OK, so here's what is going on in my life right now. Warning -- whining ahead.
My father (who just turned 78) was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease last year. He's on medication for it and is responding well, but he's turning into one of those creaky, slow-moving old men who can do less and less, and I'm having to do more and more for him.
My mother has some kind of lung problem that's been bugging her since at least November. After a barrage of tests and specialists, the pulmonologist finally determined via CAT scan that she has scars/ nodules/ cysts/ some fucking thing inside her lung, and so she needs a bronchioscopy. That's scheduled for the 22nd (yay, more waiting). She's often out of breath and lacking energy, so she's probably not getting enough oxygen. Because of this, I have to do more for her, and be there for her more often.
Did I mention that when someone in the family gets sick, dad acts like it's a massive fucking inconvenience directed specifically AT HIM and basically acts like a petulant, sulking child? Or that mom is so goddamn stubborn that she'll work until she almost passes out rather than ask for help?
And we also have two young, energetic dogs who are more than mom can handle by herself (and dad can't be bothered to help with) and so I'm constantly having to stop what I'm doing in order to take care of them -- let them in, let them out, play with them, give them attention (which is fine, but they're both NEEDY because, let's face it, this is not an emotionally healthy home and they reflect that), and generally take care of them. And I love them, but I just a certain amount of time per day to be left alone without someone AT me all the time.
And of course there's my inability to live the way I want to live because I'm living with two "all fags burn in hell" arch-conservatives, and that's because I am financially unable to take care of myself. The great irony here is that even if I *could* take care of my money needs, I'd still feel like I was abandoning my family.
So I'm stressed for a variety of reasons, but mostly they boil down to "I'm trapped by finances and guilt and cannot make a single positive change in my life." Pile on top of THAT the worry about my mom's health, increased duties and responsibilities, sexual loneliness and frustration, the knowledge that for as long as I'm stuck here I'm never going to be an attractive choice for a mate, and it all turns into a gigantic pile of I AM OVERWHELMED AND CANNOT HANDLE IT RIGHT NOW. I just want to lock myself in my room, turn off the lights, and cry, because -- joy! -- my monthly depression happened a week earlier than expected, and caught me unaware. Because it ambushed me, I wasn't prepared to handle it, and so it hit me worse than usual.
Now, before I go, and before you respond, you need to know that:
It's not your job to solve my problems for me.
I know the world doesn't owe me a damn thing, and I accept this.
I am venting because it releases emotional pressure, not because I am an attention whore or am trolling for compliments.
That said, if anyone wants to pray for me, I would be pathetically grateful. I need all the emotional and spiritual support I can get.
My latest SHTFriday post, this one about Zones of Assessment and Every Day Carry, can be found over at Blue Collar Prepping. Go read and leave a comment!
Yeah, so I'm a few weeks late for a proper "Best of 2013" entry, and not all of these were actually released in 2013, but I played (most of them) in 2013, and these were some of the more notable entries of the year(ish). I've been told that time is an illusion, End Of The Year Best Of lists doubly so, and nowhere else does this hold true than in dealing with someone as grossly irresponsible with their time as I am.
I'm a proper gamez jurnalist, guys. Really.
The What GTA Should Have Been award: Sleeping Dogs
I have fond memories of playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City and San Andreas. These were games that had wildly different subject matters (80s excess vs 90s gangsta culture), but concentrated on making an immersive world that never took itself too seriously and were never afraid to go over-the-top bonkers to entertain. GTA IV became more and more painfully dull and grim the more I played it, to the point that I never finished it. Sleeping Dogs was the first "serious" Sandbox Crime game (Saints Row doesn't count) that I felt compelled to see through since my negative experience with GTA IV.
Hong Kong was such a beautifully fleshed-out city, that was graphically more impressive than GTA's Liberty City, and Dogs was one of a string of Square-Enix titles (like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Hitman: Absolution) that were lovingly ported to the PC, going so far even to include a free HD texture pack. The combat also benefits from being more melee-focused than firearms. I think the only complaint that I can make is that some of the DLC maxes out certain stats and dumps money on you, thus breaking the otherwise well-done progression system.
