A short post, compared to my last monstrosity. I think I've realized what my album for this summer is. Last summer, I had two, Let's Get Out of This Country, by Camera Obscura, and Strawberry Jam, by Animal Collective. I don't always keep up with new releases, and can connect to albums almost a year or more after the fact. this summer's album is a clear example of that.

69 Love Songs, by The Magnetic Fields!!!

I had listened to it previously, but the full greatness only hit me earlier this summer, where it has been in heavy rotation ever since. I'll probably always identify this time with this album. So the choice seemed simple.

Tonight was quite the fun night. My roommate and friend has been out of the country in Europe(he went to Britian and Berlin for those interested) and he finally got back in town. Both of us are not the most social of types; most people will have 2 or 3 good friends, we only really are good friends with each other. We have other friends, but not as close as we are. I've realized how much I missed the dynamic that we have with each other. Ahh, what fun.

BUT I DIGRESS!!! We went out on the town in Kansas City tonight, driving around and catching up with each other about things. The night out was mainly as a belated birthday gift for his girlfriend, who had had her 21 birthday while he was away. She fancies herself an amatuer drummer, so he got her a new drumming part(I'm not a drummer, and was poor at remembering what did what. A snare, right?) He took her out for a meal in the mexican neighborhood her in town, then took her to a casino.(she wanted to see how sad they are for herself) We then went back to her place for a while to relax.

BUT I DIGRESS!!! It was wierd to take such a long break from playing games. my friend is not a fan of video games at all, outside of uber casual games like breakout, or mario party. We had a stint where we played a lot of mario kart, but thaqt was weird for him. Anyways... so naturally, with not as many people to really interest me and take up my time, I started spending more game time than usual. so to spend a whole day back on par with having only two or three hours of games was a little strange.

BUT I DIGRESS!!! ...wait what was I digressing to? Was that in the topic? Wait, let me check. ..... Damn, nothing about digressing, or what I'm digressing to for that matter. Hmmmm.. You know, It'ld be nice if the topic line actually sort of represented what this was about, in a fun and clever way that's not often seen in blog entries. It would be amusing whilst saying exactly what the writing was about. They would no immediatly whether the blog topic was of anything of interest to them, while being intrigued if interested to know more.

BUT I DIGRESS!!!I know that digress is a verb, but is a physical action to represent it? Can you go through the act of digressing? Wait, yeah, you can. And there are a lot of verbs that are non physical. What a stupid thing to regress to. ....Wordplay. Ahh how I love. Wait, was that wordplay?

BUT I DIGRESS!!! I still don't feel like I've caught up with the new games that are coming out, ever since I missed E3. I feel like all of the news and talk are about games that I know nothing about. I'm sort of afraid this way, something I care about might be released and forgotten about without me knowing about it. And I'll miss it completely. Or maybe it's just that all news and talk are about things that I care nothing about.

BUt I DIGRESS!!!(In which I digress to the Dimension Of Digressing, where everything is perpetually and always in the act of digressing, where digressing spirals onward into an infinite state of digressing, the endless stairwell of digression, where statements move endlessly forward towards being on topic, yet never reach it) Wait, whaaaaaaat?

BUT I DIGRESS!!! So yeah, uh, exhausted jokes and everything aside, I've been playing FF9 and am almost done with it. This replay actually surprised me. The story was way more character based than I had previously thought that it was. Character based stories are always better than stories that are plot based. Character stories are different than plot based stories. Character stories fill stories with character based moments that, while not important for the overall plot of the story. For example, in FF9, there is no plot reason to have the subplot with Vivi and the black mages realizing that they will die. It has no acuall bearing on the main story as a whole. It creates density for the character of Vivi. We emotions and reactions that we can relate to. This moment has an effect on only the character. Of course this change elicits a character response from Zidane, which builds upon his character, so that when a plot moment later changes him,(again, in way that we can understand) and he turns against, and insults Vivi, it has an added weight behind it. You see, the best stories weave the two together.

BUT I DIGRESS!!! -sigh- Okay, so this blog post is a little epic in length? Well, what was I supposed to do? It's late and I'm unable to go to sleep. I already skimmed the main forums, looking for something that may interest me.(I found little; one thing you can count on: the Gamespot forums to have less interesting topics than dumb ones) I checked out all of the news I could. I'm bored, unable to sleep, really want to right something, a little baked, and have tons of summer blog thoughts that I wasn't able to get out. What would you do?

