Semjaza

This is going to make me seem evil, but I don't do it anymore. It's something I used to do when I was younger. Anyway, I'm sure everyone knows what lightning bugs are. For those that don't, they're these flying insects that come out in the summer. They have this glowing stuff in their abdomen that lights up periodically. Anyway, as a child I used to get into karate matches with these things. I'd punch or kick them when they lit up. On impact, they usually light up for a second and then either fly away or float to the ground. As a kid this was amusing, as an adult I think it's something a brat would do heh. Anyway, that's all I can think of.

My first kiss was with my first girlfriend and all I can say is that is was probably the worst kiss of my entire life. Apparently I kept putting off kissing her on dates and she finally asked why I hadn't yet... so I said I would and she literally lunged at my face. I thought she was going to rip it off. Even in more normal situations, she was a terrible kisser. Really, really bad.

To sum it up in one word: "kick***". This, in my opinion, is one of the best banners I've yet to see here. It's composed well and the image is abstract, yet still indentifable. The use of color is great, in particular. What you've done is something I stick with quite a bit -- a heavy use of primary colors to seperate things. I think it usually works quite well, and it certainly did in this case.

Anglicans are still Christians... they're just Protestants, like pretty much every single president in US history, with an obvious exception. And look how that turned out. I don't know why you felt some need to bypass the censor to say that though.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by ChibiHorsewoman [/i][B][COLOR=deeppink] On a final note, I can't stand Marylin Manson. His voice reminds me of cats in a blender. But hey, that's just me My husband likes him enough tho.[/COLOR] [/B][/QUOTE] Heh. I can see this viewpoint. lol There are times when I feel he growls far too much... especially live. The guy isn't the most amazing vocalist, but he definitely CAN sing... as evidenced on Mechanical Animals. I'm not sure why he's gone farther away from that into more of a scowling voice, but eh. It does fit the overall tone of the band.

I can't think of a girl in any anime that I'd bother with. If they're cool, they have some weird personality defect... like actually being a demon. If they're normal in that sense, they act bizarre. No thanks lol.

It's so high that no one is going to reach it in any normal amount of time, like Sara said. It used be 100 or something, which I filled up rather fast thanks to the fact that it counts sent and recieved PMs. Anyway, nothing to worry about.

This is the date Nintendo recently added to its site: [url]http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=m-Game-0000-1882&[/url] June 30, 2004 Yay!

I'm sorry, but you all are INSANE. The best parts of SMS were those subzone areas with nothing but platforms. God, I wish the game had more of them. I've finished LttP without dying on SNES as well as on GBA. It's not very difficult overall, but certainly moreso than the N64 and GCN incarnations.

Dialogue in Animal Crossing? Other than the times it repeated, I thought that game had such a great localization. I loved hearing the stupid and weird comments the characters would make... even Mr. Rosetti. He rocked! I suppose at times it can go on for quite a while depending on the situation, but I personally enjoyed it overall. As for SMS, I can see where you're coming from. I didn't find the individual stages repetitive, but the goals certainly were. Having to revisit the same area 10 times to get all the Shines and then go onto another new world and do a few of the same goals (Shadow/Water Mario for instance) got really annoying. I think it's awesome as a pure platformer though. And I still cannot figure out why FF on the NES allows only one save slot. Whose idea was that? Even Dragon Warrior, released years before, allowed three saves. Lame. I don't know what my frustrating moments were. I think most were in the NES days and they all involved third parties. So I'll speak of one of those, a game which I have a lot of experience in -- Super Pitfall. I'm sure everyone is familiar with Pitfall. It originally appeared on the Atari 2600 and was done by Activision, a rather premiere publisher at the time. There were a couple mundane sequels (most recently Mayan Adventure and that new one that's not out yet), but this was just horrible. I don't know whose idea it was, but it was made by Pony Canyon. Activision just recoded it for the US. The game involves saving your cat and your girlfriend, apparently. It just has so many things in it that are annoying and make you want to pull your hair out. The control isn't bad, but everything else is. The graphics are so primitive that you don't know what's what, there are invincible enemies that lunge out at you, your gun shoots the equivalent of 3 feet and then the bullet disappears, if you don't jump off a ledge you simply fall and fall and fall until you land somewhere else (the game world is so deep that this can take over a minute somtimes), one hit kills you, etc. The worst thing is definitely the non-linearity of the game. You have no clue what to do. Added to this is the fact that any item of importance is INVISIBLE and you'll see the problem. You basically have to walk and jump around in every little corner in the hopes of something appearing or a warp taking you to a new area. If you manage to finish it, you're treated to a bonus quest which is just the same exact game with items in new places. What happens if you beat that? You get to play it over and over and over and over again. Yeah, that's right... it NEVER ENDS!!!! Gah, worst game I've ever played... although it can be fun just running around and seeing how dumb it is.

