JC!

AMAZING STORIES of having a lot of shit going on!

2007-03-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

In our last installment, we learned about my awesome new job. Well, that continues, and continues to be awesome, and thanks to the randomness of Internet memes, I am quantifiably awesome at it. Here's why: last week, I wrote a story about some dumb-looking boxart for a reissue of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Well, some Digg user thought it was pretty hilarious and posted a link to it on Digg. This is a fairly common occurrence, although I get totally flattered whenever somebody does it (the secret, however, is that the Diggers are using my link as a reference to share the material, and they aren't really interested in my writeup at all. They probably found it on our site first, is all.) But this time... well, here. See if you can spot the day that Digg users got interested in my story.

I love that picture. This event was a significant ego boost, which is to say that I have an ego now.

Hey, remember when I couldn't get a job? And I had to take a free one? Yeah, those days are over. Since I wrote my last post, I have:

Taken the holy-fuck-awesome blogging job
Turned down a job with the Houston Public Library (another first!)
Started and completed the internship at the Rice Digital Media Center, and
Gone completely fucking nuts

Continued taking full-time school, to the surprise of my library school colleagues
Taken another fucking job for some reason

ccdYes, full-time school and blogging is not enough. I spent long enough with no job, now I want them all apparently. Well, sort of. I took a job as an Archives Intern with Rice's library because it was a very good opportunity in a field that apparently doesn't have any opportunities, and because I eventually want to make enough money that I can buy stuff with it, and because I had already turned down one job that same day and felt guilty about it.

The last three weeks, I have worked from 9 in the morning until at least 3AM, with breaks only to eat, go to the bathroom and drive from home to school and back. All of my classes had midterm tests and projects that I had to work on, and I've been writing around five posts a day, which can take (me) a long time. I'm completely worn out, and I have no free time.

In a way, it's good. It lets me know that I'm not lazy, which comes as a total shock to me. But in other, less noble ways, it sucks ass to work all the time seriously I just want to go to dinner or play some Elite Beat Agents what the shit.

It's tapering off now. Midterms are over, so I just have two jobs and regular school. Last night Mary and I played Super Mario World, and today I went to Gamecrazy to get my Street Fighter III: Third Strike disc buffed so I could eBay it. It was nice to go do stuff. Of course, my Dreamcast died when I came back, but I don't want to talk about that.

Today, despite having a shitload of blogging to do for the morning, I decided to take a break and write this blog post. Hi blog friends! Sorry I haven't been updating you guys!

So I got a job.

2007-02-06T22:07:00.001-08:00

Holy fuck did I ever get a job. Starting at some point in the near future, I will be blogging for DS Fanboy and Nintendo Wii Fanboy. These sites are grouped under the Joystiq umbrella, and are Weblogs, Inc. blogs, owned by AOL.

JC FLETCHER

PROFESSIONAL GAMING WRITER

This is it, here. This is what I have wanted to do my whole life. I would have been happy just getting any old job, making some money and rebuilding a little bit of my shattered self-respect. Now I've got self-respect to spare.

Maybe I'll be able to save enough money to get a Wii at some point, because my job entails writing about it!

library update post #1

2007-01-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

In my second semester of library school, not even a year away from (hopefully) a career in libraries, I’m finally learning some shit about library science. I’m finally just now understanding what some of the stuff is that people are talking about. I haven’t actually spent much time hanging out in the library, so there’s a whole bunch of shit that I just don’t understand about libraries. Like, I’m finally learning what a reference librarian does. All I knew from talking to librarians and library students last semester was that being a reference librarian makes you very proud of yourself. It took me taking a class about reference to figure out what the damn job is.

The cool thing is that reference requires these skills:

Knowing a bunch of stuff.

Knowing how to look stuff up.

Customer service.

Another sign that I’m starting to get it: as I’ve been searching the many e-journal databases for the piles upon piles of assigned readings given to me, I’ve also found some that I want to read. I barely found anything in linguistics that I could read, much less develop a personal interest in.

It is nice to be making measurable progress in school. Also it is nice to know that I won’t be clueless forever and have a chance at being a maybe okay librarian.

I'm also starting to want to post library-science-related things, which I will do separately from this purely personal update

Long-overdue News Ramble

2007-01-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

I haven’t bothered to write out what’s been going on recently. For the most part, I can’t excuse myself by saying that I’ve been busy; while plenty has happened, I’ve spent days upon days sitting at home. In fact, I have to step back and look at the last few months in a different perspective to realize that anything has happened at all, or that time has even passed.

This update comes at the request of Mary, who wanted to read about it despite being present and complicit in all of the events of my life. Possible reasons for this request include:

She has amnesia, but is embarrassed to tell me.

Actually, that’s the only reason I can come up with.

Back in November, I bought a new Dell Inspiron B130 laptop. While a computer is an extravagant purchase for someone in my financial situation, such a purchase was made necessary by the fact that a) I go to school on the Intertron, and b) my computer melted. Luckily, this was around Black Friday and we were able to take advantage of the rash of massive price cuts that takes place in that period.

In order to offset the cost of a computer, plus all of the troublesome eating and driving I do all the time (not to mention fucking tuition—more on that later!) I have been trying to secure employment. But, as it turns out, libraries only want to hire people who are qualified to work in them. It would make much more sense for them to hire untrained applicants, but only once, and only me. I tried to help them out by writing that in red at the top of my resume, right next to the information about how pleasant I smell. That goes to show you just how closely managers read resumes that come in. Shameful.

I don’t just need money; I am also required to gain a certain amount of library experience as a requirement of the UNT library school program. Therefore, because I couldn’t sell my services to anyone, I agreed to give it away and set up a practicum at Rice’s Digital Media Center. As far as indentured servitude goes, it’s a pretty attractive deal.

But! But there’s a problem. As I discovered the other day, UNT treats the practicum as a 3-hour course. And charges tuition thusly. I won’t go into further detail about this, as I’m sure anyone reading can understand my emotional state after almost being tricked into paying to work.

Following Mary’s logical advice, I dropped the course. I will still work at the DMC as planned, but as a self-governed ‘internship’ rather than a UNT practicum. It’s good experience anyway, and it may help me find a real job. In fact, it had fucking better, because I’m still going to need to fulfill that requirement for school somehow. But I couldn’t take the practicum option without absolutely exhausting all other possibilities, so I am giving myself more time to find a job. If my pride was hurt (or, more accurately, my shame was increased) by not being able to find a paying job, then having to actually pay a third party for the privilege of working for no money is exactly the kind of thing that would drive me to drink—if I liked drinking, or could afford it.

I do have the possibility of good news regarding job prospects, although I usually don’t like to talk about jobs I’ve applied for out of fear of invoking the cruel Jinx and waking it from its dark slumber deep within the molten core. I applied for a job blogging for DS Fanboy and Wii Fanboy, which are affiliates of Joystiq. I made it through the first round of cuts, anyway! Getting this job won’t help my library career much, but it will help feed my habitation addiction. Also I don’t need to mention that writing about games is my dream job—the one I couldn’t go to school for and can’t count on enough to stake my whole future on. If I get this job, it will be huge. I’ll manage the whole working-while-in-library school thing. It’ll be worth it to change pretty much everything about how I feel about myself. But now I’m getting light years ahead of myself. I’m not getting my hopes up too much.

On the subject of game blogging, have you checked out 20xxgames recently? I’ve recently changed my routine and started posting things that may not be ass.

I’ll end this post by giving a shout-out to my boo Mary, who is driving back home right now from volunteering as a tutor for elementary-school kids. I look forward to reading about the unexplained explosion in elementary-school test scores in inner-city Houston schools.

Our 2 ½ year anniversary was the 10th. No, I don’t know how she stands me either. But I hope she continues to for a long time.

