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Thursday, June 2, 2005 2:08:00p: *
So I haven't had a whole lot of time to dedicate to this. Big surprise-- I've got a few too many projects running at once, and I'm also still hot on the search for a job. Still, I'd like to mention a few topics I've been meaning to talk about for a while.
I'm roughly a dozen hours into Star Ocean 3, and to be honest that's been my primary mode of procrastination. It's very engaging and the plot is to my liking so far, unlike Star Ocean 2, which wound up turning the story into a nearly indecipherable tangle of deus ex machina about ten minutes before the end of Disc 1 and forced me to give up in frustration many, many times. Also, and this is practically vitally important for any RPG these days, the battle system hasn't irritated me yet. I mean, sure, there are some irritating elements-- like getting the Bonus Battle Gauge to earn Triple EXP and then losing it ten seconds later due to a random Critical Hit. Or having enemy AI so bleeding stupid that it borders on brilliance. Or not being able to hit anybody with certain battle skills because the skills aren't locked onto the enemy. Beyond those little flaws I'm pretty happy with battling. I'm sure I'll get sick of it in another ten or twenty hours, but as long as I gain levels as quickly as I have been, I'll stick with it. One other little thing is how uneven the voice acting is. I know better than to expect Oscar-quality material here, but did ZRO Limit even read the dialogue before casting some parts? The player characters are all right, but the bit characters seem really out of place for the most part.
I'm also about as long into Halo 2. I really only picked it up because I wanted to see what the big deal was with the Live multiplayer, but I'm liking the campaign mode so far. It does feel short, and it is certainly challenging, but there're few other first person shooters on consoles which play as well. Granted, it's not going to sway me from Unreal Tournament 2K4, but it sure is a pleasant experience. I picked up Beyond Good and Evil with it as well, and I'm saving that one until Halo 2 and SO3 are done; though I did play through about an hour and was very pleased.
I'm embarassed that I have a copy of Future Tactics. I'd get rid of it but EB won't buy it back. I even asked if I could pay to get rid of it but they said no. I'm thinking I might set it on fire. Hell, I'd only be out the I paid for it.
The trailers for Advent Rising look damn pretty. They also show the gameplay, which also looks good as a second course of Halo-esque gameplay. 'Nuff said.
Finally, I'd like to mention that Flatout, an upcoming racer for the Xbox and PS2, has a mode in it that allows you to eject your driver in a fatal high-jump competition. It's like the David Dukes of Hazzard go to the Olympics and get the idea horribly, horribly wrong. Needless to say I played the demo in the store for, maybe, an hour straight. My best jump was 108 meters, though the store record was 121.Monday, June 6, 2005 9:20:00p: Yotsuba&!*
I picked this up tonight after looking forward to it for quite some time. The translation is good and the humor carries over exceptionally well. Definitely a good read, especially if you liked Azumanga Daioh.
Not much else worth mentioning now, except my continued enjoyment of Avenue Q.Monday, June 6, 2005 9:27:00p: *
Actually, as it turns out, yes, there is something worth mentioning-- apparently Capcom decided to grant my wish, sort of. Mega Man Legends and Breath of Fire III are being ported to the PSP this summer. No words on upgrades to the titles or US releases, but they're not being ignored. I can live with that. Thursday, June 9, 2005 7:29:00p: *
It is finally raining. Must have been maybe two or three weeks since we had rain. Very unusual for Erie. I'll sleep well tonight, at the very least.
Not much else to say. I'm probably going to just surrender and find a warm-body job to do until something better arises. As Pez said, the advantage of being a zombie is that my brain is free to think about other stuff, like plot and character and suchlike. It'll be quite a stretch, as I haven't done work like that since before I got out of college (and the only reason I took it was to ensure that I really didn't want to do it) but it's better than sitting here selling everything I own one chunk at a time.
The novel itself is just about 30% complete. I imagine that if I didn't have so much other crap to do this coming week I could put more than 3,000 words into it but there's just not enough time. I'll probably be ready to move on to Part Two soon. As it stands 45,000 words is most impressive for a third of a novel. I know I should finish the entire draft first, but I'm getting a little excited to show it off to publishers and see what happens.
Part of me wants to start another project... another part is saying "you idiot, you have four that aren't done yet". Another one is saying that I should go rest for tonight. I like that part.Thursday, June 16, 2005 7:05:00a: *
Off to Buffalo this morning. Wish me luck.
