Zomg

Sorry, skipping today's comic since I've been busy most of the day packing and other things getting ready for move-in to UMBC. On that note, I'm going to completely skip Saturday's entry as well since it'll be alot getting used to everything going on starting classes. Expect an actual something on Tuesday then, even though it's my first day of classes, I should be settled enough to have my usual shitbuttload of free time, haha.

THREE DAYS THREE DAYS THRE...Oh wait, 5 days.

Splortastic. Saffy's always gonna get the short end of the stick at this rate, haha.

The fifth and final episode of Higurashi Rei is out! But the subs aren't! Boo! I'm kinda surprised how slow the subs for Rei have been, maybe just because they're released so erratically or something, I dunno. Hopefully it'll be up before Friday.

Back onto Umineko, I made a GREAT DISCOVERY! Was browsing around music and I came across the B Side to the Katayoku no Tori single that came out last week, entitled VII. It's now one of my favorite songs, and it's not hard to understand why:


I still don't know what my theme for this week is. Adrienne was being all vague about it saying I should know, but it's not like anything big has happened recently, or anything interesting happens at the end of August right? Ahhhh /headsplode. So, since I couldn't figure it out, I just used "You oughta know" as the theme at the last minute, haha.

Not too bad for something I just whipped together in a few minutes. I wanted to use a different binder, but I think that might be the only one left intact in the house, haha. Ah well.

Not really alot going on, actual shopping and packing won't start until tomorrow or Tuesday. I've largely just been surfing around Gaia in a naive belief that I'll find somewhere that pekes my interest and actually makes me unlurk again. I did watch This is Otakudom last night with my sister and her boyfriend for the first time in quite a while, and it was wonderous.

Fresh berry trail mix is really good btw.

As my summer draws to a close...

So yeah, my summer's almost over, just another week until move-in to UMBC. Of course, it'll still technically be summer, we've still got another month until Shizuha and Minoriko show up. Doesn't look like I can get to a water park after all, guess I'll just settle for another thorough watergun blasting. Next summer though. Next summer I'm going to Water Country USA if I have to do it by myself. =P

The Umineko anime has been...kinda rushed recently. Not quality-wise (though one of Beatrice's faces in Episode 7 would beg to differ), but the pacing has been at breakneck speed, apparant even if one hasn't read the visual novels. I'm not really sure why they're rushing things so fast, they've still got 16-18 episodes to tell 2.5 chapters, not like how they tried to fit 6 games into the first season of Higurashi. It seemed to be getting better toward the end of the episode, so maybe they're getting things back on track. Or maybe they just want to spend lots of time on Ange in the fourth part. I'm totally down for that then, haha.

Speaking of Umineko, the full version of the OP, Katayoku no Tori has been released, and I love it.

The ending theme should be out next month.

New videos for FFXIV came out with Gamescon. One show scaled-back Alpha version gameplay, so while it's pretty (and it's very pretty), it's not a good feel for how the game's going to end up yet. The guy who's controlling the character looks like he has no idea what he's doing either, lol. The other one is high-definition emotes for all the races, and they're quite a step up from what FFXI fans are used to, haha.


I didn't see any actual new info on FFXIV though, just a bunch of rehashed stuff. What's the next big press conference, Tokyo Game Show? Dunno, but should get more info periodically, if nothing else than through Famitsu.

Healthy eating omgwtfbbq? Yup, ...right after this Ben&Jerry's! =D

Nyuuu~

I've been thinking for a while about doing one of these art memes in flash, since my strip style lends itself to it. I originally thought about doing a UFO/UNL thing, but there weren't alot of new characters, so I decided to try this out. And yes, using a mouse with your feet is next to impossible.

This week's photo assignment was 'Hybrid Rainbow', and I instantly had to delve back into my music folders, as FLCL is awesome.

I actually like how this one turned out, pretty close to my original idea. I wanted more sunlight, but it seems the trees are too thick for that, oh well. I just have to improve my retouching skill a bit since this was a bit sloppy, and figure out if there's a way to make my camera take less grainy pictures. I can fix it with resizing and blur, but I want the 22mpx images I was used to before XD Ah well. These glasses are really great for random images, I just wish the rims were a bit thicker, since they dn't hold shape well if I get too designy with the shots.

