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  1. More problems

    By Sahaqiel,

    So I've got problems and drama as I'm prone to have. Problems, things to update you guys on, and so forth; it's going to be long, but I'd appreciate it if I felt someone related to my experiences. This might be a multiple-trip read for you, I'm not sure how long I'm going to keep this going. I hope it's at least interesting for you. This is mostly stuff I've talked in chat about, but not here. There's a lot of stuff I'm leaving out.

    It's really late at night and I wanted to sleep a few hours ago, but I started messing around trying to polish up a track before I finally, but it ended up making it worse, Mediafire distorted the audio or something, so I posted the version I made last November?, it looks like. Five months then? Yeah. I didn't feel too mad about the lost time, because I guess I always found that version about as satisfactory as I felt I could make it at higher volumes or through better sound systems and I didn't add anything significant to the appended version.

    A lot of things have happened, some I'm too ashamed to detail to a general public, but I've been on a rollercoaster of emotions, ranging through existential dread to writhing anger. I can start with the more trivial aspects and detail my actual problems if it'll make it easier on you. But each of my stories contributes or detracts a little from my stress, and it's all coming together into something I can't control very well, which is why I made this for you. I'll summarize before the problem part, but if you'll oblige, I'm offering a deeper understanding of my misery.

    Trip to U of I




    My Remaining Friend




    Parental Stress




    Potential, Shortcomings, and Inability to Take Action





    Associate's Degree





    The Head of the Problem





    Anger




  2. Sweet Sixteen

    By Michael,

    Sixteen years ago, today, Hyrule.net came to life and sixteen years later is still around. While people have come and gone Hyrule.net has been a big part of a lot of our lives for the better or the worst, however in the end it has created a tight knit community who some may call their second family.
     

    Happy Birthday Hyrule.net!
  3. So more or less spontaneously I decided that I owed myself a purchase of a video game, so I ordered one that I'd been itching to buy probably since the time of its release in 2010. Really what prompted me to make the purchase was my boyfriend making me realize that the last game I bought was SSBB, and that was jointly with my brother back in...what, 2009 when it came out? Then, as I thought harder about it, I honestly don't know the last game I've purchased alone, since new games are a rare thing for me and they've always been gifts. I also like borrowing games, and I'm not a scummy friend that keeps them forever. Anyway, this game, Super Mario Galaxy 2, was kind of a rare thing for me to find someone to borrow from since I don't know many people here in college that have Wiis...well, about none actually.

    I guess I'll preface it with the difficulty I faced in finding this game. A few months ago, while I was either in Target or Walmart (could have possibly been late last year), I was shopping for whatever reason and decided to see if the price of this game had dropped since it was a few years old now. The answer was no. It is still a $50 game, new, and I suppose that's due to the positive ratings it has garnered. Used, I could probably find a little less (like at GameStop) but still quite an expensive game, when you think that Super Mario Galaxy (1) can be found for $20 and it was fantastic and is even like, a collector's edition or whatever. When I finally made the decision that I was going to purchase SMG2, it was no longer in stores like Walmart or Target. I ended up going to Amazon and buying it for a little less than $40 for a very good quality used game. Given the prior information, I think I actually made a smart move here.

    Now I'm gong to gush why I love Super Mario Galaxy.

    In all honesty, I 100%'d the first game just last year - After being stuck at 116 stars for about 4 years, I got all 120 stars, with ones like "Luigi's Purple Coins" taking me probably about 60-70 tries, Melty Molten Galaxy's Daredevil Run taking me possibly even more tries to get...while there are a lot of easy parts of this game (some would complain too easy, while I'm a mediocre skilled player) there were certainly some stars that made me want to scream (which I did) and rip my hair out (which I did not). The satisfaction of earning each one, though, in a nostalgic SM64 manner, is what really me drew in though. Then I found out that after earning 120, you could use Luigi to earn 240, and I snorted and shut off the Wii and went on with my life. Yeah, puppy that.

    It's a pretty game. It's a very bright game. While a game like Skyward Sword could also fall under that category, SS tries to make a play on a different art style, with its impressionistic backdrops and whatever. SMG (and SMG2, to some degree) feels like an updated SM64. Mario is not a blocky polygon. Stars are not yellow, but truly golden and shiny like you wanted them to be. It's "glowy" too - there are several instances of "cosmic" influences showing through. It's definitely Mario in space.

    Mario in space to the extent of really playing with some game physics. I mean, the gravity in these games is unbelievable sometimes. You can find a small planet, do a long jump, and make 2-3 orbits around the planet before it finally pulls you back in. You can even orbit around, get caught in the gravity of another planet, and start orbiting that one, then return to the original planet. I probably spent 20 minutes laughing at this (might have been drunk and found it extremely amusing) on the first level on SMG2. It is seriously a lot of fun.

