*guitar solo*

What is...OH GOD IT'S A CAR GET IN THE LION!

Comic right? Holy carp! It's like a mountain of needles in your face! Don't worry, my friend I have just the remedy. UPDATES EVERY SUNDAY! Or Monday. Usually. Unless I forget. Or get bored. Or asfljanfLSANVKAJGNAWKLJVBAKLJmkjnsldkgnaejrn. But expect it!

Why did this happen? Because I made monies, and bought this:

It's a tablet! So I updated! Like I said I might! Aren't I thoughtful?

Out of nowhere except right here! It's a HeroQuest update! Because I actually got off my arse at the end of summer and finished painting the couple dozen or so I still had sitting around. Here's the 5 metal girl figures I ordered back in winter:

Overall there's close to 150 figures I think. I didn't count. I have even more, but they're not really needed right away. With the set I have now, there's no problem playing through the main Heroquest game, and the Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord expansions. I'll need to buy and paint more if I surprisingly actually ever find a group to play with and even more surprisingly they last through that far to get to said quests. But for now the game's finished, aside from minor things like a method of transport for the minis, or a DM screen, or something.

I ended up going to Otakon anyway in Kogasa mode (BEROBEROBA~!), even though I was only able to attend for two days. I still had quite a lot of fun, and spent far too much in the Dealer's Room, as opposed to my usual nothing. I bought a Marisa Nendoroid plushie to sate my Touhou needs, and a slew of Higurashi figurines. Adrienne was also awesome and got me a Rena plushie, so now Rena and Marisa can enact plushie warfare throughout my room while I'm in college. Saw a few things like Axis Powers Hetalia (a bit confusing, but better than I expected) and Welcome to the Space Show (Not quite Ghibli quality, but a very fun movie).



Comiket 78 has come and gone, leaving us with many, many goodies. Umineko Episode 7 is out, which is good as the Episode 6 translation patch was just finished recently as well. It's predicted Episode 8 will come out this winter and wrap up the series. In a related Tangent, mangagamer.com has now released the entirety of the Higurashi series, Episodes 1-8~!

For Touhou, there's been a slew of new games. Officially, ZUN released 12.8, Great Fairy Wars. It plays like a standard Touhou shooter, but you can now freeze most bullets in ice, as you play Cirno. You face off with the 3 fairies Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire in the order of your choice in a 3 stage run (as opposed to 6) Daiyousei, Lily White & Black (Official now! =D) and Marisa also make appearances.

Next up is the New Super Marisa Land. It's a Mario fangame that's *very* well done, even if a bit short. Enemies and powerups are similar to many things done in Mario games, but with plenty of unique stuff too. But you don't care about all that. You just want the Bunnycopter. Fine, have the damned Bunnycopter.


Touhou Pocket Wars EVO+ came out, but I tried EVO and...I dunno. It's good, but there's just not that much to do. Maybe I'll check it out when it gets translated. There was also an RPG named the Genius of Sappheiros that looks really good, but there's no point in playing it if I can't understand the damn story. =P

Lastly, Touhoumon v1.8 came out. Also, Drakuaza's Insane version too. Honestly, I haven't really bothered with either, as most Touhoumon games are just kinda blah. And Kanto's freaking boring, do something new gaiz.

Onto other stuff, I bought a PS3 and a good camera as well this summer, and hope to be buying an HDTV soon, so I can see FFXIII in the pretties. Already beat Flower and Soul Calibur IV. I really wanna start FFXIII, but it all depends on when that living expense check comes in.

Speaking of which, I'm back at UMBC now. Living in the apartments this year, and things are already looking alot better. First off, both of my roomies I've met are gamers to some extent, and I've enjoyed hanging out with both so far. There's supposed to be a fourth person with us, but as of yet, he's MIA. So maybe only three people? At the very least, that'll cut down on bathroom smell, hahaha.
Here's my awesomely tiny room:


Doesn't bother me since it's ALL MINE >:3 Still working out a few kinks with making my laptop more mobile around the room though. Bought a TON of kitchen stuff. We're actually mostly set now, and it wasn't as much a money sink as I thought it'd be. I paid for most of the non-food items too, so I can keep them and reuse them for future stuff. I fel iz gro'd up nao yish?

Got a major role in another of Erik's films! In what? You'll have to wait and see! I'm going to kill you with anticipation that you won't feel because you'll have already forgotten what I just said by the time you make it to the end of this very long run-on sentence.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 demo came out. It uses the PSU system again, but they're very much improving it. Of course, they also just announced Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity in Japan, so I might instead wait for that and just mess around in PS Zero more, heh.

