No, I didn't really neglect the site - Eryxma Networks, where this site is hosted, ran into many problems, ranging from hardware failures to being unplugged by the datacenter service o.O Glad I'm back up, and without any lost data ^^;
From what I understand of the problems (if you're really interested, you can read these two threads on their News and Announcements forum: "What's Going On?" and "Migration Initiated - Status from Start to Finish"), what happened was, I started on the Chicago datacenter, which, along with the San Francisco datacenter, was exhibiting massive problems, and thus, have all been migrated over to a new, better, faster Atlanta datacenter. Indeed, the site seems faster, from just doing this posting - the news script actually loaded in less than 10 seconds, including time to type in my login/pass o.O
Anyways, things have been pretty much uninteresting while I've been down. I'm almost up to level 100 in Kingdom Hearts, I can now easily dispatch Sephiroth without using any weapon skills (no more Strike Raid!), and I've completed almost every mini-game in existance. I even completed all the Pooh minigames, and got the Cheer ability (yeesh... was expecting something better for all that effort) ^^;
Today I picked up some 8 hour tapes to tape the DDR exhibition on the CBS Early Show - which I just now found out has been postponed to Nov. 4th due to weather. Just a minor change in the programming schedules will fix that really quick. ^^; Also picked up Marmalade Boy Manga 4 (and no, I haven't even started reading the series, since I don't have Manga 1 yet ^^;), Fruits Basket DVD1, Kurogane Communication DVD3, and an interesting pick (and which has been occupying all of my time tonight), Phantom of Inferno. This has been sitting, out of place, in our anime section for quite some time, and I decided, after it got a recommendation from Greg (the new 3rd keyholder), to finally try it out. It plays like a slowly paced Choose Your Own Adventure book, depicted with voice acting and picture stills, and some occational animations. The look of the game is very low-tech (all stills - which could have easily been done in real-time on a PSOne) but the story is quite gripping... the cover advertises over 20 hours of play, so this might take a while ^^;
And my car troubles are kinda over - we found out that, for the past few months, there has been a severe leak in a few key engine components, which caused all the oil to drain out. Almost all the problems stemmed from the lack of engine oil ^^; That was fixed, and the car is pretty much running the way it should now. The audio system is still completely screwed up, though -_- Tomorrow, I'm probably going with my mom to pick up the Lincoln from the mechanic, so I need to get an early rest so I can be awake in time for that...
And my modchip actually arrived a while back. The thing is smaller than a typical PSX memory card. o.O I need to look into options for actually getting it installed ^^;
Also, recently, I've won this eBay auction for "New Para Para Controller w/ Used Para Game". My final sniped bid (within 15 seconds of the auction ending!) was $103.50, and the seller has given me a tentative shipping cost of $25 over that (he says he'll refund me the difference between that and the actual shipping cost, since he doesn't know what that is yet). Need to hurry up and get the PS2 modded before that arrives ^^;
And, yeah, I also broke down and bought one of RedOctane's special bundles for DDRMAX USA's release - picked up DDRMAX + Ignition 2.0 pad for $99 - this is basically buying an Ignition 2.0 pad and getting DDRMAX for free o.O The problem with this is that I get the game a bit later than if I just go to a retail store and pick it up, but this way, I'll actually have a usable pad to play the game with when it arrives ^^; My Konami is long past dead, and I can't play well on that old standard RedOctane (made well before the Ignition was introduced). We'll see how this Ignition 2.0 pad does.
I've also taken a couple trips down to Springfield Mall (VA)... they have MAX2, and I finally made one of my loftiest personal goals of recent history - I have gotten to MaxX Unlimited EX double ^^; Finally AA'd Can't Stop Fallin' In Love -Speed Mix- heavy double, no mods - 39 greats, 1 miss, the rest perfects ^^; I then proceeded to, uhh, fail MaxX Unlimited in about 5 seconds ^^; (Hey, I got ONE perfect... nevermind the 18 misses... =P)
And... uhh, I guess things really did happen while this site was down o.O Mostly me spending a lot of money ^^;;; Well, I think I've written enough for one day, so I'll write again later~ ^^;
(Woo! My avatars are back! Bask in the Misha-kawaiiness!)
After probably 15 or so tries, destroyed Sephiroth - Lvl. 83, HP 83, MP 13, used 3 Elixirs. All you get is a bunch of experience, and his journal entry for Characters 1 =P
I guess I'll document -how- exactly I did this...
Prepare for this right - equip as much MP and Defense boosting equipment as possible - Fire defense is also strongly recommended. As for abilities, you MUST HAVE Guard (or leave this off for a bigger challenge), Strike Raid (everyone will tell you, this is a MUST), Counterattack, and Second Chance. After that, equip all your MP Rages and MP Hastes, then all your Critical Pluses, then all your Combo Pluses, then whatever else you care to put on, but not the other specials (Sonic, Arcanum, or Ragnarok) - they'll interfere with Strike Raid. As for items, just fill up on Elixirs - as many as you can hold.
