Fallout: New Vegas is probably the best RPG-wise of the lot. I think Obsidian may have had to do with it, which is perhaps why.
EDIT: 'And do you know WHY it's called Obsidian?' is probably my favourite chat-up line that I shall never use.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For those interested in the blow-by-blow of NobodysHome's life:
(1) Although Impus Minor passed his driving exam, tomorrow he and I are going to drive to DVC in the Celica to make sure he's comfortable getting there and back, and then we're going to spend a week getting him accustomed to the Prius, so my driving woes aren't over yet.
(2) GothBard's in the serious running at three companies.
- Her #1 pick is the place that did the interview today, but they're obviously incredibly picky about who they hire, so it'll be another two weeks before she's even done interviewing, much less gets an offer. It's a job that she can do right away, and it'll expand her skill set and push her hard.
- Her #2 pick is my #1: The SportsBall company with an entire RPG division. The pay is staggeringly higher, the job is far more technical, and I'd like to see her push herself in that direction. I think she could excel at it, and I wouldn't complain at all about the salary. Her next interview with them is on Monday.
- Her #3 pick is the "safe" one: A large company doing absolutely standard game design where she's a stellar fit, they've already hired two of her friends, and their pay is competitive. In short, it's not a bad choice at all, and she'd be great for them. But it's "more of the same" instead of "expanding her horizons", so she'd rather have something more challenging. Her (likely) final interview is on Monday, so they may make an offer as early as next week. We're hoping they continue at their glacial pace for at least a couple more weeks to see how the other opportunities play out before she "ends up" with them.
And it's kind of sad. They're a solid company, treat their employees well, have good games, have a bunch of people she knows, and they're just not as exciting as the other offers.
All in all not a bad place to be as we close out September after just under two months of unemployment.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Did you teach your niece how to drive?
No, but i was the legally required crash test dummy with a license in the passenger seat.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
The eternal question:
Impus Minor, on driving an automatic for the first time: How can anyone fail their driving test driving like this?
Clutches breed arrogance.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
The eternal question:
Impus Minor, on driving an automatic for the first time: How can anyone fail their driving test driving like this?
Clutches breed arrogance.
He'll make a fine villain one day.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Over lunch in my classroom today...
Sam: I don't know the guy on your shirt. What's his owigin stowy?
James: What does that mean?
Sam: You don't even know what an owigin stowy is?! An owigin stowy is how you got your super powers."
He is four.
Over lunch in my classroom today...
Sam: I don't know the guy on your shirt. What's his owigin stowy?
James: What does that mean?
Sam: You don't even know what an owigin stowy is?! An owigin stowy is how you got your super powers."He is four.
It was Albert Einstein on the shirt?
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
And once again, the party fled in terror from swarms. Last time it was leeches. This time fist-sized ticks.
DM Infernal t rex
Party: Meh
Greater demon from the depths of hell
Party: Meh
Dm: Vampiric Ooze swarm
party: screams in terror, unleashes ALL the cans of whoopass in the party, and leaves half of the dungeon subsumed in a mushroom cloud
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And once again, the party fled in terror from swarms. Last time it was leeches. This time fist-sized ticks.DM Infernal t rex
Party: Meh
Greater demon from the depths of hell
Party: Meh
Dm: Vampiric Ooze swarm
party: screams in terror, unleashes ALL the cans of whoopass in the party, and leaves half of the dungeon subsumed in a mushroom cloud
And the moral of the story?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And once again, the party fled in terror from swarms. Last time it was leeches. This time fist-sized ticks.DM Infernal t rex
Party: Meh
Greater demon from the depths of hell
Party: Meh
Dm: Vampiric Ooze swarm
party: screams in terror, unleashes ALL the cans of whoopass in the party, and leaves half of the dungeon subsumed in a mushroom cloud
Because of an over reliance on Wolf's in Sheep's Clothing early on nothing invokes as much terror as a cute little animal, gnome, or halfling sitting alone somewhere.
| 7 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm very proud of how it turned out because I installed 90% of it myself.
