Stories of a Wandering Tree

I actually don't remember what's going on in my life. Probably nothing beyond tutoring, but I don't really have very much to say about that. Although, interestingly, I came across some thing that made me re-interested in the MBTI personality types thing. On tests for those, I usually ended up with INTJ, but INTP wasn't exactly uncommon. But apparently both of those types are difficult to really get to know and difficult for others to understand, and are not exactly great at the whole intimacy thing. Somehow that seems to explain a lot of problems I tend to have with other people who I don't dislike.

Anyway, the primary reason I ever post anything here is for video games, so let's get to those.

( Dragon Shadow Spell, Blue Roses, and WHAT DO AFTER :(Collapse )

Other than that, I've played a little Zangeki. Enough to get to about 30% online (I did some Normal Frey stages with a different friend from the one I usually play with) and online I've cleared everything on Hardest except for 63 with Frey. I just have such a hard time with that second Surt form. He's gotten way too fast since Hard mode, so now my sword range seems insufficient. But I can't use a spear because I need to be able to guard and I can't do his last two forms without a bow. I got as far as the final form once, but I wasn't able to kill even one of its spears before I died (to golems, actually, not fire explosions). It's cruel to see Alvilda getting infinitely air juggled by arms and lasers during this part. Not sure how I'll beat it. I might just need more health or to not forget that the spears spawn golems.

( Also, EDF!Collapse )

I also wrote a total of one song. Whoaaa. ... it's not very good and I still don't get music theory. But progress! It exists!

Because all I did was play them.

( ZONE OF THE ENDERS.Collapse )

( ZANGEKI NO REGINLEIV.Collapse )

Tomorrow: lethal bananas? I won't be able to play Zangeki much tomorrow. :( Very sad.

Chinese class is horrible we spent a whole day practicing an alternate way to ask yes or no questions. AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES ON SOMETHING THAT SHOULD NEED 5 MINUTES MAX. WHY.

I read some book called Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. It was painful to read, with all these disgusting beliefs the narrator had. "WOMEN HAVE A DUTY TO SHARE THEIR BEAUTY WITH OTHERS." Nasty. And, though I otherwise would have liked the quote in context, all that stuff from earlier poisoned quotes like "Why should a creature with the shadow of death upon it feel him flinch away as if its touch were abhorrent?" Because, you know, the guy was complaining about how nobody wants to have sex with old people. Brains are so great at twisting things around. Anyway, I did like the book despite it being the only book to make me actually feel terrible.

I played a little more DSS since last time. I don't remember what I changed, but I finally cleared all of Heaven's Door except for the 50th Sector (and was intensely disappointed because the music was still the same boring song that played for the past 49 sectors WHY CAN'T I AT LEAST HAVE HEART CREATURE PLAY MORE THAN ONCE IN THE ENTIRE GAME). Couldn't beat Nirvana or whatever the boss's name was. But I did some albino grinding (I hope this sounds really weird) and now I have AP+1 and attackx2 on most of my dudes. Also thinking that replacing Vista with Sieg might make it better since he's stronger.

( THEN I GOT ZONE OF THE ENDERS (but not the fabulous version because I still thought it was coming out in December)Collapse )

I also saw a thing. オバマとロム兄 AND YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO SEE THE REST. Just. Rom-nii. Also, I keep seeing gross commercials and signs everywhere. I do hope the majority of Minnesota isn't actually this insane, but they probably are. Oh well.

Tutoring wasn't so bad this time. I guess just having a plan and not literally spending the full hour reading made it seem way better. I still feel really intimidated, though. There were 40 words on this rather small list (probably only 100 words total, if that) of common 2nd grade vocabulary that this 4th grader didn't know. How can I make a difference in only ten hours with that much to catch up on?