As far as I can figure, Sephy has 3 phases of attack. The first phase, you want to conserve as much of your MP as possible, so make it look like a real swordfight - parry and combo. Once you've figured out the pattern, it's actually very easy. Basically, he just walks up to you, and when he's a certain distance from you, he'll slash. He'll probably then jump, slash again, etc. He has two types of slashes - a quick one where he stays stationary afterwards, or one where he takes time to draw the sword, slashes, and hops backwards so you can't counter. When he does the first type, you have to tap guard a little bit before he actually attacks, then you can hit attack to counterattack him quickly, and turn that into a combo. After the combo, he'll vanish - dodge roll, jump, or you're good, guard immediately - this is a teleport counterattack. You'll need to reestablish your lock whenever he teleports too - he does this quite often.
After you wear him down to the next color of his HP, he'll stand still and taunt, then he'll dash towards you - but this is a fake-out! He'll teleport, and emerge on the opposite end of the arena, and start casting Soul Harvest (I think that's its name, anyways) - the move that takes all MP and reduces HP to 1. He'll do this quite a few times in this phase, too, just without the taunt to warn you. You can hear when he starts it - he has the courtesy of announcing the spell 4 seconds before he finishes it ^^; As soon as you hear him casting the spell, make sure you're locked on to him, and Strike Raid him (you should try to stay in the center of the Arena, or you might be out of range). Strike Raid is VERY important now - I consider it more a DEFENSIVE move than an offensive one, because if done right, you are kept completely INVULNERABLE for 15-20 seconds! This is very effective in this phase, as his attack pattern now consists of running and slashing (much harder to parry - and I typically don't bother trying), Soul Harvest, and Omnislash (if you don't feel like avoiding it, just Strike Raid right through it - if you start it in the middle of the attack, you'll be invulnerable until a bit after the end of it).
That continues until when you get close to his last HP meter. Here's where it REALLY gets interesting. I only got to this phase once, the time I beat him, so I don't know how accurate this is... but it starts with Sephy casting some kind of Meteor attack. The meteors appear and revolve around the entire arena, relatively easy to dodge but making it very difficult to heal. Eventually, he calls them back, and makes them all fall, basically an arena-wide "you die now" attack ^^; He did this to me 2 or 3 times, and I just Strike Raided my way through it every time - it never touched me even though it looked like the world was ending ^^; He is sparkling with energy now - basically following phase 2 attack pattern, but MUCH faster, and with the Meteor attack added to all the other attacks in his pattern ^^; At this point, I was kinda desperate to beat him, so I just did Strike Raid non-stop - about 10 times consecutively before enough of them hit to finally make him keel over ^^;
Phew... his death sequence looked remarkably similar to the end of FF7 - just a lot prettier ^^; After that is the basic Victory pose, and you get dumped back into the Coliseum lobby. No trophy or anything, just a page in the Journal ^^;
Oh well. I think I want to play a bit more - I still want to do Hades cup time trial - I'll write about Monday and Tuesday later ^^;
At Chris's house again - gave him my old burner, right now downloading burning software so that we know whether or not the burner actually works ^^; Much Gitaroo Man/Mario Sunshine/Klonoa 2 action going on upstairs ^^;
Anyways... not going to spend the night since everyone needs to go to school tomorrow...
Trying one more time at this katakana memorization thing. Pretty sure I won't succeed. ^^;
Yesterday was interesting - I arrive on campus, but Cesar never does - and apparently, he hasn't received his copy of the script, even though I sent it yesterday o.O It would have been really nice if we gotten a chance to actually practice like originally planned, and especially to make sure if he had gotten a copy of the script at all so this isn't completely forced into memory tomorrow morning -_-
Anyways, end up going to pick up Josh, and coming back for anime club - I play a bit of KH there - I do many things to show off the game, like going to Neverland, playing the Hercules cup, etc... also, Josh and I show off our gummi ships, and apparently we're the only ones out of the people that play KH that actually bothered to custom build their ships ^^; Turns out mine is quite a fair bit bulkier than Josh's, but it's loaded down with far more armor/weapons/engines. Josh also spends a good half hour attempting to beat Sephiroth - when he's around level 65 - ouch. ^^;
A lot of Gitaroo Man is played, too - once again, I confirm I utterly suck by failing the 1st stage in Master Mode again. -_- After that, a lot of Rez is played - the game is actually beaten ^^; I need to pick up that game... too bad Best Buy no longer seems to carry it...
