kismetism

BRANDON. YOU DIDN’T SHOW.

;x

So more badminton anecdotes for you, since I’m doing such a good job failing to write about anything these days. You know that lady I ranted about some time ago who plays badminton at the same place as us. Well I’m not totally over that dislike, but she was doing a pretty good job of not inspiring it since I got back… until today. When she and her partner played two matches against my dad and I (1-1) and we were lined up for a third when a court opened and her son and his friend went to it.

There were no other people lined up to play on the court (people often avoid the younger players.. because… well, they suck >_> ) and my dad spent a short while calling for other players to take up those two positions rather than having the two kids rally by themselves.

So with no other people, my dad was like, fine, let’s go. Because he’s more interested in just playing (and in me getting exercise >_> ) than anything else. So we went and played with them… and they wanted to play together, so it was me+dad vs them. ::lol::

We went easy on them and my dad was, as usual, kind enough to give them good shots that would stretch their abilities while not being too difficult. (I gave a pointer about returning serves to the left-handed kid, too. :X )

After a full game, my dad went to put his cards down for a new match and the lady (whose son we were just playing with) had the nerve to get mad and scold him for disrupting our planned match-up. I nearly choked on my own fury. We were playing with HER son! How can she get angry at us for doing something for her OWN KID.

ARGRRGLKHGKHLFEKJRLQ. Horrible mother is horrible.

It’s been a while since I publicly vented about something so personal (i.e. a public “flogging” of a person I care about), but I’m really struggling with this. So, time to get it all out… in the only way I know how.

My mother is becoming intolerable.

She was hospitalized a while ago, can’t remember how long exactly. Since I wasn’t in town when it happened, I’ve little to no details as to the cause, though it seems like she was diagnosed with diabetes and given meds, a test kit, etc. Since then, she’s gone on a major health kick… totally changed her diet and started taking up walking (the dog) and now she gloats about how she’s gotten so much better that she doesn’t even need her medication anymore.

(and no, of course that’s not a doctor-provided diagnosis.)

This is all really great, of course, and I wouldn’t complain if it weren’t for the fact that her zealotry has now targeted me. She’s never been quiet about her opinions regarding my weight and body; I can’t even recall what it was like before she decided that I would look “so beautiful, if (you) could drop 10 pounds”. It’s become her mantra, regardless of what I actually weigh (and I would know, because I have Wii Fit and I know how much I weigh at all times now) … I have absolutely fluctuated in a range of nearly 30 lbs, but it’s always “lose 10 more”.

It’s never been so bad as it is now; I don’t think she’s said anything but criticisms or orders regarding my weight, my diet, my clothes since I got back last Thursday. Anything from dictating what I eat at lunch (“salads only!”) to saying I can’t drink water with my meals. And my clothes! She can’t stop going on about my clothes and how I am not fit to judge whether or not I can wear this item or that. She complains about how she has to take it upon herself to buy me clothing because I don’t have a clue what I look good in.

(since when do I give a damn anyway?)

Less than an hour ago, she came into my room again to harp on me. She goes on to say that she has a “sixth sense” about these things and that at my graduation, when my thesis chair pointedly crept up to us in order to snag an introduction… she claimed that he took one look at them (my parents) and then gave me a once-over from head to toe. And she said that she knew he was thinking, “how did parents like this produce such a fat girl?”

… Are you %*#$ing kidding me?

Because my self-image isn’t already suffering enough from her constant declarations of my being overweight, now she has to slander my chair advisor who has been nothing but supportive of me and my work all year?

This was amazingly hurtful and, totally stunned, I lashed back, saying that I refuse to listen to her when she was saying such things that had no basis in reality. She screamed back that she was the only one who would ever tell me the truth about these things and stormed out in a huff, claiming I’ll never get a job “looking like this”.

Yeah, Mom, you know… I believe in a sixth sense too. It’s called empathy, and I’m starting to think that you don’t appear to have a shred of it. I’m sorry I’m such a disappointment to you, for not being enough like a girl… for being overweight… for not having any sort of fashion sense… but do you really have to twist the knife like that?

…

… Okay, I guess that’s it. ::spent::

Soooo, I have seriously lost nearly all faith in internet commerce, especially on craigslist. I’m sure it’s still a wonderful service for some things, but as far as housing is concerned… it’s just painful.

