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You know it's going to be a good day when your first class starts out with a security alarm because the prof accidentally jarred something loose. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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Follow my Twitter at Twitter.com/therobd if you want to see my pics. I'll do my best to update as much as possible. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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Why did I not know that JAM Project was in Blazblue? Well, I know who I'm playing now. I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count.
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I was reading this article about Shia LeBeouf insulting the Wii and scrolled down to read some of the comments. I happened upon this gem:
"He games primarily on home consoles, he's not a real hardcore gamer. PC first, then PS3, then Wii, then 360. As an owner of them all, I feel I can properly judge."
Between this and the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott, I hate people.
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If I ever get married, I promise that I will never get into an argument over something as stupid as how many gallons are needed to fill the gas tank. Living with my parents is like living in a Lockhorns comic without the sex jokes. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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Honestly, the job's not bad so far. I'm taking a quick break to eat an apple right now, and I'm not sure I'm totally needed here, but hey, it's a summer job.
I spent part of my day yesterday comparing two corporate client relational managers. When I gave my report, I was greeted with a "You don't know exactly what I'm looking for, do you?" I'm a pretty insightful person, but I don't know a lot about tax preparation.
I look at it this way: Asking me to do that job was the equivalent of asking a student to translate a novel after one year of classes. You might get the gist of it, but at the end of the day, it's all going to be in the same tense, and, based on what most first-year language students make an effort to learn, you only know that the obscenities are translated properly for sure.
Time to encrypt stuff.
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There are days where I'm convinced that some supernatural force wants to make me happy. Some days, Capcom announces that Ryu will be facing off against Ken from Gatchaman or that Street Fighter IV is being released on my birthday. Other days, the White Sox win the World Series. Even a twist of fate like the sound system at an ACen panel screwing up and broadcasting talk about Kamen Rider all over the floor I happened to be resting has greatly improved the quality of my life. With so much going for me, there has to be someone who hates everything I love, right? A yin to my yang?
Enter my dad. I'm going to start working for him tomorrow, and I can already tell he's got plans to lay down the law based on some of the things he's been saying. I don't particularly care. If he's paying me, I'll do just about anything. I'll put up with anything he says and do whatever he asks; I'm still leaving at 5 PM every day.
Why is he my polar opposite? Well, a year ago, he asked me what anime was. Anyone reading this journal knows me to a certain extent. To live with me for 18 years and not know this basic fact shows a profound lack of interest in anything I care about. Today, when we were discussing the days I'd need off for Otakon, he asked me a few questions about it and was completely perplexed as to how I could find this fun. When I told him I was running a panel, it was like trying to tell Paris Hilton about quantum physics. He just didn't get it and dismissed anyone interested in it as weird.
What reminded me of this for the 546th time was something he said outside of the grocery store. A DJ was advertising his XM radio show and passing out fliers in front of the entrance to the store. He looked at it, shook his head, and said, "I don't know why people waste their time with this. No one wants to listen to these bozos. No one visits their MySpace and whatever." He had misunderstood and thought it was an internet radio show.
Who would waste their time with that?
My dad knows that I've done internet radio before. Of course, considering today was also the third or fourth time that I've explained anime and anime cons to him, it's not surprising that he didn't listen. It's just a giant warning sign that points to how badly this summer has the potential to go. We'll see how we work together. Time to go to bed and find out.
Side note: I picked out seven different internet radio shows I've been on and still had some to spare. I'm a podcast whore, and I haven't had my own regular podcast in over a year. I think it's official. Sadly, with how busy I am, I think con panels have taken the place of podcasting for me. We'll see. I still need a project this summer.
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All 3 E3 press conferences were good, though I'm not sold on Milo or Project Natal at all. A friend of mine called me jaded and told me that Microsoft could do nothing that would make me happy. That's actually true on one level: There is nothing that a company could do to convince me that camera controls are worthwhile until some company produces one that can effectively reproduce movement in any environment. Even then, I'm not convinced it will be fun outside of party games.
Splinter Cell looked great on the 360. Ubisoft mixed in some Assassin's Creed style platforming with a traditional stealth game, and the combination looks like peanut butter and chocolate. Ok, stupid analogy, but it looks that good. Speaking of stealth, the MGS skit with Kojima was cute, and MGS Rising should be buy-worthy on the 360.
I joked that they'd bring out Peter Molyneux to tell us how Natal will make us feel and achieve a deeper relationship with game character during the Natal footage, and who do they bring out? Peter "I overpromise on everything I do" Molyneux. Kotaku claimed that he didn't overpromise this time. I'll let you be the judge. He's creating a game based around a little boy named Milo that can interact with you based on anything you do. That's right. Peter Molyneux has invent sentient AI. That's not promising much at all. *sigh*
Nintendo is reviving Golden Sun on the DS, and I can't wait for that. The last Golden Sun game ended on a cliffhanger, and I thought the franchise was dead. I have high hopes for this game, and Camelot hasn't let me down yet. I hope Nintendo gave them the reins for this game. I'd hate to see that it was outsourced to some company that can't handle it, like GRIN with the new Bionic Commando game.
