03.22.07
Son-not
Chilly March morning.
The webmaster has nothing
to present his friends.
03.21.07
Link Wednesday: The Links Of Adventure
…wait, wait, don’t shoot me yet! I bring an actual LW entry this week; surely I could be forgiven an irresistible pun like that, especially given this week’s subject matter.
Last week, Kotaku managed to swing a few shots of the current US localization of Eternal Sonata, though for the first truly interesting 360 RPG I prefer to still think of it as Trusty Bell. Not only does the game star the famous composer Frederic Chopin– in a rather silly concept, I should add (on his deathbed, Chopin enters a dreamworld where his fatal tuberculosis inexplicably gives him magical powers)– but, as I’d snarked months ago, the soundtrack is made up of the actual Chopin’s music, as performed by Stanislav Bunin. Nevermind that I don’t know Chopin from “Chopsticks”, and that I have absolutely no clue who Bunin is. The game is damn pretty and the battle system looks neat.
Oh yeah, then there’s this. Decisions, decisions…. decomposing contagious composer or self-abusing clockwork monstrosity? What a choice…
Many tales have been told of my affinity for all things Cupertino; it ranks right up there with my desire to make the most out of any given moment. That’s why there’s Apple and LifeHacker. But what if, and this is just hypothetical, you combined the two? My word, that would be an awesome amount of win. (And yes, I know damn well that LH is heavily Mac-centric. Suspend that for the gag, will ya?) The selections they choose are pretty much standard; most of them I already have, or have analogues for. Still, it’s an excellent reference for someone getting started with a new Mac.
Also, via LifeHacker, in case you ever wanted to know how all that caffeine should be affecting you, you can get a running total of your drinking habits and see just what you’ve imbibed. I checked out my morning routine and found it usually keeps me “In The Zone” as it were, even though my overall day-to-day habits would push me into “Jitters” if I took it all in one shot. I’ve actually seen this site before, and may have linked it at some point, but the new calculator feature made it worth mentioning again.
Those of you who have an Xbox 360 but no copy of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night– I’m pretty sure there’s no connection between those two sets within my usual readership, but I’m talking hypothetically here– will be delighted to know that the game is now available on the Live Arcade for the established price of $10. Oddly enough, when I first picked up the game back in 1999, I think I paid $15 for it; that may have been the same disc I kept all the way through to Erie or Cleveland, whenever I had to sacrifice it. In any event, I’ve downloaded it and just given it the first few moments of gameplay; it’s labeled as “HD” but in reality it’s just reverse-letterboxed, as the main gameplay is in a center screen and the sides have some very nice artwork. The addition of Achievements is entirely incidental to the experience, truth be told; I just wanted to have the game back (and cross it off my list). Naturally, because of this, I’ve added another game to the “must beat” list before I can freely purchase games again.
Finally, Meteos: Disney Magic… I’ll have a review up at Netjak within the week or so. I’ve always been a sucker for adding teh di$ney to teh gud gams, so the fact that I have this one shouldn’t really surprise anyone (it won’t count towards adding to the list nor will it count as a completed game). Am I disappointed? Well… you’ll just have to wait and see.
I’ll catch you folks later. If you’re really lucky, maybe I’ll even post my sonnet tomorrow morning.
03.20.07
Getting Unnecessarily Meta
TheFurryOne.net Presents: Top 10 Worst Ideas For A Website’s Top 10 List
10. Top 10 Groin Injuries Requiring Invasive Surgery
9. Top 10 Buddhist Chants Sung By Kevin Federline
8. Top 10 Humorous Typos That, When Searched For On Google, Produce Only Pornographic Resluts Results
7. Top 10 Outtakes From “An Inconvenient Truth: Too Hot For Theaters Edition”
6. Top 10 Numbers Between 0 and 9 (exclusive)
5. Top 10 Crossover Fanfics Where Cloud, Like, Totally Has The Hots For Master Chief
4. Top 10 Video Game Pause Screens
3. Top 10 Commercials Starring Jaleel White
2. Top 10 Interpretive-Dance Recitals Of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” That Get The Lyrics Tragically Wrong
1. Top 10 Top 10 Lists
03.19.07
Oddcasting
I’ve wrestled with the concept of making my own podcast or weekly show of some sort; last year’s attempt, “Quicksave”, was actually a very interesting learning experience. In the vein of this week’s This American Life, “What I learned from Podcasting” is that I’m a much, much better writer than I am a performer. Kind of like Tina Fey, except she can act and is surprisingly better-looking in glasses than I am.