Few bits of news before we go. NCSoft announced that Inon Zur, the man responsible for re-scoring Digimon and Escaflowne for the US, will provide music for their upcoming action title Exteel. First off, who the hell names their kid "Inon Zur"? With a name like that he was destined to be either a musician or an evil overlord. Same difference, really. And secondly, did the good folks at NCSoft actually listen to the soundtracks he's composed compared to the originals? At the risk of sounding like an elitist, he's an idiot. Ah, but I'm a lowly gamer and surely know nothing about what makes good music and bad music. Sure, I've only been playing games since before the music was more than 4-bit, my opinion matters little.
Metal Gear Solid 4 will be exclusive to the PS3. Just like Metal Gear Solid 2 was exclusive to the PS2.
Hm, this is curious. There're rumors that World of Warcraft might hit the Xbox360. All things considered I'd welcome it, but then again it's still just a rumor. By the way, I officially hate that stupid "LEEROY JENKINS" movie/soundclip now. I merely didn't like it prior to hearing the techno remix and the "Legend of Zelda" remix, but now, thanks to Pez, I hate it. So very much hate it. Like a giant quivering fuzzy ball of rage, I am.
Wow. I should probably get rid of this sarcasm before I go, shouldn't I?
Not much else is going on. I got the chance to play the PS2 In The Groove last weekend. Given that I'm still only able to do between six and seven-foot songs, I'm in no real position to say much about the difficulty-- there was plenty for me to do and the songs were quite challenging. I do know that people looked damn silly trying to hit three or four panels at once, and even sillier trying to hit three panels without stepping on a mine or their hand. If DDR was an updated version of Simon with Eurobeat, then ITG is basically Twister with happy hardcore. Which is good 'cause I love me the stupid-fast holycrap-beats-per-minute happy hardcore.
I'd better finish getting ready and mapquesting my route. I'll talk to you cats Friday night. Oh, by the way, for those of you interested, the novel will reach the end of Book One over the weekend. Just thought you might like to know.Saturday, June 18, 2005 9:02:00p: *
A few quick notes. First, the interview went well, I thought-- more on that as it becomes known.
Secondly, those of you who know people who know they like people who know people who like anime all but about three of my regular readers will probably enjoy Mai HiME; I spent the last few days torrenting it and have been very delighted. I assume that the plot will begin to congeal soon but to be honest I don't want it to; I want the group to continue screwing around and stumbling through every plot element. This is actually kind of like what I'd want to do for a one-shot d20 Modern story, but we'll have to wait and see.
Next, I've been tempted to load up Sim City 3000 again after having remembered that I still have it and it actually runs smoothly on the laptop. Then I remember I have lots of work to do and if I even think about playing it now I'll never actually get any of it done.
Slight digression: KFC's barbecue "boneless wings" are very, very good. 'Cept it's basically larger, meatier General Tso's chicken and to be honest I can get it much cheaper at any of the four Chinese buffets I can name off the top of my head. But it was worth trying.
Finally, I'm tired and I'm going to sleep. I guess that doesn't really count as a 'finally' but it'll have to do.
EDIT: Oh yeah, one last thing. One of the first things I want to do once I am employed again is get the Firefly boxed set. This comes after seeing the Serenity trailer about four times in the last three weeks and thinking "Holy mother of all that is freakin' sweet, how could they cancel something this goddamn awesome?!".Monday, June 20, 2005 11:54:00a: RSS Test 2*
Testing the RSS feed system again. Please disregard this entry and the zaniness it will contain.
Bold.Italic. A less than: < An ampersand: & I don't know what this is: &orm;Monday, June 20, 2005 12:20:00p: *
If you're using Firefox or another RSS-aware browser, you'll notice the handy-dandy little "RSS" button in the lower-right corner of your window. If you're not, well, why aren't you? Anyway, the point is, the blog entries are now available through an RSS feed for reading with your favorite aggregator. I'm still working on a solution for the forum posts, but I honestly don't know about that-- there are a few unexpected bugs I noticed in doing the blog feed and I want to work those out before worrying about the forums. It works, for now, and that's all I'm really worried about. I'm probably going to see if it can be plugged into LiveJournal so that there's little divide between here and the DDR Erie folks.
I'll probably have a "designer's notes" entry on the RSS/XML stuff I've learned later. For now, know that XML is easy for a computer to write and a person to read. It is significantly harder for a person to write and a computer to read.
Next up for today, I'm planning on establishing a new quiz-- that is, one separate from those previously seen here. Expect news on that later today.
Not much else going on, except that I'm sorely tempted to fire up Sim City for a little while. But of course, I know that "a little while" will eventually become "until it's dark, I haven't eaten in twelve hours, the dishes remain undone and there's twenty messages on the phone".
