andrmgic

Haven't posted on this thing in what seems like forever, guess I'm overdue.

Found a LJ client for the iPhone, had a free moment and decided to make a quick post.

I recently picked up Mass Effect for the PC and I gave been enjoying it alot, it is a nice change of pace from playing age of conan and the PC version looks particularly good with its higher resolution textures.

Well, that's it for now

Testing

It was fairly recently that Steve Irwin passed away, and I'm sure all of us who had ever watched his antics on tv had secretly thought that it was only a matter of time until something got him. Yet, at the same time, it is kind of hard to believe that he is gone, leaving a wife and two young children behind..

I found this link to a special that was done in his honor by Australia's channel 7 news, and I thought I would share it with anyone who reads this journal, as it shows interviews with some of his friends, and footage of the close and crazy wildlife encounters, extreme enthusiasm and love for wildlife that made Mr. Irwin the man he was..

It really is worth watching if you felt even a tiny bit of sadness at the news of his passing. You'll need Divx web player to watch it, which you can grab here

You can view the tribute special here

Hope you enjoy it

So I picked up the new Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! for the DS at EB today, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

I was first exposed to this game through the in-store download stations that provide a demo of the quick play section of the game, and I found myself having a good time, so I decided to grab the full version. Hell, it is only $20, so why not, I thought?

Well, much to my dismay, the game pegs my brain's age at 47, whereas my physical age is 25.. so things aren't looking so hot for my thinker at the moment.

This game will give you daily exercises to "work out" your brain, to help you lower your "brain age" towards the best possible age of 20. The game is based on the research of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a Japanese neurologist, whose studies have shown that performing tasks like simple mathematics in rapid succession increase blood flow to the brain and sharpen the brain's mental reflexes.

One of the tests involves observing the names of colors written on the screens, often in a different color than what the words say, and you have to say the color of the word instead of the word itself. For example, if "Red" shows up in yellow color, you'd have to say "Yellow" into the mic.

Another one is a series of 20 simple addition and multiplication problems, where you write your answers on the touch screen and you are timed and ranked for speed.

Yet another game is called "low to high" and in this one you'll be shown a series of numbers in a pattern.. like this:

1 7
3 2

and it will disappear after a second or two, and you'll have to tap the boxes (below) in the order of lowest to highest

[] []
[] []

with each one you get right, the number of numbers and squares will increase by 1, and it will decrease by 1 when you get one wrong.

I'm not very good at this one at all, topping out at about 7 that I can remember.

I haven't unlocked all of the tests, but they range from simple math, to reading, to syllable counting and memorization. In addition to the training mode, there is also Sudoku mode, which includes 100 or more puzzles to solve for folks who like that sort of thing.

The game itself is simple in concept, but I have a feeling that after a couple weeks of training, I'll no longer feel the urge to reach for a calculator to figure out simple problems.

Pretty cool stuff, me thinks!

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! (DS) has been defeated on normal mode.. which is where I will officially consider the game complete, as hard and very hard will likely never be finished.

Shin Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (Ps2) was defeated some weeks ago.. I just never noted it..

Unfortunately, my original list..

The List:

[x] Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS) - Completed 1/02/06
[ ] Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble (DS)
[ ] Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS)
[ ] Mario 64 DS (DS)
[ ] Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (DS)
[ ] Kirby's Canvas Curse (DS)
[ ] Lost in Blue (DS)
[ ] Nanostray (DS)
[ ] Feel the Magic XX/YY (DS)
[x] Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! (DS) - Completed 2/24/06

[ ] Primal (PS2)
[x] Onimusha (PS2) (I did beat Onimusha 4, which went over the story of 1, 2 and 3.. so I'm taking this one off the list XD) Completed 2/1/2006
[ ] Magna Carta: Tears of Blood (PS2)
[ ] Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (PS2)
[ ] Shadow Hearts: Covenant (PS2)
[ ] Guitar Hero (PS2) (if I manage to complete it before giving up in frustration >.> )
[ ] Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2) - Playing Sly 2 now.. from the "other list"
[ ] Dragon Quest 8: The Journey of the Cursed King (PS2)


[ ] Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GC)
[ ] Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC)
[ ] Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GC)

[ ] Xenogears (PSOne)

[ ] Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
[ ] Half-Life 2 (PC)

Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA) (sold it..)
[ ] Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA)

Has not been changed.. except for a few additions and 2 subtractions.

