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Wednesday, October 1, 2003 4:00:58a: *
I've had the music from the Ultimate Life Form Battle from Sonic Adventure 2 stuck in my head all night. It is one of the few tracks from the more recent Sonic games that I do NOT have a digital form of. RAGE....Wednesday, October 1, 2003 10:00:19p: *
Halo has been released on PC. I took a look at a few message boards to find out the specs needed to run it. This taught me one important thing.
People will bitch about anything.Thursday, October 2, 2003 7:39:04a: * Gameforms has it that Sega has chosen Mr. Hideaki Irie as their new president for their US Operations. Why is this a good thing? Simply put, this guy cofounded Agetec (you may have heard of a little something they've done, Armored Core) and also was head of ASCII's software division (and that would be in reference to Dodge Ball Advance). What does this mean to US gamers? It means hold on to your chicken suits, boys and girls-- the house that the Blue Blur built is going to be bringing a lot more of the so-called "obscure" games over to the US. While that's just speculation on my part at this time, it seems very likely. After all, the guy has to know about the MASSIVE success some of the more "Japanese" of the recent set of Japanese games (Disgaea, dood?), and I recall fondly the days when Sega would bring over everything that seemed even remotely interesting. It's a shame we almost didn't get Rez, and there were a few games that maybe needed a little more polish or playtesting (like, and I'm going to get killed for this, Panzer Dragoon Orta); but overall Sega has been good to us, and we've been good to Sega. So let's see how this plays out. The steam shovel in the alleyway has decided he must dig, dig, dig, right outside my window. So we're on a little field trip today. My sleep schedule was wrecked for this weekend anyway...Thursday, October 2, 2003 10:06:32p: *
Project: Aestivalis is proceeding nicely; it's just a matter of time...
Project: Big Shell is also going as planned. Less certain, of course, but still confident that it's gonna happen.
I must be cryptic here, but I must also tell SOMEONE. The forum-gumi know what I mean-- well, one or two of them do, anyway... It should be obvious what I mean by each term, but let me remind you of two things obliquely: 1. I often name my belongings-- such as my car or my computer-- after mecha. My first computer was Yagami; I was going to drive Heimdall to Coudersport before I wrecked it and got the Gustaff... 2. Project: Big Shell was called "Project: Outer Heaven" the last time I tried it. They're linked, in a manner of speaking, in the nature of the activity...
Forum-gumi are reminded to use the Inner Circle board to discuss the answers.Friday, October 3, 2003 4:00:57p: *
Well, folks, it's that time again-- time for Disturbing Search String Theater. This episode's lucky(?) winner(?!) is:
early anime with boob missiles
I don't deny that those words do appear on my site. But I do assert that they don't appear in that order. I also realize that SYWtbaO is going to skew the results somewhat, but eh. Someone obviously is lonely out there...Friday, October 3, 2003 8:15:25p: *
There was this one guy I knew who wanted to try out "the AXE Effect", you know, like in the commercials. So he sprayed the deodorant in his crotch.
He couldn't walk for a week. I still don't know whether this was due to "the AXE Effect" because whenever I showed him the bottle, he always whimpered and shied away.Sunday, October 5, 2003 8:00:59p: * This deserves comment. Not so much the guy being a jerk by audiospamming the collections agency, but the complaint to the Anne Murray's Greatest Hits line.
"...and that bitch Anne Murry too..." heh heh heh. Best line in the whole damn movie.Monday, October 6, 2003 3:11:40p: *
So.... the nGage. Right. Let's talk about the nGage.
It sucks.
I think we've reached a satisfying and overall good consensus on this issue... what? Reasons? What do you think this is, some sort of discussion, where I need to back up my assertions with proof, aka facts?
Okey-dokey.
The fact that it's been savaged in nearly every review notwithstanding, I think it bears repeating that Nokia's entry into handheld gaming doesn't really stand much of a chance; both from a technical standpoint and from an aesthetic standpoint. Technically-- the machine is a waste of plastic and metal. What it does, it does poorly; a tiny, blurry screen coupled with an impossible to decipher button set and a ridiculous non-helpful backlight make gaming "on the go" more like gaming "chained to a lamppost and under a microscope, as long as nothing ont he screen moves". The wireless multiplayer is a first. Whoopty-shit. Nobody would ever admit to owning one of these crap wedges in the first place; and you're telling me I need to find TWO of them?
Aesthetically-- the machine looks like ass. If you thought the GBA SP was tiny, boy, you ain't seen nothin' till you wrap your mitts around the nGage. Or mitt, I should say. James Hetfield could crush the blasted thing in one of his massive fists, so meaty and inescapable are they. Hell, I probably wouldn't have a tough time twisting the bastard in half. And, after playing the games, you can understand why. It is sad when seven out of eight launch games are ports from other systems-- direct ports, in the cases of Sonic N, Pandemonium, and Tomb Raider. It is even worse when you notice that the games are somehow not as good when played on inferior technology. Go figure.
