Luigi'd.

OK, so sorry again that it took so long; I was waiting for a confirmation that Ganondorf was indeed Luigi'd, but I gave up. All we've seen so far is his up-special attack, which seems similar to Falcon's, but is like an actual strike and not a throw. Also, Wolf (who, yes, is the last character, as was assumed my many), Falco, and "Toon Link" (probably not what he'll be called stateside, but you never know) seem to be Luigi'd too. They are different though; Wolf's side-special shoots up at a slight angle apparently, Falco can allegedly throw his reflector shield somehow, Toon Link has that sticky sword spin Young Link had (where it traps in foes and then tosses them out when he's down), and there are probably other differences too. Anyway, the more I thought about it, the more accepting I became of the Luigi-fication. I mean, if someone was a big fan of Falco in the last game, and he dramatically changed in this one, they would probably be pretty bummed. They did change them enough though, pretty much; they may have the same special moves and Final Smashes (Speaking of which, the Landmaster thing has apparently become a huge joke now, so you have officially been warned. The fact that there were three characters with the Landmaster as a Final Smash is I guess what started it...), but their other characteristics are totally different. Toon Link, for example, moves like a bullet, particularly with his down-smash attack (you know, that annoying one your little brother kept pulling cheap wins from... oh, well, maybe that's just me). Plus, in Brawl, there are tons more characteristics; whether they can crawl and wall cling, and their speed, their jump height, their number of jumps, their "floatiness" and weight, whether they can glide.... There's a ton. So I think "clones" aren't all that bad. For instance, I like Link in general, but I don't like how he's pretty slow and it seems they've made him even slower (not in attacks necessarily, I just mean his movement) in this one, so Toon Link seems really fun to play as to me. Plus, he's just overflowing with style, just like the games he was in. Of course, now that I think about it, SSBB in general does seem a good deal more dramatic and stylish than the precious installments.
Anyway, the bottom line is that I've decided clones are OK, especially if they've been Luigi'd (Luigi himself, by the way, is as Luigi'd as ever, and even has his own totally new -- and totally freakish -- Final Smash.); plus, the roster is still awesome.
After seeing a few videos (though ones with really bad resolution), I got even more excited. As much as I hesitate to say this, seeing as he seems to have replaced Mewtwo, but... Lucario looks like massive pwnage. He just plain looks cool, and he moves so fluidly. He also seems to have some special moves similar to Mewtwo's (particularly his "Aura Sphere," which is a lot like Metwo's "Shadow Ball"), but is really swift and has cool physical attacks too (he is a fighting-type, after all). So, yeah, I'm thinking he wins the "cool award." Plus, there are other interesting-looking things. The Pokemon Trainer looks neat, with how he's controls three different pokemon and thus has three full attribute and move sets; the closest thing to that before was the Zelda/Sheik thing, which had two separate move sets that were incomplete due to a special slot being used for transformation. Also, Sonic is bound to be awesome, I mean... he's Sonic; it'd be cool to have someone even more speed-based than Captain Falcon and Marth, and his moves look pretty fun and unique too. I'm also looking forward to seeing how Olimar plays... and let's not forget all the old characters! And the rest of the new folks! Since the game is so entirely new, everything will be at least a little different, and I'm excited about experiencing that, too.
And, even beyond characters, there's the new Subspace Emissary adventure mode, which looks to be really great. There's also heaps of unlockable content like trophies, stickers, and even short Virtual Console game demos. On top of that, there's still the old classic mode, target test, and home run contest, which seem to have been made even better (well, I don't think classic mode has improved in many ways, as it's not something one would want to change, but whatever). And let's not forget stages! There are a ton of those, and even the ability to create your own, which may turn out to be the coolest feature to come to Smash Bros. yet (although you unfortunately can't share your creations online directly....)! Plus, there's online play, which doesn't seem to have much depth, but I can totally see Nintendo's reasoning for removing stuff like leaderboards. They said they didn't want anyone to feel bad about being 100,000th on the list, because there would obviously be a lot of really tough players out there, and even someone who thought they were awesome among the people they played with may be not even in the top 10,000. As far as voice chat goes (another feature that's been begged for a lot, apparently), I really think that's stupid. Basically, you just get another way for immature jerks to scream and swear at you. It's pretty pointless. The only thing I'm disappointed with is the fact that names don't show up in random battles. Again, I see Nintendo's reasoning-- they didn't want people to be mad about players having names like "@#$&&%#!!d00d" (No, I don't mean for the "@#$&&%#!!" to be taken literally. You know what I mean.), but it'd be nice to be able to be like, "Oh, that's Lamprey_Master.2000; he beat me last time, but he won't be so lucky again!" Anyway, the very fact that online play exists at all thrills me, as I don't know of anyone anywhere near me that has a Wii or wants to get Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Unfortunately, the connection at our house is lame, but hopefully we'll have better Internet and/or a new house within the next six months, and I imagine SSBB will still be cool even several years from now; Melee is still a blast to play, even seven years after its release (Yes, it really has been that long! Crazy, isn't it?), and Brawl looks to have even more lasting value, maybe even more than anything before it. There are 34 cool characters (Plus Samus, Zelda, and the Pokemon Trainer, who are actually very versatile and are like multiple characters all built into one), there's tons of fun stages and the ability to create your own, there are tons of fun unlockables (trophies, stickers, VC demos, etc.), the single player mode looks great, the multiplayer is as packed with features as ever, and you can play online. Then there's just really great stuff that's just the icing on the cake that makes it almost overwhelmingly cool, like the huge variety of awesome music (NOBUO UEMATSU!!!!11) and the special little timeline feature that shows a big list of Nintendo games and their release dates, so you can see everything in context.
In summary? I stand by what I've said in the past: Brawl is going to be sw33t.

On that note, I'll close up this post. It's almost late enough for this to not count as today's anymore!

:::Souce= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
Have you finally shut up about SSBB?

It's All Over!

"It" would be the wait for the official Super Smash Bros. Brawl roster. So beware this post if you didn't want that spoiled (weirdo).
That's right, folks! Or... Well, OK, it's not. But I decided I'd put off this post long enough and would go with what we've got.
Someone in Japan or something got the game early; it's totally true this time. From last night to now we've been slowly getting new videos and screenshots. Now, a lot of people are apparently upset with how the roster turned out, but we don't technically know the full roster yet. The roster so far is 34-deep, which is a pretty healthy amount, I think. This is leading people to believe that the final character selection will be the one allegedly leaked in the "35 roster." Nobody really knows where this came from, and not many people believed it, but once R.O.B. was confirmed as playable, everyone figured whoever came up with this list couldn't have guessed that. I mean, seriously; the Super Scope was one thing, but an NES peripheral as a character?! Now, just to clarify, I'm not saying that's bad. It might be kinda cool, and it was the perfect character to replace the pure crazy shock value of Game and Watch (who, by the way, is still in). I am saying that that's a pretty crazy guess right there.
This is the full roster so far:
Mario
Luigi (As if that's a surprise)
Peach
Bowser
Donkey Kong
Diddy Kong
Yoshi
Wario
Link
Zelda
Ganondorf (Not a clone I hope!!)
WW/PH Link (YES! pwn4ge!)
Samus
Pit
Ice Climbers
R.O.B. (Weird, but cool, right?)
Kirby
Metaknight
Dedede
Pikmin & Olimar
Fox
Falco (Hope he's not a clone either)
--blank--
Captain Falcon (Of course!)
Pikachu
Pokemon Trainer
Lucario (Yay; told you!)
Jigglypuff (Not one of my favorites, but still a good one and fun to beat up)
Marth (He's back!)
Ike
Ness (We can be pretty sure he's not a Lucas clone)
Lucas
Mr. Game & Watch (Yay, I loved that dude!)
Snake
Sonic
--random--
According to the alleged "leaked" 35-character roster, the "blank" is Wolf from the Star Fox series. Note that, if you look at the picture given in the link above (which is NOT fake), there isn't actually a blank there, but it's exactly where a character should go to make everyone line up by franchise.
Now, of course, the first question we should ask is, is the "35 roster" real? I'm inclined to believe it is. It's just got one more character than this does, and it's a fairly believable character. Basically, what I think is, in order of likelihood:
1. The "35 roster" is 100% true.
2. The "35 roster" is 100% true, but there are in fact more characters beyond that.
3. The "35 roster" is totally false and was comprised of lots of rumors and lucky guesses that ended up being right.
So now, the next question is, what do I think of the roster? Well, that depends on something; being whether the "clones" from the old games are still clones. It claims they are on a lot of the websites I went to, but I think that's being way to hasty. Basically, there's a picture of Falco doing the same Final Smash as Fox. OK, but what about his special moves? We still haven't seen those. There's a picture of "Toon Link" using a bow. So what about the other stuff?! The Ganondorf thing is worst of all. The ONLY pictures we have of actual gameplay with him is one of him doing his final smash, wherein he turns into Ganon as seen in Twilight Princess (I would have preferred the Ocarina of Time version, but oh well), and another where he's just standing there. I read some complaints that said he was clone because he has no sword (I admit it's a disappointment nonetheless, but there are enough guys with swords, right?), and because he has "Captain Falcon's stance." The response to the second was that, of course, that's completely ridiculous (plus it really doesn't look like his "stance" anyway), and a response to the second that I thought was particularly funny was "So what? Mario doesn't have a sword, and he sure isn't a Captain Falcon clone!" ROFL points to whoever that was.
Anyway, I'm going to make a similar list for what I think is going to happen with these, again in order of likelihood:
1: They are all semi-clones, like Luigi; they share some special moves, but not all, and have different weight/speed/etc.
2: They are barely clones at all.
3: They are pretty much total clones.
4: They're only clones in the few minor details already seen.
Of course, I'm not including Ness as one of those, as we already know Lucas's attacks are quite different (although it's been confirmed they have the same Final Smash; oh well), or at least most of them. That's how I think all of the characters will be, but I'm not certain. I'm basing this entirely off of things Sakurai-san has said; he said he didn't want clones but there were still some "semi-clones" or something like that.
Anyway, the only sad bit of news is that Mewtwo probably got the axe. It's too bad, because as a character, he was pretty neat. He was a good representation of the old-school Pokemon games that started it all (and I really mean ALL of it; the whole money-printing franchise), moreso than even Pikachu or Jigglypuff (who are pretty mascot-ly). Plus, gamewise, he was really unique. He never touched anything, not even the ground. He just floated around and tossed stuff around with his psychokinetic powers. It was pretty sw33t.
Otherwise, I could care less about the other characters who were cut. I mean, it was just Pichu and whatnot, right? Who cares?
The one thing a lot of fans were mad about was the exclusion of:
Ridley
Geno
Isaac (Apparently I wasn't alone!)
King K. Rool
But the thing is, none of them had much of a chance. Isaac (from Golden Sun) was second party (specifically Camelot), and they were only doing first-party stuff and a very small number (apparently two) of third-party ones. Still, he woulda been a great character. In fact, it was just him and Andy (from Advance Wars) who I really wanted in, but I knew I was just dreaming. Anyhow, Geno only ever appeared in Super Mario RPG, and even though he's really popular among fans, he's still pretty obscure. King K. Rool doesn't have much moveset potential (or at least that's what I think), and I think two Donkey Kong characters are enough, really, especially since they're still part of the Mario franchise in a way, which has a lot of representation now. Now, I'm glad nobody reading this (I don't think) was a huge Ridley (from Metroid by the way) supporter, because I'm just going to say it. He didn't have a chance. He made it in as a boss (allegedly fought more than once, even) and that's good enough I think. He's just not humanoid enough to me. I don't see how they could shrink him down and make him fit in with the rest of the characters, I dunno....
Anyway, the conclusion is that I'm pretty happy with the roster. If this is the full roster, and those characters are indeed total clones, I'll still be content, because the game as a whole is going to be nuts (it's packed with cool features!). If the characters aren't clones, or are semi-clones, I'll be super-duper happy. If they aren't clones at all, and/or there are more characters, it'll be mind-blowingly cool.
No matter what, there's no reason to gripe about the selection (I know, nobody who reads this blog is probably going to be they type to do that, but after reading all that depressing stuff I decided I needed to say something.). Even if you think it's horrible, it still has some really awesome new people. For instance, have you forgotten guys like Sonic? I mean, seriously.... Anyway, the game is also going to be loaded to the brim with other secret content and cool features. I say it's going to be awesome!
Also, it was rumored to be coming out early, but the same rumor said Bomberman was playable, so I doubt it. Either way, it's still coming up pretty quick here!
That concludes this post. Tomorrow's will probably be also totally related to Smash Bros., because by then I'll have total confirmation of the details I wasn't sure about, and new information and stuff like that. Regardless, there will be some stuff about the game in the next post I bet. If I find out something new tonight, I'll even put down a quick note about it when I find out, if it's not too late.

