Finally!
Caught up with what I've listened to for My American Life!
Dec 15, 2014
Caught up!
Whew!
Finally!
Caught up with what I've listened to for My American Life!
Time to get back behind schedule and listen to five more episodes without writing a single segment for this blog!
Finally!
Caught up with what I've listened to for My American Life!
Republicans - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/32/republican-convention
Doing historical reports like this are interesting because you already know the winners, and so that suspense is non-existent, but that's a good thing because it leads you to see something more in these stories about the politics of the time that are slightly different or something new that you wouldn't expect on the first pass. The only problem with that is that I don't know what that special something should be.
I feel like there should be something that I should be pulling from these stories about the national convention of the GOP (Grand Old Party, just learned that a few weeks ago and I still can't believe that's what the GOP stands for).
The one thing that I think is interesting is that for the most part, the same arguments and the same drama is happening now that was happening back in 1996. It's been almost 20 years, and people are still arguing the same points. The more liberal republicans are at ends with the more conservative republicans, they're being offensive to people while thinking that they're not being offensive, and everyone hates everyone. There's no compramize, there's no trying to actually do something good for the people, there is only trying to do their own politics so that they can push their own message. It's frustrating to look back and see how useless the entire thing is.
Just look at things now. The same problems they were talking about in 1996, are still being talked about now, and are being addressed in about the same manner. Nothing has progressed, nothing has changed. The tea party wants super conservative views and they're pushing those on the rest of the party on threat of leaving the party and doing their own thing and ruining everything. The liberal republicans are trying to do things slightly less extreme, but everyone else is looking at them like they're crazy and need to stop acting like republicans who are doubling as democrats. There is talk about gender equality, sexual orientation, and family values, but they're so stuck up about their own political views that they can't see the people that are behind what they're talking about. Then comes the age thing, the republican party, although trying to say that they're young and new and progressive, hasn't done anything young or progressive on a national scale since ever. They try to move on and say that they're young, but then they come to the sad realization that the majority of their voters are retired or about to retire.
It's when I listen to specials like this that I feel even less of a connection to the political world. Nothing has changed, nothing will change, so what good will my one vote do? It's because of stuff like this that the voter turn out for the mid-term elections has been at an all time low since World War Two. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/2014-midterm-election-turnout-lowest-in-70-years/ You want to know why only a third of people even care about politics now days? Just look at specials like this - nothing has changed, so why would it matter? Until someone goes out on a limb and does something crazy like actually compromising and trying to form deals without grid locking the entire government, people simply will not care about the politics that we are in.
However, with that rant out of the way - Dan Savage's submission for this episode, best thing I have heard in a while. It was hilarious (and sadly still relevant, see above).
To spoil it, he, a gay liberal, manages to make it into a republican convention and bring up gay rights and trying to get equality for LGBQ community within the republican party. If anything, listen to this episode just for that one segment.
I feel like there should be something that I should be pulling from these stories about the national convention of the GOP (Grand Old Party, just learned that a few weeks ago and I still can't believe that's what the GOP stands for).
The one thing that I think is interesting is that for the most part, the same arguments and the same drama is happening now that was happening back in 1996. It's been almost 20 years, and people are still arguing the same points. The more liberal republicans are at ends with the more conservative republicans, they're being offensive to people while thinking that they're not being offensive, and everyone hates everyone. There's no compramize, there's no trying to actually do something good for the people, there is only trying to do their own politics so that they can push their own message. It's frustrating to look back and see how useless the entire thing is.
Just look at things now. The same problems they were talking about in 1996, are still being talked about now, and are being addressed in about the same manner. Nothing has progressed, nothing has changed. The tea party wants super conservative views and they're pushing those on the rest of the party on threat of leaving the party and doing their own thing and ruining everything. The liberal republicans are trying to do things slightly less extreme, but everyone else is looking at them like they're crazy and need to stop acting like republicans who are doubling as democrats. There is talk about gender equality, sexual orientation, and family values, but they're so stuck up about their own political views that they can't see the people that are behind what they're talking about. Then comes the age thing, the republican party, although trying to say that they're young and new and progressive, hasn't done anything young or progressive on a national scale since ever. They try to move on and say that they're young, but then they come to the sad realization that the majority of their voters are retired or about to retire.
It's when I listen to specials like this that I feel even less of a connection to the political world. Nothing has changed, nothing will change, so what good will my one vote do? It's because of stuff like this that the voter turn out for the mid-term elections has been at an all time low since World War Two. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/2014-midterm-election-turnout-lowest-in-70-years/ You want to know why only a third of people even care about politics now days? Just look at specials like this - nothing has changed, so why would it matter? Until someone goes out on a limb and does something crazy like actually compromising and trying to form deals without grid locking the entire government, people simply will not care about the politics that we are in.
However, with that rant out of the way - Dan Savage's submission for this episode, best thing I have heard in a while. It was hilarious (and sadly still relevant, see above).
When You Talk About - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/31/when-you-talk-about-music
If you're doing things right in your life, the way you should pick your job is by this basic standard. What is it that when you talk about it, you can just go on for hours and hour and you just can't stop. It's one of those weird things when you run into a person who loves their job, loves their field, or loves whatever they are doing, this is what happens.
The thing about this, is that you can't judge people for what they love because there's always going to be a person out there that loves something that you just can't stand. I'm an English person, I love English. I like words in a weird way, and I enjoy stories. It's what I love and can talk about for hours, and I can do math . . . but I just can't stand it. As much as I would like to roll my eyes at people that love math, there's going to be someone that does it.
This goes for all of the fields that are out there. You might not be able to understand why in the world they love it, but they do. The best time that I have ever seen this was when I had just gotten back from Sweden and got a dead end job working in the warehouse of Namifiers.
All that company does is do custom tee shirts, custom lanyards, custom name tags, and everything else like that. They specialize in making things that you never notice, but companies seem to be hyper obsessed about. For me, it was useless mindless work that did nothing more than pay for rent and some food as I mindlessly made name tags for companies that I had never heard of before.
Then there was my boss - Sean.
The man loved lanyards, tee shirts, and name tags.
Let me put it this way - the man dropped out of college so that he could work as a manager of a name tag company. He LOVED what he did, he had a passion for it, and it was his life. He showed up early talking about name tags, stayed late working on name tags, and his entire life was nothing but those stupid, annoying, frustrating things that he seemed to love. (Not related at all, but he got fired from that job and had nothing to fall back on because he had made Namifiers his life and had dropped out of college but that's a different rant for a different time)
The same goes for other people that I have met. Brandon Barth - great friend, amazing roommate, witness at my wedding - got the same look in his face when talking about the geography of the moons of Saturn. It was the most boring thing in the world to me, but to him it was the most interesting, fun thing to ever talk about because he loved it.
It doesn't happen all of the time, there's those people that pick their jobs just because it pays the bills and they want to be able to afford food, and then there are people that think that they feel this passion about something, but they chose wrong and are stuck in a field that they hate. But every now and then, when people get lucky, they choose a field that they love, something that even if they're bad in, something that they have little actual skill in, that they absolutely love.
Unfortunately/fortunately I'm one of those people. I am in a field that I absolutely love, but I'm seriously starting to doubt if I'm any good in the actual field, but to me, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me if I don't have a world best seller, I just enjoy the realm, and enjoy being part of the community.
Now for those people that were looking for me geeking out about music, and saying that music is something that changed my life and something that I absolutely loved and is part of me, and I could have done that, but I think that this topic is a whole lot better explained by the idea of people loving what they love, even if they're not the best at it.