As promised, here are some of the tunes from my previous post:

Shanghai Honey

Linda Linda

Melody

These are some of my favorites, but I really like almost all of them. I won't post them all here, though ;P

Well, it is time for an update..

Recently I just picked up a new game for my Nintendo DS, and well, I'm having enough fun with it that it warrants a LJ post in its honor.

That game is Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! a music/rhythm game from the creators of Gitaroo Man on ps2, iNIS.

The premise of the game is pretty crazy, as it centers around this squad of male cheerleaders who are called upon to help out various people in need by dancing to motivate them to success.

Some examples include a student who can't concentrate on his studies because of his noisy/disruptive family and is afraid that he'll fail the college entrance exam. In his hour of need, he yells "OUENDAN!" and the sliding door to his room opens and the guys burst in to the music of "Loop & Loop" by Asian Kung-Fu Generation.

To play the game is simple, you just have to tap the numbered circles in the proper sequence when the outer circle lines up with the center, roll a ball along some sliders and spin some wheels. What makes it fun are the crazy manga style stories, the wicked awesome music and the watching the guys dance in the direction of your stylus.

If you like quirky Japanese games, music/rhythm games, J-pop/J-rock music or anime and have a DS, you owe it to yourself to check this game out. If you don't have a DS, games like this one are an excellent excuse to purchase one.

You can check out some videos here and here

If you decide on a purchase,

Yes Asia is the cheapest place to get it, but NCSX and Play-Asia are also good places to get the game.

Buy it now!

(I'll probably post the soundtrack later so you guys can check it out)

Its that time again, so I might as well get this overwith..


Resolution 1:

I will catch up on my gaming backlog before purchasing new games

The List:

[x] Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS) - Completed 1/02/06
[ ] Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble (DS)
[ ] Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS)
[ ] Mario 64 DS (DS)
[ ] Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (DS)
[ ] Kirby's Canvas Curse (DS)
[ ] Lost in Blue (DS)
[ ] Nanostray (DS)

[ ] Primal (PS2)
[ ] Onimusha (PS2)
[ ] Magna Carta: Tears of Blood (PS2)
[ ] Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (PS2)
[ ] Shadow Hearts: Covenant (PS2)
[ ] Guitar Hero (PS2) (if I manage to complete it before giving up in frustration >.> )

[ ] Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GC)
[ ] Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC)
[ ] Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GC)

[ ] Xenogears (PSOne)

[ ] Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
[ ] Half-Life 2 (PC)

[ ] Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
[ ] Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA)

Resolution number 2:

I will post comments and reply more often to friends' journals.

"Resolution number 3":

Harass Yazuko more often about getting to bed before midnight (::grin::)

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Saturday I set foulu's puppy on fire (-66 points). In June I turned angelcrescent in for spitting (3 points). Last Thursday I bought porn for sweet_anomie (10 points). Last week I pulled over and changed lucentai's flat tire (15 points). Last Monday I committed genocide... Sorry about that, lurial (-5000 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-5038 points). For Christmas I deserve a spanking! Sincerely, Andrmgic

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

Stolen from lurial

Well, my final semester in college begins tomorrow(today if you're picky). I have a number of mixed emotions about the whole thing. On one hand, I'd like very much to be finished with college; on the other hand, I'm worried about finding a job I can deal with and being happy in the real world after school. I'm finally going to break down and join up with AITP(Association of Information Technology Professionals) on campus and see if they can't help me find a good place to work when I finish. Maybe that $40 membership will finally be worth it this time.

I'm taking 4 classes this semester, one of which was cancelled at the last minute (might I add that I wasn't notified prior to the cancellation) and I had to scramble to find a new course. Fortunately, my schedule is now whole again, and I can graduate (in theory, there is always the fudge factor.. that is, the chance that I can fudge everything up for myself by making a bad grade) this fall as planned.

