Thursday, July 31, 2003--I got my wisdom teeth pulled today. After they gave me that tiny little needle, I had a memory lapse, and the next thing I knew, they were waking me up half an hour later, and my mouth was numb with 2 pieces of gauze in it.
Anyway, I had to ice my face every alternating 20 minute session, and I couldn't eat anything more solid than applesauce. (Yes, I actually eat that crap.)
I beat ZOE2 in Easy mode today. It's a cool game. If I were taking the PS2 with me to college, I'd buy it, but I'm not, so I won't buy it just yet.
I also played some FF2.
*2*I went back to Altair, and apparently, the Princess Hilda we rescued from the Dreadnought was a fake Princess Hilda. It was actually a Lamia Queen in disguise, so we killed it. Then, we found out that the Emperor of Palamecia was holding a contest at... uhhh... Palamecia Coliseum that whoever can beat the Behemoth gets Princess Hilda as a prize. Leila leaves our party to make room for Gordon, who wants to go rescue Princess Hilda, so we go in there and kick the Behemoth's ass. Then, we get thrown in the prison, where we find and rescue Princess Hilda. The Coliseum Prison is an extremenly short dungeon, and I escape in no time at all.
Next, the rebels decide to attack Fynn, so Leila rejoins my party. My next target, Castle Fynn!*2*
At that point in the game, I had to stop because I had a bloody nose.
Later, we rent Splinter Cell, which sucks. We're returning it tomorrow.
Anyways, that's pretty much it for tonight. The drowsiness part in the pain-killer elixir isn't working, that's for certain.
Dice roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 5 = 7
I really should go to sleep now. Good Night!
Wednesday, July 30, 2003--Heh, the anonymous guestbook stalker strikes again. Obviously, he's jealous of my superior creativity and imagination. I mean, seriously, his post was so unoriginal that I found it more frivolous than insulting. "Your story sucks"? Utterly pathetic. "Get a life you bastard"? I think at this point, the guy's just running out of ideas to say, so he pulled some random generic insults out of a bag. Heh, if anything he should "get a life". Obviously, he has nothing better to do than visit my website all the time just to post some pathetic attempt to irritate me. (In fact, I find them more amusing than irritating. Keep them coming! Show my readership how stupid you are.) By the way, here's the guestbook message our moron wrote just so you can see it without having to open my guestbook.
"i have an idea for a poll, how bout how many ppl actually read dark fiends? 100% say: i dont read it. your story sucks, get a life you bastard"
Oh, by the way, I did conduct a poll--it was the first one that I did, and the people who said they wanted to read Dark Fiends outnumbered the people who said they didn't 7 to 1.
Heh, do you know what's really sad? That there are random Dwayne-hating cowards who actually visit my website. I feel sorry for them.
Anyway, I've given the guestbook stalkers way more time and effort than they deserve. On to more relevant matters.
Anyways, I spent most of today playing ZOE2 and going online and shit like that.
I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled out, so I'll need to go to sleep early tonight.
First, there will be a dice roll.
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 2 = 6
That is all. Good Night!
Tuesday, July 29, 2003--Today, I went to the dentist to get my teeth X-rayed so that they can be sent to the oral surgeon in charge of pulling out my wisdom teeth. Then, after having a steak lunch, I went to the oral surgeon for a consulting. Anyways, I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled on Thursday. It'll be worth it, right?
Anyways, Franklin and I rented Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. The new moves are pretty cool, and so far, it seems like they've cut out the world map and the going back and forth to each town looking for one specific, hard-to-find item to progress in the game. Instead, it's more action oriented, and the comps are a lot smarted, and the bosses are harder, too. You can no longer win simply by attacking from long-range, more often then not, it's your blade that will win you your battles.
Ah, I had a strange day today, considering that I didn't have time to play piano nor to work on Dark Fiends. (Didn't have time as in I spent most of it out or playing ZOE2.)
Anyway, dice roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 5 = 6
That is all! Good Night!
Monday, July 28, 2003--From now on, I won't mention that I worked on Dark Fiends. I've been working on it so much lately, that it's a given.
Something else I did today was play FF1.
*1*I ventured into the Mirage Tower. It's pretty simple, except it's full of little nooks and crannies to explore and get treasures. At the top (third floor) is a little Warp square that, if you have the Warp Cube, it takes you to the Flying Fortress, which, like the Mirage Tower, is straight forward, except it has little side rooms to explore. The whole Flying Fortress is pretty simply, in fact.
However, on the fourth floor, I ran out of supplies, so I warped back home. Lucky for me, I found an Adamantite up there, so I took it to Smyth the dwarven blacksmith, who forged Excalibur for me. I also found Sasuke, the ninja blade, so now my Knight and Thief have hella strong weapons.
Oh, also, there were these computers on the Flying Fortress that said "Logging in Tiamat... processing data." It was kind of freaky.
That's pretty much it. I'll go kill Tiamat some other day.*1*
Hmmm... looks like that's all for today.
Dice roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 5 = 8
*yawn* Good Night!
Sunday, July 27, 2003--Today, I worked on and put up Dark Fiends Chapter 35.
I'm also working on a Dragon deck. I've tried several variants. I still think Kilnmouth Dragon is by far the best.
I also played some FF1.