    I could gush about the music for probably a really long time, but I'll leave it at this. This soundtrack (other than the Zelda series) is probably the most memorable for me. It is also puppying orchestrated and it's brilliant, legendary, and really plays on your heart strings. It's nostalgic and just wonderful. Even SMG2 somehow managed to BUILD upon some of the tracks from SMG, like made them better. I don't know how. But it is fantastic and I am going to shamelessly download all of it.

    I'm going to point out some things that I did and did not like about SMG2. Or maybe some contrasting things that I had hoped would be better.

    SMG2 has a lot of puppying Galaxies. If you're not familiar, they use this word kind of weirdly - I feel like it should be Planets<Worlds/Solar Systems lol<Galaxies. But instead it's Planets<Galaxies<Worlds. While SMG used different parts of the Comet Observatory to access different galaxies (and made it rewarding when you "restored power" to them, very much resembling the Castle in SM64), SMG2 visually looks like a Super Mario game with the "World Map." So SMG2 has 7 "Worlds", each with about 7 Galaxies. I thought this was okay. It did make returning to past Worlds easier, but it also made the Galaxies so much more...meh. Like they all started blending together because of how indistinct they were.

    You even start typing a word a lot and it starts looking weird to you? That's what's happening to "galaxy" right now lol.

    Anyway, my main point with the Galaxy thing - that there being a lot of them in SMG2 - meant that there are less stars to disperse among the Galaxies. Therefore, by logic, less of the Galaxy needs to be explored, and so the Galaxies are smaller. They're less of the mini-universes that you step into. Maybe one, two regular stars, a comet star, and you're done. Or maybe a hidden star, if you're lucky. I personally enjoyed having to find 5-7 stars in each Galaxy in SMG, and suddenly to be cut short like that...I don't know. I recognized and appreciated each Galaxy more in SMG because I saw a lot of it. SMG2, I knocked out 50-60 stars in one day and I don't really remember the process of me getting there. It went by too quickly.

    SMG2 does have redeeming qualities, though. For one, motherpuppying Yoshi being around on some levels. Luigi as well from the get-go, and eventually unlockable at the end of the game. There are some cute-as-shit characters in the game too - Jibberjays, adorable and excitable parrots; pink Bob-omb Buddies from SM64; and Whittles, cute wooden things that make very primitive but amusing statements. The new powerups are also surprisingly not half-assed - Cloud Mario is very fun, while Rock Mario can get a little irritating. I kind of missed Ice Mario (making ice platforms by jumping on water spouts was a super creative idea in the last game) and Flying Mario, but that's probably just more SM64 nostalgia talking. Speaking of which, my discovery of Throwback Galaxy (basically an updated Whomp's Fortress from SM64) got me so excited I spent quite some time examining every inch of the level.

    Furthermore, the utility of Coins - instead of Star Bits taking the role of the main currency, Coins are used for Luma-transforming instead of a "high score" for an individual star that no one cares about. Comet Medals are also a neat idea - in the previous game, Comet stars only appeared after the arrival of the Comet Luma, but now Comets will appear given if you find and collect and complete a Galaxy's star with the Comet Medal. Some of them are tricky to find and collect and it is very easy to go through a level normally without even seeing it.

    From what I've seen so far, and I'm at 104/120 stars for the moment, the Comet stars aren't nearly as difficult as the previous game. For example, there have been several instances where you need the 100 Purple Coins - but not every single one, as there are 110 total. It gives the player a little slack on those more unforgivable circumstances. Even the fact that the Co-Star Luma (aka Player 2) can pick up Purple Coins makes the Comet Stars significantly easier. Then again, I haven't raged over this game's version of Luigi's Purple Coins, so we'll see how I feel in a week.

    Since this review is getting kind of long lol, I'll sum it up a bit. SMG2 is sort of like the Majora's Mask to Ocarina of Time. Same game engine, sort of the same goal, but quite different on a lot of things. I've been enjoying myself so far and from what it looks like, I might be getting the 242 stars in this game (since it seems like part 2 isn't entirely a repeat of the first half). SMG/SMG2 are really really great games, if you're truly a Nintendo fan at heart - so much so that I don't think I can enjoy a sidescrolling Mario game again because it's not 3D. Not to say those game aren't good, but one you get used to the liberty of exploration of these games, it's hard to go back to that. I'm happy to say that SMG2 surprised me in ways that I wasn't expecting, and I'm glad it didn't turn out to be an extended version of its predecessor.
  4. And this is what I found in the morning...

