Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Viva Las.. Eh, you know the rest.

Comment Commentary

Shin- I assume many crazy misadventures were had?

Aleia- Dictionary.com's translator is of no help.

Mimmi- No, no, she wants to keep the cover the way it is.. She just wants the inside color. :/

Godel- Eh, I think I hate overzealous Catholics more, but unartistic morons are definitely up there.

--

Woot. Finally got the internet connection working in the hotel room. Turns out the little plug on the side of the table was just there to look pretty.

When I woke up this morning I decided to attempt burning an Asian Kung-Fu Generation CD to listen to during the flight. I forgot that I hadn't installed any burning programs yet (since the hard drive crash), along with my CD writer being the slowest thing on the face of the earth, so it didn't burn completely by the time we had to go.

Of course, it didn't work, so I found myself listening to the FLCL soundtrack on the way to the airport. After listening to the vocal versions of so many of the "karaoke" songs that are found on the OST, it's not as amazing as it used to be. It was still good, and an extra layer of fun was added when I tried to remember the vocal tracks and insert them.. Like silent karaoke.

Instead of departing from Los Angeles International, we ended up leaving through the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. It's a lot smaller and a more.. Personal, I guess.

It took us a while to get through security. We had to take off all jackets, our shoes, and take out all video cameras and laptops. No extensive searches were performed on us, but it was still a hassle.

After that, we sat around in the terminal waiting for the plane to arrive. It was rainy in Vegas, so the flight was delayed by an hour.. I decided to go buy the latest issue of Discover magazine. We used to subscribe to it (for free), but we didn't bother renewing it. For me, it was hit-and-miss. There were some really interesting articles in some, and others, like this one, are just plain boring. It still kept me occupied throughout the flight.

But man, was that flight short. It seemed that the second the plain stopped ascending, it started going down.

I was already pretty disturbed the time we had collected all of our baggage- there were huge signs everywhere for various shows, and some of the advertisements were so raunchy it made me feel awkward to be around anybody. I guess that's how this town was designed, though- it's all for lonely businessmen.

My dad got this trip through work. Apparently, the dealership he works at has been very kind to their bank, and that's who gave us this trip. There's some sort of convention going on, but they didn't care about sending representatives, so guess who got the tickets.

Neat, isn't it?

Anyway, we're staying at the Bellagio, which has always been like some sort of crazy dream of my mom's, and now I see why. The lobby is beautiful, and the hotel room's not bad, either. Lord knows it's better than the room in the Hilton from Anime Expo.

There was a long story about getting the internet to work, but that can wait until tomorrow. I'm a little tired, so I think I'm gonna go now.

What's on the schedule tomorrow: Goddamn Cirque De Se-bleh, and hopefully the big arcade by the MGM Grand.

Teh SillyCircus Day 64- Hah, Shin, I cannot be defeated. I just keep bouncing back.
Comments (5) | Permalink

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Sure, he can taste the rainbow, but can he FEEL it?

Three pages of comments.. That's cool.

Comment Commentary

Mimmi- Yes, and it was so good that I did it again today.

Shin- I thought you were the master of waking up before me.

The curse is lifted.

Karmi- I got sort of tired of waking up at noon. It just doesn't feel right anymore, heh.

Aleia- *stab.. Of happiness. For you.* >_>

Godel- Yes, stoners and their great danes tripping on things is always the way to catch a criminal.

Mal- If you understood how refreshing it was, you would wake up just for that. Trust me.

DDG- The secret is in the nation's criminal records. I guess there are enough unique cases out there to run three shows.

Shin- Hah, that's what you think. Turns out our hotel room has a DSL line in it.

Aleia- Eh, I'm probably going to play Las Vegas bingo. I'll make up a little paper with nine squares and label each of them with a different aspect of Sin City, like casinos, or buffets, or hookers. :)

Mimmi- My high score was overthrown. Somebody else got a 95. :/

Semjaza- I wonder why that is.. All I know is that I sure as hell don't have anything insightful to say about it.

--

Man, the weather was cool today. Even when I woke up the clouds had covered the sky, and a mild fog was floating into the valley, going around the hills and mountains. It's a really cool thing to see.

You know, I should just carry my digital camera with me all the time. There are always things I have such problems describing, and pictures could really aid that. Besides, that camera needs to be put to work.

--

The essay for Social Studies turned out being extremely easy. Sure, I was up at midnight doing it, but that was only because I stalled.

I found it a little harder to wake up at six today. The late night is probably to blame, but the prospect of another refreshing shower like yesterday's was incredibly tempting.

(I had waffles for breakfast. Woot. That's two times in a week.)

Finally finished The Bretheren today. The ending was sort of lame, but I didn't expect it to go out with a bang. It's a story about three lawyers in jail, after all.

It was still good, and I'm glad I read it. Now to keep the details fresh in my mind until I can take a test on it.

We went into the library during English. Having finished the assigned work already, I sat there with a friend as we looked through all the first grade level AR books for laughs. There was one entitled "Smiles," and it had a bunch of unintentionally suggestive pictures in it.

