The Guild review

I hit my elbow on my door handle and now there's a bump that definitely should not be there... Ow. Anyway, review time!

I watched this show a while ago, but it was just so great that I had to watch it again. It's called The Guild, and it's just perfect for a gamer nerd. It revolves around the life of a female gamer, who goes by her character name, Codex, and how she copes with real life. Each season is only one episode long, but each episode is about an hour long. It was originally created for Youtube, but gain so much popularity that now it's on Netflix, along with many other websites or devices.

The plot is sweet and simple. Take someone who spends most of their day on the computer and stick them in real life. It's sadly so similar to my own life, except I have a tad more social skills... Just a tad. It finished after the sixth season, which was rather disappointing, but also made sense. Like I said, the plot was simple, so there really wasn't much left to do. Better to end on a good note than to wither out.

The acting got progressively better as the season went on. The main actor was pretty good from the beginning, and the rest were fairly decent, but there are times you just wince. Still better than Twilight. In addition, there are some pretty famous and respected people that appear, including Will Wheaton, Neil Gaiman and Stan Lee.

The cinematography was surprisingly good, considering it started out as a Youtube series. They never did anything too special until the third or fourth episode, and then you see the work in special effects and costumes.

Not much else to say. It's a quick watch, maybe one full day or a couple nights. I would definitely suggest it to anyone who's even a remote nerd, or just into the socially awkward type of shows/movies.

Dragons and Singing

I guess I promised an update on my friend's birthday party, didn't I? Well, it's still Tuesday! Let's get this going.

Saturday was my friend's birthday. The first thing we did was go see How to Train Your Dragon 2. It was amazing! Some of my friends who do animation were complaining about it, something to do with trying to make it look real? I don't know, I don't care about that stuff. The plot was what mattered to me, and I loved it. Though really, I'm not much of a critic, and just about anything fantasy I will love. I can't say if I like the first or second better, all I can say is that I would definitely watch them both again. And again. And again...

After the movie we stopped by the mall to waste some time before karaoke. We had lunch/dinner at a restaurant there, then went to look at nerdy stuff in a game store. I very nearly bought myself a master sword, but it was too long to be practical (because you know, a sword sword is definitely more practical in real life). Not to mention what I really want is a Hylian shield, and they only had Dark Link shields there. The last time I found a Hylian shield at the store though, it was $140 dollars, which is about $60 more than I'm willing to pay.

Then after we wasted enough time, we headed across the street to the other mall, where the karaoke was. I sang one song along with a couple other people. It was 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman' from Frozen, because that's one of the only songs I actually know. This place never updates their main bulk of songs, but will constantly add and take away the Disney songs, so that there may be one or two songs I know, but they'll be gone by the next time I go. I'm still disappointed that they don't have 'I'll Make a Man Out of You', which my friend insists that they still have somewhere.

So that was my Saturday! Lot's of fun with lots of great people. I gave my friend a necklace that looks like the container from the silent realm in Skyward Sword, which I wrapped up in a tiny little Legend of Zelda chest.

Generation Rant #2

I feel like I need a catch phrase for the beginning of every post... I'll come up with something later.

For now, I am exhausted! I really shouldn't be whining about this, but I've worked four days in a row, and I still have to work tomorrow. I don't normally work on Thursdays, since I still have that day 'unavailable' for school, even though that ended in April. I just don't want to change it until I start school again in the fall. Even then, it looks like I'll have class on Thursday again. Anyway, we had someone coming in to talk to my manager for a bit today, and she wanted someone pretty experienced on to help out while she was busy. Neither of us realized that everybody would be coming to Starbucks today. There is a teacher's strike going on (again), so it seems like everybody is taking the time off of work to hang out with their kids and go to Starbucks. It's ridiculous how many families came by today. If everyone is working shift work (not a set Monday to Friday work week), then I'm really concerned, because shift work is considered the underpaid and un-glamorous that teenagers work. There should not be this many adults with kids who work shift jobs! So I'm just reasoning that they're just lazy and taking the day off work because their kids have the day off school.

And of course, because of the strike, the school system just kind of gave up and let the kids out a week or two early from school. This generation is going to crap. The students aren't even given the option to finish their last couple weeks of school. Technically they're done with school, but really, they're still missing education. It's a terrible example. Not to mention the teachers are asking for more money and less work. If everyone wanted that, nothing would ever get done. Everyone would be striking everywhere and the world would crumble.

I may be in a touch of a bad mood. I need sleep. And a break. But it's my friend's birthday party on Saturday, so look forward to that update on Tuesday! Now, off to sleep.

Super Mario Bros. Wii U

Wow, it didn't take me long to break my promise about posting on time. In my defense, the internet was down all of Monday and most of Tuesday. It finally came up right before I was going to head off to bed, and after two days of no internet, I had other things to catch up on. It was a horrible couple of weeks.

I just realized that I never did a review for Super Mario Bros. Wii U. It was a free game I got with this deal Nintendo is having. I bought the Mario Kart 8 and got a free download of one of four games. I picked Super Mario Bros. because it's great with one person, or with four. I needed a new game that I could play with friends, and this was perfect.

