The Getting of Knowledge Should Be...Smelly

Hello again!

Well, we just got the latest "Game Informer", the one with "The Last of Us" on the cover. If that still doesn't help maybe #227 will. We get the paper copy because we face facts in this house. And he fact is I don't read much on the computer. I'm a bit more like Rupert Giles than you might think. I want to touch it. I want to hold it. I want to smell it. Because when we add sight and sound together, then add smell and touch on top of that, well, a smell, a scent can take you back.

 

Think hot buttered popcorn, or woodsmoke, or cotton candy. If you're like me popcorn makes you remember your childhood. Sometimes when I hear and smell popcorn it takes me back to a night when I wake up in bed. First I can smell the aroma of corn from the top of the stairs. Then I can hear (and smell) the sound of popcorn rocketing around inside the metal pot my Dad cooks popcorn in. Then I open the door to the family room, light falls across my face and blink rapidly several times... Or maybe popcorn for you is all about the movies. A dark theater, a big bucket of hot buttery corn...either way, it all comes back to: Sight. Sound. And touch. They can bring us back to a place in time, a moment, a memory. I like to read things I can hold in my hand. (This might be one of the reasons I like Postcrossing more than Facebook! Not that I don't enjoy the FB, because I do!)

So back to Game Informer #227...

First off I have to say this: I want a PlayStation!!!! "The Last of Us" looks freaking awe-some! It is basically a zombie-esque game based in a post apocalyptic world. I want this game! But, funnily enough that isn't what I wanted talk to you about. Nope. I wanted to talk about the article entitled, "Expiration Date: Will Modern Video Games Go Bad?" by Jeff Marchiafava. The gist of the whole article is that at some point that DLC (downloadable content) will no longer be there. One day you might

go on Xbox Live but you will no longer be able to play your favorite game there because it is no longer supported. As a new gamer I find this all somewhere between terrifying and mind boggling. I haven't been on Xbox Live yet (come on Nate and Rachel, we're willing to pay!), so you can see that I am still green when it comes to much of this stuff.

A case in point of games no longer being supported is the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online, AKA MMOG Massively Multiplayer Online Game) "The Old Republic" which is part of the Star Wars Universe.

 "Old Republic" is a good example of this, Jeff says in his article. After 8 years of support it was turned off--forever. But 8 years is no guarantee. NBA 2K11 was canned after only thirteen months! Popularity doesn't guarantee longevity. So if you love it, play it today because there one day in the near future there may no longer be a tomorrow.

Lastly, this is also a wake-up call for all of you out there who have gotten a new console but haven't yet moved all your games over there. If you're using the authentication code each time you play, this too might become obsolete. And there may be little or no notice given. So take the time to really move those games over today. Microsoft offers a tool to transfer your DLG over to your new system (look on Microsoft's website).

And for those of you who want to know what Giles said" Buffy The Vampire Slayer" in the episode "I Robot...You Jane", here it is:

"Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell... musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is... it has no texture, no context. It's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible. It should be, um... smelly."

Read more: http://www.buffyguide.com/episodes/irobot.shtml#ixzz1nqhTdHhA

A Good Book...And a Better One

I know that the title of this blog is Gamer, Baker, Candy Maker, so talking about other stuff may not be what you’re looking for. But I have to tell you, I just finished reading “The Gathering” by Kelley Armstrong and I loved it! It is the first book in her new series “Darkness Rising” but in a way, it is also the forth book in the “Darkest Powers” series. But don’t get your hopes up, none of the characters we know and love are in this book, but the villains are, more or less.

The short version (which shouldn’t spoil anything for you) of the story is a high school student named Maya, unbeknownst to her, is developing powers. See. No spoilers here. She lives on Vancouver Island in Canada, her dad is a park ranger and she takes care of hurt and wounded animals. Good story. If you liked her "Darkest Power" series this one should be a good fit. Just do not expect to see Chole or the other kids from Lyle House here or you will be sorely disappointed.

I was perusing Kelley Armstrong's website and ran across something I had to share with ya'll. In addition to a bunch of short story freebies, there is also a "Darkest Powers Bonus Pack"! You can buy it from Amazon for your Kindle for ninety-nine cents! You had better believe that I will be availing myself of that ASAP. I am very excited because I felt this was a trilogy that would benefit from an additional book.

And if you love Kelley Armstrong books, try “Bitten”. It was the first book I read of her's and oh wow, was it fantastic! “Bitten” is clearly an “adult” book both in the style of writing and some of the content and themes. It isn’t as fast a read, but it still an engrossing one! Of course she (Armstrong) did looses me (in further books from the series) when she leaves Elena behind and starts focusing on Paige. But never mind that “Bitten” is an awesome read and you don't have to read any more of the series to feel satisfied.

I will save you the agony of telling you my complete current reading list. Because yes, sadly, I am one of those people who likes to read multiple books at once. And I don't mean that I pick up a book, read a few pages, decided it's boring and set it aside to maybe come back to several months from now. No, not at all. I start a book, read it, set it aside and pick up a different book and read a few pages or a few chapters. The next night I might pick up yet another book and so on. You get the idea. If I haven't read it in more than 2 weeks I consider the book on the shelf and may or may not go back to it. I don't count those books and I don't count cookbooks or magazines either when I mention current reads. Just so we're clear.

So right now I'm reading "Firelight" by Sophie Jordan, "Vampire Academy" by Richelle Mead and, up until twenty minutes ago, "The Gathering". So right now my list is pretty light. And yes. I like to read what "junk food books". Oh. And I'm also reading "The Killing Dance" by Laurelle K Hamilton. If I added in cookbooks the list would grow by an additional 7 or 8 books, most of them about pie making.