Yeah. I like dungeons. Perhaps I'm in the minority these days? lol FFX was even worse... Run in a straight line to the goal. Same with Suikoden III, actually, although I just found the game more involving than FFX, personally. In FF7, they were really just a few screens and that was that. Even FF6 had some nice ones. I miss it heh. And yes, it's true that FMV sequences might be ran in real time... the main issue for me is that they often pull me out of the game entirely. Even if FFX, there's a massive difference between the quality of the FMV and real time graphics. Maybe this doesn't happen to other people? It affects me, that's all I know. In FFX voice, due to the voices, the FMV could be used for story telling... but in most games preceding it on the console, there wee no voice overs. So any FMV that was included was simply eye candy, for the most part. I have to agree that it was well used in FF7, but eh. I guess I'm just into other things. I still stand by my opinion on the FF7 US translation though heh.

James -- Well less reliance on story telling devices does not automatically mean a lack of plot or character development. At one time, it did, simply due to cartridge constraints and the youth of the genre on consoles. The NES FFs didn't exactly have amazing stories, for example. I'm mostly referring the reliance FF has on FMVs, long cutscenes and pretty much anything else that helps remove any of the possibilites for your own thoughts on the situation. It's becoming more and more movie-like... and while it started with FF6, I think FF7 capitalized on it and FFX did even moreso (the big difference being that FFX simply didn't have anything of interest for me story wise). The addition of voices pretty much removed any personal connection I could have with the game (although it's possibly because of some of the poor dubbing... FFX-2 improved on this and I don't mind voice overs in PC RPGs, for example). Personally, it's something I'm not big on in general. I can see why others might prefer it. My other issues with FF7 involved the complete lack of any decent dungeons and the characters, who I, personally, am still not fond of. Obviously this goes against most people's opinions on the characters here though heh. The game never really got to me like it did for so many others, and this is the game that was the only reason I even bought a Playstation in the first place. I was definitely looking forward to it. For example, I didn't have this problem with Skies of Arcadia. The story is still pretty good and the characters very likable and decently developed. It just didn't have the same reliance on the story telling devices that FF currently uses. I'm just not big on them and it seems they are being made more and more of a focal point. Luckily, Matsuno's comments on FFXII leave me optimisitc for the future. I've been looking forward to that game since before we even knew much about FFXI, simply because of his involvement.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by James [/i][B][color=#707875]I greatly enjoyed all the dialogue in FFVII...the "blabber" was generally great. And it was well translated (our version, at least). So it was nice and it was fun to read people's different personalities.[/color] [/B][/QUOTE] I think you know me well enough to know that I don't simply lash out on games for no just cause. I've been playing FF games since the first year they hit the US. Yet, I do have a poor opinion of FF7 though FFX (and even FF6 to some extents). Here, FF7 was just poorly translated, in my opinion. A lot of it is completely incohesive and muddled, especially in terms of Sephiroth. When someone needs to create a FAQ about Cloud's motivations and people still argue about the true existance of Sephiroth in a mortal coil, I think there's a problem. These aren't things the game didn't try to address (which would mean they were up to the player to make their own decisions on), they just weren't addressed [i]well[/i]. I know a lot of people feel otherwise, but on the other hand, I'm not someone who gets confused by complex storylines. I'm not simply just misunderstanding this game, especially considering there are more complex ones around. The rest of my issues with the game are really just personal, so I won't bother lol From speaking to you in the past, you've given me the impression that your translation was tightened up. This is something I think would have benefited FF7 greatly. I blame SCEA, although they didn't screw it over as much as they did Star Ocean: Second Story and Grandia. [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by James [/i] [B][color=#707875] But I must ask a question about this dialogue business. Am I the only one who would prefer text-only dialogue in games? [/color] [/B][/QUOTE] No, you're not. I'd much rather read. I'd much rather use my own imagination to fill in the blanks and come up with my own ideas on how characters should sound. I don't like a crappy localization team making that decision for me. I've played many RPGs that were seriously almost [i]ruined[/i] thanks to the translation or addition of voices. This is also why I likeRPGs that aren't as story centric as FF is now. That doesn't mean I don't like a good story... I do. However, FF recently has been removing all the chance I have for imagination. In old school RPGs, there was little story by comparison. You had to form your own opinions on characters and their ideals... something that is just missing from these games. Some people may love that, I personally don't. I read rather quickly as well, and I hate having to sit there while these characters are still reading lines and I want to move on. Many voice filled RPGs give you the option of pressing the "ok" button to advance the text or skip it when you're done reading. All should allow this. As for Zelda, I totally agree. I don't want Link to EVER talk. Charles knows full well my opinion on that heh.

