Mass Effect Fangirl

So long story short, I have some Target gift cards. I don't want anything that Target has, but there are some things I want that are available on both Amazon and Gamestop's sites. I basically want to know if there is something that I could buy at Target that would allow me to "cheat the system" and get the money off the cards into my hands, even if it's in the form of an Amazon gift card or something. Any ideas?

So I'm new to the Creation Kit and I've been following online tutorials. I decided to try to make a custom voiced follower. I got her all set up, put her in the world, and then created a quest just to have her say hello. I recorded myself talking just as a placeholder. She's supposed to say "This is test dialogue for my new character" and I put that in the subtitles, and then moved the audio file to the right place with the right name. EVERYTHING is EXACTLY how it was described in the tutorial. Except when I go to talk to her in game, she won't say anything. The subtitles appear for a split second and then disappear, and she just stays silent. In other words, the game seems to recognize that she's supposed to say something, but the audio file won't play.

I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING. I have looked for nearly an hour online to find something to help me with this but everyone else just says that they're getting errors or they weren't running as administrator. No one seems to be having this same problem. I'm so incredibly frustrated and I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. Does anyone - ANYONE, PLEASE - have ANY advice? Does anyone know what could POSSIBLY be going wrong! I just don't know what to do!

So I'm new to the Creation Kit and I've been following online tutorials. I decided to try to make a custom voiced follower. I got her all set up, put her in the world, and then created a quest just to have her say hello. I recorded myself talking just as a placeholder. She's supposed to say "This is test dialogue for my new character" and I put that in the subtitles, and then moved the audio file to the right place with the right name. EVERYTHING is EXACTLY how it was described in the tutorial. Except when I go to talk to her in game, she won't say anything. The subtitles appear for a split second and then disappear, and she just stays silent. In other words, the game seems to recognize that she's supposed to say something, but the audio file won't play.

I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING. I have looked for nearly an hour online to find something to help me with this but everyone else just says that they're getting errors or they weren't running as administrator. No one seems to be having this same problem. I'm so incredibly frustrated and I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. Does anyone - ANYONE, PLEASE - have ANY advice? Does anyone know what could POSSIBLY be going wrong! I just don't know what to do!

So something odd happened today while I was playing Skyrim. I had previously hired Stenvar and then let him go, and today I was on my way to Dawnstar and he was just standing on the path. Like completely far away from where I released him. Has anything like this happened to anyone else? Did he just somehow get stuck, or does the game periodically have previous followers wander around for you to find them again (kind of like how you'll occasionally see the Companions running around)?

So if you want the short story (no TL;DR), there's something I want to remember to do several times a day (like, ten or so), and I want to know ways to help me remember to do this.

More info for those interested:

I've wanted for years to become good at lucid dreaming. I know I have the knack for it - my dream recall is excellent, I've had several random lucid dreams before as well as a few deliberately induced ones, and I have really good dream control even in normal dreams. But for the life of me I cannot get into the habit of doing regular reality checks. Does anyone else out there lucid dream, and if so, do you have any tips for remembering to do these checks?

(I had an idea that I could do a check every time I do something in real life that's really common, like checking the time. The problem is that I almost never dream about things pertaining to my real life; I'm usually dreaming about Skyrim or Terminator or being in an epic shootout. I can't think of anything I do with any frequency in real life that I also do in my dreams.)

So I've been doing video game LPs for a while, but always the sh***y way, by just putting a camcorder in front of the screen. I want to record the way everyone else does it, by somehow getting the video directly from the console like you see it on the TV.

I have no idea how to do this.

I don't have a capture card; I don't even know what that is. I can't find emulators online and I'm not sure I trust them anyway. I have an HD JVC camcorder, a high-end Asus laptop, an Xbox 360, a flat-screen TV, and an AV cable that I've tried running from my TV to my camera. No luck. I don't know what I'm doing. Can anyone help? (I don't want a capture card/emulator, so don't suggest it please.) Some online guides I've looked at seem to suggest that it's possible to run some kind of cable from the TV to the camera and record what's on screen, but I can't figure out how.

If you have any suggestions, please explain them like I'm a baby, because I don't understand hardware stuff, just software.

