Thursday, August 31, 2006--More work, more Disgaea 2.
Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8
Good night, dood!
Wednesday, August 30, 2006--
On this day:
In 2005: The first day of 2nd-Year College classes.
Disgaea 2 came out today. Right after work, I went and picked up my copy from GameStop and played that basically until midnight or so.
The storyline and the characters aren't as good as in the original Disgaea, but the gameplay is much more balanced. I will have a review posted on
Avalanche Online soon (which will be mirrored here).
Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 2) Total: 6
Bite the dust!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006--Recipes learned today:
- Chicken & Cucumber Chow Mein (Fried Noodles)
On this day:
In 2005: The first day of Senior Year College classes.
The phone
still isn't working. It's weird, 'cause the phone guys left a card saying they were done installing, but the lady on the phone said they weren't. Well, which is it?
Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 5) Total: 10
Good Night!
Monday, August 28, 2006--Today, I ordered some telephone service for my new apartment. They said it would be ready tomorrow, so after work today, I went and bought a phone. (I also bought 6 cartons of orange juice, but that's besides the point.) Anyone who wants my new phone number,
IM me or something.
I also watched Kill Bill vol. 2. I think Kill Bill vol. 1 was better.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 4) Total: 6
Good Night!
Sunday, August 27, 2006--Today was mostly a day about learning the ropes of Redmond, Washington. I found some gas stations, particularly one with a car wash, so I washed my car. It went from really dirty to squeaky clean. (No, I don't know if it actually squeaks.) I also went to Safeway to get some breakfast and dinner foodstuff. Then, I cooked some dinners for myself.
Recipes learned today:
Other things I did today include: working on
Dark Fiends, watching Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (courtesy of Alex), and watching Kill Bill vol. 1 (courtesy of Alex). Jay and Silent Bob movies are awesome. Kill Bill is violent. Uma Thurman is all right. Lucy Liu has the same eyes as Conifer.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 5) Total: 7
Good Movie!
Saturday, August 26, 2006--Today, I moved out of temporary housing at Archstone and into the Trails of Redmond for good. Also, my bed finally arrived, so it's finally live-able now. That and, I finally unpacked all my stuff, including my laptop and accessories, my PS2, and my M:tG cards.
Also, I had to drive my mom to the airport. Then, I played some random games, like We [heart] Katamari.
Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 6) Total: 12
Good Night!
Friday, August 25, 2006--Here are some restaurants I recommend in Redmond Washington:
- Dixie's BBQ (meet The Man)
- Maple Garden
- Kiku Sushi
On this day:
In 2003: The first day of Freshman College classes.
Anyways, I moved into my new apartment in the Trails of Redmond today. My mom and I spent most of the evening after work building furniture from IKEA. Then, we had dinner at Kiku Sushi.
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 1) Total: 2
Good Food!
Thursday, August 24, 2006--As far as I know, my machines are fully set up and ready to go.
Also, I watched Mallrats today. Jay & Silent Bob movies are good.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 2) Total: 4
Good Night!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006--I got my password today, and apparently, my old alias is usable, so I was able to make progress in setting up my dev machines. w00t!
On this day:
In 2005: Roommate David makes his first appearance in my bloop.
In 2004: First appearances of Guillermo, roommate; Joyce S, girl next door; Irene (IVY), other girl next door; Lynn, Aura, and Minjung, girls downstairs.
Later this evening, I met up with Chao (not Ryan) and had dinner with him at Red Robin. Mmm... Red Robin burgers...
Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8
Also, I watched Dogma today, courtesy of Alex. Really good movie.
Good Night!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006--NEO is very very boring...
On this day:
In 2005: I meet Princess Vivian.
But, I finally got to meet my team... again... I set up my machines, but... Funny story: so there's a snafu with the e-mail, and they actually lost the password to my account. That and, they gave me the username dwaynej, but I'm always djeng, so I had a request to get my username changed to djeng. Then, I got the message that my username has been changed, but it wouldn't be ready until Thursday. So yeah... I have no username, and nobody knows my password.
At least on the bright side, I have internet access now... at work...
Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 4) Total: 10
Also, I watched Clerks today, courtesy of Alex.
