Saturday Casual Gaming 307: AdventureQuest

In Which I Talk About One Of My Old Favorites

Real Talk, guys, I don't like MMORPGs. I'm only slightly (and begrudgingly) social, so I don't really want to spend 90% of my gaming time being bombarded by gold-sellers, whiney teenagers, and human trolls. I don't want to be constantly ganked. I don't want to be hassled. I just... want to hit the bad-bads with my pointy stick in peace.

So imagine my joy when I discovered browser-based Single-Player RPGs!

And imagine my exultation when I discovered Adventure Quest?!

But what is AdventureQuest?

Well, it's a browser-based single-player RPG made by Artix Entertainment and based in a world called Lore. You're an adventurer, and you're basically just... free to do whatever! You can click on the hills behind the town of BattleOn (yes, that's the town name) and just roam around, hitting the bad-bads with your pointy stick. Or you can just click on random buildings and take on quests! Or you can get hopelessly lost in menus while you try to find a sword you want to drop your hard-earned gold on! Or you can pay real money to become a Guardian (big bonuses, cool armor, you help the game exist, etc)! There's even housing, now!

All in a brightly-colored Flash-animated wonderland!
This is what it looked like for Halloween one year.

 The game does a pretty good job of explaining itself once you get playing, but it can be overwhelming. I know I was a little overwhelmed after going back for the first time in years. My old account was deactivated because that email address doesn't even exist anymore, but once upon a time, I was pretty good at the game.

You can even buy special armors that level up with you and give you special abilities!

Like this Vampire Slayer armor, which lets you have extra bonuses vs Vampires and Werewolves

The game has changed a lot since I started playing, I have to say. The art has evolved a lot, though... Character heads seem to be about the same. Also, there's no body difference between masculine/feminine armors, which is pretty fun, because you don't have to play a girl in a chainmail bikini!

You can play a girl in heavy robes beating the crud out of a sea dragon, instead!

Sometimes I get nostalgic for the old art, but... well...

The redesigns were a vast improvement...

All told, however, I have to say that I still love AdventureQuest/BattleOn. It was my first positive online RPG experience, and it let me play a blue-skinned, lime green-haired murder machine in Digimon goggles, so I can't help but love it. I also love that it's not afraid to grow and change with the times. There's a 3D version of the game now, too, but I haven't played that yet. Maybe some day...

What about you guys? Do you have any odd games you fell in love with long ago that you're craving a return to?

Go Enjoy Something,
FC

Filmic Friday 307: Post Oscars Silliness

Ever Wonder What Brad Pitt's First Movie Was?
It Was This One.

So the Oscars are over, Parasite won a bunch (deservedly so), the cast of CATS ripped on the visual effects people (which was not deserved, they did their best and got fired because of overblown expectations), and Brad Pitt won an Oscar for Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood (also deserved).

But what did Mr Prettyboy do in his first movie?

I'll tell ya: not much.

Yes, this is his first roll.
In an 80s/90s slasher.

Cutting Class is a rock stupid movie that thinks it's clever, is full of actors who have better things to be doing with their lives, and is only really of importance because it's the film that launched Brad Pitt's career. The acting is either stilted and wooden or over the top, because apparently the director micromanaged the actors' performances - especially Jill Schoelen's.

Baby Brad in all his adorkable glory.

Jill Schoelen's character is being left alone for the week by her District Attorney father (Martin Mull) as he goes for a brief hunting trip to unwind. She is played hypersexualized but... comes off as a baby instead of a sex kitten. Her boyfriend, Brad Pitt (and boy, that must have been interesting when his career took off, do you think she told people she dated him in a movie once?), just wants to goof off and get drunk and have sex.

Get used to that facial expression, guys.

Really, the cast is what makes this movie. The principal of the school, Mr Dante (you'll notice that's the only name I remember!), is played by Roddy McDowell, who is played as a bizarre lech of a man, but is also one of the only adults to not be killed. Spoilers, someone's killing students and teachers at this disfunctional sex-starved school. It's not Roddy, though.

He's just creepy and weird, that's all.

No, the killings are all done by the Weird Kid (played by Donovan Leitch). They don't hide it, and even the brief moment we're supposed to believe Brad Pitt is the killer doesn't work.

He's a fairly effective killer, though.

Now, usually, in movies where there's killing in a high school, all of the kids look like adults, and that's a problem here, but Donovan? I buy him as a high schooler. He's that creepy intense kid everyone talks about but nobody talks to. It's hard to believe that this school would just... let him back in after he'd killed his dad, but boy, they don't do much to support him.

This could all have been prevented if he'd been given therapy instead of shock treatment...

Anyway, the worst part of this movie has to be Martin Mull, who spends the whole time trying to get help after he's shot with an arrow in the opening scene. It's played for laughs, but it's as unfunny as bad comedy can be.

This part was crap.