Has anyone here ever heard of a "pedosmile"? You know, the creepy facial expression child molestors get when they're seducing innocent young boys.. Well, a lot of the pictures in there sort of looked like that, and we almost got sent to the office because of all the laughing.

Science was dull, and I spent most of it reading over my notes for the big History text next period. In the end, I found the test to be much simpler than anticipated.. But there's no need to talk about that.

It was sort of drizzly at lunch, but nobody really complained. In fact, we treaded away from the ever-familiar lunch tree, and experimented with standing around on the blacktop. Personally, I didn't like it as much (the tree is off to the side and has a much more private feel), but whatever floats everyone's boats.

Then came the math quiz, which confused me at parts, and I had barely started double-checking when she told us to pass the papers up. That worries me a bit, but I'm not going to sweat it. Thank God for grade point averages.

Throughout most of Phys Ed it was drizzling again. I'm surprised that nobody was whining.. It was prime weather for Californian-style whining. I was in the field most of the time, and there were only six gloves. I didn't get one, and yet all the balls seemed to come to me. It was over soon enough, and my team went up to bat. I avoided actually going up to the plate. If I suck at fielding, I really suck at batting.

I was relieved when I heard that we were only going to continue softball throughout the rest of the week, and I won't be here to suffer through it.

It's sort of unnerving how the teacher in journalism is so bent on trying to put together the cheapest yearbook ever. She's called more and more companies that offer "cheap yearbook services" and as she goes on the lamer they get. Today she had us call this company who seems to focus on kindergarten yearbooks, judging by their pamphlet's design, and they're supposedly going to be able to get us hardcover and color for under twenty bucks.

I don't trust them, but most of all I don't want color. It would totally kill the consistency of the book, and that's what we've been striving for. I like her suggestion of changing the line on the road to a vague yellow, but that would sort of waste all of the money spent on the color pages. Having vibrant pink in the middle of the book with this theme is unacceptable. I would suggest desaturating all of the pictures some, but that would take forever.

In the meantime, she wants me to make a color cover as a "backup." Unfortuantely, I can't think of anything right now, so.. Yeah. It can wait a while.

There was a volleyball game after school today, and I sought my friends who were watching, but I couldn't find a single one of them. It would have been nice if I could have stayed.. It's about as close as we can get to going to a football game at the moment, and though it's not an apt replacement, it's better than nothing.

I have to go off to a piano lesson in a bit, so I have to cut this short, but I'll fix this up afterwards.

Teh SillyCircus day 64- [closing line src = "random simpsons quote"]

FAKE EDIT, BECAUSE I DIDN'T GET A CHANCE TO POST THIS EARLIER BECAUSE MYOTAKU WAS DOWN: Piano didn't go well. I had really seen that coming, considering I was on the computer from when I got home to an hour before the lesson. After that, however, we drove over to Best Buy in the rain (!!), and picked up a memory stick for the digital camera. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures while I'm in Las Vegas. Hell, I'll even chronicle the trip to the airport in Burbank.

And now, thanks to not going to school tomorrow, I'm going to go catch up on lost Nocturne time. I'll do my best to keep you all up-to-date while I'm there. Best wishes, everyone.
Comments (4) | Permalink

Monday, October 18, 2004

CSI is nothing but the last five minutes of Scooby Doo without lame puns.

Comment Comementary

Alea- Yes. It's too bad my dad's not a hyprocite about all of this.

Mimmi- Lord knows I've probably said it before. I'm running out of material here.

Azure- That's like making waffles but not giving me any. ;_;

Godel- Brown-nosed siblings = teh suck

Mal- I'm like a cat.. Who likes the rain. And doesn't lick itself.

Shin- Yeah, I've been bludgeoned to death by hail before, and to an extent I even enjoyed that.

Karmi- :X I want some :x so bad I capitalized it.

Mimmi- Indeed.

Semjaza- And I have you to thank for first exposing me to the game. I am forever in your debt.

--

Wow, I woke up on time. And get this- I actually actually took a shower before school.. I don't think I've ever done that before. Normally I do the showerness before I go to bed, but I figured I should try something different today.

Dear lord, it was refreshing. I need to do it more often.

And get this- I'm typing this.. At 6:50 AM. Isn't that cool!? :P

I finished the art project last night, but I'm planning on pretending to work on it some more in class so she doesn't call on me to say my essay in front of the class. Yeah, we're still on that.

More later.

EDIT: The reason I began my post earlier in the day was because I was bored before school started and I had ten minutes before I had to leave. And what do I do with any spare ten minutes? Type pointless crap on myOtaku. Only in America.

The bad side to this, however, was that I took a little too much time listening to a few MP3s, and I had to rush out the door. About halfway to the school, I skimmed through my backpack's contents and realized that my ever-important binder was missing. I got my dad to turn around (thank God I don't ride the bus), and I found the binder in about a minute.

Turning around, of course, made me late. People were still filing into their classes when I got there, but I sort of hurried anyway. As I was reading the next-to-last chapter of The Bretheren, I realized that I had left my precious Vietnam War drawing, which I had spent three hours on, in the car. I got it back eventually, though it was creased, so I placed it on the bottom of the pile for three reasons:

a) I wanted to flatten out the creases.

b) It was incredibly bloody and depressing, so I hid it from everyone for the good of the nation

c) Despite my sub-par art skills, people seem fixated on telling me how awesome it is, and I shy away from openly accepting compliments. I'm afraid that comes off as arrogance.

