It occurred to me today, that the mods on this site are treated nearly god-like.  It's been a long time since I've seen that sort of thing on a website.  Nowadays most mods are looked down upon in some regard, whether it's for working for X company, or for having X opinion of something. 
 
Here though, many of them are treated as from on high.  Is this because of the Bombcast?  Is that what makes it different from other sites? 
  
I guess I really don't get the whole Bombcast thing either.  Then again, I've never gotten into podcasts in general.  But I'm just not that interested in watching or listening to other people talk about video games.  I want to read about it so I can skip to the parts that I'm interested in.  But is that what it takes for a site to be successful now, or for mods to be respected?  Have a podcast and/or videos? 
 
It is definitely interesting food for thought.  As I write this, it has occurred to me that perhaps this is a tactic I should keep in mind.  I've modded for other sites before.  Some of them now defunct, some of them whittled down to small, tight-knit communities.  But now that I think about it, this would come in most handy for guild websites that I have run/moderated.  Whether I'm the guild leader or just an officer, videos, podcasts... these are the things of the day, and would be a damn handy tool.   For most guilds that I have run websites for, it's always been a chore to get the majority of the guild to actually visit the website.  I could see this being an attractant though.  Hmmm.  I shall have to ponder this more.  And now I'm starting to ramble... I need more coffee.
 

So there's a thread on the forums asking about good RPGs for the PS3.  The only exclusives that came up were Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles.  Everything else was on 360 and/or PC.  I have both Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles at home.   
 
While I'm not averse to tactical RPGs like Valkyria Chronicles, I am averse the the JRPG look in my RPGs.  After twenty-nine Final Fantasies and other such games that were so prevalent during the PS2 era, I'm ready for better looking RPGs.  I realize that some people LOVE their JRPGs.  Not me.  I'm also not really into anime or manga.  So sue me, as Sinatra sang. 
 
Demon's Souls I was interested in for a while.  I played it for a while.  Admittedly, it was pretty damn hard.  But I think what bothered me as much as or more than the difficulty was how linear the game was.  You're basically just driving on to get to the next boss fight. 
 
And other than those two I haven't heard much in the way of exclusive PS3 good RPGs.  Which makes me sad face.

I do this every year.  Myself and much of the rest of the country.   I totally overextend myself.  I'm lucky I've been able to keep the bank account out of the red.  And it still seems like Christmas at home is fairly lean.   
 
Husband got: 
A new leather jacket since the puppy tore up his (and I found the exact same one for like $60 at Amazon... err $100 with shipping) 
A navy peacoat (because he's always wanted one) 
A pair of Levi's (because he prefers Levi's and I have been buying him no name brands for years) 
Red Dead Redemption 
Uncharted 2  
Stocking stuffers
 
Daughter got: 
A new 19" flatscreen tv/monitor with a built in DVD player 
A usb graphics tablet since she likes to draw on the computer 
A 360 network adapter 
Halo Reach (cause she loves playing Halo) 
Stocking stuffers 
 
 I mean... I probably spent $400 or $500 on each of them.  And considering I was trying to keep Christmas down to about $500 because of money.....    
 
And it still doesn't feel like I've done enough.  I just love when people get that "OMG Wow, that was so awesome of you!" when they open a present. 
 
Ah well.  At least next year I'll actually be putting money away in my holiday club account so I'll have more Christmas spending money.

When I was five and a half, my brother was born.  When I was six and a half, our mother died.  Our father nearly immediately turned to drugs and alcohol, and stayed on that path for a very long time.  I'm sure he had a decent job before then, but I only recall him holding one or two jobs after that for short periods.  We lived off welfare and social security survivor's benefits.  While my dad was out looking for a new piece of tail or his latest high, I took care of my little brother.  When my dad was home, he was abusive in various ways.  I can't remember the last time I've seen anyone from our mother's side of the family.  I was probably no older than ten the last time.
 
By the time I was 13, my dad had at least 3 other children by other women in addition to me and my brother (that we know of).  The women were starting to get ticked that he wasn't handling his responsibilities.  He packed us up and we basically fled from New Jersey to his sister's place in Washington.  We were here for a month and a half, had started up school, when my dad decided to take back off to New Jersey.  He said he'd be back for us at the end of the school year.  That never happened... but that wasn't necessarily his fault.  His sister knew the abuse he was doling out and got his custodial rights removed.  My brother and I became wards of the state with our aunt as our legal guardian. 
 
