DJLUCiTE's Xanga

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:01:05 GMT

Today was full of people being dicks to me regarding things I am wrong about.
At best, I got an earful of how I'm doing it wrong.

Time to lay low and concentrate on non-social things, I guess. Important stuff. (and NOT the following video game review)

-

I've played through the first chapter of Dead Space, and while it's an interesting game, it just feels...done before.

You play as Generic Everyday Engineer*, who, despite being a "regular person" manages to live through all of this horrible stuff without his sanity being affected by it. Please. If I saw someone's limbs get ripped off, I probably wouldn't go outside for DAYS.

Anyway, you end up on the U.S.G. Generic Large Spaceship* because of a Generic Distress Call due to some crazy stuff happening before the game's timeframe.

Generic Monsters* jump at you from Generic Vents And Closets, snarling and stuff. It's all very polished, but old.

The gameplay mechanic of "Cut Off Their Limbs", helpfully written in blood all over the walls, is actually pretty unique, and very satisfying...especially after the tension's been built up. Lots of moments in which you'll panic, forget the tactic and just start shooting. I admittedly was caught off guard when I blasted a necromorph's head into a red mist, and it simply staggered a bit...and then made more gurgling noises and rushed at me again.

The sound design is great, and very well executed...lots of times the music will build up tension then suddenly crescendo to silence, and just when you think the music was for no reason at all, something will jump out at you / reanimate / scream. It likes to startle you, but I wish it was creepier more than startle-scary. That's what happened with Doom 3, once I had played through and knew where all the scares were, it was pathetically predictable.

The game, while very well presented, doesn't really get under your skin like I'd hoped.

It's like taking an average photo and placing it in an awesome frame. The entire thing is better than average...but not by much.

P.S. The voice acting is incredibly unconvincing. I think I could've done a better job as the girlfriend, seriously...it's like, "Isaac, I love you so much...but I really don't, I'm just reading these lines off a script because EA is paying me minimum wage to do so"

* = Isaac Clarke, USG Ishimura, Necromorphs

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:03:21 GMT

Facebook Video Embed for StandardShift.com:

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:50:27 GMT

i'm growing up.

dammit. (lol)

Friday, August 28, 2009

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:02:00 GMT

Thoughts in my head:
How am I going to get out of this mess?
Even if I try, I can't balance everything.

Good job, Phil. Keep failing at everything.
Acting like you've learned a lesson.
Most people would've fixed this long ago, but...
Everywhere you look, you can't escape it.

---

HINT: read the first letter of every sentence downward =D

What I've Learned This Summer

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:44:34 GMT

There is no shortcut to hard work.
Surprisingly, it took me the better part of 21 years to learn this, but there you go.

The easy way out is almost always not the right way out. Coming up with a billion different reasons as to why you can't get over someone is so much easier than working on actually getting over them.

I find it ironic that letting go is often times more difficult than holding on. Like when something happens that makes you jealous or pisses you off.

I've always known that jealousy was one of my biggest weaknesses. I went to church, I prayed, I talked to Father Imo and he gave me some sound advice: knowledge is power. A lot of people don't even get to the point where they know what's wrong with them, and by that measure, I was ahead. I knew what I was doing wrong, but why couldn't I fix it?

Laziness. It wasn't that I was incapable somehow of fixing my own problems, though I always made it seem that way. I was just unwilling to put forth the effort. But I've learned. Prayer is amazing.

My workout regimen got started for a silly reason: I was trying to impress someone, trying to "get the girl" (which, by the way, went totally according to plan -_-) But it continues on for a much more noble cause...if I stick to something I told myself I'd do, no matter how distracted I get, I feel that it's a verification of my new resolve and inner strength.

Sure, I feel better about myself now (mostly because I've lost 11-ish pounds), but it's more of a deep breath before I get to some real hard work.

I really wanted something in the romantic department this summer. Getting really frustrated at being single for so long. But I got what I needed and not what I wanted...and now what I want is what's good for me.

Funny how that works.

The Best of YouTube Comments, vol. 6

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:22:13 GMT

Friday, August 07, 2009

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:23:25 GMT

Your mom finds used condoms in your room, you tell her?
what are you doing in my room

You win backstage passes to meet the Jonas Brothers, you?
ebay. brian's got a good idea

You've locked yourself outside and no-one will be home for a few hours, you?
attempt to crack open a window and break it, deeply cutting your hand and having to go to ER to recieve 4 stitches and leaving a piece of glass embedded in your hand to be removed a year later

You wake up, all your hair is gone, your first reaction?
not too bad, though i'll look like an airbender

Have you ever kicked a wall, door, etc?
hell yes

What are you thinking about right now?
i wish i wasn't sick. and a summer fling would be fun lol

Do you trust people?
i've got a few very close friends. everyone else i just know and act nice to

Where is your phone?
next to me

What are you excited about?
nothing really. summer feels over for me already. i hate august

Have you ever had a best friend of the opposite sex?
yeah. hard to keep your feelings separate, only do this if you can handle that

Are you listening to music right now?
nah

Last time you talked to your number one on the phone?
i don't know who my current #1 is lol. no one is being especially trustworthy at the moment :P

