*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.

It's weird

when you go from being constantly busy, to suddenly having nothing to do, isn't it?

Anyway, finished up Umineko Ep5. Unfortunately, while Erika has some interesting brain mechanisms, she's too predictable of a character, and the middle section really ends up dragging as a result. However, the finale switches it all over to awesome mode again, and ends on another "OMGWHYDIDITENDALREADYINEEDZMOAR" cliffhanger. Unfortunately, while Episode 6 came out at Winter Comiket, Witch-Hunt has been extremely busy since then, and is likely not even 10% finished the translation yet. They're last status update said that they *might* have Episode 6 done by Summer Comiket, when Episode 7 comes out, but they can promise nothing. Gragfasfnvksmm irenwefgvwvnowi. Maybe I'll go buy the Higurashi SN then. I needz moar plz.

There actually weren't that many alternate class times to work with for Fall semester, so I've got a rough plan on what I intend to sign up for now. As I said before, Japanese 101 and Software&Hardware Concepts are a given. I also went for Statistics for Busn/Econ, Intro to Costuming, and the Science of Water. One of the Stat classes has an online lecture, so that'll be convenient. Water counts as a Lab credit, which saves me 3 credits I would've spent on Chem and gets me through my GED's quicker. Assuming I get the schedule I want, I'll only be sewing on Mondays, playing around with water on Wednesdays, and off on Fridays. The meat distributed Tu/Th. Hope no classes fill up in the next five days...

Stuff! Yeah!

First things out of the way, I've changed my major from Computer Science to Computer Information Systems. CIS seems more the stuff I'm interested in, as CompSci is going to get more abstract and weird the further I delve into it. I might still go for a CompSci minor, but I haven't decided yet. (CompSci minor for a CIS major might not mean anything, y'know?) Anyway, this summer I've got 4 classes. 3 6-week courses in Session 1 being Billiards/Table Tennis(hellz yeah), Microeconomics, and Management Information Systems. I've also got a weekend course in the latter half of summer somewhere for Trail Hiking. aka ADVENTURE 101. I look forward to it with much vengeance. Or justice. OR BOTH.

Fall semester sign ups are next week, so I'm weighing that stuff as well. Software&Hardware Concepts and Japanese 101 will obviously be on there, but the other 3(?) classes are up in the air. I'll figure it out this weekend with my awesome schedule-making index cards. They're awesome.

Finally started playing Umineko Ep5. As usual, I'll try not to spoil anything, but holy crap Erika is both awesome and horrible simultaneously. I'm starting to think that Bern really isn't Rika, but then again, Ryukishi will probably pull a lot of crap out of left field that will cause awesomeness and WTF and then When They Cry 4 will be grand.

Urameshiya!

I didid a comic! Aren't I speshul? Cookeez plz/

Anyway, I'm probably going to start updating somewhat regularly again, but because I generally take way too long to make these, I'm only going to be putting up 1-2 per week. During breaks I might make more, but for now I kinda need to do homework and junk. Yeah.

Anyway, UMBC is going fine. I'm getting A's and B's, and Compsci might be >100% by now with all the easy arse extra credit, heh. I'm actually getting good at programming in Python! And by 'good' I mean 'Programmer Lv3 out of 100+', haha. I haven't even touched graphics yet, though we're supposed to start that next week. Unfortunately I can't just do all the coding for those assignments on my computer, because they have some sort of special graphics module on the server. Bleh.

Other classes are going well. Physics and Calc are the B's, because of technicalities and physics sucks. But it's better than Bio and Chem, so I guess I'll just have to go find Mr. Newton and have a little discussion about his laws of motion and stuff. I know he did Calculus too, but this stuff is mostly derivatives so far, and thus, really easy. Psych and English are just there, neither are really interesting, though I just have to pass the semester.

As for the campus itself, it's kinda boring. Then again, I'm a social recluse being forced in a triple with two guys I don't like, and no one on this side of the floor knows how to STFU before 2am, so that might affect my mood a little bit. Of course, I can just plug my MP3 player into my skull and everything magically goes away, so yay!