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  5. I've had a lot of things floating around in my head lately. I say lately, I actually mean in the last few months. this blog, as an example, I wrote about a month ago. I suppose I've just been floating a few things around in my head, letting them percolate until I thought I could express them in a way that accurately represents how I feel about something. First came clarifying in my head how in fact I do feel about it. And I think I know, or at least I know how to get the ball rolling

    The title of this first blog entry is The Protoculture. Besides being a Macross reference, I think its a solid term for the kind of things I'm talking about. Just to warn anyone off from this topic before I get rolling, this is about politics, feminism, and a lot of topics that are pretty divisive, especially on this website.

    I have trouble with my political identity these days. In high school I liked to tell myself I was fairly moderate, but after a fashion I realized I was on the liberal side of things on almost every hot button issue, so I identified, and still for the most part identify, as a left leaning individual. At the same time I try to play devil's advocate when I can, try to see debates from both sides. I do this because, if all you ever see or read are things from the same perspective as yourself its easy to get stuck in your beliefs. At that point all you're doing is participating in a big circlejerk. I don't want that. I don't ever want that, I want to be able to see things clearly, to cut to the truth of the matter, if such a black and white thing can be found. I get the feeling, and this is just a feeling, if I'm wrong please call me out on it, that LL is much the same on that. Like, he shows up and plays the devil's advocate on all of the political threads that pop up, but If I remember correctly, he's even more liberal than I am, just going by those tests a bunch of us took before. So I say all of that, I guess as a guidepost for what I'm going to talk about next

    For a long time, it was my point of view that feminism was an artifact of the past. That people like Susan B Anthony and other suffragette’s succeeded, women having the right to vote, Title IX being enacted. In school they teach feminism as something like that, or at least they did when I went to school. So, when confronted with the reality, that De Jure, there is Gender equality, but De facto, there are still a lot of problems. And I agree with that. There are. Culturally, there are still a lot of rigidly enforced gender roles, I don’t want to get into ALL of that, people have spent their entire lives talking about it, and I don’t have that long, its 1:00 in the morning and I have a trip tomorrow. Whenever I think about Gender inequalities, all I ever get back to is that in order to effect any change you would have to change culture in a lot of fundamental ways, and you can’t make people nice. You can’t force civility on people, or you wouldn’t be civil yourself. Its so easy to get lost in anger about these things, but when that happens you so often become worse than what you fight.

    A big scapegoat on the internet is lumping a lot of people and things into Tumblr, this new “Protoculture” and blaming it for everything. Maybe its not scapegoating, maybe Tumblr is the stereotype, but I generally try to assume the best of things. And I have it on good authority that Tumblr is 90% porn, and I can get behind that. Thought i’d throw a bit of humor into this rambling wall of text. Regardless, what i’m getting at is that there is a movement that I am witnessing and I don’t know where I stand anymore. A new kind of Liberalism I guess, and I can’t just chalk it up to radicals shouting loudly because I know reasonable people, some on this very site, that are as much a part of it. I keep looking at myself and my political identity and I always ask questions, I constantly question myself, check myself, to make sure i’m standing in the right place. I think I am, but I know people, have seen people, who KNOW that they are right. Sometimes that gives me pause. So, any civil discourse on where we sit in the pages of history is most welcome. This wasn’t nearly as solid as I thought it was when it was sitting in the percolator, but I think I needed to exorcise it, get it out there. Please feel free to engage in civil discourse in the comments, if anyone feels like getting through this wall of nonsense.

  6. "It's JIF, not GIF"

    By Teto,

    Short story. Warsaw is the capital of Poland, and through it runs a major river of Poland; the Vistula. We call them Warsaw and the Vistula, but in Poland they're, phonetically "Varshava" and the "Veeswa". That's what they call them. We don't, though; we anglicised it and made it our own. As far as we're concerned the Polish can call them whatever the hell they like, but we call them Warsaw and the Vistula, and that isn't changing.

    The founder of Warsaw stood on a hill somewhere near a trade village next to a large river, and said "This town will henceforth take on the name Varshava, until the end of days."
    But we call it Warsaw.
  7. When I was young I was told that, being of simple mind and dull wit, the status quo would decide my role in life. However, I doubted her credibility, considering how foolish she appeared, using her finger and her thumb to form the shape of an L on her forehead.

    Time moves on at it's own pace; and, dropped into adulthood, I took to independence excitedly. I committed myself to living by my own philosophy that life is best spent having fun, and that, while academic pursuits are worthwhile, a strong character is more valuable.