If you're doing things right in your life, the way you should pick your job is by this basic standard. What is it that when you talk about it, you can just go on for hours and hour and you just can't stop. It's one of those weird things when you run into a person who loves their job, loves their field, or loves whatever they are doing, this is what happens.
The thing about this, is that you can't judge people for what they love because there's always going to be a person out there that loves something that you just can't stand. I'm an English person, I love English. I like words in a weird way, and I enjoy stories. It's what I love and can talk about for hours, and I can do math . . . but I just can't stand it. As much as I would like to roll my eyes at people that love math, there's going to be someone that does it.
Then there was my boss - Sean.
The same goes for other people that I have met. Brandon Barth - great friend, amazing roommate, witness at my wedding - got the same look in his face when talking about the geography of the moons of Saturn. It was the most boring thing in the world to me, but to him it was the most interesting, fun thing to ever talk about because he loved it.
It doesn't happen all of the time, there's those people that pick their jobs just because it pays the bills and they want to be able to afford food, and then there are people that think that they feel this passion about something, but they chose wrong and are stuck in a field that they hate. But every now and then, when people get lucky, they choose a field that they love, something that even if they're bad in, something that they have little actual skill in, that they absolutely love.
Unfortunately/fortunately I'm one of those people. I am in a field that I absolutely love, but I'm seriously starting to doubt if I'm any good in the actual field, but to me, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me if I don't have a world best seller, I just enjoy the realm, and enjoy being part of the community.
Now for those people that were looking for me geeking out about music, and saying that music is something that changed my life and something that I absolutely loved and is part of me, and I could have done that, but I think that this topic is a whole lot better explained by the idea of people loving what they love, even if they're not the best at it.
Self Diagnosis - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/30/obsession
OCD and having to deal with compulsions is one of those things that people self diagnose a whole lot, and it's one of those things that people don't ever comment on.
No, you don't have OCD, you don't have anything even close to OCD. You just get annoyed at things that aren't organized.
That isn't OCD, that's just you not enjoying something that is out of order in a normal set of figures or a typical set of patterns. That isn't OCD, that is your normal brain seeing a normal pattern and not enjoying it when that pattern is broken. That is not OCD, that's called being normal.
I didn't really know what OCD was until I had some people around me have lesser, legitimate versions of OCD. OCD when it is actually OCD is something unlike anything you can even imagine. OCD is one of those things that ruins your life because you become obsessed with something completely irrational. You start to think that just because you tap on a door three times before you leave you won't have a bad day, so you tap on every single door, or door frame, that you see with no questions asked, and you have to do it a very specific way because if you don't you're going to have a bad day.
You want to bother a person with OCD? Sneeze on them. Force them to put their hands in mud. Turn off the lights. Take away their antibacterial soap. Whatever their compulsion is, stop them from doing it.
There is a difference from seeing something out of order and pointing to it and saying, "You know what? That's slightly annoying because I would prefer to see that all in order," and then seeing the exact same thing and going, "You know what? I'm going to spend the next two hours fixing that pattern because if I don't I won't be able to think about anything else in my life and I will either fix it now when I have the energy or I'll be back at two in the morning because I can't sleep and have to fix it."
Just like you should not sit down at home and self diagnose physical diseases - you know what? I like food and sugar so I think I have diabetes - you should not self diagnose mental diseases. You do not have OCD, you are not depressed, you do not have diabetes. You're just stupid and want something to complain about.
I don't have OCD, and I can't say that there's been anyone in my direct life that has had OCD, so I don't really have a story about it. I've had people in slight relationships to my life have full fledged OCD, but those minor relationships don't really count for anything because I just don't have enough exposure to give it the justice it deserves. There have been times when I've been irritated about something small, but being irritated does not count for having OCD.
OCD and having to deal with compulsions is one of those things that people self diagnose a whole lot, and it's one of those things that people don't ever comment on.
I didn't really know what OCD was until I had some people around me have lesser, legitimate versions of OCD. OCD when it is actually OCD is something unlike anything you can even imagine. OCD is one of those things that ruins your life because you become obsessed with something completely irrational. You start to think that just because you tap on a door three times before you leave you won't have a bad day, so you tap on every single door, or door frame, that you see with no questions asked, and you have to do it a very specific way because if you don't you're going to have a bad day.
There is a difference from seeing something out of order and pointing to it and saying, "You know what? That's slightly annoying because I would prefer to see that all in order," and then seeing the exact same thing and going, "You know what? I'm going to spend the next two hours fixing that pattern because if I don't I won't be able to think about anything else in my life and I will either fix it now when I have the energy or I'll be back at two in the morning because I can't sleep and have to fix it."
Just like you should not sit down at home and self diagnose physical diseases - you know what? I like food and sugar so I think I have diabetes - you should not self diagnose mental diseases. You do not have OCD, you are not depressed, you do not have diabetes. You're just stupid and want something to complain about.
I don't have OCD, and I can't say that there's been anyone in my direct life that has had OCD, so I don't really have a story about it. I've had people in slight relationships to my life have full fledged OCD, but those minor relationships don't really count for anything because I just don't have enough exposure to give it the justice it deserves. There have been times when I've been irritated about something small, but being irritated does not count for having OCD.
Going Back to My Roots
I logged on a while ago, bored, and ready to spend some money, so I blew over 40 mil zenny (a decent amount of money) on nothing but Bloody Branches. I didn't have any goals, I knew that I was just wasting time and wanted something interesting to do besides grinding, but that one 140 branch breaking streak got me hooked into the game again (at least for now).
A few people started to get back in touch with me, I started to remember my builds and skills, and now I find myself grinding for drops that only drop at 0.6% of the time, wanting to get at least 10 of them so I can try to make one overupgraded to +8. Not for any good purpose, only just because I was bored at work and at home, and didn't want to type, didn't want to do another This American Life entry, didn't want to sleep, and didn't want to play the game that I had in the PS3. It was litterally the worst option that I had on my board, I knew that there were better things that I could, and should, be doing but by the end of the day, I was back on, running around grinding my heart out.
Now, the funny part about Ragnarok Online is that you can leave it for quite some time, and come back and only be slightly behind the curve of where you were when you last left. I haven't actively played that game, easily since before Addie was born. She's almost two years old. But I can go in and stomp some heads in because what I had was good years ago, but because there has been almost no change, it's still really powerful.
The worst part about that game is that grinding leads to grinding which leads to grinding. For example, I wanted to get max job on my High Wizard, for no other purpose than if I snapped a BB that was ghost element that I'd have something to kill it with that I wouldn't be afraid to die on. (Every time you die you loose 1% of your exp, down to the most recent level you're at, if you're at max level, you have nothing to loose). That meant before I did the branches I had to grind my HW. After doing that, I broke the branches, had fun, but then remembered that I wanted a white smith so that I could over upgrade items without having to find other people. That meant grinding my third character ever made, but that started a problem because I needed things from other classes, so that meant I had to jump onto my professor to farm certain things, but to do that I needed my stalker leveled up a bit and him to farm things, and then the cycle just kept going.
Grinding leading to more grinding, which leads to more grinding.
Now, with that said, the good news/bad news of the entire thing goes like this - I gave myself until school starts to go bonkers on the game. Do whatever I want, waste time on it as much as I want, and to be stupid. As soon as school starts, the game goes back to sitting on my computer doing nothing, and I move back into my normal schedule of trying to figure out what in the world I'm doing as a teacher at a university when I have had little to no training in actually being the teacher of a classroom. But hey, at least I've been a professor on RO for a few years so that has to count for something. . . right?
Dec 11, 2014
I've Been Punked?