FFXIV in 3 weeks! FFXIV Open Beta in 2 days! ARE YOU RAWRDY!?

My Dream Diary's seemed to started to work really good. I've had detailed remembrances (mostly) 5 times in the past week, which blows away the spotty stuff here and there throughout the summer. Hopefully my dream memory will continue to improve all the way to lucidity! >:3

And, I'll finish up with a song. Because you're not the boss of me.

You are Super Player!

So I beat Double Spoiler. Lemme put it in perspective a bit.

The game was released on March 14, at Reitaisai 7. It's not actually going on normal sale until Thursday. Note that the two Bunkanchou games are considered to be the hardest Touhou games(I find them the easiest though, lol) It took me roughly 15 days to re-beat all 85 stages of Shoot the Bullet(including 3 I had never beat previously), clear all 99 scenes in Double Spoiler with Aya, clear the 9-stage Spoiler level to unlock Hatate, and then clear all 99 stages again with Hatate. That's 292 scenes. Best waste of 2 weeks ever.

Now...what do I do for the next 3+ years until ZUN releases another? ;x

I'm absurd.

I don't know how I beat this stuff, it must be magic. This is why I save the replays. Because holy shit.

Starting off, I decided to push Hatate a bit in Double Spoiler, and ended up clearing the remainder of Level 8, as well as the entirety of Levels 9 and 10 with her. Yes, that includes Iku's stages, and holy shit, 10-4 with Hatate is the absolute most bullshit stage ever. But I finished it, hurray! Now I'm on Level 11 with both Aya and Hatate, though I haven't put too much time into this group yet.

I did more with Shoot the Bullet too! Earlier today, I finally finished saving replays for all the stages I had previously beaten. (82/85) But that wasn't apparently enough, as I managed to finally clear Suika's "Pandemonium" after only a few tries. ALSO. HOLY CRAP. I finally beat Komachi's Old Rain ~ "Rain in the Underworld Journey" Probably the hardest StB/DS stage I've managed to beat so far, it took me 1085 shots to clear. Now I'm at 84/85! The only spellcard left is Yukari's Boundary Sign ~ "Boundary between Particle and Wave" It seems like a tricky card, but it's also a pattern with no random shots(I think). So all I have to do is spend time learning how to navigate the pattern and I'll make it somehow. Ah well, I'll save that for later. Yukari is hax.

Finally got to go see Alice in Wonderland today. While it's not even remotely faithful to the books, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Tim Burton made quite the visual treat as always, Johnny Depp wasn't immediately discernible by his character, and there was lots of really cool stuff. I do have several complaints about deviating *too* much from the books, like the Jabberwock wasn't really Jabberwockish enough for me, and the dormouse wasn't narcoleptic(the hell?), but they're pretty minor complaints. Overall I'd probably give it a 3.5/5

And last for today, guess what I got in the mail!?

Tarutarus! I ordered these back the same day I did my Reaper minis a few weeks ago, but it seems these had to be shipped from Japan. Most excellent figures indeed though! The main reason I wanted the set was for Shantotto, but getting Robel-Akbel, the Star Sibyl, and Ajido-Marujido is neat too. Now I just need Square to make more. Like Prishe. Yes.

Ohohohoho~!

No more monsters!

Thank goodness too, I almost stopped painting in the middle of the last gargoyle because I was so bored, lol. Anyway, finished up he set of 13 Chaos Warriors on Wednesday.


And yesterday I moved onto the Gargoyles and Chaos Sorcerers. There's only 3 of each, and only one Gargoyle was unpainted, so I just shoved them all into one evening.


Of course, I'm not done yet. The heroes still need something to fight with! I saved all the player characters for last, because I knew if I instead ended on 34 Orcs I was likely to just say 'Screw it', haha.

From left to right they're NPCs, Wizards, Elves, Dwarves, and Barbarians. I might not do much if anything with them this weekend, as I'm gonna shift focus to my programming homework, but maybe they'll be finished by Easter? We'll see. I also have a few *more* minis that need painting, but they're all ones that exist outside the main game system, so I'm not too worried about them if I don't even have any confirmed players yet, heh.

Played too much Touhou Photo-shoot as expected, haha. I got alot done though! I cleared Stage 8 and 9 entirely in StB, as well as a quarter of the remaining scenes. 12 scenes left now, 3 of which I've not beaten before. I find it a bit amusing that Stage 9-6 is apparently considered the hardest stage in the game, but I've beat it twice now. In Double Spoiler, I cleared the rest of Level 8 and most of Level 9 with Aya, and then every stage in Levels 1 though 7 with Hatate. After playing as her that much, I don't really think she's any harder or easier than Aya. The faster film speed is great, but lack of any zoom really hurts on some stages. Her lens is also thinner, so about 80% of Aya's scores on the same stages are higher. Ah well, I reached some decent checkpoints I suppose, I'll probably hold off on spamming the game too much for a while at least.

