Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Aahhhhh!!

Today's OCRemix: "TheAtomizer" Final Fantasy 3(6) Remix by Mustin. Were terra still around, I wuold reccomend this to her in a heartbeat. Not neccessarily because I think she'd like it, but because she just has to hear it. This remix is Atma Weapon's theme song from FF3(6), and it is driven to new, insane heights. It captures the sense of desperation, insanity, and chaos that the original failed to capture, and I have a few steps for all you listeners out there to get the full effect of the song. 1: Wait till it gets dark, then play FF3 a lot, fighting Atma Weapon as much as you can. Make sure you die a few times, and listen to the "game over" music a bit before you turn off your SNES or emulator. 2: Make sure there are no immediate distractions to take care of, because once you listen to this song, you should not pause for any reason. Put on a pair of headphones, then download and play this song. I guarantee that it will drive you insane, or at least prevent you from sleeping, for a long time. These are just suggestions, by the way, and I'm serious, this song can freak you out if you aren't careful. There is a part at the end which is just plain sinister, but I'll leave you to listen to it yourselves. Well, today, I thought I would share wit you my piece of writing for ACO's montly writing contest, and I think it turned out quite well. The only thing is, this month's writers were insane, so I had almost no chance of winning. Despite that, I think this is one of my better pieces of AC work, and if you have any questions, drop em in the comment box. Oh, and before I forget, one of the lines may confuse you. At one point, a guy shouts out "extra mustard", it's just part of the contest, so now a guy at ACO owes me a cookie. Enjoy. -Meteorain Maybe it's not the best idea in the world to work in the Raven's fold at a time like this, what with Silent Line attacks becoming more and more vicious every day. Naturally, that means higher pay, but just what is the price of one Raven these days? I mean, the cores cost an arm and a leg...and maybe the rest of the body too, but people rarely pay for the PILOTS like they used to... Then again, this whole automated AI thing is getting just a touch out of hand, and people never seem to value the use of pilots like they should. Well, we'll just see who's in control after this whole little episode is over. I mean, who is supposed to be superior here? Us, or the machines? ...Than again, I have a little theory about the Silent Line, but really, what are the chances that it's really just the same as last time? Ulysses leaned back in the seat of his core, and absentmindedly began chewing on his sunglasses, which was a typical nervous habit of his. It would have seemed to be an otherwise normal day for him, except, of course, for the fact that his core, or rather, what was left of it, was hidden inside a huge crater strewn with pieces of molten metal of AC's and other MT's. There was still quite a bit of smouldering metal lying around, and Ulysses looked casually around this twisted wreckage that was his home for the past few hours. Despite the bitter hopelessness of the situation, Ulysses smiled and looked around the barren landscape from the seat of his core, which had been completely ripped in half. Lucky for him, he had sustained no damage whatsoever. Ulysses looked out into the distance, as multiple plasma bolts rained from the sky like lightning, like some kind of bizarre picture show. Lost in these thoughts, Ulysses didn't hear the noise of the helicopter right away, but the sensation of cold wind on his face, and the searchlight sweeping the inside of the crater caught his attention. He stepped out of the ruined core, and took a gamble, sticking his head out to see what was going on, and he winced at the glare of the searchlight right in his face. He lifted up a hand, and heard, over the roar of the chopper's blades, the shouts of people inside, asking if he was okay, or if he was an enemy, or something Ulysses couldn't understand for the life of him. Nevertheless, he was very relieved to hear voices...that is...human voices, for the first time in a while... "So, will you take this job?" The man asked impatiently, watching Ulysses flip a coin absently in the air, one end of his sunglasses hanging out of the corner of his mouth. The two were sitting in an oddly furnished bar in what was now called the Raven's District, or the District for short. Ulysses' feet were on the table in front of him, and his eyes seemed oddly glazed over, more interested in the movement of his coin then the man in the expensive suit offering him the job. "Heads..." Ulysses mumbled inaudibly, tracking his record of wins and losses against himself. The man cleared his throat. "Do you accept the offer?" "Mm?..." Ulysses grunted, the man, slightly annoyed, asked again. "Will you take on this job?" "That's the thing, will I?" Ulysses responded, with a definite tone of apathy in his voice, the man glared at him. "Excuse me?" "Well, Crest Industries is working on an all-out refurbishment of their weapons facility, right? The machines are now being operated by...more machines, maintenance is becoming fully automated, You are, to put it simple, replacing people with AI's. Am I right?" "...That is correct...to a point, you see..." "Well, then why bother with us anymore? Ravens are soon going to become inferior pilots to machines, so what is the point of asking me to do your dirty work anymore?" The Crest man loosened his tie slightly, and stared at Ulysses disapprovingly, who just smiled coolly in return. "Crest still values the hardworking man over the emotionless machine. People are still able to best mechanical response in live combat. Our AI units are still not fully tuned to best a human on the battlefield." "And yet, your total automization procedure has left out just enough to give the Ravens a last ditch effort at living to help you breach the Silent Line before your machines kill us all?" The Crest man got up, Ulysses knew he had won. "I'm wasting my time here..." "Call it." Ulysses interrupted, holding his coin out on his thumb. The man just stared at it, then answered: "Tails." Ulysses flipped it, and caught it in his outstretched palm. a large, black, menacing looking bird, the Raven, revealed itself on the one side of the coin. "You win, I'll take your job." Ulysses replied, uncaring as usual, the man just stared. "Wh...why?" Ulysses clapped a hand on his shoulder. "I am, at the very least, appreciative of Crest sending a real person to ask me for the job, instead of just sending me an email." The dumbstruck man simply stared and watched as Ulysses headed off towards the Garage area. Naturally, one would assume that it would be a much more plausible prospect to accept more money for a mission in which the risk of death is far greater than under normal circumstances. The only thing is, what kind of money is good to you after you die? Yeah, it never really makes sense to me, why corporations do something like that, try and bother paying more for stupid missions. Somehow, it doesn’t make sense to me, why we would want more money if it was more certain that we would die. That’s why I left it up to the flip of the coin to decide wether or not to take this mission. He said that it would definitely result in an estimated 80% casualty rate...in a best-case scenario, and he did hire quite a team, this time. Unfortunately for me, I just happened to be one of them. F***ing machines, who wants to live under them forever? That’s another reason why I left it up to the coin in the first place. They don’t care about me, they just want my AC, so someday they can fit it with a machine that will pilot it better than me. This is just a game of f***ing chess to them, figuring out what their opponent has up their sleeve, and having to lose pieces to win more. Damn machines and their calculations. Everybody has to be a f***ing machine these days. OPERATION CODE: Meteorain CLIENT NAME: Crest Ind. LOCATION: Ellis Residential District, Archive Area MISSION START TIME: 6:49 ESTIMATED SUCCESS RATE: 