Dokapon Kingdom

Ladies and gentlemen: Exhibit A

Ahhh Dokapon Kingdom, what is there to say about you? Quite a unique game due to how it combines different elements together. It plays differently from anything else you've probably played. It's part RPG, part board game and also adds elements taken from others games to make a fun game whether you play by yourself or up to 4 players. It's on the Wii and PS2 but both versions are very similar, I'd recommend you get the Wii version since it's easier to hook up 4 players without a multi-tap, and you also have more space for save files.

It has charming graphics, using a sort of cute styling for the whole thing. Nothing's really too dark even when you get further in the game and fight stronger monsters. You can pull stupid pranks on each other such as changing their name, hairstyle or draw graffiti on their face. The game also doesn't take itself too seriously with the voice acting or other things. For example the king will send you on missions to obtain food he wants to eat or for you to retrieve his daughters piggy bank. There's even and event where you hunt "Wabbits" for a decent reward if you can actually kill one. Overall it brings it's own charm that makes it a little lame but inviting once you get used to it.

So anyways this game is basically a board game with RPG elements in it. You start with a character where you get to pick your class, name, gender, color, and eye shape. There's 3 at the start but you unlock more as you go, somewhere around 10 classes are available. Each class gets it's own unique stat growths and there are 5 in total: Attack, Defence, Magic, Speed and Heal Points. Also, depending on which two classes you master you unlock different classes. For example:

Magician + Warrior = Spellsword
Warrior + Thief = Ninja
Magician + Thief = Alchemist
Monk + Alchemist = Robo Knight
Acrobat + Spellsword + Ninja = Hero
Warrior or Magician or Thief = Cleric
Cleric -> Monk

Choosing your path affects how you are going to play the game. Warrior based classes have an easier time surviving and also deal decent damage. Thieves have high speed growth and have decent attack. Magicians obviously concentrate on magic but also need some speed to actually hit anything. You kind of have to experiment with builds to see which one suits you most and it'll definitely take a few tries to get it right.

The Board, a warrior and his spiffy hairdo

So when you start in story mode you get told by the king that he needs warriors for whatever task, I don't know since I didn't pay attention too much. You and whoever you're playing with, whether AI or friend, start in the same place and roll on who goes first. This decides the turn order for the whole game so take note of that, otherwise if your friend gets distracted you'll have to smack him on his turn. After that the games begin and you start building your character. Basically you try to gain experience by defeating monsters on empty spaces and get equipment, spells and items. They all play an important role, and sometimes the person with the right things at the right time will have a significant lead.

This can cause fights among friends because to get ahead you basically have to fuck them over. You can be a huge dick in this game because you can not only PVP and take things away from them but you can also cast spells and things to slow them down. You see, to be the grand champion you have to gain the most money, and the easiest way to obtain more money is by killing bosses in towns. These bosses provide a significant boost to your score, and the person who has the right items can either have a severe advantage against the bosses to induce a guaranteed win or get their first to take it over.

Luck can also be a very annoying thing sometimes. Battles in this game work like a rock, paper and scissors type thing where certain moves counter other moves and deducing the risk of certain moves and make or break you. So if someone decides to fight you it can be a huge risk because many times you will die in one hit if you don't make your move properly. Not to mention the variety of other luck based things such as what you roll, what you fight, random npcs and a whole bunch of other things that can boost your character to infinite heights or reduce them to measly ants. I believe you can also be a dick and just limit your team mates. Kill them and take their money or towns or whatever else you want.

Sometimes it's better to give up than to fight

It's actually quite long when you're playing it, especially when you're playing with 3 or more people, and you can be stalled by many things such as deaths or shitty rolls. However it's quite immersive once you get used to it and can be a good, fun way to pass the time when you're bored with a few friends. The graphics match with what this game is trying to do. However the fights it can ignite and the sheer amount of dickery you can commit kind of contrasts it's funny nature. Definitely worth picking up though, even today.

There are a few cons I have to address though:

-Turns take too long, the menus feel a bit sluggish at times which doesn't help when you want it to be your turn
-Sometimes, while there's plenty to do and get in this game, you have to sacrifice too much in order to experience. For example to get the Hero class you basically would have to go completely out of your way to obtain it. By the time you're finished becoming the class, everything is just so piss poor easy that there is no challenge and nothing to kill with your shiny new hero title.
-A bit too random at times to the point where it gets unfair, this does make it more interesting though
-There's plenty of unbalance in the design, the cheapest being the Darkling(if you play this game you will know what Darklings entail)

BBoy log #1

Wait a minute... I haven't practiced for 3 days! What can I say about anything? Essentially I've forgotten all the moves that I came up with on the last practice and now have to come up with them again! Either that or come up with new ones which I always do. Fucking memory why can't you work properly?

Anyways flare and halo progress is getting better. 1990s are doing okay despite the lack of practice. Headspins and turtles are improving but slow moving. Handhops are a pain since I should already have them but oh well.

One thing I noticed while practicing is I hate thinking about stupid shit. Your mind just wanders and prohibits you from practicing, Also watching other people can be distracting.

Boring post today...Brain malfunctioning... think can't...

Ragnarok online

I've wasted tons of time on this MMORPG. Basically I broke my first MMO cherry when I played Runescape and ever since then I've liked the genre. I've always enjoyed playing in a world shaped by the players, and killing them is fun too! I spent too much time on RO and basically knew 90% of the world like the back of my palm. It had such great graphics for the time and the music was astounding!

One of the first themes I heard when I entered the game, frankly it was amazing.

I basically spent my adolescence playing this game. Even after several times starting over I still continued playing, each time getting more and more powerful and farther in the game. Compared to Runescape it was revolutionary because the combat wasn't a sort of turn based combat, you could actually see your characters move and fight. This made battles fast and streamlined meaning it was easier to get caught up in it. The graphics were also cute and the world was rich with unique monsters. Classes were distinct from one another and you always had a new experience whenever you made a new class.

