This is the end, my only friend

Today we celebrate the end of Blaugust.  At first I figured I would try it because it was a great way to challenge myself to blog some more, but over the course of it the thing I feel most appreciative for is the amount I learned about writing.  I tend to overwork whatever I’m writing and never get anything done.  This month made me get something out there, even if it was raw and emotional and maybe not what I wanted to write.

But often it was what I needed to write.

Thanks for all the fish

First, thanks to Belghast, for organizing this whole crazy thing.  We’d never have gotten started if it weren’t for him.

Second, thanks to Ashgar, who kept riffing with me on a number of posts.

Big thanks to both Cannot Be Tamed and Alternative Chat for their questionnaires which gave me some structure to post my thoughts into.  It was a huge help and I had a blast with both of those questions.

Finally thanks to everyone who commented on posts, retweeted me, and all my new friends on Twitter.  The new social circle is the prize that is most valuable to me out of this whole exercise.

Moving Forward

I’m probably going to start blogging on a twice a week basis, with probably more cogent blog posts.  I will be trying to keep up writing in general, but I have enough things I need to sit down and work on that I am not short of projects.

I’m sure there will be something going up for the end of Blaugust, so should definitely check out the Nook.

 

AggroChat #20 – Compelling Content Not Trash

This week we have our full cast as we welcome Kodra back from GenCon.  He talks about all of the LARPs that he played and the conclusion of his journey into the My Little Pony card game competition.  Then we talk some MMO design especially as realted to the awesome community that has flourished in Final Fantasy XIV.

My TV Asplode

I was sitting and considering what I might want to write about when my wife walked in:

“We’re not busy tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah?”

“You like shopping for electronics, right?”

<suspicious look? “Yeah?”

“I think the TV is dying”

Apparently the TV made a pop-ping noise and went black, then came back with a very washed out picture.  When we turned it off, the ‘lamp’ light blinked for a quite a while, and attempting to turn it back on just didn’t work at all.  So it looks like we’ll be making a trip to Best Buy and/or Target tomorrow to see what our options are.  I can’t be too mad, the television is close to 20 years old at this point.  I’m a little sad though, since we can’t really justify spending what it would take to buy a new one at the same size.  It was originally my parents’ upstairs television but they gave it to me when I bought a house since they didn’t really use it anymore.

On the bright side, there ought to be some good Labor Day sales going on, so maybe we can find a decent deal there.  We’ve talked about a second TV for the bedroom, so we might buy a smaller one for now, then move it to the bedroom and get a larger unit come year-end.  Also, this means we can finally get a TV with modern inputs, like HDMI.  Maybe we can look into Chromecast now too.

Source: Thalen Speaks
My TV Asplode

Games I have been playing

So, I’ve been playing a crazy amount of Final Fantasy XIV.  Enough that I haven’t had much to really talk about on this blog on the topic of games, because I’ve been mostly just doing the grinding elements of the end game to get geared up.  I am now geared up.

STUPID FRIGGING BELLY WINDOW
Pictured: Me geared up

I’ve been playing this game for a solid two weeks, and I’ve still got content to work through, but between Hunts and Roulettes it’s felt kinda grindy.  I’ll probably dial down my play over the next week just in time for me to have my life consumed by Destiny.  That said, in an attempt to get some other games in, I purchased last weeks Humble Bundle and started to play through some of those games.

Ready, Fight

One Finger Death Punch was the game in the bundle I was the most interested in.  It looked very pretty, and is ultimately a pattern matching game.  I like the rhythm games it shares it’s DNA with so I tried it out.

That’s a video of me completing on of the standard levels.  All I do is press X or B on my controller when an enemy or object is in my reach.  This actually has more game to it than you might realize as some mobs will dodge attacks and require specific patterns to fight, and some weapons work in different ways.  In the middle you will see me kicking a ball at enemies that instakills them and keeps coming back so long as my timing is good.

It’s a great game and makes for a hell of a spectacle.

Enemy Mind

I loaded this game up and played through the first level.  It feels like an old arcade style shooter, but with the gimmick of constantly changing your ship for an enemies.

Tyrian is the only one of this genre I ever really got into, and enemy mind doesn’t really sway me either.  I had some fun, but the short duration I could keep any given ship meant I kept ending up back in ships I didn’t want.  I’ll give it another try, but this one didn’t work for me on my initial playthrough.

Home stretch

One more day of Blaugust to go.  I’ll probably post some sort of wrap-up on this whole thing tomorrow.  Thanks for reading throughout this month, and once again, check out the Nook for related posts.