22% RECOMMEND RAVEN RANK: S Ulysses sneaked a look out of the side of his bright white core, Rave, to catch a glimpse of the sunset through the back of the leaving transport plane, he looked around at the ragtag band of cores around him, each one ranging in colours from pale green to dark crimson to midnight blue, and even a large, pale lavender one. He glimpsed at a sea-blue biped core next to him, and turned on his com. “So, just what do you think of this plan?” He asked the pilot of this core. He heard a snort over the line. “Since when do you care? I just know that I’m getting a nice piece of pie for this job.” The pilot replied with a laugh. “Maybe it doesn’t really matter, since we probably know that not to many of us will really make it out of this alive.” replied a, oddly melancholy voice, coming from a red, white and green core, a light biped. “We may be paid well for it, but what do we really gain if we will not live to see what happens?” Ulysses smirked, and caught a glimpse of the two Raven profiles of the two men speaking. The one in the blue core was Sonic, piloting Atlantis, and the white core was Kabuki, piloted by Soulless. A third man interjected, it was a red core, Stasis, piloted by a man named Ion: “Ok, maybe we will not get out of this one alive, but that’s no reason to sound so hopeless about it, we’re Ravens, and we can always make it out if we show no mercy.” “Now wait a minute, that’s no reason for you to try and avoid the inevitable.” A large, off-white biped stepped forward, Waterwalk, AC Missionary, read Ulysses in silence, Waterwalk also seemed to be a much older man. Ion replied. “So? We’re not going to die here today if I have anything to say about it!” “We could all die someday, what difference would it make to you if it was today or some other day?” Soulless asked, Ion snorted. “And lose this much money? You’ve gotta be kidding.” “There’s always the chance that you’ll lose it someday.” Waterwalk replied, “No reason you should be so blind to the idea...” “Don’t be an idiot, we’re all here, so what can go wrong?” Sonic shouted at the much older Waterwalk, and another voice interrupted him. “A lot of things can go wrong.” The midnight blue reverse-biped replied, with an unusually dark undertone to his voice. Ulysses stared at Cross Mirai, piloted by Kaze. “You people just aren’t aware of it yet.” “And what’s that supposed to mean, smart guy?” Ion snorted, Sonic began again. “You people are all out of your minds, just because they said that there is a small chance of casualties doesn’t make it true!” “You must be awfully small-minded if you believe a thing like that.” Waterwalk replied. Ion stepped forward, but the last core, the bright lavender heavy, interrupted. “Now hold on, guys, we have no reason to fight now, so why don’t y’all just cool it and save it for the battlefield?” The core was Imago, piloted by Jira. Ion stepped back, and another core, a pale green quad, answered in turn. “He’s right, we can conserve our energy for the upcoming fight, if we want to leave it alive.” The voice was female, and the pilot was Crystal, piloting Sarraia. The last two statements shut everyone up, and none too soon, as a voice from the inside of the core’s com systems came through: “Good evening, Ravens. My name is Dana Strong, and I will be acting as your operations coordinator from Global Cortex today, is everyone all right?” No one replied. “Good, now, this mission is highly dangerous, and has an extremely low rate of success, should our sources be correct. If any of you require evacuation, then it will not be supplied for you, so if you have any second thoughts as to this mission, you may stay onboard the plane and return to base before the mission begins.” Ulysses looked around the interior, it looked like no one planned on staying. “Now, this operation is taking place within Ellis Residential District, on the edge of Archive Area space. The machines from the Silent Line region are staging an attack from northern Lawdas down towards Old Layered, in an attempt to disrupt Global Cortex operations there, this cannot be allowed to happen. You will be stationed in Ellis with the local forces from Crest, and reinforcements from Kisaragi should arrive soon. During the course of this mission, a simultaneous mission is being launched to the satellite cannon in orbit, to attempt to disable it. The Silent Line forces are aware of this, and are sending the bulk of their forces in an attempt to stop us.” Ulysses looked around at the group of tense-looking Ravens around him, and he took the opportunity to pull a small sandwich out of his pocket, as he had skipped lunch earlier. “Now, again, if anyone does not wish to go through with this mission, please remain onboard the plane as it passes over the area of operations.” Ulysses took a small bite of his sandwich, and he heard a small voice over the line. “Yes?” Dana asked. “How long...until the Kisaragi reinforcements get here?” Sonic asked. “I do no know, so I advise you to stay on the alert throughout this mission. Oh, and lastly, Ellis has been evacuated, so there should be no concern of civilian casualties.” “What a relief.” Ion muttered sarcastically. Ulysses ignored him, and kept his undivided attention on his sandwich. “Anymore questions? No? Good, we are passing over the target now.” The bay doors opened to reveal the silent city of Ellis, completely abandoned, and the desert far off in the distance. Ulysses finished his sandwich in one bite, and he looked like he was about to say something, when, suddenly, a bright yellow core jumped out in front of him. Ulysses looked at the core profile, it read “Extra Mustard.” “I’ve got Extra Mustard!” The pilot, Venomous, yelled as he jumped out of the plane. “Bring it on!” Ulysses and the rest of the group stared in confusion at this sudden display, then all boosted forward and jumped out of the plane... “Ok, team, the group should be arriving shortly.” The Crest Industries agent reported over the com, and Ulysses watched as the tanks and reinforcements from Kisaragi arrived just in time. “Commander! We are in position!” The Kisaragi commando reported, and Crest confirmed the same. “Ravens, are you all in position?” The multiple Ravens replied affirmative. “Ok, they should be arriving soon...” Ulysses looked off into the distance, and saw an AC marching on the edge of the horizon. He looked over to his side, and saw multiple MT groups coming in from the sides as well. Among them were some of the large, white, AC like units marching alongside them, “Big Whites”, as a famous pilot had once dubbed them. “Ok! Let’s go!” Venomous yelled. Extra Mustard proceeded to break formation and head towards the front, when suddenly a white bolt of plasma came thundering down from the sky and vaporized the foolhardy pilot and his AC in an instant, a smouldering crater leaving the only testament of Extra Mustard and Venomous’ existence. “It’s the satellite! It’s aiming at us!” A Kisaragi agent yelled suddenly. Ulysses cocked his head to the side, this was getting more interesting by the minute... “Attack!” The Crest officer yelled, and the three groups charged forward, doing their best to avoid being vaporized by blasts from the sky... Rave raced down the city streets as he separated from the rest of his group. Sarraia was lagging behind somewhat, and Missionary was covering them both from nearby buildings with sniper support fire. The three were racing towards a group of separated ACs, heading towards them from behind. Rave jumped once and fired a salvo of missiles at the oncoming units, and dealt a nice amount of damage, as they were a bit slow to dodge. When Rave landed back on the ground, a burst of spread bazooka fire told him that Missionary was nearby, and Sarraia leapt in close, taking potshots with a shotgun. Within a few moments, the opposing AC’s were cooked. Sarria dashed to the side, and Ulysses spotted an all too familiar ray of red light next to her AC. “Sarraia! Look out!” Too late, the massive plasma say slammed down on the side of her AC, and it ripped off her entire right arm, but left the quadrupedal legs only slightly damaged. “It’s ok, I’ll