commotiocordis: (Telegram)
A review of the www.221b.sh Sherlock Holmes tie-in webgame.

You may have been bothered by the increase in Tweeting lately copied over to my LJ, most of which probably made no sense. They were [livejournal.com profile] bleakone and I going to town on this game and peppering up the normal, required discussion between partners with. . . you know, normal required discussion between partners. Because that's totes how these two roll, no lies. Anyway, I'm planning to clean that up and turn it into some kind of post at some point--though ficcing the entire thing would be far too much effort (it covers some 4 months-ish of character time), adding in basic annotations to explain what's happening in the case so people can lolz at our ability to sex it up Victorian England murder scenes is hardly out of the question.

But a review of the game itself (copypasted from a site that I posted it on, which is why the beginning is exactly what I've explained above):

As someone who totally missed this until after seeing the movie, I still found it an incredible bit of fun to play all the way though. I wish they had enumerated the reputation levels at the beginning, however, as I would have bet higher earlier on had I known that there is a jump from 30,000’s “Unquestionable” to 100,000 for “World Famous”. I spent a not-inconsiderable amount of time playing through the entire thing–it took me about a week, I think, but my Watson and I were more or less role-playing via Twitter the entire time to accompany our gameplay, which probably slowed us down a bit.

Communication is definitely necessary, as the game often states–there is information perhaps not vital, but definitely helpful that is only relayed to the interviewing character and not recorded in the case notes, so one’s partner is not privy to it without direct tête-à-tête between a Holmes and his Watson. Based on what I’ve seen, playing as Holmes, I feel like Watson had a harder time of it and often more to do per chapter, to be honest–the interview segments were mostly Watson’s purview, and unlike the “chase somebody” or “sneak around and pick locks” segments, information is required prior to success in these, often information from one’s partner’s casefile.

Anyway, to quash my inherent verbosity and leave you with a summary of my opinion, A++ WOULD WILL PLAY AGAIN. I’m interested to try my hand at the interview segments of Watson’s (though I know all the deductions, I don’t know exactly what my partner had to ask in these tasks), though I’ll probably wait until right before the DVD comes out so I don’t remember *all* the answers. Hopefully, it will still be around for a while to come. I really hope they find some way to incorporate it on the DVD itself, because though this doesn't have multiple outcomes/tasks, so when you know the answers you know the answers, it really does directly correspond to the beginning of the movie--all this work is to track down the murderer that we find Watson and Holmes hot on the trail of during the opening scene of the film. This much backstory, richly interwoven with not-easy puzzles and awesome movie cut-scenes, should not be lost to the internets.
commotiocordis: (Jack/Ianto)
Evidently people on the interwebz are seriously freaking about Torchwood.

Because I think Rachel still hasn't finished watching them. )

Also. This (CoE spoiler-free) interview with John Barrowman has given me a huge hankering for John/Gareth RPS. They flirt and kiss all the time? My poor heart cannot take this kind of stimulation, sirs!

Also also? Kaci and I hit the Half Blood Prince preview screening in kickass Spinner's End costume as Cissy and Bella, like I think I mentioned, but no pictures were taken by us, which is a sadness. Folk did, though--one lady taking the tickets who said she was going to have to send it to the studio (whut?! Pretty sure she means whichever one she worked for, but still), and another that was taking pictures mostly of the chess team playing, both professional types, so I'm hoping I can find one. My costume was better this year, though the hair and makeup were worse-- I couldn't find that temp black hairspray type dye for under $7 (OMFG.) so it was up but still red, and we were trying to get there really early to get good seats and I was planning to makeup when I got there, but the directions we got were to the wrong theatre and so I had to drive forever in one direction and then forever back in the other direction because the lady at the first theatre gave crap directions (though she did try, so thanks for that--it was a combination of her not knowing what direction to go on the highway and my not knowing the area at all to pick up on the "near such and such" she was trying to give me), so by the time we got there they were already seating and the theatre was pretty dark so I didn't get a chance. I thought the seats would be horrid, though, as we were in the lower level on one side, but we were the uppermost row of the lower level and the centermost two seats of the side, and I think the side view helped us not have to crane our necks so much.

