TheFurryOne.net Blog Archives December 2003

Please be advised that the content on these pages is STATIC and for archival purposes only. Links may not work.

Tuesday, December 2, 2003 1:04:15a: *
So I haven't actually done anything on the site in a week... I've been busy. Sick, mostly. I do, however, have a few things I'd like to mention.

First, there's the X Quiz. I whipped this up pretty quickly over Thanksgiving, and figured it would be stingy of me to not share the love. It will get added to the Dynamic Toys page later tonight. (On a related note, if anyone in the forums has a new idea for a Dynamic Toy that is NOT a quiz, I'm game for it.)

Secondly, I'm getting ready to scrap the whole "So You Want To Be An Otaku" subsection, just because it was a lame joke that's been taken too far much better by other people more talented than I. If you want to make fun of otaku, fine by me; I just figure I could do better satire on a different subject. We'll see if the sight of it still repulses me in a week or so.

I haven't updated "What's In My..." for a while now. I ought to do that now, just so I make a liar of myself... done.

I removed ~~Thor~~ J.R. Antrim's page from the links section. Maybe it's me but he's been stingy with the funny of late. Very stingy. So, out he goes. Not like he got many hits from me anyway.

Anyway, the wireless connection is wacky tonight, so FFXI is out of the question. I'm going to fire up Warcraft.

On an unrelated note, Hell has frozen over.

Tuesday, December 2, 2003 11:52:05p: *
Gamespot is reporting on a case of assault with a deadly weapon against an Xbox. Yes, an Xbox can take a 9mm and still survive. Well, maybe not survive-- the impact shock will blast the electronics inside, like the hard drive-- but the case will not have a hole in it.

I'm glad MS has finally made a bulletproof product, but in this case I'd much rather have it be "bulletproof" in terms of security...

Wednesday, December 3, 2003 2:29:34a: *
Just having a random thought, here. I've always said that the best way to get all those old, obscure, good games translated or whatever would be to do it yourself, right? To just get some venture capital, hire some talented hackers, and piece together the game, right? The problem, of course, lies in getting the cash. VC brokers, from my limited knowledge of loan sharking, tend not to front the cash for products that have a very niche market. So odds are pretty good that they'll be less than enthused to produce a translation of the Atelier series.

Here's a solution. People placement. You know how advertisers will clamor to add their products into just about anything these days? Why not sell off the chance to be in a video game? You know, for 0 we'll stick your name in the game as a random NPC, and for ,000 we'll rename a plot NPC after you. (This will piss some people off, but think of it this way-- there can be an option to turn off the "placed names".) It's a solution that benefits everybody-- the developer gets money and people get to play games that they otherwise wouldn't see in English. I like this idea.

Wednesday, December 3, 2003 10:10:55a: *
Couple things to mention this midweek. I got my rear in gear and did some more PHP coding, resulting in the poll you see to your right. You'll find it to be a nifty little application that will be very much used in the coming months. What's more, the technical bits behind the poll allow me to change it very quickly and very painlessly-- and, thanks to some quick education in dynamic arrays and suchlike, I can have as many options as I'd ever want. All things considered I'd like to use this poll more than the poll option in the forums, particularly because this poll is more "visible" to visitors.
The Gunslinger Girl site is just about ready. Forum-gumi can check it out early, but others will have to wait until it's "ready" ready.
I'm not sure what will come of all this productivity, but something very typical has indeed been produced from it. I had previously misplaced certain parts of my Top Gun soundtrack and Queen greatest hits CDs. Specifically, I could always find the disc for one but the case for the other. So about five months ago I just said "hell with it" and put what I found away on my shelf. This morning I managed to find and rightfully place all the pieces. Five months, and here I was thinking I'd have to go out and buy a new Queen CD.
And they say programmers are disorganized.
That reminds me, need to update "What's In My...". Off to do that, and then back to Vana'diel. I'm late already.

Thursday, December 4, 2003 5:42:44a: *
This strip, from D.C. Simpson's wonderful comic Ozy & Millie, got me thinking about a similar stunt I pulled a long, long time ago. Yes, this is a long-winded and self-indulgent story, but it has a point. Plus, well, I kinda want to apologize to the victim.

So the tale begins at my house, some fifteen years ago now. Three things must be observed about my situation at the time. First, I was in fourth grade-- probably my favorite year of school before hitting high school and finding out that being weird could in fact get me a very good job down the line. Because I was relatively happy in school, I made a few friends-- or rather, attempted to. I invited Jeremy-- a kid who rode the same bus as I did-- to my house. The second thing was that, being 4th grade, I was permitted to join the band for the first time, and my weapon of choice turned out to be the trombone. This was before it dawned on me that I have no musical talent whatsoever. The third and final thing was that my parents had recently given me a Game Boy-- and this was back when they were pretty scarce. Those of you born after 1990 probably don't remember those times.