do fine, keep going!” Crystal shouted. Rave overboosted around the corner, and come face to face with four or five Big White units, who fired their plasma shots in unison. Rave hopped madly from side to side, able to dodge with some ease, and released a multi-warhead missile upon the unsuspecting units. They only saw one missile at first, but did not calculate the fact that they would have to contend with eight. The missiles streaked high into the sky before coming back down and assaulting their targets. Rave fired a few more shots out of its arms before Missionary came in with a few large rockets to finish the job. “I’ll hold this area, you go help the others.” The aged Waterwalk told Ulysses, who complied and overboosted in the other direction to help his teammates on the other side... “Sir! They are far more than we calculated! How do we...” The reporting trooper was vaporized by a blast from space before he could finish, and the Crest officer cursed loudly. He drove the command artillery out towards the direction where the most forces seemed to be coming from, and he fired a large shot. In a moment, the oncoming forces were vaporized by the massive energy shell, and the Crest commander began to load another shot, when a strange red light caught his eye... “Oh...” Rave rounded the corner just in time to hear the deafening roar of the space cannon, and just in time to see one of the larger tanks be destroyed by a deadly accurate cannon shot. Cross Mirai was standing a little distance away, and doing his best to fend off enemy fire with his large plasma launcher. “The high officer has been defeated! Retreat!” A Crest trooper yelled, and Kaze watched as the Crest units began to pull away from the combat zone. Sonic’s voice came through the line next. “Damn cowards! I’ll take them all out myself!” Ulysses watched as the light blue AC dashed out of the front lines and headed towards the oncoming units, dodging fire from space all the while. Rave took a step forward, when Kaze’s voice crackled through the com. “I’ll handle this.” Kaze took careful aim at the enemy’s front line, where Atlantis was firing wildly, and Sonic was shouting and screaming obscenities at the oncoming forces...Kaze fired a single shot from his launcher, and it vaporized Atlantis’ right leg. Sonic cursed and looked up in the sky, as the red beam fixed on his immobile AC. “You little!...” He screamed at Kaze before the wave of plasma vaporized his AC. Kaze looked triumphantly at the blast, as his plan worked. The other enemies who were in close proximity were also vaporized by the blast of plasma. Ulysses looked at Kaze. “Hey...” He began, but Kaze boosted off before he could finish. Ulysses looked back at the smouldering wreckage of the AC Atlantis, and thought it better, from now on, to stay out of the way of Cross Mirai... Kabuki, meanwhile, was doing a much better job, sneaking up on unsuspecting enemy cores, and finishing them with a couple of effective swipes with his laser blades, and he turned on his Crow and escaped inside an empty building. Soulless was slightly short of breath, and he immediately dashed back out into the fold to deal with the remainder of units. He ducked around the corner of a building, and let a decoy drop out. He then boosted around the other side of the building in an attempt to distract the laser from space. He rounded the corner, and came face to face with the most amazing sight... ACs and Big Whites, legions of them, coming at him from the horizon...Enough to end the city and the entire world, if need be. Kabuki backed up against the wall, and saw what was left of the AC Stasis...and Ion...as these monstrous machines all began to bear down on him... “Valiantly fighting...in the field of battle...” Soulless said slowly as he took a step forward. His AC began charging overboost... “That..is the only way...to die!” “All Ravens, Kabuki and Stasis are down...” Dana told the group softly. Ulysses looked ahead at the continuing oncoming forces, and noted that Kisaragi was faltering since Crest’s departure, the shots from space were relentless, and even massive apartment and office buildings were falling as doom continued to rain from the sky. “This is Missionary, Sarraia and I are trapped inside the old factory on the edge, trying to hold off the enemy units. Requesting backup!” Ulysses looked in the direction of the factory, and did see multiple large shots emanating from the factory at the edge of the city. Ulysses immediately turned on Overboost, and caught a glimpse of Imago next to him doing the same. The two ACs began bearing off in the direction of the devastation, and saw a red light poised right over the factory... “Above you!” Jira cried, but it was too late, as the shot came down and vaporized the whole factory in one brilliant explosion. The AC’s stopped and watched as chunks of debris rained from the sky, including pieces of the two cores... “I’ll hold them here! You try and save the other side while Kaze takes the middle!” Jira shouted. Ulysses obliged and Rave overboosted back the way they came. Jira looked at the oncoming onslaught of Big Whites and ACs. “Well, gotta end sometime...” He said as he walked forward, and fired a few missile blasts. The units, more annoyed then defensive, swatted the missiles out of the sky, and turned their attention to Jira, firing huge waves of plasma, which Imago didn’t even try to dodge... “I have a plan...” Kaze said confidentially to Ulysses, while Cross Mirai and Rave danced around madly trying to dodge fire from space. “Don’t blow me up,” was all Ulysses replied. “Don’t be stupid, what we have to do is destroy the main residential blocks from the lower streets down to here. If we can do it just right, we can cause enough carnage and debris to stop them getting to us.” “And then we are trapped in and we just wait until the space cannon vaporizes us.” “You have a better plan?” “No, let’s do it.” The two AC units both dashed off in opposite directions, firing what was left of their weapons at the key buildings, and the two watched in satisfaction as they crumbled to the streets, successfully blocking the Big Whites’ paths. Rave turned around, and saw Kaze struggling with a particularly tough building, then watched in horror as he got in close and began slashing it with his blade. “Don’t do that! I can...” Too late again, the building had already begun to crumble, and Kaze was trapped between two wrecked buildings, waiting for the red light to shine on him. “You’re left, good luck...” Kaze said finally, almost sounding as bored as ever, even when the bright light consumed what was left of his AC... Rave began moving around more madly than ever, trying to dodge more and more onslaughts, of fire from space, now that he was the only target left. “Machines...machines...” Ulysses muttered madly to himself, as the shots slammed around him, four or five at a time. “I hate these machines...” Ulysses stopped dead as he watched the red lights surround him, he was trapped., beams of white light slammed in all around his AC, and he could feel everything around him disintegrating, as everything grew unbearably bright...then dark... The AC unit looked at the destroyed white core, and scanned it quickly...it was completely inoperative. It looked at the core, as it was still partially intact, and saw a human figure inside it. It was not identified as a threat, as it now had no method of defence available to it. Ulysses watched as the core stomped off. “F***ing...machines...” “So, how were you able to survive?” the officer asked, and Ulysses replied: “I don’t know, the shots just hit my core, but it remained intact enough to prevent me from destruction.” “Then why didn’t the cores attack?” “They did not recognize me as a threat anymore, I didn’t have my own AC, and could not do anything, the must have thought I wasn’t worth it...” Ulysses looked at the ground from the chopper, as the ruined Ellis City receded into the background. The sun began to rise again, and Ulysses recognized the glint of metal from the ruined cores, and took a look ahead to the Old Layered city... “Those...F***ing...machines...” -Won-daa-shot

