For those of you who have been wondering, Tales of Destiny II is the name of the insofar nameless Playstation RPG. It consists of three main characters and a revolving fourth: the main character's name eludes me at the moment, its 4 letters and has an "ie" or "ei" combo in it. He is capable of using either axes, swords, or lances/polearms and fights either with thrusts or slashes (or the logical derived Slash+Thrust or Thrust+Slash, etc combos). His companion is Farah, who is both the unarmed combat character (having "Foot" and "Hand" skills) who doubles as the only character (so far) with any form of healing magic. The third consists character is Meredy and her companion Quickie(a small blue critter that resembles a mutant squirrel with a tail about 50% larger than its body). Just as a side note, Quickie speaks much like a pokemon does, though its seems incapable of using most of the actual letters that makeup its name. It calls itself Kweekie, so which is actually its correct name, I have no idea. Meredy (I might be leaving off an "i" somewhere in there) has come to our heroes world (Inferia, an odd choice of name) from her home of Celestia to inform us that our planets are going to collide, unfortunately she speaks only in Melnics (the game does show them very nicely for you, although they seem to be verbally based on oriental, they are graphically merely some madman's scribble. Eventually you find some earrings that allow you to understand Meredy, and from that point further everyone on Inferia can understand her broken speech (she picks up the speech habits of those around her, so she says "You Bet!" instead of yes, and some other nightmare idioms). Once the language barrier is broken anyone on the face of the planet can understand her. Whether this is because the designers got lazy or because every one except you mysteriously knows Melnics is a mystery to me still. The next oddity of the Namco produced RPG (and you though they didn't make RPGs) is the Wonder Chef. This freak, clevery disguised as household objects throughout Inferia, appears with a roll of music and a flash of light, teaches you a random recipe (which when prepaired (possibly incorrectly, which produces a random miscellanous object instead (don't ask how a failed omletter becomes a powerful crystal shard)) grants an effect such as restored hitpoints or status restoration. I presently have quite a load of pasta, and no pasta using recipes. There is also a black melting pot recipe that mysteriously takes random ingredients and produces a random effect, but I haven't played with that one much for fear of losing my precious 2 tofu.

Time for the post-Christmas postings. Firstly, the first lesson of the weekend is, ironically, lesson 4: If you see a stranger, follow him.

In other news, Halo has been beaten again, this time on Heroic instead of Normal (they go Easy, Normal, Heroic, Legendary for those of you keeping score at home), the damn flood just doesn't want to die. For those of you who've played any Lord of Destruction, think the damn reanimating zomibes (see Flux's #2 (Don't quote me on that) for more on them, maybe, or maybe not, I forget if he included them). But there is no way to prevent these genetic freaks from standing back up, I've tried nearly everything. Smacking their corpses with any weapon handy, massive amounts of grenades. The only solution I have figured out is launching their bodies off a cliff with the propulsive force of serveral plasma grenades.

Metroid Prime is very cool though it feels quite a bit like a Resident Evil clone now. I really am not a fan of 3-D first person conversions to normally 2-D games, but I did like how Zelda changed.

Vice City is very cool though I think I've hit a dead end. I can't figure out how to steal a locked tank from the middle of an armed military convoy. I've blockaded the path but the soldiers just move the cars, run people over yet they fire back with their assault rifles and my car explodes, I've tried grenades, snipering, drive-bys, all to no avail. Well, I'll check GameFAQs and see what I'm missing, more on that later.

I'm worried by HBO. They had someone (some celebrity that whose name I cannot recall), talking about Title 9 and how its destroying mens sports like Gymnastics and Swimming because more men play sports than the relative percentage of women enrolled at the school. That I agreed with, but then I figured it was meant as a satire or joke when the gentleman started saying that "Chicks don't dig lacrosse" or that "Taking these sports (Gymnastics and Swimming still being the only two cited) away from men will create a generation of flabby homosexuals (since when does stretching and not shaving my legs make me homosexual?). Furthermore, he ended by saying that the loss of sports would drive men towards the Church amd "we don't want that, do we?"