With the setup prepared, the situation goes like this. I had invited Jeremy over to the house and he was busy playing the Game Boy. Focused intently on it, actually. A little too intently. So I unlatched the trombone case, readied my instrument, and let out a deafening BLAAAAAAAAAAAT! that caused him to drop the game boy and the rest of my family to hit the roof in terror. I recall my sister made a particularly memorable squeaking noise for ten minutes afterwards. Jeremy never returned to my house. If memory serves me right, he went goth in high school, and God only knows what happened to him after that. (Note to the other Jeremy, the one who lived up the hill from me-- wuzup?)

The experience taught me three things. The first was that being weird for weird's sake is not always appropriate, funny, or even the wisest course of action. The second is that I have no musical talent, because the note that I played was later described as "crap sharp". And the third thing is that it is difficult to be stealthy with a trombone. Difficult, but not impossible.

That is all.

Thursday, December 4, 2003 5:47:40a: *
Actually, no, that's not all. I just remembered another pastime of mine. After the incident with the game boy, I was transferred to the percussion section of the band. With the big crash cymbals.

It's a lot easier to be stealthy with crash cymbals. For one thing, they're more aerodynamic.

Thursday, December 4, 2003 9:58:23p: *
Trip to Erie, and Christmas shopping part one. Managed to get the first few gifts together, and also picked up a little something for me. The ending to Love Hina. I'd previously downloaded volumes 1-12 before they were available here-- fan-translated, of course-- and promised myself that I'd get the real ending when it was out here. Well, it is, and it's here. Now, just to read it over...

...oh yeah, and sleep. Sleep would be good, too...

Thursday, December 4, 2003 10:02:15p: *
Oh, one last bit. Submitted for the record, the Media Play in Erie sells Pocky. I don't think that needs any more explanation.

Friday, December 5, 2003 11:10:03a: *
I said, initially, that I wasn't gonna do this. But then again, that was last year-- when I'd initially created The House of Urashima (the Love Hina sub-site of TFO.net), I chose to leave it as a one-shot deal, without updating it. But, having read over The Ultimate Final We Really Mean It This Time Akamatsu-san Has Left The Building Ending, I think it's worth adding in the last little bit. So the Final Spoiler page now has the basic information on all the girls.

Friday, December 5, 2003 11:25:36a: *
Oh yeah, almost forgot this. Yesterday I was being watched in the bookstore by two somewhat attractive young ladies. I was perusing the manga, of course. So, finally, I stood up, did the whole Agent Smith neck-crack thing, and turned to face them, perhaps to ask them if they wanted to have lunch with me.

Then I tripped on a stool and fell flat on my face in front of them.

When I got up, they were nowhere to be seen. Weird...

Sunday, December 7, 2003 3:21:21a: *
Quiet night, not busy at all. The wireless network at work was destroyed, so no FFXI for me. I'm waiting for my next call so I can fire up WC3 and play through a mission in peace.

Speaking of missions, let's talk a bit about Sword of Mana. I traded in a couple games on Thursday to pick it up. One thing must be said in any discussion of the game-- it is Final Fantasy Adventure done right. (I choose to call it FFA as opposed to Seiken Densetsu because, well, it originally was a Final Fantasy game in Japan. It was just retroactively excised from the canon, but not until FF added the idea of moogles.) The translation (while not exactly spot-on in places) is good, the graphics are phenomenal (even after playing LoM), and the battle system is WAY improved over FFA. In FFA you had no idea of the effectiveness of your attacks, as the damage indicators didn't appear. They do now. Also, magic is an engaging and interesting part of the story (the elementals all introduce themselves with atrocious puns, but they're also personable and kinda cool). So it's good. Except for the twenty-minute cut-scene in Wendel, dumping you into a dungeon at the end (this is for the heroine's quest)-- with no save point in sight. Note: SAVE before you go into the cathedral. I mean it.

I've been toying with the notion of getting rid of a system. I barely have enough time to play what I do have, and to be honest, there's very little in the way of upcoming stuff for one of my machines. You guessed it-- the XBox. I'm far less excited about True Fantasy Live Online now than I was before picking up FFXI; I really don't care too much for console FPS games, like Halo 2 or the like; and to be honest, the games I am looking forward to-- Sonic Heroes, Advent Rising, and a few others-- are all cross-platform. The three games I own right now are Amped, Tetris Worlds, and DOA3-- none of which have been played in at least two months. I do enjoy the spot of Live every once in a while, and Tetris was a good way to do that; but I have little desire to continue supporting a machine I barely play. We shall see.

Carmen Sandiego on PS2. Most interesting, though I'm a bit partial to the Fox animated series with Rita Moreno in the title role.

Anyway, the call is complete, so I'm off to play WC3. Later.

