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Sunday, July 3, 2005 8:09:00a: Not Funny Anymore*
The family had a brief scare last night when our cat made a horrible scream from the woods out back. We searched for about half an hour before we found her, totally unharmed and looking at the four of us like we were out of our minds. Needless to say the cat won't be going outside for a while.
That's not really what's bothering me, it's more the obvious and blatant troll in the Sunday papers. Across this great nation of ours, the Doonesbury comic is spitting on the bloggers. Ordinarily I'd just let this slide, as he's basically right-- the majority of bloggers approach this whole writing thing as a hobby and a way to make their voice heard, regardless of whether or not what they have to say is relevant. The thing that bugs me is this: How is that really different from what Fox News does?
The role of a blogger isn't to report the news, though those few who actually do have journalistic bents are certainly welcome to do so (I'm looking at you, uh... well, I don't read any that aren't game-related or obviously blatantly biased so there's no good example here). A bloggers' function is to comment on the news. We (the people, to take this in a patriotic direction) see what happens in the world and then we give our opinions. The rest of the internet categorizes our meanderings and then analyzes them to form not new news, but how the people perceive the news. It is at once an excellent tool for gauging response and a horrible prelude to something a bit more sinister.
In engineering, one of the first things you learn is that if you can't measure an effect, then you cannot control it. What the basic thrust of blogging does is create a measurement of public reaction. Something hits the news and a day later you have a perspective on how the public feels, what they feel, and how many times the parties involved in the news are recommended to go and f[ornicate upon] themselves. Once you have this feedback, you can start to spin your news so that the unpleasantness of the last story is avoided, pandering to everyone equally and upsetting no one.
I can't remember who wrote it first, I'm pretty sure it was Jerry Holkins, but there's a parallel here to the coming state of the game industry. One of these days we're going to open up the newspaper or fire up our RSS feeds and see only "[CONTENT: HAPPINESS +1, RIGHTEOUSINDIGNATION -2, AMUSEMENT +4]" and we'll all read it and go "ping" and be more happy and amused and less righteously indignant. I do not want to go "ping". I want to go "WTF?". Actually, that's pretty much what I'm doing now. Maybe it's already working and "WTF?" is the new "ping".
Yeah. Just a healthy dose of subversive conspiracy theories for your Independence Weekend. 'Cause by God that's what our country was founded on, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to keep that spirit alive.
Enjoy the fireworks, folks.Wednesday, July 6, 2005 8:50:00a: *
So Erie got In The Groove 2 over the weekend, and I managed to play as I made it back into town. I'm only going to say this: Anyone caught playing "Lemmings On The Run" while I am within earshot of the machine will be tackled, violated with a steel pipe, and then beaten to death until they are dead. In other news, I really really hate that song.
Actually, I'm not terribly impressed with the songlist. There are a few nice surprises like "One Wrong Move" but for the most part I'd really rather have another DDR mix (or, more specifically, the DDR Extreme machine back in addition to ITG2). I'm sure one is in the works... but we shall see.
Some of you also know I started up City of Heroes again after getting a time card from someone who knows who they are. I have to admit, maybe it's because I'm a scrapper instead of a blaster this time, but in the five days that I've played I've made it most of the way to level 10, as opposed to the fact that I didn't get that far in three months of playing the blaster character. Or it could be the fact that I'm actually playing CoH more often than I was as a blaster. The badges are a real incentive, too.
By the by, is anyone else as interested in the current Megatokyo diversion as I am? A new world to play in, with Piro and Largo already in the thick of it. Excellent. Speaking of webcomics, most of you already know this, but 10K Commotion updated last week.
Must... resist... urge to log in to City of Heroes... over dialup... hrrrrrrrrng......
*click* "Welcome back to Paragon City."Monday, July 11, 2005 4:34:00p: *
Good mor-- uh, Monday. Yes. Monday. For that is what day it still is.
I've been thinking a bit this weekend, and I came to the conclusion that I'm going to re-establish the AMV of the Month come August 1st. Get your nominations in, folks. Maybe once I'm employed again I'll consider making an AMV of my own. I'd need to get the appropriate gear as well as reclaim the majority of my anime collection first, though.