The town of Prontera filled with a variety of classes and a Lord Knight showing off his equipment

Basically I had very fond memories of the game, as well as my fair share of drama(which was also fun in it's own way). Most of the time drama would either start through equipment or PVP(player vs player, basically killing each other). Now if you've played any game with a PVP system you know that drama is soon to follow. People HATE to lose and if you kill them they will come back with a vendetta the size of Uranus. Most of the time PVP is done for fun but it can easily escalate into all out war. PVP however was very quick in this game, you would usually die in 1-2 hits depending on what level and class you were so it wasn't easy to come back for your revenge. Also certain classes had certain advantages and the balance was wonky at best. Most of the offensive oriented classes dominated and could even take out hordes of people if you built AND equipped them right.

Which brings me to my next point, equipment. Equipment basically made the player. Sure without the levels you won't have the HP or stats to perform well with it but even at low levels you could destroy people if you had the best equipment. Of course the best equipment comes with a cost, as in any other MMORPG, the best equipment can cost you upwards of hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars. Certain things are just so overpowered that whoever owned them makes them nigh invulnerable, either through super offense or super defence. The backbone of any equipment is having it highly upgraded which increases the defense a significant amount and having cards slotted into them. The more highly upgraded and rare cards slotted into the equipment the more rare and costly they become. Most equipment can be upgraded to a maximum of +10 but to get there requires extreme luck, as low as 0.0384% for going from 0 to +10.

Equipment makes a huge difference though because each upgrade reduced damage by a certain percentage, meaning if you stack enough of it you could tank basically anything. You had 5 equipment slots that can all be upgraded out of a total of 10, however every other slot can give you defence depending on what you're wearing.

The classes  you could become, these are the second classes and the transcended classes however.

Now let's move on to the grind. Yes the horrendous grind for levels that plague many RPGs, and MMORPGs are no exception. You literally have to kill thousands and thousands of monsters just to reach any feasible level of adequacy. Whether you're grinding for equipment or levels you will spend hundreds of hours just tweaking 1 character to be usable in any late-game activity. Whether you want to fight in the War of Emperium, Battle Ground, PVP, MVP or even kill basic monsters you have to gear up and level up. You're hard pressed to find any good equipment because anything that is good drops at a ridiculously low rates. At time they even drop from low level monsters so you can't even level from them so hunting them is essentially all you're going there for. Also, when you reach max level you can do it all over again at 3 times to experience rate! <sarcasm>Woohoo!</sarcasm> However they made the beginning grind way easier in the global server so you won't feel so weak in the beginning. You still have to grind in the end though because they increased the level cap to 150 which is 51 levels higher than the previous max. The experience needed for those levels is again ridiculous because to get anywhere good you have to spend time, basically the same time it took you to get to max level before, if not more.

Remember you're competing against thousands of people worldwide and there will always be someone who has more time and more social skill than you. If everyone could reach max level easily than everyone would be doing it and those that actually spent time leveling their character would complain about how easy it is. Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft made this mistake and riots were started on the forums about how easy it is now.

Even with all the complaints however this is still one charming game. I still find myself attracted to it's alluring wafts of 2d goodness as well as the consistent updates they keep adding. Even though this game is beyond 10 years old now it still has a strong community of people still playing, whether that be on a official pay-to-play server or private server.

The developers are still going strong too but IMO they while some of the updates have definitely improved the game certain parts seriously need a rehaul. For instance the quest system, it fucking sucks man. It feels like there is no point in doing them because they provide such shit rewards. And the ones that have good rewards also are insanely hard and without a quest guide handy you'd be lucky to find any of the right NPCs to talk to. Another problem is, while the story to these quest are actually quite decent, it doesn't feel like you made any effect to the world at all. None of the NPCs talk or move and they are stuck in the same position for eternity. Also the sprites are boring as fuck. They just add effects but without actually changing what the sprite is doing. For instance the animation for clicking and attacking a monster is the same as doing a skill. So no matter how flashy the skill looks it doesn't matter because you're still following through, through the same motions. Your animations carry throughout the same class path too! I mean fuck, if it wasn't already bad that you had to put up with the same animations through 1 class but when you change into your second class you have the same god damn animations? Are you kidding me? I also hate that your equipment doesn't change, but alas I rarely see 2d games with equipment that actually changes the sprite.

Yes there is private servers with every change(or not change) you could think of. Some are very similar to the official servers where there's a heavy grind and almost no help in the basic stuff that new games have as their base. No resetting of stats if you screw up, no easy transportation without heavy cost, and other things such as no sp healing items sold. Other servers however are the complete opposite, upping the experience rate and drops 1 million times allowing you to level up like crazy and find every possible thing you can imagine. Resets, teleporting, and basic(and sometimes not so basic)healing items/equipment are all cheap or free. They have custom items that give you insane stats and a variety of other tweaks which make killing every monsters a breeze. You will attack 50 times per second and do millions of damage. However these types of high rate servers usually make you grind out for equipment and adjust the monsters so that the tougher monsters are equally as tough as you are. Drops for certain monsters will change because otherwise you'd be running around with overpowered items.

Example of several custom items not available on official servers

It's just basically a matter of finding the right balance of what you like and what server to pick. Without challenge there's no fun so each server owner tackles it in their own way, some being more popular than others. I love the game but I've since put it down for several years now and moving on to other MMOs. This game will always have a place in my heart, if just for nostalgia reasons though. When this game eventually whittles and dies it will still glow brightly in my as one of my fond memories.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

If you browse any kind of forum populated by males aged 18-34 than you've probably heard of this show. It's probably a fad by now, they post a new topic talking about how awesome it is and you're thought is either:

A: This is the gayest shit I've ever seen
B: WTF am I even WATCHING
C: Fuck this is embarrassing, I hope nobody is watching me
D:

I AM THE HAPPIEST MAN ALIVE!

This show is full of giddyness. I mean look at it the show is based on ponies, that can either fly or have magic, are all friends with each other, and have names like Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, or Pinky Pie. If that wasn't enough:

A picture says a thousand words. Also if you watch this show you will never get a girlfriend, EVER!