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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Deep story, deeper thoughts...

Today's OCRemix: "Team Gato" Chrono Trigger Remix by Dale North and Mustin. This remix defies description. It is indescribably...bizzare, to put it lightly. This is Gato's theme song from Chrono Trigger, and te style in which it is played shifts constantly, from classical to R&B to hip-hop to a freestyle rap. It's very funny, and even more weird. Listen at your own discretion. Well, my dad and I took a little walk today, and I should tell you this right now, but he is, without question, the coolest person I ever talk to. He works as an English university professor, and had two books published a little while ago. The man works practically nonstop, but we usually like to take walks, and I can run a few ideas for my writing and RPing by him and he gives me his input. I consider myself very lucky to have a professor of English as my father, which is why I also enjoy keeping up writing. Anyway, we walked for quite a bit, and exchanged our thoughts on the movie Princess Mononoke. He seemed to like it, but I said one of the cool parts for me was that none of the characters were really the "good guy" or "bad guy", just people possessing their own little eccentricies. Ashitaka is just a guy exiled from his hometown, and the main reason he does the things he does is not for the sake of anyone in particular, but to save his own skin. The fact that he meets San on this journey and falls in love with her, to me, just seemed purely coincidental. San, furthermore, faces her own crisis on exactly who, or what, she is. "I hate humans," says San, despite the fact that she is one. You don't just throw your humanity away like that. It doesn't make sense. Were she really not human, she would have cut Ashitaka's throat when she had the perfect chance to do so. All this got me thinking of writing a story similar to it. Less about the actual quest aspect of any story, more like what Ashitaka said his real journey was about: "To see with eyes unclouded." So, just what would it mean to achieve total clarity like that? What would life mean to someone who wanted to undertand it so clearly? Just what is the meaning of life? So, my idea is just about people trying to understand just that, their interpretation about what life is about, and how they might try to understand it, or even clash with each other over their views or any other reason based on their meaning of life. So, just what philosophies do you like to follow in your search for the meaning of life? Is there anything you think your life means to you that you should try and understand? Excuse me if I sould a little overly-philosophical, but It's just the after-effects of being inspired to write once again. Lucky me. -Won-daa-shot