So, like I said, two new Touhou games came out this weekend, 12 - Undefined Fantastic Object and 12.3 - Unthinkable Natural Law. UFO full is pretty freaking awesome. Byakuren and Nue are both excellent designs, and interesting fights, and I can't wait to hear the countless inevitable remixes of Heian Alien. I feel kinda unimpressed with Syou as a Stage 5 boss, and I almost felt that way about Murasa as a Stage 4 boss, then she starts chucking giant anchors at me, holy crap that was a fun fight. I managed to 1cc Easy mode on my second try, with like 4 lives left. Watch me get my arse beat to death in Stage 3 once I try Normal Mode just like Subterranian Animism, haha. UNL is kinda odd, since I never got used to Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. Other new fighters include Suwako and Utsuho (Where's my ORIIIIIIIIIIIN? :( ) There's only 1 new 'character', a giant unnamed catfish that Meiling dreamed up while she was on duty. It'll be fun playing if I ever get around to figuring it out, but for now I'll stick with Higurashi Daybreak as my Doujin fighter of choice.

Finally got through Umineko Episode 4 on Saturday at some point, jeebus that thing was long. Battler ended up overtaking me in thinking, but then again he actually got to interact with all that stuff, haha. The final scene in Alliance of the Golden Witch was really cool, and made sense, but then Lambdadelta had to go and be a bitch and completely throw all the details into darkness again, geez. Ange was also a great addition at the end there, and I certainly hope this isn't the last we see of her, though it probably will be. Chapter 5: End of the Golden Witch was just released on Saturday, as the first part of Umineko no Naku Koro Ni Chiru set, which is supposedly like the 'answer arcs' in Higurashi (Kai). I'll get back to that once Witch Hunt has enough time to translate through, until then I guess I can look around to see if anyone's translated the TIPS.

Talked to both my roomies now, and we've more or less arranged things out. Not that it really changed much I was taking, haha. According to Jose, the triple rooms are supposed to be bigger than a normal room too, and have a full 3 sets of furniture. That sounds good, I guess all that's left to do is go shopping for the last bit of stuff and wait 11 days. We'll all be moving in the same day, so that'll be easier for agreeing how to set up everything.

Addendum: Lullaby of Demonic Hell ~<3

The first one's simply amazing, the second starts after ~5min and is kinda okay.

Skip, Reverse, Skip, Draw 2, Uno!

Skipping today's entry. Umineko is too busy being awesome.

Riot Blade

Kihihihihihihihihihihihi...

Anyway, I forgot this on Saturday, but Haruhi S2 has finally aired the eighth and final episode of 'Endless Eight', meaning this week will finally be worth watching again, unless they *really* want to troll the crap out of the fanbase, lol.

Went up to UMBC to get Snocones, since they're awesome. And to make it even better, me and Adrienne walked all over campus in the hot sun, and *then* found the ID cards at the University Center, making me look kinda gross/stoned in my ID, but also with blue teeth. I want to smack them, but I guess it's not ID station's faults they know absolutely nothing about lighting? /photogeekrage

Speaking of /photogeek, here's this week's photo.


The topic was "Falling Away With You", and yeah, I kinda lamed it. I had a perfect idea had I been at UMBC, and I bet I'll get plenty of ideas there that I can only do at home. Ah well. As for the other picture I was working on, that might take a bit longer. I didn't have what I used the last time, so I tried to improvise...and it completely failed on me, oh geez. I have a couple more ideas, one which I'm almost certain can pull it off, I just can't screw up since I won't get a second try with that. Well, assuming all works out I'll have it up by the end of the month, so look forward to it.

I still have 3 roommates, although it seems my first third rm withdrew a while back, and then I find out today they sprung a new one on us. Geez, thanks bunches UMBC. *stabstab*

Deep into Umineko Episode 2 now, Turn of the Golden Witch. I must say, Beatrice is a formidable opponent. While I can't actually affect the outcome of the story, I'm trying to figure out the 'human tricks' along with Battler, and we're about the same pace, sometime I figure out something earlier, or sometimes he makes a move I didn't see, but so far in the end it seems all that's happening is moving the King frantically from Check. But it's not Checkmate yet, we'll see how this unravels. I don't know if I enjoy this quite as much as Higurashi, but it's certainly more intellectual, heh.

Also, this is so freaking awesome.

