Online Journal

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Wednesday, November 30, 2005--Today needs no introduction...


CS162 Discussion... skipped in favor of sleep.

CS170 Discussion... It's Junming (our TA)'s last discussion, because he'll be out of town next week. Also, I just realized that our TA is Junming, as opposed to Minjung from the all-girls' floor last year.

CS170 Lecture... I noticed that Algorithms have so many abbreviations that I see in gaming: VC = Vertex Cover = Victory Condition; NPC = NP-complete = Non-Player Character; DFS = Depth-First Search = Dark Fiend Sanctuary.

CS162 Lecture...

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 3) Total: 4

Anyways, it's official. The CS188 Final is officially optional. w00t! For reals this time!

Also, I finished the EE125 Simulation Lab. It sucked. Good Night!

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Tuesday, November 29, 2005--Today needs no introduction... mainly because I was so tired from doing stuff last night that I slept in... a lot!

EE125 Lab... I show up late and my code explodes. Grr...

EE125 Lecture...

CS188 Discussion... Rumor is, the final is optional. w00t! Of course, I should probably save my celebration for the official announcement.

TBP Officer Meeting...

TBP General Meeting... we found my regular nametag, in addition to my umlaut (Dwäyne) nametag, so I wore both of them today. It was amusing. So many people asked about that.

After the GM, we had the TBP Game Night, where I played Illuminati as the Society of Assassins, and Jon Tay was the Gnomes, and Mike Toulouse was the Bavarian Illuminati, and Mike Chen was the Cthulu, and Alex Kan (who was playing for the first time) was the Bermuda Triangle. Interestingly, in the early game, Jon made a non-aggression pact with Mike C in exchange for Jon not killing him off in one fell stroke. Then, he killed of Mike T. Then, I saw that Jon was getting too powerful, so I attacked him and knocked off nearly half of his power structure. Then, out of the blue, we noticed that Mike C suddenly had a +5 bonus to destroying stuff, so he started destroying groups left and right, include The Mafia, which everyone wanted (including me). So then, noticing that Mike had two Violent groups, I attacked him to take control of the two Violent groups. Then, Alex, whom no one had really noticed, flipped over New York (which was a Criminal Violent Government group) and captured it for the win.

Alex: It was beginner's luck. I probably won't win next time.

Jon Tay: I think my mistake was that I antagonized too many people early in the game. The Gnomes are supposed to be like, "Hey, what's going on? Whoa! I have so much money!"
Me: Yeah. You took all the good groups that everyone wanted. That's why I attacked you.

Me: There's a regular victory condition here?!?

So all in all, it was a Fun Night!

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 3) Total: 7

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Monday, November 28, 2005--Man, why am I in another one of my posting anti-sprees (if that's even a word)? This entree won't even be written until Friday (as are all the other entries from now until, well, Friday).


Anyways...
CS170 Lecture...
CS162 Lecture...

And since it was uber-cold and uber-rainy, I decided to skip fencing. Good thing, because I spent the entire night working on the project design for CS162. D'oh!

Also, thanks to Evan Wu, I discover the Late Night Grill at the Den. (And Grill reminds me of "'Le grille'?!? What the hell is 'le grille'?!?")

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 1) Total: 7

Good (but Cold) Night!

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Sunday, November 27, 2005--Today, I went back to Berkeley and didn't do much of anything else.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 6) Total: 9

Wow... another boring Sunday... Good Night!

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Saturday, November 26, 2005--Today's entry will be without introduction. (Except that was an introduction, wasn't it?)


Anyways, I meant to do something more productive, but instead, I ended up playing FF4. There's not much to say about my playing FF4 today.

Dark Fiends Chapter 58 will be posted soon.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 3) Total: 6

!thgiN dooG

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Friday, November 25, 2005--Happy Birthday Jasmine!!

So, yeah. Since I didn't wake up until 2pm, I didn't do anything before we left for the Day After Thanksgiving Party at Katherine "Katty" Pan's. Attendants include: Me, Frank, Kellie, Bernard, and, of course, Katty herself. Here's the gist of the party in list form, because I like lists. (But I don't like LISP lists, because LISP is evil. EVIL! Evil like a wall.)

