152 insights into my soul

Heh, so I had heard about the Scroll of NPCs book for Exalted, but I had no idea what it was exactly about. I didn't realize it contained conversions of a smattering of different characters from various video games, anime, and movies for Exalted. That and souped up versions of the Abyssal and Infernal iconics. Like Maiden of the Mirthless Smile with Soulsteel Celestial Battle Armor, Cearr with a Green Iron Heart and a crazy charm that turns him into a Godzilla sized monster. I'm mostly amused because when they stated them out in Scroll of Exalts, the things I would've done to improve them (since they were stated out as starting characters rather than "X level" NPCs) was given the Maiden Soulsteel Celestial Battle Armor and Cearr a Green Iron Heart.

Mass Effect blather- So I've gotten all the available squad members. Since my Shepard is a soldier, the wisest team members to bring along are either Tali, Liara, or Kaidan to give good Tech and Biotic support. Though my favored squad is Tali and Wrex. Wrex because he's the bad cop to my good cop, and Tali because she's spunky and the tech skills to hack terminals and open up doors and lockers. Of course relying on Tali for tech means the other person has to be a biotic, and I'd like to try and use everyone. I suppose I can use Garrus for Tech, which again means the other has to be a biotic. Or I can rely on Kaidan for Tech and Biotics which will let me bring Liara or Ashley. (And I think I'm going to try and romance the latter)

Hmm, I was gonna hit Junior's for lunch, but it sounds like everyone else has the same idea! I mean, looking on FB it looks like the breakfast lines are insane!

Finally got a 2nd controller for the PS3. That way I can have one charging while using the other one and can just switch off when it starts running low. Or you know, be able to play against someone else in Tekken 6 or Mortal Kombat if the opportunity ever arises. Also arriving from amazon yesterday was "Heroes of Shadow".

It seems the classes in there are "essentials" versions? M&M and ND kinda explained what those are, but I was only half paying attention. As far as I can tell, they're like a normal class, but instead of getting several choices of powers at this level or that level, they pretty much pick it for you. Which I don't think is that bad! I mean, sure to go from an insane number of choices to none does suck, but on the other hand, there are a lot of friggin choices! I don't mind having the choices picked out for me, particularly for new classes like the assassin or blackguard.

Well, the assassin isn't that new, the class has been out in D&D Insider for a while, but for the most part, compared to the general release classes, they don't have that many extra choices for their powers. But for classes like the rogue or ranger (for example) I can see how normal players can get annoyed that they have to pick a particular set of powers, as opposed to being able to pick and choose from the voluminous number that are available.

But yeah, for something new like the Blackguard, where there are no other existing choices for players to be upset about not being able to make, I think its fine. In any case, even then, there are still some choices. There are two kinds of assassins (or rather, the Executioner), same with the Blackguard. I haven't delved too much into the book yet, but I do like the flavor of the Blackguards. (not the I don't also like the assassins, but as I've said, Blackguards are like not-lame Paladins)

TV commentary:

Justified- I figured something like that was due to happen. ( spoiler cut )

Okay, this D&D youtube choose your own adventure is hilarious:



An amusing way to spend like half an hour.

TV commentary:

Parks and Recreation- ( spoiler cut )

The Office- What in the world? ( spoiler cut )

Anyways, thanks to hippieatheart, I was able to learn the intricacies of the assassin class. Its not too shabby, though the shroud mechanic may be a little too complex and too big a hassle for the payoff you get. You prolly don't want them as the only/primary striker in your group. But, since to me ideal group size is around 6, they totally work as "other striker".
( cut for geekery )

TV commentary:

Lost- Amusing ep tonight. ( spoiler cut )

Going out of the cut, is it me, or is Evangeline Lilly totally friggin hot? I'd like to see a movie with her and Kate Beckinsale playing hot incestuous lesbian sisters.

Anyways, since after Rogues, Rangers, and Assassins, my next favorite classes were Monks and the Psionics, got PHB3. I mean, it also had Githzerai (which I'm surprised are not a more popular race) and Minotaurs (who I've always found to be pretty cool) as PCs. Anyhoo, the closest thing to the 3E Psionic Warrior is the Battlemind. They're kinda jedi-ish, but what I like about them is the incorporation of a lot of telepathic type tricks.

