November 25, 2008

Poetry Reading ‘O8 Debriefing

Years ago at this point, I went to a Journey reading. I read poetry that nowadays would make me cringe. Yesterday, I attempted to fix that by standing up and reading at a new Journey Reading experience.

How did it go? Alright, I thought. I didn’t make any reading errors, perse. Got some chuckles from a few chuckle-worthy lines. It was about all I could hope for, really. I realized once I got there I had a lot of poems about sex, though. But it was cool! Really!
I was asked how to be introduced, and I had no idea, so Essner ended up telling Marsha to tell everyone the inside joke about how brownies and mac’n’cheese molested me as a child. Which was… an interesting way to start a series of all-serious poems, I suppose.

Essner, though. Dammit, he commanded things and captivated everyone. His completely fictional story, “Non Fiction” was hilarious and he performed it well. It was great. He did great. If there’s one thing he can do, it’s right a good, comedic story powered by dialog. Which is why he needs to succeed in his script-writing dreams. I do hope he can. He’s a fully funny guy.

Dustin also showed up, which was much appreciated! Much! And then shared that he was in some sort of relationship with the other reader who just seemed… like someone who wouldn’t have any interest in Dustin. And that was interesting, I suppose.

But yeah, it was a good reading overall. It went well. Not a huge turnout, but who expected one? It was good for me to get up there and read. And now I have.

May 30, 2008

The Dark Deed is Done

So the Let’s Play has finally been completed. It ended… well, you can see for yourself. Once again, here’s the link for the start of the thing. Let’s just say I have now gotten further honors, with things such as getting 5 out of 5 Parish heads. That’s intense.
As far as doing another? I’m going to be lazy for a few weeks, and then, if I feel the need for mass public approval once again, will order The King in Yellow and do a play-through of that. That is the plan. But the fact that I got this done is awesome. I never finish projects. I’m so proud of me. I’m giving me a pat on the back. Pat Pat Pat.

Now I turn my attention to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, which is as awesome as it is completely confusing. I have a FAQ open at all times while playing it. But it’s fun, and I’ve got nothing to play until Etrian 2 comes out, so I might as well try to blaze through as much as I can.
Honestly, I wish there was a good Megaten game on, say, the DS. I would eat that shit up and beat the crap out of it. The only portable whatever I’ve heard of is DemiKids, and that’s impossible to find and not really what I’m looking for. I’d like it, though. Maybe they could translate the originals and put them on a DS cart or something. I can hope. Not that it’ll do me much good, but I can hope.

Anyway, uh, that’s what I’ve been doing. Fun times, eh?

May 28, 2008

Crown of the Goblin King + Hatrack = Awesome, and other random things.

So I’m playing my Hardcore Pastamancer 100% Hatrack run, right? And it’s going really badly. I can’t kill anything, can’t get anything done, and have run out of easy tasks to do. Ugh. Really bad. Finally, I just say “fuck it,” and blow a rainbow of Candy Hearts and a cheap studded belt to attempt to kill the Knob Goblin King, and pull it off. Suddenly, I have the Crown, and with it, a way to make my Mad Hatrack a half Ghuol half Barrrnacle. It was like the rain stopped, sunlight poured down, and happy music began to play, because suddenly I could kill things again. If he did the delevel, I could kill stuff with my normal attack, and if he didn’t, I actually had enough MP for Ravioli Shurikens. Man, I love Ghuol-based familiars, and deleveling really does make a difference. Things are looking up!
Moral of the Story: I have these special consumable-summoning skills for a fucking reason, I shouldn’t be so hesitant to blow candy hearts and such on things, because I will almost always have too many unless I am running them constantly.

Well, my Let’s Play is coming to a close, which is why I haven’t been posting here. It’s been called “Solid Gold Win” so I suppose that’s means it’s been successful. It’s been fun writing stuff on a regular basis and getting such great feedback, but I can’t say I’m not unhappy it’s almost over. A shame I’m probably going to lose the game, though… I’m going to post more story bits tonight, and try to finish it up with ultimate epic conflict tomorrow. Fun times.

Speaking of fun times, I finally opened up that sealed copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne sitting on my desk, and started playing. It’s been good so far, although I just know the game is going to start ramping up in difficulty instead of staying about here or slightly higher, where I would like it. Oh well, there’s nothing coming out this summer like… at all… besides Tactics Advanced 2… so I have plenty of time to see if I can’t work through it. Fun times!

Did I mention fun times!

Anyway, there’s that update I should have been making.

