| (no subject) |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|05:29 pm] |
Work makes me angry nowadays.
Being at home and dealing with housing issues makes me angry.
I'm quickly running out of places to hide. I can't wait to live a new life. I already feel like I'm just going through the motions. Work, home, sleep, rinse, repeat. I don't think it a bad thing, looking forward to things like moving and transitions.
Corey and Cheap broke my vacuum cleaner and I was upset but I didn't say anything. Actually, what they mean is, the vacuum broke while they were using it, not necessarily that they 'broke' it. I was more upset that I didn't find out about this until I had to ask because I needed to clean my carpet. Of course, I have to find a solution, like always. I wish one of them would have offered to buy me a new or used vacuum cleaner, or had done it themselves in the two weeks where it was broken and I didn't know.
I'm not angry anymore, it's just funny how annoyed I am.
In less than a month of living here, Corey is moving back in with his mom. I'm more emotionally prepared for these kinds of things now, and I gripped the news with understanding. He's broke, he quit both his jobs, he's leaving for BC for awhile, and he wants to move in with his girlfriend when he gets back. Even if Corey did stay, he wouldn't have money for rent anyways.
When Tony moved out, I was upset. I couldn't find the understanding in it. I knew WHY he was doing it, but I couldn't understand why. But this situation is different I tell myself.
Now we're in a bind. Tara is not reliable for rent and I plan on moving out anyways, so I guess I could say this was eventual. It is really too bad because now I have to find somewhere to keep all my stuff, in storage perhaps, or in someone's garage, or maybe I'll just donate all of it. Actually, I don't wanna donate anything, since I'll want it all back when I come back in a year.
Work is a whole other beast, for sure. I don't even think I can elaborate without breaking my keyboard right now. If it's any indication, I get through most days by daydreaming what and how I'm gonna tell Scott about how fucking incompetent Brandon is. |
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| Street Fighter IV |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|09:45 am] |
Damn.
I go away for a couple months and I come back and I suck sooooooo much that it's embarrassing.
I'm not sure if it's because everyone else got better, or the fact that I play Championship mode online and ALL online players are hardcore. It might be like going to a Vintage Magic tournament, where you know everyone there is all business.
I'm just sad kinda, at how much I suck right now. I lose to random DP-mashing Kens. I lose to bad Ryu players. I'm maining Sagat now, and that helps a bit, but for some reason I'm really rusty and my moves aren't coming out fast enough.
I know where I need to step my game up. I gotta work on focus absorbing attacks, my zone game, how to reliably pull off my ultra, good pressure strategies, etc. It's just maddening though, because I'm 'practicing' in the tournament room when I should be practicing against friends or in friendly matches.
Just updating so you know that I've been playing lots of SFIV. |
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| Days Off |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|11:16 am] |
I had yesterday and today off from work.
Here are things I have done:
Tuesday night was bunk, I don't wanna get into it.
I woke up around eight yesterday, chilled for an hour, then decided to beat Endless Setlist on Rock Band 2. It only took me from 9:30 in the morning until almost 5 in the afternoon, with a forty minute break for lunch. Finally, though hey. Isn't that an accomplishment?
I've been watching lots of Dragonball Z. Then I randomly decided to google DBZ and censorship and apparently they released uncut versions of all the episodes. Since I'm not a pussy and I love violence, I'm gonna put a hold on DBZ until I finish downloading the uncut episodes. It's a little frustrating, since the original DBZ torrent was sixty gigs and took forever to finish dl'ing. Oh well, I'm a purist at heart.
Been playing lots of MtG: Duels this morning. It's a slow process, but I'm on a pretty good winning streak. Gained all of ONE Trueskill point, which puts me somewhere like 400 outta 18,000 players. Still, it's a silly goal, but I wanna be the top player on the network.
I've been eating so poorly. Steak, steak, with lots of Lipton Sidekicks. Speaking of which, Sidekicks are like the new Kraft Dinner around here. So fucking easy to make, you don't even need to add anything, you just boil the water and throw the package in there, done. Also, I dunno how it happens but me and Rhiannon managed to drink a combined 48 cans of diet soda in less than a week. Granted, we do share, and everyone does use it for mix when we drink, but fuck, seriously, that's a lot of sodas.
I'm eating a bowl of creamy Sidekicks and drinking a Diet Coke, RIGHT NOW as I type.
I've been thinking about the 'Big Move' a lot lately, trying to conceive and plan that shit out. I've decided on a city, which those who are in the know know already and those who aren't will find out. I don't think there's a way to get all my awesome shit out there, so for the time being Cheap and Corey will be the stewards of my awesome shit. I think it's a possibility that we rent a U-Haul and borrow my parents van and make a roadtrip outta it.
If all goes planned, my birthday party will double as a staff party and triple as a going away party. I'm hyped on Beatles Rock Band, so a lot of that will be played that day for sure. FO SHO.
Cheap and Corey move in in less than a week. Watch for it. Rhiannon made a facebook party for that night, next Tuesday, Bombastica. Uhhh. Six confirmed guests so far! That includes two who live here! haha. I'll think of something.