There are 21 buttons on this monstrosity. 21. And that's not even counting the cross-pad-thingy. 14 or so are your basic buttons you would expect on a cell phone, which is really what the nGage should have been. I don't see where the other 7 are really needed. Sure, you can use the nGage as an MP3 player, or maybe even as a PDA of sorts, but why would you want to do that when you can squint at nanometer-sized bubbles in Puzzle Bobble Vs? In its defense, of course, the esteemed gaming rag GMR says that the email and web functions are the nGage's best features. But that's like saying that even though she weighs eight hundred pounds and has not bathed since A Flock of Seagulls were on the Top Ten charts, Louisa May would make a perfect girl to bring home to Mom and Pop because she can do advanced calculus in her head (and counting on her toes sometimes). Neat feature, but not quite as advertised.
I think I've belabored the point long enough, so in closing, let's just drop the n and the e from the name and take Nokia's advice. If I see one, I will be sure to Gag. Thank you.Monday, October 6, 2003 8:44:37p: *
Oh yeah, the Penny Arcade/PvP thing. It's true that some of PA's strips don't tend to make sense taken out of context; that's something they have to deal with. But look at which of those two comics is on my links page.
Yeah. I think we know where I stand.
(In case you're thinking this is hypocritical of me, let me say first that this website makes no guarantees, express or implied, that it will ever make sense, even with context in which to frame it.)Tuesday, October 7, 2003 7:46:31p: * CowboyNeal, you got some 'splaining to do.....Wednesday, October 8, 2003 1:20:52a: *
So Arnold is now the governor of California. No big deal. People come and go in power all the time. We jest, of course, but I'm genuinely interested in seeing how he does as a political figure. Actually, no-- I don't want to see him as a political figure, I want to see him as a leader. That's what I think politics needs-- more leaders instead of figures.
Then again, I'm almost positive his first gubernatorial act will be to rename the death penalty "termination"...
.....naaaaah.Wednesday, October 8, 2003 2:46:17a: *
I've made mention of this on the old site, but I just want to voice the opinion that German is a funny language to listen to. Especially sung German. Specifically, heavy-metal sung German. Like Rammstein. It's very hard to envision the lyrics being angsty, blow-up-the-world rage when you hear what definitely sounds like "glurk glick gork flikt nerga yaaa-baa".Thursday, October 9, 2003 1:52:14a: * This page at Gameforms has some really good quotes about the nGage which could easily be taken out of context. So of course that's what I'm going to do, seeing how as I hate the nGage and all. Even after actually getting to play it-- after spending ten minutes figuring out how to turn the god damned thing on and play the funking game-- I am less than excited. So here goes. The actual quote is in bold with my additions (or what they may have omitted) not in bold.
Nokia [stated] that it hoped to sell between six and nine million units of the N-Gage in 2004 years. Two thousand years from now they probably still won't have broken five digits on the sales counter.
"Nine million units, after all, is a vast number in the world of gaming - but in the mobile phone market, which shifts nearly half a billion units each year, it's a drop in the ocean." "Which is good, because we sure as hell wouldn't want to have to bury eight million, nine hundred and ninety thousand of these little bastards in the New Mexico desert."
"There's going to be a lot of tired thumbs tonight!" said Ilkka Raiskinen, Senior Vice President, in reference to the nGage's designers, who have now been fired and had their cars stolen by Nokia's Special Products Division. "They'll be walking the streets of this godforsaken icehole for years to come!"
This one is direct from the article; the pinnacle of understatement. Let's face it, the N-Gage launch hasn't been the biggest thing of the year. I don't think I really need to add to that-- just agree with it and let's move on.
"There's no going back," said every U.S. Nokia employee dedicated to the nGage, "We're all fXXXXd!"
Don't look at me like that; what is a personal website for if not to be a bastion of childish behavior?Thursday, October 9, 2003 4:00:03a: *
I realize I haven't added content to the site in a while. There's been so much happening all around me, however, that I really haven't had much time to devote to being creative. Yet. The next few weeks are going to be more behind-the-scenes stuff and getting prepped for Project Aestivalis, so this is the official notice that site development is on hold for the time being unless I get a really good idea. Preparations for Project Aestivalis actually include knocking a few games off my to-finish list, including FFTA (which I'm just about 2/3rds of the way through the main quest), Advance Wars 2 (just a little past halfway), KOTOR (which hasn't been touched since FFTA arrived), Halo, and maybe doing a little more work in Pokemon Sapphire (I did it again-- unlocked Fly and forgot what the main quest was after 4 months). I've been very proud of how I've handled the whole "open games" thing-- this actually is the lowest the list has been in a long time-- but I think before P:A gets into full gear, I might have Tactics and AW2 finished off. Definitely Tactics, though AW2 may be pushing it. We'll see. Just about a week or so until it hits, though, so I'd better stop talking and start engaging...Thursday, October 9, 2003 2:19:15p: *
Emma, Jane, and McDullen are confirmed as playable characters for Wild ARMs: Alter Code F.
Calamity Jane is playable.
