The Hangar

Now I've gone and done it. I've joined artslam. It's gunna be Dark Lord Radulphus stuff so I can finally do something with the poor guy.

Anyway, last week was super busy. There was some kind of family gathering every 2 days. I accidentally missed dinner and karaoke with my friend and her family; I feel so bad! Even if she said it was ok.

Ocarina of Time is a really well put together game. It's a joy to explore and there is always something to do. Those who say it doesn't age well are out of their minds. It's oozing Zelda charm. Some puzzles surprised me, even if they popped out in newer Zelda's that I've played before. Dungeons are nicely paced. Characters, while simple, were endearing. The whole experience is satisfying. (It's butt-ugly though. :P I've never appreciated the Wind Waker's gorgeous art-style more than right now.)

I like Pram. I like Quickman. They can even be really cute together, but from what I've seen of Battle and Chase (game and manga) I'm not sensing it too strongly. I think I might be able to put a stronger case together for PramxProto, even. And holy moley, Turboman was totally putting the moves on Quickie in his Battle and Chase ending. Calling him up and sounding all seductive like that...how come Quick's rivals always go bonkers for him?

And Shadowman was totally ninja-ing wolves in the face. He's so awesome.

Woah, I've been to a lot of places this summer already. In spite of me living only a few minutes from Niagara Falls, I've never been on the Maid of the Mist. The Falls is really beautiful up close! I wanted to walk in the park but we had to head to some place out there called Wilson. There was a restaurant there called the Sunset Grille that was hidden in the woods near a marina. It looked kinda shabby on the outside, but on the inside, it was like a highbrow restaurant. Kinda like the Boston Hotel. It looked like a shabby highwayside diner but the seafood was top notch!

On the water we saw some swans and ducks swimming around. I went out on the docks to take a better look but when trying to head back, it got so wobbly I almost fell in. XD There were shops around the waterfront and the stuff they were selling was really beautiful. But it was too expensive! $55 for a necklace that looked like I could get it anywhere? We just had ice cream instead. I wish I could share this with my dad but we had a lot of fun memories with him too.

Started watching Kannagi. From the intro, I thought it would be a pop star show, but it's actually something between a harem show and a parody of a harem show.

( Characters and dialogue are surprisingly good... )

Anyway, considering of watching Hell Girl. Seems to be a competent horror anime series. Lots of traditional Japanese death symbolism gives it a unique flavour. Dub looks good. Plus, the opening is awesome.

Mario Galaxy 2. Golden Sun 3. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. Mario and Luigi 3. The Legend of Starfy. Metroid: Other M. Sin and Punishment 2.

It's a good time to be a Nintentard.

Sin and Punishment looks really awesome. Impressions say the controls are perfect and intuitive due to the Wii interface. Gameplay looks as top notch as always. The two main characters are called Isa (the boy with the jetpack) and Kachi. (on the hoverboard) Ikaruga's artist returns to give it awesome concept art. I swear Saki's son was named Isa in his prophetic dream...anyway, can't wait to nab this.

( I also wanna yammer on about the No More Heroes 2 trailer I saw recently. )

And Metroid: Other M. Day one.

Metroid: Other M was just revealed at E3. It's being developed by Team Ninja and Nintendo instead of Retro. It's 3rd person and the graphics look a little gaudy but Samus looks like a major badass using melee moves.

Looks to be a prequel...they're adding more characters so that makes me kinda on edge...looks like Metroid's finally got their token black guy. (Don't die, ok?)

OMG ADAM IS IN IT AND HE LOOKS AWESOME. The dark hair is very becoming. EEEEEEEEEEEE

49 Icons
12-Kirby (German Comic, Amazing Mirror Commercial, Kirby Manga)
08-Osu! Tatake! Ouendan!
19-The Legend of Zelda (Original/Cartoon+Wind Waker)
10-Naruto (Anime)
Sample:


( Oh, teh lulz to be had... )

Bad news, I busted up my right side window of my car. The glass is shattered... T_T

Good news, I passed all three of my courses last semester with pretty good marks. :)

Well, someone's posting some IDOLM@STER PSP clips on youtube. Graphics aren't as good as the 360 games and the mouth movements dun match, but new outfits and dances make it all better. Looks like you can purchase renditions of each character's CD tracks. (eg. Makoto's Meisou Mind, Haruka's I Want) I been dreaming of seeing the choreography for Mega au Toki for forever!