*1*I went back to the Sea Shrine and I got the Rosetta Stone. That stupid arrogant Dr. Unne than translated it and taught me Lufenian, so I can understand what those guys are saying. So I went to Lufenia and got the Bell that allows me to enter the Mirage Tower, and I bought Flare (aka, Nuke) and Life2, some damn good spells.*1*
At this point, Franklin drags me to play Simpsons Road Rage with him. Its an interesting game, but once you've played it for an hour, it gets kind of boring--at least multiplayer does.
Anyway, I have more work to do on my Dragon deck. First, dice roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 1 = 5
Ah, Good Night!
Saturday, July 26, 2003--There's not much to say today. I was working on Dark Fiends, and then, in the evening, we went to Bernard's place. First, Bernard, Franklin, and I played a 3-way Free-For-All. I defeated Bernard, but Franklin defeated me.
Then, we played DOA2. Apparently, Kellie has gotten skilled, and I've tried all sorts of weird characters. My DOA2 skills have also leveled up.
Then, we played some Team Magic, where it was me using Franklin's Elf deck and Franklin's Counter-Control deck against Franklin using my Slivers and Bernard using his Discard deck. I won three out of three. The first two games, I wiped the board clean with the Counter-Control deck, clearing the way to Victory with the Elves' Force of Nature. The third game, the Counter-Control deck was mana-screwed, but my Elves won the game with a massive army of Centaur tokens,thanks to the Centaur Glade.
We then played Bomberman, where it was me and Kellie and a Strong computer VS Franklin and Bernard. We had a decent win/loss record.
When we finally got home, my mom told me to go directly to bed, which is why I didn't update this until Sunday.
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 3 = 8
That is all. Good Night!
Friday, July 25, 2003--For lunch today, I had some Tempura Soba at Sushi Masa.
Then, in the afternoon, I worked on Dark Fiends and played some MGS2.
And that's a basic description of my day.
Dice-roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 3 = 5
Yesterday, while testing my Burns deck, I managed to deal 104 damage with a single spell. It was pretty sweet.
Anyways, Good Night! I wonder what weird dreams I will have tonight...
Thursday, July 24, 2003--Today, I spent so much time working and re-working and testing (with my Java Deck Simulator) that I barely had any time to work on Dark Fiends. Sorry. I'll make up for it, I swear.
Anyways, my Burns deck is one of the most powerful things I've built, second only my Slivers. My Counters deck is a little weak, though. Sure, it kicks ass if I manage to get out a turn 5 Scalpelexis. Still, it's virtually impossible to counter every creature that your opponent plays, and often, even if the only creatures you let through are 2 or 3 1/1's, because the Counter deck has very little offense, the little 1/1's will deal enough damage over time so that they'll kill you off eventually. Thus, I'm going to make a substitution so that my Counter deck might have some kind of defense against little weenies, and I'll just counter everything that's bigger.
Also, tonight, while trying to teach my brother chemistry, I fell asleep. Just before 10pm, my brother suggested that I go to my room and sleep instead, since I wasn't teaching him any chemistry anymore. I go to my room, I close my eyes, and when I open them, my mom is suddenly in my room, and I'm like, "Holy shit! How did you get in here?" And she's like, "You're tired. You should get some sleep tonight." At midnight, I woke up, and now I'm here updating my website. It's interesting, really...
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 4 = 10
Anyways, Good Night! Don't let the succubi bite.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003--Apparently, I couldn't go with the guys to Sushi Masa for lunch because I needed to wait at home for the carpool to drop Franklin off so that I could get him some lunch.
I didn't do much today. All it was was working on Dark Fiend Chapter 34, which will be up tomorrow.
Anyways, last night, I had a weird dream. Basically, I was taking a ninjitsu class (kind of like in Naruto, heh) and it was my first day, and I saw Lizzie sitting by herself at a table. So I went to the table and sat with her. Then, she says, "Oh, no, now I'm stuck with Dwayne." And that's the end. I told Lizzie about it (this is back to "real life"), and she said it was weird, and she said, "Don't worry, it was just a dream." I guess that means :), then.
Also, I played more of MGS2 and I killed Fatman.
Then, after dinner, I created the perfect UC Berkeley Schedule.
Also, I made a decklist for an Invincibility deck and I upgraded my Slivers deck to create a Sliver-Control deck, which makes use of the Overlord's second ability.
Anyways, dice-roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 6 = 9
Ah, that's the end, that's the end. Good Night!
Tuesday, July 22, 2003--Today is an odd day. For some reason, I couldn't stay focused on anything. I was working on Dark Fiends Chapter 33 and I got distracted by teaching Nadia computer programming, responding to Alan's e-mail regarding his political views, playing Monopoly with Franklin, and chatting online with Little Rabbit Diane Ko (hmmm... she hasn't had a mention on my website since May 13, when I was naming my Elven sorceress for Duty).
Anyway, there's not much to say for today, except Dice-Roll!
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 6 = 11
That is all. I wasted a lot of time today, but it was worth it. Heh, then I guess technically, I didn't "waste" that time, then.
Anyways, Good Night.
Monday, July 21, 2003--For some odd reason, I woke at 11 when I wanted to wake up at 10 like I did on all the other days. I think it might have been because there was this one dream I didn't want to leave, although I don't remember what it was anymore.
