Saturday, January 31, 2004--Hey, do you like it better when I talk about concrete things or abstract things on my website? You know, should I talk about my thoughts? Or should I talk about what I did? Somehow, I think both will be pretty boring, because I don't do much and I don't really think, except about my Creations.
Ah, but there will be some content to read today. Today, I played the best MTG game I've played in years... best as in not boring and highly involved... but before I tell you about that, I have other things to talk about.
A Year Ago Today: Franklin and I shatter the Rubix Cube while cheating.
Heh, that Rubix Cube fiasco reminds me of Tracy...
Me: I miss having you in my CS class.
Tracy: Oh. Me and my [Rubix] Cube? :)
Me: Two of the three projects in CS61B have to be done with a partner.
Me: And you're one of the few people I'd trust.
Me: Kinda selfish, isn't it?
On an unrelated note, most people use =). Nadia and I both use (=, although I think she actually came up with it first and I kinda started using it independently of her, but... meh...
Anyways, I stay home to fix Franklin's computer today. Oh, I forgot to tell you. It was
really fucked up yesterday, and Franklin was complaining tat Dad wasn't doing anything to fix it, so after spending several hours trying to figure it out how to fix it, we finally fixed it by re-installing Win98.
Yeah, and between that and MTG, I didn't really have much time to work on
Dark Fiends, but if we're really lucky, I can still get that up tonight.
Anyways, on with the MTG game. After having a
long discussion with Justin over the merits of FFA Chaos and other Multiplayer formats, I decided that I wanted to play a multiplayer format. Justin's biggest argument against FFAs is that double-teaming happens and it makes it harder for the best player to win, and he claims this is unfair.
Oh, no, on the contrary, double-teaming makes the game
more fair. If there is a guy with an uber-powerful deck, unless the other two players both attack him, he will most likely win. Now, if that's the case, then that's not fun at all, because its a pretty much guaranteed win for the uber-deck, and people
hate games where its a guaranteed win. The uncertainty--the fact that the best guy isn't guaranteed to win or that the worst guy isn't guaranteed to lose--that's what makes the Multiplayer Chaos format... well... Chaotic... and fun, too.
Also, double-teaming doesn't always happen in an FFA game. It only happens when one guy has an uber-powerful deck (or when two of the players decide to be jerks and not attack each other). Most of the time, the power difference between the decks isn't so big, so there is no obvious "most threatening" and "alliances" between players usually last no longer than a couple of turns, where player A will see that while he has been attacking player B, player C has grown too strong, so he attacks player C instead.
In this scenario, double-teaming would not play a huge role in the game. If anything, each player should be on the receiving end of the double team a roughly equal amount.
In short, double-teaming only plays a role in FFA when the playing field is already unbalanced by a presence of an uber-deck. In this case, double-teaming serves to equalize the playing field and to allow each player a more equal chance of winning, thereby making the game both more fair and more enjoyable.
Another of Justin's big complaints of FFA is that they require mostly luck and little or no skill. That is not true! While FFA does require more luck than a duel, this is only because there are more players drawing cards. There are more things that happen outside of your control. Therefore, it is inherently more random, and therefore, require more luck.
But at the same time, it would require more skill, too, since your strategy would have to take into account more people, more cards, there are more factors to weigh when we make our decisions. Therefore, you have to think harder and pay attention more, which means, more skill involved. There are certain decisions you have to make that you don't make in a duel, such as
who to attack or if to attack at all, or try to play off one guy's spell to take advantage and hit another guy.
So yes, while it would require more luck, it would also require more
skill as well, not less.
Another one of Justin's big arguments was that FFA requires too much diplomacy rather than playing, and he points to the double-teaming of uber-decks as the example. First of all, as I have shown, double-teaming uber-decks isn't a definitive part of the Format (nor is double-teaming in general). In general, most alliances won't last longer than a few turns, and even these aren't real alliances. They are more of a temporary coincidence of interest, and more often than not, such an arrangement is more understood and never spoken. And even then, both players are ready to backstab each other at a moment's notice, since they know they ahve to do it eventually anyway. What kind of diplomacy is this? No, diplomacy is when one guy says, "If you terror that Force of Nature, I won't attack you with my Thorn Elemental," which, I hope, does not occur, because that would ruin the whole point of an FFA, players making deals.
What was most interesting was that, in one of the most bizzare FFAs I've played, two players both attacked the same target, both for the same reason, that this player they were attacking had too powerful a deck and had to be eliminated (or at least severely weakened) for the game to proceed with some sense of normalcy. However, the fourth player actively protected the third. It was in the sense that he was doing stuff that didn't benefit him at all just to help the other player. In fact, not only was he helping an opponent, he was hurting himself, because it was quite clear that should the third player survive long enough, he could easily defeat
all three players. Even if I were in that situation, the most I would do would be to just not hurt him. It would be foolish and unlike the spirit of FFA if there was real teamwork going on. And this returns to the two attackers. Each one attacked for his own reasons, and each one, although every point of damage helped both of them, only attacked only to benefit themselves, never the other player. In essence, it wasn't real teamwork, as there was no cooperation nor joint strategy. In short, we have two guys who were both attacking the uber-threat, and a third guy who protects the uber-threat at risk to himself. The first is just a coincidence of interest. The second is real teamwork, and I'm pretty sure those two players struck a deal between them.
That was definitely diplomacy.
Granted, FFA can be ruined if a couple of jerks in your group decide to team up and wipe out everyone else for no reason at all except they think it's funny. Hopefully, that's never happened to you, because no one likes the game to be run by a mafia. Fortunately, most players you meet aren't like this. Besides, back-stabbing is all too fun in FFA. Who told you to trust me in the first place, anyway?
In conclusion, I believe that FFA is simply more fun, each individual player has a more equal chance of winning. In addition, the various interaction between multiple players would make the game far more interesting and enjoyable. Any of the flaws of double-teaming are generally uncommon and only extreme cases does it become a problem.
So, tell me your take on the issue. And notice, I left the discussion rather general. I believe it applies to the FFA format of pretty much any game. Leave your responses in the
Forum.
Anyways, now to describe the actual game. It was an Emperor game. Ryan (R-G Beatdown) and I (R-G Slivers) were Emperors. Bernard (Hand-Rape) was on my left and Franklin (Counter-Control) was on my right. Justin (Goblins) was on Ryan's left, and Mark (Burns) was on Ryan's right.
In the early game, Bernard got out his Wheel Of Torture, and Franklin got out his Dreamborn Muse, so for a while, we were hurting our opponent's life
and libraries. However, Justin Incinerated the muse. Then, while Franklin and Justin got into a fight (sent Frank my slivers), Bernard was pounding away on Mark as he burned away Bernard's creatures. However, thanks to the Specters, Mark had to discard most of his good stuff and died to the Wheel.
In the meantime, Ryan got out his Goblin Sharpshooter and enchanted it with Venomous Fangs. This combo meant everything Franklin controlled dies. After pounding Franklin down to two life, I told Franklin to mana burn so that I could start eating away at Justin's life. (At this point, Franklin was helpless as Justin had but 1 Gob Token and Franklin had nothing useful. Before Franklin suicided, he took the 1 token with him, which gave me first strike against Justin, bringing him down to 5 Life.
Then came Bernard's turn. Justin had sent the Gobshooter back to Ryan, so he was in position to do heavy damage. However, when he attacked with Kamahl, Bernard Terror'ed it. Fortunately, he had a second Terror in his hand. Ryan tried to turn Bernard's lands into creatures, but when Bernard was about to Terror the Kamahl a second time, I stopped the game my asking how many of Bernard's lands he was turning into creatures, since Kamahl doesn't tap, responding is a bad idea. Fortunately, I managed to get Bernard in a position where he could destroy the Sharpshooter when it tapped, but because of his mistake, he revealed that the had a Terror, and Ryan sent the Shooter back to Justin.