This means two things. One: I will definitely be getting this game when it is released here. Two: I'm going to have to stop reading stuff for it to avoid spoilers now, since it's clear that there's more to the story than before...Friday, October 10, 2003 6:56:11p: *
Been doing some reading lately-- mostly Final Fantasy 9 fanfics... Have you noticed that one out of every three FF9 stories actually has the same thematic tone as the actual game? I'm not saying that 33% of them are just crappy continuation fics, I'm saying that 66% of them seem to be angst-filled looks into how Zidane didn't really survive against Kuja; how Garnet committed suicide after an accident; how Freya went nuts because Fratley didn't remember her... Basically, they're undoing the happy ending. I don't want to name any names here, but I've read more "the world sucks and everybody dies" fics than I care to mention. I don't know about you, but I like the occasional happy ending.
Speaking of less-than-stellar storytelling, I managed to see Underworld with the sibling-unit yesterday. She was somewhat of a positive opinion, but overall we were not impressed. This is probably because the polt "twists" were about as twisty as a railroad track. The story barrelled through mediocrity and was punctuated only by semi-spiffy fight sequences. Anyone going in expecting The Matrix with a White Wolf skinn will be very disappointed. Anyone going in expecting a movie worth their seven bucks will also be disappointed. Wait for a rental, if at all.
Oh well. Back to whatever it was I was doing.Monday, October 13, 2003 7:52:24a: *
Nearing the end in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I've just about got 5 more story missions to complete-- just about to head into Bervenia Palace, for those who've played. Is it just me or did the difficulty level ramp sharply up after meeting Llednar? My characters are roughly Level 23 or so, but I've got plenty of abilites mastered. However, my rotten luck has always worked against me, and so the laws usually wind up disabling the wonderful skills I spent so long acquiring. Ah well. I expect I'll be done before the end of the week. Work has been OK, too... no major complaints. Well, no coherent complaints, anyway. The less said, the better. Anyway, so that's what I've done for the past few days. No, there was no real point to this beyond being your typical, shallow, "got up, saved world, went to bed" blog entry. I can be shallow once in a while. I'm entitled. Expect something deep and thought-provoking later today. Probably on a different site.Monday, October 13, 2003 10:11:13p: *
Game news, folks, and there's a bit to cover. Slashdot had an interesting article this afternoon discussing the media's coverage of the video game industry, which I completely ignored. Simply put, the mainstream media doesn't cover video games. It advertises them. It's the same thing with interviews with movie stars and musicians-- everybody's got something to say when they've got something to sell. I would like to see an independent, in-depth, FAIR game magazine. No ads, no subsidized editorials, no nothing. Gaming by the gamers, for the gamers. The closest we get right now is DMG Ice, which (though it is a Game Boy-exclusive site) isn't afraid to savage a game no matter how badly the developers want it to be a hit. Phil doesn't get paid, doesn't have any stake in the "industry"-- and I have yet to see him be completely wrong on a preview. In four years. If that's not fair and balanced coverage, then I don't know what is. John Romero and Tom Hall have been hired by Midway. John Romero, many of you know, developed Daikatana. Tom Hall, many of you might not know, developed Anachronox. So Midway will produce two more games before it closes for good. One will be really good-- the pinnacle of gaming, complete heaven-- but nobody will buy it. The other will be John Romero's game, and he'll say something really stupid about it and then crank out an absolute turd. And then Midway will close. Mark my words. Final Fantasy XI will be out in early 2004 for the PS2, and-- if I were to actually decide I wanted to buy into the whole MMO FF thing-- that would be the version I'm waiting for. I know that I hate messing around with setting up PC games as it is, so I will probably drive myself to suicide if I have to screw around with driver issues whilst being teased with the promise of moogles and suchlike. I want my computer to be set up once and then work forever on anything that it supports. And while I'm dreaming, I want to have my car spontaneously become a Porsche 911. One thing, of course-- I will name my character something cool. Or, you know, I'll just use the standard name I always use when I play as a female character. Enough. I must toil now. But we shall speak again.Tuesday, October 14, 2003 3:53:28a: *
I'm going to be working on a character generator for the forum RPG this weekend, so expect that soon. Also, spread the word about the role-playing. I'd love to get as many people together for this as possible. FFTA will be done soon, soon... and then....Tuesday, October 14, 2003 12:32:00p: *
Stupid west coast. I hates it so much...
