152 insights into my soul

TV commentary:

Nikita- Series finale. ( spoiler cut )

How about this for something non TV/movie/video game/music-related? So sometimes, people are talking to me about boring-ass crap I could give a rat's ass about. I smile and nod along, but in my mind, I'm actually thinking, "I'll take boring-ass crap I could give a rat's ass about for 500, Alex!" or if I'm in a particularly bad mood, I imagine Malcolm Tucker saying, "You know what, you're a real boring eff!" (well, I imagine him using the actual f-word, but I'm trying to keep this post devoid of the 7 words you can't say on TV, which is why I'm also using "crap") Which is kinda mean, since I often talk about boring-ass crap people could give a crap about. But then I think about people actually ignoring me, or outright stopping me in the middle of whatever I'm babbling about and saying, "WTF, I don't give a crap about this crap!" Which of course makes me angry, because its like, "What the frick, I listen to people's dumb-ass effin crap that I could care effin less about all the time, its my turn to inflict my crap upon the world!" Well, in my mind, because I'm kinda non-confrontational. Which is prolly why I have so much pent up aggression, that usually only gets out in video games or the road.

And amusingly enough, its not like the people who don't listen are the ones telling me uninteresting (to me) crap that I patiently sit through, so its not like they owe me anything, but its still frustrating all the same.

Now back to the usual subjects. So today is the last of Scars on 45's acoustic Monday previews of songs off their upcoming album that they post on their youtube channel. Its like, they sound so amazing, and I'm all, okay, when is this upcoming album, dangit!? But they don't have anything other than "early 2014".

ME blather- Heh, you know, I can't believe I've been playing the mp this whole time, and hadn't realized the awesomeness of chaining lighting an enemy up with incendiary ammo, hitting them with warp to detonate a fire explosion, then hitting them with another detonator power for a biotic explosion. Though to be fair, I've only recently playing more of the biotics in my quest to finish up the waves challenges. Plus, I'm pretty stingy with my incendiary ammo.

TV commentary:

Lost Girl- Heh, interesting twist there. ( spoiler cut )

HIMYM- Hey, finally, an ep with the actual mother. Hopefully as they get nearer to the actually wedding ceremony, we'll start seeing more of her, because its kinda ridiculous that they added her to the cast, and yet she only shows up every few episodes. One cute touch I enjoyed in the episode was that she was wearing driving gloves when she was driving the van. Its a nice little call back.

Nikita- I was actually surprised by last week's ep. ( spoiler cut )

Sons of Anarchy- Some thoughts on the last few eps since I hadn't posted about this show in a while. ( spoiler cut )

TV commentary:

Nikita- Heh, well that was kinda anti-climatic solution to last week's cliffhanger. ( spoiler cut )

So EW has a "where are they now?" article on the actors of the OC, including a where are they now for the characters as well, by Josh Schwarz himself.

Which, what's up with that? Ryan and Taylor don't end up together? He has Ryan starting to go out with Alex (ostensibly to name drop Olivia Wilde), which, isn't she gay? Anyways, you know how big a fan I was of Ryan/Taylor, so I'm disappointed. And if he had to be with someone else, it would be Lindsay, then Kaitlyn, then Summer. Alex wasn't even on the list, again, because isn't she a lesbo? Obviously, Kaitlyn is his step sister now, and Summer is with Seth. But yeah, for a casual watcher or someone reading the article who hasn't seen the OC but was curious, they could mention Alex and be all, "that was Olivia Wilde's character!" But yeah, the whole randomly bumping into Alex on airplane, if it was Lindsay, that would've been a nice bit of kismet. Actually, I wanna say someone on my friends list wrote such a story already.

Meanwhile, Taylor ends up with... Nate Archibald? Random! Though I like the whole moving back to France and being neighbors with Harold and Roman, and meeting Blair through them, and she hooking up her with Nate.

I do find it funny they have Lucy Hale playing Little Miss Vixen in the fictional Atomic County movie, given she was like Kaitlyn's version of Summer at private school.

