31.3.06

The Daily Show Fox News Video!!

Dunno how many of you caught this episode of The Daily Show last week, but check it out. It's like Girls Gone Wild, only with a slightly more depressing voice-over.

And I promise, I'm going to sleep now.

30.3.06

SUCCESS!

Okay, I feel happy cuzza what I just did. If you'll remember, when I went to buy KH2, I was told that the "Limited edition" guide was actually limited, and they only had enough for the preorders. That made me think that they only MADE enough for the preorders. Turns out I was wrong. Remember those two WoW blogs I just linked to? They're made by a strat-guide publisher. I stumbled upon that link by following something about Penny Arcade's special WoW binder. More on that in a bit, but when I found out that they made the guide, and that they were selling the limited edition, well, let's just say I was sold.

Also, back on the WoW front, they made a huge WoW guide, filled with tips, tidbits, and Penny Arcade cartoons. Jackie and I saw it at Barnes and Nobles, and both regretted that we were broke. I was planning on using my next paycheck to buy it, but she beat me to the punch and got it yesterday. I just got my direct deposit in today. So, imagine my surprise when I learned, again from the Bradygames site, that not only would they ship it for free, and automatically register me for both that and the binder updates I would be getting (I hope I'm doing this right), I could get 25% off each, plus 15% off the KH2 book. Like I said, I was sold. All told, it was $55, but honestly, that was less than I was originally planning on spending, so it should all work out fine. I hope EB will take my plain old KH book back...

*Spizzle!!!*

Edit: Shit... I just found the Chain of Memories guide there, too... I suppose I'll wait on getting it... I dunno. So confused!

Nah! Impulse buy, go!

KH 2 Journal (2 Through n-1)

...where n is the total number of entries. Yeah, I realized today that really, a lot of the game at this point is just level hopping. It's still really fun, and each world is cool in it's own right (maybe even the much maligned Atlantica / DDR stage), but I'm not gonna write out "I went to [World X] and killed [Bad-guy from World X], then left," over again for each world. I may give you highlights on the game as I pass though, but I'm not gonna give you a real play by play. Consider the journal closed until I complete the whole game.

Don't take that to mean I think the game is bad. Far from it. It's really a blast to play, and if you have a PS2, you really should get Kingdom Hearts 2, and the first one if you haven't already. Chain of Memories, too, if you have a GBA. I'm still committed to the full story playthrough one long summer break or something. (Gah... I just realized I'm too old for Summer breaks. Target doesn't believe in them.) But Kingdom Hearts 2, while it may not be the most challenging game (and I never claimed to be a die-hard gamer here, only a passionately casual one), it's a joy. The battles are really fun to watch, even if they are, as one reporter put it, simply jamming the X button until everyone's dead. By the way, I dunno what he's up to, but while that may work for a few of the basic hordes of heartless, I haven't been in a boss battle yet where I could do that. And even if I am just pushing X, I don't mind. I sit and marvel at how beautiful the action of this game is, moving seamlessly from one move to the next, one enemy to the next, in a non-stop flow of whirling, spinning, and thwacking. It's absolutely wonderful.

Anyway, moving on... Remember what I said about writing a blog in the form of a WOW character? It seems someone beat me too it. Twice, no less.

Actually, hold on, I'm gonna search for more like that. I'll bet I can find some really cool ones (that are easier to navigate.)

Okay, there are, but I'm too lazy / tired to look them up. Oh well.... Night folks.

Oh, and if you ever find a Nobody named Xergg... Umm.... Something happened to me, I guess. Call Sora, I dunno.

29.3.06

KH 2 Journal I


Okay, let's see how this goes. I got the call at about 2 from EB that I could go pick up my game, but I was busy with Jackie at the time elsewhere, and since my life was about to be sucked up by the exploits of Sora and Co., I decided I should show her a little extra attention. I got to the mall as soon as possible, though, picked up my game, and asked about the special "limted edition" version of the guidebook. Apparently, I couldn't have that one unless I preordered it. Thanks for telling me that in advance, EB. x_x! I grabbed a copy of the regular guide, with the promise that if anyone didn't pick up their guide after 48 hours, I'd get a call to get that one. I wasn't planning on using the guide, just looking at the artbook, but I'm a sucker for spoilers. I may well take a peek in (at least for the parts I've already done.)

So anyway, I didn't end up getting the game home until about 4. I immediately put it in the PS2 and started a file. For a bit of an idea as to my experience, I've got what you might call a killer set-up at home. 5.1 Bose speaker system, S-Video inputs all around, and to top it all off, a gigantic 72 inch WIDE projection screen. Yeah, that's 6' feet across. I'm not sure about the diagonal, though I could figure it out if so inclined... It's not HD or nuthin', but I don't have an X-Box 360. This is probably about the best thing you could do for a PS2, more or less. And I've gotta say, Kingdom Hearts 2, at least (not to mention the first KH, and all the other games I've played on it for that matter) looks fantastic on it. The full motion video at the beginning was a treat, though it was a little disorienting to hear Passion- er, Sanctuary- sung in English, and I think I still prefer the Japanese version over it, even though I have no idea what's being said. But pretty much the visual and audio representation of the game is just perfect for my purposes. No complaints there.

I do have one complaint, though, one that shows up a lot at the beginning, which is heavily story-oriented. A lot of the voice acting is, well... sub-par. This is a Disney game, right? The people who made some of the best animated movies of all time? Granted, it's by Square too, and I've had some troubles with the acting in their other games. I think, mostly, that's where the trouble lies. All the Disney characters, especially the one's whose roles have been reprised by the original actors, do great jobs. And Haley Joel Osmand has improved his Sora voice as well, which is to be expected from experience. But... well, when you play the game, get ready to cringe at every word Aerith says to you. Something ain't right with that girl. A few of the other Final Fantasy characters in Hollow Basteon have similar problems, though not as bad as Aerith's. It seems that Square-Enix decided to get "star quality" actors for their characters, not realizing that most of their acting experience comes from live-action, working in a real environment with real people. When I listen to a lot of the people talking in Hollow Basteon (Leon comes to mind, now), its really very obvious that the lines are being read off a script by a person who feels that this silly video game isn't really worth their time, or just doesn't understand the game and what they're talking about. I suppose it'll be a while before video games are taken seriously by mainstream Hollywood, especially one about Mickey, Donald, and Goofy fighting off the darkness in people's hearts across a plethora of Disney themed worlds. Ah well. All in good time, I suppose. By the way, I have to say that this isn't a major thing. Christy Carlson Ramano (Kim Possible / Yuffie), for one, does a great job, as do most of the others. I guess, though, it just takes a few bad apples to spoil a good experience.

Okay, enough about the cinematic experience. On to the game. By the way, I'm playing on the Normal level, though in retrospect, I might have wanted pick Easy, since I'm mostly in it for the story. Ah well, struggling for the happy ending will make it all the better.

****SPOILERS!!!! THE WHOLE LOT OF 'EM!********

Twilight Town


I started out as Roxas, a seemingly-normal kid in a seemingly-normal town. Lemme summerize this section of the game by saying this: LONGEST. TUTORIAL. EVAR! Seriously, I think it was about 3 and a half hours for me before I got through the Roxas section of the game. Granted, I ended up pausing the game a bunch because I had a few distractions to deal with, but still, that's a three-hour tutorial. Actually, that's not fair. It is more than a tutorial. Dive into the Heart from the first KH was a tutorial. Twilight Town had a bunch of other goals to accomplish.
Recap what happened in the first game, plus hint / remind us of the events in Chain of Memories.

Introduce a whole new character (Roxas) and his world.

Set up the upcoming storyline.

Hint at what all became of a few key characters from the first game.

