The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Yeah, my work was closed for a few days last week. I think I only got about 13 hours of pay total. All while my windshield wipers aren't working (getting them fixed tomorrow). And to top it all of, I accidentally locked my keys in my car today!

Literally my entire life. I told myself I would write Chapter 5 of my novel. Played AC Liberation until it glitched on me.
Amazing, Leo. Amazing... You're a real stand-up guy.

Not to compare dick sizes or anything, but this reminds me. Once in high school I locked my keys in my car... at the high school... when both my parents were working... while my car was running... in a no parking fire lane...

Oh damn.

Reminds me of some days I have off work I plan to do stuff, and do next to nothing. Talk about unproductive.

Mcstab With Cheese wins.

haha. luckily, it was within an hour of school closing (drove around to pick up my brother, i think) so I ran into the shop to ask the teacher for help, we fashioned a slim jim and were able to get it open with no one else the wiser.

this leads me to another awesome story, actually.
after the event above, my dad fashioned a slim jim from a metal band at work. he also got a magnetic strip. with this, we secured the slim jim to the bottom of the car such that if this ever happened again, i could get the car open real easy. additionally, i didn't need keys to start the engine. you could just turn the thing the key was supposed to go in, and the car would start. so i had the most stealable car on the planet, really. anyway, i was in college with the same car. i was in the marching band and was returning from a bowl game. i was on the first plane, all the luggage was on the second plane an hour later. i get back to the parking lot at our school's stadium and realize ... my keys are in my luggage! no big deal, right? given what I just said above? so I break into my own car, start it without the keys and start to warm it up (it's now new year's day at 1-2 am and below freezing outside). i then proceed to drive around the stadium to warm the car up. after my third time around, I get pulled over by a cop (with no keys to the car i'm driving, after new year's eve, mind you). luckily, he didn't notice. i was being suspicious having driven around the stadium 3 times. i told him my situation (band, luggage, etc) and i drove back to the parking lot.

okay, story time over... for now.

This is the part of the story I find amusing. Instead of hiding a spare door key on the car (they make magnetic boxes for this purpose), your dad went out of his way to make something that doesn't work quite as well. It's as if he heard the story about the slim jim and was so impressed that he forgot there was such a thing as a spare key.

you opened your car with candy?

You opened your car with a skinny friend named Jim?

But where's the fun in that!?

For everyone else: slim jim

I'm currently stressed out to the point where my mind goes in shutdown mode and tries to just forget about everything, but I'm rational enough still to know that this will probably help.

Basically, shit is not okay right now. I'm currently in the middle of finals, and despite having kept up decently with homework and all, I had two of the biggest course finals on last thursday. I barely slept the night before (more about why later) and ended up filling in a bunch of stupid shit, basically completely ruining my chances at a satisfactory grade. Those classes were Topology and Category Theory.

Topology especially was a bag of dicks. I am good at Topology, for fuck's sake. On all my homework, not a single grade was below 8.5/10. I did write down some absolutely completely fucking stupid shit: the set of functions from N to N is definitely NOT countable, as any moron with more than 2 seconds experience in set theory should know.
The whole exam was just too damn long, with the last question especially being a bunch of crap: the level of abstraction that category theory has (how the fuck am I supposed to reason coherently about continuous functions going from a set to a space of continuous functions and the topology on those sets and it's relation to the topology on the underlying sets?)

Category Theory was a bunch of crap as well. Just about everything is stupidly trivial in that class, but if you can't remember which of the 1501345 definitions this weirdly-named thing is, you're fucked, and the level of abstraction is crazy (the example above tenfold). And again the exam was too fucking long.

Now upcoming is Functional Analysis, where every proof just comes dropping out of midair. HOW THE FUCK did Urysohn's lemma (topology thing) pop up in this one exercise, and then never again? I mean, sure, fields of mathematics blend together at a higher, level, but this kind of arbitrary argument-from-topology or argument-from-combinatorics is fucking everywhere. This sucks balls, but if I fail this exam I'm not going for the second chance, I'll just get Object-Oriented Programming instead, which is a lot easier.