I didn't really get a chance to look at anybody else's.. Well, I shouldn't say that. I obviously caught glimpses of my neighbors' art: The artistic one to the left drew a pointy rose sprouting out of a battlefield, and the unartistic one on the right drew stick figures all yelling "we're all gonna die!"

I was entertained by both.

And then I was called upon to read my essay in front of the class. Amazingly, I got an 80%, but I didn't shove it into anybody's face, because I'm a self-proclaimed saint.

Got ready for a couple major tests in.. For the next social studies test, we have to turn in a venn diagram comparing and contrasting the three major sections of the thirteen colonies, along with that information in essay form. It's 20% of our test grade, and I'm pretty sure I already have the diagram done, but I think I just my redo it to pretty it up. I haven't even touched the essay yet, but it won't require a lot of real thinking.

It was windy with occasional bouts of sprinkling rain at lunch, and thankfully, nobody really complained.

Nothing interesting ever happens in math. I don't know why I even begin to mention it- it's always notes and tests and the teacher being crazy and screaming random words from her sentences.

However, note-taking is worth mentioning when it's done in a class such as Phys Ed. Apparently we're beginning a new sport, after just one "real" game of soccer, and softball just happens to be the lucky pick.

I do not like softball. I do not like baseball or any of its spinoff sports. Even to this day, I have vivid memories of totally sucking at little league, and every experience since then has been soured by it.

It's not fielding that I dislike. It's batting. I really, really suck at batting. When I actually connect, it goes well, but I can't bring myself to do that. Let's hope people don't get fickle over it.

Journalism. We did the whole mock-election thing for the newsletter. Each of us was given thirty ballots and assigned a room, and we were to report back for the counting.

I got stuck with one of the trailers.. One of the lower classes, actually. I shouldn't say it was remedial, because they were just stupid. The teacher was enough of a hardass to get them to listen to me, and thinks went relatively smoothly.

In the end, John Kerry got 240-something votes, George Bush 130, and Nader 47. The people who weren't really counting were just talking about varoius stuff, but one girl was angry that Kerry was winning, "because he's gay."

I really, really wanted to tell her off. *joins Mal's club of people who dislike people who dislike politicians for no reason*

--

I experimented with fusion in Nocturne today.. Unfortunately, fusing a Lilim and an Angel doesn't make an uber-cool sex goddess, but there is a Megami that I can fuse as soon as I get to a certain level. Until then, I''m just leveling up, and trying to figure out where the hell I'm supposed to find a bill. It's probably in Shibuya, but I have yet to find it.

Haven't gotten bored of leveling up yet. Man, this game rocks.

--

I'm going to be leaving for Las Vegas on Wednesday, and I'll be back that Saturday. I suppose this means that tomorrow is the end of my SillyCircus run, unless I find an internet cafe in the Bellagio (which, when you think about it, isn't so improbable).

Teh SillyCircus Day 63- That's crazy. You're crazy. Stop being so crazy.
Comments (10) | Permalink

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Why do I always come up with the good titles when I'm not paying attention to myself?

Comment Commentary

Godel- Nocturne + The Pillows = squealy noise. Duh.

Karmi- Now if only I could think of a way to bother you with it a third time..

Alea- I sense uncertainty.

Shin- From what I've heard, it might be sort of hard to find.. Aside from preorders, our Gamestop only got three copies of it. Stupid Atlus.

Mimmi- And yet people are saying it's not "traditional" enough. :/

--

My family thinks I'm going to join a cult because I'm playing Nocturne. Initially, my dad didn't make a big deal about the pentagrams (omfg!!11) he saw on the cover, though my mother got "disturbed" when I told her about Ginza being infested with demons and stuff. Of course, my brother joined in, because he has made it his goal in life to be a brown-noser to our parents and get a comfy spot in their wills.

Last night, when debating with my dad about it, I brought up his long history of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne fandome. I win. :)

This whole ordeal has given me a great idea for a comic.. I'm almost desperate enough to call customer support myself.

--

I spent some time leveling up in Nocturne earlier. Surprisingly enough, I actually enjoyed running around in circles and beating up random enemies. In most RPGs I've played, it becomes a tedious chore, but Nocturne somehow keeps it interesting.

Eventually, I got strong enough to own the stupid miniboss that was keeping me from getting into Ginza, and I proceeded.

Now that I'm familiar with the Magatsuhi cycle, along with the other enemy-recruiting factors, I now have a small brigade of kick-ass demons on my side. Most of them are tiny, scantily clad fairies for some reason, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If two demons are similar, you have a better chance at a more successful fusion. I'm thinking about fusing an Angel (If she's so holy, why's she in an S&M costume?) and a Lilith. That should result in some sort of unholy and heretical yet strong creature that will be useful.

Oh, and my long-time Pixie friend transformed into a High Pixie, and the difference in usefulness is amazing.

I would continue ranting about it, but I realize that nobody that reads this page has the game, so.. Yeah.

