The Post-Plague and Post-NaNo Post

I survived both the Nasty Cold of Nastiness and National Novel Writing Month!

With a beaming smile, I can proudly say that I cracked 60,000 words on the last day of NaNoWriMo (something that I have NEVER done before), and that I can breath out of both nostrils. Life is good.

I'm also getting better at crocheting. I started a dishcloth in half-double crochet while Sons of Anarchy was on, and while I had to fuss with the foundation chain a little to even it out, it's looking pretty good. (Also, I found out that Kim Coats' character on SoA is an animal lover. Be still my heart. Even though he is, from what I've heard, a "sick !@#$" - insert your own cuss word there, folks, I'm trying to cut down on unnecessary swearing. It's a bit of an awful habit of mine.)

Now I'm wondering if I should dub this cloth my SoA cloth. As I've said, I don't really follow the series - it's very gory, and has a lot of sex in it - but the storyline interests me. (Also - I watched almost all of the third season, probably because I was bored with the books I was reading and the story pulled me in. Since then, I've watched a few episodes casually.)

Something else that's going on with me is a feeling of anxiety mixed with a good night's sleep. It's quite peculiar. I think the anxiety has to do with my extended family piling stress on us, combined with the usual Christmas ill feeling and something else that I'm not really comfortable discussing here. But I slept well last night - I even had a strange dream that made me go, "Huh, that's odd" - which almost contradicts the whole anxiety thing. I mention the sleep because I've been up early for the past few mornings - one time was because I had to set my alarm for 6, and the other two times were cat-related.

Even though I'm in a bad mood today (I burnt my toast and was compared to a bitchy cat - don't ask), I want to have a better day today. Maybe I'll catch up on reading, or gaming. Both of those would make me quite happy.

In which my stomach grumbles and I begin to hate my computer speakers

I'm having a bit of a set-to with my speakers.

From what my brother said, they were hooked up to my computer without a certain cord, so instead of sounding like decent speakers (which they are), they sound like crappy headphones. I may disconnect them and use my headphones when writing this year's novel draft for National Novel Writing Month, because while I was listening to a variety of music (from rock, to alternative rock, to opera, to video game music, to j-pop, to Edith Piaf. Yes, I'm very serious.), my speakers sounded like static-y crap.

Also, I haven't eaten lunch, so my stomach is a grumbly, painful mess at the moment.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I now have a new PS2 controller. My parents ordered me a wireless one for me for my birthday, and IT GLOWS. I'm serious, people, it has lights and a weird liquid thing that glows bright-ass blue. I can turn the lights off if I want, which is good because it conserves battery life that way (and the lights may be distracting for me depending on which game I'm playing), but it's quite awesome. And the wireless-ness is very helpful with our pets, as they aren't tripping over the cord - or sitting on the cord, as Smiles the Jack Russell likes to do sometimes. She's a strange thing.

Well, I should close now, because I really need to eat something.

Not a fail, but a win in progress

So this summer, for the Ravellenic Games, I started my first sock. I haven't done the heel yet, so there's no way I'm getting to the finish line, but that's okay - I'm still happy that I had the guts to start a sock. I'll get them finished eventually; I don't want to rush and make a mistake and have to rip out inches of sock and arrrggghh. I've already had to rip out eight rows of 1x1 ribbing for the top of the cuff because it was too loose. But since redoing the cuff, it's looking good.

In other news, I think I'm finally becoming a gamer again. I'm reading walkthroughs, I'm looking up game titles on Wikipedia, and I'm making lists of games to buy "someday". I might go shopping for used PS2 games soon, because I have none of my own. It's exciting to think about that, because before I could only buy games for the PSone, because I didn't have a PS2 at the time. I'm also thinking of digging out my PSone games and picking up where I left off.


It's a great feeling.

I especially want to start playing Final Fantasy VIII again, because I got stuck trying to find the lunar gate when I last played it. But with the help of a good walkthrough (which I may have bookmarked; I've taken to bookmarking my favourites), I think I know where I need to go. I also want to dig out Final Fantasy Tactics, because I never did unlock everything. That, and it's a fun game.

Well, that's about it. If you know of any good PlayStation 2 games, feel free to comment! ;)

This is why I'll never be a secret agent

I'm not gonna lie: I suck at being stealthy.

I was playing Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (a sequel to the original FF VII), and I was at the part where you have to control Cait Sith, a cat with a Scottish accent and a happy-go-lucky demeanor, through a mako reactor without being noticed by guards. I think I lost count of how many times Cait Sith was KO'd because of my lack of sneaky-ness.

I've never been good at stealth missions in games. I think it's because I get so caught up in the game that I squeak loudly in alarm when I have to edge past a guard. In fact, while watching my brother play Metal Gear Solid I can recall recoiling slightly when he had to sneak around guards. I would make a terrible secret agent.

Speaking of Metal Gear Solid, when I loaded my saved game today I noticed that the Cait Sith segment of the game was titled "Solid Cait". And yes, I giggled :)

Dirge of Cerberus is one of those games that makes me jumpy, because of the enemies popping up out of nowhere. (I punched open a cargo crate today, and a lizard creature was inside it. I kid you not.) Right from the start of the game you have to be on your toes, which is a lot for someone who's used to playing turn-based role-playing games. I think the last game I played where you had to move both yourself and a camera was Spyro the Dragon, many moons ago.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of the gameplay, though. When I checked my status, my accuracy rate was considerably better than when I started. Now, if only I could be stealthier...

