I didn't manage to make any progress on anything during winter break, but sometimes taking time to sit back and do nothing can be therapeutic. At least I made a few expectations for myself before I stayed off most parts of the net for days. This blog isn't "professional" in the strictest or even loosest terms, but I still should get things done in a timely manner so the blog doesn't die without warning.
Anywho. Happy 2015.
2014 was a wholly painful, stressful, depressing, infuriating year. Personal stuff at home kept me on my toes, particularly with my relationships with my parents changing as I get older and try to figure out what to do with my life. Turning 21 didn't make me feel better about anything or make me feel like a different and better person. While I enjoy sake, I know I'll have days when I seriously, honestly need a drink after putting up with all the world's nonsense. My MegaTen project has worried me some nights to the point I fear I might be going in over my head about trying out research. Then I realize that great men in the past did fantastic things when they were half my age, so I'm probably just angsting and questioning myself too much. I'm happy to report I've never had a panic attack in my life, mainly because I often spend a weekend locked in my room doing nothing to recharge and recuperate.
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Ebola has killed thousands in Africa, but only a handful of
Americans. Therefore:
#OMFGPANICTIMEZOMBIESAPOCALYPSE |
The local and global news was depressing as always, thanks to terrorism, nationalism, xenophobia, and religious intolerance being on the rise... again. And the good ol' Christians militarize the police and raise security to stop the evil Muslims from blowing up capitals... again. And no ones wins the war on a vague concept defined by very racist and political assumptions... again. Meanwhile minorities are getting violently put down in the US... again. Black men are getting shot, proving that some members of the police force are corrupt and bigoted... again. Ebola is taking over the world! ... Just like the bird flu and the swine flu had their day in the spotlight in the past twenty years. The US political system is as broken and fragmented and extremist as it has been for over a decade... etc. etc.
With all that real world crap along with Gamergate conquering the internet, the gaming industry continuously making stupid choices, popular music feeling stale and irrelevant, PR people continuously bitting the hands of consumers that feed their company, and anime not having interesting things going for it except moe and slice of life crap, I felt down about almost every part of life I pay attention to. Some of these trends started last year or have persisted since 2013... and 2012... 2011... 2005... etc. Praise Jesus.
On the bright side, the movies I've seen have been awesome last year.
How to Train Your Dragon 2,
Gone Girl,
The Lego Movie, part three of
The Hobbit, and
Unbroken stood out in particular for exceeding my expectations due to their subject matter (
Unbroken) or their genre (
Lego and
Dragon). I learned from
How to Train Your Dragon that children's movies can still be entertaining for anyone of any age and that bigger and better sequels do exist. I still remember how so many people said they took their significant others to see
The Lego Movie because no other good date movie existed in the theater for Valentine's Day.
Unbroken showed an American soldier captured in Japan during World War II, a phenomenon that rarely gets discussed in film because we all love to hate Hitler and the Nazis.
The Hobbit was everything I wanted, despite the questionable length and separation of the installments. And
Gone Girl, no matter how outrageous it feels at points, allowed me to re-evaluate how I judge a story shared on the news and the people involved in a drama that embraces the Missing White Female trope.
TV and music haven't made me as happy as films, but I indulged in old episodes of
Criminal Minds and
Cold Case. I'm hooked on
Game of Thrones, and I cannot wait for season four, even if I have to wait until summer vacation to catch up. This hardly counts, but I recently checked out
Twin Peaks on Netflix, and I'm hooked for now. For music, a few bands I like made some good albums that I finally picked up, such as Within Temptation's
Hydra, Linkin Park's
Living Things, Bentley Jones'
Defying Gravity, and Thirty Seconds to Mars'
Love, Lust, Faith, and Dreams. Though I'm not 100% ready to jump on them yet, I find Bastille to be one of the few highlights in pop music last year with "Pompeii" and "Laura Palmer", both scratching an itch I didn't know I had in my heart. Finally, there is always video game soundtracks galore.
And the unbelievable amount of hype for FIFA made me realize that some Americans do like [real] football after all. After watching a few games at home, with friends, and out at dinner, I realized something else: I, the sport-phobic Fangirl, like [real] football. Realistically, I can't see myself watching it frequently, but if a game is ever on when I'm out, I'll happily sit down and yell at the screen. It sure as hell beats the sluggish, commercial-filled American football.
So with 2014 done at last, I can try to move on forward... and keep myself healthy and sane.
