12.28.06
Posted in Anime, Gaming, Site News, Writing
at 10:08 pm
…and having Chaos perpetually in your shadow does something to a man, let me tell you.
Anyway, inspired by Rick’s self-imposed moratorium, I’ve resolved that (barring the Phoenix Wright pre-order I’ll have to pick up in January) I’m buying no more games until I have completed at least three of the titles that I currently have open. The two closest are Final Fantasy 12 and Super Robot Taisen, with Children of Mana being a close third-place contender (though I might be able to make more of a case for Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow or Elite Beat Agents). The last game I completed was Touch Detective back in November. This holiday weekend I’ll be blitzing through Ivalice… which reminds me, on my way home tomorrow I need to pick up a case of something extremely caffeinated.
I did indeed get an HDTV, and I am quite happy with that (which is part of what spurred me to vow to finish FF12). I also picked up some new stuff to watch on said TV– specifically, anime. The US versions of Fate stay/night and Ichigo Mashimaro (or Strawberry Marshmallow, which is still nonsense but is at least closer to English). I’ve yet to put Fate in, though I’m sure I’m in for a treat (I had been watching the fansub for a while before I lost the disc); but Ichigo… wow. My exact words were “It’s Azumanga Daioh with more plot that makes less sense.” In case it’s not obvious, I Like It.
Also, at some point during this weekend I am watching Gone in Sixty Seconds on the widescreen. Just fuggin’ because. If I need a rationalization, then it’s to offset the pink frilly cuteness that is Ichigo. But I don’t need a rationalization for the best movie ever made.
Dental work continues apace. Also, site work on the secret project is also continuing, but has been sort of back-burnered while I relax a little bit. All things in time.
I’ll probably write again before the first, but if I don’t, then it’s all Nicolas Cage’s fault.
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12.23.06
Posted in Site News
at 8:13 am
Good morning, everyone.
It’s kind of strange to think that over this past year or so things have changed so much for me. I’ve been inundated with a kind of chaos that, when it hasn’t driven me crazy, has been probably the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Despite everything bad that happened to me this year, I have to admit that 2006 is when I got to do some things that I realistically never thought I’d do. Some of them were obvious, like go to E3 or work for a video game company (sort of). Others were a little more mundane, like lose weight or move back to Western Pennsylvania. Overall, it’s safe to assume that this year was pretty good.
I realize, of course, how lucky I’ve been to have the chances and circumstances that I did. And I am very grateful for that. I think that that’s what’s most important– to recognize the good that’s happened to you and to realize that, while most of the time it’s a result of hard work on your part, every once in a while something happens that you just can’t control or count on. I have had a very hard time learning that lesson, but I’m still working on it.
In any event, no matter what holiday you celebrate these next few weeks (or have been celebrating), I wish you all the best and hope that your coming year is as full of hope and success as you need it to be. Please be safe.
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12.18.06
Posted in Rants, Site News, Writing
at 1:56 pm
Most of you who know me, know that my teeth have never exactly been in the best shape. My orthodontist, ten years ago, said I had very acidic saliva and at that point I envisioned myself as a xenomorph. Well, whereas H. R. Giger’s nightmarish extraterrestrials had very nicely done (if somewhat transparent and painful-looking) dental work, my own teeth have kind of suffered under the raw power of my evil spit. There had been some battles between my spit and my teeth– some won, some lost– but I think on Friday night my spit delivered the dental equivalent of an H-bomb on one of my back molars. Long story short (too late), lots of pain resulted, so it got pulled today and now things are going to get very, very messy.
I’m still numb from the extraction– the doctor literally gave me eight shots of whatever it was– but I know that there will be PAIN, and that it will start soon. So it’s a good thing that I managed to get my prescription for Dr. House’s Magic Candy filled before the pharmacist took lunch.
While I would love to get all mushy and ask that you folks wish me well, I also recognize that it’s a little silly to air my personal problems over the Internet for all to see. Therefore, I’m just going to say that I’m probably not going to be updating the site too much before the New Year, and as a result I do have to skip my heartfelt discussion of Yuletide greetings. Yeah, you can see I’m all busted up over that. Anyway, just know that as of right now, I’m OK and I foresee things to remain that way for a while, at least.
In any event, I have to get back to work– or try to, anyway, before the proverbial V-tec kicks in, and I wake up with a face full of keyboard seven hours later. Ciao.
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12.14.06
Posted in Gaming, Rants
at 6:43 am
Joystiq reports that Square-Enix is going to give the world of Ivalice the same attention that it gave FF7’s world and The World of Mana, by announcing the Ivalice Alliance. So far the newly-spun series includes a PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, subtitled “The Lion War” in case there was any doubt. I’m actually psyched about this because my own PSP had been getting kind of dusty… all right, so I could really give less than two craps about it since my PSP is effectively worthless, but I guess it’s kind of like RIFTS coming out for the nGage– one good game coming WAY too late. I’m actually with Joystiq on this one in saying that a downloadable copy of FFT would have been my preferred way of going about it; still, a new localization of the game is not immediately worth either the $40 for a copy of a game I already own or the $608 for the PS3 I would need to download it, coupled with the cost of actually downloading it.