Chihaya does a stunning job with the more melodic tracks like Tonarini and Futari no Kioku...but in some cutesy songs, she manages pretty good, like Kirame Kirari. I feel like most of the idol's have improved, even Haruka. Yukiho's been showing her stronger voice more and more, and it really improves on songs like I Want.

( Check it out! )

I'm actually really impressed with the rival idols Takane and Hibiki. Takane's voice is melodic and pleasant sounding and Takane, while high pitched, manages to be in tune and has quite a range. No wonder Miki left 765 for them...

Been on a Hetalia and Protomen binge lately. FFFFFF GermanyxItaly is so canon that Romantic artists painted genderbending shojou-ai fanarts of them and they have an official headquarters in Italy and stuff. This pairing is older than television, but I can't get enough of them.

The Protomen won a concert contest versus other Nashville bands so now they get to play in a concert with Bruce Springsteen and a bunch of other mainstream bands! I hope they get a lot of exposure and fans because seriously, their stuff is epic. And it's a post-apocalyptic rock opera/spaghetti western version of Megaman, how is that not awesome? I really want to go to a live show~.

So, I beat Pikmin 2. I thought the Dream Den, being the last dungeon, would be hellish. However, it was only moderately difficult. The Hale of Heros was a buttload lot tougher. (I should have expected it since it's the Boss Rush dungeon. :P) Titan Dweevil was really intimidating, though. I can't believe Louie was controlling it! I mean, I know I was always using him to attack enemies solo so he died a lot but...I didn't know he was so hateful! Why, Louie? Why? Anyway, the ending was actually pretty touching. It left me with a serene feeling.

( Tatsunoko Animu Squeeage inside. )

Playing FE: Shadow Dragon has given me 10x as much fondness for Marth. So many bad things have happened to him and everyone else around him tells him to suck it up since he's a Prince and the descendant of Anri. They even tell him to never forget his pain and sorrow so he can use it to fuel bloody vengeance when the time comes. And Marth was a kind humanitarian before all this takeover stuff. Poor guy...it's a miracle he's not crazy.

OMG NEW ZELDA COMING OUT FOR DS.

MOAR WIND WAKER/PH LINK.


HYPE.


There are trains and phantom control. OMG Link's new outfit is so cute. He seems to be some sort of mailman for the Princess.

Rockin' Chieftain mode in EBA. :) Things get a little easier when it's a little faster, actually. Goes with the beats more.

Playing an obscene amount of Pikmin 2. It can be really brutal sometimes. I always feel guilty whenever one of my little darlings die. Even just a little one. It's devastating when a bunch of my sweeties kick the bucket. I just...feel like I should be taking better care of them. ;_; But I just can't wait to find what kind of treasure I'm going to find next! :D

I feel sorry for the Yukkuris and the fact they get a lot of abuse by the Touhou fandom, especially since they just seem like little creatures with their own behaviours and stuff. (Even though they are incredibly stupid.) But...whenever they describe the fillings like sweet bean paste or meat bun or cream or strawberry...I really want to eat one...

I think the main reasons I like this song is because it sounds like a) an 80's era song b) it sounds like the Green Hill Zone theme.

Well. Let's Dance in Elite Beat Agents (on Normal! I haven't even gotten Chieftain yet) is kicking my ass. It's great game; even though some of the songs are tough they're fun to run through, even if you die repeatedly. (Canned Heat, I'm looking at you. And I used to like you!) The senarios are all cute and funny and I don't care how fruity the agents look when they dance, they're still awesome. Even though I find some of the original songs annoying, the videogame covers in the game make them sound awesome. The level set to Ashlee Simpson's Lala is my favourite level because of how awesome the cover is.