Today's spat of productivity was by no means intentional. I really only wanted to get the RSS feed done and think about the forum feed... but, well, it kinda snowballed, as you can see. I worked out the bugs in the RSS feed (and gained an increased understanding of the way it works, too) so that feature is pretty much stable, complete, and done. As it turns out the forum feed is also going to be very easy to do once I actually sit down and do it, so expect that within a day or two as well.
I will freely admit that the RPG screenshot quiz is a direct ripoff of this quiz which has made the rounds at NetJak. Beyond that there's little else to tell-- feel free to try it as you see fit or to ignore it. Makes no difference to me.
The older quizzes-- the X quiz, the "What Furry Animne Creature Are You" quiz, and the Disturbed quiz-- may or may not be going back up. They weren't that much of a draw to the site, anyway. July will see the return of the AMV of the Month feature, as I realize now that it was a big draw and my account can more than handle the bandwidth. I just have to get back to actually finding and watching AMVs. It kind of goes in cycles, you know?
Oh, and as I'd said before, Mai HiME is excellent. A very good balance of slapstick and action-- and the music is very well done, too.
Hm. The Happy Tree Friends flash series is looking to become a game. Great, like we didn't have Jack "Flash" Thompson breathing down our necks enough, already. Still I'd be interested to see what a company does with the license.
Anyway, that's primarily it for now. Later, folks. I mean it, I'm actually leaving the house so I don't do more web work tonight. Really. Pinky promise.Wednesday, June 22, 2005 8:20:00a: *
Those of you who use LiveJournal, you can add my site's RSS to your friends list for reading there by using this link: furryone_feed. At first there will be a mass of entries all dated on the 21st at 6:45 pm, but that's due to LiveJournal being brainless and dating its entries based on the time they're fetched instead of the times I specify. Thanks to Eric at EchoAlpha for setting up the feed journal.
I have a very strange question running through my mind, but I'm not sure if anyone is able to answer it but me. It might seem a little existential but the consequences are grave indeed-- again, to me at the very least. Which is more important to me: happiness or money?Thursday, June 23, 2005 7:45:00a: *
There have been a few complaints regarding the RPG quiz, and I suppose they're fair enough. Rob mentions that not all of the games listed are RPGs-- and while indeed a few of them don't strictly fall into the category as defined by Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy and the like, I felt (while searching for titles) that they fit the bill well enough. Not to say that Uninvited didn't diverge totally from the formula, but given the next complaint I'd say it was close enough with what I had to work with.
Others have also mentioned that I did not include many of the more recent titles in the gamut of RPGs. Sure, I included Skies, VP, and FFT, but those are the newest listed. The reason for this is because I was lazy and decided to cull all of my screenshots from The Video Game Museum. Now, I'm willing to take a slap on the wrst for that-- it's also why there are no PC RPGs on the list.
What I really should mention is that the subjectivity inherent in gamers will always make for some complaints. Believe it or not I do consider Uninvited to be a pure RPG and Legacy of the Wizard to be... not one. Your mileage may differ, and I honestly don't care if it does. The only reason there is a list is because I don't want to have to code for every possible misspelling of the game's title. If it were within my power you'd get the screenshot and that's it-- no list, just name it.
So I'm also taking this opportunity to announce that the next two quizzes-- because there will be two more-- will be somewhat different in format and in scale. (It's too early in the morning for me to type out the onomatopoeia for a soft chuckle escalating into maniacal laughter here, so just use your imagination.) Expect them this week or next. Or not. Depends on how today and tomorrow go.
In the meantime, today I might accidentally re-code the three older quizzes. Don't hold me to that. Alternately I might go with my original plan of watching the entirety of The Lord of the Rings. Don't hold me to that, either.Friday, June 24, 2005 6:37:00p: *
For the record, reinstalling Windows sucks. Hard.
I received a few setbacks today-- major ones-- but for the most part I feel all right. Numb. Inured to this sort of thing.
The hardest thing for anyone to ever do is realize that every time they've offered advice to someone else, it applied to themselves as well. Swallowing this can be a very difficult task. Naturally that's the pill I face now. Every encouragement and every sage word I've offered past and present is coming back and it all sounds so hollow to me. I can't fathom how it must have felt to those I told before. Maybe those who heard my words felt as I do now-- that I'm full of it and don't have a good god damned clue what I'm saying. That if anything I'm doing more harm than good.
And yet even now I am at peace. The anxiety of this past week is gone, and even though my situation has not changed-- even though it has taken a turn for the worse-- I am calm. I can accept what has happened because, like all things, it has passed. This despair, this hopelessness is not permanent. Neither is joy. What is required of me now is to keep hope for the times when joy will return, and when those times arrive, I must not be so worried about its ending that I fail to see what time has brought me.