The Maximum Bro-Mode award: Lego Batman 2 Honorable Mention: Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Before I left the world I knew behind and moved to the mountainous deserts of New Mexico, I spent a week with a dear friend of mine, playing Lego Batman 2 to 100% completion, and nearly completing the first one afterwards. The Lego games are the pinnacle of couch co-op. Teamwork, frustration, and moments of sheer hilarity in a bonding experience for gamers of any kind.
33 hours in less than a week.
When my dear friend came to visit me recently, we played through the story campaign of Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and, while it wasn't *quite* as entertaining an experience as Lego Batman 2, it was still worth the time we put into it, and I felt that bond again, especially every time he blew my Jean Grey into pieces with his Repulsor Rays and said "I'M HELPING!"
The I Like This Game Way More Than I Should award: Resident Evil 6 Honorable Mention: The Bureau:X-Com Declassified
Resident Evil 4 was, while silly at times, a masterwork in horror gaming. Resident Evil 5 was an absolute mess. I don't like Chris Redfield. The controls felt half-assed, like they wanted to make something more action-oriented, but were afraid to break the mold. The inventory system was terrible. The story made even less sense it ever had. Resident Evil 6 was terribly received by both the hardcore fans and critics alike, but I rolled the dice on a Steam sale and picked it up for a third of its retail price. I finished the entire game, all 4 campaigns, on normal, then proceeded to play them again on Hard. Then I played it with a friend. I clocked up nearly a hundred hours on a game that was a critical flop. That said, the game is gorgeous looking, the story makes sense (possibly moreso than 4's), and the final step towards action-oriented controls benefits the series greatly, at least in my opinion.
An entire 6 hour campaign being super-cool super-spy Ada Wong? Yes, please.
X-Com Declassified is a case of internet fury gone mad. There were two games in the works, one of them quite faithful to the old tactical strategy games, and the other a third-person shooter. Guess which one the internet was raging against. What really came to surprise me about this one was that it was essentially Cold-War era Mass Effect, with a hostile alien first contact. Having played through the game in the first week since I purchased it on sale, I can only complain that it was frustratingly shorter than I found myself hoping it would be.
The Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey award: Bioshock Infinite
As a game, Bioshock Infinite is dull as dishwater. The shooting is adequate. The gameplay is adequate. The enemies are.. well.. there. This is not a game that hinges on its gameplay, by any means. The things that it excels at are worldbuilding and storytelling, and the dissonance caused by a (sometimes too) shiny and clean world covered in both socio-political and physical human gore. Creating a bond between the player and a character that was so well-crafted that you genuinely cared about them like another human being by the end. And by weaving together an ending that, by all rights, should not even work, let alone justify and explain such a stultifying title as "Infinite." I think the only thing that prepared me for that ending was a lifetime of watching, reading, and listening to Doctor Who.
My heart broke an Irrational number of times during this game.
The First Game In Years to achieve 100% award: Tomb Raider Honorable Mention: Assassins Creed Liberation HD
Sometimes, I play a game just once through and enjoy the story. Sometimes, if I really liked a game's story or gameplay, I'll play it through twice. If I find a game really outstanding, I'll play the story twice, and find a lot of the collectible items and hidden sidequests. The recent Tomb Raider, which I reviewed for another site, was quite a surprise for me. I think, before this game, the last time I'd gotten a 100% savegame was when playing GTA Vice City. When I get this new video card from my tax returns, I'll play it again, this time on properly high settings. Maybe even turn on Lara's special hair settings. The best part of this? I've never completed a Tomb Raider game before, let alone come near 100%. I usually get frustrated a few hours in and give up when I've spent 30 minutes repeating the same jump only to see Lara ragdoll to her death. Channeling everything between The Descent to the Uncharted series, this is how I feel Lara Croft should always have been portrayed.
The things this woman went through.. I felt tired just playing the game.
Assassins Creed, as a series, holds a special place in my heart. When I heard there was one released exclusively on the PS Vita, I was tempted to buy one for that game alone. An interminable wait later, Ubisoft delivers by releasing a polished version for PC. It's got its flaws, but it's definitely a worthy addition to the family, if a much smaller addition. 100% clocked at right about 20 hours. It'd take me that long just to finish the story in Assassins Creed II.