--

When I woke up today it was raining. With the television being on in the other room, I couldn't really hear it for a while, but when there was a pause in the noise I heard the familiar pitter-patter of the rain on my window.

Unfortunately, it wasn't good rain. There were just a few clouds letting out a few raindrops, and it was still sunny. I wish it was all cloudy and dark. Days like that rock. *prays for a real rainy day*

Teh SillyCircus Day 61- It's official. The vocal version of "Advice" is The Pillows' best song ever. Let the good word be spread across the land.
Comments (7) | Permalink

Saturday, October 16, 2004

*squealy noise*

Comment Commentary

Shin- I really think it all comes down to the directors and how passionate they are about what they're doing. I read an interview with the supposed director of the Silent Hill flick, and I'm not worried one bit. He seems to understand the series well, like a true fan.

Alea- Well, Samurai Jack has a few episodes that have next to no dialogue whatsoever, and it's praised by a lot of critics.. It's a different medium, though.

Karmi- Feh, you should see some of Shin's posts these days. They make this one look like a halfassed filler post.

Solo- I'm not familiar with Eric Bana, but from what I've found on a Google image search he looks a little young for Freeman.

Mal- Not.. Many? I tend to go a month or two without buying anything, and then there's a big wave of stuff. This holiday season is a perfect example. Tons of games.

Godel- With the weird-looking characters and everything, they would have to be CG, right?

--

I picked up Nocturne earlier, and it is better than I expected. Even the menu introduction sequence is cool, and it only got better as things went on. The scene where you had to put in your name was spiffy, as well.

..Okay, I admit I haven't played for that long yet, but it really is entertaining. The dialogue is entertaining, and it doesn't need voice acting to achieve that effect. Personally, I'm glad there isn't any voice work. I've gotten into to many games only to have the mood killed by lame voices.

The battle system is all right so far- considering how early I am in the game, the attacks are all pretty monotonous, but the whole enemy negotiation thing makes up for it.

For example, before he attacked, a Shikigami said, "The weak do not prey upon the strong. Snakes do not devour dragons. Does this mean we do not need the weak?"

I answered "yes," because without the weak, the strong are not distinguished. He replied, "So that is where you stand," and the battle resumed.

He disagreed with me, but if I had answered with "no" he probably would have done something nice, like leave the battle or maybe even join my party. There have been other little conversations like that, though this one is my favorite, but I am entertained.

But oi, there are so many random battles. For a stretch there, I was thrown into battle literally every two steps.

The music is entertaining, but I haven't had a chance to listen to the soundtrack yet. I've been occupied with other things.

But now to talk about other stuff.

--

I started working on yearbook graphics last night. As expected, I found an email from the teacher, with a file containing a picture of the school sign attatched. Unfortunately, Photoshop can't read the file type (which is lame), so I couldn't really do anything with it..

So I worked on page backgrounds and finding good fonts instead. I have several ideas floating about, but considering how most of them require a scanner I am unable to do them at this time.

Instead, I did these two pages, along with a double-pager which is essentially the same, and I think they look pretty cool.

I showed one guy, and he said "Dude. It's just a freaking road," and while he may be right, this is just another stepping stone in my insane yearbook-creating scheme.

I've found two or three good fonts, none of which can be used in Adobe Pagemaker (damn them for using an obscure format), but that's why I have to do these pages at home anyway. A different image will be made for each page- the background plus the header and page number. I still don't have the page list, which is going to make things a pain, but I can wait a couple days.

And I apologize to Karmi for listening to me go on and on about all this last night over AIM.

--

As I was playing Nocturne today, I had the complete discography of The Pillows downloading via BT. It got done just as I was starting to get agitated by the relentless onslaught of random battles, which was convenient. I'm still listening to it right now, and it's refreshing to hear Pillowsey goodness, but what I'm enjoying most is hearing vocal versions of familiar FLCL tunes. It makes them even cooler.

It more than doubled my playlist to nearly 300, so I think my musical needs shall be occupied for a while now.

Next stop: Either X-Japan or L'arc. I haven't really decided yet.

Teh SillyCircus Day 60- Mr. Demon, how many magatama does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of the kagatsuhi?
Comments (5) | Permalink

Friday, October 15, 2004

I feel the guilt.. In my colon.

Comment Commentary

Shin- I didn't get a chance to pick Nocturne up today, but I'll talk about that later.

Aleia and Mimmi- By the time I wrote the post (the second time, I mean- I wrote it once before, and it was much, much longer, but I lost it) I felt much better. ^_^'

Solo- That's true. Hooray for optimism.

--

I passed the AR test on the fifty-paged Oprah biography today. I got 90% of the questions right, and I got 0.9 points for it. Points weren't my intention for taking the test, though- I just wanted to shut the teacher up.

The art project in English was today. I had Yoji Shinkawa's 2D Metal Gear Solid art in mind when designing mine, and though it turned out nothing like his, I'm pleased with what I did. I only got the soldier's head and part of his uniform completed, and I'm going to complete it over the weekend. It's too large to scan, I think, which is a shame.