Underneath all the girly, cotton candy, taste like diabetes, and girly likeliness of it all it's actually very good. I mean when I first watched it I had all the above reactions as long as every other male. I mean look how girly this show is? Who the hell would watch this girly show that's the girliest show ever meant for my 8 year old cousin. Not to mention how girly is it!

The characterization however is fantastic, each one stands on their own and makes their own mark in the overall show and plot. Easily identifiable with and not as cliche as they first appear. The voice acting is amazing and so is the animation. There's also singing parts which they somehow make not lame like in many other shows that feature it. It's just a very enjoyable show that knows what it's doing and targeting a younger audience without making it so dumbed down that you feel like vomiting when your kids watch it. Basically they targeted everyone without excluding anyone.

Definitely a show I'll hate to see end, luckily there's a season 2 coming out so that won't be for a while. Anyways I'll end this with my favorite part of the whole show(not that the other parts are shabby, NOT AT ALL) which makes me giddy with happiness every time I watch it.

LYRICS:

Three months of winter coolness, and awesome holidays
We've kept our hoofsies warm at home, time off from work to play
But the food we've stored is running out, and we can't grow in this cold
And even though I love my boots, this fashion's getting old

The time has come to welcome spring, and all things warm and green
But it's also time to say goodbye, it's winter we must clean
How can I help, I'm new you see
What does everypony do?
How do I fit in without magic?
I haven't got a clue

Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
Let's finish our holiday cheer
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
'Cause tomorrow spring is here

Bringing home the southern birds, a pegasus' job begins
And clearing all the gloomy skies, to let the sun shine in
We move the clouds, and we melt the white snow
When the sun comes up, its warmth and beauty will glow

Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
Let's finish our holiday cheer
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
'Cause tomorrow spring is here

Little critters hibernate, under the snow and ice
We wake up all the sleepyheads, so quietly and nice
We help them gather up their food, fix their homes below
We welcome back the southern birds, so their families can grow

Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
Let's finish our holiday cheer
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
'Cause tomorrow spring is here

No easy task to clear the ground, plant our tiny seeds
With proper care and sunshine, everyone it feeds
Apples, carrots, celery stalks, colorful flowers too
We must work so very hard, it's just so much to do

Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
Let's finish our holiday cheer
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
'Cause tomorrow spring is here

Now that I know what they all do, I have to find my place
And help with all of my heart, tough task ahead I face
How will I do without my magic, help the earth pony way?
I wanna belong so I must do my best today
Do my best today

Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
Let's finish our holiday cheer
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
'Cause tomorrow spring is here
'Cause tomorrow spring is here

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chonicles

So I just beat this game yesturday with my friend and had some good times with it. I'll try not to ruin anything but it's hard in a review. Anyways I'm going to split this up into several sections; now onto the review:

Story 8/10

Now the story, for all I have to say is corny as hell. The voice acting is cheesy and the scenarios are just nigh implausible, with zombies popping up out of nowhere and monsters just attacking you for no reason. Now if you know zombies and monsters you know that they are pretty much uncontrollable unless you're so badass motherfucker who can ruin everybody's shit (i.e. me). Here however it appears as if these monsters are controlled by the main protagonist of the scenario. They will throw tyrants and giant snakes at you whenever they feel like. Zombies come out of nowhere and attack you but never anybody else. You will see civilians, people that are unarmed and have no fighting skill whatever, just run past these guys like it was nothing. Also 1 of them is a 12 year old kid named Sherry and she's just ridiculous.

Not afraid of anything

Also at times she would just run away from you for no reason. Yes, let's run away from the nice normal humans and run towards the head eating licker shall we? The reason I give this an 8 is because the corniness and unbelievability of the whole situation your in just adds to the amusement. It would try to take itself seriously but fall flat on it's face the next moment. It's so bad it's good , is one way to put it.

Gameplay 8/10

The game itself is an on-rails shooter similar to games like House of the Dead or Time Crisis in the arcade. The difference is this isn't a light gun game and instead relies on the Wii motes pointer in order for you to aim. So you will always see a scope on the screen for where you are going to shoot. I personally like these types of games so I might be a little bit biased but I'd say it was done very well. You start with a handgun with infinite ammo and to reload you just shake your remote, relatively easy to do but can cause some strain to your arm/wrist. You get new guns as you progress by finding them around the areas you visit and you can customize every gun you get. Each gun except for the handgun comes with limited amount of ammo, but again you can find more as you progress through the areas. Every upgrade becomes more and more expensive as you progress but you also get more money as you went on.

It adds some variety and sometimes having enough ammo for the gun you need can make or break you. The main enemies are zombies but there is some variety such as lickers, hunters, giant spiders, etc. At the end of the stage you are scored based on how fast you completed the stage, head shots, score and how many enemies you killed. This can be frustrating sometimes because sometimes you will see a bunch of enemies, prepare to dish out a bunch of head shots, but instead you move on and skip them. You have no control over this so when you have this happen to you the first few times it can be disorienting. Eventually you learn that you just have to use explosives to quickly take out the amount of enemies you take instead of preparing for a battle with 5-6 zombies.

Graphics 8/10

What can I say? It can be a little bit grainy but other than that the graphics fit the game and aren't too bad. Not everything is destructible but that's probably hard to do. This game is usually nice enough to indicate which objects you can destroy and which you can't but it can be a little bit hard at times. Nothing to really complain at other than that.

Miscellaneous

Here I will talk about small things I liked/disliked and improvements they could have added to the game to make this a lot better.

First of all the pacing. Sometimes you will go through a section really slowly. Almost unbearably slow. They will take their time climbing up and down ladders, navigating corridors and peeking around corners that nobody cares about. To spice up the action I would have liked it if there were more saturation of enemies so I don't become bored.

I liked the co-op feature they put in. Nothing is worse when you want to play a game with your friend at your house and you find out that A. the game doesn't suppose multiplayer or B. in order to get play together at all you would need 2 consoles, 2 games and be online. I. FUCKING. HATE. THAT. Several games that would shine in offline on the couch multiplayer are only given online multiplayer or none at all. It really pisses me off when this happens so kudos to Capcom for including this feature.