I wanna learn the dances~. Especially to Cher's Believe.

Today's been full of bad luck. One of the mishaps is that our front door handle fell off and our front door is permanently locked. -_-; Time to get a new door...

Saw "Taken" today. Thought it was kinda videogame-y because it was fairly straight forward with a lot of black and white morality. Also had that "he can't die, he's the hero!" type feel that allows even bad players to see the ending. There was a long beginning cutscene, and there were levels consisting of Liam Neeson kicking ass until he reached the macguffin and was sent on the next fetch quest with another cutscene. This continued until the last level on the boat where he ended up killing all the evil, faceless enemies, had an epic fight with the boss where he took some damage, k.o.ed the secret boss with one hit and saved the Princess-er I mean, his daughter. And almost everyone had the depth of an SNES sprite. Whenever he would pick up an enemy weapon, I would imagine him adding it to a large invisible inventory. Entertaining but forgettable.

Thinking of picking up Shuffle! I loves me sum yandere.

So...looks like the final stretch for school. Have several presentations coming up; I'm so nervous. >_<

Luka Megurine is impressing me more and more. She might exceed Gakupo and Rin in my mind as the vocaloid that usually sounds the best. She seems a lot more flexible and when a good composer gets behind her, she can sound really natural like in RIP=RELEASE. She also has quite a range, too. Even though she has a normally deeper voice, she can do higher pitched and pop-y numbers as well. Even her speaking and English voices sound pretty good. (Better than the others, anyway) And Octo-Luka is incredibly cute.

( Catch an impressive cover of Scarborough Fair by Luka )

Today's weather was so nice! It was a little windy, but not too cold, plus there was a wonderful spring smell in the air. I also just finished up a major assignment and that's always good...

Lately, whenever I try to play Megaman 2...I've been playing through Crashman's stage more and more. At first I didn't think much of the stage, but the more I played it, the more fun it was. The stage's fun, the theme's fun, and if you don't take the easy way out, the boss can be fun. Sometimes, instead of Quickman's stage, I'll run through Crashman's first. How? Why? It's like Crashman wormed his way into my heart with his drill hands. I'm sorry, Quick! You're still my number one rival!

I don't care if she's an alien freak baby and that she has puppy dog ear hair, Ranka Lee's voice is wonderful! She has the type of personality and role that would make her widely hated; so I'm happy to see that she has a lot of fans. In spite of the fact I heard the series was a little lackluster, I have enough fondness of old school Macross and stuff so I might check out Macross Frontier. I like Sheryl too; she's cool and all...probably the best match for Alto...I just like Ranka and her voice more. :P Ranka and Sheryl get along pretty ok, why not their fans? :(

Saw Coraline a little while ago. I heartily suggest it to anyone who still has a chance to see it. Creative, smart and well designed. Stunning stop motion animation and art direction. Does a great job of conveying each character's uniqueness and development, and Coraline was a very relatable protagonist. Wybie was also a good addition and even though he's original for the movie, he was well integrated. Some things were changed from the book (which is incredibly awesome) which made it somewhat less effective, but the movie was already super long, so it's ok. Apparently it's doing really well which is good because Coraline's team and director deserve the reward. It was a little strange that Coraline had blue hair, seeing as it was supposedly the "real world" and she was like...eleven, but its still cool.

A new vocaloid came out: Luka Megurine. She's about as old as Kaito and has awesome pink hair. She has a surprisingly deep voice and I think she was designed to do jazz numbers. Check out her "ordinary blues". And a very nice rendition of Air's "Tori no Uta". Surprisingly, she's been outfitted to sing in both English and Japanese. She's a bilingual singing computer program idol (in the making)! Her english voice sounds like Sweet Ann...

