I'd love to read my book right now. But I can't concentrate on anything. All I can think about is how tomorrow is Election Day and it could very well be the beginning of the end. I have been absolutely dreading tomorrow. If it wasn't for the fact that I don't think I could stand anymore of this campaign business, I'd wish tomorrow would never come. But it will and some juvenile wish won't stop the Earth from continuing its orbit and revolution. I just cannot find solitude this night. I won't at any time tomorrow. And if things go as they have been predicted for weeks now, I won't be able to sleep well again for at least the next four years. Joy.

Below is my last ditch effort to convince some of you that - to be completely blunt - you might be making a huge mistake. I apologize if you find that slightly offensive, but I'm too anxious and scared to care.

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Article Numero Cuatro

The idea for today's post came to me on my way home from work this morning. They are in no particular order. Let the battles commence.

1. Still More Fighting - Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

I say we start off this list with a BANG. There was no doubt in my mind that this theme would make it onto the list. In fact, it consistently makes it onto a list like this whether or not I'm commenting on someone else's similar list in their blog or on the forums, or in course of RL conversation. It's such a great boss theme. You get emotionally involved with the battles. That's primarily because of the excellent story, which pulls you in and makes you feel for the characters. It also helps that the theme is just plain bad***.

2. Force Your Way - Final Fantasy VIII (PS1)

Bad***, a word I can use to describe most of these boss themes. But what's notable is that I can use it to describe yet another FF boss theme. I have to say...this one is even better than the FF7 one because a) it's excellent to drive to and b) the percussion is freakin' addictive to air drum along to, let alone attempt to play on a real set. This song is one of the big reasons why I decided to get the OST, sans internet download.

3. Boss Theme - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie (SNES)

I wonder how many of you have ever heard this boss theme before now. If not, then I'm glad I got to introduce you to it. This is another excellent song to drive to and another great song to air drum. It makes the boss battles epic, feels like it works with the whole Power Ranger vibe, and best of all, is just plain awesome when it stands alone, out of context. Would you think it came from a Power Ranger game if you heard it coming out of someone's laptop/iPod?

4. Rockin' On - Mega Man ZX (DS)

For years, I'd maintained the impression that the music from Mega Man 7 and Mega Man X was epic beyond imagination, and then I heard this song, from a Mega Man game for the DS released years later after all the mediocre Battle Network games and such, and I could not believe that Capcom was still capable of creating super awesome tracks for their Blue Bomber's primary platforming series. I mean, the entire soundtrack is flawless. I didn't think that would ever happen again for a Mega Man game. This particular track is all kinds of outstanding. It's frenetic and catchy and very much deserving to be on this list, if not simply because it's been played on my iPod like 30 times.

5. Koopa - Yoshi's Island (SNES)

The entire game was stellar. You fought your way through ingenious level designs, defeated eleven creatively clever and challenging bosses, and now you're about to face Bowser Jr., phase two. I don't think anyone could have been prepared for the epicness that was to reveal itself in that final boss battle the first time around. I know that personally I was awed by it. It was the craziest boss fight I'd ever fought in a Mario game, and a few of the bosses that came before it in Yoshi's Island itself had previously taken that title. The music, quite frankly, made me freak out. I was so jumpy. I think I was shaking after the battle a little bit the first time. It was just so overwhelmingly grand, for lack of a better word.

6. Gangplank Galleon - Donkey Kong Country (SNES)

The DKC soundtrack features a lot of outstanding tracks, but none really come close to this one, the song that plays during the final battle against K. Rool aboard his pirate ship. The intro, is awesome. The bass, is awesome. The melody, is awesome. The tone of the song, is awesome. The dropping cannonballs, were really awesome. This song was a shoe-in for the list, hands down. It's impossible to not like this song.

7. The Brink of Death - Chrono Cross (PS1)

I would cl@ssify this boss theme as "subtly outstanding". It serves its purpose well, but isn't something I'd exactly call "addictive" or "epic" or "catchy". However, the sound quality and the instrumental layers make it great. The tribal chanting helps big time, as well. Ever since the game first came out, that's been my favorite part of the boss theme. I would always look forward to it while the song played during an actual boss fight...and shout along with it. My brother also.

8. Non-Impact Boss Theme - Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64)

I love this game. How many of you even know about this game? It's always felt like some obscure, massively unpopular game that my brother happened to pick up because he liked the box art (I don't remember renting it or getting interested in it via a spread in an issue of Nintendo Power). But we both grew to absolutely adore this little gem of a game, and its music was a huge part of the growing affection. It's catchy and fun and gets stuck in my head way more than should be considered legal. It's practically invasion of my mental control, haha. :P

9. Level 5-3 Transforming Cube Machine boss - Jumping Flash (PS1)

[FYI, you only need to watch the first three minutes of the video, as the rest of it is the level after that (I apologize for the play-by-play narrations, but I couldn't find any other video of the song).]
I have very fond memories of this game. It's the very first PS1 game I laid my eyes on. I've never officially owned it, though I currently possess my cousin's copy from 1995, the same copy that introduced me to the PS1. The game may be simple and short, but it's fun, and the music is great. Though all the boss themes are good, I feel this one's the best. It's another goodie for the road and it's especially fun to hum along to.