    There is so much to take in and so many possibilities in the world; and so it doesn't seem unfitting to me to live outside of traditional values. Without first experiencing something, you can get no measure of it's worth. Without expressing the beauty of your soul, you can't expect others to appreciate it.

    Have faith in your passions, and express them by having fun and enjoying your life in whatever way you see fit. Take what you love, and find a compromise whereby you can live your own way, despite the constraints of society. Jump at every opportunity and follow your instincts, because to be something unique you have to push the boundaries.



  8. So on my way home my car started wonking out on me. Thankfully I was able to pull off to the side of the road and call a tow truck. I was at the garage for an hour when they told me my transmission was shot and I'm in need of a new one and it gets better, it'll cost me $5,000 and it won't be ready until Monday.

  9. There are words here and there while reading that I'm not sure I understand properly, or don't know at all. Facial expressions and feelings, and words for places that I never knew before, or wasn't sure of. I would continuously keep having to take breaks to find definitions for things, and sometime into the book I felt like I'd begun repeating myself. I'd been looking up words, putting it into the scene in my head, and immediately forgotten what the word meant. I decided the best thing to do would be to write down words in a notebook as I read, along with their definitions. Since I started writing, however many pages ago, I've got 23 words. And here they all are, definitions included.

    *Noun
    **Adjective
    ***Verb
    Wry **1. Using or expressing dry, esp. mocking, humor.
    **2. (of a person's face or features) Twisted into an expression of disgust, disappointment, or annoyance.

    Niggard *A stingy or ungenerous person.

    Conjecture *An opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information.
    **Form an opinion or supposition about (something) on the basis of incomplete information.

    Trepidation *1. A feeling of fear or agitation about something that may happen.
    *2. Trembling motion.

    Nonplussed **1. (of a person) Surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react.
    **2. (of a person) Unperturbed.

    Perturb ***1. Make (someone) anxious or unsettled.
    ***2. Subject (a system, moving object, or process) to an influence tending to alter its normal or regular state or path.

    Slight *An insult caused by a failure to show someone proper respect or attention.
    **Small in degree; inconsiderable.
    ***Insult (someone) by treating or speaking of them without proper respect or attention.

    Contrite **Feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt.

    Quip *A witty remark.
    ***Make a witty remark.

    Sullen **1. Bad-tempered and sulky; gloomy.
    **2. (esp. of water) Slow-moving: "rivers in sullen flood".

    Admonition *An act or action of admonishing; authoritative counsel or warning.

    Insolent **Showing a rude or arrogant lack of respect.

    Rankle ***1. (of a wound or sore) Continue to be painful; fester.
    ***2. (of a comment, event, or fact) Cause annoyance or resentment that persists.

    Lecherous **Having or showing excessive or offensive sexual desire.

    Sardonic **Grimly mocking or cynical.

    Earnest *A sign or promise of what is to come: "an earnest of the world's desire not to see the conflict repeated elsewhere".
    **Resulting from or showing intense conviction: "an earnest student".

    Droll **Curious or unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement: "his unique brand of droll self-mockery".

    Reproach *The expression of disapproval or disappointment.
    ***Address (someone) in such a way as to express disapproval or disappointment.

    Curt **Rudely brief: "his reply was curt".

    Placid **(of a person or animal) Not easily upset or excited.
    **(esp. of a place or stretch of water) Calm and peaceful, with little movement or activity.

    Ford *A shallow place in a river or stream allowing one to walk or drive across.
    **(of a person or vehicle) Cross (a river or stream) at a shallow place.

    Petulant **(of a person or their manner) Childishly sulky or bad-tempered.

    Retinue *A group of advisers, assistants, or others accompanying an important person.


    And this concludes Teto's first vocabulary roundup.
  10. Um hey. So last entry, I was high on Vyvanse and getting ready for the end of my semester. Well, yesterday was my last exam, and it's summer already! That finals week was barely anything, it felt like. Now I have hardly anything until mid-August. I'll take it.

    More or less spontaneously, one of my roommates invited me to roadtrip with her and one of her friends next week up to Colorado. We are stopping in St. Louis for a night to go to a baseball game (?) and see the arch, and then we are camping about 40 minutes outside of the city. Then we're driving up to Colorado and staying with one of my other roommate's older sister, who lives out in Boulder. In Colorado (which it may be snowing, lol shit) we'll be hiking and finding stuff to do. On the way back, we're stopping in Tennessee. In total it should be a 10 day trip, so I'm excited. This is the longest drive I'll have made since my family moved my sister out to Texas ten years ago. About 1500 miles (~2400 km, UK folks) there, and then 1500 back. Should be a good time, right?