In other news, the combined shinies of FFXIII and FFXIV have finally allowed me to supress the urge to go back to FFXI (for now, lol) Not that I could until June or whenever I get enough money for a new laptop, but whatever. Class of Heroes has also been pissing me off something fierce. So, I beat the next-to-last boss around level 15. I go to beat the final boss, and my attacks hardly do any damage and she wallops my arse in 2 turns. 'Kay. I go train for a while and try to find new weapons (I don't, because random drops suck =P) I come back 7 levels later to the final boss. My attacks hardly do any damage and she wallops my arse in 2 turns. ...Wat? I sort of see what I could have done, but that's like another freaking 10+ hours of retraining, which is really not something I want to bother with. Unfortunately, the game is overall fairly mediocre. I'll probably shelve it for a while and then hack through to see all the post game stuff somewhere down the road. Not sure what I'll play next though. Back to MHFU? Probably, but then I'd have to go farm that damn Blangonga again. Might also pick up FFIII(DS) when I get back to skool, just to burn through an eeji-modo RPG, heh.

More stuff no one cares about! :D

Finished the mummies today, did a quick job because mummies are boring.

I actually gave them skin and stuff now, instead of being completely swirling figures of off-white tones. I also made one all burned and stuff. Not literally of course, but that might've been fun too.

Next up are Chaos Warriors. I have 13 of them, but 4 are designed as statues, so they don't really need touching up. I've got some ideas for the four new ones too. It'll take a while tomorrow I think, but it's not like I'm doing anything.


As for Touhou, I went into insane mode last night. At first I cleared 2 stages in Level 8, thinking that would unlock EX mode. That didn't work though, as apparantly there's a second condition that I have to beat at least one stage in every level through 12. So I did. And then I beat 3 stages in Level EX. And then I beat all 9 stages in Level SPOILER and unlocked Hatate. Yeah, I'm pretty awesome like that. Current capture count is ~70, though I do intend on capturing every stage in Levels 1-EX with both Aya and Hatate, so I've still got a while ahead of me. Since I finished all of that, I also went a bit father on StB and saved replays for the rest of Level 7 and started on Level 8. I'll probably not mention this stuff so much from now on, since I burned through the bulk of it so bloody fast, haha. Just milestones here and there when I make updates.

It's Zombie Time!

Zombies took a bit longer than I expected to finish, because I had to intentionally make them a bit messy, haha. Was still easy to finish the group within a day's time.

Opted to make the last two a swampy green color, not excellent, but not terrible either. Not like zombies are important very often anyway though.


Tomorrow's deed is the last of the undead, Mummies. Totalling at a mere 8, and having even less specific detail than skeletons, I really doubt these will take very long at all. Looks like more time for Double Spoiler tomorrow! :DDDD

Speaking of which, I've been still chugging in Double Spoiler, and have managed to clear the remainder of Level 6 and the entirety of Level 7. The only one that really gave me trouble was Shou's "LAZOR sign"[Banana Shitstorm], but I managed to somehow nab it in the end. In clearing all these stages, I unlocked Levels 11 and 12, and now have 50 clears. EXTRA mode only needs 52 clears to unlock, so that should be just around the corner. Alot easier to get there than in Shoot the Bullet, where I had to clear 66! Did a bit in the replay saving for StB as well, finishing up Level 6 and clearing half of Level 7. Considering how close I am to EX Mode and subsequently, SP Mode in DS, I'll probably not focus too much on StB for just a bit.

Spring Break!

Spring Break's here, and guess what I'm doing! Nothing of value, hurray! I did have a shitstorm of homework assigned right before break started, but being as awesome as I am, I managed to finish everything except my programming assignment before I came home. Now to get around to doing that...

Anyway, off my two week break, I'm now back to my minis and actually hoping to have the rest of the ones I have finished painting by the end of Spring Break. Today I tackled the largest set of single monster I had remaining, the skeletons.

There may have been 20 of them,but it's not like there's alot of different parts that need painting. Most of the time was just spent making sure the line between the scythe handles and the bones was smooth.

Since I didn't need another 6 standard white skeles, I opted to make two of them black. Why? I dunno, ambiance? Surprise 'OH SHIT!' moments? My favorite is still Pinky though.