We also did a Pizza Hut run for food. The same girl as last time rings us up for the pizzas - she's cool ^^; We head to Shoppers for the drinks, and when I get back, the car looked like it had been through a war zone. There were more piece of bird poop on it than flaming arrows in the opening scene of Gladiator ^^; And the car actually looked semi-clean before that...
Ate, watched Rez being played, played Halo, and that was the night... Patty, Kevyn, and Josh went off to XP LaserSport, as is the weekly ritual, but this time, I elected to go immediately home. I didn't exactly do that though - since I have relatives coming over, I decide not to bring the car home looking like shit (literally), and take it over to Exxon Gaithersburg for a quick machine car-wash. The Works almost cleaned the car off, but it still looked pretty shiny and clean. Went on home, and ended up sleeping until around a couple hours ago.
Anyways, one more day and I can actually get back to somewhat normal life, instead of preparing for this damned midterm -_- I still have that CD burner to install, shell bills to pay, and a lot of HnK stuff that needs work on, and, of course, I can finally beat KH... unfortunately, it'll all have to wait for Sunday. ^^; At least I can take a nap before work tomorrow...
I forgot to post this a few days ago - back on Tuesday (I think), I received my copy of SQUAREDANCE limited edition - number 567 of 1000 (I thought they limited it to 900..?) I haven't really gotten a chance to listen to much of it, but I like what I've already heard ^^
Heading off to campus now to practice the skit...
Yesterday was a day that didn't go to plan at all. Wasn't necessarily bad, though.
I finally arrived on campus around 11:30 (an hour and a half later than I was supposed to arrive, ugh...) - no Cesar (who I was supposed to meet) in sight, but I spotted Patty and the others on their way out to Best Buy Rockville. I sweeped the cafeteria and Rec center for Cesar really quick, then decided it would be pointless to stay on campus with nothing to do, so I went to join Patty and the others.
Basically, the time was spent with most of the people playing the demo games, and Patty buying back a lot of the stuff she lost last week. I exchanged Josh's damaged copy of Kingdom Hearts while I was there, too. Coincedentally, Josh was working while we were there, so we all saw him. He tells me he gets off work at 5:45. We eventually finish up at Best Buy and head to grab lunch at IHOP.
IHOP is pretty fun - just make sure never to order the chocolate chip pancakes. Pat ordered them, and swore that the act of eating them would shave off 20 years of his life. ^^; I was quite happy with my chicken strips and mashed potatoes. Too many onion rings, though ^^; Patty gets a call from Daniel while we're there - seems he and Cesar are at campus now ^^; i head back before the others to meet him, since that was the entire reason I left the house in the first place.
We get together and draft up the skit we have to do on Saturday. This takes us probably 20 minutes at the most. It's agreed that I translate the script into Japanese, and we both learn it, and we get together again on Friday to rehearse it. We then head off on our separate ways. (This is at about 3 pm now.)
I decided to try to pull up directions to a place called "Game Edge" in Gaithersburg/Germantown. (I was later told the place went out of business, so this was a waste of time.) I went to the computer lab, and waited for the station to turn on. After 5 or so minutes, I turned on the station next to it, and watched that one complete its bootup sequence before the first station was actually done. -_- MC sure knows how to royally screw up a P3 to the point where my old 486 can outperform it. I decide I would get directions to the place later (but of course, since it doesn't exist anymore, I never do) and head off to BB Gaithersburg.
I finally pick up that burner I've been intending, but not the model I thought I would get - I pick up a Plextor combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive (20x10x40x12, I think). It had a rebate on it, which made it cheaper than the CD-RW drive that was there. And besides, I was planning on replacing the DVD-ROM drive eventually, anyways. So I brought that home, then almost immediately departed again...
... right to Josh's house. Amusingly, I get there at the same time that he does (he was walking home from work). He told me I had left BB too early - they had just gotten in Love Hina DVD5 and Strawberry Eggs DVD2 (argh! I wanted that) and he had snatched it out of receiving and picked them up. After 5 or so minutes, we head off to Suncoast to check to see if our X TV boxes have come in - they haven't, and I spend half an hour trying to find the manga in the shipment pile (I fail). While I'm doing that, Josh heads off to Waldenbooks, and picks up Chobits 3, Kodocha (don't know which volume it was), among other things. Finally head off to CP, where I start working on my SC2 conquest character there. Kevyn arrives a little after we do.
SC2 was ok, but DDR was not treating me well. For probably the 2nd time in my life, I failed Furuhata's Theme double - a song that I should be able to full-combo by now. -_- I was in no condition to play, since it had been more than 2 hours since my last meal. (Fast metabolism == bad.) It took until 2 minutes after the arcade closed to get my SC2 character up to Platinum Soldier (after being demoted to Gold Infantryman many times over). Apparently, at CP, I'm now a "Platinum Soldier of the Furies". Sounds better than the "of the Cerberus" I got at SF, I think. I'm now above Kevyn in the SC2 rankings, but that'll change soon enough, since I only had like 15 or so more wins.