I also worked on and put up Dark Fiends Chapter 32. Watch for Chapter 33 tomorrow. You'll either hate it or love it.
Other than that, I played MGS2 and played MTG against Franklin's Elf Deck (and won an all occasions) and creamed his experimental Unlimited Hand-Rape Deck.
That's pretty much it for today. Dice-roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 2 = 7
That's all.
And that leaves me with "Good Night!"
Sunday, July 20, 2003--Today, I watched Franklin play MGS2, and I also played FF2.
*2*I went into Deist Cave and found the Dragoon Pendant in no time. However, the Wind Drake said he was dying and that there was no way to save him. However, his last request was that I place the last Wind Drake Egg in the Sacred Springs at the bottom of Deist Cave, so he gave me the egg, and I went into the cave. The cave was a long and complicated piece of work, but I made it to the end. The Sacred Springs was being guarded by a pair of Chimeras, but with characters this powerful, it was a piece of cake.*2*
I also worked on Dark Fiends.
Dice roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 6 = 8
Short day today, short entry. Good Night!
Saturday, July 19, 2003--I spent a large block of my morning watching Franklin play MGS2. Then, I finished Dark Fiends Chapter 31. It's all good.
Then, I played some FF1.
*1*Today, I visited the two forested cities. It was an inconvenience to have to land a ways away and walk to the cities, but it wasn't that big a deal. One of them, Lufenia, was full of guys who spoke a mysterious language I didn't understand. Another one, Onlak, had this one kid who said he saw a robot fall into the waterfall up north. Then, I heard about a caravan in the desert to the west. Hmm... didn't that guy from Gaia sell a fairy to a caravan? So I went to the caravan and bought the fairy back. After releasing her at the spring, she offered, as a reward, to gather some Oxyale for me.
Next, I tried to visit the Mirage Tower. I couldn't enter it, so apparently, it's part of a later quest.
Then, I went to the Waterfall and found the robot, who gave me a Warp Cube and told me to use it to go to the Sky Castle and defeat Tiamat. However, it didn't work. Maybe I need to find the right place?
Then, I went back to Onlak, where there was a lady who saw that I had Oxyale and let me through. Then, she vanished. Weird... Anyway, I hopped into a barrel, and it took me to the Sea Shrine. After exploring half of it, I found and defeated Kraken. That's three out of the four Fiends defeated and three out of the four Crystals reignited.
Unfortunately, there's more of the Sea Shrine to visit and another key item to grab, so, okay. I'll come back to it later.*1*
Now, it's now, and now, it's time to roll dice.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 3 = 9
Anyway, that's pretty much it for tonight. Good Night!
Friday, July 18, 2003--Franklin borrowed Metal Gear Solid 2, which I played. I'm pretty decent at the game, except for the boss fights. Heh, in MGS1, I couldn't even beat the Metal Gear in Very Easy Mode!
Anyways, I finished and put up Dark Fiends Chapter 30. Chapter 31 should be up tomorrow, but no guarantees.
Anyway, it was a short day, and it's also time to roll dice!
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 5 = 11
Other than that, Good Night!
Thursday, July 17, 2003--Today, I wrote a program with Java that simulates an MTG deck. Now, I don't have to proxy any more!
I also worked a lot on Dark Fiends Chapter 30. It'll be up tomorrow.
Other than that, I just played a lot of Honor Duels against Alan with my new virtual Elf Deck.
Man, it's a hot day today.
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 2 = 6
That's all for tonight. Good Night!
Wednesday, July 16, 2003--Shortly after 12 o'clock noon, Franklin came home from summer school, and I went to McDonald's and brought back some lunch.
I spent a good majority of the day practicing Fantasie Impromptu. I can almost play it now!
Other than that, most of my day was spent reading and fleshing out the Dark Fiends storyline plan.
It was a very uneventful day.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 5 = 11
My goddamn nose spontaneously bled just now. Now, I am forced to type with one hand, thus reducing my efficiency and accuracy.
Anyways, Good Night!
Oh, and my Wall Deck beats Franklin's Elves (a decent deck) about half the time.
Also, Sarah won't be coming to my birthday party. She's currently in Europe and won't come back until the day I leave home for Berkeley.
Now, for the real Good Night!
Tuesday, July 15, 2003--Today, I went to Justin's house before going Sushi Masa to lunch with the gang, but while waiting there, I played against Justin's Zombies. The first game, I won pretty well. The second game, I was winning, but he Tsabo's Decreed me, so I lost. In the third game, I don't know what happened. I think he rushed me with Festering Goblins, and I made several tactical mistakes and lost. Then, I played against his Madness deck and lost because he kept discarding crap to the goddamn Wild Mongrel!!!!
Then, we went to Sushi Masa, where I had Tempura Soba. It was actually really good. It had more stuff in it than any of the shops in Japan and it costed only $6.50.
