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Sunday, June 1, 2003 5:03:22p: *
Few things I wanted to mention before I got to continuing the real work on the site. Yes, today is the official "this is my site and it is now live" day, so you may commence with the bitching and moaning about how crappy it is. The video game section especially needs redone, particularly because I really don't like the "Morning Sun" idea as much as I did when I first thought of it. And besides, I spend too many of these rants writing about games anyway, so there's little point in repeating myself. Next, I'm sending out letters to the people on my Links page, and I want to thank in advance all those wonderful people for not deleting my mails out of hand. I've gotten through about four or five of the list, and I'll be continuing that soon-- if you haven't already recieved the letter, well... how the hell did you get here so soon, then? Additionally, I wanted to thank Mr. Bill Holbrook and Mr. David Simpson, of Kevin & Kell and Ozy and Millie, respectively. Their encouraging words have steeled my resolve. Thank you. Finally, some gaming news. One of the titles I've been minorly interested in since 2002's E3 was Malice, a pretty spiffy-looking 3D platformer with a unique heroine. Gwen Stefani was to do the voiceovers for the character, and we all know what a voice-whore I can be. (Hell, I'm probably the only anime fan in the world who thinks that the dubbing jobs on most series are actually good.) Alas, despite the critical acclaim the game has been recieving and the promise of a big-name star taking an interest in the title, Malice's publisher has dropped it from its ranks. This saddens me, but a game of that caliber will almost undoubtedly be released When It's Done. Speaking of neverending stories, Duke Nukem Forever won't be coming out in 2003. Raise your hand if you're surprised; Bubba will be by with the hedge clippers soon to relieve you of your optimism. And appendage. Namco mentioned that they're going to push their overseas operations a little harder this coming year, which is a good thing. Maybe now we'll actually get more than one Klonoa game per decade. I want Klonoa Heroes, dammit! They also said some stuff about more Soul Caliburs and Ridge Racers, and (according to GameSpot) an "action-adventure game using character(s) from a popular Namco title". I'm thinking either Pac-Man or Klonoa here. I'll probably be disappointed, but you gotta admit both characters deserve far more attention than they've been getting lately. Square Enix effectively killed any hope of diversifying its lineup by announcing that they were not going to develop games specifically for the overseas market (ie nothing US- or Europe-exclusive). While I can appreciate the economic thought behind it (NA players still tend to shy away from RPGs, thus, they sell less copies and make less of teh munny), it still makes me a little depressed knowing that they're still sore about Secret of Evermore. That's really what it boils down to. Oh yeah, they're going to localize games more quickly, and there will be parity between the Japanese and US release lists, but it's still a shame that Square has not joined us in the 21st century. Konami took a risk in releasing MGS2 in the US before Japan. Sega was pushing it by even considering developing for the X-Box; and we won't even go into the 10th Anniversary launch of Sonic Adventure 2. Hell, even stodgy-ass old Nintendo risked one of its most popular and profitable franchises, Metroid, by (gasp) outsourcing it to Texas. Texas! Oh well; at least FF Tactics Advance is going to be released here soon, and with the series-traditional incomprehensible translation, too! Witness the amazing eloquence of a line (most likely taken out of an even more bizarre context) like "I'd pick 'Final Fantasy'. That's my favorite."! Dare we hope for the return of the grammatically-impaired Professor Daravon? It's too bad we have to wait three months to find out. I don't think I could contain my glee that long. I might make a puddle of excitement in my cubicle on September 9th. I've rambled on long enough. Time to do real work now, I promise. I will not slack off, I will accomplish something, I will.... ....probably keep leveling up my team in Xenosaga. Sunday, June 1, 2003 5:33:25p: * Anime Section open. Additionally, the Video Game Section is temporarily offline due to the fact that I need to redo it. That's this week's project-- conceptualize something to do with the Video Game Section, short of hack it off like a vestigial cancerous stump. On a completely unrelated note, does anyone know how to turn the frigging volume down on an X-Box's sound output? I mean, good Lord, the damned thing is like 5 times louder than all my other game consoles. And no, Dad, I don't have the volume on my stereo turned up to 50 hojillion, either-- everything else is barely audible at 10, which is where the X-Box becomes barely tolerable. I suppose this is God punishing me for buying a Microsoft product... Writing more link letters now. Later.Sunday, June 1, 2003 5:34:57p: *
I am not slacking off. I'm using the X-Box as an MP3 player, thank you very much.Sunday, June 1, 2003 6:50:54p: *
I've written all of the link letters. For some strange reason, the one to Neko Machi didn't go through; it was returned because of some error in the WHOIS database or something. I'll have to knock some heads over at iPowerWeb to get it straightened out. In the meantime, someone go tell Ewen I linked to him and made up nonsense adjectives to praise the comic, OK? I decided that I needed to add more MP3s to my X-Box, so this is pretty much the extent of the work on the site for now. A busy day indeed, and to think I probably never would have gotten any of it done if the power hadn't gone out for four hours this morning. Long story; don't ask. Later, folks and folken. Attention Piro: When I wrote your letter, I forgot to mention that I also linked to FredArt. Sorry. Just a little FYI.Sunday, June 1, 2003 9:19:51p: *