It is kinda hilarious that they go through the list, and most of them have projects going on/shows they're currently on, and the one doing the least now (Marissa/Mischa Barton) is also the only dead character. I mean Summer is on Hart of Dixie, Luke on Nashville, Julie on Nikita, Kaitlyn on Arrow, Che on Parks and Rec, Kirsten on Perception, Sandy on Covert Affairs. Southland was only recently canceled on Ryan, and even Taylor has pretty regularly guested on things since the OC's cancellation. Not to mention Last Resort was only recently canceled too, and she had No Ordinary Family before that.

Anyways, just watched Bourne Legacy. So, apparently this has overlap with Ultimatum, which as we know, overlapped there at the end with Supremacy, so basically all three of these films take place during the exact same time period. Are they making a sequel, because the plot plays out like the first 2/3 of any of the previous films, then it feels like it abruptly ends. It was okay, though I think the movie did spend a little too much on the boring part of spywork. I know analysis plays a big role, but I don't need like a bunch of scenes were people are all, "Oh, get the passengers manifest for all these airports! We're going to look through names until something interesting pops up!" ( spoiler cut )

ME blather- Finally finished up Earth mastery using the Slayer vs Geth and Shadow vs Cerberus. And managed to do it without getting sync killed by any phantom bitches. It was annoying to get objects with the Slayer (since I couldn't charge) and escort with the Shadow (since I couldn't cloak), but I managed. So now working on Retaliation mastery by extracting with the Turian Havoc and Ghost 10 times each. I'm one match away from completing the points portion of Spectre mastery, which will complete the Spectre challenge and net me a cool 600 challenge points. And with the Havoc and Ghost using ARs, I'll prolly get AR mastery a second time. Though between those, and Commando mastery, I'd still be a few hundred away from 9000, so I'm not gonna be yell "Its over 9000!" any time soon.

TV commentary:

Nikita- Its surprising Michael's the one wanting to just "let go" and Nikki's the one wanting to clean things up, given he's like Mr. Boy Scout. He seems more like the "duty" type. Anyways, he's all, "it'll always be just one more mission" to Nikita over the whole Amanda thing, acting like Nikita will always find some other bad guy to have to stop and they'll never leave the life. But there's a difference between feeling duty bound to stop this guy and that, and going after someone WHO IS MOST LIKELY ACTIVELY TRYING TO KILL THEM.

I mean, I can understand the whole, "there'll always be bad guys, but there are other people out there who can do the job too, we've done enough, its time to retire" attitude. But Amanda is far from some nebulous bad guy who'll always be doing something bad so they should leave it to people better equipped and actually getting paid to do it. She has it out for them, so they can't actually retire and be safe until they take care of her!

TV commentary:

Person of Interest- So we finally learn what the deal is. ( spoiler cut )

Nikita- Hey, Old Spice guy (the first one, not Chris Rock's father) is back. ( spoiler cut )

Also saw Iron Man 3 today. It was pretty good. Some interesting twists and turns. Though much like Kate Mara was randomly in Iron Man 2 for like 5 seconds, Rebecca Mader shows up as a random henchman, never to be seen again. Its like they couldn't have had her around a little more being all evil and British and stuff? Also random, other female henchman is up there in the "big" credits along with people who had far much more screen time. Also in the picture credits, Patty the hooker from "My Name is Earl", which again is kinda random given how little she is in the movie.

TV commentary:

Nikita- I was sorta expecting that, but not exactly. They kinda cheated there! ( spoiler cut )

ME blather- I'm up to top 3% on the challenge board! I don't think I'll ever get best of the best, because I still haven't successfully solo-ed gold, much less platinum. Plus, the whole playing solo thing does limit my options, as there are just some characters I don't think I'll be able to solo extract with.

But I am do intend to complete everything under the weapon challenges. Like I said, I've done AR, Shotgun, and SMG, I'm 50 kills away from finishing pistol, and then its onto sniper rifles, which should be easy enough. Heh, I already finished the Widow and am working on the Collector sniper rifle, since its not in single player and wanted to see how it played. Its like the PPR and Lancer, in that it doesn't use clips, it slowly recharges its ammo. The continuous fire does make it easier to hit, but also makes it easy to accidentally overheat. Anyhoo, it also makes a cool Dalek blast sound when it fires. Or at least it sounds like the Dalek beam weapon to me. I do have to figure out what the other 6 snipers (since the 100 sniper medals thing is a given) in the challenge I want to use. The mantis, viper, raptor, black widow, and valiant obviously. I don't have the Javelin, and the Krysae and Kishock are kinda weird. I guess it'll have to be either the Indra or the Incisor.

