So, David on one of his whims borrowed some gamecube games from his girlfriend, so we've had Pikmin, Wind Waker, and Starfox Adventurers in the house for a few days now. So, unlike all those games I've owned for forever and been meaning to talk about, these get a quick blog before I go to bed.

Anyways. I've refused to play Pikmin on "whatever" grounds but I've watched David and Ian in their respective playings. It looks alot like a user directed form of lemmings as near as I can tell. You use your troops to secure ship parts and sources of food which in turn produce more forces. I mean, there's only 3 kinds of pikmin to begin with, so I don't see permutations being too terribly difficult past a certain point, but then again, getting the little seedlings to do your bidding seems like it would eventually drive me insane. Eventual being a term roughly equal to about an hour of time.

Wind Waker is of course pure gold. Cel Shaded fire is one of the best things ever. Of course, much to Jefe's dismay I play things my way, which means loads of offensive grappling hookage. Otherwise things are going rather well. I'm actually getting a good portion of the map as I go, which is something new. To make things worse, Ian's doing it my way as well, so Jefe, you may squirm in dismay.

Starfox Adventures is just play terrible. Total crap. I'll elaborate later.

Yay, Blogger's actually letting me post and not being down.

Well, it's been an impressive past couple of days in the world of Webcomics, the concept of a MMO Fallout RPG notwithstanding, just look:

Ctrl Alt Del has discovered Sam and Fuzzy .

Applegeeks has found out about Apple Seed.

Real Life has a snazzy, if slightly buggy new look.

ClanBob, home of Life of Riley is still in turmoil.

KittyHawk, poor dear, is still injured.

Yeah, so I best no hear anyone complaining about boredum, comprende?

So yeah, as the last post kinda enunciated, I spent a good six to seven hours at the car dealership, which was why the rant didn't materialize, because after Java I was completely spent. Either way, since I'm not quite so dead, here's the story:

As one might be aware, ever since the van's engine was pronounced doomed, I knew that I'd be needing to buy a car. My mother and I had gone looking, as well as David, and my specs are damned annoying, especially since my top priority was ABS, followed by air bags, since as a 1989 vehicle, the Van didn't possess either of these.

So, after some Toyota and Honda searching of used cars, we'd come to the realization that. Rav4's are costly, the Matrix doesn't come ABS standard and finding a used ABS'd one at a price that wasn't mortifying hadn't happened. Then there's the CRV, the paragon of antithetical existence. Because you see, Honda, in their infinate wisdom, has 2 variants on the CRV, the LX and the EX (the luxury). The differences being, the EX has a 6 disc CD changer, rather than the LX's 1, Alloy Wheels, Tinted Windows, a sunroom, and ABS. The cost for these 5 trinkets is approximately a mere six thousand different, roughly speaking. So, I want ABS, but nothing seems to have it. And no, the EX wasn't an option even if I did win the lottery. Go back and underline the word Sunroom and I think you'll see why, but in case you're still clueless, when you add a sunroom to a vehicle, you do so by making the entire room of the car lower to make room for the sunroom panel. How much lower you ask? Well, my semi-spacious headroom in the LX becomes a cramped, head touching the roof while slouching, nightmare. Anyways, a few days ago, we got a call from our friendly Honda dealship lackey saying that we could get a new Honda CRV with anti-lock brakes. So we went to check it out, and thus begins the 6-7 hours of mind numbing boredom. We arrive, wait around for our lackey, and go take the vehile that was suggested out for a test drive. The entire time an orange, engine-shaped light, is glowing at me from the dash. So, while it was a nice ride, there is the warning light. I ask about it, he says it's probably that the gas tank wasn't sealed well enough. So we close it tighter, but the light doesn't go away. I later consulted the manual on the issue: Apparently the orange engine picture means that you are running a sub-optimal performance and causing more exhaust, very bad over the long term. It continues to say that, yes indeed, it can be caused by a lose gas cap, however you should wait 3 days after tightening the cap to see the light disappear (Collective WTF for me folks? I mean, what kind of crap is that. It can sense the problem, but not sense the resolution for approximately 3 days? Yay, I just know that wonderful piece of hardware will have to be replaced some day. It was so nice having a van with no onboard electronics to go Fubar on me). Either way, lackey goes to find us another car. Mother asks if we could get one with side-airbags as well, he says sure. We wait a good hour until lackey comes back to tell us they have one, but apparently it's not in the back. So he tells us he's going to look out front. After about another hour (okay, a bit more time out back, a bit less out front) he brings us another CRV, Silver with Black interior (note, CRV's only come in either Black interior or Beige (the horrible horrible Honda beige I talked about previously)) and side airbags. So, we decide that this seems good, but say that we need to go collect our check, and the Title and have some lunch. I mention that I don't recall seeing an ABS light when I test drove the car, and that the Vehicle safety features only mention 4 wheel disc brakes, but lackey assures us he could open the hood and show it to us, so we go our merry way. We withdraw my money (I'm so totally broke, less that $100 in checkings + savings right now), get the title, grab some lunch, and come back. Lackey's got another person he's helping, so we wait some more, and some more. Then lackey shows us around service department, talks about all the info he's supposed to (owners manual, lemon law, etc). Then we wait while the guy who'll take the money and make us sign forms to free up. Then we finally pay, walk out to the car. Turn it on, see no ABS, open the hood see no ABS, and lackey realizes that he was thinking of LX Accords, which do have front ABS, but of course, Honda doesn't keep anything standardized across its vehicles. So, we're at a moment of crisis. Lackey is visibly shaken, offers to undo everything if we want. But at this point mother and I decide that it's not worth having to go through all this again when we find another car. Ask for aftermarket keyless entry system, lackey agrees that seems fair (not totally in my opinion, but hopefully I won't die for lack of ABS *knocks on wood*, or any injury for said reason). Now, for those who think that I'm perhaps exaggerating times because of anger, spite, and whatnot, I'd like to point out that I not only read every pamphlet that they had in the display area of the building (including both the large cardboard and small little tri-folded bills (many duplicates), especially the ones listing every possible accessory), but my mother and I played no less than 12 games of Gin, 3 rounds of King's Corners, and a full, long, game of Crazy Eights. Either way, I now have a brand new, 2004 Silver Honda CRV, black interior, 5DR 2WD SSRS. SSRS being the Honda code for side airbags. I'm told it stands for Supplimental Side Retraint System. $19,500 , but it'll be lasting me a good long time.

Meh, that much waiting sucks, poor deluded lackeys suck, great guy, just got confused. Oh well, that's life, live it and move on.

Well, I spent my entire fscking day at the car dealership today. There will be rantage, oh yes there will.

Alright. Gmail starts to scare me. You write an email, it supplies you with links that might interest you. So I write Jiaz an email about my thoughts of Full Metal Panic, which I just watched. Anyways, long story short. Following through a series of links to links, I've found instructions on emmulating a mouse on your keyboard.
Check it out
I found it oddly intriguing, definately something I'd try if I had to use a crappy Laptop mouse anyways.

In my own defense in reference to Jiaz's latest post, I'd like to illustrate that Yuzuyu is on of the central figures to Aishiteruze Baby and so it's a reference to an anime, as seen here. Yuzuyu'd be the little girl with a adorably huge eyes. That aside, don't ask me why she has gray hair, it's anime. If that doesn't do it for you, consult your reference copy of the laws of anime.

Man, my family has soo many issues. I'm in the computer room on Asgard, headphones on playing a mix of Symphony of the Night's OST and a few songs by The Stripes from the Bakuretsu Tenshi OP set by Nipponsei and my mother asks who I'm talking to, because I'm typing a fair deal. I respond with Cindy, which was the truth at the time. Cindy then goes to bed, because it was getting really late in China. So, about an hour later, I'm in another AIM chat, this time with Jefe, but they don't know that. So my father gets my attention (headphones and all, right), and my mother asks me if Cindy wants to go to the family pool party.
I say: Well, I'd have to ask her when she wakes up.
Mother: Wakes up?
Me: Yeah, wakes up, she's 12 hours ahead, just went to bed.
Mother: Oh, then who were you talking to?
Me: Jeff.
Father: Oh, don't invite him. We'd have to explain that too many times. Including 4 times to my father.
Mother: Oh, we should try that.
Me: Should I get D'Oraz? Oh, but he's already gone.
Mother: You see, you're dating someone not of the normal ethnicity, and some of the elders in the family are having some issues with that. So perhaps we could do the reverse.
Me: Right ethnicity, wrong gender?
Mother: Exactly.
Me: How about wrong ethnicity and wrong gender? I could invite Edmund.
Mother: No, Edmund's not something you toy with like that. If you like Edmund and Edmund likes you, then that's it. But you're out of luck, because I know Lisa Guo's going to Vanderbilt.

This is my life, and people wonder where my sense of humor comes from. Hehe.

Meh, corrected new Single hit max. Critical from behind, on high, Long Throw 4 by Katra dealing a respectable 490 damage.

Video games aside. The Lowe's people came today, so now we've got new Washer, Dryer and Freezer.

Currently in my head: Whatever the Triad used for their ending medley to Popotan, that's a really nice guitar part.

Jefe, taking pot shots at my away messages and leaving before a retort? suck it up .

Current single blow record in Gladiator. 430 on a Critial from behind Roam by Lampolo against a female Barbarian. The current multiblow probably belongs to similar circumstances, except replace Roam with Combo Attack 4 5 straight criticals at ~220 for the first, 110 for each subsiquent.

Meh, it's bedtime. Playing too much Gladius lately. Not my fault that I turn everything I touch into an unstoppable death machine in that game. It's like playing Final Fantasy Tactics, except with no classes and I can pull off Sabin/Auron-esce timing for craploads of bonus damage and unblockables.

I watched Samurai Champloo in French because Nerae was the first group I saw get it done, especially with Aoi-anime down for the time being for whatever delays they have. I understand way too much of this. Fortunately for the word, I don't feel like retranslating the French into English. I shudder to think of what that would do to the comprehensibility. But damn, French takes alot more words to say what other languages do. Especially with statements like only and never being double to quadruple negatives.