In an interesting twist of fate, X (the movie) was on TV again, so I watched it again. I still don't like it. Let me elaborate. I like X (the series). It's a great story and it's well done. The movie kinda sucks in comparison. This may be partially because of the atrocious dub job-- even by my standards, this is pretty foul; I like dubs over subs, but this was horrible. I'm starting to notice that as an unsettling trend coming from Manga Entertainment's releases; End of Evangelion altered too many voices, and now this. To be fair, this was produced five years before the X series was released, and dubbed two years prior to the Japanese TV airings; but that's little excuse for stereotyping the Dragons of Earth. Kusanagi's been reduced from a reluctant, morally-conflicted participant to your base thug with the typecast growling actor. And don't get me started on the delivery of the lines... ahem. In contrast, Pioneer is redeeming themselves with the cast for X. Casting David Lucas in anything is a step in the right direction; ditto for Wendee Lee, Crispin Freeman, and Lia Sargent. It's basically the same problem I have with Escaflowne. All I've seen of that series is the movie; and I didn't care for it too much. It was too compressed, too forced, and the animation wasn't great. Well, I should amend that; Escaflowne's animation was average for most of the film and had one or two good scenes. X, well... there's only so much you can do with fifty gallons of gushing blood. Per person. All griping aside, there's only three more volumes of X to go, and knowing Pioneer it'll be well into 2004 before I see the end of Kamui. I'm not going to play more Xenosaga just yet; I'll leave that to tomorrow. I have to resist the urge to screw around in Pokemon Sapphire; I just got the Fly ability and every time I get that, I end up stalling the storyline for three months because I forget what I was supposed to do. I'm going to go download some music and maybe brainstorm a few more ideas for the campaign. I've got two missions planned, and I don't know if I want to wait until I get some players before continuing to write, or if I want to just go ahead and write the next mission. I'm at a pretty good stopping point now, so I can spend a little time promoting the group; after all, even if the players blow through the first mission and decide they want to go on to the second, I've still got about two to four hours of gameplay written, depending on how the players work together. Later, folks.Monday, June 2, 2003 6:32:51p: *
You know what really pisses me off? How so many people constantly misquote one of the greatest Shakespeare lines ever written. "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" The standard gag response which, in this cesspool of the Internet, has mutated into its "normal" meaning is "I'm down here". But what pisses me off most is that that's not what Juliet was asking at all. She was asking "wherefore", not "where"... She wanted to know why he was Romeo Montague, why he had to be a member of the "enemy"... She knew where the hell he was, he was in Montague Keep! ....sorry. Reading message boards does that to me sometimes. Oooh, Mother 1&2 is released in Japan in two weeks! There's no official release date for a U.S. version but considering the frothing demand the game is garnering, one is bound to happen. [thwacksquish] Sorry. I set a filter to automatically decapitate me whenever I make a pun. I'll get over it soon enough.Tuesday, June 3, 2003 11:20:37p: *
Sorry there were no updates today; for whatever reason the site is not playing well with certain ISPs over in the Midwest. My connection is fine; everything's cool on my side; it's just that I start breaking up somewhere past Chicago and before Santa Monica. Oh well. In any event, I've been looking back through my archived crap that I've done in ages past, and I came across a video my buddies and I did about a week before finals in our last year of college. Yes, my fifteen minutes of fame pretty much amount to me slamming face-first into an elevator. In any event, as soon as my connection clears up I'll post it, heedless of the tremendous bulk of the bandwidth it will consume; but I figure, what the hell? I've got like, maybe, three visitors per day. The file is 40MB. Nobody is going to watch it. I'm safe, really. Unless the guys at Mac Hall actually look at it, that is, and link to it. In which case I'm royally screwed. But we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. Anyway, off to do more navel-gazing. Later.Wednesday, June 4, 2003 2:38:37p: *
I'm really starting to stress out here... The past three days things have steadily fallen apart here. First, a server in Pittsburgh curled itself into the fetal position and has refused to make contact with the Real World since Thursday. Second, Florida and Burlington (which, in server terms, encompasses the entire New England area except Maine) decided that they too wanted to become lost in Dreamland. By the by, Animatrix. GET IT NOW. I saw it last night (miraculously it was on PPV) and it was amazing. I especially liked "Kid's Story" and "Beyond". Kid's Story, having been directed by Nabeshin (aka Shinichiro Watanabe) was VERY good. I got a kick out of "World's Record", but "Matriculated" started to wear thin on me about midway through. And "Final Flight of the Osiris" was just too damn short. Very, very pretty (especially the beginning in the dojo with the katana and the sliced up gi and the "whoa."...), but too damn short. Also, I noticed the whole thing was pretty much the Final Fantasy X Reunion for the voice cast. Guest starring Vamp (the heretofore underappreciated Phil LaMarr)! Yay! Let's finish up here, folks, and tonight I'll tell you of the plans for My Extended Weekend. (I guess I never mentioned that I have tomorrow and Friday off, did I? And no, I didn't get my ass fired.)Wednesday, June 4, 2003 7:08:39p: *