BURGER KING WINS AT ADVERTISING

2006-11-15T12:27:00.000-08:00

That's it. Even if I didn't already hate McDonalds, and, uh... if I ever ate fast-food hamburgers, Burger King's advertising would convince me that they deserve my very small amounts of money. First, it was the Xbox games (NOVEMBER 19!!! I AM TOTALLY CAMPING OUT FOR THEM), and now this commercial. I don't care how you feel about clicking on YouTube links, or fast food, or advertising, or me. Click on that link and watch the video. The last five seconds or so kinda suck, but by then the world will have already changed for you.

bllllggllglgl

2006-11-10T23:54:00.000-08:00

so frustrated
-feel like i'm wasting a lot of my time, but don't know what to do and
-afraid to change things that used to define me (such as obsessive, continuous tv watching)
-need to apply for jobs, but scared of rejection/failure as usual
-hate myself but continue to write narcissistic blog entries
-not tired at all but would feel guilty about staying up
-don't know why i didn't capitalize anything, i guess it makes me seem more out of sorts.
-damn it

must... become... more... awesome!

oh man

2006-11-05T18:32:00.000-08:00

I just heard the most horrible noise outside. It sounded like a big truck backfiring. Anyway, I wasn’t sure, so I peeked out the window. I saw a bunch of guys standing around just outside of our parking lot, and it looked like two of the guys right in the center of the mass were pointing guns at each other. There was a lot of yelling, but everyone was standing perfectly still.

Anyway, I must have heard a shot go off. I looked around from my window and I didn’t see anyone that looked hurt, so one of the guys must have just fired the shot in the air. I was about to call 911, but I wasn’t thinking straight and I was panicking and I called home instead. When I told her what I had seen, my mom got scared, she said "You're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air." I whistled for a cab and when it came near, the license plate said "Fresh" and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought "Nah, forget it, Yo homes, to Bel-Air!" I pulled up to the house about seven or eight and I yelled to the cabbie, "Yo homes, smell ya later!" I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel-Air.

job update

2006-11-03T11:03:00.000-08:00

Last week, I was up for a job writing about games for Kotaku. I didn't get it.

Here are some great newses

2006-10-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

First off, I'm happy to announce that I turned my thesis in on Wednesday! I have a master's degree! How did that happen?

Should you like to read the thesis, "Effects of coda voicing on onset /n/ and /l/ duration in American English," here it is. It's hosted on Yousendit right now, so I'll have to figure something else out after a week or so. Enjoy!

Mary and I are considering attending the May graduation ceremony. She'll be getting her master's soon, too.

Second, I got my first-ever job offer. I was contacted on GAF yesterday and asked if I would be interested in writing for a gaming blog! I said I would, of course (and then in my head I said *(#$UNHFEH(#*(UR DLJLJF), and now I'm apparently being considered for the job! I was told that the editors of the site would be "watching me" on 20xx games, which means that I'm going to work on putting the best content I can on there this weekend.

I heard that having a master's degree would help me get a job, but I assumed it was because it looked good on a resume, not because it acted as a talisman to magically attract employers.

Finally, the refrigerator is finally clean. I felt stupid about not having dumped out those black beans earlier.

My wife is brilliant

2006-10-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

(click for larger pictures)

This is a quilt that Mary made as a birthday gift for her grandmother. I think it looks great: the colors are nice (and nicely distributed!) and the nice straight lines are just pleasing to look at.

And here’s a quilt that she finished earlier this year, made of my old t-shirts. She managed to make my junky old clothes (some of which I wore from the 7th grade through college) look pretty damned awesome. And because of that extended use of the fabric, this thing is excellently, lovably soft.

I love having these handmade quilts around the house. They're about the cuddliest works of art I can think of.

2006-10-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

Feeling a very false creativity today.

As in, I feel like doing something creative (writing, drawing, uh... other... creative... activity...) but I have [b]no fucking clue[/b] what I would do. So basically, that disproves the 'feeling creative' hypothesis straight away.

Okay, well, there is one thing I want to do, but it's impossible. I'd like to work on a Flash game. Unfortunately, not only do I not possess the Flash software, I was never able to figure out how to do the simplest animations, much less interactive software. Thumbs up!

Maybe I should just work!

Let's internship!

2006-10-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

So you guys are all incredibly brilliant and also adventurous. I want some of that. I'm asking you to rub some of your magical success-attracting pheromones onto me (metaphorically, at least, as I'm a)really far away from you and b)kind of a germophobe) by maybe telling me how I can find an internship or a summer position. Mary recently expressed a desire to take an internship this summer, and it occurred to me that it may be possible for me to do the same thing. We're getting close to the 'employed' period of our lives, and we're probably going to end up living in Texas, so we'd both like the opportunity to live somewhere else for a little while (basically a summer) while we still have the chance. Also, now that I have a chance of having a career, I'd like to advance it, and put some bullet points on my resume that don't have anything to do with sorting shelves of Dreamcast games. Don't get me wrong, I love sorting Dreamcast games, but I also love being employed by people who feel like it's a good idea to give me money in exchange for tasks I perform in a professional environment. Probably.

Speaking of money, it would be nice to earn some for a change. My computer overheated yesterday! It turns out that my datazzz and straight FLOATING POINT KALK-U-LASHUNZZ be shit hot and my processor was all DAMN.

So yeah. I know there are people reading this who have gone all over the country doing crazy temporary things, and I am asking for any resources you know of. Also ideas for things I could do.

oh god how did this get here i am not good with computer

2006-10-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

While Mary is in San Diego at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, I'm here making another unordered list, containing these things I've been doing:

Making monochromatic and kind of ugly blog templates. Well, one.

Taking care of kittens, and trying not to bore them with my sedentary lifestyle.

Taking care of a bunch of school work! Surprisingly.

Enjoying some rented games.

Mostly I just wanted to make this post to brag about Mary and say how awesome she is (and also to make another list, which I can't seem to get enough of). She goes all over the place on these crazy conferences, and has these great experiences, and makes all kinds of contacts and stuff. It's just very impressive. She's a very impressive person. I would get hung up on the traveling and spend the whole trip freaked out.

On a much smaller scale, I'm also happy that I can be an independent dude every once in a while; to have confirmation that when left to my own devices, not only will I get out of bed and not waste the entire day, but I will also do things that need to be done, and feed myself and clean the house and occasionally buy groceries and even do work just like a regular person. Just like people who have to go places.

Hello Kitty +

2006-10-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

So much to talk about!

First, I'd like to introduce you all to our new baby girl, Scout (click for larger):

We adopted her from a local shelter called Friends for Life. She's wonderful and I love her. Today was slightly sad because I had to take her in to be spayed. She's recovering well and seems happy, if... totally doped.

Second, I celebrated my 26th birthday recently, and I'm happy to say it was a good one-- hell of improved over last year's. I do feel pretty old, but that's only because I'm so old. It sucks to be 26 and jobless, but at least I sort of have direction, and I'm totally ahead in that I've already found the love of my life. Compared to that, a career is easy, right?

I hate to be crass and talk about my birthday gifts, but Mary surprised me with such great ones that I can't help it:

The Mario .S Diorama Kit (Set C), which I put together immediately. It's really damn cool to see Mario in semi-3D on my shelf. Plus I can rearrange the peg "pixels" however I want, so I'll be changing out the Mario scene occasionally. I'd looked at these things on import sites, but it was one of those things that I idly admired but would never buy for myself. And Mary found one from a US seller and bought it for me! Yay!

Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life,a book by Chris Kohler that talks about not only the history of Japanese games, but also the unique narrative, visual, and gameplay concepts of Japanese games that make them so different from Western games, especially the early arcade games. I've only read like 7 pages and already I love it. The dude interviews Keiichi Yano, the director of Gitaroo Man in the first chapter or so.

One month of GameFly, which already promises to fuel a number of game blog entries.
A note that said I could purchase one new t-shirt of my choice. My choice:

Twizzlers, which Mary hates but I can't get enough of (and hadn't had for probably several years). A big bag of them, too. And a Heath bar.

Plus she made me a chocolate cake! Cake, if you haven't heard, is delicious, when eaten.

Okay, that part was really long. But it's my damn blog. Anyway, next item, also related to my birthday:

Birthday cards came from all over the place. Mary's was very sweet and had some wonderful sentiments about the fact that she apparently continues to enjoy my company (???). Mary's mom sent as a birthday card a pencil drawing of a lizard she made. And Zack and Blair sent an adorable Hello Kitty card with a sheet of temporary tattoos that make me really quite happy to wear. I don't quite understand my love for Hello Kitty, but the aesthetic makes me smile, and I love temporary tattoos. And these are sparkly!