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Monday, March 22, 2004

Change...

Today's OCRemix: "Meteorave" Starfox Remix by bLiNd Ok, so things are changing a bit around here. I'm just testing some of my newfound HTML know-how to try and make this place look a bit better dressed up. What do you all out there think about it? The OCRemix thing is a new feature of mine. Over the past little while, I found a particularily interesting site: OverClockedRemix.org, one featuring remixes of songs from video games. Naturally, I was intrigued, and began downloading songs. So, now I think I'll feature some of my favorites here with links to the site. Today's feture, "Meteorave", is from Starfox for the SNES, and it's a pumped up trance version of the music from the asteroid level...I think. Definetely something to get if you liked Starfox, even better if you like techno music. Well, this weekend, I returned my old movies to thee store, and then rented two more for me and my dad. The hihglight of which was Princess Mononoke. Princess Mononoke, to be honest, I wasn't too sure about, it did seem like an interesting movie, but I had already heard quite a bit about it, and wasn't too sure if I still wanted to see it after hearing so much about it from my friends. I rented it anyway, and I wasn't disappointed in the least. It was a cool movie, to put it lightly, and the interesting part is that I liked it, but I can't really say why. It just had a mysterious effect on me, and I enjoyed it for whatever reason I can't exactly explain. So far, though, I still think Snatch is the best movie I have ever seen, but I sort of preferred Mononoke over, say, the Lord of the Rings movies, because they just tended to drag out near the end, and despite the fact that Princess Mononoke did have a longish farewell scene, it was nowhere near as long as LOTR. Well, aside from that, I hope you also like my AC artwork near the top of the page. In case you can't really read the text, it reads "Shrapnel not included." I like the new look, myself, but you can tell me what you think about it. -Won-daa-shot

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Sunday, March 21, 2004

*bang bang bang bang*....