I'm still not convinced that I have this job, it's like too many things are going well in my life and that NEVER happens, so something must be wrong about it. It's something weird, like I'll only have a contract for a semester and then there's no chance of being re-hired, or that on further review they're cutting my pay in half because they don't think I'm worth it, or something like that.
I still don't believe that this can be as good as it actually is.
Bob Dole? - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/29/bob-dole
Ummm, who?
It's really funny to go back and listen about political debates and people involved in politics, because I know who wins. It's funny to look back and listen to them make slight glances at Clinton and say things about him, when you know that he's going to win, not just once, but TWICE.
What's even better is when you listen to these things, and you realize that there's a very simple rule - only the winners are ever remembered.
Anyone want to tell me, who isn't a super fan boy from Utah that still has a bumper sticker of them on their car - the republican nominations for the presidential election versus Obama for the second term? Or even who was versus Obama first term? The same goes for Bush Jr. Anyone remember who he was going against that caused the big ballot debate with hanging chads and Florida?
Unless you're a super fan of politics, and you can remember these things just because you are in love with all things politics, most people don't remember any of them. So in that same light, who in the world is Bob Dole? He's the dude who lost to Clinton. That's his claim to fame. His moment in the spotlight, his big time, is to say that he lost.
Now there's those people that say that it's just being considered that's worth everything, and how nice it is to even participate in the race, but those are the people that are loosing. You know what's even better? What's something that people will actually remember? That actually puts your name on the list? Winning.
For example, it was nice and all that schools looked at me, and I was considered for jobs and they even emailed me back, but know what was a whole lot better? Winning the race and getting a job with LDSBC. Sure, at the time it was nice to be considered for jobs, and it was nice to even be in the field trying to work with what I had, but what was a whole lot better was doing more than just being considered.
I will be padding my daughters life and telling her the lies that it's important to keep on trying and it's not always important to win, but I'm going to say it, it sure is nice to win. It sucks always being just part of the race, just being in the running, what's even better is sitting down and winning it.
Ummm, who?
It's really funny to go back and listen about political debates and people involved in politics, because I know who wins. It's funny to look back and listen to them make slight glances at Clinton and say things about him, when you know that he's going to win, not just once, but TWICE.
What's even better is when you listen to these things, and you realize that there's a very simple rule - only the winners are ever remembered.
Anyone want to tell me, who isn't a super fan boy from Utah that still has a bumper sticker of them on their car - the republican nominations for the presidential election versus Obama for the second term? Or even who was versus Obama first term? The same goes for Bush Jr. Anyone remember who he was going against that caused the big ballot debate with hanging chads and Florida?
Unless you're a super fan of politics, and you can remember these things just because you are in love with all things politics, most people don't remember any of them. So in that same light, who in the world is Bob Dole? He's the dude who lost to Clinton. That's his claim to fame. His moment in the spotlight, his big time, is to say that he lost.
Now there's those people that say that it's just being considered that's worth everything, and how nice it is to even participate in the race, but those are the people that are loosing. You know what's even better? What's something that people will actually remember? That actually puts your name on the list? Winning.
For example, it was nice and all that schools looked at me, and I was considered for jobs and they even emailed me back, but know what was a whole lot better? Winning the race and getting a job with LDSBC. Sure, at the time it was nice to be considered for jobs, and it was nice to even be in the field trying to work with what I had, but what was a whole lot better was doing more than just being considered.
I will be padding my daughters life and telling her the lies that it's important to keep on trying and it's not always important to win, but I'm going to say it, it sure is nice to win. It sucks always being just part of the race, just being in the running, what's even better is sitting down and winning it.
Stuck With Me - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/28/detectives
To explain just how much This American Life has been part of my life, this is one of the first episodes that I could ever remember. I can't remember exactly where we were driving to or from, part of me thinks it was to a cello lesson, other parts of me thinks that it was driving back from LVYO practice. Either way, I remember it being my mom driving, and us listening to this episode becuase it's specifically where a PI is tailing a person and they get on the discussion about how no one ever notices who is driving behind them, and for how long they've been doing it.
I remember that while listening to this episode, they ask the question along the lines of, "Okay, without looking in your mirror, what car is behind you, and how long have they been there?" I turned to my mom and wanted her to answer it, expecting that she wouldn't be able to do it, because that's what the radio said. The radio said that most people wouldn't know and they wouldn't be able to tell you because most people only worry about what's in their mirrors when they want to change lanes. And then, my mom busted out and told me exactly who was behind us, the color, the type, and even went as far to say that she thought that it was a guy who was driving the van, and proceeded to tell me what she could remember about the driver. I was seriously impressed, and it's something that has always stuck with me. To this day, when I'm driving, this episode will come to my mind, and my mom's impressive response has stuck with me, so I keep track of who is driving behind me, what type of car it is, and if possible who it is that is driving the car.
This is one of those things that I keep an eye out for, if a person follows me for more than a few miles on surface roads, I start to keep even closer tabs on them, and I pay even closer attention to them and why they're driving behind me. I quickly start to think about random defensive driving techniques and how to loose people that are tailing me. I'll slow down, speed up, take a long route, or purposefully get close to a yellow light because I want to see if they'll follow me through.
This episode has stuck with me, it's one of the first that I can remember and it still has a place in my mind, it's just nice to finally, as an adult (hahahahaha, still think it's hilarious that I can say that I'm an adult) hear the entire thing start to finish.
To explain just how much This American Life has been part of my life, this is one of the first episodes that I could ever remember. I can't remember exactly where we were driving to or from, part of me thinks it was to a cello lesson, other parts of me thinks that it was driving back from LVYO practice. Either way, I remember it being my mom driving, and us listening to this episode becuase it's specifically where a PI is tailing a person and they get on the discussion about how no one ever notices who is driving behind them, and for how long they've been doing it.
I remember that while listening to this episode, they ask the question along the lines of, "Okay, without looking in your mirror, what car is behind you, and how long have they been there?" I turned to my mom and wanted her to answer it, expecting that she wouldn't be able to do it, because that's what the radio said. The radio said that most people wouldn't know and they wouldn't be able to tell you because most people only worry about what's in their mirrors when they want to change lanes. And then, my mom busted out and told me exactly who was behind us, the color, the type, and even went as far to say that she thought that it was a guy who was driving the van, and proceeded to tell me what she could remember about the driver. I was seriously impressed, and it's something that has always stuck with me. To this day, when I'm driving, this episode will come to my mind, and my mom's impressive response has stuck with me, so I keep track of who is driving behind me, what type of car it is, and if possible who it is that is driving the car.
This episode has stuck with me, it's one of the first that I can remember and it still has a place in my mind, it's just nice to finally, as an adult (hahahahaha, still think it's hilarious that I can say that I'm an adult) hear the entire thing start to finish.
Dec 10, 2014
WTF PEOPLE!?
So I have started in on my posts for the night, trying to catch up with my backlog of episodes that I need to get through and the previous one already has three views on it.
SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!?
Calm down.
I know it's amazing writing and you just can't get enough of it, and you think I should become a published author with a serious multi-million dollar contract with a world wide book tour 8-} but you people need to calm your clickers and give a man some typing room.
I like it, don't get me wrong, just catches me off guard.
SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!?
Calm down.
I know it's amazing writing and you just can't get enough of it, and you think I should become a published author with a serious multi-million dollar contract with a world wide book tour 8-} but you people need to calm your clickers and give a man some typing room.
I like it, don't get me wrong, just catches me off guard.
Kids are Mean? - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/27/the-cruelty-of-children
This episode was all about kids being mean. That sometimes kids are just mean to be mean and trying to understand where bulliyng and mocking people came from.