…….you know, I have absolutely no idea where I was going with that. Just… nevermind. Too distracted today. Check back tomorrow.
03.18.07
GAME CLEARED: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)
At 12:20pm, I completed Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DS. This is the fifth game cleared in 2007. I have completed four out of five games needed to break the moratorium. The next game that is closest to completion is Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii), followed by Rayman: Raving Rabbids (Wii) and Super Robot Taisen (GBA).
My Back Pocket… A Crime?!
Old, and I’m sure most of us have seen it before. Still, it’s oddly appropriate given my very next entry.
OBJECTION!! There is no “next entry”!
…not yet, anyway. Give me a few moments…
03.17.07
From The “Not Like It Matters” Department
I just now had a chance to take a few minutes to log in to FFXI and check on stuff. I also read through the most recent patch notes, and was delighted to see that the almost universally-reviled World Pass system has been abandoned. For those of you who never played FFXI, the system automatically assigned you to a server when you started, and you (naturally) had no control over this; it was strictly a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. The only way to get around this was to purchase expensive (in-game expensive; real-world free, but 2000-10000 gil is a shitload of money starting out in-game) World Passes, which didn’t transfer your character, but rather gave you the right to create a new character on the same server as your friend (who had to be the one laying down the cash for the pass).
Now you get to choose your server. There’s still nobody but me playing this anymore but at least I can all congregate in one place, now.
03.16.07
Twenty-Eight Days (Plus 2; Sandra Bullock Not Included)
One of the things that I’ve been trying to do for a while now is to find a few good fiction contests to enter, partly to flex my creative muscle, but also partly for the very brief shot at glory. As it turns out, there’s a lot of contests out there, but some of them have, ahem, strange themes. For example, one contest wants an unpublished 3,500 words of science fiction, fantasy, or horror on the topic “Fewmets At The End Of Time”. Yeah, I’m sure I’m not the only person to immediately think of Madeleine L’Engle. Actually, as it turns out, I have been internally debating signing up for a “30 Days”-style challenge, akin to what has been completed– numerous times– by the admirable Eric. Granted, it would only result in 3,000 to 6,000 disjointed words, but given the choice between having no topic (and thus no drive to finish it) or having a difficult topic, I’ll take the topic.
So, as they say, here is the deal. I’m going to open up the floor, as it were, for suggestions for topics. Stuff you send in, I’ll try to write about; bear in mind, though, that how I interpret your suggestion is entirely up to me. I’m also going to throw in a few snippets from challenges that I found interesting here and there. What you should do, then, is to e-mail me your topic, quote, or other thing you want me to write 100 words about to my usual address. If you don’t want to use the link, that’s cool, but make sure you put “30 Days Challenges” in the subject line so I don’t throw it away. Keep suggestions brief and open to interpretation; “death knights in los angeles” or “the wages of sin are death” are OK, while “write about a kid whose dog dies in a firey car crash on the pennsylvania turnpike on april 22, 1994 at 3:34pm” is a little too in-depth. I reserve the right to ignore/alter/ridicule suggestions as I see fit, blah blah blah I’m not writing anything political or that I don’t want to.
On March 30th, I’ll post the list of entries, and on April 2nd, I’ll start writing. Each piece will be exactly 100 or 200 words. Work may contain characters or scenarios not created by me, but I’ll be sure to at least make an effort to be original; whenever the piece uses existing characters, it will be accompanied by a notice stating that (which does not count as part of the 100 words). More than anything else, however, this won’t take the place of my daily blog entry for April; I’ll still have to post something. Just like, more or less, I post something daily now.
Let’s see how this works out, folks.
03.15.07
Remember, Rem– dammit, wrong month
So, today being the Ides of March– a date forever ingrained into me due to my high school English teacher– I want to refrain from giving away any huge news until the day’s out. This may, of course, have something to do with the fact that I probably won’t actually have the huge news until today is over. In any event, things are coming. Big things for me, at least.
I just noticed something which is completely anachronistic but also mildly interesting. Julius Caesar was murdered on March 15th. St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th. I can only imagine what the draft of Marc Anthony’s speech must have read… “I come not to praise Caesar, but to get plastered on green Guinness and hurl my corned beef and hash all over him. Et tu, Brute?”
03.14.07
Holding Pattern
All right, folks, this is the last time I’ll skip out on doing a Link Wednesday. I’m already gathering up stuff for next week. Right now, however, I’m waiting on some important news, so please forgive my somewhat distracted nature for the time being. I promise, all shall be made clear soon.