But I digress, under the weapon challenges I still have to finish up Reaper and Combat mastery, I'm close. And I haven't even started on the Collector stuff. The general challenges, I did tech and biotic mastery, unfortunately the only other thing under that I think I'll ever be able to accomplish will be spectre mastery, since that's just earn 5000 medals and 250 million points. And I'm pretty sure I'll easily get to that just trying to complete other challenges. I would love to get solo mastery, but I still need more practice. Or maybe patience.

Under the alien challenges, I got Blood Pack, and am going to go for Commando, since I actually do like playing the salarians, asari, and turians. But alas, I don't think I'll get the rest of them (well, not with that attitude!). Actually, I could prolly do Reckoning. I actually have only 4 left to do in that, and they're accomplishable. Same with Retaliation, I'm going to finish up Collector sniper rifle challenge under it, leaving two more to do. I have no interest in playing any of the Volus, but the other two options are the Turian Ghost and Havoc, both of whom I definitely enjoy. Earth might be a little harder, I've done Destroyer, and I can prolly do the Fury and Shadow, I'm not sure about the other N7s. Actually, I guess I just need one more, because the Earth board extractions should be easy enough.

It will be easier to accomplish these other challenges once I finish up the weapon challenges, because that will free me up to use any of the weapons, instead of having to use the weapons I need to complete the challenges. I

ME blather- Finally got a Juggernaut! Colored him purple and named him Shockwave (which would work better if Juggernauts still had the one light instead of the three smaller ones). Anyways, finally have someone who can actually use that Spitfire I got so long ago for the Spitfire use challenges (finished the assault rifle mastery version already, the one under Reckoning mastery will prolly pop the next time I play) That, and its been oh so satisfying frying those phantom b*tches for all the times they sync-killed me. I mean, I was getting some revenge with my batarian soldier when they would bounce off my blade armor and I give them a batarian falcon punch or some ballistic blades to the face. But its just more amusing knowing they can't do anything to me.

I also got the Turian ghost, he's a pretty fun and interesting infiltrator to play. Unlike the AIU, who gets the cloak bonus to shotguns, the asari, who gets the cloak bonus to her biotic powers, and the rest of the infiltrators, who get it to snipers, he gets it to assault rifles, which have a lot more room for error. Plus, realized rather than using the stim packs as an attack boost, they were useful in an emergency- if my shields got taken down, they were a quick and easy way to quickly fill them back up with out wasting an ops survival pack. Alas, still don't have a phoenix vanguard or a salarian infiltrator, which are the last two characters I want to try and play. (Also missing the krogan soldier, volus mercenary, geth trooper, and the batarian brawler)

Did also try out the asari valkyrie. Like the Fury she has annihilation field. She's more sturdy than the Fury, since she's a sentinel and has tech armor. Though I did have a couple of problems initially where I would accidentally detonate tech armor instead of my annihilation field (or firing off warp). But really, annihilation field is definitely a fun power.

TV commentary:

Transformers: Prime- Huh, so Smokescreen is actually a Hot Rod analogue? ( spoiler cut )

Nikita- A-ha! ( spoiler cut )

Degrassi- Heh, this was both amusing and sad. ( spoiler cut )

ME Blather- Heh, its only now that it occurred to me how multiplayer links with single player. Like I realized some of the side missions were on multiplayer maps, but it wasn't until today that I realized, "Oh, that's what Admiral Hackett means when he says they'll continue to send incursions!" The multiplayer mode is using those maps because in MP, you're playing those troops they're continuing to send! Duh!

TV commentary:

Nikita- Heh, I was thinking the whole Ari thing was some kinda ruse, all part of some sinister plan of Amanda's. But nope, they're really on the outs. Interesting though, so Division is no longer funded by the Govt, all of their money is seed money that Ryan happened to grow through help from Birkhoff? Oh, and Sean is hurt that Alex told Owen the story behind her butterfly tattoo when she wouldn't tell him. Of course, if its such a secret and personal story, why the hell was she telling it when she knows she's on comms?

