I was pretty interested in Dokapon Kingdom the first few times I played it, but I've made up my mind against it. Freshmen year, as a group us four nerds in Claret decided Mario Party was a bad game and that we wouldn't play it, well Dokapon Kingdom is a bad game for all the same reasons. Hell, I'm going to go for it and say something that my current housemates will not be pleased with: Dokapon Kingdom is a significantly worse game than Mario Party.
First of all, it's still a game based on chance. You still roll a die (spin a spinner) that chooses where you land. You still can get ridiculous advantages and disadvantages from landing on an unmarked spot with absolutely no rhyme or reason. You can make ridiculous wagers in which you can come out way overpowered if you gamble against terrible consequences. Combat in the game is essentially Rock Paper Scissors, but what's worse is that it usually simplifies down to a sort of two-option equivalent. Strike beats defend, Attack beats counter (or from the defensive side, defend beats attack, counter beats strike) My roommates can say what they want about "strategy" or "skill" it all boils down to getting lucky and picking the right thing.
Second of all, unlike mario party there's an aspect of progress in the game. It's an RPG, so you level and get better equipment and yada yada and yak yak. One reason this makes the game worse than Mario Party is that it pretty much misses the mark on what the game is completely. This game wants really hard to be an RPG, but it's not. It's a party game. As in: People come over to your house, play it once and the same four people never wind up huddled around the wii ever again. I've seen it happen many, many times when Crash and Cody have friends over. Hell, we've only been able to convince all four of the people who LIVE IN THE SAME HOUSE to play it in that exact group of four three times, and the third time two of the players insisted on starting a new game because everyone forgot what had been happening in the old one. There is absolutely no reason why this game should have classes that you get once you master other classes, I've seen this game played dozens and dozens of times and I've never seen a class get mastered once. The second reason why the element of RPG progression is bad for this game is that it creates a vicious cycle in which the loser is always the loser. The loser cannot buy the new weapons because they don't have money. The loser cannot take the uncaptured towns because they aren't powerful enough to beat the stronger bosses. The loser cannot level because they are poisoned, they have shitty weapons and if they step on a monster fighting space, the winners can swoop in and steal the kill AND gank the loser in one fell swoop, and when they're dead, they're missing turns in which the other players are leveling, and getting money, towns and equipment that further widen the gap between winners and losers. The game tries to balance this with a secret class called darkling that fucks everyone over after you have been last place for ingame weeks straight. This doesn't really work either because there's often one or two ridiculous winning giants leaving two or three weaklings squabbling over last place, shifting it amongst themselves. I've only seen darkling status attained once.
Third of all, this game is absolutely 100% unfun for those doing poorly. It punishes you for dying by taking turns away. Combat is a let down when you can't win. At least in Mario Party you get to take every single one of your turns and there's a minigame between them which you can kick your friends' butts at. In Dokapon, there is no kicking the winner's butt if you're in last. There is only getting your butt kicked by the winner and avoiding the winner. Mario Party is occasionally viscerally satisfying even for the loser, Dokapon pretty much never is.
Finally, the main reason we stopped playing mario party is because it disintegrated into shouting matches over what was and wasn't fair. Mario Party involved dubious things like stealing star, being randomly given stars, having stars randomly taken from you, winning minigames based solely on chance. Dokapon involves similar things, random thief dude, randomly losing towns, randomly being given powerful items, randomly losing money...But It involves much worse. There are many ways within dokapon to actively and maliciously disrupt your opponent's game. I think the main reason we haven't fallen into shouting matches, or even real anger against eachother is that we're a closer group of people with a healthier relationship that the people I played Mario Party with as a freshman.
In conclusion: Dokapon Kingdom is not a good game. It is bad for all the same reasons Mario Party is, but in many respects it is worse. I don't recommend it to anyone. Just as I decided to never play Mario Party again then, I am deciding never to play Dokapon Kingdom again now.

