Dragon · of · Twilight

Family is...
A bit exhasperating, just due to the unplannable 'everything is an emergency' mood.

Job is...
Still on hold. Sign forms every few weeks, wait for more forms.

Sleep is...
Filled with dreams of running naked through Wallmart.

Food is...
Pumpkiny. Started making pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving, it's good.

Politics are...
Tiring. I'm one of those ebil baby-eating conservatives you hear about on the news.

Games are...
Uninteresting or impossible. Not much into multiplayer right now. Find an old single player game and be reminded why I switched to digital download so much: "Please enter CD key for a game 10 years old. You kept the manual/jewel case for 10 years right?" I started writing CD keys on the CD's a few years back,but it's not there for all of them, and doesn't help with "Insert install disk 4 of 6" when I have 1,2,3,5 and 6!

Minis are...
In progress. Working on a tank, but I need some more magnets to pull it off. Got the new Skaven book. I dunno, I prefer the old Screaming Bell model, though the Plague Furnace variation is awsome looking. Warmachine/Hordes' latest releases have been uncharacteristically boring.

Roleplaying is...
Slow. The new Draconomicon: Metallics is out. Chromatics was a better book IMO. Other than that just going through my huge pile of WOD books again (I got almost every book in the new Vampire, Mage and Werewolf lines for $50 a few years back. Not $50 each, total. It's a scary big stack).

Huuuuuungry dragon.

What can I eat without getting dizzy from pain?

Chicken: nope
Bread: nope
Soup: nope
chicken soup: nope
tomato soup: nope
yogurt: Sort of. Only plain non-fruit varieties (the little fruit bits cause my chest to start spasming), and only if I mix it about 50/50 with water.

Can only drink water too and only in small sips.

Man I want some nice hot spicy mongolian BBQ right now. They just don't have any in the South at all, bah. Of course I would probably die from shock if I actually tried to eat it with my throat this way, but rrrm, hungry and want something tasty!

::gnomgnom on gryphons::

I haven't really liked a final fantasy game since the new media (that is, yeah, I'm one of those guys who thought FFVII was overhyped and just not that good), until 12. I was just watching some youtube clips of it and it really brought me back.

What's it really been about though? I can't argue that the gameplay has gotten better, as it has for the most part. So have the graphics. But really, all FF games manage to be pretty for their time, and the gameplay is STILL just a step above a point and click adventure, no matter how refined. I've always played FF games for the story.

There's two sides to the stories. The heroes, and the villains. And lets face it, the last really interesting main character they managed was Cecil. Tidus? Zidane? Uuuuuuuugh. Angsty teen pretty boys with no compelling backstory whatsoever. At least, as much as I didn't like FFVII, Cloud had something going on there (but this was countered by how positively unthreateningly lame I found Sephiroth as a villain).

Terra was a decent character but suffered a bit in that FFVI didn't really have a strong 'main character' role. That's not necessarily bad, I felt they did a great job fleshing out all the party characters (the 'story' ones anyway, not the side ones) with all the sidequests for each.

Coming off of Cecil though, an honest and out bad guy, not misunderstood, not accidentally bad, but knowingly doing bad things, starting to have doubts and then struggling to figure out for himself what's right and wrong, most of the FF heroes have been really... flat.

So in a lot of ways, to me Final Fantasy is about the villains.

( Spoilers for US FF games 4 - 12 )

At one time, I understood why MMO's play the way they do. Why the gameplay had all the depth of the original Final Fantasy, and was barely a step up from turn based. You attack. Monster attacks. You attack. Monster attacks. Eventually, the one with the least HP + damage, usually the monster, keels over. Repeat process 10 million times. This was because the technology itself of having so many players together doing this was in itself astounding.

It isn't any more. Now it's mundane, so I don't know what their excuse is.