Come to think of it, I was reading about how and why Kevin Caldwell no longer makes AMVs or enjoys anime in particuar. It is a bit of a childish hobby, but to be honest I don't mind the criticism. As with most things, it depends greatly on one's own self-outlook and self-confidence. I feel I'm far more confident than I was, say, nine years ago; I feel that my choices are my own and that I am allowed to do what others perceive to be childish so long as I enjoy it and don't harm anyone else. It's odd, yes, being twenty-five and still watchin animation, but then again I'm not alone, and I don't think I'm nearly as bad off as other people are. There are fans and there are fanatics; there are the interested and the obsessed; there are those who are all right and those who are in need of help. I hope I'm not one of the second class.
That said, let's talk about video games. The Konami lawsuit has been expanded to include the entire concept of DDR (which was never that original anyway), thus involving the undeserving RedOctane (ITG PS2's distributor) and the very, very, VERY deserving MadCatz (the heinous fiends responsible for MC Groovz Dance Craze) in addition to Roxorgames. All I'll really have to say is that DDR clones were on shaky legal ground to begin with, but even though I dislike ITG2 I don't consider it to be a ripoff as its quality shows some definite thought being put into it. MC Groovz is just plain deplorable.
It seems that my inability to attend Otakon is very nearly a certainty. I had been willing to accept this possibility since January, when I declared my absence (but for a very different reason), but now when I am so close, it still looks like I won't make it. Even if I get the job, I won't have vacation days in time and will have to attend to more pressing financial matters in the meanwhile. If I do get hot before then, though, I'll kindly ask for a proxy to allow me to pick up an import game or two at the Dealer's Room (which is the primary reason I was excited for this year's trip). If we could get pictures, that'd be nifty too. And as always, con reports and thoughts should go here, too.
We'll have to see, but I think I could make it to one or two of the cons over the winter. Anime North is when, again? And in Canada. Score. More news on those as they develop.
Other than that, it's been quiet here. I'm about to go catch Sin City at the dollar theater and then maybe try to get to level 13 in CoH afterwards. Flight is overrated until you get its second-level power anyway. At 14 I'm seriously considering just getting super speed instead of flight, though having both pools ready to go means I'll be all right when I do want to pick up the other power. I just wish Focus wasn't a level 18 power... Hm, at 14 I'm thinking super speed, then at 16 finally taking Reconstruction before going on to focus at 18.
Off to see the movie. Later, folks.Tuesday, July 12, 2005 12:29:00p: *
Glory of glories: According to this Wikipedia article, there is a Mega Man Legends 3 in the works. It's probably just in the planning stages right now, but I am now all aquiver with glee.
Ahem. That's all for now. More news as events warrant.
ohholygodyesthisdayithoughtwouldnevercomethankyoulordforgivingmemoretronbonneipromiseillbegoodifyoujustdontmakemewaitforeverforherTuesday, July 12, 2005 5:00:00p: *
Oh, and this is to Pez, who got to play on a DDR 3rd Mix machine during his recent trip out West:
Maybe, just maybe, tomorrow will continue the streak of happy things to happen to me. We shall see.Thursday, July 14, 2005 11:17:00a: * Combo Broken. I registered meh. back in September (ironically just a week before I was laid off), and while the site is still up, there are rumors that the hosting company I went through, Ripplehost, is tanking. Ultimately, meh. I got a few chuckles out of it for the I paid, and I still have the domain. If it dies before the end of September, meh. If it stays up past that time, meh. I honestly don't care.
It's still early in the day, though. Good news will surely come my way. Oh, I finished "Misadventures of Tron Bonne" about an hour ago. It was good, but I really want a new MML game. Meh. All things in time. I suppose I ought to fire up Star Ocean and see how badly I've forgotten my next goal... Or I could play Cave Story. Or maybe mess around with Meteos... Dammit, I just want a call! The last time I was waiting on a call I went crazy for a week and was totally fixated on the countdown! AAAAAAAAAAARGH SO FULL OF HATE FOR WAITING.
A Styx song comes to mind but right now I'm too busy bipolaring between WAGE./meh. to start it. OH! I completely forgot, I never ripped my Weird Al CDs to iTunes! That'll kill a good hour or so. Sunday, July 17, 2005 11:58:00a: Phone Service Problem*
Please be advised that there is a known issue with my cell phone. Thunderstorms in the area overnight have knocked out a transmitter tower near my house so I am unable to receive a signal. Sprint has no idea when they will be able to get it back up, so for the time being I am stuck in my house with no phone service (no outgoing, and I have been leaving the ringer off on my landline due to repeated 3am phone calls). Anyone looking to contact me will be better off doing so via e-mail at my known addresses.