Well, t'was an awesome start-of-weekend, but the fact that it is the weekend really doesn't matter because I'm still on break. Hell, I woke up this morning and thought it was Monday, for god's sake. So, this past Thursday, my dad and I went to the video store and rented Snatch and Finding Nemo (boy, with that combination, I bet we freaked out the guy at the video place.) Finding Nemo was fun, granted (now I can finally talk about that movie with my friends in Drama,) but Snatch is definitely the best movie I have ever seen. Snatch is a British comedy about a bunch of jewel thieves, some ruthless, some horribly incompetent. It's considered to be a comedy, but it is very vulgar and gritty, and a lot of people get shot up. Despite that, there are a few funny moments...which I will not give away because you should see this movie for yourselves, it rules. I also found some music from the movie, and some of it is pretty good, including "Are you There", and "Diamond" by Klint, "Angel" by Massive Attack, and "F**kin' in the Bushes" by Oasis. "Diamond" is the paragon of the jewel theives' theme song, as it is slow and cool, but gets a bit more loose and wild later on. "Are you There" and "Angel" are both very slow and more tense, so they would arise more in the serious scenarios. Finally, "F**kin' in the Bushes" is a fight song, first and foremost. Heavy drums at the beginning, with a guy yelling at the massive crowd below, eventually coming to a fever pitch with a chorus and guitar around the middle. The end, however, is not very cool, as it is just some creepy old lady talking, go figure. Well, I am no movie connisseur, but if you like thieves' comedy, and you can stomach R rated material, then go rent this movie. ...I guess that's it for tonight. Maybe now I'll slip downstairs and fix myself some instant noodles... -Won-daa-shot (...Has my comment box vanished?...How odd.)

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Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Happy...(Insert event here)

St. Patrick's Day? Don't make me laugh... Oh, wait, it is St. Patrick's, but to be honest, there are more important things than that...such as my mom's birthday. Yes, how cool is that, my mom's birthday is today as well, so, naturally, we got all dressed and such (took my first shower this spring break,) and headed out to an expensive restaurant. Who here can seem to find a taste for really expensive food? Seriously, I would much much rather go to an expensive place in town rather than stick around eating pizza or (to a point) food from home. It's just so wicked, as I happen to love such items as fresh shrimp or lobster/crab, good seafood and such. (I'm Portuguese, whaddya expect?) On that note, I also have a new cousin today. Inès is her name, and she is from my mom's side of the family, which means my mom will, from now on, be blatantly ignored by her side of the family and all the attention will go to my new cousin. Way to go, Inès. Nevertheless, it was a pretty eventful day, as I got up at the crack of...afternoon to go say hi to my mom, and I did make a note to say happy birthday to her at 2 A.M. when we were both heading off to bed. On the internet side, I finished writing a new story for ACO's monthly contest, and I'll post it here...probably later. My dad though it was a really good story, but this month, everybody went nuts wriing their stories, so even my best so far will probably fall short when the votes come around. Oh, well, join me in also celebrating my mom's and Inès' birthdays. *taps conductor's baton for silence...* Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday, dear mom(and Inès) Happy Birthday to you. *bows deeply* -Won-daa-shot

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Monday, March 15, 2004

Just when you thought it was safe to come out...

Wondershot goes on spring break. ...Yeah, it's true, my school is crazy, having our own spring break a week after all the other schools. Damn privately owned system, all the other public schools hate us and would probably try to kill us if we went on break at the same time, so I guess I can understand... Ironically, my good friend Steve is going to the States for both weekends of my break, so we will be out of contact, which is total shit if you ask me. Otherwise, I can hand out with people who go to my current school, and I did manage to entertain another friend with Steve's anime DVDs, which I then lent to the former friend. (Steve's away, i said, so he wouldn't care...what am I saying, Steve doesn't care about anything, so what difference would it make?!) On another note, Steve also learned that my other buddy borrowed my copy of Chrono Cross from a friend of his before moving to Ontario! What a friend, huh? Never telling me anything. Fortunately for me, I have a good two weeks to brood over it, and try and bug the aforementioned friend into sending me back my games. Either that, or go to Ontario sometime this week and hunt him down. (I'm on break, man, anything is possible.) Lastly, I'm finishing up the music list for Laeth E'Thae for Madame Arcadia, and so far, it looks something like this... The Grudge by Tool Re-Entry by Limp Bizkit Take it All by Trust Company Soil by System of a Down Triad by Tool Peephole by System of a Down Almost over by Limp Bizkit Go by Andy Hunter Lateralus by Tool Minerva by the Deftones It is only too evident, now, that I must be cutting down on the Tool in my music diet. What can I say, it's the kind of music that just seems right to me, especially for this CD. *clears throat* CITIZENS OF LAETH E'THAE! Give me your music requests so that I can finish up the CD! Please consider carefully what you want, and I'll do my best to comply! Oh, and I could also use suggestions on cover art, too. If you can think of a "theme song" for any of your characters, you can also say how you might want it illustrated. Ok, I'm no professional DJ, but I am the self-proclaimed RPG DJ, and I now work on music for RPGs as part of the undeniable fact that I have no life. Don't you just love outlets like this? It's the reason I joined OB. -Won-daa-shot

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Thursday, March 11, 2004

Confused, Angry, Stressed.

