I went home for Thanksgiving, and I brought Amy with me. It was quite lovely. I've never been so happy to be home. My littlest sister was singing at every free moment - it was hilarious. I played tons of games and did a puzzle and a bit of shopping and ate good homecooked food and slept in my own room, and it was all so fantastic. I even got to go see The Incredibles, which is yet another great Pixar movie. ^_^ Having Amy visit was quite nice too. It kept me from contacting any of my friends, but heck, no one tried to contact me. No one ever does. It always seems to be left up to me. Where's the love, people? Oh well, I guess that's what happens when I'm the one who goes to school in Boston and most everyone else is far closer to home.
While I was home, I received a very belated birthday present from my aunt - a Naruto wall calendar from Japan! It's so very gorgeous, and I am totally ready to put it up on my wall (after finals, since it'll be January before I come back!). I wrote her a thank-you card and drew a picture that ended up looking really nice, but I didn't have time to scan it in, so she's the only one who gets to enjoy it, hahaha.... Oh, guilty secret, completely unrelated to getting the calendar - I started watching Naruto again and it actually became interesting once more (just had to get out of that horribly horrible running-through-the-forest-for-10-episodes section), after the whole stupid Orochimaru and Hokage battle ended (took forever, as does anything in Naruto, sigh). Just being able to see Naruto doing some daily training and living a normal life was enough to make me smile. It only lasted for five minutes, of course, but heck, I'll take what I can get.
Oh, oh, oh. I came up with another original character. It's really exciting because he's meant to be Jesper's half brother. Yes, Jesper might actually develop a storyline for himself. Who'd have thought? Hahaha, I'm sure you don't care at all. Anyway, the brother's name is tentatively assigned as Seska Asch, and although I have plenty of pictures, I haven't had the opportunity to scan them in yet. The basic idea behind him is that he's half demon, and he can tap the demonic side to become very powerful. This makes him transform into having wings and claws and stuffs, but if he draws out too much power, he overbalances and turns into a small and ineffective imp. He usually wields a spear. I want to see Jesper try to explain why his little brother's always trying to terrorize the general public. Yes, I know it's horribly hokey and sad, but it's an excuse for me to draw yet another grumpy looking guy with a bad attitude and spikey hair. The pseudo-Chinese outfit is also a plus. ^_^
We DDRed far too much last night, since it was Sunday and everyone was kind of on a post-Thanksgiving high. I failed nearly every Heavy level song I tried, but that's fine since we were using my computer. I also ended up with a bad headache near the end, which made jumping totally impossible. It ran on a bit too long, but I think it was fun. Brett says that I am as good as he is, but I don't think I believe that. Half the problem is that his pad was dying, and the other half is that I'm used to my simulator and he is not. I guess we're approximately equal though - it's a joy to play with someone who is equally skilled, since I'm used to catering to players with a lower skill level.
As an addendum to my previous post, World of Warcraft ended up being pretty cool. I decided that I really liked it and wouldn't mind playing it again someday, but for now, finals are coming up and I can't afford to devote time to something like that. I downloaded both the WoW soundtrack and the EverQuest II soundtrack, and well, WoW wins hands down. The EQ2 soundtrack confused me. It was too orchestral for me, wasn't intimate enough, plus Blackburrow went tribal. What's up with that? At least they didn't include dorky battle music... Perhaps they've gotten over that silliness? Oh yeah, I just realized that the EverQuest main theme is far too majestic for me. Usually I'm a big fan of the dominating trumpet lines and backing strings a la the Star Wars theme, but this just seemed overblown. I much preferred World of Warcraft's dark and brooding theme. It better suits my personality... or something. <_<;
Today at work was cool. I didn't get much work done (ha ha) but Granddaddy DJ was spinning a 4-hour trance mix on DI.fm because it was his birthday, and he was giving away mp3 CDs of the mix to the first 20 people to guess his age. And I was one of them! So I get a free CD. Winning things is cool - doesn't happen too often. Plus, the set was quite awesome. ^_^ And if you were wondering, today was his 50th birthday.
Mah, well, I've written up another enormous post because of my infrequest post frequency. Still, even if I posted every day, I'd probably still write tons. Kind of sad... Kk, it's high time for me to sleep. I never get to bed before 3, so this is quite a treat for me. Pathetic. XD
- Flykyr Skysong
Current song: EverQuest II OST - Temple
Current mood: I've swung between laughing and being upset all evening, so I don't know... Worn out, I guess.
