The Mixed-Up world of Cluskevird

So after some patchy moments this year, things are starting to feel like they are on the upswing.  Everything pretty much kicked off last night when I had a message waiting for me on the phone.

 

My brother is now back from Iraq and is trying to get things straightened out and in order at the homefront.  Since I was only on my "lunch" break, I wasn't able to talk a whole lot, but he's still in the process of getting settled back in and one of the big things is that he finally bought himself a 360!  Hopefully he gets connected up and I'll be able to play some games with him despite living on opposite sides of the states.

 

Coming up next week, the nephew will be here!  Not quite a whole month, but it'll be fun to introduce him to the new puppy.  Still, since he lives in Texas we just don't get to see him a whole lot.

 

Then sometime in the first part of August, my brother will be driving out west to visit.  he has three miniature dachsaunds, so I can just imagine the chaos that will be my parents' house with their two dachsaunds as well.  :p  Heaven forbid I bring my two dachsaunds over. . . heh heh heh  It would be true pandemonium!

 

So there it is. . .  a month of fun coming up.

It's not too often I'm able to tackle a game and get all the way through the game, much less acquiring all the achievements.  But just before midnight I did just that by playing Condemned.... the first one.

 

Not too long ago I bemoaned the fact that I got all the birds but not the golden bird achievement.  Well, I knew that people had problems with this achievement so it really didn't suprise me, but I went ahead and complained anyway.  :p  I'm like that you know.  Anyway, I only needed that one and the last two propaganda reports (finding all the metal bits) in order to get everything so I planned on trudging  through the game again.

 

The first pleasant suprise was that the golden bird achievement unlocked for me after the first chapter (which I have lost count of how many times I played that particular level).  YAY!  So that meant all I had to do was concentrate on metal bits and birds were no longer a concern.  Things got strange though on the third chapter, because all of sudden near the end the 3rd propaganda report popped. . .  Okay, color me confused.  Yes, I'm happy I got the achievement - but did I really find all the metal bits in the game?  Up to that point, yes I have - but I'm thinking there were a couple of chapters that I didn't find them all.  Curious.

 

Then I'm working on the fourth chapter and "blip" 4th propaganda report.  So that's it then... I have all the achievements for the game.  Woo Hoo?  Sure, part of me is happy.  I know I've played through the game like 5 times if you count how many replays of chapters I've done trying to find the birds.  But another part of me feels a little let down.  I wanted to see that little "3 of 3 metal bits collected" on each level.  I know I can still do it... but the carrot is no longer dangling in front of me.  Oh well, there are still LOTS of games awaiting my attention!  I'll figure things out later when I'm feeling a little less dizzy.

After playing quite a few games, I've been trying to complete an overall 50% GS across them all.  I guess normally I wouldn't think much about it, but over at 360Voice.com, it's one of the many little stats that they keep track of.  I like stats.  But I also like to know that I'm doing a little damage as far as completing my games.

 

So after staring at my little badge that says 25%, I started getting a little distracted.  By working on games that I haven't completed I'm slowly getting that percentage up.  In fact, I think I've finally reached around the 43% mark.  The downside to focusing on that 50% is the many games I have laying around that I haven't even loaded into the 360 yet.  I have four games that jump to mind that have killed my percentage...  Shadowrun, Lost Planet, Chromehounds and Far Cry: Instincts/Predator.  The Orange Box would also fall into that category, but I'm still working on that and have only played two of the FIVE games that are involved.  Another culprit in the lower than normal percentage is the lack of me hopping into LIVE games.  Oh well, such is life I suppose.

 

Oh... what do I get if I make it to 50% game completion?  A badge that replaces the 25% and states 50% instead  :p

This weekend marked the wife and I's 2nd anniversary so I was thinking about something nice.  Instead of going out though, she wanted me to whip up one of my "gourmet" meals.  Granted I do cook and I'll get elaborate (with fresh ingredients and weird things like cooking down) but on short notice I was caught a bit flat footed.  I did do my best though and found a little recipe for fillet mignon that I thought I would go ahead and try.

 

I try not to repeat my meals and always try something I've never actually eaten before so my experiences always tend to border on... unexpected.  Because, let's face it, anniversaries and special occasions should have something to make it really 'special'.  My first obstacle was trying to find exactly what cut of meat is used for fillet mignon because if you're going to do something right... well...  you know.  Unfortunately I'm really good at following instructions but the knowledge thing sometimes eludes me.  In a pinch though, you can always get the fillet mignon already wrapped in bacon which is probably just one step less in the whole scheme of things.

 

I will admit right up front that when it comes to food, I am probably one of the pickiest people - tending to dislike a majority of tastes which should really hamper my cooking skills.  So when I go about and start grabbing things I don't normally eat, my stress levels begin to rise a little bit.  But what could be so harmful with a handful of ingredients?  >shudder<  That's why I usually tamper with original recipes.

