Advice I Won’t Take
I have about a half hour commute from work, even though I work less than 10 miles from my house. Love the city, really. Usually I pass this time sitting in silence and mentally working on the next story, but I’m between books at the moment and taking a mental break.
So I turn on the radio. A new song by Nickelback is playing (easily distinguished by Chad Kroeger’s emo-riffic, growly voice). It starts with a phrase like ‘Each day is a blessing, not a right’. Wow. That’s a really nice way to look at things. I begin to think that Nickelback has gotten a little zen on me, and listen closer.
The main hook of the song? Live each day as your last.
And I’m afraid this is where Nickelback and I are going to have to agree to disagree.
You see, this started me thinking. What would I *do* if I only had one day left on earth? Nothing good for me, my friends, nothing good. I suppose I could be all introspective and spend it at the beach and walking up and down on the sand as the waves wash over my ankles, pondering life.
But the beach is 6 hours away from here, yo, and I’ve only got 24 to live. So that’s right out.
To be honest, I’d probably do all the things I’m not supposed to. I’d eat like a madwoman, and all the stuff I’m not supposed to. Fried twinkies? Fried Oreos? Fried anything? Ranch sauce on my pizza? Bring it on, b&tches! Someone’s only got 24 hours to live! Anything goes!
And then, I think I’d go gambling. Bet it all on black and see how far that takes me. Oh, oh, and I think I’d like to graffiti a wall. Or three. Because if I’m dead the next day? You are so getting some crudely painted words on the side of your house/car/office. I imagine I would be pretty terrible at graffiti too (I have a really bad artistic eye) but I think it would be fun.
What else? Oh, okay. If it was my last day on earth, I sure wouldn’t spend it at work. I’d probably tell them that I was never coming in again, and go out in a blaze of glory, throwing paper everywhere and knocking over fax machines in a rampage. That sounds nice.
But where does this get you, Nickelback? Because if that’s my last day on earth, it’s an orgy of hedonistic fun and burning bridges. But since it WON’T be my last day on earth, that would be bad. And the next day, I’d have all the ramifications. Except I’d be too busy living that day like it was my last as well.
I mean, if this cycle of destructive living continued, I’d end up weighing 500 pounds, broke, unemployed, and a criminal.
Sorry, Nickelback. I think I’m going to stick with my nice, conservative, occasionally-thinking-ahead lifestyle, as tempting as you make it sound.
(Speaking of thinking ahead, I’m probably going to update my website this weekend. Exciting, right? I know. It’s a wild, free-wheeling life I lead.)
Public Service Announcement
Please go here:
And vote for LISA KLEYPAS – Blue Eyed Devil.
(My bracket is losing)
Thank you! 
Purple things to buy today…
Start with this:
And move on to this:
You know you want to. Purple is the new black. And won’t your bookshelf look cutting-edge and slimming with these two on it? I thought so.
Rumors of My Demise…
(Not so greatly exaggerated)
Ok, so this has been the month from heck and we’ve still got at least a week to go. I’m not dead! Really! But between work and home and, well…work…I haven’t been up to much.
Will share news as I get it. I’ve updated my website a little, but it’s mostly tinkering. I haven’t quite decided how I want specific pages to look, so I’m still going back and forth. But my schedule will be clearing up in April, so that’s lovely!
Speaking of April, I will be at the Dreaming In Dallas Conference on April 4th. Not doing anything special other than hanging out. Should be fun!
I’ll also be going to RWA National in DC this year. Woot! Who else is going?
X-Box: The Dark Side
All right, so the husband and I are still carrying on a passionate love affair with our X-box 360. The thing just freaking rocks. And in addition to your games that you’ve bought, you can download extra content through X-box Live. Some of them are old games, some of them are additional mods to existing games…
And some of them are just kind of creepy.
I share with you…Remote Masseuse! Only on the X-box 360.
