Loren the Amazon Princess, Pot Roast, and Snow Days
With the holidays concluded, too many Thanksgiving, Christmas, and reunion dinners to count, endless nights with family and friends, and the bulk of the busy season behind us in the businesses, we spent today in our pajamas as the snow fell outside, cooking a pot roast and working on some projects we wanted to finish. (Technically, we still have one Christmas celebration left, which was postponed until later this week.)
I did a terrible job keeping up on the blog during this time – there were new restaurants I meant to post, new books I finished reading, and new products I discovered. That’s how it worked out for whatever reason, but I still have all of it saved so maybe I’ll work them in over the next few months, albeit a bit anachronistically.
At the moment, I’m sitting in the downstairs living room, wrapped in a blanket, having my after-dinner coffee. I’m warm, full, and happy right now. It has been one of the best days I can remember in a long time, hanging out with the spouse, enjoying being; no real agenda. The only thing that could make it better would be if the BBC released the Sherlock premier over here in the United States now that it’s aired in England. I hate how things are so delayed between the two countries. It makes no sense.
We had onion, carrot, and potato pot roast with brown gravy / au jus made from the drippings … it smelled wonderful all day, cooking for eight hours as the snow fell outside. This gave me a chance to use the slow cooker I got from my in-laws for Christmas, which I can tell will become my newest recipe obsession.
A couple of hours ago, I managed to beat my newest video game as I waited for the server farm up in Michigan to replicate a new install of Magento that I want to play around with this weekend. It was an old-school turn-based RPG game I found recently called Loren the Amazon Princess from Winter Wolves Studio.
The developer put it on sale over the weekend and since it was an indie studio, I wanted to support them. It was really fun. I’ll definitely be purchasing any sequels they create. It has wizards and evil minions, mages and warriors. The expansion pack I bought also came with the official soundtrack, which I’m listening as I sit here and type. It’s going to be perfect for my endless-loop days when I have a certain track on in the background as I focus on reading through reports or plotting our strategy.
I remember back in the late 1980’s when everything used this animation style. It made me feel like a kid, again. I love it. Loren is an Amazon Princes who enslaves men, strips them of citizenship, and makes them serve these enormous Amazonian women. That seems a little … uh … suggestive.
There are old men in wizard hats and forest elders with powerful healing magic.
There’s a lovable human-elf hybrid named Draco. He has severe self-esteem issues due to being an outcast his entire life. He’s also comically immune to the lure of an evil Succubus that enslaves everyone else due to his strict preference from the more masculine gender.
There is a Dwarf prince who is fond of wearing what appears to be S&M gear (if … if that’s your thing. I’m not judging.) This apparently fails to phase any of the other characters in the game, who never remark about the oddity of so many straps and rings. His little girlfriend thief dwarf seems to be into it, so they’ve got that going for them.
There are very well dressed vampires with an eye for expensive real estate and jewels … Seriously, guy just wants to get his wife a diamond and we go and kill him for it. Though I didn’t have to do that, I guess … I could have just brought him the diamond. I should replay. Next time, they live.
There’s an elf hybrid who never learned a lesson from Sunday school: Don’t make deals with the undead. It doesn’t end well for you.
There’s a hulking gladiator who can serve as your tank, protecting the powerful mages.
This girl just wants to be left alone, in the middle of her hut in the swamp, but folks just keep trying to kill her. Maybe if she didn’t practice the dark arts, this wouldn’t be a problem … she’s too addicted to the power to stop, though.
Battling in Loren the Amazon Princess is turn-based like the old school RPGs I loved as a kid!
This game makes me want to find more like it. I loved those old choose-your-own adventure books and DOS / Apple II programs. I’m sure there is a whole genre out there like it, but I’m not familiar enough with it to know what is good or bad. Maybe I’ll do some research on Saturday if I have a chance. I like that they don’t baby you like modern video games. At one point, I made a wrong choice and my character just died. Gone. I had to load a save file. There was no warning; no “are you sure you want to do this?”. I made my choice and the consequences were dire.
I’m thinking that Magento install is probably done right around now. I changed my local hosts file so I can access it from the house, and would like to toy around with the administrative panel to see if it’s a superior platform to some of the ones we’re using at the moment.