Fire up ANY other genre. You'll have an ice level, a fire level, a cave level. On the ice level, the ground might be slippery and your character slides around, so you have to compensate for controls. On the fire level, the terrain itself is hazardous and often actually challenging to avoid. In the cave level, things might be dark and hard to see, and light sources might be a precious commodity. There might be a mine-cart you ride down tracks and have to jump holes in the tracks. An industrial level where conveyer belts move you in different directions or your robot character gets pulled by magnets, and has big crushy things that try to flatten you.

You can explore around, find hidden items to help you later, secrets that give you a reward. Powerups, etc. The levels might not be huge, but there's often a lot in them. Maybe you'll find a new way to sneak around those guards at the gate so you don't have to fight them, and can listen to them talk about sports and be distracted with other things than guard duty.

Each level has different enemies. You might have a big tough slow enemy who isn't a threat alone because you can kite him endlessly... until he shows up with a bunch of swarming tiny foes who are individually weak but can distract and slow you while the big one smacks. Or there might be an enemy type who charges at you suicidally and explodes when close so you gotta take them out at ranged. Or one who has erratic movement patterns and is a pain in the butt to land a hit on. And lets not forget the little bastard who exists solely to hit you in midair during a hard jump and knock you into the abyss.

There's probably a story, and you take an active role in it; your actions change the direction of the world and you can see the effect. Maybe you cause the ice level to BECOME the fire level. The antagonist knows who you are, makes plans involving you. Chances are you'll become a major mover and shaker of the world and many people will know you, at least by reputation. Maybe you'll be framed for a crime and people will treat you like a criminal, or save a town and be cheered in the next one.

There's pacing. They throw a giant ogre boss at you early. He's tough, but you figure out how to beat him, and now you can move on! Later on, the same giant ogre appears as a regular minion to a new boss. Your weapons might be a bit better, but generally, he's a minion now because you figured out how to beat him the first time and you can do it again, proving how tough you are because the bosses of yesterday are the grunts of today. The new boss though, he's bigger and badder!

Now, let's look at the MMO genre.

There's an ice level, a fire level, a cave level. On the ice level, the ground is blue. On the fire level, it's black-brown. On the cave level, it's grey. There might be bottomless pits, but they're out of the way and you can't fall in thanks to invisible walls. There might be fire or lava, but it's mostly decorative and you'd have to be a blind octopus to run into it, and even then, there's usually little consequence. Maybe a bit of damage. The industrial level's conveyer belts are all motionless and the big stompy pistons are behind safety rails to insure the environments are as non-interactive as humanly possible.

You can explore around. Maybe you'll fall through the world. Probably, you'll run up against slopes you can't climb despite being gentle hills. Or find the next zone's edge and get aggro from a mob that one-hit kills you. Reward for exploring? Uhm, okay. Here's 5 xp, that should feel rewarding on your 10 million to next level bar! The levels are vast, but feel completely barren and empty of anything but wandering mobs doing nothing besides waiting to be killed.

Each level has different enemies. The ice level has the Level 2 Frost Rat, which runs up to you one at a time, stands motionless then, and trades attacks with you until it dies. Maybe it causes 'frost fever' which does damage over time. The fire level has the Level 8 Fire Walrus, which runs up to you one at a time, stands motionless then, and trades attacks with you until it dies. Maybe it causes 'ouch burns' which does damage over time. The cave level has the Level 12 Darkdark Bat, which for a change of pace, stands motionless at range and trades shots with you until it dies. Maybe it causes 'Dejavu Poison' which makes you realize that mechanically, the super huge giants and the tiny vermin monsters fight exactly the same and require little to no variation on the player's tactics to beat. And damage over time.

There's a story. You get to read bits of it each time you turn in a quest, and learn about the heroic world-changing deeds of NPCs in the backstory. Maybe you can fend off an attack on an outpost, but "they'll be back in 5 minutes, which is good, because if you want our gratitude you have to rescue us in the exact same way at least 150 times to get your rep up from Ugly Hobo Stranger to Normal Customer". And then repeat the same for our neighbors, because to them, you can be The Savior here but you're still Ugly Hobo Stranger to them. The antagonists don't even know you exist, and certainly don't make any plans for you specifically - but then again, the same is true of all the NPC's on your side too.