I beat Lotus Land Story! I really have no idea how, but I tried it on Easy since I don't play the PC98 games much, and I 1cc'd the whole thing with like 5 spare lives. That one's kinda easy heh. I tried Mystic Square after that, but I was getting pwned from the Stage 4 boss duo onward, and finally died at Shinki. As for the games I actually play, I've cleared several more shots in Shoot the Bullet, bringing me down to 8 total left. I've also almost cleared Subterranean Animism on Normal with ReimuA. Lots and lots of practice against Yuugi and Satori went a long way, and I beat Orin and got all the way to Okuu! Who then nuclear-blasted me in the face with her first spellcard. >_< Ah well, it was much further than I expected to get, and now I can practice Stage 5 (Which is not as bad as people make it seem, you just have to actually move around the screen more than usual.)

For normal video games, I just beat FFIV a few days ago...and it wasn't that great. I guess nostalgia makes things seem better than they were. All of the characters are really boring, they just have cool outfits. Maybe that'll change when I play through FFIV: After Years, but I don't know when that's going to be, because I really don't like playing my Wii or PS2 in here (I'll probably take all that stuff home soon so it's not just sitting around.)

I also played through an RPG Maker-made game called Yume Nikki, and it's unofficial sequal, Yume 2kki. (pun squad!) It's an awesome psychological game that is just awesome. I don't even know how to describe it properly, other than it went on my Top 10 of all time almost instantaneously. It's a SNES-looking adventure game that takes place in some messed-up/awesome dream worlds. There's no real threat, since you can always just wake up, and there's no real purpose except collecting effects and exploring everything. Apparently it's not done, but it's updated only every few years, so I'm looking forward to whatever else this guy has in store.

Anime-wise Pandora Hearts and Zetsubou sensei finished (though the latter's had two unsubbed episodes for like a month =/) Higurashi Rei finally got the final awesome retarded episode subbed and Umineko continues to be pretty awesome. We're on Episode 3 of the game, can't wait for the end of this one when my favorite character shows up! :3 Series in current are: One Piece, Bleach, Gintama, Umineko, Ghost Hunt, and Railgun. I should finish up Ghost Hunt right in time for Halloween assuming I don't slack. =D

Speaking of Umineko, the full version of La Divina Tragedia ~Makyoku~ came out while I was on hiatus, here it be!

Pretty nice, though I still can't get 100% used to it.

I'd love to write more, but I don't want to. More whenever I get around to it. I'll probably resume with Adrienne's photo assignments next week as well.

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!

Boing~

So yeah, I didn't feel like actually thinking of something, so I made Mika bounce around. Drag and release to toss her, and use arrow keys to resize and rotate. Fun fun XD

OH GAWD MIND FUCK! I have *no* idea what the crap is going on in Umineko right now. Is everyone dead? Did they revive? Is this heaven, an illusion, or the inside of a delicious chocolate cake? I have absolutely no clue anymore, and while I love it, the week-long wait is painful for something like this. XD

Dead Fantasy 5 debuted on Tuesday, so check it out if you've been too lazy to get it yourself!


The link to GameTrailers.

Lots of 'Holy crap Tifa!' to be had here, haha. Not sure where he's taking this, or what's become of the other 5 girls, but we'll see that eventually I guess? Like I said before, this is the last of this set for Dead Fantasy, so don't expect Part VI until some time next year.