Let me tell you a little story to demonstrate how awesome being a CS major at SSU is:
So I was hanging out with Mike, Eric, Brendan, Stephanie and I think probably some other people in the SPR. (reason SSU CS major is awesome #1: We have a secret club house) We were playing boggle. (reason #2: we play board games together between classes) Stephanie's reading off her words and she calls out "Duvet." I start singing "I am falling..." Mike joins in "...I am fading..." Then Eric joins in "...I am drowning, help me to breath!" (reason #3: People weren't weirded out by me bursting into songs from anime. reason #4: people caught the reference. reason #5: more than one person actually JOINED IN singing Duvet with me...OMG.) I'm so glad I'm CS.

I was driving down to Mountain View this weekend, heading down 280 and just clearing the cityscape. I look out and I see the rolling hills in the distance, and there's fog banks drifting in over the hilltops. It was beautiful. Seeing the pink clouds on the blue sky, with the white fog creeping slowly over the green hills...breathtaking. I'm sorry, words are failing me. I wish I had a photo.

Played some Rock Band Beatles today. It was pretty awesome. I'd love to actually own it, and I would play the FUCK out of it if I did, but given that I don't own a current-generation console, and I don't own the instruments, It would cost SO MUCH for me to get it. Hell, I mean it would be $60 for me to just get the game itself and play it on my roommate's wii with his Guitar Hero World Tour instruments, but I don't even have that much to spare, really. (plus I refuse to pay money for a game that will be useless to me when I move) Easy seemed like it was TOO easy, like even easier than Easy in Guitar Hero World Tour. I kicked it up to Medium, but I didn't do too well...I'm still not really used to using a fourth finger. As for songs, it had a very strong collection. It had the ones that I felt really needed to be in the game (While My Guitar Gently Weeps, And Your Bird Can Sing, and The End) and a couple somewhat surprising personal favorites (Hey Bulldog and Octopus's Garden.) Not to say that there aren't songs I'd like to see as DLC but I don't think I'd be 100% satisfied unless their entire discography was playable (well, you could leave out a few songs here and there...I wouldn't really miss Long Long Long or A Taste of Honey). I didn't play drums at all, but I did backing and lead vocals, bass, and guitar.

SO that thing I do around New Years, the thing where I list all the books, movies, and anime I've consumed this year...I'm calling it right now: Baccano! is going to be in my top 10, my top 5, my top 3, my top whatever-number-I-pick for anime. It is highly unlikely that I'll even see one more show as good as Baccano! by the end of the year, let alone enough to crowd it out of my favorites for the year.

Note to Amos: The show with the beans was called "Requiem from the Darkness," I was totally right about it not being Boogiepop Phantom.

So I've been lurking this community about fandom (no I haven't been reading fanfic or looking at fanart, but I've seen people discuss their ships and being or not being BNFs and a wide variety of fandom related things.) and centimetre posted some poll/meme thing about her ships and it got me to thinking...Well, I'm a big fiction nerd, what have I shipped? Of course, I'd be using a more lenient definition of shipping, as I'm not a reader or writer of fanfiction, or drawer or watcher of fanart. So who have I felt was a good couple in my fiction...But more than that, what couples did I feel I was PICKING rather than ACCEPTING. Because even though I may have though Kyon and Haruhi's big kiss was really cute, the fact of the matter is it seemed like I was appreciating the story being told more than picking through the story for hints that I'm right. So what have I shipped?

( what I have shipped )