A short note: this thread provides intense, painful LMAOs.

Finally, head over to the game blog for a special and wonderful news item, provided I, uh, write it.

2006-09-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am having an annoyingly ironic problem. I'm doing this incredibly short research paper, and I can't fucking find the sources I need. I need general information about database management systems, but from some kind of library science perspective. Journal articles aren't going to mention basic stuff, and database books are all too high-level too; the best sources I have right now are computer science books, but they don't talk about library stuff.

The fact that I suck at research means that I'm pretty much guaranteed to be a shitty/useless librarian. If any of you actual students out there can find something of use, let me know. I'm freaking out way too much about this dumb paper.

2006-09-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

My streak of bizarre good luck continues!

1. Find copy of Final Fantasy VII for $4 at Half-Price Books
2. Ebay
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!

Someone bought my game for $85. Now I totally have a game budget! Good thing, too, because there is, of course, a lot of excellent stuff coming out. Okami, for example, and Yakuza. Who knows. I'm not buying anything yet, but I can totally look!

I can't believe FF7 is in such high demand. Shouldn't there be millions of copies floating around? It's one of the highest-selling games of all time. I guess a bunch of people saw Advent Children and got inflicted with the status ailment "FF7 Fever"? People who might have been too young for RPGs back in 1997? Oh well, not my problem!

9 out of 10

2006-08-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

This post should make up for the recent absence of news, because it is fully packed with Vitamin Incredibly Great Stuff. This weekend was easily the best weekend I've had since the wedding, and maybe the most densely-packed with disparate events of good fortune ever. Hell, evaaaaaaaar. Check this shit out:

Friday
At 3 I defended the shit out of my Master's thesis.

Now, I reserve braggadocio precisely for occasions such as this, allowing me to contrast my everyday confidence-free manner with a sudden burst of how just freaking rad I can be, thus enhancing the overall impact of my newly glowing self-assessment.

In other words, since I hate myself the rest of the time, I can now say with a clear conscience that my thesis defense completely owned. I spent all summer hoping to just get the whole thesis thing over with, and I came out with the distinct feeling that something cool had happened. The audience was filled with:
- well-wishers who refrained from blasting me with asshole questions;
- committee members who were not only genuinely interested in my research for some reason, but who were also friendly to a student who was sort of bailing out;
- the very exclusive organization of People I'm Married To, who helped me set up cookies and soda before, and sat in the back looking friendly and comforting during. I could write a whole post about all Mary did for me this summer. Above and beyond, for real.

I got through the Public Speaking Experience with pants unpeed, answered some questions in a satisfactory manner, and then received the welcome signatures on my candidacy approval form, indicating that I fuckin' passed. Now all I have to do is a bunch of paperwork and, of course, paper revisions, and I will be the proud owner of pretty much one of the only terminal Master of Arts degrees in linguistics ever given by Rice University. What felt, a few months ago, like a crushing failure is now, as far as anyone is concerned, a total success.

Immediately after the defense, despite everyone's assertions that I should totally celebrate (or, in the words of a committee member, 'get sloppy drunk') we went home, grabbed some luggage, and set out for Dallas, to sleep at the in-laws' house before going to Denton in the morning for the first day of library school. On the way there we stopped at Popeye's for some dang fucking good spicy fried chicken, and I got a miscast quarter back with my change. The design on both sides is off-center, leaving a crescent-moon-shaped area of flat metal. Neat. I later looked at eBay and found that a quarter exactly like mine sells for at least $10. Neat.

Later, in the car, I was talking to my parents and learned that Saturday would be my dad's last day at the post office. After 40 years, he is done with three-digit summers outside in polyester, driving from neighborhood to neighborhood in a non-air-conditioned aluminum jalopy, going home to a wrist brace and falling asleep in his chair. And to add to the good news from home, after a state inspection of the house and an interview with my mom, the state has decided to pay her to be my granny's caretaker, which of course she was doing anyway.

When we got in, I found a nice card from one of Mary's aunts who I pretty much don't know, as well as a copy of High Score! which I have wanted forever and which she apparently found deeply discounted. It's kind of disturbing that people about whom I know nothing know that I am obsessed with video games, but since I am not at all embarrassed about my hobby, that's cool.

Then sleep. For a while. Until 5:45 AM

Saturday when we woke up and got ready for my first (and only physical) meeting of SLIS 5000, Introduction to the Information Profession. Mary and her parents dropped me off at UNT, then went to go watch an energy efficient house being built (remind me, if you care, to post about that stuff, it is actually pretty cool). When I went in to sit down in the lecture hall, I was called over to sit in the "Guys with Glasses section." Nothing I love more early in the morning than doing something that is both completely passive and nonsensically hilarious. Nothing, that is, except not being awake.
I spent the next few hours getting orientationalized, and introduced to WebCT and getting introduced to the faculty and whatnot. At lunch (Jason's Deli) I chatted with a couple of students with whom I sort of bonded a little-- at least enough that we're totally going to do a group project together. If people want to be friends with me, who am I to stop them?

The final task of the day, a short orientation assignment designed to familiarize us with WebCT, was scheduled to take three hours. I took closer to three minutes. I called Mary, and then sat in the lunch area and played Castlevania: Circle of the Moon until they arrived. Any day where I get Castlevania time is a pretty good day, especially when it's a 'Vania I hadn't played in five years or so. During my day at UNT I got invited to:
-hang out at a big bookstore,
-'go have a drink somewhere', and
-participate in a Texas Hold 'Em tournament. (This last one was courtesy of some random undergrads who were meeting in the building I was in before heading over to the tournament. I politely declined out loud, and then in my head remarked that while I was in fact Texan, and quite adept at, you know, holding 'em, I had no interest in doing so competitively.

When we got back, the Brooks family took me to Outback to celebrate my successful defense. Who knew Outback had chicken fried (steak/chicken)? And that it is excellent? Me circa right after dinner last night, that's who. Word.

I'm going to have to ask Mary if anything else happened Saturday night. I think we just chilled and then got to sleep early. Probably something really important happened that Mary is mortified about me forgetting. It's late. Anyway, I slept for like 12 hours and woke up on Sunday feeling pretty solid.

We took it nice and easy again today, on the sixth anniversary of our first meeting with the main focus of today's activities being getting back to Houston in a timely and safetily manner. Before we left, we got lunch-- mine being delicious chili in a bread bowl from Corner Bakery. When we got back (20 minutes earlier than we estimated!) I found an envelope from UNT in the mail, which informed me that I was the recipient of a $1500 scholarship. Not the full tuition + stipend to which I had become accustomed, but after months of receiving zero information about scholarships, and therefore assuming that I had not qualified for any, this was a surprise windfall. Boo-yah. To celebrate all the success and whatnot, Mary suggested we order a pizza (which I usually don't eat on my 'diet'). I don't know if you've experienced this, but eating pizza is a nice way to spend a few minutes. I highly recommend this activity.

The best part about the whole weekend is that I feel completely normal. Not the guy who might have Social Anxiety Disorder and clinical depression, not the dumb guy in a room full of geniuses, not the fraud who shouldn't be where he is and probably can't do what he's being asked, not the idiot who needs to apologize for stuff he hasn't done yet, not the guy who can't summon the force to push enough air out to speak. Just a guy. Maybe even a dude who is doing things right and is not a total failure!

JC FLETCHER: NOT A TOTAL FAILURE IN '06

The title of this post, 9 out of 10, refers to the score (in some unknown category?) given to Virgos in this week's horoscope, as reported to me by the Dallas Morning News via Mary's mom Kathleen. Normally I take no stock in astrology (if I want to know the future, I'll stick to my copy of Taboo: The Sixth Sense, thank you very much), but if the mystics over at the Dallas Morning News want to say, in an indirect way, that I'm awesome, then I'm going to have to allow it.

going to NY for a week

2006-07-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

For a real vacation; couple of days in the city and then some days in West Oneonta visiting Mary's grandmother. Rad.

Gonna do some stuff. May not include internet.

takin' mah powers away

2006-07-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

This was probably porn for the guy who created/starred in it, but for the rest of us non-insane people, it's just another hilariously awkward, stilted YouTube video.