Of course those pictures don't include the two driveway emblems.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
after two scenarios in a row with trap oozes my ooze cuddling druid was assigned to wild empathy every trap the party came across.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ma and Pa Longears are up, helping me clear out the old house, and as a super special bonus, they agreed to watch the kids while we went to the PUB. There was a country rock band on, who were alright; ALL (DE) had wild elderflower cider, and I had an Imperial stout and a nice pint of bitter.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
after two scenarios in a row with trap oozes my ooze cuddling druid was assigned to wild empathy every trap the party came across.
In other news, searching for that image sent me off on an hours-long search that left me with maddeningly few answers.
after two scenarios in a row with trap oozes my ooze cuddling druid was assigned to wild empathy every trap the party came across.In other news, searching for that image sent me off on an hours-long search that left me with maddeningly few answers.
Okay, that sent me down and annoying rabbit hole when I was randomly awake at two this morning. It doesn't help that (a) The Internet can't agree on the spelling of his name, and (b) quite a few people with that name seem to have arrest records. WTAF?
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Fantasy NPC: Lady Yagnes, Heir-Pretender
Her parents sent her to get proof that she should inherit Leshiskovo.
Good luck with that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hmmm... Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is on sale...
Would I want to play it?
It depends, have you played an Assassin's Creed game before?Hmmm... Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is on sale...
Would I want to play it?
The first one I dropped bored to tears during the pickpocket training.
The second one I played a bit.The third one I have installed and play occasionally but I am not far from start and might get bored by it, as it happened earlier with the Black Flag.
I have finished Unity and Origins. I am still playing Odyssey - though going through the Elysian fields got me bogged down (and I reached the levels when assassination damage gets underpowered compared to enemy health pools, making charging adrenaline gauge hard without breaking stealth).
I have played Valhalla during a free weekend and I do intend to get it when it will be on sale.
I definitely prefer the open world ones, with Origins being the best, followed by Odyssey, and Valhalla. Unity was a great parkour-through-Paris-sim, though the combat was rather crappy, and the story uneven (the time skips between individual sequences had negative impact on the story flow and development).
To be honest, I think I will get the Syndicate too, though I am torn between getting golden edition or being a terrible cheapskate and getting the base game only.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's always nice to be able to take advantage of a situation to send a message. We were thinking about cancelling Disney+ anyway, since we virtually never watch it. This morning we got the, "We're about to introduce an ad tier to our service, or you can pay a premium price to skip the ads."
So I can cancel and list the reason as, "Advertisements."
EDIT: Oh, it's worse than I thought: When NetFlix introduced an ad tier, they didn't change the premium price, they let people sign up for a cheaper version with ads. Disney+ is raising its ad-free price from $7.99 to $10.99 a month, and the $7.99 price will get ads. Yeah, cancelling today.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You have to love the human tendency to suddenly need anything you're trying to get rid of.
By my estimate, in the last 6 months we've used Disney+ once, when Impus Major was feeling nostalgic and we all lay down in a great big pile to watch Treasure Planet.
But moment I canceled it, the Impii and GothBard expressed dismay that we might no longer be able to watch old Disney movies.
We still own almost all of them on DVD, and I'll happily buy the rest, and it'll be cheaper than keeping Disney+. And no ads.
Side note: Holy cow, "Lie" vs. "Lay" is even more convoluted than I thought:
- If you are in the process of lying down, it's, "I lie down."
- If you are in the process of putting something else down, it's, "I lay down the blanket."
- Unfortunately, if Britannica is to be believed, the past tense of "lie" is "lay", as in, "Last night as I lay down in bed I thought of something."
- Then the past tense of "lay" is "laid".
The whole thing gives me a headache, and when I was trying that the Impii and piled into the cuddler together, I had to look up the verb. *SIGH*
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Side note: Holy cow, "Lie" vs. "Lay" is even more convoluted than I thought:
- If you are in the process of lying down, it's, "I lie down."
- If you are in the process of putting something else down, it's, "I lay down the blanket."
- Unfortunately, if Britannica is to be believed, the past tense of "lie" is "lay", as in, "Last night as I lay down in bed I thought of something."
- Then the past tense of "lay" is "laid".
The whole thing gives me a headache, and when I was trying that the Impii and piled into the cuddler together, I had to look up the verb. *SIGH*
I am not gonna lie, I always have problems with that one. Even if I use correct form, I never know and it's more like an accident than skill.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Sounds like GothBard should have an offer from company #3 by the end of the week. Yeah, they've been appallingly slow so far (her first interview was around mid-August), but at this point they're in the final, "Let's meet and decide whether to make her an offer," stages and she's had great interviews with everyone there.