Currently in my head: Midori no Hibi OST - Panic da yo.

Alright, my last post, not the bunny links (that wasn't mine by technicality), was pretty late into the early and as most people have logically reasoned, I should hope. When I said the engine had been replaced several times, I meant the battery. So, now we all see where this load of bad news is going. The repair shop didn't even take a look at anything past the engine. It's on its last legs so, back to square one. At least the freezer doesn't seem to be dead yet, but it is dying.

Bunnies!

http://aces.tabulas.com/mutesiren/DSCF0106.JPG

http://aces.tabulas.com/mutesiren/DSCF0104.JPG

I just finished Full Metal Panic episode 12, and all I can say is that there is no O.o large enough for my emotions.

Either way, here's the state of things. I really don't know what vehicle is worthwhile, because my specifications are pretty rough. The Rav 4 doesn't feel right to me, the Matrix has very weak acceleration compared to everything else I've driven and still no Anti-lock brakes , the Element is a true SUV with crap for Gas milage, and the CRV apparently doesn't depreciate worth anything so everything Honda wants to sell me costs an arm and a leg over the 10k I was looking to spend. I'm willing to go higher, much, but not to their specs, especially not with my swing into functional unemployment this summer (bleh). So, I've got the van in the shop for a lookover to see how much dinero it'll set me back to get it functional. I know the transmission isn't prefect, but it runs and will continue to, so that should be okay. The engine is relatively new, less than 2 years, and should be fine. The radiator'll be the source of most the expense, as presently the van can dispose of a full tank of antifreeze in less than a week. So, that'll decide whether I drive the van, or go hunting (and I may very well end up with a Rav, it's looking like the best in the mess). Course, who knows if Tech'll give me parking.

Then again, the downstairs freezer might be deal, and if it is, it'll be appliance replacement time, which means there goes my car fund. So, I may end up at Tech with parking and no car, worst case.

If you've come looking for a rant, you won't find one. It's not worth working a fire into my writing over pitiful topics. Anyways, the news lot for whenever it's been since the last real post:

Honda called me back about the other CRV, so I might be going by to take a look at it sometime starting next week. I'll probablly be asking up more hours at the UPS store given that no one else seems to want them as I'd originally anticipated, so I'll take the work, and use it to suppliment my earnings from my uncle. Hope we find a bigger priced task though, that'd brighten my days.

I've apparently hit the penultimate chapter of La Pucelle after about 20 ish hours of gameplay. Something about this worries me insomuch as that it's alledgedly a 100+ hours of gameplay game, but unlike Suikoden, that's counting all the sidestuff I guess. Either way, they've pulled out all the stops. Every single thing that they revealed at the start has come to be true no matter how much you wished the other way. At the moment I'm down my 3 strongest storyline characters for various reasons. Oh well, there isn't a item world this time around, but there is a dark world which is roughly the same, somewhat. It doesn't power my items though, I do that by sacraficing converted monsters, but that's a tale for another day (yeah yeah, I will talk about Pucelle and Disgaea someday). At least I know that I get to make Eclair better, I really think her other appearance is better, and I'm glad to learn that I'll finally get it.

The X-Box is at last on its way in for repairs, some $91 plus shipping to do it though. Goddamn Microsoft, I'd expect my Snes to fry after 24 hours, but these next gens should have a bit more durability than that, I know the PS2 has survived much longer with no adversity. Ah well, it gets another year of Warranty when it returns, and I'll actually be able to play without it seizing up on me too, hurrah. I've gotta say, it's impressive to know that everything about how the X-Box f's up has an outlet. The number of languages on the Error Screen, the colors and durations of those colors of the light, and a location and value of an error number on that screen. It honestly worries me to think that there is that much that can go wrong to have that much means of relaying it.

Car hunting didn't really go so great, the Matrix is still a possibility, but then again, but it and the CRV-LX (aka, not ass-reamingly expensive model) do not have anti-lock brakes. Although that's nothing really new to me, the van certainly doesn't have it, it's certainly a saftey feature at the top of my list. That and having a airbag would be nice given the number of idiots on the road. Hell, I'd love to get a manual tranmission vehicle so I have better control over the shifting of my car, and because it'll cost me about $700-$1000 less. Either way, Matrix or CRV, my vehicle gets weaker. The van at least is a 6 Cylinder, the others are just 4.

Aisheteruze Baby is a great anime. Definately not of genre of the more action less romance ones that I have been watching, and that's a very nice departure. Ep 10 hangs it with a nice preview that has Jiaz and I both thinking, which is a good thing given the blandness of summer, I'll be brain dead by the time Tech starts again. Damn you Jiaz and you summer school.

Alright, it's well past time for calling it a night, 11 am Java work tomorrow and all.

...to the dark night exeunt...

(Rant when it's not 3AM, bloody brothers using my cpu, keeping me up just to check my torrents)

Going looking at cars again tomorrow. David tells me that AJC cars has a listing for a rather inexpensive 2004 Matrix, so that may end up being what I get, I'll fill ya'll in when I get back.

And for the record, I didn't read Time's article on Blogs yet, so I can't supply you all with the blips I found interesting, cause I needed something to read over breakfast, so I'll see about getting it up by tomorrow evening.

So, I'm taking a rather difficult break for Aishiteru ze Baby, which is an adorable anime Jiaz has me watch. Yeah, Jia, that's your cue to chat "crack" several times.

Earlier in the week my mother and I swung by CD Warehouse so while she picked up some odd 5 cd's (including Matrix: Revolutions and Matrix:Reloaded) I got myself They Might be Giants's Apollo 18 and Jason Mraz's CD. Apollo 18 is a great set of classic tracks and Jason Mraz is, at least within my group of friends, practically a sing-along album, at least for some of his songs, and I love the rest. So what can I say.

In an update to the Keira Knightly news of last post, Parade did an article on her as well, and disclosed that she had been in a movie called Thunderpants. Yes, that's seriously the title, and yes, the topic of the movie is about a young boy with a gastrointestinal disorder that gives him near constant flatulence. And there's something about him joining Nasa, but I was only read the description by my father, so I can't say I know the full story.

Either way, other scary news, if you search for "actors database", voice actors beats out the internet movie database on Google.

On Sunday, the family went to BestBuy where Ian got WarioWare for the Gamecube, David picked up I am a Robot's only album (good stuff), and I got the soundtrack to SSX3. A good Cd, not all the best songs IMHO, but a good variety selection. No Caesers, no I am a Robot (though David has that covered). There is the Basement Jaxx song I love though, so that's nice. Also, there's a very kawaii (I should be shot) mini mini poster of Allegra in a demi-anime style. Allegra isn't my favorite character, but I'm not going to complain.

I didn't get the internship, which means I'm back to hunting. It's a shame, I'd have liked the $10 an hour, however the job would've been even more mind numbing that Java. Sheer spreadsheet filling, internet research crawling, and other grunt work. And should I have finished that, Marketing gets me as their slave next. Oh well, I didn't get the job, I'll just go back to hunting and so that'll be that.

Yay, I managed to crash the computer, so that means that since I'm redoing the post it'll actually be short and pointed, what a rare change eh?

Alright, the nitty gritty, last night I saw Chronicles of Riddick with Kyle and D'Oraz, and after the AJC's F rating I wasn't excepting much, and that's certainly what we got. The breakdown.

Intro: The beginning is the first of three critical points in a movie, the other two being the Climax (there's wasn't really one in Riddick), and the ending (which'll get addrtessed further down), and it really doesn't do anything special. In fact, if you've seen the preview, you know the opening.

Ending: It isn't. Plain and simple. The ending doesn't resolve, it doesn't finish, it doesn't conclude. And subsequently, it doesn't satisfy the moviegoer.

Action: For an action movie, there isn't a whole lot of this, but not really a lack either. And for once, the lack of a dearth is a shame, because the action is reminiscient of the seizure. The action, set in muted colors when Riddick is fighting in the dark, is always punctuated by wild flashes of light which, while understandable for the circumstances (ie, guns being fired in the dark), render the entire sequence nigh unwatchable.

Actors: I'm not really a Vin Disel person, he doesn't really have the right voice most of the time in my opinion, but perhaps that's just me. Alexa Davalos plays female lead, and that shows how low the movie makers had to go. She's a French actress who has never been in a movie save for The ghost of F. Scott Fitzgerald and apparently played a character named Gwen in a few episodes of Angel.

Music: Uhhh...I think I can recall all of two background songs in the entire movie, none of which were any good. Then there's the music for the credits, which I hung around just long enough to figure out the name of the female lead (cause, as noted above, I had no clue who she was, since I've never watched Angel or The ghost of F. Scott Fitzgerald, but the abysmal music for the credits didn't keep me any longer than gazing at the actor listing and I walked out to avoid any serious mental damage. I'm not certain that there were any more than the two songs I heard, but either way, the music was no redemption.

Wild Card: Aka, the point where a half-assed movie can redeem itself and make its mark. Riddick doesn't. It has perhaps a dozen cute, if predictable, quips, but I certainly don't think anyone attends movies just for the dialogue (kinda defeats the point of a movie anyways), especially not ones voiced by the gruff Vin Diesel. Otherwise, I must say. If I'm subjected to the image of Riddick either donning or doffing his goggles, I may flip out.

All that aside. In answer to my own question as to what role I knew Keira Knightly (Guinevere of the upcoming King Arthur movie) from, the answer is female lead of Pirates of the Carribean, which is what I was thinking of. Those she apparently also was one of Padme's handmaidens in Episode I and a role in Bend it Like Beckham. Shrug, I don't remember the actresses in Pirates, not with Depp frontlining.

All from me for the day.