Monday, December 8, 2003 10:40:49a: *
Something interesting. I have more hits so far this month from Google Japan than I do from any other country's version of Google. As a matter of fact, I have more hits from Google Japan than any other search engine.

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Monday, December 8, 2003 7:43:05p: *
"THQ to punish PS2 and Xbox".

I have to question the wisdom of using this headline. Some would argue that THQ is already punishing those systems (Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick, anyone? How about WWF Smackdown!: This Game Has Been Made Seven Times? Ooh! Ooh! Toxic Grind!).

Tuesday, December 9, 2003 5:59:11a: *
I made a small, but noticeable change to the way I do the links page. Considering it was only a small thing to change the javascript code for BlogThis!, I can't really say it was too difficult... but I can now add links to my page on the fly with a similar tool. Other than that, not much else going on.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003 6:50:34a: *
Did some minor fixes to the site tonight, including bug fixes to the Numerolomatic and First and Last. Thanks to Slipgate for pointing out the bugs, which actually were there since the beginning; I was just too lazy to fix them until someone called me on them. I assure you, that's not the case with all my work. Just these, because I figured nobody would ever actually use them, let alone notice a few pesky logic errors. Well, that, and I wanted to encourage creativity with respect to First and Last. Yeah, that explanation will work.

Probably working on a few other subsections later-- maybe fleshing out the Gunslinger Girl site a little more, maybe amputating the "So You Want To Be An Otaku" section. On two related notes: The UPS rant, linked only once on the main page, somehow has become one of the most popular pages on my site; additionally, the Gunslinger Girl site went live a little sooner than I would have wanted (I honestly expected that site to take longer to process my link, but eh). Anyway, I'll also be spending a bit of time in Vana'diel, too. We shall, as I oft say, see.

Thursday, December 11, 2003 8:58:32p: *
So I didn't actually do any work on the site this weekend. Sue me. I still have time, I'll probably do something. If by "something" you mean "play Final Fantasy XI".

I haven't spoken of that much lately, but I think after 45 days it warrants at least a little more discussion. There exists a certain plateau for each job, at which point it becomes impossible to fight effectively on your own. For Red Mages, like myself, that level is apparently 13. After making it to level 15, I managed to gather about a third of the experience needed before beginning the Cavalcade of Death-- four times I was killed. Each time I lost about 7.5% of my experience, because I was resurrected by a passing friendly white mage... except the next-to-last one. Twenty minutes passed... and I was in a high-traffic area. Nobody would even give me the courtesy of shouting for a white mage. So I wound up respawning (sacrificing 10% of my XP) in an extremely dangerous area. I made an attempt to head back to town. I was cut down about thirty seconds later. Again, costing me 10% of the experience needed to gain a level. I narrowly avoided being busted back to 14.

And then, last night, I joined up with a group who were hunting lots of tough monsters. Mostly red mages, like me... and the opportunity for some of them to start taking an offensive stand instead of healing each other was a blessing. I easily made up for my deaths, but I'll need to head back to try to make more progress towards 16 and beyond.

Part of the reason it was slow going was because I was the lowest-level character, and there were 6 of us. But I don't mind, really. Anyway, CSI now, and probably a nap after that. Later, folks.

Thursday, December 11, 2003 10:38:23p: *
CSI was good, but something happened while watching that seriously worries me.

I'm sure by now you've seen this, but the short version for those who haven't is that Rockstar Games (developer) and Take Two Interactive (publisher) are being investigated in Florida for possible hate crime activity regarding their smash hit game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Let's set aside the whole "it's a game, we didn't actually kill anyone and so far nobody has killed anyone exclusively because of the game" bit for a moment, because quite frankly that's been done to goddamn death and nobody is ever really going to listen to it.

Future copies of Vice City-- which would be all except the millions released since the game's debut last year-- are going to be censored, having all of the anti-Haitian content removed. Is this a good thing? No, but it's better than having the game completely recalled and made illegal to own in Florida. Of course, that's a bit like saying that getting your face sliced off with a piece of mirror is better than being skinned alive and dumped in a river with a moth down your throat, to put it in terms of Hannibal Lecter atrocities.

What bugs me more than anything is that when the game was released last year, I was working in Electronics Boutique, and made a comment to the effect of "Rockstar basically just wanted to make the most offensive video game possible while still getting an M rating. GTA3 was offensive, yes, but people liked it. Now, with Vice City, they're aiming to piss everyone off." I should probably update this by saying that Manhunt looks very offensive to me simply because going around and beating the almighty crap out of everyone does not look like a fun game to me, despite whatever acclaim it may undoubtedly garner. And bear in mind that's only my opinion-- if random death is your thing, hey, enjoy it; far the hell away from me, thank you very much. But otherwise the statement still holds true. Rockstar and Take Two designed these games from the ground up to make people angry, and they've succeeded. So why in the name of all that is holy would you apologize for that?