An update, and some shameless squeeing about Dirge of Cerberus

Hello there :)

So I haven't posted in a while, again. But I may have more time for blogging, as my course is finished (and I passed!), and I may not do the August Camp NaNoWriMo after all. Recently, I've been getting stuck and un-stuck in video games - right now, I'm stuck on Star 7 in Katamari Damacy, I need to find some pearls to buy something in Beyond Good & Evil, and I'm stuck on the boss fight in Edge in Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.

Phew.

First off, Katamari is awesome, but I can't seem to get past the seventh "make a star" level, and I don't have any more constellations to do. Until I can get the hang of "Make a star 7", I may just work on making my constellations bigger. Having to deal with the King of the Cosmos doesn't help - every time you fail a level, he yells at you. It can get on one's nerves.

Beyond Good & Evil is excellent fun. I keep having to consult a walk-through, though, which makes me feel lazy. I'm glad it's making me think a fair bit, though. A game that's too easy is no fun at all.

I've already said a lot about Dirge of Cerberus, but I'm going to blog some more about it, because it's just too awesome. A lot of people hated this game because of the gameplay, but I'm enjoying it, even though it can frustrate me. Even so, when I finally got past a part of Edge (a town in the game) that I had been stuck at, instead of thinking, "Thank god that's over!" I was thinking, "YES! I did it! *happy dance*"

I still haven't started played Sly Cooper. I'm kind of saving that until I finish a game, because I don't want too many on the go at once. I'm also itching to pick up Final Fantasy VIII again, because I got stuck in it trying to find the Lunar Gate and never did try it again.

Anyways, that's what I've been doing lately. I'll try to blog more this month :)

So... I'm kind of a bad shot.

I recently started playing Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, the spin-off game from that little game with the spiky-headed blonde guy ;) I had been reading the game's manual for ages to get a feel for the controls, then went through the game's tutorial (never again!!!), and then began the actual game. I have come to some realizations about me and Dirge of Cerberus:

1. I can't shoot. No, seriously, I can't. Granted, I'm getting better, but I'm still pretty crappy at the gameplay. Final Fantasy VII was a turn-based RPG, so going into a game where you're shooting and melee-ing your enemies instead of the 'my turn, your turn' system is a bit daunting.

2. Manuals are not always complete. I had to find a walk-through to figure out that you can break open boxes with melee. Why wasn't this in the manual? (For the record, if anyone needs a good site for walk-throughs and hints, I highly recommend GameFAQs . The walk-throughs on that site have saved my skin umpteen times, and they have just about every platform listed there. I can't guarantee that they'll have pages for every game, but it's a good starting point.)

3. Vincent looks damn good in a suit. Seriously, play through the tutorial and check out his suit. It's lovely. Although, I'm not so sure I like his haircut in that get-up.

4. Configuration changes everything. If you're a bad shot like me, tinker with the weapon settings. I changed the sight to 'automatic' and slowed down the camera speed, and I'm happy with the results.

Okay, I need to be doing something more constructive. Later!

edited to add link for easier-ness.

Cream soda and Final Fantasy VIII

I did a bit of yardwork today. Dad wanted me to rake up clumps of grass after he cut the grass. At first I was freaking out because I was totally raking the grass wrong, so Dad came out and told me what to do. I stopped after a bit, though, because there were a couple of wasps in the yard, and I already had a fly hit my ear.

So I went inside, feeling like crap because my legs were sore. I watched a bit of Jerry Springer, then a bit of the 12:00 news, and then Mom and Dad had to go to Mom's doctor's appointment, so I was like, "What am I gonna do, with these sore legs?" and dad told me, "You could play PlayStation." So I brought up my PlayStation 1 (yes, I'm that old-fashioned :p) and hooked it up to the VCR/DVD player. We used to have a switch-box thing in which we would plug in the DVD player, VCR, TV, satellite and PlayStation, but then we had to replace our VCR, so we got a VCR/DVD combination thing, and the old DVD player went somewhere else. It was old, anyway, and had a tendancy to overheat. I'm not sure if we got rid of it, or if it's still around...

Anyway, I'm playing Final Fantasy VIII, and I have NO IDEA where I'm going! I had to find a train platform, but I couldn't remember where it was. I finally found the way, got on the train, and then I had to get off the train at the first stop and go through a forest. Now, keep in mind that this is my second file, and that I've gone through disc one already, but I still couldn't remember which forest I had to go through! I was walking though a huge forest - not an actual forest interior, just a bunch of trees on the main map - and got into battles regularly. And I kept running from the battles. Then I found the forest I needed to go into to continue the story.. it was RIGHT NEAR THE PLATFORM!!!!!!!

And then, after a separate storyline involving seperate characters, I find out that one of the characters doesn't have their Guardian Force equipped, and that someone else does! Then I get to Galbadia Garden (a military academy), and I can't find the stupid 2nd floor reception room. And because I've gone through this disc before, I'm saying to the TV, "Seifer isn't dead, Rinoa! He went with the sorceress!" Or something like that.

During my gaming, I was drinking cream soda. There was a time when I became sick of it, but now that we have a bottle of it in the house it's become my vice again.

I was also grooving to the super-cool battle music in the separate storyline :D

ETA: I changed the 'next to' to 'near'. It was still close to the platform though, and I'm still an idiot :p