judyonthenet

I beat Mass Effect 2 a couple weekends ago. Overall, definitely an excellent game. I liked where the story went in this game (especially finding out what was up with the humans disappearing), so this time I paid attention enough to where my knowledge of the Mass Effect universe is now slightly-better-than-vague. Sniping people was enjoyable as always, graphics were nice (though my Shepard still had fake eyelash issues once they grew back after she came back from the dead), and characters were diverse and likable (except Miranda… shut up Miranda!). I miss Wrex, but Mordin’s my new favorite character. There were also plenty of side missions to play, choices to make, and even some useless junk to collect, which I’m always a fan of. (Except for maybe the fish. EDI can manage an entire ship’s systems but can’t feed my fish for me??)

Why am I in my own crosshairs?

Of course, there’s still things to gripe about. Most of the time, unlocking extra goodies only yielded money, which is about as rewarding as omnigel (meaning… it’s not). This time around they made up for the crappy inventory management of last game by not having any; I almost never messed with the weapons setup of any of the characters. I hated that missions were on separate levels that you can’t go back and explore. And the alien (not)sex scenes were weak (Jacob is not hot and has the personality of a potato, so I didn’t even bother with the human one).

And there’s always bugs. The most annoying one for me were collision issues people and objects in my game always seem to have. Walking next to tables was a dangerous act for Shepard, as she would enter a mysterious tabletop zone that she could never leave, often requiring me to load to my last save.

Shepard stuck in the CIC display thingy

This next one, Shepard’s on the wrong side of the counter. I can’t remember if the game crashed or not, but I remember she couldn’t even move or wiggle when she got in this position.

Shepard stuck at a random Citadel stall

It didn’t even have to be a table surface sometimes. In this next one, Shepard got too close to a rock wall, scaled up the wall, and started walking on thin air. Then Grunt and Mordin began tagging along.

Shepard, Grunt, and Mordin stuck in some random place

Even the bad guys wanted to get in on the air walking action.

Enemy walking into air via box

Annoying, but also entertaining. Slightly better than getting stuck underneath a mountain.

New thing I learned today: Your surname in Mass Effect, Shepard, is spelled “Shepard”, not “Shepherd”.

For some reason, I thought the Mass Effect protagonist’s last name was Shepherd, and I had used it through my post until I saw its correct spelling in the Mass Effect wiki.

Since I started working, I began renting one of the parking spaces from one of my neighbors. This complex has one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units, and the two-bedroom units have a garage space and an assigned parking space. Sometimes people don’t use their assigned parking, so you can work out a deal with them to use it. I come home late from work, so it’s nice to not have to cross my fingers hoping there’s a free space near our place. And it’s nice to have a designated space where other residents won’t care how I park. No more notes on my car!

Or not. Yesterday morning, lo and behold, I get another stupid anonymous note on my car. I’m in the lines of my space, what could possibly be the issue?

God, really? I’m in the damn lines, why does it matter what angle I’m parked?? I was kicking myself for not taking a picture of my parking yesterday morning as I rushed to work, but when I got home last night, I ended up parking my car in a similar manner (yay for consistency):

Yesterday, my car might have been slightly more slanted (there’s not much room to be much more slanted), but it was still well within the space. The assigned parking spaces aren’t very large, and when spaces are small, I prefer to back it in. Unfortunately, since I’m at the end of the lot, there’s little space and I’d have to do a 5-point turn or something (did I mention I have horrible depth perception?) in order to back it in. So I just do it nose-in and stay away from the right side so I won’t hit the dumpster I’m next to and passengers have room to get in. I always make sure I’m in the lines and not touching them. Yet somehow my car’s angle is still making it hard for someone else to get in their space??

Another thing, I almost never see a car in the space next to mine. In the month I’ve parked there, I’ve only seen an adjacent car once, and it was only for the day. It’s been nice for me because no car there means it’s easier for me to back out. Whoever uses the spot doesn’t use it very often. Why they care now, I have no idea. And the “other cars” in the note doesn’t even make any sense since it’s not a public parking spot.

Logically, it’s either the person who owns the spot or the lady I’m renting my spot from who left the note. I’ll ask her about it when I pay next month’s rent. The note is perfectly polite; I’m just SO SICK AND TIRED of anonymous notes. Am I the only one who likes to tell neighbors face-to-face issues I have? I feel like things get resolved better this way. Yet everybody in this damn complex only knows how to communicate with unsigned notes. Leaving notes without your name, regardless of how polite you are, is rude and cowardly. I just want an open channel between me and whoever has issues. This one-ended crap is lame. (However, if it turns out it’s neither of the logical people…)

On a more entertaining note, I was looking up other people’s blog posts about anonymous notes with neighbors. (Google loves me or something, my post is always in the first three pages of a search like that.) I found a blog called Passive Aggressive Notes. Not all of them are passive aggressive; many are just funny or crazy. If you’re having issues with notes, this blog can really lighten you up. It certainly made me feel better, even though it confirms my suspicions that there is just a ridiculous amount of stupid and crazy out there.

