Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in fanrambler's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, November 30th, 2006
8:09 am	No plan survives contact with... The good thing about December? I really am planning to do something different. Tonight, I'll learn more about what I can put on MyS. And if that won't work, I'll just look elsewhere. The bad thing about this weekend? I'm not only sure what I want to do, but whether I'll be able to get outside in bad weather. This will be my last post for at least a while. Current Mood: creative Current Music: The Beatles - Golden Slumbers (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006
8:07 am	The problem of form Has anyone else attempted "blog in the form of a game" before? I have no idea. But here's two ways to approach this idea: 1. Small (think Wario Ware) style games every week or two, to pass as content. 2. A game that slowly grows over time. The good news is that I've got one working piece of my December project. So before Friday I'll see if my MyS account is still active. Then on Friday I'll try to upload it. Current Mood: embarrassed Current Music: TPOT - You Got Game? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
8:03 am	December whispers and TRAGICAL I have been thinking about what to do to make December different. And I think I have an answer: don't just confine the development of my homebrew gift!game to a few hours here and there. Instead, focus on it. Write about my ideas online. Or make blogs in the forms of brief demos. Is there a downside to this? Yeah... I might end up talking my game to death. On the other hand, it's better than complaining. Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: Collective Soul - December (Comment on this)
Monday, November 27th, 2006
8:11 am	I've got all kinds of time Of course I'm not putting together my gift game at the last second. Any rumors that I'm doing so are of course wrong. So when I, um, get back to it, I'll definitely consider writing about it online. And any online shopping will wait until December 1st. Credit card issues and all. Current Mood: rushed Current Music: Fountains of Wayne - All Kinds of Time (Comment on this)
Friday, November 24th, 2006
8:04 am	Gettin' all retro again And now a post about a not-so-great game from eight years ago. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: thankful Current Music: Suikoden 5 - Wind of Phantom (Comment on this)
7:53 am	Definitely not walking in Memphis What happened to my Wednesday update? It got shuffled off in the middle of my attempts to learn about elusive merchandising. And I was really lazy on Thursday. Well. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: geeky Current Music: Marc Cohn - Walking in Memphis (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
8:02 am	Keep Austin "...Whatever" I didn't accomplish everything I'd hoped to accomplish last night. There's always Wedn. That said... There aren't a lot of really interesting places or attractions in Austin. So what does it offer? ( Read more... ) Tomorrow: "Teenage politics, so confusing." Current Mood: anxious Current Music: MxPx - Teenage Politics (Comment on this)
Monday, November 20th, 2006
7:59 am	Where do we go from here Why yes, my vacation ended almost a week ago. Am I ready for real life? Well... This will be an abbreviated week, but I'm gonna create four posts. And in the time I have tonight, I'm going to be thinking about things such as 1) Photobucket for con/vacation photos, 2) what I want to do besides work on this small Livejournal blog, and 3) other important things. First thoughts about Austin: ( Read more... ) Current Mood: drained Current Music: Marillion - White Russian (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
7:30 am	Internet deprivation... good? I really have enjoyed previous internet-free vacations. Of course, there's always the matter of catching up... This evening's challenge: pack before I get so tired that I collapse. Current Mood: hopeful Current Music: Genesis - Stagnation (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