Choices, Choices
That’s right. That rumble feature on your X-box controller can be used for evil. You basically get to remotely ‘rumble’ your partner’s controller – fast or slow, your pick! What makes this even MORE creepy? This program supports the wireless headset mode so you can ‘chat’ with your partner while you both rumble merrily away. But fear not, lonely dweebs. This game has solo mode too, apparently.
I kind of have to say…I lost a little respect for Microsoft just now.
Should You Listen To Reviews?
(ETA – I found my long post from yesterday! Hooray! I love you after all, WordPress!)
It’s just another ho-hum week here at Casa Myles, and I’m ashamed (well, not really) to say that I spent the weekend immersed in video gaming. When I wasn’t trying to get the characters in Mass Effect to orgy with each other (don’t ask), I was unlocking little weirdo cousins in Beautiful Katamari or playing Left 4 Dead.
Which brings me to something interesting.
A few of the games we’ve recently gotten for the X-box have teeeeeeeeeerrrible reviews. Awful. Just awful. We initially held off on getting Left 4 Dead (a first person zombie shooter) because the reviews on Gamefaqs were less than flattering. “The AI sucks!” or “Your NPCs steal all the equipment!” and things like that were enough that we marked it off of the buying list.
When I went to the store to reserve the new Street Fighter game, we mentioned a few of the games we liked on the Xbox 360, and the saleswoman gushed over Left 4 Dead. I told her my concerns, and she assured me that the reviews were nuts and it was a great game to play. And she was totally right – this is easily one of our favorite games for the Xbox, period. It’s amazing and scary and so much fun.
Another game – my husband got a game called “Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad”. It’s basically what it sounds like – Japanese hot girls with realistically bouncing boobs run around and slay zombies. My husband loves it – there’s some laughably bad stuff in it, but it’s a fun, mindless game with a lot of clothes to unlock (which is my favorite part of any game – Barbie dress up).
This game has an absolutely horrendous rating on Gamefaqs. Husband and I were discussing this, and we came to the same conclusion – bad reviews are just as useless as gushing ones. There is always going to be some moron that is all “OMG I LOVE THIS AND EVERYTHING ABOUT IT” and there is always going to be some douchebag that is all “I HATE THIS GAME AND EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR”.
This is so true for books, too. Just look at Amazon. Every book that has some amazing ratings also has some really foul ones. Let’s look at Kresley Cole’s newest, Kiss Of The Demon King. Lots and lots of 5 star, gushing reviews. And lots of “This author jumped the shark!” etc.
I personally really enjoyed the book and have recommended it to lots of people. But if I would have checked Amazon before buying the book (and having never read Cole), I might be afraid of what I was buying.
So what’s a person to do?
In my opinion, go for the handsell. A friend of mine suggested I get Beautiful Katamari for my Xbox. She said basically, “It is the weirdest sh&t you will ever see, but it is totally addictive.” And when I first played the game, I thought she’d been smoking a little something-something, because the game was NUTS. But then you play a little more, and play a little more, and the next thing you know, you’re obsessed. Her review was bang on. She knew I’d like it because we’d discussed other games and had similar opinions.
The same thing with books, really. Find a friend that shares similar reading interests and ask if they’ve read a series that you’re thinking about. Or ask someone that is recommending a book another series that they enjoy. If I say that I love Kresley Cole AND I love Nalini Singh and Erin McCarthy, and you happen to hate both of those, maybe you don’t buy what I suggest. You know?
Where am I going with this? Basically that there are always going to be good reviews of stuff, and bad reviews of stuff. It’s the law of the internet. For every slobbering fanboy that loves it, someone’s going to set up a hate group for it.
And maybe give the Bikini Samurai girls a try anyhow, because their breasts jiggle when they swing the sword. No kidding.
OMG die
I just wrote up a really long post about reviews and video games and books and wordpress ate it.
*tears hair out*
That does it. I’m done blogging for the day. 
Too funny!
Check it out:
Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.
The Nerd Superbowl is Upon Us
This is a day I look forward to all year.
Tonight…I shall park myself in front of the TV. I have beer. I have chips. I have buffalo wings. The phone’s ringer will be off.