What I really want to know is, if the activist group had spoken up before the game was out-- instead of now, a year after its release, when literally millions of copies are on the shelves-- what would have happened? This is a bit like screwing with Uncle Tom's Cabin. She wrote it, get over it. Once it's out, it's out; and unless it's doing real damage to society-- real damage, mind you, as in advocating real genocide, not just shaking up the status quo-- unless it's killing real people, you might as well try to stop a hurricane.

I'm sorry, was the hurricane remark offensive to people living in Florida? Maybe I wasn't referring to a hurricane, but rather Ruben Carter, The Hurricane. Or is that offensive to black people; a rich white boy referencing a falsely-tried black man in a discussion about video games? Or have I really crossed the line by even mentioning race to begin with? And another thing, why am I using English like some imperialistic f**k? In the interests of fairness, shouldn't I be translating this into every language known to man? But then isn't that unfair to the languages which will be developed in the future, and as a result I need to translate this into those languages, which don't yet exist?

I'm sure you see my point in the previous paragraph; it's one that I've mentioned many times on many boards and in many ways, but the bottom line is this: people will bitch about anything. Humankind has a need to collectively pull its head out of its ass and get on with the business of funking up the environment and launching nuclear missiles into space (these processes are more commonly known as progress).

In conclusion, I hate the Scottish^* now because Rockstar North is based in Scotland.

^*: No, not really. It's a joke. You do understand "joke", right?

Friday, December 12, 2003 7:52:52a: *
And now, once again, Something I Noticed:

A Mithra Red Mage is basically what Lina Inverse would be if she were a catgirl.

This has been, Something I Noticed.

Sunday, December 14, 2003 5:15:28a: *
Since losing wireless access at work, I've been exercising different methods of time-killing. Primarily, Warcraft III.

After achieving a modicum of success in the Human campaign (I made it to Northrend with little trouble), I thought it might be a good idea to try a skirmish against an Easy computer opponent. Two things are incorrect with that sentence. The Easy computer opponent wasn't. And the "skirmish" turned out to be a slaughter. So I guess I'm not even going to touch multiplayer until I've finished the full campaign. And Frozen Throne, which I might pick up this week.

Sorry, Andrew, but this may take me a while.

Sunday, December 14, 2003 10:13:06a: *
We got him.

As of 7:00 AM EST, on Sunday, December 14th, a long, convoluted, and undoubtedly bloody era in Iraqi history-- and in fact the world's history-- has come to an end. U.S. forces in Iraq, near Tikrit, apprehended and captured former President Saddam Hussein. The dictator who gassed his own people, led the United Nations through a ten-year shell game, and pissed off an already wounded nation, is now going to face the music.

I want to extend my sincerest and most heartfelt thanks to the troops stationed in Iraq in both conflicts in the region, first in 1992 and again in 2003. Though when this war began, I could not understand its reasons, I am no less appreciative of the sacrifices and losses made on the part of the U.S. and U.N. member nations' forces. Your reward is great; greater than can be measured in this world. Be proud, for you have won a true victory.

However the real war is not over. Even now Osama bin Laden still roams free, and his Al-Qaeda force still plots acts of unspeakable terrorism. Even as I write, the deaths still continue in Iraq-- the news just now told of a soldier killed while trying to disarm a bomb. Hate and evil still hold sway over this tortured, blood-stained land of ours. We must now work to ensure that the use of force is no longer an inevitability. We must strive to destroy that which would destroy us-- our own hatred.

We are now a world in jubilation. We must become a world of peace.

This Christmas, "Peace on Earth" seems just a little bit closer.

Monday, December 15, 2003 9:24:06a: *
Hey, folks. Hope you had as much fun this weekend as I didn't. (i.e. dealing with angry people over the ohone) So rather than bore you with further details on how much my job sucks-- which can conveniently be located in the forum-- I'll instead tell a tale of Christmas Present. S. Christmas presents. It sounded clever when I typed it, kind of a clackety-clack of genius. Oh well.

I'm almost done with my shopping for this year, actually. Meaning I started. I have but to finish picking up the stuff on my list, and wrap it. Both steps of which I can easily complete during this upcoming "weekend" (ie Wednesday-Friday interval). Which is good because if I tried doing it next weekend it would be kinda suspicious, considering there's only ten days left. Anyway, a final trip to Erie this week will round out what I need to do. Additionally, I don't know whether or not I'll be able to do this or not, but I think I have the whole of next week off-- in this instance, from Monday until Saturday. Which would be really good.

As with everything, we shall see. I end a lot of these little blurbs with that, but it's never less appropriate no matter how many times I say it.

If you haven't read it yet, the post below, regarding Iraq, was mentioned as being insightful by a couple people who e-mailed me. And if you're a member of the Insomnimancers and haven't registered for the forum yet, please do so, in case you want to make an announcement of any kind. Or just want to complain about the linkshell message. 'Cause, you know, I could put something really disparaging about Tarutaru on there... OK, I'm rambling and drowsy. Talk to you folks later.