• Smash Bros... in one game, I (playing as Sheik since that's my only good character) am doing really well, and then I randomly die. Franklin and Katty were like "Whoa! Dwayne's dead."
• Food! (Everyone likes food!)
• Katty tries to sell me a CYS CD because Ashley Lau was playing in it.
  Bernard: Who's Ashley Lau?
  Me: A little girl who is really good at the Violin. Katty, how old is Ashley?
  Katty: She's a senior.
  Me: Oh... so she's older than you.
• Bomberman... Katty got really good really fast.
• Mario Kart... Me and Kellie got really good at throwing Bobombs really fast. (Speaking of which, I always forget how to spell Bobomb. Is it 3 B's or 2? And isn't there a dash somewhere in there?)
• We played BS.
  Me: Hey, Bernard, now you can say: "What is this BS?"

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 6) Total: 11

Cute Night!

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Thursday, November 24, 2005 - Addendum--Man, I just did the stupidest, craziest, most impulseive thing I've ever done in my life. So earlier today, Vivian P calls me and asks me if I want to go day-after-Thanksgiving shopping with her at 2am, and I'm like, "I don't think I'm physically capable of staying up that late."

Then, at 1am, I can't sleep, so I call her back and I end up joining her at Walmart. Which is a 20 minute drive away. And I haven't driven in over 6 months. And it's cold and the streets are wet from the rain and I have to drive on the highway (== the most dangerous driving conditions in San Jose). And I'm lacking sleep (I chugged a Sprite before I left home).

So yeah, I arrive at Walmart and find Vivian (and her little brother) and we're chilling and camping in front of Walmart with an angry (maybe) mob waiting for the doors to open.

And when the time comes, we get in and out in less than 15 minutes with 2 laptops and a DVD player, which must be some kind of record or something. (Okay, that mob was more frantic and pushy and squishy than angry.)

Vivian: Dwayne, you're so sheltered. It's a good thing I brought you here to the mob of shoppers.
Me (lacking sleep): Well, you know... I'm from Almaden... so... yeah.
Vivian: "Well, you know..." Tee hee hee.
Me: You know me too well.

Then, we had breakfast at Denny's.

So yeah, that was the stupidest, craziest, most impulsive thing I've ever done, but it was worth it. I consider it a Good Night.

(I got back home at 7am, and if it weren't for the garage door making noise, no one would ever know I was gone... other than the fact that I couldn't wake up again until 2pm.)

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Thursday, November 24, 2005--Happy Thanksgiving!!


I started my day off with more FF4. Unlike last night, I didn't have a big marathon of killing a bunch of bosses.

*4*I went into the Sealed Cave. Man, those door monsters are hard, what with their instant kill attacks. Also, I finally ran into another hard boss: The accursed EvilWall. It was evil. (And scary looking, too.) First time I fought it, I got my ass kicked. Then, for the next few times, I kept fighting it and I kept learning new things. For example, I started using Rosa to cast Haste on everyone and I started using Edge to throw stuff. (I regret throwing away my Blood Spear so soon.) Finally, Franklin suggested that I should have Rosa Haste herself first, so I can Haste everyone else faster, and I'm like, "Oh yeah, why didn't I think of that sooner?" So I did. And I won. It was awesome.

Franklin: Didn't we beat the EvilWall before?
Me: That was Easy Type.*4*

Then, I went to a Thanksgiving Party at Little Vivian's (Vivian L). The people who were there were the same people who were at the Thanksgiving Party last year (that is, me, Frank, Kellie, Bernard, Jeffrey, Connie, Little Vivian, and Robin). Highlights include:

• I eat lots of turkey.
• "We all want to eat Tampax." --Little Vivian, taken very much out of context
• Me: Bernard, you are the thing that you hate. (In reference to Bernard choosing "Punk Bomber" as his character in Bomberman and in reference to Bernard always going "You punk!" to people who annoy him.)
• "Hi Vivian." --Me to Vivian P over the phone while Little Vivian gets really, really confused.
• I solve my first Sudoku puzzle. I was doing it really slowly until I stopped thinking in terms of blocks and started thinking in terms of everything else.

We also played Bomberman (as usual), Mario Kart, Mario Party, and various card games.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 5) Total: 9

Good Thanksgiving Night!

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Wednesday, November 23, 2005--For all intents and purposes, Thanksgiving Break has already begun.

CS162 Discussion...
Rajesh: Thanks to everyone who decide to show up on the day before Thanksgiving.

CS170 Discussion... I came to pick up my mudterm before leaving early. I did better on this mudterm, but so did everybody else.

Then, I went home, and the first thing I did upon arriving at home was play FF4.