Good Night!
Monday, August 21, 2006--
It begins...
I had my New Employee Orientation (NEO) Day One with Microsoft today. Apparently, NEO for full-timers is 2 days as opposed to just 1 day for interns. And apparently, I don't get to meet my team (again) until tomorrow.
So yeah... NEO was very very boring.
On this day:
In 2003: I meet Kim Hung on the Chancellor's Lawn.
Afterwards, mom and I went to the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue (not to be confused with the Crossroads cafeteria in Berkeley), where I found a GameStop (woot!) and reserved a copy of Disgaea 2 (double woot!).
And then I wrote all the journal entries from Aug 17 until Aug 21. But you know, I can't upload them yet, 'cause you know, I don't have internet yet. Hehe...
Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8
Also, I watched Ghost in the Shell today, courtesy of Alex.
Good Night in the Shell!
Sunday, August 20, 2006--We arrived in Redmond at about 3:30pm and moved into our temporary housing at Archstone, courtesy of Aboda (the temporary housing middleman company--they rent apartments, furnish them, and then rent them to Microsoft at uber-expensive prices).
Then, I went back to the Trails of Redmond and managed to lease the last apartment. No, not the last 1-bedroom apartment. Not even the last good apartment. I leased the last goddamn apartment of the entire complex. And just before closing time, too. Perfect timing if I may say so myself.
Then, we had dinner at Maple Garden (mom read the Chinese menu for me--yay!), and then watched the movie Paycheck on TV. It was a pretty good movie.
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 1) Total: 2
Good Night!
Saturday, August 19, 2006--First, the whole family (me, Franklin, mom, dad, Uncle Shawn, Aunt Fanny) had one last family dinner at Taste of China. Then, dad drove Uncle Shawn and Aunt Fanny to the airport while mom and I started driving to Microsoft.
Of course, since driving from San Jose to Redmond (the city in Washington, not the street) takes 13 hours, we already knew we'd have to stop somewhere for the night. We ended up stopping in Roseburg, Oregon.
Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 4) Total: 10
I bid thee Good Night!
Friday, August 18, 2006--So Justin got back from UCLA yesterday, and I will be leaving for Microsoft tomorrow. So naturally, we hung out today. Ryan, Justin, and I went to Cupertino to get some Korean tofu. Now, the menu said No Spice, Medium, and Hot. Since this was an Asian restaurant, I naturally assumed that meant Kinda Spicy, Really Spicy, and So Spicy You'll F~~~in' Die, so I ordered No Spice. It was bland. Really really bland. According to Justin, the Medium was bland, even by American standards. Go figure.
Later, Justin, Ryan, and I stopped by at Superstars. I bought a Coldsnap Fat Pack. Just off the top of my head, I remember getting Phyrexian Etchings (the new Necropotence), a Zur the Enchanter, and an Arcum Daggson. I know I got 3 more rares, but I don't remember them at the moment.
We then went back to my place, where we played some M:tG and some Halo 2.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 1) Total: 3
I spent the rest of the night packing for my trip tomorrow. I'll miss California and everybody I'm leaving behind.
See you on the other side!
Thursday, August 17, 2006--
Happy Birthday Nadia!
Today, I played a bit of Dragon Quest 8. And then, I and Franklin beat Halo 2 in Co-op mode on the Heroic difficulty level. It wasn't as cliffhanger-ish as most people said it would. I mean, there was a final boss, and there was kind of a resolution. Granted, it wasn't fully resolved, but it didn't end "randomly" by any means. If there was a logical place to put a break between Halo 2 and Halo 3, this would have been it.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 3) Total: 5
Good Night Indeed!
Friday, August 18, 2006--Why am I crying?
Boys aren't supposed to cry.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006--Today, I played some more Dragon Quest 8.
Yangus: COR BLIMEY!
I also played Halo 2 with Frankie.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 5) Total: 7
me: Hey, Duckie! You wanna come see Snakes on a Plane on Friday with us?
Duckie: I'm seeing it with the other RCCs. We're catching the 7:30 show, so if you want to see that with us...
me: Sounds lovely and all, but there's just one problem: I'm not at Berkeley right now.