I wanna call it the 'In 'n Out' Party. IN comes Cheap and Corey, OUT goes Manny. brilliant. |
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| Magic the Gathering: DUELS OF THE PLANESWALKERS |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|09:39 pm] |
So, I'm playing Magic online again.
Well, sort of.
It's online with a lower case 'o'. Which really makes all the difference.
Wizards released a fun, cheap mtg game to the xbox via its Live service last week, which I promptly downloaded. Even though there are some pretty major shortcomings, it's been super fun, and with the addition of a RANKED online mode, super addictive as well.
Here are some of the pros and cons, if you haven't downloaded it yet, Jon:
Pros:
- It's only ten dollars. That's less than the price of three boosters, much less a draft or a sealed set. You can't even buy a real life precon for that price. You can barely buy a pizza for that draft. In fact, I spent about ten times more money on alcohol in the last week, than I did for this game.
- There's an online ranked mode. So far there's 13,000 players on the network and I'm somewhere in the top 200's, which is kinda lame, but I'll get to that in a minute.
- You can play against an AI opponent, which has its limits obv, BUT after I read the developers' article concerning how the AI is programmed, the AI is actually pretty damn smart. Of course you can never bluff it out (it always falls for stupid combat tricks) but it'll never run a 1/1 into your 1/2 (which I've seen human players do in real life anyways).
- There's a robust set of decks to choose from, eight total, and a full set of play modes. There's a 16 round campaign mode against AI opponents who gain progressively better decks, you can unlock up to seventeen cards for each of the eight decks you unlock, there's coop mode, coop campaign, and a fun puzzle challenge thrown in. If you ever get bored, you can just play online four player free for all.
- The game is gorgeous, with cool spell effects and nice hi res graphics (I'm enjoying it on the 1080p yeah). It runs like a dream, the play is faster than MTGO, and everything from the UI to the way the stack is handled is intuitive. No crazy bugs yet (I'm looking at you, MTGO).
Now the cons:
- Here's the biggest fucking deal breaker: You can only add cards to the deck, never take out any cards. This means that you are basically left with forty odd 'staple' cards that you can never take out. Yeah, you unlock something awesome like a shivan dragon, but then you can't take out something terrible like, I dunno, goblin sky raider. You'll go online and play against other people with janky janky seventy five card decks. Of course everyone is bitching about the lack of 'true customization', but I've gotten over it. For ten dollars you're given soooo much replay value, that I don't even care if I have to cast shit like drudge skeletons. The game's designers felt that allowing people to fully change their decks would lead to unbalanced games, especially online, where it's not really that fun to lose to red for the fiftieth time by the fourth turn.
- I have no fucking clue how the online rankings work. Apparently it's called 'Trueskill' ranking which is what Gears of War 2 uses for its online structure. Right now the leader has thirty points and I have 25 points. Obviously you gain points if you win, but sometimes I'll win one match and get a point, but then it might take me something like four wins in a row to get another. Then it's frustrating when I spent an hour to gain one damn point, then lose randomly to some scrub and lose that entire fucking point. This takes me to my next con:
- Even though it's supposed to be casual, what with shitty precon decks and no swapping and all, I still experience 'the Rage' when I lose. Anything that gives you a ranking and has you compete against other people, I get really really into it and when I lose, like tonight, I just can't wrap my brain around my loss. I kept one mountain, one raging goblin, two incinerate hand against a black deck, and I never draw my fourth land, dying with two lightning elementals in my hand and him single digits! Incredible.
- Also, online ranked matches are BEST OF ONE with no option to change that. What the fuck. What the fuck.
If they ever released this with the option to DRAFT and/or make your own deck, I would be fucked. Just so you know. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|10:15 pm] |
It's quarter after ten.
I had a few drinks. Ohkay, okay, I had ONE drink, but with the alcohol content of a FEW drinks.
Me and Kenton had just finished a few games of the new Xbox Live Magic game. A little disappointing, since we only won something like two outta five games. Still, we unlocked a couple cards and it was fun. Then Cat came back from her work meeting and dragged Kenton away to a movie.
They went to see the Hangover, which is apparently the tits from what everyone is saying, while I'm sitting here, wishing for another drink, waiting for the CAM VERSION of the Hangover to finish downloading (should be ...six more minutes), Rhiannon on the couch bored, and me decidedly INdecisive..
Ugh.
My options are:
Watch the Hangover in five minutes.
Play some Street Fighter or whatnot, dreamcast or 360.
Play Rock Band with some kids.
Play Magic ... online. (Thank god, not Magic Online).
Drink some more alone.
or.
Make love to Rhiannon.
Fuck.
I dunno. Right now, ironically (or not?) I'm most in the mood for updating my Livejournal. Go figure. (and the word Livejournal is not in spellcheck ON Livejournal? What?) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|10:56 am] |
I was bored last night. It was sometime around midnight. Rhiannon had gone to bed a half hour ago because she had to be up at seven thirty for work this morning. Manny was still out. I had the day off and I was burned out from all my usual shenanigans.
I'm still sort of recovering from my cold/whatever so I didn't really soak up as much sun as I woulda liked. I basically stayed indoors, watching lots of Dragonball Z, playing SFIV and Rock Band, and then cleaning a bunch.