Unfortunately she wasn't much better.  I lived there between the ages of 13 and 17 (I moved out the day after high school graduation).  She was nearly as bad as her brother, just with less abuse going on in her house.  She was an extreme alcoholic, and possibly was still a drug addict at this point.  She was living on welfare, claiming her two children... but forgetting to claim that her boyfriend was also living with her, and he made decent money.  The only time she held down a job was when she started her own housekeeping business.... which didn't last long when she started sending her boyfriend and us kids to do her work because she was too drunk.  
 
I have watched my aunt lie, cheat, steal, forge, sell drugs, and god knows what else.  She still doesn't hold a job, even though she's given up alcohol.  (Instead she smokes weed all the time).  Her credit has always been awful - bad enough that she used my name and social security number to obtain credit when I was a kid.  Yet somehow she has a bigger house than me, two brand new cars (at least, they were brand new when she bought them), and STILL gets money from the government.  HOW is this possible?!?!  
    
In addition to all this crap, that particular side of my family is Hispanic.  Many of them firmly believe that they're oppressed because they're Hispanic.  That they don't have a chance of getting anywhere, of doing anything with their lives.  My aunt's children didn't bother to get their high school diplomas.  My father has at least six known kids by four different women spread around the country, the youngest of which is as young as his granddaughter.   
 
Other family members aren't much better.  Of the 19 grandchildren on that side of the family, my younger brother and I are the first (and perhaps will be the only) college graduates.  We both also have been on our career paths for some time, whereas most of the rest of our family, even those of our parent's generation, don't seem to know what a career is.  
 
I don't give this as a sob story.  I give this so that people can understand why I feel so strongly about issues like welfare, or redistribution of wealth.  I have little doubt that most of my family is liberal, despite being Catholic (which traditionally meant conservative).  Yet I am strongly conservative.  This is why.  Because I have watched what leeches on society my family have been, while others work for their earnings in life, and I simply cannot abide by it.  

So this came up in part because of that capitalism vs. socialism thread, and in part simply because it happened the other day. 
 
I work at one of the larger law firms in the Seattle area.  On Friday we had our big firm-wide Christmas party.  At said party, someone (a partner or shareholder or something, I'm not sure who) received one of those golf-tournament type checks (the oversized check they have to stick on an easel, but these checks represent real checks for same amount). This check was supposed to represent this guy's bonus for the year.   Ready for it?

 So my husband bought one last week while he was out shopping.  I found this nearly /facepalm worthy.  We've been playing since original beta.  Why would we need the strat guide?  Besides, it'll only be out of date in a couple weeks anyway.  That's how those things go.  So the husband actually says that he just bought it for bathroom reading material.  And true enough, it has sat in our bathroom ever since, along with at least six months worth of Game Informers, and the Ultimate Bathroom Book. 
 
So one day this weekend, I happen to be in the bathroom long enough to need some reading material.  I pick up the strat guide and start looking through it.  Sure enough, this thing is a wealth of information, and it's much better than I expected.  The guide is obviously aimed at new players - telling them how to pick servers, how to choose what kind of character they may want to create, etc.  But there are some other interesting things too, like a level-by-zone guide, class and spec guides, etc.  Even includes what abilities/spells each class gets, and when, and what they all do.
 
From what I've read in reviews, this guide doesn't give much info in the way of new instances.  But it's great for people who have never played the game before, or who have never played a particular class before.   I definitely found it worth checking out just for the stupid little things I never knew.  (Like I didn't know that when you're swimming, you can press X to dive down... I always just used my mouselook and WASD.)    

So... yesterday the husband kinda told me what he's getting me, though not really.  He's just really proud of himself because usually each year he wants me to tell him exactly what he should get me for Christmas.  That's not much fun.  So this year he thought of something on his own and he's quite proud.  Only he says he has to order it online because no stores in the area currently have it.  I was disappointed.  He's seriously running out of time to be ordering me something.  Then he says that he probably has to order it from Gamestop or Best Buy.  I realize that this is a gaming website, and what I'm about to say is blasphemous... but I was disappointed!  I don't really want game-related or electronics stuff for Christmas.  I mean sure it's possible that whatever it is will be something really cool... but right now I'm kinda like... great, I'm gonna have to fake enthusiasm when I open it. 
 
Then on top of that, today he goes Christmas shopping with my best friend.  So he knows I had planned on getting my best friend some stuff from Bath & Body Works.  I find out while checking our bank account online that he was there today.  UGH.  And he says she said she shopped there yesterday.  So now I can't get her B&BW stuff because she probably got me some, and that's just not cool.  PLUS apparently the hubby bought stuff while he was there, which is most likely for me... great.  I already have a ton of stuff from there.  I could use a new candle and that's about it.  I still have plenty of everything else.
 