I've never bothered with the Star Wars comics. I'm not sure why. Someone had convinced me they were nothing special, so I've never checked them out. I might as well next time I'm at the shop. I've mostly been reading the same old, same old. New X-Men obviously, which is still kicking butt. The current arc is great and even the goofy bad guys that are currently helping Magneto are interesting. Runaways is great as always. I almost missed the current issue, but I managed to get it later on. I'm really happy that they're back to those painted covers. I think the last issue was black with simple art, like a good deal of other Marvel comics for that month. Looking forward to the next issue... it's a shame that this and Sentinel apparently might not make it past a few more issues. Human Target is still one of my favorites. I don't know if anyone ever bothered with it -- I've recommended it a few times -- but it really is great stuff. The latest issue was no exception. X-Statix has been going well. I was starting to wonder where the current arc was going with Henrietta, but the latest issue answered that and made it all tie together well. Good as always. I still need to pick up Losers and a few others. Missed Plastic Man #1, so I'm hoping for a reprinting.

It's cheap there because it's a bootleg.

The only one worth my time is Grandpa's Last X-Mas by The Vandals.

The problem with the better, more involved board games is that no one ever wants to play them. It was a chore and a half to ever get anyone in my family to play Monopoly with me. If we did, it was with simplified rules too. No one worried about mortgages and stuff, we just played for the cash. In retrospect, it probably made it more fun at that age. Same deal with Risk, although obviously not as complex. It's just time consuming. I've played some really great games of that. Sorry, Mouse Trap, Operation, Picture Picture and Scrabble are all fun too.

Coma White is a beautiful song. A nice way to end an incredible album... one I would consider to be among the best to ever be recorded in the history of rock. I'm sure most would scoff at that idea, but if you give it a chance, I believe you would think the same. It's the modern day Ziggy Stardust in every sense. Beautiful, powerful music video too.

I'm quite aware of the Y-Not thing, everyone. Sarah/anatema and I actually talked about it awhile back lol.

What is your thoughts on the two singers then...? I'm not quite sure what angle you were going after with that comment lol.

Yes, you should get off your lazy *** and see the rest of the show :D Especially if you bothered with the Boogiepop set. You're missing out on the best stuff. The stuff that will probably totally screw your mind over. It's what makes Lain so enjoyable heh. It is expensive though. I slowly bought all four DVDs over a long time span. The set wasn't even out at the time. So it didn't seem to expensive in retrospect.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dagger IX1 [/i][B]but you should probably go with Semjaza's advice, since he's seen all of Lain, and I haven't yet had the chance to do so. ~Dagger~ [/B][/QUOTE] How much of Lain have you been able to see?