Oh, man, does Metroid: Other M look like an incredible game. Team Ninja is taking Metroid in a completely new direction, and I like the focus on action. Even if Samus' commander looks like M Bison, I may have to buy a Wii for this game.
Sony had a good demonstration of their motion controls. Everyone wants to duplicate the Wii, but it may be too late for that, especially with the price point being a barrier for the PS3 and 360. For Sony to have a strong showing after how, um, phallic the their motion controllers looked is an accomplishment.
They got that crowd back in no time after Kaz Hirai dropped another bomb with the PSP Go's introductory price. People in the chatroom I was in were guessing $149-$199. Sony outdid them all. It's debuting at $249. No one seems to be happy about it. Still, Sony's Hannah Montana pink PSP got a bigger cheer than almost anything else they did. Go figure.
Great E3 so far. I can't wait to see what Capcom has up its sleeve, if anything. We're supposed to hear about TvC and an action game. Onimusha, perhaps?
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- Scott Pilgrim is a great series, and I'm glad I caught up with it on the tail end instead of 4 years ago. I rocks at that. I didn't read Harry Potter until they all came out, either. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Twilight. - Gantz is really messed up. - I need to pay more attention to which magazines I'm ripping the covers from when I use them to point out something to a customer. A little old lady had a nice little shock when I waved Playboy Nudes in front of her face. Oops. - There is a magazine for people who raise chickens in their backyard. It's been published for a while. I can even order baby chicks from a number on the back. - Cannabilism is a big problem among baby chicks. I just call that fowl play. - Gantz is really, really messed up. Marc will be in town tonight on his way back from Tennessee, which should be fun. I'm his only friend that his girlfriend likes, so she doesn't mind, though she was worried I was going to put anime on, a query I replied to by asking if she would make me watch the Jonas brothers. Good ol' people expecting other people to force their own interests on them. Speaking of flavor du jour teen idols, I first thought Rob Pattinson was just single to make him more marketable. While I was ripping covers today, one of the tween magazines had a quote from him that said "I don't even want a gf." Regardless of the truth, the unintentional comedy of the implications is hilarious. If for nothing else but the rabid fangirls, I'm going to miss Borders. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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The only thing I could really do while waiting for tournaments was watch other people play games. Now, as a gamer, this is mindblowingly boring. As someone who likes to watch people act like idiots, this is absolutely captivating. For example, in a game room, there are always people in the corner that are just mocking what everyone else is doing because of their own desperate superiority complex. This is pretty standard, except most people are completely unaware of how much of a stereotype they become when they dole out a criticism like, "Look at that scrub miss the Buffalo Headbutt Crazy Buffalo. That is epic fail." (actual quote) They may as well be shouting "GIRUGAMESH!" repeatedly. Canada loved the Clark costume, though. 6 people recognized me during the weekend as Clark, though they all mentioned that I needed a Ralf. I even had one person tell me that Clark was his favorite character, which I admit I enjoyed. After wandering to the NA stations and hearing about how Ino players "eat up Naruto players for breakfast," I realized that people have actually begun to care about Narutimate Accel 2. With the tournament not having started an hour and a half after the scheduled time, I played a match. I put on a good showing but lost by a good margin, so I figured that I wouldn't be impressing anyone with my skills in Canada. I advanced to the second round and sat down next to my opponent. He looked really nervous and couldn't sit still. Wondering why he was so apprehensive, I struck up a conversation and wished him luck before the match. He replied, "I'll need it. My friends tell me that you're really good." After receiving a chorus of "OHHHH"'s during my third round loss, I made a note to myself to make this my last trip to the gaming room this weekend. I'll post more about AN later, but I'm writing this at work, and I've just learned several things about manga fans after taking several hundred manga volumes off the bookshelf: - Manga readers steal a ton of manga. We're missing so many volumes of everything.
- Yaoi readers steal even more manga than the average reader. This may be due to a sense of entitlement from reading it for free online or the embarrassment of reading it. Maybe both, though I think it would be a mistake to analyze it too deeply.