And that concludes our tour of Jen's Reading Habits. I hope you enjoyed our little excursion off the main path and I hope that you will come back soon for more of the many sights and sounds of Gamer, Baker, Candy Maker. Our next post will be focused on the Baker part of the title. See  ya soon, I hope!

Oh yeah! One more thing. Don't forget to checkout my other blog JensGoodFood.blogspot.com

What I Would Have Liked to Know....

I have to admit that Hunted: The Demon's Forge (HTDF) has certainly grown on me.

I know that it's true with most games and most things in life, that the more you do it, the easier it becomes. And with games, the more you play them, the easier the controls becomes and the more fun they tend to be. The thing is, that didn't happen with HTDF, not at the start.

Tim and I love to play games together, so we tried this one together as well. Well, to be 100% truthful, he tried it first. I watched him play and suggested we play Left 4 Dead instead. But we did try to play together. And we kept dying together. Then he went to work and I started playing on my own. Now I feel a bit like a crack addict.But as much as I might love HTDF at the moment, there is one HUGE drawback to the game, and that drawback is almost enough to keep me from returning.What's that big negative you ask? The game save infrequently. Really infrequently. So the short version of what happens is after going through 4 or 5 or 6 "parts" you die and instead of going back to the part just before you end up back at the start. Frustrating! Blood pressure rising! Here comes Mr. Furious...don ta dah dah!

But aside from that rather annoying feature, I have to say I really am enjoying the game. I've even gotten the hang of using magic while I'm fighting, which seems to be key the further you go. Now here are a few things I would have liked to know before I started playing:

1. Those little red and purple jars are good to have. You pick them up automatically when you run over them, just like those shinny  green things (which are broken crystals).

2. That bar across the top of the screen that red on one side and purple on the other? The red is your health & the other is your magic. Those little dots that may or may not be colored in are the extra jars of the good stuff. As long as those little dots are colored in you cannot pick up any more jars.

3. The white glowing vials are regeneration vials. That's what they throw at one another when the other one is down. You cannot carry more than 3 at a time.

4. Lamps and crystal cages may look the same (like Caddock and the Wargar, bad planning here folks!), but they are not. As I have told Tim: "Sometimes a lamp is just a lamp." i.e. stop hacking them to pieces.

5. Hitting the left button above the trigger will use one of your stored health jars. The computer won't ask you. If you hit it, you get it....unless you're full. This may make you want to cry at inopportune moments.  I didn't cry but you can bet your ***** that I made sure E'lara hit those guys where it would do the most damage.

The good news is that we now how the little booklet that tells you what buttons to press to run, skip or jump. The bad news? The book doesn't explain a lot of what I'd like to know!


That's it for now....

The Impetus

Hi! I guess I should start with my name, which is Jen. I live in Valley Center, California with husband Tim, our 2 Newfounds Mojo and Wallace, 4 1/2 cats Fat Sam, Luna, Calamity Jane, Little Bit and our half cat Hawthore who is feral. I am 42 years old, I have Fibromyalgia which is a fancy way of saying I hurt all the time and if I do too  much I hurt even more. Yeah, lots of fun, I know. So, anyhow. That's me in a nutshell. At least, the facts of me.

I have loads of hobbies. Some of which I actually partake in on a fairly regular basis and most of which I just indulge in sporadically. I'll tell you all about them as we get to know one another better. For the time being you can safely assume that I like to bake (I do!), play Xbox 360 (I do!) and make candy (do I ever!). But for now, I'm going to start with the impetus. The reason behind this blog. 

My husband and I were chatting tonight as we sat in front of the TV playing Hunted:  The Devil's Forge. I had died again and was getting pretty frustrated. It's a new game (for us) and it seemed that just as we were making progress, one of us would die and we'd be back at the start and have to do the whole thing over again. Well we weren't really back at the start, but after you've done the same thing over and over and over again you can get sort of sick of it. So I said to Tim, "You know, there must be other people like us out there who like to play together." You see, one thing that we have discovered, or should I say re-discovered, is that it ain't easy finding games in which the two of us can play cooperatively. We like running side by side across wind torn crags, fighting the locus with our lancers, mowing down the zombie hordes with our Uzi or sub-machine guns (Tim prefers the auto shotgun) and we like doing it as a team. But the problem is we have a difficult time finding good games (read mature content) that allows the two of us play (read kill, maim and obliterate) together.

So far with the help of  our brilliant nephew Eric and his extensive gaming lore, our trusted Game Stop salesman (whose name I cannot remember, so well call him HaloBoy because he is obsessed with Halo) and our own basic intelligence and --- to play we go forth. [As a side note here, I'd just like to thank SpellCheck because I could not seem to spell 'intelligence' to save my life tonight! I kept forgetting the second 'i'] So yeah, HaloBoy and Eric have been a BIG help. With their assistance we have managed to find and play (you guessed it) Halo, Gears of War 1-3, Left 4 Dead and just tonight we started playing Hunted: TheDevil's Forge.

What am I looking for by doing this blog? What am I hoping for? Well, let's see. I am hoping to find some new-to-me games out there that my husband and I can play together. I am looking for....or rather to. I am looking to share my search. A small peek into my life, however unexciting it might be. In return for hanging with me while I feed the dogs, watch too much TV, work in the garden, play in the kitchen and on the Xbox  you'll get...what you get.

Good night to all of you...for now!