What is your name? [b]Tony[/b] Spell your name backwards. [b]Ynot[/b] Date of birth: [b]08-08-1982[/b] Male or female? [b]Male[/b] Astrological sign: [b]Leo[/b] Nicknames: [b]None.[/b] Occupation? [b]College is my life[/b] Height: [b]5'11"[/b] Weight: [b]170 lbs.[/b] Hair color: [b]Various shades of blonde.[/b] Eye color: [b]Blue.[/b] Where were you born? [b]San Diego, California[/b] Where do you reside now? [b]Chicago, IL[/b] Age: [b]60630[/b] Screen names: [b]Semjaza Azazel[/b] E-mail addy: [b]Yeah right.[/b] What does your screen name stand for? [b]An angel.[/b] What is your gangsta name? [b]I wouldn't even say that word. I'm part of that sect of people who says -er words correctly. What a novel idea![/b] What does your diary name stand for? [b]I don't have a diary.[/b] Pets: [b]Kit, my ferret[/b] Number of candles you blew out on your last birthday cake? [b]2.[/b] Piercings? [b]No.[/b] Tattoos? [b]No.[/b] Shoe size: [b] Depends... 9.5 Converse, and around 11/12s in Vans.[/b] Righty or lefty? [b]Righty[/b] Wearing right now: [b]Messed up jeans, a godhead shirt and a sweater.[/b] Hearing: [b]Myself typing this crap.[/b] Feeling: [b]Tired[/b] Eating/drinking: [b]Nothing[/b] ~[strike]Guys[/strike]Girls/Love/Kissing/And Other Stuff~ Have you ever been in love? [b]Yeah.[/b] How many people have you told "I love you"? [b]Two.[/b] How many people have you been in love with? [b]I'm guessing two.[/b] How many people have you kissed? [b]Three.[/b] Have you ever kissed someone of the same sex? [b]Nope.[/b] How many people have you dated? [b]Four.[/b] What do you look for in a guy? [b]Personality... someone not totally insecure would be nice. Similar music taste is a plus.[/b] What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? [b]Eyes.[/b] What type of guy do you usually go for? [b]I don't like guys. I go for dorky girls.[/b] Do you have a bf? [b]No, but I have a girlfriend.[/b] If so where did you meet them? [b]Work[/b] What do you like most about your bf? [b]His big penis.[/b] Do you have a crush right now? [b]Possibly.[/b] Do you believe in love at first sight? [b]No.[/b] Do you remember your first love? [b]Yes.[/b] Who is the first person you kissed? [b]Meghan. Man that was bad.[/b] Do you believe in fate? [b]No.[/b] Do you believe in soul mates? [b]Not by the basic definition, no.[/b] If so do you believe you'll ever find yours? [b]I said no.[/b] ~Family Stuff~ How many siblings do you have? [b]Three[/b] What are your parents names? [b]Andy and Cyndi[/b] What are your siblings names? [b]James, William, Gina[/b] How many siblings does your mother have? [b]Two[/b] How many siblings does your father have? [b]Two[/b] Where are your parents from? [b]Chicago.[/b] Is your family close? [b]Depends on the day of the week.[/b] Does your family get together for holidays? [b]Yeah.[/b] Do you have a drunk uncle? [b]I have a drunk everything.[/b] Any medical problems run through your family? [b]Nothing in particular.[/b] Does someone in your family wear a toupee? [b]No, sadly. I once came up with a super hero named Toupee Man though. He was cool.[/b] Do you have any nieces or nephews? [b]Nope.[/b] Are your parents divorced? [b]No.[/b] Do you have step parents? [b]Yes.[/b] Has your family ever disowned another member of your family? [b]No.[/b] Did some of your family come to America from another country? [b]Not in any recent generation.[/b] ~Music Stuff~ What song do you swear was written about you or your life? [b]Nothing fits.[/b] What's the most embarrasing cd you own? [b]I don't own anything I feel sucks.[/b] What's the best CD you own? [b]Ziggy Stardust[/b] What song do you absolutely hate? [b]I hate a lot. I'm not listing it all.[/b] Do you sing in the shower? [b]I'm too busy doing other things...[/b] What song reminds you of that special someone? [b]Nothing. Maybe Last Day on Earth[/b] I'd like that time back.

My official nickname for Arcadia is Megaton. It's a good one.

This game has quite a few shortcuts in pretty much every track. There are a few I've found out about way after the fact. I didn't even know they were there. There are several that require a Mushroom to use... and if you mess up, you're screwed. Yoshi's Island and Dino Whatever are good examples. The bridge track is Mushroom Bridge... and yeah, you have the dirt path. There's also one right at the start of the race that sends you down some stairs into a pipe (which is only good if you blast through it lol) and you can also drive up the sides of the bridge itself (if you fall off that, there's a good chance of landing on the traffic). There's some more little time savers in there too. I guess they aren't true shortcuts, but they do shave off some time.