I've actually been spending way too much time watching videos and reading stuff about Dissidia: Final Fantasy over the past couple days (coincidentally part of the reason I didn't make a comic, lol), and I'm pretty stoked for it. I haven't heard any terrible English voice actors, which is a breath of relief, though we don't have all the characters yet. I've no clue who's going to be replacing Hayashibara Megumi for Shantotto, but they'd better do a damn good job, as Megumi's the main reason I didn't nerd-rage over the fact that they dropped Prishe (The original rep from FFXI) in favor of Shantotto. Prishe better be in Dissidia 2 though, I wanna Dropkick me some gods. XD

MONDAY NIGHT

So yeah, Touhou 12.3 was announced the other day, and so far we just have those three characters confirmed. I'm definitely looking forward to it, because Cirno is hilarious and one of my favorite characters. Still, no real info on it other than it'll be a fighting game, even whether it'll use IaMP or SWR's fighting styles. Not that that means anything to me, since I haven't played IaMP I don't know what's different about it. I've heard we might even see as many as 4 new characters make an appearance too, teamed up with the full version of Undefined Fantastic Object it's like a jamboree next month. XD As for the 12.3 part, I've no idea if that means another side game is in planning between UFO and TH13, or if ZUN just wanted 1-2-3, but I guess it'll be a while before we'd actually know.

Umineko holy shit. I mean, we're only 4 episodes in and we're almost out of characters. And Umineko doesn't do the time-reset thing Higurashi does. I know there's some more characters we haven't seen, but I've no idea where they would come from with the typhoon and all. I mean, I figured at least those two would survive, since they very much seemed important, but Beatrice apparantly didn't think so. O_o; I did like the Rena reference when Kanon went and started swinging around the billhook though, haha.

So yeah

I was kinda busy today and then I passed out all evening, so I didn't bother to make something with effort, lol.

Haruhi. I totally called it. Episode 5 and Endless Eight is still going strong. KyoAni make awesome trolls.

So anyway, I booted up Shoot The Bullet (Touhou 9.5) the other day for kicks, and somehow my latent ability to get better at stuff by not doing it kicked in, because I was able to finally clear 2 stages I had nothing but problems with before and unlock Level 9. Of course, I tried L9, but Kaguya and Eirin just decided that I should die. Alot. haha, there were one or two stages I think I couldn't even manage a second picture. Ironically, 9-8, the highest level I've unlocked so far, I cleared on my second attempt. It's probably because Kaguya's a NEET and Eirin's the dark king of Eientei XD I wonder how bad Level 10 is going to be? 2-4 more clears to find out, maybe I'll have it by the end of the year, heh.

I've just about beat the English Touhoumon. I've caught every wild one I think I can, so it's just alot of evolving to go, and the few that appear in areas after the Elite 4. I've not beat them yet, mainly because their levels are jacked up even higher (O.o), but there's still not really any decent places to train until after you best them. Irony much? I actually hacked into the ROM a couple times to solve a few buggy issues I had (there's a LOT of incorrect text to cause confusion, especially with attacks and a few items.) It was surprisingly easy though, so maybe if I'm bored enough, I'll go download the Japanese Touhoumon LUNATIC version and try hacking that to English. I've heard there's one even harder than LUNATIC that's outright unfair (enemys have hacked stats, illegal moves, 6 billion potions, etc.), so maybe I'll look at that too if I can find it, haha. Well, we'll see how long that keeps me occupied until I get bored again.

Had the season's first water gun battle today with Erik, though it was kinda meh. Only two competitors, 3 guns and an indiscriminate wasp attack didn't exactly make for a riveting time, though it was fun to pop out of places Erik didn't expect in his own backyard with my CPS3000. We need more people though, maybe I can kidnap YOU and drag you along! Mwahahaha! Be sure to get an actual Super Soaker though, I don't think a little squirt gun is going to do much good for you. There's also the option of Erik's sister who I think expressed interest, but she won't be home until mid August or something. WATER WARZ GO

Also, before I get into the school year, I'm thinking of getting into the habit of actually doing photography again. I NO RITE!? The problem is, I want to give myself a direction of sorts, so I don't just end up regressing to my high school days when I took pictures of ordinary tree branches, haha. I figure maybe something like a once-a-week assignment will keep me occupied without making it seem like I'm forcing myself. Problem is, I want an outside source to come up with the concepts, else, I'll probably just pick a bunch of similar stuff or come up with the concept idea after I take the picture, haha. Anyone know of something on or offline I might be able to use for such an endeavor? Or in lieu of that, anyone wish to offer their own concepts weekly to see what craziness I end up interpreting it as? XD

Umineko Ep2 finished downloading, hooray! *fwooshinates*

It's here!

