Not much going on tonight, so I think I\u2019ll throw something up on my blog, for a change. IDK, maybe I need to vent. We’ll see how this turns out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some stuff\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been playing PC games again. Well, correction there. I\u2019ve been playing Starcraft<\/em>, Brood War<\/em>, and the various Starcraft II<\/em> games. They\u2019re still fun, overall. I\u2019m not touching the remastered original, since I think the graphics on the old version are better looking than the new graphics. Seriously, the old graphics are just incredible. They upscale beautifully, almost eerily so. I dislike the new style in the remastered, besides. Everything looks too much like a toy. I have the same problem with the new Warcraft III<\/em>. Luckily, I still have my old discs for SC and WCIII.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s nothing quite like Starcraft<\/em> for improving mental dexterity, decision making, and computer control. It\u2019s quite a useful game. IDK, I think I needed to play it. While burning through all of the campaigns I could actually feel my mental dexterity improving. Certainly, my mouse and keyboard control are much improved, and so in fact is my general hand-eye coordination, I think. It\u2019s a nice feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some thoughts\u2026 the original is overall the better game. The sequel is too\u2026 IDK, competitive, and fast. And too busy<\/em>. The graphics are actually too<\/em> detailed. They\u2019re so detailed it\u2019s difficult sometimes to tell what\u2019s going on. I actually turned the graphics down to their lowest setting, just to improve playability. That way there\u2019s not as much superfluous \u201cstuff\u201d on the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I prefer the older gameplay, myself. SC II is too pushy, too aggressive, sometimes. Overall, IDK, I think it\u2019s too \u201cmodern\u201d, and I tend to strongly dislike modern video games. It\u2019s too oriented to pushing players into the \u201cmultiplayer\u201d world that in my experience is always unhealthy, and I always despise, ultimately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That isn\u2019t to say that SC II is a bad game; far from it. It is miles above almost everything else released since it\u2019s debut. For starters, it isn\u2019t intentionally broken, like at least 99% of the games in the mobile sphere are. And\u2026 IDK, it doesn\u2019t suck, outright. And it isn\u2019t stupid. And it\u2019s actually finish-able, and a complete game, free from weird bugs (heh). And the music is nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do tend to prefer the more relaxed style of the original, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I also installed WC III, and\u2026 holee shite, what a mistake I made when I installed the latest patch after installing, lmao. The graphics were horribly buggy, with weird glitches and other strange shit, and the UI was an ugly, downgraded version of the 2002 original, and I was forced to install a 50- something GB update (!!!!) for some godforsaken reason. What? The original game and the expansion were something like 1.5 GB after install, I remember. Two CDs. What in God\u2019s name was the extra 50 GB for, then? And I mean, I couldn\u2019t even play<\/em> it- for some reason, the game kept crashing and \u201clogging me out\u201d, whatever that means in this context since I only play single player, and\u2026 what? LOL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reforged graphics look horrible, BTW. The original is far far superior graphically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After way too much dicking around with this dumb shit I uninstalled the crappy modern patch, re-installed the game, and patched it then with a ten year old patch I found on my external. Worked beautifully, then. No glitches, ran like a charm, looked and sounded great, no 50 GB download of who the fuck knows what, and, well, there you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Starcraft<\/em> had similar problems. I only play single player, and for some reason on occasion, I couldn\u2019t because I was \u201cin a queue\u201d when \u201clogging in\u201d. What? A queue, for single player? Fuck off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever. It wasn\u2019t a dealbreaker, or I would have been forced to uninstall and re-install with one of my old patches etc. Weird, though. And there were other annoyances, too- for some reason my settings needed to be stored on the \u201cbattle.net cloud\u201d, in spite of the fact that my 1999 laptop with 2 GB of hard disk space could store them locally with no problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christ, gaming is such a minefield of fuckery, mindgames, incompetence, and other dumb shit these days. I mean, I just want to play a game<\/em>, lol. I mean, a game I can actually play, and complete, and feel good<\/em> about playing. It\u2019s a pity those types are so severely hard to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean, they’re out there, I know. But they’re so rare that locating them is like hunting for the proverbial needle in the haystack. It’s rough to sift though hundreds of games to find the one good one you might actually finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point it almost feels like the only people who would ever make a full experience like that would be hobbyists, and that kinda sucks, because there\u2019s no way a solitary driven individual or a small group could ever make a replacement for Starcraft<\/em>, no matter how ambitious