We talked about our "culmination projects" in science. Why science? I don't know. Anyway, I told her that I changed mine from learning Japanese to writing a screenplay, or some sort of script. I expect it to be a lot easier than learning the language.. I do plan on casually working on studying Japanese, but I think I'll enjoy writing a screenplay more. I'll be sure to harrass all of you about proofreading. :P

We did the "review game" in History today in preparation for Tuesday's big test. Basically, we're all selected by team captains and put into groups of four, answering questions directly from the test. It has been an invaluable resource for my entire class in the past- myself included- but my group (or should I say "I"?) got two wrong. That puts us in third, and I doubt we'll be able to recover. At this point we're just going over questions again, and everybody's going to know all of the answers now.

I let a friend borrow Saikano volume one today at lunch. Other than that, nothing really eventful happened.

A nice quote from my friend: Help, there's a crazed Jew after me!

It's a long story.

Notes in math. Teacher's insane. Nothing interesting ever happens in there.

Another nice quote from my friend: This is bullshit.

Instead of running a mile, we ended up running for ten minutes. In the end, I ran six laps total. One and a half miles in ten minutes. I was pleased with that, but I didn't stretch well, so my legs are in pain already. I'm sure it will only get worse tomorrow.

Journalism.. I wasted time in the library, pretending to be sending pictures to the teacher, along with a friend, and on the way back to class we messed around with everyone who has PE at that time.

If it weren't for me getting forced into Journalism, I would probably have sixth period elective and seventh period PE with everyone else. At times I regret that.. If I ever really get frustrated with my ideas perpetually being rejected by the teacher's daughter (clipart junkie), I might just transfer to sixth period art again, which basically implies seventh period PE with almost everyone else.

I went home with a friend today. Instad of going to his house, however, we tagged along with a gaggle of other folks who tend to go the opposite direction. We ended up in one of their houses, but we didn't stay long for several reasons:

1) "Scary" parent was coming home soon. To be honest, she's never struck me as insane like everyone makes her out to be, but I haven't seen her enough to formulate an informed opinion.

2) Other kid's scary parent would freak out when she found that we didn't come home immediately.

3) We had to pick up a sibling.

After picking up his sister, we caught up with our fourth grade teacher. She's always been a riot and a half, but I realized today that half of the jokes probably went straight over our heads at the time.

We then went home and played Halo ( :| ) for a few hours. It turned out that he had to go to one of those teenage church group meeting dealies, and his mom called mine and I was being forced to go to some shindig where I knew one person. I was really tired and too unmotivated to engage in smalltalk with a bunch of random people, and then I remembered I had to complete my online duties before nine (the same time the thing ended).

His mom said that she didn't want to make me do anything I didn't want to, and I got driven home. Coincidentally, my dad stopped at the same intersection we did at the exact same time. He didn't see us, but it seemed as if God was punishing me for not going.

Or so my friend put it.

I heard a mouthful from both parents when I got home, and I explained it all to my dad as we went to get the mail, and that I would go next time.. He seems to have cooled down, but my mom still seems rather surly about it. This could mean that I may not be able to pick up Nocturne tomorrow, which is lame.

And that was my day.

--

Today's rant: This big article about game-to-film adaptations.

I have never really had the motivation to go see movies inspired by games. To be honest, I consider myself to be a casual purist. I dislike it when good ideas are turned into shit by unfaithful directors, enforcing the common idea that no games have half-decent stories, but I don't complain about it for hours and hours online.

Until I read this article, I didn't realize how many games are being brought to the big screen. I seriously doubt more than half of them are going to get off the ground, but we'll see.

American McGee's Alice and Oz

I have never played either game- in fact, I've never even heard of Oz- but the premise of beloved children's tales gone sadistic is enough to attract me to a movie. If they get a good director, I think these films could have some real potential.

It says Wes Craven is the rumored director for Alice.. That seems appropriate, I guess.

Area 51

Bleh, if this is the same Area 51 I'm thinking about- the arcade shooter from the early nineties- leave me out of it. Unless they come up with a clever story, I'm not interested.

That's something about making a film from a game devoid of story, though. Your canvas is completely clean, and you can do whatever you want with it. It just takes the right person.

BloodRayne

Since BloodRayne became a fanservice-addicted actionfest (or was it always like that?) I'm not expecting much from this one either. The picture they put in the article looks cool, though.

Crazy Taxi

Hm. It could be interesting, but it's one of those storyless games. They could really mess it up, too.

They NEED some of the music from the games in it, if they really end up doing it. That's something I would require from this movie.

Devil May Cry

Let's face it, a Devil May Cry movie would be nothing but an action-filled film with occult themes, especially if they base it off one of the games. Dante's dialogue has always seemed incredibly corny to me, what with his "Let's rock, baby"-ness, and that definitely wouldn't fly with film critics. A good dose of style might be able to compensate for it.

Dead or Alive

Eh.. More fanservice and fighting.

Doom

It could end up as a pleasant fright-fest, but isn't that what they said when the first Resident Evil movie was announced?

Eternal Darkness

Now this could be cool. I've never played Eternal Darkness, but Shin does nothing but talk about how it kicks so much ass, including in the plot category. I would see it.

