OMG YOU GUYS. D3 GAME LAUNCH TONIGHT.

ALSO I GOT A PROMOTION.

it turns out, crunching for a game is time consuming. WHO KNEW. (4 days a week @ 11 hours/day, 1 day a week at 8 hours, 1 day a week at 7 hours has pretty much been my schedule all year. HUZZAH.)

t-8 days until the current fruits of our labor are out.

1. John Watson, you guys. BAMF or BAMFiest? You decide. I bet you know what my vote is.

2. I am caught up through season 6 of HIMYM. So...is Ted ever NOT an asshole? Also, Marshall's plotline in S6 made me cry. <3 Marshall.

3. I have read Saints Astray by Jacqueline Carey and all I really have to offer is <33333333333 and *chinhands*. Loup and Pilar make me really happy.

4. Seattle was awesome, as were San Francisco and Portland. Also, holy crap, Seattle, into board games much? That said, we picked up two games while we were there: Small World and Gosu, both of which are awesome. We've also been playing another game called Through the Ages, which is basically Civ but in board game format.

5.
dogs grow so fast, you guys. it's crazy.

Hey guys! It has been a busy time here with puppy training and work and more puppy training and also sleeping. And also planning for our massive road trip. With that in mind, I would like recommendations for

-place to have dinner in Portland
-places to eat in Seattle
-bakeries (the boything loves sweets)
-game stores in the Seattle area.

Anything else in particular that we should see.

so so so excited!

So, I try really hard not to promote video games here because of how they are sometimes super problematic with regards to race and gender and whatnot, but seriously.

Portal is available for free on Mac and PC through 9/20./
http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/

There are two characters in this game, both of them are women. Well, one of them is a woman, the other one is a robot.

ANYWAY.

It's a puzzle game and a physics game and a funny game. I strongly, strongly urge people who have not played Portal before to try it, even if you don't normally like video games. The one caveat to this is that it is a first person game and may cause motion sickness. I get pretty easily motion sick but this is not a game that triggers it.

There's often a lot of talk about what video games do wrong, but I want to show an example of when video games get it pretty explicitly right.

from the Awesome Things Discussed At Work box:

Conan (v. jason momoa) + Thor (v. chris hemsworth) vs Dr. Thulsa Doom.

what? they're both from marvel.

omg i was having kind of a shitty day at work (where i still am, btw) and then i found out that it is like 40 DAYS UNTIL A NEW DISCWORLD NOVEL WITH VIMES and now i am all *chinhands* and flaily.

YOU GUYS. SAM VIMES. <333333333

also! t-minus 4.5 weeks until i bring home a puppy!

holy crap, you guys, I tried watching The Last Airbender and it has been 2 minutes and 53 seconds and I'm already appalled.

like...seriously. WHY WASN'T AZULA THE FIREBENDER IN THE OPENING? WHY WASN'T AANG THE AIRBENDER IN THE OPENING? WTF IS THIS TERRIBLY WRITTEN MONOLOGUE THAT ISN'T EVEN THE OPENING MONOLOGUE FROM THE SHOW? WHAT IS THIS I CAN'T EVEN.

also, HOLY CRAP THOSE PEOPLE ARE PALE. I am not calling them Katara or Sokka because they're not. They're not even tearbending close :(

things that make me happy: shades of milk and honey.

it always makes me happysad when i'm reading a good book. Happy because i want to wrap the words around me like a blanket of awesomeness and sad because at some point the words end.

and then i saw ciaran hinds in the trailer for tinker, tailor, soldier, spy and went OH CAPT. WENTWORTH and maybe fanned myself a bit.

also, you guys, how much did i love conan the barbarian? i will give you a hint: IT WAS A LOT. there was no minute of that movie where i was not giggling at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

sometimes i want to make an rpg of manners. and then i realize no one but me would play it and then i go :(.

i applied for another position at work. i am torn between wanting it myself and wanting it to go to one of the people i know is also going for it.

dearest of LJs,

why must there be so many books and so little time to read them in? WHY BOOKS? WHY DO YOU MULTIPLY WHEN I AM NOT LOOKING? I am currently playing chicken with Borders' going out of business sale discounts and book availability. I hate to take advantage of the badness, but books are books and I'd rather take them then uh, not take them.