We end up going to Tastee Diner - I usually order the chicken tenders, but since I had the IHOP chicken strips earlier, I opted against that, and just got the fried chicken platter. Also, I read a bit of Chobits 3 while waiting for the food to arrive. Food was a bit underwhelming - onion rings seemed exactly the same, but the chicken seemed dry, and the mashed potatoes seemed... instant. ^^;
After that, we headed our separate ways... Kevyn drove home, I dropped Josh off at home, and I went home. Had to clean up my room a bit, since I was just informed that we have relatives visiting soon. I went to play Kingdom Hearts a bit (I play that game WAY too much) and, as usually, fell asleep with the game on, so my time elapsed counter once again elapses by god knows how many hours. (This is like the 4th or so time I've slept with the game on...)
On to today... I didn't leave home today - but somehow ended up playing Kingdom Hearts until my stomach complained loudly that it needed food. Since there was a power outage the previous day at one point, I didn't know what time it was - so I ended up shutting off the game at -4 pm-... -_- I spent the next 2 and a half hours going over our skit script, and revising and translating it into Japanese, and sent it off to Cesar. We're behind schedule -_- Also, at some point we get a call from the relatives that state that they'll be arriving tomorrow, and not today. After that, mom came home, we ate dinner, and I watch a little anime (I've been meaning to watch Platonic Chain for a while now, and finally got a chance to do just that.) Now, about to leave the comp, and see if I can get the katakana chart copied down a few times - I need to have it copied down 13 times by Saturday morning, so I'll probably do half of it tonight.
Yep. And I haven't even installed the new burner yet. That'll have to wait until next week.
Don't have much of an entry to write, since I need to get to campus and meet up with someone about our project. I didn't get to buy that burner yesterday, I'll probably do so today after we're done talking about the project. (Not sure how long that will take.)
I don't have the pics I took with the Minolta camera done - that roll isn't even close to finished off - but I got the handful of pics my bro got of the cake thing with his digital camera. Check those out here. =P
Yesterday had absolutely nothing of note happen. I did play a lot of SC2 at City Place for a change - I'm close to the rank I hold at Springfield now - "Platinum Infantryman", one rank short of Platinum Soldier, and getting some random thing tagged at the end. ^^; Ran into Kevyn too - I can actually beat him in a vs. battle now! ^^;
It also looks like my old Memorex 2x2x6 burner has finally bit the dust - it made clicking noises when I attempted to burn a CD last night. I've been meaning to get a new burner anyways, since 2x is quite the unbearably slow speed. Since I still have the majority of my ADV check in my bank account, I'll probably go buy a new burner today, and install it tomorrow or late tonight.
Oh well - going to play more Kingdom Hearts, then I'm off to work for today.
Back home now. I'm the only one here - apparently, my mom and my bro went to see a movie.
About 5 minutes after that last post, the others came - we basically sat around for an hour or two longer - I took a nap during this time. It's nice to see that Patty and the others get along so well - I hadn't expected to basically hang out at Chris's the entire weekend, and my previous attempts at introducing people from different groups of friends have resulted in disaster, but this is nice. Tiff invited both of us to her birthday thing, going on Nov. 16. I'll be sure to see if I can get that day off - probably can since I know this one so far in advance. ^^
After hanging out, it's decided that Pakman and Chris are hungry, and thus we decide to a Korean BBQ buffet place. Food is good ^^ We grilled more meat than we could eat, though -_- Hanna said that Kp should have been around so he could finish off the rest =P
After that, we decided to head home from the restaurant - Patty's dad is coming home that day and she needed to get home, plus she was quite tired from not getting enough sleep that night. (Oddly enough, I am not tired, though I probably should be.)
Not much going on now... I have a lot of HnK stuff to catch up on, since I was gone the whole weekend - also, while I was at the Best Buy at Springfield, I picked up Crazy Taxi for PS2, so I might try that out for a while - not to mention I have Gitaroo Man and Kingdom Hearts back.
While I'm on that note - Gitaroo Man import is -hard-! The patterns are the same, but the penalties for missing stuff are much harsher, and charging anything more than 1.5 inches is very difficult. I checked the options menu - the import version has difficulties "Normal" and "Easy", while the US version has difficulties "Normal" and "Hard" - my theory is, the Japanese "Normal" is equivalent to the US "Hard". Ek got -really- close to beating the final stage - I could only get about a minute in -_-
Also, found out that we have this skit thing to do next Saturday - we have to have a full conversation, where we must introduce ourselves, exchange business cards, and have a store-like situation where we have to be able to count items and deal with currency. Missing the previous two weeks of class didn't help - the fact that the partner I got for the skit also missed the previous two weeks is even worse. I think we'll do okay though, as long as I can get in touch with him over this week...