Tomorrow's task is the Zombie patrol. There's only 10, so even if they're kind of detailed, it shouldn't be more than 2 or 3 hours. I don't have anymore of the color I used for the old one's skins though, so I'll get to be creative with the new two, haha.

Reitaisei 7 was yesterday morning! Some cool stuff, some disappointment, and a whole lots of 'Yeah, that's nice' No demo for TH13 yet, but Double Spoiler is out in full, and boy is it GLORIOUS. :D All the features it has makes it control-wise, better in every way than Shoot the Bullet, though the difficulty seems a bit lower. (Not too much, haha) Since now was a good a time as any, I went ahead and also started Shoot the Bullet over from the beginning as well, this time saving Replays for every single stage that I beat. My original goal was that my focus would be on DS, but when that frustrates me, I'd switch over and try some StB, since I already know most of the tricks for the stages. So far it's worked pretty well. Within a single day of DS being released, I've cleared Levels 1-5 and half of Level 6 on *both* games, and DS is now unlocked up to Level 10. I should be able to unlock Levels 11 and 12 within a few days, and maybe even Level EX by the end of Spring Break if I'm really lucky.

Of course, it doesn't end there, apparently there's *another* level after EX, Level SP, featuring a new character, Himekaidou Hatate. She's a tengu like Aya, that seems to get her photos via Google image search on her cell phone or something, lol. She becomes a playable character somewhere around there too, so there's an actual goal for this game haha. And then I get to go back and clear everything with Hatate. XD

Nothing else much happening for now. Picked up Class of Heroes again, but all I can really do right now is grind a ton, which is painfully slow. I'd really like to clear the game before the semester is over. >_>;

Blarg

Unfortunately, too much trying to figure out Java syntax led to me being largely nonproductive this weekend. I knew what I had to do, I just had no idea how to do it, lol. Anyway, I did manage to accomplish 2 things.

First, I cleared another stage in StB, bringing me to a justice-packed 82. This was also Mokou's 'OMGWTFWHYISN'TTHEREANYTHINGBUTBULLETS' spellcard, which I'm quite amazed I figured out. The last three might be too much pinpoint dodging for me at my skill level, but we'll see.

Second, I got a package in the mail containing the last few minis I need! (for now)

Since the only female mini I had up until now was an Amazon I've named 'Slutty McSlutslut', this'll help out a bit, especially if any of the hero players I end up with are female. There's one conterpart for each of the 4 male heros, and then the one on the back left I'm planning on using as the nefarious 'Generic Female Villian'. Despite not getting a chance to paint this weekend, I have off 9 straight days starting next Saturday, so I'll hopefully get most, if not all of my painting done during that time.

ZOMGWTFNOWAI

Hay guys. Did you think I was done with Touhou? Even a little bit?

Not a chance. =D


Touhou 12.5 was just announced: ダブルスポイラー　～ 東方文花帖 aka Double Spoiler ~ Touhou Bunkachou. This is awesome because now I can confuse people and say I play Touhou DS. Especially since they won't even know wtf I'm talking about! =D This is also awesome because it's another SHOOT THE BULLET type game! Hooray! More endless carnage and pretty, deadly lights just trying to take some pictures.

From what I can gather, no opponents will be reused from StB, and there will be over 100 stages (StB had 85 total), and possibly it's harder than even StB which is widely considered the hardest Touhou game. That part could be a mistranslation though.

Guess this means I need to finish up StB then? Haha maybe, but I doubt it. While I have 81/85 clears, these last four are still out of my reach (Except Komachi's 10-5. Sort of kinda almost got that one, but I get annihilated trying to get pics 6 & 7) I was hoping for this though, and this time I plan on actually saving all my replays. I sort of regret not saving any from StB, but maybe after I get my new computer this summer I'll start a new file.

Anyway, in unrelated news, HeroQuest painting may be delayed or not bothered with this weekend. Java's being a pain in the arse and I can't concentrate in the room with all the dumbarses around, so I'll probably lock myself in my bedroom all weekend instead of the basement. Assuming I finish early though, I should still be able to get through the Skeletons. I also placed an order on the last few figures I need to *start* HeroQuest, so I think I'll be ready to roll by the end of Spring Break assuming they get here timely. Now I just need some people, lol.

West Ronfaure

And here we are, all set with West Ronfaure~



Not too shabby, although it was a bit harder to place all the shrubbery about with the large areas with few landmarks. The large area in the middle is intentially left blank, since there is no shrubbery that grows there, just trees and somewhat smaller trees. As with before, I left off the trees for now. If I have time this week, I'm going to root through the RPG Maker files and see if I can put together a proper tileset so I can make these look nice. Whether or not I finally can get a pixel artist though remains to be seen. XD

Since it's March now, I might as well go over how I'm doing in classes this semester so far.
Calculus 2: Who's surprised I take a guilty pleasure with this class? It's the toughest one so far this semester, but when I finish out a ten minute integral and come out with the right answer, it's a damn good feeling. So far, all my quiz scores are high (2A, 1B), so let's see if I can keep it that way.