So, back to last night. Kent suggested I redownload Magic Online and give it another shot. Umm, I don't think I was THAT bored. It's like suggesting to a recovering junkie that he should have some heroin cuz he doesn't have anything else to do. We chatted about some other stuff, but I was mostly disinterested.
I wanted to bring up the subject of growing up and out of stuff. It just seems like I'm grasping at straws here, or that everything is cyclical. What I noticed was that everything I'm into right now, has already passed it's zenith, past what we nostalgically refer to as the 'good ol days'. For example, I'm not as into Magic as I used to be, and even if I started again it would feel like a futile effort to bring back the 'Glory Days'.
Hmm.
Every time I shuffle up a deck of cards I can't help but think that it was somehow more fun when I was in high school and we'd stay up all weekend drinking Mountain Dew and snacking on candy. These are such fond memories, it makes me a little disheartened to think that we've matured and now there's responsibilities that take up the majority of my mental energy.
This goes for a lot of other 'hobbies' I've had. Drinking was never as fun as back in college. Poker at one point commanded at LEAST ten people to my apartment each weekend. Magic involved driving to tournaments with the best of friends. Magic Online was literally hours in front of a computer, thinking about it all day at work, then logging in the first thing I do when I get home.
Now I'm not sure if it's just me, or this is true of all things we do.
It's kind of depressing in a way, right? It just seems that I'm really self aware and I just NOTICE these things changing whereas it happens to everyone but they don't really notice. Or maybe I'm a nerd and all nerds go through these things, how nerdy hobbies reach a zenith, plateau, then you move onto the next thing. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 14th, 2009|03:21 pm] |
Holy fuck, it's hot in here.
These days I wish I had air conditioning. I can see myself and the rest of our household spending the summer days hanging in the bassment.
Currently watching Dragonball Z, while I'm cooking dinner. It's my fourth episode I've watched today. Picollo just destroyed the FUCKING MOON if you believe it. Fond memories of this episode, as it was the FIRST episode of any anime I ever watched. Must've been at least twelve years ago.
I'm still playing lots of Rock Band. Finished an hour session while I was doing laundry this afternoon. I have Endless Setlist unlocked now, so now I need to find some friends who aren't bitches, that can help me tackle the six hour plus session. I'm sorta saving it as the last Rock Band/Guitar Hero thing I ever do, at least until Rock Band Beatles comes out (on my birthday!, hint). I bought a few songs last week. C'mon C'mon brings joy to my heart in two minute increments.
I can see that no one else is updating. That's fine. I seem to have a lot of free time on my hands lately.
Oh, in good news, yesterday we stopped at Seven Eleven and Rhiannon bought me one of those giant slurpee mugs! This totally reminds me of LAST summer, when me and Corey would break off from chess/guilty gear sessions to run to Sev and refill with infinite soft drink. Good start to the summer so far, I must say. |
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| Hey, Dave, what's going on?? |
[Jun. 10th, 2009|11:11 am] |
Well. You may want to know, good friend, that a lot has changed in the last month or so.
Let's start with randomly typing whatever comes into mind.
I recently celebrated the birth of Evan McCoy. It was crazy. Me and Manny got super ridiculous, Kent's apartment was somewhat trashed. You give drunk people chocolate cupcakes, it's bound to happen. We were all over Broadway and there's so much I forget. I ended up missing work the following day because I was feeling so fucked up.
My collection of Dreamcast games is pretty much complete. This involves every awesome 2D shooter and 2D fighting game and then awesome games like Virtua Tennis and Jet Grind Radio. There's irony somewhere, as I almost never play my Dreamcast anymore.
That's because I've been playing so much fucking Rock Band 2.
I bought a few songs, so now I can play Under the Bridge every morning, alone in the basement, morning sunlight drifting in before I go to work. Also, I can play C'mon C'mon, all two glorious fucking minutes of it.
I went to two concerts last week, back to back. The Von Bondies and the Dears, both were amazing, the former rocking the fuck out and latter playing their hearts out. Too bad that the audience at Amigo's was so lethargic. The Von Bondies have so many raucous fun songs, disappointing that the crowd wasn't as energetic.
My coworker/sometimes boss, Manny, has been living here for the last week. He is in between moving places, so I offered up our extra room. He's a plucky nineteen year old with a heart of gold. Homeschooled hippy, who's never played Guitar Hero, so needless to say I've got him hooked on RB2. Evan, come over sometime so we can rock the fuck out.
I bought a giant new tv about a month ago, 46 inch Sony Bravia. It makes my life a little more complete, yeah, as shallow as that sounds. I've been wanting a PS3 soooooo bad, just for the Blu Ray player. Watching movies and shows in high definition, true 1080p is fucking rad.
Got a spare computer working. I decided like, last night, to make it a mame tower and hook it up to the big lcd downstairs. I found a torrent that had EVERY FUCKING arcade game since before 2001. It was nineteen gigs and miraculously it finished downloading over ONE night. So, now i have every arcade game, a giant 'monitor' and two full Sanwa arcade sticks... my dream is almost complete. All I need now is a wall mount and joystick mounts.
