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It's FRIDAY! FRIIIIIIIIIDAY! FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Several random oddments, links, and bits of information to post. I'll start with the most important: last week![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
datalopez was in a car accident. She is okay and the other driver is as well, but her beloved Nissan Altima, Kit Fisto, is totaled. She found out Wednesday that the insurance company's deciding it's a loss and was devastated. Fortunately, she had some fairly expensive gap coverage insurance on the car and Nissan will be giving her full book value for it ($11,700), even though she had less than that remaining on the loan. So she will be going car shopping soon, probably this weekend. She's looking at a number of midsize sedans like another Altima, the Honda Accord, and so on. She's afraid to go on the Toyota lot because she's afraid she'll be walking out with a Tacoma. (Truck lust). My job is to keep her from buying a big truck, because even though she WANTS one, she doesn't need one.
I finished the new Prince of Persia last week after receiving it fromdatalopez as a gift for Christmas. It's a lot of fun but I wish wish WISH they hadn't made the decision to go with a new Prince. I miss the introspective, snarky Prince of the first three (well, the first and third; the redesigned "dark brooding emo Prince" of Warrior Within rather annoyed me, but at least it was still the same CHARACTER). This "Prince" is brash, loudmouthed, and annoying. There's no chemistry between him and the female lead, and in general I wish they'd stuck with the last game's character. The gameplay, however, is lots of fun. Wallruns, flipping from pole to pole, running along beams, racing along walls and grabbing rings to fling round corners, running along ROOFS upside-down -- acrobatic, death-defying, interesting. The gameplay's cool, which'll keep me playing it in future, even if the story is lacking and the lead character is somewhat annoying.
The next two links courtesy ofreannon.
John Scalzi has some excellent stuff to say about why authors who are taking a long time to finish their next novel don't owe you a damned thing. Not in so many words, but his points are excellent.grrm is never mentioned by name, but the people who are sending hatemail to him about A Dance With Dragons need to have a nice cup of Shut the Fuck Up. Yes, I want to read it as badly as everyone else. But I'll read something else until it comes out; there are lots of good books to read, after all. Hell, I've got hundreds I can RE-read. [[Hah: Patrick Rothfuss apparently gets these emails too, which reminds me, I still need to pick up In the Name of the Wind]].
Otto the Octupus at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, annoyed by a 2000-watt lamp shining into his tank, has discovered how to "turn it off" by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water at it until it shorts out. Otto also rearranges the tank when he feels like it, throws stones against the glass, and juggles the hermit crabs in his tank for spectators -- in short, he's an attention whore. Maybe the Aquarium needs to give Otto a LiveJournal.
Preparations are well and truly under way for my vacation trip with my parents anddatalopez. We're all enormously looking forward to it. Flying into Las Vegas on March 13th (my parents are leaving in the RV this Saturday), spending a day there, then spending the next week traveling around the Southwest and seeing all it has to offer, then finally flying home from Salt Lake City on the 22nd. Should be a hell of a lot of fun.
Today's shared file is one with a bit of story behind it. I often remark that one of the few good things that came out of a bad relationship is my love of Craig Chaquico. The girl I was dating had severe intimacy issues (both emotional and physical), struggled with self-image, and had other emotional problems. I finally cut loose from her after a few months of trying to be patient, but before that happened, she put this CD in my car's player one day and I was immediately captivated. Craig Chaquico used to be the guitarist for Jefferson Starship; now he's reinvented himself as a smooth jazz instrumental guitarist. Once in a Blue Universe is one of my favorite albums, and a couple of the songs on it ("Dreamcatcher", "Trade Winds" and "Dipsea Trail") are among my favorite songs ever. The album file's about 55 MB in size, ZIP file containing songs in iTunes .M4A format (also playable by Winamp and Windows Media Player).
-- END OF LINE --
[[The Oracle would like to know what you have planned for the weekend.]]
Several random oddments, links, and bits of information to post. I'll start with the most important: last week
datalopez was in a car accident. She is okay and the other driver is as well, but her beloved Nissan Altima, Kit Fisto, is totaled. She found out Wednesday that the insurance company's deciding it's a loss and was devastated. Fortunately, she had some fairly expensive gap coverage insurance on the car and Nissan will be giving her full book value for it ($11,700), even though she had less than that remaining on the loan. So she will be going car shopping soon, probably this weekend. She's looking at a number of midsize sedans like another Altima, the Honda Accord, and so on. She's afraid to go on the Toyota lot because she's afraid she'll be walking out with a Tacoma. (Truck lust). My job is to keep her from buying a big truck, because even though she WANTS one, she doesn't need one. I finished the new Prince of Persia last week after receiving it from
datalopez as a gift for Christmas. It's a lot of fun but I wish wish WISH they hadn't made the decision to go with a new Prince. I miss the introspective, snarky Prince of the first three (well, the first and third; the redesigned "dark brooding emo Prince" of Warrior Within rather annoyed me, but at least it was still the same CHARACTER). This "Prince" is brash, loudmouthed, and annoying. There's no chemistry between him and the female lead, and in general I wish they'd stuck with the last game's character. The gameplay, however, is lots of fun. Wallruns, flipping from pole to pole, running along beams, racing along walls and grabbing rings to fling round corners, running along ROOFS upside-down -- acrobatic, death-defying, interesting. The gameplay's cool, which'll keep me playing it in future, even if the story is lacking and the lead character is somewhat annoying. The next two links courtesy of
reannon.John Scalzi has some excellent stuff to say about why authors who are taking a long time to finish their next novel don't owe you a damned thing. Not in so many words, but his points are excellent.
grrm is never mentioned by name, but the people who are sending hatemail to him about A Dance With Dragons need to have a nice cup of Shut the Fuck Up. Yes, I want to read it as badly as everyone else. But I'll read something else until it comes out; there are lots of good books to read, after all. Hell, I've got hundreds I can RE-read. [[Hah: Patrick Rothfuss apparently gets these emails too, which reminds me, I still need to pick up In the Name of the Wind]].Otto the Octupus at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, annoyed by a 2000-watt lamp shining into his tank, has discovered how to "turn it off" by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water at it until it shorts out. Otto also rearranges the tank when he feels like it, throws stones against the glass, and juggles the hermit crabs in his tank for spectators -- in short, he's an attention whore. Maybe the Aquarium needs to give Otto a LiveJournal.
Preparations are well and truly under way for my vacation trip with my parents and
datalopez. We're all enormously looking forward to it. Flying into Las Vegas on March 13th (my parents are leaving in the RV this Saturday), spending a day there, then spending the next week traveling around the Southwest and seeing all it has to offer, then finally flying home from Salt Lake City on the 22nd. Should be a hell of a lot of fun. Today's shared file is one with a bit of story behind it. I often remark that one of the few good things that came out of a bad relationship is my love of Craig Chaquico. The girl I was dating had severe intimacy issues (both emotional and physical), struggled with self-image, and had other emotional problems. I finally cut loose from her after a few months of trying to be patient, but before that happened, she put this CD in my car's player one day and I was immediately captivated. Craig Chaquico used to be the guitarist for Jefferson Starship; now he's reinvented himself as a smooth jazz instrumental guitarist. Once in a Blue Universe is one of my favorite albums, and a couple of the songs on it ("Dreamcatcher", "Trade Winds" and "Dipsea Trail") are among my favorite songs ever. The album file's about 55 MB in size, ZIP file containing songs in iTunes .M4A format (also playable by Winamp and Windows Media Player).
-- END OF LINE --
[[The Oracle would like to know what you have planned for the weekend.]]