There's no nudity or anything, but it would be humiliating to be caught watching this anyway.

YouTube: Where For Some Reason People Think It's a Good Idea to Upload Every Video They Have

. . .

2006-07-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I didn't get the Tokyopop thing. For some reason, I got my hopes up about it, although it was pretty obvious that I had about as much chance of getting a writing job like that as I do of winning the lottery-- especially since I don't buy lottery tickets. I'm actually still pretty bummed about the whole stupid deal. Oh, well, yet another reason not to buy Tokyopop's manga translations, and an even more redundant additional reason not to buy their domestic 'original' material (basically KeenSpace on paper).

I shared the original email with Nikki and Heath, two of my coworkers from Game X Change, both of whom sent samples in, also unsuccessfully. But it turns out that Nikki is going to start writing for Joystiq, and I am considering the dick move of following her lead and sending a submission to them. Yeah, it would have been great if I had had some initiative before, but there's no real reason for me not to at least try. I don't really see how it would hurt or offend her, but there's something wrong with it that I can't quite name. Plus it's not like I'm in any danger of competing with her; she's already got the position, and has a lot of qualifications that I don't.

So tomorrow I'm going to do some practice game blog entries. I always go for kind of personal items on the game blog, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow with short posts about the news of the day. The news of the day as it applies to video games, that is. Not the regular important news.

Set fingers on 'cross'

2006-06-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

(Excerpt from ) email from the TOKYOPOP mailing list, which I am on for some reason (I have only purchased manga once, and then I returned it):

-------------------
TOKYOPOP.com is looking for individuals over 18 years of age* to be reviewers, columnists and feature storywriters...

Reviewers will be needed for the following:
MANGA
ANIME
VIDEO GAMES
FILM/TV/DVD (Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, Action)
MUSIC (J-POP, J-ROCK, K-POP, anime soundtracks, videogame soundtracks)

A columnist will be selected for each of the following categories:
MANGA
ANIME
VIDEOGAMES (No sports-related videogames)
FILM/TV/DVD (Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, Action)
MUSIC (J-POP, J-ROCK, K-POP, anime soundtracks, videogame soundtracks)
FASHION/COSPLAY
FOOD & LIFESTYLE (Eastern food and manga lifestyle)
PEOPLE (Manga personalities)

Feature writers will be selected for each of the following categories:
MANGA
ANIME
VIDEOGAMES (No sports-related videogames)
FILM/TV/DVD
MUSIC (J-POP, J-ROCK, K-POP, anime soundtracks, videogame soundtracks)
FASHION/COSPLAY
FOOD & LIFESTYLE (Eastern food and manga lifestyle)
PEOPLE (Manga personalities)

If you are interested in contributing, please e-mail writers@tokyopop.com with brief proposals and a writing sample by June 19, 2006. If chosen, writer will be contacted to work out a writing schedule and will receive monetary compensation for such work. Pieces should be written with journalistic integrity and TOKYOPOP style.
---------------------------------

If you check the game blog, you will find a review of New Super Mario Bros. I am submitting this to Tokyopop; I'll also be proposing a weekly column about terrible licensed video games. It was the only column idea I could think of that wasn't shockingly generic (I mean, I could discuss some of the news in the gaming world for that week, or I could talk about something random related to what I am playing at the time. They'd both be pretty good columns, but 4897189791917 other dudes are going to have the same idea).

Anyway, just thought I'd tell you guys about this, because I'm excited and hopeful. Oh, and also I guess you still have a day to submit something if you want, although you're all cool enough as it is. Sorry about the short notice, though.

zuiikin english

2006-06-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qoMfBJUeI

Cheered me up a little!

Das Wagenphone ist ein... Nuisancephone!

2006-06-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

So I caved to peer pressure and bought a new phone. (Of course, by 'peer pressure' I mean 'the coincidental fact that Jessica recently got a new phone, plus the fact that my phone was getting horrible reception'-- you know, that meaning. Look it up) It was free. It works delightfully! Now I have to find some MP3s to make ringtones from! I will not rest until I have the capability to randomly irritate nearby people with some seconds of music that I enjoy! I mean, after I sleep right now. But after that, NO REST!

Now it's time for a little braggadocio

2006-05-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

I did something Wednesday that I didn't think I'd ever have the courage to do: I drove to a club by myself to see a concert. I just couldn't miss MC Frontalot. I mean, how often does some dude whose music you download a bunch of from the internet play a show at a club five minutes away from you? This is especially fortuitous when said music is completely awesome. It took a lot of encouragement from Mary and a lot of parking-planning on both our parts, but I eventually gathered the fortitude to drive down the street and go into a place.

I met Front almost immediately after going into the club. I forgot to get an autograph (and basically wouldn't have asked anyway), but I did have a short conversation about the tour while I purchased my selection of limited-edition commemorative tour merchandise in the form of one t-shirt. Then I hung around the 'merch area' (basically the entrance to the main room) while the first band got all their rappin' and innuendoin' out of their systems. When they left, most of the intimidating people left too, leaving only skinny ironic-shirt-and-bad-haircut types and a bunch of verifiable nerds, somewhere between 30 and 50 total.

Favorites were performed, faces were rocked, Magic: the Gathering cards were dramatically produced from pockets and thrown into the audience. I don't know how to write about concerts, so I'll just express it in Wesley Willis-speak: the band played it off; the band whooped it up. The crowd roared like a lion! The rock show was kicking a European bison's ass.

I had a good time. I may even consider going to more places to see and do things!

new posts and almost new posts

2006-05-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

New post over at the game blog. After kind-of liveblogging E3, and enjoying it, I'm going to try to have more useful content over there. But first some pointless rambling about Phantasy Star Online. I also need to respond to Kendall about the Wii marketing stuff.

I'll post more here about other stuff tomorrow. It'll be self-indulgent and blogtastic.

free stuff day

2006-05-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

First I got a free webpage and domain name from the Microsoft Office Live webpage beta thing. You have sort of limited design options, and only 30mb of webspace, but you get a free domain name of your choice! I figure I can either get the name to redirect to something else or figure out how to use my own code on the page and bypass their "site designer." Even if I can't, I have a jcfletcher.net domain and a jc@ email address that I haven't tested yet! I suggest everyone jump on it now and figure out what to do with it later.

And then I found a GAF thread with free magazine subscription links! I've used this Mercury site before, and I did in fact receive magazines, with no noticed upswing in spam or junk mail. Through various offers, I've been getting all of my magazines for free for the last 2 years or so. Here are the links to the latest offers for you (and no, I don't know why there are two links per magazine. Maybe there are a limited number of subscriptions?):

Computer Gaming World: link 1, link 2

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine: link 1, link 2

Electronic Gaming Monthly: link 1, link 2

e3 this week

2006-05-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Hey video game liking people;

If you don't feel like checking out pretty much any game site online this week for your E3 gaming news, why not visit my game blog instead, for some paraphrases of highlights from, and links to, those same sites? Just a thought.

again with the trying to sell my stuff

2006-05-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

First, the reasons:

1. I have stuff I don't want anymore. I mean, obviously.

2. With the change in schools coming up and no idea if I'm even getting in (probably), much less if I'll get any kind of scholarship, I'm going to need all the money I can get. Oh, and also my summer funding through the linguistics department is less than I get during the year.

3. I stupidly bid on a copy of Vib Ribbon on eBay, and now I am feeling pre-buyer's remorse; it was a stupid thing to do, and I don't have the money to spend, and I have like 5 days to even see if I'm going to spend the money. God, I have bought like one thing ever from eBay, and now is not the fucking time for me to get into that habit.

So what I'd like is to somehow come up with the $20 or so I would be out if I won the auction. (SO. stupid.) What happened is that I generally keep a small fund for personal fun (i.e. games) spending, which comes from stuff like my change jar. A couple of days ago, when I placed this bid, I didn't feel bad about dipping into this fund. However, in the midst of this uncertain financial/tuition situation, I need to be a little more discerning with even that money. It could turn out to be important.