I'm still waiting on a few parts to finish my full custom joystick. I need the quick disconnects for the wiring, so the last week or so my joystick has been in pieces on the floor while I wait for the mail to come in. Late last night I just said fuck it and I 'lazy hooked' all the wiring together (basically just wrapping the bare wire ends around the terminal without any solder or connector). I proceeded to log onto xbox live and own the same guy at Street Fighter IV for like, an hour and a half.
Then I watched the first episode of Dragonball Z. Yeah, it's been a torrent running on my computer upstairs for the last week, and a couple days ago all sixty gigs finally finished. I was planning on watching a fuckton of DBZ on my two days off here, but even if I watched ten hours a day, it would take me something like a full week to finish. I figure I'll just keep it chill and try to finish it this summer.
Tara, the other roommate who is actually paying us rent, hasn't been here for the last two or three weeks. She's always outta town, which is weird, since she has agreed to keep paying rent and HAS been paying rent. hmmm. Cheap and Corey are moving in at the end of the month, so I gotta get that paperwork all figured out. Crazy though, the house is gonna have five people living here, with Corey in the basement. Damn.
I'm not gonna get into work. It's just been ridiculous, with last week I had a day that was sooooo fucking bad that I almost quit. I left work wanting to immediately go home and type up a new resume and start looking for a new job. It's because the new General Manager at work is such a controlling douchebag, lately he's just been making lots of fucking extra work for me, covering up HIS mistakes.
Anyways, that's mostly everything. Lots of procrastination, videogame collecting, and stress at work. |
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| Lately. |
[May. 26th, 2009|10:42 pm] |
I've been working a lot. Since the new manager, Brandon, it seems like we're busier than we actually are. It makes work interesting, if not a little stressful. I'm taking it in stride, though some people would say that I complain too much.
Trying to finish Battlestar Galactica. I'm currently more than halfway through the third season. I'm going through it briskly, as I'll 'Always On Top' the episode while I surf the internet. It's interesting, though I find the filler episodes kinda boring.
Dreamcast was a solid purchase. I've downloaded and burnt almost fifty games. I play at least an hour a day. Soul Calibur is quickly becoming one of my favorite games of all time. I'm surprised that it took me a random impulse purchase to realize that this old console is supported by my two all-time favorite genres: 2-D fighters and 2-D top down shooters. In fact, I'm currently burning a compilation disc that contains every Capcom fighter AND Ikaruga. Mmmm.
Awesome:
Ikaruga.
Gigawing.
Street Fighter III.
Marvel vs. Capcom.
Capcom vs. SNK 2.
Virtua Tennis.
Soul Calibur.
Rez.
Guilty Gear X. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 22nd, 2009|08:41 am] |
The first console I ever owned was a Sega Genesis. I had no idea, mind you, as this was before the Golden Age of the Internet and I people walked around completely uninformed. I remember being at something like Radio Shack or maybe Sears and having to choose between the Genesis... or the Super Nintendo. I can't remember how young I was, but I was stupid enough that two of the winning criteria were 1. The Genesis is black and the SNES was pussy grey, and 2. Sonic 'looked' awesome (he's the dude with 'tude, right?) and Mario looked like a bitch. Of course, it won't be until several years later that I would own a Super Nintendo (I had the newer, smaller model) and would discover the joys of Super Mario World and Super Mario Kart.
The years of my 16-bit gaming days were punctuated by two really awesome, random game acquisitions. One of these games would go on to define what I *still like* to this day. That game was Super Street Fighter II for the Sega. I was something like eight or nine years old and my dad randomly brought it home for us. It was the second game I ever owned (after Sonic 2, which came packaged with the console). He bought it for something like thirty or forty dollars used, from Blockbuster.
Even though we only had the original three button Sega pads (you had to hit Start to toggle between punches and kicks) we played the absolute FUCK outta that game. I remember late nights sitting in front of the tv with my older sister, having fireball fights with Ryu. (It's pretty much exactly how it sounds: each player chooses Ryu or someone with a fireball, then you position yourselves as far from each other as possible then spam fireballs til someone dies.) If I had a favorite character, it woulda been Vega or Blanka. Ohhhhh, the days before tier lists. I sorta liked the Shotos (Ken/Ryu) but I found dragon punches to be really hard to do consistently and I remember Balrog being easy to beat (spam sweeps) and Ryu to be really, really hard to beat.
I still enjoy fighting games, and it might actually be my favorite genre. I wonder where I would be now (as far as gaming is concerned) if my first game was Shining Force or Phantasy Star. Street Fighter II led into owning a host of SNK fighters: Fatal Fury 1, 2, 3, and Special (yeah, I actually bought four versions of pretty much the same game), World Heroes, and a random bunch of terrible fighting games: Weaponlord, the original Mortal Kombat, Eternal Champions, and killer instinct (obv).
Anyways. The second awesome memory from the Genesis days was chilling at home and my dad randomly coming home with a brand new copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. That game was brilliant. It was probably the first platformer with a save system, the graphics were ridiculous, it had a host of multiplayer modes, and the bonus stages were pseudo-3D. I remember playing that game sooooo much.
