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Introduction (aka about this journal)
Hello and welcome. This is, fairly obviously, my online journal / blog / whathaveyou. Come, put up your metaphorical webtravelling shoes; won't you have a read for a while?

I also, like 11 million other people, play World of Warcraft. My main characters are:

  • Shukeralle, unguilded level 80 night elf druid (server: Aggramar)
  • Donda, level 72 tauren druid, also on Aggramar. Is in the "Hordes of Hell" giuld.
  • ...and an army of alts

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Jul. 18th, 2008 @ 04:27 pm E3 apathy; white-haired pretty boys as opposed to apathetic ninjas; and gyabo mukyu
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I have not been following news of E3 at *all*. All I've been doing is catching bits and pieces, and seeing Penny-Arcade's hilarious take on the Big Three's keynote speeches.

What kind of gamer do I think I am, huh? Huh, punk? Who do I think I'm looking at, little punk twerp that I am?

More importantly, FF13 on XBox 360! I'm not the biggest FF fan in the universe - I've only played two FF games ever, and have the GBA remake of FF4 waiting patiently somewhere on my game queue. (My steadfast refusal to have anything to do with the playstation had a bit to do with that.) But FF13 looks interesting... especially since the main character is, for once, a girl. Not a girly-looking boy, but a girl. These uncharted waters are new and interesting. Or something.

I might be enthusiastic about the Rock Band 2 announcements if it weren't for the fact that a) we *still* do not have a release of Rock Band ONE here in Australia, and b) I probably couldn't get enough people together for Rock Band sessions anyway.

It strikes me that I should go hunting around for E3 news.

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In other news, I am finally playing through Dante's missions in DMC4.

Nero was fun, but Dante is being a pain in the arse. The targeting and rapid on-the-fly mid-combo switching of weapons and styles equates to far too many buttons inputs to deal with for my tastes. The button chording of Street Fighter ain't *nothing* compared to all the shoulder triggers and buttons and control pads you have to deal with when dealing with Dante in DMC4.

I must say I prefer Ninja Gaiden 2.

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In other non-gaming news, I'm finally getting through Nodame Cantabile. Nodame's plight at the end of volume 11 was awful. In very brief: Her first day at the Conservatoire in Paris has a bunch of theory and analysis classes that confuse her thoroughly, there's lots of administrative crap that she was supposed to have done earlier, and her personal instructor - who put her up to coming to the Conservatoire in the first place - listens to her play a piece and says it was crap.

It was a little too close to home as well. I had some crises of confiedence at university. Reading something like that, after some annoying days recently, was not a good combination.
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Mar. 20th, 2008 @ 10:05 am You know. Just stuff.
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Once again I have been wildly inconsistent with Livejournal. However, this time it has been two weeks instead of eight months.

I never feel like I have much to post, though.

Well, there was Barack Obama's speech. OK, it was just a speech, and words are easier than actions, but, seriously, USA. Why isn't this man your President yet? :)

In other news, there's the 21 year old Ranma 1/2. I say 21 years old because the manga started in 1987. Even though it didn't finish until 1996, that still makes it 21 years old to me.

Anyway, despite the fact that I've written Ranma 1/2 fanfiction, and participated in GRiT (a Ranma 1/2 based improvisational community writing project RPG-type thing) for over ten years, I had never actually seen the Ranma 1/2 TV series.

Why yes, that paragraph *is* deliberately misrepresenting the truth! I actually am familiar with the series, seeing as I'd read all the manga, in both Japanese and English, and seen the movies and OVAs and six or so random episodes of the TV series, in both Japanese and English.

In any case, this is my roundabout way of getting to the point that I am now watching the Ranma 1/2 anime, at long last. I've seen the first two seasons so far. It's fun, but even in the first two seasons the filler elements are annoying. The later seasons, which infamously have lots more filler, are going to be even more annoying.
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Oct. 10th, 2005 @ 12:34 pm Bleach rambling
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As I may or may not have mentioned here (I can't remember), I have become quite a Bleach fanboy lately. There's just something about it. Alright, quite a few things:

1) There's some great treatment of death and passing on in the early episodes.

2) In the early episodes, there's at least one confrontation that is not resolved with violence, and another confrontation that does not end with Ichigo (the main character) defeating the enemy (Grand Fisher). Instead, it ends in a draw.

3) A great dynamic between Ichigo and Rukia (one of the main female leads).