As for the reason that I didn't sleep well, I'm organizing this thing where high school kids come to our faculty to learn more about what one can do with science and shit, and it's giving me a lot of stress because there is so much shit that needs to be done in such short a time.

The thing that worries me most is that I did all the homework for both Category Theory and Topology, and that generally makes the finals a breeze for me. It's worrisome that this isn't the case and that I apparently need to do even more. Though some other guys who are in the top of my class also thought the exams were a bag of dicks.
I guess I just don't like doing re-exams.

One thing I learned from my Number Theory and Elementary Calculus (derivation and proof of calculus, not beginner's calculus) classes in undergrad is that advanced/proof-based math finals truly are bags of dicks.

Sorry man.

I'm terrible at math, so you guys are automatically better than me.

Jeez sounds horrible. Last semester I took my first final year maths paper for my undergrad degree, Real and Complex calculus.

Shit seemed pretty easy for a while then it started getting into engineering. Man maths is just so badly organised at the moment its not funny, you basically just start drilling theorms, proofs, methods for finding proofs, methods of reading definitions into your head not really knowing why or where this shit is coming from and trying to find some general reason or course that it is all taking is enough to make my head explode.

I enjoyed Group theory though, but shit wasn't explained to me at all until the end, and even then it was barely explained. It was like right here is a group calculate the order by the way an Ideal is this learn what an Ideal test is now Ring theory now Field theory wtf is all this shit pointing too???!

I'm feeling a lot better now that I have done all finals and the one on yesterday went particularly well, so confidence sort of is restored.

The rabbit hole is deep, very deep. I think that after three years of studying mathematics, I'm finally grasping how rich and complex it really is. We're still learning late 19th century/early 20th century mathematics, even going at a super fast pace (compared to discoveries and all that). It's pretty nuts.

I know man, every time we are supposed to pick up a text book its from way back, I feel like a moron for spending all this effort studying stuff that was done way back while everyone else is learning all this new age stuff. Still, I find it pretty damn satisfying once the jigsaw pieces fall into place. Im currently doing an intro to Real Analysis (seems like everything I have ever done is just a fucking introduction...) and man you really do need a pretty damn good understanding on just what a real number is, shit is crazy.

Equivalence class of a Cauchy sequence of rationals, right? Or do you use a Dedekind cut construction?

Honestly I haven't had to use it yet, but I read a little about Dedekind Cuts in some optional slides that were given, and looking quickly over my syllabus for my next papers I can see how it can be a kind of big deal.

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the above conversation between Phi and Jack-Reacher. To be honest, I only understood about 4 words of it (and 2 of those words were "shit" and "fuck"), but it was a thing of beauty!

Hey Lisa! What ever happened with your daughter and SFMTA?

They saw the error of their ways.

Yay!

Can't say I'm not shocked though.

Oh god, wait. Does this mean you killed them?!

A rant under spoiler tags because it moves away from the preceding posts and I don't want to break up the flow (it was on tumblr before, but I wanted to re-vent).

It's my high school class's 10 year reunion this year... so I have two rants/complaints about this:

1 - i'm still in fucking school (but at least i'm not on my second marriage with 4 kids like someone i know from my class)

2 - social media has rendered reunions pointless, so why try? it's my understanding that the 2003 class only had about 15-20 people show up last year. if you wanted to touch base with me, you would have done so by now. i'm on facebook, etc. if you were my friend back then and you haven't touched base yet, what are the chances we'd even have things to talk about. and, finally, with facebook i already know who's fat and who has had a boob job. so what's the point in finding out in person?

Who exactly are the SFMTA?

Since I've moved around a bunch I wouldn't be a good candidate for a school reunion. In fact the only school (not including homeschool) I've attended more than one year is an elementary school, from 1st grade through 6th. I wouldn't mind seeing them again.