Now as much as I would like to think that I lived in Las Vegas and my schools were even somewhat normal, I honestly can't think of any bullying that happened to me, and so I have a hard time really trying to identify with people saying that bullies are the worst thing in existence.
Now, lets make one thing very clear - I know, and will openly admit, that I am (and was) a grade school/ middle school/ and even high school bully's dream target. I'm weird. I like music in a weird way, I do weird sports, I play the cello, I like school, I like books, I like science, I'm super awkward when it comes to sports, I'm clumsy, I'm lanky, I'm a twig, I wear glasses, I'm nerdy, I play D&D, I play MtG, and the list keeps going. On all levels I look back at my school career and think that there should have been SOMEONE who picked on me or tried to bully me.
The only, singular, time that someone even threatened me with a fight or bullying was in 6th grade, and that was a weird situation that the dean got involved in and people got suspended for threatening violence. Past that weird stint in 6th grade with a person who I'm now friends with (turned out that that's how he makes his friends, everyone that I ever talked to that were friends with him said that it first started out with them fighting or arguing and then becoming friends from there) but that was about it.
I had a few quick comments here and there about me that were rude, but as for straight up day in and day out bullying where I had a person who lived to make my life hell, it never really happened, ever. Yes, there were times that people said mean things, but even now as an adult people say mean things about me, and I brush it off. It's part of life, not everyone is going to be happy with you, not everyone is going to love you, and you move on and get over it.
I think the best part about being the weird/smart kid in school was that after a certain point, I simply didn't associate with anyone outside of the weird/smart group. Around middle school the school naturally separated us into groups that were smart, and those that weren't. You start to go down the honors track of classes, and you get grouped with the smarter kids. The kids that are dumb, slackers, or bullies, drop out of the honors programs and go to the easy classes. By 8th grade the lines were pretty set, and by 10th and 11th grade there was a solid 60 students that were going to be in every single one of my classes because they were the only ones doing honors. By senior year, the group of us were so entrenched with being the 'smart ones' that you could walk into any of our AP or honors classes and we all knew each other, we all could share stories about being in classes with each other for years, and we had a communal understanding that we didn't make fun of each other because by making fun of one nerdy kid, you were only making fun of yourself because you were just as nerdy as they were, but in a slightly different way.
The only time that this broke away was in 12th grade when I purposefully took classes just because I wanted to do something. Between 11th and 12th grade, I took summer school American Government so that I wouldn't have to take it my senior year. The teacher was known for being over the top and wrecking students GPA's, so the best way to deal with her was to take it during the summer so I could take the classes that I wanted to. First on the list of classes I wanted to take that had no purpose in my education - physics. I took the lowest level of physics purely because of the yearly field trip to six flags. The class was a snooze fest, and I passed it with over 100%. The teacher understood why I was there, and I quietly screwed around in the back corner of the class while laughing at the stupid things that she was trying to teach. The students didn't dare mess with me because I could take the equations that they were working with, and show them just how messed up I could do things because at the time I was also taking pre-calc and learning just how all of those formulas worked so I could do a whole lot more than just drop things off of tall buildings and calculate when they would hit the ground.
The other class was Economics. I took this because I liked the teacher (he was easy to distract and funny to distract at the same time, and also another easy A) and I wanted to play the stock market game. Yet again, I'm weird, I want to do weird things, and the stock market game, to me, is worth an entire class of build up. This is one of the only times that I can remember in my high school life of a person actively making fun of me, the 6'1", 150 lbs, cello playing, nerdy white boy. We were talking about piracy and downloading files (was a tangent on a topic that we had managed to get the teacher to go off on) and I was trying to say that through piracy I became a fan of artists and then when the opportunity came, I bought their albums.
From the back of the room, I heard some laughing and wispering and the question came from one of the kids who were in basic math and English classes, and great things like weight training, of "Who was it? Mozart?" Oh no! Someone was making fun of me! They only thought that I listened to clasical music! They were making fun of me! My life was crumbling around me! I should just go commit sucide because someone thinks I'm weird!
Wrong.
Time to crank up the weird level to 11.
"No, it's a synth-pop group called Freezepop."
Silence.
End of discussion.
I am the weird kid.
So yeah, kids can be rude and say rude things, but you've got to get some thick skin. Find your people and hang out with your people. If you're surrounded by people who like the same things that you like, and do the same things that you do, you can't be bullied or be made fun of. There's a chance that in grade school when you can't separate that well, that a kid might be rude to another one, but just let scholastic darwinism kick in, and by the end of middle school find your people and be with them.
This episode was all about kids being mean. That sometimes kids are just mean to be mean and trying to understand where bulliyng and mocking people came from.
Now as much as I would like to think that I lived in Las Vegas and my schools were even somewhat normal, I honestly can't think of any bullying that happened to me, and so I have a hard time really trying to identify with people saying that bullies are the worst thing in existence.
Now, lets make one thing very clear - I know, and will openly admit, that I am (and was) a grade school/ middle school/ and even high school bully's dream target. I'm weird. I like music in a weird way, I do weird sports, I play the cello, I like school, I like books, I like science, I'm super awkward when it comes to sports, I'm clumsy, I'm lanky, I'm a twig, I wear glasses, I'm nerdy, I play D&D, I play MtG, and the list keeps going. On all levels I look back at my school career and think that there should have been SOMEONE who picked on me or tried to bully me.
The only, singular, time that someone even threatened me with a fight or bullying was in 6th grade, and that was a weird situation that the dean got involved in and people got suspended for threatening violence. Past that weird stint in 6th grade with a person who I'm now friends with (turned out that that's how he makes his friends, everyone that I ever talked to that were friends with him said that it first started out with them fighting or arguing and then becoming friends from there) but that was about it.
I had a few quick comments here and there about me that were rude, but as for straight up day in and day out bullying where I had a person who lived to make my life hell, it never really happened, ever. Yes, there were times that people said mean things, but even now as an adult people say mean things about me, and I brush it off. It's part of life, not everyone is going to be happy with you, not everyone is going to love you, and you move on and get over it.
I think the best part about being the weird/smart kid in school was that after a certain point, I simply didn't associate with anyone outside of the weird/smart group. Around middle school the school naturally separated us into groups that were smart, and those that weren't. You start to go down the honors track of classes, and you get grouped with the smarter kids. The kids that are dumb, slackers, or bullies, drop out of the honors programs and go to the easy classes. By 8th grade the lines were pretty set, and by 10th and 11th grade there was a solid 60 students that were going to be in every single one of my classes because they were the only ones doing honors. By senior year, the group of us were so entrenched with being the 'smart ones' that you could walk into any of our AP or honors classes and we all knew each other, we all could share stories about being in classes with each other for years, and we had a communal understanding that we didn't make fun of each other because by making fun of one nerdy kid, you were only making fun of yourself because you were just as nerdy as they were, but in a slightly different way.
The only time that this broke away was in 12th grade when I purposefully took classes just because I wanted to do something. Between 11th and 12th grade, I took summer school American Government so that I wouldn't have to take it my senior year. The teacher was known for being over the top and wrecking students GPA's, so the best way to deal with her was to take it during the summer so I could take the classes that I wanted to. First on the list of classes I wanted to take that had no purpose in my education - physics. I took the lowest level of physics purely because of the yearly field trip to six flags. The class was a snooze fest, and I passed it with over 100%. The teacher understood why I was there, and I quietly screwed around in the back corner of the class while laughing at the stupid things that she was trying to teach. The students didn't dare mess with me because I could take the equations that they were working with, and show them just how messed up I could do things because at the time I was also taking pre-calc and learning just how all of those formulas worked so I could do a whole lot more than just drop things off of tall buildings and calculate when they would hit the ground.