Oh yeah, and we have to be able to write a complete katakana chart too. I thought this was supposed to be a course on -spoken- Japanese o.O Doesn't bode well for me...
Over at Chris's house with Patty - somehow ended up staying here instead of going to AnimeUSA. (It took entirely too long for us to get down, and there was no point going to the con by the time we arrived, so we just stayed - besides, Hanna, Pakman, Chris, Ek, and David were there. =P)
Just more of the usual - some Gitaroo Man, lots of DWI, some KoF97, and we watched DVD1 of Tsukikage Ran last night. Bounma also made some really good steak and cheese subs o.O Mine had no cheese, tho, of course.
Woke up this morning, we get an omelet/bacon/sausage links/hash browns breakfast o.O We all went to Best Buy a bit after that - Ek and David wanted a really long ethernet cable. Went to SF after that. Apparently, I'm now a "Platinum Soldier of the Cerberus". (A little screen showed up the last time I played that said "you now know you must take the path of the Cerberus" or something like that - who knows why that was decided...) Ant'Dog and Aku CPUs still whip me, though. =P
Now, Patty and I are back at Chris's, even though they're not back yet - Hanna said to come back, but I dunno where they are... thinking of giving them a call to find out...
Oh yeah. I'm upping a whole lot of the DWI files to myself - Chris has like 300mb of stuff I wanted =P
Anyways, will probably post again when I get home. Not that a whole lot of people are reading, anyways...
Pretty much sums up the day. Played Got Comet-san ep10 ready to encode, then headed off to anime club. Things aren't too good - apparently, someone forgot to take Patty's stuff when they moved from the student lounge to the Humanities building, and all her CDs she had in her backpack were stolen -_- (At least her TV and the backpack itself was untouched.) Pat and a bunch of people go out of their way to help her - Pat even gives Patty $80 in cash to try to make up for the lost property o.O I demonstrate Gitaroo Man really quick (beating the 2nd, 6th, 7th, and last stages, and utterly failing the 8th stage) then head off to work. I leave Gitaroo Man in Patty's care since they will probably want to play it.
Busy day at work - the store actually took a full half hour to straighten up -_- At least our numbers were good today...
Return to campus, and it's decided that Kevyn, Josh, Patty, Faith, and myself were all going to XP LaserSport. (Yes, this is now a weekly ritual.) I get two doubles sets, and promptly fail out of 90% through first stage BOTH times. (Orion.78 civ mix and exotic ethnic, both on heavy, if you're wondering.) We leave at midnight this time, since I am the one taking Faith home, and her dorm is apparently far away.
Really far away.
Patty offers to drive, and, as sleepy as I was, decided to accept - and promptly crashed in the back. Slept on and off until around 2am. It apparently took that long to get there. o.O Patty is really tired at that point, so I take over the driving. On the way back to Patty's, we talk about the AnimeUSA plans - she wants to come, but only if it's not too much trouble. (In my book, very few things are too much trouble. ^^;) I don't have to be there until 6pm anyways, since I am mostly going to watch the DDR tourney, since just about all of the SF mall crew is participating ^^; (Might as well be an SF mall tourney...)
Just printed out directions and about to study, then head to sleep. Can't play Kingdom Hearts since Gitaroo Man (and thus, my memcard) is with Patty, and that's probably for the better, since I'd end up taking up all my study time playing it, and I have a lot to catch up on ^^;
Anyways, will post again after the con ^^; I'm probably only going for Saturday, so prolly early Sunday morning.
Fell asleep in the middle of playing Kingdom Hearts, and now the timer is way high. -_-
I think I spent the majority of this morning working on my Gummi ship o.O Finally got it to something I was comfortable with - a triple-engine quad-weapon machine that can kill anything in less than one second ^^; I wanted 5 engines (and actually bought the parts for such) but apparently I have to wait for the next com upgrade to become available for that...
Yesterday, we went to SF as planned - just Josh and myself. On the way (naturally, we get stuck on heavy 495 traffic) we finally get sick of listening to American music and decide to use the CD car kit again, even though the damaged head unit makes it skip every 2 seconds. I'm still considering buying a new CD unit to replace that...
Anyways, got there, played a bit of DDR, played a lot of SC2 (I broke 100 wins, and settled comfortably in the rank immediately below Aku now). And wow, the CPU for my account got really evil - she doesn't stop moving o.O (Too bad she never blocks, either.)