I'm too lazy to try this out myself right now, so I thought I'd check here. Last time I played I had a crazy idea that a biotic like myself could get through a mission with no guns. When I was at the weapons selection screen for a new mission, I tried removing all the guns from my inventory and the game let me. However, I didn't actually try to go out like that. I'm just wondering, will the game allow you to actually go out with no guns? And if so, what does Shepard even look like in combat? Does s/he just awkwardly hold his/her arms out until you use biotics? Anyway, just a silly question. Answer if you can. Thanks! :D

I know it's not a scratch on the disc or anything because I have two identical Skyrim discs, one I always use (with many minor scratches) and one that's never been used. When this problem started I tried swapping out for the brand-new disc, and it still froze in exactly the same spot.

More info for those interested:

It always freezes in exactly the same three spots, not just wherever in Alftand Cathedral. For those who know the area: the first place it freezes is right at the beginning, with the single Falmer and table with the potion, right after I grab the potion. If I get past that, second area is right before the spike gate, to the right whenever combat with the Frostbite Spider starts (happens if I sneak-kill it too). And third is right after I kill the two adventurers who are fighting each other right before the Alftand Lift/Blackreach entrance. Something about those three areas completely shuts my game down and I have /no idea why/ - like I said, it's not the disc's fault. I really want this fixed, I can't get the Elder Scroll without it. Thanks for any help....

I have a Word document on my computer detailing every dream I remember from my life. This amounts to 92 pages and over 65,000 words of dreams - the length is quite simply becoming unmanageable. I've been looking everywhere for software that has what I need - I just want something super simple, where I can create little documents within the program itself (with unlimited space to write each note - no character limits, since my longest dream is almost 11,000 characters), then name them and organize them as I please. It's not mandatory, but I'd also like some sort of feature where you can tag each note (like on Twitter) so I can easily find, for example, every "Star Wars" dream I've ever had. If it doesn't have this feature, I can just include those tags at the bottom of every note, so again, not mandatory - but if it doesn't have tagging, then it'll need to have a search function of some kind so I can find my makeshift "tags."

If you know of any software like this, even if it doesn't match my needs perfectly, please tell me. Thanks! :)

Just wondering after an incident yesterday. A couple people in my theatre class didn't know I was bi (though I'm out of the closet and not afraid to tell anyone at my school), so I told them. This resulted in a lot of smiles, laughter, and joking around, and in the end their view of me hadn't changed a bit - the only difference was, they now knew I was attracted to girls as well as guys.

I know I'm definitely lucky to live in such an accepting area where you could literally shout "I'M GAY!" out over a crowd and get nothing but cheers and pats on the back, but I also know that there are places where displaying even the slightest inclination toward same-sex attraction will get you ostracized from society. So I was just wondering what it's like where you live - are people super-accepting, super-judgmental, or somewhere in between?

Thanks guys :D

I found this picture on a feminist blog (if you ridicule me for being a feminist, I'll cut your balls off and sell them to a krogan), and I want to know what video game it's talking about. In case you don't want to visit the link, it talks about a nuanced, interesting, well-developed female as the main character, but everyone on message boards only talks about her cleavage-revealing dress and how she should have worn it the entire game. Also, apparently there's a brutal torture scene that some guys found "hot."

Here's the link: http://whoneedsfeminism.tumblr.com/image/491174882...

Thanks! :D

I had this idea of doing a playthrough of the full Mass Effect trilogy, but during the entire run (all missions, sidequests, DLCs, etc.) you're not allowed to use Charm/Intimidate or Interrupts. This would severely hamper your ability to solve situations the "best" way, and get a lot of people killed, such as (spoilers): Wrex would die unless you got his armor, you would have to fight Saren as a final boss. You would have Zaeed, Tali/Legion and Jack/Miranda not loyal (so several people might die on the Suicide Mission), Mordin would kill Maelon, Miranda Niket, Garrus Sidonis, and Jack Aresh, and Tali might be exiled. In ME3, Zaeed and Kasumi would die (if they weren't already dead), Mordin would die, Tali might die if you side with the geth, Samara would die, Miranda would die and Anderson would be shot by the Illusive Man. The only Interrupt you could take is the one that stops TIM from killing you right at the very end. Overall, while you still might get a "good" ending, the entire run would be quite a bit more depressing than usual.

So I was ust wondering, hs anyone ever thought of doing something like this? Or, even better, already done it? And if not, thoughts? Just wondering. Thanks! :D

This is something that has been worrying me for some time. I'm beginning to be worried that I am unable to fall in love with anyone. (Please bear with me - this will be kind of long but I really need answers.)

I am a bisexual 17 year old girl. The thing is, I have never had a boyfriend or girlfriend. To be honest, dating scares the hell out of me. I'm not a very romantic type of person. I'm not into holding hands, I don't like cuddling and watching romantic movies, and being a bit of a germaphobe (though I've been taking steps to fix this) even kissing seems very daunting to me. I get nervous and upset just thinking about these things.