A few years ago, I stopped into Moose Jaw for a visit and I had a hit of nostalgia so I tried to look through all the junk in my parents garage for my old consoles. I found a box of games, but apparently to my dismay my parents had sold my Sega AND my Snes in a garage sale I had no idea about. Sigh. I didn't bother grabbing the games since they took up so much unnecessary room (the boxes for the old cartridges were usually five times bigger than the actual cartridge, for no real reason) and I couldn't play them anyways.
I guess nowadays if I really wanted to replay these games I could use an emulator on my computer, or play them off the modded xbox, or off the dreamcast... it's just too easy these days to 'pirate' 16-bit games, that I don't really care anymore.
I'm just thinking about all this videogame nostalgia randomly this morning. A few days ago, I tipped my xbox 360 over and I totally forgot about the system tray scratching the fuck outta discs. So, I ended up irreparably damaging my copy of Street Fighter IV. I took it to Blockbuster to fix, but the grooves were way too deep. I was pretty devastated. In the end, I just rented a copy from Rogers and installed that to my hard drive.
I miss 16-bit gaming. I love fighting games and Rhiannon, but not in that particular order.
I'm sure that the 'Golden Age of Gaming' is subjective for everyone, as it most likely began with the first console they've owned. But seriously, owning a Sega and a SNES back in the day was pretty fucking awesome. Maybe I just don't appreciate my 360 because I have a job and a working income and I can just buy whatever hot new tech/game comes out easily. Or maybe I'm just a jaded gamer, the years will do that to you.
If you thought I was obsessed with peripherals now, my history with unnecessary expensive junk goes wayyyyy back. Wiki this shit if you don't know what I'm talking about. I owned the Sega Menacer, which had one game, weighed half a fuckton, used something like SIX 'aaa' batteries, and involved having to play three feet from your tv in pitch blackness. I owned a Sega Game Genie, but for some reason I actually WANTED a Sega CD/32x. My first six button pad was a programmable monstrosity that looked like it was designed like a cheap pair of running shoes (you know what I'm talking about, really clashy colors with unnecessary 'awesome' shit glued everywhere). |
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| Obvious things. |
[May. 21st, 2009|12:24 am] |
I know, I know. But I had to find out for myself.
I'll just state it here so you won't have to find out yourself:
S. Darko is really really really bad. There was absolutely no need for a sequel. |
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| OH SHIT: Appendum |
[Apr. 27th, 2009|10:15 pm] |
Fuck. I totally forgot to post what I was looking forward to.
Apparently, there's been rumors of its release on Xbox Live, but it's been confirmed today (after I acquire a Dreamcast ONLY to play this game) that it's coming out this summer for download:
MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 2.
Damn. It'll even have ONLINE play, which makes me absurdly giddy. Now it seems that I'll for sure get good use outta my custom joystick.
Then this summer we'll also have a new fighting game from Aksys, a sequel to Guilty Gear of sorts. Blazblue. Fully hand drawn animation with tons of strategy and eye popping effects? Hells yes.
I'm thinking of purchasing a new big HD tv this summer, and I'm already drooling thinking about how good this will all look on it.
As well, to a lesser extent, King of Fighters XII is coming out mid summer, in all its hand drawn HD goodness.
This will be an awesome return of 2D fighters this year. Now, I'm only waiting for the great shooter revival... |
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| The State of Address: Videogaming |
[Apr. 27th, 2009|09:49 pm] |
I haven't posted in awhile. Lots of personal things going on, overwhelmingly so. Work and home are both tumultuous, as well as relationships, so I won't touch on any of that here. My choice of escape from this madness has not been alcohol nor drugs, but sweet sweet gaming.
So, I just wanted to post where I'm at with it and what I'm looking forward to, in disjointed point form. If not for you, this will be a record of highlights of what is sure to be a banner year in gaming for me.
- I modded one of my Hori EX2 joysticks. It took over eight hours and about sixty dollars. A few weeks later the circuit board shorted and some of the buttons became unresponsive. I was pretty upset, it took a lot of work and now it's sitting in a box torn apart. I'm looking at the bright side, that at least I learned a lot about modding and soldering.
- I've ordered the parts for a custom joystick I'm working on. They should be arriving in a couple weeks. I also ordered a custom made 'box' that should be arriving in the next week. I'm excited as it will be my first 'real' project in some time. Everything will be custom, the box is handmade, the buttons are straight from Japan, and I'll be doing my own wiring.
- This is the last point concerning joysticks, I swear. I finished my 'tupperware' box a couple weeks ago. As expected, it plays like a tupperware bin on your lap, re:shitty. I put a couple dumbbell weights in it to hold it down so it's at least semi playable. I still got the other Hori EX2 and I snagged a really really rare MadCatz Street Fighter IV stick, so I don't 'really' need the tupperware, but it's been a learning process (I took apart and modded the controller circuit board inside and wired everything myself) and it can keep my sandwich fresh when I'm playing SFIV and need a lunch break.