Then, we went to Alan's house and played lots of MTG. First, I played against Alan's beasts and I creamed him pretty badly--repeatedly, I think. Next, I played Ryan's Shadow deck, which apparently sucks. Then, we played 2v2s, with me and Justin VS Alan and Ryan. I thought, since we're in a large team game, I'd have time to get out infinite Slivers. Unfortunately, it didn't work like that, so after losing twice, Justin put away his Madness deck and brought out his Zombies, and I traded in my slower Infinite Sliver combo for some more reliable Slivers. Then, we traded me for Alan, so that it was me and Ryan VS those two guys, where Justin used his Goblins against me. Apparently, Ryan won us both of those games. I made a tactical mistake during Justin's second game, where he tried to use his Sharpshooters ability to shoot my 1/1 Quick Slivers right after I had played my Crystalline Sliver in response to his Sharpshooter. Now, I meant to play it in response to his Sharpshooter, but when he tapped his not-yet-in-play Sharpshooter, it confused me, and I ended up letting him kill off my two Quick Slivers, which actually should have been illegal.
Then, we moved over to my house, where Franklin joined the dueling festivities. I played Ryan's Land Destruction deck 3 times. In the first game, he only destroyed 2 land (and played a 2/2 Terravore). I won. In the second game, he forfeited. In the third game, he destroyed all my lands, but not before I got out 4 Slivers, one of which was Muscle and another of which was Winged, so it was a loss for him.
Also, I played and beat Time Crisis on Easy Mode, using an Infinite Credit cheat. Then, we played Wrestlemania (for the N64) a bit.
After that, the rest of the gang had to go home, so I proxied my Wall deck and dueled Alan. However, he had a ridiculously lucky opening draw, which got him out enough elves and Wellwishers to get him hella life gains, while I was manascrewed and only got to play 3 walls the entire game (and walls are cheap, mind you, except for the really good ones that I was saving for late game that I never got the mana for despite waiting 10+ turns). Anyway, thanks to extremely bad luck, the final score was 250 to -167, with me losing. I don't know if that was legit. Alan refused to play a rematch until 30 minutes later, and by that time, I was already doing something else.
Anyway, Dark Fiends Chapter 29 is up.
Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 4 = 10
Anyway, that's all for today. I bid you Good Night!
Monday, July 14, 2003--I added a new link to my website. It's the Gallery of "Misused" Quotation Marks. It's highly "amusing", and by "amusing" I actually mean amusing. I highly recommend it.
Anyways, I'm studying Computer Science and C++ now. Stupid book refuses to teach real arrays, though...
Also, I finally got up Dark Fiends Chapter 28 and did lots of work on Chapter 29, which should be up tomorrow. (Woohoo! Progress!)
And that's the end of that chapter!
Wow... amusingly "short" entry today.
Dice roll time!
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 5 = 7
That's all. Good "Night"!
Hehehe.
(Post Script: I found that "Misused" Quotes thing while helping Joanna look for quotes for her essays. I tried using "Quotations", and one of the sites was the "Misused" Quotation Mark crap.)
Sunday, July 13, 2003--So anyways...
Here's a picture of Marilith, the Fiend of Fire from FF1!
Today, I played FF2!
*2*I attacked the Dreadnought today and rescued Princess Hilda and Cid. It was very easy, considering that my characters were super-pumped. It was only a pity that there was no boss stopping me from chucking the Sunfire into the Dreadnought's engine.
Then, the King died and Gordon left my party, and Mindu went to look for Ultima, and the King told me, before he died, to go to Deist to find the Dragoons and the Wind Drakes. Then, when I got to Paloom, the only person who would take me to Deist was this pirate lady named Leila, so she had her 8 pirates attacked me, but, as my characters were super-pumped, I creamed them. Thus, she joined my party, and, since my characters are super-pumped, she's an utter weakling.
I got lost on my way to Deist, ending up, instead, at the Tropical Island. Good thing I didn't venture too far into that cave. Anyways, I finally found Deist, where only a little boy and his mom survived. They still had one Wind Drake left, but no one could understand it without the Dragoon's Pendant, which was lost in a cave to the North, so I stopped just outside the cave, saved, and called it a day.
Oh, and on Deist (which is an island) there is a monster called a Sliver. Hmm...*2*
After that, I worked on Dark Fiends Chapter 28. Hopefully, it'll be up soon.
And... uhh... that's about it!
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 5 = 9
Good Night, sir!
Saturday, July 12, 2003--Good morning!
Today, I spent a good deal of time putting Dark Fiends Chapter 27 up, so... enjoy the new chapter of Dark Fiends.
Also, Franklin went to GameStop and bought a used copy of Time Crisis (the original one). He's gotten so good that he can beat the game consistently now. It's a lot harder than TC2 or TC3. It's just that Franklin's pretty damn good.
Also, I played lots of FF1 today.
*1*I eventually journeyed my way to the bottom of the Gulg Volcano and defeated Marilith, the six-armed sword-wielding snake lady. I beat her on my first try, but I decided to retry because all my characters but the Warrior (Fighter) died. On my second try, I beat it with all characters surviving. Now, the Fire Crystal glows as well.
I've been getting a lot of cash from Gulg Volcano, and I had already bought 3 spells that I ended up not using very often. I still had a surplus of cash (almost 200,000), so I decided to buy a stockpile of 90 Potions. It only costed me 5400. You know, I think I'll keep a stock of 90 Potions with me at all times. That way, I don't have to depend on my White Mage alone for healing, and that way, I can last a lot longer while exploring a dungeon.