4) Rukia's adorably crappy drawings. ^_^

5) Rukia herself. She's tough, no-nonsense, and quite unusually, there is little-to-no hint of any romance between her and Ichigo.

6) The fact that all the action is not involving regular people at all. They can't even see what's happening, and it doesn't even concern them.

7) Even after the Soul Society arc begins, and the format becomes much more typically shounen action - Ichigo fighting increasingly tougher opponents, and powering up in between each fight - it's different. While the end effect is Ichigo powering up, the explanation for it is interesting - Ichigo has always had this monstrous power, and is learning how to unlock all the barriers he's instinctively put on it. It's not just 'level up and get 40 extra reiatsu power points.'

8) And some of the characters introduced during the Soul Society arc are just damn cool.

Actually, I could keep on going, but I'll stop there. No, wait, I need to make one more:

9) Ichigo's friends and allies are *not* completely useless, and aren't just cheerleaders.

Problem was, I kept on accidentally running into spoilers. I finally decided to put a stop to that, and went and caught up on the manga. Hah! It'll be hard for me to get spoiled now!

10) The way the Soul Society arc resolves is... satisfyingly different. If only a litle.

( Ironically, cut for (very mild) spoilers. )
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Aug. 25th, 2005 @ 04:59 pm Oh, ouch. / A milestone. A small milestone, though. / Oh, ouch, again
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So, I went back to Taekwondo on Tuesday night, and yesterday I went for a 13-lap jog. This morning I am *really* feeling the aftereffects, and am quite sore. Ouch ouch ouch.

---

Finally finished watching all my unwatched DVDs last night!

Well, ok, not quite true. I have a whole lot of boxsets that I haven't even started on (I think there's at least six, maybe seven) *and* I'm planning on getting another boxset (Angelic Layer) next week. But, by finishing Chrono Crusade volume 4, I finally get through all my single DVDs! Yayness. To celebrate, I did absolutely nothing.

Chrono Crusade is alright, though I've heard that the manga is much better and the anime messes with the manga's storyline significantly. I've stopped reading the manga for the moment, so that it doesn't colour my opinion of the anime too much. I'll read it once the anime's done.

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Inspired by this entry of [info]vidstudent's, I decided to get out Ninja Gaiden and try it on Hard mode. For those unfamiliar with the game, it is infamous for being INSANELY HARD. Even on Normal mode it's difficult, and until you get the hang of it you're taking damage up the wazoo, using all your health potions and your ressurection item, and dying on the first boss anyway.

Then once you get the hang of what you're doing, you still have trouble with the first boss.

And all *that* is just on Normal. On Hard mode, it promised to be even worse. But I was not deterred. Bravely, I sallied forth and started the game on Hard mode.

To my amazement, several days later I was still playing, and on chapter 10. I thought for sure I was going to falter on chapter 9, wherein you have to take on two tanks and then a helicopter - yes, a frigging ASSAULT HELICOPTER, that shoots missiles at you and drops bombs on you - with your bow and arrows. These are all in a row, with no chance to restock on potions.

But as bad as those battles were, I managed to get through them. Somehow.

Then I found I'd forgotten about the *next* major battle in chapter 9, which has NINE soldiers, all with rocket launchers, all far away and difficult to aim at, and all shooting at you. Shoot one, and a replacement appears. You're not even supposed to shoot them. They're just a distraction. Instead, you have to stop, stand still, and carefully aim and shoot at other things. While you are standing still, the soldiers are still shooting rockets at you.

I managed to get through that battle. Somehow.

I haven't played since, because Ninja Gaiden Black is coming later this year, and I don't want to get burned out. This is silly reasoning, I know. I'll probably pick the game up again and continue my efforts to defeat Hard mode.

I don't think I'll try Very Hard, though. I tried that once. The chapter 3 boss absolutely owned me. He was too insanely hard, even for me, and normally I find him very easy to get past. I gave up after that.

Ninja Gaiden Black will apparently have an even harder difficulty setting, called "Master Ninja". I'll try it, of course, but probably not for long.
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Jun. 16th, 2005 @ 12:10 am (no subject)
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I am *finally* caught up on the Naruto manga (well, up to chapter 263). It took me far too long - I started reading it in earnest almost a year ago, and I've only just caught up on it now.

Oh well, at least I've caught up. Baby steps are better than no steps at all, I suppose.

This entirely pointless update was brought to you by the number e.
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