Act as a whole level upon itself.
I wanna say they did this all pretty well. I suppose the only part of Twilight Town I have an issue with, really, is the section where Roxas needs to do odd jobs to raise money. He needs to raise 800 munny, but he only has 3 jobs to choose from, each with a MAXIMUM payoff of 50. You started off with maybe 150 munny from the one enemy you've killed so far in the game, leaving you with 650 munny to accumulate. Assuming you can do each of the jobs as well as required (I didn't), you need to preform 13 of the tasks. And, since each task kicks you back to the overworld when you're done, you have to go through the menu system of applying. The jobs themselves aren't really difficult (okay, that one ball juggling one was), but they are tedius, and doing them 15 times in a row is even more-so.

However, aside from that one little bit of practice / torture, the rest of the level plays out fairly straightforward. Most of the tasks are simply "Go from point A to point B and watch a cutscene / kill a few easy guys". Again, this is a prologue. You're not in the main game yet, and there's a story to be told here. The storyline was rather interesting to watch, seeing Roxas' world fall apart around him and sharing in his confusion. And most of the tasks, while simple, were also rather fun to do. One of the best events here was in Roxas' own version of "Dive into the Heart", where he fights a gigantic Nobody reminiscent of Darkside from the original Kingdom Hearts. However, rather than it being a simple case of "go to boss, hit repeatedly, don't get hit back, repeat," this boss fight made great use of the new reaction commands. Using the Triangle button on cue preforms more complicated, though basically scripted, actions, turning the battle from a dull case of whittling down an HP bar into a near cinematic experience of tumbling, dodging, and using spectacular special attacks. It was really fun to play and watch, even if it was just a case of hitting the triangle button every couple of seconds.

So anyway, eventually Roxas' tale ended just as Sora woke up. After another quick tutorial session featuring a new outfit and some new special powers, plus an improved gummy ship, which is very spiffy, we were off, headed to:

Hollow Bastion

(no picture available)

I've already said my piece on the characters here, and mostly that's all there is to this level. You show up, get the ability to use magic again (finally) and get to figure out what everyone in town is up to just in time for you to duck out on all the hard work. Of course, not before you have a tough event battle where you fight off waves of nobodies to guard a gate. This game introduced a new concept to me, at least different from what I was expecting. In the origial game, the only inanimate object with a life bar was the controls for Alice's cage in Wonderland. Here, life bars have been handed out willy nilly (at least to gates). There are a few levels where your job is not just to defeat all the enemies, but to keep them from breaking through a gate or door. I gotta say, I hate these missions. Seriously hate them. I have no problem keeping myself alive in a fight, but having to defend a door is a little tricky. Ah well. Once you finish them off, you get a little story mode, then head off to new worlds.

The new gummi ship is, I have to say, a real treat to fly. It's BASICALLY the same thing, only the camera shifts around for you, and it's in general a more exciting ship to play. I also like that, after you clear a path once, you don't need to wait for any "warp drives" or anything. You just choose the world you wanna get to, and you go there. No problems. A great improvement over the origial. Anyway, after tooling around in the gummi ship for a while and clearing everything I could, I headed for

The Land Of Dragons

There was a fork in the rood, and I wanted to start in the Beast's Castle, but the dragon land was looking to be set for a lower level character. I'm really glad I did, too, because Mulan's world was just barely my speed. I had a blast playing it, though. I've never actually watched Mulan (maybe I'll get Clara to watch it with me tomorrow morning), but the level gave a pretty quick summary of the story. I'm not gonna go over it here, because a basic summary of a basic summary would be retarded. Anyway, the one thing I was disappointed with was that the level went through pretty short. Granted (after looking at the guide) I know there's a little more to do, but considering that it took me almost 4 and a half hours to get out of Twilight Town, I was a little disapointed that I'd managed to clear (at least initially) two worlds in less than half that time. Oh well. It means more time for the other worlds tomorrow evening. Until then...

28.3.06

I'm In Trouble...

Not really. I just wanted an excuse to use this quote:
"Getting into trouble a little early today, arent we Aladdin?"
"Nah. You're only in trouble if you get caught."
*Get's caught.*
"I'm in trouble!..."
Okay, enough of that. Tomorrow's gonna be a fun day, once I get to sleep. I should have gone to sleep about an hour ago, but I wasn't tired, I was hungry, and I wanted to beat the Neverland world in Chain of Memories. That's prolly about as far as I'll get before I start playing KH2 tomorrow. That's right. I'm getting it tomorrow. I got this lovely automated message from EB while I was at work. I can pick up Kingdom Hearts 2 tomorrow afternoon. *Spazzle!*

I have a Kingdom Hearts sound that I will utter once I get it. I need to bring a sound recorder, or something...

Anyway, but before I go, since that's tomorrow afternoon, I promised I'd spend the morning with Jackie. That, too, will be fun. And she can come with me to pick up the game, and we can hang out at the mall because I'll drag her there WAY to early, I'm sure, and the guy will be like "You crazy kids! We ain't got no Kingdom of Hearts here! Rawr!" Thus, I may make it through a little of Hollow Basteon tomorrow first. ^_^ I'll get Jackie to bring her GBA, and she can play Kirby on my DS while I'm playing KH, maybe. Or we'll see a movie or some other nonsense. We'll see.

And I've got big plans for once I'm playing KH. Consider this the prequel post of my Kingdom Hearts blog series, where I write out all my experiences in the game. I'll probably post spoilers, but I'll warn you about them first. And don't worry, I'm a really slow gamer. You'll all probably beat it before me, if you really care about it. But yeah, I'll tell the story of me playing it. Or something. The idea started off as a half-baked quest to narrate the life of a World Of Warcraft character. Though that idea has yet to see light, it may yet still; I may start someone on a RP server if I'm feeling REALLY adventurous. But for Kingdom Hearts, a game which is already pretty narrative, I felt like a retelling of the game from Sora's perspective would be retarded. (The story from Goofy's perspective might not, but it's close.) No, for this, I'll just tell my own views about the game. I'm looking forward to it, aren't you?

Okay, gnight world. I'll see you in the Magic Kingdom.

27.3.06

Music I Need

I've been watching Fantasia 2000 with Clara. First of all, it made me wanna get both Fantasia movies on DVD. All we have is VHS. Secondly, going along with last night's discussion, it's made me wanna add 'The Sorceror's Apprentice' and 'Pomp And Circumstance' to my main playlist, which, fyi, I've titled '~~~' so its always on top. ^_^

"I Want These Motherfucking Snakes Off The Motherfucking Plane!"

'Snakes on a Plane' is a weird beast. The article pretty much says it all. I'm sure the movie will be terrible. But it will be awesomely terrible. It'll be like a train wreck, or something. I can't look away.

I've enjoyed a lot of movies for similar reasons. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was so very corny, and they knew exactly what they were doing. They made a bad movie, and they made it well. It's enjoyable to watch, just to go "What the fuck?" Jason X was fun to watch, too. It was a HORRIBLE movie, but I still loved sitting there with my friends going "Oh wow, this is so rediculous." Think Mystery Science Theater 3000, only with less robots. That's the kind of experience I enjoy. One that's so bad, it's laughable.

Of course, from my experience, there are some movies that are so bad, it's impossible to enjoy it. It just hurts to watch some things. Like Gigli, which was so bad I've heard that someone had to pay a guy to take it off his hands, or StarDust, the movie from yesterday, which was so bad I don't think it even made it to the IMDB. Ouch... They hurt my head. ;_;

SNAKES ON A TRAIN

SNAKES ON THE SPANISH MAIN

SNAKES WITH EVERYTHING TO LOSE AND NOTHING TO GAIN

SNAKES FORM A CHAIN

SNAKES MUST REFRAIN

SNAKES ON A PLANE THE MUSICAL: SNAKES SINGING IN THE RAIN

SNAKES EATING GRAIN

SNAKES ON THE WANE

SNAKES CAUSING PAIN

SNAKES SPLIT IN TWAIN

SNAKES WHO ARE SATED AND HAVE NO REASON TO COMPLAIN

SNAKES VS. BATMAN WITH AN APPEARANCE BY BANE

SNAKES WANT YOUR BRAIN

SNAKES VS. MCBAIN

SNAKES LIKE TO MAIM

SNAKES ON DAVID BLANE

and my personal favorite (aka, one I made)


SNAKES ON A PLAINS

Okay, I'm done

Things My DS Needs

I've had such things wandering through my mind lately, and I thought I'd share them with you. Also, I wanted to get them written down before I went to sleep.