Laundry day! The site seems to be running at its normal speeds now. I'll probably upload the movie later tonight or tomorrow morning. It's worth seeing at least once, especially if you like seeing me in Intense Face Pain. (Dial-up users might want to stay away from it.) We'll see. Something I wanted to address, though, is an issue that has been called to my attention by the lovely and talented Ms. Martiza Campos, of CRFH fame. I do respect her policy of linking only to comics-- and that's actually a pretty good idea, now that I think about it-- but it wasn't so much the refusal, or even the reason behind the refusal, but more a vague concept that may or may not be related to it. I am not saying she's a doo-doo head for not linking. This is not sour grapes. This is navel-gazing. Sour grapes are on Aisle 16. Let's start with the fact, then. I don't have a web comic on this site. There. I said it. Of course, I admitted it from day one. I don't have jack on this site right now. Maybe the House of Urashima (which has almost as many hits as the main page, despite the counter going up a month afterward), and the movie which I've teased you all with, but essentially, there's nothing. No reason to visit this site-- yet. I chose not to do a web comic, and I choose not to really call this site a "blog" in the normal sense. Semantically, yes, it is a blog-- it is a journal of thoughts and expression that is published to the World Wide Web (and using the Blogger software, no less)-- but I don't see it as such. I started the site-- from concept to implementation-- as just a place to house my stuff; ideas, programs, amusements, whatever. It's a simple place that has stuff. It's not a blog, it's a digital footlocker! Or something with an equal amount of ambiguous buzzwords. I chose not to do a web comic, primarily because I have the aesthetic sensibility of a wedge of melted chocolate. Good on the inside, but it still looks like a pile of crap. I could probably screw up drawing Hello Kitty. I also chose not to do a web comic because, literally, the Web is drowning in them. It's not that unique of an art form anymore. Granted, the good ones are really, really good-- but I know I could never reach that level of good. I simply cannot draw that well. The creation of visual art is alien to me. When I started the site, I'd mentioned the possibility of a comic. I didn't mention that to do it I'd have to rip off a joke from 8-Bit Theater and turn it into a completely unrelated, and most likely NOT FUNNY, pun. Not that I haven't tried manipulating others' images into something at least slightly amusing. I've submitted a few fan-pictures of the Q&A hosts at RPGamer during my time... And I spent a while last night looking for one of the better ones, but Google must not have put it in the archives or something. I've partaken of the occasional desktop-collage image-- I did two or three when I was getting in to Lain, and another when Shantae was still on rocky ground in terms of being released. Right now I just find something I'll be able to enjoy looking at for a while, and when I get bored of it, I change it. I haven't done any actual art since about a year and a half ago-- everything has been either an image-chop job, or a crude rendering. And no, the images on this site don't count, specifically the ""... that's just line art. Anyone could have done that. So what will I put on this site? I don't know. Primarily it will be words. Because words are what I know best. The occasional bit of code, to keep myself sharp; and maybe more interactive bits. I might consider setting up a webcam come next paycheck; but I'd have to find a suitably cheap one, as I have no intent to make that the focus of the site. So yeah, nobody's going to read this. I don't mind. We shall see, though.Wednesday, June 4, 2003 7:36:02p: *
a-HAH! Fixed a particularly nasty bug that showed the counter on the archives, thus inflating my hit count! Now this thing is going to be accurate, by golly! Except for, y'know, refreshing the main page. But for the most part it's accurate! Yay!Thursday, June 5, 2003 8:44:41a: *
DMG Ice, in the Games tab of my links page, is currently down. Whether this is a permanent situation or not is currently unknown, but a lack of updates for two weeks leads me to believe that something is amiss. I shall investigate further and report back.Thursday, June 5, 2003 12:22:40p: * The video, a remake of Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" music video, is now available. 37MB in size. Mirror, BitTorrent, or fileshare as you will, I don't care. I should probably put some kind of credits on it, so here we go: Weapon Of Choice Remake Concept And Filmed By: Michael Markiw Dancer: John Zeitler Special Effects: Colton McBryer Key Grip (ie the tall guy holding the scaffolding): Josh Castonguay People Too Nice To Sue Us: Fatboy Slim, Christopher Walken, Spike Jonze A couple notes on the production. Mike had laid out each scene one-by-one in order to try to get everything to be as close to the original video as possible. He even managed to get an MP3 ripped from the video so that we would have all the sound effects from it, like the vacuum and the bells. What he didn't count on was the minor act of serendipity that caused the actions in the video to be synchronized EXACTLY to the music. You see, the video was shot in order with only one take per scene. Everything you see was everything that was shot. Even Josh's hand pointing at the cart. The slamming face-first into the closed elevator door was my idea. We had rehearsed the scene before filming, and I had prevented myself from getting hurt during that take. But unfortunately, during the actual scene, I got hurt twice. First, I banged my left elbow pretty hard and couldn't bend it well for a day or two. Secondly, not many people know this, but I wear my high school class ring on a chain under my shirt. And I wore it then. And it slammed into my flesh. No blood, but it hurt for a week. 