Semjaza

I like the Pillows. They have some good albums. Thank You, My Twilight is probably my favorite of theirs. Recently I've been listening to Family Music by YMCK. It's basically Famicom (NES) music with a Japanese girl singing her own lyrics over it. It's pretty interesting because, from what I can tell, the music itself is from actual games and not something the group composed (like other 8-bit groups). Fun stuff.

[quote name='sweetreyes']Also how far should I take this interaction with The Daughter and Or Persona... I'm not quite sure how far I should take it so any input from Semjaza would be appreciated...[/quote] I really don't mind what anyone does with my character as long as it stays true to what I've done so far... This kind of means keeping his dialogue sparse and holding on to the bloodlust. I don't want to be responsible for anyone holding back in any way.

[quote name='Siren']EDIT: You're just arguing for the sake of arguing. Why?[/quote] If he is, you are as well. This argument should have ended several posts ago lol. I had a question about the Target Practice game. I've messed around with it and won a few bottlecaps, but is it just me or is the score counter a bit messed up? In some of the other versions you can play of it, I am doing really well but my score is not very high. Or at least not as high as it seems it should be. Maybe I'm crazy. I only found the one, too. I heard there are another two places to do that in.

[quote name='Sage']However, I'm planning to buy Shadow Hearts Covenant when it reaches this corner of the world, just because I've heard so much good about it, so maybe it will change my opinion (although I doubt it...). Disgaea is also in my target, I'm just waiting for the price to go below the obnoxious 65 ?![/quote] It's been getting good reviews overall. You might enjoy it. Personally, I think it's just below mediocre.

I'm not very interested in tattoos in general. I don't mind them, but I can't think of a single time I've seen one and thought "that's hot". Well, actually, this girl showed me this one Jack Skellington she had and I thought that was pretty damn cool... Plus, these lower back designs always just remind me of porn stars. In anything I've ever seen (even just articles with pictures of that said person), they seem to have some weird tribal design on their lower back. I'm not saying that I think people who have them are some how slutty, but that I'm just reminded of those porn stars lol.

Online "dating" is such a far cry from mail order brides, I don't know that I could even really compare them in any decent sense. Obviously there are sites that let you choose from these brides, but they're really no different than the random printed magazines/papers that people used to use instead. No real attempt is ever made to get to know these people beforehand, online or otherwise. The only link is that they both share the internet, really. With mail order brides, I don't know how that could ever go well as the whole thing just seems to be based on using the other person for one reason or another on both ends.

Danzig ... I have kind of stopped keeping up with the guy. Has some great older albums though (not even including the Misfits stuff). That could be a fun show, but the type of people that go to them always seem like something that would ruin it for me lol. Have fun. [quote name='Transtic Nerve][b]gODHEAD:[/b'] Can't go wrong with a techno-rock mix band who was produced (and some songs written and played) by Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez and has big names like Wayne Static featured on great songs. If you haven't heard gODHEAD do yourself a huge favor and go get an album or download a song.[/quote] There's only one song that was co-written by those two on 2000 Years of Human Error (the song is of the same name lol). I had noticed in the liner notes way back that one of the songs was written by "S. Putesky" though... I wonder if that is Scott Putesky who used to by Daisy Berkowitz way back in Manson's earlier years. The producer was some other guy whose name I forget, though. Manson's Posthuman Records published the CD, but he didn't actually produce it. I remember reading something about how the band wasn't entirely happy with the producer because he kind of just made it his record instead of theirs, but they were happy with Manson and his hands off approach towards their music. I never did get around to buying Evolver, but their earlier stuff is also great. They defintely are underrated. Also, I somewhat agree with CHW's choice of The Ataris because I do feel they're quite a bit better than many similar bands out there... although I do not like their last album at all. Offspring seems like a weird choice to me, but I guess it depends on ones age. They've been largely ignored the last several years, but I remember when they broke out before that. They were one of the most popular groups at my grade school... but I have to remember I live in a city, perhaps things just get played more around Chicago? I don't know lol.

