More food!

Sorry, I forgot to take pics of tonights wonderful tastes.
This eve we had one of my favorite Japanese foods - OKONOMIYAKI. This is basically a pancake made of flour, cabbage, shrimp/chicken/whatever (we had shrimp), green onions, onion ... and covered with a brown sauce and mayo. Mmmmm. We also had homemade Miso Soup and Chicken Caesar salad. Yum!

Choco Banana

In lieu of other updates, I figured I might as well start blogging the delicious creations of Asako. If the way to our hearts is through our stomachs, than she certainly has me heart and soul! I have been amazed at her ability to come up with a variety of foods, both western and asian. Maybe part of it is because, while I enjoy cooking, I never did much alone so watching her go to the 'fridge and pull out random things to make a tasty dish has been fun to watch.

Tonight we had a Korean soup made from scratch ... beef, tofu, spinach, cabbage, green onion, all in a very very spicy red pepper broth. UMAI!!!
Even better was the desert ... banana chocolate (and a little bit of ICHIGO (strawberry)) cake! Warmed in the microwave and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream ... Mmmmmmm...

Backloggery

The PA forums pointed me to a pretty neat site for keeping track of my gaming backlog and progress - The Backloggery.

I will have to spend some time updating my profile, but you can track my progress here.

Too Much Excitement, Too Early

I've been up since around 3:30 this morning. It was at that time that the most vicious fucking thunderstorm I have been in was right on top of where I live. It was movie lighting ... where you hear and see it at the same time. Because it was right fucking on top of us.

One bolt hit a tree behind the apartment 2 away from mine, causing the tree to explode, and arced into the apartment's back bed room, hitting a socket and starting a fire. The fire pretty much destroyed that room, but was contained and did not spread further, and no one was hurt. Other than the pervasive smell of damp burnt wood from that apartment everywhere in the area, my apartment is ok.

Another bolt, witnessed by someone from the apartment that was hit, struck my neighbor's car, and then arced up over the building, setting off the car alarm. These strikes were shaking the fucking building like I've never felt.

Yet another bolt apparently struck another building in the complex, starting a fire in the dryer vent there.

So yea... in work early today.

Memory Music

Another goal gets checked off ... I finally unlocked all the songs available in SSBB. This game has one of the best soundtracks ever assembled for a game, and is a treat for the ears. Well worth the time it took to unlock all the songs :)

Crysis Complete

Last night I finished playing through Crysis, for the PC.
Overall, it was a lot of fun. I was prepared for the "let's-leave-it-open-for-a-sequel-ending," so that didn't bother me.
I tend to agree with the general consensus - the first 2/3 of the game is pure sex, while the last 1/3 is an enjoyable and pretty, if rather standard FPS.
So the Boof Rating for the first 2/3 is Awesome and for the last 1/3 is Fun.

Slimes!

The past few weeks, I have been doing a full court press on the Japanese studying. I want to eventually become fluent ... a lofty goal, but one I feel I can reach. Of course, the best way to reach that goal would be to live for a few years in Japan. A tantalizing option, but unless I can find a job that is not a low-wage English teaching job, it would be a difficult option. For now, I must content myself with a variety of books, software, and conversations with my fiancee.

One fun supplement I just added to my arsenal is playing through the Japanese PS2 release of Dragon Quest 5. I picked this up a couple years ago on it's release day in Japan for the novelty factor (the fact that I found a place with it on release was the big novelty - as Dragon Quest games tend to sell out rather quickly and induce much skipping of school/work in the Japanese gaming populace. This game has never seen release in the US (although the DS rerelease should be making its way here eventually).

When I got the game, I started into it, but then lost focus and stopped playing. This time, I have restarted, with my handy DS J-E dictionary and kanji lookup in hand(awesome software where I can draw an kanji (chinese-derived Japanese characters) on my DS to lookup what it is ... and it is amazing how well it does and getting my horribly written kanji. Asako bought me this software ... she rocks so much). Even without the dictionary, it is amazing how much more I am understanding than just a few years ago, which is encouraging. Yes, it is slow playing through, but still fun (I love old-school RPGs) and a great supplement to my text book/software learning.

Wii Fit

I picked up Wii Fit yesterday. I went to Toys R Us about 30 minutes before they opened. There was one other car in the parking lot, with a woman waiting inside. Since it was raining, I decided to wait in my car as well.