'Nuff said. During the scene where I'm dancing on the table, I start rocking it back and forth. This was ad-libbed because initially I had almost fallen. Continuing on the Cavalcade of Embarassment, the other people wandering through the video (at the beginning and on the stairs) were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The video was shot entirely on the second and third floors of the A.J. Palumbo building on the campus of Gannon University, which is the Liberal Arts building. We, being computer majors, spent most of our time in the Zurn building. Initially I had proposed we do it in Zurn, but the fact that we made a bit of noise caused us to reconsider. Additionally, there were security cameras in Zurn, and we didn't want to cause more trouble than strictly necessary. Mike had had the idea out of the blue, while I wanted to do it as a parody of Mac Hall's parody of the video. In the end we all decided seeing me-- traditionally, the "quiet one"-- bust some funky moves was enough reason to do the video. Finally, the suit that I wear in the video is the self-same one I would wear a week later for my graduation. Anyway, that's the video. I'll be away this weekend, so don't everybody email me at once saying "d00d, j00 5u(k!"Thursday, June 5, 2003 10:46:19p: *
DMG Ice has returned, and that makes me happy. Major props to my dad, who gave me some extra green for use on my trip this weekend. I'm headed down to Sharon to visit my grandmother, and fundage was tight for a little bit, but Dad stepped in. So that's that. Nobody's picked up the video yet; at least, doesn't look like it. I'll double-check the logs soon and get down to bidness if someone visited. Here in Cuba, in June, we have a thing called Dairy Week. It's kind of a big thing because that's just about all Cuba is known for-- cheese. Well, yeah, that other Cuba is known for cigars and old bearded communists in ugly military uniforms, but my foster-hometown is known primarily as "that place on the way to Syracuse that sells really good cheese". But that's periphery. The point is there's a carnival at Dairy Week, every year. Tonight, there was one of those plastic rock-climbing things. It was to try your luck. I didn't mind the cost, really; it was just something I'd wanted to try. So I paid up, and the scuzzy-looking man put the crotch harness on me. Then, I had at it. About two-thirds of the way up (or so my sister tells me-- I thought I was only about halfway) I remembered an important fact. I'm phobic of heights. I felt no shame dropping like a rock to the ground, but since then my knuckles have been a little sore. So I'm going to cut short the commentary and head off to bed. I'll talk to you folks later. To the Sorceress and the Knight: I'll need to talk to you when I get back on Sunday, assuming you read this. Remind me about delusions and illusions of purpose.Thursday, June 5, 2003 10:58:35p: *
One taker so far! w00t! Everyone else, this is the latest web video craze! Download it now before the tremendous demand melts my server down to charred silicon! It will be bigger than "All Your Base"* and will give that Star Wars kid** something to think about! * No, it won't. I'll be lucky if I get another download out of this. ** Hey, actually now that I've seen it, that kid's got some moves. Lucas ought to consider giving the man at the very least a cameo in Episode 3.Sunday, June 8, 2003 7:18:03p: *
Just a quick note, now. A full report on the weekend is forthcoming, but I just want to register the fact that "Full Metal Panic" is shaping up to be a fair shade better than I had initially expected. Yes, both parts (manga and anime). For one reason and one reason alone: In the anime, Kaname is carrying a (translated) copy of quite possibly my favorite book in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy-- book 4, "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish" by Douglas Adams. A side note. If you don't understand why there are (over) 4 books in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy, go read it. Now. For me, back to FMP.Sunday, June 8, 2003 9:35:19p: *
Well, I solved a problem I'd been thinking about since I left; I can leave sticky-notes on the front page without having to post the most important stuff redundantly. As you can see I'm using it for a good cause. I'm getting closer to setting up the campaign. I've decided to hold off on writing more missions until I have a better idea of who's going to play, and what style of play they're in to. So, for the first session or so, there will be fighting. And lots of it. I also did some brushing up on my standard D&D, just in case they exhaust my challenges in too short an order. I've got the basic, boxed-set adventure ready to go, as well as a few other basics. I might write up two or three short little anecdotes for a more medieval setting, but actually I think with the right nudges I could stretch the Modern campaign to fill a couple hours per mission. That's really all I did on my mini-vacation; I went down and visited with my grandmother in Sharon for a while (and completely missed seeing one of my cousins, through what could only be termed an egregious accumulation of poor timing), and helped her do a few things that needed doing. I didn't even touch a computer for 72 hours. And I didn't miss it, you know? But I do now. So I'm going to look around a bit more on a few topics I've been wanting to search for since I left, and then probably get a shower before bed. Six hours in a car will make anyone feel not-so-fresh. We'll see. Later, folks.Monday, June 9, 2003 9:25:54p: *
