‘Twas The Night Before..

Not a gadget was running, not even a mouse. In hope that minutiae would be widely shared. Their daydreams. Night reveries were inflaming. While visions of Galaxies danced in their heads. But latest and greatest does not disappoint. From touchscreens and 4G and pixel perfection. When cries in the night I could hear from afar. And I saw in the distance four tiny white arcs. Steering skydiving parachutes straight for my glen. A Christmas Eve visit from old Google Claus! Or the spirit of Christmas, by my intuition. It foretells the future in unholy spec. Once clad in these goggles from Google what for. They give and they get and they tweet and they map. The single device that no one’s yet got. Think nothing of texting and blogging and linking. Will soon seem like faxes or floppy diskettes. I raced for the chimney. My teeth were a-chatter. From the rooftop above me came clatter and patter. A swooshing sound followed by boots on the hearth. And I could see right away that it looked like a Mac! His eyes twinkled then, and he managed a snort. The sign of a cross Garth did make with his fingers. The room spun around me; with reason I grappled. The earth fell away; my heart dropped a mile. Yet through my distress I gave a wan smile.

ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. It drops you headfirst into its bizarre world, where the bombastic war machinery of Heaven and Hell collide, your only real task being the gleeful destruction of it all. Bayonetta 2 is exactly the game I needed in 2014. While major developers and publishers seem to cram more and more into every project – giant maps, hundreds of objectives, skill trees, systems, sub-systems, meta games, companion apps – Bayonetta 2 on the Wii U is an eye-opening, high-heeled kick to the teeth. The titular witch, Bayonetta, is as perfectly posh as ever and just as deadly, with a healthy supply of imaginative weaponry to dispose of holy angels and vile demons alike. In Bayonetta 2, developer Platinum Games has taken the “character action” formula – think: Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry – and polished it to an absurd shine.

Furthermore, count me firmly in the camp of people who don’t see the raid-wide crit buff of Rampage as being terribly worthwhile when it will always be inferior to LotP. Effectively, it’s a nice crit boost for soloing and leveling, and it will be nice if your raid doesn’t have a feral anywhere in it, and that’s it. Since Rampage has to be activated by a warrior deliveing a critical hit while LotP is always up, it’s effectively just a poor man’s copycat of the druid ability. It’s a thing of beauty. But on the other hand, man, I love 5% crit when I’m soloing. So I’m torn here. I’ve covered Bloodsurge in depth. I really like it, not everyone agrees. Heroic Fury is solid, if unremarkable and not terribly innovative in how it plays, Caries Removal begging comparisons to the gone Heroic Leap. Unending Fury is another example of a solid ability that adds nothing in terms of feel to the class.

Tracy Caldwell Dyson (who was a crew member in 2010) told Huffington Post that while she made it work somehow, the toilet wasn’t made with women in mind, as it was designed by the Russian space agency composed mostly of men. As for urine, well, Hadfield says it goes straight into the water recycler, where crew members get water to drink and to rehydrate their food. The crew gets different types of meals, from main course to desserts — some are packaged and ready to be eaten, while others (say, powdered spinach or ice cream) need rehydration to be edible. Crew members need to throw these disposable packages away and prevent them and any food crumbs from getting into the equipment. Yup. Speaking of food! WHAT ABOUT FOOD, ENTERTAINMENT AND INTERNET CONNECTION? Food aboard the ISS is typically packaged in pouches for easy consumption. Also, some commanders ban particularly pungent (gumbo) or crumbly (coffeecake?) food onboard.