So, Penny Arcade did a comic about the game Endless Ocean. It's not a very good comic, and it's also misleading without reading the News post, where it explains that the comic is NOT about how derivative the game is (as I had assumed from just reading the comic) but instead a sort of nod to the fact that it is NOT derivative by...pretending it is derivative? Anyway, so this is a game about scuba diving and looking at pretty wildlife. Yeah, that's right. There are apparently a few goals (photography, and treasure hunting apparently, maybe more) but overall they're sort of side quests to the overall LACK of goal other than looking at pretty stuff. Anyway, someone on the livejournal feed said that it sounded cool if it was free, and asked if it was free (rhetorically maybe?) which got me wondering what kind of price they would charge for it. Amazon is selling it for $30, but the second result for a search of "Endless Ocean" is Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure, which I know from Apple's Trailer site is actually based on a movie by National Geographic.
Now, Film-based video games are hardly unheard of, but they're usually for High Profile Action, fantasy, sci-fi, or children's movies. So, this got me wondering if those Discovery Channelesque I-Max pictures really do that well. I know that they continue to make them, so they must not be doing terribly. Here's the thing, I've been to I-Max theaters a few times. I've got to say, the only time that I was ever actually impressed by the I-Max experience was not Fantasia 2000, The Matrix Revolutions, or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the 3D parts of which did the opposite of impress me). No, the only time I was ever impressed by the I-Max presentation was Coral Reef Adventure in the dome theater in The Tech Museum. Coral Reef Adventure was an immensely enjoyable film. No, it didn't have a particularly captivating story nor compelling characters, but it was fun to watch, and had all sorts of pretty fish. (I guess you could say it's the movie equivalent of Endless Ocean. Making that analogy makes me far more optimistic about Endless Ocean.) And it was fun to watch in a big theater that curved over your head. It almost felt like being at a real aquarium, only instead of caged the fish were in their natural environment. I know that Coral Reef Adventure is long out of theaters, but if you ever get a chance to see something similar in an I-Max, I suggest you take it. Maybe the I-Max thing actually lends itself better to those documentaries than it does to regular movies. Though the Tech's is really the only I-Max I've been to that was curved into a dome, and the whole part about being surrounded by the imagery really enhanced the experience.

In other news, Portal is really overhyped. It's actually pretty fun, but it feels like the whole game is really one of those levels at the beginnings of other games where it's a tutorial before the REAL gameplay starts. I mean, it's fun, but everyone on the internet was shitting their pants over it, so I was expecting a lot more.

"I was sitting in my room, and I was just like staring at the walls thinking about everything but then again I was thinking about nothing. And then my mom came in and I didn't even notice she was there. She called my name and I didn't hear her and then she started screaming 'Mike! Mike!'
And I go 'What, what's the matter?'
She goes 'What's the matter with you?'
I go 'There's nothing wrong mom.'
She goes 'Don't tell me that, you're on drugs!'
I go 'No mom, I'm not on drugs, I'm ok, I'm just thinking, you know, why don't you get me a Pepsi?'
She goes 'No, you're on drugs!'
I go 'Mom, I'm okay, I'm just thinking.'
And she goes 'No! You're not thinking, you're on drugs! Normal people don't act that way!'
I go 'Mom, just get me a Pepsi, please. All I want is a Pepsi.'
And she wouldn't give it to me! All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me!"
-From the song "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies, as put to video from Evangelion in AMV Hell 3.

( Wii )

Me and Andrea went out to see Pan's Labyrinth on Saturday, which I had high hopes for due to critical response and my love of artistic use of the fantasy genre. I enjoyed it, but it was not what I expected. What I expected was a fairy tale with a prominent subplot about an evil military officer, but it is a movie about an evil military officer with a prominent fairy tale subplot. It would have been much better if there had been more in the way of the magical tasks that the main character has to tackle to prove herself. There were a few extremely gruesome scenes, and it was overall very dark and fairly depressing. But now that you have been warned, I would greatly suggest seeing it. It was beautiful.

I also finally got around to seeing Whisper of the Heart, meaning I once again have seen every Studio Ghibli Film with an official US release*. I kinda liked it but the characters' actions and conflicts all seemed really bizarre and unbelievable, especially in the context that the main characters were middle-schoolers.

( See the cat? See the cradle? )

I was looking at a Wikipedia article that I'm quite fond of, List of animated feature-length films, and I noticed that Paprika is finished. IMDB says it's gonna have a limited US release in May, and if it's playing in the Bay Area, I will see it. Satoshi Kon has directed two amazing films and one amazing TV show that more than make up for his first incoherent attempt at film directing, so I'm really looking forward to his newest film. This guy and studio ghibli are the only two entities in anime that I'm willing to judge as art rather than entertainment.