(Somewhere during this time, Ryan Naturalized the Wheel.)
Fortunately, I had a back-up plan. When Justin tried to poke my guy, I bolted the Shooter. End of story. Good Riddance. Then, I proceeded to finish Justin.
Now, it was me and Bernard with 20 Life each against Ryan who had 16 Life. We believed we had already won. We were wrong. Ryan managed to play down a Thran Golem with Rancor and a Phantom Centaur, both Terror-Proof and both difficult to get rid of. Unable to break through, Ryan first killed Bernard (but not before we managed to get him down to 12 Life), then he killed me.
Final score:
0 - 12 - 0
0 - 0 - 0
All in all, it was one of the best MTG games I've played in a long time. The 6-player interaction, the fact that so much was going on at the same time that I had to worry about, the so many plays that came up over the course of the game (one of them included Franklin stealing a Wild Mongrel with Elephant Guide on it, which Justin killed with the Venomous Shooter--both the dog and the elephant). All in all, it was a good game, even though I lost. The ending was sure unexpected. Did Ryan hold back those creatures on purpose? Or is he just skilled at comebacks like these? I dunno... I'll have to view the replay.
Anyways, after further discussion, I came to see FFAs from a different point of view. Let's say that you are one really skilled player, so skilled that your casual group is afraid of you no matter what deck you play. Then, if you play FFA with your friends, they will double team you out of fear, no matter what, and because of this fear, they often overdo it, ending up in an gang ass-kicking for the talented player, and it isn't fun, because he's often wiped out before he's had a chance to play, and he finds that not very fun.
I suppose the FFA format is a lot more complicated to fix than simply switching a sub-par deck. The skill level of the player himself will put enough fear into the other players so that double-team is more common than my analysis suggests.
So it follows that 2v2v2 is a lot better than 3-way FFA, as it is easier to balance, but it requires
way too many people that it's difficult to get working.
So, between me and Justin, we combined the interaction aspects of FFA and the "fairness" aspects of Portal Multiplayer to get an intermediate that was acceptable to us both. For some reason, it is suprisingly similar to one variation of Melee. I suppose that's how Melee evolved... how interesting. We should try it next time. Heh... I believe we have solved the FFA problem.
Anyways...
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 3 = 9
It's getting uber-late. Sorry, but
Dark Fiends will have to wait until tomorow.
Wow... long entry. Good Night!
Friday, January 30, 2004--Hmm... hey, when was that State of the Union. I forgot to read it. Oh, well. It's prolly not worth reading anyway... or is it?
A Year Ago Today:
- Cacophony Symphony
- Stephanie Shih: Don't ever call me Stephie!
- "Apparently, I just offered to learn Tae Kwan Do from Carrie Nguyen. First, I got to learn how to spell it." ...I dunno what it means either.
CS61B Discussion... I fell asleep.
During my
seven-hour break, I got
really ahead on my homework... but I think I'll just fall back again when the weekend rolls around.
I also wrote some RP stuff for
Avalanche Online. Amusing...
CS61B Lecture... I fell asleep again. Heh, is today Fall-Asleep-in-CS Day?
After dinner at the Crossroads, I worked on
Dark Fiends, but didn't have time to finish before Mom showed up and gave me a ride back home.
I home, I had a talk with Dad late into the night about computers and technology and computer programming and why my computer sucks and why I don't need an uber-computer. Because of that, I didn't have time to finish and put up
Dark Fiends, so I went to bed without doing anything.
Same as yesterday, no betting...
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 4 = 7
'Tis the end of the night. Therefore, as a Knight, I bid you Farewell and Good Night!
(I used a similar ending a year ago today, FYI.)
Good Night!
Thursday, January 29, 2004--This entry is long over-due because I have been busy.
A Year Ago Today: "There was nothing going on between me and Tiffany." "Are you sure?"
Also, I've added the proper references to Kellie and Steph H for their birthdays below.
Anyways... Physics 7C Lecture...
EE40 Lecture...
Lunch break & doing homework...
Math 55...
History 160... Hey, for all of you who know what the Gold Standard is, let's talk about it in the
Forum. The basic idea of the Gold Standard is that the value of the currency would stay fixed and be set equal to a certain weight of gold. (In the late 1800's, $20 = 1 oz. of gold.) Because of this, governments had very limited fiscal and monetary powers (so someone like Bush couldn't pull a spending spree like this), but since the value of the dollar would stay stable, it would attract foreign investment because of our stable currency, which is a good thing. Personally, I think the Gold Standard (or perhaps a variation of it) would be a good idea for today's economy. What do you think?
After dinner, I went fencing. After some drills, I fenced Tyler, who had a bad
en garde. He held his too low and too close to the center (instead of to the right and held about chest-high). First, I beat his blade inward and attacked (which is something that most people wouldn't be susceptible to when they have a correct
en garde), and the attack landed. Next...
Me: You're
en garde is a bit low. *I beat his blade downward and attack and hit him in the head.*
Tyler: Point taken.
Me: Sorry. I was aiming for the chest.
Then, I fenced Chris, our resident Tae Kwan Do Fencer. (Me to Belinda: "Hey, Wu Shu Fencer, meet Tae Kwan Do Fencer.") He does incorporate a seemingly Asian martial art style in his fencing. One time, as I attacked, he jumped off the side of the strip and hit me in mid-air. An unexpected move, that's for sure, but as to how good it is? That is still to be debated.
On my way back to the dorm, Anton tells me that I'm getting skilled, and that my low-line attacks are deadly and extremely fast. To paraphrase him, first, I'm up here, then suddenly, out of nowhere, my blade is down there. He also says I should work on my upper body strength with lots of push-ups. Hmm...
Anyways, I finished up my Physics homework and went to bed.
There will be no betting on the dice today, since it was highly delayed.
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 2 = 5
Tired... tiered... Good Night!
Wednesday, January 28, 2004--
Happy Birthday to Steph H!
A Year Ago Today: I wrote my infamous "Theory of Conservation of Love and Hate" article in my journal, basically telling about how fucked up my life was.
Today, I will write a (somewhat) response to it, and we'll looked at what's changed since then.
First, though, some dream analysys (thanks to Alex J for letting me bounce my thoughts off him). The Kim-hostage dream I described yesterday reminded me of a dream I had a
long time ago, except that dream involved a gun instead of a knife and Connie instead of Kim. The gist of it was that I was trying to sneak into this one building, and every 5 seconds or, they added another guard, so it became increasingly harder for me to get to my goal (which I don't remember). So, as a last ditch effort, I grab Connie and put a gun to her head, and I tell her that if she screams, I will kill her. Connie replies that if I don't let her go, she'll scream anyway, and even if I do kill her, the guards will undoubtedly hear us and they'll get me and probably execute me, and I wouldn't want that. Unfortunately, I can't remember how I resolved that dilemma... It was very similar to the story of the Clam and the Seagull.
The Story of the Clam and the Seagull. One day, a seagull was hungry and he saw on the beach a clam who had its shell open, so the seagull flew down to eat it, but just as its beak entered the clam's shell, the clam shut its shell and clamped down on the seagull's beak. Now, with the weight of the clam on his beak, the seagull couldn't fly nor eat, and as long as the clam had its shell grasping onto the seagull, it couldn't move or eat either. The seagull pointed out that unless the clam opened its shell and let the seagull go, both would undoubtedly starve to death. However, the clam didn't trust the seagull, so it remained clamped on the seagull's beak, and they both ended up starving to death. (I think this was one of Aesop's fables...?)
So... yeah, in my dream, I was caught in a Clam & Seagull dilemma.