Alright, so after a 11:00 call from the Honda place (name omitted for everyone's sake) by a Brian, my mother decided that today would be a good day to go look at Hondas there, since David's Civic SI needed an oil change as well. So, we got there, and they said that Brian wasn't here today (odd enough eh?). So we walked around the used car lot and looked at the CRV's, and everything they had has beige interior. Now, why the Salesman with us was saying that "Beige is just 2 steps away from social security" I'll concede that I don't really normally oppose beige. Hell, my van is beige interior and I kind of like it. But Honda, they've got a special kind of beige. They've got the kind of beige that you'd get if you puked after too many undercooked brownies (Hopefully, I can avoid such analogies in the future, we'll see), it's just a nauseatingly weak bridge between brown and tan, and it sucks. That said, I test drove one of them anyways. Fine vehicle, though the parking break wasn't very cooperative, drives similar to the van. Basically that, this is not an SUV or a Van feel to it. I then backed back into the spot I took it out of (and everyone thinks that they never let you even move the cars near other cars, *shrug*) then went looking around some more. We were told that Brian was there today, and after a long long wait they got him. So we went around back and found two 2002 CRV's, gray interior, one LX one EX. Now, since I'm certain that dilineation is lost on most, here's how it breaks down. The LX is the base model, coming in Front Wheel Drive, the EX is the more premium model, coming in Front Wheel or 4 Wheel with the following nicities added: Cd player is a 6 disc, Sunroof, Alloy Wheels, Tinted Windows. So, we asked for the specifics on those, and Brian came back to tell us that the LX was tied up in paperwork being a recently repossed vehicle. So we sat down to haggle over the EX. My mother said 14,500 including tax tags and title, so Brian took that number back, talked to the person, and came back saying too low, 18,000. To which my mother responded by saying that we could get a new CRV for that price. Brian went back, and came back saying that the car would be Honda Certified (trademark)(7 years Powertrane, 12 months non) but that he could offer us, and he threw in a Kelley Blue Book quote, 18,550 (Kelley Blue Book quotes it as 18,533 for the record, though he'd used different options to price it up a bit to make it look like we were saving, or so it seems) or 19,900 with Certification, both those not including tax, tags, title, or documentation. My mother said too high, Brian went back to haggle, and she turned to me with "Didn't the number start out lower?" Which was true, typically haggling goes in a progression towards the middle. Brian brought out Chad, who was alot more confrontation, responding to my mother's we could buy a new one with, "Then buy a new one", and then accomplishing absolutely because he just repeated step one over, by telling Brian to take her 14,500 quote as a drive off and then left. Brian just shrugged and said that sometimes he's baffled by his co-workers, and went back. The price stayed the same, Chad came back and did nothing again, so we left. Fair enough, a New 2004 EX is about 25,000. But this was a 2002 EX, with 43,000 miles on it. Yes, almost 50,000 miles in the space of two years. The van barely has 115,000 and it's an 89. Oh well, I'd prefer an LX anyways, assuming it ever gets out of paperwork.

So, dear friends, if you know of vehicle capable of transporting me and my 6'4" self and my bass within the following parameters, let me know.
Vehicle cannot be an SUV, I'd like to spend my pocket cash on gas as little as possible without having to not drive.
Vehicle cannot be a truck, because that, I'll tell you up front, cannot transport my bass.
Civics, Camrys, Volkswagon Beetles, all do not have the size for the bass. The latter is just too small, the formers have shallow trunks.
Within roughly the price above.

Because the sad fact it, the van will not survive the highway well enough to be used at Tech, especially with the way it doesn't retain coolant.

Just one of those before going to bed after watching a few episodes of anime posts.

Yeah, I applied for an internship at the workplace of D'Oraz's mother, interview went well. Talked to a gentleman of similar personality followed by the other major play, a short female, Chattahoochee class of '96, married to a Tech grad, so hopefully I'll hear back that I got the position, elsewise I'll be back up job searching over in the new EB section on Medlock. Nothing of great note to report otherwise.

In other news, to drop our insurance payments, my mother signed me, herself, and my father up for a Defensive Driving Course through the AARP at the NE Spruil Oaks library. Two 4 hour classes, the first of which was today. Now, note the organization. What I failed to note when she first mentioned it, is that it's actually a driving course for those aged 50+, but either way I'll get the benefit. I'm not the youngest either, there's another 5 or so High Schoolers in it as well. Either way, it's kinda amusing. We did a reaction time exercise; a street-scene picture with the numbers 1 through 14 jumbled throughout it. We had 10 seconds to get as far as we could. Of course only the high schoolers and I finished it all. Then we did it again, and saw inprovement in those who could. Then we did it backwards, myself and another finished in less than half the time. Oh well, I'll be old and deaf and blind someday. I'd say that someone could save this and send it to me then, but I know I'd be far too blind to see it anyways, so I'm safe either way. Hah.

Paradigm shifts in Java are a pain, but a part of the system. It really does suck to have to totally reconfigure the date entry system though. Going from a SQL serving interface to a User-side interface with conversion programs. That'll be fun.

Alright, it's resting time. Perhaps I'll figure out why my copy of Samauri Champloo crashes Windows Explorer, but I'm doubtful, at least if I click fast I can still watch it, good ep. Anyways, Night everyone.

It appears that the United States Postal Service has their own line of Tow Trucks. Well, perhaps line isn't the appropriate choice of words, I've only ever seen one (and yes, it was towing a mail van), but just spreading the word. It certainly made me laugh for a moment. Either way, the news since last time.

With the rerelease of Disgaea on the way and La Pucelle idling in my PS2 I'll be plotting a combo post for the two of them, storylines, differences and similarities, interesting things, etc. Yeah, it sounds long, but we all know it won't be, and knowing me it's a ways off in the future either way. But that's for a later date. Present events to discuss.

Compton, David, and I completed Hunters: Redeemer last night, in one go, of approximately 6 hours. Okay, I made that number up, I certainly didn't watch the time. I don't recall Hunters: Reckoning having a difficulty setting but it has been awhile. Anyways, the major difference between this sequel and the original in the series is that now you gain power through use. So Ranged weapons get stronger and larger clips with more use, you empower and gain new powers (there's an offical name but I just blanked) through usage of Conviction, and melee through melee. Either way, on easy, we accumulated close to 150 lives through completing objectives and saving innocents, which is about 5 times the number we ever earned in Reckoning (which Kyle, David, Compton, and I still haven't beaten, nor played in awhile) and about 140 more than we needed to beat the game. Up until the last level, excluding the 2 mission faileds that we recieved (not know how a stage works before hand is kinda a handicap. Note: Kill the enemies, then set the short fused explosives, makes life easier) my Avenger had not died once whereas both Compton and David had about 2 or 3 deaths under their belts (which is not a blaming thing, it's just that the bosses seemed to like to pick on weaker characters, and the first time you fight something, it's hard to know what attacks it possesses), the last stage however, cost me 4 lives. 2 Insta-gibs by meteors from the sky (originally intended for Innocents that we had to save (also where the second Mission Failed happened, failing to save enough, cause we didn't want to just run past the enemies) because I kept accidentally cast my Smite Edge (that's the word I blanked on earlier) to clear the enemies instead of grabbing out my axe and moving out of the way. And twice on the last boss because he felt I was the better target for once and hit me with a Diablo-Esce Firestorm (not insta-kill, but very very near to it, and close enough given that I was meleeing him). The other new addition is the Redeemer herself, who plays the role of annoying brat, who's allegedly 13 but doesn't look it (And by that, I do mean she looks older, go find the cover of the game yourself, you'll see what I mean). Now by annoying brat I mean the one who both starts all the trouble and then stops everyone else from making it worse and helps to solve it. In another change, instead of the animated dialogs being based on who is in the party, all the Hunters are involved, and it makes things flow with greater style, a welcome improvement.

Also saw Shrek II today and here's what I have to say. It's good but it's not great. The first movie was comedic, original, interesting. I won't say it was unpredictable, but you did walk away feeling that you'd been told a good hour and half story, even if you are like me and wanted to kill Eddie Murphy, or at least the damnable donkey. If you can't tell, not my favorite style of character, the really annoying aid to the protagonist who gets more than he deserves (if you still can't tell, I invite you to find my posts about Dobby and JarJar in the archives). Either way, if you've seen the previews, you know that Shrek II isn't quite everything the original was. Fortunately, I can say, that every movie parody you see in the trailors they doesn't involve the Red Carpet or Antonio Banderas happens in the opening and isn't somehow wedged into the story, so you can breath a sigh of relief about that. So, here goes: The Good- John Cleese lends his voice talents, that's always good. Interesting suprises, a good soundtrack, Antonio Banderas makes a good addition to the cast. A few of the twists you've come to expect. Very few catchlines. The Bad- Doesn't feel like you get a full hour and a half story this time; too much time is wasted in moments drawn out for far too long. Not nearly as much original humor, alot fewer puns. The Ugly- There's a SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE AND IT HAS PREVIEW SPACE!!

Okay. So in a bout of what I assume was madness, I decided to finally end my support of Square-Enix via payments for FFXI (no, this part wasn't the madness) and then uninstall it and finally rinse Asgard of Spyware and viruses (there's the madness). Alright, I managed to cancel my content ID after 40 minutes of playing the guessing game. Turns out they wanted the assigned number that I started with, which I guess makes sense in retrospect, but it's been a fair bit of time since I first installed the thing. With that done, I tried to run the uninstall of the program, bad idea. It took approximately 15 minutes to move 1%, so I went in and started manually deleting files. Not the best way to do thing admittedly, but I was going to be rid of it one way or another. So, I got some of it, unfortunately the rom folders (which are apparently just filled with folders filled with .DAT files) started causing problems. Namely "Error Cannot Delete File (cyclic data error)", which is something I've never even heard of before, so I moved on, figuring it was just the oddball file. No such luck, every few folders has one of these, and considering that Norton scans close to 2 million files going through this directory, I don't think I want to go through and hand delete them individually, I think I'll just have to force delete them through Command Prompt later. So, anyways, in a bout of desperation, I tried the uninstall option again. 30 minutes later it was 20% done, another 10 minutes past that and it was 14%, 5 minutes after it was 9%. So, I let it sit, and it ran into another error and undid everything it had done, reached the beginning again and pulled a critical Windows error. At this point, I have to confess, that I have no clue how Square-Enix did it. How the fsck did they take a 4 disc game (plus one for the PlayOnline view, plus one for the expansion) that comes to a grand total of roughly 1.5 gigs, that takes approximately 2 hours to install, plus 3 hours of patching (on Tech's connection) runs into all kinds of critical malfunctions when trying anything like uninstalling, and make it into a Playstation 2 game? I mean, that kind of transformation is something I'd imagine as taking several virgin sacrafices in a dark voodoo ritual.