CompSci 2: Kinda mixed about this one, although tbh, CompSci 1 was a crap class, I just learned alot from doing the assignments, haha. Java isn't nearly as nice to work with as Python though, and for some reason we're spending alot of time talking about memory management, even though Java does all of that automatically. I suppose it might be useful to know down the road, but right now it just seems like more useless information to memorize. I've also been doing all my assignments in Python and Ruby, so hopefully by the end of the semester I'll have a solid foundation for the real CompSci courses.

Discrete Structures: aka Logic. aka Middle School Math. So far, this class is nothing but an insult. The instructor literally spent a 1:15 class talking about division. Not special division. Just division. The stuff I knew going into 1st grade. /wrists

Sceneography: aka Theater Shop. This class is pretty interesting. We have spent a bit of time on really basic stuff, but considering it's a required class for acting majors, I can see why. (Some of the kids in the class are *really* dumb) But I get to build things and run around stage with pneumatic power tools, so it's all good. Haha.

Chemistry 101: Not as bad as I expected, in fact, I think I mesh alot better with Chemistry than Physics. (Good thing I dropped the idea of Computer Engineering) So far everything has been pretty straightforward and understandable to me, and I should have no problem getting an A. This was proven today when we were playing a Review game in discussion session, and not to be insulting, but my 3 teammates had no idea what they were doing. Which means I was basically answering everything for the group myself. And I won, by like 2x the number of points as the group in second place, lol. I think we might've gotten some extra credit for that, though I dunno. Friday's exam is gonna be a snap though.

2 more weeks until Spring Break. I never really figured out something to do, so I'm just gonna spend the week at home, paint minis and play video games, haha. I'm such an interesting person.

Greenskins

Well, got lots and lots of painting done this weekend. Why don't we flip through those pics right quick now?

First up are the Goblins! I managed to finish up the remaining layers of paint late on Friday night, bringing a close to my second most populous monster type. Certainly glad that part's over.



A closeup of some of the Gobs. The jester impressed me, so far I've done the least touching up on him, so I guess I was really careful last time for some reason? I'm not sure why, he has trouble staying upright for any length of time.



Next up are the fimirs. These were a short-lived group in Warhammer Fantasy that eventually were phased out, though they made an appearance in HeroQuest as some monster fodder that would put up more fight than the Orcs. They're bigger and more detailed than Orcs, but thank goodness I only have 11 of them, and only 2 were unpainted.



Because there were so few, I managed to get the whole unit done with the rest of the time I had over the weekend. The skins alone took about half the total time, so after they were touched up, it was all downhill. I randomly decided to make a dark red and blue with the two new ones just because.



And a close up of these guys. I really hope my next camera can get in closer than this, although I think my alignment was screwed up or something. Also, I painted the whites and irises on all these guys, and that was a pain in the arse. I need even smaller brushes, lol.



With the fimir done, I've finished all the greenskins, and by far the bulk of my current HeroQuest figures. Up for next weekend are the undead starting with Skeletons. There may be 20 of them, but I really don't see them taking *too* long.



In non-HeroQuest related news, I scored a new pair of goggles this weekend!



While they're not as awesome as my Aviators, they're certainly nice, especially for the price ($20). They work alot better in indoor-shop/lab/etc. type situations, which my other pair was having a bit of trouble with. I might need to find a longer elastic, so they can fit around my enormous ego, but other than that, I like 'em.

For those of you who live under an internet rock, CLICK ME AND ALL YOUR DREAMS WILL COME TRUE!

Also, I guess for once I should be glad my computer is crappy? After what happened at VanaFest yesterday, I'd already be back on FFXI if I knew I wouldn't be /rage at my computer every 10 minutes. Somebody really needs to stop me before I get a new computer, else I'll be playing 2 MMO's.

And then all hope is lost.

East Ronfaure

So I said I'd have a version up this week, and I do! It's unfinished, but it should give a good idea for when I throw together a proper tileset. Actually having some difficulties finding a spriter though, so that's troublesome. I'll go ahead and do a map for West Ronfaure too, but if I can't find someone to work on the graphics, I might just have to drop this (right after I decide to do it too, lol). I don't think you can really still call it FFXI if I just use the crappy base graphics package that comes with RPG Maker XP.