Give more money during the campaign. I don't really mind grinding but with the slow pacing sometimes and the little amounts of money I only had enough money to max 1 gun at the end of the game. It wasn't even the high end gun either it was the hand gun so there definitely wasn't enough cash being handed out

Knife is almost useless, either make it more useful or get rid of it.

More monster variety and gun variety would have been nice.

Overall 8/10

Good game through-out but the flaws don't let me give it a higher score. If you're looking for a good on-rail co-op shooter than pick this up or rent it. The campaign is relatively short but there's many unlockables and several difficulties so the re-playability isn't bad.

Ever feel like just not going to sleep?

Sleep is such a wonderful thing isn't it? I mean you go to your bed for a measly 8 or so hours(10 for me) and you're up refreshed(not me) feeling like rainbows and sunshine. Too bad it's god damn 5 AM right now and I just don't feel like sleeping. I could actually easily fall asleep but my bed is too far! Aaahh... help me someone because I'm too lazy to go upstairs but too lazy to do anything else. I'm just browsing and decided to up and write on this blog. Procrastination at it's finest, when I should be doing homework I'm doing everything but.

 Life's a bitch though, stupid responsibilities as an adult; too bad that if you compare yourself to any poor nation with poor people your life seems grand and wondrous. With food to eat, water to drink and shelter over your head you're way better off physically. I have friends and family that are safe at home protected from well being and away from harms way instead of near death, famine or war. However happiness is all in perspective. It's how you make of it and sometimes, even though you are making a ton more than people from poor nations, in comparison to your neighbors and how your society views you, this might be chump change. Pennies compared to what they're making. Anyways I don't like the hippy talk but at times you just think about these sorts of things and it just gets on your mind.

It gnaws at you, racking your brain with annoying philandering BS that makes you want to kick babies.

Hopefully there will be new updates soon on more interesting things than useless thoughts. Maybe for the 1 or 2 readers that read this(probably more like 0 but who cares).... Let's see if I can find a picture of what I'm feeling right now.

Yah, kind of like that

What does a bboy practice feel like?

Well than, let me try to answer that question for you. If you are just starting and want to head out and learn some more from bboys there's a few ways you can do it. Of course the obvious way is to make friends with either bboys or people who know bboys and asking them. Most bboys are friendly and will allow you to go to their practice sessions no problem. There have been a few issues though with some people abusing their privileges and just ruining it for everyone.

One of the places where I practiced, of course I don't know that girl at all I just found the picture on google

Another way is to go online in the forums and search for a thread pertaining to your city. Usually there is already a thread about where you can practice in your area and even if it's a few years old the practice spots still remain the same. There might be a few new ones that pop up every now and than but usually bboys stick to the same areas. Of course bboying has the freedom to practice almost anywhere, whether it be actual dance studios or concrete. I once danced in the parking lot at night time under the street lights but that floor was too rough to do anything serious. Still managed to do it though and that's the key point. But yah, you can message bboys and try to find their practice areas and just do your thing, no one will judge.

As with any forum USE THE SEARCH BUTTON FIRST!

Especially when starting it can be very intimidating, you're very self-conscious about how you look at what you do. However if you're not a cocky ass bitch and actual try your hardest there ain't nothing nobody can say about you. Most people will actually praise your for your efforts because at one point in time they were in a very similar position you were in. Eventually you'll talk with someone and you'll click and you can learn from each other to become better bboys.

BBoy Poe One telling it from his experience 

One of the main reason you want to go to these practice sessions, and why many do, is because you actually get better faster. There's someone there who's better than you there and you can watch what they do and learn what you're doing wrong. So even without talking or anything and just being there you can learn a lot of things. Of course if you get to talking you'll learn even more and you'll have a more rich and more powerful experience.

Another area where I've practiced. Inside of course, at the edges near the bleachers 
My personal experience with this was pretty good but I know of a few that didn't really like it. Sometimes you just have to give it some time before you become accustomed to it. Think about it, instead of having to practice in you're garage or basement, which is probably shitty, you can practice in a well lit studio or nice concrete with plenty of open space and people to show you tips on how to improve. And the best thing about it too is IT'S FUCKING FREE! You don't have to pay a goddamn penny to anybody. Probably the easiest way to get good fast is through these practice sessions.

Riding on a board

It's a great pass time, it is, wind flowing past your face, the excitement coursing through your veins, the exhilaration of the scenery passing by you in a blur of emotional joy and the occasional frost bite on your face, but hey, who says it was perfect? Anyways what I'm talking about is snowboarding(or skiing but I've since switched to snowboarding) and man is it a great sport to do. It's just so fun to go down a mountain while taking in the beautiful scenery and just having complete control of where you are going. Bringing along friends with you is a must since it makes the trip that much better, especially if you live far away from the mountains.

Only true troopers can brave the cold to go outside and ride down at 40-60km/h past trees with no protection!

The drive there can be deadly boring and I don't know who could do it alone unless they loved the sport that much. If friends weren't there to go with me I don't think I could stand to go snowboarding, never mind the drive there. Those lucky bastards that live very close to the mountains are pretty lucky since you can just go whenever you feel like it. For the likes of me however it requires quite the drive, minimum 3 hours to get there. Oh but it's definitely worth it; I recall the first time I went there and it was one of the most magical moments I'll remember for the rest of my life. Great weather, great friends and just a great day in general.

If this doesn't appeal to you, you have no soul!

For some reason I also like to ride up the mountain. It's a great meditative thing where you can sit and chat with your peers and look at the great scenery outside. It feels like you're going somewhere epic and large, a land of magic and wonder. However my vision was skewed by that perfect day because the proceeding time I went it wasn't as crazy. It was still a good time but not as perfect. The weather conditions were basically a blizzard causing an apocalypse of suck to your vision. I had to buy a new pair of goggles since I was dumb and thought I didn't need one, since last time I went on a clear sunny day. Word of advice, don't buy goggles at the snow resort, they'll rape you up the ass just for a flimsy pair of plastic. Makes me kind of angry thinking back to it actually. The gondola ride up wasn't crazy either because there were people with us which disrupted our bonding moment within the cabin and not to mention the windows were foggy as fuck.