By 9:50, two more cars had shown up. Around that time, someone got out of their car to go to the door, so immediately, everyone else did. Well, 10 minutes in the rain is better than 30!

The "crowd" consisted of one stay-at-home mom inline to pick it up for her husband, one stay-at-home mom getting it for herself (she also confessed to waiting 4 hours in line to get a Wii at launch), a college age guy, and myself.

It is fortunate that the line was so small, as TRU only had 5 copies that weren't presold. I grabbed my copy, as well as a copy of Wii Ski (sold for $10 off when bought with Wii Fit).

Last night I tried both out, and had a lot of fun. I spent 30 minutes doing WiiFit activities (which meant about 60 minutes of play time) ... and was actually sweating and tired at the end. That may say a lot for my shape, but it also shows that the exercises (especially the strength training and aerobic ones) do give you a workout.

I knew my BMI would be "overweight." I have a personal goal of where I want my weight to be, and I will be using WiiFit to track it. I am hoping it provides good motivation to be more health conscious. If anyone is interested, I will post regular blog updates about my progress.

Wii Ski, which I only spent about 20 minutes with due to a CoX play-date, was really, really fun. there is a lot of unlockables and challenges. And, it is just plain fun, if creepy, to watch Boof ski ...

Goals and Golf

My restored PC has been up and running for a few weeks now with no problems. I am quite pleased with the new drive. My PC has been getting some use playing the rather beautiful FPS: Crysis. It has been added to my goal list.

The beautiful graphics combine with a stellar physics engine and almost sandbox style gameplay to make a really fun FPS experience. To give you an example of how the physics create some interesting situations, I present a moment from the game that made me laugh outloud - completely unscripted, purely caused by the physics interactions:

I was standing outside a small building, perhaps it was even a shanty, and I could hear the voices of enemies inside. I throw a grenade inside, figuring the building would contain the blast. The grenade explodes, but also causes the building to collapse, the corrugated metal walls firing outward. I am hit by one of these and knocked several meters backwards ... off the edge of a 20 foot cliff. I land with a sliver of health left. I look up just in time to watch in comic horror as a tree, also a victim of the blast, falls over smack on my face. Pure awesome.

In other news, I golfed for the first time in 14 or 15 years this past Friday. While I shot pretty poorly (68 on a par 36 9 holes) I did a lot better than I anticipated, and had a lot of fun to boot. The only down side is that a combination of muscles were asked to move repeatedly in ways they are not used to, and are complaining a bit today ;)

Recovery

The installation of my new HDD and the transfer of my most important data is complete. Looking back on everything, it could have been much worse. I know in the months to come, there will be times I really want to find an old email for some information, but at least all my emails from my fiancee are still around, as well as most of my pictures.

The final big transfer I had to do was my iTunes library. My MP3 collection was hit by the data loss, so my only real option was to recover from my iPod. Unfortunately, as anyone with an iPod knows or finds out, this is not an easy thing. Oh, recovering the songs is easy enough. The problem comes in recovering playlists and song ratings. With over 6000 songs, most rated, I really didn't want to go through the rating process again. Eventually, after some research, I shelled out a nominal amount of cash for a utility that could "reverse sync" iTunes to my iPod. It worked very well and took away the nightmarish hassle the process would otherwise be. Still, reverse syncing is a feature that should be in the iPod/iTunes combo by default.

LOST!

No, I have not become a viewer of enigmatic cult show. Rather, I bring much sadder news (for yours truly at least). Yesterday, my dear PC refused to boot. It appeared that the long fruitful life of my Hard drive had come to an end. After spending all night reinstall, running disk scans, and trying repairs, I was able to get her to boot and begin to survey the damage. It appeared that .5% or so of my hard disk had gone bad. This doesn't sound bad, but this means over 1GB of data was lost.

While a lot of this data was bits and pieces of programs that can be reinstalled, the heaviest hit was the loss of my main Inbox for my personal email. 5+ years of emails, mostly gone. Fortunately, all my emails from my fiancee are still present, as they had been copied to a different email folder.

Also, it looks like while I may have lost some photos, the vast majority of them are still there.
So, while overall frustrating, and time consuming (I am still doing installs, and recovery, and lots more to do), I am glad that the data loss was not much worse.

When drives start to go bad, they can quickly become worse and worse. So, I wasted no time and purchased a new drive today. The silver lining is that now, instead of a 200GB HDD, I now have a 320GB HDD. This also gives me an opportunity to do some housecleaning, only copying over files I plan to use.