Monday, December 15, 2003 6:35:09p: *
For the record, I've experienced no problems with the latest FFXI patch, so far. I probably won't be able to give it a thorough run-through for a while, but no problems as of yet.

I do have to say, though, it's kind of interesting seeing Windurst's trees decked out in holiday style.

Monday, December 15, 2003 8:19:43p: *
Forum-gumi know why I'm freaked. For the rest of you, updates to the site are on hold until further notice.

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:14:32p: *
Preliminary Mission Report, Filed 2109 EST, 18 Dec 2003
The mission was completed successfully.
Primary Mission Objective: Acquire three target items for distribution to family on 25 Dec 2003: Accomplished.
Secondary Mission Objective: Evade capture and/or contact with Enemy Agent designation Alpha Tango: Completed. No enemy encounters.
Secondary Mission Objective: Defeat Alpha Tango in combat, if encountered. Not Applicable. No enemy encounters.
Secondary Mission Objective: Gather evidence to utilize against Alpha Tango. FAILED. Alpha Tango did not approach Home Point.
No casualties reported. Further details are forthcoming.

Friday, December 19, 2003 7:28:06p: *
Wow. 3000 hits. Well, 3000 hits from other people. Groovy. I ought to do something to commemorate it, but eh.

Also, more information regarding The Ketchup Stalker is pending. I'll probably give the full scoop tonight-- or tomorrow morning, after work. Know that regular updates will resume...

...now.

During my trip to Erie, I picked up the last few gifts for Christmas, but also indulged myself a little. I picked up some manga-- Escaflowne vol. 3, which Pez REALLY ought to read, and a curious little shojo anomaly called Princess Prince. Avoid it, really, unless you a) have no issues with a boy named Princess Lori, and b) you can accept the fact that you're going to be damned confused for about three chapters. CPM manga could have done really well to separate the side-stories OUT from the main tale. If there's a second volume-- which I really doubt-- I'm probably not going to drop the needed for it...

Anyway, being the Wild ARMs freak that I am, I also picked up the last few volumes of that particular anime. So the boxed set is complete. And to be honest I'm still not all that sure why exactly I am watching it. It's not really all that great. But it's harmless fluff, I guess-- hilarious at times, mind-numbingly boring at others... A serviceable series, in the end, but not really worth rushing out to get. I had a choice between finishing WA or picking up the entirety of Lain. I still intend to get Lain, but for the money I'm getting just about the same net worth. I also need to hunt down the last volume of KO Beast.

Examining my media rack, I realize that I now own 11 complete anime series, two partial (Noir and KO Beast), and 5 standalone discs (three of them being movies related to series). The longest complete series I own is Love Hina (9 discs), the shortest is tied between Ah! My Goddess and FLCL (3 discs each). Of all the anime I own, only two series have yet to be watched fully-- WA (which I just got) and Record of Lodoss War: Chronicle of the Heroic Knight (which I'll have to start over some weekend, or take it home with me at watch it on the laptop over Christmas). The largest number of "open" series that I've ever had at one time is 7. I've purchased only 3 "complete" series (ie boxed sets).

So I spent half an hour analyzing my anime habits. Big deal. Doesn't necessarily mean I'm a complete dork. What it does mean is that my mind is gradually going back to something approaching normal.

Friday, December 19, 2003 11:56:13p: *
A Question For Those Smarter Than Me:

I want to get around the firewall at work. I know a few ports which aren't blocked by the firewall. What I want to do is use my home computer (Nadesico) as a proxy server through a VPN. i.e.:

Aestivalis -> VPN -> Nadesico -> Real Internet

What software will I need to do this?

Saturday, December 20, 2003 9:06:47p: *
Well, I finished watching Wild ARMs this evening. I have to stand by my initial assessment. It was a decent story-- and yes, Slip, your admonition did turn out to be true-- but for the most part I probably should have picked up Lain instead.

Let's go into a little more detail-- and bear in mind, there will be spoilers. So let's start with Mirabelle. Two episodes about her, back to back. Kinda neat, but I wish maybe they'd have expanded it out a little more. And also I wish ADV had done their homework in translating her race's name. In the first episode, she's a Crimson Noble (the correct translation, canon from the games)... but later on she's only a Crimson Noble in the subtitles, and a "Noble-Red" in the dub. Why have you betrayed my faith in the dub, ADV? WHY???!!!

Actually, there's a hell of a lot of mistranslation, which is probably why I waited eight months to finish the series. Gella have suddenly become "gala" (pronounced inexplicably as "gay-laa"); Filgaia is alternately Fargaiya, Falgaia, and any other number of mistransliterations in the subtitles; Zed-- who was obviously Zed, no mistaking that character design-- became "Jett" (which I suppose was an attempt to follow canon, but come on-- Zed, Quarter Knight from WA1 looks NOTHING like Jet Enduro from WA3rd); and the ROOF thing wasn't really explained very well. Nor did they even bother to explain what ARMS stood for, like they do in every other WA work... All in all, a disappointing localization job; dreadfully faithful to how Sony localizes WA games, however.