In the meantime, Mass Effect 3 is still my topmost priority. I snuck a few hours in over Christmas, but I realized I beat the game too often to retread material I know almost by heart. I'll be working on part 2, and I'll likely prepare for another few posts as a final send-off to/overview of the trilogy. Hopefully.
A few other drafts are laying around, so I'll polish them up and hopefully get something out in the meantime. Hopefully I can rewatch
Artifact now that I have listened to
This Is War endlessly for the past three weeks. Maybe I can make another update on my two-year insanity fanfiction project, because... I think I have to scrap a lot of it. 600+ pages... may need to be reedited... and possibly reduced to the bare bones.
MAYBE.
 |
| The pain is real. |
I just want the damn thing done and over with, y'know? Even if it sucks, at least I completed a project for fun...
... *sigh*
Let's hope 2015 has it's really great high points to combat the inevitable lows... right?
BEST. TUTORIAL. AND. QTEs. EVER.
6 comments:
Not to rain on Metal Gear Rising's parade, but the sheer madness of its tutorial isn't an exception to the rule. When it comes to Platinum Games -- the recent ones especially -- that's the STANDARD. Bayonetta 2 starts with you fighting angels on top of a jet, itself following a prologue where roughly one minute in you're piloting a mech. And it only gets nuttier from there. As for The Wonderful 101...well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBVJe1wwTVI
Now then. 2014 was not the best year for any number of reasons. And this would be the part where I say "but things will get better from here" -- which to be fair I am going to more or less say in a minute. But the stuff that's gone down so far? It's not over. GamerGate stuff is still spilling over, for one thing -- and as you can guess, it'll take more than a change in the calendar to deal with mindsets of varying levels of toxicity. And ignorance. And dumbness.
There's no easy fix for all the bad stuff out there, but we can all at least try to do (and be) our personal best. That's what I'd like to do, and by the sound of things, you're already well on your way toward doing that. So good on you. No telling what kind of nonsense will come next, but it's fine. Just press on, no matter what.
But to be fair, it's hard to be TOO down. Majora's Mask 3D is a thing that exists, and I imagine that it's going to inspire a LOT of..."interesting" discussions. Well, more of them, anyway.
There's no better way to earn fans than with abject terror, dread, and despair! <3
I think she said that she's boycotting Nintendo, actually, so she'll probably miss out on Majora's Mask 3D,
I like ur blog ! any chance u like DOCTOR WHO !!
I'll miss out on Majora's Mask 3D because I already have it for the Gamecube. When I want it bad enough or the price drops, I might pick it up. Otherwise, I'm "boycotting" Nintendo because they haven't offered many new games that I want to buy. (Fire Emblem 14, however, is currently on my radar.)
I'm still hoping 2015 is less awful than 2014; so far, things seem ok.
@Sarah
Thanks! And I have not tried Doctor Who, so I can't say if I like it or not. The franchise seems hard for newcomers to get into, but I'm open to trying it out someday. :)
"I, personally, as a consumer, am done with them." via http://melanie-light.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/my-love-hate-relationship-with-nintendo.html .
Doesn't that kind of indicate that you're boycottiing them? Or I may have misinterpreted your words.
At the time of writing that comment, I was very angry with what Nintendo was doing and lost my patience, hence the "I'm done with them" part. I'm less angry now and more apathetic because things hardly feel different than before. I'm still not convinced that the WiiU is worth my money; SMTxFE's marketing was horribly confusing, Zelda U has been delayed, Xenoblade X still has no release date, Sonic Boom was a disaster, and the games I want are still too pricy or limited in stores. The 3DS is doing fine at least. I still play my Vita games more often than my 3DS ones, but Nintendo's handheld library is more reasonable in my opinion.
You could say I'm "boycotting" them, but that logic also applies far more to my never buying an Xbox product. And why I don't have a PS4 or Xbone. Boycotting Nintendo would also imply that I'm trying to start a movement to make Nintendo listen and change their ways. But as far as I know, they won't listen to one opinionated blogger in the English speaking world. I sort of get why you'd use that word (since I'm still extremely disappointed with the WiiU), but it's not entirely accurate.
Sorry for the confusion, but as the title of that post said, my feelings towards Nintendo are complicated. I want to buy the games that I'm interested in (including Bayonetta 2), but Nintendo has given me almost no incentive to do so without burning money that I don't have at the moment.
I'm still happy with my 3DS, and I'll buy Fire Emblem 14 as soon as it comes out. So there's that.
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