I mean, such peeps blend TK pretty well into their fighting, but mind powers are usually limited to precognition for quicker reflexes, or reading what the enemy is about to do a la Gorgon or Mr. X (who btw are pretty bad-ass looking in Secret Warriors and Thunderbolts respectively and currently) I mean, Mastermind (and his daughters) type illusory tricks are usually done in a support-type manner, kinda softening opponents up for the fighter types. But this is the first time I've seen a defender/striker type role combining such moves into their fighting. Kudos for innovation, I've never thought of using mind tricks in that manner.

Well, like I said, I've seen it, but in a support character, not as done by the person actually doing the fighting. Well, beyond doing Mirror Image or something.

Saw "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" today with the usual suspects. Even though the trailer looked incredibly stupid (but still better than the Love Guru), the reviews were generally favorable and it was apparently written by Judd Apatow. So we were willing to give it a chance. It was okay. The funniest parts definitely weren't in the trailer (thankfully, given how awful the movie looked from the trailer). There were several scenes that got a big chuckle. And hey, Emmanuelle Chriqui is pretty hot.

Afterwards, had dinner at Carrabas. Hadn't eaten there in the longest time. I think the last time I went there was when we first ate out with psyched_out's future wife, and Kansas tried to convince her that we were going out together.

Anyways, since I don't watch reality TV, I only recently learned not only is Bruce Jenner the dad of one of the kids from the Hills, he's also Kim Kardasian's stepfather? I don't know why I find those facts incredibly weird. I guess because when I think of Bruce Jenner, I think of the Olympics and that episode of Silver Spoons where he helps someone cope with Dyslexia, having suffered with it himself.

Started reading some Hack/Slash. It seems like an interesting series. Its about a girl, Cassie, who's mom was a "Slasher", i.e. a supernatural killer like in the movies. Cassie survives her mom's killing spree and slays her, and now she teams with a Jason/Michael Myers-esque giant of man named Vlad hunting other Slashers. Its a kinda amusing series. Cassie's a little Buffy-ish, though more gothy in her style of dress and a surlier attitude.

Other comics I've been reading? Wanted. As I've said before, the movie seems to be a matrix on steroids actioner with Mr. Tumnus as a super bad-ass, under the tutelage of Angelina Jolie and working for Morgan Freeman. They're part of a "fraternity of assassins" who kill for the greater good. Which is nothing like the comic, which is about a world where supervillains beat all the superheroes and re-wrote reality to wipe everyone's memories of the existence of both groups while the supervillains now ruled the world from behind the scenes.

From what I've gotten through so far, I don't think they could make a movie based on the actual plot, as it would be terribly offensive. Unlike the movie, that portrays the main character as a bored corporate wage slave who learns he's a super bad-ass and starts using his powers for good to kill bad guys, the protagonist in the comic upon learning of his bad-assedness, starts using his powers for evil and claw his way out of the ennui he's been feeling, indulging his darkest fantasies.

Some more 4th edition commentary: ( geek fun cut )

While I find it very useful that I'm good at remembering crap (as in facts and occurances, I'm not so good at remembering to tell people important details) its a double edged sword. I also remember every dumb-ass thing I've ever done, long after its faded from the mind of the witnesses or it ceases to actually matter. Every so often, I'll have a flash of some moronic thing I've done and I'll end up dwelling on it even though its from almost 15 years ago and the people involved probably don't even remember it. (Oh, I'm not going to mention the current faux pas I have stuck in my head, as its a pretty bad one and I don't want it actually out there.)

But let us talk of less sucky, more inconsequential things. I guess MGS4 is coming out next week? Ign is doing some special features on it right now. Wednesday's was about the guns available in the game. Since Solid Snake is sneaking through a war zone, he can have heavier weapons at his disposal. This time around, he can use a MAC-10, an HK MP7, an FN P90, a Remington 870 shotgun (why not the M1014?!), the M4 Carbine, the AK-102, the XM-8, the M14 EBR, the MK-17, and the M60E4. I know the M60 is iconic and all, but why that instead of the Mk48 Mod 0(i.e., the upsized version of the SAW)? You know, the less buggy and more reliable "assault machine gun" that spec-ops switched to from the M60?