Alright so with that not quite out of the way. I downloaded and ran Ad-aware, quashing 206 files, registries, and folders worth of dataminers and tracker, unsuprising and unworrying. However, what does bother me is that Norton Auto-Update is giving me a "Selected Groups Aborted with no Text" as to its attempts to update my virus definations, which were apparently last updated sometime in July of last year(!!). So, I still appear to have a fair amount of work ahead of me.

That aside, as a passing note to Hackers/Virus makers of the world. If your program/method is going to install fake files onto someone's computer, be reasonable. 1) Don't choose something so blatently out of place like a Microsoft file that comes as a package somewhere other than said package. 2) Make it blend in. Uncapitalized folder names are kinda a dead giveaway. Everything comes with capital letters unless it's a homebrew creation like OpenRPG. 3) Give it a reasonable name. No one would ever have an extra Microsoft Frontpage folder or worse yet, Xerox. Why the hell would a Xeros program be on someone's computer, or moreover, why would it be in Program Files?! Okay script kiddies? Get you acts together and be reasonable with these things.

Alright, since I seem to have an abundance of free time I think I'll beat out some words, especially because everything else that's text based seems to be revolting against me. Just ask D'Oraz, the resume I sent him has Georgia misspelled, twice. Sometimes I wonder why I lose my mind only when it's important. Either way, I'm functionally not employed with the UPS Store because David took my hours because mother wanted him to do so after I got a job. So he did, not inclusive of that ending clause, oh well, there's still stuff out there, I will find some, and I will buy a CRV, now just hopefully I'll get parking.

Anyways, just some discussion of the seasons animes should pass the time nicely:

Ragnarok the Animation: Well, what can I say, it's based off a MMORPG (pronounce however you choose) that I've never played, but isn't too difficult to figure out. Pretty non Ecchi, thankfully, and actually gets Subbed, which is even nicer. Characters aren't especially non-generic and the spell selection seems woefully small, for the two casters that there are. Actually the only anime I've seen that had hints of rape, and it did it in a peaceful manner (if that's possible, I was merely trying to convey that they brought out the pain of it without focusing on it sort of thing, so a delicate handling if you will). Music here isn't too fabulous, but the art is alright, though there are points that make you wonder. Characters development does appear to be somewhat happening, but the inclusion of the force that is essentially the Team Rocket of the anime isn't really a selling point, neither is Maya, although her background episode weakened that thought. Not everything makes total sense, like them doing adventures that were killing high level parties, but that's alright, it's an anime, I'll give it that. Either way, ***(*/2).

Midori no Hibi : Cindy's anime for the season. A high quality art, good music anime with good characters and it apparently at least stays with the Manga for most of it so far, or so I'm told. Slightly ecchi, but bounce-free, which actually seems like an odd balance compared to the rest of these, but it's workable. Also one of the two anime's that my little brother keeps trying to watch. Which is a shame, because I'd much rather he be watching the more child friendly ones, like Keroro Gunso or Ragnarok, though if he had to choose an ecchi, this'd be the safest I think. Overall a fabulously cute anime with good dynamics (unlike the sometimes emotionless Ragnarok) even if the cat looks kinda creepy and not really feline at all. ****(*/2).

Keroro Gunso (aka Sergeant Keroro) : Besides having an outrageous OP and ED, both of which are potentially frightening (aka, Sean, you need at least the first ep of this for special viewings to use on people, it's not Kenya, but it's a frog with an afro, at least for the ED). That said, the anime is very low ecchi, but I don't think I can call it devoid. Hangs onto a few route archetypes though, for example the main female character is the uber-athletic girl who is not in any clubs and there's another with a crush on her, but that's anime for you. Lots of Gundam references on the part of Keroro, and it has alot of sudden banners to reinforce some his statements, well done though. The actual in show music isn't quite so much, but then again, it takes some getting used to the frog's voice, especially his laughter. ***

Melody of Oblivion: Like Midori no Hibi, this anime actually has a relaxed opening, and it's definately a nice change of pace from the others. It's really a shame that it's only been subbed up to episode 3, but then again, that's the dynamics of the industry (if you'll allow the term), though one'd think that having 6+ groups on Naruto might be a bit much, popular or not. Oh well. Fantastic music and lovely art abound, though it is a pain not being able to name the classical songs they play because my classical music trivia knowledge has fallen that much into disarray. A true shame. ****, probably deserves another star or a half, but hard to judge this early.

Sensei no Ojikan : Kinda like the souless bastard child of Azumanga. It has roughly the same idea, following the exploits of a group of students and teacher and assorted other faculty members (this time it's a nurse, and not Kimura). In place of the Kaorin/Sakaki relationship, it's been tranferred to a male/male relation and the male-Sakaki bit is alot less shy, and a whole lot more stupid, but to each their own. Has a cutesy style of low quality art methods, including displaying the emotions of every character in characters (read it a few times, I swear it makes sense). I like the music, but it just kinda feels like a weak echo to Azumanga, cause it's really hard to follow an act like that. **(*/2).

Bakuretsu Tenchi : 4 girls of various age, 1 giant mecha, 1 giant mecha storage vehicle, 1 sports car, 1 chibi creature/laptop, 1 gang, 1 secret government/military/special interest organization, 1 anti-establishment organization, biological mutation weapons, 1 reluctant male chef. There you go, that's just about all you need to know. A fantastic OP, though I don't really love the ED the other music really compesates, and a good mix to action, paired with humor, cuteness, seriousness, mystery. You get the idea. It's a very unique anime with alot still to be unraveled, but at the pace it's going I think it'll be good. Again, wish someone was subbing it, but que sera sera I guess. ****(*/2).

Samurai Champloo : I think Jiaz said it best. Take Cowboy Bebop and replace the Jazz with Hiphop and the Bounty Hunters with Samurai swordmen. Then replace Faye with Fuu, whose has perhaps the largest eyes I've ever seen in a non-chibi and her even larger eyed flying squirrel. If you're not into the hiphop/rap scene, the music takes some getting used to, otherwise, it's great fun. Even if the subbers ride on the profane side of translation. 1 ep so far, second delayed by olympic volleyball qualifiers overtime. *****

I'll discuss Popotan after I finish it, which is some 3 eps from now. All I have to say right now is, why does Mare has a techno remix of the main theme?

dont forget about this :P

Alright, Cindy originally left me a draft here to remind me to post, and although blogger tells me that authorship will be mine, don't be suprised if it gets credited to Cindy (go go ghostwriting!). Anyways, on the penultimate day before Cindy's departure she and I took on my brother and his girlfriend Kaitlin in a DOA3 tag-team battle challenge. I guess I could've spiced up the font for that statement, but not really my style. Anyways, we ended after 23 rounds with the score 16-7 in Cindy and my favor, however the past 5 had been won by our opponents after Kaitlin discovered the art of the button smash. It was certainly an interesting event, mainly because Cindy and Kaitlin would both occasionally touch the swap button while fighting and throw their partner into battle unprepaired (and often in the lower range of life), but that's how it is usually.

End the reminder of Cindy.

That said, I just had a scary scary thought. Code Lyoko, aka the big headed kid French anime(for lack of a better word), has always been an atrocity in my mind, however, I just reevalutated the idea of a French show, and I've decided that if I could get the show in French, I would enjoy it.

Well, it is a dead dead dead day at work today, so Kyle and I are bored out of our mind. Which means I can finally catch up on some much needed blogging.

Firstly, Georgia Traffic is atrocious, nothing further needs to be said. No particular instance in mind, that's just how it is. If you've experienced it, you understand, if you haven't, I cannot convey the magnitude of the atrocity with mere words.

Secondly, people freaking confuse me. Driving into my Uncle's neighborhood to work on the Java project I passed a woman driving out with, yes I'm totally serious, a monkey on her shoulder! Okay, I don't know where to go to even buy a monkey, but moreover, why?! I mean, what does a monkey supply that a simple dog or cat doesn't? What is it that could ever possibly possess someone to go out of their way to get a creature, so genetically similar to themself, and moreover, as the realization that diseases from our own cats and dogs, one that can catch and spread, or historically has been a font for, diseases that can infect or mutate to a strain capable of infecting humans with ease. I guess there are reasons perhaps, but I don't know them, but I don't really care. However, I was also privledged to watch another driver zone out. One day, as I was approaching a neighborhood that I intended to enter on my right, another car from the neighborhood pulled up with their left turn signal turned on. I, moving at the regulated 35 mph for the road, turned on my right turn signal to demonstrate that even though I was moving slowly enough for 3 cars to pull out, I wouldn't be passing through the space that the other driver would be. Did she pull out though? No. In fact, she didn't move throughout the entire time I was approaching or when I was pulling in (which would've certified that I was indeed turning-right as my turn signal had been meant to present) or even as I drove past, in fact, she didn't move in the entire time as I drove to the end of the street. I stole a glance to my side, and she was simply sitting there, no cell phone, no ear piece, not reaching for anything, just nothing, at it both confuses and worries me.

Ah well. Let us discuss Eclipse, which is apparently a product of IBM, which impresses me. Those of you who aren't into Computer Programming can tune out until I say otherwise. Anyways, for those of you who are still with me. Eclipse is a free programming enviroment, and a rather spiffy on at that (yes, I just wanted to use the word spiffy). It automatically checks everything as you go, so if you leave off a } or a ; it'll let you know. Moreover, you can have it generate automatically (complete with Javadoc) all the getters and setters for the entire thing. Moreover, if it doesn't recoignize a statement, you can just hit two buttons and it'll suggest all the possible things you can do (declare variable, import another class, etc.) Plus, it's free, but the debug is a well worth it $30, it is a very nice Debug too.