UGH.  I hate to sound ungrateful.  I think a lot of it is that each year I put so much effort into coming up with the right gifts for everyone, and honestly very rarely do I get much for the holidays.  Sometimes I just want people to really think like I do, think "what does this person really want or need?"  Why is that so hard?   
 
I do wish I had no clue at  all what he was getting me or where he was shopping.  That probably would have helped.

So first, I'll say I dunno why I have felt the need to blog nearly every day lately.  I'm sure it's a passing phase though. 
 
Trolling.  I hate trolls sometimes.  But sometimes they make me laugh and I just sit back and /popcorn.  It really started to crack me up when, in WoW, I would see trolls talk in general chat about how everyone knows girls don't play WoW.  Of course, then the channel is flooded with girls who all must prove their girliness.  To this day I'd still lay odds that many of those girls are naive enough to have given out their facebooks/myspaces just to prove that girls do indeed play video games.   The naivety of these chicks made me laugh.  But it also made me cringe.  It also ticked me off that they could be so retarded.  Although many of them simply like the attention anyway. 
 
That was when I started trolling, myself.  I would be the person to say that girls don't play WoW, or girls don't play video games, of course no one realizing I'm a chick myself.  But lately my trolling doesn't want to end there.  Like the thread about favorite directors.  I really really wanted to troll that thread and say Ewe Boll, cause he's so awesome and dreamy.  I mean ok, smart-ass-ism is just in me.  It's a way of life in our house at home.  But this trolling thing... I have to not let it get out of hand. 
 
In other news, yesterday I got Halo Reach for my daughter's stocking, and Uncharted and Red Dead Redemption for my husband's stocking.  I'll pick up Gran Turismo 5 for the stocking of our friend who's staying with us, and maybe some MS points for stockings too.  Hell, at least for mine since mine currently hangs pretty much empty.   Just glad it doesn't seem like I'll be shopping Christmas Even this year :p

So today was payday which means I can finally go get the rest of Christmas shopping done. 
 
My plan is as follows: 
 
Today, if possible, head to the Levi store during lunch and get hubby some new jeans, maybe hit Victoria's Secret to get my best friend an Incredible Bra (they are SOOO comfy!)
 
Also during lunch, head to Westlake Center - Hot Topic and Gamestop are right next to each other!  Need to get a friend some new Converse at Hot Topic, and maybe pick up a t-shirt or two for people. 
 
But now the tough part... what to get at Gamestop. 
 
So I'm thinking I should get my husband Force Unleashed I and II (depending on pricing), because we don't have.  Also considering getting the Uncharted games, although we hardly ever touch the PS3.  Read Dead Redemption. Halo: Reach
 
For the kid, I want to pick up Super Scribblenauts, and maybe the Mario All-Stars.  I know that what she really wants is Kinect, but don't think I'll be doing that for Christmas this year. 
 
Hmmm I think I'm trying to get too much done in one day.

Yesterday was just a craptastic day.  Hubby and I end up fighting again.  But we're married so that shit happens.  I coulda dealt.  It was the other things that happened.  The second I walk out of my building yesterday at 5pm to go catch the bus home, apparently a monsoon had kicked up.  By the time I had walked the three or so blocks to my bus stop, my pants were soaked completely through, as were my socks and shoes, and my coat wasn't doing much better in places.  And I still had the hour-long ride home.  By the time I had gotten to the park and ride, I had realized that whenever I walked, water would splurt up between my toes inside my shoes.  I wasn't too cold on the bus, probably because of all the body heat, but the second I got off the bus, and by the time I got to my car, I was freezing cold.  I couldn't get the heater to be warm enough.  This was definitely cause to go straight home and straight to a nice hot shower, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.  Even the shower I couldn't get hot enough.  That cold was bone-deep.  But between the shower and the warm jammy clothes and fuzzy pink robe I put on, I was starting to get warm. 
 
So I go out and sit on the couch and turn on last week's episode of Fringe that I missed.  I'm less than ten minutes into the episode, and the youngest of our three dogs comes up to me and lifts his leg on my leg.  So much for finally being dry and warm.  While I'm not a proponent of hitting animals, I will admit I spanked the shit out of my dog.  But he's such a big oaf I don't think he felt any of it.  Then I had to go change my clothes.... again.  I did finally get to finish my show, and finally got all warmed up.  I just couldn't believe I got peed on.  After already being soaked through by the weather, no less. 
 
What a day!