I noticed that the dungeons were getting longer and longer. The Marsh Cave had 3 floors. Terra Cave had 5 floors. Gulg Volcano had 5 floors, but there were 7 areas I needed to go through. If this keeps up, I'll be going through ridiculously big dungeons!
Or so I thought...
Next, I went to the Ice Cavern to seek the Levistone, the magical rock that makes this hover. (Airship, anyone?) This dungeon was a lot simpler, but because it's so far from an Inn, I had to rely on my 90 Potions and get that Levistone in one run, lest I have to ride my Canoe and Ship all the way back to Crescent Lake. I had to use a lot of Memo Saves and resets in order to get through it in one run, but it wasn't so bad. It was mainly figuring out which way to go and not letting my White Mage die.
So I got the Levistone, but nothing happens, so I find my way out and ask around. Then, an elf prophet in Elfheim says he sees something rising out of the desert below Crescent and that I should use the Levistone there. Ok, whatever you say. I go and find that desert (it's called Lukion Desert, apparently) and summon my airship out of the ground. Now I can fly!
I neglected to fully explore the Ice Cavern because I wanted to conserve my strength and not have to make too many trips back to the Inn to heal. Now that I have the Airship, making a trip to the Inn will be child's play.
But first, after obtaining the airship, I can change classes. I found the six holes on the Cardia Islands where the dragons live. Bahamut, King of Dragons, tells me to go prove my valor and bring back a token of it, and another dragon tells me that they have a tradition where they prove their valor by going to a castle to the east and bringing back a token of their valor. So I go there, the Citadel of Trials (the Castle of Ordeals).
This dungeon is even easier than the Ice Cavern. Basically, on the first floor, an old man recognizes the Crown I picked up from the Marsh Cave (apparently Astos forgot to take it from me) and lets me in. There are no battles on the first floor. I touch a chair and end up on the second floor, where there's a maze of teleporters. Very straight-forward. Through trial and error I quickly found my way through the maze. The third floor's just one path that loops around a center room, not too long, and at the end of the path is a treasure chest with the Rat's Tail. Well, the dragon did say that token of valor sometimes came in a strange form. Another chair brought me back to the first floor, where I left.
After returning the Rat's Tail to Bahamut, my Warrior became a Knight, Thief became a Ninja (and he's almost as strong as the Knight now), Black Mage became a Black Wizard, and White Mage became a White Wizard. Heh, I got a new weapon for my Black Wizard--the Cat Claw. It's a sharp knife, and it's hella strong. It's so strong, it makes all the Level 1 magic obselete.
Anyways, with my newfound power, I quickly finished up the Ice Cavern. There wasn't much left of it anyway, but I wanted to get the Ice Armor and the Ice Shield.
Now, I need to figure out what my next quest is. I think I'll seek out that caravan and get that Fairy back for the Oxyale in Gaia. There are also two more forested towns to visit.*1*
Ahh... that's all of FF1 I played today. Perhaps I played too much? Nah.
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 5 = 7
Good game! Good Night!
Friday, July 11, 2003--I spent the morning working on Dark Fiends Chapter 27. Then, at about 3pm, I went to Leland for the Math Team meeting. Apparently, at 3 o'clock, some of those people were like "Stephanie's not here." 10 minutes later, I notice that Stephanie wasn't there, and I said, "Hey, where's Stephanie?" Mr. Yim shows up at 3:30 (he was lost at Willow Glen, where he teaches for summer school) and he says, "Stephanie's not here today." Stephanie, where were you? It's just not the same without you... or is it?
Mr. Yim: Joanna! Good to see you!
Joanna: Huh?
Me: That was random.
Mr. Yim: As opposed to, Jon, what the hell are you doing here?
I honestly have no idea.
Mr. Yim: You know, I've never seen Joanna get a probability problem wrong before.
Me: I wonder why.
Linda: Maybe it was the probability packet.
Me: Hey, Joanna, what did you get for #5?
Joanna: 261.
Me: Well, now we've seen her get one wrong.
Sorry, Joanna. Didn't mean to make fun of you, but whatever.
Anyways, after the Math Team meeting, I came home and did some more work on Dark Fiends Chapter 27. Hopefully, it'll be up tomorrow.
Other than that, that's it for today.
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 2 = 5
Well, anyways, Good Night!
I'm tired. That probably means I can beat the jetlag today.
Thursday, July 10, 2003--I managed to wake myself up at 10am today. Woohoo! I'm improving.
Anyways, I spent most of today building a schedule for Berkeley and playing FF2.
*2*I tried marching up to the Dreadnought and attacking it, but the enemies are much to strong. I need to level up! Unfortunately, there are no "levels" in FF2, so to speak. You get stronger by doing stuff--the more you attack, the stronger you attacks get. The more you cast magic, the stronger your magic becomes, etc. Fortunately, I know some cheap tricks to super-power-up my characters. Everyone uses them--everyone who knows about them, that is, because otherwise, you're going to take forever getting as strong as you need to survive. So anyway, I spent several hours strengthening my characters. Now, they're godly powerful. I'm ready to take on the Dreadnought now... but I'll do it later. It's getting late.*2*
*yawn*
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 1 = 3
Well... Good Night! :D
Wednesday, July 9, 2003--Darned summoning sickness! I couldn't get any sleep until 4am last night, and I couldn't wake up until 12 noon.