Grand Theft Auto

Aren't all of the GTA games loosely based on various crime movies, such as Scarface and Boyz in Da Hood? They probably couldn't base a movie off any of the existing games because of that reason. Let's get some Yakuza action.

Half-Life

B-But that would imply Gordon Freeman would have to talk..

One of my favorite things about Half-Life is how the story progressed without a need for dialogue. I'm wary about this one.

Metroid

I've ranted about this one before.. Just like with Half-Life, Metroid (Prime, anyway) didn't rely too heavily on dialogue. Samus doesn't talk, and that worries me.

Onimusha

Wow, a samurai action movie. I've never heard of that before.

Psi-Ops

Nice premise, and that's always good to work with. Even in cinema, this sort of thing remains rather untouched.. Or, at least, it's not a major cliche.

Resident Evil: Afterlife

*slams head into desk repeatedly*

Silent Hill

Here we go. A nice, story-oriented game with a lot of potential in the film industry. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Soul Calibur

Few fighting games have strong storylines, and SC is no different. Other than backstory, nothing much happened. The outcome would probably be pretty similar to DOA, if you cut the fanservice in half and add weapons.

Tekken

*more head slamming*

Teh SillyCircus Day 59- Such a satisfying rant.
Comments (5) | Permalink

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Son of a..

Comment Commentary

Mimmi- See? I entertain you and make you think! It's like I'm straight out of Mario is Missing or a Carmen San Diego game.

DDG- Yeah, but mine is full of plot holes, and people's faces and appearances change every once in a while.

Alea- Wow, I've never talked about that? Hm, that's good rant fodder.

Azure- I've thought about blocking you before, but then I remembered that you.. Um.. *shrugs* Try to help me with my computer problems?

Godel- Or maybe your subconcious tricked you into thinking it knew Japanese. Minds can be tricky like that.

Solo- I know what you mean, haha. I forget cool dreams all the time.

Shin- Your subconcious is a slacker. It needs to get a job.

Godel- Hehe.. Nun.

--

Today was a really bad day. Other times when I say I have bad days.. Just one or two things piss me off. But today was just one major depressing pain in the old couch warmer.

..I just wrote this entire post, and the browser crashed. It was so freaking long and I was so close to done, and now the anger has come back. I'll try to be brief about my day.

I failed an AR test. Despite my persistent focus on reading the book, I still got half of the problems wrong. I blame the answers- there's always two that are too similar, which leads to a ot of guesswork. Now I'm reading some thirty-page book about Oprah just so the teacher can shut up about me not passing a test yet.

We read a really depressing story about Vietnam in English. We have to do an art project about it tomorrow, and I want to do something in the style of Metal Gear Solid's 2D art, but those hopes were smashed when I found out all of the drawings were to be done on vividly colored paper. I was hoping to use color to differentiate objects and convey a sense of emotion, but it will be hard to do without a white background. Oh well.

Science.. Three annoying people sit behind me, two ghetto, one just annoying (and pagan). They were all talking throughout, and nothing really happened.

Took notes in History for the next big test. We went back to using the overhead projector for note-taking, and inbetween segments I wrote a poem. It's the best way I know to vent depression and anger, but today I didn't pay attention to making it good. I just jotted down thoughts and fit them into an inconsistent, predictable rhyme scheme.

I avoided everyone at lunch. To be honest, I can't remember why (it's all sort of a blur), but I'm guessing that I just didn't want to get them into the same mood I was in. I went to the library, continued writing my poem (which I won't post here because it sucks), and they found me. They didn't bother talking to me- they were in the back discussing something I couldn't decipher- and I left when they weren't looking. I came back later, once they left, and finished my poem. I wasn't satisfied with it, but I felt better. For the last few minutes of the period I sat down with them by our familiar tree, just enjoying their company.

Math, notes. I brooded some.

Typical verbal abuse in the locker room, accompanied by some bleached-and-spiked douche who tried to elbow me in the face because I almost kind of-sort of got in his way.

We played a soccer game of epic proportions today. One half of the class versus the other half.. I played defense surprisingly well, preventing a lot of points, but we still lost two to nothing. We have to run a mile tomorrow, but I don't really mind. I prefer running to wasting time with a bunch of ghetto freaks I don't even know.

The soccer was good for me, though. It made me forget about the lameness of the rest of the day, which I realize I'm not really going into, because I'm low on time. I also want to spare you all a bunch of angst.

Journalism. Wasting time. Introduced someone to Adobe Pagemaker, and I was pleased to find that I didn't need to repeat everything eight times.

--

Now to talk about why nobody's going to DC this year.

Our old English teacher didn't really teach us much, but she did spend a lot of time trying to get us to go on the Washington DC class field trip. She promoted it pretty well; talking about the good food, the great sights and memories, and most notably the week away from school and parents. Everyone was really excited about it, but nobody's going for one particular reason..

The thing costs $1800. That's far too steep for a lot of people here, and it would be lame to go and have nobody else there. One friend was planning on going, but she also has the option of doing a trip to London. Considering how passionate she is about jolly old England and how much she dislikes the other girls who are going "like, for-sure! ^^", it looks like she's not going either. Oh well.