I can honestly say that I've devised some pretty strange fantasies about games. Most of them were the pretty standard self-insertion flights that most people go on-- I mean, come on, it's virtually impossible these days not to see yourself in some role or another. But I pride myself on one fact, and that is this. Never once did I ever think about Princess Toadstool in that sort of way. I made the dubious judgement call of visiting message boards on GameFAQs for a few titles I was interested in, and came across three separate threads on the Mario Golf 3 board re: Peach's clothing, and how it was either "too skimpy" or "not skimpy enough". I'll be honest with you, the thought had never crossed my mind until now. And I don't like it. I'm not saying these people aren't within their rights to analyze every aspect of Her Royal Fungusness' clothing in ridiculous detail. But come on. Get serious here for a moment. She's a digital representation of a woman. For the past twenty years she wasn't even depicted in all that "sexy" of a manner, unless you get turned on by a floor-length pink formal gown covering all but her head and wrists. And you're going to tell me that I'm weird just because I wrote that fanfic with Sonic and Princess Sally and... *ahem* I'm going to play more Super Mario Sunshine now.Monday, June 9, 2003 9:30:31p: *
Oh yeah, one more thing. For some reason it looks like Advance Wars 2 didn't get a Japanese release. Strange considering the fact that we almost didn't get Advance Wars 1 due to the series' relatively low popularity in NA. Ah well.Tuesday, June 10, 2003 6:19:37p: * Haunted House, by Neko Machi author Ewen Cluney, is shaping up to be one of the more interesting works in progress I've read in a long time. The characters and scenario are very unique, and I'm especially impressed with Ewen's skill at active prose. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to the next chapter. Anyway, that's about as intelligent as I can muster right now. The genius sauce* my brain is usually steeped in has been diluted by the Universal Solvent, Stupidity. As a result the tender juiciness of my gray matter lies bare and exposed. So I'm going to rot it with television and video games tonight. * All apologies to Brian Clevinger, from whom I have shamelessly stolen this joke.Wednesday, June 11, 2003 7:11:20a: *
Y'know, I just noticed that Unlimited SaGa comes out next week. Not that I was ever that big of a fan of SaGa, but it's at least one RPG. Additionally that Magic Pengel thing is also out before the end of the month. So maybe there's a couple decent RPGs out this summer. Additionally, I'm starting to distrust GameFAQs' release dates. For example, they have Sword of Mana's NA date as November 7th, while in JP it's still listed as "Announced". However, I believe it when it says that there's no NA date for Klonoa Heroes. Later. Work beckons.Wednesday, June 11, 2003 7:25:45p: *
Well, I broke down and played more Ikaruga today. I'd previously rented it, became addicted, and subsequently traded in games to get it, about a week and a half ago. It's taken me that long to get through Stage 2 without dying. I'm not entirely sure why that is. Admittedly, years of playing RPGs and puzzle games may have ultimately dulled my l33t 5h00+er 5k1llz. But then again this game is DAMN HARD. I've been playing on Easy mode, folks. EASY MODE! And still it took me two weeks to clear Stage 2 on one credit. Imagine a screen filled with black and white projectiles. One color harms you, the other color helps you. You can switch at will, but you have to mentally note what color you are without looking, because there are literally hundreds of those projectiles coming at you at once. Getting hit by even ONE ill-colored projectile is instant death. It's incredibly frustrating, especially if you want to rack up a respectable score. I've barely broken 1.5 million on one credit. In one notable past attempt I've come away with a score of 2. Not two million. Two. Gemini. Dos. More than one and less than three. Two. Ah, but enough talk of games. I intend to eat and then begin work on the website again. I've no real idea what I'm going to do with the games section but I'm sure I'll think of something. We'll see what FFalls oFF my FFrenetic train oFF thought. OFF course!Thursday, June 12, 2003 8:11:50a: *
Slashdot's uproar du jour happens to pertain to a film I'm sure many of you know and love-- Matrix Reloaded. (Of course, hard-core philosophers who haven't had fun in years and, instead, debate the very concept of fun before attempting to have it, have called the film "Matrix Retarded", but I'm not among them. I had fun last night. And I enjoyed the film.) It turns out the Egyptian film board has refused to allow the movie to run in their country of sand and historical pointy things, because it apparently offends their belief in the Three Divine Religions (paraphrased, of course, but the capitals were there-- and in case it's not blindingly obvious, those religions are Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. In what order, I refuse to speculate...). Admittedly, anything portraying the city of "Zion" as the "good guys" is not going to go over too well in any Islam-centric country (even though Egypt's government is secular), but come on. Have we regressed so far as a nation, as a species, that we are now completely unable to discern between fantasy and reality? This is a movie. A good movie by some standards, a bad movie by others. It's not propaganda, it's not a way of life (as much as I'd like it to be, the odds of me having (and this is a quote) "hot monkey luv with Carrie-Anne Moss" are ridiculously close to zero-- especially when you consider I'd rather go out with Sandra Bullock); it's a MOVIE. Get over it, humanity. On a related note, the top search strings leading readers to my site have been people trying to pirate the Animatrix. Due to the unfortunately bad timing of me mentioning it in close temporal proximity to the Weapon of CX video, in which I foolishly said the word BitTorrent. Aw hell, I did it again. tee heeFriday, June 13, 2003 7:54:55a: *
And now, TheFurryOne.net proudly presents, a complete and total ripoff of one of the most memorable Sesame Street moments, starring CX as Grover.
