BBBBalta

TRAIN HEISTS ARE AWESOME Also hello my friends I have returned almost.

So last weekend I found a new NSMB/Luigi deluxe set Wii U on eBay for $250 – a good deal, and since I was planning on picking one up eventually for Smash 4, Mario Kart 8, Zelda, and 3D Mario (among other games, of course), I ordered it. It arrived Thurdsay, I set it up yesterday, and I decided today to bore you all with my thoughts on it. One of the first things I noticed pulling the system out of the box was the console's length – it's longer than I'd expected, which seems kind of a weird thing to notice now that I'm writing it down. Hm. I set the console up vertically using the provided stands. They're much sturdier than the Wii's, which is a plus. I also appreciated the inclusion of an HDMI cable – the only other HD console I own, the PS3, didn't come with one. Setup was fairly simple until I got to the part where you have to make a user account for the system. Transferring my Mii from my 3DS took several attempts since I apparently didn't have the correct share settings selected for that particular Mii. Then it asked me if I wanted to link the account to a Nintendo Network ID. I said yes. It asked if I wanted to create a new Nintendo Network ID. I said yes. It said I couldn't because I had to install an update first. I briefly postponed the installation of said update to sync one of my Wii Remotes to the Wii U. This process is much, much easier than it was with the Wii – whereas with the Wii you had to hold down the button on both the console and the remote simultaneously, with the Wii U you press the button on the console and then press the button on the remote. It may not seem like that would make a major difference, but it does. I proceeded to scour the settings menu for the system update button. I found it and was told that the download would take 01:26. (At least that's what I think it was. Close enough.) At first I thought that this meant one minute twenty-six seconds, as that's how I've always seen downloads measured in the past. I soon realized, however, that this was one hour and twenty-six minutes. Not only is this somewhat counterintuitive (shouldn't it be 01:26:00?) but it's also pretty frustrating to have to wait over an hour for the console to update before you can actually use it. Fortunately (unfortunately?) I didn't have something awesome like Mario Kart or Smash that I was anxious to play. I lost interest in NSMB after NSMB Wii – the only reason I bought the NSMB bundle was because at $250 it was $80 cheaper than the $330 Mario Kart 8 bundle, which means I could still buy MK and come out $20 and one game ahead. (The MK bundle also includes a Wii Wheel – haha no thanks). Anyway, I of course tried out NSMBU with my dad and my sister. Like all NSMB games, it's fun enough, but nothing special. Basically the same game with some new level designs and a fresh coat of admittedly crisp-looking high-definition paint. One thing that bothered me though was the control options. You can play the game with the gamepad, the Wii remote held sideways, or the pro controller. What's not on that list is the control scheme I – and everyone else in my family – used for NSMB Wii: the remote + nunchuck. I realize that I'm probably in the minority in my appreciation for that particular control scheme but I don't really see any reason why it shouldn't have been included. I expect I would prefer the pro controller – but at fifty bucks a pop I don't see myself getting one anytime soon. So I decided I'd try out the gamepad – only to learn that, in multiplayer, you can't use the gamepad to actually play the game but only to assist the players in what the game refers to as “boost mode.” I really don't understand why you can't choose to do either. I poked around Miiverse a bit, looking in particular at the Smash and Mario Kart boards. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not something I see myself spending much time on. Today I tried out offscreen play and found that my room is about a meter beyond the connection range between the console and the gamepad, which is quite disappointing. Kind of limits the potential there. One thing I haven't done – and don't plan to do anytime soon – is transfer my Wii save data to the Wii U. The whole “your save data gets deleted from the Wii YOU CAN NEVER GET IT BACK THIS PROCESS CANNOT BE UNDONE seems a bit sketchy to me I dunno. Plus I still have a year to go before I can use homebrew on Wii U without having to worry about voiding my warranty so if I want to play Brawl Minus or something I'll have to use my Wii anyway so So yeah owning a Wii U has been a bit of an underwhelming experience so far. I'll probably get MK8 sooner rather than later and look into picking up something like Nintendo Land to play casually with my family, both of which I expect will make the console more exciting.

I'll vote Pulse.

Spot 5.

"Yellow" - Coldplay

A decent boldness ever meets with friends --Homer

Spot please.

You'll get no sympathy from me.

Orkahm, according to Bricklink.

Watched Batman Begins last Thursday. Hadn't seen it before and thought it was awesome. Can't wait to watch The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Yesterday I saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Pretty cool movie. Makes you think about ... stuff. I liked it. Saw The Amazing Spider-Man today. Certain parts were a bit ridiculous, but then, what do you expect from a movie about a guy who can stick to walls after getting bit by a radioactive spider? Planning on seeing the sequel next weekend.

b'dm tss I like zoos. As you acknowledge, you're quite big on the safari idea, but the long and short of it is - as Pomegranate mentioned - that for the majority of people a trip to Africa for a safari is nowhere near so feasible as is a trip to the zoo. Zoos grant the general public a convenient manner in which to see and learn about animals - an effective combination, since most people learn most effectively if they experience what they're learning about. In regards to point three, that mostly depends on the time of day you go, doesn't it? In lovely South Florida, at least, animals tend to be most active in the early morning to avoid the heat of the day.

Last weekend I watched The Little Mermaid in celebration of a successful production of the musical adaptation at school. I'd only seen it once before, I think, and that was a while ago. I enjoyed it, especially the music. Today I watched Wreck-It Ralph for the first time. Fantastic movie. I caught feels.

Oh hey this is a thing. I vote Burn.

Happy birthday!

Spot.

I vote Baltarc!

Saw Saving Mr. Banks last night; caught feels. I've never seen Mary Poppins, so I'm not sure how much that detracted from the experience, but I enjoyed the film nonetheless.

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. Weird book. Worth a read, though, given that it's only about eighty pages long. Now I'm working on the second Divergent book which I don't really feel deserves a title of its own, haha. I'm about a third of the way through and it's only thanks to reasons that I'm still reading it. Not that it's bad, per se, but it's just not ... eh. I'm not really sure how to describe it - it seems almost like it's trying too hard to be a gripping story, which is resulting in unconvincing characterization and unnecessary details that just detract from what's important. Take, for instance, this quote from chapter 10: who cares I think the biggest fault of this book - and, to a certain extent, of its predecessor - is that it's written in first-person present tense in what appears to be an attempt to make the plot and the characters (especially the protagonist) more engaging. Lots of people - myself included - have compared this series to The Hunger Games. Regardless of how appropriate such a comparison is, I feel that it's safe to say that - despite the series' faults - with Hunger Games Suzanne Collins demonstrated a far better command of this technique than did Veronica Roth with Divergent.

Saw Twelve Years a Slave. It was quite intense, and certain parts were difficult to watch. It's sobering to think that such events as those depicted in the movie not only once took place in the United States but are also still taking place today elsewhere in the world. That said, I felt that several scenes dragged on and/or seemed out of place. For instance, the scene where Solomon is nearly hanged and stands there gasping for air - that must have been around five minutes of screen time with nothing happening. Both his suffering and the apathy of those around him could easily have been conveyed in half that time. I also don't quite understand why the movie began the way it did, with a sort of flash-forward to a scene that doesn't occur until about two-thirds of the way into the film. Maybe I'm missing something in that particular scene's significance...? Then I watched Frozen again. It's still great, but I didn't really notice before how many plot holes there are. Like Also, as has been mentioned by numerous others both on and off this site, the distribution of songs was extremely unbalanced. For about the first half of the movie we get one song after the other and then suddenly there's none. But for all my ranting, it's still a fantastic film.

This is what I get for skimming. Water, in that case.

Spot 8. Plantlife.