In Another World With Too Many Damn Animals
To date, in this household, we have three cats and two dogs. I’m reasonably sure that’s not legal – the city code says three animals, no more than two of the same type. To be fair, this isn’t the most animals we’ve had in this house, but it is at times a concern. The answer appears to be “ensure they are rehomed to owners who will love and care for them,” or alternatively “sacrifice them to the dark gods.” Neither of these are likely to happen. More likely, if I find myself in legal trouble of some sort, I’ll just need to reaffirm that one of the cats is for…
Looking Back – Infinite Space, for the Nintendo DS
6 years ago, the Nintendo DS allowed players to travel the stars with the game Infinite Space. I remember being sold on it before it even came out, in part because of the amazing anime shorts put out by Gonzo. I remember absolutely loving this game when it came out, but decided to revisit it to see if it still held up. Surprisingly, it still does, and I might even recommend individuals seek it out. But I also rediscovered just how damn frustrating the game can be, in part because of how it handles and how obtuse certain elements of the game are. A Brief History of Infinite Space Infinite…
328 Days With Torn
While I don’t have the time to play games I used to, and I’ve mostly stepped away from the mobile game scene, one browser game I’ve found myself playing at least once a day since I checked it out almost a year ago is Torn City MMO. It’s premise is deceptively simple: grow your character and make a name for yourself in a crime-riddled city that seceded from America. Raise your stats, take some courses, join a business or run your own. Race, trade stocks, get involved with wars, do drugs for fun and profit. A lot of people who have stuck with this game likely find they have higher…
Self-Serve Kiosks Give Horrible Customer Service
There’s this really dumb joke you’ll see me post sometimes to the tune of “I’m so broke I have to do my grocery shopping in the self-checkout lane.” The reference or suggestion, of course, is that if I went to a checkout lane with a person that I’d have to scan everything, but if I’m the one doing the scanning items are going to conveniently not be scanned. In a time where self-scanning becomes increasingly prevalent, such gambits seem increasingly common and perhaps convoluted. Measures to ensure customers aren’t gaming the system range a bit as well. On top of security cameras, asset protection, and employees that at one time…
The Time I Was Kicked Out of Hunter’s Safety
As a child, I would sometimes go out of my way to get attention or stretch my sense of importance. Often, these actions would end poorly. I grew up in a valley in Western Montana, in a time and in a place where hunting was encouraged not just as a way of life but as a way to survive. Taking the life of an animal could ensure a family had food in the freezer for weeks, which wasn’t always a small feat considering the difficulties of finding good work in the area. I remember having concerns about going hunting with my stepfather at the time, but I also remember he…
Survey Scores, Amazon Reviews, And You
You’re at a fast food restaurant, and you get a lengthy receipt. On the bottom, it has a website. “Fill this out,” it states, “and get a chance at a monetary reward!” It’s not a large reward, but hey, why not. You’re filling out the questions, and it asks you “How was your service?” Well, it wasn’t like, the best. Everything was as expected, but I mean, it’s fast food. So that answer gets a 4 out of 5. And at that moment, you just gave the survey a critical (negative) review. Strange, right? 4 out of 5 is like, 80%! Why would that be a negative? You’re on Amazon,…
Return to Vana’Diel (For Ninety Days)
It was the Fall of 2010 when I had made the decision to log off from the popular MMO Final Fantasy 11 forever. I had started the game early April 2004, as I could play it on the Playstation 2 and I was already tired of Everquest Online Adventures. It would grab me in a way no other game, let alone MMORPG, had up to that point (and perhaps more than any MMO since.) My character was assigned to the Fenrir server. I knew no one who played the game. In 7 years, I would meet with characters in game which would lead to friends in real life. Meeting up…
It’s Almost October
I am very bad at updating this website! Amazon.com cancelled my Associate Affiliation with them. I renewed it, but now have a different ID, so need to update past links. Not that anyone was clicking on them anyways? But it is a thing I need to do. I also edited this WordPress theme manually, and the darn thing reverted back because apparently only people with the Pro version of this theme are able to change some of what I did. Crafty little thing. I’ll look at fixing that in the future as well. I continue to work far too many hours. I figure on the average week, between work and…
Review: Intelligence Block – A Talos June Novel
Affiliate Link Disclosure: If you click the link below, you will be taken to Amazon.com. If you purchase the book from that link, I get a small kickback. The Crafting of Chess is a work of fiction written by Kit Falbo, and is available in digital edition, via the Kindle Unlimited subscription service, or via paperback copy. Synopsis: In the distant future, Talos June plays the character Joontal, a middle ranked mage in a world where old school technology is merged with nanobots and projections to create flashy shows and battles. Joontal is styled after older classical wizards which makes him novel and he is played well, but the character…
So I Started Playing Ingress
I make some strange decisions. Lately I’ve been trying to re-evaluate some things in my life. What I want out of it. How to get my finances straightened out while handling my (currently) 68 hour workweek. Dealing with the ever present depression and hopelessness of it all. An anime adaptation of a mobile game got me to try said mobile game again, and I’m not doing too horribly considering. Probably could do better. Probably will. This is something I intend to do rather casually, possibly meeting people as I go on. In a perfect world, this would be a solid excuse to get out of the house. I’ve admittedly only…