Addendum, 12:34a: I fixed the joke down there. Sorry, I was being stupid. You have my assurances that any and all stupidity will cease.Wednesday, October 15, 2003 4:56:05a: *
There's some weird magnetic interference thing going on here on my monitor at work. For whatever reason, the right-hand half of the monitor seems to discolor whenever I place it in a certain way. Naturally, the place where the monitor doesn't get all funked up is the most inconvenient for me. Oh well. I did a lot of work on the character generator last night and today; I've got a complete skill and feat listing ready, and I can probably shoehorn them into a way to create your character in one shot. The next logical progression, of course, is to allow characters to be saved on the server... But that's getting ahead of myself. I need to finish that section first-- to allow players to select feats and skills in an efficient way (ie not having 3MB-sized character records). Dealing with spells may be tricky, too, but then again I have time to deal with that since magic isn't available yet. In the long run I'd like to convert the game over to being completely automated, and removing my arbitration as GM. I still want it to be forum-based, but we'll see how much interest the game gets to begin with. I figure if I just keep progressing one tool at a time, the game will eventually be done. Like I said, we'll see. Must continue this later.Wednesday, October 15, 2003 8:12:52a: *
Playing through the opening to FFTA again, I can't help but notice how thinly veiled the reference to Cid's drinking is. Aside from the fact that it's explicitly stated that Cid has a drinking problem in the strategy guide, during the intro sequence, Cid is found apologizing to a pair of random guys outside of a "cafe". Die-hard US FF fans will recall that that's what the bars in earlier Nintendo FFs were called. Also, Mewt mentions that "when Mom died, he [Cid] stopped caring". Kind of a dead giveaway there. You know, now that I think about it, there's not a single "normal" family in all of the Final Fantasy games. But let's stay focused on FFTA... Mewt's mom died and his dad is a drunk. Marche's dad divorced and his mom is always paying attention to his brother. Ritz... well, we don't know much about her parents, 'cause the hair thing apparently takes precedence. Montblanc and Nono apparently don't have parents... More stuff I noticed. There's a desk lamp and a TV in Doned and Marche's room... right next to the wood-burning stove. Marche's family is probably from the West Coast (a "warmer town" that "doesn't get any snow") because there's also a skateboard leaning against the wall. Marche's low ability at sports isn't for lack of trying; there's a soccer ball on the bookshelf. The calendar above the desk has a portrait I can't quite make out-- a girl clad in yellow. Could be an Amano-style pic of Terra? In the snowball fight, the kids' "jobs" are actually their niches in school (Ritz is "class head", Mewt is "Librarian", Marche is "New Kid" et al). Mewt's last name (Randell) is never said during the game, which makes the Llednar thing a bit of a surprise if you don't read the instruction manual. Come to think of it, nobody's last name is mentioned. Ah well. Time to sleep, now...Wednesday, October 15, 2003 10:25:31p: *
I would like to commemorate the life and death of Jessica Cauley (nee Karst), a good friend who died in a car accident in Texas on October 2nd, 2003. I just learned of her death less than an hour ago. Autumn is a time of slowing down, a time in which the world recovers from the craziness and fast-paced summer vacations and adventures that they have occupied the past four months with. It is in autumn that school friends return to each other, recounting tales of what they did over their breaks. A time of reunion, a time of growing togetherness. After all, it's back to school. Packing into the stadium or the living room for football games watched with friends. Soon there will be Thanksgiving, and soon we'll hear songs of going home for the holidays. Autumn brings us together as a people. And yet autumn takes away, as well. The falling leaves, the dropping temperatures; all of these indicate that what we enjoyed in spring and summer will soon be reclaimed, and we will be held siege again to the whim of Jack Frost. Autumn takes away, and it is because of this that we must remember. I was searching for Jessica's obituary just now and unfortunately came up with nothing. What I did find, however, was that yesterday, another death shocked my small hometown. A sixteen-year-old boy died after a football game in which he played. Osten Gill played in Canisteo, fell ill on the way to Cuba, and died in a Hornell hospital. My school has had its fair share of death, as well; perhaps not as high profile as Columbine or Edinboro, but death all the same. Ms. Bartman, Ms. Lang... the list goes on, and it seems it will never end. While it may seem that this "memorial" serves no greater purpose than to allow me to wallow in my own self-pity for a while, let me assure you this is not the case. I wish only to remember those who have passed away, those who have touched my life and then faded from it. I would like all of you to remember and to pray for those whom you have lost, or who may have lost you. And this holiday season, when you are all safe and together, and warm by the fire, and watching football or the parades...
Remember that that, in itself, is the greatest gift you will ever give or receive.