I put a fresh install on the new drive, and am in the process of reinstalling what I need to use. I will also pick through my old files and get them copied over. I still have to big hassle of getting my songs (and hopefully playlists and song ratings) from my iPod to my new HDD, which Apple does not make easy.

Oh, my Crysis save (the only PC game I am actively playing on my main PC currently) was also lost, but the game is so damn fun that I don't mind starting fresh :)

Look Ma, I'm upside-down!

Prey Complete - I didn't put this on my goal list, but it'll go on my completed goal list. When the FPS "Prey" went on sale for $5, it was an offer too good to pass up. The game is a lot of fun, and plays with gravity and your perception of space quite a bit. If you get motion sick playing FPS's, this game will really have your head spinning and stomach churning.
The only con is that the main character complains a little too much.

Boof Rating: Fun

New list, and goal updates

I've decided to be a little realistic, and add the option to abandon goals if it becomes impractical, impossible, or not entertaining to complete them. Since the goal of games is to have fun, I don't want any goal I set for myself to feel like a job.

The first goal that gets added to this list of shame is Soul Calibur: Legends. I've reached a point in the game where the difficulty has ramped up, and it requires repeating the same stage over and over until I finally get lucky enough to beat it. The problem is that, while SC:L is an entertaining distraction to play for 15 - 30 minutes, the gameplay is just not fun enough to justify playing this same level (and likely subsequent ones) over and over until I complete. At this point, I've seen basically all the game has to offer in terms of gameplay, and I am content to put it away on my shelf.

As for a Boof Rating, I have to give it a reluctant Meh. As stated, I did find it entertaining, and a good diversion. But, the repetition in environs, along with the difficulty scaling cause this rating. I'd say it is still worth a rental if you are a fan of Soul Calibur. It is disappointing because a brawler using SC characters had so much potential.

In other goal news, I've essentially completed my SSB:B goals. I still have to get the rest of the music that drops as CDs during brawls. This may takes some time, but I'll work at it :)

New Toys!

A combination of some gift exchanging with the fiancee, some games on sale at Target, and a really nice sale on Warhammer Fantasy and Vallejo paints at a local game store has brought in the above haul. It'll give me something to do for the next couple months until she returns in June :)

Smashing New Goal!

Well, the lameness of the title of this post is more than made up for by the cuteness of the above pic (nicked from the Smash Bros. Dojo.
With this amazing new game comes my latest goal addition. There is a lot to do in brawl, and in theory, I could set a goal for completing every Challenge in the game. Realistically, this probably won't happen, so instead I'll focus on what most affects gameplay: unlocking every Character, Stage, and Song. As of writing this, I only have one character (Wolf) left to unlock.

New Project

I don't know how far I will get, but to sharpen and flex my programming in my spare time, I've gone forward with coding up a PC version of one of my favorite "board" games.
Right now it doesn't look like much (and doesn't do much) but here is what I have so far:

90+ Hours

Last post I said I was going to decide on an RPG to focus on finishing. Well, I decided to go with the massive PC RPG, Oblivion. I still have a number of unfinished side-quests, but after over 94 hours of gameplay spread over almost 2 years, I have completed the main quest of this epic RPG. A beautiful, deep game, this is definitely one of my favorite PC RPGs.

One more crossed off!

I wrapped up the main game in Kirby's Canvas Curse for the DS. Ok, so it really doesn't take all that long to finish, but this was the sort of game I'd play in 5 - 10 minute bursts, so that stretched over several months before I completed it. It really is a lot of fun, and makes good use of the stylus on the DS.

Boof Rating: Fun

I also realized I don't have any (offline) RPGs on my list, yet I have several in my backlog. I can only focus on one RPG at a time, so I need to decide which one I should focus on. Maybe I will make a list of what I have, and leave it up to my 1 or 2 readers to vote on which they think I should focus on. How does that sound?

One Game Challenge

With thoughts towards the saving for a down payment on a house this summer, as well as Asako being around in the summer, as well as saving for wedding expenses, I've decided to try to challenge myself to save some extra money. I will do this by refraining from buying any games (With the exception of Super Smash Bros. Brawl) between now and June. I normally buy 2 - 4 games a month, so this should allow me to save up to $200 extra a month. Additionally, it'll give me plenty of time to work through my vast backlog!

Hopefully, I will be able to stick to this plan!

Two Goals complete!