Which brings up the harrowing, "I'm waiting on offers from two other companies so I can compare all three. Is it OK if I get back to you in two weeks?" approach to negotiation.
Neither GothBard nor I have ever been in a position of getting multiple offers, so we have no idea how it's handled. What's a reasonable amount of time to ask for?
I'll ask my former manager. She'll know.
EDIT: Yep; it's getting hairy. She just got the follow-up from her #1 choice that she passed and she's moving on to her final round of interviews there. So we're in unfamiliar territory with multiple companies looking to make her offers within 2-3 weeks of each other.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
That's a good problem to have.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Impus Minor is off on his first shopping trip to Andronico's in the car for us. I am so proud... and so terrified.
I just have to keep reminding myself how incredibly careful newly-licensed drivers are, because they're terrified of everything.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's hard. Watching them grow and then having to let go and hope they learned enough from you and your wife to be able to fend for themselves.
That's a good problem to have.
Well, we have exactly -0- offers in hand, and even then apparently there have been incidents in the industry in the last couple of years where someone's accepted an offer, shown up the first day, and been told, "Sorry, that position's been cut."
So even though we're racking up a laundry list of deferred expenses, I'm not spending a penny until she's actually attended her first day of work.
At the moment, our status is:
Cool Company GothBard Likes: Passed the design test, the interview with her future manager, and the interview with the lead designer for the company. The "obvious" next step is interviews with her future teammates over the next 2 weeks to make sure she's a good fit, then an offer somewhere around October 18. The problem is, she likely won't have that long.
SportsBall Company: Passed the recruiter interview and the hiring manager interview for the SportsBallGame. Is interviewing today with the hiring manager for the RPG division. In other words, this process is just getting started, and it's another megacorporation, so the hiring process is likely to drag into November, meaning it's unlikely she'll ever even see what they're offering before she gets offers from the other two places.
"Safe Choice" Company: Had what should be her final interview with them today, so we're expecting an informal, "Hey, look for the offer in the next few days," from them today or tomorrow, and then an offer by the end of the week. And I know I'm repeating myself, but it's a solid company and a job GothBard would excel at, so they're making a great choice in making her the offer. The problem is, if you never take risks, you never grow, and GothBard isn't ready to retire to grognardness yet.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's hard. Watching them grow and then having to let go and hope they learned enough from you and your wife to be able to fend for themselves.
I'm incredibly proud that Impus Major has fallen in with a drug-and-alcohol-heavy crowd, yet he chooses not to partake because he remembers my example. So he's doing what I did when I was his age: Act as the responsible person who keeps them safe and drives them all home.
His driving and his time management skills, though...
And yeah, I know I need to let Impus Minor fly free, but it's hard.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's hard. Watching them grow and then having to let go and hope they learned enough from you and your wife to be able to fend for themselves.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
It's hard. Watching them grow and then having to let go and hope they learned enough from you and your wife to be able to fend for themselves.I'm incredibly proud that Impus Major has fallen in with a drug-and-alcohol-heavy crowd, yet he chooses not to partake because he remembers my example. So he's doing what I did when I was his age: Act as the responsible person who keeps them safe and drives them all home.
His driving and his time management skills, though...
And yeah, I know I need to let Impus Minor fly free, but it's hard.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
That's a good problem to have.Well, we have exactly -0- offers in hand, and even then apparently there have been incidents in the industry in the last couple of years where someone's accepted an offer, shown up the first day, and been told, "Sorry, that position's been cut."
So even though we're racking up a laundry list of deferred expenses, I'm not spending a penny until she's actually attended her first day of work.
At the moment, our status is:
Cool Company GothBard Likes: Passed the design test, the interview with her future manager, and the interview with the lead designer for the company. The "obvious" next step is interviews with her future teammates over the next 2 weeks to make sure she's a good fit, then an offer somewhere around October 18. The problem is, she likely won't have that long.SportsBall Company: Passed the recruiter interview and the hiring manager interview for the SportsBallGame. Is interviewing today with the hiring manager for the RPG division. In other words, this process is just getting started, and it's another megacorporation, so the hiring process is likely to drag into November, meaning it's unlikely she'll ever even see what they're offering before she gets offers from the other two places.