they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *Shrugs*. Well, the games themselves are not too difficult, ultimately. I beat BW pretty easily except for the hardest mission in the Zerg campaign, which I could have beaten I think had I tried the level again. You know, the one where you face the Zerg\/Terran combined forces. You just need to nydus canal across the chasm, and easy win. I remembered that unfortunately halfway through, lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m playing through SC II on normal, and it\u2019s pretty easy. At times I find myself wishing the bad guys would put up more of a fight, but it\u2019s still fun. One mission to go to finish it. I\u2019m not concerned about achievements- I think achievements in video games are kinda stupid in general, honestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story is still good, the flow between missions are nice, the variety of mission types are well done, and\u2026 well, it\u2019s a good game. We all know that at this point, lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other stuff\u2026 my Disney+ sub finally ran out. Before it ended I watched a variety of stuff- the original Stargirl, Zenon, <\/em>and a bunch of other programs, like the nature ones the platform was going to remove, like America the Beautiful<\/em>, Super\/Natural<\/em>, and a few other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n General thoughts\u2026 Stargirl<\/em> was fun. I liked it quite a bit, in the way I guess that I tend to like YA stuff. It seemed harmless and entertaining, and I thought it was well acted and produced. While watching I did that thing I do while I double-track my mind and dissect everything subconsciously while my conscious mind enjoys the show. My subconscious brain saw a lot of interesting and familiar stuff- so much so that I read the book after watching the movie and yup, I\u2019m definitely Stargirl. They make it very obvious and personal in the book on many occasions. I won\u2019t list them here, but yeah, the references are in there, and on almost every page. Fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m Zenon, too. I mean, I didn\u2019t grow up on a space station, lol, but after watching the flick I checked out the book and read it, and the book was definitely<\/em> me. The book is yet another takeoff of my Iowa experiences. So if I\u2019m not movie Zenon I\u2019m defo book Zenon. I didn\u2019t get the chance to watch the sequels but I will, as of course I intend to re-subscribe at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nice movies, both of them. I like Disney stuff, or at least older Disney stuff. Anything 2016 and prior is gold, and that\u2019s a ton of material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sitcoms are great fun. I mean, basically all of them. They\u2019re good natured and not horribly annoying, and I much enjoyed the lack of commercials on the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I watched a few eps of K.C. Undercover <\/em>during the last month or so and really enjoyed it. Zendaya is pretty and talented and has a lot of charisma, and the show in general was good. I guess that I kinda missed the Zendaya thing, IDK. Back in the K.C. Undercover<\/em> days I was utterly obsessed with\u2026 you know, Bella, etc. and I didn\u2019t quite know what to do with Zendaya since she didn\u2019t need as much\u2026 IDK, guidance, as some others, and\u2026 well, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The nature docs are Disney+ are really good. Well worth watching, I mean, while they\u2019re there, lol. I saw America the Beautiful<\/em> before it was yanked and it had some really gorgeous images. It was humbling sometimes. I guess that as a homebody I tend to forget how huge and beautiful nature can be, and how impressive it often is, especially in the wide open places where people aren\u2019t easily found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s really something to see a nature documentary made with modern equipment on a big screen TV. It\u2019s a great experience. You see things that are impossible to see otherwise. I mean I saw\u2026 storm clouds, and not from the ground, but from the sky. I mean, I was looking down<\/em> on them. Amazing! And you can see the inside of anthills, and the bottom of the ocean, and the tops of mountains, and\u2026 everywhere else. Inspiring, awesome, thrilling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The narration, by Michael B. Jordan, was unfortunately\u2026 not so great. Honestly, he was dreadful. I side with the IMDB reviewers, here. He was by far the worst narrator I have ever heard in any nature documentary. He was so, sooooo boring. I could actually see him laboring to read off of the script in front of him. Painful. I more than once considered turning off the sound, but then, I would have missed the nature sounds, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IDK. I hope for his sake that he\u2019s better on camera. IDK, I\u2018ve never seen anything he\u2019s done and likely never will. You know- now that I think about it, maybe name recognition is what they were banking on when they cast him to read the script, lol. \u201cStar power\u201d. I don\u2019t know. Yuck, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Benedict Cumberbatch narrated Super\/Natural<\/em> and he was far far better. He was quite good in fact. I thought comparing the two was fascinating. Both are screen actors, but Cumberbatch cut his teeth playing Sherlock Holmes, a character famous for his dialogue, while Jordan made his name playing\u2026 Black Panther, a comic book character famous for his abs, lol. Needless to say I didn\u2019t need to analyze much when