So anyways, after lunch, I played lots of FF1.
*1*I journeyed down to the fifth basement floor of the Terra Cave, where I found Lich and beat him on my second try. He was pretty easy, once I figured out to use Dia and Fire, which are what Lich is weak against. Now, the Earth Crystal is glowing again.
Next, I went to Crescent where I got the Canoe from a sage as a reward for beating Lich. I'm supposed to use it to enter Gulg Volcano to find and destroy Marilis (Kary in the old translation), the Chaos of Fire (or Fiend of Fire, which is actually the origin of the name "Dark Fiend of Fire"). I made it down to the fourth basement, but I had to take another staircase to get to a second area of the third basement floor, which I explored thoroughly and found yet another staircase. Argh! These dungeons keep getting bigger and bigger.
But do you know what I like about Mt. Gulg? There are so many shortcuts through the lava, and since you can't get attacked on the lava, battles are rarer down there, unless you decide to take the long path through the land. Unfortunately, stepping on lava takes... one point of HP from you, so it isn't that bad. You lose more HP fighting battles...*1*
After playing FF1, I went online, where I honor-duelled Justin and beat his Zombies 2 out of 2. Maybe it was luck. Maybe it was because his Zombie deck isn't as fast as his Goblin deck, so my Slivers had time to own. Maybe it was just because he didn't draw Tsabo's Decrees.
Anyways, that's it for tonight.
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 4 = 7
Ack! A seven!
Hehehe, Good Night!
Tuesday, July 8, 2003--Heh, I went to sleep at midnight last night and woke up today at noon. That's 12 hours of sleep! Hopefully, I'm done with my summoning sickness now.
So after lunch, I went online and caught up on all the Xangas and online journals that I missed. Then, I caught up on my own Online Journal. That's actually pretty much my whole day.
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 1 = 3
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go work on the RP stuff for Avalanche Online's Legend of Lahara. Then, I might play some FF (or I might not, who knows).
Good Night!
Monday, July 7, 2003 - Addendum--I am suffering from summoning sickness right now. You see, I just got back from Japan, and I have jetlag, so I got home and started sleeping at 2pm and I woke up at 5:30pm, so I called Connie. Then, I had dinner and spent the rest of my night catching up on the forums online that I missed and stuff.
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 5 = 7
Haha! Short entry. Good Night!
Monday, July 7, 2003--SJYS Tour to Japan - June 25, 2003 to July 7, 2003
Hehe, I'll have to follow the Tour Itinerary, because otherwise, all my memories will be too disjointed for me to put into a sensible... uhh... thing.
Day One
I woke up early in the morning so I could get onto the bus to get to the airport so I could get on the plane. At the airport...
Me: In Japanese, "anata wa kawaii" means "you are cute".
Audrey: In Spanish, [something in Spanish that I don't remember] means "you are crazy".
So on the plane, I watched 2 movies, Darkness Falls and Gangs of New York. Gangs of New York sucked like hell. Darkness Falls was kind of scary at the beginning, but only because you didn't know what the hell was going on. After the first half hour or so, it gets really predictable and not scary at all.
Yair smokes and it's a non-smoking flight. Uh-oh.
Day Two
After crossing the international date line (no, I did not ask anyone out while crossing the international date line) it was officially Thursday. This is the day we got off the plane. Dan Zimardi brought his "No Smoking Beyond This Point" sign on the plane and held it a couple yards ahead of Yair, saying, "Come on, Yair, you can make it! The point is right in front of you!" Lucky for Yair, he made it to the smoking area.
After getting off the plane we rode a really nice bus to Tokyo. Yes, in Japan, they don't drive on the right side of the road. They drive on the left side of the road, not to be confused with the wrong side of the road. Also, the high ways are like 50 feet in the air. It's amazing!
The dinner at the hotel they prepared for us was mostly Japanized western food, as was most of the food on the trip, unless we went to a Japanese shop.
Day Three
No, Jeff, I am not putting up every single detail that I remember. Well, maybe I am, considering I don't remember all that many details.
Anyway, we bussed to Tsukiyono, where we would have our first rehearsal. On our way, we stopped at a rest stop for lunch, where I had some Soosu (Sauce) Katsu Don, which is a rice bowl with Tonkatsu in it. The order number they gave me was 69. Alan and Justin would have liked that.
Then, we went to our homestays. It was pretty cool and fun, but they fed us so much! Another thing Alan and Justin would like: They had a big aluminum barrel sitting upstairs labelled "SSS Gypstone".
Later that night, we also went to the nearby temple, where another two kids (Eric and Mike) had a homestay, and we played Uno and Jenga. The Japanese have some interesting rules for Uno. Apparently, if you play a card, you can immediately follow up with another card of the same number, so you can, like, chain-play two or three 3's in one turn. Also, if someone tries to play a Draw 2 on you, you can follow up with your own Draw 2 so that the next guy has to Draw 4, and the Draw 2's can be chained and stacked for hella drawage.
Day Four
In the morning, our homestay family took us to the glass-making factory and we made our own sand-blasted glasses. I designed mine with swords on them!