But if you're still interested in checking out Cutting Class, go for it! It's not the goriest movie you'll ever see, but it's one of those "European director tries to capture the American high school experience" movies that are so much fun. It's pretty fun to watch, actually.

Except for the Martin Mull bits. Meh.

That'll do it for me, guys!

Happy Violently Beheaded Catholic Saint Day!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 307: Sleepy Stinky Birb

In Which I Has A Sleepy

It's a sleepy kind of day. The snow is falling, the air is cool, and I stayed up way, way, way too late. I stayed up so late that I saw the dawn. That's how late I stayed up. So I grabbed some coffee, came upstairs, and drew a little picture of my boy, who (since I was awake all night) had also stayed awake all night. Bert may be an owl, but still needs more than 2 hours of sleep!

Since we'd stayed up all night working on intellectual pursuits, you wouldn't think we'd get sweaty, but you'd be wrong. I sweat a ton when I work all night because my body keeps trying to give me subtle hints and reminders that sleep is a thing, and when that doesn't work, it just floods me with heat to make me get away from whatever I'm so focused on. At that point, I usually fall asleep and wake up super dehydrated.

It didn't work on me last night, so I was asleep on my feet getting my coffee together and drinking it. Eventually, though, I took a shower and went back to bed. Dedbert also got to freshen up and get some rest, but I don't have an after pic for you - just a before pic.

"All Nighter #1"; pencil on printer paper; 2020

Poor Dedbert. He's so tired he's melting! He's stinky and sleepy and just wants to curl up with his bunny slippers, coffee, and toast before having a nice preen and a good sleep. He's very grumpy that I only slept a few hours, so I'll probably go back to bed soon.

I'm also definitely going to redraw this later with inks and colors, because that's a cute image and I want to put it on Redbubble...

Alright, that'll about do it from me, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Wednesdaymania 307: Keeping Up With Wrestling

What Do You Do When There's Too Much Wrestling?

I'm just one person. I have two eyes that are barely functioning, two sets of two limbs, one brain, one heart, same organs as almost anyone else. I have the same amount of hours in the day the rest of you have - 24. 8 of these hours are supposed to be spent sleeping, 3 are spent eating, and then there are various bathroom breaks. So let's say I've got about 10 hours total in which to do everything that needs doing - writing, working, etc. That's if I don't eat while doing other things (which I usually do).

So when you've got this many quality wrestling programs to keep track of, something's usually gonna give, and since I refuse to give up food, it's either gonna be sleep or wrestling.

Usually it's sleep, to be honest.

This week, wrestling kinda went to the wayside as I focused on writing, crochet, and other things that needed to be done (chores, for example). I don't have my usual company-by-company updating to give you, so instead, let me tell you what I have learned about wrestling, this week!

• The NWA: Powerrr episode this week was great, and I really enjoyed both it and last week's episode.
• I still haven't watched Cody Rhodes' back getting turned into hamburger, and I'm actually uncomfortable with the idea of watching it. I don't do well with real pain, guys. I just don't.
• Which is why I skipped the barbed wire match between Jimmy Havoc and Mance Warner on ep 94 of MLW Fusion. I have seen the next episode, but I haven't caught up to ep 96 yet!
• I'm still following Jyushin Thunder Liger on Twitter, and if you aren't yet, you really should, because his adorable posts about what he's eating, his love of carnivorous plants, and his extreme talent in sculpting are incredible and give me life.
• I haven't heard much about Ibushi's health, but apparently he was in some kind of kaiju movie? I only know about it because my Film and Editing Friendo heard about it and told me!
• I'm slowly warming up to the use of Pantera in the NWA: Powerrr opening, but I dig that they change themes after every PPV.
• It's really fun seeing Shawn Mooney again!
• Taz is a darn good commentator for AEW Dark
• Even the little guys are getting on tv now - I hear that one of the YouTube based wrestling channels will be on a small French network now? Cool!
• I just really like wrestling, guys, even if I don't always watch it

If you're falling behind on wrestling on YouTube and in the world, I strongly suggest subscribing to one of the many internet wrestling news services out there:

• Wrestling With Wregret
• Wrestlamia
• WhatCulture Wrestling
• Wrestle Talk
• Wrestling Observer/Figure 4

So it's a shorter blog than I'd intended, but it's almost time for my writing sprint (30 minutes where I just write without any tabs open or other distractions), so I've gotta go.

I love you all.

I love wrestling.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday 307

In Which Today Is Hard

Today is not cooperating with me, guys. I want to get up and do things, but I also just want to sleep. It's gray out there - sky, street, everything is gray. It's above freezing, but below warm out there. It's going to rain this afternoon. I'm not, therefore, excited for today's weather.

I'll be fine, I just feel lazy and tired.