    Anyway, other than that, I've been playing Pokémon Heartgold and I've really enjoyed it a lot. I didn't know what to think of second gen (I really don't think I'll actually play Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald or Diamond/Pearl/Platinum ever) so it's been really cool. My team for the time being is: Quilava (starter), Ampharos, Quagsire lol, Murkrow (a puppying bitch and a half to capture), and Eevee, who I plan to evolve into Espeon. I was getting along just fine with Quilava, Ampharos and Quagsire, but the lack of a flying pokemon was becoming a little tolling without the use of Fly. Also have you guys played the game corner game in this game? The sudoku/minesweeper game? So puppying addicting. I'm trying to get 10k coins for Thunderbolt and it's taking a while, but at least it's not slots or buying a bunch of coins. I feel like I actually earn the coins, you know? It's a cool idea.

    That's it for now, I probably won't update for a few weeks after the trip (in which I hope nothing bad happens) and I won't be gaming too much. :>

  11. eugh

    By Padraig!,

    yknow when you go into an exam all hyped like

    "yeah

    im gonna kick this

    exams ass"

    and then you're all like

    "this is really



    really




    hard"


    it puppys up your motivation doesnt it, especially when thats meant to be the easiest exam you do



    1 down, 9 to go
  12. So i saw Amazing Spider-Man 2 tonight. This entry is going to be about me, not the movie, but I must caution you for spoilers up ahead. Don't care or have already seen the movie? Then lets jump in!

    So there is a scene fairly early into the movie when Electro (Jamie Foxx) first discovers his new powers. He stumbles into Time Square where he eventually confronts Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). Now Electro is how you say.... bat shit insane. He's obsessed with Spider-Man and is a man of great paranoia and nearly crippling depression. A man occasionally I find myself like. So basically, Spider-Man and Electro are in Time Square with police and civilians at the sides. Spider-Man, being the hero that he is, tries to calm Electro down to talk about his problems, and help him with his new powers. The police have backed away and things are working out. But suddenly, a sniper (squat teamer?) shots at Electro and freaks him out. Spider-Man reacts accordingly. The civilian crowd, now watching from the side-lines, starts cheering. "Get that freak, Spidey!" stuff like that. That's it. Electro full on freaks out and as he does i am reminded of past panic attacks that I've had myself.

    Okay so the scene was probably really cheesy to anyone who cant relate, but to me? It was definitely the most accurate representation of a panic attack i've ever witnessed. At least how I experience them. Electro's heart starts racing, filling him with rage and angst. Voices start chiming in, saying stuff like "They betrayed me" "they think your'e worthless" "they need to pay" etc. all while playing to the beat of the music. It's like a song, actually, a song i knew all too well.

    When i freak out like this, as I have recently on new year's eve. My heart starts racing. I start thinking these awful thoughts and they come at intervals that match my heart beat. Its really like my body is singing evil intentions to me. Looking back on it, it's actually quite fascinating, but in the moment its absolutely terrifying. Where Electro and I are similar end here, obviously, because he can shoot electricity at people and i just ran into the employee restroom and broke down crying. But yeah, Im sure I was the only one in the theater crying at that scene. Not full on tears but you know, a little jerk in the heart, a drop of water in the eye.

    The moral of the story is, despite not being a perfect movie, the Amazing Spider-Man 2 was really fun! I recommend it.
    PS- I actually cry at almost every Marvel Flick i see in theaters. When the Avengers all lined up for the final battle. When Cap fought the Winter Soldier. puppy even when Tony summoned all of his Iron Man suits. It just gets me right here!

  14. APRIL 10TH 2013

    By Teto,

    Today I woke up at 7:00. Then 7:09. Then 7:18. Then 7:27. Then 7:36. Then 7:45. Then I was finally able to actually switch off my alarm with confidence that I would then be able to go out into the day. I showered. I sat around a bit and waited until 8:45 when I went to class, which I had to rush for, because I am no good at time management and should have left earlier to allow for travel time. On the way I listened mostly to "
    " and " " by Eels, the second moreso than the first. I arrived at 9:05 which wasn't a big deal; it hadn't really started yet. We just had to get results, but like half the class puppyed up and nobody had any cell growth. We got someone else's results. Class ended at 10:15, and I was released back into the wild.
    I went to Greggs and got a Scotch Pie, which you shouldn't eat with your hands because it's way oily. It was kind of weird. I was careful not to make a horrific mess, and was successful. Then I took a picture of the dragon statue.