The San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority. They gave my daughter a ticket and it was a thing. Over now, though.

Warning: shameless bid for sympathy follows.

2014 has been the crappiest possible year for me so far.

First, my mother died. In a way that's a good thing because Alzheimer's had taken her away from us many years ago, but on the other hand it's horrible because of all the stuff she totally deserved to see happen and got cheated out of. She never saw the first one of her grandchildren to graduate from college. She never saw another granddaughter get her first job. She never knew that she had become a great-grandmother.

Next, my husband's company that he founded ran out of money and he's out of a job. We sunk everything we had into it, all our savings, taking no salary or a very little salary. The company isn't gone, but they had to lay off everybody but about 4 people while cutting off new product development (which is what hubby did).

And now my older daughter wants to move to Australia. It's actually pretty exciting and exactly the kind of thing someone her age ought to do, but it shore done broke her mommy's heart.

I'm sorry Lisa <3
I had my uncle and grandfather leave this world last year, so I can try to empathize.

I know you'll be alright because you're pretty amazing at what you do, and you've got a good head on your shoulders from what little I know about you.

That said, it's perfectly okay to NOT be fine now. I'd like to say we're all here for you. We're not just a site, we're a community. We always have been, and we help out the people we care about.

Damn right!

Thanks, guys.

We all have bad years. Not to compare because tragedy is always worse when it happens to you, but my 2013 somewhat mirrored your beginning to 2014, Lisa.

I walked at my doctoral graduation. My grandfather was in bad health and couldn't make the trip, but really wanted to... 2 weeks later he passed (cancer)... a DAY before a package arrived with graduation pictures and trinkets so that he could at least get that part and see his grandson in a graduation robe.

3 weeks later, my dad got laid off from a job he had had for decades. He is not in good health and his health insurance was really helping out with all his issues. He finally found something 3 months later... that pays 1400 less per month, and the insurance sucks to the point that instead of 200/mo he's paying 900/mo for medications.

I cannot imagine losing my own business and my own mother in the same year, let alone within 6 weeks. My year was bad enough. Fortunately, just last weekend, we were able to go back to my parents house in Oregon (my wife and I from the east coast, my sister and her hubby from AK and my brother and his wife from elsewhere in OR) to have a belated christmas with my family. It was the first time I had seen any of them (other than my whirlwind graduation weekend) in over a year. It meant a ton to my mom and was a good way to start a new year after a bad one. Cherish the things you have left and not what is lost. It has helped me put things in perspective.

*virtual hug*

Right back at ya, my friend.

Sigh.

I did some really stupid shit tonight, guys...
The best friend of the girl I'm in love with had a birthday party and of course the girl in question was there. I'm super lightweight, and I took four shots of Jack Daniel's for whatever abnormal reason. We played strip poker. That was okay. But then I got stupidly jealous of her paying attention to one of her other friends. Stupid. So I pretty much acted in a way that would draw attention to me - but she clearly didn't like it. Now, I'm drunk - but I'm not an asshole. I stop immediately. However, hours later I'm the only one on a certain bed in the house and she and a few of her good friends come in.

They start talking to me about how pretty much the fact that I'm in love with her is wrong. And of course I take that the wrong way because I'm drunk and sad - a fatal combination. This girl, I'm very very attached to. She's probably one of the best friends I've ever had, but I've always wanted to be something more with her and she knows this. We've talked about it. But eventually through their little confrontation and cornering of me I pretty much start crying a little and I spit out a bunch of stuff no one really needs to hear, at all.

And the entire time, she's right there. Just listening about how all I want is for her to be happy, and how I knew I could never be with her, and all this other nonsense. It really hurt. And the harder and harder I dug my own grave, the harder it became to stop the shovel until I eventually just spit everything out, and I was in a lot of pain.

