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Reply to Why I Am The Way I Am…? in Dating JoeUser Forums

Well, as a quick (although late) update on the situation, the double-date on Monday night ended up being more of a group thing. Two couples (me and EG and then two of her friends), along with her sister and two of her other friends (who I'd met before and got along surprisingly well with). The night actually went great. We all had a really good time on the whole. As far as EG and I are concerned now, though, I'm fairly certain things are back to the way they were... Albeit with some s

Reply to Rise of Legends Review in Real-Time JoeUser Forums

Well, Rise of Nations isn't a turn-based game. It is, at its core, still a real-time strategy game and I loved how well it balanced the historical, progressing nature of Civilization with the fairly fast-pased real-time strategy nature of Age of Empires . But, yeah, Alpha Centauri was so very, very good. I don't think Civilization 4 can really live up to that, though it's a far closer attempt than Civilization 3 from what I understand.

Reply to Rise of Legends Review in Real-Time JoeUser Forums

Believe me, we're all pining for Supreme Commander. That game looks so fantastic. And I'm SO EXCITED to see a developer finally adding dual-monitor support to a game. As for Rise of Legends, it's a bit more fast-paced than Rise of Nations. It's as different a game from Rise of Nations you can get while still conforming to a lot of the rules of the gameplay formula.

Reply to Why I Am The Way I Am…? in Dating JoeUser Forums

Well, as a bit of a BREAKING UPDATE , and enduring far more personal shots and passive-aggressive insults I got the girl to calm down a bit after a bit of sweet-talking (it's the boyish charm at work ), and I talked her into not trying to excommunicate me entirely. And, heh, no to the English thing. The acronym EG (English Girl) was given because I met her in one of my English classes. Whenever my friends or I mee

Rise of Legends Review in Real-Time JoeUser Forums

I figured it was damn near time that I actually wrote about a game and there's really no better title to suit that necessity that the only game I've been playing for about the last two months (I was on the beta): Rise of Legends . This is the second title from developer Big Huge Games , which features Brian Reynolds at its helm (who, i

Reply to Breaking up is hard to do in Dating JoeUser Forums

Hey! I just broke up with my (short-lived, to be honest) girlfriend yesterday! It's really an exciting and fun trend that should be followed by everyone! I honestly don't believe a word of what I just said. I'm sorry that things are hitting rough water. But at least there's still the possibility that things may work out. Good luck, and hope things go the way you want. I don't want another member of the Recently Single club

Reply to Why I Am The Way I Am…? in Dating JoeUser Forums

Ah, Sally , my female doppelganger. If this were brought up under any other circumstances (ie, non romantically-related), I'd say that was neat. But under the current conversational topic, I can just say: "I'm sorry" and hope you have better luck than I do at some point. The current trends on marriage are disturbing, to say the least. It seems like marriage these days is generally done as more of a potential solut

Reply to Why I Am The Way I Am…? in Dating JoeUser Forums

Sounds pretty much like a verbatim description of what I'm like. I'm quite set in my ways, my routine I suppose, and introducing someone new to it is... Weird, to say the least. It was a really nice change, but as time went on (as much as time can really go on in a fairly small amount of time) I actually began to miss the laid-back way I used to conduct my days like. I can certainly appreciate that some really worthwhile partners have taken a bit of work in the past -- my best relationshi

Why I Am The Way I Am…? in Dating JoeUser Forums

Prepare for melodrama. I'm going to go ahead and violate so many of my own site-writing rules at once that, in fact, I may never be able to write again just out of the shame of my own writing infidelities. But, currently, I think this is something that needs to be done. Some people, when bad events occur, hole up in their living room with a bottle of ice cream and watch depressing movies. Some go on murderous rampages. I write a lengthy treatise on why I am the way I am in a romantic

Paradise - Chapter 3 in Fiction Writing JoeUser Forums

Since I got the majority of my work done for my fulltime job of a summer class that they call Intensive Second-Year Spanish, I figured I'd pretty much just go ahead and enjoy the day fully. And oh, let me tell you, it's been an enjoyable day. Between EG and I going to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place which felt the need to not just serve up food but, rather, serve up some food to also going to Border's and picking up a couple of Philip K. Dick books (<a href=" http://

Angeles in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

I'm continually impressed with my own ability to neglect this site (I simply refuse to call it a… blog . Such a silly word). Last time I apologized that I had successfully forsaken the site for about a week, and this time I'll apologize for successfully forsaking the site for, roughly, ten days. To make up for this from the get-go, I present to you two pictures with cuteness levels which have the ability to make all neglectful behavior disappear. <a href="http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_o

My Great Day in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

So, I originally started an entry that was more in line with the standard kind of rambling entry that I normally do. I got about three sentences done, when I realized that this simply wasn't going to cut it. Mostly because I think I've been mildly sleep-deprived for the last few days, but also because I've been really sleep-deprived for the last few days, but mostly just because I'm in a good, rambling, story-telling kind of mood that I feel would work best as a more storylike entry. Rambling is