Monday, November 29, 2004
Saturday, November 13, 2004
A Day of Comparisons
Ugh, I've put off writing in here for too long again. I had this whole essay about Japanese samurai vs. Chinese kung fu movies, but since I have some other things I wanted to mention, I'll keep it short. I saw the 2004 remake of Zatoichi last weekend, and well, I highly recommend it, if you can get ahold of a copy and aren't too distressed by ultra brutal violence (as well as tons of fake-looking blood - think the black knight scene in The Holy Grail). The ending is incredible, and I got a kick out of the whole soundtrack. The western influence was fascinating and the way they mixed the music with the various farmworkers was really different.
Max later told me that he was surprised by how short the final battle was, and that's what got me started thinking about the difference between Japanese and Chinese fighting movies. Both styles really go for artisticness - Zatoichi had this whole 'fighting in the rain with sunlight everywhere' thing going on, and I saw Hero a while ago and man, if you can see that too, go watch it! It's gorgeous. You can't get much more artsy than that (take the bamboo forest fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and multiply it a hundredfold XD).
Zatoichi was very Japanese in the way the fight scenes played out - short and brutal. It reminded me a lot of the book Musashi, which had plenty of fighting, but the fights were always very short. In fact, you could look at it as being 1000 pages of leadup to the final battle, which is only a couple of pages long. Well, of course, it's far more complex than that, but, if you want to get down to basics... So I've seen this trend across Japanese movies, books, heck, even anime. The old samurai fights were all about landing just a few blows and having a battle be decided by that. Swords are sharp - they kill.
Chinese kung fu movies, on the other hand, are all about the action. Fights are drawn out, people take forever to die, and maybe it's just been like this recently, but wire work appears to be a requirement. This certainly allows for more special effects and general prettiness, but, hm, people seem to die less. Maybe because swords usually aren't involved. :P Anyway, I think the difference between the two was pretty interesting.
I was randomly lucky and ended up getting a World of Warcraft beta account, so I've been playing that this weekend. Oh man, it's so much prettier than EverQuest. Haha, those were the days... I've got a night elf rogue and an undead priest. The rogue is cool, and I love the damage she can deal out, but I really get a kick out of the priest. Not only can she tank, but she's undead! How awesome is that? When she gets hit, her blood is green. XD I think it's great.
The animated emotes are pretty amazing. The 'bow' emote leaves me in awe every time I use it. I mean, it's just gorgeous. The 'sleep' emote is cute too. Plus, when you 'laugh', you can actually hear the character laughing. ('Dance' is scary though - talk about utter sluttiness). Also, when you talk or deal with merchants, your character gesticulates appropriately. I think it's a really nice touch. MMORPGs have come a long way since EQ. The scenery is breathtaking and the death system is pretty cool (when you die, you come back as a ghost and have to find your corpse to return to life - I mostly like it because the world is wispy and in black and white and it makes me think of LOTR... like I'm wearing the One Ring XD). I also really like the quest system. I'm more of a solo player, so I like to work alone, and the quests give me some purpose. Plus, they actually seem to have a point, unlike most of those in EQ. And with WoW, there's a bit of storyline.
The one thing I'd complain about (besides the awful lag, but that's because it's beta) is that the game is a little bit too easy. I remember the first time I played EQ, I accidentally started on a PvP server as a half elf druid in Kelethin and getting murdered by high level mobs and falling out of the trees and dying and getting horribly lost. Hahaha, I was such a newbie back then. It took me a long time to figure out how to play properly and even then, after two or three years, I had only made it to level 25. Of course, I only played on weekends, and never during the summer, but... it was hard. I remember being furious when Sony made it so much easier for newbies later on down the road, because I had it rough when I was new.
WoW on the other hand, is very user friendly. I appreciate that. But I think the game is really designed for people who don't have too much time to put into MMORPGs and takes out a lot of the inconveniences and frustrations. I mean, not losing XP for death? That's pretty much a standard. Their death penalty isn't nearly as harsh. As long as you know where you died, it's not so bad. Magic-users are more solo-able. You get very specific quests that point you in exactly the right direction. In one day of play, I had both a level 5 rogue and a level 7 priestess. That probably would have taken me a month in EQ. It's easy, it's great. It's a little too easy. That, plus the fact that I'm in college and really don't have time for stuff like this are the reasons that I will never buy and play this. I never came close to hitting the endgame in EQ, and I feel like I'd hit it too fast in this. I don't know - I feel like everyone's a bit overpowered. Maybe it gets a bit harder further down the road.
Anyway, kudos to Blizzard. The game looks great. I hope they can maintain it.