Oh yeah, I guess I mentioned it in the Cat's Cradle rant, but I'm volunteering at the library. They have me doing various jobs in the kids section...mostly sorting carts of books, and shelving DVDs, CDs, and paperbacks, though they've given me other chores like painting bowties for penguins and flipping through every paperback to try and find the ones that are damaged enough to get tossed. I'm working 10am-2pm every weekday. Seeing as how I'll have done 3 weeks by the time I return to Sonoma, I'll have 60 hours community service under my belt, and my dad's will not stop signing on for parent loans to put me through college like he threatened.

oh yeah, and since none of my other LJ friends are friends with anonymous_dork, this is pretty cool.

also, check out my cool icon I made. I used to have a similar one, but its text was really lame, so I redesigned it to sort of resemble the text on the cover of Magical Mystery Tour, where the image is from in the first place.

( * )

The other night, I had a dream that I was attending a cousiling group for characters from newspaper comics. So dilbert and Calvin and Cathy and Luanne and Sherman and Jason Fox were all there discussing their feelings. Like me, everyone seemed very sullen about being there and unwilling to contribute to discussion. I think the dream ended with someone fat getting thrown off a cliff.

I've been reading the Sandman comics. They're actually really good. I'm not sure why I didn't really like volume one when I read it a few years ago...Well, I do have an idea why I didn't, but I won't really get into that. Someone was reading it when I started, and they're really a lot slower than me. I was reading two volumes a day...but now I'm stuck waiting for mr. (or ms.) slow-poke to return volume eight to the library. So I checked out The Sirens of Titan instead. I still haven't gotten passed the part I read up to when I was reading it at Morgana's though, but I only checked it out last night.

Brian and Marty came by our room the other day and asked us if we had a PS3 yet, and said they would have offered us $800 dollars for it. Honestly, do they take us for retards? I mean if I was going to wait in line for days on end, I would NOT have sold at a $200 profit, especially not when I could make at least double that profit on ebay. Anyway, I'm not going to spend $600 on a video game console, especially when the games cost $70-$100, especially when there aren't any good games out for it yet, especially when I have to wait outside the store for days to get it.

So the Wii is out now. I guess soon opinions on how the controller works will flood the internet. I'm not sure I'll trust positive reviews even then. This is a peice of new technology that I'm going to have to try for myself before I pass judgement. In theory I like the idea, but it could turn out to be unresponsive or hard to use, especially in third-party games. So many people were so deticated to the Wii without even playing it, that they might lie to themselves about the experience simply because they've spend so long hyping it. I'm not one for blind love of a product, especially when my main reason for it gaining my support over another product is that the other product is more ridiculously priced.

I've been playing Wind Waker, and I've gotta say, it's disappointing. It's not a bad game, but it by far the worst Zelda I have ever played. Remember that gametap commercial with the "let's count sand" game? Yeah, I'd rather play that than the terrible, terrible sailing parts between levels. Whoever decided that sailing was a good idea should be shot. The gaming industry, as well as the gene pool, are better off without someone that stupid. Especially since the game comprimises on the number of dungeons it has in order to have a sailing-heavy triforce treasure hunt quest. The dungeons were actually enjoyable, but rather than having a traditionally large number, they decided to make you SAIL more. And the game is just ugly, too.

I am, however, looking forward to Twilight Princess. It sounds like it's going to be a lot better than Wind Waker was. Gamespot's review and IGN's review seemed to dissagree on Wii functionality for the game. Gamespot criticized it, but IGN said it worked great. I think I might leech a play off of someone with a Wii, and decide which version I want to play that way. Hell, I'll probably have to play it on someone else's system anyway as I don't forsee myself getting a gamecube anytime soon either.

After three episodes, the appeal of watching a show called "Pumpkin Scissors" wore off, and me and Travis stopped watching it because it was terrible. I haven't really been satisfied with any anime other than Ghibli, Gainax, and Satoshi Kon in the last three years, probably even longer. Oh sure, I enjoyed watching Gungrave, Hellsing, Trigun, Love Hina, etc. and I enjoy reading Naruto and One Piece, but they're also....well not very good. And with thing like Trinity Blood, Somedays Dreamers, and Eureka Seven where I see one or two episodes and feel terrible that I could have sat through that much, I've really come to the conclusion that most anime is really crappy. Good anime is extremely, extremly rare. Back in high school, I used to define myself as a Gamer/Anime nerd, but I don't like anime anymore, and Gaming is too expensive and time consuming to keep up with, so I'm drifting away from those interests in which I used to most identify myself. (Says the guy who was listening to a mix of Anime theme songs while ranting on and on about the console wars and Zelda series)

I miss Paly. I'd really like to be hanging out with Amos, Heather, and Anna right now. Plus, I could really go for a sandwich from the Cheese House right about now.