The other class was Economics. I took this because I liked the teacher (he was easy to distract and funny to distract at the same time, and also another easy A) and I wanted to play the stock market game. Yet again, I'm weird, I want to do weird things, and the stock market game, to me, is worth an entire class of build up. This is one of the only times that I can remember in my high school life of a person actively making fun of me, the 6'1", 150 lbs, cello playing, nerdy white boy. We were talking about piracy and downloading files (was a tangent on a topic that we had managed to get the teacher to go off on) and I was trying to say that through piracy I became a fan of artists and then when the opportunity came, I bought their albums.
From the back of the room, I heard some laughing and wispering and the question came from one of the kids who were in basic math and English classes, and great things like weight training, of "Who was it? Mozart?" Oh no! Someone was making fun of me! They only thought that I listened to clasical music! They were making fun of me! My life was crumbling around me! I should just go commit sucide because someone thinks I'm weird!
Wrong.
Time to crank up the weird level to 11.
"No, it's a synth-pop group called Freezepop."
Silence.
End of discussion.
I am the weird kid.
So yeah, kids can be rude and say rude things, but you've got to get some thick skin. Find your people and hang out with your people. If you're surrounded by people who like the same things that you like, and do the same things that you do, you can't be bullied or be made fun of. There's a chance that in grade school when you can't separate that well, that a kid might be rude to another one, but just let scholastic darwinism kick in, and by the end of middle school find your people and be with them.
Slow Day At Work
Just warning you about this right now, I'm super bored at work right now, which means that I've done a lot of listening to This American Life, and currently I'm three episodes behind on my writing versus my listening, so hopefully tonight when I get bored at home I can crank a few of them out so I don't have to worry about it any more. There's some fun ones coming up, that I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to write about.
It's a weird thing with this series of telling stories from my life, I can't remember what I've written and what is just memories. For example, part of me can swear that I wrote a story down for a different episode that I was going to use for one of these (it's the detective episode that's coming up, and a story revolving around that one) but I looked back and it's no where in any of these stories, so I'm happy because I can go back and write it like it needs to be. I'm just afraid that I'm only two seasons into this thing, and they're still producing new topics and new conversations, but as I go further and further into this project I'm really afraid that I'm going to start sharing the same stories over and over again, so if that does happen, I'm sorry, it's just certain stories in my life apply to more than one place.
It's a weird thing with this series of telling stories from my life, I can't remember what I've written and what is just memories. For example, part of me can swear that I wrote a story down for a different episode that I was going to use for one of these (it's the detective episode that's coming up, and a story revolving around that one) but I looked back and it's no where in any of these stories, so I'm happy because I can go back and write it like it needs to be. I'm just afraid that I'm only two seasons into this thing, and they're still producing new topics and new conversations, but as I go further and further into this project I'm really afraid that I'm going to start sharing the same stories over and over again, so if that does happen, I'm sorry, it's just certain stories in my life apply to more than one place.
Dec 9, 2014
Quality Time - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/26/fathers-day-96
This episode was supposed to be all about how important dad's are, how family relationships are, and spending time with your dad on fathers day, the only problem with that, is that I never spent any "quality" time with my dad.
There isn't a moment that I can remember of my dad and I doing anything together.
Playing games, doing chores, doing anything at all with my dad doesn't come to mind. I can remember doing things with my mom, spending time with her, playing tennis, talking about books, talking about shows, and doing a slew of things with her, but there isn't a single time that I can remember of my dad willingly spending time with me doing something with me.
There were things like fathers and sons outings with the church that we would go on, but those quickly became I'd be with my friends doing anything but hanging out with our dads and so there'd be no interaction.
The thing that I wonder the most about now that I sit back and think about this, is I wonder if my dad can come up with anything that we did together. You can't count going to my performances or watching me at a sports event, because sure, he was supportive of me doing things like that, but his actual involvement in those activities were just as a spectator.
The weird one that I'm thinking back to, and I just can't remember ANY experience with, is my dad ever doing typical father/son things with me. Fishing, wrestling, football, baseball, soccer, none of that in my mind has any relationship to my father because we never did it together. I guess we played softball in the backyard as a family a few times, but there's never a time that I can think of that it was just me and Dad throwing the ball back and forth. Even atypical things that a father could do with their son, never happened.
I get it in a way, he was busy. He had his job, he worked extra hours to pay the bills and had long days, but I'm not quite sure if that's enough of an excuse now that I think about it.
Word to the wise, or at least a goal for myself; no matter how weird or how atypical I might be, I'm going to spend time, quality, one on one, time, with my kid(s). Even if it is just sitting down and playing a game with them that they like, or trying to learn something new that they love, I'm going to do it.
I think back and remember in middle school my dad showing half an interest in MtG and trying to teach him for one night what it was all about and what was happening in it, and that it was, in fact, not devil worshiping. He didn't need to start going over the top, but a showing a simple interest in what I liked and doing something as simple as asking more questions and wanting to occasionally play with me would have changed a lot. Or at least I think it would have changed a lot.
Either way, there's a very big difference between just being a supportive parent in the audience, and a parent who is involved with their kid's life. Although I love my dad for always being in the back of concerts with his tripod set up ready to record the entire thing, I can't really remember ever having a quality moment of time where we did something together.
Quick edit-
I was thinking about this one a lot lately becuase I didn't want to believe that my dad and I had never really done anything together. Then came to my mind that in high school we would do monthly baptisms for the dead at the temple. I almost want to believe that this was "quality" time with my dad, but considering we never talked, we never really had any discussions at all, because it's the temple and you're quiet or you don't talk at all, I don't know if it really counts towards the quality time. It's an activity that we did together, on a somewhat normal schedule, but at the same time, we never actually were together when we did it. He was either stuck doing baptisms or confirmations, or I was off in a different area doing something else. It wasn't so much as father and son together doing the same thing actively together, but more father and son using each other for an excuse to do a solo activity without really interacting with the other except for the car pool.
There isn't a moment that I can remember of my dad and I doing anything together.
Playing games, doing chores, doing anything at all with my dad doesn't come to mind. I can remember doing things with my mom, spending time with her, playing tennis, talking about books, talking about shows, and doing a slew of things with her, but there isn't a single time that I can remember of my dad willingly spending time with me doing something with me.
There were things like fathers and sons outings with the church that we would go on, but those quickly became I'd be with my friends doing anything but hanging out with our dads and so there'd be no interaction.
The thing that I wonder the most about now that I sit back and think about this, is I wonder if my dad can come up with anything that we did together. You can't count going to my performances or watching me at a sports event, because sure, he was supportive of me doing things like that, but his actual involvement in those activities were just as a spectator.
The weird one that I'm thinking back to, and I just can't remember ANY experience with, is my dad ever doing typical father/son things with me. Fishing, wrestling, football, baseball, soccer, none of that in my mind has any relationship to my father because we never did it together. I guess we played softball in the backyard as a family a few times, but there's never a time that I can think of that it was just me and Dad throwing the ball back and forth. Even atypical things that a father could do with their son, never happened.
Word to the wise, or at least a goal for myself; no matter how weird or how atypical I might be, I'm going to spend time, quality, one on one, time, with my kid(s). Even if it is just sitting down and playing a game with them that they like, or trying to learn something new that they love, I'm going to do it.
Either way, there's a very big difference between just being a supportive parent in the audience, and a parent who is involved with their kid's life. Although I love my dad for always being in the back of concerts with his tripod set up ready to record the entire thing, I can't really remember ever having a quality moment of time where we did something together.