While the Nintendo DS is a pretty awesome piece of equipment with an equally stellar lineup of soft-ware, I do have a few gripes with it. Mainly, that the home screen needs to be worked on a little. On my PSP, all I have to do is hit "Home" and I'm back to the home screen, no problem. For the DS, I have to restart the whole system. This just feels harder and more difficult than it should be. Using only the buttons available to me, and not adding in any new hardware, I thought that maybe Nintendo could change the functionality of the power button so that a hold means power down, while a tap means go to home screen. Or, to ensure that you don't accidentaly throw yourself out of a game, you could have it be some weird control scheme, like "Start, Select, L, R, Power" all at once. Of course, this is ALL optional, and you can turn it to the way it is now or not using a selection in the options menu.

A battery indicator would be nice. While you obviously can't have one in the middle of a game screen, you could thrown one .... I'm retarded... there IS one on the home screen. Sorta. Anyway, okay, kudos to that. Moving on.

The Game Boy Advance emulation needs an upgrade. In addition to the current "GBA on top screen" and "GBA on bottom screen," you could add a new one: "GBA on top, options on bottom." The options menu would be a way to use the touch screen for accessing a few of the DS's features in the game. Adjusting the screen light would be one thing. Returning to the home screen could be another. Another could be used to give you a semi-analog control, like the one used for Super Mario 64 DS, a circular sort of control like the old Genesis game pad. The other thing that needs fixing about the GBA emulation is multiplayer. How hard, honestly, would it be to use the DS's wireless technology to play against other GBA-playing DS's, or even the GBA's own wireless transmitter. Or perhaps even creating some sort of online GBA multiplayer feature. The possibilities are endless.

Anyway, there's my suggestions. Truth be told I'll bet my minds just prolly fried from all the work I've been doing in iTunes. I rebuilt my main playlist, with almost twice as many songs as I had. I'm at 216, which reads as a full gig according to iTunes. w00t. Now I've gotta pick the songs to put me to sleep, and then... go to sleep. ^_^

26.3.06

My Greatest Fear

So I've been thinking a lot about my fears lately. First, I found a quote that seemed fitting.
Jack: What's wrong, Sora? Does the doctor's theory scare you?

Sora: Well, yeah — a little.

Jack: That's good to hear! Fear and insecurity are signs of a strong heart. Without that strength, your zest for life would fade...as would your taste for fear. And believe me, that would really ruin my fun.
And yeah, that's true. I have a good standing fear of most normal dangerous things. And I don't let that fear control me. I don't really consider that "fear" so much as "caution". It's knowing that something can hurt you, and so you have to be careful around it. Respect, really.

But I'm not without my fair share of irrational fears. One of them is pretty common. I'm acrophobic; I don't like heights. The funny thing is, I love flying. Odd, eh? Reeally, it's just that I've been flying on airplanes for literally all my life. From when I was 4 months old, I believe. So I know planes are safe, through and through. And really, in my mind, I'm not "flying" when I'm on one. I have a sort of cognative dissonance, where I just feel like I get in this tube, it buzzes for an hour or more, then I'm in a new place. *Shrugs.* Linear geometry is for chumps. It's only when I get on a ladder, only a few feet above the ground, that I get scared. Or on a balcony. Or this one roller coaster I went on at Sea World. The bar was too loose, and I felt like I wasn't really strapped into my seat, so the zero-G drops felt VERY dangerous. Still though, that's an almost real fear. It's a little moreso, because my fear of falling is a bit extreme compared to other similar dangers, but it's a reasonable fear. Yesterday at work though, I was confronted with one of my more unusual fears.

The story goes as follows. I was at work Saturday, and rather than being put to work in electronics like I usually am, I was forced into the domestics / home decor secion. Basically, it's a mini-Bed Bath and Beyond, in terms of what we have. Not really my cup of tea, but definitely useful. But yes, not really something I enjoy. I started to feel sick, and was half wondering if I was sick enough to have to go home and half wondering how much of my "sickness" was just wishful thinking. I have hypochondria. I need some placebos, stat!

Anyway, as I worked the area, diligently fighting off my semi-imaginied headache, I walked past the furiture. Chests, dressers, chairs, the works. Now, I'm gonna tell you folks something I don't tell many people. One of my bigger fears is being attacked by inanimate objects. That's right. It makes no real logical sense, but I still, from time to time, get spooked by strange chairs that look at me funny, or worry that the sink, faucet, hot-air dryer, and door-knob in a bathroom all have teeth to bite me. It's a stupid fear but it's one I have. It's also why Chucky from Child's Play scares me so much. He's a doll, a normal inanimate object, that can walk and talk of it's own volition. That, to me, is scary. Unnatural, really. And the fact that he has murderous intentions makes it all the worse.

I guess it's understandable, the doll thing. My cousin Clara has a Winnie the Pooh doll, maybe 10 or 12 inches tall, that can walk. It's supposed to be a "baby" Pooh, just learning to walk, so it can encourage toddlers to walk with it. I think it's a neat idea. He's silly, funny, and just the right size companion for a 2-3 year old. But he scared Clara to death when we first got him. He's loud; not as in, his volume is too high, but loud in how he walks. His motors and gears all whirr noisily. He's unsteady. And he's a fast sucker, really. For his scale, it looks like he goes from standing still to a full sprint in 0 seconds flat. He's just waiting for a clap to cue him, and then,
WHII WHII WHII WHII WHII "Pooh can walk!" WHII WHII WHII WHII WHII...
Not exactly something you would enjoy, especially because when we encouraged her to play with it, we had him facing her, so as soon as he moved, he looked like he was chasing her down. Scary stuff.

That's how a 2 year old thinks. They don't know that he's got a motor in him, and that's why he's moving and making noise. If you take that knowledge away, Pooh becomes as scary as the Chucky doll, which doesn't have motors. And I swear, my grandmother, in her extensive doll collection, had a doll that bore a more than passing resemblance to Chucky. I tried not to notice it whenever I visited.

There've been a couple of movies (other than Child's Play, natch) that have brought this fear out for me. For instance, the furniture of Shrek 2, had it been somewhat more threatening, would have scared the shit out of me. For those of you who haven't seen it, there's a scene in which the Fairy Godmother treats Princess Fiona to a demonstration, "Bibbity Bobbity Boo"-style. During the song, she brings the room's furniture to life, and they all start singing and dancing along. That's just creepy to me. I mean, even if my dresser said he wanted to be my friend.... I don't trust it. Plus, look how that one in the movie treated poor Shrek, trapping him up there and threatening him with his mafioso tough-guy routine. Compare that little bit of animated furniture to the cast of Beauty and the Beast, though. These guys didn't scare me. That's partly because it was a cartoon, not just CG, so it was very obviously fake. Plus, all the furniture had real talking personalities. You got to know them, and know they were friendly. And here's one difference that may not have been noticed before. The crew in the Beast's castle was not really animated furniture like the bunch from Fiona's room. It was people who had been turned into furniture. Somehow, that's more comforting to me. I know that they are just decent folks, who have basic human knowledge and morals. Furniture though... who knows? And that one dog/footstool... I didn't trust that at all. Nothing non-animal should ever bark. Talking is one thing, but as near as I could tell, the footstool didn't even have a mouth.