Alex and I were thinking... the thing I was trying to steal was probably my Happiness, because I wanted to be happy, even if I had to take it by force. However, the fact that I couldn't ever get my hands on the Happiness probably reflects my extreme frustration at not being able to be happy. (Cindy, perhaps?) Kim/Connie's involvement probably means that I was so obsessed with the idea of Happiness that I was willing to hurt her just to reach it. The Clam & Seagull dilemma probably means that unless I was willing to let go (like the Clam), I would end up getting both me
and Kim/Connie hurt in the process.
So... yeah, I have learned to let go. After my confrontation with Kim during the last few days of the Fall 2003 semester, I was able to let go. To quote what I wrote in my AIM Profile, "I've learned to not care." I've decided that Happiness is not worth fretting over. When it's my time to be happy, it will come to me on its own, and then, I shouldn't have to use too much effort to reach for it. Until then, I will be content with playing computer games and stuff.
Unfortunately, me not caring is an ideal, and there are a few slip-ups. Now that Berkeley has resumed, I am once again near Kim, and I can't believe how nicely she is still treating me
despite what we went through last semester...
And everytime she says Hi to me, I am reminded of the frustration I had last semester... Sometimes I wish that I had never met that girl...
I'm quite certain she knows that already (I already told her myself).
Sometimes, in order to move on, you have to forget. You have to emotionally unattach yourself. It's difficult, but in the long run, it's a lot less painful...
The keys on this keyboard are getting heavy again...
Post in my
Forum your response to all these thoughts.
End Philosophical Tangent.
CS61B Lab...
Diana: Dwayne, you want to be my partner this lab?
Me: Well... I already finished... but, okay.
Math 55 Discussion... I just realized I forgot to turn in my homework... shit!
After lunch break and reading for History 160, I went to sell a math book to Steve (the other one). Then, I went to CS61B Lecture.
Damn... Crossroads was
hella full at dinner today. I saw a Maria look-alike... She's not as good-looking as the real thing, though.
I tried calling Melo, but I got her answering machine, then her roommate... DAMN!
Anyways... that's all I really wanted to say today. Ehh.... Good--
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 4 = 9
Night!
Tuesday, January 27, 2004--Last night, I had a really random dream. The gist of it was that Kim and Tracy and some other random people were assigned to guard this thing (I don't remember what the thing was, though). Anyways, I sneak into the room, but I can't get close enough to the thing, so I grab Kim from behind and put a knife to her neck and hold her hostage. So I grab the thing with Kim as my hostage, and on my way out, I get attacked by Tracy, whom I kick aside. Then, I escape.
As a final note, even though it was a random dream, I am compelled to say... "Sorry Kim! Sorry Tracy!"
A Year Ago Today: The encounter with Diane in the Library... Linda overexaggerates Diane's behavior while I'm not looking...
Physics 7C Lecture...
EE40 Lecture... Prof Sanders is out of town, so we had a substitute Prof instead.
EE40 Lab... I finished early, so I managed to get some
Lunch at the Crossroads...
Math 55 Lecture...
History 160 Lecture...
So... that was my 9-hour day of consecutive classes.
After eating dinner at the Crossroads, I worked on
Dark Fiends. Then, I went fencing.
Fencing was rather uneventful today, but we voted for the Fencing Club officers. Zach won Prez by default, as did Elvira winning Secretary by default. Then, I had a nice long chat with Belinda about EECS classes and stuff...
On my way back, I ran into Winnie (my friend from Physics 7B), who came up to my room for a while. Then, she had to go because she technically ditched her friends to come up with me, and she had to go
un-ditch her friends. Heh, okay.
No Dice Roll tonight because I'm f~~~ing tired. So... umm... Good Night! May you have sweet dreams!
Monday, January 26, 2004--
Happy Birthday, Kellie!!!
Wow... I'm so ahead on my homework it's not even funny... actually, it is funny.
Math 55 Discussion...
Physics 7C Discussion... I'm in the same section as that girl whose name I forget, but she was in my section last semester for Physics 7B.
EE40 Discussion... I fell asleep... Zzzz...
CS61B Lecture... wow... this stuff is so boring... I know most of it already. I
am a Sun-Certified Java Programmer, after all.
On my way out of Pimentel, I ran into Joyce, and we decided to go to Foothill for dinner, but then she said that she was meeting something else... all this stuff I don't really remember... and that we should eat dinner together some other day. Ah, whatever... No big deal.
After dinner, I went fencing. After a
lot of drills (and after failing to get both Tracy
and Kim to join fencing), I fenced Eugene and lost. Then, I fenced Anton and... I suppose I won, but no one was keeping score. Anton says that I've improved, but I think it might also partly be that Anton has been fencing Saber for so long that he's gotten rusty at foil. *shrig*
Anyways, it's getting late.
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 3 = 6
I'm tired... Good... Night...
!
Sunday, January 25, 2004--There are so many creative energies swimming in my brain. That's why this entry will seem rushed.
Today, I posted
Dark Fiends Chapter 49. I promise, Chapter 50 will be a good chapter.
I also played FFX-2, and I have plenty of comments for the mini-games.
At first Gunner's Gauntlet seemed kind of hard, but then, after a little practice and mashing the O button to target off-screen enemies, it became pretty easy to avoid all those enemies and get a long chain.
Same with Sphere Break. It's hard at first. It's nearly impossible to beat those Level 3 Core Spheres. ...until you get an Echo Coin, which suddenly lets you beat Level 5 Core Sphere without a problem. I like Echo. It's cool!
Calibrating the Lightning Rod Towers... it's fun for a while. It's a good mini-game in the sense of the term "mini-game" (although not as good as FF7 mini-games), but it easily gets repetitive like dodging the Lightning Bolts in FFX. Lucky for me, I only have to do 30 in a row instead of 200 and I can mess up twice before I lose.
I also did my laundry, and now, I want to revive VidWorks Entertainment and work out the details of Demons... a new version in Java. I've scrapped the MegaZeux version.
Speaking of which...
Computer Graphic Artists needed! I need someone enjoys making sprites! Please contact me at AIM SN Viltris. Thank you.
Today will be the last Limerick as from now on, I will devote my energies to VidWorks Entertainment. Forgive me, all you Limerick buffs. I will still post guest Limericks every Sunday Night, though, if people keep sending them to me.
Limerick Time!
This one is contributed by my good friend Joyce Lai.
There once was a horrible fat witch,
Who one day fell in a ditch,
When she fell in,
She couldn't get thin,
And died with a horrible itch.
Now,
this is a good Limerick.
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 3 = 5
Oh, dear...
Another one?!?!?
Anyways, Alan is nagging me to get on B.Net, so Good Night!
Saturday, January 24, 2004--I worked on
Dark Fiends all day. Chapter 49
should be up tomorrow.
Mmm... Brunch at Crossroads...
I also watched Cal VS UCLA Basketball game. We hella won, although during the middle of the game, UCLA lead by one point and we were worried.
Other than that, nothing else to say. Hehehe...
Limerick Time!
One day, a Shaolin monk
Met this annoying punk.
They got in a fight.
The monk showed much might,
But the kid smashed him with a box of junk.
If it weren't for the fact that that last line is about twice as long as it should, it'd be a good Limerick.
Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 4 = 5
Let there be Dark and let there be Light. 'Tis no longer Day, so I say Good Night!
Friday, January 23, 2004--When I woke up in the morning, I went to my CS61B Discussion, where I met a second-year Cog Sci student named Diana, and we did an exercise in Language to show that English is ambiguous, which is why we don't program in English.
But PERL is lot like English... "Open file or die!"
Then, I had a 7 hour break because there is no Physics 7C Lab today, which would have been from 2-5.
CS61B Lecture...
After dinner at Crossroads, I played some Diablo II. My new spear barb is now at Act 4, Normal, about to kill Diablo.
Hmmm... that's all.
Limerick Time!
Today on Limerick Time, we'll feature a guest Limerick by Kim Hung.
"there once was a lady named Jane
they thought she was pretty insane
she went up to the cliff
and yelled 'I love JIF'
That was the story of jane"
It's just too bad that I already rhymed "Dwayne" with "insane". Oh, well.