(Ooh, which reminds me, I need to check the library to see if they got this years Jane's Infantry Weapons 2008-2009 in yet and see if there's anything new in firearms that I don't already know about)

But heh, I saw they have both the AK and the M4 (you have to have the two most iconic assault rifles), but also the M4s current competitors, the XM-8, and the MK-17 (which I had mentioned in a previous post that both rifles had kicked the ass of the M4 in dust and reliability tests). Well, actually it was the MK-16 chambered for 5.56mm that was in the test, MGS4 has Snake using the MK-17 (which cutie Jessica Chobot erroneously refers to as an "M-17" in the video linked off the IGN article) chambered for the harder hitting 7.62mm. But yeah. I love that they included 7.62mm rifles like the MK-17 (which looks totally keen) and the M14 EBR (an old gun, but a cool one). And you can accesorize everything! From the video, it looks like you can add the m68 CCO or the ACOG or the AN/PEQ2. And righteous, rather than using the crappy M-203 as the underbarrel grenade launcher, they have the M-320 instead! Alas, for the underbarrel shotgun attachment for the M4, they have the Masterkey rather than the XM-26.

Owel, the other feature they have was of the new bosses in the game, the the Beauty and Beast corps. Supposedly they were once total hotties who were also mercs, and they suffered from PTSD and got turned into crazy killer cyborgs (with a naming scheme similar to the Foxhound members in the original MGS). Of course, MGS always had some weird enemies- bisexual vampires, armored fat guys with roller blades, Guys who fight with bees and Really old snipers with talking parrots to name a few. Ninja Gaiden 2 came out the other day, and it has its share of weirdos. There's Genshin and Elizabeta a bad-ass looking ninja and a hottie demoness. Volf is kinda cool, but how can a giant four armed werewolf not be cool? Then rounding out the four greater fiends (the first two being Elizabeta and Volf) you have Alexei and Zedonius the former of which looks like an butterfly man who shoots lightning (how fey!) and the latter looks like what people typically think of when they think of demons. He makes me think of a cornugon, except less scaly.

But with that D&D reference, lets talk about 4th edition. Just read up on the Warlock class. Its one of the new classes (I'm disappointed they got rid of Barbarians and Monks). It seems like an alternative spell casting class to the Wizard. However, its considered a striker rather than a controller class. So they get a lot of single target/small area effect spells. They concept is at least somewhat interesting. Instead of being your typical fantasy mage, having become adept at the ways of magic through natural talent and/or years of study, they inherited their magical abilities from pacts. There are three pacts, infernal, fey, and star. Infernal pacters get their power from demons, so their spells are accordingly hellish. Fey pacters get their powers from the Fey (what's this feywild they speak of? Are they taking a page from Changeling and Exalted?) and Star pacters get their powers from "the stars". Star pacters are kinda siderealish, because in this system stars also means fate. Although I guess you could also compare them to Nephlite (yes, I just made a Sailor Moon reference). Again, I find them kind of interesting because even though this is a fantasy setting, they seem to use a magic that is alien and otherworldly. Which I think is a more unique difference between spellcasting classes than the difference between sorcerors and wizards in the previous game(innate ability vs studying), or even between mages and shaman (scientific/academic approach towards magic vs communing with nature) in Shadowrun.

Speaking of magic, the roomie was watching a show on magic the other day that sounded interesting from the description but was instead incredibly lame. But that reminded him of the series of David Blaine Street Magic video spoofs, which he showed to me and I thought were hilarious. But of course I'm always amused by big queens acting all queeny.

Getting a chicken salad at the student center today, I was disappointed in the paltry amount of chicken in the salads they had out. But at least they weren't out of buttermilk ranch dressing and I remembered to get croutons this time. When I got back though, I was pleasantly surprised to see there was more chicken hidden underneath the chicken! Yes, this is what passes for egg-citment in my life, people!

Only a handful of machines left on the list. I don't know why I'm bothering though. The next time it comes around and I'm not the main person doing it, there'll be huge holes again, and I'm just gonna have get everything fixed when its my turn again. Seriously, how hard is this to do? It doesn't take that long to do all of them, but I don't think anyone even comes close to how quick it takes me to complete it. Heck, even if you doubled the time it takes me to do them, still people don't have it done within that time frame. It should only take a day or two at most to do the bulk or at least the important ones.