this year's book haul at comic con was phenomenal.
-shatter me by tahereh mafi was excellent
-i'm super enjoying marie lu's legend (omg seriously, fox1013 said it was Les Miserables like and I was all in my head, "oh lol, probably some form of cosette or eponine/marius" and IT IS NOT AT ALL THAT. JAVERT <3333333333
-there are many books i haven't read yet

not from comic con books
-have read a great deal of the carla kelly oeuvre. nice people doing nice things is pretty aces, you guys.

video game wise:
-toki tori is a fun puzzler
-portal 2 continues to be amazing
-civ 5 makes me happy
-anyone who legit cares about video games as an artform, if you are not watching Extra Credits you are missing out.
-diablo 3 why aren't you on my computer yet?
-OMG STARJEWELED. SUCH DELICIOUS DELICIOUS CRACK.
-i am disappoint in but not surprised by the winner of the fem!Shep contest for ME3. At least she will actually be a real part of the promo for the game, so I guess that's something.

television
-sanctuary (surprising to no one, i'm sure: i like everyone on the show!)
-leverage season 3 (in the queue)

movies
-captain america (I liked it! just not as much as I liked, say, Thor or Iron Man)
-I AM STILL DISAPPOINT, ZACH SNYDER.
-i don't care how terrible it is, man, I am there on opening weekend for motherfucking CONAN. Not only is it Jason Momoa, but my dad and I used to watch Conan the Barbarian/Destroyer ALL THE TIME when I was wee. Though I will say, if the question of what is best in life is not answered in that movie, I will have all of the nostalgia sadness.

plans for moving someday
-we are planning a roadtrip up to seattle over christmas to examine neighborhoods and atmosphere. also to go to the AFK Tavern. Also on the list of stops are the monterey bay aquarium, san francisco, humboldt redwood national park, and portland. I don't expect to hit all of it, but we're going to give it a shot.

oh, and p.s., I GET A PUPPY IN 7 WEEKS.

ZACH SNYDER, CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, I AM DISAPPOINT.

Omg flist, it is not even dawn yet and the line to get next year's comic con passes wraps around the marina.

af;ladflkla;ksjdf i hate php scripting. help me flist-wan kenobi!

I need to have a user select a background and foreground colors, which go to the body style attributes upon hitting submit on the form. There are hidden fields on the form which supposedly pass that shit on, but nothing is happening. (well, the name part of it is working but not the colors).

Any ideas?

this is totally going to out me as a child of suburban southern california, but...

Seriously, are a lack of sidewalks a normal thing in the suburbs of other places? I find this so perplexing.

did not get the job :( it wouldn't be so :( if I didn't think I was a better writer than the guy they did get, who, unfortunately, has a significantly larger base XP with design development pipelines than I do. OH WELL.

We finished watching Numb3rs (<333333333333 DON AND EVERYONE ELSE). The "As you know, Jim" stuff got a little old, but otherwise, I just completely enjoyed myself.

Also finished watching True Blood S3. I AM SO TORN, YOU GUYS. On the one hand, they've done amazing amazing things with Lafayette and Jason and even Tara after the crazypants that was S2 and I love Jessica and OMG <3 PAM and Terry and Eric. But I cringe at the stuff they have Sam doing and sometimes I want to sit down with Sookie and explain that Bill is not actually good for her. BUT OH MAN, ALCIDE. AND LACEY THORNTON WAS IN IT AND I SPENT THE WHOLE TIME GOING YOU ARE WENDY WATSON'S EQUALLY PHOTOGENIC ARTIST FRIEND.

I think next up are the Sherlock things by Steve Moffat.

The boything has started blogging about game related stuff. IDK if anyone cares, but he is over at mythosgaming.blogspot.com.

what else what else. I am trying to decide what kooky powers not!Olivia has to balance out not!Don's crazy oracleness.

I play a LOT of pen and paper right now. Two Pathfinder games (magus and oracle), Shadowrun (crazypants street samurai), and on the miniature wargaming side, there's Warmachine. OH MAN, EMO NINJA ASSASSIN LADY IS THE BEST.

that is all for today :) maybe i will make a mix of music for not!Olivia and not!Don to have simmery tense conversations where they talk about stuff that isn't how much they like each other and is totally about fighting injustice and crime where they see it.

IDEK, people.

