Tuesday stuff

[yendi]

The three-week-late Amazon package finally arrived, which means we have gifts to now get to glenn5, gwynraven, and my Mom, and I was able to give Shadesong one of her remaining gifts (Wasteland, the only Francesca Lia Block book she needed). Shadesong gave me American Idiot, which ITunes is ripping right now. I'm happy. :-) Elayna, of course, made out like a bandit, getting the Maroon 5 CD from us (yes, our little girl has become a pop music fan) and a Harry Potter Quidditch PS2 game from the grandparents.

Then, we had ocean_song over. Yay! Attendees included alladinsane, dark_blade, museumfreak, karlita, photognome, kunfoogirl, and static_eddie. I was, alas, exhausted, so I crashed long before the festivities ended, but rumor has it that everyone had fun. Apologies to all for vanishing so soon.

Other stuff:

CNN is reporting that Christmas is the deadliest day for Americans. And that's only taking into account accidents and heart attacks. Let's not forget psychos dressed as Santa and mutated pets from strange Chinese markets.

Blockbuster is finally dropping their late fees! A few years and way too many dollars too late, of course.

The temperature when I woke up was 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Fuck. 18 with the windchill. Double fuck. And yeah, I know it's colder up north. But the one small blessing of living here is supposed to be the weather, dammit!

Elayna has requested that I make brownies for her class party. That means buying margarine (yes, I know it's the tool of the devil, but Elayna's allergic to dairy). It also means a nice chocolatty smell in the house. Until I make my key lime pie the next night for our work party.

Annoying trend in spam -- messages from "Perverted Elf." At least the spammers are getting seasonal.

EA has signed an exclusive deal to make the only NFL-Based games. I love the Madden franchise, but I'd like to see some decent competition, alas. Take Two/Sega were helping drive the market.

80GB iPods are on the way!

Finally, Orson Scott Card is going to be writing the Ultimate Iron Man series. I'll reserve judgment until I see the series (Iron Man, in any universe, is a tough character to write, and even Warren Ellis has done an utterly mediocre job so far with the non-Ultimate version). And Andy Kubert art is never a bad thing.

Comments

[unrepentant.livejournal.com]

[yendi]

I knew you'd get the reference.

[unrepentant.livejournal.com]

My brother in schlock cinema...

[tempestmir.livejournal.com]

It's about time Blockbuster got with the program. Then again, I have On Demand, through Comcast, so...*shrug*

T was just bitching about the EA Sports deal, because he tossed Madden to the wolves once he got his hands on ESPN football. This years Madden release was really no different than last and, now that there's no competition, they can just continue churning out the same crap with few, if any, updates because consumers have no choice but to buy it or go without. Very unfortunate.

[yendi]

It's made more annoying by the fact that EA also owns the NCAA franchise. There's no hope on either front.

[thejunebug.livejournal.com]

Use shortening instead of margarine. There's a "how to substitute for butter" guide on the back and it's nicer for baking.

[yendi]

Hmmm. I'd always resisted shortening, having grown up in the '70s, when margerine was considered the healthier choice. I'll look for it this week.

[thejunebug.livejournal.com]

Uhm, yuck. Haha. Shortening is just solidified veggie oil, whereas margarine is veggie oil, preservatives, and chemicals to make it semi-liquid yet not runny. Ewww. :P

Try Crisco in the green container-- it's more expensive than regular Crisco, but contains zero trans fat... a very god thing! I use it all the time.

[yendi]

I'll buy some today. How well does it melt? The first step in my recipe involves melting the butter and chocolate together.

[thejunebug.livejournal.com]

You have to be VERY CAREFUL melting shortening. There are instructions on the back of the tin, but basically you want to melt it very slowly (like on med or med-low) to avoid flames!

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

I love Orson Scott Card! That might be enough motivation for me to pick up The Ultimate Iron Man.

[yendi]

For me, Card's like the Little Girl With a Bow in Her Hair. Good Card is amazing. Bad Card, equally common, is wretched.

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

*grin* But I even enjoy reading Bad Card. *laugh* It's just possible that I have appalling taste.

Seriously, even Bad Card has it's good points, I think, because I can usually see what he was TRYING to do, which makes reading it worthwhile on a whole 'nother level dealing with craft and the writing process and that sort of thing. I've even read a lot of his essays.... It's interesting how his mind works, how he processes through things.

EA Exclusive rights to NFL

[hockeyrules88.livejournal.com]

That just sucks.... The NFL 2Kx series was far superior to EA's offerings. I am very sad to see that and I fear for the NHL 2k series. I am a complete convert to Sega's football and hockey, and it wasn't even just about the price. It was just the feel of the game.

I'm just not going to be happy having to switch back to EA for football.

Re: EA Exclusive rights to NFL

[yendi]

*nod* And I honestly don't have reason to doubt that EA could have become the better one, given time and motivation. But now, they'll just coast. At least they probably won't get sued for overworking programmers on the next version. :-)

[scathedobsidian.livejournal.com]

There's only been the #1 issue of the new Iron Man series, right? Something about some kind of biological threat. I thought it was pretty good.

[yendi]

Eh. Didn't do anything for me. Thought it was a truly terrible retelling of IM's origin. That said, we pre-ordered the next couple, so if it gets better, I'll be on board.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Orson? His talent left him about 5 novels ago, so I don't think I'll be trotting out for that.

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

1. Did shadesong get the $WINTERHOLIDAY gift I sent?

2. I ordered you something else entirely, to avoid any possibility of you getting something twice (at least by my hand). I'm having it shipped to myself (which I should have done in the first place), on the assumption I'll see you sometime this month.

[yendi]

1. She did, and I'm pretty sure she posted as much. I'm sure it arrived because I'm currently reading it.

2. Thanks -- as we also have something for you (shipped it to our place given all the recent issues I've had with Amazon), I'd say getting together at some point was a great idea.

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

1. Must have missed that post. But, good!

2. Always a great idea!