The This Is Terrible but So Much Fun to Laugh At award: Aliens: Colonial Marines
This was such a serious train wreck of a game. Years in development, more studios than I can count, a hugely popular license, accusations of re-directed funds (if not outright embezzlement), and legions of angry Alien fans. It is literally impossible to be objective about this game, so I'm not even going to try. This is a bad game. A very bad game. If it were released 4 years ago, it would have merely been a mediocre game. Its only real saving grace is that it's not a boring game, and that it has a cooperative campaign mode. I've played the game several times through with friends, and we've been in hysterics from everything from terrible clipping issues, blurred textures, the physics engine going mad, the game randomly deciding to teleport players a foot or two from their current location, and the infamous constipated Xenomorphs.
Last year, I invited Salem McGourley to be a guest writer on this blog. Based on the spirited discussions which have cropped up after his posts, I would say that this was an excellent decision on my part: He has proven popular with my readers, brings a nerdy perspective which I lack, and having a day free from "Oh crap, I have to post something" has enabled me to relax and be more creative.
Besides, as I've joked before, I'm trying to start a media empire, and to do that I need minions.
Therefore, it pleases me to introduce Lurking Rhythmically's newest co-blogger, Kaptain Von!
I find the gleam of madness in his eyes to be quite soothing.
Before you distress, let me reassure you that this will not result in a lack of creativity here. Herr Kaptain is going to be posting every Wednesday, which up until this point was a "phone it in" day where I just posted something witty for your alleged amusement. So really, you're trading up, and I will probably still find a way to inflict YouTube videos of questionable humor upon you.
So, a few things about Von:
Despite the name, he is actually British
He enjoys role-playing games, Doctor Who, and wargaming
Von's column is called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Game Store and the idea behind is essentially "Let's take some bit of Wikipedia trivia, a bit of odd news, perhaps a snippet of lyrics from a song barely heard during the day, throw them all into a pot and come up with an idea for an adventure."
Or, less prosaically, the "Stone Soup" approach to RPG seeds.
It should prove very interesting to see how well he gets along here. Consider that both he and Salem are Whovians, I expect a full-on nerd-off between the two of them when Peter Capaldi officially takes the reigns as the 12th Doctor later this year.
Ach, I've prattled too much. Meine Damen und Herren, I present to you... Herr Kapitan Von and his Phantasmagorical Phables!
The footage goes viral within a week, and there’s your hook. Your mages, your investigators, your Delta Green personnel, they pick this up and decide to have a look-see. They arrive to find the web intact, after five days. Rain glances off it, flows away; light barely passes through. The plant matter beneath the surface is dying. There is, as has been said, no radiation content, and after the fourth day, the ground began to turn cracked and grey and brittle beneath the covered acre or so of land.
It’s happened before, in Australia. The official story was that spiders did it, escaping from the floods that were ravaging the country. The truth - available through personal visit, archived (and classified) witness testimony, or careful scouring of the conspiracy blogs - is that the web came first, and the floods later. On a foggy night before the rains came down, the web descended over a vast swathe of Australia. It was impenetrable to water at first; the rainfall was guided to where it would start a flood, and only then did the web begin to break and splinter. Curiously, the ground beneath the webs was near-useless to farmers for the whole of the following year, and the animals that spent too much time in contact with the web have ailed. They have weakened. They sleep too much, and twitch even in waking, as though plagued by nightmares.
A suitcase is delivered to a police station in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and the contents prove most edifying. The goblin-in-the-bottle is indeed incinerated by a traditional healer (a Guardian of the Veil, or a member of the cult of Ulthar), but not before delivering a puzzling message, which finds its way onto the grapevine. “Two strands bind. Two bites drain. We are Hers.” The message is not revealed without contacting the healer (in person, by email after extended paranoid back-and-forth, or via astral projection), but should be buried among an assortment of dead ends culled by the players during their initial research.
Her name is Atlach-Nacha, although some prophets knew Her as Lolth or Ungoliant and hid Her in fantasy for all our sakes. She lairs in the space between the hemispheres of the brain, in the minds of every arachnophobe on God’s clean Earth. Her eternal work is the binding together of worlds in Her web, the devouring of them, the giving over of them to Her children. She wove Earth into her web long ago, but something has changed; some shift in the consciousness of humanity, the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning or the immanentising of the Eschaton or something like that.