My classes are as follows:

Senior Project - seems to be designing and implementing a software program/package complete with user manual with a group of folks

Intro to Literature - destined to be one of, if not the only senior in here.. damn general ed. requirements

Software for Remote Databases (I think this is the right title.. not that it matters all that much) - just another class farting around
with Databases.. could have taken it in spring, I suppose.. but I was later told that adding this class as an elective could net me another minor for my troubles.. so I figured what the hell

Computer Graphics Applications (with a little creativity and re-arranging, this comes to spell GPA, as in GPA booster. I currently expect no challenge out of this at all..) - Yay, I guess I get to learn about things like Word, Illustrator, Photoshop and Maya.. but I'm not entirely sure. Taking a wait and see on this one.

If I was more of a masochist, I'd have signed up for Intro to Japanese also, but I think 4 classes with potential for projects and papers is about all I can stomach at the moment.

My computer has been acting funky almost all day, my ram sticks had died and have since come back to life, leaving one of my motherboard's ram slots dead. Half of the power outlets in my new small "dorm" room have also mysteriously gone the way of the dodo, taking my old power strip with them. Quite an eventful day on the electronics side of things.

I have yet to meet my roommate, but oddly enough his name is also Andrew.. which kinda freaks me out.

Gaming.. I recently finished a Japanese copy of Grandia III on ps2, and after having thoroughly enjoyed it for 52 hours, I now feel compelled to help out the game's slacking sales by making a purchase. (If you need to ask how I've played it up until now, you don't deserve a cookie)

So I add Grandia III to my "import or bust list" along with Jump Superstars for the
DS.

Of course, on top of this.. I'll be picking up Nintendogs on Tuesday, which will no doubt eliminate any illusions that I had about getting anything productive accomplished for the remainder of the week.

Lastly, I am missing World of Warcraft pretty badly, and am eagerly awaiting a chance to return to the game and play a little bit with my friends.

I went back to the gym today, did pretty much the same exercises as last time. Although today I plan to walk to class instead of driving in addition to my morning exercise. Next week I'm thinking about getting on a fitness plan to help me meet my goals, as a trainer came by when I was working out and asked if I wanted help with anything. I suppose it might help to figure out exactly what it is I want to do and what I need to do to start dropping pounds.

Gamespot has news on the FF VII: AC movie, which is going to be released September 14th in Japan on DVD.. for $45. My first thought.. is WTF.. they are crazy if they think anyone is going to pay $45 to see a 2 hour movie. Alas, then I remember that this is square we're talking about.. and that they have male fans that would bear children for them if it were possible. If it is priced any higher than $29.99 msrp when it comes stateside, I'll be downloading this for sure. Anything more than $30 for a dvd is insane and robbery in my opinion. Now.. if it included a demo of the Vincent based game.. I would have been more willing to pay.. but for just a movie, $45 is far too much.

In other news, I've been extremely paranoid lately. I seem to have a recurring fear that people that I consider friends don't share the same level of interest in me that I have in them(friendship wise). I've felt really strange since the day before yesterday and I'm really hoping that the feeling passes soon, I'd like to resume normal interactions and restore my confidence in myself and the strength of my friendships. I guess I've just been a little shaken up is all.

Thats all for now, I'll either update tomorrow or friday, depending on when I make it back to the Gym. In order to prevent myself from being sore, it would probably be better to skip days for the first couple weeks.

Today marks the beginning of summer classes and the first day in a new endeavor to get myself in shape.

I woke up early this morning and went to the campus fitness facility in the student center at around 7:20 am.

I was surprised by the array of different kinds of fitness equipment they had available, though my eyes first fell on the exercise bikes. I know that cardio exercise is important for burning fat and shedding pounds so I figured that would be a good place to start.

I got some help adjusting the bike from a fitness instructor and climbed on. After about 12 minutes of actual physical activity, it dawned on me. "Holy shit I'm out of shape.. I'm already sweating bullets..". Still, unwilling to quit that early in my quest and return to the castle, I pressed onward. I decided that lowering the difficulty just to keep up a steady pace would be worthwhile, so I was able to continue until the 25 minute limit was up. After I dismounted from the bike, I stretched out my muscles to make sure they wouldn't cramp on me and looked around for another exercise to try.