The other game announced in the set (which also includes the already-known DS title FFXII: Revenant Wings) is Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Black Book. While I certainly do not share the hatred for the Advance variant of FFT that some series purists (read: fanboys) do, the one thing that worries me most about A2 is that the system it is in development for has not yet been nailed down. It could be the DS or it could be the GBA; I am quite surprised that S-E is still continuing to support the GBA as much as they are, given that Game Boy Color titles trickled down to almost nil after June ‘01 (there was Shantae in summer ‘02, which I know of for certain, but… uh… nothing else, it seems). Still, I would absolutely love the chance to go back into a tactical version of Ivalice for a new story. While FF12 definitely brings the political intrigue, the game itself has been less than gripping. Case in point, I haven’t booted it up since Thanksgiving. I hope to rectify this this upcoming weekend, but we shall see.
In case you’re wondering, I only have the PSP for Valkyrie Profile and Lumines. Maybe also for Crisis Core, but I’m not exactly holding my breath here.
Not much else going on right now. I still owe you guys a pastoral entry, so expect that within a day or two. Along with the announcement of a ’special’ surprise. Heh heh heh. Later, folks.
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12.11.06
Posted in Rants, Site News, Writing
at 8:17 pm
In case you absolutely need to know what I had for breakfast on January 10th, 2004*, I’ve finally gotten around to creating a static version of the blog entries from the site’s inception (April 2003) up to the move to Lunarpages (April 2006). You can read this archive here, though honestly why you would WANT to is beyond me. Still, it’s up for completeness’ sake, and also as a test of the Ether database library. (Sssssh, you weren’t supposed to know about Ether yet.)
That’s all for now, folks. I’m going to go slack off now.
(* SPOILER: It was probably a McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast.)
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Posted in Rants, Site News
at 12:58 pm
Hey from lunch. Every year around this time I blast out some long, sappy, inspirational entry about how wonderful it is that we’re reaching the end of another year, and that this is a time for reflection and true appreciation of what we have. This isn’t that entry. (Not yet, anyway. It’s coming, don’t you worry, but not today.) Instead, I wanted to point out this Slashdot story which, surprisingly, has had the exact opposite effect of pretty much every other Slashdot story I’ve read in the last few months. I’m not purple with rage, I’m not laughing at idiocy, and I’m certainly not indignant at being misrepresented or condescended to. I’m actually, genuinely proud of the submitter.
The basic gist of the story is that the submitter, literally fresh from a CS degree, has no idea what projects he’d like to tackle; and furthermore, has no idea of where to even start. Believe me, I’ve been there. Come to think of it, with the Circle project, I’m still there (kinda– I actually didn’t get any work done on that over the weekend, but I’m planning on taking the next step tonight). My best advice (and the way I’ve always handled it) is to simply dive into the idea, take it one step at a time, break it into smaller, more manageable chunks, and then just do it.
The pride comes from the fact that the submitter has the humility to say, “Wow, I’m completely lost. However, I have a desire to learn and to improve my own processes and my own practices.” If more people in tech– heck, more people in the world– would just do that, then I’d feel a LOT better about the future.
Later, folks.
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12.06.06
Posted in Site News
at 6:12 pm
It is with regret that I relay the news that James Kim, a prominent member of the CNET tech news organization and a former staff member with TechTV, has been found dead. ABC News reported it here.
Nothing else to say right now.
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12.04.06
Posted in Site News
at 9:02 pm
Nothing special going on today. Incidentally, last reports I heard said that James Kim’s family had been located, and Mr. Kim himself was almost rescued. They had become trapped in a snowstorm, apparently. Good to know that they are all right.
As for the music reorganization project, I got most of the Smart Playlists together in iTunes that I’d be needing, and have a tally of my current progress: I’ve rated 1,194 out of 17,102 tracks in my active music library. The “rated” number should go up as I go through the library and the total number of tracks should go down as I cull duplicates and bad tracks, and assign game soundtracks and the like to an “archived” status. Considering that last week, the number was on the order of 19,000 tracks to go through, I think I’m making damn good progress.
Oh, and I upgraded the forums last night, in case you didn’t notice. Mostly anti-spam measures. This weekend was spent doing some PHP development; in a week or two I’ll likely be getting the contents of the old blog (pre-April 2006) back in an archived form. I really want to try to find a copy of my April Fool’s joke from this year… ah well. Anyway, talk to you folks later.
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