Otherwise

Actually, that's about all I can think of to post at the moment, I'll post about the animes of the season in the future, and for those interested in my bleak academics at Tech, I think I can get some text into Melchor (if not a better layout) before the end of the week.

I find it rather interesting that Blogger gives me quick buttons for Italics, Bold, and links. But not underline. However, they do have a block quote button as well. Strangeness. Eitherway, the new layout homepage tells me that this is my two-hundred and ninety-first post.

So, today we shall tell the horror story, well it's more of a humorous thing from a spectator's standpoint, anyways, of the rookie Red Cross employees:

Alright, so last...uhh...Thursday I believe it was, my entire family did the blood giving routine. My mother and I gave together in mid afternoon cause we were free then, and my father and David gave after they got back from their respective work and school. Either way, this trip was not the pinaccle of efficiency. For those of you who haven't given, the process works in two phases. First the screening, where they check Blood Pressure, Temperature, Ask you all the questions, Heart Rate, and prick your finger to test your iron, then the part where you actually give blood.

Anyways, my screening nurse was a little old lady who did one thing at a time. Usually the younger nurses blaze through the screening; taking heartrate, temperature, and blood pressure all at once which prepairing the finger prick, but not her. In fact, she had the hardest time getting the blood from the prick into the tube, at which point she couldn't open the test tube for the blood-iron content test, so I had to reach across with my left hand (my right was the bleeding one on the table) and unscrew the top. Apparently she had similiar difficulties with my father, and he was shooting blood out (at least so much as a finger can) so she lost the gauze in her haste to change out to cleaner gloves and had to get more. And she couldn't pronounce any of the various ailments in the questions for the screening. Course there are some difficult diseases to pronounce so that's not really a fault, it's just that she tried so many times at it that it got tedious.

Either way, I think the screener that both my mother and David had was no problem, or at least not that I've heard.

So I put on the bar code saying that I hadn't done anything that might result in me contracting AIDS and then lied about it on the questions and went out to get a chair to give blood in. Matthew, another rookie, was washing down the first chair with moist towlettes, so I figured I'd just take the second, but little old screening lady insisted I take the first one once he toweled it off, while little lady woman wandered off with all the stuff he needed to do so. So I sat down, and Matthew looked around confused, it went kinda like this:
Matt: "Umm...where's your stuff."
Me: "Oh, the little old lady walked off with it, she's somewhere over there."
Matt: "I see..." and off he went to retrieve it.

Apparently the aged one did the exact same thing with my father's stuff, again prompting Matthew to have to go off after her, the way he responding to my father telling him this it seemed like it was a near constant action on her part (wandering off without giving anyone the donor's blood bag). So, usually a blood nurse can siphon two or three people at once, all they need to do is move around shaking blood bags once they've stabbed you and gotten started. Either way, when Matthew asked which arm I wanted to give out of, I let him have his choice, my first mistake. Despite the fact that I still have a tiny spot from when I gave blood last time, he couldn't find my vein. So he moved onto my left arm and eventually decided that he could see the bulging vein when he had my circulation cut off, which does help you find veins, I'll give you, as any experience Heroin addict can tell you. Matthew did not move around and help other patients (admittly there weren't any at the time cause it was just my mother, Cindy who weighs way too little to be giving, and me) he just sat there and, as my father and I put it, babysat me. However, he cut off my circulation in the process. I give blood enough without the added force of no circulation, not to mention I imagine it's hard to give blood when you don't have any in the area, as evidenced by my white hand. Apparently he kept asking my father if he was losing circulation, guess he didn't want to repeat the mistake. Meanwhile the female rookie doing my mother had already stabbed one arm and failed to find a vein, so she was working on stabbing the other. She later in the day did David and according to him, only stabbed him once, but spent a good 3-5 minutes rummaging around inside his arm trying to stick the vein. So, in the aftermath, most of my family has a bruse from the rookies, mine being the largest. I've got a nice large yellow one extending from a hands-width above where I was stuck to halfway down to my wrist. It hurts too.
Not trying to scare you all out of giving blood, just giving you something to laugh at.

Alright, a quick rant on Microsoft's X-Box. As some may know, a while back, a few months ago, David left the X-Box on. Alright, David saved his game and left to do something with his girlfriend, presuming that someone else would see that it had saved and turn it off. Well, no one did, and the X-Box overheated. The typically green glow of the machine turned red, it informed us to contact technical support, and it wouldn't give back the disc it held. Anyways, eventually we persuaded Tech Support to listen to us and finally I got around to actually calling them, whereupon I was told that it should sit on carpet, but rather "atop a shelf". Alright, interestingly enough, this seems to have worked. Somewhere better 3 months of idleness and placing it on top of a former debate tub seems to have given the green machine the will to live again, at least, it hasn't been freezing for the two games I've tested so far.

Alright, so moving on, I'm going to rant about Omega, cause he pisses me off. I was testing to see if Dead or Alive 3 was going to freeze the machine, as it had been doing when the X-Box was on the carpet, so I just went into Story Mode on Hard and quickly blazed through as a random character, German High School Dropout Karate Uniform Wearing Karate fighting girl. Anyways, for those who don't know, DoA3 is a pure combat fighting game. There are no weapons, no projectiles, nothing but a life bar and 4 buttons. Punch, Kick, Grab, and Free. Free technically is a "do-nothing" button, but you can hold it down to guard. Anyways, Omega is not the proper End Boss for a game where you can't even choose to jump rather than Clockwise Z-Dodge every time (ie, sometimes double UP merits a Z-Dodge clockwise, othertimes it gets you to jump, at least versus Omega, otherwise you don't even have the option of a jump). Anyways, as I was saying. Omega is a bad bad decsion of a boss. Firstly, he has a weapon, secondly it's a damn big weapon, thirdly, he has unblockables, magic; basically a full assortment of things that while you expect a last boss to have, he shouldn' have all of them at once. So, the rundown of the Omega issue.

Firstly, his stage: It's a small ruined battlefield, engulfed in flames, which means that the stage blurs slightly just about every three second, which is less a cool effect, and more a eye damaging annoyance. There are a few random wooden ruins (destroyed karts or Japanese wooden gateways it looks like) on the field as well.

Secondly, his repotoire: Alright, his attacks are, if you consider the stage to be of distance 1.5X, you starting a distance of X away from him:
Physical
1)A Linebacker shoulder charge, knockback of distance X
2)Spinning his blades before him in a whirlwind, knockback of .5X and slight damage even if you don't touch him.
3)Overhead swing, knockback of .5X.
4)Grab your head, swing you around a few times, slam you on the ground .5X away, massive damage, close to 1/4 life.
5)Spins blade behind himself and either a) does 2) or a 5 hit blade combo for X knockback.
Additionally 5) is unbreakable. Although he spins his blade behind him, any attacks made against him neither prevent his attack nor deal any damage.
Magical (all three of these attacks have the same leadup, meaning you don't know which he'll cast):
1) Fires a volley of 1-6 magical bolts. Yes, you read that right, not only does he have a weapon when no one else does but he has ranged attacks on top of that. The bolts can be avoided only if you are lying on the ground, which occurs within 3 hits of the bolts, so fortunately, no matter how many he fires you can only be hit by 3 or the number he fired, whichever is less, but it always leaves you on the ground. I haven't tried holding free to guard against them, but somehow I doubt it'll work. You can Z-Dodge around them, however if he's casting great than 2 odds are strongly against the X-Box controller responding fast enough to let you avoid them all.
2) Launches a line of fire which he them sweeps across the screen, starting from one side and moving across to the other. I've yet to find a way to dodge this attack save for attacking Omega before he can get it off which is hard as well. Knocks you down.
3) A shockwave of wind, X knockback. Can be dodged if you miraculously manage to jump at the right time.
Note: All his magical attacks are effective up to a range of the size of the screen, so no good backing away.
To make things even better. Everytime he gets knocked down, there is an automatic shockwave as per Magic 3) and when the it reaches the end of the screen he is standing again. Also, Omega is immune to grapples, he takes damage from a grab as if it were a punch, but nothing more.

David and I have beaten the game with every character on Easy, but nothing on higher difficulties. I lost 50 straight battles to Omega before giving up.

In other news, this new Blogger interface is kinda scary. I don't think I need a giant warning sign with an exclamation mark just sitting there refreshing itself till it finishes for a single post created, seems like a waste of someones bandwidth, but that's all I have to say. That aside, I've been looking through Wizard's Advanced Psionics book for 3.5 Edition that Kyle let me borrow. I must say, I really like the way they changed something. It's certainly not flawless but they've made alot of progress I feel. I enjoy the Psions now being based only on Intelligence, it just seemed wrong for this giant hulking brute to be able to take someone down with the power of his 4 intelligence just because he was an Egoist (Strength focused Psion), but that's been fixed. The Psionic Warrior now kinda plays like a Paladin again, which is alright, I mean, they needed some kind of spell determining stat, now they've got it. The Wilder seems like it'd be an assload of extra work for everyone to keep track of, but useful in a clinch. The new base-classed Psi-Knife really seems alot better in terms of reconciling the dual wield ability and changing sword sizes and the formerly overpowered stat damaging abilities, but still a good class, they didn't beat it into uselessness at all, still a very powerful class, and one of the few pseudo-magical-esce classes that can operate without magic, or the pseudo-magic that is psionics as the case may be. The Prestige classes are changed to match the new paradigm for Psions and seem to do so well. I haven't finished looking through everything but I still dislike that all powers do a fixed damage for Psions rather than the standard Xdice/level for Magic-uses, but oh well, the Augment concert really allowed them to slim the lines. My only two complaints so far are a) they were lazy and reused the Sever the Tie picture (a badass picture for a spell that would've been cool had it been greater than second level) for Energy Ball (which is also kinda a complaint, that they have all these amorphous "Energy" spells, it gets a little haggard trying to figure out when you can cast what to do what). The only other is that, b) the spell Deja Vu is reprinted on sequential pages. It's almost like a bad joke, giving me Deja Vu over a spell with the name and properties of a case of Deja Vu. Ahh, dear irony, though art a bitter draught.

