The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Good News: I wrote something today!
Bad News: It ended up as an erotic fairy tale about a page long that I probably won’t be passing around to too many people and, for being an erotic fairy tale, doesn’t have all that much sex in it.
Good News: I really enjoy playing FFXI with a 360 controller! It feels a lot more… relaxed like that, personally. Also, I’m enjoying Red Mage.
Bad News: I keep dying while trying to level. I played a decent chunk today and I think I just broke even on experience. Man, that’s annoying. I guess I need to duo with Jonathan some more… that was less frustrating.
Good News: I cleaned up another chunk of my room today!
Bad News: I could have finished the job if I wasn’t so lazy all morning.
Good News: Mom bought be a 4 Pack of Rockstar, because she saw how much I drink it. I appreciate the effort.
Bad News: I drink the Rockstar JUICED Mango/Orange/Passion Fruit flavor. She got the regular Rockstar flavor, which tastes like Red Bull and therefore tastes like complete and utter ass. Bleh.
Good News: Tomorrow is our little Chrissymas party that’s going to be a whole lot of fun!
Bad News: That means I can’t join in on the first Halo night with the new maps… I haven’t bought the new maps, yet, but just hearing about the horrible things people have already done in Foundry makes me ready to drop money on the Microsoft Funmoney Card.
Good News: Now that I’m out of school, I have all kinds of free time for shit!
Bad News: Brer has already left to go to his parent’s house for Chrissymas. Granted, he’ll be back like 2 days after Chrissymas, but eh, I’ll miss him… though he does say he’ll be around in the afternoons and have privacy, so hopefully I’ll see him a lot.
Good News: I wrote a new blog post!
Bad News: It was weighted down by some stupid Good News Bad News gimmick I came up with.

It’s late, but I wanted to post some crap. Like this.

CHRISSYMAS SHOPPING LIST UPDATE!
What everyone has been highly anticipating! Or something. This is just why you needed me to get my blog back on track!

Mom: Check.
Dad: Not Check (Still trying to think of something good…)
Jonathan: Check
Grandma: No Check (Got a crafty idea I have to look into doing soon)
Grandpa: Check
Brer: Check (Already mailed, should get there by Friday)
Essner: Half Check (Have something jokey, want to supplement with something good)
White Elephant Game: Check
Festivus Exchange: Check

I am ALMOST DONE. Exciting times. Should finish up sometime soon, I’d think. Hopefully. Yes.

Other business… hmm…. I picked up a Crimbo P.R.E.S.S.I.E. just because I really wanted the Can Has Cyborger effect. It triggers enough for me and I’m not such an optimizer as to stop using my Mayflower Bouquet, too, so I suppose it all works out in the end. I just figured if I wanted it, I should get it and support the game I love, you know? So I did. It’s currently named B.O.X.X.I.E., but I’m open to better suggestions for a name… that’s just what I came up with off the top of my head.
It looks like the Crimbo content is finally in full swing, too… I’ll hope the Wiki has some guidance up before I use my turns tomorrow… I don’t want to miss anything.

What else what else… oh, Talking Time is starting an FFXI static party, and I’m joining, and that makes Jonathan and Spaeth excited, so they’re joining in some capacity… even if it’s just being on the same server as me and going along with Jonathan’s crazy Three Beastmaster party.

Anyway, there’s some updates… I should probably get to bed. Tomorrow: Cleaning up my room, part 1!

Testing… testing… is this thing on? Testing… okay.
Welcome to the new server! Hm? Looks the same as the old one, you say? THEN THE ILLUSION IS COMPLETE!

What have I been doing while I was waiting pointlessly for the server to move? Well, the people of Talking Time convinced me to join a Static FFXI party, I entered a Yaris tournament, I managed to keep my head together for the rest of the semester, (almost, anyway. Still have to do well today, but then I’m done) I thought more and more about launching Roleplaying since I have all this server space for the MP3’s, and I met Jesus. He gave me a pony.
It was all really exciting! A shame I didn’t blog about it, huh?

But we’re back now! First order of business is the two Listening Time CDs I have waiting to be liveblogged, then I’ll probably see if I can’t work on Roleplaying… so hold on to your hats, Getmeoutofthis.net is back. (I know you don’t care, but just… you know… humor me and hold onto your hat anyway? Please?)

Hey, now I don’t look so much like a liar! Neat! Also, at some point this next week, in case I don’t make another post, I’m going to be moving servers to, well, a server I’m in control of instead of Droid. Wish me luck with that. If there’s some sort of interference in service, that’s probably why. Hopefully everything should just drop into Cpanel flawlessly as Droid told me.