I want to nitpick a little bit about the character design, too. Kiel is a one-dimensional "mysterious guy" throughout the first nineteen episodes. Cheyenne is basically Marshall Pimp-Daddy Dillon. Loretta's nothing more than what you'd get if Gene Starwind had Faye Valentine's boobs. And Valeria? Jeebus, how much more obvious can you bleeding get? To be honest, I really liked Mirabelle's character design, and the interaction between Isaku-- er, Isaac-- and Jerusha was perfect. I just honestly wish Sony had extended funding and given the series the four extra episodes it so desperately needed; character development outside of Cheyenne is practically nil.

The basic feeling I'm getting from this is that I think maybe Twilight Venom would have been better off as a game, rather than a series. Maybe if Contrail wants to do a GBA side story or even a PSP version, the story would be worth revisiting and revising. Oh well; I'm not really going to complain. After all, we're getting two brand-new Wild ARMs games real soon-- I will place a bet that Alter Code F is out in the U.S. before the end of 2004. Probably with some stupid mangling of the title, like Wild ARMs Director's Cut or something, but it will be out here by Christmas of next year. And Another Code F... mid-2005 at the latest.

Anyway, time for work. More info on the Tale of Two Sauces is forthcoming. When I know, the forum-gumi will know... and then maybe you guys.

Sunday, December 21, 2003 3:23:58a: *
I've got some time, folks, so before I begin let me say this. Some of the things I say here are going to step on some religious toes. Those who know me best know what I mean by the following. Those who don't know me will probably misunderstand this post, and get the wrong impression. That's fine. You don't have to believe what I say as gospel; you don't even have to read it. So if you seem to think that I'm attacking you personally, and there's at least one group out there that will, then don't. Just go away and live your life without bothering mine, because any flames regarding the following passage will be deleted without response or recourse.

All right. That feels better.

I want to talk a quick bit about the announced Narnia movies. Some of you may wonder what exactly the whole religious CYA paragraph has to do with children's literature, but there's a point. See, C.S. Lewis originally wrote the Narnia books, way back in the early 1900s, as a great big allegory to the Christian religion. ("Christian" encompassing all of Christianity, from Roman Catholic to extreme fundamentalist.) I have no problem with this, of course. Seeing a set of tales which, in my younger days, I enjoyed (even if I didn't quite figure it all out at the time), brought to the big screen... well, it's a bit like how a few people felt when they heard about LOTR.

But this is already causing divisions among the party lines, as it were. Several threads attached to the Slashdot discussion pretty much degenerated into Christian-bashing, or atheist-bashing, or (in one particularly zealous, if somewhat confused, poster's case) Muslim-bashing. I'm not entirely sure why, except to blame the hair-trigger sensitivity-alarmist society we live in now, where speaking your mind is a Bad Thing(tm). "You can't make the Narnia movies because they're pro-Christian!" "You can't tell us not to make them, because you're an atheist!" "C.S. Lewis added racist passages into The Final Battle that will anger blacks and Muslims!" Nothing is sacred anymore because everything is sacred.

Even here at work things are coming to a head. One tech announced over the broadcast email that he could not celebrate Christmas because his particular sect of Christianity doesn't celebrate it; and he laid the guilt on thick in between the lines. So the atheist sitting next to me laid into him in a (thankfully private) reply; and the two of them have been going back and forth for a few days now. The first tech asked me what I thought about it, and I told him the truth. "People will believe what they want to believe. It's not my place to change anyone or to even care about anyone else. I celebrate Christmas primarily because I like cherry-flavored candy canes. If you don't, that's not my problem, and I'm frankly offended that you'd try to change someone into somethng they don't want to be."

My sister once accused me of being too inquisitive for my own good. In some respects, she's right. I sincerely want to know what makes these people so dead-set in their ways, what possible reasons they could have for peeing in everybody else's well just because they don't hold the same opinion. I want to know how they can tell me I'm wrong when it's so obvious to anyone else that they're not right.

I want to know it all. But there's some things I know I'll never understand. The mind of a woman. How Windows really works. God. All these things will probably remain great big question marks in my mind. But the fact of the matter is that it won't stop me from hunting for information on them. Be it experience, anecdotal evidence, or maybe just plain hearing someone else's point of view. Because in all those pursuits, in every one of those quests, it's not the answer that drives me. It's not the lack of an answer. It's how much fun the question can be.