Well, my week long break is well underway. Went to the Mandarin for Family Day. (That there's a Canadian Holiday.) I think I'm still full from eating so much...Have to work for two more days in a row but I'm glad I get to earn more money. Hours have been scant this winter. Strangely enough, it was fairly busy today.

I saw some of the Brazilian Megaman comic.

...I want to cry. Jesus Christ X, what did they do to you? At least Mega and co. got to kick that one co-writer's psycho Mary Sue in the face.

I also watched some Captain N episodes for the lulz. Man, Dr. Light sure can be mean. For example, in Mega Birthday, when faced with Megagirl's (Roll's?) possible death, his response is "I can just make a new one." He and the rest of the N team were in on the mindfuck Megaman had to go through to get to the end of the quest. And it's clear that this version of Mega has some hangups about not being human (for this episode) and all they do is rub it in. >_< Oh well, it's not meant to be taken seriously, so I won't. (-3-) lol the mm2 robot masters oh my fuck XD

...I dun wanna work on homework...but midterms are coming up. :P

Well, almost got into two accidents last week. One time I didn't notice there was a car off road and couldn't change lanes in time. I ended up spinning out, hitting a snowbank and facing the opposite direction. I was a good thing I didn't crash into anyone like that other car. Since the car wasn't damaged or anything, I just drove off in the opposite direction. Am I supposed to do that? The other time we were just a block away from our house when a crazy guy ran the red light. It's a good thing a saw him coming or I would have been T-boned. Putting the car away, I heard some tires screech; I guess I can estimate what happened to him.

Econometrics is killing my spare time, but I think I've gotten the hang of it. I've found that I can stop falling asleep in class as long as I take naps in the library beforehand.

...According to the last episode of Super Adventure Rockman for the Saturn, Megaman defeats a psychotic alien super computer by combining all the Robot Masters'...love...to give him energy.
...
So Hyadain was right. XD There's 16 of them, Jesus Christ.

And I beat Megaman Zero 3~. Bloody freaking fantastic. The bosses and stages are so much fun after you get set up with a couple of powerups and stuff. Thought it was nicely paced and there were a lot of fun secrets and challenging stages. Great stuff.

Taiga.

TAIGA.

TAIGA. ;_;

taiga.

I don't know how such a great comedy turned so dramatic so fast. Yes, I just saw the 13th episode of Toradora. Great writing, great characters, kicked my expectations to the curb and pierced the heavens. Ami is the best two-faced spoiled brat bitch ever and Minori wins everything in the history of the universe. So does the opening. Kitamura is the lulziest glasses guy and Ryujii is the awesomest domestic goddess/scary looking guy and is NOT a loser protagonist and that makes me happy. :) I really can't stand loser protagonists unless they are Shinji because he had a good reason for being so. Taiga is actually a really good heroine and a moderate tsundere without coming off as genuinely abusive. She always amuses. I love it when she gets her bitch on or when Ryujii takes care of her.

I want an icon with Minori's epic "YES-no wait i mean NOOOOOO D:<" moment. I'll make one...later.

Well, I had a fantastic New Years Eve spending time with my friends in Niagara Falls. We had some drinks and dinner and dropped by a casino for a little bit before heading for the outdoor concert. The lead singer of Supertramp was singing Supertramp songs. X3 (80's music is my guilty pleasure.) Then we watched the fireworks at the New Year came in. I was having so much fun, I forgot how cold it was outside. Well, until it was time to head home...

I found a copy of Bangai-O Spirits and I couldn't help myself. :) What a fantastic game, best $28 I ever spent. It is seriously addictive and is as tough as nails. I wish the actual main characters showed up more...they only pop up in the tutorial which is a pity since they were so amusing. I love all the riffs they made on Giant Robot and videogame cliches.