Video games. Always with the video games. I've been playing a little bit of EDF2. In stage 29 I was so confused for like 20 minutes. I killed the huge ant and all the others around, and I kept trying to find these mysterious final few enemies. I got frustrated and started shooting randomly in hopes that maybe the Thunder Sniper whatever I was using would jump around and alert something. And then I find out that the bizarre white/yellow things are eggs, not weird crystal formations. My brain doesn't even make sense. ALSO I DID STAGE 30 AND CENTIPEDES ARE AWFUL.

Dragon Shadow Spell! ( I'll stop playing this game some day.Collapse )

Also I guess anime exists. I only have one more episode of Yes! Precure 5 to watch and then I can watch the movie/sequel/whatever else. And then I might swap back to Ojamajo Doremi instead of Precure because Smile Precure is making me not care about Precure anymore. I'm such a heathen. Also, I watched all of Hyouka because I liked it and HEY THEY PLAYED FAURE'S SICILIENNE THAT'S AWESOME. When it first played that was like. Well, probably exactly like that time I was watching Gunslinger Girl and suddenly the ending was based off of Après un rêve. The world needs more Faure and I have this awkward feeling that maybe he's more popular in Japan than he is in the US. Weird.

As for actually new stuff, I'm watching a bunch of things I don't like all that much. I haven't been able to get up the courage to watch the Noitamina shows yet, either. I guess Zetsuen no Tempest is the most interesting, though the second episode was really lame in comparison to the first and all this theatricals everywhere is sometimes too much for me to handle. The quote "What you want isn't only difficult to acquire. It's also trivial. Even if you got it, it wouldn't make you happy." is amazing though. IT MUST BE THE MEANING OF LIFE. THAT QUOTE. Now the question is, does it trump Red Elegy's last lines in lifeyness?

I lied, I'm always depressed.

It turns out that the power of friendship really does overcome all obstacles. Except for the stupid Naglfar and its huge Lindwurm spawns. Screw that noise. But yeah, in Zangeki we beat all those awful stages we had left on Hard and did about half of Hardest. Also one stage on Inferno, but that was for crystal-farming experiments. But seriously, the strategy that's been getting us through most things involves Walrusfriend spearing away all the dangerous stuff while I, uh... don't die and sometimes shoot big dangerous things that take too long to die/fly too high/give birth to too many lindwurms. And SkypeZangeki is great. Keeps me from letting my logic prevail and then we can talk about getting stuck in wells and the silly noises the rhino enemies make for four hours. Also dogs.

I finished Gloria Union again, so now I've gotten all the endings. Geo Pamela is the best Pamela. I maxed out Sand Storm, actually. :( It was just that awesome. Although, BU and GU have really low maximums for card power. It's 5000 instead of 9999, so not really impressive. I'm surprised the C end wasn't the canon ending. Like, they have the stupid manta ray (totally a reference to the Manta Mantle you need) in the opening and the whole thing's way more dramatic and stuff. It's just 100% better than the other endings, which are pretty dumb.

I looked around at ending stuff for Blaze Union since I never understood what determined them before, but it's actually pretty easy. Flags and the like. I'll probably continue my third playthrough whenever this constant Zangeki dies down, so I can finally get the C path/ending. And then I'll have gotten all of them in BU, too.

Now to go back to being nervous about 4th graders on Monday again oh cod what am I going to do. :(

... No, I still feel the world-destroying depression of getting flamed in the face and thus dying to enemies that swirl around behind you, above you, in front of you, everywhere. I thought it was bad in Hardest offline until I just got used to dodging around everywhere when they were around, but no, it is not okay online in Hardest no matter what. It's just not.

And the lobsters aren't that bad, I guess, but those SWARMS, man. Infinite sigh works.

So, for all that other stuff I said I would post about. I've been watching The Alfred Hitchcock Hour because apparently it's on one of those Encore channels, and he's usually pretty cool. I actually have only really liked two or three episodes so far, but at least the dialogue is silly at random times.

