| Seeking Frustration? |
[Aug. 3rd, 2009|09:17 pm] |
Lately I appear to be attracted to things designed to be frustratingly difficult to the point of brain breaking. I guess this is a form of masochism?
The first is an old old game called NetHack. First created over 20 years ago (yes, that's a "screenshot" at that link) it now, fortunately, comes with some graphical upgrades. It is still by far the most difficult game I think I've played, perhaps largely because of perma-death. That character you just spent several hours on? Dead. Try again?
In my 10-15 attempts, I've only made it as far as Sokoban or Mine town once (each)... :/ I have a loooong way to go.
The second form of frustration was a set of puzzles I found links to yesterday (via the ToothyWiki). The CISRA Puzzle Competition is a yearly puzzle contest in Australia. The puzzles are all single pdfs, usually a single page each. The interesting thing about them is there are no rules. The puzzle rarely, if ever, asks an actual question. It simply gives you an image or some text and you're expected to go from there.
If you want to participate in some brain mangling, you can see this year's puzzles, last year's puzzles and 2007's puzzles, all with solutions. Of the ones I tried I actually managed to solve 2 of the 2008 ones: Wordoku (with the hints) and Cranial Anatomy (without hints! Which I'm proud of even if it was classed as easy). |
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| NyQuil |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|08:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sick | ] |
NyQuil NyQuil NyQuil. Big N, small y, Big Fuckin' Q. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 8th, 2009|08:15 pm] |
This is why I'm going to have to buy a PS3 and this is why it's going to suck.
(by the people who brought us Ico and Shadow of the Colossus) |
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| Killlllllllll... |
[May. 17th, 2009|06:00 pm] |
An ice cream van (very) loudly and constantly playing Christmas carols through its tinny music system outside our door. Deck the halls, Jingle Bells. The list goes on.
No jury would convict me, surely?
On a completely unrelated note: I want to believe. |
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| Stresstaxmoneycrap |
[Mar. 31st, 2009|08:29 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
So, running very late this year (with some excuses but not really), I finally stepped into an H&R Block to see about filing taxes. Previously, we've been doing them ourselves but with the purchase of a house in December it seemed like a good idea to get some assistance.
$355 (or more).
WTH?
Seriously? Over $350?
But I guess the question is, am I grouching over nothing? What do you (residents of the US) do? Self-file? H&R Block? Lawyers who spend all year slaving over your personal finances?
I'm debating doing it myself again this year. Of course, first I have to find all the paperwork that got lost in the move... |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 22nd, 2009|09:37 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Name it. Read it. Quick format it. | ] |
Can't get this song out of my head...
Daft Punk - Technologic
(Warning: Video is creepy and contains what I'm assuming is Chucky without his skin) |
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| Tales of a house owner... |
[Feb. 28th, 2009|06:28 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
On a much more amusing note, while I was trying to remove some of the more offensive weeds from the front garden this morning, a group of people were wandering around handing out flyers for some kind of concert to promote their church.
I took a flyer, had a brief but civil conversation ("Have you found Jesus in your heart?", "Uh, no.", "But you know what I mean, right?", "Uh, yes."), and he moved on.
It wasn't until much, much later that I realised what t-shirt I put on this morning... http://shirt.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=2902579
I wonder if he noticed? |
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| 2009 |
[Jan. 1st, 2009|12:01 am] |
Happy New Year! (yes, California does catch up eventually)
However your 2008 went, good, bad or ugly, may 2009 be better for you. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 24th, 2008|12:53 am] |
Here, have some cheese. It will go well with this post.
Today has sucked the suck of most suckiness. Still generally wiped out from whatever crud is floating around at the moment, being generally stressed by house stuff and then came home to find the internet is dead.
To top this off, we decided to go to the mall (day before Chrismas Eve, yeah that was smart) where I proceeded to find nothing I needed to buy and had a meal that tried to kill me (no, it didn't contain nuts but I thought it might have done after part of my lips and tongue went numb from the spicyness. Since when does a BBQ pork sandwich contain habaneros and chili?)
Came back and spent the last 4 hours getting the internet working. (Zyxel modems suck. If you're stuck with one, the key is "bridge mode" which has to be enabled through a hidden web page...). Apparently something somehow managed to hard reset both our modem and router, leaving me thoroughly baffled.
On a completely different (and considerably more awesome) note: Thundercats: The Movie (trailer) |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 24th, 2008|12:45 am] |
From ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) roseembolism and the Typealyzer Blog Test:
ESTP - The Doers
The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.
The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.
Conclusive proof that the algorithms the test uses could not be more wrong. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 25th, 2008|07:50 pm] |
I'm... confused.
I'd been ignoring reviews of Max Payne because I pretty much knew I was going to see it anyway. I'm a huge fan of the games (1 much more than 2) and the trailer had sufficiently many references to them that I wanted to see it regardless of how bad video game movies could be.
Having watched it... It was perfect. The perfect video game movie. It was filled with references, it held together the story, it even pitched new elements in that added to rather than detracted from the main story and visual effects.
Was it a good movie? That I can't say. It's hard to judge from a fans point of view. I enjoyed it and (aside from one strange anticlimax part way through) I thought it did a good job. I was expecting mediocre to good reviews. Instead I see 10% to 50% ratings. I don't know how it earned those, or the somewhat hateful reviews that go with them.
Ah well. This I will say: If you have played the game and enjoyed it, go see this movie without a moments hesitation.
If you haven't and see it anyway, let me know why it apparently sucks so bad. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 12th, 2008|04:32 pm] |
So many different kinds of awesome:
The Mange Guide to Databases - ""In The Manga Guide to Databases, Tico the fairy teaches the Princess how to simplify her data management..."
And for $13.57 how can you go wrong?
Trying to resist the temptation to take this into the office, place it on my desk and declare that I'm ready to start work... |
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| Bills |
[Oct. 12th, 2008|04:01 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  buried | ] |
Paying them is bad enough, but then you're left with paperwork to deal with.
How do you deal with them? How long do you keep them? What method do you use to file them?
Personally, after paying, they're stuffed into a "to be filed box" until said box explodes and I'm forced to actually sort them and put them into a filing box in appropriate folders.
Unfortunately said to-be-filed box is rather large so I now have about a years worth of accumulated statements, bills and miscellanea to deal with... |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 28th, 2008|08:25 pm] |
How's your Japanese geography? Population density, that kind of thing?
Don't worry, mines worse and I still found this amusing: (Sorry, no idea what it's called)
Pick regions to fill up the boxes on the right. Get to the green markers and go to the next level. Orange and red markers get you bonus points. Past the red markers and it's game over.
Really, it's worth it just for the voices when you roll over the regions... |
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