Anyways, keep sending in those Limericks! Dwayne's original Limericks will continue tomorrow, unless he is too tired from... I don't know what he would be doing...
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 3 = 5
"I still think of her as my [name censored]." Good Night!
Thursday, January 22, 2004--
Happy Chinese New Year Hehehe...
Physics 7C Lecture...
EE40 Lecture...
Lunch at the Crossroads...
Math 55 Lecture... Prof was mad because no one told him that he accidentally let us out 30 minutes early.
History 160 Lecture...
Dinner at the Crossroads...
Dark Fiends Chapter 48 will be up tomorrow. Things would have to get
really fucked up in order to prevent that.
I went fencing today. There were newbies. Excellent, newbies are good.
Also, I'm trying to get Kim to join fencing so that I can stab her. Hehehe...
Anyways, since it's really late and I'm tired, there will be no Limerick and no Dice Roll tonight.
So... umm... Good Night!
Wednesday, January 21, 2004--I woke up early in the morning only to discover that CS61B Lab is non-existent this morning... damn! If only I had been at lecture so that they would tell me these things, except lecture doesn't begin until 5pm today!
Then, at 10am, I went to my Math Discussion, which was uneventful because we just started learning stuff.
During lunch at the Crossroads, I ran into Ryan and Mark, who was apparently showing Maria around Crossroads or something.
Me: Hi.
Maria: Hi.
Me: *thinks*Wow... I actually heard that this time.*thinks*
Yes, Maria is a lot more vocal now. No more having to guess at what she's saying. Apparently, she's undeclared & undecided, and she lives in Clark Kerr. Well, that answers the question of "I wonder where Maria is living," even though that technically wasn't a question.
I also went to sell a book to Nadia and buy a book off Vick Copy.
Anyways, at 5pm, I went to my CS61B Lecture, and to my horror, I realized we needed to do some
group projects. AAUUUGGHH!!!!!
I'll be all right.
Dinner with Mark and Ryan in an extra-crowded Crossroads...
*sigh*...
Limerick Time!
Two old friends met at school,
Which they thought was really cool.
"Haven't seen in so long!"
"That's a nice thong!"
Then, she impaled him with a tool.
This is an "LOL WTF?!?" Limerick.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 3 = 9
"Erk." --Bernard
"Good Night!" --Dwayne
Tuesday, January 20, 2004--Today is the first day of Spring 2004 Semester at Berkeley. My Tuesdays consist of a 9-hour long gauntlet of continuous classes without breaks... ugh...
First up was early morning Physics 7C Lecture at 8am. Battaglia has a more difficult accent than Luk. I suppose this year's early morning Physics will turn out like last year's, except there's no Winnie around. It's just me and David now...
Then, I went to EE40 Lecture at 9:30. It wasn't too bad. Lucky for me, Labs don't start until
next week, so
yay, I
do have a break today.
From 11 until 2, when I was supposed to have my non-existent EE40 Lab, I had lunch and went online and stuff.
At 2pm, I went to my Math 55 Class, which is about Logic & Proofs and interesting stuff like that. Hey, did you know that the statement, "if it is Friday today, then 2+3=5" is true? Same with "if 1+1=3, then god exists". LOL, it's so amusing...
And Professor Demmel let us out half an hour early because for some reason, he thought the class was from 2-3 instead of from 2-3:30. LOL... he'll prolly find out before Thursday's lecture, though...
Then, in the
exact same room, I had my History 160 Lecture, a lecture about the the World Economy since 1913. It's a class on economic history, which has some history and some economics, but not quite that much of both.
However, since this is from the
History department, it's mainly history.
Dinner at the Crossroads... they re-arranged the place...
Worked on
Dark Fiends...
I went Fencing today. I was both out of shape and out of practice, but I had fun. I still remember enough to
stab people. Yeehaw! Unfortunately, my skill set is rather small, so I run out of moves really quickly and my opponents learn to read me... Hopefully, I can get in 5 points and win the bout before that happens. Normally when I practice, though, I fence for about 20 points or so since we don't keep track. We just pratice.
I fenced Yanmin (lefty), Neil, Eugene, Mark, and Belinda. I intend to fence every regular fencer in the club over the next few weeks, including Zack, Elvira, and Christina. I prolly won't win, but it'll be good practice!
Anyways, there will be no limerick nor dice roll tonight as it's past midnigt and I'm trying to get the new
Dark Fiends up before I get to bed. Good Night, everyone!
Emma: Good Night, Dwayne.
Me: I said, "everyone" not "Emma".
Emma: Well, Good Night anyway.
Me: Uhh... Good Night, Emma.
Monday, January 19, 2004--Today, after waking up and packing and eating at Ariake Sushi, we headed back to Berkeley.
Upon arrival, I visited Steve & Irwin and Jen Tiff & Stacy. Then, I went to look at book prices and saw Tracy at the bookstore, so I said "Hi." On my way back, I saw Maria, but I was confused, so I missed the opportunity to say "Hi" to her. Oh, well. I'll talk to her some other day. I mean, she's here for the whole semester... yo!
Then, I met Amy under the Clock Tower to trade books with her and walked with her as far as my dorm before we split up so she could go hit the Den. Her hair is getting
long!
Then, I had dinner with Joyce at Foothill. Then, I visited Mark & Ryan and played some MTG. Ryan's stasis deck is incredibly annoying... which makes it powerful!
All in all, it was good to visit my Cal people again. Woot!
Limerick Time!
The student bought some books,
But neglected to remove the hooks.
They spiked his thumb
And made it numb,
So he couldn't keep studying with the cooks.
Hehe... amusing.
If I'm not dead tired from my 9-hour day of classes tomorrow,
Dark Fiends Chapter 47 will be up tomorrow. Yay!
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 3 = 8
I have to wake up early tomorrow, so I have to go to sleep early tonight... so... Good Night!
Sunday, January 18, 2004--Today, when I woke up, I had to help Franklin to study his Chemistry and Japanese &c.
Then, for some odd reason, my dad wanted to release our fish into Almaden Lake. I refused to be involved, so I wasn't there when it happened. ...Poor fish.
Also, Bernard and Kellie came to our place so that their parents could play the Chinese equivalent of Poker...
And we watched several Naruto episodes.
Anyways, if all goes well, the new
Dark Fiends chapter will be up tomorrow. (The probability of this happening is around 25%...)
Limerick Time!
There once was a man
Who played with a frying pan.
He burned down his house
And found a mouse
And lived with him in a garbage can.
LOL, that was amusing... ridiculous, but amusing.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 5 = 11
LOL, WTF?!? (6, 5)
again?!?
Anyways, I return to Berkeley tomorrow. I have plans... excellent plans... excellent plans that are, um, excellent.
Good Night!
Saturday, January 17, 2004--First, I put up
Dark Fiends Chapter 46. Yay!
Second, I played lots of FFX-2... trying to get that 100% completion, ya know?
...in retrospect, FFX-2 isn't that great a game. Too many side-quests!
Other than that... hmm...
Limerick Time!
The thinker sat in thought.
There's an answer which he sought,
But something was wrong.
It's taking too long.
How do I get rid of this dot.
Okay, that one kinda sucked.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 5 = 11
LOL...
Good Night!
Friday, January 16, 2004--In FF7, I got the date with Yuffie! *7*
On the gondola ride, Yuffie spent most of the time looking out the window and Cloud never said a word... it was boring. Then, Yuffie got up kissed Cloud on the cheek because she "just felt like doing that."
Yuffie: Oh, come on, say something!!!
Cloud: ...something.
LOL!!!*7*
On my way home from McDonald's, I saw a dead possum on the road... so I went around it. Don't want to be running over no roadkill.
I also played FFX-2, but there's not much to say about FFX-2...