Pacing... what's that? Killed the giant ogre boss? Sorry, you're not ready to move on to the next area yet, you have to kill him at least fifty more times in the same area to get the XP. Got it? Good, now the next area will have butterflies that are at least as powerful as the giant ogre (but not actually different in mechanics, see above). What, you were expecting your character would progress to increasingly more heroic deeds? Sorry, every time you get anywhere, you gotta go back to rats. But they're rats with a bigger number for their level!

Seriously, limitations of technology can't possibly be the reason why the MMO genre is so insanely simplistic and grindy. Look at the shooter genre; even as early as Wolfenstein and Doom there was a concept of interactive environments and different enemies acting fundamentally differently, and that's been refined as much as possible in the genre's good examples. Halo is not my favoriate series (I think it's way overhyped and merely 'okay' for a shooter), but I have to admit, the flood and the covenent take different tactics to fight, and the storyline feels really epic and you get to fight and change the universe, even though it's a linear point A to point B game.

Not really enjoying Dragoncon. I think the thing is, half the fun is the 'cult of celebrity' which doesn't really interest me much, and half the fun is hanging out with people - and I'm alone there. I had the same trouble at FWA; I think the con scene is just not my thing, really.

I'd rather hang out with a small group of friends in a private setting than mill around in a crowd all day!

Just a note that on instant messengers, AIM in particular, I've been 'losing messages' lately - people send me messages and I don't see them. Even in open conversations, sometimes I stop being able to see their replies. So if you message me and I don't reply, chances are I can't see it, not that I'm ignoring you!

Accidently kicked a hornet's nest yesterday (I think they might have been yellowjackets, actually) while disposing of a dead tree. Got swarmed by the buggers, though fortunately the majority of them spent most of their time trying to sting my pants. And I said 'hah!' at my family who always tries to convince me to wear shorts all the time even when doing yardwork!

Got some more protective clothing and went to get rid of it, but first time I've ever had big 'globs' of stinging insects just hanging off me. Eek ugh nasty.

Another tail-adding-day for Super Bronzybottoms!

Happy birthday! May the endless stream of bouncy Galis heads bury you in excitement and nibbles!

So I've been watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The cartoon. Not the older awsome one. The new one. And you know?

It's actually got a lot going for it.

Okay, Anakin's apprentice is annoying most of the time. But she's competent; when she needs rescuing, it isn't because someone grabbed her arm in the Movie Female Disable Hold. She was unable to beat Grevious solo, but held him off long enough for the troopers to set the charges and complete their mission. So while the whole silly 'valley girl jedi' thing she has going is obnoxious, she displays bravery and competence, which is more than can be said of most 'I need rescue!' female characters in shows.

Anakin is... well, I still find his turn to the dark side later a bit forced in the third movie, but the series at least helps with displaying his mindset: He has steady friction with the jedi, and while he's quite compassionate, his loyalties and feelings tend to lie with those immediately around him, particularly his troopers. I still can't see him willingly going along with the cold-blooded murder of the Jedi but I CAN see him choosing the republic (or what he thinks is the republic) over the council.

The real stars though are the troopers. They went to a lot of work to make the clones not clones. They look and sound alike (though for identification they've given them different haircuts and scars), but it's interesting to see how they all develope different personalities. Some are convinced the jedi see them as disposable bodies. Others are intensely loyal to the jedi that lead them because the jedi put themselves at risk to shield the troopers (having a jedi in front 'tanking' fire by deflecting it while the troopers in back shoot around him at the enemy is amusing).

It does call Order 66 into question. It gets harder to say "well, they're programmed to obey" because the clones DO disobey orders occasionally (one even turns traitor and tries to join the seperatists) if they feel it's a bad order. I looked into it then and was mollified; the 'canon' lore of the matter is that not all clone units obeyed the order (thus necessitating Vader's later hunt of the jedi), and to get as much compliance that he did, Palpatine 'rotated' fresh clone troops in just before the order and sent the veterans (Who had fought alongside the jedi the whole war) to the rear echelons, on the assumption new clones would be more likely to obey their 'programming' and follow the order, than veteran squads who had spent more time bonding with their commanders (the jedi).