May 20, 2008

Let’s Plays are a lot of work.

I mean, I knew this before I started, but seriously, now that I’m doing one, it is a lot of work.
I’ve been doing so much worrying about it, as well. I started it, and then Parish put a “Okay, enough with the stupid Let’s Plays” post, which, granted, was probably not directed at me, but it put the pressure on. And then I was checking rules and making sure the fiction-y bits were okay… so much so that I kept waking up constantly last night worrying about Arkham die rolls and rules, and didn’t get any sleep.
But yeah, I think it’s turning out okay. It’s this thread on Talking Time. My Arkham Horror Let’s Play, full of rules information and little creative bits fleshing out the back story of the investigators. Follow it. Tell me what you think of it, and tell me I know the rules wrong, because I’ve already had one big rule oversight pointed out to me. My pride as a rule whore has been tarnished. Still, though a lot of work, it is pretty fun. I mean, I’ve been working on it basically non-stop since I started it. I’m really tired. I have a week of work ahead of me. But still, it’s worth it to actually accomplish something, and to have people there with that push to make sure I get something done I start. I’m glad I’m doing it.
I just hope the game doesn’t run TOO long. I’d like to be done with this sometime next week. Heh.

February 18, 2008

A Life Is Pretty Awesome Update

So, you know, time to brag. The Diesel Sweeties guy twittered this, then I responded, and then he twittered this back. I feel all special. He likes the cut of my jib! I’m so proud of my jib now!

In other news, I have been in a great fucking mood! I blame MYSTERY, the thing I’m doing that I dare not speak of, for I feel it will lose its magic. So I won’t! But it’s silly and fun and it’s improving my mood, and I think that’s the good part, hm? Even Mom was all like “wow, someone is in a good mood today.” So I’m in a good mood. That’s good!

I also beat Hard Solo Guitar in Rock Band, and Sass of Potatoes is Big in Rome! And last night was like… the best Halo night we’ve had in a long fucking while… and… well, things are just pretty awesome, I guess. I’m even keeping up with homework! It’s all awesome. Yes. Awesome.

November 29, 2007

Accomplishing things sometimes would be nice. At least stuff that’s cool, unlike school work.

So, time for some more self-promotion. My poem, Release and Repercussions, is in this weeks Deadpan podcast. Also a clip of me making an ass of myself while doing a mike check, as I do when I actually record me. You can go listen if you’d like. I’m thinking about recording my essay The Specialists to send in for next time. But I dunno. I should really write something new, maybe.

So, yeah, remember when I said I was going to make three posts on Sunday and now it’s thursday? That’s why you should never post “Part 1” in the title of something. Maybe I’ll make it a multiple Sunday event so I’m not a complete liar. Then again, who knows if people care anyway.

I also want to try that program Pixel used to make all the awesome Cave Story music to try to make some music for Roleplaying… yes, I’m thinking of working on that again… man, I dunno, I’d like to have something like that… and when I move servers, which I honestly should get on sometime this week or next, I’m going to have shit-tons of space and nothing to put there, so I might as well host audio files, eh? Anyway, tell me to work on Roleplaying, as well as other things. Projects are good. If I’d just do a little project every day, I’d probably be a happier person overall. But man, video games are just so fun.

Here’s the Chrissymas Shopping List Update you don’t care about.

Mom: Check Plus (Present plus other SECRET PURCHASES completed)
Dad: No Check
Jonathan: No Check
Grandma: No Check
Grandpa: Check.
Brer: No Check.
Kale: No Check. (Apparently he has some secret plan for getting me something. He told me not to worry about getting him something back, but I really don’t roll that way. Unless I get completely stumped, I’ll get him some little thing.)
Friends Gift Exchange: No Check
Friends White Elephant: No Check (The new plan is to draw one name and then invite the whole extended friend group over for White Elephant. I like this plan.)
Talking Time Festivus: Check (I got lucky on the draw, and drew someone who I had no problem thinking of what to send them. Just waiting at least until it’s December for a bit to get it into the mail, though.)

November 15, 2007

I like Smash Brothers music.

Hey, look, my GLaDOS opening is the opening of the newest Deadpan. I really need to send in some more poetry and essays… I was going to write an essay about me and music as related to all these Listening Time CDs I’ve been writing about but I’m so moody… bleh.

Anyway, what I really want is a Smash Brothers Brawl soundtrack.

Basically every time they post a new song on there, it’s such a great remix of a classic game tune. And I want it. I want it all. Like this one. Or this newest one here. Or, hell, even this one is pretty damn awesome. I mean, I know the internets will enable me to find it after the game comes out, but I want it noooooow… and I mean, there’s going to be so much music… each stage has 4 different songs you can pick from. I waaaaaaant.