So far it's only been my sister and me playing. We're pretty bad... I've never been very good at Super Mario Bros, and I didn't expect this one to be any different. But I'm getting better! It took us forever to lean how to run, and we're still really bad at picking stuff up. On average we need to play a course at least three times before we get through it, and most often than not, it can take us up to ten, if not twenty tries. We've both over 20 restarts, and I'll admit, most of my sister's are because I accidentally killed her... But I'm getting better at that too! I don't bounce on her head in the game as often...

But it's fun. Kind of frustrating, but fun. The only other times I've played this game has been at a friend's house, so it's nice to have one at home that I can play for more than a couple hours.

Graduation!

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I was out of town for several days for my sister's graduation from university! Yay! In a few years hopefully I will be graduating too, though for that we'll only need to drive for about half an hour.

Anyway, it was nice. It was shorter than I expected, and the speeches were pretty good, not boring. After there was a reception, with really good sandwiches and pretty good drinks. Nothing too special, but still nice. The theatre that the ceremony was in was beautiful. The chairs were so comfy, and high backed so that it was easy to lean back and get comfy.

But now I'm tired and I have to work tomorrow, so just a super quick update. I'll try to get back into schedule next week.

The Glory of Short Hair

For most, if not all, of history, women are expected to have long hair, or at least longer than the average male. In today's society, this is less important, but still there. It's rare to find a guy that would actually prefer to date a girl with short hair, and just as rare to find a girl who would rather have short hair than long hair.

As most people probably know, I have short hair. I've had short hair for several years now, and in that period, the longest I've had it has been just above the shoulders. People say I look great with short hair, but I don't keep it like this just for the appearance. So here is a list of all the great resons for a girl to have short hair.

1) It's easy to take care of. There is no blow drying, straightening, curling, pulling back or whatever girls do these days. All I have to do is wash it, then towel dry, and it comes out looking great almost every time. 

2) I use a lot of shampoo and conditioner. As opposed to the mound of shampoo and conditioner that long hair needs, I use about the size of a dime for shampoo, and about the size of a quarter for conditioner. It lasts for a long time.

3) It doesn't get messed up in the wind. Well, not too messed up, and whatever happens, I can fix it basically just by shaking my head. 

4) I don't have to pull it back for work. As long as it's not really in my face or hanging down, I don't have to do anything for it for work.

5) People notice it more than long hair, especially right after a hair cut. I suppose this is going back to the appearance part. People will notice and compliment me more often with my short hair than when I had it longer. I swear, in one week I will probably get about three compliments. Most often it's people who seem to think I've changed it, and will say 'I love what you've done with your hair'. I get a little confused, because it's the same every day. But I accept the compliment anyway.

6) It makes me feel brave. Amazingly enough, yes it does. Most girls would feel self conscious, and just because I don't feel that way, I feel better about myself. I know I can be different and have a hair style that is not always considered beautiful, and I can pull it off. I honestly believe that most girls would look great with short hair too, but they're too scared to try.

7) It's fun to run my hand through it. I really have no explanation for this. It just is...

8) If you want to dye it, just grab one of those root touch ups. Unfortunately for me, they never have the auburn colour that I love, so if I want to dye my hair, I have to use a whole package, which is normally about four times more than I need.

9) If any hair falls out (and you know it will), you'll just be stuck with little strands, rather than those massive monstrosities that you could use as thread to stitch up a hole in your shirt. 

10) This might just be me, but if you ever cosplay or dress up for Halloween, it's easy to be a male character. Considering most of the best characters are male, this comes in handy from time to time. 

11) It's great to stay cool in the summer.

But of course, there are a few cons.

1) If you want to do anything fancy, you're pretty much limited to using gel. And gel never seems to work in my hair. 

2) If you want to dress up as a girl character from a movie, book, show or video game, you're very limited unless you have a wig.

3) If you want a boyfriend, it'll be hard to find one that is happy with dating a short haired girl.

4) It can be very cold on your neck in the winter.

5) If you want it to stay at a certain length or style, you have to get it cut every month.

Mario Kart 8

A lot of exciting things are coming up in the next few weeks, so look out for some real updates. Unfortunately, this week has been fairly slow. I did however buy a new video game!

Nintendo was having this amazing sale, where if you bought Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U, you get a free game. The Mario Kart game is amazing. The graphics are better than just about an other game I've played. It took forever to load, but that's mostly because my internet is crap, and I hadn't done an update on my Wii U for months. Once in the game, it still takes a while between courses to load, but that's all because of the graphics.
The courses themselves are all really well done. They're longer than in the previous games, though many of them are similar. I can see pieces taken from the Wii or gamecube games, and I recognize some from the original game.
And the best part, which I actually thought would be the worst, is the anti gravity. The screen turns with the car, so you don't even notice, but it makes the tracks even more beautiful and interesting.
The flying, or gliding, is a little confusing. It took my sister and me awhile to figure out how it works, and even then it's a little hard to control.

And for my free game I debated for weeks on what to get. The options were Super Mario Bros. U, Pikmin 3, Legend of Zelda: Windwaker HD, and Wii Party U. I already have Windwaker, and Pikmin doesn't really speak to me, so my choice was between Super Mario Bros. and Wii Party. I eventually went with the Mario one, and it's loading now.

For anyone planning on buying this offer, I would suggest getting the hard copy of the game. It's a lot easier to load, and you'll have the code for the free game instantly. I had to wait until the next day for the free code, and I was freaking out last night, thinking that I wasn't going to get it.