Digital Devil Saga 2

Heat and Serph are two sexy b*******. Too bad about the whole bloody evisceration thing. I'm sure it was all a misunderstanding.

DDS2 has the best storyline I've seen in years. Also the best-looking cast. Serph, Heat, Sera, Cielo, Argilla, Gale... Roland there in the bottom left suffers from an ill-fitting name but little else, and Jenna Angel next to him looks amazingly sexy for being...well, a hermaphrodite. Yes, really. Yes. Why? I don't really know, and I hope there's a good explanation. She should thank the RPG gods for M-rated games. Something needed to balance out all the shallow, sugar-coated RPGs out there these days.

Serph is pretty great but... Something about Heat is really... hot. (And not only his temper...) DDS just puts you in a vicious sort of mood and I admit--I like it. I like the ones that are more evil than good, who still have just enough redeeming qualities that make you want to love them...even when they put their arm through the main character's chest. Besides, it's not enough to keep Serph down. They'll both be back.

Anyway... I had fun making the background. Thanks to Naomi from Nirvana for the screenshots from the EGG scenes, which are what I used to make it in PSP7.

It happened AGAIN

Another random guy sat with me at lunch. This is getting weird. Maybe I should have tagged this in my other post, if it's a reoccurring thing?

Exciting

I'm thinking Engineering Expo would be a cool challenge--but I'd have to learn my elevator speech or whatever and update my resume!! I'm not sold on this, but it's mostly nerves and lack of...something. I figure if Japan falls through, maybe I could fall back on an internship if I was offered one.

I'd like to try Google Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome) but without a laptop, it's pretty much pointless.

ACM Open House tonight! I think I wanna try Gamebuilders, but I'll also check out the WCS Tech Team and see what's up tomorrow night. Maybe I'll try another SIG too, if I think it'll be useful.

So Digital Devil Saga is pretty old-school. I dunno how much I like the fighting system. They say that Final Fantasy is repetitive, but maybe I like it cuz it's all pretty too. :P DDS is a little stiff on the character motions and not as flashy. Also the voice acting is a little weak at points. I'll keep playing it until I actually get bored though. Could be fun.

I have to do this Culture-Learning Portfolio for JAPN 201, but it actually might be kind of fun. I won't like it cuz it's work, but what it's actually about--well it will be interesting. I'll probably do that this weekend or something. Very cool. I can talk about Pocari Sweat in there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat ;P Well I dunno, maybe not, but I think that's a great name. I'll try it someday!

I guess that's it. So glad MP1 is done and Physics HW A is over. Very nice.

A Little Bit of Anything

GREAT NEWS.
They changed the faucets in Siebel--they no longer spray freezing water at seemingly random intervals when you're waving your hands around in front of them like an idiot.

As for gaming, all the good Square Enix RPGs aren't coming out until 2009 at least. Let's see... Dissidia (fighter-RPG), Birth by Sleep, Final Fantasy XIII, and Versus XIII and Agito XIII definitely won't be out till at least 2010, if not 2011. Well, somebody's putting out Star Ocean: The Second Departure for PSP in January, so that'll probably my next game. I finally started Digital Devil Saga but I've only played a half hour, if that so far.

A random guy sat with me at lunch yesterday. Freshman ME kid, kinda an oddball. Talked about Ultimate Frisbee almost the whole time. I still give him credit though for just randomly doing that, but I was still a little weirded out. Talk about a reminder that you have no friends to eat with you. :P

Compy is at home, finally fixed but minus a new battery. MAYBE I'll get it next weekend. If I do, the first thing I wanna do is figure out how to install Linux without wiping the drive because I have neither the time nor patience now to reformat. CS225 has made getting Linux a priority.

Well, not too much homework yet, so there's been some free time. It's been good. I'm readjusting well after the end of summer from hell--I just hope I can keep things improving.

Dissidia

SQUALL AND FIRION.
*drool*
Don't worry, I only do this with fictional people. ;P

Death

One of my mom's former coworkers son was sick. Very sick. He passed away this weekend.