- Yaoi manga have amazingly bad plots. Take "Don't Bully Me:" It's about a kid who is constantly bullied by his older brother's best friend, but his "heart beats faster the more he's bullied." So many disturbing elements. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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...Dammit. Not a lot happened the rest of Friday. I watched some Black Lagoon and wandered around a little. Eventually, I made my way back to the hotel and caught some of Rocky IV. Awash in the patriotism, I was proud of how Rocky ended the Cold War and saved this country. Then I realized I was in Canada and wondered why it was being shown in the first place. Of course, what really confused me was that it was followed by Pearl Harbor, and I realized I was watching the "why we're better than the U.S. block." I jest. Bri came back halfway through Rocky IV with a copy of Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, which, while not great, is not nearly as bad as I have been led to believe. Still, damn Billy Kane. I wish I could tear him apart. I at least wish I could give Daredevil his billy club back. My last thought as I went to bed was, "Well, at least AN's gaming room can't be as bad as ACen's." Actually, it was something like, "I wonder if Tim Horton's has apple fritters" or "Stupid Bri winning by time over..." but my point stands. There were two tournaments I was interested in: SFIV and NA2. Surely the game room couldn't be that unorganized or unprepared. Stopping during the halfmile trek from the con center to the hotel with the game room (because otaku are always in great shape) to find that Tim Horton's does have apple fritters, I loaded myself with enough sugar to stun a small rhino and prepared myself for some casual matches... ...Except the game room had Rock Band, Melee, a pinball game, Daytona (let's go away!), and the marvelous fighting classic, SvC Chaos. Ugh. Noon rolled around, but, predictably, neither tournament started. Eventually, long after the Melee tournament finished, they started setting up for the two tournaments.
About 1:00, I interrupted my mantra of "The fight is all" to get a controller for a casual SFIV match. Then the power went out. Luckily for me, NA2 was open. Thankful that no one here had a yearlong vendetta against me in Canada, I was happy for what would be a quiet tournament. I had a close match against a good Haku player who was trashtalking me earlier, and I left to wait for them to start. Just got home. I have more later. Ooooohhh, do I have more (hint: look at the subject!). Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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After 9 hours of driving, Bri, Greg (guy I just met who is more hardcore about cosplay than anyone I know), Morgan (guy I just met who chairs Youmacon and is also... Eh, screw it, all 3 of them rock at cosplay and work really hard at it), and I (who is by comparison, a guy putting on a top hat and declaring himself Abe Lincoln) made it to Canada. So far, it's been fun. We all got a chance to trade stories and revel in our nerdiness. Everyone loved the "big, dumb animal" story. Greg went to the CN Tower at 5 AM to take pictures in a Code Geass Zero outfit. Dedication is a beautiful thing. The con didn't start until 5 (weird, right?), so I spent most of the day with Zeb. He showed me around downtown Toronto and helped me find poutein for lunch, which is this greasy concoction of fries, cheese curds, and gravy. I think the serving size is once per lifetime. Toss in the double Big Mac I had yesterday (yes, it's on the Canadian menu), and I may be cosplaying as Krillian in the Cell and Buu sagas by the end of this (or if cardiac arrest doesn't get me, Majin Buu). I found the greatest comic at the comic
shop for $2.99. More on that when I have a keyboard, but apparently fighting to the death means that Terry Bogard will never be friends with Shiki. I need more costumes, and I saw a lame Deadpool. I will do it right if I'm in shape by ACen. Chimichanga and Shoryuken be damned. ANorth is ok, but the game room needs more. I can play both Accel and SFIV tomorrow, so my legend will grow more than the average Tokysatsu monster. I like ACen better because it's not spread out among 4 hotels a half mile away. You think we want to exercise? But this does have Anime Pro Wrestling with Shark Boy, Kiyoshi, and Awesome Kong. No, I'm not kidding. I'm waiting for it to start now, even though I haven't watched tv wrestling in a year. If it sucks, I will leave. This better be anime related! It's starting. I sense Nobuyuki Hiyama's hotbloodedness here somewhere. I will find Link. 38 Shinigami, 28 Akatsuki, and 1 Deadpool. More later. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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Wrote this on Sunday, forgot to post it. Whoops.
I always say I'm going to get a lot done at ACen on Saturday, and every year, I end up spending most of it in the game room. Gee, it's such a shame they don't schedule the yaoi panels at another time so I can go to them. :P For whatever reason, I've been waking up early at this con. I haven't been sleeping well (mostly because my sleep schedule has as much consistency as the quality of a Michael Bay movie, so I decided to go to the anime history panel. It wasn't terrible. The guy did some research, but he couldn't pronounce any Japanese, which caused things like Mazinger Z to become Metzger Z. Well, maybe he thought it was about freestyle motocross instead of giant robots. After that, I mostly bummed around in the game room until lunch, where I introduced Skie and Misty to the wonder and splendor (and excess) of deep dish pizza. Yeah, suffice it to say, I don't think any of us ate dinner last night. Copious amounts of cheese and sauce are not bad things. Oh, and Sully rode dogsleds from his igloo while he fought communists on the way to the lake to ice fish while he lived in Alaska, and no one (namely Sully) will convince me otherwise. When we made it back, I checked out the game room, where Narutimate Accel was finally set up. Now, recall that last year, I discovered that somebody trained for the last year to beat me after I beat him in last year's tournament. He literally recognized me from a combo I did and yelled at me right there that it wouldn't happen again. Here's what happened this year: Me: Hey, are you playing casuals or a tournament?
