Skyrim

So the Skyrim post! I think I may have pretty much exhausted all my interest in the game finally. Well I feel fulfilled at least, theres a bunch I would totally do if I allowed myself to play more. Took about two months. And that was like...an obsessive two months. Everything you heard about nerds living in a fantasy arctic world for an extended period of time, its true, you pretty much do live there.

Its amazing, I really really like this game. I fucking hate bethesda something fierce, so I think that probably says something. I mean this is a Bethesda game through and through, huge open world, tons of silly conversations you can manipulate for your amusement, quests, some killing, some looting, and of course, endless glitches. Holy crap this game is buggy. It sure didnt turn me off enough to turn me away from the game, but dang if it isnt throw your cat out the window frustrating. The truth is, theres just so much shit to do that you just go do something else and you forget about the glitch in that one quest you spent hours trying to complete...only to be thwarted by a mysteriously dissapearing NPC...or a conversation that always crashes your ps3...or for some reason kills you, brings you back to the last auto-save which happens to be the moment before you died and, well, yea...

The graphic style is pretty interesting. I would say, overall, pretty ugly. The people dont look that great, up close everything is pretty crappy looking, it just doesnt really impress...Until you just kind of take it all in. It just kind of hits you that this world is HUGE, that mountain looks awesome and I want to climb it! That tower by the lake is scary, I want to invade! It all works very well as a whole. I guess they are like this years denver nuggets, as individuals they all are alright, but as a team they become a monster.

The biggest draw for me had to be just the size of the world. And by that I don't just mean the physical size of Skyrim. It is big, and that is great, but just all the shit to do man. The endless sidequests, the seemingly infinite dungeons, the endless dragons that spawn, all the story lines to chase at your fancy, the random ass giant encampments that always humble your ass when you feel powerful, it really is just too much to even think about. Let me throw some numbers out here: played 202 'skyrim days,' completed 106 quests, 193 misc objectives, 5 questlines, looted 1113 chests, killed over 2000 things, trapped almost 300 souls. I mean you get the idea, this was a lot of shit, and I have no doubt I could easily play this game another month and be fairly well entertained! A frightening prospect, to be sure. Skyrim is great, an epic time drain rivaling even the king, pokemon. Will I get elder scrolls 6 when it comes out? I dunno, I hope to have a life outside of skyrim by then...at this rate I wouldnt count on that tho.

JEREMY LIN

Dude is a monster. Call me crazy, but he totally reminds me of a smaller...asian...Brandon Roy. Sounds crazy, I know, but his uncanny ability to kind of lull you to sleep as he blows by you while attacking the rim is confusing to watch. He looks like hes so slow, yet he burns whoever guards him.

I guess I already knew this but....

Had an interview with a super friendly guy yesterday. Super friendly. He was really interested in applied linguistics. I'm kinda meh on applied ling, I think most of it is crap, but the world disagrees with me an it seems to be growing. It was funny/strange though. Topic of grad school came up, I said I'm not really thinking about it, its probably too expensive/not realistic for me. He was kind of adamant that I ought to give it a shot. He even sent me a email today about a program I ought to look into.

At the time of course I was just thinking "guh some old guy trying to push the young one to follow a dream because they cant anymore." and then he just tells me, almost like hes reading my mind, he wishes he could have done something like ling in school, he finds it so interesting, he reads ling papers it interests him so much. An now I'm sitting here thinking about how this guy coulda been me. And I coulda been him. I regret almost every day now not getting a BS, getting something practical. And here's this scientist telling me he wishes he hadnt been a successful scientist and instead chased a random interest. Would I be happier if I had done engineering or CS or something? Actually I bet I'd be way unhappier, and I'd prbly wish I had done something like ling. I'm prbly just a complainer.

Yay NBA!