Final "also", for serious? Got a copy of Portal finally, after hearing "the cake is a lie" around the webs and reading the Wikipedia article and finding the whole idea amusing. Took me forever to finagle the video settings to work on the laptop (I'm well above the minimum specs and the game recommended settings in the middle of its range based on my hardware, so it was rather confusing)--still not quite sure what I finally did that made it work, but it never actually didn't work so much as when you started the level, everything would look normal but the background would fade to a bright blue. You'd move and it'd be neon and flashy shapes and colors, but not really intelligible as a game map. Fixed now, though; I think part of it was that it didn't like being windowed (even though that's an actual in-game setting and not just something I rewrote stuff to make happen, like with Sims 3)
commotiocordis: (Seven/B'Elanna)
Watching Twilight.
Edward needs to stop sucking so much at keeping secrets. "Then I heard what those guys were thinking. . ." 'Oh, oops.'
So lemme get this straight. It's not cowboys vs. indians, it's vampires vs. indians?

Well, shit. I wasn't supposed to like this movie. I mean, the romance is implausible, there's very little explanation behind the vampires/weres and their abilities/feud/whatever, it's teenage sappy (slow dancing at prom? Seriously?), and half the time Bella's delivery is complete deadpan, but I'm intrigued by the universe. Kick most of the romance out ("I want you. Always." Blech.) and explain stuff better and I think I could get into it. I hear the books aren't significantly better, though, especially the last one (Publisher's Weekly says "Essentially, everyone gets everything they want, even if their desires necessitate an about-face in characterization or the messy introduction of some back story."

Other things. Playing the Sims, and some random NPC calls me up and is all "Oh, you're in the law enforcement field? I've got friends in that field, and I'm going to tell them that you deserve higher wages, Mary." Or some such, you know? Yay, right? Except for one thing. My character's name is Amy. Odd.

LOL, this has totally become one of those multi-day-long LJ marathon posts where I have a few things to say each day and then just never actually hit post. Watching the Voyager episode "Ashes to Ashes," and the ex-dead ensign chick that the alien species brought back to life is about to go fulfill #6 on her long list of things to do once she got back to Voyager--"dazzle Lieutenant Torres." Okay, first? I cannot be the only one that fortune cookied that: "-- in bed." And second, keeping it on the same note: that was number 6? Out of all the things she missed about Federation life and wanted to experience again after getting back, B'Elanna made it to number 6? Yeah. Totally in bed. Now I should prolly unpause and actually find out what she meant. But I'm almost content to just skip this next scene and go on assuming that it meant sex.

And later in that same episode:
Harry: "Are you feeling human enough for a little skating?"
Ensign Lyndsay Ballard: "I'd love to. But I already have a date." (Walks away somewhat cockily.)
Harry: "Who with?"
Lyndsay: (Same sing-songy, superior attitude.) "The captain. She's invited me to her quarters for dinner."


Marathon cont. Now Friday. 4:35am. I wanted this really great price on blank DVDs at Inkstop ($9 for 50 of a good brand), and I figured I'm still awake, so I ran out there right at 4 when they opened. Maybe 2 other people in there, another coming as I left. Not bad at all. Tiny store, so much more than that and it would have gotten cramped, but okay. But I passed Kohl's on the way there. OMG. This Kohl's has two decent sized parking lots, one in front and one in back. Together, they add up to probably a lot the size of a standard Wal-Mart's lot. At 4 in the bloody AM, there were so many people there that some people were parking at the grocery store next to it and walking over. I didn't even see anything really good in their ad, so I don't get it. I thought about stopping just out of curiosity to find out what everybody was getting, but I figured it'd be better to get home and perhaps not alert the parentals to my absence and, you know, unauthorized usage of their car and debit card for the DVD run.