I wanted to mention Maximum Overdrive, too, a movie where a passing comet emits magic radiation that brings all the machine's in the world to life. It focuses on a group stuck in a truck stop, surrounded by angry 18 wheelers, but it also, at one point, shows the mess as it appears in suburbia. Water sprinklers are attacking people.... well, everything is. Except the bicycle this one kid is riding. I don't know why, really. I never caught the whole thing, and I don't really need to.It was really a pretty terrible movie in it's own right. The same goes for the movie I ended up NOT watching at Jackie's house, StarDust, about a chip that makes machines come alive. I never figured out how, but it looked like it had some sort of biological component, and just got really stupid from there. This movie has the chip enchanting a vaccuum cleaner, but the "Bad Guy" wants to put it to use for "Bad Things." While I'm sure the movie limited the chip to only electrical things, the first thing that came into my mind was an unstoppable army of armoires marching down Main Street, USA. Again, scary stuff, that. So that's why this kind of thing is so frightening. And you know yourself, if a chair started walking on its four legs towards you, you'd be scared too. Hollywood should make a movie about that. I'm sure it would sell.

I'm obviously the product of an overactive imagination. I look at Clara and can't see how she can imagine things so clearly. I think I've already written about her giving me bugs and honey, but I can't find it. Anyway, I realize, that I still do that at times, too. I'm not as open about it, of course, because it would be silly to announce to everyone that I was a Transformer flying around in helicopter mode. I do go on making my own sound effects with my mouth, though. And I make up little flourishes to add to mundane tasks, feeling like I'm some sort of superstar. Maybe everyone does that and just doesn't admit it. Maybe they should.

Or maybe I'm just crazy. Either way, I'm cool with it.

Speaking of things I'm cool with, I do believe that I have found the hottest webcam link on the planet. It's free, and I like her. She really has a nice personality, which I found surprising (I suppose I'm not an expert on cam-whores, though), and I've found myself addicted to hanging out with her. I may even pony up and pay the 13 bucks to get a 5 minute private show one day... We'll see how things go.

Man, I'm such a perv...

23.3.06

DS Business

First, a quick update:
Animal Crossing: 0473-1233-9375
Mario Kart: 0859-6704-4842
Metroid Prime: 2491-7580-3075
I got a new DS, as you all know, and so of course I have to update my friend codes. Why? I don't know. Nintendo's retarded. u_u But yeah, you'll notice I got Metroid Prime. Just today, in fact. And I'm hooked. Nintendo had made a pretty sweet FPS. I'd bet it's prolly the best first-person-shooter on a handheld. I'm sure that there will be more to come, and I await them with open arms. I'm enjoying my DS. For those of you not in the loop, here's the list of games I have for it.
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Animal Crossing: Wide World
Kirby: Canvas Curse
Mario Kart DS
Metroid Prime: Hunters
Sonic Rush
SO MANY HYPHENS!

And that doesn't even cover the myriad of GBA games I can play on it, too. Currently, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is lodged in there, and I'll prolly get some Pokemon action going on again. I still need to beat Emerald.

Sigh... I realized earlier at work today that the DS has sorta painted itself into a corner. It's not the replacement for the Game Boy series. And it's home to a lot of really creative games. Two screens, a stylus, built in microphone.... It's got it all. And realistically, there's not gonna be anything coming along soon to have all that again. If DS were to magically drop off the face of the planet, there would be literally no way to play Kirby, or the special stages in Sonic... True, you could use a mouse for the stylus, but it's just not the same. The DS is special. That's truly what sets it appart from the PSP.

With the PSP, all you get is handheld ports of games that you can play on your PS2. There's really no reason to get a PSP game if you already have the "big version." It's the same problem that the UMD format has with movies. Why buy a more limited version of something you could buy for cheaper and play on your PlayStation? There are a few gems for the system (LUMINES!), but really, it's mostly just more of same, hand-held sized. (Note: I just now stumbled on the existance of a Katamari game for PSP. Semi-Portish, but since I never actually got either PS2 version, I could spring for "Me and My Katamari.")

What made the Game Boy popular and successful was that its games weren't just micro-sized ports of home console games. Tetris sold the system to begin with, yes, but after that, classics like the somewhat quirky Mario Land moved on, and eventually the Game Boy found itself a home for slower, less graphics- and speed-intensive games. Role-playing games, like say... Pokemon. Here's a game that literally came out of left field to be a smash hit, and really, it saved the system. The Advance systems, and probably the DS, too, owe much their existance to Pokemon's ability to make portable gaming exciting. And yes, a great deal of the Game Boy Advance's success was on drawing on Nintendo's older games (being able to play Super Nintendo games) for a sort of a retro feel. But that's not what hte PSP is doing. It's not being "retro." In all fairness, it's somewhat forced to compete with both the portables AND the home consoles for titles. It's getting a version of all the major releases, at nearly the same quality of the PS2. Somewhat diminished, granted, due to hardware specs, but it's very close. It's above PSONE, definitely.

Anyway, this ran on a while longer than it should. By the way, I still like the PSP as a piece of hardware. I'll prolly spring for whatever update Sony releases, since mine's all dinged up. (Please make the PSP2 more resilient, Sony.) I love the wireless Internet access (much easier to set up wi-fi connections than on the DS), and it really has become my own personal MP3 player, in addition to storing movies and images I may have collected from the Internet. ^_^

Enough blabbing. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed my DS. And it's a lot. Definitely enough to replace it when I lost it. Not enough to spring for a DS Lite, though... Too small for my hands.

Grar... I was gonna show you all an image, but it's too late now. I have work at 8-4:30 tomorrow.

20.3.06

Back In The Swing

I think I got all the important stuff reinstalled / bookmarked. I'll prolly end up just adding things as they strike me, but for now, all is good. I need to remake my iTunes Playlist. I've got a somewhat miniature version sitting in my PSP, but that'll take some time to sort through. This may help.

Oh, and just so you know: Current Earth-Destruction Status

Sonic Cramps

Ouch. I think I hurt my hand playing Sonic Rush on the DS. Those special stages are a really cool way to use the touch screen. For anyone who doesn't know (that is, most of you), the game plays out like the classic 2-D Sonic adventures, not to be confused with the 3-D "Sonic Adventure" series, using both screens to create one very tall screen to play on. The special stages are done in a similar fasion to the half pipe levels from Sonic 2 for the Genesis. The difference here is that, instead of controlling Sonic using the pad to move him left or right, he gets dragged by the point of your stylus. This lets him move back and forth a lot quicker than otherwise, but the levels are, as far as I've played, a lot harder than the Genesis fare I'm used to, and I guess I'm holding the stylus weird, because I've got a hand cramp. x_x The boss stages are cool, too, being in 3D as well (though on the top screen, so no stylus usage here). I'm enjoying the game considerably, and glad I've got a challenge now. Kirby is still better though.

So I've got my computer up and running again. I can run WOW much better, I'm glad to say. I still wish I'd kept a list of my bookmarks. Somewhere I have a screenshot of them all, but it's old. I never checked half of them. Ah well... Easy come easy go.

Reformating

So I finally got around to that reformatting I promised myself I'd do. I did it. Now comes the arduous task of getting my computer back the way I liked it. Or somewhat close. I've decided to not go with the whole "Mac OS" look this time, see if that doesn't free up a little processing power for me.

*Crosses fingers* Please run WOW good... Please run WOW good... Please run WOW good...

More on this as it develops.... I shoulda taken screenshots of my bookmarks before I reformatted. x_x

18.3.06

Weirded Out

Today has been a, well, "different" day. A day off, and one actually worth it for a change. I got to visit Sea World and see my family who's off on a "real" Spring Break. That was cool. Jackie got to come, too. That sorta complicated things, since she was driven in by her mom, and out with us, in order to make it to a movie which, on the way back, apparently ceased to exist. That is, when I'd checked the listings last night, I was confident that the Lakeline theater would be showing "UltraViolet" at 7:40, and that, with a little luck and very good timing (a.k.a. taking Jackie and me straight from Sea World San Antonio to the Lakeline Regal), a full and enjoyable time could be have both at the park and movies. Of course, when the movie turned out to not be showing there, we scrambled to find a new evening plan, and not call the whole thing a total wash. We eventually decided on a 9:30 showing of "V for Vendetta" (much more on the actual movie later), but the change in plans ended up frustrating Jackie's mother.

