| Gravity, aka Holy Shit: The Movie of the Theme Park Ride

I caught Gravity and I unequivocally recommend it. See it in 3D on the biggest IMAX you can get to - the movie is basically a thrill ride of things going horribly wrong in space and it's really impressive.

Outrun the zombie hordes to your local cinema today!

| Haha... IKEA or DEATH METAL?

lawls, I only got 10 out of 20. Funny.

IKEA is that friendly shop where you get cheap furniture from the inside of a giant, unending warehouse. Black metal is the kind of music that sounds like someone screaming while trapped inside a burning church. They each possess a fervent fan base. And to tell you the truth, the names of the furniture in IKEA sound a lot like the names of black metal bands. Consider this quiz an educational way to learn the difference between the two. It doesn’t matter if you know who Burzum is or if you’ve ever sat in a Preben chair – it’s time to have some kvlt fun. Death to false furniture!

IKEA or DEATH METAL? (quiz)

| HUMBLE BUNDLE

This week's humble bundle looks pretty rad. Cities XL Platinum (like sim city that doesn't suck) and Blood Bowl, plus 3 games I've never heard of, for just $1! WIN! And if you are a fan of RTS, the Wargame: European Escalation is a LOT of fun, but you have to pledge at least $6 to charity to get it and another game I don't know.

HUMBLE BUNDLE

| This is entertaining

If you liked Candy Box, this is for you! Neat text based DND meets Zombo kind of fun game. lol. Once you get to adventuring, things get more interesting.

A DARK ROOM

| I don't appreciate being called the b-word.

Thanks.

| Start Training, Bitches

Run For Your Lives, Valejo, CA Edition is happnin' in April 2014!

I'm TOTALLY doing it and am starting my training NOW!  $49 to be a runner!

Zombies! 5k! Mud! Blood! DO EET!

http://www.runforyourlives.com

| Missive Affect

Ahh, gotcha. Also, they've added in another ending options as well now. You can tell the little hitler kid to shove it (you're not going to pick), and let the cycle play out. I can ruin it for you if you want, or you can look up the youtube, but it's a pretty fulfilling ending as well. They also replaced the entire Stargazer cutscene with someone who wasn't borderline senile reading the lines. As for all the previous saves, meh, I wouldn't care really. I think the only way to play it is to start at ME1 and play through fresh with a new dood. Or chick. Chick that seduces other chicks. lol... that was an aspect of the game I thought would be stupid and cheese but wound up actually being pretty compelling (the romance storylines, not the stupid hookups). That Tali Zorah is so well acted. Hope they use her when they make the film (which I'm like 98% sure is going to be horrid).

| Wait, wait, I said it wrong

Yeah, the Synthesis ending was in originally (and was what i picked)... what I meant, but didn't explain well, was that originally when you run into Tiny Space Hitler, he forces you into making this control/destroy/synthesis choice after explaining that biological and artificial life are irreconcilable. But in my playthrough, Shepard had just proven that biological and AI can put their differences aside and coexist, so his whole premise was basically false... but Shepard couldn't push back on that premise and was railroaded into the final choice. Shepard is a pretty ornery, alpha personality through the whole thing, so it hit a false note. Really, the Indoctrination Theory rabbit hole made a lot of sense pre patch.

That was the gist anyway -- it's been a while so I'm probably misremembering some details. Kinda want to replace my xbox now and replay that game (I'd get it for PC, but I'm too invested in those saves I've had around forever!).

In other news, the new kid's farts smell way, way worse than his sister's ever did. Truly his father's son.

| Cheap ass gamin'

Also, I grabbed all three games ME1-3 for about $15 total on Amazon when they were having a sale not too long ago. You might be able to download it for your computer and play that way instead.

And I forgot to say: Garrus is my boy 4 lyfe, yo. Love that guy. :D

I think Tali, Garrus and Javik have the best writing in the game. Good stuff. I actually laughed out loud when Tali was getting drunk and talking about her emergency induction port (straw). haha

| haha YAY!

If I had to pick just one or two DLCs other than the ending patch thing, I think I'd probably go with Leviathan and From Ashes.

Leviathan because it addresses the root "where did all this shit start" question.

From Ashes because.. lol, Javik's lines are absolutely hilarious.

Also, did they patch in the third option at the end for Synergy (combining synthetics and organics) or did I misread your post? I thought you could do that as long as you had a high enough of assets accumulated by the end?

- I've been spending some of my free time porting Earthdawn over to 13th Age, a recent d20 game that is a fusion of 3e/4e/indie. Go me?
- Anytime I buy gas I think about ManCon. No idea why. I guess I bought some gas at one of the ManCons or something?