:::Source=Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
Postity-postity-posty-post-o-post!

A.D. 1999

I've decided 1999 will now be officially named "A.D. 1999" because it sounds more suspenseful and professional (although I'll still refer to it as just "1999" a lot because it's just shorter). It will probably have a subtitle too, but I don't know what that will be yet. Now that I think about it, 1999 A.C.E. would work really well with the general theme (it's a top-down aerial combat game), but I hate the term "A.C.E" and I really don't want to use it, even to make a better title (which would be pretty corny anyway). By the way, for those who haven't gotten the message yet, this will only be for Windows. It may be eventually cross-platform, but that's really up to the folks at YYG to decide.
So anyhow, the game has become my biggest project now, and I'm making some pretty good progress. I already finished the multiple backgrounds / fighting areas, although I'm going to further improve that system later. Right now it just goes to a random place, and one of them is way up in the clouds and has these birds you can shoot at; other ones will have fun little things like that, too at some point, and eventually you'll be able to unlock the ability to select areas (including two that I've already made backgrounds for that aren't normally in the game) rather than have them be randomly selected. Anyway, I figured a lot of you may want to know more details on the game, especially Adam, since he did the neat voice acting stuff ("Spectacles!" [pronounced like Androcles :D] "Egg-Salad!" "Spamtastic!") and would probably like to know more about what the game is going to be like. So today I'll do my best to describe it.

Basically, when you start up the game (It takes a really long time to load; when it's done it'll be over five minutes I imagine. My computer is quite slow though, so it may be faster for other people.), you've got a title screen (the one I have now is just a filler; the real one will probably be hand-drawn), and then you press any key to go to the menu. There will be an option for you to go see the instructions and the story of the game (which will be explained more later), as well as one for a two-player battle mode (a big focus of the game), and a one-player "arcade mode" (I have no definite details on this one yet).
When you select the two-player game, you go to a simple screen with two airplanes; each player can press their fire key to change planes. At the beginning, there are only three planes to choose from, but over time, as you fight more battles, more will become available (There will be at least 30 unique planes, and I already have 16, or if you count color variations, 32.). The planes are just small sprites, but I think they look quite nice, actually. I may post screenshots at some point.
Anyway, after you select your planes and push the enter key to start the battle, you're taken to one of five random areas: over an ocean, above a barren wasteland, high in the clouds, in space, or over this lava-encrusted field. The game screen (640 x 480) is divided vertically into two halves, one for each player.
You move your plane by holding down your acceleration or reverse key, and turn it by pressing your left or right key. Your your view is fixed, but if you hold down the "camera key" (I'm not referring to the actual keys for each player, for purposes of simplicity), the view will "snap" to the angle of your plane. So if your plane is facing towards the top of the screen, and you turn with the camera key pressed, your plane will still face the top and instead the view rotates (well, actually, the plane and view rotate, which really does have a slightly different visual effect, but it's hard to describe). You also have a brake key you can hold down to stop yourself, and then one key to fire. The object is to destroy your foe's plane three times before they do the same to you; when you destroy them, a fun message is displayed like "Egg-salad!" with accompanying voiceover (again, thanks to Adam, who also came up with the "words" in the first place :D). There will also be items contained in little bubble things to help add variety to the game. There are two different kinds; the first are Effect Capsules that just create a one-time effect. There are five different kinds I've come up with so far (I've done all the graphics needed for them, but they aren't actually in the game yet, though they will be very soon.): A Repair Capsule, which, as the name implies, repairs your plane (not always a plane but I don't want to spoil any of the unlockables yet); a Nova Capsule, which unleashes a small wave of fire/laser energy stuff that will damage nearby aircraft; an EMP Capsule, which removes any weapon upgrades (more on those in a bit) your opponent has (though with a chance of removing yours too); a Mosquito Capsule, which unleashes a missile that follows your opponent (it doesn't blow up on contact, but is timed instead); and a Shrink Capsule, which makes your plane very small and hard to hit (when your plane blows up, though, you will revert to your normal size). The second kind of item you can get is a Weapon Capsule, which, as you would guess, gives you an upgraded weapon. This lasts until your plane is shot down, which, if you get a good weapon, may not be for a while. There will be a pretty good number of weapon capsules, and I haven't done anything for them yet but right down ideas.

Anyway, that's a pretty good overview of what I have so far. Now, I'm sure you're wondering, "Why is it called A.D. 1999?" Well, It's funny because basically the story was the last thing I came up with; it was even after I had started doing the actual game. I just thought "Game first, story later" because I knew it would end up being really ridiculous that way. I even came up with the name before there was anything really solid for a story floating around in my mind. I just thought a game set in 1999 would be neat (I've thought that for a while), and then eventually I came up with some ideas, and now I've put them together into this:

A group of robots has just arrived on earth. They claim they are traveling through the galaxy in order to invite other people to fight against them in a contest for galactic supremacy, so that in the year 2000 the ultimate rulers of the universe would be undisputed.However, the only life they'd found so far was a small group of Space Llamas on Ngitaka IV, and they were instantly disqualified as they were... well, llamas. The robots suggested their own contest that was popular on their planet as the competition, as humans didn't seem to have many global contest sort of things, except for boring athletic events. The contest the robots had on their planet was an aerial battle that involved lots of guns and explosions and all sorts of fun things like that. When it was over, they would rebuild themselves and start all over again.
However, the robots discovered that humans are not indestructible (thankfully they were told rather than having to learn from experience), and they had to modify their contest slightly. They constructed a large virtual arena in which the battles could take place, so things would be much safer, and gave the human combatants nice protective stuff like parachutes and things so they survived the destruction of their aircraft.
Many humans thought this sounded like a lot of fun, and signed up. Others thought it was ridiculous, but signed up anyway because they were loyal to their planet. Still others thought it was the most idiotic thing they ever heard, but also joined because.... Well, nobody really knows.

...So that's it. I haven't completely decided how the fact that nobody knows about this will be explained, but it would kinda spoil the ending anyway (Hint: It's going to involve brains being erased. Although that was kind of a "no, really?" type of thing).

I'm guessing you're wondering what's up with my other projects now, but don't worry. Although they're all kind of on hold so I can make as much progress with 1999 as possible, they'll get their attention again as soon as I'm finished with this game.
Well, that's enough for this post; it was only one subject, but it was of decent length at least.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...That's right... fear the machines...