Example of a gondola, theirs wasn't fogged up to the point of anger however

I'm going to go this weekend again and hopefully the weather will be better than last time. It seems to be warming up so hopefully it won't be to bad. Too bad snowboarding is one of the only things to look forward to in winter because otherwise this season is horrible.

Starcraft 2

God damn Starcraft 2. I don't personally like RTS games too much since I don't like multitasking. Once you fuck up one thing it's like a big ball of fuck ups that eventually get you killed. Dieing sucks and there's so many good players it's annoying. Well the challenge is good and the graphics were definitely an improvement over the previous game. Makes it much easier on the eyes because when I played the first Starcraft I realized I was playing a game that was like 15 years old. Jesus it was hard to play considering I never got into it when I was young,

Anyways basic RTS stuff but with 3 distinct races with their each unique abilities. They're decently balanced but you can never know until you play it long enough. Usually in the beginning even if you pick a shitty race you can win with enough skill against a person with the better race. I personally play Terran because that's what you play in the campaign and I got used to using it. Not bad, I like them since tanks are awesome. Too bad I suck ballz. ARRGHH I hate multitasking!

Fuck supply depots...Seriously...

You can't win unless you get the right strategies and insert the right units and be fast enough with good timing. It also feels like a waste of time learning this but I'm going to kick my friends ass till he gives up this game first. He's winning for now... but wait till I train and kick him in the nuts.

OH YAH!! JUST LIKE THAT!!

You Stylin?

When I got into BBoying one of the first things I learned was footwork and freezes as noted in more earlier post. Footwork and freezes are basically one of the main contributors to how you look and the basic foundation for many BBoys out there. I remember trying it out and it was kind of hard to do anything! Eventually though, you start picking it up and one thing you learn will lead to another and they will synergize to make other moves easier to learn. It's like the more you learn the easier it is to learn but the more you know the less you know.

BBoy Abstrak: as his name implies his moves are very complicated and stylin

That's the problem, there's too many damn things that can happen at once, you have to really practice to get moves down and concise. Just as with power moves there's categories you can be ranked on which affect the overall look of what you do. I'm not going to list them but some of the catagories such as cleanness, speed, and execution also apply. I definitely need to work at lot more to execute my moves the way I want to.

If you've never been in a battle it's probably one of the most exhilarating things you'll experience. Especially your first battle because you're pitting the skills you learned against others and you will know once you've been in one how hard it is to do any of the moves you want. If you want to hit your moves and time it with the music you have to practice it. Trying to listen to the music, while thinking of the next move, moving all your limbs and counter the opponent is a hard skill but if you beat them it's a great moment. You can finally show that you accomplished something worth while.

I forgot where I was going with this so I'm going to end it pretty soon. But anyways style will definitely give you many props, and the harder and more complicated your moves are and you do them with proper technique while hitting the music the better at dancing you'll be.

I'll end this off with a video with one of the most famous BBoys with a lot of style: BBoy Born

It feels like you're flying

That's probably how I'd describe power moves in bboying. This will be my second post on bboying and I'll concentrate on power moves for now. I've only gotten a few power moves and only have a feel for a few more so my experience isn't OMG expert, but I know enough from doing it and watching it that I can talk about it.

Bboy Bruce Lee flying. I can only speculate but I think he's defying gravity.

Now usually when people start power moves they want to get the move because it looks cool and it'd probably feel cool too. However the effort required is unfair sometimes, not only because your body isn't naturally inclined to do this but you have a serious chance of getting injured. The fear and adrenaline rushing through you when you go around once is quite an experience but before you even get to the big moves you have to start with the basics. For example you think you can just start learning windmill because you watched it on a video once? Nope your wrist isn't ready, nor is your capability to handle the fear. I remember I first tried doing it without any knowledge, all I ended up with was a bruised body. And I do mean that literally because my entire body was black since I probably hit every part of it. "How the hell can this move be so god damn hard to learn?" Was one of the first thing I spoke when I started it. It took me a solid 3 months just to go around several times and even than my speed wasn't up to par and it wasn't clean.

Power moves are ranked according to several categories, and the more you do them the better you'll get at it. I'd say the categories go as follows:

Execution - Basically how you get into the move and start it
Cleanness - Whether your legs are sloppy or flexed
Speed - Self-explanatory
Difficulty - How hard what you're doing is
Flow - How you connect your power moves
Creativity - What you added to the power move to make it yours

The more you have of those categories the better you will be(I might of missed a few but I think I got most of them).

Bboy Wing known for his solid and speedy execution of his 2000s. Contrary to what it looks like it's actually done on 1 hand.

I used to hate power moves since I started with style. I learned freezes, footwork and toprock first before I even touched power moves. To me they are probably one of the most hardest things in this dance because I'm just not crazy athletic and I'm pretty heavy to boot. Progress is really slow and sometimes you want to quit because of it, god it's depressing sometimes. When you think you're getting the move the next day it feels like you're going backwards! That's complete BS. There's all these subtle nuances that can make your power move learning experience that much faster but sometimes your body won't listen.

I really look up to those bboys that can perform and execute these moves with the finesse and expertise they do. I know just how hard it is and quite often I'll see improvement in many bboys power moves, going beyond what I thought was even possible. People will grab their leg while spinning, go up into an air flare, land onto their 1 hand into a jackhammer and than pop onto their head into a complicated position. You know they practiced hard and deserved props for that.

A variation of munch mill where he grabs one of his legs with his hand

I honestly think that bboying shows how far you can push the human body sometimes. They do these moves at such a fast and incredible rate that it boggles the mind sometimes.

Disgaea Series

The disgaea series, a fun little series that's part SRPG and part paraody. It's a fun little game and I've played a decent amount of them. I've played 1-3 on the consoles and 1-2 on the psp. I definitely logged more time on the portable ones however since it's much faster with ow you powerlevel and it adds a few other things which make it a little bit easier. For example in the second psp port of the game they added a new bill which lets you max enemy levels(and thus the exp you gain) in one bill instead of 10 or so saving you quite a bit of time. They also added a few characters and several changes to the mechanics.