Video game stuff... I got my own Wii and played through Graces a few times, and also played a ton of Zangeki. Offline I've cleared through Hard and I'm stuck at like, stage 42 on Hardest. Those eyeballs are just way too intimidating. I actually haven't even beat Naglfar with Frey yet because all of my bows for him are terrible and lindwurms are awful now. All those cave stages were pretty fun since everything's way too fast now, and red lobsters are like instantdeath. I beat the last one with red lobsters by cutting them through the floor because that's just how I do things.

I also did a second playthrough of Gloria Union and got the B ending. I used Pamela and felt like it was a mistake the whole time because every single BF with Undines was awful since she's weak to them and I didn't really use any axe people. On the bright side, Enryetta was always a piece of cake (she was ridiculous in my first playthrough). I was going to go to the positive fame BFs again for my C end run, but then I got Sand Storm and realized how glorious it would be to use it on every single Undine that gave me trouble. Of course, Pamela has that geo skill effect, so she doesn't need them to be on desert terrain to destroy everything with that awesome damage formula. And it overkills Undines. NO REGRETS.

Other miscellaneous things. I'm learning Mandarin, working on Japanese again, and I've started some cool project thing where I compose a song every two months. When I get better at it I'll probably shorten the deadline. But how else can I become a famous moose of a musician if I don't learn to write the type of music I want to play? Nobody else is writing it, after all. Or at least not in the US... It's actually been a really good thing for learning bits and pieces of music theory. I never knew anything about theory before, so that's a definite bonus.

( WHY SO LITTLE POSTING? You probably shouldn't read this if you can't handle broad, sweeping, hateful statements about people from St. Cloud, MN. And I'm censoring myself, even, by not talking about my lovely family which happens to include two people who think it's okay to screw me over with something I had almost nothing to do with and then insult the person I respect most out of all the humans in the universe, who coincidentally had absolutely nothing to do with the situation.Collapse )

So anyway, uh. I've been reading What Is The What by Dave Eggers. I didn't like it for a while, but eventually it was good. Actually, it probably became good as soon as bad things started happening. Oh, humans, finding entertainment in the misfortune of others. I did a bunch of video game stuff too but I don't really remember anything right now, so maybe tomorrow I'll post about that stuff.

( Guess what this post is about.Collapse )

SCHOOL. Dumb. Taking two classes with this Koffi guy (if you think coffee or better yet Koffing then unfortunately you are pronouncing it wrong) in one semester was a mistake. Seems like every day we just hate on each other constantly. Me hating on his poor teaching and him hating on my apathy/not knowing all the answers to things that were never explained to me. According to him my reading comprehension is terrible, too. I'd rather believe my reading comprehension is as acceptable as it's always been, and that he just didn't read the book. He's ruining Phonolology too. :(

VIDYA GAEMZ. Aside from like an hour each of EDF2, Growlanser, and Shining Force Feather all I've played is Dragon Shadow Spell. I beat it and like. All I really remember is Sieg (I don't even know if this is what his name is supposed to be since Japanese is pretty incompatible with German consonants) freaking out over Miriam, challenging Kaito to a duel and me losing because he dual wields chainsaws. Yeah. And a ridiculous string of final battles which involved a lot of Ayako Kawasumi and lasers. AND THE BEST NEW GAME+ BONUS SELECTION THING EVER. http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/446/dsci0365.jpg

And, kind of obviously, started a new game. With permaTatsuki and Buena now! Because they are cool. And then right after you're supposed to lose Tatsuki, I went to Heaven's Door and selected all my dudes (Tatsuki included) and once I exited the menu she suddenly disappeared like she died... so I selected her again and she didn't show up at all. Checked her status, and she's got 0 HP. Thankfully that was apparently a glitch and never happened again. Game was going to make me cry if it didn't actually let me USE her when I paid so much money to be able to. Also the Lust Quest is horrible when you neglect Gawain and Jehuty and kind of Raika too. I'm having a much harder time with it than I did in my first playthrough. :( Like, so hard I finally saw the game over screen. Multiple times. And still haven't beat it!

Anime is really maru this season. And I feel like I was going to post about more, but I can't remember so whatever.