And yet... I want them. I want someone who cares about me, who is there for me, and who I'm even closer to than my friends. But I'm not the type of girl who will rush into a relationship just because I feel like I'm not complete without someone else. I want to wait until I find someone who I really connect with. I used to think this was good, that it meant that I wasn't giving in to peer pressure about having to be in a relationship. I thought I was holding out for the right person, and I guess that's true. But I'm beginning to get a little worried because as far as I know, there isn't one person who I've seriously considered a viable person to date.

Well, I don't know if that's entirely true. There is one guy that I've been developing feelings for, I think. I've known him for three years now, and though he's a huge flirt I don't think he was ever serious. He and I have many of the same interests, he obviously cares about me as a person, and I do find him physically attractive. The only thing is... he has a girlfriend already, and that girlfriend happens to be one of MY friends. I would NEVER do anything to jeopardize my relationship with either of them, and it would be a serious dick move to think "Well, I'll just wait until they break up." So he's out.

But that still leaves me with my problem. (Cont'd)

So I'm playing through the game for the first time and I'm determined to get the best ending where Shepard lives. In a few days I'm going to use a free 2-day Xbox Live Gold pass to download every DLC I want, including the Extended Cut, so EMS needed for the ending will be lowered. After I get the DLCs I'm going to let the Gold membership expire and never sign up again, since I don't want internet. However, I doubt that even with the Extended Cut that I'll be able to get the best ending since my readiness rating will cut EMS in half.

I know that the Infiltrator game for my phone will help increase it, so I'd like to get that. But my main question is, how does it work? I mean, I don't want to get it only to find out that I can't use it to raise my readiness rating. Do you have to have Xbox Live Gold to upload its information to your Xbox and raise the readiness rating? Or will the super basic, free version of Live do the trick? And if so, how would you upload the information? Please guys, I'm really worried. I gotta have that ending. Thanks in advance.

I'm worldbuilding for a sci-fi novel I want to write, and I'm currently working with an alien species that's giving me a bit of trouble. Any help would be appreciated, I just have a couple of questions.

The species lives on a moon orbiting a gas giant, and they rotate at the exact speed so that the gas giant is always eclipsing the sun. Two major questions here: first, is there any way for the moon to not be a frozen ice ball? Would it be possible to perhaps make the planet so close to the sun that enough energy could get around it for the moon to sustain life? And my second question is a bit less pressing - is it possible for a gas giant to be one color on one side, and another color on the other? Say, a blue side and a red side? Not with like a clearly defined line or anything, but I mean split along the side (like, longitude) rather than the equator. Sorry, but I'm not very knowledgeable about this kind of stuff. Again, any help is appreciated. :)

Last night I spent a few hours playing Mass Effect 2 (on the second disc). I wasn't playing for very long and I don't have Xbox Live so it's not like it could have overheated. I left the disc in overnight and turned the console off but left it plugged in. Just a few minutes ago I went to play it and it told me it couldn't read the disc. I took the disc out and saw that there was a sort of weird stain along one edge of the disc. It can read all my other discs, but not that one. It's dead.

Does anyone have any idea why this could have happened? Nothing happened overnight, there were no power surges or anything and there was no way water could have been spilled on it. The disc is just suddenly dead. It's my favorite game and I'm really upset about this. Please help if you can, thanks.

All the passive aggressive insults and jabs at the other party... really renews your faith in humanity, doesn't it?

You know, one of those nightmares where something is absolutely terrifying in the dream, but you wake up and go "...what the hell?"

Like, last night I had a dream that if you were playing The SIms 3 and you saved your game while there was a fire in your house, a SIm would disappear from their bed. I tried it and saw a cutscene where my Sim was sleeping and then disappeared, and it absolutely terrified me. Another time I dreamed I saw a picture of a girl with a bow on her head... and then the bow turned sideways, which scared me so bad I wouldn't turn my back on any pictures on the wall for weeks. Have you ever had a nightmare like that?

My phone has always shown me the mobile version of Y!A, but today I had to switch to the desktop version to do something. And now I can't figure out how to get back to the mobile version. I've tried visiting other sites, restarting my phone, deleting my cookies... nothing works. I really need to be able to use the mobile version because the desktop version is slower than a snail and nine times out of ten eventually completely freezes up my phone. So how can I get back to the mobile version? Please help! (I have an Android by the way.)