This story sounds dumb and whiny now that I'm looking at it. But it's like 1:30 and not being able to get out of this Vib Ribbon auction that I'm probably not going to win seems like a [i]huge fucking crisis.[/i] It would be nice to get rid of some of the guilt of this potential purchase, at least. Anyway, ON TO THE DEALS FOR REALS

-Dynex wireless keyboard/mouse combo: Mouse used basically once; I've been using the keyboard for about a week but I totally promise to clean it out. It's got a lot of neat function buttons like volume control, copy/paste, calculator, etc. I'd ask for I think $25 shipped. Man, I have no idea how much shipping is on this thing, though.

-Playstation 2 Eyetoy: Play game and camera. British people love this thing. It's pretty fun. Maybe like $20 shipped? Maybe even less!

-Pretty blue lava lamp on silver base. I'll let somebody have this for the cost of shipping, whatever that turns out to be. If you are local, I'll let you have it for the cost of nothing. This just needs to be out of a Kohl's sack in the closet and in a happy home free of combustible cats.

Hmm. I kinda thought I had more stuff than this. I'm pretty sure none of you are Star Wars action figure collectors. Too bad. Okay, well, I've iWhored myself out enough here on the interjunk!

OKAY AWESOME LET'S E-COMMERCE

hey who wants a 1-month netflix trial

2006-05-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

you can use it to get movies in the mail

from the internet

without paying money

for one month

suburban robots that monitor reality

2006-05-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

So I finally got around to checking out some Devo 2.0 songs today. You've probably heard of them, but I hope for the sake of an interesting post that you haven't. Okay, so Devo 2.0 is:

- a Devo cover band
- composed entirely of children, and
- released by Walt Disney Records.

Okay. So it's sort of like the insipid and horrible Kidzbop, except that the 'casting', production and most of the record's instrumentation were done by original members of Devo. Oh, and the songs are all great, and performed energetically and with some of the weird vocal quirks that make Mark Mothersbaugh so fun to listen to, as opposed to the shit that gets shittily covered by the shitty Kidzbop singers and the shitty production team that shits shit all over that shit.

The whole thing is so... random. Who at Disney decided that Devo was going to be the next big thing with 8-year-olds? And who decided that the only thing keeping Devo from being the aforementioned next big thing was the age of the nerds in the band?

The best part of the whole thing is... okay, well, it's that the songs still sound awesome and I love Devo. But the SECOND best part of the whole thing is the fact that some lyrics were changed to be more kid-friendly, with hilarious results. I don't remember "Uncontrollable Urge" being about between-meal snacks, but maybe I just missed the subtext in the original version.

Okay, I take back the part about Devo 2.0 being targeted at 8-year-olds. It's pretty clear that this record was made for me alone, perhaps as an apology from Disney for [i]Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles.[/i]

!

2006-04-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

It's kind of exciting that Jonathan (see sidebar for identical link) has chosen to link to this blog (as well as the other one which will see some love within the week). It's an honor. What's more exciting is that he refers to me as "JC!", which I haven't done in a few years. Back then, that was basically my name-- it was on my door, it was the signature I used on homework assignments, etc. It was my handle on message boards, and a perfect three-letter name for high score screens. Hell, even my display name for emails was JC!

I guess as I have transitioned into a depressed, social-anxiety type dude, the exclamation point started to seem ostentatious and inappropriate. But no more! I am reclaiming that shit starting right now. Thanks to Jonathan for the inspiration.

Goddamned! You can say 'cock' too.

2006-04-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

Finally a fitting sequel to the sushi video: Let's Sexy English! I don't suggest watching this at work. Learn some sexy words and phrases! Yeah!

I'm going to stop writing now, because I want to talk about the video but I don't want to 'spoil it' by telling you what to expect.

To Jonathan

2006-04-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

ご婚約

おめでとう～

Highlights from a career of being a cat

2006-04-12T20:47:00.002-07:00

IT IS TIME FOR CAT PICTURES

CLICK FOR BIGGER CAT PICTURES

OH HELL YEAH

under construction

2006-04-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

Enjoy some increasingly functional webpage!

2006-04-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd like to thank my commenters for the happy posts. I'd like to say I'm past the point where I need this kind of encouragement, but... well, maybe I am. In any case, the support is appreciated. I'm glad I have friends who want me to be happy and, uh, career-ful.

Saturday Mary took me on a surprise date that was supposed to have been for Valentine's Day, but was postponed for maximum surprise. First, the Houston Zoo, where we saw... you know, a whole bunch of animals. It was nice. We walked around for a few hours and talked and saw some adorable creatures. Then we had dinner at the Hobbit Cafe, which was cute and fun and delicious. I got the biggest black bean burger ever, which seemed to be basically a pound of black beans and rice on a wheat bun. I am totally going back. I'll try to bring the camera so I can sneak a picture of the rockin' amateur Gandalf-in-space painting in the bathroom.

...I'm having a good day, I think.

temporary

2006-04-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

Changed the template to get a better idea of the CSS stuff Blogger uses. Unless I can't figure out CSS, a new design is coming. Otherwise I'll go back to the JSR blue theme.

decent sized update

2006-03-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's time for an update. The last few weeks have been eventful.

Two weeks ago, right as Spring Break was starting, Mary's grandfather died. Mary, being as strong and incredible as she is, decided that it would be too expensive for us both to go, and went to New York on a couple of days' notice to go to the wake and be with her family. I can't help but think she was also thinking of me being too nervous around all the new people, which is something she shouldn't have had to think about. She is wonderful and I am useless. I'm glad I got to meet Henry at the wedding and again the next year. I don't know what else to say about that. I wish I had more to say.

Anyway, I decided to go home for a couple of days since I had the time off. The biggest news there was that my dad wasn't just dieting for blood pressure reasons, which is what I had thought (he had high blood pressure that is now in a very healthy range thanks to medication and diet). Nope, my dad has diabetes now. It didn't seem to be a big deal to anyone in my house, so I guess it's okay. Also, he's becoming obsessed with computer games again, after not picking up a game of any kind for about six years.

When I got back and school started back up, I got back to trying to look for a job. Still no luck, and not really any prospects. Getting a master's in library science has started sounding better and better. As I was freaking out about this, I also had stuff due in my field methods class. I decided to man up (while simultaneously chickening out) and drop a required course, which meant
a) telling more people in the department that I'm quitting, and
b) making myself ineligible for advancement in the program, thus ensuring that I was really quitting

I went to the field methods teacher with trepidation, expecting her to be totally pissed. She wasn't. She understood and was supportive. Huh. She mentioned that I should check with the grad advisor about the possibility of getting my master's degree before I drop the course. So I did.

The grad advisor (Nancy) told me that the department doesn't do terminal MAs, and that I'd have to advance to Ph.D. candidacy before getting any kind of MA, which means I'd have to take two language exams and write two publishable papers. So I dropped the field methods course and went home.

The next day, after my Japanese test, I heard from my advisor Katherine that she and Nancy had a short chat about me. Nancy didn't realize that I was thinking of leaving and was now saying that it would be totally possible for me to get an MA! The faculty discussed my case during their meeting that afternoon, and tried to figure out the requirements for this degree program that didn't exist. That was Friday.

Today I finally found out what I need to do: take a language test and write an MA thesis this summer (which, of course, involves things like forming a committee and defending and petitioning the vice provost's office and things). I think I'm going to do it. I'm going to try anyway. The guilt will be too much if I don't.

UNT's library science degree program has a Houston-based option, and the dean came to Rice on Friday to talk about it. It sounds... good. It's mostly online, and I love being online. There's a good chance of scholarships, and some of the coursework actually sounds like it may be interesting. I could finish in a year, and then get a job. I like the idea of having a job.

Who's to say if any of this will make me happy? Who knows if I'll just quit this too? I wonder sometimes if I'll end up in some kind of mental institution because I am incapable of performing any task.

2006-03-26T09:56:00.000-08:00

Scrambled?Hackz! is what would happen if a Doug E. Fresh and a theremin had a Scandinavian baby. It is exactly the kind of musical oddity I like to see invented. I can't wait until the software is released.

Link to SH home page.

LGV

2006-03-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

Headed to Longview for a couple of days, so no blogress until Friday or so.

Feed 'reminder'

2006-03-05T10:06:00.000-08:00

I just realized you can get this as an Atom feed, if you're into that sort
of thing.
http://year20xx.blogspot.com/atom.xml
http://20xxgames.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Also I'm testing the 'post-by-email' feature.

