Search Results for: portal

I Finished Portal

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Yes, I finally finished Portal.  I know, y’all are relieved.  But this is a big deal, guys, as I have never done the video game thing before and no, Gameboy doesn’t count.  I promise after this I will get on with my life but first, an explosion of Portal stuff and memes and quotes and stuff.  Spoiler alert, of course:

“Due to mandatory scheduled maintenance, the next test is currently unavailable. It has been replaced with a live-fire course designed for military androids. The Enrichment Center apologizes and wishes you the best of luck. ”

“Good news. I figured what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a morality core they installed after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. So get comfortable while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters. ”

“Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it? Because despite your violent behavior, the only thing you’ve managed to break so far… is my heart. Maybe you could settle for that, and we’ll just call it a day. I guess we both know that isn’t going to happen.”

“While it has been a faithful companion, your Companion Cube cannot accompany you through the rest of the test. If it could talk – and the Enrichment Center takes this opportunity to remind you that it cannot – it would tell you to go on without it, because it would rather die in a fire than become a burden to you.”

(Can I just make a note here that incinerating my Companion Cube was emotionally difficult for me?  Like, I felt legitimate sadness, and this is extremely strange.  However, i guess it is demonstrative of the fact that the game works y’all).

“There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend, the Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn’t come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn’t come, either, because you don’t have any other friends because of how unlikable you are. It says so right here in your personnel file: “Unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikable loner, whose passing shall not be mourned. Shall NOT be mourned.” That’s exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted, so that’s funny, too.”

Oh hey and remember how I was all: WHERE IS MY CAKE.  WHY IS IT A LIE?

Well guess what guys?  CAKE HAPPENED.

CAKE HAPPENED…and so did this song:

Listen to this song y’all!  So creepy, and yet so happy!  Evidently Jonathan Coulton wrote it.  I wish I’d known about him before Dragon*Con, as he is part of a big thing called w00tstock and it sounds super fun but I’ve said it before and I will say it again: you cannot do everything at Dragon*Con.  Hopefully he will come to Dragon*Con in the future.  In the meantime, I will research his music.  And also listen to this song a lot.

Oh here are the song lyrics.  They are really worthwhile, I mean it:

“This was a triumph! I’m making a note here: Huge Success. It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction. Aperture Science – we do what we must because we can. For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead. But there’s no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake. And the science gets done. And you make a neat gun. For the people who are still alive. I’m not even angry. I’m being most sincere right now. Even though you broke my heart and killed me. And tore me to pieces. And threw every piece into a fire. As they burned, it hurt because I was so happy for you. Now these points of data make a beautiful line. And we’re out of beta; we’re releasing on time. So I’m GLaD I got burned. Think of all the things we learned. For the people who are still alive. Go ahead and leave me. I think I prefer to stay inside. Maybe you’ll find someone else to help you. Maybe Black Mesa. That was a joke – Ha Ha! Fat Chance! Anyway, this cake is great. It’s so delicious and moist. Look at me still talking when there’s science to do. When I look out there, it makes me GLaD I’m not you. I’ve experiments to run. There is research to be done. On the people who are still alive. And, believe me, I’m still alive! I’m doing science and I’m still alive! I feel FANTASTIC and I’m still alive! While you’re dying, I’ll be still alive! And when you’re dead, I will be still alive! Still Alive! Still Alive… ”

This cake is great.  It’s so delicious and moist.

Excellent Quotes from Portal

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This is why I do not play video games: they take me away from y’all and suck up all my waking attention and then next thing I know I am needing to play, just needing to play truly, so I can get to the next part of the story.  Those alternative storytelling people were not lying; video games really are the next and newest and most fun form of narrative.  The story that is being told in Portal is so simple and yet so compelling and I am loving it.

This is partly because I have now officially gone off the grid in the game.  I don’t want to give away any real spoilers but let us just say that it is exactly what it sounds like.