Duckie: Oh no! I totally forgot about that!
Hehe... silly little Duckie!
Anyways, Good Night!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006--Hmm... more Halo 2 and Dragon Quest 8.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 3) Total: 5
May the Night be Good!
Monday, August 14, 2006--Today, I mostly played with the Dragon Quest 8 that Chao bought me (which included an FF12 demo). FF12 demo was, well, a demo. I know now how the battle system for FF12 works.
DQ8 is interesting, though. It plays almost like FF1, except a bit different. It's cel-shaded, though, which is awesome.
On this day:
In 2005: In Diablo 2, Justin and I visit Chaotic Tristram for the first time ever.
Later today, Franklin brought home a borrowed Xbox360, and we played Halo 2 for a few hours.
Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 1) Total: 5
Good Night!
Sunday, August 13, 2006--
Happy 21st Birthday to me!!!
On this day:
In 2004: "Holy shit! I have negative one of nothing!"
So yeah. I had a Birthday/Farewell Party for myself today. Alex arrived first, and Chao arrived second, so we played Katamari or something until Lei and Jessica showed up.
me: *brings up potato chips* Here, Lei. I knew you were coming, so I just
had to buy these. *hands her a bag of Lay's potato chips*
Lei: Oh, how did you know I liked Lay's?
me: I didn't. But you know, you and the potato chips have the same name.
Suddenly, I have a craving for potato chips. BRB
After playing some Bomberman and some Soul Calibur 3 (Lei played Soul Calibur 3, too, for some reason, prolly because she's awesome), Princess Vivian arrived. Therefore, Princess Vivian is awesome (as she always is). Here's a picture of
me and the Princess.
Alex: What did you order?
me: 2 medium pizzas, buffalo wings, and cheesy bread. (from Domino's)
Alex: I think you ordered too much food.
*Later, after the pizza arrives*
Alex: I'd hate to say this, but I think you didn't order enough food.
Fortunately, we had
Lay's potato chips.
Then, because the girls had to leave soon (Lei and Jessica had to go back to Berkeley, and the Princess had to go to church), we decided to go eat cake. Mmm... cake... Yeah, apparently, we had cake and candles and candle holders, but no lighter. We eventually found and used this big-ass BBQ lighter to light some measly little candles. And then when it was time for me to blow them out, there was one stubborn candle that simply refused to go out. I was about to snuff it with my fingers, but they stopped me and made me blow it out manually.
The party ended with me and Chao and Alex playing random games and looking at random crap online. All in all, it was the best party ever.
Here are the rest of the
pictures (along with the pictures from last week's BBQ).
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 3) Total: 4
Duckie couldn't make it, though, but she called me not once, but
twice. The first time was a few hours before the party to tell me that she might not be able to make it. The second call was toward the end of the party, where she apologized to me for not being able to make it. Aww, Duckie is so sweet! Unlike that
other Chu.
And no, I didn't drink.
Best Night!
Saturday, August 12, 2006--Tomorrow...
Well, as promised, here's a review for Suikoden 2, in spoiler text, as quoted from
Avalanche Online.
*S2*
NOTE: You should probably read my Suikoden 1 review first. It can be found here.
So anyways, you can clearly see that Suikoden 2 entertained me for much longer than Suikoden 1. I finished Suikoden 1 in 4 days. However, Suikoden 2 took me over a week to finish. I beat Suikoden 1 in under 30 hours. However, Suikoden 2 took me over 60 hours to clear. I also paid twice as much for Suikoden 2 than Suikoden 1, so it's good to know I got double the entertainment out of it.
In any case, the time on the save file after beating the game was 61:21:34, and my main character was at level 63 in the end.
SOUNDTRACK
Mostly the same as in Suikoden 1. I like how the ending music for Suikoden 1 was the world map theme for Suikoden 2. I also like how some of the storyline bosses got their own battle theme.
GRAPHICS
A slight improvement over Suikoden 1. The resolution seems to have gotten better, and the special effects are cooler. However, I don't like the way they used FMVs. They used so few FMVs that it made very little impact on the game, and the places where they DID use FMVs were often inappropriate. (The only FMVs that I thought were well done were the summoning of the Beast Rune in Muse and the summoning of the Beast Rune in L'Renouille.)