Because tonight, my friends, it is the Survivor Season Premiere. And I take my Survivor seriously.
(i. am. so. excited.!!!)
Things Jill Is Not So Good At —
The X-Box 360 Version:
1) Beautiful Katamari. Have you heard of this game? Probably not. I know I was all “Whuuu?” when a friend suggested I get it. So I bought it and did not realize it is some sort of Sgt. Peppers crack-pipe dream that is probably only sensible when you are smoking a little something-something or drunk. Allow me to show you exhibits:
Do not adjust your settings - this is really the game.
And
Rolling a big ball of random crap is your duty as prince!
Needless to say, being sober and not on any illegal substances, I suck at this game.
2) Rock Band — I know what you’re thinking. How can you possibly suck at Rock Band, right? There’s FOUR different instruments, so you’re bound to be good at one of them, at least?
That would make you wrong, my friend. Wrong.
Now, I love me some Rock Band. My husband is a virtuouso with the game guitar, so I thought I’d master the drums, right? Easy enough? Just hit stuff and make notes happen? Such a foolish thought.
First of all, there’s a kick pedal. Now, it’s bad enough that my hands have to be doing something, but you’re asking me to use a kick pedal too? No one told me I had to be coordinated for video games! Add in the fact that the drums have to be hit in the center for this to actually work, and that I nearly stabbed myself in the eye with the drumstick on the recoil?
Drummer in the Rock Band was short lived, alas.
It looks like this...until you fail, of course.
So I thought I’d try my hand at the microphone instead.
Here’s a little something about me. I love to sing. LOVE. I’m even fairly good at it. I made regional choir in grade school and took voice lessons for a while. Problem is, I don’t like singing loud enough where others can hear me. It freaks me out. This, as you can imagine, might be a tiny problem if you are playing a game called “Rock Band” and your part involves making noise into a microphone. But my husband swore he wouldn’t look at me while we played (which was important) so I gave it a shot.
The upside? The microphone for Rock Band is really, really sensitive. You can barely sing into it (read: inaudible) and still score the same as if you’re belting it out.
The downside? To go into Overdrive (which is like Star Power for Guitar Hero), you have to sing a note into the ‘yellow’ power part of the bar. You can see it on the end of this screenshot:
By the Power of Grayskull....
The problem with this? This part of the song is NOT sensitive to soft sounds. I guess a real rock’n'roll girl would say “YEAH!” or “WOO!” or something at this point.
Me? I went for “Hey”. It’s a little inelegant, but functional.
Second problem – you don’t have a lot of time to “HEY” into the microphone, because it zooms by pretty fast. This makes me nervous, so I end up shouting it into the microphone.
Third problem – If the word you shout is too short, it doesn’t take effect. So you have to do it again, longer, the next time the yellow bar comes around.
This is what a typical song is with me on the mike:
woah, we’re halfway there Woah Oh, Livin on a prayer, HEY, take my hand and we’ll make it I swear, HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
After a few rounds of this, my husband sorta begged me not to do the microphone anymore. I can’t blame him. I nearly shattered his eardrums on an Iron Maiden song.
Now I pretty much have given up and just do bass on easy. It’s not glamorous but no one gets hurt.
3) Dance Dance Revolution — For this, you need coordination AND good motor skills AND be able to jump around AND don’t have size ten feet like me, or you’ll keep hitting the wrong notes with your ginormous toes.
You probably need chemical substances to appreciate this one too, come to think of it...
(Seriously, this game is fun, but I suck royally at it).
The tutorials aren’t so bad and beginner? Kind of fun. A lot of fun, actually. But then sometimes your big size 10 toe slips and when you go to the next song, your setting is suddenly on “Oni” (Which I think is Japanese for “You’ve done it now, Sucka!”) and then the arrows are flying across the screen faster than your brain can process, and you fall to the ground weeping.
Not that this happened to me, of course.
The sad thing? All these games are *really* fun. I just wish I wasn’t quite so uncoordinated so I could play them for longer.