*4*It's kind of funny. After getting my ass kicked by the Dark Elf, I half-expected the bosses from here on out to be hard. However, all the bosses turned out to be easy. Magus Sisters? Easy. Valvalis? Easy. Calbrinas? Easy. Golbez? Well, I used the make-Kain-jump-to-avoid-getting-killed trick, so obviously, he was easy. Lugae and Balnab? Easy. Even Rubicant was easy. I just hit him with Ice swords and Ice spears for 3500 damage apiece until he died. I wonder when "Hard type" is gonna get hard. It's already too late, though. FF5 is permanently marked in my book as the hardest FF ever.*4*

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 5) Total: 6

I now leave you with a Good Night!

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005--Man, I'm getting so lethargic... It must be Thanksgiving. Whoa! Didn't I say that yesterday?


CS188 Lecture... I wasn't paying attention, so I did the Daily Cal Crossword instead.

EE125 Lecture... Inverse Kinematics! ...lab...

CS188 Discussion... Mmm... Spider Solitaire...

Finishing the CS188 Project 5 with Nadia...

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 1) Total: 7

Well, Good Night!

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Monday, November 21, 2005--I like how since Thanksgiving is coming up, I have almost no work to do. I'm thankful for that. Actually, no, I'm not. I'm not thankful for Thanksgiving until Thanksgiving, and then, only if I get invited to a party or something. (Did you say something about dinner?)

Lunch with Abhi and Chris... mmm... Bacon Cheeseburger...

Then, I finished all my homework and basically slacked off.

CS170 Lecture...

CS162 Lecture...

I opted out of fencing today because Thanksgiving is making me feel lethargic.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 2) Total: 3

Thank you and Good Night! (I'll use that line again on Thursday.)

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Sunday, November 20, 2005--A brief list of today's events:

• I do CS188 project with Nadia. We've finished 6 out of 7 required parts and 0 out of 3 extra credit parts. (2 of those 3 look relatively easy. One of them, I think I've already solved, but I haven't gotten around to actually writing it up.)
• Vivian P cancels dinner plans at the last second. Well, that's Vivian P for you.
• I run into Kim H at Crossroads, who was definitely not happy to see me. Well, that's Kim H for you. (Hey, wait a minute...)
• In the Simpsons today, they had a Recall Election against Mayor Quimby. It's official. The Simpsons are making fun of us Californians. Even Rainier Wolfcastle was running for mayor.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8

(This line has been intentionally left for Good Night!)

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Saturday, November 19, 2005--(This line has been intentionally left blank.)
Big Game 2005!

Levy played really well. Granted, in the first half, we only made one touchdown (and the point after was actually blocked), but in the second half, we dominated and won the game 27-3. (That's right, Stanford only made one field goal.

Heh, Tedford said both Levy and Ayoob would be playing today, so in the last minute of the game, Ayoob gets switched in. He passes the ball to Marshawn Lynch twice, then runs out the clock.

Highlights of the Game:

• We sack their QB so much that he injured his shoulder or something and had to be switched out (but we don't know exactly what it was since Stanford likes to keep their medical information quiet... damn them...).
• Then, we sack they're replacement QB a ton of times.
• Marshawn Lynch breaks 1000 yards for this season.

That basically sums up my day. I spent the rest of the night working on the EE125 prelab, which was so long and annoying.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 6) Total: 9

Good Nite!

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Friday, November 18, 2005--Blah blah blah, I felt a lot better today. It's like I'm not even sick at all. (Except when I stay in my room for too long and the air gets kind of stuffy.)

Anyways, I went to lunch at Crossroads (mmm... bacon cheeseburger...) and I saw Kim H! But she didn't seem too happy to see me. Well, that's Kim for you.


Ravnica Booster Draft!

Anyways, we had 13 people show up, so we had a 13 person booster draft, which was really really weird. It also made for some really weird duplicates going around. Anyways, for the first pack, I had no idea what colors to draft and, for a while, I was just grabbing any good card that came my way. This, apparently, confused William, who was sitting to my left, and he ended up going 5-color (more on that later). During the second pack, I finally started getting some pretty solid green, black, and blue, which put me in Golgari-Dimir, centered mainly on black. My deck ended up looking like this:

6xForest
6xSwamp
5xIsland
Centaur Safeguard
Civic Wayfinder
Golgari Brownscale
Greater Mossdog
3xShambling Shell
Gaze of the Gorgon
Thoughtpicker Witch
Clinging Darkness
Last Gasp
2xDimir House Guard
3xBrainspoil
Lurking Informant
2xDimir Infiltrator
2xSurveilling Sprite
Snapping Drake
Flight of Fancy

That's right, not one, not two, but three Shambling Shells and three Brainspoils. I had also drafted 3 Consult the Necrosages and 3 Woodwraith Stranglers but decided not to play them because the Strangler is subpar and the Necrosages just aren't aggro-y enough for me.