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman][color=darkviolet][b]when you wash your hair use a shampoo that's designed for colored hair.[/b'] Even better, us that Pantene color effects (well, that's what I was told) because it helps to enhance the color.[/color][/quote] A lot of companies that make weird hair dye colors actually have shampoos designed to keep those colors in. I had one from Manic Panic designed to make purple hair last longer, for example.

I've never really thought about this. I don't regularly do things to make myself feel more masculine than I would normally act. I like some sports, I like comic books, I like video games, I like many things the stereotypical guy would like. At the same time, my favorite color is hot pink and I love flowers, things that would largely be attributed to females. Throughout my life I find myself associating most with things that don't really conform to these stereotypes. A large aspect of my life has been music for as long as I can remember, and a lot of the time the centerpieces of this have been Bowie and Manson. Two men who really have embraced both sides of everything in a gender sense, resulting in the sort of androgyny James spoke of in his first post. In my Modernism class, we've been going over topics such as the "New Woman" (namely, white middle-class women who were shifting from hopeless housewives to working level consumers) and all the things associated with that. It's weird how little the conception of what marks gender roles has changed. The number one answer in the 50s (maybe it was earlier, I can't remember) about what makes a man a man was that he supports his wife and family. It was still the number one answer in the late 90s.

At the same time, I have to wonder how much writing is ever going to evolve if people are continually forced to comply to specific methods. It hardly seems likely that Shakespeare, Thompson or countless others would have come into existance if they were made to stay within the boundaries of the time periods they were writing within, whether it's literature, journalism or anything else. This applies just as well to random modernist movements that pushed art in general around early last century. I don't like that aspect of writing or art or music, even though I find myself critiquing all three of them as anyone else would. There are always suggestions and there are always ways to improve things, but I wind up feeling like everyone tells me to do what [i]they[/i] would do if they wrote it, rather than what would make my work more effective in general. I don't find that very encouraging or insightful, to be honest. I get this a lot with websites, as that's my main creative output... Some people give you pointers and some people wind up telling you to do it in a way that they consider "correct". I don't find the latter to be that constructive, personally. I'm just saying this as a general comment on how things went for me in school and everyday life. I have no idea what sort of things Alex or Megan or any other person who would be interested in teaching would go about their grading policies. From what I know of them, I doubt they'd fit into this category of person I'm "complaining" about anyway. At the same time, one can take another's input and use it or ignore it at their own discretion (and people, in general, tend to respect that), so a lot of what I'm saying it probably pointless lol.

I didn't post in this? 1.) Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - As far as I'm concerned, this is the best RPG for the PS2 up until this point. I absolutely loved every last aspect of it and, much to my surprise, everyone that got it thanks to my constant gushing enjoyed it as well. Be sure to check out the thread. It goes over pretty much anything you'd want to know about it before you buy it. 2.) Activision Anthology - This is an old one, but I don't think many people own it. It can be found for $10 new most of the time, even less used. It's basically a large collection of Activision Atari games. The presentation is excellent, there are lots of neat unlockables, original manuals and stuff in the game to look at and even music from the period like Twisted Sister. Totally worth the money. I wrote about it on 1-Up Gaming awhile back if anyone wants to read that. 3.) Baten Kaitos - This is arguably the best RPG on the GameCube... or at least pretty much right up there with Paper Mario. The basic plotline is a bit cliche, but the characters are excellently portrayed (turn off the voices!) and the battle system is about twenty times better than I expected. Worth the time.

[quote name='Altron']I believe that the belief you were talking about was revoked a few years, ago, when the Church realized how idiotic the rule was. Not that it actually means anything.[/quote] If you're refering to the concept of Original Sin, then no, that's never been removed. What is supposed to "remedy" it is Baptism, which obviously happens to probably 99% of children of Catholic descent anyway. Original Sin, in some sense, is actually applied to most Christian religions, but I don't know exactly how it is dealt with as I was raised in a Catholic lifestyle for the most part.

I remember Don't Shoot the Goombas. It was actually my first (and one of like three) RPGs I particpated in. Too bad it got so out of control... I thought I was actually doing pretty well.