Hmm... there's not much more to say. I'll be working on
Dark Fiends... hopefully...
Limerick Time!
Some warriors of the brave
Were attacked by a foul knave.
With claws she stung
And with a poisoned tongue,
She sent these knights to their grave.
Hmm... that's a weird one. I dunno what to make of it. It's decent, though.
Anyways, Franklin's playing FF7, trying to beat Ruby Weapon with neither Mimic nor Knights of the Round. I personally think it cannot be done. Ruby's armor is simply too tough.
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 4 = 9
*yawn* ...Good Knight!
Thursday, January 15, 2004--I have an
addendum to yesterday.
An AIM convo...
l: yea. maybe i'll make a bracelet
Viltris: a bracelet?
Viltris: did i miss something?
l: i dunno, dwayne. did you?
Viltris: i dunno
Viltris: would i ask if i already knew the answer?
l: i dunno. would you?
Heh...
Also, I played some FF7. Oh, the power of Added Effect-Choco/Mog! I'll post more details when I actually succeed in beating the game at ridiculously (well, not
that ridiculous) low levels.
I also played some FFX-2. Paine's Special Dress Sphere is good, but not as good as Rikku's... in my opinion.
I also worked on
Dark Fiends. Hopefully, I can finish the new chapter before schoolwork at Berkeley catches up with me.
Speaking of Berkeley, I wonder what happened to Melody? I haven't seen her since last year... Be quiet, Nadia.
Anyways, that's all I have to say.
Limerick Time!
First of all, I'm going to reprint the Limerick I wrote on December 16, 2003...
"Limericks are back? What the fuck?
I thought I told you, they suck!"
Thus Alan would claim.
He thinks they're real lame,
But I think they're worth more than a buck.
And now, for an alternate, slightly more offensive one...
"Limericks are back? What the fuck?
I thought I told you, they suck!
They suck dick!
You'll never get a chick
If you keep writing this muck!"
I'll write a more light-hearted, more traditional Limerick some other day. You know the thing about limericks, the less serious they are the better.
I'm going to hold a Limerick Contest. Send in your best Limericks (or your crappiest... I don't care). The best submissions will get guest appearances on my website in
Limerick Time! Heh, I just announced it and I already have one submission.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 3 = 9
LOL, not
this again.
Joanna once called it the Daily Dice Roll... same diff. I wonder if she still reads my Journal. Somehow, I doubt it.
Anyways, Good Night!
Wednesday, January 14, 2004--When I woke up in the morning, I played some FF7. When you're underlevelled, that game is
seriously hard. It's especially difficult to get Vincent because you're at such a low level that the boss the blocks him can kill you in two quick hits. Sucks, doesn't it? And also, even the random enemies are dealing quite a good bit of damage to my chars. Heh, but don't mind me. I'm purposely beating the game underlevelled because I like the challenge... although it's still nowhere as hard as FF5.
A Year Ago Today: The Fairy Dream... in this world, fairies fly around. Instead of little insect wings, they have brown bird wings. If you catch one, you're supposed to get good fortune, get rich and have your dreams come true and stuff. A poor little boy waves his hand, trying to catch this one fairy that flies by, but he misses. Somehow, the fairy flies into his arm, injures herself, and lands in his hands. The fairy has a broken wing. She's moaning in pain. Instead of asking for his riches, the little boy decides to take care of the fairy, help her until her wing gets better... it was quite a touching dream...
When I went to go pick up my brother today from the tennis courts, I saw Cindy! Now, there's a face I haven't seen in a while.
So today, I worked on a Resume that my mom wants me to write for applying for a summer job. Ehh... okay. Wish me luck! I have skillz, but no experience.
I also did a little work on
Dark Fiends.
I also played some Diablo II and some MTG against Justin. His improved Goblin deck can now beat mine... by burning away all my Slivers... damn!
Other than that, there's not much more to say.
Limerick Time!
A little fairy flies around.
She injures herself and hits the ground.
Helped by a child,
She tames her wild.
No story more lovely can be found.
...
Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 5 = 6
Now Listening To: Cid's Theme - FF7.
Good Night!
Tuesday, January 13, 2004--Today, I woke up early in the morning so that I could make a trip to Berkeley to make some preliminary drop-offs and buy new books. Speaking of books, remind me to talk to Nadia. I also ran into Steve from next door and Tiffany from across the hall. I also reclaimed my pillow from my dorm.
I wonder who Kim's new roommate is?
I wonder where Maria is?
On our way home, we ate at Hot Pot City, which was good... except the soda machine was fucked.
When I got home, I decided to play some FFX-2.
Then, after eating pizza for dinner, I came online and did stuff... crappy stuff... something...
Anyways...
Limerick Time!
Jenny played a song
On the piano, but hit a wrong
Note, so her dad
Got really mad
And made her switch to the gong.
Now
that's a good limerick. Heh, it even makes use of breaking lines in the middle of phrases.
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 5 = 10
Hehehe... excellent... wait, no... never mind.
Anyways, Good Night! I shall return... eventually...
So many ellipses...
Monday, January 12, 2004--Today, I worked on the
Dark Fiend storyline ...a lot!
I also played some FF7. Wow... the game sure is harder when you're under-levelled and not using any attack magic. Incidentally, FF7 also has two of the longest songs in FF history. First is the FF7 Disc One World Map song. The second is One-Winged Angel.
Hmm... that's actually about it for today. Heh.
Limerick Time!
The gamblers play their cards.
One has an Ace of Hearts.
Another plays Joker.
"We're playing poker!"
And they beat him up with their guards.
Ehh... it could be worse.
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 2 = 4
Short short short short short entry.
Good Night!
Sunday, January 11, 2004--Quote of the Time Period: "He was framed for a murder he
never commited!"
...as opposed to being framed for the murder he
did commit. "Yeah, I killed her...
but I was framed!!!" LOL, WTF?
Today's not very eventful. Last night, Franklin was playing FFX Blitzball, and I noticed something amusing. To quote what I wrote on
Avalanche Online Forums:
"One of the most amusing Techs I've ever seen is one called Gamble.
I was watching my bro play, and he was playing Blitzball against the Al Bhed team, and they had Rin. So my bro manages to put Rin to sleep with Nap Tackle. Then, one of the Al Bhed hits Rin with the ball to wake him up, and suddenly, these numbers appear, and Rin's stats get randomized, making his Endurance and Shoot stats GODLY high. My bro's first reaction was, 'Whoa! Rin just went Super Saiyan, or something.' Then, the Al Bhed team managed to get the ball to Rin. Needless to say, Rin single-handedly broke through all of the Auroch defenses and scored with a shot so high, it was literally impossible to catch.
It was highly amusing.
Granted, Gamble isn't the best of abilities, but when it works, it's pretty amazing."
Today, Franklin played more FFX Blitzball. To quote again what I wrote on AO Forums:
"You want to know an example of HORRIBLE AI? Granted, this is from the original FFX, but I've played enough FFX-2 Blitzball to know that the Blitzball AI isn't too different... unless it's purposely stupid the first 5-6 Blitzball games I play just to force me to devote more time and energy into Blitzball until my characters stop swimming around in circles... which sucks.
Anyway, here's the example:
My bro was playing Blitzball. The Aurochs were leading 2-0, and the opposing team's forward used Nap Shot and put to sleep the Aurochs Goalie. ...Then, he manages to get a guy to bring the ball RIGHT IN FRONT OF the goal post with a decently high kick (it was the high-scoring forward of the season, for heaven's sake!) there was only ONE guy defending with pretty low block. The goalie was ASLEEP. Any FFX Player with an IQ greater than 10 would know immediately that the correct play would be to shoot and get a pretty much guaranteed goal.
Instead, the AI decides to pass the ball all the way back to mid-field, where the mid-fielder is promptly sac'ed and the opposing team loses possession.
Well, obviously, the AI has an IQ of less than 10.