Poor Kogasa, she finally ended up surprising some people! Although it looks like she'll end up with a cold at that rate, guess she didn't think that far through.

Umineko episode 1 is out, and it is glorious! I'm actually quite impressed with Studio Deen, they seem to be even better then when they started working on Higurashi Rei. Umineko's going to be an interesting ride for me, since I've been expecting the anime since '07, I've tried my hardest to avoid the literal landfill of spoilers (and it's worked...mostly XD) And now my brain gets to explode, hooray! I'll actually be reading the manga too, what little there is translated. Unfortunately by the looks of the number of chapters, the anime will be past that point in 2 weeks tops, and I'll just have to sit on my arse and wait for whatever group wants to work on it to release more. Of course, I know I shouldn't get my hopes up too high, the Watanagashi-hen manga is still only at 8/12 chapters translated. >_>;

While I'll avoid spoilers for now, I was dead on when I assumed Battler and Maria would be my favorite characters starting off. George and Kanon are a bit different than my perception of them, but good different. No comment on the adults yet, though other than our crazy geezer, I don't think many of them will have a large role.

The opening theme was amazing, and I was in love with it within the first five notes, haha. It's called 'Katayoku no Tori' or 'One Winged Bird' sung by Shikata Akiko, the same singer behind the amazing opening for the Umineko games I posted a couple weeks ago. Katayoku no Tori isn't quite as good as the Umineko game OP, but it's still damn good, and it can only get better in a month and a half when the single comes out in a month and a half.



Now brace yourself for the Ending theme. :3



I'll be honest, I absolutely hated when I heard it at the end of the episode, not the music or the mood, those were excellent. I just couldn't stomach the singer. It took me a few listens, but I actually like it quite a bit now, it's just so much different than what I'm used to that I was taken aback. After all, it's not supposed to be a calm, or a cutesy song, it's meant to show Kinzo's, aka the crazy old guy, madness as he opens forth whatever the hell is gonna come in the next however many episodes this will be. In terms of 'When They Cry' ED's, I rank this 2nd only to the awesome that is Why or Why Not from the first season of Higurashi. It's titled 'La Divina Tragedia: Makyoku' or 'The Divine Tragedy: Demonic Song', sung by Jimang, and the single is set to come out a month after Katayoku no Tori.

In other news, it seems no one with the Idolm@ster U.N.Owen was her? video has the ability to both upload a good quality video and not get their account banned. (I've favorited like 3 that have been banned now, wtf) So I'll put a link to the NicoNico original here and in the original post. If anyone needs help setting up a NicoNico account to browse their extensive awesome, lemme know. :3

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7126531

Take That!

You can listen to the nonexistent bells that Saffy obviously set up here. Sheesh, she's such a problematic child (though quite a marvelous toy ;D)

Phoenix Wright is pretty dang fun, it's been like 6 months since I started Trials and Tribulations, so I kinda eventually forgot. XD Picked it up again a couple days ago and explosively got my way through the rest of the trials over two days. I liked T&T alot, which is good, because Justice for All was kinda lacking for a Phoenix Wright game. Also, the final case of T&T is probably my favorite case of the GBA games, pretty neat stuff in there. It wasn't quite as good as the fifth case of the first game, but that one was too awesome to surpass. But who knows? I've got Apollo Justice plugged into my DS already, maybe something in this game will push the limits of legal awesome. Also, apparently the fifth Ace Attorney game is supposed to be out by the end of the year, and starring everyone's favorite Edgey. Can't wait to see how that one ends up too. :3