Disgaea 1 picture showing just a fraction of how much damage you can do

The story is amusing, personally I don't find it crazy funny but it's entertaining. Sometimes I want a more light hearted type of RPG instead of the more serious and dramatic Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics. It definitely plays with tropes and provides so good chuckles. It does however get a little bit more serious towards the end usually having something to do with gaining love and friendship the hard way.

The main characters of Disgaea 2!

One feature that's unique to this series is the ability to power level to obscene levels with the max cap at 9999. It doesn't end there though because you can reincarnate, which makes you a little bit stronger each time and you can store levels till you hit a cap which is around 127000 I think. Of course it's not as tedious as is sounds because you can gain exp and levels at a phenomenal rate; some stages are designed around this. Still the grind is there and the Random number god will mess around with you sometimes.

Blurry picture of Disgaea 3 showing a new feature called: Geo Blocks

Most of your luck will come into play when finding items and leveling them. You see you can go into your item and level them and depending on the rarity of the items there is varying amounts of floors. 100 floors for legendary, 60 for rare and 30 for normal items. Sometimes you'll spend a few hours just trying to find a legendary version of the item you want but sometimes it's not the rarity you want. You see even if you find the legendary version of it if it doesn't match a certain rarity number you'll have to go inside that one and find the perfect rarity. You can equip 1 weapon and 3 items and if all the rarities match you can boost your stats even more.

Of course there's many more factors that require some luck such as lovers, pirates, innocents, mystery rooms and many more that is beyond the scope of this blog. Regardless though it is fun to tweak your character and I do find it fun since while sometimes tedious you actually do see the results which makes it fun. Even today people are finding new ways to do even more damage because so many variables can effect you, and that's just in the first game. The 3rd one added even more and just recently a 4th one came out. Too bad it's in Japan though we'll probably have to wait a little while to get it. Oh well it lets me finish the 3rd one till I'm bored with it.

Overall I Really like these games so I give my slightly biased 20/10... oops I mean 9/10.

Ghosts and why you're a pussy to be scared of them

Now I've been thinking about it, since my friend is afraid of ghost. Not just a little bit however, an unreasonable fear of ghost and anything that bumps in the night. Now... even if ghost did exist(note: they don't) they are intangible. Think about that for a second, if you saw one you couldn't do shit about it. Now I've heard people say that they fear them because you could die from them. Who cares though? If it was going to kill you it would have done so and you couldn't do anything to stop it. As long as you don't die from something stupid like shock or a heart attack when the ghost is about to kill you I think it'd be a great way to die!

Think about it would you rather have a slow natural death like most people or get ripped in half by a ghost? I'd rather get ripped in half or whatever else ghost do. Ghost are pussies however, I've done Ouija boards, demonic summonings, witchcraft, crying at night, praying for ghost, and anything else but of course they don't come. Of course I'm not summoning to get myself killed, no siree I'm going to catch one of these motherfuckers and become rich. If the ghostbusters can do it why can't I?

What's more scary than ghost? Real live people. At least they have a means to hurt you unlike some shitty ghost that you can just walk right through. I mean how would they even touch you? They'd take over you soul? No that's not happening obviously but if a person drugged you up or took your family hostage than you'd have something to fear. I'd fear a feral dog more than a ghost. A god damn kitten is more scary. Ghost definitely don't exist but my friend is still scared of them so of course I use that to my advantage.

God damn Tired

Man am I tired. Sleepiness is a process that can fuck off. I'm trying to write a paper for my friend(getting paid for it) but this is just sooooo boring. This would be easier if it wasn't bible speak which is almost as hard to understand as Shakespeare. The moment a thought goes on paper it just becomes really hard to coherently link together sentences that give you any sort of sense. I'm just going through it trying to analyze it but I'm not sure I'm even doing that! The problem with this paper is that there is no clear topic to talk about and the teacher didn't give one to pick from either.

This would seriously be easier if religion wasn't so stupidly complicated for no reason. There's freakin 14 virtues, 7 deadly sins, 7 sacraments, communion, fucking lent, prayer, grace, blah blah blah etc it just never fucking ends. With all these god damn rules it's no wonder atheist are increasing in this world.

Saints row 2

So I bought Saints Row 2 on the PC using steam about 4-5 days ago and just finished it a couple hours ago. It took me about 30 hours and I'm at about 90% completion according to my save file. The gameplay is basically a sandbox game but with a few quirky things unique to the game. Think of GTA: San Andreas but with enhanced graphics and improved gameplay. However don't buy the PC version it's an inferior port and unless you have a decent computer you're going to lag, especially during any driving part.

So if you've never played a GTA game or a sandbox game think of it like this: you're in third person perspective kind of like Super Mario 64 and you control your character and basically do whatever you want; hence the term sandbox game. Of course in these types of games it's not a true sandbox since there's missions with objectives, in this case you're trying to take over a city called Stilwater. GTA may have pioneered the genre but people have definitely added their tweaks and things about it as the sandbox/GTA genre went on.

A lot of the things that Saints Row 2 does is basically a parody of sandbox games. How people talk, the cheats, how you fight, customization of your character along with a variety of other things. Now the way I play the game is basically mess around and get used to the game for about 1-2 hours. Start mission, do a few side quests, start mission again and repeat till I beat the game. That's how I did it and I enjoyed it most of the way through. There's a few mini-games that pissed the hell out of me but that could be due to the PC port. The mini-game I played was a driving themed game where you use a quad and try to go through these checkpoints. It's already hard since you're timed and they give you very little time and there's tons of obstacles in the way. Not to mention your quad controls like ass and wants to fly into the air every few seconds where you lose complete control of the vehicle. You can also make cars explode and light pedestrians on fire but that just adds to the frustration. You basically get extra time for blowing up cars/people but the people avoid you and the cars FUCKING EXPLODE! This might not sound like much but the explosions cover your view and the fucking people... oh those FUCKING people just move out of the way whenever you want to hit them. Now I understand that that's just basic human survival instinct and programmed ai but it just pisses me the hell off.