Thinking about going back out at 6 for Target's House/Psych/Monk $14 season sets, but there's a dilemma there. I can download all of those. And burn them onto my fancy new DVDs. It won't have extras or cool menus, but they'll work. I decided no on the House, just because it reruns 24/7 on some cable channel or another. The parents were thinking about the Psych/Monk getting, but I don't want to wake them up at 6 to ask if I should go get them or not. I might go and buy whatever I can and just return it if they decide no, but idk what the return policy is: if it's different with Black Friday stuff, if I can only get store credit, etc.

Def. running out to Harbor Freight Tools at some point, because the DVD case there (240 slots, and with the rings so it's expandable if you buy more sheets, for $10) totally owns the the DVD case that I was planning on getting at InkStop (128 slots, non-expandable, for $10) to replace the similar one that has all my DVDs in it that Tyler lost. But they don't open until 7. I've never been into one of those stores before, so idk what to expect re: needing to get there early and such. They don't seem to have big special sale adverts on their website, so I might be safe going to sleep and just getting there whenever and seeing if they still have it. Because I'm really needing one of those guys, as I've got DVDs in 4 different cases at the moment and all of them are beyond full (meaning I've got some just stuffed into the case and the thing zipped/snapped closed with a prayer that they'll stay in without getting too scratched up).

5:30am. I've just realized that I've very nearly finished an entire 3-liter of off-brand diet coke in less than the last 5 hours. Perhaps that's why the beginnings of a headache keep nibbling at my brain.

Might as well finally hit post, LOL, as this has now expanded longer than a page.
commotiocordis: (QPicard)
Went to the downtown library after genetics today. OMG. This thing is tiny. 10 computers or so in a room with maybe one bookshelf's worth of books/magazines/DVDs/CDs in the entire place (along the walls all spread out so you could see all the covers). Stark contrast to the main city library that is a monster. But that one's more space, less books as well--I mean, significantly more books than this one had, but probably about as many as our Headquarters library at home, though the building took up twice the square footage (according to its website, the monster one is 82,000 sq ft and includes "a 185-seat auditorium, a glass-enclosed recreational reading room, a story hour room, outdoor story garden, a 134-seat public meeting room, five other meeting rooms of various sizes and capacities, a 'Between Friends' gift shop and MudHouse cafe"). And had a coffee shop built in (both this tiny one that I hit today and the main one that I got my card at back when I first got here two weeks ago). There were these really cute little alcove things, though, that would be really nice to hang out in and study or read (as I did) or whatever. (It's also got a Flickr photo stream here; no pictures of the alcove like I'd hoped, but the weird/pretty light things are on the ceilings of the alcoves. I also don't think it looks like this anymore, as some of the stuff--the white backed couch/benches by the magazines?--I don't remember seeing today.)

So yes. Not good for browsing, but I can request stuff from any of the libraries to be sent there, and the school shuttle will take me there M-F for free, so it works.

Post-library (picked up a copy I'd requested of the soundtrack for the Xena musical, LOL), I tried to take a nap (not a whole lot of success), got up, met up with [livejournal.com profile] bleakone and ate dinner (nothing good but salad, as per far-too-often), and then headed to the school library's open house. Which was a really good idea--you had to go around and get your "passport" stamped at all the different places in the library, and then come back for pizza and putting your name in for a drawing. So I now know the library. And pretty much all the librarians in there are awesome--beyond the "friendly, local, lesbian librarians" and the Battlestar Galactica fan, all the others that we talked to were really nice and totally excited about us being there--the turnout was impressive, from my hearing of the library/faculty types complimenting each other, but I still got to take home most of a box of pizza. And an iPod shuffle and $15 iTunes gift card, because odd twist of luck meant my name was one of the ones that got pulled at the end. Had about an hour in between finishing the library facility scavenger hunt and the drawing, so I planned on going to work out (as the only treadmill-equipped exercise place is right across the path from the library), but it was closed again today, idk why. Which really pisses me off, as it was closed yesterday for the football game, today for whatever reason, and will be tomorrow because it always is on Saturdays. So we just hung out in the lobby until the drawing, playing around on the interwebs.