There was a bit of a problem with getting people to leave after closing time - and the fact that no one was budging 10 minutes after closing seemed to be the last item of a really long list of things that were driving Billy insane o.O I'm a bit worried about him - this job seems to cause a little too much stress than what could be considered healthy. Hope he'll be all right...
Anyways, today I head to anime club again - with Gitaroo Man in tow instead of my crappy DDR pads that don't work anymore ^^ Too bad I got scheduled for work today though... but I'll make sure it doesn't happen again. I still have material to study for nihongo class too - have quite a bit to do since I missed the last two weeks -_-
You ever notice that all my entry titles end with an ellipsis? ^^;
Anyways, not much happened yesterday, until I went to CP. Played for a little while - a little DDR, a little SC2 Conquest, nothing major. Kevyn was supposed to meet me there, but I left at around 8 (since I had been there for over 2 hours already). Went to Dave's - a few moments after I arrive, Kevyn calls, and announces he's heading over. We play a bunch of vs. Gitaroo Man (somehow I win the majority of the matches o.O) and sit around doing various things.
We left at around 10pm so Dave could get some sleep, then decided to try to find a Chinese restaurant to get food from.
Figures half of them are closed already.
We eventually find one, and after my taking what must have seemed like several hours deciding what to eat, sit down and have food.
Good, but too greasy. I regretted it this morning ^^;
Parted ways, I returned home, played Gitaroo Man to the end (somehow beating the last stage on the 1st try, even though the 3rd to last stage took like an hour before I got past it - barely), then started up Kingdom Hearts again.
I've been playing it since then, and just now came downstairs to the comp ^^; (Insert 8 or 9 hours of sleep in the middle of gameplay.)
I'm probably going to head to SF today. I want to reload on Namco tokens, anyways, and I want to advance my SC2 character there ^^;
Today was a very uneventful day at work, but the second I got home, I set up the PS2, and decided to try Kingdom Hearts for a little while.
Four hours later...
Wow, that game is fun. Going to take forever with my typical pacing through RPGs though.
Tried Gauntlet: Dark Legacy for a little bit. Probably never going to play it again. The eye-candy is nice but it's nowhere near as fun as the arcade version. That was a really big disappointment.
I'd play Gitaroo Man but it's still at Dave's.
This thing is nice tho ^^ Will play more tomorrow~
As of 4:21pm on this day, October 8, 2002, I own a PS2 console ^^
And yes, I gave it a big hug after I took it out of the box.
Then I cut myself closing the box up.
I'll try it out later tonight when I get back from work - my current game library consists of Gitaroo Man (though loaned out), Kingdom Hearts and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. (Hey, Gauntlet was only $15!)
Also picked up Arjuna DVD1 - this'll be enjoyed on the HDTV set tomorrow ^^
The site went down at about 11:35pm last night. Not sure why - someone terminated the httpd process without telling me. Looks like the server's been rebooted recently too... at least it's running a LOT faster now.
Anyways, I went out yesterday to try and deposit the ADV check. Seems that they wanted a paystub before they would accept a deposit with funds immediately usable - so I ended up taking the check back and only depositing the $80 in cash (my mom gave me $100 in cash in the morning as her present). I'll go back today, to a different branch, and try again.
I still did a Best Buy run, even though I only had about $80 of spendable money in my account. Obviously, it wasn't enough to get a PS2, but I did buy a couple few things - Grave of the Fireflies remaster, Gitaroo Man, and a cheap PS2 component a/v cable. After that, went onwards to Dave's, picked him up, and we went to City Place.
We ate at Subway first, then played a few rounds of DDR 5th. Ugh - Rhythm and Police single maniac and Petit Love double maniac still fail me out. -_- It was fun doing Furuhata's Theme double maniac again though - it's been a long time since I've had a chance to play on a 5th Mix machine. Kevyn comes in at one point, we play a little SC2 conquest mode (I end up starting a new character simply because I'm bored), and then decide to head back to Dave's. Kevyn picks up stuff from the class that he's effectively skipped the latter part of, and we go to the appt.
At Dave's, we decide to try out Gitaroo Man. Dave plays all the way through the tutorial, since neither Dave nor Kevyn have seen the game before. They both take shots at the first stage, but both fail (though Dave got really close). I take a stab at it, and somehow pass the 1st and 2nd stages on the first attempt (finally passed Flyin' To My Heart, yay...) but get murdered on the 3rd stage. Kevyn tries it once - since he couldn't pass the 1st stage, the results were predictable =P We try a quick VS. match, since I actually managed to unlock a couple songs. Dave and his new roommate bring out a slice of leftover cake with an odd-looking candle sitting in it. o.O The birthday song is sung within 4 seconds since we're in a hurry, I try to finish the slice within 2 minutes, and we take our leave, since Dave and his roommate want to get to sleep. Since I don't have a PS2 yet, I leave Gitaroo Man there so Dave can play it for a couple days, since his roommate complained that he plays Kingdom Hearts too much ^^;
Not much happened after that... dropped Kevyn off at home, then went home myself, then slept, then woke up, then restarted this web server. Today, my mom woke me up early and told me to mow the lawn, saying it was nice weather today. I just opened the door - it's FREEZING!! NOT my idea of nice weather -_-
Oh well... I suppose I'll mow the lawn, then I'll do the bank and Best Buy thing again... then I got work in the evening.