 

To keep my meandering story in check, back to the meal.  So I get everything ready and within reach so I don't have to stop and fiddle with measuring and what have you.  When it occurs to me that the recipe itself is a bit sketchy in the direction department and the measurements really don't seem to be fitting.  I mean, if the end of recipe says to use the sauce as a topping to the meat... there really should be enough to have a sauce.  Stress.  Can't stop now because the meat has already been seared on both sides and it's time to add the Brandy and A1 sauce.  I figure the brandy is probably good enought because I don't care much for alcohol, but I doubled the A1 sauce and quailed at how much minced garlic appeared to be in there.  I also threw in a few mushrooms as well, but this "sauce" wasn't looking like it was going to hold out much.

 

Anyway,  in the end I cooked the meat for much longer than called for and the sauce was... well... let's just say I always thought sauce was suppose to be at a consistency where it would drip instead of clump.  I made the plates up (green beans with a hint of brandy and potatoes on the side) and sat down in hopes that a hospital visit wouldn't be imminent.

 

It turned out okay.  But I really think the sauce needed more to it and probably cook the meat a little more before adding the sauce ingredients...

After discovering (again) that RPGs are bad for the weekdays, I figured that I'd be back on arcade games until the weekend arrived.  However, when I got to looking at my games shelf, I saw that familiar orange glow.

 

Yesterday I plugged into the Orange Box and filled in the shoes of Morgon. . .  errr... I mean Gordon Freeman.  It has a nice feel to the game that I've forgotten about since being interrupted by other games.  Anyway, it kept me entertained for a little while before I needed to get into work.  I would have played it today as well, but things went completely out of my control as I tried to get some financial matters taken care of.

 

If anyone else has played the game, then they'll know where I am when I say I just defended Little Odessa and now I'm continuing along the beaches infested with antlions. . . .  and I forgot the suntan lotion too.

Well, if you haven't been keeping up on the news then you probably don't know about 800 wildfires burning in California at this point in time.  Then again, if you are up with the news you know about it.

 

Even though I'm not in California, I'm not too far from the border (Nevada).  You may be wondering why I'm even mentioning the wildfires if I'm not on the outskirts of one. . .  Wonder no longer!  All that smoke has been blowing in and making the air quality here a little less than desireable.  True it's nothing compared to the woes of California, it's still news in my own little world.

 

The haze is thick enough to obscure the mountains and it's probably not the best of ideas to walk/jog/run/bike out there today.  I'm not sure where exactly the fires are... but judging by the amount of smoke we're getting here - I don't think I would want to be any closer.

 

In fact, today was a good day to just stay inside.... and play games!  w00t!

A funny thing happened over the weekend (well, apart from the yardwork mentioned in the previous blog).  After working on F.E.A.R. almost all last week, I kinda just looked at the game and didn't feel like playing it.  Instead I looked through my games contemplating dusting off some older games that I haven't played in forever (and working on getting more than 2 or 3 achievements) when I figured that I could play a little Lost Odyssey.

 

I had forgotten how easy it is to lose more than an odyssey, but it took me just a little gameplay to realize time is also lost with this game.  By the time I wanted to stop playing, I was nowhere near a save point and I had to wade through another hour of gameplay before finding one!  It was great fun, don't get me wrong... I just feel like these types of games need a few more frequent save points or the ability to save on the go.

 

Anyway, I tried to play a little bit today and in horror realized that it was a bad idea... I had to quit out of the game and lose all my gameplay because I had to go to work...  I guess Lost Odyssey is a weekend only game.

So this weekend found me doing more to the yard than I really wanted to do.  Of course, mowing the yard is generally more than I really want to do... but hey, gotta take care of those responsibilities.

 

I had purchased some extra soil and grass seed last week, so I finally began doing some patch work.  This included me taking a shovel and turning over some soil and then adding some good stuff to the soil to help out with the grass seed.  Since I had the seed, I overseeded the rest of the lawn in hopes that things will start looking a little better than it has.

Now that the weekend has come and gone, I've realized that it's been chock full of gaming.  That's right, I did as little as possible and sat on the couch playing my 360.  I did do a few things, but I'm only concentrating on the fun stuff for awhile!  :p

 

A little Buku Sudoku graced a little bit of my time as I concentrate on playing those 200 games - but instead of playing on the easiest difficulty and smallest grid, I've been working on my 12x12 on Hard.  I do like Sudoku, so it's nice and relaxing to play a game or two before moving onto some other stuff.

 

Amazingly enough I've gotten back to Texas Hold'Em trying to figure out the best way to get that royal flush.  I don't have much luck on that but, oh well, I'm slowly getting my bankroll back up to 2 grand.  I don't make the best decisions at times.

 

Most of my gaming went towards F.E.A.R. though.  I usually only play a few checkpoints because the game has been known to throw me into that motion sickness thing, but I must be getting used to it or something because I just blasted my way through the rest of the game in one day and unlocked the No Juice achievement!  There were a couple of scary moments though when I went around the corner and almost walked over a booster.  I also thought it would be tougher with some of the comments made in the forum, but I really had no problems with it.  The hard part is trying to get the Survivalist.  I have this knack of blowing myself up with a grenade.  Anyway, I am now on my next runthrough of the game in hopes to find all the boosters and (fingers crossed) attempt to not get myself killed this time around.