RPS EXTRRREEEMMMEEE

Jeebus, the midget even invaded my room on three separate occasions while I was trying to make this flash. It's fortunate I'm a genius and managed to make her curious about the kangaroos that live in the Sahara Desert.

Umineko is making 0 sense right now, I get that the last episode is a flashback and all (Though the lack of Tsurupettan was unfortunate), but there's this whole thing where 4 people *might* still be alive? Or are they dead now? Or did they reach the Golden Land and every one else revived? Or what the poop happened? I decided 20ish minutes a week was too slow, so I managed to find a group that had translated all 4 episodes of the Umineko game/sound novel so far. I figured I'd run through it a bit and at least catch up to the anime, and probably go further on. Little did I realize just how much they have to cut out of these games to fit them into an anime. For reference, I've been going through for hours and hours and hours, and I'm a bit over halfway through Episode 1 I think? Or equivalently, near the beginning of the third anime episode. There's tons of stuff they left out, so far the most notable bits are the very beginning of the story was completely cut, including Battler's airplane fright, and Rosa's very character didn't make it into the anime. All we saw of her was freaking out and slapping Maria for going 'Uuuuu' all the time in the rose garden, but most of the time she's a very reserved and kind person, easily the least venomous of the four siblings. Anyway, I'll probably work my way through this and the other three chapters over August, maybe finishing by school move-in. Episode 5 is slated to be released at Comiket in a week though, so I'll have to keep my eyes peeled this fall to see if an English patch comes out for that.

Obviously with all this Umineko stuff, naturally I would backtrack and see if I couldn't find a translation for the Higurashi games, since I've gotten nowhere near enough Higurashi in my life. And I did, though unfortunately only for Onikakusi-hen. Ironically it was translated by a pair of RL going by the monikers of Mion and Shion, haha. Anyway, the patch is actually down at the moment (though I could probably find it if I tried), but they seem to plan to put it up sometime soonish. In addition, I found that the Higurashi games had been licensed for an English release by a company called MangaGamer. They seem to be European-based, and intend to release the Question Arcs (Onikakushi, Watanagashi, Tatarigoroshi, Himatsubushi) in October and the Answer Arcs (Meakashi, Tsumihoroboshi, Minagoroshi, Matsuribayashi) in December. They even seem to have hired a diehard Higurashi fan who's a skilled English/Japanese bilinguist, so it looks like it'll turn out good. Assuming the price isn't too exorbant, I'll try to get them as soon as I possibly can, haha. The only downside I see is there doesn't seem to be any current intentions for the localization of some of the other chapters from Higurashi Rei, Matsuri(PS2) or Kizuna(DS). Ah well, one step at a time, eh?

Going back to the real world a bit, I finally got my college accomadations in the mail. I'll be living in Susquehanna Hall North, Third floor, Room 358. Move-in's on the 28th, and I believe classes start the following Tuesday? I don't remember. Anyway, I'm mostly ready, just need to do a little bit of shopping and pick up my book packages from the school bookstore. I've got both my English books now, but no world on any details of my Calculus class yet, which is getting a bit annoying. The biggest problem though, is my roommates. I haven't met them yet, so I don't know what they're like, but there's two of them. Yeah, UMBC crammed me in a triple. *superpapercutstab* I don't think Susquehanna has common rooms, so that makes it all the more tricky, especially if they opt to only give us two closets. (Closests aren't built-in in SUS, so I think they can be moved about. I might be wrong.) Well, I've got some ideas on how to beat the system, but it's certainly going to be an interesting bout of Room Tetris.

The official article with more info on FFXIV came out, and with it, significantly better quality character scans. All pictures here are shamelessly stolen from RPGamer, lol. If it bitches for hotlinking, just hit enter in the address bar again or wait a minute and it'll automagically reload anyway:
Hyuran Male | 2 | Female | 2
Elezen Male | 2 | Female | 2
Lalafell Male | 2 | Female | 2
Roegadyn 1 | 2
Miqo'te 1 | 2

Some of the highlights from the article include multiple clans in both the Miqo'te and the Hyuran, not sure if there'll be discernable differences yet. Racial stats will be less varied than they were in FFXI, but there will now be slight differences between males and females as well. Customization is supposed to really be kicked up a notch, and you shouldn't be running into your twin every 20 feet (lol). Missions and quests seem like they will take a larger role this time, and many will take 30min or less to complete, something highly valued by solo and casual players. Armor tweaking and weapon skills have somehow taken the place of experience points and whatnot, but it's unclear how this will be executed. Unlike FFXI though, armor seems to have the ability to deteriorate with use. Finally, there are 3 large towns confirmed. A desert town of Ul'dah, Gridania in the forest, and a lawless port town named Limsa Lominsa. I'm totally going for Limsa, haha.