So, Uwe Boll beat Lotax and three other critics of his movies in a few boxing matches. While I will admit it's a great way of getting people to talk about you, it's really bad publicity for the guy. Because when you make movies for a niche market that already hates you for making crappy movies, the only way you can really make things worse is if you beat up their heroes. Don't get me wrong, Lotax with his "He told me it was just PR, AND THEN HE ACTUALLY HIT ME!" excuse looks like a loser to me too. I mean, when you accepted a boxing challenge, you can't claim that your opponent was cheating for hitting you. What was he supposed to do, honestly? But the Gamer Nerd subculture isn't about establishing dominance through physical violence. Uwe Boll isn't the new Alpha Male cause he kicked some people's asses, he's just a bigger jackass in the eyes of the gaming community. Now, if he had beaten up Jack Thompson....

I recently downloaded "Steal My Sunshine" by Len, and I gotta say, I'd forgetten how much I really liked that song. Espeically the album version with the ridiculous spoken parts ("Do you think he likes Butter Tarts?" "SHARON! I LOVE YOU!!!"). And the Lyrics are awesomely non-sensical too. ("Now the fuzzy stare from not being there to confuse the morning week impared my tribal lunar speak" "My sticky paws were into making straws out of big fat slurpy treats"). It makes me laugh.

( Update on the Arboretum Project )

Oh, and the Quote of the Week is:
"Fucking snake, get off my dick!"
-Some dude, Snakes on a Plane

My cousin Wlliam gave me his GBA SP and a few old games, but by far the one I've been playing most is the original gameboy tetris. Anyway, Last night I had dream that was playing tetris, and I cleared a line, but all it did was flash, and the blocks didn't disapear. However, the next peice fell into the blocks that should have cleared but were still there. as I continued to play, I continued to have other problems. The blocks kept overlapping, lines wouldn't disapppear or would disappear without me actualy cearing them, and the peices that fell began to stop being traditional tetris peices (a 4x4 square, for example). Finally, the game just totally wigged out and began dropping playing cards.

Solid Snake in Super Smash Bros!!! More on E3 when I'm less tired.

Wii.
Honestly, Wii.
I have this heavy feeling that all of the nintendo executives were driven completely crazy by end up third in this last generation.
I mean, really. Wii.
I think this a sort of symbolic final rush. They said "Screw it, We'll do what we want, not what has been proven to sell" and decided to rush, guns blazing into the front line of their enemies with no care as to their own fate. They'd prefer to come out on top again, but they're ready to die should the market so speak.
I mean, the controller recieved a lot of ridicule when unveiled. The controller is a HUGE leap of faith.
I mean, doesn't the title "Wii" just shout "WE'RE BATSHIT LOCO AND WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF THIS SELLS!!!" to you?

I literally have 154 Beatles songs on my computer. 57 Sung by John, 57 Sung by Paul, 18 Sung by George, 10 sung by both Paul and John, 7 sung by Ringo, and 5 others (4 with more than one Beatle singing, 1 with no Beatle singing). I've switched to iTunes and "shared" files with a bunch of people in Claret. Finally: I need "We Love Katamari", it came out about a week ago.

Chulip is still coming out! I had given up hope. Unfortunately: "The American version of the game will boast brand new graphics to localize it better for the US market (the original is decidedly Japanese) But I WANT it to be decidedly Japanese! Give me the Japanese graphics! I shouldn't complain though, it is coming out, even if it is edited. I can't say the graphics in the video clips I'd seen were what was really appealing and "attention to the text translation is being described as 'accurately meticulous.'" So it sounds like the graphics are all that are changing (hopefully). Still, it's a pretty bitchy thing of them to do. Only people looking for distinctly Japanese games like me will be interested in buying it in the first place, so they're really pissing off their customers rather than winning new ones over.

