Deathonly

I suddenly miss RPing. D=

I'm not very familiar with the fandoms everyone seems to be into now, though. xD;; And haven't watched much anime/read any manga for the last year or so. Sad that the DO booklet is back home, would've been fun to reread...

Hahaha. Oh man.

At work today, I was chatting with some customers - two women, one in a wheelchair, and a guy. I thought they were all about my age or a bit older. They get food, go sit down, and as I'm walking past them later the woman in the wheelchair waves me older.

"Hey, how old are you? This is my son, we were just wondering." I blink at the "my son" part - although she did look older when I looked at her more closely. I tell them my age. Then the guy turns to me.

"So if I gave you my phone number would you call me?"

...

Having his mom ask me how old I was, and then asking me out while I'm working and talked with him for a couple of minutes, max, was just a liiiittle bit weird. I told him I'm not in town for much longer and going out the country for the next year. But as he leaves, he gives me his phone number "In case you want to have some fun still!"

WHUT. Listen, kid, asking a girl out while she's working, in front of your mom, is not going to earn you very high points.

AH. My coworkers found it hilarious. Of course. =p I found it amusing as well, just so damn weird hahah. Wow. Second customer to ask me out. I'm WORKING here, I'm paid to smile and be friendly to you (okay, I tend to be smiley and friendly anyway, but STILL) and you talk to me for a few minutes max. Wtf.

Very much enjoyed my first night off this week. Relaxing, good food, good times... it was a nice evening.

But I found out I have the exact same hellish schedule next week and this one. Both jobs Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I requested Friday off from the bakery so at least I'm not working both jobs on Friday... but ugh. :(

Moving out of my apartment probably on Sunday, since the rent is up... next Wednesday or Thursday. Tegan's not back until August 9 or 10, and it's not at all easy to get to work from her new apartment, so I'm staying with Ben at least until she gets back. This apartment is so convenient for work, and has a gorgeous view of the mountains. Le sigh. But at least I'll have a friend as a roommate. :)

Study abroad office continues to be a pain, but I'm hooooping I finally got it sorted out, at least on the GW end. *crosses fingers*

!!!! DO WANT.

http://www.vimeo.com/1316102

It's from Walking With Dinosaurs: The Live Experience (fun tv series btw) which will apparently be a theatrical somethingorother.

... Oh, drat, it's a man in a costume, not a robot. I would so want a pet robot dinosaur.

... My coworkers at the bakery all told me today that I look about 16. .___. Yes, yes, good thing for when I'm older, but not something I'm thrilled about now! Everyone else I've asked says I look my age. My coworkers told me I definitely don't look 20. Ahah.

Hell-week this week, and not a good start to it: been feeling nauseous all day. I've felt like I have a cold coming on all weekend, hoping it'll stay away.

Study abroad office could seriously use some actual communication going on amongst the people working there. It's a small office; why is it so difficult?? I've been asked four times now to give permission to drop me from my courses and register me for study abroad status, and I've given it each time. Yeesh.

Then, on the Waseda end, they have a pick-up service at Narita airport for exchange students. But it's only on September 16. And only between 9 am and 1:30 pm. Aaaaand there are hardly any flights from America that get in before 1:30; most get in at 3 or later. You also can't check into the dorm yourself later than 5 pm. I managed to find a flight that gets in at 1:25, but if it's delayed at all I'm apparently in trouble. That's bloody stupid.

People keep asking if I'm excited about study abroad. So far mostly stressed out/annoyed... I still have no information about the program or anything beyond the day I am supposed to get there. I need to find out if I'm supposed to get vaccinated for anything - the CDC website doesn't have anything required, just that Japanese encephalitis is recommended if you're going to be in the countryside. Which I'm probably not.

Off to make some soup and hope that soothes my tummy before I go off to the jewelry store.

Ezra Klein considers the gravity of yesterday's Iraq news:

A lot of voters desperately want to leave Iraq, but feel a sense of responsibility to the Iraqi people, and they're told the Iraqi people need them, and so they reluctantly resign themselves to perpetual occupation. Maliki's comments free them of that responsibility. The political impact of this is tremendous: The long-standing moral blackmail of "we broke it, now we have to fix it" just dissipated. The Crate-and-Barrel theory is finished: The proprietors just told us to leave the store. If we don't want to be there, and the Iraqis don't want us there, what's the point?