I never met him but his story strikes a chord. He was 19. My age. My friends' ages. His wake is tonight, but I think I've decided I'm not going. A part of me feels like I should. I try to rationalize it--the last thing his parents want to see is a daughter who is the same age and yet is still here. I'm thinking of them. Him. In the last few months, my awareness of this sort of thing has been higher than ever. Death. It almost has become one of those words where I shy away from even uttering it.

We talk about death all of the time, whether it's someone we know, or someone on the news, or just someone "dying" in a video game. Now the last one doesn't really bother me...but it just points out how desensitized we are as the younger generation. We talk about it, some of us think we think about it, but I doubt many really stop and think about what it fully implies. The people who actually live every day like it were their last are great people, but I think they are few and far between. We all get caught up in the daily chores and look where it gets us. You might even be having fun, but are you truly appreciating that in fact, it really COULD be your last day?

I want to start living like that. I know I won't be perfect, but I want to give life the respect it deserves. I want to stop taking for granted every day as if there will be thousands ahead of me. Because someday, those thousands will only be hundreds and those hundreds... It makes you take every day a little less for granted when you really think about it. I want to take life at its fullest, even while my head tells me to hide from the risks or the awkwardness or the disappointments. It's a fight...but if this is all we have, I don't want to waste it.

Catching Up

I don't even know where to begin.

Well, tonight there was a storm. A BIG storm. An oh-shit-is-it-possible-the-tornado-will-eat-me-alive kind of storm. A roof blew off less than a mile from here, and a tornado hit half a block away from my relatives. My "aunt" in Indiana had a power line down in her front yard, too. For a little while I considered it could be my last day on Earth. Yes, I felt the same way on the way home from Louisiana during a similar storm. I'm really getting tired of these games of fatal roulette.

...sorry. I was just gone for a few minutes but you wouldn't know that would you? Goozexing--deciding if I should get rid of Xenosaga on there. I'm getting rid of .hack//Outbreak even though I have a guide with it, but prospects on Ebay looked pretty poor. Lemme know if anybody wants Xenosaga I-III for PS2, I'll hold off a day or two before putting up III. What to do with that guide? Not worth it to sell it online...

Anywayyy, I just got home yesterday. Yes, life-or-death experience the day after I get home, whee! *sigh* I'm glad to be alive. Things like that really make you think...

So I'm extremely jealous of Matt. Yes you if you're reading this!! Right now he's on his way to Alaska doing amazingly awesome amazing things. Mmhmm, I did that on purpose. But I'm at home. At the same time, this will give me some time to see some people that I've really missed. Also, I can maybe learn a thing or two while these last less than three weeks go by... Well, I hope he's still having a good time.

Who else likes Japanese things?? I just watched The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya last week, good stuff. I'm trying to finish up Kino's Journey right now... Also I start Japanese next semester, which I am super pumped about.

But unfortunately, my computer's going into the shop on Wednesday, hopefully getting back in time for our trip in two weekends to the U.P.--Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Pig roast, among other things. I won't really have anybody there to hang out with, so I'll just have to entertain myself by chatting up my mom and Glenn's friends or sitting around...likely daydreaming, since nothing else is considered "polite"--like reading or going on my laptop or whatnot. Perhaps writing...

About the last two months... I've been in Champaign-Urbana, taking summer classes. Linear Algebra and Intro to International Relations. LA was not so bad, and yeah I learned stuff in IR, but there is NO WAY I am ever taking a PoliSci class again. I'm sorry if this offends anyone. I feel more informed, yes, but I did not really enjoy it. Especially that 14 page paper at the end which may not even receive a good grade... Ohhh well. Also I've been working with TSG, so that wasn't too bad of a deal.

I ran into my old CS 173 TA quite a few times. I'll probably take his advice and try and get a research job--that is, once I find something or someone I actually like! I still think next summer is the Summer of Japan--Kanazawa, to be exact. I heard good reports from a friend of a friend, so I'm thinking positively. With scholarships, it should be possible.

I'll leave things at that for now. Hope everyone's enjoying the last bit of summer!