The map takes about 40 sec to cross from the top left to bottom right, which is ~4min shorter than what it would normally take in FFXI, haha. Obviously, this'll get a revamp with trees, stone walls, slightly better grass, and mountain textures if I'm able to continue.

Justice.

Supplies!

I'll start off today's post with pictures yay! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera when I went home this weekend, so the quality is kinda shit. Though I guess it doesn't matter *too* much, since this isn't artistic photography or anything.



Here's my workspace I set up to do all the painting in my basement. It's nice, but it's right next to the window, so on sunny days the light gets brighter and dimmer constantly and pisses me off. Good thing I mostly paint in the evening. The next time the midget's home for more than 3 hours during the weekend, I wanna plow through some more of the basement mess, hopefully letting me move the workbench out of the way a bit.



Here's what I had accomplished thus far, after we cleaned up a bit of the basement during the snow break, note that about 2/3 of all my models are already painted from my last HeroQuest stint several years ago, but almost all of them desparately need touching up. I picked up some 10/0 paintbrushes on Friday just for that purpose, and they've been working great so far. I might still want a smaller size though. XD



And the Orcs are finished! There really wasn't too much to do, so I got them all to a point I liked late Friday night. Like ~2am, haha.



And a closeup on the center. I have more Orcs than anything else, totaling at 34. 31 are from my three games of HeroQuest and my Kellar's Keep expansion, and the three unique ones in the middle are from a Warhammer Quest packet I picked up a few years ago.



And the next phase, the Goblins. These come in just under the Orcs at 29, and you can see a few more pieces I acquired from Warhammer Quest in the front row. I actually spent a good while painting these over Saturday and Sunday, but I had to leave kinda quick earlier, so I didn't get a chance to take any more pics. I'll have some up when I go home next weekend.

The painting's going fairly well, and I'm looking forward to all the rest of the creatures, which are nowhere near as numerous, haha. Looking at finishing up the minis I have by the end of March. Of course, I have Spring Break next month, but I don't really have anything to do, so I'll probably just paint and play video games, haha.

Anyway, to announce the second project (which most of you know by now anyway, haha). I'm looking at making Final Fantasy XI Offline. Why? I'm bored, lol. Really though, Vana'diel is pretty awesome, but I don't think it's going to last forever. It'll be around for several more years yet, of course. But I wanna be able to do a marathon playthrough FF1-25 when that comes out, and if FFXI is *still* around then, it's got some damn good life support. It's possible S-E might release a single player variation on their own down the road, and it's possible one day projectXI might not suck. But as you know, both of those things are highly unlikely.

Anyway, here's the basic premise of what I aim to do. I'm going to be working with RPG Maker XP, so the game is going to have an (I hope) FFVI/Chrono Trigger feel to the graphics. I think I'm going to have a rotating party based on all the NPCs you could possibly have fight alongside you, but I've not worked that out. Alot of stuff I have no idea how I'm going to get it work, but I've taken an initiative and started learning Ruby on my own, which can allow me to insert custom programming into the game. Hopefully with experience and some tips from other RPG Maker users, I'll be able to put together some way to make everything work. Heck, I've even got some ideas for making use of Ballista, which at first I was just going to axe out.

I can't do this alone though. First off, while some call me an artist, there's no way I can do the level of spriting I would need for this. I know some places where spriters hang out though, so hopefully one of them will bite on the 'Final Fantasy' name, and not run off after I work them like a dog for the 352196103593159 NPCs and landscape objects, hahaha. Right now I'm putting together maps of East and West Ronfaure with generic RPG Maker objects, so I can at least show prospective sprtiters something when I try to recruit them. I'm hoping to have East done later this week, I'll have it up here then. I'm also trying to recruit my old LS mates to collect some ingame data for me, but they seem to be busy these days. Hoping to get at least a few zones of data. :3

BOOGA BOOGA

Halloween is pretty awesome! Except when you can't really do it properly. Hopefully I can fix this unfortunate circumstance whenever they let me into the apartments.

I figured out the source of the floating heads of sillyness in Oblivion! It seems that the TNR NNC merged mod wasn't behaving right and tried to clothe a ton of NPCs with clothes that didn't exist. So I got rid of that and replaced it with NPC New Clothes v2.6 and TNR All Races Final. Now everything's shiny! And I can get all the new clothing too, though that requires messing around with all the additional mods OR just killing the people who wear what I want, lol. Dunno if I want any of it that much yet..

