PixlBit

It's been too bloody cold for too long here in Maine (and most of the rest of the USA and Canada), and the only time I've left the house in the last week has been to go to work. It's been so cold the dog's been switching which hind leg he stands on mid-pee. Today, however, a heat wave erupted and it got up into the mid-twenties. So I drove to Portland, picked up Jason, and we took Beau to the beach. And after the beach, we hit the mini mall with one of the book stores we got gift cards for, and it also has a Goodwill, and down the street is a Bull Moose Music.

Goodwill was our first stop, as I had a bag of donations to drop off. While we were in there, we also checked out the limited selection of movies and games. Jason found a PS3 version of Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 for me, and I also found a PS3 Lego Indiana Jones. Amongst the DVDs was a copy of Ladyhawke, a movie that I absolutely love, in spite of the crappy, overly-loud soundtrack. Total cost after doing the "rounding up for the diabled and veterans" thing: $8.00.

Nonesuch Books had a copy of Naturally Curious Day by Day, a natural history book by Mary Holland, who writes an amazing blog about northern New England natural history. Her other book has been one of my go-to books whenever I'm working on developing a new nature program or learning more about all the neat stuff I see on my walks in the woods. After using my $25 gift certificate and my rewards coupon, I spent a grand total of $3.44.

Bull Moose Music is heaven on earth. It really is. Music, movies, games, and books all under one roof. Plus a lot of silly fun things like Funko Pop figures, Pulp Fiction action figures, Star Trek pins, and so much more. They buy and sell used retro games, too, and the games are very reasonably priced. Everything from Atari cartridges to the newest console generation. And not just crappy sports games, either. After using a $35 gift card and my rewards points, I walked out with Horizon: Zero Dawn and a Blu-ray copy of Thor: The Dark World with an out-of-pocket outlay of $1.88.

If you've been keeping track, I spent a total of $13.32 out of pocket for all this fabulous loot.

I've been loving the PSN holiday sales. Well, mostly loving. I bought RiME and Dear Esther over the weekend from the current sale.

RiME I've been having fun with. Lots of puzzles, but none too hard to frustrate me too badly and a cute little fox to show you where to go next. It's pretty, too, not quite as pretty as Yonder, but still pretty. I'm a little over a quarter in, I think,

Dear Esther, not so much. Watching paint dry is more exciting than "playing" Dear Esther. It was pretty, it had nice music, and that was about all it had going for it. I think many games are trying too hard to be artistic and failing miserably on the fun or entertaining end of things. I like games like Firewatch, Journey, and What Remains of Edith Finch. Exploration is encouraged and rewarded, or the story is so good that you don't mind the fact that there's not much in the way of game play. Dear Esther was a slog - movement speed was plodding at best, you could interact with nothing, and the story was so vague that I would be hard pressed to tell you what the hell it was about.

And now I'm going to pop a frozen pizza in the oven and Horizon Zero Dawn into the PS4.