ADV now completely owns me.
My check for the contract job I did came in today, about a month earlier than expected. The amount paid is... well, suffice it to say, more money than I've -ever- possessed at any point in time in my entire life. ^^;
Pardon me while I run around in circles screaming ^^; I think I'll buy that PS2 I've been wanting to buy today... but I'll try to save the rest ^^;
(Voice in head says: "With YOUR spending habits? HAH! That money won't last a month!")
* beats up voice in head *
I could have posted this last night, but I guess this is closer to the actual time, so...
I am now officially 20 years old! Even though the cake only had 2 candles on it! Maybe that shows mental age... =P
Incidentally, it is also Ishida Yoko's birthday as well (singer of Sailor Moon R ED, Pretear OP, Sugar OP, Ai Yori Aoshi OP, Puchi Puri Yuushi ED, and a lot of ParaPara Max). However, her age is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the Japanese music industry. o.O
It seems I'm making all my entries on the morning after o.O We really need a 2nd computer so both my bro and I can be on at the same time...
Today, even though I woke up in plenty of time and left in plenty of time, I ended up 5 minutes late for work -_- And, as usual, Calvin (the person they like to pair me up with) gives a wisecrack about how I'm "always" late (even though this is like the 4th or 5th time I've been late in my -entire- career)... I was already frustrated enough that I was late in the first place, but he seems to feel the need to rub it in. He's an okay guy but REALLY gets on my nerves sometimes. -_-
Anyways, somewhat boring day at work today... Calvin even stepped into the back room for like half an hour to play Yu-Gi-Oh with someone (is he supposed to let non-employees enter the back room? o.O) and I was left minding the store alone - again. And, somehow, every time I mind the store alone, there's a flood of customers that'll keep me busy for god knows how long.
Ah well... I got scheduled for Friday this week too, meaning I can't stay for all of anime club... annoys me, but after all the shit I went through to get Saturday off last week, I don't really feel like making them reschedule...
And, we only have ONE copy of Arjuna waiting to be put out. ONE. Looks like I have to pick it up from either Lakeforest or at Best Buy.
Well, party ended about 8 hours ago - it was interesting seeing 14 or so people stuff themselves into that little van to go back to Virginia o.O
Well, the day started out on a bad foot - woke up late (again) and missed Japanese class for the 2nd week in a row. -_- I headed to campus anyways, but ended up just going to the Computer Science lab and signing on AIM Express (my bro was using the comp at home, anyways) and trying to figure out transportation details for the party. Seems like everyone was at the Pak house, except for Christina and Shiene o.O The van can't hold everyone (or so they think) so I headed off.
Went to Kevyn's place first - I'm able to get in touch with Patty there, but Kevyn himself is too busy to make it. ;_; I move on to Springfield... kinda. I inevitably get caught in the Springfield Traffic From Hell (TM). Sitting in my car, almost not moving, for half an hour, was not fun. The fact that my car was starting to stall out for some reason made it less fun. But, I got there...
Purple Flames and Fel were there too! Fel can't make it, but it was nice seeing her again. Purple Flames apparently got his phone line cut off, so no one knew he was coming. Lucky he was at SF at the right time... After about half an hour of DDR, SC2, and chatting with Harvey, we go back to MD...
... after stalling 3 times trying to get out of the parking space o.O Something's definitely wrong with that car...
We swung by Rockville BB to pick up Josh, since I ended up taking so much time at SF that our arrival was the same time that he got off work. After picking him up, we continued to the party, already in progress, over at the house ^^; (Yeah, I told them to go to the house ahead of me, since I knew I would be taking a long time to get back.)