Where is the person you miss the most right now?
idk not going bowling with us

What's your most favorite thing to do?
fix things on my car (if the parts are paid for)
play my cello
work out at the moment

Have you learned anything from your best friend?
a lot this summer from one of them

The last person you kissed, how many times have you cried in front of them?
once

What would you say if someone told you they were in love with your brother/sister?
"who are you talking about?" (only child)

Would you ever work as a stripper if it were the only available job for you?
bank, son. why not. though i'm asian...lol

Two days from now this time, where will you be?
asleep and/or drunk (21st birthday)

Why do you like the person you like?
because she's cute and i haven't met anyone else better for me yet

Has anyone upset you in the last week?
yes

Are you nice to everyone?
i try

Who were you with today?
gaston

Ever been cheated on?
nope

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
AJ Dizon

If you were granted one wish, what would you wish for?
-more than one wish
-for good people (not me) to finally get what they deserve
-for a bunch of different people i know to start maturing and not act stupid

Kill the spider or let it out?
kill it, if i can work up the courage to LOL

What if your best friend liked your ex boyfriend/girlfriend?
lol then he'd be a little late cuz she liked him before hahah

Do you know anyone named: John, Mike, Joe, Tim?
yes lol. and there are so many effing mikes its annoying

Do you like to have long hair or short hair?
short

Where do you want to move to when you're older?
-canada
-australia

when was the last time you laughed?
ab ripper x

Did you reject or accept your last friend request?
reject i believe

Was the last person you hugged a male or female?
female i think

When is the next time you'll fly on a plane?
possibly winter

Would you prefer being locked in a room with your ex or your worst enemy?
ex by a long shot.
and i don't know who my worst enemy is

Are promises important to you?
they are probably penultimate...i wouldn't say they're #1 but theyre right up there

When you say you don't care, do you mean it?
it depends. most of the time i do mean it
but there were times when i said it to try and convince myself that i didn't care

Any plans for the weekend?
stupid work
hopefully stop being sick
birthday

What were you doing at midnight Sunday night?
turning 21

Last time you went swimming in a pool?
earlier today

Who was the last person to make you smile?
in a touching way? cannot remember. probably amanda sometime this summer lol

What is one of your favorite smells?
-hairspray
-sharpie marker
-gunpowder
-nail polish remover (!!)
-burnt clutch and rubber
-most any scent a girl sprays herself with, but only when she doesn't overdo it (which is kinda rare lol cuz god i have had girls walk past me and thought 'wtf did they take a bath in the fragrance')

What's running through your mind right now?
'i hate being sick'

This time last year, can you remember who you liked?
probably someone wrong for me

Who do you hang out with the most?
gaston + christian

Do you use chap stick?
neverr.
only when my lips are already chapped

What can always put you in a good mood?
when shit goes the way i want it to. this hasn't happened in a long ass time, thats why this answer seems so low priority. i miss the days when fixing a problem DIDN'T mean 20 other new problems would pop up. and this doesn't just apply to my car.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:44:28 GMT

Ingredients
-1 part mango malibu (vary to taste)
-2.5 parts flavored iced tea (preferably sweet tea from mcdonalds)
-1 lemon slice
-lime flavored ice cubes

Place all ingredients in mixer (mix iced tea first separately) and shake moderately for 10-15 seconds. Serve straight up and garnish with lemon slice.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:11:26 GMT

"build a bridge and get over it"
—Amanda Revilla

I've found out that there's no excuse and no shortcut for hard work.

You can't settle for "I just have to accept things"...getting over something isn't just tolerance and acceptance, it's doing the work to change your mindset about it.

You win some, you lose some. But when you're hung up on the losses, ask yourself...does this really matter in the grand scheme of things?

You'll find that more often than you think, what you're obsessing about is a tiny, transient event in the big picture. So get over it.

Happiness is hard work. Much easier to wallow in sadness than it is to do something about it...but rarely is the easy way out the right way out.

So do something about it. =]

Is It Just Me...

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:10:16 GMT

...or doesn't it annoy you when someone IM's you and it reads:

> Lol
> Rofl
> Hey this sentence has a capital first letter but no punctuation or other proper capitalization lol

I think auto-capitalization is the dumbest feature ever implemented on cell phones. They should just call it auto-doucheification, because that's what it makes you look like.

When you're talking in an IM, it's almost always informal, and all the punctuation and properness is implied. You're not typing an essay, so you just provide the bare minimum of communication; it gets the point across, so why not?

But when there is a capital first letter of a sentence, but the rest of the "properness" is missing, it throws up a huge WTF flag in my head. It looks so wrong because it's neither proper nor casual, it's just an awkward anomaly of douchiness.

If someone is too lazy to hit shift and then type the first letter of their sentence, do you really think they're going to bother typing the rest of the sentence properly? What purpose does auto-capitalization even serve? You already have to make a conscious effort (for the most part) to type a properly punctuated and capitalized sentence, so the gain made by automatically capitalizing the first letter is almost nil.

I'm so annoyed, I almost want to make a group on Facebook hating on auto-caps.*

Ban this shit. Make it illegal. Seriously.

* = One probably exists already, and yes, this sentence is intended to be humorous; i'm fully aware of the pointlessness of Facebook groups.