Quick edit-
I was thinking about this one a lot lately becuase I didn't want to believe that my dad and I had never really done anything together. Then came to my mind that in high school we would do monthly baptisms for the dead at the temple. I almost want to believe that this was "quality" time with my dad, but considering we never talked, we never really had any discussions at all, because it's the temple and you're quiet or you don't talk at all, I don't know if it really counts towards the quality time. It's an activity that we did together, on a somewhat normal schedule, but at the same time, we never actually were together when we did it. He was either stuck doing baptisms or confirmations, or I was off in a different area doing something else. It wasn't so much as father and son together doing the same thing actively together, but more father and son using each other for an excuse to do a solo activity without really interacting with the other except for the car pool.
The Bulls - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/25/basketball
The Bulls wreaking havoc on the system and dominating just about every game that they touched, was my first introduction into professional sports. Before that year, my mom would ocasionally sit me down and watch a college game of basketball (yes my mom, not my dad) and the olympics would always get me infront of the TV to see just how much we were doing in the fine art of 400 meter hurdles, but I was never really into basketball or any professional sport, and then it happened.
Wednesday nights were always young men activities at church. Boy Scouts was always on Wednesday, and it's practically a law in the church that Wednesdays are the time that teenagers get together and do activities. When I turned 11, I finally graduated from Cub Scouts, and started to go to Boy Scouts, but my first week (or maybe it was my second week, either way it was close to when I just started going to the 'big kids' scouts) the Busby kids, along side the Bruners, Brumetts, and whoever else were there, gathered around a tiny 8 inch television to watch "the game".
The image was in black and white, you could hardly see what in the world was going on, but the tiny classroom next to the stage at church was full of excitement with the boys in there hanging on to every word that the announcer was saying. For that night, the game that the Bulls were in, was their life.
And I couldn't understand it for the life of me.
I still don't get professional sports of any kind. I can sort of get behind e-sports because I can understand the complexity of the games a bit better, but the obsession some people show over sports and competitions has never stuck home with me. There's never been a game that I've walked away from and can remember every single minute and say it was the best thing ever that has happened to me. I can't keep track of people's ratios and rebounding stats during the middle of the game, and I don't care. I don't care how many fouls someone has, or what their percentages were all season, and I don't care about their personal history. I don't get why it's so important if someone hits or misses a shot, and just why I need to be jumping up and down screaming when it's a total wipeout of a game and the team that I'm cheering for is mopping the floor with whoever they're up against. Even in close call games I get bored and annoyed because it starts to turn into the last 10 minutes taking longer to get through than the first 75% of the game. Then heaven help us all if there is overtime, I don't want any of that. Just finish the game already! I don't care how evenly matched you are! I want to get home and do anything but have to sit in a plastic chair that's super uncomfortable watching people that I know, and some that I don't know, make utter fools of themselves for people that have no clue who they are.
Sports are fun to play, but never fun to watch.
I don't care if you're talking about golf, tennis, football, basketball, or whatever sport it is that you call your favorite, I'm firmly under the belief that sports of any kind are better played than watched. As great as Jordan and the Bulls were, and as amazing as their records were, it was more fun to go out during PE and shoot horrible shots with people I knew. Why get worked up over a game that I have no control over?
That leads to the next topic that seems to be one that some people doubt, although I'm a nerd, and sort of enjoy games that involve dice, numbers, and controllers, I do enjoy PLAYING sports. I may not be that great at them, but I enjoy playing sports. I like competition, and I like to run around and play games, I just have no desire to ever watch it, even if it is some of the 'best players the game has ever seen' or whatever else you want to throw at me.
The Bulls wreaking havoc on the system and dominating just about every game that they touched, was my first introduction into professional sports. Before that year, my mom would ocasionally sit me down and watch a college game of basketball (yes my mom, not my dad) and the olympics would always get me infront of the TV to see just how much we were doing in the fine art of 400 meter hurdles, but I was never really into basketball or any professional sport, and then it happened.
Wednesday nights were always young men activities at church. Boy Scouts was always on Wednesday, and it's practically a law in the church that Wednesdays are the time that teenagers get together and do activities. When I turned 11, I finally graduated from Cub Scouts, and started to go to Boy Scouts, but my first week (or maybe it was my second week, either way it was close to when I just started going to the 'big kids' scouts) the Busby kids, along side the Bruners, Brumetts, and whoever else were there, gathered around a tiny 8 inch television to watch "the game".
And I couldn't understand it for the life of me.
I still don't get professional sports of any kind. I can sort of get behind e-sports because I can understand the complexity of the games a bit better, but the obsession some people show over sports and competitions has never stuck home with me. There's never been a game that I've walked away from and can remember every single minute and say it was the best thing ever that has happened to me. I can't keep track of people's ratios and rebounding stats during the middle of the game, and I don't care. I don't care how many fouls someone has, or what their percentages were all season, and I don't care about their personal history. I don't get why it's so important if someone hits or misses a shot, and just why I need to be jumping up and down screaming when it's a total wipeout of a game and the team that I'm cheering for is mopping the floor with whoever they're up against. Even in close call games I get bored and annoyed because it starts to turn into the last 10 minutes taking longer to get through than the first 75% of the game. Then heaven help us all if there is overtime, I don't want any of that. Just finish the game already! I don't care how evenly matched you are! I want to get home and do anything but have to sit in a plastic chair that's super uncomfortable watching people that I know, and some that I don't know, make utter fools of themselves for people that have no clue who they are.
Sports are fun to play, but never fun to watch.
I don't care if you're talking about golf, tennis, football, basketball, or whatever sport it is that you call your favorite, I'm firmly under the belief that sports of any kind are better played than watched. As great as Jordan and the Bulls were, and as amazing as their records were, it was more fun to go out during PE and shoot horrible shots with people I knew. Why get worked up over a game that I have no control over?
That leads to the next topic that seems to be one that some people doubt, although I'm a nerd, and sort of enjoy games that involve dice, numbers, and controllers, I do enjoy PLAYING sports. I may not be that great at them, but I enjoy playing sports. I like competition, and I like to run around and play games, I just have no desire to ever watch it, even if it is some of the 'best players the game has ever seen' or whatever else you want to throw at me.
Dec 6, 2014
I'm Sort of a Big Thing In Europe
A quick shout out to my people in France!
France just took the lead of the country that reads this blog the most. A+ to the 30+ views that came in from you just in the past two days.
Considering that I know a grand total of zero people in France, hello people! I took two years of French in high school and it has all been erased in my brain and replaced with Swedish, so sorry I'm not going to butcher your language with what little I can remember.
Not really sure why I'm such a hit in France, but hey, whatever, at least I know that it's not anyone that I know so there's a bonus there, right? None of you are going to actual bug me about what I'm writing about on here, so I'm still safe to write whatever I want and know that there's no chance that you're going to say anything to me about it!
PS - One of the only vivid memories that I still have in my brain from my French class was my French Canadian teacher calling me chicken (poulet) over and over again for not taking French III my Senior year of high school. To this day I want to run into his classroom (he still teaches there!) and just start yammering at him in Swedish and calling him kyckling. Also, I remember that whenever we had to listen and translate French, we couldn't understand the French that was being spoken because it was real French and we had only learned his French Canadian. When the French people would say a phrase it would all take us forever to interpret it, but when he'd say the exact same phrase we knew exactly what was going on, so I don't even vaguely know French, I vaguely know Canadian French.
France just took the lead of the country that reads this blog the most. A+ to the 30+ views that came in from you just in the past two days.