The point is, She has noticed us again. This morsel on which She did Her work as the earliest humans were considering coming down from the trees has drawn one of Her myriad eyes. Perhaps She laid a clutch of Her eggs here, dream-spiders growing slowly, fed on a million tiny incidents of terror, and She has come to break their shells and set them free upon the universe. Perhaps the world is becoming something that no longer appeals to Her tastes, and the time has come to take what nourishment she can from it and move on. Perhaps She was merely leaving our meat to hang and mature, poisoned and polluted and irradiated like the mild decay in a twenty-one-day steak.
England, Australia, two years apart; Her mandibles are sunk into the world and are draining the life from it. Destroying the web in England is a start, slaughtering thousands of Her children. That will drive Her off for a time. In truth, though, She must be led to scuttle elsewhere. Perhaps humanity must dream of some other world, more to Her liking. Perhaps a confrontation in the astral plane is in order.
Perhaps She has and has always had a following who believe the world ready - in an unusual twist, it first apprehended Her true aspect in Australia, where Her children are at their strongest, and migrated to the opposite point on the world’s surface, and the cult must be stopped before they can guide Her to bite deep again.
Recommended systems:Mage (either version - in Awakening, the Guardians of the Veil are trying to hush this noise up, in Ascension the Technocracy’s blundering has made her notice that Earth is no longer what she used to be). Call of Cthulhu, obviously, especially with a Dreamlands component as the investigators move between worlds to burn away Her web. Changeling could work, on the same principle as the Ascension plotline. The idea that something about the world is changing means it’s fodder for Discordia! the RPG (but then, so’s everything).
This past Christmas, I was given the opportunity to look over a copy of the newest iteration of Traveller. T5 was Kickstarter funded and was promised to be the "ultimate edition" with "rules and concepts you never thought possible" including "so many things that players have asked for, or that have been imperfectly handled previously." With all this in mind, I was eagerly looking forward to seeing what this Magnum Opus had to offer.
Well, the "never thought possible" bit was true.
After I looked it over -- because this beast is 656 pages long, and I don't think anyone has the endurance to read something like that in a single sitting -- I knew I needed to have other people look at this, so that I might share my mental anguish.
This review, then, is a collection of the snarky comments we shot at each other as we read as much as our sanity would allow.
But first, a quote to kick things off
Unknown commentator:"First Survey, like too many of the Imperium Games products, was what I like to call "fractally broken" - not merely bad, but bad on every scale, with pockets of small badness concealed within larger badnesses, bad from any analytical viewpoint, self-similarly bad." [Erin adds: T5 is like the above mentioned product, only at an exponential level of badness.]
PART ONE: INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
Erin: Capsule review: "I'm certain there has to be a game in here. After all, there are all these rules ...!" 650+ pages and the author has sucked all the fun and interest out of the game in favor of OMG CHARTS.
The_Jack: Sounds like GURPS Traveller minus the spontaneity and whimsy.
Erin: This is the kind of game only someone with Asperger's would play. Because more rules = more fun, right?
McThag: Uh... Geff HAS Aspergers and he rejected it.
Fuzzy Geff: More than half again as large as my microcontroller "data sheet", and that cost $40 to print (okay, and spiral-bind with plastic covers).
I'm only 10% in, and am ready to declare that the only use for these rules is to diagnose the author's mental illnesses. When he was naming the various Nd6 rolls, I could believe it was just OCD. Now that I've found the "Genetic Profile (GP)", I am convinced that other malfunctions are also involved.
Erin: Daaaaayyyyyyummmm! McThag: And an aspie rejects it thus, "the only use for these rules is to diagnose the author's mental illnesses." That's like wrapping the asteroid with smallpox blankets.
Jack: So it's a "wall full of crazy" compressed into a book. Maybe if you read the book aloud it heralds the Old Ones. Or would that be too interesting?
Erin: If you were a gamer nerd I could make a really cutting analogy: "It's like the left-brain version of Nobilis."* Trust me, that would KILL in nerd circles.
PART 2: SAVAGING THE INTRODUCTION
Jack: It's... troubling. I stopped my skimming on the dTon lecture. They.... they have a chart of ton versus kg and all the tons are 1.
"DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN A TON AND A TON"
That's an ACTUAL sub heading! You'd think they could write... Oh, I don't know...
"DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN A dTON AND A TON"
Erin: Most telling, I think, is that character generation doesn't start until, oh, page 55ish.
Jack: Well, a dissertation on units is FAR more important. And I LIKE being a nerd about unit systems.
McThag: Wow, this game includes a free statistics lesson!
