"I don't hate vests"

I am getting really annoyed with people who buy a piece of technology (HD players or a PS3), and later on, the price drops for that piece of technology or loses the race, and everyone under the GOD-DAMNED sun wants their money back. When the hell will people stop thinking that they can benefit from their own stupid mistake in investing in a piece of machinery? It's like the stock exchange. If you put your money into something and it flops, you're stuck with what you paid for. You can't ask for a redo or hit Ctrl+Z to make everything ok.

YOU. TOOK. A RISK.

Get used to it, you greedy, mindless fucktards. You lost your money. Instead, you could have chosen to wait for it to get cheaper. You can't be rewarded for a BAD CHOICE. Get. Over. It.

ODST review

This is was supposed to be done WEEKS ago, but I never actually finished the game until last week. First, the good points, and then why this whole shebang was not worth 60 bucks.
Hooray, a continuation of a universe I really like, even though it's a short spinoff between the last 2 games of the trilogy and has nothing to actually do with space. VISR mode was really enjoyable to use and helpful in finding all those video logs. On the other hand, it was difficult to do anything without VISR mode because everything was just so damn dark, even during the broad daylight of the flashback. Go into a small enclave of a building, and you can't see a damn thing. Jeez, not even SPACE was this dark in the originals. But hey, if you want us to abuse your little nuance, Bungie, don't give us the choices between having our retinas burnt out from simple daylight or shooting our own teammates because we don't have the simplicity of a HUD radar anymore to tell green dots from red ones.
Ammo. Dear lord, the reduction in ammo leaves you leaving a lot more helpless this time around. Pick up a brute pistol, take out a squad, and then ditch. Pick up new weapon. Repeat ad nauseam. It's nice that there are loads of weapon caches along the journey of finding your teammates (thank god for mongooses), but it's human weapons, which are not as effective as taking out those lovely engineers as a well placed beam rifle shot.
The music. I'm glad that there are more intermittent bursts of music when there are enemies around, rather than just a 1.30 minute blare of some greatly constructed musical piece covered with gun shots, screams and grenade bursts. Only to be never heard again when you're running through snow for what seems like hours. The jazz, however, leaves a lot to be desired.
Characters are a bit on the shallow side, and Bungie still can seem to get down how to make an attractive looking female human. Dare looked like a starving heroine addict rehab with floppy lips and cheekbones that were trying to stab out her own eyes.
Why this wasn't worth 60 bucks: it's a 4-5 hour game. A tad longer on Legendary if you're looking for every single audio file. But that's it. The replay value is quite low, because if you want to start again on a particular mission, you're essentially starting the whole thing over and have to find all the clues again to continue with the game. The increase of enemy drops on Legendary keeps things at a higher level of concentration, while still makes it boring, going through the same rigmarolls over and over. Kill engineer, snipe jackals, sticky brutes, repeat. Firefight is a great Bungie-ternative to Horde and Survival...only more complicated with turns and rounds and sets and WHY?! Nice integration of the Halo Skulls to make it more challenging, but it simply ended up making me hate my teammates when I'm trying to bash a Grunt's face in and they keep killing them all before I get to them. Thank you, Black Eye, for turning my friends into my worst enemies.
Some people might say "Oh, but they gave us a whole other disc with all the maps!". Uh, no. Take your computer. You want to put a great new video card in it to play that great game. But instead of having the option of just buying one yourself and installing it, you have to get a WHOLE NEW EFFING COMPUTER. It doesn't seem to make much sense, does it? Instead of having a disc download of the maps to your HD like they did in Halo 2, they gave you an entirely new disc with 3 added maps to "make the price seem more worth it". Here's more money, Bungie, for whatever it is you do that brainwashes us so well to throw money away.

"Make something idiot-proof...

...and they'll build a better idiot."
I'm really falling out of this posting thing, but that's probably due to my life getting more and more boring as time passes on and I wait for paperwork to tell me whether I can become an attorney or not. There's also been a reduction in game reviews because I'm seriously behind. Last Remnant took me damn forever, and I was simply getting frustrated with trying to get through it. I've only recently got into Fallout 3, only because a friend lent it to me. I mean, I haven't even finished Bioshock, Assassin's Creed or Tales of Vesperia. Hopefully, I can get an ODST review next week.
I officially started studying for my MPRE in November, typing up actual notes instead of passing the test off as a joke (which it really is) and taking it seriously this time. I mean, for a test that's only 60 multiple choice questions and takes 3 hours to do, it seriously is a mindgame only the demented could come up with.
Finally saw 9 last week, which looked visually stunning according to the ads that have been out for ages. Of course, it's Tim Burton, the man who's known for his visual flair in everything, but he's not a god like everyone says he is. I, myself, plan on avoiding that Alice in Wonderland movie like the plague because I honestly don't want to visually experience what it's like to be on an acid trip. But I digress. 9 was, to put it simply, like a lovely expensive souffle that you booked reservations at a fancy restaurant months in advance for, it looks stunning on the plate with a lovely butterfly drawn in strawberry syrup, and then you taste it. It tastes...like every other stinking souffle you've ever tasted. Pretty on the eyes, no great content. It was more like a movie for the tweenie goths who wanted to get tingly in their pants for another Tim Burton movie. Almost an exact opposite of Coraline, which spent a little too much time on character development, but still looked gorgeous with stop animation (and Keith David's voice doesn't hurt either).
Characters are thrown into the mix quite quickly, and leave just as soon as you want to know more about them. Saying "they're all different parts of personality" just doesn't quite cut it, as it sticks them in a stereotypical way of acting instead of giving them back story and reasons as for why they act that way. A cop-out, really.
Hey, remember when voice-acting used to be done by people you didn't recognize the name of but did a pretty awesome job, instead of big name actors that just do 'enh'? Yeah, those were the good days.