    I then went off to Waterstones, looked around halfheartedly at the comics and books. Read the back of The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Read the little staff-written recommendations on the front of A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, and one of the Doctor Who books, based on the Ninth Doctor. I looked at the Judge Dredd comics and wondered why volumes 12 or 13 onwards of the complete case files were so much smaller than the first dozen. I also looked again at the manga, which never ever changes, and I wouldn't buy even if I saw something I wanted. I saw a popular science book that had "Electric Sheep" in the title, in larger letters than the rest of the title. I mistakenly thought it was something to do with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, which I recently finished.

    I went off to the Costa upstairs, and ordered a pot of tea instead of my usual mocha latte, because I have given up trying to think coffee doesn't suck. I sat down in a corner of the cafe next to a couple people who I assumed were lecturers for a gaming course. They were discussing Heavy Rain, and generally the whole ludology vs. narratology debate. They got onto the American archetype character of the big hero who walks off into the sunset after winning the battle and killing the bad guys, and they noticed how often that comes up. Like in Fallout 3 and stuff, and apparently Bioshock Infinite? I struggled to read Game of Thrones with them there because A) They were like arms length from me; They were kind of loud; C) Their conversation was interesting.

    They left, and I got on finishing the chapter I was on, which is just the first chapter after the prologue; Bran. It was really good and I liked it. I'm going to enjoy this book a lot. I had to get up to get a third sugar for my tea because two wasn't quite enough. I didn't have enough tea for a second cup, but I poured it anyway and put in way too much sugar. I finished that and left.

    I decided to call up my flatmate and see if she wanted me to go by the print shop to pick up her postcards she got printed out, because she's going to have a booth at the upcoming anime convention we're having in Dundee on the weekend. I went over, since it was on the same street, and picked them up, with surprising ease; I just gave them my friend's name and they handed over the stuff. I learned later that the shop called my friend to make sure that I wasn't just some stranger stealing her stuff.

    I was going to go buy a Magic the Gathering booster but I decided against it because it's not so much fun when you don't have obsessive pros around you to tell you which cards are utter rubbish. Instead I went off to a shop to buy some more cord for making dice bags.

    So I went and got on the bus, came back to my flat. Not a lot happened between those two things.

    I got back, unpacked all my stuff, met up with my flatmate, talked briefly. Moved my stuff through to the living room because she was going to do some clay making for jewellery she's planning to sell at the convention as well. I was going to make dice bags there but I decided against it because being in her company is really uncomfortable, even though she's nice; I just can't stand being around her for extended periods of time, I just end up feeling antisocial because I can't think of anything to talk about, and she's constantly forcing enthusiasm out of herself, and I can't help her there at all and I can't match the enthusiasm, and so I feel like I make her feel bad about herself, and so I get tired quickly.

    We went to the Tesco because she needed stuff. I didn't really, but I got Pringles and chocolate because I am fat. We return to the flat. She finds a weird egg in amongst the eggs she got. Look at this weird egg.





    Not even cracked, it just looks like that. How does a shell get like that.

    The time is 2:19. It felt like 5pm at this point. I felt bad, but I went back to my room to be by myself. I listened to Eels a bit, watched the first episode of the second season of The World God Only Knows, that god-forsaken show, and then put on The Big Bang Theory because it's piss easy to watch. From then until sometime around 9:00, here was the playlist:





    Over this time I sat and made another dice bag, which I posted about. I used some of the cord I bought earlier, and was more careful with measurements and keeping the stitches closer together. It resulted in a better made bag, with a worse cord. The cord was too rough, and so it's more difficult to open and close than the first one I made, which has since broken, since part of the cord came loose due to not being very securely fastened to the felt body. Here's the second dice bag.





    Then I wrote this. I might read more Game of Thrones and then sleep. Here is my Twitter feed for the day, oh haha what I charmer I am.




  15. I recently read that MSN Is considering rebooting NBC's Heroes for it exclusive streaming service on Xbox. The New series Will be set in the same continuity but feature New Heroes.

    I like this idea....

    When it was on Heroes was one of my all time favorite shows (at least the first season). Heroes suffered greatly From the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike and never really recovered (I still have no idea what happened to Katlin).

    I love the idea of creating worlds within worlds, I've started quite a few fanfics set in the Heroes reality featuring Adrian Blake a Heroes character I created right here in a Heroes RP started in 2009 by Vadarth X (where are you Buddy?).

    With Super heroes as popular as they are right now the reboot Heroes could go far.


