Team Fortress Tuesday #8

I didn't talk about this last week, but I am today.  Team Fortress 2 has had a Christmas update for a couple years now, and the tradition was continued this year.  It wasn't a major update, and no weapons were added, but a few were changed.  The Battalion's Backup and Concherer were buffed, but I never play with the backbacks outside of Mann vs. Machine, and I only use the Buff Banner there, so I'm don't want to say how good they are, but considering the only changes added to them were positive, they're both probably better than the were before. 

The Diamondback was also straight buffed and now gives a crit for backstabs in addition to sapped buildings.  I think this was an interesting change, and at this point, I would say the Spy's revolvers are all fairly well balanced.  Actually, I'm not entirely sure there's a good reason to use the standard revolver now.  Some people might not like that idea, but the other guns all have so much to offer now.  I personally am going to stick with the L'etranger and Ambassador when I play Spy(which isn't often), but now at least I would consider seriously using the Diamondback.

The Soda Popper received a significant, and frankly well-deserved change.  The hypemeter is still there, and still charges the same, but instead of minicrits it grants you the ability to quintuple jump.  I know I'm not the first to say it, but I'll say it anyway, the minicrits were awful to deal with.  It's a good thing Scouts who knew how to play felt guilty about using it, otherwise the lives of everyone would have been so much worse.  I can't say for sure how good the gun is now, but at the very least it isn't horrifically annoying anymore.

Now we get to the real controversy.  The Short Circuit.  A shot only costs 5 metal now, and it can be fired extremely rapidly.  Like 10 times a second rapidly.  You can literally walk up to a Soldier or Demoman and completely nullify their projectiles.  Completely.  When the update dropped, I immediately saw the potential for hilarity, joined a Hightower server, and promptly dominated a Soldier simply by walking into his face spamming left-click.  If you follow TF2 at all, you'll probably have seen this video, but I just want to say that I did my thing before that came out, so don't tell me I copied.  Anyway, it's a stupidly hilarious and broken weapon now, and while it can, and I have, used it properly, it's just so difficult to resist the temptation to run at someone with it.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the festives this year.  They are: the Force-a-Nature, the Black Box, the Flare Gun, the Eyelander, the Gloves of Running Urgently, the Wrangler, the Crusader's Crossbow, the Jarate, and the Sapper.  For the first time, I actually got stranges, both the Jarate and the Wrangler.  So, happy about that.  If you haven't seen the update notes, they can be found here.

Florida Trip

So, as a graduation present I get a week's vacation in Florida.  I'm staying with my grandparents in Clearwater, which is near Tampa.  I'm really looking forward to it, I haven't been on a proper vacation in a long time.  I am going to play so much golf.  It's gonna be weird, going from frigid Pennsylvania to sunny and warm Florida.  Of course, I'm gonna stick out like a sore thumb, cause I hear native Floridians don't wear shorts unless it's like, over 75 degrees, which is about 20 degrees above my threshold.  Oh well, I'm just thankful to spend some time in such a nice, not snow-covered place.  Plus, I get to see a part of the country I've never seen before.  I'm taking a train down, which I think is the way to travel.  And although I've been to New Mexico, which is south, I've never been south of Virginia on the East Coast.  I'm gonna see the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.  This should be a fun trip.

A Trip to the Doctor

A story inspired by a news article which can be found here.

“Doctor, doctor, give me the news!” Mr. Ferguson exclaimed as I walked into the room.

           

“The news, Mr. Ferguson, is that you have a rash in your mouth,” I said.  “Nothing more.”

           

“That’s impossible.” Mr. Ferguson looked crestfallen.  “I’m a biologist, and I know when something is a rash, and when something is a parasitic worm burrowing through my face.”

          

 “Do you know how rare the condition you’re talking about is?” I asked.  I hoped he didn’t actually know, because I didn’t.  I’m an oral surgeon, I get paid $300,000 a year to fix teeth, not to keep up with the field of parasitic worms.  I’m too busy playing croquet on weekends, or comparing 401k’s at the lodge.  Even worms sounds more exciting then my life right now.

          

 “Very rare, I imagine,” he replied.  “But not impossible.”

          

 He was still angling for this worm thing.  “I’m sorry, but all of the evidence points towards a simple rash.”

