09.30.07
Posted in Site News
at 3:57 pm
Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes miracles do happen. Today the Cleveland Browns took excessive advantage of the Baltimore Ravens’ lack of attention and lack of preparedness. Watching the game, well, it was like a dream. A glorious dream.
Then, about twenty minutes into the Steelers game, the satellite feed cut out completely and the HD version of the game went totally dark. All my other channels are fine, as is the SD version, but dammit, I have an HDTV, and if there’s going to be as much good football going on in the second half of the day, then I want to see it in HD.
We’ll talk more tomorrow about stuff and sundry.
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09.29.07
Posted in Gaming, Site News, Writing
at 11:38 am
Taking a few moments to give everyone an update on today. The Pokemon event was a bit of a subdued affair; there was some amount of chaos in the understanding that the distribution machine could only handle so many connections at one time, but I managed to snag mine fairly early. Therefore, Manaphy is now officially the first “event” Pokemon I’ve ever obtained. Woo-hoo. It goes in the box for now until after Poketoberfest… which reminds me, I need to set up that thread in the forum so as to foment discussion there. I’ll do that later.
I’m currently in Cranberry right now, at a Barnes and Noble. I went in here with the intent of looking for a book that was recommended to me, but decided that I also wanted some hot chocolate and to check my messages. Oh, and to update this page before I head off to Fun Fore All and wipe myself out playing DDR. Yeah, it evens out.
What it boils down to, really, is that there is so much I want to say, both here and in some private letters that I owe, but that my available time is about to take a HUGE nosedive as I start the Poketoberfest project and prepare for NaNo in thirty-two days. So, if I’m a little slow in responding, please forgive me; it’s not intentional, I assure you.
Anyway, now to go and find that book… those books, actually, as one was a fiction recommendation and one is a tech tome I need for work. Bah. Catch you folks tomorrow.
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09.28.07
Posted in Rants
at 4:42 am
What, was this “place main characters in mortal peril week” at CBS, or what? NCIS had Tony getting blown up, CSI:NY has Mac getting stalker calls, and last night CSI had Sara come to the brink of death. I think somebody had a last-second change of heart there, though I will admit that I searched for Jorja Fox’s name in the credits. Incidentally, for the record? I hate the ‘remixed’ version of Baba O’Reilly now being used for NY’s opening. I mean, hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate HATE HATE HATE HATE (continue Kefka-esque rant here) it. Too much drums, and I usually like percussion sections, but this was just way too much. They really need to go back to the original version, even though the new visuals for the intro are nice. Good episode, too, except for the opening.
Though I will say this: Hearing Jason Dohring’s voice for less than three seconds in a commercial for “Moonlight” forced me to double-check that I had it set to record tonight. Luckily for me, the concept of “vampire detective that’s not Squall” already had me hooked, but I had to be sure.
Not sure what else to say; I want to say that I’ll have a report on Torchwood written up eventually, but I can’t promise that. What I will say is that tomorrow’s entry is either going to be very early or very late, owing to the fact that I’m goin’ Pokemon hunting.
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09.27.07
Posted in Site News
at 5:08 pm
It really bothers me that I again don’t have much of anything substantial to say, but at least today I have an excuse.
…all right, I don’t have an excuse. That’s my excuse. It makes sense in a twisted, non-Euclidean sort of fashion.
I promise I’ll have something tomorrow… Bailout, most likely.
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09.26.07
Posted in Anime, Gaming, Rants
at 4:50 pm
Not much to report today, folks. Another lovely day at work, and another quiet night at home. I’m really digging Brave Story, and while I’m no longer certain I’ll have that finished by the time I start up Poketoberfest, I’ll be glad for the chance to pick it back up again when I’m done with the speed run. Also, I managed to discover the form to pre-pre-pre-register for Tekkoshocon ‘08, and I’m sending that in this week (before the price goes up– right now it’s 2/3rds of what it would cost me at the door, and I’m fairly certain I’ll be here). That means that this will be the first convention that I attend three consecutive years. I am quite impressed with myself.
Anyway, NCIS last night was awesome, but had me with a few questions… ah well. CSI:NY tonight, but I won’t see it until tomorrow after work due to it being on too late. And tomorrow, Vegas, baby. I’ll be watching that one live, you had better believe it. Catch you folks tomorrow, then.
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09.25.07
Posted in Gaming, Rants, Site News
at 4:24 pm
Guten Abend! Ja, ist time for der festivalenfunfaire du pocketmonstersgebattlin. Das ist Poketoberfest!
…all right, so I’m barely 1/8th German. Irrelevant. I made a post on Netjak a few months back about how certain times of the year always make me want to play certain games. I get a drive to play Rez around the beginning of spring; I often take a run through a Wild ARMs game in the late fall and early winter (I am, in fact, saving WA Vth Vanguard for the end of November); and in the fall, I have the undeniable urge to Catch ‘Em All. And while I would love to say it’s inexplicable, I know exactly how it started and why I do it. No, it’s not just to spite everyone else playing teh haloz.
I bought Pokemon Blue in the early part of my sophomore year at college– I’d venture to pinpoint it to September or October of ‘99. I’d just picked up the Game Boy Color after having used the old black-and-white ‘Brick’ machine for ten years. In any event, I played the game with a certain amount of dedication during that time; the cooling weather, coupled with the new style of play (new to me, at the time) made a pretty big impression on me. I didn’t actually bother to finish the game until after March and April of 2000, when Gold and Silver had their release dates announced. Once again, in October of 2000, the cool of the fall and the scent in the air just connected so permanently to the game. It didn’t help that I re-affirmed the connection by playing through FireRed in the fall of 2004, in Erie, when my interest in Pokemon was rekindled.
