General update in epistolary format

[oyceter]

Since I have become terrible at posting, a random update:

Games

• Dear Zynga: If you absolutely had to rip off Gardens of Time, couldn't you have at least made the interface for placing things on your estate a bit better? Also, apparently I am fine with clicking repeatedly on mindless things, but not so much with replying hidden object scenes.


• Dear Sims Social: I am still annoyed that you had a measly 5 or so objects for Lunar New Year and have a whole theme and quest for Valentine's Day. Also, I am pretty femme-y, but it'd be nice to have something between saccharine and "messy sports slob." Also also, including pink shopping bags in the sports update to include non-sports people was pretty stupid. Also x3, still sick of how sexualized and revealing the women's clothing is, and still annoyed I can't get stuff from the men's clothing store (my Sim is female).


• Dear Triple Town: I cannot believe I actually paid money for you, but anything that makes the train commute go by in a flash is worth $3.99. There's some strategy, but not too much for the morning commute, the game is very addictive and easy to learn, and it has ninja bears. WIN.


• Dear Tiny Tower: Can I haz more costumes plz? Also, still enjoying subverting the text by dressing the staff of my "Asian Restaurant" (serves: spring rolls, noodle bowl, orange tofu) up as "amigos" (complete with sombrero) and naming it "Asian Amigos." I also get a nice kick out of the random bitizen generator giving me lots of brown people.


• Dear Dream Zoo: You are boring and take forever to load. I don't know why I still play you.


• Dear Echo Bazaar: I didn't like the UI of the updates, but the no-action-cap update and clearer tool tips are making this much more fun. Who knew you could actually craft items from stuff in your inventory?

Reading

• Dear fanfic authors: Snape is much more interesting when he is a childish jerk who nevertheless does some pretty heroic things. Also, please more Ruthless!Hermione?


• Dear Palace of Illusions audiobook: Thanks for scratching the fic itch and also for getting me to pick Subramaniam's Mahabharata adaptation again.


• Dear brain: Grateful for the ability to process text again! I guess the combination of wanting complicated stuff combined with familiar settings and characters is a nice switch from several years of the opposite (i.e. romance novels: unfamiliar characters, familiar settings and plot).

Personal

• Dear SF Muni: I HATE YOU SO MUCH. I have nothing against buses or public transportation, and in fact am very much a fan of the latter, but not when it seems like the system has been deliberately set up to miss every possible commuter rail connection by a minute or so. You'd think bus systems connecting to commuter rail would attempt to make the transfer easier, but that would be assuming that this entire country were civilized enough to do public transportation properly. @$#(&#@$( car culture.
  
  (I leave work at 5:45 and sometimes get into my door at 7:20 or so, depending on bus connections. The new "unified" smart card payment system takes me ten reads to figure out, half the time I can't reload it from inside a station, I still can't figure out what money I put on it goes to which transportation system, I have to re-figure this all out again as soon as I move, IRS cut pre-tax commuter benefits, and I know this is all symptomatic of much larger issues, including how public transportation in SF Bay Area was set up in the first place and complicated things like business systems and whatnot, and it is especially annoying because there is no one thing to rail against. The entire system is a mess because it was haphazardly put into place by assorted different agencies with no thought of intersystem transfers or links and has been held together with band-aids ever since.
  
  (Or, at least, that is my impression as a user of around three months and from the little I know about system design.)

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Dear Palace of Illusions audiobook: Thanks for scratching the fic itch and also for getting me to pick Subramaniam's Mahabharata adaptation again.

Yay!

[oyceter]

It's also nice because I'm not as familiar with the Mahabharata, so I kind of know what will happen in Palace of Illusions, but not to the point where it's boring!

[helen_keeble]

I found myself seriously contemplating dropping the price of a new iPhone on Triple Town. Because I desperately want to play it on the go, but it won't run on my old 3G... I managed to haul myself back from the brink of insanity before I started placing eBay bids on used 3GSs, but it was a close call.

Echo Bazaar! Much love!

[oyceter]

Bwahahaha! It is so addictive! And nicely and elegantly simple.

I wasn't that into EB at first, but now that I'm nearing level 60 in things, it's getting more interesting. Also, I like crafting, heh.

[lovepeaceohana]

Dear fanfic authors: Snape is much more interesting when he is a childish jerk who nevertheless does some pretty heroic things. Also, please more Ruthless!Hermione?

Ayup - although, granted, I'll read just about any characterization of Snape, so long as it's well-done.

[oyceter]

I seem to weirdly want very close-to-canon gen right now! Usually I read fic for shippy purposes, but right now what I really seem to be craving is extensions and ramifications of world building and etc.