Following said winnage (and dropping off swag in the room), we went over to the game center in the basement of the student union place and played chess whilst waiting to partake in the free bowling night. And then, since there was a two game limit, when we finally got called up to bowl, put our names in the game three times each, LOL. We only got through the one game, but it was essentially like playing three, so that was cool. More LOLZ in how I managed to get a 94 on one of my people and barely break 70 on one of the others. Decent, the first one, for how I bowl prolly once a year. Since it looks like they're doing this free thing every Friday, I'm going to try to get better, because I enjoy the bowling stuffs.

It's probably 11 by the time we get back, so I hang around until 12 when Psych reruns and hit the gym in the basement. Working out + stretching + putting my numbers in my online fitness thing + loitering around before I sucked up the courage to actually come over and sit down, and around 2am I end up joining a Rock Band marathon, which lasts until 3:15. I'm still good at that, btw--it really surprised me when I was rocking out on it in New York at the cousins' house, this bizarre natural (I won't say "talent", but) decency at the game.

And now it's 4. And nothing's on TV. But I'm ravenous after bowling + stairmaster + Rock Band, so there is now significantly less of that pizza left over. Which needs microwaved again, as it's gotten cold through my typing, but I don't particularly want to open the door and run the microwave and such and risk waking up Chelsea. But, erm, lukewarm pizza? No.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
I know who's going to win the Sri Lankan Civil War.

From the Wikipedia article.

"Apart from the LTTE, there initially was a plethora of militant groups. The LTTE's position, adopted from that of the PLO, was that there should be only one."

The Highlander reference kinda makes itself. I have no idea what that really means in context (mostly because it's 3am and I've only recently realized that I don't really have to become anything more than slightly conversant in the war to give 1/5 of a 5 minute speech on it when chances are nobody else even knows it's going on, and therefore I'm forcing myself not to bother to figure it out).

In other news, [ONOES, it's complaining tiems!] the luck of Alexandria continues. Rained like a bitch today. And it was my day of all 1 hour classes and really long rides between each one. So I pretty much only ever just began to dry before having to go back out there. Plus, construction all over makes the puddles (this school = underwater) mucky and now all the white bits (that admittedly, weren't overly white before today, but a lot closer than they are now) are this murky, rusty, red-brown. Butwaitthere'smore. Really nice, cushy bike -seat? Absorbs water. Butt = soaked even worse than the rest of me. Which is horrible-r because nobody likes soggy hair/shirt/knees-of-pants (as that's what points up whilst bike riding), but soggy underwear are even worse.

And then this "Don't Forget the Lyrics"-esque game in the evening. And it was hilarity. In that I had been joking that, on the first real elimination round, I'd know every other song in the round but the one I got. Guess what happened? Not only was I actually very familiar with every other song in the round (I think out of the 10 or so, 7 of them are currently on my MP3 player and the other three should be), it wasn't just that I didn't know the words to the song I got, but that I'd never heard it in my life. And I've got a pretty good music memory, so I'm confident in that. LOLZ.

Plus, dinner's tofu wraps were fail. I was so excited about that, and even more so when it appeared that they had spinach tortillas to go with them, but no. Twas just green flour tortillas and the tofu was blech; not cooked or anything (or even warm!) like I'd expected, but some kind of eww tomato/onion/chive flavor (that might have been good if the tofu was warm, maybe lightly stir-fried, but coldmushysoft, no).

Downloaded the software update for my TV tuner computer thing, which turned out to be freaking gigantic, and now I'm getting nasty automated emails about my being more than 75% towards my weekly bandwidth. Thanks, Pinnacle, for not only not including Vista support with your software CD, but not even just making it a patch but rather a 1.3gb full software download. Whores.