I suppose it’s funny, though, that this time of year is so indelibly connected to the game. There were plenty of other games I played in the fall in between those releases: prime among them, Kingdom Hearts (2002), FF Tactics Advance (2003), Radiata Stories and City of Heroes (2005), and Xenosaga Ep. 3 (2006). (I knew that this “diary” thing was a good idea.) Few made that big of an impression on me– certainly not enough to overwrite the memory of tossin’ Pokeballs into a leaf pile.
So, I’m embracing it this year, rather than resisting it. I never actually finished any of the Hoenn games, so I’m going to settle myself down for a speedrun through Emerald. The rules are again quite simple: I’m starting the run on September 30th (this coming Sunday), and I can’t transfer to Diamond until I beat the Elite 4. If I manage to complete the game prior to October 19th, that will be the fastest completion of a Pokemon game on record (for me) at exactly 20 days. I have to leave a serviceable team on the cartridge in case I need to do some further capturing. Finally, a new twist: if the Elite 4 are not defeated before October 31st, then I have to transfer all of the Pokemon over and delete my save data (so that I don’t cut into NaNo at all).
As always, I’m just tossing this out there; I know RJ just finished his run through LeafGreen, so I’m not sure if he would be willing to take on the challenge again so soon. But, it would be a neat idea to coordinate the starting and all that, to see who can clear first and so forth. A little bit of friendly, remote competition, as it were. Don’t sweat it if you can’t do it just yet, or don’t care to; though, if you are willing to join in, please let me know.
In any event, that’s the plan. I’m sure I’ll be able to take care of it before Tabula Rasa hits on the 22nd of next month, but here’s hoping. I have one more starter left to transfer over (once I get a trainer ID number ending in 3– technically I have two, but I can just breed out the Torchic from my previous aborted run), but once October hits– we’re off. It’s amazing that what started as an atrocious pun is now a personal mission, and a fantastic timesink. Ah well. Catch you all tomorrow.
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09.24.07
Posted in Site News, Writing
at 4:24 pm
….and just like that, inspiration strikes. I’ll get the Poketoberfest thing up tomorrow– must write now.
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09.23.07
Posted in Rants, Site News
at 3:00 pm
So, yeah, after yesterday’s amazing stroke of luck, I have absolutely no drive today. I couldn’t even get any writing together… Not entirely sure why that is, but it is, so nothing to do but just flow with it.
I did finish reading Brave Story last night and started the PSP version (New Traveler)– seeing a few bits that were only alluded to in the book were nice, but I’m still sort of in that mode of trying to push away my preconceptions of what certain things are supposed to be. (Specifically, the gimblewolves.) In any event, I’m getting into a gaming mood again, and pretty soon I’ll spill the details on my plans for the now-often-teased Poketoberfest. BS:NT is short, it seems (about 20 to 40 hours), so I may just be able to have that done before the 1st. We shall, as always, see.
Catch you folks tomorrow.
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09.22.07
Posted in Gaming, Rants
at 4:58 pm
Step One: At a random garage sale, I found a mystery box of PS2 games marked $40 for the lot. None of them were ones I had any interest in or need for– nothing was on my Reclamation List anymore, and the most notable one there was was Kingdom Hearts II– but there were about 20 of them. There was also a box of about 15 PS1 games, in a similar state, marked $10. I bought both.
Step Two: I took the PS1 games to a local trade shop thinking I could at least get a few bucks out of it, and maybe put that towards something else. The box of PS1 games earned me $80 cash.
Step Three: Naturally, I took the PS2 box in to Gamestop. After a couple of well-timed promotions, that box was worth $150 in credit.
Step Four: Abscond with a used PSP and copies of Brooktown High and Brave Story: New Traveler, all without paying a single cent more than I had at the garage sale.
Some days, I’m afraid of what will happen when my luck finally does run out…
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Posted in Gaming
at 11:28 am
After weeks of me non-stop blathering about it, MySims finally arrived. I have to admit, the game seemed a little too open-ended when I first heard about it, but it takes a very Animal Crossing-ish tack towards guiding the player into knowing what the goals are and what to do next. I got the distinct impression that this is exactly what is meant by the phrase “sandbox games”. And you know what? I found myself giggling and laughing pretty damn quickly. I’m hooked, in point of fact– there’s often not much in the way of truly innocent fun in gaming these days, and MySims fits the bill nicely to help cushion the non-stop “save the world from dire bloody peril” that I was looking at in the next couple months.
Just, well, one word of caution. The characters are inherently genderless– as in the only gender differentiation comes in clothing and voice options, and not in a checkbox that says “boy” or “girl”. You can have a character with a deep, masculine voice wearing a cute sundress, but that’s not the cautionary moment. No, what happened was when I was looking for “Happy essences” (”Happy” being one of the six elements that Sims can be attracted/discouraged by), and naturally the only way to get these is to be nice to other Sims. My avatar– dressed as close to Yukito (AIR) as I could– “was nice” to a fellow resident named Patrick. Yeah, he kissed him. MySims is now officially the HoYay!est game I have ever played.
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