And it's these kinds of shitty plays that I'm forced to endure that ruin FFX-2 for me.
(Which reminds me--another way to make the original Blitzball harder is to improve the AI... and if they did that, they'd also improve the new Blitzball a great deal, too, and maybe full-AI control wouldn't be so bad.)"
Then, I played some FF2. (In case we have some newcomers, anytime I do this, it means there's a game spoiler. Highlight the text to read, but read at your own risk. I am not to be held accountable if I spoil your game.) *2*
I fought my way down the Jade Passage and into Pandaemonium. It was a long walk. The Jade Passage is 6 Floors, and Pandaemonium is 10 Floors. On the 5th and 6th Floors of Pandaemonium, though, there are 4 Treasure Chests with 4 mini-bosses. The first chest I opened, I encountered Zombie Borghen, which was a pushover, and I won the Genji Gloves. The second chest had Tiamat in it (yes, the Fiend of Air), and beating him nailed me the Genji Helmet. Then, I opened a box to reveal Beelzebub, a little insect dude, whom I slayed pretty quickly for the Genji Armor. However, the fourth chest had a hard boss. Astaroth, the Dark Angel. She hits me so hard that she can kill one of my chars in one hit, and added to that, when she hits me, she drains back all the damage she dealt, so basically, the whole battle, I was racing to see if I could do damage to her faster than she could drain off of me. Lucky for me, she casted a lot of spells when she wasn't draining. It was a decently tough battle.
I couldn't find Masamune. Damn...
On the 10th and final floor of the game, I faced the undead Emperor. Damn, he was hard. Like Astaroth, he kept draining me for life. Unlike Astaroth, my weapons did nothing to him, which means that for every 1000 damage I do to him, he hits me and drains 2500 HP back, so he was at full HP the whole time. I managed to survive a long time, but there was no way I could win.
Finally, on my second try, I used a Blood Sword and kicked his ass. That Blood Sword makes the final boss way too easy. Franklin watched both battles, and when he saw me use the Blood Swords and kill the Emperor in two hits, he was like "Holy shit! That's it?!?" Heh... no fun at all.
The ending wasn't that great, but it was better than FF7's ending. Then again, FF7 had a really good storyline that made you anticipate a good storyline, only to show you pretty much nothing. It was a huge disappointment. FF2's ending was pretty bad, but at least the game didn't make me expect anything. In fact, after FF1's performance, I wasn't expecting much, so I guess I can't say it was disappointing.*2*
For those of you who did not read the spoiler text, I beat FF2. I did not get 100% in the game--not even close. However, I don't feel like going for 100%, because that means starting a new game, which I don't feel like doing anytime soon. As you will read in the below excerpts from my AO Forum post, FF2 was not that great of an FF:
"First of all, it suffers from the same major flaw that FF1 does: Lack of save points! Of course, with memo save, it's not that big a deal, but it's still annoying because tents are now next to worthless. I desperately need to heal up mid-dungeon and I have NOTHING, so I got no choice but to warp out, heal up, and start over and hope I'm strong enough to make it through next time.
Second, as to the levelling system, in general, it makes the game more balanced, but the system can be (and quite often is) abused. I only had to level up the cheap way just once, when I simply could not walk the entire distance on the world map all the way to the Dreadnought and seriously needed more strength. All in all, the levelling system would have been good, if they were to have fixed it so that people can't abuse it like that.
Of course, one thing I didn't like was how most of the combat in this game was 1-dimensional. It all came down to equipping everyone with a pair of good weapons and just hacking and slashing all your enemies to death, and this strategy even worked on all the bosses except the first and the last! For about 95% of the game, magic and items were completely useless in battle, except Cure and Life. Every enemy and boss could be beaten either with fists, swords, or axes.
So then, when you get to the final boss, you STILL have level 1 magic (except cure) because you never expected to have to USE any of it. Unfortunately, the final boss is SO HARD, that it's almost impossible to beat without high-level magic. (Actually, I wouldn't know, because I never had high-level magic.) He has 10,000 HP. My physical attacks do about 100 damage. And if that wasn't bad enough, the final boss likes to smack one of my characters, kill him in ONE HIT, then proceed to DRAIN all that HP, healing him for about 25% of his own HP... so for most of the battle, the final boss was at full Health and I was dying. (Considering what I had to work with, I'd say this boss is harder than both Emerald and Ruby Weapons from FF7.)
Of couse, gameplay issues aside, I liked FF2's storyline. Heh, it's the first FF with a decent story... I liked the characters, especially Gareth.
It's not a bad game, but it's certainly not good either. I would say that it's the worst of all the FF's that I've played.
On an unrelated note, I'm looking forward to when SquareEnix release FF3 in the US. Job System, yo!"
Hmm... I think I should post up my review of each of the FF games I've played... but not tonight. It's getting pretty late into the night, but for the record...
Square games I liked: FF5, FFTactics, FF4, FF6, FF9, Chrono Trigger.
FF games I would not want to play through a second time: FF1, FF2.
The NES-era FFs were good in their own right, but they're not the style I'm used to. I liked the SNES FFs the best, and gameplay-wise FFTactics and FF9 were both similar to SNES era FFs. Although Chrono Trigger wasn't an FF, it was still a good Square game.
Anyways, I have one last thing that I posted on AO Forums that I want to share with you:
"You now how people are saying Tidus is actually pronounced Teedus because that's his Japanese name?
Well, guess what? In FFX-2, Paine's Japanese name is actually pronounced like 'Pine' (In Japanese, PA-I-N be pronounced to what would be equivalent to 'pine', although not exactly, but it's a close enough approximation.)
So using the 'Japanese name' logic, Paine should have been translated as 'Pine', and that should have been her name.
Now, we can come to either of one conclusions:
(1) 'What the fuck? Square mistranslated Pine's name! What's wrong with them? Can't they read Japanese?'
OR
(2) 'Hmm... Since Japanese names don't matter, maybe Tidus might be pronounced Tide-us, like how most people pronounce it.'
While we're on the topic of Japanese names, a lot of people claim that FF6's Sabin's Japanese name is Mash. Well, I played the Japanese version of the game, and, by reading the kana, one can see that in japanese, Sabin's name is Mashu (MA-SHU or MA-SHyu; it's kind of hard to get across Japanese on an American forum). The main point here is that the U in Mashu is a PRONOUNCED sound. If Sabin's Japanese name were Mash, the kana would have read 'Mashi' instead, so more likely than not, the name Mash is just an American invention (like most of FF's 'Japanese names').
Some argue that, given the kana, Sabin's Japanese name is actually Matthew, which would translate into Mashu in Japanese."
Wow... that's a lot of information on FF games.
The only other thing I want to talk about is the new Simpsons I saw today. It was amusing... Lisa and her cats... and "Oh my god! That robot has given birth to a
man!"
Other than that, that's pretty much it.
Limerick Time!
There once was a guy named Dan,
Who was skilled with the frying pan.
He fried some bacon,
But then, it was taken
By the vegetarian man.
Ah, now
that's a quality limerick.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 3 = 9
Other than that, that's pretty much it. Good Night!
Saturday, January 10, 2004--Going to Chinese School to pick up Franklin, I saw a lot of old faces that I don't remember anymore... Hmm... that sentence doesn't even make sense! Oh, well.
At KFC, we ran into little Michelle Lin. We knew her from the Grace Educational Center a
loong time ago (the same place from which we knew Katty before).
Also, I played lots of FF2 today. *2*
It turns out, by the way, that Leila is not dead. Apparently, she was thrown off the boat and returned to Fynn without us. Oh, well.
So I flew into the Cyclone--a floating fortress in the middle of the Cyclone, actually--7 Floors of madness--and managed to make it all the way to the top in one shot. There, I met the Emperor, who sent two waves of guards at me, then attacked me himself. He was pretty easy, compared to his guards. I killed him in one hit. "I will not die!" And then he dies. LOL.