It’s probably partially my fault for being attracted to entries that have low rates, but still. One particularly elegant scam involves filling out an application, which in itself does not require any overly personal information, but then asks that you send a credit report which you can obtain for free at such-and-such website.

The site itself is actually really credible looking, but despite its claims of “free!”, it asks for your credit card info and your SSN. Yeah, right. I balked and immediately turned away.

Just now I received a response from another inquiry I made, where they list the address of the apartment so I can “drive by and look at the neighborhood”… and it’s actually the same freaking address provided to me by another scammer. If I didn’t think something was suspicious before, I certainly do now.

I do have a couple credible leads and an appointment to see a place tomorrow. This seems to be the only way to hound out the “real” offers… taking the communication straight to face-to-face as soon as possible. And picking out unique details in the original posting doesn’t hurt either.

Siiiiiggggghhhh.

I’ve used Craigslist in the past to mostly good ends… finding housing, buying a cheap GDC pass, selling an SC2 beta key…

… Been posting to it recently to try and find month-to-month housing starting from the fall and it’s turning out to be a really ugly process. Out of maybe five or six inquiries, at least two of them (didn’t follow up on all of them) have been scams.

The most annoying thing is that I can’t do anything about it, since I posted to Craigslist and these people are just responding to my ad… so they don’t have a craigslist account to report or anything.

Arrrrrrggghhhhhh.

(This seems like a topic that should be addressed in TIC too. >_> )

Read this piece over at Kotaku and was, in a word, appalled. Instead Of Laughing At “Casual” Gamers, Try Helping Them! As if the title wasn’t insulting enough, the author has to write things like this:

If you know someone hooked on Farmville, someone you previously thought could or would not play video games, have a chat with them! Ask them what they like about it, why they keep playing, what compels them to log in day in, day out and…water a plant. What they tell you could reveal someone that’s in dire need of an introduction to something a little deeper, like the Football Manager series. Or Animal Crossing. Or maybe ease them in with The Sims. And from there, who knows where they could end up.

I guess I shouldn’t be too strident. Before I studied the mechanics and the market, maybe I would have said the same things. As it is, I’ve had my definition of a “good game” tried and tested and warped more times than I can count in the past year.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think the vast majority of Facebook games are not genuinely engaging. And I think there are a lot of tactics Facebook game developers should be using to craft more meaningful experiences, once they finish running their various cash cows into the ground. But I think it’s a horrible thing to say that Facebook game players, casual or not, are in “need” of something better.

The author also doesn’t seem to realize the importance of casual games’ simplified mechanics and reduced time commitment (per session). Some people genuinely don’t have the time or energy (or… money) to dig into a heavier game with leveling-questing-crafting-equipment-gathering-auctioning-dungeoncrawling-raiding-looting. And having a game that gives you the emergent narrative you’re seeking without all the excess time sink is going to be a godsend for these players.

Hell, these days I frequently have a hard time reading a 800 page novel over a short story anthology, because I don’t feel like investing the energy to understand an epic over a vignette.

HOW DO I WRITE A CONCLUSION FOR A PROJECT THAT ISN’T DONE YET.

ARGH.

I friggin’ hate when websites make me change my password every x weeks.

And not only that, they’ll do things like require that your password has at least one letter, one number, one CAPITAL letter, and eight characters minimum. Like… grargh, really? It’s hard enough for me to remember one of these, let alone a dozen.

AND AND AND… they will actually keep track of your old passwords, so that you don’t just type in the same one in. So not only are you being forced to come up with something new, they don’t even purge the database of your old one, so if THEIR site was compromised…….

I get it conceptually; yes, yes, it’s more secure, to change your password on occasion. But besides all the points I already mentioned, it really, REALLY annoys me when a website has an inflated sense of importance by including this “feature”.

Like I logged into USC’s School of Cinematic Arts website for the first time since I registered for the stupid thing two point five years ago, and the first thing I see is, “HAY. CHANGE PASSWORD PLZ.”

Rrrgggghhh.

I think if I had to hate a certain type of person the most, it’d be this kind. Insensitive statements absolutely drive me up the wall and I desperately feel like punching the lights out of anyone who utters these completely nonconstructive phrases.

And it doesn’t even matter whether or not the person who is saying it knows they’re being a jerk, either… I get pissed at unknowing offenders as well.

It’s one of the few situations in which I really just can’t suck it up and “be the bigger person”.