Not much else to report right now other than that the 2014 remake of Shadowgate is awesome. That will be in December reviews. I just wanted to mention it now since it's likely to go on sale at Steam in the coming week.
Lately I feel like most of my updates are just me wondering why I still update at all. Other than the fact that I finally made a 2014 Update Log (whoopdee-doo, right?), I don't have much new to report. The only thing I want to say is that I am tossing around ideas for an index for the Capsule Reviews, I just have to come up with a format I like.
That, and I'm probably going to have to remove the StatCounter. My computer thinks it's a virus and makes it difficult to update the pages that have it on them. It's not like I really check my stats all that much anymore, so...
It's been a rather crappy year for me. One of our cats died, another cat's had health issues, a close family member was hospitalized and almost died, I got a minor concussion and I'm not quite sure how it happened, I bought a Pontiac G6 and almost destroyed it in a flood, pretty much all my old-time forum friends hate me...
...but I lost some weight without even sticking to my exercise routine that much, so I guess I have that going for me.
So, yesterday, I made a little update requesting common sense netiquette. It was stern, but needed. The responses I got were no less than amazing. Along with people trying to tell me "that never happens", I started getting all the same complaints I ever hear whenever I reject a site suggestion. I could practically make a Bingo card with the laundry list of complaints I receive every time, but the two that annoy me the most are:
"Why do you hate me?"
It's not getting change requests that annoys me. It's being accused of "getting angry/mad" or "hating" someone because I reject the change that I find unacceptable. It's getting browbeaten into submission with a million reasons I'm "wrong" when I reject the changes that I find frustrating. If you do this sort of thing, it tells me that you don't really care about the quality of the site. It tells me that you're manipulative and just want to call all the shots. Anyone who accuses me of getting angry or hating someone because I reject a change, and anyone who tells me something "didn't happen" or "never happens" would do well to listen to Archer:
Update: 11/18/2014
I'm sorry, but I'm feeling thoroughly disgusted with this behavior right now:
I've had this happen a million times and it's the main reason I don't pay any attention to people who write in with suggestions for changing the website. Every single time I ever caved in to anyone's suggestions and then asked for feedback, it was the same damn thing every time - only the forum regulars made any comments about them.
Conversely, I've been on the other end of the stick numerous times - where someone else made changes to something based on people asking them to, and then they come to me for opinions on the changes. And if I'm honestly not happy with them, in order to avoid hurting feelings, I have to play a game of "Find the Silver Lining". I'm not doing this anymore.
Seriously, if you're not prepared to give feedback, if you're gonna leave the "dirty work" all in other people's hands, then don't ask people to change shit!!
Thank you.
Update: 11/1/2014
October 2014's Capsule Reviews are up. First I've been on time in awhile.
Update: 10/25/2014
Decided to end my little prank. Will I explain it? Nah. It was mostly to see if people would notice it and what they'd say, but I guess that's actually kind of pointless since my site tracker no longer records search strings. In the old days, I couldn't put anything up there without immediately getting hits off related searches. Now, I have no idea if I did or not. C'est la vie.
Update: 10/18/2014
September 2014's Capsule Reviews are up, and with that, I am FINALLY caught up! =)
I would like to do some more work on the Game Music section, but I can't promise anything right now.
Update: 10/12/2014
August 2014's Capsule Reviews. There are only three game reviews, and that's it, so I made the Marlow Briggs review a little longer than usual.
Update: 10/4/2014
July 2014's Capsule Reviews are up, but that's not the only announcement.
Because the Capsule Reviews is currently the most active portion of my site, I updated the entire section into the modern site format (it still had the old mid-2000's "Aliens" design). I also broke up everything into months on the main page. I was especially glad to get 2013 split up because all those albums I reviewed from the digital service beta testing really cluttered that year up.
Another change is that reviewed items are all now sorted into sections based on format with a heading for each. The formats are then listed in order of priority. Since this is by and large a video game themed website, the Video Games category is always first, followed by Movies, TV Shows, Audiobooks, and then Albums are last. Of course, categories for each format will only be included in each month if I have material for them. I just felt that the way it was before was too confusing, especially when reviewing movie soundtracks it could be hard to tell at first glance if I was reviewing the movie or the soundtrack.
This also means I no longer have the "Year in Review" that was present at the end of the old 2010-2012 pages. I'm not sure if I will reinstate them at a later point, but right now have no plans to, especially since I never wrote one for 2013.
Some broken links were fixed.
A standard "On Hiatus" graphic is used for months where I had nothing to review to keep the tables even.
