Thursday, July 31, 2008--After work today, I drove downtown with Lois and JoN and Simon to pre-buy the IMAX tickets for The Dark Knight. (We went in person so that we could use our Prime Card discount and get the tickets for a mere $3 apiece.) We plan on seeing the movie on Monday.
On this day:
In 2003: I get my wisdom teeth pulled. Ow!
Afterwards, we went to a Karaoke bar because Simon and JoN were invited, so we just tagged along for the ride. It was noisy. Also, I learned that it's difficult to sing if you can't hear yourself. Hell, I don't even know what I sounded like. The only reason I know I did badly was because my brain stopped being able to read the lyrics monitor halfway through and I just gave up.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008--After work today, I went home and played more Soul Calibur, because I can!
On this day:
In 2006: I return to Disneyland after a good 10 years or so. The Haunted Mansion doesn't scare me anymore.
In 2005: SeanGab makes his first appearance on my bloop.
Basically, I got a tip from someone that each bonus character in Story Mode fights a different bonus character, so I could just use each bonus character in turn, and I'd fairly quickly unlock all the bonus characters. And hey, it worked! So after spending gold to buy all the rest of the characters, I now have all the characters in the game. Yay me!
Also, I decided to learn Amy, because she's a fencer and she's cute. So practice practice practice.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008--After work today, I went to GameStop to pick up my pre-ordered copy of Soul Calibur 4. First, I cleared Story Mode with Raphael. Then, I cleared Story Mode with Amy. (Interesting note: In Soul Calibur 4, most, but not all, of the unlockable characters can be unlocked simply by buying them with in-game gold, and Amy was one of them.) Then, just for the hell of it, I cleared Story Mode with Darth Vader and unlocked the final boss Algol. (Interesting note 2: In story mode, the final battle can be one of three characters: Siegfried, Nightmare, or Algol. If you defeat Algol, you unlock Algol.) Then, apparently, the way you unlock The Apprentice (Starkiller) is by beating Arcade Mode with Vader, so I did. Except it was difficult, because Darth Vader sucks. Then, for the hell of it, I beat Story Mode with Starkiller and Algol. (Interesting note 3: There are 5 bonus characters in this game, designed by random manga artists. Each character in Story Mode fights one of them in stage 3. If you defeat them, you unlock them. In this manner, I was able to unlock 3 of them.)
Then, I decided to make a custom character based on Amy and also customize Amy and also make a school girl outfit Amy. Then, I took those custom characters and attempted the Tower of Lost Souls in attempts to unlock items but didn't get very far. D'oh!
Then, I called it a night. Good night!
Monday, July 28, 2008--There was gymming today, but nothing peculiarly noteworthy.
On this day:
In 2007: I beat Makai Kingdom.
Saturday, July 26, 2008--I got bored of sidequesting in FFTA2, so I opened Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and played that instead. Fun fun fun!
On this day:
In 2005: My first software check-in at Microsoft.
Friday, July 25, 2008--After work today, I went to Uncle's Games at Crossroads Mall to play at the Eventide release event. It wasn't very memorable. I basically got pwned all day, because either I'm losing my touch or the people at the store are getting better. (Probably getting better, since the playerbase at the store has changed slightly ever since Brian became the Tournament Organizer.)
Highlight of the evening, some guy used
Quillspike combined with
Devoted Druid to make an infinitely big Quillspike to attack me. Not only that, but he had the
green mentor, so it was an infinitely big trampler. When someone hits you with an infinitely big trampler, you generally die.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008--So Lois had wanted to go see The Dark Knight (the new Batman movie) at the IMAX, but once again, the tickets were all sold out.
Lois: I don't understand why the tickets are always sold out. Is Dark Knight a really popular movie or something?
me: Yes, Lois, yes it is.
But we (which included me, Lois, JoN, and Simon, but not Jiahua since she was busy) didn't want to waste our evening, so we went to go watch WALL-E instead. It was pretty good for a Disney animated movie.
Monday, July 21, 2008--After work today, I went to the gym and benchpressed 130 lbs on the free weights. I'm getting stronger every day!
On this day:
In 2004: I beat Golden Sun.
Sunday, July 20, 2008--More sidequesting in FFTA2 while I power up to take down that boss.
On this day:
In 2006: I beat Suikoden. It takes me all of 4 days (and about 27 hours).
Saturday, July 19, 2008--Today, I played more FFTA2. *FFTA2*
So I need to tell you some backstory. The first battle of the game is against a creature called Klesta (and it was pretty damn tough). On a totally unrelated note, there was a sidequest to get the assassin class, which involved helping Veis the Assassin join the House of Bowen, a headhunting clan. Later, there was a sidequest where I had to help House of Bowen take down Klesta (and Veis showed up as well, which I thought was a nice touch), but Klesta escaped. Then, I encountered Klesta on the map and battled it, and again, House of Bowen arrived to help me, but Klesta escaped again. Theoretically, there's a quest that is the final battle against Klesta, but I apparently haven't unlocked it yet.*FFTA2*
So yeah. Thus far, FFTA2 is entertaining, but sidequesting is starting to get old.
Thursday, July 17, 2008--So today, while I was playing FFTA2, I got to what appears to be the first hard boss of the game, the *spoiler*
frickin' Lord of the Flowsand*spoiler*. Granted, I haven't done very many sidequests, so I'm prolly underlevelled, but the goddamn thing kicked my ass several times in a row. I think I'll have to start doing sidequests now.