A Streetlight Shines Through the Shades in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

Alright, sorry kids. Put down the pitchforks, torches, and hostage kittens. I had been doing so well updating this thing with consistency every 3-4 days, and then I go and so something brash like not updating it in a week. Apologies. Apologies all around. I came home-home on Monday and, to be quite honest, I do so love coming home. I don't really do anything other than just hang around with my family, watch TV at night, and then retreat to the room that I spent so many h

Reply to Must strategy games have multiplayer? in GalCiv Journals JoeUser Forums

Honestly, multiplayer in a strategy game in a very mixed bag for me. I've played a whole crap-ton of real-time strategy games and a handful of turn-based strategy games over the last year (and before then, but for the sake of scope, I'll limit to a year). Here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head: Age of Empires 3 , Dawn of War (and its expansion pack), Act of

End of the Year, Revisited in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

I'm a big fan of the whole idea of keeping some semblance of structure in terms of the structure of yearly posts. So this is, for most intents and purposes, the 2005-2006 version of the "end of the year" post (done with similar intentions, though mostly likely a completely unique execution) that I did last year . I have yet to officially end this, my junior year at the University of Michigan , but with only a hand

A Progress Report on Paradise in Fiction Writing JoeUser Forums

I had a nice, mildly lengthy entry dedicated to the "end of the year," which is to say the end of the school year. Which it is for me. But the entry… Well, to be honest, it was pretty horrendous. I actually deleted it after I had posted it because I felt that it didn't live up to the standards which I, myself, have established for entries on this site. And I'm not going to lie to you: the bar is pretty low. So when I say that an entry is bad I mean that it's really bad . I'll give it ano

Reply to ... Her? in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

That's pretty much exactly how I saw it. Aw so cut--wait, what are you doing, cat?!

... Her? in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

Sometimes, late at night, I feel this urge to, say, write an entry of some sorts for a site somewhere. Tonight, that happens to be the case. I can't say, specifically, what created this unique feeling in me... But I'm guessing it has something to do with chips and salsa and beer... Yeah, that sounds about right. I don't really have anything to really write about, to be honest. Though let's not kid ourselves here: it's not like I ever do .

S for Sleeplessness in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

So, at this point in time I only have roughly two weeks before I can head home and begin my summer vacation. And a week after that I come back to school -- so, yeah, awesome and such. Though, honestly, as much as I don't really want to do it, school during the summer is actually kind of fun. It's a lot more "relaxed" than a normal school year and, at least in my experience, the people that stay for summer tend to be a different variety of student. You kn

The Liger Awakes the Smeeping Tigon in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

It's some sort of given that if you have a week of little sleep, you're going to finish the big project or two or three that you've been working on and then you're going to wake up sick. I mean, sure, you might have been feeling a bit sick before you wake up -- say: just enough to make working on the project as much fun as licking sandpaper -- but it's really going to hit you that moment you think: "Hey, now I can relax!" This isn't exactly a theory or law or anything fancy of the sort, but… Yea

Reply to Paradise - Chapter 2 in Fiction Writing JoeUser Forums

Yeah, I'm tremendously guilty of using the passive voice a lot. I like to use it to mix things up a bit while I write, but I never remember to actually pay close attention to my use of it while I edit. Before I address some of the comments, though, I'm curious if you read the first chapter before this. This isn't something that really lends itself well to not reading chronologically. Also, my current goal is a flashback per chapter, pretty much. The first chapter's flashback was far m

Reply to Paradise - Chapter 2 in Fiction Writing JoeUser Forums

Well, they're fairly lengthy... And I'm not a huge fan of how the formatting turns out when I post a large amount of text here. Though, like I said, there's an easy HTML version of the link which is pretty much a simple click away. No frills design, just a decently formatted (for HTML, anyway) version of the chapter.

Paradise - Chapter 2 in Fiction Writing JoeUser Forums

After spending a couple of fairly long, enjoyable nights editing I think I can consider the second chapter of Paradise in a state of completion limbo — not "done" by any means, but done well enough to the point where I can not worry about it and move on to the next chapter. Which I think I'll probably start work on at the end of the month. Chapter 2, though, is fairly different than the first chapter in that there was no longer the need to be incredibly detailed in environment

SLiTHER! in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

I do very much apologize for going almost five days without so much as the smallest update to this, my Beloved Internet Paradise. That said, now is not going to be that update. I'm currently working on the second full draft of the second chapter of Paradise -- everyone's favorite dystopian, post-nuclear, romantic, darkly comedic, dramatic psychological thriller of a book. Once this thing is d

Reply to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in Adventure JoeUser Forums

Hand-to-hand combat seems surprisingly strong (at least, when I face enemies that use it). They get a lot more staggering hits, from what I've seen. And, yeah, the Arena was amazing. The final battle is kinda sad though.