In other good news, even though I'm not going to see them in person the Pillows are releasing a CD in America. Amazon originally had it listed as Penalty Life, then they switched it to Good Dream, now it's back to Penalty Life. I'm so going to buy it. The combination of the two Furi Kuri soundtracks is a pretty meager selection of their music.

Dad's away from tonight until Tuesday. I'm going to visit Mikey Tomorrow through Sunday. Brook MIGHT come too, but it's unknown for sure. Mikey hasn't asked his parents yet. Anyway, it looks like I'm going to be taking a bus to Mikey's house in addition to BART and CalTrain. Yeah. I hope to have a good time. :-D

I'm looking forward to:
Chulip (It isn't out yet, but it's supposed to be)
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (as cynical as I am about direct FF sequels, I'm really excited about this)
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (apparently people have already seen this)
Final Fantasy XII (don't know much about it yet)
Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy (hopefully it's longer than the first)
Musashi Samurai Legend (assuming I beat Brave Fencer first)
first period prep (AKA more sleep)

So, a while ago I was reading an article in EGM on potential cult-classic games that were coming out soon. Some of the games were interesting sounding, but one caught my eye more than the others. That game was Chulip. It's a game where you have to lure loners out of holes in the ground and then kiss them. So, I decided I'd keep my eyes open, but not necessarily get it. Well, I was at the library last week and I was looking through EGM and it said Chulip was coming out soon. I was kinda interested, but shrugged it off. Today I was bored during my prep, so I decided I would check it out on GameFAQs. So I read this review and decided I really want this game. It has the potential to be weirder than Katamari Damacy. It was originally supposed to come out on the third. Unfortunately, it is "on hold." I hope that it will still be released eventually.

Brave Fencer Musashi is good.

So is Cold Stone. After school today, I bought a Cake Batter + Brownies and Cherries. It was tasty.

Damn, the trivial things humans do to themselves and others. I mean, what's the point of it all. There's got to be some higher meaning. It all seems like bickering and bullshit to me. (Not inspired by anything that really affects me)

On another note: we had to poll our Japanese class on what they thought about things out of five options we offer them. I chose cheese:
20/36 (55.5~%) think it's oishi (tasty)
3/36 (8.3~%) think it's kirai (dislike/hate)
3/36 (8.3~%) think it's tabetakunai (don't want to eat)
4/36 (11.1~%) think it's kiiroi (yellow)
6/36 (16.6~%) think it's sekushi (sexy)

*the ~ symbol is to represent "continuous" because I can't draw a little line over the digit

On another note, I went to Mikey's house again today and played Katamari Damacy again. The only question is: Have I ever wanted a video game more? Oh, and Lisha, you were asking about the meaning...I managed to find the Kanji as actual characters on a page instead of just part of an image, so I copied and pasted it into my Japanese translator program....

Katamari: lump, mass, clod, cluster
Tamashii: soul, spirit

So the title means something like "lump of souls." Rar.\

Is it weird that I was considering finding and buying a best of Frank Sinatra CD when my collection of modern music is extremely deficient?

( Read more... )

Buenos Dias. Have you ever been to Spain?

I finally played Katamari Damacy and, yes, it is as good as they say. (and it is also as mushroom-induced as they say)

Now I need it.

Amos burned me the most Kickass CD of Final Fantasy music (+ two versions of Simple and Clean which is from Kingdom Hearts)

WHO THE **** even CARES?
From: thecheesyone | Posted: 10/3/2004 3:26:47 AM | Message Detail
Games arent life, your life wont end if your favorite character doesnt win, you take this **** WAY too seriously. Go outside or something.


From: Princess Anri | Posted: 10/3/2004 3:32:51 AM | Message Detail
You take outside too seriously. Its not like you're gonna die if you don't go outside. Play a video game or something.

I bought Megaman Aniversary Collection. I have a headache from fighting robot masters.

THEATER

Troy Horrible. Don't see it.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban It was really bad at protraying the book. I re-read the book afterward and realized just how bad they protrayed it, and it's horrible. Not only that, but it wasn't very good as a stand alone movie either. It was much more rushed than the other two were. It seemed like they were just trying to get to the climax in as short a period of time as possible. Still I couldn't help but find myself enjoying it. I might even go as far as to recomend it.
Saved Probably the best movie I've seen this Summer, which isn't saying much because I haven't seen that many of this Summer's movies. It's was kinda a stereotypical teen comedy, but it was funny. I liked it.
Farenheit 9/11 It's really not all that the hype is giving it. I already knew Bush was a corrupt dumbass. Not much new there. Some parts really emotionally hit me, but for the most part it wasn't anything new... Some parts were funny, but not really that many.