"Hype"

OK, before we get to today's primary topic, I'd just like to point out something I discovered recently that I thought was cool.
So I was in this library that's pretty much the nicest one near us, and I was looking over their comic book / manga section, which, to be honest, is really lame. They don't have Fullmetal Alchemist or The Amazing Spider-Man; it's heathenish (Yes, I do read both of those on occasion. Make fun of me if you must, but know that I would prefer being called geeky to childish.). Anyway, I saw this thing called "Vampire Hunter D" (which apparently is just a series of novels but was with comic books for some reason? Dunno). It didn't really sound interesting to me; the thing that stood out to me was the artwork. "Wow," I thought, "That looks just like Yoshitaka Amano's artwork." His stuff has this really cool style and is immediately recognizable; I know him most for his work for the Final Fantasy games, which, at the time, was what I pretty much thought was the only well-known stuff he did. Anyway, I thought about that for a while and was thinking "Well, maybe his stuff isn't that unique, I guess it's possible it's just a style I haven't seen much of before." As you may have gathered already, I just now learned that I was wrong; Amano-san did the artwork for Vampire Hunter D too. Cool! I mean, I really know nothing about these books. It was just one of those neat things, you know, where you find out something about something you had thought about a while ago and had forgotten.

So on to todays actual topic, which I may have to hurry up with since it's already ten and I need to be up "early" tomorrow (not really early, but whatever). Anyway, you may be wondering, what's hype? Isn't it the same as advertising? Well, I don't really think so. Firstly, hype (the definition I'm referring to anyway) is pretty much solely applied to movies and video games. Maybe books occasionally, but not as much. Anyway, hype is something media people try to generate when they're releasing something new. They announce it pretty early, and then they keep teasing people with new information about it, and bragging about it, and getting people to believe it's going to be really awesome. Smash Bros. Brawl, which I've been talking about a lot lately, is a great example. It was announced way back in '05, and it's not going to be released in the states until March. Sometime last year they launched the official website for the game, and announced one small feature or aspect of the game every day and explained it. This is actually a pretty neat idea, so people could learn new things about the game gradually. But they were really strategic in when they announced things, so they could create a lot of "hype." For example, one day they announced the game's release being delayed, but right after that they stated Sonic the Hedgehog was to be a playable character, and a ton of people went nuts over it. This was pretty sneaky of them; now everyone was saying, "Yeah, it got delayed, but who cares?! SONIC!" so it was a pretty clever strategy. That's basically how hype works. So how do I feel about it? Well, I think it's a very successful marketing strategy that doesn't seem "cheesy" and pretty much everyone accepts, so one can see why it's used in various ways all the time. From the perspective of being on the receiving end (which I am more often than not... or, OK, all the time), it's neat to learn a lot about something and get excited about it far before it comes out. Of course, nothing is worse than having something be over-hyped and having it turn out to be not as good as it one expected. For example, the latest console Zelda game, Twilight Princess, was hailed as "the next Ocarina of Time" by some, and a lot of people were really disappointed or even downright mad when that didn't end up being true (Of course, opinions were split and there are still people who think it's even better than OoT; personally, I think they're nuts, because OoT is something you just can't beat.). TP was announced a really, really long time ago. Originally it was going to just be a GameCube game. In fact, I think at the time the "Revolution" (as the Wii was then codenamed) had only just been announced, or maybe even not yet. It seemed really cool at the time, and I was thinking "Are they really going to try to outdo themselves?! This is cool, it really is going to be the first big, seriously themed Zelda game since OoT!" I thought all the graphics and artwork looked wonderful, and I kinda liked the new dark direction they seemed to be taking it. But then my expectations dwindled, and soon after they announced it as a "Revolution" game, my hopes pretty much completely plummeted. Of course, soon after that they announced Phantom Hourglass, for which my hopes were somewhat high, but not really great, and then when it came out I was totally astounded with how great the game is. Anyway, I never ended up even getting TP, since at the time I knew we wouldn't have a "Revolution" for a really long time, but I also knew we would probably be getting one, so I didn't want to get the GCN version. Now we have a Wii, and I still don't have the game. I may pick it up sometime, but I'm certainly not expecting it to be "the next Ocarina of Time." At the same time, though, I can't help but hope that someday they do really try to outdo themselves and make some kind of totally awesome Zelda game, so great it would almost be pointless to do any more.
So what about Smash Bros.? Is it going to live up to all the hype? Well, my opinion is: ARE YOU KIDDING? NO DUH! SSBB is going to be awesome. I'm thinking it may even become the way Goldeneye for the '64 was, where anybody who was anybody had the game, and it was the most interesting thing at any gathering (I used to think this was just around where I lived and the people I knew, until this thing on IGN described it in similar terms). Chances are, it'll be even better; like Goldeneye combined with Halo combined with the original Smash Bros. combined with a bunch of similar stuff I can't think of right now. People may just randomly start saying "I could pwn you!" and the "in Super Smash Bros. Brawl" would be understood. Of course, there's a teeny tiny chance that it doesn't live up to expectations, but personally I'm thinking that's not going to happen in even the smallest details. They've been working on this for well over two years (since October '05), so you can bet they've poured a lot of effort into it, and they've got a virtual "dream team" going.
I'm betting SSBB is going to be the greatest game of the decade.

...And, it's kinda ironic, because now you're probably thinking "See, this is how 'hype' effects people," and, ehh. You're probably right. But you just see if I'm right.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...lyk holy cow the nxt post is gonna ROCK!

- My Projects - Something I Don't Get - More Smash Bros. - Gossip - And MORE! -

Yeah, I felt like making the title follow the form "blah - blah - blah - blah - And MORE!" You know, like marketing sorts do sometimes.
...I've done that before, haven't I? Oh well.

So these aren't really going to be in that order; I'm starting with the "Something I Don't Get."
See, this has been bothering me for probably my entire life, so even though at this particular moment I may be thinking of a very few specific people, this has happened a ton before.
I don't get how I offend people. It's a serious personality flaw, probably, but I just don't get it. I mean, sometimes I say things that I know will offend people, specifically, for instance, talking about my religion. So you say it's offensive to say there's only one way to get to heaven. Well, to be honest, too bad. I'm not going to lie just to make you happy. Still, other times I'll be doing or saying something totally normally, or even trying to be nice and encouraging, but it ends up making people mad. This really bothers me, because this is often past the point when they'll listen to me, and then they pretty much have a negative opinion of me for the rest of their life. The worst part is how I'm not exactly sure on how to fix this, although I certainly am trying. There are people... OK, at this point it's where I'm only thinking of two, but these people I really wish I could go back and explain, and apologize, but I can't. It's really discouraging to me, but I'm fairly sure these people just wouldn't listen to me, which is too bad, because I'd really like to explain, and maybe they'd understand.
As a result of this, I've decided I need to be a lot more forgiving. I don't know if I've had a problem with that before, but one can always be better at things. I think I need to start looking at things from other people's points of view more often; it's entirely possible that something may have been a total accident, or wasn't meant the way I thought it was.

Now, concerning gossip. As I've mentioned before, I really, really, really hate gossip. Of course, I should specify what I mean by gossip here; I don't mean "I heard that there's going to be no CG in the next Indiana Jones movie" or even "Someone said that Larry is Jimmy's cousin or something, I didn't know that; that's pretty weird." What I mean is gossip as in "Eddy is really annoying, and he looks funny too." I can't stand that. No good can ever come of it, and it's just mean. Plus, "Eddy" is quite likely to hear what you're saying about him eventually, and that's probably going to hurt him a lot. I honestly think that if you're going to say something mean about someone, the nicest way to do it (I say "nicest", but I of course do not mean it's nice, I just mean "least mean") is to say it to their face. It's almost always way worse to overhear it or get it from someone else who overheard it. You know what? You probably have weird traits too, and you wouldn't like it if people talked about you that way, would you? When it comes right down to it, you're treating them like they're not people; like they're just some kind of object or something. I think a very large majority of problems can be solved by putting yourself in their shoes. Every person has a heart and a soul, and is sentient, and, I believe, was created in the image of God. You can't treat them like they're anything less than that. Am I guilty of this? Certainly; I'm not perfect. But one thing I try to never, ever do is gossip.
Another thing that is sort of a similar concept is solving problems by going to a neutral party, before even confronting the person you have a problem with. Usually this is simple, like "This person needs to look where he's going, he runs into people a lot." It's not very often something huge. But then people just go to someone, like a friend or relative of that person, and tell them. That's silly. If you have a problem with someone, politely tell them that's how you feel. Again, it would be more embarrassing to hear about it from someone else. I mean, maybe this person has no idea that this is going on, or at least it never occurred to them. I know that sort of thing has happened to me a lot.

OK, on to my projects. So I bet you're wondering what I'm up to, and how my stuff is going. No? Ah, well, I'll tell you anyway.
Firstly, I've not gotten much work done on Ring of Eshara in a while. It's sort of on hold until I'm in a mood to to it; if I'm not in the right mood it's not going to turn out right. See, a lot of times I'm this happy, lighthearted sort of person, and that's not this book at all. To write it, I need to be in a very serious mood.
I haven't done anything on Fafnir-Cola in probably even longer. I've officially decided its status is "ongoing project" because I want the main storyline to be pretty long. The game is going to be pretty big, although I'm already fighting load times as it is, but my computer is pretty slow, so I dunno.
Egoboo is still alive and kicking. It doesn't need me to continue, obviously, but nonetheless I've been churning out a good amount of stuff. My most recent thing was a new set of sounds for the Hobgoblin I made; I recorded this on the day-when-it-was-actually-quiet that I mentioned earlier. I'm not sure what I'm doing next, but I have a checklist thingy going of all the stuff I want to wrap up. After that, I have a TON of new ideas for stuff to start.
The last few days, I've been working on 1999. I'm tying together the many loose unfinished concepts right now; I just got the plane-unlock system working pretty much completely. Next I'm going to make multiple backgrounds / places in which to fight, and then make some powerups (better weapons and such). I've got other stuff after that, but those are the things I'll be working on in the immediate future (hopefully).