ANYWAY, Mass Effect is an RPG-ish experience from Bioware. This indicates several things: There are a lot of dialog choices and a lot of dialog with your party, who tend to be fairly well-rounded characters (though, personally, Obsidian’s takes on Bioware’s games have created more interesting characters, at least to me. But they’re both good.) and have a lot to say about themselves and the world. All of this is pretty separate from the whole “game” aspect, which has dungeon crawling and shooting many a robot and person though a variety of locales.
There’s like TONS of dialog in this game, and it’s all voice-acted, even your own stuff. Instead of picking a phrase and having the character respond to that phrase, you pick a general idea and your character says something along those lines. It actually works really well. Your choices get to be short and to the point, like “Kill him,” “We should save him,” “That’s illegal,” and so on, but what Shepard says is much more satisfying than that… something like, if you picked “Kill him,” Shepard would say something like “You switch sides too often. I can’t allow you to survive.” and then pull a gun on them and shoot them. It’s neat. Anyway, all of the dialog is great, but that’s to be expected. There are no annoying voice actors in the game, and both Male and Female Shepard sound right. It’s awesome.
Technically, however, the game has flaws… since the 360 does not necessarily have a hard drive, the game has to work REALLY HARD to run without using any HD space as a swap file or whatever. The disc is spinning CONSTANTLY while you play, and it sometimes takes a few seconds for textures to pop in… so you’ll be talking to a character, and all of the sudden, BAM, the texture on the wall behind them or on their clothing will just appear. It’s not annoying outside of dialog, though… I never really noticed it anywhere else, though I’m sure it happened. The menu system is god-awful as well. The game forces an inventory limit on you, and then makes it near impossible to navigate your items in order to manage them. It’s really quite frustrating.
These issues, though, don’t break the game. The story is cliche, but well written, and the dialog great, like I said. The combat is pretty good as well. The combat controls an awful lot like a Gears of War with magic. You can dash up to cover, pop out from behind it to shoot a few shots, and then hide again. You have four different weapons, but depending on your class, you’ll suck with some of them because you can’t train in them. This isn’t much of a problem. I used the pistol for most of the game, and it was still powerful and satisfying. I didn’t feel I was missing anything by not being able to use the Assault Rifle or Shotgun well. Holding down the right bumper lets you use your various abilities from a pause ring menu, and it works well. I was an Infiltrator, so I mostly had Tech attacks, but they were really satisfying. They all dealt damage as well as shut down one thing… Overload shut down their shields, Sabotage overheated their weapons so they couldn’t fire for awhile, and Dampening kept them from doing their “spells” for awhile. The weapon combat abilities like Marksman and Shield Boost were very handy as well, Shield Boost especially because I had such high shields because of my class. The combat starts out hard, but gets pretty damn easy by the end of the game if you go out of your way to do some side quests to improve your skills and equipment. In the end game, unless I happened to run out in front of a missile Turmulent or something, I was pretty well completely safe. The last boss was still satisfyingly hard, though not frustrating, which I appreciated.
The vehicle combat, though, is not nearly as refined. It’s fun the first few times you get to blow shit up in the Mako, but some stupid decisions quickly come to your attention. Shields in on-foot combat start to regenerate after a couple seconds of you not being shot… if you’re patient and take cover for awhile, you can recharge them completely, and it doesn’t take so long as to annoy you, but still long enough that you have to be careful. The Mako’s shields are completely annoying. They recharge glacially slow if you lose them. Like 5-10 minutes for a full charge. I sat an enjoyed a Frosty the other day, and it STILL wasn’t completely charged by the time I finished. You can repair the hull and armor portion of the Mako, but it is something like 25 percent of it’s max health, the rest being shields, so you still can’t get into too much combat without being screwed unless you let the shields recharge. Additionally, the aiming sight for the gun is a weird transparent grey. This disappears on almost all backgrounds in the game, so you can’t aim worth anything for absolutely no reason. It’s really annoying.
All in all, though, Mass Effect is flawed. Yet, it has so much charm and so much… good… going for it that I really didn’t care too often as I played through it. I hope all the stupidity is worked out in the sequel, but as is, it’s a great Sci-Fi RPG experience on the 360, and almost certainly worth your attention if you like Bioware’s games, or feel the need for an RPG that isn’t sillystupid like Blue Dragon.

Another one down… still need to write something about Mario Galaxy, though. Oh well, I’ll get there. Maybe next sunday…

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.)

So my 9 hour Black Friday shift is complete. Exciting, isn’t it? I even wore proper footwear so that my ankle isn’t COMPLETELY shot like it normally is. I might not limp much tomorrow! Yay!
But yeah, even though this is over, next week is going to test my endurance… I have work constantly and I need to keep my spirits high enough to get a paper written and turned in… it’ll be intense. I’ll hope for the best.

Man, I still haven’t written about Rune Factory yet, have I? I suck like that. I also should probably write about Mass Effect at some point, as that’s been my current timesink… and it’s drawn Jonathan in, too. It’s interesting to watch him play, because unlike me he hates the long conversations, and will be an ass to get out of them quicker and start shooting people. It certainly makes the game feel a lot different from my “complete a mission, then spend the good part of an hour talking to everyone on the Normandy” style that I experience. But that’s later… I should just sit down and write bulk review-impressions tomorrow… if you’re someone whose inclined to, make me do that.

Anyway, I guess since the Chrissymas Shopping Season has offically begun, and you’re no longer a complete tool for having Chrissymas decorations up and stuff, I should start my stupid yearly CHRISTMAS GIFT BUYING CHECKLIST. So here we go.

Mom: Half Check (Conceptualized but not bought due to potential complications)
Dad: No Check
Jonathan: No Check
Grandma: No Check
Grandpa: Half Check (Got a good idea, if nobody else uses it)
Brer: No Check
Friends Gift Exchange 1: No Check
Friends Gift Exchange 2: No Check (Don’t even know if we’re doing it, much less who I have)
Talking Time Festivus: No Check (Don’t know who I have for this either. Come on, Rei, get on the ball!)