"Safe Choice" Company: Had what should be her final interview with them today, so we're expecting an informal, "Hey, look for the offer in the next few days," from them today or tomorrow, and then an offer by the end of the week. And I know I'm repeating myself, but it's a solid company and a job GothBard would excel at, so they're making a great choice in making her the offer. The problem is, if you never take risks, you never grow, and GothBard isn't ready to retire to grognardness yet.
I would not be where I am today professionally if I went with the "safe choice".
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I hath founde myne battaille-axe.I valiantly resisted buying the knife I mentioned. Twice.
The fact that bus routes were changed because of road works forcing me to go to different shop for groceries helped.
After paying bills today, resisting the urge to buy that knife will be much easier until the next month.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well, it got 33 1/3% easier. SportsBall Company is looking for someone with a lot more midcore experience, and their description of her day-to-day work isn't what GothBard was looking for, so it looks like they're parting ways amicably.
Thus, we're down to her #1 choice and the "safe bet", and we're both rooting for #1 choice to move quickly and grab her.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
The continuous struggle between editorial desire for clear and concise sentences, the translatorial desire to keep the text faithful to the original, the writer's desire to be creative and rework the sentence into something sensible...
Wait, I am paid per character.
Never mind.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I would not be where I am today professionally if I went with the "safe choice".That's a good problem to have.Well, we have exactly -0- offers in hand, and even then apparently there have been incidents in the industry in the last couple of years where someone's accepted an offer, shown up the first day, and been told, "Sorry, that position's been cut."
So even though we're racking up a laundry list of deferred expenses, I'm not spending a penny until she's actually attended her first day of work.
At the moment, our status is:
Cool Company GothBard Likes: Passed the design test, the interview with her future manager, and the interview with the lead designer for the company. The "obvious" next step is interviews with her future teammates over the next 2 weeks to make sure she's a good fit, then an offer somewhere around October 18. The problem is, she likely won't have that long.SportsBall Company: Passed the recruiter interview and the hiring manager interview for the SportsBallGame. Is interviewing today with the hiring manager for the RPG division. In other words, this process is just getting started, and it's another megacorporation, so the hiring process is likely to drag into November, meaning it's unlikely she'll ever even see what they're offering before she gets offers from the other two places.
"Safe Choice" Company: Had what should be her final interview with them today, so we're expecting an informal, "Hey, look for the offer in the next few days," from them today or tomorrow, and then an offer by the end of the week. And I know I'm repeating myself, but it's a solid company and a job GothBard would excel at, so they're making a great choice in making her the offer. The problem is, if you never take risks, you never grow, and GothBard isn't ready to retire to grognardness yet.
*Sits very quietly and says nothing, having worked at the same place for nearly 20 years*
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Did I just have a series of brain farts, or just one massive one? Maybe you can tell me.
1. Gather the trash, open door from kitchen to garage, press button to open garage door, put trash in bin, take bin to street for pickup.
All good so far.
2. Walk back through garage into kitchen, close door, flip switch to turn on garage light.
Hmm....
3. Flip off garage light, flip off kitchen light.
Now it's dark...
4. Flip on kitchen light.
That's better, but something's still wrong...
5. Stare at light switches for 20 seconds.
I'm confused...
6. Start to flip on garage light again but stop.
I know there's something...
7. Stare at switches for 30 more seconds.
It's definitely something to do with the garage...
8. Open door to garage, realize garage door is still open, press button to close garage door, close kitchen door.
That's it!
9. Flip on garage lights, walk away.
Something still feels off...
10. Turn around, flip off kitchen lights.
There, all better.
11. Sit on couch for 5 minutes, sigh dramatically, get up, walk to light switches, turn off garage lights.
I'm such an idiot.
12. Post this here, await feedback.
In my non proffesional opinion, I would say that you are completely normal.
Everyone has moments like that from time to time.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Old age is when you forget where your shoes are.
Senility is when you forget what your shoes are.
You're fine.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I swear, watching the stock market is like watching a brain-damaged alcoholic frat boy with no memory and no thought of the future.