PART 3: THE JOKE THAT IS CHARACTER GENERATION
McThag: 48 pages of character generation. Huge section for randomly generating the background that many GMs will consider mandatory... this system seems to be written for GMs who can't or won't just make a decision and tell the players that's how it will be.
Erin: My big problem is that the whole thing seems to lack flavor and fun. While they do mention Aslan, Droyne et al, there are NO RULES for the differences between those races and humans. Let alone, not having any flavor or fluff or history. And yet, 13th pages on senses...
McThag: Flavor is generated with this easy to use calculus algorithim, just solve for the area under the curve... I don't understand how this COULDN'T be fun! It's got hard math, and difficult math and frustrating math and it's all organized like hex editing a DOS game!
Jack: And worse, it's BAD math! So far this reads like a game made by math fanboys who are, alas, innumerate.
McThag: We are Jack's burning disappointment.
Jack: Well, it's nice that they parted out how a Fame state of 32 differs from one of 36. And I can see why they didn't include stats for the other major races. If you want to play a Vargr you can just derive your own!
Erin: Because if you're a GM, you're already inventing the universe, so what's one or more races as well?
Jack: That does seem to be this game's "Logic."
Erin: It's almost like this is a (really shitty) rules "upgrade" for a setting you already own. Which, to be fair, it is. I don't see any non-Traveller grognard buying this. Ever.
PART 4: THE EXERCISE IN MASOCHISM THAT IS "THINGMAKER"
Jack: Oh yes, because every single weapon for every single murder hobo needs its own character sheet! "With a knowledge of Weapons, Armor, Vehicles, and Combat, players can generally understand the relative value of Armor from their LongNames and Models."
McThag: Everything is a series of hex codes and you'll basically have to memorize the format for each thing to use them. Its part of the easy four thousand step "ArmorMaker". Simple!
Jack: Damn, it feels like it'd be simpler and quicker to build a real gun than use this... thing's balky flowchart.
Erin: You have to look really, really hard just to find a stock, default "vacc suit". I didn't even bother looking for stock guns. Although the 32-shot, spiral-magazine "revolver" was worth a small chuckle. I'm like "Revolver? UR DOIN IT RONG"
McThag: It's like a belt but with a cylinder gap! My brain hurts. Where's my melon baller?
[Editor's Note: This is where McThag bails on T5.]
Jack: The ACQUIRING WEAPONS section.... Wow! I never thought to go to the factory! They.... they have a section on how long certain parts of a rifle "should" be. But they don't even have deck plans of ships! ... I wish I was well enough to drink.
Erin: Yesssss. Feel my pain. Aren't you glad you didn't spend $35 on this book?
Jack: It's not even a bound hard copy?
Erin: Oh, you'd have to pay over twice that to get it in hardcopy!
PART 5: BEATING THE DEAD HORSE CALLED "ART"
Jack: Oh man.... the battle dress just looks... sad. Way to make me pine for Mongoose's art, Trav5.
Erin: Here's what is funny: Some of that art is from the early-mid 80s. Specifically, the pictures of the Zhodani nobles.
Jack: It DOES have that 80's vibe! The Zhodani look like Ming the Merciless. Or evil wizards.
Jack: The drill machine on page 287 is just sad. It's like they did a Google image search for a screw bolt, blew it up, and then cropped it over a tank.
Yes, this is the ACTUAL PICTURE, taken from the PDF.
Erin: Are you ready to add insult to injury? The Kickstarter for this raised over THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.
Jack: ....
Erin: Look at the production values of that book. With the shitty art and the obviously layered images and etc
Jack: Thanks for the money, suckers!
Parenthetical Aside
Oh good, they've got a whole chapter on Beast Power. Couldn't skimp on that!
Jack: page 366
just.... page 366
Page 366
Erin: Well, this book was already doing a number on our sanity. Now it's official: this is the Traveller Necronomicon.
Jack: I am starting to feel a bit feverish. [Editor's Note: Jack had the flu at this time. It is unknown if reading T5 aggravated his condition.]
Erin: Do you hear a strange flute sound coming from angles orthogonal to reality?
Jack: Oh wow. The corners of the room are starting to get... wobbly
Erin: Hounds of Tindalos might like Beggin' Strips...