"Life itself is the proper binge"

Ugh, I hate when I don't post for almost a month, plus I failed to put up any pictures while on the trip. But I can blame it on being too tired from the travelling and not really having enough time to get internet-things done *cough*sincewegotlostalot*cough*.
The first stop was the US Air Force Museum in Ohio, where we saw over 300 planes, bombs and missiles on display, and then took a short trip to the Wright Brothers Memorial. Second was the St. Louis Arch: great from far away, pretty boring up close. Third was The Badlands, and I fully understood why it was called that. The thing looks damn near impossible to cross unless you have gecko feet and special gear to do it. And if that didn't get you, the supposed rattlesnakes that were living around there would. Fourth and last was Mt Rushmore, which was about as big as I expected and the sight of Roosevelt being the only one with no body and perpetually staring at Lincoln's cheek touched my heart with sadness. Not really a landmark, but our last stop was the Old McDonald's petting farm, with the cutest baby goats, and baby chicks that certainly did not enjoy getting picked up. Along the journey itself, there were lots of wind turbines dotting the landscape, fields upon fields of corn and hay bales, and just about 1-2 vultures every 5 miles.
Two movies I saw over the weekend were District 9 and GI Joe (under protest).
District 9, I would have to say, was pretty good. Not THE best movie of the year, but good. At first I thought the liquid in the canister was supposed to be some sort of bio-agent, to turn humans into them to level the playing ground and force the humans to realize what shitheads they are. When it turns out it was just fuel to get to their ship, I was left incredibly confused as to why it would start changing a human. Giant plothole, yes, but it made the protagonist a little bit less of a dick. Another confusing point is how the humans would understand the alien language, as it seemed to be a measure of clicks and whistles intermingled in their speech, but the events are supposed to have taken 20 years after they got there, so I'm sure something was figured out during that time.
What seemed like good nuances was that the aliens weren't forced to learn English (thank god!) and that they were given such large eyes that could still convey emotions (albeit similiar to human emotions) without the benefit of having lips. They weren't super-powered beings who would simply crush ever homosapien under their heels, and problems of their own, nor did Christopher "lock on all phasers" and blow MNU off the grid. Sometimes it is just better to high-tail it out of there.
Bonus: guy getting hit and killed with a pig.
GI Joe...was the complete opposite. A wade through a cesspool of pig crap, if you like. With no pants on. I swear, Hasbro needs to stop trying to get movies made of their products. Shallow character development, a soggy paper bag for plot (did Orci have anything to do with the writing in this one?) and some of the worst graphics I've had the displeasure of suffering my poor retinas through. The Baroness and Duke?! They have completely ruined THE hottest character in the history of the Joe-niverse.
Side-note: ok, I'll give in that Vosloo was hot as Zartan, but that's it.

"I'm gonna barber the hell outta that hair!"

Sorry for the long absence without a post, as I've been preparing myself for a second try at the bar exam. Yes yes, if you didn't know by now, I failed my Feb. attempt, getting a 627 altogether, 665 being the pass mark. I have roughly 4 more days until the dreaded thing begins, 2 days of horror, and then off on the honeymoon we've been waiting so long for. Cross-country trip! I'll probably put up a picture now and again as to where we are/have been for the day. If anyone even cares...

"Given the choice, I'd rather live and be miserable"