Concert #1 was today. It went pretty well. Then, we our homestay parents took us to a Chinese restaurant, where they expected me to eat a whole plate of fried rice (big plate, mind you, and I ate it), and I had 3 glasses of soda, so my stomach was full of air, but it's impolite to burp in public, so I had to wait until we got into the parking lot before I let it all out.
Then, we went to Sega Land, but first, we saw Eric and Mike and their homestays at McDonald's, so we visited them.
Me: You came all the way to Japan just to eat at McDonald's?
Eric and/or Mike: The food tastes better here.
Sega Land is, apparently, an arcade, and we took photos at the photo machine.
Day Five
I played the Japanese FF6 today! I'll quote what I posted on Avalanche Online.
"I'm in Japan right now, and I recently had a chance to play the original FF6 for the Super Famicom in Japanese.
What surprised me the most was that the opening credits (with Terra, Vicks and Wedge) walking the snow was in ENGLISH. I would have thought the whole game was in Japanese.
Also, I've heard many people say that saving Shadow is only in the American version because "Square didn't want to let the American gamers see Shadow die" or whatever the hell they said. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Shadow can be saved in the Japanese version. I've seen it with my own eyes. And he's also useable in the World of Ruin, just like in the American version.
Also, translation notes:
The "Gem Box" was called "SOURUOBUSAMASA" (Soul of Thamasa) in Japanese. Now, I don't know what Ted Woolsey was thinking, but Soul of Thamasa sounds HELLA better than Gem Box, and I'm not saying this just because it's the original Japanese name. I'm saying Soul of Thamasa sounds better BECAUSE IT DOES!!!
Also, "Economizer" was "SURIISUSTAAZU" (Three Stars) in Japanese. Those old Square translators sure used a LOT of creative license, didn't they? Nowadays, we see Three Stars in lots of FF games.
Heh, I also played off the guy's file at the end of the game with his Level 99 characters. I fought my way into Kefka's Tower, but I forgot to equip everyone for the Final Battle, so naturally, I got creamed. Whoops!
Well, that's pretty much it."
Next, was Concert #2, at a different site in Tsukiyono, where we played last of 7 groups, all of which sucked except for us. Some of the orchestra members said our concert was pretty bad, but I didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary.
We had a farewell party, which was kind of boring. Then, we went and saw fireflies, which was pretty cool! Then, we got some fireworks and blew up stuff.
Day Six
We visited Jindaiji Temple, where we made wishes on wood sticks, and the wood sticks were ceremoniously burned so that the gods could see them. The monk then said our wishes would come true gradually. You can't win the lottery gradually, nor can you get laid gradually.
We also visited a shopping center--I think that was today--and on our way there, we saw a Condomania sitting on the corner of a street, a condom store in plain view. It was ridiculous. Those Japanese are so open about sex, but violence is forbidden. Yes, the blood in Japanese video games really is green.
I saw a sword for $70 and I wanted to buy it, but it was so much money!
We had a welcome party from Chofu City, and they had a quartet perform for us. The 2nd Violinist girl moved a lot, and she reminded me of Ashley Lau, who betrayed us last year and went to CYS when she could have been Concertmistress (at the age of 14!) for us this year.
Day Seven
I went to a Japanese noodle house that spoke no Japanese and managed to order Tempura Udon, all in Japanese. It was tasty, but the Udon noodles are too weak and have a tendency to break in my chopsticks. I'll get Soba next time.
Lizzie got really mad at me for calling her Beth, but today, we worked it out... somehow...
Concert #3 was today. It went pretty badly. There was a glaring error made in Lizst's Les Preludes. Yair was so mad at us that we lost 3 hours of free time so that we could practice tomorrow.
Day Eight
Some people got stuck waiting for an elevator for nearly an hour. As a result, we were almost late for the bullet train. We managed to get everyone in, though, just barely. The bullet train (Shinkansen, as it is called in Japan), isn't as fast as its name implies, as least it doesn't seem like it is when you ride on it.
Anyways, we arrived in Kyoto, where I had Tempura Soba for lunch. It was very tasty! Don't forget to slurp your noodles!
I took the ribbons of my backpack and asked girls to tie them in their hair. None of them wanted to. I like ribbons!
We visited a shrine that had a lot of gravel and it was in the hot sun, so I asked Harumi (the tour guide) "Is this a desert?" I also bought 2 Charms.
Then, we visited the Kyoto Handicraft Center, where I bought a sword for $48.
That night, at the shopping mall by the hotel, I got some Tempura Soba with Jeffrey.
Day Nine
There's an internet cafe in Kyoto called the Topscafe. I got a membership card there and started using the internet. A membership card costs 200 yen and internet time costs 120 yen for every 15 minutes. You also get free drinks. I spent half an hour there that morning checking and sending e-mail and chatting on AIM.
It's not the first time I used the internet in Japan. I managed to send two e-mails from a laptop the Tsukiyono homestay family had. The symbols are in all different places, so it took me a while to find the @ (very important if you want to send e-mails. And beware of the Kanji key, or else you can't type in English, although there is an easy way around it.
Still, it was good to get in touch with my American friends.