I apologize for this. I doubt she will ever read this, but I feel it should be said. I was, unfortunately, a little afraid to call her myself, take the initiative at the time to call and inform her that the plans had changed. Maybe she would have reconsidered the options... I shouldn't discuss maybes. I made the plans based on information that I believed to be true. I felt they were very good plans, and am happy to say that had the movie actually existed we would have made it just about on time, maybe a little late, but nothing past missing a few previews. But I made the plan, and then diseminated it down to Jackie, her mother, as well as my family (and Matt, who was also a good sport through it all). I have to take responsibility for what happened. I hope I have the courage to say so to Mrs. Richards when (if) I see her next.

I can't help drawing analogies to Bush / Iraq / faulty intelligence. If Bush is reading this (the chances of that are lower still than of Jackie's mom reading it), let me say that I believe that that is how a responsible leader should act (and should have acted) after discovering that incorrect information lead to a bad plan. Admit to it up front, take responsiblity, and make sure that the way to proceed is clear (actually, you'll notice I had a little trouble with step three myself there). Also, despite what the Bush administration feels about how they would have acted if they'd known then what they know now (I'm not quite ready to get into that now), I wanna say that if I'd realized that the Lakeline time was incorrect, I would definitely have changed my plans accordingly. Admittedly, running a day trip is slightly easier than running a country.

So anyway, that fiasco can be put in the past, and filed as experience learned from. Next order of business, and what I feel was a great highlight of the day, "V for Vendetta". This was a great movie. Made me remember why I loved the Matrix,though not the whole trilogy; two and three still ring as "not as good". I saw the advertisements for the movie, and this phrase constantly bothered me: "From the Wachoski brothers, creators of 'The Matrix Trilogy'." Honestly, if they'd dropped the last word from that, and just left it as "creators of 'The Matrix'", I'd have been a little more excited to see it. As it stood, I saw it as another one of the quick to make a buck line of comic book movies.

I was so glad to be proven wrong. I'd rather not spoil the storyline for you, as it is really something... The basic premise is a Terrorist/Freedom Fighter (choose your own label; either works) opposing a future English government that has become totalitarian in all but name. The chain of events is near enough to be frightening, and seems to be a somewhat fantastic but still plausible extrapolation of current events. Ultimately, though, the message is one of hope. I like hope. I'm a positive thinker usually. An optimist. I was complimented for a friend because I can always make people smile. I do try. And really, this movie offers hope.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
So after seeing that, I came home to what I was planning on making an early night. It was about 1230 when I got home. I immediately got online to check on Jackie, and a few of my other web-site addictions. I was planning on dropping off around 1 to quickly watch the West Wing (OH CRAP I LEFT THE PROJECTOR ON BRB) (Ok, got it), then hit the hay and get enough sleep to be able to call Jackie in the morning. It's now 3:15, and I still have a little more to write about. For instance, this. It's a Google Video, a documentary I was linked to from /b/ (my constant source for all the useless data I keep occupied with - It's NSFW). It describes the chain of events surrounding the events on September 11th, 2001. The basic premise is that the story told by the government doesn't match up with a lot of the facts. Especially after watching "V", I've gotta kinda agree that it's probably not too far beyond some people's quest for power.

I dunno, maybe I've just got an overly paranoid mind after "V for Vendetta." I've seen videos like this one before. You can find them if you look around, and in fact the movie I link has a few suggestions near the end. I've seen enough to at least cast into question what is happening. I'm really somewhat scared about the future of this country. I commented on Emma's LJ that I'm all for moving to Australia. I'm not entirely joking. I think that I'll see what it would take to transfer to some college in Sydney or something for the next few years, maybe avoid some sort of scaryness. (A.K.A. "Australia's all 'Doubleyou Tee Eff Mate?'") Wish me luck.

For the meantime, I'm too creeped out to turn my lights off. I've been known to be paranoid of irrational things, like being attacked by chairs or bitten by water faucets (I wish I was joking), or recieving a sudden attack by something hidden in the dark. This isn't the same. Those are just childish fears that I simply haven't shaken, along with much of the rest of my childhood. What I'm feeling tonight is some overbearing sense of danger, and I'm not really sure what to do. I feel uneasy in my own home. I hope I can get a good night's sleep tonight. I'm gonna need it.

17.3.06

Snakes on a Plane

SNAKES ON A PLANE? Mother-fucking snakes? On a mother-fucking plane? Oh Hell no. Those snakes are not on that plane, are they? They are? With Samuel L Jackson? Snakes on a Plane? Are you kidding me? Snakes? God-Mother-fucking-damn snakes on a mother-god-damn-fucking plane? Oh wow. That sounds... Intense.

16.3.06

Final Fantasy XII OPENING MOVIE

Well, I'm impressed. It's really amazing what they can do with computers these days. I wonder how long before they decide that computer models are cheaper than actors and simply do away with Hollywood all together. I was actually wondering as I watched why they even bothered with the CG at all for some things and didn't simply use human actors for the Humans. It's not long before these things hit the uncanny valley. Final Fantasy's works always avoid this by being rather stylized. They're very realistic animations, but they're still very clearly animations; the proportions of the eyes and facial features reveal this. The extreme example of this is Kingdom Hearts. The "humans" in that game are almost superdeformed. I still remember showing my mom the closing video to the first game and her comment of "Why are her [Kairi] shoes so big?" Of course, because it's a Disney game, and the characters in disney ALWAYS have big feet. But the point is that the full motion videos look believable even though you always know it's a cartoon. The uncanny valley will occur when the models get so close to human, and the entire video looks so much like a recording, that there aren't enough visual cues to confirm that it IS an animation, and so the few random bits that don't fit will stick out.

This is, sadly, another problem with the prequels, in a way, though I'm far too bored with that topic to explore it.

15.3.06

Beyond Good And Evil

I've figured out what was wrong with the Star Wars prequels. Or rather, ANOTHER thing that was wrong with them. So far, I've pointed out the lack of a Han Solo-character in a world full of Jedi, and of course the terrible writing and acting. Here's the one I think really clinches it. Or at least, what makes these movies not "Star Wars" movies. In a word, Stormtroopers. Oh sure, they're called CLONE Troopers now, but just look at them; they're Stormtroopers, and that's the problem.

Episodes 4-6 were clear and simple. There were the good Rebels and the evil Empire. The main characters were almost stereotypically iconic, and the rest were interchangeable soldiers, wearing uniforms so you could tell who was the good guys and who was the bad. Just think back to the beginning of A New Hope. Those Rebel Troops lining up in the hall, making a valiant effort to hold back the imperial boarding party, and then, when the storm troopers charge in, guns blasting, there is no question, they are the bad guys. The only somewhat grey character in the trilogy was Lando Calrissian, but he was really a good guy deep down. Sure, everyone's first thought is, "He betrayed Han Solo, his friend." But really, he didn't have a choice. He was making what he thought was the right decision. Turn over a wanted criminal to the rightful authorities, and his little mining operation could remaing autonymous the way he wanted. Otherwise, he thought, his people would have suffered under the Empire's rule. He was given the choice of Han Solo against the entire city, and I for one think he made the right choice. (Besides, he blew up the friggen Death Star. That makes it all better. He's a good guy.)