Round 1: I played this dude named Peter. It was his first time drafting at Games of Berkeley, and he played a rather poorly built Boros deck. I trounced him 2 games. Then, I looked through his deck and told him that some of the cards he was playing (Hour of Reckoning, Conclave Equenaut, Blazing Archon) were just a little to costly for a Boros deck. Record: 1-0

Round 2: I played against Jose, who had a bye in the first round. He was playing a Red-White-Green deck. I wiped him out in game 1, but in game 2, after being mana-flooded, he beat me by 1 life. It turns out I should have won, because I had the win on the board (or rather, in my graveyard), but didn't see it. I should have dredged back my Shambling Shell and sacrificed it to put a +1/+1 counter on my Greater Mossdog, but I for some reason, I didn't realize that and he beat me with his difficult-to-block Sabertooth Alley Cat. Game 3, however, I more than redeemed myself for it by beating him down. Record: 2-0

Since we had 13 people playing, there only 3 people with a 2-0 record: me, William, and this card shark named Josh. I didn't want to play William, because he traditionally kicks my ass, but William didn't want to play me because he didn't think his 5-color deck could beat me. Anyways, William got paired up with Josh, and I got paired up with Leigh, this kid who lost round 1 (to Josh) and then had a bye in round 2, so he was winless. Basically, if I lost, it'd be the most humiliating loss ever.

Round 3: He was playing a Golgari deck, and somehow, he beat me. I think it must have been the Sewerdreg (damn swampwalk) and his horrible hordes of 3/3s that were always just slightly bigger than my creatures. (What's more annoying, a horde of Boros first strikers or a horde of fat ass 3/3s?) So it was my most humiliating loss ever. Record: 2-1

Funny how I've never gotten a perfect record before. Oh well.

Even funnier was that when I was looking through my sideboard afterwards, I found a Sewerdreg. So it turns out I drafted one of those fuckers. Note to self: draft more Sewerdregs.

In anycase, despite my terrible performance, I still won a booster. Wow. Leigh felt bad, so he gave me one of his two boosters, but he asked for any good cards I opened. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on who you are), there was a Lightning Helix in that booster, so he took it. Other interesting cards in those boosters were Flame Fusillade and Bloodbond March.

Incidentally, William won the entire booster draft (the only person to go 3-0) with the 5-color deck he never expected to win.
William: The cards you passed me were very confusing.
Me: Well, I'm sorry. I didn't even know what I was drafting. How do you expect me to send you signals.

Also, I traded my Loxodon Heirarch for a Chorus of the Conclave. 4 legends down (Razia, Chorus, Wolfblood, and Sisters), 4 to go (Agrus, Savra, Szadek, and Circu).

Anyways, after eating at Top Dog (I should eventually go try out all of their dogs, huh?), I went back to my room and chilled for the rest of the night.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 6) Total: 9

Quote of the moment: "What the fuck? Why have I never seen this card before?"--me

The Dark Lord says, "Good Night!"

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Thursday, November 17, 2005--I felt a little better, but I decided against going to class today. Instead, I stayed in my room and

1. Finished CS170 Homework... damn, that was fast.
2. Worked on Dark Fiends.
3. Integrated and bug-fixed our CS162 Project.

Wow, this is like the first time ever that we finished on time. This is also the first time I didn't go fencing 2.5 hours before the project was due.

Also, Mark says he wants to actually do some design and development in Project 4 (as opposed to the Test and Integration role he has taken on in the first 3 projects), 'cause project 4 is OS-level networking, which seems to work really well with his EE122 stuff. It's a good thing, too, since Mark is one of our stronger coders. (I wonder why we didn't refuse to grant his request to be a devoted Tester and make him code earlier.)

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 3) Total: 5

Anyways, that's the end of the night, so Good Night!

Whew! I'm all caught up now...

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Wednesday, November 16, 2005--Perhaps staying up until 4 in the morning doing CS162 was a bad idea, since today, I fell ill. D'oh!


First, I slept through CS162 Discussion...

Then, I went to CS170 Discussion...

Then, I started feeling sick, so I went back home and slept all day.

But I was awake long enough to thoroughly test my CS162 Project!

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 3) Total: 5

Uhh... Good Night?

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Tuesday, November 15, 2005--Now I remember why I didn't update until Friday. (Actually, this entry was posted on Saturday. D'oh!) It's because today and tomorrow, I was working on the CS162 project, but more on that later.