Then, while celebrating at Fynn (Firion dances with Maria, hehehehe...), a soldier comes in and reports that the Dark Knight Leon (who is actually Maria's brother and the char from the beginning of the game that I lost) has crowned himself Emperor and now sits on the Throne in Palamecia Castle, and now we must go attack him. Unfortunately, Palamecia Castle is in the mountains, and I can't reach it on foot. Hilda suggests that I ask Pavel, who's reputed to have been there before, so I do. However, he doesn't give me much help ("I flew onto the roof using a kite!"), but fortunately, I see Cid.
Unfortunately, he dies. Fortunately, before he dies, he gives me the keys to his airship. Unfortunately, it's all the way at Paloom, so I have to walk a long way. Fortunately, once I get it, I never have to walk again. Woot!
So I got the airship. Then, I go to Palamecia Castle and fight up 8 floors. At the top, I find Leon, and I prepare for a boss-fight, but no, there is no boss fight. What up with that? What's the point of a major dungeon if there's not going to be a boss fight at the end of it? Instead, the Emperor comes back from Hell and reclaims the throne. In order to let us escape, Gareth sacrifices his life. Then, the Castle blows up and gets replaced by Pandaemonium, the Palace of demons.
Anyways, I gave Gareth's spears to Leon, even though at this point in the game, Leon is a lot weaker than Gareth. Oh, well. Now to get to Pandaemonium and get that Emperor. Unfortunately, apparently, the Palace that I can see is a mirage, so I can't actually enter through there. Fortunately, Hilda, Gordon, and Leila tell me about the Jade Passage, a passage that leads to Hell. I follow their instructions and find the place all right, but I think I'll call it a day and go kill that Undead Emperor later.*2*
Wow... that's a lot of stuff about FF2... fun game, really.
Anyways, um...
Limerick Time!
There once was a guy named Pete
Who just loved to eat meat.
Then, all the food
Was taken by the dude.
Oh, what a horrible horrible cheat!
Not that great, but not too bad...
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 1 = 3
Hahaha... I'm going to go work on
Dark Fiends. Good Night, y'all!
Friday, January 9, 2004--I'm officially caught up on all the
MTG.com stuff that I hadn't read. Now, it's just the new daily articles that I want to read, but I can't since they haven't been written yet. Oh, well.
On an unrelated note, on Cindy's 18th birthday, MTG.com's Wallpaper of the Week was Sliver Queen. Hmm... coincidence?
I also played some FF7.
I also played some DOA2: Hardcore. I'm trying to learn how to use Kasumi, and her comboes are actually pretty simple, but there are a lot of variations. But there's more to learning how to use a character than just learning their moves.
Franklin wanted to go driving today, so I let him go driving, but dear
Heavens he almost hit those garbage cans.
Has it ever happened to you where you're trying to write a song, and you think of something great, but when you go and play it, it sounds like something you've known before, like something you copied, and it keeps bothering you, except you can't remember what it is? Well, that happened to me today. Damn!
Hmm... this entry is fragmented funny. Let's put that in order, shall we?
- I played FF7.
- I ate lunch.
- I read MTG.com.
- I wrote some music.
- I picked up my bro and let him drive around.
- I played DOA2: Hardcore.
- I ate dinner.
- I played Diablo 2.
- Limerick Time!
Mad scientist travels through time
To atone for his personal crime.
But the answer he seek
Was simply too weak,
And he ended up in this rhyme.
Meh...
Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 6 = 7
Ouch!
Hehehehe... You know what I think?
Good Night!
Thursday, January 8, 2004--Today, I burned FF7 for Frank since he asked me so long ago but I never did, but it turns out I only need to spend 15 minutes per CD, so it was no problem at all...
I also played FF7, and I beat the first Jenova.
I also did lots of work on
Dark Fiends. Hehehe...
Hmm... I think that's pretty much it... D'oh!
I'm feeling lethargic today... I don't know why.
Limerick Time!
Sleepy Jenny takes a nap.
Little Bro starts to rap.
He says how drugs
Are better than hugs.
Jenny says, "You're full of crap!"
LOL!
Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 5 = 6
*yawn* Good... Zzz... Night...
Wednesday, January 7, 2004--Upon waking up, again, I play FF7. I'm trying to get the date with Yuffie. Of course... I didn't name her Yuffie.
I'm thirsty. I'm a drink some Orange Juice.
Afterwards, I read more of
MTG.com. Previews to Darksteel began Monday... I think I've mentioned this already. It sounds like I'm going to like Darksteel.
Hmm... other than that, I can't remember much of anything else.
Limerick Time!
In my dreams I see
A girl, looking at me.
I can finally let go
Of sorrow, but no!
It's not reality.
Now that's just downright depressing...
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 1 = 6
Mmm... Good Night, my dearest, wherever thou art...
Tuesday, January 6, 2004--After playing some more FF7 today, I did some work on
Dark Fiends.
Also, I delivered Franklin's Hyper Hammer to him after school for his tennis tryouts, and I played some Diablo II.
All in all, it was a slow day. Maybe I should speed it up tomorrow.
I wonder...
Limerick Time!
The lost one has a dream
To be a part of a team.
Maybe someday
He'll have his way,
But not today, so it seems.
How depressing... This one's almost
un-limerick-like.
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 1 = 5
Hehehehe... I miss... the most... that person... It doesn't matter anymore!
Good Night!
Monday, January 5, 2004--I played FF7 today. I know I beat that game a long time ago, but for some odd reason, I just feel like replaying it. Last time I played it was when I still sucked at FF.
Let's see if I can remember the order in which I beat the FF's:
FF7
FF9
FF6
FF4
FFX
FF5
FFTactics
FF1
FFX-2
That sounds about right...
Nor, here's the order that I
STARTED playing FF's. You'll see that it tells a
dramatically different story:
FF4
FF6
FF7
FF9
FF5
FFX
FF1
FF2
FFTactics
FFX-2
Now, let's try to throw in a complete guide to all square RPGs I've played:
Started Mario RPG
Started FF4 (SNES)
Started FF6 (SNES)
FF7 released
FF8 released
Started and finished FF7 (PC)
Rants on how bad FF8 is going to be
Started and finished Chrono Trigger (SNES) ...several times
Re-started and finished Mario RPG
FF9 released
Bought a PS2
Started and finished FF9
FFX released
Re-started and finished FF6 (SNES)
Re-started and finished FF4 (SNES)
FFX released
Started FF5 (PSX)
Started FFX
Started Kingdom Hearts
Changes mind on FF8 as soon as finds out about FF11
Started website
Finished FFX
Finished FF5
Started FF1 (PSX)
Started FF2 (PSX)
Finished Kindom Hearts
Started and finished FFTactics
Finished FF1 (PSX)
Started and beat (but not sidequests) FFX-2
Considering the above timeline as well as the fact that I played most of my video games back when the SNES was commonly called the Super Nintendo, you can clearly see that I'm an SNES generation. Incidentally, Nintendo is the only console-maker that's still around. Then... why did I switch to PlayStation? Because I wanted to follow Square, because I liked FF4 and FF6 (back when they were still improperly named FF2 and FF3).
In case you didn't know, I believe that the SNES era was the Golden Age of video gaming. You have no idea how upset I was when Nintendo Power declared the SNES officially obselete... I wonder if the N64 is declared obselete... probably yeah, 'cause you can't rent N64 games at Blockbuster anymore.
You know what I don't like about today's games? They're aimed at a market that pretty much cares only about graphics. For me, you can rate a game by three categories--gameplay, sound/music, and graphics--and I think graphics is the least important and gameplay is the most important. However, with the mainstream popularization of video games (which happened at about the same time as the 3D revolution,
both of which can be attributed to the PSX... I think I'll write a book about the history of video games some day), developers have been putting more efforts into graphics and less into gameplay, which means crappier but prettier games.