I'm trying to finish my ULTIMATE FINAL FANTASY REPLAY MARATHON that I started a while back. Sure, I took a break to do some other things, but I'm finall going to try to finish. The ULTIMATE FINAL FANTASY REPLAY MARATHON was my mission to try to replay many of the FFs that I haven't played in a while, and/or feel are significant to the series. I started with FF4, moved on to FF5, then to FFX-2, back to FFX,onto FF7, and finishing with FF9. I finished FF4 and FF5, then took a long break, which is why I started over at FFX-2. Currently I'm on FF7, and hope to have it done within the next few days. I excluded FF6 and FF8 because they are my favorite entries in the series, and have replayed them so much that I know almost every scene.

I was most excited to replay FF7, since it has been many years since I last played it. I always avoided it, mainly because of the praise and adoration it recieved that I felt was better deserved by other entries in the series, mainly FF8 and FF6. There was a bit of a brief spell there for a while when anytime Cloud won in a best character vote or something like that, I actually got upset. That went away, and replaying it again now only lifts that feeling more. The game understands that all good stories must have interesting, complex characters, and for the most part, it relays emotions and feelings honestly, without feeling exploitative, cheap, or cheesy. (I'm looking at you FFX).

I still like other FFs better, and I'm getting excited about playing FF9 again. It's the most unjustly forgotten FF. When people talk about FF you never hear them say how great Zidane was, do you? But unlike FF2, FF3, or FF5, this game was released post FF7, when the FF craze really exploded. I guess people were just looking for another FF7(or for me, another FF8).

Anyways, FF9, was meant to be the end of the ULTIMATE FINAL FANTASY REPLAY MARATHON, but replaying all of them really makes the evolution of the series(or de-evolution from FFX onward) and the recurring themes. I particularly feel like trying FF1 again. So I'll do that. Unless I get sidetracked.

Just going to give a quick update before I start properly making posts again in the next two weeks. I took a break because Gamespot pissed me off(see previous post), but I've started to miss just talking about what I'm doing and how I feel about it, games and otherwise. so a return to posts. Yay!

Also, I decided to smoke some weed and play Shadow of the Collosus the other day. i spent about fourty minutes just riding around on my horse exploring. God that game is kick ass.

I did have this long blog post about jedi power battles, and how I started liking heroes, only to start not liking it a week later. But for some reason, Gamespot decided that it would be nice to log me out right after I pressed the submit button. so you won't be hearing these thoughts. Instead you will hear this:

F*CK YOU GAMESPOT

this is not a real blog, just some links to some games.

http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/downloads

www.avclub.com/articles/violet-and-everybody-dies,17091/?utm_source=search_results

http://tale-of-tales.com/TheGraveyard

http://www.hemispheregames.com/osmos

http://www.mazapan.se/games/BurnTheRope.php

www.avclub.com/articles/today-i-die,28039/?utm_source=channel_games

http://ifcomp.org

many of these links are to articles that have links to the games included. At the IFComp website, you have to download the games, then download the programs to runthem. Instructions are included on the site. Shouldn't be too confusing.

I myself particularly like Today I Die and Everybody Dies. I just started playing Nightfall and I'm finding it pretty fun too.

As the title states, my PS2 is up and running again. Now i just wish that I had some new games to play on it. maybe if I have enough money, I'll be able to get Devil Summoner 2 later this month. sure I haven't finished the first one, but maybe getting a sequel will inspire me to get my ass in gear. this whole PS2 inoperable thing has really messed up my gaming. I'm not finishing Nocturne. Instead, I'm replaying Beyond Good and Evil, mainly just for that really cheesy moment where the citizens of the town yell, "Revolution!". Seriously, I laughed out loud at that when I first played that game. I mean, come on! What, did some junior high kid write that? Revolutions don't happen like that. If the game hadn't been fun to play, that game would have gone on the shelf for a good while.

As the title states, I am also currently watching(heh heh, get it? ...what no Buffy fans here?) Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. i just finished the fourth season of Buffy two days ago, and started watching Angel last night. Buffy is a good show, but i don't really know what to think about Angel yet. I'm only three episodes in. so we'll see. Buffy is good, though. i got a little antsy during the first season, but the show definately started picking up towards the end of the second. It's all good. Essentially though, this is all just a way of biding time until the last season of Battlestar Gallactica comes out on DVD. -sigh- I love you BSG.....

That's about it for this post. In some last notes, I'm currently doing a writing experiment on Twitter. I'm trying to write a story, one Tweet at a time. so far I'm liking how this is going so far. If you're interested and want to follow me, my name over there is johnknolling.

Ta!

So yeah, I finally got enough extra money to afford a new game. As the title states, I decided to go with Dragon Quest 4 on the DS. I think some old school RPGing was exactly what I needed. I don't regret choosing it. I'm trying not to obsessively play it, to make the game last. But it's hard, especially since my PS2 is currently out of operations.