That was one thing that had always bugged me about episode 3. Without fail, troops, especially those who have seen extended combat, are always more loyal to their immediate commanders whom they've fought alongside, than distant leaders and politicians they've never met. This is why the Roman senate feared Caesar so much, for instance: not only was he popular with the people, he had returned from long campaigns with a large part of the roman army, whom almost certainly would have supported him over the senate (and the resulting purge of the senate by the army and civilians is a good bit of support for that theory!).

Everyone wants to know what the early appointment was for, so...

This is a MEPS physical. In other words, they want to know anything that might impact military performance.

Got up at 3 am, breakfast / shower / shave, got out at 3:30. Went through security at 4 am or so, took another half hour. The appointment started at 5:30 but I was advised to be there at least a half hour early, and got there about quarter to 5. Sat in the rain (in my car, mind you, it was pouring!) till 5, then went in.

The actual time in the facility was from about 5 am to noon (then I got home around 2 pmish). So seven hours. Most of it was spent sitting around waiting outside someone's door. All in all, I had several sets of bloodwork, a urinalysis (twice, as the first one I had gotten slightly dehydrated since they made me run around all morning and wait with no access to water anyway!), a neurological exam, a traditional physical exam, a, ahem, 'bend over' sort of exam, hearing test, eye test (my vision without my glasses is 20/500 according to their machines ::sob::). Breathalyzer (one guy actually failed this because he had been out drinking the night before. Seriously, the night before a military physical, just practice some restraint!).

I also had to do some calisthenics for a while, not a real PT exam, but to prove I could do certain exercises without undo pain, that I could touch my toes, that I could bend in certain ways, etc etc etc.

So, nothing bad, just long and boring. I passed everything but the vision test (which was expected, and my corrected-vision exam I passed), so I rated "Fit for duty". Only two options there, fit and unfit, though some can be marked 'must retake the medical' - they use that for things like positive alcohol and marijuana results and it means you're not allowed to go into the military for at least 45 days, at which point you get another chance to pass the drug test (positive results for harder drugs require at least a /year/ before you can go in). The reason the retest time period is so short on those two is they don't really care about them, but they want to know you can practice /restraint/ with them and not show up to something important under the influence. (Mind you, marijuana is still illegal, so unlike an incident with alcohol in the military which gets you a reprimand, a marijuana incident will cause at least an investigation for a potential court martial.)

Zombie Galis! Got up at 3 am to go to a doctor's appointment, got back at 2 pm, youch. Also got needle-mosquitoed (they drew I think 4 syringes)! Plus, I had to fast before it!

End result: Tired Galis. Tired Galis has eaten some peas, and is going to bed!

Recent Games: Dawn of War 2, Plants vs Zombies, Valkyrie Chronicles.

Not seen Star Trek yet. Going with Ellymay and Dissever on Wednesday. No spoilers or I will eat you!

With a cone on my head.

So, to offset political stuffs, here's some geekery for those interested in tabletop games. I picked up the new Lizardman book, and here's a summary of what's new, what's better, what's worse.

( Supergeekery! )

Being overall a conservative, I don't make too many political posts. Sometimes I reply to others, but generally, most folks I know and most I read are very liberal and anytime I say anything remotely conservative it quickly turns into a witch hunt. I don't know what it is but name-calling and yelling-down seem to be far the most common forms of 'argument' about.

But honestly? Democrafts are playing liberals like drums, and republicans are playing conservatives just as badly. They're both crooks and all you're doing is picking the color of the crook who plans to rob you.

Obama won't change this, he's one of them. So is McCain. In fact, the presidential election is one of the biggest smokescreens in politics. Our real 'puppet masters' by their action and inaction are the members of Congress, and they have gotten by decade after decade on "the president's fault" and "I'm voting republican/democrat".