Guess what, the long March break has just begun for me, but that does not keep the stress from going away just yet. Translation: I just got my report card. Correction: My parents got my report card. Ok, so I can understand their line of thinking behind this, I guess, but they seem unusually intense about me studying at home. Just a few minutes ago, they were giving me grief about how my report was two or three points lower than usual. I also came close to failing Science. I suppose I can understand their line of thought, the reports drop some, so that means that Vincent is not doing as much work as he should at home. Except...they make me feel way too pressured when they ask me to come down to "talk", about my report. They insist on knowing exactly my line of thinking behind each of my marks, and I feel somewhat stressed trying to explain what happened during the course of my entire school year. I suppose it's reasonable to say the least, and I can understand that my parents care about me and only want to help, but a side of me still repeats "this is ridiculous," everytime my parents ask me exactly why I happened to drop about 2 or 3% in my marks. (I suppose that is quite a bit, but it just gets to me how they want so many details.) Ok, maybe I should try to explain my side, first. Generally, I see my four reports in a year as a sign of exactly how I'm doing, and what steps I might take to work on improving during the course of the year. Except...my parents take it far more seriously that I do. I'm not sure, who is being ridiculous here? Me? My parents? Who? What can I say? I try to do my work, I try to study sometimes when I know I am having trouble with a subject, and I don't exactly try to "sweep under the carpet" so to speak, but I take each test as it comes and use them as signs to tell where I am going. However, maybe I don't take it seriously enough, but there's still that side of my brain that tells me that I am working hard and things will work out better. Am I being unneccessarily complacent? Am I trying to work too hard? Ok, maybe I'm not making a lot of sense here, and I can understand why it would be difficult to try and talk to me about this without actually knowing what my life is like at home, but I want to ask you this: Do your parents breathe down your neck about your reports often? What do you feel about how people react to your grades? Does something like this make you angry? Stressed? Am I being just plain immature? I really don't know what to say at this point, I would just feel better if someone would say something about this. It is nice to hear from a different perspective, and since this little episode is so fresh in my mind, I think it's probably best to write about it, as I am now. Ok, I have a sore throat, I'm thirsty, it's bedtime, and tomorrow, I'll be waiting for the next bomb my parents are going to drop on me when they come back from parent teacher interviews. Just why does life do this to you just when you think you're home free? -Won-daa-shot

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Monday, March 8, 2004

*inhales deeply*

Brace yourself, It's time to recap the weekend. Saturday: Tres cool, I went to a good friend's house, where we just sat in his room all day, playing Legend of Mana and Grandia, simply revelling in the insanity. He also showed me his new anime DVDs (Naruto and Love Hina) and lent them to me! Yay. I went to a band concert my school was holding, too, and it was fun, since I know a few people in the band. (Main reason my coach cancels curling practice, band practice.) Sunday: Nada much to do, so my dad and I took a long walk, and I told him about Laeth E'Thae which I was thinking about. He seemed to like it, even though I didn't give him too many details. (Talking to a man who thinks a storyline from any given Final Fantasy game is too hard to follow, or to care about...) My mom made great food, so it was good, and, I broke with the usual shell of procrastination, and finished a couple of homework projects a little early. Monday: This morning I forgot that the morning classes were off, so when I got dropped off by my mom, I went in, realized that I had forgotten we had no morning classes, and immediately ran out the door trying to catch my mom, but I didn't, damn. *gasps for breath* Ok, so that was the jist of my weekend and today. Not much to speak of, but I am now more into anime than I realized, having watched my friend's DVDs. My mom also seems to like Love Hina, which is interesting to say the least. This week, I plan to try and post in RPG's, make a quiz for theOtaku.com (I bet you can't guess what it's about...) and maybe try working on more music for RPGs. As I said to Arcadia the other day.. "If that (Laeth RPG) doesn't work out, well, I can always make CDs..." How true, I seem more glued to my music every day, and now this anime thing is too much! Oh yeah, this weekend, I also began working on editing Enfo's Team Survival (Warcraft III subgame) to make it a little easier for me and my buddies. It paid off, as I won my first Enfo game ever, me and my friend. We came so close, it was not even funny, but we did it, thanks to my programming genius. (Not really, fixing up Enfo a bit is not too hard.) Oh, and, in school related news, a friend of mine is trying to find a place to stay for the upcoming March Break, so I'm woking on convincing my parents to let him stay for a bit. We can't keep him for very long, according to my parents, and I agree to a point, but now I wonder how we'll work this out, like finding him somewhere else to go the rest of the time. (school residences are open, but you have to pay, which kinda sucks.) Oh, and sorry if I sounded a little nuts the other day when I mentioned the guestbook signing, just that I think people should try and break out of this "instant messenger" craze in writing, and try writing more normally. Just thinking aloud, so to speak. -Won-daa-shot