2006-03-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

I'm sure it's obvious why I haven't been posting much, but just in case, I'll fill you in:

-I have a paper due for Field Methods. I'd drop the course, but I'm not sure it would even be possible to do so, and if it were, the immediate repercussions would be severe.

-I feel incredibly guilty about taking time to write a good blog entry when I should be writing, even though I'm not actually accomplishing much on the paper, either.

-I have like 3 big posts I want to put up on the game blog, but I'm daunted. I've got a little bit written on all three, but nothing finished.

-Also I'm supposed to be doing job search stuff instead of recreation, and I am actually doing that, but after 15 minutes or so of that I am definitely not in a happy mood anymore. Trying to find a job is emotionally draining and feeds my feelings of uselessness.

Man, even talking about it is bringing me down a little. I'm still kind of optimistic about being able to find a neat job, but I'm way depressed about how difficult it is, and how fruitless my applications have been so far.

2006-02-26T20:45:00.000-08:00

I thought that my two-letter name would only generate boring results on the Cyborg Name Decoder that Jessica linked to, but I was spectacularly wrong. Check this shit out:

width="240" height="180"
alt="Judo Construct"
border="0">

I was going to say that this thing reminded me a whole lot of a similar item I saw on The Brunching Shuttlecocks back when we fashioned internets out of mud and sticks, but a look at the Brunching home page reveals this decoder to be the work of the very same Lore Fitzgerald Sjöberg responsible for much of that site's content. How nostalgic!

Weird quiz thing

2006-02-25T13:39:00.000-08:00

With creepy, dubious results!

JC took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test!

"Intense, vital, and animated, taking a delight in ..."

Click here to read the rest of the results.

You just click on a bunch of color boxes. Seriously, it takes more time to read the results than to take the test.

2006-02-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

It is extra hard to motivate myself to do homework now. I mean, I sort of thought that I had developed more discipline recently, but it definitely does not apply to school. I'm happy to work on Japanese, but when I try to start writing a syntax paper or something for field methods class, my brain is of the opinion that that noise should be fucked, and I don't disagree.

Job progress

2006-02-19T00:32:00.000-08:00

I've written a resume (which I'll probably post soon to get suggestions and edits) and applied for a few jobs. One that seems interesting is this one at anime publisher ADV Films. I mean, I'm not as much of an anime geek as I am an other-things geek, but I'd love a career in the nerdly arts, and anime is very close to video games as a fan activity, and that job sounds like a neat thing to do. Plus, if my Japanese got good enough, I'd be in a good position to move to this job.

So how much do you guys think I'd be able to get doing either of those? Because I have no idea.

Soft launch

2006-02-12T13:27:00.001-08:00

Exciting new development! I started a game blog! This one is my personal blog now.

Content forthcoming, following grading.

2006-02-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's the thing. This is a little bit harder because I know I've got at least one Rice person reading this thing, but I trust them.

I'm leaving. Ideally, I will finish this semester and be done with linguistics. I am working on finding new employment, browsing the job sites and whatnot.

While I have not felt right here for a long time, I have finally arrived at the conclusion that there is no reason for me to continue to push myself through graduate school toward the goal of something that I won't like, won't be good at, and won't benefit from. I can make similar compensation doing many other things, most of which are much less stressful than linguistics. Really, a career in linguistics is only worth doing if you love linguistics, and I don't at all. So I'm showing some sack, and moving on. I don't know how to leave, though. I've never dropped out before. And there may be this conference in Paris-- if we get accepted and I have to go to France and present a talk after having quit the program, that will be the very height of awkwardness.

I also have the issue of figuring out what to do, but I'm feeling semi-optimistic about that. Despite not feeling like it in my current environment, I am a damned smart dude, and capable, and highly educated. Plus I smell good and I am amusing.

Okay, so that's that. We all knew it was coming. I just have to, you know, do all of it now. That and tell my parents, which is going to be interesting.

2006-02-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

Big things are building up, duders.

Big, vague, cool things.

This is my year.

Narcissism factor: surprisingly high

2006-01-31T21:23:00.000-08:00

I officially started dieting this weekend. Whereas before I had taken such
drastic health-minded steps as switching out real cola for mysterious cola
simulacra (I prefer the fake Coke with bizarre cherry-esque chemicals), now I
am actually logging the number of calories I consume every day, with the goal
of, uh, not consuming that many. Only a week after we decided to stop
budgeting so carefully, I open a new damn spreadsheet. It turns out that I
don’t eat much to start with, so dieting is going to present a unique challenge.

I’m having a pretty hard time retraining myself not to eat when I am hungry.
I have food near me all the time, and the means to procure more at my leisure.
The only thing I can’t do is eat it.

The good part is that when I do eat, I’m eating different stuff, as I search
for healthy snacks and meals. It’s kind of neat to change up the routine,
plus any activity where I get to eat delicious homemade chili is WIN.

I’m also exercising now too, although I’m not sure how long that will last
(ProTip: exercise fucking sucks completely). Last year I started doing situps
every night, but I broke the habit in mid-July on account of organ removal and
subsequent removed-organ-area pain, and never got back into it. I know I can
at least keep that up every night. In addition, Mary and I have been taking
advantage of the Houston winter (AKA summer), enjoying some long walks. I
know they’re working because I sweat more than usual afterward and also my
legs hurt. Also last week we started going to the apartment gym and running
on those elliptical things. I brought my MP3 player and listened to Jay-Z
tell me how awesome and successful he is. That is surprisingly motivating.

Maybe this is the beginning of a new era for JCs! An era of actual motivation! THE AGE OF SOMETHING OF SOME KIND BEING DONE

Seriously, the more actual things I am able to convince myself to do, the less useless I become! Also I lose manboob mass!

Okay, that was a whole bunch of talking about myself.

2006-01-31T19:27:00.000-08:00

Another post coming tonight, but in the meantime I'm going to try to sell some more shit.

The new version of Metal Gear Solid 3 (MGS3: Subsistence) is coming out in March, and I'd like to sell my original MGS3 to help pay for it. I kind of want to keep this one too, but I would really feel weird about rebuying it if I still had the game, and I feel bad enough about the potential expenditure as it is. This is absolutely one of my favorite games of all time. Any PS2 owners reading this thing?

I need a part-time job or something.

On the jazz

2006-01-15T22:49:00.000-08:00

So I fixed my clock problem. On impulse, I picked up a clock assembly at Michaels, then went home and made this Atari A-Team cartridge clock.

The cartridge was originally Pac-Man, but the glue Atari used for their labels bled through, making an ugly, splotchy mess. Plus, the Atari Pac-Man art... is not that great. So I printed some custom A-Team artwork, which is pleasing to me on three levels:
1) Looks cool
2) I enjoy the A-Team (despite having the show dismissed by one of the Academic Team crowd as 'a Mr.T vehicle'), and
3) There really was an A-Team 2600 game, but it was never released, making my clock seem like a horrible waste of a prototype cartridge (with inexplicably professional labeling)

Yeah. I had planned to put this in my office, but I like it so much that it's my new wall clock by the computer at home, and I'll be bringing the Gyromite clock to school.

I don't know, this is a pretty long post about a boring thing, but I was in a bad mood and showing off my little craft makes me kind of happy. Plus I want to keep up my blog habit. I don't know.

I really need to make a Guitar Hero post too.

Credit hour insanity update

2006-01-12T22:34:00.000-08:00

My Japanese class just got bumped up to 5 credit hours unexpectedly. There's talk of my field methods class moving up from 3 to 4.

Keep in mind, I usually took 12 hours of classes as an undergrad and I was a fucking mess all the time. I really need to figure out how to get out of some of this stuff. 21 hours is a whole lot of being in class, and it's a whole lot of work, and it's a whole lot of hoping no one will be in my office so I can have a little cry. I guess it's a whole lot of 'too busy to cook' pizza, too-- every cloud has a thick crust!

In other 'news', today I threw away the HBO/Cinemax desk clock I got for signing up for cable my freshman year. It wasn't until I threw it away that I realized that it was ugly and I didn't like it. I'll use anything, as long as it's a gift from TV!