Finally, here are some of what are almost certainly ingame screenshots. The quality's a bit low, but that's obviously the computer/photo capture they used, not the game engine:
+ | + | + | + | + | +

And for no reason in particular, here's Tsurupettan!

Insert Title Here

I need to try some XTREME PING PONG ROYALE again, that was pretty fun.

Anyway, somehow over the past couple days I managed to get 100% caught up with both Bleach and One Piece, so now I can tack them onto my weekly shows to watch, bringing the total to 8 series, although it's only technically 6 since Higurashi Rei is only every 1-2 months and Suzumiya Haruhi S2 is still in "Let's destroy our fanbase" mode. I also poked Shuffle! a bit to see if it got any better...and it doesn't really. Standard boring former H-game anime. Even the renown 'Boxcutter Kaede' just ended up being a emo lump of goo instead of being a good yandere like I was hoping. Ah well. I've lost interest in watching the Hayate no Gotoku anime, so I guess the only one I should really get around to sometime is Rave Master atm.

Going back, One Piece continues to amaze me how it's both awesome and well-paced without having to do a huge filler arc all the time. They'll occasionally throw a couple filler eps in here and there, but the last actual arc I remember was the G8 Arc right after they left Skypeia, which was extremely well-written and more or less indistinguishable from normal story. Bleach on the other hand, has to keep breaking the story in order to fit in their filler, and it's usually sub-par. Although they just entered a new filler arc where the Zanpakuto revolt, and it looks like it might be interesting, as long as it doesn't end up pointlessly dragging about like that damn Bount arc. The spirit designs, at the least, are pretty interesting. Too bad Ryujin Jakka won't be joining them, hahaha.

Starting to get in more details about FFXIV. So far race names have changed as follows:
Hume - Hyuran
Elvaan - Elezen
Tarutaru - Lalafell
Mithra - Miqo'te
Galka - Roegadyn
There are several differences in appearance to their FFXI counterparts, though not everything is known. The most obvious seen is that the Roegadyn do not have tails.
There are rumors that there will be more playable races, as well as playable male Miqo'te, but nothing is concrete yet.

There's alot of other potential information floating around, though for now I think I'm going to take most things I see with a grain of salt until I either get good screencaps or translation of/from a trusted source. 2ch isn't exactly alot better for people actually using their brains than say, Allakhazam, lol.

Tag! *BOOM*

Yeah, we had a pretty crazy storm this morning here. Of course being me, the first thing I thought of when I got woken up was "CANNON FIRE!" And then it just went from there. Like Fwoosh and Zoomzoom, and then more fwooshes. Maybe a hint of kasplooterdat.

Thanks to Adrienne appearing at the last minute last week, I had a theme for today's photo. XD



The theme was 'Sweet Vanilla', and being the geek that I am, I instantly thought back to the original colored Game Boy marketing campaign where they were all different flavors, haha. Was kinda fun to to a product-ish shot again, and I figured out a few tricks I can jerryrig for future shots, we'll see if I end up needing them. Since I didn't see Rei all week, I was working on a backup picture based on an older shot I took. It was fortunate she showed up though, due to technical difficulties, it looks to be another 2-3 days before I can do that shot. So maybe we'll have 2 photos for next week? Perhaps, heh.

Yesterday I went out and picked up Final Fantasy IV DS, after it dawned on me that the third installment of FFIV: The After Years would be available on WiiWare tomorrow, thus I'd have almost the entire sequel, despite not playing the main game for like 8ish years. So I've got another DS game to entertain me between classes and such for the fall, and then I can move onto something like Avalon Code or Rhapsody while I ignore all the Wii games I actually need to play for FFIV:TAY. Haha, I actually don't have *too* bad a stockpile of games to get through during the school year, though maybe I should make an attempt at Xenosaga one more time before the fall...

Nothing else much except playing anime catchup. Still 20 some episodes left for Bleach, then I have to go hunt down whatever the most recent group(s) to sub One Piece are. Good times. *stabsplode*