After months of driving by and playing the “Oh yeah! They’re open” game, Matt & I decided to try out Smashburger on Windward Parkway. Both of us had been madly craving a juicy burger and thought we’d check out the new kid in town instead of visiting our favourite Five Guys.
Apparently we chose the worst possible night to venture into the unknown. (more…)
So this morning I got up, ready to tackle my list of things to write about but I just couldn’t get the words down. So I let myself be distracted by the things that usually distract me in the morning: Sims Social and PixelJunk Monsters on Facebook, looking for new Japanese dramas I might want to check out, and watching my snails eat.
But all I wanted to do was make banana bread. So I did.
I probably shouldn’t have made any, being as we just started a new meal plan two weeks back. The dietitian didn’t say I couldn’t bake anymore, just to watch how often I do and to limit my intake of sweets. But today’s a long day at home alone while my husband’s at work and then out bowling with his development team. So I figured a little treat to perk me up would be a good thing.
As an added bonus, I noticed three very ripe bananas on the counter this morning. Probably what planted the whole banana bread thing in my brain when I stumbled through there for breakfast.
Then I had a debate with myself about adding chocolate chips. I probably shouldn’t have but what the hell, it’s a treat. At least I put in less than I would have a few years ago.
Not that baking something easy like banana bread takes up a lot of time or anything. But Tweeting about it and texting a friend taunting them with it sure will keep a girl too busy to remember to write. 
Mmmmm Banomnom Bread!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, smashed up
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used milk choco)
Directions:
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add in eggs & mix well. Mix in banana and set aside. In a smaller bowl, stir together remaining ingredients, then add to banana mixture. Pour into a greased loaf pan (9x5x3 inch) and bake for 50-60 minutes at 350F, or until a toothpick comes out relatively clean. Then let it cool for a bit so you don’t burn your taste buds off. =)
A few weeks ago, I decided to take up cross stitching, thanks mostly to a Twitter friend posting links to super cool patterns she found on Etsy. I purchased four patterns from that store and dragged my husband to the craft store to buy all sorts of embroidery floss, fabric and other tools of the trade.
The first (and most basic) of the patterns I bought from VelvetElvii’s store is a quote from one of my favourite episodes of The IT Crowd, “The Final Countdown”. In this episode, Moss has been accepted as a contestant on Countdown, a popular UK spelling show. As an eight time winner, he is invited to the elusive 8+ club, where his new nemesis, Negative One, challenges him to a game of Street Countdown (played exactly like regular Countdown but on the street). He accepts the challenge with the following quote:
October 14th Update:
Many thanks to all of my friends and family members who helped me reach my goal this week. I couldn’t have done this without you. You will be putting smiles on faces and for that, you are heroes.
Now onto my gaming schedule for the big event! I will be starting at 0:00am Oct 15th and playing for 24hrs straight (with potty/food breaks and a shower thrown in). Here’s my gaming breakdown.
0:00am – 4:00am: A mix of Fallout New Vegas DLC (Honest Hearts & Dead Money)
4:00am – 9:00am: Silent Hill Homecoming
9:00am – 2:00pm: Persona 4
2:00pm – ??? : Gears 3 campaign on Insane with @tehflakes and @ThrallMind
Depending on when we end campaign mode, I may switch to You Don’t Know Jack or play something on my PSP (I like to give my 360 cool down time as she’s getting older). You can follow me on Twitter for updates. (more…)
This September another video game trilogy comes to a conclusion. The Gears of War saga has a dear place in my heart as one of the games that helped me get through the long-distance leg of my relationship with my husband. These were games we played together for the cooperative experience, something to do as a couple. And for that reason alone, they served a purpose.
But video games of this magnitude cannot rely on game play alone. There needs to be a strong and compelling story to bring a player back time and time again. Sure you can slap multiplayer into any game nowadays, but for someone like myself – someone who appreciates solid storytelling – that is not what is going to keep your game in my console for long. This, unfortunately, is where the first two installments in Gears of War fell short for me. More so Gears 2 than the original. (more…)
With the video game industry’s shift towards digital distribution, it sometimes feels as though the quality of released product is sacrificed in order to sell higher volumes in a smaller time frame. This reliance on releasing patches and updates to fix bugs that slip through hardworking Quality Assurance department fingers has always had it’s benefits, but lately it seems we are beginning to feel the downside of this sort of convenience.
Release delays will never be a thing of the past, this much we know is true. There will always be issues that will force a studio to push back titles that just aren’t ready to meet that final deadline. But are there people right now who are turning a blind eye to major problems in order to push out incomplete code and make investors happy? I truly believe so. (more…)
Last year, I was bitter when Gears of War 3 was pushed back by Microsoft in what appears to be an effort to bolster their Holiday 2011 calendar. Not just mildly upset, but really very mad about the whole thing. I was angry the game had been moved for fiscal reasons, but after spending the past week with the beta, I can honestly say I am glad that Epic has been given more time to flesh out the game and make sure it is as close to perfect at launch as it can be.
Instead of begging, pleading and doing ridiculous things to Twitpic for Cliffy B on Twitter, I waited for my pre-order code from GameStop to be valid and spent a good amount of time playing King of the Hill and some Team Deathmatch during what was Week 2 of the Gears 3 Beta. With the help of good friends I was able to get back into the swing of Gears, having not touched Gears 2 in well over a year. They were patient with me as I got accustomed to the controls and worked on catching up to the rest of them. New friends were made, good times were had, headsets were used, the Humpty Dance was sung. (more…)
Nine out of ten gamers have one. We don’t mean for it to happen, but new and shinier things always seem to come our way, leading to last week’s new release finding its way to the stack of games we promise ourselves we will get back to just as soon as the summer lull comes around.
For some of us, it’s not so bad. Less than a baker’s dozen of past releases remain sealed or still have that fresh from the factory smell. And we will get to those, just as soon as we finish up a season of whatever EA Sports title or in-depth RPG is causing the hold up. For others (primarily those working in the industry, whether it be as developer or journalist), that stack of games is more likely triple what a normal gamer has waiting. It’s not that you don’t want to play them, because you most definitely do, but in between playing or making games for work, plowing through weekly review copies and picking up the ones you aren’t comped, it doesn’t take long to watch your backlog develop into a monster. (more…)
MyGamerCard Says Farewell
This morning I turned on my computer, loaded up Firefox and was shocked to see a green R.I.P. message in the box where my Xbox Live Gamercard belonged. It was with a heavy heart that I clicked on it and was taken to the MyGamerCard website, and it was weighted down even further as I read Morgon’s goodbye to the community that was no more. (more…)
I love games. And because I love games so much my wallet (or now more accurately, my husband’s wallet) takes a hit at least once a month if not more, all in the name of investing my time wisely.
This year will be no different from the last who knows how many years since I started buying games with my own money. We all know all the headlining triple A titles will come out in the Fall as part of the Holiday sales push, our summer will be relatively quite, with a few A and AA releases to interrupt our plans of clearing up our backlogs. Every year is the same, a pattern we have come to know, accept, and still grumble about.
2011′s video games schedule has a whole bunch of 3s in it, some of which I will be playing, others that I have long since abandoned. Here’s a rundown on the titles I am most excited for: (more…)
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