2006-01-10T22:28:00.000-08:00

Winter break is officially over. I was getting along just fine without school, too. Oh well.

I'm taking like 18 hours of classes for some reason. Mostly, it's because

a) there was a lot of stuff offered only this semester that it's a good idea for me to take, but secretly, in my head, after I just now made it up, I have a second reason, that is

b) it'll legitimately be too much and I'll wash out, which would be a good excuse to not be in grad school anymore even though I have no idea what else I could/should be doing

I was actually about 10% hoping that I'd fail something this semester and somehow be kicked out of school. Instead, I got As (including one that I think was mathematically impossible) and Bs. I win either way, sort of!

I haven't really been depressed about career stuff lately, because I haven't been thinking about it. I've mostly been doing what I have to do every day and not worrying about the big picture. Oh, except during the break, when I wasn't even doing stuff outside of housework and recreation.

Um, I don't have much of an ending for this post. I'm basically out of stuff to say.

Buy something, will ya'?

2006-01-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

It is time for the 'I feel guilty about buying Guitar Hero' FIRE SALE! If you want some kind-of-cool game stuff, check out my hott deallzzz!

All game discs are in excellent 'borderline-OCD' condition unless otherwise noted. Prices are hella negotiable; I tried to strike a balance in my pricing between 'awesome deals for my friends' and 'gettin' real paid'. I mostly put prices here for if something doesn't sell and I post this same message on a message board.

Lemme know if you want pictures of anything.

Xbox
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time $10
Shenmue 2 $10
POSSIBLY Phantasy Star Online Episode 1&2

Gamecube
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (sealed) $10

Playstation
Threads of Fate $10
This one is kind of rough. It's got sticker junk all over the case, and a big Hastings sticker on the top of the disc (which you obviously shouldn't remove). It worked fine when I tested it, though.

Game Boy Advance
Guilty Gear X Advance $7

PC
Freedom Force (jewel case) $10

Stuff
Super Metroid promotional stand-- about 2 feet tall.some bent corners, and I don't think the plastic stand is original. I really don't remember. I got this from a game store back when Super Metroid came out. The owner was much more interested in selling Atari Jaguars than Nintendo software. I love this thing to death, but I'm saying goodbye to it because my game stuff is starting to take over the house. When making an offer, assume I am going to be crying when I pack this up.

Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast) promotional stand-- this one is about 1 foot tall and has Sonic and Shadow on it. It's also in less-than-perfect condition, though only in the part where the stand is. The front looks awesome.

Hey, remember yesterday?

2006-01-07T23:05:00.000-08:00

To my Oklahoma and inter net friends:

I hope that the visit that we had together yesterday was a fun and excellent one and not disappointing or lame. I know I had a good time but I worry a lot about the relative goodness of others' times because that is how I am.

For those of you who weren't there, Jessica, K, Mary and I had a small gathering at Zack and Blair's apartment, where we talked and caught up and I was a little awkward because I'm generally awkward and not great at talking to people, but still really happy to be with my friends!!!! Then we ate at a place called Bahama Breeze where the breeze didn't really come from the Bahamas, but instead from Oklahoma, because that's where they kept the restaurant. I didn't mind the inauthentic breeze, because I was mostly there for food and talking.

Here are some pictures that get bigger when you click on them, and then you can save them on your hard drive and look at them later and remember that we ate at that place:

I am super glad that I got to see people. I forgot how cool my friends are, and I forgot how much I enjoyed having friends.

2006-01-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

Hello, blog. I am in a funk. I have that weird tired feeling of someone who's been stuck in the house bored for too long. I don't know what to do-- I've done all the laundry and cleaning I could think to do. I've refreshed the same few websites a million times. Good for their ad revenues, I guess. I have this problem a lot-- when I'm not too busy to do the things I want, I can't find anything to do. I spend all school year thinking of things I wish I could be doing, and I spend all break watching the same episode of FLCL over and over. I feel completely useless. I feel like there's no reason for anyone, including myself, to bother with me. I need to think of something real to write, and I need to write it tonight. I don't know what else I could do to feel like I've accomplished a nonzero amount in my life. What the hell do other people do?

In actual news, we are going to OKC Thursday. I don't know the schedule exactly, but we're definitely doing Norman and I want to see people if I can and if anybody wants to be seen.

total filler

2005-12-30T22:39:00.000-08:00

Man, I've completely got writer's block or something. I don't know what to write about.

I also don't know what to tell us to play. I was thinking Snatcher, but that requires either a Sega CD or, you know, copyright infringement or something.

Well, okay, here's a topic that should be fun for discussion: I've got about $75 in holiday-type discretionary income, and I am totally nervous about spending it suboptimally. What are some worthwhile purchases?

OH, and topic number two that is really more of a question than the topic of a blog post: our apartment is large and has fuck-all on the walls. I assume you guys all have walls. What kind of stuff do you have on display? I'm mostly talking semi-grown-up stuff, not Super Metroid promotional artwork or plush Parappa the Rapper dolls (I've got that angle covered).

2005-12-29T23:45:00.000-08:00

Since I got back from visiting family, I've been busy running a bunch of errands and seriously cleaning the house. I sort of lost my blog momentum. Maybe tomorrow night.

2005-12-20T23:35:00.000-08:00

Hey, are you guys playing anything right now (well, not right now, but in like 5 or 6 days, because I'm leaving to go to Dallas/Longview tomorrow morning)? I want to do like a game club where we play the same thing and then talk about it. Is there maybe an older game that you missed or want to play again?

16:44 of meh

2005-12-20T13:16:00.001-08:00

First podcast is up. If I do another one, I'll put a podcast area in the sidebar or something.

The music's pretty good, I think.

Hey guys is it too early to post New Year's resolutions

2005-12-20T00:30:00.000-08:00

I take my resolutions more seriously than most people, I think, for reasons I won't go into right now because I don't know what they are. (I guess it basically involves me hating myself and seizing a semi-official chance to change)

So I thought for a good few minutes about these, and decided to post them now because the other entry I was going to post isn't done.

1. Make two friends to hang out with away from school.

2. Write more than five game reviews, each one in a different style.

3. Blog more. Or, rather, write more entries for my internet journal.

4. Draw one great comic.

5. Write a novel of any length and of any quality.

6. Surprise Mary with at least
a. one wonderful gift
b. one fancy dinner

7. Get a nice new hairstyle. I don't know if this counts as a resolution or not. But hell, there's a decent chance of accomplishing it.

8. Learn how to do some more web stuff for real.

How to Eat Sushi

2005-12-17T23:11:00.000-08:00

Video link, via Yukihime.

I don't actually know much about real sushi etiquette, because I'm a barbarian. Also because I'm not a sushi fan, but mostly the barbarian thing.

(10+2)x5

2005-12-17T00:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't had any work to do in the last few days, but before that, I had all kinds of final projects. I had bidness to handle. I'm pretty averse to work most of the time-- even when I feel like I should sit down and get some stuff done, I'll just waste time on the internet, or go check the mail, or even clean the house to avoid working. To be honest, it's a problem.

Last week, I downloaded Konfabulator because, well, downloading software is decidedly not writing papers. Anyway, Konfabulator (now Yahoo! Widgets or something, ugh) is like the Dashboard Widgets for OSX: it runs little programs, mostly user-created that you can keep on your desktop. I took a screenshot of my desktop to give you an example. I've got a little volume control deal, and a clock, and sometimes I run weird shit like an HTML color picker, or a Netflix queue lister, or a little Quagmire head that plays Family Guy quotes when you click on it. You know, your basic resource-wasting stuff. But my use of this program had an unexpected side effect: productivity.

See that little red timer thing?

It's based on this time management idea from 43 Folders, which is a site all about organization and time management type stuff. I like to read some of the planning stuff when I am, uh...

so anyway, the timer counts down from 10 minutes, then turns green and counts down for 2 minutes, over and over. The idea is that I work for 10 minutes, then I screw around on the internet for 2. Five reps, and that's an hour of mostly-work. Not bad. I don't know if any of you guys have the same laziness/distraction problems that I have, so I don't know if this is helpful.