With love and rememberance,
John Zeitler Saturday, October 18, 2003 3:08:33a: *
So.... iTunes for Windows, now. I feel I ought to weigh in on this, even though you folks probably won't see this until Sunday morning. This actually works out for the best, because by then I'll have actually purchased something from them and will have a more balanced viewpoint. Right now I think it's the most f****ng brilliant idea in the known universe. Maybe later I'll see the flaws. Maybe later I'll have made up some flaws. But for right now, count me officially tempted by the fruit of the others. The biggest thing about the iTunes client-- with all the stuff Apple crammed into there, you can hardly just call it "the store"-- is the fact that it worked at all. Having only upgraded to Win XP (with the requisite RAM boost, natch) on Friday, I was lucky to be able to check it out. I definitely am grooving on the concept of sharing music between computers-- when I go in for the laptop, you can be sure I'll be gunning for iTunes compatibility. On a 700 MHz P3, with 256 MB RAM, you'd hardly believe it wasn't a Mac-- that's how well and how nicely it runs. (Sure, it stomped all over my file associations, but that's expected. I'd probably have had to pinch myself if it didn't.) Browsing for music is so nice now. No more "well, it says U2, but is it really 'Numb'?" No more waiting half an hour to find out whether or not you've downloaded the hot new TMBG single or if you managed to get John and John verbally abusing their fans. (And it's not like any other artists would do that....) You get up to a 30 second preview of the track (though I did notice something odd-- Monty Python skits that are less than 30 seconds are hardly worth the 99 cents, especially when you consider that your 99 cents buys you one song regardless of length... OK, so I found one complaint, sue me), and from there you can choose to buy the song or move on. Thanks to multi-authorization, you can copy your music to more than one computer legally (up to three-- but you can change which three at any time). And you can burn as much as you want whenever you want. What really sold me, I mean, really sold me, has to have been the radio streams. I am a sucker for wanting people to play music and for me to listen to it without worrying about what's next. In other words, I was a DJ for four years, and now it's other people's turn to play music for me. There are scads, nay, an overabundance of radio streams of varying quality available for listening in genres uncountable. You might not think that 400,000 songs is a lot. But after browsing for about an hour, I found stuff that I'd never even heard of and lots more from artists that I'd maybe had only one or two tracks of. So there's plenty here to keep me occupied, even if there are some genres I'll never descend to browsing (country springs immediately to mind). It gets better; I've caught wind of an upcoming Pepsi promotion that basically gives songs away. You can bet your butt that I'm going to be all over that. I drink Pepsi every once in a while; I prefer Coke and many of its non-diet variants, but last I checked the venerable Coca-Cola Corporation was not willing to fuel my addiction to music. I will be using the Pepsi caps or whatever to pick up tracks and artists I'm iffy on. Of course, with previews, I don't have to be iffy on anything. Apple may have the Holy Grail of music distribution here. They have something everyone wants. They are not being pigheaded about distributing it at a price that everyone deems fair. They have made the rules, and they have made them bearing in mind that human beings are going to be following them. They have even made the rules generous enough that people may actually follow them. A buck for a high-quality (in terms of audio reproduction, of course; the quality of the composition may vary) song with unlimited replays and unlimited rights to burn, copy, play, or bury that song however you see fit. Seems like a better deal than opening your computer up to nasty stuff and possibly not even getting the right file after downloading crappy-quality tracks from fifteen users after spending half an hour online. It's settled, then. I definitely want a Mac now.Sunday, October 19, 2003 1:21:01a: *
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I still haven't managed to get up to Cuba yet, to see the Karsts, but I will probably write to them and give my condolences.
As you can see, I did indeed update the site over the weekend, but it was mostly behind-the-scenes stuff. And a rant that remained hidden until now. You don't know how badly I wanted to violate my self-imposed rule and gush about iTunes. So I did, but I cleverly didn't press the "overwrite the touching note and make myself look like an insensitive dick" button.
Anyway, let's talk about the new stuff on the site. Did some nips and tucks to the Character-O-Matic, and got it ready for prime time for the game. It's not complete, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's at the very least usable. I suppose I ought to modify the printable sheet to look more like the standard d20 sheet, but that's something for COM v1.1. As you can see, though, we're getting ready to get the party started. So fire up those brains and get some characters rolled up. We're gonna have us a campaign, boys and girls.
Page 5 of the satirical "So You Want To Be an Otaku" went up as well, and it's somewhat less than my usual standards. I'll be honest-- it's probably the worst of the lot, but eh. Everyone has off days. I definitely will work to do better with page 6 and beyond.
Added iTunes to the Links page, of course. Being able to update that page on the fly is so good. While we're on the subject, iBought an album from iTunes, and iLike it. (iThink iTook that joke too far, but iCould be mistaken.) The disc was Ken Ishii's "FutureInLight". You may know Ishii-san from the fantastically perfect Rez. As an added plus, Apple included "Creative State" on the disc, making sure that the US-only bonus track was there. One of the things I liked about buying the album at once is that it's , regardless of how many tracks ("FutureInLight" was only 11 tracks, counting Creative State, but believe me-- it's worth it) are on the disc. Dad asked me if that also referred to double-albums, and I responded that I hadn't looked at any double albums yet. Next on my list-- Venus Hum. I heard "Montana" at the beginning of the year-- or rather, a remix of it-- and loved it. Good singer, clever writing, and I want more. But yeah. Saving money is good.
That's one of the major things I like about iTunes. I'm willing to pay for an album, or for a single track (I did buy two other tracks-- the Oakenfold-Elvis thing and the extended remix of that). It saves me money in that I don't have to expend the gas to drive to the store, I don't have to waste two hours driving into Olean, and I don't have to buy the entire album if I don't want it (though for the most part I will be buying albums, barring other circumstance). And I'm supporting the artist. I realize that less than a nickel, if anything, went to Ken Ishii for each track I downloaded. However, that's 5% of my expenditure. You'd be lucky if 5% of the cost of your CD actually went to the artist if bought from a store. (Note: I don't know economics, I don't really know how much of the iTunes price goes to the artist, I just know that the odds are significantly more in favor of the artist who sells through iTunes than through a conventional store.)