Re: Mass Effect 3. Yes, fArt, you did yourself a service waiting on the ending patch. The original ending was almost insultingly lazy with tons of holes. It also randomly shoehorned in a bunch of elements that didn't really seem borne out by the previous jillion hours of the series. (Like being told suddenly that the theme of the game is mechanical vs. bio, and they can't be united, when you know what, I JUST DID THAT WITH THE GETH AND QUARIANS WHICH KINDA DISPROVES YOUR POINT, KID.) It also seemed that there should've been a way for Shepard to talk through the situation using sheer ballbusting charisma considering that is what he/she does the entire series. I wasn't super-pissed about it or anything, but it was certainly a bad way to end an otherwise great series. I heard the Citadel DLC is really good and works well as send-off for the trilogy. I might replace my broke-ass 360 whenever the price drops, so maybe I'll fire that up with my Renegade character, Omar Little Shepard.

Edit: I just reread that and I think it came off a little more negative than I meant. YAY MASS EFFECT!

| Felicitations!

ROOD!!!  Great news!  Give my regards to the family.

| In gaming news:

Just finished my 3rd playthrough of the Mass Effect series. Man that is just an amazing accomplishment. Such a well crafted storyline with rich and deeply written characters. The little things, like how all your decisions from even the first Mass Effect carry through to ME2 and ME3 are pretty amazing. I'm kind of glad I was a late adopter on this one, because I heard there were some bumps and bruises with the first release of the ME3 edition's ending. With a little bit of DLC, everything is rounded out. You really feel drawn into the experience, and your interactions are meaningful.

I'm drawn to gaming experiences where you have to make tough moralistic / pragmatic decisions where there is a lot of grey area, yet the repercussions will be long standing. There are no shortage of these moments throughout the whole series, that's for sure. Pop quiz, you break through to the enemy's command and control center and can hack into the computer to stop one of the two incoming nukes. Do you save the spaceport or the colony? Saving the spaceport will allow for recolonization and keep the military types happier but it vaporizes all those innocent colonists. Saving the colonist will get you popular support with certain factions but at the expense of pissing off the military higher ups and perhaps reducing your available men/materials for later battles.

Anyway. Enough of me being a fanboi. lol

| 100% Miscellaneous

Rood! Grats mang! Welcome to the never sleeping again club! :D

Aaron, that lightsaber meme kills me every time, so effing hilarious.

So, here's some fun times from my day so far that no one will probably want to read anyway, lol. But, if you just wanna do the tl:dr version, +1 faith in humanity restored (see end of post)... Anyway, from the files of "YOU HAVE TO BE SHITTING ME"

Before I was mostly dead in the hospital, I was in the process of setting up a business for enrollment of benefits through Aflac. That got put off until I was out of the hospital and cleared to go back to work this summer. Went back to get that done and HQ said that I needed a box checked on the 9 page account-setup document checked off (that there is no health insurance broker involved). That queued my first response of, you have to be shitting me, I can't just verify with you via email or in writing that there is no health insurance broker involved? Anyway, so I went back with the original document, had them sign for the check box, resent into the company. Get a follow up email stating that the form being submitted is out of date and I must resubmit on a new form version (on which, they have literally only changed the visual appearance of the boxes around all the shit on the form). Say it with me! YOU'VE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME. I called them and asked if I could just do it on a digital signature (we can now do signed documents directly into the laptop) and was told sure, no problem. Go in, get that new form signed, initialed and submitted. Get an email back stating "cannot submit digitally if account was submitted for approval within the last 12 months.". YOU HAVE TO BE SHITTING ME. Was able to call up and get a human being that flipped the "go" switch from their end. Did not get the usual confirmation email stating the account had been approved, but I was able to download the new account directly into my computer, had a rated approved as preferred, everything looked great... went out and enrolled the company, submitted the business and get an email back this morning. "Must have applications printed and initialed by all applicants, preferred rate code not authorized". YOU HAVE TO BE SHITTING ME. Call up, get transferred to three different departments, finally wind up in the technical support department where they inform me that this is apparently a known glitch with this type of business, where the laptop will download the wrong rate. YOU HAVE TO BE SHITTING ME.

Sigh. I'm better now, but there was about a 30 minute period this morning when I was ready to hulk smash my entire work station in frustration. lol

THEN... just as I'm reaching critical "Fuck this shit" mass, I came across this video and suddenly I felt kind of small and stupid for being so emotionally tied up in the negativity.

Faith in humanity restored:

You should totally watch this video of human beings not being assholes to each other

| Hooray!

Well done, r00d!

Good to see the first generation of The AT Women's Auxiliary is beginning to swell in numbers!

Thanks man! I'm finally in the club! :)

Congrats Rude!