Anyways I'm digressing since I still haven't fully completed all of the levels of that mini-game. Overall though it's a good game with a wide variety of things to do. Compared to GTAIV's more realistic feel this is better IMO. Not that GTAIV was bad but it wasn't as fun since they removed many of the fun cheats and activities and added boring realistic things that you don't want to do in a game. Saints Row 2 is all about doing insane things with the tools of the world. The weapons are fun to use and there's a nice variety of cars which you can customize. You can change the look of your character and the tools are simple yet quite pronounced. You can even change your walking style and you aren't limited to anything. For example, you can be a male but have a female voice and wear female clothing. The missions weren't grating and the police don't hound you for every little thing you do. The missions make you feel like a actual a badass since you go around fucking shit up trying to take back your city. The voice acting is good and I liked the comedy.

So I'll end it with a pro/con list and my score out of 10.

Pros:
-Lots of things to do and you can customize tons of things
-Cheats are fun and there's definitely a lot of them
-Graphics are nice and fit the game
-It doesn't take itself too seriously which I personally like
-Nice variety of weapons
-Decent sized city
-The mission and activity variety is pretty good.

Cons:
-Glitchy and laggy at certains parts(at least on the PC port)
-Crashs sometimes
-Sometimes the difficulty on some things can be frustrating

A solid 8.5/10

Just posting some links that I'm saving

Got these links from gamefaqs message board and I visited a few and they were decent so I'm going to keep them here for later.

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/
http://snl.jt.org/
http://www.virtualnes.com/list/index.html
http://www.hunt4tunes.com/
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/ontherun/how-to-copy-music-from-your-ipod-to-your-itunes-library-5615
http://www.lensoftruth.com/?cat=47
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQNvdKNTZUg
http://www.insurance-quotes-for-you.com/A_must_read_Way_too_funny.html
http://www.micklanders.com/2009/05/28/folded-paper-art-ishow-the-hell/
http://www.prana.com/blog/?p=3981\
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AW8AERcMaIB1ZGc0NzN6MmJfMGZueGJkOGRx&hl=en
http://youtomb.mit.edu/
http://www.flurrious.com/
http://www.warmoth.com/Pages/CustomBody.aspx
http://play-legend-of-zelda-online.blogspot.com/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10501181/100-Words-to-Make-You-Sound-Smart
http://balloonboyfalconheene.com/A_single_groove_on_a_vinyl_record_magnified_by_1000x.html
http://marvin.cs.uidaho.edu/~heckendo/overlord.html
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-fish-almost-destroyed-my-childhood.html
http://www.beautifullife.info/graphic-design/artist-daniel-dociu/
http://mashable.com/2010/03/30/identify-song-apps/
http://www.surgicaltechnologists.net/blog/20-scary-old-school-surgical-tools
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~avondale/extra/Humor/MiscellaneousHumor/TandemStory.html
http://komplexify.com/epsilon/2009/05/21/ultimate-test/
http://www.shouldieatbacon.com/
http://conceptrends.com/2008/08/27/fiber-optics-light-glove/
http://redux.com/f/1083052/69-alternatives-to-the-default-Facebook-profile-picture
http://adamatomic.com/canabalt/mega/
http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/now-this-is-how-to-rob-a-bank/
http://www.secretssafe.com/
http://www.instantsfun.es/
http://www.ehow.com/how_2326080_cheddar-biscuits-like-red-lobster.html
http://www.songtitle.info/
http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~riesbeck/mathphyseng.html
http://wearehunted.com/
http://www.sadanduseless.com/2009/08/pictures-with-words/
http://www.focus.com/fyi/marketing/101-coolest-easter-eggs-hidden-your-software-dvds-and-video/
http://web.mac.com/lambtodd/iWeb/todd%20lamb%20/Todd%20Lamb%20Notes%20From%20Chris%20Gallery.html
http://www.digavatar.com/
http://www.anvari.org/fun/Truth/Having_a_Bad_Day.html
http://www.kontraband.com/jokes/2036/THIS-Anagrams/
http://fourteenlol.110mb.com/waterballs.htm
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/05/top-20-ways-to-provoke-a-geek-argument-geekdad-wayback-machine/
http://www.musicovery.com/
http://rip747.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/russian-sleep-experiment-the-best-short-story-ive-read/
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2010/04/26/spirolaterals/
http://geek.ology.com/top-geek-furniture/
http://skippyslist.com/list/
http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/hot-teen-busted-on-webcam-p1.php
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/1050555/medics-baffled-by-man-who-doesnt-eat
http://www.desicolours.com/morning-on-mars/18/12/2008
http://www.highexistence.com/reading-eye-movements/
http://www.vimeo.com/9897083
http://dirpy.com/
http://notessimo.net/misc/window.php?id=0
http://vimeo.com/9953368
http://www.cratekings.com/the-30-greatest-hip-hop-drum-breaks-samples-of-all-time/
http://www.instanthitman.com/
http://quazen.com/arts/visual-arts/urban-graffiti-as-art-banksy/
http://listverse.com/2010/05/30/top-10-crazy-facts-about-kim-jong-il/
http://file.wikileaks.org/file/ied-safe-distance-reference-chart.pdf
http://people.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/funny/bloodcyber.html
http://i47.tinypic.com/2agrdir.jpg http://i46.tinypic.com/rshma9.png http://i46.tinypic.com/2u7wrqw.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_English_words
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_in_English_with_tripled_letters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_longest_English_words_with_one_syllable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_in_English_containing_all_the_vowels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commonly_misused_English_words
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Merriam%E2%80%93Webster%27s_Words_of_the_Year
http://relogik.com/cipher
http://mrdoob.com/lab/actionscript/pv3d/acid_cubes.html
http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/
http://cartoonoveranalyzations.com/
http://www.eternalcode.com/100-google-tricks-that-will-save-you-time-in-school
http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view?list_id=128557&show=150&start=0
http://www.dailybits.com/18-undiscovered-websites-every-gamer-should-know/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misconceptions
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10333211.stm
http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/mitlettr.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handkerchief_code
http://www.escapefromamerica.com/2010/06/escape-from-america-the-grim-truth/
http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html
http://www.futureme.org/index.php?logout=1
http://www.thevenusproject.com/the-venus-project-introduction/faq
http://iamhilarious.com/meaningless-metaphor/
http://www.funzug.com/index.php/nature/amazing-strength-of-nature.html
http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/dice/dice.html
http://boortz.com/mp3/archive/countdown.swf
http://whywasibanned.com/
http://www.styleguru.org/entry/weirdest-and-wackiest-contact-lenses/
http://lokwi.com/item/1243
http://www.wimp.com/surprisingmotivation/
http://escape-game.com/dak.html
http://pastebin.ca/1903125
http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/?icid=moonsitebnb#
http://oneframeoffame.com/
http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2008/06/1957-vs-2007.html
http://www.futuretimeline.net/beyond.htm#chernobyl
http://team.forsvarsmakten.se/english/
http://thedayis.com/
http://www.endlessyoutube.com/watch?v=DIx3aMRDUL4 - Open these 3 at the same time
http://www.rainymood.com/ - Open these 3 at the same time
http://www.endlessyoutube.com/watch?v=HMnrl0tmd3k - Open these 3 at the same time
http://www.typenow.net/themed.htm
http://www.pilothandwriting.com/en/
http://lifehacker.com/software/technophilia/us-government-web-sites-you-didnt-know-you-could-use-277405.php
http://70gigapixel.cloudapp.net/
http://www.geekosystem.com/world-war-ii-modern-photos-sergey-larenkov/
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/544332 - one of the hardest flash games I've ever played
http://www.last.fm/music/Jon+Studd/GameFaqs+Random+songs/
http://icloud.com/en/
http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/universcale/index_f.htm
http://moof.com/
http://aviary.com/online/music-creator
http://aviary.com/

