I was a massive fan of Castlevania while the vast majority of my friends were into Metroid and Rygar (which, I suppose, was more akin to Ninja Gaiden than Metroid). Not really sure why that was...I suppose it was a combination of not wanting to compete with my friends in trying to beat Metroid and preferring the D&D-adjacency of Castlevania. And I never played Simon's Quest...
I, also, believe I have Hollow Knight floating around in my Steam collection. Suppose I should check it out.
I read up until the spoiler warning and stopped. I'm definitely in for a good Jason Statham movie. He's got some stuff out on the streaming services that I'd never heard of (The Beekeeper comes to mind--another good Jason Statham movie).
We did rewatch the first John Wick movie last night. I'd forgotten how near-perfect that movie was up to and including the soundtrack (which I purchased while watching the movie).
This Means Warp is on sale so oldest boy and I bought copies and I gifted a copy to youngest boy so the three of us can play together. Think of it as a slightly-lampoonish multiplayer version of FTL. We tried our hand at it last night and had a lot of fun figuring out who should be doing what job on the ship and how to keep our own hull intact while destroying the enemy ship, but we keep getting blown up in pretty much the same spot, so we know we're missing something vital. Pretty fun, though. You can hire crew to help you in single-player mode but this game's strength is in getting four friends together to crew a ship.
The season has been so delightfully hectic that I'm only just getting to this post today!
On Christmas Eve itself I wanted to try my hand at making meatballs (inspired by a handful of recently-watched episodes of Good Eats) so I talked youngest boy into braving the holiday grocery stores on my behalf and...well I made 24 meatballs and they all vanished. And that was meatballs all by themselves--no noodles or sauce or anything like that. Next time I make red sauce I'll do it with the meatballs instead and we'll see how it goes. Notable: youngest boy has an egg allergy so I substituted three tablespoons of avocado in place of the egg.
I also learned on Christmas Eve that I was making Christmas dinner, so since I had a newly-restocked freezer and recent experience over Thanksgiving I made a brisket. K made this delightful German warm potato salad and my Mother-in-Law showed up with an excellent bottle of wine, so everything worked out just fine.
My sister is coming to visit Dad and my brother today in Kansas (she should actually be there today) and she asked me if I'd come as well. Normally I'd hop at the chance but I decided instead that I wanted to stay home and enjoy having both boys under the same roof again for a little while. Sis understood.
I totally cheesed the final boss fight in the original Baldur's Gate, but a win is a win, dammit! As for Arcanum, I could tell that there was an excellent game with a compelling story in there, but unfortunately I bounced off of it. Maybe some studio will pick it up and remake it for me.
I've been playing a ton of Banished, a city builder in which you start out (on Hard mode) with four families, a handful of children, and a wagon full of food and supplies and nothing else, and you've got to build a settlement from nothing. You've got to build a place for collecting resources and collect enough stone and wood to build houses and facilities for hunting and collecting food from the nearby forests before the first winter arrives and you all freeze to death. You can't even engage in agriculture until you're able to build a trader and collect enough resources to trade for seeds or animals. The only enemies in the game are your own incompetence as a strategist and the occasional tornado, fire, disease, or blight. I have yet to get through a game without suffering through a couple of seasons without people starving to death because I outgrew my food supply. Think of it as the original Warcraft without orcs. I started out playing with mods because who wouldn't want to raise llamas instead of sheep if you had a choice, am I right? However, I started over with no mods because I wanted to earn achievements. It's a delightfully engaging sandbox of a game, if you're into that sort of thing.
I had a first-generation iPod, with it's "gigantic" 10GB hard drive. I've had several other models of iPod over the years (all managed by Media Monkey because iTunes is trash). My current iPod is an iPod "Classic," which I ripped open a couple of years ago to replace the 120GB spinny drive with a 125GB SSD because I thought the spinny drive was failing--the problem turned out to be a dumb bug in the software running on my Subaru's stereo, but nevermind that. I had to flash my iPod a couple of months back (for which I had to download and install iTunes. Eww.) and it's still running like a champ. Knowing the iPod is end-of-life, I've considered buying another one and stashing it somewhere.
Throughout all of this, I've maintained my own mp3 library. I built my library by ripping my own CD's, but I've long since moved on to buying music digitally from services who offer mp3's at 320kbps (so, not Amazon) and I occasionally have to buy a CD to rip myself when I can't find it digitally. I had to buy all of Metallica's stuff on CD and rip it myself, but luckily they haven't made any music since "...And Justice For All" so it didn't cost me a lot.