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Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Going for Broke

Well, as the title says, I have been agonizing for the past little while (complete with music) over the state of the RPGs I am currently in, wanting to post but not really knowing how to express myself, so to speak. Eventually, I settled on posting in OS:FP, not my best work, but one that provides me with some opportunity to try and put myself on the level with some of the other characters. Laeth is on my waiting list too, as I explore some more music to fit. Essentially, I have settled on a theme for the entire music list, probably very dark and with some angst, mostly obsesion with life and death, as well as revenge and hate, big themes in the story. The Grudge by Tool Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity. Calculate what we will or will not tolerate. Desperate to control all and everything. Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen. Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down. Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end. Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down. Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell. Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again. Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down. Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end. Saturn ascends, comes round again. Saturn ascends, the one, the ten. Ignorant to the damage done. Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity. Calculate what we will or will not tolerate. Desperate to control all and everything. Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen. Wear the grudge like a crown. Desperate to control. Unable to forgive. And we're sinking deeper. Defining, confining, controlling, and we're sinking deeper. Saturn comes back around to show you everything Let's you choose what you will not see and then Drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again Spits you out like a child, light and innocent. Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or Drags you down like a stone To consume you till you choose to let this go. Give away the stone. Let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated anchor. Give away the stone. Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges into gold. Let go. Let it go, Let it go, Let it go... Yep, that's the major song in the Laeth music list. I can see the parallel between this and the whole story. What with the evil prince choosing to sacrifice himself and create a deadly plague just to punish those that defied him and tried to kill him in the past. I can see eye to eye on this part to a point, since genocide is totally unjustifiable. However, this is not the only parallel, as, later in the story, I plan on introducing another couple of sections, as well as a few other "grudges". That's for the next time I write for Laeth! There's not much new to report this week, except that the first couple of days have been pretty easy, having had no rehearsals or sports yet. Unfortunately I have to go to a ski trip with the school this Friday instead of the normal day off. (Yes, I loathe skiing, I play curling for a reason, you know.) Ok, now for one more complaint before I leave. People, should you read this, I would much prefer it if you take the time to to use proper spelling, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization when you sign my guestbook. I am a firm believer that the way you should talk on the Internet should be no different than the way you would talk or write anywhere else. Sure, with instant messengers, there is an exception since you are expected to type a mile a minute. However, with this site, you have the time to write like a normal person, so please do it. If you don't have the time, don't sign. That's all I have to say, sign legitimately, and there is a much greater chance of me coming to your site in the future. Dankashun. -Won-daa-shot (The above is an exception to what I just mentioned, as it is the only slight morphing of my name.)

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Wednesday, February 25, 2004

As one curling player said to another...

"Let's go get stoned." Ok, bad joke, but it's the best I could come up with for today. I just came back from a fantastic curling match against my old school, and my team did great, despite the inexperience. Our boys team won 6-3, and girls won 7-4 with an amazing 4 point end at the last moment. For those of you unfamilliar with Curling, it is probably one of the few sports left played exclusively in Canada, or so I assume, since I never see it anywhere else. Our school is in close proximity with the local curling club, so our Economics teacher, being the great guy that he is, offers us the chance to play curling during the winter. This be my first year, but so far, I really like it. Curling is played on a "sheet" about 10-12 feet wide and is slightly longer than a hockey rink. The two ends of the sheet have "houses" which are red and blue target rings painted on the ground. The two teams each throw 8 stones in a single "end" (or round) and try to get as close to the center as possible. The closest team to the center gets the point, and the more stones the team has in the center, the more points, but if a stone from the other team lies between the stone closest to the center and the rest, then the team closest only gets 1 point. (Apologies, it's fairly hard to explain without some diagram.) For a common misconception about curling, the ice, despite what it might appear on TV, is not smooth, but very grainy and covered with tiny pebbles of ice. Thet's where the brooms come in. The team grabs their brooms and sweep the ice as their stone goes by, this makes the stone go faster, and it doesn't curl as much. Curling players have to remember to use more energy in the beginning, and turn it down later on, as the ice becomes more smooth. Both teams also have a "skip", who is the guy who stands at the other end of the sheet, in the house, and is basically the head strategist, as he tells the guy shooting the stone where to aim, what spin to give it (so that it curls in the right direction), and coordinates the two sweepers, telling them when to sweep (when the stone moves too slow or deviates from the path) and when to stop (when the stone is too fast or is about to do something bad, like hit another stone.) I am proud to say I've played skip a couple of times, and was pretty good, but my weakness is predicting the speed of the stone, as it is hard to tell from far away. So...with one skip, one person shooting, and two sweepers, there are four players on a team. During a game, they rotate who shoots the stone, each team member shooting two stones (the skip always shoots last, and the guy who shot before him skips for him.) There you go, those are the basics of curling, my new winter sport of choice. In other news, little as it may be, I designed a front and back cover for the Laeth E'Thae album I'm working on, and I'll try and post a link later. So long folks, and don't hit your head as you leave. -Won-daa-shot

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