Bevendre

I’d love to make new friends, or even find a relationship, but then I remember that that would require social interaction.

Family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, random passersby, and everyone in a 100 mile radius:

Me:

I find that when a customer asks me where something is at work, if I crack my neck very loudly before answering them then they will either gag or walk away without their answer.

Rude.

On a lighter note, Papi’s 108 from 2000 followers, and I’m still clueless on what to do.  Yay!

Today has been one of those unfortunate days where depression hits hard, and with no discernible trigger.  

It’s the kind of day where I can’t help but question why people give a crap about anything I do, and where I question why I do anything because it always seems to be, or feels like a pointless waste of effort.  

It’s the kind of day where I have no confidence in my art, or writing, or anything, and can’t even bring myself to just kill time playing games or watching videos because it would just be lazy.  So instead I lie in bed and try to sleep, only to fail at that as well.

It’s a terrible kind of day, and one that no one should ever have to go through, but one that I see happening more and more often to myself and to others.  

But it will pass, just as it always does.  No matter how bad the day is, or how bad it gets, that day will end and the next will bring something new.  Knowing that, it makes things easier even on the worst of days, in the worst of moods.

Times can seem terrible one day at a time, but overall they tend to be fairly good, it’s just a matter of seeing the whole through the parts.  It can be absurdly hard, but even the hardest of days can be overcome out of the hope that the year will be better, and the decade will be good.

It can seem like the worst day ever but

So, I just finished the campaign in The Last of Us: Remastered on hard.  The good news is that the game is fantastic with a great story and pretty good gameplay.  It has great presentation, music, etc. and it nails the item management, atmosphere, and feel of survival horror in many many ways.  The trophy list is frustrating as it is entirely collectible based, and finishing the game on ascending difficulties, multiple times, but it’s worth doing.  Unfortunately, I missed at least 1 of EVERY TYPE OF COLLECTIBLE so I’ll have to pay closer attention (or use a cheat sheet) on my next playthrough. (After finishing the campaign on the second highest nonDLC difficulty I only have 5% of the trophies).

If I have any complaints with the campaign it’s that, while well paced, it tends to really abuse narrative time-skips. There is a clear progression of the characters and the relationships they have, but it’s broken a little too much into chunks which makes some of the story elements a little odd and jarring.

 I can see the progression and the reasons for the choices very clearly, they are supported, but it just seems like some of the relationship building is rushed or glossed over by a black screen saying time has passed.

It tends to happen a lot in games, and narratives in general, that take place over a long period of time (in this case the better part of a year that is spent in each other’s company) but is told through the experiences of at most a fortnight scattered throughout that time.

Time to get back into the game, and try out the multiplayer and Left Behind add-ons.  For now though, I’m giving the game a 9.5/10.  It has some narrative elements that irk me, but the story itself is still EXTREMELY strong.  Meanwhile the gameplay is nice and tight and works very well for what it is.  It could have stood to have a little bit more variety, but that’s a nitpick more than a complaint.

If people would like a full review of the game, I’ll be happy to give it (over a year late) once I’ve dabbled with the higher difficulties and multiplayer.

Katara needs to come back in the next season of Korra, not just to help heal the damage to Korra’s body left over from the events of season 3, but to help her through the emotional and psychological turmoil she’s dealing with.

Korra’s already sought help and advice from one member of the old Team Avatar in a time of need.  She needs help from the person who was closest to Aang during her recovery.

Also I just want to see more Grandma Katara.

In regards to the cause of the family discrediting work authority and experience thing, it’s a fun story.

Save for a few days in the past 6 years I have maintained a positive balance in the bank.  There have been periods where, after paying off bills, debts, etc. I was close to a non-balance, but I have never owed the bank money, nor my family more than a few hundred dollars at any time, that largely coming from college tuition.  

This has never stopped my parents, both of whom work for a large banking/hunting company, from criticizing my budgeting and money handling habits.  I will admit to not always making the wisest or best of investments, but I always make sure that what I spend does not exceed what I have.  (The same cannot be said for my sister who has overdrawn every few months for the past 3 years, with little to no parental backlash.)

I have worked the last 6 years at a local grocery store, with the last 3 spent almost solely working with refrigerated and perishable foods.