CS188 Lecture...

EE125 Lecture...

CS188 Discussion...

TBP Officer Meeting...

TBP/HKN Board Game Night... so first I play Apples to Apples with Angela and I forget who else, and I end up doing pretty well for my first time. I either got first place or tied for first place or second place, but I don't know, since we didn't count up the cards in the end.

Then, I watched a game of Monopoly between Imran, Tanya, and 2 other dudes. So Tanya makes a deal where this guy gives her the last yellow in exchange for immunity and 1/4 of all the earnings, and she ends up dominating since she had the first block in the game. (And the other guy just kept leeching money off of her.) Then, Tanya got Boardwalk and Park Place, and it was game over. I should put these strategies in my book.

Then, I spent until 4 in the morning doing CS162...

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 2) Total: 8

That is all, so Good Night!

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Monday, November 14, 2005--I don't know why I didn't update until Friday. (Yes, this entry was posted on Friday... or at least it was written on Friday and possibly posted on a later date, but most likely on Friday.)

CS170 Mudterm... I pwned it. Problems 2-6 were pretty easy. They were just like homework questions, except they were the easier homework questions. Oddly enough, I had trouble on the first two problems (True/False questions) which I think were supposed to be the easier questions. Oh, well.

CS162 Lecture...

Fencing... new saberists are showing up. w00t!

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 3) Total: 5

I'm getting tired. Therefore, Good Night!

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Sunday, November 13, 2005--This is the 3rd uneventful Sunday in a row. They're not very uncommon. Uneventful Sundays seem to happen to me all the time. I dunno why.


Actually, there was an event. It almost isn't worth noting, though. I spent roughly 4 hours working on CS188 project with Nadia.

Me: Kind of funny... I never expected to be in Soda Underground on a Sunday afternoon.
Nadia: Neither did I.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 5) Total: 9

Anyways... Good Night!

Nadia: Anyways isn't a word, you know that?
Me: I don't care.
(The actual word, according to Dictionary.com is "anyway".)

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Saturday, November 12, 2005--Happy Birthday Xine Wu!

Cal vs USC Football Game!

The game can be summarized with just one sentence: they should have swapped in Levy earlier.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 4) Total: 5

Dwayne says, "Good Night!"

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Friday, November 11, 2005--Happy Veteran's Day


Today, after waking up hella late because of lack of sleep from a combination of playing FF3 and fire alarms, I mostly played Diablo 2.

Then, afterwards, I finished writing the song I had in my head, and now it sounds awesome. I guess it just goes to show that a tune is nothing without a beat, chordal accompaniment, and maybe some bass.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 4) Total: 8

(Umm... compared to yesterday, nothing happened today.)

Good Night!

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Thursday, November 10, 2005--Since tomorrow is Veteran's Day, today, for all intents and purposes, is Friday.

Lunch with Chris and Abhi, and we joined Lei, who was also eating at the DC that day...

CS188 Lecture... I didn't pay as much attention as I should have, since I was thinking mostly about the mudterm I'd be having right afterwards.

EE125 Mudterm... it was easy. Too easy, I say!

Afterwards, I let my weekend officially begin. I spent the rest of the day playing FF3.

*3*Anyways, last we left off, I was waiting outside of the Ancient's Labyrinth on my way into the final dungeon. So I get through the Ancient's Labyrinth no problem, and no my path forks into the Sylx Tower upward and the Forbidden Land Eureka downward. My plan is to make a trip through Eureka to grab all the treasures (including the Sage and Ninja jobs), then make a first trip through Sylx to get all the treasures, then make a second trip through Sylx (because this time around, I won't be going around collecting treasures, so I'll battle less and conserve my strength more).

So all goes according to plan. I go through Forbidden Land Eureka and grab some super weapons (Full Moon, Masamune, Excalibur, and Ragnarok) and pick up the two ultimate jobs. So now, I have my last party.

After going back to the Invincible to heal and flying around the world to get some magic to set up my Sages, I return to make my first trip up the Sylx Tower. On my way back down, I get attacked by the ever so rare Red Dragon, who upon his death, drops an Onion Sword. w00t! I have the ultra-rare Onion Sword!

So after healing up again at the Invincible, I make my final trip up the Sylx Tower, and at the top, I find and battle Zande, but he has already summoned the Dark Cloud. Apparently, she wants to send the world--both Light and Darkness--into non-existence. So I fight her, but she wipes me out, but then Dorga and Unne and some other friends from earlier parts of the game (apparently Desh is alive after all) and revive us. We then go to the Dark World to confront the Dark Cloud once and for all.