My current music library weighs in at about 178GB, which is pretty modest when compared to others, but not too shabby when you consider the average 320kbps mp3 weighs in at between 8-10MB. My library is maintained on a glorified media server, which is just a PC running RedHat Enterprise Linux hosting a RAID 5 using ZFS which gets backed up twice a month.
I love my mother's tuna casserole. My Mom isn't the greatest cook, but her tuna casserole never failed to hit the mark for me. It's pretty basic: salt, pepper, powdered onion and garlic, a can of tuna, egg noodles, a can of cream of mushroom soup. Anyway, I got the "recipe" from her and learned how to make it. And once I'd mastered it, I decided to "make it better" by using fresh ingredients--real garlic and onion instead of the powders. Stuff like that.
It was a disaster. It didn't taste right AT ALL.
So forevermore I make it the way Mom made it, cans and powders and all. I've had to make some adjustments to it over the years due to dietary considerations and whatnot, but the goal is always to make sure it comes out tasting like Mom's.
A good garlic press is a game-changer. I don't even bother mincing or chopping garlic any more--it all goes in the press unless the recipe specifically calls for big chunks or whole cloves or something.
I can't imagine voting for her. I can't see her as President. I could maybe see her beating Trump...? But I want her in every debate, and if you're a front-runner you damn sure want to secure her services as "Minister of Hype" the second she drops out.
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On “Weekend Plans Post: Fell For It Again”
Yes indeed. It's making an effort and the roads are wet but so far nothing is sticking.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Metroidvanias”
I was a massive fan of Castlevania while the vast majority of my friends were into Metroid and Rygar (which, I suppose, was more akin to Ninja Gaiden than Metroid). Not really sure why that was...I suppose it was a combination of not wanting to compete with my friends in trying to beat Metroid and preferring the D&D-adjacency of Castlevania. And I never played Simon's Quest...
I, also, believe I have Hollow Knight floating around in my Steam collection. Suppose I should check it out.
On “A Working Man Reviewed”
I read up until the spoiler warning and stopped. I'm definitely in for a good Jason Statham movie. He's got some stuff out on the streaming services that I'd never heard of (The Beekeeper comes to mind--another good Jason Statham movie).
We did rewatch the first John Wick movie last night. I'd forgotten how near-perfect that movie was up to and including the soundtrack (which I purchased while watching the movie).
On “SCOTUS Grants Reprieve to ‘Slut Shamed’ Woman on Oklahoma’s Death Row”
Interesting stuff, Em. Thanks for writing!
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Cryptmaster”
Baldur's Gate 3...again! This time I'm running a human Colossus Slayer Ranger. Heck, maybe I'll even finish the game this time!
On “The Piketon Massacre Tragedy, Continued”
Thanks for this, Em. Good to see you.
On “The Virtue of Tuning Out”
Just so.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Hades II First Impressions”
This Means Warp is on sale so oldest boy and I bought copies and I gifted a copy to youngest boy so the three of us can play together. Think of it as a slightly-lampoonish multiplayer version of FTL. We tried our hand at it last night and had a lot of fun figuring out who should be doing what job on the ship and how to keep our own hull intact while destroying the enemy ship, but we keep getting blown up in pretty much the same spot, so we know we're missing something vital. Pretty fun, though. You can hire crew to help you in single-player mode but this game's strength is in getting four friends together to crew a ship.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Recovering from the Holidays”
The season has been so delightfully hectic that I'm only just getting to this post today!
On Christmas Eve itself I wanted to try my hand at making meatballs (inspired by a handful of recently-watched episodes of Good Eats) so I talked youngest boy into braving the holiday grocery stores on my behalf and...well I made 24 meatballs and they all vanished. And that was meatballs all by themselves--no noodles or sauce or anything like that. Next time I make red sauce I'll do it with the meatballs instead and we'll see how it goes. Notable: youngest boy has an egg allergy so I substituted three tablespoons of avocado in place of the egg.
I also learned on Christmas Eve that I was making Christmas dinner, so since I had a newly-restocked freezer and recent experience over Thanksgiving I made a brisket. K made this delightful German warm potato salad and my Mother-in-Law showed up with an excellent bottle of wine, so everything worked out just fine.