Here's the story: about 3 months ago, I loaned my PS2 to my sister because she wanted to play Persona 4. I give it to her for about two weeks. After I get it back and set it up, the picture won't show up on the TV. So I examine itnotice a small cut on the audio/video cable, which goes down into the wire. I tape it up and it works, with picture occasionally going in and out. About a week ago it decided to go out for good. So need a new A/V cable. There's a game store downtown here in Lawrence that I know sells them, but I don't have the extra cash for it. Unfortunately, this happened after I got my DQ game. So the PS2 is out for the time being. On a side note, my sister denies that she caused the cut, saying that it was already there. I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but I have no proof that she caused it.

It's not too bad having the PS2 out though. I just fill that gaming time with TV shows on DVD. I'm back in the thick of it, getting at least two shows a week from the library. As stated in the title, the show I'm currently watching is Lost.(well, I'm also doing Battlestar Gallactica, but I'm using my sister's netflix account for that, so I don't have to wait. I'm so gald I made her a fan) The best word I think to describe Lost is: BLAND. It's just very bland. The mystery and suspense elements are grade A, but how hard is it to do those kind of things well? I could name other shows that do mystery/suspense well.(Carnivale comes to mind) Everything else in the show comes off as being very so-so. They try to create a lot of character moments, but the all end up feeling very contrived; done only in an effort to advance their own mythology, instead of letting the characters change on their own. I wouldn't call Lost a bad show, mainly just mediocre. I don't watch it and hate it, at least not yet.

Anyways, that's about all a got at the current moment. I'm going to call My sister to see when she's coming down to watch BSG, and while I wait I'm going to play some DQ and listen to the new Camera Obscura album. Good Day.

F**k Aerosmith. F**k AC/DC. The Guitar Hero/Rock Band game they should make should be for The Killers. That would be the BEST. I'm not a huge Killers fan in real life, but they are the best to play in a video game.

Anyways.... I seem to have lost my phone, which makes me completely disconnected from the outside world. My roommate went to Chicago, so I have no way to talk to anyone. It's weird how just taking away one thing can make you all alone.

About a week and a half ago, me and my friend nick decided to hang out and get a little drunk. We watched some TV, played some games, it was fun. Then he decided to enter 'pathetic mode' by taking a bunch of xanax and passing out. It was really sad to watch, trust me. Anyways, I was still awake, and I decided it would be fun to write some stream of consciousness stuff, mainly thinking about how it would be fun for my non-drunk mind to read later. I just read it last night, and, well... I think I was a lot more drunk than I thought I was at the time. I don't have it on me, but I'll put it up as my next post, spelling errors and all.

It's only four days until the Bonnie Prince Billy show! I've been a pretty big fan of his for a while now, and I've been excited about this show ever since I heard he was coming to Lawrence almost 2 months ago. I hope I'm not setting my expectations too high with this one... He has a new album out, but I haven't listened to it yet. I;'m not too worried about that. I had heard Los Campesinos' second album when I went and saw them, and they still were great.

WFMU had their pledgemarathon a couple of weeks back, and as a fan and supporter of free-form radio, I pledged some dough. Each of the shows on the station offered various bonus packs of stuff for donating, and I chose The Best Show Pack, which includes an exclusive Scharpling and Wurster CD, and a version of Paul McCartneys album RAM with various artists covering the songs, like Death Cab for Cutie, Ted Leo, and Aimee Mann. Exciting stuff.

well, onward and upward I guess.

Spring is finally starting to arrive; and about time I say. Don't get me wrong, I love winter. But I also love going outside for more than an hour without feeling like I'm going to die. So I'm glad spring is here. The only thing bad about spring is the fact that I know summer is next. I hate summer, and for this one, I think I'm going to stay inside and not leave unless I plan on submerging myself in water. Ughh... Just thinking about summer is getting me down.

I finished the new addition in Persona 3: FES. It really added something and finished a story that I always thought kind of left you hanging. So it was nice. I've started in on SMT: Nocturne, which is beating my ass. Hard. Oh, but I love it. Hard games like this aren't the norm these days. So it's fun to play. It's playingRPG's like these that really make me see how easy Final Fantasy games have become. In Nocturne, you have to think about every battle you enter. Every fight is a life or death matter, which really fits the mood of the game. In FF, all the battles outside of boss fights are pretty easy.

This doesn't mean I hate FF though. I'm just saying that it doesn't have any balls.

I need to get my hands on season 3 of BSG....