    One more thing, did they ever classify the Heroes? I mean Marvel has Mutants and DC has Meta Humans. Did they ever give the "Heroes" a snazzy name?
  16. [Ash's] Primeape VA's
    J: Hiroshi Otake
    E: Michael Haigney
    ______

    King Boom Boo VA's
    J: ???
    E: ???
    ______

    Sonic Adventure 2: Battle VA's:
    *uncredited on info.sonicretro.org

    -Japanese VAs-
    Junichi Kanemaru - Sonic
    Kouji Yusa - Shadow
    Atsuki Murata - Tails
    Nobutoshi Kanna - Knuckles
    Taeko Kawata - Amy
    Rumi Ochiai - Rouge
    Etsuko Kozakura - Omochao
    Yuri Shiratori - Maria
    -Kinryu Arimoto - The President
    -Mami Horikoshi - Secretary
    -Tohru Okawa - Flying Dog Pilot -
    -Kouji Ochiai - Big Foot Pilot
    -Kaori Aso - Tikal
    Tomoko Sasaki - Chao
    Chikao Otsuka - Gerald Robotnik / Eggman
    -English VA's-
    Ryan Drummond - Sonic
    Scott Dreier - Knuckles
    David Humphrey - Shadow
    Conner Bringas - Tails
    Jenny Douillard - Amy
    Deem Bristow - Eggman
    Lani Minella - Rouge / Omachao
    Moriah Angeline - Maria
    Marc Biagi - Gerald Robotnik
    -Steve Broadie - The President -
    -Sue Wakefield - Secretary -
    -Elara Distler* - Tikal -
    -Shelly Fox - Menu voice



    Continued search yields no further success. I can find no connection between the voice of Primeape from Pokemon and the voice of King Boom Boo, the ghost boss from Sonic Adventure 2. Neither Hiroshi Otake or Michael Haigney appear to have been involved in Sonic Adventure 2, and so it's unlikely that they loaned their voices at any point. Given that King Boom Boo has no lines, and only grunts and gurgles, it's unlikely that he has any noted dedicated voice actor worth speaking of, and so I cannot come to any conclusion there either.


    Voice actor information for Ash's Primeape taken from here:
    http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ash%27s_Primeape

    The lists of voice actors were taken from a reading of the Sonic Adventure 2 credits, and given characters by using the following sites:
    http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Adventure_2_credits
    http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com
    http://www.imdb.com/

    Thus concludes my search. King Boom Boo shall forever remain an enigma.
  17. I was playing Ocarina of Time 3D during my lunch break and was completing the trading sidequest, trying like hell to get the Cucco behind the high fence and failing miserably. I must've beaten it a dozen Times in the past but for the life of me I couldn't remember how to get back there then like an angel from Heaven a coworker came up behind me and said "oh all you do is float back there with another Cucco".

    I literally slapped myself in the face, I felt so stupid.

  19. I found this (I assume) Russian site that has all the books available to read, in English. Norton Safe Web says it's OK, so no obvious danger of viruses. Cascade started on A Game of Thrones, and hasn't reported any foul play, in that it look like it's going to charge you money after you read to a certain point in a book.

    The site it self is here: http://www.litmir.net/
    It has plenty other books, if you search for them. I gave a go and found the Earthsea novels, and a couple Philip K. Dick books there as well.

    So yeah, the Game of Thrones books. Here they are:
    A Game of Thrones
    A Clash of Kings
    A Storm of Swords
    A Feast for Crows
    A Dance with Dragons
    If you fancy knowing how I found it, I just typed a random unimportant line from the page I had open in A Feast for Crows and it gave me the same page on the site. Magic.
  21. Thinking about character creation and conception. I’ve never really made many characters outside of roleplaying games (including making up personalities and moral codes for games like Skyrim and Morrowind). I’ve been thinking lately about personality, characters, and understanding other people.

    To start with, here’s a story about my dog. He’s a nice enough dog, and I love him a lot, but when he gets around other dogs he acts aggressively defensive. At first I just thought it was okay, and put it out of my mind or excused it somehow, but the last time he got aggressive with another dog, it made me take it more seriously. He’s aggressive because he’s pent-up. He’s more energetic than we have time to exercise out of him, and so he gets frustrated and acts out. Just because I understand him, doesn’t mean that I can let him off. I’ve reformed and decided not to let him off his lead when I’m uncertain of whether I’m approaching other walkers (on a woodland trail), because he’s a big scary thing and he can sometimes be not that nice. I used to only tell myself “he’s a good dog but he can appear scary, so I’ll be careful about other people” but now I’m more aware that not only does he look scary, but he acts scary as well, under certain circumstances. People he’s okay with. Unfamiliar dogs less so.

    I started to more level-headedly consider his personality, and as I did so it dawned on me that I can’t rightly say what he’s thinking, nor predict what’s best for him. Like, I know he just needs more exercise, but as a philosophical thing the thought interests me.

    Moving on, I started to think about the fact that I had begun to build a personality for a dog. I had started to imagine the connections and meanings behind his actions, as you would with people. We get to know people directly through experiencing their actions; their words.