All right, enough corporate whoring. Time to get back to my life.
Almost finished with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, actually. The final mission is available to me, but still I hesitate, particularly because I know that there's plenty more leveling that I could be doing. Llednar's waiting for me, I just know it, and I want to be ready to give him the whuppin' he deserves. I've clocked about 45 hours on the game, and I show no real signs of stopping until I've finished.
More gaming will commence once Project Aestivalis kicks in. Expect that to begin early in the week, maybe Monday.
Things are quiet here, so I'm probably gonna take off for a little while. I should probably do some more reading... I should... but... the clans beckon me.... and my Moogle's getting restless.
...
Montblanc, you pervs.Monday, October 20, 2003 6:11:56a: *
I have arrived at the conclusion that pretty much anyone living in the Pacific Time Zone has lost their mind. Even if it's just a little bit, if you see the ocean when watching the sun set, you're nuts. The brain fails to wrap itself around the insanity that is the webcomic list today. Megatokyo's good, Neko Machi's building up for something very cool, Real Life has Dom guest-starring, and Nekobox seems to have gone in for full-on plushie combat.
Chaos and insanity reigns.
By the way, this morning I plan to finish FFTA and get the wraps going on Project Aestivalis. I'll post before I go to sleep with an update and a date for when P:A should be ready.
Oh, and one last little note. If you ever get the desire to wander off to TheForce.net and watch some of the fan movies, here are my recommendations.
Watch "Art of the Saber" and "The Essence Of The Force".
For Whom The Candy Owns: I'm thinkin' Mongolian BBQ. Of course, there's a place not too far from Books Galore that's similar, but has sushi. Your call, really; if you don't want to go there, I'll probably hit it when I get in to town and then we can go somewhere else for dinner.Monday, October 20, 2003 7:16:31a: *
iTunes has an obscenity filter that automatically asterisks out offensive words in song titles. Unfortunately, it needs a little tweaking. For example, the band name F**k is not bleeped out, while known and celebrated actor Dick Van Dyke is. I just thought that was worth mentioning.Monday, October 20, 2003 8:26:54p: *
Nobody knows this but me, of course, but in my shower stall, the knobs leak a bit when you press in on them, expelling the appropriate-temperature water.
Just a few minutes ago, I backed into one of the knobs while rinsing the shampoo out of my hair.
You know, there's really no feeling that quite compares to getting a jet of ice-cold water down your asscrack when you're not expecting it. It's indescribable, really... Well, I did do a pretty good job of describing it at the time, but lest Google lump me into the "adult website" category I think it best not to repeat it here.
Oh, and as for Project: Aestivalis... well...................Tuesday, October 21, 2003 7:15:49a: *
A few years ago-- maybe ten by now, I'm not sure-- my aunt brought back some kind of candy from Japan that had an edible wrapper-- maybe made out of rice-paper or something. Well, being 13, I spat it out because it was orange-flavored (recall that physical age is not proportional to emotional maturity in the teenage male-- and besides, I really don't like oranges). But now I think that maybe if I found some non-orange-flavored type of that candy, I might have a greater appreciation or, nay, enjoyment of it.
Having become a massive anime fan during the past decade doesn't hurt my chances either.
Anyone know what this candy is? And, uh, Aunt Ruth? If you're reading this, I'm sorry and would you mind telling me?Tuesday, October 21, 2003 6:43:40p: *
Just on a curious note, here. I asked the Japanese-candy question thing below on Slashdot this morning, before bed. I clearly marked it as offtopic. This was in the midst of a large posting spree, where I thought I was being funny.
All the supposedly funny comments got moderated into the seventh level of hell. All the offtopic or abrupt change of topic comments got moderated positively. I posted twice in one thread. The first post was moderated down to -1, and the next post (which was a descendant of the first) was moderated as "insightful".
As some of you might know, I managed to finish Final Fantasy Tactics Advance yesterday. The ending was good, but definitely not great. I mean, Square really didn't do what they could have-- but it was good enough. Everyone learned their lessons in the end, a happy ending... but not a Square ending, you know? I'll probably go back to it later on, of course, trying to get all the characters and complete all the quests, but for now I have other matters to attend to.
I want to get my fraggin' skills up to par, so I'll probably be playing a little more UT2K3. Maybe. I really am starting to think, though, that another game may serve me well... Disgaea. I've heard so many good things about it, and to be perfectly honest I had every intention of continuing my tactical streak with it after finishing FFTA. However, stuff came up, right? Specifically Toby's acquisition of a GBA and a copy of Advance Wars 2. So I've been doin' that. Also, I picked up a slew of PC games on the extra-cheap. Might be worth taking some time off from the consoles for a while.
But in any event, all that's a bit in the future. Heading to Erie on Thursday, as you know, and P:A got delayed to the end of the month. That's a tale in and of itself, but for other reasons, it'll just have to wait. My plans for the day include... well, I dunno... maybe a nap. I'm going to try to stay up as "late" as possible, so I actually sleep during the night and don't wind up in a comatose haze on I-90 Thursday morning. I might also do laundry, as I decided the shirt I'm wearing now is one of my favorites and I'd rather wear it on a day where things don't blow up in my face.