Hmm… I have a decent bit to buy this year… and also maybe Chrissymas cards for Kale and Ecks, if I get off my ass…

So I’m opening up this thing and woah, there’s like another envelope made of folded paper… and… goodness. It appears to be some sort of musical journey planned, and he has little sentences about what happens in each of the tracks and stuff… hm. And there’s like… sections of three tracks… how am I going to lay this out on here? Well, let’s see… I guess I’ll put everything up there before my ramblings. As I type them, though, I have a feeling most of these tracks are going to be things I thoroughly enjoy in the context of something, but just floating out there vaguely in general I won’t get much out of… I guess I can try to picture this journey as I go? I suppose that’s the idea. I’ll do my best.

…metempsychosis, the eternal cycle of mortality to godhood…

-Muladhara-
Track 1: Prologue ( Red Wings – Game Music Concert – The Best Selection – Nobuo Uematsu)
Beyond your perception are the forces controlled only by fate.
Drumdruums… OH, Okay, I didn’t recognize it immediately from the title, but this is the music like… at the beginning of FFIV. It’s a really nice little piece. Not something I’d listen to at random… but it has sort of a feeling of… it sums up Cecil’s sorta feelings about having to do things but not liking the methods…? It’s sort of regal and respected, but there’s that undercurrent of dread kinda in there. I suppose it does fit that little sentence up there pretty well… sorta… embodying how you have to go along with fate, no matter what…

Track 2: Blessing of Mother Earth (Home Village Arni – Chrono Cross – Yasunori Mitsuda)
This is the familiar world: what you know and have always known.
Mmm, Chrono Cross. Everyone says it has an amazing soundtrack, but I never really recall its soundtrack at all, and I beat the damn thing… it didn’t leave much of an impression on me. And this is a sort of nice windy quiet town sort of theme, but it isn’t really doing a WHOLE lot for me. It’s kinda nice, but I dunno… these sorts of feelings it evokes… about everything sort of being quiet and okay, just sort of make me nervous. There has to be SOMETHING wrong… I guess that’s just a problem with how my mind works, though. Anyway, is that like… a harpsichord…? Is that what that is? I have no idea. But yeah, I guess I do feel a power in this song, but in general this would be the kind of music I would leave just in the background of something.

Track 3: Revealed Destiny (A Fate Accepted – Odin Sphere – Hitoshi Sakimoto)
In whatever form it takes, a greater calling beckons you to journey beyond your sphere.
Odin Sphere, eh? The game I wanted to love but was so damn repetitive… I don’t know if the song is beckoning me onward as it tells. I guess it’s a little bittersweet…? Maybe a looking back on what you’re leaving sort of thing…? But I don’t feel that calling… it feels more like a look back than a look forward, and isn’t that what destiny is…?

-Svadhisthana-
Track 4: Farewell to Familiar Earth (Tina – Final Fantasy VI Grande Finale – Nobuo Uematsu)
Let the sun’s rays warm you one last time as you bid goodbye to what you hold dear.
Oh, this is just the world music…? Isn’t it? Man, I’m such an FFVI n00b in general. Never beat the damn thing. I wonder why this is Tina’s theme…? This is the world music, right? Maybe I’m just insane. There’s certainly been more exciting world themes… I like the one in FFIX myself, if I remember correctly. But I like how this is like… building up more and more as it goes along… like as you leave and move forward you’re filled with more… determination and whatever. On an unrelated note, I really need to learn how to spell certainly at some point. I keep having to spell-check it and I use it all the fucking time. Ooh, a little downward movement… I wonder if it’s going to end like that… yeah… it’s slowing to a finish… hm.

Track 5: Passageway to Beyond (Labyrinth – Soukaigi – Hiroki Kikuta)
Your eyes are no boon in the labyrinthine recesses of the subconscious.
Oooh, exciting. It works well with the sort of slow down what the hell is this sort of thing from the last track. I have no idea what game this is, though. Mm, it’s less exciting than I thought, though. The drums are nice, but it’s still kinda airy backgroundy stuff… actually knowing and liking the next track, I do wonder how it’s going to move onto it without being all… weird. Also, there’s a lot of tambourine in this song. Yay…? Hmm, this part sort of reminds me of the flying on Flammie music. I think it’s the little wavery strings there… Also, okay, the little sentence seems to suggest there would be some level of dread to this song, but it’s generally uplifting… oh, it ends abruptly…

Track 6: The First Struggle (Mass Destruction – Burn My Dread: Persona 3 Reincarnation – Shoji Meguro)
A journey is never without hardship: shadows will could your mind and impede your progress.
Yeah, it didn’t slide into this song very well. It’s so… not orchestrated, it’s jarring. Not that I’m complaining. I LOVE Persona 3’s soundtrack, and this remix album is pretty awesome, too. However, the remix really sort of… suggest less of the hardship and battle that, say, the original or FES versions do, which the sentence suggests is what I’m supposed to be feeling from it…? I don’t know. It’s more like… fun hardship… a friendly challenge rather than a potential setback, if that makes sense. Yeah, I’m just sitting here rocking out to this song. Heh heh. Love it.

-Manipura-
Track 7: An Unknown Calm (Disco – Shin Megami Tensei II – Tsukasa Masuko)
Twisted visages support recognizable elements, serving to alleviate your confusion and regret.
Hmm, yeah, you can tell this is from an earlier age. Blippy. But not bad. I like blippy. I never played a MegaTen game before Persona 3, so I’m not familiar with this. It’s not bad… I get the Disco thing from it, and the little fake vocals are kinda cool. I get the sort of recognizable in the midst of confusion thing this is going for, I suppose. It’s different than the early orchestral stuff and even the last track, but still music, and the voices are recognized as voices, but are different because they’re synthy… yeah. Ooh, abrupt end.