Party was great - was nice seeing everyone again ^^ Party mostly consisted of playing pool, or playing Armored Core 2/Gitaroo Man/Fantavision/Halo, or playing outside. We had barbecue (lots and lots of ribs) and other various food stuff, including the salad with no dressing o.O We had a cake, too o.O And, thanks for the presents (Billy gave a Cowboy Bebop wallscroll, Kevin gave a Mashimaro wallscroll, Tiffany gave a Blue Bear glass container, and Hanna gave a White mug - it was cute ^^; Thanks everyone!) Too bad it had to end so early, but the van was going home that night, so everyone had to go with it. ^^;
And I mean -everyone-... everyone except Josh was in that van for the return trip o.O So, after Josh and his incredibly heavy bag-o-stuff got picked up, I went upstairs and went to sleep... woke up, and am now writing this entry ^^;
Thanks to everyone who could make it! Today, I just have to make it through work... I'll probably head back down to Springfield area afterwards, to drop off Hanna's cell phone that was accidentally left behind ^^;
Today was fun - got up, worked on some HnK stuff (Comet-san SVCD, of all things), then went to anime club - where we proceed to play Halo for 8 hours straight o.O
We're not sure how this became standard procedure, but, like every week previous, we headed to XP LaserSport immediately after we left the campus, and stay until they close. Woo, I can now seriously add Healing Vision ~angelic mix~ to my double cata list - passing it by the skin of my teeth there, tho o.O Also, Josh managed to pull a AA on Sobakasu (Freckles) KCP finally! We proceed to play Max 300 EX for... 8 seconds x.X
I pull not one, not two... but four failed attempts at AAing a double song to do the same. Couldn't even AA Let The Beat Hit 'Em, though I suppose you'd have to get like less than 10 greats to get an AA on that...
Anyways, just now got back after dropping off Patty, Kevyn, Josh, and taking a nap in the car before entering the house... the fridge is stocked, the meats are marinating (I think) and tomorrow's party is ready to go!
This is turning out longer than I thought... but there's one more thing...
RoW Squire: i've decided
RoW Squire: to come to ur bday thing
RoW Squire: cuz i want to see you guys again.. even if tension is high
RoW Squire: i dont want to be there in spirit
RoW Squire: but i want to give u a bday present at the least
This was the first thing I saw when I returned home - and I frankly don't know what to do. I personally have nothing against this person, but it seems like 90% of the people attending this party do, and his presence seems to ruin the friendly atmosphere, considering recent visits to SF. So... I really dunno what should be done here =/
Oh well... whatever happens, the party is in about 14 hours - better get to sleep ^^;
Finally got someone to cover my shift on Saturday. That was really cutting it close, though o.O I'll be sure to give her a big thanks on Saturday, too.
Now, I can turn my attention to other matters. For example, how much meat are we going to need? o.O And what are the vegetarians going to eat? o.O
For now though, I'm going to read Ceres manga ^^ Vol.2 of Viz's graphic novel version just came out... the half-year wait between volumes is killing me ^^;
... and here's why: http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.asp?storyid=10165
5 random shootings in Montgomery County - safer for me not to leave home.
I called Suncoast instead of going in person, seems there wasn't much luck... maybe I'll call a bunch of stores from here and see which ones can spare people...
... kinda. First thing I did was set this little website thing up. Bummed a lot of help off whoever happened to be in #animedvd at the time (thanks a lot!) and finally managed to get the site running. Just need to learn these CSS and MT template formats so I can make it look not ugly ^^;
After that, went to Suncoast to see if I can get Saturday off (never fails, a party and work are ALWAYS scheduled at the same time). Seems no one there can cover for me, and I have to come back later tonight to see if someone else can cover. Also, I have the last resort option (maybe) of getting someone from another store to cover. Since I can't do anything until around 6pm, I turn north to Frederick Putt-Putt.
Someone saved me the trouble of delivering the 1-31 unlock code - it was already in place when I arrived. With a fully unlocked MAX2 machine, on lowest difficulty, autofail off, and 5 songs, I proceed to pass every double cata the machine has o.O I'm not going to add some of them to my double cata list until later tho, since the machine was set so easy.
Returning to Suncoast, stopping by Lakeforest to see if anyone there can cover for me. Nope, the last person at my store can't cover, so I have to call that last resort. I'm about to go in today and see what happens.
If you've been around, you know this happened last time, when Jeff had a party here, I had to be absent for half of it due to work. Good thing that was an overnight party, or I would have missed just about everything. But this time, I really have to take a stand on it. This is not just my party, or Aku's party. It's my dad's birthday too, and this is on the day before his flight back to business in China. This is a family affair, and when you compare the importance between that and work, there is no comparison. I really hope someone covers for me, but if not, they'll just have to be one person short on Saturday (yes, I know, this would be screwing the asst. manager over, but I simply -can't- be there). I consider family and friends a HELL of a lot more important than a $5.45/hr job that I don't plan to keep my whole life, anyways.
Yeesh. This is really long. Hope I didn't scare anyone away o.O
This is the very first post on the brand new, somewhat automated, pain in the ass to set up, StarCreator.com! ^^;
I'll be setting this up over the course of (unspecified time period), so this page will probably get uglier from time to time. Bear with it, please ^^;;