We visited Kinkakujin, the Golden Pavilion, which was pretty cool. It rained, and I enjoyed it. Then, we went to the Doshisha Girls High School, for a concert. It was hellish. The stage was way too small, so it was cramped, and Bob doesn't like it when I smack him with my long bow technique. That and Bob's A string broke, so since I'm better at faking, we traded instruments and I played the whole concert without an A string. It was pretty fun, actually. It's all psychological. I merely pretended that the A string was there and played as though it was, only instead of an A string, I bowed against wood and fingered against the bare fingerboard.
And the girls all went after the white guys. I feel so discriminated against, not like it matters. The only girl I need (Asian or otherwise) is in good old San Jose.
Back in Kyoto, I spent 3 hours in the internet cafe and had some more Tempura Soba for dinner. I told Lizzie I'd take her to the Japanese noodle house, but I couldn't find her after visiting the internet cafe, so I didn't have dinner with her, not like it matters.
As a last note, Kyoto was my favorite city, because of the flavorful Japanese noodlehouse and the internet cafe.
Day Ten
We rode a bus to Okayama, but on our way, we stopped at a rest stop, where I had more Tempura Soba.
We then had a rehearsal and a concert at Okayama, in addition, we played a joint concert with 3 other Japanese music groups, playing all three of our loud songs--1812, Stars and Stripes Forever, and Raider's March (the Indiana Jones song). It was my favorite concert.
Day Eleven
We had a welcoming party from Okayama city that played a recording of our concert the day before in the background. It was amusing, considering that we were leaving Okayama.
We visited Himeji Castle, which was pretty cool and really big.
Then, we went to Amagasaki. SJYS told us at most of the homestay families wouldn't have cars. They must be really backwards and technologically behind after we nuked them. Oh, whoops, that was Nagasaki. You know, I would have expected the Japanese to hate the Americans after we nuked them twice. Then again, we occupied them after the war, and usually, the US occupying a post-war nation makes them (or forces them) to like us.
Anyway, our homestay mother had a really nice car, and she cooked us noodles to eat last night. Graham wanted to wander the streets at night, but it was really boring, he claimed. I don't know for myself. I went to sleep.
Day Twelve
The end draws near. Today, we went to Archaic Hall (sounds old, doesn't it) for a rehearsal and Concert #6. At lunch, I had Tempura Soba!
First, the Amagasaki band had a concert, and they're harp player was really good. During intermission...
Me: Did you see the Japanese harp player?
Audrey: Yup.
Me: Can you do that?
Audrey: Yup.
Me: Are you better than her?
Audrey: Yup.
Me: Is that all you ever say?
Audrey: Yup.
During the Liszt, she hit a wrong note. Her mother (Ms. Shoemaker) freaked out.
After our regular concert, we had a joint concert with the Amagasaki band, playing 1812 and Stars and Stripes Forever. Our audience liked us so much that we played the Raider's March as a surprise encore.
We had a farewell dinner party where Amy came up with a ridiculous Awards voting thing. I shattered a plastic spoon with my teeth. It was really loud, probably because it was inside of my head.
We were given the choice to either stay up all night or go to sleep, or some combination. Since we had a hotel, and since I function better with sleep, I decided to sleep.
Day Thirteen
We woke up really early to get to the Osaka Itami Airport so that we could fly to the Tokyo Narita Airport and sit there and do nothing for six hours.
Me: Audrey, why are you avoiding me?
Audrey: Because I'm reading a book.
Me: Audrey, why are you avoiding me?
Audrey: I already told you!
Me: I don't know what to do about Adrey.
Audrey's Mom: Well, she's much too young for you anyway.
Right...
So I was wandering outside looking for the cheapest Tempura Soba, and I was standing outside a shop called Tempura looking at their ceramic food samples and prices when I heard a voice. "Is that Emma?" I said, so I walked into the shop and found Emma with six of her friends (including Lizzie and 5 other guys). They invited me to eat with them, so I did. I ordered Tempura Soba, then went outside and got some Ice Cream. The Chocolate Chip translated into Japanese was re-translated into English as Chocolate Tip. That's horrid!
So we finally boarded the airplane, and I watched Daredevil, which wasn't that bad, only it wasn't as good as Spiderman. *spoiler*Oh my fucking God! Kingpin was black! I can't decide whether that makes the movie more racist or less racist.*spoiler*
I also watched a Chinese movie about a boy who plays the violin called Together. Uhh... that was the name of the movie, not the boy or his violin. The movie starts out pretty boring, but the last half was pretty good.
I also watched Daredevil and Shanghai Knights again, alternately switching between English and Japanese by pressing the "Language" button every few seconds. Can you believe it? English voice acting sucks compared to Japanese voice acting. Even American movies sound better dubbed in Japanese it was ridiculous. And Together sounds better in Chinese, and the girl violinist reminded me of Linda in that she wasn't very thin and she was very bossy and mean. Heh, her English voice-over made her sound hella younger.
Anyway, I was given this form that I needed to fill out for Customs, and I said, "Goddamn Department of Homeland Security!"
Heh, it seems that I owe you twelve Dice Rolls, so here it goes:
Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 3 = 8
Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 4 = 6
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 5 = 9
Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 4 = 5
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 1 = 5
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 1 = 5
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 3 = 6
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 2 = 5
Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 3 = 7
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 5 = 8
Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 1 = 4
Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 4 = 5
Good Night!