I was going to go book shopping this weekend, but since my little sister wants me to take her book shopping when I'm home for Thanksgiving, I decided to put it off. I need to sit down now and do some research for my MIT Japan internship. I need to decide which comapanies I want to apply to. This program sounds excellent - I want to spend a summer working in Japan! I'll supply some more details later, but for now, I think it suffices to say that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I'm going to pursue it for all I'm worth. ^_^
- Flykyr Skysong
Current song: Kamelot - Karma (Whoo! Kamelot is totally different from anything I've ever listened to before - I believe the term is 'symphonic metal'. It's pretty cool. :D)
Current mood: A little bit brain-fried
Max later told me that he was surprised by how short the final battle was, and that's what got me started thinking about the difference between Japanese and Chinese fighting movies. Both styles really go for artisticness - Zatoichi had this whole 'fighting in the rain with sunlight everywhere' thing going on, and I saw Hero a while ago and man, if you can see that too, go watch it! It's gorgeous. You can't get much more artsy than that (take the bamboo forest fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and multiply it a hundredfold XD).
Zatoichi was very Japanese in the way the fight scenes played out - short and brutal. It reminded me a lot of the book Musashi, which had plenty of fighting, but the fights were always very short. In fact, you could look at it as being 1000 pages of leadup to the final battle, which is only a couple of pages long. Well, of course, it's far more complex than that, but, if you want to get down to basics... So I've seen this trend across Japanese movies, books, heck, even anime. The old samurai fights were all about landing just a few blows and having a battle be decided by that. Swords are sharp - they kill.
Chinese kung fu movies, on the other hand, are all about the action. Fights are drawn out, people take forever to die, and maybe it's just been like this recently, but wire work appears to be a requirement. This certainly allows for more special effects and general prettiness, but, hm, people seem to die less. Maybe because swords usually aren't involved. :P Anyway, I think the difference between the two was pretty interesting.
I was randomly lucky and ended up getting a World of Warcraft beta account, so I've been playing that this weekend. Oh man, it's so much prettier than EverQuest. Haha, those were the days... I've got a night elf rogue and an undead priest. The rogue is cool, and I love the damage she can deal out, but I really get a kick out of the priest. Not only can she tank, but she's undead! How awesome is that? When she gets hit, her blood is green. XD I think it's great.
The animated emotes are pretty amazing. The 'bow' emote leaves me in awe every time I use it. I mean, it's just gorgeous. The 'sleep' emote is cute too. Plus, when you 'laugh', you can actually hear the character laughing. ('Dance' is scary though - talk about utter sluttiness). Also, when you talk or deal with merchants, your character gesticulates appropriately. I think it's a really nice touch. MMORPGs have come a long way since EQ. The scenery is breathtaking and the death system is pretty cool (when you die, you come back as a ghost and have to find your corpse to return to life - I mostly like it because the world is wispy and in black and white and it makes me think of LOTR... like I'm wearing the One Ring XD). I also really like the quest system. I'm more of a solo player, so I like to work alone, and the quests give me some purpose. Plus, they actually seem to have a point, unlike most of those in EQ. And with WoW, there's a bit of storyline.
The one thing I'd complain about (besides the awful lag, but that's because it's beta) is that the game is a little bit too easy. I remember the first time I played EQ, I accidentally started on a PvP server as a half elf druid in Kelethin and getting murdered by high level mobs and falling out of the trees and dying and getting horribly lost. Hahaha, I was such a newbie back then. It took me a long time to figure out how to play properly and even then, after two or three years, I had only made it to level 25. Of course, I only played on weekends, and never during the summer, but... it was hard. I remember being furious when Sony made it so much easier for newbies later on down the road, because I had it rough when I was new.
WoW on the other hand, is very user friendly. I appreciate that. But I think the game is really designed for people who don't have too much time to put into MMORPGs and takes out a lot of the inconveniences and frustrations. I mean, not losing XP for death? That's pretty much a standard. Their death penalty isn't nearly as harsh. As long as you know where you died, it's not so bad. Magic-users are more solo-able. You get very specific quests that point you in exactly the right direction. In one day of play, I had both a level 5 rogue and a level 7 priestess. That probably would have taken me a month in EQ. It's easy, it's great. It's a little too easy. That, plus the fact that I'm in college and really don't have time for stuff like this are the reasons that I will never buy and play this. I never came close to hitting the endgame in EQ, and I feel like I'd hit it too fast in this. I don't know - I feel like everyone's a bit overpowered. Maybe it gets a bit harder further down the road.
Anyway, kudos to Blizzard. The game looks great. I hope they can maintain it.