Okay, so after a week of always coming back from Java between the hours of 10:40 and 11:20 in the Webster van, I have come to the follow conclusion: 99X is only getting worse. I mean, they say they do an hour of music, but in 4 days worth of 20 minutes a day travel, aka, 1.333333(repeating) hours of music, I've heard, fully, 99X play 7 songs, which were actually 4 cause I heard 3 songs twice in all that time. What's even worse, is the commericals are now full-on crap. I mean, not relatively crappy, not lacking in one aspect, these most putrid pieces of advertising ever to hit the airwaves are absolutely horrendous. I mean, stupid premises, idiotic means of presenting them, terrible music choice, and abhorrent sound effects. I don't listen to the Braves' games on AM 750 because all the commercials are one play or another trying to get me to buy paint, or jewelry or something. Same reason I don't respect anything Neil Bortz says, political leanings aside, because all his commercials are him trying to get me to buy a bed, and personal endorsements, while annoying to begin with, should never be run during your own show. I mean, sure you'll have the greatest population of listeners interested in you, because they came to hear your show, but that's not something to be exploited, that and your voice is annoying when you don't get the break to escape it. 99x does the same thing, but those were actually kinda good compared to the late night abominations they put out. I guess I'll have to reprogram the quick frequencies so I can get to NPR with having to hold the adjust button for the 9.7 Hz I need to get there. Their latenight is good, and commercial free except for Beg-fest, and even then it's relatively free because they figure no one's listening anyways.

Pehaps Titles work now?

Interesting a new format to Blogger, certainly a change.

Anyways, just a quick poem from Bloom County:

I would never cry if I did find a blue whale in my soup,
Nor would I mind a porcupine inside a chicken coup.
Yes, life is fine when things combine, like pork in beef chow mein.
But, Lord, this time I think I mind, they've put acid in my rain.

Biting Irony. Despite my grades in the class, I get to get up early to program Java for my Uncle. Moreover, despite being family he's paying me more $/hour than the UPS store currently is, though perhaps there's been a mysterious payraise since the whole Christmas ass out of the fryer incident.

Ah well, I'm overdue for sleep.

Well, I hope everyone had a fun and productive 5th of May. On a retrospective note, I hope all my comrades had a good May Day as well.

I managed to scratch the side of the newer of the two Webster family vans pulling into the garage, I swear that my father takes up too much space with the Accord. I am, or have been, very good a pulling really close to the far wall, but I guess after a long day of work I misjudged the angle, Oh well. I'm now "Not allowed to park [that] van in the garage anymore." Whatever, I'll just park it on the driveway when I take it and let her pull it in, one less stressor a day I guess.

Alright, I rescind my previous statement. Well, you know, whatever the version of a forced rescind after being terribly corrected would be.

Anyways, just got back from the Super Walmart. It's a scary place. Loads of employees doing inventory and restocking today apparently. Either way, the things encountered there made me question the future of mankind. Somehow I feel that "Ketchup Blast" Pringles are an omen of worse things to come. When you reach the point where you have a potato chip flavored like a condiment, it's just bad. Also, the middle ground is getting increasingly more difficult. For Pace salsa you can have your pick of medium, mild, or the legendary extra mild. It also appears that Disney has teamed up with Kellogs (or vice versa depending on your take of the issue) so there is now a Disney Princesses Cereal. I just hope it doesn't go any further than that. I'd hate to see every new Disney movie be transformed into a cereal, or worse yet, to see two seperate Disney mergings get fused. I can picture it now: Disney Kellogs Square-Enix present some game wherein the protagionist gets to join forces with the heroes of Final Fantasies IX and XII alongside some of your favorite Disney heroes like Mickey and Simba as well as Kellogs' fine additions to the crew. The fiesty Captain Crunch and the mighty Tony the Tiger. Just think, Huey Luey and Dewy could run the weapon store and then Snap Crackle and Pop could handle the item store.

Well, back to removing the crap from 10th grade from my bedroom. Melchor'll get a few updates now that grades have gone live. *Angry Mumbling*

Just for the record Ting oogles is dangerous diction. Remember that oogling is was Jefe does to women, and being oogles of fun therefore is a bit worrysome, no?

So, I was given the privledge of going with my mother to take my brother and his girlfriend to their Junior Prom at the Atlanta Zoo. Before we left my mother had mentioned hearing of an accident at Peachtree Industrial and 285. Apparently said accident did not end happily for all involved, as we were forced to turn off onto 285 in the opposite direction of the one in which we'd have liked to take because of a police barricade. There was nothing barricided other than the road itself being examined by two policemen with measuring tape. But of course, that couldn't be the only highlight of such a trip, no no, fate would never have that. Instead I got the rare 'treat' of watching someone, in what I hope will be a unique experience, at a GA toll booth in the "50 cents only" lane get out of their car to make change with the vehicle behind them, giving me no choice but to believe that what they say about over half of all americans being functionally illiterate is true.

That said, we can move onto the afformentioned disturbance that bothers me. So, here, I offer the fastest and simplest way I can. Search Google for the phrase Penis Envy, click on the second link from the top, read it. When you get to the "the saga continues", brace yourself for graphics of a phallic nature, the second of which is the true cause of my disturbance. As for why, I'll put that in white so a not to spoil the suprise, unless you do want to highlight it yourself and spoil it yourself, so here goes: What bothers me is, of course, the second of the dildo images, Joan of Arc. I can understand the greater meaning of the entire show and the subsiquent displays, but that one bothers me. Jeanne was a mere 19 at the age of her death, a chaste girl who heard the voice of God. I quote from a biography the following "Much was made of her insistence on wearing male clothing. She was told that for a woman to wear men's clothing was a crime against God. Her determination to continue wearing it (because her voices hadn't yet told her to change, as well as for protection from sexual abuse by her jailors)" and rest my case as to distrubance there.

There you have it. More on the adventurers of my family later.

But before I go, my last odd statement on life in general, again keeping with the whole Prom thing. Here goes: Anyone who gets laid on Prom night obviously did not dance hard enough.

Again with the Blogs responding to Ting, so here goes. The Closet eh? I was just trying to remember the name of the French film that I got to see only the second half of (missed the first half to AP Lit testing). I even had a profile statement expressing my sheer amazement that the google search: french movie condom factory pretends gay returned nothing unsightly. Stupendous coincide, now if only I could find a good way to get my hands on a copy of it. So, that all said, what'd you think of the movie, deary?

On the note of disturbing things, I need to do some more research into the life of Joan of Arc before I can form this thought and hopefully get rid of it. Accursed Mightygirl and her links. Alas, now I am distraught.
Note to self so I remember why this all disturbs me, "Penis envy."

This won't be the full blown post that I had intended, not that many of you readers really want to hear Colin on a strategy RPG tangent anyways, those games are so crappy, or so I'm told, I'm still a fan, but as I said, that's totally not the intent of this one here.

Anyways, looking and listening around has shown me that just about everyone got a piece of the wonderful e^(theta * i) + i sin theta so I say that everyone should mark their calendars for April 15, birthday of the good man Euler himself (that's pronounced Oiler btw, I case I haven't gotten a good chance to yell at you recently about it and you've forgotten). Notably it is also the anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic and the death of Abraham Lincoln, but I say that we shouldn't allow such things to interefere with the great glory of a Mathematician.

Just think, I'm in college, I've got well more than a great excuse to get drunk, but I'm not. Damn Inhibitions, underagedness, Java homework, oh, and rationality, like anyone could imagine me drunk anyways. It's never going to happen, I've got enough troubles walking as is.

Just taking a moment to gloat about beating Nathan in Cribbage.

Pity that it was such a marginal win that there can't really be any pride in it. Hehe.

More substancial posts will be had later, when it isn't 3 am.

Alright, to start with, anyone know what the average age of Blogger users is? Cause I thought it was younger than 21, but perhaps Blogger people know something I don't. I ask because of this message on the main page:

"Some of us Blogger folks are going to SXSW and to kick things up a notch we're serving up free drinks and t-shirts Monday evening from 6:30-8:00 on March 15th over at Club De Ville in Austin, TX. We provide beer and schwag to our users because we care."

I added the bolding myself so you could see what I was talking about.

Warning: Colin is sick, sore throat, cough, etc. So a mix of allergies and perhaps some minor infection of the sinus, just be forewarned.

I think next time I come home I'll move all my home .mp3s to Asgard so that I can expand my music selection at school past Anime, DDR, and misc extra. Now it'll be even more anime, death metal, metal blade.

So, I present the "Lesson of the Week:"
When collecting items of Earth-shatterning importance, like say the powerstones to an ancient art of magic that could destroy the world, or the keys to a viral plague, that come in sets of 4, do not put them all in one bag, it is bad from and generally an unwise idea. Remember, easy to be transported also means easy to steal.

Just a couple of directed comments to various friends of mine (most of whom likely don't even know that I still update), and yes, dear readers, I swear that I shall eventually add some links to this so you can figure out who it is that I am talking to, perhaps, 'till then I suggest Jiaz's blog as a nexus to figure out who exactly it is that I'm speaking to.

First order of business; Jefe, it's Nathan and I. That said, I'm now aware that I misspelled 'cause' at the start of the previous post, and also that technically the end of the previous paragraph here ends in a preposition, which'd be another of those grammatical no-no's. Then, mmm...resisting the power of burning, Jiaz, you sense the powers of Project Chibi at work?

Third, Ting, aren't you worried that the athletes have had the reciprocation of your thoughts. I mean, if my roommate is anything to judge by, those who build muscles primary have little actual food on hand, especially meat. Just beware. And that said, you might want to check your coding on your later links, they seem to have http:// repeated a few extra times.

The previous thing I just never published caus I had hoped to do something with it, but as all can see, it took the path of the post before it in falling short of accomplishing anything. I figure above all else I think I need to bump that Piers Anthony post slightly further down the page. Anyways, I did start the post before this one, the March 8 one before Jefe posted his little swipe, but that's okay, we're all friends here, right?