Anywho, I finished up Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There on Tuesday, and I do say that I liked the stories. They were simple, childish, and quite dream-like in quality. Although, I'll admit my own dreams are a good deal less coherant, but that's because my brain likes to play tricks on me, like sentences will be completely different every time I read them. Alice is lucky in that regard, she was able to remember the poem about the Jabberwocky. But yes, a great deal of silliness and tomfoolery abounds in both Wonderland and the Looking-Glass world. I'd love to visit myself, where things are both so literal and obscure that it's certainly a wonder anything gets thought at all! There is one part of the books that bothers me though. Alice's forehead. In the illustrations, they really should have given her bangs. >_>

I've actually been watching/reading an anime/manga recently that draws heavily on the characteristics of Carroll's books, that being Pandora Hearts. Interestingly enough, while their Alice seems to be similarly innocent as Alice herself, the character Oz Vessalius acts very much more like Alice. After all, neither really get too alarmed in their current situations, ending up just accepting the extraordinary as reality. Of course, if anyone in the anime's to use the term 'Curiouser and curiouser', I'd imagine it'd be Break, but that's because he's the show's Mad Hatter, and also Hisoka without the pedo part, haha.

One last note, the best line of the books was at the very end of Chapter IX of Through the Looking-Glass. Alice says "'I'll shake you into a kitten, that I will!'" And she does. That right there is just awesome.

I got a haircut! Wow! Not really a cut, more a trim to take out the 30,000 dead and split ends and whatnot, but wow! Normally, one wouldn't make a note of this, but I get a haircut like every 2 years, so... XD

Episode 4 of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei is out, huzzah! Unfortunately it's not been subbed yet, and Episode 5 is still 2 months off... but Ep4 is out huzzah! :D

Also, a preview for the Umineko no Naku Koro Ni anime next month has come out :3



It's still being done by Studio Deen, but they've improved quite a bit since they first started Higurashi back in 2006. I dunno about any of you, but I'm looking forward to this tons and tons more than even the rest of Season 2 of Suzumiya Haruhi. =DDD For those of you unfamiliar with Umineko, here's a little taste, heehee.



Welcome to Rokkenjima.

Kanakanakanakanakana

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei episode 3 is out! Hooray! It's actually been out for like a week now, but SHHHH. Anyway, thank goodness Episode 4's going to be out in only 1 month (as opposed to 2) since Rika's about to I don't even know, and I must find out! Must! BLRAFGAGDSAGSB. I mean, I had heard Saikoroshi-hen was going to be a bit weird, but it's like almost 60's suburbian town weird. Rawr, Episode 4 is the conclusion to the Arc, and Ep 5 will be Hirukowashi-hen, which I'm super-looking forward to as well. Damn you for being so awesome Higurashi! And wanna know what else happens that's super awesome in a month? UMINEKO NO NAKU KORO NI! WOOO! XD Finally! I've been wanting to learn more about that ever since it came out, but I'm too lazy to learn Japanese yet, and the manga scanlaters apparantly ditched it after a few chapters. Lame. At least a group seems to have picked back up the Watanagashi-hen manga, though it's a bit slow, it's something. Got a long way ahead of them though. XD

Anyway, today I actually gave up on the idea I had for the animation sequence at the end, I think it's a bit too far above my level atm. -_-; I wanted to have their arms bobbing up and down while running (with Mika's cleaver-arm bobbing noticably more violently :DDD) but that started getting into pathing and stuff I can't even start figuring out. The feet alone took a while to do, although there's probably something I don't know about that would've made that alot quicker. Blarg. Maybe I'll get lucky and one of my early CompSci classes will have alot of Flash stuff, or I'll befriend someone who spends all their free time making crap for Newgrounds or something, haha.

E3 started today! I'm kinda excited, although that's mainly because I wanna see more about FFXIII, Rapture and whatever Nintendo's going to melt our brains with next. Today seemed to mainly be the Microsoft press release (Sony and Nintendo are tomorrow). It's funny, because they came out there like they had the best shit in the world, and that nothing could possibly be better than an Xbox360. At all. Ever. Nevermind 90% of what they showed I can do on my PC better, and their big announcement (I didn't see it, but Katy told me about it some) was essentially the Eyetoy II. El-Oh-El. Because that went so well when Sony did it what 10 years ago?