The good!
-have been given more responsibility at work! this is excellent in many ways, not the least of which is that I get to do things other than follow instructions and instead get to give instructions and compile data and come up with clever ways to test everything we need to test to make sure that when you log into our game and decide to talk to someone, your computer doesn't explode or gain sentience. It also means I am about a month or so away from a promotion (possibly two).

The bad!
OH MAN RESPONSIBILITY :( :( :( I like being a slacker.

The good!
Apparently I make enough money in a year to be a single income household in SoCal with a condo! And potentially to have kids.

The bad!
The boything quit his job in an effort to preserve future job opportunities (we are a big enough company in the industry to make future jobs nigh-impossible to get if you get fired) and after reaching the point of rage and frustration with his corporate tool of a manager. Also his general level of unhappiness with the growing attitude trend at DQ.

The good!
We are taking this opportunity to figure out a) if we can afford to have kids, b) for the boything to go back to school, and c) to see exactly how much we can afford.

The bad!
OH MAN MONEY :( :( :( I'm not used to having to be on a budget. WHY ARE SO MANY BOOKS THAT I WANT COMING OUT RIGHT NOW?

The good!
A temp position is coming up at work as a writer! With one of the dudes who wrote ME2! These are usually the kinds of assignments that lead to full time jobs!

The bad!
I have two days to come up with and write a story to put in my application portfolio. the only saving grace here is that i've read some of the fiction from my competition.

The good!
I am getting a puppy finally!

The bad!
It may not be as soon as I had hoped.

So I have been pretty much watching Numb3rs (where is non incest plotty fic?), reading whatever I could get my hands on (recently Mira Nair's Feed. OMG I CRIED.), and considering what exactly to do with not!Don and not!Olivia fighting crime. Hi, LJ. I've missed you guys.

Olivia/Don = most entertainingly reserved couple ever.

our building for work flooded so I am at home and we are just watching a LOT of Numb3rs. And eating watermelon. and strawberries. and quesadillas. here's hoping the first floor remains unusable.

how hard it is to catch fic and stuff after a fandom is pretty much over.

also, i kind of miss the days when EPIC CASEFILES were more common.

Hey, so, that Don Eppes guy. *chinhands*

OMG YOU GUYS HE IS AN HONORABLE STOIC COP WHO FIGHTS CRIME AND IS SLIGHTLY DYSFUNCTIONAL AND ALSO HAS FAMILY ISSUES BUT HE LOVES THEM AND THERE ARE PHYSICISTS AND ALSO MATH. <33333333333

I'm not predictable at all!

We are in season 3 and I am just going DON! DON DON DON! <3 AND COLBY AND DAVID AND AMITA AND CHARLIE AND LARRY AND ALAN AND MEGAN OH MEGAN <33333333.

JFC PEOPLE, IDRIS ELBA PLAYING A ALIEN NORSE GOD THING IS NOT JUST AS RACIST AS ROBERT PATTINSON* PLAYING KANEDA.

NEXT THING YOU KNOW, YOU WILL BE TELLING ME THAT WOMEN WANTING EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK IS JUST THE SAME AS DUDES HOLDING A DOOR OPEN.

dear interwebs,

be less stupid about things.

no love,
s.

*or whatever white dude they end up casting as Kaneda and Tetsuo.

the boything is playing Two Worlds 2 while we are waiting for dinner to finish cooking, and he turns to me and says, "Sweetie, they gave her nipple geometry."

And I look, and sure enough, this lady in very...interesting clothing has nipple geometry. And he looks at her for a few more moments and then says, "If it makes you feel better, she has knee geometry too."

(wtf Two Worlds 2 artists and modelers. nipple geometry? Really? You actually spent time on giving her accurate, if improbably perky boobs?)

so, watching while wowing has moved through ATLA and Planet Earth and is now on Superman: TAS and we just watched the Superman/Batman crossover.

you guys you guys you guys: where is there bruce/lois/clark? I believe it's out there. Because...well. The episode practically writes it itself.

Man, Avatar the Last Airbender, HOW SO AWESOME?

All the ladies are utterly utterly awesome and Zuko is such a failbot and Iroh is amazing and "Tales of Ba Sing Se" makes me cry in like four different places.

<3

where are nice, affordable places to live? in like two years, granted, but it doesn't hurt to start looking around :D