Anyway, new semester, new professors. Two of my new profs are really cool. One's a researcher for the university and you can tell he really knows this stuff. He has a lot of charisma. The other is a guy from the Netherlands who knows so many different languages and has been to so many different places...he's a real confident guy. He's an analyst as well as a professor and he's always travelling. He has a lot of energy and curiosity and studied at the university when he first came to Canada. One of the things he likes to do is troll people, lol. My econometrics teacher is not bad, but since it's just statistics again and the lights are always off, I find myself dozing all the time.

My professor from the Netherlands makes me wish Holland would pop up in Hetalia more. Mostly because I want to ship him with Canada. There's Canada's liberation of the Netherlands after WWII plus the giving of the tulips every year for the Canadian Tulip Festival and stuff. Plus, Canada can be remembered for once. :)

Obscure shitty game reference ahoy.

Turning our attention to non-shitty games, the Megaman Zero series is hard. So very hard...but the graphics and music are really good and it's a fantastic platformer on the GBA. I just...haven't managed to beat my first level, yet. I love Copy X, he's such a passive aggressive ass with a major god/inferiority complex. And that stutter is pretty adorable. He's basically a psychotic, 10-year old X. Some think the religious and mythologic overtones are kinda overblown, but I love this kind of stuff, so it's a-ok with me!

( My Holiday (lol Shadow of the Colossus) )

Terrible freaking weather outside today. It's not really snowing very hard, it's the wind that's causing trouble. Driving was devilish; sometimes I could barely see in front of my face. I'm bone tired.

So, I nabbed the radio drama of the Caves of Steel by Asimov recently. Done during the 60s or something, I think. It was immensely entertaining. Elijah had the typical guy voice popular with VAs at the time, but he was a great actor and could depict quite a range of emotion. His evil/naughty voice was the hottest thing ever. >:} Daneel's voice seemed a little odd at first, but I grew on me. Loved the slight english accent. Sometimes his clipped style of speaking made him sound a little haughty; it kind of amused me. (R. Daneel Olivaw, the bitchiest psychic robot in the universe. XD)

Anyway, checked up on Hellsing again. The OVA series is up to about where I stopped buying volumes. Pip is in it~. :) It's very close to the manga, mixing stylish ultraviolence with the occasional crackish humour and randomness. I loved seeing Schrodinger. His ears were so incredibly cute. It's about time I reminded myself of how awesome Integra and Al are.

Is it just me or would Hetalia's North Italy be more Italian if he was female? I've seen the comic artist's version of a female Feliciano...somehow I feel that his personality just works on her...Maybe I just want her and Germany to be the Adorablest Lesbians(tm).

First update of December. Awight!

Anyway, final exam tomorrow. Christmas is soon. I still have to work. Parties. Stresssssss...

Anyway, Rockman and Forte - It's good! Especially when playing as Forte. Nice graphics and animation and the music is pretty awesome. It's still way hard, though. I adore Mega, but now he's got to make room for Forte's awesomess. Thinking of actually getting the Megaman X collection at that used game store even though that means also nabbing X6 and I...have heard some cracky things about it...but...ya know. X and Zero are one heck of a dynamic ambiguously gay duo.

Speaking of big gay robots, I'm looking into diving in Asimov's science fiction books, even though I've always been a bit more of a fantasy person. Yes, yes, you can blame Daneel Olivaw and Lije for that. I've read The Caves of Steel and a little of The Robots of Dawn and I have to say that they're really enjoyable. Not A Song of Ice and Fire level mindblowing but they're a lot of fun. Prose is pretty decent, characters are fairly memorable with character traits and flaws and a little bit of development here and there.

As I understand it, R. Daneel Olivaw was the first robot to popularize the idea of robots being protectors and super competent companions of humans while eventually coming to understand human concepts. Before, they were usually depicted as being a bunch of Frankenstein's monsters aiming to destroy humanity. If that's the case, that explains why Daneel is so very moe in a Yuki Nagato-ish sense. He was apparently an influential character in science fiction, and I've never heard of him before...Personally, even though Daneel is fascinating, Elijah (Lije) is my favourite. He is the spazziest tsundere to ever fall in love become friends with a robot. :3