I like how the days are getting colder. In case you don't know, I like wearing warm clothes. The staple of my wardrobe for about six years was a turtleneck shirt. That and long-sleeved tunics. They're literally all I wore during the fall, winter, and springs of six straight years. I'd usually wear a flannel shirt or a vest of some sort over them. In high school I was known for wearing the vest. Nobody else did. I liked those times. About two years ago I started wearing gaudy, hideous Hawaiian-print-style shirts, as they had a collar on them and thus met the requirements for being able to wear them at work. Plus, I like getting weird stares. The best thing about these are that they're a) versatile, b) comfortable (especially the rayon ones), and c) layerable. So basically I went from turtlenecks for 75% of the year to loud shirts 90% of the year. I really do need some turtlenecks, though, as I kinda miss them sometimes.
One of my favorite things was wandering around campus in completely black clothing. I mean, everything was black. If I stepped into the shadows I was a frickin' ghost. I was the Campus Ninja.
...All right, so I wasn't N1NJ4. I'm pretty sure I was at least m1-l337.Wednesday, October 22, 2003 2:29:43p: *
Sometimes my memory is too good. Picked up Disgaea this afternoon, and was immediately awestruck by the voice acting. It's a hell of a lot better than the acting for Rhapsody, let me tell you that-- though that in and of itself isn't much, as Pong had better voice acting than Rhapsody (though I will admit that the so-called "musical adventure" had its moments). The downside to this is that it took me all of about thirty seconds to recognize Laharl's VA as being the voice of Naota from FLCL (Barbara Goodson). Even so, I was pleasantly surprised to see Amanda Winn-Lee as Etna. Ms. Winn-Lee, for those of you who might not know, also played Rei Ayanami. Yes, that Rei Ayanami. You'd never know it, though, as Etna actually has a personality. A delightfully sick one, at that.
I guess what I'm trying to say, Kat, Eye, is that I'm sorry I didn't get this game earlier. Oh well. Sleep is for the weak, dood.Wednesday, October 22, 2003 10:04:17p: * A Public Service Announcement:
Disgaea is hard.
This message sponsored by the "Sweet Merciful Crap Why Did You Kill All My Characters In The First Real Mission" campaign, and the Ad Council.Wednesday, October 22, 2003 11:18:56p: *
Since I need to be up in the morning, now would be a good time to render myself Üncönsçïöüs.Friday, October 24, 2003 1:00:24p: * La Pucelle, another strategy RPG from Nippon Ichi (Disgaea, dood), is coming to the US. Sure, it's a year late, and people are going to whine about how it's not as impressive as Disgaea or whatever, but come on. I was checking out the artwork for it two days ago and thinking, "This looks so cool. It'll never be translated in a billion years." So yeah, yay for unlikely localizations. One question, though. Who the hell is Mastiff Games?
Info on the Erie endeavor is forthcoming.Saturday, October 25, 2003 2:25:56a: *
The Journey To The West was a particularly successful trip. I wandered through my old campus, did some shopping, and met Pez for dinner. We ate at top's Buffet-- and granted, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, either. The following exchange occurred verbatim as I was eating my sushi:
Pez: "Are you OK?" Me: "Yeah, fine. Say, I just realized what that white stuff in the sushi is. It's tofu." Pez: "Ah. OK." Me: "I also remembered something very important." Pez: "Hm?" Me: "I don't like tofu."
As he mentioned on the forums, we went to see Kill Bill vol. 1. The first thing I really noticed about the movie was the good music. Lots of good music. The movie has a very distinctive, retroish style, and the 70s-era music really lends itself to it. The other thing I noticed was the ten-minute or so animated interlude. (It was done by Production I.G., famous for Xenogears' cutscenes, the entirety of Love Hina, and a little bit for Eva.) Very cool.
One thing Pez didn't mention, but something I picked up on, was the Japanese-ness of the movie. The movie was told in a very paced, deliberate manner; something you don't see too often in American action cinema. In the overarching story this is only part one of two; and even though the trend these days is to do trilogies and series, this one doesn't seem so much like "we want to get .50 three times out of the moviegoers" as it does resemble an OAV put on the big screen. I think Tarantino was aware of this; but of course the gushing blood sort of makes a counterpoint to the serious tone.
And boy, is there a lot of blood. We're talking manga-quantities of spraying, flowing, pouring blood. Limb is removed-- stump sprays blood. Decapitate a man-- the fountain's a good three feet high. The gore level is so high it's almost comical. We laughed-- out loud-- several times after witnessing some horrifying display of death. There's maybe three or four scenes where there's no killing going on. If you like 'em bloody, screw the House of the Dead-- see Kill Bill.
That said, my parents would hate it.