Luckily, the game is providing me with some really choice quotes to keep me giggling like a psycho as I attempt to solve the awesome puzzle.  Oh, also, the cake is still a lie.  Dammit.

Mild spoilers ahead with these quotes:

“Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the conclusion of the test. ”

“Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death. ”

“Remember, the Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is the perfect time to have her tested.”

“Did you know you can donate one or all of your vital organs to the Aperture Science Self Esteem Fund for Girls? It’s true! ”

And my personal favorite, at least up to this point:  “Remember when the platform was sliding into the fire pit and I said ‘Goodbye’ and you were like ‘No way!’ And then I was all ‘We pretended we were going to murder you?’ That was great!”

Forcing myself to go to bed now, the game will be waiting for me tomorrow.  I hope.

Dragon*Con 2012 Recap: Sunday Part 2

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Time to finish this Dragon*Con recap so I can write about other things!  Like weddings!  And Vegas!

So last post ended with me toddling away from the Game of Thrones photo shoot.  I wandered back to the hotel room to shower and change into my comfortable outfit, aka the Companion Cube dress.

We went downstairs to the Sheraton Cafe and we ran into a Chell (yay), and then we got in line for Miss Star Trek Universe.  Because Star Trek themed beauty pageants are the BEST.

So that’s Kim Cardasian.  Other contestants included a Klingon who sung an aria from La Boheme (in Klingon duh), two Vulcans, and a hologram.  There was also a Trill who was suffering from a symbiont mis-match, and she sang a medley to the symbiont, and then the symbiont was a puppet.  It was so amazing.

One of the Vulcans won, and it was so glorious because the woman 100% broke character and displayed the largest, most earnest and beautiful smile ever.  She clearly hadn’t expected to win (she was a little older and much more, well, clothed than some of the other contestants), and the joy she evidenced at winning was just so lovely.  This is why Dragon*Con exists.

Nichelle Nichols (aka Uhura from the original series) was one of the judges.

And then we walked around some and we saw this great Cat Bus from My Neighbor Totoro. 

And some Captain Americas.

And then I found Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad.

 

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Dragon*Con 2012 Recap: Saturday

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Guys!  I’m so sorry it is taking me forever to get these recaps done.  Here is what I have done since Dragon*Con:

—Bridal shower in Charlotte (the actual wedding is this upcoming weekend).

—CENTERFEST and all the insanity at work that it necessitated.

—Rosh Hashana (which involved traveling to be with my family…Yom Kippur is this week but I’m not traveling for it).

–A wedding in Boston.

So it has been pretty intense and busy in the life of Lindsay this September, as you can imagine, and it hasn’t left me much time for involved blogging, I apologize!

And these have been my Saturdays since Dragon*Con:

–Bridal shower in Charlotte (so Southern!)

—CENTERFEST.

–Wedding in Boston (I’ll post about that sometime soon, likely in October).

Pretty different from a Saturday at Dragon*Con, am I right?

So above are a few shots from the Game of Thrones shoot that occurred right after the Dragon*Con parade.  I marched in the parade last year, but I decided to sit out this year because heat, early, costumes, heat, etc.  Not a decision I regret, although marching in the parade is fun and I suggest everyone do it at least once during their Dragon*Con lifetime, because it is a worthwhile experience.  Still.  Hot.

Anyways, I missed most of the photo shoot, but I got a few shots, and it allowed me to get into my Melisandre costume for the first time:

For the night is dark and full of me!!!  I LOVED this costume and am so thrilled at how well it turned out!  (Here are a few more photos just in case you wanted to see them!)

These photos were taken at the Hilton around lunch time, so afterward Jon and I navigated to the Peachtree Food Court for lunch.  Or, we tried to.  The crowds, y’all!  The crowds!  The crowds at Saturday around noon in the Hilton and Marriott were unlike anything I had ever seen, and I was just miserable, because every time someone bumped into me, the giant neck piece I was wearing would stab into my neck.  I usually have at least one moment at Dragon*Con when the crowds combined with whatever insane costume I am wearing become too much and I sort of go into uber-bitch mode.  So, just assume I wasn’t a happy camper for awhile…I got over it eventually, I promise, but it did involve taking off the necklace at one point.