Track 8: Fated Encounter (Tearful Twilight – Ys: The Oath in Felghana)
By chance, the first feelings of assumed ecstasy wash over you.
Mmm, yeah. already sorta disliking this… Not… not really my kinda music… well, most of this isn’t, but this moreso… it doesn’t feel… different. It feels fairly generic for this type of thing, maybe? It’s certainly not filling me with ecstasy, assumed or otherwise. It’s just… neutral… very neutral. I don’t know what this is supposed to make me feel like, really. Hm. Oh well, it’s over now.

Track 9: Appearance of Chaos (MELKABA – Xenogears CREID – Yasunori Mitsuda)
The aspects of your self make it known to you they abhor and fear this journey.
Mmmmm, no no… oh, oh wait… I like that… hm. I like the little quiet background stuff… oh woah… that’s neat… what instrument is that… bagpipes, I guess…? I’m not getting abhor or fear from this, but it is pretty neat. Woah woah woah, it just broke it down! Was not expecting that! Vocals and guitars… yeah, not fear abhor, though… well, maybe abhor… a general reluctance to something that must be done, maybe… man, this song is really cool. I mean, it’s not really music I listen to. None of it has been except the Persona 3 track… but I’m getting more out of it with this guide in general… but man, this song is just neat! I mean, I don’t think I’ll seek it out, but I definitely have to get the boyfriend to listen to it. He listens to this sort of soundtrack thing. I think he’ll get a kick out of it. Man, it’s awesome! And now just the vocals… and it could be the end… but it changed to more plinky stuff… man, neat track, and one I wouldn’t have heard otherwise. I guess that alone makes this CD trading project a success, eh? And a slow fade away…

-Anahata-
Track 10: Steps Into The Divine Realm (House of Sacred Remains – Castlevania: Lament of Innocence – Michiru Yamane)
You have surpassed the doorway between earth and heaven; it is now shut and locked eternally.
Hmmm… king enters…? What? I guess that’s the surpassing… and now there’s this bloodpump noise and singing… though it isn’t really giving me a shut and locked feeling so much… more of a hidden cave sort of thing… definitely a moving forward kinda feeling, though I guess that goes with the sentence. Oh oh, it broke it down too! That moment could be the door locking, easy, and then a bit of panic knowing you can’t go back, yeah yeah. Okay. I can hear this one, certainly. There’s like some Castlevania organ-ness in the background now… I guess this end is sort of a “okay, I’m fucked, I have nowhere to go but forward…” and then, yeah, back to that theme I said felt “forward.”

Track 11: Hot-Blooded Vein (Heavy Metal Bomber – Thunder Cross II)
The adjustment to the metaphysical world is difficult; at first, images from the old world dominate your focus.
This is definitely a quick battle-y theme… it’s from a Shmup, isn’t it? I think that’s what Thunder Cross II is. It’s pretty nice in that blippy video-gamey music way. It would get me pumped up to play and then I would die a lot because it’s a shmup. I don’t really think it’s in any way making me feel adjustment or anything, though… Or an “old world.” It’s, like I said, battle. Fighting. Upbeat. I guess I don’t see any of those things in that. Ooh, that bridge is kinda neat, though. Dramatic finish!!!!!!

Track 12: Transcendence of Superego (ZERO – Ace Combat Zero – Keiki Kobayashi)
Your conscience struggles with you to grasp the nature of divinity.
Some electronic noises over strings… Okay, yeah, there’s definitely a struggle going on in this track. For some reason I find myself thinking of Metal Gear. Have no real reason why. Some little piece must remind me of something from Metal Gear… eh, who knows. But yeah, that’s a track that fits the sentence, I think. Oooh, I like the castanets and dancing sort of sounds… what kinda sound is that… I dunno… like… Born to Be Bone style. That’s nice. Quite nice, actually. Oh, and instead of going back, it kept it all and added some dramatic vocals. Oh, and now we’re going back to slower… but yeah, what’s like… the name for that guitar style? I do tend to like that, but I don’t have a word for it or a good way to describe it. And a fade-away ending…

-Vishuddaha-
Track 13: Visions of Metempsychosis (Theme of Laura (Reprise) – Silent Hill 2 – Akira Yamaoka)
For but a glimpse, you see what awaits you beyond mortality.
Pianos… Silent Hill soundtrack, eh? I really liked Silent Hill 2. It was probably the best of the series so far. (Sorry, Tomm, haven’t played yours yet, maybe it’s really good) And there’s some strings… eh, not doing a lot for me in general. But let’s see… glimpse of beyond mortality… yeah, I can see that… sort of… looking into a mirror or something… and seeing hazy visions…

Track 14: Swallowed in Fear (Abandoned Mines B1 – Vagrant Story – Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Alone your mind contemplates the meaning of your mortality and what will come net.
Definate mine-y music. It’s the echo and the sounds that sort of sound like water dripping that says “mine” or “cave.” I guess I can see contemplation in this. It’s a quiet sort of thing… and it seems to be building… like your mind is working faster… and faster… getting more nervous and excited as you get closer to the truth… going and going and going and… yeah. Yeah, okay. I get it. I never did play Vagrant Story either. I’m such a bad gamer sometimes. Ooh, okay, it changed to more of a dramatic evil thing there with this steam woosh noise and stuff… I guess the conclusion that is being reached is kinda sinister…?

