Daring to me, anyway. I’ve never attempted anything like this and I would not be surprised in the least if it somehow explodes in my face. Just pretend that this is still July 2nd, 2009. I’d consider it a huge possible favour. I know the site had some serious outages today and that made it extremely difficult to get this up earlier. Here’s the video:
Happy 142nd Birthday, Canada! Woo!
Canada was born on the 1st of July. I was born on the 31st. July is always a weird month for me and I suspect this year will be no different. I am very grateful to be back in my hometown for the summer this year, nothing against Windsor but it’s not the same, since it gives me more opportunities for doing cool things. Tonight I’ll be heading off to the Fringe Festival for the first time in years to see a show full of friends. So, assuming you are in the GTA and don’t have any other Canada Day festivities planned tonight, go see Because I Can :)
If it didn’t happen with such regularity I probably wouldn’t mention it at all. I first really noticed it back in the original Rock Band days when a suspicious number of people would quit either halfway or just before the end of the song while I was winning. There was no penalty for them quitting, neither their streak nor mine were broken as a result, but I also didn’t get the win I needed for the streak achievements:
Tug of War Streak - 20 points - Win 5 Tug of War ranked matches in a row
Tug of War Champ - 30 points - Win 20 Tug of War ranked matches
Score Duel Streak - 20 points - Win 5 Score Duel ranked matches in a row
Score Duel Champ - 30 points - Win 20 Score Duel ranked matches
These took much longer than they should have. Even in the various Need For Speed (and Forza and PGR) games I noticed there were a lot of disappearing cars when I’m in the lead close to the finish line. It is entirely possible I end up with people cursed with unfortunately sporadic connections. I had one of those myself for a while and it’s incredibly frustrating for all parties concerned. Now, with my beloved Ghostbusters, I’m seeing it again and I am irked to no end. I realize people are in a hurry to win every round type and earn the most money for the achievement — did I mention I somewhat despise multiplayer achievements? — but it’s still a pain in the butt. There are 20 different ranks to move up to in Ghostbusters and I’m at #16 (Wraith Wrangler) with 2.6 million dollars, so I’m not exactly the most fearsome awesomest player in existence here. My brother was the first person to suggest that this phenomenon related directly to the fact that my gamertag clearly specifies that I am a girl: LadyGuardian. I will definitely keep on playing to hit the ultimate Ghostbuster of the Year rank, but that’s mostly because I do really enjoy the game! I can’t wait for more of my friends to pick up the game so we can play together at last. They come with the bonus of already know that Egon is mine ^_^
By the way, I can’t recommend this thread at xbox360achievements.org enough. The people here do an amazing job and it’s a great place to check out when you feel you’ve hit an impassable wall or can’t find that last annoying drinking fountain (guilty!). I kinda wish I saw this chart earlier because right now I have no idea which rounds I’ve won and which I still need.
Note that all these people with blacked out tags above took off one after another in the next round. Gee, thanks for that. I have no idea if those wins will even count when people leave before all the rounds are over. It is a really good thing I enjoy playing so much to overcome the player exodus and the flaky matchmaking service! Like I said, I’m not the best player around but I will never bail on a round even if I end up fourth. This is truly trying in Survival mode when Stay Puft shows up and there’s only two of us left. The only player I have left negative feedback to was actually an extremely young girl who felt like screeching racial insults the whole match… except when she was knocked out and felt that we were taking too long to revive her. We kinda were. One of the guys would count to 30 through his mic and bring her back when there were only a few seconds left before the game brought her back for us. Thank goodness I don’t play with a mic unless I’m with people I know or they would have totally heard me laughing.
It is an auspicious start to the day when your Grandmother knocks on your door early in the morning in tears. It has been a rather rough day running all around Mimico to take of all the things that reduced her to that state but I’m very proud that I accomplished absolutely everything in my power to fix. While she was off getting x-rays done around noon I had my first chance to duck out for breakfast at the Tim Hortons there and had a near-religious experience. Outwardly I was calm and collected and trying my best to stay happy — as I needed to be lest Grandma felt worse than she did already — but at this point I felt so helpless inside and was barely keeping it in. The nice lady at Tim’s asked how I was doing and I could not help blurting out that I was having an incredibly rough day and at my wits end. She smiled and laughed and said she hoped it would improve from here as she got my bagel and chocolate milk. Just after I paid and was about to find a shady spot to chill she said, “Oh, you forgot this.” and handed me a Strawberry Bloom donut.
All I could do was stare in disbelief since pretty much everyone in Ontario, if not Canada, knows about the lady that got fired for giving a crying tot a Timbit (she was later rehired, thankfully). She laughed again and said, “Don’t worry! Please. It’s my last day!!” Never before have I been so filled with joy at receiving a simple donut. Her single gesture absolutely made my day and refilled my spirit. I thanked her profusely, feeling like a whole new person!
Things were still a little rough after that warm interlude but we got through it and I think everything is calm again for now. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to read this since I failed to get her name but I want to publicly thank her for her kindness at a time when it meant the world to me ^_^
I am more than a little crushed right now. I lost the notebooks I’ve been writing the new OpenAlpha episodes and ideas in. This really really sucks. For me. I’m sure the rest of you will get along, somehow ;_;
In better news tonight I am checking out Loot with a friend and it’s supposed to be pretty good. I really hope it is. I think I’m going to pick up a new (BIGGER and harder to lose) notebook on the way and head down early to do some writing at a cafe down there before the show starts. I know it sounds a little odd that a geek like me doesn’t do everything on my computer or tablet but nothing beats the feel of pen on paper. Not even my tablet. Paper doesn’t run out of batteries. I just have to be a lot more careful about where I leave it.
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