On to Smash Bros.... again. I know I've been talking about this a lot lately, but trust me, if John (one of my many younger brothers) had a blog, he would mention SSBB in every single post. Which would be like a hundred per day (the key to reassuring yourself of anything is to compare yourself to the right people).
So how this all started, I guess, was when people at my house were like "It'd be cool if so-and-so was in Brawl" and then I said "Hey... you know who would be really cool? Batman." And, yeah, Batman would actually be awesome, if Smash Bros. did characters that weren't from video games. But you know what, I almost see this happening. Imagine, if you will, not the next Smash Bros. installment, but the one after that. What if they did characters from, for example, popular anime that also have pretty big video games, like Naruto or Fullmetal Alchemist. Having characters from those wouldn't be all that weird. Then a few games after that, Batman wouldn't be totally out of the question. Then, imagine, say, in the twelfth Smash Bros. game, them including characters from famous works of literature. I can picture it now... "Robinson Crusoe versus Tom Sawyer!" Okay, so I know this really is getting totally nuts. I really doubt any of this would ever happen, but it's really funny to think about. I mean, imagine Captian Nemo and Queequeg facing off against Darth Vader and Captian Kirk. How about Rip Van Winkle and Mr. Hyde against Cyclops and Superman? Abraham Lincoln against Optimus Prime! It'd be like that whole Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny thing, in an actual game. It'd be AWESOME!
Some day, when nobody cares about copyright stuff anymore (like that'll ever happen), it'd be sweet to see that game. Just having everyone imaginable in the biggest fight ever, in all sorts of crazy places, with all sorts of awesome weapons, tools, and vehicles. That'd be one sw33t game.... Actually, through the wonders of Flash and the rising YoYo Games, we could see this happening on a someone lower-quality level, because in that sort of community, nobody is ever stopped from infringing copyright, because nobody is crazy enough to try and stop everyone.

Speaking of copyright, it's starting to annoy me. I mean, it's great how people can be protected, so other people don't steal their stuff, but it often just ends up being a bother. Sometimes it's like, "Hey, everyone knows where that came from, so what's the big deal?" For instance, my fanart is total copyright infringement. I didn't have the permission of Square Enix or Nintendo (well, Metanet too, but I doubt they'd care) to post that stuff, so it was basically illegal. I know I sound like a hypocrite, since I've said how much I hate it when people break the law and think it's OK, but it's just ridiculous to say I can't even draw a picture of my favorite fictional characters.
I hope someday people just stop caring, because then things like that ultimate battle thing I was just talking about could be a reality.

I guess this post is done. It's got a lot of subjects and is pretty long, which is relieving. I think I may be getting back into this blog thing.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...He's back!

Interesting Smash Bros. News (and some other stuff)

OK, so first of all, check out this website. Scroll to the bottom and read the part about Ness, Lucario, and Jigglypuff being confirmed.
I'm not accepting this as a totally official, undeniable confirmation, but it probably is true. All the evidence points to it; they took the video off really quickly, and they really don't have any reason to not put them in. Jigglypuff was one of those you figured would be in from the start (along with Captain Falcon, though he hasn't been confirmed yet), and people would get mad if they totally replaced Ness with Lucas. With Lucario, that's slightly more obscure, but it makes tons of sense (and personally, I'm thrilled; he was on that list I did earlier). He's a good representative of the newest "generation" of Pokemon, and he's a fighting-type and is humanoid, so he'd work really well. Basically, though, now there's only one more "do-duh-totally-obvious-shoo-in" (or is it shoe-in?) character left that wasn't in the previous games; cell-shaded, Wind Waker / Phantom Hourglass Link. PH is the newest Zelda game and they'll probably want to represent it well (just like I was saying with Pokemon), and they seem to be trying to avoid clones, so he'd make a ton of sense too, as a replacement of their previous "young link."
So what about the other characters from the first games? Well, this is what I think.
Captain Falcon: He simply has to be in there, there's no possible reason they wouldn't put him in.
Dr. Mario: He almost certainly won't be in it as a separate character. Maybe as an alternate costume for Mario, but it is possible he won't return at all.
Luigi: They would be demented to not put in Luigi. Almost any game with Mario has Luigi in it too. They are the Mario Brothers, after all. Luigi would be the character that would make the most sense as a clone; it'd even be excusable in his case, since even in the actual Mario games he has abilities very similar to Mario's, but different attributes. Still, it'd be neat to see him use different stuff, like his vacuum cleaner.
Falco: This one I'm not too sure about. They very well could put him in and give him a new moveset, but the likelihood of him coming back as a Fox clone is very poor.
Ganondorf: Ganondorf will also almost certainly be put in. With the new Final Smashes, he could even transform into Ganon, which would be superawesome. Again, probably he'll have a new moveset. He needs swords, certainly.
Young Link: Like I just said, Young Link will probably be replaced by WW/PH Link.
Marth: Marth was a really cool character, and there's no evidence to suggest he's been replaced by Ike, since they have totally different movesets. Marth will probably make it into the game.
Roy: As one of the cloniest clones, Roy will probably not be returning.
Mewtwo: Mewtwo is another character that has no reason to not come back. He'll also almost certainly be in Brawl.
Pichu: I didn't mind Pichu all that much, but I guess I have to admit he was pretty annoying. While it was interesting that all of his special moves harmed him, there weren't any advantages big enough to justify it. Pichu will probably be getting the axe.
Mr Game and Watch: I really liked this character; he was interesting and unique. Most other people liked him too, so I don't see him being cut.
...And that's all of them. Not actually as many as I thought there were. Anyway, once they announce WW/PH Link (or his inclusion is leaked unofficially), I can rest a bit better and be fairly certain this game is going to be totally awesome. Even without him, it's been turning out to look really excellent, and the apparent inclusion of Lucario has gotten me even more excited. We still have another month (plus a bit) to wait, but oh well. Within the next week we'll at least get to see the final roster (The game will be released in Japan on the 31st). The only question now is whether I have enough patience to listen to my brother John's repeated questions and speculations about the game (most of which are completely ridiculous). Seriously, he mentions the game in one out of three sentences he says (literally... almost, anyway).

Anyway, I had some other topics for today, but I went farther into that than I expected, so I forgot what they were. Oh, yes, of course; politics.
Today's big topic is why I hate the election "season." It lasts two years, but I'm going to call it a "season" because I dunno what else to call it.
I know there are probably a lot of people who hate it, like me, and then people who just love it, and others who are indifferent. Well, here's why I hate it. Firstly, it's all we hear about for ages. It's like the most important thing suddenly. I mean, yes, it's very important; it's the leadership of our country we're talking about, after all. But it is it the only important thing, the most important thing, in the entire world? Definitely not. Still, it pushes everything else out of the way, and I suddenly have trouble hearing about other news and issues that aren't related to the election, and not just now, but like this time last year even. Well, maybe not that far back, but it does seem to start way too early. Anyhow, the other big reason I hate it is that it starts these huge arguments. The candidates start bickering and attacking each other, and suddenly the voters are bickering and attacking each other too, and people who used to be friends start hating each other. It totally divides people, and it's not like something that heals when the election is over; people are still sore for a very long time afterwards. So, personally, I just can't stand the "I hate hate hate hate this candidate!" stuff. I mean, you may disagree with someone, and you can have strong opinions about it, but is it really necessary to start chucking things through windows about it? I'm thinking probably not.

Now on to my second politics-related subject, which is rather morbid; being death. A lot of people are probably going to be really mad at me for what I'm going to say here, so if you think that's going to be you, I'm politely (but somewhat forcefully) requesting that you just skip this part, because I'm not really in a mood to be listening to it.
Anyway, three big issues these days are euthanasia, abortion, and the death penalty. I think, regarding the first two, that we shouldn't just kill people off because we think they are incapable of deciding whether they want to live or expressing their desire to live. To me, killing is not just tearing away a life. Removing opportunities to live is killing, too, so that certainly includes euthanasia and abortion. Particularly with abortion; regardless of whether you think that unborn child is a child or not, when you kill them, you're killing them. That's one life that never was. I call that killing. Now, if there's, say, someone really old or ill (or both), and they say "I'm done. I don't want to live." then there's not much of a reason to give them something they don't want. I think this is very different than suicide, because this would be like where they're saying, "Hey, you're spending too much money and time keeping me alive; it's not worth it." rather than "I hate my life. It's time to die." Now, about the death penalty. This is a bit trickier, but think about something. If someone has killed someone else, would it be better to put them in prison, where they could possibly escape and/or kill more people? Or would it be better to execute them? So maybe they're truly sorry and repentant. Well, what I believe is that Jesus died to wipe out all sin; God can forgive anyone. So if this repentant person is going to be executed, (s)he can know where (s)he'll be when (s)he dies.

Anyway, I'm done for today. This one was kinda longish, wasn't it? At least a little bit, right? Yay!

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...es no mas...