Near...
[pant pant]
...Far!
Thank you.Friday, June 13, 2003 7:06:45p: *
Yes, I made the unholy judgement error of adding a webcam to the site. Maybe it wasn't so bad-- setting it up was a breeze, and the picture quality is about what I expected from a camera-- but what I have done with it so far is either embarassing beyond measure (see below) or a cop-out (this, which was a placeholder for while I was at work). I abandoned the software that came bundled with the camera, since it pretty much sucks, and downloaded the freeware utility booruWebCam, which I love because it a) does what I want and b) is free. Not much else going on here. I think I'm going to play some more games and just chill; it's too hot to do much of anything else. This is what June should feel like; hot enough for me to complain. Webcam switch on!Sunday, June 15, 2003 10:05:48a: *
Would the person or persons who DoS'd my web host last night please mail me? I'd like to have an obscene word with you. In other news, I'm home again, and things are pretty static here. My sister, love as she is, has drained my GBA SP's juice by playing Wario Ware into the wee hours of the night. Ironic when you consider that I got her her own GBA last year so she wasn't playing mine all the time. Oh well. Expect more insanity in the future of the webcam. I'm thinking an abridged production of "Akira" using the collection of Pokemon stuffies I have. Either that or I'll just walk naked in front of it for a few hours. Either way, it'll drive readers screaming from my site. The bandwidth used on this site is getting unusually high. I dunno if it's because of the video (which I moved to the Dynamic Toys page), or if it's because of the attack, but whereas previously I've been averaging 3 MB of usage per month, today I checked the stats and they say 100MB this month. So, uh, yeah, go me. Checking emails and eating breakfast now. Later.Monday, June 16, 2003 9:45:10p: *
Hey. Did some work on a new feature for the site-- design mostly, right now, but soon a new sub-site will spring up. It will be a synaesthetic work, I feel. And you know what? I'm really tired for some reason. I'm going to bed. Later, all.Tuesday, June 17, 2003 7:24:47p: *
I'm going to be heading to Otakon 2003 in Baltimore, and it all just hinges on getting a few days off from work. Which I'm sure I can swing. But anyway, I took a look at the list of guests... Piro, Gabe and Tycho, and Jonny Yong Bosch (the voice of Vash)... hell, 90% of that list should be on the "people I will probably embarass myself in front of" list. Ah well. As long as I don't wet my pants. Or run in to David Hayter, should he pop in. Because once the latter happens the former is sure to. Enough of incontinence. I go now to work on new section. Yay.Tuesday, June 17, 2003 7:42:10p: * Rockman Neo at Newgrounds is probably one of the greatest fan-made movies I've ever seen. An art style fused to one hellaciously kick-ass track that's damn near impossible to find. Hard to believe it's by the same guy who also did the Wily Shorts movies, specifically this one and this one. Not to mention the Dr. Wily Show. Ciao for now. Edit: Dammit, that has got me hankering for some good old-fashioned Mega Man, now. And I think I'll go and get me some. As I said to a good friend, regarding RMNeo, "I would give body parts to see that as a game."Wednesday, June 18, 2003 7:05:50a: *
Morning. No, I didn't actually get any work on the site done, as the edit to my post should probably have clued you in. I hope to get something more done tonight; but for now, the new section is going to just have to wait. I actually have two sub-sites I'm working on... the d20 Modern site and the subsection I just mentioned. I've got to get at least one of them done soon or I'll think I've wasted the month of June. And I don't like that. But I spent most of last night going through old crap. Don't ask me why; sometimes I just wander through the junk I've accumulated. Anyway, work beckons. Talk to you later. Hopefully I'll be able to breathe in between calls today.Friday, June 20, 2003 7:14:21a: *
Morning. Little in the way of news and/or information. The last time I speculated about work, I came home and disemboweled a small animal.* So I'm not going to do that this morning. *no, not really I went in to town yesterday and saw Matrix Reloaded again, which was good. I also got to hang out with an old friend from high school, while she was working at Wal-Mart. That was very good. Odd, but she and I were never really close during school, regardless of the fact that we knew each other from the very moment I got on the bus that first day. All the way till graduation. Just about ten years-- fifteen, now-- and she and I were friends, even if neither of us really admitted it until our parting day, or after. It's funny, now, looking back at high school and remembering the social hierarchy; the things I thought were important and the people I thought were "cool". It turns out the "cool" kids have pretty much have run their lives into the toilet (in some cases) while the geeks have pretty much either maintained the status quo or wandered aimlessly upward. To be honest, I really don't know where in that continuum I fall; but then again, I didn't really care then and I prefer not to care now. Though it's still interesting to hear about all the people in the circles in which I ran. Some found their happiness. Others went to jail. One particularly notable exception turned out to be gay-- and not just gay, we're talking Gay. Gay. GAY. Now that I've used the same word three times successively, with differing emphases, we'll move on. As it turns out, I'm not sure what lies ahead of me, in terms of old friends. I swore up and down that I wouldn't go to my 10-year reunion, but here we are halfway there. And now I'm reconsidering my stance on the past. Maybe I don't remember it as much as I usually would-- in some cases, maybe I tend to have a somewhat more revisionist point of view-- but it's good to take a small amount of comfort in the way that things were when you try to assess the way things are. It's not the greatest of ideas, however, to spend more time in the past than in the here and now, which is (admittedly) what I've been doing of late. So. We'll see about parts of a new section this weekend, and I'll talk to you folks later. I mioght have a gaming rant to put up if work doesn't break my brain too much, but that's later. Ciao for now.Saturday, June 21, 2003 8:58:54a: *
