Plaidophile

I'm too lazy to actually design it just yet, but this is a thing I've had rattling in the back of my mind for a while.

It was a bit longer than Portal 1, way more ambitious, and while I felt like it was a bit easier (especially since there were no fiddly timing-sensitive puzzles, which made it quite enjoyable on the PS3 unlike the original) it was a much better game in general. (And the original was pretty great!)

I personally think that the new ending song is a lot better, but it's also not the sort of thing that will become memetic. Which is a good thing. I really don't want to get sick of it. I'm also glad that there aren't any eminently-quotable one-liners that people will be able to do to death; there are definitely some great moments in it but they're not quotable and sound-bites. Hopefully after people play the game they'll also forget about the deadpan "You monster" schtick, since I'd already been tired of that before the game even shipped.

On the minus side, since PSN is still down I can't activate my PC copy, so I can't extract the soundtrack (or sync my Steam achievements). And it's a great soundtrack! Lots of wonderful glitchy ambient stuff, which I am always in favor of.

Yesterday I also played a bit of split-screen two-player with Findra, and that was also a hell of a lot of fun. I can't wait to be able to actually play online. There's some amazing puzzles in it.

I'm also really glad that Valve did the PS3 port themselves this time, instead of trusting EA with it and then complaining about how bad the PS3 is when EA did a terrible job. Portal 2 is clearly using the latest and greatest version of the Source engine (with dynamic lighting and everything! holy cow are the graphics amazing) so here's hoping that they're going to port the Left4Dead series at some point as well.

I also hope that they eventually release a PS3 Move patch (as they've hinted at the possibility of in the past), and despite what they say I think it would actually work out quite well in 3D, although the game seems like it's pushing the poor little RSX to its limit as it is so that might not be in the cards.

So, last night one of the hard drives in my RAID died. That wouldn't be so bad except that shortly after, another one died too. They were ones that I'd installed at the same time, from the same production batch. Western Digital WD20EARS. So of course this invalidates my entire RAID.

I'm making a mental inventory of what was on there that I care about. Fortunately I have my offsite backup, and also most of the stuff on there wasn't irreplaceable (everything that was I had multiple redundant backups of), and even if I did lose it all, it's nothing I have any major sentimental attachment to.

Right now my office is so quiet my ears are ringing.

Yep, I just got another phone. Although "new" isn't really the right term for it...

While waiting for CreateSpace to validate my art assets, someone on Song Fight mentioned Mixonic, which I hadn't looked into for a few years, since the last time I checked they were better than CafePress but still pretty terrible, pricing- and feature-wise. Their current prices are pretty good, and beat all the other short-run manufacturers I'm aware of.

However, I have so far had nothing but problems with them, and I will not be using them or recommending their services.

I just subscribed to recurring deliveries of tasty Indian food on Amazon. Because this is the main reason I ever go to Target anymore and it's a lot cheaper and more convenient this way, and I know I'm going to keep on buying it.

For now I've just ordered 18 packets (one box of each) every 2 months. Because I know I'm not going to want to eat this every day. Too bad Amazon doesn't directly carry my favorites (Bombay Potatoes and Madras Lentils); that seems to only be stocked by third-party merchants with higher prices and exorbitant shipping fees. Fortunately, for those varieties I can just buy direct. (So I ordered a 12-pack each of those two. Which turns out to be a bit more than on Amazon, but it's still a bit cheaper than Target. Go figure.)

Man, modern life, am I right?