I imagine that once the rain lets up I'll have cell service in my apartment again, but just as a precaution I'm probably going to take a ride out to Perry Square and Dobbins Landing just to make sure. Besides, I haven't been out that way in a long time. For today, anyway, I'm going to play CoH as long as the DSL stays up or Star Ocean if and when that dies. Later, folks.Sunday, July 17, 2005 4:34:00p: *
My cell phone is working again. That is all.Monday, July 18, 2005 1:19:00p: *
Please let this just be a minor bit of bad news and not the harbinger of a real downward spiral in my life. Who woulda thought she'd go for someone like Jesse James? It's... bizarre. Maybe it's not really Sandra. Maybe it's Bizarro Bullock and this whole thing is just a temptation, something to test my faith in the real Sandra Bullock's purity.
On second thought, maybe Pez has something with that whole Drew Barrymore fetish...
Well, other than that, waiting for calls. Meh.Tuesday, July 19, 2005 1:48:00p: *
I've been meaning to plug this for some time, but Pez recently took a trip out to California for a City of Heroes event. In true literary fashion, he's penning a sprawling, intimate account of what happened during the trip. So far he's made it to about midway through the second day-- still a Friday, so there's two whole days of wackiness yet to come-- and he just keeps adding to it. It's a good read and is very engrossing.
Myself, I'm off to Buffalo again on Thursday. I expect that Thursday night will stretch on to late Saturday as I get my paws on my sibling's copy of "The Halfblood Prince". It's been spoiled for me already but I don't care. The best thing about a book isn't the destination, but the journey.
Besides, do you really think... meh, I don't want to add to the OMGDRAMA surrounding it.
skdSunday, July 24, 2005 1:57:00p: *
Urgh. Been hammering away at a few projects. Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that yesterday I did indeed finish "The Half-Blood Prince", and my opinion on the matter remains unchanged. I had meant for those letters to be much, much smaller, incidentally, but meh.
When I haven't been reading, I've been coding, and when I haven't been doing either of those, I've been tinkering with a D&D adventure I'm hoping to run before I leave Erie. I've yet to come up with a satisfactory conclusion to the d20 Modern "Seth Mythos" campaign, so I may just leave it undone; I've learned a lot about how a good campaign works and how not to set up a campaign world, so if I do re-start the game in Buffalo or Cuba I'll have to retool the whole campaign story. Again, meh. I welcome the opportunity to "start over" and to give players a bit more freedom rather than run them along hastily-conceived story rails. The biggest problem I'd had was that I never figured out a solid story for the players to pursue; there was the party, and there was the monsters, and there was an ultimate goal, but I also wanted to cram in hundreds of other side characters and plot ideas that it soon became unwieldy. I'll have to streamline it if I do resume it. I'll also have to ensure that the players don't get overly powerful weapons at the start. I had the horrible misfortune of not being able to get my head out of Final Fantasy-style damage scales when assigning basic weapons, and subsequently the party has managed to mow down every monster I've sent at them. I expect that if I did put an ancient black dragon lich in the game, they'd finish him off in two, three rounds tops. A dragon lich. In any other campaign this would cause bowel disruption.
On the plus side, I also enjoy playing others' campaigns. Mike has a nice world set up and doesn't mind my dwarven cleric not having a consistent accent. (Sue me, I'm trying to do Scottish without sounding like Sean Connery.) And Alex's campaigns just plain kick ass... we blow shit up, he gives us stuff. Nice balance there. I found myself playing a cleric in the last three tries (including a very short trip into the Temple of Elemental Evil) but I think the next opportunity I get, I'll go for a monk or a ranger, maybe as a halfling. I tend to play too many caster classes, and I tend to rely very heavily on spells when I do. Probably why I'm enjoying being a Scrapper in CoH so much.
Back to the grindstone for me. We'll talk tomorrow afternoon, folks.Friday, July 29, 2005 8:12:00a: The One Where Furry Flips Out And Kills People*
So, the world is coming to an end. I can honestly say this is going to happen with certainty because Warner Brothers Interactive announced a "Friends"-themed video game. Yeah. That's right. A video game based on that insipid ridiculous excuse for a television show which managed to stay on the air as long as it did solely because people expected someone to march on the set with a gun and mow down everyone involved in that televised turd. So naturally it didn't happen and now there's a damned spinoff, "Joey", which is even more intellectually nullifying. To be fair, the game is a trivia game, which is about all you can do with a license as friggin' dumb as "Friends", aside from not make a damn video game about it! Come on, what were you thinking? Is this the same kind of thought process at the WB that almost got Babylon 5 cancelled midway through its story and DID get Bab5: Crusade cancelled? What is wrong with Hollywood, seriously?