Track 15: Rejection of Ego (CODA – Perfect Selection Snatcher Battle)
You discover that the true self is only a half-truth.
Oooh, dramatic. Snatcher, eh? Game I wish I had played… Ooooh, rockin’! Electric guitars… but a slow sort of rocking… which is fitting for a sort of dramatic revelation, I suppose, as opposed to a dramatic battle. Sort of a “No, it can’t be true!” “But it is! Search your heart!” kinda thing, or something. Preferably with better dialog than that. Wheeeoooooooow! weoooooow!~ Mmm, it goes on a little long for it being a “moment of discovery” though… maybe that’s just me. I mean, the song itself doesn’t feel too long… but for the feeling the sentence says, I mean. Faaaaade away end.

-Ajna-
Track 16: Foray Into The Cosmos (Gradius Medley – Gradius – Arranged by Sota Fujimori)
Your mind has split from the body and drifts among the celestial gods.
Woah woah woah, that’s a whole hell of a lot different than the last track. Techno dance-y woah. There is no feeling of drifting in this, at all… it’s… it’s dance-feeling, like I said… I guess, perhaps, the celestial gods enjoy a good rave now and again…? But if my mind has split from my body, that would make it hard to rave effectively…? I guess i could get a sort of space rocket spinning and twirling happily around in space feeling from this too… but I still don’t know if that’s the sort of feeling being among gods is supposed to be like. I would think it would be something more like… awe… you know? They’re gods, for crying out loud. Beings of crazy power you could only just imagine. You don’t dance, you go “Holy shit, gods!” Maybe.
Bleh, Jonathan gaming in here. On with the headphones I hate so fucking much. The god-rave is still going on… for a long, long while. 1, 2, 3, 4. and on and on and on… okay, finally over. Gods, I hate these headphones.

Track 17: Revelation of the Mind’s Eye (Spider’s String – Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner – Shoji Meguro)
Godhood awaits beyond your final melancholy moments of humanity.
Mmm, more MegaTen stuff, eh? Slow, though. I think Persona 3 is probably fairly different in feel than the rest of the series anyway. But yeah, that’s definately melancholy and… yeah. Was a bit distracted during that short track…

Track 18: Supression of Id (Battle – Shin Megami Tensei II – Comp. by Tsukasa Masuko, Arr. by Sword of Justice)
Nature must finally release it’s grip on you; she has no more sustenance to bear.
Woah woah, yeah! Rockin’ Battle track! Take that nature! Get the hell off me, motherfucka! Man, if I had played this RPG when I was younger I would have gone fucking crazy over this theme… I am now… I need to get me a copy of this… wait… I have it on a CD. I can rip it. Ha. Oh yeah, this is going in my battle themes folder of my MP3 player. (Yes, I have a whole folder dedicated to battle themes so I can have imaginary boss battles against what ails me. Shut up.) But yeah, it’s not so much a release as a punch Mother Nature square in the face and get the fuck out of there sort of feeling. Not… say… the feeling of freedom one might get with a gentle release from nature.

-Sahasrara-
Track 19: Tears of Pandemonium (Demise of the Ritual – Shadow of the Colossus – Kow Otani)
The chaos of mortality is now in the past.
Yeah, I expected something down a bit with that sentence. Very… church-y. I don’t guess I ever got far enough in Shadow of the Colossus to hear this music… I don’t recall it. IT doesn’t sound very happy, though, for leaving something that sounds kinda bad, “chaos of mortality,” behind. Ooh, especially that part. That’s sinister-sounding. It’s not really very comforting to have that behind you, I guess. Then again, immortality is kinda scary and bad-sounding.

Track 20: Shedding the World (Boss (Final) – R-Type Final – Yuki Iwai)
Beyond this final step is the esoteric knowledge of creation.
Dramatic choir… the sound keeps going back and forth in my headphones… is that intentional…? It’s kinda annoying and disorienting because it’s happening constantly in a steady rhythm… I guess that’s because the knowledge of creation is hard to grasp maybe? I dunno, I just make up symbolism as I go along. That’s all symbolism is, really, right? Some shit you made up to justify something you noticed? Especially when there’s vocals, though, I could see standing on the last step, looking into the infinite. So I suppose this track is successful in that regard. Hmm, I wonder what the SECRET HIDDEN TRACK coming up next is. I sorta keep thinking it’ll be a joke… like… the Mario Bros theme. But eh, this is all too serious and well put together for a silly joke. We’ll see.

Track 21: Eternal Bliss (???)
Mmm, yeah, guitars and saxaphone… and some vocals with pointless waver-y effect applied to it… I don’t place the song at all… oh… wait… a point…? It’s all being waver-ed out… but now back to normal… huh… laughing… and… that’s it. Well, okay then.

I have to say, that was sort of an abrupt and unsatisfying end. I also have to say that, when given a context to all this music I would never normally listen to, a focus with which to approach the music and look for things… I got more out of it. I paid more attention and I was more… stimulated. It was a very nice Mix. Good jorb!

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.

Okay! I got a new Listening Time CD in the mail! I got mixed messages about me doing this liveblog thing last time (though Nich said he appreciated the time I took to write it) but I’m doing it again anyway. I only understand what I think about things when I try to put it into words. Anyway, this is a liveblog. It’s not being posted live, but I’m just writing it as I listen with no edits. I can type this up and then use all that to create a more compact not crazy reaction.

