at the Beiste/Cooter house.  Coach Beiste is a good actress, surprising for a woman that got her start as an arm wrestler featured on Jay Leno.  The rest of the show was predictable-the drama was drama-y, the comedy wasn’t very humorous, and of course, they seem to be leading to everyone staying in Lima after graduation, cause we can’t have the big stars go away, now can we?  Stupid show.

Featuring a variety of songs this week, including:

“The Music of the Night” as sung by Kurt

“School’s Out” as sung by Puck

“Cell Block Tango” as sung by Mercedes, Tina, Santana, Brittany, and Sugar Motta

“Not the Boy Next Door” as sung by Kurt

“Don’t Rain on My Parade” as briefly sung by Rachel

“The Rain in Spain” as sung by all the boys minus Kurt

“Shake it Out” as sung by the girls minus Rachel

“Cry” as sung by Rachel

Things I don’t understand: Affirmative action

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the discrimination laws, and how I don’t get them.  This week, I’d like to talk about the other side of the same coin, affirmative action.

I say it’s the other side of the same coin because affirmative action is working toward the same goal as the discrimination laws, but from the opposite side.

Now, the idea behind them seems good in concept:  get more minorities into different positions, and accepted as students into different schools.

The thing I don’t understand is why any minority would want to use it. 

As a woman, I am theoretically in minority status, according to a lot of the politicians I hear, thought that doesn’t make sense to me either, considering women make up something like 51% of the population(someone needs to learn the definition of minority, I think), so I feel I can talk of this with somewhat of an authority.

Now, imagine you are black, or Indian, or a woman.  You’ve heard the school, or job, or government position you are applying for uses affirmative action hiring practices.  After you send in your application, you interview, and are accepted to whatever it was you applied to.  Now, even if it’s not always on your mind, it may niggle at the back, ‘Am I only here because of my minority status?”

I remember when I was looking for a job, and one of the companies I interviewed with straight out said: “Yes, we are interested in you because you are a woman.”  That was incredibly hurtful to me.  They weren’t looking at me because of my experience, or my education, or even my excellent penmanship.  They wanted to interview me because I was a woman.  I didn’t end up getting that job, but mostly because I bombed the interview after that.  I think that was the only interview I EVER bombed.

To think of this from another perspective, what would an outside person think of the minority that got in?   

Sure, many wouldn’t think anything of it, but I’m sure there would be several that think, “Oh, they’re not here on merit, they’re here based on skin color.”

Honestly, if it were up to me, all interview processes would be blind.  The best qualified would get the job, and that would be it.

Warcraft: Leet Deeps, or how not to anger your meat shield

Before we begin, I realized I forgot a class last week: the priest.  Priests can fulfill two roles, ranged DPS and healing.  Priests are exactly what you would think of when you hear the word, though the faith in the game is called the light, and thus has an opposite that priests can dabble in.  Priests either heal using the light, or deal damage using shadow magic.  Priests can only wear cloth.

So, you’ve looked through all the races, and the classes.  You know if you want to be alliance or horde, and which server to play on.  So now what?

Now, you decide which role you want to fulfill in game.  I’ve mentioned them before, but to recap, they are Tank, Healer, Melee DPS and ranged DPS.

DPS is the least stressful role, and one most new players to the game will want to stick to.  DPS means damage per second, but what it amounts to is you will be casting spells, shooting arrows, or swinging your weapon to damage a monster.

Melee DPS do all their damage within melee range of a monster.  They usually have a sword, mace, or dagger they use to take physical swings at the monsters.  As a general rule, you will want to be behind the monster to do this, though if you are playing by yourself, that will not be possible.  Melee DPS need to be able to move around as the monster position requires, and also must pay attention to environmental effects.

Classes that can fulfill the melee DPS role are rogue, death knight, warrior, paladin, druid, and shaman

Ranged DPS do all their damage from a ranged position.  They come in two flavors, casters and hunters.  Casters use spells to fling element-based damage at a monster.  These classes include mage, warlock, priest, druid, and shaman.  Hunters are the other flavor, and they deal mainly physical damage by shooting arrows or guns.