Random guy from the 10 or so there: Tourna- OH! You're the Naruto player from last year!
*everyone turns around*
Other guy: Oh, I've heard of you! Let me money match you! WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE RECOGNIZING ME? I feel like these people are at home the rest of the year training fiercely every day while their loved ones say things like "Your obsession is destroying our love!," and they reply with "I will not rest until the day I defeat that man."
The game room situation didn't improve until much later that evening. For most of the day, literally half the console TVs were turned off with nothing on them. Smash Bros. had two controllers at each station. I'm definitely going to the con feedback panel to complain about this. There was no reason for any of that to happen. I don't know if there were technical problems or a lack of donations, but a game room should have games everywhere all the time.
Tim, John, and I entered the SFIV tournament. Beforehand, we had some pretty good casual matches, and we really all seemed to be on our game, which made me really happy. John has finally gotten over his anxiety during tournaments, and it's been a lot of fun to have a rival, as cheesy as that sounds. All 3 of us have pushed each other a lot with SFIV and other fighting games.
I may go into more detail later with match summaries, but Tim tried to add a little too much finesse in his second round match and kept forcing himself into situations where he would have to counter his opponent very precisely. He was much better than his opponent, but in those situations, you have to let your opponent bury himself. Tim had some really good runs earlier in the night, so he shouldn't be too disappointed.
Like I said, John played a really good tournament. He had what was the highlight of the tournament for me when he hit a jumping opponent at the apex of his jump and still managed to get the timing right for his ultra in a tense situation.
Unfortunately, John and I had to face each other in the quarterfinals, and, though he made me work for it, I managed to win the match. I faced Chun-Lis in my last two matches. They both turtled me like crazy. The first was probably the best new player I faced all night. Though the matches were very close, I can't believe people enjoyed them. The first was well played, and anyone watching could tell that the entire match hinged on one of us making a mistake.
Meanwhile, I had to call a coin flip to determine whether we'd play the finals on a 360 or a PS3, and I lost, meaning there were certain combos I just couldn't do. This resulted in a very boring match to watch. The other player had some skill, but he could not hit Chun-Li's good combos. As a result, he couldn't punish me, and I took advantage of it all day and won. WOOHOO!
It took most of the day, but I managed to connect with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) aquarianfae and jupiterninja a couple times in a game room, though it was during the tournament, so we didn't have much time to talk. It was good to see both of them, and I'm glad I had a cheering section. I stayed in the game room until about 3:30 AM to play some more SFIV. We saw a 360 red-ring live! Of course, I still don't know if mine did. I'll find out about 5, I suppose. Our panel is in a couple hours... This will be awesome.
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So far, so good. Yesterday took a lot out of me, and I was amazed I did not die of sleep deprivation. I'm sure Skie would have appreciated a death during his panel. "We at OLR have had... Whoops, RobD's dead. Live radio, folks!" That said, Skie put on a good panel. I prompted him for a gratuitous plug near the end, which I rather enjoyed. Frankly, though, he showed off his experience and demonstrated exactly why he has been doing this for years. When the only bone I have to pick with a panel is the Capcom hate, it was good.
Unfortunately, that leads me to the next panel: Great Panel Onizuka. They started by asking if we had any questions. WHAT? You are not official reps of Studio Pierrot. Why would we have questions? That's like me taking a museum tour and asking the guy next to me if he needs anything more explained to him at the beginning. Oh, then they showed a clip from the first episode with no context. If it was for people with no background in the show, it failed. If it was for fans, there was too much exposition. You don't start a Civil War class by tellin me which directions north and south are.
The game room was a bit of a mess. They seemed to be having trouble getting things running. I don't think the KoF tourney happened, and half the TVs had no consoles. It will probably be better today. I'm worried my 360 redringed, but I think (hope) they confused the 4 ring A/V cable with the RRoD.
Skie and Sully are lots of fun, but I will admit I was surprised neither of them killed John while he was singing Mazinger Z.
On the game front, only John has beaten me at SFIV. It's always a crapshoot when we play, so I'm not worried. I dominated at KoF XI and got much love for the Clark outfit. That made me happy.
I've already been to an anime history panel today. I'll save that, but here's a preview:
Okatu
Metzger Z
Genere
Highentay
Space Battleship Yamamoto
The game room beckons! Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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Can ACen just get here? I want to trade in my textbooks for a zany costume and an arcade stick already.
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rejected