So in short, I'm going to probably watch the Narnia movies. I'll probably like them, or I might just hate them. I don't know yet. But one thing I will definitely do is take them at face value, and not read more into them than is really there. If you don't chase shadows, then you can't be scared by them, right?

Sunday, December 21, 2003 8:46:08a: *
Every once in a while the desire to make a desktop image of my own seizes me. It doesn't happen often, but it happens enough that I managed to crank out two in the past three days. So rather than hoard the love all to myself, I've uploaded them to the appropriate sections. From now on, all desktops (when created) will be found on the index page of the section to which it belongs. Of course, I'll probably also mention them on the front page, like this...

	Wild ARMS Twilight Venom: Mirabelle Graceland A pretty simple, and unfortunately grainy, collage starring everyone's favorite cute little vampiress. 1024x768, 135KB Download
	Xenogears: Red X Of Death A couple of familiar quotes, used to nice effect with the Xenogears logo. 1024x768, 152KB Download

So I hope you like these. More to come as time goes by.

By the by, Andrew? I finished the Human campaign in WC3. Three more to go, man... slowly but surely.

Sunday, December 21, 2003 8:33:54p: *
OK, I like BitTorrent, and I like AnimeSuki. However, trying to use one with the other is giving me migraines.... for some reason the torrents I started downloading for Scrapped Princess slowed to an absolute crawl, and now I can't get back to AS to try to resume the download.... Oh well, I'll lay money on the fact that I at least got episode 1 and can try watching that.

As always, more info is forthcoming.

Thursday, December 25, 2003 11:03:55a: *
I meant to do this much, much earlier... but then again, no holiday ever runs perfectly.

From everyone affiliated with TFO.net to everyone reading (which may or may not be the same people), we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

Now if you'll excuse me, the usual barrage of calls here at home awaits me...

Saturday, December 27, 2003 8:46:18p: *
It wouldn't be the holidays without the warm, delicious scent of fresh Disturbing Search String Theater. So, without futher delay--

(phantasy star iv) fake code

Mmmmm, you can taste the country goodness. I wish we could have wacked-out search strings the whole year through.

Sunday, December 28, 2003 1:44:43a: *
So yeah. Battling the cold from hell and struggling to remain vertical here at work. What really cheeses me off is that even when I do get a chance to try to sleep, I can't. So I'm off to the grocery store first thing in the morning in order to get that magical liquid needed to put me into a Nyquil coma. I've found that the caplets don't work quite as well as the good old-fashioned vile-flavored elixir... To rip a quote from Brian Clevinger, "if NyQuil isn't the last thing you want to do when you take it, then that's too bad because it will be."

In any event, I'm slowly dropping into the depths of dayquil-wearing-off-fog, so I'll have to cut this short. But more news is forthcoming, as always. I'll probably have a game rant soon.

Sunday, December 28, 2003 5:46:37a: *
I want to add a new feature to the site, soon... something everyone can enjoy and reap the benefits of, and not just me. So far the only thing I've created that's useful to more than one person is the Character-O-Matic, and that doesn't count because I've all but scrapped the campaign idea anyway. The quizzes are an interesting waste of time, and I suppose the Numerolomatic has its charm, but for the most part they're just that-- wastes of time. I'd like to add something that people would like to use. Something unique, you know? A while back I'd toyed with the idea of an online collection registry-- you know, someplace to store a list of your games, anime, etcetera... It could be done pretty easily, if I use a similar setup to the poll... I'd have to implement a login system, though-- so people can't just alter other peoples' lists willy-nilly. And that would be tricky. I really don't want to screw around with the forum login, especially because I don't want to break the forum...

Well, whatever I decide, I suppose I'll have to take my time on it. And I sure as hell can't get it started today-- I'll be lucky if I make it home and in bed before I run into, over, or through something. Time will tell what I decide. It'll either be this or something else, I'm not coherent enough to think of alternatives, but it will be something useful, and I will get it done by the end of January. That's my goal.

Sunday, December 28, 2003 9:23:06p: *
Good evening, folks.

Before I forget in my rush to get to work, which has been much nicer of late, I wanted to mention that I added The 10K Commotion to the online comics links. I'll talk about it in more detail once I get through the archives, but I will say this.

Agent K, please consider releasing a graphic novel of this once it's finished! I'd buy it in a heartbeat! You know I would! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEZE....

Ahem.

Yes, I think that gets the point across, and probably stabs someone with it.

Monday, December 29, 2003 1:01:24a: *
So I got the chance to read through all of 10K Commotion (so far), and my initial fanboy-gushing still stands. It's got me wanting to play DDR even more now, but the problem is that it's hard to find time to play when I won't be pissing off people in the apartment below me or next to me. That'll change after the middle of the month when I go back on days, and should last until the end of April at the very least. (Being horribly sick the past few days doesn't help, either.) So that's that.