Healers are the unsung heroes of Warcraft.  They are in charge of keeping everyone alive.  When you are fighting a monster, it does, in fact, fight back, cause damage to your character.  When you play alone, your innate regenerative abilities are usually enough to keep you going through your play sessions.  However, as you start battling more difficult monsters, you will want to have a healer friend that can get you back to full health after, and even during a fight.   Most new players will probably want to avoid playing a healer in a group setting until they are more comfortable with game mechanics.

Classes that can fulfill the healing role include priest, shaman, paladin, and druid.

If healers are the unsung heroes, Tanks are the sung heroes.  Tanks hold the monster’s attention while the DPS bring down it’s health, and the healers keep up the tank’s and DPS’s health.  Tanks wear heavy armor, or transform into a bear, and thus can take heavy hits from monsters.   Especially as you get further into Warcraft’s content, monsters hit harder and harder, and classes that can only wear cloth of leather are unable to mitigate damage being dealt by the monster long enough to bring it down.   This is the most rewarding role, but if you are not good at it, your group members will let you know, and mock you mercilessly for it.  This is another role most new players should avoid until they are more comfortable with mechanics.

Classes that can fulfill the tank role include warrior, druid, paladin, and death knight.

And that’s all I have for roles!  Next week, a surprise!

Today in music history: 1994

Today, we look back to 1994, and find:


"The Sign" by Ace of Base!

OMG, I love this song sooo much.  Weirdly, I had never seen the video for it, so we'll start there.  Holy crap, 90's hair!  The bang on the blond chick were pretty much the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.  And what was up with the brunette acting so pouty?  Also:  I totally did not realize there were two female vocals in that song, I always thought it was the same person.  Lastly:  wow, the interpretive dance the Swedes come up with, huh?  That video was basically the funniest thing I've seen today.

As for the song itself, it a fun song about breakups, of course!  I remember an episode of Full House, where Stephanie wanted to sing this with her friend Gia at the Smash Club, and Uncle Jesse tried to mentor them.  It turned into a huge disaster, and the whole thing blew up at the last possible second, and hilarity ensued.  It was great.

What do you remember about this song?

For Nicholey...

Melissa meets Boy: Parents, friends, and Feeney

This week, I’m going to talk about the rest of the secondary characters, of which there are a substantial amount.  Let’s start with…

Courtesy http://joloso.tumblr.com

Mr. Feeny-This was Cory, Shawn, and Topanga’s teacher through the entire series.  How does that happen, you may ask?  Well, every time the main group moved up a grade, Mr. Feeney came with them.   When they moved from elementary to middle/high school, Mr. Feeny became the principal.  When they graduated high school, Mr. Feeny first decided to audit classes at the college, and then somehow became a professor there too!  Mr. Feeny was the mentor of the group, recipient of the Feeney call, and teacher of lessons and lessons to everyone on the show.  He always had a kind word, or a slap on the head if it was necessary.  Even if someone(*cough*Shawn*cough*) straight-up takes over his house for a b&b while Mr. Feeny is on vacation, he lets that someone off with a slap on the wrist, after that someone gave Mr. Feeny the profits, of course.

Alan and Amy Matthews-These are Cory’s parents, the early foils and later plot-drivers of the show.  When Boy Meets World first started, Cory’s parents were the disciplinarians when Cory did something wrong, the celebraters when he did something right, but their characters didn’t go much beyond being stand up people, and Cory’s role models.  Sure, we got bits of personality here and there:  Alan was a grocer, a former Navy Seal, stern but not above helping his kids during a punishment.  Amy was a real estate agent, a bit sneaky when it came to snooty friend’s parents, and very interested in her kids’ well being.  But later on in the show, they began to have their own plots, and their personalities really came through.  Alan didn’t like being a grocer, so he quit his job.  Amy wanted stability, so she bought a sporting goods shop for him.  They had another kid late in the show’s run that fueled several arcs forward for all the cast.  In short, they started out cookie cutter parents of the sitcom mold, but eventually grew into fully realized characters themselves.