10. All three boss themes from Super Mario RPG (SNES): (Fight Against a Somewhat Stronger Monster, Fight Against an Armed Boss, Fight Against Smithy)

I could not pick just one here. They're all boss themes, after all. Why segregate? SMRPG was my very first RPG. As such, these songs are held dear. I can still vividly remember my frantic search for the calculator each time I entered a boss fight. You see, as I'd never experienced Hit Points before, it was very new and frightening to me. I was used to the life bars of games like MMPR The Movie or OHKO platformers like DKC. As this was my first foray into dealing with HP, I would actually keep track of the bosses' current HP with a calculator. My brother would help. One of us would be playing and shouting out loud how much damage had been dealt that turn while the other would be subtracting the damage on the calculator. This was especially helpful when the boss would begin a new phase or attack pattern after dropping below a certain amount of HP. It sounds absolutely silly and adorable to me now, but it's how I got through SMRPG. When, months later, I was introduced to my second RPG, FFVII, I had already graduated from the calculator HP-monitoring. But now you see why these particular songs from the SMRPG soundtrack possess such sentimentality. Boss battles were a fight against a calculator, a tug of war match where I always hoped the calculator would hit 0 - or some negative number (when I had no idea what a negative number was) - before my three characters did.

And that's all, folks! If you want to bring to light your own favorites, please do so. I'd love to hear about them, and hear them too (Youtube is so great for stuff like this)!

DISCLAIMER: Toadster101 recently wrote a very brief blog post relating to next week's Presidential election. I left a comment there stating that I've been thinking of doing the same - though perhaps with a longer length - for weeks now but was afraid of the possible reactions and such. Well, I've decided to go ahead and do it anyway. Since September, my dad has been kind enough to keep me informed via email, sending me at least two articles per day about McCain, Obama, the election in general, and/or any other goings-on in the election. I thought I'd share two of the most recent ones with you all. They pretty much say what I would say in my own words and express how I feel. You don't have to read them if you don't want to, of course, but that is why I've left links, instead of copying and pasting the articles' text right here in plain view. You can avoid experiencing any kind of reaction if you don't want to. Whether or not you've already made up your mind, I feel that everyone should read the articles. Worst case scenario, you change your mind about who you're voting for. Best case scenario, you feel more strongly about the decision you've made one way or the other.

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P.S. In case you were wondering, I will be voting for John McCain.
P.S.S. Please no childish thumbing up or down, and please don't put down others or myself if they/I don't agree with you. To tell you the honest truth, early on, I was still going back and forth between the two candidates, and I watched all the debates and all the National Convention coverage I could get my hands on in both cases. I do not base my vote on the comparative physical appearance or personality of the candidates in question. In other words, I take this particular Constitutional right of mine very seriously.

I wonder how many of you noticed something was different with my page the moment you came to read this blog post. Do you see the changes now? Yup, I ditched the monkeys. In their place, I've chosen an awesome, albeit condensed, pic of the Rebel fleet advancing on the first Death Star from the base at Yavin Four. Pretty cool, I think.

This morning, I rasterbated a picture of Luke from ROTJ. Yes, you read correctly. I wasn't being profane. I love this site. I used it once before, last November, to make a poster for my brother's room out of the front cover art for Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions. It takes up most of that particular wall. This one just takes up most of my closet doors. But it's still awesome! I played a neat trick in order to make the source picture more dramatic. You can barely notice the point at which they touch, but using Microsoft Picture Manager and Paint, I was able to fuse a cropped colored pic of just the lightsaber with a cropped black and white pic of just Luke. Both smaller pics came from the same big one...I just made the changes and saved each as a new picture. Photo courtesy of Wookieepedia, Luke Skywalker's bio.

HUGE announcement I just found out about. I never played the second game and only briefly dabbled in the first, but this is just epic.

Looks like I may not be finished with MMOs after all.

Tonight, I finished book #11 of the NJO series.

It was such a great book. Not that any NJO book I've read so far hasn't been great, but this one was funny. Really funny. It had lots of humorous bits in it, and it's actually the first book in the series thus far to actually be this lighthearted. Serious stuff is still going down, but the mood and tone were not as dark and depressing as they have been. It was a very nice change. I'm certainly looking forward to the next book, Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand, and generally speaking, I'm really looking forward to reading the other SW novels written by Aaron Allston. This was the first one I've come across, and it was excellent.

Changing the subject, has anybody else seen this? Holy Christmas, can you believe that this game is coming out for the DS? I sure couldn't, especially from those graphics. Kinda makes you wonder why all 3D DS games haven't been made to look as good. Why must we settle for crappy 3D when provided any 3D? Simply put, Square Enix continues to show that save for Nintendo, the first party itself, it is the only company that has shown itself capable of making consistently remarkable 3D DS games. Overall, this upsets me only because I ache for a quality Star Wars game on the handheld and have only found such a thing in Lego SW: TCS.

