magedragonfire (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
magedragonfire) wrote2007-10-14 09:23 pm
magedragonfire) wrote2007-10-14 09:23 pm
Blahblahblogblah.
I suppose it's been a sufficiently long time since I last blogged! Let's seeeeee.
My month of rest and relaxation (kinda) ended two weeks back. I've since started up at Linmark again - two new girls this round, and two from before (Soccorsa stayed on as a permanent, and Val's back for the temp job as well). I'm no longer the youngest gal in the place - one of the new temps is a year younger than me. Not a shegeek, though, more's the pity. They're both nice enough, though. The job itself is going well so far, although we're not quite back up to the same speed that we were at last year, but that's kind of to be expected. I got graduated to doing the calendar finals though, hehe.
Saw the personal trainer lady, and now I have a nice shiny gym workout to do. It's been going okay, and last week it even stopped hurting the morning after. Yay! Belly dancing has been a lot more fun, though, although I suspect my abs will hurt tomorrow, since we did undulations today.
I've also been going up to campus on Tuesdays to go do swing dancing lessons with Trav. That's also been going okay, although he's been having some problems with the basic/triple step. All the other steps are fine, after some experimentation, but I think it's the beat he's having problems with. I've already got an internal metronome, from years of piano playing and DDR, but. It'll just require practice.
I tell ya, though, being whirled around by the other dudes - they've all got a ton more experience - is a little intimidating. I just kind of do my best to follow along, which is the point, I guess? I'm not really much for being touched by people I don't know, either, which is a bit of a downer, since that's what I end up doing during the lessony bits and when I'm not either helping Trav find his beat or hiding from the dance floor.
Not really much else has happened of late... Although I do find myself impatient for Brawl to come out. Pity it was pushed back 'til February.
I was also thinking, earlier today, about how the whole Final Fantasy series has just gone downhill since VI. VI was awesome - just about everyone agrees on that'un. But then we had VII, which everyone but me seems to love, except I never got into it. The protagonist was a blank slate and emo when he wasn't busy going '...', the villain was a BADASS!!! (yes, in caps) with mommy issues, and none of the supporting characters (except for perhaps Barrett, he was kinda cool) really caught my attention too much. I shrugged at Aeris dying. After a motley, loveable crew facing off against an insane clown who'd actually managed to destroy the world, it was a bit meh. And it was clearly sci-fi, not fantasy. Chocobo breeding was fun, though.
VIII I did like, but it dragged on in places, the draw system was kinda bleh, and I can see how some people might've been turned off by the heavy romance overexaggeration. Still sci-fi, but less so - the sorceresses! I did like the sorceresses. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of the period where the end boss had little connections to the rest of the game - or at least, they were connected, but you didn't have any idea who they were until shortly before you met them.
IX I also liked. It was a return to the fantasy stuff, the crystals were there (kind of), and the protagonist wasn't an emo asshole (except for that one bit in the You're Not Alone scene, but that scene was awesome, so it passes). But it wasn't that popular either, and it also featured an end-boss that just kind of came out of nowhere, even worse than Ultimecia in VIII. (Necron? Seriously, man, where did you come from? I still don't get it.)
X was terrible. The two main characters in the game were unlikeable, the final boss also came out of nowhere (although at least Yu Yevon made more sense than Necron), the airship was gone, the quests to get the final weapons were teethgrinding, and the whole game was a breeze. Gad.
XI I don't count, because it is a MMORPG, and therefore not an RPG and not deserving of being a flagship FF game. I could understand if it was FF-themed, but not part of the actual damn series.
XII I haven't played, although I have heard it's okay. Can't lay judgement on it, though.
And then we come to XIII, which we don't hardly know anything about, other than it's got a female protagonist (I called it at least a year before anyone knew the game was even coming out), the first since VI, really (I do take the view that Terra and Celes shared the honours there). We'll just have to see if Square's learned anything yet.
But of course, I can already answer that - they haven't. When they've not been working on FF games, they've been working on either a) spinoffs that are largely awful (including numerous spinoffs/sequels on FFVII, when they swore they weren't doing any), or b) numerous ports of the old games for numerous platforms. So maybe releasing the older games on a system was okay. The series only got hugely popular after VII, lots of gamers didn't get the chance to play the old ones... Sure. But now they're on the PS1, the GBA, the Wonderswan, the PSP, and now they're doing 3D remakes of them (or at least, IV) on the DS.
BAAAAAH.
Why a and b, though? Because they're all a damn cash cow.
Even so, if they do VI in 3D I'll likely buy it, which means I'll have three copies of the damn game. Sigh.
Thumbs dooooown, Square.
In essence, you stopped being final at least fifteen games ago.
I have also been pondering about how fandom - of all types - scares me. I don't get it. I get being a fan of something. I'm a fan of things. I critique (see above) and discuss and will mention to people if they're talking about a subject "Oh yeah, I liked that, that was neat". However, I don't have a favorite actor/game/band/author. (I do have a favorite book and movie, but they're both The Princess Bride, because that piece of work is clearly unparalleled.)
What I don't get is the kind of people who talk about harming other people because they don't agree with one's chosen pairing, or Big Name Fans, or people who swear they're going to marry/are married to Sephiroth, or emo kids hiding under blankets screaming about Britney Spears or people who hang onto the lives of celebrities in general - I swear, those celeb magazines and shows like Entertainment Tonight make your brain into a pile of mush. Why do they care so damn much about these pieces of fiction? Yes, even the real-world celebs are fiction, don't fool yerselves.
Are our own lives just that unfulfilling?
I dunno. Imagine the power you could wield if you could harness all of fandom, though. Alas, it could never happen - they're too busy tearing each other to pieces at any one time to ever co-operate on any matter. What a waste.