Then, at one point, one of her best friends told me, "Besides, she has a boyfriend!"

And I just stopped. "R-Really?"

"You never told him!?"

And then shit got real.

This entire time, and I had no idea. I mean, I actually had faith in myself - just for a little bit. I believed, you know. But it wasn't really her fault, she just didn't want to hurt me, I guess - that's why she never told me. The thing is, I would have still preferred to hear it in the beginning, then I would have given up immediately. So the only thing my mind could snap to that makes any logical sense is that she kept this knowledge from me because she didn't want me giving up. But that makes absolutely no sense, because I know for a fact that she did want me to give up.

So pretty much, this girl that I opened up to and let in my heart after being cold and numb to the world, shattered me pretty damn hard tonight in front of several of her friends (who helped, let's be real) while I was afflicted with four shots of Jack. That really sucks...

She made me double pinky promise her that I wouldn't do anything to hurt myself - which I won't, because it would make her sad (after all this, I really don't value myself too much guys sorry also I'm drunk as I type this still). It just really hurts... It really does, and it feels really unfair... It feels like every ray of hope I was given this past while, every beam of sunshine was a lie. Someone standing at the top of my sky with a great magnifying glass just whipping flashlight luminescence around the walled gardens of my jaded heart.

I don't really have a right to complain, I know. Shit like this happens all the time. This is life. And life is unfair. And I know life will never be fair.

And I don't want anyone to say anything along the lines of "you'll find someone else" or other things like that. Because to be completely honest? I'm fed up with this. I'm tired of being ravaged by failed love time after time. It does hurt. I'm sorry it hurts, but it fucking does. Not only that, I know things will be different between us now. I know the good morning texts she used to send me, the cute messages we whipped back and forth, I know they'll cease. They'll cease, just like most hope of another smile flitting across my face again.

It's not fair. And it feels like it shouldn't have happened... Not this way... Not this way...

But then again.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted...

I even wrote this long poem-like thing because it was the only way I could begin to absolve my mind of these awful feelings. If you need me to explain any part of it that may be unclear or you wonder why I wrote certain things the way I did, feel free to ask...

DaZ, I'm going to be somewhat harsh, but it is because I think you're a good kid and I want to help you.

It's time to suck it up and get over it, buddy. You are in way over your head, and it's time to grow a pair and continue on with your life. You need to stop letting others determine your happiness and take control of your own life. Your friend is just some girl. I'm sure you think she's the one and she's perfect and all of that, but, fuck man, she's got a boyfriend and didn't even tell you. That's downright insulting, and it would be enough for me to tell her to go fuck herself and leave me the hell alone.
And that would be my advice. Cut her out. You have literally nothing to gain by her friendship. As long as you communicate with her regularly you're never going to get over her. You are WAY too invested in this girl, and need to learn that you can do without her ASAP. Because you really can, and in the end you will find you're better off that way.
Another tip I would have is STOP GETTING SO DAMN INVESTED WHEN YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING. The moment you meet a cute girl and think she could be something, ask her out. No fucking excuses. I've done the whole getting invested before anything else thing, and let me tell you, it's beyond stupid. With new girls, don't think about your future and how you'll be forever happy with her, but say "hey, I think you're cute. Wanna go on a date?" And then go get coffee or something else casual. Dinner is not casual and neither is seeing a movie. You don't know this girl, so it's about getting to know her. You're not trying to court her or get into her pants.

So to sum it up:
1. Your "friend" is only going to make you feel worse, it's time to grow some balls and cut her out.
2. Don't get so invested in people unless you've been on a couple dates and are basically on the path to a relationship.

It gets better, dude. It really does. Your life is yours to control and your happiness your own to make. You can grow beyond this.

Alright. Thank you.

Phi is correct. Sadly, 90% of my relationships were similarly dealt with before I realized that I was doing it all wrong. I think most of my time when I've been single is looking at women and thinking, "Yeah, she looks nice...Possible date?" Yeah, don't do that. At least talk to them and see what they're like!