In any case, Balrog’s CD he used has a neat design on it… I need to go shopping for CD blanks and shipping boxes for this thing… I also need to get Megi and Ecks to tell me what they thought of my mix… not a lot of help having mix beta testers if they don’t actually tell me what they think of it…
BUT OH WELL! Here we go. This time I’m going to type out all the titles before I start to save time.

Balrog’s Mix 1

Track 1: In the Meantime by Spacehog. Hm, kinda quiet. Kinda familiar somehow… but no, it’s gotten started now and I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard it. Just that little thing that keeps repeating in the background sounds familiar… Wooo oooohs, huh? Not looking promising. Waaaait, no, maybe I have heard this one… or maybe this is a cover of something I don’t really know…? I can’t say I really care too much for this vocalist. There’s something I can’t place about how he’s singing that seems unnecessary… like he goes “you-ou” when he sings “you.” But yeah, in general, this song is too slow to really hit it out of the park for me… oh, we’re to the bridge… Not especially different…? Just enough to say “Oh, there’s the bridge.” I’m trying to focus in on the lyrics. Maybe they’re awesome. But I’m not really catching anything that’s grabbing me… it seems to be finishing up now, though… the song isn’t like… bad. It just doesn’t feel… special? Certainly not energizing, which is what I like… hm? Oh, ending with some piano thing… probably supposed to lead into the next track on the CD it’s from.

Track 2: Chemical World by blur. I dunno if that was a smooth transition, but then again, I don’t think ANY of my current CD draft has smooth transitions… it’s just that Nich’s songs sounded so similar that they all connected decently… but this one… hm… it seems a lot like an Essner song with more… electric guitar…? Sorta British accent on the vocalist…? Generally better to listen to than the guy on the first track, certainly. It is similar to the first song, actually, the more I hear it… the first song just ended weird, so it didn’t click… there’s a little interlude… if I hadn’t seen the little bar on the player I might have guessed it was over. Yes, Yes, Yes, it says. The sorta subtle second voice is kinda nice… oh, we’re fading out already… that felt… kinda forgettable. Like I’d hear it in the background and not really register it.

Track 3: Gates of the East by The Clash. See, now we seem to be picking up a little more. It’s got a little faster tempo, but I can sorta feel the similarities to the other two… maybe…? I dunno. Well, at least the refrain sounds a bit different than the rest of the song, which isn’t something that seemed to be happening with the previous two tracks. Besides the bridge, there wasn’t really like… sections in those. Mmm, this one has me nodding my head along with it. That’s a good thing. I don’t know if I’d seek this song out, but there’s definitely an energy to it, which I can appreciate. Wait, is he saying “Gates to the West”? But the title is “Gates of the East”…? Maybe I should have been playing more attention to the lyrics. I have a feeling this song could end with a Cha Cha Cha… no, they did a little change repeating fade instead…

Track 4: Centerfold by The J. Geils Band. But it flowed pretty well into this song. I think this song was on the first CD I ever owned… it was some weird 80’s compilation that my mom got me with my first CD player, not knowing what to get me… granted, I had no opinions on music then at all, so I wouldn’t have known what to ask for… I still don’t know if I have a complete grip on my musical tastes… but yeah, this is a pretty fun song. Again, not something I’d seek out, but certainly worth listening to if, I dunno, I’m actually using the radio or something. Plus, it’s about porn. Isn’t porn great? Well, then again, I dunno about pornography magazines… they’re sort of obsolete in this day and age… however, why the hell am I saying that now? I wanted to say something about what the song means but I’m running out of time and have nothing interesting to say. The “crowd singing along” ending thing is a kinda fun… thing…? Repeated thing…? Not finding a word. And, of course a fade… and whistling!

Track 5: Bron-Yr-Aur by Led Zeppelin. Starts quiet… quiet… some acoustic… quiet… not looking good for me liking this song, this acousticness… very like… I dunno… classicalish? Maybe that’s the idea, it’s a short track. I’ll admit I’ve had no known interaction with Led Zepplin… all the band’s name brings to mind is that episode of the Venture Bros. where Brock is all like “What, you got a problem with Zep?” But yeah, I don’t know if we needed this interlude there… it brought me back down… I could have built up more off of Centerfold to something with more oomph.

Track 6: Eyes by Rouge Wave. Maracas, and slower acoustic… I guess if this has to go here the previous track is a good way to get you here. Got a little echo effect on the vocals or something… Yeah, this is in that whole group of songs I just hate because it’s slow… mm, I like this refrain with the light singing over the singing, though. That’s nice. Oh, Brer’s on… and the song disappeared without any other surprises…

Track 7: Top of the World by Shonen Knife. Light start… oh oh… it’s kicking it up… still got this light little guitar over a faster little thing… hmm, female vocalist… doesn’t sound like a native english speaker… I think this is a Japanese band anyway. The name sort of suggests it. Hmm, this is faster tempo, but it’s still subdued… that’s sorta what I’m feeling from the whole thing… maybe trying to be more… relaxing music, perhaps… this is the sort of music you might play sitting down… well, maybe not Centerfold, but… yeah… Your love put me on the top of the world, eh? How harsh your love is, putting me in the freezing arctic wilderness!