Doing it that often is really not good for your hair. I'd kind of lay off a bit and do it a bit less in such a short time span. Especially those with darker hair that generally have to bleach for much to show up. I dye every so often. It used to be more common, but once you're old enough to get hired for actual careers, it's hard to do. I can't walk into interviews with pink hair and hope to get anywhere, that age is over with already. Last time I did pink. I've done silver, orange, green and aquamarine otherwise. And yes, Loreal is TERRIBLE. It doesn't dye your hair the color it claims. The blue is usually some horrible mess and the orange results in a weird brown. Really crappy dye for unusual colors. I avoid Manic Panic too as I find it to be crappy and short lasting. I personally like Punky Colors (some people are allergic or have other issues), but I usually stick to Special FX, which I've found to be the best.

Nirvana were freaking huge. Every "grunge" band and most bands of the 90s took a backseat to their popularity in the 90s. It' seems strange to not realize how massive their fanbase was, which is what I assume people mean by "mainstream". In fact, the only reason most other similar bands even were noticed by labels was because of the enormous success of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Even well know bands such as Pearl Jam owe thanks to that song's success as their album Ten (which actually came out before Teen Spirit hit the airwaves) picked up sales after Nirvana's explosion. I've never really been a big Nirvana fan. I enjoy them and really like the Unplugged album, but it's never been more than a casual interest. I guess the best thing about grunge was its destruction of the hair metal/rock bands which had been around entirely too long. Personally, I wasn't saddened when grunge's popularity declined anyway.

You do have back-ups on your PC? I can't seem to get a clear answer to that from your post. Mine was as easy as changing the link... Luckily I kept my files on my server instead. They're almost unreadable without the background since I used white text lol. At least everyone else's are readable either way.

[quote name='James][color=#334366']Thanks for your patience, everyone. The new chapter includes Maklav, Sweetreyes and Semjaza. If you are behind on your reading, please ensure that you check up on that. Also, use this thread to ask any questions. ^_^[/color][/quote] Does anyone know what's going on with this chapter? It's been around two weeks since the description was posted, but I've not heard anything at all.

Actually, the first [i]four[/i] Dragon Warrior/Quest titles were released here for the NES. I own all of them. Dragon Warrior 4, however, did not sell very well... likely because it was near the end of the NES's life and was barely advertised. As such, it wasn't really considered that heavily for release once the sequels came out on the SNES. 5 an 6 on the Super Famicom were totally ignored by Enix here. There weren't even rumors of their release. It's a shame since 5 is largely considered the best in the series by Japanese fans and 6 was pretty damn good too. As mentioned, the only way you can play either of these here as of right now are ROMs with fan translations. Some time after, Enix actually completely closed its US offices. Any Enix game afterwards that was released was published by other companies (like Star Ocean: Second Story by Sony). After that, Eidos released the Game Boy game Dragon Warrior Monsters here, which is kind of more related to Pokemon than anything. Enix started up their US distribution company again around this time and released Dragon Warrior I&II for the Game Boy. It's the same as the original games, but with better graphics and cutscenes. They then released the next wave of Dragon Warrior Monsters titles and Dragon Warrior III for the GBC. I've not played the former, but the latter is probably my favorite game on the Game Boy Color. I didn't expect Dragon Quest 7 to be brought here, but it was. Good game. Definitely not the best in the series, but I did enjoy it. It's ugly as hell outside of the awesome enemy animations, but yeah. After that, Enix had plans to release the Playstation remake of Dragon Quest 4 here. However, Heartbeat, the Japanese company responsible for the remake, wound up disbanding. Apparently they coded the game in such a way that it was just too much work to translate it and insert the English text without them. The project was cancelled. Since then, Enix and Square have obviously teamed up. Dragon Quest 8 hit Japan not too long ago. It has a graphics engine done by the same team who did Dark Cloud 2 (Enix always outsources different parts of DQ for whatever reason). Square-Enix has made numerous comments about how they want to bring this series to the states and popularize it again... but I don't know of any specific release date as of yet. That's about all there is to say.