New X-Men Finished
The first of two goals from my list completed was finishing my backlog of New X-Men comics - which also finished the series. I will be picking up Young X-Men when that starts up in August. I really enjoyed the year+ of storyline I read. I started collecting series for nostalgia value, but over the course of it, there were some really good story-arcs, especially towards the end, and the developed some interesting/entertaining new characters (particularly Rockslide). Some of my favorite arcs were the return of Nimrod and the creation of Predator X.

I also picked up the final issue of the Messiah Complex, so I could read the conclusion of that cross-over. My plan is to get back into X-Men comics a little more with this most recent reshuffling. I'll be getting Young X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, and X-Men: Legacy.

Crushing Impact - One Complete Set Acquired
I have one power outfitted with a shiny set of Crushing Impact IOs. I am still on the lookout for Recipes from this set, as I will be equipping more powers with this set. For now, I will probably set a goal soon for a different set.

Zack & Wiki

Another goal to cross off - I have completed the main storyline for Zack & Wiki for the Wii.
I made a longer post, but apparently Blogger ate it, so this will be short and to the point:

If you have a Wii, you owe it to yourself to pick up this game. It is beautiful, fun, has a sense of humor, and filled with clever puzzles. It is particularly good to play together with a loved one, as you can put your minds together to try to figure out the puzzles and riddles. If I could have my way, this is one game every Wii owner would have in their library. (And it is only $33 at Amazon).

Boof Rating: Awesome

Comic Goal!

Not quite a gaming goal, but I figured I'd throw it on the list. I have quite the backlog of New X-Men comics to read through. Today I just cleared my box from the comic store, which had over 6 months worth of New X-men ... I have several more months that have been sitting on my backlog prior to that. Currently I have 16 issues to read, from 31 - 46. So, time to start working on them!

And for anyone who is interested, I've been collecting these since the new New Mutants ... so if anyone wants to read my back issues, they are more than welcome!

Luigi unlocked

I finally got all 121 stars in Super Mario Galaxy. Without any reservation, SMG is a must own for any Wii owners. Getting each star presents a unique and entertaining challange. One of the very best games of this generation, maybe any generation.

Getting all 121 stars completes a goal, and allows me to play SMG with Luigi.

I also completed a un-listed goal: finish all requests in Beautiful Katamari for the 360. I enjoyed the game, but I have to say that overall it was a disappointment compared to the first two. But, if you don't have a PS2 but do have a 360, it is still worth picking up.

GW Goal added

I finally got to play some Guild Wars again last night. It was an enjoyable, if easy, sweep through the 3rd Prophecies mission with Matt, Aron, and Aron's friend. I do like the ability to play GW and knock out a mission in around an hour (sometimes less). I am going to try to focus on getting through the Prophecies campaign, although much of that may wait until Matt/Aron have caught up, so I can do all the new missions together with them.

More Goals

I added finishing Soul Calibur Legends and unlock/getting a bronze in all the levels in Link's Crossbow training (LCT). I must say, I highly recommend the $25 Link's Crossbow training, even if you never intend to use the Wii Zapper it comes with. If you enjoy the shooting in Wii Play, then LCT is for you - a much more expanded shooting gallery game, with lots of things from the Zelda universe to shoot. I've been having lots of fun with it.

Since I decided to keep the list on the right, it will probably slowly expand with more and more goals. It is a nice way for me to keep track of everything I have to play and finish :)
Of course, I don't want to let it expand too much, so I will try to keep the list to under a dozen specific gaming goals at any time.

Quick Initial Impressions

No descriptions, but I wanted to give a quick Boof Rating (awesome/fun/meh) to each game I got around the holiday season:

Wii
Soul Calibur Legends: Fun
Link's Crossbow Training: Fun
Ghost Squad: Fun
DDR Hottest Party: Fun
NiGHTS: Awesome

DS
Brain Age 2: Fun
FFXII Revenant Wings: Fun
Contra 4: Fun

360
Rock Band: Awesome

Another complete

I finished another goal: Complete Phoenix Wright: Justice for All

Current outstanding goal:
1) CoH: Complete set of Crushing Impact for Oni Hime

New Goals:
2) Collect all stars in Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) ~ Current count: 99
3) Finish Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)

New Super Mario Bros. Goal complete

First gaming goal has been completed, I have completed each level in New Super Mario Bros.
Now to pick a replacement goal for the "Action" category ...

Game Goals

Zombie blog!