And the gym's closed pretty much all day tomorrow (from 2pm on, which doesn't do me any good as I've got class until 4) for a stupid football game. On the same note, had to do beginnings of fitness testing stuff in gym class. What happened to me, LOL? In middle/high school, they used to make us do those same types of tests, and I know that my 1 minute situp number was well into the 40s, not mid 30s. I was making sure to do the maximum range of motion on them, though (more than I actually had to, methinks), as I was partnerless and therefore having my feet held by the teacher (and therefore unable to skimp) which may explain it.

And now I'm really, really thirsty (because tortilla chips = salty), but don't want to get up and get a drink for fear of waking up Chelsea. Will anyway, though, because thirst > sleep.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Oh wow.

I just noticed I'm humming the music to the bobsledding bit of the "1994 Winter Olympics" Sega Genesis game.

That's random.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
There was just a chemistry joke in my SVU fic. And I laughed. Mostly because there was a chemistry joke in there like it was nothing, more an author's in-joke than a laugh-out-loud funny thing.

I'm going to do that at some point. Just throw all the nerdy jokes into a fic I can.

Been crazy excited since yesterday, when somebody posted on this Star Trek Enterprise round robin that I play in that's been abandoned for more than three years. I only ever looked at it every once in a while, whenever somebody replied to a one of my topics on the forum (which wasn't often at all, as I played in the T'Pol/Hoshi section that was highly underpopulated), so I was tres surprised when I got an email saying that somebody had replied to the RR thread, and even more surprised when it was somebody that wanted to continue it. Excellence. We had a really complex story going on, which upon discussion with said replying somebody, we're going to tweak a little into a somewhat less impossible to write yet still complex storyline regarding the Temporal Cold War. Which I have to research, because most of that plotline in the show was done in the first two seasons, which I only occasionally watched.

Lion King was nice. The dancing just didn't impress me, though. I expected that to be the best part of the show, because that's what they're always talking about, but it seemed like they had to modify it down even more to compensate for the costumes. I don't think for a moment that it was easy, dancing around with lions on their heads, but it seemed like very simplistic dancing. Music was nice, costumes were excellent. There was a lot of sound trouble at the beginning, though. We could hear fine, as we were in the front and the acoustics are decent in the Fox, but I could hear the people behind us and in the balcony murmuring about how they couldn't hear. It was a good entire scene, too, at least 10 minutes. I felt bad for everybody in the back (where I'd normally be sitting). They had an 11 year old (or so, I think that was his age) playing young Simba for most of the first act, which surprised me. He was v. cute, too. He did a good job--he had a stronger singing voice than half the male leads.

Lion King, however, seems to attract the people who don't know basic theatre etiquettes. Meaning, in this case, don't bring your infant to a show starting at 8pm. If they're too young to talk, they're probably too young to appreciate the show, Lion King or not, and are also too young to be up that late. And also, you don't clap at every animal that parades by in the aisles. ESPECIALLY WHEN PEOPLE ARE SINGING ONSTAGE. These people clapped at the drop of a hat. Just like during Shakespeare. Somebody really needs to just add "Do not clap during songs/dialogues" to the "turn off your cell phones" announcement at the beginning.

And I got the impression that Austin's parents suggested me when they gave him the extra ticket. Just in that he didn't seem overly. . . enthused that I was there. We were both v. polite, but most of my conversation was with his sister and parents when we met them later, and everything with him was initiated by me.

Edit: I just found my Tropico CD. I am a happy girl. I dunno if it plays anymore, as I've had it for probably 4 years and it's gotten considerably scratched up in that time, but I've really wanted to play it recently. Considering I got it for free (one of those 'free after rebate' things at the CompUSA), tis excellent.

EditEdit: IT DOES PLAY. Trufax excellent.

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