Alright, the Christmas Update. I manage to net (what a verb, eh?):
Metroid Prime, Wild Arms 3, Heroes of Might and Magic IV (What a pain of load times), some completely random Playstation RPG, socks (Joy of joys), 4 shirts, a swiss army knife, a watch, a 5 use flashlight (How did I ever survive without one), a paper shredder (cause ever college kid needs one of these), Therion's Deggial, Savatage's Poets and Madmen,and some other miscellanous stuffs.
Factoring the other gifts of my brothers, my electronics are supplimented by an X-Box (holy hell, where did Microsoft get their controller idea, thank freaking God for the X-Box controller S, cause that's the only hope of playing half decent), Halo (Already beat it in team mode with David, nice and rough but not overly so, you get lost rather easy though), Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature (Ian's, go figure), Animal Farm (Also Ian's, he thought it was like Harvest Moon although he knew nothing about it. Today in Marketing 101 we learn that if you give it a disguising name some idiot will buy it for no real reason), a Game Boy Advance and Zelda for it, and Resident Evil: Zero. That's the fun of Christmas. Well, back to seeing what humor comes out of HoMMIV (that's a large abbreviation).

Best Phrase so far: Upon entering the arena the master hands your hero a battered wooden shield and nothing else, he then draws a sword and say "try not to get hit." A hour later you hero emerges battered, but having learned a little about defense.

Merry Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve Eve Eve, and all the others that I might have missed in my time not touching this computer. Well, no real message yet, tune in at our regularly scheduled time for the, umm, standard programming?

Ok, I've decided that Risk 2210 or whatever just doesn't modify well enough into a more than five round game. Cards cycle too much and eventually you need land cards for so many purposes you could just cycle the same scatter bombs over and over.

On the TSO note from before, apparently they are going to have a concert on "Christmas Eve and Other Stories." Just a cool side note, though I prefer their other songs to that series.

Flux's Dodecahedron is actully decently funny, its not Garwulf, but its still worth reading if you have the knowledge of D2 to get the jokes, actually it doesn't take that much knowledge since my reading has given me the impression that Flux doesn't actually know the game too well, though he does get the really classic idiot in the response Emails. www.diabloii.net

Wohoo, talk about a Christmas gift! The great shirt from Jeff, Mike, and Jiaz. No disclosure about it yet though, if you don't know you don't know. Though take a few looks around SGVY and you'll find it fast enough.

DDR is so much harder than FFR, though both are pretty fun to do. At present, duh, DDR has the better songs, but I trust that FFR's updating capability gives it the needed edge.

Though of the Moment: A wise Samurai always chooses the ugliest blade for its edge is always the sharpest.

I proved the damn Magic 8 Ball wrong, I'm still alive, though I just lost a pint of blood (though I did get the standard free cookies for doing so). Ocean's Eleven is a good movie, well that's subjective. Allow me to just say that I enjoyed it, but that was last night. Today I saw no movies, not even Bond, so I didn't have a lovely conversation with the one other person who'd have been in the theater with me. Sad news, Trans-Siberian Orchestra has ruined Christmas songs for me, I cannot listen to normal Carols anymore, only the TSO ones...

Song of the Moment: Song #3 on Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack disc 2: No Disc.

And in other news http://www.nintendo.com/news/news_articles.jsp?articleID=7847

Wow, I just noticed that I forgot to post my karma blog about Friday the 13, damn. Oh well, it shouldn't be too too terribly long before the next one rolls around. Well, a little under 2 hours before I prove Jeff's magic 8 ball's first prediction wrong. Wow again, Jiaz and Cal, and then Jeff and D'Oraz and even a little bit of Ting, managed to waste most of a day just playing with words back and forth, life doesn't get much more amusing that thinking about that. On a little side note, I hope to create a poem titled "Playing in Traffic." It's very odd for me to start with a title, but hey, maybe a new approach is what I need.