After what seems like forever of trying to finish The Last Remnant (and leaving me feeling very unfulfilled), I discovered a cute little SRPG for the DS after giving a browse around for new games for Sean. Besides doing Rhythm Heaven and Elite Beat Agent, Rondo of Swords has me drawn in. The synopsis of the game got me intrigued, and the combat seemed like a new gimmick I wanted to try.
It's different from other games I've tried, in that you can fight multiple enemies at once instead of whittling away one at a time, by drawing a line through all the enemies you want to attack. At first, it seems that this is the easiest way of defeating enemies, but it's not. For one, each battle is a bit unpredictable, as it is a slightly bit different everytime you play a stage through. Second, characters don't level up like a typical RPG: new skills will open up, but the player has to allocate points earned from combat to the skills, making it a difficult choice as to whether to strengthen a spell or learn a new skill that will help your fellow teammates. A really neat concept is that you can pass through your ally's square, and some benefit will be granted to you. Some characters will heal your HP, some increase your defence, and others will give you a % of CRIT to your attack.
I say "everytime you play a stage through" because you'll find yourself doing stages over and over again for several reasons. This game is simply hard, and so you might find your main character dying a lot. However, the game allows you to quit in the middle of combat and either reform the party to use different characters, or to start the battle over. The great thing about this is that all the characters keep all the experience points and levels that they have gained in that combat. Any items used during the combat are returned to you, leaving you with no need to spend gold for more healing items.
Attacking more enemies not only yields greater exp points, but it also increases your "OB" (OverBreak) metre, allowing the character to unleash a special skill. There are 3 levels of OB, making the special skill that much more powerful.
How does your party grow? By having certain characters stand beside them on the map, which triggers a scene of talking, and voila! A new teammate. Other bits of dialogue can be revealed as well, just by standing beside certain characters, leading to some quite amusing conversations. It's a bit sad that you're only allowed 6 characters for use against humoungous armies, but extra characters can be sent on a variety of quests to bring back items to your party, to go shopping for you, or to even train on their own to increase their stats. It seems a bit tedious at first, trying to decide who to send on what mission, but it becomes a second-hand task with very little maintenance.
One thing finally going for this game is that it's simply pretty. The map itself is a bit drag, but the sprite animation of the characters are simply a small delight for me to watch as it seems quite fluid for a DS game. The soundtrack, however, is on the boring side, with no new music to listen to. But the voicework keeps my volume turned up, as it's quite good.
There's also a New Game + after the initial beating of the game, meaning that any characters you missed can be obtained the second time around, made easier by the fact that you start with higher levels.

When I'm 64

After 4 freaking years, I'm finally married. It's been a week since it happened, and nothing feels that different (except for the fact that I have to get used to a new last name). Everything went off perfectly and I think everyone had a very good time. My hair of 4 years is now all gone, and I'm loving it (except for the occasional bed-head).
Rossen and a friend of his are visiting until Sunday, since they missed the wedding, so I hope plenty of fun times will be had this weekend. 8D

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia"

I don't think I will ever be able to keep a story in my brain that had enough of a solid foundation to stand on it's own without plotholes and unexplainable missing bits. I don't think there's anything wrong with my writing skill per se, but the execution of it and creating a basis to write on seems to be waning with me. Maiden of the Phoenix was created in my 3rd year of college; at least 13 pages of notes were written out, character development and chapter notes, and I even drew a map for the world. Here I am 6 years later with little to nothing written. I still have the old word docs, but nothing has been added to them. Looking at it, it became another generic fantasy "save the world mission" kind of story, which I didn't want to do. Sure, it had a few twists in it with characters, but nothing I considered great enough to make it a great story. And so it is left unwritten.
Here I am again, after satisfying a need to draw a girl named "Sparrow", I wanted to do more "bird" characters. And I wanted to give them a story. One week, and nothing has come to mind. A hitman type story, with assassin-type characters in a dark gritty world? No, that's been done and I don't have enough confidence in myself to pull it off. I also considered more generic-type stories, such as a manga-studio group, as well as a highschool story, but nothing appeased my mind. So here I am left with characters I consider beautiful in my mind with no outlet to place them in, nowhere for them to shine and say "Here I am! What do you think?" Sadly, I think they might remain in the shadows of my cerebellum for a long time. Maybe even forever.

"That helmet covers a multitude of sins"

So I have failed both my MPRE and Bar Exam, meaning I will have to retake them within the next 2-3 months. My score was a 622, and the pass mark is 665. I've cried all I can already, but it hasn't helped me get motivated to restart the mind-numbing hours of studying all over again. Doing a few practice tests (like 3 altogether in the past 5 days) has verified that nothing is wrong with my brain and that I simply don't test well under such extreme conditions. However, it doesn't help me figure out what I did wrong and what I should do differently in my studies.
Finally finished Halo 2 in our Halo-series replay, and it's always been my favourite of the three because Keith David is in it and I always enjoy stories from an alternate perspective that no one ever expects. Just one more to go and I can get back to finishing Bioshock.
Star Trek movie was pretty awesome, and I loved all the nuances and homages they paid to the original series. Bad science aside, the effects were really well done and was completely surprised by that...one scene that I will not mention for spoilers-sake. Kirk will never be my favourite character, and the movie further established that.
Now if only my mother could stop bugging me about the god-damned wedding.

"Income tack?"

So yesterday was my 27th birthday; after so many, it doesn't start to feel much different. I got some pretty cool presents, like a Johji mugg from Sean, and the huge basket of assorted food from my parents filled with a Klingon-buttload of stuff. Other than that, I think other people completely forgot. ^^;
Invitations are still not finished, and they're starting to become more of a hassle than they're worth. I don't have the motivation to get up and do anything anymore, coupled with the feeling that I don't think I'm worth my weight in salt to get hired by a firm.