So anyway. Let's see... Azumanga Daioh's first volume is now mine, and it's as good as I imagined. I like how the characters are a little more fleshed out, too. Kimura has a normal personality in addition to his "Professor Creepy" mode... and Nyamo and Yukari... fun stuff there. Oh, and the back of the book says the series hits DVD in "2004". I'm thinkin' January.
Also picked up vol. 1 and 2 of Escaflowne. I'm not sure I care for it as much as I thought I would, because the translation lacks a lot of polish. Every other word out of Van's mouth is filthy beyond compare-- and while that may be who he is, in the original, it doesn't translate too well. There's only so many times he can call Allen an "asswipe" without it becoming less character-building and more cliched. I do like Hitomi's character design, though, and that's not just 'cause she's wearing glasses.
There's only a week left until I begin Project: Aestivalis. Which is good. I honestly don't think I could wait much longer.
Back to business as usual. I'll be adding more info for the campaign soon.Saturday, October 25, 2003 9:03:16a: *
I added a few bits of info into the DM's notes and World Lore for the RPG. Let me know if anything needs more clarification.
I'll be on AIM later tonight. I promise.Sunday, October 26, 2003 9:34:39a: * Yippie-ki-yay, mother-f***ers!Tuesday, October 28, 2003 8:04:46p: *
Well, things have been quiet here. Nothing really too exciting going on. Yes, I am thrilled that a new Die Hard movie is in the works, but then again, it's still a ways off. I'm more excited about Final Fantasy 11, but that's also a ways off-- until I know for sure if my computer can handle it.
Been getting into Disgaea more; and while it seems shorter than I might have expected, it's a hard enough game that it won't seem like such a short time. Prime example: I killed an hour just going through the Item World this morning. Not accomplishing a whole hell of a lot, mind you, but just wandering. I am getting better, though, as now it doesn't always cost me the entire monetary reward to heal my party after a battle.
I'm also using really cheesy names for my characters. In addition to Laharl, Etna, and Flonne (the plot characters), my party consists of Chihiro, Auron, Valvalis, and Malekkei. (Chihiro being from Spirited Awaly, Auron from FF X, and Valvalis from FF IV. Malekkei would have been a reference to my old AGFF fics if I'd named her Mallia, but unfortunately, during my first battle, I realized I'd picked a male cleric. Oh well. Keeps me from indulging in my personal "use female characters whenever possible" vice.) So I know what I'm going to be doing for the next two days-- playing Disgaea. Must continue watching cutscenes, must find out Etna's secret...
Oh, and Kat, I still think Flonne is the most adorable character in the game. Sure, she's not much good in battle-- and I sincerely pity the fool who's using her as their main healer in battle, because that "Lord, give us strength" thing would get annoying fast-- but come on. She's so brainless, you can't help but like her. Nin nin nin!Tuesday, October 28, 2003 10:44:51p: *
We're having the usual "dress up for Halloween" thing here at work, and the question was raised as to whether or not we could answer in character. The following ideas flashed:
"Thank you for calling tech support, this is Squall. How can I help you today? ... Your computer doesn't work...? ... Whatever. [click]"
"Thank you for calling tech support, this is Shinji. Please state the nature of your problem. ... I see... I mustn't disconnect, I mustn't disconnect, I mustn't disconnect..."
"Thank you for calling tech support, this is Sephiroth. What seems to be the problem? ... No internet connection? ... Grab a sword longer than you and go attack the closest florist's shop. ... Uh huh. ... Then reboot."
"Thank you for calling tech support, this is Ruri. What can I do for you? ... Your mouse is disconnected? ... Baka baka. [click]" Wednesday, October 29, 2003 4:27:21a: *
Oh, and in response to Real Life's Final Fantasy XI Day suggestions, I have this to say.
Ahem.
You and me both, brotha.Wednesday, October 29, 2003 9:49:23p: *
Flonne: "Come to think of it, how did he [Overlord Krichevskoy] pass away?" Etna: "Choked on a black pretzel." --Disgaea: Hour of DarknessWednesday, October 29, 2003 10:43:39p: *
Oh yeah. I just noticed this, on the title screen for Disgaea. It reads that the game was "Licensed to and publishied by ATLUS USA."
All that hard work on localizing, and they have a typo on the title screen? Dood.Thursday, October 30, 2003 6:34:33a: *
From the release notes for the Neverwinter Nights 1.32 patch:
Added some safety checks to the CD checking code. Hopefully this will prevent silly messages from Windows asking you to insert your NWN CD into your hard drive. Doing this might void your hard drive's warranty.Thursday, October 30, 2003 5:51:41p: *
For all interested parties:
My PlayOnline handle is "TheFurryOne". Drop me a line if you want to play some Tetra Master. (FFXI will have to wait until I upgrade... heh heh.)Thursday, October 30, 2003 10:19:23p: *
Soul Calibur II just crashed. On my GameCube.
This is a thing that should not be.
Edit: It may be due to the gobs of cat hair on the disc. Just a hunch.Friday, October 31, 2003 3:36:40p: *
Well, I'm just Mr. Information of late, aren't I?