Considering that I know a grand total of zero people in France, hello people! I took two years of French in high school and it has all been erased in my brain and replaced with Swedish, so sorry I'm not going to butcher your language with what little I can remember.
Not really sure why I'm such a hit in France, but hey, whatever, at least I know that it's not anyone that I know so there's a bonus there, right? None of you are going to actual bug me about what I'm writing about on here, so I'm still safe to write whatever I want and know that there's no chance that you're going to say anything to me about it!
PS - One of the only vivid memories that I still have in my brain from my French class was my French Canadian teacher calling me chicken (poulet) over and over again for not taking French III my Senior year of high school. To this day I want to run into his classroom (he still teaches there!) and just start yammering at him in Swedish and calling him kyckling. Also, I remember that whenever we had to listen and translate French, we couldn't understand the French that was being spoken because it was real French and we had only learned his French Canadian. When the French people would say a phrase it would all take us forever to interpret it, but when he'd say the exact same phrase we knew exactly what was going on, so I don't even vaguely know French, I vaguely know Canadian French.
Please don't be over hyped
The internet loves Deadpool.
No, let me clarify, the internet is really in love with Deadpool.
I still think that I'm underselling just how much hype people have put up in my life when dealing with Deadpool. Deadpool is supposed to be the best thing ever since Spiderman put on his underwear over his tights and flew into our lives.
I'm starting the game tonight.
I know that it's a game on a franchize that already is in existance, and so I know that it's not going to be nearly as good as what everyone hypes it out to be, but here's hoping that it is only half as bad as what I'm expecting, and will be better than what I want, because let's be honest with each other, there is never a good time for a movie/book adaptation into a game. It's yet to happen, and it will never happen.
I'm starting the game tonight.
I know that it's a game on a franchize that already is in existance, and so I know that it's not going to be nearly as good as what everyone hypes it out to be, but here's hoping that it is only half as bad as what I'm expecting, and will be better than what I want, because let's be honest with each other, there is never a good time for a movie/book adaptation into a game. It's yet to happen, and it will never happen.
Dec 5, 2014
Tales of Xillia - The Games I've Played
Tales of Destiny, Tales of Symphonia, and even Tales of Abyss had over world that you had to walk through and you had an entire world (or two (spoilers!)) to walk through. There were world(s) to walk through, explore, and the story line was just as huge. Xillia, on the other hand, is having a hard time convincing me that it takes up an entire continent and by the time it finally gets to the secondary place (spoiler again, but come on, all Tales games run the same story line, there's always a second world, a second place, or something like that, they don't change the story elements THAT much between games) the story is almost over and there's almost nothing left to do, and on that note, the second world is TINY.
Sure, they might reference how it's an entire world, and how huge it is, but the parts that you actually get to see, and where you can go to, is super-duper small. Even when comparing it against the first world that you start out in, the second world is a list of one town, three dungeons, and two fields that connect everything together. At least in the other games things are balanced and there is equal time and attention spent on both places, but in this one. . . not so much.
I'm all for the Tales crew doing their thing and mixing things up, and in Tales of Xillia, honestly things are pretty mixed up compared to the normal standards, there's references to the other games, shout outs to everything that they've done, and it keeps things in line with the series, and it's a great addition to the series, but there are a few weird choices that they chose to make.
First, throughout ALL of the Tales games, there are certain things that are cannon. For example, gnome is always the earth elemental summon, ALWAYS. There's also always a person named Maxwell. Sometimes Maxwell is a super big part of the story, and other times he's just a myth that is passed on in the background of sub-events, but Maxwell is always made out to be the master of all elements and typically has an attack along the lines of meteor storm and/or elemental master.
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Meet Tales of Xillia's Maxwell -
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It makes more sense in the story line (spoilers!) but the real answer of why he's a she doesn't show up until FAR too late in the game when I'm already done with dealing with her.
Just like the other Tales games out there, there are always characters that I avoid in my team and just don't use.
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Maxwell in Xillia takes the cake for one of the characters I never touched. I used her (even in her own story line) only when needed, but I avoided her at all costs.
That brings me to one thing within this that was actually a super cool, super origional idea, that SHOULD have been pushed further. In Xillia, there's the idea that there are TWO story lines. One for Jude (the boy main character) and one for Millia Maxwell (as seen above). The concept is unique and interesting, but the reality of the fact is that the difference between the two story lines is minimal at best. The only differences is a slight story separation here and there, but it's not like either story is missing something that the other doesn't have. This concept of two separate stories is actually what made me willing to play through it a second time, because I thought that the reason the maps were so small, and the reason that it seemed to end so quickly was because the second story had the rest of the world to explore and the rest of things to do, or something more to add to the entire game than what I had just played.
I was wrong.
Now, don't get me wrong, although I am picking on this game and saying some things about it, I'm by no stretch of the imagination saying that it is a bad game. In fact, as soon as I get done writing this review my goal is to finish up the last bits of trying to 100% this thing.
It's a great game for all of the reasons that Tales games are great, and a super addition to the series. It keeps all of the amazing things like the free range fighting systems, familiar skills, familiar summons and elementals, but keeps it fresh with new leveling mechanics, new story line, and new characters that are interesting and worth the time to play.
I'm sorry, but if you don't like Elisa and Teepo, then something is wrong with your soul. The two of them were most likely not the BEST choice to be my healer in the end game, but just because I loved them so much as a character duo, they stayed with me as long as humanly possible, the same went for the Conductor.
The leveling system is unique and innovative (although lacking in actual skills compared to some other of the Tales games out there) but allowed progression, but customization. It's an interesting take on the sphere grid of FFX, that results in early and mid game customization to make your characters exactly what you want them to be, focusing stats where you want them to go, but sadly in late game (especially at max level) all characters no matter how you play the game across any save file, will have the exact same skills. Every time I play Jude at lvl 99 will always be the same Jude, no matter how I want to skill build him.
The grade shop was nice, and always fun to have a bonus for NG+, but at the same time a bit annoying because there was nothing there in the game to give me a bonus in the grade or item drops for amping up the difficulty. I could put every monster on impossible mode with NG+ with all of my weapons, but it meant nothing because I got nothing more from unknown difficulty level than I did at easy.
If you haven't played a Tales game before, this is a good introduction into the weird, quirky world of Tales. The odd, yet amazing tools of % based healing gels, no turn based fighting, and the ability to grab a friend (or three) and make the fighting like nothing you've ever experienced before. I wasn't able to do that with XIllia, but the potential of having a person sitting with you playing this game utterly WRECKS the game mechanics in fighting. Fights that I had to stress out about and over level on, if there was a live person next to me to play with, would have made it a cake walk of activating spells and abilities at a stupid rate.
One of the weirdest parts about the game was actually the lack of grinding. On first play through, if you want to be high enough level to kill that chapter's big bad, simply kill everything that you walk by on your way there. Don't dodge fights, and you won't be under leveled. The actual amount of grinding or the need to retrace your steps to make sure you stay alive, is minimal. It's nice, but for a person who likes to sit and grind out levels on levels (I'm weird like that) it's a change of pace.
Great story, memorable characters, and a unique twist on the traditional Tales mechanics that you thought they couldn't change to make something new again.
Dec 4, 2014
Can't Even - My American Life
This is one of those weird things that I can't even talk about. I've done one about quilting, I've done one about ducks, I've done just about everything that has been thrown my way by This American life, but this topic is just one of those that I can't even.