7:48 am	Five years later, I can say "I don't have to hope it's good any longer" First, good news: I now know that there is a relatively convenient bus from my hotel to downtown Austin. And now back to semi-nostalgic trivia. It was about five years ago when I walked from college to Target, purchased Dragon Warrior 7, and walked back, hoping to enjoy the game. My expectations then were pretty high. I kept hoping that DW7 would be really good. Fortunately, my expectations have changed. I no longer have to keep putting hoping in the game. Instead, I can see the game as it is: thoroughly flawed, yet not totally lacking good ideas. Since I hadn't seen the first few hours of the game in so long, I had forgotten a few things. Starting with the first appearances of translation errors. Just fifteen minutes in, there's the first instance of a question that was apparently reworded incorrectly, because it appears as a statement. The first three hours have a few instances of bad dialogue (overuse of "tome" and "fane"), but it doesn't get surreal until the party arrives near Rexwood. Meribel has a line about slimes that's way too bizarre. Over-written dialogue keeps appearing here and there, mostly during significant events - such as the remark about how Matilda seems heartless. See http://zanyvgquotes.com for examples. Next: The Day Before The Night Before. Current Mood: grateful (Comment on this)
Monday, November 6th, 2006
7:52 am	Days of infamy... or maybe apathy It was a lazy weekend. My post about it will go online tomorrow. At most, three days left to figure out all my remaining vacation-related questions. There is hope - I think I've found some bus routes from my hotel to downtown Austin. Will call about this later... Current Mood: apathetic (Comment on this)
Friday, November 3rd, 2006
7:52 am	Goodbye stranger, it's been nice, sort of I don't go to the Anime on DVD forums much anymore. For a few years, the constant nitpicking and ranting didn't bother me too much. But I'm just about done with it. So it was a coincidence that I found this fun thread: http://forums.animeondvd.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1369107&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1 I was awfully lazy last night. Wasting time online wasn't a good decision. So no matter what I decide to do this evening, it won't involve Teh Intarweb. As for Blogger... I might give it a try. But not until Saturday. Current Mood: mellow Current Music: Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
7:57 am	I fall on the thorns of LJ! I bleed! Just one week left before my vacation begins. Am I prepared? Mostly. I just need to answer a few more questions. More thoughts later. Current Mood: optimistic Current Music: The Killers - When You Were Young (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
7:42 am	FigureOutWhatsNextMo It took until November, but at last there is solid Virtual Console news: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3154811 On to other things, like my November objective: create a website that... ( Read more... ) In order to see if I can find anything that meets these objectives, I will start by looking at Blogger. After that, who knows. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Raffi - Bananaphone (Comment on this)
Monday, October 30th, 2006
7:48 am	Suikoden 5 (again): Even the losers... Stupid analogy: Suikoden 5 is like a struggling baseball team that gets all the way to the World Series. Does it win despite being at a huge disadvantage, or does it lose embarrassingly? I don't know that part yet. The good news: the game is now going along at an even pace. The slow first eight hours are now long over. And yet the game isn't out of tricks yet. The main character's allegiances have shifted again, so he's no longer in a comfortable setting. I like the idea, even if it's strangely linear. (This should've been a legit choice, rather than "if you don't stand up for your beliefs, it's a Bad End.") At last, the party is finally finding ways to address the problems that were clearly detailed in the opening scenes. It's a "Huck Finn" sort of plan that involves recruiting the beaver tribe and excavating a ruin, all in order to destroy the Hatred Fortress... eventually. (Or, as I like to call it, the "Hate Sin Blood Death Plague Fortress, which is not overcompensating.") About as elaborate as that Godwin plot earlier in the game. By the way, there's some other big-name PS2 RPG that will be available tomorrow. I forget its name though. However, I have noted that it's getting an awful lot of good reviews. Could this be another example of a manufactured hit: a game so high-budget that it can't possibly fail? After all, that trend has existed for years... Current Mood: lazy Current Music: Tom Petty - Even the Losers (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 26th, 2006