My sister is coming to visit Dad and my brother today in Kansas (she should actually be there today) and she asked me if I'd come as well. Normally I'd hop at the chance but I decided instead that I wanted to stay home and enjoy having both boys under the same roof again for a little while. Sis understood.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Baldur’s Gate III”
I totally cheesed the final boss fight in the original Baldur's Gate, but a win is a win, dammit! As for Arcanum, I could tell that there was an excellent game with a compelling story in there, but unfortunately I bounced off of it. Maybe some studio will pick it up and remake it for me.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: If you can’t be a good example, be a cautionary one”
I've been playing a ton of Banished, a city builder in which you start out (on Hard mode) with four families, a handful of children, and a wagon full of food and supplies and nothing else, and you've got to build a settlement from nothing. You've got to build a place for collecting resources and collect enough stone and wood to build houses and facilities for hunting and collecting food from the nearby forests before the first winter arrives and you all freeze to death. You can't even engage in agriculture until you're able to build a trader and collect enough resources to trade for seeds or animals. The only enemies in the game are your own incompetence as a strategist and the occasional tornado, fire, disease, or blight. I have yet to get through a game without suffering through a couple of seasons without people starving to death because I outgrew my food supply. Think of it as the original Warcraft without orcs. I started out playing with mods because who wouldn't want to raise llamas instead of sheep if you had a choice, am I right? However, I started over with no mods because I wanted to earn achievements. It's a delightfully engaging sandbox of a game, if you're into that sort of thing.
On “Well-Tuned: Ding Dong, The IPod Is Dead…”
I had a first-generation iPod, with it's "gigantic" 10GB hard drive. I've had several other models of iPod over the years (all managed by Media Monkey because iTunes is trash). My current iPod is an iPod "Classic," which I ripped open a couple of years ago to replace the 120GB spinny drive with a 125GB SSD because I thought the spinny drive was failing--the problem turned out to be a dumb bug in the software running on my Subaru's stereo, but nevermind that. I had to flash my iPod a couple of months back (for which I had to download and install iTunes. Eww.) and it's still running like a champ. Knowing the iPod is end-of-life, I've considered buying another one and stashing it somewhere.
Throughout all of this, I've maintained my own mp3 library. I built my library by ripping my own CD's, but I've long since moved on to buying music digitally from services who offer mp3's at 320kbps (so, not Amazon) and I occasionally have to buy a CD to rip myself when I can't find it digitally. I had to buy all of Metallica's stuff on CD and rip it myself, but luckily they haven't made any music since "...And Justice For All" so it didn't cost me a lot.
My current music library weighs in at about 178GB, which is pretty modest when compared to others, but not too shabby when you consider the average 320kbps mp3 weighs in at between 8-10MB. My library is maintained on a glorified media server, which is just a PC running RedHat Enterprise Linux hosting a RAID 5 using ZFS which gets backed up twice a month.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: For the Emperor”
"If you don’t like Diablo games, yeah. Avoid this one."
I feel like you wrote this line for me! :-D :-D
I missed seeing your post, and by the time I read it the sale was already over. For $20 bucks? Heck yeah, but not a penny more.
On “Food, or Eating Your Beans and Cornbread Thankfully Like An Adult”
I love my mother's tuna casserole. My Mom isn't the greatest cook, but her tuna casserole never failed to hit the mark for me. It's pretty basic: salt, pepper, powdered onion and garlic, a can of tuna, egg noodles, a can of cream of mushroom soup. Anyway, I got the "recipe" from her and learned how to make it. And once I'd mastered it, I decided to "make it better" by using fresh ingredients--real garlic and onion instead of the powders. Stuff like that.
It was a disaster. It didn't taste right AT ALL.
So forevermore I make it the way Mom made it, cans and powders and all. I've had to make some adjustments to it over the years due to dietary considerations and whatnot, but the goal is always to make sure it comes out tasting like Mom's.
"
Even weirder, the only way I could get in here and see all the comments was to log in and click on the notification for another comment.
"
A good garlic press is a game-changer. I don't even bother mincing or chopping garlic any more--it all goes in the press unless the recipe specifically calls for big chunks or whole cloves or something.
On “Browser History”
But their hardware...the second I can get Linux to recognize the proprietary wifi card in my Macbook, I'm dumping OS X and installing CentOS.
On “The People Problem of Fast Food Labor”
The King Sooper on the East side of the Springs has them, but I've never used them.
On “Love Will Win”
Damn.
I can't imagine voting for her. I can't see her as President. I could maybe see her beating Trump...? But I want her in every debate, and if you're a front-runner you damn sure want to secure her services as "Minister of Hype" the second she drops out.