Track 8: A Good Hearted Woman by Waylon Jennings. Mmm, live track cheering. Country…? Certainly sounds that way… at least the singer’s voices, anyway. Maybe it will surprise me… nope, not at all, definitely country. Well, can’t say I’m not getting a variety of stuff from these CDs, I suppose. I don’t outright HATE country like some, but all country songs sound exactly the same to me… much like a lot of mainstream rock is just “Rock Song” and not really anything in particular. This is just “Country Song” to me as I listen… even the topic and lyrics is very… cliche for country. Granted, I have this feeling that this person is one of the people who sort of… created country music? But I don’t actually know that… ooh, it’s picking up a little bit with a repeated refrain here… and then fading away…

Track 9: Lay, Lady, Lay by Bob Dylan. My exposure to Dylan is: not really paying attention while playing Euchre over at Dustin’s house, and the Weird Al song Bob, which I mostly just like because I like Palindromes. The CD did transfer to this song pretty well… it’s all very… quiet… his voice is louder than any of the music… I guess that shows you what’s important in the song? Isn’t he supposed to be some really awesome lyric guy? Gods, I’m showing my lack of knowledge, aren’t I? I guess I’ll try to absorb the lyrics, then, they’re obviously being the focus… Not… doing much for me, but I think I started focusing late.

Track 10: 20th Century Boy by T. Rex. Okay, all his songs have this steady background beat that does change through the song… maybe that’s what all these songs have in common. There’s some Wo-ooooooaaaaahs! in this one. Oh, I like this change! Nice bridge… no, it’s a refrain… it’s a good change… this one has me tapping my feet, so it’s at least got something that’s hooking me up. Yeah yeah, I dig this refrain quite a bit. Mm, now here’s some saxophone…? but it’s fading out and ending, I suppose.

Track 11: Freddie’s Dead (Theme from Superfly) by Curtis Mayfield. Oooh, yeah… come on, this should pick up a bit… maybe…? It’s… it’s good mood-setting music… it definitely inspires a whole sort of… image… and Mom’s printing something… great. Mmm, I’m sad this isn’t picking up and is just going on at the same sort of setting. I would really enjoy this BEHIND something… as a scene mood setter in something… which, just glancing at the title, it very well might be. But yeah, it just has that repeating back rhythm like… like most of the songs… I mean, I guess most music has that, but it doesn’t take a break, or change for things like a bridge or whatnot… it can change pitch a little, but that’s it… I dunno, maybe I’m overthinking it. Then again, I’m writing paragraph after paragraph, so I guess I am by default. Man, this song is going on forever and ever.

Track 12: Hawaii Five 0 Theme Song by ???. Oooh, drums. Ooh, Hawaii Five Oh. I don’t really know why this is here. Heh. It’s kinda silly and fun, though, I suppose. Yay for brass, though.

Track 13: Last Living Souls by Gorillaz. Now, I like the Gorillaz. More of their upbeat stuff, obviously, but they’re pretty great. And this is a pretty great song, though not one of my favorites. See, it’s all building and stuff as it goes… I enjoy that sort of thing. The vocals and everything don’t really change or anything, but it just slowly gets more and more and more… see, and now, this bridge is completely different, unlike what I was trying to say earlier. And it’s a nice little change, I suppose. All kinds of like strings… and then back to some of the more electronic sounds… and it just stops at the end… has any other song did that? I guess the last two did…?

Track 14: Incinerate by Sonic Youth. Mmm, more similar, it sounds like. None of these songs want to just let loose and go! Subdued, like I said… Nich’s mix was subdued in a different way… trying to make more of that quiet creepy electronica feeling, while these songs are more just subdued sorta rock-y things for the most part… I want to say I don’t like this vocalist, but when pressing myself for a reason why to tell you I can’t decide on anything. Generic, maybe? Eh, I dunno. Mmm, I like this stuff under the “Incinerate! Incinerate!” part… the rest doesn’t really thrill me, though… my leg is going restless leg, but not to the beat of anything. The little guitar solo here is a little more interesting… although it went into those annoying noises for no reason there.
Man, I am such a bad reviewer of these songs. Seriously. I like such a limited range of music… but I guess I established that before I started.
Oooh, there’s that “Incinerate! Incinerate!” part again. I don’t know why I like that part the most… I think because it feels like it’s building towards something, though it never does. The end.

Track 15: Substitute by The Who. I used to have a friend named Rebecca who was obsessed with the Who. She sent me a mix CD. I was pretty indifferent to most of it. Mm, but this is not too bad… it was building there… yeah, that has a nice beat to it. Again, though, I think I’m not supposed to like the music as much as the lyrics, I suppose. They’re all about those too, yeah? But yeah, see, it has little slow lyric parts, and then it does this quick little building part into the refrain. I like that. And mother interruption… I guess I should really be doing this at 1 AM when I get home from work… but I never feel like accomplishing much then. Mm, I sorta like that fake ending there, but then again, normally things change after such an ending… like, they change key or something… not so much with this. Also, why are they singing “Substitutes” when the title is “Substitute?”

Track 16: Dog on Wheels by Belle & Sebastian. This is an Essner band, and not one that I’ve picked up… oooh, but I do like that… but, again, I want it to break out and start rocking out! But I don’t think it’s going to… but at least there’s definitely a strong energy there below it. But the music is definitely secondary to the singing and lyrics again. I should really pay more attention to it, but I only tend to focus on lyrics on things I want to sing along with, and this doesn’t make me feel like that. Ooh, some nice trumpet there. Always gotta like the brass… I’m glad the trumpet is sticking around. La la la’s? Well, okay, I guess… the eeeeeeeend! Laaaaaa!

