I Feel Dirty

Due to recent changes with MoviePass (see previous post), I was trying to find a movie I could see with my friend since I couldn’t go see any of the ones I’ve seen recently.  Avengers would be ideal, but good luck getting a reserved seat that wasn’t front row right before show time.  So we settled on seeing ‘I Feel Pretty’ from Amy Schumer.  Expectations were low.  The fact that we could get good seats, noone was there, and it would just be relaxing time watching what is probalby at best a Netflix movie was just all ways to excuse seeing the movie.

It was much better than I’ve heard and it made me laugh out loud.  I’m not a fan of Amy Schumer at all, but this was a decent comedy.  It made me laugh more than Super Troopers 2 did.  Which is painful to say because I really wanted to like ST2.

MoviePassed

As a follow-up to the Moviepass post, they recently made a number of changes to their service that have people upset and confused.  Some affect current members like myself and others new members.  Let’s start with the new members.

The standard $10 for unlimited movies offer is gone (at least for now) and replaced with an offer that gives you 4 movies a month instead.  That’s one a week and still a good deal, but not as good a deal.  They give you some crappy trial for some other service with it, but I honestly don’t know how that is a ‘benefit’.

Okay, that out of the way, let’s talk about the changes that affect old and new customers.  You can no longer go see any movie you want to once a day (or once a week depending on your plan) but instead only can see movies you haven’t already seen with the service.  In other words, no repeat viewings.  This severely limits your ability to hit the one a day mark and really hampers my plans.  I figured as long as I could go see a movie later with a friend, it wouldn’t matter if I saw it first on a different date that I had some time to kill.  Quite annoying.

As well, some of us now have to take a photo of our ticket when we use the service and upload it.

It all boils down to two things.  One, people are using it more than they want us to.  Two, some people are ruining it for others by sharing their account and using it to scam services.  For example, some people would get tickets and not go just to earn rewards for the movie chain since the movie still counted since it was ‘paid’ for.  So now, we get less and have to do more to reap the benefits.

It’s still a good deal, just a lot less appealing.

Gravity

The new year, well under way and I finally am getting back to updating this site. What finally pushed me past the melancholy bliss of avoidance?  Finally getting the Gravity blanket I backed on Kickstarter last year.

For those unfamiliar, the Gravity blanket is a weighted blanket, designed to make you feel more secure and comfortable and sleep easier and better.  You pick one that is roughly 20% of your weight (because science) and that feeling of the blanket slowly choking the life out of you is even more beautiful than the feeling of your overweight cat lying on your chest waiting to suck your breath and life away when you fall asleep.

Does it live up to the hype?  Hard to say, I’ve only had it one day.  Plus, delays in shipping, lackluster updates, and a change in size of the blanket have left me a bit disappointed even before it came so I have to balance that against the actual feelings it produces.

For the one night I slept with it, I liked the general feeling of it, but it wasn’t that different than say if you had 3-4 blankets on you.  It probably didn’t help that I’m fighting off the remains of a 24 hour bug so I was all chilly and sweaty at same time.  I’ll have to revisit it in a few days time, after I allow the disappointment to dissipate and let the weight of the blanket slowly smother me into submission.

Re-runs

Last night I woke up a few times.  During the first sleep period I had what I’d consider a ‘re-run’ of a dream.  Basically just a dream I had a few years ago, replayed for who knows what reason.  It seems kind of odd to have such a specific dream over again, given it was mostly a dialogue heavy emotional dream.  Luckily I had a weird new one later in the night, but overall, it makes me wonder what my brain must be storing up and trying to process at night. I wonder if others go through re-runs like that. I mean I get if you had a re-run of a generic scenario like you are running from a creepy clown or something but to have a dream where you are discussing something with someone seems a bit strange to revisit after the fact.

Spurts

I’ve been posting to Twitter or Facebook in spurts recently and neglecting this spot.  At some points I feel like posting here or other places but ultimately lethargy prevents me from doing it.

I really need to start enforcing some strict OCD like scheduling and habits to reshape my life.  I mean posting habits are one thing, but in general, my lack of motivation can be stifling so I need to start forcing it so it builds steam.  I know OCD is a bad way to phrase it, but honestly the idea of forcing myself to do things needs to be less troublesome than not doing it.  Not doing it is just so easy…

Games with Gold

This month, I actually completed both Xbox One Games with Gold in the month they were released.  For those unfamiliar, as part of paying for the online service, Xbox gives you 2 Xbox One and 2 Xbox 360 games per month. This month, the Xbox One games were Gone Home and The Turing Test, two indie darlings I had never tried or even thought about until they were ‘free’.  Some quick thoughts on both after completing them.

Gone Home.  1000 achievement points. That’s the only redeemable thing about this game.  I have no idea why people lavished it with praise.  It’s a game that feels like a horror game, but isn’t.  It’s not even really a game.  You move around a house, after returning home, and poke around in every nook and cranny of the house and learn about what your family has been up to.  Which is a great premise for horror honestly, but no, it’s just boring predictable nothing.  There is a ‘reveal’ about your sister, but it’s so telegraphed that it’s like ‘this is it?’ It doesn’t even resolve anything or accomplish anything.  Even at free, I’m not sure I got my money worth.

The Turing Test. Man, this game was good.  It’s basically a puzzle room game like Portal. You wander from room to room, solving puzzles that continually ramp up in difficulty, obscurity, and logic.  There is even a story about why this is happening that is pretty interesting based on the titular theory.  Graphically it’s no slouch either.  This is a game I would have felt good paying for, despite a relatively short play time.

Thanks to Xbox for giving me two radically different game play experiences as part of the service I was already paying for.  Wonder what’s coming next month…