Kinda like religion, isn't it?
'Kay, that's more than enough rambling to make up for a month, yeesh.
My month of rest and relaxation (kinda) ended two weeks back. I've since started up at Linmark again - two new girls this round, and two from before (Soccorsa stayed on as a permanent, and Val's back for the temp job as well). I'm no longer the youngest gal in the place - one of the new temps is a year younger than me. Not a shegeek, though, more's the pity. They're both nice enough, though. The job itself is going well so far, although we're not quite back up to the same speed that we were at last year, but that's kind of to be expected. I got graduated to doing the calendar finals though, hehe.
Saw the personal trainer lady, and now I have a nice shiny gym workout to do. It's been going okay, and last week it even stopped hurting the morning after. Yay! Belly dancing has been a lot more fun, though, although I suspect my abs will hurt tomorrow, since we did undulations today.
I've also been going up to campus on Tuesdays to go do swing dancing lessons with Trav. That's also been going okay, although he's been having some problems with the basic/triple step. All the other steps are fine, after some experimentation, but I think it's the beat he's having problems with. I've already got an internal metronome, from years of piano playing and DDR, but. It'll just require practice.
I tell ya, though, being whirled around by the other dudes - they've all got a ton more experience - is a little intimidating. I just kind of do my best to follow along, which is the point, I guess? I'm not really much for being touched by people I don't know, either, which is a bit of a downer, since that's what I end up doing during the lessony bits and when I'm not either helping Trav find his beat or hiding from the dance floor.
Not really much else has happened of late... Although I do find myself impatient for Brawl to come out. Pity it was pushed back 'til February.
I was also thinking, earlier today, about how the whole Final Fantasy series has just gone downhill since VI. VI was awesome - just about everyone agrees on that'un. But then we had VII, which everyone but me seems to love, except I never got into it. The protagonist was a blank slate and emo when he wasn't busy going '...', the villain was a BADASS!!! (yes, in caps) with mommy issues, and none of the supporting characters (except for perhaps Barrett, he was kinda cool) really caught my attention too much. I shrugged at Aeris dying. After a motley, loveable crew facing off against an insane clown who'd actually managed to destroy the world, it was a bit meh. And it was clearly sci-fi, not fantasy. Chocobo breeding was fun, though.
VIII I did like, but it dragged on in places, the draw system was kinda bleh, and I can see how some people might've been turned off by the heavy romance overexaggeration. Still sci-fi, but less so - the sorceresses! I did like the sorceresses. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of the period where the end boss had little connections to the rest of the game - or at least, they were connected, but you didn't have any idea who they were until shortly before you met them.
IX I also liked. It was a return to the fantasy stuff, the crystals were there (kind of), and the protagonist wasn't an emo asshole (except for that one bit in the You're Not Alone scene, but that scene was awesome, so it passes). But it wasn't that popular either, and it also featured an end-boss that just kind of came out of nowhere, even worse than Ultimecia in VIII. (Necron? Seriously, man, where did you come from? I still don't get it.)
X was terrible. The two main characters in the game were unlikeable, the final boss also came out of nowhere (although at least Yu Yevon made more sense than Necron), the airship was gone, the quests to get the final weapons were teethgrinding, and the whole game was a breeze. Gad.
XI I don't count, because it is a MMORPG, and therefore not an RPG and not deserving of being a flagship FF game. I could understand if it was FF-themed, but not part of the actual damn series.
XII I haven't played, although I have heard it's okay. Can't lay judgement on it, though.
And then we come to XIII, which we don't hardly know anything about, other than it's got a female protagonist (I called it at least a year before anyone knew the game was even coming out), the first since VI, really (I do take the view that Terra and Celes shared the honours there). We'll just have to see if Square's learned anything yet.
But of course, I can already answer that - they haven't. When they've not been working on FF games, they've been working on either a) spinoffs that are largely awful (including numerous spinoffs/sequels on FFVII, when they swore they weren't doing any), or b) numerous ports of the old games for numerous platforms. So maybe releasing the older games on a system was okay. The series only got hugely popular after VII, lots of gamers didn't get the chance to play the old ones... Sure. But now they're on the PS1, the GBA, the Wonderswan, the PSP, and now they're doing 3D remakes of them (or at least, IV) on the DS.
BAAAAAH.
Why a and b, though? Because they're all a damn cash cow.
Even so, if they do VI in 3D I'll likely buy it, which means I'll have three copies of the damn game. Sigh.
Thumbs dooooown, Square.
In essence, you stopped being final at least fifteen games ago.
I have also been pondering about how fandom - of all types - scares me. I don't get it. I get being a fan of something. I'm a fan of things. I critique (see above) and discuss and will mention to people if they're talking about a subject "Oh yeah, I liked that, that was neat". However, I don't have a favorite actor/game/band/author. (I do have a favorite book and movie, but they're both The Princess Bride, because that piece of work is clearly unparalleled.)
What I don't get is the kind of people who talk about harming other people because they don't agree with one's chosen pairing, or Big Name Fans, or people who swear they're going to marry/are married to Sephiroth, or emo kids hiding under blankets screaming about Britney Spears or people who hang onto the lives of celebrities in general - I swear, those celeb magazines and shows like Entertainment Tonight make your brain into a pile of mush. Why do they care so damn much about these pieces of fiction? Yes, even the real-world celebs are fiction, don't fool yerselves.
Are our own lives just that unfulfilling?
I dunno. Imagine the power you could wield if you could harness all of fandom, though. Alas, it could never happen - they're too busy tearing each other to pieces at any one time to ever co-operate on any matter. What a waste.
Kinda like religion, isn't it?
'Kay, that's more than enough rambling to make up for a month, yeesh.