Degrassi- Heh, for some reason I was amused when Dallas was all offended that Eli's video yearbook totally cut Cam out of the Ice Hounds section. All, "You can't just cut him out like he never existed", because they did re-do the opening credits so he's no longer there with the team. I guess they had to refilm it since he was in the center, its not like with KC, where they just shift him out of frame. Also, Connor and Jenna? Sure, why not. Totally out of left field, but whatever.

TV commentary:

Last Resort- Well, that was at least a mostly happy ending. I'm just glad they got to bring it to a somewhat satisfying conclusion. It drives me nuts when a show gets cancelled, but far enough in the season that its too late to tie everything up. Like I actually started catching Alphas again, and they ended on that cliffhanger. And that will never be resolved!

Nikita- I can't believe they gave Michael a robot hand. Well, at least it doesn't work perfectly, and they did say it was bleeding edge tech, so its not too outlandish for this show.

Clone Wars- So much for Pre Vizsla. Still, it was a pretty awesome fight between him and Maul. And Pre Vizsla didn't go down like a punk. No begging for mercy or trying to get out of it, he stuck with those Mandalore ideals, accepted his fate because Maul was stronger (much to Bo Katan's horror), and only the strongest survive. Plus, Maul has the darksaber now.


Glee first listen mondays:

"Love Song"- The Sara Bareilles song, done by Rachel, Quinn, and Santana. I heard a rumor they were going to have Quinn and Santana hook up. I'll believe it when I see it! I'll admit, the prospect has me a little egg-cited, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I mean, its not Faberry, but it would be quite a coup if they did make Quinn a lesbian. I mean, I can't think of Quinn anymore as straight because of tumblr, so it would amuse me if that became canon. My mind is going through scenarios of Quinn crushing on Rachel, but she's with Brody, and straight, so Quinn's all sad because of unrequited love and all that jazz, and that leading to Santana and Quinn getting together, since Brittany is with Sam. I mean, given Santana and Quinn don't have any current love interests whatsoever (except for this Yale professor Quinn mentioned on Thanksgiving, which frankly sounds made up) its weird they're included in this song, its like, who are they singing to? I mean, they have significant portions in this song, so its not like they're just singing backup to Rachel.


ME blather: So I'm maybe a quarter or third of a way through ME3 right now. I will say, going through the three games in such relatively quick succession (in a matter of weeks, as opposed to the years people had to wait), I am blown away by the graphical improvements between games. Like when I first started ME2, I was like, "Holy crap, this is amazing looking". And then when I started the 3rd one, they managed to raise the bar yet again!

Like I said, I changed classes from Soldier to Infiltrator. I am loving the being able to turn invisible and using the sniper rifle. But given I has tech powers now, I'm also enjoying being able to participate in power combos. Particularly since Incinerate can serve as both a source and a detonator. I do have cryo ammo with the squad evolution again, so I can have my squad freeze things, and not only do I get bonus damage on sniping frozen enemies, if they're bunched up, I can instead just use incinerate on the frozen target to set off a cryo explosion and hurt them all.

And while James is still kinda boring (I think I actually like him better than Kaidan and Jacob), he's a solid teammate. And he has carnage, which is also a source and detonator for power combos. So I can pick a target, and immolate it while he does carnage on it, turning them into a living bomb (well, if its a living thing, can you really call the reaper converted creatures or robots living?) and taking out a bunch of baddies at once. Timing is sort of an issue, but since incinerate and carnage are both primers and detonators, it doesn't matter which goes off first.

I do have to be careful with being too nice though when talking to my allies though. I mean, I talk to them and pick the "nice" choices for morale purposes and to unlock things. I think I've led Steve on- I had to be nice to convince him to go to the memorial at the Citadel, so he would meet fellow pilots and organize that "rogue squadron" for the war asset. But now he wants to go for drinks at Purgatory, which I know would lead to the locking in point for a romance with him. Its amusing though, because in the 3rd one, there's no people telling you to choose between them. You can flirt with any number of people you want, until you get to an event that locks you in with one of them, and then the conversations with the others turn more platonic. So right now, I apparently have something going on with Ashley, Miranda, Kelly, Steve, and possibly Liara.