Track 17: Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant. I know this song… see, now this is energy! This is what I talk about wanting in general, when I wish there was energy to the songs I hear… this sort of thing just makes you want to get up and make a fool of yourself or dance, or just… you know… energize you. Energy. Ramble ramble! Energy! But yeah, it’s this song. I never knew who made it or whatever, but I’ve definitely heard it multiple times before. It’s all kinda big band, right? Those sorts of songs do tend to have the energy I want most of the time… granted, I like a wide variety of “energetic” songs. A lot of the energy from this song comes from those drums. They’re relentless but infectious. Also, it’s teaching me valuable life lessons like “Don’t Drink, Don’t Smoke.” Words to live by. Or something. Dun DUN! The end.

Track 18: The Man In Love by Charlie Feathers. And back to slow again… this guy’s name makes me think of that stupid Unicorn Planet thing that Jessie showed me once… but mm, this is all old-tymey, isn’t it? But it certainly is about a man in love, though. I’d leave it and skip it, but eh, it’s almost over and I should give every song a fair shake. Shake shake! Mischief Makers! No, bad me, think about games later. The end. Abruptly.

Track 19: Journey To The Center Of A Girl by Cramps. I’ll admit, this title and band name were intriguing me, so let’s see. Aww, male vocalist? I was so sure it was going to be female. The music is okay, but his singing is very… slow and measured? He’s singing over the music instead of with the music. Plus, he’s being all wavery or made wavery… and it’s kinda annoying. See, I sorta wish this song was over but I look over and it’s barely halfway done. Uh oh. Still all wavery for no good reason. Oh well, I am going to have this Burger King mint now, while I listen. Yeah, that’s right, I just had an after-dinner mint, and I’m going to eat dinner AFTER I finish listening to this CD! I’m so bad. Is this song over yet? It’s like it to be… but there’s still a fourth to go. I think I’ve already experienced everything this song has to show me and I would like to move on, please? The Go! Team is next, and I always like them, although not as much as I always expect I will. Whoo, it’s over!

Track 20: Junior Kickstart by The Go! Team. Ooh, good, I think this is one of their faster songs…? Maybe? Let’s see. Yay, Brass! I’m so biased towards brass because I used to play the trumpet. Wait, is this one of their songs without the vocals…? I can’t remember, but I really like the Go! Team’s like… chorus singing. Yeah, I think this is instrumental… oh well, it’s still pretty decent. I’m bobbing my head along with it… though like I expected, I’m enjoying it slightly less than I was expecting… I don’t know what it is about the Go! Team that does that… I always get so excited to listen to them and then I hear it and I go “Oh, really? That was all I was? I mean, it was good, but that was it…?” I’m so weird.

Track 21: Moonage Daydream by David Bowie. And Bowie at the end. Bowie is my brother’s thing. I like some of his songs quite a bit, but in general, he’s in that camp of stuff I recognize is good but doesn’t really thrill me. This is a song of his that doesn’t really ring any bells to me… I’m sure I’ve heard it. My brother owns like every single Bowie album. But I can’t remember it. Freak out in a Moonage Daydream, hm? Is that a recorder? It sounds like a recorder. Man, recorders. What an instrument. But yeah, it’s Bowie… I don’t really know what else to say about it… it’s fading away slowly, certainly…

And I guess that’s it. Time to get some food and then try to condense these thoughts into something small to post on the forums… whee…? Oh, the end of the CD flows into the first track pretty well. Final thought.

So Droid tells me I should probably get my own web hosting. I’ve been mooching off of him for a long, long time. It’s probably time I went out and handled it on my own. I’ve no complaints… I’m pretty sure I know where I’m going to move and shit, but if some random internet person knows a really good cheap host for my little bloggy site and personal site, let me know.

Anyway, for the past few days I’ve been sick to my stomach constantly, and it’s probably due to nervousness, and I just wanted to ramble about it. It’s depressing shit, and you probably shouldn’t read it.

It’s really all a control thing… I don’t feel like I have any, and then I go and do things to make me feel like I have control… but in the end, this just gets me more nervous, because I feel like I need to do X or Y to please “them” (them being… I dunno… the world? It’s not anyone in particular, it’s just this force I always feel is wanting me to do things, or else) and doing my little whatevers to feel better about myself hurts that… it’s just… really frustrating.
Basically, I’d just like my decisions to matter, and what I do to be… I dunno… appreciated? Even quietly. Having Jonathan telling me I’m an ass for not telling him I took care of having sodas for the get together (which doesn’t affect him at all, I took care of it) is not making the effort, however big or small it was, feel appreciated. I don’t like repeating things like that 40 times. I would also like the decisions I make to be respected. I’m open to advice, give me all the advice you’d like, but I’ll make the decision. When little stupid things like “I am full and done eating” require me to convince my parents multiple times that I do not want any more, it’s fairly obvious what I want has little bearing on anything… at least to me…

I don’t know, I know I’m being moody, and that makes me take things out of proportion. It’s probably not worth worrying about. But it’s things like that that make me want to move far away from here as fast as I can, so I can start anew and not have these ghosts of people’s wants, real or imagined, trying to change every little thing I do… to just live for myself and not worry, that’s really all I want…

Oh well… I beat the first boss in Rune Factory, so I should write up a little bit about that soon… also, I asked Parish to let me write for Gamespite. He still hasn’t gotten back to me, so, you know, hell, I might not get to, and that’s fine… but you might be seeing more content from me over there eventually. Cross your fingers for me.