Wells Fargo: Consumer spending is higher than expected, and consumers have plenty to spend.
Stock Market: Woo hoo! Buy buy buy buy buy!!!!
NobodysHome: But increased consumer spending drives inflation. Doesn't that mean that the next inflation report on the 13th is going to show higher-than-expected inflation, driving a massive sell-off?
Stock Market: Who cares? That's 9 days away! There is no future!!!
NobodysHome:
(And yes, I care, because I'm over 50, have no pension, and Social Security won't even cover my mortgage payments -- I have to rely on a 401(k) to retire, so the stock market matters.)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I do not plan on retiring.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Aaaaand, the unemployment office continues to enrage me. In short:
(1) They seize 1.1% of your gross paycheck for your entire career. Anything you try to do to avoid it is subject to criminal penalties.
(2) If you attempt to use it, you are treated with the stereotypical condescension of an Ayn Rand advocate: "Oh, if we give you any money not to work, it will encourage you to be a slacker, so you're a loser even for asking. And by the way, we're going to assume you're a criminal trying to commit fraud and treat you like one until you can prove to our satisfaction otherwise."
(3) Swallowing your pride and subjecting to the interrogations, you get a pittance that is less than the state's minimum wage.
(4) If you work at all, they deduct whatever you made from that pittance.
This tirade brought to you by GothBard's reduced unemployment check because she had the gall to earn $200 doing the design test for her favored company.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
As for GothBard, she's at that horrible point where she has no further interviews lined up and no news, so there's that lurking terror of, "What if both companies say, 'No'?"
And unfortunately, it's not an unreasonable fear. Just because you did really well in your interviews doesn't mean there isn't another candidate who did one better.
So now we wait...
Did I just have a series of brain farts, or just one massive one? Maybe you can tell me.
1. Gather the trash, open door from kitchen to garage, press button to open garage door, put trash in bin, take bin to street for pickup.
All good so far.
2. Walk back through garage into kitchen, close door, flip switch to turn on garage light.
Hmm....
3. Flip off garage light, flip off kitchen light.
Now it's dark...
4. Flip on kitchen light.
That's better, but something's still wrong...
5. Stare at light switches for 20 seconds.
I'm confused...
6. Start to flip on garage light again but stop.
I know there's something...
7. Stare at switches for 30 more seconds.
It's definitely something to do with the garage...
8. Open door to garage, realize garage door is still open, press button to close garage door, close kitchen door.
That's it!
9. Flip on garage lights, walk away.
Something still feels off...
10. Turn around, flip off kitchen lights.
There, all better.
11. Sit on couch for 5 minutes, sigh dramatically, get up, walk to light switches, turn off garage lights.
I'm such an idiot.
12. Post this here, await feedback.
13. Favorites post
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
BUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHhhaahahaha!
YESSSS!
Who was right listening to his hunches?!
Akehm. *cough-cough*
<.<
>.>
Sooo...
Not long ago, there was a sale on Deathloop, but I decided that I pick some other games that time (Rage? I think it might had been Rage 1 and 2, the first of which was a big flop, but the second one was fun to play, if not terribly stellar).
What game is included in Humble Choice this month?
Yup. Deathloop
Now, I need to make 30 GB of space somewhere...
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
LOLOL. At least Impus Minor is learning his lessons early.
Yesterday he soloed to Andronico's and back, and learned that turning left onto Solano sucks.
Today he drove the gang to school and locked his keys in the car. I had to explain that there was no way of recovering them short of breaking a window or calling a tow truck. And now he knows.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I do not plan on retiring.
gravity can be a harsh mistress
Ok, ok, I should have known that there will be a catch...
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is on sale at the same time...
I already spent $12 on the Humble Choice... Now I need to calculate if I can fit both Syndicate and Valhalla within this month's budged.
Not so easy, because my gaming budget is in dollars, while Humble Choice is paid in dollars, all other humble bundle purchases (which would be Valhalla) are in Euro, and Steam calculates prices for me in złoty... Ugh. And PayPal uses its own internal exchange rates.
Add seven... subtract five... multiply by five... keep zero...
Seems that I can barely fit both of those games if I get regular and not gold edition of Syndicate.
Unless Euro to dollar rates on PayPal will be really attrocious.