STORYLINE
Much better than the first one. First of all, the character development was much improved. Nanami and Jowy were much better developed than Cleo, Pahn, and Gremio from Suikoden 1. Not only that, but the main villain for most of the game (ie, Luca Blight) seemed to have a real personality. At first, I was worried that Luca Blight would turn out too much like Kefka, but whereas Kefka was outright insane, Luca was just plain sadistic. I won't make any comments on which character is better, but Luca Blight was a pretty solid villain in his own right.
Also, Jowy reminded me of Delita from FFTactics. I dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
GAMEPLAY
I really liked how Suikoden 2 had Party Items, as opposed to each character having to carry a slew of items in Suikoden 1. It made managing my items much, much easier. The one draw back is that the storage vault seems to have gotten smaller. Fortunately, most of the other characters could be used as mules.
If I were still in the first half of the game, I'd probably say that the characters in Suikoden 2 are more balanced compared to Suikoden 1. But then, I got Valeria, who was the most powerful character in Suikoden 1. Not only that, but Valeria seems to have gotten stronger in Suikoden 2 (whereas Viktor most certainly got weaker). And then, I got Anita, who, when combined with Valeria, makes for a really really powerful front line.
But at least on the bright side, there are no totally useless characters. So yeah. The character balancing has improved on the lower end, but the upper end is still crazy. Not that I'm complaining, though. Balancing usually isn't that important in single-player games.
Another thing I liked about Suikoden 2 was that there were more bosses, and in most cases, I got a save point right before the boss. (Lack of bosses and lack of save points were two of my complaints in Suikoden 1.) Unfortunately, most of the bosses were just really strong monsters with no connection to the storyline, but at least there were more storyline bosses as well. I mean, fighting Luca Blight was pretty awesome in itself. Not only that, but I got to fight Lucia (several times), Culgan and Seed, Gorudo, and Neclord again. Yeah, boss fights are what RPGs are all about.
However, despite all that, one minor detail that bugged me (although not that much) was the fact that they used essentially the EXACT same battle system from Suikoden 1. Now, if it were the case that Suikoden 1's battle system was "tried and true", then I'd have no complaints. But no, Suikoden 1's (and therefore, Suikoden 2's) battle system has been around since the 1980's. (Suikoden 1 and 2 both have the same battle system as Final Fantasy 1.) Don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining about the lack of innovation. I'm complaining about the lack of complexity. Every single battle I fought in Suikoden 2 was basically attack, Unite, Falcon Rune, attack, Unite, Falcon Rune, heal, heal, heal. Even the boss fights.
Overall, though, I'd still say the gameplay of Suikoden 2 was pretty solid, especially when compared to Suikoden 1. They kept everything about Suikoden 1 that I liked (including Valeria and the Falcon Rune), and fixed almost everything that I didn't like.
One last thing: Viki in Suikoden 2 is usable in battle. Hurray! It's also hilarious when she uses the Blink Rune and fails.
IN CONCLUSION
Suikoden 2 is better than its predecessors in all categories. No wonder it's so much more expensive. I recommend Suikoden 2 to RPG enthusiasts, but play Suikoden 1 first. It'll be worth it.*S2*
In conclusion, Suikoden 2 is better than Suikoden 1, but you should definitely play Suikoden 1 first.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 1) Total: 3
Good Night!
Friday, August 11, 2006--2 more days...
On this day:
In 2003: Convo with me and Lei about how girls with boyfriends are more flirtatious...
Anyways, today, I played a lot of
Diablo 2. I got my Classic Spear Barbarian to level 55, so he's officially the highest level Barbarian I have. (He even surpassed my old sword Barbarian, who is now a mule.)
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 1) Total: 1
Good Night!
Thursday, August 10, 2006--3 more days...
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 5) Total: 8
Conifer Rawnshen Chu won't come to my birthday/farewell party. I'm officially mad at her.
Good Night!
Wednesday, August 9, 2006--I beat Suikoden 2 today. I'll put up a review later. It's a good game, though. Better than Suikoden 2 in my not-so-humble opinion.