On this day:
In 2003: The birth of DeckSim.
Happy Birthday, DeckSim!
Sunday, July 13, 2008--So I've been planning on getting a Nintendo DS to play Final Fantasy Tactics A2. I've heard that it was better than than FFTA but not as good as the original FFTactics. Originally, I had planned on getting my DS around Xmastime. But instead, I decided to get it today. And I also got FFTA2, TWEWY, and Revenant Wings.
So I played FFTA2. So far, it seems exactly the same as FFTA with very few differences. The good news is that the Law system is no longer as intrusive. The laws themselves are generally less restrictive, and if you break them, all that happens is that you can no longer revive units on the map and you miss out on the after battle bonus. The bad news is that they're still using the [expletive deleted] Mission system and they still expect you to do a million [expletive deleted] sidequests between every story battle. The good news is that you no longer have to micromanage all your items to ensure that you can do all the missions. The bad news is that they completely cut multiplayer from the game. (Which may not be a bad thing, as multiplayer on FFTactics was judged to be a joke). Another minor change is that they changed the way you earn experience. Instead of earning experience per action, you earn experience per battle. This makes it harder to powerlevel, and come to think of it, I don't think there are any upsides to it. Oh yeah, and just like in FFTA1, the UI sucks.
So yes, FFTA2 is better than FFTA1, but only slightly. However, since I've played FFTA1, I've experienced the joy that is Disgaea and Flonne! So I enjoyed FFTA2 a lot less. It's still barely playable, though. Unlike Fire Emblem, I have not yet quit the game in disgust.
Friday, July 11, 2008--
On this day:
In 2004:
- I dreamt I was in a mech combat competition... fighting against Joyce L.
- I beat Xenogears.
Thursday, July 10, 2008--After work today, I wanted to go to the gym and benchpress 140 lbs on the free weights and get stronger every day, but none of my friends could make it, so I had no spotters. EPIC FAIL
Tuesday, July 8, 2008--
On this day:
In 2004: NOT IN SERVICE
After work today, I went to the Cafe 16/17 to play the last Shadowmoor draft of the season. In any case, my first pick was a
Puncture Bolt. Then, I was passed another Puncture Bolt. Then, I was passed some good red, so I figured that no one else was going into red and I settled into it quite handily.
After a while, I noticed that there was no shortage of green going around (but there was a shortage of burn), so I grabbed green as my second color.
Speaking of a shortage of burn, apparently, there were only 3 burns at my table, and I got all three of them (a
Burn Trail came to me during the third pack). Fortunately, I had some decent green goodies.
First, I played against Eric and, in his words, I ran him over. Then, I played against Dimitar, who managed to beat me in 2 games out of 3.
Then, I played against Yang, who unfortunately showed up late to the draft, so instead of drafting, he popped 5 boosters and made a Sealed Deck instead, so I had the advantage from the get-go. Unfortunately, he had a decent combo in the form of
Presence of Gond and
Pili-Pala, which allowed him to bring out loads of elves fairly quickly. Fortunately, he only got out the combo in game 2, and I still beat him in games 1 and 3.
Finally, I played against John B. In game 1, I ran him over. In game 2, he managed to get out not one, but
two Flourishing Defenses, and with creatures with wither and a
Chainbreaker allowed him to make loads and loads of elf tokens. Needless to say, I lost that game. Game 3 was a fairly close game, with me getting the early start and him taking control of the board toward the end. Fortunately, when he was at 6 life and I had two red creatures (okay, they were both red-green hybrid), I managed to topdeck a
Burn Trail for the win.
3 wins and 1 loss... not bad. I think I finally broke free from the curse that happened when I
defeated Alan Comer in a draft. That and, I made sure to pay attention to signals. Also, it was refreshing to draft something other than red-black.
Sunday, July 6, 2008--
On this day:
In 2007: My first undisputed MTG tournament win. (4-0 on Standard FNM.)
Friday, July 4, 2008--
Happy Julie 4! I mean, uh,
Happy July 4!
Today, Justin and his parents visited me up here in Washington, because apparently his parents have property in Washington somewhere.
First, we went to Seoul Hot Pot to get some Korean food. (Ironically, I've never had the hot pot at Seoul Hot Pot.)
Then, Justin's parents went for a walk while Justin and I played some Magic the Gathering. He brought the Gruul deck that he desighed, and I quickly threw together my brand new red-white splash black Sliver deck (aka, "Infested Terran" or "Slivers V3"). Game 1 was incredibly close, but I ended up losing possibly because I decided to bring in a shockland untapped, taking 2 damage, which allowed Justin to burn me to death. If I had let the shockland come into play tapped, I would have survived an extra turn and possibly been able to counterattack for the win. In game 2, I pwned Justin quite handily. In game 3, I decided to tell Justin that the Sliver deck's weakness is its mana base and handed him a playset of Blood Moons. He proceeded to use those Blood Moons to colorscrew my slivers to death.
Afterwards, I reconfigured my Sliver deck to work a lot better even when Blood Moon is in play. (Although I still lose black when Blood Moon hits play. It's not a big deal, though. Black is only a minor (though important) splash.)
Thursday, July 3, 2008--After work today, I went to the gym and benchpressed 130 lbs on the free weights. I'm getting stronger every day!