It is easy to say. But saying it does not make it true, nor is it false. What is really important cannot be said, let alone typed, digitized, encoded encrypted packetized and transmitted. It is not the saying of it which makes it real, but its doing. Saying it is easy. To do it... well, I'm trying.
It's a lot easier when I have money, sure, but then again when I have money I don't think like this.
Anyway, don't let this bother any of you, my constant readers. Out of hardship comes reward; out of misery, jubilation. In this case it means I'll probably spend the weekend writing for the novel and being excessively evil to my characters. It's getting to that point in the story anyway and to be honest some of them deserve great big bitchslaps. One is going to get one, literally. Literarily. I'm not going to smack my computer. It might fight back.
Wait, it already did, by making me re-install Windows. *thwack* You run what I tell you, digi-ho! God DAMMIT I do not want to use Windows Messenger! Where the hell is my wireless icon?! You'll use Firefox and you'll LIKE IT!
Er, ahem. Please excuse me while I lay the Biblical on this electronic nightmare.
sounds of screaming hardware and what can only be described as a katana-wielding man taking out his frustration at a world gone mad on his laptopMonday, June 27, 2005 10:15:00a: *
So I figured out why my AIM wasn't working and why it was taking me weeks to download a short torrent. My router somehow got it into its head that the DNS servers needed to be hardcoded. This combined with the fact that Verizon chose to reconfigure my area's IP and DNS settings without telling anyone... A quick mindwipe and all is well again-- I even have my stupidfast happy hardcore back on. (Pez, you might want to alert Earthlink to this fact-- I wouldn't be surprised if EL thinks your PPPoE has to come from a specific IP but your modem is getting a different one from Verizon. These IP changes happen pretty frequently, from what the tech support guy said.)
Basically this happened just in time for me to head back to the homestead for a little bit. I'll set my torrent to download overnight and when I get home things should be well. Other than that, it's all good here. Better than it was previously, at any rate. Got phone calls to make and resumes to send, so if you'll all excuse me...Wednesday, June 29, 2005 8:25:00a: Disturbing Search String Theater for June 2005*
And as always, it is my distinct pleasure to bring to you one more time: Disturbing Search String Theater. I suppose we've had an influx of readers, so for those of you unfamiliar with the concept, I'll explain. What follows are search strings that have appeared in my server logs and thus presumably led people to my site. Why anyone would ever want to search for these things is beyond my reckoning, but hey, it's a big intarweb out there and I've no place to judge. So here goes:
make amy naked with no clothes/ sonic/ games Oh, as opposed to naked under her clothes? Like the rest of us?
adult hellboy fanfic I hope that that adjective is modifying "Hellboy" and not "fanfic".
wendee lee naked As much as I admire her voice acting range and her dub directorial skills, no offense intended, but this is something I never ever want to see.
how to make wwe blood caplets Ingredients: 1. Syringe 2. Empty capsules 3. Mick Foley 4. Lots and lots of alcohol
vin diesel s mastiff Unless he has a dog that I don't know about, this is a euphemism I definitely do not want to know about.
how to negative the gold in gunbound Well, since I'm not a big fat CHEATER!!! like you, I don't know how to do that. But, I can do it in real life...
monica rial underwear Wonderful person. Sweet and forgiving personality. Amazing voice. Talented actress. Not an underwear model.
steve buscemi fanfiction Tell me. Are you looking for fanfics starring Steve's characters or fanfics starring Steve himself? 'Cause the first is kinda blah while the second might be pretty cool. He could be an amateur detective who moonlights as a hilarious deadpan actor. He'd get caught up in murder schemes, wisecrack his way through a few tense moments with the police, and eventually solve the crime in time for him to go to his knitting circle-- ooops, wait, I'm getting this mixed up with the plot of every single mystery novel to come out in the past ten years. Sorry.
bar I kid you not. Someone entered this into a search engine and came up with my site. If you're trying to be vague, and you kind of fail, haven't you also kind of succeeded?
getting naked This was surprisingly high in my list of search strings, which tells me there are a lot of undereducated nudists out there.
Oh, and it's time for Fun Facts: The word "naked" appeared 30 times in all 633 search phrases, ranked fifth. "of" was the number one word, mentioned 77 times. Firefox and Mozilla are used by 31% of my readers, while 64% of you are godless commies using Internet Explorer. One really confused hit came from Internet Explorer 4.0 and another came from Lynx. I served two gigs of content and one gig of error messages. The Weapon of CX was accessed 186 times. Finally, the RSS feed is seeing some good use-- 270 hits since its intorduction late in the month.
That's it for now, kids. Stay tuned for more wacky hijinks and zany madcap antics. Which basically means I'm going back to bed for a few more hours.