Spirit Armor

I play World of Warcraft.

I think of myself as a pretty casual player. I mean, I've been playing since vanilla WoW's open beta, and I've only ever hit the level cap with ONE CHARACTER.

I've never hit anything higher than a five-man dungeon until about two months ago, and even then, five-mans have been a once in a blue moon thing for me.

So.

There's this new World of Warcraft expansion coming out.

Goblins have been my favorite race ever since Warcraft II, back when I was super-young.

They are finally playable.

OH GOD YES

I don't think any of my friends who play Alliance will ever see me again.

... and dealing with simultaneous jet-lag and cold, so it'll be a while before I get back into the groove of things.

On the plus side, I've brought back loot and I've discovered the insanity that is the Spore Creature Creator, so I will at least have something to tide me over whilst my brain is addled by drugs and pseudo sleep deprivation. 8Db

Happy New Year!

Still cranking away at Sakura Wars V, with the full intent of doing multiple playthroughs. As the last post might have hinted at, Rikaritta Aries was the first character I completed the game with... not that I'd really planned to. Thankfully, Sakura Wars V is a good enough game. Looking at the GameFAQs reviews, the largest complaint I've seen is this: "It's based in New York, but it's obviously not New York! It's New York seen through Japanese eyes, and it's all crazy and stuff! They should've done more research."

... well, yes, and the France-based entry in the series turned the Arc de Triomphe into a revolver cannon capable of firing mecha across the Eurasian landmass with pinpoint accuracy, and mutated the Eiffel Tower into a lightning-shooting twin-headed steel monstrosity, and I don't think anyone complained when reviewing THAT game. Furthermore, the Imperial Capital installed a city-sized blimp launchpad in the busiest street in Ginza, and hid a secret government mecha-carrying train station the size of a skyscraper inside Tokyo's subway system! I THINK THE SERIES REQUIRES SOME SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF.

Ahem. Anyways.

( Cut for length. Also, a personal trend. )

( Genre weaknesses! )

Having finished Rikaritta's route, I find myself compelled to go through the other characters' stories as well- a feat that I've yet to accomplish with other games in the genre. Thankfully, it's simpler to do in SWV- not only is there a text skip option, but all of the protaginist's stats are carried over between games. Being able to destroy a half-hour-long boss battle in under five minutes is a universally good feeling. Regardless, Gemini's route is next, mainly because she's a Texan samurai cowgirl whose sensei was some freakish synthesis of Obi-Wan, Volcott, and Happosai. How can you NOT win with something like that?

Following that... hmm. I'd initially dismissed Subaru as the token Japanese girl of the game, maybe with a dash of "I'm a genius!" thrown in. However, she's becoming more and more like the game's last boss in my mind ... a pretty interesting, if somewhat frightening, enigma. Not only is her age unknown (my theory is that Subaru's immortal), but her gender is quite literally unknown. It's generally assumed that she's female, with a scattering of evidence to match; however, she's given quite a few subtle AND not-so-subtle clues that could prove otherwise. Heck, even series canon doesn't confirm it one way or the other.

Granted, there's something horribly amusing about reading Japanese fanfic that have to label themselves "Subaru (Female) x Shinjirou" and "Subaru (Male) x Shinjirou), where- for once- BOTH possibilities could very well be canon.

1) Be a teacher who isn't in the habit of returning e-mails, even when all of your students send you their papers through said e-mail system. Don't let them know if you've actually received their papers or not.

2) Don't grade papers until the last minute. Don't display the grades until the VERY last minute.

Now, you see, points one and two are all fine and good; said teacher was ridiculously busy near the end of the semester. In addition to having to grade papers for his own class, he was a thesis advisor to a good number of other students, AND he was in the process of buying a house. I wasn't in any real hurry to get my grades back, so hey.

However.

3) As way of letting a student know that you, the teacher, has finished grading said student's papers, make the following sentence your first and only email to him/her this entire semester, without adding any sort of greeting, any context, or any indication of how well he or she actually DID:

You shouldn't use full justification.

...

I learned how it feels to have the blood drain from one's face and hands.

(I checked my grades later, I did just fine. BUT STILL.)

Oh God Japan, why.

Semi-NSFW. Also requires previous knowledge of this.

Cripes, it's been a while since I posted.

Well, things are looking up now- I actually have solid deadlines on my final projects (a week or two into May, all of them), which is a vast relief when compared to the original info that we had (some vague, dreaded day near the end of April). Now I actually have some breathing room, just as long as I don't put everything off to the last minute.

Not much else to say-- in terms of anime, Lucky Star, despite having the most downright frenetic OP this season ("Motteke! Sailor Fuku", aka "I BUY SAUSAGE"), is turning out to be so-so. I'm waiting for (a good sub of) the second ep before making any snap judgments. Adorable character designs, though.

Manabi Straight, despite having an artstyle that screams "PEDOFARE" (they're high schoolers?!), is nothing short of awesome- and at times, surprisingly serious. Also adorable, and this is probably one of the few "takes place XX years after present day" series that doesn't involve giant forking robots.

( As for Gate, VL, YAH... )

BAANINGU KURUSE~DO, GETTO DAZE

... and being the horrible consumer whore that I am, I immediately roll a Blood Elf Paladin. And so, Raketen set out and began her wonderous adventure in the ridiculously overpopulated lands of Quel'Thalas, where monster corpses covered every inch of the ground, where Dragonball Z-haired males and naked females pranced every which way, and where her supposedly dying and magic-addicted kind swarmed across the fields like a squealing tide of slash fangirls mobbing the International Annual Meeting of Ambiguously Gay Bishounen-Type Characters.

I imagine Warchief Thrall to be sitting in his Orgrimmar fortress, cradling his face in his hands and regretting ever letting these fancy-pants prettyboysandgirls join the Horde.

Hmm. Man, it's been a while since I touched this- for a few reasons, at least! Finals didn't take me by storm like they have the past few years, but they'd more or less sucked in all of my brainpower ("wow, I'd better start cracking down on this stuff" as opposed to "AAGH OH GOD I HAVE TO WRITE TWENTY PAGES IN AS MANY HOURS AGH" or some such).

The holiday's also been interesting- like the fact that we bought, pulled up, and decorated a tree in three hours, two days before Christmas day. Family's come over, including my two two-year-old twin cousins, who are doing their level best to keep us ALL entertained (and worked down to the bone, but!). Then it turns out that the Christmas tree wasn't as stable as we all thought, especially when it toppled down on one of my cousins on Christmas Day (by some stroke of luck, she was completely unharmed and didn't even cry). And on top of that, most of my family (me included) haven't even been able to buy gifts for everyone ELSE yet.

So, yeah. Alive. XD

Between the years of 1997 and 1998, the Sega Saturn had its own mascot in Japan. He is, in fact, the greatest mascot that has ever lived, and his various commercials were probably the reason, nay, the sole reason that the Sega Saturn did as well as it did in Japan, even when faced with the stiff competition from its strong competitors. Even with the coming of the Dreamcast, there shall never be another like him.

The following is a half-tribute, half-introduction-with-links to the legend behind the system.

( And I'll do it, too. )