Speaking of lazy - here's my plans for the next week:

• Tomorrow I'll talk wrestling
• Thursday I'll make some art
• Friday I'll tell you about the first movie Brad Pitt was in (I also saw a certain musical, but I'd like to compare it to one of the older productions before I finalized that blog lol)
• Saturday might be video games, or I might end up writing again - stay tuned to find out!
• Sunday maaaaaaaaaaaay be a video - we'll see
• Next Monday I'll have more Lady Sibyl Shrug to show you
• Next Tuesday we'll reconvene for coffee and blather :P

So yeah, I don't have a whole lot of plans for today beyond writing, returning bottles, and hanging out. I might even read!

Lazy lazy lazy me.

Go Enjoy Something, guys.

FC

Fiber Monday 307: The Abbey Lady Groweth

In Which I Have Made A Little Progress!

So you'd think I'd be a lot further on this shrug by now, but I've been distracted/busy lately. I have no excuses, really. It's not that I haven't been crocheting, I've just been crocheting things that aren't the shrug lol!

I made my dad a crocheted rubber duck for his birthday because he works in IT, and when they have a problem, there's a process called "Rubber Ducking" where you talk through the problem and process out loud to an inanimate object (such as a duckie), which usually helps you figure out what's wrong.

I also started work on a sweater using some brown Caron Simply Soft, which I'm going to try striping with a dark green I was given for Christmas!

I'm also working on a piece of crocheted lace for a choker I'm making for someone. It's been a long couple months lol.

So of course I've fallen behind on the Lady Sybil shrug.

Still at about 3" long, though! That's not bad - that's about 20% completion!

It's going to take a few more weeks to finish the body of this project, and then it's sewing time! And after that I get to add a lacy border! Super excited about that, tbh!

As for the rest of the projects, we'll see how all of that goes :)

Today, the weather is hellishly miserable. I mentioned that we had a massive ice storm recently, right? Well, now it's 39℉ (4℃) and drizzly and gross out there. There was about an inch of uneven, slippery ice on the sidewalks last night (which was a pretty but snowy night), so that's probably a death trap right now. I'm still gonna go walking today, though, because I'm a badass and the weather has no hold on me (that's a lie, but one I'm going to keep telling myself lol).

I think that'll do it for me today, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Survival Sunday 306: Spinach For The Unwell

In Which I Made Simple Food For Sick People

At some point in everyone's life, they get sick. Sometimes, you're not the only one who gets sick, too, so that makes feeding yourself and others pretty dang hard. That's what happened to me a twice in the last two months. First, someone I care about was sick, then I had my migraine episode last week. Today, I'll tell you how I handled both kinds of illness with food.

The first illness was marked by severe headache, fever, nausea, and a general malaise. One day of misery, then gone. The intention was to make something filling but not too potent so that the ill party wasn't going to barf.

We chose some spinach soba from our Umai Crate along with a soup base that seemed like it would be hearty enough to be worthwhile but not so strong as to upset anyone's stomach.

The broth is on the left, and yes, it's kumamoto soba

As you can see, the somen is meant to support some veggies and spice, but we couldn't do spicy that day.

It didn't have much of a green color to start with, to be honest

I prepped the noodles by measuring out the appropriate amount of water and boiling it. I should have rinsed the noodles, but we were getting pressed for time, and I just wanted to get lunch over with. If I ever got these noodles again, I'd rinse them, but they weren't too salty in the broth despite the lack of washing.

And they were a bit more green when they were done cooking, too!

Overall, the spinach soba were very much appreciated. They were filling, and the soup base was rich enough to be flavorful without being so rich as to overwhelm. The next day, we were able to appreciate the noodles more, since we weren't sick anymore, but in the moment, we were just happy to eat.

As for the migraine?

The problem with my migraine experience is this: all of my senses become extremely over...sensitive? Is there a better way to say that? Regardless, light is brighter, dark is more absolute, colors are more vivid, sounds are clearer and more robust, touch sensation is vastly increased, taste is more extreme, and scent...

Scent is horrifically powerful.

I usually love the smell of a good chicken sandwich, but one whiff of my mother's lunch sent me charging into the bathroom to abandon the three sips of coffee and two ibuprofen I'd taken earlier. But I'm not one to let a little headache and nausea get me down (it felt like my skull was imploding on top of the nausea), so I got myself situated and headed out. After gingerly nibbling some water crackers and taking more ibuprofen, I was able to take a nap and sleep the worst of the migraine and enjoy the rest of my day, but for me, migraine food is: a little caffeine, bland white foods (especially crackers), water, maybe a plain bagel with cream cheese.

The cream cheese was a stretch - it's usually a significant trigger for me - but by the time I busted in on the bagel, I was well on my way to being better.

So that was my culinary adventure recently. Some noodles, and trying not to overdo it on a migraine day. The winter is always the hardest for me, health-wise. I don't get the proper vitamins and minerals from my diet, going outside is a crapshoot for whether or not I'll be getting dampened by the clouds, and I'm always, always stressed about the state of our streets and sidewalks. This is a terrible combination.

But what about you guys? What are your go-to sick day foods?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC