Lost Odyssey April 4, 2008

I finally finished Lost Odyssey last night, after 70 hours! It is very similar to a Final Fantasy game, especially considering that it was produced by the creator of the original Final Fantasy. It was also scored by Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu. Just those two facts alone convinced us to buy the game, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The similarities to a Final Fantasy made it very easy to play, and the skill learning system added a nice twist. The most original part of the game is the 1000 Years of Dreams. I’ve seen most game reviews focus on the dreams as a negative, but I thought the dreams were a beautiful addition. They were completely text with just music in the background, but the tales were moving… quite a few made me cry.

If you’re a fan of Japanese RPGs, I highly recommend Lost Odyssey — if you have 100 hours or so to spare!

Man vs. Rooster March 31, 2008

Last night we put Shaun of the Dead on and settled in for a nice, relaxing zombie movie. Suddenly there was a loud sound from my left, just outside the window, which I assumed was the surround sound picking up a zombie noise. My, I thought, that’s realistic! That sounds just like a zombie at the window! B looked at me and told me that he thought that actually came from outside. We walked to the back door and flipped the light, and a rooster standing on the porch stared at us like a… rooster in porch lights.

We’d actually heard the rooster crowing the morning before so it wasn’t too much of a shock. I wanted to let him do his rooster thing and he would leave the yard eventually, but B decided to take matters into his own hands. He picked up a golf club and stepped into the backyard. B then grabbed the cover to the firepit (covered in soot, mind you) to use as his shield. Brandishing his sword and his shield, he charged.

I had no idea roosters could run that fast!

He eventually chased it out of the yard and down the street. Although I have a mental picture of him screaming and waving his golf club, in reality he just calmly after it. I like my mental image better than reality… that’s often the case, though.

We went back to the movie finally and went to bed. I was a little worried about having nightmares about zombie roosters, but the night passed without visions of undead fowls scratching at the bad door. Okay, wait, I don’t like that mental picture better than reality. I take it back.

New Frontier March 28, 2008

Last night we got to watch Justice League: New Frontier on BluRay. It wasn’t quite what I expected but I thought it was good! It’s always odd to hear a different voice for Batman (Kevin Conroy is just so perfect), but all of the actors were fantastic. If you’re not familiar with the DC universe, this might be a good movie to start with.

Trip to San Diego March 17, 2008

At the beginning of March, I flew out to San Diego for work to hang out with Star Wars Galaxies players. Here’s the write-up on the official SWG web site that I put together.

I was so hoping that I wouldn’t get seasick on the whale-watching trip! But when the boat stopped to stalk the whale, the rocking up and down finally got me. Urp! Thankfully I didn’t throw up, but I sure wasn’t any fun to be around. Coyote of Ten Ton Hammer took extra care to talk to us while we were sick, pretending to not notice the shade of green we were slowing turning.

The trip really was a lot of fun. We stayed in a super swanky hotel; in fact, I am positive that place is full of the most swank I have ever seen. I hope the players had as much fun as we did!

Rock March 16, 2008

Last night we went to a friend’s house for dinner. We were asked to bring along a Rock Band guitar as we were planning on rocking out a little after dinner. On the way we were talking about which instrument we would play, as neither B or I have ever tried the drums. (And we’ve had Rock Band since it came out!)

When it was time to play, it turned out that the other couple didn’t play the guitars, so to our delight our rock band was created perfectly. I wonder if that’s a new sign of compatibility with new friends?

“So, which instrument do you play?”

“Bass guitar.”

“Sorry, we already have a bass guitar player… if only you sang, we might have been good friends.”

I also completed my first song on Expert last night. But I do play the bass, and it was just the song Creep, so I don’t know if that counts!

Why not? March 13, 2008

For a little while I’ve been trying to come up with reasons to keep a blog. Why should I post about my boring life on the Internet? Presumably for someone else to read, right? I put off creating a blog, but many times after I had fun with something or another, I found myself wishing that I had some place to share it. So I decided to stop worrying about the why and just go ahead and start one. We’ll see how long the whim lasts.

Not only did I wrestle with the question of starting a blog for a while, it also took me a couple of days to just come up with a title. Original, isn’t it? I am historically bad at coming up with names. It took me literally days to decide on my forum handle for work. I have the same problem with character names in games. Thank goodness for random name generators.

Anyway, if you’re reading this, I appreciate it. I hope it doesn’t end up to be a bad way to spend your time or my time. Enjoy!