Okay, that was more of a rant to past me...

Basically, people are assholes. A lot of times, they string you along without meaning to and end up hurting you and/or both of you. Now I'm not saying she meant to do this to you or that she's a terrible person, but "I have a boyfriend" should be something mentioned on the first day you start talking to them. Plus, what the hell was up with her friends at the party? Cornering you like that? Pressuring you whilst intoxicated? No matter what, that's going to end badly somehow. Even sober, as an introvert/sensitive type, I've been pressured like that and explode with anxiety; panic attacks, cursing, voice crackles, the works.

From now on, just think of yourself. Love is something that can wait. Now, don't be a ginormous douchebag or anything. That's not at all what I'm saying. Just think of your hobbies and do them. Improve skills you like doing. Challenge yourself by writing something out of your element. Spoil yourself and buy something you've been wanting to get.

Remember that video you made when you got your own hidden blade? I watched that a couple times in a row because I saw you being happy with my own eyes. It makes others happy to see you happy, and that was such a simple thing. Just a replica of a famous fictional weapon. It was enough for you in that moment. Hell, I bet if you put it on and flick it out a few times, you'll remember that happiness.

That last sentence could've been worded better...

In short: Live your life and don't ever depend on others to be your only source for happiness.

It could be worse. You could do all that AND look like me.

I honestly don't understand the concept of heartbreak. I've seen it before in movies and heard from people about it, so I know it's something awful. And now I have to get ready for work.

Aurel's got it!

That sucks, DAZ. Blow off some steam and try to let the entire thing go. I know that's easier said than done, but just try it. Listen to your favourite song and turn the volume up. Do some sports to get your emotions out; try boxing, running, or cycling really fast. And lastly, as Joey already said: Treat. Yo. Self.

Don't give up. You'll get out of this somehow.
Vittoria agli assassini. You're one of the good guys.

Man, I am going to give a collective group hug to the boards here.

You make my monthly mortgage payment not seem like such a big deal! If you can, get a dog. Dogs are always the best. And they'll never be unhappy to see you, even if you've been gone five minutes. Go adopt one, they'll love you even more. And if it's an adopted pit mix, it will love you most. Having two of the latter, I can vouch for this.

Yeah. The first thing I'm buying when I get a job is a dog... or a car... probably a dog. Mrs. Double McStab (hers is without Cheese, she doesn't like it) has been pestering me hard for the last about 4 months to get one...

I rewatched V for Vendetta today.
My favorite movie of all time.
Words have power, Ideas are bulletproof etc.
Rogue main character with a love of words/writing/alliteration.
Hate turning to Love.
Revolution.
The power of one awakening the hope of many.
Lots of... Stuff...

I think that was a good idea.
I feel stronger because of it.

Late to the party, but I'm chiming in to say that Phi and Joey and Aurel and Gerund and TMA have all said wise things. This girl was not honest with you and dishonest people are not worth your time or you emotions. Put her in the dustbin of your history and live well as the best revenge.

Besides, from the perspective of my (advanced) age, I can say that getting tanked and spilling your guts is something that you ought to be doing at your age. It's only natural! When you get to be as old as me, I'll bet you won't regret it a single bit.

Also, as far as responses to our dear friend Daz, I'm with the rest of the clan. It sucks, but if she wasn't a good enough friend to tell you that she had a boyfriend (or you weren't able to find out via mutual friends), then she's not that great of a friend.

Friends exist to be happy and merry with. You do dumb things around each other and then your friends are there to a) pick you up and b) constantly remind you about it later. This is OK, because you undoubtedly do the same back to them.

From what I read, though, it sounds like the acquaintance was thought of differently by all parties involved. At this point, it is what it is. There's plenty of other ladies out there and you'll find one that appreciates you the way you appreciate her back and that'll be the foundation for your relationship. You're young, do things that make you happy. Getting drunk and acting stupidly is, as Lisa pointed out, just fine. You won't be the only person to ever do that. Enjoy life, my friend.