College is continuing to be a pain in the arse, and I have 3 exams within a week. (Still have Calc on Tuesday) CompSci's was pretty easy stuff, except I probably got two or three wrong because I didn't bother looking at vocabulary, haha. Physics pissed me off though, since I basically lost 25% on it because 1 question was so freaking weird I didn't even know where to start. Blarg, I hope I did all the rest right so I at least get a C. >___>;

This week's topic was "People as Places as People". I think Rei told me all of these assignments are song titles. She must listen to some really weird stuff. Of course I'm one to talk, with like 6 remixes of 'Corpse Voyage ~ Be of Good Cheer!' on my MP3 player, haha.


I finally got to go to the RenFaire on the last day! Sort of... I overslept, so I started driving there around 1:10ish, and didn't actually walk into the Faire until after 3:30. Holy crap, there were too many cars. Anyway, got to hang out with Cat a bunch and bother Rei, and saw the Hypnotist show that I hadn't stopped in for before. It was quite funny, since one of the hypnotees were flopping around on the ground alot. I looked at some shops, but nothing in particular caught my eye. That was probably half because I'm poor and half because I couldn't even get at several of the shops. Holy crap people.

Saturday I did an informal photo shoot for Nerd to the Third. Was kinda fun and silly, although I had to balance a camera and mirror in addition to my poses of justice, since I wasn't able to get any lighting equipment. I think they turned out fairly well, other than a couple focus problems and "Holy crap the room is yellow". Afterward I got to run around with Cat's video camera trying to film their podcast when they were all sitting in completely different spots in the house, fun times! Especially when they kept going back and forth and I had no idea who I should have the camera on and inevitably end up spinning in circles. I think the answer to that though is Caramelldansen, because that's the answer to everything.

If you haven't started watching DBZ Abridged, then you're seriously missing out on one of life's finer pleasures. Nappavoice is far more fun than it should be, especially when paired with a Vegeta.

Finally, watch this video. EVERYONE. Even if you don't like Touhou, it's far too awesome not to watch.

Moar Memes

This always happens somehow. I just don't know.

I beat another Touhou game on Normal! Granted it was Mountain of Faith with CHO MARISA, but it still counts! I even somehow did almost all of Kanoko's final spellcard without dying OR CHO POWAR! But then I kinda died then bombed then finished her off with Marisa's burly muscles anyway. I tried Extra stage a few times, and managed to get over halfway through Suwako, but I don't think I'll stand any chance at finishing it unless I figure out a better way to get through Moreya's Iron Ring. Ah well.

I reinstalled Oblivion earlier this week, and subsequently like 10GB of mods. Crazy stuff. I fixed most of the inconsistencies, but like half the townspeople are walking around without bodies. Literally just heads, hands and feet. It's not a major problem, but it was annoying how it refused to be diagnosed. Not sure where I'm going to start yet since I've been too busy to play past getting my feet wet and the water-breathing ring from Weye, maybe the Mage's or Fighter's Guild to wet my feet a bit and then onto the Lost Spires. Gotta remember to try out Shivering Isles this time too, heh.

Still doing good in classes. Kicked CompSci's arse yet again when I came out of nowhere and aced the Graphics Lab without being able to review it beforehand. I also got the Graphics package onto my computer, so I can do some proper playing with it and resume finishing all my work before it's assigned. :3 Physics is on the reverse side, becoming more and more a pain in the arse every week. We were informed *today* that she's collecting the last *two weeks* of homework on Friday by 8am, and if it's not neat enough to her liking, it's a 0. (Homework is normally submitted online) So I basically have to redo 2 weeks of Physics homework tomorrow night. I think I'll leave her a grade for the work she assigned in red ink on my paper to confuse her. But yeah, now I'm understanding why she's rated so low by students. I'm just gonna have to teach myself practically the rest of the material for the semester, as the lectures and discussions do a terrible job of it. I'll have to talk with my adviser to see if I should just drop this after the semester and get my science concentration from Chemistry. >___>;

For the Slayers-inclined: WUT?

New image Hooray!

The assignment (from a month ago XD) was "Percussion Gun". And since it was an ambiguous request, I submitted an ambiguous piece! Artistic license go! I actually almost forgot to take the picture, because I had taken it a few nights ago in my dreams. Fortunately the dream-shot was of a real place! So I walked over there and took more or less the same picture. Neato.

Sushi Friday! Kitteh Saturday! Rennfaire Sunday!(?) MC HAMMERPANTS GO!

Hooray Autumn!

Just doing a quickie post today, since it's the first day of Autumn after all! Of course, I don't really have time to do a proper entry atm, since I've got like 3 major tests in the next few days, as well as all that anime I have to watch and finish beating FFIV!!! haha. So putting off updates for a bit, should pick back up late next week or the week after.

Avast!

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day ya lubbers!