If the right combination of people were staying/going, I would probably even postpone getting a new computer so I could take the trip. But they're not, and my family's probably taking me to DC this summer, anyway. I just hope we don't have to visit relatives the entire time.. Deaths, sicknesses and weddings are the only reasons we ever go anywhere.

I had another rant lined up, but it has been postponed. Be sure to check it tomorrow. It's going to be good.

Teh SillyCircus Day 58- Worst. Poem. Ever.

EDIT: Oh, and I got a haircut. She cut the bangs too short, and now the rectangular shape of my face is exposed. I hate it when this happens..
Comments (5) | Permalink

Freaking Gamestop.
I had a dream last night that was basically an over-exxagerated bastardization of this year's class Wasington, DC field trip that nobody's going to. It was funny in a somewhat lame way (my subconcious pretty half-assed), but for some reason everybody was a character from The Simpsons.

And I'm sitting here at 6:36 AM, in front of the computer, because I actually woke up on time. I really don't have much to say yet- this is a distraction. The real update will be later.

Teh SillyCircus Day 58- Indeed.
Comments (7) | Permalink

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Why must cruelness be so.. Cruel?

Comment Commentary

Shin- Joke or no, that deserves a strangling.

Alea- Nah, it's not based on performance. She actually has the rubric on the overhead projector as we grade them, and not a thing on it is about speaking skills.

Solo- That's true. She says that we'll just "get used to the format as the year goes on," which could be code for "I'll get lazier and lazier about grading as the year goes on."

Mal- I don't plan on quitting anytime soon. The reason I talked about it yesterday was because I've actually been enjoying it recently.

--

For homework last night we had to think of something in our culture that has "lost its flair," complain about it, and talk about how it could be changed (This was inspired by our learning about The Great Awakening in History). That alone was fodder for a good rant, but unfortunately I didn't have a chance to type up the essay before I had to turn it in. I'll get it back eventually.

Oh, I wrote about how comedies aren't funny anymore. Throughout most of it I complained about Will Ferrel leaving SNL.

Doing homework isn't that much of a hassle for me. Once I get into it, I don't really think about it. Actually sitting down and doing the homework, however, is another story. I'll write down my name, and maybe the title, and then I'll go get a snack. It's almost as if I developed ADD since school started.

--

My English teacher took a break from raping random students' essays today and we discussed politics. We got onto that tangent as we were reading the introduction page to some story about the Vietnam War, but overall it was a rather tedious conversation. Nothing that interesting was said, and the crazy pro-Bush D&D kid was surprisingly soft-spoken about John Kerry's purple hearts. I sit behind him, and I was afraid he was going to lash out and bite somebody's head off, but he didn't. Oh well.

Science, nothing. History, nothing. Lunch, nothing. *skims through notes*

Math, nothing. PE, nothing.

A rather heavy question was put upon the class in journalism- color yearbook or hardcover? I didn't bother explaining how we needed a hard, textured cover to get the feel I was going for, and that color would just break it. They technically don't have access to any of the files I've showed them. I could so totally strand them all in yearbook hell by switching classes.

And then clipart junkie began work on the introduction page. I had a simple vision for the intro- a picture of the school sign, accompanied by a small paragraph. Simple, right? She wants to put in lots of little pictures, fit clipart matching our school mascot into the corner and put in two sentences.

"'Cause nobody ever reads the intro anyway, right?"

Argh. I'm going to stay after school one day and fix all of the pages when nobody's looking.

I came up with a cool concept for the school sign. Those of you who have become my involuntary art critics, you're all familiar with how I have been experimenting with two-to-four tone images, ala iPod and I Would Die For You (the other title's too long and I'm a lazy ass). I figure rendering the front of the school like that might end up interesting, so I'm going to give it a try.

But anything's better than what clipart junkie concocts.

--

I got my dad to take me to the mall after school to pick up Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. I figured I should call them ahead of time to see if they had it in stock, but we only had an hour before we had to pick up my brother, so we just went. He went to go pick up the game (I didn't want to hear any more Halo 2 fanboy banter), and I decided to walk over to Waldenbooks, in hopes they would have Saikano volume two. Amazingly enough, they had one copy on the shelf (first time I've seen one in person since it was supposed to come out two months ago), in the attractive orange I saw online, and I decided to buy it. Considering the.. Risque qualities of the cover, I was afraid that the checkout folks would sneer or something. Fortunately, the comic book guy did it, after doing a little ogling, and I was on my way.

But what if they decide to shrink-wrap the later volumes? What will I do then? *worriedness*

It turns out that Gamestop lied to me. They should have it in "by the fifteenth," despite them calling me and telling me that it was going to be there today. Bastards.

Saikano was a perfect consolation, though. I went into my room and read it, and as awesome as it was, I didn't enjoy it as much as volume one. I guess Shuji and Chise's sweet, generally innocent relationship is what initially drew me to it, and now that things are getting more angsty, I'm a bit turned off.

I still loved it, though. Fuyumi's hot.

--

My brother had classmates I have never even heard of before over today to work on a project. I didn't bother talking to any of them, and every time I came downstairs my brother said something like "Oh, that's Nick. He's a loner. Right, Nick?"

I don't like him anymore. He has a free mind now, and my puppet/money source is gone. Grr.

