Various and sundry
Jan. 25th, 2009 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amethyst73Cats, part 1: Fluffy Cat was limping a bit last night. Today he's been avoiding putting weight on his right hind foot whenever possible, hobbling about on three legs most of the time that he chooses to move. The leg's not swollen, and he doesn't seem to mind having it manipulated, which means it's probably a strain or something. I am calling the vet first thing tomorrow AM to have him looked at. Anyone have experience with cat leg injuries?
Cats, part 2: Mouse Cat is sooo much more social and friendly now than he used to be! He'll come out and say hi to us when we're doing dinner or breakfast, and lies about on the futon in the evenings, begging to be petted. He still strongly dislikes being picked up, but that's probably the thing to work on next.
Work: OMG busy busy busy crazy busy. I went to Berkeley this past Friday for work that I thought would take a couple of hours at most. I was there for six hours. (This is what happens when I embark on something where I don't know that I don't know the whole picture of what needs to be done!) And, and and... there's so much to do! And I have to have a checkup this Friday AM, and I may have to do jury duty next month, and I'm gonna need to go back to Berkeley for at least a couple of weeks, and... *pant* *wheeze*
Health:
- We failed to sleep for probably around three hours last night. That made today Not. Fun. And the huz may have caught a cold. Hmph.
- My dad is in a pretty good place right now. He's a lot more engaged in the world than he was back in May and expresses thoughts and opinions about stuff. Hope it lasts; we'll be grateful for however long it does.
Music: I'm back to voice lessons! I'll have more time for practice than I did during November/December, but of course less than either my teacher or I would like. Such is life. Church choir is good, we sang Really Well this morning. :)
Movies: We really enjoyed watching Millenium Actress over break, and we just finished watching our new DVD of Paprika. That movie is sooo worth a serious post, but it's still not going to get one right now. And we haven't watched the tasty bonus material yet. Satoshi Kon is clearly a director whose other films we need to check out.
Videogames:
- Okami: Wandering through Nippon before tackling the long annoying trek between Ponc'tan and the Spirit Gate. At least the trees stay Bloomed after I've done with them the first time round. Wonder if I can melt the ice spikes permanently too? But, but why doesn't it let me save between trials??!? *pout*
- Zelda PH: Have restored the Kingdom of Cobble and have to figure out the sacred sigil to open the gate to the dungeon here. Huz is already muchly through that one.
- Phoenix Wright Justice for All: Continuing to find domination themes, though I honestly couldn't say whether they're *really* meant that way or not. I am duly amused. More details later.
As a general rule, I don't get hugely excited about upcoming game releases, partially because my gaming hours are fairly limited. (The notable exception to this was Okami, and to some extent FFTA2 - though I mostly waited for the reviews to come out before I went into Must Have mode.) But I've found a new darling to be excited about. It's a game for the DS called Scribblenauts. The idea is that you're a little boy named Max posed with a puzzle (big long series of puzzle levels, really) of how to get a chunk of mystical material called Starite (a chunk of star I guess) that's somewhere on the level. You write any noun - pretty much anything, as long as it isn't a licensed object or a cuss word - and that object will generate on the upper screen and act in some predictable fashion. If the Starite is up in a tree, you can write ladder and a ladder will spawn and Max will climb up it to get the Starite. Or you could write axe and Max will chop down the tree. You can see the first-ever trailer of the game here (where the up-in-a-tree example is solved a few different ways). There's a neat world-debut interview with one of the developers here - it goes on for about four pages. If you can dream it and write it, you can generate it. This is going to be a mess for people who can't spell - or maybe it'll be a spelling tutor in disguise.
I Want To Try This Game. I want to see what happens when you write the word bat - do you get the mammal, or the chunk of wood? What happens with monster, starship, DNA, enzyme, freedom, enemies, tsunami? (Freedom will probably throw some sort of "Sorry, non-tangible noun" error; tsunami is described in the interview as one way to definitively lose the level because, well, Max bites the dust.) Just the sandbox potential of this thing could be amazing, if it's done right. I really want it to be done right. :)
Cats, part 2: Mouse Cat is sooo much more social and friendly now than he used to be! He'll come out and say hi to us when we're doing dinner or breakfast, and lies about on the futon in the evenings, begging to be petted. He still strongly dislikes being picked up, but that's probably the thing to work on next.
Work: OMG busy busy busy crazy busy. I went to Berkeley this past Friday for work that I thought would take a couple of hours at most. I was there for six hours. (This is what happens when I embark on something where I don't know that I don't know the whole picture of what needs to be done!) And, and and... there's so much to do! And I have to have a checkup this Friday AM, and I may have to do jury duty next month, and I'm gonna need to go back to Berkeley for at least a couple of weeks, and... *pant* *wheeze*
Health:
- We failed to sleep for probably around three hours last night. That made today Not. Fun. And the huz may have caught a cold. Hmph.
- My dad is in a pretty good place right now. He's a lot more engaged in the world than he was back in May and expresses thoughts and opinions about stuff. Hope it lasts; we'll be grateful for however long it does.
Music: I'm back to voice lessons! I'll have more time for practice than I did during November/December, but of course less than either my teacher or I would like. Such is life. Church choir is good, we sang Really Well this morning. :)
Movies: We really enjoyed watching Millenium Actress over break, and we just finished watching our new DVD of Paprika. That movie is sooo worth a serious post, but it's still not going to get one right now. And we haven't watched the tasty bonus material yet. Satoshi Kon is clearly a director whose other films we need to check out.
Videogames:
- Okami: Wandering through Nippon before tackling the long annoying trek between Ponc'tan and the Spirit Gate. At least the trees stay Bloomed after I've done with them the first time round. Wonder if I can melt the ice spikes permanently too? But, but why doesn't it let me save between trials??!? *pout*
- Zelda PH: Have restored the Kingdom of Cobble and have to figure out the sacred sigil to open the gate to the dungeon here. Huz is already muchly through that one.
- Phoenix Wright Justice for All: Continuing to find domination themes, though I honestly couldn't say whether they're *really* meant that way or not. I am duly amused. More details later.
As a general rule, I don't get hugely excited about upcoming game releases, partially because my gaming hours are fairly limited. (The notable exception to this was Okami, and to some extent FFTA2 - though I mostly waited for the reviews to come out before I went into Must Have mode.) But I've found a new darling to be excited about. It's a game for the DS called Scribblenauts. The idea is that you're a little boy named Max posed with a puzzle (big long series of puzzle levels, really) of how to get a chunk of mystical material called Starite (a chunk of star I guess) that's somewhere on the level. You write any noun - pretty much anything, as long as it isn't a licensed object or a cuss word - and that object will generate on the upper screen and act in some predictable fashion. If the Starite is up in a tree, you can write ladder and a ladder will spawn and Max will climb up it to get the Starite. Or you could write axe and Max will chop down the tree. You can see the first-ever trailer of the game here (where the up-in-a-tree example is solved a few different ways). There's a neat world-debut interview with one of the developers here - it goes on for about four pages. If you can dream it and write it, you can generate it. This is going to be a mess for people who can't spell - or maybe it'll be a spelling tutor in disguise.
I Want To Try This Game. I want to see what happens when you write the word bat - do you get the mammal, or the chunk of wood? What happens with monster, starship, DNA, enzyme, freedom, enemies, tsunami? (Freedom will probably throw some sort of "Sorry, non-tangible noun" error; tsunami is described in the interview as one way to definitively lose the level because, well, Max bites the dust.) Just the sandbox potential of this thing could be amazing, if it's done right. I really want it to be done right. :)