NETFLIX

Monty Python's And Now for Something Completely Different deffinately odd. Pretty funny at times, but overall...quite odd.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie I didn't watch this, dad did. It was some french movie. the glimpses I caught of it were really weird.
Trigun: Vol. 7: Puppet Master Trigun is cool. Still, there seemed to be a lot of unneccisary death in this volume.
The Thin Man This was a nice old murder mystery. I liked it.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: Vol. 3: Impractical Magic I'm not quite sure how it was returned later than volume 4...Well anyway, Great stuff. This contains two of the funniest episodes of the show and one that explains a lot of the plot of the series.
The Godfather I actually didn't pay that much attention. Mostly I was messing around online and watching it out of the corner of my eye. Seemed kinda lame to me.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: Vol. 4 The war episode was hilarious. The Hollywood episode is even better. The conclusion basically seeled the deal and made me decide to own the series.
Trigun: Vol. 6: Project Seeds Well...We see into Vash's past in this volume. Yeah... It's a good show.
The Stepford Wives (1975) This was definately a good movie. It was a feminist movie about the evils women becoming subdued portayed through their replacement with mindless robots. It's a good movie.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: Vol. 2 The gangster episode is funny. The Middle episode is cool, it starts to explain the actual plot. I forgot what the episode was....I think it was the dinosaur one. I liked that one.

VIDEO GAMES

Kingdom Hearts Crappy concept that plays out so poorly that it's funny. Dispite the awful plot, it's got pretty fun gameplay. However, I did start to get a little sick of it around Halloween Town and haven't been playing much of it.
Dark Cloud 2 This is a fun game. It's alot better than the original, with more minigames and sidequests and such. Still, the game becomes awfully repetitive. especially after I kept going back to floors to try and get medals to buy the tiger ensamble for Monica.
Jak and Daxter A fun game. It was like a Crash Bandicoot game, but with more stuff and different setups for levels. It was really short though. I got 100% in about a week.

I knew it would lose, but under 9%? I want YOU to help me. I don't care if you've never played Gunstar Heroes. I don't care if you like Link to the Past more. Us fans of Gustar Heroes fans don't deserve this humiliation.
FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING GOOD IN THE WORLD, GO TO GAMEFAQS AND VOTE FOR GUNSTAR HEROES!!!

I am too morally bankrupt in Harvest Moon. I'm still hitting on Ann, even though we're both married. But what can I do? She's the only girl who doesn't have a red heart for me yet. Damn her and not liking flowers. I'm not giving her eggs; I can sell those. >_<

So anyway, I had a dream last night. I don't remember much about it though. I was playing Pokemon Snap in a cave. I had a feeling it was part of Lisha's house, like the Bat Cave or something.

A few days ago I had another dream that took place at the "place that looks like a freeway." Lewl. sorry, inside joke. What I mean is the underpass near the school. Pierre Meloty-Kapella was standing on Alma giving a speach to the rest of the Junior class (standing on Embarcadero). So anyway, Pierre was telling us that we shouldn't go to our first period classes. I think this might have been inspired by my conversation with Mikey and Kyle earlier that day. We had been talking about the effectiveness of walk-out strikes.

Right before I had that dream I had a weird, sorta-nightmare. I was in this house. The house itself wasn't very scary. It was a pretty nice house. The problem with it was that it was in the middle of nowhere. As in, there were no houses or people in miles. The dream started with me in the forest surrounding the house. I'm pretty sure there was something about being attacked by a dinosaur. So anyway, I broke into the house. Dad and Andrea were there, but they had broken in together. The thing about the dream was that I knew something was going to happen. It was scary, I knew it was just another horror flick. Well, what ended up happening was I willed myself to wake up before a moster could attack us, but it would have happened if I hadn't woken up.