(Note to my dad, people with no sense of hyperbole, and anyone who thinks I really will go on a murder spree: The title is a reference to Real Ultimate Power, a page about ninjas. It's almost as dumb as "Friends" but manages to save itself by being self-referential. And about ninjas.)
Rrrrrgh. So full of hate.
Anyway, over the past week or so I've been playing Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, and to be honest it reminds me quite a bit of Shining Force. Admittedly there're going to be similarities in every tactical game, and FE is an evolutionary step from the Advance Wars series. Thing is, though, it's a bit frustrating. So far, about halfway through the storyline, I've only lost two units (one merely a turn after recruiting her, and one because I forgot that pegasus knights are weak against arrows); but I've had to restart many, many times, usually after the main character was killed. Death being permanent and irreversible in this game has added quite a bit of challenge because I've reset to avoid losing a high-level unit. There's no clear method for obtaining new units besides "get close to the named enemies and hope you don't kill them during their turn, when you counterattack for ten times as much damage as they hit you for because the AI is as dumb as a brick". Seriously, each enemy has one weapon and they invariably use it against the party member they're weak against. On purpose. I've taken out so many bad guys while it's not my turn it's not even funny. I don't know if this is a failing in the series or what. What I do like is the sense that you're part of an actual "campaign" as opposed to Advance Wars, where each mission was self-contained (ie you could end Mission 4 with more money than God, but on Mission 5 you would start with six guys carrying sharp sticks and maybe a hundred bucks). Also, since you can't swarm the enemy with mass-produced units, there're a lot more tactical nuances you have to figure out-- the AI isn't that smart, but it still has a few surprises. I'll have a full report on the game soon, once I finish the review for Netjak.
Speaking of which, I've got a review up now for World Championship Poker DS, if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Not much else going on today. I hope to have good news over the next week but I've been busy getting my stuff together for the inevitable move out of Erie. I'll keep you folks updated in the usual way. Later, kids.Friday, July 29, 2005 1:38:00p: Disturbing Search String Theater for July 2005*
Yeah, folks, it's that time again. For those of you just joining us, Disturbing Search String Theater is basically a handful of the strangest phrases which actually led people to my site. Let's dive head-first into the pile now:
mario s adult furry art pages I don't get it. Art done by Mario, art owned by Mario, or art featuring Mario? Either way, why the hell are you looking for it here?
the world record of funking This is held, and will always be held, by the funkiest man in history, George Clinton. P-Funk forever!
ritz final fantasy tactics commercial phone number And here I thought I was desperate for a date...
stevie case boobs I've asked. Really I have. But she keeps siccing John on me and I wind up with Daikatana all over my pant leg.
stuff for neopets related to dot hack manga Let me get this straight, you want to get virtual stuff for your virtual pet based on a virtual virtual reality MMO. Wow. That's the most meta thing I've ever heard.
quaker steak and lube nutrition facts The answer is 'zero'. I love the food to death but, oddly enough, death is what happens if you eat it a lot.
para para paradise nonstop download Hm. A nonstop download, huh? How do you know when it's done? Does it go faster if you have broadband? Oh. Oohh. glut dmg You're missing a couple vowels there, dude.
large lumps all over skinn What the fu--
chiyo pr0n or chiyo pron Just no.
chihiro advice agree adult above Well, pick an a-word and stick with it!
mickey mouse vs. master chief This is tough... Well, I'm not sure, actually, I mean you don't actually see Mickey getting injured, so I would imagine he has a pretty low defense... on the other hand, Master Chief is seven feet tall and Mickey, being a mouse, presumably isn't... Hmmmm. The world may never know.
viera final fantasy nude This is another "just no." moment.
i want 2 instal total annihilation with the web because i broke my cd That's nice. I want a job, a trillion dollars, and maybe a turkey sandwich. But we can't always get what we want. Mmmmmmmmmm.... turkey.
sandra bullock jesse james weird Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.
mmo orgasm As self-restraint prevents me from saying anything really explicit, I'm left with just one word. "Ding!"
For the record, 585 phrases hit as of 1:30 pm today. I decided to skip mentioning the "cloudsong" and "leeroy jenkins" ones primarily because I f***ing hate them but also because they were mostly linked to 'cause of the forum thingummy. Decent number of people to the site, too, with lots of activity and the whole thing remaining pretty much stable; there was a little increase in traffic but not much. I think I'm getting the hang of this "website" thing.