I hate writer's block, its very uncomfortable leaving things unfini

Oh well, another wasted Sunday. Well, pretty much wasted. I did gain quite a bit of proficiency at Flash Flash Revolution despite the terrible processing power of my Athlon. If you've not yet fallen under its sway, the address is www.xqsite.com (a pun for which I give Flash Flash Revolution's creator props; if you don't get it, your loss). Some of those dance mixes are very fun and Aeris is fun to look at (though lasting long enough to enjoy the picture is the difficult part). I had more to this little promotional that wasn't a promotion, but that was before Blogger and my internet decided to derail that little train of thought. Ohh, Classical Flash Flash Revolution, too bad my Athlon can't even register the arrows. Oh well, new computer when I graduate at least.

Ugh. Doing too much too often, hurts. I feel presently that I am about only 3/4ths of my self, the remainder being presently lost to the winds. Hopefully I'll be back to myself before finals, else bad things are to be expected for my grades.

I never thought I'd catch myself saying it. But after an extra hour of work past closing time combined with the injuries netted wrapping, packing, and moving all the holiday gifts of complete strangers I found myself uttering "I hate CHRISTMAS. It was a new level in bad for me, but that's okay, cause I know I don't mean it, at least I won't when the 25th does finally make its way around, though I still don't know what is worth getting. I need to find a good video game reviewer, too much out there and I know none of it. I have a Blockbuster Card, but it expired 2 years ago. As a random note on that, it says the expiration is not valid in California, so if anyone in California can say why, I wouldn't be opposed to sending it cross-country for you to use, still about nine dollars and some cents.

Fun from the Devil's Dictionary for today .
Descartes: a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, Cogito ergo sum -- whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made.

Lesson for Today: The Exponential Difficulty Theorem
1) It is hard to cut cardboard
2) It is very hard to cut double-walled cardboard
3) It is very very hard to cut wet cardboard
So thus, unfortunately, it follows that:
4) Cutting wet, double-walled cardboard is impossible without a chainsaw or, if you live in an anime, a kendo blade (see the Law of Xylolaceration for details)

Well, I've made it throught the week from hell, though it appears that most of us still need a large amount of time to recover from it. Fortunately, finals are coming.

The music on the new VW Beetle Convertable commercial's music is really pretty addictive.

Music of the moment, Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon.

Wohoo, Tech Acceptance!

And Real Life wins the award for vaguest reference that I still understand: http://www.reallifecomics.com/d/20010220.html


Nope, its not supposed to be a link, you have to copy and paste. Yes, I am that lazy.

Secrets are fun. I like having that glorious little scrap of knowledge than no others are privy too. Its just too damn fun. Woohoo, secrets are the best kind of drug to have. Though really really addictive, they give a very nice high.

Start Rant:

Mr. Palmer has again managed to irk me. Rise my ire as the case may be. I tend to dismiss most of my distaste for this man as typical for First period with a person with too much energy, but twice he has crossed even that line. The first was when he didn't go to Northview's first orchestra concert (Now under the direction of Mr. Aucoin), which he didn't even inform the class was taking place, because "he didn't want to take away from Mr. Aucoin's glory." I say to this, WTF?!?!?!!?!?!?, all you contributed was a Senior violist, and 5 former Freshmen, who had no more talent after having you than before. The second one was a strike on Dr. Holbrook, and his being disorganized. Well, I won't go into details, but suffice to say that Palmer isn't exactly neat either. The man never has anything in the right place ever. Without Elizabeth, Emory, and Sofia, he'd be doomed. Oh well, End rant.

Ah, the joys of living in Georgia. It's great fun telling my long-distance friends how little I have to pay for gas. 98.9 cents with a Kroger Plus card :).

Okay, new rule, no more asking Colin to go places on Sundays, the radio absolutely sucks and my car doesn't have a CD player, so I'm not going anywhere on Sunday. Plus, I'll have the last minute homework to do.

It's now officially December, but I'm too lazy to create a countdown. Hopefully you can all count to 25 without my help. 24 now, but you get idea.