But first, I go to each of the four Dark Crystals (which are guarded by four pretty tough bosses) to free the Dark Warriors, who want to help me because they don't want the world to be plunged into non-existence. Anyways, after one last fight with the Dark Cloud (and throwing about 20 shurikens at her), I finally defeat her once and for all.

So yeah, that's the game. The ending is me bringing all the friends who came and helped me home on the airship, except for Princess Sara who wanted to stay with me a little longer, because Sara is awesome like that.*3*

So yeah, I beat FF3, and here is my review on it as quoted from my post on Avalanche Online:

"As a lot of you know, I hate fan translations like the plague. So why, you might ask, did I resort to a fan translated ROM of FF3j (henceforth known simply as FF3 in this article)? Because I hate 2D games remade as 3D games even more. After Square announced their 3D DS remake of FF3, I completely lost faith in Square's ability to make a proper re-release of FF3, so I just emulated it.

Anyways, the original FF3 didn't have a clock, so I have NO IDEA how much time I spent on it. However, my characters are at level 50 and I made 105 saves (no clock, and yet, the game keeps track of number of saves...), so I'm sure you guys can figure it out.


SOUNDTRACK

I know it's kind of odd for me to comment on FF3's soundtrack considering that it's an NES game, and the NES wasn't exactly known for its sound chip. (Or maybe it was, who knows? The point is, the sound quality is so bad that even someone like me who likes playing around with MIDI thinks it's low quality.) Yet, I found the tunes so catchy that I went hunting around for the OST for the game.

It just goes to show how skillful Uematsu was back in the day.


GAMEPLAY

First and foremost is the Job System. Granted, it was primitive compared to FF5's Job System (of course, FF3 as FF5's direct predecessor in many ways), but it was still quite fun to play around with. I distinctly recall in FF1 choosing my party's character classes, I made the mistake of picking a Thief, who simply sucked. In FF3, if I make a wrong choice, I can simply switch to another character class.

My only lament is that you can't really mix casters with non-caster jobs. (FFTactics had the same flaw, but in FF5, mixing casters with non-casters was highly encouraged.)

Another tweaked I like on FF3 is that magic is now a LOT more powerful. I remember in FF1, MP for each level was capped at 9. In FF3, I distinctly recall my sages having more than 50 MP for level 1 magic and more than 10 MP for level 8 magic. This was especially useful because I could carry more healing magic with me. I remember in FF1, I'd have to retreat from dungeons a lot because I ran out of magic, more so in the later ones. In FF3, I believe I made it through nearly all the dungeons without having to retreat, the only exceptions being the longer early game dungeons before I got Life magic. (Because you know how you don't want to waste Phoenix Downs unless you absolutely have to.)

Not only that, but magic actually dealt more damage in this game. I remember in FF1, in the end of the game, the only thing a Black Mage was good for was casting Haste--even Flare paled in comparison to a Hasted Knight's attack. In FF3, Bahamut's damage rivaled that of a dual-wielding Ninja and could take down large groups faster.

Third, one thing I really enjoyed was the emergence of what I call the "modern dungeon". I remember in FF1 and FF2 (although FF2 was starting to move away from it a little), the dungeons were more multi-floored labyrinths than actual dungeons. In FF3, the dungeons felt more like actual caves with tunnels and paths rather than labyrinths. 'Cause you know, what cave in the real world forms into a maze?

Fourth, the mini dungeons were really really annoying. I mean, I like gimmick dungeons and all, but if the gimmick is "all your characters are no totally useless in combat", it's kind of a crappy gimmick. I'm glad they don't pull this kind of stunt in new FFs.

Fifth, this is a really small tweak, but I noticed that they severely punish running in battle. (While running, you're defense essentially drops down to 1.) For all intents and purposes, this makes running nearly impossible (unless you have a Thief). I personally think they did it best in FF4 when running away causes you to drop some small portion of your gold.

Sixth, this is another small tweak, but for some reason, getting attacked from behind was so annoying in FF3. It probably has to do with the fact that I have to change all my characters' rows, which meant I lost two turns intead of one. Not only that, but getting attacked from behind seems a lot more common in FF3 than in any other FF I've played.

Finally, I have to mention that FF3 is plagued with the problem that plagues the other NES FF's: no save points in dungeons and no way to heal up in the middle of the dungeon. You basically have to fill up at the start of the dungeon and see how far you can go. Fortunately, in FF3, this wasn't as big of a problem because the white mage could hold so much MP that you simply wouldn't run out of healing magc. The other problem (save points) is easily solved by emulators.