That all said, the world is again beginning to worry me. Cindy and I, during break, stopped by at a CVS so I could be proven wrong in a bet I don't recall making (nor had what I said been made into a bet, do I recall making it so specific as it was so that I'd lose), either way. On the way out we were confronted with a conundrum. The store has only one entrance, a pair of side by side single sliding doors, kinda like Wal Mart. Confused yet? I mean that there were two sliding doors side by side, and once inside, there was another pair; typical right? Enter on one side, leave on the other? Apparently that wasn't made too clear here, as Cindy and I looked were we stalled for a moment by the fact that both of the doors that we needed to immediately pass through were marked "Not an Exit", or whatever it is such doors say with the red circle with a diagonal slash. Of course, I do presume this was a mistake (possibly a broken door had been replaced with a spare, but backwards) since there were no other exits. I know for a fact we wouldn't have been the first people to oppose the writing on the wall cause there wasn't a pile of bones anywhere in the store. Okay, so perhaps I'm making a big deal out of an oddity, perhaps I am, but it's things like that that start to worry me. If one is going to mark something as "Not an Exit" there had better damned well be an exit someplace else people will start making one. It is like the door on the Textile building that not only proclaims "Not an Entrance" but is regularly propped open because apparently it locks automatically if it closes. Conflict of interests here perhaps?

Rockapella was a good show. I enjoyed it, and Jiaz's nice seats, which tells me I need to definately get a couple rush tickets to some good shows next semester, because invariably they are rather nice seats, even if the Ferst Center line tends to be massive. It was a different style from going to see the Mikado, so I won't try comparing the two. They sang a good number of songs, despite the long opening act sequence (Emory all-guys acapella group (3 songs), Gatech all-girls acapella group (2), Gatech guys acapella group (2), Gatech guys and girls combined (Evanescence, rather well done too). Rockapella did mostly classics, a few originial pieces and all the member specifics (each person has a song they chose or specialize, or whatever, they did all of those (though the vocal percussion guy doesn't have one). The bald guy wasn't too fabulous, but he seemed to be a decent songwriter. Personally, I knew Carmen Sandiago and Folgers had to be preformed, as well as a couple of the 80's song they came to fame through, but the lack of any of They Might be Giants (Putting on the Ritz, Istanbul), Build me up Buttercup, Ants Marching (I don't think they regularly do this, but I think they do it well anyways). House of the Rising Sun really made it good, but it came at the start when they could have done anything and I'd have been alright with it. Zombie Jamboree gets a thumbs down from me because I don't like the mutant calypso style that it involves, nor the song itself.

Right, okay. Trying not to let the blog fall into destitution and emptiness despite the new subtitle. So, alright, here goes:

Cause the post for yesterday (which I'm technically still living since I've merely not gone to bed, as opposed to having awoken this early the next day) is really bothering me. I've decided that I can conjure up another blog on some manner or another, at least I hope so. So, cross your fingers dear reader, as I attempt to find something, or not. I'll leave this here to remind me to post later, but for now, it's sleepy time so I can finish the afforementioned essay.

Okay. Admittedly I should be working, but goddamn it! I think I might want to do On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony, assuming I can find a good synopsis to refresh my memory and some credible book critiques on it. Okay, I knew that Disney was acting to perhaps turn the book into a movie; which worries me, because within the first two chapters the main character kills Death and thus takes his place and then proceeds to collect his first soul from a female who killed in a car accident when the windshield of her car impaled her. That wasn't the bad part, it was the detail in describing how said mass of glass had punctured into her breast.
The next chapter he goes to collect the soul of a man who has tainted himself by experimenting with black magic who asks Death for him to wait a moment longer so he can complete a spell that will allow him to transfer half his sins to his daughter so that he won't have to go to Hell. He promises Death his daughter in exchange (who then promptly arrives naked on the scene, coming from the shower, sees Death, and goes to get prettied up). Unfortunately for the girl, her father doesn't know that she was mind-raped (actual words from the book) by a demon and so his burden of sin will send her over to the side of evil in terms of purity, but that is not an issue until later. Sounds like a great start to a Disney movie eh?

Anyways, all that aside. I stumble upon Piers Anthony's site, hoping to find something of usage, perhaps links or something, and instead find.

Warning, Dangerous to read material ahead. Colin takes no responsability for any of it, at all.

"I trash most spam, but one amused me. It said (I'm cleaning up the language) that the average girl's rectum can stretch up to three inches in diameter, while the average horse's member is five inches in diameter. Apparently the site shows stallions painfully buggering girls. It says I won't believe it. Right on: I don't believe it. If I were a stallion, my sexual interest would be in the vagina of a mare in heat, not the rectum of a hominid. But each according to his taste. Not directly related: there was news of the discovery of 425 million year old fossil they named Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which translates into "Astounding Swimmer with a Large Penis." Maybe he needed to swim well enough to catch a female with a small rectum. "

Near Immediate Edit
Okay, a few quick things to add before I decide to cap this topic and try and find another book:
Firstly, there apparently was a comic book that was started on the book, before going bankrupt.
Check it out, it worries me as well
And Piers Anthony also apparently wrote a book...well, I'll just copy paste it and let it sit:
Other Works:
Pornucopia (1989) is a pornographic fantasy.

Yeah
.........

Look! Colin's still alive! Woo!

Alright, the brief Christmas blog.

In addition to the usual Gift cards and Cash I also recieved a Printer, two pairs of sunglasses (one of which I brought to Tech), a blue jacket (not especially stylish, though it'd be a rare day when Colin pays great attention to style), a bowl (the shallow variety, you know the kind your parents use to keep old matchboxes or coins or keys, that sort of thing, for, actually, basically the same reason, to keep my keys and pens and everything else I usually splay out on the counter), I also got Neverwinter Night's Gold (essentially the original + Shadows of Unrentide (if that's how it's spelled), but not Hordes sadly) and have beaten the SoU campaign with Maudraum Vi~~~ something (Human Paladin w/ the Valiant Set from the Elven Crypt, black skin and dark hair), and am at the end of Chapter 2 of the original campaign with Loriel Oakwarder (Elven NE Rogue going Dual Wield), there'll be more detail about games in a later post (ie: not one taking place past 3:00 AM (I'd add in the morning, but that's just screaming superfluous redundency), also got Suikoden III which I've yet to have the time to play and Disgaea which I've put a bit of time into. Finially, I got a little kitten that is made of rabbit fur (though I'm told they didn't kill the rabbit for the fur, so my father and I are betting that they killed it for the feet and took the fur as well), it's pretty soft, but the fur seems layered oddly. Oh, and the standard stocking stuffers: LED flashlight, lifesavers, tic tacs, that stuff.

Well, that's pretty much the thrills of Christmas (I did have the largest box of anyone (that blue jacket came in a massive box)), so I'll hopefully have a nice blog/critique later detailing Ratchet and Clank and the Sequel, Disgaea, Unreal 2 and XMP, NWN and SoU, to the extents that I've played them. Melchor'll be getting touched to talk about Lab Practicum, First semester Finals and the aftermath and the current semester outlook, D&D (yes, that old thing) ought to be seeing a few more Legends that I thought up in the time of a few classes and hopefully I'll eventually get motivated to turn my Prism Gatech site into something beside a completion grade for a past CS class.

Oh yeah, I need to do a New Year's Blog (not that I made any resolutions) and talk about some other games. D&D Heroes, SSX3, Double Dash, as well as a bundle of movies that I've seen recently (or, not really, or not at all, I've not seen any movies save LotR and Treasure Island recently).

Fear not! There shall be a Colin Christmas Blog, mostly because those are really freaking easy, but as for now, it's sleepy time cause work hast totally worn me down. It's pretty much David and I holding the fort, Cathy's in for her bits, but Kristjan and Val and Bill are on vacation (and Bill was sick all last week) and Nick is just MIA and likely vacation as well.

As for the previous post, the double 8ths don't appear on the posting screen but a squares whereas the single 8ths did, and then it reversed going into the actual blog, interesting. I still need a function editor for this, but that's a whole 'nother game to be playing.

Alright, I think I can manage a semi-coherent blog at the moment *crosses fingers*, though I seem to have misplaced most of the mini-notes I make from time to time to try and keep my thoughts in some sort of order (or just keep them at all);


"It's called efficiency, look it up."
"Wouldn't it be faster for you to just tell me?"
"Ah, see? Now you're catching on."

As usual, don't expect most paragraphs to flow together, they are a bundle of thought stretch out over a vast amount of time.

Anyways, apparently Pottery Barn Kids makes mini appliances for kids. Trust me on this statement, I packed some, umm, like a week ago. (There was a really long pause here that I attribute to watching West Wing with Yo Yo Ma which I'm only watching because I've settled into blogging and I don't want to get up to go turn it off) (Long pause continues, blending Bach and dramatic flashbacks is a great way to distract me apparently, that and some great pyschological analysis stuff that I could very easily see David doing). Anyways, they had a mixer, a blender, and a coffee machine, complete with the everlasting phrase ~"enjoy the thrill of pretending to brew morning coffee." ?ô?ô?ô?ô ♫♫♫♫ <--- Damn, the double 8th notes doesn't work here in blogger.

Anyways, speaking of appliances, anyone want to tell me what the hell an osterizer is? If it helps, they apparently have on, off, and pulse settings. Apparently it's a kind of blender, but I'm too lazy to find a better site than that (I already scanned the top hits on Google, perhaps I'd be better off with Jeeves).

I played some Double Dash, and damned if I can't get Powersliding (aka Blue Sparks) to work. I really dont' know what tricks they want this time, but I'm sure when I play more than 5 minutes of driving I'll have it figured out. With just the basics it seems like a rather complicated process of mixing cars and drivers (and the stats are hidden unless you're plaing solo (or 2 in one car) and I wasn't doing that, so that'll again take some solo time then I'll have that logic down pat). It plays rather well, no drastic changes which is good, but it seemed pretty short, I'm certain that there's more to unlock though. I can play either position with enough maliciousness, I'd rather drive cause I can maneuver better than anyone, but being the "gunner" person is fabulous as well (sorry for the fabulous, Queer Eye's on, I'm killing it now) since I've gained plenty of skill abusing surronding racers by playing SSX: Tricky. Ahh, the fun of game synergies.