I was going to go book shopping this weekend, but since my little sister wants me to take her book shopping when I'm home for Thanksgiving, I decided to put it off. I need to sit down now and do some research for my MIT Japan internship. I need to decide which comapanies I want to apply to. This program sounds excellent - I want to spend a summer working in Japan! I'll supply some more details later, but for now, I think it suffices to say that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I'm going to pursue it for all I'm worth. ^_^
- Flykyr Skysong
Current song: Kamelot - Karma (Whoo! Kamelot is totally different from anything I've ever listened to before - I believe the term is 'symphonic metal'. It's pretty cool. :D)
Current mood: A little bit brain-fried
Monday, November 01, 2004
Brain Dump
Gotta keep this short since I've an anime club meeting to attend in a bit. The weekend started off nice - participated in the club's cosplay contest and got to look like an idiot. But I got free Pocky! Didn't get to see all of Blood: The Last Vampire. *sniff* I'll see if the DVD's in when I have my club office hour on Wednesday. Japanese people speaking English = excellent. Went to the Spooky Skate with Sarah, skated for the first time this season (and my first time in hockey skates), then went to Pumpkin Drop to watch East Campus residents drop pumpkins from the top of the Green Building (18 stories - tallest building on campus, and in Cambridge). There was DDR after that, until way too late (is this getting to be a weekly thing?), and then a little bit of sleep, before getting up to go to the parade (for the Red Sox, yay World Series!) and to take Janet out to lunch for her birthday. Waiting for food took too long, so we missed out on actually seeing the Sox, but the energy of the crowd was amazing. Plus, all the people wearing red and carrying around amusing signs or brooms. :D
Saturday evening was sad, as was the rest of Sunday, since it was Halloween and there were all these parties this weekend, and I couldn't go to any because I was stuck doing my Algorithms p-set. It was ridiculous - it took over 20 hours to complete, and the last few have only taken about five hours or so. Depressing. Somehow Vikki managed to go to all these parties and stuff, although she didn't come back after she went to John's party on Sunday night, while leaving us to take care of her cookies that she tried to bake in a glass casserole dish (it would have been horribly funny if we weren't so used to groaning every time something ridiculous like that happens). Probably didn't want to face us. I don't blame her. Sarah and I were ready to kill someone, what with that annoying girl talking on her cell phone for an hour (winner for most annoying laugh ever) and the screaming girls in the study room down the hall... Well, and by being abandoned by a friend who couldn't wait five more minutes to finish baking her cookies. Hmph. What bitterness?
This week is sad - two biology tests. One's tomorrow, and I really need to study, but I also have to do interpretations and prelab, and that'll take forever. I'm so screwed! o_o; And the genetics test will be scary because I have no idea what's going on in that class. I skipped Algorithms lecture today, so I need to watch that before Wednesday too. Ahhhh! It can't happen. There aren't enough hours in the day. Now I need to go to that meeting so we can all complain about how our Treasurer doesn't do anything ever. Same old, same old. Over and out.
- Flykyr Skysong
Current song: Miss Shiva - Just More (A remix of the original song by Wonderwall. Aahhhh! Memories of Germany and MTV. Oh, the excellence.)
Current mood: Streeeeeeessssssssssssed
Saturday evening was sad, as was the rest of Sunday, since it was Halloween and there were all these parties this weekend, and I couldn't go to any because I was stuck doing my Algorithms p-set. It was ridiculous - it took over 20 hours to complete, and the last few have only taken about five hours or so. Depressing. Somehow Vikki managed to go to all these parties and stuff, although she didn't come back after she went to John's party on Sunday night, while leaving us to take care of her cookies that she tried to bake in a glass casserole dish (it would have been horribly funny if we weren't so used to groaning every time something ridiculous like that happens). Probably didn't want to face us. I don't blame her. Sarah and I were ready to kill someone, what with that annoying girl talking on her cell phone for an hour (winner for most annoying laugh ever) and the screaming girls in the study room down the hall... Well, and by being abandoned by a friend who couldn't wait five more minutes to finish baking her cookies. Hmph. What bitterness?
This week is sad - two biology tests. One's tomorrow, and I really need to study, but I also have to do interpretations and prelab, and that'll take forever. I'm so screwed! o_o; And the genetics test will be scary because I have no idea what's going on in that class. I skipped Algorithms lecture today, so I need to watch that before Wednesday too. Ahhhh! It can't happen. There aren't enough hours in the day. Now I need to go to that meeting so we can all complain about how our Treasurer doesn't do anything ever. Same old, same old. Over and out.
- Flykyr Skysong
Current song: Miss Shiva - Just More (A remix of the original song by Wonderwall. Aahhhh! Memories of Germany and MTV. Oh, the excellence.)
Current mood: Streeeeeeessssssssssssed