But in Episodes 1-3, the lines between good and evil are totally blurred. The droid army and Trade Federation are bad, obviously, and so are the Sith (Red 'sabers = bad). But even there, the lines are blurring. The Federation is controlled by Darth Sideous, AKA Senator Palpatine, who we frequently see all buddy-buddy and nice-nice with Queen Amidala and the other members of the "good" old Republic, which is itself, not so good. So it's hard to tell where the bad guys end and where the good guys begin. Padme get's pretty upset with the Republic in the first episode, so does that mean that the whole Republic is bad? I dunno.

Even the Jedi, the ultimate forces of good in the galaxy, are in-fighting. Qui-Gon Jinn (first good guy we meet in the movie) argues with Yoda (good guy from the classic trilogy) about the prophecy (which, by the way, is mysteriously dropped after TPM), and later, the whole Council starts getting antsy about Anakin, one of their own. I'm not saying that their suspicions weren't justified, just that it's a little unsettling to see the good guys being sneaky and such.

And then we see the Clone Troopers. Obi-Wan (good guy, for anyone still keeping track) discovers them in AOTC on Kamino, and an Ackbarian air of danger (It's a trap!) can be felt by the audience. There's this huge army of clones out, just in time to fight this new war. But in the end, when the chips are down and the Jedi are surrounded by the seperatists, the clones save the day. They're heroes! They're good guys! ...But they look like evil Stormtroopers...? We are confused. And ROTS doesn't help things at all. They spend the first 3/4's of the movie as good guys. Clones fight along side and under the command of Jedi Knights, waging the war against the rebels (who in this movie are bad, I guess? More on the "seperatist movement" later.) Then all of a sudden, the Emperor (bad, but part of the legitimate government, so he was good?) issues Order 66 ("Kill all the Jedi", aka bad), and the Clone Troopers follow. They go from good to evil in no time flat. It's true that they were just following orders, but it's confusing to the audience to see such a sudden change in attitude, from hero to enemy in 0 seconds flat.

And it's especially jarring in a Star Wars movie. In the galaxy of the Empire, the world is polarized. There's the dark side of the Force, and the good side. There isn't any in-between. And that's what made the movies what they are. They, like the Transformers I mentioned yesterday, set up strict guidelines between good and evil. There isn't an inbetween for them. There's no "Grey side" to the force. If you think you're on it, you're probably on the dark side and in denial. All the rebels are good, and all the imperials are evil. It's always a trap. You know the score. Episodes 1-3 aren't like that at all. To be fair, neither are most of the other movies made today, but they aren't trying to be Star Wars. The thing that made the classic Trilogy so amazing was that it was the classic literary hero's quest. Straight forward, without all the politicking and subterfuge. This isn't supposed to be "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Hell, this isn't even supposed to be "Mr. Skywalker Goes to Coruscant." It's Star Wars. It's "Mr. Skywalker Rights Wrongs with his Glowy Sword of Good." It's the Hero's Quest. And the Prequels aren't.

There was an interview with George Lucas I saw a while ago, where he commented that really, the way he wanted all 6 movies to be seen, the story was supposed to be the Fall and Redemption of Anakin Skywalker. That's not a bad idea, in theory. In Theory. But it didn't work out that way. The classic trilogy does not play out as "the redemption of Anakin Skywalker." It plays out as "the redemption of Luke Skywalker." The fact that he's redeming Anakin doesn't matter. This isn't Anakin's story. It's Luke's. It's the story of how a little desert farmer from the middle of nowhere goes on to destroy the most powerful evil in the galaxy. The turning of Darth Vader back into Anakin isn't a triumph of the senior Skywalker and how he was able to fight the darkness with his own inner good. It's a triumph of his SON being a powerful enough force of good to rid Vader of the terrible evil inside him. If the story were supposed to be the redemption of Anakin Skywalker, then Anakin himself would have to realize "Oh my God... I killed a classroom full of innocent Jedi Children. I'm a Monster!" then go around helping people who needed him, trying to live down his evil deeds and make good for them, climaxing in his final duel with his former Master, and eventual triumph over the entire Empire he himself helped create.

Those movies were never made. While the idea is a decent one, and with proper execution (not Lucas'), it could have been a sextilogy even better than than the classic trilogy, it's just not possible right now. The prequels, according to Lucas, were meant to build Anakin up as a great hero, then have him horribly fall from grace and become the evil Lord Vader, who we would cheer for as he redeemed himself in episode 6. That is part of why they failed. They were written from that perspective, or at least attempted to, but their "sequels" were already around. Darth Vader is ingrained in our culture as a force of terribly evil. The audience is incapable of accepting him as a hero at all. Even the movies themselves refuse to allow him to reach his hero-dom. His entire history of successes are tinged with dark undertones, from the very end of Episode 1, where Palpatine tells the little boy "We shall watch your carreer with great intrest," before placing his hands on Anakin's shoulders from behind in a less than friendly way (bad touch). And all throughout the trilogy, we're left with the impression that Anakin's victories were questionable. When Luke was in his X-Wing blowing up the Death Star, his face flickered with many emotions. He was excited about actually flying his own space ship for a big battle. He was a little fearful and nervous about this new situation. He panicked as he realized that he was being fired upon, or that he had just flown through a huge explosion for some reason. ("I got a little cooked but I'm all right.") You could feel his sense of duty as he arranged Wedge and Biggs for that last attack run, and how torn he was when Biggs died, and then when he had to send Wedge, who's job was effectively providing an extra, X-Wing set of shields, out of the trench before he too was lost. And finally, when he let go and used the force to guide his proton torpedo down the shaft, he had a look of utter calm on his face, not so much that he KNEW what was going to happen, but that he had faith in it. Anakin is pretty much the opposite in battle. After the rediculous retardation he displayed at the battle of Naboo ("Let's try spinning!"; "Uh oh, I flew into, blew up, and flew outta the bad guys control ship on accident!"; etc.), Anakin's battle face varies between two emotional states: cocky egotistical overconfidence (think the fighter scene at the beginning of Sith), and cut-loose evil rage fury (slaughtering Tusken Raiders, Jedi Children, etc). This is supposed to be our dramatic hero? It's impossible to look up to him. It's impossible to care about him. It's impossible to think of him in any way other than a flawed character who will eventually become totally evil, and therefor impossible to rejoice at his being turned back to the good side at the end of it all. Far more than being just simply terrible movies, the prequels have managed to alter the way we percieve a classic Trilogy. If we'd know then what we know now, that Anakin Skywalker was a douche-bag, then we wouldn't have wanted Luke to save him. We wouldn't have believed his impassioned pleas that there was good in him. And the redemption of Darth Vader would have felt like the redemption of Adolf Hitler.

And that's why I choose to believe that the Prequel trilogy are not Star Wars movies. Oh yeah, sure, Lucas has them locked into his special "canon", but they're bullcrap. I reject them. I gave them a shot. I really did. Episode 3 was actually a pretty entertaining movie, when Anakin wasn't talking, and if I could forget that it was supposed to be part of the Star Wars universe.

Okay, I really went off there. I had a lot of other little things planned. I wanted to talk about how the US government screwed up their case against one of the 9/11 terrorists, and lost their shot at the death penalty, and say how it was good because now he won't be a martyr. I really think life is a much worse penalty for these religious nuts than death. Death means that their last thought is something along the lines of "YAY! VIRGINS!" Life means they have to consider that maybe what they did was wrong. They have to face their conscious until their eventual death, which, unlike an execution during a war, which might be considered honorable, will be something pathetic like dying of a colon infection (or kidney disease?)

I also wanted to mention that I was planning on reformatting my HD. I want to get another external drive first, though, so if something goes wrong, I have a backup, so it won't be for a while. I'll detail the process later, then.

I do wanna end with this, though: Where did "Hello Kitty" come from? Does she have a cartoon? A theme park? It seems to me that someone managed to take the idea of a licenced property (think Star Wars lunchboxes and Transformers backpacks), and simply create the licence out of thin air. Imagine seeing a line of Thomas the Tank Engine toys and paraphanalia without the existance of Shining Time Station. This is the world I live in, thanks to Hello Kitty.