Some choice posts from what I’ve read so far:
The ripped-off tabs are what get me
Can you dig it? (never knew about snow parking etiquette)
WiFi for Passive Aggressives
Kanye interrupts this post

I’ve got the day off, so I suspect I’ll be reading this blog all day. At least until my copy of StarCraft 2 shows up.

New thing I learned today: Telex is a communications system used for transmitting typed messages with teletypewriters. It hit its peak in the 80s when the fax made telex obsolete.

I’ve never even heard of telex… or most of the things on that note for that matter. (I’m going to guess that “database access” is not the same as what I’m thinking of either.)

Once again behind in video games news, I discovered today that Amaterasu from Ōkami (my favorite PS2 game second only to Shadow of the Colossus) is the latest announced character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. I don’t care much about fighting games, but Kelvin does, and I’m pretty sure this is a Day 1 buy for him. Things like this will make me appreciate the game more when I know I’ll have to listen to this in the background for days.

I dunno, I feel like they should have made Ammy a bit more brushy looking. Still looks pretty good though. I love the arcade-techno-fied Ōkami background music. That game had one of the best video game soundtracks ever.

New thing I learned today: Thor‘s hammer is called Mjolnir, which is pronounced myol-near.

Ammy isn’t the only deity coming to MvC3. Thor was also recently announced.

Today is my Sunday for this week, as I had to come into work on my real Sunday. A big part of my job involves verifying stuff in machines, and we don’t have very many of these machines, so the weekend is a good time to find free time on them. Late evening slots also free up a lot, so I’ve been working late as well. I think better later in the day anyway, but I don’t like cutting my evenings with Kelvin short. Though, the majority of our evenings lately seem to be Team Fortress 2.

So, what am I going to do today? I have a free weekday without Kelvin around, a first since I started working again. The difference now is that I can feel good about slacking off and doing nothing, whereas before I always felt guilty not being productive, regardless of what Kelvin would tell me. I think I’m going to:

1. Blog – Oh gosh, I’m doing that already!
2. Make bread – I was making bread every week, and I haven’t made bread ever since I started working.
3. Read everything in my Google Reader until it’s got 0 unread – I’m amazed at how disciplined I’ve been about not reading my feeds at work. I still do it, but in short bursts and not as often.

Speaking of news I’ve been missing, did you know they announced details for Dragon Age II? I’m not sure how I feel about this Shepherd-like approach they’re taking with the character, but still… March 2011 can’t come any sooner!

4. Figure out which headset to buy – A couple days ago, Kelvin’s headset’s right earphone stopped working, so he’s been using speakers with his headset mic around his neck. Last night, my mic stopped working at certain angles (i.e. next to my mouth). And when it does work, the gain is insane, so I have to turn my mic volume all the way and put it next to my eyeball. That’s what we get for buying <$20 headsets. Sucks tho, I really liked my cheapo comfy-and-functional headset. So, with my new paycheck, I think I’m going to splurge on some gamer headsets that should hopefully last longer than a year. Any recommendations would be appreciated!
5. Laundry – Why not? it’s so easy!
6. Play games – I spent most of my Saturday playing Heavy Rain, and I’m almost done with it. It’s getting a little scary, so I’ll wait for Kelvin to come home to play that. In the meantime, I think I’ll get back to doing missions in Mass Effect 2.
7. Watch Old Spice Youtube videos – Did you know the Man Your Man Could Smell Like responds to Youtube, Facebook, and twitter comments now? Is this his fulltime job now? Hawt!

New thing I learned today: Carcharias is a genus of sharks.

Outside of the SC2 headset, Razer audio products seem to be named after water-dwelling predators.

Kelvin ordered some overpriced Apple accessories for his new iPhone 4. Even though our front door area is enclosed and fairly safe from the eyes of passerbys, the FedEx guy didn’t trust my three neighbors enough and decided to hide his goods just in case.

If I was my neighbor, I’d be more inclined to check out what’s under the mat than a nondescript box sitting on top of it. Then I’d write a nasty note.

New thing I learned today: Hightower is the last name of a Police Academy character.

Woohoo for the upcoming Engie update for Team Fortress 2!