I really like the art style, more than anything. The writing is spot-on, of course, and the feeling of suspense-- of not knowing what's going to happen next, or who's going to challenge who, or who Dynamite knows-- really makes it a compelling manga; but for the most part, it's the art style. The artist really does a good job of characterizing the teams even before she puts the words on the images. You know Cyber from his intense stare, Dyna from his easygoing gaze, and Pict from his spastic-ness.

One slight difference, though-- it might not have been a good idea to put the intermissions inline with the story. Sure, she's got it all written out-- and the story is pretty much set in stone-- but we don't; at least, not yet. I was more confused by the fact that the Platinum Mark... well, let's leave that for later. It's probably a bunch of spoilers anyway, and I want to be fair to those of you who have yet to read it.

I think I pretty much know what I want to do for the site. A gamer's registry. Basically, it'd be like XBox Live's Gamertag registry-- but for varying platforms. Basically, players will enter their names and their best scores/times/whatever. An international high score list, if you will. I don't know if it's been done before-- I'm about to Google for it-- but it sounds like an interesting project, if it's unique. I'll update you on the status of this in a bit.

Edit: Near as I can tell, there's no unified, universal high score website. I'll do some more research into this, and probably post further updates in the forums.

Monday, December 29, 2003 3:36:00a: *
Oh, and Pez-- there're actually 2 DDR machines in Erie. We'll hit one next time I'm in town-- probably going to be a weekend.

Monday, December 29, 2003 7:35:18a: *
Rrrrgh.... that's twice now I've come within one step of AA'ing "Long Train Runnin'" on Light. Probably the easiest song on MAX2, but still... I did manage to pull an A on it twice, as well as handling "BREaKDOWN" fairly well (C, but it would have been a B if I'd not slipped on the mat). I still haven't had a chance to try "Twilight Zone" again, to see if I could replicate my AA performance on that track. Must practice more... but neighbors will complain, so no more DDR for me today. Maybe tomorrow morning...

Monday, December 29, 2003 10:14:25p: *
Mad, mad props to Jim-Bob of the Insomnimancers for his lavish, extravagant, and very much appreciated gift this Christmas. I'll still find something for you, man. Rest assured... but the only thing I can think of is the WoT role-playing game manual.... Well, we'll see.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003 2:32:48a: *
Oh yeah, first thing to do in the new year is to send out link letters to everyone added onto the page since May. That's a lot of people... Well, I'll be sending to VG Cats, 10K, Okashina Okashi, Homestar Runner, Weebls stuff, and maybe to a few of the ones who I think may not have got the first letter (Megatokyo, Mac Hall, and Real Life). So not quite as many as I thought. But a few, anyway.

I'm beginning to re-think the whole "high score" site idea. It might be good if I had a more coherent idea of what games I wanted to feature-- and if the games I did want to feature had more coherent scoring systems. Scoring for DDR is tricky at best and nightmarish at worst... For those of you unfamiliar with DDR scoring, I'll give a quick rundown. There are three main methods for evaluating your performance on any given song-- your numerical score, your "grade" (ranging from E to AAA), and your step tally with max combo. Your score is a function of your tally, as is your grade; so ultimately, the purest evaluation of a song comes from the tally. Steps are tallied based on how close you come to being exactly on the beat; precise timing or thereabouts nets you a "Perfect", with the lesser-scoring tallies being "Great", "Good", "Almost", "Boo", and "Miss", in order. Only Perfects and Greats chain together for your combo; hitting a Good or below will break your combo. The ultimate goal of any DDR'er is a "full combo"-- hitting every step with a Great or better to guarantee a maximum combo and a minimum grade of AA. The more Perfects you have, the closer you come to nailing a AAA on a song. So technically two players with AA ratings on the same song could have drastically different skill levels-- one could be all Greats, while the other could be just two or three away from AAAing the song.

The problem arises when you realize that DDR is a series with well over a dozen unique incarnations in the arcade and console sectors, and that each of these has multiple songs. Setting up a relational database for just the songs in each version would be a logistical disaster; and you want me to add scoring tables to each song? Disregarding the impossibility of verifying the scores, it would be a hideous mess of spaghetti code, and a tanglebox of linked entries. Maybe in a little bit.

I'd written a short game about a year and a half ago called Sixteen, and I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea to try to implement it in Flash or something. I don't know what else I could try, off the top of my head, but it would be a start. But I do want to do something semi-cool for January.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003 5:40:05a: *
I ran a google search on an unknown Japanese word I saw next to a character portrait I recognized, hoping to find a definition for the word.

Oh, I found it, all right. The word was her LAST NAME.

I feel that I exemplify the "stupid fat American" stereotype right now.

Wednesday, December 31, 2003 6:15:33p: *
You know those kinds of games where you say "Oh, I'll just play one quick round here before dinner" and when you look up, it's 4AM, you haven't eaten since noon, and there are 20 messages on the answering machine?

Gunbound is the mother of all of those games.