2-HeadedGiraffe: Friday the 13th

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A Do and Don't list for surviving the day of ill fortune:

Do:
*Find a penny (heads-up only)
*Get a four leaf clover
*Get a horseshoe
*Get a rabbit's foot

Don't:
*Break a mirror
*Kill a porpoise or an albatross
*Let a black cat cross your path
*Open an umbrella indoors
*Walk under ladders

Yes, there are more, but this should be enough to see you through this unluckiest of all days alive. Good luck!

Mood: Scared
Music: Nickelback - Believe It or Not
Etc: Orange

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2-HeadedGiraffe: Dragon Warrior II AKA Just Add Water

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I had a huge post here about Dragon Warrior II, a game I recently completed for the first time, and somehow, my browser decided to take me back to a previously viewed window and the post is no more. But here's the jist of it:

Challenge: This game is more challenging than almost anything I've played recently, with a couple notable exceptions. Some of that challenge comes from difficult encounters, such as the five-boss gauntlet at the end. The first time I got to the final boss, I had enough magic points left for about one healing spell. That's not enough. There are also some interesting mazes and what feels like a large world to explore. The downside to this is a lot of challenge also comes from insufficient or difficult to find clues and enemies with instant death spells that hit often enough to sometimes feel completely unfair. Newer games would be well-advised to become more difficult like classic ones, as long as the difficulty comes from the right sources.

Balance: You have three characters in Dragon Warrior II: the hero (you can name him), Talint, and Gwen. The Hero is physically strong with no magic, Gwen is magically strong with low physical strength, and Talint is "balanced." Really, he's a weak attacker and doesn't get as good spells as Gwen. Also, he's the only character that learns Revive, but he's usually the first to die. So if he dies, he's hard to bring back on the spot, and he's just useful enough that you care. If the hero dies, some enemies are just about impossible, especially if they're strong against magic. Gwen's the best healer. Basically, if any one character dies, the party will often die, either in that same fight or before they can get back to town. A bit of balance (both spellcasters learning Revive, for example) would have helped with this issue.

Progress: The original Dragon Warrior had one character, who only ever fought one enemy at a time. There were essentially two plot points in the whole game: rescue the princess and slay the Dragonlord. I've heard you don't even have to rescue the princess to win, though she gives you an item that really helps you in finding another very important item. The sequel had three heroes, up to seven or eight or so monsters at once, a world about four times the size, somewhat more plot, etc. With some games today, the sequel feels just like the first one (see Grand Theft Auto III and its various versions, for example). Make progress, games. Expand. Alter. Don't stagnate.

That's probably most of what I had said. Overall, I was very pleased with the game, which I probably should have played years ago. Now I'm on the third one in the series, which so far compares very nicely.



Mood: Excited
Music: Los Del Rio - Macarena
Etc: Banner of the Stars

Comments (1)

2-HeadedGiraffe: 2/3rd Nighter...Rounded Up, I Suppose

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I left my research paper until the day before it was due. I worked on it for much of the afternoon, finishing sometime in the late night. At that point, I still had homework to do for two other classes, including writing a poem. Now it's 4:03 AM according to my clock. I normally go to bed at 11:00 PM. Class is in four hours. I'm wondering if I should load up a video game or something and make this an all-nighter? What the hell? It's not like I'm tired. I can catch a nap later, if I need to.

I figured I'd include the poem in this post, too. The assignment was to take a cliched line (we were given a list of suggestions, but we could chose our own) and express it literally. Here you go, any of you who care:

It was a match made in heaven.
God used it to light the candles,
On his son’s two thousand and fifth,
Birthday cake, while the angels sang.

It burned so bright, just like a bush.
In it the wisdom God had used,
To make a match like none on Earth,
Just to light some birthday candles.

The handle simply would not break.
It was long so God would not burn,
His many fingers on the flame,
He used to light His son’s candles.

He shook the match and it went out,
Just like a dead star, nullified.
And His son tried to blow them out,
But they were those darn trick candles.

Can God make a candle so tricky His own son can’t blow it out?
Damn right He can.

(edit: I ended up sleeping from 5:40 or so until 7:00)

Mood: Yay! Paper
Music: Brian McKnight - Back at One
Etc: Febreze freshness

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2-HeadedGiraffe: Death Post? Doubtful.

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Captain America, like so many super heroes before him, has died. Now, forgive me if I'm a bit distrustful of the comic industry, but back when I was reading Fantastic Four in my younger days, I saw Reed Richards and Dr. Doom "die." The characters grieved, mourned, and searched for Mr. Fantastic (Richards) for quite some time. Meanwhile, the editor's columns and letters sections and whatnot swore up and down neither of them was coming back, that they had, in fact, died (if I recall, they were on some sort of teleporation device which overloaded and reduced them to a pile of ashes but it's been a while and I don't feel like fact-checking tonight yet). Of course, after they'd ran with it for quite some time (props to them for trying to convince us), the two of them showed up again, alive and well (again, if I recall, the device they were on actually had transported them. I forget where the tell-tale ash came from).

The moral of the story? Real death is rare in comic books, and maybe that fact cheapens the threat and makes us cynical.

Mood: Untrusting
Music: None
Etc: Continued from Top

Comments (3)

2-HeadedGiraffe: I Stand Corrected...Sorta

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After a few days of using Vista, I'm getting used to some of its peculiarities. I think the issues I'm having with my pointer and stuff are probably due to a touchpad that's more sensitive than I'm used to rather than anything the OS is doing or whatever. I'm slowly getting used to working with that.

What I still don't like, though, is just the sheer amount of resources Vista uses. Photoshop runs somewhat choppily on my computer, and the computer has frozen at least once while using it (as opposed to...um...never under XP, except when something was seriously wrong). I might wait until I can install some games and stuff and see how they run before I say yay or nay on Vista.

It's purty, but I hear a lot of that's borrowed from Mac OSX, which does it all and takes less memory to do that. Haven't confirmed that, though, so don't quote me on it.

Mood: Accepting
Music: Dynamite Hack - Boys in the Hood
Etc: Remote control

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