Nintendo, however, being an old company still cares about gameplay--although, due to pressure from mainstream gamers who've never owned a 2D console, they're starting to put more and more of there efforts into graphics... Damn!
Anyways, I've said enough about video games. On with actual content... Wait, I think that
was the actual content of the day!
End Video Game Tangent.
Anyways, shortly afterward, I read up on some MTG stuff and saw the first Darksteel preview... an
indestructible card. Now I'm interested.
Also, while picking up Franklin, I visited around at Leland, seeing old faces and memories. However, I lost track of time and Franklin grew impatient, which was really bad.
After reading some more MTG stuff, I took Franklin on a donut run at Safeway to... umm... buy donuts. Then, we went to McDonalds and bought some chicken sandwiches.
After dinner, I decided to update my website and other related stuff, and, um, that's pretty much it.
Limerick Time!
Justin played a Magic game.
With Mirrodin
, it's not the same.
Less creatures around,
Artifacts abound,
And it's hard to pronounce the name.
It's pronounced MEER-oh-din, by the way, according to
MTG.com.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 2 = 8
Anyways, it's getting late. Good Night!
Sunday, January 4, 2004--Today, as I promised Franklin, I helped him get Kimahri's Celestial Weapon in FFX for him. The Butterfly game... it's frustrating, but not as frustrating as Dodging 200 Lightning Bolts. The last time I got it was over a year ago,
December 21, 2003. Luckily, the game's not
too difficult.
After lunch at Boston Market, I did some writing for Dark Fiends. Woot!
Dinner with the Hsiehs at Taste of China...
Then, I come home and somehow spend a
long time online doing stuff... Hmm...
Leland begins tomorrow. I'm considering visiting...
Limerick Time!
A boy and his pet dog,
One day, were lost in the fog.
The dog had good smell.
Where's home? Could he tell?
But they tried and landed in a bog.
LOL!
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 5 = 10
Short entry today... Good Night!
Saturday, January 3, 2004--I beat FFX-2 today. I only did the Hotspot missions, which means barely any optional missions. Of course, since FFX-2 is all about sidequests, I'll have to play it again, right?
RIGHT?!?
Anyways, here are my thoughts:
*X-2*
The storyline seems a bit stupid at times, but overall, the game is pretty serious and the storyline isn't all that bad. Granted, the story (the main story, as told by the required missions) is pretty simple, but when I say good story, I'm not talking about plot twists and all that stuff. I'm talking about how it draws you in and you want to know how it turns out.
I am, of course, assuming that the overall story, the required missions, the final boss and the like don't change from game to game. I'm assuming that when people say FFX-2 has a non-linear story, they mean that there are a lot of sidequests, not that which quests you do determines the outcome of the game... although I could be wrong. (*tries to think of a game where everything you did did change the outcome of the game* ...okay, I guess FFX-2 is relatively non-linear.)
And for some reason, I fought every single Aeon in a story except for Yojimbo...
I thought the gameplay was pretty decent. Granted, the system was not as good as THE Job System as seen in FF5 or FFTactics, but I guess the fact that you could change jobs mid-battle outweighed the sheer power of the real Job System.
Special Dress Spheres are over-powered though. Okay, not all of them. Just Rikku's Machina Maw. I can one-on-one just about any boss in the game using just Rikku and her special dress sphere. (Except for Angra Mainyu... goddamn Perdition's flame...) Perhaps in my second game, I'll avoid using Machina Maw since it's so over-powered.
What I also thought was cool was the final battle against Shuyin. Not only does he look like Tidus, but he also has all of Tidus's moves! (Different names, though, but they sure LOOK the same.) My brother commented that he's Tidus, except he's not... except he IS... but not really.
I also thought New Game Plus is cool. It was a good idea in Chrono Trigger, and in a "non-linear" game like FFX-2, it's an even BETTER idea.
Anyways, this is my first time through. In my next game I'll try to get 100%. Hopefully, that doesn't mean breaking 500 in Gunner's Gauntlet, 'cause I suck at that game.
Stats:
--Play Time 28:56
--Story Completed 51%
--LV42 Yuna, LV48 Rikku, LV43 Paine
In case anyone is wondering why Rikku's level is so high, it's because of Machina Maw. She one-on-oned all four Vegnagun battles, as well as the Shuyin battle.*X-2*
A Year Ago Today: I ditched Linda's Math Team Ice Skating thing. No one minded, though, so it's all good. Sorry, Linda!
After this, I'm a work on
Dark Fiends.
Limerick Time!
A dude from the land of Nod,
Decided to go meet God.
He took a ship into space,
But couldn't keep up the pace,
And fried like a shish kabob.
That one's actually rather amusing...
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 5 = 11
Anyways, like I said, I'm gonna go work on
Dark Fiends now. Good Night!
Currently Listening To:
Tear of Gold by Gregory Janson, sequenced by Dwayne Jeng
Friday, January 2, 2004--Today, I woke up and played a little FFX-2. *X-2*
I fought the Demon of Bikanel Island... He's pretty tough. He's the first boss I couldn't beat on my first try. I'm pretty sure he's optional. His name is Angra Mainyu, and he has three parts. The man body, and two other parts: one magic-immune, one physical immune. This will be an amusing battle... And Angra himself has an uber-powerful attack that wiped out my Rikku's special Sphere in one attack... damn... that means I can't one-on-one this boss like I normally do. I gotta think... different...*X-2*
Then, I read up on some MTG stuff.
Then, after that, I watched the rest of Evangelion. The original ending sucked dick, plain and simple. The revised ending ("The End of Evangelion") started out okay, but the end of The End of Evangelion sucked dick, too. Good series. Good characters. Shitty ass ending. It's even worse than the FF7 ending, and
that, my friends, was absolutely horrible.
It's been confirmed: Domino's Pizza does deliver to our home. I ordered some pizza today for dinner and they came.
No Dice Roll or Limerick tonight. I'm getting tired. *yawn* Good Night!
Thursday, January 1, 2004--
Happy New Year!!!
Heheheheheh...
Anyways, today, I watched some of Evangelion. Then, I went to Ariake Sushi (Iraqi Sushi as my little bro calls it) with the gang (excluding me: Mark, Ryan, Justin, and Alan; Franklin didn't go this time). Alan ordered the
beef teriyaki. He ain't afraid of no mad cow disease!
Then, we went to Justin's house to watch NCAA Football. First, we saw the end of the Purdue VS Georgia game. It was a disappointment. Georgia made a really,
really bad fumble, and Purdue should have won, but with a minute to go on the clock, 3 yards, and Fourth Down, the coach decided to go for a field goal and tie tha game than to go for the touchdown and win the thing outright. Instead, they went into overtime, and it was really fucked up. Purdue should have won, but man, that was dumb!
Then, we watched the Rose Bowl: USC vs Michigan. Of course we were cheering for Michigan, but USC kicked their asses 28 to 14... damn! And the USC band wouldn't stop playing that one annoying song! AAUUGGHH!!!!!
USC has only one loss on the record. All the Cal students should know who they lost to!
Then, I went to a party at Katherine Pan's, aka "Katty"... although not so many people call her that anymore...
but I do! Heh, I've known her since she was in first grade, from the Grace Education Center... about 1995-1996 or so. It was a rather boring party... it was just me, Frank, a pair of sisters that I don't know, Bernard and Kellie Liang, and Katty. After eating dinner and watching a little bit of TV (with people fighting over the remote control), and after playing some card games, we played N64. We ended up play exclusively Smash Bros, which I don't play very much, although I was better than half the room. (I think only Frankie and Katty surpassed me.)
While I was there, I thought I saw a ghost... figuratively speaking of course. Maybe it was there. Maybe it wasn't, but one can never be sure... In retrospect, I think there was nothing there...
No dice roll and no limerick because party make me tired...
Good Night!