Overall, though, I'd have to say that FF3 is one of the better FF's. It's a pretty solid game, and the Job System only made it better. If you enjoyed FF1 and FF5, you should DEFINITELY play FF3. It's like the missing link between the two."

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 4) Total: 10

Also, while I was playing FF3, the fire alarm went of twice. That sucked.

Good Night!

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Wednesday, November 9, 2005--Today, I was really distracted, because on my way out to class, I started thinking of different tunes and trying to come up with something good for a song, and suddenly, this one song was coming together really nicely. However, it was 10:50am and I had just left for my first class of the day, and I knew I wasn't gonna get back to my room (and able to plug the music into a Sequencer) until 7pm. So I spent most of my day trying to solidify the song into my memory...

CS162 Discussion... had trouble paying attention...
Lunch at the GBC...
CS170 Discussion... forced myself to pay attention, because this is one of those classes where I really need to pay attention...
CS162 Project 3 Design Review... apparently, locks are your friend...
CS170 Lecture...
CS162 Lecture...

Man, you know what sucks? When you make a song that sounds so awesome in your head, and when you sequence, it sounds so lame? Well, I had the basic tunes and structure down, so I decided to just leave it there and try to fix it later.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 5) Total: 6

Good Night, everyone!

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Tuesday, November 8, 2005--This time, I woke up in time for lunch at 11am.
CS188 Lecture...
EE125 Lecture...
CS188 Discussion...
TBP Officer Meeting...
Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 3) Total: 7
Another boring day, huh?
Good Night!

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Monday, November 7, 2005--I was supposed to meet fiends for lunch at 11am, but I overslept. D'oh!
CS170 Homework...
CS170 Lecture...
CS162 Lecture...
Fencing...
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 1) Total: 4
Boring day, huh?
Good Night!

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Sunday, November 6, 2005 - Addendum--There is an addendum to Friday. It's about a dream I had Thursday night. Names are withheld in case they ever read my webjournal.

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Sunday, November 6, 2005--Today, I returned to Berkeley.

(Umm... that's about it.)

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 5) Total: 6

Heh, they parodied The Most Dangerous Game in today's new Simpsons Treehouse of Horror.

Anyways, that's about it! Good Night!

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Saturday, November 5, 2005--There are two major events for today, but first...


Now, today was No. 23 Cal vs No. 13 Oregon football game. I start watching the game on TV sometime during the second quarter, and we're losing 7-10. However, we soon make a field goal, and we end the first half tied 10-10. In the second half, they make a field goal and a touchdown, and so do we, and with about 9 minutes in the 4th quarter, Cal with the ball, we have a shot at winning the game and upsetting the Ducks. We make a drive and fail miserably. The Ducks make a drive and we stop them short. We make a drive and again fail miserably.

The game went into overtime, and we opted to play defense first. (Dad: No, you idiots. On a rainy day like this, which side you're going is way more important.) They make their drive and score a touchdown. We make our drive and fail miserably.

Now, the thing that everybody will remember about the game is Ayoob throwing a bunch of incompletions when we really missed him. (Dad: No, I think it was the receiver [DeSean Jackson]'s fault. He didn't get a single reception the entire game, and half of those were easily catchable.)

Then, I spent the rest of the day playing FF3.

*3*To continue where I left off, I was trekking down the Ancient Ruins, but I wasn't strong enough to take down the monsters, so I took a detour.

First, I went to the Underwater Cave, where I got tons of experience and treasure, including a kick-ass Blood Spear for my Dragoon. Now, if he's low on HP, I just jump, and he absorbs it all back (except against the undead).

Then, I went back to the Temple of Time and the Amur Sewers to pick up some treasures I had previously missed, like a couple of Protect Rings and a Power Rings (which, incidentally, are some pretty good rings).

Then, I went to Salonia Catacombs, where I fought Odin and added him to my collection of summonables. Hurray! Unfortunately, I don't have the Summoner job yet, so there goes that. That said, it was still a good experience.

Finally, I went back down the Ancient Ruins. With new weapons and a higher level, I had a much easier time fighting through the splitting enemies. So I fought my way down to the bottom and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on whose perspective), there's no boss. And I find at the bottom, the Airship Invincible. Hurray!

It's kinda slow, though...