Anyways, here are some pictures taken from before and after the insanity.

Buttercup and Wesley in the food court.

Legend of Zelda group.

Two Melisandres and a Sansa!  I love that she did the seated horseback Melisandre.

Beauty and the Beast group.

Jayne-style Disney Princesses, so clever!

Aaaaand zombie Disney princesses!

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Dragon*Con 2012 Recap: Thursday

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Thursday has become the unofficial “first” day at Dragon*Con, with Thursday night having just as many parties, costumes, and shenanigans as the other nights of Con (except for maybe Saturday?).  I try to get down early-ish on Thursday whenever I can, and this year I had to drive down to Hotlanta by myself.  Jon has just started the dental hygiene program at UNC, and it is the type of program where you can’t miss class unless you have Ebola or a death in the family, so there was no way Jon could miss his lecture on Friday.  I wasn’t going to let his scholastic responsibilities interrupt my fun, however, so I piled all our stuff into my Civic on Thursday morning and made the 6.5 hour drive from Chapel Hill to Atlanta myself.  I am happy to report that it was a totally smooth drive: no weather, no traffic (until I hit Atlanta, of course), and I got to the Sheraton by 5:00.  I found a miracle spot on a lower level of the garage, checked in, and was able to move all our stuff into the hotel room in two easy trips.  AMAZING VICTORY.

Even more of an amazing victory?  I only waited six minutes (literally, I timed it.  I got in line at 5:46 and was out by 5:52) to get my Dragon*Con badge.  The badge pick-up system the Dragon*Con folks put into action last year is a huge success.  It felt extremely weird to not wait at all for my badge, almost as though I had skipped a necessary Con step, but this is a good problem to have!

After I grabbed my bag and unpacked (costumes wrinkle, don’t leave them in your suitcase!) I headed to the food court to grab some Yami Yami sushi all by my lonesome.  Then, to kill a bit of time, I decided to donate blood at Dragon*Con’s Robert A. Heinlein blood drive.  I’ve always wanted to donate in the past, but Con business and Thursday night dinner dates with local friends always cramped my available giving time.  Now, however, I had a free-ish Thursday evening, so I decided to do the good deed thing and give some blood.  Somehow they got a pint of blood out of me in four minutes?!?!  I have no idea how that happened, or how I didn’t pass out after, but it happened.  I also made a few fellow blood donor buddies, who I ran into periodically throughout the weekend.  Giving blood brings us all together!

After giving blood I hustled back to my room to shower and change into costume.  Yes, I costumed on Thursday night and yes, that was a first!  I decided to test run my Companion Cube dress from Portal to see what the response would be.  And, guys, the response was fantastic.

I don’t think I have ever received as many costume call-outs, high-fives, photo-stops, or general happy and enthusiastic responses.  People just loved this costume; everyone knew what it was, everyone was happy to see it.  I wore the Companion Cube several times throughout the weekend (it was my go-to comfortable party costume), and people just loved it every time.  It got the best response out of all the costumes I wore during Con, which is ironic because this is the costume that was held together with double-stick tape and a prayer.  Seriously, I just cut out some felt and ribbon and affixed it to a gray dress I already owned with pink tape.  I bought the wig from Cosplay.com, the headband (it had little hearts on it) from Target, and the Companion Cube plush that I stuck on the headband was a key chain I purchased from ThinkGeek.  The tights and shoes I had in my closet, and the pink heart necklace and pink heart earrings I bought for under $10.00 at Claire’s at the mall.  A seriously easy costume, so it amused me that it got such a positive response.

I mostly hung out in the Marriott on Sunday night and I took a lot of pictures!  I ran into a number of Portal costumers, including the cake and Companion Cube heads photographed up top, and a Chell with a portal gun that had been made by her husband.  The four of us also ran into each other at one point, causing an impromptu Portal photo-shoot.

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