Reader Comments (11)
Comments are presented chronologically, with replies indented beneath the comments to which they respond.
Gilvus
January 2, 2014
Dear Diary:
Today I learned that six-pack abs and giant boobs can be used as armor.
Joshua Kennon
January 3, 2014
Replying to Gilvus
Think of all the noted feminists during the 1960's and 1970's who thought they were going to end female objectification when, it turns out, society just decided it would begin objectifying everyone!
Gilvus
January 3, 2014
Replying to Joshua Kennon
I like the red diamond held in place by his chest hair.
Joshua Kennon
January 10, 2014
Replying to Gilvus
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon strikes again!!!
Out of all the mental models, this one being a cognitive bias that falls under the category of "frequency illusion", it's the one that surprises me every time it happens, even though I know why it happens, how it happens, and how likely it is you will experience it once you've discussed a niche topic.
I'm taking a break before late lunch / early dinner (weird schedule today) and browsing Reddit. At this very moment, on the front page of /r/funny is a post about this exact topic with this picture (see attachment).
I wonder if you could cause a Baader-Meinhof response in people by purposely influencing topics of conversation or advertisements around them. That would be an interesting study for compliance psychology or the military. This makes me want to write about several of the frequency illusion biases under the mental model category, but I wanted to work on my Magento skills or play try Train Simulator on Steam to see if I can actually improve. Now I don't know what to do ...
Joshua Kennon
January 10, 2014
Replying to Gilvus
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon strikes again!!!
Out of all the mental models, this one being a cognitive bias that falls under the category of "frequency illusion", it's the one that surprises me every time it happens, even though I know why it happens, how it happens, and how likely it is you will experience it once you've discussed a niche topic.
I'm taking a break before late lunch / early dinner (weird schedule today) and browsing Reddit. At this very moment, on the front page of /r/funny is a post about this exact topic with this picture (see attachment).
I wonder if you could cause a Baader-Meinhof response in people by purposely influencing topics of conversation or advertisements around them. That would be an interesting study for compliance psychology or the military. This makes me want to write about several of the frequency illusion biases under the mental model category, but I wanted to work on my Magento skills or play try Train Simulator on Steam to see if I can actually improve. Now I don't know what to do ...
Edit: Twice within 15 minutes! One of the other highest rated posts is something like, "If Male Superheroes Were Forced to Pose Like Female Superheroes".
Gilvus
January 15, 2014
Replying to Joshua Kennon
Great. Now I'm fixated on Capt. America's bubble butt.
I came here to learn about economics, not question my sexual orientation ಠ_ಠ
Joshua Kennon
January 10, 2014
Replying to Gilvus
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon strikes again!!!
Out of all the mental models, this one being a cognitive bias that falls under the category of "frequency illusion", it's the one that surprises me every time it happens, even though I know why it happens, how it happens, and how likely it is you will experience it once you've discussed a niche topic.
I'm taking a break before dinner and browsing Reddit. At this very moment, on the front page of /r/funny is a post about this exact topic with this picture (see attachment).
Chris
January 3, 2014
Check out Heavy Rain if you haven't yet. Great for suspense!
Joshua Kennon
January 3, 2014
Replying to Chris
So, I got all excited about the idea of a new game and started telling Aaron about it. He laughs at me and gives me a look like, "...really?", goes over, and gets it out of the media cabinet. "I told you about it and even read the back of the case to you."
Apparently it was one of those umpteen-titles I picked up based on the high reviews but forgot I owned. It's still in its sealed packaging, so this is like finding a Christmas present hidden under the tree that was overlooked.
I might try and start it tonight if I can get some things done first. Thanks for the suggestion!
Travis S.
January 3, 2014
For Sherlock and other UK shows, try Tunnelbear which routes you through a UK proxy server. Then to to www.bbc.co.uk and you'll be able to watch Sherlock and other shows.
Joshua Kennon
January 7, 2014
Replying to Travis S.
THANK YOU! I’ve been meaning to write you back for a few days. I bought a subscription that night and am watching the second episode of Sherlock at home now in between dinner and going back to work. This is a great tool!