On this day:
In 2003: I play my first MTG booster draft, at Hedayati's place.
Also, my Aunt Fanny and Uncle Shawn came to visit us today. They're going to be staying for I dunno how long. But they're going to be staying. Also, Aunt Fanny gave me a digicam as an early birthday present. So now, I finally own my own digicam. I took a bunch of random pictures and posted them on
Facebook.
Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 6) Total: 8
Good Night!
Tuesday, August 8, 2006--So I was playing Suikoden 2 today. In Suikoden 2, there are 5 flying squirrels you can get, named Makumaku, Mikumiku, Mukumuku, Mekumeku, and Mokumoku. So I get the first 4 squirrels within 10 minutes each. However, I then spend hours looking for Mokumoku, and he doesn't appear. Finally, in my frustration, I take a break and post something on
Avalanche Online about my frustration with squirrels. Less than half an hour later, I somehow manage to find that elusive Mokumoku.
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 3) Total: 4
Stupid squirrels!
Monday, August 7, 2006--I vaguely remember
not playing Suikoden 2 today. I don't remember why. I don't remember.
On this day:
In 2005: Justin and I slay Uber Duriel for the first time in Diablo 2.
Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 5) Total: 9
Good Night!
Sunday, August 6, 2006--Yet another day of Suikoden 2... I think...
Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 5) Total: 11
Good Night!
Saturday, August 5, 2006--8 more days...
Today was the big BBQ Farewell Party that I was throwing for my little family friends, namely Kellie, Little Vivian, and Robin (Little Vivian's little sister). ('Cause you know, it'd probably be awkward to have them here on my real birthday party, 'cause you know, my family friends are all little girls.)
So anyways, within the first 5 minutes of the party, I grabbed the family digicam and got myself a picture with me and Kellie and Little Vivian and Robin. So then I was like, my primary purpose for this party has already been fulfilled... now what?
But yeah, we entertained ourselves by playing Scrabble on a really really old set, and then we played Risk. With me and Little Vivian and Kellie and Franklin and Franklin's friend Jeffrey and Jeffrey's sister Connie (not Chu). (Robin didn't play because Robin doesn't talk in my presence. It's a thing we have... or something.) The first game degenerated into an unofficial 4v2, with me and the 3 girls vs Franklin and Jeffrey. Franklin and Jeffrey basically had bad board position, so they forfeited, and the girls declared a
Coalition Victory, the turn before I was about to betray them and take over the world (since I had been engaging in deals that would leave me in the best board position). We then played a second game as an official 4v2. Franklin and Jeffrey lost again, but they managed to eliminate Kellie first. Interestingly enough, Little Vivian had the best board position that game. (She managed to take all of Africa and South America.)
me: I like how the most clueless person in the game turned out to be the MVP.
Little Vivian: Is that supposed to be a compliment?
me: Yes.
me: If I say something about you, regardless of what I say, it's a compliment.
Little Vivian: Oh, okay.
Franklin: You're ugly.
Then, we played Mario Kart. Me and Kellie and Little Vivian and Connie. I won the first game, so then I gave my controller to Robin, and she actually started playing. Then, Kellie won the rest of the games, because Kellie is actually good at video games.
Anyways, the photos. Here is a photo with
me and Little Vivian and Robin. Little Vivian is the one on the left (with the blue hair) and Robin is the one on the right. Here is a photo with
me and Kellie. And for some reason Franklin is in it. And the rest of the images (4 total) are in
here. More will come later, after the 13th.
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 4) Total: 7
(Finally caught up with my journal entries... for the time being...)
Good Little Vivian!
Friday, August 4, 2006--Too much Suikoden 2? No way!
Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 6) Total: 11
Rune Night!
Thursday, August 3, 2006--Even more Suikoden 2...
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 3) Total: 4
Good Night!
Wednesday, August 2, 2006--More Suikoden 2...
On this day:
In 2004: I beat Golden Sun 2.
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 6) Total: 7
Good Night!
Tuesday, August 1, 2006--Suikoden 2...
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 6) Total: 7
Good Night!