Instead of taking the abuse, I finished up Saikano and broke out the Super Mario 64. James got me all giddy about the upcoming DS port/remake/what have you, and I had nothing better to do, so I played. I didn't get too far, but I got a good dose of platformey goodness.

Oh, and my dad was hogging the computer, so I got my homework done around four. That's a new record. I'm planning on using my typical homework time on making headway in The Bretheren. I'm nearing the end, and it's getting good. *decides to not go into detail* I mostly want to get it over with so my AR teacher stops harrassing me about it. And what do you know, it's my English teacher! *collective gasp*

Teh SillyCircus Day 57- Hoo doggie, Karmi has returned.
Comments (3) | Permalink

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

I'm not racist, I'm an equal oppurtunity hater.

Comment Commentary

Shin- *shakes fist at Square Enix* You made Nocturne get an 8.6..

Alea- Well, 95% of non-animated things. If it's not broken, don't fix it, and if you're going to butcher a beloved anime, do it in your basement and show it at an obscure film festival where nobody will see it.

Godel- Well look again, my nemesis! Touche!

Mal- My English teacher is one of those strict-but-not-in-a-bad-way ones.. I liked last year's teacher better. She graded on favoritism. :)

--

Argh, I'm getting tired of all these "this is how my day went" posts. Everything I do on mO is starting to get formulaic. I need to shake things up a bit.

..But I'll do that later. For now I'll just do the same old shpiel.

The Bretheren, the book I've been reading for AR for a few weeks now, started getting good today. There were a couple plot twists that surprised me. Another essay was graded in front of the class today. It, too, got a low D, and we found out that the highest anybody has receied was a 75%, and that wasn't even in our class. It's like some sort of horrible slaughter..

I realized that my closing sentences were sort of weak, and I'm freaking out. Maybe I should improvise when I get up there.. It's not like the teacher's even reading it, anyway.

Science, nothing. In History we took more notes on The Great Awakening. I find it all funny, for no particular reason. Probably the hypocrisy of it all.

Math went okay. We had the test today, I'm sure I did fine (I may have missed one), and after that we took notes. For some reason the teacher was going insanely fast with it all, and her writing turned out to be somewhat like mine: squiggly and uninteligible.

Then she pulled some huge-ass abstract equation on us. I copied down about half of it, but because of her speed I gave up halfway through. Stupid abstract thinking.

Soccer. Scored a goal. Ended up doing a Neo-esque bendey dodge when a ball came flying at my face. At least I wasn't called Harry Potter.

We went up into the library in journalism. I really didn't have anything to do- I'm supposed to focus on the yearbook- so I just sat there and watched some friends type up some interview request to a random teacher I've never even heard of. Conversation spun off in various directions, and eventually we got onto the subject of the drama teacher and how she used to be a stripper.

How did we get there? I have no clue. Was it an enjoyable conversation? Hells yeah.

--

I'm not very dedicated to my piano practice. Six days a week I don't practice, and every Tuesday I spend the entire period between when I get home and when I go to the lesson practicing. It has proven to be a rather useful method for me.. I'm sure that I would do a lot better if I did that much practice every day.

For example, I received a new song last week, and I didn't play it until before the lesson today. I was surprised how well I did when I played it in the lesson. The instructor didn't say anything, but I think I was really close to passing it.

I did pass two other songs, though, including a new technical exercise. Hooray for sight reading.

--

Man, I need a haircut. I haven't had one since school started, and it's starting to distract me. I like having my hair longer like this, because it eliminates the threat my forehead poses, but it's getting too long.

..My God, I sound vain.

--

I got the automated call from Gamestop today regarding Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. I liked how they almost pronounced it correctly. Anyway, it should be in tomorrow evening, so I'll be sure to make my trip to the mall and demand my soundtrack after school.

Can you imagine how jammed the nation's phone lines will be on November eighth, the day before Halo 2's release? Terrorists would be so able to pull something..

Let's just hope it hits every fanboy lined up before midnight to get the game. I'm so sick about hearing them rave about how awesome it's going to be when I'm browsing in Gamestop.

Teh SillyCircus Day 57- Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot..

EDIT: .hack//SIGN boxset.

"Based on a popular PlayStation2 game, the fantasy-adventure .hack//Sign is set in the world within an online game. Tsukasa, a powerful Wave Master, finds himself lost in the cyberworld, with little memory of how he got there. More significantly, he's unable to log out of the game and is apparently immune to many of its restrictions. He may be the focus of an impending crisis linked to the mysterious Key of the Twilight. As he wanders through different realms, Tsukasa meets spunky girl warrior Mimiru; earnest soldier Bear; the Crimson Knights, who maintain order in the game-world; and genially heroic Crim, a Heavy Spear wielder. Tsukasa also encounters a potent but unseen entity who promises to protect him--and does. Handsomely designed, well animated, and skillfully directed, .hack//Sign stands out as an example of how to turn a game into a series that can stand on its own merits."

I hate Amazon.com's descriptions of things. First they called Metal Gear Solid 3 a first person shooter, and now they're saying SIGN is based on the games.. I really need to find out where their headquarters is located.
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