The Breaking Point

I don't know how many of you visit Penny Arcade, but this webcomic was too good not to share with all of you. You all know by now how much of a fan I am of Star Wars. This comic was really funny to me. Literal LOL funny :lol:.

I've already sent a link of it to both my parents, my brother, my best friend who also loves Star Wars, and my "older brother" cousin, complete with instructions to "please smack me really hard across the face" if it ever appears that I have gotten that bad.:|

First off, I want to give all credit to my GS friend, chocolate1325, for the idea behind this post. I thought it was such a great topic for a post that I grew curious to find out what my own group of GS friends would say.

The question is: What, if any, video games have made you shed a few tears, perhaps even to the extent of all-out bawling?

As far as Im concerned, I have no problem admitting that I'm a sensitive guy. Movies have made me cry (ex: the Jedi Purge scene from SW Episode III), as have several books, the latter four Harry Potter books and some Star Wars books, just to name a few. Sometimes it's just a few tears sliding down my face. Other times (well, the only time I remember doing this, actually), I've had to actually put the book down so I could sob with tissues at hand for a few minutes (guess which book I'm referring to and you win a cookie). When it comes to video games, not much is different. The storylines in games these days can have very serious tones and themes, include heart-wrenching moments, and be so complex and involved that you can't help but feel for the characters and feel like you know them and maybe even believe they could be real, somehow. How is this different from the characters in movies and books? It isn't.

So which video games have made me shed a few tears and cause me to have to take some time to compose myself after turning the console off? Here they are:

1. Final Fantasy VII - I'm pretty sure everyone at least shed one tear when they first witnessed this scene. Most are just too proud to admit it. But as this was my first hardcore RPG (I'd only played SMRPG before it), I was completely unprepared and I definitely shed a few tears. The part of this scene that really made me tear up was when Cloud is yelling at Sephiroth and the battle that ensues. How totally smart of Square to have an epic battle whilst Aeris' now-saddening theme plays in the background. It doesn't make me cry anymore, but I remember that first time when it did.

2. Chrono Cross - At times, the storyline confused the heck out of me, but by the end, I was engrossed whether I fully understood what was going on or not. When I went up against Lavos for the first time, I made sure to get the good ending. The song that plays during the credits gets to me each time I hear it, regardless of the context. Especially the part at the end of the song when the vocalists are just harmonizing. Does the context even provide sufficient grounds for tears? I still don't know, but that doesn't change the fact the song makes me tear up.

3. Legend of Dragoon - After a long, thoroughly engaging story and adventure, it comes to a close in epic fashion. It came as a complete shock to both my brother and I that Rose and Zieg sacrificed themselves. Again, it came down to the song. The FMV shocked me and blew me away, and then the song let me release the emotions. I didn't cry, but I'm pretty sure a tear or two fell. It took me a long while to compose myself after that final scene of the two Dragoon spirits. My brother, too.

4. Super Mario RPG - My very first RPG. Needless to say, I loved it from start to finish and was very wrapped up in the characters and the story. I could not believe they made games that were so long (consider that the other games I was playing were all platformers like SMW and DKC2). When it was finally over, it hit me hard. My favorite character went back to being a spirit. We got to see happy endings all over the world. They hosted an awesome (and sometimes humorous) parade. The parade allowed me to recover, but I know I had tears running down my face from the previous two parts. After the ending concluded, I remember I sat there with the game on the main screen for a looong time. And then I remember being really upset, practically mad, that my favorite character went away (I guess I didn't understand that Geno was always a spirit from Star Road) while my brother's favorite character, Mallow, "got to live". By the end of the day, I was okay though, and the game quickly became an all-time favorite of mine. To this day, however, whenever I hear that song from the Star Road montage (which is often enough, since I have the soundtrack on my laptop), I tear up. It's simply because I remember the great journey (especially the first time through) and the ending that wrapped it up. P.S. You cannot honestly tell me that any of the Paper Mario, or Mario and Luigi games, or even that new Sonic RPG compare even remotely to SMRPG. You may love them, but they're not in the same league, not by a long shot.

This might be a really lame excuse for a blog post, but I just felt like doing this. Below are pics showing my entire Star Wars novel collection. I got around to organizing it last week, so now it's really easy for me to find particular books. The last of my NJO collection came in the mail this past Saturday. :D

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Paperbacks (in chronological order; top to bottom, left to right)

Hardcovers (in chronological order; top to bottom, left to right)

Film novelizations and Essential Guides

Currently reading

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P.S. Yes, that's a Jedi Academy shotglass. I got it at Walt Disney World two summers ago. And yes, that's a lightsaber mini-replica. It's of Obi Wan's lightsaber from Episode III. Aaaand yeah, you gotta love that fingerprint-covered black DS Lite. No need for an upgrade here. 8)