- Speaking of Street Fighter IV, I haven't been playing it much in the last month. Making the joystick has been way more fun, as well, there's been a surprising lack of healthy competition around these parts. Well, not so much competition, what I meant was challenge. Don't get me wrong, SFIV still gets a few hours of play each week, I'm just not as hardcore worried about my ranking.
- Summer is approaching so I decided to cancel my Blockbuster game pass. I've had it for the last two months and for sure it's been a good purchase. I could say that I've got my fair use outta it. I have rented bad but fun games (LotR: Conquest), good wii games (House of the Dead: Overkill), and all sorts of random shit that I surprised myself by beating (50 Cent: Blood on the Sand!?!!). Sadly, I've been really ADD with my gaming, so I would rent something for a single day, play it for a few hours, then return it the next day for something else. So, my gamerscore is only hovering around 4000. Overall, I'd say I have rented almost two dozen games and played most of the good 360 games.
- I bought RE5 the week after it came out for a retarded amount, 78 dollars. I beat it once with cheap (sorta) and I've been wanting to play it with someone else (but no one else wants to, sigh). It was a pretty bad purchase, I'll admit. So much hype! Like, yeah, it has fucktons of replay value, except only when it's co-op with a friend. Otherwise, I can't see myself playing it alone for hours. Like, there should have been an option where you can play it solo without an AI controlled partner. I find that she's only sometimes helpful, but most of the time a hindrance. I really enjoyed RE4 on the 'cube, and it sucks that I can't just run around blowing off zombie (/mutant?) heads with my souped up shotgun by myself.
- In other news, it's 1999 again, as I bought a really good condition DREAMCAST off of kijiji for only forty dollars last week. Sure, I had to get a ride out to the ghetto, but fortunately I wasn't raped, but the exact opposite! I'm not sure how many of my friends will even remember the dreamcast (Kent thinks it's the worst ever), but if you google Racketboy's site there's a ton of pages devoted to Sega's little white box. Did you know you can burn games and play them without any sort of mod? Yeahhhhh, it was one of the first systems that was pirated easily thru the internet. Wiki that if you get bored, it's all true. I've been mad burning games lately, with a sweet collection around three dozen.
- The dreamcast is home to tons of my two favorite genres of gaming: 2D fighters, and shooters/shmups. Off the top of my head it has: Street Fighter 3, Vampire Chronicles, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, along with the usual SNK brawlers, King of Fighters and Co. For shooters it has the BRILLIANT Rez (so much fucking eye and ear candy...) and IKARUGA, arguably the best shooter ever. Then I got almost a dozen shooters that never left Japan. One of them is the very last game released for the dreamcast in Japan, at the end of 2006 (!?!?!). I had no fucking clue that the system was that popular in Japan. I used to love Sega.
- I have the next couple days off so hopefully I can get some good gaming in. I've been neglecting my Nintendo DS lately. In the last three weeks there's been half a dozen high profile RPGs released for it, but I don't really have *that much* time to play through any of them. Rhiannon has been playing New Super Mario Bros. and that in itself is awesome.
- Going to Moose Jaw on one of my days off. Gonna bring my Dreamcast and kick it with my brother. Should be fun times.
Did you actually read through all of this?
That's it for now. Come over and play some Dreamcast with me, okay. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|10:38 am] |
I should really post more often. Or at all, really.
I'm becoming increasingly irritable and frustrated these last few weeks. Part of the problem has been the lack of people or ways for me to vent. Like I mentioned, I don't really post much these days. The number of people I can actually talk to about how I'm feeling, is like, pretty much just Christian. Frown.
Sigh.
Even Olympia sessions are bunk.
I desperately try to hold onto how things 'used to be', when really, they can never be that good again. Well, things haven't been 'bad', just different. It's futile, and I know it, to try to cling to things and stay in the same spot when everything and everyone around you is moving so fast (except for Cheap, he's pretty much the same).
I'm looking for my rock here, but even the people closest to me I barely recognize. I just wanna live alone on an island some days, to avoid the drama that social interaction becomes. |
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| Update. |
[Feb. 10th, 2009|02:14 pm] |
It's been awhile since. Actually, it's been awhile since anyone. The last post on my friends page dates from almost two weeks ago.
There has been many things different from even five days ago.
First of all, Tony's birthday was on Saturday. Unfortunately, I worked all day so I didn't have any time to prepare. From getting home to Tony leaving due to prior engagements, only gave me about an hour to cook dinner. With the anxiety and the short time limit supper was fairly disappointing. That was something not in my control, I had too high of expecations and I shoulda saved my money and been more realistic (as far as time frames go).
Then we went to Beily's and it was alright. I haven't had a chance to ask him how he enjoyed it, but the overall atmosphere was positive.
Then around ten the party was at our house. That's where it went downhill. I don't really have a grasp of what transpired here, and neither does Tony really, since we both KO'd pretty early (around midnight?).
It was simply a disappointment. I needed the next day for it all to sink in. When I woke up Sunday morning the house was a mess, just completely trashed. The people here, without direct supervision, seemed to use and disrespect my household. No one was in charge and I struggle to find someone other than myself to blame.