御そろいなTシャツ

2005-12-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

I mentioned it on Jessica's Xanga blog, but I did something kind of stupid and wonderful today. I bought a Katamari Damacy t-shirt. I kind of couldn't help it. I'm going to have to go hang around EBGames so I can score some cool points from the jackass clerks-- none of the people I see all day at school have any idea what Katamari Damacy is, despite my attempts to subliminally educate them with a dazzling array of excellent wallpapers.

You asked.

2005-12-14T23:20:00.000-08:00

I can't make my mind up about the damn Revolution controller. Except that it looks neat and fun and I want one. But that's me, and I say that and mean it about pretty much every controller that comes out, so I'm not the best judge. It works out for me, because I'll enjoy it no matter what impact it has on the future of the video game industry or whatever.

First a little intro about the "Revmote", done completely off the top of my head and with kind of a fuzzy understanding of the technology. If you want "facts", or "barely concealed Nintendo fanboyism as professional journalism"then I guess I'll direct you to this IGN article. Sorry I linked to IGN. I'll try not to do it anymore.

In case you haven't seen it, this is the controller.

There's a TOTALLY NON-MOTION SICKNESS INDUCING (thx Jessica) video on this page that shows actors pretending like their Rev controllers are plugged in. It should give you an idea of how people who have never seen a video game pantomime how Revolution games will be played.

What you see is two parts: the "remote" part and what lovable Internet types like me (but cleverer than me) have dubbed the "nunchuck" attachment. The remote is the main component of the controller, and in addition to having the obvious d-pad and annoyingly labeled buttons (A, b, a, select, start. Seriously, there are two a buttons on this thing. There are other letters, guys, seriously. Hell, talk to Sony-- they aren't even using letters!), the thing is a 3D pointer with rumble and (possible) force feedback. So, to use the dumb cliche examples that have been brought up so far, in a tennis game you swing the thing like a racket, in a cooking game you make, you know, sauteeing motions, and in a football game you spike it on the fucking floor. You would tilt the thing in the direction you want Mario to go, and jerk it upward to make him jump. It sounds fun and novel to me, but also weird. But wait, there's more! The nunchuck attachment has an analog stick, so you can do basically dual-analog things (FPS games are the most common example) using the stick and the pointer. Nintendo has promised that there will be many such attachments, and that they will be inexpensive. I predict that one of those promises will be true. I actually don't know which one.

So why this controller? Why this shape? Does the Revolution controller look like something to you? Something... familiar, maybe, that you use every day even when you're not playing video games? That's right, a television remote. You see, TV remotes are covered with buttons and all kinds of crazy shit, but people use them just fine. But when you give a non-gamer, say, a Dual Shock, and offer them a game of Ico, they'll spend a few seconds pounding buttons as hard as possible and wiggling all the analog sticks, then waving the controller around in the air for some reason, before giving up and telling you that games are too complicated. Maybe they'll tell you what games used to be like, because you've never played Pac-Man before.

I'd like to say that this scenario relies on outrageous stereotypes, so I will. It's also largely true. I saw plenty of (and here's where the REAL stereotyping gets going!) girlfriends and old people frustrating themselves with whatever demos I had in the machines at Game X Change. I eventually learned that it didn't matter how good I thought a game was, it still wouldn't win over non-gamers if they didn't know how to "make the man move".

Non-gamers-- that's who Nintendo is making the Revolution for. Not us. Not people who have grown up with games and would like to see the medium evolve, although in the right hands the thing has the potential to help that along. Nintendo got the idea with the Rev to go after the biggest demographic of all: the "everyone else" set. You know, the people who hate games but are addicted to computer solitaire. The people who don't want to buy strategy guides, and don't know what a hit point is. And especially people who stopped playing video games years ago-- these people are very important to Nintendo's strategy. Nintendo is making a cheap(er) system, with a controller that looks like an iPod and a Tivo got it on, which doesn't have too many buttons and uses a fairly transparent method of control (the controller's movement translates directly into onscreen movement), to attract new gamers. And, more than the controller, here's what Nintendo is doing to capture casual gamers-- they are making old games available for download. Think iTunes for old games. They've said it will be stuff for every system from the NES to the N64, for some unspecified 'low' cost. So if you remember this weird game you used to have where you shoot ducks and the dog laughs, [i]you can get it,[/i] and the Revmote will emulate a gun controller pretty well. If you missed a couple of Zeldas, go ahead and download them. It won't cost much.

Do I think this strategy is going to work? Hell if I know. What I do know is that by saying that games are too complicated and need a serious change, they're alienating the people who are proven to buy video games. It's obvious to me who they should be marketing to-- me. What I see in the Rev is not a perfect casual system-- it's the perfect second system. You buy your PS3 or X360 to play new FPS, and Madden, and franchise games and such, and you buy an inexpensive Rev to play first-party Nintendo titles (which are going to be the only ones to make good use of the remote anyway) and download old games. The only things they need to do to ensure sales to people like me (assuming, for a second, that I'm not going to buy one just on the principle of it being a new system, which I'm really trying not to do anymore) are:

-Nintendo franchises. Duh. Whatever controller they use, a Nintendo system needs Mario and Zelda. Oh, and Pokemon.

-Super-obscure downloadable games. Yeah, I know I'm going to be able to download first-party hits from the ages. But what about obscure stuff? Japanese games? Power Pad games? Color a Dinosaur? I had better be able to buy shit I've never heard of. I've played Punch-Out before, guys.

And that's it. Do that and you have the potential to get everybody, from hardcore gamers who want to hate Nintendo for innovation to people who watched their kids play Excitebike for a few minutes. But hey, Nintendo? You really want money? Do this:

-Open development. Let us write our own Rev games and put them up for free download. Instant internet priapism.

I guess I sort of got away from the topic of the controller, and talked about market analysis for some reason. Mostly that I forgot all the examples I had come up with of neat things to do with the Revolution controller. I had a lot. Uh, I mean, let's discuss some possibilities in the comments thread!

HAPPY GAMES ONLY

2005-12-13T01:08:00.000-08:00

It's late, and I'm kind of tired, but I wanted to draw your attention to the BLUE SKY IN GAMES banner in my links area. Talking about Jet Set Radio yesterday reminded me of this 'campaign' on UK Resistance which is worth reading and pretty funny. It makes some valid points-- for example, that people should stop making dark, gritty games about being a street criminal, because they're stupid and ugly and not fun. Just don't make the mistake of taking it seriously, like too many people on message boards have. It's the internet, people. Don't take anything seriously, unless it's a completely unfounded rumor about how awful the government is. Those are all totally true.

Seriously, though, look at some OutRun 2 screenshots and tell me the world isn't an okay place to live. At least the beautiful world inside your TV where you race your Ferrari along perfect beaches to impress your girlfriend, who apparently has a thing for crazy-ass driving.

(Full disclosure: I am really quite terrible at OutRun 2. I convinced myself I had to have it earlier this year when it dropped to $20, and I've barely cracked it because I am bad at it. This is a shameful revelation about my skill(z), and I hope you understand just how hard it is for me to open up like this and reveal personal details about myself.)

No uki-uki-waku-waku feelings here

2005-12-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the new blog.

As usual, the titlebar, etc. will rotate, but I wanted to start out with something very upbeat and happy-looking, and for me, there are few things that say 'upbeat' like Jet Set Radio. It might just be because it happened to come out during a happy period in my life, but I don't think so. I think the game, on its own, just exudes a jubilant, celebratory attitude toward (fictional Japanese) life (on the street) that always affects me positively. Just look at that blue sky! I mean, this game is about kids who skate around town grinding on rails and tagging walls for basically no other reason than fun. Even when the motherfucking police are rolling out tanks to kill them, they're still doing Backslides and Misty Flips and spraying big, colorful tags. The whole time, relentlessly catchy music is playing over the pirate radio station for whom the game is named.

A lot of people play games as escapism, and there really isn't a better game to play for that purpose than JSR. My experience is that I just feel better when I play it. How could a game be any more perfect than that?

I wanted that perfect, escapist, happy feeling to be here too. I stole happiness from Sega.

(I'm sort of disappointed with this first entry, but if I think of better/more things to say about Jet Set Radio later, I will in a new post. I'm not going to stop myself from posting like I normally would! HAPPY BLOG, HAPPY POSTS)

JC!