Video Game List and Quotes from my House

Well, yesterday I DID want to do a post, but the Internet was doing crazy stuff. I don't mean just regular crazy, I mean demented, maniacal, just wrong crazy. See, most web pages would load properly, but if it was something dynamic and encrypted (where you would have to log in), it went crazy. Of course, the kind of crazy depended on the situation. On my computer, it would either just not load the page, or load it but then not load when you signed in to whatever it was. On the Macintosh computer, it would load everything fine, but when you tried to sign in or sign out of something, it just reloaded the page. On my dad's laptop, it just didn't seem to be working at all. My aunt had the weirdest problem at all. She tried to sign in to her email and got someone else's account. Now, I don't know a ton about the Internet, but I do know quite a bit, and I certainly know enough to know that that's just not right. It doesn't work like that! It's like something you'd expect from Windows, actually. Maybe Microsoft was trying to take over the Internet; did anyone else experience similar problems last night?
Anyway, it's working fine today (for now...), so I'm going to go ahead and post the video game part of the list. I tried and tried to figure out some way of organizing it, but just couldn't. Instead, here are just all of my favorite video games (there are a lot of them!); commercial ones, though, since I've already mentioned most of my favorite free ones many times. Actually, most of these are just console/handheld video games and not computer games. I've never really had the technology to be really into commercial computer games; all my favorites are either free or pretty old. Also, the video games are pretty much all for Nintendo stuff. I guess that just goes to show.... Anyway, on with the list!

Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Anyone who has played this would put it on a list like this. It's pretty much the video game. It's really really long, has great gameplay, and is just plain fun. It's filled with great secrets, too. Personally, I haven't beaten the whole game. I'm stuck on... I think it's 8-3; really near the end with Lakitu. It's nuts.

New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
I actually don't own this game, but it needs to be on here; it captured the spirit of the original game really well; it's definitely the most Mario-y Mario game since the original. Even though I don't actually have the game, I've played through most of it (Andy has it so I used to be able to borrow it when he was still at home).

Tetris (Everything)
The ultimate puzzle game. I don't think anything really needs to be said about it. It's very simple, but incredibly addicting.

Meteos (DS)
Another great puzzle game, and another game I don't actually own (Again, one I borrowed from Andy) -- yet. It proves that puzzle games can actually be pretty in-depth and fun, yet simple at the same time. It's funny because the general "feel" of it is a lot like Smash Bros. I recently found out that it was apparently directed by Masahiro Sakurai, so that actually makes a lot of sense.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)
This is pretty much my favorite Sonic game, and one of my favorite platformers too. It's fiendishly fast and really fun and interesting. It's cool how Sonic was basically created to be Sega's Mario, but the game itself (as well as the characters, settings... ah, everything) is very different. Sonic Advance (GBA) is also worth checking out, because it's a lot like the earlier games, but still adds some new stuff too.

The Legend of Zelda Series (Nintendo Stuff)
Every single one is a complete masterpiece. I don't know if there's any other series you can say that about. It's especially impressive considering how many of them there are. Zelda games are really great action-puzzle-RPGs, and they have fun and interesting storylines too, and great music (mostly by Koji Kondo). My personal favorites are Ocarina of Time (N64), A Link to the Past(SNES and GBA), and Phantom Hourglass (DS). I actually still haven't beaten OoT. If you're a Zelda fan, you'll know how much of a crime that is, but I don't know where the '64 is currently.

Final Fantasy VI (SNES, PSX, and GBA)
This game... is so... amazing. It's just... wow. It's got really solid graphics, awesome music, and great gameplay. Also, the story is astoundingly deep. Each of the characters (and there's over a dozen) has his or her own background, and this is revealed more throughout the course of the game; plus there's the main storyline and all of the events going on currently. This is another one that I haven't actually beaten yet, but I'm getting there; I just need to get my characters better, then I can go fight Kefka. Speaking of Kefka, he's pretty much the most evil villain ever. "Oh, there is no sweeter music than a hundred voices screaming in unison." I think that about sums it up.

Golden Sun (GBA)
This is a great RPG that's actually quite unique in both gameplay and setting. I also haven't finished this one, but I think I'm going to have to start over because I don't have enough Djinn (I'm not going to bother explaining that one; just go find the game or look it up).

Civilization III (PC and Mac)
This game is not only awesome in itself, it also is very easy to customize and play around with. I don't have Civ IV, but I think I would probably prefer this one, because the fourth is so much more complicated (particularly graphically), so it's not as easy to make mods for it. Also, there are a TON of mods for Civ III you can find online (my favorite site is www.civfanatics.com), and there are people that are actually still making them.

Roller Coaster Tycoon (PC and Mac)
I love this game.... Not only is it a really fun game just in general, it's also a very unique way to express one's creativity. I mean, how often do you get to build a roller coaster? Oh, you do, do you? Well fiiiiine. I bet this game is way easier though! One of the best parts about the game is how you can just mess around so much: "Hey, I think I'm going to make this go straight down this hill... yeah... then I'll make it go up a hill half as tall... OK, now it's done; let's see what happens!" or "This panda-suit guy is annoying me now. Let's see if you can swim, buddy!"


...Well, that's it for now. I'll probably come up with more that I've forgotten, so check back later today, and I'll let you know if I've added anything after today in later posts.

Now, a lot of you have probably seen that Facebook note with the weird quotes and all that, but it doesn't cover much of the stuff I hear around my house (or, really, a bunch of ridiculous stuff I say). So I've decided to share some weird stuff like that here:


"Shoot those wubblies!"
-Andy (seeing Doukutsu Monogatari for the first time)

"Something smells horrible.... Like trapezoids!"
-Luke

Me- "Excuse me; I may have heard wrong, but are you singing about Yiddish bananas?"
Molly- "Seth started it!!"

Me- "Oh yeah?! You wanna know what I think? Do you want to know what I think?"
Seth- "Albuquerque."
Me- "..."
Me- "I can't believe you saw that coming."

Molly- "Paul, get over here. He says this isn't a mushroom."
Seth- "No, that's not what I said! I said this is the stalk and cap, and it's part of the mushroom plant!"
Molly- "Yes, so it's a mushroom!"
Seth- "No. That's not the mushroom part."
Molly- "What IS the mushroom part?!"
Seth- "It's the underground stuff!"
Molly- "So this thing right here isn't a mushroom?"
Seth- "I didn't say that!"
Me- "I don't get it.... So you're saying this right here, just this thing, collectively, is not a mushroom?"
Seth- "It is, but that's not technically what you call it. Everyone does, but they're wrong!"
Molly- "What are you talking about?!"
Me- "Oooh, pick me!"
Molly- "Yes. Paul?"
Me- "Seth, YOU'RE A NUTCASE!"

"North Polaris!"
-John (A guess; in response to any question he doesn't know the answer to)


...Well, I'm sure there's plenty more of that, but that's probably enough nuttiness for now. I'm done.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...Uh... Running out of ideas for post closure notice...

I've got nothing.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
FIN!

My PICP and Some Fanart

First of all, I'm thinking some of you may be wondering about that "Personal Internet Courtesy Policy" I mention every once in a while (maybe only once on this blog, but I've talked about it elsewhere too).
Basically, the idea of it is how information about people should be treated if it's going to be posted online. I have three basic guidelines in this policy:

-Don't use last names, only last initials.

-Don't put any pictures anywhere on the Internet unless all the people in the pictures know it's there.

-Never, ever, ever give out any information about other people, like phone numbers or email addresses.

I think there may be some other things, but I've forgotten them....
Anyway, I think everyone should adopt a similar policy. Why? Because, as its title says, it's courteous.

Anyhow, this post isn't going to be much textually, but it will have some nifty pictures!
Here are three pieces of fanart I've done.


This first one is one I did quite a while ago. It's Mog from Final Fantasy VI. There's no Dragoon class in the game, but the Dragoon's signature "Jump" ability can be used if a character has a relic called the "Dragoon Boots" equipped. Mog is one of my favorite characters, and I rather like the Dragoon class, too, so this picture came about pretty naturally. "Kupo" is just something moogles say after practically every sentence. It's just a goofy sound I guess, like "meow" or "bark," and it's also what their language is comprised of; "Kuppoooo kupiii kupopiipiipopopiiii!"


This picture is from the Zelda series. Link himself is based off the Wind Waker / Phantom Hourglass style, mostly because it was easiest to draw. I wasn't really focusing on making the picture look super nice, but more on the concept. There's Link, standing there with his pitiful wooden sword, looking up at all the other swords and I guess trying to choose one. From left to right, they are: The Master Sword (in almost every game), Biggoron's Sword (Ocarina of Time, but a couple other ones too), the Phantom Sword (Phantom Hourglass), the Picori Sword (The Minish Cap, Four Swords, and Four Swords Adventures), and the Golden Sword (A Link to the Past). I thought it would be neat to have a picture with a whole bunch of Zelda swords, so... yeah.


I really liked how this one turned out. It's from this great freeware Flash game called N (I've mentioned it before, you'll recall), and the text is a paraphrase of a part of the instructions that says "N, 'the way of the ninja,' is a highly advanced system of spiritual, cognitive, and physical training. It emphasizes pacifism, humility, and the need to traverse a series of five rooms before the end of your lifetime, a feat known only as 'beating an episode.'" N is divided up into these groups of five levels called "episodes," and you have a limited amount of time to beat them. This is because your character, a ninja, has an accelerated metabolism, resulting in him being ridiculously quick and agile, but also resulting in him having a lifespan of about thirty seconds.
When I got to working on this, I realized it kind of seemed like a motivational poster, stylistically. I'm thinking of taking that concept even further and doing one that says "ROBOTS. Don't die." or maybe "ROBOTS. Don't get killed." or even "GOLD. Don't feel greedy, it's increasing your longevity." I may end up doing one for gold and one for robots, actually.