It was fun for three quarters. I was shocked really, warriors playing defense?! And they did quite well, for perhaps one half. They looked tired in the second half, and the offense was really quite a mess all night aside from a few flashes. The big positives I took from it was Biedrins and Thompson. Biedrins was a beast when he was on the floor, he played solid D and showed some skills in the post which I wasnt aware he possessed. Thompson looked just completely lost/horrendous in the first quarter but really seemed to settle in finally in the second half. I dont have huge hopes for him, but just seeing him improve through his first game was fun. Monta and Dorrell never looked comfortable, hoping its just rust and not them being poor fits for jacksons style. David Lee, bless the poor guy, tried hard but truly is a miserable defender. But the effort on that end from everyone was something I'm not sure I've ever seen in my time watching the warriors. I dont think this is a playoff team, but I see no reason why we cant best the rockets as 9th "best." an hell, if someone falls apart a la last years jazz who the hell knows what can happen. This is a young team with a complete unknown as the head coach, I expect losses to start, but as it all comes together I don't see why this team can't win more than they lose.

And the Results

And so ends the whole black friday/cyber monday shenanigans. I picked up five games, the wallet is ~$120 lighter. 24 bucks per game isnt so bad i guess. Best pick up was Dark Souls, off amazon, for just 35. Mighty pleased with that. I got Ico/Colossus remakes, full price, figured what the hell, if there is one set of games I actually want to pay full price for its those. Then I got some old ones I never got around to, Bioshock, Heavy Rain, and Assasins Creed 2. Assasins creed just looks like some good mindless fun, the other two just seem like games I need to play through, just cause of their influences on current games. Well bioshock for its influence, heavy rain for its creativity. So yea, I think this was quite successful. I really wanted Skyrim an Skyward sword...but seeing as how those two pretty much are the same price as the five I picked up, I figured might as well go for the sale items an by the time I finish em those games will be on sale/cheapy cheap.

Flip

Haven't updated in a while, forgot I had this blog to be honest. Life, it seems, will always present new challenges. The latest being no NBA season. I kid! Though not really. Post graduation life has been fine. I'm jobless and struggling to keep a long distance relationship afloat, but other than that I can't really complain. I wish I had basketball to distract, bet eh, maybe I'll watch college basketball this year. I've got two adorable baby cats, Lucifer (Luci) and Toasted Marshmallow (Toasty). Luci is black Toasty is classic siamese, they is sisters and really just way too adorable. Don't believe me?BOOM! If you didn't swoon just now you are heartless. And yes they do sleep like that with some frequency~

I've been playing Resonance of Fate and Folklore on my PS3. Both highly entertaining games, games that were pretty much made for me. Creative, beautiful artwork, non-traditional combat, just super enjoyable new eastern RPGs. In other news, games I'd like to have soon in order of wantingness:

Ico/SOTC HD remakes
Zelda Skyward Sword
Dark Souls
Catherine
Skyrim
El Shaddai

That is an expensive list, especially for someone who has no job and is spending their savings on trips to southern California. What can ya do. I think maybe I'll try posting in here more, or maybe make a new log just for kicks. Now that I got all this free time ya know.

Memphis and the Fail that is OKC

OKC has some of the best young talent in the NBA. Scratch that, they have the best young talent in the NBA. There is really no question. I watch Westbrook and Durant and I cant help but marvel at their talents. But more often than that, I marvel at how fucking stupid they are.

I watch games like this and wonder if Kobe was the worst thing to ever happen to the NBA. It seems as if the big question for every team is "who will take the big shot?" when Memphis is showing you right here that it doesn't fucking matter as long as you play your game. Westbrook was playing a beautiful game until the 4th quarter, where he just decided to overdribble and jack up 20 foot jump shots every possession. He finally started getting Durant the ball when it was clear that the idiot PG was on his way to losing the game for his team single handly, and then Durant does nearly the exact same thing by chucking up terrible long range jump shots!

You think maybe they would realize that all the griz did during their huge comeback was pound the ball inside and get to the rim? The thunder have all the talent in the world, but they play themselves out of games. The two fieldgoals they got in overtime were, surprise, buckets off harden getting to the rim. You can't take westbrook out since he does so much in the game besides scoring, but I would rather Harden be running the point (or at least just handling the ball, positions really dont matter), as Westbrook has, time and again, proven he is incapable of running any semblance of an offense when he gets excited.

Not to take anything from the Grizzlies. They really are a joy to watch, they play tough and they play as a team. Their bigs really control the game and the smaller guards are able to feed off the opportunities presented because of it. They force a ton of turnovers, they all play as a complete team, and they have a couple of absolute beasts down low. I think the griz are legit, and if they do manage to beat OKC I sure will be rooting for them.