I promised a gaming rant, and a gaming rant you shall have. Work yesterday was not 1337. We shall not speak of it. I've actually been spending quite a bit of time playing Halo. I still haven't worked through the single-player campaign-- in fact, I just now, after having the game for three months, cleared "The Silent Cartographer"-- and I've heard some less-than-stellar things about the 1P experience, but the primary reason I'm playing is because it's the first console FPS that's drawn me in this well since Goldeneye. Hell, compared to Unreal Chump-manship, Halo is almost perfect. I say "almost" because like so many other people, I want to play Halo multiplayer via Live, but can't. But we'll see what happens when Halo 2 comes out. I still haven't progressed beyond Area 3 in Ikaruga, so there's little to tell there. I'm beginning to get second thoughts about keeping it. To be honest I stand by my decision that it's too bleeding hard, but I'd feel bad about getting rid of a game that I still enjoy, somewhat. Speaking of unfinished business, I haven't touched Xenosaga in a month because I dread level-building. And that's what I'll have to do, soon, because Episode 2 should be out within a year and I don't want to leave it as a half-measure for much longer. But then again, I might get rid of Amplitude and Frequency as well; after all, for whatever reason they do not play well together with my internet connection. Don't ask me why, I don't really know. I've played with the router settings for god knows how long. The really sad part is that EverCrap, the one time I played it, went on with nary a hiccup or glitch. So it's, in all likelihood, not the router. Which is sad because so far Freq and Ampli were the only two online games that were really worthwhile. (SOCOM is an online Syphon Filter, which sucked; I personally despise Tribes; and we all know my position on Wasted Plastic-- er, ahem, Twisted Metal Online.) I finished Klonoa: Empire of Dreams about two days after starting it, which was disappointing but pretty much par for the course in regards to Klonoa games. I'm probably not going to go and find all the secret stuff, or even really bother to play the courses I skipped. I skipped them for a reason. Auto-scrolling in a platform/adventure game like Klonoa is EVIL and should be abolished. More than that, the boarding levels weren't so hot. I'd rather have had about three more required puzzle stages per world-- or mini-bosses. The boss battles here were absolutely brutal and I want MORE. It's too bad Namco has some kind of aversion to Klonoa now. Sad as it seems I want Klonoa Beach Volleyball. ANYTHING with the furry flop-eared fantastico. A lot of people are really surprised when I tell them I used to work at a game store. I've found that the one question people unfailingly respond positively to, when troubleshooting their PS2s or Xboxen, is "What game are you trying to play?" It's pretty typically been SOCOM or Mechassault, but there's also the occasional Whacked! or EverTrash player. I'm civil to this latter group but they still mystify me. For the record I agree completely with Gabe's assessment of Star Wars Galaxies. EverQuest with a Jedi skin does not a Star Wars MMORPG make. Finally, I have to wonder just what is up with the glut of obscure retro games coming out of the woodwork. River City Ransom, a game which I never played but really wanted to, is being ported the the GBA; Phantasy Star, a game which I still haven't bothered to finish on the GBA, is now being ported over to the PS2; and Hudson is looking into remakes of Lode Runner and Star Soldier for the Cube. Granted, Lode Runner and PS are not obscure by any stretch of the imagination-- well, they weren't obscure five years ago--but come on. Don'cha think maybe we're starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel with Star Soldier? Hudson also pondered re-doing their failed mascot game for the TG-16, Bonk's Adventure, which a whopping five people played. Hudson isn't just scraping there, they've drilled a hole and are scraping the bottom of the barrel underneath the first barrel. Barrel barrel. bArReL. BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel BARREL barrel... ...er, sorry. Had an Ashton moment there. Won't happen again. (3 points if you get the reference.)Monday, June 23, 2003 6:06:46p: *
Hey all. Quiet day here at the House of Fur; well, maybe not too quiet. Y'see, while I was away, the Magic Landlord came by and had his Contractor Sprites install a glorious machine in my kitchen window... Yes, I now have an air conditioner. It may be 90 degrees outside, but in here it's a very comfortable 71 or so. I don't know exactly. It's nice, that's all I really care about. I picked up three enduring projects during my stay at home; the first being my sister's copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; the second being the last two books in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy ("The Golden Compass", "The Subtle Knife", "The Amber Spyglass"-- good stuff all around); and the third being brand-spanking used copies of Mega Man 8, X4, and Zero (all done through the magic of trade-ins). What can I say. Blue's my favorite color. ^_^ In any event, I now have a dilemma on my hands. I made quite a bit of progress in Xenosaga last night, and I really ought to work on that; I have an idea for a new Dynamic Toy (actually, two new Toys; one, I could implement tonight, while the other will take me much, much longer); and I have an intense desire to shoot more things in Halo. I'll probably just split the difference and cook dinner whilst I decide, but I think I know what I'm going to do. (And before you say anything about the books, I reserve those for before bed.) So I'll talk to you folks in a little while. We'll see.Thursday, June 26, 2003 10:57:58a: *