    And so I thought to myself, what about this as a possible method of character creation?

    Rather than fussing yourself over what their key aspects are and then using those aspects to predict their actions, do it the way you would with people: Predict their actions by knowing their personality, and know their personality by analysing their actions.

    Start with a blank slate character. A nothing. Then imagine what actions you want them to make, and then, from your own personal philosophy, explain their actions, and begin to build a framework of their personality. That’s the idea.

    It had me thinking also about how people understand fictional characters differently. People have their own philosophies about life and themselves, and from this they understand other people, by using their own knowledge of themselves and their own motivations. People who share your interpretation of characters will probably also share parts your personal philosophy, and so they’ll probably be the people you’d befriend, because they get that part of you and you share it.

    People often disagree with either the author’s decisions for the characters, or with other people’s interpretations and fan-made representations. I’d put that down to personal philosophy, and how people choose to relate to characters, thus shaping their understanding of them, leading to different predictions of the characters’ future actions. So don’t hate peoples’ interpretations, because it’s just them expressing a piece of themselves. Your interpretation is just as personal as theirs.
  22. I've been talking to this guy for a few weeks. We meet online but he lives pretty close. We are gonna meet this Saturday. It'll be his birthday and his friends are throwing him a party. I'm super nervous. Not only does he havta like me, but so do his friends. Nobody wants to date someone when their friends hate him. But I also hope i like him. I mean you can only know somebody so well from text messages....

    Hmm, this is a pretty lame first part. Oh well, I hope you'll all continue to read this as more entries are entered.

  23. 4/11/2013

    By Cirt,

    Well, here goes nothing. I was looking at everyone else's blogs and thought they put like, oh, 400x more effort than I would ever put into my first post. But anyway. I do think this is a cool idea, since I've been meaning to be a little more thorough with what I do here around the forums, and with gaming in general, and so picking the most self-absorbed way to do it would clearly be the easiest method.

    I picked "prime time of your life" as my blog title because I'm listening to daft punk (Alive 2007 ofc) and that was the song that was on. I'll get around to changing that later, if I can.

    Today I got LL's old 3DS in the mail today, which Cole and I jointly paid for. I am like 95% sure everyone has heard of Cole, but he is my boyfriend of some time now, like over a year and some months. He's a cool guy and knows I'm involved with this site and if you're lucky you might see him on IRC some time. It's rare. He's alright.

    But, back to the 3DS. Reeeeally puppying cool system. I am really glad we got it. I got on the internet with it (though it loads slow as shite) and was like, wow. This is it, this is the future. I had that feeling of when I held my indigo GameBoy color in like 1998 and thinking that it was the coolest thing.

    LL was cool enough to let me borrow PM: Sticker Star, so I spent a while playing that. It's a cute game, because all Paper Marios are cute to some degree. Except where the hell are my badges and leveling system? I was kind of bummed out on that, and as LL phrased it, "stressed out" by finding stickers just to battle. It seems a little constricting to rely solely on the stickers, and while I do think it is a cool concept, the game is also a lot trickier and requires poking and prodding a lot more. I also miss having a party, and this uh, Kersti character is a bit too intense for me. I am mixed on the game at the moment, but I am also on world 1-6 so we'll see.

    Anyway, I'm hoping I will give this blog a little more attention, since my tumblr has come to a near standstill and I miss doing some writing and reflecting. I think I'll mainly cover what I've been up to recently, probably music-wise and gaming-wise, since my daily life isn't much more than exercising, college, work, and eating. lol. Props to Tappy for giving us this cool new site feature.
  24. Hey ya'll. So I haven't been up to much as of these past few days, however, I spent a whopping 7 hours playing the first Roller Coaster Tycoon (think windows 98) on Cole's laptop today. Yeah. I can take a break from that game for a little while, even though I would like to get through all the scenarios.

    Cole's laptop has a lot more power than my shitty 2009 macbook does, and can even run Roller Coaster Tycoon (1) on it, although it did take a lot of work making it compatible. His pc is also capable of streaming, so today I set up Xsplit and streamed some RCT for about an hour on Twitch. Some people that I know on Twitch were nice enough to drop by and say hay, and Necropolis even came to watch for a bit. So shout out to him. :>

    Anyway, with that in mind, I plan on streaming more often now when I do have access to Cole's computer lol. If he lets me mooch of of him that much, you know. You guys should come hang out: http://www.twitch.tv/kelpsey

    And that's it for now. I started a Skyward Sword file last night but ended up losing a good 40 minutes of the file due to my wii shutting off and other dumb things. Oh well. I'll get back to that once I'm done being frustrated with it lol.