Musings of a Crackpot

Street Fighter IV can not come out soon enough. I really hope that it comes out in the arcades, maybe it can be the game that revives the arcade scene. As for home consoles, i’m definitely hoping that it comes out for the PS3 since it’s the only ‘next-gen’ system that i have at the moment.

Current Mood:  excited

I finally got my new computer in. I found a really good deal at Dell, the only downside was that i ordered it on the 19th of August and it didn’t ship until this past week. Luckily FedEx is pretty quick with the delivery and my new system came on Friday. Included with the deal was a 22″ widescreen monitor as well, leading me to have to rearrange my desktop.

I spent the last evening moving stuff over to my new system from my old, dying machine. I finally set up media sharing today so i can access all my networked music on my PS3 and home theater. Eventually, I think that I’m going to get the Bubba and move all my music over to it.

Summer is winding down, and I’m itching to get away, to just take a break from everything and travel. However work is way too hectic at the moment but I’m angling to try and get away in November sometime and hopefully go home back east for a visit around Christmas time.

My landlord finally fenced in the backyard so Stoli now has a full yard to play in and defend as his own. He’s filling out and is close to 90 lbs. now. He passed his beginners class and starts his intermediate class at the end of the month. I’ve got to be more consistent with his training. He’s been going to Happy Tails, three times a week and loves it. Having the social interaction with all the other dogs is so good for him. Eventually I’d love to get another dog so he’d having a running buddy but that’s definitely not in the plans anytime soon. Stoli is already my most expensive habit, but it’s all worth it when he runs to the door to greet me when i come home.

I’m still carrying way too much weight but I’m (once again) going to focus on slimming down. The plan consists of jogging with Stoli and going back to the DDR regiment. Speaking of which it’s time for me and Stoli to go and get to jogging.

Current Mood:  good

I finally got some time to start playing Final Fantasy 12 this weekend. I just barely have scratched the surface having only played about 3 hours into it so far. My first impressions where it really does strike me as a blend between Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy 11. Right before I finished playing for the evening, I acquired the first member of my party. FF12 introduces a new gameplay featured called gambits that are basically AI commandsets for the additional party members so that you don’t have to micromanage all your members during the real-time battles(or perhaps it’s active-turn based, it’s a take off of the FF11 battle engine). With this gameplay feature it place it truly harked back to my early Final Fantasy 11 days with the AI controlled character just sprinting off after a monster completely ignoring the other 3 monsters that are now chasing it. It just made me think of Brannin and become all misty-eyed. Running headlong into battle without regards to the rest of the party was an early Brannin staple:-) I haven’t played enough of FF12 yet to have the gambits setup the best way possible. Regardless I have the feeling that FF12 is going to be yet another enjoyable trip through Ivalice and another great Final Fantasy game.

Current Mood:  energetic

I tried to leave it but i couldn’t. People came out of the woodwork to try and convince me to come back. The return started simply enough.

“I’ll just update the client on my PC, i never play it anywhere but it would be good to have it up to date”, “I’ll just peek in on the forums and see how everyone is doing, what everyone’s up to these days.”, “I can quit anytime I want, it’s just a time sink. I have better things to do now, the beach, the woods, the mountains, the cities, playing poker.”

Who was i fooling, other than myself it seems? I couldn’t stay away. Just hearing the crystal theme draws me back. It’s like smelling delicious food and having my mouth water, I can’t help it really. I am a FFXI addict it seems. I updated my ps2 client late last thursday night. It took about an hour and then i popped in-game and looked around. I was just trying to see if there were any people online that I actually knew anymore since lots of my older ffxi friends have stopped playing. It’s amazing how real life always seems to get in the way of things.

The shock in the linkshell messages just brought a huge smile on my face. People actually missed me and were glad to see me back in-game. Total strangers to me were wondering where i can been and newbies were wondering why all the older players were freaking out. It was great..and so far it continues to be good. There’s so much untapped FFXI for me. There’s the new(ish) expansion that i still need to purchase and install. Hell, there’s tons of content from the original install and the Rise of the Zilart and CoP expansions that I’ve barely scratched. To top it off they added 3 more new jobs that I’m dying to try out.

All in all, I’m glad to be back playing FFXI, although it’s not the same as the ‘good ole days’, where my co-workers and I would talk about FFXI during the workdays and then hang out and play FFXI and party up during the evenings. Some of those times were the most enjoyable times I’ve had playing any sort of game, be in a video game or basketball or football or whathaveyou. FFXI isn’t the same as it was then, but it’s still enjoyable to me. I guess that’s why thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people keep playing FFXI and MMORPG’s just like it

Current Mood:  thoughtful

It’s been a laid back weekend so far. I went to the doctor on friday to get a checkup and new asthma meds. My new doctor seems pretty cool so far, she was worried about my blood pressure so i have to get some bloodwork done on that front. I’m definitely not looking forward to that, i do not like needles in the least. I bought a couple new games on friday as well Ultimate Spiderman and Suikoden V . I just started playing Suikoden V yesterday, and so far it’s pretty good. It seems to hark back to the earlier games in the series and definitely a change of pace from Suikoden Tactics which I did enjoy. I finally got some basketball in this weekend, it’s the first time that i’ve played since I moved out to the west coast. I wasn’t pleased with my performance, but it has been nearly a year if not longer since I’ve really played some basketball. So There’s definitely some room for improvement, and dropping about 40 lbs wouldn’t hurt either. One thing that I didn’t miss about playing basketball, having people step on my toes..they are killing me right now. Oh well, time for laundry and starting my recruitment of the 108 Stars of Destiny!

Current Mood:  cheerful