7:52 am	Favorite spell: Summon beer I reminded myself to ask about site development, then forgot again. Well, now I've written down my main questions so I can ask them this afternoon. Well. The first Summon Night game on GBA had a simple premise: explore this maze, win that tournament. It had a nice short intro, and it didn't aspire to be the next Xeno-whatever. On the other hand, it confined the player to lots of interior environments and a seriously grungy city. So one of the good/bad things about Summon Night 2 is that it tries for a slightly more complicated story. It isn't anything unusual either, since there's a lot of stuff involving sealing up the giant evil thing that was almost released (it's all been done before). The hero almost gets blamed for this, but then the game wisely sidesteps the old "OH NOEZ" angst. The gameplay is much the same, but I was so glad to see that a lot of it happens outside. There was a time when I was okay with games about trudging through devastated landscapes and then ruins and then... Now I'm ecstatic to have the virtual version of "get out of the house." Current Mood: geeky Current Music: Squaredance - Adventurous Break (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
7:59 am	Always something there to remind me Yesterday I said that I'd do research and ask for help on how to develop a really good page. So now I'm reminding myself again. If I don't do that soon, it won't get done. I used much of the morning playing Summon Night 2 (GBA). It's better than #1 in some ways, but in other ways... well. I'll talk about it tomorrow. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Naked Eyes had two albums. Who knew? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 24th, 2006
7:53 am	Talkin' bout Twilight... if only in a tangent Why did it take until Tuesday to post this? I was nervous most of Monday - waiting for announcements about what will happen tomorrow. Felt vaguely sick probably because of that. At least by 5 PM I knew what would happen. Well. Last week, I talked about how to avoid wasting time. So what did I do this weekend -in between- checking off things on my "to do" list? A couple hours of waste-of-time web surfing, and then watching new AMVs (the best of which was Hello Fairy). I'm learning... slowly. I'm taking a four week class on "Where do I go from here?" One of the recommended books was The Artist's Way. So I borrowed The Artist's Way at Work (since that one was at the library). Remarkable, really. A rare book that really talks about the inner conversations people have. And a book that may help me address problems such as "Why am I so scared to respond to LJ comments?" Now that tonight's plans have been reduced to mundane errands, what else will I do this evening? I think this is a good evening for asking that long-delayed question: what tools should I use to create a content-filled yet attractive site? There's about a week until November, and that should be an interesting month. I have one last thing to do before I can know that my mid-month vacation will work out. Once that's done, I can worry about lesser things. Such as the - um, "twilight" game for a certain system. It's been in the works for at least two years. Those expectation levels are sky high. Not quite "Phantom Menace" high, but this might be the setup for another major letdown. Or a spinoff: Zelda podracing. Current Mood: anxious Current Music: U2 - Twilight (Comment on this)
Friday, October 20th, 2006
7:44 am	As if I were opening up a panel at ACEN or Gencon... Welcome to "Stop the Infighting." I'll start off with a brief speech, then open up the room for discussion. Just make sure you don't shout over each other, or try to interrupt too much... it would make this panel kind of ironic. ( Read more... ) Again, this is a rough draft, and I haven't addressed some topics... Current Mood: productive Current Music: "Manga Maniac" (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 19th, 2006
7:50 am	FF Fever: coming soon, three in a week This post isn't exactly finished, but it should be enough for now. "You darn kids are so spoiled," says my inner old-school RPG fan, "back in my day we waited at least two years for the next FF game!" I could go on and on like that, but you've heard it all before. Besides, that side of me is hypocritical. It conveniently forgets the late 1991 blitz of FF4, Seiken Densetsu, and Saga 2 (though all were under Witness Protection aliases). Somewhere between Oct 31 and Nov 5, there will be the following releases: -FF12 (and a SPESHUL edition) -FF5 on GBA -FF3 on DS It's easiest - for me, at least - to make fun of FF12. It will be the last one in the PS2 era... an era which I've found unappealing. It combines aspects of FF Tactics (didn't get into it at all) and FF11 (ditto). It's a high budget game, and even if looks less spiffy than today's latest and greatest games, it still looks like style over substance. Things which could possibly go right in FF12: -Good AI, so that the party makes decent use of its abilities -Not every monster will attack the party Things which could go wrong: -If the AI is more like FF Legend 3 or DQ4 (which frequently wasted valuable items and MP) -If the AI is more like Breath of Fire (never heals, just fights) Current Mood: SPESHUL Current Music: Victoria Williams - Shoes (1 Comment |Comment on this)