It's all about being a girl, or rather a teenage girl in America. And as a boy, who became a teenage boy, and now is a male adult (hahahahaha I'm an adult) I've got nothing on what it's like to be a teenage girl in American now days. Dec 1, 2014
Catching The Bug - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/23/drama-bug
Drama isn't really my thing, I like the theater, but I was never one for being the person on the stage talking and acting and doing stuff like that. The bug that I caught, and I caught it hard, was writing.
The writing bug hit me in 5th grade. 5th grade was when writing happened in my world. I don't remember if I was in trouble or not (that comes later) but I remember the prompt that our teacher gave us. The first line of the story, or at least the start of the entire thing was, one morning I woke up and I was on the moon. From there, I went bonkers and wrote, and wrote, and wrote. I created a story.
It was the worst type of story, it was full of people that I knew from my class, it had me as the main character, it was exactly what you would expect from a fifth grader.
But the bug bit, and I was attached to writing. There's just something about writing that is empowering, that is amazing, that is perfect for me. I love that you can take a blank page and do whatever you want with it, make whatever you want, do whatever you want, control everything to be exactly the way that you want. Nothing is out of order, nothing is said improperly, no scene is wrong, everything is exactly how I want it to be telling the story how I want it to be told. Pretty much when I'm writing I get to control everything.
And then came the crazy point of college, when I could get into a class and talk to other people that had the same bug as me. There wasn't anything working up to that point where I could talk to other people about the way I like characters and settings and making it all from scratch, the way I do. I wish that there was a club, or a group before that, but it wasn't until Carol Lynch William's class where I could sit down around a table and talk to other people who want to be authors, talk about their characters and their stories the same way that I talked about mine.
Unlike all of the other bugs you can get, writing isn't exactly a team sport. It's not like I can go out and work with a group of writers to write a story, typically that's a solo procedure. The times that you write in a group are limited, so being able to sit down in a group and talk about writing and talk about literature in the eyes of a writer, was perfect. It was what really got me hooked into the world of writing because instead of me just being a weird kid that did his own thing, I realized that I was a weird kid and there were other weird kids just like me, who liked the exact same things I do, and talk and think the same way that I do.
Drama isn't really my thing, I like the theater, but I was never one for being the person on the stage talking and acting and doing stuff like that. The bug that I caught, and I caught it hard, was writing.
The writing bug hit me in 5th grade. 5th grade was when writing happened in my world. I don't remember if I was in trouble or not (that comes later) but I remember the prompt that our teacher gave us. The first line of the story, or at least the start of the entire thing was, one morning I woke up and I was on the moon. From there, I went bonkers and wrote, and wrote, and wrote. I created a story.
It was the worst type of story, it was full of people that I knew from my class, it had me as the main character, it was exactly what you would expect from a fifth grader.
But the bug bit, and I was attached to writing. There's just something about writing that is empowering, that is amazing, that is perfect for me. I love that you can take a blank page and do whatever you want with it, make whatever you want, do whatever you want, control everything to be exactly the way that you want. Nothing is out of order, nothing is said improperly, no scene is wrong, everything is exactly how I want it to be telling the story how I want it to be told. Pretty much when I'm writing I get to control everything.
Unlike all of the other bugs you can get, writing isn't exactly a team sport. It's not like I can go out and work with a group of writers to write a story, typically that's a solo procedure. The times that you write in a group are limited, so being able to sit down in a group and talk about writing and talk about literature in the eyes of a writer, was perfect. It was what really got me hooked into the world of writing because instead of me just being a weird kid that did his own thing, I realized that I was a weird kid and there were other weird kids just like me, who liked the exact same things I do, and talk and think the same way that I do.
Nov 28, 2014
Forever 14 - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/22/adult-children
When dealing with parents as an adult, there is no way that you can ever be considered equals. There is never a time that I will ever be seen in my parents eyes as anything more than the fourteen year old teenage idiot that I was.
I've already talked about this a bit on the blog, but the short story about this is that although I have a masters degree, and although I am going to be teaching at LDS Business college starting in January, and although I'm married and have a kid, my parents, and my sisters to a lesser extent, will always see me as a stupid fourteen year old.
The reason behind this is that after fourteen, I started avoiding them.
That's right, I realized that the best way for me to not have to deal with them was by keeping myself hyper busy and never having to actually be with them. Having state orchestra, youth orchestra, swim team, and science olympiad, as well as DM-ing a campaign with friends not to mention a full load of honors and AP classes translated down to a very simple thing - I never saw my parents. As soon as I was able to control my own schedule and could control how often I was at home, I wasn't at home.
The further I got into high school, the less I dealt with them. There were times that I didn't see them for a long time, and there were even times that I hadn't seen my dad for an entire week, only to see him at church to miss him for another week.
After high school and avoiding them at all costs at all times, I went to college and avoided them, did the mission and avoided them, and finally went back to college, got married, and avoided them. I didn't want to deal with the stupidity of my family, because passive aggressive just gets too fun at some points, and so I avoided them. The only down side to this is that my family has had such little interaction with me, that they go off of when they last saw me, which was when I was 14, hence I will always be 14.
When dealing with parents as an adult, there is no way that you can ever be considered equals. There is never a time that I will ever be seen in my parents eyes as anything more than the fourteen year old teenage idiot that I was.
I've already talked about this a bit on the blog, but the short story about this is that although I have a masters degree, and although I am going to be teaching at LDS Business college starting in January, and although I'm married and have a kid, my parents, and my sisters to a lesser extent, will always see me as a stupid fourteen year old.
The reason behind this is that after fourteen, I started avoiding them.
That's right, I realized that the best way for me to not have to deal with them was by keeping myself hyper busy and never having to actually be with them. Having state orchestra, youth orchestra, swim team, and science olympiad, as well as DM-ing a campaign with friends not to mention a full load of honors and AP classes translated down to a very simple thing - I never saw my parents. As soon as I was able to control my own schedule and could control how often I was at home, I wasn't at home.
The further I got into high school, the less I dealt with them. There were times that I didn't see them for a long time, and there were even times that I hadn't seen my dad for an entire week, only to see him at church to miss him for another week.
After high school and avoiding them at all costs at all times, I went to college and avoided them, did the mission and avoided them, and finally went back to college, got married, and avoided them. I didn't want to deal with the stupidity of my family, because passive aggressive just gets too fun at some points, and so I avoided them. The only down side to this is that my family has had such little interaction with me, that they go off of when they last saw me, which was when I was 14, hence I will always be 14.
Nov 27, 2014
Forgot about this one
On Sunday, in Elders Quorum they were doing a getting to know you better segment. They asked great questions like what my favorite game was (I decided to go super duper random and over ALL of their heads and stick with Disgaea, because let's be honest, even in the gaming community no one knows about that random little gem).
But then came this question, "What is one way that you show your wife that you love her?" and then they side barred that by saying that I couldn't say anything traditional or normal for showing love, it had to be something unique.
I didn't really know what to go with, so I said that I think that the entire time that Alicia and I have been married that she has had to do the laundry maybe twice, and that is stretching it. I'm only saying twice because I could be wrong at saying never.
The first response from the super right wing, conservative, make guns in his back yard (not a joke, he wants to make his own guns) was, "You keep that to yourself!"
After cooking yet another AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner (if I do say so myself), I really shouldn't mention the fact that I do things like that either to his wife.
I didn't really know what to go with, so I said that I think that the entire time that Alicia and I have been married that she has had to do the laundry maybe twice, and that is stretching it. I'm only saying twice because I could be wrong at saying never.
The first response from the super right wing, conservative, make guns in his back yard (not a joke, he wants to make his own guns) was, "You keep that to yourself!"
After cooking yet another AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner (if I do say so myself), I really shouldn't mention the fact that I do things like that either to his wife.
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