When last I posted I'd started going back to the gym. Gym has been replaced by physical therapy sessions for the last three weeks. The ankle joint is feeling largely fine but aches are persisting in my Achilles tendon. Only 38 days from our trip to Disney World now, so I really need to get this cleared up. It's making me quite nervous. Some progress has been made, but not as much as I would have liked. I still have another week of PT, and then it's back into the orthopedists office on 11/5 for what will likely be my final check up with him since the ankle joint itself is pretty much healed up.
The last month has seen a dirth of game purchases. I went a little crazy on Xbox Live Arcade; having added four or five games easily. The biggest surprise for us has been Puzzle Quest. I'd resisted the game on handhelds for quite some time, knowing that it was coming to XBLA in beautiful high definition. Plus, the DS game didn't support multicard play so Anna and I would both need a copy, and we only have one PSP. Clearly XBLA was the only choice for a satisfying multiplayer experience, and this assumption has proven correct.
I'd been under the impression that Puzzle Quest was merely a puzzle game with a thin veneer of RPG elements taped over the interface to provide a new dynamic to the proven Bejewelled style puzzle mechanic. Oh how mistaken I was! The RPG elements are far more robust than I would have expected. You move your character from location to location over a simple Final Fantasy Tactics-styled map. Along the way you fight orcs, trolls, undead, and various mythical beasts. You recruit companions to aid in your fight, capture enemies, and lay siege to neighboring cities. You must invest in the construction of your private citadel by building a dungeon to keep prisoners, a mage tower to research spells, a forge to fashion new items, and much more. And everything is accomplished by completion of puzzles and in competition with NPCs. Puzzle Quest is so much more robust than I could have hoped, and it's proven a real surprise hit with the both of us.
Last Friday I picked up WarTech: Senko no Ronde for 360. It's a fairly niche Japanese title that combines shmup with 1-0n-1 fighter. I was shocked when Ubisoft brought it here. Even MORE shocked that they debuted it at full retail. These niche Japanese games have typically been brought over at a modest $40. I wasn't having it for $60, especially with the busted americanized cover art and horrible new moniker of WarTech (the original title was simply Senko no Ronde, at least they had the decency to leave it as a subtitle). It was reduced to $30 eventually, but I still couldn't part with the cash. Last week saw EB/Gamestop reduce the game to $10, so it became a no brainer.That's about all I can stomach wrestling with blogger's poor interface. More updates on the last month tomorrow, perhaps.
3 comments:
Personally, I think blogger's interface is really nice. Given that this isn't the first time you've complained about it... I would love to hear what you don't like about it.
I'm fairly certain that you aren't the only one out there that feels the way you do. There are 3rd party tools out there you can use instead of blogger's built in editor.
I'll start off by saying my problems could very well be my own; I wouldn't be surprised to find out the real problem is my own ignorance of the software. But, since there have been many issues I've had with the interface, I'll go with just the two or three I was dealing with yesterday.
Probably the biggest frustration I've experienced is the incredibly small editing window. Where this really get annoying is the insertion of graphics. Especially since they always insert at the beginning of an entry, and then you have to move them to where you want them. For small entries this isn't a problem but for longer posts it becomes a chore. Go to the top, drag it down a bit, scroll a bit more down, drag a bit more... etc etc etc.
It would also be nice if the preview function was not a generic preview, but actually showed how the post would look on your blog. After all the insertion madness yesterday I finally got the images in and where I wanted them, only to actually publish the entry and see that the preview function was lying to me. The graphics were too large to be aligned left and right, respectively inline with the text, as the resulting margin was enough for about three letters. Of course, since blogger doesn't allow you to change alignment of images after they've been inserted, I had to delete them, reinsert, and go through all of the positioning BS all over again.
I realize there are third party tools to improve how the user interfaces with Blogger, but my level of commitment to the blog hasn't motivated me to seek them out at this point. On the other hand, with a better interface I might end up posting a lot more...
Well, I decided to start a blog too. I have too many thoughts rolling around in my head. It's just a matter of getting them out into a readable form.
Anyway, I've run into the image insertion problem too. Since I normally code HTML all by hand, my first instinct is to switch to Edit HTML mode and do my thing. And my thing got it done. (We're back to that readable form bit I just mentioned.)
Perhaps after inserting an image, you can cut and paste the text before the image, instead of trying to move the image down.
I haven't played enough with Blogger to really get frustrated yet. I'm happy it includes an Edit HTML feature. It reminds me of the "Show Codes" feature in WordPerfect that was a godsend.
Oh hey, Alan. It's been a while.
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