considering why one performance was done well and one wasn\u2019t, lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well\u2026 ok, then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So lately I\u2019m had to return to the disgusting cesspool that is modern broadcast TV and it\u2019s quite a shocking experience. The commercials are\u2026 really, really painful. Gods, they\u2019re just so horrible<\/em>, lol. And so is the programming. It\u2019s just dreadful, utterly dreadful. Most of the shows are\u2026 I don\u2019t even know how to put this, they just give me a bad feeling inside. Watching them is unpleasant and unsettling, except for the old ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While channel surfing, I was struck by how easygoing older programming is in comparison to new stuff. Older shows are much better acted, clearly. And better written, and the characters seem like better people, and they seem \u201crealer\u201d, I guess I\u2019ll say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Characters in newer shows and commercials all act like they have some kind of mental problem, and I\u2019m not exaggerating when I say that. Literally, they act like they have undiagnosed cases of narcissistic personality disorder, Down\u2019s Syndrome, or histrionic personality disorder, or something like that. And I say this without hyperbole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twice today while channel surfing I saw commercials where I legitimately thought the actors were parodying people with Down\u2019s Syndrome. It was during two of those \u201cmiddle aged white men are all retards\u201d type of commercials. It was really horrible and offensive to watch, and I say that in reference to actual retards, here. Christ, what the fuck, people? And the shows, gods, the shows! Channel surfing is an exercise in being bombarded with a series of monstrously dysfunctional behavior displays, except on those occasions where I chance upon on an older (pre 1970, typically) show, or a kid\u2019s show, or a cartoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean, everything is just so\u2026 LOUD, and spastic, and stupid, and immature, and self-absorbed, and overly flashly. And ugly- the people on modern TV are physically repulsive, especially in the commercials. Real horrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a seriously jarring experience going from watching entertaining shows like Lab Rats <\/em>and Best Friends Whenever<\/em> to\u2026 the grotesque cacophonies on broadcast TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I really appreciate the approach of these older Disney shows. They\u2019re dumb, but they know<\/em> that, and thus they don\u2019t take themselves too seriously. They become entertaining, then, in a so-bad-it\u2019s-good kinda way. The laugh tracks are there, but not obnoxiously loud and obtrusive like they are in more \u201cmature\u201d sitcoms. And the people actually look attractive, and not… \u201crealistic\u201d (read: fat, too thin, odd looking, or obnoxiously edgy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The characters in \u201cadult\u201d shows seem to want to take everything super seriously, including really dumb shit that no mature adult should ever waste time caring about. And thus they\u2019re always confrontational and overly aggressive; very few people on these shows ever look like they\u2019re having fun, ever. They\u2019re monotonous, annoying and boring as fuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my service I have a span of like 50 channels that seems to show nothing but cop shows. I swear to God that all of these shows must be the same show, just repeated over and over, with different actors playing the same parts. Christ!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess that to summarize my feelings in regards to general TV, it is very hard to take any of it seriously. The characters always seem to get overly worked up over the stupidest and most childish things. On a Disney show, where the characters are like 14 or something, it seems appropriate for them to care about childish stuff. They\u2019re teens, after all, lol. But the rest of TV is just chock full of supposed adults bitching, whining and stupidly posturing over stuff that would embarrass the teenagers on any kid\u2019s show. Real, real cringe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ugh. Well, I have to stop here tonight, but I intend to watch some of my girlfriends\u2019 free movies. You know, like the ones on Tubi? That might be fun. And then I\u2019ll probably try Netflix, since I have an unused Netflix gift card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I might try Disney+ again, IDK. I still have a bunch of stuff there that I need to watch, someday, for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, that\u2019s it for this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know- I need to broaden my horizons here, maybe talk about other topics. Try something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019ll wait, though. Bedtime now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not much going on tonight, so I think I\u2019ll throw something up on my blog, for a change. IDK, maybe I need to vent. We’ll see how this turns out. Some stuff\u2026 I\u2019ve been playing PC games again. Well, correction there. I\u2019ve been playing Starcraft, Brood War, and the various Starcraft II games. They\u2019re still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4896"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4900,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896\/revisions\/4900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}