[quote name='Godelsensei']I also hate it when people say I need to stop being addicted to 'Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando'.[/quote] Anyone that says that is some sort of fun-destroying robot. One thing I hate most is probably something that's largely confined to larger cities, particularly the downtown area (or uptown, depending on where you live). Downtown Chicago is absolutely filled with people at normal hours, making walking a hassle. You spend more time dodging people and bending over backwards to avoid getting rammed into. I can't stand people that don't even [i]attempt[/i] to move over. This is especially common with businessmen, particularly those who feel they need to walk in groups of three abreast or more. Apparently moving out of this configuration would affect them negatively in some way that's unknown to the rest of the human population. Meanwhile, I'm an inch from a wall and still twisting myself to avoid getting their cigarette ashes (or umbrella) in my eyes. I think the city sidewalks should be divided up like streets. If you're going one way, you stay on one side. That's it, no exceptions unless you're turning into a doorway. Maybe there can be slow lanes for old women and people who can't talk and walk at the same time too.

[quote name='Shinmaru'] I only have one game for my DS right now, Super Mario 64 DS, so I'll be glad to see another game that's worthy of my money for the DS.[/quote] Check out Wario Ware Touched or Zoo Keeper. Both are excellent games that I've spent a lot of time with. Their story modes may be a bit short, but I love beating high scores, so I play Wario Ware pretty often. I've not gotten around to getting Zoo Keeper yet, but it's basically that game on my site times 100 lol

Vets have to go through some normal medical school and then specialize in animals afterwards, from all I'm ever told. I'd be surprised if they didn't know first aid.

Comparing giving information to terrorists to what can be expressed in a video game doesn't work and really makes little sense. Sometimes I wonder if people realize exactly what freedom of speech is, as it's not really as simple as one may believe. Freedom of speech is still a strong argument for anything that can be construed as "art" (regardless of what people think of games, if movies can be considered art, games are pretty much alongside it) and it's what has kept games free this long. Movies weren't even included under the act until the 50s or so. There's always a precendent. However, I've not read much about banning games outright in recent months. The main thing right now seems to be going after those who sell explicit games to minors with fines and jail time. I read something about this involving California the other day, but who knows if it was the same person or not. The Governor in Illinois wants to the same and I have no problem with it as he says once people are old enough (i.e., whatever it says the age group on the rating is), it's their business.

I didn't want to be either of these growing up and I never really pretended to be them either. I'd probably side with dMage, I was more into fantastical things like TMNT and such. Obviously there's no chance I'm going to change into a humanoid animal thanks to some ooze, but I guess there's always the dream. :rolleyes:

I don't know why you'd think Sky Captain done right... Sin City is so unrelated to the film that I don't even know how to compare them, other than the fact that both are obviously stylized. I don't get this lol. I loved Sky Captain because of its old serial feel, which the story pretty much stayed true to. I also forgot to mention The Devil's Rejects. I'm like one of three people who enjoyed House of 1,000 Corpses and this is more or less the direct sequel. It almost gave more of a Natural Born Killers feel than a horror movie feel. Not that I think the films will be that alike, it's just it seemed like a completely different film than I expected. I hope it turns out.

[I think you really wind up despising group projects when they involve your [i]entire[/i] class. I had one called Professional Practices that involved the twenty-five or so kids that were in my class all working together to put together a short film and everything around it. I was in locations, but somehow wound up in charge of that section. Other people did directing, cameras, designs, costumes, etc. Obviously the point of the class was for us all to see how hard a large project like this is, particularly with our lack of experience. It did a good job at that. It's hard to want to rely on people to do what's specified in their job title after a class like that. People don't show up or they come back after a long abscence and expect to be in charge. People give misinformation, wrong times are given, others don't follow through. Or you can do your job and then those above you don't really check out what you did, causing further problems. I had many issues where I'd bring my locations in, people wouldn't look at them and then I'd be asked why I didn't find any places yet. Not all group projects are bad, but I'd say most of the ones I've been involved with have been.