It wasn't too long before my eyes fell on a standing crunch machine (not sure if this is the right term, but it is the one where you rest your arms on the pads and pull your legs up to your chest to work your abs). Unfortunately, my lower body was still tired from the encounter with the bike, which made pulling them up several times a bit more than I could take. Instead, I moved to the sitting crunch machine, set my weight and did about 2 sets of 20 reps until I felt too tired to crunch anymore. I looked at the clock and it became apparent that my excerise session was going to end sooner than I had anticipated. After I finished crunching, I got up and took me leave of the place and went to get breakfast.

I've also decided to try and limit my intake of carbs in the hopes of having better weight loss results, so for breakfast I tried to keep the carbs to a minimum. I ordered eggs and bacon, and I got a bowl of fruit from the salad bar (pineapple and melon), a pint of skim milk and a cup of apple juice. Part of me felt that the meal wasn't complete without the usual biscuit or two, but I shrugged it off and went back to my apartment. Then I showered, got dressed and came here to class, where I am writing this entry.

All in all, I feel like today was a good day and a good way to start the semester. After class is finished, I plan to walk to the cafeteria to get lunch before walking back to my car here at the computer science center. Hopefully my body won't be wanting to kill me in the morning, because I'm going to do it all again! (except the going to class part.. no class on tuesdays :P)

Thats about it for this entry, I'll be making daily entries to help me track my progress and to compel myself to continue. Thanks for reading!

Idiots are invading the realm of undergarments.. just to prove it:

Are you tired of feeling trapped in your underwear?

Has it been so long since you've gotten laid that your balls are turning blue?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need Sacfree's amazing
underwear technology! With sacfree, everyone will know how blue your balls really are! Who knows, maybe a girl will take pity on you
and you'll finally get laid! Order yours TODAY!

Ran across this in the off-topic section of a games board I go to. everyone there was thinking "wtf" and I got a good laugh out of them, so i decided to post it here.

LOL! I think I'll order a pair now ;P

I am a procrastinator. I have a computer program due at 11:58 pm tonight, and I have not yet started coding it.

To make things more interesting, it is in a language that I'm not all too familiar with. If only I had been writing this yesterday instead of playing a game. Oh well, I'll write what I can tonight, though at this point I'm ready for the semester to be over and I'm caring less about grades. It has become extremely difficult to focus on my work, and my motivation is evaporating. Why is it that school terms always seem to go on just long enough that people get burned out and tired and stop caring about their work? Is it really how long they are or does it only happen because we know that the end is near? What would happen if we all randomly showed up to class one day and they told us that the semester was over at the end of the day? That seems like an interesting question ^^

Also, in case I don't get to speak to you later, lurial I hope you enjoy the package I sent ~.^

Ahh yes, my favorite day of the week has arrived.

I'm out of class by 1 and my programming assignment
has been postponed until monday. Today is a good day; so far, at least. I'll have some work to do over the weekend, but at least I'll still have most of it to myself. Just about 2 more weeks to go until its all over for the semester. I'm not confident about my Discrete test that I took on thursday, but there isn't much I can do now aside from prepare for the final on the 28th.

I've been discussing options for dealing with the stress of the last few weeks of a semester with a friend, and she and I both concluded that our plights could best be resolved by flinging ourselves off of a cliff. If anyone else wishes to join us in this venture in light of finals approaching, let me know!

Thats all for now, I'll update again soon.

Sometimes I wish I could just skip finals week entirely. I've got a final tonight, which I haven't studied for yet, damn you Jade Empire!

Tomorrow I have a test in Discrete Math, which I must score 87 or higher on to salvage my grade before the final. Otherwise, the fate of my grade will rest on the final itself. For additional fun, I've got a programming assignment due late friday night in a programming language that I am not entirely familiar with. Joy indeed.