My ipod was stolen. It was taken off my desk and I know this because there are pictures on Facebook from the party where you can clearly see my ipod on my desk. I've grown pretty attached to it, even though it's a few years old. For the time being I am using Tony's and I do not know if I will even see mine again or when I can afford to purchase a new one. I wasn't really that upset Sunday morning since I was already late for work. The day's distractions kept my head full but later that evening I just became morose. Other than be emotionally frustrated I don't think I can do much of anything else.
Yesterday afternoon I got dressed to go out to run some errands when I realized that my new beanie was missing. Now I don't think it is too much of an idea to think that someone stole it on Saturday night, because really, who would steal someone's clothes. But it's missing. And the last time I saw it was on Friday. That made me upset. Like, really really upset, because it was brand new and I hate it more when I lose things I haven't even had chance to enjoy.
If someone stole my new headphones I woulda really freaked out.
This morning Rhiannon logged onto my computer on the main floor here to print off some resumes. My printer was broken from Saturday night, but I thought the pieces knocked off were simply cosmetic, so I didn't really care. But no, it's broken, the paper won't feed for some reason.
Everyday I just become more upset. I haven't had a good time to discuss it all with Tony in detail. He wasn't feeling well yesterday and slept while he's at work today. I don't know if I will get any sort of compensation or closure, but I just feel like breaking something the more I dwell on all of it.
I'll try to weigh the negatives with some positives.
Guilty Gear just came in the mail this afternoon. Soooo speedy compared to all the other shit that I've ordered through the internet. Like, I ordered it late last week and I wasn't even expecting it until Friday. I'm so stoked because now I can play it downstairs with the new joysticks. Speaking of joysticks, as the date nears the release of Street Fighter IV (exactly seven days from now) I've been obsessing more and more over the official Mad Catz joysticks. I was on the fence about buying one (180 dollars for a non-instrument peripheral??? What??) but I was met with disappointment anyways when I found that there was no way I could get one in Canada. I called EB but they were full of bullshit. It seems like I'll just have to wait until the rumored 'second wave' is produced, possibly sometime this summer.
If someone wants to give me something awesome for my birthday, this stick would be it. Wink.
I'm enjoying my days off. This is only the second day but already I am starting to fill up my cup with possible awesome things to do.
I would like to start an exercise and diet regime again. I would like to read more and draw more and take the time be make observations about myself. I feel like I have the potential to be a more chill dude and start working on my future. Exciting, I know. I wanna finish my projects (I'm looking at your RMVX) and type my thoughts out more (oh, LJ, baby). There will be social developments, this will take time, okay? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 27th, 2009|12:17 am] |
I'm thinking of quitting Pita Pit. I dunno.
It'd give me three days of ...nothingness, every week.
God. It seems so daunting. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 6th, 2009|03:35 pm] |
I cannot win a match on MTGO. Not with Shards at least. I just did a random draft after buying two packs and I lost, first round, to a 15xx. He attacked both games with three combat tricks in a row. Each time he 2-for-1'd me with a pump effect after I double blocked.
...
That would mean I am 0-4 for first rounds in Shards 4322s.
I even thought my deck was good this time. Argh. Frustrating. Never again, I tell myself.
I'm not sure if it's because I don't understand the format or if I'm just super super rusty and playing awfully. I'm more inclined to say that I'm just playing poorly. The plays that used to come easily to me just aren't. More often than not I can't seem to find the proper play so I just attack :S I'm such a noob. |
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| 2008: A Year in Retrospective |
[Jan. 6th, 2009|01:56 pm] |
I haven't written in awhile. This must come as a shock to you, if you're someone who really knows me. I'm trying to think of the word...pensive, I think. So, keeping this in mind, writing something as comprehensive and long as my entire year in review seemed daunting. I would sit down at my computer and open up Livejournal but then, what do you know, a million distractions would pull me away.
I will always remember this past year as the 'Year of Rhiannon'. We started dating as soon as she moved here with Kenton and Cat on the New Year. She practically lived with me since day one, sleeping over and spending innumerous hours together, eating and playing. In September I found a townhouse and we moved in together, where, knock on wood, we'll be living for some time more.
I'm beginning to digress from the year in review to my relationship in review.
Well, what are some noteworthy non-relationship things that have happened, lemme think.
I continued to dodge student loans and work at Pita Pit all year (still do, kinda). I got Tony a job there before he left for Ontario in the summer. It was good times, working with Corey and Cheap and Tony, all my closest friends. I was reading and excersizing a lot before the summer. I can't say much happened of interest between January and May, that wasn't Rhiannon based.
Speaking of which, the summer seemed far too short. I worked lots. I spent a lot of time reading and eating out. The Fringe came and went without much fanfare. Kelly, our manager at Pita Pit at the time, found an actual 'real' job and quit. He was replaced by this new kid, who would succeed him as manager. This was obviously frustrating, having to listen to someone as your superior who hasn't even been working there for a month. I resigned to find a new job at the end of summer.