For anyone wondering why I had so many hidden object games in June and more point-and-click games in July, I had a right hand injury that forced me to use only my left hand to play games. Mouse-only games were all I could play, and I managed to blow through quite a few of them (may have even had more if my laptop hadn't kept crashing).
Lady
May 2000 - September 2014
Farewell, we will miss you, girl, and you will always be loved.
Take care crossing that big rainbow bridge in the sky.
May you go to a place where catnip grows all around, and there is always a sunny spot to lie in, and you can have all the chicken you can eat.
Eulogy written by Crawl
Update: 9/28/2014
June 2014's Capsule Reviews.
I played a lot of hidden object games in June. I'm kind of surprised at how many there were. I also listened to a lot of movie soundtrack albums, most of which were from movies I reviewed in earlier capsules.
Update: 9/21/2014
May 2014's Capsule Reviews.
Mostly audiobooks, a couple of movies, an album, and one game. Considering the family emergency that happened in May, it's actually more than I thought I would have.
Update: 9/17/2014
Most likely scenario: No one will notice it or care. But in case anyone does and is curious, the other three are in the Memory Card.
Update: 8/3/2014
April 2014's Capsule Reviews.
Once again, I skipped a few album reviews (actually no albums this month). Because of a family emergency that occurred in May, my memory of some albums from before and around that time has become too hazy to review them now.
Update: 7/20/2014
March 2014's Capsule Reviews.
I decided to skip reviewing some albums that I listened to back in March, but have forgotten by now what I wanted to say about them. I'll revisit and review them sometime in the future.
Update: 7/6/2014
If you tried talking to me about my site recently, you probably received a response saying it is dead. That is not entirely untrue, despite that I managed to finish February 2014's Capsule Reviews.
Since there are three main things that come up over and over again, maybe I could just address them now:
1. No more RAU Gallery sketches at this time. I'm glad for the support and love you've given the series over the years, but it's done. There are too many complications, plus a lack of inspiration to continue writing in the current format, involved with writing new sketches.
2. The game music section is on hold. If you email me wanting a game song, particularly an NES song, there's a chance I might have it, and will email you the file if I do. But I won't be adding anything to the site anytime soon.
3. The full-length reviews are on hold. I know the capsules are not of the same quality as the full-lengths, but due to time and life issues, they'll just have to do.
The rest of the site sections are still on indefinite hiatus, but I don't seem to get any requests to update them anymore. Just these three.
Update: 4/23/2014
Although I've calmed down somewhat since that last announcement, my site is still on hiatus until further notice. Just to give an idea of the sorts of things I'm dealing with, we've had a recent death in the family, an elderly sick kitty who's had a lot of vet visits lately (and more to come), and one of our two cars is not currently drivable, so I've begun shopping for a replacement (probably will get a preowned vehicle this time since I'd rather not have years of car payments ahead). So, yeah, until some of this is sorted out, I won't be updating much.
Thanks to everyone for your continued support. At least when I do get back here, I may have more music updates. I've been vastly updating my NES music collection on my hard drive, and I might just eventually upload all of it.
Update: 2/2/2014
January Capsule Reviews are up. Because of the increased number of items I can review each month, due to getting free borrows from the digital service, I have decided to make each month a separate page of its own. So, in order to index this, I changed the Capsule Reviews main page slightly, and essentially ripped off CodieKitty's Quickies design idea. So, I apologize for that.
I know I still haven't done the 2013 Year in Review. I'll get to it eventually, but I've been playing Sweet Home lately, so can you blame me for being more preoccupied with that?
UPDATE: 1/26/2014
My first full-length review of a PC game is the zombie-slasher/adventure from Steam, How to Survive. Also, check the Jukebox below for some music from this game.
UPDATE: 1/7/2014
December's Capsule Reviews have been released. I had so much stuff for November and December that if I continue at this rate, I may have to consider breaking up future installments to have only one month's reviews per page.
I don't have a Year in Review yet because I have a lot to look over. With having more albums and audiobooks in the mix this year, I'll need to add categories for those as well as movies, TV shows, and video games.
Wow, I've been home two days in a row under a Level 3 Snow Emergency, and I'm not even 100% sure it'll be lifted by tomorrow, either. This is the only time in my life I've ever missed more than a day in a row of work because of weather.
UPDATE: 1/1/14
My New Year's gift to you is a full review of the NES game, S.C.A.T. Also, check the jukebox below for some excellent music from this game.
I don't quite have them finished yet, but I have a lot of capsule reviews for December coming up. I might need to start breaking them up by month into separate pages in the future.
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