Alright, Bill's out sick so I'm playing backup manager (which sucks, cause having been out for college, I have no idea where Bill keeps things), I'm either chronically understaff or bored out of my mind at this store and the customers don't make things any easier. Let me ask this, is there anything about Colin that would make you think that I have X-Ray vision? Several dozen times in the past week I have been condescendingly told by customers after asking if "anything was breakable/fragile/in need of bubble wrap" (I vary it cause different phrases get different answers from select morons (ie, "Is anything fragile?" "No, but this needs to be bubble wrapped"). Is there some way that I should be able to predict glass in a bag of presents? Honestly, if you hand me a 5 bags with a combined 37 odd presents, don't be suprised if I ask if anything is breakable, and definately don't get snippy with me. I can't see through wrapping and it's quite aggravating to get people who seem to think I should be able to.

Further, this job has quite proven to me that the statistic that 3/4ths of America is functionally illiterate is very true. UPS has, since last Christmas (when most of these buggers were last here) changed the minimum password requirement from 3 characters to 5. Not only do I get freaks who don't understand what I mean when I say it's now required that it be 5 characters (and then get further confused when I clarify by saying 5 letter ("Oh, I can't use numbers anymore?" Right after I say that we suggest using the Zip Code. I don't know what planet stores the hole these fsckers (sorry for profanity, but it's been building and I'd rather take it out here then on someone at work, cause that'd look bad) came out of, but on Earth, we use Zip codes with numbers, shocking, no?). So, besides these people who take a good 5 minutes to get into their address book, we have those rebels who have used their own User ID's (we strongly suggest Phone Number) and then have forgotten them and expect me to be able to help. Also, we have those who were hit stongly with the object of my prized theory (the Retard Stick) and do things like try and stand on my side of the cash register, or ask for me to add bubbles (they mean peanuts, but somewhere around fertilization there was a bit of other substances besides protein involved I guess).

Well, Melvin is still alive, the Advent is being collected (though the servers are being a pain and the featured games are lousy ones (great Christmas spirit that have). The big question is, how do I break it to Sean that Lord_Malystrix, while he was the proud Christmas Wocky is now, well, umm...she's kinda stripey right now shall we say.

So much for tomorrow eh?

I hard a really great new subtitle for this place but I've now forgotten. Something to the tune of: now with 20% less superfluous redundancy, but I'll worry about that later.

I don't really have too much time to blog, seeing as it is close to 2:30 before my day with a 9:30 Class (9:35 technically, but whatever, and I've stopped counting CS as a class cause Ericson doesn't teach anything in there anyways) and it's the week before finals, at Tech, and they matter and also aren't getting exmpted.

Anyways, this'll be retrograde as far as events go, because that seems like the most logical of orderings, so recents events will be at the top.

Alright, tonight was a day of Mario Kart 64 between Cindy, Jeff, Kevin, a bit of Will, and myself. It was quite a violent game by the end, with several stages being replayed multiple times to settle grudges. In the end, we managed to trample every stage in both 100 cc and Extra as well as every battle stage, though mostly Block Fort and Double Deck. As far as players go, Will had been out of it quite awhile, Cindy was a rookie but played frighteningly well at times, Jeff was a bit of a hobby player, and Kevin and I were the most professional, knowing all the possible maneuvers and tricks.

As the game went on a few patterns became apparent. Namely that Jeff got worse as time went on, for the most part, whenever Cindy won it was by a huge margin, and when it came down to Kevin and I at the wire, whoever started with the lead on the home stretch usually kept it despite firepower. The usual bloodbath events occured that can be expected in any mass run of Mario Kart 64: a come from way behind to victory on Moo Moo Farms for Colin, complete decimation of everyone but Cindy on Extra Toad's Turnpike (nothing like racing in oncoming traffic, eh?), far too many runs of Rainbow road, all of them close and filled with the devastation of Lightning Goddess Cindy's Lightning bolts, Jeff getting nailed on all the stages with nasty jumps: Wario's Stadium, Mushroom Speedway, and Bowser's Castle, and a dominating triumph by myself at the nasty Yoshi stage. Oh, and several bouts of Kevin kicking ass at taking the shortcut on Koopa's Beach. Good times were quite had, though I finished with 30 1st place finishes, 18 second place, 4 3rd, and a unknown, non-zero, moderately large, single-digit number of last places, as well as 10 Victories in Battle out of some odd 18 battles.

Going back before this: FFX-2 is awesome. It's varied, it's interesting, it's learned from the mistakes of past games. One definately needs to have played FFX to understand it fully, though alot of story elements are new. Actually, I recind that, you need to have played FFX and have seen the extended ending from FFX-International which bridges the two, if being annoyingly repetitive and sappy.

Pros of the game: It's diverse with alot of different minigames and missions, it's got multiple endings, has newgame+, has jobs and classes, a great variety of accessories and abilities to learn, new areas to explore, bonds well with the old and the new.

Cons of the game: The Layers of loading are painfully obvious: when battle begins your characters appear sans weapons, which are added only moments before the actual battle begins. AP System is never explained so it remains unclear forever as to what solves what, hard to figure out what to do as some missions aren't ever marked and others that are marked really aren't. Cannot carry across anything but the core abilities of a class and not all of the classes even have this ability: for example, it's not really worth being a white mage, black mage, or warrior, because their extra abilities and auto functions are overrriden by others, similarily, Thief skills are easily better emmulated elsewhere and with the Mug Garment grid and Lady Luck can superceed most abilities, not really a cohesive storyline: things happen and then other things occur as a result, much of the game is from the extras around. New areas aren't incredibly inventive: it seems like a rather poor War III Custom: everything is merely palletshifted and size increased from the old characters.

Though the Cons look bigger, they are not nearly as hidering as the Pros are mouth watering. The pause of loading after every battle is annoying, but the variety of actions to take in battle and the resulting statements outweigh.
Rikku "Ducksoup!"
Paine: "Duck what?"

Beserker Rikku "Bite me! Better yet, I'll bite you!"

All in all, the game feels alot like an older Final Fantasy (Anything pre-X, cause it has actual levels), most likely FF5 for the classing with alot of overlays from Charlie's Angels (and if you think I'm kidding, you are greatly mistaken).

On the other side of SquareEnix's spectrum is FFXI, which I cannot stand. I gave it a fair trial, and it is simply not worth the hype of the 5 freaking discs it was forged onto! The game, which took a good 5 hours to install and was a bitch about it (ie: Please insert Disc 2 followed immediately by "Wrong Disc Inserted" and a load of code that only with careful observation could one decipher that it wanted Disc 1 again whereupon it immediately asks again for Disc 2). Moreover, the game requires the disc to run but inserting it automatically takes you to the uninstall screen, not that I'm complaining, it just wasn't a game for me. I don't mean to bash it, but anything you've read in any online comic is true. I don't mind that it has an odd feel to it, that half the time I examine Japanese characters I get nothing out of their detail and other times I get minor detail. But I do find something wrong in a game that is meant to be diverse and varied yet I see always the same Sword, always the same Armor, Always the same freaking Pumpkin helm! Moreover, I don't know what the idea of having the same monster vary drastically was, but it's stupid. More of the pallet shifts, mostly just name changes though, and close to 50% of the time I have no freaking clue what I'm trying to fight. Partying seems like a great idea, but finding a decent party is hard enough, let alone getting them all to find their way through the interface of doom to actually accept the invitation. I feel like I'm running tech support occasionally, and I've only got a mere 5 hours logged into the game. I think it might get slightly better with a few more levels, but then I realize that I'll eventually be back to level 1, again using crap items (the same crap as everyone else) running around fighting the same uninventive enemies who have much better skills than I, getting crap for doing it. I mean, I don't really mind getting .2 Sword Skill every few swings, or that I have to be fighting rather tough enemies to do it, but the fact that if I were to switch to an axe, I'd be at skill 0 but have the same progression and have to fight the same tough enemies, and rarely do I get the points anyways. Perhaps I'm not an MMORPG person, but I can't help but feel that I'm playing a glorified version of Diablo II with a few differences. Firstly, theres' no channel, all the spammers and morons are in the game with you. Secondly, that it was a version of Diablo II that was made not only by monkeys, but they were all being infused with mercury as they programmed it: It's like a retarted version of Diablo II with all sorts of odd requirements. Thirdly, the Rogue Encampment is roughly the same size as, say, Neptune. You run slow, you have no way to get faster, you die and you go all the way back, and finding an NPC to sell you maps (let alone finding the cash to buy them with) is nearly impossible. No matter where I try and go I end up at my Mog house, apparently every freaking extra pathway leads to the apparently extradimensional home of mine with a rather ugly floating whitish blob with a little red rounded blob that's supposed to be the enchanting Moogle that always lit up my day with dancing back in the days of yore (American FFVI, SNES) which now reminds me of a poorly rendered version of the Mog from the Moogle Game in FFVII after you fed him a few too many nuts. Fourth, instead of a 1 minute patch, it's a few hours.

The game has little conception of what a mission is: I'm supposed to see someone but I have no idea who because I lost track of the name amoung the 1300 other NPCS would I even be likely to end up where I am supposed to did I know their name, but I do know that I'm supposed to take my Blue Acid tester somewhere into a place far deadlier that I and find a place where it changes color, but I don't know where in this place, how I'm to survive, how I'll know when it changes color, or anything else. The opening isn't skippable, and while it's unlikely you'd have too see it too often, I'd much rather listen to Decard Cain than whoever the game spawns for me. It's nifty that different races, classes, and starting locations all get different jntros, but had that effort been placed somewhere else, like quality or patching, I'd have been much happier. All the steps in the right direction that I felt X-2 made, FFXI seems to ignore of blatently oppose.