So I started FFXIV

FFXIV came out in october 30th and I have played it for a few days. Had to restart though because my cousin wants to start with me and my friend. Annoying to say the least but no big deal.

The game starts with a cutscene which actually has voice acting though that's the only one so far I've seen with any. Voice acting isn't bad but you can tell some of the people had a cock in their mouth because they sounded like they were trying to hard. Gameplay is quite a bit faster than FFXI and the graphics, to say the least, are very nice; this causes my computer to choke a bit and my friend even basically bought a new computer to play this game.

The character creation was interesting, I tried to make a badass but quirky kind of guy and I think I succeeded a little bit though when he does an emote he looks retarded. Not to hard to get in to but the game features a lot of buggy shit and the menu lag is horrendous. Oh well it's pretty fun anyways and hopefully it will get better in time. A lesson for Square-Enix though is to not rush the release of things as everyone has stated in every forum I've read ever.

On a side note my relatives keep coming over which is really disturbing my privacy...FUCK! It's pretty annoying because my computer room is like 2 meters from where everyone fraternizes and they just aren't exactly quiet about being over either. Soon I'll get a job and move out.

My friends blog

Check him out if you're interested, he also talks about bboying and games but includes cars in his blog. Here's the link, see if you like him:

http://samdedka.blogspot.com/

Just did some running today

God damn I hate running. I don't know what it is but I suck at running, it's like my feet are born to be retarded slow and horrible at running. If I were to vs a world olympic althelete at running I'd lose; No just kidding I'd own his ass in seconds. Anyways ran about 4kms today which is probably the farthest I've ever ran since ever.

Running sucks since you just consistently slow down till your legs turn to jello and going any further causes them to critically fail. Lactic acid builds up which hurts like a bitch and causes your to further slow down. I wish I could run at top speed all the time but nope, breathing just gets harder and you over heat due to sheer retardation.

Let's talk about bboying

So bboying, which you can find a little bit of the history about here, is a dance known for it's atheltic power moves such as flares and windmill, stunning freezes such as airchair and the basic baby freeze, footwork such as the 6-step and CC which usually take place on all fours, and of course toprock which is the dancing part while on both feet.

BBoying is actually quite competitive starting out in the streets and having a battle oriented style where you attack your opponent face-to-face. You try to overtake your opponent and even embarrass them with burns which is a way to make fun of the opponent. The one rule you have to follow, and this is imperative, is no touching. Yes it's called a battle and there is lots of hype but if you don't show respect for your competitors than don't expect respect back. One of the craziest acts of disrespect is when lilou kicked omar in the neck. I'll admit is was kind of hilarious watching a guy who is 5 feet tall start shit with anyone.

                                             Lilou winding up for the kick

You can watch the full video here and it starts around 0:14. It's funny because french people have like this fucking attitude like they're tough shit and they can be but you guys are dancers not fighters. Bboys are also one of the shortest people I've ever seen, it's like because they were born short they got into bboying. Acting tough when you are half my height is seriously funny to me, my friend is 5'9 and he's one of the taller bboys out there. Don't get me wrong though there are tall bboys but they are pretty rare. Anyways if you want to fight prepare to suck at bboying because the amount of practice you have to put in is ridiculous and wasting time fighting would seriously hinder your process. I've been doing it for about 3 years and I'm still not that great though for others they could progress differently, I also started pretty late too at around 18-19 years old.

I know some bboys that actually have beef with each other and they get angry. They act pretty childish if you ask me and they are full grown adults(again though these guys are like 5'5 and under). Bboying is a dance where you express yourself and you practice to get better at it. Competition is nice but the main message of hip-hop is actually about peace, unity, love and having fun which can be applied to life and any dance.

Now about the amount of practice you have to do... Some bboys are just ridiculous; they will flip, fly, and rotate into a power move or a freeze while having flow and musicality. Some of them just blow my mind and their creativity is top-notch. For those who don't know the dance heres a video of a bboy who's got style, creativity, musicality and he's pretty tall to boot (still only 6'0 though).

BBoy Wing, they call him that because he fucking flies

Next post about bboying I think I'll explain some of the moves and their names if I know them.