Well, that's it for today. It's probably disappointing for those of you who have never played Final Fantasy, Zelda, or N, but don't worry. I'll probably do more in the future, and maybe it'll be more recognizable to some of you.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...Visual display mode disengaged.

It's dying... NO!

Yes, it's true. This blog is dying. I think I'm at fault. But at least I'm getting a post in every day! I imagine in a month or so this will wear off and I'll have all kinds of crazy ideas, but I've been discouraged by various aspects of my projects lately, which seems to be harming my creativity. Of course, that in turn harms my projects, and it's like one big frustrating circle... of doom. And death. And destruction. And decimation. And... dandelions?

So today's subject will be... No, sorry, not the list; once again I don't feel up to it. Today's subject is about making things dramatic.
I got to thinking about the Zelda games, and actually a huge part of what makes them great is the endings. They always have awesome endings; it's always exactly what you expected from the beginning, but it's cinematically exciting. I think the best endings are from more recent ones: Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Phantom Hourglass (though, actually, I haven't yet gotten to the end of OoT or WW myself yet, but...). They both have these incredible endings where you're not upset that it's all over, but instead makes you think "oh man, that was awesome!" and you want to play it all over again. I would try to explain these endings, but it'd be kinda silly. You can probably find videos on YouTube or something, so just look them up.
Anyway, I was thinking how A Link to the Past actually has a pretty lame ending, comparatively. It's really quite sad, because it's one of the best Zelda games.
The first problem with it is that Ganon explodes when he dies. Just, "VROOM!" in this kinda smallish orange fireball. It's sort of anti-climactic, actually. I mean, I realize there were serious graphical limitations, but still. In Ocarina of Time, Link knocks Ganon to the ground and thrusts his sword straight into his brain, which is followed by a slight pause for dramatic effect, and then Zelda and the Sages sealing him away (Obviously, he can't completely die. For those of you who don't know, Ganon is the main enemy in almost every game, and while there are many different Links, it's always the same Ganon, having been released after some thousand-year imprisonment. There's allegedly an actual timeline, but basically nobody but Shigeru Miyamoto knows what it is). Then in Wind Waker, Link rolls behind Ganondorf's back, leaps in the air, and plunges his sword into his skull. He lets go, and Ganondorf says something ridiculous (I think it was "heh. heh... the sun... is shining....") and turns to stone. For some reason I don't remember how Link kills Bellum, even though PH was the most recent I finished, but I seem to recall it involved lots of shiny explodey stuff, so that's pretty cool. Anyway, it may seem silly to compare an earlier game to later ones and say how bad it is (just the ending, I mean; the game itself is awesome) next to them, but I still think they should have done something slightly better and less quick for Ganon's death in LttP. Now that I think about it, he dies the exact same way as every other boss in the game. So that's where it goes wrong first. Second, he just walks straight in to the next room, grabs the Triforce, and saves the world. There's a bit of reflection on what's happened, but that's pretty much it. Link uses the power of the Triforce to make the world how it was before, but see, it really would have been like that over time anyway. Why? All of the problems in the world were related to Ganon. No more Ganon, no more problems (for a while at least; obviously you can never have "no more problems"). So then what would be even better is if the Triforce tempted him to take it and change things "for the better," but instead he just walks off, and the credits roll. That's actually such a nifty idea I'm going to have to steal it (well not really steal it, since it was my own idea, but whatever) for something. Of course, I guess Ring of Eshara kind of ends that way, though (or will, rather). I wish I could describe it without spoiling anything, but I don't think that's possible. If you really want to hear about it, though, that's fine. Otherwise, in the words of Rimmeth, "It didn't end how we thought it would." That pretty much sums it up.

Anyway, this relatively short post is now over.

:::Source=Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...Short post over...

Of Black Holes and "Grumpiness"

Hey, look, post number twenty! Yay! I really don't have anything to say on the subject, which was weird because I used to have like some kinda short speech to celebrate this blogs longevity every five posts or so. Well, whatever.

Hey, remember that microphone I mentioned? Well, it turns out it was in the house the whole time, seriously. It's kind of annoying. But it looks like I'm going to get an opportunity to record (by which I mean the house will be relatively empty and quiet for once) again pretty soon here, so that's cool.

So yesterday we pulled off the infamous Black Hole Glitch in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It was pretty much hilarious.
OK, so I'll explain kinda how this works, but first, sorry, but I'm going to make no effort to explain this to those unfamiliar with the game; it'd just be too complicated. So for those of you who will have no idea what I'm talking about, just skip over this part. Actually, there isn't much substance to this post but video games and weird complaining, which may turn off people who have just discovered it / decided to look at it (I like to pretend that actually happens once in a while, just for fun). Don't worry, though, I usually cover a lot of different subjects, and there are plenty of earlier posts to read and everything.
Anyhow, back to the point.
So the glitch starts out like this: One person grabs a Super Scope and does a neat little trick to give it infinite shots. To do that you have to fire five normal bursts and then two fully charged shots. Then you charge up another one and have someone hit you while you're still charging. This pretty much always gives you an infinite number of shots (if it didn't, you probably did it wrong; try again). So then two other people (they have to be either Fox or Falco) stand across from each other with a gap (it has to be one someone can stand under/between; Hyrule Temple has a good spot for this) in between. Then they both turn on their reflector shields. The person with the Super Scope then fires repeatedly into the area between the other two people by standing behind one of them (he has to be on that person's team so he can shoot through them). This creates total bouncing bullet chaos between the to reflector shields; while this is going on, the fourth person (who has to be Princess Peach, or at least I don't think there's any other very easy way to do it without Peach) jumps up and down, running into the bullets. This creates little sparkly blast things, like a particle for a hit effect, but for some reason, I guess because of all the particles on the screen, it won't remove them. So eventually there are a ton in there and it looks like just a solid beam. At that point, the person with the Super Scope can stop shooting, and Peach has to start throwing in vegetables. The recommended number is fifteen, apparently, because too few and it doesn't quite work right, and too many and it will crash your game because there are too many particles. Once all fifteen vegetables are in there, the two Fox/Falco people can let go of their reflector shields. Then, presto, a Black Hole. Any particles that get near it just stay there, so you can make this huge wad of messy, flaming, shiny... doom? Anyone who goes into gets stuck and goes up to 999% damage; it's possible to get them out but it's kinda tricky to do without getting stuck yourself.
Well, there you have it, that's the Black Hole Glitch. No, I didn't discover this or come up with the technique at all; we just found it on the Internet.

Anyway, I was going to do part two of the list, but I actually have to stop here, because I just realized it's almost eleven thirty, and soon it won't technically be today anymore and I'll be too late.

Instead I'd just like to say that I'm feeling rather ignored. I always feel bad saying that, because then people start being like "Don't be like that; how've you been? Want to play a game or something? What have you been up to lately?" and they weren't even the people I was talking about at all, and I feel guilty.
But anyway, lately I've been feeling bored out of my mind. I didn't know why at first, because I have a TON of stuff to work on, but then I figured it out. Basically, yeah, I have stuff to work on, but it's all stuff I do alone, hiding at home being a weird little hermit (which, strangely, is the exact phrase I used to describe my Egoboo character. Yes, I'm going to actually be a character in Egoboo, or at least may be at some point. But that's another story for a different time). So as you can imagine, I feel kind of bored after a while, but there's not a whole lot I can do about this. I can't really go places and do things, because there's nowhere to go, and I don't know anyone who lives near me at all. I was talking about this today, because I was saying how I'd like to somehow do something for my birthday (which, yes, is in two days), even though we pretty much never do. I still probably will end up just celebrating with my family at home or maybe going to a museum or something.
Anyway, with the Internet, you'd think I could be solving this problem, but nope. Only like three (actually probably more like two, or maybe even one now) people ever read my blog, and I've told other people, but they're just... "whatever." But besides that, I haven't really gotten any good ideas or much detailed feedback, so that doesn't really mean much anyway. Then, with the new game thing I started, everyone either has no time, isn't interested, or won't admit to either one and just says "Really? That's nice..." or "Maybe I'll look at it later." Or "Oh."
Then with MSN and Facebook and email and I dunno, whatever else; everyone seems to just ignore me. I realize people are busy with school, but really, is a "Hi, what are you up too nowadays?" once in a while really that hard?

OK, now I officially feel grumpy, or, more specifically, like I'm going to be interpreted that way; I've been beginning to think I've left whatever part of be perceives emotions somewhere in Albuquerque, which is weird because I've never even been there.
Anyway, expect a happier post tomorrow. I dunno if you'll get one, but I'll just encourage you to expect good things anyway, because I've never learned to do that myself, exactly.

...Ah, I just can't end this without saying SOMETHING exciting!
Oh, that's right. Today's SSBB update included a picture of a sticker of Andy from Advance Wars. I don't know how to interpret that, but some small part of me sees good things ahead (and regardless, another bigger part of me hopes there are big things ahead, regardless of how unrealistic that hope may be) that are related to this.
That won't cheer up non-smash-bros-fans, but oh well. It's all I can do at the moment.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...Finally, he shut up... he was starting to scare me.

Ehh, whatever.