So with my newfound Airship that can fly over some mountains for a very very brief period of time, I flew to Fargabaad, where they apparently have equipment for Dark Knights (who are, for some reason, translated as Mystic Knights in this game, even though they're obviously Dark Knights... Dark Knights who know White Magic... go figure). Anyways, I found out that the monsters who split are weak to Dark Swords. (And they don't split when hit by a Dark Sword.) Damn, I wish they had told me sooner. Also, I converted my Master and my Dragoon into Dark Knights. Man, they are powerhouses. It's just a pity that they don't have much armor in the game, so they take quite a bit of damage. Otherwise, they are powerhouses.

Anyways, so Unne told me to go to the Cave of Darkness to retrieve the last fang (Earth Fang), then return to Dorga's House, so I did. After pwning my way through hordes of splitting monsters who didn't split because I hit them with the Dark Sword, I got to the bottom of the Cave of Darkness, where the Earth Fang was guarded by some dude named Hekaton. I killed him easily.

Bonus pic: He's looking right at you!

Then, I returned to Dorga's House, where they took me through this cave. At the end, Dorga and Unne said that in order to make the Eureka and Sylx Keys to gain access to some uber-weapons and defeat Zande, I'd need to slay them to release the energy required to make keys. I refused, but we were forced to fight. Rest in Peace, Sir Dorga and Lady Unne.

Now that I had access to the Sylx Tower and the Forbidden Land Eureka (which incidentally are two pieces of the final dungeon that go in opposite directions--one to reach the final boss and the other to reach the uber-weapons guarded by uber-monsters), but first, I had to get through the Ancient's Labyrinth. In the first room of the Ancient's Labyrinth was the Earth Crystal, which was guarded by one of Zande's henchmen, Titan. I defeated him easily and received the Jobs from the Earth Crystal--the Summoner, the Warlock (upgraded Black Mage), and the Shaman (upgraded white mage).

Anyways, with my newly upgraded party, I decided to go collect the remaining summons, Leviathan and Bahamut. Returning to the Floating Continent where Leviathan and Bahamut had been sealed (by the Archmage Noah himself), I went to Lake Dol and fought Leviathan, whom I defeated and received as a summon. Then, I went to Bahamut's Cave, fought and defeated him, and received him as a summon. (Unfortunately, my Summoner lacks the MP to summon Bahamut as of yet.)

Now, I'm parked outside of the Ancient's Labyrinth. I'd play some more, but it's getting late and I'm getting tired.*3*

An uncanny resemblance--the FF3 Shaman on the left, FF5's Krile in White Mage attire on the right.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 3) Total: 6

Good Night!

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Friday, November 4, 2005--Addendum: Last night, I had a dream where I was holding her hand, and her friend (the one that I don't trust) was being really supportive of me. I was really happy.

And then I woke up.

Man, I'm so terrible. I basically slacked off all of today because I didn't feel like doing any work. Well, at least I succeeded in doing nothing...

After eating lunch with Abhi and Chris and their fiends, I went to the Soda HKN office, where I basically chilled for no reason at all.

Then, I went to EE125 Discussion, where we basically reviewed for the upcoming mudterm.

Then, I went home, where I played FF3 all day.

*3*Last we left off, I was entering the Temple of Time to grab Noah's Lute, with which I could wake Unne from the Dream World. So I did. But to my dismay, there was no boss guarding the Noah's Lute. Damn. That was too easy.

Then, I went to Unne's Shrine to wake up Unne. So she wakes up, but now she wants me to take her to the Ancient Ruins. I try to fight my way through, but the monsters are ridiculous. They split in half when you hit them! So after trying to force my way to the bottom and failing, I retreat to the surface and call it a day.*3*

I also beat Diablo II (all quests in all difficulties) for the first time ever. w00t!

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 5) Total: 6

I am Good Night!

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Thursday, November 3, 2005--CS188 Lecture...
EE125 Lecture...
Wow, short day... It's not over yet, though... at least... I don't think it is.

I'm confuddled...

Buh... fencing later. Good Night!

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 2) Total: 6

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Wednesday, November 2, 2005--CS162 Discussion...
CS170 Discussion...
CS170 Lecture...
CS162 Lecture...
Kind of boring day, wasn't it?


Actually, it wasn't a boring day. I visited Vivian P's room, and she fed me chocolate. Mmm... chocolate... Therefore, Vivian is awesome.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 5) Total: 9

Well, Gooooood Night!

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Tuesday, November 1, 2005--CS188 Lecture...
EE125 Lecture...
CS188 Discussion...
TBP Officer Meeting...
Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 1) Total: 5
End of Transmission... Good Night!

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