ZzzzzTHE PIE IS OVEN BAKED wut?

It's really hot in that Lecture Hall. I wonder who I can complain to?

In other classes, I had way too much fun with the English paper I turned in today, writing a second copy as a highly sarcastic version of netiquette from the POV of the internet. My partner laughed too much though, so Ms. Putzel came around and looked at it too. (by the way, it's funny because she slides around the classroom in a rolly-chair, so you don't see her coming usually) I offered to turn it in alongside our normal assingment, and she insisted I did. I can't wait to see what kind of a response I'll get back from that! XD

Touhou yay! I've started getting into the shooters again when I don't really have time to boot up FFIV, mainly Subterranean Animism. Somehow, not only have I managed to clear Iiji Modo with all 6 teams, but I tried Normal Mode again earlier today, and after being faceraped by Parsee in Stage 2, I somehow got all the way to the stage area after the Stage 5 midboss, a full level past my previous best attempt. Yuugi didn't even kill me once, it's a miracle! I think I'll keep trying a bit longer at that, I'd like to at least be able to fight Normal Mode Orin through once sometime. ;x

This week's theme was 'Pop is Dead'. Adrienne sorta got the idea right before I was able to do the shot, but there's like, no canned soda anywhere on campus. D:

I like this one, though it would've been ever awesomer with a fish-eye. ;3

Now, back to ruthlessly slaughtering small woodland creatures until my trail of blood leads me to my next destination! Ho-hah!

One Week Down

Anyway! As of today I've survived one week of actual school. Technically I've been here for eleven days now, but classes started last Tuesday, so this is important! If I pretend maybe...

This week's photo was "The First Five Times." My first couple ideas were actually really awesome, but I couldn't get the time machine to work right without losing at least 3 meals off my meal plan, so I said screw it and just decided to stay within the boundaries of this dimension for the shot.


Got to do a psuedo-waterpark thing again! More inflatable slides appeared in Erickson Field on sunday, but this time there was water! There still wasn't much though, but it felt good toget dunked repeatedly into a small pool of water, especially after I went on the slip n' slide too fast and rolled through the mud past the end for a few feet, haha.

Spend most of the rest of the weekend doing homework or interbutting. I tried to get back into Oblivion with a magey character, but it's kinda uninteresting. I might remake a heavy fighter type to see what that's like. Still haven't done Shivering Isles or Dark Spire, but I dunno if I'll get to that this time. I also started playing FFIV DS, and have been brutally assaulted buy waves of Nostalgia.

Oh yeah, my finger's doing much better now, it usually only hurts when I clench my fist, so I figure it'll be back to normal next weekend sometime. Wheee!

I lern gud nao.

I don't think I'll be making elaborate Flashes for a while unfortunately, just sort of quickies like this. Maybe on weekends unless I get bogged down with homework and/or Swine Flu (lawl). Yes, people are still freaking out about it.

Anyway, school is going well so far. Both my roommates and the guys next door are pretty cool, and they tend to leave the room alot anyway so I've got plenty of privacy and stuff. Though Jose needs to stop forgetting his phone, because it likes to go off every two minutes on the dot. Literally.

Welcome Week activities were lame for the most part, except the giant inflated aircraft carrier obstacle course/slide coming out of Erickson. I rode that thing over and over until I got too dizzy to continue, haha. Classes are okay so far, though I need to take a trip back to the bookstore tomorrow to rep my Physics text, get a Calc WebAccess thing, and probably sell back my CompSci book as well. Psych and English don't seem quite as bad as I was dreading, so Valedictorian should be easy to get, haha. Lastly, had a Quiz ZERO on the first class of Calc, where I barely managed to answer 9/15, and I'm only sure of about 6 of those. Good thing it's not graded, not really sure what it was for tbh.

Other than that, nothing much going on on campus. I've been dabbling in Oblivion to pass some of the time, and Rei's started to hang out from yesterday, in our preliminary exercises for taking over the school and turning it into Garden. Also random doings of stuff like watching Zoolander or playing Rubberbandball.

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei Episode 5 still isn't subbed. Me is a sad panda.

I think my recent break in Touhou has actually dulled my skills instead of increasing them for once. I've tried several times to get through UFO on Normal, but I keep dying on Murasa after her stage has its way with me. I've managed to make it to her survival card twice I think, but no dice. Guess I'll just stick with Oblivion for now, going all-mage is almost interesting enough to keep me playing a while, heh.

Finally, here's this week's picture: "Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks."

The shitty quality is my fault, I completely forgot to compensate for ISO when using Tungsten light. Bleargh. Well, next week marks the first photo done at UMBC! Woo! *explodes*