Moving out of the apartment and into the new townhouse was by far the most stressful event of the year. Corey had come back from his month long vacation two weeks early and Cheap had no where to live at the time after being evicted from our boss' basement suite. So for about three weeks it was the three of us in our little two bedroom apartment. That, combined with the work situation, contributed to my loss of sanity. I don't think it's necessary for me to go into much detail, as I've already written lengthy journal posts on the matter. Needless to say, I spent an entire weekend cleaning the house, not getting any sleep, or much of my deposit back even.
On the day I moved into our new house I got punched in the face that night by some random drunk on my back porch, for wearing a red shirt. I'm pretty sure I wrote about that one too. :S
There were definitely highlights that summer, though. For one, I bought the purchase of the year, my new longboard. I gave my skateboard away to my brother as I found the longboard to be a better form of transportation. There would be days in the summer when it was so beautiful and I'd skate downtown across the bridge gathering in all the scenery. Also, I formally met Rhiannon's parents for the first time. We ate at this fancy restaurant, St.Tropez, and I was so nervous. I think things eventually panned out, as I took a weeklong vacation with Rhiannon back to her hometown, Denare Beach, where we spent it at her parents' house. I was deathly allergic to anything outdoors and this kept me from feeling a hundred percent. But it was a chance to be a tourist and visit her origins, meet her friends, and spend some time meeting her extended family.
Sometime in the summer I was preoccupied with graffiti (like every summer it seems). I worked on this sticker campaign and spent a few nights out gallavanting. My old roommate Shawn Davison contacted me to design some artwork for his student trucking business. He dropped off two 2x11 foot boards that took me an entire weekend to paint. I was so nervous, I haven't done anything remotely commercial art based since designing Lav shirts the year before. Thank god, he actually liked it and used it all summer. He even helped us move into the new place with his truck.
I went to a few concerts, the funnest being the Tokyo Police Club concert at Louis'. Hagen and Christian came and we fucking rocked out all night (well, about fifty minutes...their set was pretty short).
At the end of August Kenton gave me a tip informing me of a position available at his work, the Bulk Cheese Warehouse. I came in and applied and within a week I had an interview and was hired for fulltime work as a butcher. I immediately scaled back my hours at Pita Pit to two shifts a week.
September would mean living in a new place with new roommates (Rhiannon, Tony, and Michelle), a new job with Kenton. I'll also remember it for how sick I was (and still am). After moving in, a few weeks later I started developing a serious respiratory problem. I couldn't sleep at night without waking up gasping for air. It was only after two visits to the doctor's office, numerous prescriptions, and finally an emergency room visit that we would determine that the source of my illness was an allergic reaction to something in the new house. I went to see an allergy specialist in October and he prescribed me a twice-daily medication that I would have to take as long as I continued living here. Sigh.
Through October to the end of the year, work at Bulk Cheese was good. I received three seperate raises, with one at the end of December. It was getting steadily busier. I was becoming more familiar and proficient.
As the year came to an end I became more and more disappointed with myself. I turned 24 and I haven't felt this ... I dunno, after finishing University. I distracted myself with little projects, but deep down I haven't been feeling at all productive. The year marked the least amount of new acquaintances and current good friends, even. As I stayed in my little rut I felt my social ties degrading and my relationships drifting apart. Hopefully in '09 I can have another chance to rectify all this. I wanna strive to become more socially adept...as soon as this weather clears up. haha.
Well.
That's basically my year. Nothing really happened. I don't think. My romantic relationship bloomed and in that regard I feel like I've matured. I (sort of) moved up, work wise, though I yearn to be back in school. Maybe this fall I tell myself, maybe. I resolved to spend more time with my friends and repair any negative awkward feelings that may have developed. As a person I feel like my journey to evolve has just begun. Bear with me, okay. |
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| Dave's Delightfully Derivative Picks for 2008 |
[Jan. 5th, 2009|09:17 am] |
Best Movie, in no particular order:
1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. Tropic Thunder
3. (tie)Dark Knight, Iron Man
Worst Movie: (tie) Bangkok Dangerous, Babylon A.D.
Most Disappointing Movie: Quantum of Solace
Best Album
1. Vampire Weekend, Self Titled
2. Beck, Modern Guilt
3. Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell
Most Disappointing Album: Weezer, Red Album
Best (Most Played?) Video Game
1. The World Ends With You, Nintendo DS
2. Guitar Hero World Tour, 360
3. Ketsui Death Label, Nintendo DS
Honorable Mention: MTGO ver.3.0
Best Book Read (Fiction)
1. The Road
2. Battle Royale
3. Blankets (Graphic Novel)
Best Non-Fiction: The God Delusion |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 30th, 2008|12:27 pm] |
I can't seem to find enough words to form a coherent and relevant Livejournal post anymore.
But I just wanted to say, I can't wait for February. Not only is the last chapter of Battle Royale released (I've had the first four for a couple months now), but Street Fighter IV comes out AS WELL as the official Capcom arcade stick for it, on the same day. I was planning on ordering a Hori Fighting Stick over the internet, but after reading the specs on the new proposed stick (buttons and stick a replica of the official SFIV arcade cabinet), I'm thinking of dropping my cash for one of those. The only problem I can think of right now is the price (150 mad dollars) and the fact that I'll probably want two, for the house.
Wow. These things are so small compared to what's actually important in my life right now. :S |
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