Oh wait, I have wikipedia. Duh.

14.3.06

The Embodiment of Good

Everyone made fun of me for being a Transfan for the past 20 years. Well, check this out, everyoneOne Billion Chinese can't be wrong, eh?

I'm sure that tomorrow night, after a long day's work at Target, I'll have a meditation on the nature of good and evil. Not because of Target. More because I saw this link, as well as the original Star Wars Trilogy earlier today. Not the prequels. Those are dead to me, mostly. Another bit of pop culture trivia that I've filed away into my massive database of a brain, but not truely Star Wars enough to be called Star Wars.

Maybe I'll rate them with Star Wars, though. Yeah, that's it. Senator / Emperor Palpatine is Ronald Reagan (according to the Boondocks' Huey, his trio of 6-letter names - RONALD WILSON REAGAN - give him the mark of the beast), and after coming into power, he releases Star Wars Episode 4, namely the Star Wars Program. Gasp!

But yeah, I'm totally remaking the series when I get rich and famous next week. Or whenever. I'll tell you how that's going when it, uh... Goes.

13.3.06

One LAst Thing about the X-men

...and then I swear I'll hit the hay.

But yeah, look at the mutants running around in X-Men:

Storm: I control the weather.

Iceman: I make ice.

Nightcrawler: I go BAMF!

Cyclops: I shoot laser beams outta my eyeballs.

I could go on, but yeah...

So there's Rogue. She's cool, she absorbs peoples energy, and absorbs any mutant's powers as well. And for a lotta people it makes sense. She touches Cyclops, and her eyeballs light up. She touches Nightcrawler, and she can bamf. She can combine powers, which could make her the ultimate threat, given the circumstances. Yadayada yada...

Here's where it screws up. There is a mutant called The Blob. His mutant power is that... he's fat. Really fat, but still. Obesity is not a mutation. Its a terrible problem. I think that's just a weird thing to call a "power." But it is. I've seen Rogue grab him, and she absorbs his, uh... weightyness? She stomped the ground and made an earth quake, or something. Of course, she didn't get fat, because really, who's gonna ruin that figure?

But yeah, tell me how that makes sense. Or how she absorbs the mutant power of Angel, who has the amazing talent of, uh... Having wings. That's gonna be the one I wanna see in the next movie....

Oh Anna Paquin, you can be my angel any time..

Funny Quote

I was watching X-Men 2 with the commentary. Cuz that's the kinda thing I do. They were talking about the scene where Mystique is in the tent with Wolverine, about how Mystique can "be anyone's type." It went to a weird place...
Director: And it eventually goes to talk about what Wolverine really wants...
Cinematographer: ...Sex with Striker.
O_O!

12.3.06

...With Sexy Results

"Do you think ponies just grow on trees?"

"What the hell kinda question is that!? It's a large four-legged mammal!"

I think I've found the perfect solution to our nation's obiecity(sp) problem: make the country clothing-optional. I'm not saying forced nudity, just setting it up for a little peer-pressure. The majority of people that take advantage will be better looking, and seeing them will hopefully inspire some of the more overweight people to get in to shape.

Behold the power of my massive brain!

11.3.06

WTFness...

He's singing all the nations. It's pretty impressive. Can you do that? Now I just need ot find the one of him singing all the words in the English language.

I've had a pretty nerdy day. Here are some of the highlights:

Spider Man is useless in a desert. He's great in a city, or in any enclosed space, but in a flat area, he's no good. It was argued that he was super strong, but I wager that while he's strong for a normal man, he's still about even with Batman. That said...

Batman could take Spider Man. If Batman ever figured the web-slinger to be a problem, he would solve that the same way he keeps Superman in check. It's a well documented fact that Bats keeps some kryptonite around, just in case. For Spider Man, he'd be able to create some sort of chemical that would neutralize Parker's web-fluid. Without that, Batman has the advantage, since he's got the element of surprise (imagine Spidey's webbing giving out in mid-swing), and ninja training. The jury is still out on how Spidey would fare vs. the big S himself, but with proper warning, Peter Parker could probably pull a few strings and aquire some kryptonite.

All this came up on the way to a Magic tournament. We ended up being the only three (me, Jackie, and our friend Austin), so we played, I won (since, as it turned out, I was the only one who brought decks, and I had the pick of the litter), and ended up doing alright in terms of prizes(I pulled a WB shockland. W00t!) Also, I bought next volume each for Ultimate X-men and Batman/Superman, as far as I've read.

We got back home, and ended up talking about back-masking, the practice of recording words and then flipping them and adding them to otherwise forwards songs. I'm too lazy to get the link now, but bug me about it later. Anyway, the one that stood out was the one from the old Poke`rap. The part where they shouted "GOTTA CATCH EM ALL! GOTTA CATCH EM ALL!" Now, THEY want you to believe that if you flip that, you get "I love Satan." Not true. But freakishly enough, it DOES translate to "Dead Amish Guy." I didn't believe it, but I tried saying "Dead Amish Guy Dead Amish Guy" into the sound recorder and flipping it, and yeah it works out to "gotta catch em all." I guess it's only logical that Nintendo would hate the Amish, but really...

And speaking of WTFness...

9.3.06

Some Pictures Before Sleep

So I found this picture for my wallpaper, and I had to show you.


That lead me to get this.


And then this next one was just cool, and sitting next to the other two in my "Downloads" folder, so why not.


Now I'm gonna go to sleep, so gnight.

8.3.06

Quick Reboot

My comp needed a quick (for my rig, anyway...) restart, so here are a few things on my mind, via PSP:

I've lost my DS. I don't know where, but my hunch is the theater, and some kid found it and just kept it. Suppose I can't blame him, but my faith in humanity dropped a notch.

{This is the point at which I started typing on my computer, which is now rebooted, and much easier for text entry.}

Anyway, I've decided to bite the bullet and just go ahead and buy a new system. Actually, I'm going all out. I'm gonna import a DS Lite (they're region free, so that's not a problem), and buy new copies of both the games I had in my DS at the time: Kirby's Canvas Curse and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. I'm not too upset about losing either of those, I guess. Kirby was pretty easy, and I enjoyed playing it. On the other hand, I was actually sort of playing Kingdom Hearts nearly like some sort of chore, as though it were required reading for Kingdom Hearts 2. I managed to make it through Sora's story fine, and was in the middle of Riku's "Reverse/Rebirth," which is sort of extra, I guess, so I won't mind not having beaten it. Besides, I cheated. GameFAQ's has a game "script", revealing the entire story without all the messy battling. So I know how it ends anyway. Still, I'll probably play it through once I re-get it. In fact, I have a dream of taking a Kingdom Hearts vacation of sorts, playing through the whole series over the course of a couple of weeks. This isn't for at least a year from now, since I want to beat KH-2 right away first, and then take a break, sorta.

So, in thinking about Kingdom Hearts and such, combined with last night's writing bug, and another bug I saw at work today (Spider Man), I found myself on this train of thought: What do Superman, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, Luke Skywalker, and Eragon have in common? Give up? (The last one may have thrown you.) Here's the one I have in mind, anyway. They're all orphans. Why is that? What is it about being a hero that means that you can't have any parents? Frodo's parents are never mentioned, and neither are Neo's, and though they're never explicitly denied, you'd think that a person's parents would play a big enough part in their life to matter, right? But lot's of people have parent issues. The dude from Final Fantasy X (Tidus, I guess), his father turned out to be the very incarnation of evil in the distant future, or something. I can't remember his real name, but Robin from the Teen Titans comic, his dad died while he was on duty, before he got a chance to tell him the truth. Or something. I'm a little sketchy on the details. But Superman's parents sent him a far away planet as the sole survivor of his race (more or less). Bruce Wayne saw his parents shot by a thief. Parker's parents died (in a plane crash, according to ULTIMATE SPIDERMAN), then his Uncle gets killed by the robber he let get away. Luke Skywalker is raised by his aunt and uncle as well, who are killed by, oddly enough, his uncle's step-brother.