Anyway, I still should talk about Rune Factory… I dunno. I’ll write it up later.
Everything can happen later.

October 31, 2007

I made a mix CD… draft…

So we’re doing this thing on Talking Time called Listening Time, where we’re sending each other mix CDs… my week isn’t until December, but I kept thinking about it, so I thought I’d work on it… this is what I came up with so far. If you’re a random person from Talking Time who came here for some reason, you might not want to look at it because it might ruin the surprise… maybe. I dunno. Maybe you don’t know any of the songs…? Who knows.
Also, I need a name for this… if you can think of one, let me know.

  1. Mono Puff – Creepy
  2. The Boy Least Likely To – Fur Soft As Fur
  3. The Life Aquatic Soundtrack – Ping Island/Lighting Strike Rescue Op
  4. Mike Doughty – 27 Jennifers
  5. David Sugar – Warm Analogue
  6. My Robot Friend – Sex Machine
  7. Guster – Barrel of a Gun
  8. Goldfrapp – Number 1
  9. Blue Man Group – I Feel Love (featuring Venus Hum)
  10. Cake – Satan is my Motor
  11. Jamiroquai – Black Devil Car
  12. Ok Go – Invincible
  13. Daikaiju – Showdown in Shinjuku
  14. Persephone’s Bees – Nice Day
  15. Soul Coughing – Screenwriter’s Blues
  16. My Robot Friend – swallow

You can test it using the power of the internet, or ask me to share it with you… I need testing… I need this to be good… or good-ish… people on the boards are talking about mix CDs have flow and this and that and I dunno about any of that… so… gotta run through drafts, you understand.
Oh, also, this made me get a WMA to MP3 converter, which means I can now listen to The Boy Least Likely To in the car, which is a great bonus.

September 21, 2007

Unfortunately, there is no Thespian voice set.

Hey hey. New Deadpan. New crap of mine in the Deadpan. Specifically, the opening, a poem, and hey, I got a Greasy Spoon point! Score!

So let’s talk about Worms: Open Warfare 2 for the Nintendo DS.
It’s the best version of Worms I’ve played in a long time.
The Xbox Live version of Worms was pretty disappointing, overall. It’s still fun, but the lack of the wide variety of wacky weapons that the series is known for really hurt it. It was very bare-bones. Coming from that, Open Warfare is a joy. It doesn’t have quite the huge weapon set of Armageddon, but it is very sizable, and contains classic favorites that were completely left out of the XBLA version, such as the Holy Hand Grenade. It has “Hotseat” multiplayer, where you pass the DS between all your friends as you play, as well as Single-Cart multiplayer and, of course, Multi-cart multiplayer. It also has ranked online play over the Wi-Fi connection. I know this is just a list of features, but seriously, the Worms gameplay is classic and hasn’t changed much since the original. What you want are the robust set of features to make playing a great game customizable how you want and easy to get into. This does that, most definitely.
The only real complaints are that you sometimes feel you don’t know what exactly is going on, since Worms is really built more for a widescreen view, instead of the tall vertical view you get over the two screens of the DS. Add in playing Hotseat, where you don’t get to see your Worms exploding because the DS isn’t in your hand when it’s happening, and you can get a little confusing. Also, the lack of Napalm strikes, Molotov Cocktails, and Napalm Throwers is saddening. But there’s not much that can be done about that on the system. I assume all of those are technical limitations, which I can accept. I mean, this is a DS game that has a loading screen. It’s obviously pushing the hardware pretty hard.
In any case, if you like the “pass around between your friends because we’re bored” multiplayer of Advanced Wars and have played and enjoyed Worms (or, if you’re really old school, something like Scorched Earth) before, this is a really easy recommendation. If you don’t like playing Worms, this isn’t going to convert you, though.

Also, damn, I hadn’t seen the Concrete Donkey weapon before, but holy shit that’s overpowered. I was playing online (which you should do with me, if you pick up the game. Check out the new version of my Gaming Info page. It’s linked at the top, too, in that little bar) in a mode where I had infinite everything, and there was absolutely no reason not to use that every turn. It practically guaranteed a kill every time.

In other news, I keep thinking about writing more Role-Playing… finishing up the first story arc and getting it out there and seeing if people are interested in the adventures of Rebecca  “Tailrazor” Ai… but I dunno. I have such problems with focus in all things… we’ll see.