Owel, I was hoping to catch up on s4 of House after watching the rerun of the season premiere Monday, but the website only has the last four eps! I can't even see the ep that was between the Mira Sorvino one after this year's superbowl and the one where the patient was a really nice guy. At least then I could say I saw all the post superbowl eps. But alas, I guess I'll have to wait if I want to see the rest of fourth season. What time was the show on normally that I wasn't watching it?

Anyways, slowly trudging through 4th edition. Pardon the ensuing geekiness. ( geekiness cut for your benefit )

As I've said before, it always annoys me when I know all but one or two of the invisibles for the week. I think I should know 6 and 8, but nothing's springing to mind.

turdburgler lent me the last two issues of Basara, and I just finished reading those. As I often say whenever I read a new one, its usually so long between issues that often I don't even know who a character is. Since the main story ended a few books ago, the last few books are full of side stories about the plethora of secondary characters and fleshing them out. Like there's a story about Tamon and Masunaga, and I'm all, "Who the frak are Tamon and Masunaga?!" Like I kinda recognized them from their hairstyles, and Tamon's awful accent. Which reminds me, so is there some region of Japan that is considered to be full of country bumpkins, and that's why they give such characters Southern accents? But, its interesting to see the aftermath of the war and how people turned out. The real ending is especially interesting.

I'm almost finished reading through the entire main Exalted book. ( Cut for geekiness )

So I saw Ain't It Cool news had a link today to more character shots from the G.I.Joe movie. I think they were released earlier, but they were taken down before I got a chance to see them. It looks like the shots up now have permission from the studios.

I'm not sure how I feel about these black spandex and armor futuristic looking suits. I actually think it worked for Snake Eyes and Scarlett, but not so much the others. I do not like Storm Shadow's look at all. Its so generic! His later costumes in the toyline had some really good designs. And at least Snake-Eyes costume was in the vein of his various figures. Stormy doesn't have anything about his costume even referencing any of his various incarnations in the comics/toyline.

The Baroness is at least wearing a black leather suit. I don't know if its the weird lighting, but her head looks too big for her body in that pic. I think the costume could be better. Like this pic has always been my favorite drawing of the Baroness. Its like, she should have gotten some of that molded black plastic armor on her outfit that they used for the movie Joes.

And Destro isn't even wearing his trademark silver mask. When I see that pic, I don't think "Destro", I think "Its Christopher Eccleston with slicked back hair in a suit!" Though I guess it could just be a pic where he's not wearing the mask.

I'm still curious why they chose to use Heavy Duty instead of Roadblock for the token big black guy heavy machine gunner with an artistic side (Roadblock being a gourmet chef, Heavy Duty being a classically trained pianist. Yes, I realize I am a font of useless knowledge). I mean, Heavy Duty lends himself to people making the "Duty/Doodie" joke. I guess people who grew up in the 80s would know Roadblock (or would they? How many of you reading this watched the cartoon, but are still saying, "who?!" I think he was one of the bigger characters), but these kids nowadays watching like G.I.Joe Sigma 6 would be more familiar with Heavy Duty.

In kinda old news, it looks like most of the Soul Calibur cast is returning for SC4. From the released images some look the same, others look pretty different. The only new character I heard of was Hilde, a chick in knight armor who uses a spear and short sword. Of course, Xbox360 owners get Yoda as their game system exclusive character, whereas PS3ers get Vader (I think PS3 peeps get the better end of the deal). And they moved Amy up from secondary character to full playable character. I guess she was playable in the SC3, but now she's a true playable character with her own story, or so I hear. Of course, she's still rocking the Gothic Lolita Jailbait fencer girl look.

And is it me, or do these geek fun game companies try to nickel and dime you with all these books? I got Scroll of the Monk and the Black and White Treatsies in the mail yesterday. One of the spells in Black Treatsie I thought was cool was basically a "summon warstrider" spell, but you need some other book to know what the stats for a warstrider are! In Abyssals, they reference the Silver Prince and the First and Forsaken Lion knowing the Violet Bier of Sorrows style of Sidereal martial arts. It sounds like a cool style, particularly since it has daiklaves as a form weapon. But alas, its only referenced in Scroll of the Monk as well. Apparently, they put it in the Storyteller's Companion. And I assume it will also be in the 2nd edition Sidereal book.