So I was trying to find this microphone so I could record new stuff for the Hobgoblin I did for Egoboo... and I knew it was in this one box with a ton of other stuff I kinda wanted too (like computer joysticks and other stuff, I dunno). So I went into the garage and after a ton of searching discovered it was in the most inaccessible place ever, pinned in by boxes and furniture on all sides. There wasn't any room to move the furniture, only the boxes, so I had to kinda crawl between tight spaces and nudge stuff around and.... Boy, it was complicated. Anyway, I FINALLY got the box out, and it turns out the microphone isn't even in it. That annoyed me, a lot. That's about it, I guess. A rare look into my actual life. Because really, I don't do anything interesting; I don't even have school stuff to go to, and I don't have any friends to do things with. So it's pretty boring. Now this is where you feel sorry for me and start actually reading my blog!!

Speaking of which, we still need more people for the Arcane Labyrinth thing. We only have four, counting me, and that's pretty boring, so everyone join and all that.

And now for your bi-semi-de-para-meta-annu-cent-weekly Smash Bros. update. So it was delayed again, as I'm sure those of you who care about it know. Normally when stuff gets delayed I'm like, "OK, well, now I know it's going to be better than it would have been, so that's OK," but it seems this delay is totally for localization; Japan only got a one week delay.
There is good news though; a handful of media people apparently got a hold of it, and Famitsu gave it a perfect score, which is pretty rare. Famitsu is a Japanese gaming magazine that's pretty much considered the authority for all game reviews or something, even though apparently they're all really short (I read a translation for SSBB's and it basically said "This game is awesome. The end."). The really cool part about this is that they also released (or, rather, I think, will be releasing soon) some kind of 200-page guide, and personally I can't wait until the full character roster is leaked. Not because I can't wait to see what cool surprises are ahead, but because I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that there are probably only like four other characters (and all from the older games, most likely) besides the ones they've already announced; I just want to know about it and get it over with.

More happy gaming news is that I have some new games to look forward to that actually have set release dates.
Firstly, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (Yeah, I know; long title, right?) is coming out in March. This should be pretty cool; I really enjoyed the first one because it had great multiplayer, and this one seems to improve on the one-player mode.
N+ is coming out in March. N is this great platformer with ninjas and robots and explosions and unique geometric-al weird graphics style and all kinds of other cool stuff. It's actually free and runs in flash; check out metanetsoftwares.com for the download. Metanet has a development blog for the game at IGN now, which is superawesome. They're doing a "Q&A" section apparently, and if they pick your question you get a free copy of the game or something. They said it could either be a really good one or be so stupid they had no choice but to answer it, so of course I opted for stupid.
" Robots are awesome. And ninjas are like, totally, completely, undeniably awesome. Are you afraid that your game will be so mind-blowingly awesome that people's brains will literally explode and you'll get sued?"
I imagine that aughta do it.

Anyway, I got to thinking today about "sub-languages." I decided I needed to post a little guide/overview to/of three of them.

PIG-LATIN.
"Pig-Latin" sort of works in text, but is better for speech. The way it works is you take off the first sound (or sometimes just the first letter; e.g., just "t" instead of "th"), add "ay" and put it at the end. If it starts with a vowel, you just put "ay" at the end of the word. So this is how it would work.
This sentence: "My name is not Charlie!" becomes...
This sentence: "I-may ame-nay is-ay ot-nay Arlie-chay!"

OB.
This pretty much only works in speech, so I'm going to have to spell my examples phonetically. So how this one works is actually pretty simple, but if people are talking really fast you pretty much can't understand a word of it unless you know "Ob" really well. All you do is add "ob" before every vowel. So...
This sentence: "You are a lunatic." becomes...
This sentence: "Yah-boo ah-bar ah-buh lah-boo nah-bah tah-bik."

LEET.
This really doesn't work in speech at all, only text. Essentially how it works is that some letters (or sometimes all letters) are replaced with numbers symbols that look like the letters ("E" becomes "3," "t" becomes "7," "M" becomes "|\/|," "p" becomes "|o," etc.). It's really more like a form of slang, too, because then it also puts "'d" at the end of all past-tense verbs, adds "-age" to verbs or adjectives (or even nouns) to make them nouns, and does things like turning the suffix "-er" into "-zor." So, for example, it might look kinda like this.
This sentence: "Haha, I win!" becomes...
This sentence: "1 4m 73h |ownz012, n008!!!!!!!1"
That still may not have made sense to you, so I suggest you look up "leet" or "1337" on Wikipedia or Google or whatever.


I know what you're thinking; "Wow, that was stupid." But, hey, I bet you learned something, and now you can understand all those people who were annoying you before. Plus, it was something to throw in there so I can just pretend I don't have room/time to finish the list and my story.
(In English, that means that's the end of the post)


:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
|o057463!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111one

Just a quick note...

So I don't think I'm going to have much time to be doing long Wednesday posts from now on; if you hadn't heard, I don't have a whole lot of time on Wednesdays. Of course, it really comes down to what I choose to do with the time I have, but whatever.
The point is that I've been keeping pretty busy lately, so you'll be seeing fewer (just a little bit fewer though) really long posts, especially on Wednesday. Still, I'm trying to do at least something every day, which was the only point in the first place.

In other news, the game I mentioned yesterday seems to be pretty promising so far; we have just enough people to start, but if you join now you can still make it into the first party. Otherwise, you should still join if it looks interesting to you; if we get enough I'll open another "maze" so we can have two sub-games running at once.

That's about it I guess. Sorry.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...Note finish...

RPG and... Puppets!

So I never ended up posting another thingy yesterday; I kinda forgot. Oh well.

Anyway, first of all, I started this forum RPG thing, which you can find here.
Basically, either it's going to sound really cool to you, or it's going to sound like the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard.
If it's the first case, then you should join; otherwise, know that it's been done before, and I'm not nearly as crazy as you... OK, yeah, I am crazy. But this has nothing to do with it.
Anyway, just read the "Rules and Guidelines" section, but basically, it's just like one of those RPG board games (Like D&D or something like that?) except without the board.

OK, on to puppets. So, recently I've been doing these weird impression things. I don't mean like a "Mickey Mouse impression" or an "Elvis impression," I mean like a "stereotypical fairy tale witch impression" or a "hillbilly one-room schoolhouse teacher impression." It makes people laugh, but I'm almost certain this is just because it's totally ridiculous and bizarre, and not that it's actually funny. I'm not sure why these get started, but it usually goes like this:

Molly: *giggle*
Me: What are you giggling about?!
*giggle*
Cut it out!
*giggle*
{witch voice} Cut it out, or I'll bake you into a PIE!
*giggle*
Oh, you stop that, little girly!
...
Much better. Now I won't bake you into a pie. Instead I'll just run with scissors in your general dy-rection!

Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes. Or, really, it was exactly (more or less) how it was earlier today. Anyway, this got me thinking. I've really gotta make me some puppets. So then, when I have these puppets, I can do these awesome puppet shows and record them and stuff, and you all can see them and everything.
So basically, I need some styrofoam, and fabric, and those weird little googley eyes and stuff like that. And then I'm gonna make PUPPETS! Of course, I don't know if this is ever going to happen. Still, it's fun to talk about.
I thought of a lot of funny situations I could do, and then got the idea of adding in some of those characters I mentioned earlier from the tape recording things.
So here are some ideas I had, in a sort of script-ish form (by the way, if it looks like I'm making fun of a person or group, I'm not. It's just the characters themselves that are funny [or supposed to be anyway], not the sort of people they are):

{1}
Mac- A purple mouse
Witch- An evil witch. Doesn't need a name.

Witch: (appears in a cloud of smoke or something) Aha! I see you're wearing a magical-looking hat. Nobody wears that kinda hat unless they're interested in MAGIC!
Mac: And?
Witch: MWEEHEEHEE! I KNEW IT!
Mac: OK, well, actually that's not technically true, because--
Witch: What's not true?! Are you callin' me a liar?!
Mac: Well, you just said I was interested in magic and--
Witch: Well what kinda maniac wears a hat like that and DON'T do magic?!
Mac: Me. And I'm not a maniac, actually. See, I prefer alchemy.
Witch: Well what's the difference?!
Mac: Magic is such a vague word. It's like it refers to mysterious, unexplainable stuff.
Witch: Well how the eye-of-newt do you explain MAGIC?!
Mac: You don't. Alchemy, on the other hand, is easily explained. It involves transmuting substances by manipulating them on a sub-molecular scale by reapplying aether using its unique metaphysical properties.
Witch: I don't understand a word you just said.
Mac: That doesn't mean it's not explained, though.
Witch: In my book it does, ratty! So, MAGIC!
Mac: I just said--
Witch: MAGIC!! See, I'm an expert on magic. I bet I could help you out.
Mac: I doubt it.
Witch: Oh yeah?! Can YOU fly on a BROOMSTICK?!
Mac: A what?
Witch: BROOMSTICK! (pulls broom out of thin air) It's the latest form of travel you know. Very "in."
Mac: Look, really, I don't want to learn about how to fly a broom around.
Witch: YES, YOU DO!
Mac: Umm, no, I DON'T.
Witch: Well, I didn't think it'd come to this, but I'm gonna hafta BAKE YOU INTO A PIE!
Mac: Er... don't you need an oven for that?
Witch: NO! That's what magic is for, you FREAK!
Mac: (mumbling) she's calling me a freak....
Witch: (searches through a bag) Oh, cait sidhe. I left my magic wand in the cauldron at home!
Mac: So you can't bake me after all. Ha.
Witch: THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK!
Mac: No, actually, I'm pretty sure that you can't.
Witch: (mumbling) Curses. I think he's right. (out loud) Well, I'll just have to RUN with SCISSORS in your general dy-rection!! (pulls out scissors)
Mac: Umm?
Witch: (chases Mac off-stage)
Mac: AAHHHHH!