At work. Not thrilled to be here, but at work nonetheless. The past two days have been days of endings-- I finished the Harry Potter book Tuesday night (or was it Wednesday morning...?) and also managed to finish Xenosaga Episode 1 last night. (Erde Kaiser = Bad Ass. Nothing more can be said.) Now, like the weeks after Wild ARMs 3, I face the ennui... Well, not really. I've got a good stockpile of games to finish-- Suikoden 2, Mega Man 8, Final Fantasy, Halo... I have one last book to devour ("The Amber Spyglass"), and plenty of stuff to read at the library... And I do want to actually do work on the web site. So it's not so much a matter of not having anything to do, it's more along the lines of not knowing what I should do first. Well, back to work. I'll be in contact.Friday, June 27, 2003 7:10:54a: * MegaTokyo has one of the most illuminating strips up yet today. What a huge shocker. However, for some reason, I keep envisioning Miho's speech coming out of her mouth with Agent Smith's voice. More than that, the last panel is extremely reminiscent of a particular scene in that club where Mr. Anderson meets the hacker of the DoD web site for the first time. Whoa. Speaking of complete and total shocks, folken from my previous website will remember me raving about Evanescence, wherein I'd said it was your standard alt.rock album. Fine, great. What I neglected to mention at the time was that I'd done no checking on the band's background, and in fact was floored this morning when Philip of DMG Ice reported that the band, led by the sinfully delicious Amy Lee, actually has its roots four years ago in alt.christian. Holy crap! (This time the pun is intentional.) Granted, I have no great love for the majority of Christian music (my restraint from going on a rant regarding "Skalleluia" actually speaks more about it than I could) but, listening to Evanescence's "Tourniquet" (which primarily concerns itself with the singer's plans to commit suicide), I have a really hard time convincing myself that it's true. Say it ain't so, Squishy! That about covers what I was going to say. Uh... yeah. No, I still haven't decided on which game to tackle next-- probably Halo, but I'm at a loss as to whether or not I want to. We'll see. Later, folks.Saturday, June 28, 2003 7:22:18a: *
I feel no desire to say anything right now. Go to RPGamer to find out why. I may not have known him but the loss of life-- ANY life-- is regrettable.Saturday, June 28, 2003 4:46:27p: *
Having trouble with email of late. If I didn't respond to something sent recently, please resend it-- I'm going to have a few heated words about this before this is all over. By the by, I'm not psychodepressed or anything-- not to a drastic point where I'd do anything rash-- but just a little down. Gotta get back to work on the projects in progress-- one of them, the R-- oops, I almost gave it away! Well, in any event, I'll be debuting a subsite later tonight, thus making the amount of worthwhile content on this site a grand total of... uh... three. And right now I'm going to say there will be no griping about how I do not change the design of my subsites drastically from one to another. I like the way I set things up here and I'll be damned if I'm going to change before coming up with something that a) is better and b) is not, at least to me, visually offensive. There. Affirmation is good. Finishing doing dishes, grabbing a drink, and will be back to ready the subsite in just about an hour. Those of you who are in contact, know how to contact me. (i.e. bombard me, I'll come running)Saturday, June 28, 2003 6:37:11p: *
The webcam was host to a brief birthday celebration. It was also host to hot fuzzy luv, the likes of which none shall see again, for fear of a friend threatening me to (and this is a direct quote) "hunt you down and turn your torso into an archelogical dig". I have such good friends. OK, really, now, getting back to work on the sub-site.Saturday, June 28, 2003 8:33:08p: *
Well, I did it. Took the first step toward getting a few folks together for the RPG campaign. Yes, that's the sub-site I was going to get up. Actually, no, that's not the sub-site I was working on today-- you'll see-- but this was, in all honesty, easier to put together. And also harder. What happens if I don't get enough people interested? What if I can't get a good place to meet? What if nobody comes? What if my campaign sucks? What if I stop obsessing, eat some ice cream, and watch anime to relax now that I've accomplished some good on the site? I like that last one.Monday, June 30, 2003 2:58:45p: *
At work. Getting pumped for Mythri. Been playing Advance Wars 2. Getting my ass kicked by the narrowest of margins. And I haven't even started the "harder" campaigns. I will work more on the other sub-site later today. Promise. I'll also put up the first part of it as well. Additionally, I forgot completely about the flyer I wanted to put up in the breakroom here. I ought to print it out now and put up a copy-- but nah, I'll do that later. We'll see what happens. I agree completely with Penny Arcade's assessment of the LinuXbox thing. Well, Gabe's assesment. Tycho is being all anal about taking a side. Oh well. Later, all.
"... that's just line art. Anyone could have done that.