When getting food from the freezer this evening I noticed that the freezer wasn’t freezing.  It was warmer than the refrigerator in many places.  When I tried to fix the freezer by dialing down the temperature I was told that there was no point because ‘it was too full for that to work’.  The freezer is cooling now, but my parents are convinced that I’m still wrong on the subject.

There is also the case of yogurt being kept and used more than a year after its expiration date, and sour cream still being kept and used after it had expired nearly 5 months ago.  I have brought both issues to my family’s attention in the past to be told that I was being stupid and didn’t know what I was talking about.

For a brief background to put things in perspective: My father is a high school dropout who got his GED and dropped out of college in his sophomore year, and my mother dropped out of college in her junior year, while I have a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and accolades in sciences and four non-English languages.

Don’t you love it how parents and older relatives will take every opportunity to flaunt their work experience and authority, yet do everything possible to ignore yours after you have some?

Is it just me, or do Sontarans look like the unholy offspring of Mr. Potato Head, and Buzz Lightyear?

Papi’s only 119 away from 2000 and I have no idea what to do….

Searches for 3 hours for a rare Pokemon before finally finding and capturing one.

Proceeds to find 12 of the same rare Pokemon in a row.

I finally find a decent stream of the BBC America premiere of Doctor Who series 8, watch 20 minutes and my browser crashes and refuses to reload the stream.    Dammit.

Sometimes I think I’d be a bad parent because I’d put a baby monitor in my child’s room, and make demonic noises in the dead of night.  Then I think it would be funny.

In regards to complaints I’ve seen regarding not only my own work, but those of others I can say only one thing: Trust the writer.

If a character’s actions seem out of place and shocking to the viewer, there is a reason for it, especially when the viewer is shown the story from a character’s perspective.

If a character’s actions seem out of nowhere and sudden to the viewer, there is a reason for it.  A story does not have to be told from A->B->C and so on, and they rarely are.  Just because something seems sudden doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been established, or won’t be expanded upon down the road.

Patience.  Answers come in time for those willing to wait.  For those who don’t wish to wait, that’s their choice.  If they are insulted, or upset by the story, then that’s a consequence that the writer should have, or has anticipated.  Writers weave words to guide readers into certain states, be it joy, anger, sorrow, shock, etc.  Writers understand that people might not like where they’ve been led, and may leave.  However, knowing that doesn’t make seeing it any easier.

ruuqo replied to your post:Papi’s already losing followers after that last…

I don’t see how portraying a different side of Celestia is any different to when people portray the mane 6 as murdering, psychotic lunatics. This is more canonically believable than cupcakes (for example) ever was.

“But Celestia iz teh perfect good pony princess!”

Granted, she shot first in the encounter with Chrysalis, justified though it was, and banished her sister to the moon for 1,000 years.

“Nightmare Moon deserved it!”

The conflict took place in a flashback that we have no reason to believe took longer than it was portrayed, so 5 minutes tops.  Luna went from disgruntled sister, to angry alicorn, to moon marking in 5 minutes.  

Yes, she attacked first.  Yes, she made a distinct threat.  However, there was little to no attempt at negotiation, diplomacy or anything resembling reason or deterrence.  It was ‘you shot at me and chased me around, you get 1,000 years moon-dungeon’ and that was the end of the story.  Worse yet, that was the reaction to her own flesh and blood sister whom she had grown up with and shared, sort of, power.

It flumoxes me that people can think that Celestia will instantly sit down and calmly talk things out with a force that is clearly perceived as threatening or different when much of what we see in canon goes against that.  Should she?  Yes.  Will she? Experience says no, unless they’re ponies and they pose no challenge to the established order.

All that aside, I agree.  This is tumblr and a community of wildly different iterations and interpretations of canon characters, many of which are not supported at all by their canonical counterparts.  That’s what makes things so fun in this community.  You’ll see a lot of the same ideas repeated over and over again, but you’ll also see fresh new takes that challenge your perception of a character, or an idea.  That’s what I try to do, and what many many others do very well.  If people don’t like it, they can be happy in their own sheltered, secluded little pocket of the internet but even then they’ll eventually have to come to understand that if a character is only seen or understood one way, or from a single angle then they are boring.  Safe, and boring.