Ultimately congress has far more long-term power than the president. Choosing not to use that power, such as with Bush's war, is still an exercise of it. But the news won't tell you that, and people don't notice. If you hated the war in Iraq, then you have TWO groups to blame, Bush AND congress. Yet everyone just blaims Bush.

The problem is, a president only lasts at most 8 years. Most of his staff, any appointments besides Supreme Court - in 8 years they'll nearly all be replaced. And yet the real problems with the US government, the corruption, waste, graft - these are all FAR older than Bush's administration, or ANY president's term. They come from Congress, and the people know it, that's why Congressmen have such low approval ratings. So how come they don't get voted out?

Simple. They put on their Democraft or Republican face, and appeal to the majority at home who elected them in the first place. Liberals would rather see a corrupt, wicked Democrat in Congress and conservatives would rather see a corrupt, wicked Republican in congress, by simply telling themselves "I've got to stop the policies of the other side" or "all those other congressmen are corrupt except MY state's democrat/republican".

They're all corrupt. The guy you vote for, when you vote straight party ticket, who has been an incumbant for decades? He's ESPECIALLY corrupt.

You really want to end corruption-based problems like the current financial crisis? A clean Congress won't guarantee a lack of mistakes, but honest errors and poor policies are much easier to fix, and will be fixed much faster, than those originating from bribes and graft?

Then there is what you do.
1) Investigate who you're voting for. Look at their voting records. Avoid those that vote one way and speak another - they're liars whose votes will always be calculated for personal advantage. Avoid those who avoid voting, who vote 'absent' or 'present' or anything other than yes or no - they're cowards purely interested in making as few waves as possible while holding onto office as long as possible.

2) Republican? Democraft? IGNORE IT. What is the JOB, and who can DO IT? The President's 'job', more than anything, is public speaking, selling a plan to the American people and getting them to work together, because even a mediocre plan with real drive behind it will go faster and do us better than circling the drain wishy-washy waiting on a non-existant perfect plan. He is the face of our government, both domestic and to foreign powers. Obama was simply better at this than McCain, and that's the reason I voted for him despite disagreeing with almost all his policies on some level. At the end of the day they're all gonna have to compromise their policies anyway, so integrity and a drive to see the job done right are more important than being conservative or liberal. This ties into the above; a congressman's job is to vote in a way that represents the people who elected him and for the betterment of the United States as a whole. A congrassman who doesn't vote is not showing up to work.

Here is what we need.
1) Congressional term limits. Longer than a presidency, but congressman should be a temporary occupation to which one brings experience from another occupation relevant to American life, not a career unto itself.

2) Accepting bribes, if you're a member of a corporation, is an issue of CORRUPTION. If you're a member of the government, it should be TREASON. You are selling out your oath to uphold the constitution; if that's not treason I don't know what is. Books need to be open on campaigning, scrutiny close and enforcement strict.

I believe the first step to a superior US government begins with a reformed Congress, and has little to nothing to do with the President. Would having a president of strong character help? Of course, but as long as Congress is nothing but crooks, you won't get a president who isn't a crook of some sort either. The problem is it takes work to learn about the congressmen you vote for - they're not sensational enough for the news to cover, be they liberal-biased or conservative biased sources, so most of the time you don't even get the typical, heavily-biased views that /all/ TV channels give you. And voters don't seem to want to work to exercise their vote.

I'll believe that change is coming when I start seeing liberal districts elect republicans and conservative districts elect democrats, based on the /candidates/, rather than just voting party lines even if 'their man' is a corpulant bag of lard who has more in common with embezzlers and thieves than the people who claim to be of his party and vote for him. I'll tell you this - I don't believe for an instant that any member of congress is REALLY conservative or liberal. I think they'd say they're Martian Brain Slug platform if they felt that'd get them elected in their home district. I think all they care about is their personal power and remaining in office as long as they possibly can.

/soapbox

Made it there! My stuff hasn't all arrived yet, and the local ISP is closed for New Years (and then some, they're taking like a week off or something, sheesh), so I don't yet have internet for my computers but I do have dial-up I can use to check email and such with!