 Awkward laundry moments --
posted by Dante on 3.14.2004 - 10:23 pm
My experiences in a community laundry area have taught me the beauty of having a washer/dryer of my very own. There have been so many opportunities over the years for me to see that shared facilities are something to be avoided whenever possible. I'm not trying to say that everyone sucks, but it only takes a couple of fools/jackasses to ruin the whole experience.
I won't begrudge the people who pull my clothes, still wet, out of a washing machine because the thing had stopped spinning for an entire 45 seconds and I was nowhere to be found. Though I'm not terribly wild about the idea of some total stranger pawing through my delicates; I can't complain about those people. Can't complain because of the other people who put their clothes in the washing machine and then head out for a Lord of the Rings marathon or something. After you've watched wet clothes start to mold-forgotten in a washing machine-you just assume they aren't coming back. It has to be done because there are only so many machines in the room.
The ones I will go off on are the ones who open the dryer door and then don't restart the machine. They call it 'tumble dry' for a reason. Leaving your clothes in a warm barrel for 45 minutes isn't going to do much, except waste my money and my time. That's okay, I wanted to lose another hour of my life waiting for my stuff to dry a second time, how excellent of you to help me out there.
And then there are the morons who add way too much soap to the machines. Apparently the giant, posted signs aren't clear enough. Apparently the standing pools of soapy water in the room aren't an indication of what can go wrong. I love standing in a big puddle while I'm interacting with giant blocks of electrified metal.
This isn't a gripe, but it bears mention. Anyone who's used a dorm or apartment laundry has experienced this: the people who 'forget' stuff. There's always the random sock tacked to the corkboard, sometimes a t-shirt. Usually the item in question is something significantly more personal. And it's always displayed prominently in the room too. Do you ever see an item like that and think to yourself, "how could that be comfortable," or maybe, "who would wear something like 'that'!" The more realistic question is who would risk being caught taking that item down off the board? My money isn't on the original owner ... its on the building pervert.
Did you lose something the last time you washed?
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 mario & luigi: superstar saga
posted by Christopher on 3.15.2004 - 9:15 am
nintendo has tried its hand at mario roleplaying games in the past for different systems. i'm not sure how they were, but if they are as well thought out as this one, then i may have to get the roms pick up some old systems off ebay and laboriously hunt down the cartridges that are probably selling for way more than the game was purchased new. oh, right, then i'll have to rig some sort of portable lcd that sits on top of my new (old) bulky-ass snes so i can play it on the ferry. nintendo, hear me now! you know how mp3's are pretty popular w/ the masses these days? make a pc emulator for the NES and SNES (or buy a company that makes one), convert your old games to some proprietary pirate-resistant downloadable format (e-reader or something), and sell them for $5 apiece. seriously, if you can't beat 'em (and you really can't), join 'em. i pay for MP3's now... i'd probably pay for some subscription service to get old roms.
oh yeah, so about superstar saga... i put about 15 hours into it so far, and i'm having a good time with it. the system is very simple, meaning it's great for people who either don't like rpg's or find the bulk of them too complex. the thing that sets it apart is the amount of interactivity in the battle system. in most rpg's, when you go into battle, it's pretty much just an excuse to see pretty effects and build your character's stats. you tell your characters what to do (fight, cast a spell, heal), and they just do it, and the results are somewhat random. in this game, you tell your character what to do (fight, heal, combo attack), and then depending on your timing and memorization of the button sequences, you can have a major affect on the outcome. it's almost like playing a side scroller or a fighting game... if an enemy approaches you, and you jump at the right time, you can counterattack or dodge. if you get your button sequence right, you can use both mario and luigi in a combo attack that does a lot more damage. even how you approach an enemy in the world view has an effect on the battle - if you hammer or jump on him to engage in combat, you do some initial damage to all of the enemies in that battle. if you overshoot the enemy, he knocks down mario or luigi at the start of the battle and gives the enemy a free shot. the more i play it, the more i really appreciate the veering from a traditional battle system. the world map sequences are pretty standard - you run around talking to people and smashing obstacles. there seem to be some minigames and other stuff to mix it up a bit. all in all, i'm really enjoying it, and might write about it more after putting in a bunch more hours.
here's the link if you're interested in checking it out.
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