Category: Admin

Paragraph formatting and such

It’s that time again! That time when I just talk about what’s going on here behind the scenes.

The most important thing I want to note is that I’ve decided to make my upcoming works more visible. To that end, I’ve added the titles of four upcoming articles to the articles list. For one, you have some idea what’s coming up, and when you should be checking back (though every day is still a solid plan). Secondly, and more importantly, it’s a small way to push me to finish things that have been in the works for a while. I’ve had the New Surprise Bag Article about 90% done since February now, and it’s something I should really get around to.

The next thing I want to note is that I’ve filled in a few more of the blacked-out spots on the article list. I think we might finally be at the point where there are more articles that you can actually read than ones that are dummied out. And that’s a big milestone! It’s taken way too long to get even this far, and I’m hoping that I’ll have the entire archive up and readable by the end of the summer.

None of the articles I updated today are especially good, but you might want to check a couple of them out. Rocky Snow Ice Pops is actually really terrible. But the Mate1.com article is up here now, and to this day I still get e-mails from people who’ve read it and felt like they need to tell me how great it is and what a big scam Mate1 is. And I appreciate every one of those e-mails! But now people can just comment on the post itself so that’ll be sad. I like e-mails from strangers who think the things I write are funny.

Lastly, I just went through a few of the already-WordPress’d articles and made sure that the title banners were there. Some of them weren’t! Like the one for Steambot Chronicles. And I worked pretty hard on most of those things, so they deserve to live on.

I guess that’s about it then. Stay tuned for some more posts of nothing but embedded YouTube videos!

Behind them scenes

Currently I’m working on two articles. One, I’ve already spoiled on the Articles page, is what I’m tentatively calling the 2013 Surprise Bag Article. Will it actually be the only one this year? Who knows? 2014 Ryan knows. Anyway I’ve been working on that one since February, so who even knows if it’ll go live before 2013 is over. The second is a thing about a game I’m playing. It’s sort of a review, but not really. I don’t know the best way to describe it. It’s a thing. And it’s happening. I’ve just gotta stick some pictures in thurr.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, working on new articles always makes me think about how there are so many old articles that have yet to be worked into the WordPress machine, so I fixed up a few and stuck ’em in the ol’ bloggin’ software. You can now read the WP versions of:

Note to noobs: These are all of a 2004/05 vintage. Meaning they’re crappy, but at least they’re from a time where I was trying to be funny, rather than the thing I do these days where it’s just me trying to sound smart about vidja games.

There are possibly more on the way soon, provided I can’t find anything better to do with my free time than dredge up old things I wrote that I’m kind of embarrassed of.

Closer to whole

I am so excruciatingly tired of writing right now, that I just want to… not write more. I think I’ve earned that right to, after that big ol’ article from yesterday and the two half-articles that preceded it. It was a lot of work, especially doing up all those damnable trophy images. I swear to God I’m never putting that much effort into anything again.

What you didn’t notice is that I’ve been doing some work under the hood as well, and I’m proud to say that I’ve finally got the WordPress edition of TE updated to the point where every single blog post I’ve ever written is here to read. Even crappy little throwaway ones announcing that I made a negligible update to the site. Not every image in there still exists and some of the links are long since stale, but you can still read every word I committed to ones and zeroes.

That said, I still have a long trek ahead of me to get all the articles reformatted and up on here. Mostly it’s a matter of pulling the images off of the Angelfire site and making sure all the image tags point to the right place. It’s not hard work, but it’s more time-consuming than it should be. I have gotten a few more up since the last time I went on an article-updating spree, and now you can read the WP versions of Makin’ Pancakes!, Gamecube Hulk, The Bargain Shop Adventure and many more without having to sift through all the many outdated versions of my website. I’m currently very nostalgic for the Fargo ’09 photo gallery, though I can’t pinpoint why that one specifically is getting me all hot and bothered. A few of the images near the end seem to have vanished, but they’re just product shots so it’s not a big deal. I’m sure they’ll turn up eventually.

Chat Radio, the CD Archive, and some other random bits are still a long ways off. Don’t expect them anytime soon, but keep sending your prayers. If I learned anything from Earthbound, it’s that praying is your ticket to victory.

I mooch like a pro

You may have noticed that this here web-log has got a new banner. Maybe you didn’t? I don’t know, it’s not a big deal. But it does.

I’m mentioning this because I did not make this banner. In fact, I outsourced it! Sort of. See, there’s this person, goes by the name Guild on Talking Time, who’d made a thread offering free logo designs for businesses. Likely in hopes of drumming up real business. I happened to see said thread, and decided to bite, because why not? It’d save me the trouble of making a less MS Paint-lookin’ banner on my own. And let’s be honest, I probably wasn’t going to do that anytime soon.

Apparently it’s not done done yet, but I think it looks pretty done. There’s some more less noticable stuff still in the pipeline, like playing with transparencies and the gradient, but my project is understandably not at the top of the priority list. And that’s fine, because I’m pretty happy with what I’ve already got.

That’s pretty much the whole of what I’ve got to post today. Just givin’ credit where credit is due. I do that about once a decade.

NaNoFailMo

So there’s a very slim chance that you’ve noticed that I haven’t blogged at all in the month of November. 90% of that is because I have nothing to blog about. Most days I go home from work, have dinner with my wife, and then play Skyrim or Pokémon White 2 until sleeping time. It’s a simple existence, and one that I wouldn’t give up, but it doesn’t lend itself too well to writing.

The other thing that’s keeping me from blogging is NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month, if you need it spelled out. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. It’s a “contest” that challenges everyone who signs up to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I signed up on a whim this year, and currently… well, here’s a printscreen of my statistics page.

Yup, we’re just about halfway through the month and I’ve barely even started. I only even have any words at all because yesterday I decided to slap some words down on a page so that at least I could say I tried.

The truth of it all is that I don’t have anything to write about. I had a story idea before I started, but the more I think about it, the stupider it seems and the more I hate it. Anything else I even try to get off the ground ends up being derivative and boring. I don’t really want to write a novel, I just liked toying with the idea that I could.

So how does this tie into blogging? Mostly because every time I open WordPress I feel the guilty pangs, reminding me that if I’m writing, it should be my novel. Then I decide I don’t want to do that and navigate far, far away from WordPress.

That said, maybe things will pick up in December.

A post full of thoughts in no logical order

Wow, its been a while since my last post. Not a record by far, but almost two weeks is a long time in the current TE era. I’ve been pretty good about slapping something up every few days for some time now, even if it’s just a dumb photo that I found entertaining for a few fleeting moments.

In an effort to start getting though my gigantic backlog of books – Wait what? Books? Yes books. I have a lot of them, but I haven’t read most of them. Anyway, I’ve decided I want to read more, so this week I’ve been making an honest effort to always have a book with me on the bus. Whether I’ll keep going once I’ve finished my current book, I don’t know, but here’s hoping!

The lack of blogging around these parts can be attributed mostly entirely to Pokémon White 2. Obviously. I blame Game Freak for working in a rather extensive achievement system. For every objective you clear, you’re presented with a medal, and when you get so many medals, you get a rank up. It’s not actually deeper than Xbox achievements or PS3 trophies, but the fact that the game makes such a big deal out of the medals makes them that much more appealing to collect. Too bad some of the requirements are completely ludicrous. Check out the list here.

I’ve been working on a big new post over the last little while. I think it’s going to end up being this month’s article, if just to fill the hole. Unfortunately, it is about video games. But it’s a little different in that it’s something of a history lesson with a little review packaged in for those interested. I don’t know. It’s not something I care about enough to link to on my Facebook page or anything, but it’ll have to do.

I’ve been reading Monster Planet this week, the last of a trilogy whose first two parts I’ve already talked about at length. I said that I thought Island and Nation would make great movies, because both of them are pretty briskly-paced and feature a fairly original take on the zombie genre. However, Planet takes it up to eleven and goes into full-blown crazypants video game territory. Now, instead of the occasional smart zombie who can control the mindless masses of undead, there is a whole cadre of liches, each with a unique magic power. It’s gotten kinda ridiculous, but I’m already two-and-a-third books deep, might as well git ‘r done. Full write-up coming soon!

Speaking of spooky things and video games, I’ve begun playing Silent Hill 2 again to half-assedly get into the spirit of Halloween. I thought I was going to do it right this time, playing alone in the dark, but I messed that up. Since I’m playing the HD Collection edition, my experience is being totally controlled by achievements, and as such my current playthrough has been paired with some extensive map-making and step-by-step instructions on how to get through the game as quickly as possible. At the very least, by the time I’m done with it, I’ll have become a master of the game.

I borrowed my brother’s copy of Cubivore to round out my October gaming palette. While the camera is awful and the overall experience is a little shallower than I’d hoped, I think it’s good enough to slake my thirst for Tokyo Jungle. For now.

Have you watched the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon yet? It’s fairly good! Not quite as good as the new TMNT comic series, but it’s definitely worth watching. I will admit that I’m a little disappointed that its demographic skews considerably younger than the 2003 TMNT series. I blame Nickelodeon. Though I suppose the best way to revive a franchise is to make sure it’s what all the li’l kids want for Christmas. A world where Turtles are plastered on every damn thing again would be a world I’d love to live in.

Xbox Minecraft got a big update recently, which is enticing. The price didn’t get cut though, so I’m still not buyin’ it.

I’m bad at getting into the Halloween spirit. I haven’t watched a single cheesy 80’s slasher flick yet. I feel like I’m failing pretty hardcore as a nerd. The Wife is forcing me to take her to Paranormal Activity 4 this weekend though, so I guess that’s at least one “scary” movie for the season. I just have trouble committing myself to 90-120 minutes of uninterrupted watching.

I don’t have nearly as much trouble watching TV or Let’s Play videos. Over the last two weeks I have watched both seasons of Better Off Ted, most of Arrested Development‘s second season, and Brickroad’s Metal Gear LP. Ted is… well, it’s okay. I enjoyed it as much as I did because it co-stars Portia de Rossi and Andrea Anders, both of whom I find very funny. The list of actresses (or even actors, it’s not a sexist thing) I really like is pretty short, but those two are definitely on it. It should be obvious that I much prefer comediennes to “serious” actresses. I also love the way de Rossi pronounces the word “anything.”

I don’t think there’s anything else relevant I can say so that I can add another tag to this post.

Oh, wait! New Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate trailer? Oh Hells yes!

Looking back, and then forward a little

The article format seems like kind of a stupid concession to the reason I started this dumb website, but the fact remains that I still feel compelled to segregate some of the more focused things I write. Even though there are many blog posts which could easily qualify to be articles. I think what really defines articles at this point is that they are big long posts that are generally not about video games. That said, I have written five this year! That’s the best output I’ve had since like… 2006. Yeesh. I go back and read those, and mostly I just remember the nice part of being single and unemployed – having as much time as you want to blow on completely stupid things.

But being employed has the dual benefits of providing income and a sense of purpose, and I don’t think I’d even be able to function anymore outside of a significant romantic relationship. That said, I do want to continue the recent trend of writing at least one thing that I can file under “articles” each month. Only problem is, I don’t have any good topics for the next three months. October and November are total blank slates, and a “24 Xs of Materialism” thing might be a last resort, because I’m not buying things left and right anymore. On the other hand, I have been working on a January feature for months now.

That feature, of course, is going to be “The Top X (10 or 12) Video Games I’ve Played in 2012” or something along those lines. I haven’t decided yet, but the idea is that in an attempt to pull emphasis away from my ever-increasing backlog, I’m going to instead celebrate a handful of the games I started and finished during this calendar year. I know it’s violating my new tendency to stay away from video games for articles, but it’s low-hanging fruit that I must pluck! I’ll go back to movies and candy come February.

Going back to my original intent for this post, however, I need some ideas for the rest of the year. October is quickly approaching and the accompanying article will have to be Halloween-themed, obviously. I’m thinking of just taking $10 to a dollar store and seeing if I can find enough interesting junk to justify spending three hours taking pictures of and writing about it. November is an absolute mystery to me at this point, but I’m leaning toward a project documentation, as opposed to a product review. You may experience another cooking fiasco. December… I hope to recreate the magic of the Holiday Viva Puffs review, albeit with a different minty-flavoured holiday treat. Or perhaps I’ll turn a gingerbread house kit into some sort of horrible gingerbread phallus. Actually, you know, I really like that one. I’m going to go start up a draft of that right now.

The last thing I need to do is get all the Facebook integration set up here. It’s annoying to try to post things on both the blog and Facebook, so I generally don’t do it. I don’t really want to work the social media route, but that seems to be the best way to reach out over the internet these days. Maybe I’ll even have to create a Twitter account. And find a good WordPress plugin to post stories on those sites. The only one I’ve tried using breaks my layout quite handily, so if anyone knows a good one that doesn’t conflict with the Weaver theme, please let me know.

So laaazy

You know, I’ve had a new movie review sitting around for over a month now, but I have no idea how long it will be until I post it. It was originally supposed to go live in July. And it’s pretty much done, too! The bulk of the writing is done; I still have to go back over it to do a little spellchecking and other fine-tuning, but the words are essentially done. The thing that I’m stuck at it getting some screengrabs.

Normally, that’s the part I’d do first. I’d watch a movie/show, and then go back and take a few shots of important part, and then write the article around those. This time I did all the writing first, and the way that I wrote it calls for a lot of images. And not just the basic screengrabs either! No, I worked myself into a corner full of photoshops and collages. I suppose I could go over the article and edit the parts that call out images I don’t want to take/create, but at that point I’m cheating the reader of a fuller experience. Oh, what a world.

It’s not that I don’t want to do it, it’s just that taking screenshots o a movie is dull and tedious. Making sure I printscreen jsut the right moments, making sure everything is sized and named properly… It’s boring.

This is sort of similar to the reason why my Monster Hunter Let’s Play is stalling. Playing Monster Hunter is one of my favourite pastimes, and talking about Monster Hunter comes in at a close second, so in that case I’m mostly blaming Camtasia. With sprite-based games, I can set it to record and then just have at it as long as I need, then stop when I feel like the session is done and do a little chopping to make everything nice and neat before I produce it. Monster Hunter, being a PS2 game, I guess eats a ton of memory while being recorded. If I go over about 15 minutes of footage, it stops recording sound and just replaces my narration and the game’s audio with a horrible extra-loud static track. So I have to time myself to make sure I don’t record too long, find a suitable spot to pause, and then wait while to video is processed, then wait twice as long while the video is saved to a file. The processing/saving part eats up all my PC’s resources too, so I can’t do anything else with it while I wait. Then I have to do the usual editing, which is not terrible, but annoying after all the other hoops I’ve had to jump through to get that far. Especially if I screwed up the timing and have to fix the sound problems. And then, then I have to hope that while it was paused for Camtasia to do all its things, that my PS2 emulator hasn’t crashed. That’s happened twice now, and it’s even worse than when the audio breaks, because not just footage is lost, but actual game progress. This was the worst project I’ve ever started.

But that movie review? It’ll be done… maybe this weekend. I don’t know. Maybe that’s what I’ll do with my Friday night.

Let’s not play Megaman X

Having just moved into a new house,  I don’t have any internet set up yet. It’s something I hope to have rectified within the week, but for now my blogging ability its quite limited. I am also unable to upload videos to YouTube, so there will be no Let’s Play Megaman X today, children. I know how you’re all just so into it, but you’ll have to wait a week.

Here I go a-counting

Oh my goodness you guys, accounting.

So I do that now. Professionally. Semi-professionally. Training to be able to work in the field with an air of professionalism. It is my position title. It’s repetitive, and tedious, and really, really not at all exciting. I love it. I’m the kind of person who can while away hours days grinding experience in old-school RPGs, so this really is a good fit for me.

I only recently realized a possible subconscious reason I’ve been so gung-ho to get into accounting. And I am taking that knowledge to the grave. Let’s say it’s an “unfinished business” kind of thing.

And that’s awesome and all but there’s nothing really interesting to say about my days at work: I plug in some numbers and then plug in some more numbers. Rinse and repeat. Once in a while I stop to pay some bills, which results in more number-pluggage. Anything I do think would be type-worthy information is Top Secret. I suppose it’s notable that riding the bus to and fro again has been considerably more pleasant than I’d expected, aside from occasional bouts with light motion sickness. I’m a little disappointed that it’s been a dry well for StreetPasses so far. But I’ve only been bussing for a week, so maybe everyone who rides with their 3DS was on vacation over the last week.

In other news, I’m doing something completely crazy: I’m writing an article. Yeah, you know, those silly things this website used to be built on? Maybe you don’t know. It’s not a thing I really do much anymore. Anywho, it’s a classic-style article. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that it is not about video games. SHOCKER! The only problem left is that I seem to have completely forgotten how to write at length about silly things that are not projected onto my television/computer screen. This could be a terrible idea.