Oh, also, might I recommend switching to beer? You're in Canada. You literally have a store called "The Beer Store" there...no excuses!

Toronto... does that REALLY count as Canada? REALLY? I mean, they have NFL games there... they have NBA and MLB teams there... South of like 4 Great Lakes... pretty much USA... Even where I grew up in Oregon was further North than Toronto...

Sorry, this is completely unrelated to anything, but I have been wondering for some years now: What is considered the 'main' sport in the USA? Football? Baseball? Basketball? Something else? Or is it just different in every state?

In order:
NFL (American football)
MLB (baseball)
NCAAF (college American football)
auto racing (Nascar and to a lesser extent, Indy - not F1 though)
NBA (basketball)
NHL (hockey)
NCAAB (college basketball)

source: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10354114/harris-poll-nfl-most-popular-...

this is only a "what's your favorite sport" poll. more accurately, it should be "what are you favorite 3 sports" then weight them... if this were the case, I would imagine NBA and NHL would pass auto racing, but I could be wrong.

Hurray, we are all wise!

Ugh, you said that right. One thing I HATE is being put in a position by people where I am forced to lie, or where being honest doesn't seem to do any good. What ever happened to "the truth shall make you free"?

Right now I'd have to say video games.

I'm not sure where to put this, because it's a rant about ACIV. I think here is more appropriate because it's mostly a rant.

So, as you know and my name states, I play the game slowly and calculatingly. In fact, our esteemed host, stabguy, has even taking shots at me (http://thehiddenblade.com/last-person-reply-wins?page=36#comment-33845) regarding my playing speed. I digress. This morning I picked up where I left off (S08M02) and was cruising through the missions (I'M COMING FOR YOU, STABGUY!), including only needing two attempts to successfully double assassinate Cockram and Burgess (the first being my accidental human shielding of Burgess). The game basically mandates you continue into S10M01 (unless you want to sail around the world, as fast travel is disabled) as soon as S09M02 ends.

Ok, let's being the rant with this Black Bart's Gambit nonsense. For those who don't remember, this mission is the one that begins with stealing the Portuguese flag from the ship. Throughout the entire mission, there's an optional objective of "Stay out of combat." So I grab the flag after stealthily killing one of the scouts/marksmen and sleep darting the other. In the cutscene of me throwing the flag down to my crew, the sleep dart on the other marksman becomes negated and he wakes up. I run to dive off the ship and his SSI fills up with red WHILE I'M DIVING IN THE AIR. What the hell, ACIV? So I need to re-start this mission. This would be fine if this was my only complaint...but it's not.

I continue the mission, where I need to go and loot a chest with blood vials in it (which is totally useless, since they're empty). This actually went relatively smoothly, minus one guard that ran into a brute, altering his route and allowing him to see me and make me start over.

However, the part that has proven to be the biggest thorn in my side is trying to remove the marksmen in the guard towers on my second swing through. So far I've been detected in the following manners:

1) Guard spots me from 50m away while I'm in the water and it's pitch black out.
2) Guard spots me with his back turned to me while he's fighting a comrade I've berserk darted.
3) After I take out the first guard, I'm working over to the second guard and try to quickly taking out a patrolling guard. Eddie elects to bypass the running assassination and go with the "let's shoulder check the guard instead while running past him," leading to my being detected. This was probably my tenth attempt at the mission from the checkpoint. Obviously I keep re-starting from the most recent checkpoint. However, this time, in my rage, I accidentally re-start the entire memory sequence, meaning I'm back grabbing the damned flag!

Many of my failed attempts were of my own recklessness (after getting frustrated), but a handful of times it's just like, "what the hell, Ubisoft?"

I feel better now. Well, until I start trying that mission again. I blame it on the Sage for wanting those retched vials in the first place.