On a happier note, Jade Empire is shaping up to be an incredible game. The graphics are impressive, the environments are large and the character animation and lighting are second to none. The music is very appropriate, boasting a traditional "orient" feel and the voice acting is very good. Combat can seem a little slow at first, but really opens up when you learn more styles and get the hang of evasion and opportunistic strikes against multiple enemies. It is too early to tell much about the story, but I was hooked 1 hour in, and I've played 3 so far.

Hopefully I'll get to play some more tonight, but I'm not holding my breath with all of the studying I should be doing.

Thats it for this update, I didn't want to degenerate into a bunch of whiny ramblings, I'll save that for IM as usual. See ya!

Hello to anyone who still happens to visit this space of the web. Its been ages since I've updated, so here's an update.. finally!


Class -

I think I'm going to be able to pull my grades out of the gutter by the end of the term, but I can't get sloppy now. Only one class really left to worry about and that is Discrete Math. I need to do quite well on the next test if I want to salvage my grade before the final. Perhaps I need to break down and go to the math lab for some help soon.

School (General) -

Crap! I forgot to sign up for the housing lottery.. meaning I'll get second choice about where to live in the fall.. I need to see about summer housing and classes also. ::makes a note::

Relationships -

My friendships are going well, though I am still a little paranoid that I might be annoying my friends and they are too nice to tell me. I really would like to know. So, unless I am told otherwise, I'll assume that I'm not bothering them.

I probably spend more time thinking about the state of my friendships than anything else, probably because they are very important to me. I'd feel alone a lot more often if it weren't for my good friends, so I'd definitely prefer to keep them.

Stuff -

I've recently sold a few of my old ps1 rpgs and some of my anime collections to earn a little extra cash. I ended up selling Suikoden II, Lunar 1 and Lunar 2 all at fairly high prices, and also managed to sell my Love Hina dvd boxed set.

However, instead of putting the money in my savings account as I should have done, I decided to purchase a Psp instead. Eb Games has had a good deal on Psp games for a few weeks now. (Well, actually.. its only good if you can find cheap, non-excluded games) Using this deal, I've gotten a total of 6 Psp games. Hell, I got 3 games before I even had a Psp and returned them for credit to lower the price of the Psp. My psp is a beautiful thing, when I'm not bitching about its dead pixels (currently I count 3 of them and this is psp #2.. don't really want to exchange for another one with dead pixels). My 3 current games are: Wipeout Pure, Ape Escape (better looking port of the ps1 version, fun times), and Lumines(the newest incarnation of digital crack).

Also, in what can only be described as a moment of pure geekery, I got the God of War stand up from my local EB. They were going to toss it, so I couldn't help myself. Now you get to see Kratos getting a snack in my kitchen Joy!

Thats all for now, I'll attempt to update more regularly, but again.. no promises ¬.¬

Once again, I apologize for the lack of updates.

Today is my longest class day, and speaking of class I've got one to go to in about 20 minutes that will last more than 3 hours.

I bought a bunch of stuff yesterday after taking advantage of an Ebgames trade-in deal for used dvds. (I burned the ones I wanted to keep before trading.. does that make me a bad person? don't answer that ¬.¬). Anyway, I picked up Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim for ps2, a cool little anime-style action rpg with great music. Shadow Hearts 2: Convenant, I had a burned copy of this, but I enjoyed it and the guy at Eb cut me a deal, $5 off to keep me from driving to toys r us to buy it for $19.99. I also picked up Morrowind: Game of the Year edition for the xbox. Even though I already have the pc version of morrowind, I decided it would be nice to be able to enjoy it from a position on the couch instead of in front of my pc, where I am always tempted by IM windows or surfing the web. Lastly, I put my money down for a copy of Wario Ware DS, Tiger Woods just wasn't cutting it for me, so I traded it in towards Wario Ware, good times. amazingly enough, I still have funds left to spend on things that I actually need!

Though, I kind of wish I had saved some of my money, because God of War comes out this month. I've always been into Greek Mythology and I love a good action game, especially with an interesting story. Needless to say, I'm quite excited about this one.