          

 “But it isn’t a rash!”

           

I was getting tired of this.  My head was throbbing from a massive hangover, I really just wanted to get out of there.  I would have loved to hop in my car and drive away from it all, but I knew I wouldn’t.  I’d just go back home, back to the same old wife, and the same old family, and the same old whiskey to get to bed at night.  “I’m telling you, you’ll be fine in a couple of weeks.  It will clear up.”

           

“But I was so sure…” Mr. Ferguson trailed off.

           

“It would have certainly been a fascinating case,” I threw the man a bone.  “You probably could have gotten a paper out of it.  But the truth is usually much more mundane.  Life is boring sometimes.”

          

 “Thank you for your time, Doctor,” he said.

          

 I trudged out of the room and sighed.  I could see a road sign from a window.  Las Vegas, 500 miles.  I shook my head and walk to the next patient’s room.  Life is boring sometimes.

Thoughts on the Second Hobbit Movie

So, I've seen The Desolation of Smaug twice now, and to be honest, I'm not sure what I think of it.  I mean, I enjoyed watching it, but I'm not sure how good it actually is.  Now, while I love The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, I'm not a diehard Tolkien fan.  Tom Bombadil was absolutely the worst part of the Lord of the Rings, which I talked about here.  It's not the fact that they added a lot of new stuff, it's a movie, not the book, I expect it to be different.  That's what adaptation means.  I'm just not sure the new stuff was done all that well.  I think I actually liked the first movie better, because while there was some stuff added, it was all related to the original plot.  There weren't any new subplots between a female elf and one of the dwarves.  The first movie was the first 140 pages of the book expanded into movie form.  This movie was...I don't know, but it wasn't what I wanted.  Two movies would have worked for this, but we needed to get three, because money.  Oh well.

Christmas Part Two

Here's hoping that everyone had a fantastic Christmas!  I had a great time with my family today, and I just got back from hanging with some of my closest friends, had a great time with them too.  Had good food, had fun, it was a great day.

Christmas

It's 12:15 AM for me right now, so I'll say this.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!  Go open presents, spend time with your family, eat, drink, and be merry.  Listen to this, it's probably my favorite Christmas song.  Enjoy the holidays, it really is the most wonderful time of the year.

Team Fortress Tuesday #7

I don't know how Google handles its days, but it's 1:06 AM on Tuesday for me, so that means it's time for yet another Team Fortress Tuesday!  Haven't done this in a while.  For this fantastic edition, I would like to talk about the TF2 Mixup that just wrapped up a couple of days ago.  This event has been going on for quite a while now, and it's a charity thing, it's got internet famous people in it, and it's kinda funny.  Here is a link to the matches.  They're worth a watch, I certainly enjoyed them.

Graduating

Yes, I've graduated.  A semester early, in fact.  Get to save myself a few thousand dollars there.  My commencement ceremony was yesterday, and it was an interesting experience.  I did not want to be there, I am absolutely not one for any kind of ceremony, and to be honest I can't stand wearing anything that isn't a T-shirt and either jeans or shorts, depending on the weather.  But, my family wanted be to do it, so I was happy to do it.  Not many people graduate in the winter, let me tell you.  And a lot of people didn't show up.  There were maybe a thousand people at mine, but there were three commencements, since I went to a big school.  It was a nice feeling, finally being done with school.  I have to bring this up though.  While everybody was walking, the people in charge asked that the crowd hold their applause until each separate college had gone through.  This was too much to ask, apparently, and it got completely ridiculous at some points.  So much for the solemnity of the event.  But even considering that, it was a great feeling walking across and getting my (admittedly fake because we don't have final grades yet) diploma.  So yes, looking forward to the rest of my life.  Wow, did this two days in a row.  It's been, what, 4 months?

The Rereturn

So, I've just graduated from college, and I am currently unemployed.  Glad to be finished with school, I'm looking forward to real life.  Since I've recently acquired roughly all of the free time, I'm making a comeback here.  Hopefully.  I've said this before.  But honestly, in this case, I really don't have anything better to do than this.  And I do want to make a habit of this.  Back in August, I just wasn't quite into the routine of this yet, so when things got busy, this blog got dropped.  We'll see if I can keep this going.  Will I back tomorrow?  It's an excellent question...