If you were wondering why I referred to everyone by their "secret identity" with the exception of Superman, well, here's my reasoning, courtesy of Bill (the one that got Killed)
An essential characteristic of the super hero mythology is, there's the super hero, and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When he wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic that Superman stands alone. Superman did not become Superman, Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears, the glasses, the business suit, that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, he's unsure of himself... He's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.
I dunno, I just like that quote. I was surprise I hadn't posted it before.

What follows now is from a couple of text messages I sent today during my lunch break:
Hot dogs are delicious. Very delicious. I'm glad I can eat them at work all I want. Also, there are no good sitcoms. Were there ever? I mean, was I just fooling myself? I'm so glad I've cut down on TV. It's really not that good.
I dunno, I just found the revelation about sitcoms startling. I used to watch Full House, Family Matters, Home Improvement, etc, RELIGIOUSLY. Not like, I followed the characters or anything. Just that it was "the best thing on." Now, I look back and think they were bad for my brain.

I've been pissing and moaning about how terrible my computer is. After pondering it a bit, I'm prolly gonna get myself an Apple laptop. Low range, but still high up enough that it'll run WOW better than what I've got here. That'll be exciting. I've tried to stop thinking of it as being better or worse than the computer I have now, and more of it being somewhat parallel. One'll be the PC, more of a strict computer for important business, and also movies and other multimedia affairs, but which is sadly docked to its spot in the house. The other will by my Apple, which will be for fun and randomness. Or something like that. We'll see.

Finally, I've decided where to let my writing bug loose. Earlier today, I sat and watched the first three episodes of the Transformers (Generation 1, natch), the three part "More Than Meets The Eye," while fiddling with the Alternators 'Prowl' and Cybertron 'Evac' I'd bought the night before. At work, the idea crept back into my head. I've had it before. A school for Transformers, when they were "kids," or juveniles, or whatever. As I rolled it about in my head, I realized that really, Transformers are fresh out of the box with all the "knowledge" they need, but there are a few things that can't be learned from a file, only experienced, so an "Autobot Academy" of sorts may actually be of use. Plus, since the Autobots draw their ranks from robots built for manual labor as opposed to combat, a re-education may be necessary.

This story is gonna be set on Cybertron, in the present. The robots on Cybertron who DIDN'T go to Earth with Prime and company have spent four million years in a sort of stale mate. There wasn't enough energy to do much of anything, really. The battlefront on Earth has become something of the main combat field, with Cybertron being merely a sort of headquarters, home to mostly civilians. Though they've been around for the four million years the Ark was dormant, they didn't do much of note.

Anyway, my main character is going to be something like the Soundwave / Blaster of his time. Young, hip, Earth Pop culture junkie, intelligence position, non-vehicle alt mode, that sorta thing. He doesn't get little cassettes or anything though. I decided that, for the alt mode of a spy in 2006, instead of going with a tape recorder (or iPod, the modern equivalent), you'd want a fully technical device. For a time I considered a PSP, but that didn't sit well. Something else fit better - a laptop. I was thinking about making him an Apple laptop, as an homage to my upcoming rig, but really, Transformers (at least now adays) aren't brand specific, and I couldn't find a reason to make him "Apple" any more than he should be "Windows". He'll prolly run his own operating system, and just have a generic looking shell, like most other laptops. Only, where the company logo is on most laptops, you'll see this:


Gnight folks.

6.3.06

Writing Bug

The writing bug bit me, but I'm too tired to scratch. I need a desk job. Somewhere I can peck away at a keyboard all day and have it look like work, when in reality I'm writing the next great popular novel. Or movie. Or comic. Or manga. Conversely, you could attach the prefix "web-" to any of those, and you'd probably have a more accurate description of my work.

This bug bites me often, lately, and I really need to let it out. It happens most often when I'm watching TV. Now, there was a time when I was a TV junkie. I'd watch TV almost 24-7, unless I had to sleep. And there was always something on that would be entertaining. That's changed recently. Teen Titans got pulled off the air. I've seen all the old Futuramas and Family Guy eps, and not much else on Adult Swim is satisfying me. Star Trek on Spike is all re-runs, obviously. Always was, technically, but it's gotten to where I've seen them all, so they're no longer "new to me". A lot of what I used to was simply good, but not great. I'm down to what I consider "great."

My current TV viewing is limited to the following:

The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
The West Wing
The Boondocks

I think that just about covered it. Lot's of "The's", eh? The first two are really pretty much daily (no kidding), but the second two I'm considering getting on DVD. (Conversely, I know a friend who has nearly the entire run of the West Wing on his computer, but I believe in supporting quality work. Yay Capitalism!)

I'm looking at getting a new laptop, because the one I have isn't cutting it. The extra monitor's even getting to be buggy. How about that, eh?

Okay, this was supposed to just be a little one paragraph blip, but kinda got away from me. I'm sure I'll write more later, so stay tuned. Night.

5.3.06

Target Locked

I want this game. It's the ultimate "God Game." You're guiding the very construction of a planets biology and sociology. Intelligent design indeed,

So yeah, I think I talked yesterday about how I was either coming in late or leaving early for work today. Turns out, that's all bullshit. Lemme explain. I called in, and explained that I was pushing against my 40 hours, so should I be late or leave early? "Come in late." So, sure, I showed up at 4:30. I clocked in and found that, perfect, I had 34 hours already. So, just 6 horus today, plus a 30 minute lunch, and I'm out at 11 exactly. Yay.

Time passes. I enjoyed a morning at the mnvies with my family and Jackie. I discovered that my DS had gone missing. (._. I think it's with Jackie.) Work was okay, but a little tiring. Ah well. 6 hours and I'm out, right? No. "Oh, you can't leave, its just an hour of overtime before the week rolls over, and we really need the help." X_X Sigh. Of course, I stayed. Till a little after 1AM.

*Shrugs.* I'm not really mad because I had to stay. That happens all the time. I'm made because I was told something I wouldn't get. I'm upset because if I'd known the truth the whole time, I would have come in on time, and skipped the movie, gotten 3 extra hours instead of 1.

Anyway, I'm doing okay. Work tomorrow, 1.5 to close. Whee! And I picked up the first two volumes of Ultimate Spiderman. New bathroom reading material, and something to take my mind off the missing DS. (So close to beating COM.... ;_;) Ok, I need to get some sleep now. Gnight all.

4.3.06

Not Sure How I Found This, But...

"How to Survive a Robot Uprising"

This guy wrote a that book. He has a PHd in robotics. I really wanna read it now. Must. Get. To. Barnes and Nobles.

Also, I'm still playing Chain of Memories for GBA. On my DS. I'd go back and call it COM, but that's too many acronyms. But yeah, I beat Sora's story! YAY! I'm mostly caught up to where I'll needa be for Kingdom Hearts II. Whee! Right now I'm working on Riku's story, "Reverse/Rebirth." It's cool, going through the game backwards. All the bosses that were rediculously hard going through the later levels in Sora's story are now rediculously easy. Take THAT, Malificent and Captain Hook. I like it, though. I've always been a sucker for an anti-hero, and redemption quests.

I've been going through, lining up Sora to the "hero's quest", a la "The Hero With A Thousand Faces." It's helping me make sense of the games' stories a lot more. ^_^

Tomorrow's gonna be tricky. I'm scheduled to work 8.5 hours tomorrow (and more if they go late, natch) but I've gotten close enough to my 40 hour max that I can't work more than 6.5, so I may get to take at least a little of tomorrow off. YAY! Now the only question is... When?