Those who know me know I tend to have more video games than I can ever hope to finish. I am a bit of a collector. While I realize I will probably never finish them all, I am going to start setting goals, and focusing on completing those. For now, I am going to break it down as follows: MMO goal, RPG goal, Action game goal. I may add a couple more categories, but for now I'll keep it simple, and update when I reach those goals.

MMO Goal: CoH - Complete a Crushing Impact set for Oni Hime
RPG Goal: Finish Phoenix Wright: Justice for All
Action Goal: *COMPLETE*Complete each level (including hidden) in New Super Mario Brothers (DS)

The Sky is a Little Bluer

Long time no post, indeed!
Since my last post was on Neil Young's latest album, I figured I should post again expressing my utter delight at the recent elections.
True, we are still stuck in this terrible war, but at least W won't be getting a free ride from Congress any longer to pass all the crap legislation he has been shoveling through. Perhaps this will even force him to nominate better people ... no more Rummies, Bolton's, or FEMA disasters. I can hope at least.
We shall see ...

Neil Young - Living with War

Neil Young's new album, Living with War, is available to listen to in it's entirety online:

http://www.hyfntrak.com/neilyoung2/AFF24795/

A good album that expresses what more and more of us Americans feel - enough with the lies, corruption, cronyism, and horrible ineptitude of the current government. Enough with using the Constitution to wipe their asses, with hiding behind the flag and using the word "terrorist" to manipulate the public and serve their selfish interests.

Track 7 says it well.

Informational: Enhancement slotting

Just a quick and convenient posting of my mains enhancement slotting in CoH for informational purposes for CDog.

Canvas 2

Canvas 2 (fansub, ep1.)
Anime stores in Japan will frequently include promotional items, such as bookmarks or mini posters, in you bag with your purchase. On my trip to Japan in the fall of '05, I received a number of bookmarks featuring characters from Canvas 2. I knew nothing of Canvas 2, or even Canvas, other than (from my minimal Japanese knowledge used to read the bookmarks) it was a upcoming bishoujo (beautiful girl) game (presumably ero, at least the PC version) and anime series, and it had character designs I liked. So, I grabbed the fansub for episode 1, and this past week finally got around to viewing.

At the very least, I usually expect to enjoy the character designs in bishoujo series, and probably some fan service. Sometimes, though, a series surprises and has quite a bit of depth beyond cute girls. From the first episode, Canvas 2 appears to be one of these latter series.

The male lead, Kamikura, is a year away from graduating college (putting him older than most bishoujo male leads are) and plans to be an art teacher. He works as an art club advisor at a local high school (enter all the girls). He has an artistic eye and is an excellent teacher, but something in his past causes him to never draw or paint anymore himself ...

Elis, his cousin, has come to live with him, and is transferring to the school he advises at, and has newly joined the art club. Since witnessing her parents die in a car accident, she has an extreme aversion to red - which creates difficulty with her otherwise tremendous artistic ability.

While there has been a small amount of fan service, it really is rather mild, and should not put off people that are adverse to it in their anime. The series appears to be very much story and character driven, and is one I plan to follow. It is nice when a random show gives you a pleasant surprise. 

Disgaea Epidode 1

Disgaea (ep 1, fansub)
Finally, the Disgaea anime is being released. Hopefully, it will be picked up and released domestically soon (I had though I heard word it was licensed, but none of the licensing lists seem to have it).

So, what did I think of it, Disgaea fanboy that I am? I loved it. So far, I like the approach of keeping the same basic story of game - Laharl, son of the Demon King, is awoken from a two year nap to find that his father is dead (having choked on a sweet bun), and his kingdom is in disarray - while actually doing an alternate telling of those events. For instance, instead of Etna using an array of weapons, construction equipment, and heavy artillery to wake Laharl up from his long slumber, it is the kawaii angel assassin Flonne (seen above about to launch a bunch of missiles).

The themes, characters, and their idiosyncracies appear to be consistent with the game thus far, including Flonne's "love mania." The first episode even sees an appearance by one of the games sci-fi parody characters, Captain Gordon (along with the buxom Jennifer and b-movie robot Thursday). With luck we will see the Prism Rangers in a later episode ...

The music is primarily taken from the games, which had a unique and memorable sound track. So, I was happy to hear full arrangements of appropriate music at the right moments.

The animation was on par with good quality TV animation.

The only downside? Only 5 seconds of Etna in the episode! Fortunately, they have kept the video game tradition of Etna voicing the preview, and the preview itself being a complete fantasy of Etna's as to what happens...