Jack: And the Chirstmass music on the radio is starting to get a circusy undertone
Oh! And "Santa Claus is coming to town" is very sinister now
Oh man....
the "comic" on page 375
I think that cinches the "humans did not make this" theory
PART 6: SCREW IT, NOW WE'RE JUST CURBSTOMPING THE CORPSE FOR LULZ
Jack: "Sensors are the technological eyes and ears (and other senses) of starships (and of many star system installations). Technology magnifies the capabilities of personal senses and translates the information that sensors gather into understandable formats."
Erin: In other breaking news, space is rather dark and a bit chilly.
Jack: YES! T5! Because I am too gormless to know what sensors ARE, but I AM willing to plot through hundreds of pages of tables and flow charts and will fill out two pages per armor vest!
"The Referee Has Perfect Knowledge"
But!
"The Players Have No Knowledge. They know nothing. They depend on the readings from their sensors to develop an understanding of the situation." Wow!
Erin: Truly this is a cutting-edge game.
Jack: It's like this was made by someone who watched a couple Trav games. The ship diagram on page 312 makes no sense. Half the callouts are painfully obvious, like the one that points to Wings...
Erin: "Wings and fins." No shit, really?
Jack: ... and the other half are nonsense. I'm really getting the feeling that this is some sort of simulation of a game book written by things that don't quite grok hu-mons. I'd say this is all a Hiver plot, but the Hivers get games.
Oh-kay.... My mind is slipping
I'm in the Starsysstme section
and I read B Mainworld as
Brainworld
Erin: Oh dear. I've done brain damage to you. So sorry.
[Editor's Note: at about this point we realize we aren't even half done with the book and neither of us has the stamina to continue. We decide to do something constructive, like get drunk and use our heads like a hammer.]
Erin: Why don't you play us out with your most brutal synopsis of this product, Jack?
Jack: This is like a cargo cult of a game. It was made by people who have seen table top games played, and they figured that if they made the proper holy tome, then the game would be summoned.
Ouch.
And with that, I'm going to put "Traveller Tuesday" on the back burner for a while. Do not fear, for I plan to return, but there are other settings which need my attention.
* Nobilis is a joy to read. It's like the kind of game that Neil Gaiman would write. Lots of evocative text, funny little anecdotes and capsule stories. There's just like, you know, no system there to run a game on.
1.
Remember my SHTFriday idea? It's turned into a spin-off blog called Blue Collar Prepping. Unlike this blog, BCP is a collaborative effort among like-minded preppers (one of whom is my good friend Evelyn Hively). We currently have 3 people who have committed to being regular contributors, but I'd like at least another one; that way we can each write one article a week and have 5 full days of content (everyone deserves a weekend off). However, if we get more, all the better! We also accept guest articles as well (guidelines here). Head on over and have a look!
2.
Speaking of Evelyn, her project to raise $800 by the end of the month to help out her older siblings has stalled at around $470. I encourage all of you to look at her catalog of goodies (Etsy store here, photo album of crocheted work here) and see if there's something you'd like for her to make for you.
Doctor Who scarves
1- There's a hundred dollar one made with better yarn at six feet long and a more more manageable size. (Takes 1.5 months to make)
2- A full sized at 12, very accurate reproduction of season 12 is available (it's $425 but that covers everything, takes 3 months to make.)
Shawls
1- I have mutiple patterns for these and currently have black and turqoise available as color choices. These are $50.00 and take roughly 2-4 weeks to make.
Bags
Take your pick of small hand bags, neck purses, messenger bags and tote bags.
Dolls
I can do a very broad range of hair colors, skin colors and dress colors. These are $35.
Traditional hats and scarves:
Any color or combinations.
Crocheted jackets, afghans, etc.
3. Squeaky is having financial problems again. I'm at my wit's end about what to do, as I know folks are all fundraisered-out from last year, recovering from Christmas bills, a recession going on, etc. I don't know how to help her and this is freaking me out. If anyone can think of ANYTHING that would help, please let me know, okay?
On a related note, if there is anyone in the Memphis area who is willing to donate 10 square feet of storage for little to no rent, OR is willing to donate a yard shed of roughly that volume, please let me know immediately! This is quite important.
Don't make me break out the gif of Pinkie Pie giving sad puppy-dog eyes, because you all should know by now that I am totally willing to fight dirty when it comes to helping my friends. ;)
Erin Palette is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
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