{2}
Teacher- Hillbilly-ish farmer-y guy with a straw hat.
Students- A bunch of random kids in overalls or something
Nerd- Nerdy-looking kid with glasses.

Teacher: OK, kids. Today we're a-gonna learn about com-pound words. Them's words that's two words, except only one.
Students: (look confused)
Teacher: I'll show ya'll what I mean. See, I'll write it on the chalkboard. And that's a good a-zample, too. (writes "chok" and "bord" on the chalk board) See? Chalk, thassa word. And board, thassa word, too, right?
Students: (nod their heads)
Nerd: I don't think that's how you spell...
Teacher: I say, boay, raise yer hand when yer gonna be talkin'!
Nerd: (raises hand) Sorry.
Teacher: Much better. OK, you, kid with the glasses. What is it?
Nerd: I'm fairly sure you've spelled those words wrong. Actually, I'm positive you spelled those words wrong.
Teacher: Oh really? Well, I'm negative I spelled 'em alright. Ya' like that; negative? Them's the kinda words ya learn when ya got a good ej-uh-kay-shun. That's what I'm tryna give you, an' it ain't happnin' with you questionin' everything I say, alright?
Students: (nod their heads)
Nerd: (hesitates, then nods reluctantly)
Teacher: Now, see, where was I... Oh, that's right, com-pound words. See, these are both words on their own, but when ya' put 'em ta-gether... (erases the words and writes them again with no space) ...They make ONE word! Now lemme give ya' another 'zample. Lesse... How about brandinarn? (writes it down) There's a com-pound word I'm sure ya'll use every day!
Nerd: Looking over the fact that you spelled that wrong--
Teacher: Now, do I really hafta remind you again that ya aughter be raisin' yer hand?
Nerd: (raises hand impatiently)
Teacher: OK, you with the glasses again.
Nerd: Well, like I said, looking over the fact that you spelled the words wrong--
Teacher: Hey, I thought we already settled that. I'm the teacher, and I know more than you; thatssa why yer the one learnin', and I'm the one learnin' ya stuff.
Nerd: But sir, branding iron isn't a compound word!!
Teacher: Whajasay?
Nerd: (points to chalkboard) I said that's not a compound word.
Teacher: Are you tryna tell me brandinarn is TWO words?!
Nerd: Pretty much.
Teacher: That's crazy talk, son!
Nerd: (sighs, gets up, and heads for the door)
Teacher: Hey, you! You can't be leavin' like that! I'm in the middle of a lesson!
Nerd: (ignores him and walks off)
Teacher: I will be talkin' to yer folks about this! ...wait, does anybody know who that boy's folks are? No? Well, we're gonna move on. (writes the word "ajutive" on the chalkboard) Now we're gonna learn about ajutives. Them's words that describe things and 'splain what they are.
Students: (nod their heads)
Teacher: Here's an example. (writes "mahtyfyn" on the chalkboard) This here spells mahty-fine, which, co-ins-uh-dennaly, is also a com-pound word...


...Well, that's about it for now. I think this post might have been a little short, but I dunno. It was a nice break, I guess, since it was more silliness, which you haven't been getting as much lately.

:::Source= Paul M-unit MKII
...Tranz-mish-un-- Apologies.
Transmission complete.

R4nt4g3

So yeah, yesterday I was gone all day. So no post. You'll live, though. All two of you. Three, maybe? Four? I dunno, whatever.
I did actually start a post (which is this one, but expanded a whole ton so that it hardly resembles the original), though, and that's why it says this was posted last night. So, actually, I could do another later today and it'd still turn out alright. Alternately, I could change the post time to the time it was really posted, but it depends on whether I do another post or not; I haven't decided.

So, anyhow, today I'm still not ready to do the other part of the list or the rest of my story. I want to save them for when they can actually be good. Oh, and I forgot to put in Alfred Hitchcock's movies on the movie part of the list. They're really awesome, especially Strangers on a Train.
So. Rant time.

You know what I hate? I hate it when people break the law, and think it's okay.
Example one: Speeding. People speed all the time. Now, when I say speed, I mean you went even one mile an hour over the speed limit. That's speeding, and yes, of course, I've done it before. It was wrong, and I try not to. OK, so, in an emergency, speeding is excusable, but a lot of laws can be broken in an emergency. Just don't try to endanger people too much, because obviously that's kinda counter-productive. Like you're rushing a friend to the hospital and you kill a couple people on the way. You ended up just causing more trouble. Anyway, that sign that says SPEED LIMIT means what it says. It's as fast as it can go. Now, you may have heard the police have their whole policy deal where they don't pull people over unless they're going more than five miles an hour over the speed limit or whatever. That doesn't mean anything less is against the law! It just means it happens a ton and it's not worth their trouble. So you still might not think it's all that bad even still. "Who am I hurting?" Well, for starters, driving is incredibly dangerous. I read somewhere that people die in car accidents something like every fifteen seconds. Now, if everyone is going 55 in a 50 mph zone, you can bet that adds up, and it just makes driving all the more dangerous. Seriously, if you speed on purpose, you are being an idiot. I'm not trying to be mean; I know a lot of people that I consider my friends who still do the weird "five over" thing. They're not idiots. Still, even smart people can act stupid every now and then, and I'm not afraid to tell them that, even if they're my friends. Because they are, it's better that I tell them that, even if it makes them hate me.
On to example two: Piracy. Piracy is copying anything that you don't have the legal right to copy. Again, I know a lot of people who do this. They copy a friend's song or something onto their CD. They didn't pay for the song. "It's just one song! Those companies have millions of dollars; I'm not hurting anyone." Yes, you are. Those "one song"s really add up, especially with millions of people doing it millions of times. That adds up to millions of dollars, and if a company loses a couple million dollars, that may not hurt them much. But they still may have to lay off a handful of people. Congratulations, you just ruined some guy (or girl)'s life. Maybe they can't find another job. You really can't take something like piracy and just think of the immediate effect. It goes even farther, and ultimately ends up seriously hurting people. Even if you just take it at face value, piracy is taking something that isn't yours. That's called stealing, and it's wrong. Now, one time a girl said to me "I honestly don't think it's wrong if you copy a friend's song, as long as you have their permission." That doesn't make sense; your friend doesn't own that song. (S)he isn't losing anything by letting you have it. So I told her how idiotic it was to say that; she hates me now. Now I've moved, but if I ever get a chance to direct her to this entry, you can bet I will (although if there's anyone who knows who I'm talking about, you could do that too); at least she'll understand where I'm coming from, but ultimately I don't care. That kinda makes me sound like a jerk, but I'm really not. To clarify, we will move on to my next topic.

So a lot of people are really concerned about what other people think. They actually change their personality and interests to fit in and be "cool." I don't mean they stop doing bad or mean stuff, they just stop doing stuff that's not popular. I do a ton of really weird, nerdy things. My favorite things to do are things like photography, video games, drawing, writing, and tons of weird computer stuff. I don't know many people who think that's cool. To a lot of people, cool is going to movies and parties, and participating in sports, and going to "cool places," and "hanging out" with "cool people."
Then there are people start changing their personality, too, and the way they act. I say a lot of stupid things and am generally just weird, so a lot of people are just like "Umm?" Know what? I don't care. There are always people who: A) don't care how weird I am, B) think that I actually am pretty "cool," or C) both. These are real friends. They don't care what other people think, and they actually like you because of who you are.
The one thing I absolutely hate would be jerks. You know, the type of people who are just nasty. There are several kinds of these people. The first would be the ordinary sort of jerk that's just obviously mean and rude. Somehow, they still have friends, or at least people who pretend to be your friend. Another kind is the rude, popular sort of person. They're really nice to you if you're "normal" and "cool," but otherwise they treat you really weird, like you're inferior. Then there's the kinda that makes me the most sad. These are the kind of people who are really, really nice, and seem likable at first. But then later you find out that it's all fake, and they say mean things about you behind your back. Why can't they just say mean things directly to you, or, better yet, just accept you and treat you nicely?

Well, I'm sort of coming off kind of mean in this post, aren't I? How about I tell you some things I DO like? Okay, lesse....

-People who ask you if you're okay, or how you're doing, and really mean it.
-When people congratulate you on an accomplishment and politely tell you how you could do it better
-People who genuinely care about what you have to say, regardless of whether they agree with you (Actually, it's even better when they don't agree with you at all.).
-When people are willing to see things your way, and take it the next step and actually do things your way, even when your way was probably stupid.
-Stories of things that actually happened to the person telling them, that are actually interesting.
-People who will listen to your stories too, even when they aren't actually interesting.
-People who know when and how to tell you to shut up.
-People who are able to tell you you messed up, and actually make you feel happy instead of upset.

-Good movies.
-Good books.
-Good food.
-Things that are genuinely and completely hilarious, when you can't even really explain why
-Humor that is clever, new, and different
-Playing a board or card game for hours and never getting bored of it
-Quality multiplayer computer/video games that make competition a tangible substance (And no, I don't have any idea what that could even mean)
-Being totally alone and getting a ton of stuff done


Well, today's post was kinda weird. It was pretty serious, and it probably actually told you a lot about what I'm like. That said, it probably wasn't a very fun read, but hopefully it was at least a bit interesting; one of my purposes for this blog was so people who didn't know much about me could learn more. Still, these people don't seem very interested in finding out more, and aren't reading this at all, so... bleh. Oh well.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...End tirade...