[lovepeaceohana]

If you find anything good, can you throw it my way? I heart that kind of stuff, but I usually end up reading shippy stuff because - well, I do. :P

[oyceter]

I suspect you may have already seen it? I seriously haven't read lots of fic for years and years...

I did really like Vera Rozalsky's Amends, or Truth and Reconciliation, which has a very ruthless Hermione and really awesome politics. There's a bit more shippy stuff than I really wanted, but omg, the politics are awesome.

[lovepeaceohana]

Oh yeah, I've read that one - LOVED it! But wish more of it existed. It just kind of ends, iirc, on a note that doesn't seem quite finished.

[lovepeaceohana]

Oh! I've just found one - it's post-canon, epilogue-compliant, featuring a rather dark Hermione: Caveat Inimici. Not a very nice fic, but, I do like seeing this piece of Hermione explored - the Hermione who cursed Marietta Edgecombe without a hint of remorse, who sent Umbridge off to meet whatever awaited her with the centaurs. Thrilling, and chilling.

[oyceter]

Yay thanks so much!!

[troisroyaumes]

Do you have Clipper on Autoload? I think that is the only stress-free way of handling the card system across multiple transit systems. D:

Re: Sims Social, ugh, so much word on the Valentine's Day quests. So boring! About the only thing I've liked about the last few updates were the new skill items.

[oyceter]

I set it up yesterday! I was holding off for a bit in hopes that the commuter benefits would have a way to do it (HA), but I have given in and am now paying with post-tax dollars.

Oh man, yes re: Sims Social! And I'm annoyed so many skill items are Sim cash. Okay, also I am annoyed because they are not providing me with furniture that looks good in my house, damnit.

[thistleingrey]

Alas--it is possible for some types of pre-tax benefit to fund Clipper. Sad it doesn't work for you.

[oyceter]

I know! I managed to make it work for Current Commute, but still checking out options for Future Commute, and it looks like they just did something with their system so you can't automatically order via my commuter benefits site, argh.

[thistleingrey]

What I've done is take the benefits payout and use it to fund a transit pass on the pass's site. If one doesn't have access to the benefits payout directly, then yes, it won't work, but I think it is harder in some ways to do from the benefits site.

[chomiji]

Yeah. they've changed some things around with the SmarTrip cards in our neck of the woods too. Now we have two separate posts of money on it, one from our employer and one from whatever we add ourselves. But when you go through a fare gate, it only shows you what's in the subsidy pot until you run that to 0. Then it will show you 0 until you actually use the second pot for a whole trip, at which point it starts counting down the second pot. It's disconcerting.

[oyceter]

Whoa, interesting! I wonder why they do it that way....?

[sophia_helix]

They dropped the action cap on EB? Hmmm, I might be tempted to play again...

And damn those ninja bears. They always mess with my system.

[oyceter]

They did! And a lot of the stuff in your inventory is a lot clearer as well... I play really casually, so I had no idea before that that you could turn 1000 x's into 200 y's and advance more easily to locked content.

[inkspills]

I'm afraid of Muni because of the...colorful characters (and fragrant too) who often board. I should get over it -- lots of fellow San Francisco people seem totally chill with it. I want that city cool!

[oyceter]

I think the rep re: homeless people is a bit overblown. I mean, obviously there will be more than there are in your car, but I actually get much more annoyed by the Silicon Valley guys talking very loudly about their SRS BZNS on the phone. Ugh.

[inkspills]

I haven't encountered the latter, thank goodness as they sound very annoying, but yeah an awful lot of the former. I think we must travel in different neighborhoods!

[cofax7]

half the time I can't reload it from inside a station

I just tied it directly to my bank account: anytime the amount falls below $25, it reloads.

The entire system is a mess because it was haphazardly put into place by assorted different agencies with no thought of intersystem transfers or links and has been held together with band-aids ever since

That is absolutely true. They were working on the multi-agency smart card project in 1998, and it only went live in the last few years.

[oyceter]

Yeah... I didn't do autoload first because I wanted to see if I could get it to work with my commuter benefits, but alas, no such luck.

That is absolutely true. They were working on the multi-agency smart card project in 1998, and it only went live in the last few years.

Sigh. So not surprised. I mean, very happy there is a smart card now, but I just wish public transportation was much higher on the urban planning priorities list here.

Triple Town!

[(Anonymous)]

Ninja bears are awesome. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll ever be able to score high enough in some of the areas to actually win them. On the plus side, though, I just made my first floating castle. Yay!

-LG

Re: Triple Town!

[oyceter]

Whoa, go you! I am actually pretty terrible at the game, but I decided to not think about high scores and just let it take up commute time. Really want floating castle though!