Went to see The Dark Knight last night after work, and I'm just going to have to join in with the chorus of, "That was bloody AWESOME." Incredibly well-done film. It definitely lived up to the hype, which is damned impressive. Go see it!!

Expert mode on Persona 4 is way harder than expert mode on Persona 3 (and P3's was punishing), at least near the beginning.

As in P3, if the main character dies, it's game over. However, now other characters in your party you have a commu with will step in and save the main character from a finishing blow. Attacks that hit your entire party can't be blocked like this, though. This is a pretty great improvement. I've only seen this work with physical attacks so far, though.

The "tactics" system from P3 is intact, except that you have the option of controlling a character directly if you want to. You can give them the tactic, "Do as I tell you" and when their turn comes around, you control them just like the main character. Obviously, there are times when this is useful, although I was always surprised in P3 at how well you could do just with the smart AI and well-chosen tactics.

Outside of combat, you apparently can no longer tell your party to split up. This has a tragic side-effect. In P3, the AI that controlled movement when your party was split up also controlled movement if one of your characters fell behind the main party. They would use this pretty smart, fast AI to regroup with your party immediately. That entire part of the game has been excised, so now there is very little pathing AI. The characters following you on the map will get trapped or fall behind if you take corners too fast. It's retarded. However, I don't think it actually matters if your characters fall behind; I haven't entered combat and seen some of my party temporarily missing like you could in P3.

Minor arcana have been removed from the bonus card system; now it's only used to get Persona. The way you actually pick the cards is completely different from the three-card monte system in P3, and is 3-D. It requires good reflexes but the difficulty curve is smoother.

Iraqi PM al-Maliki said in an intervew with German magazine Der Spiegel that he supports outright Sen. Obama's plan for withdrawal from Iraq in 16 months.

In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible.

"U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

... "Whoever is thinking about the shorter term is closer to reality. Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops would cause problems."

... "The Americans have found it difficult to agree on a concrete timetable for the exit because it seems like an admission of defeat to them. But it isn't," Maliki told Der Spiegel.

I am flabbergasted. I had no idea he had the balls. Holy shit.

Kondou the English Teacher: Hello everyone! I am P.E. coach Kondou! We're shorthanded, so I'll be teaching English too.

Kondou the English Teacher: But don't worry! You might not tell by looking at me, but I have experience overseas!

Kondou the English Teacher: About a week. It was part of a tour. So, I'm sure everything will be fine. Ha ha ha!

Just started Persona 4. Some thoughts:

The aesthetic is very retro, and so is the color scheme (imagine everywhere there was a shade of blue in P3, there is a shade of yellow or orange in P4). That fits with the new setting; all three (or four) of the previous games had a very urban setting, but this one is distinctly rural Japan. Rice paddies, full-service gas stations, gigantic television antennas, the works. The opening theme movie has a very different feel from P3, although it's still cool in a similar way.

The Velvet Room is now a pimped out limo. I'm not kidding. Igor is back, of course, but tragically Elizabeth has been replaced by a new challenger.

The main character moves to the country to live with his uncle and cousin for a year, while his parents are stationed overseas for their work. The uncle, whom the main character had never met before, is a detective. His daughter is a shy grade-school girl.

There seems to be more of a focus on daily life for the character. Apparently, if you have ingredients, you can make yourself a bento. Your first night at home, your room is still filled with cardboard moving boxes. The weather is dynamic and adds significantly to the mood of the game.

One thing I always noticed about P3 was that the characters were out of proportion. They were too small for their rooms, which were all gigantic, and that was assisted by a distant camera angle. That is changed in P4; it has perfect proportions (for a Japanese house, that is, which means it is quite cramped) and the camera angles are realistic (i.e., actually in the corner of a room) for a very down to earth feel.

The gun-shaped "summoning devices" or whatever they were called in the English version seem to be gone. Those were unique to P3 anyway; they weren't in the earlier games.

I'll be posting a primer on the recent bank failures and the Fannie May/Freddie Mac bailout soon. In the meantime, Jon Stewart:

Sean Tevis decided to run for Kansas state legislature in this election. His platform is what you might expect from a 20-something liberal-ish computer expert. Personal privacy, personal liberty, secular government.

But, he didn't have any money. So he made a pretty good XKCD-style comic describing his candidacy and asked the Internet for help.

The Internet helped. That's pretty cool.

Ack ack ack boyfriend/girlfriend fights in the next room are awkward. D=

*hides*